trans_9 | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

The sensoriums were often used to recreate people's homes--this meant familiar Earth imagery for most. But Devlin had grown up in a space colony, and Earth had been a very new and dangerous place for him at first.

So now, he wanted to show Hikari his old home. The small buildings and streets lined with trees looked like any neighborhood on Earth, but the sky overhead was covered with a transparent biodome. Outside were swirling golden clouds and streaks of lightning from the Dragon Storm. The gold clouds, lightning, and high winds outside the colony were just as familiar to him as blue skies and sunshine were to anyone from Earth.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hikari smiled, looking over at Devlin. Wow, this place was pretty amazing. Sure, it was a lot like a normal earth neighborhood, but the scenery from the sky was breathtaking. Kinda similar to something she thought she'd see in the Digital World, actually.

"It looks amazing!"

"The storm looks even cooler from the observation deck," Devlin said. "I managed to sneak in once, but one of the scientists caught me after a few minutes. Want to check it out?"

Hikari giggled, moving a bit closer to Devlin and taking his hand in hers. "Yeah, I would. Why didn't they let you on there though?"

"It's supposed to be so the scientists can study the storm, since for a long time, nobody knew how there could be lightning anywhere other than on Earth," Devlin explained. "They want to learn more about how weather works and how the storms can help the colony, like generating electricity and everything." It was nice being able to be an expert on something; weather was a big part of science education on the colony, and they'd all done projects on the Dragon Storm.

"You mind sneaking in?" he asked. "It'll be more fun that way."

Hikari smiled at that, listening as Devlin explained everything. "Oh. I see. That makes sense."

She blinked as he suggested that they sneak in, and was about to chide him, but something stopped her. Sure, it wasn't like it was real, and besides, who knew when they would need to be able to sneak in places in the future. "Alright, why not?"

Devlin grinned. It was nice to do something slightly dangerous, especially when he knew there weren't any consequences. "Follow me."

The simulation added people around, going about their day-to-day business. Devlin beckoned Hikari over toward a door against the wall below the biodome.

Hikari made sure to keep from giggling as the people showed up, and soon enough she was following after Devlin. She doubted that anyone out here would've noticed them yet, but she was still looking around, just in case.

When Devlin was sure no one was looking, he shifted into alien form for a moment and touched the security panel, hacking it open. When it accepted and the door opened, he changed back.

"I did this when I first learned about my powers," he whispered as he walked inside.

Hikari smiled, looking over at Devlin as he opened the door like that. "Wow. I see. That'd probably be really useful if we ever end up on an infiltration mission for the ship," she said as she started to follow him. "So, um, how exactly did you end up on Earth if you grew up here?"

The door led to a long, curved hallway with few places to hide. But there weren't many scientists this way, and security was light along the halls.

"When my mom died, my dad managed to contact me from the Null Void and told me to get him out," he admitted. If he didn't sound too broken up about his biological mother's death, it was because his biological family had almost no meaning to him anymore. "I had to figure out the rest. I snuck on a transport shuttle heading to another colony, then snuck onto a tour shuttle headed to Earth. There was a group of kids there for a school trip, so no one looked twice at just another kid being there."

The hall ended in two passageways. One led to an elevator with a few security guards posted. The other led to an emergency staircase, with no guards.

"We'll want to go this way."

Hikari frowned as she heard that. Sure, she knew some of the story, but just, how detached he was about his mom probably said a lot about how she treated him.

She nodded at him as they made it to the end of the hall. "Okay."

That was Devlin for you. Saying that he had a messed up childhood was like saying water was wet.

Using the same trick as before, he bypassed the emergency protocols and got the door open without setting off any alarms. As he held the door open, he promised, "You're going to love this when we get up there."

Hikari smiled, following after Devlin. "I can't wait!" She said.

Even if she didn't think she'd enjoy it though, it was definitely something Devlin thought was amazing, so she would've gone with him anyway. But well, she had seen the storm outside, so she knew she was going to like what she saw.

The stairway led to a round room, completely surrounded by windows. Outside this miniature dome were lightning rods and instruments collecting data on the storm.

