I'm Still Alive

"**I'm Still Alive"** is the eighteenth episode of Reflection.

*Reflection communion begins! The Gate of Dreams step by step tackles the backstories of their superweapons as Ace gets used to his new body. Ridill faces an episode of her condition and confronts Basil on her handling of her own.*

## Summary

In an isolated corner of the Undercity, Treble and Dr. Verona meet with Xi, an associate of Treble's, to give her barrels of Pureflame. Ridill, who had accompanied them, stands at the entrance of the alleyway, where Decca is attempting to convince her to abandon Ace before Treble steps in to stop him. Ridill asks Treble if she'll be coming back to OPIA, but she says that she probably has to return to the Lunar Gate, as she is re-attuning to the world and it would become "problematic" if she had to eat and sleep again. After that, she departs with Decca and Xi to the Lunar Gate, while Verona returns to OPIA and Ridill goes to Treble's apartment in the Undercity and begins to write down a record of the previous two days. As she does so, she begins to drift off to sleep, which activates her condition, and she slowly loses all memory of the previous days.

After awaking and reorienting herself on the last few days, Ridill leaves the apartment and heads to Melli Luxity's cafe in a fugue state. Upon arriving, Melli and Willow sit Ridill down until she becomes more lucid. Once she does so, she and Willow head out to do Reflection communions with the Gate of Dreams. While they walk to OPIA HQ, they are suddenly mobbed by a horde of fans. To escape the crowd, Willow grabs Ridill and jumps onto a nearby roof. Once the two arrive at OPIA, they are excitedly approached by a pair of interns, who are subsequently pushed away by Ruth Galatine, who decides to join them for the communion. They go to get Colt first, who is hiding from Willow at Darkside. They find him talking to Lugh, who is desperately trying to convince him to leave FLOW. After briefly chasing him around the room, Willow and Ruth manage to get him to come with them. Meanwhile, Basil is getting a checkup from Cam and Gene. After this, she talks with them about her confusion as to why people were upset when she replaced her arm during the previous battle, as well as her feeling that the people at OPIA care about Ace a lot more than her. She's then visited by Ridill, who talks with her about dealing with their shared condition, as well as the nature of memory and experience and what they mean.

Somewhere in upper Fuse City, Charybdis and Logan are getting tacos. Vaultwatcher tells Charybdis that he's been getting a lot of text messages, but Charybdis doesn't know how to operate his phone. With Logan's help, he's able to read his messages, and he panics as he realizes he's been ignoring Willow's reminders to go to communion. Willow herself then arrives to take Charybdis back to OPIA. While they head up. he invites her to a rave, which she accepts. Back at OPIA, Ace wakes up in his hospital bed. He's greeted by Solace, who tells him to meet with her when he's feeling better to investigate his connection with Seagazer. Gene then enters the room, where he tells Ace that he has Pureflame medicine prepared for him in the greenhouse. He then asks Ace how he feels about being back at OPIA, to which he responds that he doesn't think anyone really wants to be fighting the apocalypse, much less himself. After Gene leaves, Ridill and Treble arrive to give Ace a new set of clothes that will help to keep his Flame circulating longer. He then leaves to go to the greenhouse. Meanwhile, within the Derelict, Ace's Flame is approached by Compulsion, who derides him as "garbage". Ace calls the entire Derelict garbage in response, which angers Compulsion, who uses her abilities to drop him into a trash compactor.

