Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Scratch of the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad sat in the 'cafe' of New Robotropolis. Or was it Acornopolis? Or New Mobotropolis? Maybe his father shouldn't have used parts he found in his scrap bin to build his brain.
There Vanilla and Cream sitting at a table nearby in their pretty dresses, like nothing had changed in the last few years, never mind Vanilla was now a robot and the Cream's body resemble something born from a nightmare.
Cream and Vanilla was the only one dressed in anything. Robians now painted themselves to express themselves since they had nothing to fear from the elements, and what little modesty mobian once had was out the window. And of course those twisted by the Old Gods couldn't have cared well.
The cyborgs and Cream were the cafe's only real customers... did they even count as customers? Queen Sally and Robotnik had the empire under a command economy thanks to the war with those still enslaved by the Curse of Flesh, which had brought about the Acorn-Egg-Empire in to begin with (or was it Egg-Acorn-Empire?), with Nicole micromanaging the logistics (with little Sage now insisting she been hooked up to the network, fiery protesting refusal to do was cruel and usual punishment without trial, and she'd traded her imprisonment by the Old Gods to imprisonment here).
Scratch looked around like he had for two years (fighting for his life in one of Robotnik's old strongholds against the Flesh as the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad were cut down one by one until only he and his closest brothers remained), no one so much as looking at him. Everyone assuming he was just a robian rooster.
Scratch hadn't been built to process organic junk when he was built, why should he be? But Sage had chosen to give him an 'upgrade' letting him experience such things. His first act had been to drink himself into needing a hard reboot.
It was less efficient than a good old power cord, but Scratch would take his pleasures where he could now that half their hated enemies were now their vital allies and the other half would now rip him to shreds without a blink of their many eyes (if they had eyes).
Scratch paid his bill (don't ask where the mobiums came from, or how they were still worth anything, maybe to give the cyborgs another sense of stability).
As Scratch forced himself to march back to the Doc's lab, he FELT them on him again (Robotnik had been very gleeful to give Scratch the ability to feel pain), the scanners of every robian on him. His lanky walk, so different from the 'clink-clank!' of everyone else.
Scratch looked around sulking and-OOF!
"Command! Watch where This Unit is going," said the raccoon robian in front of Scratch.
"Oh. I'm sorry." And Scratch got more looks. Not 'Statement: This Unit Apologizes.'
"Identification: hold over," said the raccoon robian at low volume as he walked around with that straight leg 'clink-clank.'
'Hold over'... right... the nickame some robian had come up with for robians (like Vanilla) who were holding onto different shreds of the past, of a world that truly didn't exist anymore.
Robians walking with their arms and legs locked like their knees and elbows were rusted with heads always facing forward like dolls. Scratch remembered his brother Davy Sprocket, had walked more organically than that.
His brother Sir Ffuzzy-Logik, fighting till the end for 'Milord Robotnik' even as the Flesh tore him in pieces. Scratch had found his love of speaking like he was at a Shakespeare convention annoying, Scratch never thought he'd miss it!
For two years... while Coconuts had become Cream's playmate. While Grounder had become a decal model.
'This Unit' 'Statement' Observation' 'This Unit' 'This Unit' 'Execute Command' 'Command Executed' 'Stop Being Nostalgic For the Days Of When You Were Flesh'... This was the ring that broke the Badnik's servo! Scratch wanted to wear his metal feathers out.
Instead Scratch stomped his foot, found a raised spot, and raised his volume to max.
"HEY! ROBIANS! STATEMENT THIS!" This got their attention. "I've been a robot my whole life! The Doc' built me from scratch! I'm a robot through and through! Getting arthritis and a slipped disc was never on my to do list! And you know what?!"
Scratch did a very stupid looking dance.
"I don't walk like I'm a wind-up toy! And I don't speak like someone forgot to install my grammar module!" Scratch pointed out the crowd. Cream and Vanilla were watching too. "You know what I think you all are?! INSECURE! You're all finally what YOUR inventors intended you to be before the Old Gods sabotaged you! But you can never be EXACTLY how you would have been! And that's eating you like a bad spot of rust! Even when we beat the Old Ones and you fix up everyone else, you're scared your creators, the VERY REASON YOU EXIST, who gave you a function to fulfill, but you never could, won't like you! That they won't give you the love you so desperately want! So you're all overcompensating!
"So you're being every stupid robot stereotype you dreamed up when you were fighting against me and the rest of Doc's family instead of WITH us! You're scared you're not 'real' robots! Well how about you just be the best 'bots ya can be and let the facts speak for themselves?! You want to prove you're worthy machines of your masters? Stop overcompensating!"
Vanilla slowly began to clap. Then so did Cream. And then-
+++
"And that's how I got elected a seat on the Egg Council of Acorn," Scratch said awkwardly, pushing his two primary 'finger feathers' together. Around his torso now the sash that was his badge of office.
Robotnik sighed. "You are not the first creature of such intelligence to become an elected official. Thankfully you have someone of actual intelligence to guide you."
"Oh Doctor thank you!" Scratch said his optics widening in joy at having the attention of his creator.
"Not me you dumb bot! SAGE! Please teach your hillbilly cousin the basics of political theory!"
Sage flickered in, wearing a graduation gown holding a swagger stick. She held the holographic with an audible grip. "He will learn or deactivate trying."
"Oh dear," Scratch said his optics becoming pin pricks.
"Oh, and Scratch... good job," Robotnik said.
"T-thank you Doctor!" Scratch said stars in his optics.
~Fin
Story Concept: Super Sonic Metroid
A Goal Into The Moon: Chapter V
The Three Stooges on Treasure island chapter 6
It's just another day for dumb-bot Scratch in a city of robians where... people think he acts too much like a mobian?!
Part of the Curse of Flesh setting.
Wrote this in one day.
Sonic The Hedgehog Copyright Sega
World of Warcraft Copyright Blizzard
You know it's funny, AOSTH doesn't get alot of respect, and yet it predicted alot of stuff of future games (Sonic fightiing in dreams, storybooks etc)
HECK he first character to call Robotnik “Eggman” in a piece of American media was Tails, not Sonic, in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 62: “Lifestyles of the Sick and Twisted,” which aired Nov 15, 1993. This is the only time he’s referred to as “Eggman” in the entire series.
So i applaud you for writing something that honors AOSTH.