[h3][hr][color=#FBE3BF]Cavan Maynard[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Mushroom Forest  ||  Night[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
If the Ninjamon were following some sort of path, Cavan couldn’t see it. Instead, he was lead through acres of similar foliage that couldn’t be all that similar considering the variety of flora available, but which felt the same in that he couldn’t tell one direction from another after a few turns. The mixture of bright colors on dark ones made it difficult to focus on any plant in particular, and any sort of landmark they passed was seen again and again as bubblegum pink trees and neon yellow bushes repeated themselves every few meters.

The walk seemed endless, but the Ninjamon led the way silently, and the blade at his neck kept him moving. More than once he had to swallow the instinct to try and ask a question, but eventually the silence got the better of him. 

[color=#FBE3BF]“Where are we going?”[/color] he asked, and the blade against his neck pressed close enough to sting.

“Quiet! Save your words for the Flower Council!” the Ninjamon on his head said, loosening the blade. The stinging sensation it left, however, served to keep Cavan quiet and still even when Bax growled from behind him, his mind caught up on what felt distinctly like a drop of blood rolling slowly down his neck. The reality of the situation was starting to sink in, and it left him frazzled, unable to think about anything except the impossibility of it all. He’d found a digimon, travelled to the digital world, and been captured by digimon. Whether dying in the digital world was about to be tacked onto the list, he wasn’t sure, but his heart pounded just at the thought. 

Whispers from the Ninjamon below caught Cavan’s attention before the change in scenery did. After turning his face so that the large leaf ahead brushed by harmlessly, he looked back to find that he’d stepped into a clearing. Flattened leaves of varying colors covered the floor, and around the clearing were trees and bushes of varying heights. 

One of the Ninjamon hopped onto a nearby stump, clearing its throat. “Announcing Cavan and Black Gabumon! Found by the western border!” 

Suddenly the clearing was surrounded by chatter, Cavan made out what he’d previously missed: Digimon in every nook and cranny of the trees and bushes around the clearing, tucked onto branches and between leaves. A cursory glance had him spot a multitude of Floramon, though interspersed between them were some Ninjamon and Kiwimon—their champion form digivolution. 

A loud sequence of tight clacks interrupted the chattering, and the clearing quieted. From directly ahead stepped forth a particularly large Floramon, the two flowers making up its hands the size of basketballs. Considering the size of its petals, its veins easily stood out, striating its anatomy with a distinct pattern that disappeared into the joints that attached its head and arms to its glossy green body.

“Cavanmon, Gabumon, you stand before the Flower Council,” the Flowermon said, its voice feminine and high-pitched, yet loud enough to carry an intimidating cadence of authority. “Identify yourselves and state your reason for trespassing on flower territory.”

Beside him, Bax was rumbling with the start of another snarl, and Cavan glanced between him and the Floramon before steeling himself. There were a lot of eyes on him—easily more than a hundred, considering the size of most of the digimon present—but not talking had never been an option.

[color=#FBE3BF]“I’m Cavan! I’m a human, and I came here to talk to Blossomon!”[/color] he called to the crowds. 

The noise of conversation broke out instantly, at first quiet but gaining momentum into full-fledged clamor within seconds. Interrupting it was another sequence of sharp clacks, which Cavan was able to pinpoint to a Kiwimon drilling against a trunk behind the center Floramon, who, though engaged in conversation with some other Floramon beside it, looked rather perturbed by his words.

Silence fell again, and the center Flowermon was quiet for another second before straightening, a frown visible on its face. “Forgive the council for doubting you, but we do not know what a Humanmon is. Why you are requesting to see Blossomon further confuses us. Explain yourself.”

[color=#FBE3BF]“I…”[/color] Cavan trailed off, not knowing what to say. He was just doing what he remembered doing in the game, but this was nothing like what happened in the game. In the game, talking to any of the Floramon present in the forest would prompt them to point you towards where Blossomon was at that time. That, though, was clearly not happening now, and Cavan had no idea where to go from here.

A beeping noise from his pocket caught his attention, and he instinctively reached for it, stopping when the cold sting of steel dabbed again at his neck.

“The council asks you to explain that noise,” the center Floramon said.

[color=#FBE3BF]“I-It should be my Digivice, but I don’t know why it’s beeping. I-I need to check it to see,”[/color] Cavan said.

He looked at the Floramon, hoping it’d agree, and it did, nodding. The blade at his neck dropped, and he quickly reached into his pocket, his brows furrowing as he read the message displayed. 

[code]MISSION 1: Find out what happened in Mushroom Forest and return it to its original state.[/code]

Though it didn’t read like a cryptic message, its timing and contents made it seem like one, but it helped stoke a flame of hope inside him. He had a clear goal now. All he had to do was figure out how to go about achieving it.

“Wait!” 

