This is my account of the time I spent in the Digital world, which spanned Saturday 16.02.08 until Tuesday, 19.02.08 in our world time and which appeared to last nine days in the Digital world. This cannot be used to estimate the difference in the passage of time between the two worlds, however, as there were several periouds of instability in which I was largely disorientated and 'between' worlds.
Whether you choose to believe my account or not is largely immaterial. It occurred, I experienced it, and I have hopes that it will be of use to those that intend to further transversal into the Digital world.
There is no purpose beyond that. I do not seek to impress, nor boast. These are simply the facts as I witnessed them.
Saturday 16.02.08 - Our World
I was walking alone along a footpath I usually walk or jog along during the weekend. I was doing nothing special or exceptional - the actions were routine and my thoughts were largely neutral. I carried no Digivice and did not will the transversal to occur. It simply happened.
The transversal itself is difficult to describe. I believe it to be different in its nature to that we hope to achieve through the Portal - the Event will be a controlled, stable transversal while this was accidental and uncontrolled. That I phased in and out of the Digital world at times appears proof that the transversal was not 'stable'.
The transversal experience was not one of pain. The most I can recall of it is that the world appeared to distort, that I was overwhelmed by a sense of something more, or other, and then I was overcome by a sense of neutrality. I did not think, or feel at all. It was as though a waking unconciousness, surrounded by neither colour or texture.
When I regained cognitive thought, I was in the Digital world.
Day One - the Digital World, Forest
The first lucid memory of the Digital world I have is of euphoria. I allowed myself - perhaps excusably - to become overwhelmed by a sense of success. What I had achieved through accident was the dream I had always desired.
When I regained my composure, I became more aware of my surroundings and situation. I had only light clothing: a shirt, jeans, trainers, thin scarf and gloves. I had no food, or water. I had no electronic device. I had no Digivice. The only apparatus I carried was a watch, which allowed me to measure the days as they are shown here.
I appeared to be in a forest. The trees appeared to be pines, or similar, on a superficial level, but smelt strongly of honey. The ground was dirt without grass or other vegetation. The air was crisp but not cold.
The surroundings were unusually simplistic. The trees varied little, were all of identical height, perfectly spaced out and patterns emerged in the arrangement of the branches after some inspection. The ground was simply dirt, a dull brown colour. There was no other sign of vegetation, or of wildlife.
There was a plain, monotonically blue sky. A round, yellow sun shone above through the trees.
Do not mistake this simplicity for lack of detail. The trees had bark with countless grooves and notches and grain. It was simply that they were identical for each. It was as though a tree had been taken and duplicated to create a forest.
I spent a day walking in the direction away from the sun without sight of variation in the landscape. The sun rose and fell until it set to my front, after which I walked in darkness.
I will admit to hunger and thirst at this point. The endless monotony of the landscape may have also had some affect on my mental state at the time, which was somewhat disorientated still after the transversal.
It is my belief now that it is the disorientation that allowed me to walk for as long as I did. Had my body been in a better state I imagine hunger and thirst would have long since forced me to subside.
As it is I sat to sleep against a tree at some point in the darkness, and appeared to 'phase' between worlds. I was aware of both the monotonous Forest of the Digital world and the landscape of the countryside in which I had been walking. Again there was a numbness of the mind, which neutralised thought and emotion, from which I 'awoke' to what I label Day Two of my experience in the Digital world.
Day Two / Day Five - the Digital World, Committee Village
I regained lucid thought in the Digital world in a different location. I was, though I did not know it then, in Committee Village, which I will describe more fully later on.
I 'awoke' in a plain, simplistic orange room. The walls were smooth and without texture - I presume a plastered stone or metal of some kind - and without decoration. They measured five metres by five metres across each way; I know this because I spent four days in this room and was able to pace out the distance carefully.
There was only one door, which was again a smooth material, purple and circular, exactly halway up one wall, and which measured a half metre across in diameter. It was opened by a latch on the other side.
I do not know how the room was lit. I saw no sources for light, and yet the room was brightly illuminated during the daylight hours (1:00 AM to 8:30 PM as recorded by my watch), and dimmed to darkness when the night came.
A fish had been left on the floor in one corner of the room. It was cooked and salted. I ate it without thought. A disappointing lax in caution, but which led to no immediate threats. I was understandably hungered at this stage, though the disorientation of the 'phasing' that occurred after Day One alliviated what should have been a far more serious issue of hunger.
I spent four days in this room. A fish was delivered four times daily; at 6:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM. The times were not exact, however.
