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The Art of Presentation! [Open Thread]
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Post by Adam Cromwell on May 1, 2021 1:54:51 GMT
Ah, conformity and routine! Something people abhor but are secretly thankful for or just straight up adore, for few things give us all security and inner peace as knowing what comes next. Philosophical meanderings aside, it is something that makes up the majority of people's lives. And it was no different for the students of Shibuya High School. It all started as a normal day it seemed. Flocks of students were making their way through the gates of the campus with an assortment of moods, from excited to depressed and everything in between, it promised to be yet another tranquil day at campus.
One thing about Routines, though, is that sometimes there is just something that make people turn their heads and go 'WHAT AM I WATCHING' in its oddness.
Case in point, a Purple Limousine parking right next to the gate of an otherwise ordinary school is not something one sees in their everyday lives, nor was the fact that it opened to a Suit-clad chauffeur opening the doors at the very end and instead of a wealthy business man leaving it, the very first thing to hit the ground was the end of an honest-to-god walking stick. And even more... amusing... was the fact that out of it came a boy. An ordinary boy for all purposes in terms of build, with the only things that set him apart being the aformentioned walking stick and his hair, which was coiffed enough that it made it look as if the tips were a plethora of small horns. Interestingly, while he was a travesty begging for attention with how he made sure that his cane clacked against the ground in perfect synch with every three steps, the way he was speaking english instead of japanese also called attention to him.
"Let's make this clear here, Leonard: I. Don't. CARE if that'll risk your granny dear's job! what i DO care about is that those investigators drink the coffee, fall on the ground, go through a lobotomy I PAID FOR and they DON'T open the case!" Buzzing came from the other end of the phone, but all it got the weird boy to do was roll his eyes and exclaim loudly. "Now you listen here you braindead, juvenile and utterly naive imbecile! If I receive anything even RESEMBLING a warrant on my desk because of your incompetency, i'll be going out of my way to not only fire you, but also make sure you get the Konami treatment and never find a job elsewhere! ALSO i'll be charging you for that surgery." And without any further ado, he flamboyantly ended the call and pocketed the phone, muttering only an "Amateurs..." while continuing on his way and greeting whoever even tried to speak with him in heavily accented Japanese.
And as if the reprimanding, frustrated tone was nothing but a front, he greeted everyone as happily as if he was having the best day ever. In a way, though, Adam Cromwell WAS having the time of his life bossing idiots about while checking his phone once more, letting out a highly posh snicker as he saw the stock of WcDonalds plummeting by the minute while a tab opened in his news feed, detailing how every single secret recipe in their menu was leaked in a mere /pol post.
"Oh i love it when a plan comes together." and with that final quip, he continued his trekking through the halls of his new school, looking forward to what would come out of this day.
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Post by Hanako Hoshidate on May 1, 2021 3:15:11 GMT
At first, Hana thought it would be a normal school day as she approached the entrance to the school until an honest-to-god purple limo pulled up in front of the school. Out of the limo stepped a boy with spiked hair and a walking stick who was yelling at someone on his phone.
However, the content of his ranting sent a chill down Hana's spine. She may not be particularly fluent in English, but tutoring lessons from Data had enabled her to at least partially understand what the boy said and it wasn't good, considering he mentioned something about investigators, coffee, lobotomies, and warrants. Taking out her phone, Hana quickly sent a text to Data, who was still at home.
Hana? What's wrong? Data replied. Hana explained what she'd heard, and sent Data pictures of the limo and the boy that she'd discreetly taken. Oh dear. Okay, here's what I want you to do. Keep an eye on this guy, but keep your distance. Do NOT let him know you overheard him. Let us take care of this.
After reading Data's instructions, Hana put her phone away and nervously entered the school building. One thing was for certain. This is NOT gonna be a normal day.
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Post by ricochet4-Hiroshi&Leroy on May 1, 2021 3:22:50 GMT
Another day at school and maybe things would be at least somewhat normal for a certain pair of twins. With luck even if things got weird it wouldn't involve evil plots and poop throwing monsters in the hallways but such things were almost certain involving digimon.
