Shiller took the photo from Natasha's hand, glanced at it, and then his gaze fell on Natasha's face, "You want me to perform a psychological analysis on this photo?"
"No. Just that agent said it might help." Natasha paused and continued, "I know you have this talent but seldom demonstrate it around us. Do you think it will work?"
Shiller noticed Natasha's skepticism. Clearly, Natasha didn't think one could infer the psychological and behavioral patterns of the person behind the camera just from a photo. Maybe you could speculate a bit, but it wouldn't be enough to deduce the real culprit.
"Indeed." Shiller said, "I rarely show this because it makes me look like a freak, not very sociable. I dare say if I did, Tony would scream and send me to the psychiatric hospital for a thorough examination."
"Is it really that exaggerated?" Natasha looked at him and said, "Even after knowing what you've pushed forward in our cosmos, Tony still refuses to admit you're a lunatic."
"Because his criteria for judging whether someone has mental illness are problematic. But one can't deny, he represents the view of most ordinary people. Even if I poke a hole in the cosmos, they would merely see it as a display of wisdom and strength. But mind reading through a photo looks insane."
"Well, I must say, this universe might be more accepting of such things." Natasha said, "Because Batman is a freak, deducing an entire family's life story from a Christmas stocking is just normal here. So you can unabashedly display such ability."
"I certainly cannot." Shiller shook his head and said, "Haven't you heard? If you show you can do the work, all the work in the future will be yours. I don't want to bring extra tasks with talent."
"What would it take for you to offer help?"
"More money." Shiller said, "Moon Knight sure can't do it, but if you want to hire Dr. Rodriguez, it's not going to be that price."
"I'll discuss with Batman, but the premise is that you can actually help." Natasha obviously remained somewhat skeptical. He doesn't deny Shiller has something akin to mind reading, but reading minds from a photo was a bit too outlandish, even Professor X couldn't do it, nor could the Supreme Magician just perform mind reading like that.
"I'll send the bill to him once it's over." With that said, Shiller looked at the photo. He entered a strange state of concentration, which was indeed different from his usual focus, appearing calmer, as if his soul had drifted to another place.
Just as Natasha was guessing whether Shiller's soul had really left his body to investigate clues, he let out a long sigh.
"Interesting." Shiller said, "This is a kind of experimental photography. Or you could say, when the behind-the-scenes manipulator took this picture, he didn't imbue it with any expectations."
"Expectations?"
"Yes. Everyone has expectations for their work; even if it's not to participate in any art contest but just for souvenir purposes, they will sketch out a rough outline in their mind. Like wanting a family photo filled with the atmosphere of happiness, or crafting an exceptionally cute and naive snowman."
"Yes, I understand. So the behind-the-scenes manipulator didn't think that way?"
"According to common logic, he should have other motives, wanting to create a scandal, thus having expectations about the ambiguous atmosphere in the photo. But he doesn't. This is plainly reflected in the finished product, as you say—the photo is too bland."
"You've uncovered the reasoning behind our conclusion, but this reason doesn't seem very helpful. What does lacking expectations explain?"
"Firstly, this completely rules out Abidonis' suspicion." Shiller said, "Perhaps you'd think the reason the photo is plain as water is due to his poor photograph skills, failing to reflect his inner thoughts accurately. But no, I can tell you, the person who took this photo didn't fail to create an ambiguous atmosphere due to technical issues; he couldn't envisage such an atmosphere before completing the work. For Abidonis, this is impossible. He isn't the photographer."
"Do I need to applaud you to encourage you to continue?" Natasha wasn't teasing, he earnestly asked.
"That's unnecessary." Shiller shook his head and continued, "The lack of expectations also implies another thing: within romantic relationships, he lacks the ability to predict the development of situations."
"How do you mean by that?"
"You and Mr. President are two living people; you're capable of making any move. You both can walk, talk, pose, perhaps exchange glances, and have physical contact. Any normal person can think of these. Based on these observations, he would conjure up the most intimate scenario and press the shutter when the scene in reality and in his mind closely align."
"Isn't the behind-the-scenes manipulator like that?"
"No. In fact, he lacks the foresight regarding your actions. That's a fundamental flaw." Shiller pointed at the photo with his finger and said, "The timing and location of taking this photo are incorrect."
"What do you mean?"
"You two weren't flirting at that time; even to say it was official business is a tad too intimate. You were merely courteous a couple of sentences after the arrest was completed. Would it be a good scene to take an ambiguous photo then?"
"Of course not. But maybe he felt you might not have further engagement later, so he seized the opportunity to take a picture."
"No. Have you realized that forging a photo would be a better option?"
"But forged photos will leave traces and can be detected."
