Summary: The police start to round up androids and impose the curfew.
Chapter Warnings: Crying, heavy military presence, implied anxiety
Word Count: 1,827
3PM Tuesday 9th November 2038
They only just had time for Megan to shower and partially dry and Paul to change clothes before things started getting bad.
The news had been blaring since they got in, and besides the protests that day, a large chunk of what was playing was repeated messages for all androids to be handed over to the police and a curfew was being put in place for all of Detroit.
Megan stared at the screen, swallowing hard as she paused in towel drying her hair. This was bad. This was very, very bad.
Megan looked over at Paul, who was also watching, rapt. They had two options. Stay here safely, until the mentioned temperature checks were brought in, in which case they were screwed. Or they could try to leave, but where would they go?
They could go to Megan’s parent’s home, except androids were in use across the country, so it might not be long until checks started happening there too. Canada was an option, she had cousins in Canada, but then what? They couldn’t stay in Canada forever!
The answer came in the form of a message from Alex.
AAA Battery: Everyone get to mine ASAP
Paul and Megan saw it at the same time and looked at each other. Alex lived on the other side of the city, and if there was a curfew in place, public transport might not be running.
“We can make it,” Paul stated. “I don’t need to sleep; I can carry you.”
“It’ll take hours!” Megan protested, “I don’t see this curfew getting any better.”
“Then we leave before it gets worse.”
“Here is safe!”
“Here we’re sitting ducks!”
“The police don’t know that you’re an android!”
“They didn’t do full checks!” Paul was starting to pace. “What if this escalates to raids? What if the door gets knocked down and I’m scanned with a temperature sensor before either of us can do anything? What then? Because if that happens, I’m shut down and you’re arrested!”
“That could happen if we leave!”
“If we leave, we can have more control over it,” Paul stopped pacing to look at her. “It’s still daylight.”
“It’ll be dark by the time we get to Alex’s.”
“We’ll be fine. People are still leaving work places. We can caught in the rush. If we don’t find anyone to get us to Alex’s, fine. We’ll cope.”
Megan swallowed. “I really don’t like this.”
“It’s two evils,” Paul agreed. “We’ve just got to decide which one is more likely to work.”
“We don’t have enough information,” Megan twisted her hands together. “We don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“And we won’t know until it’s too late,” Paul looked at her pleadingly. “Let’s go. Please.”
“Okay, let me get a bag,” Megan declared, giving her hair one last towel dry before dropping the towel in the laundry basket.
“I’ll warn the Beckwith’s,” Paul decided, grabbing keys from the bowl and putting on his baseball cap.
“Be safe.”
“I will,” Paul stepped out of the door, barely letting it close behind him before striding to the other side of the hall and knocking on the Beckwith’s door.
The android opened the door, making Paul stiffen. He’d never talked to her, never wanted to. She was his replacement, seeing her was painful.
He had to put that aside.
“Are Mrs and Mrs Beckwith home?” he asked Anita. “It’s urgent.”
“Of course. One moment,” Anita stepped back into the house, and brought out the young Mrs Beckwith, who Paul remembered being called Danielle.
“Paul? What is it? Why are you dressed like that?”
“Never mind that!” Paul waved off, shocking Mrs Beckwith into silence. “Have you been watching the news?” he knew the answer was likely to be ‘no’, they rarely did watch the news.
“No, no we have not,” Mrs Beckwith seemed to have recovered her wits. “What on earth has gotten into you?”
“Doesn’t matter. Look, police are organising raids in residential areas, rounding up androids. If you want to protect Anita you need to get out of Detroit. Get her out of the uniform, hide or remove her LED and she might just be safe.”
Mrs Beckwith blinked in surprise, taking this in. “Very well. We shall do just that. Stay safe Paul,” she closed the door and Paul turned to see Megan standing next to him. She had a smallish backpack over her shoulder and was holding out his hoodie and raincoat.
“Make it a little less obvious that you don’t feel the cold,” she noted, and Paul put them on, noting that she was also wearing a hoodie and a coat.
“Let’s go,” he said, and Megan nodded, face grim and tight with nervous determination.
3.20PM Tuesday 9th November 2038
Once outside they realised that one detail wasn’t quite correct.
“People are getting on the bus,” Megan noted.
