BEAT 11: Of the Terminated

Otsdarva and Ayla have a discussion about what happens to terminated VTubers.

As Otsdarva was making his rounds in the base, he found Ayla typing away on her terminal with great focus. The clicks of the keyboard was the only sound filling the hangar amidst the hum of the generators. Curious, Otsdarva tries to pick her brain a bit.

Otsdarva - Hey, Ayla. What are you typing up? Seems like you've been at this all day.
Ayla - Hey, Ots. Just been working on a theory on these Vtubers you've been tasked with safeguarding. Just something that has caught my attention.
O - Oh? What do you have going so far?

She swivels her terminal to face Otsdarva, blasting him with a torrent of notes and theories.

O - Holy...
A - I'll boil it down for you since you seem to have been caught off guard by my report.
O - Does being an Auditor always have to have such extensive reports?
A - Not really. Even then, it gives Upper Management less work to deal with. The Inspectors here don't really play around with stuff like this though.
O - I see... So, back to what you were gonna tell me.
A - Right. So, I figured out a link between the humans and VTubers. Thanks to the power of dimensional gates, there is a substantial link between the two. Obviously not genetic, but there is some phenomenon at work where it seems like a human and VTuber are absolutely in sync. I like to call it the "Dimensional Synaptic Link" Phenomenon.
O - If I can pinpoint from the name, it's basically two entities sharing the same brainwaves from across dimensional boundaries. Right?

A smile crept from Ayla's face.

A - On the money, but not exactly. If anything, it is more than that. They share everything from emotions, pain, etcetera. Essentially becoming one person. Judging how this works, the phenomenon is presumed to be a mutual agreement. Wouldn't make sense otherwise.
O - Even with that in mind, both can live their own lives in peace. It's just that they come together every now and then.
A - Which brings me to the corporate ones. I came across your journal entry about your thoughts on graduations.
O - Hey...
A - Doing my job... Anyway, knowing what we know about Dimensional Synaptic Link, or DSL for short. What happens to those who were terminated? Is that link permanently severed? Is the VTuber tossed aside? Whoever is mandating that link would obviously have a say in the first part, and wiping out their records would be par for the course. But I feel as though that being terminated is a fate worst than death.
O - Leaving them to fend for themselves basically. I feel like it's the same way as a famous idol gets punished for some sort of controversy. Reputation down the drain, goodwill is gone, and they have no one, or nothing to turn to other than the more dangerous circles to maintain some sort of relevancy and profitability. They soon become a completely different person; a whole new identity all together.
A - That's if they can move on. The mental shock can be far greater on the VTuber that felt like they wasted their chance to gain some sort of goodwill back. They still believe they a relevant entity.
O - Until they aren't... or they are for the wrong reasons.
A - Believe me... I've had the misfortune of having to track down this kind of thing for a case study. The end results are not pretty in the slightest.
O - I think it's for the best to not dwell on that fact too much.
A - Agreed... for now in my case. If you'll excuse me, I'll need to wrap things up before hitting the hay. I got some maintenance to do later with Sion, and some girl time with Noa.
O - Gotcha. I'll leave ya to it. Don't burn too much of the midnight oil.

Ayla stretches and yawns in front of her computer. As a finishing touch to her report, she puts a picture up of an adorable girl, who's bright green hair, and harrowing accessories stood out from the sea of text. However, the eyes were covered with a black bar. She hovers over a folder of similar images of various VTubers who were terminated, casually typing the fates of where they possibly ended up. She remained crestfallen, lamenting the nature of the report.

"If only peace was truly ahead for you, maybe it wouldn't have ended that way", she thought. "But it's a steep price to pay for being immortal."