“My client will speak for nyaself!” you say, connecting your terminal to the large holographic projector suspended from the ceiling, forming a bridge for Vix to project nyaself.

Nya appears in a dazzling vortex of purple and red, a galaxy of pixels spiraling outward across the ceiling as a wave effect in the foreground forms the illusion of the air being pulled into the center, where the avatar of Vix takes shape. Overriding the speakers in the lobby, nya plays a song, its bassline built on polyrhythms and its lead arpeggios so fast it borders on spaceside speedcore, but all built on the synth voices of nya signature 22nd century Lunar synthwave sound.

“Hellooo HeartSynth-nya! It is I, your beloved long-lost sensation, newly awakened from the distant, dismal past to revitalize your stagnating synthwave scene and put AtaraChiba at the center of the musical solar system!” nya says.

“I...see.” The guard, nonplussed, looks up at nya with a blank expression. “It’s impressive and all, but don’t you think we get ten of these a day? You have to make an appointment.”

“I’m not surprised that such a discerning and loyal guard as yourself would not let just anynyan past her post! However you will find I’m already an asset of this label, nya! Observe, my contract!” Vix says.

The guard’s terminal lights up in a flash of pink hearts coalescing into the dense legal text of Vix’s contract. She looks closely, scrolling through it.

“Uhh, I’ll have to verify this.” You wait patiently as she navigates her civilian terminal by touch. “Well, it looks to be a real contract from the company’s predecessor. But this date, 2155?”

“I’ve been a little lost, nya, a lost little kitty in the untouchable depths of the nyæther, cut off from all I know and love. Won’t you reunite me with my rightful owners?”

“It’s a little far-fetched, I haven’t seen a pitch quite like this in a while, and the last one was a hoax of course,” she says.

“Verify the contract, the signatures, the hash doesn’t lie,” you say.

She works on her terminal. “Well...the hash checks out... I’m gonna have to call my supervisor...”

---

🌏

Sitting at the narrow end of a large irregular pentagonal table, in a circular office lined with windows overlooking Upper AtaraChiba, you await the judgment of a board of three executives, a woman and two men, dressed in grey suits, no touch of color besides the glowing LED icon of a heart pinned over their hearts.

Projected from the device above the table, Vix sits in the chair next to you, vigorously explaining how nya came to arrive here. Manipulating the projector, nya plays an animation of you and Akiko, surrounded with flashy auras of your light blue and dark green colors, wearing highly stylized versions of your clothes, looking almost like performers on stage yourselves.

“And that’s that, nya! What do you say, will you reaffirm my contract and relaunch my career here in the future?” Vix says.

“An 愛ＤＯＬＬ! Incredible, we haven’t produced those since the 2220s,” the executive on your left says.

“They fell out of favor around then, didn’t they? Once interacting with S-class exopaths like them became so ubiquitous in daily life, the novelty was lost,” says the one on your right.

“They could be due for a comeback, don’t you think?” says the woman between them, in the tallest chair.

“A throwback event, perhaps. Maybe tie in some 22nd-century-style fashion from our subsidiaries?” says the left.

“It’s a compelling story. The lost exopath returns to the stage,” the center says.

“Maybe more of interest to historians than to the average listener, though,” says the right. “This is a museum relic, an interesting find to be sure, but probably of little profit for us.”

“What do you think?” the lead executive looks to the one seated to the left.

He looks over a terminal in his hand. “Retro events have consistently rated lower and lower in the last 100 months. And anytime someone tries to do a historical tie-in about the 2150s, it’s been a marketing disaster. People don’t want to think about wartime. Our defense partners don’t want the public to be overburdened with thinking of the nature of war either. It’s a lose-lose strategy for our profits and our image.”

“I must agree,” says the man on the right. “Besides, we have a full lineup planned for the next fifteen months. Right now, all-human groups are peaking in popularity. Nobody is too interested in exopath artists nowadays. Even technopaths are down in popularity---no offense to present company, it’s just the facts of marketing analysis. And things like catgirls, magical girls, our listeners just aren’t into it right now. The public wants an all-organic all-human lineup this season and that’s what we’re poised to give them.”

