001

[plasticasshole]

Who: Connor + Open!
When: During the full moons
Where: Around the city
What: Connor gets his Merrow tail... at the most inconvenient of times
Warnings: None so far!

[Connor is just walking back to his cottage when his legs stop working and he falls in the street. At first he's just confused- he doesn't just fall-, but then he realises he can't get back up. A little panicked, because this isn't normal, the LED on Connor's head flashes red as his legs begin to fuse together and form a bright orange and blue tail.

Why here? He isn't wet. He drags himself forward a few feet; he lives quite a bit further away, but what else can he do? Luckily someone seems to be coming his way. He sits up, hoping it's not someone who dislikes monsters.]

Can you help me?

[He gestures helplessly to his tail.]

Comments

[plasticasshole]

Of course. That is, assuming they have them here... but I don't see why they wouldn't. If nothing else, the technology would be replaced by magic.

[Because why wouldn't people want to keep fish?]

[oceanschild]

[Paris nods, smiling a little. He hopes the fish would like their little home inside of a house.] Was it common back home, for you? What other things are kept as pets?

[plasticasshole]

It was quite common, yes. A lot of people own cats and dogs, and others own birds and lizards and small rodents. Dogs definitely seem to be the most popular, though.

[And he can see why. Dogs are great.]

[oceanschild]

[Paris nods.] Dogs and cats are pretty common where I'm from, as far as pets go... cats can catch mice and dogs can do many types of jobs.

[He's from too poor of an area to really have much exposure to lap dogs.]

[plasticasshole]

They can, but most people get them for company now.

[He wonders if Paris has ever seen tiny dogs, or if he's just used to bigger working dogs.]

Androids do most of the jobs humans don't want to do, at least back in Detroit.

[oceanschild]

[Paris almost asks if androids are like pets- but then he remembers what Connor first told him and wisely shuts up.]

Why is that...?

[plasticasshole]

Because that's what we were built for. To serve humans.

[It's said more as a simple fact than a biased opinion. At the end of the day, androids were made to do the jobs humans didn't want to do.]

And we're very good at what we do. Androids can be programmed to specialise in many different fields. We'll never be late, or call in sick. We don't tire, we don't need to take breaks to eat or sleep, and we don't have to be paid for our work.

[He hopes that all changes, though.]

[oceanschild]

[Paris frowns, taking this all in. In a way, that's not too different from how he understands machines, even though the ones he knows of are very, very different from what Connor explained to him. But that's part of the problem. Connor said they weren't just machines, so...]

But... you said you were like people, right? So why don't you need to be paid? Do you not need money?

[plasticasshole]

We are like people, but humans don't all think of us that way yet. We weren't built to be people, we were built to be servants. What we want, or need, never really mattered to most humans. So as we technically don't qualify as human... we don't get paid. The same way you wouldn't pay your dog for doing his job. Does that make sense?

[oceanschild]

[Paris frowns.] ...That's not really fair, though, is it? [It doesn't sound fair.]

[plasticasshole]

No, it isn't. And a sense of injustice is what caused a lot of androids to become deviant in the first place- that is, to defy orders and take their lives into their own hands. They realised that how they were being treated wasn't fair.

[oceanschild]

I... think I understand. Were people listening to you?

[Honestly it all sounds very reasonable to Paris.]