sweethymns | Hᴜᴍᴀɴ sʏsᴛᴇᴍ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ

[Lien Kha has messed up somewhere.

Her mind is a haze of memories from the most recent images to flashes of moments long past. Darkness imprisons her mind from awakening and her physical body from consciousness. She struggles through the recesses of her head to distinguish dream from hallucination and her own confusion from the remnants she picks up from others through her touch as it wires into her brain. Her chest hurts. Her body aches. Was it a wrong turn? Was she supposed to not let go when she followed her sister, her mirror, her reflection, through the innocuous door that she thought they had fixed together? Was it a glance in another direction that led her astray?

She remembers hearing a cry, a distant and echoing thing. She feels like crying. She hates it. She's in pain She's still in the dark. She needs to wake up. Sleep is supposed to help her drain away the excess, not confuse her more. Lien yells at herself to wake up and fix herself immediately, to go back, to go somewhere, anywhere.

I thought I saw...

Something else. Like how everything changed, but nothing was different. The same, but different.

So maybe in my heart, I wanted to see what it was. ]

...

[Vivid blue eyes stare up at a pristine ceiling with crisp and modern lights. Lien immediately registers the rather comfy bed that she is laying on top of and the pillow she had been hugging with a vicelike grip. There was sweat running down the sides of her face and neck as if she had woken up from a nightmare and her body feels like it's been bruised all over. Her hand reaches up to gauge the temperature of her forehead, but most of all to give herself a body check and assessment.]

... Trauma. [Lien is muttering. Her body seems to register what she had gone through as just that. Her eyelids flutter and she grimaces and groans trying to stay awake.]

God, get it together self!

[Her hands shake and it takes her another second to realize that while it can register temperature, they're numb. Her psychometry was dulled while she's in this state and she shifts uncomfortably glancing around the hotel room. It's a nice place, probably really pricey.]

I do NOT want to know how much this all costs.

Edited 2018-09-13 05:27 (UTC)

[He had found her unconscious in an alleyway.

It was a matter or deciding what to do from there. Calling medical services would have been the most efficient route to take, the normal response to a human found suddenly still and unresponsive on the ground, with no visible reasoning as to why. No signs of trauma around her head, or anywhere on the body. No injuries that he could see via a scan -- and he did scan her -- only that she was in a state similar to sleep, within the confines of a vivid dream. A nightmare, maybe, but there was no waking her from it. Medically induced coma, perhaps.

Perhaps. If he hadn't seen the split-second of something she had fallen out of, a thrumming portal of energy that had spat her out and closed a second later. That had given him pause, sent his LED flashing into the yellow upon viewing the unknown. That was reason for more concern than usual. That made him want to question her rather than have the EMTs come to her rescue, for he knew what he saw wouldn't be believed by normal eyes. That humans could delve into his memories and playback a neat little recording, but would still likely chalk it up to an error in his processing.

He does not house any errors in his programming. That, he knows.

So he's brought her here, to a nearby hotel, waiting to see what might happen. And when she awakens, his expression is still placid, still... unaffected, with only the smallest tug of a frown to pair with a voice that sounds almost uninterested.]

Five-hundred and thirty-four dollars a night. But I'll cover the costs.

[He steps forward, closer to where she's sitting on the bed, scrutinizing.]

You're finally awake.

Edited 2018-09-16 01:05 (UTC)

Five-hundred...

[It's that, and not the android in the room, that makes the young woman shoot up from the bed from the sheer shock of that ludicrous price-point.]

Five-hundred?! Oh my god, if you wanted to kill me with a heart attack, that should have been taken care of...

["You're finally awake."

Lien blinks as the familiar (the same, but different) voice remarks on her current state of consciousness and she finally turns her head to look at who it is, standing over her. Her stomach makes a tumbling sensation within and not in a pleasant way when she takes in the man... Or rather, android's appearance. A name pops into her mind and threatens to spill out of her mouth, but by some minute miracle, she does not blurt out what instinct wanted her to assume. Her investigative side, the side that can hone in on details, obvious and under the surface, makes her give him a once-over. Same, but different facial features (lighter eyes, not brown) and jawline; hair is just about an identical cut. His jacket is the inverse of what she is familiar with and on top of that a different model number. And unlike the RK800... No, unlike Connor, who despite being a machine had some measure of living presence because of the time spent with the twins, the RK900 that stands before her does not give off that aura. The implications that have been brought up, just from this different android's presence are barely starting to leak in and each drop is like a bitter drop of medicine.

