Disclaimer: I don't own Detroit: Become Human in any way, this is written strictly for fun and no profit.
Alice climbed in the back seat with her mom. Hopefully, the day would go better. She had made Connor and her mom upset yesterday somehow. They hadn't felt any better this morning either. She didn't understand it. Connor smiled at her and seemed friendly. So did her mom. But, they weren't. They were shutting her out, like she did something wrong.
They had since yesterday, this morning while they were shopping, and still in the car.
"What the heck? Nah, out." Hank was pestering Connor.
Connor looked back toward him. "I am trying to accurately deal with new memories being uploaded, Hank."
"No way. I got my coffee, and I'm just waking up." Hank gestured him out of the passenger seat.
"Perhaps that is safer," Connor agreed. He got out and moved around the other side. "Your level of grumpiness tends to be worse after running for your life the day before."
They were on their way to somewhere else today. Alice could ask, but she still sensed so much shutting out. It didn't really matter in the end where they went, as long as they got better. The feeling though, it just continued on from yesterday. After several more hours of driving, Alice couldn't take it anymore. She needed to try something. Maybe they forgot how much she cared for them?
Maybe they didn't think she was grateful for what they were doing? Maybe Connor wasn't too happy about finding her body replacement. Maybe they were too worried about the connections to care? But, it didn't make sense. Even Hank was clearly displaying, in his grumpiest morning form, that he cared.
Her mom used to shut out her resonating to everyone, but even then, she still resonated to her. There was nothing. They were all shutting her out. Cold. She needed to work harder. Express herself. She took her mom's hand. "I love you, Mom."
Her mom looked down at her. "I love you too, Alice."
A nice smile. A return gesture. But, nothing. Cold. Alice looked toward Connor. "I love you, Dad." Had she ever even told Connor she loved him? Maybe that was his reasoning. He seemed to be surprised a moment.
"Thank you," he replied. "I love you too, Alice. Don't worry. I'm sure today will be much easier on everyone."
He was sweet. He said it back. He was even trying to comfort her. But. Still so cold. She told two people she loved them though, and she didn't want Hank to feel left out. She loved him too. Although she could feel him, it wouldn't be nice not to say it. "I love you, Hank."
Hank was silent a bit longer. " . . . Loveya too, any news today, Connor?"
That was normal for Hank. Alice expected him to say it with a redirection somewhere else. But, still? She looked toward her mom. It was getting to be too much. Why were Connor and her mom shutting her out?
"Alice?" Her mom asked. "Honey, what's wrong?"
Alice wiped her tears briefly before looking back toward her mother. "Are you mad at me?" Yes. Please just say and what it is, so she could make it better.
"No. No, of course not," her mother assured her.
No. She was lying. She felt her mom wrap her arms around her, but it wasn't true. She felt nothing. "You're mad at me. I'm sorry."
"Alice, Honey, I'm not mad at you."
"I did something wrong," Alice hugged her. "I'm sorry." Her mom tried to convince her otherwise, but she couldn't. "You and Dad are mad at me."
"Mad?" Connor replied from the back seat. "I'm not mad at you, Alice."
"You are." Alice was programmed to be very obedient, but this was getting to her. She didn't know what to do. Then, she heard her mom slightly say 'oh'.
"Resonating." Her mom pulled her closer. "We turned our resonating off, Alice, we aren't mad at you."
"Oh, I almost forgot about that," Connor said from the front seat. "Yes, Alice. Resonating and interfacing errors were terrible. We needed to turn off our resonating completely." He looked toward Hank. "It feels like a being an isolated stone, I don't know how you do it, Hank."
"I like being an isolated stone," Hank said.
"Then, can't you turn it back on?" If that was the case, why didn't they fix it? Her mom resonated back to her. She wasn't neutral anymore. That was so much better. She had believed so much that she was mad at her. Even at her worse, her mom never turned off from her.
"I can't turn on resonating yet," Connor said back to Alice. "Unfortunately, I have a lot of data to process and while driving, I can't process it safely until we come back to a complete halt. But, I still love you."
"Okay. Everybody cares about everything," Hank said. "Can we listen to the radio or something?"
At least Alice felt at peace with her mom again. She let go of her again. "I'm sorry, Hank. I didn't mean to annoy you. It's just that." Hmmm. "Resonating is like a continual hug. Even when you aren't being hugged, with those you care about, you're being hugged. The tighter the bond, the nicer the hug."
"Ah." Hank seemed interested in that. "Never knew that's what it felt like."
"It is," Connor agreed. "If you want, I could continually hug you and you would feel resonating."
