[voice test] 2B from Nier: Automata

[endlesscycle]

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Note: For any castmates you can assume the canon setting. I'm playing her from mid-way through the A/B ending before she and 9S head to the flooded city. Though if you have a different idea, go for it!

Non-castmates can do whatever they want with the setting. Maybe they're in a generic DW jamjar setting or maybe they're in an actual one. Maybe one of them has ended up in the wrong world or we're AUing it. Sky's the limit there.

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[crueloath]

[ 9S looks down at the photograph he’s brought up in front of him. Old, faded. Corroded, probably, by sun and dirt and time. But even now, he can still pick out the tones of green from the sepia, see the handful of waterfalls in the background. There’s part of him that wonders what about these moments makes the photographs so important to the girl back at the resistance camp. Not that she could tell them herself—that’s what he and 2B are here for, to help her remember—but still, he wonders. But they must really be as important as she felt they were, for her to have hung on to them after her memories were damaged. The location he sees in the photograph has to be around here somewhere, within the Forest Kingdom. Somewhere nearby, he thinks. The picture resonates with his own memory, like he had passed it by when he and 2B had first come here.

He just needs to remember where…

He walks through another thicket of bushes, glancing up. He stops then, suddenly, squinting upwards from behind his visor. Are those...

He dashes forward, dismissing the photograph, trying to clear the canopy of obscuring treeline so he can see the sky little better. He almost laughs, once he clears them. He was right. The sky did look darker. He hadn’t noticed it before—there’s still sunlight—but… the sky’s darker than he thinks he’s ever seen it. He wants to get somewhere higher. See if he can make out the stars better. Tiny little pinpricks of light fading in against the blue. ]

Hey, 2B! [ He shouts behind him, pointing a hand skyward. To think that humans used to see this sort of thing happen all the time, but on a much grander scale. Now instead of looking up at the moon, they get to walk on it. ] Take a look at that. I’ve heard of something like this happening once in awhile, but I’ve never seen it happen before.

[endlesscycle]

[Honestly she finds these little errands they've been running lately to be a bit of a nuisance. Yet she's finding it even more so to try and say no. Between the way 9S enthusiastically engages in conversation and the passive aggressive way the requests are brought up it feels like more trouble to say no than to just do it. At least there are useful rewards to be had but... to be honest those aren't the real reasons she agrees when asked. Not really.

2B trails after 9S as he scouts out the photograph location. She doesn't really get it but she won't deny that android a chance to get her memories back.

Then abruptly 9S is darting off and 2B nearly starts in alarm. There's a brief moment where something twists in the pit of her stomach. For him to just suddenly start to run off.... By the time she starts after him he's already shouting for her attention.]

What are you... [she starts once she's close enough but trails off when she follows his gaze. The sky looks strange and she feels instantly uneasy by it. Why does it look like that all of a sudden? Is something going to happen?

She steps up next to him, gaze still transfixed.] And what exactly is happening? What is that?

[crueloath]

“What is that?” [ So she’s never seen it happen either, huh? ] They’re stars, 2B. We just can’t usually see them from here, since the earth doesn’t rotate on its axis like it used to anymore, so all we see on this side is daylight. But a long time ago, when humans were still living here, the earth used to rotate in 24-hour cycles, switching between night and day.

[ He keeps his eyes fixed on the deeper blue of sky, pod floating behind him. ]

The moon still orbits around the earth though, like it always did; that didn’t change, even though the earth became tidally locked. So what we’re seeing now is the start, I think, of what’s called a “solar eclipse.” It’s when the moon passes temporarily in between the sun and earth and blocks out the sun. [ He looks over in the direction of the sun, blinking. It’s still there, but…. fainter, somehow. ] It doesn’t happen very often, but that’s why the sky’s darkening like this. Not as much light coming our way, you know? Makes it easier to see the stars. It’s not “night,” exactly, but it’ll be close. For a little while, anyway. Especially when the sun’s fully covered.

[ He looks over her way, watching her for another second or two. Smiles. ] That, or the world’s ending. One of the two.

[ Though he’s personally going with Occam’s razor on this one. ]

Either way, [ he says, moving a few paces away from her, trying to mentally map a path up one of the rocky cliff faces to get somewhere higher with less trees, before turning back to look over his shoulder. ] it’s not going to last very long, so I’m going to go somewhere higher to watch it. Want to come with?

[endlesscycle]

Stars... [she echoes and for a moment her tone is uncharacteristically full of wonder.

Of course. She had seen them before. She could recognize them from the glass windows of the Bunker. As she takes a few slow steps forward and continues to stare she notes the resemblance now. They were so much brighter in space and yet they looked more beautiful hanging in darkening sky.

She listens to his long winded explanation. It makes some sense, she supposes. She isn't surprised 9S knows all about a phenomenon she had never heard of before.

