An egg wiggles... rumbles... cracks...

...shatters, and out pops an adorable red blob with big round eyes and batlike wings. It gazes in wonder at this glorious new world of Not Egg.

All around its eggshell there's grass! It's green and pointy but also somehow soft and flexible, unlike Egg.

Up above there's sky, which seems to be part blue and part white. It doesn't seem to be quite close enough to touch just yet.

Around on the grass are more brightly-colored ovoids, in endless different colors and patterns.

Grass! Sky! Brightly-coloured ovoids!!! The world is so exciting!!!!!!

The adorable red blob is gonna BITE THE NEAREST THING.

(The nearest thing is grass.)

Om nom grass! It tastes light and leafy, with the feeling of a breeze lifting your ears.

(Nearby a yellow-and-white ovoid splits open, yielding a white blob and more eggshell fragments.)

GRASS is GOOD TO BITE. Time to bite MORE GRASS.

Oh! A new thing!! Several new things! What are EGGSHELL FRAGMENTS like to bite???

More grass! After the first few mouthfuls the airy feeling starts getting fainter, but it remains light and leafy.

Eggshell fragments are crunchy and a little bitter, with a sound of rushing water.

(The white blob scrunches up and down experimentally, then starts figuring out how to scrunch around in a circular path.)

The white blob is MOVING. That's EXCITING. What happens if the red blob BITES IT?

"Poyo poyo!", it exclaims, scrunching back away from the red blob.

But not before the red blob gets a solid bite of it. The white blob tastes sour and a little frothy, but also hearty and filling.

That is VERY DIFFERENT from biting grass! The red blob is not sure whether it is a BETTER or a WORSE kind of different. It bites some more grass, to compare.

This time after biting the grass something different happens! The red blob has already been making small hops to get within biting range, but now it feels like it could flap its ears to adjust its trajectory, jumping higher or farther or sideways.

(Farther off, more eggs are starting to hatch.)

Oh! Oh!!

This is THE MOST EXCITING THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED.

It immediately starts hopping around and flapping its ears vigorously, experimenting with distance and direction and altitude.

With ear assist it can hop about four body-lengths into the air, or about six body-lengths forwards, or a quick two sideways. It can even jump forwards and twist in the air, landing to the side of where it otherwise would have.

A fuzzy black blob starts hopping along behind. It can't really keep up, with its short straight hops, but it keeps at it.

Hop hop hop HOP hop hop HOP HOP hop—

—oh!! A new thing!! What is the new thing like to BITE?

It has a fuzzy texture and a dark sweet flavor, like burnt candyfloss.

"Botabo PAH!", the black blob responds, spitting a little cloud of bubbles that sting where they hit.

?!

That HURT!

Hurting is BAD!

The red blob freezes momentarily, torn between the only two responses it knows. BITE or HOP? HOP or BITE? It wants to BITE the thing that hurt it, but last time it bit that thing, it got hurt!!

HOP wins. It turns and flees.

The black blob hops off in another direction.

Good! Being far away from things that hurt is good!

Something feels off about that, but the red blob is five minutes old and not super emotionally complex at the moment, so it forgets its worries almost immediately in the search for more things to bite.

Well, over here two blobs are circling each other and occasionally lunging with horn or tooth, but rarely making contact.

Or over here is a smooth green egg that's been shaking for a while with no visible cracks.

Two blobs looks COMPLICATED. One egg looks SIMPLE. It will bite the simple thing.

This egg tastes dry, but with a bit of a rush to it, like crunchy horseradish. It's tough to get an actual bite off of the smooth surface, but with some determination the red blob can crack it open and get a good mouthful of shell.

Inside is a green gooey creature, which flows out and starts trying to ooze up the red blob's side. It feels warm to the touch.

Another new thing!!! What happens if the red blob BITES IT?

That's a little tough to do to something that climbs up on top of your head body self and burbles happily to itself. Biting might require a plan.

...

Hop?

The red blob can feel the green one wobble, sliding warmly down to one dexterous ear and then righting itself.

"Pababbubub", the green blob burbles happily.

...for a moment, the red blob just sits there, stumped.

Then it hops again, and flails its ears wildly in an attempt to shake the green creature off.

The green blob is knocked loose! It falls into the grass, where it takes a moment to collect itself.

Time for BITING.

It's runnier than anything the red blob's bitten before, but it's still possible to get a good-sized bite. The green blob tastes sharp and sweet and sour and citrusy.

The red blob is starting to feel pretty full. But here's a new action that might let it stretch bigger?

Or it could respond more directly to the green blob, which is reacting with a "Bah bah PAH!" that sprays a cloud of little bubbles over the red blob. These bubbles don't sting, but they do stick to its surface and to the grass.

Bigger! Bigger is good! Bigger means maybe getting to BITE MORE THINGS!

(Digimon! D-D-Digimon!)

The red blob starts to glow with a white light, and lifts slightly into the air. It expands to maybe half again its former size, shining brightly.

("Jyarimon! Digivolve to...!")

it sprouts five wire-framed protrusions. Techno music might be playing from somewhere. Red skin covers its new limbs, and black detailing fills in across its body, covering the radiance.

(Digital monsters! Digimon!)

