Chapter 2:
A man with short red hair wearing a black apron over his suit and tie stood behind the counter of Bellini Paints, a paint shop in the middle of Detroit.
Another man came bumbling inside with his uniform. He had auburn skin, with blondish red hair trimmed to a buzz cut. What stood out the most however was his piercing light blue eyes.
"It's just about time for us to switch shifts isn't it, Antonio?"
"Already? Time sure goes by so fast. Are you still up for the party next week?"
The other man smiled.
"Sounds great."
"See you there, Markus."
"You too."
"If you need a ride, I can pick you up after work," Antonio said.
"Won't that be a little trouble."
"It's never any trouble. When do you get off of work today, Markus?"
"Well I came in at 10 and I'm supposed to work until 2."
"Then I'll see you then."
With that Antonio headed out.
Some time passed as Markus twiddled his fingers on the desk.
Two women came by later in the afternoon. One was a blonde haired woman accompanied by a brown skinned woman with short black hair pinned to her head.
"Excuse me, can I help you?"
The brown skinned woman spoke.
"I was hoping to buy a birthday present for my daughter. She's always been into painting you see. What should I buy to get started?"
"How old is she?"
"12, she's turning thirteen a couple of days from now."
"Well there's the starter set that is 12 dollars but if you want good quality paint you may have to spend more money."
"Which one would you recommend?"
Markus turned to pull a paint set from the cabinet behind him.
"This one," he said. "I used it when I was first starting out after my father recommended it to me."
"I see. Thank you. How much will that be?"
"20 dollars."
The brown skinned woman turned to the blonde haired woman who had fished something out of her pocket to place on the right side of her temple.
It was an LED. She was an android.
Markus took out an LED scanner. It was how humans made transactions with androids. The LED which was blue flickered yellow for about 10 seconds before returning back to a stable light blue color.
"Transaction complete," the blonde lady said.
"Thank you for your purchase," Markus said handing over the box to the brown skinned lady.
He looked on in envy glad that the mother would be buying her daughter such a thoughtful gift. Markus would never know how receiving a gift from his biological parents would feel like since his parents were long dead.
He would never have the privilege of relating to a parent of the same species. There was no one who could understand how it was like waking up to tears with no one supplying you comfort, no one who was there to understand about his feelings, no one who could understand what it was like to have a crush on a girl in school, no one who could understand what it was like to have that illusion crushed after meeting a boy he liked.
Instead he had Carl, an android who had adopted him while he was staying at the orphanage with his brother.
Minutes before his shift ended, a blonde haired man came bustling in.
"I'm not late, am I?"
Markus smiled.
"Don't worry you're right on time."
After the blonde had settled in, Markus addressed him.
"Can I make a bit of a last minute transaction? I reserved a paint set under the name of Carl Manfred. I would have done the transaction myself but you know the rules."
The blond took out the paint set under the counter. Markus couldn't remember a time when anybody in Detroit ever used money anymore. Androids took care of everything nowadays. The government issued one for nearly every household after the war providing all androids with the ability to complete all household transactions with a select amount of payment issued from them.
"Thank you."
With that Markus set out with the paint set in hand. He was looking forward to painting with his father today.
Antonio dropped by.
"Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah."
Markus got in the car and Antonio drove him back home. On the way, Markus saw a protest going on outside his window.
A group of people had signs held up.
'Hands off Government', 'Don't let Androids run the world' were on some of the signs.
Eventually Antonio arrived outside of a gate surrounded by brick walls that stood 3 feet from the ground.
"Don't forget next week," he said.
"I won't," Markus replied.
He walked until he reached a large drive way, it doubled as an entrance to his house. Flat trimmed hedge bushes separated the drive way from the large trees on their property.
A large red two story house stood in the distance. Markus walked until he reached the large arched wooden doors.
A scanner stood by the front door. Markus placed his hand on it.
"Alarm deactivated. Welcome home, Markus," a female voice said softly from the scanner.
