Scene #9136: All Routes Lead To Doom

Owner	Pose
Angela	Hokma has asked Woz and Sougo to pay him a visit. As the only remaining Sephirah meltdown (unless you count Ayin himself or the suspicious nature of the project increasing 10 percent complete with every Meltdown and it only being at 80 percent), it is certainly a time to pay a bit more attention to Hokma if you care about such things. Angela does not like paying Hokma a visit, typically, though she still does call him Benjamin. Her reasons are, well, pretty complicated but this means while she does intend to escort Sougo and Woz to the Records department--she likely won't be entering herself. She is as impassive as ever when the two Kamen Riders appear through the Warpgate, continuing her trend of bowing formally to guests who arrive at the facility. It is unclear how much of this is protocol or Angela's nature, presumably. "Welcoe back, Sougo. Woz. It has been some time since we've properly talked. I hope you don't mind if we chat a bit on the way. The Elevator ride is a bit long, after all." The elevator ride is, of course, not actually long but by Angela's perspective it's still pretty significant. "M.O.M remains stable but has not recovered consciousness. Sal seems to have ... recovered some." Angela says as she leads--frankly unneccessarily at this point--The Riders to the elevator. "...Once Benjamin's role in this is over, my role will be practically over as well. Tormenting the Sephirah is my purpose but afterwards, well, Ayin will not need any push from me and once the Seed of Light project is complete, all our hard work will pay off. It will be an ending, and a beginning." She glances over to Sougo and asks him, "...How is your uncle? Is he eating well? I hope you are not stressing him out too much. Stress can add up to medical consequences, especially in older men." She pushes the button to call the elevator. "...Benjamin asked specifically for Woz. I suppose he does have some similarities in role and mindset, though frankly I find him considerably more pathetic so please don't read too much into these similarities."
Timespace Riders	Woz and Sougo return Angela's greeting in their own ways--Woz with a hand-over-heart bow and Sougo with a vibrant, bounce-in-the-step bow at the waist. They like seeing Angela, even if she isn't their reason for visiting today, and neither bothers hiding it. It has been some time since we've properly talked. I hope you don't mind if we chat a bit on the way. "Not at all," says Sougo with a gentle shake of his head. Woz seems to feel the same, inclining his head in her direction to signal his intent to listen. Sal seems to have ... recovered some. Sougo's smile fades; not completely, but enough that what remains is gratefulness rather than his usual casual exuberance. "That's good," he says with a little nod. "I have to admit, asking to make things kinder for the Agents and Clerks was... because of those two. So it means a lot to me that you've done what you can, where you can. I know it hasn't been easy. I really appreciate it, Angela." It will be an ending, and a beginning. "May it be a beginning for you also," says Woz. ...How is your uncle? "He's good," says Sougo, who seems quietly delighted that she'd ask. "I don't talk to him much about Concord stuff, but I think he knows more than he lets on. He'd probably love to have you as a guest again, too." "Thanks for leading us there yourself," says Sougo to Angela, on the way there. "I know you don't really like him at all." It's hard to forget hearing someone tell another person 'kill yourself'--or at least, it very much is for Sougo Tokiwa. I suppose he does have some similarities in role and mindset, though frankly I find him considerably more pathetic so please don't read too much into these similarities. Woz's lip curls upwards in amusement at the sentiment. "Duly noted, esteemed Angela. I shall do my best to render him less so--" With a more serious expression, "Now and during his no-doubt approaching Meltdown, that you may be surrounded by those even a mild measure more worthy of you than is currently the case."
