#i mean even before the october revolution or the february revolution even. oh and before that revolution in 1905 lenin argued that party

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Personally, I think if you describe yourself as a socialist and also have a bust of Vladimir Lenin's head in your house, I should be allowed to smash that bust over your head with no consequences.

[dbhtychou]

Chicago: Become Human (Teaser)

Hey guys, it’s February. Here’s a little teaser of my fanfic. Still scheduled to go up on or around Valentine’s day.

Paring: Connor x OFC Summary: A damaged RK800 “Connor” model android is repaired and repurposed to work as a bodyguard for a private foundation.

**********

Chicago: Become Human

Chapter One: Connor Repurposed

October 2037 – One year and one month until the android revolution.

The RK800 model, serial number 313 248 317-48 sat in the back of the police cruiser with detached patience. Designated “Connor” by his designers, the android was at the mercy of the officers in the front seat. He went wherever they deemed to take him. Androids were not allowed to drive. They were also not permitted to carry any sort of firearm. They were allowed to work jobs and handle people's money, or look after children without human supervision. But cars and guns, the public was not ready to trust them with such things alone.

Connor had no opinion of it either way. He was not programmed to simulate opinion, only tell facts as he saw them. He was also programmed for infinite patience, which led to many, many hours sitting in the back of police cruisers, sometimes even locked inside alone. Connor had no opinion of this either.

Instead, he idled his time by rolling a quarter over his knuckles, back and forth, over and over in a perfect ripple. He had found the coin in one of the cruisers a few weeks ago and offered it to the officer on duty. The human just looked at it as if the money wasn't worth the effort to put it in his pocket and told Connor to keep it if he liked.

Connor didn't know about liking it, but he did keep it. In those quiet hours when he was forgotten in the back of the squad car, he would pull the quarter from his pocket and fiddle with it. Flipping it up in the air was the first thing he taught himself. Then it was rolling it over his knuckles from one hand to the other. Then came more complicated tricks: spinning it on his finger tips, flicking it from one hand to the other, nearly faster than the human eye could catch. He did not know why he taught himself these tricks, he just did them.

The squad car pulled into a small neighborhood. Connor noticed young children riding their bikes and trikes in the cul-de-sac where their target destination was located. Not an adult in sight—human or android. Very irresponsible, Connor observed. As the two officers in the front opened their doors, there was clear yelling coming from the house where they parked. The car doors were shut, leaving Connor alone inside. The back doors of the cruiser did not open from the inside, as that was where perpetrators were placed. Connor was used to it.

The entire purpose of the RK800 test model was to construct a perfect program that would eventually allow Cyberlife to release an enhanced android exclusively available to police departments. Something far more advanced than the regular beat cop models they already used. The main goal was to provide quick analysis to on-site crime scenes and assist in more complicated police matters. Especially those involving other androids, which, in just the few past months, was becoming an issue that had never arisen before.  When the Detroit Police Department was given the android, however, they didn't seem to know what to do with him, which was why Connor spent so much time in the car.

He expected it to be much of the same this time, until the officer on the passenger side opened the door for him.

Officer Green was his name. “There's an android on scene. We might need extra assistance.”

“That's what I'm here for,” Connor said politely. He put the coin in his pocket as he stepped out of the car and straightened his tie. It was in his coding to always look as professional as possible. Cyberlife was trying to sell a product and it was his duty to make the product always look good.

Neighbors were gathering around the yard as the homeowner, a middle-aged woman, continued to scream hysterically in the driveway. Particularly at the the individuals that sat locked in her car. She had been frantically yanking on the door handles, screaming and swearing, and beating on the windows when the officers had pulled up.

“It's about time you got here!” The homeowner then turned her rage on the officers as they arrived. “That thing could have hurt my kids by now while you took your sweet ass time!”

Neither officer looked particularly concerned with the scene. As they tried to placate the woman about their lack of punctuality, Connor scanned the car. There were three bodies inside: two human, one android. The humans were in the back seat. Both were male, twins. Likely between the ages of five and six. They looked concerned, their hearts beating a bit faster than normal.

The android sat in the front seat of the car, hands on the steering wheel. She was an RX200: a domestic model specifically programmed for housekeeping and minding younger human children. Her face also looked stressed, her LED flickering quickly between yellow and red.

“That android could have taken off with my boys and done God knows what to them!” the homeowner continued to rant. “I called the station nearly forty minutes ago!”

“Ma'am, I assure you that is not a possibility,” Connor offered before the other officers could reply. “The RX200 model is programmed to be protective of children, not to harm them. And all Cyberlife androids have a fail-safe. Their program freezes if they attempt to drive any vehicle. The time-frame of our arrival would not have mattered. The android is incapable of driving away.”

