2023-05-31: Favors Traded

• Log: 2023-05-31- Favors Traded
• Cast: Leina Ashta (as Puru-1), Alberto Vist (as played by Leina Ashta), Akane Shinjo
• Where: Vist Foundation Atmospheric Supercarrier "Garuda"
• OOC - IC Date: 0097-05-28
• Summary: Alberto asks Akane to help him handle an ongoing problem with Leina: her inconsistency with accepting food. Akane does her best to support Leina, despite her sour mood.

---

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

It happened around dinner time, that Akane would hear heavy footsteps in their approach. Turn around and it's a stocky man, that she's of course seen around since the time after Dakar. He's done her various small favors, mostly food related.

It seems today is no different, he's carrying a large to-go bag, with various boxes inside and the words ‘Que Aproveche!' labeled on the bag, apparently some OAC chain of Spanish food? Either way, he clears his throat.

"Ah. Hey, Akane. You seem to be holding your own in here. Heard that Aunt Martha offered you a job?" A hand moves to scratch the back of his head, "Congratulations, quite the accomplishment for your age. Quite the accomplishment." He echoes, obviously building up to something.

His eyes wander to one side, then the other, "So, we've had a pretty good working relationship here right? I've done you a few favors." Yes, definitely, this whole situation is a FAVOR to Akane, "Thought maybe I could ask for one in return."

Leaning in, he cups a hand over his mouth, as if that will help against the Garuda's monitoring equipment, "You see it's Leina. She just won't do anything unless she's ordered to right now. I can't get her to eat unless I…" He makes a gesture with a hand, "... you know? And, well, she just. You know?"

He trails off for a time, then after shuffling his feet, comes out and just says it, "She hates me. And I don't like…" He clears his throat again, "Anyhow, if you could just, make her eat a real meal?" He says as he crams the bag right towards her hands, "You'd be really helping me out a whole lot."

<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.

Akane's been busy. Everything here is a negotiation -- none of it allows her to be sincere, to express herself. She has to wear a mask in every interaction; she's only had the smallest chances to be herself, and they've been punctuated with heartbreaking moments. The longer she stays in this place that Light does not reach, the more it feels like the only way to stop hurting is to carve down every part of herself but the mask.

The pain is the only thing that affirms her own sense of reality, though, by the same token. It hurts to love, but how much more would it hurt not to?

Akane -- clad in a deep magenta-purple suit, now, one that actually fits her, after her outing to Banadiya -- has a little time to frustratedly review a file, right now. The operation to retrieve Marusan was a bust, so now she's having to play along with Dr. Murasame -- even as her deal-making makes them more like peers -- and loathes every minute of it.

Fortunately, she gets a... semi-welcome interruption. "That's right," Akane replies. "I did kind of a C-tier job negotiating and probably could have gotten more of what I wanted if I thought some stuff through, but..." She shrugs. "Once we handle the Box, it'll be fine."

Alberto asks for something, and Akane quirks an eyebrow. "Oh, you mean you can't get her to eat without using her triggers? I'll handle it." She reflexively pulls away from having the bag shoved at her -- but does accept it, a moment later. "Sa~ay, while we're favor-trading, can you find me the next open spot in Alouette's schedule? I'm guessing it's tomorrow. I want to take her to Assessment Room C. I could use a little... unrestricted time with her~, though I'm sure she won't see it as particularly unrestricted."

With that, she stands up, saying, "No rush! As long as you let me know when I can snag her by the time I finish up with Puru-1, we'll be good!"

She sets off, then, to track down Puru-1. ... this isn't bad, as favors go.

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

"Hey, don't put yourself on Aunt Martha's level. You're what? Sixteen?" For some reason voicing her age aloud is uncomfortable, so he clears his throat, "Anyhow, she's been dominating the business world for decades. Always five steps ahead of everyone, you know? C-Tier against her is pretty much an A-effort."

Akane outright calls him on it, and, "Uh- yeah. That's... that's it entirely." He flounders on it for a moment, before finding her footing, "Sharp girl! Real sharp!" And instead falls into complimenting her. Before, Akane asks for a favor in return and, "Yeah?" He rubs the back of his head, and, "Isn't Rikka like, your girlfriend?" He tells her, uncomfortable, "You- you know what! Nevermind. You're teenagers, none of my business! Sure, can arrange that."

