Deerington App

[missiondeterminant]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Connor
Canon: Detroit: Become Human
Canon Point: Just after the end of canon

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Above his LED, branching off from it as though the ring was the head of the deer.
Current Health/Status: Fully functional, no physical issues
Age: Appears late 20s/early 30s, with adult cognitive abilities. Chronologically he's a few months old.
Species: Android

Content Warnings: Violence, murder, suicide, identity issues, poorly handled racism allegories, discussion of sexual assault (not in his personal story outside of side characters, but in canon in general)

History: Wiki entry but this is a choice-based game and Connor's path can diverge drastically, so I'll list important bullet points:

• Successfully negotiates the release of the little girl taken hostage by an android. The android is then killed by SWAT; Connor and the girl survive.

• Has a rough start with his new detective partner Lt. Hank Anderson, when they're assigned to handle deviant cases.

• Locates a deviant that killed its owner in self defense.

• During the interrogation of the deviant, Connor chooses to probe its memory instead of trying to get a confession; in doing so Connor and the deviant re-live the traumatic memory of the deviant killing its owner, causing them both a great deal of stress and prompting the deviant to shoot and kill Connor and then itself. Connor returns the next morning in a new body, with memories transferred from the first model to this one (going from edition 51 to 52.)

• Connor and Hank investigate a deviant (Kara) that's also accused of killing its owner, leading to a dangerous chase across an automated freeway as Connor chooses to pursue her instead of listening to Hank's orders. Kara reaches the other side safely; Connor barely avoids being hit by a truck and loses her trail.

• Connor and Hank have lunch and discuss a few things, bonding a little before they're called to investigate another possible deviant (Rupert), which then leads to another chase. Connor stops chasing Rupert in order to save Hank, who Rupert had pushed over the edge of a building, and Rupert escapes but Connor and Hank are both fine and their relationship improves.

• Connor goes in search of Hank so they can head to their next case, but finds him passed out in his house due to drinking too much. After sobering Hank up a bit and petting Hank's dog Sumo, Connor heads out to his case with Hank in tow.

• Connor successfully locates the deviant (Echo) who killed a man in self defense at a sex club, and although he has the choice to shoot her accomplice Ripple (who is also her lover) he lets both deviants go. This causes him a lot of confusion, as he did something in direct conflict with his orders without any particularly good reason.

• Hank and Connor talk at the park, leading Hank to try to push Connor into admitting he might feel things beyond just his programming. Connor is defensive and denies anything, insisting he's a machine and he's going to accomplish his mission, nothing more.

• After the leader of a group of deviants (Markus) and his team infiltrate a broadcasting tower to demand rights for androids, Connor and Hank investigate. Connor finds one of Markus' team (Simon, who was injured and left behind) on the roof, and there's a shootout. In the midst of it Connor connects with Simon, looking into his memories, and is unfortunately still connected to him as Simon commits suicide. Connor feels Simon's death and is badly shaken, admitting to Hank that he was scared because it felt like he was dying himself.

• Hank and Connor go to speak with Kamski, the man who created androids, to ask about deviants. Kamski agrees to help them, but only if Connor shoots one of Kamski's androids and proves he truly sees androids as machines, without feeling any empathy. Having felt Simon's death while connected to him, Connor can't bring himself to shoot; again, he's very troubled because he find any logical, rather than emotional, reason why he didn't do it. Hank reassures him that maybe he made the right choice.

• The FBI take over the investigation, throwing Hank and Connor off the case. Connor is frustrated, both because he knows he could've accomplished the mission and because he's afraid; he tells Hank he has to figure out where the rebelling androids are hiding--a location called Jericho, seen in Simon's memories--because if he doesn't, he'll be shut down for his failure. Hank agrees to help, and creates a distraction while Connor breaks into the evidence room. Having collected enough information during his previous investigations, he's able to locate Jericho.

• Connor infiltrates Jericho, an abandoned freighter that is the base for the android rebellion lead by Markus. He avoids being spotted by Kara, Rupert, Echo, and Ripple, who have all taken temporary shelter at the ship, and Connor is able to find Markus. Connor's orders are to take Markus alive, and Markus uses that to his advantage to talk to Connor, asking him if he's ever had any doubts or done anything irrational outside his programming, and encourages him to see himself as a person instead of a machine. Connor chooses to become deviant himself, just before the FBI attacks Jericho. After a couple of close calls on the ship, Connor escapes with the other deviants and ends up at an abandoned cathedral.

