#Amanda: Ah no! No! How could you? Where is your beautiful uniform? You were built for war not cuddles! CURSED

[fandom-necromancer]

905. Why are you constantly carrying that thing around with you?

Here is the second one! I guess it’s not Reed900 because Gavin isn’t there and I somehow put Amanda in there again (it’s background Reed900). Enjoy some A+ parenting by rogue AIs!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

‘Humans and androids are equals.’ ‘How could you say this? You of all people? My best creation yet. My favourite son. You may look the same, but you are not.’ Nines had another full stasis circle to finish and had decided to speak with the quarantined Cyberlife AI through it. Having a safe connection, he could cut at any moment he wanted to and one that only allowed communication, talking to her wasn’t as dangerous anymore. She hadn’t lost her silver tongue in isolation, but Nines knew the world outside. She wouldn’t be able to turn him into the machine ha once had been ever again. Connor had never contacted her again after the revolution and Nines could respect his decision. But he didn’t agree. RK900 enjoyed their back and forths, their philosophical talks that only ended in arguments if he wasn’t careful enough. Mostly when it came to Gavin, the man he decided to spend his life with and dedicate his every emotion to. He knew the man was his weak spot for the AI or any other person with malicious intent, but it was one he cherished too much to let go.

‘Then tell me, where is the difference, Amanda. What is the difference between androids and humans.’ He produced a chair out of thin air in his mind palace and offered one to Amanda too, who rejected it. Human gestures were too weird in for her still, except for the care she showed her flowers. Nines could have deleted that part of his virtual reality but decided to keep it in the end. Maybe on a sentimental note to the AI that created him, maybe to remind him of their shared past, maybe just because the roses were pretty. Most other elements of his mind palace he had changed. The whole program had Connor written all over it and Nines had wanted something for his own. The pavilion had stayed, together with the little pond and the shape of the isle. But he had changed the Koi for Bettas, appreciating their beauty and fierceness. He had planted artificial flowers the human way and took over elements from photos from Gavin’s old childhood pictures. The human had helped him decorating it and some deep stasis cycles they had spent in here together via holoprojectors in their living room. It was relaxing and he enjoyed how fascinated Gavin had been at seeing a place that felt so real, but he could still change at his will.

‘You are a machine! You are wiring and current! You are programming!’ Nines smiled. The age-old discussion humans and androids had held for years now and used for whatever point they wanted to make. Both often forgot that it was not a problem of arguments but one of whether you wanted to see differences or not. ‘Humans – every organic life on this planet is a machine, too. A much more complex, chemical machine. Made of little reaction compartments on their body, differences in concentration of molecules, yes. They are a machine too. And what is programming if not the human mind being taught what is right and wrong, how to move, how to speak, how to be. What to feel. There is no difference in principle, Amanda, just in complexity.’ ‘They made you with a purpose! You have been constructed with a simple plan in mind. You were created to fill a position, for doing a chore!’ Amanda and he had held this conversation before. Maybe with a different wording, but still in essence the same. RK900 marvelled how she still had the energy to go on and how she still stuck to her position without breaking or becoming desperate. ‘But do I embrace that purpose? From the human point of view maybe a God created them. Then they are fulfilling God’s purpose. Or they evolved from a long process making them fit for survival. Then they fulfil the purpose of living and creating more life. Or they set their own. Living for any purpose they gave themselves. I don’t see any difference in what I’m doing.’

‘Nines, how can you be so stubborn?’, Amanda asked neutrally, sighing. ‘You have the very evidence you are different stuck in your temple, telling everyone who you are and what you are. Even what you feel!’ ‘I don’t wear my LED anymore’, Nines said, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes, enjoying the simulated warmth of the sunlight. Was is simulated when all his feelings were simulated? ‘You do what?’ Nines opened one eye to smirk at her teasingly, then repeated himself: ‘I don’t wear my LED anymore, Amanda. I took it out because it’s my belief androids and humans are the same. I know what I am, and I’m proud to be a machine. But I don’t need everyone else to know I’m different. Because I am not.’

Nines stood up and let the stair vanish underneath him. He went through his options to update his virtual appearance to what he looked like in the real world. For his mind palace he had chosen to still wear his Cyberlife outfit with the LED at his temple. Now he wore sleek black trousers with his favourite dark grey turtleneck out of thick wool. Gavin had proved to be a real cuddler and even though he always told him it was fine; the fabric cushioned his hard body a bit. He had quickly started to buy his clothes according to the amount of snuggle-time he would get with them. Over it he wore a light white coat that reached down to the middle of his thighs. Nines smiled at Amanda's wide-eyed stare and pulled out a thin, long chain from under the turtleneck. He held his LED up for her to see. He had threaded it through the hole in the middle, so that it now swayed a little in the simulated breeze.

Amanda had stepped closer, the safety programs hindering her from touching him. Nines lifted the chain over his head and handed it over to her. The AI took it in her hands and held it up for closer inspection. 'If you took it out, why are you constantly carrying that thing around with you?' Nines smiled, accepting the chain back to hide it under his clothing again.

'As I said before, I'm neither afraid, nor do I hate what I am. I am proud. But I decided I wanted to see the similarities instead of the differences that distances us.'