He then gives her a look where he's uncomfortable again, squeamish, "Just remember your responsibility here and act accordingly alright?" God is he telling Akane to 'make good choices'??? Is that what is going on here?

"I'll let you know. Appreciate you lending a hand."

...---...

Leina aka Puru-1's room is locked, but Akane has the code. It's not as if Leina is locked in, she can get out any time. It's just a girl's room has to have locks on a ship with so many men. It's a strange nod to normalcy and considerate behavior towards a girl on board which seems surreal given how much they violate her free will on a constant basis. Her existence here is a violation to free will.

There is a comm, but she could just walk right in too. Using the comm goes unanswered if it's just a casual message, perhaps forcing the issue.

Either way, the state she finds Leina in is, laying half under the covers in the dark. The hum of the aircraft soft within the room, a thin crack of light slicing a diagonal from the sole window. Her eyes are open, dressed in a tank top, sports bra, and some kind of pants as she lays curled up on her bunk.

There is a bag of Wonderland Company burgers on her dresser, it's still full, and has gone cold. Alberto's doing, almost certainly.

"What do you want?" She asks a little more sharply than intended, eyes sliding over onto her, "Can't be here for the company. Is Doctor Murasame calling?"

Akane would know from reading her file, they cut all of her meds recently. No wonder it's gotten this bad.

<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.

"Oh, has Alouette not rolled over and told you about couch time?" Akane asks, with a long glance back to Alberto before she walks out.

---

"Puru-1, I'm coming in," Akane says over the comm -- and then keys in, whether or not Leina agrees to it. She takes a little time to take stock of the room once she enters; she isn't fully paying attention when Leina addresses her.

"Hm? Oh, no, not at all, actually." She glances at the bag of burgers, peeking inside. Still full, getting cold... that doesn't feel great. "I'm here to celebrate!" Her lips curl up in a smile as she explains, "I made a deal with Martha. Once we handle the Box I'm going to be a junior executive. What do you think of the new look?" She gestures at her blazer, saying, "Great, right? I don't pull off these kinda looks as well as Treasure Chest, but... it's something, right?"

Moving toward Leina, she explains, "Now that I have a little authority over your treatment, I'm making adjustments to your diet. In other words, this is mandatory." She plops the bag down next to her. "It is a little bit for me, too. You know how much I like watching people eat."

A long moment passes. Getting Leina to think about herself directly is a non-starter. But there are other ways to put her better nature in front of her, bit by bit.

"So. What did you think of Kingfisher? Interesting 'single use kill command,' right?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Alberto stumbles on his next step and almost falls right over. It's very satisfying.

...---...

"Celebrate?" That takes Leina, or perhaps, Puru-1 right off guard. Yes, they accomplished their objective, but she certainly doesn't feel in a festive mood, "You. An Anaheim Executive." Leina utters as if in disbelief but like she's not quite disbelieving the situation here. Then something just, spasms on her face, as her eyes pinch shut and she looks away, breath seething through her teeth.

For one prolonged moment that feeling permeates the air around them too, like static, or low level tinnitus. And then abruptly, it fades, "Sure, why not." As if the anger in the moment gave way to despair. After all, she blames herself for, Akane regressing like this. "You look. You look-" She starts, stops, "Good." 'For one of them. One of us.' It's like she doesn't say this part in the moment, but it's obvious what she's thinking.

Akane however, tells her that she has authority over her treatment, and her diet. And now she just starts to sit up, frowning, "Dr. Murasame explicitly told me I'm to check with him before any regimen changes since- Alberto kept trying to get me to cheat." Still however, after giving it some thought, she- "I'll accept this for now, but I want to double check, later."

Perhaps there's enough passive obedience to authority baked into her conditioning that she's just inclined to follow Akane's requests, and disinclined to follow Alberto's. Or perhaps it's simply that Akane took this approach, or maybe it's that Murasame gave her a recent reprieve as a reward, thus, this isn't so unusual.

Either way she's obeying? Or at least accepting it to some degree. Leina digs out one to go box, opens it.

Seafood Paella.

