Ok I'll bite... mystery scene! From TEF
Notes: Since this scene will most likely end up being the climax of the next chapter, I’m going to keep this snippet as stripped (no dialogue tags, no actions, just one long speech) and as vague as possible, let you draw your own conclusions as to when and where this is happening, as well as remove a few missing elements that will give it more context in the actual update.
One more note: the idea expressed here is taken directly from computer science and machine learning, and I’ve always felt it fits the subject matter perfectly. This snippet is also tangentially linked to the one request I got for ichiruki (which will be posted soon enough), but I’ll let you figure out the how
“You never truly understoodit, did you?
I confess, I didn’teither. Not at first. I didn’t quite expect it to grow a mind ofits own. Or at least not one assophisticated. And then, somewhere alongthe way, I finally realized where we’d both been mistaken: it wasnever incomplete. The factthat it didn’t perform as either of us expected was not due to flaweddesign, but rather a failure to follow through post-development.
We projected our own desires upon it, andhaving no will of its own at the time, all it could ever do was reflect them back, likea mirror. I see now why you were thefirst to reach that conclusion.
There was never any need to correct theblueprints; instead, all I had to do next was educate it, by example. Which I did. So did you, whether you realized it or not.
And in that endeavor, you were singularlysuccessful. Far more successful than Iever was. You see, I started out small. I taught it how to survive, how topersevere. It was the first lesson it ever learned. Compassion was next, but I ran out of time. Three months is hardly enough for the magnitude of the project in question, isn’t it? It was still a work inprogress, a half formed little lump of clay brimming with curiosity, eager totry, eager to learn. And then yougot a hold of it.
What you failed to realize was that by combining the two, you were taking an impressionable sentient being that hadalready developed its own sense of self-preservation, and you forced upon itthe only lesson you ever knew how to teach: greed.
Is it any wonder, really? That it abandoned you so readily once itrealized you could never satisfy its insatiable lust for more?
I won’t do anything quite so trite as tosay you will regret uttering that threat a second time. I think we both already know that regret… is anatural companion of immortality.
Please do enjoy the remainder of your life, Aizen-san. You have earned it.”
