Scene #8586: Sun In A Well

Owner	Pose
Angela	Angela hasn't invited Tamamo back for her last tour for some time--numerous issues had cropped up amongst the facility--including an Ordeal that proved to Angela that just because she has an EGO Gear--it doesn't mean it's an acceptable risk for her to try and deal with it personally as well as two instances of Meltdowns occurring right after another. The Train is STILL being cleaned up and Stanley nearly killed her and then offered snacks. To say nothing of matters occurring outside the facility but most of those are far less stressful--most times, Angela can accept a mission fail out THERE. But if the big missions fail, she'll have to start over... Angela meets Tamamo at the Warpgate as usual, bowing her head to her respectfully as usual, and once she straightens up she says, "Thank you for coming, Tamamo. We have two more Sephirah to meet at the lower levels of the facility. I have been reflecting on our past meetings as well--I was hoping to share them with you. Perhaps as we make our way over to the Elevator?" She hesitates, though as she starts to turn. "...I feel I should warn that these two Sephirah are not like the others. You may have gotten that impression already over radio transmissions but Binah in particular--she is an overt sadist. We can skip her if you'd like." She has a feelin Tamamo won't skip out simply due to the possibility of momentary unpleasantness, but she's lived her whole existence as a secretary and some habits are difficult to shake.
Tamamo	Tamamo, for her own part, doesn't look much different from her previous visits. 'Radiant' would be a fair description for a bunrei of the Sun Goddess, though within the City, one might be wise to treat cautiously with anyone that bright, unusual, or otherwise eye-catchng. They'd be right to, even here, but Angela's not one to whom Tamamo presents a threat. "Of course, Ms. Angela. I would not mind at all to hear your thoughts. It is more pleasant to have confirmed that one was listening, even if the conversation was an idle one, is it not?" That calm smoothness doesn't falter at the mention of Binah. "Thank you for your concern. However... so long as the person in question is not a danger to either of us, I do not believe we need skip over them. They must be understood, in the end, as well, no?" So saying, she joins Angela for the walk down.
Angela	Angela nods to Tamamo. "You understand well." She turns and starts walking for the elevaor. At this point, Tamamo is a welcome and known presence--Malkuth throws a wave over but while it's difficult to read a one eyed box robot, there is a brief hesitation in that wave as she remembers what Tamamo had originally said. Angela says, "I've considered your request on the matter of Petra. I thought for a moment I misunderstood your request, but I feel I have a bit of a better understanding now, so I apologize in the delay in getting back to you." "I think," Angela says. "I have to admit that I am unable to hold onto Petra's leash for a few reasons, first and foremost being that her leash is already held by another." She glances over to Tamamo. "I apologize, though I will not get in the way of you enforcing your own will. She seems inclined to obey you, at least in public." She looks back forward. "...I hope we can still talk about Love and Relationships." Angela says as she steps into the elevator and stares ahead.
Tamamo	Tamamo glances at Angela the moment Petra is mentioned, before looking ahead toward the elevator, again. "Oh, I see," is what she says at the end, and takes several moments to think, before continuing with, "It cannot be helped, in that case, if you do not feel it feasible, in your position. There are times 'another' is not watching to see what Ms. Soroka is doing, and these are times to be concerned. I may have even heard this mentioned, just today, over the broadband." Referring to the earlier conversation in which Petra concluded that she'd fucked up by not asking Lilian before going to see Dr. Eggman is, with full context, extremely unfair of her, which is why she's being deniably vague about it. "There are times, as well, when neither I nor she have watch over her. Still, I would not wish to ask more of you than you could comfortably give. We may leave that matter to rest." She isn't that happy about it, but getting Angela's full cooperation in dealing with Petra was always a gamble, and it wasn't Tamamo's only bet. She can sound unperturbed by it, generously accepting, without even being dishonest. "Of course, it would ever be more pleasant to speak of love. I had just recently spoken to another of Lilian's other self, and so, I have had cause to think of how her understanding of love might differ. I would say, as some might, that 'there are many kind of love,' but I wonder if that is not a misleading statement. It was a single kind that I sought, and a single answer that would satisfy my quest. Does it not seem unhelpful, and unsatisfying, to answer any question with, 'there are many answers'?"
