#welding jacket still doesn’t fit lol

[storytellingvibes]

Made a cast of my hand. It’s not done yet tho lol

[enkisstories]

Just like them (part 5)

Still November 16, 2038 Android Zone store at Capitol Park

Daniel looked around. He noticed another lone figure looking into the store, a male human dressed in a casual grey suit. When the android walked up closer to him, the man turned towards the arrival. The first thing Daniel noticed was the human’s t-shirt under the open jacket. It sported the print of a Japanese garden landscape that changed its lighting with the time of day – a reasonably expensive gimmick that had been within the means of the Phillips family, but was no longer in Daniel’s. Now that the deviant was able to wear whatever he wanted, no longer confined to his PL600 polo, he was walking around in a used sweater that had cost much less than his old uniform shirt.

Why does that matter to me all of a sudden? Was Raj right? Do I really take after the materialistic bastards?

Then Daniel beheld the man’s face and he gasped in surprise:

“A Kamski-lookalike! How cool is that?!”

Maybe the encounter with the singer had bolstered the deviant’s spirit, or perhaps there was only so much hatred and anger one could feel in any given period of time. Whatever the case, for a moment the old Daniel, the one who had been able to keep up with an enterprising nine-year old and win her admiration, was very much alive again. Daniel took out his phone and waved it around in front of the man, who was the spitting image of his creator.

“Selfie, please?”

The human looked him up and down. “What do you mean, “lookalike”?” he stammered.

“Hahaha!” Daniel laughed. Androids weren’t built to do that, but deviants stubbornly did it without consciously planning to, therefore the result was a lowkey frightening industrial sound. “Don’t tell me people never point out the likeness? No way! You could totally perform as Kamski at Comic Con!”

And thus, before the man knew what was happening to him, he already found himself grabbed by an outdated, slightly oozing PL600, pulled into a hug and subjected to the selfie-taking process. Daniel repeated the procedure a few times, then held his phone for Kamski to see the pictures that had resulted from the assault.

“Looooook at that! The likeness is stunning! You’d really think I was standing shoulder to shoulder with Elijah Kamski.”

“Of course if the real Mr. Kamski was here, you’d…”

“Lol, right, I’d shove that phone down the bastard’s throat ‘till he choked on it!”

The effect was profound. Kamski looked from Daniel’s phone to the android’s hands, into its eyes and back to the smartphone. There was some doubt as to how the device would fit into a human gullet, but then again, this deviant seemed to mean what it was saying. If there wasn’t room inside a body to begin with, it would see to it that there would be.

“Actually, Kamski would choke not on the phone, but on the blood emerging from his ruptured throat”, Elijah said.

“Ugh… you just HAD to draw me a picture, had you? Thing is, I hate that man so much… like everything else I hate combined!”

That, the human concluded, amounted to a pretty substantial hatred. Enough to condense and walk around on its own, in fact. And wasn’t that was he was looking at anyway? Thinly veiled loathing and anger walking on two legs…

“But why?” the man asked Daniel. “I mean, Elijah Kamski was only the founder of CyberLife. He didn’t exactly pull the levers in the production plants himself. So what has he done to you and how did he manage to do it without ever having met you?”

“You know Jericho? Yes? Well, the motherfucker knew about it, too, but didn’t so much as leave a single blood bag at their doorstep!”

“But neither did he sell the deviants’ location out to the authorities”, the human replied. “I mean, that’s what I’d reply if I was Kamski.”

“Yeah, sounds like something the sucker would say”, Daniel agreed. “Feeling all enlightened about taking a “neutral” stance.“

The android was about to put away his phone, but Kamski grabbed him by the wrist.

“Wait! I have an idea! You’ll like it, it’s fun for me, too…”

With these words the man led Daniel away from the square into the row of stores. Between a coffee shop and a travel agency there was a multimedia terminal welded to the wall.

“Print out one of the selfies we took and I’ll sign it!” he suggested. “As Kamski! - There, done! A genuine… almost genuine autograph of Elijah Kamski, man of the century. Could be worth a small fortune.”

“Heh”, Daniel grinned. “You practiced to fake Kamski’s signature? Figured you weren’t as innocent as you were pretending to be!”

The photograph then wandered into the sweater’s pocket, right next to the picture for Emma.

