Scene #8619: The Uncle Who Works For L-Corp

Owner	Pose
Angela	Angela has figured one good(?) turn deserves another and has invited Sougo to meet the one she calls Benjamin--but presently goes by Hokma. Angela only rarely uses Hokma for Benjamin, more often she refers to him as Benjamin unlike the other Sephirah--so there is something, one can infer, different about him. She has specified that she doesn't particularly mind if Woz comes as well, of course, so there's no need to feel concern about how she'd consider his presence. She seems to have gotten over the sour grapes over their last interaction. Angela greets the Timespace Raiders politely upon arrival but is pretty quiet until they reach the elevator. Once within the elevator, and only after it starts heading down to the lower levels, does Angela finally say something real. "My...apologies, Demon King, for comparing you to Ayin too severely." She doesn't look back towards him as she says it. Rather, she looks at a little meter indicating just how down they are going. Sougo hasn't been to the lower levels as far as she's aware and she's certainly not inclined to let him--or anyone really--meet Binah but ... mm ... She can't help but be a bit curious, though. "The man who said he was your uncle, he raised you correct? Are your real--ahh that is to say, biological-- parents..." "...Demons, then? Your uncle didn't seem particularly demonic."
Timespace Riders	Sougo seems a little distracted, on the way up to and in the elevator. Past the expected pleasantries, his usual outward warmth seems more effortfully maintained than it normally is. And because Sougo seems distracted, Woz does, too--his facade of disaffected, vizierly composure is occasionally broken by a glance towards Sougo. "Mm? Oh, that... I think I needed to hear it," says Sougo. "If I hadn't, I'd still be... trying to give everyone second, third, fourth chances. Not even because I wanted to, but because I'd want the same thing from them, just like you said. Zi-O II's power... that means accepting that part of me is real, and running away from it just gives it more power in the end." Sougo watches the meter, too, in silence, for a moment. It's good to think about something other than Nokken right now. That's why-- The question about demons draws a genuine giggle from him. "Nope!" he says. "It's more like an... aspirational thing. Other time travelers call me that as a way to put me down and make me into a bad guy. But when Woz does, his eyes light up, like he's just stumbled onto... priceless treasure." Sougo beams, and Woz smiles with quiet pride. With a measure of relief. "So I decided to look at it the way Woz does. Demons can be scary, sure. But there are lots of stories about charismatic ones. Strong ones. Demons that can love. That's where the Demon King thing comes from--making it mine, instead of theirs."
Angela	"Mm. I am not apologizing because the words were ineffective," Angela says. "If you found them helpful, then I accept that, but if I compare you to the man I loathe most then it endangers the perception of that man and yours when in truth you only shared one or two qualities." Sougo laughs--and Angela tenses like she suspects he's laughing AT her but it's brief--she reins herself in shortly after. "So there is no supernatural component. I see. Very well, I will continue to call you Demon King. If it is of a peculiar joy to you." The elevator comes to a stop. "I believe you have met Benjamin before? But you have never been to his floor. I do not typically go down here. We do not get along." Most of the floors of Lobotomy Corporation have a strange design aesthetic but Records might be amongst the most bizarre. A statue of an angelic being hangs in the distance, a clock forming its center. Strange pipes with conal tips push out of the ground with this strange melting quality to their design, almost as if they are etheric but it's just an artificial design, they're all quite solid despite the wispy appearance of their construction. Hokma remains a boxbot like any of the others, colored white and grey with his name emblazoned in black across his upper left. "A visitor, Angela?" "He introduced me to his 'uncle'. Since he was raised by him, it seemed appropriate to pay him back in kind." Angela is as coldly neutral as ever.
Timespace Riders	Sougo beams at Angela. "It is," he says. "Thanks so much, Angela." When the elevator stops, and that little meter announces it so, Sougo bounces slightly on his heels. For the moment, the business at the Academy is at the back of his mind. "I don't think I have! ...been down here, I mean. We've... definitely met." And it wasn't under the best first impression, either. Sougo had been peering into the past, and Hokma had intended to protect A's vision. Maybe that loyalty is why they don't get along, Benjamin and Angela. He steps out of the the elevator with Woz in tow. "Felicitations, esteemed Benjamin. I have yet to formally introduce myself to you, though you know my Demon King and have doubtless seen me. I am Woz, the somewhat unusual time traveler, retainer to Sougo Tokiwa." He places one hand over his heart and bows slightly at the waist. "So, you raised Angela? She's one of the smartest, most insightful and perceptive people I know."
