( mini-plot post: open to all )

[jawdacity]

Who: jawdacity & all of cerealia!
When: towards the end of the event (so this won't conflict with any event threads you may already have going). 2-3pm.
Where: Abandoned village + surrounding jungle
What: THERE ARE EXPLOSIONS. And mushrooms.
Rating/Warning: Possible NSFW for gore?

Details about this mini-plot HERE

"World of Loudening Screams" (Watch on YouTube)

(theme song of this post, courtesy of moribound.)



[ it's another muggy, meandering day in the jungle; nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. ]

IN THE VILLAGE

[ if your character is near the center of the village, they'll bear witness to the curious sight of a herd of shuffling mushroom beasts. in terms of threat level, to the experienced hunter they may have ranked low on the scale: slow, lacking an external fang or claw, they seem to be interested only in their endless march forward.

but, if your character is close enough, they may catch sight of a red-haired young man, a manifesto of anger written across his face. one breathless moment, the calm before the storm, and then he hurls a metallic pair of gloves at the closest beast, the gloves trailing arcs of flame.

what may strike your character first is the searing heat, the thrum of the earth below their feet. the whole village is demolished in a moment, the dying cries of the beasts rising above the din. the explosion lasts much longer than it should, the line of mushrooms going up one after another.

if you're too close, you might be torn in two. you might lose a limb, or two, or three. you might go deaf, you might lose your sight. you might lose all your eyelashes, your clothes. maybe the bag of mushrooms you'd collected for dinner is now little more than ash.

keep running. the smoke trails into the air. someone is screaming. the smell of charred meat follows you even after you disappear into the jungle. ]

IN THE SURROUNDING JUNGLE

[ if your character is close enough to the village, they'll feel the blasts, one after the other. the jungle is on fire, quickly spreading. maybe you'll hear the screaming, too; maybe your lungs will fill with smoke. maybe you'll run into one of the last mushroom beasts, fleeing from the explosion only to trigger a lesser one in the depths of the jungle.

it came from the village, didn't it? maybe someone you love was swept up in the explosion.

if you manage to escape the stampede of terrified jungle beasts (some of which may stop to crunch you up as a quick meal as they dash away from the blast), maybe you can venture closer to see what's happened.

or maybe you should get as far away as possible. ]

Comments

[cresthopes]

[Of course, the moment that Hiro jumped? Takeru jumped as well! He too was surprised by the older boy's sudden reaction before he leaned slightly away from him! Note to self, do not sneak up on people even if he was just trying to help him out!]

S-Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! But I was looking around to see if anyone needed any help and...

[Although, he wsan't even sure if he should even bring up Tadashi. The last thing he wanted was to make Hiro even more sad!] ...I just didn't want you to be by yourself!

[zerotohiro]

[Whoops. Sorry, little buddy. Things are just...hard right now. He tilts his head in response to Takeru's words, not entirely sure he buys it. And besides that, it's probably not a good idea to send someone like Takeru into the jungle to try and help people without some form of protection, too.]

I'm okay, Takeru. [Brave-face get! He sits up a little taller, choosing to try and completely ignore everything to focus on him. (It's hard. It's so hard to brush it off and pretend he'd be okay a second time, but A+ effort.)] You shouldn't be doing this by yourself, you know. [He frowns, thinking on that for a moment.] If you're gonna keep looking for people who need help, I'm gonna come with you. It'll be too dark soon.

[See? Everything is perfectly fine. Totally.]

[cresthopes]

[Of course he wasn't okay, Takeru could definitely see that. There was no way that he was after hearing what happened. Still, he wasn't even sure how to bring up such a somber topic to him. Just...how do you?

Which was why the poor boy just sunk his head into his shoulders just trying to figure out what to say. Think, Takeru, think! What would Sora say at a time like this?]

A-Are you sure? I'm happy you want to help me out and... I know it's not a good idea to be outside when it's just Patamon and I! But are you going to be okay? I don't want you to force yourself if you're not…

[zerotohiro]

[Poor kid. He's trying and Hiro can at least see that. And anyway, maybe a distraction's a good idea right now until he can get his brain functioning properly again and pull himself back together. ]

I'll be fine, don't worry. [Man…what would Tadashi do.] You're not forcing anything…I want to help, too. Checking on everybody else is a great idea.

[cresthopes]

[For a moment or two, Takeru wasn't so sure but if it was going to help Hiro? He immediately got up before giving a smile at him]

T-Then we better hurry! We need to keep an eye out for anyone else who might need some help! We don't want to see them hurt and...and we better get them to safety!

[He said and hoped he didn't say anything to make him sad! No seriously, how does Takeru handle this???