Angela	''It means a lot to me that you've done what you can, when you can, I know it hasn't been easy.'' Angela frowns. She's never going to believe she is taking good care of her agents. It's easy to say, even for her, that she's doing the best she can with her circumstances. She'd even mean it. But meaning it, and feeling it, are two wholly different categories. May it be a beginning for her, also, Angela thinks. Whatever happens, she has to make sure it's a beginning. Not just an ending. In this, the body count hardly matters. But it'd be nice if the continued good fortune with the Works continues rather than ends with the climatic Meltdowns. "...Thank you." She says, stepping into the elevator. ''He'd probably love to have you as a guest again, too.'' "Perhaps when I can step inside the shop with my own two legs." Angela says. She's been saying that a lot lately but even she doesn't know exactly what she'll do when she's free. She can theorize and plan but she can't really know until she's free, right? ''I know you don't really like him at all.'' "More or less. In truth, you can't stop loving someone whom you once loved that dearly. It might fade and weaken or even transform into a kind of hate, but it is not so easy to kill memories of happier times. I have to be careful with how I feel about him as a result. One way or another." Angela has told Benjamin to kill himself many a time before she even met Petra. Indeed, it's part of her job to tell Benjamin to kill himself. She'll be glad to be done with that business so she can only tell him to kill himself when she really means it. She watches Woz for a moment, mulling as the elevator dings to the lowest floor and the doors open up. Angela doesn't step out--the doors open into the Records department. She seems to be thinking what to say. "Take good care of Woz, Demon King. A passionate defender is difficult to come by and one should hold desperately onto any they manage to stumble into." The doors close shut after. The Records department is one of the more surreal in Lobotomy Corp. There are numerous castle like towers, all greyscale, covered in clocks with strange cloud-wispy architecture. Even compared to Extraction, it seems unreal, but Tennant in their Magic Bullet EGO Gear stops what they are doing upon seeing Sougo and Woz and waves over to them. "Yooooooooo! Sougo and Woz! You made it! Ol' Ben's over this way." They wink, leading them to the monocole wearing boxbot. They don't even leave though they do step off to the side a bit so as to not interfere with them conversing with Hokma. "...Thank you for coming." Hokma says, turning to face the Riders. "...On such short notice. I had a favor to ask of Woz, but--I don't object to your presence here, Sougo. I will not mince words about it--but I would like to ask for your future insight regarding Ayin. Namely... What will happen to him at the project's completion?" "Ohho...." Tennant says. "..You may leave, Tennant." "Can't do." Tennant says. "You know why I can't just leave you alone with the Concord's cutest couple."
Timespace Riders	Take good care of Woz, Demon King. A passionate defender is difficult to come by and one should hold desperately onto any they manage to stumble into. Sougo smiles warmly at Angela. There's been much ado about him, and how special he is, or isn't; from Woz, from their enemies or from other Elites. "Yeah, I will." A little breath, like taking in fresh air at the beach. "It's nice to hear someone say how special he is, for once." --- "Thank you, Tennant," says Woz, coming along to be introduced to Benjamin. "I was unaware the Records department was so immaculately kept. Please pass along my regards to Hokma when our visit is concluded." Namely... What will happen to him at the project's completion? And so, the reason for the visit is laid bare, right away. Woz purses his lips. Sougo glances curiously at his retainer, following this reaction. "I am not opposed to offering my assistance to you. But," he says, gesturing with the hand not currently cradling the book, "I am sure you, of all the souls herein, know the power of information." "Wielded like a scalpel, it may save lives. As a bludgeon, it may take them. I would ask why you wish to know, before I lay the answer bare. Is it simple curiosity?" His hand lowers back to his side. "Or is it something more personal?" Sougo frowns thoughtfully. "Is he someone special to you, Hokma?" He doesn't have to time travel to remember the reaction Hokma had to him wrapping an arm around Ayin at a party some time ago. Could that be the reason?
Angela	Angela has learned what a friend can be. ''Please pass along my regards to Hokma when our visit is concluded.'' "This section was built last." Tennant says. "Funny because Extraction was the first Department built." But Hokma doesn't mince words. His boxbot frame should be difficult to read, but even in this frame his anxiety is easy to read. He isn't leaking enkephalin or fidgeting or pacing wildly, it's mostly in the hands. The way he keeps finding an excuse to move them. ''Is it simple curiousity? Or is it something more personal?'')] Hokma closes his eye in thought. "...Yes. I suppose that is a fair question to ask." But despite saying so he is hesitant to say it out loud. His eyes slant towards one of the many security cameras throughout the facility. Well, ''security'' camera is a bit of a misnomer They all go to The Manager and Angela. Not a security force. "It is something personal." Hokma says, inclined to leave it at that until... ''Is he someone special to you, Hokma?'' "...Very well." Hokma says. "Yes, he is. He's my closest friend, my once confidante and partner. I look up to him and I love him. Dearly. In spite of everything. he has done to us. We bathed our hands in blood together as we fought for our dream. But I know the work has surely taken a toll on him as it has the rest of us." He looks towards Sougo for a long moment, no doubt remembering that party. "...While most of us were drawn in by Carmen, or Carmen and Ayin--I ended up part of this project... Because of how I was drawn to ''him''. Is that enough of an answer?"
