#poor six

Prompt: Sixty hates that he looks like his big brother. The minor, cosmetic changes don't help, the completely different fashion choices are irrelevant, even physically altering his body with piercings hasn't stopped people from calling him "Connor." He thinks he'll just have to resign himself to a long life of being the inferior product, the "other Connor," the spare.

Until Nines lets slip a new, experimental procedure in the works at New Jericho. Malleable Faceplate Technology. The ability for androids to customize their own appearance to better suit how they feel and less how they were built. And this is everything Sixty has been hoping for, the chance to move himself away from Connor's large shadow and become someone entirely unique. He goes to New Jericho immediately and signs himself on as a test subject.

And when the clinical trials begin, he is excited. He sees an AX400 emerge from the operating room, square-jawed and copper-toned. He sees a male-bodied AP700 emerge with much daintier features and a smile on her lips. He sees a WR400 with horrific faceplate damage return looking like nothing had ever happened.

Soon, it is his turn and he jumps up excitedly. Finally, an identity of his own. Something to keep the humans from mistaking him for his predecessor. He enters the maintenance apparatus with alacrity...

...and emerges to a wall of red error screens.

He doesn't know what's happening, the messages flit through his HUD too fast to register. The scientists in charge are running around below him in a panic. Even Markus has been alerted and is now there in front of him, trying to say kind words, to keep him calm. He can feel his stress levels continue to climb, nonetheless.

Finally, someone decides the best course of action is to cut the power entirely and the errors finally stop as the machine holding him goes still. He is manually released from it and stumbles his way upright on shaky legs. He still has no idea what has happened. Until he catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror, that is.

His face... looks like it's been melted off. Rivulets of the Thirium and silicon-based skin mixture drip from his cheeks and leave him looking like a living nightmare. The white panels of his chassis underneath peek through in several places. He recoils, hiding his disfigured face away even as he demands answers.

His defense systems, they say. Too advanced, an RK prototype... not able to differentiate the new cosmetic code from a virus... irregularities in his system stability... unable to achieve homeostasis... three to four weeks before they can completely redesign and rebuild his cosmetic coding and replace his malfunctioning skin nodes.

He listens to it all in numb silence. This... He wanted to be different... but not like this. Not like this. He can't even find it in himself to let his family know. They had no idea he’d even come here, that he would take such drastic measures to escape Connor's legacy. And he can't face them all now. (Hah! He can't face anyone anymore... Not when he has no face!)

And so he swears Markus and everyone to secrecy, citing the confidentiality form he filled out before the procedure. He makes it so Connor and Nines and Hank will never find out, not until he can be repaired. And he finds the emptiest, most uninhabitable place in New Jericho to hide himself away between visits with the scientist running their tests on him.

This lasts all of three days before an irate police lieutenant and two worried RK units kick down New Jericho's doors. Hank is livid, demanding to know what's happened to Sixty. Nines had recalled the conversation they had had a few weeks back about the experimental procedure being conducted and, during his investigations into it, got in touch with some of the other androids who had had success in changing their appearances. They all confirmed that an android that looked quite like him was one of the participants but they didn't know how his test had turned out.

So, while Hank is busy yelling at Markus and demanding answers, Nines and Connor slip away. They track Sixty down and eventually corner him when he tries to escape. And they see the damage caused and how he's trying to hide himself away. And they don't even hesitate. They reach out and embrace him. Hank, having been notified via text, arrives a few moments later and all of them have a big, emotional reunion. And they take Sixty back home and make sure he understands that they all love him.