The fish were delivered by a small Digimon I was able to identify from the anime/manga as Crabmon. This was not my first experience of Digimon. I have previously encountered my own Digital partner, Tentomon, within our own world. This - and the fact that I had been able to prepare for the possibility of encountering Digimon since my arrival in the Digital world - meant I was largely unaffected by his presence.
Crabmon said nothing, and I did not attempt to engage in conversation with him, over the four days I spent in 'captivity'. To attempt to overpower him would have been too dangerous to risk, and - I hypothesised at the time and was right - unnecessary.
Through his visits I was able to glimpse the surroundings beyond the door. They appeared to be a green clearing and small houses, apparantly all the same size as the one I was held in, and all consisting of one orange room. More of the same trees as in the Forest could be glimpsed bordering this clearing.
This was my first glimpse of Committee Village.
I disappeared at the end of Day Five in a similar manner of 'phasing' as I had at the end of Day One.
Day Six / Day Eight - the Digital World, Committee Village
This time I appeared in the centre of the clearing I had glimpsed through the door of my 'prison'. I was in the very middle of the clearing in the Forest in which Committee Village existed.
To simplify my acceptance in Committee Village, I was shortly surrounded by a crowd of Digimon. The majority appeared to be Crabmon. There may also have been a Renamon, and a Biyomon. The apparanent 'leader' of the village was a Digimon I did not recogonise, but was introduced to as (and later investigated to confirm with the anime) Harpymon.
Harpymon spoke to me in fluent English, without accent or dialect. This did not surprise me unduly, as Tentomon had done the same in my prior experience. I would speak to the other Digimon of Committee Village later, and can confirm that they all too spoke in English, though when I questioned further on the issue of language they appeared perplexed as to the concept.
Harpymon explained that I had been fluctating in and out of Committee Village. She said that through curiousity she had held me in one of the houses while the village debated as to what actions to take. I then fluctuated out of the room of my own accord and reappeared where I was the following month - which I deem as further proof of a difference in world times, while I 'phased' between worlds a month passed in the Digital world.
It now appeared that they had no plans as to what actions to take involving the issue of my appearance, and simply accepted me into the village. The passive nature of the residents of Committee Village will be explored later.
The village is small, but spread over a large clearing. The pine trees border the clearing perfectly, with no natural raggedness to the boundary. I asked later as to this and the Digimon claimed to have no part in this. Apparently the trees do not grow, and have never been felled, because there has never been any need to fell them. The Digimon of Committee Village seemed to have no need for lumber, or any other resourse other than fish.
There are precisely seven houses of the one room, five metres by five metres type that I described earlier. All are a pale yellow on the outside, and a bright orange on the inside. All have a single, circular purple door.
They do not appear to be the property of any individual Digimon, nor do any Digimon actually ever appear to sleep or live in them. The Digimon largely sleep in the open, and go about their lives either in the clearing or the Forest. Rarely did they go indoors, excepting to attend the meetings in the Committee Hall.
There was a wooden watchtower too low to see above the treetops, and without a ladder to climb it. When asked about its purpose, the Digimon of Committee Village simply put it down to an earlier time, or claimed to have no idea as to its existence at all. This is a common trait among the Digimon of Committee Village; if it does not present an immediate need to act, they will ignore it. They are content to allow the unexplainable to go unexplainable without question.
There is a football field, or 'soccer' field for Americans that may read this, in a corner of the clearing, with two old metal stands that line opposing sides. There are no seats and no goal posts. There is no evidence of a football, either. As has been said, the Digimon of Committee Village do not appear to have a curious mind among them, and simply leave the football field unquestioned and untouched.
This said, the pitch is used for races among the Digimon once every four days. I witnessed one such race. Five Crabmon ran from one end to another. Two Crabmon ran only halfway, one ran two-thirds of the way and the other ran the length of the field twice. There was no winner.
This appeared regular and routine to the Digimon of Committee Village, who assembled to witness the race in silence and without a single absentee, and who left in silence once it was run.
Why this was none could say, despite my queries. It is one of many routine traditions the Committee Village Digimon undergo without reason or purpose, and which they never question.
There is a tarmac road that runs through Committee Village. The Digimon did not build it (as they claim not to have built any of the structures in the village) and claim to have never used or followed it.
I explored along the road in one direction once and found it stopped, abruptly, not so far from the village. The other direction I did not have time to venture down.
On the side of the road there is a burial ground. This appears to be the only actual 'construction' the Digimon have made in the village. Metal chairs, presumably torn from the football stands, are half-buried in the ground. On enquiry, the Digimon explained that it was a burial ground, but could not say what for, or even when they did it.
