[ 9S is sitting in his chair, holo-screen hovering just in front of him as he meanders his way through pages of text, low-resolution images, charts, and numbers, allowing himself his own little private moment of respite now that 2B isn’t conscious enough to pull him back to task and make him remember that they were built for a specific purpose. He usually finds silence to be a rather cold, toxic companion, but in small doses, he welcomes it. These few silent hours are his own. At times like this, doesn’t have to worry about the machine lifeforms bolting out of the shade and attacking them from some hidden corner. Doesn’t have to worry about doing something to accidentally offend the sensibilities of the area’s resident boar. He doesn’t have to worry about anything really, unless he chooses to.
He can hear the sounds of engaged chatter outside, humming in his ears like the clatter of rain, and 2B is asleep in the bed next to his chair, looking a little bit less real to him every time he steals a glance in her direction, always taking a moment to time the rhythmic inhale and exhale of her breathing in his head—if only to make sure that she’s not moments away from exiting her sleep cycle—before returning back to the yellow hue of his screen. He looks into each new window he pulls up as if the information contained there holds something new, always on the lookout for some crucial increment of data he’s missed that might help him understand what this ruined world might have once been like, and what it may someday be once again.
Their pods are in the corner, hovering in the air like quiet sentinels. Though every now and then they’ll shift in place, turning to face each other like they’re determined to have the longest silent conversation on record before immediately reverting back to the positions they held not seconds before. He catches them at it again out of the corner of his eye. It's movement 9S doesn’t pay much mind to until his pod’s voice cuts through the silence. ]
Report: YoRHa Unit 2B’s pulse rate is quickening.
Huh? [ He looks up, brows furrowing, not even sure what makes this information important enough to deserve a verbal report. Stuff like this makes him wonder, sometimes, if the pods get some sort of thrill out of stating the obvious. ] She’s not waking up all ready, is she?
[ No response.
His frowns, starting to slowly bend his knees, preparing to stand up from his chair to get a better look at her as his holo-screen hovers just off to the side of him. ] Ooookay. I guess I could—
[ And then everything happens. 2B wakes before he’s even managed to make it halfway out of his chair, yanking herself upward in a movement so sudden and unexpected it nearly startles him out of his own skin, and causes his holo-screen to snap out of existence like it had been abruptly cut off from its power source. The ensuing yelp stays mostly strangled in his throat as his body tries to step back a pace, and he nearly falls over his own chair as its legs tip backwards before thankfully finding proper equilibrium against the cement floor once again. A strange-yet-familiar word hisses past his ears in the form of a question, threatening to ricochet off the drab walls and lodge itself inside his chest. He feels his own pulse rate skyrocket and the response that comes out of him is automatic. ]
Y-yeah?
[ Did she just—
And it's then that the surprise that had so galvanized him trades itself for anxious worry as his eyes catch the glimmer of what couldn’t possibly be the sheen of tears. Was she crying? There’s no way that could be. Right?
He stares at her for what feels like a long time, though it took perhaps only a second’s worth of sand within the world's hourglass, trying to reconcile what his eyes are seeing (why does that name—his name—have to come with tears attached to it?) into something that makes sense to him. He settles back into his chair, wondering what could ever, ever make someone like her cry. It makes him feel like he shouldn’t even be here. That he had inadvertently stumbled across data he had no business or right to access. ]
Hey, 2B, are— [ He pauses, unsure of what to even say. He wonders, then, if he should just pretend nothing out of the ordinary had happened, even though he knows that’s not even a real option. His mind just wants solutions. And perhaps a few more seconds to compose itself. ] Is... everything okay?
no subject
He can hear the sounds of engaged chatter outside, humming in his ears like the clatter of rain, and 2B is asleep in the bed next to his chair, looking a little bit less real to him every time he steals a glance in her direction, always taking a moment to time the rhythmic inhale and exhale of her breathing in his head—if only to make sure that she’s not moments away from exiting her sleep cycle—before returning back to the yellow hue of his screen. He looks into each new window he pulls up as if the information contained there holds something new, always on the lookout for some crucial increment of data he’s missed that might help him understand what this ruined world might have once been like, and what it may someday be once again.
Their pods are in the corner, hovering in the air like quiet sentinels. Though every now and then they’ll shift in place, turning to face each other like they’re determined to have the longest silent conversation on record before immediately reverting back to the positions they held not seconds before. He catches them at it again out of the corner of his eye. It's movement 9S doesn’t pay much mind to until his pod’s voice cuts through the silence. ]
Report: YoRHa Unit 2B’s pulse rate is quickening.
Huh? [ He looks up, brows furrowing, not even sure what makes this information important enough to deserve a verbal report. Stuff like this makes him wonder, sometimes, if the pods get some sort of thrill out of stating the obvious. ] She’s not waking up all ready, is she?
[ No response.
His frowns, starting to slowly bend his knees, preparing to stand up from his chair to get a better look at her as his holo-screen hovers just off to the side of him. ] Ooookay. I guess I could—
[ And then everything happens. 2B wakes before he’s even managed to make it halfway out of his chair, yanking herself upward in a movement so sudden and unexpected it nearly startles him out of his own skin, and causes his holo-screen to snap out of existence like it had been abruptly cut off from its power source. The ensuing yelp stays mostly strangled in his throat as his body tries to step back a pace, and he nearly falls over his own chair as its legs tip backwards before thankfully finding proper equilibrium against the cement floor once again. A strange-yet-familiar word hisses past his ears in the form of a question, threatening to ricochet off the drab walls and lodge itself inside his chest. He feels his own pulse rate skyrocket and the response that comes out of him is automatic. ]
Y-yeah?
[ Did she just—
And it's then that the surprise that had so galvanized him trades itself for anxious worry as his eyes catch the glimmer of what couldn’t possibly be the sheen of tears. Was she crying? There’s no way that could be. Right?
He stares at her for what feels like a long time, though it took perhaps only a second’s worth of sand within the world's hourglass, trying to reconcile what his eyes are seeing (why does that name—his name—have to come with tears attached to it?) into something that makes sense to him. He settles back into his chair, wondering what could ever, ever make someone like her cry. It makes him feel like he shouldn’t even be here. That he had inadvertently stumbled across data he had no business or right to access. ]
Hey, 2B, are— [ He pauses, unsure of what to even say. He wonders, then, if he should just pretend nothing out of the ordinary had happened, even though he knows that’s not even a real option. His mind just wants solutions. And perhaps a few more seconds to compose itself. ] Is... everything okay?