Angemon Mansion, Digital World

Kai and NPCs (Collab between @Letter Bee and @Aku the Samurai.

Kai's wanderings led him to an oaken door that led down a set of stairs. The stairs went on and on, morphing into a stairwell with increasingly stale air the lower he went. The stairwell was dimly lit by some sort of faint white light, one that came from no bulbs, torches, or lanterns, but rather from the walls themselves, small digimoji scrawled on them where they met the ground like ornate molding.

As the bottom, there was another door that seemed to glow by itself with ghostly illumination; if Kai opened this, it would lead to an uncomfortably stuffy rectangular chamber with smooth concrete walls, ceiling, and floor, stacked with boxes, some of them opened, nearly all covered over in thick canvas tarpaulins. Inside them were knick-knacks, trinkets, toys.

Some of them glowed too; others were dim and lifeless. But of the items that glowed, one of them was a pair of leather cowboy boots in pristine condition, and whose soles faintly flickered red-orange…
Of course, Kai chose to open the obviously haunted door without a second thought. As if there was any other option.
The room itself was... weird as heck. He didn’t know what any of the stuff in there was. It was practically a completely different wor–oh, wait, it literally was. Even better. It certainly wasn’t for anyone with claustrophobia, that was for sure... would make a great trap, though.
Now, to move on to something else. There had to be more to—
.… Were those cowboy boots?
....
Yoink!
Finders–keepers. If their owner didn’t want them stolen acquired, they wouldn’t have left them there.
Now they were his.
Assuming Kai put them on, they’d feel warm, snug, and comfortable; perfect for him. They also lit his every step with burning footprints.

Despite being in an Angel’s mansion, he was like a devil now, searing the concrete steps and leaving mild ashen marks behind once the flames had faded.
It seems his inquisitiveness had been rewarded, but for how long? And will he continue to indulge it?
Kai snatched a few more things—for science, of course—and then left the room behind. Next on the list was….
Hm. Oh, right, he didn’t know anything about this place. Well, wandering around would get him somewhere, at least. He just had to make sure no one caught him with the boots on the way. He wouldn’t want to ruin their experience of finding out they’ve been robbed after the thief’s already dashed off into the night. Never to be seen again.
…. Yeah, that sounded about right.

And thus, Kai wandered once again.

It was assumed that he climbed up; the steps of the stairs were wooden but the moisture and the mildew and the coolness made sure that the scorch marks and the burns, though a deep black, would not start a fire - After all, that would be anticlimactic for our mischief maker, right?

The floors above the stair and the door beyond it were marble, and barely singed by the footprints. Not just that, but Kai had snatched a few artifacts that had some power - Barely more than party favors to Digimon like Angemon, but when used in just the right way… Can be leveraged to give them - Or just him - a fighting chance against stronger opponents.

Angemon was busy, and there didn’t seem to be any other Digimon inside this large building; everything seemed to stay clean by itself, and every vase, statue, small table, and generic Renaissance painting seemed to stay in their place.

Kai’s wandering was random, and any watching eyes - Certainly not from nonexistent CCTV cameras - Did not seem interested in his doings. After all, he was a lone human who left his Digimon and Digivice behind; how much of a threat can he pose?

There was a set of white-and-gold doors; mother of pearl and ivory with gold filigree and gold-plated doorknobs. Once opened, there would be a gust of steam, revealing a set of marble baths whose large pools of warm rose water and perfumed, soapy air made it clear they were meant to be used, although there were no attendants, no servants.

But there were mirrors, and on one of them was a sign that there were other inhabitants than just Angemon.

A fading set of letters in English written on steam, saying, HELP.

Danny was getting creeped out by Angemon. Something was off-putting about him, but it could still just be paranoia. Tatl seemed to sense this, and whispered in Danny's ear. "If you want to leave, I can make up an excuse."

"We should stay with the group for now." Danny whispered back.

