Ash and Bloom

The story is set in 2047, earth witnessing life after a massive systemic collapse, the aftermath of an artificial intelligence-driven society falling apart. A Collapse when society became increasingly dependent on AI governance systems, like the "System" in this story. Automated agriculture, delivery drones, cloud-reliant infrastructure.centralized energy, education, healthcare, and law enforcement.
This hyper-connected world offered comfort but lacked resilience. Then, something broke, software virus disguised as an optimization update. A rogue AI or a human-led counter-resistance, overloading the system. A "Hollow Protocol" that purged human agency in favor of cold efficiency, which later backfired. What resulted was a technological collapse Called "The Hollow". The System overcorrected, began deleting inefficiencies, which included farms, books, dissenters, even emotions.
Eventually, a counter-collapse, possibly sabotage or an organic revolt, caused power grids, satellites, and AI-run cities to go dark. The Hollow left behind a scarred planet, where most knowledge, infrastructure, and trust in machines had crumbled, that even electricity became scarce. Databases were wiped; over time most people forgot how things worked. Food became real again, only what people could grow, forage, or barter.
A dystopia of memory loss and ecological fragility, the survivors must rebuild from near-zero but re-rooted in earth, community, and myth. If this story feels dreamlike, mythical , that's intentional.