tunasub | OPEN POST 2017

[ after everything that happened, it's shockingly easy to slip back into routine. Or, perhaps, it's too easy to slip back into routine, and that's exactly why she does it. The Resistance subsists; she aids them. The Bunker is a bundle of debris orbiting around the planet, the humans are extinct, the machines are no longer a threat, yet 2B remains standing, against all odds, an android gravitating towards a directive - though the world has opened wide in front of her, it's difficult to stray from her core purpose.

Save for the most major purpose, of course. It would be more accurate to say that they aid the Resistance now. She doesn't dare question the miracle that's allowed her to survive and to travel now with him ever at her side; there is the (irrational, she knows, but it remains) fear that if she examines this reality too closely, it will shatter into pieces right before her eyes. So she doesn't. She does what she always does: she works, and she does her best to distance herself from the problem.

It's futile, of course. There are countless things she still needs to discuss with him. To apologize for. They haven't discussed it much - the truth of their relationship that she's certain he already knows. The more her anxious thoughts sit inside her without release, the more they unsettle her. He's probably already noticed it; he's always been perceptive. But maybe he's afraid of shattering this fragile reality, too. ]

Looks like we'll have to find another way down.

[ there's an enormous piece of the Bunker before them - when the space station had been destroyed, it had fallen from orbit, along with all of its technology and supplies. There was plenty on board that could be useful if scavenged. But things were rarely so easy. Case in point: the massive building-like chunk of steel they were aiming for is currently submerged beneath a few hundred feet of seawater. The seasons are as chaotic and irregular as ever, and right now, they've seen fit to dump an ocean's worth of rain on this end of the continent, soaking both the two androids - and, apparently, their quarry, too. ]

[ 2B reverts back to the usual like it's nothing—seemingly. Seemingly, because she's never been as good at hiding what she's thinking as she likely believes she is. Nonetheless, it doesn't change how seamlessly she pushes herself back up upon her own two feet and presses forth with purpose.

9S doesn't find it quite as easy as she does. They've miraculously recovered, but one doesn't simply forget the hardships they faced in the past, and all the agonizing moments he had to endure after her death. She wouldn't be wrong to think he's scared of losing the reality they're currently in, as if he may wake up from a dream back to the empty, meaningless world he was left in, or worse—that he'd lose her a second time, and 9S doesn't think he could handle it again. That obsession he grew never disappeared overnight; if anything, it lingers, and often he finds himself thinking 2B is here, with me, and I'll never allow anything to change that, ever, ever, ever...

If nothing else, he has a clearer head these days. Perhaps he doesn't quite see it as latching on too hard, but he does keep the majority of these thoughts to himself. If only because... they never had been a duo that sat, and talked through it all. But having a heart to heart meant acknowledging the presence of their emotions, and as she had to repeatedly remind him, those were prohibited.

In the past, anyway...

There's a lot of wrinkles to flatten out between the two of them, and it's difficult to know where to even begin with it. Until then, she manages to be the pillar of strength 9S admittedly needs while he slowly, but surely, regains his path in life, whether she realizes it or not.

On this day, 9S stands side-by-side with her, teetering precariously at the ledge of a chunk of worn concrete. He's drenched, of course, hair and clothes alike sticking to his skin, and 2B may have caught him muttering about how the water sloshed in his shoes earlier. ]

Down there? Really? ... Of all days it had to rain...

[ On the other hand, some things in life never change, and one of those is his tendency to complain over inconveniences. ]

[ frankly, his complaining is comforting. All the little things he does that are normal are comforting - they let her know that he's okay, that he's himself, still. That he can relax around her. In the past, she would have shut him down like usual for that very reason. This time, she doesn't. It's okay if he's friendly towards her. It's okay to find his trivial commentary endearing. She won't need to turn her blade on him again - ever. Somehow. Somehow, they're both alive, and that curse has been lifted, and despite everything, he evidently still wants to be with her.

The actual depths of that desire - obsession, even - aren't really known to her. All she knows is that he has every right to want her gone and he doesn't, as far as she knows. 2B is a battle model; she's not given to particularly deep contemplation, most of the time, and so, she doesn't pry deeper. It's fine if they continue to coexist like this, like they used to. That's good enough.

Still, those old scolding comments and strict rule-abiding demeanor seem to have mostly vanished. At the very least, she hasn't said anything about emotions since -- well. Before she died. ]

... We could drop down. But if any of our components aren't watertight...

[ that would be bad... and since the Pods basically cobbled them together from scraps, 2B isn't convinced, even if 9S still does his best at maintaining her. ]

[ 9S has certainly taken up the mantle of maintenance since their reawakening, and he does a damn fine job of it, too. Despite this, he still spreads both hands in front of him with a hasty shake of his head. ]

—Whoa, whoa, not so fast! Could we even swim our way back up? I mean... [ They're literally hunks of metal—they're really not lightweight. ] ... Not to mention, I've never tried holding my breath for that long... Have you ever tried swimming, 2B?

