Down The Rabbit Hole! [DFRP V-Day Event]

It was just her luck that someone approached her! A particularly tall man with a.. a scar on his lip! She smiled at him and returned his wave as he introduced himself. 

"That's me, yup! Nice to meet you too, Toki!" There was a pleasant expression on her face now that she had found her date. The woman was undeterred by his confession of anxiety. She chuckled softly and waved his fears away while shaking her head. "No need to be nervous, we're both here to have fun! You can call me Sunny, even!" At the offer of drinks she nodded.

"Sure! I'd love some tea while we talk. Would you like one as well?" She reached out to grab one of his hands, and took a couple steps towards the serving counter. She paused to jerk the thumb of her other hand towards the cashier. "Tell you what? Drinks are on me if you can tell me the story behind the scar? There's an enigmatic charm to it, and all." Lowering her voice suddenly she leaned back towards Toki with a smile. "And hey, if you're Yakuza or something? Just promise that you won't take any work calls while we're on our date, 'kay?"

Truth be told Sunny didn't feel like Toki was a gangster. Not from the sweet and sincere vibe he was giving off. The idea of dating one was amusing enough, but she'd rather leave that to tv dramas. Lightly, she gave his hand a tug as she started walking towards the counter again.

"So what'll it be, Toki?"

A green tea for Toki, then! True to her word the woman pulled her wallet out from her pocket in preparation for covering the bill as Toki got into his tale. Her expression betrayed her surprise, but she was neither afraid nor judgmental about what he had said.

"Oh my.. It's good to hear that things worked out for you, though. " She paused for a moment to glance at the cashier to put her order in. "I'll have an oolong tea, please!" She paid for their drinks with a thoughtful hum  "But, that's pretty cool. You really did give it your all, didn't you? Training to the point where you could seriously hurt someone, and learning the control to prevent the worst case scenario. So, I think you should be proud of that too, y'know?"

While their drinks were being made Sunny took Toki's hand once more and started leading him to an empty table. He talked about poetry, and that made her glance to the wall where people often posted their work. Sunny suspected that he was just being humble about his own writings, but her thoughts were interrupted when he asked what she liked about this place. 

"What's not to like?" she answered with an easygoing smile as she looked back to him. She took a seat at an empty table, and gestured for him to join her. "I work at a bar, and while I love it there.. Kuma Cafe is a refreshing change of pace. I don't come here often, but the peace is nice. I can focus on my thoughts here, and the soft murmur of strangers makes me never feel like I'm never alone, even if I'm thinkin' on stuff."

She leaned back in her seat with a chuckle before shrugging her shoulders.

"That made sense to me in my own head, but.. if anything this place makes a good tea, too! And you should totally pin something to the wall. If you work as hard on poetry as you do for martial arts, I bet you'd do really great!" 

He was sweet to offer to pay her back for the drinks, but she waved off the idea with a carefree gesture and laid back expression. Even on her humble paycheck two cups of tea were hardly a bother. Even then, money wasn’t the focus of this meeting anyways. They were on a date! In the very least she was glad that he seemed to be relaxing a little more. Toki even eased up enough to hint at having gone through some troubling times recently, but held off on disclosing the details. The slip made Sunny tilt her head to the side a little in question, but she didn’t pursue the topic.

It didn’t surprise her that he liked calmer scenes to frequent, and she patiently listened to him talk. A place like Koma Cafe suited Toki, but that wasn’t a bad thing. They both agreed on how beneficial such a place could be to the mind. When he mentioned traveling she nodded in support of the idea.

“Traveling does refresh the soul, doesn’t it?” she asked rhetorically as she sent a nostalgic glance out to the nearest window in the cafe, thinking about her own adventures in the digital world. Or misadventures, if you asked Aurelia about them. The thought made her realize how strong the digital presence she had felt earlier was. The woman had been trying to ignore it to focus on her date, but... She looked back to Toki as he offered a notebook to her. It was a compilation of his poetry, and admittedly her curiosity was piqued. Sunny carefully took the notebook and opened it.

“Haikus, huh? I’m not as graceful with words, but I love reading them.”

She flipped the book open to a random page, where three haikus were written. She wasn't sure if they were a set, but they all sounded related to each other. The themes resonated with the woman, though. With her, as well as her spirit companion. Surprise appeared on her expression as she reread the poems in search of a meaning between their riddles.

“Definitely reads like something out of a fairy tale, yeah,” she answered softly, but not in a mocking way. Her eyes were still glued to the words on the page as she continued. “It.. it really does hit home, though. Not too long ago, a friend promised she would tale me to the moon one day. Maybe I’ll see you up there, too? That’d be one big leap for Yakuza everywhere!” Sunny looked back up at Toki with a smile as she handed his notebook back to him.

“..but hey, if I really do see you up there.. maybe we could get another drink in Terminus after?”

Deciding to roll the dice, Sunny chanced looking like a fool. Although, she supposed she could just blow everything off as a joke if her hunch was wrong. In any case, she was committed, now!

A quiet breath of relief was released as Sunny leaned back in her chair. She was glad that she had been right about her hunch, and Toki seemed excited at their shared knowledge as well. The man was even a little more energetic and confident now that the digital rabbit was out of the bag. He had a lot to say initially about the digital world, and from the sound of things he had way more experience with it than she did. When he apologized for rambling she shook her head with a chuckle to ease away his apprehensions.

“You’re fine, really. It’s all still new to me so I like hearing what experiences others have had so far. I haven’t had the chance to talk to another person about it yet, though. I mean, I’ve seen other people on the other side, sure, but I’ve mostly been exploring with my digimon as a guide. I can see how dangerous it can get, of course. Even with those bad vibes lurking in the shadows though, it’s really hard to stay away from there, isn’t it?”

Sunny stopped to glance up at a waitress setting their tea down on the table. Two cups, and two pots. She thanked the woman before the waitress left, and then held her hands around her cup to enjoy its warmth. Staring down into the steaming liquid Sunny chuckled again.

“I haven’t had much in the way of bad experiences yet, but my partner is a scrappy little mon so I guess it’s just a matter of time. Gonna have to take it one step at a time though like always!” Glancing back to Toki the woman shrugged with a cheerful smile, her optimism getting the better of her.

“I’m not there to cause anyone trouble, and that seems to have worked for me so far. Has something happened in the forests there, though? I hear a lot of things walking through Terminus, but they don’t all make sense to me yet.”