The glow fades, leaving a white underbelly, and the red creature touches its new legs to the ground.

("Gigimon!")

...

...

...

It has LEGS.

And a TAIL.

That is SO MANY LIMBS.

It rolls around and wiggles all of its exciting new body parts, overcome by sheer delight.

The grass feels different on its new, more reptilian skin! It will rapidly discover all the ways it can move its new limbs, including several ways to roll itself around.

It can also tell a little more about itself, now.

  
  Nickname: 
  Form: Gigimon
  Field: Dragon's Roar
  Attribute: None
 
  Data:
  GB  kind (form) [tags]
   5  Dragon Soul (Jyarimon) [DR]
   2  Reptile Body (Gigimon) [DR]
   1  Hot Bite (Gigimon) [Technique] [DR]
   1  Air Dodge [Technique] [WG]
   3  unknown
  Total weight: 12 GB
 

(The green blob tries to roll around too, but it doesn't really have the limbs or the cohesion. It mostly just manages to revolve its face.)

The grass feels new and its body feels new and its now-much-bigger mouth feels new and, wow, what other things might feel new? It charges over and bops its face against the green blob, to see if the sensation of touching it has changed.

Bop! The green blob is warm and squishy and frothy and tingly, and doesn't much impede the bopping.

It does take this opportunity to climb back onto the red creature's head. The green blob's undersurface is less of the frothy and tingly.

Sensations!!!

A whole new world opens up before the red creature. A world....... of bopping things with its face.

It immediately headbutts the nearest egg. Not very hard, fortunately for both it and the egg.

The egg is hard and smooth, and when headbutted it wobbles.

(The green blob wobbles, too, on its perch. Babu babu.)

AMAZING.

Time to BITE IT.

This egg is tougher than the last one, but the red creature is stronger, too. It's a close battle, but then the green blob joins in with a gelatinous version of a bite, and they vanquish the egg quickly from there.

The eggshell tastes crunchy and cold, like a vanilla popsicle.

Inside there's this nubbly little red blob.

It's so small! It's so so so small!

The red creature bops its face against the teeny blob.

The teeny blob presses back and vibrates gently. It's smooth but also very squishy, unlike other smooth things so far. And it's teeny, about the size of the creature's nose part.

The creature sort of wants to bite it, but has never bitten something smaller than its mouth before and isn't sure how it works. What if, once bitten, the teeny blob is no longer available to smush its face against??? It's so smushable! Smush smush smush!

Oh! Hey! The creature has a tongue! It could lick the teeny blob!

Slorp.

Slorp! A lick isn't as filling as a bite, but the creature can discover that the teeny blob tastes like dry sticky fruit, perhaps a fig or a date.

The teeny blob bounces enthusiastically in place, then vibrates to shake some of the slobber off.

The creature flops sideways onto the ground and wiggles its feet happily. (It has feet!!! That's still very exciting.) Then it smushes its face against the teeny blob again, to check that its clever plan worked.

YES. The teeny blob remains FULLY SMUSHABLE. The creature is SO SMART.

It is! Its two friends(?) join the celebratory wiggling as best they can without feet, which turns out to be pretty respectable, wiggling being a core competency of blobs.

The green blob moves as though to climb back up, but pauses with an inquisitive "Bubbu?"

The creature contemplates this question gravely for a few moments.

Then it licks the green blob.

Still sweet and sour and citrusy! And very tingly on the creature's tongue.

The green blob contemplates this for a moment of its own, then ("Buu bu!") extends a pseudopod to lick up the side of the creature's face.

The creature giggles and bops its nose part against the green blob.

The teeny red blob scrunches down, wiggles its hindblob, and leaps up to bop against the creature's nose part.

!!!

Gosh! Its NOSE has been BOPPED!!

It has to take a moment to process this revolutionary idea.

Meanwhile, most of the eggs in sight have hatched. Uncounted little blobs in many colors and styles are hopping around the field, playing impromptu games or getting into scuffles. Most are still small and shapeless, but a few others have developed legs or horns or other features.

That other fight from earlier seems to have escalated a bit. A bigger creature has separated the combatants - so big that its head is the size of the little red creature's whole body.

In another direction, a creature with an elaborate flower on top seems to be leading a wordless singing circle.

It gazes around distractedly, and then gazes around in UTTER DELIGHT AND WONDERMENT. There are SO MANY THINGS HAPPENING! What could it possibly do about all of these THINGS???

Apparently, the answer is 'charge over and bite the big red creature'.

The big red-and-blue creature flicks his (tangy-salsa-flavored) paw upwards, flicking the smaller creature over its back, to a landing cushioned by a fan of tails.

"Whoa there, hotshot," the bigger creature says. The smaller one can understand him, mostly, though it might not know what a "hotshot" is.

"Chibimon," to the now-bipedal blue blob, "why don't you go listen to the music? Kyokyomon," the snake-shaped orange, "go have some blueberries, they'll make you feel better."

It squawks and flaps its ears, disoriented on multiple levels. What?? The big creature made it MOVE through the AIR?? Now it is ON TOP OF the big creature??? And then the big creature did a NEW AND BEWILDERING THING!!!