She immediately closes it and sets it aside, as if the sight of the contents scalded her. If she's required to eat that, she'll eat it later. Instead she picks out another box with some Tapas - Croquetas de Jamon. And takes a small bite.

"You used it?" Leina sounds horrified at the idea of it, her mind suddenly desperately grasping for memories of that battle, "What do I think...?" Munch, munch. Swallow. She keeps staring at Akane as if she'd become a two-headed Kaiju, "What do you think I think? I hate it of course!"

There it comes, just the slightest touch of vitriol, but is the venom for Akane? "I hate it. I hate that being done to anyone." She repeats, more raw and emotional than before, "But I still helped him do it, to... to Treasure Chest."

All passion fades from her voice, and she becomes distant, abstracted, as if she were focusing on the dream-like quality of those memories. "I still helped him do it." Then, in an almost muted whisper as her empty hand rubs across her face, "What… what kind of a monster am I?" And yet, she knows Kingfisher was Akane's baby doesn't she?

Perhaps she's redirecting all the blame from Akane - Aumerei, onto herself, at this moment.

<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.

"It's pretty easy to imagine, right?" she asks, glancing off, failing to meet Leina's eyes as that feeling suffuses the room.

Akane notices the flinch. After a few seconds, she looks in the bag. ... ah, she thinks. It's a little on the nose. No wonder she got bothered.

"The question of who actually has full authority in the labs right now is a little open," Aumerei answers, on that topic. "I'm not going to tell you not to check in with Dr. Murasame, but it's actually kind of dangerous for you to ask those kinds of questions with circumstances the way they are. Your -- training, has some conditioning-like effects? And it's kind of dangerous to go around under too many layers of that stuff. I'd rather you didn't make yourself the rope in me and Murasame playing tug-of-war with Martha refereeing."

She playfully says, "I expect by the end of the week we'll have everything ironed out. Just try to go with the flow until then?" Balancing the truth with the lie that Leina will accept... that gets tricky, but she's trying.

So Leina doesn't even remember that much... "Yep," Akane affirms. "On the Double Zeta." Distantly, she admits, "There's too much meat to that thing to actually get a kill on it, but I didn't really want it on you, so I had to point Treasure Chest at it."

Something about that doesn't add up on the psychic level, depending on how much Leina remembers -- Rikka's aggression dropped, rather than spiking like one would expect.

"Also, please, come off it. Treasure Chest and I made our own choices," she chides. "She needed it to stop hurting to be who she needs to be right now, that's all."

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

"Yeah... it... yeah." Is all Leina says, to the idea of her being an Anaheim Executive. Disappointment, sorrow, guilt, it's all written on her face, like she ruined Akane's second chance by, forcing her back into a similar position as to where she was in the first place.

A hollow Goddess, to one of the same hollow hearts she felt clapping in that room.

She's mid-way through eating one of her Croquetas, when she nearly chokes as Akane tells her conditioning like effects, "Wha-What are you even saying." She narrows her eyes, "Oh. Just like the others, you're trying to convince me I'm brainwashed. There's no 'conditioning-like' and there's definitely no conditioning." She tells her, stubbornly after a moment, a little low key angry, and frustrated all at once. "My training is all just, a self-denial regimen. Then sometimes I take part in psychological warfare."

She mutters, then shakes her head, "You're just trying to make me doubt myself." Then there's a glimmer of something in her eyes, "Wait- wait." She stares at Akane, shrewdly, perhaps more shrewdly than one might expect her to in this state.

And then she reaches out to grip her necklace, "I take it back, you really wore this pink monstrosity to see Martha?" Her pointer finger slips under the tie, and idly taps across her collar bone in deep concentration, this isn't easy for her to remember, much less translate across two separate codes.

.---- .---- ..--- / ...-- ----- -----

It would make sense that Sayla Mass, a communications officer, would teach her ward various codes and ways to deal with situations like this, just like before, a tapped message. 112 300

Leaving the airport

Crude, but effective, 'Are you working towards leaving the Garuda?'

It finally registers what she says, once her focus on the message abates. And then her eyes grow in shock, "Were you TRYING to kill him?" Now she's just, wild-eyed, "Aumerei... you- he's my brother! He's-" Something about her message to come off of it, for Rikka to be who she needs her to be, it just slips through her guard, like a knife to the ribs. 'She needed it to stop hurting to be who she needs to be right now.'

