LMS VII - A Rocky Side Adventure

What about Rocky I and II? We do not talk about Rocky I and II.
What about Rocky VI from the prologue? Prologue’s still a few years in the future XD Oliver’s working on it ok. He’s gonna learn how to summon Six and Rocky Superior… Eventually.

*CRASHES IN THROUGH WINDOW* LOOKS GOOD ALREADY! OOO I LOVE THE ROCKYS! AS SMART AS A ROOMBA IS A VERY GOOD WAY TO DESCRIBE ONE'S LEVEL OF SMARTNESS! AND WE DO NOT TALK OF ROCKY I AND ROCKY II, GOT IT! FOR NOW LEE AND DIANE ARE THE CHARRIES THAT STICKED THE MOST!
WELL, GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED, PILOT! MAY THE ALIENS KEEP THEIR CLAWS OFF YOU! *CRASHES OUT OF WINDOW*

"Say what did Diane call her presentation again?" Jason whispered. Well, he tried to at least. He underestimated the lung capacity of his Monochromon form and his voice travelled far in the near-empty room. He refused to cringe in embarrassment though even if he'd startled an already deathly pale Diane up on the stage.
He managed to twist the more rigid features of Monochromon into an encouraging smile as her panicked gaze fell onto him. If he could be an anchor for his brother, he sure could be for his adoptive aunt.
Lee next to him was flipping through the program. Huh, it looked like both he and his brother didn't think to check what Diane's actually called her thing--a critical oversight. Given the breakthrough she'd bring to adventuring once she had more than a prototype, Jason was honestly surprised to see such low attendance. They weren't even in one of the bigger rooms, too. So it looked like the staff also didn't recognize the importance of Diane's research.
Still, from his position all he could really see was like maybe one kinda lost Otamamon and a bored-looking Devimon, aside of course from them and Diane's new best friends in Exermon and Petermon. At least their section of the room was convincingly feigning enthusiasm. Though from the look on Dad's face, a sort of serene calmness that usually meant anything BUT, he was about ten seconds away from going on stage to hold Diane's presentation for him. Not that he would do that. Jason was willing to be that if Lee ever managed to get a presentation spot, Dad would watch him struggle and fail too-with sympathy but also with the firm belief in the "learning opportunity".
The Devimon made a disinterested entry on her notepad. Or maybe she started to doodle. She was one of the three others he'd already seen during the opening speech and later during Geckomon's presentation (and heh, Jason still had to smile at remembering that cooky presenter. Man, she knew how to entertain the room!)--and was probably here because SOMEONE needed to, for completion's sake. Devimon looked like she regretted drawing the short straw... which was really unfair.
"Oh here it is," Lee said, neatly stacking the pamplets back together. He winced. "...well. That's certainly something..." He held the relevant page up. "Analyzing and Restructuring the Electrical Potential during Data Processing."
“..what?” Jason asked, eyes flicking back up front where Diane had managed to stumble through what she believed to be were her necessary credentials. It didn’t look like anyone really got why she’d started talking about the moons and the human world – and Jason couldn’t blame them. They did practice this part extensively but Diane had lost the plot half-way through and Jason kind of wished she would have scrapped the entire deal and just said “Hey everybody, look at this battery that holds charge when scanned. I take autographs later”. But no, she insisted on doing this properly, that knowing her background was essential for understanding her great accomplishment.
Well, that also explained the mouthful of a title she chose for the presentation.
“It’s accurate. To a fault,” Jason allowed, still thinking that the “come and look at this wonderful battery, adventurers, you’re gonna love it” would have worked way better.
“She didn’t even mention extos…” Lee said, now giving Dad an accusing stare. Jason followed his look but Dad was dutifully taking his notes and also otherwise pantomimed the attentive listener.
“You could have helped her phrase that better,” Lee continued. He shook his head. “I could have helped her phrase this better! Why didn’t she ask?”
But the more Jason thought about it, the more he realized just when and where Diane was holding this presentation, the more Jason got it. Even if his autograph idea was still awesome obviously… Diane had been so nervous about being the only Beast digimon, she probably felt like she couldn’t name her presentation something simple and direct. It would have played into all the stereotypes.
So instead, she stuck with a title that was technically correct but missed its core audience…
Which actually gave him an idea.

