#Guess What? I'm Not a Robot Ch8

[theshapeshifter100]

Guess What? I’m Not a Robot Ch8

Summary: Megan and Paul try to distract themselves from what happened, by trying to get the other person to talk about their side.

Warnings: references to self harm, emotional turmoil/instability

Word Count: 1,992

8AM Saturday 30th October 2038

Megan’s alarm went off at 8AM, and she was already awake.

She had managed to sleep the night before, the high emotion of everything had exhausted her. However she had woken up in the small hours and not fallen back asleep.

Her injured arm twinged with a sharp pain that could be felt deep within the arm, even if the injuries themselves were only surface level. Most of her emotions had been let out last night with Paul, so now she just felt, empty. Like there was nothing else left to feel.

It wouldn’t last, but it was oddly comforting, for now. She knew from experience that it would just make her feel worse in the long run.

She rolled out of bed, wincing as the movement jostled her arm. It wasn’t her writing arm, thankfully. It usually wasn’t, but sometimes that arm did get the... treatment.

Still cradling her left arm, Megan opened the door, revealing Paul still sitting on the couch, LED blinking intermittently. That was odd, usually he’d have started breakfast by now.

That was the other thing that kept Megan up. Once her mind cleared she had realised that Paul had been acting, odd. Not nearly as articulate as he usually was, and he directly disobeyed an order. Something androids weren’t supposed to be able to do, right?

“Morning Paul,” she said cautiously, unnerved by the whole thing.

Paul jerked, as if startled, and turned to face Megan.

“Morning! It’s early, isn’t it?”

“Eight o’clock.”

“Oh! Right, I’m sorry!” Paul was instantly up and gunning for the kitchen. “How are you feeling this morning?” he called over his shoulder.

“Bit sore, but alright,” Megan knew better than to lie at this point. He’d seen her at her worst. “What about you?” she added, coming into the kitchen area.

“I am an android, of course I’m-”

“You lost track of time, your speech pattern is different and you went into the bathroom when I told you not to. That doesn’t sound fine to me.”

“A-are you sure you’re not distracting yourself? I’ve been active for some time, I will have some, quirks.”

“Paul. Please don’t lie to me.”

Paul paused, egg half cracked as he prepared scrambled eggs. His LED flickered between yellow and alarming red, making Megan take a step back.

“I... I,” Paul was struggling to find words, despite having spent the best part of the night trying to come to terms with this. It didn’t help that it felt like there was a heavy weight in his chest cavity, even though none of his components had changed weight, not that it was possible.

“I believe, that I. I may have, deviated, from my original programming.”

“And, what does that mean?”

“I-I don’t know,” Paul’s hand inexplicably began to shake, a very human reaction. “I don’t know, and, it hurts. I have no pain receptors and it hurts. Why does it hurt?”

Megan’s eyes widened as she recognised the emotional beats that were happening here. He was panicking from emotions he didn’t understand. That seemed very much like the early days of her anxiety, except she didn’t turn to anyone for help. She wasn’t going to let that happen to someone else.

“Paul. Listen to me. You’re going to be okay,” she was about to tell him to breath, but he was an android, he didn’t need to do that. She’d need to think of something else to calm him. “Er, try tapping out a rhythm or something. A little slower than a heat beat. Like this,” she began to tap her finger to a slow beat on the kitchen table.

Paul didn’t move at first, but slowly began to do the same on the kitchen counter, matching her time perfectly. They did that for a minute or so, until Paul’s LED stopped flashing red.

“Feeling better?”

“I-I think so. I still, feel, strange.”

“Welcome to having emotions.”

“But, I don’t...” Paul trailed off, realising that she had a point. “Does your chest always feel this heavy?”

“No,” Megan sat down at the table, injured arm resting on the table and trying to work out the best way to answer. “Sometimes, sometimes that weight isn’t there, and sometimes you’ll feel like your chest is floating. Those are the good times.”

“I see,” Paul stood for a minute, before going back to the eggs.”How do I get that, floating?”

“You, you find things you like, I guess. I’m not really the best person to ask. I haven’t felt that in a long time.”

That did not help the heaviness in Paul’s chest, but he decided not to mention it, going back to scrambling eggs.

“So, you’re feeling things,” Megan started, “I keep flipping between feeling nothing and too much. What the hell are we going to do?”

“You’re going to go to your university’s mental health facilities,” Paul stated matter-of-factly, with little room for discussion.

“And you? Any ideas?”

“I, will, stay here, I suppose.”

Megan thought for a second. “Maybe, maybe we could go to CyberLife. If you’re not the first this has happened to, maybe they know something about it?”

