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Angela | At present time, Tamamo has met everybody at Lobotomy Corp personally--amongst the Sephirah anyway--except for Hokma. Because Angela and Hokma tend to avoid each other except when absolutely necessary, when Hokma asked Tamamo for a visit it is actually Tennant who meets the bunrei at the Warpgate. Tennant, in contrast to usual, is a bit sullen when they meet Tamamo though this seems to be unrelated to Tamamo herself because they keep smiling at her and even bows their head--but well, they might still be upset about Sarracenia. Tennant has short black hair and has a pair of goggles on their forehead. They are wearing a bluecoat and have a long rifle strapped to their back--the Magic Bullet EGO. "Welcome to Lobotomy Corp, Miss Tamamo--Or should I say Tamamo-Sama? Gosh, it is always thrilling when a legendary figure arrives at our humble little revolutionary power station. I'll take you to Records! Since Miss Angela avoids it, still, haha." Tennant makes their way to the elevator and is chatty all the way over. "Actually before I was a member of Lobotomy Corp, I was Hokma's bodyguard--back when he was still Benjamin, haha! Yeah, though he ended up running away and so I couldn't do the job when he wasn't here since I was still quite stuck here myself. He didn't take me with him," Tennant continues to chat amiably along. "Everyone is saying his Meltdown is next, but we'll all be in trouble if it doesn't happen right? I mean, he was the one most loyal but by the same token he's the only one who ran away. You know Woz and Sougo dropped by before you? He's been feeling a little sentimental." The Elevator dings and the doors open up into Extraction but it is a simple right turn to make one's way into Records. Just a little bit longer until the last meeting. "We owe a lot to the Dame Commander. She's really an incredible lady. I've only ever met one lady quite like her before." Tennant says. "And back then I didn't think I'd meet another lady like her at all. The multiverse is a really wondrous place, wouldn't you say, Tamamo-Sama?" |
Tamamo | Being invited by someone other than Angela is a curiosity. Despite having met many of the employees of Lobotomy Corporation -- enough that she would have difficulty remembering some of the agents without all the distinctive uniforms -- most meetings were happenstance, brought about by her own curiosity, or by Angela's interests. This could be a first... without counting Petra. Being 'legendary' can be for good or ill, and Tamamo's constantly low-key concerned over the latter, but the trend of positive reception continues, for now. "I have become used to the Western -- that is to say, the foreign -- forms, enough that it is sometimes pleasant to return to more familiar ways." Either 'miss' or '-sama' is fine, apparently. "Back when he was...? Ah, I see. It is no longer possible to flee this project, of course, for those involved. But for the 'most loyal' to have run away, that does make one wonder." At the mention of Sougo and Woz, "Tokiwa-san and his companion were here? I had not known, though I recall they have been interested in these matters. Was there something in particular?" It's really not her business to pry, but she shamelessly does so, anyway. Being shameless is often the best way to avoid being questioned. "Of course," she says when Lilian is mentioned. "She is most wonderful." Beaming with pride. Almost literally, but Tamamo is keeping her solar radiance under its usual wraps, today. It would be a bit much, underground. "The multiverse is vast, and yet, one can rarely find another thing 'just like' that which was lost. Every experience must be new." |
Angela | "-Sama sounds real cool." Tennant says. "Tamamo-Sama...! I don't know, it just feels more cinematic than 'Miss'..." Tennant pauses as Tamamo agrees that for 'the one most loyal' to flee is certainly a curious matter. "Well, perhaps he saw more than the rest of us could. Even more than a bodyguard could." Tennant slides their goggles down over their eyes, seemingly really interested in what Tmaamo's own gushing over Lilian. "She's strong--not just tough but in will, even defeated our most legendary warrior--but I think what I find most impressive is that she was able to jump right into making an Association in a City. Some of it was just good fortune, to be sure! But only she could have capitalized on it. That right kind of savviness... I'm envious that you get to be so close to her. I believe Ol' Ben is about to have his Meltdown and wanted to ask them about love." They make their way into Records. There's clocks wherever you can see, melded into large pipe-like structures, architecturally smokey but without any actual smoke--rather, it's like the smoke was dug directly into the structures themselves. It isn't always neat or clean, either, in some places it almost looks like melted wax, or cuts into the pipes themselves. A strange place indeed. Hokma has one of the nicer looking box-bot bodies. His shell doesn't quite have the same smell to it as the other boxbots, and there is a kind of mechanical beauty to the armor plating. The shell is white with grey cloud patterns across his frame. A monocle rests upon his singular bright green eye. The name HOKMA glows on the upper right of his body and if Tamamo has a keen eye, she'll notice she can actually see the gears turning around inside his body through clear glass windows showing into the interior of his body. "Miss Tamamo. Thank you for coming. I had a feeling Angela would not invite you on my behalf so I went to the liberty of making the call myself. You had talked to everyone else and we are running low on ..." In his left mechanical limb there is a pocketwatch. He snaps it closed. "...Time." |