Hiroshi looked briefly at his twin Leroy, his twin returning the look before the duo headed for the school. Then something rather head turning happened but thankfully didn't seem to involve rampaging digimon but one could never know after all. As the purple limo parked and a human climbed out shouting weird things in English, the twins looked at the stranger in confusion. Leroy was cocking his head to the side with the look on his face clearly indicating his confusion as the disguised chaotic Shoutmon tried to make sense of what the teen was yelling about. Hiroshi was just as confused but it seemed that curiosity was just a big a drive for the duo as their confusion as the mismatched pair tried to understand what was going on. Since they weren't close enough Hiroshi couldn't hear the other side of the conversation so he couldn't fill his twin in.
Soon the conversation ended and the unknown human headed into the school both Hiroshi and Leroy right behind him. Hiroshi stepped up beside the stranger with Leroy appearing on the human's opposite side and asked "Hello, are you new here?"
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Post by Weston the Wise on May 1, 2021 3:47:56 GMT
Another day, another opportunity to teach kids about literature, Weston thought with a smile on his face as he exited his car and made his way towards the main gate, disguised in his holosuit. He was excited because of the unit he was going to start today with his students, they were going to start to read one of Weston's favorite pieces of literature, specifically from America: The Great Gatsby. He was looking forward to teaching Japanese kids about that specific era of time.
As he got closer to the entrance, Weston saw a familiar face: Hanako Hosidate, a first year student he met at the grocery store not too long ago. There was time before class officially started and Weston had to go to the teacher meeting, so he assumed he could just quickly say hi to Hana. As he was walking up to do so, a literal purple limo drove up to the entrance. This caused enough attention for multiple students to notice, mainly a black-haired shy girl, Rebecca Story; a foreigner student with messy brown hair, green eyes and a leather glove on his left hand, Johan Walker; and a first year with blue and pink hair, Yuji Moriyama.
They all watched as the door opened up and a relatively normal looking high schooler walked out, albeit with a walking stick in one hand and a very unique hairstyle, though not as unique as Yuji's. He was talking on the phone in English, which the three high schoolers and Weston could understand. What he was saying was... very concerning, to say the least. From what he was saying, it sounded like he drugged a group's coffee in order to benefit himself in some way. He also threatened firing people as if he owned a company! Just who was this guy, anyways? Rebecca, Johan and Yuji all looked at each other with very concerned faces, they would definitely try to avoid this guy for the time being. Hell, they may even consult their individual Digimon partners about what just happened.
Weston watched as the twins Leroy and Hiroshi ran up to talk to the new student (and would almost certainly be up to no good while doing so,) while Hana pulled out her phone and began texting someone. As soon as she was done, Weston would begin to speak to her. "Good morning, Miss Hoshidate. So much for a normal day, I presume?"
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Post by Adam Cromwell on May 1, 2021 14:28:39 GMT
Adam's gait came to a halt as he noticed something odd. Amidst the crowd who marked him as a weirdo and didn't get a single word of what he said, a few stood out in how they threw worried looks in his general direction while making a point to tread as far from him as they possibly could.
Normal people would usually have issues with the suspicions, but then again DANDEVILLE THE MAGNIFICENT reveled in it! Sure, he made a mental note for who should possibly be scheduled for some... memory loss later on, but at the moment there was no need to be particularly worried.
As for the one brave duo that accosted him from both sides and decided to greet him with a bit of curiosity? Well, Adam Cromwell was nothing short of gentile towards these peons! As so, with one last overly theatrical motion of his walking stick, the teen took a few steps forward and finally opened his mouth, once more defaulting to Japanese. "Why, yes I am! As a matter of fact, I must say it's weird having to wear a uniform, considering American High Schools usually don't enforce such a thing."
As if to make a point, the black-haired evildoer straightened the collar of both his suit and the shirt beneath so that they stood up. "Regardless, an introduction is in order! I am Adam Cromwell, former Yankee and now a proud resident of the Land of the Rising Sun!" Following that, Adam pulled up his cane and took an extremely extravagant bow. "An utmost pleasure to make your acquaintance!"