• Connor speaks with Markus, expressing guilt over leading the FBI to Jericho, and Markus decides to forgive and accept him as a member of their group. In return, Connor offers to attempt infiltrating Cyberlife tower in order to awaken the androids in its warehouse, so they can join the fight.

• Connor successfully makes it into Cyberlife Tower and kills several human guards to avoid being shut down. In the warehouse he attempts to awaken the stored androids, but Cyberlife has activated another Connor model (Connor 60, as opposed to protagonist Connor 52) and uploaded Connor's memories to it; 60 has taken Hank hostage, and uses him as leverage to make Connor stop turning the warehouse androids deviant. There's a fight between Connor and 60 which is stopped by Hank, who kills 60 after Connor successfully answers Hank's questions.

• Leading the newly awakened androids, Connor joins Markus who has just led a peaceful protect convinced the humans to stand down. As Markus gives a victory speech, Connor find himself mentally trapped in the virtual reality space that his handler, an AI called Amanda, has been using to give him orders. She informs him that his deviancy was planned the whole time, and she's now taking control of him to kill Markus. Connor is able to regain control just in time to stop Amanda from using him to kill Markus.

• Connor meets up with Hank the morning after the revolution. This is where canon stops; I'll be taking him from later that day.

Personality: Connor's personality can shift a great deal depending on how you play him, and he has the widest range of any characters; he can end up anything from a gentle and heroic leader to an evil-monologue-spouting villain protagonist. Since these are all traits that are a part of him, I'll go over a variety of paths and options that I didn't take for his history, but I'll try and make a note of what's general, what's path specific, etc.

First and foremost is that, in a game where the whole point is that deviant androids can feel emotions and make decisions outside their programming while non-deviant androids can't, Connor is definitely able to do a lot of things he shouldn't before he goes deviant himself. He seems entirely capable of ignoring orders he doesn't like, and he can lie to direct superiors; he can even lie to Amanda, the AI handler that basically lives in his head. As a part of this, Connor can and does engage in a lot of denial, as he convinces himself he can't be deviant despite often behaving like one.

Empathy is another running theme of Connor's story, even when taking the villain (or more accurately non-deviant or machine, although it could be argued that machine!Connor shows actual evil traits, rather than just mechanically neutral ones) route, and many of his choices come down to empathy vs the mission. There are several points in the game where this is directly called out, such as the Kamski test (in which Connor decides to spare an android named Chloe, even though she's not deviant and if he killed her he'd be given information he needs), and even Connor's very first choice of the game in which he can decide to save the life of a fish that has fallen from its damaged tank. The major determining factor of whether Connor becomes deviant or not is how much he indulges in that sense of empathy, which is not just noteworthy in itself, but also because he shouldn't be capable of feeling empathy without already being deviant. This strong sense of empathy is an incredibly important trait.

Generally, Connor is decisive and quick-thinking, as well as focused and determined. He doesn't hesitate, at least not for long, and commits to his decisions and choices. He's logical and methodical, and can be incredibly ruthless even in his most empathetic and gentle route. He can also be quite manipulative, and can twist situations to justify choices and actions not just to others, but to himself. He seems to have a well-defined sense of right and wrong, tying back into his sense of empathy, but he can justify almost anything to himself and others.

Being a detective model, Connor is designed to integrate socially with humans; it's unclear just how much is Connor's personality and how much is programming, but he can and does have animated, personable conversations with people. He shows a much wider display of emotion than most non-deviant androids, expressing annoyance, frustration, amusement, a sense of humor, and other traits that make him seem less robotic and cause humans to like and trust him. After becoming deviant, Connor is more subdued, which is likely due to the stress of the situation and from feeling guilty; in contrast, in his machine route Connor becomes more scathing and sarcastic, as well as seemingly vindictive, despite that he's no longer trying appear human. It's likely that all the traits Connor displays are, to some extent, part of his personality while deviant, especially since the line between deviant and non-deviant is so blurred for him.

