Class Lecture 1: D.A.R.E. [Cadets]

Rui had largely slept through much of the lecture, including various debates about psychology. For one, Rui was never interested in psychology and introspection, largely due to the fact that he didn't believe in mind-body dualism. Presumably, feelings, emotions, personality, and intelligence were all biological outputs with a direct material cause. You could presumably change someone's personality by searing parts of their brain. Or as he learned himself, you could make changes to someone's personality by rapidly changing their biological inputs. He was quite aware that there was a decent argument that the individual named Rui Terui had died years ago on an operating table and that the figure walking around in his likeness was a philosophical zombie. The argument didn't actually bother him, largely because he didn't believe in p-zombies due to his aforementioned physicalism. He simply put, did not believe in souls. Such an explanation for the persona phenomenon thus was utterly unconvincing, and he merely assumed it was either a biological or mechanical phenomenon. Of course, it was closely linked to emotions and willpower, but who was to say those weren't physical phenomenon?

So speaking of materialist philosophy while lost in thought, Rui accidentally bursted something out-loud while listening to the normally intimidating Susan, not even quite aware of whom he was responding to, "Uh, so like you ever read de la Mettrie's L'homme Machine? Non-humans with Persona abilities seems like it supports more uh, the idea that Persona abilities come from something biological, material, or physical something. I'm clearly doing it without anything even sorta like a 'soul'. Also, you could totally lobotomize way someone's Persona ability. Uh, if you wanted to. "

Rui stopped himself, because part of him wondered how hypothetical that actually was. His face lightened up as he thought of something far more interesting, "Also wait, aren't we missing the big picture? If homo phantasma is real, wouldn't we get the most awesomest Persona users by uh, getting strong Persona users to..." Rui quickly meshed his hands together making a slightly noticeable squelching noise, while also making a rather peculiar facial expression that seemed taken out of a risque manga. Before he quickly coughed and switched to a more normal facial expression "...with each other?"

"No, but seriously, eugenics, yay! Genetics has to like affect persona-ing. Just like every other imaginable behavior and trait. It's like all material, to a point."

He continued as apparently the most impressive and also sort of terrifying Cadet he had met immediately came to mind, "For example, think of what a prodigy you could get if you paired off Cadet Gr-" His next word totally died in his throat as his basic self-preservation instincts finally kicked in, overpowering his enthusiasm for eugenics, "Gr-greats, eer, I mean Great Cadets with each other."

And that was that. His clarification was more than enough for her: Azami was satisfied. At minimum a level of plausible deniability had been established for the classroom and from here on out she could dismiss any absurd ramblings about the issue as thought experiments. Not that she couldn't before, of course, but it was better this way. She had set the record straight for the others and paved the path to a potentially more nuanced discussion. That was her stance in any event and she was staying by it; for now she would resume her original goal and lean back ready to further observe the proceedings. If nothing else came from this there'd be a newfound appreciation of the professor: Hugo was thoughtful, factual, and respectful. He knew his position and from what she'd seen he'd performed it relatively well. The actual information conveyed when focus shifted back to the topic at hand was no news to her, Azami well-educated in it and most of the associated "what's" of the supernatural, but it was good to have it refreshed. The Rogues were not of much concern to her though; as long as they were able to be kept in line she cared not. She found them pitiable for the drugs they had to take, almost laughable, but it felt somewhat... wrong to focus on that after her tirade. Perhaps there was some way for them to overcome it; at the very least if a drug could be developed to suppress the tendencies then, theoretically speaking, perhaps one could nearly eliminate them entirely. It wasn't her concern though. She was not a Rogue, her master was not a Rogue, no one she personally knew or cared about was a Rogue and ultimately there was nothing she could do to help even if she so wished. Therefore there was no point on dwelling on that. Her duties were rather simple and she only needed to continue to excel in them and showcase her skill.