Even then, he was biting his bottom lip and shifting his weight around without directly at Hiro]

[zerotohiro]

[He's on his feet, too, and he's listening to Takeru ramble before realizing he's acting pretty squirrely. It's almost funny seeing this behavior on somebody else since he's prone to behaving this way on occasion, but he doesn't quite understand what's causing it. So instead, he crouches down so he's more eye-level with Takeru, placing his hands on his shoulders to get him to stop shifting around.]

Hey. What's going on? [Really, Hiro? Really? He shakes his head, trying for another confident grin.] Everything's gonna be fine. We'll start backtracking and rounding people up to bring back to one of the campsites so we're all together, and if they're hurt we'll see how we can help them. There's no reason to be scared. Okay?

[It's weird. It's weird to be channeling Tadashi right now but that's pretty much all he can do when Takeru's obviously uncertain about something. He has to help where he can.]

[cresthopes]

[While Hiro was able to calm his nerves down, it didn't erase how jittery he was. He really wanted to talk to him about Tadashi, he really did but it just hurt knowing that he didn't know how. His mother always told him that people needed to take their time after something terrible happened. However, this time, he felt like he had to go against what she said...

In the end, he wanted to be sure if Hiro was okay or not. At first, he didn't say anything back. He didn't even look at older boy either and just stared at the ground. Well, it's now or never!]

I know but it really isn't. I...heard about what happened to Tadashi-san but I wanted to be sure if you were okay first. I know we can get everyone together and see if they're hurt or not but I don't want you to feel like you have to.

[Yup, he can definitely hear his mom screaming right now. Although, he really hoped he did the right thing! If not, let's hope that Hiro won't get mad at him!]

[zerotohiro]

[When Takeru doesn't immediately respond, Hiro's first response is simply "oh god I screwed up." His grip on the boy loosens a little as he stares him down, racking his brain for any semblance of good people skills.  He doesn't have to struggle for long before the kid speaks up and Hiro's left sort of speechless.

That's what this was about?]

...Takeru. [What do you even say to that? He's honestly a little too stunned to respond because that's a good point. It really isn't going to be fine just yet.] I...Tadashi'll be back in a few days. [That's just what he has to hang on to.] When people die here, they don't stay dead for long. So...we'll see him again soon and when we do, we can tell him about the people we helped. It's what he'd want us to keep doing.

[He's not mad. He's not mad at all but he's also realizing he's very much still not okay. And what's he supposed to do, crush Takeru by saying how very not okay he is? That's not...that's really not what heroes do.] It'll be okay. You trust me, don't you?

[cresthopes]

[That didn't make Takeru feel any better. In fact, the boy just bit his bottom lip before looking back at Patamon. To know that Tadashi could come back to life just like that? While it was a relief to know he wasn't going to stay dead, he couldn't help but be reminded of a certain time back in the Digital World.

As he rubbed the side of his arm with his other hand, he mumbled to himself without looking directly at Hiro]

Y-Yeah, I think that is the most we can do. I don't know Tadashi-san that well but I know he probably wouldn't want to see us sad. I know that was probably what Patamon would have wanted for me.

[As hard as Takeru might try, he couldn't force himself to smile. It wasn't a selfish thing to do was it? He really wanted to make Hiro happy but least he could do was just nod at his question]

Mhmm, I do! I’m just glad that Tadashi-san isn’t going to be dead for a very long time! And when he comes back, we’ll need to talk to him about how he made you sad!

[zerotohiro]

[Unlike a certain Digimon, Tadashi won't be returning in a digiegg. Small blessings and all that. He's watching Takeru closely, eyebrows furrowed together as he listens to what he's saying.]

Trust me. I know him a little too well...he'd want us to keep going. [Isn't that pretty much what Tadashi had said to him the first day they saw each other again? 'You gotta get up from whatever happens, Hiro. All the time.' He'd been angry back then when Tadashi said it, a little too overwhelmed to think on it...but he was right.

The comparison of Patamon to Tadashi doesn't escape him, and instead he just squeezes Takeru's shoulder.] Right. And Patamon came back, didn't he?

[It's that last sentence that causes him to balk again, a slightly incredulous laugh escaping without meaning to. It's not even remotely funny other than the part where Takeru's so innocent in this whole thing it's almost not fair.] I'm pretty sure he already knows he made me sad, dude. [That's probably the closest he'll come to admitting he's upset.] But thanks. This isn't an easy thing to talk about, huh? Pretty brave of you to try anyway.

[He tilts his chin up a bit, taking a deep breath before shaking his head.] We better come up with something cool to tell him when he comes back.

[cresthopes]

[Again, he didn't look directly at Hiro. Instead, just stared at the ground some more with his head on his shoulders. Although, when he wanted to say something, that was when he finally looked at the older boy with wide eyes.

