Deviant Behavior (Connor x Reader)

(Archived) 2021 Update - Anniversary Stream + Q&A

Hello everyone! It's been a while – over a year, even! And what a wild year it has been. I hope all of you have been staying safe and healthy, both mentally and physically. 

The first thing I want to address is the THIRD ANNIVERSARY of Detroit: Become Human, and by default, Deviant Behavior. I will be planning a celebratory Twitch stream (PC version of D:BH) where I'll be interacting with readers and viewers. I'm thinking June 5th, but the time and following schedule is undecided because of real life obligations that need situated first. Follow me on Twitch, Tumblr, Twitter, and/or join the DB Discord to get alerts/notifications when this happens. I'd absolutely LOVE to see you there! (Links/usernames in Profile)

PS: I'm usually more active on Twitch, but I'm still recovering from getting COVID, so it's been a few weeks since I've gone live. Still Affiliate though, woo! Thank you to all of you that support my channel!

Second matter of business: I've received a LOT of questions regarding the ending of Deviant Behavior, and how Natural Selection & Machine Learning tie into the story as a whole. Allow me to explain.

This should be obvious, but in case it's not...

HUGE DEVIANT BEHAVIOR ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD

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The ending of Deviant Behavior leaves some room for interpretation, but let me be clear: "Reader" (aka "Phoenix" as the following has named her) as we knew her is dead. Her consciousness was transferred into the same type of program that Amanda's was upon her death, and "I AM ALIVE" are the first words Reader "says"...or more like, shared through her new programming.

Natural Selection is the Reader reviewing her entire life as a computer program, hence how it is a sequel, but also a prequel. That is why the majority of the content takes place before Deviant Behavior, such as the Kamski wedding and Anthony's death, but there are also scenes and foreshadowing that take place afterwards, like how Reader reacts to no longer being human.

Machine Learning is similar. While this story follows the viewpoint of Captain Allen and the SWAT team, it actually starts out on a rooftop within shooting distance of Hart Plaza, where Reader was killed. DPD has tracked down the vantage point of the sniper that took the shot, and Captain Allen and his team were the first ones on the scene to investigate. He is struggling to cope with the murders of his fellow officers (Reader and Ryan Royal) and the android uprising, feeling partly responsible as deviancy's true start (as revealed in Deviant Behavior) took place overseas during the androids' first induction to the US military. We proceed to see a series of flashbacks with current-day scenes scattered in along the way, such as Connor's initial reaction to Reader's death, and what he's doing now.

What's the point? Well, the ending of both stories prepares you for and leads into the beginning of Afterburn, where Connor has gone rogue and is out for revenge via hunting the remaining androids under Amanda's control, which, don't forget, are clones of himself (-60 for example). The stories also set up the premise of Criminal Minds, my planned Reed900 fic where the RK900 unit is deployed to track down Connor and bring him home. He works with Gavin and the rest of the department to do this...and, given the ship, I'm sure you can imagine how things go from there.

What's taking so long? To be perfectly honest, keeping up with Deviant Behavior while in its prime was a lot. I was still working full-time and going to college full-time all at once, averaging 4 hours of sleep a night to keep up with the demand. I don't regret a thing. However, in hindsight, I should've waited longer than just a few days after DB's completion to start publishing the offshoots. I got burned out very quickly and realized I needed time to catch up on things I missed in my life like spending time with family and friends, and focusing on my career growth post-graduation. I did manage to get out of retail after 8 years, though!

Why are the spinoffs just on AO3? I've started "porting" them over to WattPad. FF.net will be soon to follow. It was too time consuming to continue cross-posting while also trying (and failing) to keep up with my social media accounts. Speaking of which, if I missed your fanart and I haven't added it to the collection, please let me know! AND I am still working through the comments, so don't be surprised if you get a response from a comment you left over a year ago!

PS: I'm more active on social media now that things have calmed down.

The fandom is dead, why keep going? I don't necessarily believe the fandom is dead, for starters. It was never the largest to begin with, and I meet plenty of new readers every week. Our Discord server is fairly active as well, even if it does have its quiet periods. Has the fandom plateaued? Absolutely. Dead? Not in my opinion. But to answer the question – I never wrote for a huge audience before this story became popular. I was happy before with a smaller group of readers, I was happy after with a large group of readers, and I am still happy with the readership I have now, which is somewhere in the middle. Writing just makes me happy. I'm going to continue the series and see it through because I want to. If you don't want to keep reading, I won't be offended, and appreciate you just making it to this point!

Taking all of that into account, I am eternally grateful for what this story has done for my confidence as both a writer and an individual as a whole. I've said this countless times, but this was all because of each of you that stumbled upon this page and took the time to see what I had to offer. Thank you so much a million times over. I hope to see you in the rest of the series' installments, but if not, it's been my honor. <3

With SOOOOOOOOOOO much Love,
Precursor