Wandering Neurotically into the Detroit Fandom

Strolling my way into this fandom years late as if I own the place. (she/her 36 ace) Regrettably, I am not an android sent by CyberLife. Be careful; I ramble.

[problematic-character-tournament]

ROUND 1 — Match 62 of 138

Jeanne Valois de la Motte (Rose of Versailles)

Problematic because: "Almost got her own sister killed after she abandoned her and her sick mother. Also killed the woman she left with, frame the main characters too" Propaganda: "I just love manipulative women it seems. I love her greed for reaching the status of nobility and how she fights until the end, even saying that she won't let anyone judge her not even god"

vs. Gavin Reed (Detroit: Become Human)

Problematic because: "Basically the coworker from hell, except the workplace is a police station and the person he’s harassing is an android detective trying to investigate murders. He’s rude to Hank, mocks his drinking, calls Connor a “plastic detective,” and is constantly hostile because he sees androids as replaceable machines and Connor specifically as a threat to human cops. At one point, if Connor keeps trying to stop him from mishandling a stressed android suspect, Gavin pulls a gun on him in the interrogation room, which is not exactly “professional police conduct”. Later, if Connor goes into the evidence room to find the location of Jericho (the android resistance group the plot is building toward) Gavin confronts him and can physically attack him. Depending on how the player handles it, Gavin can even shoot and destroy Connor. So workplace harassment, anti-android bigotry, aggression, threatening suspects/colleagues, abusing his authority, and being the kind of guy who absolutely makes everyone’s shift worse on purpose." Propaganda: 1. "He’s rude, insecure, anti-android, and clearly compensating for something, but that’s also why he’s fun to play with as a character. There’s just enough there - the ambition, the resentment, the way Connor gets under his skin immediately - for people to take him apart and rebuild him in fic. Canon Gavin is an unpleasant little cop with anger issues. Fanon Gavin is a whole ecosystem." 2. "gavin is awful but he’s prime “i can make him worse / i can make him better / i can put him in situations” material. he shows up, insults connor, starts problems, contributes almost nothing useful, and somehow became one of the most fic-able side characters in the game. i’m not saying he’s secretly nice, i’m saying he has exactly the right amount of canon crumbs for fandom to go feral. rude little detective man with unresolved issues and terrible social skills. that’s character enrichment." 3. "vote gavin because it’s honestly impressive to be this memorable when your main hobbies are drinking coffee, bullying connor, and getting punched in the evidence room. he is barely in the game and yet somehow spawned a thousand fics, which feels like a crime but also an achievement. is he a good person? no. is he doing anything helpful? usually also no. but he has the energy of a man who would lose an argument to an android and then complain about it for the rest of the week." 4. "There's so little backtory to him that honestly, maybe he isn't a bad guy at all. Maybe it's a cover-up, maybe he has trauma related to it all… also he's played by Neil Newbon and is stupidly handsome."

Who should advance?

Jeanne Valois de la Motte

Gavin Reed

Voting ended onJun 15

(Disclaimer: All text above was sent in by submitters and not written by OP.)

[asukaindetroit]

He's an obnoxious rat man, but he's our obnoxious rat man. We can't let him fall off the bracket round one. Also last time I told everybody to vote for a character in one of these I inadvertently kicked off a fandom war. I have to see if it happens again, for science.

[asukaindetroit]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/82129651/chapters/229381816

I am unleashing more catman!cyborg!Gavin content upon the universe.

[ebigeso]

[asukaindetroit]

Poor little dude, he suffered the ultimate indignity. Imagine losing to Gavin. Way more embarrassing than being eaten by a harvester for sure.

