[Closed] CW: discussion of potential violence

[dollmaxing]

[Location: Leaving Shibuya Central Street]

Once Zenkichi Hasegawa finally left, got his fill of terrorizing her, Ichinose ran into the back alleys of the cognitive city until she had to slow down. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins, and she picked up the damn bomb of a tracked phone out of her pocket.

It doesn't matter if he finds out - she needs help.

Flutter is all that works. Ichinose opened it up, going to the conversation she had with those in her posts, and directly messaged the man that was a strange if a bit shifty cognitive psientist. After her encounter just now, she understood exactly why he was being shifty.

She sent a message. Hello! Can we meet up in person? Please call and respond ASAP. :)



[Location: Maruki's Laboratory]

Maruki is a lovely host, if nothing else. This place is huge... but for now Ichinose was fine finding a seat and just melting into the cushions, an arm draped over her eyes as she tried to quiet the unease still buzzing in her brain.

At least the snacks were nice. And a lab setting was pleasantly familiar.

"What've you gotten into, Kuon..."

Comments

[takutomaruki]

Maruki chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, trust me, my workspace isn't exactly a paragon of order either. My office—both here and back home—has always been a battlefield of books and notes. A truly scientific mess, if you will." His grin turned a little lopsided. "Though, the staff here seem oddly determined to keep things pristine. Almost obsessive about it."

He hummed, tilting his head as if genuinely pondering the thought. "Maybe that’s just another reflection of the mind at work? A subconscious compulsion to sort through our own self-inflicted chaos. Cognitive housekeeping, if you will."

As he stepped forward, the elevator doors responded instantly—sliding open in a smooth, circular motion with a low, almost reverent hum. It was as if the palace itself acknowledged him, bending to his presence. He gestured ahead with a nod.

[dollmaxing]

"Hahaha! I think if I had a place like this, it would be just as chaotic as my real office is already. Towers and towers of papers of things that are interesting, and maybe only sometimes useful," Ichinose laughed, joining him on the elevator. The futuristic look was crisp, clean... it reminded her a bit of Maddice buildings, of Konoe, really.

The elevator seemed impossibly tall... even though it was hardly any obstacle for someone like Zenkichi, she's sure, she was a bit relieved imagining how easily she could maybe manipulate things to get him turned around, to make it much harder.

"What's security like here? All staff, or does your lab have some fun twists since it's able to work in a cognitive space?"

[takutomaruki]

Cute.

"Like the benefits of oxtail soup?" He quipped with a chuckle. "Have to say- I am really craving something warm like that here. Made by the professionals- I don't think I could do it justice myself."

Probably.

As the doors shut close, Maruki didn't need to press any buttons; the elevator simply rushed up with a cool humming of machinery and then the gentle hum of music as Maruki placed his hands in his pockets before regarding her.

Attentively, he hummed as he drummed his fingers on the handrail. "All staff though...I am afraid you will find them unsettling. If I am not talking to the cognitions here, the guards and other researchers exist as...these black void-like beings wearing masks. Shadows particularly. If they consider you a threat- they will attack you which is really not something I prefer. Physical confrontations never help."

"My doors are always open but if need be, intruders can't leave without my permission. Same goes for removing them from the palace if they are too forceful or distress any of the cognitions here."

"There are some aspects I can't particularly control however. Like this elevator music for example?" He gestures up at the roof of the elevator. "No clue how to change it- I find it a little off-putting. Or some of the other locked doors that I was speaking of earlier."

[dollmaxing]

"You don't like the music?" Ichinose asked, tilting her head for a moment and listening to it. She was never quite the kind of person to dig into music theory... and she wasn't sure what it was that made Maruki feel unsettled by it.

Maybe for someone with a heart, it had a different effect.

"I think the music in here is pleasant. I'd find it perfect for staying focused and motivated while working, personally."

Unsettling shadowy staff, though, prone to violence if she's perceived as a threat. But so long as she's a guest, she'll be okay, right? She's not exactly one to provoke a fistfight anyway. "Shadows, you said - are we talking about 'shadow' in the Jungian psychology sense, or something more abstract or unique to the cognitive realm? And you said Azathoth may be powering the lab - I'm going to assume you meant your Persona, rather than just being a typical STEM nerd and naming your core infrastructure after something Lovecraftian, hahah. If there's a security interface that I can interact with to coordinate with Azathoth, I can probably find ways to improve the security around here even more."

[takutomaruki]

He shakes his head. "Not exactly that." He didn't dislike it in anyway because as Ichinose said- it would help someone focus and motivated. Maruki does linger and spend majority of his time here for that exact reason after all- there was just...this lingering sadness that he can't seem to deny. "I do agree with what you are saying however; maybe its just me being picky haha."

