Park Struggles [Open]

Shimato and Tumble hadn't immediately been aware that they had been spotted or that anyone was approaching them. The duo had been far too content making small talk and gazing at the night sky. The pink-haired young man and the Digimon were both in the midst of contemplating grabbing a couple of sodas from a nearby vending machine when they realized that there was in fact joined by two unfamiliar figures.

The sound of a woman cooing was what brought the pair's attention to the new arrivals, her voice making both Tamer and Digimon jump slightly. Tumble appeared to be just barely keeping himself from literally falling to pieces out of fright, the blocks that made up his body jittering slightly in shock. Shimato, on the other hand, had nearly leapt to his feet in surprise, but his eyes quickly caught sight that the two who had stumbled on them seemed to be a Tamer and her partner. His mind rapidly began processing that they probably hadn't meant to spook the two of them, and they seemed to be merely saying hello, judging by the Tsukaimon's greeting and the Tamer's comment of Tumble being cute.

"Hello there yourselves!" Shimato put on a warm, welcoming smile as his shoulders and body language went back to being calm, before continuing to speak, "You gave us a bit of a spook there, so, sorry for jumping when you showed up. We figured we were the only ones here at this time of night."

Tumble was beginning to calm down bit by bit thanks to Shimato's calm voice and the blocks that made up his body began to cease shaking. In the past two years since the ToyAgumon had become partners with Shimato, Tumble had been working on not falling apart when he got scared. After two years of horror movie marathons with his Tamer, the Digimon had been getting somewhat better at controlling the involuntary action. 

Once he had managed to calm himself sufficiently, Tumble waved to the new girl and her partner, noting the other Digimon's uncomfortable expression. "How do you do? My name's Tumble, and this is my Tamer, Shimato. Pleasure to meet you!"


Rosaline Corzett

Shimato gave the Tsukaimon a sort of nod of acknowledgment. The young man had a fairly certain idea that this park was mostly abandoned at night, so he accepted the virus-type's words as they hadn't expected to encounter anyone themselves. "I do hope we didn't wind derail your stroll through the park then. We hadn't meant to surprise you."

Tumble, while somewhat listening to Shimato, was beginning to feel a little embarrassed by the female Tamer across from them. He noticed that her gaze didn't seem to stray much from his form, and the ToyAgumon didn't quite know how to feel about this. Some of the other members of the Web Troopers had eyed him up and down when Shimato had first joined the group, but even then it was still a strange thing for the Digimon to deal with. When the girl's gaze left him and towards his partner, Tumble let out a sigh of relief.

When the young girl introduced herself as Rosaline, and her partner as Berry, both Tamer and Digimon gave her smiles and responded simultaneously, "Nice to meet you, Rosaline! You too, Berry!" They both also realized that they had already said it was nice to meet them, and gave a small apology.

Shimato began to take in Rosaline's appearance a bit closer after she introduced herself. She seemed to be quite as youthful as he in age, but there was a slight height difference. As she eventually moved closer to sit at the picnic table with him and Tumble, he began to notice fully that she was walking with a slight difficulty. Like she was dizzy, or.... drunk? That would explain the slight scent of alcohol that drifted through the air, which he might not have initially picked up on. If that was the case, then she didn't seem three sheets to wind drunk, merely decently buzzed by Shimato's standards. Standards by which, considering that Shimato only drank on occasion, were fairly low.

The Tamer's thought process was derailed by Rosaline's sudden question of their allegiance. "Well, that was certainly out of left field," Shimato mused to himself in his mind, his eyes widening slightly at her query. Both him and Tumble shared a look between themselves as if asking the other how they should respond. Members of the Web Troopers didn't often make their identities very public information, and, if this girl was one of the more radical members of one of the other factions, then this could cause problems in the future. Though Shimato did have the communicator in his head if any trouble did arise, so the pink-haired youth decided that honesty was the best policy.

Shimato leaned forward on the picnic table, his chin resting on his intertwined hands, before choosing to answer her question, "Believe it or not, we're not loners. We're actually with the Web Troopers." There was a small, almost undetectable gleam in his eyes as he spoke. Tumble was usually the only one who noticed the look that his Tamer got when talking to interesting people, and it was interesting to the Rookie to see how the young man's eyes lit up in these types of talks.

"That means we're not interested in starting anything, so, please, don't jump us now that we've told you that." The ToyAgumon shot the pair across from them an almost pleading look. Unlike his Tamer, Tumble was less confident in the decision to inform two strangers of their affiliation.

