themainframe | [3rd Transformation // Anon Text // Optional Action with Bumblebee]

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[3rd Transformation // Anon Text // Optional Action with Bumblebee]

[When Bumblebee first emerges from the damaged apartment of 010 in his robot form, 16 feet of towering metal and living machine, Vanguard is filled with immeasurable awe an wonder.

In an hour, when he finds himself sitting in the car form of his partner, playing session after session of video game inside his cabin, that wonder becomes joy. In three hours, when Vanguard goes to tell off some insolent digimon on Bee's behalf but Bumblebee speaks up on his own first, gently resolving the situation with his own voicebox. All he feels is confusion. Six hours later, when Vanguard has to step outside and get his feet on steady ground after one of Bumblebee's races, it's irritation. The final straw happens when Vanguard finds himself held in the giant, protective metal hand of his robot partner, narrowly injured from a reckless Chosen. Saved. Protected. Lovingly guarded.

Then... it's just anger and resentment.

He leaves Bumblebee to talk with companions just beyond the hole in their apartment (hastily covered by the staff with a sheet of plastic). Bee doesn't need Vanguard to help translate his feelings to the friends he encounters outside. He laughs, and dances and transforms just fine on his own.

So the digimon retreats to their room just a few paces away. It takes ten minutes for it all to boil over. In the back of his mind, he knows he's going to calm down and regret this later but... he's not thinking about that at the time. He angrily jabs an anonymous message into the D-terminal.]

+ [Anonymous Text] +

All you Chosen. You think you're so impressive.

You could hardly take care of yourselves when you got here. You couldn't figure out how to eat, sleep or walk. Some of you couldn't even speak. We chased off digimon three times our size to keep you alive. We kept you safe on the journey down to HospiTown.

We did everything we were supposed to. We're your digimon. We were made to meet you and fix this world together.

So much for partners.

You can take your real forms and just

Just go home. We didn't need you either.

[The moment he presses send, he experiences a moment of hesitation. Of something beyond anger. Regret? He crosses his arms and tries not to think about it.]

[ooc: Vanguard (Coronamon) will respond to text anonymously while Bumblebee will react to action outside the hospital.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I never wanted or needed that kind of strength. [But it came to him anyway.] But I've experienced it enough to know how painful it can be.

[He blinks at the D-terminal, surprised.]

You 'experienced' it? You.

[He frowns suspiciously.]

So that stuff you went on about earlier about strength, that was all --?

[Well looks like Vanguard is smart enough to put the pieces together, sooooo.]

Back in my world, I could--digivolve, I suppose, in your own terms. I had the ability to transform into... something else. Some people called it the ultimate creation, a being with the ability to withstand any attack, regenerate from any wounds, crush anything and anyone who stood in its way.

[Short pause.]

Most people though just called it a monster. A beast. A terrifying thing that did nothing but destroy. And the thing is, they are right. It is a monster. It destroyed my life and everything I used to have, but I can't get rid of it no matter what I tried. I can't change here, but I can still feel it.

Would you say that is for better, or for worse?

[Vanguard has little reason to be bitter or provoking. Not anymore. In fact, he may fidget awkwardly until finally, he relents and admits the point that Bruce is trying to get across.]

[He even turns it to audio. There's a long pause. Then:]

Worse.

... Sorry. For what I said.

It's fine. Apologies for unloading it all on your in the first place. Nobody deserves to hear something like that.

[Even if he does feel a tiny bit better for being able to say it.]

What I'm just trying to say is even if your Chosen is bigger now, even if they are more powerful than they used to be - they also face that same amount of danger. And I'm sure your Chosen is doing their best in that regard.

[Which can't be said for him, but well. Bruce knows he's always been a hypocrite in some fashion or another.]

Well in case you haven't noticed, I did a little unloading of my own right on top of ya. So... we're even.

[A pause. Now that Vanguard knows the type of burden that Bruce carries (in even the vaguest sense), he may tread a little softer in this conversation.]

Did things ever get better?

Edited (html) 2014-01-30 08:33 (UTC)

It's hard to tell.

[In a more honest fashion Bruce would say 'no', but well. He's said enough as it is.]

[Not explicitly stated, but it's enough to surmise what Bruce really means.]

Do you feel better here? In the digital world?

I can't say for sure about that, either.

[Should he be happy that he can't change? Logically, yes, but yet... that time, if Tony's Dorumon hadn't digivolved they would have been killed, Bruce is sure of that. He's been told that the Digimon are born to fight, but still--is that what he can be okay with? The fact that they fight and could die every time they do so?

Bruce isn't sure what to feel about it, to be honest.]

Too strong in one world.

But not happy enough in another.

You're a complicated guy.

Edited 2014-01-30 10:08 (UTC)

It's not the first time I've heard that.

[The ultimate paradox, SHIELD has so kindly described him before, and Bruce knows its true. The unassuming man with the terrible beast inside, a brilliant mind that can help millions but with a body that destroys billions.

It's hard, to put it mildly.]

That's your first clue they may be onto something.

So what's the deal then? You hate being so strong, then how come you ain't happy here?

Edited 2014-01-30 19:40 (UTC)

[There's a long pause after that question, and then:]

Do you like to fight?

