Sum of Experiences

"Sum of Experiences" is the fifth episode of Reflection.

*After being introduced to the flame of creation, the party communes with their Reflections and discovers the nature of the superweapons they’ve attached to. As stories of the past overlap with the present, each FLOW member realizes something new about themselves and the people around them.*

## Summary

The episode begins with Ridill entering a room in the OPIA sauna. She finds the rest of FLOW Wave Two already in there along with Satyr. Many of them are wearing swimsuits, which confuses Ridill. At her request, Satyr uses his ESP to move the group beneath the sauna to a sealed chamber underneath OPIA HQ. Ridill explains to the group that this chamber holds the Flame of Creation, the soul of the world itself that, if touched by a Demon, the world will end that very moment. She says that, mysteriously, GEIST charged OPIA with guarding the Flame in exchange for the funding and space to build their HQ, and that they had acquired the Flame from whoever stole it from Cialla centuries ago during the early history of the world.

Some time later, Ace, Aura, and Lugh are talking by a bus stop in the upper reaches of Fuse City. Vaultwatcher interrupts the conversation to vomit out a skeleton, which he claims is his "body". Basil then arrives and attacks a nearby media drone, which Ace appreciates. They then make their way back to OPIA HQ, where Ridill, Mic, Cam, and Sophie are waiting with the rest of the party to begin the process of using OPIA's virtual reality software to commune with the party's Reflections. Willow agrees to go first, and Mic volunteers to accompany her into the simulation. After stepping into the VR room and focusing on Grasp the Earth, Willow and Mic suddenly find themselves transported into the desert landscape Willow saw last episode. However, Willow notices a mysterious anomaly in reality in a nearby wall. Using her other Reflection to interface with it, Willow and Mic find themselves in a completely different memory, a dark expanse of ruined architecture inhabited by hooded giants. One of the giants introduces himself as a representative of the last of the Omeri civilization, pursuers of "Divine Eyes". He also called Willow an "Ab Fae". Over the course of a lengthy and confusing conversation, the Omeri explains to Willow that she, and all humans, apparently descend in some way from a group of "pyromancers", who bound themselves inherently to their Sensory Flames. abandoning the Divine Eyes. He remarks that some of the people in OPIA have Divine Eyes of their own, as well as "Divine Crowns", which the Omeri states that his people were, regretfully, unable to pursue. He leaves Willow with the message that "ash will be your enemy" and to avoid the "monochrome existence". After returning to the real world, the group asks Willow what she saw after entering the Omeri's vision, as the footage cut out. She explains what she and Mic saw, and also realizes that an entire eye has formed on her hand, which Ridill takes interest in.

Ace decides to go next. He attempts to let himself open to Vaultwatcher's memories, but is suddenly assaulted by the various Demons looking to possess him through the gaping hole in his Elemental composition. Vaultwatcher decides to take a different approach and simply narrates his experience to Ace, accompanied by VR projections created manually. He explains that he comes from a world where people summoned Demons constantly, eventually leading to an extremely efficient Codan invasion. He leads Ace to a grand temple constructed in worship of the Archdemons, and reveals how he came face to face with The Muse wielding Obsidian Gold. He explains that, during the end of his world, he copied the technology and created his own Demonic Arms, for which he was punished by being sealed within his own vault. As the flashback ends, he tells Ace that whenever he's fighting an Archdemon, the vault is open.