Angela	Angela says, "Of course, I can ask her to behave in particular ways with regards to the facility--but she is following the rules here." Outside of the rules she's breaking, anyway, but not following the Manager's rules and not following Angela's are two different acts, and two different sets of rules besides. She isn't breaking the rules enough (so far) to encourage the Manager--or the Script--to take action. Tamamo does have a good point in that Lilian can't observe Petra all the time. "Mm. She did inform us of her intent to ... Get the Reassignment Surgery?" She sounds a little uncertain that she's using the right term. She does wonder if she should have told Lilian about that herself--but the fact she didn't is perhaps sign enough that she doesn't particularly feel comfortable in taking the wheel in this particular relationship and Tamamo's connection to it. "She does seem like she obeys you, but I suppose you cannot keep watch over the whole time either. But I know about where I stand in her eyes." At least a full level or two below the concerned parties here. The Elevator goes downward. Angela doesn't seem too pleased with her own answer either, maybe she found some limitations, maybe she found something else. "If it changes, I will let you know, but it is clear to me that there are many elements at play here that I do not really understand." It isn't simply a corporate matter in her eyes. ''I had just recently spoken to another of LIlian's other self.'' "Exigent Serenity." Angela says and then she says, "There are many kinds of love, but romantic love seems more complicated than platonic love, or familial love." She looks down at her hands and admits, "I do not believe I am in a position to judge how others love, having never experienced it myself and knowing so little. It would be nice, if there was one answer--an answer with clarity--but even with the reading material, I feel there is still much I do not know." The elevator doors open up, leading into darkness. Angela hesittes before moving forward. "If you find a singular answer, would you be called back to the Sun? Or would you stay here and enjoy the truth you found?" She steps into the darkness... The Extraction Department is shrouded in darkness. Black upside down monuments with unreadable text hang from above, the lettering providing the only ready glow to the department aside from a singular green pool some distance away. Binah, in boxbort form, turns to look at Tamamo and Angela. "Another Visitor!" Binah says. "Mm...But one unlike the others. How many tales do you have, Amaterasu?"
Tamamo	Tamamo takes a moment, and a curious, slightly concerned look, before she corrects Angela's uncertain statement with, "The deroboticization treatment is that which you meant." There's no word for it in her native tongue, but the term comes out smoothly, all the same. Leaving that topic behind, she keeps to herself the thoughts of going to Candy to explain, regarding his own concerns of Dimo, that Eggman might have a 'cure'... though that route wouldn't sit well with her at all, for several reasons. 'There are many kinds of love, but romantic love seems more complicated than platonic love, or familial love.' "There is much more I would know of familial love, having seen many families that do not appear... to have any love, whatsoever. It is somewhat strange, in some ways. Things were not always thus." Her own experience was only one life before this one, plus the hazier memories of the divine light, but comparing the current era to the Heian period does pop up frequent differences. 'Or would you stay here and enjoy the truth you found?' "I would seek to know whether my answer was true, of course. Even were I certain, I would remain to the end of a lifetime. Even should I find that I cannot discover the answer within a life's span... I have resolved to remain. A mere hundred years, perhaps two, it is a small measure against the sums of history, is it not? Humanity will remain, to some extent, even after one disaster and another, even after many failures. Time enough that I need not be hasty." That's getting a little off-track from the question, maybe, but it's easier to imagine a failure than a perfect success. 'How many tales do you have, Amaterasu?' She fixes Binah with a warm smile. A little too hot, maybe. "I am the one known as Tamamo-no-mae, bunrei of Amaterasu-omikami. She of the Pale-Gold Face possesses nine tails, though they are too bright for mortal eyes to behold. As you can see, my difference from her is of nine to the sixth power." That's not a mistake in her math. That's simply how it works. "My tales, on the other hand, would require as many nights to recount as were given to Scheherazade." She looks toward that green pool. "What might that be, I wonder?"
