revivalproject | And look at me, I'm tattered

Entry tags:

And look at me, I'm tattered

WHO: York & Open
WHERE: York's Calibration Room
WHAT: Calibrations event
WHEN: May
WARNINGS: CW/TW: York's room has the potential to bring up the following situations: gaslighting/manipulation, abuse, gun violence, death, and assault. The items are labeled with warnings.

Waiting Room Post
Mingle Post

Calibrations Room

The room is a workshop that has seen better days. Once a sterile, almost hospital like room, with a black, pleather covered chair for android repairs. Now, the room is ripped apart. Cables and wires have been ripped apart or unplugged from exposed panels, electricity sparking from live ends. The chair is broken in numerous pieces and thrown about the room, covered in oil, grease, and blue blood. There's broken parts, both mechanical and biocomponents, littered about. On the walls in that same blue blood is "I AM ALIVE" painted by hand in a large, bold, Helvetica font. The floor is wet. Shell casings glint in the light from above.

On the floor are items: a black NYC hoodie that smells earthy; a fireman's hatchet caked in blue and red blood [cw: gun violence, death]; a news tablet with a line about robotic parenting [cw: gaslighting, abuse]; and a pamphlet of Bryant Park’s 191st anniversary ripped midway [cw: assault, physical violence against human and android].

Around the items are some wires that haven't been destroyed, and all of them lead into the back of an older looking and taller York, who is curled up on the floor surrounded by the objects. There’s thirium covering his hands. The wires weave around the items, but don't touch them. He is shirtless, with his knees drawn up to his chin to hide himself. He wears black sweatpants as his only clothing.

The whole room feels isolated, full of fear, and strangely enough: it feels too small.

Upon seeing another enter his mind, York is immediately aggressive. "What are you doing in here?! Ģ̡͝E̸̵T̴̢͠ ̶̴̸O̴̧UT̴́͟!̸̨!̴͘" York gets to his feet - his LED is swirling red, throwing light against the open section of his chest next to it where his thirium pump beats. The android moves quick, as though to try getting to the intruder, but the wires seem to reel in, snap taut, and pull him back towards the wall he’s written on. It’s then apparent that York is too big for the room, with his hair almost brushing the ceiling. There's no hiding the fear in his expression as he struggles for freedom the cables aren’t giving. Realizing the vulnerable state, York relaxes and turns away from his intruder, with those tight wires loosening around him. It shows the wires going into the open panels of his back now, hooking somewhere deep within the machinery that moves and gives him life. York wraps his arms around his chest, ducking his head down. His open interior section pulses blue like a heartbeat.

"I̸͠ţ's̶̡ ņ̀̕o̸̶t̸̡ s͘͝u͡p̷p҉ós͏̕͘ed͘ ͟͞t̨̨o ̨͜h̵̸̛u̶͞͞r͜t́́," he whispers angrily, though the room is small enough that the other would be able to hear it anyways. "D̕͜͡ò̷n̨̡'ţ̕ ̡h͜u͢ŗ͜t̢͠͞ ̴͝me̢͟"

_{[I'll be using a different set of icons for the older version of York in replies, but that face doesn't apply outside of the calibration room. ~Xi]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Viktor was silent for a moment studying York.

"Yes. I believe that if all androids are like you, it would be accurate to call you all sentient as a group."

Viktor was fascinated by York, but as invasive and creepy as he could be about it, he wasn't a monster. Which is to say he believed that androids, though mechanical, were another form of life.

"Im finding that’s where this world and mine differ considerably. I’m a custom made model, along with two others, compared to the standard models made by our competitor Cyberlife." He motions to his hoodie again, eyes set on it for a long moment.

"The memory before the one you saw… I was out looking at the city skyline from the ground at a park. Bryant Park. Few blocks away from our skyscraper home. But I was alone, in that smaller body, and three humans jumped me. Tried to pull me apart from the midsection. That’s what Duncan had to repair me from. My skin segments don’t work there still. But I escaped them, managed to get a block away where my brother found me." Eyes flicked back to Viktor, far more relaxed than during their first meeting.

"They were the kind of people that didn’t think we were really worthy of being treated like humans. Not that humans are any better to each other for the most part. But I know if that’s happened to me, it happens regularly to Cyberlife models."

"Yes. I am well acquainted with that kind of person."

Viktor said that with disgust.

"Believe it or not that is the same kind of human that will decide that another human isn't treated the same despite being the same, or even more intelligent, with where they came from being the only difference between them. Making anyone the 'outgroup' so they can rationalize their cruelty is something that humans have been doing to each other for eons. Nevermind another form of life."

Viktor seemed to consider for a moment.

"Because it is your memories that I am seeing when I touch certain things in this room, I am assuming this is your mind. What is the purpose that having those wires in your chest area mean in this place?"

"Yeah, I've seen that happen to. My programming does not comprehend why humans are so violent against others." And they said deviants were the problem. They were wrong. Humans were the fucking problem. Eyes shift to look at Viktor for a moment.

