(you can pm me here or on plurk if you'd like to beforehand, but also if you'd just like to drop something at my doorstep with no preamble please do!!)
[ He leans a hip against the counter, watches Akechi eat without looking like he's watching. ]
No, I didn't go looking. The university that I worked for at the time was seeking investors for a cognitive psience research laboratory that I was meant to head, and word got to Shido-san through that. He took an interest in my research, and– well, the rest is history, isn't it?
[ There's nothing untrue about that story. It's exactly how events transpired.
The laboratory associated with the university was never built. In its place stands the laboratory solely funded by and in service of the work of Masayoshi Shido. No one would know, from the outside. Even some of his research assistants on the inside don't know who they really work for.
And if anyone knows the bloodied home out in the country that preempted all of this, they've never let on. Maruki assumes nothing about his past is a secret, but no one has ever brought up Rumi or her family.
It's better this way. There is no collateral beyond his work. ]
I suppose it was down to luck, in the end. What about you, Akechi-kun?
A background in cognitive psience. Researcher. Shido found out and chose to save him instead of leaving him as an explosion of gore in some alleyway.
Akechi's never been to his laboratory. Doesn't want to. Doesn't particularly care. He walked by once to get a scale of the powers propping up a rotten man. Will go in someday to get ahead and learn the names of those Shido will eventually dispose of.
Maruki will be among them. Of that, he's certain. The man won't be useful forever - there's a reason he's on babysitting duty now.
Akechi's tired. Takes one more bite to settle his stomach entirely before placing the lid back of it. Before figuring out what his answer should be.]
As for me, it was down to luck too. I manifested a power and was put in contact with Shido-san. He helped me understand it and allowed me to work under him. Every day-
[He wants to puke.]
I'm grateful for it. Without him, I would be rotting in some forgotten home. My allegiance will always be to him and that mercy he showed to an unwanted child.
[ Maruki hasn't been put on babysitting duty by anyone but himself, and it isn't only because of their arrangement of information, either. He's had his own suspicions about Akechi since before they formed this thin, tenuous bond.
And Akechi doesn't realize it, but he's just cemented that suspicion further. He's trained the sight of Maruki's own gun right on himself. ]
I'm glad to hear that. Someone as talented as you deserves better than to be forgotten by our society.
[ It's in need of so much reform.
Not in the way that Shido wants, though. ]
But, it's strange... None of those of us who've been working on researching the cognitive world alerted Shido-san to your power. I wonder who became aware of you and put you in contact with him?
[ No one did. Maruki's more sure of it than ever. If it wasn't him, then it wasn't anyone.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
No, I didn't go looking. The university that I worked for at the time was seeking investors for a cognitive psience research laboratory that I was meant to head, and word got to Shido-san through that. He took an interest in my research, and– well, the rest is history, isn't it?
[ There's nothing untrue about that story. It's exactly how events transpired.
The laboratory associated with the university was never built. In its place stands the laboratory solely funded by and in service of the work of Masayoshi Shido. No one would know, from the outside. Even some of his research assistants on the inside don't know who they really work for.
And if anyone knows the bloodied home out in the country that preempted all of this, they've never let on. Maruki assumes nothing about his past is a secret, but no one has ever brought up Rumi or her family.
It's better this way. There is no collateral beyond his work. ]
I suppose it was down to luck, in the end. What about you, Akechi-kun?
no subject
A background in cognitive psience. Researcher. Shido found out and chose to save him instead of leaving him as an explosion of gore in some alleyway.
Akechi's never been to his laboratory. Doesn't want to. Doesn't particularly care. He walked by once to get a scale of the powers propping up a rotten man. Will go in someday to get ahead and learn the names of those Shido will eventually dispose of.
Maruki will be among them. Of that, he's certain. The man won't be useful forever - there's a reason he's on babysitting duty now.
Akechi's tired. Takes one more bite to settle his stomach entirely before placing the lid back of it. Before figuring out what his answer should be.]
As for me, it was down to luck too. I manifested a power and was put in contact with Shido-san. He helped me understand it and allowed me to work under him. Every day-
[He wants to puke.]
I'm grateful for it. Without him, I would be rotting in some forgotten home. My allegiance will always be to him and that mercy he showed to an unwanted child.
no subject
And Akechi doesn't realize it, but he's just cemented that suspicion further. He's trained the sight of Maruki's own gun right on himself. ]
I'm glad to hear that. Someone as talented as you deserves better than to be forgotten by our society.
[ It's in need of so much reform.
Not in the way that Shido wants, though. ]
But, it's strange... None of those of us who've been working on researching the cognitive world alerted Shido-san to your power. I wonder who became aware of you and put you in contact with him?
[ No one did. Maruki's more sure of it than ever. If it wasn't him, then it wasn't anyone.
So, then, where did Akechi come from? ]
no subject
[A second passes. The dark joke settles and in a voice that doesn't hold any sort of mirth-]
I'm joking. Who could say - I haven't seen him in some time. Perhaps he was sent elsewhere.
[The 'man' doesn't exist. Maruki won't believe it either. Akechi stacks the meals anyway and starts to shuffle them into the fridge for another time.]
I would describe him, but he was rather plain with no notable features.
no subject
But it certainly gets noted. ]
Of course. There are always those like that around Shido-san.
[ There aren't. He and Akechi are both lying, both know the other is lying, both tacitly going along with it anyway.
He sighs, drains the rest of the glass of water and sets it in the sink. ]
Like I said before, I won't stay long. You must be exhausted, and you'll need your rest if you're going to spend the rest of the week in Mementos.
we can wrap <3 but i have a thought for later
[ And he will be, because he must.
And Maruki will arrive - every other day, every week, all the same.]