#ETA u can of course read their dialogue however u want. please do not feel confined to fantasy america. shudders.

[crimeronan]

the ask about OC names got me thinking about their voices, too, bc i can hear each of them Incredibly Clearly. but i don't think i've ever described their cadences here. so:

devin has the kind of deep, rough voice you might associate with a grizzled sailor or coal miner. despite being a skilled liar, she is Dogshit at modulating her tone to be helpful or comforting. vocal training might make her sound more """feminine""" but it wouldn't fix the cranky ornery bitch thing, so she's not bothering. sometimes people who have good reason to fear the rich will imprint upon devin in part Because she sounds like such a bitch, which she finds both vexing and puzzling.

sol has a very practiced, smooth, generic american (tachnin) accent. i'd say hollywood but it's even more generic than that. she speaks every word with precision and an ear for how it sounds. HOWEVER, the more she hates someone, the more transatlantic femme fatale her accent gets. devin has noticed this and thinks it's Unbelievably Funny.

ruby has a working-class irish (oichen) accent that has not diluted at All in the many many years she's lived in tachni. she flatly refuses to code-switch for anyone, even though her day job is a yuppie corporate gig that involves talking to rich people. literally the Only Time she'll try to sound more tachnin is if she's trying to help someone who's struggling to understand her.

nova speaks in her upper register with the cadence of a stereotypical peppy american cheerleader or kindergarten teacher. lots! of! verbal! exclamation! points!!! :DDD when she needs to get a point across to someone, she gets REALLY sweet and gentle and condescending. okay, baby, let's go through this step by step to make sure you're seeing what i'm seeing....

the ONE exception to this is when she's alone with devin. at which point she drops into rosamund pike's voice in gone girl.

the author unironically finds this DEEPLY romantic.