sweethymns | ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ

It's partially why she has such uneven and crude humor, why she feels the need to interject with asides and unrelated quips. When you see so much through a psychic touch, you also feel too much.

But she answers his question, actually staying on topic.]

A lot of weird things happen in this world of ours Connor. That's an understatement, but sometimes there isn't a logical answer to the "why." Sometimes, we can only answer the "what" and "how."

Which is why, with your permission, I'm going to have to dig into your database to see what you can recall about the event.

Edited 2018-06-08 16:50 (UTC)

So you basically want to—

[Ah, he pauses again. There’s a terrible amount of irony in this.]

...probe my memory?

Yuuuup! It probably won't feel like what you're thinking about though. I'd imagine a psychic probing is different from a crime-fighting android's probing.

...

Heh. Probe.

[Here comes Ai with the swerve before things go off the rails!]

What she means to say is that it doesn't hurt. It might even feel similar to when I gave you those pulses.

[He shifts in his seat, fingers flexing in his lap. Quiet at first, Connor then nods at the both of them.]

It's fine. If it'll help you, then I give you my permission; but I can't tell you what to expect, if you've never done this with an android before.

Well... I mean, I've extrapolated information from computers and other devices with hefty databanks. You're probably just... 100x more complex? Probably?

So like a human, but more processing power.

[Lien sounds uncertain, but let her finish her breakfast as she thinks this over.]

A fair assumption, but that's all it is. I can't say how easy or difficult it will be, since I've never had a human rifle through my mind before.

[He'll wait patiently, his hand going into his pocket again to take the coin out and glide it across his knuckles idly as she eats.]

Hopefully you'll find what you're looking for.

What I'm looking for specifically is the moment you crossed over. Even if your memory isn't clear about it, I can still take what I find and interpret it as best as I can with some of your input too.

Hopefully, that's all there is to it. You never know.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[He clenches the coin in his palm, sighing.]

Is there anything I need to do during the process? Just close my eyes? [If even that?]

Just sit still! Hard to do my thing if my target is wriggly. Gotta say I've knocked out more than my fair share of unwilling participants.

[She sounds so chipper.]

But to be fair, they were criminals.

[She really is a very excitable young woman. He wonders how her and Ai had deviated so much in their personalities — upbringing, or simply an ingrained difference of who they were?]

In that case, I’d expect nothing less. Thankfully for you, I can sit very still when it’s required of me.

Are we talking like, a long sleep mode or something?

[Lien munches on her breakfast making quick work it. ]

... Weird. Talking with you really does feel natural.

[She squints at him. ]

Not only that, and I'd hate to admit it, but whoever made you had good taste. Right, Ai?

Edited 2018-06-08 22:05 (UTC)

[CUE SPUTTERING and Ai almost chokes on her tea.]

How am I supposed to answer that!?

[???]

'Good taste'?

[Good tastes in android building?]

Yeah! Like, if you were just... I dunno... Built a little...!

[She creates an upside-down triangle by making her elbows touch and hands pointed upwards.]

Cause right now you're just a bean--...

[Ai's eyes glow for a split second and a pillow from the living sofa flies over Connor's head in an arc and then into a straight line into Lien's face, who yelps.]

Stop harassing the android!

[Congrats Connor, you're seeing the regular comedy routine between the twins.]

[The pillow surprises him, arcing just over his head to land squarely in Lien's face. It's a little startling, and Connor blinks -- but this must be how siblings act around each other all the time.

Regardless, he puts two and two together. They were talking about his appearance.]

Ah- if that was a compliment, Lien, then thank you. My friend once called my face "goofy", though, so opinions must differ.

[He doesn't seem to care if she still is recovering from the pillow attack.]

Connor, I'm so sorry... When she's actually doing work, she isn't so...!

[Lien just huffily puts down the pillow and stuffs her mouth with toast.]

We'll get down to business once we're done eating.

[Connor smiles, looking amused.]

You don't have to apologize for her. I can see she just likes to speak her mind.

[To say the least.]

Take your time eating.

[He'll just sit and wait.]

[The quaint if off-kilter breakfast is finished and Ai leads them all to the living room. Lien takes off her glasses and cracks her fingers, not taking a seat like Ai Thao is.]

Okay. So how this works is that, well, I basically touch you. Hand to hand really. It doesn't really matter where unless I'm searching for a very specific something.

[She turns to face Connor, hands on her hips.]

I'll be frozen while I read your database and most likely be uttering a lot of nonsense. That's just me vocalizing the stuff I see. Sound simple enough?

