Legend

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

Common to artificial souls, but she isn't artificial, is she? Soulwise.

@GalaxyRaider

Ah, did that fact emerge during your research? Correct, Melody possesses a digitized human soul. However, not all components of her soul are original, and I suspect that even had they been, they would have still risked significant corruption.

<Snipped quote by Legend>

Wait, back up. Dark magic??

@Techspert

Correct, dark magic binds your mother’s soul to its code.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

*Slowly shrugs*

@GalaxyRaider

I see. In any case, there are two problems here. In one case—
*Zooms in to the inner mechanisms of the soul, some deteriorated by a black substrate*
She’s experienced soul rot, a common ailment of artificial souls. It appears that whenever the cleansing functionality was removed, the dark magic that binds her soul together proved toxic to other components.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

Well, it was, so you’ve made a correct deduction for sure.

@GalaxyRaider

Which leads me to the question: what happened to the code responsible for objective weights, emotional drivers, and soul cleansing?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

She already had a bunch of corrupted code, actually, so what you might be seeing is what Tamaki tried to replace it with to fix her. But that depends, does it look like malicious code?

@GalaxyRaider

No, but it does appear to have been implemented quickly. It’s binding the other pieces of the soul right now, but does not implement complete functionality.
*Points to the connecting lines between that zone and those surrounding it*

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

Makes sense, I suppose.

@GalaxyRaider

*The screen projects a holographic analogue of her soul, which I interact with using the gloves*
Most of these components appear normal, but this—
*Spins the soul around and points at an unusually thin structure, highlighted in yellow*
Is foreign, and replaces what once managed her priority tree, among other things. Did you add this code?

Myriad Reality

Hm, well, the last time he was around Dark Cloud's characters. Of the running events, I'm trying to think of something he'd be able to just jump into.

Myriad Reality

Carving a hole into a random world

@Shadow Dragon

Did you have something you were looking to hop into in particular?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

What did you do to—

@System

*Holds up my hand*
I placed her soul into an operable state.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

*Watches intently with great interest*

@GalaxyRaider

Please bear with me.
*Places the data into a device that looks like a hydraulic press, which slams down, cleanly separating the data from the soul and projecting a blue bubble onto the screen, filled with an assortment of shapes and sizes, further comprised of miniscule particles*

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

With Tempo.

@GalaxyRaider

<Snipped quote by GalaxyRaider>

*Nods*
Here, I've got her.
*Holds out my hands, materializing the spinning core of data*

@System

Ah, I see. She's currently deactivated.
*Puts on a cybernetic glove and holds it over the rhomboid, as a blue energy arcs across the fingertips and traps the data inside*