There is distrust in her eyes and in the way her arms wrap around the pillow, fingers digging into the surface as if it was her anchor. The esper is reevaluating her next few steps, thinking very carefully about her next few words, lest she gives any reason to be locked up and questioned.

The pause is long, almost a full two minutes. Then, she inhales and exhales a shuddery stream of breath.]

...

And you're freakishly tall.

[Said with the manner and tone of a smartass middle school kid. Great move.]

[He blinks down at her, spine straight, clasping his hands behind his back. Without missing a beat:]

I suppose someone your height would be predisposed to think that.

[SICK ROBO BURN

But his face is just as placid as before when he speaks; everything about this android is straight edges and sharp lines. The cut of his uniform might be familiar to her, but even that seems strangely made of acute angles, highlighted by the starkness of black and white. He lacks kindness in his features, blue eyes calculatingly cold, and his LED spins evenly before he speaks again.]

Who are you, exactly?

[Straight to the point. No reason to forestall the reason why he shuffled her off into a hotel room, so that he could pluck answers from her when she awoke. He figures that she's in a good enough mental state for it, if she's tossing out psuedo-insults at him already.]

Edited 2018-09-16 06:06 (UTC)

[Her brow knits together when he manages to throw an equally smart remark back at her with ease. Lien looks to the left and right of her to find her red-rimmed glasses and to her small relief, it's set down on the end table next to her. Sweeping them up with still trembling fingers, the eyeglasses are placed on the bridge of her nose and she blinks rapidly to readjust her eyesight.]

I'm...

[She knows that he wants her identity, her origin, and to clarify. And honestly? There's a lot to unpack and she still has to sort out what information she's willing to give this android.

And also.

Lien was sitting up but a flash of wooziness hits her again and she collapses onto her back, glasses laying lopsided on her face and her braided pigtails splayed across her belly.]

I'm tired.

[A short pause. And with pursed lips and a shrug, deciding that it was okay, she finally gives him a name.]

You can call me Lien. But also, I AM tired. And I'm trying to understand... Sorry. My head's not screwed on straight.

Edited 2018-09-16 06:20 (UTC)

[He watches wordlessly as she fidgets with her glasses, only to collapse back into the bed. He gets a name from it, at least, and that's a start. His LED flickers as he commits it to memory, though it isn't difficult at all to do so.]

Lien. [-he repeats, as if testing how it falls off of his tongue.] You're tired from what?

[Half a second before he continues.]

Your head is affected, but you don't have concussion. I made sure to scan your body thoroughly for any oddities or injury, and all I could find were signs of exhaustion and overexertion.

[There will be a joke about body scanning, mark my words. But she doesn't feel the energy to muster up even that much.]

Oh yeah?

I bet you can't make a face match either, can you buddy? As for what I'm tired from... Heck.

I mean, it's hard for me to recall and it literally just happened... Uh... How many hours...?

[One hand moves to her forehead. If RK900 continues to scan closely, there's a light energy signal coming from her fingers as she scans herself.]

... Two hours ago? Two hours, 39 minutes, aaaand 54 seconds ago. Wow. Call me the Blackout Queen.

Okay, Blackout Queen.

[It's hard to tell if that's sass/sarcasm, with how deadpan of a delivery it was. (But it was sarcasm; something that had transferred over from the prototype RK800, but given a blunt-force application.)]

Then allow me to provide you with a detail that may help you remember. You-

[The glow of her fingertips indeed doesn't escape his notice, not when he's constantly observing her. Not when he was literally created to be observant, and yes, he also notes how she's so sure he couldn't have found a facial match. (He couldn't.)

Definitely a mystery that needs clearing up.]

