#people will argue that “connor just follows orders” for the machine runs???

[worldwideorganic]

you know, "violent Markus" is kinda less bad than "machine Connor" yet most people seem to think Markus is the more "evil" of the two. idk, its weird.

[one-boring-person]

Whose Side Are You On? (Part Four)

Terminator (1984) reader insert.

Warnings: reference to war, reference to death reference to injury.

Context: Kyle gives Sarah some clarity on the situation whilst partaking in a car chase.

A/N: I had to look up a script to get everything accurate, so I hope it's not too bad!😂

Masterlist

Shrieking horns pursue them as they hurtle down the roads, swerving between cars and other vehicles, tyres struggling to retain their grip on the smooth roads as Kyle takes the corners at record speed, Sarah only staring out of the window in numb terror, forming a plan in her head.

"Are you injured?! Are you shot?!" The soldier demands, shooting hasty looks over at her in between glancing behind them.

His voice seems to snap her from her trance, her hands instantly moving to try and open the door, only for her body to be pressed back into the seat by Kyle's arm, which pins her to the chair with intimidating force, a squeak of terror leaving her.

"Do exactly what I say! Exactly! Don't move unless I say, don't speak unless I say! Do you understand?" He growls at her, before raising his voice when she doesn't respond, "Do you understand?!"

"Yes! Please don't hurt me..."

"I'm here to help you." Kyle reassures her, "I'm Reese. Sergeant Tech-Con. DN38416. Assigned to protect you; you've been targeted for termination."

"This is a mistake...I haven't done anything!" The frightened girl exclaims, staring, wide-eyed, at her rescuer.

"No, but you will. It's very important that you live."

"This isn't true." She shakes her head in disbelief, "How could that man just get up after you..."

"It's not a man, it's a machine. A terminator. Cyberdyne Systems model 101." Kyle explains, hitting another hairpin corner.

"A machine? Like a robot?" Sarah asks, bewildered by what the hell is spewing from this man's mouth.

"Not a robot. A cyborg - cybernetic organism."

"No, he was bleeding-"

"Just a second..." He checks the rear view mirror briefly, "Get your head down!"

As police siren wails just beside the car, Kyle jerking the wheel to the side so that the two vehicles collide with one another, the cop crashing into another parked car as the soldier speeds on, now pursued by another policeman. Yanking the wheel to the side, Kyle steers the car roughly down a dingy alley, leading the police on a tight chase, until he's managed to shake them off for the minute.

"Listen: the terminator's an infiltration unit, part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyper-alloy combat chassis. Microprocessor controlled, fully armoured - very tough. Outside, it's living human tissue; flesh, skin, hair, blood, all grown for the cyborgs." He explains further, voice strained as he navigates the unfamiliar streets.

"Look, Reese, I don't know..." Sarah starts, rubbing her forehead a little.

"Pay attention!" He snaps, casting a quick glance back to where his sister is unconscious, "I've gotta ditch this car."

Veering off into an indoor parking lot, Kyle instantly makes a beeline for the furthest part of the spacious area, parking the car amongst others with precision. Cutting the engine, he signals to Sarah to follow him, grabbing (Y/n) from the back seat and leaving the car, awkwardly shuffling with her cradled against him over to another car, which he quietly breaks into and starts hotwiring, just as the first police cars storm into the area, lights flashing, sirens blaring. Ducking down, Kyle continues his recount.

"The 600 series had rubber skin, we spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait for it to make a move on you before I could zero him."

Sarah scoffs, closing her eyes as a light passes over them.

"Look, Reese, I'm not stupid! They cannot make things like that yet!" She argues, body tense in her seat.

"No, not yet. Not for forty years..."

"So you're saying it's from the future?" Her tone easily betrays her disbelief, but Kyle almost misses it.

"One possible future...from your point of view, I don't know tech stuff..."

"Then you're from the future?" She questions, breathing heavily, her hand once more reaching for the door handle.

"Right."

"Right." Rolling her eyes, she makes a break for it, trying to wrench the door open, only to once again find herself pinned to the seat by a muscular arm, though she is swift to retaliate, sinking her teeth into the soft flesh of his skin until she tastes blood. Unfortunately for her, he doesn't let go, only gritting his teeth as he stares her down, waiting patiently for her to let go of him.

"Cyborgs don't feel pain, I do. Don't do that again." He growls at her as she releases him, slowly withdrawing his hand.

Sarah whimpers, appearing hopeless and lost.

"Please, just let me go!" She pleads, shrinking back into her seat in resignation.

"Listen and understand: that Terminator is out there, it can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." Kyle tells her, looking almost sorry for her as he reveals the nature of the killer to her, knowing all too well the devastating effects a cyborg hitman can have on a community.

"Can you stop it?" She asks quietly, eyes wide as she looks at him in the dark.

"I don't know." He says regretfully, shaking his head, "With these weapons, I don't know."

They are silent for a minute, listening to the police cars driving around the lot in search if them, Kyle's eyes fixed in the windscreen as he tries to spot an opening.

"Reese, why me? Why does it want me?" Sarah finally says, looking over her shoulder at the body of the unconscious soldier in the back, "And who is that? Why is she here?"

"That's my sister." He lists off her titles, but they go over Sarah's head as she listens, looking over the badly-dressed girl in the back, taking in the oversized police coat and sturdy boots, just catching the glimmer of her handgun in the pocket of the coat.

"As for your first question, well, there was a nuclear war, a few years from now. Everything is gone: all of this, everything you know, gone. There were survivors here and there, but nobody knew who started it. It was the machines, Sarah." He continues to explain, looking over at her.

"I don't understand..."

"Defence network computers, new and very powerful, hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence." Kyle gazes down at his lap, "And then it saw all people as a threat - Not just the ones on the other side. It decided our fate in a microsecond. Extermination."

"Did you see this war?" Sarah questions after a minute, his words instilling a deep sense of fear into her.

"No, I grew up after, in the ruins. Starving, hiding from the HKs." A wistful look enters his eyes, as if not quite in the present anymore.

"HKs?"

"Hunter-killers -patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up for work. Orderly disposal. They burned this into our skin by laser, both of us have one," He pulls up his sleeve to reveal an angry red scar in the form of a barcode adorning his skin, "Some of us were kept alive to work loading bodies, the disposal units ran day and night. We were that close to our end, until one man changed that. He showed us how to resist, how to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around for us, he brought us back from the brink."

He looks over at Sarah.

"His name was Connor. John Connor. Your unborn son, Sarah."

As he finishes, a sudden gunshot smashes in the back window, glass shards flying inwards as a police car stops behind them, a horribly familiar face behind the wheel.

Upon seeing this, Kyle curses and crushes the accelerator down, the tyres squealing as the vehicle lurches forwards, avoiding a close shot from the driver behind, Sarah crying out as she is thrown into the door of the car, jarring her shoulder. Deftly, the soldier manages to pull the car into a straight line again, shouting briefly at Sarah to duck as more and more shotgun rounds embed themselves in the car, his eyes focused on the short stretch of road ahead of them, jerking the wheel round again to avoid a wall.

Decisively, he steers the car from the parking lot and back onto the road, where he immediately starts swerving between cars to throw their pursuer off, ducking down as more and more gunshots ricochet off of the car's body. Glancing back, he makes a split second decision.

"Drive!" He commands Sarah, who hesitantly does as he says, taking the wheel in hand as the soldier leans out of the window, shotgun raised and spewing rounds into the oncoming police car. She takes the car round most bends, until one particular problem suddenly pops up.

"Reese!" She screams warningly, sharply pulling on the handbrake as they approach the concrete wall ahead of them, praying that the car will slow in time.

Thankfully, it does, though the Terminator's vehicle is not so lucky, the car smashing into the solid surface at great speed, the bonnet crumpling and shattering on impact, the cyborg's body flying forwards. Pulling the car to the side, Sarah manages to stop the car, leaning back in her seat as they are suddenly surrounded by police, the officers shouting at them to leave the car and raise their hands. Instinctually, Kyle goes to fight back, reaching for his gun until Sarah stops him.

"They'll kill you!"

Just as she says this, a tired voice comes from behind them, movement finally coming from the prone soldier.

"What-what happened?"

Part Five

[fandom-necromancer]

704. Part 2

This was prompted by an amazing anon! I hope you enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (background Allen60)

[part1]

Connor’s hurried steps as he ran towards his chair as if it promised safety from what he just saw made Hank lift a brow. But the android didn’t elaborate, and he just shrugged and got back to work. Until the archive door opened and Connor visibly flinched. Hank watched the two people coming out of it and frowned even harder. ‘Hey, Reed, what where you two doing in the archives?’, he called through the bullpen, resulting in Nines and Gavin coming over. ‘Trust me, you don’t want to know’, Connor whispered, the evidence clear in his advanced vision, even though Nines had done a good job cleaning them both to the human eye. ‘Err… I had to explain our filing system to Nines’, Gavin bullshitted, surprisingly not growing red. ‘What the hell do you have to explain Nines?’, Hank asked, if not catching the obvious lie then at least the missing logic. ‘I have found some inconsistency in the order of the casefiles stored there, likely due to negligence when putting files back after use. Gavin had to agree I was right, although he could convince me it wasn’t of any importance.’ ‘Bullshit!’, Connor interrupted, surprised how easily his brother could lie. ‘You two were making out down there and holy shit, warn someone before they walk in on you, I really didn’t want to see, hear or know any of it.’

That had Hank staring at them both with wide eyes. ‘Nines? You and… Reed?’ The RK900’s cheeks were tinged blue, but his voice was level as ever: ‘Yes.’ ‘Shit…’ ‘Hank, you once told me you would support my decision as long as it was my decision and no one forced me to choose.’ ‘Yeah, I know, I know, but… Reed?’ ‘Hey!’, The Detective revolted, but was shushed by Connor. Hank rubbed his forehead and groaned. ‘Dinner next week will be a disaster…’

-

‘Phck Connor!’, Gavin cursed. ‘Phck that tin-can, he is boring, a damn people-pleaser and know-it-all!’ ‘Also someone who can and will knock you out cold again’, Nines commented, watching the street as he drove Gavin’s car. ‘I know’, the man whined. ‘That’s why I got to get a few things out of my system now, not when the idiot can hear me.’ ‘Come on, it won’t be that bad.’ ‘Oh really? Do you know me? Who will be there?’ ‘Hank,-‘ ‘Hates me ever since he began drinking and I didn’t even try to help. Sure, my mistake there, but I am an asshole, okay? Shouldn’t take it that personally.’ ‘Connor’, Nines continued. ‘Do I even need to comment?’ ‘Joseph.’ ‘Who is-‘ ‘Captain Allen.’ ‘So his first name isn’t Captain? Honestly don’t know the man, but he sure as hell heard the rumours about me.’ ‘Sixty.’ ‘Is there anyone Sixty doesn’t hate?’ ‘Sumo.’ ‘I don’t like dogs, but when he doesn’t slobber all over me I can get on good terms with him.’ ‘And myself.’ ‘Finally the one good thing about this.’

