#malamiteltd

"H-a-a-a-a-a-a-a! I will kill you Digimon!"

I was never able to fully get into Digimon, for whatever reason. I've seen one or two episodes of the original show, and I suppose the dubbing was a bit cringeworthy. The movie wasn't too much better, though I'd say 1/4 of it was pretty cool.

And I remember trying two of the games: Digimon World (1) and Digimon Rumble Arena 2; the latter was alright, but I wasn't getting a real connection either way. I don't see myself trying any of the others, as I'm not really big on RPG's.

Digimon in general feels like something of an enigma; there's a few things I kinda understand, and a good number of things I don't. And I will say, the Digimon themselves have some wild range of designs, from fairly cute to eldritch horror. It's a lot to take in.

So why do I like this one so doggone much?!

This is the first time I've drawn and posted a Digimon... I feel like I've entered weird territory I'm not supposed to be.

The first is Pfeilgeist, the theme of an original character Mag Jones. It was originally thought up as music for a Rhythm Heaven "game" idea, but it never happened; the theme did seem very shmup-worthy, though, so Mag was blessed with this music for when she became a Red Mage...particularly one that could fly.

The second was just a tune I thought up one day and eventually arranged it into whatever it is. It certainly sounds like Some Kinda Menu Thing, like for a fighter or a racer.

The final one is actually an arrangement of the theme for Pantufa the Cat. It was made to act as the music for the game's credits, as I wasn't initially impressed with how the present music sounded. I've also referred to this music as "Otherworldly Toof," as I was imagining a different ending where the whole adventure was all the dream of Pezzottaite, essentially an alien variation of @vadapega's Pantufa, sleeping in his boat near the dock.

During that ending, when Pezzo goes ashore he finds Copper and Broom waiting. Broom brought a small TV and a prototype console, along with a game he was planning to translate to other alien languages, which he invited Pezzo to try out. When Pezzo turns it on...it essentially starts up Pantufa the Cat (again), as though it were a weird loop.

It's time to properly introduce another friend of Copper's.

This is Broom, a Syr'l from Planet Keshly'm. He and Copper met after being abducted by a race of aliens called Keinai. The whole ordeal was pretty scary for them, but Copper somehow managed to get them out of danger, scaring the Keinai off the ship. While waiting for officials to rescue them from the abandoned spaceship, Broom wanted to learn more about his new friend and rescuer. He offered to use a special skill called "Clarity," which usually involves two Syrl's hands interlocking to allow a direct view into each other's minds, revealing their true selves, their thoughts, wishes, memories, and so on -- very little is kept secret. Copper was nervous to do this, but eventually agreed. Sadly, Copper could interpret very little about Broom... but Broom got a good understanding of Copper, and immediately understood his position. Since then, he's done his best to be supportive, and promised to keep Copper's secrets to himself.

What little Copper could understand about Broom, it at least signaled to him that Broom was indeed someone he could trust. He's since felt at ease with his presence.

Since the abduction incident, Broom has had occasional contact with Copper, talking about his main hobby. He's one of the founding members of a video game enthusiast club on Keshly'm, referred to as the IntEnt Group (short for "Interactive Entertainment Group"). They've been getting their mitts on several games from Earth dating centuries back. The medium was so fascinating to them that they've made it a goal to popularize it on their world, starting with translating the old Earth games and making new consoles and controllers on which to play them.

Broom's mainly in charge of translating, but he's gotten a little skill in making a game or two of his own! Featured in the above image is his first personal project, called "Kickback." It's basically a Pong-like game presented in vector graphics, where the playfield is a full-circle. The club occasionally plays it to pass the time, but it's a basic game with little presentation; Broom hopes to make his next project, "Wally-Weely," available to the general public. A simple design of that game's eponymous entity can be seen on his tanktop.

Like most Syr'l, Broom is a very approachable and peaceful guy. He's quite interested in Copper's own artistic projects and enjoys looking at the designs he makes. That said, Broom has his own odd quirks, like the odd black mark on his antenna (similar to Copper's forehead marking) and his own sometimes clumsy nature. But among these, Broom loves his hobby and club and sometimes can't help but gush about them, which often leaves Copper confused. Because of this, Broom occasionally brings equipment to Kheji to show him the stuff he works on. Indeed, Copper finds the games very interesting, and it's led him to anticipate Broom's visits just to see what else he's been playing.

On at least one occasion, Broom even took Copper to Keshly'm to meet the rest of the IntEnt Group for a bit of a multiplayer gaming marathon. The accommodations were smaller than he's used to -- he has to crawl to get around their place -- but he had a lot of fun.

I had intentions to put this kind of thing somewhere in the post about Copper but it never happened. So it'll be a separate thing.