so i might've accidentally sorta-kinda-maybe thought up a fuckign godawful excuse for an au surrounding what i might be requesting but this ? this is not our problem right now it's never seeing the light of day Anyway so like. nudging the prompt into a vaguer note:
something something potential ally for robotnik, but whether it's out of pure shyness or out of any fear of rejection or even a fucked up mishmash of both or what have you, they kind of just hide behind the visage of one of his robots (something more or less unassuming, perhaps?) that was taken and modified to be remote-controlled from a distance and possibly (likely) spoken through, acting along and talking under the guise that they're not an actual person or anything - and probably not even ending up showing theirself proper unless something happens that outright forces them to?? and oh wait fuck where has he heard that voice before. would he even immediately know or would it just click after he gets a look at the inside of the robot at some point (or if he sees them with it trying to fix it theirself in the offchance that it ends up broken in some way while it's out and about - by one of the freedom fighters or something else entirely). hell, would it even count as lying to him/would it be framed as a fucked up deception or something like that. i frankly have no idea how many different ways this could go and i keep editing and adding onto this stupid paragraph let me just press the ask button and perish o7💥💥💥
god this is a really stupid idea and i am genuinely sorry but the fact that the above is as long as it is should only tell you that i'm mentally a kitchen arsonist (and also gay. You Know Why I'm Here.)
i don't really care if this ends up a fic or just headcanons tbh this has just been sitting in my head for a while and i thought i'd throw it somewhere and see if it's actually something
it has been a week,. maybe more. god help me
this is a really cool idea!! i may draft up some stuff for it and post it separately, but i wanted to go ahead and make an initial response so that there won't be any suspense or worry!
it sorta reminds me of the proxy/remote-control mechanic that Dr. Don't (iirc) had in Prime. that's a compliment coming from me! i'm rather fond of most of the chaos council even tho it seems the majority ruling on them from other robotnik/eggman fans isn't all that positive.
that being said, given the mention of the freedom fighters, i'm assuming this is based around satAM and/or archie robotnik. (feel free to correct me, of course.) because of this, i do wanna just put it out there that there are examples of conceptually similar, live-relay, remote-control tech in satAM! idk enough about archie to say the same, but i'd imagine there are a few instances of it too.
my first example is the shriek-bot. y'know, the weird hovercraft thing with robotnik's face slapped across the windshield.
#awwww look at him in his little go-kart... HOW did this get greenlit 😭
second 'example' isn't really the same thing, but it's similar. i just wanna remind everyone that the SWATbot armor can be worn like... springlock suits or smth idk
genuinely don't ask. idk how this got greenlit either. reverse furry costume 👍 OH and i think you can get into the little round ones too if you're small enough. you can also get into the walkers! (idk if that's what they're called but here's another pic)
like i said, idk enough about archie to give specific examples, but im sure there's something there. which, maybe you don't care about any of this because i know not everyone is concerned about the feasibility of their ideas (not saying this negatively ofc, there's no "wrong" way when it comes to these things), but it's just where my brain compulsively went.
a lot of the best oc ideas tend to branch off in a ton of different directions -- it's the nature of the beast, unfortunately. but robotnik is both a very cautious and very observant man -- i think he'd probably pick up on something being different if it's a higher-ranking robot. he doesn't manage each and every badnik and base-class SWATbot, though, so there's a better chance for success/going undetected though a smaller capacity for closeness.
i think he might pick up on the different cadences of the voice first. or maybe a routine inspection shows some tampered tech? i can imagine him catching on and being immediately thrown off by the fact that whatever machine is being used as a proxy isn't being used in a way that's detrimental to the empire. he went on a rampage about a bug in a vent. imagine the rage from discovering one of his robots is basically a direct earpiece to the rebellion... except it's not? it's almost so convincing that it makes him look over it. almost.
i think that's largely how discovery would come. slowly -- starting with something small like the voice or the posture or the movements. being a scientist, he sets up 'experiments' to test his hypothesis. perhaps a few small orders that should clash with the programming. a fumble on the phonetic alphabet or a miscalculation of military time. (<- which any imposter will have to know!! the alphabet only gets used on-screen in satAM like once or twice but it's extremely common for comms in military operations. i forget which episode it's in, but there's a door that takes a phonetic code to open; also, military time is used on occasion, at least more commonly than the phonetic alphabet.)
now, obviously if you intend for your proxy character to be caught, these aren't requirements. hell, having luck on their side could be enough to avoid detection. just some food for thought while i consider what i can write with this!
(also, depending on the success of the proxy, i think robotnik would be more intrigued than infuriated. it was a lie and a betrayal, yes, but if your usefulness outweighs the required deception that the bind of anonymity demands, i can foresee him overlooking it entirely.)