A subtle part of Connor's personality is his behavior regarding Amanda, his AI handler, and how that extends to Connor's interactions with others. Even when doing everything as 'correct' as possible, Amanda is almost never satisfied with Connor's behavior and actions, and as the game progresses she becomes more and more threatening toward him. If Connor is leaning toward deviancy, in making empathetic choices and bonding with Hank and others, she's even more upset with him; he can then start choosing to lie to her questions, and pretend that he's behaving as he should. Connor can do the same thing when Hank questions him, as if he's expecting Hank to be angry with him as well; if Connor chooses not to shoot Chloe, it's automatic (there's no player choice) for him to apologize and try to justify himself, and he's somewhat stunned when Hank tells Connor he thinks he made the right choice.

Connor seems to feel fear very strongly, which is supported by his interactions with Amanda and how often he can take extreme actions to protect himself. Although 'dying' isn't something he's afraid of, since his memories are just uploaded into a new body, he seems to be frightened of more permanent shutdown. He can and does start behaving more drastically once there's a real, permanent threat; one example is breaking into the police department archives, another is killing both soldiers and Cyberlife security without hesitation. Additionally, fear plays a theme in Connor's story through several optional paths, including Hank questioning if he's afraid to die and Connor experiencing Simon's death while connected to him. Specifically, due to events of canon, he also has the the distinct fear of being controlled after Amanda tried to use him to kill Markus. He also has to deal with the question of whether he's really, truly deviant, since Amanda told him that had been Cyberlife's plan all along; is it truly free will if it was intended, and if it is, was he deviant all along? Is he truly responsible for the things he did before he became--or if he really was deviant all along, realized--that he was deviant?

Overall, Connor is empathetic, decisive, willful, and clever; he's also manipulative, can be cold and ruthless, and doesn't handle extreme emotions very well. It's also worth noting that he's only been deviant for a day, and so only has that much experience with feeling emotions at all, or at least feeling them and acknowledging them (as opposed to denying they exist, because he's totally not deviant, not at all!)

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: I'll bullet point this section for ease, and make some notes regarding these powers with the limitations/warping in Deerington, but if I miss something please just let me know!

• Android physiology: Because he's an android, he has some physical advantages and some disadvantages in comparison to a human. As far as major advantages go he doesn't feel pain, doesn't need to breathe, and doesn't require food or sleep. For major disadvantages, any serious damage done to him can't be 'healed' without replacement biocomponents, and he can't replenish his own 'blood' the way that humans can. For more details, I have a poorly formatted info page on DBH androids.

In Deerington, the big issue I'm seeing for him (aside from the self-healing one, which I go into more detail in its section below) is that he can't eat; androids can drink thirium (which is their blood substitute) to replenish their supply, but that means anything they consume just goes into their bloodstream. Connor probably has a limited ability to filter contaminants, since he's able to analyze things by licking them (it's as dumb as it sounds and there's more info in the Analysis section), but actually eating or drinking anything would be an issue for him. I'm definitely willing to play around with this, since I know consuming things is an important part of the setting and it could easily just add to the horror aspects if it causes him problems, but I'm good with whatever you mods decide (and if you need more info on this, just let me know!) I should also mention that I know he'll need to make special requests for thirium and biocomponents if (or really, when) he ends up needing them, since they're not standard items in Deerington.

• Analysis: Connor's model has some special functions for crime scene analysis. He can read the chemical makeup of different materials by tasting them; in particular this works for blood, including the blue blood of androids, but it also works for pretty much any other liquid or powdery samples (so he could identify gunpowder and its makeup, for instance, but not necessarily something like a brick.) Additionally, he can recreate possible scenarios based on evidence and play them through his mind, testing what does and doesn't fit or seem possible; he can do the same in considering possible future events based on information he already has, for example the likelihood he could make a jump. Pre-calculating doesn't necessarily mean he can pull off whatever he's trying to do, though, just that he can pick the best option available for making his attempt. Crime scene reconstruction and pre-calculating are annoying to actually figure out playing in game, so I probably wouldn't use any of this much if at all.

