Android AU

[worthallthis]

Coming in out of the snow, he says, "Hey, Misty, I'm home."

Since the robot isn't even finished, let alone powered up, she's not actually able to answer. He doesn't care. It's not like he's got anyone else to talk to besides the cat, and the cat's not in here, out catching mice or maybe sleeping in the attached little barn.

"Got some parts that might finish you up, finally," he continues, stamping snow off his boots and hanging up his coat. The metal arm vibrates a little, trying to shake the cold from its circuits, and he puts a kettle on the stove before padding over to the mostly-finished robot in the corner and dropping his pack next to her. She doesn't look perfectly human, but she's as close as he can get with the spare parts he's been scrounging up on his trips out into the world.

What's left of the world, anyway. War and disease and famine have made a mess of things, and he's long since given up on trying to do what he can do to stop it, and just helps where he can. The arm makes him stand out, though. That and his general good health. It's getting harder and harder to keep a low profile, except among the one local group that considers him "theirs". Hence, android. With more clothes and a better wig, with a few upgrades once he knows he can make her work, she might pass better than he ever will, especially with the awkward way he imagine's she's going to move until he gets some better upgrades. Besides... he could use the company, way out here.

He puts together a little sandwich and mixes the cocoa into the hot water, then comes to see if what he's found can at least get her running.

It's late in the night, another sandwich and cocoa later, with only a brief break to let in the cat and give her a pet and dinner, that he finally sits back and says, "Well. Let's give this a try." And he reaches behind her, finds the series of switches, and sets them in their careful order. There's no one switch, there's a pattern. Then nobody can turn her off who doesn't know how.

Then he sits back to look up at her, and wait for her system to power up.

Comments

[shadowsran]

It hardly matters to her, so the next concern is ease of memorization for him. Excluding the truth, but close to it.

"Lost traveler," she tentatively begins. "Hit my head in the mountains, and you found me. No going anywhere until the thaw."

[worthallthis]

He nods approvingly. That's about half of one of the cover stories he'd thought of. "Mostly the total-amnesia thing is bunk, in humans. There's rare exceptions, but mostly the human brain doesn't really work like that. You ought to have a couple of details for things you still remember. Impressions. Could even use your real history, if you wanted, for those-- you know, working in a lab."

[shadowsran]

"It won't make them more suspicious, would it? Someone in a scientific field turning up with large gaps in memory?" She could see it going either way - it's not unlikely it would grant her some importance, but people sound wary. Rightfully so.

No one would have much to gain from misleading a small, isolated community with what she predicts is a fairly loose law system, but. Wariness.

[worthallthis]

He considers that. " ... Maybe not a lab," he allows. "There aren't a lot of those left, I guess." Of course, his idea of working in a lab would be more likely to result in memory loss... but he knows his experience is very different from most people's.

[shadowsran]

"An...IT office? Some kind of medical technician?" Fields she can understand well enough offhand, and ones accompanied with equipment she's unlikely to stumble upon out here. Harder to catch the lie. Not perfect. Her brow furrows.

"In an unrelated accident before this, maybe. Are there vehicles in town?"

At all? Enough that a car wreck might seem plausible.

[worthallthis]

"Either of those works great." He shoots her an approving smile. "Not a ton of vehicles, but anywhere that has a functioning IT office will probably have one. Could even just say it was one of the last of the HYDRA strike gangs, taking out your team, leaving you with a head wound and patchy memory."

[shadowsran]

"Acceptable." She bows her head, returning the smile. "Should we have a sign? If I accidentally veer toward something unacceptable or unfeasible. A cue to stop, or let you talk over me?"