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[skitter]

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[tarakan]

You should be friends with Doug Eiffel. He also likes to mention people's names without context.

[ It's said in more of a teasing tone than anything argumentative. ]

I assume Jack Slash is some sort of ridiculous supervillain?

[skitter]

I am a ridiculous supervillain. Jack Slash is a serial killer with superpowers and a body count in the tens of thousands.

[tarakan]

In between serial killer with superpowers, giant monsters, and whatever nonsense you have not told me yet, miracle your world has eight billion people in the first place.

[skitter]

We've only had all the nonsense for 29 years, give it time.

[tarakan]

You do realize that even if you solve problem of mass depopulation, there is chance something else might happen afterwards. Something psychic has not predicted yet.

[skitter]

I'm taking this one. Others will take the next one.

[tarakan]

Smart. [ He lets out a little 'hmm' before, ] Suspect it will be same with my work. Eventually, virus will develop that is resistant to decima. But I would have laid steps for others to pick up where I left off.

[skitter]

[He can probably hear the little intake of breath through her teeth.]

Can't imagine it'll take long. Viruses work fast.

[tarakan]

[ Yeah he definitely heard that little intake of breath. There's a grumpy pause before, ]

Tell me. Has Kepler or Eiffel told you what end goal of my research is?

[skitter]

No, I haven't asked.

[tarakan]

The end goal of Decima is to help reverse cellular degradation. To help people recover from diseases, illness, foreign contaminations. It is to heal and to help spur recovery.

We have the same goal in mind. We both want to help people. And considering you started as inmate, we might have even taken similar steps to achieve that goal.

[skitter]

What steps have you taken?

[tarakan]

I have burned through people. I tell Command that I need human trials in order to continue research. They provide subjects. I inject them with the virus, use them as incubators, and monitor their process. If they die? Pity. But I start again.

[ Hilbert is keeping his voice deliberately calm, deliberately neutral as he talks. He isn't showing any hint of emotion: an obvious choice he's making. ]

Your method of burning through people would undoubtedly be different than mine. But I see how you value control. And you admit yourself: you are cliche supervillain. I wonder if you too have burned through someone for the greater good.

[skitter]

[There's a pause. Taylor actually checks her hands, but the hair-thin scars around her palms disappeared overnight - they aren't open and bleeding now. So she takes a silent breath, takes a second to send the sunken-heart feeling from what he said off into the swarm, and then her tone can be normal when she continues.]

Myself, mostly. Learning that I hold the matches is a big chunk of how I suspect I graduated.

[tarakan]

Interesting.

[ His tone is still the same composed neutral as he asks, ]

Wonder what will be trigger for me. What will I learn to graduate.

[skitter]

[Yep, she is totally past that. Whew.]

For me, an important thing was looking at ownership. Who owned the problems I was trying to solve? Who owned the responsibilities I was taking on myself? Why was I taking on ownership of things much, much larger than myself?

[tarakan]

[ Well that's an easy one. Because everybody else is a short-sighted idiot who can't see the potential that he does. Next question! ]

I passed on my research to others before I died. I am always open to collaboration should opportunity present itself. Doubtful that looking at ownership is needed for my graduation.

[skitter]

[Yeah, that's where she stood too, if less consciously so.]

Collaboration is still keeping your hand on the wheel, Doctor.

[tarakan]

This is my life's work. Understandable that I would like to keep my hand on wheel—most in my position would.

[skitter]

And that's the ownership.

[tarakan]

[ Hilbert lets out a small little 'hmmph' before, ]

How picky were you when you decided who to hand things off to?

[skitter]

When? When I died? Or after my deals?

[tarakan]

Whichever you have answer for.

[skitter]

I have made exactly zero choices about who picks up what I'm leaving. I'll do my deals, and then I have a whole different world I'm going to go meddle in. I don't even plan to check how it goes.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about who I'll leave in charge of the greenhouse.

[tarakan]

That is where we differ. I know I will go back to own world after I graduate.