The door opened welcoming Markus inside. He walked towards the back of the house setting the paint set he had received on a golden table with a mirror.
He headed to his room on the second floor to change into more casual clothes.
'Wonder where Carl is?'
The android who cared for him never seemed to sleep always up doing something productive.
'It must be apart of his programming."
After getting dressed, Markus left his room intent on finding Carl.
He glanced briefly into Carl's room in case this was one of the rare times that he was in his bedroom but the old man wasn't there.
Markus ran downstairs.
'Maybe he's in the studio.'
It was one of the only things that Carl had set up specifically for him.
He collected the paint set he had set on the mirror table before heading in the back towards the dining room.
A tablet on the table in the dining room had a newspaper article opened.
The headline read: 'Today marks the tenth annual, 'Deviant Day', a celebration of the android rebellion that happened over twelve years ago.'
Markus skimmed through the article.
'...humans and androids are getting along better than ever. Androids are now common place, providing for human beings every need.'
Had it really been twelve years since that fateful day that the army had recruited his brother for the war?
Heading past the dining room, Markus saw that someone had already opened up the studio. The warm sun was shining through the doorway lighting up the dining room.
He stepped outside spotting Carl standing in front of a large canvas painting with his paintbrushes.
"Hey Carl, I'm back," he added with determination and excitement.
Carl looked up from where he was panting spotting Markus instantly.
"Sorry, I started before you got here. I decided to do a little cheating to prepare me before we got started."
Markus walked behind him to see what he was working on.
It was a nearly exact painting of the sky.
"What do you think?" Carl asked.
"Wish I could paint that good."
"You are good."
"Is painting one of the skills Cyberlife implemented in your programming too?"
"Beats me, I don't know what skills Cyberlife gave me before they implemented all my human memories. I've never painted before in my life."
Carl walked towards the clothed table next to him looking at a painted canvas. It was a picture of Markus painted with red colors.
"Still, despite what you might think of skill, your paintings make up for it with emotion. My painting just seems lifeless compared to yours."
"You seem to know alot about painting for someone who's only painted once and was programmed to be skilled at it no less," Markus said.
"While I said that I've never painted, I remember it being a fond hobby of mine to peruse the museums when I was younger. It was why I encouraged you to continue pursuing art as a career," Carl said. "There's just something enjoyable about watching someone paint."
A young man with dark hair and dark eyes just then walked in the studio. He wore a blue coat over a black t-shirt and jeans.
"Hey."
"What's the matter, Leo? You don't look so good." Carl asked.
"Mom was sent to the hospital."
"Oh? What was wrong?" He inquired dismissively.
"Is that all you got to say?" Leo snapped.
"Your mom is always asking me for money to pay for her hospital visits. It was cold last time wasn't it?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"She's always the type to spend money aimlessly isn't she? Perhaps if she had saved the money she wouldn't be in the situation that she's in. I am not legally responsible for her or her wellbeing. She should be able to take care of herself."
"She has cancer," Leo said solemnly. "The doctor says unless she gets treatments she's going to die in days."
Markus felt concern well in his stomach.
"How much are the treatments?" he asked, feeling sympathy for his half-brother.
Leo sighed.
"The doctor says it'll cost over 2 million dollars just to give her the treatment she needs. Her insurance doesn't even come close to covering it."
Carl sighed.
"I can't afford it."
Leo snarled.
"You lie."
"Believe what you want but it won't change my answer. I'm not lending you any money."
"I hate you. Is Markus so special that you love him more than me? I always thought different but maybe our brother was right, you always loved him more than the both of us."
"That's not true."
"I only asked for you to lend me some money so I could save the only person who's loved me for most of my life."
"The answer is no."
"You don't care about anyone just Markus and his stupid paintings. You never loved me."
He looked away.
"You never loved me," he said as he walked out.
"Are you sure it's alright to leave him like that?" Markus asked.
