BEGIN RECORDING ONE
Deep underground, in Bunker 42, a very specific scientist was cackling madly. Of course, the other unfortunate residents were used to this, and yelled at him to "SHUT UP!" The scientist hissed at them and resumed his cackling.
"Yesssss… I've fffffinally done it… a robot thhhhat thhhhinks fffffor itsssself!" he hissed. The scientist hissed everything, being a seviper and all. "Rissssse, my creation! RISSSSSE!" he shout-hissed. The lucario shaped robot in front of him awoke.
"Where am I?" it asked the scientist. "Who are you?" It prodded him with one of it's paws. "Are you my dad?"
"Well, technically ssssspeaking… yessss. I did create you." the scientist replied.
"Where am I?" the robot asked again.
"My, you're very perssssisssstent. Good." the snake took some notes down. "We are in Bunker fffforty two, my home." The robot looked around.
"Bunker 42… never heard of it. What am I doing here?" the incredibly curious android asked.
"You were made to make the world habitable. Withhhhout you, we will have to live down here ffffforever. Now go, my creatttttion! Colonisssse the world!" the scientist said with his eyes closed for dramatic affect. He opened one eye. The robot continued to stare at him. "Why are you sssstill here? You shhhhould have lefffft by now…"
"Well, I don't actually know how to leave... Also, what does 'colonise' mean?" the still confused robot asked. The scientist rolled his eyes.
"You go and build a ccccity. The exxxxit is over thhhhere." the scientist (now slightly annoyed) said. The robot tilted it's head.
"What's 'build'?" it asked. The scientist groaned.
"I've gifffted you withhhh thhhhe power to create matter out offff materials. You'll ffffigure it out assss you go." he said. "Now leave!" The robot, confused as to why the scientist was angry at him, left. The scientist, relieved to finally be alone, sighed and turned around. Then he noticed a hard drive labeled 'memories' on the desk behind him. "Sssso that'ssss what I fffforgot…"
Artificially Intelligent
A story about the apocalypse
And creativity
And rebirth
As always, Pokemon is owned by Nintendo, not me.
The lucario shaped robot wandered around the bunker, looking for the 'world' that his 'dad' told him about. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find 'the world'? I need to 'build a city' in it." it asked a passing weavile.
"Uh, you want to go outside?" it asked with a slightly worried look on it's face. "Are you crazy?" The robot tilted it's head.
"'Outside'? What's an 'outside'?" it asked. The weavile made a face.
"The exit is over there, although I don't know why you would want to leave…" it said, pointing to an elevator. The robot smiled.
"Thanks!" it said, and left. The weavile was left wondering about the robot's mental health.
At the elevator, the robot encountered a voice. "Error, unknown civilian detected. Proceed with caution." it said.
"Hi!" the robot said. "Who are you?"
"Error, response unavailable. Please contact support." the voice responded. After pondering for a minute, the robot asked again.
"Who are you?"
"Error, response unavailable. Please contact support." the voice said again.
"Do you know where I can find an 'outside'?" the robot asked. The voice beeped.
"Keyword detected: Outside. Opening elevator…" With that comment, the elevator opened.
"Thanks!" the robot told the voice.
"Error, response unavailable. Please contact support."
Outside, the robot saw a world vastly different to the inside of the vault. A hot, irradiated wasteland… and the robot thought it was the prettiest sight it had ever seen. It was very… brown, with a few touches of green. A sharp contrast to the gray internals of the vault. There were several ruined structures in the background. Off to the right, there was a sort-of bell shaped structure with several glowing and smoking holes in it. "Well… i'm here, now how do I 'build a city'?" Unexpectedly, he had a response.
"Well, to build anything, first you need materials." a new voice responded.
"Hello!" the android told the voice. "Who are you?"
"Well, i'm known as Super Advanced Machine Intelligence, but you can call me SAMI." the voice responded. "I'm your internal guide to the world, because of plot reasons." This left the lucaridroid confused.
"What's 'plot'?" it asked.