[He takes a seat, listening, craning his head up slightly to look at her. Connor straightens in his seat, attentive. ]

Simple enough, yes. Will you need help finding the right memory?

It kind of helps if you do a recall yourself. So that it can be the most recent memory for me to see instead of me digging through the last 12 hours or so of you sleeping.

I'm not too worried about anything else since you're forthright by design. Hope I don't throw up though.

[Sincerely:]

I really hope you don't. This is the only good shirt I have now.

[He reaches out with his hand, offering. Ready for her to begin.]

Ready when you are.

Ha.

[Lien grasps his hand, but nothing happens yet.]

Got a few more shirts like that for you buddy, wait and see.

[Silence fills the air. Her eyelids close. And just as immediately they open back up and her eyes have become luminous on its surface. Her grip on Connor's hand becomes like a vice, unwilling to let go.

And as Lien said, she begins to utter a stream of conscious, words and sentences in no particular order, all based on what she sees in Connor's mind.]

Make: RK800, CyberLife, investigation, pump regulator functional, auditory functional, 10 no 12 hours ago—

[She's looking for that exact moment, the second he stepped into the other side. That's the only way she or any of them will begin to comprehend how any of this happened.]

[His mind, just like a human’s, is a vast network of connections and electrical impulses. But everything that makes up Connor’s brain is complex and firing so very quickly; information passing through at a flash, so much of it, again and again and again, and all he’s doing currently is sitting there, letting her delve into what makes up his mind, his memories.

It’s vast. Like a bottomless pool, and one could drown in it if they weren’t careful. Lines of code, calculations, numbers and words and things that are inherently defined as clockwork, machine-like. But there’s something else there — his consciousness, memories, emotions. Like flotsam coming up in the sea, large glittering things that stand out in the electrical web and processes of Connor’s brain.

scan rain cyberlife hank ra9 ra9 ra9 snow crunching underfoot the feeling of a gun in his hand life i am alive machines freewill desperation fear humor happiness androids deviants kill her and you’ll i’ll tell you what i want to know software fluctuation destabilization error which side are you on are we on the right side jericho police hidden hiding evidence the color of blue blood staining his lips his tongue samples pigeons chasing through the stalks in the sunlight sumo and cole and a bullet through the head of a face that looks like him

(—his consciousness is like a gentle hand guiding her along to where she needs to go. This is his mind, and none of it hurts him like they promised it wouldn’t, he can wade through this endless sea of himself without drowning. He finds the memory she wants, and it plays.

”Sumo! Where are you going?” Connor’s voice rings out, and from his perspective he sees a large dog walking ahead of him. The dog ruffs a little, panting slowly, and they both walk atop long blades of grass. The weather is getting warm again, the green of the land peeking through dead things in the park.

Hank’s dog was pulling ahead, excited about something or other, large tail swaying lazily. Connor keeps up, curious, and unwilling to lose him, hurrying his step. Through the path, under a line of well-manicured trees casting a shade over his form. Sumo stops, sitting down next to an unoccupied bench. The end of his leash drags behind him, and Connor reaches down to pick it up.

“You shouldn’t pull like that,” he says, plainly. Sumo lets out a long whine and Connor cinches his brow, wondering why the usually laid-back creature seems to be concerned about something. “What is it?” he asks, looking around; but seeing nothing, Connor sits on the old bench with the loop of Sumo’s leash still in his hand.

And then the world stops in a flash. Everything goes dark, and Connor feels like his body is being pulled in every direction at once. The leash slips from his hand — or at least, he thinks it does — or maybe it was never there once he sat. It’s a rush, a fall into a void, the sound of the universe creaking to admit him within. He feels something tearing at his heart (no he doesn’t have a heart, just parts and plastic and strangely colored blood), his chest sears with not-pain, and suddenly he’s on the ground.

It isn’t the grass of the park. It’s the cold concrete of a dirty alleyway, his vision sideways with his face planted against the ground. Liquid pools at his chest, staining clothes blue. He tries to pull himself up, and it floods down his front, his chest, too much of it lost — the countdown timer appears in his vision. Warning: internal critical failure eminent.

He tries to stand. Presses a hand to his chest, tries to walk, but braces himself against the alleyway. What was happening, he needed help, was he going to die—

Connor brings her back, out of the memory. Back into the torrential flow of connection. From here, she’ll have to get herself out.)

amanda rk800 everything is blue all the sleeping ones lined up ready to awaken and he feels fingers clench around a wrist chains prison freedom your people what choice will you make man or machine snow escape speeches and droves of plastic marching down the street burgers alcohol a friend on the ground androids who claim to love and feel and care a hole in the heart and what does he do now with so much freedom]

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