Drawn Together [Open]

[Tyson "T.J." Jensen]

If there was one place in all of Goldenview that T.J. liked as much as Neoscape, it would be the lake. Well, no, he didn't really like the lake itself. It was way too busy most of the time, with screaming kids and people splashing around and fishing. He liked the forests that surrounded it better, and the hiking trails that went through them. There was a lot of inspiration to be had in Neoscape and Lumen City, but some of his best ideas had come from finding a bench, sitting down, and just drawing with no one bothering him. Sometimes he skipped school to come here, but today was a Saturday, which meant it was busier than he would have liked, but still not as wild as the lake itself. He had taken up position on his favorite wooden bench - a memorial to some local hero or another - and was currently scribbling away in his small sketchbook. He was getting ready for a pretty big mural he and some other Neoscape artists were gonna be working on, and he had been hitting a block on what his contribution would be. "Ugh... no..." He grumbled, turning to the next page and starting fresh with a new illustration. He needed something fresh, something new, something-

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a scream from down the trail. "What in the hell?" He muttered, before shrugging it off as just a bunch of kids horsing around, and going back to his drawing.

---

Down the trail, the kids in question were currently bolting for their lives from a very confused Flamon. "Hey, wait! I just wanted to ask if you would try on... and they're gone." The little demon-like digimon huffed, looking at the watch-like digivice in his hand. He knew, roughly, what it was and what it meant, and ever since he had woken up in this world he had been trying to find the human it belonged to. That was a prospect made more difficult by every human he tried to ask running away from him screaming. He didn't think he was that scary... and then there had been that guy who had tried to "arrest" him. Whatever that meant he didn't think he'd like it very much. They sighed, shrugging and about to start walking down the path, when they heard someone say, "Alright, alright, just show me where the 'monster' is."

Crap, speak of the devil, that was the same voice as the arrester. He looked around, before jumping into the tree branches, bolting through them for a few minutes until he was sure he was safe. He sighed in relief, before looking down and seeing another human on a bench below him, who seemed to be drawing something. He leaned over the edge of his perch, trying to get a good look at the blond boy's sketches. 'Those are pretty good!' He thought to himself, hanging down a bit so he could have a better view of the boy working.

T.J. was none the wiser about his audience, but to anyone who came down the trail, it'd look like the flamon was getting ready to pounce on the unsuspecting kid.

[Carlos]

If there was something Carlos never had quite understood it was people's obsession with bodies of water. Besides a very superficial sense of natural beauty and maybe the chance for fishing he personally never saw the appeal that seemed to drawn people towards beaches or lakes. Was it because it was very unlike everywhere else in the city that bordered little Goldenview? There was a considerable amount of greenery shielding the lake's visitors from all that gray cityscape that surrounded them 24/7 otherwise. That and the lack of roads meant it was a considerably quieter part of town...in theory. Sure, you didn't have to deal with cars but you still had to pay attention to the groups of people milling out and about, figuring it was a good day for a picnic despite the tiny fact that it was Winter.

All this being said though, what was the young man's excuse for being here despite all his grievances? Well it wasn't really by choice. You see, he had left the city for a quick visit into town to make it to his dad's birthday. After food and laughs had been had however and friends and family had vacated the home, the old couple hid away for a long nap, leaving Carlos with pretty much the entire rest of the day free to do something else until his ride back to the city was ready. So what better way to spend it than at the lake, where people would hopefully be scarce considering the cold season?

Of course that was far from the truth as the distant sound of childish screaming and overwhelmed adults soon made clear. He rolled his eyes a bit but kept going at a steady pace, too stubborn to go back the way he came at this point. Making sure to stay clear from the way of any of those rowdy kids until he eventually came to a small memorial of some sort. He paused for a bit, taking in his surroundings for a minute until something very off caught his attention.

Not too far from him he could see a boy intently drawing or writing down something on a sketchbook, relaxed and fairly oblivious to the world around him and, most importantly, oblivious to the figure stalking him on the greenery behind him. At first it could have been easily mistaken for a kid or a very tiny person...hell, it might have been, but considering his encounter with an equally small and bizarre creature the other day Carlos knew better than to assume something as simple as a kid using a disguise. He slowly made his way closer to the drawing boy, trying to seem like he had his eyesight focused elsewhere while still trying to get a better look at the kid like creature, each step letting him notice more features: vaguely cat like face, bright eyes, a large mane of hair, if he didn't know better he'd think this was one of those elves from those old stories his mom used to tell him to keep him from wandering away from home.