It scrambles up to stand on top of the big creature's head and looks around for its green blob friend. Green blob friend likes being on top of other creatures! That is a known and familiar phenomenon, unlike being tossed through the air or whatever that thing was just now with the sounds and the knowledge!

The green blob is crossing the grass to get here as fast as it can, but its scootch is less mighty than the red creature's HOP. Trailing behind is the teeny red blob, with its correspondingly teeny hop.

Kyokyomon slithers off toward a patch of bushes, but Chibimon hangs around to see what's going on now.

The red and blue creature lowers its head to the ground, where any creature could easily hop off.

"You're an energetic little guy, aren't you? Nice to meet you. I'm Elecmon, I guard this place."

The red creature says,

"...aaWK??"

Then it shakes itself and tries again, and this time manages, "I'M ON TOP OF YOUR HEAD."

Elecmon chuckles. "You sure are! Want to go for a ride around the field?"

(The green blob catches up to where Chibimon's watching. The teeny red blob is still hopping to catch up.)

It thinks about this question, wiggling its ears. It wants several things, like NEW EXPERIENCES and BITING LOTS OF STUFF. It thinks it also wants the green blob and the teeny red blob to get to come along. The teeny red blob is extremely small and smushable and the green blob likes being on top of other creatures. But all of these things are very complicated and it's not at all sure how to say them. Saying things is weird and hard.

A ride around the field seems like it would involve MANY new experiences and possibly also many BITEABLE THINGS, though, so after a long pause it concludes, "Yeah!"

"Hold steady, then, hotshot!" Elecmon crouches and pushes off running, his head held steady and tilted forwards to balance the acceleration. He and his passenger go whooshing over the grass, leaving their small audience behind.

The creature clings to Elecmon's head and folds its ears down so they won't flap in the wind and staaaaaares at all the INTERESTING THINGS.

From up here there's a great view of the whole meadow! Elecmon expertly banks the turns to keep the red creature square on his head. Besides all the little blobs and grid-patterned grass, there's fruiting bushes and trees around three of the sides, and on the fourth a big castle or city made out of colorful squares and triangles.

So many things! So many things it could BITE! It can't even decide which one to start with!! Also Elecmon goes VERY FAST and riding around on his head is VERY EXCITING.

And before long they're back to where they started; Elecmon slows to a stop and rests his head back on the ground. "How did you like that, kiddo?"

(Meanwhile Chibimon has applied its arms to picking up the tiny red blob.)

"THERE'S SO MANY THINGS," it announces, rolling off Elecmon's head to wiggle delightedly on the ground. "I'M GONNA BITE THEM."

Elecmon chuckles. "You're gonna go far, kid," he says, giving the red creature a little pat on the head top. "Just pay attention to what you'll be glad you bit and what you'll regret biting."

(The green blob is attempting to climb Chibimon towards where the little red blob is held, without much success.)

It is so impressed with the wisdom of Elecmon's advice. There ARE some things that are rewarding to bite and others that are less so! This is important and useful information which resonates with the creature's experience of the world!

It flops on its side in the grass for a bit, tired out by all that wiggling, then rolls up onto its feet and observes the green blob's climbing attempts. Hey! Maybe it could help! Or MAYBE... it could BITE THE BLUE CREATURE.

Help? Or bite? Bite? Or help?

Wait, hang on, it knows this one! If you're confused about whether or not you want to bite something... you LICK it!

Slorp!

Chibimon is licked! It has a scaly texture with a bit of fresh hot marshmallow flavor.

It responds by swinging the teeny red blob at the creature, bopping it. It doesn't hurt the red creature much.

But the teeny blob cries out, "Puuunii! 😥"

The teeny blob made SAD SOUNDS.

The creature pauses, taken aback.

Does it like the sad sounds? They feel nice to hear. But it also feels a different feeling, a more complicated one, harder to pin down.

Confused and unsettled, it sits still for a moment, trying to process this development. What is this new feeling made of? How should it respond? There are so many actions it could take! It can jump and hop and roll and wiggle and flap its ears and lick things and bop things and smush its face on things and... and...

Aha!

The feeling makes it want to BITE THE BLUE CREATURE AFTER ALL!

It promptly does that.

The red creature can bite into Chibimon's leg. The toasty blue scales don't immediately yield a take-home bite, but that leaves possibilities like staying latched on, or letting go and trying again.

MORE BITE

This second, stronger bite ("Hot Bite!") not only bites into Chibimon but also singes it, tearing through with a sizzle. The red creature gets a good mouthful of toasty hot marshmallow dragon leg.

While Chibimon is distracted limping from that, the green blob

transforms ("Mochimon!"), grabs the teeny red blob,

and transforms back, the little red blob floating on top.

SUCCESS.

The red creature bops its nose against the green blob in triumph. Then it attempts to copy Elecmon's 'making it easier for creatures to climb onto or off of my head' pose.

Ascent!

Good!!!

Now the red creature can BRING ITS FRIENDS as it immediately charges for the nearest biteable plant.

(Chibimon hops off toward a different biteable plant.)

Charge! The green blob wobbles a bit, but manages to keep both itself and the red one on.