“No.”

The denial was so resolute that Megan reeled for a second. “Wh-why not?”

“I,” Paul stared off into the distance for a moment. “I’m not sure. You’re logic is sound, and yet... Something’s telling me that’s a bad idea.”

“Okay, so we don’t go to CyberLife. That’s fine. We can figure this out,” Megan felt oddly calm about all of this, despite how much of a shake up this must be for Paul. Maybe he was right, maybe she was using him to distract from her problems.

Megan opened her mouth to announce that she would go to the college’s medical centre today, but froze at the thought. The idea of asking for help now, admitting how messed up she was to a stranger. It filled her with dread.

“Would, would you come to the medical centre with me, today?” Megan asked quietly.

Paul didn’t pause in scrambling the eggs, noting that they were nearly ready.

“I’m, not sure. I’m not sure I could pretend to be, like I was, now.”

“Well, maybe you don’t have to.”

Paul looked over at her, LED yellow. “What do you mean?”

“Put on a hat, take off that shirt and you could pass for human.”

As Megan talked, Paul seemed to unconsciously tap his LED and tug at his shirt.

“All androids have to wear a uniform. It’s illegal for me to not wear this public.”

“Yeah,” Megan swallowed nervousness. “Only if we get caught.”

Paul turned to her, eggs ready to tip onto a waiting plate. “You’re being oddly bold.”

“We’re both pretty broken at the minute. One of us has to be. And unlike you, I’ve dealt with my kind of emotions before.”

Paul didn’t have a response to that. “I doubt any of your clothes would fit me.”

“I might have one of my brothers old football jerseys lying around.”

Paul took a deep shuddering breath, an oddly human thing to do he realised, but it seemed appropriate. “Maybe, not yet. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go out just yet. I, I need to think.”

Megan felt disappointment sink in her stomach as she ate, but she could understand why. How many times had she done that?

“Okay,” she said, swallowing a mouthful of egg. “That’s okay, you take as long as you need.”

“You’re being very calm about all this,” Paul sounded like he was trying to lash out at something all of a sudden. “It’s like if your microwave suddenly started speaking and asked not to push the buttons too hard!”

“I doubt it’s that simple.”

Paul slumped against the counter. “I know, but, I was designed to do one thing; help humans. That’s all I ever needed to do, and now... Now it feels like, I don’t have to.”

Megan looked down at her food, no idea how to respond to that. “I-I guess, you do you? I-I don’t know Paul, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to make this better for you.”

“It’s okay,”

The two went silent, as it clearly wasn’t okay.

Megan thought as she ate. She really didn’t want to go to the Medical Centre alone, maybe, maybe she could ask Alex? Would they even agree to that? Or would they laugh in her face?

Gripping her fork tight in her good hand, she made a decision.

“I’ll text Alex, see if they want to come with me.”

“O-okay,” Paul nodded. “I-I would, I’m just...”

“Scared?” Megan filled in, and after pause, Paul nodded.

“Yes, I think so.”

“I’m scared most of the time,” she told him.

“That doesn’t really help.”

“I doubt you’re going to be as bad as me,” Megan half smirked before eating the last bite. She stood up, plate in hand. “Shall I wash up?” now that he was acting more human, it seemed prudent to ask.

“I’ll do it,” Paul took the plate off of her. “It might help.”

Megan couldn’t argue with that. It might give him a sense of normality.

She handed him the plate and went to grab her phone from her computer desk. Before she could convince herself to back out, she typed a short message to Alex.

‘Going to Med Centre today. Need support, can you help?’

The response came quicker than expected.

‘Sure! I’ve got time between 10-12. That work?’

‘Yeah, I’m good for then. Meet you at 10?’

“Be at the bus stop at 5 past J’

‘Okay’

Megan put her phone down and called over to Paul.

“I’ll be heading to the bus stop after nine,”

“Okay, sounds good,” Paul sounded stable and LED was back to blue, so Megan took that as a good sign.

“I’ll just go dressed and, stuff,” Megan felt awkward leaving it like that, but really, what else was there to say?

She went to the bathroom, and paused at the door. It was hanging ajar, and on the floor was the metal latch, which should have been in the door.

Holy shit

She pushed the door open and felt her stomach climb into her throat. Dried blood was crusted on the floor of the shower pod, and drips of it on the floor between there and the sink. The sink itself was okay, as Paul has washed most of it away last night.

Okay, maybe don’t have a shower this morning

Megan focused on the sink, and only the sink. Even if the smell of iron made it’s way up her nose every now and again.

