I just need a frikken drink

[Observer]

Bad day... It was just a bad day... Yes, only that. Nothing special, just a really, really, really bad day. That was what Renee kept repeating in her head in a vane attempt to convince herself that it really was the truth. But she didn't really believe it, too blatant of a lie that was. No, not a lie, a HUGE understatement. And she knew this, memories of what happened were still too fresh, only, like, a day has passed since.

And that day she spent somewhere in a dump somewhere, hiding, shaking and whimpering like a pathetic coward, scared of every noise, afraid to even go into the light, not being able to get a grip of herself for so long. She felt disgusted with herself now. For everything, what happened before, and after. The only bright side in all of this was that it could hardly get any worse. Yeah... Not so much of a bright side, is it?

The renamon looked slightly better than yesterday. The battle damage was slightly less seen, and at least half of her face was covered by some rag she found and used as a makeshift eye-patch. The only thing lacking was a crutch and an army helmet, though she could probably use the latter, heavily limping on one leg.

She didn't see her tamer ever since that fateful battle. She kinda figured he survived the encounter, otherwise she would have sensed his death, but wasn't thinking about returning. No, she could not, she was ashamed. Ashamed for losing, for failing, for not listening, for lots of things. And the worst thing was that there was hardly anyone else to blame...

Slowly she approached the dark abandoned building - the one place besides the safe house that she knew she could go in. The first was not an option, and her health was not in immediate danger, aches and pains being her last concern. Slowly she approached the doorway...

The guard Numemon dropped his jaw upon seeing the visitor, not quite comprehending what could have happened. He was a dull one, and Renee was not in the mood to wait in the doorway while the stupid creature figure to let her inside.

- Are you going to gawk at me forever, or are you gonna let me in? Move aside. - the question was purely rhetorical, as the next moment she shoved the numemon aside, and entered. No one else really noticed her arrival - most were still too busy with their own problems, as usual...

She knew that humans, when facing a SNAFU, tended to consume a drink known as alcohol. She tried it once and found it distasteful, but, under the circumstances, her tastes would have to shut up, because of one marvelous feature it provided - it stopped the brain from thinking coherently at all. And that was just what she wanted - to snap out.

- Do you have any drinks that pack a punch? - she asked the barkeep Numemon, after taking a seat next to his barstand, not quite willing to keep standing - the leg was sore...

[Khrystalline Stone]

It wasn't often Blk.Monodramon went down here. He hadn't quite yet made any friends among the digimon community in the real world to go with here, though he had obvious reasons for that. They had created him to eliminate the digimon that plagued the human world after all, and if he were to play his given role, making friends with his targets was not in his best interest.

Even the other artificially created digimon, he hadn't really shown much interest in. He didn't know what to think of them really. Khrys had been told he had been created to be completely loyal to her and to follow her every command. However, that wasn't so. He never felt any uncontrollable desire to obey Khrys, and his bond with her was not of pure loyalty. He didn't have any innate desire to please her, and most of the time she, simply annoyed him. He only went along with what they expected of him because he could only see trouble for himself if he should them any different than what they expected.

Had they been successful with the others? He was inclined to believe so, as they had obeyed their partners without question. Then again, he himself was a contradiction to that logic. He too obeyed Khrys as the others had to their respective partners. Were any of them hiding like him? Or were they truly puppets, bound by their masters who controlled them? He couldn't help but feel pity for these digimon. He couldn't help but wonder if they would be so loyal to their partners if they had been given the chance to make that choice on their own?

Chances were though, neither he nor any of the other clones would likely find that out. He had no immediate plans to turn on Hypnos. Though he found himself disgusted by the attitudes of many of them, he did find himself becoming more and more attached to Khrys, even without any code forcing him to. Sure, she wasn't all too bright when it came to interacting with others, and at times she annoyed him greatly, but she at least showed compassion, untainted by hate or greed, and for that he did have respect for her, and it was growing into a sort of friendship.