Of course, the one to drag the subject back to the prior debate would Rui, and of course he would do it in the most idiotic way possible. "I never said they came from the soul. I only questioned the emergence of a new species of mankind." She would clarify frankly and bluntly with an index card she only raised for a short few seconds, left to assume he was addressing her, but unsure of his intentions as always. From there on though she wouldn't say anything and would simply sit back and watch him dig his own hole (much like she'd been behaving before except this time with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes). When he got to the part about eugenics she was feeling suitably smug and readied herself for whatever the storm of nonsense to follow. There were many facets of amusement to Rui's argument with the foremost being the mental image of Endymion's designated Persona User breeding population being locked away in kennels: that vision alone made her quietly yearn to see his proposal go through in some fit of madness (even if she knew it wasn't a realistic rendition of what such a program would entail). But there were additional layers to this like the fact that he used the blobby hair-trigger-anxiety-ridden Susan as an example of an ideal specimen of any sort or his mid-sentence realization that in doing so he was giving the superior officer who sat a few seats over perfect fuel for future reports (maybe even immediate disciplinary action if things spiraled further out of control, but she doubted the situation would go that far).

Whatever the final case, Azami was happy. Azami was amused. And above all else, Azami was slowly developing an ironic appreciation for this city of clowns. It was refreshing to see new recruits like Eryka who were straightforward and to the point, but watching the absurdity of the existing buffoons play out was equally satisfying, the cheapest form of entertainment imaginable. One could only wait and see whether the foot hastily shoved in his mouth would dissuade others from putting a boot up his ass.

The professor nodded as he began to tap lightly against his metallic chin in thought. "Mmn, my pleasure, Ma'am. Though I would be irresponsible for not including this. While we are able to detect higher beta wave patterns, strangely enough, observed Psyche-Terrorists appeared to exhibit normal beta wave patterns like those of normal human beings. We theorize it must be because of the masks they don to protect their identities. They may passively grant such protection even when not worn. Though we haven't had much problem detecting the patterns once they donned their nightly appearance. It is an interesting function, but one that refuses to lend any opening for further understanding... And thus, fuels the suspicion for some that the power to use Personas is a sort of evolution. Now, it is a rather interesting conundrum in itself which allows us to theorize more on the matter. Perhaps there is a biological part inside us that allows us this power and we haven't found it yet. It would only be a matter of time before we realize what exactly that factor is, biological or not. Though I must admit, there are organizations who seemed to have already realized or have a better working theory on how we are able to perform such phenomenons... But their secrets remain hidden, they guard their knowledge jealously quite unfortunately..."

A regretful and annoyed sigh escaped his lips and his eyes flashed in anger as he began to look back in the frustrating and one-sided negotiations with these organizations. How could they be so selfish to retain such knowledge from the rest of the World when it was so vital to understand and to learn of this new facade of their universe? There were breakthroughs to be made and innovations to be established, but yet they remained steadfastly stubborn to remain tight-lipped. Oh, it incensed him so...

While it was very tempting to fume and rant about it, the concerned look from Serenity gave him a much-needed reminder that he was in a class. Hugo knew he was not in a self-serving megaphone. Thus, he would continue the lecture with a sheepish scratch to the back of his head and clicking on the remote to move to the next slide describing the flora. However, someone required his attention. As interesting as it was to talk about machines and biology, this Cadet was rather... crass. Even Serenity furrowed her brows together as the professor loudly cleared his throat. In the corner where the camera was rolling even Maria had that odd look of cold murder while beginning to glow a light pink on her cheeks. "As interesting of a topic on eugenics may be, I would like to stress we would be here all day talking about the ethical and especially legal ramifications it has for future research. This can be a conversation for... another day. For the moment, we are talking about Rogue Personas and we must finish this lecture before my other work requires my presence. I beg for your patience, please."