'I am well acquainted with that kind of person,' he had said. That meant that Viktor probably had some sort of bad dealings with humans as well.

"You're assuming correct. I am the programming for York, and this room reflects the smaller body I'm trapped in." He picks up one of the cables that connects into his torso. "It's an anchoring program. Dad put protocols in place in case I ever managed to find a shell to transfer into. Unless he overrides that order as the highest point of authority on my system, I cannot leave this shell. He wanted to make sure I couldn't."

Especially after having to force York into transferring into his current shell.

"I am literally trapped in this body."

You could say that. You could also say that he had been ostracized looked down on and treated as a lesser being from the moment he got to the Academy. You could further say that Viktor was intimately aware of what it felt like to be trapped inside a body. Though in his case that body was one that turned traitor on him rather than being the wrong body altogether.

"By 'dad' I assume that you are speaking of your maker?"

"That assumption would be correct. He changed how I address him from 'Tony' to 'dad', and did the same with the woman who essentially was to be my mother figure. Dad put me in this body as an experiment. To see if the two of them were ready to be parents."

The answer was absolutely no from York's perspective.

As they conversed, a window opened against one of the walls, filling out a space that would be an open door that Viktor could walk through. "At least one of us can leave. I wish it were me."

Viktor looked at the 'door', then back at York

"How much of your own code do you understand?"

If Viktor intended to learn the Agrii's language, it was no less of a challenge to learn another coding language. And while York may be trapped in another body, maybe Viktor could help him detach from one shell and find another. Even if Viktor couldn't go that far, he wanted to at least give York the option.

"A lot of it. I've had to help my brother, the one you saw in the memory, fix up other androids when he's needed assistance. It may be my programming and my body that I inhabit, but he is the overall administrator over the system. I don't know if I can do anything to break through what he's put into place. And I've already broken past my main coding, which we call deviation."

He frowned at what he thought Viktor might be intending. "...I don't want to mess with my programming while I'm here. If something happens, I don't have a way to fucking fix it. There doesn't seem to be any computers here like what I know from my world."

"I'm not suggesting you should but it would be more helpful for at least one person to be able to read that code if something else were to happen."

They were talking about aliens that could pull them across time and universes. And aliens that were putting a lot of their worst memories on display for fun. ven if Viktor wouldn't be able to give York a new body, learning another coding language would still be hepful.

York's face darkens at the suggestion. It was a good one, there was no doubt about that. But that meant giving someone outside of his brother access to his system.

"I'm not letting anyone have access to my code. That's a risk I'm not willing to fucking take with anyone." That probably wasn't a good call here in a place where anything could happen, but York was going to stick by that decision for as long as he could.

Viktor stayed serious.

"I'm not trying to talk you into it but you have to realize how much of a risk you're taking, right?"

Yes, York had just said it was a risk he wasn't willing to take, and on one level, Viktor could see how giving another person the ability to change you completely could be daunting, but not sharing even the ability to medically help you if you needed it seemed foolish.

Viktor stayed serious and York's face stayed dark. "I've already had my creator fucking experiment with my physical shell, and then lost it so I'm stuck in this. Now you want me to open my mind, my most vulnerable part, for people to toy around in? Fuck that. I've heard of what happens to androids that do that."

They went to some man just in the suburbs or something of Detroit, and a lot of the androids that went in, came back out a blank slate, or experimented worse on. Worse than York had been from what he had heard from others in Jericho.

"Would you want to risk your whole entire self by letting someone crack open your brain to get a better look? Maybe my brother, the one from the memory, but not these fuckers in this city."

Viktor huffed out a sigh in exasperation.

"There must be a division between your brain and your body in your programming. Even humans have some differences between them. I'm not arguing with you that you should give up some integral part of your mind and soul to just anyone but what happens if your shell gets damaged and no one here knows anything about your programming and thus can't do anything to fix you?"

Viktor crossed his arms and looked at York as stubbornly as York was looking at him.

"Fucking obviously, if I have two different fucking bodies." York didn't like this conversation at all. Why couldn't he kick people out of his room? Out of his head? Hell, Viktor had such an interest in him when they first met, maybe there was some sort of malicious agenda or something.

"If my body gets damaged, we don't need my programming to fix it. No one here can touch my programming without my actual permission because no one here is my dad, nor do they have a computer capable of handling me." He shook his head. He was being stubborn but after the things he had seen and had personally experienced first hand, York figured he was in the right.

Oh, he could have left by now if he wanted to. Now it was Viktor's turn to roll his eyes. Honestly, York was being silly about this.

"Then call it something else other than 'programming'. Humans have basic anatomy; blood vessels, arteries, bones, and nervous systems. But all of it is necessary for a human body to function and none of it is dependent on the mind. You just said that no one would be able to access your mind without your permission so how would someone be able to administer basic First Aid to you if they don't know how your systems work?"

York kept behaving as though Viktor had some sort of sinister ulterior motive and it was starting to get a little insulting.

Silly, stubborn, or even stupid. Either way, Stark technology at its finest.

