(no subject)

[deadeye_shot]

{oom: Four Years Earlier}

When Hawkeye approaches Miss Bar today wearing a dark red jacket over a white dress, she presents her with a few items of interest: her guitar--and it is hers, it has the scratch in the right spot and everything--a page of tabs and lyrics, and an unfamiliar rectangular device with a branch of wires. The device turns out to be a music player and earphones. Bar then materializes a napkin with instructions for their use, as well as a smiley face.

Color Hawkeye intrigued.

She takes the whole lot to a chair by the fire and listens to the chosen song on repeat for an hour before she's brave enough to attempt playing it herself. The chords aren't too complicated, though it's good that she's not a beginning guitarist.

Singing is more daunting than playing, so when she sings, she keeps her normally deep voice quiet, which lends a husky quality to the sound. If she closes her eyes, she can pretend she's alone--but she has to keep them open, as she hasn't memorized the lyrics yet.

"Why are there so many songs about rainbows? And what's on the other side?"

As she plays, her confidence grows, but she keeps her voice pitched low, singing only to herself.

"... Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me. La da da di da da dum da duh da..."

{ooc: Link goes to a Youtube cover of Rainbow Connection by Renee Dominique.}

Comments

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato sees (and, well, hears) her playing and singing, but he keeps his distance until she's done with the song. After she's finished, he meanders over, giving her a quick smile.

"I had no idea you played an instrument," he says, raising a hand in greeting. Granted, he doesn't know much about Hawkeye at all, so that's not surprising. "What's the song? I didn't recognise it."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye knew he was there--as she's aware of everyone in the bar--but she's grateful that he waited until after she was finished embarrassing herself to appraoch. She offers him a small smile, and raises a hand of her own. "Hello, Yamato. The song is Rainbow Connection. The music player says it's by Kermit the Frog, but I think that's just a stage name."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato inclines his head. "Lieutenant," he says, by way of greeting her in return.

He looks mildly surprised at the mention of Kermit, then cracks a quick grin, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Kind of? Kermit's a fictional character. A puppet of a frog, who's famous all over Earth. So, it's the stage name of his voice actor, but also just -- a recognisable celebrity frog in his own right."

[deadeye_shot]

"A puppet of a frog?" Hawkeye says, blinking at this news. "Is he on... television? Or the internet?"

She says the words as if she's unfamiliar with the concepts, which she is.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Television, I think? Some movies, too. Adaptations of classic novels, that kind of thing."

[deadeye_shot]

"What is a movie?" Hawkeye says, watching Yamato's face.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It's a lot like television, except that while television is usually split up into shorter episodes and watched at home, a movie's more like -- a play, I guess," Yamato says. "A longer, self-contained story. Usually you watch them at a big theatre, at least when they first come out."

[deadeye_shot]

"Fascinating," Hawkeye mumurs, glancing up at the television set behind the bar. "Seems like they could be a great time waster, though, like any obsession."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Wryly: "They can be. They're both one of the more accessible and probably the most widely marketed form of entertainment, so they're definitely dominating the time-wasting field," he says. "But it's good to be able to relax for a few hours and just enjoy a good story. Or a bad one."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye smiles briefly. "I'll take your word for it. I imagine I'd like a book better, though I've never been one for plays."

Uncultured, some would say.

"Do you like movies?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I wouldn't say I have any strong feelings on them," Yamato says, just a touch wryly. "I don't dislike them, but most of the time, if I see one it's because someone else invited me."

[deadeye_shot]

"They're ubiquitous in your world, right?" Hawkeye says, leaning her guitar up against the chair she's sitting in. "It's so strange to think of something being common for you that I've never heard of."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Well, they only really took off in the past eighty or ninety years in my world. It happened pretty abruptly," Yamato says, cocking his head. "It's weird how quickly they became the go-to form of entertainment in my world, in a way."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye crosses her legs at the ankles, remaining seated. "That is strange. You'd think books would reign supreme, given that they've been around forever. Not to change the subject, but where's Tsunomon?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"On the other side of the door, right now," Yamato says, jabbing a thumb at the front door. "At camp with the others. He was sleeping when I found the door here, so I figured I shouldn't wake him."

[deadeye_shot]

"That was considerate of you," Hawkeye says, her hair falling over her right eye as she inclines her head very slightly. "Give him my regards. I know he's still too shy to talk to me, but I want him to know that I mean no harm."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"He's still too shy to talk to most people, to be fair. He doesn't even talk to me that much," Yamato says. "Don't worry, he definitely already knows you won't harm him. I will pass on those regards, though."

[deadeye_shot]

"Excellent," Hawkeye says, pleased. She rests her hands in her lap. "You've been partners since you were eleven, right?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Yeah. Or, that's when I met him, at least," Yamato says. "I guess we were linked earlier than that, when I was about eight."

[deadeye_shot]

"Who linked you?" Hawkeye says, blinking at him.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Entity called Homeostasis. Or, I guess practically speaking, Gennai, a guy who acts as representative," Yamato says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Homeostasis is a kind of security and maintenance system for Tsunomon's world, basically. A few years before we all got dragged into the Digital World, there was a -- incident, I guess, in the neighbourhood we all lived in at the time. A fight between Digimon. She was watching, realised that Taichi and his sister were Crest bearers, and scanned the area to find the rest of us."

