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NgOtiations; [Kyo, Wei - Closed]
Topic Started: Mar 31 2017, 02:19 PM (310 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
In the time since she'd last asked anyone to meet her here, she had not yet labeled her office door. It only had a number. On the second floor of a simple office building on the edge of Uptown Nagashima — positioned, Wei might notice, closer to the Inner City, where the city was in the most need of restoration — was an office with a view. An office building accessed via an outdoor staircase in the rear of the building (anyone who knew Kyo might suspect she'd chosen it because she knew how to climb and descend such a structure in a hurry if she had to), the building had a seedy reputation thanks to the loan shark who'd operated out of the building for a time... until someone had convinced him to vacate his office, and rumors of a teenager and her mother started to circulate around the block. They were starting a neighborhood watch initiative, said the rumors, but nothing had come of it for quite some time. Occasionally a new piece of office equipment would be lugged up the stairs by the unusually-toned teen girl, though: last week it had been a desktop computer, the week before, a large printer. Though people seemed to think the mother was chasing a flight of fancy and the rebellious-looking daughter had been roped into it, there was obviously money being burned in the venture.

The office Kyo operated out of was on the top floor of the four-floor building. All of the offices had wide windows through which the street outside could be seen, and anyone entering or exiting the offices had to do so through a side-lot that also opened from the front, which incidentally made the front of the building the only angle from which the comings and goings of its occupants could be observed. Anyone who knew Kyo might suspect she'd chosen that because it made it easier to catch any unscrupulous persons who'd taken an interest in her little operation center...

As office buildings went, it looked like a cheaper one, the sort of place that might have meant sharing land with a small-time Yakuza office. As Wei ascended the steps, the doors that were labeled told a different story, though:

Floor one, defense attorney. Floor two, independent literary agent. Floor three, private detective agency.

One who knew Kyo might have suspected she'd chosen that as some kind of joke. Then again, there was always a chance it was by complete fucking accident and she was just an impulsive teenage girl who didn't think that far ahead. Who could say for sure?
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Czernobog
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Wei had been intending to come in through the window, batman-style, but the building was far enough separated from the adjacent buildings that he didn't think he could do it. Moreover, he was wearing a suit today. It would be cool to come in through the window, but the suit was more important. He walked up to the top floor, moving as quietly as he could in the Indonesian-knockoff-of-Chinese-knockoff-of-Italian shoes he was wearing. He could move quietly, normally, but he was unused to these shoes.

At the third floor, he straightened his hair, then moved up to the fourth floor, leaned by the door, and knocked. Best to seem casual.

He still wasn't sure what this was about. He didn't like going in to things blind. That was a good way to get jumped. Or roped into something stupid.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The door opened half a second after Wei knocked. Kyo was standing there, dressed as she normally did these days: cargo pants, tube top. Her jacket must have been somewhere else in the office. She smiled wanly and said, "Come on in. I've got your food ready, it's in the side-room. Which might as well be the main room right now, but you'll see what I mean by that."

She stepped aside, holding the door open for Wei to enter. The room immediately visible was spacious, with a large desk dominating the space by the window and several shelves and cabinets along the walls. Some of them were bookshelves, although these were sparsely populated at the moment, but the others appeared to be decorative. None of it really matched what one might have expect Kyo to think up. A sizable printer stood near the window on the left, behind the desk. A large, framed map of Nagashima hung from the wall by the door on the left side, and on the right was a large, translucent window and another door. The room on the other side looked like it might have been meant as a meeting room, because the sole object that could be seen through it was a long, black table surrounded by chairs.

Once Wei was inside, Kyo moved to the door on the left, which was half-open. A smaller room was in here, dominated by a smaller desk and a desktop computer tower with two monitors and some kind of box hooked up to it... as well as a bag that looked like it might be the unagidan that Wei had asked for. Kyo's jacket was hung up on a hook at the back corner of the room. Without ceremony, she walked back to this desk, kicked the smaller chair next to her own with her toe to indicate that Wei should sit, and re-assumed the position she'd been in before he came up the stairs: in front of the computer. Her eyes went to the monitor that was off-center to her righthand side, which seemed to show low-quality footage from a series of security cameras, all grouped onto one monitor.

Several views of the street in front, one of which was angled to show most of the alley across the street. One of them showed the lot out back, and seemed to be angled to record from... somewhere in the vicinity of the motorcycle parked out back.

"Gotta say, I'm impressed with the schlock you cooked up," Kyo said, pulling up a half-eaten container of sesame chicken that had been set close to the keyboard. "It's pretty clever stuff. See, I wanted to trade notes on things we can do to resolve the Black Hood situation, and then you pull somethin' like that. It's like it was meant t' be, or somethin'."
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Czernobog
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Wei followed Kyo in without a greeting, and looked over her setup. He was still unclear on why she had an office to begin with. Was it just to keep things separate from her home life? Or did she actually want people to drop in on her when she was here, like that girl with the football in the western comic strip that really suffered when it was about the kids and not the beagle. The one who ran the psychology stand.