Rosaline Corzett

The obvious delight at his response gave Shimato some slight amount of pause. Was Rosaline pleased that he seemed to give her a truthful response? The young man's mind began to wonder what exactly that could be implying but decided not to openly question it. It would be rude to essentially interrogating someone over their choice of words. Shimato would absolutely hate to be impolite to a lady of whom he just met, especially one who seemed non-threatening and somewhat interesting.

When Rosaline eventually made mention of the Web Trooper's love of gas masks, Shimato couldn't help but laugh a little, "Yes, that is one of the things we get most recognized for. Those are just for field work though, to keep people from knowing who we are at a glance." The Tamer himself had one, tucked away in his apartment, but he had left it at home for believing that he didn't need it. "But as you can tell, I don't usually mind telling others of whom I work with. This might sound a bit naive or maybe over-confident, but I actually just prefer to be honest."

Tumble eventually let out a sigh of relief when Rosaline and Berry explained that they were loners and had no desire to jump them. As the ToyAgumon was as trusting as his partner, there wasn't even really a thought in his mind that they were lying. "I apologize for being paranoid. It's just that... with the whole turf war between everyone, it's starting to get a little worrying around here."

When Berry began to point out and talk about his species, Tumble scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He didn't quite know how to feel about another Digimon commenting on his strength after fighting another one of his kind. "People seemed to underestimate ToyAgumon, and some of the other Puppet-types, for our appearance. But I'm glad that you say that my kind is tough."

Shimato chuckled lightly at his partner's somewhat awkward response and was about to give his partner a pat on the back, but his attention was immediately grabbed by Rosaline's comments. There was something about the rather sharp, pointed smile that she gave him while asking about Tumble's experience level that made Shimato stop in his tracks. He wasn't quite sure why, but he gave her a rather devious smile in return. "Well, of course, he's stronger than whatever ToyAgumon Berry fought. He's been in our world for two years, and he's no slouch against a random bio-emerging Digimon."


Rosaline Corzett

"Necessary is a mild term for the conflict in the city as of late." 

Shimato piped up, Tumble looking at his Tamer with a curious glance. The Tamer swiftly put one leg over the other and rested his chin on the open palm of his right hand. Shooting his partner a confident glance, Shimato continued with his thought. "Despite my neutral stand point in the conflict, along with that of the rest of the Web Troopers, the turf war is actually providing a service to the city. It's making Tamers and their Digimon stronger, providing us a reason to go out and buy cards, and keeping the city free of bio-emerging Digimon because we all want to get to their data."

Tumble nodded at the pink-haired young man, but the Digimon crossed his arms. "While that is true, the turf war is making it dangerous for anyone on any of the sides, and even for the loners. Which, as I said earlier, is why I was worried about diverging our affiliation."

Shimato nodded at his partner's words but kept his gaze seemingly locked on Rosaline. Outside of the Web Troopers, Shimato hadn't had much interaction with other Tamers, and, given their current conversation, he began to think he needed to get out a bit more. Despite her apparent muddled mindset, Rosaline's apparent morals and intelligence made for a very interesting conversation partner. When she eventually raised her eyebrows at him, Shimato blinked owlishly for a moment. Perhaps he had been rude by staring at her too much? That, or perhaps she was a little perturbed by him analyzing her person.

Tumble, on the other hand, wasn't paying too much attention to Shimato and Rosaline's psychological eye warfare and had returned to enjoying the conversation at hand. "Nah, I'm not too great myself. If it wasn't for Shimato and his well-timed card usage, I'd have probably been deleted at this point." The ToyAgumon was looking sheepish, and twiddling his fingers. He then turned towards Berry and said, "You seem to be doing good for yourself too, Berry. If you've been in the human world for a year, you probably have as much experience as I do."

When Rosaline eventually began inquiring as to what the Web Troopers offered/did for him, Shimato had to pause and mull his thoughts over. His gaze briefly turned to the sky above them, absentmindedly noting one of the clouds looked like a rabbit, before his eyes leveled back at the girl across from him. "Well, if I'm being honest, it's because there are not many people willing to harbor and empower hackers. Considering that's what the majority of our group is, it fits me rather well. That, alongside the fact that I am very interested in learning things about Digimon and that I get to mostly be neutral in the turf war."


Rosaline Corzett

"To be honest, computers aren't everyone's cup of tea, and I didn't even get into coding and such until shortly before I met Tumble."

Shimato waved off her comment and gave her a polite smile, shutting his eyes as he did so. "I'm by no means an expert, it's just a skill set to me. Besides, it's not like owning a Digimon requires you to know about all things digital and such."