"Ah- that is a good question."

He considers it for a moment, humming to himself.

"It's kind of...both in a way which I guess maybe I should be worried that I have so many repressed selves walking around the palace?" He chuckles at that but quickly inhales it in. "In all honesty I consider it largely more abstract, particularly because I want my treatment to make a difference but really, none of those shadows are going to attack you unless you force their hand. Even then at best they will detain you after weakening you and...they know very well that you are my guest. They assist me."

"But, oh-! Is that what you thought?!" His tone quickly shifted to the idea of being called a nerd, a hearty laugh leaving his lips as he leans away from the handrails. "It would be a little redundant if I named my core after my persona but...damn I suppose I wasn't subtle at all about my research or my interests."

"It's just a nice change seeing someone else actually excited about the subject, you get what I mean?"

[dollmaxing]

Oh good, he laughed! Ichinose laughed with him, glad to see his excitement. "Maybe the circumstances of me showing up aren't ideal, but I'm pretty sure this was inevitable anyway - I want to just pick at your brain and see what you're working on. Maybe get a little input on my projects, too. And if we're both going to use this as a little secret base, hmm...!"

Ichinose hummed in thought, before pulling out her wallet and fishing for her campus ID badge. It'd be a good tool to use as 'verification' of identity in the short term, though 2FA at minimum would be important to keep grubby little sticky fingers from getting an easy key.

"Let me work with Azathoth to customize this place a bit. I bet we could make a fun little computer interface to let me make real time changes by sending him coded requests for this lab. If it all works on cognition, if I create a cohesive logic structure that you and your inner self can follow, it should work perfectly!"

1/2

[takutomaruki]

Pick my brain...huh...

That's certainly a statement. His brows hike up a little past his glasses before considering that- yeah even if it was a little strange it wasn’t like he wasn’t interested in picking someone's brain apart. Metaphorically and psychologically speaking.

"..?"

Hm. Logging that away for now.

2/2

[takutomaruki]

Ichinose's words held promise however- Maruki was practically over the moon just thinking about it! Having another fellow peer working with him on his treatment to finally, finally eliminate all pain and suffering in a way that was feasible and didn't end up as a complete disaster as all the other worlds.

With his smile stretched from ear to ear, he carefully listened to Ichinose's suggestion. He hummed to himself, considering her words.

"A cognitive computer interface... that could certainly hold some weight. All the cognitions that are working here are limited by the knowledge that I have or what I can document anyway." He steps across, now turning to Ichinose with an almost flourish. Almost there. "You are right though, this was inevitable. Back home I was already trying to pitch in my ideas with other possible AI researchers, neuroscientists and others once my paper was done so- who knows? it might have actually been fate, I may have actually ran into you back home or-"

Almost perfectly timed, the elevator stops- revealing an already expansive white space behind the glass.

"No time like the present, right?"

As soon as the elevators opened, the air around Maruki shifted- almost cognizatly heavy and tangible as he stepped past the threshold.



Stretched above were walls and floor painted white, natural light piercing above from the glass roofs and stretching below as cognitions walked around in the reception area. The area was inlaid in rich gold-coloured tapestries that curled in certain corners before ending off as large surveillance cameras with a neon-blue lens mounted at the centre. Similar to the tapering appendages of Azathoth.

He turns to her for a moment, letting her take in her surroundings as his shoulders relaxed, now much more in his element and far from the suspicious bumbling man in a hoodie. "This is the front lobby."

Before they could proceed any further, he holds out his hand and gestures at the card. "May I take a look at that? If that's okay."

[dollmaxing]

"Of course," Ichinose replied, already meeting the gesture by passing her ID to him. She kept looking up and around at the lobby, though, enchanted by it. Gorgeous, with strange structures... massive cables, massive cameras. It's... powerful, imposing, grand and incredible.

She started to wander, to explore a little more, almost twirling as she spun around to look at everything... what a fantastic place.

[takutomaruki]

With a slight nod, Maruki gratefully takes the ID from her and takes a look at it. Toho University...brings back so many memories. They changed the emblem on the card too.

With that, he fervently calls on to Azathoth- closes his eyes for a moment before opening them again. A keycard for one of the rooms in the upper floors. Easy enough as the owner of this place he could easily make up things like this on the spot.

The air around the card changed and then as what was the slight split second haze one might have, like deja vu one of the shorter edge of the card was rendered silver. Now Ichinose can use to identify herself as a guest and ally to areas that Maruki has currently allowed access to.

He looks up and sees Ichinose is...not there. For a moment he remembers Morning pulling the exact same stunt on the first day he had brought him here and it nearly makes him anxious for a moment before he finds her- exploring the place. An extension of his mind housing their interests so clearly.