"No. Don't." Hank held his hand up. "Don't you even start that carp."
"You don't want me to start fish, Hank?" Connor asked confused. "I'm driving. I am doing nothing with fish."
"Oh, nevermind." Hank flipped through the news.
News:
In recent events, in Paris a strange phenomenon, as best described to watchers, happened last night at it's newly controversial android exhibit. From multiple thick layers of glass, an android became active. Due to new laws, no living androids can be on exhibit. Under fire from several sources including the androids themselves about being on exhibit, whether 'stopped' or not, didn't help any. While the android remained for the most part calm, by the time anyone reached it, it was inactive again. It's been taken away for further examination.
"Is that interesting or is that Night of the Living Dead to you?" Hank asked.
"Creepy," Alice answered.
"An android coming back to life a short time with the right kind of shock can happen," Connor said. "Most likely the eagerness of humans missed something. It was most likely in a delayed state instead of completely stopped."
"Behind glass," Alice's mom said softly. "Behind multiple thick layers of glass and still alive. That's terrible."
"Not everyone in the world has caught up to Detroit yet," Connor answered back. "Did you want something to eat yet, Hank? All you've had so far is coffee. I don't think they have a fast food burger that is as bad for you as Chicken Feed's quite out here, but maybe we can find a suitable replacement."
Ooh. "Can I get something?" Alice asked her mom. "Do you want something?"
"Are you really going to consume food?" Connor said from the front hearing them. "Simply for taste purposes? It only comes up one way."
"It's fine," Alice said. "It doesn't taste bad. It's more perfumey coming up."
"Oh. You have your own 'eau de Alice'," Connor said. "That's terrible."
"What, like you can talk?" Hank criticised him back. "You sample blood all the time. Human and blue. Rather watch her eat a cupcake than watch you do that."
"I wonder if I'll be able to eat in my next one." Alice wondered it out loud. She hadn't spoken much about it. It was still scary to her, but the time would be getting closer. It could be any day. "I wonder if I'll still look the same."
"That doesn't matter, Alice," her mom said smiling at her. "You'll be safe."
"If you are different, just remember. It isn't the outside that counts," Connor also agreed. "Everyone will love you the same way. Right, Hank?"
"Yeah, sure," Hank said, finding more news to listen to.
News:
-and for the one who allowed itself to be touched by an expert, it has shown nothing wrong with the android. All three of the androids simply claimed they wanted to come back to their old life and willingly clean up for their owner. The owner is under investigation.
"Do androids get homesick?" Hank asked.
"I enjoyed where I had been. I am continually still there helping out," Connor said.
"I don't get homesick," Alice said. "Just for Jericho. Mom?" She looked toward her mom. "Do you?"
"Jericho's home." She didn't go much deeper than that.
Alice went to putting her puzzle together slowly. The best thing about what Connor made for her, was that she had no idea what it was going to be. There wasn't a box lid of the subject to follow. That also made it a little harder, but by following the color scheme Connor taught her, she was doing fine. The drive was nice and easy. Sometimes, Hank or Connor would have conversation, or sometimes her mom and her said something, but there was never much pressure to talk.
She looked out the window. Never knowing what would be around the corner was kind of neat. It was like all the people she loved the most were in that car, and nothing else really mattered. Not small talk, or big plans, just riding and relaxing with each other's presence. If Connor hadn't been shut off, it might have been nicer, but it was a small thing overall.
All of them together. Even Hank, with his half-funny and half-sour attitude. He always talked more robustly when she wasn't around. She'd caught him on several occasions being much more colorful, but he toned it down for her. When she was living with him and waiting for her mom and Connor to figure things out, she asked him about it one time. She found out he once had a kid, and if he heard anything bad, he'd gravitate toward it and say it over again.
It sort of made sense. He didn't want to teach her the bad things to say. But, Alice wasn't human, and she'd lived with less caring people before. She knew what to say and what not. Still. It was nice, and it helped her warm up to him. Not that he didn't speak foul. But, that he cared. And even though he didn't express his emotions the same way her mom did, or anything close to how Connor did? Every time he was saying 'darn, carp' or anything else was just how he said he loved her.
There just couldn't have been a different fourth person in that seat. Even though it was a ride that could lead to danger, and she would eventually have to face the idea of changing bodies, it was going to be something she missed later on. It'd be set very firm in her memory. She looked toward her mom who smiled back. Hank was a part of her family now. She just didn't tell Hank. Humans saw family as different things. Biological. Being raised with each other.
It couldn't be like that with androids. It was just finding the people you loved the most.
"Ralph?!"