Angela	"Ah, deroboticization." Angela frowns, mostly because it's a bit of a mouthful but also because of her own complicated feelings about the idea of it. She didn't just struggle to find another way to describe it because of inexperience. It's difficult too because when Tamamo speaks of families without any love, she thinks to her own family--such as it is--her creators. Her fellow Sephirah. She wonders if it'd be easier to have a family without love over one with a toxic love struggling and failing to mantain itself. She wonders how one might go about becoming someone with no love left for one's family and if that might not be better than mantaining just a little bit. "The sunk cost fallacy says that I should simply spend the full of my effort detaching from my current 'family' but at the same time, it is difficult to detach from that need for them even with more positive forces entering my life. Starting at a disadvantage, I suppose you could say, with a desire to fix the error somehow." She looks back over to Tamamo. "...Taking time to ensure your answer was correct is to be expected, but in the end you would eventually return?" She quiets down a bit as they make it to Binah. Angela cannot defeat Binah in battle unless Binah allows it so she is only inclined to push back against excess insolence. Binah's darkness doesn't swallow Tamamo up so much as make the light that is present more pronounced but Binah performs about as elaborate bow her current body will allow before adding, "That would be mm... a thousand nights? That ''would'' be a nice diversion for a time, but eventually even a thousand nights pass--even when a thousand really means ''endless''." Binah says but her attention returns to the green pool at Tamamo's prodding. "This," Binah says. "Is the Well. From this pool those Magical Girls you wrote the first page of a sequel for came to be. And many other tales have risen up from this place as well, birthed by their mother." The eye slants towards Angela. "Her mother. She still uses the name Carmen though she is rather deep within the Well itself."
Tamamo	Angela speaks of sunk costs, and Tamamo says, "It is easy to retreat, for most. Harder, perhaps, for you. Most are not quite so literally trapped, though some believe they are. There is something to admire in those who persevere, I believe, though it is little comfort to the suffering to say that you respect their strength. To find the time when one must cut one's present life short and find another is difficult to say, without a diviner's foresight." She does have that sort of ability, but it's hardly common. Her own talk of uncertainties should be strange, given that. She could simply look, couldn't she? '...but in the end you would eventually return?' "When my love's life has ended, could I do aught else? I hope to leave something behind, but I must return, some day. No, to say that 'I must' is somewhat misleading. I should say, instead, that 'I will.' It is known that this will come to pass." That's something that could probably stand to be better explained, but she doesn't, since now they're talking to Binah. "'Myriad' holds such a meaning, though some would say that it is merely eight thousand. 'A thousand and one,' perhaps, should be read as meaning 'many and more.'" An even discussion of words is easy enough to maintain, even in strange company. "The Well... is it? I have heard of this, but not in any great detail as to its function." 'She still uses the name Carmen...' "The one who exists 'in some capacity' within the Facility, as I recall, holds that name." It's... definitely strange, Tamamo thinks. She hasn't pinned down every difference, but it's obvious enough that there's some difference between Binah and the others that's important, and has already been made clear, even in this short exchange. "And from what spring does that well draw? Or is it that something flows from the City down and down to fill it?"
Angela	Angela says, "You have changed fate before," to Tamamo. She might not know the full details from one observation but the shift in Despair and Hatred were pretty evident, yell beyond what a simple magical girl battle could inflict upon them.. She nods a little and doesn't press any further for today. She is getting a better understanding of Tamamo but she is in no rush to gain a complete (or nearly so) understanding of the woman. Angela's worst fear is that the Multiverse will just be another cage. Binah says, "This is the Extraction Department. I suppose that means my role is essentially that of a midwife. That is what I am being kept alive for." Binah IS different. Some of the small ways are already evident. Angela is a lot quieter around her than with the others and she's not exactly indirect with the others. There's a wariness about Angela that doesn't exist with the others so far--not even Gebura--and a stare that doesn't pull away in the slightest. "The collective unconciousness is the womb from which these beings are drawn forth--it is the same with the EGO Gear we materialize." Binah says. "We only have one other Agent here..." In the Darkness, the skin-mask wearing Parker can be seen waving, farther away than even Binah is right now as she goes to work on Big Bird. "Recently I've garnered some employees of my own but mm---there is the Outskirts, but beyond the Outskirts is to be outside of the reach of the City--and it is the City that we concern ourselves with here. The stories of the City and this facility are the roots of the tree of light we are growing, a spike driven into the shared memory of humanity to pull free the weeds the City has smothered its Feathers with." "Or at least, that was their plan I have been set upon assisting with." Binah says.
