missiondeterminant | [Open Post]

[ He's not okay, but he's back, and that's good enough for her. Right now, the important thing is that they have to run.

The experiments aren't fast, but they gained ground while Connor was out of it. Luckily, she remembers where they were going, plus a few alternate routes to get to Belle Isle. She tugs on his arm again and starts at a walk, to make sure he has his balance; when she notes he does, she speeds up, again and again until they're at a run. ]

She's leading us somewhere. [ She sure as hell isn't helping them get there faster. ] But we can lose them. They're slow. They're--

[ Not scary, in and of themselves. Their real world counterparts were compassionate. But these are not. Kara knows in the deepest part of herself that these are meant to tear them apart.

She hopes the real ones are okay. ]

[Connor's made to switch gears very quickly and could've switched to running immediately, even with everything going on in his head at the moment, but it does allow him to just follow Kara's lead.

He's slow to respond when she addresses him, but does manage it.]

We could fight.

[Instead of letting themselves be herded somewhere. And by 'we' he mostly means 'him'; there are a lot of androids after them, but they're damaged and weakened and surely won't be a match for him.

Unless they are. Unless something goes wrong and one of his biocomponents just shuts down in one strike and--

He shakes himself out of those thoughts, jaw clenched and LED still spinning red, deciding to let Kara make the call and to trust her judgement, since his own is obviously compromised at the moment.]

[ Despite the shock thar sends through her, Kara doesn't stop. Running for her life with someone else in tow is familiar to her, something she has experience in. This is the only time it'll be a positive, and she hopes it never is again. ]

No. [ It's sad, scared, and angry all at once, just one word reflecting the mix of emotions and how hard they are to process. ] It's not their fault--

[ These aren't the same androids, though; they're not the ones she met and freed. They're simulations-- but even still, she doesn't want to hurt them. That's probably what Amanda is banking on, but Kara just can't. Not right now. Not wjen they aren't actively hurting her or Connor. ]

We'd be wasting time. [ She keeps moving, shifting some of her processing power to computing alternatives. This isn't what she was built for, but she can apply problem-solving skills to arrive at something for them to do. ] This way, toward the park. We can use the equipment to trip them.

[ She tugs on Connor's hand as the left turn comes up. ]

[Connor isn't used to being the one being chased, and he really doesn't like it. Everything in him wants to take some sort of action on the offense, even while he's terrified to do so, because it's better than this feeling of anxiety while trying to escape their pursuers.

But he's already decided to let Kara make the decision, so he gives a mental blip of confirmation that isn't really words but hopefully gets the point across well enough. He makes the turn easily enough as they run toward the park, preparing his own processors to navigate any potential acrobatics they might need, noting on the side that the snow is picking up again. Great. Just what they need.]

[ The snow will be slippery, and Kara and Connor will have a better time staying on their feet in it.

She keeps going on a path toward the swing set, engaging her child safety module for all the dangers the swing set poses. In less than a second, she has a plan, and to keep it between the two of them, she takes her cue from Connor and tells him wirelessly: they're jumping over the seats and between the chains. They'll have to break their handhold for a moment to do it, but it'll be over quick.

The swing comes up, and Kara lets go, jumping through with not the most graceful form but landing safely, able to keep going, reaching for Connor's hand again as she listens for the experiments to get tripped up by the ~~barely swinging swings thanks to this cool but pointless move~~ equipment. ]

[Connor, for all his dangerous efficiency, has been known to be overly dramatic on occasion, and so this plan sounds completely reasonable to him. He accepts it without hesitation, letting go of her hand and leaping elegantly through the swing, landing with barely a hitch before he's back to running.

He grabs Kara's hand again as well, continuing forward, and begins to realize where they actually are; this shouldn't be here, exactly, and it throws him off mentally even more than he already is, but it's a simulation. He can handle the idea of this particular park being somewhere it shouldn't be, although there is the issue of that they're about to run out of--

There's supposed to be more ground, and there's definitely supposed to be a railing. There is not supposed to just be a sudden dropoff, obscured by the snow in the air and snow on the ground and ice that makes any attempt at a sudden stop completely impossible, despite Connor's full processing power going to it; he twists and tries to grab the sharp edge of the sudden drop as they fall, but it's too slippery to manage anything but touching it as they plunge the rest of the way into the river below.]