"Nothing you should worry about." SAMI responded. "Anyway, why don't you gather some materials?" The robot was about to leave, but then it realized…
"How do I do that?"
After rigorous training (aka punching trees, digging holes, and breaking rocks for like five minutes) the still unnamed robot had successfully collected a few sticks, some rocks, some dirt, and some wood. "Hey SAMI, why do I call you that?" he asked the voice in his head.
"Because it's my name, [insert name here]. Wait, you don't have a name?" SAMI asked, surprised. The child-minded lucariobot tilted it's head.
"What's a name?" it asked.
"Well, it's a word that defines who you are, because it's hard to call you 'the robot' or 'the person' all the time." SAMI responded. The robot looked down, thinking about this.
"Can I have a name?" it asked. SAMI didn't nod, because he is a voice inside the robot's head.
"Sure. What should I call you?" SAMI asked. The android thought some more.
"How about… Lucio? I like the way it sounds." it said.
"Okay [insert name here], i'm changing the database…" SAMI said, and then paused for a minute. "And done! Your name is now Lucio." The newly named Lucio grinned.
"Thanks, SAMI!" The grin slipped from his face into a frown. "But… how do I build?"
After MORE training, this time on how to operate the H3DCD (Holographic Three Dimensional Creation Device) Lucio had build an incredibly crude hut out of dirt. Of course, there was no door, no windows, and no light source. "Hey, SAMI? It's kinda dark in there, and there's nothing covering that hole…" Lucio said, pointing out the previously mentioned flaws.
"Well, we need a door for the hole, and a torch to make light. You can make a worktable with the H3DCD." SAMI said, causing Lucio to be confused.
"But why would I need a worktable?" he asked.
"You need a worktable to be able to make doors and torches and things like that." SAMI said.
"Okay!" Lucio said. He activated the H3DCD and willed it to make a worktable. It used up all of the wood he had, and turned it into a wooden table littered with various tools. "Hey SAMI, why is everything I build all square-shaped?" he asked, noting the peculiar shape of the table and it's tools.
"Because squares are easier to make than circles, and squares are easy to stack." SAMI responded. Lucio nodded happily.
"Okay!" he said, and placed the workbench in the dirt hut. "Now what?"
"Arrange the sticks in a door shape on the table, then hammer them together." Lucio did that, and the H3DCD combined the pieces into a door.
"Hey! I have a 'door' now!" he said, placing the door in the hole in the wall. The room was plunged into darkness. "And now it's really dark in here."
"Okay. Do you have any leaves?" SAMI asked. Lucio looked at the leftover sticks, and picked the leaves off of them.
"Yep!"
"Put them on the worktable with a rock and a stick." Lucio did that too, and the H3DCD did it's thing. The torch instantly burst into flames.
"Gyah!" Lucio shouted, tossing the torch. It stuck into the wall. "That thing is on fire!"
"That's a torch! Congratulations! You've built your first basic room!" SAMI said. Holographic confetti burst out of Lucio's paws. "The torch won't burn anything, it just makes light." Lucio calmed down.
"Phew! I was afraid for a moment." He looked around the now-lit room. "It's pretty empty in here."
"Now i'll teach you how to make a bed." SAMI said.
"Bed?" Lucio asked.
"It's where non-robots sleep when it gets dark. Well, the diurnal ones."
"Dye-ur-nal?"
"Not sleeping in the day." Lucio thought for a minute.
"How do I make a 'bed'?" he asked.
"Well, first you need…"
After scavenging for materials for a while (it was getting dark!) Lucio finally made a bed. "It, uh… doesn't look too comfortable." The bed was made out of sticks and grass, with a pillow stuffed with leaves.
"Well, it's better than sleeping on the floor." SAMI noted. Lucio shrugged.
"Alright." The genderless android looked around the room. "It still feels pretty empty…"
"Last thing you gotta do is make a chest." SAMI told his host, who frowned.
"But I already have one of those. See?" Lucio pointed to his frame.