The voice came from his left, hoarse enough to leave doubt as to whether or not it was truly masculine. From the crowds stepped forth a Kiwimon, its bone mask dull and worn with scratches, and when it looked at him, Cavan felt a shiver run down his back. A crack ran down one side of its mask, creating a web-like area that culminated a missing chunk right below its eye. Underneath the mask, Cavan could see the pale purple skin of the Kiwimon, featherless, wrinkled, and raw. It was scar tissue, judging by the brown feathers visible through the eyehole on the other side of the mask, and Cavan wasn’t sure he wanted to know what caused it.

“He’s a tamer. That’s a digivice, used by tamers to digivolve their Digimon.” The Kiwimon’s gaze was fixed on him as it spoke, and he realized that the eye on the cracked side was milky in color, blending in with the whites of its eye.

[color=#FBE3BF]“Yes! That’s right!”[/color] His words were as frantic as his tone, but his gut told him to jump on the opportunity. [color=#FBE3BF]“I’m a digimon tamer!”[/color]

A new round of whispering started as the council turned in on itself, the center Floramon’s eyes flicking between the Floramon beside it, who seemed more to be talking over each other than discussing amongst themselves. After another minute, though, it seemed to have had enough, and it swung back around, raising a hand to signal the drilling sound from a Kiwimon nearby. When the crowd quieted it fixed its gaze on Cavan, its expression guarded.

“Cavan the Humanmon, forgive us for doubting you, but there has not been a tamer in the forest for many years. Why have you come now?”

Cavan hesitated. There’d been no planning involved in his coming here, but judging by the mission his digivice was reporting, he was supposed to be and do something here. What he had to do was vague, and he wasn’t sure what “original state” the mission was talking about, but he’d have to try anyway.

[color=#FBE3BF]“I’m here to help,”[/color] he said, glancing at Bax, who’d stilled enough to stare at him suspiciously. [color=#FBE3BF]“Me and Bax both.”[/color]

The center Floramon glanced behind it, then met Cavan’s gaze again, nodding. “The council accepts your offer to help then, Cavan the Humanmon and tamer. Kiwimon will be your guide,” it said, gesturing to the Kiwimon who’d spoken earlier, who managed a nod after a grudging pause. “The council awaits your report, then. Good luck.”

With that, the digimon around the clearing seemed to melt back into to forest, the center Floramon filing into the foliage with the rest of the council, and the Ninjamon on his head jumped off, sheathing its blade with a tsk. 

“We will be watching, Cavan the tamer. Do not let the council down,”’ it said. 

[color=#FBE3BF]“I’ll try not to,”[/color] Cavan said, watching it jump onto a tree nearby. Its fellow Ninjamon jumped off of Bax and joined it on the branch overhead, casting one last disapproving look at Cavan before melting into the leaves, Bax’s growls not ending until they disappeared completely.

“Well, that was a mess.” The Kiwimon with the cracked mask jumped down from its perch on a stump, plodding over to look Cavan up and down. “You’re really a tamer, huh?  Thought my eyes were lying when I saw you walk in, but then you pulled that thing out,” it said, nodding at the digivice. 

[color=#FBE3BF]“Er, thanks for speaking out,”[/color] Cavan said. [color=#FBE3BF]“I don’t think I would’ve gotten anywhere if you didn’t.”[/color]

“The Ninjamon weren’t kidding, you know, so save it,” the Kiwimon said, looking down at Bax, who’d started again with the growls, his eyes fierce as he glared at the larger digimon. “Bax, was it? Happy little bundle of fur, aren’t you?”

[color=#FBE3BF]“He, uh, doesn’t like strangers,”[/color] Cavan said, stepping forward to put himself in front of the growling Black Gabumon. [color=#FBE3BF]“You’re my guide, then?”[/color]

“Guess so. Not like I volunteered, but maybe I’d have thought about it considering you’re a tamer.” It fixed its one green eye on Cavan, squinting at him before nodding and turning away. “Right, let’s talk on the way. We’ve a long way to go, so might as well start now.”

Cavan blinked but followed quickly, glancing behind him to make sure Bax was following before jogging to catch up to the Kiwimon’s pace. [color=#FBE3BF]“Where are we going?”[/color] he asked, his eyes drawn to the powerful muscles that made up the Kiwimon’s legs. They were what he imagined ostrich legs to be like, and they seemed abnormally large on the otherwise dog-sized bird. 

“To see Blossomon” the Kiwimon replied simply. “Or what’s left of him, at least.”
[indent][sup]   [/sup][/indent][h3][hr][color=#F44B52]Alice Takigawa[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Mushroom Forest  ||  Night[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
The juxtaposition of Izzy and Sunny brought a smile to Alice’s face. Where Sunny was literally sunny and rather naive, Izzy was a kid-sized bundle of jaded maturity that sharply contrasted her age. Though the two personalities should’ve clashed, Izzy seemed to have enough capacity for patience to rein despite his thoughtlessness, and they made an interesting pair.

