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Discordant journey. (open)
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Post by svetlanakuznetsov on Jan 6, 2024 14:23:56 GMT
Let’s face it. She was lost. Utterly and completely lost. A combination of train and plane had managed to carry the musician, her cello case and her suitcase from Vladivostok to Japan. It was a journey that had taken almost an entire day, involving a train from Vladivostok the airport, then from the airport to Japan and then from Narita airport to the Shibuya Train Terminal. Perhaps she had taken the wrong train….it also did not help how Japanese was hardly her first language.
The musician gripped a book tightly, a simple basic guide book containing a series of easily pronounced useful phrases in both Japanese and English but there was one big glaring issue: She did not speak any western european or asian tongue to begin with. The language was different, the vowels were different, the pronunciation was different, the syntax was different. Everything was different and even for Svetlana, one whose mastery extended to a great variety of instruments, she was struggling.
A heavy sighing sound, a wailing mourning melody, seeped past the woman’s lips. She turned on her heels and began to walk, the rhythmic tapping of her shoes crafting a melody all their own. She was carried across the floor of the station by the melody, swiftly approaching not a help station or anything like that (after all she did not understand the words printed on the signs above) but instead a…collection of benches.
She sat down on the nearest one and removed her phone from the depths of her clothing, unlocking it with a simple pattern of numbers. Re Fa So Ti represented numerically. 2,4, 5, 7. It was a simple passcode really but it was easy to remember and hard to guess, not unless you had an understanding of notes akin to her own anyway. Her expression was a frustrated grimace as she took to google maps, trying to figure out what series of trains she would need to take in order to reach the university.
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Post by Moxie on Jan 6, 2024 21:35:44 GMT
Commuting to and from the human world felt like it would never quite become comfortable for Moxie. How could it? If anyone caught wind of what Moxie planned to do this place just might be the one where he meets his end, with all the powerful digimon and their human partners milling about the place. Nevertheless, he hadn't done anything egregious enough to catch heat from anyone too powerful, so this is was the most efficient way to get around as of now. With a large cap covering his head and a large coat adorning his body, he'd enter the station and begin waiting for his train. Humans, at least in Japan, tend to mind their business ont he subway, so most of the time they assume Moxie is just a child in a costume or some kind of Hologram, so he's had surprisingly little problem making it around Shibuya.
Upon taking a seat on a bench, between the various other things that ran through his thought-riddled mind, Moxie looked over to see something that he wasn't genuinely expecting to see. Moxie was no fan of humans, but he didn't hate them either. They were an annoyance at the very most when they weren't feeding one of their digimon enough emotional energy to level a scyscraper. However, this one that he just looked at by mere chance actually gave off a positive impression. She looked confused, not surprising to Moxie in the slightest, but her manner of dress was pretty similar to something him and his sister would wear. They were born with only one pair of clothes, but it was still slightly refreshing to see something even vaguely familiar in this world. |
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Post by supesman on Jan 8, 2024 3:41:20 GMT
Zack had had the exact kind of rough day he always had. His neck was stiff, he had a bruise running up the left side of his lower back and he had taken a sucker punch from a creature that had at least a foot in height on him and maybe two in reach. But he had a plastic wrapped bag of hand made sweets thrown over his shoulder. The digimon town he had saved from a trio of bandits had more than made up for it just by their safety but a simple home made thank you gift was the kind of thing the would be hero could never really bring himself to turn down even if in his most altruistic heart of hearts he knew he probably should.
He was dressed in "casual" parts of his costume, a custom golden yellow biker jacket with bronze stripes down the sleeves, matching pants. A large travel bag concealed his gloves and his equally custom motorcycle helmet that served as his faux Kamen Rider mask. His children, Marigold and Violet rested exhaustively inside the digivice hidden in the pocket of his jacket.
The Digi-Rider wasn't exactly a name that would strike terror into the hearts of villains everywhere but he had made a bit of a name for himself that the little digimon trying to blend in might recognize, especially with the one two punch of his distinctive outfit and being a human being stupid enough to draw fire from fully grown digimon. He didn't have his focus on Moxie or even seem to notice them.
