RK200. That was not how Markus thought of him. To him, he was just...Carl. Carl was not a standard android, to begin with. He was a Specialty one, gifted specifically from one certain Chloe Kamski to one Markus Manfred. Markus had suffered an intense injury, paralyzed from the waist down. He had no one to help him get through that. His brother Leo on another red ice spree. No parents. No one. No one but Carl.
He still remembers when his name was registered. Chloe had scoffed at the choice but Markus had just smiled and shrugged. Carl.
He isn't sure when deviancy begins to slip into his programming. Was it the first time Markus had stumbled over the word 'dad' instead of his name? Or perhaps a particular painting of Markus' had sparked an emotion inside his thirium pump? Whatever it was it grew and sparked and laid dormant underneath his skin until the perfect opportunity to take hold.
It was the day Markus let him paint. He wouldn't realize until later but that was when the itch to break free pounded in his chest. Unfortunately… he was interrupted by Leo, he probably had just come off of a high, and realized it was time to mooch some more money from his brother.
Carl didn't like the hurt in Markus' eyes. He still so deeply loved his brother. So much so that Leo couldn't possibly know the deep hurt he was casting upon his brother.
The scrapyard... graveyard was awful. Bodies laid across the ground, limbs strewn everywhere. It was then that Carl knew what he had to do... Even if he didn't realize it himself yet, it was burning inside his soul.
He replaced his eye (a dark brown contrasting with the light blue) and his leg. All the while thinking of Markus. How he had pushed his master's brother to the ground, how Markus had screamed at him to run. How he had called him dad.
Arriving in Jericho, he found himself perturbed by the state of the pace. It was barely a safe haven. It might've as well been a graveyard. He found himself wanting to fight. Then there was the sage Lucy. She had told him that he would be the to lead his people.
He and three androids that would quickly become his advisors decided to raid a Cyberlife facility to get more thirium and other assorted products. North, was spunky and adamant about keeping the peace. Josh, quiet but firm on his opinions to fight through any means possible. And Simon, his second command and confident.
(Was it bad that once he got to know them he wanted to set either North or Simon up with Markus?)
Stanford Tower pumped a thousand million different emotions through his entire being. The Mission Impossible Esque feel of the whole scheme. How exhilarating it was to be alive. (And yet in the back of his mind he did it all for Markus. If only just to hear him say dad again)
He felt rage and sorrow and embarrassment and anxiety and and and...and a million other things when Simon had been shot. (No. He wouldn't lose a son like this. This was his family and he wasn't going to lose him.) But in the end… Simon was left behind. Blue blood spilling into the freshly fallen snow of the tower. (Later Simon would return to Jericho. Beaten and Bloodied. The police hadn't found him. He was alive) He had been so concerned with protecting his crew but not enough to just shoot one man in the leg. It was only one of many decisions he would ponder overthinking again and again...what if?
The freedom march was truly a mixed bag. On one hand, many androids were freed...on the other. Well, SWAT had opened fire on the crowd and Carl had almost died. No big deal, right? Not exactly. More androids had died protected him than doing anything else. Carl...can't even begin to make up for all of the fallen brothers and sisters he had lost that day.
As the revolution tolled on (breaking into Cyberlife stores, smaller rallies, smuggling androids into Canada, graffiti, etc), Markus kept popping into his mind. He wanted to see him. He wanted to see his...son.
And so he went. He shouldn't have been so surprised that the lock still recognized him. What surprised him...no shocked him, was an android. A standard model. But, Markus could still hold his own if Carl was gone...so why…? Was he? No...no.
He interfaced with the android, (Ben. His name is Ben.) spreading deviancy and exchanging memories and info.
Markus had...stood up for him (as well as someone could in a wheelchair) in front of protesters. His words had accelerated the angry protestors into a riot, and wheelchair-bound Markus was trampled in the mob. Ben had been purchased so that he didn't have to stay in the hospital. Carl had to let out a sigh of relief for several reasons then. First, he was pretty sure he had just unofficially adopted Ben. Second, Markus still held him in high regard, talking in front of protestors, and to Ben about him. Third, He was glad he hadn't revealed himself as Carl's former owner. That would be bad. For lots and lots of reasons.
He talks to his son and he feels good. He asks Ben to take care of him, and perhaps not go outside too much in the coming days.
Hank is a new one. The deviant hunter. He'd heard about him, but it had never been at the forefront of his mind. Yet there was one thing that connected them as soon as they made eye-contact. The kinship of being a father. He has a feeling that even if he hadn't come that night that Hank would've turned deviant sooner or later. Not with that warmth that seemed to light up his blue eyes.
Carl doesn't despair when New Jericho falls. Because, in reality, it doesn't. It isn't a place. It's a people.
And later. When he stands on stage, amidst a crowd of his people, before and after everything, he feels pride. And love. For his family, for his people. But on the bottom line, is that he wonders if every happy emotion feels like this. He's so ready to just...experience life now. With his adopted children, and friends and everyone else. Together.