Respect the dead [Open]

[Deleted]

Dawn of a new day. Axel would've preferred lying in bed today, but it was an important day for him. The tamer stood out of his bed and started to get dressed. Betamon got out of the room and went to see him, wondering what was wrong. Axel didn't mind him, nor did he reply. The digimon simply followed his tamer, wondering what was wrong. The young man looked at his digivice and displayed the time of the day. 8:00 am... It was still early, but he hoped the flower shop was open. Heading down the shopping street, the young man found the shop he was looking for and bought the flowers he wished to have. Betamon stayed close to him, still wondering what this was about. As they got away, the tamer finally decided to speak.

"Today is the 9th anniversary of my wife's death, as well as that of my son... If you wish to return home, go ahead Beta. You don't need to see this through at my side."

"I'm... sorry to hear this. But no, I shall stay with you. I would be a bad digimon to leave my tamer in a day like this."

Axel smiled to his digimon and went toward Sensoji Temple. As he reached the place, he went in the back of the temple's field, where the graveyard was, and where he moved his wife and son's grave. The young man walked pass a few tombs before stopping in front of 2 graves, with the names of Anna Heartnet and ******* Heartnet on each of them. The tamer knelled in front of them and placed the flowers in front of each tombs before starting to pray. If his son had still been alive, he'd have close to nine years old now...

[Quinn Blythe]

"Sensoji Castle? Why are we here?" – a light and clear voice asked from somewhere above Quinn’s head. Walking through the path leading closer to the Castle’s walls, the young man was observing the garden and the few trees surrounding them. Hearing his partner’s voice, Quinn glanced up at the bat-eared mammal.

"Keenan, you said you wanted to see more of our world. You haven’t been to this part of the city yet, have you?" – He asked back, watching the Patamon glide from one tree to another, catching the attention of the other visitors who passed by.

"Yeah, but... couldn’t you have shown me something more fun than a temple?" Keenan asked, flying closer to his tamer and settling on his board shoulders, flapping his wing-shaped ears once before grabbing Quinn’s shirt for support. "You know, like some playgrounds, or something?"

"Do you really think we have many playgrounds around here?" Quinn resisted the urge to lightly smack his partner across his head for being a silly child. "This is a Buddhist temple, you know. There is also a graveyard that accepts people of other religion, since not everyone is Buddhist or Shintoist in this city ever since the war started." He quieted down and looked around, only half paying attention to where he was going. Unconsciously, he was headed for the graveyard, as he was talking about it. Keenan glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Quinn, do you also...?" He tried to ask, but his tamer quieted him with the shake of his head, and a hand held up. They reached the graveyard. In these kinds of places, Quinn’s mind liked to heighten what he already knew. Some of the graves were like glowing lanterns for him, and he knew exactly which ones were those. And for some reason, the sole other visitor was a dark patch among the normal light and the shining graves. Quinn shook his head, and the vision was gone, which made him realize the other person in the graveyard also had a digimon by his side.

"Oh, a friend!" Keenan chirped and flew off to greet the stranger paying their respect to whomever whose grave they were visiting. Quinn was just a little late calling after the overfriendly Patamon.

"Keenan, don’t bother them", the Patamon was already halfway toward the unfamiliar pair, and hovered in the air, with a confused “Huh?” leaving him. Why not? Wasn’t it common sense to greet another digimon?

notes: Entering first! Feel free to get annoyed at the Patamon for not staying quiet, or something.
tags: Axel, and whoever else joins~

[Deleted]

After praying a bit, Axel decided to stand up, but he did not move from his current location. Slowly, his eyes closed, reminiscing the times he passed with his family before those sad events happened. If only he had expected those bastards to go after Anna and he had stayed with her, this wouldn't have happened. The young man left out a sigh and raised his head toward the sky, looking at the clouds and the blue sky that he could see in-between them. Suddenly, a chirping with a voice could be heard. Betamon turned around to see what it was, but not Axel. His eyes closed once more as he got lost in thoughts, ignoring the presence of the Patamon.

"Go ahead Beta if you wish. I'll join you soon."

"Are you sure Axel?"

"Yeah."

The digimon looked at his tamer before shaking his head slightly and heading toward the Patamon. The Betamon arrived at the location of the winged digimon and executed a form of bow before looking up and introducing himself.

"A pleasure meeting you. I'm Beta, Axel's digimon. If it's not too much asked, I would like it if we moved location before doing anything, to allow my tamer to finish paying his respect to his family."

Axel heard everything Betamon said and he sighed. Why did he have and go say so much information? Well, it might also be best this way, hopefully the Patamon and his tamer would understand and move away from the graveyard, which would allow the young man to finish thinking about the past.