Timespace Riders	I look up to him and I love him. Dearly. Sougo smiles at Hokma, warm and a little sad. That those feelings have survived all of this... he must love him a lot. I ended up part of this project... Because of how I was drawn to ''him''. Is that enough of an answer? Woz's scrutinizing frown softens. What remains is there as if by stubborn determination not to empathize. "It is enough for me to gauge that you did not ask for my counsel only to justify the passive drift of your life," says Woz, hefting the book. And yet, empathize he does, just a little. "To love someone that much plays upon the density of the heart. Drawn to them in such a way, one chases a certain fleeting lightness of body felt when they are happy, and feels overmuch the downward pull of gravity otherwise." Peering at the cover of the book, his thoughts drift to Lilian's supervillain response project--to a line one of the characters she'd written had uttered to him. Water to a fish. "Allow me a moment to consult this book, and you shall have your answer." "Hey, Hokma... while he's looking, can I ask you a personal question?" "The first time we met, it was in the past." He doesn't bother explaining what he means; the imagery of this department and Hokma's choice of acoutrements even as a boxbot should be obvious for even Tennant, let alone Hokma to glean. "You were angry to see me there, at the time. Was it because you thought I was going to hurt Ayin or his vision?"
Angela	There is a reason Angela warned Woz, after all! Hokma doesn't seem embarrassed to admit it--at least, not because of who the target is of his love. It's more like he had tot push back that kind of workplace taboo of admitting you're in a relationship with your boss. Or, at least, was in one. Does Hokma even still see Ayin? Has he chosen to keep his distance or was it chosen for him? A machine's gaze can only soften so much, especailly when the bodies seem to have discarded personal expression for the sake of efficiency. "I had a feeling you of all people would understand what it is to dedicate your life to another." But while Woz is looking... Hokma turns his whole body to face Sougo, as if he feels he owes Woz some measure of privacy. There is a small stiffening--such as it is--in Hokma's arms as Sougo speaks of the reasons why he might have been upset as to his presence in the past. "...I said I was still loyal." Hokma says. "Part of my role in this facility is to manage the Timetrack we utilize for the Loops. It has not come up but the control of time is my domain in this facility and further temporal manipulation from outsiders can be disruptive to the project. I had no eason o assume you would be delicate and either way--my role in this project should someone manipulate time is quite clear. Time is allowed to reset, but the tale..." There's some hesitation before the latter part of that familiar phrase. "...But yes. I considered you a danger to the project and, more importantly, to a man I looked up to, admired, and loved. I suppose it is a bit ironic then that I am counting on you now." He does have hhe decency to hold his hands together as if he commited a faux pax. Meanwhile, Woz investigates. The future is not always written precisely in stone. Sometimes there are many possibilities, many possibly futures. Any number of mild impulses can drastically change the flow of time even if the origin of those impulses may be set in stone. There are still many routes to the ending of the Seed of Light project. It can collapse entirely, killing everyone and failing to change a single thing. It can simply reset again, resulting in a whole slew of new possibilities--but doubtful any that would result in success of the project. Something wrong could happen, Woz isn't sure just what exactly, resulting in the utter eradication of District 12 as all who reside within transform into abominations. But there's one thing that doesn't change. There is no future where Ayin gets to live. It has been too late to save him for some time, and his fate is closer than ever. Sometimes he's killed, sometimes the damage he has inflicted to himself does him in, sometimes the Arbiters return and kill everyone this time, sometimes Angela does it herself--destroying the facility and herself. Sometimes it resets. But the only way there is a future for these tormented souls is if Ayin dies. Even in the rare cases the project succeeds with him alive, something will do him in whether it be the project itself or something else. Hokma can't do anything to change it except by preventing a future from ever arriving. Otherwise, all routes lead to Ayin's doom.
