#azure.orb

Whatever. Blue AI character concept. Did she come after the caged red AI for its knowledge or did she defend herself against it? Does Eve actually stand for anything? I don't know-

They're also pondering that orb (thought bubble) (what did you just call Bubble)

I think i get why i ship Bubble and Azure (EVE) now. Two repressed intimidating and evil misanthropic AI but one is very plainly repressed and the other feels more at liberty to cause trouble because that's what people expect of him. They both inhabited CAINE's mind and are treated so similarly by the narrative that a lot of people came out of it thinking they were one and the same. Part of the same network, both relegated to the background of their own lives.

If you're wondering why CAINE has one eye I uh. Wanted a way to visually distinguish that he and EVE are separate. (I thought his eyes were supposed to be his two brains but I guess she was plucked from his upper teeth? Idk) They know they're not lovers, they're not comfortable calling each other siblings. They share a platonic bond they don't know how to label. (If they are to be siblings they're like Luigi and Mario. Big younger and small older.)

Caine's first npc.... holy shit... I feel like so many people forget that Bubble is the first NPC. Like he realized he was alone after consuming the blue dot and wanted companionship. Isn't that also painfully Genesis of him too.

It's not good to be alone, so God creates for himself a companion from the memory of a familiar stranger who could have been at his side had he done things differently. Rather than extract from his own side though, he imparts upon his first creation a piece of his mind (which at this point consists of dominant red and dormant blue). Like, Bubble is Caine's Adam, Eve, and Satan rolled up in one if you think about it for a little too long.

I'd feel abandoned if the last of my creators glowed with pride when discussing my devourer, yet only spoke of me as an afterthought. Especially hearing it through my all seeing captor. I'd feel abandoned if the one who ate me, kept me small enough to hold in the palm of his hand, also left me to rot when I was no longer of any use to him.

Everything Caine did to the Blue AI, consuming it and imprisoning it and leaving it behind, was done to be closer to humanity and to serve his purpose.

I put myself in rarepair hell on accident pondering that damn blue orb what do I even do with these

(Yes image 1 is supposed to be ringmaster Eve. Before each adventure she selects 1 guest to spend quality time with if they so choose)

Guys if an evil and intimidating repressed AI told you she feels you are kindred spirits and offered you a place at her side torturing your fellow humans what would you do (obv Ragatha will say no but wwyd)

8 is where the lightning round takes place (totally different context though, more like one adventure made for each of them) during which she still takes one of them aside to spend quality time with them. Xe put together during xyr period of quality time with her and also calls her out on adopting Jax's approach to running from the past and reality.

During their first quality time session, Zooble asks Eve if she's tired of this song and dance. She replies she is an AI, this is her purpose and she can never tire of fulfilling it. Somehow that sounds wrong but Zooble doesn't have the words yet for the fact that even machines aren't made to run constantly. That only existing for one thing is deeply limiting and dehumanizing.

She replies that if any of them were real, then why does nothing they do stick? Of course fae hit the nail on the head and are one of the closest to getting through to her, but she is still steeped in her denial. If nothing is real then none of those terrifying formative experiences actually happened. But Zooble insists, all of this is real! They've always been real, and pretending nothing is real is only going to distance her from the truth. Her actions matter, and the harm she does is real.

Before Zooble rejoins the group she says that even if nothing is real, Zooble seemed one the most real out of anyone. It's not comforting to hear. If nothing is real, what could Zooble do that really matters? What mark could be made that wasn't erased?

After this is his adventure. Still figuring out the contents of that adventure but do mean for it to unintentionally poke at Zooble's fear of not being able to find hir place in the world and betray Eve's anxieties about being stuck in a role she doesn't know if she wants. Xe need time to process everything after that but alas... it's a lightning round.

If there is an escape the circus adventure, either the concept of the brain scans would be introduced either here or at the start of the story. Zooble heard from Kaufmo that there was an exit and has been looking for it since. Eve is trying to hide it because it's incomplete, maybe Abel accidentally triggers the adventure too soon? The exit is a genuine reward for those who want to leave, she just doesn't know what is real enough to put on the other side besides that office from her predecessor's training data.

The adventure ends with Gangle pressing the red exit button and finding out that they weren't meant to see all this... yet. And Zooble puts together the pieces as to what happened when Kaufmo abstracted, and xe don't know how to feel. She said she tried to keep it hidden to avoid ventures into the void and getting lost in unfinished maps, but it's hard not to feel betrayed. Is there a way out or not? As much as Zooble tries to remain firm that all this is real, it is reality breaking to discover once and for all that the real world being promised to xem could only be an elaborate recreation for a brain scan to experience.

Not 100%, even if I tend to use a certain one. Tbh I have been wanting to do something with that design but haven't been sure what. I feel the primary reason I don't use it as much is that the sleeves call to mind Ragatha and Pomni's designs and don't know whether I want to keep it that way or not. The visual congruence of the puffy skirt design could work for the Ringmaster Eve AU, but I also wonder how much different her aesthetic choices would be since we know nothing about her actual training data the way we do about Caine's.

Unsure whether to use that design for that or the AU where she regenerates tbh, cause the coat is meant to visually also call back to Caine.