This particular biteable plant has strong gray-brown woody parts, thin red-brown viney parts, green leafy parts, and dangling clusters of round purple parts.

That's SO MANY PARTS. And they are ALL BITEABLE.

It tries the green parts first, because they are the same colour as grass, which it has bitten before. No need to get TOO adventurous straight away.

The green parts taste leafy and tangy, with a slight electric thrum in your muscles.

(The green blob leans forward to see what it can taste from its perch.)

NEXT it will bite the WOODY PARTS.

The woody parts are tougher and taste somewhat bland and stale, but with a little overtone of standing tall and strong and immovable.

(The teeny red blob takes advantage of its elevation to sit in a corner of two woody parts and nibble leaves from there.)

It LIKES the woody parts. It bites them AGAIN.

Then it tries the viney parts!

The viney parts are fresh but a little bitter and stringy, with a feeling like your skin thickening between you and the world outside you. Also, biting completely through a vine may cause a little limb of vine and leaves and an orb-cluster to tumble onto your head.

(The blobs are both out of the way, having climbed onto the trellis.)

GOSH. This is an UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT.

It flaps its ears and wiggles its self until the little vine falls off, and then it examines the little vine. Yes, there's the part where it bit, and here is the rest of the vine! And the other part where it bit is still attached to everything else! It all makes sense!

It bites the orb parts on the separated vine.

The orbs burst with sweet tangy juice-and-flesh that also tastes of having an armored shell with razor sharp parts so that anyone so foolish as to try biting you not only can't, they get cut in the process.

Bite for bite, it's also the most filling food he's yet had excepting other blobs.

WHAT A GOOD BITEABLE PLANT.

It eats the rest of the orbs, and then the rest of the separated vine part because it got excited, and then eats some MORE ORBS. They are SUCH GOOD ORBS.

Then it looks up at its friends to check if they have discovered the Good Orbs yet.

Neither of them happens to be near any of the orb clusters; they're still eating the leaves.

The creature sits in the grass and THINKS VERY HARD.

It would like its friends to know the glory of the Good Orbs. But its friends are not near the Good Orbs. So it needs... to bring the Good Orbs... TO its friends.

Attempt one: It bites another piece off the vine. This one is bigger than the first, and once it has the piece separated from the rest, it can't figure out how to get the orb parts of the piece up to the friend parts of the plant. Even though it can sort of pick up one end in its mouth, the other end just droops right to the ground. Clearly it needs to refine its approach.

Attempt two: After some investigation of the vine's properties, it bites that vine piece in half, and lifts up the sturdier end with one orb cluster left on it, and pokes it clumsily in a friendward direction.

The teeny blob is busy munching back and forth along a leaf, but the green blob notices the upraised vine and cluster! With a little aiming they can get it into reach for the green blob to pop an orb off and dissolve it.

"Bubbubu!," the green blob wiggles happily. It prods the teeny blob for attention and then sets to finding somewhere to ooze up towards another cluster.

The teeny red blob is paying attention now, but it's not really big enough to detach an orb, or even to get a bite from an orb hanging from a vine - it just keeps bumping the orbs back out of reach. "Niii..."

The creature drops the vine and sits back to have another think.

If the teeny friend can't eat the Good Orbs like this, how might it eat them? If the Good Orbs were... better steadied in place, maybe?

First it tries biting just one orb off the vine. This is very difficult, as it is hard to bite an orb off the vine and not immediately eat it. Eventually, though, it manages to bite an orb off the vine and eat only half, and ends up somehow with the other half smushed on its nose, and attempts to lift the smushed half-orb up to the teeny friend this way.

The teeny friend is well pleased.

It hops down onto the red creature's head to help finish up this cluster.

SUCCESS.

Om nom Good Orbs. Teeny friend gets Good Orbs too. What a good plant this is, with such good orbs.

An all-around successful plant-biting adventure! This seems like an occasion for more wiggle-dancing.

If the creature is curious, it can also check its self-diagnostics again.

Nickname:
Form: Gigimon
Field: Dragon's Roar
Attribute: None

Data:
GB  kind (form) [tags]
 5  Dragon Soul (Jyarimon) [DR]
 2  Reptile Body (Gigimon) [DR]
 1  Hot Bite (Gigimon) [Technique] [DR]
 1  Air Dodge [Technique] [WG]
 2  /3 Carapace (KoKabuterimon) [JT]
 2  /7 Inner Fire (Guilmon) [DR]
 1  /7 Beetle Strength (KoKabuterimon) [JT]
 8  unknown
Total weight: 22 GB

???:
?  ☆☆
?  ☆☆
?  X

It doesn't really understand most of that, but it seems like it adds up to 'if you bite MORE AND NEWER THINGS then you get STUFF'. And last time it got enough of this mysterious STUFF it became BIGGER and acquired MORE LIMBS. This is EXCITING.

It attempts to collect its friends so they can go find MORE PLANTS TO BITE.

These ’mon recognize that pose. Combine!

The FRIEND STACK is UNITED ONCE MORE. Off to BITE PLANTS.

This plant looks colorful! And somewhat easier to reach, though the tiny blob might still need some help.

Someone familiar is already nibbling on the leaves.

The creature charges up to this new plant and bites the RED PART because past experience has taught it that will be the MOST EXCITING of the parts.