The professor didn't waste much time as he continued the lecture. He needed to wrap this up if he were to catch up to other planned endeavors for this rainy day. Pressing on the remote a red dot began to emit on the board where the projection was projecting. It would begin to circle around the marked dates and even some of the images of strange plants that were being carefully stowed away by workers in hazmat suits. "Around the same time as we began to research Personas, botanists and other observers began to notice the Divide ,and the demons it brought into our World, began to change our environment in ways that are difficult to understand within the boundaries of current scholarship and understanding. Some of these changes maybe drastic enough to notice in your immediate area as there were remarkable infestations of new species. But most were... shall I say, subtle? They could include certain known plants began to exhibit strange characteristics of excreting strange substances in the air and on the soil or perhaps changing their appearance on certain times of day and night. Such oddities were certain to catch the eye of researchers. With some investment in understanding what they are and a little experimenting on the side, we eventually began to creating the first doses of Persona Suppressants to the ones we now know today."

The slide would move to the next. This time titled "Persona Overdose". On it revealed a set of images near the information detailed in bullet points. Each one had a single person with a Persona and the image next to it had the same person with a Persona of a different appearance. He rattled on again while leaning over the podium. "As much as Rogue Persona users may find themselves hindered by their side-effects, it was reported from experts on the field that their potential isn't something to shrug off. These reports described moments when these Personas could temporarily a complete different set of abilities and appearances unlike the ones they had before. As I am not a combat expert, it was described to me that it grants them a certain edge in situations when it calls for their particular set of powers. There wasn't much in the way of naming convention as far as this ability was concerned. But based on some Rogue users requiring drugs to use the latter half of their potential and when such a surge of power runs out, they subsequently lose control of their Persona for a period of time. As a consequence, many researchers deemed appropriate to call it a Persona Overdose for the violent reactions to harnessing such temporary source of power."

With more discussion came more information and more quizzical mysteries to explore. Susan could not be disappointed with Professor Hugo's admittance that these enhanced waves could not be measured in Psyche Terrorists, it brought yet more interesting questions.
"Well, back to the drawing board..." she muttered to herself, though not in any disappointed tone. Psyche Terrorists could not be discerned via technology in any meaningful way, which on its own takes away any practical aspect there would be to having such technology that did not already exist. Although it left implications. This was true for Psyche Terrorists, but what of Cadets who had no masks? They did not exhibit the same effects, their brain waves could be scanned to be noted as differential even without masks though a catalyst had to be present. It pointed strongly toward a certain consciously or sub-consciously controlled element to this ability, which aligned with what she was about to vocalize.

...if not for a certain loathsome individual. The debate was fairly standard, if you had anyone in a room full of those who wanted to succeed toes would be stepped on and IQ would be stacked against each other to measure who was smartest. Susan did not mind at all, she was quite used to the atmosphere from board meetings. Mostly she kept to herself and let the strong-arming continue, keeping to her own concise points and giving small rebuts. Terui's indecent display only mustered a scoff and an eye roll of understanding toward Maria who, as far as she knew, was in the same boat. Over that they could bond. But the insinuation did not slip past her in the least, even if the sentence wasn't completed.


Her icy gaze fell across the person she despised most in the room. Unlike Maria's own look of fury hers was far, far more chilling. The frigid stare hung in the silence, unabated by all distractions and unwavering in its intensity. Behind eyes are hard and cold as diamonds Susan's neurons were quickly firing despite her silent expression, filling her head with ideas and plans she could use to hurt Terui. But these weren't idle fantasies of, say, bashing someone's brains out with a heavy object, oh no. Susan did not physically hurt people. She destroyed their lives and livelihoods when she was crossed. Bodily pain and death would pale in comparison to, for example, being thrown out of the force and barred from work in the industry of his choice, thrown so far beneath where he once stood he would find himself living and eventually dying penniless in a gutter, hated and mocked and loathed by complete strangers and turned away by those he drew close. The businesswoman's nose whistled as she took a deep breath and turned around with her stony facade up. It was irrelevant to the topic at hand, well, perhaps tangentially relevant but she decided to speak up enough to get everyone to shut their mouths and move from the topic.