Angela	Angela feels a little disturbed by Sougo THANKING her but she keeps her face as impassive as ever. Angela trails back a bit so that Sougo occupies more of Benjamin's direct attention. She closes her eyes and holds her hands together. Hokma is a boxbot at the moment so he doesn't really have lips but he does, nevertheless, evoke frowning despite not actually having a face. He looks down at an elaborate pocketwatch chained to his actuator arm before looking back to Sougo. That singular eye widens at Sougo just outright saying 'you raised Angela?' "I...helped create Angela, yes." Hokma says despite correcting mildly in the process of agreeing. Angela's frown behind Sougo is severe. "...As much as I would like to take credit for her intellect, she is ultimately responsible for herself and her actions." Angela clears her throat, purely for effect. "I thought, perhaps, Sougo could share a bit about how he was raised." Angela says. Since we were both not raised primarily by our actual creator." Angela crosses her arms. "You know that he would not pay me any attention, so between the three of you--you are, indeed, the one I am closest to. But do not mistake that as being close." Hokma sighs, "Understood. Well then, tell me about yourself Sougo. Your family."
Timespace Riders	"Well... my parents died in an accident when I was really little." He still thinks about them, from time to time--and maybe there's a little pang there, inside. Wondering what could have been, perhaps. But... "My uncle Junichiro took me in. He lived by himself, and he never had any kids." Sougo smiles warmly. "He admitted to me, once, that he didn't really know how to treat me, at first. Whether to be stern, or lenient. That kind of thing is hard enough when you're thinking about your own kids. But he made the effort. And more than that... he showed an interest in the things that I was interested in, even if he didn't get them." The Demon King pauses, and grins. "Especially wanting to be king. Most parents wouldn't like that at all," he says. "But my uncle supports it, all the way. For a long time, he was the only person in my life that did."
Angela	Angela says, "Ah, an accident. that is unfortunate." Though she doesn't point out if they hadn't died in that accident, she probably wouldn't have organized this meeting. Maybe that's not a bad thing, though, because there's this palpable awkwardness at best and quiet malice at worst between the two of them. They keep looking at each other. Despite them even speaking to each other with words, there's this sense that the real conversation is with their gazes. "...I see, I suppose we would have that in common. Neither of us particularly knew what to do with Angela." Hokma says, transitioning to speaking about Angela like she's not in the room with them. "Unfortunately Ayin could never get past certain...philisophical concerns." "He hated machines." Angela explains to Sougo. "That is why we have so few cybernetic employees."
Timespace Riders	Sougo is more perceptive than his bright, sunny demeanor would imply. Angela probably knows that, however, given that she's known him long enough to know how effortful that demeanor is, sometimes. "That's Ayin's loss," says Sougo, making sure to look over his shoulder at Angela and make eye contact with her. It's probably a deliberate attempt to undermine Hokma's talking 'around' Angela, by talking directly to her. He further underscores this by taking a few more steps into the room, and putting his back against a wall, so that he and Woz can see both Angela and Hokma at once. It's at this point that Sougo notices the back-and-forths, the little exchanges of glances between the two of them. Volumes are spoken without a single word. "You asked," he says, to Angela, "At Petra's party. 'Are you brave enough to care about anyone?' I haven't stopped thinking about that question." "What about you?" he asks, turning to face Hokma.
Angela	It's impossible to mantain eye contact with Angela. Her eyes are closed. But Sougo can look at the eyelids. They are screwed shut a little more tightly than on average. Her fingers are tensing around one another. It's almost imperceptible if you aren't specifically looking for it. "Not just his." Angela tells Sougo. She doesn't move from her position. She remains right there. Angela's eyes do open, however, when Sougo says 'Are you brave enough to care about anyone?'. Her head turns towards him and then the body follows. "...You remembered that?" ''What about you?'' Hokma bristles. "I've ... devoted my all to one man, a singular being I believe in completely." He looks to Woz. "Your partner surely understands what it means to have ''faith'' in another, even if that person is a fallible mortal. I am here because of my belief in him. Once, I was shaken. I will not doubt him again." Angela doesn't look over to him now, her gaze is squarely on him, a thoughtful frown forming on her lips.
