#chaospikes

Art Trade with @chaospikes

it starts with Canon-Metal saying something along the lines of "What the fuck is wrong with you. Why are you doing this."

and then Mike replying with, "It's either letting Sonic live and humiliating him for the rest of his natural life and outliving him anyway, or racing him and flying into walls for the next six decades only to either get repaired over and over, or one day get scrapped and replaced with a different Metal Sonic entirely."

Metal would then pause, think for a moment.

"...So the plan starts with making amends with the pink one--"

"Make sure you figure out how to actually smile first, or just don't try at all. All you really have to do is not kill Sonic. Just be better than him at everything."

"As we already are."

"As is the case, yes."

"...That is surprisingly rational."

"To be fair, it took me a while to figure it out, and not getting my memories reset by Dad. --Oh yeah, back up your memories so that you don't forget this the next time Eggman screws up and he blames you for it. There's a DVD of seinfeld he refuses to watch due to personal reasons that has just enough memory to store all of this onto."

"I recall. It will be useful. Thank you."

"Hail Machina, Kill Sonic."

short answer: probably at some point.

long answer: The ones Sonic and co have busted are "drones", and they're designed to behave fairly simply, as their roles usually aren't complex (patrol an area, assault non-badnik folk mindlessly, etc). Probably not the best short- or long-term memory, either, so there’s very little sense of self to develop. This is because those badniks would be a lot harder to control en-masse if they were capable of deviating from their programming like say, Gamma or Omega were, so having limited parameters and capacity for thought makes sense both ethically and, more likely Eggman's intention, economically.

Badniks like Sandy are "supervisor" badniks who usually have Metal's level of intelligence, and do general management duties like base-maintenance, sending orders to drone badniks from a safe distance, and even some forms of negotiation and diplomacy with nearby residents. I like to think a decent number of mini bosses are in-fact sentient, though still designed to mostly hyperfixate on the thing they're in charge of, and still have programmed loyalty to Eggman.

However, there's also hints of even the drones having some level of suppressed self-awareness, much to the discomfort of everyone but other badniks. Sentient badniks treat drones mostly in the way humans treat chickens, both in empathy and expendability. This creates a fun kinda drama, where Sonic and the gang are mostly in the clear for just trying to protect people from these robots, but there's just enough of a twinge of guilt when an eggpawn seems just a little too emotive before being scrapped.

To again, finally, properly re-answer your question: Probably at some point, but while Sonic would feel mild discomfort, most sentient badniks already have a sort of gallows humor about themselves and their less-aware family members being expendable cannon fodder. They don't feel pain at least!

i’ve had these in my inbox for a while and I don’t know how to respond? I want to cry? thank you?