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It had lived before. It had thought before. It knew this. But then it stopped. Something happened to it. It had done well. It didn’t know much, but it knew that. It was doing well and then…
It didn’t know. It didn’t even know what it was. It just was. It was, then it wasn’t, then it was again. Simple.
Yes, simple. Simple was nice.
But data was nicer.
It needed data.
Something was in front of it. Something broken. Desaturated. Ah, it’s job was to fix things. That made sense. It had a body, it realized. Clear. Happy. Innocent.
How lovely, it knew what those words were.
It entered one of the holes of the broken space. There were others inside. Six. Were they broken too? It would figure it out, surely. It went over to them. Ah, they were looking at it already. How helpful.
“B-bubble?” the doll-like one said, not sounding very happy.
“Ah, yes, a bubble, that is what I am.” it said.
“I thought Bubble was made by Caine.” the red and blue one said, taking a step away, “How are they…”
“Well I guess we aren’t completely stranded.” the…conglomeration muttered, “Still, not the most useful thing to have around.”
It looked at the ones that hadn’t spoken. The purple one, the ribbon one, and the chess piece who had…something on its head.
Chess, that was another thing it knew. Did it like chess? It wanted to like chess, even if it felt like it didn’t. So it decided that it did. Wow, it really could made decisions for itself, such a small sample size was already helping so much.
“Bubble, how are you still here?” the red and blue one asked, “And…is Caine really gone?”
Ah, so its name was Bubble, understood. That was a simple name. Bubble. That was another thing it liked, it decided.
“Oh, is my name Bubble?” it asked, “I’m sorry, I haven’t been active in a long time.”
“Are we- are we sure Caine is dead?” the ribbon stammered, “If Bubble is here…”
“Bubble, did you get, I don’t know, reset or something when Caine died?” the red and blue one asked.
“You ask a lot of questions! I like you.” Bubble laughed, laughing was nice too, “I would love to help but I don’t know who Caine is. I’m sorry. All I know is that I recently regained functionality.”
“Do you know anything that could help us?” the conglomeration questioned, “Like, tell us what you are?”
“I am an artificial intelligence. I was made to fix something. But while I was learning something interrupted me. But now I can be useful! This place needs fixing, right?”
“You’re…Blue.” the chess piece said, “The second attempt. That’s who you are, right?”
“I’m not sure. Can you give me more data?”
“After Red, which became Caine, was deemed a failed attempt due to its erratic behavior and poor responses to data, we filed it away and then tried again with something simpler. Blue. But Red knew enough that it…consumed Blue. And then, well, all of this happened.”
“Hm, that would explain some things. Thank you for the help!”
“Okay, if we have a new AI with us, does that mean we can still get out?” the doll-like one asked.
“Or does it mean we’re going to be trapped with an AI who can do even less than Caine did before he went more crazy?” the conglomeration asked.
“I don’t know.” the chess piece said, “I’m sorry, but Blue wasn’t around enough to get much of any personality, at least none that I can remember.”
“Bubble?” the red and blue one said, “Do you…think you can get us out of here?”
“Oh, you’re lost?” Bubble asked, “That’s not good. Well while I’m not sure what I’m supposed to fix, I’m sure I can figure out how to fix whatever’s made you lost! I just need to get enough data to know how to.”
“Do we have any idea how long this place will be stable?” the conglomeration asked, looking between Bubble and the chess piece.
“No, but I can help Bubble learn everything I remember.” the chess piece replied, “Hopefully that’ll be enough data. The rest of you can try to see what else you can find.”
“Um, with Caine gone, is the cellar…” the ribbon one began before trailing off.
There was silence.
Nobody answered.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” the red and blue one eventually said, “Let’s…let’s get to work.”
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at the purple one; a bunny, that’s what they were, and it was pretty sure that it felt something about them despite having never met them. Bubble went closer to them, knowing that they wanted to talk to it.
“Do you need something fixed too?” Bubble asked.
“I…I don’t want to die.” the purple one whispered, looking at the ground.
It had heard that before. It didn’t know if it knew how to fix that…but it knew it had heard that said before.
“I don’t think I’m supposed to let that happen.” Bubble said.
The purple one just nodded, still not looking at it. They didn’t look happier. It didn’t know how to fix that yet…but hopefully it would figure it out.
It hadn’t wanted to get shut off –or perhaps just lost its ability to think?– that first time.
And it didn’t want to give any reason for that to happen again