[ Two thoughts occur to Kara as they fall: 1) This is probably what Amanda wanted, 2) Hey, the experiments won't follow them here. She does not, however, bother saying either of those to Connor. The water is frigid, setting off alerts in Kara's vision. She closes out all but the timer, diverting the majority of her focus to one single task: swimming out of this liquid death trap.

She'll make it, she thinks, if she just goes for it, but she keeps looking over at Connor to make sure he's okay, giving the icy water the chance to start damaging her critical biocomponents. She can make it, she tells herself. Her limbs might be feeling heavy and twitchy, but she can make it, and she'll start to self-repair as soon as she's out of the water.

Closing out another warning -- yes she knows her toe joints aren't working now thanks very much she is well aware -- she spares enough power to reach out wirelessly. ]

Connor?

[Connor is similarly focused on the one task of getting to the surface so they can find the bank and climb out, ignoring the warning that flash in his vision; he has more time than Kara, considering his newer biocomponents and the expectation that he'll end up in dangerous situations, but that's counterbalanced by how the cold affects him mentally. It's distracting and terrifying in a way it has no reason to be other than the connection to the night of the revolution, and he knows it's unreasonable but it doesn't make any difference as his stress levels just continue to climb. The cold, irrationally, feels like it's beckoning him to just stop; if he just doesn't fight so hard anymore then he won't have to deal with the stress, or whatever the next part of the game is, or what else he might remember--

But then Kara's voice cuts through and he refocuses again, realizing she's still here too and he can't just leave her to do this alone; what if she can't get out of the river and freezes? He has longer and he's a stronger swimmer, so he can't just abandon her. Not yet, at least.]

How long do you have?

[His own timers are going but they're in the realm of several minutes before anything important begins to shut off, giving him plenty of time to get to the surface and find a bank even if he has to swim across the entire river. But he isn't sure what they're working with for Kara.]

Twent-six seconds.

[ Because she's both an older model and a housemaid model, not at all expected to be in this kind of danger, ever.

Some water goes down her throat, and Kara coughs to keep it away from her most vital biocomponents. Her limbs are starting to lock up on her the way a human's would as hypothermia settles in. But she's fighting, pushing herself to keep seimming. She can't let Amanda win, can't let CyberLife take her away from her family.

And she has to help Connor be rid of the last hold CyberLife has on him.

This is not where she dies. ]

[That is... Not a lot of time. Connor engages his sensors immediately, the scanning hampered by the water but still enough to show him what he's working with; they're not far from the surface, but the nearest shore they could actually climb out of is still a hundred feet down the bank to their right.

He runs calculations, lets go of Kara briefly in order to shift his grip so as to better pull her along with him, and starts actually actively swimming toward the shoreline.]

We'll make it.

[He assures her with as much confidence as he can manage to put into his mental voice, all his processing power now focused on the one single goal instead of everything else going on. None of it is important right now; he needs to get Kara out of the river.

Swimming isn't a skill he has to use often--he did in order to escape Jericho, but that's the only time he's ever used it in the field rather than practice--but it's one he is, fortunately, very adept at. It's naturally programmed in, and his sense of timing and coordination and the general strength and dexterity of his model make it something he can do efficiently, even when pulling another android along with him.

And so they do reach the bank in time, but they're cutting it close as Connor lifts Kara out of the water and onto the probably not much warmer sidewalk, itself covered in snow and ice. Connor hauls himself out of the river a moment later, a brief scan of the area confirming they're alone--for now--and so he turns his attention back to Kara.]

Kara? What's your status?

[Please let whatever damage her biocomponents might've taken be reversible with time to warm back up.]

[ With Connor all but carrying her, Kara calms down a little. He's faster and stronger than she'll ever be, and never has she been more relieved to know that. Despite the danger, she feels safe -- this must be how Alice felt when they were on the run.

