The Curiousity Sphere

“Why am I stuck on this island with you?”

Curiousity wasn’t sure what to make of her deserted island companion. When she had been teleported here, she had thought she would be alone. That’s normally how it worked. That, or she was with someone she knew.

She didn’t know this guy. He looked dressed for warm weather, at least?

“Have you seen AI or Yusaku anywhere?”

It had taken some time for Curiousity to notice her companions were missing. She was out and about often enough that she had assumed their schedules weren’t aligning. 

Only, she had come to realize the house reminded her of Aperture. Still and silent. Abandoned by humans.

Mor– oh, burning. That little ball or whatever. Yeah, he helped a friend do some arson, so what? Most friends would. She’s just counting off some things about him, things he’s done.

“Hmm…well do you have to categorize me? As good or bad? Can’t I just be your buddy?”

“[[lasting effect on my health]] FROM BECOMING A [[Big Shot]],!!” Wait a second… “ARE YOU TRIYING TO [[Go phishing]] ME??”

“THEY’RE ON [[My Body]]!! !” He pinches the fabric a bit- very stretchy! Probably a little too tight, if people are still asking if he’s ass out- “I’M NOT ABOUTT TO [[streak]] AROUND [[In Public]], KID!! WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOUR???”

“I don’t know what I take you for. And I don’t know what go phishing means. What are you? And why do you talk like that? And why do you wear such weird pants? How are you a Big Shot?” 

He seems like a good person…………………….Badou isn’t sure what to think about that there. Does he thank her? Does he scoff? He wants to do the latter. He isn’t a good person.

“I’m not acting anything,” he says instead, frowning. “I’m just a guy. No one’s really just only good or only bad.”

Curiousity paused for a moment, trying to parse through how to put her question into words he would understand. This is what she needed others like Logic for. They were smarter. They knew how to make the people see what she wanted to know.

“I... don’t know where you are on the scale. You were friends with Leck. And you helped me burn Morality.” Had Curiousity ever told him the name to sphere she had dropped into the incinerator? She didn’t believe so, but maybe. Her memory files had long since purged it if she had. “But you helped me when we first met. And protected me a lot. And you’re nice to lots of people.”

“WHAT’S WITH THIS [[Fat-N-Sassy Worm Premix]] [[Lost Child]]?????”

“Why do you look like that?” And now Curiousity wanted to ask why he talked like that, but first, he had to learn to answer her questions properly! 

Surprisingly enough Badou hadn’t gleefully gone to town with all this pollen in the air like most people probably had around here. Oh sure, it’d make his job a lot easier– but also it’s a two way street. If someone asks him a question, he’d have to answer too! Hell no, no way! 

So when Curi approaches him with this question, it’s an odd one, but well, so is she.

“The usual way. Make myself usual, and annoying, like mold on the wall. Why’s that important now?”

“You seem like a ‘good person’ most the time,” Curiousity said bluntly. “Leck wasn’t a good person to most people. He liked me because I’m also not a killjoy.”

Curiousity knew that these flowers were a huge advantage to her and her directive. People being strongly encouraged to tell the truth? She finally could have unlimited answers!

However, she also knew that people could quite easily walk away and avoid her until things settled back down. So she needed to be careful and use her first questions to try and get the good answers, things she could find more questions about later.

So she had been thinking about what to ask Badou. What she really wanted to know. And finally, after much processing, she had finally approached him with a question that ought to give her many, many more questions.

“Are you the one that people have been saying ate the flowers?” Curiousity had heard gossip about it, but gossip wasn’t good information. Different people had different stories on it, and who was responsible, but chasing after all those leads had lead to nothing but dead ends.

So now she was stuck guessing and asking other kids at random. Maybe it was her ‘friend’, or maybe Kay knew who had actually done it.

“Are you a robot?”

“Don’t you know how expensive that is?” Curiousity had been watching the oddly dressed woman throw things into her handbasket without even looking at the price. Even with Curiousity’s weaker math skills, she knew it had to be a lot of money.

“What are you?”

“Huh, Kuri?” He looked at her, blinking owlishly. There was something a bit different, but this Yusaku had no Link Sense, and thus wouldn’t be able to tell that thus Curi wasn’t human.

Still, he knew Ai’s little sister well enough that this might not be Kuri.

“I’m actually trying to find Ai, or…An Ai, or even my other self.” He tilts his head slightly, frowning. “You are…Kuri, right? The Kuri I know? Ai’s sister?”

Curiousity had to stop and think about her answer for a moment. The easiest way to get at the other her would surely be to just nod and agree with him, right? But... she wasn’t sure how well she would pass off as human to someone who knew a human ‘her’. If she got stuck in a question loop, it would be all over. That might not work.

However, humans formed weird attachments, right? So if she was a Curiousity, if not his, he might be prone to help her, right?