Soon he was approaching the entrance to Numemon's pub, and as he did, he just caught a familiar silvery furred digimon blow past the guard. So SilverRenamon was here? Well, didn't quite expect to run into her here, but he guessed she had just as much reason to be here as he did. It was a fairly good place to pick up information and rumors on what was going on. He moved in after her, pause only momentarily as the Numemon recovered from his encounter with Renamon to turn on him. BlkMonodramon stared him down, and emitted a low growl. The Numemon quickly lost his bravado and backed off, allowing him to enter.

Once inside, he took a moment to take his surroundings in. There was nothing unusual though. Just the same bartenders and and a handful of other digimon patrons that littered the joint. Then of course there was that Renamon. He hadn't gotten a good look at Renamon when she had entered, but now he had, he could see she had been considerably roughed up. He had been somewhat surprised, but figured she had ended up in a fight with another digimon that had either ended in a difficult win, or had ended badly.

He chose the seat to Renamon's left. Let out a bark like noise, getting the Bartender's attention. He then reached, prodding the tap he wanted. "What you want that?" The Numemon asked, failing to disguise the annoyance in his tone. BlkMonodramon nodded, and the Numemon poured his drink. It was a light drink, and it was more just to give him reason to be there than anything. He never dared drink much alcohol. The stuff impaired judgment, and the last thing he wanted was to put himself in that kind of spot.

His gaze then shifted to Renamon, he made a low squeaking sound, a friendly greeting, as well as something to catch the vixen's attention. His eyes stared, his expression showed a mix of curiosity and concern. His tail was slightly lifted to the side, but remained quite still, showing his approach was cautious, not truly eager for a response, but he was pretty much handing her a chance to open up, rant, or otherwise reject the chance. It certainly wouldn't be the first time he found himself being the vent for another's frustrations, though usually it was not by choice. It was often random Hypnos workers he bumped into. They all seemed to have an affinity for ranting at him. He could only figure they were prone to do this to him because he didn't speak, and it was likely comforting to them to talk to someone they were so certain wouldn't speak.

[Observer]

The barman looked at the renamon without hiding his amazement. It was rarely digimon came around in such a bad state, and potentially strong ones to boot too. The Numemon remembered her - she showed around a couple of times, mostly chit-chatting with the information broker about stuff, but nothing really suspicious. He wondered what happened though.

- By yggdracil, miss, what happed to thee? You look like you were run over by a horde of goblimon... - he gasped in amazement, but silenced, meeting Renee's death glare from her one eye. One would figure it would be a bad idea to annoy her with questions just of now.

- You ignored my question. - she said relentlessly, making cold sweat fall down the numemon's neck.

- Yes, yes, we have many good drinks, but, if you want something that really packs a punch, I would recommend "Adios, motherf&^$@er!". Have a couple of goes at it, and you will have trouble remembering your species' name. - the Numemon replied proudly, sure in his skills. Renee didn't care really, she just wanted to get lost.

- I'll take one, and keep them coming. - she asked. The barman nodded, and started mixing vodka, rum, tequila, gin, curacao and a few other things the renamon didn't quite recognize into one hell of a cocktail. She started doubting if it really was such a good idea, but before she knew it, the glass with that napalm was put right in front of her.

- I'm gonna regret this in the morning... - She whispered, taking the glass and emptying it in one go, as if it was juice. Numemon watched in horror - who the hell drank alcohol like that? Renee figured she made a mistake the next moment - the liquid wanted to go back the way it came, and she barely held herself not no vomit.

- Tastes like liquid shi-- - she gave her verdict, her pupils changing shape and size so frantically one would think she were on drugs . Numemon laughed a bit, and shook his head, before answering:

- You drank it incorrectly. Take it slow, you don't have to rush, plenty of time left... So, you want another round, or should we wait? - he asked with a fatherly intonation.

- Give me a breather... - she said, and the barmen nodded, tending to other costumers...

