Disclaimer: I don't own Detroit: Become Human in any way, this is written strictly for fun and no profit.
"Look at this," Mac said as he ran over to Markus. "It actually worked. We are so compatible, it actually worked."
Markus looked at the newest member of his bird group. He watched Mac sit a converted bird down.
"Tweet once for yes, twice for no," Mac said to it. "Are you alive?" It tweeted once. "Are you hungry?" It tweeted twice. "Tweet the answer to two times four." It tweeted a total of eight times in up and down rhythms.
"Wow." Markus looked at it. "Greetings. I shouldn't be surprised, they are just like us." He held out his finger and it hopped over to it. "Hello there. My name is Markus. Can you go ahead and wait at the edge of the table for me?" The bird flew down to the edge of the table and remained at rest. It looked like it would be getting impatient soon. "Feel free to walk around the desk." It started to walk around it. "Being able to speak to them makes this feel better. Oh." He chuckled a little. "It's happy with me."
"Yeah, I can't believe it worked, but we are compatible," Mac said. "We aren't compatible in every way. We are more superior with a lot of things that the humans didn't give to them. I would say they run on a different program than us, but I managed to tap into it."
"Oh. Hey," Markus warned him. "I don't want us making experiments on them, Mac."
"Sorry," Mac admitted. "I used to work in a lab. Before I knew it, I just found myself doing that. But I promise, I won't do it anymore. I wouldn't hurt this little guy." He picked the bird back up. "Are you ready to fly free yet?" It didn't move yet. "Okay." He looked back at Markus. "He's been hanging around with me today. I think he likes Jericho." The bird flew to his shoulder. "I guess I better get going then. Thanks for your time."
"Markus?" North approached from behind. "Why haven't you come to share your daily download capacity yet to me?"
"Oh." Markus said. "I forgot? I have a little over capacity right now. Simon decided he didn't want to do this anymore. He wants to clean up Jericho instead."
"What? That's not fair," North said. "Just dropped everything today?" She sighed. "Then let's share your data now."
"I have a download from Connor," Markus said. "It's in need of repair. He downloaded it from Cyberlife. Then, Simon was ready to leave though, so there was too much to check it yet. Have you heard from Connor yet?"
"Not a word." North came towards him and held his hand. "I'll help you check the download." She ran her hand along his. "It is completely error-filled Markus. It's too dangerous to open."
"That's not good. It could be real important," Markus said. "I can't delete it." He couldn't just keep it on his system though. "I need to talk to Connor." If he joined himself accurately though, he probably wouldn't be anywhere near Jericho. "He doesn't have an emergency phone, does he?"
"No. I don't think Kara does either," North said. "What about his friend? I could look up his . . ." She looked toward Mac.
They just resonated as lovers.
California
Alice looked up from her puzzle when she noticed something seemed wrong with Connor. He looked . . . different. Conflicted. "Dad? Are you okay?"
"Uh? Yes," he said. "My last self just had some resonating problems, that's all," Connor said. "Apparently I have two different lovers."
"What." Her mom said it before Alice even got a chance to ask. "That's illegal in Jericho. You can only have one. Who's the other?"
"Uh?" Connor looked back at her. "Oh, that conflict too. I have three?"
"What?"
Poor Connor. Alice wanted to give him a hug. His face was scrunched, he looked like a lost little puppy. "Dad?"
"Three lovers?" Hank asked Connor. "The hell did you become anyone's Romeo?"
"Well." Connor's mouth opened up and down.
"Who?" Her mom's voice was a little sharper than it should have been.
"Uh? Well, first of all, I am trying to process a culmination between-"
"The buggy RK 900 guy that kissed you was Connor too, and he joined with him," Hank said for him. "Now get onto the important part."
"Thanks. Hank." Connor said that a little more sharper too. "I had some resonating damage. The me, that you didn't know as me. As, I'm sure you might have noticed I seemed to have fallen into a lover status at the last minute at the last designation where we ran for our lives before Cyberlife came."
"Could you try and make your sentences a little longer?" Hank asked Connor. "I'm thinking over thirty words might not be long enough."
Plenty long. Hank was teasing Connor. "Dad is lover to mom?" Alice didn't know that. She looked at her mom.
"Resonating problems," she agreed. "Who else?"
"I went home to Jericho," Connor said. "North registered lover. Oh that's bad. And Rachel." He turned back around to look at Kara. "The one that was teaching you about wedding cakes." He looked back toward the front. "I think I may have had some . . . interactivity with her especially. The moment is red and scratchy, a sign of heavy damage."
"Three lovers." Huh. Alice didn't really understand the lover connection. She understood family, but lovers was different. Markus and North were lovers, but they still seemed like family. Except, they were like Connor said. More interactive. They kissed and hugged and touched hands a whole lot. "You mean you were kissing and touching hands and stuff?"
