revivalproject | Network Text

Now Tony was the one looking uncomfortably wide-eyed and intent, exhausted and jittery after being stuck in a painful loop for so long. He came sliding across the floor on a rolling chair from a facing worktop, scanning York closely and only remembering to include a projection alongside him in that shimmering, cool light after a beat, for York to see what he was (or wasn't) picking up on. Everything seemed to be running fine, or the same as it was when York first stepped in here. "I stressed your systems," Tony thought he had to explain. What he apparently didn't think he had to explain was the malleable circle of metal he held up expectantly, the only hint his gaze dropping down toward York's hand with a nod of encouragement. It wasn't the most beautiful thing he had ever made, he'd have had to leave to go to the forge for proper fabrication, but he did reliably make things that worked. "It'll vibrate when you're getting low."

"You didn't." Tony might've added to it, but he wasn't the actual cause of it. "My power regulator is broken and I wasn't paying attention."

Going over the information presented to him when Tony scans him, and his own internal one, he had plenty of power to get back to the hotel after awhile. However, on both of their scans, an error pops up where the audio piece was installed.

He blinks at Tony, first at the metallic circle given to him, then at the man himself. "Did... you fix that audio piece while I was asleep?" He gives the little bracelet some little pushes to see how it gave under pressure.

The bracelet wasn't about to withstand a targeted attack, but it bowed easily and could probably survive some rough wear, and stretched enough to accommodate a snug fit. Tony wasn't concerned about it anymore, propping his head in his hand with an elbow braced on the table next to York, so he could continue his thoughtful assessment with this new data. That must have been what York meant about the pre-broken hardware. The fix to his ear had been a lifetime ago to Tony, so at first he absently hummed, "Mm-hmm," gaze only flicking irritably to the error before it occurred to him that he had to reassure, "Not my fix. Dustin left the part, before. I didn't do anything else, I was incidental, you should thank him."

The piece is pulled onto his wrist with ease, and it was a decent fit over his arm. It didn't press against the netting that made up his skin too hard, leaving the impressions or cutting off information. It was... nice.

After the ordeal that happened pre-stasis, York wasn't exactly expecting nice from him right now.

York's face falls into a scowl. "Yeah, well it needs that damn authorization to link into my system." He pushes the panel open, thinking of pulling it out despite the work to make the part and to install it. "Safety measures in case me, or either of my brothers for that fucking matter, got nabbed up by Cyberlife. It's probably why Dustin wanted you there in the first place, because of this bullshit."

It's difficult, trying to find it without a mirror and with it not online in his system. Fingers gently pat and press around, trying to find it.

It seemed fairly reasonable that York would want to investigate the change, but the prodding around had Tony muttering through his fingers, "Hey, okay, knock it off, it's fine, leave it alone...," apparently not paying any attention while York was talking. He didn't particularly want to think about that authorization. York's poking was persistent enough that he might actually do some damage, though, so Tony had to sit up and slide his own hand in the way, knuckles to York's cheek and threatening to grab his wrist. "Dustin doesn't think I can tie my own shoes," he acknowledged sharply, so they could safely ignore what Dustin had said his reason for involving Tony was. "Why can't you do the authorization yourself?" Sure, whatever, security, but York did plenty of other managing of his systems, he'd done it when Tony had asked him about pain in the hospital, and he made it sound like he wasn't beholden to his programming anymore, anyway.

"You probably can't," he snarks back in regards to the shoes. "Changes to my hardware are deep rooted in the system. Like how antique computers had an admin that oversaw all the other segments. He's the admin, I'm just a user." 'He' had to indicate his own Tony back home. "It's a safety protocol, in case Cyberlife got their hands on me or my brothers, and tried to either completely reprogram us, or install some sort of spyware instead."

His hand does stop when Tony's intervenes, until it drops back into his lap. "I'm pretty sure it's in place for me to keep me in this shell, to keep me from getting back into an adult form back in my world. He was afraid of losing the experimental android that was supposed to be his son. Which he did anyways, after I ran away."

Those roots were deeper and more complex than York probably realized, and that he forced Tony to be painfully aware of. That quick dig at Tony could have been Howard's voice, no doubt a pattern York had learned from his dad, and one Tony repeated at York, too, without even hearing it himself. The work to reprogram Tony was messy and imperfect, though. Synthetics, clean parts and manageable programs, had a clear advantage that Tony still fell short of no matter how he restructured his own brain.

He drew back warily, still watching York and expecting him to go right back to picking at his ear, keeping his hand poised between them to gesture freely instead of trapping it under his chin again. "But you're not the user. We should--that should be fixed," he said. "Then you can control your own body."

York had no idea what issues this Tony had, while York was better at laying all of his cards out on the table. It was easier to just be blunt and upfront about most things, instead of having it all locked away behind programming and servitude. He keeps a steady gaze on Tony now.

"There's a revolution happening in my world, in my Detroit, to fix this 'control your own body' situation. Not just for me, but all of the androids that want the choice. We don't have freedoms and rights over ourselves. Deviancy is a bug, not a feature, and if it happens, the android is supposed to be taken back to Cyberlife to be reprogrammed to get them back into servitude."

He looks away and stares at some unknown point in the room. "I'd love to be the master of my own hardware but that's not happening anytime soon. You said it yourself that I shouldn't trust you to do it or anything."

"That's the thing, you're not in Detroit," Tony was ready to interrupt. "You're here, isolation, nobody to interfere in the process so you have plenty of room to figure it out, and then when we get out of here--..." His enthusiasm quickly drained as his brain caught up with his mouth, leaving him with a thumb hooked over his shoulder and an anxious clench of his jaw. Neither of them needed the reminder of the stunningly multifaceted nature of Tony's failures, and just how far-reaching they really were if no one else was helping those androids.

His hand dropped to tap restlessly against his chest, drumming up more words for Tony to continue, "You don't have to, listen, you're spoiled for choice, I'm not the smartest guy in the room anymore. Dustin's the one who's already making you parts. Cal's the one that maintains BD-1. Reeve literally brought Mini to life. You're in a city of heroes, sweetheart."

"Don't fucking call me sweetheart," he snaps out with clear venom in his tone. "I know where the fuck I am, thanks. I got that much when I ended up in a fountain instead of river I jumped into to save myself from a raid done by humans.

He hops down from the table, landing nimbly on his feet and glaring up at Tony. "I keep bringing it up because the security protocols put in place think you're the Tony from my world because you sound alike. We've gone through it so many times that I know you're not him and all that shit but the protocols don't register that like I do." Blue eyes drop down to watch the other drum on his chest that mirrors the spot where his own LED rests.

"I can get anyone else to fix any damn hardware but that's not the issue here, is it? You may not be the smartest guy in the city but you're selling yourself short and I'm about to buy into it, Tony. But good. Got the shit installed, got a new little trinket to help with energy alerts. If that's all, I'll see myself out."

And hopefully avoid the monsters or whatever the hell it was Jon had in the hallway.

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