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Post by Hanako Hoshidate on May 1, 2021 16:40:48 GMT
Hana visibly jumped when Weston spoke to her, as she hadn't noticed him approaching. "Oh, hello Mr. Sparkwood. That new kid just gives me the creeps. I mean, did you hear what he was saying? What kind of a person would just go around saying stuff like that in public? Seriously, that's the kinda stuff that gets someone to call the cops. Should we call the cops?!"
As she spoke, it would be obvious that the teenage girl was starting to freak out a bit. As it was, it wouldn't take long for her to head straight into a full-blown nervous breakdown if someone didn't snap her out of it.
Meanwhile, back at Hana's house Data tried to dig up whatever information he could on the boy Hana texted him about. He did groan in frustration as he failed to find more than the boy's name, Adam Cromwell. Whoever this guy was, he certainly seemed to know how to cover his tracks. For once, the disguised Hagurumon was glad that Hana brought Rush to school with her inside of her digivice. His brother may not be the smartest digimon around, but he could definitely be counted on to keep Hana safe.
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Post by ricochet4-Hiroshi&Leroy on May 1, 2021 21:31:00 GMT
It seemed this stranger was as theatric as he was weird seeing as he pulled up his cane and took what would be an extravagant bow before introducing himself as Adam Cromwell. Not knowing much about Human World geography never mind slang outside of Shibuya but both brothers kept their facade well.
Keeping things going Hiroshi then said "I am Hiroshi and on the other side of you is my twin brother Leroy."
"No offense, Adam, but if you want to avoid looking like a crazy person you might want to watch what you say in public when yelling on your phone. It seems the other students are leery of you." Leroy said before a devilish smirk appeared on the disguised furry Shoutmon before he asked "Or are you purposefully trying to ostracize yourself from the others?"
"Leroy..." Hiroshi hissed before he facepalmed. It was a bit early in the morning for the chaos that was Leroy to strike so maybe he could at least keep his twin from causing potential trouble but Leroy was a tough babysitting job and he didn't get paid for it.
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Post by Weston the Wise on May 2, 2021 17:35:33 GMT
Weston stepped back a bit when he realized how much he had startled Hana. "Oh, sorry about that, Miss Hoshidate," he would immediately apologize, "I did not mean to sneak up on you like that."
Hana would then voice her concerns about the new kid that had just arrived today, about how he gave her the creeps. "Mmm, yes, he does worry me as well... I did indeed hear the kind of stuff that he was saying on the phone. Humans are still a bit strange to me but even I can tell that what he was saying wasn't what you would consider normal. I'm going to keep an eye on that one..."
Hana would continue to panic more, going as far as to ask if they should call the cops on this new student. It was clear that she was on the verge of having a panic attack. Weston would extend his palm towards Hana, as if to express that he wanted her to calm down. "Just breathe, Miss Hoshidate. Take deep breaths and calm your mind. If anything does happen I can assure you that it will end just as quickly as it starts. Would you like me to escort you to your homeroom, if that will make you feel any better?"
Meanwhile inside the school, the resident geek-slash-loner Yuji Moriyama was walking by as he walked past the flamboyant new student again, who he heard introduce himself as Adam Cromwell to a couple of the second-year students. Yuji just rolled his eyes as he opened his locker, which was next to where that group was. This guy reminded him of what he hated about certain people, as in those who thought they were the reincarnation of God or some other shit like that.
As Yuji was putting his school shoes on, he overheard the kid named Leroy telling Adam to avoid talking on the phone in the way he just did. And Yuji felt as if he had to add onto that. "I agree with him, if you're going to be at this school then it's not worth it to do things that could potentially get you reported." If the twins looked close enough, they could very well see what seemed to be a Digivice on Yuji's left wrist...
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Post by Adam Cromwell on May 5, 2021 4:39:15 GMT
And in a mere minute, the exchange student went from eye-turner to celebrity, it seemed. All because people in a country that, according to most sources, should not have this many English speakers decided "screw the metrics, this is Japan!". Glorious.