She's shaken out of her thoughts when 9S begins to move away and she stops, watching him carefully. She frowns disapprovingly.] We shouldn't stray from our current mission, 9S.

[Yet... admittedly yes, she does want to go. She wants to see this so called solar eclipse. But...]

[crueloath]

[ 9S knows that frown well. He’s sure he’s seen it more times than he can remember. Meanwhile, he thinks he can count the number of times he’s seen her smile on one hand. She's a bit too good at being serious. ]

We’re not straying. We’re just… taking a detour, that’s all. [ It’s not like he intends to leave the area. If he tried that, he’s sure her pod would happily accuse him of desertion. ] Maybe not even that. It’ll be easier to survey the area from somewhere higher anyway.

[ He moves a little further, jumping onto the edge of one of the foliage-covered outcrops, wishing he had been built with a couple more inches in height to his name. Finding his footing secure, he turns around, offering her his hand. Not that she needs it. ]

Ten minutes. You can keep count.

[endlesscycle]

[She takes a few steps forward and stops just short of the ledge. She's staring at him, expression as unreadable as always. Maybe she'd been with him too long because she finds herself intensely curious. What would such a thing look like? Would it be different on Earth? The stars already looked so different from here...

2B sighs but it's one of resignation rather than irritation. She might've known there would be no convincing him otherwise. In all fairness she hadn't tried very hard.]

Ten minutes. [she echoes in agreement. She doesn't need it but she takes his hand anyway although she doesn't really use his help to boost herself up. She hops onto a small ledge jutting out just next to him since where he's standing doesn't have enough room for them both.]

I'll follow you. You seem to have an eye for where the best location is to see this thing.

[crueloath]

[ He nods. ]

All right. [ He grins. He navigates to another edge just above her, following the route his eyes had charted moments before. Ten minutes. Now that he can work with. The sky has all ready grown another few shades darker.

He scales the rocky outcrop as well as he can, finding it hard to take his eyes off the sky—part of his model’s inborn curiosity perhaps, sparking like a hungry flame—a sudden, almost manufactured eagerness fueling his footsteps as he scrambles higher, marking the path for 2B to follow. It’s a feeling he doesn’t think he could suppress if he tried. Emotions may be prohibited, but at times like this, he'd find it a shame, not to feel. ] I think we just need to clear the trees, get out from under the canopies.

[ Anywhere that fit those specifications would probably do.

He reaches the top, eyes darting around the circumference of the area, before mentally choosing a path that cuts through some bushes, spotting an wide, open area twenty feet ahead of him that isn’t obscured by shadow that seems to be facing the direction of the sun. It’s tempting, to just run ahead without stopping. Run as fast as his legs can take him so he doesn’t miss a single second that he doesn’t have, satiate the itch in his limbs, but he’ll wait for the seconds it takes for 2B to reach the top, before finally sprinting ahead. He doesn’t stop until he reaches the area his eyes had marked, finding himself at the edge of another cliff face overlooking a far more open area of the Forest Kingdom with a pond lying just below, leaving the view of the sky and parallel horizon mostly untarnished by obscuring greenery.

He squints a little, against the light, a little bright still, even through his visor, though the sun’s ultraviolet rays pose no danger to an android’s less-than-organic biology. The light is almost polarized now, sky quickly darkening, shade by shade, closer to the color of the deep sea than the usual afternoon sky.

It still takes a moment, but the light is fast receding, and soon he can make out the first black traces of the moon choking off the sun. ]

There. [ He says, once she’s in hearing range, pointing again. ] See? That’s the moon moving in.

[endlesscycle]

[She follows him with ease. After all the times then and now that she's had to... she could never lose sight of him. But she tries not to think about it--she always tries--and focuses on the surroundings. The more 9S's eagerness takes over the further from familiar territory he starts to lead them. She notices quickly but says nothing and charts a mental note of their path so they can find their way back safely.

However when they reach the top the area immediately becomes familiar again. Ah. A familiar place just a different path to get there. She saunters after him as he pulls ahead but never takes her eyes off him. At least at first but then she happens to glance heavenward.

She stops dead beside him and suddenly finds herself transfixed. She truly hadn't ever seen anything like it. The color is all wrong and the darkness that's starting to settle almost makes her apprehensive. It feels... unnatural to her yet according to 9S it was completely normal. Yet despite the initial negative feelings there's one that shines through the strongest; one that almost feels unexpected. She speaks it before she can stop herself.]

It's beautiful. [She pauses. As if realizing what she just said she glances down at the ground and shifts her feet slightly,] That is... I've never seen anything like it before. The colors and the way the sun has started to just disappear like that... It should be alarming but... [She sounds embarrassed. It should be but it isn't. Instead she just finds it breathtaking.]