He probably would have just walked away and let this play out on his own, were it not for the look the small critter seemed to be giving the boy, as if ready to pounce on him at any second now. Knowing he couldn't simply just let him to his fate like that, the question now was what was Carlos to do? After a short minute of barely thinking, he just did the first thing that came to mind.

"Hey there!" He waved with an uncharacteristically friendly tone and smile. "Not to bother you but can you tell me the time? My phone just died."

Provided the boy didn't do anything too rash at what Carlos felt was probably fishy behaviour, once he got a bit to him closer he'd then say in a hushed, more concerned tone of voice, "Don't freak out, but..." He rapidly pointed with his eyes in the general direction behind the boy, not wanting the Flamon to know what he was up to. "I think there's something stalking you."

[Tyson "T.J." Jensen]

T.J.'s face contorted with frustration as he stopped suddenly on his current sketch. It wasn't bad or anything, it was just too much like the stuff he had done recently. He wanted his part of the mural to be something new, not just the same old same old people had come to expect from him. He already got enough criticism for his art being derivative of old cartoons - which was literally what he was going for anyway - he didn't want to catch flack for being derivative of himself next. More than that, he respected the other artists taking part in this mural and he didn't want to disappoint them. He was about to flip to another page and start again when he heard a voice, causing him to jolt slightly and look up at the man in front of him in annoyance as if he were an annoying kid and not someone ten years his senior. One of the side effects of basically growing up on Neoscape, he didn't put much stock in someone's age when it came to respecting them

Thankfully all this guy wanted was the time. "Yeah, sure." He said curtly, pulling out his phone, "It's-" He stopped when the man warned him that something was stalking him. At first, he thought he might be dealing with a crazy person, but for the sake of argument, he turned on his phone's camera and shifted it to take a look behind him. Sure enough, he caught sight of two large eyes staring at him from the nearby trees. At first, he thought it might be a kid in a suit but... no, it was obviously all real. Ignoring Carlos's request to remain calm, he whipped around, eyes wide. "What the hell?"

The flamon groaned, suddenly jumping out of the trees and doing a flip through the air, before landing in front of the two humans. "Wait wait wait! Don't run away!" He said, holding out his hands. He still clutched the watch-like digivice in one, but otherwise, he was plainly unarmed. "I was just watching you draw, that's all! Plus I wanted to ask if you'd like to try this on."

T.J. was flat against the bench as he stared at the digimon, pale as a sheet... but then he relaxed, looking the strange creature up and down. Suddenly he grabbed his sketchbook and flipped to a fresh page. "Hold still." He ordered.

"Huh, what do you-"

"I said don't move!" The blond snapped, causing the flamon to stand straight up, stock still while T.J. furiously sketched in his book. If Carlos looked, he'd see that T.J. was currently in the process of producing a few rough sketches of the digimon in different poses. He seemed preoccupied, leaving the air open for Carlos to ask his own questions if he had any.

Carlos

[Carlos]

Fortunately for Carlos, the boy was willing to obligue his admitedly weird warning without so much as a second thought. Unfortunately, T.J. had very much the reaction the man was expecting, looking practically ready to bolt and run away at the sligthest chance. Not that he could blame him, but there was always the chance that creature meant them no harm, which all things considered was pretty likely, if not then why hadn't he taken the chance to pounce already?

Before either of them had a chance to react the childish looking cat-thing leapt from the tree and landed in front of the two humans, rapidly explaining himself. He seemed genuine in not meaning any harm at the very least, but Carlos knew better than to immediatelly lower his guard. T.J. seemed to be on a similar wave lenght, since he quickly got over his initial shock and ordered the creature to stay put, which to the Flamon's credit he obliged.

He managed to take his eyes away from the flamon for enough time to give T.J. a glance, curious as to what his next move would be. His already surprised face only exacerbated once he saw the teen's hands rapidly sketching away on his paper, working with blinding speed to make a drawing of the mysterious creature. Of course, Carlos was as taken aback by his mechanical skill with the pencil as he was with the boy's sense of priorities. Was this...really the best time to get drawing?

