melodiesoflife | Event || In Your Worst Memory

Characters: All Heroes of Light. Only those who signed-up can start a memory.
Where: Interdimensional Rift
When: May 27th - May 30th
Summary: The Heroes of Light relive some of their worst memories, with a twist. All characters participating in this will be physically missing from Crystallis for the duration of the event.
Warning: It depends on the memory.

Where you were or what you were doing— It does not really matter. Not any more. Everything around you freezes, nearly as if time itself stopped, as if the world was frozen in time. And before you have a chance to understand what is happening, you can hear a voice right behind you.

"Kali Shashidhwaja."

Should you turn around, you may see a child who seems to be the only one aside from you unaffected by what is happening. And as she stares right at you, it makes no doubt these strange words are aimed at you. But before you can reply to her, the world around you collapses. Reality twists and shatters... Or maybe you are the one who is collapsing and shattering away from reality as you know it. No matter what the answer is, it will only take a few seconds for you to find yourself sinking into a void, Crystallis vanishing into the distance. There is nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see.

And once again you feel different: all the powers from your Jobs are fading. Not only that, but you might find that your Crystal is gone and your clothes back to what they were before you woke up in Crystallis. It is silent, cold and before long it feels as though life itself is slipping out of you... And yet, slowly the world reforms around you. The darkness fades away and a new world appears, yet at the same time this is not a world.

This is a memory. The question is, is it yours or that of someone else?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She leans in, keeping her voice low. This is a thing she's told other people, but still a thing she only wants to share on her own with the people she chooses.]

I'm an artificial intelligence. A program that exists only inside a computer.

[He raises his eyebrows, but other than that, he doesn't seem to react.]

And yet you're out here...?

[That would explain why she'd want a computer so badly, if that's where she usually lives.]

I don't completely understand it either. I'm willing to chalk it up to magic and leave it at that. But the important thing isn't how I'm here. It's that I am. And if I'm here, I want to help this world however I can.

I don't have much expertise with advanced computers, much less beings that only live inside them, but I'd say that's a reasonable explanation.

[He looks back at the screen.] So you were "killed" inside a computer?

Right. Inside a simulation. I was placed inside it as a safety measure to keep an eye on the other people in it. I won't explain it all now, but... things didn't exactly go as planned.

[He wants an explanation on "the other people" sometime soon, though.]

So this Monokuma wasn't supposed to be there, right?

Right. He was basically a virus that found its way inside the program.

So all your memories...you'd been living inside a computer all your life. That explains a lot.[There it goes: Chiaki is crushed on-screen again.]

What did you mean exactly by "entrusting your hopes to someone"? Is that a code for something computer-related?

[She shakes her head.]

No. That meant exactly what it sounded like.

[Do computer residents have some way of communicating with each other after death? What does death entail for them? There are too many questions.]

Remember our conversation, on the airship? You were asking me what to do with scientists were working for the bad guys. Since you're all artificial intelligences, I'd think that scientists were the ones you created you. [Pause.] What was the Monokuma virus trying to do?

I remember. The Monokuma virus was trying to continue the spread of the despair that had already engulfed and nearly completely destroyed the world. I was created by an organization called the Future Foundation that was trying to stop it and heal the world.

By "the world", are you talking about the world outside your computer?

[That's dark.]

Was someone else able to stop it?

That's right. And I don't know. That's why I had to trust them.

But can they do it? Were they also created to fight the virus?

The virus was just one part of the larger problem, and it's gone now. But they can do it.

[No 'I think.' No 'probably.' Chiaki believes in them. At the very least, she believes in Hajime and in her father's friends.]

So how to do stop a virus? I doubt you can just physically beat it up. [Even if Monokuma appeared as a small bear, Chiaki did not look strong enough to fight anything on her own.]

Did you give them any powers? Tell them its weakness?

There was a fail safe built into the program that could be activated to shut everything down in case of an emergency. That's how the virus was defeated. It meant the program wasn't able to run to completion in the way it was originally intended, and I don't know the consequences of that, but it's up to everyone else now.

So...you stopped it, but he's still alive. It's progress, I guess, but what's to stop it from causing havoc before it all shuts down?

[Chiaki shakes her head.]

The virus is gone, and so is the person who was behind it, but the effects on the real world are still there. That's what the Future Foundation is trying to fix.

[He leans back on his chair.]

So it looks like you solved the problem. At least you're still alive here. I'd say it's a better situation than failing and remaining dead.

[Or failing and living in Crystallis, in Ales' case. A hint of bitterness creeps into his voice.]

I don't really belong here either, though. One way or another, all of our time in this world is limited by the Calamity.

[Either it wins and they end up as doppelgangers, or they defeat it and Chiaki goes home to... a world in which she no longer exists.]

[His expression grows more serious.]

Unless we find a way to stop the Calamity and stay in this world. Even if I'm somehow alive back home, I much prefer living here.

[Too many people will be after him. At least in Crystallis, he has a second chance at improving society with his creations.]

I like it here too. There's... not really a place for me to go back to in my world.

[As she says those words, the movie comes to an abrupt halt, the visual effect looking like the film reel had just snapped.]

...Oh. I see what this was.

[He nods. There's no place back home waiting for them, thought the situations are different.]

What? What happened to the memory?

I had to accept what it meant.

[Chiaki smiles, a little sadly this time.]

...That no matter what happens, I'm never going back.

[Any more will have to wait, because the entire scene goes dark at this point. Memory over.]

Event || In Your Worst Memory

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