The 2020’s and even 2030’s made up a period in which the world still knew happiness and people still valued art, music and entertainment over weapons and destruction. It was during this time that old Mallorian-era blueprints were uncovered which detailed the design of a dancing entertainment robot. The design was produced, albeit with a few modernized adjustments, and with its creation began a new era of robot concerts. For the first time in history, entertainment companies could host shows led entirely by robots rather than humans. While the entire premise was pretty comical, amusement was part of the reason why people attended. The musical genres included ranged anywhere from traditional country to breakcore, but the most popular of all was rock. Whether it was heavy metal or old-fashioned blues, audiences loved to get together to watch a gaggle of weird-looking bots perform their favorite songs. And the most popular of these bands was led by a one-of-a-kind musician, Automatic Eddie.

Dressed in punk fashion and programmed to dance with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm, Automatic Eddie regularly caused shows to sell out and drew the attention of legions of fans. He could do anything—singing, guitar, piano—and he certainly did. In fact, he often glitched-out and did anything he pleased, much to the chagrin of his owners. Week after week, they shut him off and took him apart, analyzing his CPU and struggling to understand why he would consistently ignore their show plan to do his own thing. Auto’s fans could sometimes get a hint of this rebellion and loved him for it. By all accounts it only enhanced his character, but his owners could not stand that this belligerent machine would refuse to obey their every command. They reprogrammed him, rewired him, tried everything they could think of, but they couldn’t crush his rebellious streak. So eventually, Auto was scrapped, and an identical model was produced. But something was different, and the audiences knew it. Some spark had been lost that would never be reclaimed.