The woman looked at him as if a lamp post suddenly started talking to her. She turned back to the officers. “Get that damn thing out of my car and away from my babies!”

Assured by Connor's words, neither officer responded as urgently as the mother. “Can you tell us why the android put the kids in the car?” asked Officer Barton, the one who had driven them to the scene.

“I have no idea. It's been glitching these past few weeks. I've been meaning to take it in for maintenance, but I haven't had the money.”

“Ma'am,” Connor offered again, “if you like, I can access the car's computer and unlock the doors.”

Suddenly he was someone worth the woman's attention. “Oh, yes please! Unlock the car!”

Connor hacked into the car's system with ease, but as he ordered the machine to unlock the doors, he was blocked by another cybernetic entity. The clash of two sent a painful feedback into his processor as a female voice screamed in his head. “GET OUT!”

Connor jerked back from the assault, his systems scrambling to block out the other android.

“What's wrong?” Officer Barton asked him.

“The other android, she's communicating with me over my radio frequency.”

“Stay out! They're safe with me!” the female android yelled in his head. Her voice was strained, static, and glitchy. “These are my children! Not hers! I raised them! I fed them! I put them to bed! My children! She can't take them away from me!”

“She thinks the children are hers. That you are trying to take them away,” Connor translated for the rest of them.

“I am trying to take them away from it! It's broken!” the mother spat. “I am their mother! I carried those boys in my body! How dare that plastic piece of--”

As the woman stalked toward the car, the engine jumped to life and everyone froze.

“She can't,” Connor insisted. “Her programming will never allow her to leave the driveway.”

The car lurched back and stopped, and lurched again, as if the driver were having physical trouble pushing down the pedal.

“Shouldn't be possible,” Connor muttered to himself.

“Stop it!” the mother screamed. “Stop it from taking my babies!”

The car lurched again as it backed out of the driveway.

“No, no, no!” Officer Barton called as the android-operated vehicle plowed its back end into the police cruiser.

With a grinding of gears, the car was forced into drive, the damaged back bumper now scraping on the ground. Connor processed the car's intended pathway instantly. The android was driving blind with panic, focusing only on fleeing. It took no notice that it was now putting other children in danger. Something that none of the Cyberlife models should have been capable of doing. They were programmed to shut down instantly if they were about to act on harming any human. And yet, here was an android driving a car and careening straight for a little girl pedaling a purple plastic tricycle.

Connor sprinted into the pathway of the fleeing vehicle. As the little girl came up fast, he dove bodily into the blacktop, shoving the small body out of the way. He saw the blunt nose of the runaway vehicle careening toward him.

He was aware of physical impact, then static.

Then nothing.

**********

Model RK800 “Connor”, serial number 313 248 317-48 was aware as he was brought online. His internal clock synced with online routers to confirm it had been two months since he had been active. Immediately, a smattering of damage reports flooded in. He felt no pain, but also could not feel his left arm. It was completely torn off. The rest of his limbs he was unable to move. He wondered if that coin was still somewhere on his person.

“Well, look, I guess it does still work,” said a female voice.

There were three humans standing in front of him. The one who spoke was Amy Witman, a technician with Cyberlife. Connor recognized her from his memory banks. She had begun working with the company two models ago. Each Connor, after the body was damaged, would have all programming, memories and data downloaded into a new body and sent back out into the field. The current Connor was eighth in the line of androids sent out in the field. After being offline for so long, no doubt the ninth Connor was already back with the police department for weeks now. Perhaps even that was damaged and now the tenth was in the back of someone's squad car.

There were two other humans with Amy: a broad, tall female with sharp features and short, dark hair, and a much larger male with a short marine-style cut and various pale scars on his face. Neither of these humans were in Connor's database.

“It's pretty hashed,” said the unknown female. “Is it even worth the effort to put it back together?”

“Yeah, the Detroit PD is pretty rough with them,” Amy agreed with a bit of irritation. “Those guys don't understand how expensive these are. They'll just take them anywhere. Several have come back with bullet holes. We do have other RK800's in storage that are brand new. Maybe you should ask about getting one of those.”

The unknown male stepped closer to Connor, eyeing his form up and down. “This is the one that jumped in front of a moving vehicle to save a kid, right? This is the one I want. And since it's all chewed up, no one's going to care if we do a little customizing when we put it back together. Maybe change that innocent little baby-face, too, while we're at it.

The unknown female took her turn to get close to Connor's face. “Nah, leave it that way. He's cute. She'll like it.”

Amy stepped forward and turned the android off. And Connor ceased to exist once more.