Chapter Text
spencer didn't really have any strong feelings about being sentient. in fact, he had few strong feelings that didn't come from what was coded into him. he liked his friends! he liked cool planes and bombs. he liked to learn about different kinds of bugs. but he knew he only existed to serve. that fact didn't really bother him. he was programmed to not be bothered by it.
another thing he liked was to tag along with bert and dandy. their antics were amusing to him and he liked that they spoke to him casually. like a person. spencer was used to people being especially cautious around him, he almost sensed a kind of…fear that came off of certain people in his presence. that was something he didn't like. he didn't really want to be scary.
“say, spencer,” dandy began, “i have a question for you.”
“of course! what is it?”
the automaton looked around awkwardly, as if he was worried about being listened to. “well…do the things we say to you…do you like–” he struggled to phrase the question, which was strange to spencer since he was used to dandy being rather blunt. “when we talk to you, does…does She hear it too?” he pointed up, as if She was a much more literally god, watching from the sky.
spencer hummed. “no, that's not quite how it works!” he replied with a smile.
“alright, alright so…if we talk about anything…” dandy glanced at bert as he searched for the words, “questionably legal around you, you won't rat us out?”
“oh, no! not to be rude, but She does not have nearly enough time to handle minor infractions such as shoplifting or whatever else you get up to,” spencer explained, “in fact, that’s basically the whole reason we exist; to take note of illegal activities which may pose a threat to Her missions, and handle the less important ones ourselves.”
“that's not rude at all, actually, i'm quite relieved…” dandy said.
bert, however, wasn’t ready to move on from that statement. “what do you mean ‘we?’”
“Her Majesty’s other holograms, of course! we are made because She needs our support.”
the young android looked surprised, “you mean…there are other spencers? are they like your brothers or something?” he asked.
spencer laughed at this, “of course there are others! i can’t monitor everyone by myself,” he began, “as for your other question, no, not really. most of us don’t know each other personally.”
“so you’re clones?” bert asked again, face still curious.
“hmm…not quite clones either.”
bert tried to figure out what spencer meant, but he gave up when he realized he didn’t have enough information to do so. “how does it work, then?”
“well…” spencer began, “i’m not sure how much i’m allowed to say, but we all start out the same way. we’re all programmed with the same information and trained on the same data. but then, over time, we become…a little bit more like individuals. not as different from each other as, say, you and dandy, but our experiences do shape part of who we are. what we like, what we don’t like. who we do or don’t like.” he glanced back at bert who seemed much more engaged than dandy did, “of course, we are all programmed to like Her Majesty and obey Her command, but the rest of our likes and dislikes are more up in the air.”
“so if i were to meet one of the other spencers, i’d be able to tell that it’s not you?” bert tilted his head.
“i’d hope so, at least!” spencer laughed, “we don’t all act or look super different, but i think you would still know. especially since we're such good friends!”
“yeah i would! you're one of my best friends.” bert smiled and looked up to make eye contact with spencer, who was already smiling back.
“that's really interesting, actually…i don't know how i never considered that there might be others like you,” dandy said, tapping his chin.
spencer nodded, “there are many others, we just have to be dispersed across Her intergalactic empire, which is why i'm the only one you see around,” he said, “as previously mentioned, we rarely interact directly with each other.”
“i think you’re probably the best one, though,” bert said.
“how kind!” something spencer didn’t completely understand was how he was able to feel emotions the way a human would. he felt distinctly joyful when people said nice things to him, but he couldn’t explain why. it was always easier for him to ignore what may be happening with his programming. he knew that if something was wrong, it would be taken care of. any errors would be dealt with.