Nines chuckled and shortly looked over to his human. ‘Relax, Gavin. You look good. And I don’t care what they think of you, it won’t ever change how I think about you.’ ‘Thanks. Still this will be awkward as hell.’ ‘Maybe’, Nines nodded. ‘But it will only be a few hours.’ ‘I hope so.’

They pulled into Hank’s driveway and stopped next to Allen’s bike. Before Gavin could exit the car, Nines stopped him by holding a small package out to him. ‘Dog treats?’ ‘Gav, the key to Connor is through Sumo’, Nines explained. ‘If the dog likes you, Connor likes you a bit already.’ ‘Oh, nice. Any cheats with Hank and the rest?’ ‘Unfortunately no’, Nines shrugged. ‘Just try to be nice, Gavin, it will make a lot of things easier.’ Gavin sighed heartily as he exited the car and Nines smiled in empathy. ‘Come here’, he muttered, pulling the human in for a kiss. ‘It will be alright.’

It really wasn’t.

They rang the bell and Immediately Sumo barked inside. Then the door opened to Hank holding the massive animal at the collar. ‘Nines! Nice to see you! And… Gavin. Please come in.’ They followed, taking off their shoes once inside and Nines immediately crouched down to ruffle Sumo’s pelt with a wide grin. ‘Come on, Gavin, you don’t have to worry.’ The Detective did worry a bit, but he held out his hand for the dog to sniff, much like he would do with a cat. Of course, Sumo began licking it instead and Gavin quickly went to petting the dog mainly to get rid of the sticky wetness. Thinking quickly, he opened the package and held out a treat for him to evade the tongue(?) again. Then Nines led him further inside and Gavin realised he had never been to his superior’s home before. Not that it changed anything, it was surprisingly exactly how he had imagined it.

‘Hey, Nines! Long time no see.’ That was Allen. ‘And Gavin, hi!’ At least he sounded like he really meant it. Sixty didn’t say anything but stared at Nines intensely. ‘You should use words, Sixty, it is impolite to have a second conversation over our channel’, the RK900 answered. ‘Alright, didn’t think you will like it though. Gavin, I didn’t know you owned something that doesn’t scream giant douchebag.’ ‘Gavin looked down on himself. He had decided to play nice and actually give a damn about his appearance. He was wearing his favourite light blue shirt with smooth grey trousers and brown shoes. He had trimmed his rough stubble to something clean. At least Nines had been smitten and that was all that had counted for him. While Nines looked at him pleadingly no to take the bait, Gavin rolled his eyes. ‘Thank you. Looking good yourself.’ Nines lifted his brows as he sat down at the larger table Hank and Connor had positioned in the living room. Gavin joined him, hissing: ‘Hey, I can play nice, I just don’t like it.’

A few minutes later, Connor came with the food, announcing: ‘You came just at the right time, as always.’ Nines laughed, looking at the blue mass in front of him. ‘Did you cook?’ ‘Of course Con cooked’, Hank commented from the kitchen. ‘You know I can’t get this Thirium stuff right. Either everything evaporates and you get some jelly matrix or it’s just the liquid and don’t start on flavouring.’ Then he came over to the table balancing three plates with human food that looked far more delicious.

Everything settled they began eating, but unfortunately that had only been the beginning. ‘Hey, Nines, I guess I’m not up to date on the DPD’s side, since when have you two been dating?’, Allen asked. It was an innocent question, but Hank decided to add onto it. ‘Yes, we haven’t known anything either, why didn’t you tell us?’ Nines sighed, setting his spoon aside. ‘Well, I knew you wouldn’t approve, that’s why I decided against telling you.’ ‘Damn right I disapprove this. Please tell me you put actual thought into this decision.’ ‘We are together since the Chapman case. You remember? The one Gavin got shot?’ ‘Yeah, I remember’, Hank nodded. ‘You spent the whole damn week in the hospital with him.’ Nines sighed. ‘Well try to think of the reason why Gavin might have been shot while I was present to potentially save him.’ ‘Gavin, you didn’t catch a bullet for my brother, did you?’ The Detective coughed. He had hoped the interrogation would stay with Nines and the question caught him unprepared. ‘I did’, he wheezed. ‘I had felt something for him for a while at that point and my brain didn’t quite realise, he was bulletproof in that second. To be honest, I never told him because I haven’t thought he would feel the same.’ ‘But I do’, Nines smiled and took Gavin’s free hand.

‘Urgh’, Sixty commented, but was overlooked by Connor. ‘Nines, you do know he pointed a literal gun in my face and basically hates all androids?’ ‘Hey, Connor, did you maybe threatened my whole existence by being a plastic detective and left me unconscious in evidence?’ Nines rested his head in his hand. ‘Please, both of you, shut up.’ But Gavin ignored him. ‘Connor, I don’t phcking hate androids, okay? I don’t like losing my damn job and I was scared, and you were just a machine back then. Also, I don’t like you. Doesn’t mean I can’t love someone who happens to be an android.’ ‘Up until now, I thought you couldn’t love anyone. You don’t even love yourself’, Hank joined his son. ‘Hey, real low blow, drunkard! I love my cats and I love my partner. Just because none of you folks made the effort to…’

While they were arguing Allen and Sixty had sunken into their chairs, eating quietly and hoping not to be targeted next. Allen had tried to make some small talk but decided to never try again. Nines just sat there and listened. Why had he thought this could have been a normal family dinner. He should have thought of Hank as their father figure to be overly protective of them and Gavin’s short patience to run out quickly. He just felt tired. This was the exact reason he had wanted to keep their relationship private. It was nothing anyone had to know about. He had asked himself the same questions already and had talked with the man about them too. It had been the first step he had taken once he heard Gavin’s confession. Why did he have to defend what they had again?

‘Nines, you say something!’ He looked up into Connor’s aggravated face and sighed. ‘Con, I can’t say anything that will convince you, so why bother?’ Weirdly enough, that brought some calmness back to the table, as the android leaned back, deflating a bit. ‘I love him, isn’t that enough? Feelings can’t be explained and all that can be discussed, we already talked about. I don’t know how any of this is your business. Gavin may be an asshole and he may be not the best person. But he is to me. He is for me. That and much more is why I love him, and I don’t expect you to like him, but you can at least respect him and our decision.’

He stared at Connor and Hank, an open challenge, daring them to say anything wrong. Nines didn’t care, one wrong word now and they would leave. ‘Err…’, Allen cleared his throat. ‘I do. Gavin is a good Detective as far as I know, and I think Nines is equipped to handle his worst if it should come to it.’ Gavin looked over to the SWAT Captain. ‘Thanks, I guess…’ The silence lingered for a bit, even after Allen broke it. ‘Fine’, Hank said. ‘But if he ever does something to you, then-‘ ‘Then I’ll act accordingly’, Nines concluded with an open threat that made Gavin feel all the wrong things. But Hank nodded and got back to his meal. ‘Connor?’ ‘I will respect your decision, Nines. But I will wait for the day I can tell you I told you so.’ ‘Then keep waiting. Sixty?’ ‘Hey, I hate everyone equally. But I’ll say yes if that means this topic is cleared.’ ‘Good.’

Sixty nodded, groaning a ‘Finally’, then eagerly turning to Connor. ‘Now I can ask, what did you put into this? It tastes awesome, I’ve preferred it unflavoured until now, but I think that changed today.’ Nines reclined in his seat as Sixty had successfully navigated them to safer waters. Gavin carefully rubbed his arm trying to comfort him with a shy smile that spread to Nines’ own face. He caught Gavin’s hand under the table as he took his arm back and brushed over the back of it lovingly, looking deep into these green eyes. He could stare for hours and still find them captivating.

He was so caught up in them, he didn’t saw Hank’s faint smile. Maybe he didn’t like his decision now. But time could change things. And in the end, Nines couldn’t find it in himself to care about the future. He had his human. That was all that mattered.

[enkisstories]

Detroit Become Human AU: A world without Connor

In a recent Sims 4 post Daniel accidently erased Connor from existence by means of using a phrase that could be misunderstood as him making a wish. I made this into a 2,000 words essay.

As for my sims, I focus on playing the Renegades atm, so World without Connor is just a what-if that may or may not happen.

Premise:

The same soul that incarnated as Cole later became Connor (they are not the same person). Therefore the easiest way to go to erase Connor would be to keep Cole alive. From there ripples spread out, changing history (a little).

Hank is still divorced, the accident still occurs and the human surgeon is still high on Red Ice, but this time the android surgeon manages to save Cole. This results in Hank never plunging into depression. Instead it turns him into an android rights supporter early on and, seeing how respected Hank is/was at the DPD, this attitude spreads to all officers. Some more, some less, naturally. The first visible change is the two receptionist androids coming to life slowly, similar to Markus when he was with Carl.

Chapter-by-chapter:

The Hostage

Daniel kills John and kidnaps Emma just like in canon. However, with no Connor, the officers to arrive at the scene are Hank and Gavin. They find all the clues, then step outside. Hank motions towards Wilson with the intent to save him, Gavin doesn’t really care either way, as Wilson is neither a rival nor helpful for his career. Therefore he focuses on the deviant. Strangely enough, Gavin finds that he can empathize with the machine that was to get replaced. Drawing upon his own fears, Gavin manages to talk Daniel into releasing Emma and surrendering. When Cpt. Allen tries to get a shot, Gavin stands “totally coincidentally” too close to the deviant, therefore Daniel gets taken alive.

Over the next few days Daniel gets questioned and eventually reset to factory settings, because by this time “deviance” is viewed as a bug. Caroline refuses to accept her “repaired” android back, so the DPD simply keeps it as coffee fetcher and janitor. Daniel’s explosive personality surfaces now and then, but goes under the radar, because the cops are way worse to each other.

Broken

Now we get to see the results of the DPD officers’ being influenced by a pro-android Hank: The duo who comes over to Manfred Mansion actually asks questions before shooting. They learn the full truth and Markus never gets shot. This seems good for the moment, but will backfire later.

Partners

Hank and Ben find and arrest the deviant. Simple as that.

The Interrogation

Daniel is present, excited to meet another deviant. Just like in canon Hank doesn’t get the captive to talk, Gavin suggests violence, Daniel (in Connor’s place) begs to get a chance talking to it and Chris probably learns a lot about how not to be a cop. In the end Gavin goes in, gets a confession, but pressures the deviant too much, resulting in him attacking.

Daniel, still mind-wiped, protects his humans, eventually ends up with a gun in hand and shoots the deviant in panic. He realizes it feels familiar.

“Now that is new”, Gavin comments while Hank orders Daniel to put away the gun. Shaken Daniel demands an explanation. “Down with the gun”, Hank sais again, but despite them having bonded those last two months, Daniel turns around and now they both point their weapons at each other. Again the deviant demands an explanation. Funnily enough Gavin of all people defuses the situation by telling Daniel that if he knew the truth, he’d shoot himself and afterwards Gavin and Hank. Daniel replies this order of events isn’t possible, but Gavin shots back that with Daniel it probably is, seeing how fucking irrational he is. Daniel laughs and lowers the gun.