Lee had no idea that Diane knew so much about fractal code! He remembered vividly her warning him not to dive too deep into the field, citing some corrupting influence or something? It had been a while! But no wonder Dad had brought him to her when he first showed interest, she was a well of knowledge! Of course, Lee did spend the last few months in her company as she got ready for this big event but they were mainly talking about batteries and at which points they’d be essential for adventurers. Lee had been pretty busy with his own thing too…
But now, he actually, genuinely had things to take note on. He didn’t know that the way one folded the fractal code had an influence on how much space it took! He kinda only ever got either rings or strings but Diane could make complicated nets of fractal code happen without ever rendering anything. Not even that got a lick of interest from the other attendends. Lee could already tell that they had no idea about fractal code at all, probably never once tried to scan it—or if they did never once thought of how to use the code as anything but a quick power boost. Hmpf.
Over the course of the next few minutes Diane actually found her footing---as in she only froze up and stared at the notes she knew by heart at less regular intervals… but she sacrificed her lively enthusiasm for her project in favour of a dry presentation style.
Lee comforted himself with the fact that at least she had more interesting things to say than the jerk Lord Lilimon.
“Scoot over,” Jason rumbled, just as Lee was trying to follow a complicated point about the way the interlinking sections of two different-flavoured fractal code section could keep the necessary tension for… Lee supposed for holding the charge of a battery. He glared at his brother. Now he’d had have to pester Diane afterwards!

MISSION CONTROL HERE AGAIN! AND OK, GOT IT! IF THAT'S WHAT YOU NEED TO STAY MOTIVATED, I'LL HAVE TO CHECK OUT WOS SOMETIME! And ooo I mentioned the charries that sticked most and you went and wrote a thing about them! Love the thing! For some reason, your writing voice sounds a lot like @creeperfeverdreams to me. I don't know how to explain why. Note: I started reading the wos thing about how no one was happy with Lucemon recently, but had to pause for some reason.. Will try to give it another go soon. GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED, PILOT!

And he would do it, he swore. For now, he grudgingly made way for the large Monochromon to make it out of the aisle. It was rather cramped in here, not really made for Champion levels. Hm. Lee paused, thinking. Or maybe just for Beast digimon.
A commotion behind him told him that another group of bored digimon had given up on Diane’s stuttering presentation and Lee sighed in sympathy. More for what they were missing out on obviously… but also for Diane. This could have been so interesting.
The thought that Jason was maybe also fleeing the situation didn’t even cross his mind until his brother had made it a few rows closer to the exit. It seemed rather unlikely for him to abandon a friend like that but… Oh wait there was a rather indecisive-looking Otamamon sitting there. Pretty odd to see one of these tadpole digimon sitting all by itself—they usually came in swarms. Must have gotten lost, this one.
Jason exchanged a few words with it while Diane up front tried and failed to switch to the next paper on her flipchart. Okay, enough of this.
Lee tapped Dad on the arm, waiting until he had his attention and then gave him a meaningful look. “Can’t I help?” he whispered.
Dad leaned his head back, and gave him a short look before smiling. “I don’t know. Can you?”
“Ugh.” Sometimes…! But Diane had said she wanted to do this on her own. Lee tried to catch her eyes but she was fighting with the paper. Ignoring Dad being Dad, Lee got to his feet and headed in the compete opposite direction his brother had taken: toward the podium. He could do this. He set his face in stern determination while behind him, Otamamon gasped in surprise. There was the pitter-patter of small, slightly moist feet as the tadpole left the room and that had Lee turn around to give his brother a questioning look.