The fact that he was on one of the four major sides of an urban turf war hadn't been something the young man had initially hit Shimato when he first joined the Web Troopers. Like some, he was blissfully unaware at first that there was even really any sort of struggle going on in the streets. It wasn't till he caught wind of some members of the Web Troopers getting attacked by unknown members of one of the other factions that the repercussions of picking a side hit him. Anything he did could potentially lead to his own harm, but also the harm of his partner, and maybe the rest of his group. The thought still plagued him, but he continued to try and remain as close to his normal self as he could. 

Tumble, who was now attempting and failing to sit cross-legged, hummed in thought. "I should believe a year's worth of experience would help get you through the current status quo of the war. But yes, if the conflict picks up, then any experience you can get at this point would be worth the risk." When Rosaline made a comment of them being able to take on cute Digimon like him, the ToyAgumon couldn't help but chuckle a little, "I think you could probably take me to the cleaners right now if you wanted to, so I'd hate to know how you'd do if you get stronger."

Seeing Tumble enjoying himself some now that he let his worries go a little made Shimato fairly happy. The ToyAgumon didn't get the chance to interact with others, especially other Digimon, so this was probably making his night.

"Was I going to a visit a lover?!" The question caught the pink-haired Tamer so off guard that he had to somewhat repeat it out loud. His face had a look of incredulous amusement, his shoulders shaking with barely constrained laughter. "No, nothing like that, Rosaline! I am quite single in fact. Not by my own choice, but still@" While giggling rather loudly, Shimato patted Tumble on the shoulders, shaking the Puppet Digimon somewhat, "T-Tumble wanted to go to the park to get out of the apartment!"

Tumble could only roll his eyes at the sheer silliness of his partner sometimes and kept a somewhat straight face while still smiling. "Yeah, he's telling the truth. But why are you guys out here so late? Just heading home, or do you have a hot date yourself, Rosaline?"

"i fucking wish." That was a... strong response. Granted Shimato's intense giggle fit hadn't exactly been an entirely tame response, but Rosaline's words actually caught the young man off guard. Her words following said response, alongside her wild tongue waggling, actually made him blush bright red. His earlier assessment that she was tipsy had been proven fairly accurate, unless if this was actually how Rosaline acted normally. Said deduction was possibly inaccurate given how Berry kept worriedly looking at the female Tamer, but Shimato kept the idea in the back of his mind.

"Well, you certainly know what you want, so there's that at least!" Shimato was actively attempted to calm himself and be rid of the pink that he could feel dusting his face, "But I can understand how you feel, I wouldn't mind myself a woman to be affectionate with. Or man, for that matter. I'm not exactly picky when it comes to gender."

Tumble could only sigh at the current state of his Tamer and the conversation at hand. Shimato was notably referred to as a 'cinnamon roll' by some of the other members of the Web Troopers, which the Digimon could only mean he acted somewhat innocent or easily blushed at certain topics, and he had no doubt that the other two might notice said behavior. The Digimon did find Rosaline's behavior somewhat comical, and he could somewhat sympathize with Berry in this exact situation. Whenever Shimato drank, he got somewhat more loose and entertaining, but also somewhat vulgar and sexual, meaning that the ToyAgumon had to attempt to reign him in. Tumble could only imagine that Berry was sort of going something similar right now.

When Rosaline eventually changed the topic of conversation, Tumble breathed a sigh of relief and Shimato merely cleared his throat for a moment. His blush had mostly dispersed by the time he began to absorb and think over her words.

What exactly would happen once someone reached the strongest level possible for a Digimon and Tamer? Shimato suspected that nothing like that would happen without some sort of citywide event happening, meaning that most of those in the war would be aware. If that were to happen, then the factions who opposed whoever reached that level would more than likely hunker down and prepare their defenses. If said person was a loner, it's possible there'd be almost a ceasefire of sorts while the factions possibly attempt to perform a manhunt against this person. Overall, the world would somewhat be the oyster of whoever became the strongest, and they could technically accomplish anything they set their power to.

"Whoever reaches the Mega level first will probably be able to accomplish whatever they want," Tumble responded, his blocky chin being held by his hand. Shimato was actually somewhat surprised that his partner spoke up before him. "Depending on what faction they are part of, they might decide they want to wipe out the other three-fourths of the turf war. If they are a loner, they might decide to make sure the factions can't fight ever again or reach their level. If they decided that the city was merely a small time conflict, they could destroy or take control over anything they wished. They'd basically be a savior or a scourge upon the world."

"Tumble has a point. This hypothetical strongest person in the city would basically be able to do anything. Their only limitation would be their morality and imagination." Shimato was resting his chin on a balled up fist, his arm being propped up by his elbow against the table. "Personally, I don't know what I'd do if that person was me. But what about you, Rosaline? What would you do if you were the first person to reach the highest level?"

Rosaline Corzett