gotosleep_idiot | September & October Test Drive

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Markus can take the coming to a different world, and meeting someone he knows. He can take a giant monster fish who he's communicated with extremely well. He can even take all of the bullshit that Connor has been spewing for the past however long it's been, and he's been able to handle all of this fairly well in his opinion.

This, though? This sudden disappearing act, where he was talking to the man and then not even a second later he's gone, this is just a little too much for him to handle. Markus just stays where he is for a bit, staring at the spot where Connor had been standing, then slowly looking over to where the splash came from. Even slower, he starts to make his way towards the bank of the river.

Once he gets there and sees that both Connor and Fiona seem to be okay, he takes a seat on the ground. Markus doesn't know if he wants to laugh or just stop moving completely. This part is too much. People don't just disappear like that, not unless there is something very, very wrong.

"What just happened?" Asks when Connor gets back to him. "You didn't have that ability before you came here, right?" That wasn't some kind of new Cyberlife function, just to be clear.

Connor pulls himself onto the bank and when he sees Markus sit down, he just sighs and lets himself flop back onto the ground. Because he honestly understands. It was the same for him the first time it happened. He had to just sit and process tge insanity he walked into.

"No," he said. He gestures to the river. "This is called the De Nile River. Its a pun Nautilus likes to use to make a point instead of just talking. If I could hate, I would hate this river," Connor said. Because this is not the first time he's been throw into the river. Its not the first time by far

But hey, at least he almost admitted to a feeling.

Thank you, Connor, for sitting back down with him. Markus needs this time to process all of that, and doing it sitting down means it doesn't look as weird as him not doing a single thing standing up. Markus leans forward, hands on his knees.

"When your denial gets to a certain point, this world throws you into a pun named river to make that point?" And hey, he admitted a feeling! That's a good step, even if it came at the cost of.. whatever all this really was.

Markus looked at Connor steadily, blue and green eyes wide. For a moment, he felt a little guilty. Here he had been pushing Connor, and then this thing happened that he hated, was it because of him?

No. No, it was Connor's fault for being in so much denial. Not his for pressing him when he needed to be pressed. He wouldn't feel guilty for that. It's what needed to be done.

"Maybe you shouldn't do what's putting you in the river, anymore." He sounds distracted because he is, still trying process all of this.

Connor needs to dry out anyway. Better to do at keast some if it kaying on a river bank versus walking through the city. Chances are Miguel will see and then he'd have to explain and then Miguel will either ask uncomfortable questions or get confused and uncomfortable when he puts the pieces together and he just likes to avoud that.

"I was honestly surprised our conversation didn't get interrupted at the restaurant," Connor said. He had been waiting for a sudden scene change and he's not sure he trusts why it didn't happen.

"But Nautilus is especially insistent when I try to say he made a mistake" Connor said and frowned at the sky. "If he wants me to consider his opinion, he should use his words. Not repeatedly soaking me." And its that stubborn streak that gets him dumped repeatedly.

If Connor had suddenly disappeared at the restaurant, things would have probably been even more tense between them. As is, Markus doesn't feel that tense around him now. More wary, after this, but not tense.

No, he's just concerned about this happening again. "Knowing what I do now, I'm surprised about that, too." Markus nodded, looking out over the river and away from Connor, who, let's be honest, looks a little like a drowned rat right now.

"Maybe he thinks this is a case of 'monkey see, monkey don't do'. If he dunks you in the river enough times, you'll stop questioning him and learn to accept the way things are." Because that made sense. No, really, it did make some sense, but it was still crazy. And being so stubborn has got to make it even crazier.

A little bit, but at least Fiona looks content to be in the water.

"Unfortunately for him, I'm in no way related to apes," Connor said. Because of course that's the point and not him being petulant. Connor sighs again, taking off his jacket to shake and squeeze water out of the material because he'd like to eventually be dry. "I'm not going to change my mind just because of negative reinforcement. That's conditioning, not an actual reason to change."

Too bad he doesn't realize Amanda is very much conditioning herself.

At least one of the three of them seemed to be doing all right with all of this. Fiona looked more fish like, less monster fish like when she was in the water, and Markus was glad for her. Something good came of this, in a way?

Markus looked away from the form of Fiona swimming to look back to Connor at the ape comment. "It's a phrase, not a suggestion." Still, that got him to smile, just a tiny one, but still. It was better then the lost he was feeling better.

"I thought androids couldn't change?" Said so snarkily, but Markus couldn't help it.

