Dayshift 49: Bus 2

[diamondstorm]

Morning hit without warning, with the sheer knowledge hitting the Digimon before anything else that today they were going back to Doyletown. Her feet hit the floor and she rotated her right shoulder experimentally. The skin stretched tight, soreness persevering, but it moved fine. She stretched her fingers then curled them into a fist, staring at the tanned skin that was her right arm. If something happened this time... She would be more useful. Her mind replayed the events of last week, and Renamon stilled, considering.

There wasn't much time left to her as the nurse bustled in with an armful of clothes, the same shade as the weeks before. The woman murmured a cheery complaint that it was too cold for skirts and left Renamon to change. The pants were preferable to the past two weeks, though the other item she was left with gave too much to irony. She frowned at it for a minute, then slid it over her head, reflecting that this motion in days or weeks past would have left her shuddering. It meant she was becoming used to this human body, and that was nothing that boded well. She grabbed her notebook before being led to a bus, and slid into a seat halfway down the aisle, pressing against the window. Again, the previous night had been more than short. Was it just her, or was there something more to it?

[for Haseo!]

Comments

[diamondstorm]

The bus chosen seemed to have a crowd. The others flowed and pressed into the aisle, and it was no surprise really when someone sat down next to her. That would have been enough, but for their apology and question. Renamon's eyes shifted to the other, instantly noting the marking on his face. They were almost similar, at least in the way that she hadn't noticed others with such before. The impression slid through her, but the Digimon simply shook her head almost perceptibly.

"No, I wasn't," she said, bland in the tones. There was a beat, almost awkward. She hadn't seen him before, and she wondered at that. Surely she would have remembered something that looked like that. "...Have you been here long?"

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Despite the negative answer, Haseo paused, shifting an inch or two away from the girl and glancing aside with a hint of returned awkwardness. The following question caught him a little off-guard strangely enough; he didn't think anyone had ever asked him that even when he'd first arrived. Considering he was giving a run-down of sorts to someone else the very shift after the one he'd woken up during, perhaps he just didn't give off that impression though. Did he seem more "new" this morning for some reason?

"No, I don't think so," he answered reluctantly, "I guess it's been a little over a week now." He had to suppress a belated cringe at that admission... usually a week wouldn't have been considered that long, but honestly it already felt like he'd been trapped for a year or more. As far as he knew, nobody seemed to stay around all that long anyway - a month at best, probably - but it still seemed odd.

... Come to think of it, his roommate Kanji hadn't been there in their room when he got up. Haseo had been too preoccupied to pay attention, and-- conversation, Ryou. You're having one.

"What about you?" he appended, looking back but not quite meeting her eyes. It occurred to him suddenly that she could have been asking because she was the new one, but regardless it seemed appropriate in some reason to keep it up. "I'm Haseo..."

[diamondstorm]

The other seemed off, reactions placing the conclusion of something happening in the time before. It might not even be that, the Digimon amended. She should know that perhaps it was just this place. The pulls and tweaks it gave to one's psyche. There was no evidence to point of harm, after all; though true it was that the worst came without a touch to skin.

The answer came, and she wondered when a week had begun to seem short. Her arms shifted, finding familiar places as she folded them across her chest. "Closer to three by now," she answered, a bit dryly. And she would be hesitant to believe that she had progressed any more than the boy in front of her. Ah, but, the little god was right of course. She wouldn't live as if one already dead.

He offered his name and she provided hers with the barest hint of a bow in the tilting of her head to accompany it. "I am Renamon."

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Three weeks? Haseo had just barely survived the first half of his first week, and though the last few days had been unproductive if not quite as bad in comparison, what had happened before them more than made up for it. The thought of being around for two more stretches of the calendar was something the Adept Rogue was not prepared for. He had every intention of getting out long before that... although naturally 'how' was still a mystery.

The name got a thoughtful narrowing eyes from him- like just about everything, he figured right off that it was probably an alias, like his own, but of course he couldn't really be sure. Not that it mattered at all- she could call herself WaffleX for all he cared. On an online game with millions of worldwide players, he'd seen far worse.

"Heh, so like a Digimon," he said, not able to resist the faintest of tired smiles at the off-hand observation. He didn't really mean to make fun or anything, but that was honestly one of the first things in some time that came anywhere close to being amusing. "Got it."

[diamondstorm]

The physical reaction was a tad confusing at first, but then Haseo spoke. And somehow, everything fit into place. The Digimon's reaction was simply eyes widening in surprise, recognition slipping in. Only one other had spoke of Digimon here--that one speaking of a show and games, which was the same in her reality. The difference being--she had been in it.

The other's tone had spoke more of her world than otherwise. One familiar with the media and material to doubt the reality of it. Still, it remained. He knew what she was. In this, there was some misguided sense of relief. The silence stretched too thin, and she nodded, eyes slightly guarded. "Yes. I am a Digimon."

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

"-- Huh? Seriously?" Another shocked pause followed that question, Haseo's eyes widening and then narrowing again in wait for the inevitable confirmation that he'd just been soundly trolled. However, unless she'd heard that before and was just that sick of it, he couldn't figure out why or even how she'd managed to be so serious about it.

Most of what he knew about Digimon came from only brief spurts of exposure... aside from a phase where everyone his age was collecting the cards, he'd sat through maybe three episodes or so of one series or another and otherwise managed to ignore it. It had been years now, and at seventeen and with much more important things to worry about, he was far from into whatever the franchise's latest incarnation happened to be.

It really didn't help that she looked wild enough to fill the role of her claim- even without the markings, Haseo would have been hard-pressed buying that coloring as "natural." Just because he and his friends were wandering around with similar, apparently implausible looks....

"Uh, how is that supposed to work?" he asked, though what incredulity he might have had was dampened by... well, the uncertainty caused by everything else he'd seen so far. "Are you sure you just haven't been playing card games too much or something?"

[diamondstorm]

...Yes, more like someone from her world than anything. The disbelief was noted and added to that. How was she supposed to reply? Perhaps it was the surprise from the night before, but the Digimon just raised an eyebrow in partial amusement. Card games. If this one only knew just how she played. "It works the same way it does for others here," she answered dryly. "Placing one in a body not their own." The corner of her mouth quirked. "And I can fight without cards."

And if they were going to touch on that, she could ask the same. The markings weren't something normally seen. It could be cultural, but it could be something else. She touched a finger beneath her eye, on the purple marking there. "Are those normal where you come from?"

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Haseo said blandly, absent-mindedly tugging to loosen his tie beneath the coat and extra layer provided by the scarf. She soundly had him with the "being in a different body" thing, even if he was still... understandably skeptical. But whatever, maybe he would have at another point in time, but right now he didn't feel like arguing with a girl he'd met only a few minutes beforehand. A girl who might be needing the skills she said she had just to survive leaving the town they were heading towards.

And she had him even more with questioning his wavemarks. "No," he answered, once more reluctant. A beat passed, but then he went on anyway. If she was going to play the 'I'm a member of a fictional species' game, then his story wasn't that much more far-fetched. "I was playing the online game 'The World' before I woke up here. This body is my character's."

[diamondstorm]

He said also less than she did. The Digimon had to wonder if it was a personality trait or a result of something that had happened. Either way, he wasn't arguing or trying to hide what he was either. Though the explanation for that....

Online game. Body of his character. She knew nothing about any of that, though in truth it could have been in her world and she might not have known. But the extra aspects made this person more interesting. She chanced a question, one that was perhaps obvious. But she had to check. Neutrally, she wondered, "An online game... Perhaps like a digital world, then?"