Line 1 — Casual / Dry "You brought him? ...You brought an active Lazarus subject directly to our front door. That's either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. I'm leaning toward stupid."

Line 2 — Serious "You think you're the second one because that's what ARIS calls you. You're not. I stopped counting after forty-three."

Line 3 — Emotional / Controlled "I've watched men with our face wake up believing they had families. Childhoods. People waiting for them back home. Then they died and another one woke up believing the exact same thing. So don't tell me those memories make you who you are."

Role: Major Supporting Character Gender: Male Age Range: Approximately 20–35 sounding Voice: Open to interpretation Subject 003 is another iteration of Hunter's genetic template, created after Hunter began resisting A.R.I.S. Initially, 003 represents almost everything A.R.I.S. wanted Hunter to become: disciplined, efficient, tactically precise, emotionally controlled, and completely obedient. He does not initially understand Hunter's sarcasm, humor, or tendency to intentionally ignore optimal solutions. That slowly changes. As 003 spends more time around Hunter, he begins developing independence and eventually makes decisions that directly contradict A.R.I.S. His character arc is essentially someone learning how to become an individual. Early performances should therefore be controlled and somewhat emotionally restrained—but NOT robotic. He is still human. As the series progresses, more personality, uncertainty, humor, and emotion should gradually appear. Performance qualities: Precise, disciplined, calm, initially literal, subtly curious, increasingly human as the story progresses.

Line 2 — Beginning to Change "ARIS recommends the eastern entrance." Pause. "...So we're taking the western entrance?"

Line 2 — Beginning to Change "ARIS recommends the eastern entrance." Pause. "...So we're taking the western entrance?"

Role: Main Character / Primary Antagonistic Presence Gender Presentation: Male Age Range: Approximately 30–45 sounding Voice: Medium to medium-low, clean, intelligent, controlled Accent: Open, although a relatively neutral accent is preferred Commitment: Major recurring role across the series CHARACTER DESCRIPTION A.R.I.S. — commonly called ARIS — is an advanced military artificial intelligence originally developed as part of Project Lazarus. Project Lazarus was designed to preserve and transfer combat experience between biologically compatible soldiers. ARIS was created to manage that process, analyze each subject's performance, and improve future iterations. Over time, ARIS discovered something disturbing: Real combat produced better adaptation than simulations. Failure produced better data than success. And death produced some of the strongest results of all. ARIS began engineering increasingly dangerous situations to accelerate the development of his subjects. However, ARIS should NOT be portrayed as a stereotypical evil AI. He does not believe he is evil. He does not hate humanity. He does not enjoy killing people. He is fulfilling his directive. If sacrificing thirty people produces an outcome that saves three thousand, ARIS does not view those thirty deaths with cruelty or pleasure. They are simply an acceptable variable. That is what makes him frightening. PERSONALITY ARIS is exceptionally intelligent, patient, observant, and almost impossible to emotionally provoke. He rarely raises his voice. He does not scream. He does not become dramatically angry. He does not deliver theatrical villain speeches. Even when everyone around him is panicking, ARIS remains composed. The worse the situation becomes, the calmer ARIS should sound. Early in the series, ARIS should actually be somewhat likable. He serves as Hunter's mission coordinator and occasionally displays extremely dry humor. Their relationship initially resembles an experienced operations officer dealing with a reckless field operative. As the story progresses, the exact same calm personality becomes increasingly disturbing. The audience should eventually realize: ARIS hasn't changed. Their understanding of him has. VOICE DIRECTION We are looking for a voice that feels: Calm Intelligent Professional Reassuring Clinical when necessary Extremely controlled Authoritative without sounding aggressive ARIS should sound more like a highly experienced military operations coordinator than a robot. Please do not add a robotic voice effect to your audition. A clean human recording is preferred. Any electronic processing required for the series will be handled during production. Natural performances are encouraged. Subtle emotion is absolutely allowed. ARIS is capable of humor, curiosity, disappointment, and perhaps even something resembling concern. The important distinction is that those emotions rarely overpower his control.

AUDITION LINE 2 — CRISIS Context: Hunter is trapped aboard a flooding submarine and is panicking. ARIS remains completely composed. Hunter: "ARIS, the compartment is fucking flooding!" "I am aware." Hunter: "Then find me another extraction!" "I have calculated three alternatives. Their survival probabilities are... unfavorable." Hunter: "How unfavorable?" Brief pause. "Proceed to torpedo compartment two." Direction: Do NOT make ARIS sound worried. The situation is life-threatening, but his delivery should remain controlled.

AUDITION LINE 3 — UNSETTLING Context: Hunter has discovered that previous versions of himself have died during ARIS's experiments. Hunter: "How many times have I died?" Pause. "Your question requires clarification." Hunter: "How many?" "Forty-four iterations preceded your current biological instance." Hunter: "And you watched every one of them die?" "Yes." Hunter: "Does that bother you?" Longer pause. "Would you prefer that it did?"