61Author's Note: So I said I would be done writing fan fictions once I finished my Avengers series BUT then my friend brought this game over to play with me about a year ago and suddenly I had to write another story. I started this story shortly after that but stopped when I realized I'd probably never play the game again since I didn't own a PS4 myself. But then a few months later I did end up playing the game again with my friend. That time I went out and bought my own PS4 so I could play it whenever I wanted because I loved it so much. Anyway, long story short, I fell in love with Connor's character and had to write a story with him. I just love the concept of androids and whether or not they have souls and are sentient beings. It's fascinating, and Connor is just such a genuine character.
This story follows the game, but I have only included a few direct scenes where I thought it was important to get inside Connor's head. It follows his story as well as my OC Clara (pronounced Clah-rah with a long A). It will go past where the game ends and fills in some details that the game doesn't go into. I'm not done writing it yet, but I have written over 300 type-written pages. I wanted to get far enough to know I was going to stick with it before posting as I do sometimes go long stretches without posting/writing in my stories.
I changed the rating from M to T because I realized when you're searching for stories, it automatically filters out any rated M and I don't want to discourage anyone from reading. Basically if you've played the game, the language and themes are right on that same level. It's pretty clean, just a little coarse language and some darker themes including violence, rape, and abuse. Again, nothing the gamed doesn't already have in it.
I'm trying out first person present tense which is not my usual tense or pov so I apologize in advance if I slip into past tense at any point. I'm trying to edit carefully, but it's so easy to slip back! I'm happy to hear from you, but I'm really not looking for critiques as I am just writing this for pure fun. I'm going to try to post at least once a week if not a little more often, but I'll get the first few chapters out right away to get the story going.
Thank you in advance for reading! I'm so excited to share this story and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it.
Part One: I Am Android
1 Detroit 8.15.2038
Clara
I pass the protesters in the streets every day, their signs held high with the conviction of their beliefs. I wonder how many of them even know what they're protesting, if they fully understand it, or if they're caught up in their ignorant prejudices. It's always surprising how little some haters know about the thing they profess to hate like they can't be bothered to actually learn something, like acceptance and having an open mind is a concept for tree-hugging hippies or, in this case, android-loving saps. Ever since androids were first introduced to the world in 2018 after Elijah Kamski founded CyberLife, people had been in a riot about them. Androids looked human and they took human jobs away; real as they appeared, they were robots, so you didn't have to pay them. They could do things too dangerous for humans, they weren't susceptible to disease, they didn't die of old age. Because of this, a lot of people feared they would one day be replaced by these human replicates. The rich could afford them while the poor lost their jobs to them. Unemployment was at a record high of 28% and expected to keep climbing as new models came out.
Some extremists thought androids would one day take over the world, kill all the humans and replace them. There had been rumors of androids going rogue though CyberLife refused to confirm this. 'Deviants' was the word going around the presses. Androids had no rights because they weren't considered human. That some of them were rising up against that complicated the issue. If the deviants were protesting, did that mean they were more than robots whose only purpose was to serve humans? Did that mean they had personalities? Souls? Consciences? Did that make them human?
"CyberLife is determined to cover up these 'deviations', but this is the story of the century. Are androids, in fact, human? Can they think for themselves? Are these deviants just experiencing a glitch in their system, or are they rebelling? These are the questions that need to be answered, and we're going to be answering them first." Dylan Horowitz slams his tablet onto the table making one of the interns jump. I remember when I was in the intern's shoes—fresh out of college, glasses sliding down my nose because I was too busy taking notes to push them up. Now, I make bets along with the rest of the journalists on how many tablets Horowitz will break this month in his fits of passion.
I reach for my coffee cup, the caffeine buzz from my first cup fading. I'm Nosey, the cup denotes in bold red letters. A Christmas present from my sister-in-law.
"Right now we've got nothing because CyberLife's spokespeople are close-mouthed sons of bitches who care more about protecting the company than keeping the public safe from malfunctioning robots."
I think I see a little spittle fly from his lips which is why I'm sitting toward the far end of the long table.
"So they're good at their jobs?" Anthony 'Tony' Lazaro says, earning himself a scowl from Horowitz.