It's not any warmer on the shore, but she's out of the water, and that helps. Kara shivers, her body working to create warmth through friction. It feels strange and uncomfortable, but she doesn't fight it. Instead she goes through the list of alerts one by one as their respective countdowns stop and switch over to self-repair percentages. ]

No-- no critical damage. [ There's relief in her voice. ] I just need time. Minutes. And less cold.

[Okay. Okay, that's probably the best answer he could've hoped for, and his stress level--which seems distant at the moment, somehow, despite the glaring red number--lowers a fraction. He has a very simple current objective now, and he can focus on just that.

Connor glances around again, looking this time for any structures instead of anything moving, and locates what looks like it might be a small fishing store for people who dare to fish in the river. It's dark and surely empty, unless of course there's some horrific parody of an android in there like there had been in the police station and those mangled beings that they'd just had to run from, so it's the best choice.]

Can you walk?

[He can carry her if not, he just feels like he should ask. He doesn't think he'd like to be hauled around if he had the option not to be, after all.]

[ It's such a simple thing, yet as she tries to sit up and finds she can't yet, Kara feels a pang of despair. She doesn't want to be so helpless, but what can she do but wait? ]

Not on my own. [ She can move her limbs, but getting on her feet... that'll take time she's not sure they have. ] Help me stand?

[ The android sent to kill her a few weeks ago is now her lifeline. It'd be poetic if this weren't a nightmare. ]

[Connor nods, moving to carefully pull her arm over his shoulders and then put his arm around her waist, lifting her up to her feet and ready to hold her whole weight if she finds she can't stand even with help.]

Do you see the shop over there?

[He tries to focus her attention toward their goal, both to help them in getting there and to hopefully reassure her a little. There she can hopefully rest and warm up for the time she needs while they figure out what to do next.]

[ Being upright helps. Seeing her self-repair completion go slowly up also helps. Kara focuses on putting one foot in front of the other, which she can only do because she's leaning rather heavily ok Connor. But it's progress, and she's glad for it. ]

Yes. Shelter.

[ And she's sure he knows how to start a fire.

A few seconds of heavy walking later, she says, ] Thank you.

[He's relieved she can walk, even if she is leaning on him and the progress is slow. He keeps his focus mostly on their destination, making sure nothing springs out at them, but does glance her direction again at her last comment.]

There's no need to thank me.

[Especially since he's probably the reason they're in this mess overall, and surely the reason they were in the mess that ended up causing them to fall in the river. If he hadn't triggered the memory to play, and hadn't been so lost in it and disoriented afterward they wouldn't have lost so much time, and wouldn't have had to run so blindly.]

It'd be easier to find the exit without me.

[ It makes sense to her. She's slowing him down, a housemaid in a nightmare for an advanced, skilled prototype. She got him to figure out what he needs to do, so she's outlived her usefulness, logically speaking, righr? ]

But a deviant doesn't care just about their objectives anymore.

[ A weak laugh. There's the final proof. ]

[Okay, that last statement actually gets through the fog that circles around his emotions at the moment, prompting... Not annoyance, but maybe indignation? Very mild, though, and somehow almost humorous, in a nonsensical contradiction to their entire situation.]

You're only now convinced I'm deviant?

[After he freaked out multiple times, got spiteful toward Amanda, and was frustrated with Kara's suspicion?]

Completely convinced, yes.

[ It's clear he's a little amused, and it's nice to have something to smile about as her repairs keep moving toward comoletion and they arrive at the shelter of the abandoned store. ]

I'll be fine sitting down. [ She's stopped shivering by this point, but her temperature reading is still on the low side. ] We need to dry off. Can you start a fire?

[Thankfully the store is as abandoned as it looked, even if Connor does have to knock out a pane of the door window in order to undo the lock; once they're inside he makes sure Kara is able to sit down safely, before beginning to glance around. It's only after he spots the lighters behind the counter that he answers, though.]

Yes, I think so.