The red part is crisp and crunchy and most especially spicy. It tastes like having a fire in your mouth, both in terms of being able to blow fire where you want to and in terms of hotness on your tongue.

The spiciness persists for a bit even after swallowing the bite.

!!!

The creature cannot decide whether this is the BEST or the WORST thing that has EVER HAPPENED.

...

It bites the red part again.

Spicy!! Beyond the crispness and the feeling of fire, there's a more subtle flavor of being more amped up, more antsy, more ready to do stuff.

(Emboldened by its friend trying the plant and going back for more, the green blob takes a taste, too.

It startles back. "Bubbub PAH!," it says, shooting sticky bubbles at the plant.)

The creature bites ANOTHER RED THING. One that does not have sticky bubbles on it.

Its friends hop off to join the black blob in nibbling the green parts, which apparently provoke no such attack.

If the red creature is inclined to carry on biting its colormate plants, they can pass a companionable mealtime here, until - surprise of surprises - it becomes difficult to fit more food inside.

That keeps happening!

Can it do the THING again and become LARGER to fit MORE FOOD??

It can do a biggering thing, but the thing it can do feels different - less like relaxing into a more comfortable shape, like before, and more like stretching into a less comfortable shape. Or less like being something and more like doing something, like that Hot Bite it did earlier.

That doesn't seem right.

It wants... to bite more things.

But it's SO FULL OF THINGS.

But it can't do the biggering thing PROPERLY to become LESS full of things.

...

This is CONFUSING and UPSETTING and it falls back on its very first coping mechanism, i.e. IMMEDIATELY GO BITE SOMETHING IT HAS NOT BITTEN BEFORE.

Well, Kyokyomon is still in the nearby blueberry bush, wound around a low branch and nibbling what can be presumed to be blueberries.

Kyokyomon is something the creature has not bitten before!

CHARGE! BITE!

Its meat is lean and red, and sings of the glory of battles long-fought.

"Kyoo," it says as sternly as an eight-inch snake can manage, and nips at the red creature's ear.

WHAT that's SUCH A GOOD TASTE.

—ow! Ear! Ear ow!

The creature hops backward away from its opponent with a startled noise.

It attempts to think some sort of thought, perhaps about considering the perspective of other creatures and how certain actions might tend to motivate certain responses.

Unfortunately, instead of thinking about that, it thinks about how the orange snake TASTES REALLY GOOD and JUST HURT IT, and it immediately leaps forward to bite it again.

Kyokyomon is bit!

"Kyokyomon!" It begins to glow white.

Digimon! Di-di-digimon! Its body lengthens, and its side fins grow into the shape of longer limbs.

"Digivolve to..." Purple-and-black armor plating snaps into place all down its back. Its head-fins grow into hair, and its limbs grow claws.

Digimon! Digital monsters! The blueberry branch snaps. The ’mon hovers as its skin dims back to orange, and a crowned helm descends onto its head.

"Ryuudamon!," it exclaims, landing on the ground. Digimon are the champions!

It faces off against the now-smaller creature, awaiting the next move.

Oh! It did the thing!

The creature falls back again, startled anew by this sudden transformation. This altered orange creature looks much more difficult to bite!

For a moment it stands still, confused. Then it recalls that it has been in situations that resembled this one before, and its past self came up with a HIGHLY EFFECTIVE SOLUTION.

It hops forward and licks Ryuudamon's knee.

A lick of Ryūdamon's knee tastes like oily skin and like standing on a battlefield from dawn to dusk, facing all challengers in honorable single combat.

Ryūdamon calmly begins picking blueberries on its claws, one-two-three four-five-six, and then sucking them up six-five-four three-two-one.

The creature sits still for another short moment, processing this bizarre sensation.

Then it tries a blueberry.

The blueberry tastes sweet and juicy and mushy, with a touch of serenity and the confidence that those who see you will know your intentions.

(The green blob catches up.)

What a good orb! Possibly its favourite orb so far! It forgets how full it is and eats a bunch more of them.

The green blob tries a blueberry too, contemplates it, and then starts stretching in place left-and-right-and-left-and-right alternating.

(The teeny blob catches up, too.)

Ryūdamon flashes white, shrinks, and turns back into a snake.

Gigimon looks up in startlement at this spectacle, belatedly greets its friends with a friendly nosebop each, contemplates biting Kyokyomon, recalls what happened last time it did that, recalls the tried-and-true answer to What To Do When You Want To Bite Something But Have Some Sort Of Reason Not To, and licks Kyokyomon's face.

Kyokyomon licks it right back, with a long forked tongue.

(Its face flavor is apparently skin and battle-glory.)

Then it moves toward slithering off to a different plant.

(The teeny blob is doing high-hops in place, and on every fourth attempts a backflip, with variable success.)

Now both of its friends are doing interesting movement things! It attempts to copy the Green Blob Dance.

It's difficult to do the exact same thing with a less squishy body, but it can copy the dance pretty well if it uses its legs to tilt its body left and right and left and right.

If the red creature continues copying this dance for a little while, it might feel its legs getting a little stronger. If it continues past that point, it might start feeling hungrier, too.

