strangetrip | [OTA] Amazing Organ

Jackson was, as often at this hour (unless he had plans with Corbie), at the bar, and well on his way to completely sozzled. He would have sworn up and down that he could still walk in a straight line, if asked, but the truth was that that line would have to be a little squiggly in places. But his Virginia drawl was more pronounced than usual, and he was at that energetic, talking-too-much stage where everybody nearby might be treated as a friend, no matter what his relation to them were, if they even had one.

"We don't talk about it often enough," he told the next such person his eyes landed on, without so much as a hello, "but the clitoris is, by far, the best organ in the entire human body. 'd ya know it's the only organ, the only one, that serves no purpose but pleasure? That's just..." His hands moved in the air as he looked for the right word, narrowly avoiding splashing bourbon with the one still holding a glass. "That's amazin'. Twice as many nerve endings as in a penis, too. Just picture that amount of pleasure. Men got played."

Perfectly respectable conversation to have with anyone, after ingesting as much bourbon as he had. Perfectly. Respectable.

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Jackson narrowed his eyes at that display of innocence and confusion that was just a little too much. "Right. You're shittin' me."

“A bomb implant is harder to believe than a disinterest in sex?” Connor straightened his sweater sleeves. His police uniform was preserved in his pastel quarters—if it got damaged, there was no replacement for it while he was trapped, so it was making do with whatever the inn spat at him.

"A bomb implant is a lot easier to believe than a disinterest in sex," Jackson retorted. "You oversold it, is all."

“I see. I’ll have to try harder next time.” Connor gave a little nod to the side and straightened his collar next. There was no real reason to lie, but it seemed better to break the tension than to play into a one-sided interrogation. “I don’t think I caught your name.”

Jackson frowned briefly, trying to remember, but the kid was probably right. "Jackson," he replied, and held his hand out to the guy. Android. Whatever. "Captain, you wanna be formal about it."

"Very nice to meet you, Captain." Connor accepted the hand with a firm shake and carried on as if their conversation hadn't begun with a lengthy debate about the intersections of human and android sexuality that Connor had defused. "My designation is model RK800. Call me Connor."

"Nice to meetcha, Connor," Jackson stated, pulling his hand back. "So you got no use for sex, but you got use for a name?"

"Sex isn't typically used as greeting, Captain. You can't really equate the two." And back they were. "There are android models designed to provide sexual companionship. I'm simply not one of them." There may have been an implied are you satisfied yet in there.

Edited 2019-03-27 19:37 (UTC)

Jackson was fairly drunk, but he was fairly certain you didn't need a name to greet anyone. But he wasn't going to cut hairs here, especially when Connor here finally went on with something that actually made sense. Now if there were androids meant for sex, he was a whole lot less surprised.

Bit sad for Connor, but there was no helping that.

"Well, I'm sorry for you, kid," he told him with a sympathetic half smile, and gestured at his temple again. "So what is that thing, if it ain't a detonator or an erogenous zone?"

"You're very creative, Captain." Connor touched the circular light which was maintaining a steady blue hue. "This is a light emitting diode--LED, for short. It acts as a shorthand for humans to interpret the 'health' of our internal systems. Blue indicates stability, yellow is a catch-all for processing, and red indicates danger or a malfunction."

"Processin', like thinkin'?" Jackson asked curiously. He guessed it made sense to oppose thinking to stability, in a way. A 'don't want the masses to think too hard' kind of way.

"Correct..." Tilting his head, Jackson's unfamiliarity with even archaic terms for AI technology raised a few questions. "If I may. Perhaps we could play a game?"

That surprised Jackson again, and drunk as he was, it was plain on his face. "Uh. Why not. What game?"

A game, indeed. Humans had a fondness for those, didn’t they? “We’ll make it a wager. I’ll guess on your era and profession. If I get both correct, you finish this bottle of water.”

"That's a terrible game, kid," Jackson pointed out, surprise completely vanished. Connor was persistent, he'd give him that. He reached for the small bottle of water, cracked it open and downed it in a long few gulps. "Happy now?"

Connor watched the display and offered a prompt smile in turn. “Your head will thank you in the morning, Captain.”

"Think I'd need a lot more than a small bottle of water to make much difference," Jackson pointed out. But he was used to hangovers, and they were much easier to deal with here than they had been back in his time. Small favors.

"True." Connor promptly turned towards the bartender to request another.

Jackson shook his head at the bartender in a 'don't bother kind of way, then turned back to the kid. "Do you drink, Connor?"

"No." Connor repeated an affirmative gesture at the bartender, who was now caught in the middle. "I don't eat, either. Or sleep."

"You don't fuck, you don't drink, you don't eat, you don't dream," Jackson summed up for him. What kind of life was that? Jackson had meant to take this in a completely different direction, but now he felt compelled to ask, "What do you do for fun?"

A beat passed. The android simply stared at the Lieutenant, simulating a blink so as to appear disarming.

Jackson's lips ticked up in a half smirk. "Goading drunk physicians? Get a better hobby, kid."

Connor tilted his head an inch. “Does that make your hobby being a drunk physician?”

"One of 'em, for damn sure," Jackson replied without missing a beat. Alcohol was a fantastic way to pass the time, as far as he was concerned. Thank God they had an unlimited supply in this place, or he might have lost his mind already.

Re: Jackson/Connor

st_abilitylost - 2019-04-03 16:24 (UTC) - Expand

st_illfleshandblood - 2019-04-04 11:14 (UTC) - Expand

st_abilitylost - 2019-04-04 21:32 (UTC) - Expand

st_illfleshandblood - 2019-04-08 09:54 (UTC) - Expand