Next is Basil, who asks Cam to accompany her, as he has become somewhat of a brother figure to her. Cam readily agrees, and Basil begins to commune with Collapse of the Living. As the simulation begins, Basil finds herself suddenly thrust into the mindset of somebody else, a past version of her who served the role of the "Priestess of Humanity" to a world that had lived so long that it was beginning to die out on its own. She wielded the Reflection of Gnashing Maw, which had become weak and discolored as a result of the dying world's Flame. As she headed up to a temple, a nearby figure dressed in armor similar to a GEIST soldier's explained to the previous Basil that the original Gnashing Maw had been forged from the death of a "great beast". As a result, they had scoured the world for a similar beast to feed to the dying Reflection in an attempt to recreate the ritual and revive both Gnashing Maw and the world itself. As Basil approached the cage, the current Basil fell out of the trance. Cam implored her not to follow through with the flashback due to the ominous vibes he was getting from the entire event, but Basil reassumed her role and entrenched her current persona into the flashback more fully, stopping her from being mind controlled by the simulation. Arriving at the cage, Basil saw the "beast" contained within, a young woman with blue hair and a single blue horn. As Basil began to tear open the cage, she felt a feeling of overwhelming love and anguish for this person as the simulation stopped. Emotionally distraught, Basil fled the VR chamber. Cam followed her and calmed her down, explaining to her that, even if she shared a soul with that Basil, they're still not the same person, because people are the sum of their experiences. Basil then went to take a nap.

Finally, it was Arg0s's turn. He communed with his Reflection, and as his flashback began, he was asked to choose between his casual and streamer persona. Assuming his casual persona, he and Sophie manifest into a memory of the OPIA ESP lab, where a manifestation of Arg0s's streamer persona appears and tells Arg0s to "remain calm". Arg0s notices that one of his arms is on fire with ESP, and Sophie decides to collapse the simulation. Right before it ends, the man from Willow's original flashback mysteriously appears. Outside of the flashback, Sophie asks if Arg0s still feels the flow of ESP from the simulation. Arg0s attempts to activate it by saying "ESP on!" which somehow works, consuming Arg0s in a massive burst of Anima that drives the power of the VR wing out of control. Ace attempts to break in and Reality Break Arg0s, but the ESP Consultant, who has been watching the communions from a video call, tells him to stop. With Sophie's help, Arg0s manages to restrain his ESP. Ridill explains that Arg0s has manifested "Fractal Duality", an ESP similar to Ascalon's, who rushes into the VR room with a mix of jealously and intrigue to talk to Arg0s about it. They agree to train later.

The party, minus Basil but plus Mic, goes to get lunch at the OPIA cafeteria. They inspect OPIA-brand plushies while eating their lunch, when Ridill appears to take Willow and the Director to a meeting with an unknown GEIST CEO to discuss the events of Neon Sparks that occured while the rest of the party was fighting the Idol Demon in the Coda. Willow narrates how she fought against the massive, dog-like Demon, dealing some decent blows but falling prey to the Demon's ability to mind control people through their Flames. Satyr interrupts the flashback to explain how, at that moment, he and Circuit appeared in Melli's ESP to help Ridill and Willow out. With their help, and a mysterious technique Ridill convienently left out of her narration, they managed to hold off the Demon long enough for Ace to Reality Break Melli's ESP and free them from the Coda.

After this, Satyr brings the group to the Undercity to look for Circuit, who ran away from OPIA due to a personal emotional conflict and might be running dangerously low on power. They meet with Colt again, who seems to be doing a little worse for wear in terms of Burn but is still in a safe range. They also meet with Ulilara, a shy bookseller who is a fan of *Deus Ex Machina*, a published yuri fanfiction featuring Ridill and Ascalon. Basil and Cam go into a thrift store to buy presents. Meanwhile, Ace and Willow go to Colt's apartment after hunting down Circuit, leaving Arg0s behind as she would only speak if Arg0s (and therefore Mic) wasn't present to see her so vulnerable. They are greeted by Colt and Lugh's youngest brother, Collbrande, or Col, and eventually Circuit comes out of hiding to talk to them. But the conversation is interrupted as the alarm for another Demonic attack has been rung - alongside footage of Colt breaking into a GEIST warehouse.

## Characters

### Party

* Ace Galatine
* Arg0s
* Willow Wisp
* Basilisk Id
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Aura Pridwyn
* Lyst Solais
* Ascalon

### OPIA

* Dr. Verona
* The Director
* Cam
* Cast
* Mic
* Circuit

### Other

* Dr Radmilla Saakova
* Marco
* Colt
* Collbrande