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selaannes · 6 years

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So I’m writing a Robot!Hallsy fic and I wrote just under 3k of the beginning of it then I realised I didn’t like the direction it was going so I’ve restarted it.

BUT I really quite like what I’ve written (the world building aspect of it) so I’ve put it under the read more

Adam looked out the window at the gorgeous view of endless water that glinted in the sunlight. The train compartment they were sitting in was state of the art, spotless white with seats far too comfortable for a train. The view though, the view was stunning. It was hard to believe it wasn’t real.

“Have you ever been on one of these?” Chiarelli asked him.

“Once, but we mostly travel by air.” Adam gave him a smile.

“I suppose you would,” Chiarelli mused. “Unfortunately there’s no space for a landing strip at the Laboratory so Train travel is the only way to get there. It’s slower but they make up for it in other ways.” He waved a hand, indicating the view and the fully stocked bar being tended by the most beautiful men and women Adam had ever seen.

“Oh I wasn’t complaining,” Adam rubbed at his chin. “I’m just not used to holographic views - not ones this smooth, at least.” Adam has one at his apartment back in New Jersey but it’s kind of shitty, always on the fritz and revealing the true skyline - smog and skyscrapers.

“Ah.” The way the light is hitting Chiarelli’s glasses hides his eyes. “Well, I’m afraid it was unavoidable. Just a security precaution, you see. I’m sure you understand - I had explained it to your employer.”

Fuck

“I understand completely,” Adam rushes to say. “My employer is very thankful for this opportunity you’re giving the organisation.”

Shero would skin Adam alive if he fucked this up before he even gets there, no mercy. He breathes a sigh of relief when Chiarelli nods his head, gives a stiff smile and goes back to tapping away on his phone. Looks like Adam just about managed to salvage that.

Adam looks back out the window but he can only handle looking at the idyllic and so blatantly fake scene for so long. He instead looks at the bar staff.

There's two of them - a man and a woman - and they’re both blonde and blue eyed, with not a single blemish on their skin. They’re perfect, with lightly tanned skin and slender figures. Looking at them Adam’s skin doesn’t exactly crawl, because why would it, but he does get a definite uncanny feeling.

They’re not… are they?

Adam closes his eyes, because he can’t stand to look at the view or at the interior of the train. Better to just sleep the rest of the journey, he thinks.

The quicker this is over the better.

When Adam awakes the next morning, sluggish and slow, it’s to a room with no windows. When they’d gotten to the Laboratory late last night Chiarelli had shown him where he would be staying and bid him a good night.

Now awake Adam’s not quite sure what to do. Does he wait around for Chiarelli or someone to collect him? That sounds kind of boring, and Adam’s reluctant to sit in this empty room with only himself for company.

Adam opens his door, half expecting it to be locked from the outside, and he slips out into a corridor. So far every surface has been medical white, and the corridors are the same. Adam makes his way down endless corridors, keeping to the right like in a maze. It seems to go on forever and ever.

He finally finds a door, just like the one to his room, but when he pushes it open it leads him out into a garden.

It’s a shock, to go from sterile blank hospital walls to lush greenery and paved stone. Adam stumbles a bit, runs his hands over fern leaves and sunflower stalks.

“What is this place…?” Adam squats down and runs his fingers over the stone, digs his hands into the cracks to get at the soil underneath. Is that actual soil - real dirt?

“What are you doing?”

Adam looks up to see someone standing a few feet away, half hidden by a rose bush. He has on a strange expression - half amused, half curious.

“Is this real soil?” Adam asks with his fingers still stretching to touch the dirt under the stone.

“Well, yeah.” The duh is left unsaid but Adam can read it in the guys voice.

He stands up, brushing his hands on his slacks before he approaches with his hand held out for a hand shake.

“I’m Adam.” He flashes a smile, “Sorry, if I seem like a freak - I haven’t touched real soil since I was a kid.”

“Taylor,” That strange look is back again, all quizzical and bemused. “There’s an even better spot a couple of feet away if touching dirt is what you like.”

Adam laughs, “Lead the way.”

As Taylor leads Adam through the garden - it’s really more like a jungle, with how there’s insects everywhere and the foliage is overgrown and wild - Adam can’t help but notice how attractive his new friend is.

He’s an absolute killer, with big lips and big eyes. He’s clean shaven with floppy hair that falls over his forehead. Adam subtly fixes his hair as best as he can and straightens out his clothes. If he’d known he was going to meet a hot scientist he would have packed a better suit.

“Here it is,” Taylor stops and Adam’s gaze drifts from his ass to look up at a giant oak tree with these large roots the size of Adam’s legs. There’s this rich looking soil on the ground and grass to.

“Wow,” Adam breathes.

