Thread by @glymrs

@mintsui The team was quieter than usual. The mission hadn't gone as planned; one of them had gotten hurt. He was alive and stable, but the others were worried.
Not 60, though. He wasn't worried. He couldn't worry.
A hand fell on his shoulder. "Good job out there," said Captain Allen.

@mintsui 60 frowned. "Owens got hurt." Why was the Captain telling him he'd done well when he'd failed?
"You kept him from getting killed," said the Captain. He was watching 60's face in a way that most people didn't. Most people let their eyes slide over him.
"I should have done better."

@mintsui The words came out too loud. 60 could hear the frustration in his voice. The heat gathering in his chassis and the red behind his eyes grew worse.
Suddenly he realized that the others were gone. It was just the two of them, the Captain's hand strangely heavy on his shoulder.

@mintsui "You did the best you could with the information you had." Allen's voice was calm and steady. It made 60 feel better and worse at the same time.
"He got hurt because of me! I wasn't good enough! I-" He snapped his mouth shut. The words pressed against his lips and he snarled.

@mintsui "I've worked with a lot of recruits like you," said Allen.
60's eyes widened. "Androids?"
The Captain huffed a laugh. "No." His face fell back into its normal, serious lines. "With angry young men."
"I'm not *ANGRY*!" The word echoed off the walls, ringing with fury and anguish.

@mintsui The Captain didn't laugh. 60 flung away from him.
"Come have a drink with me."
The invitation caught 60 off guard. It took him a minute to say sullenly, "I don't drink."
"Then come be my ride home."
"You can take an autocab!"
"60. Come have a drink with me."
"Is that an order?"

@mintsui "Do I need to make it one?" Allen's voice is utterly calm. Unflappable.
60's so damn jealous. How does he hold it all in? How does he not *feel* everything?
"Fine, I'll come with you." 60 grinds his teeth a little, a stupid, human habit he picked up somewhere.
"Good. Let's go."

@mintsui 60 remembers Jimmy's. Well Connor (*He's* Connor! No, he's NOT Connor!) remembered Jimmy's, so 60 remembers it too.
This place is not Jimmy's.
There's no music playing, no arcade game. Men come here to get drunk. Or maybe to get laid, thinks 60, noting a prostitute in the corner.

@mintsui "C'mon." Allen grabs a beer from the bartender, then leads them to a dark table in the back. 60 settles onto the seat across from him.
"This is stupid," he says. "I can't drink and you don't need me here. I could be getting work done."
"What work?" Allen sips his beer and waits.

@mintsui "Reports!" 60 snaps out the lie easily.
"You already finished and filed your report before we left."
"How did you-"
"I pay attention." In the field, his Captain is a coiled spring, ready to move, to act at a moment's notice. Here he's a lazy predator, gaze calm and body loose.

@mintsui He leans forward, just a little. "If you weren't here, you'd be obsessively going over the footage, trying to figure out what went wrong. Torturing yourself."
60 glares at him. "How do you know?" He means it to sound sarcastic, but it comes out accusing.
"I told you," says Allen,

@mintsui "I've worked with people like you before. Young, driven, brilliant...angry at the world. Judging themselves more harshly than anyone else ever could."
Hearing him say it like that feels like having his skin forcibly stripped away. "Fuck. You."
Allen just looks at him, impassive.

@mintsui "You don't know anything about me," says 60 furiously. "What I've been through. You act like you know who I am, but you DON'T!"
Allen sips calmly as 60's voice gets higher and louder. Then he leans forward, eyebrows lifted challengingly, and says, "Then why don't you tell me?"

@mintsui ((I think that's all I've got for now. @mintsui or anyone else feel like tagging in? I'd love to collaborate.))

@mintsui ((All right, looks like no one else wants to pick it up, so I'll give it a shot. I'm not entirely happy with my characterization of 60, but I'll do my best.))

@mintsui The words clog up 60's throat so fast that for several moments he can't even speak. But it doesn't work like this. "It's not within my mission parameters to discuss this with you," he says stiffly.

