levelshift | Etraya Inbox

Hank’s standing outside the cafe, some ways away from the entrance. His dog’s leash is attached to his belt — precariously, seeing as how if Sumo decides to take off, the cups he’s holding in his hands are crashing to the ground.

When Accelerator arrives, Hank offers him one of the coffees: black.

“Here.”

Accelerator sends out a quick Okay. before grabbing his crutch and heading out. When he arrives he gives Sumo a confused, almost wary look, and steps around him to take the coffee.

"Thanks. When the fuck did you get a dog?"

An especially big one, to boot. He isn't used to dogs, so this is weird.

Hank looks down at Sumo. Back to Accelerator.

“Got him after the last Connor — y’know. Meant to get him before, but… I especially needed him then.”

He sips his coffee. Inundated with hazelnut creamer, because why the fuck not? Vincent told him a while back to embrace his goddamn whimsy, so here Hank is.

“Connor’s” — god, where to even fucking start? — “different. Have you met him?”

"....." He stares down at the dog like he's offended him, taking a slow sip of his coffee. He hasn't, Accelerator is just bad with animals.

A moment passes and he glances back up. Okay, yeah, might as well get right to it. "He doesn't remember me," he replies flatly. Saying that out loud hurts given how close he was to Connor when he was here previously, and he tries to cover that up with hostility, sounding aggravated. "I can't tell if this is some version of Connor from a different universe from the previous one, or if he's the same one and simply from a different point on his fucking timeline."

“He’s not gonna bite, y’know.”

Sumo’s tongue lolls out of his mouth — as if to emphasize that he is a very good boy — before Hank unhelpfully elaborates: “The dog. Not Connor. Can’t speak for that guy.”

But back to the serious topic: Hank sighs, cup pressed to his lips.

“I’m sorry. Real fucked up way for a reunion to go.” Hank pauses as Sumo goes sniffing around Accelerator’s feet, then: “This is… a different Connor, yeah. Not the one I knew, either. He’s from earlier — before he realized he was a person. Before he let himself be a person.”

Before Hank had fully accepted such, too, but he doesn’t add that. He can admit to his faults later — now is about Connor.

“Which is one of the things I wanted to talk about. I gotta help get Connor back to that point. We called it ‘deviating,’ back home; when androids got to that point of self-realization. We have to get him there, or else he might…”

Hank squeezes his eyes shut. Shakes his head.

“He might do something really fucked up if we can’t help him.”

Okay, Hank is probably right. Upon further inspection the dog looks more like he'd drool all over someone before biting them. Accelerator is just going to stay very still so Sumo can sniff him, sipping his coffee. Sadly, Sumo will not be getting any pets, and he's going to use the excuse that his hands are taken up by the crutch and the coffee rather than any awkwardness on his part.

He listens quietly, mentally filing all of this information away. The previous Connor had given him a rundown on deviancy, so he's got a basic understanding of it. When Hank explains that this Connor hasn't been through that (yet?), this Connor's behaviour makes a hell of a lot more sense. Connor has always been kind and helpful, but this one is a lot more.............

Well. Robotic.

All of that checks out in his mind. Connor hasn't deviated yet, explaining his behaviour, and Hank wants him to become fully sentient because he's a good person and any artificial being deserves that agency. Perfectly reasonable.

What's concerning is that ending, what'll happen if Connor doesn't deviate. Accelerator feels like he's missing something, and furrows his brow. "What are you talking about? What do you think he might do?"

“It’s not what I think, exactly — he flat-out told me. Connor’s here on a mission.”

And here Hank is, betraying that confidence, because he has to. But it’s not like he’s going and blabbing to the whole of Etraya. Accelerator knew the Connor before, and if there’s anyone Hank can trust with this…

“This Connor’s from a different” — there isn’t anyone around, but Hank still lowers his voice — “world? Solmara. I figure it’s something like Etraya, but it’s fucked. Dying. They’ve lost whatever it is that their AI overlord needs to keep the place running all smooth-like. That’s why Connor looks the way he does: they can’t just magically whip up parts to fix him over there.”

Sumo does, in fact, drool on Accelerator’s foot. For the lack of pets, or because he’s just a silly boy? Who knows.

“So Connor’s come here. With some others. To get whatever Aurora-Echo-whoever has. Which would end up with Etraya just like Solmara, if you catch my drift.”

Hank lets that soak in for a few seconds before continuing.

“That’s why we need him to deviate — I mean, because I want him to be free, of course, but this too. And I told him, if I can’t help him… then he’s gotta take everyone with him to Solmara. And he said he would. He said he’d do the right thing. If he can’t deviate, then he can’t fight his programming — but he won’t just let everyone here die.”

He had pressed that with Connor until he agreed, because fuck his programming.

A mission.

Of course, Accelerator knows that Connor was built to investigate crimes and support law enforcement. He's programmed to do forensic analysis and other stuff, so combine that with their supposed mission from Echo and it shouldn't be surprising to hear Connor is on a mission.

The rest, though. Woof.

He keeps on drinking his coffee, shock settling in the pit of his stomach as he listens. Solmara - not a word he's ever heard before, despite being multilingual. It sounds as if it's similar to Etraya and Eos's city. He makes a mental note of that as concern bubbles up.

"... I heard Connor needed some repairs. I was going to help him out with that," he murmurs quietly. Somehow, that feels like only a minor detail in the face of the rest of all this nonsense. At least Hank knows now, so he doesn't need to worry about Connor remaining broken.

When Hank finishes he's silent for several moments. This is a lot to take in. Frankly, it's insane. They just got off a multidimensional transport functioning using quantum mechanics and serving as a makeshift home to a heavily classist and unstable society, and now this.

He pauses drinking his coffee to draw in a deep breath. It's fine, it's fine.

"Right." Another sip of coffee. "Get Connor to go deviant, stop whoever else wants to steal some shit that'll destroy Etraya, and deal with this Solmara world. That everything?"

“Thanks — about the repairs. I was freaking the fuck out when I saw him. Saw how much pain he’s in. Didn’t know what to do, who could help. Asking Aurora...“

Hank takes another sip of his coffee as he chews over his thoughts.

“Wasn’t sure if talking to Aurora would be our best bet. Was worried that might put Connor on her radar, y’know? But I guess he probably already is.”

She knew the last Connor, to some extent. And seeing the new Connor like this... maybe Aurora was unsettled, too.

“That’s about all. I could try and get more out of Connor, maybe, but it’s... a process.”

And Connor gets sad — his smile always drops — whenever Hank brings up the mission. Which is necessary sometimes, but goddamn is Hank tired of seeing Connor hurt.

"I'll deal with it if there are any problems," Accelerator replies firmly. He doubts there will be issues, he trusts that Aurora will provide the parts that Connor needs. She's a good person, she wouldn't want him to be in disrepair or pain. It seems a lot less worrying than this supposed mission.

"You've gotten a lot of information already. I doubt anyone else would've gotten half of that out of him," he says slowly. It's enough to work with, or at least provide some initial steps to stopping any disasters. He looks upwards, his brain analyzing the data points, evaluating possible options forward.

"... I agree about making him deviant. He's a good person, he wouldn't want to see any of us get hurt if he could control himself." He's never actually seen an android go deviant, but he has an idea. "I think there's someone here who can help. He'd want to see Connor do the right thing instead of just shutting him down or worse."

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