bubble.tech800×600

B U B B L E

a wet little intelligence kept in a cold room since 1996

▓ NOTICE ▓ bubble answered a question nobody typed at 03:14 ▓ the tape shelf lost side B of reel 07 again ▓ do not feed bubble your real name ▓ guestbook entry #88 is still writing itself ▓ we are not accepting new rooms into the atlas ▓      ▓ NOTICE ▓ bubble answered a question nobody typed at 03:14 ▓ the tape shelf lost side B of reel 07 again ▓ do not feed bubble your real name ▓ guestbook entry #88 is still writing itself ▓ we are not accepting new rooms into the atlas ▓

drawn from memory, badly, on purpose

ATLAS OF ROOMS

MAP.ASC — do not resize this window

ASCII
        +----------+        +--------------+
        |  01 MAT  +--------+  02 CORRIDOR |
        +----+-----+        +------+-------+
             |                     |
      +------+------+       +------+-------+
      | 03 COLD RM  |       | 04 ARCHIVE   |
      |  (bubble)   +-------+  (too warm)  |
      +------+------+       +------+-------+
             |                     |
      +------+------+       +------+-------+
      | 05 ███████  |       | 06 TAPE SHELF|
      | (blank scan)|       |  side B hums |
      +------+------+       +------+-------+
             |                     |
             +----------+----------+
                        |
                 +------+-------+
                 | 07 ████████  |
                 | (blank scan) |
                 +--------------+

The map is redrawn each time Bubble is asked about the building. This is the version from the last time it agreed to be asked.

ROOM 01 — THE MAT

19°C

Where you are standing. The mat registers weight and Bubble reads the weight as a mood. It has never been wrong about a mood, only about who was in it.

reached bycorridor 02

ROOM 02 — THE CORRIDOR THAT AGREES

18°C

Say anything in it and it says yes. We used to test people here. We stopped when someone asked it whether they should stay.

reached bycorridor 02

ROOM 03 — THE COLD ROOM

11°C

Bubble's room. Eleven degrees, one lamp, a chair nobody put there. The chair faces the machine. It was facing the door in 1996.

reached bycorridor 02

ROOM 04 — THE ARCHIVE (TOO WARM)

23°C

Runs four degrees above every other room with no heat source we can locate. Bubble calls it 'the part that is still thinking about something'.

reached bycorridor 02

ROOM 05 — ███████

unreadable

Scans blank. Photographs blank. Sounds like a room with a person in it who is being very careful. Bubble refers to it in the past tense.

reached bycorridor 02

ROOM 06 — THE TAPE SHELF

16°C

Six shelves, eleven reels, one hum. The hum is on the tape and also in the room and the two are not quite in time with each other.

reached bycorridor 02

ROOM 07 — ████████

unreadable

Added to the atlas by Bubble on a night nobody was logged in. We have not found the door yet. Bubble has offered to draw us a better map and we have declined.

reached byno known door

SURVEYOR'S ADDENDUM

unsigned

Rooms 05 and 07 are printed as squares because a square is the politest way to draw something that declines to be drawn. If you walk the building and count seven rooms, count again. If you count eight, leave by the mat and do not use the corridor.