• General Scanning: He can identify individuals on sight, including accessing their criminal records, and can tell androids from humans. Obviously neither of the former things would work since he doesn't have access to databases, but he could likely still scan for whether someone is 'human' or 'other'. This would be by permission only though, with the excuse that his processing can be thrown off by the new situation and is therefore unreliable.

• Strength, fighting, and weaponry: Connor is decently good at both physical fighting and shooting; he's more skilled than most humans, but is evenly matched with a lot of androids. He's a formidable opponent but not an unbeatable one by any means, and relies more on skill and speed than strength. He seems to be on par with a strong, fit human (in the path where Connor and Hank physically fight, they seem evenly matched in terms of strength.)

• Reflexes/processing: Being an android, he has heightened reflexes due to his processing speed, and it also allows him to consider multiple choices of action in a split second. This lets him do things like chase a deviant across rooftops and onto the top of a moving train, or pull off complicated moves in a fight.

• Self-repair: He can repair damage sustained to non-vital components, such as some wiring or his outer shell, to a limited extent. He can't, however, replace lost thirium (androids' blood substitute) or fix damaged biocomponents, even if the damage is nonfatal, and so serious injuries will be a major problem for him. Additionally, I saw the notes about limitations on this ability, especially since it is technology-based; it's not explained well but it's implied androids heal through nanotechnology. I'm more than happy to mess with this ability as mentioned in the limitations/warping page.

• Imitation: He can imitate voices after hearing enough of a sample (five to ten seconds or so.) This would also be by OOC permission only, though.

• Connection: Connor can connect to another android in multiple ways. Through physical contact, he can read the other android's memory as well as sense through its senses for current events. From a distance he can have mental conversation, although he appears to prefer not to as he normally speaks with other androids verbally. In game all of these things would be by permission with other characters who are synthetic/android/robotic/etc, and excused away by those that opt out with the explanation that they're different than the type of androids Connor is used to.

• Electronics interfacing: Androids can connect with devices through touch, and therefore read information, hack, and otherwise interact with them. For game purposes I know that technology varies, and I'll ask for mod permission before doing anything more than just using a computer without looking at it or something.

• Memory transfer: Androids' memories can be uploaded, downloaded, and transferred between models; this is what happened to Connor when he died during the investigation. Additionally, because their memories are basically recordings, they're able to download portions of memory to an electronic device so it can be watched back by anyone else; this latter thing is the only one that really might come up in game, in that if Connor sees something he could potentially download the memory to a device in order to show other people rather than having to describe what happened.

• Awaken androids: This is a weird one, and by using it Connor (and Markus; they're the only two to show this ability, and it's possibly because they're both RK-series) is able to 'awaken' other androids into deviancy/sentience. This is done by touching another android and connecting with them, and it seems Connor can transfer this ability to the android he awakens as well, allowing them to wake up others. In game this probably wouldn't really come up, but I wanted to be sure to mention it in case it should be nerfed entirely, altered, or potentially might come up in for future plotting/events.

Inventory: His clothes (jeans, a white button down shirt, a jacket that declares in LEDs that he's an android and what his model number is, and boots), an American 1994 quarter coin, and a semi-automatical pistol with seven bullets left in it. He doesn't own or carry anything else.

Writing Samples: A serious event thread from a previous game, and a network post with various tones of replies in different threads.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Ami
Player Age: 31
Player Contact: amiasha, Ami#8741 on discord, or PM.

Other Characters In Game: None
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Connor: Ami
Permissions for Character: Permissions (it needs updated for game-specific things, but general info is all there)
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yep
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Dread and psychological horror, as well as situations involving identity/morality issues or hard choices. I really like horror that makes characters have to question themselves and who they are, and what they're willing to do; this fits well with Connor's general themes in canon, which is a bonus. Anything that leads to psychological fallout and character development is also something I particularly like, so the more personal the threat the better (as opposed to, say, a generic zombie attack, not that those can't be fun.)
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: I don't want to see any images of real violence toward animals, with exceptions for wildlife/nature (like lions attacking a gazelle). Basically I don't want to see any images of purposeful violence caused by humans toward animals that resulted in real harm to an animal; fake images (like from a movie) or fictional descriptions are fine.
Additional Information: I'm a grad student and often very busy, so if I get behind in something/don't answer something in a timely manner, don't hesitate to send me a message! I won't mind.