[A beat. For a second, it might feel like she's going to get up and walk away. It's probably what Akechi might expect.
But she doesn't.
With a shaking exhale, she lifts herself up onto the roundabout, turning to speak to him directly regardless of whether he's looking back.]
No, I don't.
All I can do is make assumptions. I... believe we just talked about that.
So please, just tell me instead of leading me around like this. You're the one who spoke so badly of not wanting me to act like an item if I didn't want to be treated like one, weren't you?
[Luna... He curls his hands into fists, digging his fingers into his palms. He has managed to keep his tone all this time, but the frustration begins to seep in now.]
You mutilated your own arm because you think you're expendable, and you can't figure out why the hell I kept this a secret from you? I saw your memories, Luna. I know what you think of yourself.
This isn't about me figuring it out, Akechi, this is about you talking to me and listening to what I'm saying...! I told you what I did, and why I did it... i-it was not because I was expendable...!
[Unlike the very cold, cruel anger that had unnaturally taken her over the second week, this bubbles out of Luna in a nervous flood, far more genuine and hard to refine. Because her anger wasn't at him, but at the distance between them, of the gap Phoenix had left behind and how agonizingly easy it was for Akechi to now feel a million miles away, closed off, pretending.]
W-what on earth did you think I was going to do? I've told you what I would prefer if circumstance required it, yes, but what did I ever tell you or show you that said otherwise?
And if the circumstances required it? [Emphasis, disdainfully.] Then what? You would know we're easily replaced. And you would die, because your programming told you it was the best choice.
[Of course, Luna can say whatever she wants. But Akechi is stuck on this one point. That one memory. It shouldn't matter. He should know better by now. And, yet... here we are. It would be easier if she snapped or shut down on him again. At least then he could tear her down and wash his hands of this entire arrangement.]
You said someone like you is more expendable than a human. What else am I supposed to think?
That's because it's my job, Akechi. I don't want to die, even if everything in my program says I am required to! You know all of this already! Why don't you believe me???
[His words get her to flinch, as they always do. But her grip tightens on the rail of the roundabout.]
I would like you to think I can be a little more trustworthy than that, and that I've tried to prove as much. I-I'm not trying to have anyone replace me...! I'm already a replacement! That's all I've ever been. Yes, I am acutely aware of how easily my spot could be filled, and that someone else would probably make much smarter decisions than me, but... w-what kind of a waste would it be to the people I care about to throw myself away because I couldn't handle my own feelings??
[But he sure isn't saying with this is actually about, because that involves acknowledging too many things he would rather sweep under the carpet. So! That's fine. Let's... focus on something else.]
[Quietly. Maybe, just maybe, he hates someone out there a little more.]
Does it matter? You're the only "Luna" the guests of this party know. [... The only one he knows, and the only one Phoenix knew.] Even the man in your memory didn't seem to care about what you are, and what you're not.
[Her words catch with the name on her lips. But, no... if she was demanding from him, she might as well lead by example.]
The Sigma you saw wasn't the one I knew. The body was, yes, but...
The boy met the toy bird first in the story for a reason... even if the boy himself crafted the very same toy later. The Sigma I knew... he had already met me, had met my original human counterpart... lost that human counterpart, and spent 25 years making me in her likeness... just so he would meet me in the past, and so he could instruct me in the future.
[Ah. Time fuckery. He did not care to hear from you again.
For what it's worth, Akechi listens to her. He doesn't interrupt her, or walk away from the conversation. He even waits a few seconds before he speaks again, succinct.]
I don't know how else to answer. I... don't know if it matters. That's a subjective response. [Ethics and robots don't mix well in a school of philosophy, Akechi. To explain how she is or isn't alive... it's not a conversation she wants to have again.]
But I... I told you... I don't want to throw myself away. Even if I have to die, I... I don't want it to be pointless.
...
[Her voice softens.]
If this isn't about you trusting what I say, then... why do you still look at me like that? What am I supposed to do to help you if your words say one thing and your actions another?
It's not subjective, Luna. It simply doesn't matter.
[...
Back to that again...]
I don't need your help. I don't need anyone's help. [While Luna's voice softens, Akechi's own just goes cold.] What I need is for you to work with me. We have come to far to screw it all up.