"Alrighty then..." Carlos said, shaking his head but otherwise trying to take this increasingly bizarre situation in stride. If the kid wasn't going to question it, then Carlos would happily do so instead. Giving T.J.'s latest model another, more thorough look, he thought back to that other creature he had met but a couple of days ago on the fair grounds. While this one looked nothing like any sort of sheep or lamb, he gave enough similar vibes that he couldn't help to be incredibly direct with his first question.

"Hey...you're one of those digimon things, aren't you?"

[Tyson "T.J." Jensen]

The flamon looked over at Carlos when the human spoke up, blinking in surprise. "Oh, you know about us?" He asked, "Yeah, I'm a digimon. I woke up here about a week ago, and I've been trying to find a human who can use this digivice." He said, holding out the watch for Carlos to see. It looked like a fitness watch, all things considered, with a pastel blue body and a white strap and accents. "Basically every digimon know that humans with digivices can help us get stronger, so I figured since I'm here I might as well try and find someone to use it. Most humans I ask just run away, and the ones who don't haven't made it do anything." It was getting a bit frustrating, one would think that whatever higher cosmic power that sent him here would have given clearer instructions to lead him to the human he was meant to find.

T.J., meanwhile, had finished his sketches and stood up, walking towards the cat-like digimon. "Done. Sorry about that, you just looked really cool and I wanted to try some things. Here, what do you think?" He asked, showing him the page. All over it were quick drawings of the digimon, lacking in detail but very good for a first attempt. He had drawn the flamon in a couple different poses, including flipping through the air as he had before

"Whoa! Those are great!" The digimon said, taking the sketchbook away and looking them over with a wide grin. T.J. tried to play it off, but the bright red blush was clear on his face.

Carlos

[Carlos]

"I know a thing or two." Carlos shrugged nonchalantly, as if the casual knowledge of alternate worlds and creatures finding their way into Earth didn't concern him nearly as much as they should. Which it did to some extent, but he sure didn't want to show it more. "First time I heard of a digivice though." He admitted, somewhat amused at the consistent naming scheme everything from the Digital World seemed to have. He supposed it made sense, aliens in movies always referred to humans as "Earthlings" for a reason.

At any rate it didn't seem like this digimon knew much more than the last one he had met, at least when it came to how and why they were coming into their world. At the very least this one seemed to have a bit more of a clearer goal in mind, though he wasn't sure how that wrist watch looking device could help them in "getting stronger", though again it lined up with some of what he had heard about digimon in general: getting stronger seemed to be a driving force for their kind for whatever reason. Shame this one didn't seem to be having any luck with the people he was coming in contact with, though.

"Yeah that...sounds about right. I think the digimon I met a bit ago mentioned something about that, she didn't seem to have a digivice on her though. Can I see that thing for a moment?" He asked, his hand reaching out to the digimon in case he chose to comply. If he didn't well, Carlos wasn't going to be the one to pressure him for it, last thing he wanted was to cause a scene over something that didn't concern him much. As for T.J. well, he still seemed far more concerned about getting an opinion on his artistic skills than anything else. But to his credit, Carlos had to admit the sketching seemed pretty good for such a short window of time, even giving approving nod at the piece.

[Tyson "T.J." Jensen]

"Huh, well maybe it's different for different digimon. I've seen a few since I came here but they were... weird, so I just kept my distance." He was, of course, talking about digimon that hadn't fully emerged, the "malfunctioning holograms" that were all over the web in Lumen city. When Carlos asked to see the digivice, he was happy to hand it over, offering it to the man enthusiastically. "Please! Heck, you might be the one I've been looking for." When Carlos touched the digivice, he would suddenly be overcome with an overwhelming feeling of... apathy, as nothing happened. The flamon huffed, puffing his cheeks out a bit as he struggled to hide his dissapointment. "Nothing. I figure if you were the right human it'd do something. Eh, it'd kind of small for you anyway." He was right, the watch looked like it'd fit more easily around a smaller wrist, perhaps someone younger.

"Back up, what's all this about digimon, digivices, and digi... whatever?" T.J. said, seemingly invested in the here and now now that he had finished his art practice.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. So I'm a digimon, a digital monster from the digital world!" He said, before striking a pose as though he were flexing his muscles, "I'm a flamon, by the way." He said with a grin, dropping the pose.

