#solispades

[faithandvirtue-blog]

(For the character development questions: 3, 8, 18, and 30!)

3. How do they position themselves in a group? Do they like to be the center of attention, or do they hang back at the edges of a crowd?

2B would rather be dead than caught in the middle of a group. She’d rather be on the fringes, back against a wall, aware of what’s happening at all times. Don’t look at her, don’t talk to her, don’t touch her, and it’s all good.

8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell?

2B is most comfortable when she’s in combat or when she’s fishing - they’re both times when she can just stop thinking and sort of go on auto-pilot! She doesn’t have to pay attention to anything in particular. Her face is often devoid of tension, then; though she’s not smiling, she’s not as tense and she’s not looking around every few seconds. She’s least comfortable in new situations and situations that involve many people, because she’s never been around many people at one time, and the last time was incredibly unpleasant (the beginning of Route C). These situations, she’s constantly checking entrances and exits; her hand is constantly ready to draw Virtuous Contract and unleash hell if someone comes at her, and her Pod is often in a more combat ready position, ready to fire if she needs it to.

30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much?

2B prefers to almost constantly be moving. It’s hard to give her too much activity here, and when she has too little, she gets antsy and kind of paranoid, almost. Stimulation, 2B is pretty easy to overwhelm, and when she’s overwhelmed, she becomes crankier than normal. If she’s understimulated.. I’m not actually sure. I can’t imagine it really happening.

18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why?

Oh boy! Well, hope we’re in for a wild ride. I put this one last because I wanted to read-more it, given NieR:A spoilers and me talking a novel about my baby.

2B is basically a blank slate - a lot of her development depends on the people around her. While seemingly a very rigid person, there’s a lot she doesn’t know and doesn’t understand, and in a new environment like this, she’s sort of... floundering. She was made to serve a purpose and follow orders, which she does very well - but here, she has none of that. 

That’s not to say she’s completely spineless or will follow anyone, because she certainly isn’t and wouldn’t - but it is to say that, in the absence of making decisions for herself and instead following harmful and painful missions, refusing to regard her own opinions on the matter, 2B is more vulnerable to making bad decisions or following someone who doesn’t have her best interests in mind, if she believes their goals align with hers / are worthy of her. She despises what she is, but she does believe each YoRHa droid was made with a purpose, and whether she hates hers or not is largely irrelevant.

Because she has a history as an assassin, it’s not impossible that someone could turn her back to it, if they desired, and if their goal seemed admirable. This wouldn’t weigh terribly heavily on her conscience at first, but with time it would grow more and more intolerable, especially if 9S or any other YoRHa droid is in the city, because she wouldn’t want them finding her out. The consequences of this are many and varied, not the least of which being she’d be a contract killer or doing something that makes her deeply unhappy and goes against her moral code because she thinks she should.

Those are the worst case scenario!

Best case scenario is something fluffy and kind that makes me want to cry, like 2B getting to be happy and spend her time fishing in an ugly 50 year old white man’s floppy fisherman hat and go home to people who love her. 

That’s the one I want. God, how I want that one. Let her fish in peace, you cowards.

As for which is more likely... I think that depends a lot on the people she meets, how they interact with her, and what they teach her about human culture and values.