An evening Reverie [Amber]

"Honestly, its a tricky problem..."

Mikemon sighed, mulling it over in his head. There were a number of potential answers that he had started to brew: "Introduce her to people, sign her up for therapy, try signing her up for a summer camp... or just bringing her out to town more often for more errands, so she can try and get used to people."

There wasn't any sort of clear-cut answer, and really, Mikemon wasn't that kind of doctor. Opening up the fridge, Mikemon would pull out a plastic, single-serving size bottle of milk, and would cross his arms as he thought it over. "Well, if you want to try introducing her to someone friendly and happy, we could try Calumon? Or, heck, maybe even Stingmon, though that might be a bit of a hard sell..."

He shook his head. This was something they could discuss all day, without any sort of solid plan.

"How's Amber?"

---

"Hm?"

Amber, seeing Coal sit down next to her, would give a smile and would scoot over a bit, to let Coal watch her sister draw. This was nice: Amber liked having her sister as an audience, and it motivated her to try and draw as best she could. Slowly, the visage of a dragon would almost come to life on the page, and as Coal asked the question, Amber gave a shrug, moving for the colored pencils:

"Don't know." Amber took out a red, and started with a thick, dark hue near the edge of the wings. "Apparently its a lot of stuff she saw in a past life, and drew it into the journal - she doesn't even know why half the stuff's there, honestly. And I dunno if I'd want to meet such a big dragon 'in person', ya'know?"

"Hm... I see what you mean about summer camp, but I don't know if we should write off a therapist that easily. Maybe it shouldn't be the first thing that we try, but... well, Holly had one for a while, and it did manage to help her out."

He gave a shrug at that. Clearly, this was something the two were going to have to discuss a bit more, though showing Coal around town a bit more seemed like a decent idea. "If nothing else, I want her to see all of Snowpoint as her home. It'll be good to get a little support network for her going, anyway... hm? You haven't met Calumon?"

The feline tilted his head at that. "Well... granted, he's usually with Stingmon or doing his own thing, but he does work with me. As much a 'teddy bear' as he is, he's still good at working with patients and healing small things." It was an idea, at the very least... and hearing about Amber, Mikemon gave a smirk. "Sheesh, she took right after you, didn't she? Well, for now, let's not keep the two of 'em waiting too long..."

---

"Hm?"

Well, that was interesting! Amber looked down, seeing the mini-Examon-shadow walking on the table! The Renamon-X would give it a curious poke at the chest, seeing her finger sink right through the scales of the dragon.

"Wait, really?" Her ear gave a flick at that, looking at Coal from the corner of her eye. "... Dragons, really? You freeze up if a little snowman Digimon is looking at you, but you're fine around big ol' dragons?"

Amber gave a slight nervous chuckle at that - maybe Coal just had her sense of fear reversed, or something? Hearing that Coal might stay home next time, Amber gave a small shrug. "Meditating? Like... sitting around, but very still? I mean..." She flipped through Silence's book, carefully, seeing several images of a Renamon sitting calmly in the woods.

"It might be something ma's familiar with, but it also sounds like... I dunno, a lot of nothing?"

"Well, I don't know about that." Mikemon chuckled, as Amber sat up with a start, as the shorter Mikemon spoke up. He stepped up to Coal, offering her the bottle of milk, and gave a smile. "I see you've calmed down a bit? How are you feelin', hun?"

The two had a plan. And, plucked briefly up into Silence's arms, he nuzzled right up to the Shutmon's neck as he felt that kiss. "Mm... I hear them talking in the living area, so..."

Yup, they weren't hard to find! Amber's small 'jump' turned into a chuckle, the yellow fox shaking her head as she returned to her drawing. This one was turning into a bit more of a 'complete' effort than the sketch of a Mikemon, as Amber had already started to move onto using the reds and grays to detail the wings. Silence would even see test lines off to the side, as Amber carefully pressed firmly or softly with each pencil to test the texture and the vibrancy of the color. To Mikemon, it would have just looked like odd 'marks' off on the end, but Silence would likely notice the amount of care her daughter was putting into this.

As for the fox on the open page of the journal? Mikemon thought about explaining who K was, but hearing Silence's more vague answer, just decided to follow along with a nod. It was a story that they would have to tell at some point, but now, with Coal as she was, it probably wasn't the best time.

Instead, he'd sit down next to Coal. "I guess I should ask, how are the goggles and glasses working out for you? Are they fogging up at all in the cold?" Mikemon gave a smile: "Admittedly, I don't work a lot with this sort of stuff, so I just have to trust the 'mons who can actually make the glasses and stuff like that."

It wasn't just the habits that Amber had taken to, but also the focus! The Renamon did spare Silence a glance and a smile, but Amber didn't seem to make any more mistakes than she would have done if she didn't have someone watching her. Slowly, the dragon on the page almost seemed to spring to life, the color helping the sketch start to pop and catch the eye.

... This was something that Amber really enjoyed doing, and it was easy to tell just by watching. Her tails flicked, her eyes narrowed and focused, and her hands carefully moved to make sure that every line and every bit of color was added with care. It was enough to bring a smile to Amber's face, and Mikemon would find one on his own.

