You’ll have to pardon me for a bit while Fumiaki delivers some exposition. He’s made such a mess across the world, it’s about time he started explaining some of it.
↓ Transcript
Fumiaki: I've heard about you! Part of my failed experiment among the Inuits.
Girii: Failed? But our empathy --
Fumiaki: The empathy is a side effect, dear. I gave you the power of mind over body. Your hormone and acetylcholine responses are a thousand times greater than normal. You empathize with others because your brain makes you feel what you see. Was never able to consciously trigger it, though. And that nose -- a linked physical trait. Like giving the Mona Lisa a rhinocerous horn. Hmn. Rhino-sa-lisa...
Kentaro: Father?
Fumiaki: Oh, yes. But let me show you my true masterpiece...
Girii: Failed? But our empathy --
Fumiaki: The empathy is a side effect, dear. I gave you the power of mind over body. Your hormone and acetylcholine responses are a thousand times greater than normal. You empathize with others because your brain makes you feel what you see. Was never able to consciously trigger it, though. And that nose -- a linked physical trait. Like giving the Mona Lisa a rhinocerous horn. Hmn. Rhino-sa-lisa...
Kentaro: Father?
Fumiaki: Oh, yes. But let me show you my true masterpiece...
I’m sure Girii is just… flattered…
He can create empathy in others, but…
I don’t think you’d mess with rhino guy like that, would you doctor?
Or honey badger guy.
Oh, and your answering machine in Dakar did some bad things.
Occam’s razor, please…Eastern Indians have a Bourbonian nose(look up the nickel’s indian head)…maybe from early contact with Viking Welsh and basque whale hunters…Indians Innus loved to raid Innuit communities and…noses happened!
This Fumiaki is so much less austere than the one from the diary.. genuinely unhinged and detached from reality. It’s like the shock of Dahnai’s creation and lifespan actually drove him insane and left him trying, unnecessarily, to play catch up to that benchmark for the rest of his life. Either that or driven mad by the realisation of the possibilities in gene manipulatio.
Why is it that the truly insane scientists are always so charming at first?
Remember, this fellow set up and pushed the dominoes that fell over to create the world about our merry band, and yet…
Hmm, what do these bricks have printed on them?
“His intentions were good.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“It’s for the best, really.”
“Oh, there will be a few side effects, but that hardly matters, does it?”
I’m very entertained right now.
Now Doctor, experiments never truly fail. They always produce data, it’s just not always the data you wanted.
The empathy is a very interesting side effect, but I’m not sure what his actual intention was. Super-intelligence? Improved reactions? Probably something like that.
You all aren’t supposed to be calling Fumiaki crazy on this page. You’re supposed to be calling him crazy on the *next* page. 😉
Seriously, I’m glad you’re all getting pieces of the big picture. Just remember that all this was written years ago, and the art has been finished for a month or more. So I can’t react to your questions and requests for clarification as quickly as I used to in the past. I think that from your reactions it’s all coming together fine… (muhahaha…)
@Jerden: I think her super strength was what he was going for.
You ever hear of mothers lifting cars off their kids with nothing more than sheer adrenaline? I think he just said that she can do that at will.
@Jerden: Not strictly true, many an experiment has failed with nothing more learned than “don’t forget to turn the fecking sensor on”.
@ Jared – that’s the most vital data of all to collect!
Well that is probably an urban myth about the car but you can certainly ignore the PAIN of lifting that hard.
I can imagine some absent-minded professor grabbing a telekinetic creatures nose and someone yelling “Gonna need another inhibitor!”. Mewh, old reference.