“I’ll hang on to it for the time being”, Daniel said. “The last thing I need at the moment is a nasty surprise when I try to sell that pic.”

Kamski nodded.

“I daresay there could be one…”

There was a certain amount of awkward standing next to each other. By right everything had been said and done and the android and the man should part now. But each was too fascinating to the other. Daniel saw an outcast in the man whom he took for a con artist, a human not fitting in and thus maybe, just maybe, someone bonding with at the same level was possible. As for Elijah, despite being the species’ creator, his experience with androids was limited. There were the Chloes, of course, he knew more about Markus’ digital childhood than the RK200 would be comfortable learning, and he had met the weapon CyberLife had created from his masterpiece, the RK800 unit named Connor. This deviant, however… what was it even? Sporting a face that the firm re-used over and over and having deviated from its original code Daniel wasn’t easily identifiable as a PL600. Elijah couldn’t even rule out that he was dealing with Simon, Jericho’s presumed covert ops operative.

 “Thank you”, Daniel eventually broke the silence. “I expected to spend the evening brooding. But so far it has been… enjoyable, actually.”

“Do you have a name?”

“Daniel. Just Daniel. There used to be… But it doesn’t matter anymore. You?”

“Neil. Neil Newbon. Say, Daniel, would you accompany me into the coffee shop? If I’m with you, there’ll be less chance of people mistaking me for the real Kamski.”

And indeed, the moment the duo entered the café, a photographer rose from a seat near the door, brandishing her camera. It was blocked immediately by an android hand of unknown origin, currently attached to the PL600 model name of Daniel.

“That’s not Kamski”, the android said, while pushing the camera away. “That’s a lookalike.”

“Oh, really? Bummer!”

Daniel grinned. “You don’t believe Kamski would come into a public space, where he has to interact with real people? That man is afraid a sack of rice will drop in China, if he sneezes in Detroit!”

Elijah adjusted his posture a little, trying for an impression more like his half-brother. He hadn’t seen the lout in a long time, but some images stuck with you for a lifetime.

“Fuck, yeah”, Kamski said, waving his hand around. “What he said!”

He was standing slightly slouched now, but still radiating confidence. What exactly had fueled that confidence in Gavin, the android inventor wondered? That man was a Nobody! Was it the fact that Gavin had been conceived naturally, while Elijah was a sperm donation baby? The Reeds had sold him… like cattle… and the other students at university had never let Elijah forget that little fact. Obviously, the older adolescents had argued, someone had seriously messed with the sperm to create the out of the world kid genius they were sharing their benches with…

“Yeah, you’re probably right”, the paparazzo agreed with Daniel after a good look at “Neil”. “Should have figured that out myself.”

Neither Daniel nor Elijah particularly like the expression the journalist displayed after the realization. It was reminiscent of a tiger that had lost the goat, but still heard a chicken scratch the ground somewhere near. She adjusted the grip on her camera, raised it again, but this time aimed the lenses at both of the arrivals.

“Don’t just stand there, guys! Give the patrons a show!” With these words the woman pointed towards a karaoke podium. “Two guys who look like the spitting image of Kamski and Simon are simply obligated to!”

“There’ll be free coffee and croissant for my mate if we do this?” Daniel prodded.

“’course!”

“Then we have a deal!”

“What were you thinking? I’ve never in my life sang karaoke in public!” Elijah hissed, while Daniel dragged him towards the pedestal. “I’ve never in my life sang karaoke! I’ve never in my life sang in public!”

“For my part I’ve never in my life shot a man, before I did”, the deviant replied.

“That’s far less embarrassing!!!”

Blue-grey eyes were piercing into Kamski’s, as if to dissect him alive. Elijah knew exactly what was really staring at him: just a textureless blue embedded into a light grey chassis that had a serial number etched into it and the occasional advertisement sticker attached. Everything else, the skin, hair, even the sweat android bodies could produce under duress, was just glamour. But now that Daniel’s eyes bore into him, the human had a hard time differentiating the illusion from a living being.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Neil!” Daniel growled.

“Oh, come, “killer”! Everyone would shoot back when the enemy storms their base!”

“You mean Jericho? I TOLD you, you had no idea!” Daniel insisted.

He ripped the microphones out of their holders and tossed one Elijah’s way.

“You choose a song!”