Renee just kept staring in her now empty glass. The Numemon didn't lie, it was not long before she started seeing vivid images moving in the glass, like in a tv set. Her imagination, fueled by alcohol, was drawing images upon images in the glass sides, most being related to those she lived through not too long ago. She didn't turn away. She forced herself to watch. Busy with that, the fox didn't notice the monodramon walking in, and even take a place next to her, until he made an audible sign of his presence.

She knew him, of course - the new member of the clone squad, the most recently created one. She accepted him as any other member of the team - since real digimon would have surely looked down upon clones, clones must stick together. Everybody in the team had a quirk or two, this one's was an apparent inability to speak. Renee mused if this was a gift or a curse though - someone like this usually was an excellent listener.

- Hi. - she replied soberly, turning her head to face the monodramon and look at him. She wondered what was the reason he came here, and didn't hesitate to inquire: - Tis unlikely they sent you to tell me something important. Did you come here to have a drink or two? - she asked, and found another glass under her nose - the barman made her another round, figuring she had stared at an empty glass long enough. She took a sip, her face twitching a bit in disgust as she forced to swallow the liquid.

- Took it slow and it still is distasteful... - she commented on the drink, turning to monodramon again. - ... or are you here to take me back? I am not going anywhere... not any time soon... - she said, staring at the glass again, showing a somewhat shameful expression...

[Khrystalline Stone]

BlackMonodramon couldn't help it -- his eyes widened in alarm, and if he didn't already have control over his voice, he probably would have said something out of shock when the Renamon turned her head, revealing a harshly injured right eye. Who could have done that to her? Better question, why wasn't she at Hypnos? Surely they could do something to heal her. He quickly blinked away the alarm. He doubted the Renamon was unaware of the injury, and now he was fairly certain it was a loss that had put her in her current condition.

Monodramon's reaction to her initial question, was an amused snort at the obvious statement she started with, followed by him shrugging, followed by an uncertain nod. Though he took the chance for a drink when he was here, he wouldn't be here at all if he wasn't on the look out for potential informants. No one present seemed too interesting though, so his visit was purely for drink related purposes. The answer wasn't quite yes, wasn't quite no.

As Renamon took a sip from her drink, he took the chance to take a sip of his own drink. He hadn't been surprised that Renamon hadn't liked the cocktail that the Numemon seemed to be putting everything into. He himself was fairly picky on his drinks even just beyond the alcohol content. He couldn't imagine all of that would combine to taste very good.

When she added a second part to her initial question though, the Monodramon shook his head no, though it was accompanied by slanted frown, which expressed much of his concern. Seeing her as she was, he wanted to take her home. Part of him wanted to think her partner was worried about her, but any worry he might have, Monodramon doubted was any more than worry that he would have to replace his puppet. He let out a sigh, and placed a paw on her shoulder as a comforting gesture. Whether her will was her own or not, she still had the emotions of a digimon, and for that she deserved his friendship.

[Observer]

The monodramon's face showed a "wtf?" expression upon witnessing Renee's face in full. That was an expectable reaction - anyone would ask such a question, aside from blind people. And despite the fact the digimon never actually asked something, the eyes were clearly asking for an explanation. She couldn't tell though, not at the moment, with that shrewd Numemon hanging around prying for anything. She took another sip of that infernal liquid the barmen made her.

So far it didn't have the effect she longed for. It was, indeed, blocking parts of memory, but the bad thing was that it blocked everything aside from the desired particle, perhaps stronger memories are harder to silence? She didn't know. Or care. She'd get to the point, eventually. So far the only positive effect was making her less hostile than usual. That is why she didn't throw a counter-punch upon feeling a hand on the shoulder - usually she was extremely touchy about invading her personal space. Today was not the case, however.

- I got off easy... For all errors I did ... should have been dead twice. No. Trice... - she said quietly, after said Numemon went on somewhere. Another sip - this time she didn't even twitch, getting used to the disgusting taste of the drink... There were now two empty glasses in front of her. The pupil of her only eye was dilated, showing another obvious effect of the drink...

- It all could have been avoided though... If I only were to listen... - she sighed out, and silenced, the barman approached again, with another drink, putting it in front of her silently, before going about his business again. Well, she said to keep them coming... She didn't start the third one immediately though, allowing for another breather, a pause, if you will.