The village is fed entirely on fish, without any outward medical consequence of an unbalanced diet. The fish is bought from the Ocean, which is found when you walk at an adjacent angle to the road, through the Forest. The Forest ends abruptly into a stony beach and then sheer cliffs, which the Crabmon descend each morning to retrieve vast quantities of fish for the villagers. Water came from a river in the Forest nearby and from the Ocean (which appeared to be neither salty nor unsafe to consume).
These fish are then salted (though where the salt came from I am unaware of) and then stored in a giant refrigerated warehouse that stands in the centre of the village. It is simply a plain white cube that dwarfs the trees around. There are numerous circular purple doors, as on the houses, that lead inside.
I was never allowed inside. One of the few restrictions placed upon me was that I could not enter the fish warehouse. I do not know why this is, and few of the Digimon appeared to understand, either.
The final landmark in Committee Village is the Committee Hall. This is a building similar to the houses on a larger scale, though again with just one room.
Inside the Digimon of Committee Village 'debate' the decisions of the village. This entails of Harpymon declaring the recent events - all routine, and all already known to the assembled - and then allowing the Digimon to propose a course of action for the village to take. No Digimon ever propose a course of action, and thus none is ever taken. It was unusual, it seems, in how a decision was made to hold me in a house temporarily.
The history or reason of Committee Village is uncertain, even among the inhabitants. They have little curiosity for the constructions clearly not created by themselves, they rarely talk to one another, they have no sense of family or breeding. They appear to simply live, confused as to why they do so. I have a theory which I will suggest later.
Day Eight ended with a period of 'phasing' once more. I 'awoke' on the cliffs away from Committee Village, located on my sketch map by 'ARRIVAL'.
Day Nine - the Digital World, the Cliffs
I came to consciousness on the stony beach of the cliffs, alone. The Ocean beyond stretched for what seemed a monotonous eternity, while behind me I could just hear the sounds of Committee Village.
It was perhaps midday. I could not tell precisely, because I did not record the time on my watch. This was because minutes after awakening, I was attacked.
A SkullGreymon was climbing the cliffs from below. His presence caught me off guard, for which I lay fault with the disorientation of the 'phasing'.
This is why I stood and watched solemnly as the SkullGreymon mounted the beach. Shock, awe, mind-numbing fear are reasons that I would label for others in this circumstance. For myself...I was aware of how beautiful he was. SkullGreymon seemed so very different to the Digimon of Committee Village, so dark and cold and dead that he was alive.
I cannot explain precisely the euphoric effect SkullGreymon had on me. Perhaps I was still in some confusion. Do not mistake this for an appreciation for Evil. I saw SkullGreymon as something powerful and able to Act. To pass judgement and do things while the Committee Digimon simply lived passively, without purpose.
I felt SkullGreymon had a purpose. A dark purpose that threatened my very existence as I stood, a mouse in his shadow, but a purpose nonetheless.
Perhaps I was confused at the time. Probably. Either way, the euphoria prevented me from movement. I stood and watched a skeletal giant climb and lope towards me and did nothing.
Which may have been fortunate. That I did not run perhaps perplexed the desire to kill enough that when SkullGreymon struck, it was hesitant and slow. He did not use Ground Zero, or Dark Shot. He lunged to stab with his bone claws and struck my head as I fluctuated and transversed.
Tuesday, 19.02.08 - Our World
My comatose self was found, head cut deeply into, in the countryside where I walked the past Saturday. I was taken to the nearby hospital and discharged Saturday 23.02.08.
A Sketched Map of Committee Village
This was drawn some time after my return to our world, and after I came back from a comatose state, and is thus subject to some deviation through fault of memory.
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Speculation
I am naturally unable to pass confirmation over any issue of the Digital world. I witnessed but a small fraction of it, and only a handful of Digimon. The only confirmation it has given me is that the Digital world is real. This I knew prior, however.
These are speculations I have assembled drawn from the experience.
The Digital world runs at a faster rate of time than our own. My experience appears to prove this, though does not provide enough evidence to calculate an exact exchange rate.
The Digital world is reachable by accident. This transversal was unstable, sporadic and uncontrolled. It is to be hoped the Portal the Event creates will be the opposite of this.
The Digital world lacks 'reality'. Identical trees spaced perfectly apart. 'Human' structures appearing without reason or history. The Digimon of Committee Village appear to have difficulty in integrating with this intrusion of human structures and such, they loose purpose and meaning.
This is the account of my experience in the Digital world. I apologise if I have neglected any detail you consider important, and am open to questions.
Justin is a good admin XD