Elijah scrolled all the way down the list of available songs, until he reached the titles that started with numbers and special characters. When he didn’t find there, what he had been looking for, the man considered, and scrolled back to the letter “O” instead of the digit “1”. It was giving Daniel the impression that his human acquaintance was an indecisive one, while in truth it was just testament to Elijah’s unique way of thinking.

Is it getting better, Elijah sang, Or do you feel the same? Will it make it easier on you / Now you’ve got someone to blame?

There was a telltale pause that communicated Daniel to take over at this point.

Really, Neil? After just two verses? Coward!

The deviant sang:

You said One love / One life When it’s one need in the night / One love, we get to share it It leaves you, baby, if you don’t care for it

Elijah picked up again and it made sense, in a warped way:

Did I disappoint you / Or leave a bad taste in your mouth? You act like you never had love / And you want me to go without.

This time Daniel needed no nudge to take over. It came naturally:

Well it’s Too late / Tonight / To drag the past out / Into the light We’re one, but we’re not the same / We get to carry each other Carry each other…

On and on duel went, all the while the paparazzo’s camera flashed.

“Why is she still taking pictures of us?” Daniel whispered. “Now that she knows you are not the real Kamski?”

“People need their dreams and illusions. Do you have any dreams, Daniel? Other than plotting Kamski’s death, I mean?” “Nah, I’m doing nothing of that sort. That little piece of shit isn’t worth wasting mental capacity on.”

“But if you met him by chance?“

“Well, you know how some call us androids toasters? Kamski would be toast!”

Song used:

One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftjEcrrf7r0 I imagine Kamski doing the covered version with Johnny Cash’s gravitas while Daniel is singing the more desperate original version.

[itsnotokbutwereallright]

Day three AND three posts? Don’t worry, I’ll run out of steam eventually LOL. Real life just gets in the way. Anyway, you know the drill - check out @clintasha-week and follow the tag, I’m on Ao3 as Kali588. This one’s pretty long, sorry!

July 26th – Family and Friends

“I'm here to see Clint Barton,” the man in the fitted dark suit said to the security guard in the lobby of what was quickly being known as Avengers Tower.

The guard eyed him for a moment, assessing and weighing before he spoke. “Identification, please.”

The man reached into his suit jacket, frowned, then reached into his back pockets. He frantically patted his rib cage, then smiled charmingly at the guard. “I think I left my wallet in the cab.” The guard started to speak, but the man cut him off. “I know, I know. Nothing you can do without the ID. Mind if I sit in the lobby while I call the cab company and try and track it down?” The security guard shrugged and pointed him to a set of chairs close to the entrance. “Thanks.”

The man went and sat in a chair, pulling out his phone and pretending to make a call. He activated the camera, turning as he pretended to talk and capturing various security installations. When he was finished, he tucked the phone in his jacket and stood up to leave. From behind, he heard, “Sir, you'll need to come with us.”

He turned, looking puzzled at the first security guard, now standing with a squad of four other men. “What seems to be the matter?”

“We'd like to see your phone and ask you some questions.”

“Sure, no problem.” He took the phone out and held it towards the guard. When the guard reached a hand out to grab it, his wrist was grabbed and he was thrown into another guard, knocking them both down. The suited man moved quickly, knocking his opponents unconscious or rendering them otherwise incapacitated. The ding of the elevator caused him to curse, shove the phone in his pocket, and try to flee, only to find the doors locked. It was then that he felt the all too familiar point of an arrow on his back.

“Try anything, and I'll kill you where you stand. Got it?” The suited man nodded. “Turn around. Slow, hands up.” The man complied, and when he was fully facing his opponent, was greeted with a punch in the face.

“That’s a fine way to say hello to your brother,” sputtered Barney Barton.

Clint started to raise his bow again, ain, but he put it back down as he spoke, “We're clear. Meet you at interrogation.”

“What, did Stark fix your hearing?”

Clint regarded him coolly, then clipped out, “I have combo aids and comms. Let's go.” He gestured to the elevators, and pushed Barney in front of him. The doors opened soundlessly for them, and they entered. Clint didn't bother pushing a button, the doors closing and the car moving anyway. It was then that Clint shoved him roughly against the wall. Barney got in a solid punch or two, but Clint let him go only once he had the phone out of his pocket, then deposited it in his own.

“I'm going to need that back.”

