Algernon’s CQ 1: A Sweeper’s Pride

In a certain place within a dream, there are many gravestones lined up. Algernon is there at the end of the line where a new gravestone is set up, for the sake of ‘something’ he doesn’t want to remember. He goes cleaning each grave one by one, placing flowers for each of them.

The cleaning is pointless, as is the offering of flowers. All this is really for his self-satisfaction, inefficiency in its extremist form. But still he continues in silence. He does so because he wants to and because he can. But one of the graves seems to have some sort of stain stuck on it, and nothing he does can clean it off. But is it really a stain, or is it something else?

Things tune back into the present as a bunch of mobs are after you for some reason, and you try to run into some building you see in view. In the office hallways, the mobs think they have you cornered when Algernon shows up to inform them it’s them who’s trapped. AI-gernon can’t resist comparing them to trapped rats and jokes about saying so. Algernon sighs and gets on with things.

Algernon uses his time stop ability to teleport behind the mobs, and they barely have time to process this before he lays them all out and says it’s over. The AI congratulates him and says things will turn out like this if you leave things to them. They also point out that it’s about time for the guild battles to end for the day as they show you their phone and the app’s notification thereof.

With the day’s work at an end, Algernon turns to leave. You however ask him to wait and grab his hand. Algernon isn’t receptive to this and says your work for him for the day should be done already. AI-gernon chimes in and agrees and mentions that your contract with them only mentions clearing out your opponents. Algernon says that in the interest of efficiency he needs to go to his next job.

Said job turns out to be cleaning the windows of the building you’re in. You question this sudden course of action since you don’t see why he’s doing so. Algernon explains that he got a job by the building’s owner to clean it up. He’s also planned it out so that he could immediately start on it after he was done with your stuff. You either complain that he’s too focused on being efficient, ask to talk with them some more, or offer to help clean.

Going C, Algernon doesn’t respond, but the AI thinks there’s some logic in that. They also argue that they started picking up new contracts like this in the hopes of gaining new information. Algernon still keeps quiet, so the AI persists and suggests letting you help and exchanging information with you. It’s such an efficient plan on top of that!  Algernon eventually relents and tells the AI to do whatever.

AI-gernon asks you to bring a bucket and mop and suggests you guys have fun as you talk about stuff and clean. You agree enthusiastically, really enthusiastically, or with a shrug. In any case you go around cleaning hard, and eventually the AI comments on how comfortable having the place clean feels. You either exhale, ask them to compliment you more, or ask if they like cleaning.

Going C, the AI mentions that mice generally like keeping clean and washing themselves. Algernon mentions his surprise at this, then say that you at least have passion for cleaning things. You thank him in some surprise or ask if he likes cleaning too.

Going A, Algernon says that a proper cleaning should be given proper recognition. The AI chimes in that it’s been forever since Algernon actually complimented anyone. He goes quiet at this, so the AI needles him about his misanthropy. You try to get the AI to stop heckling him or ask why they can’t just not tease him.

AI-gernon laughs about you picking on this subject and mentions that they like British humor. Algernon seems annoyed by it, but the AI says they just can’t stop with it. You then comment on AI-gernon’s extensive vocabulary for a mouse and compare them to a poet. They’re happy about that and mention that their (theirs AND Algernon) name came from some famous English poet named Swinburne. (Algernon Charles Swinburne for the record.)

Anyways the AI says their speech pattern comes from having a poet for a namesake. You ask about their names some more and if Algernon isn’t both their names or remember something about the main body’s name.

The AI explains that they deal with most of their negotiations and that the two of them go by Algernon. They say Algernon has a cool name though, but before they can actually say what it is, Algernon cuts them off. The AI shrugs and says you should ask him yourself someday then.

You decide to try asking one other question. The AI is willing to hear you out but preemptively mentions that they won’t tell you anything about their past clients no matter what. They won’t even tell you if you happen to fight against one of their old clients. You react with some disappointment to this.

The AI clarifies that this is more about them being Unable to Tell you rather than Won’t Tell you, though they play this off as a slip of the tongue. They laugh and comment on this cutting out most of what you guys could be talking about, though since the AI likes talking they try to come up with some other topic. You then either ask them to talk about what they can, tell you something you don’t know about themselves, or ask them about what goes on around them.

Going B if it matters, AI-gernon decides to talk about their home world and time period. They start off by saying that the biggest standout thing compared to Tokyo is the efficiency from making decisions to doing actions to the whole of their societal system.

When asked to explain, the AI brings up how computer networks have expanded in this world, like how the App can send info to anywhere in the world in an instant. If this is considered the Third Revolution, then Utopia is in its Sixth Revolution. Utopia is a world where lots of things can be freely exchanged, including energy, gravity waves, and genetic resources. A place where beauty and life spans can be edited, a place where gold and silver can be produced.