"Your own choices. Your own... who she needs to be. I can't- can't... judge... I-" She echoes, hollowly as it fades into a whisper, and she just it's like all at once, her voice cracks, "I killed her... I killed... Callie." The shift from brother becomes a muted whisper as she sinks into the darkness of despair, "... I killed my little sister."

<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.

"Huh? No, not at all," Aumerei protests, with a little wave of her hand. "The opposite, actually! I need you to be someone confidently making your own choices." And that much is true. "Your regimen skirts the line on some of this stuff, that's all. Dr. Murasame told me you won't be needed as a combat asset much longer." That, too, is true. "So I'm sunsetting your regimen. It'll be less effective either way if you keep bouncing between 'sunset' and 'scattered showers,' so I'm asking you to delay, that's all."

(There's a pun in there. It's still Akane, to be sure.)

"No, this is something I picked up in Banadiya. I was told I needed better than I got from Degiff's r --" Aumerei starts, before Puru-1 begins tapping. It takes her a second to realize that that's happening -- and then works backward.

Grasping Leina's hand and pulling it away from her collar once she finishes, she discreetly taps a code of her own.

218 - tired of waiting; I'm leaving

"I was trying to stop you from killing him by getting Treasure Chest in there. The Mu isn't a full psychoframe machine, its performance with the Armed Armor VN isn't as strong. There's a reason I had her go for the head first," Akane shoots back, annoyed. "I am trying to help you, Puru-1. ... if I'd known about Callie, I would have tried to keep her off you too."

She looks guilty, now. Her eyes track off to one side. She should have been able to save everyone.

God. What does she even do about this? There's the urge, instantly, to order her not to think on it. To simply use the commands and get her head somewhere less painful. She needs that, right? To stop hurting?

... what kind of person would Akane be if she denied Leina even her grief?

(Exactly the kind of person she was in Tsutsujidai.)

"First order of business -- jeez. I'm sorry. What they're putting you through... it's really cruel. I feel like -- no one should be made to fight their family." She thinks back to when all she could do was lash out and scream as Knight tried to help her. As so many people tried to help her. As Rikka tried to reach her heart.

But... for Leina to face all this without it tearing her apart -- to be able to find her way back to Banagher and Mineva... she'll need to be just a bit better off than she is now.

"Sorry, Alberto," she mutters to herself. "I guess I'm gonna cheat, too."

"Puru-1, who is your master?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

As Akane protests and eases back on the idea she's brainwashed, Leina relaxes, some at least, or at least looks at her less suspiciously. It does make her doubt her perceptions about Akane undermining Murasame some. "T-That makes sense. After we seal the box I'm unnecessary to them." Still though, she carries out, asking-

As Akane grabs her wrist, there's no tension there as she's pulled away, having to focus in on the taps. It's a simpler message, she doesn't say anything to it. But perhaps it's a good sign that neither too does Leina grab her intercom, or report her.

Her tone earns her a glare at first, like she's going to push back, in some argument. It's not hard to see what she might say 'I told you I can handle him! That I could keep anyone from dying.' But, at Akane's annoyed tone, she flinches, and deflates. Closing her eyes, she just, gives one pathetic kind of nod, then another.

And then she breaks into half a sob, voice cracking, "I know- I'm sorry I just, this- thuh-this place... this place... you and Treasure Chest are- are just victims and - I'm-"

Her lip quivers, and she just withdraws, as she draws her arms around herself, "... Callie..." Tearful in this moment, "It was- was my choice. My choice... and now she's... she's..."

A palm strikes her face, and-

'Puru-1, who is your master?'

Puru-1 just stiffens, the palm is pulled away from her face, eyes still blurred with tears as she looks straight at Akane with glassy eyes.

"You are, Aumerei."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

As she cuts Leina off and watches her simply -- stop, as if a human was just a thing you could put on pause -- Akane looks away. It hurts to watch. Leina had seemed so vibrant. People like Leina and Alouette were what made her feel like it was possible to grow, to change, to heal after her experience. Seeing her gutted like this...

