Episode Twelve: The Man Who Laughs

Azuma: "Who's taking first watch?"

He looks towards the entrance of the cave, seeing only dark which is not illuminated even by shining his flashlight at it.

E"I'll do it."

R"I guess we could do it too."

Eve:<I'll join you too. I don't feel like sleeping just yet...>

*She hasn't stopped staring into the flames. Terriermon has fallen asleep on her head. Kylie's eyes begin to close as she sits next to Biyomon and Cameron, Lunamon snug in her arms*

Azuma: "Three groups of three then?"

Taiyo tries to cuddle in close to Euryale because the alternative is pretty lousy. It's likely someone or everyone will end up falling asleep, but luckily it has been implied that Renamon does not sleep.

*Euryale puts an arm around Taiyo. A dinosaur also coils around her. As I assume someone took up Aroma's offer, she's standing around with no blanket.*

E"(You might be able to squeeze under here with us.)"

Eve:<That seems fine to me.>

Cameron:<We'll take the last watch then.>

Taiyo attempts to stretch her blanket around all of them. Hopefully it works.

With the first watch decided, those who aren't up to be watchful, presumably attempt to sleep.

*Cameron, Kylie, and their partners are all asleep. Eve gets up from her kneeling position and stretches. Then she moves towards Roatha*

<Uhh...Roatha?>

*Euryale now has a woman sleeping under each arm, a dinosaur curled around them, & possibly a fox thing somewhere in there. Roatha jerks.*

R"I'm awake!"

E"(I told you we should play 20 Questions to stay alert. And keep it down, people are trying to sleep.)"

*Eve crosses her arms and rolls her eyes*

<This is the best watch. We'll get an uninterrupted night of sleep after this.>

*She looks away from Roatha, slightly embarrassed*

<Can I...talk to you over there?>

*She gestures to the back end of the cave*

With those clods coming into her personal space, Renamon moves into the light because the awkward interactions of her partner and the clods that aren't those two is too much as is.

R"Uh, sure."

*Roatha follows or whatever.*

E"Hey, you can join us under the covers, you know."

*Eve braces herself against a wall of the cave and stares at the ground for a few moments before looking at Roatha*

<I don't know how to go about this, so I'll just spit it out.>

*A brief pause. Terriermon opens his eyes and winks at Roatha, while Eve's face turns slightly pink*

<Will you go out with me?>

Terriermon:<Well, that was kinda out of the blue. You were right about not knowing exactly how to go about this.>

*He grind down at Eve. Eve's face turns a skightly deeper shade of pink*

Renamon: "I'll be fine."

Renamon's ear twitches. Whether it's from what she heard at the back of the cave or elsewhere is anyone's guess.

*Euryale narrows her eyes.*

E"Was that a shiver, or did you hear something?"
--------------------------------------
R"Uh, sure."

*He scratches the back of his head, staring at the floor.*

R"That was kind of lame--sorry, I've been out of the dating game for a while."

Renamon: "Heard something."

She looks to the back of the cave then towards the entrance, but it's too dark even for her presumably better vision to see.

<Uh, thanks. I think that's what I should say anyway.>

*Eve smiles at Roatha, looking genuinely happy for the first time in a while. Terriermon's ears fluff up and he grins*

Terriermon:<Don't feel bad, I don't know that Eve has ever really dated before.>

*Eve swats him, but Terriermon just giggles*

Eve:<We better get back to the fire.>

*She takes his hand and leads him back*

*Dorumon makes obnoxious ooing noises upon their return.*

E"Roatha, you're up, take a torch & go with Renamon to investigate weird cave noises. Eve can go with you."

That's a terrible idea, but Renamon makes no objections.

With all the goddamn racket, Taiyo squirms in her sleep. For once she doesn't say anything which for those who are awake is probably a good thing.

*After Roatha grabs a torch, Eve follows him and Renamon to the back of the cave to investigate*

*Dorumon also comes along, jumping on Roatha's shoulder.*

R"Okay, it sucks out here, so let's just make sure there's nothing lurking near the entrance of the cave, then go back inside."

At the back of the cave is nothing. As those two were back there and not torn asunder, they should know this.

At the entrance is another story, the darkness so thick, the light of the torch will not pierce it, forcing them to step outside and damn near trip over a pile of rocks.

There are four piles no more than a few inches tall. One is a few inches long, the stones packed as tightly close together as can be close to the cave's entrance while two more packed together piles of a slighty shorter length are further to the left with a similar pile to the right and another identical pile further to the right of that one.

As none of them pay attention to the placement of the group members (or how I assume they're scattered about), they likely don't see how each pile corresponds with where everyone is or was sitting about in the cave.

Eve:<...These piles are new. Something is moving the stones in here.>

R"Yeah, this is creepy, it's a good thing we checked this out. Someone should peek back into the cave & tell Euryale to wake up the other Digimon."

D<Why don't you do it?>

R"You want me to leave you all alone in the dark?"

D<Point taken.>

*Dorumon hops off of his shoulder & heads to tell Euryale what they found. Euryale starts shaking Guilmon, who groans & smacks her hand away.*

Renamon looks towards the rocks and back inside the cave then back to the rocks.

Renamon: "They represent where everyone is. Or was."