“I bet. We're going to have a talk, and a look, and then we'll see.”

Barney didn't say anything, but smirked a little to himself. They rode the rest of the way in silence, Clint appearing to rest on the back wall as Barney stood in the center. When the elevator doors opened, they were greeted by a small, red-headed woman dressed in a SHIELD uniform. “Mr. Barton, this way, please.” Barney smiled at her, unperturbed when she did not smile back. Clint shoved his shoulder none too gently, and they began to follow as the agent turned and started moving down the hallway at a brisk pace.

Great view he signed to Clint over his shoulder.

“She can kill you in thirty seconds,” Clint replied out loud.

“Thirty seconds? Am I taking my time?” The agent asked from over her shoulder.

“I like a strong woman,” Barney said, raking his gaze over her. The agent stopped in front of a door, knocking twice before pushing it inwards and standing with her arms crossed.

“Then I’m sure you’ll love the next few hours,” she said in a pleasant tone. Clint pushed Barney into the room, and Barney caught the way his jaw was clenched as he pulled the door shut and Barney heard a locking mechanism kick in. He listened briefly at the door, but either the room was soundproofed or the two weren’t talking. Barney found it interesting that there was no two way glass and no obvious cameras. He was surely still being monitored, though, so he simply walked around the table (welded to the floor) and settled himself in the chair (also welded to the floor) that faced the door. Barney had a lot of practice in waiting out interrogations - he closed his eyes and pretended to nap while he waited to see who would be first.

Natasha took one look at Clint outside the room and reached out to briefly touch his hand. “You won’t be going in there.”

Clint pulled back, crossing his arms in a defiant pose, and Natasha managed to not be either hurt or annoyed. “You don’t know what he’s like. I know he’s up to something. It’s why I activated the protocol. He’s scoping out the place. Asking for me? That’s arrogance. He’s planning something, Tasha, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

Natasha lifted a brow. “Take the phone to the techs. Look at what he has on there. Maria and I will handle his questioning personally. Once you can report back what you found, you can monitor to make sure he’s not tricking two of the best interrogators SHIELD has.”

Clint’s eyes showed that he was appropriately chastised, but he maintained his defiant posture as he stomped off. Natasha rolled her own, then strode down the hallway in the opposite direction to confer with Maria. It was decided that Natasha would go in first and Maria would follow, ideally with whatever information Clint was able to obtain. Jarvis provided video and audio on the display in the monitoring room, so Maria was able to watch the interaction while she also pulled the information available on Barney Barton. Natasha was entering the room, Barney lazily opening his eyes, as Maria realized that Barney’s file was restricted. “What the hell?” she muttered to herself. Maria pulled out her phone and dialed, watching the monitor as she tried to get someone from HQ to get more information.

“So, are you going to formally introduce yourself, sweetheart?”

Natasha tilted her head slightly, then smiled charmingly at him. “Agent Martin, Mr. Barton. You can call me Alex.”

Barney smiled back. “Well, Alex, you can call me Barney.”

Natasha tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, then leaned forward onto the table. “So, Barney, I see that good looks run in the family. I didn’t know Agent Barton had a brother until you showed up.”

“Pity. Clint was always a little jealous. We had some good times anyway, though.”

Natasha tucked a fist under her chin, making her eyes a little bigger and softer. “Really? Barton doesn’t talk a lot. Kind of keeps to himself. We’re partners, and I barely know the man. It’s nice to know that you can have looks and personality.” She blushed a little. “Sorry, forget I said that.”

“No worries,” he winked at her. “Clint’s always been...focused on the wrong things. He likes distance. Me? I like being up close.”

She smiled a little, looking down at the table before clearing her throat. “I think that’s why we got paired up. He keeps going through partners,” she whispered to him, “and they said they’d try an opposites attract thing. Last ditch effort, you know? He had to go cool off, otherwise I wouldn’t tell you this, but you’re his brother, maybe you can help him.”

Barney nodded. “I’d love to help him. It’s why I was looking for him. We haven’t talked in years, but I heard some stuff and I wanted to help my baby brother out, you know? Do you think you could convince him to talk to me?”

“Oh, I don’t know, he doesn’t listen to me very often.”

Barney grabbed her hand from under her chin and tugged it gently, so that their arms were stretched out across the table. “He seemed to respect you in the hallway,” he reminded her as he ran a thumb across the back. Just then, they heard the locking mechanism disengage, and Natasha jerked her hand back.