Timespace Riders	I suppose it is a bit ironic then that I am counting on you now. "It's funny," Sougo says. "I can't really change anything when I do that. I can only see. That's why I asked, you know? I thought maybe I saw something you didn't want me to." "Anyway... I think being a good king means looking forward just as much as you look backwards. Knowing history, but being willing to fight for people in the present to have a better future. Even if I could go back and change stuff... I think the best way to help someone change is to understand who they are in the first place. That's why I looked at Netzach's past." And, the unspoken part implied by his pause and the long look into Hokma's lens, is that it's why he'll likely look into Hokma's, too. >There is no future where Ayin gets to live. Woz closes his book with a frown. It's the same frown he makes when he can't maintain his above-it-all facade; when he must admit that he is a Kamen Rider and that somewhere inside him is the capacity for empathy. How would I wish to be told, were our places reversed? His thumb pauses, stuck between one future where Ayin lives only to succumb to an Abnormality's illness and the next, yet unseen but known in his heart of hearts after so many like it. He turns the page--Ayin 'lives' but only for minutes, bleeding out as he watches the culmination of countless aeons of work at this point. Woz turns his back on Hokma, that his expression and the one that follows won't give him away, even though the boxbot gave him a moment's privacy. His attention is on a recollection, now, rather than Ayin's many doomed futures or the conversation behind him. A forgotten, shrinking town in Washington, bonds between those who remain tightly knit to survive the cold, a gnarl in the skein of community still not wholly undone even years after the offending incident. From the vantage point of a guardrail atop an overpass, Woz, bruised and battered, listens to voices carried on the wind, pretending to read futures from his book. Thank you for telling Woz what you did. I know he can be difficult. Sougo Tokiwa stands at the shore of a lake, his chest heaving with exertion and his dress shirt ruffled and dirtied from a fight. I worry about him, sometimes, and how much he values the 'correct answer.' I feel like... he's so concerned with 'the one true timeline' that he doesn't see what's right in front of him. Sougo sighs, and looks up at the sky. It's only recently that I feel like he's looking at me, and not some other Sougo. So... again, thank you. Behind the Demon King, Xion slides on her coat, her back to him. Honestly I don't like him. Woz remembers the muted scoff he'd uttered; the one of today finds the gesture embarrassing where the one in this memory found it justified. He's more concerned with being right than earnestly engaging with the situations in front of him. I think he'd be stronger if he'd just be honest, but I don't know if he can be. I don't know if it's in him, to be that kind of Kamen Rider. Can the Futuring Rider ever really live in the present, Zi-O? Can he love you now, and not the you that's in his head you'll be soon? In the present, Woz closes the book with a sigh. Directly. Plainly. Without presuming there is some killing stroke in presenting them that will render the news better to hear. "Even in the futures where Ayin lives to see his work complete, it costs him his life, one way or another," says Woz, turning to face Hokma. "You have your answer. I would seek one from you, now. What will you do with it, now that you have it?"