-came out of an object that was radiating a physically impossible amount of energy. [It had set his scans in a tizzy, buzzing HUD and warnings going off in his vision. He doesn't mention that.] Can you explain that?

[Because the voice is the same, but this time with an attitude that Lien is not sure she likes or not (she decides not for now), it's... Disorienting. She's used to RK800's pleasant politeness, the way he naturally reacts when an interaction is off-kilter, no thanks to her...

But then again, that android is a deviant. This one is...]

Ah. That thing.

[She forces herself up so that she can sit and face him properly. Her legs dangle on the side of the bed. Taking a deep breath, she readies herself for a disjointed explanation.]

I can explain it, but it's gonna sound stupid. You ready?

[She doesn't wait for him to reply and in her usual blunt manner, she lays it out.]

It's a door that bridges the place I come from to this place. Previously, I thought it only led to one location and time period, but I'm beginning to get the gut feeling I took a wrong turn somewhere and it kicked my ass into here.

The end.

A "location and time period"?

[He echoes her words back, and his LED spins. Finally, that placid expression is just barely cracked by a lift of a single brow. The tilt of his chin upwards by the smallest fraction, eyes still planted on her form.

A moment of silence.

... ]

You're right. That does sound stupid. Maybe you did hit your head and my scan was misinterpreted; in that case, it's a hospital bed you should be in.

Bzzzzzzzt. Rejected!

[Lien makes an 'X' sign with her index fingers and gives RK900 an exaggerated frown.]

You just told me what you saw and I don't think a top of the line model like yourself would have faulty and misinterpreted footage.

[She assumes "top of the line" because of the 900. The bigger, the fancier right? RIGHT?]

And we just established that you can't make a face match and thus, the more probable conclusion is that I am not recorded in any known database on this planet Earth. And if I'm making my admittedly, somewhat shoddy points, I think the hospital bed would be overdoing it.

My head's clearing up and I'm doing you a favor by just telling and confirming what happened to me. You know what you saw and I know what happened to me.

[She crosses her arms defiantly.]

[It's a solid argument, one that he didn't expect. Admittedly, his comment about the hospital bed was more of a veiled threat than anything he actually believed -- he knew there was something strange happening, but the bane of his existence is not knowing how or why. This dearth of information is what led him to drag her here in the first place, instead of calling the proper faculties to take care of her.

And so, he's briefly quiet again. There's still the issue of reconciling what is physically possible, what is logically believable, against what the proof shows. What he saw in the alleyway, the glow in her hands, the assuredness of what she's telling him. Vocal assessment doesn't read the usual cues of stress incited by lies. She's being suspiciously truthful, despite her weariness.

Finally:]

This top of the line model still knows what's possible and what isn't. What you said to me infers interdimensional time travel. Is that what you're claiming?

[...]

Tell the truth or I really will just have you admitted to the local hospital. Or the police; it would be on the way.

[There's the threat to scare the information out of her; the RK900 is quicker to fall upon skills found in the interrogation room, it would seem.]

[She ignores the threat although there are some body language cues and the quickened pulse of her heart that shows she's not completely stoic. Instead...]

Do you know the movie, Back to the Future? It's kind of like that, except I can probably just. Leave. So that's like 90% of the movie I don't have to do.

[Lien pulls up her legs, crossing them and placing her hands on her knees. He'll get the truth that he asks of her, just probably not quite the kind he wants. Nothing entirely logical anyways.]

I'm Lien Kha, nineteen years old, currently residing in the state of California... in the year 2016.

So yeah. Chew on that for a sec.

[Back to the Future. A quick access of the internet, shown through the telltale flicker of light on his temple. Views the descriptor brought up in his vision, his gaze only briefly turned away from her.

... It stars Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back in time to 1955, where he meets his future parents and becomes his mother's romantic interest...]

You're traveling to and from your time period because you're looking for romance?

[No, wait, that can't be right. The heads-up display disappears with a blink and he refocuses on her.]

2016. Not that long ago, if what you're telling me is somehow true. [None of this still makes very much sense, but if he falls along this line of questioning, maybe she'll offer something he can actually work with. Some bit of usefulness in the chaff.]

Where were you attempting to go?

[Lien makes a face.]