[ He doesn't wait for an answer. ]

There's gotta be another way down. A longer route, perhaps, but...

[ she definitely hasn't tried swimming because she weighs like 150kg... she also wasn't seriously going to try it - her comment was more of a rebuttal to his whining - but his heated refusal is a little funny. She hides her small smile (even if she doesn't need to anymore; habits are hard to break) by turning to the side, beginning to walk around the perimeter of the flooded crater. ]

We'll find something. There might be another way in on the other side. ... Above the water.

[ and hopefully, the rooms inside aren't all flooded, either. It's a spaceship, so it should be pretty airtight, but it's also blown to pieces and fallen thousands of feet from space... The damage is probably pretty bad.

Fortunately, the easiest path around is going to lead them through the skeletons of a few old buildings - at the very least, they'll get a chance to get out of the rain for a little while. ]

[ And honestly, he'll take any reprieve from the rain. His socks are so soggy... the wool of his uniform is so damp... Auugh. ]

Right. Above the water.

[ He's not drowning today, thank you. 9S cants his head to the side, getting to moving before they have to linger in the pouring rain further. ]

Let's see where down that way gets us, but—Pod, scan the area for possible paths, anyway.

[ Without missing the beat, 9S' floating companion responds: ] Affirmative. Scanning now.

[ wet wool... gross.

In times like these, she wishes they still had access to a functioning flight unit, considering the size of even a piece of the Bunker - but that's not going to happen. For now, she'll leave the scanning to her Scanner as they step inside the remains of what must have once been a very large human structure. 9S would probably know what it was called - an office building - but 2B has no clue. All that matters is that it'll take them where they need to go... and get them out of the rain. Because, frankly, she's not enjoying it much, either. Once they're in, she slows, then stops, wringing some water out of her skirt with an expression of slight annoyance. ]

[ Very empty, save for the debris of what once was coating the floor. 9S couldn't even make out what any of it could have been so many millennia ago, though he wonders. What did humans need this structure for, anyway? If only there was any real chance of them seeing for themselves. ]

Alright, it looks like we only need to go down another couple of floors before...

[ He trails off, only belatedly realizing that the crunch of old garbage underneath her footsteps ceased. 9S pauses as well, glancing over his shoulder before he turns to watch her twist the water out of her clothes.

He doesn't even try to hide the way the corners of his mouth twitch into an amused smile. ] Y'know, 2B, you did insist we come out here today.

[ While he's mostly messing with her, 9S did try to say he wouldn't have minded waiting another day... ]

I did. And we're here.

[ 2B glances up at him, letting the fabric fall back down with a damp flop - almost like she got caught, but not quite. She really shouldn't bother engaging him with this, but she can't help it. It feels good to have these pointless back-and-forths with him like this. They'd annoyed her at the beginning, but by the end, they became some of her more important memories - even if they'd also become the most painful for that same reason. It won't end like that again, but the bittersweet feeling lingers nonetheless. ]

Wet clothing will increase drag and impede my mobility... That's all. [ beat. yeah, sure, 2B. ] I wasn't the one complaining.

Yeah, yeah...

[ He doesn't buy it for a second, but as usual, he lets her slide. He turns back ahead, continuing their path by crawling through a hole in the wall. ]

Might wanna hold off—there's still a pretty good chance we're only gonna get wetter from here.

...

[ well, if that's really the route they need to take, so be it. She won't question his data. 2B purses her lips and follows after him. The building interior is hardly bone-dry, considering its current condition, but it's definitely better than it was outside. ]

You found another way in?

[ that was fast. as expected of a Scanner, she supposes. ]

It's... a possible way in.

[ They'll just have to see how bad the water is. ]

Let's check it out first. I think we've got options.

[ Rather than bothering with a staircase, 9S leaps down through another hole through the floor this time—and right into an ankle deep puddle with an audible splash. ]

—Eugh.

[ well. she'd ask if he was okay, but the splash means she has a pretty good idea of why he's complaining. 2B wonders if she shouldn't be taking point here - this area is largely unexplored, and of the two of them, she's the one designed for combat - but decides that the chances of running into a machine that's actually still aggressive are low enough that it doesn't matter. She's quick to jump down after him, landing as gracefully as she can manage in the polluted floodwaters. ]

Pod, activate flashlight.

