Ben10 & Digimon Tamers

Heroes and Humanity

Part 02: Humanity and Heroes

Presage – Chapter 61

Originally Written: Tuesday, February 20, 2017 409AM to Saturday March 11, 2017 316AM

. . . . .

He sat in his room, ignoring Dr. Iris sitting on one of the couches in the living room. The tiniest sprite of a heavily pixelated version of Ryo Akiyama walked around on the tv screen as he navigated the sprite around with an old WonderSwan Console controller. He wasn't aiming for anything in particular, the sprite just walked around in random directions sometimes backtracking. His mind wandered, focusing on the barest hints of his reflection hidden on the screen mingling among all those pixels.

A female plumber that Albedo was pretty sure was Jeri had been on duty a few days prior. She handed him a pretty hefty bag. In it, a Wonderswan console and a familiar, yet not, set of games. He had asked how old the items were, but she shrugged and told him not to break them. He had then asked why not have him emulate the games on a more modern system. He swore she thought he killed her firstborn or something. After looking at the screen the first time, he quickly understood her reaction.

"Playing this on anything but the original console would be an injustice to his memory." He spoke to himself. He snorted, and looked down at the controller.

'Make yourself busy,' she had told him. Hard to do when he could see his reflection on the screen. It's like she knew he had moved all the mirrors.

He shook his head. Of course she did. Walls looked bare without them. The guards didn't search as thoroughly as he expected them to, but they did enter all the rooms and they did look around, and they were quite suspicious of anything that entered, exited or got passed around the apartment. He was certain that if anyone besides Jeri had tried to bring in a video game console, they'd be scolded and shown the door right quick.

He shifted on the bed, eventually falling back on it. He looked up at the ceiling. By no means, once he found his groove, was the game difficult, and though it wasn't his forte, it beat anything Sumo Slammers related in entertainment value. Yet, he still found it hard to play. At the rate he was going it would take him a few weeks, at least.

His foolish mentor was not one for games unless they were strictly educational, and even then it was touch and go as to whether he'd be accepting of it, but if he did let Albedo play such a game, he'd be looking at him with disappointment, and looking at the screen with disdain. Stopping every five minutes was not an efficient method to do much of anything, let alone play a game made years ago.

He sat up again. His stomach fluttered with nervousness and curiosity. Jenrya told him not to bother with Ryo's past, but was Ryo's story really and truly in the midst of a game freely sold and traded among children around Ryo's age at the time? He found it hard to believe. Humans were foolish, and tended to only see what they wanted to see, but ignoring this took their stupidity to a whole other level. Surely it'd be a feat if it were so. If only he could actually concentrate enough to play.

He looked at the screen for a moment, before getting up to turn it off. He would need to leave the game running until he found a proper save point. He walked back into the living room where Dr. Iris read something on a tablet.

He tried to read it over her shoulder, but she wasn't having it, and kept shifting so he could see. "Still here?"

"Of course."

He huffed and walked around the couch. "Another week, another meeting." He entered the kitchen, vaguely reminded of meetings with the tamers he participated in a time that felt so long ago. He carefully shifted through bottles of drink. He heard footsteps and knew it was a guard watching him. He picked up a water bottle seated on the table, part of a set of twenty-four. At some point, the Plumbers had started placing food and drink out for him in the apartment, instead of making him come out to eat. He figured it was because they were lazy, and were only just grasping that he was sick of being told to do things he hadn't wanted to do.

He stood next to the guard, just outside the kitchen doorway. He looked at Dr. Iris while drinking his water. The first appointment scheduled with her, they had tried to make him leave his apartment and meet with her in another room. Him? Leave to see someone he hadn't wanted to at the time? The thought was so hilarious the only logical action to take was resisting. Though he wondered if he should have listened. The room looked odd without her in that seat now. At first it looked odd without Jenrya, but now it was odd without either one.

The thought confused him. She hadn't done much of anything to earn such a response from him, and yet, she did. He'd not dare say anything about it. He was certain they'd make her cut ties with him if he did. As he walked towards his usual couch, he held in a shiver as he frowned. Lately, he found, since that day at any rate, he would not approve if she wasn't allowed to sit on that couch anymore. He couldn't tell you why, but he guessed it was because she didn't stare. Not anymore. That was the only explanation that made sense to him.

He laid down on the couch and stretched out his legs. The guard moved back to his post. He almost found it impressive that they could tell if he was moving around versus Jenrya or someone else. He was certain it had something to do with sensory equipment. Which kind, he did not know. Many kinds could sense or detect beings using DNA, visuals, rumbling or vibrations through the floor based on gait, vocals... He closed his eyes. The ways were endless. He did, however, find it comforting that there were no cameras he could see in the apartment. Something was calming about him having no idea for certain if they had recorded any of the fits, as Dr. Iris called them, he had. He'd rather not know than know, at least for this moment.