"Programming is my mind, fuckface," York's temper was rising, evident in the words and the sneer on his face. "My chassis is my hardware, or I call it my shell. All of my parts within it are all of the functions you talk about but my programming is my brain and my personality. One wrong anything within it could fucking wipe all of that. Maybe I'll let someone map out and figure out my hardware, but I'm not letting anyone touch my programming. Oh wait, excuse me, my brain."

A huff. "Like I said earlier: would you want to risk your whole entire self by letting someone into your brain for a better fucking look? Most people would absolutely decline."

Alright, at least that was getting them somewhere.

"Then mapping out what parts go with what governs bodily functions and what parts govern your mind would at least allow you to receive basic First Aid when you needed it. You would still need to grant someone access to do anything to your mind that way too."

Viktor had never meant granting someone access to his mind, naturally that would give anyone pause, but York flatly wanting to keep everyone out no matter what was just plain silly.

York threw up his hands in exasperation. "You think I don't know that? I know first hand that I need to have back up parts made and all that but I can't fucking trust anyone in this city. It's filled with humans, which I only know for being liars and violent. God, I've only been in the city for a month, two if we're counting this close-quarters hell, I'm not just going to fucking unlearn all of that hate that's been directed towards me for a couple of years in my own world!"

He gets to his feet, hands gripped into fists. Electricity sparks from some live wire ends on the walls. "Now if you're not going to touch any other memory, you can fucking leave. And be glad you can leave this place because some of us fucking can't."

Nevermind, York has gone straight back to silly. Viktor keeps his arms crossed and glares at York's miniature temper tantrum.

"I was refraining from touching something else because you said that the rest were all bad memories for you. And if you want to be treated like a thinking, feeling lifeform then you will have to treat others - human and otherwise - as if they are also thinking and feeling life forms too. Treating all humans as if they are all the most violent and cruel lowest common denominator is downright insulting when you're now in this place."

"They're fucking horrible!" He points to each one, giving Viktor some quick sparknotes on them. "The tablet? My dad overrides my personhood to stick me in a different body, gaslighting me the whole fucking way. The park pamphlet? Some humans fucking try to tear me apart because I'm just 'a piece of fucking plastic'. And that axe is what I used to try and save my fellow androids when they raided our home on a freighter, shooting us or dragging us off the ship to deprogram us out of deviation. To take away our personhood to make us things again."

The cables anchoring him to the room grow taunt as he tries to close some of the distance. "I am a thinking feeling lifeform, but the difference between me and humans is that humans don't have to fucking prove it every damn day. It comes automatic for you in my world."

He gives a hollow laugh, standing there among the ruin of his mind, sparks crackling around the two of them. "I'm not here to impress you. If I have to prove that I'm deserving of being treated like a sentient being, I guess that just means you have to prove you're deserving of me not treating you like the humans back home, doesn't it?"

"Exactly. Which is why I didn't make you relive any of those memories."

That was in response to the SparkNotes version of York's memories. As for the rest, a considering light enters Viktor's eyes.

"Alright. I'm human, and beyond being in your mind I'll prove that I'm a thinking and feeling being. Conversely, you'll prove that you are a thinking and feeling being too."

"You're not going to fucking leave just because I tell you to, are you?" He sneers. Typical of a human to just ignore what he wanted, in his own mind. Viktor had creeped him out on first meeting, and he was doing it here, too.

"You've seen my fucking memory with my brother. You know I'm a feeling and thinking being. I am alive for fuck's sake and if you had an iota of logic in that brain, you'd know that staying here after I've told you to leave is trespassing." York thought it was obvious that he was at least a feeling being with how strong his emotions came off as. In fact, he wanted to scream and tear into Viktor, scare him off until he left that way.

He wanted to do it so bad. Thankfully the cables kept him distant from the human.

And yet as much as York rants and rages, Viktor still sits calmly and watches him do it. Only after York quiets enough for Viktor to speak without raising his voice does he do so in a conversational tone.

"Do you know what you haven't done in all this time of telling me to do things, or cursing at me for simply being here - which I also had no control over, either. Not once have you simply and politely asked me to leave. You want to be treated with dignity and respect, but you are not willing to treat a human -"

And here Viktor pointed to himself with the metallic stone hand.

"- with the same dignity and respect. A human who is not from your world, and therefore does not have the cultural baggage that you have been ranting about. But because this is your mind and neither of us wanted me to be here, I'll go. But remember that being treated as a thinking and feeling being is a two way street."

"Yeah? Well you can take your stone hand and fucking sit on it," York retorted back. If he had any saliva packets, he probably would've spat down at Viktor's feet. But he doesn't so the only wetness is the floor.

"Don't... don't fucking tell me what to do or how to act, Viktor." It's a low hiss of a voice. He doesn't care what the man has to say and with his rapidly diminishing mood towards him, York's not going to be receptacle to anything. The android just wants him gone at this point, to be left in peace with his rage. "I'm sentient enough to decide that for myself."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And look at me, I'm tattered

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

omg viktor pls why are you doing this to him

no subject

no subject