Hi!! I really loved your BOA art and have a quick question on it! What happens when a machine needs to be decommissioned? Sorry if you already answered that though
Hello!
If a sentient machine is retired but not destroyed, it continues to stay sentient. If it is kept in storage or abandoned, it may sleep indefinitely, only waking up on direct and clear command.
If a sentient machine is destroyed, as soon as the body reaches the point of repair becoming unwanted/impossible/impossible without heavy replacement, the eyes and mouth vanish. The appearance and disappearance of a sentient machine’s face cannot be directly observed.
By detection of sophont will, the BOA may maintain the faces and dormant sentience of heavily damaged machines far past their expected survival. This is due to them still being searched for/desired for repair. Eventually, however, these, too, will dissolve back into the BOA mainframe, and the machine will be inanimate again.