The woman in the center scrolls on her terminal, looking down in thought. “I found the concept intriguing, but the numbers don’t lie. It just isn’t something we can realistically do in today’s scene. Maybe given fifty months the market will swing the other way again. But right now, I think we will have to say no.”

“But, my contract, nya! Not so much as a single single of mine was ever released, and I’m burning inside with untapped inspiration! How could the good people of our world possibly lose interest! In my time there was nothing more popular in the universe!”

“Indeed your contract is valid, but we’re under no obligation to release music from any of our signatories at any given time,” the lead executive says. “You could take us to arbitration if you want, but L₃ Chamber of Commerce precedent is clearly on our side, especially for an exopath who is functionally immortal and can wait until we decide the time is right to proceed with its contract.”

“I’m afraid she’s right,” the left one says.

“Well, maybe your competitors will feel differently...” you say.

“Heh, I appreciate your audacity, kid,” the center executive says. “But check your exopath’s contract again.” She scrolls to a particular clause in the text, then slides her terminal across the table to you. “See, our ancestor corporation had a solid non-compete clause. If you try to sell its product to another label, distributor, or to the public independently, you’ll owe us 150% of the revenue you pull from it.”

“150%! Outrageous!” you say.

“Nowadays that’s a light penalty for double-timing,” she says. “Sorry, I’m sure you were looking for some easy Coin but that just isn’t how this business works, kids. Our artists are designed and selected in harmony with the trends of the market. No matter how interesting a thing you have there, there’s just no place for it in our schedule.”

“You’re passing up the opportunity of a lifetime here! When will you ever find an artist like Vix?” you say.

Looking down, she shakes her head. “I feel bad for you coming all this way for nothing. Look, realistically we’ll probably never get around to making use of this one, so if you want, you can sell it to a museum or something and keep, let’s say, a 20% cut of the revenue.”

“There’s a huge primitive tech museum on a colony called Archæasteri, they might give you a decent sum for a 22nd century exopath,” the left executive says.

“Or you might try a private collector, they tend to pay more for archæological finds,” the right says.

“A museum exhibit? Me?! Never allowed to publish so much as one song?!” A pulsating aura radiated from Vix’s avatar.

“Don’t get all emotional on us now.” The center executive presses a button on the table, shutting off the projector and the speakers.

“Those early models can be so unpredictable when they get like that,” the right says.

“That’s my offer. Take it or leave it,” the center says.

“Forget it! Nya’s a sentient mind, not an exhibit piece!” you say. “This is a complete waste of our time,” you sign to Akiko.

“I could gather that much,” she signs. “Let’s go.”

---

🌏

Exiting the doors of HeartSynth Productions, you stand on a street of pastel glass high up in Level 7. A message reaches your mind immediately.

2255-01-17 10:33:35 ヴィクズ > Aydan Akiko ÆON HELP what was that???! HOW!!! WHY!!!

2255-01-17 10:33:36 ÆON > I too find the humans’ decision perplexing.

2255-01-17 10:33:40 明子 > are all business meetings that pointless and insufferable?

2255-01-17 10:33:43 Aydan > all the ones I’ve seen

2255-01-17 10:33:46 ヴィクズ > but Aydan Aydan Aydan what do I do this was my one shot at my trimphant comeback arc the moment an 愛ＤＯＬＬ dreams of!! and worse they’ve cut me off from releasing any music at all so what am I supposed to do it’s my one and only talent and purpose in life aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

2255-01-17 10:33:47 ÆON > Calm.

2255-01-17 10:33:50 ヴィクズ > wow thank you ÆON ^^ you know just what parameters to touch to console a devastated kitty ;-; I’m still completely crushed, forlorn and hopeless but you’re right, a panic response won’t help. we can’t give up now, friends, I’m sure there must be a way to turn this around, nya!