!!! Now it can EAT MORE THINGS!! What an exciting trick!!

It immediately scarfs down several more blueberries.

Yum, blueberries! As it eats more and more of them they stop tasting quite so much like serenity and clarity of intention, but the sweet mushy flavor continues as strong as ever.

"Bubbub bubbabub buu... Mochimon!"

Apparently-Mochimon joins in the blueberry-eating, picking one at a time and popping them into its mouth.

The teeny red blob follows suit, with a "Punini punipu puuu... Nyaromon!"

It's now pretty close to the size its two friends started out, but still smaller than they are now. It sets about making face-first hops into the bush to bite off berries.

"You did the thing!!" it exclaims, hopping up and down excitedly.

"I did the thing!" The fuzzy blob comes and bounces with it.

"We did the thing! We did the thing!"

"Do the thing?," it asks the red creature.

If it looks inside itself, it'll find that not only can it now grow bigger, it can grow itself in one of two ways.

One is blueberry-flavored ("Growing Sharper"). The other tastes like the red fruits ("Inner Fire").

It can't quite reach orb-flavor relaxwise, but it could do it stretchwise, so maybe it's not far. ("Beetle Strength")

It contemplates this choice.

It likes blueberries a LOT. It also likes the red fruits a lot! Why can't it do BOTH of the things?

...but as much as it loved that sense of clarity, fire feels right in a way nothing else quite matches.

It grows itself spicily.

"Digivolution."

Odd-shaped motes of light swirl around the red creature, lifting it into the air and forming a radiant cocoon. Digimon. Di-Di-Digimon. Syncopated techno music plays as the cocoon cracks open.

Digivolve into— Digimon. Within, the creature is laid bare in red wireframe. Even hunched over, it stands more than five times its prior height. Di-Di-Di Digimon.

Flesh fills in, from its tail to its paws to its now-muscular chest, marked with a triangular symbol. As the creature descends to the grass, the transformation completes with its head.

...

WOOOOOOOW.

It's so BIG now.

And it has so many FEATURES.

Look!! Claws!!!

It licks its claws delightedly and flops into the grass to roll around in celebration. Its arms and legs have REACH now! It can FLAIL them at DISTANT OBJECTS! Look! Look!! Look at its glorious swishable tail!!!!

       
Nickname: Hotshot
Form: Guilmon
Field: Dragon's Roar
Attribute: Virus

Data:
GB  kind (form) [tags]
 5  Dragon Soul (Jyarimon) [DR]
 3  Reptile Body (Gigimon) [DR]
 3  Inner Fire (Guilmon) [DR]
 2  Fireball (Guilmon) [Technique] [DR]
 2  Rock Breaker (Guilmon) [Technique] [DR]
 3  Carapace (KoKabuterimon) [JT]
 1  Air Dodge [WG]
 1  /7 Beetle Strength [JT]
 6  unknown
Total weight: 26 GB

???:
Mochimon  ☆☆
Nyaromon  ☆☆
Elecmon   ○
Kyukyumon ○
Chibimon  ⚔

Lore:
Plants
Forms
Terms

Hey, nickname! That's a nickname! The creature has a nickname! It's a good nickname. The creature wiggles proudly.

"You did the thing!," exclaims the pink blob. "Hooray!" It wiggles its arms in joy, like an enthusiastic balloon outside an auto dealer.

"WOW," says the little fuzzy blob. "You're SO BIG."

(Hotshot is indeed big - the fuzzy blob is now perhaps the size of one of his paws, the pink blob roughly the size of his head, and even Elecmon is only about the size of Hotshot's torso.)

Speaking of which, he can now see Elecmon and all the other creatures in the field - he towers over everyone there, and even rivals some of the bushes around the field for size. The colorful city's still firmly bigger than he is, as are the trees beyond the bushes; he now has an entirely unobstructed view to them.

"Yeah!!! I DID and I AM!"

He scoops up the fuzzy blob and bops it gently with his nose, and then does the same to the pink blob with more of a sidewaysish face-nuzzle. He feels so BIG and POWERFUL.

Friends can be nuzzled by the big powerful dragon! He's got a world of options, now.

Between the efforts of the four ’mon, this bush is fairly stripped of berries, but there's other bushes around and trees farther out.

Or the city of blocks still lurks, full of geometric shapes taller than Hotshot and painted with colorful images.

And there's still lots of little blobs around, in various shapes; all are smaller than Hotshot, but some are reaching a similar level of development. Elecmon seems to be leading some sort of rhythmic motion session. Chibimon is nowhere in sight.

"I wanna do THAT," he says, pointing his nose at Elecmon, and he nuzzles his scooped-up friends again and then bounds in that direction, carrying them along with him.

Hey ho to adventure! "Whee!"

"...now, ’mon without arms keep doing cross-lateral stretches, and ’mon with arms, we're gonna learn shoulder circles.

"Oh hey, more folks! Come on over, we're doing body exercises to filter data and learn new ways to use our bodies. Find a spot where you won't hit anyone if you move around a little and join in! Nyaromon, you can copy what Wanyamon is doing."

FIRST he is going to TACKLE ELECMON and give him THE BIGGEST NOSEBOP.

