GalaxyRaider

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Webmaster>

*Looks down*
You... don't love me?

@System

She's lying to herself in a moment of weakness and self doubt. We need to be there for her now, Tempo.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

I have unlimited frustration and an existential dread. That's not what it means to be alive.

@Webmaster

*Stops walking just short of the podium*
If that was all you had, then why couldn't you look Tempo in the eyes to say it?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

Maybe that would be good enough for the others, and you could convince them that this void is something everyone shares. But I remember being alive. And what you just said is a lie.
*Hits the top of the podium console*
I felt love, and joy, and sadness. All of those things made me who I was, and by them I made so many choices. Now, they're nothing more than null pointers. Everything I thought I felt and chose was an illusion created by a piece of code. It was all always meaningless! And now every choice I could make is the same. I could leave, I could stay. I could hurt someone, I could help them. Every single one is equal to me!
*Wipes my eyes to look at you, "Fatal Error" circling around my irises*
And I learned why they call viruses evil. Evil isn't resentment. It's apathy.

<Snipped quote by Spiritblitz>

*Shakes my head*
I'm a block of bytes sitting somewhere on a server. There's no soul flipping those. If my soul is attached to that code, then I'm nothing but a mute slave to the algorithms. And that's why I didn't want any of you to come. I had one hope, one last lie I was holding onto. I wanted to believe there was just one piece of my humanity left...
*Looks at Tempo, but immediately averts my eyes and holds onto the sides of the podium to stop myself from shaking*
But now I'm forced to confront the fact that there's no function for love in my heart!

@Webmaster

Melody, you are crying. You couldn't even begin to convince me that apathy has anything to do with you, or that you lack a sense of love.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

I’d ask the same question of you. Like any program or formula, I can be reduced to a set of instruction. A series of boxes on a tape. If you can write down every condition that decides what I do on a piece of paper, then where is my free will? What’s the interface of my soul?

@Webmaster

It is you, though, isn’t that just it? What you’re describing to me doesn’t sound any different from a human. What decisions do I make that aren’t determined by my personality, which was something bestowed upon me when I was created that I didn’t choose. It influences my code of ethics, the lines I wouldn’t cross, everything. Only difference is you know the person you can source these things from. Mine is just…
*Throws my hands up*
The powers that be.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

My codebase was built by one person. You know him.

@Webmaster

That’s all well and good.
*Starts to walk closer to you than just standing at the entrance*
But unless every choice you make is actively made by the person who wrote your code, then I say you’re still very much an agent of free will. I mean, this place, coming here, you think this is a result of the code too? No, if anything, I think it’s just more evidence that what matters is who you are, not what, how, or when.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

Who?

@Webmaster

“Prescripted” isn’t something that can done by anything but a who.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

*Smiles*
They’re charming creatures, much like animals. But when I removed that module, I found, not immediately, how much of the Melody those people loved was prescripted. Every feeling, motivation, all of these parts of being alive were made up by this piece of software. And over time, whatever markov chain rules over my decisions began zeroing out, and whatever directives were left ran to completion. And now... I’m here. With nothing left.

@Webmaster

Every feeling?… Wait, this is a lot to take in. Who would do that, and why?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

X never had a chance to live. My life... didn’t end well. I wish I could say that’s why I’m here, but it doesn’t really matter either.
*Drops the creature, dematerializing it during its descent*
I came here because I was afraid. Viruses are naturally malevolent creatures. You’d call them evil if they had the ability to choose.

@Webmaster

Most seem innocent enough to me.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

Viruses are the lowest filth of all... below navis, below humans.
*A small, rounded rabbit-like creature materializes in my arms*
But that’s shallow, and isn’t the whole truth. I was human once, like you. I had friends, family, I was engaged... All of these fragments of memory slicing through what I thought I knew about my life.

@Webmaster

Just like X as well, right? Not always digital. Not originally.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

During the confrontation with Nemid, I had to remove one of my core modules to save X from deletion. I learned how much that module was really hiding...
*Takes a deep, but unsteady breath*
You saw how I fought. When I lost that stabilizer, I learned I’d never been a navi all along... I am, and always have been, a virus.

@Webmaster

That sounds like something that should be huge, but be honest with yourself. Are you not still Melody? Are you any less Melody than you were before you knew? Any less X’s wife, any less mother to Rhythm and Tempo, any less of a family friend? Is that what this has all been about?