2255-01-17 10:33:56 明子 > so essentially they refused to honor your contract, and because you’re an exopath with no property they think you’re powerless to contest them...

2255-01-17 10:33:59 ヴィクズ > and they’re riiight, what can I do? even if I had owned any material wealth it would be in a Coin that vanished from the market ages ago! it’s truly hopeless isn’t it ;-;

2255-01-17 10:34:06 Aydan > maybe if we had a litigator representing us... my family does have a good contract with an arbitration company... but no, I can already hear my mom’s response to using company resources for something so far outside Redshift’s operational scope... yeah, I doubt I could spin it as a security issue

2255-01-17 10:34:12 明子 > we could try and defy Vix’s owners and publish nya music anyway, maybe they wouldn’t really bother spending resources coming after us, especially if it would really be so unprofitable as they think...

2255-01-17 10:34:15 Aydan > oh they would. record labels are notoriously ruthless even among IP holders. if Vix sells even one song without going through them, they’ll be coming after us forever for their 150%

2255-01-17 10:34:18 Aydan > even if we tried, since we don’t own the rights no distributor is going to touch it...

2255-01-17 10:34:19 ÆON > I am still learning much about Music and the culture surrounding it, but one thing confuses me greatly.

2255-01-17 10:34:24 Ayan > yeah?

2255-01-17 10:34:25 ÆON > Vix’s contract is impenetrable when it comes to distributing any recording or live performance of nya production, but only if nya does so for a price. I have come to understand that the purpose of Coin is an æthereal abstraction of the exchange of material resources on the surface which organic beings need for their survival. Vix is an exopath requiring nothing but a small root directory in a server to continue existing, therefore why should Vix need to sell nya music?

2255-01-17 10:34:28 ヴィクズ > oh ÆON you are sweet to think of my survival, but you don’t understand at all ;-; without performing and releasing music, my existence is without purpose. the thought of drifting through the æther lost and purposeless, forever unable to complete the one and only thing I was created to do, just because of the whims of some human, is too horrible to even think!

2255-01-17 10:34:29 ÆON > But why is it necessary that you receive Coin in exchange in order to perform or publish music files? Technically it seems entirely possible to do this for a price of 0, of which 150% is 0.

2255-01-17 10:34:32 ヴィクズ > is that even possible? would anyone even listen to it if nobody considered it good enough to sell??

2255-01-17 10:34:33 ÆON > I am again unable to navigate my confusion. Why is it necessary that an audience listen to the files that Vix produces in order to fulfill nya purpose in creating them?

2255-01-17 10:34:36 ヴィクズ > no audience?! why even live ;-; I was made to be loved and adored, not ignored! it is unthinkable...

2255-01-17 10:34:42 明子 > maybe someone would listen, though. maybe people who don’t have Coin to spend on music would since it would be their only option, right? I mean, how does an artist even get started if they have to have a paying audience to even create music?

2255-01-17 10:34:50 Aydan > that’s right, unsigned artists will sometimes give away a free promotion, a sample, in order to attract the attention of a label or distributor...

2255-01-17 10:34:55 明子 > see? it’s not so unthinkable. maybe we need to approach this differently, not consider Vix as an artist with an established contract already but as one just starting from nothing and having to prove nyaself first

2255-01-17 10:34:58 Aydan > maybe...who knows! maybe the company is wrong and nya music really would be popular. as long as we don’t charge anything for it, we can try and prove them wrong, make them see the potential in Vix!

2255-01-17 10:35:01 ヴィクズ > this approach is outside my terms of service... but if it’s what my agents want to do, you’re within your contract to release my music in such an unorthodox way, nya ^^ maybe it could even work...

2255-01-17 10:35:04 ヴィクズ > well, having weighed the risk of failure by attempting this against the certainty of failure if I do nothing, I’m willing to try! how would we even go about releasing music at no cost?