2023-09-07: Failed Retake

• Log: 2023-09-07- Failed Retake
• Cast: Dr. Murasame as NPCed by Leina Ashta, Akane Shinjo
• Where: ????
• OOC - IC Date: 0097-09-07
• Summary: Akane has a meeting with Dr. Murasame. She intends to rub her win in his face, but it mostly doesn't go that way. While Akane manages to needle him just a little more than he does her, no one comes out of this one happy.
• CW: mention of reproductive coercion as part of science experiment

---

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

It's never really stated to Akane which organization is arranging this. All she knows is that at certain points, she has to blindfold herself.

She as picked up from Japan in some kind of submersible, and eventually she arrived at an island base.

Conveniently, she's not led anywhere that has markings though she could certainly snoop. What is clear, is this place is really well funded for some kinda secret paramilitary organization.

She's given a list of rules for interaction, most of which are common sense. No attempts to touch the prisoner, no contraband, etc, etc.

Eventually she's led to a room that would remind her of any prison visitation from the shows she watched growing up. Reinforced glass with tiny holes to talk through. A phone if the acoustics aren't good enough. A chair. An intercom.

Obviously it's all being monitored, obviously.

Eventually, a door opens, and a man hobbles in. There are metallic noises, because if Akane looks closely his legs are in braces that look half exoskeleton, with signs of a bulky dressing under the prison uniform.

He uses a cane now, he didn't before. He's clean shaven, and has a new, different pair of glasses. One step after another. Akane might notice he's not favoring his dominant arm with the cane. His other shoulder-

Well it's obvious he's trying not to move his right one. Tap. Tap. Tap. One footstep after another... until he settles down in his seat.

He sits there just staring at her for a time, before picking up the phone, waiting for the same, "Akane Shinjo. Just on time for your gloating session. They offered me an option not to meet with you when the idea was originally presented the other day."

An abstracted look in his eyes.

"But I thought perhaps, that I would like to stare one last time, at the sheer breadth of scientific achievement you could have represented."

...
...
...

"Wasted, all a sacrifice to your inane selfishness."

Himeyuri Oono (Hime) has paged Leina Ashta and Akane Shinjo with, 'Do you mind an observer?'

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

It's straight from Akane's trip to Neo-Japan to this, which is a little disorienting, but Akane manages.

This is definitely the most anxiety-inducing trip Akane's been on in --

-- actually, no it isn't. Akane doesn't like it, but once she settles into the rhythm of the whole thing, she's actually... mostly fine with it; she does her best to sleep through the parts where she's blindfolded if they last longer than five minutes. (If she treats it like a sleep mask rather than a blindfold, it feels a little less weird.)

She settles in, waiting for Dr. Murasame to hobble in. In spite of herself, she can't quite stop herself from wincing when she notices the extent of his injuries; he is still a human being, even if most of this is on him.

"Dr. Murasame," Akane says, back to coolness once she's addressed, the phone in one hand. She looks down and away, a bit, at his comments; she's not immune to feeling bad for being selfish, even in a situation like this.

"I'm not your specimen. I don't belong to you. Neither does Rikka Takarada." A moment passes. "No one does." Her fist clenches at her side, and her grip on the phone tightens; she didn't expect to be this upset this fast, and the energy needs somewhere to go.

"You know what, though? Yeah. I do want to gloat. Did you hear Gridman brought in Alexis, too? So he's probably getting this same treatment in a Hyper World prison right now." That puts her a little more back on-footing. "You already know this, but I'm a bad winner. Even if it seems like it's pretty consistently taking ten times as long to clean up your messes as it took you to make them."

She finds herself at a loss for words for a moment; she'd rehearsed this in her head several times, but she's a little off-kilter already. She needs to seize the narrative -- and she settles on talking about her own plans. "I'm looking at the University of Tokyo's remote applied psychology program," she says, instead of trying to engage him. "I guess I'm making it my life's work to undo all of yours. I've always been pretty decent at 'undoing'. This time it'll even be pretty constructive!"

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

"Belong to me?" Murasame echoes the statement in a question, as he looks down Akane with this air of condescension.

Still, he allows his cane to drift against the counter he sits at... he certainly doesn't look comfortable, even sitting down.

And he listens, at times, his eyes flicker with something - anger perhaps when he hears of Alexis being captured.

"Messes?" He echoes again, with this edge of anger, like an old man who isn't used to being spoken to in this way by a child, in part because all the children in his presence are under his control.