He pauses, a little awkwardly. "There's a, er, whole prophecy in the Digital World about these things they call Crests, and how eight of them would save it, so she and Gennai started making preparations from that point on."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye frowns slightly. "And this Homeostasis program didn't care that you were children? Or did it not have a concept of what that meant for a human?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"The concept definitely exists in some form in the Digital World. Digimon have Child forms, after all, and from what little we've read of the prophecy, it identifies all of us as being children when we first arrive," Yamato says, tilting his head. "We've only ever had a single conversation with Homeostasis herself, so I don't know exactly what she thought of it. But when we were pulled in, both our worlds were on the brink of destruction already, so I don't know that it'd have made a difference."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye sighs softly. "To be made responsible for saving the world... That's amazing. What do you mean both your worlds were on the brink of destruction?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato ducks his head, a little awkwardly.

"Well, in the case of our world, we'd been having weird weather for maybe half a year. Flooding, sudden tornadoes, Dubai nearly getting buried in a sandstorm, snow in summer, that kind of thing. We actually didn't realise it was anything other than odd weather until Taichi got pulled back there, and was able to see weird lights and mindless phantom Digimon that nobody else could."

Which was a whole thing, really.

"In the Digital World, it was less -- obvious, I guess, at least at first," he says. "But towards the end, a good quarter of it was petrified in ash, Digimon weren't being reborn anymore, and black water was falling from the sky. So I guess at that point it was way more obvious that the world was ending. Other worlds in our multiverse might've been affected, too, but we never saw them, so who knows."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye stares at him, her eyes slightly widened. "How did you save them?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Mostly with violence, if I'm being honest?" Yamato says. "There was -- Koushiro calls it a catastrophic error inherent to how the Digital World functions. Digimon are born, evolve, die if something kills them, and then are reborn. But there's always a possibility of failure when evolving, and that leads to irreparable data corruption, and it means they can't be reborn. It's the closest thing to true death a Digimon has."

Although arguably actually dying might be better.

"But that corrupted data eventually accumulates. Individually, the remains of a Digimon can't do anything, but more and more are added over the time, until they create something that the Digital World called Apocalymon, this kind of gestalt being made from the remains of hundreds of thousands of Digimon, whose growth would eventually kill off every other world," he says. "We killed him, in the end. Or we mortally injured him, and then when he tried to explode and take everything else with him, the Crests contained the explosion."

[deadeye_shot]

"Violence is one way to solve a problem," Hawkeye says, with a wry twist to her lips. The smile fades as she processes what he's said. "So Apocalymon wasn't reborn? Is there a chance of his coming back ever?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"That particular Apocalymon? Anything's possible, I suppose -- some of the pieces of himself he split off himself survived for a while, at least. But it's been six years, and there's no reason to think he's come back. He wouldn't be reborn like other Digimon are," Yamato says. "But eventually, another Apocalymon will be born, one that's entirely different from the one we faced. Some Digimon we still fail to evolve, after all."

[deadeye_shot]

Hawkeye's lips pull down subtly again. "So you'll always be wrapped up in stopping them?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"To be honest, I'll probably be an old man by the time the next one appears," Yamato says, shaking his head. "But there's plenty of other problems and enemies the worlds like to throw at us, so I guess we'll always be fighting something."

[deadeye_shot]

"There's always a supply of children available, I suppose," Hawkweye says, with a note of dryness coloring her voice.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I suppose so," Yamato says. "But maybe by then, whenever that is, Homeostasis and Gennai will've figured out a better way to do things."

Although probably not.

[deadeye_shot]

"One hopes," Hawkeye says, sighing softly. "They can't possibly rely on humans forever. Eventually, they'll have to solve their own problems."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato cracks a quick smile, ducking his head. "Yeah, eventually. For the moment, the eight of us are around, though."

....

[deadeye_shot]

"And you don't mind working for Gennai and Homeostasis?" Hawkeye says, watching Yamato's face. "Or is that just something you feel you must do?"

Re: ....

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"I don't even know how much we could be said to be working for them. Half the time we're actin' on our own initiative anyway," Yamato says. "But -- I mean, it is something we have to do, you know? At least for the moment, if we don't do anything then people die."

[deadeye_shot]

"I was afraid that might be the case," Hawkeye says, her lips tightening at the corners. "It's good that you're in a position where you can save people, but I'm sorry you had to be willing so young."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"It's fine. Or -- it's not, but there's not exactly anything that can be done about it now."

[deadeye_shot]

"Let me know if you need any help," Hawkeye says, her tone fierce. "Provided conventional weapons will work."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"They usually don't, but I've asked an engineer here to try his hand at building some kind of anti-Digimon weapon," Yamato says. "So, if he comes through with something useful, then I'll be able to take you up on that offer."

[deadeye_shot]

"Hopefully he'll be able to come up with something effective," Hawkeye says, her hair falling over her right eye as she inclines her head very slightly. "And when he does, come find me."

{ooc: Are we headed to a fade? Thank you for the thread.}

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Will do. Thanks."

[ooc: Looks good to me! Thank you for the thread too.]