The story

After planning Three Lion Minds, I went back to the Hashmasks collection to see if others or other groups of them told a story. The devolution of these three robots did.

Eager Robot is ready for the 2020s, to experience and make his mark on the futuristic decade full of hope and promise. He’s practically jumping off the page.

Then the pandemic begins, people are getting sick, and while front-line medical workers respond heroically, western government leaders abandon existing pandemic response plans in favor of haphazard, short-sighted decrees. The system is broken, and the robot sees it for the first time.

Years into the decade, amidst the continuing pandemic, as well as global economic and energy turmoil, the third robot has gained a clear picture of the world he lives in. But he sees no escape from that world, so with his enlightenment comes madness.