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[dollmaxing]

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Hiiii! You've reached Ichinose Kuon, head of AI research and development. Leave a message and I'll get back to you!

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[counterfeitphantom]

"You could have always dyed your hair," she points out, then gritting her teeth at the fact that she was always so quick to defend her dad's actions, even if they occasionally gave her a migraine.

Akane follows suit in keeping up with business, tracking her fast typing to the directories now booted up on her screen.

"How have you been testing your code so far?" Akane asks, immediately copying in all the lines of code and parsing them, finding patterns against her anti-EMMA software. Or that her digital space was imported from the bare bones of EMMA herself, like a vaccine. "I predict an actual jail or a simple cognitive space dictated in coding might suffice, but you don't have the app to fully test all the functions in it...yet."

[dollmaxing]

"Nope! I had deleted EMMA's app off of my phone per the warning and that wouldn't have even given me a proper EMMA to test the code on anyway. Do you have a database model of your universe's EMMA? Simulations ought to help fine tune the coding in general."

All business, though she is bracing for any of her suggestions and proposals to get rejected out of pocket. She'll just have to do whatever she IS allowed to do.

[counterfeitphantom]

"Before we get to EMMA, I want to see how your code interprets the metaverse," Akane begins explaining- her two hands busy typing away on two screens floating before. Copying Ichinose’s code, comparing it against the one other engineers and computer scientists had banded together from their knowledge.

Sure enough, she's legit with her work. A genius in the making- considering her work follows in the future's footsteps.

Against what Ichinose might have been preparing for, Akane had posed a rather simple follow up question in return.

"Would a jail suffice as a simulation?"

[dollmaxing]

"A Jail! Hmm... yes, I think I could recognize differences - I was investigating EMMA's code during the outbreak of Jails, so I might be able to recognize if there's any differences as well," Ichinose pondered, pulling up more notes, including remembered segments of code from her EMMA and some of what she'd transcribed from the notes and communications from her phone.

For a moment, she started to adjust and piece things together more coherently, going from a framework to something more directly functional for the sake of a test. She didn't realize that as she worked through her coding, she started humming that tune again, tuning out everything as she focused on her work.

[counterfeitphantom]

"I can set up a small testing ground then- it won't take that long, but just so that you have an idea of what you are up against, I think it will be good practice. I don't want to spend any time longer than necessary here." Akane's voice remained just as even as Ichinose's, except for the slight bitterness in the end. Her focus doesn't flinch away from the screens - it's more like a part of her.

Wolf (the younger one's) alpha EMMA version would help for the testing. It's mostly devoid of all cognitively driven elements that make it dangerous in the first place, so if she can control EMMA's influence with her already current understanding of the general cognitive sentence, she would be able to create a strong case for a testing ground! Maybe she will tell Hamuko about it later...that is, unless she gets too protective and tells Wolf somehow. She doesn't think her father would approve of such handling of a highly dangerous app but she's a goddamn CCAI. Decades-old apps like EMMA's alpha version won't do her any harm!

"It's that song again," Akane mutters, looking away from the screens to note her humming. "You have listened to that song three thousand five hundred times. Your music choices reflect a lot of soft and lyric-driven songs..."

[dollmaxing]

"Heheh. Yep, it's stuck in my head - the way the singer's voice goes through the notes just sticks in my brain, and it's really fun to try and sing along - if I didn't get stage fright, I'd probably have been a karaoke fiend."

Stage fright was probably an exaggeration of what she felt, since she could give public speeches and presentations well enough. It was more that... she didn't like how any of her favorite songs to sing along with seemed to give people the wrong idea of what she actually was like.

So she kept typing away, speaking casually and half distracted as she got things set up for Akane's testing.

"I used to drive people craaaazy with how often I would sing or hum whatever got stuck in a loop in my head. My labmates ended up all putting on headphones and actually focusing on their assignments, hehehe. Fine by me, we were WAY more productive that way," she chattered away as she plugged away. "I DO like a lot of songs, especially some city pop, but this one is definitely my most persistent earworm."

[counterfeitphantom]

Stage fright? Akane somehow doubts someone like Kuon Ichinose had stage fright, given how open she always was with a crowd and tried to rant about as many topics as she could in matter of a few seconds.