Taylor raises an eyebrow at Adam but he doesn’t say anything, just shows him around the rest of the garden as he tells him facts about the different insects they have.

The next day Chiarelli still hasn’t stopped by Adam’s room so he figures the entire place is probably free reign. He drops by the garden again first thing to find and Taylor and see if he’s willing to play tour guide again but he’s nowhere to be found. Adam deflates at that a little bit - he’d been hoping to maybe get Taylor’s number, see if they could meet up if Taylor ever goes to New Jersey - but he’s not here to flirt.

Adam has a job to do.

He does some more exploring, finds a library and a garage. He sees more people but Adam knows better. These are robots, androids, machines wearing a layer of flesh.

They aren’t like the robots that were on the train - all manufactured beauty and programmed politeness. These ones that Adam meets as he explores the seemingly endless floors of the Laboratory are varied, diverse. They come in all shapes and sizes, all races, all genders. There are small ones and tall ones, ugly ones and beautiful ones. There are robots that make for thrilling conversation and robots that bore Adam to tears when he strikes a conversation with them.

It’s absolutely groundbreaking.

If Adam didn’t know, if he wasn’t here for this very reason, he would have no clue. No clue that the woman watering those plants isn’t real, that a child tripping and skinning their knee isn’t bleeding real blood.

“Now I know why Shero sent me here.” Adam says as he climbs a staircase, intent on reaching the top and seeing how far up this building goes.

When he finally reaches the roof he finds a familiar face.

“Taylor!” Adam grins and waves, thinks he must look like a dork but it’s nice to see a face he recognise - and such a nice face at that.

“Adam,” Taylor gives him a grin in return.

Adam makes his way over to Taylor and notices there’s someone with him.

“Ah, sorry - am I intruding?”

“Oh, no. We were just talking. Connor, this is Adam.”

“He’s the strange man you met in the garden.”

“Ah… Well,” Adam tries to defend himself but it’s not like this Connor is wrong. “I suppose.” Wait, does that mean Taylor has been talking about him? Score!

“Connor,” Taylor scolds. “That’s rude.” Adam’s not so sure Taylor doesn’t agree though, judging by the slight curve of his lips and the mirth shining in his eyes.

“Wow, that sure is some view.” Adam walks over to the edge of the roof, leans on a railing. “I can see why you come up here.” Inside the laboratory there aren't many windows and when there are they more than definitely windows showing holograms.

But up here, high enough to touch the clouds, it’s all real.

No wonder it took hours for them to get here by train because as far as Adam can tell there’s nothing for miles. The laboratory is surrounded on all sides by high hills and mountains, caging it in. Well, if you were going to build a super secret base to build super secret robots, this is a pretty good place to do it.

Adam feels someone lean on the railing next to him. “It doesn’t look like anything to me.” Taylor says with a polite smile.

“Oh, uh yeah.” Fucking idiot, he probably sees this view all the time. God he’s rusty.

“So, how did the two of you meet?” Adam asks them and smiles when Taylor’s eyes light up as he starts to tell the story of Taylor and Connor bonding over music.

Adam finds his curiosity piqued when every now and then Connor chimes in to expand on something Taylor said or argue that it hadn’t happened that way.

The robots Adam has interacted with so far, they’ve all had threads of ‘humanity’ in them. They had smiled with their eyes, or had nervous ticks or just the way they spoke was like that of real people. Connor though…

It’s so obvious he’s an android it’s almost funny. His actions are jerky, like an old style animatronic. His smile is stiff and the way he speaks is just… so wooden. He must be a new robot, fresh from whatever factory he was made in.

Taylor speaks of him like they’ve known each other for years, though.

It must be a routine thing, Adam thinks. They must give the robots backstories and the people working here must have to abide by them.

When Taylor looks at Connor it’s with real affection.

Adam wonders…

Chiarelli finally knocks on Adam’s door and invites him to dinner. Adam of course goes - this is why he’s here after all. He’d been so caught up in Taylor and how his nose scrunched up sometimes when he laughed that he forgot why he was here - why Shero sent him here.

“So,” Chiarelli says from across the table as he cuts up his steak. It’s good food, the best synthetic meat Adam has ever tasted - and he’s been to some pretty high class restaurants in New York. “I hear you’ve been… exploring.”

Swallows around his mouthful and uses it as a way to stall. Fuck, is Chiarelli pissed?

“I came here for a reason, Doctor. The faster I get what I came here for - what you agreed to - the faster I can leave. Something which, I’m sure, you’d like just as much as I.”

Chiarelli is silent as he stares at Adam, food forgotten.

“I made it very clear to your employer that Connor was off the table.” An angry flush is making it’s way over Chiarelli’s cheeks.

