ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ

[formidable]

Androids, psychics, magic, investigations, and finding out how to human. ➢ Cool Mood Music No. 1 ➤ Cool Mood Music No. 2

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[determinare]

[He follows with ease, given how Ai seems to be parting the sea of people with her giant bear. Connor walks casually enough behind, but pacing his step so that he stays close.

When they reach the booth, there are several seats open, and they’re both met with the eager faces of people who have volunteered to help out at the fair. A middle aged, smiling woman asks Connor’s name, and he replies in kind. She then asks what he might want painted on his face, and he has to pause because... well the didn’t think of that.]

I think... a dog.

[Because of course a dog.

The woman chuckles and says that’s an easy enough request, and tells Connor to lean in a little and remain still. He does, and she paints a little dog face on his cheek.

In the interim, Connor glances over at Ai to see how she’s doing.]

[emotive]

[Ai has the bear sitting next to her as a volunteer works on her face. Her chosen design seems to be blue butterfly wings that frame her eyes like a mask. She sits quietly, eyes closed whenever it was needed, and within a few minutes, she's done.

Ai glances at Connor to see... The dog. That's so...]

... Cute.

[determinare]

[He’s done before she is, since his design was not all that large or complicated. And so when she turns to look at his face, he’s already turned his body towards her.]

The dog? She showed it to me in the mirror. I like it.

[Sometimes the simple pleasures are more than enough for Connor.]

I like the color of yours. It looks like you have some excess paint here, though—

[He reaches out with a finger to brush where there’s an extra blue dab of paint on her cheekbone.]

[emotive]

[That gesture startles her somewhat, making her eyes widen a bit but it's over just as fast. The painter who decorated her face whispers to Connor's painter "Now THAT was cute."]

Oh. Thanks for... Getting that.

[(When was the last time she felt this happy and then fluttery with light confusion all at once?) Ai slides off of her chair fanning her face (to dry the paint really) and then when it's less damp, she takes her bear.]

Wanna see if the Ferris Wheel is available now? Line should be smaller.

[determinare]

[The paint stains his “skin” a dark shade of blue, and Connor examines his fingertip for a brief moment.

He can’t help it. Out of instinct and habit and curiosity, it must be done.

So when Ai recovers from fanning her face and looks to Connor, he’s pressing that same finger to his tongue.

Starch. Animal fat. Cobalt oxide.

Oh, sorry, Ai — did you say something?]

[emotive]

[UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

The volunteers look at Connor in horror.]

"Er, honey? I don't think that's edible...?"

"Ewwwww!"

[Ai is going to quickly use her bear to push Connor away from the painting booth and hiding his back from the two and when they're far enough away.]

I thought you didn't eat?!

[determinare]

[He has just finished interpreting the data when all of a sudden, he’s pushed away via big squishy bear. Connor looks confused for a second, then turns his head to look at Ai. At least he doesn’t have his finger in his mouth now.]

I don’t eat. You’re referring to the paint?

[He holds up his finger, still stained with a faint blue.]

I was taking a sample of it. I was curious of its composition. [This conversation seems familiar...] I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you.

[emotive]

[So much for being discreet... Maybe the people will just think Connor is a weirdo who eats paint.

Her brows furrow at him when he calls it "taking a sample."]

Your tongue can do that?

[determinare]

[I mean it’s not untrue]

Yes. I can test samples in real-time. But it’s not usually paint; it’s often times blood.

[emotive]

[Using the arm of the teddy bear, she reaches up to cover Connor's mouth.]

Say no more.

[determinare]

[Silenced by a teddy bear. He doesn’t say anything, but his eyes are alight with “???”]

...

[emotive]

How do I say this...?

[Ai puts the teddy arm down and is tapping one foot.]

That sounded disturbing.

[determinare]

[A beat, then slowly, carefully:]

That I can analyze blood samples in real-time...?

[emotive]

No, it's disturbing because you use your mouth to do that.

[determinare]

[This appears to be the same problem that Hank has with this.]

But you understand that I'm not actually eating it?

[emotive]

[SIGH... ]

Just. Try not to do that here? People will start to suspect that something is off about you.

[Lick whatever you want back where there are more androids tho]

[determinare]

[Idly, he pushes his glasses back up his nose again.]

...Right. Sorry.

[She has a point there. It'd be difficult to explain, other than proclaiming that Connor is just a strange dude who likes to eat weird things.]

I won't do it again.

[.....probably.]

[emotive]

[She looks at him thoughtfully and then reaches up to pat him on the shoulder.]

You DID clean off the extra paint off of my face so... Thanks!

[she's just trying to be positive... ]

[determinare]

Ah... you're welcome. I guess some habits are just hard to break.