“Yeah, they’re just being guarded,” Paul added, clocking the black body armour the guards were wearing.
“And checking ID’s,” Megan sighed. “Never mind.”
“Let’s go before they spot us,” Paul added, and the two kept walking. They went in the opposite direction to the bus stop. Even with people still using public transport, it was almost eerily quiet.
Automated taxis zoomed by, but all the taxi ranks were empty. They still had to walk.
“Hey! You two!”
Megan and Paul froze at the shout. Megan shoved her hands in her pockets as they turned, trying to hide her fists clenched in fear.
A black armoured soldier walked over at a brisk pace. “There’s a curfew being put in place right now. Go to your homes.”
“That’s where we are going,” Paul assured.
“Very well, ID’s please.”
Megan’s heart rate shot through the roof, but Paul managed to remain calm.
“Aw damn it, I left it at home. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a curfew, you know?”
“What about you?” he asked Megan, and she fished out her student ID and handed it to him. He inspected it and handed it back over. “Looks alright here ma’am. Sir, I’m just going to have to ask you to hold still a moment.”
He pulled out a small handheld laser device, which they both recognised as a temperature sensor that was being shown on the news. He made to scan it at them, but paused when the red light didn’t come on.
“What the...?” he pulled it back and checked it over. “I swore I... Damn batteries died almost instantly!” he put the temperature gun away. “Apologies ma’am, sir. You look alright, get home safe.”
“Thank you sir,” Paul smiled as he began to walk away, and Megan managed to small smile before following him.
Once out of earshot Megan muttered.
“That was too close.”
“Agreed.”
They had to pass through the busier parts of Detroit to get to Alex’s, so dived for the nearest parked car when they saw another guard. Megan put her hand over her mouth to hide the water vapour as they walked past, heart hammering in her chest. They walked past, scanned the area, and turned around.
Paul grabbed her hand and she followed him to the next car. A squad came running past, but missed them entirely. Instead they descended on an unlucky android.
Both Megan and Paul tensed as the android begged with the squad, trying to get them to believe that they were human. A single gunshot sounded and the android went silent.
Paul gripped Megan’s hand and she squeezed it. It wasn’t over yet for them.
They took it one car at a time, sprinting across gaps when they had to. It took the best part of two hours to get out of the city centre, and by that point Megan was almost convinced that she’d had multiple heart attacks.
The number of military personal decreased once they left the centre, but on the flip side, there were fewer places to hide, and fewer androids to distract them.
“Stop right there!” one cried as they tried to duck between street lights, and a hand grabbed Megan’s shoulder to pull her away from Paul.
“What are you doing? There’s a curfew,” even though they couldn’t see his face, they had a feeling he was narrowing his eyes, especially at Paul. The fact that Paul had changed his hair suddenly gave them the benefit of the doubt.
“Sorry, we’re not familiar with Detroit,” Paul was the King of Excuses tonight. “We’re trying to get back to our host family, but we’ve been lost for hours!”
“Hours, huh?” the soldier didn’t seem to believe them. “Can I see your ID’s please?”
Paul groaned. “I left it at the host family’s house. I’m sorry, I’m forgetful.”
“Forget his head if it wasn’t screwed on,” Megan managed to chime in coherently, despite her heart trying to make a new home outside of her rib cage.
The solider seemed to run out of patience and whipped out the temperature gun. In the low light it could be mistaken for an actual gun, which gave Megan an idea.
“I wanna go home!” she suddenly cried, and began to full on sob. Even Paul was taken aback as tears and snot began to fall down her face at a rapid pace.
The soldier paused in lifting the temperature sensor and looked around for backup, clearly flustered. Luckily for Megan and Paul, there was no such backup.
“O-okay, please stop crying,” the soldier tried to comfort. “It’s not a real gun-”
On the word ‘gun’ Megan turned the crying up to 11 and Paul shot the soldier a look with a mix of ‘look what you did’ and ‘help me’.
“Okay okay,” the solider put the temperature scanner away. “See, it’s gone. You two head back now. I’d escort you but I have to keep an eye for deviants. If you see anything dangerous, get as far as you can away from it. Understand?”
Megan nodded. “Ye-yes,” she half sobbed, hiccupping and wiping her eyes.
“Atta girl. Stay safe you two,” the soldier walked off in one direction and Megan and Paul went in the other.