"I'm sure with time he'll understand."
"What's there to understand? Why don't you help him? He seemed upset."
Carl sighed.
"I would, Markus. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is abandon my family like this but even with my retirement funds there is no way we'd be able to afford it."
"I know."
With a sigh, Markus continued to paint hoping to express his repressed emotions on paper. More than anything he wanted to express the pain he felt on paper. He wanted to paint all the regrets in his life, the pain in knowing that a tough skin is the only way to get by in the real world, how he regrets not being kinder because his father had wanted the best for them.
He wishes more than anything that he could help Leo somehow but he can't force Carl to give up his savings to Leo and his mother and it's painful knowing that there is nothing he could do for him.
At the corner of his eye, Markus saw the mailman come by to deliver their mail.
"Carl, I'm going to get the mail okay."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right here when you come back."
Markus headed back inside the house and walked towards the mailbox. He opened the mailbox taking the mail from inside.
A piece of paper was addressed to Markus from Elisha Kamski. There was an art gallery 3 days from today. Due to having been an old friend of his father's, Elisha had offered to host his art at the gallery ever since he was just a young boy. His son, Elijah had carried on that tradition for a time before his death.
Elisha must have been getting on in years but he still seemed to have the same passion for art as he did all those years ago.
Markus headed back inside the house heading back to the art studio.
"So what did we get for mail."
"Elisha wants me to come to the art gallery three days from now," Markus said.
Carl rolled his eyes.
"Don't you just hate social gatherings?"
"Don't be like that. It could be fun," Markus said.
"It's boring. Dressing up to impress people who can't possibly understand the underlying meanings of your artwork. Tsk, tsk, you can never come too prepared," he said.
Three days passed before Markus got ready to attend the gallery. Carl had given Markus one of his old suits specifically for the occasion.
'I'm not buying a fancy suit just to give some satisfaction to the socially elite.'
Markus sighed, rolling his eyes.
For being an android, a being programmed with no feelings, it was sometimes surprising how stubborn Carl could be. Sure he didn't know much about Carl before he was converted to an android but even being programmed with thoughts and memories from his years as a human there was just no way of giving an android the same feelings as the human counterpart.
An android shouldn't feel stubborn because an android can't possibly want things done their own way because they are never programmed to be selfish.
Carl had told him this during their first meeting all those years ago when he had signed those adoption papers.
'I may have the memories of a human but I'm still very much an android. I am still programmed to carry on a task.'
What task, Markus didn't know but Carl did many tasks in his lifetime. He cared for Markus, he cared for Leo, he cared for his brother. He made sure they were cleaned, fed and educated not out of the goodness of his heart but rather because he was an android and that's what he was programmed to do.
After putting on his outfit, Markus stepped out of his bedroom and headed downstairs.
Carl was already prepared, wearing a suit of his own.
The two headed out, walking towards the garage. Markus looked on in fascination as the garage door opened seemingly on it's own accord.
He turned towards Carl who was glancing at him with a smug smirk on his face.
"I guess seeing the garage door open like that still never ceases to amaze you."
"I still like to imagine that we have psychic powers," Markus said, smiling in Carl's direction.
The two headed in the car. Carl's car originally had been an old chevy from the 1950s given to him by his father.
Carl could never figure out why it hadn't been updated to be more like the modern cars. Nowadays, cars were fueled either electrically or by solar power. With most cars, one could use the internet, the radio and call on the LED screen programmed in the middle of the cars. All of this could be used with accurate voice activation nowadays with programmed manual options should the car not be operational. The seats in the front of modern cars also turned towards automated doors so passengers could walk out without opening them.
It's why Carl had rigged his chevy with the execution of the modern car in mind. The doors opened once they were in the car's vicinity.
Markus took the seat on the right and Carl took the seat on the left in the driver's seat before the car turned the seats around so they both were facing the front windows.
With that the two drove to the art gallery.