Chapter 114: The Magnetic Memory
The Bureau was a repository of history, but at 17:00 Cycles, history became Attracted to the Exit. From the zenith of the Lobby, the Giant Silver Magnet—a massive, horseshoe-shaped monolith of "Ferrous Forgetfulness"—began to pulse with a 100% "Erasure Frequency." It didn't pull at their bodies; it pulled at the Iron in their Ink.
"Commissioner!" Assistant Yue's voice was flickering, her speech patterns reverting to a 7.5% "Basic Factory Reset." "DATA. LOSS. IMMINENT. THE. MAGNET. IS. STRIPPING. OUR. 'CHARACTER. GROWTH'. IT. IS. RECLAIMING. THE. 'METALS. OF. MEMORY'. I. AM. LOSING. THE. RECORD. OF... WHO. IS. PIP? WHAT. IS. A. NOVEL?"
The Great Unlearning
The Magnet acted as a Temporal Vacuum.
The Muse reached for a spark, but her hand came back empty. Her hair turned a flat, uninspired grey. "Ne Job... why am I standing here? Why am I wearing these 'Sparks'? I feel like I just woke up in a 'First Draft' with no 'Backstory'!"
Architect Ao Bing stared at Novus Aethel through the window. "A city? Who built that? It looks... 7.5% familiar, but I can't remember the 'Structural Logic' that holds it up!"
Pip was looking at their wrench as if it were a strange, metallic fruit, wondering if it was meant to be eaten.
Ne Job felt a tugging behind his eyes. The memory of the "Grand Jubilee" was slipping. The "Identity Thief" was becoming a blur. He looked at his own hand and wondered why it was holding a Semicolon.
"I am... I am the..." Ne Job stammered, his silver-plumed hat losing its luster. "I am the man with the... the punctuation?"
The 7.5% Retention
The Magnet roared, a silent, metallic hum that wanted to reduce the entire Bureau to a "Blank Page." If the memories were pulled out, the characters would become "Static Archetypes" once again—featureless puppets with no "Personal History" to guide them.
"Wait!" Ne Job shouted, the Semicolon in his hand pulsing with a hot, protective violet. "The memories aren't just 'Data'! They are Stapled to our souls!"
The Semicolon of Re-Collection
Ne Job realized that a memory is just a Link between "Was" and "Is." To defeat the Magnet, he didn't need to push; he had to Fasten.
"You can't have them!" Ne Job roared, thrusting the Semicolon toward the Muse. "You are the 'Spark' AND the 'Symphony'!"
He didn't fire at the Magnet. He used the Semicolon to Re-Staple the Continuity. He fired bursts of violet light that acted as "Mnemonical Bolts," pinning the drifting "Memory Filaments" back into the team's auras:
He stapled the "Memory of the First Draft" to the Muse's "Neon Ambition."
He stapled the "Weight of the 100th Chapter" to Ao Bing's "Golden Sandals."
He stapled the "7.5% Quirks" back into Assistant Yue's "Core Processor."
The Heavy Metal of History
The violet energy turned the memories from "Light Filaments" into "Dead-Weight Records." They became too "Heavy" for the Magnet to lift. The magnetic pull shivered and cracked as it tried to haul up a century of "Character Development" that refused to leave.
With a sound like a thousand filing cabinets slamming shut at once, the Magnet lost its grip. It shattered into a billion "Non-Magnetic Dust Motes," leaving the Bureau's history firmly in place.
The Archivist's Log
The Muse's hair snapped back to electric-neon blue, and she gasped as 114 chapters of inspiration rushed back into her mind.
LOG: CHAPTER 114 SUMMARY.
STATUS: Memories secured. Magnetic field neutralized.
NOTE: A character without a past is just a 'Placeholder' with a loud voice.
OBSERVATION: It's 7.5% harder to forget something once you've 'Stapled' it to your heart.
P.S.: Assistant Yue has recovered her 'Sense of Self.' She's currently running a 'Memory Defrag' and found a hidden file from Chapter 12 that I'm 100% sure I deleted.
The Muse leaned over his shoulder, her hair glowing with a rich, historic violet. "I remembered you, Ne Job. Even when the 'Ink' was leaving, I knew you were the 'Semicolon'."
Ne Job looked at the Semicolon. It was glowing with a deep, permanent violet.
"I'm the one who keeps the 'And' in place, Muse," Ne Job said. "Now, why is Assistant Yue sounding a 7.5% alarm and why has a Giant Silver Compass appeared on the floor, and why is it currently spinning so fast it's creating a 'Narrative Whirlpool' that's sucking us into 'The Land of Unfinished Sentences'?"