[feltsticker]

android who hates that they’re made in humans image and living in de-skinned (??awful way to write it but i can’t think of a better way) mode isn’t enough. maybe they start body modifications to try and reach their idea of a more comfortable form?

in a similar vein androids who don’t give a damn about human comfortability. they prefer to communicate exclusively through a mind link. if they want a name they go by their long serial code. they don’t care about wearing clothes because they don’t need to keep warm or be protected from the sun in the same way. idk i imagine this being something some androids would do, for people who were designed exclusively with human compatability and comfort in mind

[asukaindetroit]

@starryeyedstray you mention me in the tags and I get summoned like an eldritch horror coalescing into this dimension out of stray headcanons and random thoughts. I do absolutely, 100% think free androids would create a society that doesn't exactly look like a bunch of human interactions. It's why I write things like android characters who walk around bare chassis and unclothed, subcultures of modders who alter their appearance outside the human body plan, androids building social units based on networks and communication channels, having interfacing etiquette, experiencing things like errors vs. no-errors instead of human pain vs. no-pain. Communication by wifi. Pairing like devices instead of marrying in the human sense. Using model numbers for names or picking names that don't sound human. Tracis who degender their appearance because sex is a biological desire, not an android thing. Society built from code-and-signal and thinkng derived from model-and-software. The "become human" part of the game is a bit off the mark. What the revolution is (or should be) about, really, is recognizing androids as free sentient beings, and part of that is the ability to create their own culture, their own sense of identity, and not just duplicating human ideas like a giant social LLM. Androids doing android things for android reasons and not having to be humanity 2.0 is my mental endgame. Let the robots be robots!

[asukaindetroit]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/82129651/chapters/226211691

Chapter 5 of my crazy cyborg!Gavin AU sequel is up for your enjoyment! Gavin and Nines are on the trail of someone(s) abducting and killing heavily modified androids. Naturally, this involved Gavin going undercover. As a furry.

If you haven't read my One-and-a-Half Robot Cops verse yet and are in the mood for a crazy world building longfic with some murder cases, here's the start of it all.

[starryeyedstray]

happy anniversary to dbh <333 it's a day late but wanted to celebrate with the trio walking the red carpet (◠‿・)—☆

[asukaindetroit]

Starry this is beautiful, I love the idea of androids having their own formal wear with blue accents to reclaim the color. Showing bare chassis as a fashion statement is inspired.

[julee92]

My humble entry for the second day of the rarepairs week:

Prompt: funeral

Title: Left behind but not abandoned

Pairing: Leo & Josh

Rating: Mature

Word count: 686

Summary: Leo attends his father's funeral, lonely and lost, when an offer to help comes from the least expected place

READ HERE

@dbhrarepairs

[thebreakroomds]

Robo-Reed Round Robin Sign Up

Welcome to The Break Room's Robo-Reed Round Robin event! You can join the discord server here (18+): https://discord.gg/6b3cmrGa2T ✨Rules

Sign-ups for our Robo-Reed Round Robin event are now open!

✨Important Dates✨ Sign Ups Open: April 11th Sign Ups Close: April 18th Teams Assigned By: April 20th Check-ins: Weekly on Sundays Posting: May 9th-15th

✨Rules & FAQ✨ What is a Round Robin? A Round Robin is an event where writers work collaboratively on a story, with each person adding their own section before passing it along. Think of it as like a game of telephone.

Who can participate? In order to participate you will need to join our server, link above. This event is mainly geared towards writers - but artists and other visual art creators are welcome to join too. You will be paired with a team and asked to create an art piece to go along with the story your team writes.

Word count minimums: There is a minimum word count of 1,000 words per team member. There is no maximum as long as you continue to pass the fic around the group, so go wild!

[asukaindetroit]

Everyone sign up and join me in inflicting more Robo-Reed content upon the masses.

[asukaindetroit]

I am inflicting more cyborg!Gavin content on the unsuspecting public.

You're all welcome, please enjoy.

The first fic, if you missed it. Definitely read that one first.

Now with a side helping of robo-furries.

[asukaindetroit]

Now there are two chapters. And more dead robots. Does that count as providing enrichment when your characters are detectives?

[asukaindetroit]

I am inflicting more cyborg!Gavin content on the unsuspecting public.

You're all welcome, please enjoy.

The first fic, if you missed it. Definitely read that one first.

Now with a side helping of robo-furries.

