(no subject)

[apatheia]

Who: 2B and YOU!!
Where: All over Shehui!
When: Days 162 - 167
Open/Closed: AS OPEN AS POSSIBLE, there's a good number of prompts under here. If you'd like to discuss a personalized prompt feel free to shoot me a PM or message me at ghostory!

a. she has never seen snow in her life

[While 2B is aware that the sudden winter is artificially generated, it's still something of a marvel to her. Actually experiencing winter. Coming from a world where the planet was tidal-locked, she's never experienced anything aside from a daytime temperate climate. Aimintas had shown her rain and night, and the Hub island showed her a tropical summer and storm. For Shehui, the weather wonder is snow.

And it really is a wonder to her, even if the cold of winter doesn't really affect her much. Having seen a good number of people bundling up in layers and layers of clothing, she appreciates being an android here if only to be spared the inconvenience.

There are a few days where she can be found outside just. Sitting on a bench, looking up at the sky (despite her goggles making it look like she's blindfolded) to watch the snow drift down. For something so simple, you'd think she'd get bored of it, but no, she watches it with the same sort of quiet awe every time. On another day though, her quiet time watching is a bit interrupted as there are a few kids playing in the park in front of her. Throwing snowballs, making snowmen, the works. If you happen to be nearby when they're making snow angels though, she'll turn from her seat to ask you:]

Do you know what they're doing? [She's seen snowballs and snowmen by now, but this is new to her.]

b. happy holidays, you get 2Booty

[It's a good thing the holiday mascot job doesn't really require speaking (or if it does, 2B's employees have frankly given up on getting her to recite the script with any cheer). She doesn't mind being stuck inside a giant reindeer suit, but she doesn't really understand how something like this is supposed to help encourage holiday spirit. Or entice people into buying a store's wares. Even if her employers told her the first part was the most important part, she has a feeling they'd be happier if she was telling people who passed by about their "great deals." That wasn't part of the job description on the board though, so.

Here she is, standing around somewhat stiffly and awkwardly outside a store in a giant reindeer costume. She waves back to kids who wave at her at least, but it's pretty clear from posture alone how confused she is by the job. If you're staring at her in amusement or confusion, well. She'll give a wave back at least.

Although that's not even close to how confused she is once the job's done. Given the suit, she figured coming dressed in her standard uniform would be more of a hassle than not, so she's dressed in only the baby blue t-shirt she got from 9S and her really high-cut leotard. It seemed like the most convenient way of dressing when she knew she'd be stuck in a giant animal suit for hours. Of course, the minute she steps out of the store's dressing room, her employers look. A little shocked. When she gets out of the store, it seems like there isn't a person who passes by that doesn't gawk or slow down to look at her.

And she. Really doesn't get it.]

Maybe it's because I'm not dressed for the weather...?

c. four months in and she's still trying to figure out "fun"

[Because if it doesn't involve fishing, she's frankly at a loss.

Honestly, there's a big part of her that thinks her time would be spent better and more productively at the dozens of jobs she's picked up. On the other hand, she thinks it's become somewhat necessary to expand her ideas and opinions on what counts as fun, if only for when people want to hang out with her. That in itself is still somewhat bizarre to her, but she thinks she should be able to offer more than just taking walks and fishing.

So here she is at the casino/arcade combo, looking somewhat bewildered as she takes in all the games and sights. There's a lot to pick from, which is probably a good thing since that means there's options, but. She doesn't even know where to begin with this.]

Excuse me. [Hope you're ready to spend some time answering questions from an android...] Which of these games would you say is the most fun?

d. WILDCARD ME

[As mentioned above, feel free to message me if you wanna do something else! Or hit me with a prompt of your own, I'm down!!]

Comments

a.

[deusex]

[ His first encounter with snow was on the train to Edmonton.

Mikazuki remembers the frost in the air freezing skin and sticking flecks of snow to lashes, their clothes and boots sodden with it requiring some hasty purchase of costs and assortments but not enough to quench the fire burning inside all of them, the desire for revenge, something of a sort of retribution that needed to be dealt out to anyone who'd be stupid enough to get in their way from that point onwards. He mostly remembers the way the snow flurried over the view from the cockpit, seeing through Barbatos' eyes. He remembers the blood on snow barely noticed in the fight. He remembers that they couldn't stop then, ever, no matter what.

There's no other option but to stop here, and Mikazuki feels curiously restless, some kind of cabin fever derived of inaction driving him back out from the warmth of the apartment into the snow. The dirty sludge of the sidewalk doesn't bother him inasmuch as the pristine white artificial snow gathered among the treetops and the parks, soft and cold and foreign. He's never bothered to reach out and touch it, back then.

He is wondering if he should go find one of those street vendors selling roasted sweet potatoes when someone addresses him, and Mikazuki looks at her before his gaze slides past her to the kids on their backs on the ground. ]

I think they're playing.

[ though how that's any fun, he doesn't really know. ]

[apatheia]

[There's a soft hum as she considers that. What else could it be but playing, right? Still, it strikes her as a little odd.]