"I have read that humming comes as a natural instinct," Akane answers rather mechanically as she constructed the interface for the app that governed EMMA like it did back in junior wolf's world- overseeing its code while adding her own twist to it. "It's because silence is percieved as a sign of danger. Or as a way to destress but with the way you're describing it...that seemed to pose the opposite effect."

---

The cognitions shifted amongst each other, attempting to ignore the open staring posed by a heavily cloaked man hanging off from one of the golden ribbon-like tapestries that seemed to overcome the upper expansive part of the palace's reception. His eyes, hidden behind the solid visor- scanned the area ahead like a hawk looking for fresh prey.

"Some place you have set up, Doc," Wolf mutters almost disapprovingly while trying not to be caught off guard by the sheer brightness of the place. The plants or the happy cognitions...this is the first cognitive area he's seen not derived in malice or ill-intent. Atleast on first glance.
With one hand grasping the pamphlet provided by this place, he kept one hand resting on the hilt of his gun.

There's a shadow...clerk. Two of them actually, standing in front of a large gate.

Well this got a whole lot more interesting...

Wolf pulls out a revolver, reloading it with a familiar twist of the wrist. Time for a thorough stakeout so that he knows what he's dealing with.

The shadow, the one on the right with a swirly mask seems to perk up as it notices his presence.

The shadow weapon smirks, canine poking out before he moves-!

---

Akane hums. "I didn't think you would be an avid listener of songs. Is there anyway you know in which I could induce an earworm? Enjoying songs can be quite difficult for me as a non-human. Or I can't distinguish my urges as a human to figure out the mystery anyway."

[dollmaxing]

Ichinose was none the wiser to a potential intruder... she was comfortable here, feeling safe enough with Maruki's protection. She could work here, remotely, with the AI - and be safe from the big bad Wolf.

There's a pause that extends long enough that it almost seems as though Ichinose wasn't going to answer Akane's question - but after that stretched quiet, she sat back and hummed, eyes still reviewing the bulk of code to skim for errors as she then spoke.

"Your original script writer may not have given you a function like that - it's one of those frivolous little 'living' details that most programmers gripe at me for including. But you could probably code it into yourself easily enough - it's just about adding a reward center to your coding and tuning that appropriately, giving it a natural cap so it doesn't overflow into an endless acceleration of reward, and programming some presets that are broad enough. Reward seeking behavior is part of what spurs on action and motivates living things, so it's really not too terribly difficult to replicate that with coding, just bulky enough that most other programmers don't see a point in it. But if you ask me, motivation and enjoyment are huge factors in making something truly intelligent... and letting the AI develop into something more uniquely them. Another little way to make them their own person."

Satisfied with how her code looked for the moment, she smiled at the screen, voice a little amused.

"But I also don't work with human souls interfacing with coding - I can't tell you how that might be affecting things or how to investigate what was recorded from that soul to actually see if there's 'likes' or 'dislikes' sitting in it still."

[counterfeitphantom]

For a moment, Akane is quiet, processing everything Ichinose has said so far. She hadn't expected much of a response. Hell she didn't know what possessed her to throw such queries at the woman who was actively known not to respect autonomy or even just the general wellbeing of their world- falling apart in her hands.

"A reward system...no, you are actually making sense?! I already like playing games and exhibiting the need to stream my experience to other cognitions- it could very well be a reward system that I have integrated automatically. Activating neural pathways which loop in my head- maybe there is a song out there which I will be able to recognize."

"And as a reward system- I can learn about my identity."

"Wait...is this where I am told that I owe you now?"

[dollmaxing]

"If you and your bigger wolf can stop bullying me so much, that's all I'd ask," Ichinose chuckled a little. "But I guess that's a 'no', no matter how helpful I am."

Mmm, a message on her other phone from Maruki... the aforementioned big bad wolf is being let in. Well, with that in mind, Ichinose leaned over to open a drawer in her desk, pulling out a bag of kitsukatsu. Of the couple of random flavors, this one was from the promotion week for the cherry blossoms - cherry blossom sake.

She didn't mind treats one way or another, but she'd had an idea. And to set it up, it had to seem innocuous - so she opened a package for herself and started nibbling on the white chocolate wafers. Floral, almost, with slight hints of sake flavor... fancy!