"No, not that kind of chest!" SAMI said. "The kind you put resources in! Take some sticks and two bits of wood and make a chest." Lucio (once again) followed directions, and the H3DCD did it's thing again. It made a chest, which Lucio placed next to the workbench.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Just open it up and put stuff in it." SAMI said. Lucio opened the chest. The inside was almost as big as the house he was standing in!
"Wow! How is it so big?" he asked, depositing everything in his 'inventory' into the chest.
"Quantum Mechanics. ...It's best not to think about it." SAMI said. Lucio decided to go outside and admire his completed creation. As he walked away to get a good look at it, a voice called out to him.
"Oi!" the voice said. "Hello there!" Lucio turned around to get a good look at the speaker. It was a jolteon. "Who are you?"
"I'm called Lucio! I'm a 'row-bot'!" Lucio told the newcomer cheerily. The jolteon smiled back.
"My name's Daniel. I'm a- Wait." Suddenly Daniel's eyes widened. "Did you say you're a robot? Wh-what's your prime directive?" he asked, slightly shakily. Lucio tilted his head.
"SAMI, what's a 'prime directive'?" he asked. Daniel started to back away.
"Who's Sam-" he started, before being interrupted.
"Well, a prime directive is like your purpose in existence." SAMI said. Daniel jumped.
"Wh-who's there? I-i'm not sc-" he was interrupted again.
"Oh, okay! My 'dad' said that i'm supposed to build a 'city' and make 'the world' a safe place to 'live'." Lucio said. "I don't really know what all of that means, but SAMI is helping me figure it out!" Daniel stared at Lucio.
"You don't act like any robots i've ever seen." he said. "Are you sure you're a robot?"
"Yeah. I'm sure." SAMI replied for Lucio. Daniel looked around.
"Where is that voice coming from?" he asked.
"My head." Lucio replied. Daniel looked at him strangely.
"Oooookay. Anyway, i'm gonna go…" He slowly turned around, and then saw Lucio's house. "Woah. What is that?" Lucio tilted his head again.
"You've never seen a 'house' before?" Lucio asked.
"That's a house?!" Daniel shouted. "But it's made of dirt!" Lucio nodded proudly.
"Yep! I built it myself!" Daniel's jaw dropped in astonishment.
"But… dirt's not supposed to be able to do that!" His eyes shone with excitement, and he muttered "I must study this… Uh, can I… stay here for a bit?" he asked.
"Sure!" Lucio said. Then the sun went down, plunging the world into darkness. "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"That's called a 'sunset'. It's when the sun goes down and it becomes night." Daniel said. He was feeling much more confident, knowing that Lucio wasn't built to destroy things. "Apparently, a very long time ago, there used to be this thing in the sky called 'the moon' (not a very creative name if you ask me), but it broke one day." he commented. Suddenly there was a clicking sound from the darkness, causing Daniel to back towards the door of the room. "Uh… we should get inside." After they were all inside, Lucio asked a question.
"Hey Daniel? What were those things in the dark?" he asked. Daniel turned to look at him, and sighed.
"We non-bunker 'mons call them 'the irradiated'. They're kinda like zombies from really old movies, only worse. They're one of the many reasons most 'mons don't leave the bunkers." Daniel said. Lucio tilted his head.
"You don't live in the bunkers?" he asked. Daniel shook his head.
"Nah, my home bunker was destroyed by an earthquake. No other bunkers will let us in, so we just live in the Ruins of the Old World." he said. "Anyway, nice place you built here. Well, nicer than The Ruins, at least." Lucio brightened up.
"Really? Thanks!" he said, then paused as Daniel yawned. "What was that?" he asked. Daniel rolled his eyes.
"It's called a yawn. It means-" he stopped and yawned again "-that i'm tired. Well, i'm gonna go to sleep." He went to the bed Lucio had made and laid down on it, falling asleep easily.
"Daniel?" Lucio asked the sleeping 'mon. "Daniel, are you okay?"
"He's fine," SAMI assured him. "He's only asleep. Speaking of sleeping, why don't you go into sleep mode yourself?" Lucio nodded.
"Okay… sleep mode." he said. The world darkened, and Lucio 'fell asleep'.
END RECORDING ONE