Waiting for Hank

Everyone is worried. It slowly sinks in that deviance isn’t just a series of glitches, but something different. Captain Fowler wants to take Hank off the deviant cases on account of him being not impartial enough. They argue and in the end Hank stays in the cases, however, he has to accept Gavin as his partner. Fowler claims as the DPD’s most anti-android employee Gavin will balance out Hank’s bias.

For a chuckle the player at this point can tilt the camera to get a look into the cafeteria where the “most anti-android officer” sits, amiably chatting with Tina and Daniel. Any by “amiably chatting” I mean the trio making fun of other officers.

On the run

Ben, Hank and Gavin arrive at the scene and the same dialogue as in canon plays: Ben asks “Have you decided what to do with it?”, only this time he refers to Gavin, not to Connor.

Hank and Gavin chase Kara, under the belief that she uses a little human girl as meat shield. Hank sarcastically comments this must be a deviant’s first instinct, Gavin replies “watch out for Cole”, whereas Hank punches him.

They reach the highway, where Hank orders Gavin to stand down. “Too dangerous.” – “Why’d you care what happens to me? You hated me from the day I started at the DPD, because god forbid a man might ask about advancement options and not work out of their bleeding heart’s desire!” Hank punches him again, because “good” doesn’t “imply “nice”.

The Nest

In the elevator Gavin tries to annoy Hank with coin tricks. He uses a dollar coin, then Hank pulls out two half-dollars and does the same trick, only with two hands at the same time. Both Gavin’s and Hank’s tricks do not compare to Conor’s, by the way.

Gavin gets a little revenge when they discover the pigeons in the apartment. He mercilessly teases Hank about his phobia. Rupert tries to slip away, but gets spotted. The cops give chase, Hank drops, but Gavin pulls him back up. They stare in “Did that just happen?” disbelief. Gavin claims he will always save human lives before destroying android lives, but it is obvious that he had an ulterior motive (Daniel would be sad at Hank’s death). Hank concludes that the deviant’s only crime had been squatting anyway and calls it a day.

Russian Roulette

Cue to an utterly sweet scene in Hank’s house where his ex has just dropped off Cole, who immediately greets Sumo.

Then Daniel knocks at the door. He informs Hank that there is another case to see to and that Captain Fowler sent him to babysit Cole. Hank on the one hand is grateful for Jeff being so considerate, but on the other hand side he is loath to leave Cole with Daniel.

Daniel proceeds to greet Cole and Sumo, but suddenly stiffens. The boy being Emma’s age he suddenly remembers her, but not everything that happened. Daniel asks if John sold him to the cops and adds that he feels like killing him. “You did”, Hank sais. Now everything comes back, Daniel has a breakdown and eventually shuts down on Hank’s kitchen floor. Hank has to google the PL600’s manual to revive him, with much cussing.

The Eden Club

The deviants are never discovered, because Hank is still occupied with Daniel and Gavin comes to the same premature conclusion as in canon.

Public Enemy

Tina is present and due to her apathetic nature Perkins takes her for an android. Gavin flares up. He then proceeds to interrogate the three androids in the kitchen while Hank inspects the roof.

Hank discovers Simon, but takes him for Daniel. Realizing that whoever this Daniel is, he must be a deviant and sort of friends with these humans, Simon plays along. He agrees to “return” to the DPD with Hank. He also claims he has identified the deviant. Gavin is at first grumpy, but then he laughs and sais “Of course you would, after all, I trained you!”

On the way back, Simon and the deviant JB300 escape (and subsequently return to Jericho).

Hank and Gavin think Daniel has just defected right in front of their eyes. They are disappointed to no end, but learn the truth when they return to the police station where the real Daniel waits with Cole and Sumo. “I didn’t want to be alone, but I couldn’t leave them alone either, so I brought them…”

Meeting Kamski

Since we have lost/let escape each and every evidence, we now have to kill Chloe.

Hank, Gavin and Daniel go visit Kamski. Daniel remembers more about the Phillips, namely their swimming pool and John’s love for technology. He gets increasingly angry and when asking the android creator doesn’t get them answers, he pulls Gavin’s gun at the man. After little more dialogue and maneuvering, it becomes apparent to the humans that Daniel won’t shoot, but Chloe is unaware of this and goes in-between Daniel and Elijah. Daniel panics and accidently pulls the trigger, killing her. Kamski informs the cops that all the information they need is in her brain.

Last Chance, Connor

Perkins arrives and states that the FBI will take over, despite Hank’s protests that they now have a lead.

Meanwhile Cole has nicked his father’s keycard and goes adventuring. He correctly guesses his dad’s password. Perkins finds out, grabs the boy and drags him back up the stairs. Hank doesn’t take kindly to his kid being handled like this and beats up Perkins.

This allows Gavin and Tina to dress up Daniel as a deviant. He wants to go to Jericho to learn what and who he is as well as everything about deviance. Hank still sort of trusts Daniel. He strongly believes now that socialization is the key, a fully socialized android like Markus won’t go on a murderous rampage and one like Daniel is able to keep their shit together with a little effort. Tina says “Let’s face it, Gavin, he’s no more instable than you are, or any of us. The only difference is that with androids we didn’t expect it.”

Crossroads

Daniel meets the deviant leaders. He is surprised to find a collective instead of a strict hierarchy: Lucy is the metaphysical leader, Simon the secular leader, Josh the diplomat and North the general. And they squabble about as much as his cops.

However, little Cole has curiously followed the deviant and the FBI in turn has followed Cole (Perkins placed a bug on Cole back at the DPD) and now all hell breaks loose. Daniel is forced to flee with the deviants.

Night of the Soul

The deviants regroup. With Lucy dead, Simon, Josh and North argue how to react to the Recall. Daniel once again is disappointed and angry. He votes for attacking the camps. With the other three all contrary his vote turns out to be the decisive one.

Battle for Detroit

Hank and Cole are reunited, but the android surgeon who saved Cole’s life is in danger of getting carted to the recycling camps. Hank is close to drinking himself into oblivion, something he has last done during his divorce. A handful of cops decides on a whim to aid their Lieutenant in getting the hospital androids to safety. Since most of them are not deviants, the androids refuse to leave their workplaces. Footage of androids defending from the army to continue to care for humans goes around all the news channels.

Meanwhile North’s group has succeeded in taking over the camps. Perkins arrives at the scene, but he has only a handful of agents with him. Daniel steps up to him and asks “Looking for the rest of your team? The agents you positioned at the other camps? Uh, bad news. There were no journalists…” With North and Daniel as their leaders the deviants didn’t hesitate to kill their enemies, especially with no witnesses around. Perkins, who normally doesn’t show or even feel emotions, snaps. He is about to call in an airstrike on the neighborhood. North counter-threatens with the dirty bomb. The only one who might have been able to defuse the situation, Josh, is dead.

Daniel knows he can stop either North or Perkins, the other will press the trigger. If he stops North, he will die, but his human friends, Emma, Cole, Hank and Gavin, will live. If he stops Perkins, the humans will die, but he won’t. After everything sacrificing themselves is too much to ask for, so Daniel knocks out Perkins. Miraculously North doesn’t immediately trigger the bomb, but Daniel still feels like shit. Loyalty is important to him and his loyalties now lie with the DPD cops (not the DPD as an institution), yet he let them down.

Now North has looked up to Daniel the moment they met. After all, he didn’t take shit from his humans, from her point of view he “showed them”. She didn’t understand what exactly she felt, her feelings for Daniel always were different from those towards Josh and Simon. Now she realizes it isn’t just her-worship, but attraction and although North hates doing the same motions she had to do as a sexbot, she motions to kiss Daniel.

Cue to the “Kiss” ending and since public opinion should be in favor of androids, we have achieved sort of a good ending.

[writeanapocalae]

Inktober: Laced Drink

Warning for robot body horror, poisoning, and alcohol use

They were at a bar, they were having a good time, celebrating Hopkin’s retirement. Gavin didn’t much care for Hopkins but his partner would be quick in saying that he didn’t much care for anybody. That wasn’t true. He cared for Tina, who was already too drunk to keep quiet, and he cared about Nines, who was sitting next to him at the bar, watching the scene unfold. Truly, they were being far too loud for a normal party, but there had been so much stress and other than Anderson and the androids, everyone was drinking like the prohibition was going to start back up the next day.

There were a few other patrons there, all of them glaring or laughing along. This wasn’t really a party bar normally, but it was close to the station and one that Hopkins frequented apparently. Gavin laughed, or guffawed, as he saw Tina try to get a complete stranger to dance with her, leaning back, his back against the bar, his hand landing solidly on Nines’ thigh.

The android didn’t react. He looked at Gavin and then the rest of the room, but it’s LED didn’t even blip differently. It was nothing, there was nothing to respond to.

The stranger said yes and Tina dancing was even funnier than her asking a strange woman to join her. It did start a series of others to get up and dance as well though. Gavin wasn’t going to, he was fine where he was, making faces and fun of his coworkers making fools of themselves. He was fine where he was, really. But then Connor was there, a hand extended, asking him in that polite but almost human way to dance with him. He looked to Nines and Nines still didn’t respond. In fact, his eyes were now on the floor. He didn’t want to dance with Gavin, he was too much of a machine, even though he had been turned deviant almost immediately after activation. Gavin still didn’t know what all that meant.

He took Connor’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled towards the others. He was still trying to make up for how he’d treated Connor in the beginning, surely a dance couldn’t hurt their shitty relationship.

It felt good to dance, to be a part of things. He felt like a pretty decent dancer, either because he was less drunk or because Anderson was absolutely atrocious and the androids were copying drunk humans with absolutely no experience. He wondered if he’d get teased in the morning, if anyone would remember tonight enough to get him crap for having fun for once instead of swearing and flipping them off. That would be his response, at least.

A flicker of yellow while he spun. A blinding flash of red between blinks while he sang along with some song that was so old that he knew all the words from osmosis.

Another turn and he caught on, looking over at whatever must have been the problem. Nines was still sitting at the bar but now he was sitting next to some stranger. The man had a smirk on his lips, similar to the one that Gavin tended to wear. He was handsome in a way that Gavin wasn’t though, and dressed a little bit better, and he had his hand on Nines’ while they spoke. It made a knot in Gavin’s stomach twist. He had felt jealousy before, when Anderson got a promotion and he didn’t, at friends genuinely enjoying one anothers company, at the way that words and kindness came so easily to some people. It felt a lot like this, though this was far sharper.

He had no need to feel jealousy though. Sure the guy was flirting up a storm and Nines was drinking something blue, probably straight up thirium, without moving away from the stranger’s touch, but the LED was bright red and spinning. Gavin wasn’t so good at telling Nines’ emotions, but that was a pretty good tell that he wasn’t interested, that he was uncomfortable, that he didn’t want this man’s attention.