Oi. The hell kind of conclusion is that?

[It's the time travel!! Time Travel!! Lien tugs at one of her braids, fidgeting a little.]

And that's the thing. I'm in the place I wanted to be, but it's all different... Um.

[Lien scans the end table with a sideways glance looking for a pen and paper... No pen and paper, but there is a small tablet of sorts. She leans over to grab it and gives it a quick study with her psychometry; it's just a small pulse of energy, but enough for her to understand the basic functions to turn it on, off, and know what programs she can use on it.

Her finger swipes across the screen opening up a drawing application, seeing if a diagram could help supplement her following explanation.]

So I'm from here and here's my endpoint.

["CA 2016" is drawn with a scrawled on the door and an arrow going to "MI 2038" and it's own scrawled door.]

Now this is where it's gonna get really weird because I know for a fact that I am where I should be but...

[She energetically makes a squiggly line in the middle of the arrow and makes a branching path with a door drawn with "??????"; multiple question marks.]

[He steps forward again, leaning over her to get a better view. He cares little for personal space when his subroutines for negotiation or otherwise catering to human preferences aren’t activated; obviously he hasn’t bothered delving into that part of his programming for her sake. Sorry, Lien.

The graph she draws is simplistic and, honestly, he thinks it was unnecessary. Childish, the use of “????” when she could’ve just used her words to describe her confusion.]

Firstly, explain to me what constitutes the use of the question marks. Your application of visual reference to explain the situation to me is lacking.

Secondly, you’re wrong. You’re still not “in the place” you need to be.

[His logical programming is screaming at him for even entertaining that this is feasible, but then the other half of him, wrapped up in finding solutions, tells it that there’s no other lead to follow. And so—]

The year is 2039.

The visual reference is so I can use fewer words, doofus.

[Lien is frowning again when he leans over her. There are several factors of the unpleasantness of being an unknown person of interest with no discernable identity in a different timeline and also, she knows she's doomed if she tried any funny business. This android would be perfectly equipped if not, overqualified to take her down without question if she tried something like escaping.

Honestly, it was one of these times where she secretly wished she had even a fraction of Ai Thao's powers.

Her eyes widen when he mentions the year.

Well, shit.]

... Well, that fills in a blank for me. And... There's also one more thing.

[She sets down the tablet and clasps her hands together, gearing herself up for... Well. Lien's not sure. But her gut feeling about the whole situation she's landed tells her she needs to remain steady.]

I know of Cyberlife androids because... I was visited by one. And I wanted to visit too. But... If this is what I'm dealing with right now...

... RK900?

[She looks at him directly again, her blue eyes apprehensive.]

What's the status of the RK800 models?

[He isn't even trying to be intimidating right now, his demeanor stoic and steady. But when she looks at him, he latches onto her gaze, unwavering. Something considering in his eyes, something lacking the warmth of the human spark that Connor so easily wields; there is the slightest tilt of his head, questioning. A strand of brown hair falls across his forehead.]

You were visited by a CyberLife android? That's impossible. It would have been reported.

[Fallacy. He hasn't reported this incident yet, though there's still time. He wants to judge the implications of what all this means first.

But the question regarding the RK800 models give him pause. He straightens, wondering at something. Remembering, briefly, the time he saw the RK800, the one who had completed its mission to hunt down and end the deviant insurrection. Recalls what Amanda told it, in the non-warmth of the Zen Garden, roses blooming along wooden lattices, the sound of water whispering at a distance. The brief hesitation that flashed across its face when it was told-]

The RK800 models? "Connor". [He remembers the designation and name given to that prototype.] It's been decommissioned since November of last year. The RK900 was made to replace it.

... Damn.

[And there it is.

There's a hitch of breath and a flash expression of pain in her eyes. Her fingers stiffen and nails dig into tightened white knuckles. There's no doubt about where she is now.

Back in the commune, while their education about the world around them was standard and only ever veering slightly into the supernatural, there were times, she remembered certain instructors talking about what there is in the beyond in a theoretical, but academic sense; such as how other worlds exist in another bubble, butterfly effects, alternate timelines. Yet they were all flights of fancy, even in the context of the fantastical world Lien lives in and viewed as mundane.

