Chapter Text
It was cold, and everything smelt off. Connor opened his eyes slowly as he came out of deep rest mode. He blinked slowly, trying to process what was going on.
Upon looking up he realized he was in a barn, that explained the smell? He stood up, using the door to one of the horse stalls to help himself. He went to adjust his tie. It wasn't there?
Connor looked down and he wasn't wearing his cyberlife uniform at all. He had on jeans, black boots and a brown coat that was meant for winter. The clothes seemed a bit outdated, nothing like what he would see people wearing in Detroit.
There was a horse trough. Connor walked over to it slowly, rubbing his arms to try and stay warm. Looking into his reflection he looked relatively the same..despite the lack of his LED?
He barely had time to process this, the barn door opened and the loud noise of wind came in along with some snow. He looked towards the door and saw two men. He couldn't quite make out anything else as the lit lantern obscured his vision.
"Hello?" He called out, speaking a bit loudly due to the wind. The man who was holding the lantern passed it to the other man before stepping in. He was a bit taller than Connor but relatively the same height. He was a bit bigger, in comparison to muscle, however.
"What's your name boy?" The stranger questioned. "Connor I'm the-" Connor paused, was he even and android? His LED was gone, and he wasn't in any familiar place. What the hell happened? "I'm Connor." He answered with a nod.
"Is he an O'driscoll?" The man at the door asked. "Of course not! Look at him." O'driscoll? He blinked in confusion. "are you okay, son?" The stranger asked, putting a hand on Connor's shoulder.
Connor wasn't truly sure how to answer, he tried to run a diagnostic but couldn't. He just stood there and said nothing. "He's confused, Dutch. Just leave him." The man at the door spoke up.
"Of course not!" The other man, apparently"Dutch" shouted back, his voice sounded a bit hoarse. "C'mon son, you got any family?" Dutch asked, putting a hand on Connor's back as the exited the barn.
Why didn't this "Dutch" ask what was going on? Who he was and why he was in the barn.
It was a self answering question, as he stepped outside of the barn he walked into something and almost tripped. Connor looked down at the…corpse at his feet. It wore a black leather coat and a green shirt - he went to analyze it and try to find the body in his database but was pushed along by Dutch. That's why he didn't question further, they assumed he was traumatized in one way or another.
"We have enough mouths to feed Dutch!" The man behind them shouted as he followed. Dutch simply ignored him, walking Connor over to a horse.
Connor had no experience with riding a horse and tried to check his database again but couldn't, he stared at the horse. "Can you even ride?" The unnamed man said walking to his own horse. "…I- no." Connor replied and looked up at the man as he mounted his horse.
"How the hell do you not know how to ride?!" The man shouted and Connor just stared, not entirely sure what to say. "Just let him on the back of your horse, Micah!" Dutch barked.
"Why not your horse?!" Micah questioned Dutch while Connor reluctantly climbed onto the back of Micah's horse. "The count won't let anyone but me near him - You know this Micah!" He shouted with a voice crack. Connor simply sat on the horse, awkwardly. In any other situation he would have been questioning and analyzing everything, that's what he was made for. However, he clearly wasn't in Detroit anymore. He had not a clue what was going on.
"Son - I have a saying, We save fellers as need saving, kill fellers as need killing, and feed fellers as need feeding."
…
Connor had "zoned out". He, as an android, wouldn't call it that, rather processing. Whatever it was, he wasn't paying attention. The horse had came to a stop at a group of buildings and Connor got off, stumbling slightly. There was a lot of people gathered.
Another man on a horse showed up not too long after, with a woman on the back of it.
"Arthur, Who is that?" Dutch asked the man. "Mrs. Adler." The man started. "Damn O'driscoll's took over her house- burnt down in thd confusion, I couldn't just leave her." He explained, referring to the woman next to him. She was crying and stayed quiet.
"Miss Tilly, Miss Karen would you warm her up?" He asked to some of the women as they started to walk off with her.
"They turned her into a widow." Arthur said lowly to Dutch
"Who is he?" Another voice asked. Dutch was about to answer but Connor spoke up. "My name is Connor-.." It felt awkward to not say the end part of that phrase, but was he even an android? Would these people know what an android was?
"He's a bit shocked - about everything!" Dutch told the group of people. It wasn't crazy to assume Connor was traumatized to a certain degree, with all those dead bodies. If only Connor genuinely knew what was going on.
Dutch pointed to one of the buildings. "You can stay the night in - in there, with the women, give you some time to think and figure stuff out." Connor should've been offended, he was relieved. He would much rather stay the night with the women then the men of this group, they seemed a bit…ruthless?
He walked through the snow up to the building and pushed the door open. He looked around, analyzing the room, more figuratively than literally (considering that for some reason he couldn't literally analyze). It wasn't entirely women, there were some men but they seemed to be older than the other men he had encountered so far.
Connor stepped towards the fire. A young boy and presumably his mother since he sat on her lap, and two other women were gathered by the fire.
"..do you mind if I sit here?" Connor requested. One of the women smiled at him and scooted over so he could sit down. "Thank you."
There was a moment of silence, Connor was horrifically confused and out of his comfort zone. He was quiet and…startled rather than his typical calculating, questioning self, he had not a clue what was going on and he didn't like it.
△ Introduce
□ Question
○Thank
[X say nothing]
---.....
Introduce
"My name is Connor..what's your name, Miss?" He asked the woman next to him, he technically didn't have an age but she seemed younger than him. "I'm Tilly, It's nice to meet you Connor."
Connor smiled back at her softly.
Eventually, everyone had started to sleep or just went quiet. Connor didn't need to sleep, however it was probably better to go into resting mode instead of just sitting infront of the fire for the entire night. So he layed down and shut his eyes.
He would have to figure out what the hell was going on in the morning, but for now he could take a break, he probably needed one anyway.