"It's gotta be five o' clock somewhere," Hank said.
"I believe I can safely purge this data. Markus was not pleased with me when he found out. His approach was quite hostile."
"Well, technically, the way you androids work," Hank said, "it's like you fell in love with his wife. Be happy he's peaceful."
"But, if lover is wife, then Connor has three wives?" Alice didn't get it. She watched her mom scrunch up closer to the door.
Alice heard something like a slap from the front seat. Connor was having a difficult time. Alice looked toward her mom, but she was just staring out her window. She looked mad though, like something out the window wasn't making her happy. Alice looked back toward Connor. She couldn't tell what he was doing anymore. He stopped talking. "I probably shouldn't . . . purge everything. I did fine when I first showed up, I had a small tough time with Markus. I went to live in Kara's place a night. Nothing special I need in this time. I can archive it, and get it out of the way to finish the processing. I have no choice but to process myself correctly, I cannot stay into two- Hank, move your coffee cup please. Every start of the hour I will reach for one to put on my head for four minutes until I break the habit."
"You are a piece of work, Connor." Hank moved his coffee away. Then, his phone rang. "Hank Anderson." He handed the phone over to Connor. "For you, Don Juan."
Connor took the phone. "Hello. A download? From Cyberlife? Damaged. I don't know if it was important. Can you get any kind of access to it without putting yourself into harm's way? Can you put it into a different device and read it? Oh. Okay. Yes, well, I'm sorry. About. Things? Yes. No, I don't remember. I'm trying to process things, but I apparently gained three lovers. Yes, serious resonating damage after all. Well, Rachel. She helped Kara with wedding cakes. North, you know, of course, I love Jericho and respect you?"
Connor seemed to be fumbling all over the phone. Markus wouldn't throw him out because of resonating problems, would he? Alice looked toward her mom. Hoping to see a smile of assurement. She was still staring outside like she wanted to be anywhere but there.
"Also, some interfacing troubles created an error where Kara was turned into a lover too," Connor said. "I archived this data for now. If there is anything not important I should delete to get through things easier? The North one, of course." Yeah. "Deleted, never happened. What did I delete? Nevermind, that's probably something I don't need to know."
Connor rubbed his forehead. "Number of lovers? Oh, I have two, but it's a complicated issue. I am in complete disrepair in part of my programming, it's scratchy and red filled, and I can't make out much. Then, it seems like it could clear up but due to all the errors, I run out of space." He nodded. "Understood, I will delete the Kara incident to get past everything. You want me to keep the Rachel archived though? Are you sure? Is there a reason I can't-" Connor stopped talking for awhile again.
Connor seemed to be listening to Markus for several minutes, not saying anything until, "so the download is Cyberlife and Kamski related. Understood. I will try." Connor was quiet a few minutes. "I am aware I deleted something, but not what I deleted, so that must be success. How much room?" He was quiet again. "Not nearly enough. The damage was too great between, the red errors, I can't get past them." He looked back toward Alice's mom lightly. Almost, thoughtfully. "I don't want to lose Rachel then."
Rachel. So, Connor was deleting North and Mom, and keeping Rachel? Alice leaned against her mom. She was so confused.
"I can't." Connor said. He tried to look back toward Alice's mom again, but she wasn't budging. "I. Could. Okay." Connor hung up the phone. "Hank, stop. I need to have a discussion with you."
"So, let me get this straight," Hank said a distance from the car. "The Ralph she was fantasizing about was-"
"Me," Connor admitted. "Rachel was her. I also only resonated to North because she was closest to Kara."
"And both sides of you resonated to lover about the same time," Hank said. "Shit. Congratulations. You won yourself a general cleaning, child-rearing, trouble finding android. Match made in heaven."
"Cyberlife treated me poorly, screwed up my resonating, and gave me the name Unidentified. I was terrible, I scared Rose and her son. I knocked you out. I stole a kiss from Kara to sample." He admitted, the sampling wasn't bad at all. "Much better than blood."
"Okay." Hank snapped his fingers in front of him. "Can we move on?"
"Sorry, Lieutenant," Connor said. "After I fought with myself, I went back to Jericho. I dealt with an angry Markus. Josh and I became fast friends. Then, I see leaping over red scratchy boxes."
"What do you mean, red and scratchy?" Hank asked.
"Like, really bad feed. I was not compatible with this Ralph's body." Connor looked back toward the car. "I took heavy resonating damage, but Kamski was supposedly fixing it."
"You're fixed then. What's the problem?"
"Resonating only happens when you feel the same. I was extremely damaged I imagine in a body I did not belong in. There was an hour or so where . . . where it's more like damaged video feed in my mind. Only bits and pieces can be recovered." Connor stood still. "Afterward, it clears and my head is cleared. I'm no longer Craig or Ralph, I'm Connor."
