[tri OOM] Barry, Cisco, and File Island

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato brings Barry and Cisco out through the same hilltop telephone booth he used to bring Autor through a few weeks back, out onto a cliff with a pretty good view of the island.

The island's central point is a mountain that looks more like a sheer spike of rock, and radiating outwards from it are a lot of very different places: Closest to the mountain, there's a pastel-coloured village of some kind that looks like it might be made of cushions; a tropical jungle with a ruined temple of black and brown stone jutting out of it; and a desert with gear markings carved into the ground and a single, leafy mountain in the centre.

Spreading out further than that, there are forests; some kind of icy tundra; a large town with a glittering white castle; a small village covered by a dark cloud; some kind of factory belching smoke into the air; and a plain covered in railroad tracks and ruined trains. Just down from the cliff, there's a lake with a camp set up next to it.

"All right, File Island," Yamato says, shutting the door. "Oldest part of the Digital World."

Comments

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco shoves Barry's hand aside, on the verge of arguing and standing his ground before he thinks the better of it and relents.

"Yeah, I've got some equipment to set up and data readings to take." He glowers at the Penmon while making sure both Yamato and Barry are between him and the penguins.

[run_barry]

"It was nice to meet you all," Barry says, edging back while nodding at Yamato in thanks for creating an opening for them to go.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I WILL PECK OUT YOUR TOES, HUMAN," the angry Penmon screams.

Yamato takes this as his cue to take Cisco by the arm and lead him -- or drag him, if he has to -- towards the other end of the Village.

[run_barry]

Barry takes up position on Cisco's other side, laying a hand on the man's over-large backpack and ushering him to move forward.

"Dude, why?" Barry asks, keeping his voice low as they walk away from the penmon.

[makes_the_toys]

"The Angry Birds started it!" Cisco replies defensively, tugging his arm to pull it out of Yamato's grasp as they walk away.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato lets go, shaking his head.

"Congrats, I think you've made a world record for shortest amount of time it takes to nearly end up getting slapped in the face by a bird."

[makes_the_toys]

"Yeah, well, wouldn't be the first time I've had a grudge with a bird," Cisco replies, "Foul fowl, that's what they are."

[run_barry]

"So what's up with all the baby digimon here?" Barry asks, turning his attention back to their surroundings. "Are they all just here alone, or are they being looked after?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Elecmon usually looks out for them," Yamato says. "He's a good guy -- just, you know, kind of grumpy and overprotective."

He glances around, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess he's off getting food for the kids."

[run_barry]

"You said there weren't really any predators on this island, though, didn't you?" Barry asked. He's not concerned, just curious. Right.

[makes_the_toys]

Finally letting the penguins go, Cisco refocuses on Yamato and Barry.

"Is anyone in this place not grumpy?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah. Besides, this is practically sanctified ground. Every Digimon who dies gets reborn here, so it's in almost nobody's interest to go around causing trouble for Elecmon and the kids," Yamato says. "Even Devimon, when he ruled over the island, wasn't willing to make a move on this place until he absolutely had to. About the only people who ever did were the Dark Masters."

He throws Cisco a quick grin.

"Penmon wasn't grumpy," he says, without bothering to clarify which Penmon he means. "And most people on the island are pretty chilled out, to be honest. You'll be fine."

[run_barry]

"That makes sense," Barry says, relaxing a bit knowing that the little puffballs are pretty safe here.

"Dark Masters?"

[makes_the_toys]

"No wonder you grew up so cheerful and sunny," Cisco notes to Yamato.

Coming to a stop, he swings the backpack off of his shoulders and plants it on the ground so he can open it up and start digging around.

"Hang up a sec, I need my equipment."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I am so sunny," Yamato says, deadpan.

He glances over at Barry quickly, lifting a shoulder in a slight shrug.

"The first time we were here, we were dealing with something called Apocalymon -- kind of a gestalt being formed from the remains of Digimon who couldn't be reborn. He couldn't enter the world personally, so he tore parts of himself off and sent them through to act in his stead," he says. "The Dark Masters were the four most oldest and most powerful of those pieces -- and Piedmon, their leader, made a point of smothering this whole place in ash."

