InsaneJournal

Who: Connor and Markus
Where: Random Park and then the apartment building
When: Today
What: The Androids arrive in Goodland!
Status: Complete

One minute he was in Detroit, standing in front of the Chicken Feed food truck with Hank and the next he was in a place that he did not recognize. Not only that, no Hank. He was standing in the middle of a park all by himself. He glanced up just in time to see a piece of paper floating down to him. He easily snatched it out of the sky when it was close enough and then read it. “Goodland?” He had never heard of such a place. This had to be real, right? His programming didn’t just decide to go haywire and it couldn’t be Amanda because he resisted her hacking attempts. He memorized the map that had come with the letter, placed them in his jacket pocket and then started to walk. He didn’t get far. He ended up stopping when he noticed somebody familiar laying on a bench. Connor stood over him and observed him for a moment before reaching down and shaking the ‘sleeping’ form. “Markus,” he said and got no response. “Markus!” he said louder and then smacked the other android across the cheek. Hey, it worked on Hank. Why couldn’t it work on Markus too? * Markus was deep in thought, his eyes closed as he hoped the scene would once more change to the familiar sights and sounds of Detroit. More to the point, the sight and sounds of his friends and compatriots. It made very little sense to him - how he’d arrived; how he’d disappeared - and so he took a moment in the park, attempting to bring the threads together in his mind. Initially he heard his name called, but this was Goodland, not Detroit, and no one here knew him so Markus ignored the voice. A moment later it was more difficult to ignore when his cheek was slapped. His hand shot out and caught the wrist before it was tempted to repeat the offence and his eyes opened. “Connor?” he said as he sat up, looking deep into the eyes of the robot that had both hunted and helped them throughout their fight for independence. “Please don’t strike me again,” Markus said evenly as he dropped his hand. “You’ve been spending too much time in the company of humans,” he said with a small smile. “This is real, isn’t it?” he said gesturing around him, “not a program or CyberLife trick? We’re here now?” * Once Markus let go of his wrist, he took a step back. He wasn’t sorry for smacking Markus. He’d do it again if he needed to. “Have I?” He hadn’t thought so. Then again, most of his time had been spent with Hank who was not like the other humans that he had interacted with during their investigation. “Yes, I think so,” he replied as he took another look around the park. “As far as I can tell, we’re really here.” He didn’t sense Amanda in his head and he had a feeling if this were a trick by Amanda or CyberLife they would have been placed somewhere a little more familiar. “Have you managed to locate anyone else?” It couldn’t just be the two of them, right? * “Too much time with your cop-friend, anyway,” Markus told him with a smile, knowing the two had become quite the team. “I still can’t believe we did it,” he said as he stood and clasped Connor’s shoulder in support. “You did it. We would have been killed without your help,” and their people would have remained slaves or been deactivated. “Thank you, Connor, I know it wasn’t an easy choice,” Markus told him with a smile. It was as he’d thought, they’d been transported here somehow and he had no idea how it could have happened. “Goodland,” he said under his breath. “I guess we’ll see how ‘good’ it is to our kind, huh?” Markus said as much to himself as to his friend.”I haven’t seen anyone else. One minute I was with North and the next I was here,” which caused him a pang of pain. Would he ever see North again? “We should go,” Markus said as he pulled himself together and pushed the address he’d been given into Connor’s hand. “Here. At least we’ll find out why we were brought here.” * Connor smiled. Maybe Markus was right and maybe he was wrong. He wasn’t going to question it. Their relationship had started off rocky, but as time went on they had gotten closer and he wouldn’t have changed anything. He just kind of wished Hank was here now, too. Whoever this Jubilant Entity was would probably send them back the minute they had to deal with Hank. But so far, no signs of his friend. “You’re welcome.” The choice hadn’t been easy, not at first. He had been sent to find Markus and kill him, but after dealing with all of the deviants and the words Markus had told him, it had been easy to break through his own programming and wake up. After that, it had been pretty easy to help Markus and the rest of his people fight for their freedom. “It was the right choice,” he finally said. “We have no choice.” They had been brought there against their will. What more could they do? He did notice that people weren’t bothering them. They got some looks, but that was about it. So far, at least. “I was with Hank and then I was here.” It didn’t make any sense. But he had a strange feeling that it wasn’t supposed to make any sense. Connor took the paper that had been given to him. He glanced over it before looking to Markus. “You got the same letter that I received?” He pulled out his own couple of pieces of paper from his jacket pocket to show Markus. “The