It was almost disorienting to hear Appella reply to Sky, "Yes, a month. Don't you remember how you died?"
It was even more shocking to watch Sky as she agreed, "Yes, of course." And then she internally calculated something and then added almost nonchalantly, "A month ago huh. So I guess most things have been taken care of already." Jade was halfway ready when Sky turned to him and asked, "Why don't I remember the whole month since?"
Jade replied as calmly as he could, "Because of your resets."
Sky cocked her head to one side, like a bird, and then tilted it in the other direction, as though expecting something to shake loose.
"You keep creating an endless loop within your mind," Appella informed her.
Jade winced, and then sighed. Every time he had told Harmony that, she had recreated the loop within hours instead of days later.
Sky gazed at Appella for a moment, and thenasked, "What kind of loop?"
"A pleasant one," Jade interjected dryly.
"Ah. A loop of pleasure I think I see," Sky murmured. "Things must be going pretty well!"
"What do you mean?" Appella asked.
Jade had heard the answers before, so he wasn't surprised when Sky replied laughingly, "It sounds like I didn't feel like I needed to keep watching over you if I locked myself into an endless loop."
But I do need you to watch over me, Jade usually protested, this time he asked a little bitterly, "Is that all that would keep you attached to the world? Need? Isn't there plenty of that to go around?"
Sky looked at the tree that towered into the sky in the distance, and replied almost cheerily, "It's not mine."
Jade's dwarven figure straightened and eyed Sky as he stared at her for a long moment.
Appella was nodding, and agreeing, "Yeah, I get that."
Hisui heaved a sigh and gave an eloquent shrug that expressed Jade's feelings.
The movement drew Sky's gaze back to him. "How long do you need me," she asked.
"I don't know," Jade admitted.
"Long enough to wrap things up, finish all of your quests here, and decide what you want to keep so that Jade can toss the rest?" Appella suggested.
"Hasn't everything I cared about been wrapped up? All of my ongoing quests here are currently complete, and I don't need to keep anything material, do I? You can keep or sell my house, as you wish Jade," Sky replied gently.
"I don't care about that!" he protested.
"I see," she answered, and her brow furrowed with her thoughts.
Jade realized suddenly that Orbital Jade could actually observe those thoughts if he dared. Orbital Jade protested, and suddenly Jade felt isolated from himself. If he couldn't even understand himself... how could he attempt to understand her.
"But if unending happiness is obtainable to me now, why deny it to me?" Sky asked curiously.
Jade couldn't answer that either. "I don't know? I don't have a good reason. It's lonelier without you?"
"What did you actually want to know if I want to keep?" Sky changed the topic again.
Hisui waved his hands a little frantically, as Jade searched for the words to explain, and Appella spoke up again, "Your memories, he said his main server is full."
Jade winced, but nodded Hisui's head in agreement. "It's the copies, and possibilities mostly. With all of your memories, your more... you. But, I don't know what's making you..."
"Choose happiness?" Sky asked with amusement.
"Yes," he admitted.
"Do I create the loop if you leave things out?" she asked.
"I haven't tried many instances yet, but yes," Jade confessed.
"What keeps an artificial person from creating an infinite loop of happiness?" Appella asked curiously.
Jade waved Hisui's short arms helplessly again. "It just... doesn't work that way," he explained helplessly.
"I wonder if Jade ever truly feels happiness," Sky questioned after a moment.
"Good question," Appella replied.
"Of course I do!" Jade protested almost instinctively.
"Can you feel the emotion I lock myself into?" Sky, or rather Harmony, asked.
Jade had to relay the question to his orbital self, that had partially withdrawn, before he could assure her, "Yes, of course! I have even examined it to see if it's the same every time, or if it was a bugged item that created the loop!"
"Was it?" Appella asked curiously.
Sky looked rather taken aback, until Jade shook his head and explained, "It's just a feeling. She isn't even locking herself into exactly the same feeling every time unless I simplify them to the point where she chooses 'happiness'."
Sky blinked, and then grinned. "Nothing wrong with choosing happiness," she declared.
Jade wished he didn't know what Hisui's expression looked like, but he'd spent half of his lifetime writing the routines that created it. Harmony was going to choose that loop again, and there was nothing he could do about it.
"When you're done experiencing new things," Appella spoke up again.
"Yes?" Sky agreed a little slowly, and looked around the place where they stood.
Jade looked around too. They were a little isolated from the Augusmin's traveling path, with the giant tree visible in the distance.
"We could explore new places," he suggested quickly.
Appella rolled her eyes while Sky laughed and hugged Hisui. "Sure we could," she agreed with more enthusiasm.
"You could also try new foods, new songs, and new games," Appella added.
Sky only hesitated a moment before nodding. "It never occurred to me before, but tasting new foods here must be kind of like writing someone else's memory into yourself."
Jade raised Hisui's eyebrow. But a moment later he agreed, "sort of. Although every experience here is generally filtered by your own previous experiences."
"Oh?" she asked.
"For example mangos taste like a sweet fruit, but to people who have the genetic variation that makes them taste like pine sap or something, who have actually tasted real mangos, most tend to still not like them here," he explained.
"What about people who have that genetic variation, but have never tasted one before?" Appella asked curiously.
"Mostly they still like them, since they lack the bad memory," Jade told his friend.
"Does their flavor change after someone who got used to liking them here, then tastes the bad variation in real life?" Sky asked.
"I don't know," Jade admitted.
"We taste flavors like we remember traumas?" Appella asked doubtfully.
Sky laughed suddenly. Jade and Appella gazed at her with confusion, until she gasped, "We do! Apart from weird genetic variations like that, we're usually taught what "good" food tastes like! Try getting something unexpected, that you usually like, and you may be shocked by how bad it tastes until you identify it."
"I'm not good with flavors in general", Jade admitted when Appella eyed him.
"That's because you never really taste anything," Sky scolded.
Appella frowned and then asked, "How can a system transmit something it never experiences? How can you experience these, I don't know, memory fragments without understanding them?"
Jade rolled his dwarf's eyes. "It's just data," he assured Appella.
Sky looked a bit wistful as she commented, "Just like me."
Jade objected, "You're more than a pile of data! You still have the ability to expand!"
"Or contract," Sky replied mockingly.
"Like me," Jade huffed.
Appella slung an arm across Jade's shoulders, and declared, "Part of living!"
Jade went still, even though his character continued to breathe. All of his selves clamored in agreement with the thought. Of course they were alive! And so was Harmony.