He pauses a little awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "But, er. That's the only time this place has ever been in danger. And Taichi and I killed all the Dark Masters."

[makes_the_toys]

"Riiight," Cisco says, seeing Yamato's deadpan and raising.

From out of the backpack Cisco draws a headset complete with goggles, a handheld spectrum analyzer, an energy analyzer, biometric scanner, and a couple of other do-dads, all of which he begins assembling into a single device.

[run_barry]

"Huh. And I thought the guy who could clone himself was weird." Tearing off pieces of yourself and sending them to attack baby monsters and kids is much worse.

"Where did you guys find your partners when you came back here?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"You're so cruel, Cisco," Yamato says, Extremely Mournfully. "I'm the sunniest guy alive."

Such cheer. Much warmth. Wow.

"-- To be fair, cloning yourself is pretty weird. How did he even know who was the original?" Yamato asks, a little wryly. "We found them by Dragon Eye Lake, where our camp's currently set up. S'pretty close to where we found them the first time."

[makes_the_toys]

"You said I'm 'cool', what?" Cisco replies, purposefully mishearing Yamato.

He starts to dig further into the bag, shuffling around before finally he has to start pulling items out to get deeper.

"Dang it. Where did I put that... stupid... thingy do... " As he mutters he pulls out a snorkel mask, a bag of licorice, a can of bear mace, a flare gun box, three Redbulls, a zombie survival guide...

"Did you see me pack my digital thermo hygrometer, Barry?"

[run_barry]

"Dude, I don't know half the junk you packed into that bag," Barry replies to Cisco.

Shaking his head, he returns his attention to Yamato.

"The other clones were just shells, so the was the only one with awareness enough to know he was the original." Yep, it was weird.

"That's cool. Were they puffballs the first time, too?"

Barry remembers Yamato saying the Digimon had been waiting around for their partners for a long time, but also that their evolutions took some doing to make happen.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah, same forms that we found them in this time. Since Digimon evolution's more like a tree than a straight line, though, there's no hard and fast guarantee that Tsunomon will become a Gabumon when he evolves this time," Yamato says.

He gives the accumulating items a dry look, then flicks his gaze over to Cisco.

"Bear mace? A snorkel mask? Really?"

[makes_the_toys]

"You've got Digimon that can evolve into giant wolves here," Cisco points out. "There's probably a bearmon out there, too."

Duh, Yamato.

"Oh, there it is." Reaching the bottom of the bag, Cisco finally finds what he's looking for and adds it to the device he's assembled.

Now, the task of putting everything back into the bag.

[run_barry]

"Huh, that's weird," Barry says, focusing on Yamato. "I just kind of figured you'd come in and Tsunomon would be Gabumon again someday."

Barry watches Cisco struggle with repacking everything for a moment, then sighs. Shaking his head, Barry moves, using superspeed to repack the bag.

In a blur everything finds it's way back inside Cisco's backpack and Barry steps back over to Yamato, chewing on a Twizzler he swiped before the bag of them got put back away.

"What is it that decides what the Digimon become?" he asks.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Your bear mace isn't going to do anything but annoy a bear Digimon," Yamato says, shaking his head.

He's somewhat grateful for Barry stepping in to repack the bag, because otherwise he was going to have to step in, and that would've taken much, much longer.

"Environmental factors, what they specifically need when they evolve, what kind of data they've absorbed, their mood and temperament, things like that," Yamato says. "The first time around that we did this, there was also an element of 'whatever each Crest is associated with' -- like, Takeru's Crest of Hope is associated pretty strongly with angels, so Patamon even though most of his evolutionary tree is made up of mammals, he ended up veering off down the one path that involved angel Digimon."

As he talks, a shape starts moving along the edge of town. Something small and red, leaping from cushiony pillar to pillar, too quick to really see, making its way deeper inside. As it reaches the three of them, it circles them for a few moments, pauses, then leaps away from them.

Yamato follows it with its eyes -- as best he can -- but doesn't seem that concerned.

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco re-shoulders the backpack and starts up the device he's put together.

"Annoy and amscray is totally an escape strategy," he informs Yamato.