Won't they get too cold to play like that? [The snowballs and snowmen she can understand to an extent. They're not literally rolling around in snow, for one. In comparison, his seems like it could quickly become uncomfortable]

b

[talim]

[ jude just happens to be walking by! because of course he is. the first thing he sees is 2b's face, naturally, so he raises a hand to wave at her, his usual bright smile curving his lips. ]

2B! It's good to see you outside our—

[ ah. ]

—room...

[ so 9s isn't the only one who decided to change it up a little. jude's face is scarlet as trails off and averts his gaze, like he shouldn't be looking at her at all. not even milla wore clothes that revealing, and ivar picked out her clothes for her. ]

[apatheia]

Hello, Jude.

[Naturally, 2B only responds as calmly and collected as ever. She'd say something about how it's pretty easy to find her outside of their room if he wanted, but given how red his face is turning, she figures there's something else she should address here.]

Are you alright? You look pretty red. [He's not sick, is he.... HAS JUDE BEEN TAKING CARE OF HIMSELF..... (Give her a moment to figure out she's literally the one causing his problem, okay.)]

[talim]

I'm fine. Great. I'm great.

[ he has to assure himself that he's overreacting... ]

But aren't you, uh.

Cold?

[apatheia]

[If he says so...... And yet she can't help but feel unsure still. Hmm.]

Not in particular. Temperatures like these don't affect me much. [When you're built to withstand the vacuum of space without a complaint, snow isn't all that cold.]

a.

[rootandbranch]

I think they're just playing.

[Geir's curled up companionably close to the bench, watching the snow and the children playing too -- though perhaps for different reasons. he's certainly seen both before despite his own narrow childhood, though the exact nature of this particular game is a mystery to him. there's no tradition of winged humans in his pantheon... but rolling around and flailing your arms in the snow feels eminently understandable to him, somehow, even if he isn't sure of the exact point. That's How You Do It.]

I guess they think the shapes in the snow are nice...

[apatheia]

It's an interesting way of playing...

[Granted, she knows that pretty much every way of playing is interesting to her. Building people out of snow? Having mock fights for the fun of it and without any real pressing threat? WEIRD TBH. Lying around in the snow like this is just another tick on her list of "never before seen things people spend their free time on."]

I wonder what the shapes are supposed to be.

[rootandbranch]

Hmmm... don't the triangle shapes that their arms and legs make look a little like fins to you?

[in the absence of any angelic imagery in his pantheon, Geir's mind goes to a more familiar place.]

Maybe they're supposed to be snowfish! Swimming and jumping through all this powder!

[apatheia]

Snowfish...

[She tilts her head slightly, trying to imagine the shape as fins and fish... And there's something very whimsical about the idea. 2B's never seen fish in snow since she's never experienced cold weather like this till now, but if fish could survive and adapt to living in oil back home, surely there could be snowfish that looked like this?]

That would make sense. It'd be impressive if they could swim quickly even in this weather.

c.

[oneandmikleonly]

[honestly, it's also his first time in here; he tends to go for the cultural things in Anmung Tower way more. still, it's hard not to want to peek in this building at least once; all the flashing lights and technological blips of the machines are certainly a sight.]

Actually, I haven't tried any out yet -- I think some of them can use two players, though? If you want to test them together.

[apatheia]

Sure, I don't see why not. [It might even be best to look into those when she's here for the purpose of finding something fun to do with the people she knows.] Was there anything in particular you wanted to try first?

[oneandmikleonly]

The fighting games look rather interesting...I've been keeping an eye on it, and there's quite a range of characters and fighting styles in there? Though I haven't tried it to see what the controls are like yet.

a.

[reckoner]

[ They've been here almost a month. For three of those weeks, whether by gift or charge, snow has coated the ground and fallen in idle spirals from the sky. He should be accustomed to it, this many days in. Mostly, he is. Mostly, he doesn't think of spraying up blinding white to escape with the woman dying in his arms. Mostly, he doesn't think of tumbling through it with a boy only a little older, shrieking with laughter. The routine of steady work shifts helps to distract him from memories, after all, as does the puzzle Genette sets them on officially.

But, he cannot and has not totally escaped memory. Whether because of a rendezvous with that man, or because of a particular pitch in a child's delighted cry, he's pulled back.

Now is one such time, though he's better able at shaking it off, having purpose in cutting through the park. A shortcut back to "his" apartment after a shift at Anmung Tower. His steps slow as he looks over the children, eyes lingering, and it's enough to make him proximate and almost stationary for the question.

Still, he's startled. Though this is the girl, or perhaps android, who'd never seen a movie, his ability to appreciate cultural discrepancies and the lack of what had seemed shared, commonplace experience, remains limited, slow to grow.

Gaelio blinks, and can't help but say it as though it's obvious. ]

They're making snow angels.

[apatheia]

Snow angels.

