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INT -- HIGH SCHOOL -- NEWSPAPER OFFICE; [Moksa, singlepost]
Topic Started: May 5 2012, 12:22 PM (111 Views)
Czernobog
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Best Influence.
FADE IN

INT -- HIGH SCHOOL -- NEWSPAPER OFFICE

our view is of a small young woman behind a desk. She wears a pair of goggles with diamond-shaped marks on the lenses and a bucket hat. She has a plate holding a sandwich on toasted bread. She glances away to toss a bannana peel in the trash. This is RIO MATSUSHITA.

Behind her on the wall are two packaged action figures: Sigmund Freud and Sherlock Holmes, next to them is an empty box proclaiming to contain Harry Houdini, but which is actually empty.

RIO
     Close the door behind you.

The view turns slightly, and the SOUND OF A DOOR SHUTTING can be heard.

NAOYA
     Let me just, uh, just set up a tripod, and then we can, y'know, begin.

RIO
     Put it in the corner, shoot over your shoulder like on the evening news.

NAOYA
     I generally like to, y'know, be in the frame...

RIO
     I've seen your camera work. Rubbish. Egotistical. Set it up in the corner.

NAOYA grumbles under his breath and sets up the tripod in the corner. As he does so, he steps aside so that he and Rio appear in-frame at the same time. Captions appear, with their names in Kanji, and katakana labels beneath them:

NAOYA IMOTO -- interviewer

RIO MATSUSHITA -- Interviewee

Naoya nods, is satisfied that the camera won't fall, and takes up a position in the chair in front of her desk, facing her.

RIO(taking a bite of her sandwich)
     Okay, Yeah. Begin.

NAOYA
     Okay, so you've seen th' previous ones. Start talkin'.

RIO
     You're lazy, too?

NAOYA(patiently)
     Okay, fine. Tell me, uh, about your...your ascension.

RIO
     I came down with Hoculus, and ended up in the hospital. All of you were out finding the documents, and we had
     nothing to do but sit and think about our lives. In all honesty, I'm not sure that the disease had any special
     effect in regard to ascension...I think that, maybe, it was more the threat of impending death.

          (She takes a bite of her sandwich, chewing it thoughtfully)

     I mean, think about it. How easy is it to think about everything you've done wrong, everything that you need to fix
     about yourself, when you may not be around much longer? Thankfully, my Shadow was more than happy enough
     to tell me about those.

NAOYA
     What was...was your shadow like?

RIO
     She was...well, like me, but with a lot of overt symbols. My Shadow had elements of a spider. When I first saw her,
     she was hanging from a giant web. She called me out on some of my bullshit.

NAOYA
     Spider?

RIO
     I can't fight. I can only run away and take information. At first, this was so I could use what I learned to force others
     to do things. I was a manipulator, plain and simple. I would learn what I could, and use that to get what I wanted
     out of people, without regard for right and wrong. I...I made Bedlam for that purpose. But after I met my Shadow, I
     came to a conclusion.

NAOYA
     What, uh, what was that?

Rio puts down the plate her sandwich is on, and looks away.

RIO(softly, not making eye contact.)
     It was all true. I was a manipulator who was shit at dealing with people. It's not that I was afraid of them, it's just
     that I was awful at it. Luckily, one of my fellow patients had a similar realization, and we worked on it together, for a
     bit.

          (She takes another bite of her sandwich, and then sets it back down, looking up at Naoya)

     So after that, I closed all the backdoors I put in Bedlam. All I could without making the code unstable. I mean, the
     code's still a bit unstable from what I did. That's why the PM and date formatting keeps changing. But I figured no
     one would really care.

NAOYA
     Thank you f'r sharin'.

RIO
     You're always too polite, you know that?

NAOYA
     So...did you accept or reject your shadow?

Rio picks up her plate, and leans back, putting her feet up on the desk

RIO
     I guess I was kind of forced to reject it. I'm a pacifist when I'm not asking someone to kick someone else's ass, and
     no one can take on your shadow for you. I didn't say anything, I didn't have the strength. I just took her tongue
     lashing and then picked myself up, moving on with my life. Her points were valid.

NAOYA
     What's your arcanum?

RIO
     Hierophant. But you'd have to ask Yatsu or Kaerunuma what that really mean. As far as I understand, it's all about
     knowledge, and I'm all about knowledge, so it fits.

NAOYA
     It's also about culture and tradition.

Rio shrugs.

NAOYA
     Well, with Bedlam and all, y'know, all that, you...uh...you do kinda define some aspects of our culture.

RIO
     Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. I decided back when I ascended that I'm not going to struggle for control. Sometimes I
     might be in charge, sometimes I'm not. Why worry about it? Being in charge seems to take a lot of the fun out of
     life.

Naoya nods for a moment, thoughtful.

NAOYA
     I think that's all. Anything you want me to edit out?

RIO
     If you could remove that bit at the beginning, I'd appreciate it. I think Rin-chan would appreciate it, too.

NAOYA
     Oh, right...uh...yeah, I'll, uh, I'll edit that out.

RIO
     Seriously. Delete that footage. Don't save it for yourself, or anything weird like that.
Edited by Czernobog, May 5 2012, 12:26 PM.
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