It took a little longer to get dressed with one arm as painful as it was. Eventually she was ready to go she looked in on Paul, who was busying himself by re-organising the kitchen cupboards. It didn’t even need doing.

“Hey, Paul,” she said softly, catching his attention without startling him. He turned to face her, poking her head around the corner into the kitchen space. “I’m heading out. If you need me, or just want to talk. You call me, okay? I’ll have my phone on.”

“Yeah, will do,” Paul faced the kitchen cupboards again, and Megan felt her heart twist. His entire world had been turned upside down, and she leaving to worry about herself? How selfish was that?

Then again, she knew what would happen if she didn’t go. He’d insist she’d go, and with the state he was in, they might end up fighting, and she really wanted to avoid that.

She made to leave, but paused for a second to try and give some advice.

“Listening to music sometimes helps me calm down.”

Paul paused for a moment, the tin of food he was holding halfway between the cupboard and the counter.

“I hear reading helps too. Stay safe,” she added as she left.

“You too,” came the reply.

So, the two of them deal with repercussions. Megan's assertion is correct by the way, they're both using each other's problems to distract from their own. Paul's is more pressing, arguably, since this is not the first time Megan has done, that, and Paul's had his life flipped on it's head. We'll get to that.

On a writing standpoint, this is where it changes a little. It'll be more from both Megan's and Paul's POVs rather than just one of them, if that makes sense. I know there's a term for it, but I can't think of it right now. They'll also be more chapters from Paul's POV.

Other Options Flowchart

Suggest breathing slowly. Suggest distracting himself by using senses (5 things you see etc)

Agree to go the Medical Centre with Megan

Not go to Medical Centre

Suggest other options for distraction. Watching tv. Drawing. Using Megan's laptop to browse the internet

Tags @septicart-appreciation @nightmarejim

#Detroit Become Human #Detroit Become Human fanfic #Guess What? I'm Not a Robot #Guess What? I'm Not a Robot Ch8 #deviant android #TheShapeshifter100 writes

[theshapeshifter100]

Guess What? I’m Not a Robot RC Ch8

Chapter Warnings: blood, mutilated androids

Word Count:2,073

Masterlist

Previous

Next

5.00PM Wednesday 10th November 2038

“DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY!” Alex yelled, and the androids complied, blocking the tunnel exit by their bodies alone. The shout made Megan’s head ring, and Paul dropped the gun and crouched by her.

“Hey, Megan, you with me?” he asked. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“...one.”

Paul half laughed in relief, and yanked Megan into a hug. One hand gripped her hair and he buried his face in the top of her shoulder.

Megan responded, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing her face against him. She felt her throat burning, and let the tears come.

“You’re okay,” she muttered. “You’re here.”

“I’m here, right here,” he assured, “And you’re here. By god you’re here. Why the fuck are you here?”

“Why do you think?” Megan half laughed.

The radio at her belt crackled.

“Nervousness Incarnate, come in Nervousness Incarnate. Over.”

Paul wanted to hold on a little longer, but relinquished his grip as Megan went to answer.

“What Tudor? Over.”

“As adorable as you two are, we still have things to do. Ringo needs some help with the floodlights and goons are closing in on Coubertin and Captain Hardass. Over.”

“What about Poison Oak and Rainbow? Over.”

“Not great there either, but nothing lethal. Over.”

“What’s the plan?” Paul asked, standing up straight. Megan followed suit, idly wiping blood from the side of her head. She could deal with that later.

“Ringo’s on the outskirts, dealing with the floodlights. He has a taser but he might be getting overwhelmed. Coubertin and Captain H are in that surveillance thing,” she pointed to the closed cherry picker, which was currently bobbing up and down as controls on the ground and in the cab conflicted. “Poison Oak and Rainbow are outside the fence, they were distractions but sounds like things have gotten out of hand. No idea where Biker Chick and AAA are.”

On cue, the radio crackled again.

“Biker Chick and I are going to help Ringo. Over.”

“That answers that,” Paul noted, he started to say something, but was interrupted.

“We’ll help.”

A group of about ten androids had formed around them. Different models, different heights, but all of their LEDs blazed red. Whether it was fear or determination was another matter.

“Alright,” Megan swallowed, suddenly feeling a lot of pressure. She knew they were looking to her because she knew the locations, but surely they wouldn’t be that hard to find.

Hey, shut up. Breathe. Get on with it.

Tapping her finger against her thigh in a rhythm, Megan began to talk.

“We’ll need a couple at the floodlights, I would guess he’s by the third one now,” Megan roughly pointed. “Need more to deal with the picker or whatever it is. The two on the outside will be fine for now.”

