Chapter Text
A phone call in the early hours of the morning was usually not a good thing. People didn't call at this hour to say hello or deliver good news. They called because something bad happened. Eric groaned and rolled over in bed, his brow furrowing as he read the caller ID. There goes any hope of this being a wrong number. Eric slipped out of bed and into the other room as quietly as he could, trying not to wake his sleeping partner. The phone continued to buzz as he stared at it blankly for a moment before eventually relenting and answering it.
"Mr. Indigo? It's three in the morning, is everything ok?" He mumbled out.
The man's boss spoke quickly, "Listen, Eric, I need you at the park now, something's wrong with Rambley. Get your ass down here now."
Eric opened his mouth to press his boss for more details but couldn't even get the words out before the line went dead. He sat in the dark room for a moment, his sleep-addled brain trying to process the one-sided conversation. Whatever this is has to be something serious. Isac Indigo was not one to cry wolf, if anything, he was an expert at downplaying things. The man sighed before returning to the bedroom to find his partner already half awake, propped up in bed on one elbow.
"Sorry David, didn't mean to wake you," Eric whispered to his lover as he threw on a shirt and pants.
"What's wrong?" Eric turned to them before forcing a smile, "Something's wrong with the park's AI."
"At three in the morning?" David's voice was laced with confusion. Eric sighed and nodded his head in response.
"Don't worry, it'll probably be a quick fix, and then I'll be back in your arms before the sun comes up," Eric reassured. He really hoped he was right. The other didn't look quite convinced but played along, something that Eric was very grateful for.
He gave his partner a quick kiss before flying out the door, and into his car. The park was only a few minutes away from home with traffic, and the lack of any other cars on the roads made the commute even faster. Pulling into his usual parking spot, he spotted his boss approaching him at what seemed like a breakneck pace for the older man.
"You're here, good. Let's get inside," Isac threw at the other man before turning around to walk back through the main gaits.
"Mr. Indigo, please tell me what's going on," The younger man pleaded, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Isac sighed before starting, "I was walking the park as I do every night," He explained, "Everything was fine until I got to Rambley's Estate."
Rambely's Estate was the name that was lovingly given to the building that housed the computer that the raccoon "lived" in. The outside was adorned with cute paintings of the park's mascots, as well as a large sign marking the building. They had even tried to turn it into an attraction at one point, but it was hard to make a room full of computer equipment fun for kids.
"When I got here I... it's better if you see for yourself," Isaac said as he opened the door to the building, "I need you to figure out what's going on with Rambley and fix it," He explained, "In the meantime, I need to go find Mollie and her handler, apparently she's been acting strange tonight."
Eric nodded and reassured the older man, that whatever it was, he would have it fixed as quickly as he could. He worked his way back through the winding concrete corridors, eventually finding the door he was looking for. It clicked open as he swiped a beat-up keycard and entered the main server room for the park's beloved artificial intelligence assistant.
Eric had been there since the very beginning of the park. Isaic Indigo had hired him to develop artificial indigents for the park, one that had continued to grow and increase in complexity. Suffice it to say, he knew better than anyone what Rambley the Raccoon could and could not do. After all, he had to sign off on every feature before his team could begin to develop it. Rambley was without a doubt, the most complex project he had ever worked on. In his opinion, the raccoon was as close to human as a computer program could get.
With that being said, Eric knew Rambley the Racoon was never programmed to cry or show any real negative emotion. After all, he was a virtual theme park mascot, what use did negative feelings like fear or anger serve to an entertainer?
Eric entered the room, only to be met with the sight of the raccoon he knew so well curled up into a ball, sobbing quietly. Rambley had over three hundred different animations stored in his database. He had ones for excitement, joy, annoyance, and even one for when he was "sleeping".
They had never added one for crying.
"E- Eric?" The raccoon wiped his eyes. Another thing he was not programmed to do.
"Is that you?" Rambley's voice emitted legitimate fear as he spoke.
"Yeah, buddy it's me," Eric replied, "What's wrong?"
"I- I don't know... I was going through my after-hours procedures like normal and..." Rambely trailed off, before continuing again, "I had a vision."
Eric stood and stared at the monitor for a moment, completely and utterly dumbfounded. He wasn't quite sure how to proceed. The raccoon had some very odd bugs at times but it was never quite this weird.
"What kind of vision?" Eric asked.
"I- I saw my friends... and Lloyd... they were hurting people," The Racoon paused, "I don't know why... they seemed so angry."
"They were hunting people down and... hurting them," The raccoon was on the verge of breaking down again.
A myriad of theories were forming in Eric's head, each desperately trying to make sense of whatever this was. The only one that really made sense right now was that something had gone wrong with his prediction algorithm. Rambley had a large amount of resources devoted to trying to predict possible threats or problems in the park so that he could respond to them quickly. Something in that system might have broken, causing the raccoon to have these visions. It only explained half of his symptoms, but it was better than nothing. He would fix this, then worry about why artificial intelligence, not programmed to have negative emotions, was in the throws of a full-blown panic attack.
"Ok... I think I can fix this," He said slowly, not at all sure he even could.
"You can! Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!" The little raccoon exclaimed, eliciting a chuckle from Eric.
"It's alright buddy, we'll have you all better in no time," He said.
He really hoped he could deliver on that promise. It was fully possible that he couldn't, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he began his work.
Eric just wanted to close his eyes. He had been staring at a terminal hooked into Rambley's insides for who knows how long now. The park was open and at its peak business hours by now. Of course, he hadn't left the building to see it for himself. He was stuck trying to diagnose a technical problem that he wasn't even entirely sure was a technical problem. After multiple hours of poking around with Rambley's brain, he was beginning to think that the raccoon needed a psychologist more than anything.
A yawn left the tired technician as he stared blankly at the terminal, displaying all of Rambley's diagnostic data. Everything was supposedly normal, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. None of this made any sense and it was starting to frustrate him.
Rambely squirmed uncomfortably on the screen above him, "Do you maybe want to try to take a break?" He asked.
"Yeah, that might be a good idea," He stifled a yawn, "I haven't heard anything from Mr. Indigo since he told me he needed to go check on Mollie, so I guess I'll go check on them," He said.
"Oh, tell Mollie and Mr. Indigo I said hi!" The raccoon chirped.
"Will do buddy," Eric chuckled to himself as he exited the building.