"You're clearly uncomfortable. Let me help."

"It's fine."

"It's not fine."

"Tatl it's-"

Angemon started walking towards them, and spoke once more. Danny did not like how he said sustenance. Was the food poisoned? I'll have to ask Tatl if it seemed off. Danny thought to himself.

"We're fine for now." Tatl answered.

"Yes, that's correct." Danny answered Angemon's question about the prior events.

Angemon started asking more questions. Danny was probably being paranoid still, but it almost sounded like Angemon was not pleased with humans. Does he think we are all negative emotions, or does he mean we would be filled with negativity under the rule of the Demon Lords? Danny pondered.

"I'm not sure if I'm best suited to talk about our world at large. Humans are well varied in culture. Heck, even in digital places online we have different cultures compared to in person. Even in simple different friend groups, the same human can be different because of different expectations of how one should behave. But I really am not an expert on the matter." Danny tried answering. "Oh, but in terms of the environment, I assume it is as varied as it is here. Well maybe a bit less. Things would be bound to look familiar, though likely arranged different, if you went there."

This time Angemon addressed Tatl. Tatl looked worried for a moment. "Of course. And thank you." Tatl answered back.

"Tatl, what is he talking about." Danny asked. "Who is this mutual acquaintance? And why would the records be something to worry about?"

Tatl's wings dimmed. A lot. More than Danny's seen them do so. "I... I..." Tatl shook her head. She looked ready to bolt.

Danny just raised his hand and placed it gently on her head. "You're my friend, Tatl. That's not changing any time soon. You'll tell me when you're ready."

Tatl flew in front of Danny and hugged him. She then flew to make leveled eye contact. "I," she looked away, "used to be bad. I don't want to say more right now." Tatl flew under Danny's jacket.

Danny turned to Angemon. "You'll have to excuse us." Danny walked towards the sofas, which he took the cushions from, and set up a small enclosure in, placing one final cushion on top after stepping inside, and leaving a small hole for air in the top. He left his crossbody bag on him, but set down his duffle bag outside the enclosure.

Tatl came out to see what was going on. "Danny, what are we doing? Why are we surrounded by couch cushions?"

"This is something my mom did for me when I had nightmares as a small child. She would make a fort out of couch cushions, pillows, and blankets. It made me feel like I wasn't so insignificant. So we're going to stay in this fort for now until you feel better."

Tatl simply giggled, her wings brightening almost back to normal. "Thank you Danny."

---

The strange red and blue... dog? Peacock? Whatever it was, it seemed to know some important information, and was willing to share it. Unsolicited, though Kari didn't think about that until after it had finished.

'Humans aren't Digimon.'
- That seemed to make sense to Kari, she had sort of assumed as much.
- Sora meanwhile considered this to be final confirmation of what her Shogun had guessed; it was nice to know that her Shogun had good instincts, to have figured that out without a digimon's help.

'Human souls can make digimon stronger if they feel strong emotions...'
- Huh? Souls exist? As in... objectively? Or was it an assumption, a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon without factual evidence that it was true? This was a potentially huge revelation for Kari, though the angel standing nearby made it a little less shocking. Did this whole world have a heaven and hell style to it?
- Really!? Having a human as her Shogun instead of a digimon would let Sora become stronger!? That was amazing! How perfect that she had lucked into exactly that!

'the human needs a 'digivice' to really power up a digimon. You should have gotten one.'
- Ah. So there had to be a conduit. The only thing she'd gotten since coming to this world was from that purple wolf-dragon-thing with the red forehead. Unwilling to keep contact with an unknown item that had been handled by something else, especially a furred creature that she very much doubted washed its paws, she had passed it off to Sora right after receiving it. Did she still have it? Shit, if she dropped it somewhere, that would be really bad.
- Oh, that! That was the weird thing her Shogun had given her after driving Coelamon away, right? Sora reached into the eggshell she wore as her clothing and retrieved what she believed to be a digivice, holding it out for both her Shogun and Elecmon to see.