Tamamo | 'Well, perhaps he saw more than the rest of us could.' "That would be most interesting a perspective to know." 'I'm envious that you get to be so close to her.' "We have a very special relationship." Finally, she meets with Hokma, and gives a welcoming smile, even if it could very well just be a matter of politeness. She keeps any reservations she has, owing to Angela's clearly less than wholly positive feelings over him, inward. So many things are made easier just by a faint but faultless smile. "Mr. Hokma, it is a pleasure to meet you. Ah, come to that, I have wondered whether you view 'Hokma' as more of a title than a name, owing to its place in the sefirot." '...low on... time.' "Mm, yes, it is rather... close to the end of the project, is it not? By the ordering of climbing the tree, the last three must be Binah, Hokma, and Keter, and thus..." Tamamo's faint smile turns to a faint frown, she tilts her head, places a finger to her chin, and allows her tails to sway behind her. "I wonder why it is I had not asked, before, why there was not a Keter with whom to meet. Is there not one missing...? Or else, was this not necessary for this formulation of the project?" |
Angela | "Eheh.." Tennant seems happy to hear it but quiets down a little when they make it to Hokma. Hokma gives Tennant a long look but ultimately focuses on Tamamo. There are other people in the Records Department these days, Sakura and BongBong ended up moving to the department recently but... Tennant was the only one Agent for a long time. "...To be honest, I am unaccustomed to people asking about the Sephirot in what the names actually mean--but for us, it is that our old lives are long dead at this point. Even if I was the last to die, my life is inexorably tied to this place. I suppose I was always bound by fate to return here. It was a mistake even to leave." ''The last there must be Binah, Hokma, and Keter...'' Hokma's eyew idens. And then he laughs. "Yes, Binah is my partner on this floor. And her ordeal was already completed. But after me--is Keter. We do have someone in the place of 'Keter' as well...Which I suppose this, and the fact we are merely 80 percent complete with the Seed of Light production...tells a story." He lowers the limb holding onto the timepiece. "Ayin, of course, is our Keter. But his battle..." Hokma trails off, lost in thought. "You are truly wise to even think to ask, Miss Tamamo. It is 'Keter', in fact, why I asked you to come. We are short on time and I've already sought some advice on the matter but I wanted to ask..." "If the pesron you loved most was destined to die in every potential future..." "What would you do?" Hokma asks. |
Tamamo | "So, Ayin is... the last step of the tree's construction. I see." Tamamo makes a little show of looking around Records, but it's mostly to give herself space to think as she talks. "'Destined' fates are... my, but that is certainly a question near to me. Do you know, Mr. Hokma, of that which is known as the 'threads of fate'? Perhaps you have heard, instead, of a 'red string'? The notion is this, that there is something unseen, that may become tangled, yet cannot be cleanly cut, and will draw and tie two things together. That is 'destiny,' the connections between all things, that extends into the past and the future, and that..." Tamamo holds up both hands before her chest, fingers spread, and twists, as if playing an invisible game of cat's cradle. Shimmering, flickering red might be seen, if viewed from the corner of one's eye, where her fingers tug something that isn't there. "To control such fortunes is a domain of the divine. One can hardly answer the prayers of humanity without at least this much power over 'the future.' Were I to see such a thing, I would seek to overturn that fate, and create a more blessed future for the one I love." Her hands slowly drop away. "To speak, however, of 'every future,' is to speak of that which 'cannot' be changed. Supposing it were not within my strength to find that happiness, no matter how I twisted and tied the threads into new knots, and no matter what might be sacrificed in my pursuit... why, I suppose I would go mad with grief. I would go upon a rampage, and burn away, and then..." Her voice, too, fades, until she says, "I would continue to live, alone, long after even those who knew my love had passed away. I would keep their memory in my heart, and I would seek love, again, in distant lands, with another scar upon my past. What else can be done?" |
Angela | ''To control such fortunes is a domain of the divine.'' "We have our own..." Hokma hesitates before adding, "We have our own Divine of course, but I've never seen one walking. I've only ever been able to rely on Faith--that is not so for other religions, I'ven oticed. Father Lucius, for example, knows it to be historical fact--even if he has his own brand of ... beliefs. The Head might as well be a God, for all we've seen their appearance--but however distant they are, their instruments are near, and close, and ... dedicated." ''I suppose I would go mad with grief. I would go upon a rampage, and burn away,a nd then...'' Hokma's expression darkens, he turns his body away. It's a little more obvious when they are boxes in a way. They can't show off this sort of body language, but the little small movements of the machine body betrays anxiety. ''I would continue to live, alone, long after even those who knew my love had passed away.'' "I suppose we would need to find a way to live," He admits. "Even after we've thrown our lives away, ''Continuing'' comes naturally, given time. Though all I wished was to fade away with him." ''I would seek love, again, in distant lands, with another scar upon my past. What else can be done?'' Hokma doesn't know. Truly, there is not much else that can be done. "I have to fight for him even though it is futile." Hokma says. "Even if it is against his wishes. It