“What was that?” Paul hissed once out of earshot.
“Never underestimate the power of the ugly cry,” Megan informed him sagely, wiping snot off of her face with her sleeve. “It works especially well if you’re already terrified, you’re female, and you look younger than you are.”
“I will have to remember that.”
“It won’t work on you,” Megan added. “You’re too tall and obviously older. You might be able to pretend to have autism, but that’s touchy territory so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you really had to.”
The two of them stuck to the shadows and walked through the park to avoid soldiers. They even ended up diving for someone’s front yard as one of them started to turn their flashlight unexpectedly in their direction.
Finally, nearly five hours after they’d left, they made it to Alex’s.
So, shit hit the fan quick. This is a part of the story were I have to make some assumptions, as we don't see this happening until Kara and co make their way to Jericho, but Rose claims it's been happening for hours.
Other Options Flowchart
(Megan) Stay in the apartment (leads to different scene where they have to leave or be arrested)
(Paul) Don't warn the Beckwiths.
(Paul) Pretend not to be deviant.
(Paul) Tell them to stay put. Tell them to hide
(Paul) Second guard. Run. Knock away sensor. Attack.
(Megan (same scenario)) Talk down. Beg. Distract. If failed, Paul would be shot and Megan possibly arrested.
QTEs. Going between cars, if failed chances of being spotted is higher-may lead to Paul dead ending and maybe Megan arrested.
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Summary: Megan goes to this mysterious meeting and wonders exactly how dramatic Alex can get.
Chapter Warnings: implied anxiety
Word Count: 2,231
16.00 Tuesday 2nd November 2038
Megan actually went to lectures that day to try and calm herself down. Just sitting in the apartment waiting had been driving her crazy, and Paul hadn’t been helping.
The android had been pacing all morning, even when Megan played music or got him to read. He just didn’t seem to be able to calm down.
Her being here wasn’t partially helping. There had been a reason why she didn’t go to lectures, and that was because her head loved to be particularly horrible during lectures. Thankfully, this potential meeting managed to drag those thoughts away kicking and screaming.
There were bigger things to be worrying about than thinking people thought you were stupid.
She didn’t have lectures late in the evening, and did not want to be sitting in the main student campus space. Too much noise and potential underage drinking.
So she spent a couple of hours in the library, phone on vibrate in case Paul got nervous. Well, more nervous. After some experimentation, they found he could text her phone, and if she text back he could still read it.
Megan was admittedly struggling to concentrate in the library, having had to re-read several pages of textbook and official sources multiple times after failing to the first time. Finally, at quarter to eight, she packed up and headed for the main auditorium.
It only took two minutes to get there, so ended up pacing up and down the corridor in a vague attempt to make it look like she wasn’t waiting to go into the auditorium. She had a feeling it wasn’t working, but the pacing was helping.
Eight o’clock rolled round, and Megan was the only one there. The lights remained off in the auditorium and Megan began to panic. Was she in the wrong place? Had she got the time wrong? Was her phone clock out of sync?
She got her phone out and quickly texted Paul, trying not to let the panic show in the words.
‘It was in the main auditorium at 8, right?’
The response was instantaneous.
‘Yes’
Megan swallowed and put her phone back in her pocket. Maybe they had gotten this wrong. Alex was just having a joke about a weirdly worded poster and the code was a coincidence. Nothing more.
And if it isn’t, and you were right? Prompted the other voice in her head, the one that usually tried to stand up for her.
Five minutes. She would wait five more minutes, and then she would leave.
She made herself stop pacing and stand against the wall opposite the door. There were late lectures and society meetings at this time, so it was hardly unexpected to come across a student in the hallways. She had every right to be there.
The sound of boots walking on carpet suddenly caught her attention, and she looked in the direction the sound was coming from.
“...Alex?”
Alex was indeed walking down the hallways towards her, and Megan braced herself. This was either when Alex was going to explain what the hell was going on, or laugh in her face for believing them. She didn’t want to believe that the latter would happen, but she knew better than to rule it out.
“Hey Megan!” Alex was smiling brightly as always. Although Megan was taken aback by their wardrobe. Gone was the bright colours, instead they were dressed in navy and black. On their head was a brown beanie covering their bright hair.
“Wh-what the hell is going on?”
