Who Are You Really? - RK1K

Chapter Six - Work

Gavin is an ass.

Markus insisted on coming to work to provide emotional support. Connor tried to decline, reasoning that Markus joining him would only make the gossip worse, however Markus had refuted that, returning with the fact that he could confirm the rumours were false.

Connor felt like that would still make it worse, considering there was a high chance the biggest android rights advocate would catch attention and bring more attention to the DPD, and by extension, Connor, but he knew a losing battle when he saw one. Markus' determination easily outmatched his own.

So now Hank drove them to the DPD, Connor in his CyberLife uniform, Markus in a hoodie and long pants, and Hank in... some abomination of fashion that few would want to be associated with.

Markus didn't like the loud, screaming voices of the singers in the music Hank had put on - well, correction, he didn't like the screaming, the singers' voices were actually quite nice when they weren't tearing out their vocal chords.

Luckily, they arrived at the DPD quickly, and Markus no longer had to listen to the angry music that made his audio processors quake. All three of them stepped out of the car, the two androids following Hank into the building.

They got in easily, but the stares made Connor and Markus wish they didn't. Reed was smirking, reading his phone obviously when he had caught their gaze, Tina was wolf-whistling, and some of the other officers were just staring as Connor walked over to his desk, Hank going off to get some coffee and not-so-subtly glare at Reed for being annoying.

That made no difference, Gavin walked over anyway. "So," he started, an obnoxious smirk on his face, "Our favourite plastic detective got himself a plastic boyfriend! Congratulations, I'm sure you love his di-,"

"Detective Reed, I would appreciate it if you didn't make distasteful jokes about Markus and I. In the workplace or otherwise. I'm not Markus' boyfriend, the article is false, now can you please leave us to work," Connor snapped, glaring at his monitor, surely wishing it was Reed.

Gavin blinked, surprised at the even-tempered android's interruption, but regained composure quickly. "What? So you can go have a fling with Mr. deviant here?" He poked Markus' chest, "Come on, everyone knows the plastic prick is a whore for some deviant dick. Ha, I bet you'd fuck on the table if it weren't for the cameras around the plac-,"

"Detective!" Connor interrupted again, standing from his seat, visibly frustrated, "I asked you to refrain from the allegations, and yet you continued. Markus and I are not together, sexually or romantically, I lack the parts to even perform such acts, even if I wanted to, and you, Gavin Reed, are a perverted asshole who couldn't manage to get anyone in bed if you paid them."

Gavin went quiet - that tone, understandably dubbed Connor's 'interrogation voice', did that, it caught people's attention and demanded they listen in silence. Markus stood by Connor's side, glaring at Gavin. "He's right. Someone as distasteful as you couldn't pull a partner if they had a rope attached to them."

"Fuck off," Gavin growled, moving back to his desk, clearly agitated by his defeat. Connor smirked, sitting back down - he knew that extra height on Reed would come in handy one day.

Turning to Markus, he motioned to the desk. "Sit down, you don't need to stand the entire time you're here."

"Oh, right," Markus laughed, shuffling onto the desk. "That was pretty impressive, Connor. Seems you didn't need me here after all."

"Maybe. I just didn't like him being so... perverted in front of you. It was disgusting and I'm sorry you had to hear that," Connor sighed, moving back to his work.

"It's alright, Connor. Does he do that often?" Markus asked, concern thundering through his systems.

"Unfortunately," Connor admitted, leaning back on his chair in annoyance, "It's only going to get worse now, thanks to that reporter's article."

"What about the sexual remarks?" Markus continued, sending a side glare to Gavin when he caught the human staring at them.

"Occasionally. It annoys me," he let his head drop backwards, "I identify on the asexual spectrum, and Reed's comments are both illogical and offensive. And... It makes me uncomfortable. It's not the same as Erica, but I really don't like it. Can we... Can we get back to the case now?"

Markus nodded, accepting the topic change easily. "Sure. What's happened recently?"

"Well, an android was attacked yesterday at around 11:30 in an alleyway, traces of what could be human blood were found and I've been asked to investigate. You're welcome to join, I'll have to override security though."

"Surely being the advocate for android rights would let me in, right?"

"You can try, Markus. I doubt it'll work, but you can try."

"...How did that work?" Connor blinked as Markus walked into the building, past the yellow police line projections. "That shouldn't have worked."

"I guess being the leader of a publicly supported revolution has its benefits, huh?" Markus smirked playfully as he stood next to Connor.

"You're letting that go to your head, aren't you?" Connor raised his eyebrow. "Come on, I've got a murder to investigate."

Connor walked towards the victim, Markus following behind as the RK800 dipped down, dabbing his fingers into the blood before licking them. Markus knew Connor ingested things orally to analyse them, but floor blood? Even for an android who couldn't get sick, Markus was mildly grossed out by the idea of eating floor blood.

He didn't like floor blood.

"The victim is an AT400," Connor said suddenly, knocking Markus out of his deep thoughts of disliking floor blood. "They were attacked with car keys, meaning it wasn't planned. Either the assaulter was doing so in self-defence, or they saw the android and attacked them unprovoked."

"Why would someone do that?" Markus asked aloud, grimacing at the face of the AT400 that was frozen in fear, still visible through the slashes on their face.

"That's what the investigation is for," Connor mumbled, licking some red blood that he had picked up with his fingers. He sampled it, pulling away from his hand in surprise. "This isn't human blood, it's rabbit blood."

"What? That can't be right."

"The analysis hasn't lied before, Markus," Connor stood, swallowing, "If they're not human... Markus, I think we're dealing with a homicidal android here."