It honestly seemed a bit odd that she would presume she needed an office. Girl was always trying to play batman and seemed to be giving herself an ulcer in the process. Wei figured that she would grow out of it at some point. The real question was if that would be before or after the ulcer got serious.

He followed her in wordlessly and looked around with his hands in his pockets. Going off of the "main room" she was sharing the space with someone. She had a mother in town who was also wrapped up in this. Wei guessed it was probably her. The smaller room seemed more her space. It made sense, at least. She shared a one bedroom with a no-talent comedian, chances were she needed some kind of privacy at some point.

When the food was pointed out to him, he reached into the bag and pulled out the to-go container. He popped open and examined -- eel and rice. He sniffed it before eating. Nothing off about it that he could detect. She probably didn't add any poisons, laxatives, or irritants to it. He wasn't sure that he trusted her enough to eat it, but she had gone through the trouble of putting this whole thing together, and it was either this or have another working lunch with Hiroyuki Yamada, and Wei needed to keep him away from liver failure until at least the first season was in the can.

Ugh. He hoped to god there wasn't a second season.

He took a bite, chewed it thoughtfully. Texture, taste, everything else was correct. Not the best, but about on the level for this sort of meeting. Still, he was suspicious of the offer of food to begin with.

Finally, after what must have seemed like an eternity, he spoke: "Yeah, well, like I said, I could annoy a bunch of people and make some money at the same time. While also throwing out a bunch of red herring, you dig?"

Finally, he took his seat, digging around to mix the eel and rice together thoroughly.

"Now, while I admit you might just be trying to...be nice or whatever, it seems to me like you're trying to butter me up. So what's the pitch?"
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo, spearing a chunk of sesame chicken on her eating utensil (oddly, a metal fork instead of chopsticks), held it up to her mouth for a few seconds, listening to Wei before she popped it in. She chewed it slowly and swallowed, then reached around the monitor, producing a bottle of water that had been obscured from Wei's view. She took a gulp from this sighed, and said flatly:

"I think ya got this confused for Samurakami Road and Building. I only give compliments that're deserved... or to assholes I'm tryin' to lure into a trap. And you can be an ass, that's as true as anythin' else I said, but there's a difference between an ass and an asshole, yeah? The food is just compensation for your time. Anyway."

She pointed her fork at the monitor displaying security footage.

"I had high hopes for this place. The office, specifically. I was thinkin' it could be used as a kinda mission control headquarters for Persona-users, on top o' bein' where I coordinate this neighborhood-watch thing I'm launchin'," she said. "Even took my setup for a test drive when we had that run-in with Gold before. With enough equipment set up in here, we could coordinate between multiple teams in the ruins and really make some progress explorin' for documents and discs and Qlippoths and whatever else. On top o' that, with enough help from around the city, a real, above-board organization could do a lot t' restore calm and bolster the economy where it counts... given enough time. But this is where a big, black, hooded wrench gets thrown in the clockwork, yeah? And it's not gonna go away if a few bruisers with magic powers go around splittin' skulls, neither."

Kyo turned her eyes back to Wei, sticking her fork in another bit of chicken and holding it up.

"You see the problem, I bet," she said dully. "As long as there's this quasi-militarized 'rebel' force lookin' for chances t' strike back against the big, bad ex-human conspiracy, this office might as well be a magnet for trouble. That's my interest in this. Apart from the personal one of, y'know, they totally attacked people I care about and all. And moral obligation. That's in there somewhere to. But you, Wei, you've got a way o' thinkin' that none of these other bleedin'-heart heroes and stick-up-the-butt policemen have. That's what we need right now: clever tricks and traps, outside-the-box thinkin', and someone who's just cynical enough t' understand more'n one side of the problem. That's why I was interested in talkin' with you, not t' put too fine a point on it."

Kyo moved the fork-speared chicken about half an inch forward, a gesture in Wei's direction.

"So, if I were t' ask you right now what you think the best way t' diffuse the Black Hood problem is, what would your best guess be?"
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Czernobog
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Wei listened to her impassively. She was presenting a problem that was actually interesting, and he was somewhat confused by the fact that she was actually asking him. In his experience, people didn't ask him for help figuring things out, they just presented themselves in a ridiculous fashion and then got angry when he pointed out that they were being ridiculous.

He remained quiet for a long moment.

"The problem is that we're doing what they want," he said, and then took a bite of his food, chewing slowly. She might think that he was being thoughtful, but mostly it was an attempt to irritate her.

"That black hood, the one who joined the forum, kept pointing out the 'narrative' thing, and people didn't seem to get it. The Black Hoods are telling a story in the brick and mortar of the city, in uniforms and broken bodies. They're an insurgency, and we're the occupiers. That's their story. You solve the problem by making that story seem less true."

He took another bite of his food. She had actually sprung for decent food. A little bit too sweet for his preference on unagidan, but still quite good.

"Don't get me wrong, next time I meet a bunch of them, there will be charred and bleeding bodies, but that's just balancing accounts. It won't help, because in their narrative we're monsters and they're the plucky heroes putting their lives on the line to fight an invading menace. Seems to me that involving the cops is a problem there, because it means we've wormed our way into the government."

Another bite. Another long, drawn out pause as he considered.

