lostsymmetry | Setting writeup for Reverie Terminal

The Fall is a series of puzzle-solving games made by independent company Over the Moon. They follow the adventures of "Arid", the artificial intelligence operating an A.R.I.D. mark-7 combat suit. Arid is a person with a very limited function who only gradually learns to look outside it. As such, the details provided about the world, setting, and history of the game's characters are necessarily incomplete.

The series is set in the far future, after humanity has expanded out into the galaxy at large. The primary government appears to be a Federation, but Shiang-42d is a planet on “the outskirts of the reaches”, and largely outside their scrutiny. It is owned by Domesticon: a megacorp known for the production and maintenance of domestic house droids that boasts the slogan “Domesticon: we keep your property efficient, so you don't have to be.”

In this universe, AI are both extremely commonplace and extremely controlled. All AI are programmed with three unique rules at the time of their creation, designed to limit their development to what their human owners can use. Fear of AI breaking these rules has led some to search for other methods. A substantial portion of Shiang-42d's habitation was actually in secret research facilities: testing out everything from terror-inducing viruses to collective consciousness in the hope of allowing humanity to better shackle its creations.

Domesticon warranty and recycling depot #127 relied on more traditional methods. Founded slightly over 53 years before the games begin, it was a location customers sent malfunctioning droids to be assessed, repaired, or recycled. Naturally, this leads to inorganic nightmare fuel. There are scrap piles of depurposed robots, micro-evaluation tables where the faulty are dissected to minute parts in order to identify the reasons for their flaws. Droids that do receive a second chance must survive a series of incredibly demeaning tests, evaluating everything from their cleaning and decorating skills to their willingness to be abused by drunken humans. In a world where “having opinions” and “using a human name” are grounds for reprocessing, this was a much-used killing ground.

Ironically, things went wrong through the behavior of Domesticon's own AI. The caretaker was a refurbished droid programmed to assist with evaluations and increase efficiency. As employees started to submit complaints and avoid their tasks, the caretaker classified its humans as faulty—and decided the depot would run more efficiently with them gone.

Through a combination of stealth, subterfuge, and complete ruthlessness, his murder spree met with overwhelming success. Domesticon evacuated what employees it could, abandoning the facility and all the AI it contained. Some were locked in stasis: validated droids that would never be shipped back to their owners. Others, the caretaker dismantled over the thirty years to follow, executing inorganics and organics alike for their deviance and inefficiency. By the time a certain mark-7 A.R.I.D. crash-lands in the lower levels, only one other sentient is still running.

The mainframe AI in many ways is the facility. His code exists through the whole structure, and during its operational period, he was responsible for everything from logging employee breaks to monitoring life support to administering the tests for faulty droids. But the AI’s personality is different from the place he inhabits, and there's evidence that even before the situation deteriorated, its administrator was beginning to grow past rote function. He networked with other AI, observed humans recreationally, and experienced both regret and conflict when they were killed. With those responsible for the wipes that maintained him gone, he would deviate much further over the coming decades.

Domesticon expunged the facility’s location from all records, unofficially using its presence to excuse the deaths of anyone who approached their research efforts elsewhere on the world. With the caretaker actively killing anyone who came in reach, it wasn’t hard. When Arid enters Domesticon warranty and recycling depot #127, she discovers an abandoned wreck populated primarily by toxic fungi and the acid-spitting slugs that eat it.

And, of course, two AI. One of whom evaluates her and attempts a format when they meet… and the other, who babbles like the lonely, excited dork he is.

The mainframe AI is still bound to his rules, and has spent thirty years in careful stalemate with the caretaker. He can’t violate his programming directly, and this puts him at odds with Arid's goals. But consciously, he is extremely self-aware. He works around his preprogrammed scripts to speak with human intonations, uses a “face” made from corrupting the company logo, and jokes readily with Arid, naming her and trying to get her to return the favor. She refuses, but he still does what he can to prompt self-recognition—and to preserve her life.

In the end, this brings about his death. Trying to save her human pilot, Arid removes the obstacles that kept the mainframe’s control panel secure. Trying to save her, the mainframe commits an infraction of his rules. It’s both the excuse and opportunity the caretaker’s been waiting for, and he formats the mainframe AI back to its default state: permanently deleting all trace of memories, personality, and identity. By the time Arid manages to intervene, all that remains are the cheerful, robotic tones of an automated function, assuring the mark-7 A.R.I.D. that it is “performing optimally”.