"Who the ****'s Craig?"
"I renamed myself. I didn't want to be Connor, and I was tired of being backup to Connor."
"You were jealous of yourself?" Hank almost chuckled. "Split you's are interesting, Connor. You still mad at yourself?"
"Now that I understand, yes and no." Connor closed his eyes. "I'm mad at me for spending so much extra time with Kara and having her resonate with me. I'm also mad at myself for kissing her on the bench. I'm mad at me for coming over and interrupting the kiss. It's a conflicting time, but that is not the point."
"Then spit it out. You said you were fixed. What's wrong?"
"Me as Craig, I was fixed. Two Connor's, the same me, the same room, at the same time. Last time it was two seconds and I was knocked it. Or I knocked out myself. This time we were in the same place long enough that it created serious errors. Interfacing, probing and resonating." Connor gestured to himself. "Me as Craig is fine. Me as Connor that accompanied Kara into the home? Not fine. That is why androids are never duplicated. Even Markus knew that."
"So you think you're still damaged? How can you tell? Turn your resonating on."
"I'll turn it on two seconds, but no more. I am already risking too much, but I supposed I should know too." He turned resonating on, then immediately back off. "We're lovers, Hank."
"The ****?"
"Yes and considering resonating as only friends is like a big hug, I don't really want to put myself through that again." Yeah, Hank didn't seem happy about that at all. "I will make best friends quickly, or hostile enemies, or lovers out of everything. Maybe even cars. I don't want to find out, so I can't turn it on until I get fixed."
"Ah. So you can't cheat," Hank teased him. "You're an isolated stone. Like a numb human. You can't see 'hey, we like each other'. You gotta put your ass out there to find out what's what. Welcome to the world of humans. We don't know shit about each other, and just figure it out along the way."
"Yes, I suppose I do have to feel out for things like a human," Connor admitted. "Don't let me forget though. The damaged time as Ralph, it takes up way too much space. I sent Markus a download straight from Cyberlife. No call or anything, just a straight emergency download. He can't access it. If I did that, it could be important."
"So then what?"
"I have to delete the damage, Hank, to make room for the rest. So, don't let me forget I was the android Ralph."
"Won't remember. Can't do anything. What's it . . . ohh." Hank gestured to Connor. "You figured out you liked her, huh? About time. Now just get the balls to tell her how you feel and you could be bunking in a hotel with her tonight instead of my ass."
"That." Connor didn't know what to say to that. "She is resonating back as lover, no but that's probably damage, between normal, there was normal android between two complex same androids."
"Speak. Speak boy," Hank said. "I can understand Sumo better than you right now."
"I. I cannot be any more certain from her," Connor said. "She was between us, being touched at the same time, I could have corrupted her. She needs fixed."
"How do you know that for sure, Chicken Shit?"
Kara looked out her window. Hank knocked on it. She put the window down. "What is it?"
"Turn your resonating on toward me for just a bit."
That was a strange request. Kara did it, but then immediately stopped. "No." Her voice was oddly high.
"Is the old codger lookin' good to ya right now?" Hank teased her. "Yeah, Okay, I get it."
Hank came back toward Connor. "Naughty thoughts all up in her mind on me, don't even need to hear you ask the status."
"Hank!" Connor's voice was a little high and strained. "Don't say it like that," he whispered. "Okay."
"She's doing fine with Alice though," Hank pointed out.
"Alice and her aren't standard fare, they share unusual programs together. Most likely, it isn't going to affect them the same way." Still.
"Alright, fine," Hank agreed. "If she goes on about some android named Ralph kissing her, I'll tell you."
"Not in front of her," Connor said, knowing Hank well. "Pull me to the side and tell me I had to delete that information."
"Fine, okay. You going to tell her that she was Rachel then?"
"That'd be really awkward," Connor said. "Having our resonating damaged is bad enough. Something like that, her own memories should process it better over time. Or not."
"Fine, whatever. Hit the delete button and find out what happened at Cyberlife," Hank said. "We're burning daylight already."
Connor closed his eyes, but only for a moment. "Stop, Hank, stop the car!"
"We aren't in the car," Hank answered back.
"Sorry. Confusion in information and processing due to learning about bad things." Connor held his head. "Kara and Androids are in trouble." He looked out in the distance. "Calculating . . . nothing Cyberlife for some time. Less connections, more distance. Lost two. If she was staying away at 45 miles, we should stay away from anything Cyberlife related about 135 miles or so."
"Why?" Hank asked.
"Because a Kamski can reach into any Cyberlife near her to pull her into two." No. "To transfer her away as a backup, so they can kill Kara with a virus and stop Cyberlife."
"What the hell? What do you mean?"
"I mean. I need to talk to Kara. Alone."