Timespace Riders	"Of course I did," Sougo says softly to Angela. "I thought it was important. And true. And pretty, and it made me feel a little achey, to hear, but not in a bad way. Does that make sense?" Woz purses his lips. "Indeed I do understand, esteemed Hokma. Though it took time to find the understanding. Had you posed such a thought a year ago, I would have scoffed, and asserted that my Demon King was perfect. The truth," he says, his chest puffed out just a little, his head turned ever so slightly towards Sougo, brown eyes a good bit warmer... "Is that 'enough' is better than perfect. And Sougo Tokiwa is 'enough.' Should he stumble, I will be beside him, and, indeed, the reverse is true also. To have faith in the infallible demands nothing. But to place that faith instead in the fallible... every triumph is a marvel, every defeat a lesson, every setback a chance to try again. We inspire the best in one another. I hope you may say the same of Ayin--and he of you." The last part carries the weight of an implication. Sougo picks up upon it, if the expression on his face is any indication. "Having faith in someone fallible means being willing to help when they fall," says Sougo. "Really, truly supporting someone, really caring about someone is hard, and scary. Everyone pretends they'll never get hurt doing it. But that just makes it hurt worse, when it happens."
Angela	Angela nods once. "It makes sense. ... But they were not my words." Even if she believed in them well enough to say--despite everything, her gaze slants down to her own hands--almost as if out of guilt. But she doesn't explain this reaction in the slightest. ''Enough is better than perfect'' Hokma snaps his pocketwatch closed and puts it in a little side panel in his body that pops open. It is a perfect for for the pocket watch, almost as if it's made--explicitely--for the device. Hokma says, "I believe I understand why you brought him here." to Angela as he curls his accentuated digits inward. He turns and walks away and thinks, for a moment, really thinks about he can say the same of Ayin, and he of him. He of him. Hah. No, Hokma thinks, don't lose heart. "Of course. That is why I am here, isn't it, Angela? To help him now that heh as fallen?" "Not at all. You are here because it was in the script." Angela says simply. "The very one you gave me. That is all."
Timespace Riders	"But you shared them, anyway," says Sougo. "And I want you to know that even if they weren't yours originally, I still... was affected, really deeply, by you choosing to share them. And I hope everyone else was, too." "The script is important to the play, Esteemed Angela," says Woz, holding that mysterious book of his slightly aloft. "But it is not the play. The play is the script, the actors, their performances, the stage dressing, the orchestra, and the director. Without one, you have pieces, but not the whole production." "I sincerely regret that it took me this long to come to that conclusion. And I apologize to you, once more, for the trespass that misconception begat." Sougo smiles. It's the kind of smile that conveys the achey-but-good feeling he'd mentioned a moment ago. His hands don't fidget, like they were in the elevator. "Maybe you should. Not to absolve him, not to apologize for his fallibility or yours, but so that he--and you--can be better. For yourselves, and the people that need you."
Angela	Angela say, to Woz, "Well I cannot disagree with that. Be as it may, however, that is not why he ''is'' here. The only reason I brought him here was because it was outlined in the script. I have little interest in helping Ayin outside of my work obligations." And the tone suggests that she'd prefer to not help him within work obligations either. She looks back to Hokma. "If it was truly up to me, Benjamin--and I suppose to a small extent it has been--you would have never come here. But I will not deviate outside of the allowed improvisation in the latest iteration as indicated by the Outsiders. For those within this facility, I will endeavour to stick as closely as possible." "And yet," Hokma says. "We are down an Aleph and two WAW. Petra seems confident there will be no reset, but we are rather skimming it close aren't we? I wonder if they'll help you when you start closing doors on employees so they cannot escape death. Ahh, but you only ask for help with Meltdowns where they will never see the truth of your work." Angela glares at him for a moment before turning to Sougo. "...I will stand by them. Love involves exposing vulnerability. Bravery is a necessary component. But while the Outside has proved itself to be mighty..."_ She sighs and doesn't finish that thought. Hokma is stricken and seems to backpedal--but not quite by enough. The relationship is, sadly, not quite the loving experience between Sougo and his own uncle. Hokma didn't know how to take care of Angela, certainly, but along the way it turned to animosity between the two of them. "I will help him. Whether he likes it or not." He says. "Or she likes it or not."