has to have meaning, it can't simply boil away without a fight." He looks to Tamamo, "Thank you for your honhesty, Miss Tamamo." Records is weirdly empty. It feels sterile and cold and lonely. There's no papers or anything but there is nonetheless the dull thrum of energy in the air. Weirdly empty, except for Tennant who is smiling broadly but it's hard to tell if they are complementing with the goggles hiding their eyes. But they do speak up, "Haven't found anybody like that in my life yet, alas. I suppose there is no room for romance, when my heart is already--" Hokma is uneasy, "Tennant, are you doing alright? ... You still...?" Tennant grins at Hokma and then glances to Tamamo, "Say! if Ayin's going to die in every future, that's a relief isn't it? I mean... If you think about it... That means we're probably gonna get the job done. Have you gone mad with grief before, Tamamo-Sama?" |
Tamamo | 'I suppose we would need to find a way to live...' "I shall hope for such a continuation, for those who can wish for a future." 'Though all I wished was to fade away with him.' "Mm." 'It has to have meaning, it can't simply boil away without a fight.' "Yes," Tamamo says. "Only you can decide whether your love had meaning. Whether the threads between you and him are visible to anyone else, it makes no difference." She can't tell a Sephirah to simply behave, and not cause trouble, no matter how much it will make for others, if it is a matter of love. Nor can she question whether or not a feeling was truly 'love.' She wishes far too strongly for it to be. 'Have you gone mad with grief before, Tamamo-Sama?' Tamamo pauses, her entire form seized in the moment, a still frame against the silent and empty Records. "Yes," she says, at last, visibly alive, breathing, in gentle motion. "At least the once, I did struggle in futility, against a world turned against me, when the one whose love I sought had been taken from me. Those fields were the final memories left to me, before I met Lilian. Since then... my life has not been without grief, even so. To value anything imperfect and temporal is to risk the feeling of 'loss.'" She looks again toward Hokma. "I should warn you, perhaps, that from my own experience, no revelations, satisfaction, nor miracle resulted from those struggles I knew to be futile from the beginning. Standing against inevitable cruelties gave me no reward but the blood of those who need not have spilled it. Even so... my answer cannot change. As selfish as it is to gamble the suffering of many against the most foolish hope of a miracle, to be 'selfless' is... to give up on love, just as it is to die. This is part of the nature of love which I have discovered." |
Angela | Honestly, telling a Sephirah to behave could be pretty dangerous for the goals of Lobotomy Corp if there was a significant chance of it actually being convincing. And it could be! Sometimes it is convincing! There's lots of convincing and understanding people out in the multiverse rendering it much more difficult for Angela to ensure that their torture proceeds as planned. And with Benjamin, who Angela is inclined to avoid, such a risk is even greater. But fortunately(?), Hokma was determined to fight anyway. Because as Tamamo said, what else can he do? Hokma is being relatively normal about this which only starkly reveals how strange Tennant is being. A normal person wouldn't ask a question like that, so casually like they are asking about the weather but Tennant said the words so easily. While a relatively high profile Agent of Lob Corp compared to, say, OHNO or Yaboy..it can be really easy to not dwell upon the Agents of whom there are so many. Usually Agents haven't interceded on these meetings much. "Ah, I could tell because I think only someone who experienced something like that would have that kind of answer, right?" Tennant babbles on like they're in another world. "Benjamin, you've had a similar experience, right?" Hokma laughs, but their eye dwells on Tennant a moment too long. "Perhaps we are still mad with loss. The world turned against us and we lost everything. But now thanks to Miss Lilian Rook and the others who came to help--we might yet be allowed to plant our tree." A long pause and Hokma exhales, "But Desire comes like a wave. Angela will betray the project. I know not exactly how, but... It will be fight when that happens. ... But I suppose I betray the project first." A rueful chuckle. "On schedule as per our script." But Tamamo has more to say. Namely, that he will likely gain nothing out of this. Nothing that he wants, at least. "To hope for a miracle." Hokma chuckles again. "I suppose that is also a kind of Faith." The head bobs lightly and Hokma adds, "I appreciate you being honest with me, Miss Tamamo. I know the questions were of an essential personal nature, but I appreciate you answering them all the same." |
Tamamo | "Of course, Mr. Hokma. Even if our acquaintance should resolve itself to be short... I could hardly do aught else but to advocate for love, given the opportunity, now, could I?" For her own selfish reasons, as well, perhaps. To unravel Tamamo-no-mae's motivations on the matter is likely futile, and so, shall be skipped. "Though it may be a question with no answer, a true dilemma, I hope you have gained something from this, as well." Truthfully, without the ability to understand what is happening in the minds of many of the agents, it feels easier to give up on it. Perhaps it's just the work they do with the Abnormalities that results in such unique behavior. It's not as if their behavior has yet resulted in them rebelling against their, frankly, terrible conditions... "Hm." Isn't that strange? If every one of the managers is planning one betrayal or another against the project, yet the tortured employees never do...? Well, she'll just think about that later. |