Wait, what. “Connor? The robot that’s always with Taylor?”

“I know you’ve been talking to him! Prodding and poking where you don’t belong.” Chiarelli stands up suddenly, sending his chair to the floor. “You can’t have him, he’s not for sale!” Chiarelli yells.

Adam leans back, “I wasn’t talking to Connor.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Chiarelli hisses.

“I’m not.” Adam laughs, running his hand through his hair. “Jesus, you scientist types are always so paranoid. I was talking to Taylor.” Like he’d waste his time talking with some bot that can barely pass the Turing Test.

“Oh…” Chiarelli says looking lost. He picks his chair up off the floor. “I’m sorry for my… outburst.”

Adam barely refrains from snorting rudely. “That’s fine, Doctor. Now, if we could get back on topic…”

“Yes, yes of course. Ah, well, if it’s Taylor you’re interested in that’s fine. He’s very smart, very intuitive. Great with people. He can get a bit cluttered sometimes, so it’s best if you wipe him every couple of months.” Chiarelli pushes his glasses up his nose. “But no, yes, he’d be perfect for your needs.”

Adam wonders if he should be checking the good Doctor for brain damage. “What?”

“I can get you his files immediately. It won’t take long to deconstruct him and ship him to New Jersey. No, it’ll be a matter of days.” Chiarelli smiles the smile of a satisfied man. “I’m so glad to do business with the New Jersey Devils - the beginning of what I’ve no doubt will be a firm partnership.” Chiarelli lifts up his glass for a toast but Adam feels like his hands are made of stone.

“To… To…” Adam’s head is spinning and he thinks back to all the signs. He remembers Taylor’s stiff handshake, his encyclopedic knowledge of the garden, the way his smile had an edge of confusion whenever Adam talked about things Taylor should know. His disinterest in the view from the roof.

It doesn’t look like anything to me.

Adam picks up his glass with shaking hands. “To revelations.”

“Ah yes, revelations.” Chiarelli’s glasses gleamed in the light. “A most suitable toast.”

The splendor of the train seems tainted to Adam as he sits in an excessively lavish compartment on his way back to New Jersey alone.

His gaze shifts to the back of the train where, he knows, Taylor is - cut up into tiny little pieces and put into boxes for better ease of transportation.

Adam shivers. So, not completely alone.

As soon as he could make his excuses Adam had left Chiarelli and the painful scraping of his knife on a plate, had run full speed to the garden where he knew Taylor would be.

Sure enough Taylor had been there, sitting in the grass with a smile on his face. Adam couldn’t believe, just couldn’t, that Taylor - the Taylor softly umming under his breath - wasn’t flesh and bones and a beating heart.

“Adam?” Taylor had asked him, worried because Adam had collapsed next to him on the grass with his head hanging.

“Did I… Did I ever tell you what I do?” Adam had looked up at Taylor.

“No,” Taylor had shook his head. “What do you do, Adam?”

“Hockey. I play hockey. For a pretty good team, well, a good team in a tough league.” Adam had laughed. “Sometimes you need a little something to edge you ahead of the competition.” Adam had looked at Taylor. “Can you play hockey, Taylor?”

“I’ve never played.”

“That’s okay,” Adam had said, a tight smile on his face. “I’ll teach you.”

Adam had gone on to tell Taylor all about New Jersey, all the best sights and the best places to chow down. He’d told him all about growing in Canada with not a single electric wire in his house and how that never bothered him because he had hockey and how strange it was to be living in a flat with holographic furniture and a robot AI that controls his heating.

He didn’t tell him about how Shero had called him into his office a month after the season ended to tell him he had chosen Adam to go meet with Chiarelli at AndrAid Inc. to pick their new star winger.

Now Adam is all alone on a train headed straight for Jersey. It’s only him and a pile of boxes - apparently the staff that had been on the train on the way up were to impress Adam and now that he’s got what he came here for Chiarelli sees no reason to continue playing host.

Adam gets up and he makes his way to the very last compartment. There’s no seats or tables, just boxes upon boxes. They have a bunch of warnings on them (fragile, this way up, delicate).

Adam starts opening them up, finds a lot of wire and some spare parts that send his skin crawling. Rips open some more boxes until he finds what he’s looking for.

With shaking hands he lifts Taylor’s disembodied head.

He’d known, he’d known Taylor was an android but he still needed solid real proof. And he has it staring at him.

Taylor looks like he’s sleeping. His eyes are shut and his mouth is closed. Adam sits on the floor of the train heavily, still cradling Taylor’s head in his hands. He brings him closer to his chest, looks down at Taylor’s soft eyebrows and long lashes.

Adam wonders if androids dream.

#RPF #hockey RPF #it's a rico/hallsy fic #njd RPF #my fic

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