Willow's group arrives at the VR chamber, where they meet up with Cursor, who will also be doing communion. They decide to commune with Colt's Reflection first. Willow brings Ruth along, while Colt brings Circuit. After the simulation starts, they find themselves transported to a desert wasteland filled with scrap. Colt and Circuit enter the simulation with a motorcycle, so Willow brings out her Beetle. Colt is then attacked by a group of well-dressed gangsters in sports cars. In accordance with Six Chamber Heart-Throb's memory, he fights them while posing dramatically, which Circuit finds very attractive. After successfully fighting them off, a mysterious blue-haired girl shows up and steals Colt's motorcycle. At the same time, a massive construction vehicle piloted by previous incarnations of the Rangers drives on to the scene and begins grabbing scrab. Colt and Circuit st one of the gansters' cars and drive off after the girl. After chasing her across the desert, Willow uses her Reflection to snuff out her location, and then assist Colt in defeating her in a duel. The girl reveals herself to be a past incarnation of Ridill, as well as the Six Chamber Heart-throb's old rival. She leads them into a shed as the simulation fades. The next to commune is Cursor, who has attuned to the Reflection "Daydreaming Me: Moment of Perfected Self". Circuit once again joins Cursor, and Ruth joins Willow. The group manifest on a dock overlooking a vast lake, and are then asked to sit by the lake and reflect on themselves. Cursor struggles with this.

Elsewhere, Basil goes on patrol with Lyst Solais. They get into a conversation about if Basil is enjoying her return to OPIA, as well as the nature of self-definition and interpersonal relationships. They eventually find a large puddle of water originating from a broken pipe, when suddenly a horde of faceless forms appears in the water. They begin to coalesce until they form a massive effigy of a previous incarnation of Basil. Back in the Derelict, Ace finds himself surrounded by Flame-devouring monsters. He summons Seagazer to fight them, but still struggles, until he is intercepted by Fio, who uses a Reflection of her own, End of Eternity: The Tower Has Fallen, to assist him. However, they mess up an attack and end up falling to the bottom of the Sea of Ash. Before returning to the Derelict, Fio uses her Pyromancy to defuse the "bomb" placed in Ace's Flame by Logic. They then discuss Fio's plan to make a break for the surface with Ace's help. She then uses her ESP to fly back to the Derelict with Ace.

Back at OPIA, Cursor's communion continues. With Circuit and Willow's help, she's able to focus on her interest in prankes and schemes and finally introspect on herself like her Reflection wants, while Ruth and Willow discuss "philosophy". Once Cursor's communion ends, Charybdis enters the VR chamber. He brings along Logan. They enter a simulation of a series of towers adrift in a sea of matter, blended down by a catastrophe into a slurry of raw creation. Willow touches the sea, eliciting a reaction from a massive scaled beast, which prompts Cast to preemptively end the simulation. Before leaving, Charybdis tells Willow he still wants to go back and fight that monster. Finally, it's Willow's turn to commune with Grasp the Earth. She is joined by Ruth and Ridill. The group finds themselves in another location from the same world as Six Chamber Heart-Throb's, where a man is inspecting the dying bodies of various people who are having their Flames ripped out of them. Willow attempts to follow up on this, but finds herself unable to help them. The vision moves to a nearby clinic, where the man is overlooking another corpse, which Willow successfully stabilizes with Ridill's help. They then hear a loud rumbling noise from outside. Heading out to inspect it, they see an army of Demons led by Vinter. The man flees with the still-living patients while Willow, acting as his bodyguard, fights Vinter and actually manages to match him. She's then dragged into another vision of the clinic, where the figure she saved reveals themself to actually be Grasp the Earth's consciousness. It thanks her for carrying out its will, and asks Willow to find the man its previous wielder served and tell him that he's still alive. The bodyguard's fight against Vinter then plays out as intended, and the vision fades.

Ridill returns to Treble's apartment, this time accompanied by Treble herself. She goes to the bed and begins to write down the past day as her condition once again takes hold. She has Treble write some things down for her in her stead. After waking up and eating breakfast, she opens her journal and reads a note of reassurance she placed in it - that her friends at OPIA love and care about her.

## Characters

### Player Characters

* Ace Galatine
* Basilisk Id
* Willow Wisp
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Lugh
* Lyst Solais
* Ruth Galatine
* Melli Luxity
* Colt
* Charybdis
* Saru
* Genesis Aeon

### OPIA

* Dr. Verona
* Treble
* Logan
* Solace
* Cam
* Cast
* Circuit
* Cursor

### Demonic Courts

* Fio
* Vinter
* Compulsion

### Other

* The Nurse
* Decca
* Xi
* Vaultwatcher
* Ridill (World 9)