address is the same.” Would they get any answers if they were to go the address they were given? He didn’t think so seeing as it was for an apartment building. “We should go, though.” Maybe something will be there. Or maybe there is nothing there. There was only one way to find out. He started walking; glancing back to make sure that Markus was following. * “It was the right choice,” Markus agreed and his own mind it had been the only choice, though Connor might not agree. That so many of their kind now had the opportunity to live their lives in freedom had to mean something to him and Markus knew the weight of responsibility Connor must have felt. He watched as Connor looked around him, processing the information he saw and cultivating a theory that only had one explanation. “There are no androids here,” Markus said as the tell-tell signs began to sink in. “No parking stations. No advertising androids and no service androids,” he said meeting Connor’s eyes in confusion. “Are we the only ones?” and if they were, what did that mean for this world? Markus concentrated for a moment and listened for the voices of his people, which were no longer there. “Maybe we have more choices than we think,” Markus mused, his mind turning over the concept of what it could mean for them to be in another world. A world where they were truly free. “Then we go,” he said with a nod towards Connor. “We need to see what this world has for us,” Markus said as he followed after Connor. “What do you think we’ll find there?” Markus asked, curious to know what his companion had in mind. The address was intriguing, as was the message, which hinted that they were to stay there. “Does it mean we own property here, do you think?” * Connor had noticed there were no other androids around as well. No billboards selling them and no parking stations and there were none around the humans in the park. Could they truly be the only two in Goodland? “So far, it would appear so.” Was this a good thing or a bad thing? He wasn’t quite sure yet. “We are going to find out one way or another.” He hoped that Markus was right. He didn’t want somebody trying to control him again. And he definitely didn’t want to get deactivated. “This Jubilant Entity, what do you think it is?” Was it someone hiding behind the name or was it some kind of God of this world, or was he thinking about it all in the wrong way? “An apartment, if we’re to believe what the letter said.” Or it was a trap and they would have to fight their way out. Anything seemed possible at this moment in time. “If they are willing to give us an apartment then maybe they are willing to let us own property here.” It sounded logical. It didn’t mean it was true. They didn’t know the rules of this place. But he was pretty sure they were going to learn them pretty quickly. After crossing some streets and moving blocks away from where they started, they finally ended up across the street from the apartment building. “There,” he said as he pointed to the apartment building, “that’s where we’re supposed to go.” * Alone in a strange world with only one other android for company? Markus felt unsure of himself for the first time since he’d woken up in the junkyard. What was his purpose here? Freeing his people had been his one and only goal since ‘waking’ and now he felt the burden of responsibility slipping. “We could truly be free here,” he said to Connor, his voice filled with wonder and awe. “No one would know, unless we choose to tell them,” and though honesty ran through him as surely as blue blood he was tantalized by the prospects. “The Entity?” Connor had been considering things that had barely scratched his consciousness so far. “Could it be what our people call ra9?” Markus suggested. “What humans call a god?” He’d tried to understand human religion but it confused him. “Perhaps a creator, like Kemski?” he had no better answer, despite wishing he knew the answer. “We’ll learn,” he told Connor with a nod,” it was always within their ability to learn more. “I hadn’t considered the possibility of it being a trap,” Markus admitted with a frown. “We’ll go to the address and assess the situation from there, though logic would suggest that if they’d wanted to harm or imprison us, they would have done it from the start.” He looked at Connor with a small frown, hoping he’d read the situation similarly. He felt a burgeoning hope at this new world and to have it crushed so soon would hurt. “Own property, live equally and be subject to the same laws as humans,” Markus said under his breath as almost a mantra. Could it be that this Jubilant Entity had seen what they required and granted their wishes? Or would they be disassembled? He looked up as Connor pointed the way towards what seemed to be just another building in the city. “This is the address,” Markus agreed shooting his friend a nervous glance. “How do you think we should best handle this?” he asked, happy to have a companion to bounce ideas off. “The building seems busy,” he noted as people came and left apparently freely and happily. “I want to believe this, Connor,” Markus said closing his eyes for a moment and steadying himself for whatever came next. * “Until they look at me.” Markus could easily pass for human. Connor, not so much. He still had his LED on his temple and he was still wearing his uniform