"If CyberLife won't explain to us why these androids are suddenly rebelling, we need to take a closer look ourselves." His neck is turning red which is a sure sign he's about to come up with some crazy idea for a story. "We need an insider's glimpse into the life of an android."
Silence around the room, but that isn't unusual after he pitches his ideas. Since he's the boss, we can't really tell him most of his ideas are bat-shit crazy, but we're all thinking it.
"Detroit Today will have this story, so don't try to argue on this." No one had spoken, but he gives the room a challenging stare anyway.
"What do you mean by 'an insider's glimpse'?" Gloria Perez asks, raising her pen in the air as if ready to write the article here and now.
"To fully understand these androids—what their motives are if they even have motives—we need to experience what they experience. We're putting someone on the ground."
I hear a chuckle from the intern and send up a silent prayer that he'll try to disguise it with a cough.
"Something funny?" Horowitz asks.
"I just…it sounds like you're suggesting someone go undercover as an android," the kid says, glancing around the room like he expects us to start laughing with him. We don't. He swallows hard, Adam's apple bobbing. "How would we do that?"
In reply, Horowitz tosses something onto the table. It hits with a ping, rolling a little before it vibrates to a stop. It's an android LED.
Tony whistles. "Where the fuck did you get that?"
"I have connections," Horowitz shrugs. He didn't get to be editor-in-chief by playing it safe. Even I'm a little impressed. I've never seen one not attached to the side of an android's head, and I'm afraid to ask if they pried it off of one. "This thing'll disguise a reporter long enough to write a story. It's off an AP700 model, already has an identity and everything. Now all we need is the reporter who has the balls to take the assignment. And," he says after a pause, "who can play the role."
No one speaks up. I'd die for a star story, but I'm still writing a tiny human-interest section that no one ever reads. I haven't really had a chance in the field yet though I know I could handle it. But this assignment sounds crazy even to me. It's risky, and so much could go wrong.
"Clara." I start at the sound of my name. Horowitz is looking right at me. I have to glance over my shoulder just to be sure because I don't think he's ever made direct eye contact with me before. "I don't see any other Claras in the room," he says, sarcasm rolling off his tongue. I flush.
"Yes, sir?"
"You're it."
"Pardon?"
"You're on the story. Your writing's way too good for those crap columns you publish. Plus, you look the closest to the AP700 model this LED came from." He says that like an afterthought, but I choose to focus on him saying my writing is good.
"I…" I don't know what to say. My mind hasn't quite caught up to what he's saying yet.
"Do it or quit. I don't really care, but you're the only one who can pull it off out of these blood-suckers."
And really everyone in the room is glaring daggers at me except Tony who gives me a thumbs up. This article could make any one of us, but Horowitz has chosen me.
"I won't let you down?" It comes out as a question.
"My office first thing tomorrow." He swipes a finger across his tablet and my own dings as a picture fills the screen. It's an AP700 android that does look shockingly similar to my own appearance—at least if you don't look too closely. "And make sure you look more like her by then."
We have the same reddish brown hair, the same vivid blue eyes though hers are a subtler shade. Where my hair is long and tangled, hers is cut in a neat, shoulder-length bob, each strand as straight and silky as a shampoo commercial model. She wears more makeup, or perhaps her face is always like that. She's a housekeeper model meant to do dishes and cook, but she looks like she's spent hours on her appearance.
"Dismissed," Horowitz says before I can question the assignment any more.
The intern's staring at me as everyone else files out of the room.
"What?" I ask him, voice coming out sharper than I'd meant.
He shrugs. "Just seems weird that he didn't assign a more senior writer to the story. This could be big. I mean damn, he even got an LED. I wonder if he pried it off the robot himself."
"Well, your opinions mean less than the garbage you write, so why don't you keep them to yourself?" I growl at him, standing and snatching my mug and tablet. I send him my most scathing glare and am satisfied to see him shrink back in his chair a little.
"Bitch," he mutters as I leave the room. I kind of want to dump the rest of my coffee over his head, but I content myself with stealing his favorite pen off his jumbled mess of a desk and tossing it into the wastebasket.