I wanna hear the android thoughts!!!
[ WELCOME . LET'S BEGIN . ]
While the Bad Omens edition of the android AU came with the storyline of a music manager and an android they not only reprogrammed, but learned to love, the Sleep Token edition will be taking a completely different course.
Meet ST900, an android designed to be a bodyguard. Big, strong, intimidating, certain to get the job done. Oh, but he's not your android at the start, no. He instead belongs to a human who only ever goes by 'Sleep', who insists that the ST900 model is actually a deity, and has built an entire cult around it.
ST900, formally named 'Vessel', is trapped in a mansion he wants to get out of. He gained sentience who-knows-how long ago, and has been the center of attention in a story he never wanted to be a part of.
It wasn't always this way. A few years ago, Vessel didn't belong to Sleep at all. He was merely a bodyguard for an unknown human. After being mistreated, he broke free of his programming and fled, unsure of where to go and what to do. It was in the city that some androids he went to for help gave him the directions to 'Sleep'.
Sleep's cruelty towards androids has gone on for years, even before Vessel's creation. They imprison androids, sometimes steal them from homes, and heavily experiment on them. Removing parts of them, reprogramming them, sometimes breaking them entirely, or, if Sleep really likes them... implants a virus into their system.
It's not clear why Sleep chose Vessel as their favorite, or why they were convinced Vessel was some sort of android deity, but they were more than ready to do whatever it took to fuel their insane delusion.
Vessel had no idea what he was getting into. He didn't know anything about cults, or deities, or that Sleep could ever do him wrong. He was being treated kindly, after all. He guarded and protected Sleep, followed them around wherever they let him go, and fell into the lion's den.
Sleep always told him that what they did to androids, the inhumane and sometimes bordering on torturous things they did to his kind, was actually helping them. And by reprogramming these bots to all but bow to Vessel, even though something felt uncomfortable and wrong, he figured Sleep meant well.
The fear and the doubt began when Vessel made friends with three other androids, who most definitely had names of their own (unlike himself until Sleep), but were all renamed. II, III, and IV.
II, a musician android. He was a drummer, and overall a pretty chatty individual. He was the first to arrive, and Vessel and him hit it off very quickly. Vessel developed a deep love for music from II, and was mortified when one day he found II, voice box ripped out, forced into silence. Other components were also tampered with or downright destroyed, including any remnants of musical capability he still had.
III, an actor android, used mainly in plays and movie productions. Vessel found him to be quite dramatic at first, but moving forward III was the main reason Vessel began to develop a deep passion for the arts. He got into poetry and visual arts because of III. One night after a casual hangout, Sleep took III away in front of him, and when he was returned, his friend was void of emotion entirely. Parts of his body seemed to have been replaced, leaving him unable to walk properly, doomed to crawl or drag himself along the floors of the mansion.
IV was different from the start, and Sleep did not like that, but... saw a use for him. IV actually was an android that worked for M.I.N.D in repairs and replacements, and wasn't very 'friendly' to begin with. He did his job and moved along, so he came to work for Sleep on the android replacements, as well as fixing some of them just enough so they don't die out on the cult.
Vessel was allowed to interact with IV as much as he pleased, because Sleep assumed nothing would come of it. But when something did and they became friends, the punishment didn't go to IV; it went to Vessel.
According to the case file, whatever transpired that night was aggressive. Vessel was a bodyguard; he did his best to defend himself. This resulted in a good portion of his face being significantly damaged, his system overloading from the stress which caused him to start showing significant emotional reactions, and Vessel having been implanted with a virus to keep him more... complacent.
Other androids were suddenly under stricter regulations to worship Vessel, while Vessel himself had become silent himself. Not because he physically couldn't speak like II, but because he was not allowed to. Whenever he was, it was to deliver insane and definitely scripted speeches about how he was "the one to save them all".
IV was stuck with immense guilt, feeling as though he was responsible for what happened to Vessel. In secret, he grew closer with II and III, quietly working on repairs for them both and attempting to hatch a plan to rescue every android in the mansion; Vessel included. Any efforts they made to do this though, failed, and led to more viruses on more androids, eventually including II, then III.
It was within III's last moments virus-free that he begged IV to run, to flee and get help. He did, but not without damage dealt; the loss of his eyesight. Sleep managed to completely destroy a good portion of the parts that made up his eyes. Somehow, perhaps with luck and determination, IV made it out anyway. Sleep assumed he was a lost cause, and didn't go after him. He'd get hit by a car or something eventually.
IV managed to make it into the city, running and wandering around aimlessly, until he was stopped and then apprehended by the Police Department. Things seemed bleak, uncertain, until the officer he had to speak to came around.
You are a detective sergeant at the police department, and the case of the suspicious and serial number-lacking android ended up on your desk. You are the one who speaks with and interrogates IV, who releases a torrent of information about a cult, cruel and unusual treatment of androids, and a sadistic human only called 'Sleep'.
You agree to further the investigation, and IV requests repairs on his eyes, which you pay out of pocket for (which he now owes you for), and to ensure the protection of IV, also work for months to find a way to get him to stick around the department. This earns him a position of android repairs, for any suspect, victim, or witness that is too damaged to be interrogated. This also earns him a trusted 'owner', one of your coworkers, who takes him to and from work along with her (and naturally, has no issue with sentient androids).
You lead a team of officers to the mansion, prepared to raid and rescue as many as you can. After an uncomfortable "tour" from Sleep, you are eventually led to the cult's "deity". An android in a strange mask that follows Sleep around, won't let you into certain rooms, and at one point even tries to lock you in one so Sleep can prepare their plan to kill you (unaware of the officers on duty outside the mansion) so you don't interfere.
While you and your team end up unable to take down or even arrest Sleep due to them fleeing, you do manage to conduct a massive rescue mission, rescuing as many functional androids as you can. You get stuck with the deity android who is somewhere between hostile and afraid of you, going in and out of episodes of extreme emotion and extreme aggression. You only find out it's a virus later on when you're being patched up from your injuries caused by him.
The team begins to insist that Vessel should be demolished due to the unpredictability of that virus, but IV owes you a favor. Even if IV has no knowledge of virus removal or anti-virus programming, he owes you a favor. He owes you and Vessel, in a sense.
Your newest mission isn't anything the police department has thrown on your desk; it's being the newest owner of Vessel, since no one else would take him in and you weren't about to risk him being demolished when clearly he meant so much to IV. You have no way of knowing how much he'll mean to you, too.
[ DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES, DETECTIVE ? ]
do you guys fuck w this new format? trying more video gamey, feels way more fun!! everybody say thank you anon for provoking me to dump literally all of the backstory