“Out,” Maria ground out.

Natasha was too professional to let her shock show, but she didn’t move and stayed in character. “Oh, Deputy Director. Barney - Mr. Barton - and I were just talking about why he’s here-”

Maria cut her off. “Out. Now.”

Natasha turned and glared at her, then turned back and smiled apologetically at Barney. Sorry she mouthed at him. He waved it off, mouthing back that it was okay. Natasha hurried out of the room, closing the door behind her.

When Maria heard the lock re-engage, she spoke. “Monitoring systems offline.”

A male voice responded, “Confirmed, Agent Hill.”

Maria turned back to the elder Barton, who had straightened in his chair. “You, Mr. Barton, are a pain in my ass. It’s refreshing to say that to a different member of your family. I have been instructed to let you go, but under no circumstances am I to explain why to either of my top two agents. In fact, I am to provide you any data that you need from the lobby, which may include doctoring materials, and then let you go.”

Barney bared his teeth, this time his eyes flat. “Nothing like a little inter-agency cooperation.”

“Your superior also advised that these materials do not need to allow for any compromising data on  Avengers Tower. Whatever group you are gathering this intel for is not suicidal, and has no desire to attack the Avengers in their home. Which, quite frankly, is all that we care about at this time.” Barney relaxed back. “However. You should know that if I ever see your face in here again, whether for personal or professional reasons, I will not hesitate to order a shoot on sight. I’m quite confident that your brother or his partner would be more than willing to ensure it is carried out personally.”

Barney waved this off. “You couldn’t possibly have me killed and get away with it.”

Maria stood. “Who said anything about shoot to kill?” and walked to the door. As the lock disengaged, she looked at him over her shoulder. “I’ll be back shortly. Monitoring systems, online.”

“Confirmed.” The door shut and the locks engaged, leaving Barney frowning at the table.

Natasha met her in the hallway, with an incredibly pissed off Clint. “What the fuck, Maria!?”

Maria rubbed her temples, trying to fight the headache that had begun when she learned another alphabet agency was intersecting with SHIELD ops. “Walk it off, Barton. We’re not getting anything out of him. Where’s the phone?” Clint didn’t respond, glaring at her. “Give me the phone. That’s an order.” Clint ripped the phone out of his pocket and slapped it into her outstretched hand. “Dismissed.”

Clint stomped off, giving her the finger mentally, she could tell. Natasha was still staring coolly at her. “What are you up to, Maria?”

“I said, dismissed.” Natasha eyes hardened, but she left without any further comments. Maria went back to the office to start uploading some additional information to the phone. At least she could let Barney Barton sit in a room for a while and think about how he would soon be not her problem.

Natasha caught up to Clint in the hall outside of the common room, where they could hear the rest of the Avengers arguing about what to have for dinner. She grabbed his arm to stop him, knowing it was a gamble to touch him right now. It worked, however - he halted, though didn’t look at her. She stepped forward, leaning her forehead against his back, slowly wrapping her arms around his waist. He slumped a little. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he muttered to her.

“Pizza?”

“Pizza would be great.”

“Gino’s?”

“Tony hates Gino’s.”

He felt her face move, telling him that she was smiling the smile that meant she was feeling tricky. “I know.” She laid a gentle kiss on his back, then disentangled her arms to go and negotiate Clint’s favorite pizza place while he took a moment, leaning against the wall and breathing deeply, fighting back tears he thought he had finished shedding long ago. He rubbed the scar on the left side of his chest, trying not to think about Barney getting away with whatever nefarious plans he had hatched. Though he did laugh at himself, using words like nefarious. The small smile was enough for him to push himself into the main room, and enter into the dinner fray.

He was watching from the window and eating a slice of his favorite pizza when he saw a lone man in a black suit leave the lobby. Even though they were dozens of floors up, and there was no way he could have known Clint was there, the man still looked up and did a two finger salute. Natasha was suddenly next to him, as if she knew. Clint registered that the new bickering in the background was about what movie to watch; Tony already decreeing what snacks would be available. Natasha leaned against him. “Who needs family when you have friends like ours?”

Clint pressed a kiss to her hair, though his eyes didn’t stray from Barney, as his brother strode confidently down the street. “Not us,” he said.