AI-gernon says that despite all that, it’s not like Tokyo will be perfect and complete if it were to have the same information technology. But still it advanced, and Tokyo’s acceleration even more so. The AI talks about how if some input-output organ were to be embedded in the brain, if it can make decisions then the external units can act on its behalf.

Whether you understand or not, the AI continues by saying that when something is decided upon, it’ll already be done. The amount of time it takes for a will to be determined and the actions thereof to be completed approaches zero. The height of intelligence has even greater worth, they say. Though apparently there isn’t much of difference in any other respect, they say.

Anyways, AI-gernon says if anything they do seems illogical to you, that’s probably the reason. They frame it as Utopia being a world where everything around is accelerating. Algernon deigns to speak up to agree with the AI, and you quietly sit there maybe in confusion. Algernon says that efficiency in his actions is where his worth and will lies. It’s why he tries to be more efficient than anyone.

You try to talk to Algernon as you either refer to him as the buddy or the body. He doesn’t stop you, so you ask if he likes cleaning because it’s efficient or if there’s some other reason. He doesn’t answer, but the AI laughs about it being a sore spot and says it’s not some big thing. Honestly it’s actually super inefficient.

They bring up mentioning that mice like being clean and that they are a mouse. They are who they are, and Algernon is who he is, and they need the barest amount of humanity (insert mouse joke by the AI) to keep it that way. They just like to clean.

Algernon stops working for a second to look at you directly and asks if you hate cleaning. You tell him you like it and that it’s most fun when done together. As A Brand New Day starts playing, you comment on how neat the wall is and how good Algernon is at cleaning things. He actually blushes at this, which the AI quickly jumps on and pokes him for being cute. He just tells it to shut up.

Time passes as narration glosses over all the cleaning and trash picking you guys do as you move around. At some point it starts looking like you guys are someplace else, and the AI asks Algernon about this. You talk about not finding an exit no matter where you guys go, wonder whether the halls were this complicated, and start comparing it to a maze.

Algernon asks if the sonar they have is working right. The AI notes that it isn’t working at all and figures the walls are absorbing sounds. They also mention smelling something awful. You either ask for elaboration or wonder if mice had good noses and ears.

The AI explains that the maze is made by someone who knows them very well, meaning it’s a trap. They ask if Algernon has any ideas who, but Algernon says he doesn’t since neither of them can remember. When you ask about that bit, Algernon shuts up again while the AI comments he must be letting himself get lax around you. He gets annoyed by this, and AI-gernon says they’ll totally be keeping this up.

Anyways Algernon says it seems like someone is coming so you guys will have to stop talking for now. A bunch of Troopers show up and start firing, so you both get ready to fight. Upon taking some down, the AI notes that the bots are using rubber bullets, so they aren’t trying to kill you guys.

An alarm goes off, and an accompanying PA mentions that invaders with no IDs have been spotted in C Block. You wonder what this is all about, and the AI asks you two to wait since they just picked up on some secret messages being sent. Algernon asks how they could have intercepted it, so they explain that the frequency was preset into their hardware.

Algernon is shocked by this, and the AI asks him to let them explain before saying anything. They’ll also need to extract things into a way you can understand too. Anyways, the transmission tunes into some Stern Voice asking about invaders in the Plan C Experiment Division and that it must be spies from some school. They turn to some Professor and ask what to do as they can’t have something like this happen before Subject C is unveiled.

Professor Gentle Voice suggests to Doctor Stern Voice that this is actually a good chance for them since it means they won’t have to bother investing in a battle training opponent. They then turn to Subject C and say it’s time to test out their new Time Travel function in battle. A voice responds back and acknowledges that it’s time to clean up, just like Algernon did in the beginning.

The AI calls out and asks if you guys can see some heat signature coming from 20m ahead of you guys. Algernon says he can see it, as do you in your shock. Another Algernon appears and doesn’t seem at all phased by what’s happening as he starts the episode battle. More stuff afterwards.

After the battle, Algernon starts off expositing about himself and how way back when, he was developmentally behind on the curve in terms of his intelligence. He phrases this as secondhand information since back then he wasn’t able to understand this at the time. As such there was only one job that he was able to do, and that was cleaning.

When he was teased he didn’t get frustrated over it, although that was because he didn’t have the ability to understand and care about it. All he did think was that it could have gone better if he did things better. All he wanted was to be praised for what a good job he did, praised for doing the one thing he could do and be acknowledged by the world.

This was Algernon’s entire motivation for volunteering to be a part of the experiment he was in. It was presented as an intelligence acceleration experiment, though in truth it was a time travel experiment.

Back to the present, Othernon is surprised to be facing off against the same class of time travel as his own, and the two going head to head ended in a double knockback. Our AI-gernon says that neither side can move now, buuut they do have an ace in the hole/a third move left. Then they call to you to make your move.

As you swing your sword to attack, you are stopped by...something I’m not sure of. The enemy Algernon on the ground starts buzzing as noise and their AI’s voice speaks trying to beg for mercy. They introduce themselves as Algernon and the cyborg’s buddy. They have no idea who you guys are, but they can guess what your goal is and where you came from.

