sweethymns | ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ

[Ai had brought Connor to the aquarium, she reasoned, was because she had never been to one herself.

Inside of the darkened building, the prominent glow of blue and the colorful marine life reflects and bounces off her dark hair. Her back is turned to him at first before turning around to look at the android. Her own blue eyes appear to be enhanced as a streak of light lands across her face.]

I'm so glad we came here together! I remembered reading articles about how they were making... Well, android animals and I thought you'd like to see a sizeable collection of sea life! The real thing even.

[She's enjoying herself and yet... She hadn't acknowledged that odd night they shared, when they had too much to drink, and too much to express.]

We should go touch the stingrays next!

[Connor is, mostly definitely, an animal person.

Fish are no different, in his eyes. They’re something mesmerizing about the way they flit through the water, the lighting casting something ephemeral across scaled bodies. Sometimes Connor seems almost enthralled by them, leaning forward and close to the glass, watching them coast by. He hears Ai piping up, pulling his focus away to look at her in this blue-tinted lighting.]

I’d like that.

[At least they’re both enjoying themselves — Connor smiles at her, but then returns his gaze to the tank. Colorful fish swim by, and he wishes, idly, that he could scan them.]

They’re very colorful, aren’t they?

I'm used to eating fish, not just looking at them...

[Ai, that's not something you can say so casually!!! A family of clown fish passes by and she looks at them wistfully.]

... I wonder if you could bring a fish back with you? Or would that be too suspicious to keep as a pet?

[Ai, you and your endless appetite. Connor's not surprised that she's made that remark. He actually huffs out something that sounds like a laugh.]

I don't know if the aquarium would appreciate that very much. Many of these are exotic fish, after all. I imagine their care is a little more complicated than normal.

And there's Sumo! Not that he'd bother a fish, but he needs his own brand of love and care.

[With her hands clasped behind her back, her eyes move to her feet before she looks back up at the fish. There's a dreamlike quality to the inside of the aquarium as the atmosphere and light washes over them, a world within a world.

Sometimes she feels the time she spends with Connor is a dream. And with how he's human right now, instead of an android, it's as if she's just a normal girl who met a normal boy. But their realities, stuff from the likes of fiction and even stranger, are what their lives are and what happened to intersect.

There had been something she had been wondering for a while and she's not sure why it never occurred to ask him before.]

Connor? I don't think I ever asked you, but... What was it like? Your first day waking up?

[He smiles wider at the comment about Sumo; she was right, after all. Not that Sumo would care if there was a fish in the house (he wondered if Hank would put up a fuss, but he's sure the Lieutenant would relent), but maybe the dog was worth the lion's share of his attentions for now.

At the other question, though, his expression falls by the smallest degree. Not quite crossing the line into melancholy, but he sort of look that plays upon the features of someone who feels like they're trying to remember a faraway dream -- a lifetime past.

He straightens, looking at her with fractals of light from the aquarium playing across the lines of his face.]

My first day? It was-

[Hard to put in words. His mindset was so different then than it was now. Just a machine, a blank slate, ready to receive orders.]

I... the first person I saw, who I spoke to, wasn't even human. My consciousness arose within the confines of a graphical interface -- the Zen Garden -- and I was met with an AI. She told me of my designation, my name, and my purpose. Told me to repeat it to her. I did, without question.

[A beat.]

That was all I needed to know, at the time.

... And you probably didn't question it did you?

[Ai turns back to look into the deep blues of the water, studying the cracks and rough surfaces of coral and sea plants that create the ecosystem in front of them. Another family of fish floats by their faces and she marvels silently at how identical they look and how she's unable to tell them apart.]

I think I remember you mentioning that... If you were damaged, the information you acquired would transition into another body?

At the time, I had no reason to question it. I existed to serve a purpose… I was built to serve a purpose. It would’ve been strange for me to have not been given orders as a result.

[It even feels strange talking about it now. Almost a little shameful, that part of him that would’ve hunted deviants without question, without remorse. CyberLife’s gentle claws in his core programming, and Connor content to not fight against it until the very end.]

And yes. [He looks at her again, puling his gaze away from the fish darting by.] My memory could be uploaded into a different RK800 model if I died, but some of it would be fragmented. I avoided that, thankfully. But—

[He thinks of the CyberLife manufacturing facility, being met with that other “him”, the one who would pull the trigger and kill Hank without a second’s thought; without so much as blinking, as long as it guaranteed the success of its own mission.]

There was another one like me. I met him once.

Oh...

[Ai looks troubled at the thought as well as the implications slowly dawn on her.]

So it was you... But not you at all.

[So much alike and yet so different (was it all that different from her??)

There's something about what Connor says that makes Ai move a step closer to him as if wanting to reassure herself of his presence. This is the one and only Connor that she knows and wants to be with right now. Would she be so accepting of another or...?

(Is that how others in her world, who knew of her true origin, felt about her?)]

... And only once...

[Not a question. She seems to pick up on the bare context clues.]

... When you put it like that, it makes me realize...

We're a little similar, Connor.

[And that just earns a questioning glance, even as she steps forward. He isn't inclined to move away, only tilting his head at her, brow pinched.]

What do you mean?

[Because of her sister? Surely not. That made little correlating sense.]

I... It's a little...

[It's harder to explain than she thought. Ai's hands grip the railing that separates them from the tank.]

By now, I think you're able to tell that Lien and I... We don't live conventionally. We prefer to stay away from the people who raised us.

I mean, considering what we are it was never going to be like that, to begin with.

[She's struggling with her words and it shows as she takes a deep breath. There's a sense of guilt and shame lying beneath the surface of her eyes.]

The point I'm trying to make is that... So if an android model can have multiple copies that look the same on the surface, it's possible in this world for humans too.

You know.

[Her voice drops where it's barely above a whisper.]

Cloning.

[Connor is surprised, eyebrows raising; if he was in his android form right now, his LED would be flickering quietly at his temple, to match the glow of the aquariums surrounding them.]

You're a... clone?

[The both of them, maybe, more than just twins. How could he have known? Were there clues that even an RK800 unit missed during the time they spent together?]

....of whom?

[The weight seems to remain even after she gives the revelation willingly. Her shoulders hiked up, her hands unreleased from the railing, the way her breathing seems less relaxed; all signs of quiet distress.

It always happens when it comes to talking about her origin.]

It was... She was someone with really great power. Someone who was an esper unlike any other.

She died. [One hand reaches up to run through some strands of hair.]

But they keep her remains or material preserved somehow and... Well. Lien and I are the best physical copies of that esper to date. I don't know how they made us.

ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴀʟʟ

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐨𝐧

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