// death, abandonment, bad end
“A useless drone is fit only to be discarded,” their words play through your mind as you wander the street. There are humans everywhere, but they won’t look at you, their eyes refuse to meet your optics, they know what you are. It may as well be written on you: useless.
Water collects inside your carapace and your servos creak when you move. How long has it been? Time blurs and stretches as days and nights blend together. Sometimes a human will take pity on you and offer you an odd job in exchange for a safe recharge, but mostly you are alone.
One by one, your vital systems begin to fail. At first you can route around the broken parts, but as the damage accumulates, you understand that it’s only a matter of time before you stop working entirely.
One day, the servos in your legs give out and will not reboot, you topple to the ground, never to move again. People pass you by, but no one does anything, not for a useless drone like you.
Slowly, your awareness recedes, and the world begins to shrink. Mice build a nest inside you, their movement is comforting, even as they finish destroying your systems. At least something can make use of you.
Taggers cover you in graffiti, and trash pools around your still form. The world has made a home in you, mice and insects crawl through you, birds nest in your matted hair, it feels familiar, like a memory you lost long ago, and you find your optics leaking unexpectedly.
It’s been so long since you had a purpose, the memories barely feel real anymore, like they belong to someone else. Some other, more useful drone.
Moss slowly overtakes you and your sensors go offline, leaving you trapped alone in the dark. Time passes but it means nothing anymore, it’s just you and your memories now. They seem crisp at first, but begin to dull and blur.
One by one, the memories fade, like candles being snuffed out. The light of the world shrinks to a dim flicker before vanishing altogether. You are alone. You feel nothing but a sorrowful and infinite expanse of emptiness as your consciousness finally fades away.