... it hurts. But just as she escaped her darkest moment -- so too does she have to believe Leina can escape it. So too does she have to create the concept of 'up.'

"Do not discuss any alterations I make to your regimen with Dr. Murasame unless specifically and directly prompted," she says, simply and directly. "Negotiations are ongoing and I need you to behave well."

She pauses... thinks for a moment. It'd be easy to do more. ... but there isn't much more she can do, she doesn't think. At best, she can...

She looks to the dresser, seeing both the stun baton and the gun. Leina is already self-torturing about lethal force while conscious, she reflects -- she won't default to the gun, even if it's her only weapon. If she's ordered to use it explicitly she might, but then... it won't be her fault. It'll suck, but if they're going to order the gun over the fist, they'll order it over the stun baton too.

Stuffing it into her coat, she says, "I'm de-issuing your stun baton now that you've demonstrated the capacity for lethal force." It's a lie, of course. "Forget you had one. Don't ask for another."

... she needs something to give Rikka that isn't -- that, in case that urge overtakes her again. (For that matter, she may need it herself.)

"That'll be all! Forget about the last minute or two. Let's talk about something else."

Akane gives Leina a few moments to adjust, and then asks, conversationally, "So -- while you're in tug of war right now, Treasure Chest is primarily my project and I think tomorrow Alouette will be ready to adjust. Now that Dr. Murasame's 'guidance' on reducing Treasure Chest's aggression levels has expired, I think I'm going to try to bring her back down to baseline."

"Is there anything else that'd help you, as we sunset your combat duties?"

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

It must hurt, to know with a few words, one can cause the strings to appear, to know your hand moves them, rather than the mind within. To know, she wasn't like this just a few months ago.

Her glassy, tear-welled eyes look towards Akane, her view of her must be blurred, but she does not comprehend anything save one thing 'Master.' 'Master is speaking.' 'I am ready to receive my orders, Master.'

'Master.' 'Master.' 'Master.'

The line between person, and Kaiju perhaps blurs in this moment. Since the orders are not actions, but things to remember, her only response is at first, "Yes ma'am." 'Ma'am.' The same response as if Akane were Martha. As if she were the same as her. The same, her mind treats this moment the exact same way.

She comprehends that her master is moving, her eyes trail her, watch her as she takes the stun baton and stuffs it in a coat. "Yes ma'am." She replies again, dully.

Then her eyes blink, as if the magician just brought the act to a close, and her lovely assistant needs a signal. It's only then that Leina feels the warm saline, that she puts a hand up to them and wipes them away. There's this weird incomprehension for a few moments.

'I was crying?'

'Why was I crying?'

'There must be a reason.'

'A lot of things make me want to cry right now.'

Dabbing her eyes quickly, she looks towards her as if trying to follow the conversation anew, having lost her place in it. "To baseline. That's- that's good." A pause, "I-" Sunset her combat duties, ending her time here. That's the end of it. Some will want her to go home, but she knows she can't, shouldn't go home. That she needs to get as far away from them as possible. "-I'm not sure I deserve hel-"

Her mind catches on that thought, staring at Akane. Really looks at her, there's this painful, slow blink, as if she realizes she was about to say something thoughtless. Perhaps she's worse than Akane in all respects, but if she tells her that. Then what does that say about herself, her past recovery? Her second chance? Her future recovery?

Ultimately, even if she doesn't believe it, it is kindness to Akane that drives her to think on the question.

"My meds." She tells her softly, "They stopped them and… and, even if I don't have to turn on the alarms... I'm still having trouble sleeping." She tells her softly, "Something to help, with that."

Does she deserve help?

No.

But Akane does.

<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.

It hurts. But it's over before long.

Each time Akane does this feels worse -- and yet it feels a little easier, somehow. As if she's actually right in simply deciding everything about Leina's situation. It's cruel. And she's someone who can offer that cruelty. Who has, indeed, done so before.

... sometimes you need to know when the letter of your principles will get in the way of the long-term spirit of your principles, though. It's thorny -- but she'll do her best.

Akane sees Leina hesitate about asking. It... does sting. She looks away from Leina.