[Quinn Blythe]

Quinn shook his head just lightly. He had a feeling Keenan’s enthusiasm would come off as offending, more than anything. He himself appreciates the Patamon’s spirit and kindness, but it often enough shows more as naivety. The other pair didn’t seem as happy about introducing themselves as Keenan, and Quinn could only hope it wouldn’t end in a conflict or a fight.

He was the most surprised when the other digimon walked up to them and actually introduced himself politely, with more respect than Keenan. Quinn nodded his way, but before he could speak, the Patamon chirped in.

"Hi, nice to meet you, I’m Keenan! I don’t mind moving but where is your tamer’s family for---"

"Keenan, come here," Quinn interrupted the puffy digimon before he could finish that question, whatever direction that might go, because he had a feeling the tamer wouldn’t want to answer – even if Beta would. Keenan flew over to him without question and watched him curiously. Quinn grabbed the digimon’s face to squish it while turning to Beta.

"The name’s Quinn, it’s a pleasure as well." He looked up at the tamer, the dark patches he saw turned into mist and evaporated through the graveyard while he watched, his brows drawn together while he concentrated on clearing his sight. Glancing back at the aquatic digimon he nodded again and turned around to head for the graveyard’s entrance. The gates looked much smaller than before, as if it didn’t want to let Quinn go before he himself paid his respect for the various glowing graves he saw. He stopped even before reaching the gate, unsure if he should go further.

"Will he be alright?" he asked quietly without turning to the Betamon. "Your tamer."

Keenan lay across Quinn’s lower arm as the boy was holding him, facing the digimon with a worried expression.

"I am sorry if I interrupted your partner..." the way his wing-like ears sagged reminded Quinn to a kicked puppy and couldn’t help but petting the Patamon’s head, as if to reassure him.

notes: I ended up writing a reply before Dan joined. =U He can fall in later too.
tags: Axel

[Deleted]

(Guess we'll keep going without Dan.)

Axel didn't hear anything that happened after he sent Betamon to see those that were causing some sort of ruckus. He was lost in his thoughts, letting the wind take his soul far from this world for a bit. As for Beta, he was sighing at the reaction of the Patamon named Keenan. He hadn't been in this world for long, that was for sure... Or maybe it was simple naivety? The digimon couldn't tell at this point. But his tamer kicked in and stopped the winged digimon to say something he shouldn't do. Beta looked behind to see if Axel was alright, but the tamer was not moving. Was that a good sign? He couldn't tell, but what was best right now was to step away.

Betamon followed Keenan and Quinn. Suddenly, the tamer asked if Axel would be alright, and his partner apologized for what he could have caused. It may be naivety after all that moved the young Patamon. Beta sighed and looked at Quinn as he catched up to him.

"He will be fine. I don't have much experience in human feelings, but since it's the 9th year since he started doing this, according to him at least, then I can assume that he will be alright. He simply needs to finish paying his respect to his family and he'll join us soon."

[Quinn Blythe]

As far as Quinn understood, death was a different concept for digimon than it was for humans. He was talking to Keenan after they met, after those incidents, and he figured out that digimon didn’t die upon being deleted, but returned to data, became a digiegg, and were reborn again. Digimon whose data was absorbed were a different case, as they could never be reborn, but that was still a little different. But they were talking, and Quinn could explain what they meant by death, and while Keenan could understand that, he didn’t know what exactly graveyards were. Quinn never took him to one, and at the same time, never had the chance to talk about it.

Keenan was relatively naïve, and he still didn’t know too much about the human world even though he had been there for some time now, but his kindness was still real. The fact he tried to apologize just proved that.

Quinn nodded as the Betamon explained his tamer’s standing. So it was nine years ago that the man’s family died, he mused to himself. Or at least disappeared without a trace, and after some time they decided to hold the memorial for the members who were assumed to be dead. The fact the digimon mentioned 'family' instead of mother, wife, daughter and such, made Quinn assume there weren’t only one person who the man was paying his respect for. He could understood that.

"Right." He said out loud finally, highly doubting anyone would be alright when visiting the grave of their family. And depending on his dedication and pain, he might take a while to finish. Quinn had time, and getting acquaintances never hurt. Keenan climbed to his usual spot on Quinn’s shoulder, and the boy patted his head as the digimon was perched comfortably. "Then we’ll wait." For why exactly, he wasn’t sure yet. Maybe that dark mist he was seeing made him a bit uneasy. "Nine years, huh? That’s a long time. He reminds me of the guards protecting the walls out there. Is he one of them?" Curiosity was getting the better of him, and while Quinn didn’t actually think he found one of the guards here, he didn’t see a reason not to ask.

notes: Continuing!
tags: Axel