“You’ll find out,” Alex answered mysteriously, and Megan shook her head.
“No, I-I’m not doing this game,” she could feel her heart pounding, but stood her ground. “How do I know this isn’t some joke to humiliate me?”
“Because this isn’t high school,” Alex assured.
“I’m going to need more than that.”
“I thought you trusted-,” Alex cut themselves off, realising how they sounded. “Alright, that’s not going to make it any better. Just watch me for a second.”
They opened the door to the main auditorium and flicked on the lights. They took a step back and let Megan look into the empty auditorium.
“No one else here,” Alex announced. “Just you and me.”
“If this is supposed to be a meeting where is everyone else?” Megan didn’t enter the auditorium.
“I had hoped more would show up, maybe they’ll appear if we go in.”
“That is exactly what I’m afraid of.”
“We can hold this meeting outside if you want,” Alex offered. “You’re being unreasonably paranoid.”
“Says the one who directed me to the same poster more than once, made a not subtle hint about there being a code on it and after finding there was an actual coded message which may or may not have been a coincidence about an android rights group.”
“Okay, I may have been a bit dramatic about that.”
“You think?”
“You guys here about the weird poster?”
Megan and Alex looked up to see a handful of other students had appeared from nowhere while they were arguing. Megan actually recognised a couple of them from her History course, but the rest of them she had no idea.
Alex turned on their winning smile. “Glad to see you could all make it, let’s head in!”
The group looked at each other before slowly making their way inside the auditorium. Once in Alex closed the doors behind them.
“Alright, let’s gather around the front,” Alex gestured to where they wanted everyone to sit. “I had been hoping for a few more people.”
“How many more exactly?” asked one of the newcomers. “The poster was coded, how many people did you hint at?”
How many people do you know? Was the question Megan wanted to ask, but didn’t.
“A few more, but clearly they didn’t solve it,” Alex sat on the stage, legs swinging in the air. They clearly hadn’t been able to resist the urge to stand out in some way, as their socks are bright neon pink.
“So, is this a prank Alex, or is this actually a group you’re planning on forming?” someone else asked.
“This is real,” Alex leaned forward, legs stilling. “I want to form an android rights group.”
“Why?” asked someone Megan recognised. She didn’t know their name, but they were one of the people who usually sat at the front. She recognised their shoulder length black hair “What’s brought this on?”
Alex smirked knowingly. “Does anyone remember that hostage situation back in August?”
“It was all over the news,” this time it was someone Megan didn’t know, but they seemed to have the same usual dress sense as Alex. “Someone broke into the Phillips household, killed the dad and held the kid hostage.”
“Not quite accurate,” the knowing smirk had only grown. “If you look closer at the footage you can see that the person holding Emma Phillips hostage is wearing an android uniform, and looks suspiciously like a PL600 model.”
A shudder went down Megan’s spine. She’d known about that news story, everyone had, but knowing that it had been an android, the same model as Paul... He had gotten upset in his deviant state, but he had never been violent, was it possible he could become violent?
Alex had continued speaking, not knowing about Megan’s concerns.
“Around the same time, CyberLife were advertising their new model, the AP700, which if you had the money, and the Phillips did, could render the PL600 models obsolete.”
“So, you’re saying this android knew about this, got scared it was going to be replaced and reacted by killing and attacking the family?” the person asking seemed sceptical.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“That’s insane,” the same person continued to argue. “I’m all for android not being mistreated, but that is an illogical escalation. Not to mention, androids don’t have emotions. They’re machines!”
Megan felt her fist clench at the idea of androids not having emotions. She’d like to introduce them to Paul, then a kick to the groin.
“Emotions are logical,” Alex countered. “But since you disagree, what do you think happened?”
“I-I think the intruder attacked the android, removed its uniform to get into the house and then attacked the family.”
“Hmm,” someone else seemed to disagree. Megan felt like she should recognise them, as according to their sweater, they played for the school football team. “But they riddled them with bullets, and there was no blood, not red anyway.”
“And,” the person who sat at the front of Megan’s lectures spoke up, “there was no ransom, no other demand for money, and no other motive to attack the Phillips.”
“And android cannot feel emotions!” the initial person tried to recover, and Alex waved a finger at them, somewhat mockingly as they continued to grin.