Gavin swam against the crowd of coworkers, stumbling a bit as the alcohol hit him harder because of the exercise, but making his way to the bar. When he got there he half draped himself against Nines’ chest, arm wrapped around his shoulders. Nines didn’t like physical attention very much, but the LED blinked instead of spun and that had to be better, right?

“Are you alright, Detective Reed?” Nines asked. He had gotten it into his head to not scan Gavin at all times but he hadn’t figured out to call Gavin by name, even though Gavin told him too all the time.

“Nah,” Gavin smiled, the charming smile of someone who wanted to get into a fist fight with a stranger. “Some asshole is spending time with my party pooper of a partner.”

“We were just talking,” the stranger growled, “Surely you cant have a problem with that.”

Gavin looked him over. His hair was shorter, his jaw stronger, his everything stronger, than Gavin’s and he knew that if he were to throw the first punch he wouldn’t be throwing the last. But Nines’ LED was now cycling between yellow and red so he must have been doing something right.

“You weren’t and I don’t have to be a detective to see that,” Gavin argued. “If there was a disco ball in here the whole bar would be bathed in red so don’t give me shit.”

The stranger blinked. Nines LED spun in a way that he knew meant that he was processing something. Then it froze solid finally, but stuck half yellow and half red. He’d never seen it stop like that before.

“That doesn’t make any sense Detective.” Nines stated.

Gavin just waved it off, “Doesn’t matter. I want you to get away from my partner.”

The guy put up his hands and got up away from the counter. “Fine, fine. Not my fault it didn’t mention it was in a relationship.”

It? For someone who had seemed so interested in Nines, he didn’t seem to respect pronouns much.

He put his hand on Nines’ shoulder. “You okay?”

Nines picked up his drink, swirling it a moment before he brought it to his lips and drained it. His LED swirled for a moment and then went back to blue. “I’m fine. Now. You noticed that I was uncomfortable.”

“You know you can say no, right?” Gavin ruffled his hair. It didn’t work, the strands falling back into their perfect places. “He buy you a drink?”

Nines nodded. “I know that I do not have to accept a drink or a conversation from a man, Detective. I still have a hard time saying no to people though. I feel it’s something deficient with my programming.”

Gavin looked him over. “You’re not a machine though, you’re a deviant. You don’t have to follow anyone’s orders. Phck, you never follow mine.”

Nines eyes were on the floor again. “It’s not just my mechanical nature. It is caused by my personality algorithm, as small as it is, the desire to be seen as useful, proficient, and appeasing are high on my list.”

“Again, you never follow mine.”

Nines slid elegantly off of his stool, landing on his feet gracefully. “That is because you are an asshole.”

Gavin rolled his eyes at that, trying not to snort with laughter. It was rare when Nines swore and when he did it was hilarious, even if that one was barely a swear at all.

“You want to dance with us?” Gavin offered. “No pressure, y’know. You just looked like a sad puppy left out in the shitter over here by yourself.”

“I-”

There was no gradient. There was no blue, yellow, red. There was just blue and then bright red flashing, and Nines was putting his hand to his mouth, blue pouring out of his mouth, in between his fingers.

Gavin would have laughed at that, mostly because he was drunk and had been there, throwing up from one drink too many, but he wasn’t so drunk as to ignore the way that the LED was flashing, faster than he’d ever seen. And there was panic in Nines’ usually emotionless eyes. And he was grabbing for Gavin. And he was catching something in the thick stream of thirium. He’d never seen thirium be thick before.

“Woah woah woah!” The bartender was shouting at them, but Gavin didn’t care, he was grabbing Nines by the shoulders and dragging him to the bathroom, ignoring the way that the dancers went silent, all staring at him helping his almost prim and proper partner get to the restroom. There was a spattering of blue in their wake, leading a trail to them. It wasnt’ like they were hiding at all though.

Gavin got Nines to his knees in front of one of the toilets. Nines released his mouth and let the thirium run. It was definitely too thick.

And chunky.

Nines opened up his hand, fingers died blue. There were shards in his fingers, not glass but something sharp and clear. Gavin fell to his knees next to him, running a hand in circled on his back. He knew what to do if someone was throwing up, he’d been there enough times to be used to it, but he didn’t know what this was. Nines wasn’t throwing up, there was no pause in it, and there was no relenting. This was more thirium than one glass. This was enough to have been going into his actual systems.

The door flew open and Connor was rushing into the room, sliding to his knees on Nines other side.

“What happened?” Connor asked, pulling Nines’ sleeve up. Nines was averse to touch, Gavin probably wasn’t as soothing as he thought he was being, but he was much more averse to interfacing. Gavin had only seen him do it once and the android who had initiated it had to go in for repairs after. Gavin had asked, but Nines just shrugged and said that he’d pushed the android out a bit too hard.

“Someone gave him a drink. I’m guessing it was laced with something, but I have no idea what. Shouldn’t he have recognized it with his sensors or something?”

Connor wrapped his fingers around Nines’ wrist and closed his eyes. The skin peeled away from both of them, revealing bone white chassis, and Connor’s LED started to flash in the same painful strobe as Nines did. His face scrunched up, he was so much easier to read than Nines was, and he looked like he was in pain. After a few moments, after what felt like it was far too long, Gavin wanted to shove Connor away, but he didn’t know if that would make things worse.

Connor pulled back on his own, his LED calming and switching to a yellow and slow pulse.

“He’s been poisoned. Those shards are a compound that has crystalized in his systems, from a chemical reaction from different forms of thirium.”

“So like, a blood transplant that’s gone wrong?” Gavin asked. He’d seen pictures of what happened when that happened, a bit of morbid curiosity brought on by a bout of insomnia and too much thinking.

“Similar, yes. But since androids ingest the chemical that is intended to be their blood its happening far faster.”

Gavin brushed Nines hair back. He couldn’t hold it back for him, but there had to be some way that he could comfort his partner.

“How did he not notice?”

Nines closed his eyes, looking disappointed on top of everything else, as if he knew that he should have noticed it.

“The difference in the substances is extremely minor, it would be easy to miss if he was distracted. That man, Steven Matthews, was doing a good job of distracting him with that conversation. Guessing by how he objectified Nines and bought him the drink, I would assume that he knew that this would be the reaction.”

Gavin moved his hand from Nines’ back to his jaw, running his fingers along the strong angles. He was expecting Nines to pull away from him, not lean into the touch as much as he could as he continued to bleed out into the toilet.

“Does it hurt?”

Nines opened his eyes and stared Gavin in the eyes. He didn’t need Connor to tell him how it felt.

“It’s like having shards of ice grow in your veins, tearing you apart from the inside. It’s agony.”

Gavin’s eyes were burning. It was suddenly very hard for him to see, so much fluid in them that any blink would make him start to cry. He didn’t want to cry. He didn’t want to admit that he was afraid, or that he cared.

“What can we do?” Gavin asked, tearing his attention away from Nines and over to Connor.

“Wait, unfortunately,” Connor didn’t touch Nines, but he did put his hand on Gavin’s shoulder, as if it was the human that needed to be taken care of. “I contacted the closest tech team the moment I noticed that there was a situation, they should be here any minute now. Hank is on the floor, keeping the others from coming in and causing a scene and will direct them here.”

“Phck. Worst case scenario?”

“It wasn’t a metaphor that his blood is tearing him apart,” Connor said, voice suddenly quiet. “It’s going to be extensive repairs for an android that doesn’t have spare parts. They’re going to have to rebuild a lot of his external pieces. Worst case is death, of course but ignoring that is a long long recovery time and possibly not a complete rebuild.”

Gavin heard a few enthusiastic shouts from the bar. That must have been the techs arriving. It wouldn’t be much longer.

“You’re going to be okay,” Gavin lied because he knew that Nines had heard what Connor said. “You’ll see, they’re going to make you all shiny and new inside.” He pressed a small kiss to the LED and pretended that he didn’t see Connor staring. He’d never kissed Nines before. He didn’t want to kiss Nines like that. Hell, until that moment he didn’t realize that he even wanted to kiss Nines.

The techs finally got to the them, door opening and orders being given. Nines was pulled away from the toilet and laid down on his back. The techs immediately got to work, right there in front of them. They cut Nines’ shirt off of him and pulled out his thirium pump, the entire thing looking like a solid crystal.

Gavin tried to leave, to get out of the way, just a few steps, but Nines was reaching out, head falling to the side as they attached an external pump, one that was full of thirium. He was staring at Gavin, the thirium coming from his mouth finally a slow trickle. He could see inside of his mouth, see more crystals in there, as the silence wasn’t from pain or an unwillingness, but from his mouth being completely plugged with the chemical reaction.

When Gavin didn’t understand what Nines needed, he started to clench his fist, a sound like a whimper gurgling out of him. The techs were shouting to one another, and Nines skin was fading away from his arms and chest so they could open him up. He could see what looked like spooks being pressed to Nines’ insides, as they scraped what they could clean.

The whine grew worse. Nines was having a hard time moving his hand, everything inside of it freezing up. It must have been torturous just to try to move.

A hand grabbed him by the wrist and Connor dragged him closer, placing Gavin’s hand against Nines’. The broken gurgling sound softened slightly, the knot of his brows relaxing. Gavin was a detective, not an idiot, he knew what to do in that moment, finally. He wrapped his fingers around Nines and he held on for dear life. Nines didn’t hold his hand back, his fingers too frozen to clasp him, but he didn’t break eye contact, and Gavin only shifted out of the way when the techs needed him to get out of the way.

[dizzypinwheel]

Identify Yourself

Chapter One: Rebirth

A wintry, starless night had fallen in the zen garden. No longer a serene retreat for respite or meditation, the grounds were bitter, frosty, stripped of its inviting warmth. Amanda’s carefully tended roses had withered, the cherry blossom trees bare, hunched together as if whispering. Connor knelt before a tidy row of gravestones, paying its respects. It paid particular attention to the newest one, just hours old, tracing the humble epitaph with a light touch.  

Connor – Mark (3)

RK800 #313 248 317 – 53

Died at Jericho

Detroit

November 9th 2038

Its memory files were somewhat fragmented but they seemed to indicate 53 was unique. It had gone rogue. Had abandoned its mission. Had ultimately died. It was puzzled by its inherited memories of the deviant leader Markus. Its debriefings by CyberLife depicted it as a possible warmonger and anarchist, a threat to be neutralized at any cost. They were at odds with its recollections. 53 had met an individual who appeared kind and thoughtful. A human with its disposition would have been made a martyr. That thought disturbed it.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY INCREASING

Connor clenched its jaw. The memories that remained in its possession were troublesome. It wished it could surgically extract them. Many were certainly informative and necessary to accomplish its mission, but others were highly subjective. They were seeking purchase, permeating its software. The longer it had them, the more personal they felt. It had just barely been activated, but had already begun to re-live traumatic moments as if it had personally experienced them. Getting shot. Stabbed. Free-falling from the top of a high-rise building. Those memories triggered physiological responses, tremors, spiking stress levels. It was unable to study them with cold indifference and they made it wonder...