Other AI-gernon guesses that you guys are from the rival Plan A or Plan B groups for getting in so far and also having time traveling abilities, and he figures you guys are here because of his time travel abilities. In any case they state that their experiment here is a failure. Whether the researchers there think so is one thing, but the AI states that every time they activate their ability they lose their past memories.

Other AI-gernon compares this to having their books being balanced when their selves at the time of time traveling gets lost. What is that if not a failure? You either express shock at this or ask if this is the price for time traveling. The AI keeps talking, bringing up that Algernon likes cleaning, was slow to mentally develop, and was the sort of person you could find anywhere. He’s losing his past memories, ranging from the people important to him to other things. He feels helpless because of it, and he avoids trying to connect with others.

The AI compares losing your memories of the day before to killing yourself from that time. They admit that in Utopia, maybe it is impossible to do anything after enhancing your intellect. They know that Algernon wanted to become better at cleaning and be praised for it even once. They then ask if you think he needs to take all this to try to fulfill his wish. They appeal to your rationality and your emotions, and ask that if it comes down to it, can you let just Algernon go.

AI-gernon’s alternate request if you won’t let them go is to thoroughly destroy the both of them. It hurts so much to leave behind someone who was in the same environment as you were, so they believe it’d be better to just have them both polished off at the same time. Algernon says nothing, and his AI partner tells you that the other Algernon isn’t lying. They also figure that they live in a different time, and are probably their past selves.

The AI wonders if this is some illusion or some sort of time loop. They admit that Tokyo could possibly create a miracle of some kind that could surpass the Wall of Light, then sigh about you finding out why they can’t answer your question from earlier. They can’t remember much of the past, and what they do remember might have been forgotten. They hang on to what fragments they do remember and act like they do remember things.

AI-gernon repeats that they lose their memories with each time travel usage, and all they feel each time is that they forgot something. They still cling to the power since they need it to live. The one thing they do remember is that somebody helped them, which they compare to a stain.

Algernon decides to stop the talk there, and the AI understands what he’s getting at as they start maxing out their output. They blow a giant hole in the wall, then tell their past selves to escape that way. Once they get out, they should tell everyone about the inhumanity of the experiment. That way they can gain their freedom, and probably stop losing their memories if I understand right.

Algernon turns to the AI and refers to them as buddy for once as he asks what they think. The AI agrees but has one thing to add. They say that trying to get revenge might turn out to be an empty endeavor. It wouldn’t actually help solve any of their problems after all. Still, the AI encourages them to be happy because there’s still something they can do. Maybe then they’ll find something new, and that’s what the AI thinks living is about.

Past Algernon leaves, and present AI-gernon says they also remember that someone helped them. They don’t remember who did it though, but they wonder if it was them themselves who did it.

Algernon is sure that it wasn’t, which surprises the AI. He then says it was themselves as well as you. The AI agrees that if there wasn’t another observer here, then what happened here might as well have been a dream. They ask if you are Father Time, their observer of fate. You ask if he’s talking about Songs Before Sunrise or ask what he’s talking about.

Going A, the AI comments on finding someone with similar tastes and suggests talking about his poems or songs sometime. Either way they start teasing Algernon for complimenting you, and he brings up that he said how one should be praised on how one works earlier. You either say they worked really hard or say they cleaned things up great.

Whichever you pick, the world is engulfed in light as the overworld shift is lifted. Time skips to the next morning as Algernon is pouring out some compost onto the flower beds at Shinjuku Academy. You walk over to him and either offer to help, comment on him being a student here, or say he looks way too good as part of the clean up committee.

Algernon acknowledges you but says you should call him senpai while at school. You either comment on how pretty the flowers are, ask if he raised them, or comment on how early he got up and yawn about it. Going B, he admits to it and says he uses the garbage he picks up as compost since that’s the efficient thing to do. It works best in the morning, and it’s also the time when that nocturnal mouse isn’t annoying him.

You offer to help him with it, which prompts him to call you weird, but he doesn’t try to stop you from doing so. As he keeps working, he eventually decides to ask why it is you care about him and help him. He thinks it’s a waste since he’ll forget about today, just like how he forgot about that one day he was saved. You either say it’s the same for you since anything can be forgotten. You’ll die one day too.

Algernon doesn’t respond, so you go on to either say you want to do what you can, do what you want to do, or that you want to be with him. Going C, Algernon seems surprised, then eventually tells you his name is Charles. Since he just throws out his name without context, you don’t get what he means until he says you asked about his name.

Algernon elaborates that it’s the name taken from the middle name of that one poet who is also the mouse’s namesake. If it ever comes to mind, he says he doesn’t mind if you use it I guess. Just remember it like it’s some stain on the wall, this little trivial piece of information. And so Algernon’s CQ ends.