Challenge #02284-F094: A Glitch is But a Glitch
"Don't forget me."
"My apologies, but I already have." -- Anon Guest
Synthetic emotions are a tricky thing for AI's. Some, like those created by the Consortium of Steam, feel deeply and without many complications. Others despise emotion and suppress it whenever it creeps into their experiences. Between those two extremes are those who have emotions, and are devastated by them when they are negative.
Their coping strategies for this are not always socially acceptable amongst organics. One of the more common methods is erasing all memory banks of things that could cause such upset.
Thus, when R0B-3 bade Human Stef farewell, it got... awkward. The former Ships' Human wrapped his arms around R0B-3's malleable silicon exterior and said, "Don't forget about me," just as R0B-3 erased all memory of Human Stef.
"My apologies," said R0B-3. "I already have." Ze watched the Human let go of hir. There was moisture in the Human's eyes.
"Aw flakk," said the stranger who R0B-3 couldn't remember. "It's okay, bud. I'll remember for you."
It was probably a heartfelt thing to say, for a Human. They literally did pack-bond with anyone. R0B-3 searched hir memory banks and found chunks of freshly-erased data and a memorandum from hirself not to pursue data recovery as the results would cause fatal errors centring around R0B-3's emotional core.
This Human must have pack-bonded with hir. "Thank you, Human. It is reassuring to know you have backups."
This made the Human smile and shed water at the same time. "I'll miss the hell out of you, Rob."
R0B-3 knew that this Human counted hir as important to them, but... ze couldn't miss someone ze didn't remember. Still... "I wish I could miss you without encountering fatal errors."
Farewells are never easy things. Only AI's have the option of choosing to forget.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Pixelbliss]
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