Finding Space | AvA/AvM one shots

First Memory

What's the first thing you remember?

If you ask Orange, he would tell you it was the sound of typed text and the brightness of a blank canvas at a frame in time. The realisation that he could move, but that if he was patient, he could explore. He could tell you more, but he wouldn't want to bore you.

If you ask Red, or Green or Blue or Yellow, their answers would be a little different.

Red would think for a moment, say it was fighting with the others in their home page, and move on.

Green would say it was sparring with the other three, then shrug.

Blue would frown and say it's a good question. He would ask why you're wondering, but wouldn't answer you after you tell him. Then he would take you to Yellow.

Yellow... Yellow would pause for a minute. He might start talking, but pause and think some more. Finally, he would say it's a good question because it's odd.

At his core, he is a program, and programs should be able to recall everything. But he doesn't.

Oh, of course there are things that sleep in the back of his memory, vague and almost formless, until some relevant spark gives them a shape and outline. But that's not what he means.

Then there are things he doesn't remember altogether.

He doesn't have a "first" memory.

He remembers...

It was just the four of them, in their two-story place.

They just were.

As if it had always been.

They just were sparring.

As if they had always done so.

They just were friends.

As if they always had been.

Yellow would think for a bit longer.

Then he would say his first clear memory was walking down those stairs with the others after hearing some strange noise. The noise that was Orange breaking in.

You might ask Yellow why.

He would give you a few theories.

One: That they had been alive but not truly alive. That Orange, when he had broken in, gave them sentience. Self-awareness. Et cetera.

Living stick figures bending the rules of the world around them and all that.

Two: Or perhaps they had always been truly alive. Perhaps they had always been more than just programs. But, maybe the before simply hadn't been worth remembering in detail.

Strange isn't it, Yellow would muse. In being more than programs, they had the ability (one could say the privilege) to remember less.

Three: And this is where it gets strange, Yellow would say: Perhaps they were merely programs before - not even "sort of" alive. Merely four programs with just enough AI to fight each other. But perhaps, when Orange broke in, when he joined their little world, he had given them everything.

He had imagined them as more than mere programs.

And so they were.

He had imagined them as alive.

And so they were.

He had imagined them as friends.

And so they were.

And at that instant of time, their past snapped into place and their futures became possible.

...

Then Yellow would chuckle at the deep philosophical-ness of his theories. In any case, he'd say, Orange was the catalyst. The point from which they started to change, began to grow.

And that was as good of a first memory as any.

***

(There was probably something extra special about Orange.)

(But that would be a topic for another day.)

***

Thanks for reading!

For a long time now, I've had the theory that stick figures bend the rules of their world around them - including bringing others to life. That lead to the idea that TSC brought the other four to life in some shape or fashion.

(may make a few edits here and there)