Nier Automata: Journeys in the 12th Millennium

Episode 7 - How Do You Feel?

"Feelings are complicated..." I said hesitantly to POD 000, rubbing the back of my neck as I looked away.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW I FELT?!?" 16D shouted in fury and sadness, passing behind me, running after Camellia.

"I AM SO SORRY!" Camellia screamed frightened, running away from her livid girlfriend.

"...You can go from absolute happiness to devastating sadness in a second after hearing bad news, like the death of your best friend..." I continued my explanation, making exaggerated expressions as I spoke while screams echoed in the background.

"I WAS SCARED AND CONFUSED, I DIDN'T KNOW IF I SHOULD HAVE CONTACTED YOU RIGHT AWAY!" Camellia exclaimed, running around the fountain in the center of the park.

"SERIOUSLY? I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! I BELIEVE I DESERVED SOME LIFE SIGN FROM YOU!" 16D replied, fixing her girlfriend as she chased her, but she always ran in the same direction, keeping the fountain between them and running in the opposite direction when 16D decided to do the same.

"...But the opposite can also happen, you can discover that your friend who suffered a fatal accident has made a full recovery, dispelling your worry immediately..." I said, focusing on the POD again, cringing slightly at the rumbling behind me.

16D had jumped onto the fountain and ripped the top off with a punch from her gigantic gauntlets, throwing it towards Camellia straight after.

Fortunately, the android jumped out of the way but soon scrambled to get up when her companion dived towards her with both fists raised, delivering a crushing blow as she landed.

Camellia stumbled with the shockwave that cracked the ground, but soon regained her balance and returned to her escape.

"...But what are feelings and where do they come from? First of all, we have to differentiate between feelings and emotions." I asked the audience as POD 001 opened a holographic screen beside me with a line dividing it in the middle.

"Feelings are what we feel during everyday life, a state of mind and the mental expression of emotion, joy when you receive a gift, anger when you argue with someone, fear when you see something strange at night, sadness when you lose a competition..." I explained raising a finger at each example cited while POD 001 created and placed images of them on the left side of the screen.

"...Emotion, on the other hand, is the reaction to those stimuli that make us feel something, you smile when you receive a gift, you frown and show your teeth when you argue, and your eyes widen when you get scared. However, emotions can be basic and complex, as short as a surprise, or as long as falling in love with someone..."

The POD then repeated the previous process, creating new images of people making the expressions mentioned and placing them on the right side of the screen.

"...However, we can go even deeper into the emotions, citing the primary ones, which are the most perceptible, the secondary ones, which are not always visible, and the background ones, which are not perceptible."

POD 001 created three smaller screens to the right of the larger screen, each with an arrow pointing to its main topic while its classification remained written at the top, with some examples below.

1 - Primary: Panic, joy.

2 - Secondary: Shame, guilt.

3 - Background: Calm, anguish.

CRASH!

"AAAHHH!"

Whether out of morbid curiosity or concern, I turned to see what happened, only to spot 16D doing target practice with Camellia, using everything she found as ammunition.