"Consciousness," she sounded out in a near gasp, speaking to the room. "The answer you are looking for is consciousness of a higher form. It comes about biologically which is defined by genetics, it can be mechanically created in advanced artificial intelligence as is granted to androids created for this purpose, it can be artificially given, affected, and manipulated and exists separate of species as evidenced. Certain individuals would argue that the soul is defined by consciousness which is debated among religious officials within significantly intelligent apes and the works of people such as Isaac Asimov in regards to artificial life. So that is where that theory comes from, it is consciousness, that is the commonality you are looking for, thank you." Her tone stayed stressed and quite annoyed and potentially rude as she explained things in a voice that bespoke of this conversation is over, but she had offered no theories of her own nor said anything that wasn't a known fact. It could be said that she wasn't exactly right, it could not be said that she was wrong because she was not. She did not mean to be condescending about it but her nerves were suddenly frayed by some mysterious circumstance and she took to being direct to shut down the ceaseless philosophical back and forth. Philosophy was useless and she was looking for more technical explanations. Something that was actually useful or could be made to be useful in the field.

The short woman sat straight in her seat, shoulders hunched and rigid as she took a mouthful of coffee and did her best not to become upset or furious with these happenings nor become distracted from the lecture. With her sense of ease and amusement rattled her mind was sharper and much more alert as it put together all that she knew of the topic. Despite the stress Susan worked much better under a certain level of pressure and this was just the right amount, enough to establish a goal, enough hostility to engage her brain into more furious action. After enough thought and coverage of the topic Susan would speak up again as her mind fit the pieces together.

"Excuse me, sir. May I propose a theory?" She did not raise her hand this time and her demeanor was much less hesitant and more assertive than before.


This was all speculation of course but Susan wished to see how correct she was, to know what her level of understanding of the topic was and if she could broach advanced knowledge of such. The rest of her time sitting there she would be preoccupied with how she could no longer enjoy this for situational reasons and lamenting that another stigmatic name was given to people with her condition. It made her sound like a neurotic drug-addicted loose cannon instead of the victim of circumstance she was.

Hugo blinked at the blurted words coming from Susan's mouth. He deigned to pause to listen to her answer as his eyelids shut. Not because he was falling asleep, but to imagine and to digest what the woman had to say. And even as she asked to continue, the professor gestured her to do so. He was dutifully rewarded for his patience, thankfully. The expression on his face was as if he was relishing the deep welcoming smell of coffee in the morning. When Susan was finished, Serenity appeared to be relatively impressed. But for the professor, he had what appeared to be a grin. "What is your name, Ma'am, if I may ask? I am pleasantly surprised you were able to extrapolate so much from a mere lecture to such a conclusion. Indeed, consciousness explains many things in our current environment. From the connections of our brain and the role of the Persona Suppressants to the utilization of Personas... Yes, it explains much more than you may actually realize... But, I'm afraid that will be a lecture for another time. As we are running out of time and I am frankly out of material with this next little slide."

The slide moved to a picture of the brain divided into separate lobes. Two of them would be emphasized in orange and red the most while the rest was less pronounced. The red dot from the remote began to circle around these areas as the professor gave the last bits of the lecture. "To corroborate with your theory, Ma'am. We've, as a matter of course, also done brain scans in our research to realize parietal and frontal lobes of the brain experience a significant amount of activity out of all the lobes as a Persona began to be used. While the parietal lobe is of interest, our greatest concern is our frontal lobes. The area of our brain dealing with all matters of reasoning, motor skills, expressive language, and... higher level cognition. Though I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there was some higher activity in the cerebellum, curiously enough. However, you can see where this is all going as your colleague stated. To the Consciousness. Our most possible missing key. And yet, we still understand little of it in light of all of these discoveries from Personas alone--"

The bell began to scream faintly through the walls and the windows just as the screen went black with a small subtitle indicating it was the end of the slides. The professor glanced at his wrist watch, noticing that his lecture time finally came to an end. He sighed, but with a modicum level of contentment. The Professor came here to teach, but in the end, he learned much instead. It was funny how all of this worked.

