Tiny Unit, Tremendous New World

[Skadi the Valaismon]

Is this a dream? Am I dreaming right now? There's no way...  I could have made it just like that... This has to be some sort of crazy dream I'm having right now...

Those were the first words echoing within Skadi's befuddled mind as the bright sun shined over her entire body, and the fresh smell of sea salt tickled her nose, her body sprawled all over the wood-like floor of the pier like a discarded rag doll. Slowly pushing herself up off the floor, and standing back up on her own two hooves, the young sheep-like Valaismon would rub her eyes, before they'd glaze over the massive fairground sprawled right in front of her, and more importantly, were these the humans they were talking about? All going about their day without a care in the world? Just moving around, talking, living their life without a care in the world?

Wait... I made it?

She couldn't believe her eyes. All those previous attempts to get into this new world. All the failures and set backs she suffered along the way. All the times she was merely laughed off for even thinking of being able to make it over by herself, much less actually attempting to follow through with her attempts. A few excited chuckles rose to her throat as the realization sank in.

I... made it!

Soon the chuckles grew into excited, borderline giddy, laughter as she took in the sights of her new home. "I did it! I made it to the new world!" She quietly uttered to herself, "I... I can't believe it! I thought it'd be impossible but... I made it! I actually made it! I..." She couldn't finish that sentence before bursting back into another wave of excited giggling.

That giggling would follow her as she took her first steps into the new world. Every new step she took, every new sight beholding her... were humans capable of doing all this? The massive buildings, the bright visuals of the booths and rides close by, the calming backdrop of the beach, the smell of sea salt in the air...

Is that what humans are actually capable of? Humans are amazing...

So enamoured was this tiny unit of a Digimon with this new world she ended up finding herself potentially walking into someone. By the time she turned her head back to where she was walking, it'd be too late; she'd end up walking into the leg of someone by complete accident...

Bump.

[Carlos]

The Lumen City Expo. An event that seemed larger than life itself, or at least that's how it felt for someone so out of his element like Carlos. Even as a kid he was never that into big, crowded town events; not for any particular reason or event mind you, he simply didn't care for all the noise and gathering of people. Yet he still didn't feel like staying out of the celebrations on his first year on the city, it felt wasteful. He could give himself the luxury of skipping out on this next year if this was an annual thing. If not, well he really didn't want to miss such a big event when he didn't really have much else going on in his life right now. After some short deliberation he decided to spend his afternoon on the Diamond District, partially on a whim, partially because it didn't seem as crowded as the Metro District.

He was only partially right, though the Diamond District ended up being considerably crowded regardless, so he ended up taking a detour towards the seaside part of the district. Worst case scenario, if the place was too overstimulating he could always go and sit by the beach. At this time of the year it would probably be all but deserted.

Once he made it there he'd find an admitedly fairly impressive display of technology and special effects, blending together to make reality seem even more vibrant and colorful than it was: One building filled with arcaded cabinets advertised the "ultimate laser tag" experience via garish neon colors, and multiple holographic soldiers in combat gear firing colorful lasers and bullets at many amorphous and bizarre looking aliens. A candy stand paraded it's goods around with tiny legally distinct from Oompa Loompas elf like creatures prancing and dancing about the counter, holding out trays with free candy. Carlos didn't know if they were somehow carrying real candy or if it was part of the holographic display, but he wasn't feeling too keen on getting closer and finding out right now.

Many another colorful sights caught the attention of even Carlos, but none did so more than the rather large snake like dragon that coiled itself around the large ferris will on the opposite end of the fairgrounds. As a kid that thing would have probably scared the bejesus out of him, but now all it did was make it the more attractive ride so far. Though that was probably mostly due to being one of the few rides he could enjoy on his own without having to share it with someone else, which made it...considerably less depressing of an option for him compared to something like the bumper cars filled to the brim with explosive effects or the nausea indusing spinning cups.

He glanced down at his phone and checked the hour. He sighed as he read the numbers to himself: 5 PM. Still too early to call it quits, despite how he clearly wasn't feeling the festive spirit. But being out an about on the cold, crowded afternoon was a considerably less miserable experience than locking himself into his appartment for the day, so...

With a shrug, he began making his way into the fairgrounds, every so often looking up from his phone so as to not bump into anyone. Much to his surprise however, it would be in vain as someone else would end up bumping into him.