Well yeah.

I mean, I ain't foaming at the mouth to tick off any evolved digimon that'll get my partner killed.

But most of the time. I do like fighting. Feels like I'm doing what I was always meant for. And the stronger I get, the more I feel like me and my partner can fix things. I can also keep him from you know.

Dying.

Why?

Is that okay with you? The fact that you have to fight all the time--that you get hurt and hurt other digimon as well? Sometimes because of us?

Edited 2014-02-01 06:37 (UTC)

[He frowns at the question. He just. Never really thought about it all that much.]

But see? That is the answer.

'Because of you.' Because of the Chosen.

[He'll clarify.]

Here. Lemme ask you something. You're a Chosen. You got a digimon or two of your own, right?

[Yeah, see, this is why Bruce isn't comfortable with all of this.]

Yes, I suppose.

[Not that.... he really wants to say that Floramon is his, since he has his own sentience and Bruce has never been a fan of claiming other beings as their own, especially if they're sentient.]

Don't you dare tell anybody I said anything sappy like this but

We waited for you our whole lives. We were made for you. Meeting you was like filling in this big ugly hole that was empty since we were born.

Sometimes we're dumb and rude, and sometimes tick each other off, and sometimes you Chosen are a huge pain to take care of. But as much as we're your digimon? You are also our Chosen.

So I guess maybe it ain't really about fighting just 'cause we can. I like fighting because I got something worth fighting for, and that's way more important than not getting hurt, or playing it safe.

... That making any sense?

[Bruce... he's not entirely sure what to feel about it. In some ways, it makes a bit more sense to him, the reasons why Digimon are the way they are. But in the same breadth--made for them? Really? That doesn't... it still doesn't sit right with him. Not when that just implies so many other things he doesn't like to think about.]

Is that fine for you, though? The thought that you were tailored specifically for somebody?

[Created to be somebody's 'perfect partner'... that kind of thing--Bruce can't see why it's good. Not when that just calls for so many layers of uncertainty about what one even knows is right or wrong.]

You ever run into those space cases who go on and on about 'what is our destiny' and 'finding your purpose' and 'why are we alive' and 'why are we here' and blah di blah di blah.

Some people call it simpleminded, but I think of it as the same thing. Only I don't whine about finding my reason for living my entire life and never figure it out- it's nice and gift wrapped for me right in the beginning. Whatever I was made for at the start, I choose to be here now. It's what I choose.

I ain't trapped, stranger. I'm lucky.

Don't get a big head, or anything.

But your digimon's lucky for one reason at least.

[There's a pause as Bruce thinks over that response. He can see why it's fine, on one end, but the part of him that's been through hell - the part that made him run from his life, run from Ross, run from being strapped onto a lab bench and prodded with instruments all over again - still isn't convinced. It'll never be convinced, he thinks. He's too damaged for this.

Which, really, is why he wonders he's even here. How can he be alright for anybody at all, let alone Floramon - who is supposed to be made for him? He doesn't deserve it - and Floramon doesn't deserve somebody as terrible as he is.]

Aren't you scared? The thought that perhaps a part of you was changed because you're made to fit with your Chosen. How can you be sure that its actually alright, that this is actually what you chose?

[Not that he doubts Vanguard, certainly, but Bruce just needs to know.]

What's there to be scared of? I got a partner like I wanted. Even if somebody else made me want this good thing? It's still a good thing.

Besides. There are worse fates.

Not all Chosen are like you. Some of them don't care. Some of them use us to do bad things, and we choose to let them. Some of them leave us behind when we're not good enough anymore. Or when we're 'not the real thing.'

Some of them don't care about being strong, so strong that everybody and everything gets all ruined.

Fact that you asked me these things- fact that you're scared that I might be? [A pause. And the very first words of the stranger come back to him.] Means that you should feel a little more impressive than you think you are.

[Another pause after those words. Vanguard seems so certain of it all, doesn't he? And Bruce... he can't just ignore the certainty of them, can't just say it's part of their--what, coding? Programming? With each day that passes now, he's seeing more and more at how alive the Digimon truly are. They're not just codes or data - they're alive, just as real as everything else. They live, they die, they breathe and eat and laugh and cry.

They get hurt, and injured, and they know what is pain as much as they know happiness. And that just makes everything so much harder.]

I don't want to feel impressive, though. I don't want to be strong, or powerful, or anything like that, here or otherwise.

[Brief pause.]

I don't want to have strength just so to fight - just so I can hurt others under the guise of 'protecting'. It never really goes anywhere.

[It's an issue that permeates most of this stranger's life. Whatever was left of it anyway, after his 'strength' brought it to ruin. It feels wrong to make fun of him or pick fights with him, when his fears are laid so open before him. So he takes his time in deciding what to write, even if it's just a singe question.]

So... then what do you want?

[Yet another pause, again, this one even longer than before. Mostly because Bruce has to think about it - and he really does, but eventually, well.]

I don't know, to be honest.

[He really has no idea at all, right at this moment. He's stuck in a world of data, Floramon is supposed to be his partner, he can't turn into the Other Guy... so much has happened, and Bruce really is at a loss right now.]

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