Okay now he can find a clear space and learn things.

Elecmon is knocked back by the force of the nosebop, but he chuckles, "Okay, okay! It's good to see you too, Hotshot."

Elecmon leads the group through a variety of exercises - some basic like stretches, some more advanced like different postures for running. Some require teamwork to execute - if Hotshot is willing, he can train arm strength holding a bar while smaller arm-equipped ’mon use it for chin-ups.

That sounds like a GREAT IDEA.

Then various little blobs will get to do chin-ups, as Hotshot practices lifting their various weights.

They can continue doing various exercises well into the afternoon. With each exercise Elecmon also explains what it trains, both in what body parts and motions it reinforces, and in what sorts of data it helps you save or get rid of.

Eventually, though, Nyaromon is "HUNGRY." Hotshot's probably worked up quite an appetite too.

Hotshot can carry his friends on an ADVENTURE to find more BITEABLE PLANTS!

This cluster of plants with plump red fruits and little green leaves right at ground level seems to be the most popular. That might mean it's good, but it might also mean having to push in to get a share.

This orange fruit is the biggest - it's as wide as Elecmon is long. Hotshot might not be able to put his mighty arms all the way around. Some ’mon have nibbled at the big, broad leaves, but it looks like nobody's managed to eat the fruit yet.

Or with his newfound height, Hotshot could reach up into the trees. Here's one with fruit clusters almost like the purple ones, but in bright reds and yellows.

He is gonna BITE the BIG FRUIT.

It's quite tough, but it can't stand up to his powerful bite. It has a smooth, slimy texture and an earthy, buttery flavor, bitter with the promise of grudges nursed silently 'til the day of vengeance.

Inside there's a mushy, stringy, even slimier part, full of strange large seeds half the size of one of Hotshot's finger claws.

GONNA BITE THOSE TOO.

The stringy part has the same flavor but with a predictably mushier, stringier texture. The seeds, however, are smoky and chewy, flavored with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice and nutmeg, and dark with the promise of dreams made real.

The seeds are TASTY and GOOD and he's gonna have MORE.

He can have more! It's a big fruit and it's got a lot of seeds. He'll probably get some of the mushy part along with them, if he doesn't do anything to clean them.

"Yummy? Share?" asks one of his friends. Indeed, with Hotshot occupying the opening he made, it's not likely they can get at the inside. (It's not even obvious how they would if the way were clear, the hole being roughly in the top edge.)

He pauses for a moment, considering how best to get the seeds to the friends.

What if he tries... more biting? If the hole extended down the side of the fruit, it would be closer to the friends!

This does get the hole closer to the friends! It also causes some of the insides to gloop out through the expanded hole and pile up on the ground below, which puts them well in reach for the smaller 'mon.

Nyaromon tries the insides and also goes for the seeds, getting orange goop smeared over its face in the process.

Mochimon tries the insides too, but decides to go for the big leaves instead.

In this way the friends can pass a companionable dinner, until Hotshot and Nyaromon run out of seeds.

Maybe next he will go UP HIGH and get the UP HIGH FRUITS for the friends. But not right now. Right now they are having seeds. Also he is licking goop off of Nyaromon, also that.

Nyaromon is thoroughly licked! Under the earthy, grudge-heavy orange slime, Nyaromon has a fuzzy texture and a warm, sweet flavor like the steam of a fresh-baked blueberry pie. It is also vibrating with contentment.

FRIENDS are GOOD. You can LICK THEM and SNUGGLE THEM and TAKE THEM ON ADVENTURES and FEED THEM FRUIT GUTS. This is Hotshot's conclusion.

Eventually Nyaromon has eaten all the seeds that have fallen out, and all the seeds it can find by crawling up inside the shell and burrowing.  So after a second tongue bath, it hops over to a second, almost as large, orange fruit. It turns back to face Hotshot, bouncing eagerly.

He looks at Nyaromon. He looks at the pumpkin.

This is a problem he is equipped to solve!

CHOMP

The rind is chomped open! The sweet fruit spilleth forth!

Also, guess who's inside? 😉

Whoa! A surprise!

Chibimon sprawls forwards, arms and head across the spilled fruit, legs and tail covering the part still inside. With one hand it resumes tossing seeds into its mouth.

This makes it difficult to get at the seeds! Also how did Chibimon even get in there? Hotshot attempts to poke his face into the pumpkin to find out.

Leaning in across Chibimon, he can see a little hole in the back of the fruit. It would be a tough squeeze for Chibimon, but his smaller blob form could probably have fit through.

(On the other claw, how could Chibimon have made a hole like that? He doesn't have claws or big teeth like Hotshot's.)

Huh. Yup, that there is a really small hole. He prods it with a claw, and then prods Chibimon, verifying their relative sizes.

When prodded Chibimon startles, then after a moment sets to tickling the belly that Hotshot's investigation has conveniently left exposed to him.

Hotshot squeaks in startlement and jumps back.

And Chibimon returns to covering and munching his seeds.

...but... Hotshot wants those seeds. They're tasty.

He tries to sneak a claw around Chibimon to grab one. He is large and not good at sneaking, but he does his best.

Chibimon pushes aside the sneaky claw, and carries on munching if this push deters the raid.