He felt a small, soft something bump against the side of his leg, too lightly and carefully to be a stray stroller or other inanimate object. He looked down and much to his shock he didn't find a little kid, or even a dog or cat but...something that looked more like a sheep. A sheep walking on two legs to boot. The sheer surprise made the young man stop dead on his tracks, looking down at the strange sight with a bemused look. At least of course, until he remembered where he was. Compared to the things he had seen on the fair so far, a little biped sheep or goat didn't seem like such a weird stretch.

"Er...hi?" He managed out, more curious than surprised at this point, his mind running down the list of possible things he could be looking at. There was a chance this thing was a hologram, either belonging to the fair or someone attending it, but...could holograms actually interact with humans this directly? This little goat had clearly bumped into him, there was no mistaking it. That only left three other possibilities: it was either a hologram overlayed over a robot, a tiny person, or it was just a really, really good costume. He hadn't seen anything like that so far, but those seemed like reasonable enough explanations, right?

At the low risk of making a fool out of himself in front of an emotionless piece of software, he crouched down slightly so his face would be on the goat's level, before talking to them once more.

"Hey uh...not to be nosy but you're not lost, right?" He asked, cautiously. He was unsure how to approach this situation truth be told, he didn't want to be threatening in the case it was a lost kid, but he didn't want to seem like he was talking down to them on the off chance it was just a robot or worse, a tiny person.

[Skadi the Valaismon]

"Uwah~! Ih'm so sorry~!" Skadi squeaked out in alarm as she stumbled back clumsily, rubbing her egg-shaped nose with both her hands, before falling over, bottom first, to the ground with a thump. Already she just set foot into this weird new world and she was already falling over on her own two feet; all because her focus lay more upon the stunning sights and sounds surrounding her at this very moment rather than what was actually in front of her.

As she rubbed her ailing nose still, she'd tilt her head up towards the massive figure in front of her (well, massive by the standards of a tiny unit like her) looking down at her with a curious expression. A human. Like the others back home were telling her about! Right there! In the flesh! A mixture of excitement and embarrassment brewed within her as she looked up to them with a thinly veiled look of nervousness.

"I... um... uh..." At first, she struggled to form a coherent string of words, much less a proper sentence, in response to the human's question as she twiddled her fingers and tilted her head down to the floor. It was clear that she hadn't prepared herself for possible situations like this way beforehand. Which'd make sense; she'd never even seen a human before this. Much less actually encountered one.

Slowly recomposing herself, she tried to look the human dead in the eyes the best she could, "L-lost?" She finally managed to sputter out with a weak chuckle, "N-no, I'm not lost! I, uh, I mean I just got here. Like a few moments ago. And I was just starting to explore this place. Well, until I got a little distracted and bumped into you by accident, eheh."

Pulling herself off the ground and dusting herself off, she'd give her head a little rub, "I really should pay more attention to my surroundings sometimes..." she muttered to herself. Tilting her head back up to the human's, she figured it'd only be fair for her to make things right by them, "Sorry about that, human. Any way I could make it up for you?"

[Carlos]

"Ey, no biggie. It's all good." He calmly said, raising both open hands next to him as non confrontationally as he could, letting the little sheep like being know he meant no harm. He couldn't blame her, he knew all too well the experience of someone wanting to throw hands with him at the lightest shoulder bump on the metro. "You're fine right? Nothing broken?" He quickly added after noticing she had fallen on her rump, though it quickly became clear she didn't seem too worse for wear besides a bit shaken up.

Her answer was pretty much what he expected: she had just gotten to the fairgrounds and got too distracted by the eye candy surrounding them. A likely enough reason for the little mishap. She seemed pretty nervous about it too, but whether it was due to feeling a bit overwhelmed by Carlos or just the situation in general was left to be seen. He wasn't going to prod about that though, it was none of his business.

"Right, well good to hear. That you're not lost I mean." He replied with a nod and a somewhat relieved sigh. Sure her mannerisms seemed a bit all over the place, but the tiny sheep at least didn't seem like a lost kid or the like, her only source of nervousness seemed to be just embarrasment over the whole situation. An understandable reaction, he'd probably be a nervous mess as well if he had bumped and tripped in front of a giant. He certainly didn't know exactly what she was yet, but it was probably more than just an emotionless robot posing as a cute sheep. The tone of her voice and reactions seemed too genuine and human to be anything less.