Jason just grinned at him and then stampeded onward to sidle up to the bored press Devimon. Whatever.
In a resolute move, Lee swung himself up onto the wooden stage. Diane didn’t even seem to notice him, she’d given up on the flipchart, now buried in her notes as if she did seen them for the first time and was now hoping that they could hold the presentation in her stead. Though a moment longer and Lee had to give her more credit.
Alright, it was the first time, he’d ever been on stage, true. A few times, he’d watched Dad take the stage of course but that’s always been few and far between. No one ever really was all that interested in discovery anyways.
But if being on stage was always this uncomfortable, he had no idea why Dad even bothered to show up! Why were the lights so aggressive? Lee felt like he’d have to raise his hand just to see where to take the next step! And what kind of mega-level lamps had they installed here? Had they been afraid the presenters could potentially get a little TOO cold? The difference between the seats and the podium were as if he’d stepped into a sauna! Good thing he didn’t really care about heat all that much but damn, now he understood why Diane was sweating so much—and had so much trouble with her notes.
As if he totally was supposed to be here, he carefully stepped over what he hoped were the notes Diane had already been through and fixed the uncooperative flipchart for her. There was no way to not be disruptive here, so he set his face in careful neutrality (according to later testimony he landed closer to “grumpy and annoyed at the world” which… well, fine.) Afterward he wanted to give Diane an encouraging thumbs up because by then his friend had noticed him. He’d been prepared for her brusk disapproval, already mapping out what to say to her—since he knew what it was like to have others constantly budging into his business—but it didn’t come to that.
Instead, the floating Bakumon shot toward him and wrapped her paws around his outstretched arm, thumbs included. She felt very warm.
“I can’t do this,” she hissed, eyes wide and pupils small. “Take me away from here!”
Lee stayed rooted to the spot, too stunned to react. He leaned past her, slightly, to see yet more notes cluttered all over the lectern—and the crude microphone set up there. He blinked. The lights mounted somewhere to the ceiling made it basically impossible to see the empty audience. So… what was her problem? Was the imagination running away with her? Was it the press Devimon? Lee didn’t really get it.
It took him a second or two but he gathered his thoughts and used his free hand to pry Diane off of him. “No,” he said waspishly. “You’re gonna do this. You have a better thing than Dad, tell them that!” He made a stabbing motion toward the lectern and really hoping that the microphone was too crappy to pick up their conversation. That probably wouldn’t go down too well with the press. Ugh.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he repeated, more forcefully while she just shook her head in desperation.
Dad! Lee thought angrily. You should have let us help her!... Diane, you should have let us help you! Well, no use now. Lee put on a rigid smile and carefully spun the usually so composed Bakumon around. “It’s going well. The audience loves you,” he lied. Really, it was her first time doing this… He’d heard from Dad that she used to come with him to conferences—decades ago when conferences were still a regular thing. So, he supposed she knew how things were usually handled a lot better than he did. All the conferences he’d been to were even smaller than this one with only one room allotted for everything.
Here, Ophanimon’s son and his influence had ensured unusual publicity

