dualisnet | TEXT: Day after the Festivities

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TEXT: Day after the Festivities

Username: dpdhank@dualislink

My name is Hank Anderson, I'm a patrol officer with Dualis's police. I think I met a few people at the Dualis Days festival, many of them during the unfortunate opening ceremonies.

The police are conducting an official investigation but I want to conduct my own independent investigation. In my experience that usually solves cases a little more quickly. [That's how he and Connor made it as far as they did, superseding what was technically required of them. The end result was also the better result for the world, not the preferred result for the powers that be, too.]

I know some of you were close to the bombing. If you're interested and able to give me some information I'll be in the kitchen on floor six for the rest of the evening.

[Anyone that comes to find him will be lucky. For the moment he'll be listening to some jazz he loaded onto a music player and speaker he found in a thrift shop rather than metal. But you better believe when it's necessary he'll switch to metal if he has to. In the meantime he's also reading an actual paper book, a softcover novel that he was lucky enough to find.]

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Well, you know. Sometimes you're just too lazy to make a trip down the hall to the microwave. [he jokes with mild sarcasm, mouth quirking in resignation.]

Been waiting for someone to come by and hopefully give me leads on the bombing. I got a job as a cop here. Forgot how much shit being a beat cop was. All the way down at the bottom with no access to the good information but all the access to the moody cynics.

[He looks back to his book.]

Don't worry, I don't blame them. I just gets tired of being fuckin' egged at some point when I really do just wanna help catch an asshole.

[ Her lips twitch with a hint of a grin, though it's gone as quickly as it appears. Maybe he's smart to join the force but it seems like a dangerous endeavor, less because of the city's clear terrorist issue and more because it's so foreign. Every time she's left the dorm, she's gotten lost.

As he speaks, she seems to pay more attention, her interest piqued. ]

Do you really think it was done by one person? [ It's clear that's not the direction she's leaning but, given he's wiggled into a position of authority, no matter how far down the rung, he might (probably does) know more than her. ]

I think the bombing part was done by one guy. I think it was a coordinated effort. Four to six people I'd bet. Someone to deactivate cameras. Someone to make the broadcast. At least one somewhere as back-up and cover.

But the one guy is the one that would have absolutely been at the scene, and the one I stand the best chance of finding.

[He's happy to work with people, usually, but without his partner on the force, it still feels like an "I" situation.]

Anyway, sorta workin' on it. I think I got a good start.

It seems kind of like an impossible task. [ She admits with minor hesitation. His job is daunting, especially if he doesn't have the ear of anyone higher up. She's not sure how he can even care given how new they are to the city but, hell, it's kind of admirable. ]

Nobody really seems too bothered by it. [ And that kind of bothers her. ] If this had happened where I'm from, the whole fucking city would just stop for days. And then get really patriotic.

[ But, you know, details. ]

Yeah. Pretty weird, isn't it? Mayor doesn't really have any political rivals I don't think. Not that I've heard about. So there's no reason for anyone to go off on who's responsible.

You'd think there'd be some more clickbait headlines, too. No, no. It's just... easy going.

[He shrugs. Barely any resources, very little access, and only scant word of mouth to go by.]

I guess it's take up an impossible task or feel uneasy that I didn't.

[He really can't wait for that whiskey though.]

[ As Hank speaks, she pulls open the fridge, idly rummaging for anything even vaguely familiar. Truth be told, she hadn't considered something like a political rival but that isn't to say the bombing had nothing to do with politics—the terrorists obviously had something to say, something they had to draw attention to; there's something wrong under the surface, there has to be, right?

Fuck. She grabs a vibrantly colored apple from a draw and then lets the door slowly close behind her and takes a bite. ]

It's kind of a big task for one guy to tackle. [ She points out between chews. It seems like this could be a dangerous task for him to dive into. He's new to this place, still settling, but maybe he's adapted faster than her. ] Especially if your coworkers aren't, y'know, forthcoming and shit.

[Hank spent much of his life fending off political news slimed conversations, as comes with both being a cop and with being a sports fan. He spent his early thirties wearing pride themed badges with department staff tending to summer protests. He remembers how this shit went. If someone bombed someone, and there was a rival, then everyone would have thrown a fit over how the rival somehow encouraging violence.]

[That part is baffling to him, even in the future, where the android uprising became the next thing for people to overreact to. (It did turn into overreaction).]

I know the police force'll be looking into it. And yeah, I get it. The whole chain of command thing. Gotta keep a lid on information higher up, earn your way up to it.

Doesn't mean I'll stop. But I get why the chain of command's there. And I figure if I look around enough, I won't be doing it alone.

[ Sharon lets out a thoughtful hum, dark brows furrowing beneath her bluntly cut bangs. ]

Can't you get in trouble for investigating a case that's not yours? [ Her question has a touch of concern, though it's far more curious. She hasn't watched television in years but she has seen a few of those procedural dramas and the officers in those are always getting themselves in trouble with things like that. ] Or have I seen too many of those shitty cop shows?

Maybe.

[He snorts.]