- Did the commander make it through ok? He covered my escape and remained on the battlefield... while I fled. - she asked the monodramon. It was such a disgrace. A weak, fragile human covering the strong and tough warrior's runaway. If something were to happen to the human, she would have never forgave herself...

[Mistral]

(this happens a bit before wizardmon gets partnered and de-evolved, so don't get too used to him being a handsome wizard digimon XD)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"My apologies, but this is the absolute truth"

The wizardmon told to a recently spirited away ogremon who found his way into the numemon bar thanks to the timely intervention of the previously mentioned wizard digimon during one of his brief visits to the world outside the numemon bar. Since he arrived to this world of humans, he sneaked once a while into the human city to seek for lost and confused digimon before they got into troubles with the native population and ended up being deleted for causing trouble. Alas, he hardly had any success and eventually his visits to the rest of the human city become so infrequent that he hardly left at all and it was pure luck what guided him to find an ogremon that was both calm enough not to fight at the smallest provocation and intelligent enough to accept the wizardmon's help.

He dismissed the ogremon after telling him the basics about how to survive in the human world and focused his attention on two guests that recently arrived, one was an oddly colored monodramon and the other was that oddly colored renamon of that other day. He guessed that she came along a friend to share information with him, although all the drinks on her table indicated that her visit to this establishment might be due another reason.

"Miss, you don't look well. Do you need any help?"

Now that he was next to the pair of oddly colored digimon, he noticed her clearly visible wounds, but more visible than her wounds were her poor emotional state. The last time she was brimming with confidence and strong willpower, yet now she looked as defenseless as a fresh digimon. He looked at her companion and decided to speak with him to make sure no misunderstandings happened between them.

"I can see you are an acquaintance of hers. No harm meant here, I had the honor of meeting her some days ago and I got worried after noticing her less than desirable state. And excuse me if I interrupted something, if you wish it I can return to my usual place and leave you alone if my presence is unwanted"

[Khrystalline Stone]

BlkMonodramon listened patiently as the Renamon spoke vaguely of her experience. He sat there, expression neutral, as he took another sip of his drink. Then she said if only she had listened... Listened to what? BlkMonodramon wondered, mentally cursing the bartender for choosing such a inopportune time to come by them and offer Renamon another drink. He wondered if she had disobeyed an order from her partner. Then again, disobedience didn't necessarily denote disloyalty. An order such as what involved putting her partner in danger, for instance, could be ignored out of loyalty. Without further information, he couldn't really ponder Renamon's status quite yet.

By commander, he could only assume she was talking about her partner. As he didn't speak, he never referred to his own partner as anything. Monodramon nodded affirmatively. He didn't actually know this for certain, heck, he couldn't even quite remember which human was her partner, but he doubted otherwise. All known human partners had returned to the safe house with no noticeable injury, and he didn't think Hypnos would be ignoring Renamon's disappearance if her partner was incapacitated.

Then a stranger arrived, a Wizardmon taking a seat next to them. The BlkMonodramon's initial reaction was a deep growl, his crimson eyes glaring at the newcomer. He listened to what the Wizardmon had to say, but wasn't going to take his word for anything. He instead gave Renamon a questioning look, giving her the choice to shove him off or allow him to stay.

[Observer]

Renee stopped noticing that her sips were getting bigger with each glass the barman brought about. If at first the entire glass went in 10 sips, by now it required about 4. She already started to lose orientation, everything and everyone outside the small circle of her vision went blurry. Her head was slowly moving left and right, though she thought she was sitting still. This will hurt in the morning, but the effect she came here for was about to be achieved - she wanted to continue, to say something, but memories were mixed together, she couldn't make up a clear image.

