#dear god help me this is more rhan i thot itd be

[hlvrai-but-im-crying]

actually the only reason this post was short is cause i was clocking in & now that im in. i will continue

so the premise is that hes a literal ghost in the code, like he was a programmer that died on the job for Whatever reason (i mean. im chronically ill so. realistic i think)

at this point he has next to no specific memories of who he was before he died. he Knows his name, he still remembers how code works bc he still fucks w the code fairly often, and he knows he was a Person who Died. he doesnt explicitly remember that he was a programmer for this game but like. he can figure out it

(by which i mean it never occurs to him until someone points it out as a possibility and then he just. freezes for a second, shrugs, and goes "oh huh. makes sense")

technically he himself doesnt have coding. hes not even meant to be in the game but since he isnt code the game cant delete him.

in fact, the game never notices him. at least not for a long ass time. normal nps cant see, hear, or physically interact with him.

the science team (and benrey) can see and hear him but hes still uninteractable. anything they try to do to him just. phases thru, and vice versa. he appears opaque tho, unless somethings actively phasing thru him.

further, i read this novel when i was 13 and its stuck with me, ive been dying to use this concept in something so: that doesnt only apply to the other characters or objects, if he looses focus or stands still for too long he will start clipping thru the map as well. as a result he paces a Lot. he Doesnt sleep.

(another reference to that novel, which i cant remember the name of but it starts with "ever" i think. (my brain keeps saying everchase but thats the tma thing and it wouldnt make sense) - he only remembers his name bc he starts forgetting so he writes it down. a lot. if u pat him down hes probably still got a few scraps of paper with his name scribbled on it in several of his pockets.)

mm. as far as his actual interactions with canon would go, hes kind of. lost it just a Bit maybe. has a hard time understanding things that r said to him (its easier if its written down), has no conception of "appropriate," and either stutters or says about 3 words at a time. but is overall kind and well intentioned. but also he doesnt blink. he stopped thinking about it ???? a long time ago bc the npcs dont blink so he stopped doing it too.

maybe he was responsible, in fact, for the science team being Weird. mmmaybe he fucked w their code or somethin trying to accomplish anything and it snowballed from there.

also w his programming knowledge hed be happy to help figure out how to get them all free. except he doesnt have a file that can be moved like them. this could provide Angst but i dont really care abt that rn so meh. actually nvm. just a little angst.

he works on them, but slowly. he hopes its not noticably slowly, he hopes no one else involved in this knows enough abt programming to tell what is and isnt too long, but eventually someone asks why its taking so long (hdhsjs probably bubby), and hes a terrible liar. "...dont want you to l. leave" "what the FUCK does that mean, youre coming with us" "mmm. no. cant."

and he then has to figure out how to explain the fact that he doesnt have code, maybe a bit by now, since hes interacting with other characters in the game and their "memories" of him ARE in the code, but not enough to bring his whole self over - he could use what bits of code are associated to him to attempt to make more or less a copy of himself but then it gets into soma territory and we all know how THAT goes.

honestly i want to happy end it but i cant think of how itd work. not that it Matters ofc. every thought i have abt it just goes back to soma

mmm i have approximately “a few” ideas for an hlvrai oc but it’ll never see the light of day fully bc i have no desire or interest in actually doing anything with that asdfasdf.