Still, if THIS was the best they could do, these people wouldn't last a DAY in the... less politically correct alleys of the internet.
Though as much as he wanted to give them a heckling of a lifetime, it would do Adam well to stick to formality.
"Wait, you people thought I was serious?! Oh dear, I'm afraid you are misunderstanding something here." And back to English, it was, apparently. "I was just recording a line for a Roleplay session! Call it... impromptu rehearsal! I thought that speaking it in English would spare me the need to explain myself, but I maay not have given the people in this school enough credit!" And with that, the foreigner took a bow. "Please, do forgive me for this misunderstanding! I assure you it's nothing remotely CLOSE to dangerous."
And following that, a hearty chuckle left Adam's lips. "Though if I got you all freaked out, I must've done a great job playing the part, right?" Unrelenting, the American prodigy continued the rapid-fire delivery. "Come on, give me some feedback! Should I change the intonation to something more grave? Tone down the wording? Be less direct?"
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Post by Hanako Hoshidate on May 5, 2021 4:57:01 GMT
Heeding Weston's advice, Hana took a deep breath to calm herself down. "No, no. I'm good now. I highly doubt he's going to do anything in school, and I have a trick up my sleeve if he tries anything outside of school."
That last bit was said as she patted the pocket where she kept her digivice while giving Weston a wink. Even if Rush couldn't maintain his higher forms for long, he wouldn't need to in order to deal with any potential human thugs and/or kidnappers.
"Anyways, I really should be getting ready for class. See ya later, Mr. Sparkwood!" Hana said, before dashing off. In a hasty decision, she decided to head into the bathroom and use the privacy of a stall to let Rush out of her digivice and hide his diminutive Kuramon form inside her backpack.
As she exited the bathroom with the hidden Digimon, Hana could hear the boy go to a lot of effort to claim that his outburst was merely a rehearsal for a roleplaying session. Hana merely rolled her eyes at that. Yeah, like I'm gonna fall for THAT.
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Post by ricochet4-Hiroshi&Leroy on May 5, 2021 5:18:33 GMT
When Weston approached Leroy glanced over at the disguised Wisemon and said "Sensei, don't worry. I'm not up to any trouble."
"Yet." Hiroshi muttered with a sigh knowing that his twin could do anything from behaving like a perfect angel to pranking the whole school. Who knew with chaotic but not evil beings, right?
As for Adam he was coming off as more suspicious as he mentioned what he said was for roleplay which made Leroy snort loudly in amusement as he obviously didn't buy it one bit and neither did that girl near them their teacher was speaking to before she headed for the bathroom. It was Hana if the twins remembered right.
Before Leroy could voice his thoughts regarding Adam's words Hiroshi said "Do you think my brother and I are stupid enough to think you were just roleplaying? Adam I assure you we aren't idiots so don't talk to us like we are."
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Post by Weston the Wise on May 12, 2021 2:15:53 GMT
Weston didn't like the sound of Hana saying she "had a trick up her sleeve" after he advised her to calm down. His feelings got even worse when she patted the pocket that her Digivice was surely in. The disguised Wisemon sighed. "Hana, there is a time and place for Digimon related incidents. I highly recommend you be smart about what you're planning to do. Please don't let your Digimon out during school."
Hana would then excuse herself to head down to get ready for class. Weston nodded and waved goodbye to Hana as she ran off, though a very uneasy feeling soon followed. He best look after her, make sure she didn't do something... well, moronic.
The disguised Wisemon discretely followed Hana, only stopping once she entered the bathroom. That was when he began overhearing that same boy's voice from earlier, the one that arrived in the purple limo. Some students were calling him out on his odd behavior, including his own disguised Digimon students Leroy and Hiroshi. He told the surrounding students that he was only recording a line for a roleplay session, asking for feedback in the process. Did the students buy the act?
"...look, I know what roleplaying looks like. I roleplay on a regular basis," Yuji told Adam, "and whatever you were doing, that was not roleplaying. Don't think I'm stupid, because I'm not.