"Thank you for coming, Professor Icarus. I'm sure this morning was quite enlightening for the Cadets." Serenity smiled as she began to stand from her seat and walk over towards the podium. She was handed the remote from her special guest before pressing on it to turn off the projector so its humming fan would cease.

"You mean, for us all, dear Highness. If our Cadets are this talented, I think this City is in good hands. Sadly, as much as I wish to stay and continue such an interesting conversation, my students would begin to grumble at me. You would all have to bear with my sudden exit, I'm afraid. Have a good morning, all of you." he chuckled while beginning to hobble away from his position.  Though not before taking a look at the office lady Cadet. "Please indulge me in a selfish request and come by the next lecture should you be able to. I look forward to any of your insights. Until next time."

As the old man exited the room, Serenity announced to the class. "Class is over. You're all dismissed."

SQ Gain:

"Officer Groves, Susan Groves sir. Thank you." The businesswoman kept to being quiet afterwards to avoid further interruptions. Truth be told she almost stuttered like she was wont to do. If her businesslike facade wasn't so prevalent she would even feel a little giddy about it, one of the few compliments she didn't feel incredibly awkward for taking was about her intelligence. But she would not, so she would begin to draw in more information and make connections on her own. Consciousness being a primary factor opened a lot of gates to mysticism, things such as psychics or the astral plane. It could be realistically said that those with the Potential had ESP if their minds could detect demonic presence without being exposed to it otherwise. The short woman raised her finger to her lips as the brain was discussed and which lobes were active during this activity, which raised still more questions. The frontal lobe was involved in consciousness yes, it's function of this was clear. But so did the parietal lobe which tied into the frontal lobe's function, it dealt with the processing of information which followed the ESP detail. And the cerebellum was interesting as well, given its role in motor control and basic responses. Most importantly fear and pleasure.

Given that a Persona User could control their Persona at a whim this would extend to the cerebellum and both fear and pleasure responses could tie into this, but beyond that she needed more information. In what role did the frontal lobe play with Personas? They were tied to complex thoughts and reasoning, but also imagination being a complex thought. It could suffice to say that naturally smarter or creative people may have more powerful Personas but that would need to be tested. The link to what actually brought one forth was entirely unknown. Perhaps she could run a questionnaire if there was a big enough sample size... although... it may be better to explore the environmental effects during a Persona summoning. Ambient radiowave activity, heat, there must be some measurable phenomena that could be recorded that would give insight into this without delving too far into so called "crackpot theories". But perhaps that was unavoidable. Perhaps mysticism held some science behind it after all.

Her thoughts were shaken away as the bell rang and the black of the slide knocked her violently from her expansive web of mental connections. Well, this would be something to research later or possibly not at all if she could guide research to the right place. She was an analyst, not a scientist. She put the building blocks together, she did not carve them from the wood herself. Either way reports would need to be made over what was learned today but she would refrain from speculation on paper, that would be for her head alone. Susan began to drain the rest of her cup of coffee so she could begin packing her things, her thermos and her suitcase. She was in a bit of a rush for a specific reason but froze when she was called out specifically.


And he limped on his way. Drat. Susan had wanted to give him her business card for possible opportunities in the future. At the very least he was a prime source of knowledge, but she had wanted him to be available and a reference for entering his line of work. Truth be told... when Susan joined the Cadets she had thought she would be doing something closer to Professor Hugo or Princess Serenity's job. Even if she was useful in the field as she was that would not last forever and she had to keep her future in mind. One day she would be too old or injured to keep the peace and her abilities could still be of use within the lab setting, which she preferred. It was a small dream of hers to be some sort of scientist or involved in the process. But there would be another lecture, another opportunity.

The short woman got packed and stood to quickly move. She would not track down Professor Hugo, she would allow the man to go about his busy day. But Susan had somewhere to be and most importantly it was not here with the presence of one of her main stressors.
"Thank you for your time, ma'am. I appreciate this educational experience." Susan gave the Princess a cursory glance and a respectful, bowing nod as she made a quick pace for the door. Speaking to no one else. She had very important people to meet and discuss very important things with. Things such as the policies on human resources.