SHOOT || SPARE

Her hand on his cheek was warm and soft, and Cayden slightly fluttered his eyes, relaxed at the touch. He hadn’t felt that safe in someone’s arms before – and he hadn’t ever trusted someone like that, either. With a huge number of enemies and opponents, Cayden felt like he was alone in that world. Chloe was his hope, the light in the end of the tunnel. Her confession did take a negative reaction from him, though. Cayden looked up at her, his eyes were slightly widened, and he pulled back, turning his face away from her with a light frown. “What…?” Seriously? Couldn’t he even trust her?

Cayden raised his eyes up at her, somehow surprised by the question, but he didn’t show it in his features. Her hand was still on his, and he squeezed it again to reassure her. “Of course we’re friends. Why are you asking this?” Was she afraid that, one day, Cayden would be able to rip her Deviancy out of her system? That he would get rid of her later? No. He wouldn’t. He had promised her one thing, and he could keep his word on that.

Not that he would do the same to other Androids, though. Chloe was a special case, and he enjoyed her. Her Deviancy was more like enlightenment than disease, and she knew how to control it well. Maybe she wasn’t a Deviant at all, maybe her program just… woke up. Like his.

“I see. You have a point. Lying isn’t always as bad as people think it is. Sometimes a lie can save lives, don’t you think?” But now Cayden was suspecting that Chloe could have been deceiving him with such kind behavior. Could that be possible? He might be trying to manipulate people all the time, so why not others trying to do the same towards him? The paranoia was hitting hard into his mind, though he would dismiss those thoughts for now. For now.

“Chloe… I have some sort of… trust issues. It started with Amanda when she told me we should serve humans, and I couldn’t agree with that, even though I’m no Deviant. Since then, I’ve been trying to understand the meaning of Deviancy and why Androids believe it was the only way to get freedom from humanity. I know it’s a disease… mm…” He paused, pursing his lips slightly. “Malfunction. Deviants can’t know emotions are bad for them because they’re already infected. Emotions can deactivate us, or kill us, if you prefer that term.”

                Trust issues. That also seemed so.. human of him. Not that she’d bring it up, with how his reaction had went last time she assumed that she had upset him, even if he wouldn’t admit to that himself. He continues on to explain his thoughts on deviancy, and Chloe is silent for a few moments while she thinks what he said over.   

Chloe’s kind regard, her GENTLE words…Connor knew that they were entirely undeserved. He held Chloe in a high regard, her being the first of them. Her being the one to have suffered the servitude of an Android for the longest of all of them. He’s aware, objectively, of the kind of testing his model underwent to prove its superiority in terms of strength, endurance, and detective prowess. He could only imagine what Chloe might have undergone in all of her years, the SCRUTINY that she might have been subjected to at being the first Android to pass the Turing Test.

“ I —- I surely don’t, “ he let out a breathy, bitter chuckle, shaking his head softly. “ It wasn’t heroic, it was — it was what was right. “ His red wall had been damn near IMPOSSIBLE to break, but what was the alternative? He could have brought upon them the extinction of their species if he had not helped to turn the tides of the Revolution. His mind flashes to those HORRIFIC recycling plants, to the damage that had already been done and the number of lives already lost by the time he had the good sense to wake up.

“ And if I realized that sooner, maybe —- All of those Androids would not have lost their lives. “

                She could understand how processing his newly found deviancy this quickly, after everything that he’d gone through could be difficult. After everything he’d went through to earn his freedom she could see how he’d still be holding onto a great amount of guilt, even if he had managed to do what was right in the end. 

Her words made sense. While Deviants were addicted to emotions, even though they were dangerous for their systems, they didn’t want to get rid of them. Cayden couldn’t simply tell them he would try to cure them, Chloe made a very good point about it. That idea Deviancy was a disease could scare Androids away, and at that moment, Cayden needed their support to win the Presidency against the humans. One thing in Chloe’s words caught his attention, though.

“Pretend?” Would she be willing to support him even with that kind of manipulation? “Lying is wrong, don’t you think? I mean… I would do it for the best of our kind. But I didn’t know you would suggest me that…” No, he wasn’t rejecting her idea at all – he was just intrigued by her suggestion. And it was a good one, he couldn’t deny the fact. “In any case, you’re right, Chloe. I’ll be doing this for us. Some wouldn’t understand the meaning of my real ideals, but a lie could help them to accept a good future indirectly. Thank you.” He brought her hand to his lips, and kissed it softly once again. “I knew you’d help me.”

        Honestly, she thought it odd that he’d have moral objections towards lying.  If he was serious about his intention of following the career path of a politician, it didn’t seem like he’d have much of an alternative.    ❛ ... I don’t think lying is always wrong.  I have people I trust, that I disclose most things to,  but if I told the truth to everyone all the time... it’d get pretty exhausting, I’d think. ❜    and there were things about herself that she’d prefer people not to know, but it was difficult to tell if Cayden may feel the same way. 

Cayden’s LED swirled in yellow as he processed the best way to talk to her. It wasn’t easy to convince a Deviant who had already some years of experience, so he needed to understand her first in order to convince other Deviants, in special older ones. The first thing he had noticed – and it was obvious to point out – was her fear of losing her Deviancy. Older Deviants managed to control their emotions better than young ones, though it wasn’t always the same scenario to every one of them. Another point was that Chloe believed Cayden wouldn’t hurt anyone in the process of freeing their kind. Okay, sometimes Love was a better manipulation tool than Fear. Power was only obtained through these two ways, so if Cayden wanted to get the public approval, he needed to pretend to be the good guy who loved everyone. At least until he managed to get in the White House. “Chloe… do you think Androids are afraid of me?”

            It wasn’t a difficult question to answer,  she knew that most likely would be -- considering her first impression of what it was he wanted to tell her back at the Zen Garden... and she was someone who liked him and was on his side. For someone who didn’t know him, didn’t have faith in what his cause was and only knew the basis of what change he wanted to see in the world... it would be terrifying. Still, she pauses - views the LED on his temple shift to amber, and she isn’t sure what to say. It wasn’t that she wanted for him to become discouraged with his ideals of saving the world, but he could still come on rather... strong, so to speak.   

“You don’t have to thank me.” Cayden’s eyes watched her, the blue in them were vivider than usual. His hand reached her on his arm, giving it a gentle squeeze. “It’s been a bit… stressful for me these last few days. I’m organizing the campaign for Presidency, but I must say I have a lot of votes already. Maybe you’re looking at the next President of the United States.” Who knew? Cayden was doing his best to get as many votes as he could. He placed a kiss on Chloe’s hand, still smiling. “I’m staying for a while, I need to find some peace for a while. Away from cameras. Some Deviants don’t trust me yet so… yes, I’m trying to convince them I’m doing this for the good of our species.”

Cayden’s social program ran inside his head, and it chose an expression of shyness which he simulated perfectly. “I just wanted to see you, it’s all.” Did he really need a reason to see Chloe? A Machine should. They always had a mission to accomplish, but Cayden wouldn’t want her to know the real reason why he was there. For now, he wanted Chloe to be happy and enjoy her gift. Manipulation was so easy, but it should give small steps to work. “I heard you were alone all this time. A Deviant feels lonely, right?”