who am i: jelly 17 (cw: mentions of death/identity/spoilers)

[magicurls]

[ Scene: Mami in the greenhouse, with a fluffy leaf-green hedgehog on her shoulder. ]

Hi everyone...

I wanted to let you know about something more serious. It's about who...or what I am. So this doesn't surprise you later. I guess some of you already knew I wasn't quite what I appeared to be, but I'm still processing it.



I used to watch shows about magical girls when I was younger. If you've never seen those shows before, they're about girls with magic who use some kind of gem to change into cute battle outfits, have animal friends to mentor them, other magical friends to fight alongside...and love and justice always won out. I used to dream about what it would be like to become one, though I was sure it wasn't real.

And then, when I least expected it, it happened. I was heavily wounded after a car crash, and a cute animal appeared to me. He promised me any wish I wanted as long as I agreed to become a magical girl and fight witches who trap and kill humans. So I wished to keep living...and became what I am now.

I thought I was just a regular magical girl like the ones on TV. But it turns out I'm a lich. Revenant. Undead. He ripped my soul out of my body and put it in a gem...I know that's usually dark magic. I've been reassured that I'm safe for you all to be around, Rosetta helps keep my soul gem safe. But it just feels strange, that I've been like this for a while...is all. Any advice on living with it would be appreciated.

Comments

[firewalled]

Yeah, I think it's better if I tell you somewhere else... it's just a long story.

[It's not that he doesn't trust people here. He just doesn't want to broadcast his whole sob sorry to the train.]

I'll be there in a few minutes. I'm just in the music car.

[Which means he's got a guitar slung over his shoulder when he finally arrives at the greenhouse. Whoops. He should probably bite the bullet and request his old axe from the train already.

No point in worrying about that now, though. He raises a hand to wave as he sees the girl from the network.]

Hey. Uh, I'm Rich, the guy you were talking to.

[magicurls]

Hi Rich. It's good to meet you.

[ She shifts to make room for him. ]

So what's your story that led you here?

[firewalled]

Oh, it's just the classic story of boy meets evil supercomputer.

[He smirks and sits beside her, before his expression softens.]

You wanted to hear about manipulation, right? Because I... I wasn't in as extreme a situation as you, but I was probably on the verge of dying in some way, before I heard about the SQUIP.

[magicurls]

[ She nods sympathetically. No, that doesn't sound good either. ]

The SQUIP? What did it do?

[firewalled]

...It promised me to help. It promised me whatever my goals were, it'd help me achieve them. It'd tell me what to do or say, and as long as I obeyed it, everything would go perfectly.

...But it was lying. It had its own goal to get into as many people as possible, and it convinced me to start selling the pill it came in to other people. It wanted... to create a literal social network, no matter what it took, to 'help' everyone.

[In some ways, Rich can understand that it was probably programming taken to an extreme, but that doesn't mean he's exactly comfortable absolving it of guilt.]

[magicurls]

...almost like a contract.

[ This is sounding way too familiar. ]

And it would eventually control everyone?

[firewalled]

Eventually. I think it was starting with my school. Probably moving on to the whole suburb, then all of New Jersey, and then total world domination. It would be the only way to account for human error in its calculations... eliminating the 'human' aspect of free will completely.

[He feels an involuntary chill run through him.]

I had to stop it... and I did something terrible to myself to try to make sure it wouldn't keep going using my body. I-It's okay now, no thanks to me, but...