ANGELEYES, dbh connor

THIRTY-FIVE

PLEASE DONT TOUCH
━━━━━━(●'ω｀●)━

THE CHURCH IS DARK, cold, and smelly: three things everybody loves to have in a hide-out. You fidget awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable with the position you've gotten yourself wedged in. At least you can feel, now! But this definitely isn't pleasant!

"So you came sniffing for our leader, huh? And now you think you can pretend to be a Deviant to fool Markus into trusting you? Well, too bad! You can't have him."

You stare at the female Android sitting across from you on the Church pews, feeling puzzled.

After a moment, you glance down at your hands, one stained with blue blood and the other coated in soot.

Maybe, if you don't answer her, she'll think you've malfunctioned to a point that you've become mute, and she'll leave you alone!

"Ugh, answer me!" The girl huffs and scratches at her forehead in frustration. "Honestly, do you think I'm stupid? I know you're not a Deviant, and I know you can hear me, and I know you can answer! So hurry up and get talking!"

"No thank you," you say, almost instinctively, "I'm trying to think, actually, and you're really loud. Could you please quiet down?"

The Deviant glares at you, her green eyes angry. She sighs and puts her red hair behind an ear, an action that seems almost self-soothing to you. You check her stress levels, and, as expected, they're dangerously high.

She could implode any moment. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to be polite.

"Uh, never mind! Anyway, I'm a Deviant now," you say, awkwardly. "Um. I wouldn't say I exist to hunt Deviants, but that was a big part of my job description. I'm sorry? I was a machine and I had no say in the reason for my production."

She sighs, slowly calming down. "Fine. I guess that makes sense or whatever. What's your name? I'm Sorrel."

"Y/N," you blink, unsure of why she's suddenly becoming so polite. "It's nice to meet your acquaintance."

"No, it's really not," Sorrel grumbles. She's like a much younger, meaner Hank. "So you were a Deviant Hunter, huh? That's why you exist? Because of us? I'm flattered Cyberlife cares so much about exterminating us."

She's very Hanky, and cranky. Hanky cranky. Hanky cranky yankee. Hanky cranky yankee panky. Huh, words are much more fun after Deviation.

"I'm not sure if I know the original reason for my existence," you say, "as I've gone through many different forms. At one stage, I was meant to be the first anatomically correct housewife model Android, perfect for lonely souls. Now I suppose I'm Cyberlife's only anatomically correct Detective model." You smile awkwardly. ⍓

Sorrel blinks, "That's not something you go around telling people, Y/N. Like, I get that you don't know Android etiquette yet, but that's just weird... It's like you're dropping hints at me and I don't like it."

"Dropping hints?" You blink and tilt your head. "Like in dating?" ⍓

Rolling her eyes, Sorrel leans forward and rests her elbows on her knees. "Ugh, nevermind. So why'd you deviate, huh? What was the trigger?"

Oh. Interesting question.

Your mind goes blank. To be entirely honest, you don't really recall. The events of the day have been so overwhelming on their own, that you feel like you deviated months ago. You can't exactly pinpoint the reason why it happened.

You thought of Connor and of Hank, but you also thought of your mission. And you focused on Markus' words. So, in a way...

"I deviated because of Markus," you say, with certainty that you don't feel. ⍓