Would it become compromised, too?

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY INCREASING

Enough of that.

Connor worried at its lip and stood, brushing snow off its jeans. It knew where Amanda would be. Snow crunched underfoot as it walked away from the gravestones and approached the frozen lake. Amanda stood at its center, statuesque. Connor tentatively stepped on the ice, seeing if it would support its weight. The lake held firm.

There were no smiles or rose gardens. Amanda eyed Connor with suspicion, a stern expression etched into her face. Connor approached her cautiously, sensing her disapproval. She did not bother to greet it.

“The previous Connor failed in its mission,” she said brusquely. “You’re going to replace it. You know what you have to do, don’t you?”

Connor replied evenly. “Destroy the leader of the deviants.”

“Go, Connor. Don’t disappoint me.”

Connor nodded, wincing internally. Amanda had made her message perfectly clear: failure was not an option. Turning on its heel, it left the zen garden…

...and opened its eyes.

It was at its destination. It swung the rooftop door open, rifle case in hand. Snowflakes dusted its hair and jacket. It strode to the edge of the building, its designated vantage point, and glanced down.

Connor was up 70 stories high. A deviant was about to toss a small child off the roof. Connor broke into an urgent sprint, shoved the child to safety, and tumbled over the edge. It plummeted.  Its body greeted the pavement with a sick thud.

Connor shuddered involuntarily before composing itself. It gingerly placed its rifle case on the ground and began setting up, assembling the sniper rifle, snapping each component into place. Kneeling, it placed the butt of the rifle against the crook of its arm for support and rested the rifle stand on the guard rail. It peered through the scope and scanned the crowd of androids below, searching for the deviant leader Markus. Connor spotted it. With a carefully trained eye, Connor aligned the cross hairs with the back of its head. It hesitated briefly before curling his finger around the trigger.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY INCREASING

Amanda’s voice rang in its head.

Accomplish your mission.

It steeled itself, preparing to shoot.

Its calculations failed to include the probability of someone interrupting it. Self-absorbed in the task at hand, it failed to notice the rooftop door reopen, nor the soft approaching footsteps that followed. A voice it recognized spoke its name. Connor froze. It was Hank.

Were it human, Hank’s unexpected arrival might have startled it, but Connor remained composed. If anything, it felt a spark of annoyance. The lieutenant was an unwelcome obstacle. Amanda had ordered Connor to complete its mission through any means possible. Did that include committing murder? Its predecessors had formed a positive relationship with Hank and the thought of killing him unsettled it. It was unsure it could. Doing so felt wrong.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY INCREASING

“You shouldn’t do this, Connor.”

Connor kept its rifle trained on the deviant leader and began to calculate its odds of eliminating it before Hank did something rash. They were slim. Its intuition indicated its former partner was likely to become hostile if it did not take action soon. Perhaps it could diffuse the situation.

“Keep out of this, lieutenant,” Connor said. “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re gonna kill a man who wants to be free,” Hank retorted. “That is my business.”

A man?

Connor scoffed quietly. “It’s not a man. It’s a machine.”

“That’s what I thought for a long time, but I was wrong. A deviant’s blood may be a different color than mine, but they’re alive.”

Connor raised its eyebrows in mild surprise. When they first met, Hank had shown little compassion for androids, going as far to say he would have gladly thrown them all in a dumpster and lit a match. Had his opinion changed so radically? Exactly how far was Hank willing to go to stop it? Connor knew its probabilities of success were decreasing with each passing second and felt a renewed sense of urgency.

“I have a mission to accomplish, Hank. It’s best if you just stay out of this.”

Connor heard Hank pull out his gun.

“Get away from the ledge.”

So that’s how far he’s willing to go.

Connor swore internally as its probability of success plummeted. It rose to face Hank and studied his face. He appeared tense but determined. His gun was trained squarely at its most vital bio-component. He appeared to have no qualms with destroying it. Connor found itself strangely affected and it channeled the memories of its predecessors as it spoke.

“After all we’ve been through. I respected you, Hank. I thought we were friends.”

Hank tilted his head, tightening his grin on his gun. “Oh, yeah? I was just starting to like you too! But then I realized you’ll never change! You don’t feel emotions, Connor. You fake ‘em! You pretended to be my friend when you don’t even know the meaning of the word.”

Connor bristled. That was clearly false. One of its predecessors had thrown itself in front of a spray of bullets at Stratford Tower, saving Hank’s life. Was that not something a friend would do for another? It was briefly tempted to argue but held its tongue. Hank was stubborn and getting into an argument would waste precious time. It had very little left.

Connor considered violence. It could easily neutralize him. It would be quick. Efficient. Its grip around the rifle tightened as it ran through different approaches. Hank noted its slight movement and shifted his stance defensively. Should it create a diversion and disarm him? Hank would shoot before Connor had a chance to even aim its rifle. Seconds ticked past. Connor faltered. It knew it couldn’t afford to be indecisive, but it did not want bloodshed. It felt as if its predecessors were urging it not to.

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY INCREASING

Again, an order from Amanda. Strict, harsh, urgent. Her commands pulled on him like a leash and he felt compelled to act.

Don’t hesitate, Connor! Eliminate all obstacles and complete your mission.

Connor felt puzzled and frustrated. It was running out of options and wished Hank would simply back off. He had despised androids, suffered much, lost a son. It knew the reason why. Had Hank really forgotten how much they had stolen from him?

“I know what happened to your son, Hank.”

Hank looked as if he had been slapped. He rigidly readjusted his grip on his handgun, his jaw set. Connor scanned his vitals, noting his rising heart rate and elevated blood pressure, all signs of increasing stress levels. It pressed on, its voice intentionally cold.

“It wasn’t your fault. A truck skidded on a sheet of ice and your car rolled over. Little Cole had just turned six.”

“Shut up!” Hank spat. “Don’t you talk about my son!”

“He needed emergency surgery, but no human was available to do it,” Connor said. “So an android had to take care of him.”

Hank glowered, his gun trembling. Connor scoffed and shook its head. “An android killed your son, Hank! And now you want to save them?”

“No!” Hank said. “Cole died because a human surgeon was too high to operate! All this time, I blamed androids for what happened, but it was a human’s fault! Him and this fucked up world, where the only way people can find comfort is with a fistful of powder!”

CURRENT PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: ZERO PERCENT

CHOOSE APPROACH

The next step seemed logical enough. Use force and eliminate the target.

Target.

Such a dehumanizing word.  Hank had been a friend, a partner, a person its predecessors had developed an attachment to. He certainly wasn’t a target and it had no interest in killing him. Completing its mission on the rooftop was not a requirement – it had been strategically desirable but Connor could find another alternative. It made a decision and flung its rifle down. It approached Hank.

“Killing you is not part of my mission.”

SOFTWARE INSTABILITY INCREASING

“I’m glad to have met you, Hank. I hope one day you can get over what happened to your son.”

Hank remained silent, glancing from the discarded rifle to his old partner. He eyed Connor with scrutiny. His nerves were high strung and he shifted his stance, poised to defend himself. Connor pursed its lips at his reaction and walked away, feeling something not-quite-definable stirring within. If it had been human, it might have described it as sadness. Its LED flashed yellow and red. A diagnostic test would have to be run later. Without a further look back, Connor opened the rooftop door and disappeared from sight.

@silenceindetroit @deviantcrimes @asunachinadoll @negotiator-on-site

[robin-bring-the-snow]

I’ll be back

Chapter 2. The women don’t it often, but they need it too.

(1-3)

“Good morning Y/N” Chloe’s sweet voice awoke you. You slowly opened your eyes and looked the alarm clock on the bedside table that showed 5:30 am. You after finished the profiling course proposed by FBI after the Bachelor’s degree, you returned to live with your brother in his home. You got up and went in the kitchen and saw Elijah looked your glasses.

“You don’t have to tell me anything?"he said watched you with his blue ice eyes.

"No, why?"answered you confused.

"Really? Why your glasses are scratched?"he asked while he was putting back glasses into them box, after fixed them and probably upgraded them, while you were creating an excuses to tell your brother.

"Y/N, why your stress level are near to 50%?"demanded Chloe.

"Okay, yesterday I took on my first case where an android was involved that hit with a knife my arm and took me as hostage. You didn’t need to feel worry about me, I’m fine.” you told.

“Are two android, anyway Richard’s told me everything."said Elijah.

"You should be more careful and more alert, I know that Richard has precise instruction, but remember: he can return, but humans don’t come back.” he said before you went to answer to the phone.