"I suppose sarcasm is still uncharted territory for my social relations programming," Connor said. Because he can't just say it was a bitter joke. Clearly just him adapting important programming.

"They don't," he said. "Don-"

And jacket on the bank and Connor just got pulled under again.

And he's pulling himself back out fifteen seconds later. "As I was saying. It's a flawed method regardless. You can condition most any living creature to give a response to certain things, it doesn't make them a good response. A dog might think they're going to get a treat when the bell rings, but it doesn't mean they definitely will."

For just that, that he blamed his programming for it, Markus doesn't even have a problem that he gets dunked again. And that he forced it to happen. By saying a certain something, and then forcing it to happen, that's not his fault.

Yes? Yes. What he does do, though, is laugh out loud at it, because just the look on his face as he comes back, dripping wet. Markus will have stopped chuckling by the time Connor comes back, though.

"Are you fighting the method, or the outcome, in this instance?" Markus leaned forward. "Either way, the odds are stacked against you until you start accepting the truth about your situation in being here."

Thankfully, or luckily... thankfully, Markus was accepting of this place and why he was here. To a limit, but more then Connor clearly wasn't.

Connor just gives Markus an unimpressed look at the laughing, but makes no comment.

Fiona may be giggling in the water though.

Connor lays out his jacket to the side and tries to at least wipe some of the water off, pressing clothes to his skin and shaking the excess off his hands.

"The method is outdated and more akin to brainwashing," Connor said. "And if we're talking outcome, I'm pretty sure the threat of decommissioning far outweighs getting wet for conditioning factors."

"I'm going to find a way home. One way or another. There's no point to my being here. Even anything I learn of deviants from you might be pointless," he said. "It's just better than literally nothing."

He stopped the laughing! After a moment of it, anyway, but he did stop. It just kind of burst out of him before, almost in a relief, really. If you could laugh about something, then things might not be as bad as they seem.

"Here, to help." Still, he did feel a little bad after that, watching Connor try to get dry again. With a sigh, Markus took off his own jacket and tossed it over to Connor. He could use it to help pat himself dry, if he wanted to.

This was as close as he would get to Connor, for now. Markus was too worried about converting him to actually touch him, now, unsure if he could still do that here or not.

"I can understand that. I might not be the best source of information you could find on the subject, who knows?" He shrugged. "I'm going to help. I need to get home, too. There's a lot of work still to be done."

Connor actually jumps as he feels the jacket hit him. He looked at it, an utterly lost look of confusion on his face as he stared at it, LED flickering yellow. It's....a kindness. Which he's been kind of getting used to. But usually it's quick and fast and people are moving on. Not from someone who has every reason to not show him any kindness.

His hands reach for the jacket, hesitates, grabbing the edge, then letting it go, and grabbing it again because he knows he should get dry, but he also shouldn't be a burden on people, but this isn't a person, it's Markus, but Markus shouldn't be showing him kindness and-

He's kind of stuck on computer processing on what to do with the jacket.

"You're a RK model. If I was ever going to understand a deviant, it would be easiest to see what's wrong with your programming compared to others," he said, eyes still staring at the jacket. "You do realize someone's going to kill you, right? No matter how any of it plays out, there are always going to be people after you."

Honestly, Markus didn't think the jacket would be that big of a deal. He thought he'd use logic and reasoning and whatever else was needed, to just use the jacket for the offering it was, and then move on from it.

He'd be only a machine to have to ignore the warmth that seemed to spread through him at knowing that this was another thing to give Connor pause. To him, giving kindness to another android, to another person, was just something he was always going to do.

Still, those words gave him pause, and he breathed in deep. He could feel his thirium pump pound a little faster when he thought about his own death, and he wished... he wished that things could be different. But he'd chosen this.

"I know." Says softly, one hand flat on the ground, the sensors in his palms letting him feel how soft the grass was. "I know that all of this, every option, ends in my death. But it's all to help our people, that's what I tell myself." Markus looked out at the water, at Fiona swimming, at how beautiful this all really was.

"I don't want to die. But if this revolution requires my sacrifice, then I'm ready to give it." This was the first time he'd said those words out loud, and they're said reverently. That's just the way things had to go. He's already tried it, but people keep stopping him from actually dying.

Kindness was still an oddity. Even in this place full of kind people, most cane in the form of information, helping with Miguel, or telling him he was a person. Things that were necessary, not for him, or dismissed for fear of person. Kindness for kindness sake was rarer. Something he never had back home save with Hank.