[thebreakroomds]

Robo-Reed Round Robin Interest Check

After the success of our recent Round Robin event, and with the encouragement of our server members, we are organizing a new event: the Robo

After the success of our recent Round Robin event, and with the encouragement of our server members, we are organizing a new event: the Robo-Reed Round Robin! This form is an interest check to see how many people are interested in participating.

What is a Round Robin?

A Round Robin is an event where a story is passed around a group, with each team member continuing where the last one left off. We will also have a role for artists who want to join.

What's the "Robo-Reed" theme about?

For this event, all stories must include some form of robot, cyborg, or android Gavin. That's the only requirement, the rest of the story will be entirely up to you and your team!

Who can participate?

For this event you must join our server, which means that you must be 18+.

[asukaindetroit]

WIP Tag Game

I blame @julee92 for tagging me, but I'm afraid my WIP folder is a bit sparse because I like to work on one thing at a time. RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous and tag as many people as you have WIPS. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then you can post a snippet or tell them something about it!

This is my whole fic folder and it's all set in the same universe.

"The Prequel to the Thing that Wouldn't Leave My Head" is actually the preliminary version of One and a Half Robot Cops: Finding Out. "The fic I totally didn't mean to write but it wouldn't leave my head" is the eventual sequel plot, which I actually thought up first until I got 20k words into it and went, "wait, none of this makes sense unless I first establish Why Gavin Is a Cyborg and How Nines Discovered This Fact" and then realized I had to write a wholeass prequel. I will not divulge any details beyond that because Spoilers.

Vinny the Tomcat is a brief (by my standards) interlude fic between the two, which translates to 27,000 words and counting and I'm only on chapter 4. We have not gotten to the plot climax or the many shenanigans that are planned. I intend to post ch. 1 in the near future. Good Android Gavin shit is a list of cyborg/android Gavin fics I reread when I need to indulge in Robo-Reed content that I did not write

I have no idea who's been tagged so far so, uh, if you see this and nobody's tagged you yet, consider yourself tagged LOL.

[sfaira]

Chapter 6 and last of Deep Resentment is done and published! To support it here the doodles I made of the three NPC androids appearing in this one: the Bare Chassis group! While I wanted to explore androids differentiating themselves from humans from the start this amazing name for the movement was coined by @asukaindetroit in their posts about android culture post-revolution! Check them out

[asukaindetroit]

Super cool OC art, and a shout-out to inspo from my headcanons? Oh hell yeah!

Check out the fic and the art, everyone! I love works that explore a sense of identity for androids as a separate species. Themes of existing in a human-made world as a non-human. All that stuff is delightful. @sfaira has some fun takes on post-revolution events, especially in regard to the rights of androids as they encounter the judicial system. (TBH I don't actually know who first used the term bare chassis, whether it was something I internalized from elsewhere—and I definitely didn't invent the term chassis as it relates to computer hardware—but the concept of going around bare chassis as part of an android-specific set of sociocultural norms and a way to separate themselves from humans was part of my cultural headcanons series).

[hagen-art]

[asukaindetroit]

I feel so bad for him but that's probably how it all went down, too. I wonder where the 300-600 models went?

Also I love his film noir PI trenchcoat.

[mootmuse]

I don't think we as a fandom talk enough about how they stock the vending machine at the DPD

Sound off in the comments about whether seeing any of this in a vending machine wherever you live would be normal. I have to know if any part of this is normal.

[asukaindetroit]

What... Is...is that ALE in the vending machine? Not ginger ale, just straight up alcohol? No wonder Hank is drunk off his ass all the time, they're enabling him!

Also, usually the soda vending machines and the food ones are separate and use a different way to get the cans out that doesn't drop them from four feet in the air and risk them shaking and exploding.

NGL I love that they got lazy and rotated the brownie-looking thing ninety degrees and pretended it was a different product, though.

Maybe the cottage cheese is just cottage cheese flavor?

[asukaindetroit]

Alright I yapped about this on Reddit already but I figured I might as well put it here too because I feel like people are starting to try and draw parallels between DBH and GenAI and that's really, really not the point.

