☣ oo9; [video]

[lucycoded]

[Kazuhiko is resting, with his NV at arm's length, as the feed turns on. There's a small bustling around him- a cafe, maybe. He's in a booth, the decor is warm, the lighting that comfortable low that makes people feel content to stay. The glasses perched on his nose, and the stoic, but softened expression relay who it is that's in control at the

Comments

voice;

[hexyoutotuesday]

I'm beginning to think the Core just likes pulling in crazies. I don't think there's much connection between the V-Day murders and the Plaster murders, but I'm not sure about the rest of it.

The only thing the Core seems to affect is dormant super powers in normal people.

voice;

[lucycoded]

[Pulling crazies here. Yes, that would make sense, wouldn't it?]

There could be a connection that is larger than motive or perpetrator. It is merely a theory, a feeling, nothing that I'm certain of.

That does seem to be its purpose. [A beat.] Oh- Your friends, did they... did they return to you? [Attempting to be sympathetic.]

voice;

[hexyoutotuesday]

Since when did you become mister conspiracy theorist? How do you suppose any of this is connected? I can't come up with anything between any of them.

[Jinx nods for a moment before she remembers he can't see her.] Yeah. They came back. After the murderer was taken care of. Something good came out of it all, but I'm never letting those boys leave my sight again.

voice;

[lucycoded]

[A stunned pause, before he makes a sound somewhere between a scoff and a chuckle, both being very soft.] I do sound like a conspiracy theorist, don't I? It's a habit.

I'm glad. [Though there's something more interesting:] Who was the murderer? What happened to him?

audio

[whipfist]

Is that what you think is wrong here?

audio

[lucycoded]

There are many things that are wrong here.

[whipfist]

It's not the Core.

[lucycoded]

I never said with certainty that it was. I was merely presenting the notion that these events that have transpired are more interconnected than what would normally be recognized.

And that perhaps it is the Core that is affecting my mind in the adverse ways I've been feeling, and thus could be affecting others as well.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

... Have you been having trouble sleeping, Mr. Amamiya?

[because he knows for sure that (most of) those things weren't connected outside, but-- there was no saying that.]

Voice.

[lucycoded]

[Another familiar voice.]

I'm having trouble focusing and staying conscious. However, it's a condition that's improving. [His voice is warmer than the one he's been speaking with others in.]

Thank you for your concern.

Voice.

[payingthepiper]

You don't have to thank me! [a-aha.] I'm glad to hear that it's been getting better, though. You've... been following all of the crimes?

Voice.

[lucycoded]

I have been doing my best to track time, so that I might see a pattern in the times I fall away from being lucid.

Yes, I've kept notes on many of the things that have happened. Created loose profiles for the murderers, as well as a list of victims in order to attempt to establish a line of victimology.

[video]

[azarathmetrion]

[...that guy who got away during the blackout? What.]

What are you playing at? You didn't seem to mind the possibility of people dying before.

And by the way, you forgot the unregistered slave murders.

[video]

[lucycoded]

[Immediately, Kazuhiko frowns, and looks rather shameful.]

What did Shinji do? [The other murders can be disregarded for this.]

[video]

[azarathmetrion]

...and now you're referring to yourself in the third person. I think only supervillains are allowed to do that.

You know perfectly well what you did.

[video]

[lucycoded]

[His expression doesn't fluctuate. Shinji causes so much trouble. For a moment, he debates filtering the feed, so that others couldn't hear. But- to prevent this confusion from happening again-]

My name is Kazuhiko Amamiya. I'm... unsure if you're familiar with the condition known in my world as multiple personality disorder- [A brief pause.]

Dr. Daedalus Yumeno and Dr. John Seward can attest to the truth of my condition.

[abhorperfection]

I think it would be a bit more practicable to look at changes and arrivals during that time than to assume the core. After all there is no precedent of the core causing mental abnormalities so much as physical mutations.

[lucycoded]

I was not assuming that the Core has involvement, but rather asking for opinions, be it professional or not.

[A pause.] So then there is nothing pointing to fluctuations in existing mental abnormalities that coincide with the fluctuations of these physical mutations?

[abhorperfection]

It would be difficult to decide whether the mental abnormality was caused by the physical mutation or the drastic change in environment and other factors such as chemicals that have been dispersed and other experimentation that has occurred within the city.

Granted there are likely a few cases of mania associated with newly acquired abilities they generally wear off upon discovering the futility of use. Also in the case that the physical mutation were to take place within the brain it would naturally cause a change as well.

[lucycoded]

It seems like those instances are all based on timing. Hysteria and mania, as you said, based on the dramatic situational change that comes from arriving and adjusting to foreign surroundings. However, what if this mental shift were to take place beyond the first days of learning to accommodate with the new surroundings? Without prior instances of this fluctuation in both this world and their originating, and without knowledge of prior chemical exposure either through environmental or experimental catalyst?