“We still have the guards to deal with,” Paul reminded.

“We should kill them,” suggested one of the androids, which got a worrying level of agreement.

“There’s been enough death already,” Paul had his best ‘dad’ look as he glared at the other androids. “The machines are off, we can clear them out and put them in there.”

“Hate to interrupt your meeting NI and Beep Boop,” Lucas came in again. “But the others need backup now!”

Without a, verbal, word the androids split up, leaving Megan a little lost as three headed for Nathan and seven headed for the picker.

“They’re going to pick up more deviants on the way,” Paul informed, still unsure how to feel about this telepathy thing. “You’ve got a head injury and frankly,” Paul had a shaky smile, “I don’t really want to split up right now.”

Megan met his shaky smile with one of her own. “Let’s clear out the machines then, if you’re up for it?”

“Let’s do it,” Paul felt a bit sick at the thought, but held it together. “Tell me if you start to feel dizzy. I mean it.”

“Yes sir,” Megan smirked, walking over to the machine. It took Paul’s strength to open it up, pulling one slat down and pushing one up far as he could.

Once they could both see inside, they both had to pause to process what they were seeing.

The machine had clearly been switched halfway through disassembling. Half of the limbs had been ripped off, androids were dangling loose in the grip of the mechanical arms and worse, some of the limbs weren’t completely off.

Horrifying, some of the androids were still alert, LED’s burning red as they tried to deal with what was happening.

“Oh Christ,” Megan breathed, feeling like she might be sick.

Paul stared, feeling his Stress Levels rising. This could have been him...

In one turn he looked back at the lines of androids, who had barely moved.

“Help us get them out!” he cried, and the front line listened. It was creepy, and he wished they’d just deviate already, but it did help.

The mechanical arms had to be yanked out of limbs, and it wasn’t always easy to tell which part belonged to whom. However, with the help, all the android were out and put together with what they hoped was the right collection of parts.

Paul doubled over once they were done, hand clapped over his mouth like he was going to be sick.

“Paul?”

“Give me a minute,” he assured. “I’ll be fine. Let’s just move on.”

Megan’s first bout of dizziness hit as they tried to move into the right section. She made to lift herself up and go through the gaps in the fence feet first, but almost fell over once through.

“Megan!” Paul scrambled through the fence as Megan put a hand to her head. It was throbbing.

“I’m fine,” the response was automatic, and Paul’s face was thunderous.

“What did I say earlier?”

“That I would tell you if I was dizzy.”

“And?”

“...I’m a little dizzy, but I’m fine!”

Paul wasn’t impressed. “Sit down by the fence, try to stem the bleeding. I’ll handle it here.”

“I’m fine!” Megan protested, but Paul grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into a sitting position.

“I am not losing you to a damn head injury. Stay here, man the radio, stop the bleeding.”

There was no room for arguing, so Megan cleared the snow beneath her, pressed the sleeve of one of her sweaters against her temple and pulled out the radio. She hissed in pain as the material touched the tender injury, but focused on the radio.

“Tudor, any updates? Over,” she kept an eye on Paul as he gathered some help to empty the machines here. The deviants had already been busy here and had crowded around disarmed guards.

The feeling of nausea didn’t leave Paul as he led the androids in removing, the mutilated, he guessed he could call it. Anger burned and for a few scary seconds he wanted nothing more than go over to the group of downed soldiers and shoot them.

It passed, and Paul made his way back over to Megan.

“Any news?” he was glad to see that she was indeed trying to stem the blood, even though the crimson liquid had already made it past her chin.

“The floodlight crew are good, and they’ve gotten some more androids to help them. They’re herding the guards back here for ‘storing’ I guess while Nathan turns the floodlights back on. It’s getting dark soon so we’ll need to see what we’re doing. It’s still a bit hairy by the security cherry picker, but it’s better. Now it’s just Ivy and Maggie.”

“How are they holding up?”

“They’re being frog marched in here,” Megan smirked. “This should be interesting.”

“You’re staying here.”

“I never said that I was going to move!”  

“No, but you were thinking it,” Paul smirked, and Megan rolled her eyes.

“Alright alright. I won’t move,” Megan shrugged. “Reckon you can handle it?”

“I’ll organise the troops,” Paul’s smirk hadn’t died, and he climbed through the fence again to get to the far left side.

Megan huffed, but leaned back against the cold metal fence. Now that she wasn’t moving, and she was calming down, she was freezing.

Her eyes flicked around at the androids, who she guessed were freshly deviant moved around slowly, uncertain, while the non deviants stayed where they were.