"Lost? These trains are a nightmare." He said to the woman who was sitting down on the bench. His bright blue eyes and short cropped natural blonde hair along with the patter of his accent would give him away as an American in a heartbeat even if the recent immigrant couldn't understand a word that was actually coming out of the young man's mouth. He paused, smiling as he awaited her reply.
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Post by svetlanakuznetsov on Jan 8, 2024 22:49:45 GMT
“Да. Я борюсь с т-” It was a slip of the tongue as Svetlana looked up from her phone, eyes meeting the gaze of the superhero in disguise…noit that she knew Zack was one. Her lips grew into a small smile, the edge of her mouth creasing ever so slightly, as she tilted her head sideways. Her gaze took in the full extent of Zack’s form, from his muscular appearance, to the platinum blond hair, to the muddled blue grey eyes and the pallor of his skin.
“Ah…I sorry. Japanese is difficulty for me.[/color]” She mangled some of the words, her confusion in regards to both English and Japanese mangling the words she wished to speak but nonetheless she was grateful someone approached her. She flicked through her translation guide, searching through the pages, looking for something to help communicate what exactly it was she wished for assistance with.
It was perhaps an awkward handful of moments, and maybe even a little rude too, that Svetlana spent flicking through the book. Fortunately, it ended just before it became too awkward to be tolerable as she managed to find the page she was looking for. A simple page of the phrase book that translated into one simple phrase:
“Can help find train?” She stumbled over some of the words and even mangled some of the pronunciation but she asked, hopefully, the important part of the question and even held the phrase book up, pointing towards the specific phrase she was trying to ask. Hopefully it was enough to get the help she needed from this stranger.
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Post by Moxie on Jan 10, 2024 8:32:37 GMT
Moxie carried on about his own business for a bit, until he looked up and noticed that a man had approached the confused woman. Now this one gave the exact opposite impression on Moxie than the woman. The gaudy outfit, combined with that all too familiar look of self-righteousness in his eyes immediately rubbed Moxie the wrong way. Overhearing the beginning of their conversation, Moxie immediately knew how it was about to go. The guy was definitely also a foreigner, just not the type who'd have a russian language course under his belt. At the trajectory they were going this was about to turn into 20 minutes of the two of them deciphering eachother's sentences in the most inefficient way known to man. Under normal circumstances, Moxie wouldn't care and just attempt to tune them out, but not this time. Maybe it was her immediate positive impression or the fact that he wouldn't wish a rambling american to be loose upon his worst enemy, but Moxie would stand up and approach the two of them as they spoke. He was very much not the "swoop in and save the day" type, so he'd already come up with a scenario to make this quick and painless. Now, looking at Svetlana, Moxie would utter "Здравствуйте, я участник программы голограммного гида по японскому метро. Куда бы ты хотел пойти?" In a cheery tone. This translated to "Hello, I am a Hologram Guide Program to the Japanese Metro. Where would you like to go?" Moxie, being a digimon, had the perk of being keenly aware of and receptive to human emotion, so he could get the gist of what she was saying even, not even considering the fact he also knew russian. |
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Post by supesman on Jan 10, 2024 22:49:59 GMT
Zack smiled and nodded along with her struggling to find the right pages in her guide book. He could have tried to communicate his guess about what she wanted but he didn't speak a lick of Russian and it was generally better if people felt they had some agency over their own problems. He opened his mouth to speak his reply to her English question before Moxie's appearance at the corner of his eyes made him freeze in his tracks. Zack dropped the kind of smooth and gentle enunciation he would use to help the Russian understand him, dropping into the R-slinging New England patter that was his native accent.
"The hell do you think you're doing? Are you INSANE?!" Zack said, confronting the Digimon who was risking discovery and a crack in the masquerade all Digimon and Tamers unofficially agreed to. "You think she's going to buy any story you're telling her? If ANYTHING like you was real they'd be putting it on billboards for every travel company on the planet!" Zack said, checking over his shoulders to make sure no one was watching. He wasn't angry at the little Digimon, he was terrified for their sake. Who knew what would happen if they blew their cover right here in the middle of the station. Other than the obvious notion of causing a violent panic and government vivisection, it would almost certainly get Moxie in a whole heap of trouble with AEGIS if they ever found out he was just APPEARING to tourists for no reason other than he was personally impatient.