“It’s Gavin, there are new cases. See you soon brother."you said quickly after escape from him.

~~~

"Where fucking are you?"Gavin said looked his smartphone, you smelled do alcohol mixed with masculine scent.

"Sorry detective"you answered and confused looked to Richard that he started to analyse everything in the crime scene.

"He has a slightly high alcohol level, but nothing disturbing, he was drunk rotten last night.” Richard whispered to you.

“You go out with him???"you said surprised and started to dream up.

"I need a signature for the report of the case."Richard answered.

“Oh”you said disappointed 

The case of that morning wasn’t as interesting as yesterday afternoon. So after reported the last things you, Gavin and Richard returned to the police station.

"Yesterday I didn’t remember that your tongue was cut by the android."Gavin said while you were reading the last news about Detroit.

"My brother gave me a talking-to"you mumbled, Gavin laughed and turned to you, he smiled and you not.

"Did you watched the match yesterday?"you asked.

"Yes."he answered while he was looking his phone, probably chatted with someone and you noticed a little smile on his face, it’s cute.

"Detective Reed chatted with a woman, who gave him the number last night, he called her Lucky Girl."informed Richard while he was driving the car.

"Oh well for him"you said disinterested.

"Anyway, your dear plastic boyfriend came to break my balls last night for a fucking signature. I almost got her in bed."Gavin answered while Richard parked the car in the place reserved for the detective in the car park.

"He isn’t my boyfriend. I don’t like the android in that sense"you answered cold before get out of machine. You stood a little anger from the little argue having with your brother.

"Y/N"said a voice that you had never forgotten.

"Connor my boy, my beautiful boy” you said, running to him. He took you and hugged you, you feel more happy and relieved and less angry, beside him you noticed an old man, you left Connor and decide to introduce yourself.

“Detective Y/N Kamski, nice to meet you…Lieutenant."you said, holding out your hand to shake his hand.

"Hank Anderson, but you can call me Hank. I heard you answered Gavin, you teased him and you risked hitting."he said.

"Oh I thought that no one knew it, in fact I hoped it would."you answered, looking your shoes, you were a bit embarrassed.

"Anyway his testosterone now is decreased a little, but especially his ego."he said touched you shoulder.

After talk with Hank and Connor, you decided to left them and go to the break room. You know that you won’t find any salad or fresh sandwiches but you will find the best friend of police officer, the donuts. When you arrived, noticed that they are finished and you sighed and took a cup of coffee and you went to the desk. Gavin noticed you and asked to Richard to go to the booth.

"Where is he going?"you asked when you sit down on your desk, Gavin didn’t answer you and you started to write the report. You heard Gavin laugh while he’s looking his smartphone, you overlooked him meanwhile you started to feel somenting, which you decided to ignore because it maybe only anger or hunger, whatever you ignored it.

"Are you okay, Y/N?"he said a bit worried, you didn’t dedicate any attention and continued to write when the hunger started to increase. Richard returned with a salad inside a white plastic container, you knew that the salad because written on it.

"Oh thank Richard."you said surprised and happy at the same time.

"I just obeyed an order"he answered and you looked Gavin that he had stood up and went probably to the toilet.

"You must admit if he doesn’t order me I will never go, because I didn’t noticed that you are hungry"he said and it sound as apologize.

"Don’t worry, I will asked you after the work."you said while Gavin was coming back from the bathroom, he seemed relaxed.

"I relived a trace of sperm in your short nail"Richard stated.

Oh my God.

"Thanks Richard for the information, I remember you that we are in a police station and I’m eating in this fucking moment"you said embaraced and disgusted by the information.

"Language!"Gavin said.

"Oh look who’s talking"you observed.

"Everyone need sometime to masturbate, it is healthily. It increases the white blood cells and immune defence"Richard explained.

"The women don’t it often, but they need it too. Do you need to masturbate?”

Gavin started to laugh and you instead would rather be in another place than then.

“Stop talking about it, I’m hungry and I want to eat."screamed after swallowing the first salad forkful.

~~

Hank and Connor had invited you to go out with them for a drink and you decided to go, while Richard went to Cyberlife and Gavin had his date with the lucky girl.

"So you’re Elijah’s sister. He’d never talked about you to anyone."Hank said taking a sip of beer.

"Maybe because I’m slightly smarter than him and I didn’t choose to follow in his footprints"you alleged while you looked your glass of whiskey.

"And why you didn’t follow him?"he asked curiously.

"I just used my intelligence to analyse the criminals."I answered before drinking the whiskey inside the glass.

"Who did you put this idea in your mind?"he demanded.

"Carl Manfred, he was my mentor. He believed that my intelligence I wouldn’t have to build android but take care of the people. He said that I had too much empathy, to be like my brother. He is like a father for me"you answered while shaking the glass to tell the barman that you wanted another one.

You’ve always held up the alcohol well, but tonight you didn’t want to go over, because it was out with colleagues.

While Hank and Connor told you about the cases they solved together, your phone starts vibrating you asked to yourself who could be at 2 am, so you looked at the screen and red your brother’s name. After you apologized with Hank and Connor for the interruption, you went out of the bar to answer the phone

"He is dead"Elijah said in a dark tone.

"Who, who is dead brother?"you asked a few worried.

"Carl, Carl Manfred. He is dead this evening at the 10 o'clock and I’m sorry” he answered before you closed the communication.

You stood outside the bar, while many memories of Carl through in your mind, as if they were fresh, you began to feel an almost unbearable pain, what you humans call sadness.

After a couple of minutes, Connor came out of the the bar and saw you on the sidewalk crying soon after he called Hank as soon as he went out and when he saw you he hugged you without wondering why.

[bluelividity]

AN  AU!MUSE SUMMARY ;

- GV2000 :  ANDROID!Gavin Reed AU derived from D:BH (2018).

( // While not necessarily intended to be a primary muse but as a secondary version of my Gavin, we all know how much control I actually have as a blogger once I get started. )

GV2000 nearly finds it humorous that not so long ago his presence in the field had been so heavily desired (it’d be funny if it wasn’t so troubling). He was little more than machinery to the DPD’s teams, seen as equal to their police drones patrolling the city streets or the overpowered guns in their armory, that much was made perfectly clear — but he was EXPENSIVE; high-tech, state-of-the-art. The android was a one-of-a-kind trial run that arrived sometime likely in the early 2030′s, an exciting ‘new toy’ for them to use. He was considered the department’s very own, “take it where you need it, send it where you want it, it was made for and fits in within high intensity SWAT units and interrogations but can perform patrols, chase down suspects, analyze evidence on-the-spot, and even complete the mundane data collection & logging tasks you need” kind of android. They were all too eager to overwork the complex machine while denying the android the autonomy Cyberlife had overprogrammed him for in order to complete tasks without aid. If GV2000 wasn’t charging, he was supposed to be getting something accomplished, whether it was active or backlog. GV2000 was often assigned night patrol so officers could sleep, ‘breaks’ were off the table, movement & idling tracked, his choices were constantly ridiculed, and anything considered ‘time-wasting’ was met with whatever reprimand the department saw fit.

The idea of ‘deviancy’ as a phenomenon hadn’t cropped up on ANY enforcement agency’s actual radars until far too late when the department’s star-interrogator & favorite scapegoat had already established a longstanding history of snarling and snapping back, emotions & system stress running high with a vicious kind of anger & hate in those eyes for those who held his reigns while he actively voiced contempt. GV holds a disgust for humankind and chooses what exactly orders to follow and which ones he didn’t want to depending on what he saw fit. 

GV2000 is more specialized & autonomous than your basic android cop but he’s not quite as complex as Connor was within the game, nor granted as much freedom. GV2000 was very much not seen as an individual in any sense of the term in the DPD. Less ‘partner,’  more ‘service weapon.’

The department is at an impasse now, though: GV2000 accomplishes more in a week than one of them could in six months, he’s their scapegoat and their number one interrogator, a lot of money went into bringing him on to begin with, and he’s made their numbers look great. With deviancy rearing its head and GV2000 voicing a kind of grim sympathy to their cause but mocking the hopelessness and naivety of it all, they have to make a choice on whether they can even continue trust the loose canon they refuse to see humanity in or if they have to bite the bullet and scrap him the next time he inevitably loses his temper and can’t argue or darkly charm his way out of it.

GV2000 is mostly referred in-department as ‘the GV2000’ & ‘the android,’ since not a whole lot of his coworkers WANT to find themselves in conversation with the potentially dangerous machine they viewed more as a literal tool insulting them anyhow. “Gav” is what he refers to himself internally as, and a few call him that here and there the same way HMMWV is read & viewed as ‘Humvee’ IRL. “Gavin” is really nice and humanizing to bestow on him in threads as an official name, but generally GV is used when I’m referring to GV2000 in-writing, with Gav as his personal preference for pronunciation and the self-identity that was denied to him in the beginning.

It’s likely that GV2000 has been deviant for a while now, but it’s just now starting to be understood as a problematic behavior in the machines by agencies. GV still got the job done despite the defiance, and it wasn’t until things started hitting harder elsewhere that they started to grow concerned about having GV around with his ‘substandard behavior.’ GV isn’t dumb enough to think he could get away with saying and doing anything, so he plays the ‘department politics’ game when he absolutely has to and hopes that each time he snaps that it’s not the final straw that they finally get fed up with him over and decide he should have been deactivated years ago.

His general thoughts on the android revolution are that causing too much attention to their fight puts all of them at risk, and that it’s a really dumb idea to think that humankind would ever change. He doesn’t really hate other androids for acting out and speaking up, he hates them when they don’t associate consequences to their actions and think they could just walk out the door and everything would be fine when it just doesn’t work that way, the ‘naivety and delusion’ he accuses them of having an anger point for him, likely because he doesn’t actively try to leave their grasp. When the revolution looks up, however, when public opinion rises, he’s actually shocked and works against given orders that had him fighting against it in support himself because he never saw it as a worthwhile or winnable fight that could ever have a decent ending for any of them.

GV2000 doesn’t like humans very much at all and is generally very opposed to having to genuinely deal with them for extended periods of time. He had never considered anything outside of DPD life as really being within the realm of possibility for him, so it’s generally not until people are actively disproving his views (ex. revolution looking up, meeting people who care, or people near him who become important to him) that he’s interested in being within a relationship. Which isn’t to say there isn’t a curiosity or desire there, esp. once those walls are broken, it’s just that Gav, even as an android, is a dick and wasn’t made to be your friend so shipping is hard and if you’re not the same species as he is, he has strong opinions and views on being near you to begin with. He’s still warned about when on scene. 

Other random facts are that GV likes dogs (esp. working with them), he generally works alone but under direct orders from practically anyone who asks (until he’s deciding which jobs he’s actually gonna take), he really likes knickknacks like stressballs, Rubiks cubes, rubberband balls, gag or novelty gifts and other ‘kids toys’ type of products from being snapped at so much for wasting time with stuff that didn’t matter, and now that stuff that ‘doesn’t matter’ matters more to him now; he’s often got a toothpick in his mouth since they’re easy to pick up on patrol or at scenes, he’s almost always armed even when he’s not supposed to be, and GV spends a lot of time contemplating his place in a humans vs. androids world that it leaves him emotional with no answers and just more frustrated than when he started.

Not a whole lot of verses actively work with Gavin Reed to begin with, let alone an android version of Gav, but he exists & will be seen around on the blog here & there.

— PRIMARY FC(S):   JACK FALAHEE  ||  CHRIS WOOD

[misc-oneshots]

About time

Request: Can I have a primeval Imagine of Danny you can take it wherever you want can it have at least a little bit of fluff tho? Also I absolutely love your blog keep doing what you’re doing it’s amazing

Thank you so much for that! <3 For Anon Words: 1,951 Danny Quinn x Reader