"... Hm, maybe I'll see if they can make one with a vent..." He gave a short nod to Coal's comments. They seemed easy enough to correct in the next draft - and hearing that it was something 'weird'? "Its not as weird as you think - the type of filter is just different." Mikemon chuckled! "If you're around Snowflake for long enough, you'll see a lot of Digimon wearing orange goggles. Its because the sun reflects bright off the snow underneath them, and they need a special lens to keep from blinding and damaging their eyes. Its pretty much the same as that, just that your lenses are rose-colored instead of orange."

Maybe Coal would be interested in something like that? The next question was also a bit fun for him to answer!

"Primarily, I'm a data specialist - but up here in the mountains, I'm also sort of a general doctor. For the second part, I help to patch people up who get banged up in the hills, slip on the ice, stuff like that. For my specialty, I help people stabilize their data, work with their spirit totems... um, it gets pretty 'abstract', I guess, but I do a lot of research into cores and that sort of thing..."

Huh - where had Coal heard that one?

Mikemon tilted his head at Coal's first remark. "Um... oh, yeah, yeah, there is a saying, about 'rose-tinted glasses'. It means that you see those closer to you in a much more positive way than those you aren't familiar with." Well, there was more to it than that, but the doctor didn't entirely know everything about such 'human' sayings.

Rather, he was just glad that he was able to calmly speak to Coal, without her worrying about her eyes or about other people. When all of that was handled and squared away, what was left was an endlessly curious fox, one who wanted to learn as much about everyone around her as she could!

"Heh... no, I didn't have that kind of trouble when I was younger, Coal. Actually, my eyes weren't able to do that sort of scanning at all. It was something I learned, and something that I practiced when I became stronger." Unlike the genetic traits of humans, Digimon actually could alter their so-called DNA with effort - which was how Coal was able to inherit such a tool in the first place! "I've done the most work with data cores - its, um, a ball-shaped entity of data in most Digimon's chest, that makes up most of their code. And before moving up here, I was mostly in Whitewater - I had a medical office out there, but when the family got bigger, we moved around for space until we finally landed up far in the north."

"Curious, aren't ya, sis?" Amber gave a chuckle, but kept her focus on the drawing. Dark red, salmon, a touch of orange, and a few rough greys - it took a while to get into the rhythm, especially with the intricate detail of the wings, but Amber's rough sketch of the Examon was slowly springing to left. The far-left wing that she was working on almost seemed to spring to life out of the page, as Amber carefully turned the notebook to get a better angle.

"... You do definitely have an interesting sketchbook, mom." Amber gave a smile. "Have you met all of these Digimon, or something? I mean, dragons, huge landscapes, knights... they might just be drawings, but somehow they seem a lot more 'personal' than that..."

"Well, you certainly have time to figure out what you want to do."

Mikemon gave a smile, pleased to see his daughter's curious nature. Of course, the two didn't know that much about the world yet - what wireframes were, what that ball of data was floating in the middle of a Digimon, or even what Whitewater was! "Oh - oh! Whitewater's a city out by the ocean, and its where my last medical practice was. Nice place, but can be quite humid and hot if you stay outside for too long... so kinda the complete opposite of the mountains."

Still, it seemed that Coal was still a bit shy, even receding a bit from her sister's teasing. Well, for now, that was fine enough. Amber continued on her work, eyes looking briefly up as Silence flipped through those scenes. So many personal drawings, so many memories - and an explanation as mysterious as the book itself was. The fox tilted her head a bit at her mother's explanation. "I'm not sure I get it... wait, is that Syre?"

Seeing her older sister on the now-open page, Amber seemed just as confused as to why she was inside that interesting collection - and her ear flicked as Silence brought up that last bit!

"Training? Like... what kind?"

"She means combat." Mikemon's tone was more flat at this point, a slightly serious edge to his words. "You two are rookies now - and though most Digimon are nice, you'll run into situations where you'll have to use your abilities. Sometimes it'll be to use your strength to help out, and other times, well... it'll be to defend yourself. Silence and Syre are good at it, so we want you two to practice with them."

Combat?

Like... actual fighting? Amber's ear flicked at that, the yellow fox sitting up, putting her pencils away as she heard her dad talk. And it wasn't just dad - mom went right along with it, saying that they were going to start right now! The Shutmon reverted down to her Renamon form, the same one that took them shopping. And honestly, Amber seemed a little nervous.

But she also knew that Coal would also be nervous. Seeing her sister look down at her hands, Amber was able to take a moment to compose herself. Carefully setting her sketchbook aside, she'd stand up, and stretch out her arms. "Well, might as well try it for a bit, right? Though, where is a good question... up here with all of the ice?"

"How about you three take a portal down to Terminus Fields?" Mikemon gave a shrug. "If you're all in rookie, you won't be messing up anything out in the middle of nowhere."

"Terminus Fields?" Silence would know them - the big, wide-open plains just outside of the big city. But neither of the foxes would likely have context! "Well, if that's the best place... then let's go!"