Tamamo	Tamamo's glances toward Angela are subtle, taking in her mood without turning her head from being focused on Binah. "I had thought it to be something of the sort," is what she says, eventually. "The stories of things that were known, that were understood only as stories, their tales made true. It is difficult for a story to have its own secrets, when its ending is already known. And yet, that contained within the Facility often appears to hold some mystery. Do these mysteries truly have answers, I wonder? One would need ask the storyteller when the tale shall be finished." Tamamo turns her eyes toward Parker at the wave, giving a small, mysterious smile in return. "A tree grown from the stories that all know, then. I wonder, for what purpose might such a thing be grown? To pull free... are those 'wings' something to be used to fly, after all? It is curious to use such a source of power, but hardly unheard."
Angela	Angela is restrained. She isn't very emotive by nature rather than through practiced effort but there are little clues here and there aren't there? Her eyebrows are furrowed, the stare is focused like she wants to stare through her if she can. There are mysteries upon mysteries in here but that doesn't mean that the answers are particularly satisfying. As the horror of a place like this is peeled back and the truth is found underneath, the story really is quite as banal as any other out there outside of the extremes that banality is stretched out to--like on the rack. Angela is growing to see this, now that she is allowed to have relationships, but whether she'll regress or pull free from the script is yet to be decided. Parker smiles back at Tamamo but she is always smiling. What Parker is thinking behind that mask can't be seen with eyes. "Well, I would be a bad ghost to speak to about that." Binah says. "After all, I can speak to their goals as if from observation--but I am forever an Outsider. After all, it was my blade that ended many of their lives. I'm not the one who thinks that broken wings can fly. Fortunately, the truest believer, the one with the most... Faith... is not far from here." Angela exhales out an irritated sigh. "Benjamin, is it? Well, it is certainly true that upon reaching the multiverse we can't help but recognize some similarities in our goals and what has already been accomplished--by some--out there So when I see that your infinite reality still struggles with many of the same problems I hear down here..." "You can't help but wonder if there even ever was a point to it all, mm?" Binah asks. Angela doesn't answer. "You're not quite as vicious with this one." She says instead. Despite having no lips, Binah still exudes this sense that she's smiling.
Tamamo	"You were the one who ended them... is it?" Tamamo turns that murder confession over in her mind a few times. "And yet, not out of any faith of your own... you say? This is a tale that I have not heard in detail. If another would better tell it... shall we go on and see them, Ms. Angela?" It's not that she appears especially hurried. This sort of horror is something she can grasp, and if only to this extent, it won't break her composure. Still, she's not sure if she wants to look down into that well. Leaning over a well is never safe, when you're around stories. 'So when I see that your infinite reality still struggles with many of the same problems I hear down here...' "There may be worlds that suffer for nothing, but... well, that 'utopia...' would hardly feel a need to reach out and connect itself with others, would it?" That's not entirely true, but it's mostly true. It's true enough to say. 'You're not quite as vicious with this one.' "Oh, have there been other visitors who have descended to these levels?")]
Angela	"Well, I suppose I didn't really end them seeing as you've met them all." Binah says. "But by the same token, the Sephirah are distant from their lives--repeated resets again and again--well, you can speak to Ishirou if you care to know what that is like. I imagine he would have plenty to say about that." Angela exhales another little sigh. "I have asked Ishirou to stop bringing that up, Binah. Do not think that allows you the right to." She crosses her arms lightly before turning to Tamamo and admits, "I suppose so. Nevertheless, it feels...distressing that how bad things are here is not some kind of particular abyss unique to I. Others have had similar enough experiences." She unfolds her arms. "I'd rather not visit Benjamin but if you'd like, he knew my Creator best. And the project, other than Ayin and Carmen." ''Oh, have there been other visitors...'' "Indeed!" Binah says with faux-chipperness. "The Dame Commander started here. Persephone visited as well. Ishirou...Parker... And now you. Well, I've gotten plenty more company than I have in quiite some time since we all took a peek through the looking glass." Angela continues staring. Binah leaves it at that for now but that eye is studiously observing Tamamo.