[ between the cloudy skies and their descending deeper into the old building, it's getting pretty dark. The light from Pod 042 doesn't illuminate anything of interest in the room other than a lot of old garbage floating around - this building seems like it probably doesn't usually flood, and little pieces of the ancient world have risen to the surface with the rains: fragments of chairs and desks, the weathered remnants of some old phones, and what looks like the husk of an office printer in the corner. Not that she recognizes the primitive technology. ]

... It looks like this place was pretty untouched.

[ she feels... some sort of bittersweet emotion seeing it. Even if these artifacts were worth something, there's no one to send them to now. ]

Yeah...

[ Pod 153 follows suit, hovering over 9S' shoulder with the light shining ahead of them. He wades slowly through the water with a growing interest in the floating debris he passes by, pausing only to scoop up a phone receiver bobbing along. ]

Um... Hey—2B. [ 9S doesn't look back up, though, instead focused on turning the phone around in his hand. It's caked in so much hardened mud that he's unsure if there's even any plastic left underneath, although it's retained the shape decently enough. If kind of cracked with one end eroded to hell. ] We used to keep all this stuff around because we wanted humanity to return back to what they left behind, right?

[ Yet... ha ha. ]

Have you wondered what we should do with it now?

[ back in the old days, she would have returned some curt answer to this innocent question - both because she hadn't wanted to keep having these little conversations with him and because she'd always known that nobody was going to come back to any of this. She almost does it anyway, out of sheer habit, and it leads to a pause before she responds. Avoiding all the painful things had been the best way of dealing with them. But now... ]

I don't know if there's anything we can do with it. [ there's no distancing bite in her response - just her usual bluntness. She looks at the grimy, unfamiliar object in her companion's hand, and doubts there's any use left in it at all. At the same time, leaving everything their creators had made to rot doesn't feel right, either - illogical as that is. ] I doubt many of our records on human history survived when the Bunker fell.

[ ... ]

Maybe... [ ... maybe they should hold onto things like this, because they barely have anything else left that showed humans even existed. But it sounds like unnecessary sentiment to her, even now, so she bites her lip. ] ... Nevermind. What do you think?

[ He gives a thoughtful hum. For all the time he's had to roll endless questions through his head now, there's only one real answer he has. ]

Beats me.

[ It's quiet, like he's ashamed that's all he's got. It isn't that he doesn't have similar lingering feelings, because he does—it's an ever present sentiment for something he's never met, and never will, but it's for that reason alone it feels so... pointless.

9S grew resentful during his downward spiral before his demise. He didn't want to long for humanity anymore. These days, he's back on his feet, but he's not so sure he could ever truly shake those thoughts off.

His emotions are at odds with each other, and he isn't proud of this fact.

In an attempt to shake the thoughts off, 9S lets the receiver slip from his fingers, dropping back into the water with a plunk. He turns, and gets moving again. ]

You're probably right—androids don't need any of this stuff, either. I guess... we won't know for a long time.

[ It hasn't been long since the war more or less came to an end, anyway. They're not the only ones who have to figure out how life will go from here on out. ]

[ she can hear the uncertainty in his voice, mirroring her own feelings, and while it's a small comfort - as ever - to know that she's not alone, she doesn't like hearing him down. She knows he's struggling. He went through a lot after she stopped functioning - probably more than she'd ever really understand. 2B doesn't want him to suffer any more than he already has. This is their last chance to be together; this time, if she could help him instead of hurt him - just this one time... ]

... We should tell Anemone and the others. There might be someone in camp that's interested in preserving human artifacts.

[ sentiment, yes, but is it wrong for them to feel it now when there's nobody telling them they shouldn't? 2B follows after him as she speaks, the clicking of her heels muffled by the sound of the water. Her tone is neutral, businesslike, but there's a gentleness to it that wasn't there before, too. ]

[ It isn't immediate, but he does nod. ]

Yeah.

[ Yeah... It's not up to him to decide, anyway. 9S doesn't know whether he wants to push it all away or keep it close, but he's well aware that other androids are interested in all this. He remembers the Resistance member out in the desert who was on the hunt for old relics, for one; surely, he wasn't the only one doing the same. ]

I'll mark this location on my map data to hand over for later. Anemone can decide where to go from there.

[ For now, they're just here for the Bunker's remains. And speaking of... ]

—Oh. Over here.

[ 9S reaches where a window once was. Well... it's a little bigger than a window, given it's also where it looks like something huge punched right through the wall, but nonetheless it's a way back out. He stands at the ledge where the rain gently pitter-patters, gazing down below.

An endlessly long, twisting section of metal protrudes out of the water, and it's just their luck it forms something similarly to a tunnel, down, down below into the flooding. 9S cants his head toward it. ]

That's one of our options. What do you say?

[ For now, it's the best solution she has. Or anyone has, really. They weren't meant to inherit this planet, but here they are. 9S at least looks like he can put it behind him for the moment, and 2B does the same, following his lead towards the hole in the wall.