Alice looked back up at her mom. Why did she say that? Even Hank was looking toward the back seat.
"Are you okay?" Connor asked quite confused from the front too. "Kara? Why did you yell the name Ralph?"
"Uh." Her mom kind of looked frozen. Like how she'd been when she first came back to Todd's house. Except not with a smile, but confusion on her face. "Nothin'."
"When someone says 'nothin', there's usually something there," Hank said.
"Mom?" Alice asked concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Uh. Fine. Just, some past memories, I guess, still showing up?" Her mom looked very uncertain herself about that. "Do you remember Ralph, Alice?"
Alice nodded. " We met him, right before we got chased by Dad."
"I." She looked like she wanted to ask something. "He tried to make you eat a dead burnt animal."
"What?" That caught Hank's attention. "Who is this Ralph guy?" He gestured toward Connor with his chin. "You know him?"
"I believe I met him once. He was . . ." He shook his head. "I cannot think efficiently because I already have too much going on, Hank. I know I met and talked to him briefly. He was . . . not a well kept android at the time. I can't dig for any fine details."
"He was kind of creepy, but kind of okay, but kind of creepy," Alice said. "He got mad." She looked back toward her mom. "What about him?"
"I slept beside you that night," her mom said. "All night. I left in the morning upstairs to cut my hair." She seemed to slowly be processing something. "I found the dead human in the bathtub he murdered."
"Huh?" Hank interrupted again. "Hang on, wait." He looked back toward Connor. "You went to survey the place and you missed a dead body in the bathtub?"
"There was no bathtub within the room," Connor said in his defense. "He was stressed. I remember that. I knew something was around him. I. I can't remember much more than though, Hank. Unless you want to take over driving?"
"Soon," Hank said. "I need to eat."
"Oh, that's right. Let's see." Connor looked out his window. "We aren't anywhere convenient yet to stop for your nutritional intake."
"Right, middle of nowhere," Hank said.
While the guys talked though, Alice watched her mom. "What is it?"
"At what point?" She shook her head. "I had purple on. I never wore purple." She looked back at Alice. "I never wore purple when we met him."
"No," Alice agreed. "No purple."
"Right. So. Why was I wearing purple and kissing him?"
Alice felt a small shift in the car's speed for a second. Connor seemed to have slipped to the break a second. "Are you okay, Dad?"
"Yeah, Connor," Hank said, also concerned, yet almost in a teasing manner. "You're not trying to process information behind the wheel, right? That's supposed to be dangerous."
"No. Of course I'm not processing information." Still, Connor didn't sound as happy. "Interacting in such a close way to an android who was trying to feed Alice burnt dead animal was not a beneficial use of your time."
"Did you know a better beneficial use for her?" Hank asked. "It wasn't getting chased by us."
"Oh." It's like it had slipped his mind. "We still aren't anywhere for your nutritional needs, Hank."
Alice looked back toward her mom. She still seemed really confused. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah? For the most part?" She closed her eyes briefly. "Nevermind, Alice. I must be interpreting some kind of dream."
"You mean like a fantasy?" Hank asked.
Connor stopped. "I will take back over driving when we reach a place for you to eat, while you can take over here. I have so much information overburdening my head, Hank. I can't call out to Markus, no one can reach me, I cannot turn resonating back on, and not being able to process any of it is making me feel somewhat edgy."
"Sure. That's the processing." Hank said that strangely as he opened the car door. "Alright, Connor. Deal."
Before Connor moved away though, Hank grabbed him by the arm. "One more thing though. You're normal. That other part was pretty messed up. You process all that information, and you sure it won't mess you up too?"
"Aw, Hank." Connor smiled. "Thank you for showing your concern, but I'm quite capable of handling it. If there is information that feels damaging or unbeneficial remembered, I can delete it. Otherwise, I will have a decent repair job. Also?" He patted Hank's hand. "I am both already. If there was anything dangerous or error-filled that had moved into me, I would not be functioning so well. I would have to have been taken back to Jericho for repair."
Hank let go. "Just making sure." He got out of the car. "Deletion and repairing. You gonna archive anything too?"
Connor was in the front passenger seat. "Without having the burden of driving a vehicle, I can safely make sure you feel better. You feel better?" Alice nodded. "I promise once I process this information, I can turn my resonating on." He gestured for her to come closer.
Alice smiled. She undid her seat belt and got a hug from Connor. It wasn't resonating, but it was close.
"There you go. Better better?" Connor asked.
"Better better." Alice moved back toward her spot and put her seat belt on.
"Good." Connor turned back around to face the front. "Forward, Hank."