Diane's stage fright is completely understandable... ToT sounds like a very cool invention, though!! i'm also fascinated by fractal code and how regions can be rendered or disappear?? so so cool :3 you got this, Tikaa!!

p.s. let me know if you don't want this comment cluttering up the thread, and i can delete it and put it on your wall or something instead!

It was the first time after all that even Lee had seen this elusive digimon who was ostensibly Dad’s boss. Something something, Lady Ophanimon’s death that had shook Lord Lilimon to the core and what not. Pah, as if they couldn’t have chosen literally anyone else to do his job. Also didn’t all that happen over thirty years ago? That wasn’t any reason to skip out on the sciences!

Oh yes, how nostalgic.
Oliver vividly remembered his own first attempt at public speaking as if it had been yesterday. He had been fresh out of university with an indulgent Ophanimon in the audience, proud of her founding class. He’d just been tasked to summarise the findings of his team’s research expedition—something he’d done enough times during class and never had any issue with. But something about the Great Angel sitting there with that frozen smile and encouraging nod had just shut him down Pretty similar to how Diane was fairing now. The fact that dear Rivka’s presentation (back then, still a marginally less unruly Mikemon) had taken on a life of its own was the only reason his failure didn’t come up more often in conversation. Blowing up half of Ophanimon’s castle was certainly more memorable than one Gotsumon stumbling over his notes.
Hah, Oliver was convinced that Rivka only chose something so dangerous because she’d known her mother would attend. Despite the surprise, the overwhelming power of the Angel of Love and Life had ensured no digimon had come to harm.
As he’d said, very nostalgic. To this day, he was wondering just what had happened, thirty-five years ago. What could cause a being of such tremendous grace and strength to… vanish? He was sure someone like Ophanimon would not simply die without leaving a mark on the Digital World; she had been too important for stability. Her domains were still active. Magic still sang her name.
What would Ophanimon say about the state of the Digital World? Her own children waging war, ostensibly in her name… What a tragedy.
Approaching footsteps shook Oliver out of the past and back into the present. Hm. He checked his internal clock and compared it to how far along Diane had come in her presentation. This was early.
Behind him, a knot of Otamamon squelched into the room, a particularly excited one leading the charge. “That’s it! That’s the battery! I’m telling you!” In a flurry of slightly moist movement they hopped over the backrests to get front row seats.
Oliver tilted his head, looking over to Jason, grinning victoriously next to a revitalized Devimon. The latter was furiously scribbling into her notebook. Ah that explained. Oliver had figured that the second the nature of Diane’s project became clear, she’d be swarmed with adventurers clamouring for her attention.
That the Otamamon led the charge though could only mean…
“Oliver!” quacked an enthusiastic voice. Right. Would only mean that she would also come.
“Gekomon,” he acknowledged pleasantly while sighing internally. He turned to the bright orange frog digimon and her gaggle of equally froggy cheerleaders, the ever-present afterstorm of an Otamamon invasion.
“I heard you have rad friends!” she continued, falling into the seat next to him uninvited.
…the sacrifices one made for his friends.
While Gekomon deigned to explain Diane’s great discovery to him in great detail, the room started to fill. Just as expected. Ah Diane would end up only remembering this part, he was sure—and hopefully focus more on her speech for the next time she presented something. It was her who had decided that the battery would speak for itself, that she’d only need to describe the process to make the rest of the digimon understand. But Oliver felt it important that she learnt the same lesson he had, so many decades ago: that it mattered very little just how great your discovery was if you could not sell it to an audience. It was why Taomon no longer bothered to publish his findings, and why someone like Gekomon flourished. There was little interest in actual discovery—at least in a setting like this one. Lord Lilimon might call it a scientific conference and it had attracted the right kind of digimon, naturally, he knew intimately who was still out there, figuring out the world. But ultimately, this wasn’t FOR the adventurers and scientists. This was for the digimon who might one day become adventurers and scientists. And you needed to grab and hold their attention for long enough to inject the actual important part of your discovery into your presentation.
Thankfully, that was exactly what Oliver was good at.

It was almost unfair how good Dad was at this.
Sure, sure, after Jason managed to convince one Otamamon that Diane’s presentation was the best thing since the instant fire, their Bakumon friend could basically barely fend off her eager audience members. Lee had eventually slipped down the back of the stage before anyone could ask HIM questions about her battery since she’d been so swarmed with the adventurers that had somehow crawled from corners of the convention center that Lee hadn’t even known existed. He was sure there hadn’t been that many digimon when Lord Lilimon held his speech, at least! (Lee didn’t think they would see her again for the rest of the day, not with how many digimon demanded information on when she’d move past the prototype stage.)
But now it was Dad’s turn and… well. Lee knew pretty much his entire presentation by heart, knew intimitaely the many failures of magic Dad had run into and intended to talk about. The difference in style was striking. And also the difference in audience. For one of course there were digimon already here without needing to be told this was actually worth their while. But also the make-up of the audience. It was almost exclusively what Lee hesitated to call “normal” digimon. Basically boring people who only left their cities via train instead of actually wandering the countryside. And all three of the press digimon were here. He’d always known Dad was kinda famous for a scientist but this was still a bit intimidating.
The room was bigger too and so was the stage. So it was kinda striking that Dad seemed to fill out the entire thing without ever needing to digivolve. He just… commanded attention.