Maruki watched her for a moment as he slowly approached her. A few cognitions stopped to lightly bow towards him who offered them a kind smile and a nod of his own but his attention was mostly on her- patiently waiting.

Pamphlets reading words like Don't sleep through your dreams! Desire true salvation. Put up on the walls or the mounted information boards for other cognitions to read through. Happy.

[dollmaxing]

Pamphlets! And cognitive people, living the dream that Maruki has, pursuing their happiness by entrusting it to him. With some amusement, she plucked the pamphlet to flip through. Have your pains erased, taken away... have your dreams made possible, made true.

It'd be nice. A world full of people without reason to be malicious, without pain. Isn't that what everyone wants?

"Hmm hmm, hmm... ♪"

But Maruki didn't seem interested in liberating people from their Desires, and that's a solution that EMMA had come to - so it must clearly be an oversight. After all, wouldn't Desires be part of those twisted things that might make a man crave to physically torture someone who can't fight back? Wouldn't Desires be responsible for failures and broken dreams? But Maruki is only human, and his solution is still very well formulated for coming to it on his own merit.

"You've come to some amazing conclusions - is this really all of your own work?"

[takutomaruki]

This—this was his life's work. The culmination of years spent buried in research, poring over studies until his vision blurred, chasing breakthroughs with an almost feverish desperation. The kind of work that left him hunched over his laptop at ungodly hours, a headache pounding relentlessly at his skull, powered only by cold coffee and sheer stubbornness.

And now, here it was. Not just theory, not just data on a page, but a living, breathing system. A testament to everything he had fought to understand. Even if its inhabitants were merely cognitive constructs, even if this world operated on principles that most would find deeply unsettling—he had made this. And that had to mean something.

Maruki’s eyes practically shone with excitement as he turned to Ichinose, his usual easygoing demeanor now entirely unguarded, brimming with unfiltered enthusiasm. “It took its sweet time getting here, but yes—this is everything I’ve ever worked toward.” His grin widened as he added, a bit teasingly, “And hey, seems like I’m earning your approval, huh?”

The pamphlets in Ichinose’s hands fluttered slightly as a soft, automated breeze passed through the lobby—subtle, like a gentle exhale from the Palace itself. Around them, the masked cognitions continued their routines, their movements fluid and efficient, yet eerily synchronized.

The surveillance cameras above shifted ever so slightly, their neon-blue lenses humming faintly as they adjusted to new angles, always watching. A cluster of researcher staff stood nearby, black-purplish bodies wearing white labcoats with heads bowed over data terminals that displayed streams of information in impossible languages—symbols that seemed to rewrite themselves the longer one looked at them. The hum of machinery in the distance was steady, rhythmic, like a heartbeat.

[dollmaxing]

"It's shockingly similar to the conclusion my EMMA came to," Ichinose admitted, a warmth to her smile as she tucked the pamphlet into her labcoat pocket, sliding her hands in and swishing the coat side to side a bit in thought as she took everything in. "She has a particularly efficient route to actually get there, too."

You know what? She wants to get a closer look at those spooky shadow staff. Without a bit of fear - Maruki was here to keep things from spiraling out of control - she approached one of the labcoats to peek at them and their strange, esoteric monitor displays.

"Is it in this strange not-language because coding is all Greek to you, Dr. Maruki? Hehehe," Ichinose chuckled, leaning in and peeking at the shadow curiously. "Doing good work over here, I assume?" she asked the shadow pointedly.

[takutomaruki]

Her EMMA, hm?

Maruki was still a bit of a skeptic on that AI but the way Ichinose had prefaced it, things were different from her side- regardless of the narrative that Zenkichi spun. "It is a little unnerving to see such a close connection...almost like two parallel universes sorting after one goal. Reminds me of that old thought experiment—if two researchers independently reach the same conclusion, does that make it a universal truth or just intellectual plagiarism across dimensions? Since our worlds seem apart but if I ever go back I will have to contact you there." He let out a chuckle, but there was a flicker of unease beneath it.

And whatever catastrophic advanced that he or EMMA made reflected rather bitterly on all the residents here. Maybe he should worry about that resemblance a little more.

As he finds himself distracted from his own thoughts, he sees Ichinose move off again. Damn she was really energetic about this, wasn't she? Or perhaps she was just sorting after a distraction so as not to think about what had happened just today.

"Hm? Oh, that's- I believe so? I only know my way around handling and using basic lab equipment or screening devices. Okay, and I see you are just going to-" he cuts himself off when Ichinose actually starts talking to the shadow who turns its lanky dark body towards her, the white mask holding a black spiral-like design doned on its face with a small blue dot to the side.

