tide || detroit: become human (completed)

//1//

If home is where the heart is, then we're all just fucked.

...

'Get yours today' shone brightly across every other billboard in Detroit, showing three different Cyberlife androids to show the variety that you could purchase if you chose to do so. Androids were commonly found walking the streets in the year two thousand thirty eight. Cyberlife had begun to have many great breakthroughs that resulted in androids filling the streets amongst many towns. Some were found in what we could call 'parking stations' or others running errands for those who had purchased the androids. It was second nature for the machines to be shoulder to shoulder with others in communities across the nation, and the world.
The sun peeked in through the clouds as they passed through. Androids walked along the streets to get their necessities from stores for their owners. But, some also ran with their androids on the sidewalk surrounding. Those protesting androids and Cyberlife's choice to make androids capable of working jobs could be heard throughout the outdoor shopping center.
"Katrina, may I remind you that you are supposed to be at home at two o'clock this afternoon." Skylar reported, snapping Katrina back to reality. Skylar was Katrina's own personal android. There wasn't another android like Skylar on the streets. She was a prototype of a therapy android that Katrina had been designing at CyberLife. To help others like herself, Katrina was testing the android to make sure it could really deliver the help it needed to.
"Thank you Skylar." Katrina nodded, turning on her heel and started walking towards the direction of the bus stop, Skylar following her close behind Katrina. They walked through the park portion of the city. Since it was early November the trees leaves had started to fall in a shower of red, yellow, and orange. They passed an android that Katrina had never seen before. He was an android with a browned skin tone with his hair shaved down close to the scalp. His eyes could almost startle you with how green they were. He carried a new box of paints in his hands. "What time is it exactly?"
"One forty four in the afternoon." Skylar said, tucking her hands behind her back after they had passed through the park. "Your average choice of bus line home is supposed to arrive in fourteen seconds. With the amount of traffic in the area we should be home in approximately seventeen minutes."
Katrina nodded, laughing a bit "You're cute Skylar." Skylar attempted to smile back.
The self driven bus arrived precisely on time, as Katrina had assumed. Since arriving at the bus stop just at the nik of time others had formed around the station before she had. There were six others boarding the bus with her while their androids climbed onto the opposite side of the wall. Katrina and the human passengers entered in through the usual door and took their seats,  while Androids entered into a android compartment in the back of the bus.
Katrina set her bags next to her seat after she had selected where she wanted to sit, glancing back at Skylar to make sure she had gotten onto the bus as well. Skylar had been placed in the second row on the second spot to the left, filling one of the gaps with the other androids. Katrina knew that Skylar was just a piece of technology she had developed, it was only software in a fancy plastic frame. But there was something about her, like a feeling. It was almost like Skylar was only a couple of steps away from being human. If Katrina could only find the last piece of tech to finish of that bug that seemed to be holding her android back from being a real friend to her patient, Katrina.
Katrina turned and  faced the front of the bus. She checked the placement of her bags one more time as the bus started on its normal route, taking all of its passengers to their destination.

...

Katrinas apartment was nothing short of spectacular. It was a great place to hide from other people with the overlook of Detroit, the white exterior, and the high profile. The apartment was a gift from CyberLife when Katrina had first joined the company. It was comfortable, but it got lonesome at times. It was almost too large for herself and her two androids, it felt empty. After unlocking the door and slowly pushing it open Katrina slipped the apartment keys onto a small ceramic tray on an end table to her left.
"Welcome home Katrina, did you and Skylar find all the things you needed?" Xloe asked, Xloe was a RT600 model android courtesy from a colleague whom she used to work with, Elijah Kamski. Xloe was set to be the hostess of the apartment, not to mention the caretaker and everything else an apartment would need, Xloe was the one that ran Katrina's home really.
"Yes we did, did anyone call or stop by while we were out?" Katrina asked as she set the shopping bags on one of the white couches. Skylar quickly followed picking up the plastic bags and moving them to the granite countertops, unloading the things they'd picked up earlier that day.
"You missed one call from Mr Elijah Kamski, he left a voicemail and sent a gift to the apartment. I set the gift on the breakfast bar." Xloe reported, tucking her hands behind her back. At the mention of Kamski's name, Katrina's chest felt like it was going to collapse into itself. Looking over to her right Katrina noticed the large vase of roses sitting in the center of the slightly larger line of countertop. A small paper note peeked out of one of the flowers on a metal rod, a glance later she cared no more than she had before.
"Well, if Kamski knew me he'd know that I hate roses." Katrina muttered as she passed Xloe to the breakfast bar, taking the note from the bouquet and sticking it in her back pocket. She tried her best to ignore the increasing ache. "But I am also not drunk enough to listen to that voicemail. Send it to my phone in half an hour would you Xloe?" She grabbed a bottle of liquor from her personal alcohol cabinet not caring about the unimpressed look given by Skylar.
"Yes Katrina" Xloe nodded.
"Katrina, your nightly drink isn't until seven o'clock this evening.Your medicine will not counteract well with the alcohol." Skylar interjected "May I suggest the cranapple juice in the fridge, there is still three fourths of the canister in the refrigerator." Her protocols had been pushed into motion, instead of letting Katrina feed into alcohol she suggested something non-alcoholic. This was one of the many therapy protocols she had been programmed with, and one Katrina wished she hadn't thought of.
"Thank you Skylar, but I'm just going to take this into my study. It'll be back before you know it." Katrina shrugged, referencing the bottle by shaking it up in the air. "Go upload your current data bank research to the CyberLife systems. Then when you're done go upload the blueprint 5G I finished last night to CyberLife as well."
"Will do Katrina."
Katrina just nodded as she started to moved down the hallway. The dark wood floorboards creaked under her feet as she trudged down the corridor, the thought of Elijah still fresh in her mind. She reached the doorway of her study, pressing her hand against the palm scanner. A dim blue light moved up and down the palm of her hand, scanning. When the machine had determined that it was indeed Katrina Bay, you could hear the lock click and the door slid open.
Katrina strolled into her study, hearing the door sliding closed from back behind her. Her study was much more comfortable than the rest of the apartment. The wooden interior, the tall bookshelves, and the large work table filled the space. Thus making her study more of a safe haven than an office.
The bookshelves were lined with hundreds of books, slid all shapes, sizes, and colors. Many of them were commonly read literature books while the rest were science, medical, and technological textbooks. She had collected most of them in her college years. With these books Katrina often found herself referencing back to them when she was working on different versions of androids.
Only one picture frame sat on her desk among the mountains of blueprints scattered upon the working area. The picture had captured the moment of her parents and Katrina herself on the family vacation. Katrina was about nine years old at the time. She was being held very closely to her mom, it was being squished up to her mother's while her dad leaned into the picture. Most of Katrina's mom's face was hidden away behind a pair of sunglasses and a sunhat. Her dad just looked exhausted, like something sucked out his soul before the picture was taken.
Katrina to no time and pressed the bottle opening to her mouth. Turning the picture face down on the desk, letting the burning liquid slip down her throat. She didn't need that memory resurfacing, not today.