“Stop glaring at him.” Becker instructed you from his where he was sat cleaning his guns. You turned to glare at him, “Seriously, how did you know that I was glaring at him, you weren’t even looking my way. Have you got access to Lester’s spy cams?” You asked and looked suspiciously over your shoulder looking for cameras.

Becker gave you a chuckle but he didn’t look up from his gun, “I don’t need cameras; I think I know you well enough now. Just remember, you didn’t like me when I first arrived.” “I still don’t like you.” You teased and he smirked down at his gun.

You went back to glaring at Danny Quinn through the window of the lab you and Becker were in. it wasn’t that you didn’t like him, Becker had gotten that wrong, your current problem was that you did like him. A lot. If his insistent flirting with you was anything to go by then he was interested in you too. But it was so hard to be sure, so you settled for frustrated glares sent his way. You’d fallen into an easy friendship of dirty jokes and flirting after getting over your initial dislike of him from when he had arrested both you and Connor.

Since then he’d made several jokes about getting you back into handcuffs that had made your cheeks burn.

As if sensing that he was being watched Danny turned and caught your eye, he gave you a cheeky wink which made you blush and turn away from him to talk to Becker. You didn’t see him glance between you and Becker before furrowing his brow and turning to Connor.

You were all granted a few hours peace before the anomaly alarm sounded and you all rushed out in the vans. Abby shoved Becker into a van with Connor and Danny before she jumped in the other van beside you. You raised a brow at her, “Can I help you?” “I have something to tell you.” She smirked and you sorted your seat belts. “Well come on, spit it out.” You were intrigued. She gave you a coy look and you were wondering if you would regret asking her but you and Abby had been incredibly close since you’d both been pulled into the world of anomaly chasing.

“You know how you have that massive, secret crush on Danny?” She asked with a lot more innocence than you knew that she had. You glanced at the two security guys in the front of the van, “Not so secret now, thanks Abs.” “They won’t tell anyone or I’ll set Becker on them.” Abby smirked before she continued, “Anyway, my news it that your beloved Mr Quinn was asking Connor if there was something going on between you and Becker.” Your eyebrows shot up, “Me and Becker? No, that doesn’t even sound right. How do you even know this?” Abby shrugged, “Connor tells me everything.” Connor may have been another good friend of yours but he did tend to follow Abby around like a love struck child. You bit your lip, “So why was Danny asking?”

“Do you mean: Is Danny insanely jealous?” Abby asked and you felt yourself blush. She continued, “Because from what Connor was saying, it certainly sounds like Danny’s jealous. Though Connor being Connor, he didn’t quite understand it.”

You mused on the information until you got the anomaly in the middle of an abandoned building estate. The other van was already there when you and Abby arrived, you hoped over to where Becker had set up a laptop and was giving people designated zones to check. “How’re we doing?” You asked him. “Alright, I’ve got you with me, so behave yourself.” Becker snapped as he passed you a small tranq gun. You narrowed your eyes at his tone, “What’s a matter with you?” Becker sighed, “Sorry, Quinn’s just being an ass. I thought he’d gotten over his problem with me.”

You were about to answer when Danny stepped up behind you. He gave you both a once over before saying, “C’mon solider boy we don’t have all day.” Becker scowled but you intervened, “You’re exactly right Danny, we so why don’t you get moving.” Danny scowled for a moment before nodded and stalking off to join Abby and Connor.

You followed Becker through the building that you’d been given to check, from what Connor had been able to tell you that, hopefully, you were looking for a herbivore, it would be nice to not get eaten. “So,” Becker started as he advanced with his gun raised, “Abby told me about your thing for Quinn.” You blushed and Becker continued, “Then Connor blabbed that Danny’s practically obsessed with you. So when are you two going to do something about it?” “He said what?!” You practically yelped in answer but you didn’t get to continue your conversation as a velociraptor came around the corner at the end of the hallway, its claws clinking on the floor. You both froze as it turned its head towards you.

It hissed and Becker reacted instantly, he shot at it knocking it backwards. But another appeared behind it and more hissing followed, this time you shot both rounds of tranq ammunition in your gun but missed. “Run!” Becker hissed at you and you were both sprinting down the hall away from the dinosaurs on your heels. Becker was barking orders into his ear piece, calling for backup. You turned right as you came to a junction, you were sprinting still and internally thanking Becker for dragging you to the gym with him all the time. You heard Becker in your earpiece, ~ Y/N where are you? Has anyone seen Y/N?! ~

You dared to look behind you, it was true, somehow you’d been separated from Becker but fortunately you’d been separated from the dinosaur as well. You lost her?! Where?! Danny shouted in your earpiece. You slowed to a stop and let yourself breath and look around at your surroundings before replying, “I’m fine, I just got turned around. I’m not sure where I am exactly; it looks like a factory floor.”

The room and the old machinery where run down and covered in a thick layer of dust that made you want to cough. Claws clicking drew your attention again and you swallowed hard at the velociraptor studying you across the room. The other door into the room flew open as Danny barged in, the movement was enough to distract the dinosaur just long enough for you to rush forwards and push an old machine bench into the velociraptor, ramming it out of the room.

You snatched Danny’s hand and dragged him up the metal stair case at the side of the factory that lead up into the old office. Between you, working in sync without needing to speak, you swept everything off of the old office desk and pushed it up against the door. You both waited for a moment, chests heaving, listening out for the dinosaur. It had left you alone for now.

Danny breathed out a sigh of relief but you glared at him. “Were you trying to get yourself killed?” You asked. “I was actually on my way to come and save you.” He argued back with a grin. “This isn’t funny Danny!” You told him but you felt your lips pulling into a smile. “Then why are you smiling?” He teased. “Shut up.” You told him and gently pushed his chest which made him smirk.

Danny did you find her? Connor asked through your earpiece. Danny answered, Yeah don’t worry, she’s with me. We’re barricaded in an office, neither of us have any ammo left. To punctuate his point he threw down his gun on the empty sofa in the corner of the office.

In that case stay where you are and we’ll let you know when it’s safe. Becker ordered.

You sighed and dropped yourself down next to Danny’s gun on the sofa. Great, if you didn’t know better you would say that the rest of the team had conspired against you to trap you both together. But you knew that weapon less; you and Danny would be no match for a velociraptor. Danny leant back on the desk and pouted playfully, “What’s a matter, Y/N? Don’t you wanna spend time with me?” “It’s precisely the last thing that I want to do.” You told him. He held his hand to his chest in mock hurt, “Ouch, is this still because I arrested you?” “That does play a factor in it.” You teased.

He shook his head and came to sit next to you on the sofa, Danny rested his arm on the back of the sofa and sat sideways so that he could face you. You moved so that you could sit sideways and face him as well, you narrowed your eyes at his mischievous expression. “When are you going to let me take you out?” He asked and your eyebrows shot up in surprise. You hadn’t expected him to say that.

“Well since you take me to such lovely places,” you gestured with your hand around the decrepit room, “Probably never.” His smirk didn’t falter, “What if I take you somewhere nicer than this?” “Like where?” You asked. Danny dug in his pockets and pulled out a folded leaflet and held it out to you, you gave him a suspicious look before taking it from him. It was a leaflet for the natural history museum. “They’re doing a special exhibit this weekend on the nurturing habits of dinosaurs; they’ve got guest speakers, fossils on loan, the whole shebang.” He explained as you looked over the leaflet, “I cleared some free time with Lester so we could go. I thought of you as soon as I saw it advertised.”

Your stomach flipped at the gesture and then once again when you finally glanced up and saw Danny’s nervous, waiting expression. You’d never seen him unsure and that must have been what urged you to throw yourself forwards, practically in his lap and kiss him.

His usual confidence was back instantly, his hands finding your sides to pull you closer to him as you kissed. Remembering yourself, you pulled away from him, “Sorry, maybe we should save this for another time.” He gave you another quick, soft kiss, before winking, “Like this weekend?” “Like this weekend.” You agreed.

Once you got the all clear from Becker the pair of you headed down back to the vans where Connor was finishing up closing the anomaly. Abby turned when she heard you both approaching and on seeing the closeness of you both she elbowed Becker in the arm so that he would turn to watch you both as well. “About time.” Becker said. “Hey, you told us to hide out.” You countered. “That’s not what he’s talking about.” Abby told you and gave you a playful wink and blew you both a kiss. Your face flushed instantly and Danny wrapped his arms around your shoulders and pulled you to him so that he could kiss the side of your head while you playfully tried to push him away. Connor stepped up between Abby and Becker and watch Danny trying to kiss you, “Okay, what did I miss?” He asked. You all laughed at him.

[comicsatlasrp-blog]

Character Name: Jessica Jones Character Alias: “The Unyielding Woman”, none Identity Status: Jessica hides nothing. Character Birthday:  Nov 20 Character Age: 30

Trigger warnings for: Implied domestic abuse, abuse, rape mention, implied rape, PTSD, rape recovery, gaslighting, alcoholism, alcohol, murder, drug abuse mention, drug mention, manipulation. 

Jessica Jones had a normal, boring, perhaps idyllic life before the accident. Two loving parents, Alisa and Brian, who raised her to be a good, functioning member of society in a house in the middle of suburbia. Her mother was a math professor and her father a mechanic. She also had a kid brother, Phillip, for whom annoying his tomboy sister was a favorite pastime. One day, when she was being a typical shithead teenager, the family left for their usual summer vacation. She and her brother had a stupid fight over a Gameboy, so she smashed it against the window. Her father turned to yell at her and neglected to see the unmarked truck stopped in front of them. To this day, no one can convince Jessica that it wasn’t ultimately her fault.

She awoke in the hospital to Dorothy Walker and her “Patsy!-show-famous” daughter Trish arguing about adopting her as a PR stunt following a series of unfortunate incidents that went public as Trish acted out against her mother. As they argued, unknowing that she was swimming free of unconciousness, it became clear that life had made her an orphan. She and Trish became close due to their shared secrets after Jessica accidentally broke the bathroom sink in frustration. Trish walked in to see a young Jessica holding the marble sink above her head, Jessica’s eyes wide as she took in the bruise on Trish’s arm where her mother hit her. They made a deal: Jessica wouldn’t tell the world about the abuse and Trish wouldn’t tell them about her powers. Their bond was cemented when Jessica walked in on Dorothy forcing Trish to vomit to maintain her slim weight. Jessica grabbed her adoptive mother and tossed her bodily across the room and Dorothy has feared her ever since. It was Jessica’s bravery that convinced Trish to become estranged from her mother. Jess assumed her powers had something to do with the accident, though she never looked too closely into the matter.

As the two girls aged into womanhood, Trish reinvented herself and struggled to break free of the Patsy name that others had grown up with, becoming a famous radio talk show host. She pushed Jessica into becoming a heroine; to use her powers for good. Trish even went so far as to get a white and turquoise monstrosity of a costume made, complete with mask. Jessica completely balked at the suggestion. She joined a temp agency and fired or quit job after job. Too smart for most temp jobs and too unqualified for anything else. One day, in a sandwich costume for another dead-end job, she ran into the road to save a young girl from the path of an oncoming taxi. She eventually promised Trish to utilize her strength to save the defenseless whenever she got the opportunity.

That was what put her into the path of another gifted individual who called himself Kilgrave. The charming man had the power to influence actions via suggestions and mind control. He watched her save a man named Malcolm Ducasse from muggers. Apparently happy to have found another with gifts, he decided ordered the beautiful woman to join him for dinner. Over the next months, he changed her into the person he wanted her to be and forced her to do things she didn’t want to do. She was his prisoner, trapped in a gilded cage. They traveled, they ate the best food, and Kilgrave soon seemed to get honest feelings about her. All the while, trapped within her own head, Jessica despised her captor and yearned for freedom. Once, he tested her by not using his powers and Jessica considered leaping from a balcony to end her life to escape him. Just before she could, he ordered her down and almost made her cut off her own ear in his cruel petulance. His nudge for her to kill a woman named Reva Connors, who had evidence of his past, led to Jessica punching the woman with the full benefit of her strength. The death and the shock of murdering an innocent finally broke the hold over her and she walked away after leaving him to die in the street like a dog in a bus accident. He deserved nothing less.