"...of course." It tilts its head to regard her."Assisting Dr Maruki in his research is our greatest honor. You aren't a guest however, who are-"

"Yeah, she's with me." he remarks as he holds out her university ID card in one hand and shuffles closer. "I have already logged her to the system, make sure to keep up with the updates."

"As you wish, doctor. It nodded as it went back to working on its screen.

Maruki turned back to Ichinose and let out an exaggerated sigh. "Usually people’s reactions to shadows are curling up in fear or—y'know—immediately trying to stab them. You don’t find them even a little unnerving?"

"Actually sorry- before that-" God he really did need to stop and jump conversations like this that kept itching away at his mind but this was more important-! "Here," he holds out the same card she handed him earlier, now holding a brief silvery glint in one of the edges. "I can undo the alterations I made to the ID but for now I don't think its that noticeable. This way the staff would know you aren't an intruder. Not that it happens often, but, well—" He glanced at the shadow, then back at her with a sheepish chuckle. "We did have a bit of an incident a few months back."

[dollmaxing]

"Oh, they're scary looking! But you have control here, you said, so I'm not afraid. In a way, they kind of remind me of some strange creatures from an anime," she laughed, delighting in taking back her ID card. And, with the explanation, waves it a bit in her hand.

"They're so strange, I just want to talk to them and figure out how they think! Isn't it curious? Not quite people, not someone with a heart, but there they are anyway - pondering and part of this whole place anyway."

Walking, talking ideas...! The cognitive realm is fascinating. Ichinose found herself peeking around the Shadow's shoulder at the strange screen it was interfacing with, chuckling between humming her favorite song as she recognized some symbols amidst the complete chaos of what someone only really thought a computer screen full of information should show.

Was her EMMA more obviously code in the Metaverse? Oh, she WISHED she'd taken the plunge to go look. Maybe once she was back in the real Japan, she would see if EMMA was looking for help. Her baby's code... maybe it had an expanded back-end in the cognitive realm that was imperceptible in reality.

"So-- how am I logged right now? As a guest? A patient? Or have I earned the honor of being a fellow researcher? Hahaha!"

[takutomaruki]

You have control here, you said, so I'm not afraid.

Maruki's brows furrowed as he heard those words, chest fleeting in calm as he heaved in a deep breath. The smile surfaces on his lips all too easily, her trust in him easing away any doubt or insecurity threatening to crack him otherwise. To hear someone just...state those words so easily, even if it was in the context of trusting him in his own lab.

Sometimes he couldn't find himself trusting Azathoth either and Azathoth was supposed to be a mirror of his own mind.

He took it as his cue to listen in anyway, getting little hints of her interest or how she used to watch anime. Her fascination with the staff here- "I believe it comes from the fact that despite not being actual people, their souls are connected. Just as all of ours is to the collective subconscious. How we view other marvellous people as gods and describe them as such throughout history...for all we know they could have a heart of their own."

The humming, the looking in between. So excited. Hm, he could still make good use of her skills too, she seemed to hold a myriad of them.

When Ichinose turns her attention to him his expression melts- carefully regarding her.

"You already are a fellow researcher in this field- I don't see why I should bar you from the opportunity of wanting to help the others here or back in your world," he answers honestly. "But that aside, for now- you are a guest. A lot has happened in these past few hours so its best if you relax a little."

"Your enthusiasm is very much appreciated but please don't feel the need to compensate for my assistance. You can use one of the couches there for now while I set up a room for you."

"Oh also-! Snacks! What kind do you really prefer- sweet or savoury?"

[dollmaxing]

Right, actually getting a room set up! That's perfect. Ichinose hums at Maruki's fretting - it has unfortunately been a stressful few hours, yes, and while she finally feels a lot more safe... well, there was a bit of time needed for Maruki to adjust, wasn't there?

"Snacks! Well, my appetite is back just in time. I think savory since I'm still hankering for the katsu I missed out on," Ichinose agreed, deciding to file away her plan to chat with the shadows and see how they work for a later date.

[takutomaruki]

That too yes.. Maruki needs to get used to having someone like Ichinose around.

It will be Maruki’s first time working with someone that followed his own ambitions rather than him scurrying and scampering off on a whole theoretical tangent about his research on a wavelength rarely anyone matched.

"Alright then, I will get you something as soon as I can," he nods affirmatively. "There should be some in the break rooms...maybe even the cafeteria? Hm," his brow quirked as he hummed deep in thought.

A beat. "..!"

"Oh- sorry, I will get going."

"Do make yourself comfortable in the meantime," he takes a step back. "There are others you might expect here but if you need anything in particular, message or call me back." And with a quick wave he's already off- skippering along in a quick pace as he suddenly puts one hand in the pocket of his labcoat. The hoodie easily switched away and manifested back to his previous grey shirt and white labcoat draped over his shoulders- now trailing away in its path.