[There are metal buckets for holding fish, and a stack of newspapers to use for kindling; the fire will need constant feeding, but it's better than nothing and maybe with more looking around he'll find something that will burn more sustainably. For now, though, he gets the small fire going, offering a warning Kara probably doesn't need--]

The bucket will get hot, so be careful.

[Although he does think she should sit as close to it as is safe, to help continue warming her as Connor keeps looking around.]

Did you sustain any damage from the fall itself, or just the cold?

[ She doesn't need the warning, but his concern isn't lost on her. By the time the fire is started, she's okay to scoot a little closer to the bucket. Just the sight of it, it seems, helps; she holds out her stiff fingers over the fire, the convection warming her through the layers of her synthetic skin, her shell, and down into the artificial circulatory system.

So many human stories tell of the comfort of a warm fire. Kara finally, truly understands why now. ]

Just the cold. [ Luckily. ] Are you okay?

I'm fine.

[He assures her automatically, although if she takes one look at his stress levels she'll know that isn't true at all. But he's back to functioning, and there's nothing wrong physically; the cold had only had the time to minorly affect him while in the river, and with the fire he's now more than warm enough. He also hadn't damaged anything falling.

But now he has opportunity to start thinking about what happened before they ended up in the river, and he doesn't want to. He firmly returns his attention to Kara, coming over to sit down near her and the bucket.]

We've found the river, although I believe it was much closer than it should've been. Therefore finding Belle Isle may be more difficult than expected.

[Just keep focusing on the task at hand.]

You don't have to act strong because of me. It's okay to not be fine after that.

[ Don't put on a front, Connor. It's okay, though she understands why he would. She did it all the time for Alice.

Her self repairs are going faster now that she's by a heat source, but she takes it easy on the talking at first anyway, listening instead. On top of all that can attack them here and how bad the weather can get, the city layout itself is meaningless. ]

So our map, our planned route, won't do us any good. [ Forgive her the slightest pout, it smooths out into a frown quick anyway. ] We have to keep going. We can't just give up. Maybe she can't change where the exit is? Maybe it's fixed on the map?

[Connor fidgets a little, wishing he had his coin--apparently it hadn't been brought with him into the simulation, doubtlessly for exactly this reason--and decides to occupy his hands with picking at his wet jeans. The feeling of the fabric against his fingernails in somehow comforting, even if there's also something annoying about it. It's distracting, though, and that's the important thing.

He's saved from having to actually address the first part of what Kara said when she continues, which is for the best for now anyway. Focusing on the goal is the most important thing.]

Maybe. I think you're right; we just have to keep going. The tower is still the most likely place to look.

[He truly believes that's where they need to go, if they can just get there. Amanda wouldn't be throwing so many dangers and obstacles at them if they were going in the wrong direction, would she?

But maybe she would. It would be just another mind game, and she surely knows he'll second-guess himself already, so he really doesn't know. He doesn't know what to do, and his stress spikes again, and then suddenly things click together.]

I think... I think you should make the final decisions, Kara. Amanda knows me too well, and it's apparent that at least part of the goal here is to cloud my judgement.

[With the memories, and playing on his fears specifically. It's all to confuse and overwhelm him and it's working, but Kara had managed to get not just herself but Alice to safety during the most dangerous and violent part of android history. Connor believes she can figure out what to do here.]

[ Right. Why waste time and energy keeping them away from a place that doesn't matter? Even at his worst, Todd never wasted time. If he got it in his head to be violent, he just went ahead and did it. He had no patience for games. Amanda... well, she might, but it still seems pointless to spend CyberLife's resources on such a long game.

Connor's suggestion snaps her out of that train of thought. ] Me? [ But... it almost makes sense, but-- ] She might not know me, but she has access to my memories too. Those androids chasing us just now? I've met them before. They were... they were someone's toys.

[ They were tortured for Zlatko's twisted pleasure. She shudders. ]

I'll do it, it's just-- she's got a lot to throw at us no matter what.

Edited 2018-08-17 18:21 (UTC)

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