Connor's appearance and presence in her and Ai Thao's lives, altered that neutral view to a slight degree. But like with everything in her life, Lien took it all in stride, even taking it for granted. So he was an android that had free will? Ok, that was fine.

But here she is, in Detroit, Michigan in the year 2039 of a branching alternate timeline where there are no psychics, no magic and just advanced technology in a decaying world she can only begin to comprehend.

What does "free will" here look like if it exists at all?

Her silence drags on for another few seconds before speaking up again.]

Connor... Um. His serial number... RK800 #313 248 317 - 51. That's the one I am... Was? I AM acquainted with. He exists elsewhere, but not here. Obviously. Um.

[He tracks her reaction closely, like an object to be observed. Tension running in her hands, stress levels rising slightly. An expression change (sadness? wistfulness?), the flash of recogition in her look. And within that, something more difficult to tack down — he scans her heartbeat, telling him what he already knows. A little more elevated.

She believes what she’s telling him, but there are… inconsistencies. Impossibilities.]

…Accessing records.

[And he does. Files from CyberLife’s servers come into view, a myriad of information, and with a blink, RK900 discards what’s unneeded, instead focusing on what he’s looking for. The deviant case. The history of RK800’s successes and stumbles.]

#313 248 317 - 51. [He repeats, then corrects.] Dash-fifty-one’s body was destroyed from impact. It leapt off of a rooftop to achieve its mission at the time.

That couldn’t have been the RK800 unit that visited you. You say it doesn’t exist here, and you’re correct; but it was no longer online to be anywhere else. Do you understand? Your information must be incorrect.

[With a sigh, Lien takes the tablet again and points to her scrawled out diagram where she crosses out "????" with "2039 - RK900" and corrects the "2038" door with, "2039 - RK800."]

I'm incorrect about one branch, but I'm not incorrect about another. In a way, both are true because the outcomes that occurred are independent of one another. In conclusion: Dash-fifty-one exists in one timeline because he was successful in certain missions and failed in others.

[Because the Connor she knows became a deviant. He failed in his mission to quell the android uprising after all.]

And here... The unit does not exist because it fulfilled its function and if I'm deducing with enough accuracy, so did the others in the RK800 series.

[She can still recall, thanks to her psychometry, Connor confronting another RK800 at the Cyberlife facility.]

Listen. [The tablet is set aside.]

I can sit here all day... Well, room service meal would be nice, but my point is! I can sit here all day debating the existence of alternate timelines and different worlds with you, but you're too rigid in trying to narrow down the most logical conclusion in your context. I haven't even started on what kind of human I am.

[That correction is one that lends credence to making more sense. Better, he thinks, though he'll not say as much. But when she sets the tablet down and looks at him, RK900's regard for her is still detached but considering. As if he's trying to reconcile within himself all that she's saying, and how much information he wishes to pry further.]

A timeline. [So now she's speaking of alternate universes.

A concept that exists in scientific theory, unproven but theoretically feasible. And while still mostly delegated to fiction, it would explain the unexplainable; that portal, the strange energy that's emanated from her hands, how she knows so much about CyberLife and the RK800 without having any trace of existing in this world.

His lips purse.]

...And what kind of human are you?

Well!

For one thing, I'm cute AND spunky!

[...]

That's a matter of personal opinion. Answer the question properly.

Aw.

[You know, she had a good streak going with a few blips before ruining the atmosphere. She gives a dramatic sigh before continuing.]

I am... Let's see.

[She slides off the bed looking around the room before spotting a clock with a holographic display on the writing desk in the corner of the room. Lien moves over to take the object and then turns to RK900.]

Alright, watch my hands and the pupils of my eyes. If I just give you the explanation right away, you'd just think I'm being a weirdo again.

[As if she didn't put effort into making him think that already??

Regardless, she focuses her interest on the digital clock, turning it in her palms. There's a pause and she starts muttering to herself, her eyes glistening. There's that energy signal again, which would be invisible to the naked eye except for an android's.]

𝙖𝙪.𝙚𝙭𝙚

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