[That paint was almost the same color as thirium, after all. It was hard to ignore the impulse.]

I didn't mean to derail us. You wanted to still ride the Ferris wheel?

[emotive]

Mm hm! Let's go before the line becomes long again.

[Thankfully they aren't that far away and after two groups ahead of them go inside their carts, Ai is able to steal one for the both of them. The bear even gets to come along! She pushes the teddy bear to the side so she can look outside the window from her right.]

Stay still okay? I'll admit, if I went on these with Lien, she'd try to make the cart move back and forth as we go up. It kind of makes me nervous.

[determinare]

[He slides into his seat, the one across from Ai. The cart does sway a little from their added weight, but nothing out of the ordinary; a lazy, almost indolent swing. Connor turns his head to look out in the same direction, watching the carnival goers below.]

That would make many people nervous. Heights are a common fear in humans. And probably some androids, too.

[The height doesn’t affect Connor in that way, though. Up here, he thinks about how she said she could fly, and what it would feel like to be so far above civilization, looking down upon it as everyone continued their daily lives.

The skies are still grey, allowing for strange, ghostly tinges of light to fall into their passenger car. It illuminates the little dog painting on his face with clarity.]

…I like it, though.

[emotive]

[Ai glances at him, studying the side of his face as he looks outside the window. Android. She has to let herself remember every now and then as if the distinction helped reminded her of not how much he lacked, but how much he has yet to gain. She and Lien are in a sense, his anchor in this world of theirs. An opportunity to be somewhere else where the constraints are looser.

It makes her wonder aloud, it makes her want to gauge:]

Connor?

Do you think you feel like you have freedom right now?

[It's a loaded question, but she has to know.]

[determinare]

[Freedom? How that question rang so loudly in his head these days — how it had defined his life in conflicting ways just half a year before. Connor’s brow furrows, easily seen from even his profile in this lighting. He watches as a couple of children dart away from a fussing mom below. As a couple sits on a bench together, laughing about something silly. A large family, a whole gaggle of young and old, milling about and looking like they were deciding what to do next.

Everything here was so… normal, in a way he didn’t realize how normal was until he arrived here. There are no expectations tossed upon him, no looks of hate or concern or pity because of what he is. He is considered human, and in a lot of ways that is freeing as much as it highlights just how much he actually doesn’t have.

It’s hard to know how to answer.]

Yes… and no.

[He looks at her.]

There’s freedom here, in what I can do and experience. People don’t see me as something inhuman, they see me as one of you. And it’s refreshing to be treated accordingly.

[A shadow of melancholy passes over his features, just barely there.]

But as nice as it is, it’s still just me hiding from the reality of the situation. If people here knew what I was, I think the reaction would be fear. And I can’t ignore the issues of my own world, hanging over my head. No matter how nice it is to spend time in this world, and with you.

[Ah, well, he looks out the window again.]

Sorry, I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful. I am. It’s hard to explain. [His mind turns itself over for a comparison.] It’s like walking in the sunlight with a shadow still following behind you.

[emotive]

... It's okay. It helps me to understand.

[She leans against her bear, looking as if she wants to drift away into a dreamless sleep. Her eyes are just open halfway as she looks outside their window at the pale light being covered up by grey clouds.]

I think I know what you mean though; about being a shadow that is.

[Boy, does she get it.]

When I think about how you came to be Connor, it makes me realize you had a purpose and a focused path to stay on. That you didn't need the long-term developments humans have from infancy to their adulthood. In a sense, I was born like that too. There's a purpose to my existence. There is a path people want me to follow.

[Her voice grows soft, melancholy, matching the pale light of the outside.]

But I can't do that. I'm not the person people want me to be. [Not when she's just a copy, a remnant of someone who is and isn't her.]

... Do you know why I like flying so much?

[determinare]

[Connor tears his gaze away from the horizon he’s not really seeing in the moment. He takes in Ai’s face, and for the first time, he views something there he’s never noticed before. A sort of melancholy, a somber resignation, that perhaps sums up better the emotions that are tumbling around in his own core right now.

She’s right, of course — he had been built for a purpose. To be a machine, to not question the mission. And when he had broken away from all of that, he found that was merely part of what was expected of him, too; that in defying who he was supposed to be, he fell into it all the same.

But Ai… was she not allowed to choose her path from the start, either? There was something inherently sad in that, he thinks. This girl, kind and helpful to him, had once felt so suffocated by expectations. He hasn’t forgotten her admitting to him that she felt free now, where she didn’t before. And even then, he knew of the weight of being wrenched from your purpose still leaving a hole in one’s chest.

His LED has faded to yellow, though hidden.]

…No. Why?