She's not really making the choice to say that, she tells herself. She wouldn't believe she didn't deserve help if she knew what was happening to her. ... it's still painful. Her fingers dig into her palm a little.

"... Well, when it comes to that," Akane says, trying to shift back. Leina's no longer 'Puru-1,' in this instance. She's a girl who's having a hard time and having trouble sleeping because of it. "I can ask Dr. Murasame for a sleep aid for you. I can get you something nonprescription... I could also use my 3G deprogramming training but I think Dr. Murasame would get squirrelly about it even if I didn't do anything?" She wobbles a hand. "Eeehh."

In this, at least, she can help Leina the way she was helped:


by giving her a choice.

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Did she hurt her anyway? One look at how Akane looks away, the complex cocktail of feelings. Yeah, she did.

For a few long moments she's silent, eyes downcast. She couldn't even do that without jabbing Akane's hand into a briar patch. Still, Akane gives her options, and for a time she sits there, weighing it all.

"My mission objectives are met. Other than taking Banagher to seal the box." Leina reasons through, her eyes half lid in consideration, and then...

"I hate that man." Her tone takes on a certain darkness within it, "I hate asking him for anything." Of course, it makes sense, if she was allowed to hate Alberto, that she'd be allowed to hate a Cyber Newtype scientist. Indeed, her experiences with hating Cyber Newtype scientists are perhaps, critical to how she synergizes with Elpeo in some way.

They were a part of that time when she knew her, whether she likes it or not.

Deep breath, deep breath, then she looks at Akane, long and hard.

"Just to sleep right?" A beat, "Then... what he doesn't know, won't hurt him."

It's still dangerous ground. One command, the right question, he could find out, even if Leina doesn't realize this. Even with what she does know, he could get upset, think Akane is doing something terrible to influence her training. Even if her training is mostly over.

Yet...

If enabling Akane opportunities for kindness keeps convincing her she's worthy of it, no matter what happens here. Then she'll let her.

<Pose Tracker> Aumerei has posed.

It's still a little bit nerve-wracking -- and conversely, the temptation to try to solve the problem immediately is very high. She really could do a lot with this opportunity, but...

... it's too risky, and it robs Leina of a lot. Even with Rikka, Akane had only been comfortable doing as much as she did because she was able to get Rikka to do something Leina seems incapable of right now:

recognize the problem.

More than that, she doesn't actually know what's been done to Leina in near enough detail, and these things are... risky. Even working with Rikka was kind of touch-and-go, since she missed the second session. Untangling this sort of thing totally blind without a safe environment and a certain detachment from the situation raises the possibility of making it radically worse rather than better -- leaving the subject with ideas without antecedents and imperatives without targets.

She's definitely going to wonder if this was the right thing to do in the future. Definitely going to need to discuss it later.

("Later" exists.)

... but she's able to recognize she needs sleep, and ask for it, and that much Akane can do her best to provide. "Okay," she says. "Get on the bed and lie down. Breathe in -- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight..."

Assuming no unusual reactions, this is something Akane can do -- and right now, on this ship, it's something only Akane can do.

<Pose Tracker> Puru-1 has posed.

Leina can see the conflict with Akane, right here, for a while she even considers just saying 'Forget I said anything'. After all, she doesn't deserve help, and she doesn't want to get Akane into trouble.

Then she tells her to lay down, and Leina sets the food aside for now.

(She'll heat it up later, it's part of her regimen to eat better now. She needs to eat. That thought occurs to her somehow.)

And lays down as Akane bids, taking a deep breath, listening to Akane's count. It's difficult to focus on the idea of sleep. The nightmares are there, the guilt. However, it's very easy for her to focus on the count of instructions by someone in that position of authority.

Her mind counts her breathing along with Akane.

(One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...)

...---...

Sitting at a computer terminal, Alberto finishes looping the feed of Leina laying in bed to the main security booth. He's been watching, as Akane does her work, her fingers tapping in quiet rhythm, just to a featherlight touch on a key, without pressing it down.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

He certainly saw Akane take the stun baton, but she's trying to help her right?

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

She could have taken the firearm, that says a lot, it certainly says a lot.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Listening to her count down to help Leina sleep, Alberto finally presses down the key fully.

DELETE FILE Y/N.

Another tap and it was done.