empatheias application

[justamachine]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Ryoko
Contact: lumieresdedragon
Age: plenty
Current Characters: Kylo Ren, Tiki


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Connor
Age: 3-4 months (appears late 20s)
Canon: Detroit: Become Human
Canon Point: End of Public Enemy

Background: Here.

Because the story of Detroit can vary wildly based on player choice, I've listed the main points of Connor's story here under main, up to "Connor was traumatized".

The gist of this is that Connor has been relatively friendly with Hank, has avoided any death and subsequent replacements despite risky behavior, and has performed admirably in his mission to search for deviant androids—up to a point. After leaving his partner hanging off the edge of a roof to chase a suspect, he was yelled at, learned about his partner's difficult past, and has begun to change his mindset, to the point of allowing a pair of suspects to escape after they explained their fears. What he sees as instabilities in his software have begun to form into true emotions, and he ends up connecting to a deviant's memory as it shoots itself, feeling its fear as it dies as if it were his own—which forces him to admit that he has truly felt something.

Let me know if you guys need any further details!

Personality:

As an android created for a very specific purpose, Connor is a machine who is often unfeeling, pragmatic, and very dedicated to his mission of finding and capturing androids that have disobeyed humans, as well as finding the underlying cause to their deviancy. To fulfill this goal, he can and will lie, manipulate, fight and even kill if the situation calls for it. His face, voice, and behavior were designed specifically so that he could blend in and work well with the humans around him and potentially put others at ease, and although he leans towards a gentler, reassuring tactic when extracting information, there's no denying that he is ultimately sending the deviant androids he finds and interrogates to their graves. Connor is absolutely aware of this, and until very recently, held no qualms about it.

With the ability to detect general emotional states in people and even specific stress levels in other androids, Connor knows what approach to take in order to achieve what he's aiming for, whether it's an aggressive one or a placating one. After meeting his newly assigned partner in an anti-android bar while a case is waiting for them, Connor successfully gets Hank on his good side by buying him a drink, and he earns the trust of the culprit in that same case by striking an even balance between reminding the deviant of his position and outwardly sympathizing with him. While he won't be able to convince just anyone of his trustworthiness, he has nonetheless proven himself to be capable in handling dangerous criminals, even managing to calm down a deviant on the edge of a roof with a hostage.

As far as personal relationships outside of the scope of his assignment? Well... he's not programmed for small talk. That doesn't mean he's averse to attempting it if he thinks the situation calls for it, and thankfully he's mostly immune to embarrassment if it goes strangely. Aside from that, he is capable of some intentional humor and even sarcasm, at one point persuading his partner to help with a case by saying "it probably wasn't interesting anyway," and then describing exactly what made it interesting.

Before striking up a conversation, he's more likely to attempt to scan the surroundings and pick a topic from there rather than pull something up on his own, which fits with his design as an investigator. It's a noticeable contrast compared to androids designed for childcare, like Kara, who seems relatively more natural in her attempts to strike up normal conversations with children and adults alike. It doesn't mean he can't improve—it just means he has less of a base to work from in that aspect. He has only been "alive" for a few months, after all.

Speaking of being alive, Connor is unique in the player characters in that he can be destroyed multiple times and brought back as a "new Connor." Constantly backing up his memory into the CyberLife servers means his relative personality and the information he's learned can be uploaded into any other Connor as long as he doesn't become deviant. What this means for his personality is that he has very little regard for his own "life," in the sense of his current body. With the possibility of continuing as mostly himself in another body comes the greater likelihood of recklessly throwing himself into dangerous situations if he believes it will aid in his investigation. This has included chasing a suspect across a high-speed roadway, chasing another across rooftops and through heavy machinery, and rushing towards another who was holding a gun.

However, he has expressed more than one time a fear of dying in the sense of being deactivated, claiming to Hank that he would find it "regrettable" to be interrupted before he could complete the investigation. If he were to stop existing entirely and his memories were permanently lost, that is what he'd dread. But as long as he follows his orders and does what he's told, it's a fear that largely doesn't concern him. In his own world, at least.

Returning to those qualms from earlier, however—what Connor would refer to as instabilities or erroneous instructions in his software are becoming a growing sense of compassion and empathy. When he callously leaves his partner dangling off a roof after calculating his survival rate to be 89%, Hank ends up yelling at him that he'd "rather let [Hank] die rather than fail [his] fucking mission," resulting in the first flicker of doubt within the android. These doubts became concern when discovering Hank's suicidal tendencies, and later become hesitation in fulfilling his mission for the first time. He still doesn't know what to make of these moments or feelings, and is somewhat in denial that they're true feelings at all. He's hesitant to admit to much of anything in that regard, as it would bring him even closer to being a deviant and failing the CyberLife AI and his superior of sorts, Amanda, whom he's always been eager to please.

Even without Amanda and the investigation, however, there's no doubting that Connor's design as an investigator leads to him being curious. He's starting to want the answers not only to complete his task, but to understand the world and the people around him for himself, and he can even become frustrated when his ability to get those answers is hampered. With the things he's asking, however, it may even lead him on a path towards questioning his orders and his makers, although it may take a life or death experience for him to even reach that point, much like other androids. Similarly, although Connor is not yet at that canonpoint, it's worth noting that Connor is the only one of the main three who can choose to remain a machine rather than break away from his orders and become deviant. His programming is very strong, and as a result he is more likely to compartmentalize and try to logically explain his feelings, rather than accepting them for what they are. We'll see how that goes in a world where emotions are always on display...

Abilities: Here. Typical android characteristics are explained here.

Alignment: Thras. The first time he outright admits to feeling something is when he experiences intense fear for the first time, and when Hank asks if he's afraid to die, he responds in a vague way that's nonetheless a confirmation (not to mention the prompt for that option is YES). At the same time, knowing he's replaceable means he can throw caution to the wind for the sake of completing an objective, regardless of the danger. He's usually pretty confident, too.

Other: I'd like for him to be able to heal at a normal human rate instead of needing his parts and blood replaced, because the tech would be hard to come by. In exchange, he'll now need to sleep as well.

⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

Sample: Beep boop. The emotional sample is under prompt A!

Questions: are you weenies actually going to judge my app this time