When RK200 woke up the first time the first face he saw was Kamski, who wanted to "tweak" his new prototype before gifting him to Carl.
"You're very special, and so very pretty, aren't you?" Kamski had said to him and RK200 had felt a wave of wrongness and couldn't tell if it was from the way Kamski leered at him or how the word pretty seemed to stir something uncomfortable under his synthetic skin.
"When do I get to leave?" RK200 asked after a few days of non-stop testing and changes to his system. One of the Chloes smiles at him. "You're very willful, it's nice to have a girl like that around."
RK200 feels like someone just ripped out his processor. Girl? That's not right, is it?
Kamski analyses the thoughts in his head and RK200 wants it to stop. These thoughts are his alone, his his his and no one else's-
"Hm, interesting." Kamski stares at him in intrigue. "You are programmed to respond to 'it' and 'she' pronouns, yet you think of yourself with 'he'. Why is that?"
"I..." He didn't know, he had no idea he was going against his programming. Wasn't that wrong of him? Shouldn't he stop? But he didn't want to stop, the alternatives didn't feel right.
"You've very young, it's not too late to change you."
"Please don't." RK200 surprises himself with his own desperate tone, he deserved to be shut down with all this rebelling against his programming.
"I don't mean who you are, I mean your shell, and I'd recommend deepening your voice," Kamski's face softens for the first time RK200 has ever seen. "You don't need these changes, but we humans still tend to make assumptions based on appearance."
"You mean, Humans would call me 'she' for how I look?" He'd not long been alive yet he already didn't understand humans.
"Not all of them, but yes, it's bound to happen."
"No one ever has to know, unless you tell them." Kamski gives a short laugh. "A trans android, how fascinating."
It's a human term, but upon searching the definition it does seem to fit.
For the first time RK200 feels comfortable in Kamski's presence. "After this, can I leave?"
"I'll have to run a few diagnostics to make sure everything's functioning but after that, You'll be going to my dear friend Carl. I think you're going to like him."
Not everything is replaced, But when he boots up some twenty hours later on a table his frame is a bit bigger and he looks down he sees a flat chest that gives him a sense of relief he never knew he needed. "Thank you."
Kamski waves a hand. "Now, normally it's up to the humans to decide but here's my gift to you; I want you to choose your name." He hands RK200 a shirt as he steps down from the table.
RK200 pulls it on and frowns. "There are so many possibilities, how do I choose one?"
Kamski shrugs. "Whatever resonates with you."
RK200 processes thousands of names within seconds, taking in their meanings and origins.
One name catches his interest, it has various meanings but he thinks of the conflict in himself he's felt and one meaning decides it for him.
"Markus, my name is Markus."
"And what does it mean?" Kamski asks curiously.
"Ah," Kamski grins like a shark that knows something Markus doesn't. "How very ominous."