...apparently, they did not. Frankly, Weston didn't believe Adam either. There was something off about that young man, and perhaps maybe Hana had a point. Speaking of Hana, she had now stepped out of the bathroom and overheard the conversation as well. However, Weston could definitely sense something familiar now. Realizing this, he would walk over to Hana and talk to her quietly. "Hana, what did I say about not letting your Digimon out during school?"
Suddenly Yuji's Digivice wristwatch started to beep. Confused, he would look down at the screen on it, where a pixelated ladybug seemed to be doing some sort of "Hey! Listen!" type of animation. "Oh uh, sorry, I gotta take care of something," Yuji would say before walking into the boy's bathroom. Seems like something was up with everyone today...
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Post by Adam Cromwell on May 12, 2021 3:48:14 GMT
Wow... Just... wow.
Adam could only look at them and suppress the urge to either laugh or beat them up with his cane and the way he took a wee bit longer to draw breath as if trying to keep himself steady through the ordeal of listening to these people. Sure, they were right, but it was annoying to consider he was wrong in predicting the intellectual quotient of this backwater school WHICH WAS ONLY A FORMALITY.
Then again, why not mess around with them for a bit? After all, eyes WERE turning in their direction, and it did look like they were accosting the new student. Whispers were already running by and entertaining their blather any further would surely give them credence.
Hence why Adam decided it was about time to resort to what he did best! Antagonizing people!
"Wow! I knew I was good, but never thought I'd get people BELIEVING the acting!" The American spoke in amazement " In that case, I'll be more mindful of what I say! Thank you for the splendid display of camaraderie, friends. I feel sooooooo welcome at the new school and new country." There was no small amount of sarcasm dripping from the words, though as he prepared to walk away, a sound took his attention. A beeping sound from one of the peons' wristwatch. Now THAT was something he needed to worry about. The supervillain aspirant had seen enough movies to know heroes ALWAYS had beeping watches. And while he wouldn't exactly want to acknowledge these as threats before, he certainly wanted to now, judging by the familiarity. As such, he took a notice. "Well, seems like someone's missing out on an appointment! Could it be that your dilly-dallying with a stranger got the attention of a date, mayhaps?" He was smiling in satisfaction. "Perhaps instead of wasting time on a weirdo who roleplays in public, you should go and attend to your beau?"
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Post by Hanako Hoshidate on May 12, 2021 4:18:45 GMT
Hana stiffened when she heard Weston's quiet but stern tone. Crap, how did he figure out what she'd done so quickly?! Well, there was only one logical thing to do in this situation. Deny like hell! She nervously turned to face the teacher and said, "I h-have no idea what you're talking about, Mr. Sparkwood. I've done no such thing."
...Yeah, Hana was a horrible liar. Anyone with two working brain cells could easily see through her terrible attempt at denying the truth. The only reason Rush hadn't reacted to the disguised Wisemon's presence was because the Kuramon had fallen asleep in her backpack.
"A-anyways, I reaaally need to get going now. It wouldn't do for a teacher to keep a student from getting to class on time." Hana continued, as she nervously glanced at her surroundings. If Weston kept talking to her like this, she may end up drawing almost as much attention as Adam Cromwell did.
Hana would make one more attempt at heading to class, but only time would tell if Weston would let her go or not.
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Post by ricochet4-Hiroshi&Leroy on May 12, 2021 6:41:16 GMT
Hiroshi watched Leroy as the disguised furry Shoutmon that was his twin smirked at Yuji's statement involving having roleplayed. It was as if Leroy didn't care what others in the hallway thought of him and his brother interacting with Adam even though there were various students staring and whispering.
Leroy, as if unable to hold in his amusement when Adam mentioned his acting, snorted with laughter before he said "If you think that obvious performance of yours is good acting than I think you need to take acting lessons."
Hiroshi sighed as he facepalmed wondering what his twin was trying to do. Was he trying to provoke the new student? With Leroy's chaotic nature not even his Hiroshi always knew when his twin was up to something. Meanwhile both twins briefly glanced at Hana when they sensed a digimon coming from her backpack but seeing as digimon hid themselves from humans in a multitude of ways it was most likely the digimon was her partner.
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