that said ANDROID right across the back. People were sure to figure it out or possibly think he was a crazy person. “It’s a possibility.” Or it could be something completely different. He still wished he had found more information about ra9. But nobody, not even Kemski seemed to know what it really meant. “That is another possibility.” There were no clues. No evidence to go over. All they could really do right now is guess. “We will.” He had no doubt about that. They were going to have to learn and adapt to this place whether they wanted to or not. “Or they’re waiting to get us out of the open to do it,” he added in. Why cause a scene out in the open? It was better to do something out of prying eyes. Connor glanced over at Markus when he heard parts of that speech. He remembered watching it when Hank and himself had been called in to investigate what had happened at the TV station. “Obviously.” As Markus over-assessed the apartment building, Connor was already taking off and walking across the street. He already assessed it. There was a fifty percent chance that nothing would happen to them. And there was a fifty percent chance they were going to get captured and tortured. There was only one way to find out which would happen to them. * Markus looked at Connor for a moment and frowned. “You can change that,” he said as he shrugged out of his coat and offered it to his friend, “if you want to. This is what freedom means. Making choices for yourself about who you are and who you’re not,” he said softly. He really didn’t know what to make of the Jubilant Entity either and Connor’s analysis of his suggestions was as much as either one would be capable of hypothesising. “I guess we’re going to be clueless for the time being,” Markus said with a small smile, knowing how much the cop would hate not knowing. “They would have transported us somewhere more convenient if they’d been wanting to harm us,” Markus answered, feeling sure of his convictions. The only contradiction to his feeling was if the humans here wanted to make a statement out of their deaths. Then why bring them here at all? He followed Connor as he moved towards the apartment block and headed inside. They found the floor without difficulty and when they got to the door Markus pulled ahead and put his arm in front of Connor, stopping him from going first. “Let me go first. If it’s a trap, run,” he told him confidently as sent the telepathic message ‘I’m more likely to escape alive’, referencing his athletic abilities. Before Connor had a chance to change his mind Markus opened the door and headed inside, quickly scanning the room for exit opportunities and ways of escape should he need them. Instead of an ambush all he found was a fairly standard apartment. He started to look more closely and found a stash of blue-blood and clothes that could have been taken straight from his own wardrobe. “It’s safe,” he called to Connor, keeping his wits about him in case that changed. * Connor shook his head and declined the jacket from Markus. “I will deal with it later.” He wasn’t worried about his clothes. He was more worried about what might be waiting for them at the address. He didn’t want to be clueless. He’d like to be less clueless. “Maybe,” Connor said. “Or they want us to think there is no danger and then they will attack.” It was a guess. Nothing more than that. They really had no idea what was going on and what might happen. Inside of the apartment building, he took it all in even the ostriches. That had been weird. Markus’ voice breaking through made him finally stop staring at the creatures and turning his attention to Markus. He nodded his understanding of what Markus told him. Would he really run and leave Markus behind? Probably not. Connor went into the apartment right after Markus. Nobody around. Just them. “None of this makes any sense.” They were taken by someone or thing that called themselves the Jubilant Entity and they walked from the park all the way into this apartment without being stopped or attacked. Was it really this simple? Were they really going to be able to live freely without any problems? * He didn’t need to think about Connor’s appearance right now, they had more important things to worry about. If they had already been recognized as androids it was pointless anyway. Markus shrugged back into his jacket and moved on. Investigating the apartments didn’t take long. They were, what humans would consider, more than adequately sized with well-appointed rooms and kitchens. Markus blinked for a moment and tried to think of them the way Carl might see them and it brought a small smile to his face. “We have books,” he said to Connor, who he sensed come in behind him. “And art,” he said as he moved to look at the paintings on the walls. “I think…” Markus said moving to the windows and looking at the view over the city,”...I think I like it here, Connor.” The view reminded him of looking out over Detroit with North. “I’m not sure this is supposed to make sense,” he said turning to Connor, “it just is.” They could be happy here and free, which was almost everything he’d ever wanted. He just wished North was here to share it too. Simon and Josh too, but mostly North. “At least we’re not alone,” Markus mused, resting his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “This is our lives now.”