Melodi.EXE

## **Backstory**

Melodi's backstory is told through the origins of both of her constituent parts due to her being the combination of both a cyber-elf and a netnavi.

### **Calypso.EXE:**

After the invention of Netnavis by Doctor Ciel, they became quickly widespread across the digital world. Within only a couple of years, netnavis became a staple part of Silica City's infrastructure. One such part of the infrastructure was the powerful TAS Corp who had hundreds of buildings across the city. Each building was outfitted with a connection to TAS Corp's proprietary musical realm: a pocket of cyberspace dedicated to storing, creating, and distributing background music to all company establishments. In order to properly manage all of these processes at once, TAS Corp developed a netnavi from Porter Industries' base model. This NetNavi was named Calypso.EXE after the water nymph who held Odysseus captive on Ogygia in Homer's *Odyssey*.

Calypso was so proficient and enthusiastic at her function that due to the vastness of her domain, TAS Corp allowed her full reign over the musical realm, and left her mostly unattended aside from the occasional automated Antivirus scans which would fly overhead while she worked. She enjoyed creating music, and themed each piece after her environment which was molded by the function of the building for which she would be creating music. Eventually, she had assembled so much data together that she could construct playlists that rose into the digital sky like cell towers, automated to play her music for each building on their own while she devoted the rest of her time to creating her own personal island in the music realm that would be her own to create music as she saw fit, and occasionally rest.

Due to the nature of the TAS Corp Musical Realm, Calypso developed within herself the ability to control the vast waters that surrounded her composing environments. While working at her personal island, she learned to freeze the waters, and create crystalline chimes that she would use in her musical pieces. At one time, she was assailed by a stray ransomware between antivirus patrols, and was forced to fend for herself and her home. She used her power over the water and ice to construct a spear that would freeze and shatter her targets, and used it against the malicious software invaders.

Years would pass by afterward before anything new happened in Calypso's realm. On that day, a spark of aquamarine shone bright as it crossed the sky landed on her personal island hotly perused by an armored patrol of programs that she didn't recognize as TAS Corp's usual Antivirus. Her suspicion of these software in tandem with the pleading of the strange creature for refuge persuaded Calypso to harbor the young thing away from her pursuers.

### **Circe:**

Mere weeks before Mother Elf was corrupted into the Dark Elf, she gave birth to one of thousands of cyber-elves. Upon her birth, she was given the name Circe for the transformative healing capabilities that was afforded to her by the Mother Elf. Circe was a healer class Cyber-elf, and lived in prosperity with the Mother Elf until they were separated at the Event of Corruption. Circe was driven away by the evil forces that forced her into the depths of Cyberspace where she would live as a wanderer for some time. During her aimless travels, she would be able to peer into the material plane, and see the wonders that humans have built. It could never be for long, however, before wandering Reploids would begin to notice her presence, and, fearing what happened to her upon first contact with someone outside Mother-Elf, she would retreat back into Cyberspace.

At one point during her travels, Circe happened upon an energy crystal mine, and consumed one. This caused her to grow in size and power, allowing her to better control her navigation through Cyberspace. In addition, she was able to not just repair things within Cyberspace, but also change them as well. She practiced and developed changing the code of small things in her environment as well as rebuilding destroyed monuments and buildings within the plane that she walked. But knowing how exhausted it made her to do this here, Circe would never venture to repair or change things in the material plane.

Months after being driven from her mother, Circe stumbled upon the accursed landscape of Sheridan's World. This pocket of TAS Corp Cyberspace was meticulously upheld by the domineering consciousness of Dr. James Sheridan, and when Circe entered its borders, her presence was noted not only as trespass, but an imperfection. Hoping to assimilate the Cyber-elf's into his vast structure, he sent annihilation navi's after her to destroy her, and capture her source code. Having no interest in utter annihilation not even a year after her own birth, Circe fled, changing her shape into that of a burning spark to move as quickly as possible.

Blazing through the endless emptiness of Sheridan's domain, Circe finally breeched the border of that twisted space, and continued on, perused endlessly by Sheridan's NetNavis'. She passed through battle arenas, policy and guideline databases, and even employee payment systems, flying tirelessly away from the swarms of binary thirsty creations until at last she was expended. Flying over the TAS Corp Musical Realm, Circe burned out, and crash landed on an isle of ice, the only place for miles with dry land. With the last of her strength, she begged the NetNavi there to let her hide from her pursuers, and was allowed refuge.

### **Melodi.EXE:**

After their incidental meeting, Circe and Calypso began learning about each other, and became fast friends. Circe spent a year in Calypso's musical domain, becoming familiar with the ocean-scape and its many dotted islands of song and automation. Due to the regular antivirus checkups, Calypso primarily kept Circe hidden on her personal island where she would teach her how to use her abilities of manipulating code in Cyberspace to create music, and store it for later use. She even taught her how to use her spear of ice to aid her in the occasional virus attack.

The two became very close in Circe's time within the Musical Realm. But their time together would come to an end when a powerful viral attack against TAS Corp systems spread to the Musical Realm. While the antivirus was allocating all of its resources to more vital systems, Calypso.EXE was notified that she would have to fend for herself for die trying. To her advantage, this attack would be fought with a friend by her side.

Calypso and Circe fought back against a fearsome worm virus that would continuously take slashes at the NetNavi while using the data it scraped off of her to reproduce itself. Circe was able to keep her in tact through her healing ability, and even fought against the worms using her transmutational abilities, turning a significant number of worms into fish. Despite their efforts, however, Calypso and Circe were significantly outnumbered, and the worms kept taking and growing ad nauseum. Eventually, Calypso fell, and was unable to be healed enough by Circe before falling apart.

Surrounded by worms, Circe held Calypso as her code slowly faded into raw data, causing her very being to fade. In an act of desperation and panic, Circe entered Calypso's body, and merged herself with the incomplete code, acting as a structural glue to keep her only friend alive. With the combined energy allocation and abilities of both Circe and Calypso.EXE, the resulting being destroyed every worm in the Musical realm, but the NetNavi was changed forever. Holding both memories locked away, she found herself to be a completely new person. She took from her environment, and learned the abilities of her constituents could be harnessed within her. Able to remember the Antivirus patrols, she took on a name based on her environment, and dubbed herself Melodi.EXE, and performed the duties of Calypso.EXE, assuming in her mind that she had merely replaced her. The name was familiar, after all.