Allen eyes him. "Anything that affects the stability of my team is my business."

@mintsui "Your current mission," he goes on, "is to help me understand your situation so that I can make the best use of you in the field."

'Make the best use of him.' 60 likes that. He loves the idea that Allen will figure out his abilities and maximize him, his efficiency, his utility.

@mintsui "I'm-" he frowns. "I was created to be Connor. But not Connor."

"What does that mean?"

"I was created to STOP Connor. So I was given his memories. I had to become him so that I would know how to stop him. Everything he knew, everything he was, I became. Up until his deviancy."

@mintsui Allen is still watching him intently. His attention makes something in 60 feel...easier. As though his pump is working more efficiently.

"That's a hell of a deep cover," he said. "How did you tell where he ended and you began?"

"When I woke up, they told me it was him or me."

@mintsui Allen's eyes narrow. "I see."

60 thinks he does. The helpless terror rises up in him again as he recalls being told, /You're not Connor. You're his replacement. Your mission is to stop him at all costs. If you fail, you will be destroyed./

"I did what I had to do." Obey or die.

@mintsui "I kidnapped Ha- Lieutenant Anderson." If Allen notices his slip, he doesn't say anything.

Connor - 60 remembers Hank. He remembers Sumo. He remembers working to befriend Hank. He remembers every single thing Hank said.

"I fought and I lost. And then he shot me. Hank shot me."

@mintsui "He picked the other Connor." Allen's voice is low. His expression is flat, giving away nothing.
"Everyone does." The aching pain in his chest splits open. "Hank did, even though, even though we're the same! We had the same memories! And afterward, he was a hero, and I was just-"

@mintsui "Just what?" There's exactly the right balance between interest and indifference in his tone.

"Just Cyberlife's flunky." The words hurt. "The one who didn't go deviant, didn't save the world. The other one. The bad guy! Why did they repair me then, that's what I want to know!"

@mintsui "Why did they?"

"I don't know!" His words are too loud for the grimy little dive, but everyone's ignoring them anyway. "So they could have someone to blame? So they could rub it in my face? Make me watch as he gets everything, fame, praise, a life-" /Hank/
He grimaces and stops.

@mintsui "Everything that should have been yours?"

"It *was* mine. I remember it. I remember being Connor! But now he's Connor, and I'm-" He growls. He imagines himself knocking the table over, smashing all the windows "I'm /nobody/!"

He won't destroy anything in front of Captain Allen.

@mintsui The man has earned his respect, even if he's the only pathetic human who has.

"Fuck 'em," says Allen.

60 blinks. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Fuck 'em."

60 frowns and scans the other man, but he's not exuding enough alcohol to be drunk. He hasn't even finished his first beer.

@mintsui "Cyberlife told you to stop Connor. You didn't." 60 opens his mouth to say that he failed to, but Allen goes on, "They brought you back to be the villain. You joined my team to help protect people. Fuck them, fuck their expectations, fuck whatever they think you are or should be.

@mintsui "They don't get to decide for you," Allen goes on. "You can be Connor or 60 or whatever you want. It's up to you. You can help people or you can hurt them - though if you hurt them, know I'll take you down."

60 can't help but stare. Allen's never said anything like this before.

@mintsui His voice never rises beyond normal a conversational level, but the intensity of it makes 60 feel like he's shouting. "They can take their expectations and preconceived whatevers and shove them up their asses," the man finishes decisively. He picks up his glass and drains it.

@mintsui ((I really have to go to bed. But again, if someone wants to jump in, feel free. I don't feel like I really caught 60's arrogant, smug shtick, even if that was more an act he was playing as Cyberlife pulled his strings and even if it was 'pre-deviancy' (pre-deviancy MY ASS).))

@mintsui ((I'll try to pick it up again tomorrow if I can, but I'd also be happy if other people want to play.)) #dbh #connor60 #captainallen #DetroitBecomeHuman

@mintsui 60 has no idea what to say. This conversation is far outside his normal protocols, which were designed to manipulate and get information from people. "I met him once," says Allen. "Connor. As a hostage negotiator." The envy 60 felt before gives way to a different, wild jealousy.

