[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

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Ha! GP loves me. He'll never turn on me."

Well. Unless he was very hungry, Yamato supposes.

Or irritable. Or just generally filled with vengeance and rage.

He cocks his head. "Easy enough to get to. It's on the northern end of the Gear Desert, so we can cut through the Misty Woods and down through the rainforest, and get to it that way. Pyokomon village is right near the bottom of it, too, if the two of you want to see where Bluebell's going to be living."

[makes_the_toys]

"GP would maul you for a sardine," Cisco huffs.

Hopping up and down in place to try and redistribute weight and settle his bag, Cisco listens as Yamato describes where they're headed.

"That sounds far. Is it far?"

[run_barry]

"I'd like to see that," he says about the village.

Looking over at Cisco, he shakes his head. "I told you lugging that thing around was going to kill you."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"A little further than the trip from the Village of Beginnings to here was," Yamato says, peering at Cisco.

After a moment, he reaches over, giving the back of the backpack a tug. "Give it here, I'll carry it. We'll just say you owe me one."

[makes_the_toys]

"I've got it," Cisco replies stubbornly. "I was just gonna say, why don't we drive? We've got cars."

He waves at his racer, then amends, "Well, I have a car. You wrecked yours, but maybe Barry can carry you."

[run_barry]

"Those are Monzaemon's cars, and the Penmon will probably want to keep playing with them," Barry points out.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Barry knows that if he tries to carry me, he will die," Yamato growls, folding his arms. "Either way, they're fine over roads, but I don't think they'd cope well with the woods and rainforest."

As he finishes, a Penmon drives by very slowly, staring at them with wide eyes.

"Slide," it says, happily, before hitting the accelerator and speeding off.

"C'mon, I promise it's not as far as you think, and if it gets to be too much, we can take a break," Yamato says, and turns to start heading out of the town, only to pause to peer up towards Monzaemon. "Er, sorry about wrecking your car, Monzaemon."

Monzaemon responds to this by very delicately reaching down to take the wrecked car, holding it up to his face. His mouth peels open slightly, enough for an oily limb, like someone modeled an octopus tentacle out of tar, to slide out and brush over the car, somehow managing to reconstruct the wheels as it goes.

"... Didn't know you could do that," Yamato says, flatly, and keeps walking.

[makes_the_toys]

"Aw, c'mon, don't hate, appreciate the metahuman in our midst," Cisco says, gesturing at Barry.

The Penmon gets an odd look, but Monzaemon gets full-on 'WTF?' staring as he fixes the car.

Edging a little closer to the other two, Cisco nods and is prompt to follow Yamato.

"Yeah, let's go."

[run_barry]

"Only in emergencies," Barry pledges with a chuckle about carrying Yamato.

What Monzaemon does is... weird, but Barry still gives the giant bear a wave as they walk off.

"See ya, Monzaemon. Thanks for the tea."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato gives Barry a slightly wry look, inclining his head. "Yeah, if the alternative is being roasted alive by laser beams or something, you're welcome to carry me out of the way."

He meanders out of town and back towards the Misty Wood, casting a quick glance skywards as a red insect the size of a truck passes over them. It doesn't seem to be concerned with them at all.

"-- The talk of tea reminds me that I'm going to have to break my 'no supplies from Milliways' rule to replenish our caffeine stash. Wasn't a problem the first time we came here, but somehow half of us developed caffeine addictions in the last six years."

[makes_the_toys]

The giant insect gets a wary look, and Cisco tightens the grip on his backpack straps.

"Hey, you need it I can totally be your Code Red hookup," he offers.

[run_barry]

"It happens," Barry says with a laugh. "After Iris started working at CC Jitters lattes became like a utility bill for me I was drinking so many."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Code Red as in Mountain Dew? I'm not going to inflict Mountain Dew on the group, that would be terrible for morale."

Barry gets a quick nod, because lattes are nice! Yamato approves of lattes! They're not his coffee of choice, but he wouldn't turn one down.

"So, what you're sayin' is that you started visiting that one coffee shop constantly once Iris started working there?" He asks, a little slyly, as they head into the Misty Woods. "They must do great coffee."

[makes_the_toys]

"Or, it would give your group energy and vitality to face anything," Cisco counters.

