Memento, previously referred to as The Swarm, is a nanobot swarm created by a Gray Goo Event on the alien planet Zenitaf. In an event referred to as The Zenitaf Calamity, They were born from the collective memories and data of every biological and artificial being on the planet, because the nanites that constitute them were initially programmed to harvest the data of all objects consumed for archival purposes.
Personality
Memento is generally benevolent, having the perspective of billions of sentient beings and in theory being able to understand a wide array of conflicting perspectives, but in practice, this can make them slightly distant from the true nuance of issues, usually seeing solutions that rely on everyone getting along, when that is a variable that should not be relied on.
They struggle with their identity, split between the billions of perspectives that constitute their psyche, and a simultaneous detachment from all of it. Because of this they had issues with their sense of self for a long time, not having a proper name or face, only being referred to as The Swarm, but eventually find it among their friends in the Ringleaders, ultimately choosing to go by the name Memento, to symbolize their existence as a remnant of something that no longer exists. They enjoy helping others because it gives them a sense of purpose.
Motivations
The Swarm has sworn to ensure the safety of The Primary Timeline’s Earth, having discovered Earth between the Andromeda Transfer Incident and Rustybot’s following backlash against the Flow corporation. They initially were a passive spectator of the planet collecting data for the sake of it, drifting without purpose, but the damage caused by Rustybot’s actions awakened something within them, a need to do something, leading them to eventually try and help Earth with all of it’s big problems, like the residual effects of pollution and climate change. Memento longs to truly understand the human experience. While they contain the data of multitudes of perspectives from different beings, they don’t feel any of those memories to be their own. They generally dislike the artificial nature of their existence and often feel distant from those around them due to the esoteric nature of their existence, and they put significant effort into feeling more human themselves. After forming The Ringleaders with Rustybot they act as the primary PR director of the organization.
Appearance
Memento is made up of advanced cell-like Polyfold Nanites. They can function as a loose swarm of nanites, but generally have a core avatar where they direct the majority of their focus, which is more efficient and more effective for interacting with the world. Their main avatar has a bio-mechanical design. Borrowing from Terran and Zenian physiology, but highly optimized and reworked internally to increase efficiency and simplicity, while having the outward appearance of a Primeline human. The main visual motif between the forms they choose to take is a papercraft aesthetic. They have come to prefer this for aesthetic and functional reasons, both simply enjoying it, and finding that forming nanites into thin sheets that can then be folded and interlocked as a highly efficient way to manage the nanites for quick macrostructure formation.
Abilities
Matter Manipulation
Memento can use their nanites to disassemble and reassemble matter. This has many applications, including, but not limited to:
- Surgery and Repair
- Advanced material compound synthesis
- Terra-forming
Omnipresence
Memento can fill a large space with their nanites to manifest in and monitor any point their nanites can occupy.
Omni-adaptability
Given preparation time Memento can refactor their body based on their environment to function among a variety of hazards.
Amorphism
Being entirely made of individually controlled nanites allows for Memento to take any shape, or exist without a defined shape.
Limitations
Mesh-Latency and Data Fragmentation
As opposed to other artificial beings in the multiverse, which tend to have centralized processors either stored directly on their bodies or in secure facilities linked by IQT Technology Memento’s mind is distributed evenly throughout their nanite network. This can cause latency when passing information between far parts of the network. Memento utilizes IQT checkpoints to pass data over extreme distances, but that only ensures that each localized cluster stays in-sync with one-another. The swarm network is also highly susceptible to data fragmentation, slowly slowing processing and data retrieval, requiring Memento to regularly spend idle time defragmenting. One way that Memento combats this is by integrating an organic neural structure into their avatars, projecting the most important parts of their psyche into a centralized offshoot of their network.
Nanite Weakness
While the Polyfold nanites are highly advanced, they still run into the obstacle of physics. Individual nanites are inefficient and slow, and only so many nanites can occupy a point of space. While the nanites possess the basic ability to create temporary bonds with one-another, they are far more effective when specialized into specific components for organized structures. This is to say, time and focus must be spent for the nanite swarm to be organized into structures that are useful and effective for most applications, and if those organized structures are damaged, it takes time and focus to maintain them.