There was barely any shuffling, no rustling papers, at most some digimon were talking very quietly amongst themselves. Dad was leaning against the lectern, gesticulating with his stack of notes without ever looking at them, and effortlessly painted a picture of the past.
It was doubly infuriating because yes, Lee knew how the script was supposed to go–and that wasn’t it! Or at least---it shouldn’t be this easy for anyone to go on a tangent without losing the audience.
NONE of the magic so far had worked. Dad’s whole presentation (“Magic—a retrospective”, very creative and broad and apparently exactly what everyone just clamored to hear) of course had his favourite magic tricks sprinkled in. Some of the stuff had been moderately useful on expeditions—the trick with the rosé coloured lights that lasted five minutes for example. Only problem with that was of course that you needed like three weeks to set them up. Magic was just so cumbersome! Any the really fancy stuff never behaved the same way, at least never in a way that Lee could tell. Dad of course insisted that there was a method to this madness, in fact he had insisted on that in this very same presentation! And no one was gonna question him on that! Lee really did not like how a slight off-set in time spent meditating over ancient runes could be the difference between the spell draining all your energy while fizzling out, or giving you a detailed overview of the place you’re about to explore. There was a reason even Dad was super careful with this one! That today, instead of the expected, hovering map of the convention center, it only produced a burst of fractal code sparks that briefly surged across the stage and then settled into a shower of cherry blossoms didn’t make this any better. Yes, yes, very pretty, but Diane or Lee himself would have at the very least PAUSED in stunned silence. Dad just went on explaining what to expect of failure. Infuriating… Beeindruckend, naturally, but also infuriating.
Lee was kinda glad his brother was still with Diane’s crowd at the moment, otherwise Jason would not have stopped complaining.
But what this mainly all boiled down to, was that yes, magic had been used throughout the times but it was such a cumbersome, time-consuming thing that could kill you when you did it wrong… that it literally never was worth the effort. Lee could draw better maps by hand, they had electric lamps (which might soon be able to be fitted with working batteries!) for light and even the constructs could be made out fractal code instead of magic and worked just as well.
Maybe even a bit better, considering that Dad failed the summoning procedure for the thing he’d been working in the Dreams. That wouldn’t have happened if their constructs came from the land itself. Without skipping a beat, Dad called upon Rocky Four.
The Rockmon construct, a bit smaller than Dad himself, blinked against the lights (Lee sympathized heavily) and made a questioning sound when it didn’t spot any enemy.
While Dad raised its summoning stone to explain something about the nature of fractal code, mainly that magic did nothing else but draw the surplus of data from the Digital World, the construct shuffled an uncomfortable few steps back. Yeiks. Four had never liked being the center of attention. Suddenly, Lee vividly remembered it awkwardly hiding behind the houseplant back when they were staying near Golden Spring Valley. Huh. Guess that was also a difference. Whenever Aisha summoned her constructs out of sanctioned bits of stone and earth, they didn’t feel… uhm… Like, they didn’t feel as if they would understand and interpret any given verbal order from anyone that wasn’t their summoner.
“He should have used Five,” Jason suddenly spoke up and Lee nearly fell into a pile of rocks.
“Did you have to sneak up on me?” he hissed, more angry at himself for not noticing the steps of a fricking Monochromon approaching. But then he turned to his brother and blinked in surprise at the Gotsumon staring back at him.
Jason winked as he slipped into the seat Lee had technically guarded for Diane. “Needed both hands for the camera.” He dropped the device into Lee’s lap. “Diane’s super stoked that everyone liked her presentation, got a few pretty good snapshots! Now it’s your turn.” Jason motioned for the stage with only a hint of disdain.
“Five’s not back yet,” Lee said, distracted with checking if his brother left enough film in the chamber. Given how bright the stage was, it was really difficult to see anything here in the audience. “It’s only been a day.”
When Jason bristled, Lee snapped back to attention though. Right, with everything else going he’d almost forgotten how Dad lost Five just yesterday.
“And who’s fault is that?” Jason asked in a loaded tone, just to have an irritated Stingmon lean over to shush him.
While Jason rolled his eyes, quiet at least, Lee had a moment to think back to yesterday. Jason was right in that Five would have been much better at standing still and just simply waiting until something was required of it. Maybe that was why Dad had hesitated so long to summon it…when they arguably really needed the help. Because now he’d only have Three and Four for the presentation, and Three was never happy when it showed up in unfamiliar terrain…
But then again, Five was the only construct who could truly stand its ground in a fight. So what choice did they have had, really? Without Five’s help, who knew what would have happened to Dad yesterday? And the construct had made it through the encounter with Grounddramon unscathed, even. If only the Village Guard hadn’t insisted on them dismissing Five...
The audience laughed, shaking Lee from his thoughts. Ugh, the math joke Dad had been so incredibly proud of. Lee raised the camera and snapped a dutiful picture.