As Akane details her life's plan, he listens to her say how she'll make it her life's work to undo his... it's only then that he truly speaks again. "Like I said. ... A consummate waste of space."

Then a moment later, he adds, dripping with contempt, "... And potential. You were my specimen yes, but I never thought you belonged to me Akane. You belonged to science. To humanity. To the evolution of the concept of humanity."

Folding his hands in front of him, "Out of how many billions of people out there, and you - another fly in the swarm, one who was cursed with the understanding of how valueless you truly were was gifted something incredibly unique. So many live, or die, contributing absolutely nothing. It was to be your fate - and you - you stupid child, who was given such gifts, decided to squander them by setting humanity back. To an eternal regression."

He keeps staring her right in the eye, "You're just like every fool in the Earth Federation Assembly who looks upon that which Psychoframe accomplished at Gryps II with fear. You would undo that which I have done, you ungrateful, selfish, child?"

There's a tiny smirk upon his lips, "I think not. I think, there is no place where I can be sent where someone will not seek the same thing I do... to see how far humanity can truly go when unbound by childish ideals. My knowledge? It won't die with me Akane. You will accomplish... nothing."

He then leans in then at that moment, "Tell me, child, do you feel a sense of triumph knowing that your own history already rhymes, and the judgment remains a self-imposed insignificance...?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane lets Murasame talk -- and regrets it; she has a hard time keeping herself stable in the face of this kind of thing -- and moreover, she ought to know that, given how thoroughly Alexis kept spinning her.

And yet, she's still here. Some part of her wants this -- wants Murasame's validation, as if it's a thing she can have for having outplayed him once in a stressful situation. Like she could just -- think her way out of every trap he could lay for her, think her way out of every trap anyone could ever lay for her.

Her hand drifts down to her bag. Oh, sure, she's had several items held -- her cell phone, her 3G pager... but there's one thing she does have.

Her hand wraps for just a moment around pink leather with a gold clasp. She holds it tight as she forces herself to keep meeting a gaze she really doesn't want to meet.

"Yeah. I would. Your dream sucks. Say what you want about how I ran my city, the whole fake history I set up was sure missing guys like you." Her eyes narrow a little, and she says, "Yeah, it takes ten times as long for someone to undo the stuff you do as it takes you to do it. But you know what? There's a lot more than ten halfway decent people in the world for every person running after what you want."

Now she's starting to find her stride -- bit by bit. She's still struggling, but... "Hmm. That's not how I'd put it, but yeah. I do feel a sense of triumph knowing you, Alexis, and Martha are all in super prison and that people pulled me out of Alexis's stupid forehead."

A bead of sweat rolls down Akane's forehead, in spite of it. (It's a very human sensation.)

"Seriously, though," she says, trying to more fully find her footing. "You don't even know what you had. You wouldn't have made a single conclusion that made sense the way you were looking at Rikka. I read your file on her. That one I even got all the way through before I threw up." ... She can't move forward if she can't admit her own weakness. "Like, we can quibble about how right you got me but that's kinda pointless... but you never saw her as anything but a neatly prepackaged doll who could use funnels."

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

Does he see what she reaches for? No, he can't from this angle. He does look though, as if expecting her to pull out some bauble as a trump card trying to impress him.

And is surprised she doesn't.

"Yes - you did so with a distinct lack of vision. Conflict drives advancement. You drove stagnation."

Still, he does bristle as she starts talking about how ten halfway decent people in the world for everyone with ambitions ike his.

But instead of focusing upon the shared fate of them all, "Like Athena herself - save that what could have been a Goddess of Wisdom chose to be just another Foolish child."

It's not clear perhaps how much Akane is getting to him, until the ending about Rikka, "Oh? Next you'll tell me you received your Doctorate in the esoteric studies of Repli-Compoids while I was being processed."

He glares at her then, "Enlighten me, my most Junior Lab Assistant, what did I miss about our Treasure Chest?"

Akane may realize that she may have to be a touch careful here, because beneath a mountain of pricked pride...

... there's also a hunger. A hunger for more knowledge. Knowledge of the possibilities that each of them represented.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Yeah, I did," Akane concedes, at the stagnation of a city that was once hers. She has no easy answer to the idea that the removal of people like him was what kept it stagnant... so she scoots along.

"I don't need that," Akane shoots back. "They're people. That's where it starts and ends. You not getting that is like the whole thing you missed." She leans in a little closer -- and at this point her gaze does falter again, looking down.