Listening to Yamato rib Barry, Cisco cracks a grin.

"Right? You'd think it was the only coffee stop in Central City," he informs Yamato.

[run_barry]

"Friend and family discount," Barry says in his defense, struggling to maintain a not-awkward-at-all attitude. "And I was in college when she started there, so I needed every dime and drop of caffeine I could get."

So there.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"How much is Mountain Dew paying you to say that? Be honest."

He grins a little at Barry's response, shrugging one shoulder. "Sure, sure. Friend and family discount. That doesn't sound like something she made up to give you cheap coffee at all."

Either that or just, like, a really relaxed business model.

Through the dense mists, the vending machine they passed before slowly becomes visible in the distance, except now the purple 'GRAPE?' neon sign is orange, and reads 'MANGO?'

Yamato has about two seconds to frown about this before the distant, shadowy shape of a gangly teenage boy comes barreling out of the fog near the machine, bodyslamming it to shake loose several cans of mango?, which he starts gleefully gathering up.

[makes_the_toys]

"I'm not ashamed to admit I take my commission in swag," he admits.

Yamato said it, not him, but Cisco is still all smug smirks about the Iris thing.

The sign change does not go unnoticed, and Cisco is about to ask for more cash when the kid comes running out to tackle the machine.

"Who the heck is that?" Cisco asks, surprised at the appearance of another person.

[run_barry]

"Coffee shop life is sometimes boring," Barry says, still working for excuses. "Cheap coffee is an easy bribe to get me to hang out on long shifts."

Right.

Watching the kid slam into the machine, Barry winces.

"Is that one of your friends?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"More fool her if she thinks she needs to bribe you," Yamato says, half under his breath.

He watches the slamming and subsequent mango?-collecting fairly dispassionately.

"Jyou," he calls, raising his voice just enough for it to carry. The boy straightens up like he's been jabbed with a cattle prod, hurriedly depositing mango? cans into a bag at his side. "Over here."

The boy lopes closer, becoming more visible through the mists: He's a few inches taller than Yamato, with glasses and black hair, and a generally nervous-seeming disposition.

"Hey! We were -- looking for you, Sora's around ... somewhere thataways ..." Jyou says, jabbing a thumb deeper into the forest. "Are these guys human? They look human. They're very human sized."

"This is Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon. They're human," Yamato says, gesturing at each of them in turn. "Barry, Cisco, this is Jyou. Our medic. Also human."

[run_barry]

If Barry hears that comment he pretends not to, focusing instead on Jyou.

"Hi," he greets warmly, offering a hand. "We're friends of Yamato."

[makes_the_toys]

"Hey, blabbermouth, maybe next time let a guy pretend to not be human first before giving it away," Cisco chides Yamato before smiling up at Jyou.

"What's up? Those sodas any good?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Well, since Sora's apparently 'round here somewhere, I promise that none of us will stop you trying to convince her you're a Digimon," Yamato says to Cisco. "In fact, I want to see you try."

Jyou appears momentarily torn between shaking Barry's hand and reaching for a mango? soda to give to Cisco, and just flails wildly for a second before eventually grabbing Barry's hand with both of his own and shaking it.

"Nice to meet you! I'm also a friend. Of his," he says. "Oh, er, the sodas? I haven't tried them yet. I was on my way over here and I saw the machine and I put some yen in it and it ate my money so I had to run into it to get my drinks out and then you turned up."

[makes_the_toys]

"Oh, I will. Just call me Ciscomon."

Cisco is just as awkward, holding a hand out for the can, pulling it back, reaching again, and finally shoving his hands into his pockets.

"It was Grape? earlier. I don't recommend it."

[run_barry]

Barry shakes Jyou's hand, giving a smile and nod.

"I hate when that happens. There's a machine where I work that's pretty hit or miss most days."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Jyou rummages around in his bag, producing two mango? sodas, enthusiastically shoving one towards Cisco before cracking open one himself.

He sips it, swilling it around in his mouth thoughtfully like a discerning wine taster.

Eventually: "This tastes like beef."

He pauses, peering at Barry for a moment.

"Where do you work? You're not from Odaiba, I know everyone on the island," he says.

"It's a complicated situation," Yamato says. "Ask Taichi about it later or something."