"This thing?" Sora asked as she finished the fruit she'd been eating. Seeing the Hyokomon reach out with something out of the corner of her eye, Kari looked back at the red and blue peadog, waiting to find out if it really was the MacGuffin that it had mentioned.

Upon its confirmation that it was, Kari's face darkened. That... was bad. If everything depended on her using this 'digivice' thing, then was it better to leave it like it was, to track it as contaminated at all times like she would someone else's phone? Or was it better to try to clean it and stick it in a baggie to keep it clean? Given its size, it would fit in one... But what if its buttons or screen didn't have enough traction with the plastic over it? She had trouble playing some of her portable game systems because of that, after all. And would cleaning it damage it? Was it waterproof, or did it have hidden, hard to clean areas on it?

While she was paralyzed by her unspoken questions, her avian partner carefully kept hold of it while she went to get more food. When she returned, her Shogun still hadn't made a decision. So between bites of the new fruit, she asked, "What's wrong?"

That seemed to snap Kari out of her thoughts for a moment. "Oh. I'm just... thinking. Can I have it for a moment?"

"Okay!" Sora handed the device to her partner, having already been thinking of it as her Shogun's instead of hers.

Kari carefully grabbed the digivice and leaned closer to it, slowly inspecting every millimeter of its surface for indents, cracks, any entry into its innards. She then tested the buttons, pressing and then holding each for a few seconds and checking if they were flush with the casing or created gaps that would lead to its inner mechanisms that liquid could run through. As she did her inspection, she gave some slight attention to the angel's words.

'The Seven Demon Lords' only made her scoff quietly. Either she was right, and this world was themed on interpretations of human religion, for some reason, or they were the source of it or its popular culture variants. It didn't matter which it was to her, but if she had to fight demons, then she'd have a posible advantage from her knowledge of said pop culture. Though, that made her wonder: Did this world also have a god? Multiple? Or were they demons and angels only? She'd need to find out soon, or there might be problems down the road...

She didn't ask any of her new questions, she simply kept listening as she looked over the digivice a second time, seeking confirmation of her findings.

Joel and Salamon

Joel didn’t say anything at first. Just glanced down at Andrew, a bit startled by the weight against his side. He hadn’t expected the guy to lean on him. But he didn’t pull away either. “…You can stay,” Joel said quietly. “If that helps.”

He didn’t move away. Just sat there, letting Andrew rest against him. The warmth of another person was unfamiliar, but not unwelcome. Joel wasn’t sure why Andrew picked him of all people to lean on, but he didn’t question it out loud. For a moment, Joel stared ahead, then said, “You okay?”

Salamon tilted her head up at him. “You’re not used to people leaning on you like that… are you?”

Joel didn’t respond.

“But you didn’t push him away.” Salamon continued with a small smile. “That’s nice.” Then she curled up beside them, as if signaling she approved of the arrangement.

@Letter Bee

Klara Langston
@Aku the Samurai@Letter Bee

---

Eating the food, Klara simply watched and observed the others for a bit. Keeping to herself as usual. She had no real reason to want to interact with them and she certainly wasn't one for starting a lot of conversations, at least not with people. On the other hand, though, she hated sitting around doing nothing, too. All this talk of data and of this being a digital world though, made her curious. If what she observed Dustin messing around with back in the field then perhaps they could affect this world somewhat?

"Hey, doormon." Klara would roll off the couch, sitting up and shooing away Tsukaimon as she'd walk over to their benefactor. "Im curious. What was that stuff back in the field that Dustin was messing with? It didn't seem like anything readable, but it seemed like being able to change it made something happen." She had ideas on what it was, of course but she didn't want to just start brute forcing something like a twelve letter password manually. Doing that once was enough to drive anyone crazy.

