[OPEN] Bolero

[rookandhound]

NEW ARRIVAL
Well, that was rude

---

The first thing he was aware of was the music. Classical, with a wordless vocal accompaniment- one that he'd never seen before.

He shot upright, looking around in alarm and finding that he was staring down- not a human. Not a human. Not a Digimon either, he didn't smell right, but everything in this room was unfamiliar and alien and it set him on edge. Doors leading off in unknown directions. Corkboard?? Desk that the old man was sitting at.

Were the doors locked? Were they reinforced? Where was-

His breath stilled. The familiar form was beside him, slowly waking as well with a soft groan. Rookmon was here. Everything was fine. No, that was a lie- everything was very much not fine, he'd been abducted again, but it would be fine, just as soon as he got out.

The old man smiled, and folded his hands. "Welcome to The Velvet Room, young-"

But he was rolling onto his feet, seizing Rookmon into his arms, and barreling for the nearest door, throwing his shoulder against it and barreling through.

Igor sat staring in what might have been vaguely surprised silence for several seconds. "Oh dear. How unexpected."

Goro, meanwhile, was trying to muffle an indignant avian and run at the same time. The door had opened onto a street in a town he didn't recognize, too small to be anywhere near Tokyo. He hissed to the bundle in his arms. "Be quiet, I don't know where we are and there are people around-" and Rookmon, blessedly, knew enough to go still and engage the familiar routine of 'people are watching, so pretend to be an inanimate object'.

Now. Step one, get away from the man with the giant nose. Step two, figure out where they actually were. Step three- should. Should he call Shido?

A pause. Wait. What if nose-man was on his payroll? No, that didn't make sense. The man wasn't digimon and definitely wasn't human. So how would there be connections there? Plus, one of Shido's men would have locked the door.

God dammit Shido would want to know why and how he'd left Tokyo and that was going to be a problem because he had no idea.

DISQUIET
Something's not quite right...

---

The people here were wrong. Oh, they smelled right, they walked and talked and looked like humans in all their dealings, but the eyes were vacant, the expressions empty. They lacked some kind of vital spark, which made the whole situation far more unsettling than it already was. It was like they weren't real people, just projections, or robots-

He decided to test his theory on acquiring food. The old woman at the tofu stand smiled at him as he made a selection. "That'll be 1350 yen. Thank you very much."

Wordlessly, he slid across the counter a piece of trash- a wrapper from a protein bar, pocketed from the nearby gas station. He narrowed his eyes, daring her to prove him wrong, but she simply accepted it and replied with a smile: "Thank you for your business. Come again!"

His bounty secured, he retreated, making a beeline away from the crowds and heading for the nearby shrine, which was at least quiet and relatively empty, before setting his backpack on the ground and calling up into the tree. "It's clear."

The figure that hopped down from the branches was small, barely three feet tall, a bipedal avian form covered in black feathers, their beak in pale grey. The little bird dusted himself off. "Were you right?"

Goro nodded. "Yes. It's like they're all zombies, or cardboard cutouts. Which is really concerning along with the lack of phone service, but we'll deal with it. For now, I have food. I don't think we need to pay for it."

WILD CARD
Choices, choices

---

If coming across this boy in either of the proposed scenarios doesn't pick your fancy, by all means, reach out to me and we can arrange something else. I'm sort of getting used to this version of the character's voice, so apologies in advance if anything seems off or strange!