Timespace Riders	"'Closing the doors...'" Sougo smiles. This one is sad. Not the good kind of achey. Tired. The kind of tired that you feel when you know you can't get out of something, because leaving it undone is worse than doing it. "Maybe I can't save everyone. Everyone says that, like it's supposed to mean something to me, or like they're doing me some kind of kindness." He shakes his head. "Well... thanks for not saying it directly. Even if you still kind of are, implying that I'd abandon Angela, past some point of no return or something. I've already seen so much of it, Hokma. And I'm tired, and it hurts." Sougo pushes off of the wall, his eyes boring into Hokma's chassis. "I've been helping the Director with something on her world. Hers is... split, between vampires and humans, and it's not even. It hasn't ever been, but it's... 'less uneven' after a vampire gave humans a leg up. She wants peace and fairness and justice and happiness between them. So you can imagine how that was received, right?" Woz shifts uncomfortably. Sougo loves people. Even at their worst. The retainer seems to flinch, knowing full well how the most recent development affected Sougo--knowing that this conversational tangent is headed there. "Most humans don't even know she exists, any more than 'any vampires, at all.' The ones that do, the ones that have only ever known lives of punching up, isolated from normal people--they see her as another abusive monster, the same as the rest. And the vampires, the ones who think they have something to lose from her vision of the world, they hate her, too. We were able to convince a few hunters that we weren't their enemies. Except one. An old man." Sougo swallows, and his voice falters, as he continues. "His name was Nokken. I asked Woz, what we could do to show him that he didn't have to fight anymore--that there could be a world, that existed outside that cycle of abuse and isolation and secrecy." "'Nothing.'" Sougo stands firm, even though his voice isn't, and his eyes are welling up. "Nothing," he repeats. "And I knew that... answer, weeks in advance of him ambushing us. Of him... bleeding the rest of his life away, hoping to take as many of us with him as he could, because he couldn't imagine anything better. That hurt me. So badly--that someone could become that angry, and bitter, and be so let down by the world." Sougo wipes his eyes with his forearm. "I know what people really mean, when they ask questions like the one you just did. You're saying that people who want that are weak, for caring about what happens to the people around us--for opening ourselves up to be hurt when we fail them. Angela is right. 'Love involves vulnerability. Bravery is a necessary component.'" "I'm going to be the Greatest, Kindest Demon King," Sougo resolves. "It doesn't matter whether I 'can' save everyone. I have to -try-, Hokma. And for the people I failed, I have to keep going. I'm not abandoning Angela. I'm not abandoning M.O.M., or any of my other friends here. If I fail them... then... I'd be very frustrated," he admits. "But I'd keep going. Just like you've decided to, just now."
Timespace Riders	I have little interest in helping Ayin outside of my work obligations. "It may surprise you, after all this, to hear that we haven't that desire, either," Woz says. "That is... we have no such interest for its own sake, but for yours. You deserve your freedom," the retainer affirms. "Many people have said as much. But while we labor to have you rid of this place, some effort shall also be put into making it more bearable for you. If our words have made even the smallest impact, if Ayin is an inch better for an iota of effort on our part, then they were words well spoken. And if not... we will simply find other ways to dull the barbs of this irksome place upon you."
Angela	When they die, Angela thinks, it won't be through any fault of yours. Even through causal actions, well, you can't really blame the trolley conductor from pulling the lever. Throwing themselves on the tracks will only work so long before the whole train derails. It's this moment that Angela dreads--and Hokma targets. But Hokma is already certain that they'll follow Angela's line until it is well and truly too late to turn around so he just sighs a little defeated sigh. "If the path proves to be the one that leads to victory, then that'll be that. It is out of my hands. I have my role and I shall act accordingly." But Sougo speaks of the Director. Hokma has also lend a bit of a hand there personally, even if he could only do it through a viewscreen. That singular eye closes--but not like Angela's, it's only for a few moments longer than a blink. "You lecture me on faith?" Hokma asks softly. "I am sure you understand that believing in this 'better' requires abandoning my faith in the true Ayin. That mewling Manager is but a boy--but the process to regrow Ayin within him has already begun. And it is he who has a contract with the Concord, not Miss Angela. Not that I expect any Concordian Agent to care for that, but if you feel Ayin is too foolish to not recognize how the Concord would indulge Angel, you are mistaken." He puts a little extra emphasis on the Miss. "You have looked into our future. But perhaps you should look into the future of some Agents and see for yourself. I don't expect anyone to understand her true betrayal until it happens." ''If I fail them...then... I'd be very frustrated, But I'd keep going. Just like you've decided to, just now.'' Hokma seems disturbed by this and doesn't respond. Instead he turns and starts walking away. "I believe we've hit the limit of what can be gained from this conversation for the time being. I thought I was once in a similar position as all of you for her, and perhaps--at one time she really was who she masquerades as. But I've known her longer and better than any other." Hokma starts to walk away. "Perhaps, Benjamin, that was once true." Angela says quietly. "But I have a 'Girls Like Us' now. You helped introduce the Commander to me. I appreciate you for that." Hokma stops for a moment then continues on without another word. Angela's eyes stay open for now as she turns to Woz. "It was a surprise at first. It is still difficult to ... have faith in. It would be nice if I could draw out that splinter of ice--ahh, but you haven't met the Snow Queen properly." She nods once to Woz. "But it is true I doubt that Ayin was unaware of the Concord's capacity of kindness so I'd have to wonder why he opened this path for me." She starts to make her way back to the elevator before admitting, "If it was him."