While he didn't make it a secret, it was still shocking to hear it from someone else!] Yeah, he did. He saved my friends and I from an evil Digimon that wanted to destroy all of us. He came back but it was still scary to see him die. [A pause]

And especially when there were so many other stronger Digimon that wanted to do the same.[Not to mention when Wizarmon died too to protect all of them...

Still, he shifted his weight for a real smile slowly started to appear]

I'm just glad that you're not mad, I wanted to say something but I didn't want to make you even more sad! I know my mom probably wouldn't be happy after what I did!

But when Tadashi comes back, I can tell him that I made Princess Leia from Star Wars! That counts as something cool right?

[zerotohiro]

[That seems to be a little bit of progress, at least. He slowly lets go of Takeru's shoulders as he stands to his full height.] I don't really know what happened that Tadashi was caught in the fire, but he'll come back. Patamon must be really brave to do whatever it took to protect you and your friends. My best friend's like that, too.

It'll be okay. [It's the last bit of reassurance he can add before Takeru changes the subject and his eyes widen in delight.] So you met her, too, huh? Kinda crazy isn't it? He's going to lose his mind when we tell him.

[cresthopes]

[While Patamon wanted to say something, he just didn't. In hindsight, it probably was a bad idea for Patamon to do what he just did but what other choice did he have? However, the boy just nodded before forcing a smile]

Yeah, it was! I know a lot of my other friends didn't know what to do against Devimon but I'm just glad he was safe! It was really scary when he died but I just don't want to see him hurt again.

[And while he knew he had to fight, it was still troubling to see Patamon do that...

But until then? He just giggled a little] Exactly and it'll be really great too! I can't wait to see his face when he finds out, I bet he won't believe us!

[zerotohiro]

[Someday they'll have to trade "my partner possibly did something self-sacrificial things because there wasn't a choice" stories. Today's not that day though. Today they need to move forward and carry on.]

Devimon? [He raises an eyebrow. Sure kid.] Well if you guys stick together and stick with other people around here? You'll be okay.

[But at least they both seem to be a little cheered up, so Hiro gestures for Takeru to start following him back to one of the campsites.] He's totally not gonna believe us, but that just means we have to come up with the best story possible to make sure he believes it. Think you're up for it?

[cresthopes]

[And once they do, Takeru would have to explain how Patamon sacrifice made him have a terrible scar for years to come. Of course, it wasn't like the boy wanted to tell Hiro that any time soon. Instead?]

Yeah, he's the one who hurt a lot of my friends and why Patamon... [He mumbled a little] Had to what what he had to do. But I hope we won't ever have to fight an enemy like that. I don't want anyone to die.

[Although, as the boy followed Hiro like a baby chick, he smiled toward him] Of course! We'll have to say that uh....we got ourselves a machine that allows us to go into movies or something! He'll have to believe that!

I meet a lot of strange but cool people everyday, like you!

[zerotohiro]

[It's unfortunate that people die here for a multitude of reasons. People died during the raid of the CERES tower and people have died out here in the jungle. But he doesn't say that. He keeps positive as they make their way through the brush.]

I think we'll be safe from enemies like that for a while, buddy. Maybe just a bunch of monsters. [He laughs lightly at the excuse though.] Tadashi and I come from a world where that's not entirely impossible. He just might believe it.

[And suddenly there's a teasing grin.] Strange but cool, huh? Consider me honored.

[cresthopes]

I really hope so! But even if there were a lot of monsters around, we'll do our best to protect them!

[Although, for Patamon's sake, he might end up not letting him fight if it does get that bad. He doesn't want another reminder that his Digimon could die here. But it didn't take long for his eyes to widen at him!]

You mean it's possible for Leia-san to really show up in your world?! Just what kind of place did you come from? It must be really cool if you live there because I want to go now!

[zerotohiro]

That's the spirit. [And it really is. It's now his job to let Takeru help, but also protect him and Patamon. Listening to the enthusiasm from the younger boy keeps him at ease though as they walk forward.]

It's maybe possible. Tech advances every single day, I wouldn't be surprised if there was something that opened rifts in reality or something. [He grins down at him.] I've heard from a few people that we're from the future for a lot of people here.

[cresthopes]

It sure sounds like you are from the future to me! I don't think back in my world you can build robots and whatever stuff you made!

[At least that's what he thinks. But then again, who knows in 1999 Japan.]

Most of the people I've met have a lot of really cool powers and they come from a lot of weird worlds! It makes me want to go visit them when I can! Makes me wish I had powers like them!

[zerotohiro]

Our tech's pretty advanced, so that's probably true. [Shrug. Sorry kid, them's the breaks. However...] If you really wanted something more powerful I bet we could build you something to arm yourself. That's what these things are. Cerealia probably can't give you powers but it can give us science and that's almost just as good.

What kind of people have you met? Or...who, I guess.