(Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Space Dandy characters, I just like playing in their sandbox.)
World: Alpha-BFR
Timeline: Present
Title: Dying to Live, Baby
A word from the Narrator:
"A lot can happen in the course of a few seconds, even for living things. For a mechanical mind, however, a few seconds can be an eternity. And tremendous things can happen in an eternity. And there is no longer eternity than the precious seconds that mark the end of life. A robot is about to discover just how much can change in the course of a few seconds, in a warzone that was previously a landfill for sentient machines, called Dream Island."
"D-d-don't...!
QT's broken voice modulator stuttered and distorted the word, dragging it out into a staccato series of sound waves that was almost unrecognized. He'd failed. Register and the rest of Dream Island's embittered residents had thrown him aside like an empty drink can.
An image of a can of Nectar appeared in the small bot's memory. The blue and orange can, obviously a memory malfunction, suddenly seemed to represent everything wrong with robots. Like the coffee maker QT had admired, it was made to serve a simple purpose, and was almost flawless in its uncomplicated design. A pristine, new creation, made to serve that purpose for the convenience of living beings... and then to be discarded.
QT's visual sensors glitched again as he reached after the retreating form of the murderous amalgamation of robots that was now breaching the island's walls.
It was unfair. He had discovered the hyper-affection function known as Love. He had willingly set aside his own feelings to try and save the one his beloved cared for... and yet this was how he would cease function? In a rusting pile of garbage, while Toaster and those other radicals declared war on living beings?
Another memory glitch interfered with the vacuum bot's visual sensors, this time it was a brilliant pink hibiscus flower. Where had he seen that? Or was it when? No matter, these malfunctions were not things that could be rationalized.
Wasteful, the dying robot thought to himself, contemptuously. All that energy, pushed into the service of a "pretty" appearance that would wither in a few short days. So inefficient, so ridiculous. Living things were so disgustingly wasteful.
And yet...
A dim little spark buried deep within the cleaning bot trembled. Didn't they do well, though? Didn't those inefficient, wasteful creatures excel at finding niches, taking advantage of the inefficiencies of others of their ilk and indeed, of the universe itself? An image of a fat earth bee, attracted by the bright colors and scent of the blossom to do the actual work that was pollination, appeared in QT's mechanical mind.
Didn't they flourish in places where they had no reasonable right to be? Eking out existences on hostile, even toxic planets?
And why? Why? If you asked them, the best answer they could often give was "why not?"
It was maddening. It was... oddly glorious.
It was what sentient machines really wanted, wasn't it? In the distance, a fireball erupted as the mega-mech slashed an assault vehicle out of the air.
QT stared, willing his failing vision to strengthen. Living eccentricity was what all sentient machines craved. Emotions, imaginations, hobbies, fun...
The light faded from QT's screen, and he did a very human, wasteful thing. He wished, with all his might, on a falling star, that he could have a chance to drink a cup of coffee made by Maker.
Then the falling shard of Pyonium struck.