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She didn't lie, but perhaps it's inaccurate to say it was only the three of us. There are three positions, and no vacancies.
[He didn't want her to find out, because... well. It's Luna.
No way around it now, though.]
When Mammon-san died, Phoenix-san was given his job. The same thing will happen next week.
[And yet, here's Akechi! Still alive.]
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Something inside her goes, very, very cold. They... were all expendable, then. Every single one.
...]
...
...Akechi.
Why didn't you tell me this to begin with?
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[... Does he really have to explain?]
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But she doesn't.
With a shaking exhale, she lifts herself up onto the roundabout, turning to speak to him directly regardless of whether he's looking back.]
No, I don't.
All I can do is make assumptions. I... believe we just talked about that.
So please, just tell me instead of leading me around like this. You're the one who spoke so badly of not wanting me to act like an item if I didn't want to be treated like one, weren't you?
Just speak to me like a person. Please.
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You mutilated your own arm because you think you're expendable, and you can't figure out why the hell I kept this a secret from you? I saw your memories, Luna. I know what you think of yourself.
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[Unlike the very cold, cruel anger that had unnaturally taken her over the second week, this bubbles out of Luna in a nervous flood, far more genuine and hard to refine. Because her anger wasn't at him, but at the distance between them, of the gap Phoenix had left behind and how agonizingly easy it was for Akechi to now feel a million miles away, closed off, pretending.]
W-what on earth did you think I was going to do? I've told you what I would prefer if circumstance required it, yes, but what did I ever tell you or show you that said otherwise?
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[Of course, Luna can say whatever she wants. But Akechi is stuck on this one point. That one memory. It shouldn't matter. He should know better by now. And, yet... here we are. It would be easier if she snapped or shut down on him again. At least then he could tear her down and wash his hands of this entire arrangement.]
You said someone like you is more expendable than a human. What else am I supposed to think?
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[His words get her to flinch, as they always do. But her grip tightens on the rail of the roundabout.]
I would like you to think I can be a little more trustworthy than that, and that I've tried to prove as much. I-I'm not trying to have anyone replace me...! I'm already a replacement! That's all I've ever been. Yes, I am acutely aware of how easily my spot could be filled, and that someone else would probably make much smarter decisions than me, but... w-what kind of a waste would it be to the people I care about to throw myself away because I couldn't handle my own feelings??
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[But he sure isn't saying with this is actually about, because that involves acknowledging too many things he would rather sweep under the carpet. So! That's fine. Let's... focus on something else.]
What do you mean, you're already a replacement?
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Everything on my plaque is true, Akechi. Even the story underneath it.
If I am the toy bird, then where did my bones come from?
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I see.
[Quietly. Maybe, just maybe, he hates someone out there a little more.]
Does it matter? You're the only "Luna" the guests of this party know. [... The only one he knows, and the only one Phoenix knew.] Even the man in your memory didn't seem to care about what you are, and what you're not.
SPOILERS FOR ANDIE RIP
[Her words catch with the name on her lips. But, no... if she was demanding from him, she might as well lead by example.]
The Sigma you saw wasn't the one I knew. The body was, yes, but...
The boy met the toy bird first in the story for a reason... even if the boy himself crafted the very same toy later. The Sigma I knew... he had already met me, had met my original human counterpart... lost that human counterpart, and spent 25 years making me in her likeness... just so he would meet me in the past, and so he could instruct me in the future.
ANDIE AVERT THY EYES
For what it's worth, Akechi listens to her. He doesn't interrupt her, or walk away from the conversation. He even waits a few seconds before he speaks again, succinct.]
That isn't an answer to my question.
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But I... I told you... I don't want to throw myself away. Even if I have to die, I... I don't want it to be pointless.
...
[Her voice softens.]
If this isn't about you trusting what I say, then... why do you still look at me like that? What am I supposed to do to help you if your words say one thing and your actions another?
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[...
Back to that again...]
I don't need your help. I don't need anyone's help. [While Luna's voice softens, Akechi's own just goes cold.] What I need is for you to work with me. We have come to far to screw it all up.
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Why can't they be the same thing? Doing everything on your own is... it's too impossible of a task to ask of yourself...
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I have always worked alone. Our arrangement is temporary.