The storm itself was wild, with clouds spiraling around in the wind. Lightning struck from cloud to cloud, then hitting the rods with bright flashes and sparks.

"So, what do you think?" he asked again.

Hikari looked around, seeing the clouds and lightning shoot all over the place. Her eyes went completely wide at that, and she was starting to regret not bringing Tailmon with her. She probably would've enjoyed seeing this as well.

"It's beautiful..."

Devlin would have liked to say something like "Not as beautiful as you," but it sounded really dumb in his head. Instead, he said, "I'm glad you like it. It's the first time I ever showed anyone where I'm from."

Hikari blinked, moving a bit closer to Devlin and looking over at him. "Really? No one else has even seen this before. I mean, that you know?"

"I haven't thought about the colony in a while," Devlin admitted. "And I haven't needed to. Home's really become wherever the people I care about are."

Hikari smiled at that, moving to take his hand in hers. "Aww, I see. That's kinda sweet..."

"Really?" Devlin asked. "Cool! Well, it's true. Everyone I really care about is right here--most of them, anyway--so it feels more like home."

Hikari smiled a bit, moving a bit more closer to Devlin. "I see. You're pretty lucky that's the case then, right?"

She didn't say that she missed her own family and friends from back home. There was really no need to worry Devlin like that. Especially now, when he was showing her something like this.

"I never really thought about it like that," Devlin admitted with a smile. "So what about you? What's home like for you?"

Hikari frowned a bit before smiling again. "Home was pretty nice. I had a good family and a decent amount of friends. Sure, stuff with the Digital World happened a lot and we needed to fight to protect both the worlds, but other than that, everything was nearly perfect."

"Doesn't sound too different from here," Devlin pointed out. "Having to save the world, I mean."

Hikari nodded, moving to lean over a nearby railing. "No. It isn't. But it would definitely feel a little easier if Oniichan were here. Or Takeru-kun. Or Daisuke-kun and Ichijouji-kun. Or Miyako-san. Or everyone." She sighed. "I know that even all of us together wouldn't be able to defeat the Ohm alone. At least, in my mind. But all of us together with our digimon, we've beaten impossible odds before."

"Yeah, if I've learned anything, it's nothing's impossible," Devlin agreed.

There was a brief silence before he asked the most awkward question ever: "So, you've got a big brother?"

Hikari smiled, looking over at Devlin. "Yeah, I do. He's a couple of years older than me."

Well, that was...kind of worrying. Had Hikari mentioned a brother before? If she had, somehow it hadn't filtered into the "oh crap, oh crap, oh CRAP!" portion of Devlin's brain until now.

"Good brother?" he guessed.

This was code for "How dead am I? Scale of one to ten?"

Hikari giggled a bit. "The best!"

Oh dear Hikari, you really need to learn to read guys a bit more.

CRAP.

"That's great," Devlin answered, somehow managing not to broadcast "I'll be over there making out my will now" all over the place.

"Yeah, it really is," Hikari said. Still completely oblivious. "He's always been looking out for me."

I'm dead.

That was the only thing running through his head right now. That he was going to die a horrible, painful death at the hands of Hikari's older brother, who also had a small monster partnered to him that could evolve into a very strong form that would likely crush him easily. Or burn him to a crisp. He kind of hoped for crushing--it was faster and left less time to realize you were in pain before you were dead.

"That's really great," he said.

Hikari smiled, moving over and giving Devlin a hug. Not saying anything else for the moment. Right now she was just happy to be here with Devlin and talking to him about her family.

Devlin hugged Hikari back, doing all he could to hide the looming sense of "Crap, crap, crappity crap!" At the very least, he could take comfort knowing that Hikari's big brother wasn't here right now.

Despite that, the lightning outside the observation dome struck with a loud crack.

Hikari smiled, pulling away from Devlin after a few moments. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"Whatever you want to do," Devlin answered, which was always a safe answer, as long as he didn't have to worry about any older brothers.

"Let's go get something to eat then!" Hikari said, moving her hand to grasp Devlin's.

"Sounds great," Devlin agreed.

Hikari smiled again, moving to lead Devlin out of the sensorium.

After all, there was a place where they could get REAL food, so why conjure it and disguise the slop?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only