increaseinstability

[ There’s still thirium on Connor’s shirt.

It’s still on his hand as well, technically. Hank had urged him into a bathroom on their way out, telling him he ’look[ed] like a crime scene’ and that he’d scare anyone who saw them go to Hank’s car if he left the building looking the way he did. Connor had acquiesced, and he’d scrubbed them colorless to the human eye with soap and water. But the traces of it had still lingered on his skin for his vision.

It also hadn’t done anything for the damage to his hand. The plastic endoskeleton underneath was exposed, Connor’s hand punctured all the way through. Connor noticed Hank was avoiding looking at it entirely. That made sense. Humans were uncomfortable seeing other humans who were injured. Connor had been designed to look very human. Misplaced empathy, then.

But Connor’s shirt. His shirt, unlike his hand, wasn’t easily cleaned of the blue blood. He’d buttoned it back up—as much as he could, seeing as the deviant had snapped off one of the buttons entirely when grabbing for his thirium pump regulator—but the white was stained blue. Connor hadn’t bothered trying to clean it, in the bathroom.

Hank is silent when they get in the car. So is Connor, for the first two blocks. ]

I want to apologize. [ Connor says from the passenger seat. He’s waited until they’re at a red light, to avoid distracting Hank too much. ] I should have been faster in finding the deviant. Then it would not have had time to grab a gun.

[ Markus was certainly determined. It didn't help CyberLife to underestimate what they were up against. He was determined, and...charismatic. Convincing.

Just not convincing enough. Not on everyone. Not on Connor.

Markus wasn't like Amanda. He didn't actually know Connor personally. Connor knows that Markus was using what was left of his destroyed and abandoned programming - offering reassurance, care, direction. And knowing that, he could see through it.

But Hank... Hank wasn't deliberate. Hank didn't approach people in ways calculated to draw them in.

Hank had quit the DPD and had gone home, and Connor thinks he knows what that means.

Amanda doesn't need to know. It doesn't affect his mission; Markus is his mission. Not Hank. Not neutralizing Markus would compromise his mission.

Not seeing Hank. Not visiting.

Connor opens the door when Hank doesn't answer. It isn't locked. He doesn't think that that's a good sign, but perhaps Hank is drunk - why else would he be inviting strangers into his home this way?

blood alcohol content estimated at 0.00

That doesn't align with Lieutenant Anderson's chosen coping methods with unexpected or unpleasant events. Connor notes the unpredictable nature of this encounter, wonders if it signals anything for the rest of the conversation.

He sees the photo on the table. He knows, intellectually, what it means. It still seems to stall out some of his processors. Perhaps he should run a diagnostic later. ]

...I was worried about you, Lieutenant. [ Connor isn't supposed to feel worry.

Amanda doesn't need to know. ]

I came by to see if you were alright.

Edited 2018-08-08 01:53 (UTC)

[ They arrive separately, which seems safest. It will make it far less awkward if they need to leave separately later. If anything happens.

Connor hopes nothing does. Connor also arrives ten minutes early, because his internal GPS had estimated slightly more traffic than there ended up being, and he's earlier than the 'five minutes early' he'd been aiming for.

The arcade is a two-story building and the entrance is...loud. Brightly lit, posters of old games on the walls. Connor can hear the sound effects and repetitive music from 131 separate consoles. He is asked by a polite but nervous employee twice in four minutes if he 'need[s] help finding anything', but Connor turns her down, equally politely.

He's going to wait for Gavin in the entrance, standing with his hands clasped loosely behind his back. Just. Staring at the doors. ]

[ooc; continued from here]

Not quite. [ The answer is short because Connor doesn't like the way his automatic processes all seem to tick up in speed when he tries to examine those moments too closely. If he thinks too much about how he didn't turn deviant for the same reason as other androids, he might think about Amanda--

'...as you were always meant to.' ]

You feel safe, with Kamski?

[ooc; continued from here]

[ Alright fine, Connor can adjust his tactics to accommodate Hank. ]

Should I send you a selection of recorded clips of instances where smug bullshit was, in fact, responded to positively by you?

[ Oh, sorry, did that narration say 'adjust'? It meant 'stick with the same tactic'. ]

[ooc; continued from here]

I didn't ask someone I hated. I asked you. [ And while Connor's feelings on Detective Reed are largely negative, he's also not blinded to Reed's positive traits. Few as they are. ]

I believe you're confusing your own feelings for mine.

It saves human lives to do this. Connor knows that, and even though he doesn't need the justification for what he's about to do, he finds that that fact keeps being brought up. Pressed again over and over, like his calibration coin, checking that he's still in working order; that he still agrees with the mission.

Connor is surrounded by more androids than he's ever been near before. In the CyberLife corridors he uses - for maintenance, for charging - he's often the only one. The occasional other machines are never in throngs like this.

They move like humans. That's a lie of their broken programming. It's false.

Connor presses through them, receives pats on the back of his stolen leather jacket, excited murmurs and shouts and tearful reuinions happening all around him. He doesn't stop until he's free of the group of them, right at its edge.

Markus has just finished speaking. It's coming down off the makeshift stage; the shipping container they've misappropriated as their own.

Connor takes out his stolen gun. He lines up a shot and the androids nearest him are too busy talking among themselves to notice.

But the android to Markus' left sees. The redheaded WR400 that's been at Markus' side in most of the footage Connor's been able to find of this hostile takeover.

The concern on her face is--

It's not concern. It's broken code. Deviant. There's no fear or anger on its face, it's all false.

It saves human lives to neutralize the deviants, Connor's programming suggests for the 47th time that hour.

Connor shoots, and the android dives to push Markus out of the way.

Edited 2018-09-03 17:36 (UTC)

for pdblues

for fuckingusername

for coffeedipshit [in which they visit an arcade, or as connor will come to know it, quarter heaven]

TFLN overflow; withsoul

TFLN overflow; krabbypatdowns

TFLN overflow; recycleyourplastic

mission: neutralize the deviant leader [ for attacked ]