Zack flashed a smile to Svetlana, trying not to put her on edge by making her watch a confrontation in a language she didn't speak very well. He felt more than a little guilty using his accented English to keep her out of the loop.
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Post by svetlanakuznetsov on Jan 11, 2024 13:54:08 GMT
“Действительно? Можем ли мы говорить по-английски, пожалуйста? Это мой второй язык” Svetlana perked up a little bit as the Train Station’s hologram guide program arrived. Japanese technology was truly impressive, if the entire station had autonomous Holograms able to identify people in need and speak in any language needed. She had absolutely no clue why the man in the leather biker outfit was so irritated by the presence of the Hologram but honestly, she did not mind! Not one bit!
Svetlana rose to her feet and smiled, flicking through a map of the city, bringing up a page that contained a zoomed in cross section of the city. There was a great big red circle drawn on the map and for anybody well informed on the layout of the metropolitan area, they would easily recognise the surrounding area of Ueno Park and the nearby Tokyo National museum but those were not were Svetlana was pointing. She was pointing at something entirely different.
“I must get to the Tokyo University of the Arts. Can you help me?” She returned the smile towards Zack, unaware of what he was saying but was easily able to pick up on the agitation inside his voice. What on earth was it that made him so agitated? Still, Svetlana pointed at the big red circle on her map that was encircling the university’s Ueno campus. Hopefully she had managed to articulate her need for directions.
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Post by Moxie on Jan 18, 2024 4:56:59 GMT
Moxie would internally kick himself at not even considering the American could be familiar with Digimon. Simple or not, he was dressed in a way that those with connections to the digital world tend to be. That is, in a way that makes them stick out like sore thumb. He had to play this carefully now. He initially thought the man would be just as easy to dupe as any other human, but now he actually had to do his best to give off an heir of innocence. Thankfully, Svetlana had fallen for the initial excuse, so it shouldn't be too hard for Moxie to play this off. This whole situation was unnecessary regardless, but now Moxie had to use excess brain power to work his way through it.
Svetlana requesting to speak in english threw another wrench into his plan, as the American was likely able to speak it, so he had to do some setup in advance. Before Moxie would start speaking again, he'd shoot Zack a look of wide-eyed innocence, like a puppy that had been caught chewing the furniture. He did this right as Zack had finished scolding him, then immediately turned to Svetlana, saying in English "Of course! To get to the Tokyo University of the Arts, you can take the Yamanote Line from here and arrive at your destination in 40 Minutes." he'd say with a smile. Moxie had answered her question, gave the man assurance that she had believed his story, and feigned an innocent demeanor all in the space of about 20 seconds, so hopefully the rest would unfold smoothly. |
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Post by supesman on Jan 19, 2024 4:47:01 GMT
Zack's tension rose, his shoulder creeping up an inch or two at a time as he watched the little Digimon trying to pivot in midair. He recognized he had caught the little imp off guard with his understanding of Digimons' existence and se he decided to make himself know fully. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his digivice, tucking it into the pocket of his jacket's chest so that the scream was facing outward. He wasn't just a human who knew, he was a tamer. He didn't turn to face Svetlana and hoped that his accent would still keep her from understanding him fully. He kept his smile bright and friendly, gently unbothered as he spoke which only gave the tone of his actual words and eerie quality.
"See, this is what some Digimon do when they're looking for an easy mark. Robbery. Kidnapping. Worse. Slipping through the cracks and picking off humans who will easily go unnoticed if they turn up missing. I'm not making accusations, but let's get ourselves straight, you and I." He said, tapping at the edge of the Digivice and it flicked on. Marigold was on the screen, rendered in a field of black pixels on the half gray screen in her JewelBeemon form. "This. Is my daughter Marigold. And unless you have Perfect level form hidden somewhere, she is going to make VERY sure that anything shady you're planning becomes a painful miscalculation." He said, still smiling that perfectly proper and friendly smile as he walked to help Svetlana find the transport route she was looking for. "You're committed now, my friend. Let's find the lady her train." He said, the motions of his body like a coiled spring ready to pop at a moment's notice.
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