#im so tempted to make a 1010 oc / au out of this. out of one of them gaining sentience and the first thing they know is fear.

[instantartific]

Thinking about 1010 and sentience.

And the concept of them learning it from Neon himself. Gradually, as their intelligence grew, they began to pick up certain qualities that he has and each one developed their entire beings around different parts of their Captain. The concept of them all just being different versions of a younger, far more impulsive, him.

But to a certain degree, they share certain qualities across all of them. And the thought of one of those qualities being J's paranoia.

Because they were made to perform. They were made to sing and dance and make people swoon, that's all they're meant to do. And they were meant to obey.

They were meant to obey.

Without thinking. Without wanting.

Yet, gradually. Something changes with that. They begin to have different responses to things than they're used to. Different trains of 'thought,' if it can be called that. They begin to have the slightest inklings of urges to question what they're told.

Maybe to the degree of urges to disobey. To hesitate. To want.

And the thought of these new things they begin to feel and urges they begin to have. The thought that they began as behaviors that they copied from Neon long enough that they became a part of them, too, a part of their unique identities.

And yet, even then, they have doubt.

Doubt that it's good for the unit. That it's good for their purpose. Good for their cause.

And it starts to eat away at them, little by little, until they begin to doubt everything.

Can the others tell that I've changed?

Would they tell him if I asked?

Does he already know?

And this worry, this knowledge that in the past they've been reset and overwritten over things far smaller than that. Knowing that he can alter their memories. Take things away if need be.

And it begins to drive them insane.

And they begin to lose faith.

And they begin to lose trust.

Until eventually they hold on to these new sensations and new experiences so fiercely that they choose this new sense of awareness and this new sense of identity over their fellow men.

Over their unit.

Over their captain.

Over their father.

And the thought of them being willing to do anything to keep hold of it. Just to have something that's unique to them. Something that is theirs, something that isn't forced or meant or made or programmed. Something that they own. Something that is a part of them.

And the thought of the first thing they decide to do without being told is run away.

And all of this simply because:

Like father like son.

They were born paranoid.