On the other side of the section Alex dropped down. They walked between the androids with their usual calm ease, smiling kindly all the way. They spotted Megan and jogged over.

“You okay down there?”

“Got clocked on the head,” Megan admitted. “Paul’s being paranoid, but I think I’m okay.”

Alex crouched down and squatted on the balls of their feet. “Let’s see.”

Megan sighed, knowing the reaction, but moved her hand away. She winced as dried blood stuck to and came off with the sweater, and Alex’s eyes widened.

“What did they clock you with, a two by four?!”

“Butt of an assault rifle,” Megan corrected, watching as Alex took off their bag and rummaged through it. “Alex?”

“Hold still,” Alex brought out the first aid kit they’d packed and opened it up. They grabbed some alcohol wipes and tore one open. “This will probably sting.”

“I could do this myself,” Megan protested as Alex began to dab at the injury. “It’s just a scrape!” she added with a wince.

“As a general rule, you don’t do first aid on yourself,” Alex commented. “Besides, you can’t see your injury, so it’ll be easier if someone else does it.”

“Why do you have to be logical?”

“Because you’re letting your pride get the better of you,” Alex responded matter of factly. “There’s no shame in asking for help.”

“You sound like Paul.”

“Speaking of whom,” Alex was sticking a bandage to Megan’s temple. “Where is he?”

“In the far compound,” Megan jerked her thumb over her shoulder in the rough direction. “He was going to help out Oscar and Julia.”

“So soon after all of this?” Alex smiled ruefully. “What did we do to deserve him?”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve asked myself that?” Megan also smiled as Alex packed up. “Speaking of androids we probably don’t deserve, have you found Ella?”

Alex deflated at the question, and at any other time it would almost be comical, but now they just looked, defeated.

“No. She’s, she’s not with the ones I’ve talked to. I haven’t, haven’t checked the other compounds yet.”

“You should,” Megan advised. “She knows you’re here from Callum.”

Alex took a deep breath. “Let’s deal with Ivy and Maggie’s situation first. You want in?”

“You know I’ll be useless right?”

“In that case; watch, co-ordinate. Don’t get spotted.”

Nerves were already building, but Megan forced a smile. “I think I can do that.”

“Good,” Alex stood up and turned to face the androids in this section, cupping their hands to their mouth.

“Anyone who’s free, listen up!” they yelled.  “There’s a squad of guards that’ll be coming through the tunnel soon with a couple of our friends hostage. Anyone want to help out?”

Most of the experienced deviants were busy, since guards wouldn’t make it inside the machines on their own after all. The new deviants and the rest of androids all came over however, taking Alex by surprise.

“R-right. Okay, we’ve already got some guys blocking the tunnel, so if we get them to move and take the soldiers by surprise, we should be able to handle it. Any thoughts?”

“Do, do we have weapons?” asked one of the androids. “Can we have weapons?”

“We don’t have any personally,” Alex admitted. “If you want to grab a gun, by all means, but I’d prefer we didn’t use them. These guys are arseholes, but they’re following orders, and wearing body armour.”

The non deviant androids didn’t move, and the new deviants looked at each other.

“Well, I’m getting a gun. I don’t know about you guys,” one announced, and Alex nodded.

“You do you, but we need to get to the edge of the tunnel sharpish.”

The group of what must have been around thirty odd either climbed through the fence or went out from the back to the tunnel, and Megan turned her attention to the radio.

“AAA Battery is leading a group to deal with the tunnel, how’s everyone else doing? Over.”

On cue the last floodlight came back on.

Urgh, not the best place to leave it, but I needed to split it somewhere! And, Paul swore, which I don't recall if that happened in the Protest Path, but here we are!

Other Options Flowchart

(Paul) Talk to the androids instead of Megan

(Paul) Agree to the killing the soldiers (lead to fewer to deal with later)

(Paul) Don't ask for help getting the androids out of the disassembling machines. Refuse to go near them (He would go do something else, maybe Megan would go with him)

(Megan) Admit to dizziness immediately

(Megan) Let Alex patch her up. Protest further.

Tags @nightmarejim @septicart-appreciation

#Guess What? I'm Not a Robot #Guess What? I'm Not a Robot RC #Guess What? I'm Not a Robot RC Ch8 #Alternate Route #Recycling Centre #Android Allies #Megan #Paul #Detroit: Become Human #D:BH #Detroit Become Human #DBH #Detroit Become Human fanfic #DBH fanfic #Detroit Become Human OC #DBH OC #TheShapeshifter100 writes