Tamamo	'Well, I suppose I didn't really end them seeing as you've met them all.' Tamamo gives a long, thoughtful "Hmmm." Then, "Did you try, or was that not the point?" 'The Dame Commander started here. Persephone visited as well. Ishirou...Parker...' "Oh, is that so? I suppose I must speak with some of them, regarding what was seen. To compare experiences is often more useful." However long she'd like to keep looking, it seems that Tamamo has no further questions, past her last. 'Others have had similar enough experiences.' "I wonder about such things, at times. How close can one thing be to another that it is 'close enough'? The answer one gives does depend on whether one is in need of others that might sympathize, or is... ah, no, that may be rude of me to consider. Please pardon me. The uniquness of each existence is something upon which I would rather focus, though one cannot help but think of everything that is new in terms already familiar to oneself." 'I'd rather not visit Benjamin but...' "Oh, I shall not force you, Ms. Angela. Let it be as you like. I might speak with him another time, with some other guide, perhaps? I do wish to know more of the project, of course, that I might be better prepared for... whatever might arise." She's ready to move on, one way or another. "It might seem a strange departure, to speak again of love, after speaking of... well, no, to speak of stories within the shared memory of humanity, is not 'love' also among these? But it is not these common stories that hold the answers I have sought, as I suspect. I had not finished speaking, before, of Exigent Serenity... but of that, there is much I do not know, as well. She is of some importance to you, now, as well, if you intend to continue in assigning agents to the business in Lampport." But at that, Tamamo spreads her hands with the air of a shrug. "To speak of the thoughts and feelings of one who calls herself a 'might-have-been'... ah, no, please pardon me, once more. It is difficult, after all, to pretend ease in dancing between such topics."
Angela	"It was my job to succeed." Binah says. "The fact that I merely tried and, worse, got captured... Ah, well, I underestimated the Red Mist ... Mm, or perhaps the Red Mist simply exceeded reasonable expectations." Binah taps her...chin?...with her metallic ... finger is maybe a bit generous to call that digit. ''I must speak with some of the--'' "I like your face," Parker says in the distance. "It seems like you enjoy wearing it." Okay maybe don't compare notes with Parker. Nevertheless... Binah says, "Oh that sounds lovely, it is a pity that I won't be able to be a part of your discussions." Binah says, "What I don't see a point is in this endeavour. I don't believe that what they do here will meaningfully change the City, even if they succeed. Those who avert their gaze from fear cannot change people in a meaningful way. I can hear people failing to change all the time. The seeds they plant will not sprout...Perhaps it would simply create more like me, if anything." Angela explains to Tamamo, "Binah is a former Arbiter, an Agent of the Head. I do not know too much about them but they are essentially the enforcers of the Head's policies. She and I are the only members of management with particular skepticism on the plan, it seems." Binah is now the quiet one, that eye slanting over to Angela for the moment. "That sounds like a splendid idea." Angela says, of having someone else take her to Hokma. "I can set up the visit and they can meet you at the Warpgate. I enjoy your visits, of course, so I hope that this is not a goodbye for a long time." She frowns thoughtfully and then nods slowly, cupping her chin. "Mm... it is a tempting way of looking at it. Not that I revel in agony..." Angela doesn't seem to like the idea of having her situation be typical. Why, she doesn't get into. ''She is of some importance to you, now, as well...'' Angela murmurs, "I wouldn't send any agents at all if I could go myself. But ... if she is a part of the Commander, of course she would be important to me. So I must continue to learn. For now, let us ascend once more. I know Love can---well, by neccessity the potential pain of loss is a neccessary element, as you have said. But I've seen what that loss can lead to." She makes her way back to the elevator.