I don't always listen. [But then he makes a so so motion with his hand.] So long as I don't claim to be a part of an official investigation or do shit like throw out false warrants or access confidential files then I'll probably be alright. I've gotten reprimanded a few times in the past, except I always turned up useful evidence along the way.

[Not that he thinks that the cops here are idiots. But he does think they're under a close, scrutinizing eye and he's decently sure he can get to more than they can. Maybe a heady thought for a fuck that's not even been around for a full month, but it's there.]

I'm just doing no more than a private investigator would.

[ Sharon approves +10. ]

...You sound like one of those classic, grizzled movie cops. Just in case you didn't know. [ She's not sure how safe he is poking around but she's not the girl to tell someone to keep to themselves. He's an adult; she just hopes he'll be careful. ] All you need now is a rookie partner with big dreams and a bigger heart.

[He chuckles at that, a sound that wells up deep in his chest. Fuck, feels like a long time since he's laughed. It actually has been.]

I actually have one of those, back home. Thought he was a piece of shit when I first met him. But like every stereotype, now I think he's the best guy I ever met.

[As he talks, the more that look fades, the more he fiddles with a page of his book, creasing and smoothing the corner with his blunt thumbnail.] But uh... he's an android. And I see how those fuckin' techno-jackoffs live if they're left on their own. They end up in abandoned houses or buildings. They go through the motions of their old jobs. They break down. They're lonely.

I was going to keep that from happening to him and he was gonna stay with me and keep me from... doing what I do. [Sitting around and despairing until a gun with a single bullet found its way into his hands.] It was gonna be a real partnership. The two of us just fucking off and getting him somewhere safe. And now I've had to leave him alone. I guess it wasn't as pressing as your situation, but it pisses me off.

[ She smiles as he talks, widest after he laughs, but like his own, it fades as he continues. Soon, her lips are pressed into a thin line. Humanity is cruel no matter where you come from it seems. No wonder some people want the world to end, to be cleansed.

She'd rather just kill all the assholes or boot them into space. ]

That... that fucking sucks. [ What else can she say? She won't feed him false hope but...

She finally approaches the table, taking a seat without asking. Their situations aren't the same, but they've both been taken from the important people in their lives; people that need them or just... people they need. ]

What's he like? [ She doesn't really like to pry, not often, but it must say something about his partner if he went from hating his guts to praising him. ]

Oh, he's a jackass, first and foremost. He's picky and fidgety and reminds me of the calorie contents of all my food. He's fuckin' like, GQ pretty. Always checks himself out in mirrors to make sure he still looks good. He actually got in front of me on the other side of a two-way interrogation room mirror to do it once. He's smart enough to work out where suspects hide but still stumbles over a lot of social graces.

[But that's not really what he's like, is he?]

Okay, we were on a case where we had to find an android that murdered a human. We hunted her down in the back of this sex-club that owned her. And she fought us... but her girlfriend fought us, too. Turned out she'd fallen in love with another one of the 'Tracis'. They knocked my gun away from me during the fight and Connor could have shot them...

But he didn't. And they told us that the guy was out to break her just to get off, and she had been trying to defend herself. All the evidence backed it up. So we uh... we both let her and her girlfriend go They ran and he didn't stop them. That's the type of guy he is. His entire programming was to hunt down androids like that and he used his own judgment.

[Even if Hank could tell that it confused and rankled him, but it was the best thing he ever saw him do.]

[ Sharon leans forward as she listens, elbows on the table, apple still in hand but forgotten for the moment, engrossed. There can be no doubt that Hank cares for his partner, even as he speaks on Connor's more annoying habits, his words are colored with attachment.

And, as he continues, she can understand why. ]

It kind of sounds like androids are more human than people like to think. [ If they can fall in love, if they think they can feel, they do. What has a human ever created that didn't somehow reflect the creator and their flaws? ]

It's cool you guys let them go. I bet a lot of people probably wouldn't have done that. [ She has no faith in humanity, that much is obvious. ]

What do you think Connor will do while you're stuck here? He's a cop, too, right? Or... owned by the police? [ She wrinkles her nose at the word 'owned'. ] Doesn't that mean he'll be safe? I mean, safer than say... sex worker androids, right?

[ But if he goes against his programming, maybe that means he's not safe. God, humans are shit. ]

Nah. He was owned by the company that made him, but they all just got their independence. And that means Connor is a free man. So he's on his own. First time just taking care of himself. My dog I'm not too worried about. I had instructions- [a will] -that if something should happen to me that he end up with my old boss.

[Pouring way too much of his heart out to this poor kid whose been worried about her dad. He knows it's because he doesn't have the whiskey he wants to bury this shit. He'll do that soon, go get some.]

Connor, though, I really wanted to be around for him. [And he wanted Connor around to help hold him up.]

[Then, he says very lowly.] I'll tell you a secret. I probably wasn't even a cop back home anymore. He needed a distraction at one point and to give him one I punched a fuckin' federal fuckface that I hated. [He chuckles again at that. Surely the type of guy that people want investigating a bombing on his own, right?]