[She repeats it back more for herself than anything. Snow is something she now knows plenty about after being here, or at least she feels like she does. Angels, on the other hand, are at best a concept to her. A vague idea and sense of something religious thanks to the sparse and painfully incomplete data they had on such things about humanity. With so little information, she can't imagine how "snow" and "angels" could have anything to do with each other.

At least with snowmen, they were vaguely humanoid-shaped. Sort of.]

Is that what angels look like?

[reckoner]

Maybe.

[ By P.D. 325, with mankind's reach into the stars, Christianity had become myth. The books remained, records and documents, ancient standing cathedrals with stained glass blown out, or preserved in museums. Statues and paintings.

If anything, the question reminds him of one he'd had as a boy -- why did they call them angels? Why not birds in flight? Why not Huginn and Muninn cast in white? (Because no raven would look like that.) But the strength of that lost monotheistic religion lingered in oaths, in symbols, in the games of children. ]

Reduced to their simplest imagery, they were thought to have wings and wear gowns. So, the arms make the wings, the legs the gown.

[ Clearly just an excuse to flail limbs in the snow and give it meaning. ]

b

[fastpaced]

[ someone pure needs to save this poor android. here he is!!

he's met 9S and A2 already, and even if 2B's not wearing the uniform, the three of them all share that almost too-perfect doll-like appearance; this time, Sonic can guess the woman standing around in her underpants(??) in the freezing cold is probably an android. Which also answers the number one question her appearance raises...

Sonic's totally unfazed by said appearance. He is slightly fazed by the idea of leaving her out here with all these strangers goggling at her. So he approaches, a bag of groceries (read: snacks) in one hand. ]

Probably the no pants thing. [ he's also wearing no pants, so he's qualified to comment. But he does have a jacket on!! ] Humans aren't big fans. Why don't I lend you my jacket? You can, uh, tie it around your waist or something.

[apatheia]

They aren't?

[THAT'S NEWS TO HER. She figured that androids probably only wore clothes because humans wore clothes, so she never really stopped to think about why humans wore clothes in the first place. Thinking about the people she's met here, well. Yeah, they've definitely all had pants or something covering more of their lower half.

Huh. Interesting.]

It's not really a problem for me, but... [Bothering humans in any way definitely counts as a problem.] If it's alright with you, I'd appreciate it.

[fastpaced]

I'll be fine! Don't worry.

[ he shuffles out of his jacket and holds it out to her. It is... about toddler-sized, but better than nothing. Maybe. Sonic immediately feels the winter chill as soon as he takes it off, but he's sure it won't be that bad. ]

You're from A2's world, aren't you?

c im ready kaye

[osuni]

[They could do some metaphorical fishing here... except with chips and life savings and the anguish of people who play to win and always lose. BUT FIRST

Okuni has never seen a casino or an arcade in her life, so the novelty of it is enough to get her to clap her hands like a legit child. This is so exciting. This is AMAZING. The possibilities for chaos and discovering new lifelong habits (LIKE GAMBLING) are so plentiful here. She reaches over to tug on 2B's arm.]

I have no idea. [TRUTHFULLY, then] Let's try them all.

[TO THE CASINO but honestly the arcade is just as fresh and exciting so probably both]

it's happening

[apatheia]

[She turns towards Okuni, and it's not like there's anything actually wrong with her excitement. It's probably a good thing. And yet, a combat model naturally has exceptional intuition. She gets the feeling there's something about this that..... could be dangerous............

What could be dangerous about playing games though? Surely nothing!!]

We might have to spend a few days here to try all of them. [Not that she's against it exactly, but surely Okuni has other things she'd want to do??]

It'S FINALLY HAPPENING

[osuni]

[SURELY NOTHING!!!

Okuni gasps.]

That's a great idea! [oooh YES that way they can SPREAD OUT THEIR EXPERIENCE] Since it's not like there's anything else for us to do here!

[spoilers: okuni does indeed have literally nothing else to do...]

So we might as well try everything! Think about all the fun we'll have!

[AND ALL THE CREDITS THEY'LL RAKE IN]

c

[sopherias]

2B!

[ Of course, Sophie's happy to see a familiar face around.

After discovering the wonders of arcade games, Sophie has been frequenting the area often when she had the time to spare. But mainly because she found enjoyment in the dancing rhythm games. Thank you, 9S. Now she's hitting up every dance machine she can find and dominating them all. ]

The dance game's the most fun.

[apatheia]

Hello, Sophie.

[She greets her back warmly, already feeling a little less lost thanks to running into a friend. From the sound of it, Sophie might be pretty familiar with the arcade and what it has for games, so 2B is especially glad to see her here.]

The dance game... You just move to hit the symbols on the screen at the right time, right? [From what she's observed, it seems like a simple enough game at least.]

[sopherias]

Right. At the right time, along with the rhythm.

[ She imagines 2B would be able to take on a match just as well as he did. Only one way to find out. Nearby, she spots an unoccupied machine. Perfect. She casts a quick glance over to 2B, then makes a short jog to the machine, expecting her to follow. ]

Over here, 2B! We can play together.