"I told you already, it's all good. Don't worry about it." He insisted, waving his hand dismissively. She sure liked to apologize a lot. He soon paused however, blinking a couple times as if waiting for his brain to catch up. Did he heard her right? "...can you run that by me one more time? Did you just call me "human"?" He was sure he hadn't misheard anything, she had specifically used the word "human". It was bizarre, to say the least, but that could mean a lot of things really, so he decided to wait on her before jumping to any weird conclusions.

[Skadi the Valaismon]

"Mmm-hmm." Alongside a simple nod, Skadi would indeed affirm to the human that she was, indeed, alright, despite what her rubbing her nose might have told them otherwise. At the very least, any aches or bruises she might have acquired from her little stumble either wouldn't be much to worry about, or at the very least enough to slow her down had things gone horribly south.

Yet, the way the human was treating her so far; no hostilities, no sense of panic... no problems whatsoever! Just as the rumours that the others were spreading back home about this strange new world with strange new creatures started to ramp up, so did the speculations about the creatures themselves; for every tale of friendly, accepting individuals welcoming them into their homes, at least 2 more about how they were quick to lash out against them, themselves or Digimon alike, up to and including the urge to lash out with borderline lethal force, would tend to follow in their steed.

Thankfully, from what Skadi could tell so far, the human had fallen straight into the former category.

Hmm? Why was he looking at her like that? Frankly, you couldn't blame them for being confused over Skadi's... rather particular choice of words. And unfortunately, it wasn't like her answers were going to alleviate their confusion so easily. She'd tilt her head a little at the human's response, "Mmm-hmm. I mean, you are a human, right? And not just a Digimon in disguise? I can't sense a digital signal coming off of you."

Indeed, the human did seem to lack the proper aforementioned digital signal the average Digimon would have, merely lending more credence that she was, indeed, interacting with an actual live human in the flesh. For that matter, nothing and no-one else around her so far was giving off that digital signal that would otherwise alert her to nearby Digimon, friendly or otherwise. Eagle-eyed individuals, however, could spot Skadi's bunny-like tail starting to wag a little bit in excitement.

[Carlos]

If Skadi were to pay enough attention, she would probably be able to hear the distinct sound of gear turning in Carlos head as he continued to look at her with a vacant expression. Honestly it felt like the goat had punched the air out of him because as much as he tried, he couldn't come up with any suitable answer for this situation. For starters why would she even bring up the fact he could be anything other than human? Was it faulty AI, or someone with a really weird sense of humor?

"I was, last time I checked..." He answered weakly, still so taken aback he didn't seem fully sure of his own answer. It was the rest of her question that really gave him pause however, and made him seriously reconsider if all those blows to the head hadn't knocked something out of place in his brain.

"Wh-" He stammered, stopping for a moment as he rose to his feet for a moment, quickly looking around to see if there was any hidden camera men pointing and laughing in his direction before he knelt down again and looked at the goat in the eyes...well, at least where he assumed the eyes were behind all that hair that is. "What's a digimon?" Now that was the million dollar question, now wasn't it?

He waited relatively patiently for an answer, slight fidgeting around aside that is, his eyes still darting to look around in case he was really stuck in some sort of dumb prank show or the like. Yet something told him not only this wasn't the case, but that this was going to be a long, long day.

[Skadi the Valaismon]

What would be otherwise (and not unreasonably) written off as a 'no duh' sort of question for a human was practically a borderline world shattering revelation for someone like Skadi, an individual, for all intents and purposes, who's knowledge of humans was patchy at best and faaaaaaar off the mark at worst, who's tail wagging merely doubled in speed.

"A... human... a live human... I did make it after all..." Those hushed whispers to herself failed to contain the sheer excitement slipping through the cracks and seeping into her tone of voice at this very moment. Any lingering feelings that she had failed to break through the barrier between worlds had all but died by now. Here she was, a brand new world to explore, a whole new race of strange new creatures to encounter, a whole slew of new adventures and friends she was all but ready to greet with open arms!

This, of course, failed to factor in the reactions that the creatures would have to her and her kind.

"Yeah, of course!" She vehemently nodded with complete and utter sincerity in her voice, "I'm a Digimon! A Digital Monster! I just managed to make it to here from my home world just to see what your world's like!" Unfortunately, sincerity wasn't exactly going to make her explanations any more easier to follow; not when she was just seemingly haphazardly scattering random proper nouns in her speech. But at the same time, she was failing to keep a lid on the sheer childlike sense of wonder seeping out of her at this very moment.