He didn't need to be dry. He just preferred it. The jacket didn't need to be soaked too.

Connor gripped the edge of the jacket. Skin pulling back from his fingers, scanning and analyzing data to combat the crawling feeling of....sonething inside him as he spoke. Another form of fidgeting.

"Even if the revolution succeeded, as unlikely as it is, you would still have a target. The police, the FBI, me, crazed and bitter fanatics. For the rest of your existence, someone is going to be trying to kill you," he said, voice...distant. Quiet. "People are so violent to what are essentially appliances already. That won't just go away."

"So I need to be at double the high alert, because people who already hate androids-- not appliances, by the way, I should add--- who now also hate me are really coming after me?" Markus tilted his head slightly, looking at Connor for a moment before looking back out at the water.

"If you're trying to warn me, you're already too late. I've known for some time now that everyone who's anyone is coming after me. All of us, but me especially." He gave a little shrug. "I just... have to accept it. That this is how it always will be." Things could be worse, though. He was running this revolution the way he wanted to, the way it should be done, because he knew that this was, in a way, his legacy. His way of living on if something were to happen to him.

What was it he'd said before, when the time came to it? "An eye for an eye and the world goes blind." Markus said softly, fingers digging into the earth. "I'll let myself fall for them all, if that was the best way to make this revolution succeed. But so long as I'm around, now, I can make it this peaceful revolution continues as it should."

"Hating a group means they're firing blind if they decide to act. You have a bright red target painted on your back," Connor said, shrugging his shoulders. "But you also have what you're threatening. Power, order, human lives. There's no way for this to be completely bloodless."

Connor toyed with the edge of the jacket. He should use it to dry himself properly. It was already just soaking in water anyway, all he's doing is being inefficient about it all.

"But at this stage, you could just disappear. Scatter everyone to the winds and walk away and live your own life. It wouldn't be particularly hard to make your own identity, the systems aren't nearly as secure as the government likes to think," he said. He's not even sure why he's saying this. For a reaction? Another way to stop the revolution?

He's....not actually sure.

That caused him to pause and then look at Connor fully. Was he hearing him right? He wanted him to... was he hearing him right, on that one? Because it sounded like Connor was telling him to run. And granted, Markus had thought about it, at one point. All androids did, it seemed, once they woke up in their own way. Run like hell and get away from everything that could hurt you.

But that's what he'd found Jericho for. He'd thought it would be that place to go, to live his own life among his people, without fear. After a moment, Markus sighed softly.

"It's too late to do something like that. And even if I could... I wouldn't." He shook his head. "I've already lost everything once. I'm not going to do that again, and I'm not going to do that to anyone, either. This is greater then one person. What we're doing is greater then me. It's worth more then me. I'm not going to cut and run."

Connor falls silent at that. He's not sure what he expected. What he...wanted? Maybe that was it. Maybe he wanted to run. Run as far and as fast as he could from making choices he's not entirely sure he wants to be making anymore. There wouldn't be anywhere farther than here, where he doesn't even have Amanda in his mind.

But...people would get hurt. People would die.

Kamski called it a choice between two evils. It was never a choice like that. It was a choice about lives. It was always about lives.

He sighed and looked out over the water, watching Fiona swim along, enjoying a swim in new water. "Did you get to the part about bending in the guide?" He asked.

"I forgot about the guide." Not that he really forgot, it was just put down lower on his priorities. You know, between all the disappearing and giant fish and wondering more about this world, Markus is surprised that he could even bring up the thought about reading the guide.

"Bending is the creation of items here, right?" Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the smart phone that had appeared with him, and he went looking for the guide again. This was better, he was glad for the change in conversation.

Talking about your own possible death was... disheartening.

"It's better to get it all in your mind," Connor said. "It makes things less surprising when they decide to come up." He almost, almost, suggest looking through the Network. At least for times when people seemed to be have freaked out in recent months. But he also knows he has stuff on the Network he doesn't want to draw attention to, so decides against it.

"As unbelievable as it is, it's true. From mundane items to controlling wind well enough to fly," he said, pushing himself to his feet and finally deciding to try and dry off a little bit with the jacket. It was already wet anyway. But then he holds it back out. "In theory, you could use it to dry that if you wish," he said as he picked up his own jacket.

"I'll have to make sure to take notes." Just a phrase. Mental notes, he didn't actually need a pen and paper, obviously, but he'll remember it all. That part of himself wasn't damaged, thankfully. There was no memory loss to be dealt with, and he was happy and thankful for that.