"He can send you messages through email, but both Batman and Luther couldn't trace his background. This proves his technical methods are very strong, perhaps even capable of perfectly synthesizing photos. And how did you deal with the rumors in the end?"
"Claimed it was a fake photo," Natasha said, "The public relations department denied my existence. After all, no one can find out who I really am, so they simply said it was a computer-generated fake person."
"So what's the point of using composite photos?" Shiller said, "He should be able to anticipate that you'd debunk the rumors this way, so whether he uses real photos or fake photos, the outcome is the same. Anyway, ordinary people don't have the ability to verify it."
"Makes sense," Natasha said, "Using an original photo could inadvertently expose himself since one could at least deduce the location of the camera from the shooting angle. But if he uses a composite photo, it's almost impossible to trace the photo's source."
"So the topic circles back to my judgment. Why didn't he forge a photo? Because he doesn't have a good preconception of behavior between genders."
"You mean he doesn't know what counts as ambiguous?"
"He knows, just not how you two would behave ambiguously. He might understand Batman and also Black Widow, but he doesn't know what kind of ambiguous moves would be reasonable for your behavioral patterns."
"That's normal enough," Natasha said, "I guess we might be the first to have an intimate relationship that crosses between two worlds, so most people couldn't imagine how we interact."
"No. The human thought process doesn't work like that. Humans are very good at empathizing, drawing inferences from one instance to another. They can draw analogies from people they know who are similar to you or use content from novels, movies, and animations to rationalize this in reality, and then imagine based on their preferences what your ambiguous scenarios might look like."
"But the behind-the-scenes manipulator can't?"
"He can't. He lacks that kind of associative ability, more like lacking imagination for the factor of sexual attraction in gender relationships."
"Does this require unique imagination?"
"Yes, but ordinary people rarely realize this. Sensing the subtle atmosphere between two people, judging their mutual sexual attraction, and basing related assumptions on it seems like an instinctive behavior, but it's actually a special skill."
"Some people have a strong sense; in reality, this means some people love to watch romance movies and novels, enjoy gossiping about colleagues and friends' relationships, are interested in sexual psychology, and would never miss a topic on gender relations. However, some are more slow-witted, not only unable to see the atmosphere between others but also failing to perceive sexual attraction themselves and are uninterested in 'you love me, I love you' stories, rarely forming associations based on them."
"I think I understand a bit now," Natasha said, "So the behind-the-scenes manipulator is the latter."
"It's even more severe than that," Shiller said, "Others at most have no trees on the mountain, but he doesn't even have the mountain. That's the strange part. Even someone without sexual capability still has hormones and pheromones, and just by having these, they inevitably experience sexual attraction. Even with sexual psychology twisted and distorted, they can at least notice something. I didn't see any such factors in him."
"You mean he's asexual?"
"Yes. At least on a mental level, he doesn't have sex traits: lacks imagination for gender relationships, lacks experience of pheromones, and even lacks social sexual psychological experience. This can narrow down the suspect pool to an extremely small range."
"What kind of person has these characteristics?"
"Basically, it can be confirmed as a minor living in an extremely simple environment, whose body hasn't developed and hasn't received any sexual enlightenment. Judging from the current level of children's hormones and developmental status, it might be under six years old."
"Under-six-year-old children? How is that possible?!" Natasha said, "A six-year-old child hasn't even fully developed their brain, right?"
"In fact, that is already the better hypothesis. The information society allows children more social sexual psychological experience, and most six-year-olds who have been online aren't so naive. So the age might have to be even smaller, perhaps small enough to completely not understand external input about sexual content, maybe around 3 to 4 years old."
Natasha was utterly puzzled, he said, "But that's just not possible. How could such a young child have the technical means that even Batman and Luther couldn't track?"
"If you eliminate all impossible conditions, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Yet the truth can have multiple interpretations: a 3-4-year-old human child couldn't do it, so what if it's not human?"
Natasha was taken aback for a moment, he looked at Shiller and said, "You mean, Jarvis?"
"Perhaps a similar existence," Shiller continued.
Natasha walked over to a chair, sat down, and showed a recalling expression, he said, "When I chatted with Wanda, he revealed that for Jarvis, sex was harder to understand than love. Their intimate relationship was stagnant for a long time because Jarvis couldn't comprehend human bodily relations."
"That's quite normal, you can't expect an electronic life form, lacking hormones and pheromones, to feel anyone's sexual attraction. And for logical beings, if there's no need, how would they respond?"
"I don't know how they eventually solved it," Natasha said, "But since they already have two children, it might be a bit late to discuss this now."
"Was it helpful?" Shiller asked.
Natasha stood up and walked towards the door while saying, "It helped a lot, Doctor."