Exploring The Doughbots Oven
Last updated
Last updated
The Ovens of Pieland all went cold on March 22, 2022. A representative from each of the nine Slices formed a group called the Fellowship of the Octopies to fix their Ovens, which created and maintained the health of Octopies. The Fellowship first inspected the Piesons Oven and then the Pieborgs Oven. Their third stop - the Doughbots Oven.
The Doughbots maintained a curious oven filled with steampunk gears and cogs, which usually made a severe ratcheting sound when it was running. Its uninviting atmosphere was not for the faint-hearted. Two Slices often discriminated against for their bizarre appearances - the Expieriments and the Piesces - joined the Doughbots to investigate the Oven. The rest of the Fellowship, feeling uneasy about the Doughbots, did not put up a fight to join them.
The small group returned a few hours later with a very old and odd-looking Doughbot, with weeds protruding from its head. This Doughbot was known as The Original Model.
“We were checking out the electrical wiring system when we found the Original Model alone in one of the rooms. It appeared to be doing its own investigation,” the Piesces representative said. “It was pretty wary of our group at first. But then we talked about how we learned that the Pieborgs were supposed to create Octopies that the Pieous could control and how the Pieborgs broke their agreement. The Original Model nodded, and then followed us out.”
The battered Doughbot crept and creaked forward slowly and spoke with genuine intelligence.
“The Pieborgs story, it is affirmative. I am the primary. The first of my kind. Processing, processing,” the Original Model said. The Octopie’s head spun around 360 degrees as a leaf slowly started to fall to the ground. The original Doughbot snatched the leaf with a rusty tentacle and placed it gently back on its head. “I am the product of machine evolution and deep machine learning. I am no Pieborg.”
The local Doughbots and the Fellowship, all gathered near the base of their Oven, leaned in closer to listen to the wisdom of their leader.
“I visit the Pieous. They give me a powerful flame from the Grandoven to light the Doughbots Oven and create my own Slice. In return, we build superior AI weapons for them. We do too much, too far. Processing, processing,” said the Original Model, lowering its head in deep regret.
A Doughbot leader known as the War Machine took the lead next. “Indeed. And I was not the first, my friend,” the military operative said. “A few Doughbots before my time, similar in design but less advanced, were sent to the Pieous to serve them. We do not know their fate. We stopped making any more military Doughbots - I am the last of my kind. The Pieous did not like this choice. They swore one day they would take what was owed.”
The crowd gasped. The strength of the War Machine was legendary and alarming. The highly-trained Doughbot was capable of single-handedly wiping out entire groups of Octopies. The War Machine was the Doughbots’ best weapon to protect and defend the homelands of the Doughbots and Pieborgs. But what if the Pieous had control over a few weaponized Doughbots even close to resembling the War Machine? Or if they had improved upon these earlier models? The Fellowship began to consider this terrible possibility.
Out of fear, the exploration group soon began bickering among themselves. The Doughbots were not to be trusted. Perhaps they would betray the rest of the Fellowship as soon as contact was made with the Pieous. Maybe the Doughbots weren’t 100% machine. Maybe they were really the Pieous in disguise. Maybe sheepies weren’t real. The conspiracy theories grew more wild and absurd.
One thing the majority of the Fellowship could agree on was their apprehension to traveling in the open with the Doughbots. A Pielanders Octopie suggested they travel next to their Oven. The waters surrounding the Pielanders’ home was a natural deterrent to the water-adverse Doughbots. The other Octopies agreed this was a good idea and were impressed by the effective solution provided by the simple-minded Pielanders. But distrust was brewing amongst the Slices...