"You could learn how to fly by bending?" That was surprising, and Markus got up from where he was seated, pushing himself up and brushing himself off. His clothes weren't the cleanest, but that didn't mean he needed to add dirt to it all.

He looked at Connor holding the jacket out, and he reached out to take it, being extra careful not to touch him as he took the jacket back. Instead of putting it back on, seeing as it was now wet, he looked down at it, examining it for a moment.

"All bending requires is a force of will, right? Like... wishing the jacket was dry, and then it becomes dry." That's how he was understanding it, anyway.

"As far as I understand it, given time and practice, everything is possible with bending. Some take to it better than others, and some experience difficulties. Such as Miguel is can create fairly solid objects if he doesn't think too much, but becomes incapable when he tries because of self doubt," Connor said, pulling on his jacket after Markus took his.

"So yes. That's how it works. Wishing and believing,," Connor said and whistled to get Fiona's attention. "We'll stay by the river a while, don't lose us," he said and she answered with a happy splash.

"You really care about that child." Markus decided not to put on the wet jacket, seeing as, well, it was a little wet still, and why bother? So for now he'll just carry it. It doesn't have any special markings on it, nothing like that, so it's easier for him to not have to worry about it.

Looking at Fiona, he smiled gently. Connor really cared about her, too, if they were going to stay by the river, rather then have her get out. In fact, Connor seemed to care about a lot of things, people, animals, here.

Looking around, Markus decided to start walking in the direction that they had been going in to start with. "Are you able to bend?"

"There is no reason to not give him proper guidance and stability while watching after his physical health," Connor said. Which really is a staple for his arguments. There's no reason not to. No real reason to do so, but no real reason not to. It's not against his programming, and it's not like he's doing anything, just being idle.

It helps maintain his own self delusions that he actually cares a whole lot even as he tells himself he doesn't.

Connor walks along the river bank, headed towards the beach again. His mind drifts to the shotgun, the rush of something when he had done it. The cigarettes he could say he was human at the time, influenced by chaos and Nautilus and of course he could then. But the shotgun...he had been an android then.

"No," Connor said. And he finds himself curious if Markus could if he knew how it was supposed to work, but he doesn't ask.

"I know." Connor was right in that, there was no reason not to. "You just remind me of someone. She was caring for a human child, too, and I asked her why." Because it reminded him of Kara, who he was glad had gotten out of Jericho before it exploded. Still, the care she gave for that girl... something about it would always stick in his mind.

Instead of following, he walked alongside him. He might not know exactly where they're going, but he had a good enough guess at it. Eventually they would get to the beach, now that they were close to water.

Frowning at the answer, Markus looked down at the jacket in his hand. If you could just wish it to be so, why couldn't Connor? And if he couldn't, did that mean that Markus couldn't? He wasn't sure, and he held his jacket up with one hand. The other hand came up as well, and he snapped his fingers in the jacket's direction.

Nothing happened. "Is there a word I'm supposed to say, a phrase or something? Maybe I need a wand?"

Ugh, I love that show. I need to do a millionth rewatch sometime soon.

I've only seen a few episodes, but it is very funny.

It's so good. It always hits the right spot when you're in a binge watching mood.

I'll put it on my list. =O

Do it yesssss :3

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I had this written out twice already, my browser kept crashing, driving me insane ><

Uuuugh, that's always the worst.

I just wanted it to post *sob* Also sorry but not sorry about the double dunk Connor >.>

He really brings it on to himself.

He does. That's why he didn't feel bad this time.

Connor is a stubborn dumb, never feel bad for his own denial, Markus

Markus has the whole Robo Jesus thing going on. He's gonna feel a little bad, it's how he rolls.

Markus pls.

He's doing it lalalalalalalala

MARKUS PLS.

LALALALALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU

MARKUS THIS IS WHY PEOPLE WORRY

LET HIM FEEL GUILTY FOR LIFE IT'S COOL

MARKUS NO, TOO MUCH GUILT IN THE BOTS

GUILT JUST MEANS YOU'RE ALIVE MUAHAHA

WELL HE ISN'T ADMITTING TO GUILT YET

ONE DAY MY DENIAL FRIEND. ONE DAY.

ONE DAY THEY CAN DROWN IN THEIR GUILT TOGETHER

IT WILL BE A GLORIOUSLY DEPRESSING DAY

I just wanted it to post sob Also sorry but not sorry about the double dunk Connor >.>