“Normally functioning androids do not feel emotions. Androids that work with humans are designed to recognise and understand emotions so that they can interact with us better. It’s not perfect, but it’s functional. A glitching, or malfunctioning android might start to feel those emotions themselves, or at least think they do. And really, what’s the difference?”
“Androids that deviate from their program,” Megan muttered, not expecting Alex to pick up on it.
“Exactly! Deviants! Androids who don’t think like androids.”
“Sounds like you didn’t come up with that name,” the comment was partially accusatory, partly curious, and Alex was more than happy to oblige.
“I’ve been friends with the niece of a Detroit Police Captain since I was a little kid. Her uncle has been muttering about it ever since August when he thinks no one else can hear. Turns out, the hostage situation in August is not a completely isolated event. Probably the most dramatic, but not isolated.”
“So, let me get this straight,” the black haired guy was it again. “You’re saying an android with emotions got a severe case of inferiority complex, tried to kill the family it worked for-”
“Less of the ‘it’, but carry on,” Alex interjected.
“Right, they, tried to kill the family they worked for, and this isn’t an isolated case? Androids could suddenly turn around and kill us all if they got upset.”
“Depends,” Megan couldn’t help but interject, and froze when everyone turned to look at her. “I, er, I mean...”
“Easy Megan, breath,” Alex reassured. “We’re not judging you, this is a civilised discussion,” they turned their gaze to the rest of the group, who nodded quickly at Alex’s suddenly serious, and scary, face. “Go ahead.”
“I mean. I-if you felt nothing for ages, and suddenly you felt emotions, or thought you did,” Megan found a middle ground in staring at the floor as she talked. “Would you know what to do with it? What to and what not to act on? Especially if you suddenly gained emotions in a stressful situation. P-people, attack androids for fucks sake! For no good reason except for being androids and knowing that they won’t fight back. If you suddenly got emotions then, how do you think you’d react?”
“A good point,” Alex smiled at Megan as she looked up again.
“That doesn’t make it any better,” someone else added. “If they don’t know what to do with emotions, what’s stopping them getting angry and attacking humans?”
“I think what Megan was trying to say is that the outbursts come more out of confusion and being overwhelmed than simple anger,” Alex’s fashion twin spoke up. “If they are then confronted with kindness and understanding, or simply space to calm down, then they wouldn’t become violent. Unless of course they have a legitimate reason to become angry, and at that point they can still over react because they don’t know how to handle it.”
“But, they’re not going to get greeted with understanding, are they?” someone who’d kept quiet the entire time spoke up. “As Megan said, people attack androids for the simple reason that they are androids and there’s no repercussions. If these androids gain emotions around these people, which is more likely given the stressful situations, then of course they’re going to lash out, simply in self defence.”
“Which is why androids need basic rights at least. Certainly the right to not be attacked,” Alex drew everyone’s attention back. “While I don’t intend to stop there, it’s not a bad starting point to convince sceptics. Humans do have a strong self preservation instinct after all.”
“Yeah, but if people know about this, what’s stopping CyberLife from recalling all androids?” the black haired guy asked.
“Nothing. Which is why we start small. Don’t mention emotional android attacks publicly, or deviant attacks, that rolls off the tongue a little better. Convince more people, grow numbers, stage protests and change legislation!”
Alex had a massive, somewhat manic grin on their face, while everyone wasn’t so sure.
“You, you’re being really ambitious about this,” someone commented, and Alex shrugged.
“We’re not going to get anywhere if we aren’t.”
Alex looked expectantly around the room. “So, you’ve heard my pitch. You’ve discussed it amongst yourselves. What do you say? Do you guys want in?”
Everyone looked at each other. The football player stood up first.
“I’m in.”
“Same,” added the girl with Alex’s dress sense. “I’m not standing up though.”
“I’m curious to see how far this will go,” the black haired guy nodded.
Megan licked her lips nervously. “Yeah, I’m in.”
So, a lot of this is actually my own thoughts on deviancy, I have more to say but I can't remember off the top of my head if it comes up again. It probably does so I'll save it.
Plot is go, kind of, still some slice of life to go! I think everyone who knows the game can guess how this will pan out (based on Jacksepticeye's playthrough)
Other Options Flowchart (all dialogue options)
Go inside the Auditorium
