[video]

[greatwork]

[The feed turns on, showing Alexandria slumped over in bed with her arm still heavily bandaged, fussing with her D-Terminal.]

No, god damn it, I wanted audio, not video.

Come on, it's not that hard.

If you haven't noticed, I'm down one arm and you don't have hands. Fuck it, this will work.

[She sighs and leans back, and actually starts addressing the terminal.]

So, my partner here and I have been talking. It turns out when she's not busy throwing a tantrum, she's actually pretty smart herself, and I've been getting information about how Digimon work from her. Their life cycle is actually pretty fascinating.

According to her, there are seven main stages of their life. Egg, Baby, Baby II, Child, Adult, Perfect, Ultimate. She also mentioned some sort of "legendary Super-Ultimate" that she'll turn into one day. I'm pretty sure this is about as valid as the little boys on the playground who say they know kung-fu-

Shut the hell up, I'll definitely make it!

-But I thought it was worth mentioning, just in case. The process that makes them advance a stage is called "evolution" (even though it's just a fucking metamorphosis, I'd like to get my hands on whoever fucking named this shit) and seems to require vast amounts of energy. As far as I can tell, these Digimon naturally store the energy as they live, and reach the next stage after having lived and battled. After reaching a stage, they stay there without regressing; We've got, for example, that Lilymon lady, who's supposed to be a Perfect level.

Which brings me to the important point: It looks like, so far, all of these so-called "chosen" Digimon are of the Child level, spontaneous pointless changes aside-

I told you that wasn't my fault!You humans are the ones responsible for our evolution, you must have screwed up!

-Ahem. My partner pointed out that it seems no "chosen" Digimon is of a higher level than the Child level, causing me to think that the temporary evolutions we allow them drain them of the energy they store to progress naturally. In other words, our "help" is actually hindering and actively stunting the growth and maturity of our Digimon. Temporary strength in exchange for prolonged weakness. It's possible our presence is actually harmful to our partners.

Or, that's just the current theory, I don't have enough information to confirm one way or the other. But I think it's something worth considering and investigating. If anyone else has anything relevant to add, I'd like to hear it.

Comments

[ voice forever ]

[interspace]

Oh my God, don't tell me we have to deal with different dialects here on top of everything else. Thelma basically told me the same, but all her terms were different. Digi-egg, fresh, in-training, rookie, champion, ultimate, etc. Digivolution.

Is my partner just from the digi-South or something?

[voice forever here too now]

[greatwork]

I've just taken to dropping the "digi" from everything they add it to. They like adding it to everything they bloody well can.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's dialects, though. If the Digital World is based on Earth's communications network, there should be as many Digimon languages and dialects as are used online.

[interspace]

I don't know, it's got some charm to it. Even still, the terms aren't all the same whether you're pro- or con-digi.

Don't say that. Next thing you know, we'll have leet-speak digimon running around with the typo-mongers who can't say anything right and then there's Zalgo...

audio

[distortedscream]

Do you already have an experiment procedure in mind? [It seemed like for something like that, long-term observation of selected subjects would be the way to go....]

[greatwork]

Not yet. I would like to set up an enclosure for long-term studies, but given the chaotic nature of this place, that seems unfeasible. I think what I'll need instead is a way to measure the stored metamorphosis energy in each Digimon, and maybe an analysis of the Digivice which seems to be the thing that executes the forced evolution command.

[distortedscream]

[And unethical--but Starscream shouldn't let memories of how Ratchet did 'experimentation' interfere here, her idea of 'enclosure' could be completely different.]

If you could do both, then you could compare both chosen and non-chosen Digimon as you wish.

...Has anyone ever been able to dismantle the digivice and then successfully put it back together?

[He'd been tempted to find the tools and such to try, but if it was important as the terminal briefing suggested and it was heavily linked to Gaomon's well being, and if something went wrong....]

[video forever]

[fuhrinkaed]

[Taking notes. Digimon is close enough to the occult to scribble it all down.]

How long would it take for them to evolve on their own?

[greatwork]

Apparently it varies by the individual. Battling stores evolutionary energy faster, though, it seems.

[fuhrinkaed]

So either they have to risk getting killed in order to digivolve, and deal with the good and the bad that comes with it, or they have to make friends and work with them to do it only when they need to.

[video]

[genreawareness]

[listening to this with obvious interest, before speaking]

The other theory is that these Digimon simply aren't old enough to evolve to the next level permanently yet. Did Gazimon say anything about how old a Digimon must be before they eventually evolve? Or does that vary from species to species, Digimon to Digimon?

[video]

[greatwork]

She said it's varies by individual, and even then by environment when an individual reincarnates. But they've also all been waiting for us for a very long time, so it seems like some of them should have become adults by now.

[video]

[genreawareness]

Who knows? Maybe it takes longer than the amount of time they've waited for them to grow up.

video;

[risette_truestory]

This is all really beginning to sound like a video game ...

video;

[greatwork]

If it's only "beginning to", you haven't been paying attention.

video;

[risette_truestory]

That is rude! I was paying attention. But all these ...


... evolution and stages made it sound even more like a game.

[howamanlives]

Back in my world, my friend Touma told me that digimon evolve a lot more slowly when they don't have us helping them along. Like, it takes years and years and years. Some of them never even make it to the Ultimate level before turnin into Digi-Eggs again.

So I think we're helpin' em, in the long run. They need help now, not after whatever many years when they can bother to evolve that way on their own.

[greatwork]

If I remember right, they revert to eggs after death in order to reincarnate? So of course some of them never make it to the final level, that's just a matter of life.

They need help now, but what about in the future? When they should have reached their full potential on their own? I don't think anything good can come from halting something's growth.

sorry for the huge delay x_x

[howamanlives]

Then you don't stop growing. You keep fighting together. Or did you think all of us would just want to go our separate ways after fighting together for so long?

[video]

[rotiskenhrakete]

But why would our partners choose us, if we hinder them more than help them?

[video]

[greatwork]

Our partners aren't the ones doing the choosing, are they?

[video]

[rotiskenhrakete]

But Armadillomon told me he was waiting to meet me, ever since he was born. Are you saying someone chose for him?

voice

[sawhell]

Just because it might be a tradeoff doesn't mean it has to be a net negative, you know.

But either way, I'll agree it sounds like something. Maybe it's by design.

voice

[greatwork]

Whether or not it has to be doesn't do anything to change whether or not it is.

By design?

[video]

[chemistryinmotion]

Sounds like this calls for the good ole scientific method. Hopefully minus any explosions. I'm already in enough trouble for that...

[ Wally, stop, you're being a dork again. AND YOU WONDER WHY PEOPLE DON'T TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY. ]

[video]

[greatwork]

[It's amazing how much judgment can come across in a stare even over a video feed.]

Okay, if you make shit explode while trying to follow scientific method, you're banned from helping.