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+--- Thread: A Little Snippet of Things To Come (/showthread.php?tid=1689)
A Little Snippet of Things To Come - Bob Schroeck - 11-30-2011
"Walk with me, Mami-san," Doug said quietly, and she couldn't
think of a way to say "no" that wasn't also an immediate
admission of guilt. Not trusting her voice to not squeak in a
completely embarassing and incriminating way, she simply nodded
and followed at his side as he turned and walked -- slowly, for
him -- toward the great lawn that separated Welcome House from
its front gates.
They crossed the grass in silence, and Mami glanced sidelong at
Doug as they did, realizing almost for the first time how very
large and strong he was and how very small and weak *she* was.
If he planned to hurt her... she shook her head suddenly and
violently, garnering an inquiring look from him that she ignored.
*That's not going to happen,* she told herself firmly.
"Mami-san?"
She kept walking for two or three meters after this before
realizing that Doug had stopped. She turned around and trotted
reluctantly back to where he stood. "Okay," she said softly,
"what's this all about?"
Doug raised an eyebrow at her, then lifted his head and looked
about before nodding curtly. "Okay. We're as alone as we can
get without actually leaving the grounds. No one can overhear
us here, and no one can sneak up on us without us noticing --
right, Chikage?" he raised his voice to the open air. "And we
can be seen from the House." He smiled. "In fact, I'm pretty
sure we're being watched by at least a couple of the other girls
right now."
"That's all well and good," she said, realizing he was trying to
alleviate the fears she had not even spoken aloud. "But why?"
"Well," he said, nodding. "I wanted to give you a little privacy
when I asked you -- who are you really, and why are you here?"
Mami's heart stopped and her breath caught, but she was pretty
sure she didn't give anything away. "I don't know what you're
talking about. I'm here for Big Brother, just like..."
"Don't bullshit me, Mami." She blinked at the sudden change in
his tone and language, even though his posture and gaze never
wavered. "You're nothing like the other girls. You don't have
that fawning worship of Wataru that they do. Where everyone else
is always out and about, interacting with each other, you tend to
hide in your room."
"Just because I don't..." she began, but he didn't let her
finish.
"You exchange encrypted emails -- holding rather obscure
messages that read like a private code -- with an anonymous
account on a public mail server in Tokyo, usually on a daily
basis."
She gaped at him. "How the hell did you know..." She gasped and
clapped her hands over her mouth, but he didn't seem to notice.
"And the clincher." From his pocket he drew a small device that
looked very similar to a cell phone. As Mami lowered her hands
and studied it curiously, he flipped it open to reveal a keypad
and a tiny screen covered with flowing geometric designs. He
stabbed a finger that looked entirely too big for the task at
the keyboard and the screen went white. "Command?" a smooth,
female voice that sounded little older than her said.
Doug looked at her, quirked one corner of his mouth up into a
half-smile, and turned the device such that it appeared to be
pointed at her. "DNA scan subject designate 'Minakami Mami';
compare to archived scan for subject designate 'Minakami
Wataru'."
"Complying," the gadget replied, followed by a wavering tone that
sounded like a sound effect from a science fiction anime. Mami
tensed her muscles to flee, but when she felt nothing stayed
frozen in place.
After a moment, the tone stopped. "Scan complete," the device
chirped, with what Mami would swear was almost a giggle in its
electronic voice. "Comparing." *This can't be real,* Mami
thought as she tried to come up with something -- anything --
she should do. *No one has anything like a...*
"Comparison complete," the gadget chirped again, interrupting her
chain of thought. "Cosanguinity coefficient: zero."
*Oh, *crap*,* Mami thought, and got ready to run anyway.
"Elaborate," Doug said with another raised eyebrow.
"After eliminating the common human genome, and allowing for the
standard rate of random accidental matches, insufficient
chromosomal similarity exists to posit a relationship between
the subjects closer than sixth cousins, once removed." There it
was again! Mami could swear the stupid electronic thing was
*amused*. "Further: mitochondrial DNA shows no connection
between maternal lines more recent than two centuries,
extrapolated."
"Scan off," Doug said, then flipped the device closed and slipped
it back into a pocket. He then fixed her with a look that
managed to be stern, even severe, without being threatening.
"Let's start this again, Mami. Who are you, and why are you
here?" She tensed again, and a vague disappointment settled into
the mix on his face. "And don't bother running. I'm both faster
and stronger than you, and you won't get more than a couple
meters."
Feeling like she wanted to cry, Mami collapsed to the ground in
a sloppy seiza, and began to explain.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- robkelk - 12-01-2011
I was about to ask where Doug got the hand scanner (it doesn't seem like Skuldtech or Fentech), then I remembered the SisPri Step is after the Legion+ Step... so never mind.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- Bob Schroeck - 12-01-2011
Actually, it's not a hand scanner.
It's a smartphone from 20 years up the line. With Eimi on the other end.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- Norgarth - 12-02-2011
hence the 'anime-like' sound effect, the lack of scanning indicators, and the hints of gigling. Presumably they (Doug and Emi) had either gotten a DNA sample for testing earlier or they are bluffing. Quite possibly the latter, since Emi probably broke the encryption on Mami's E-mail without even trying.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
- robkelk - 12-02-2011
Consider also that it's a pretty safe bet Noah watched SisPri before he 'waved Eimi into existence... so "bluffing" just might be the right call.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- nemonowan - 12-02-2011
Well, regarding the bluff question there are some other issues that can throw some light on it:
-It was never clearly stated in the anime, but the usual interpretation is that all the girls had different mothers, so mitochondrial ADN is not evidence anyway. It can be good to throw some more impressive-sounding thechnical terms in the bluff.
-At the end of the anime, it was made clear that that everyone (Wataru included) knew from day one that Mami was not a sister and were letting her stay there anyway (of course, in this scenario there is Doug who has the resources and inclination to notice that she may be up to something more sinister that just being a down-in-her-luck squatter)
- robkelk - 12-02-2011
SisPri RePure indicates that at least some of them have both parents in common... but I believe Bob's not using RePure, just the original anime.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- Bob Schroeck - 12-02-2011
That's correct. RePure, what little of it I managed to watch, was just too divergent and WTF for me.
Quote:At the end of the anime, it was made clear that that everyone (Wataru included) knew from day one that Mami was not a sister and were letting her stay there anywayBlame my grey-market pre-dub Hong Kong sub-written-in-English-translated-from-Chinese-translated-from-Japanese release for me not knowing that; although it makes sense, as you'd have to pretty dense not to realize that Mami was trying to sneak out when they found her the first time...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- Pyeknu - 06-29-2012
FYI, SisPri - RePure was going back to the original short stories that appears in Dengeki G's Magazine many moons ago. The original anime series that you're familiar with, Bob, actually deviated from that!
- Bob Schroeck - 06-29-2012
Oh, I'm not surprised. But you know how it is -- first version of something you find you enjoy is always going to be the "real" version to you.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- Pyeknu - 06-30-2012
True.
Even so, in my eyes, RePure was quite enjoyable.