[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 checks the picture and practically cackles, finally releasing Barry and letting Yamato step away.

"Wow, man, I'd love to see your Instagram account. You're a 'my many moods' meme waiting to happen," he teases.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I don't know what Instagram is," Yamato says, shaking his head. "Besides, I smile. Sometimes. A lot."

Beat.

"Maybe just sometimes," he amends.

[run_barry]

"It's a social media site where people share photos and videos," Barry exclaims, taking a few steps and nodding.

"C'mon, I want to see the top of this thing."

[makes_the_toys]

"I'm gonna make you one, and then post pics of that famous smile of yours," Cisco pledges.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Might not've been made yet here. I think we're a few years behind you," Yamato notes, starting up the second ring. "Hey, if you want to waste time compiling pictures of me for strangers on another world, I won't stop you."

[run_barry]

"Pretty sure you just nominated yourself to go viral," Barry notes, amused.

There's a chance Cisco was kidding before, but with permission Barry could see him going through with it now.

[makes_the_toys]

"Don't worry, if it takes off far enough to start selling t-shirts and swag I'll share some of the dough," Cisco promises.

"Does this place have the internet?" he asks, the thought not occurring to him until now.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I won't go viral," Yamato says, shaking his head. He's fairly confident of that, at least.

"It has a network that's sort of like the internet, but you have to access it from specific points -- only the factory and the Temple have network access on the island, and access points are even sparser elsewhere. All they network's really good for is sending e-mails and accessing system logs, though," he says. "It used to be how Gennai would send us instructions, but he fell out of touch with us a while back."

He pauses, thinking.

"There's actually a network administration hub over in the Server desert. It might be a good first stop for figuring out where Daisuke's group is. It got destroyed in battle years back, but it should've reappeared after the Reboot."

[run_barry]

"You never know," Barry says, shrugging as he keeps hiking up the second ring.

"That would be a good way to try and reach out to them," he notes about the network. "Try and let them know you're here and looking."

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco grows thoughtful for a moment, then asks, "When they're working do your digivices run on the network?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Nah, they don't," Yamato says, shaking his head. "We usually just use Koushiro's laptop to access the network."

As he talks, they start to round the crest of the second ring, and the mountain seems to obligingly shift in height around them, with everything ahead of them remaining the same height, while the rings they've already walked up grow taller.

[makes_the_toys]

"Damn," Cisco replies. "I was thinking if they were than maybe the reboot threw them off and they just need a reconnect somehow. Like a bluetooth device that's lost its connection. Some of them will seem dead until a connection is reestablished again."

[run_barry]

"Hm," Barry says thoughtfully, throwing a look at Cisco.

"It is still a possibility. I mean, presumably they have some sort of connection to this place. Not being here for the reboot could have had some affect on them and left them out of sink with the place."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It's possible," Yamato murmurs, rubbing the back of his neck as they start up the third ring. "I mean, they are of this world, after all, they were made here, and they do have some kind of link both to this place and to Gabumon and the others. Or they did, at least."

He shakes his head. "We've been assuming that they stopped working because our Crests went dormant, but there's also always the possibility it's the other way around, instead."

[makes_the_toys]

"Yep. Or, maybe you just broke them," Cisco nods.

"It could definitely be a sync issue, though," he adds. "Of course, how you would fix it without another hard reset would take some time to figure out."

[run_barry]

Barry walks near the edge to look down, catching a small bit of vertigo but still impressed with the weirdness of this place.

"You have said some things are different, like all the Penmon running around. Maybe you just have to find a way to reset your Crests and digivices to the new system."

Moving away from the edge, he turns to Yamato and asks, "Have you tried taking them to any of the Digimon who run this place? I mean, Monzaemon was telling me that some of the Digimon have in-built knowledge of this world. Like Elecmon, he knew enough to figure out the reboot and told the others."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"We didn't break them," Yamato grumbles at Cisco. "You can't break a ... A sync issue is way more likely."

So much more likely.

He turns towards Barry a little, tilting his head. "There probably isn't anyone on the island who'd be able to help with this, but if we could find him, Gennai would know. He constructed our digivices, created the physical limiters for our Crests that we wear, he even created Gabumon and the others, and he would've been the one to task Elecmon and Centalmon with their roles," he says. "But Gennai seemed to vanish into thin air a little over a year ago, long before the Infection or the Reboot, and we've not seen him at all since we came here."

[makes_the_toys]

"It's like my mom always said, 'If it was working before you had it, and now it's not... '," Cisco says, spreading his hands out in a 'there you go' gesture, grinning.

[run_barry]

"C'mon, dude," Barry says, shaking his head at Cisco but not quite able to stop a smile.

"Maybe he'll turn up," Barry says about Gennai, trying to offer hope since he and Cisco can't really give any help or answers. "Or maybe the others can help you guys figure it out when you find them."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Well, I can imagine that you have a lot of experience with breaking things. Some would probably even call you an expert at it, Cisco," Yamato says magnanimously, throwing Cisco a quick grin.

He lifts a shoulder in a quick shrug.

"He usually does, sooner or later, when he decides he has a use for us," he says. "But Gennai's never been exactly straightforward or communicative, so him vanishing for years at a time isn't that strange."

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco shrugs. "Can't exactly learn how to make and fix things if they aren't broken to start."

[run_barry]

"Definitely doesn't sound like the most helpful guy ever," Barry has to admit.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Was that the excuse you used as a kid? Something tells me it didn't work," Yamato says, just a little fondly, nudging the side of Cisco's head with his palm.

He starts up the third ring, tilting his head a little.

"Not the most. He's the kind of guy who's more interested in moving people around like pieces on a board, but his intentions are usually good, at least."

[makes_the_toys]

"Yeah, no, it definitely never worked," Cisco says, frowning for a moment, but breaking out of it pretty quick thanks to the bump from Yamato.

[run_barry]

"Well, at least there's that," Barry nods, not sure what else to say about Gennai.

The situation is certainly less than ideal, and Barry still wishes there was something he could do to help, but he trusts Yamato and his friends to get through. They have been doing this stuff since they were kids, after all.