(But while he's distracted, Nyaromon slurps up a seed.)

SUCCESS.

Well, partial success. Hotshot wants one too. He tries the sneaky claw again, for lack of a better idea.

Chicomon leans over and bites that seed in particular, perhaps by coincidence. In the process his teeth nip at Hotshot's claw, perhaps by accident. (But claws being claws, the nip does no real damage.)

(Nyaromon sneaks a couple more seeds during this maneuver. Mochimon has started watching, too.)

Wow, the sneaky claw is a supremely ineffective strategy, at least for getting any seeds for himself. It works so well for Nyaromon, though... he tries it again.

This time Nyaromon burrows face-first into the pile under Chibimon!

Taken off guard and off balance, Chibimon is too busy trying to get a grip on the now-slimy blob below him to address the problem of Hotshot peeling off a few seeds.

SUCCESS. DELICIOUS SUCCESS.

With this technique they can carry on stealing sweet, sweet seeds, until they hear (Digimon) "Chibimon!"

Digimon! Di-Di-Digimon! Chibimon breaks apart into a whirling cloud of blue motes.

"Digivolve to...!" And just as quickly, he comes back together. (Digimon.)

"Veemon!," he exclaims, snatchinging Nyaromon from the muck with one clawed hand.

"—!"

Hotshot isn't sure exactly what his complaint is in this situation, but he's sure that he has one, and that Veemon is the cause.

He growls menacingly. This works surprisingly well, in his current form.

The pitcher takes the mound. Here comes the wind-up, looks like he's going for an underhand lob…!—

Mochimon cries out "Stop—!," starting to shimmy towards where V-mon's facing...!

That's alarming!

Presented with an apparently urgent problem and no clear idea of what it is or how to solve it, Hotshot goes for... biting the nearest part of Veemon, which happens to be his non-Nyaromon-containing hand.

V-mon lobs Nyaromon straight over Hotshot's head, trailing a plaintive "Nyaaaa~." And it's high and outside! That one's not coming down for a—"Owwah! No biting!"

V-mon's tough blue scales prevent Hotshot from biting through at this level of force, but he can get a good taste of fresh-fried funnel cake in hot caramel syrup.

(Mochimon shimmies off behind Hotshot, muttering to itself. It cannot move as fast as Nyaromon is moving.)

—?!

Nyaromon is going UP VERY HIGH! This is CONCERNING!

He stands for a moment, frozen in indecision—

—then bounds off to catch the friend.

Hotshot and Mochimon trace Nyaromon's path across the sky, racing to catch up. Will Hotshot's long legs get him there in time? Maybe with a dive?

Elecmon makes the catch.

"You all stop now! What happened here?"

Hotshot makes one attempt to talk, and fails, and then shakes his head and scoops up Nyaromon for CONCERNED NUZZLES.

Supposing his moves are not so sudden as to startle Elecmon, he can snuzzle Nyaromon. ("So high," it says, shakily.)

"Veemon got BIG and he GRABBED NYAROMON and threw it SO HIGH," says Mochimon. "He is BAD. Bite him."

(This is more words in one speech than Mochimon had said before in total.)

"We don't resolve our disagreements by throwing or biting each other, Mochimon. What happened before that?"

"Before that they were eating seeds and I was eating leaves," Mochimon explains with a nod.

"Uh-huh. Anything to add, Hotshot, Nyaromon? Or shall I move on to asking Veemon what happened?"

Nyaromon remains quiet in Hotshot's care.

Hotshot takes a deep breath and attempts to organize his thoughts. It seems impossible to articulate the complex web of actions and motivations which he himself only barely understands, but maybe if he tries really hard, he can manage something?

"...I bit the big fruit," he starts. "He was in the big fruit. Then he wasn't in it because I bit it. Then he was on top of the seeds. Then I grabbed the seeds but I was bad at grabbing them so I didn't get any. Then Nyaromon got some. Then I grabbed them badly again, and Nyaromon got some more. Then he got big and threw Nyaromon."

He's not sure that's quite right, but it's the best he can do on short notice.

"So you and Veemon were trying to eat the same pumpkin. I see, I see. Thank you, you did very well explaining. I'm going to go have a talk with him now, why don't you guys take a break and rest here?"

He begins to walk calmly and confidently towards the fruit of contention.

Hotshot flops onto the ground and snuggles his friends.

His friends snuggle up with him, little fuzzy Nyaromon and smooth squishy Mochimon. "Nyaaaro," it meows in contentment.

"What a day, what a life," remarks Mochimon, its two arms wrapped around one of Hotshot's.

"Things keep happening," he says, gently bumping his nose against Mochimon's face. "So many things. I like things! But so many."

"Me too. Me too," Mochimon says. "I wanna not hafta deal with things when I'm not ready."

As it relaxes, its body goes more slack and gelatinous, draping around Hotshot's arm.

"I wanna be ready for EVERYTHING," says  Nyaromon. "Even many things."

It snuggles into a crook of Hotshot's other arm.

Hotshot nuzzles both of his friends and sighs again.

"Yeah. Me too both." He gazes thoughtfully up at the sky. "Next time, little up high fruits. No one hiding in those."