Obviously, it's not guaranteed to keep them from having to take a swim - but, frankly, it's a much better option than she'd been expecting. If they're lucky, whatever chamber this debris's broken into has stayed sealed off. She moves to stand behind him, gazing down at their new way in, and nods. ]

Okay. Let's do it. [ might as well give it a try. She gives him a solid pat on the shoulder for the briefest second - he did a good job - before jumping down to their new path and hoping it doesn't buckle under her sudden weight. ]

[ He doesn't follow suit right away. It's kind of stupid, but her small gesture catches him off guard; it's such a simple thing, but so... unlike her?

It's not like he hasn't noticed. 2B was being unusually nice today... There was a gentleness to her 9S couldn't recall her ever being so open about, in her own subtle ways.

He wonders what's changed. But not for long, because she moves on ahead without thinking twice about it—which is more like her. 9S quickly shakes his head and hops down after her. His boots hit metal with an echoing thud, followed by a creak.

... But so far so good. When everything doesn't immediately crumble around them, 9S makes another nod. ]

Looks like we should be okay. I can't tell how long of a walk it'll be, but... ready?

[ It's part of a process. How long had she sealed every stray thought about him away, for fear of it coming back to hurt her later when she inevitably had to get rid of him again? Now that the threat of suffering - or, at least, of that particular brand of it - is gone, she's finding that expressing the feelings she'd hidden was almost as hard as putting them away. It doesn't feel right. But, slowly, she's letting that seal erode. She's not an executioner now. So it's okay to be kind. Even if he doesn't want her to be, she... does. Still, after everything. ]

Ready. [ as always. She doesn't expect to find much in the way of resistance; there shouldn't be anything left in the bunker but bodies. Those call for an entirely different kind of readiness that she hopes she actually has.

But she doesn't voice that concern, predictably; she just begins to walk forward, taking the lead and trying to listen for any signs of this whole tube snapping in half with them in it before it happens. ]

[ Then he's ready, too. 9S falls in step behind her, silent as they begin the trek.

It's eerily quiet, save for the dull thud of his boots and the rhythmic tapping of her heels against the metallic surface. Along the way, there's a gentle, slow dripping of water, but other than that...

Silence between them isn't odd. More often than not, that's how they've spent their time, quietly venturing from one point to the next. Wordlessly sitting side by side when they were idle. 9S doesn't mind, when her presence is all he's ever really needed. Still, he's naturally social—with an ever lost in thought mind—so it also isn't unusual for him to venture into the silence. ]

I sure hope something worth scavenging survived the fall...

[ It's nothing more than idle thinking voiced aloud, as 9S is wont to doing. ]

But a bunch of scrap metal like this ought to be worth something, too.

[ He realizes belatedly it might be thoughtless to refer to the Bunker this way; it was the closest thing they had to a home once upon a time. On the other hand, well...

Well, it is what it is. ]

[ quietly, she's thankful he's there to break the silence. She'd dreaded his attempts at conversation in the past. Nowadays, the world can be dreadfully empty and still, the thundering downpour notwithstanding. Even knowing what she knows about YoRHa, having the skies empty is...

Well, they're not thoughts for her to have, and it's easier if she doesn't think about it. And it's easier not to think about it if 9S is here. He really is like a light. ]

Scrap metal, huh...

[ it's repeated without any particular inflection. Her feelings on the Bunker remain tangled and complicated, the matter with 9S and her assignment aside; it's not a problem she can just cut through with her blade, which puts it firmly outside of her area of expertise (like so many of her problems these days.) ]

... There should be some physical information storage units somewhere in this section. The problem is getting to them before the rain does.

[ and whether or not they were corrupted by the virus beyond repair like so many of their comrades... ]

[ 9S slips out a thoughtful hum. ]

I don't think it's the rain we're gonna have to worry about.

[ Because her thinking isn't wrong; that virus wrecked everything to hell, not limited to just their fellow YoRHa androids. ]

Combat data aside, everything regarding YoRHa was set up to be destroyed from the start. If anything, I'd say our chances of finding something in the Bunker's servers are pretty low.

[ How optimistic, huh. 9S lets his words sit for a moment before adding: ]

... But we won't know for sure unless we see.

I know.

[ frankly, she's a little worried that some piece of the virus might have survived - somehow, some way - inside the wrecked machinery. It's a miracle the two of them are here today; she's not going to bet on the pods pulling off a second miracle. ]

Don't hack into anything you're not sure is clean.

[ 2B speaks as she continues forward without turning around, voice carefully devoid of emotion. maybe she's overthinking it, but she doesn't want to go through that again. ]

Edited 2017-11-06 06:41 (UTC)

how can i resist a sexy pose... nier: automata spoilers in this thread for anyone looking

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