The monodramon next to her just kept quiet. He never really answered her question about Larry. Maybe he didn't know. Or knew, but wouldn't, or couldn't tell. Renee assumed he was alright, or wanted to believe it. In such a state, it wasn't too hard for her to convince herself though. A bit of a memory came back, before she took down another swallow, before saying something half-coherent to herself, mixed with cussing:

- He said we should have called for reinforcements but I said noooo, I'm the wanton slaughter-machine 'round here, I can take it... he muttered to herself before started laughing half-hysterically, hitting the glass against the table, luckily it was empty by now. The Numemon came arround, worried, and took the empty glasses away, just to be on the safe side. - Punch punch punch uh oh. Brick wall. Didn't even make a dent... God I'm such an idiot... Will get myself a gun too, heh, why do they even need us when their weaponry is so efficient? - more incoherent grumbles continued, before their table was approached by a familiar silhouette. Monodramon growled, but Renee knew who it was.

- AbraCadabramon, hi... - she said, lifting her head from the table, as she found herself half-lying on it, not able to even sit straight. Numemon wasn't lying, the stuff really kicked in. - I remember you... Info broker... Nay, I don't need any help, that bastard is dead now anyways... No wait, you have a bandage? - a question was asked. The truth was she needed one to replace the rag that was covering her empty eye-hole. Who knows where she found that thing, wasn't exactly sterile.

[Mistral]

"..."

Judging by the pitiful state of silver renamon and what she said, it was obvious that she fought against the wrong opponent and all her injuries were product of her own foolishness. As for her wounded pride, most likely she was not the one who defeated her opponent and somebody else did it for her while she acted like a maiden in distress. Clearly the quiet black monodramon wasn't her savior, he didn't look like somebody who cared very much for the vulpine digimon ... although just like the silver renamon, he seemed to hide something behind that stoic appearance of his.

"I'm no medic, but it's obvious you need much more than a simple bandage"

He looked at her companion and while he didn't look like a cooperative digimon, he at least had the feeling both of them were part of something, after all it is very rare to see two digimon who had unusual colors AND that hanged out together.

"If you are indeed a companion of hers, please take her to a quiet place where she can rest until her wounds heals. Here is noisy and drinking so much alcohol will only make her get sick"

Well, this wasn't a nice sight and there was not much he could do for the drunk renamon.As much, he could prevent her from drinking more and bring some new bandages to replace the dirty ones she had.

"I'm going for some bandages and disinfectants we have here, please keep her calmed while I bring some to at least prevent an infection"

Said that, the wizardmon went to one of the many rooms in the abandoned hotel to look for the room where they storaged a few medical supplies. He hoped none of those two digimons did anything dumb while he was gone.

[Khrystalline Stone]

BlkMonodramon sighed. The more the silver colored Renamon spoke of what happened, the more he couldn't help agree with her. She had been told to run, but she had ignored both the danger and the opening to save herself and fought anyways. It had been her own foolishness that put her in this position and there simply was no denying it. Feeling sorry for one self was hardly the fix though. She needed to smarten up if she wanted to be strong.

As for the gun idea? Monodramon could only roll his eyes. Renamon really was drunk, and he could only be thankful that the Numemon had ceased serving her. Human weapons were ineffective against digimon. The best they did was distract the weak with the meaningless pain they caused. Renamon's opponent may have been hit by such weapons, but if they fell to them, it was likely only because Renamon had already brought it close enough to death that it didn't need much more.

It seemed Renamon did indeed have past dealings with this digimon, and expressed no desire to send him on his way. Thus, Monodramon expressed little more aggression towards him and took a more neutral stance towards the Wizardmon. The newcomer then suggested taking her somewhere quieter, but Monodramon wasn't so certain about the idea. Of course it would be good to get her out of here, but would she accept being taken away from the bar?

Well, if she resisted he could always just leave her there. No one would be able to help her if she didn't let them help her after all. As Wizardmon went to get medical supplies for her, BlkMonodramon slid off his bar stool, and hooked Renamon's arm with his paw, lightly tugging her arm, and pointing to the exit, he took a deep breath and exhaled, and hoped Renamon would see he wanted to take her outside for some fresh air. Being silent had its perks, but it also had the huge downside of a life of charades.