[Carlos]

Digimon? Digital Monster? Home world??? Yeah the more this little goat spoke, the less Carlos seemed to understand if that was even possible.

"Kay..." He barely managed, managing to catch everything she had shared with him but his brain clearly having problems processing and understanding most or any of it. He wanted to call her out on the possible bullshit or how she was pulling his leg somehow at this long string of seemingly non sequiturs and conspiracy sounding nonsense...but her earnest tone and enthusiasm gave him pause. This didn't feel staged, or fake. Whatever she was on about she seemed to one hundred percent believe it.

The posibility this was all just an overly elaborated prank was still present yes, but the more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed. What was the punchline? Making a guy confused for half an hour? Didn't seem like particularly fun content to watch unless things escalated, which didn't seem like they would for now. At any rate, he was still willing to take his chances and see where this lead. It's not like he had anything better going on right now, even with the city's anniversary in full swing.

"I'm...sorry but I'm having a bit of a hard time following you so...mind if we take this somewhere a bit quieter I guess?" He offered, taking a cautious look around as there were at least one or two passerby giving the young man odd looks for being this engaged with what for all intents and purposes seemed like another regular hologram. Really getting away from judging and prying eyes was only part of his reason, if he saw anyone following them it would be easier to prove or disprove his theory that this was all just some weird prank. That and the mental image of asking this goat stuff like "how did you get to this planet?" in front of a crowd was enough to make him want to die then and there from embarrasment alone.

Noticing a small and relatively empty coffee store on the opposite side, he gave this digimon another glance as he got back up. "How about this, mind if I ask you some things over a cup of...do you digimons like anything in particular? Coffee? Hot cocoa?"

[Skadi the Valaismon]

Of course it'd be borderline impossible for the flesh-and-blood human being to try and keep up with whatever the small walking talking sheep/goat/robot(?)/alien(?)/whatever-the-hell-she-was-supposed-to-be creature was going on and on about without so much as a proper warning or a smidge of a chance to actually keep up with whatever she was going to say and/or do next. And to be honest, could you blame them for finding themselves lost at this point? Especially when everything she was saying just right now wouldn't feel out of place in a crazy conspiracy rant by someone who found themselves lingering around in the wrong side of Neoscape for a minute too long?

Didn't help said everything was coming out of the mouth of said alien creature not only sounded completely sincere and honest, but like she actually believed 100% of her (seemingly) bullshit spiel.

Unlike the human, Skadi paid no heed to the others around her, but for good reason; she had found herself enamoured with this one human who just so happened to be the first live human she just so happened to encounter. She'd give a happy little nod in response... before quizzically tilting her head upon hearing the human mention... something? Food? From a... 'cup', as they called it? Was that what humans ate their food out of?

"Coff... ee? Co... co...?" She futilely tried to repeat and pronounce those unfamiliar, nay, alien words, "Are those types of plants you humans grow around here? They sound so... delicious." 'Way off the mark' didn't even begin to describe it, but then again, her diet back in the Digital World didn't stray too far the average real world herbivore stock diet; plants, leaves, and other odd bits of vegetation she could get her hands on. But what was human food like?

[Carlos]

The fact she sounded confused at just the words coffe or cocoa was telling. Dear god, she wasn't faking any of this, was she?

"W-well, you're not too off base. It's more of a drink but I guess they do come from plants." He said, not even sure what to even attempt to explain at this point, his mind instead too focused wondering on the ifs of this situation. Mostly what if she was legit something other than human? Where was he supposed to go from here? Was he supposed to turn her in to authorities or someone more knowledgeable than him?

Well, considering his track record when dealing with authority figures or just law enforcement, he'd much rather avoid even bringing them into the picture to begin with. He didn't know someone more knowledgeable about such esoteric topics as alternate worlds or AI, so that was also a no go. What was he supposed to do, ask around the crowd if anyone was an MIT graduate or something? Clearly the only real course of action still was just...letting things play out and try to get as much useable info from this being as possible.

As they made their way to the small but crowded coffee shop, he'd motion the goat to sit down while he left an order at the cash register. A small cup of coffee for him, another of cocoa for her, just in case hard caffeine didn't mix well with AIs or...whatever digimons were. He'd eventually return to the table and sat down, letting out a deep sigh as he looked at the goat again.

"Ok, alright..." He repeated under his breath, as if to psych himself up and remind himself this was actually happening. "Let's start with basics. Do you have a name? And where did you come from?