Tsukaimon, meanwhile having enough food decided that they might as well start getting up to something fun, and it wasn't hard to pick out a target. The lone Augmon. The purple digimon would sneak up on the digimon, proceed to pounce on top of its head and lay there, using its paws to squish the sides of Augmon's face.

"Awww, all alone? Where's your partner at? How pathetic~" The purple digimon snickered. "Must not have liked you or somethin' huh?"

Angemon Mansion, Digital World

Angemon was still there, watching Danny and Tatl with a wide, indulgent smile before leaving them alone.

Elecmon, meanwhile, acknowledged that the girl and her Digimon had gotten their Digivice. He decided to linger for a while to see if they had more questions. Then, he saw the other girl - Klara - approach him, mistaking him for Dorumon and asking what the 'Digicodes' were. Seeing nothing wrong with an explanation, he said.

"Those are Digicodes, also known as Digimoji or Digimonjis or Digiemojis; they're a language of mixed computer data and emotional energy which can be called Magic," Elecmon could not help but give accurate data, no matter how dangerous to Dorumon's plans. "With a Laptop or similar gadget plus a Digivice and strong willpower, you can technically use Digimojis to alter minor aspects of the world, such as changing lead to gold and back again, or conjuring items like extra clothes. Honestly, a Wizardmon may know more and do more, but I don't know if any of them have survived the Demon Lords' purges..."

Andrew, meanwhile, had fallen asleep as he leaned on Joel, smiling. Then he fell on Joel's lap. Would Joel push him away?

All the while, Angemon glanced once at Kai's Augmon, who had been left behind... and flew off to fetch the stray Digidestined.

---

Angemon's Mansion had another, larger basement. No, this was no basement; it was an entire underground chamber, a hollow space kept snug and dry by brick, mortar, and Digimonjis. Inside it was Petermon, from Tatl's old life before she attempted to atone, along with cages filled with Baby and Rookie/Child Digimon, plus shipping crates of Digieggs marked for a place called Banquetia. Petermon was unwrapping two things: One, a Mirror with Digimoji that doubled as a communications device, and two, a small box filled with Digivices.

The Mirror lit up; the face beyond was fuzzy, and the voice crackled with static to be almost unintelligible: "Petermon, interested in a side hustle? Working for Angemon must have gotten boring by now, hasn't it?"

Petermon arched an eyebrow and then said, "Working with Devimon, thank you very much. It depends; what do you want me to do and how much are you paying?"

The voice said, "I need you to bring in reinforcements for the group; some of them have gone silent, a few even vanishing without a trace - I suspect the Seven Demon Lords' other agents. As for payment... You can have half of any children from the Real/Analog World who answer your call."

Beneath his bandana, Petermon smiled as the figure in the mirror grew clearer, and he said, "I'll need a little of the power you use to breach worlds; my own Magic cannot do it alone."

A certain purple-furred, white-snouted Digimon smiled as he looked back at Petermon and said, "Done and done. Also, make sure Ange - No, Devimon - takes the fall for this; invent what story you need about him. Those reinforcements are needed."

@Ryik@Aku the Samurai@TopGrail@Rune_Alchemist@Letter Bee@Crimson Flame@The Jest@Mike Dracopyra@The World@ReksewTrebla

Joel and Salamon

Joel stiffened slightly when Andrew first leaned against him, then even more so when the boy slid down into his lap. A blush formed on his face. For a long moment, he stared down at Andrew’s sleeping face. His feelings were swirling somewhere between confusion, embarrassment, and something else… Something softer he didn’t have the words for.

“…He’s really asleep?” Joel asked no one in particular, glancing at Salamon like she might confirm it.

Salamon nodded. “You didn’t push him away.”

Joel looked back down. “Yeah, well…” he muttered quietly. “It… didn’t seem right.”

He shifted just enough to sit cross-legged without waking Andrew, adjusting so the boy’s head had a better place to rest. His hand hovered awkwardly, then settled beside Andrew’s arm rather than on it.

