Tamer and digimon stayed in the lounge, asking questions and getting to know each other. At some point the newly-dubbed Ren had finally agreed to take a seat as the tamer asked another question.

"...so Ren, I know plenty of digimon come to this world, but how does it actually work getting from one world to the other?"

"It involves the use of what are referred to as gates. Essentially, a portal will sometimes open up between our worlds. However, they are random and I believe there is currently no agreed understanding of how they function. It was a chance occurrence that I found an open gate. When I did, I decided to take that chance."

"What's it like going through?"

"It is rather unspectacular to be honest."

"Really? No drama? No… twisting the fabric of reality?"

"I am not sure what that would feel like. But yes, no drama. There is a fog that appears, but otherwise it is like simply stepping through a doorway."

"Well, that sucks. What's the point of an interdimensional gateway if there's no drama?"

"There was no suction involved."

"What?"

"You said it 'sucks'."

"...did I get the Drax of digimon partners?"

"Uh, yeah. That's just an expression. When something's disappointing or not as good as it should be, we say it sucks."

"Interesting. I will try to remember that. But why not simply say it is disappointing?"

"Well, uh… it doesn't… I guess it doesn't have the same emotion behind it."

"I see."

The tamer noticed it was getting dark outside.

"Wow, it's pretty dark out there. We've been talking for a while. Probably time to think about getting some food."

A thought occurred to him.

"...uh, this might sound a bit stupid, but… what do digimon normally eat?"

"We can consume anything composed of data."

The tamer gave the digimon a questioning look.

"Anything? Isn't your whole world made of data?"

"Yes."

It took a moment for Ren to realise the implication.

"...you are concerned we could consume the entire digital world?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. But also just weird stuff. Like… you wouldn't eat a rock… would you?"

"In theory, we could consume almost anything. However, certain objects contain higher quality data than others. Consuming too many objects with bad data leads to a risk of corruption. So we choose only to consume objects with quality data. Something like a rock has very little useful data, so there is little benefit in consuming it."

"Right. So what about like… you know… actual food? Does that exist in your world?"

"There are foodstuffs. Some are even very similar to what exists in this world, although they are not commonly found. I have heard of digimon trying to create farms to harvest this food data. However, these tend to be raided by the stronger digimon. Unfortunately, whilst strong, those digimon do not have the knowledge to maintain those farms and so they do not last long."

"That's a shame. So you have things like vegetables, yeah?"

"Yes, there are a variety of vegetables."

"But you wouldn't have meat, right? Like… you couldn't chop up a chicken digimon to make drumsticks."

"There is meat. It grows similarly to the vegetables."

"G-grow… meat? Ugh, that's not right. And how come the food ends up looking like stuff from this world?"

"My understanding is that this data used to exist in a raw form. However, over time the digital world has adopted certain aspects from your world. For example, high quality consumable data has taken on the appearance of food."

"Weird."

"Perhaps."

"So, how about in this world? Pretty sure our food isn't made of data."

The tamer thought about where a digimon could get data in his world.

"...you're not gonna try and eat my computer to get some data, are you?"

"Not the computer itself. However, if it contains data, I may be able to consume that."

The tamer waved a finger at the digimon.

"Oh-no-no, don't be getting any ideas. I need that for stuff. And I'm not sure the data would be the same, anyway. Would've seen stories like 'Teacher, my digimon ate my homework'. So let's not try that, yeah? Like… no nibbling my USBs, or there's gonna be trouble."

"I promise I will refrain from consuming your data. But regarding your food, I am uncertain. I have observed digimon consuming food in this world, so I can only assume some part of the bioemerging process changes us and allows us to process your food."

The tamer stared blankly for a moment, trying to comprehend what the digimon had said.

"Uhhh...ok, I think that's enough digimon science for today. So… if we get some food, you'll be ok to eat it, right? You don't have any… allergies?"

"In theory, I should be fine… although I will admit I am yet to try any food from your world."

"You haven't eaten anything since you got here? But… that waiter said you'd been hanging around for at least a week. You must be starving! Jeez, let me make you something real quick."

"That is not necessary, Tamer. I do not require anything for the time being."

"What? How can you not be hungry?"

"Digimon do not need to eat to survive in the same sense as humans do. Whilst food, or rather data, assists us to grow, as long as we are in a stable state, we do not need it. However, if part of our data becomes corrupted, we do need to replace it with new data."

"Really? So you're like immortals who could live forever?"

"Not exactly. Despite this advantage, most digimons' lifespans are quite short, due to a high likelihood of being deleted by stronger digimon."

"Uh… that's kind of dark, Ren… and not really what I meant."

"Honestly, I am not sure what happens as digimon grow. But as far as I have seen, age does not affect us the way it does humans."

"Huh. On that subject… how old are you?"

"That is… somewhat complicated. I believe time flows differently here compared to the digital world. Whilst we have the concept of days, they do not equate to your Earth days. My age in the digital world would not translate directly to this world."

"Yeah, ok. I can see how that makes it tricky. Maybe someone figured out the conversion to Earth years? Uh, I'm 33 years old if you were interested."

"Thank you for sharing that, Tamer. I believe the closest equivalent measure in the digital world would be cycles, in which case I would be 82."

The tamer's eyes widened at the revelation.

"82? Holy shit. Uh… you look pretty good for an old man."

The digimon seemed a bit unsure how to take that, hesitating before replying.

"Oh… thank you… for the… compliment. However, 82 cycles, not years. And I would be considered relatively young in the digital world."

"Yeah, I know… different measure. I just couldn't resist making a joke. Well, let's see if anyone has figured out the conversion."

The tamer pulled out his phone to search the internet.

"Hmm… ok. Reddit says one of the first tamers did an experiment. They spent a day in the digital world then checked how much time had passed back here. So a day in there turned out to be… what? Only a minute out here? Imagine that. Ok… so how many of your days are in a cycle, Ren?"

"365."

"Suspiciously convenient..."

He switched to the calculator on his phone.

"Ok… so 82 cycles is… about 29 thousand digital days. One minute per day… so the same number of minutes out here. Divide by 60 for hours, 24 for days and then 365 for years gives… 0.0057? Wait, that can't be right."

He ran the numbers again to check for a mistake.

"...0.0057 years… or just under 21 days. Ren, are you seriously telling me you're like three weeks old?"

"I trust your calculations are correct."

"Jeez, from old man to newborn."

"Tamer, I can assure you I have much more experience than a newly hatched digiegg."

"Uh… yeah, I'm not saying I think you're dumb or anything. It's just like...weird to think that three weeks ago you didn't even exist. Like, you speak really intelligently, easily as smart as me. And I've been around for three decades."

"Yes, I see how that would seem strange. Out of interest, could you do the reverse calculation for your age in cycles?"

"Uh, ok. So 33 years… times 365 for days… times 24 for hours… times 60 for minutes... is… oh, wow, 17.3 million minutes. Yeah, that's a bit higher. So that would be the equivalent digital days… divide by 365 for digital cycles… uh, 47… thousand cycles."

"Well, Tamer, I would say you are in exceptional shape for being so elderly."

The digimon looked quite pleased at using the tamer's own joke against him.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny. Ok, let's just agree the conversion doesn't really work."

"Very well."

"Great. So, back to my original question, even if you don't need to… you wanna try some food from this world?"

"What do you have in mind?"