[ She wants to say something meaningful, some mishmash of words that help ease the worry, the niggling fear that she knows comes from being apart from those you love—friends, family, lovers, or whatever else exists in between—but those things don't come to her naturally. Plus, it's likely she's projecting and she knows it. Instead, she grins when he chuckles. ]

Sounds like causing a distraction was more like a bonus. [ Approval rings clear in her voice. It says a lot about Hank that he'd risk his job to help Connor but now he's left her with more questions. ]

So, why'd he need the distraction? [ It sounds like it could be a good story. ] Did it work?

Because if he didn't solve the case in time, he was going to be disassembled. He needed time to have a second look at the evidence. I decided that even though I like my job, it wasn't worth a man's life. Especially if it was a job where that came into question.

So I just took the bonus severance pay of breaking a dick's nose.

And yeah, it worked. Canada has more relaxed judgments about androids. It's illegal to own them and there's no reason to go around destroying them. So even if the manhunt for every plastic person was done I still wanted to get him out. That was my plan.

He can probably make it on his own. He's smart. He can do it. [He is mostly telling himself that. That Connor will be fine without him.]

[ Her face twists in mild disgust. She doesn't have an issue with people dying, a lot of people deserve to die, or even be disassembled, but not because of something like that; for wrong things, for unforgivable things, but not failure. ]

I'd say a job that fires you for doing the right thing isn't a job you should want. [ Facts, yo. Though, she's aware that he likely broke some rules and maybe some laws and life doesn't work like she thinks it should but, hey, he did the right thing. That matters. ]

I bet he's looking for you. [ She can't say whether or not he'll be all right on his own, whether he is smart, or capable, but if he cares half as much for Hank as Hank does for him then there's no doubt in her mind that's what he'd do. That's what she'd do. ]

[That idea actually makes his heart pang a little. He could actually imagine that. Connor would absolutely look for him, tirelessly, even. He'd blame himself more the longer he didn't find him. Maybe taking care of Sumo would be something that Connor would do, as well, but his partner would definitely make finding him a priority.]

Yeah, that's probably what he's doing.

[Hank sighs out his nose.]

Shit sucks. I just hope I can get home a little early, too, instead of popping in a year later.

[ She feels a tickle of guilt, questioning whether or not she said the right thing. ]

I... hope you can, too. [ But she feels a pang of jealousy as she says it, too. Jealous and fearful that the one person that matters most to her will probably never know she did everything she could to find him, that she did her best to save him, to save others, that she tried at all. He has the hope that he'll go back and maybe, hopefully, his partner will still be there. She doesn't have that, can't will herself to have that.

Ah, fuck. Now, she just feels bitter and upset when she should be angry and vindictive. She wants to be angry and vindictive; it'd feel better. ]

Personally, I just kind of hope I wake up from this and that it's all just another shitty nightmare. [ Maybe that sounds dramatic but she's lived literal nightmares and, honestly, she'd rather be there, in them, with him, than feel so isolated and alone in a place like this. ]

I bet you get some real fucked up ones.

[On one hand, he doesn't want to think too much about a lonely Connor searching for him. On the other, he doesn't want to remind this poor girl of her nightmares.]

Maybe if you can take control of it you can get us out of the fuckin' cyberpunk projects and into a nice apartment complex.

I'd get us out of the cyberpunk projects but I don't think anyone would like where we'd end up. [ She seems to realize how cryptic that sounds and quickly continues. ] I don't really have good dreams, even when I try. [ She shrugs. ] Nightmares or nothing.

[ She even went to the doctor a lot as a kid for it. She's just happy she doesn't sleepwalk anymore. ] So, maybe you can take control of it; you probably have a better idea of what nice is than me.

[Hank's brain hates him in a different way. His dreams are usually either the typical brand of bizarre- naked at work. Driving the Oscar Meyer Weenermobile with a siren. Watching an action movie that's a buddy cop flick with Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders and Wendy is the sexy fem fatale (that one nearly converted him to only food cart food forever).]

[Or they're sort of happy. Playing with Sumo and Cole at the playground. Watching him and several other kids playing duck duck goose. The generic but true memory of rounds of catch in the backyard. And most recently, stupid half-ass things his mind has concocted with Connor laying on him on his couch, his plastic idiot head on his chest]

If this was my dream it'd be a lot stranger. Though with people naming places like Gotham and bringing up the X-Men I'm kinda wonderin'.

[ What are you eating before bed, Hank? Jesus.

She recognizes some of the words but they don't ring any real familiar bells (now if he'd said Middle-earth, she'd have perked up). ]

Yeah, I really don't know how much stranger you could make it. It's like we're in a fucked up love child of, I don't know, Blade Runner and Wizard of Oz.

So if you're Dorothy, am I the Tin Man or am I the Cowardly Lion?

[As if either is a deep compliment. One a man who can't figure out his emotions. One a man who is too fuckin' chicken shit to do what he needs to. Both grow, at least, but they're kind of perfect examples of how people can go wrong after a bit much.]

[Though considering some of their other threads of conversation, that's one of the lighter ones.]

Edited 2019-07-16 03:05 (UTC)

TEXT: Day after the Festivities

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