As she watched the two talk, Alice wondered whether she’d been that mature at twelve, or however old Izzy was. In middle school, she’d buried her head in her studies, barely looking up enough to talk to her classmates, much less befriend them. Maybe she would’ve been as mature as Izzy seemed, had she made friends, but even back then her interactions had mostly been online, where emojis and gifs did the talking for her, so it was difficult to say.

[color=#F44B52]“Right, Sunny,”[/color] Alice said, offering the Muchomon a stiff nod and smile before looking back at Izzy. [color=#F44B52]“And I won’t tell the others your name if you don’t want me to. It’s name, so it’s your call.”[/color]

A pair of beeping sounds called Alice’s attention to her digivice, and she raised, brows furrowing as her eyes skimmed over the words on the screen. [color=#F44B52]“A mission? Like a raid-mission in-game?”[/color]

Doru walked over to glance at the screen. [color=#7867D8]“What does it say?”[/color]

[color=#F44B52]“‘Find out what happened in Mushroom Forest and return it to its original state.’”[/color] Alice looked up at Izzy. [color=#F44B52]“Find out what happened? Did something happen to the forest?”[/color]

She looked around, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. In every direction were trees, bushes, and mushrooms of varying colors, each competing to fill what space was available. Though she didn’t remember much of the forest in the game, she remembered how colorful it’d been, how chock-full of color the background was right from the get-go. But what was different about it?

[color=#F44B52]“And what does ‘original state’ mean? Original like the game, or original as in… before the game?”[/color] She bit her lip, her mind whirling. ‘Find out what happened’... Those words were too close to the ones that started every mystery game she’d played for her not to instantly assume the worst, and mystery games tended not to have happy settings. 
[indent][sup]   [/sup][/indent][h3][hr][color=#BB818D]Afton Reimer[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Mushroom Forest  ||  Night[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
Her phone dinged as she straightened, and she opened it to find some messages from Asher. Since there was no signal, she repocketed her phone, figuring she could get some more exploring done before the others started returning from the digital world. 

[color=#BB818D]“Monodramon, can you smell anything?”[/color] she asked, looking at the winged digimon, who sniffed imperiously in response. 

[color=#A62A15]“Smell anything? I’m a dragon, not some lowly beast. I don’t go around sniffing things on all fours like a worm hunting dirt, and—”[/color] He paused mid-sentence, sniffing again. [color=#A62A15]“Actually, mushrooms. I smell mushrooms. [i]Lots[/i] of mushrooms.”[/color]

Afton frowned, glancing around the place again. From what she could remember, the Mushroom Forest emphasized balance, especially that of the forest. Plants grew, died, and were decomposed by the fungi in the forest, which broke down and released the nutrients previously used by each plant for the forest to reuse. Life and death, use and reuse—those were the facets of the forest, the cycles constantly running, chasing each other into creating the forest. In the game, it’d been personified by the Floramon and Mushroomon inhabiting the forest, which checked each other with the help of the local guardian, Blossomon. The Ultimate level digimon was the caretaker of the forest, acting as both guard and guardian to its inhabitants, and it was careful to not let either side win over the other. The mushroom smell, then, was mildly concerning since it seemed to imply that there were more mushrooms than plants in this part of the woods, but her eyes weren’t seeing the imbalance Monodramon smelled. 

[color=#A62A15]“Afton?”[/color] Monodramon padded over, his eyes inquisitive. [color=#A62A15]“Why’re you just standing there?”[/color]

[color=#BB818D]“I’m thinking,”[/color] she said, walking over to a patch of mushrooms nearby. [color=#BB818D]“Are you smelling these mushrooms?”[/color]

[color=#A62A15]“Yes. Well, kinda. I’m smelling Mushroomon too,”[/color] Monodramon said, pointing at the foliage to their left, grinning. [color=#A62A15]“They’re over there, watching, but there’s only a few of them, so they’re afraid to come out. They know I’ll eat them.”[/color] 

A grin had stretched across his face, but Afton only spared him a glance. Her attention was instead focused on the Mushroomon he’d just mentioned, and she stared at the leaves he’d pointed at, still. There were wild digimon hidden in those leaves, and Monodramon assumed they were scared of him, not that they were biding their time or waiting for reinforcements. 

At the first beep of her digivice, Afton silenced it, reading the words and pausing to think. She had two options here: One, to head back through the portal now and risk informing the Mushroomon of her ability to use portals, or two, to head deeper into the woods.

[color=#BB818D]“Monodramon, let’s go,”[/color] she said, straightening and heading in the opposite direction of the hostile foliage. 

[color=#A62A15]“Where are we going? Do you know how to get around here?”[/color] Monodramon asked, now better able to keep pace with her. 

The forest was dense, but Afton pushed on, sidestepping the mossy,slippery roots in favor of the rougher ones around it. [color=#BB818D]“To find Blossomon, or some Floramon. Whichever one we find first.”[/color]