Angela	"I... Did not want you to see him in his darkest times." Hokma admits. "I've never had aspirations of being some sort of ruler, demon or otherwise. We dreamed bigger than anyone else in this City." He practically spits the word 'City'. "...You understand why it comes difficult for us to have ''Faith'' again. I lost mine long ago and have just scarcely rekindled it..." Thanks to Sougo not admitting he intends to look into Hokma's past, Hokma barely restrains himself. There is a sudden cold fury that fills that eye at the mere implication of it, and something else harder to see behind i t. And the way Woz closes his book, the way he frowns... It speaks volumes before Woz utters a word. The singular eye shifts its attention wholly to Woz. A man devoted to another man's dream. He no doubt recognizes himself in Woz, not in some corrupted form but in a state that almost mocks him for how far he has fallen away from the Riders' partnership. Why do they get to be happy? How did he stumble where they found a path forward? Was he a failure of a guide or did he put his faith in the wrong man from the start? How long have the people of this facility looked for a one true timeline? Or any timeline at all where victory was possible? How much did they give up in search of that timeline, forgetting what was right in front of them already? ''Even in the futures where Ayin lives to see his work complete...'' ''It costs him his life, one way or another.'' Hokma doesn't cry out. On some level, he must have suspected--why ask Woz such a question in the first place?5r "...I see. We were so focused on a better future..." He turns to look at one of the many clocks on the wall. "We neglected to build one for ourselves. No, we even sacrificed it--piece by piece--until there was nothing left." An image of Angela flickers in his mind but he forces it out. That's just one more future he discarded. He never wanted to be a father, he never needed a friend. He only needed one man. ''What will you do with it, now that you have it?'' It's a good question. Hokma doesn't immediately have an answer either. Is there anything he even can do? The Timetrack protocol can only go so far back and... You can rewrite time but you cannot rewrite a tale. ...Unless... "...Then I must see his work incomplete." He says, simply enough. "A wrong answer in your mind, I imagine?" His tone is too tired to get entirely harsh but there's still a touch there. "I can already imagine the immeasurable disappointment of the multiverse. But a Love that does not fight for one's loved ones... ... I've made that mistake as well. However foolish or doomed it may be, I have to try to save him, Woz. Even if it destroys us all." He doesn't turn back to look at him. "Even if I risk fulfilling that very project in the end, I have to try. Otherwise..." He sighs. Tired. Doomed. He doesn't finish that sentence.
Timespace Riders	A wrong answer in your mind, I imagine? Sougo looks away. Woz doesn't. "Once, I may have said as much, believing it to be true." "I might have lectured you on what Ayin would want, or berated you for the cost your actions will incur on Angela, who I am most fond of. Make no mistake, your decision will make you our enemy. However..." "Whether you succeed in your plan or not, whatever your methods--absent everything else, you are not wrong for wanting more time with the man you love." "Hey, Tennant... let's take a walk for a bit, okay? I think Woz and Hokma would appreciate it. Maybe you could give me some movie recommendations?" Woz inclines his head gratefully towards the Demon King as Sougo takes Tennant by the arm and gently ushers them away. "I do not care to debate the particulars of anything else," says Woz after the two leave, tucking the book back under his arm. "Be it your understanding of his motivations, the way in which you show your care or any other countless ways this conversation might have gone." "I only wish for you to know that I am Kamen Rider to those who toil in vain." He gestures behind himself with a lateral sweep of his free arm. "Between yourself, fighting to save someone beyond salvation, the other Sephirah, and Angela, who has only ever known failure until very recently, I will do what I can, for all of you, whether you destroy this place or are defeated." A long breath, through his nose, eyes closed. "There is more that I would say to you--much more, that I wish to say, fervently, but I fear those words would be wasted at present. Is there anything else you would ask of me?"
Angela	Tennant has been strangely quiet. Their rifle was at their side rather than at their back--they don't genuinely think Hokma is in danger but they seem loathe to leave so when Sougo suggests they take a walk... "No can do, Demon King! It's my job to watch over him." Sougo COULD force Tennant to leave but Hokma thankfully intervenes with a glance. "It's fine, Tennant. I'll give you a video feed later." "But..." Tennant protests. "....Unedited?" "Pristine. And you know they won't harm me here." The Sephirah confirms. That seems to convince Tennant and they let themselves be dragged away. "Well... Have you ever heard of the movie Groundog Day?ansi45,") Tennant asks Sougo. Hokma waits until they are gone before Hokma finally focuses back on Woz. He doesn't so much as flinch at the idea of becoming Woz's enemy. It isn't until he says... "...I had ... some faith you'd understand. Perhaps I ought to have had more." Hokma says, sighing. "A Kamen Rider of those who toil in vain. That sounds like a Kamen Rider who collects sad stories. Perhaps that is why you carry that tome? But..." His body shakes from side to side. "...I may be some time before we can have another conversation like this again. I hope when we do, it can be as friends rather than enemies, Woz." For a man such as they, that need not be a promise for the future.