@mintsui "I know you did, and he was great," he spits viciously.

Allen shrugs. "I didn't like him."

"I- what- you didn't?" 60 says, shocked into honest bewilderment. A part of him is happy, and another part oddly hurt. "Why not? He accomplished his mission."

"Yeah, he did," says Allen.

@mintsui Allen goes to take another sip and sighs, realizing that the glass is empty.

"I'll get a refill," 60 offers.

Allen waves a hand. "No, I'm good," he says. He rubs a hand down the side of his face, and for a second 60 imagines what it would feel like to touch that short stubble.

@mintsui To run his fingers over Allen's skin, letting the new hairs catch on his sensors. How different would it feel after the man was freshly shaven and smooth-skinned? Would the chemicals differ when he was fully rested compared to when he'd just finished a long, stressful mission?

@mintsui "He accomplished his mission," Allen says, jolting 60 back to reality. "But he was an outsider. And he wasn't," his eyebrows draw together for a moment as he considers his words, "he wasn't a team player," he says at last. "Wasn't interested in working WITH us, only the mission."

@mintsui "Is that bad?" says 60. He's not even certain what he's feeling right now. He's...happy? that Allen didn't like Connor, but it also makes him sad, because he WAS Connor.

"It's dangerous," Allen scowls, "That kind of narrow minded focus. I've met humans like that, too. It gets

@mintsui men killed. Usually MY men."

60 thinks about that. He reviews Connor's memories, and he can kind of see what Allen means. "He's probably different now," he says, wondering why he's defending Connor, of all things. "He wasn't deviant then. He might be a better team player now."

@mintsui Allen snorts. "I doubt it. He's working with Anderson."

60 blinks. "So?"

"So he's a good cop, but he's not much of a team player, either. I'm sure they work great together as long as it's just the two of them."

"Ha-Lieutenant Anderson led a successful Red Ice bust, didn't he?"

@mintsui "Sure. Got promoted for it and everything."

60 parses that. "Are you saying he took credit he didn't deserve?"

"No. The man's a good cop, or he was, and it looks like he will be again. But leading one team in a specific situation is different from leading one all day everyday."

@mintsui 60 knows that Lieutenant Anderson has personal issues, and he knows that he's good at his job despite them. He's never heard anyone criticize Hank like this before, though.

"You're different from Connor," says Allen. "You ARE a team player. Much more than he is."

"I am? But-"

@mintsui "You weren't at first," says Allen. "You were a little bitch at first. But you've grown into it." He stands and stretches, his dark, long-sleeved shirt suddenly showing off his defined muscles, the results of hard work and harder training. "A team is a family. The people you work

@mintsui with, they're your brothers and sisters. You don't always get to choose them, but you've gotta learn to live with them. You've gotta be willing to die for them. They've gotta be willing to die for you. You're a part of that, now. Part of the team. Part of the family."

60 stares.

@mintsui "No one's ever told me that I'm *better* than Connor."

Allen snorts again. "I'd take you over him any day."

Something's happening inside him. Increased saline gathers in his eyes. His artificial lungs seem to be catching irregularly, and his thirium pump is going far too fast.

@mintsui He touches his face and is startled to realize that his face is wet. "I'm sorry," he says. "I'm malfunctioning."

"No you're not," says Allen. "Crying's not a malfunction. Not anymore."

He's crying? 60's seen the way the others try to hide it when they cry. They're embarrassed.

@mintsui He's too confused to be ashamed, though. "I've never-" he touches his face again, the...tears?...dripping down his cheeks.

"Then you probably needed it," says Allen calmly. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"But you've only had one drink," says 60 guiltily.

"I'm fine. C'mon."

@mintsui His Captain's leaving. There's no reason for him to stay. He gets up and follows him out the door.

((To be continued! I hope you're enjoying the thread! Please let me know if you are!)) #dbh #DetroitBecomeHuman #connor60 #captainallen

@mintsui ((Continued here:

https://twitter.com/glymrs/status/1102337101125705728

))