voice | un; quickfish

[kisha]

It seems this world is similar to my own.

I will take your questions, before one of you ends up causing an incident.

If you plan to actually attempt to blend in here... find me. You will need far more than just words to guide you.

[No offense, but she's seen how some of you act... and some of your dressing attempts.

Though her attempt at offering to help maybe isn't that much better.]

Comments

[undeserved]

... A stable?

[ she has a vague idea of what that is, but she's fairly sure it was a place where animals lived. Then again, Hayame's lower half certainly looked like an animal's... She casts her eyes towards her equine features once again, curious. ]

What are you?

[kisha]

[A stable, a mere four jō in size, lined with hay and marked with one of the only characters she knew how to read on the stall door: “quick fish”. Hayame. But she sometimes missed that stall, that small home, especially when compared to the cold metal of Hathaway’s ship.]

We are called jinba in my world. “Centaurs”, in others, apparently.

[undeserved]

[ no matches for either of those words in her memory banks. Either her people were lost to time, or they just didn't exist on her world at all. 2B has no way of knowing they were mythological creatures; legends proved much more difficult for androids to preserve than buildings and artifacts. ]

And you lived alongside humans.

[ what she's imagining is surely much kinder than the reality... ]

[kisha]

["Alongside".

There's a moment when Hayame stares straight ahead, tail flicking over her flanks as she weaves around the natives down the street. There had been a time when she would have answered "yes" without hesitation. A time when she'd been able to trick herself into thinking she might ever be acknowledged, be given dignity by those who had bred her and raised her for sale. But now, after a taste of freedom, terrifying as it had been...]

In a sense.

[But she is hardly prepared to admit such a thing to most anyone.]

[undeserved]

[ despite her robotic demeanor, 2B's not clueless enough not to recognize when someone doesn't want to talk about something. "In a sense." In other words, the reality is much more complicated, and not in a good way.

It's easy for her to believe. She just nods, then lets the topic go. ]

I see. [ a beat. ] Your experience is useful. I appreciate the help.

[kisha]

It is nothing.

[It is everything, really. She, who had spent her entire time with ALASTAIR in over her head, confused and afraid and half thinking she'd gone insane... to finally be in a place she understands is something that she cannot label with value.

Turning a corner, they seem to be getting closer if the stores are any indication.]

Your companion seems to know very little of humans.

[She casts a look over her shoulder, recalling her frustrating talk on the network with 9S.]

Are you the same?

[undeserved]

[ hearing "her companion" makes her think of Pod 042 before 9S, but it's obvious Hayame can't be talking about her support unit here. 2B meets her gaze through the blindfold, nodding. ]

... Humans haven't lived on our planet for thousands of years. Before we came here, we'd never seen them.

[ 9S is more familiar with them than she is, but only because he got here first. ]

All we have are some records. But a lot has been lost.

[kisha]

[It's definitely 9S... mainly because Hayame preferred to pretend that the Pods didn't exist at all. Talking... soul-bonded cans of metal that can talk.]

... A "yes", then.

[That seemed like a long, long time. One she cannot even truly fathom, just like she couldn't really come to terms with what Majima had said, about the Showa era four hundred years past her own life.

But she doesn't know that to do with that.]

You may be best sticking to the fringes until you acclimate, then.

[undeserved]

[ you'll hurt the pods' feelings, hayame. ]

That's what I plan to do. I don't want to make it difficult on the rest of the team by accidentally offending someone.

[ even if... she doesn't know what she's going to do with her time if she's not working. She's never been in a situation like this before. ]

[kisha]

[let them suffer.]

...

[But... that's the smartest thing she's heard all day. All week, even, after listening to a bunch of jumped up fools declaring they'd crossdress or sneak in or refuse to bow to anyone or any number of idiotic things that could endanger their mission here.]

... It is good to hear such a reasonable thing.

[undeserved]

... Are the others not being careful? It looked like a lot of people responded to you.

[ is she going to have to be one of the sane ones again... is this her lot in life?! maybe so. 2B is a little surprised, but maybe less than one would expect - humans seemed pretty quirky, and the majority of the crew appeared to be human. ]

[kisha]

Not enough, I fear.

[It's hard to be the smart one... and the sane one... or the only jinba... look, this sort of life is suffering.

Hayame shakes her head with a disgusted tch, long hair swinging over her shoulders.]

Men already attempting to dress as women as if they are not identifiable at a hundred paces... prideful fools...

[Too Many Idiots.]

[undeserved]

[ it's ok... 2B will be her robotic shoulder to lean on...

unsurprisingly, she has an extremely limited understanding of gender and gender roles, and this society's entire sex divide has been fairly puzzling to her - but males and females do tend to look different, so she can understand why Hayame isn't impressed by such a plan. ]

It might work for some of them. [ probably not the ones Hayame's worried about, though. After a pause, she has to ask. ] Is human society normally divided like this?

[kisha]

[Definitely not the ones she's worrying about. Let the feminine beauties prance about all they want, she supposes they won't be discovered unless their try to dip their wicks.

But the question is... nuanced.]

In my experience, yes. The opposite, in my world.