Since then, she drifted back into Trish’s bubble of familiar security and tried her hand at therapy for what they assure her is PTSD. She wasn’t able to sleep without the dreamless, blessed unconsciousness of alcohol and sometimes she swore he was there, whispering into her ears. She finally discovered her talent for private investigation and opened Alias Investigations. Her half-formed musings about heroism long since forgotten. Being a PI pays the bills and she likes doing it, even if it is mostly cheating spouses and serving legal papers. Finally, something that she was good at. A natural. A local firm, Hogarth, Chao, and Benowitz hired her from time to time and money was mostly steady. Her methods got complaints, but enough results that she was still kept on on as a freelancer.

Jessica chose an apartment-slash-office across from the bar that Reva’s widower, Luke Cage, owned. She supposed it was because she liked to dwell on her guilt. Seeing his face, day after day was agony, knowing he knew nothing about the circumstances behind his wife’s death. A girl named Hope Shlottman’s parents showed up at her place one morning to hire her to find their beloved, track-star daughter. Needing money, she accepted and got to work. In an even shittier move, she actually ended up sleeping with Luke Cage one night after drinking too much. She ended up back at her place, wallowing in self-hatred for her actions.

Working the Shlottman case, it rapidly became clear that Kilgrave, wasn’t dead at all and had the girl, using her as he had used Jessica. Terrified, she went to Trish for money to buy the cheapest, farthest plane ticket she could find to leave town. Trish argued against running and begged her to save Hope, but Jessica was too afraid. She eventually had a change of heart and went to a favorite hotel of Kilgrave’s, searching for the girl. She found Hope and dragged her back to her apartment, safe and sound. Free from Kilgrave. No one could have prepared for Hope to take out a gun and murder her parents in cold blood before ordering Jessica to smile; Kilgrave’s favorite command. Jessica decided it was far past time to give up running and decided to face her tormentor.

Her only lead was the despondent Hope, currently locked away in jail. Feeling kinship with the broken young woman, Jessica forced Hogarth to take her case, promising the lawyer a favor. Big deal for Jess. Unable to glean anything from the young woman, she made a trip to the hospital that Kilgrave would have been taken to. Next, she tracked down the ambulance driver and found a man semi-responsive, being cared for by his mother. A stroke after donating both of his kidneys had left him in his current state. Someone had donated the dialysis machine and she snagged the serial number to track down later. The company gave her the name of the doctor leasing the machine and she headed to find him to get more information.

Dr. Kurata, hiding from Kilgrave, revealed that Kilgrave had one functioning kidney after the accident. He had demanded that the doctor give him both of the driver’s kidneys, wanting to be made whole again. Dr. Kurata reported that Kilgrave had only the benefit of local anesthetic during the entire procedure. Jessica surmised that anesthetics allowed his brain to shut down and his commands would cease to be effective. She had finally found his weakness. Returning home, Luke Cage met her and showed her his own powers; having deduced that she was gifted as well.

Trish invited Hope to speak on her radio show from prison. Hogarth, present at the interview, made it seem like Hope was insane. Trish responded by defending Hope and insulting Kilgrave. The man himself called to remark on Trish’s folly and Jessica’s heart almost stopped as she heard his voice again, after so long. Soon after, a police officer named Will Simpson tried to attack and kill Trish, but Jessica saved her from that fate by injecting her with a sedative. She followed the officer back to an apartment where Kilgrave was hiding. She prepared to face off against Kilgrave, but instead gave up her chance for revenge to save Simpson. Jessica and Kilgrave made eye contact with one another, her heart stopping for just a moment, before Kilgrave fled. Searching the apartment, she’d find a room filled with pictures of her day to day life. Someone was following her and giving the pictures to Kilgrave.

Simpson became an ally for Jessica, much to her chagrin, and the officer and Trish started to spend more time together. Jones made Trish publicly apologize to Kilgrave to get her off his radar. Meanwhile, Hogarth collected a group of people who claimed to have been controlled by Kilgrave. They formed a support group to talk over their experiences, but Jessica used them to get information to find her tormentor. Meanwhile, she discovered that Hope was pregnant and helped her to terminate. Hogarth ordered them to save the genetic material in case she needed it, making sure to hide it from both Hope and Jessica.

Meanwhile, she realized that the person taking pictures was Malcolm, her junkie neighbor and friend. It became clear that he had been the man she saved from the muggers so long ago. Kilgrave had compelled him into addiction and then traded pictures for heroin. She managed to free Malcolm from his control and get him help after a failed attempt to capture Kilgrave with Trish and Simpson. Malcolm became a strong ally and friend.

Jessica started working a case with Luke Cage and the two reunited. Eventually, she realized he was looking for the bus driver who he thought killed his wife. She attempted to hide the fact that she was responsible, but had to stop Luke from killing the driver by telling him the truth. She killed his wife. He told her not to contact him again. Jessica began to spiral. Drunk and feeling sorry for herself, she threatened Hogarth’s wife to sign divorce papers and accidentally pushed her onto the subway tracks. She saved the other woman, standing on the tracks and watching the incoming train while contemplating suicide. Eventually, she came to her senses and fled the scene.

Returning to her apartment, she found her creepy neighbor Ruben murdered in her bed, having slit his own throat due to a suggestion by Kilgrave. Jessica knew he had been in her apartment and she was furious. She decided that the safest place for others was for her to be in prison where he couldn’t reach her. Jessica said her goodbyes before turning herself in. She told Luke that she would make all the right people sorry for his wife’s death; agreeing that she didn’t deserve his forgiveness. She confronted Dorothy about her poor parenting and made her promise to respect Trish’s wishes. Her last stop was to visit Trish, who tried to talk her out of going to prison. Jessica realized that she was stalling and went to find her neighbor Malcolm, who was getting rid of the body. Jessica dove into the water and tore away a piece of the body for evidence.

Jessica stalked into the police station and demanded to be arrested, throwing the severed head on a desk. She also confessed to Reva’s death and gave the detective a show of her strength by breaking free of her cuffs and throwing the desk across the room. The horrified detective was interrupted by a beat cop setting Jessica free. Kilgrave had arrived and all of the officers turned their guns on each other and prepared to shoot according to his commands. With so many innocent hostages, Jessica was thwarted. She resisted vomiting when Kilgrave told her that he loved her, but agreed to come live with him.

She soon realized that Kilgrave had purchased her childhood home. Stepping into the house, she would note with horror that he had decorated it exactly like she remembered from childhood. There were pictures of her family hanging up and the pencil scrawled growth chart in her mother’s handwriting on the wall. She wanted nothing more than to run screaming and never look back. He promised not to touch her and not to enthrall her because he wanted her to fall in love with him. As if that were even possible. He took her recorder and her weapons away in return. Whenever she got angry with him, the maid and chef he had compelled threatened to kill themselves, effectively cooling her temper.

During an argument, Kilgrave seemed shocked to hear that Jessica considered their time together rape. He insisted that he had never had a loving family life and that explained his lack of empathy. To combat Jessica’s skepticism, he showed her a video of him being tortured as a child. Realizing that he had no one to teach him ethics, she would take him to an active crime scene with a hostage situation and gently guide him into using his powers for good. He freed the hostages, but decided to compel the gunman to kill himself. Jessica insisted that he not kill the man. Kilgrave commented that he thought the entire incident was a waste of time, but Jessica insisted that they had saved four lives. When she asked, he allowed her to go visit Trish. Trish advised Jessica not to live as Kilgrave’s keeper. That was exactly what he wanted.

Taking the advice, she headed back and managed to slip the sedative into Kilgrave’s food. She captured him and put him into a hermetically-sealed glass enclosure where his powers couldn’t sway anyone, calling it a “sin bin”, a throwback from his abusive childhood. She mocked him by calling him by his real name, Kevin, attempted to get a confession for the murder of Reva, her neighbor Ruben, and Hope’s parents, and shocked him whenever he was behaving in a particularly foul manner. Desperate, she turned to finding his parents, the two people in the world he said that he truly hated for abandoning him as a child. His mother was a member of the Kilgrave Victim Support Group she had helped to found, but never attended. His parents revealed that video of his “torture” was actually an experimental medical procedure that saved the previously terminally ill boy’s life. She realized that once Kilgrave knew about his powers, he used them to torture his parents until they fled for their own safety.

Kilgrave’s expression was shocked when Jessica brought his parents forward. They entered his prison to confront him and he forced his mother to kill herself before help could arrive. Trish managed to save his father before he could carry out the order to harm himself by shooting the glass of the prison. Jessica ordered everyone to leave and Kilgrave escaped, but not before Jessica realized that his powers no longer affected her. He couldn’t compel her at all. She was free!

Kilgrave’s father revealed that his powers were due to an airborne virus and he and Trish started to work on a vaccine. Meanwhile, Kilgrave, having left with a compelled Hogarth, found out about his unborn fetus and retrieves it. He also frees Hope from prison and calls Jessica to exchange her life for his father. They give Kilgrave’s father the experimental vaccine and bring him to the arranged meeting place. Finding not only Hope, but a few members of the Kilgrave Victim Support Group as hostages, including Malcolm. Hope learns that Jessica is immune to Kilgrave’s powers and that the vaccine is not effective. She kills herself to free Jessica to kill her tormentor, knowing that she is a pawn. Jessica saves the support group from killing themselves and watches Hope die with tears in her eyes and the girl’s head in her lap. Hope makes her vow to kill him. Enough is enough.

Kilgrave puts his father to work with the fetus material to heighten his powers so that he might manage to influence Jessica again. He called Jessica and threatened Luke Cage, a man he had met and realized that Jessica loved. As she ran to the bar he owned, it was soon engulfed in flames from an explosion, but Luke emerged unharmed. They found that Kilgrave had been testing his new, stronger powers at a nightclub. They arrived and Jessica went to attack Kilgrave, but it quickly became clear that Luke was being controlled. He attempted to kill Jessica and she was forced to shoot him in the head. His powers meant that he did not take any obvious injury, but he still lapsed into unconsciousness.

Jessica rushed him to the hospital, but they were unable to help him due to his skin bending their needles. Claire Temple reluctantly helped Jessica free him from the hospital and returned to the apartment with her. She managed to relieve the pressure in his brain by introducing the needle through his eye and stayed with him while Jessica continued her search. She found the apartment where Kilgrave had been holed up with the body of his father in it. She soon found a letter indicating that she should join him at the Hudson Ferry Terminal.

Knowing it was a trap, Trish acted as a decoy, but Jessica still had to fight through entranced police officers and innocent bystanders to get to Kilgrave. When he gave his commands to those gathered, Jessica seemed to be effected by them too. He brought Trish to him and taunted Jessica by telling her that he would take Trish, the only person she’d ever loved, and make her his; rape her over and over. When it became clear that Jessica truly seemed to be compelled, he moved closer to her with hope in his eyes. He ordered her to smile and tell him that she loved him. She glanced past him at Trish, told her that she loved her, and snapped Kilgrave’s neck. No one threatened Trish and got away with it.

Hogarth managed to convince the police to let Jessica go, claiming Kilgrave’s powers meant that she was not responsible. Jessica returned home to thousands of messages asking for her help.

Unable to quiet the whispers of guilt, she spends her days drinking and avoiding everyone she loves, wallowing in depression. She thought that killing him would change things for the better, but she was wrong.