RUPERT;

[goalsides]

Comments

[heartlands]

Biked...?

[but, also:]

That sounds - pretty intense. Six days a week, really? How long did you have to stay?

[goalsides]

It's...never mind, it's not that important. [he will find a bike and show rupert someday maybe.]

Saturdays were usually half-days, but we started pretty early in the morning and would go into the afternoon. I had practice before and after school so I spent a lot of time there.

[heartlands]

That sounds... well, time consuming, obviously. What were you practicing, though?

[goalsides]

Soccer. [and because he's had to explain this:] It's a game with a ball that you kick around. Do you guys have sports?

[heartlands]

Oh, yeah! Like - jousting? But that's pretty different than kicking a ball around...

[goalsides]

Jousting's like...with a spear, right? I think I saw it in a movie once. [thanks taichi.] There's a field out by the gym. I could teach you to play sometime. You can't be any worse than Agumon.

[it's a light jest, but also. agumon has probably popped a few soccer balls in his life, it's fine.]

[heartlands]

Yeah, or a lance.

[but more importantly—]

Sure, I'd try it out! I'm not really athletic, but... [also:] Who's Agumon?

[goalsides]

Yeah, that. [same thing? except not really. he doesn't seem to mind if rupert lacks athletic ability, but he does grin at the question.]

Agumon's my partner.

[heartlands]

[thinking, thinking...]

Oh, are you and Yamato from the same place? He mentioned something about that, too. I mean - not your specific partner, but the idea.

[goalsides]

[there's a nod.]

Yeah. We met our partners at the same time. His is Gabumon. Kind of looks like a dog and a lizard combined.

[heartlands]

I... cannot even imagine what that might look like, but it sounds neat! What about yours?

[goalsides]

[it gets him to laugh.]

You'd have to ask Yamato and keep in mind he's incredibly biased. [this may have come up between the two of them already, or he's just dunking on his friend. probably both. but hm..]

Agumon kind of looks like a small dinosaur. [which is his default answer, but then he thinks about byleth's comparison.] Or like...kind of like Porridge? But he's more yellow and stands on two legs and he doesn't have wings in that form. Taller, too. He and Gabumon both come up to about our knees.

[heartlands]

Aw... He sounds cute! Where'd you meet him?

[goalsides]

[he doesn't seem to mind sharing! also this is better than talking about cats.]

There's this other world that's connected to ours. We all met our partners there about six years ago.

[heartlands]

Another world? Kind of like how all of us came to this one from different places?

[goalsides]

Yeah, exactly. This is the second time this has happened to me and Yamato.

[heartlands]

Was it less weird the first time...?

[goalsides]

Not even close. [haha!] The Digital World wasn't even structured like this. We didn't have any food or buildings or anything. We camped out a lot and we couldn't figure out a way back for months.

[heartlands]

Well, that... Sounds pretty awful, honestly! Were both of you okay?

[goalsides]

[okay is a very subjective word in his opinion...]

Yeah. We did what we needed to do and all of us got home in the end. We've been back a couple of times since then whenever our friends need us.

[heartlands]

Is it always like the first time, when you go back? I mean, the whole - months long, camping out kind of thing?

[goalsides]

No, not always. Sometimes we've been able to come back the same day. Sometimes it's weeks at a time. It depends on a lot of stuff, but mostly it's about if we have a way back already set up or if we have to wait to get lucky.

[heartlands]

So... Sometimes you have enough time to plan in advance, basically, but sometimes it's pretty sudden?

[goalsides]

Yeah. Exactly. There's only a few ways to get there but even then...[he shrugs.]

It's why I've been trying to figure out how we even got here.

[heartlands]

...Oh, that's a good point! You think maybe it's similar to the way you got to that world in the first place?