"We should identify them. Figure out where they live and work. Go and talk to them, one on one. Make them doubt. Figure out where their safehouses are and spray paint dicks all over them. Like, really crudely drawn dicks. Any vehicles they've got, too. We should throw glitter in their eyes when we fight them."

He paused, but only for a half-beat.

"Make them realize we're people. Make them feel ridiculous. Make it clear that if we wanted to do damage to them, we would be doing a hell of a lot of damage to them."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"...There we go, that's the kinda thinkin' I'm talkin' about."

Kyo only popped the piece of chicken into her mouth when Wei finished talking. She chewed it rigorously, swallowed, and gave the man a grin that said this was exactly the kind of thing she'd expected, and hoped, to hear. She scooped a bit of rice up with her fork, with a piece of sauce-drenched chicken perched atop it. She seemed to play with this a little bit, delicately balancing it in the air, and then she put the scoop in her mouth as if the chicken-and-rice were a gob of pudding. Chew, chew, chew, swallow. Gulp of water.

Then she put her fork down and propped her chin up on her elbow, and pointed to the monitor displaying the security footage.

"I'm already ahead o' ya on the identify them bit," she said. "A high-profile Persona-user like me tries t' recruit civilians to neighborhood watch initiative. What's that look to a group runnin' on that kinda narrative, well, I'll tell ya what it looks like and that's the world's biggest honeypot. The moment any o' them starts casin' this place, I'll know it. I may've also got our friend the turncoat talkin' to the few members she personally knew about this, so we'll see where that goes."

Propping her elbow up on her chin, Kyo's smile became a frown, then a scowl.

"Of course, half the problem is convincin' the rest o' the Persona-user community that's the way t' go," she said. "Problem is we are just people, and while a person's smart, people're animals. A few like Masumi mighta had the balls and smarts t' know that the head-on approach ain't gonna fly here, but we need t' change more hearts and minds than just theirs. I was gonna ask if you thought we might have a way we could do both at once, yeah? But then you pulled this TV project outta your butthole. Ever had a 'Eureka' moment, Wei? It's a magical thing when it happens."
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Czernobog
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There she went again, saying a lot without saying anything of substance. Here she was, building up to something amazing and she didn't even bother to get around to saying what it was she was aiming for. Perhaps she just had a flare for the dramatic. Still, despite the fact that he was apparently going to be in the television business, he had very little patience for it.

He just kept eating as she talked, looking at the monitors but listening to her.

Eventually he lost his patience and just said: "Yes, yes, I've seen Men In Black, too. What are you getting at? Spit it out."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo blinked a few times, then tilted her head back, frowning to herself. Thinking. Scratching her chin.

Then she snapped her finger.

"Ah, right, that's the one with Will Smith and the aliens. Only thing I've ever seen from that is a YouTube clip of the tiny gun that sends 'im flyin' when he shoots it. ...Anyway."

She clenched a fist and bonked it on the table.

"If you want the short version, the first reason I asked ya here was t' see if you had any ideas for how we could launch some kinda counter-propaganda campaign," she said. "After you came up with the whole I Am Thou thing, I had that eureka moment. See, the Hoods aren't stupid. They'll know exactly what that's tryin' to accomplish, probably give ya more credit than you give yourself on that, and they'll probably try t' interfere. But that means they'll have eyes on the project. So if we know where they're lookin', we can use that. You're tryin' t' produce some good old-fashioned schlocky funstuff, yeah? With a keg o' satire in the mix for your own satisfaction. What if we add just enough truth to the schlock that it would make sense to anyone who knows enough t' spot it? Like, say, the people who'll be eyeballin' the project lookin' for ways t' tear it down."

She paused, then speared another bit of meat on her fork, grinning a bit sheepishly now.

"I was also wonderin' if I could ask t' make this organization a sponsor for publicity, but t'be honest, I didn't think o' that one until just this mornin'."
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Czernobog
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"Well, 'sponsorship' implies a more financial relationship in the television business, and...while you obviously have enough to afford a bit of office space, I think our price point might be a bit high for that. We can flip that around and be your sponsors, though. Put a little thing at the end for local streaming, maybe write a little thank you note in the credits."

He thought for a moment. His "thinking face" was remarkably close to a scowl.

"As for putting stuff in -- well, it's a streaming series, so we're getting a lump sum up front from the service and then it's released all at once when we finish up. I negotiated to have it available early in the Nagashima area, but we're still looking at an October or November release if we get everything going now. Like, I'm hoping to have scripts by the end of the week, table reads middle of next week, and I've had to farm out to some...unusual talent for that. Still trying to fill a couple gaps. The upshot is, though, that beyond just sounding persona-y, I'm not allowed to let too much slip out. We might be able to do something if someone could leak things to the local alternative press, but the local alternative press is dogshit."

He shoveled some rice into his mouth. Possibly too much. He swallowed it quickly, almost without chewing.

"Thanks for sending that applicant my way. She's completely unsuited to everything I need done, not at all enthusiastic. Perfect assistant material. If she looks disgruntled enough, people will believe she's the one leaking things, take some heat off me."
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