[undeserved]

[ lewd ]

I see. [ Sort of. 2B would have assumed it was the other way around; there are far more androids modeled on human females, like she was, than on males. Then again, the distinction had always been pretty arbitrary to a group of robots. ] I don't really understand it. But I guess it works in our favor.

[ "our" referring to the two of them, rather than the team as a whole... ]

[kisha]

Indeed.

[As they enter the merchant's district further it becomes even more obvious as opposed to the slums- how the women were the ones with the power, the men becoming more decorative and subservient.

She couldn't dislike it, a taste of this.]

But there are very few women in this team, so we shall have to make sure to keep the men in line.

[undeserved]

[ she did notice that; she nods in agreement. ]

Yeah. That's why it's even more important that I blend in.

[ at the very least, she's going to need to look after 9S here (more than usual.) While she speaks, her gaze begins to drift to their surroundings. The merchant district is much newer - and much more alien - to 2B, and she can't help but be distracted. Even though she tries to hide it, it's easy to catch her eyes being drawn to the colorful storefronts and the wares on sale. ]

[kisha]

[2B doesn't have to just look for long, as soon enough Hayame comes to the shop she had marked mentally before, holding open the curtain over the door and gesturing for the android to enter first.

... her rear couldn't fit all the way, so. Other ladies first.]

Precisely.

[After 2B enters, Hayame bends down to get her head through the doorframe, entering only partially before she's blocking the whole door... and talking to the proprietress as if she was a completely normal customer, sending the woman off to fetch a variety of kimono to showcase.]

[undeserved]

[ and in this moment, 2B realizes that - as confusing and strange as all of this is for her - Hayame definitely has it harder in a lot of ways. It only takes a second for her to figure out why she's being beckoned in first, and she complies quickly. So much for blending in...

Still, she's glad for the other woman's presence; there aren't exactly many opportunities for shopping in a war-torn world, and this is her first time even visiting a store like this. The process is currently a total mystery. 2B doesn't budge from her spot while they wait, although (once again) her eyes are helplessly drawn to the fabrics and clothing on display around them. ]

... It's all so colorful. [ she sounds more awed than irritated. ]

[kisha]

[For all her knowledge born of coming from a similar culture... in this world, there are no jinba, and no matter how much her human half resembles the natives... there is no way for her to blend in among them.

She hadn't expected that part to evoke emotion. She would be stone.]

It is almost spring.

[Which... apparently answers the question of why the colors were so bright, the proprietress spreading out a variety of silks and sashes for purview (while stealing sidelong glances at the centaur blocking her shop door- apparently she wasn't getting any more customers until these were satisfied).]

[undeserved]

You wear bright colors in the spring?

[ it's clearly news to her. Combat androids don't need to change their clothes - and, even more than that, seasons don't exactly happen anymore on her Earth. She only knows what Hayame means thanks to old records they've meticulously maintained. ]

[kisha]

Those who have the luxury of worrying about such things pay much attention to the seasons.

[AKA anyone but a low caste farmer or laborer. And even they tried to do things in their own way.]

If you've no preference, pick a flower pattern- not too fancy, though.

[She waves the proprietress towards pointing out fitting silks, on the lower or mid-range scale of quality.]

[undeserved]

[ huh. 2B nods, internalizing this information as if it's some sort of critical mission data; it's not, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't interested in the cultural mores of old humanity. Every android was - even the ones who didn't show it much, like her. She follows the merchant's guidance, taking a few steps to peer at the suggested clothing.

This is the hard part, really. Battle models didn't exactly have opportunities to pick out their own clothes; 2B's left with an underdeveloped set of personal preferences. It's probably obvious by the way she idles there, looking... lost, at odds with the stiff, no-nonsense aura she typically projects.

It's a good thing Hayame gave her a bit of direction. Flowers. After a few moments, she hesitantly reaches a hand out towards one of the silks - a desaturate pastel blue, emblazoned with familiar white flowers. ]

... Like this?

[kisha]

[Hayame had her moments of stubbornness, of clouded judgements, and of blindness... but she knew a moment like this when she sees it.

It's the same way she reacts when someone asks her about her past, and she doesn't have the tools to answer because no one had ever wanted to know. The way she looks at food she's never been allowed to eat and doesn't know which to choose.

So she stays quiet, until 2B chooses.]

... that will do, yes. Have the woman help you change.

[Not too bright or too rich, a festival kimono scrimped for by a lowerclass merchant's daughter, perhaps. Good enough for an actual choice.]

[undeserved]

[ The little push is all she needs. It still feels a little bit wrong for her to do something like this - individualistic, self-centered. Things androids shouldn't do - things she trained herself not to do. But if she frames it to herself as being given instruction, needing to blend in for the mission, it's a little bit easier for her to pick out a color that she likes or a kimono that she's drawn to. 2B nods towards Hayame, then looks towards the proprietress, who (unsurprisingly) looks very pleased as she leads 2B away.

A few moments later, she reemerges, clad in the kimono and thankful that the merchant hadn't noticed anything off about her artificial body. Unsurprisingly, it suits 2B well, aside from the black blindfold she's still wearing, and the merchant makes sure to coo over how pretty she looks to try and close the deal - which she meets with somewhat uncertain thank-yous as she tries to mediate her internal feelings. ]

... This is fine. [ it would be difficult to fight in, but she'll manage that situation when it happens. ] What do you think?