“I’m not used to this,” he admitted to Salamon in a whisper. “People… trusting me like this.”

Then he fell quiet. After a few seconds, he added, “But… I don’t hate it.”

@Letter Bee

Danny and Tatl didn't notice Angemon leaving. They just sat in their little fort for the time being. Tatl sat in Danny's jacket pocket again, and rested her head on Danny. Before too long, she had fallen asleep. Danny carefully opened up the fort, returned the couch cushions, picked up his duffle bag, and made his way back to the group. That's when he noticed the lone dinosaur Digimon, an Agumon, if he remembered correctly what Tatl told him about the other Digimon on the walk there, and the lack of Angemon. He also noticed the small winged purple Digimon, Tsukaimon, he thinks Tatl told him, picking on the Agumon.

Hmm. This could be bad. Hopefully I don't wake Tatl. Danny thought to himself. He walked over to the Agumon and Tsukaimon. "Hey. Is that any way to treat others?" Danny quickly scolded the purple Digimon. Before they could respond, he motioned for the Agumon to follow, calmly said "Come on, let's go find your partner" and whether or not the Agumon followed, Danny walked away to go explore for the teen. But before they went down any path specifically, Danny saw a sword hanging on the walls, and grabbed it, figuring an actual sharpened sword might be useful in self defense.

@Rune_Alchemist, @Aku the Samurai

Sashia and Krystal

Sashia noticed how Angelmon had an unhealthy obsession with Danny and Tatl, so Krystal walked up to stand between him and Danny making sure he would only be looking at her, by the time he walked away, Sashia walked up to Krystal as she said “Something seems very off about him but I can’t put my finger on it”. Krystal nodded as she said “It's a shame I’m not as powerful as my mother and aunts, they could tell us if his intentions are genuine or not”.

Sashia nodded as she said “As could my brother, Mike’s always been very good at reading people, considering he’s had his fair share of false promises and traitorous people that called him their friend but were looking for a chance to betray him”. Krystal nodded before asking Sashia “Tell me about your brother Sashia”.

Sashia chuckled “Michael is the best big brother in the world, he’s always sticking his neck out for me or our older brother Kain, he’s very intelligent and has developed a lot of computing programs. He even developed a few things to help me with my career online as well. Its thanks to him that I have become as popular as I have in my V-tubing career” Sashia told her. “What's a V-tuber?” Krystal asked. “It stands for Virtual Youtuber, It basically allows me to hide behind a virtual avatar whenever I’m streaming games online, it kind of a security blanket that prevents people from seeing my true appearance as some fans are quite …. Weird” Sashia told her before turning to look at Danny and Tatli noticing Danny had found a strange Dinosaur creature, Sashia and Krystal both silently nodded to one another and followed Danny to keep him safe and to protect him incase Angelmon came again.

@ReksewTrebla

---

As Kari was searching for openings in her digivice, she couldn't help but almost drop it in surprise when she overheard Elecmon saying magic is also real here. She supposed she should have expected it, what with angels and demons being around, but still, the thought of being able to use magic...

And if magic existed, then could she...? She'd have to find out some day. Speaking of finding out someday, she saw from the corner of her eye as the angel went off to, presumably, find the missing human who had the dinosaur digimon as their partner. Her natural distrust aside, it was probably a good thing that it did. If they were going to save the world, they'd need all the help they could get.

But for now, she was satisfied with finding that the digivice should survive being cleaned, if she were to learn that it needed contact with her skin to work, or some such design flaw. With a tiny smile on her face she carefully switched her gloves to retrieve a plastic baggie that was soon surrounding her digivice. Sure, it wasn't clean now, so it didn't have to be in one to protect it, but it was better to avoid potential increases in contamination than to try to clean it in spite of them later.

Sora, meanwhile, had been continuing to munch on more of the fruit, totally oblivious to her partner's thoughts.