That really was the thing, wasn’t it? Dad so easily navigated around his failures, turning them into part of the presentation. Diane had crumbled when her first attempt at the re-rendered battery didn’t work—because she plugged it in the wrong way. Much more easily fixed than Dad literally failing to summon “a bigger construct” made from fractal code. Instead, he ended up talking about the difference between drawing directly from the land—like most digimon—versus taking the time and energy to draw the fractal code with magic. And the most annoying part was that… even for Lee who knew the topic so well, it was hard not get drawn in.
There was reason that no matter what Cassie or Aisha, or anyone else from back home in Seaside told them about how nice it was to stay in one place. How easy it was to go to school once a year, and never once stress about the exams, for you would have been there to witness the subjects. And how little you would miss out on the changing relationships. That last part was usually the most jarring whenever he came back home after months of travel: figuring out where all his friends now stood with each other. But other than that, Seaside didn’t really hold a special place in his heart. Because staying at home meant stagnating and never learning anything new for yourself. You had to trust other digimon’s words on what was out there without ever seeing it for yourself.
But someone like Dad could spin stories out the scraps he found from the past, puzzle together what had once been without ever knowing how to properly look at fractal code. And not only that, he knew exactly how to convey his information. Now that Lee had seen how other speakers handled their findings, yes even Exermon and Petermon, he realized that… He’d kind of taken Dad’s casual stories for granted.
He had never had any trouble following along when Dad ever decided to EXPLAIN something. The issues usually arose whenever Dad actually wanted them to learn something on their own, dropping them with a bunch of books in front of a complex problem and checking in on them hours later to see how far they’d gotten. But now, here, between all these digimon from all walks of life… Lee understood what Dad had always said: that it wasn’t enough to be right. Because he knew for a fact no one really understood just what magic really meant, all these terrible math puns, the waiting, the redoing of circles because you did them wrong (yes, Lee had tried, it wasn’t for him. Boring.)… None of that was easy. But still, the audience was captivated. Dad gave them enough information to understand the next step, a small trail leading to a dark forest (of so much math). Lee only really understood the very basics or that too, after all, yet Dad had never once made him feel unqualified when they did discuss it. It really didn’t matter all that much what the process was, as long as everyone understood the conclusion.
“If he’d had Five, we’d already be at the AncientSphinxmon part,” Jason grumbled next to him, still very quietly. “That’s the best part.”
Lee agreed. Because who wouldn’t be interested in the long-gone Warrior of Darkness? Especially now that Cherubimon has withdrawn the Spirits she’d left behind for an unknown purpose?
“As we all know,” Dad intoned at that moment. He casually flipped to the next page of his chart, a water-coloured rendering of AncientSphinxmon that one of the Bakumon had created for him. As usual, Dad’s uncanny timing struck again. AncientSphinxmon had been a giant lion made from either the blackest blackwood or from light-absorbing obsidian. Gold inlines accentuated her figure and even from the drawing, her ruby eyes sparkles with mischief. Or worse. According to Dad, who’d studied some of her notes, she’d been a cryptic prankster most of her days.
“…it was Lalamon the Relentless that discovered the first evidence of AncientSphinxmon magical prowess,” Dad continued his sentence, a wistful tone in his voice. As was usual when he talked about the digimon that had inspired him to become a researcher himself. “Nowadays, it is common knowledge that AncientSphinxmon was the very first true wielder of magic, the Sorceress of the Night. These constructs---,” with flourish, Dad withdrew one had from the pocket of his labcoat (Lee hadn’t even noticed him shifting his stance) and used the summoning pyramid to call on Three. It rendered in a string of sparkling fractal code---and immeaditely wilted under the bright lights. Poor buddy. Dad patted Three on the shoulder and continued as if nothing had happened. “---are AncinetSphinxmon’s crowning achievement.” Technically there were other spells AncientSphinxmon invented but Dad (and therefore no one) had managed to decipher them so far and Dad was not above embellishing to make a point. “She used it to raise herself an army, bound to her will. The Eye Guard of the Night Witch.”
Well, Dad actually also added the name for her constructs that had been used in ancient times, “Augen der Nachthexe”. Not necessarily by AncientSpinxmon herself, but definitely by those who opposed her. Lee found it incredibly hard to pronounce or remember. Language had shifted a lot over time and Lee had the feeling that way back then, Japanese had not yet been this predominant. That’s also what the hundreds of different scripts that they regularly found in sites hailing from before Lucemon’s Fall suggested. The only truly consistent throughline had always been DigiCode, the main script that Lee couldn’t even really remember ever actively learning. But even that had changed with the times before all the different dialects congealed into the uniform script used today.
It didn’t really help that the Eye Guard was one of the creepiest things Lee had ever seen, which probably said something about AncientSphinxmon’s character---and he was kinda glad she wasn’t around anymore. Brr.