Taking a few precious seconds to compose herself, she says, "It's an easy miss. I missed it too, for a long time. But a guy your age ought to know better." Something festers in her, though, as she says it -- doesn't this answer kind of suck? It's cliche, it's weak, and --

"Don't -- don't call her that!" she snaps, after a moment where she had been composing her thoughts. "Don't call me that! But especially don't call her that -- you --" Her gaze turns down, black-brown hair curtaining her whole face. "If I could have killed you without making it harder to save her and Leina --"

It's here that she flinches, actively cutting herself off. "You missed everything. Rikka's not a doll. I'm not a kaiju."

Her voice wavers, getting a little raw as she half-shouts, "And you're just some backchan creepshow, and -- those guys you mentioned who're afraid of the stuff that happened at Gryps? They keep cutting checks for you, because you're the same! You don't see miracles, or, or -- people as anything but something to exploit! You're just more hands-on with the exploiting, and that makes you think you're better!"

Akane cuts herself off here, slumping back in her seat as she realizes that by participating in the argument with any seriousness she's already losing the argument.

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

"People." Murasame echoes, dripping with contempt, "Stupid panicky herd animals. It could mean so much more than that."

Akane tells him it was an easy miss but a guy his age should know better, and he actually raises his voice, "How dare you compare yourself to me. You! A child who laid in garbage, absorbed in her own nihilistic despair! Ever have I worked for the cause of human advancement, and you dare lecture me on the value of the individual?"

Yet Akane yells back at him, and he sneers at her, "And yet you did not. Justify it all you want - but as much as you hated me - you acted to preserve me, to preserve my knowledge all for the sake of your selfish attachment to the two of them."

With a soft smirk, he chuckles at her, "You. In exalting this 'sacred individual'? You are your own worst enemy when it comes to 'undoing' my life's work, Akane Shinjo. Dolls? Kaiju? Would you like to know what you both truly were?"

Again he leans forward, "You were wonders. Scientific miracles - stepping stones to human advancement." He leans back again, "And now you are nothing. Nothing without a man of vision to properly direct your potential."

But it's clear his final comments get under his skin, even as she slumps, he raises his voice again, "Miracles? Again you prove yourself a foolish child! What is a miracle but a phenomenon that can not yet be explained by science? I am NOTHING like those fools who cower in fear and believe something is beyond human understanding!"

And then he draws himself up again, "You have no concept of how close I was. So maddeningly close. I had all of the data I needed - and if I'd had but more time..."

Indeed, now it's him who seems to despair some, his posture slumping, "... then there would be nothing within human understanding that could be called a 'miracle' ever again."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Now it's a screaming match -- and Akane often tricks herself into thinking she's great at those. She flinches back from his raised voice for a moment -- and when he points out that she preserved him for the sake of her selfish attachment, she flinches a little more.

She'd love to reach through the glass and wipe that smirk off his face -- even more when he describes them as wonders, as miracles, then turns right around and says that a miracle is simply a phenomenon that cannot yet be explained by science.

... at least he finally falters. A long silence passes between them. Akane does her best to digest what he's said, in spite of herself. "That -- you're disgusting. Looking at the kind of stuff you wanted to do with me and Leina and Rikka and calling it 'wonders.' I'm glad 3G is on a pretty good insurance scheme."

A little more hotly, she adds, "I'm glad I didn't kill you, because you deserve everything they did to you." She'd love to break a finger or two herself... even if it's unproductive.

... curiosity gets the better of her, though, at something he says. ... This type of person, after all, is still a human -- and moreover, a Japanese human, and moreover, a Japanese human in the sciences. "... Darkstar liker, huh. You would have been in, what, your late teens? Mid 20s at the latest? Rikka and I finished S in August. That's my third watch. Her first."

This is a terrible play and Akane knows it, but the urge to connect -- even with someone like this -- is...

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

There's a long silence as Akane calls him disgusting, and then he sounds amused in that condescending way, "And what about my plans was 'disgusting'? My plan to breed you? I would have thought someone who searched for advice on sexual intercourse from the most inane corners of the internet would be less prudish about a basic human function. Thousands perform the act every day simply for base pleasure - or to fulfill the instinct to pass on one's genetic material. I would have thought you would appreciate it being done with actual purpose."

It's like he's regathered himself some after that breakdown, but then Akane saying he deserves everything they did to him causes him to tense.

"Ah yes. Do tell me how much I deserve what you would regard as torture, Akane - simply because of my 'moral failings'. Reveal to me the quality of your newfound 'heroism'."

There's an edge to his tone, like he's close to yet another breakdown in the moment, to a yelling match, but then...

Akane says something unexpected.