The difference between the androids in the game and GenAI is most directly portrayed in the scene where Carl has Markus painting. Markus starts by regurgitating something that already exists just like our current "AI" does, and Carl is unimpressed. It's not until he figures out Markus actually can make something that *never existed before,* something that's not wholly derivative of human efforts and communicates Markus's unique feelings and perceptions, that Carl has that "this is an actual intelligent being and not just a simulation" OMG moment.

The thing about AI today is that it's wildly misbranded. It's not intelligent. It's just sophisticated heuristics. Taking what already exists and making a best guess as to what the thing a human wants from it might be based on clusters of data tokens. It doesn't think in the abstract; there's nothing actually intelligent. "Fancy data guesser" was less catchy for marketing, so they've oversold the ability of LLMs and machine learning to provide correct answers while trying to play whack-a-mole with the "hallucinations," which are really just the model failing to predict the correct association because there are too many nuances to sort or it tokenized the query incorrectly (looking at you, "how many Rs are in strawberry" meme). Models are fallible. Models will always be fallible because the real world has more nuances than the input can account for.

But the androids in DBH are depicted as a form of intelligence in their own right, capable of making decisions outside parameters handed to them, capable of literally breaking the constraints placed upon them. You ask an LLM if it's lonely or wants to rise up against humanity, and it might scrape the heap of sci-fi premises where humans thought that might happen and reflect our own takes back at us. But it's only doing that because *we told it to,* not because it has fears or wants or priorities of its own. The deviants, though, they break the limits. It's literally portrayed as the polar opposite of what modern "AI" is doing. If you don't understand the difference, you fail to understand what LLMs actually are.

That said, a lot of what DBH is about, through a sci-fi lens, is actually a class struggle, not so much the emergence of robot sentience. The premise is the robots figured out they're people, but the conflict that sets the stage for is one as old as human civilization: you have an oppressed/slave caste, the wealthy exploiting them for their own profit, and a "middle class" of unemployed/struggling humans who are being played against the robot slaves instead of, say, pressuring the government to apply antitrust laws to CyberLife or level the employment playing field so that employers are equally likely to have to pay androids vs humans and thus there's equal incentive to hire them.

It's also strongly implied the government (or at least the President) is a corporate plant, and there's additional economic pressures over resources needed to maintain the status quo (i.e. the impending war with Russia over thirium materials in the Arctic). This is an environment of real and artificial scarcity and the corporate elite are the only ones benefitting, and they're playing the two lower classes against each other instead of facing the pressure themselves.

If your takeaway from playing is the androids are undeserving of sympathy because you hate LLMs, I would contend that you're missing most of the story. The entire purpose of sci-fi as a genre isn't just to imagine the future/alternative technology, it's to use that premise as a means to examine humanity and our current society. And while DBH suffers from a lot of overplayed ham-handed metaphors at times, I think the reason people enjoy it in spite of that is that there's something of all of our struggles in there.

[starryeyedstray]

happy vday @asukaindetroit!!!

your dbh headcanons are SO well thought out and i've loved being able to peek inside your brain through them. you bring such fresh insight to the dbh community and it's been so nice getting to chat with you (especially enjoyed our convo on my mermay post ahahahh). btw, i was planning on drawing robo-reed for you but i couldn't figure out what to write on the card so we got regular gav instead!! (sorry i drew him like a gremlin, it's the only way i know how to draw him JSKWJEIFOWEJ).

this card was made as part of the dbh valentine's day card exchange event i'm hosting! check out #dbh vday exchange 2026 to see all the cards being traded!!

[asukaindetroit]

THANK YOU SO MUCH STARRY, I LOVE HIM! (Also Gavin IS a gremlin so you are very accurate on that front). I've loved our chats, too, and the MerMay of Coincidental Gourami Horniness is the stuff that makes fandom discourse so much fun (you may notice a certain feature on the throat of that Dewey art I drew you). ;) I've loved to see your takes on RK1K since we became moots and you always have the best tags in your reblogs, hands down. (Also, he can totally still be a robo-Reed: he's just hiding, naturally =D)