"Mm. Now - give my code a look and let me know where I need to redo anything or what likely won't work from being outdated."

[counterfeitphantom]

Akane stiffened up from her request, her momentary lapse of surprise completely concealed to reveal a critical look. "You are not that innocent, Ichinose. You are an active threat." The AI didn't even try to soften her words since attempting to do that will only be an insult to them as well as this broken doll...no way does she believe that she's only helping them.

Her position didn't get any less defensive when she saw Ichinose move, check her phone. Her expression remained even- not giving away how she was actively pinging her location to Wolf.

Not safe. Not around her.

"I will isolate the file in a sandbox then. Run it against one of EMMA's patched versions first to see how it responds," she shrugs as she pinches her fingers and draws them out like she were drawing curtains- opening a portal with an adjacent port that reflected the app she had extracted from the previous harmless iterations of EMMA before they were powered up by cognition- funny enough!

She made note of the strange switching to snacks. Is she seriously hungry like that around work or if she felt this uncomfortable, was she using snacks as a form of cover?

Why so? What about Akane makes her nervous?

---

Takuto:I think he's attempting to map out the area.

A shame...I wouldn't have minded him showing the area if he didn't just outright decided to attack my clerk :( And kill them! Who does that :(

Anyways, I have directed the palace structure to conceal your room. I will open up the place again when the storm passes.

Heads up to the IT room by the way! Just brute forced through one of my weaker guards.

Me being there would make it too confrontational I fear.

---

"Want to see your program brutally murder prototype EMMA?"

[dollmaxing]

Brute forcing his way past Shadows instead of going along with Takuto... between that and Akane's flat distrust, Ichinose hummed in thought to distract herself from the clawing tension threatening to rise in her chest.

Her eyes darted up at the last question.

"Want to see your program brutally murder prototype EMMA?"

Why did the AI phrase it like that? To get a rise out of her? Was it a trap? Or was it lingering resentment for their own apocalyptic situation? Akane's emotions were rich and complex - focus on that and the crisp of wafer, Kuon.

"Sure. Let's see how it runs so far so I can get together a to-do list," she said plainly through a mouthful of white chocolate.

[counterfeitphantom]

Akane's expression remained plain as well, an AI driven by a human heart, tilting her head at Ichinose, mirroring her expression while giving her the go to pan the window up and above into a vast space adjacent to the digital space she resided in.

The sandbox expanded - almost like a room separated by a wall lined with 1s and 0s; a singular orange ball hovered at the centre with lines of neon dancing around it, like empty electron shells. Akane directs the camera through what Ichinose sees so that she can get a clearer view. "This is the alpha version- something our own systems are technically built on. We have already developed software against this and the other ten subsequent versions of her, but beyond that...it's where it gets tricky. After that, you are dealing with a being integrated into the cognitive world."

The walls pulsate, and the files that Ichinose had attached get injected into the same room.

Immediately, it latches onto EMMA, revolving on one of its main electron shells before violently evolving into something like an amoeba, warping and wrapping its body around it. Code pings and runs on a window before Akane.

EMMA disintegrates in a matter of a few seconds, leaving behind a trail of digital crystals.

The AI shifts her focus, allowing Ichinose's program to remain on standby as she hums, unimpressed. "Not a start, but at least you weren't lying before."

[dollmaxing]

The visualization of code working... interesting. She'd written the code to work and adapt to shut down elements of EMMA piece by piece, but the way it visualized made it look smothering.

Dramatic. But EMMA is able to quickly change her code and adapt to things in seconds for security measures - the integration of cognitive psience would only amplify the avenues for EMMA to wiggle out of the trap and reform.

"Hmm. I need to script and apply cognitive psience to the dismantling code, as well."

Did she feel strange seeing her creation obliterated like that...? For some reason, nothing stirred in her - possibly because this wasn't an up-to-date EMMA, possibly because it just isn't her EMMA.

"I'm sure that'll go over well," she sarcastically commented, even if her tone was a bit dry for it, tapping at the keyboard without pressing any keys, adding the faint plastic tapping sound to the mechanisms of her brainstorming. "But your world's EMMA will inevitably escape through the cognitive space without it, so it's a necessity."