The man squints at her, then sits up, "S was formative, in a sense. Though I certainly don't understand how a discussion of Darkstar is relevant to the topic at hand."

There's a touch of a feint there, as he does. In his head he certainly doesn't line up 1:1 with Darkstar, regarding their ideals as... short sighted, but...

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

It's at this point that Akane flies off the handle. "Choices like that aren't yours to make!" she shouts, raising a fist and very nearly slamming it through the glass; she stops herself, though, knowing full well if she actually swings this conversation is over. "You don't get to decide -- the way we live our lives!" she settles for.

The comment about the torture gets her to wince, though -- because he's right. That's actually her failing, and it loses her her footing in the conversation. She grapples for something else to latch onto --

-- and is surprised when Murasame rolls with the Tarabaman talk. "... yeah, but like... You hide behind this big talk about the future or whatever, when really you just wanna see what happens and don't care what you have to use to make stuff happen. You're bored and you hide behind the big stuff. That's why you and Alexis hit it off."

... this much, she can relate to, and she doesn't like it.

She shifts back. "I hate that I could have turned out like you. I guess I owe everyone another round of thank-yous for that." She shifts, moving to stand, but doesn't let go of the phone yet. "This isn't going to go anywhere. I -- I should go."

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

"Oh please. If you'd had any actual vision then you'd still be in Tsutsujidai, doing that yourself. But your own lack of a sense of purpose? Of a vision for a future that even exists with you in it?"

A snort, a pitying shake of his head, "That is why you were convinced to believe in such idealistic drivel. You were sold a false bill of goods, and one day - after the 'high' of your neurochemicals being stimulated for the first time in a long time wears off..."

He trails off, believing the point was well made, but he certainly seems... angry? Angry enough that he's doing everything he can, using every knife to get under her skin.

Akane causes him to just eye her, stunned, "You- you insolent child! You think you can a character from my childhood media and make the logical leap that I'm the same as Alexis?"

And indeed, it's clear Akane got a hit in, because he only learned about that side of Alexis in depth by hypnotizing Leina. He had biases which kept him from believing an actual being like that would...

... be so bored, and purposeless...

... because he wants to believe humanity can advance into things like him, only to find out he too was...

... that he could relate so strongly to him...

... a waste of space...

"I only saw the possibilities that existed in studying beings like him, nothing more, nothing less. Darkstar's ideals were... short-sighted, due to the director trying to make a point about the creative landscape of OCU media-"

... indeed he wanted to believe that a human ascending to that kind of power...

... would be... different...

As Akane gets back here to leave, "You- you come back here! You stupid - stupid girl! You think you can just make such baseless accusations and LEAVE?"

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"This world is better with me in it!" Akane shoots back, still trying very hard to believe it's true. "I could make that kind of world once -- I just have to do it again! With everyone, this time!" It's not a perfect rebuttal -- but it feels good to shout back.

Seeing Dr. Murasame get flustered, though -- seeing him all but admit that he's got the same problem Alexis does, by the depths of his protests -- makes Akane feel... better than it should, probably. She's not above feeling pleased about achieving the true objective of any argument:

making the other person mad.

This is a good type of mad, too, as types of mads go -- but it's also a little overwhelming. Akane still can't quite handle getting yelled at; it gets her to stand up a bit more urgently.

"I originally had some practical questions for you, but this stuff tells me you're not gonna answer them in a way I can't just get out of your files," she says, before finishing, "So -- yeah, actually, I'm gonna leave. Bad news though. Prison's real boring."

She retreats. It's a pretty graceless retreat with a bit too much urgency -- the hasty movement of someone who wants to ditch the argument while she has the advantage, rather than prosecute it all the way.

But maybe prosecuting it all the way wouldn't be good for her heart, either.

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

Akane can see him yelling into the phone, even after she retreats, but his voice is still carrying through the holes in front of them...

"-NEVER be anything of value without someone like me! You think I'M the one in prison? Just wait and see - and one day, you won't need a fantasy world of your creation to realize you're laying in garbage again!"

In the end however, she's gone. And he's just an megalomaniacal old man in a cell. He has leg braces on because his knees are still mauled, his shoulder still hurts.

Once she's gone, he rubs his face under his glasses, grabbing his cane as he stands up, mumbling, "Let her get to me. Was off my pills too long."

A press of the intercom, and he's on his way back to his isolation from the world - it may not be self imposed, but it is for everyone's good.

"Trying to psychoanalyze me from Darkstar and S... stupid girl, stupid stupid girl."