Wonder what would happen if Chai’s music player kinda. Got damaged or something. That thing is connected to his heart, after all. Not great.
well technically weve already seen chai when his player wasnt working. twice even. at the beginning of the game when he was fresh out of his surgery and he has to be hit to kickstart it properly. and when kale spectra'd chai and knocked him out. the music player being connected to his heart is technically a headcanon (although a fairly solid one i enjoy very much). but i think its still pretty safe to say that having his player broken would DEFINITELY affect him in some capacity
so what i speculate would happen is that it wouldnt kill him. but it certainly affect his musical synesthesia. considering thats what his music player for sure gave him. i think it would fuck up his ability to fight. chai does more damage the more on beat he is right? i like to think that his player enhanced his ability to fight bc he gained a innate sense of rhythm for combat and also the ability to perceive and anticipate other ppls moves (or at least if the gamer is good enough hgbksdhflk). chai feels the beat like a physical thing and it affects literally entirely how he sees the world. so if he cant feel it anymore.... hed be... off his game so to say. maybe if its fucked up in a certain way, he could be literally offbeat. like arrhythmia. his movements are clumsy, disjointed, or leave him open to hits. self indulgently, i think it would be fun if he gets disoriented in a sense. i think he were to perceive the world incorrectly, depending on how badly his beat is fucked up, i think it has the potential to give him severe spatial disorientation and vertigo.
if the beat is simply dead tho i think chai might just be. nerfed to normal guy. to how he was before (plus metal arm). but he got so used to feeling the beat i think not feeling it would leave him with a deep sense of unease. like it isnt right. somethings really wrong. the feeling that hes missing something. and he would be. because the beat was a part of him and now its gone