You know the story; chap gets a video game, they bond with their character in the game, character escapes the game, the affection between them grows, then the love is made equal as the chap gets to become the same species as their character, they hug and make out and live happily ever after.

This is not quite that story. But fortunately it's also not a bummer. It's a simple tale of someone not knowing there's really another person behind the screen and what happens when their cultures clash and also the chap gets to become the same species as their characters. Just with a lot of insectoid creatures and a boatload of anime friendship tropes.
~~~~
Believe it or not I had more Digimon TF stories in the pipeline after all. After the quiet success in getting a strong narrative treatment to the underrated Shakkoumon, the excitement for my work and the encouragement of my silent partner led me to next turned to the Kamen Rider-looking guy that's everyone's suave favorite (everyone except Bandai's merchandisers, sadly). Surely an easy job to write a semi-subversive work about a guy who loves Stingmon and then doesn't really get that reception when he finally meets his partner, right?

Well the eight months since the last one should tell you how well that went. Fortunately after ages of dragging my feet and only writing a few words a day, the writing muse came back with a vengeance thanks to a recent period of solitude, having no one but my thoughts, some cats, and a copy of The Book of Bill to keep me company. Having kept my sanity through the power of writing, I now present to all three of you who will ever read this another bemusing romp through the world of Digimon. One that continues to get bigger the more I write and roleplay in it. I'll be writing the crisis crossover season finale in no time, i'm sure.

Special shoutouts go out to wyraachur and ben300 and their 2009 sleeper hit "Taming the Tamer", one of my earliest TF reading experiences and one that still sticks out to me for being a rather sweet, fun and SFW read, even if now the pinches of furry interpretations of Renamon stand out more than they used to (I have been well-lectured in remembering the lesson of this Tamers clip). The influence it had on this story cannot be deny, so thank you Wyraachur and Ben for leading me down the rabbit hole that led me to end up here writing this now. Thanks for the memories.