[ Maruki listens so, so intently to every word Akechi says – part diligent pupil in the professor's office hours, part inherently skeptical researcher. It all aligns with what he pieced together by closely watching the Phantom Thieves over the course of his tenure at Shujin.
Irreconcilably warped – that's something that has been a significant part of his own research. Could changing someone's cognition be undone? What risks are inherent to a person's new perception not aligning with the rest of the world around them?
The mental shutdowns and psychotic breaks are different, of course. There's no recovering from that. It stands to reason that if one direction of warped cognition is infallible, so is the other, but–
He wonders, sometimes. With the time and space that now separates him from Christmas Eve, he does have to wonder if it really would have been that simple.
But the explanation of the palace is new information. He ascertained that access to the cognitive world was both feasible and the method being employed by the Phantom Thieves; he hadn't considered that every cognitive world would be individually tailored based on the target's own distorted thoughts and feelings.
He thinks of Kamoshida, the horror stories told to him both by staff members and students in his office. Madarame, everything Kitagawa said to him in quiet confidence. A criminal as deeply corrupt as Kaneshiro – as Shido. How horrific their cognitive worlds must have been, how dangerous, even beyond the threat of shadows that Akechi has explained to him before.
And then– ]
Ah, you went exactly where my mind was going.
[ He's taken a pen out from his shirt pocket, jotted down a few notes as Akechi's spoken, and now he taps it idly against the half-filled page. ]
It's tempting to think of Somnius that way. Or Seven, the realm Finnick told me about. And it does tie back to my theories on the collective unconscious being used and manipulated by the powers that be here.
[ A consideration of the hand that's always held completely flush against his chest. If he were to tip it now, just slightly–
He looks from the page to Akechi again. ]
Within the palace, can only the ruler's cognition be changed? Or can those "real" people who enter have theirs affected as well? What about the cognitive versions of others that only exist there?
[ It's all asked with the same intellectual curiosity, but he does punctuate it with a somewhat self-conscious laugh. ]
Sorry, it's okay if you don't know, of course. My mind is running away with a new concept as usual.
no subject
Irreconcilably warped – that's something that has been a significant part of his own research. Could changing someone's cognition be undone? What risks are inherent to a person's new perception not aligning with the rest of the world around them?
The mental shutdowns and psychotic breaks are different, of course. There's no recovering from that. It stands to reason that if one direction of warped cognition is infallible, so is the other, but–
He wonders, sometimes. With the time and space that now separates him from Christmas Eve, he does have to wonder if it really would have been that simple.
But the explanation of the palace is new information. He ascertained that access to the cognitive world was both feasible and the method being employed by the Phantom Thieves; he hadn't considered that every cognitive world would be individually tailored based on the target's own distorted thoughts and feelings.
He thinks of Kamoshida, the horror stories told to him both by staff members and students in his office. Madarame, everything Kitagawa said to him in quiet confidence. A criminal as deeply corrupt as Kaneshiro – as Shido. How horrific their cognitive worlds must have been, how dangerous, even beyond the threat of shadows that Akechi has explained to him before.
And then– ]
Ah, you went exactly where my mind was going.
[ He's taken a pen out from his shirt pocket, jotted down a few notes as Akechi's spoken, and now he taps it idly against the half-filled page. ]
It's tempting to think of Somnius that way. Or Seven, the realm Finnick told me about. And it does tie back to my theories on the collective unconscious being used and manipulated by the powers that be here.
[ A consideration of the hand that's always held completely flush against his chest. If he were to tip it now, just slightly–
He looks from the page to Akechi again. ]
Within the palace, can only the ruler's cognition be changed? Or can those "real" people who enter have theirs affected as well? What about the cognitive versions of others that only exist there?
[ It's all asked with the same intellectual curiosity, but he does punctuate it with a somewhat self-conscious laugh. ]
Sorry, it's okay if you don't know, of course. My mind is running away with a new concept as usual.