"Huh." T.J. had, of course, heard the rumors about the holographic monsters, and he was starting to put two and two together. He looked at the watch in Carlos's hand and held out his hand. "Here, let me see it." He said.

Carlos

[Carlos]

Weird? For digimon standards? Carlos wasn't sure what that could even imply or if he should pry, so he merely let that pass without comment. Things were already weird enough for him to get dragged down by semantics and details. He did seem pretty eager to take a hold of the so called digivice to see if by some twist of fate he'd be the one to get it running. After fiddling with it for a bit, turning it around to check if it was broken or lacking any batteries (though bizarrely enough he didn't seem to find any place where one would even put said batteries), and fiddling some more...nothing happened. Nary a beep or boop from any of the buttons or the screen. He sighed a bit, unsurprised yet still a bit dissapointed.

"Was worth a shot I guess." He shrugged once more. Admitedly it was pretty small for his wrist, so that should have been a dead giveaway. He glanced back at a now very understandably confused T.J. who finally seemed to be catching on to the oddness of the situation. "Yeah it's a whole thing. They've been popping up all over the place for a while now apparently. Haven't managed to look much into it but I get the feeling it's...bigger than we think." Was he sounding too tinfoil hatty by saying that? Then again, knowing there was intelligent life out there certainly made other conspiracy theories sound a hell of a lot more plausible now.

"Is flamon like...your name name or just the kind of digimon you are?" He asked, thinking back to the other digimon he met clearly introducing herself with a proper name and not "something"mon.

"Sure, knock yourself out." He then said, before handing out the wristwatch device to T.J., doing his best to keep himself from saying to the extent off "don't get your hopes up."

[Tyson "T.J." Jensen]

"Oh so they're the freaky holograms people have been seeing!" T.J. said, getting confirmation for what he had already surmised. He had figured it was some artist doing a long-term project, but that had never made much sense, plus he didn't know anyone good enough to hack Lumen City's hologram network. That was the holy grail for Neoscape street artists, anyone who did that would for sure take credit, they'd be seen as a hero to the entire community. It being some kind of interdimensional alien actually made more sense, all things considered.

"Oh, Flamon is the kind of digimon I am. A lot of digimon take other names, but I just haven't picked one." He said with a shrug. Nothing had ever really fit, so he just went with his species name like most digimon.

"You kinda look like a... Dante, to me. Like Dante's inferno." T.J. suggested, taking the watch out of Carlos's hand without much thought. Immediately, the screen started to glow brightly, the blond whipping his head around to look at it. "Wh-what the hell?" He exclaimed, before the light finally subsided. The screen had turned on, a few small icons visible on it.

"Yes! You're the human I've been looking for!" The flamon said, "Oh, and I love that name! Call me Dante from now on, partner!"

"Whoa whoa whoa. I didn't... I didn't think it'd actually work!" Even as he said it, he put the watch on, morbidly curious. Sure enough, it fit almost too well, as though it was made for him and him alone.

Carlos

[Carlos]

"Must be, though they seem a bit more tangible than your average hologram." Carlos said with a nod, not so much surprised as he was a bit dissapointed in learning other people had already seen digimon by now. Sure, stadistically speaking there was no way he had been the "chosen one" to bear witness to digimon before somebody else had, let alone be the only one, but still, it was ever so slightly deflating. Like finding out about a cool niche show only a day before it goes mainstream.

What was pretty surprising however was seeing how nonchalant this flamon was about not having a proper name. Clearly it didn't seem like a big priority to him, yet another stark contrast to most of humanity. As if he needed any more confirmation these creatures really came from another world. At least T.J. seemed fairly certain on what name to give to the little feline.

"He doesn't sound that italian to me but that works." Carlos shrugged, not being one to object. It was a nice name all things considered, way better than something like Earl or Joe. It seemed almost too fitting of course that the little digivice would react and work perfectly for the teen following that. "Wow. Uh...congrats I guess?" He said, somewhat unsure if this was a cause for celebration or not. It certainly seemed like a net positive for Dante judging by his reaction at the very least.

"So...what happens now? What does being partnered entail exactly?" He asked in a slightly nervous tone, giving the teen and flamon a confused if concerned glance.