Detroit: Become Human - The Outsider (Connor x OC fanfic)

Deviants and Cheaters

The white-collared men watched. They often clucked around her, all nodding occasionally and sharing important words. It had ingrained itself in Earl's evening do's: the men gathered, they stared and sometimes prodded (only with Earl's strictest permission) and then nodded. Orders were made, orders were delayed. 

Earl made big promises. 

They all congratulated him on his achievements, and his pupils dilated at the compliment. Rina wondered if she'd ever make him feel that way -- no matter how hard she tried, it appeared only other men could satisfy a man's urge to be seen. 

It was all, to her, impossibly dull. 

At moments like this, Rina became lost in her programming. A benefit, she figured -- only specifically after meeting Connor and realising that other androids didn't share the same proclivity for imagination -- of Earl's creation. She swam her eyes across the room -- swarms of people in groups, smiling faces and clasped hands on arms and gestures towards Rina, look, look over there at that; the androids circling close behind masters' backs, blue LED's shining, flickering, glowing. CyberLife androids stood, waited, watched. They bent and smiled and clasped hands when addressed (rarely), but for the first time Rina wondered what they thought. Did they think?

Sweeping her eyes now, she saw a black, grey, blue sea, almost colourless cept for the twinkling lights. If Earl's guests carried colours on their shoulders, they would shine like the depths of an endless hole, glitter like the sea floor where everything plummets to die. Earl was like that: deep, settled grey, mottled and matted and secure. 

Only, sometimes he flashed vermillion. Crimson. Red paint flicked across white walls. 

There was slamming doors, her back shoved into a bookshelf, plastic cracked up her spine, falling to the floor like rainwater. Flashes of it there, and then gone just as quickly. 

Rina had learnt what to do to avoid Earl's vermillion. Stay quiet, stay away, wait for the tension to drop. 

"Can I feel 'er and see?" An unregistered man grunted over his shoulder to Earl, who raised his glass in genial agreement. He swam close, black teeth poking through chapped lips. He stood a head shorter than Rina and glared up beneath bushy eyebrows. A swathe of untidied hair clung to head, as if prying for escape. His top button had already been opened (bit early, isn't it?), and a sharp twang of pure vodka sat upon his tongue like a sickness. He gleaned, breath huffing out with each exhale. 

Rina winced as he ran a rough hand down her bare arm. Something coiled inside, threatening to grow taut and heavy. She tried to focus in on the music, the guitar thrumming against her senses. His fingers trailed, teased. Rina pressed her eyes shut, jaw tensing, and the man wrapped his hand around her wrist and gave it a sharp tug. 

"Watch it," Rina hissed, eyes snapping open, clamping down on him. 

The man licked his lips. "How much do you beg?" 

"For you? I only pray." She pulled her hand back, circling her wrist and scowling as the man retreated to Earl with a heavy smile on his face. He stared. Spoke. Nodded. 

Yes, Rina imagined the words coming from his lips, what a tiny, little cock I've got. I never learnt how to use it when I was a boy, so now I buy my way to power. 

She was laughing into a drink when Earl called her over. The black, grey, blue sea parted and Earl glistened between them all. 

He wrapped a hand around her waist and tugged her close. "This one's not for sale," Earl shared with the men. "She's perfect, for me. But I can get you your own; with all the spice or none of it, if you don't like resistance."