Scene #9663: Freak Industrial On-Purpose-Actually

Owner	Pose
Angela	Angela is starting to see herself as something of a druid albeit with one specific tree rather than a forest but, frankly, to look outside the Library one would suspect it is a forest indeed. The buildings that used to surround the L-Corp HQ have been consumed and transmuted, rebuilt into twisted constructs of the same dark wood that makes up the Library, gnarled like funny forest folk huts. The golden glow of the enkephalin-free light that illuminates all of Angela's EGO shines out of their windows, and towering younger-growth branches and trunks stretch up into the sky. Those branches reach across the evening sky like skeletal fingers, filtering out most of the sunlight that could penetrate through, and the concrete and asphalt that makes up the entirety of the City's ground surface has gradually transformed into wood. Carpets appear in spaces when they're not looked at directly, warm lanterns sprout out of building facades held by curled branches, and even the air tastes less bitter than it does outside of the Library's domain. Since the last time there was a visit paid to this portion of the 'Library' such as it is, the forest--nearly as dark and black as in the fairy tale of the Three Birds that Veronica may have listened to as a child--has only thickened and resembles less and less The Nest that once stood in its spot. People don't typically visit even the Library outskirts because to visit the Library is to court death and it is no avenue to reach the Library center to do battle for books--at least not yet--and normally even these outskirts have a shimmering barrier of mist around them. Even today, to press on to the central tree is to merely come pressed up against the impenetrable golden fog that protects the Library from the Uninvited. But more than that, the forest is out of place. It doesn't really belong. Oh, The City has forests and pastures and all the other sorts of places that are required to sustain life, but those are curated spaces in service of The City's Nests. This, on the other hand, seems like a beast that has clamped down on The City's side and won't let go even as leaves and branches spill out of the wound. Even for someone who has plenty of reason to despise The City itself, as a resident--the forest can't help but be unsettling on first impression. It's not supposed to be here but it is insisting upon itself. It is to these outskirts that Angela has invited Veronica. She has promised no harm, so long as she is shown proper respect in her EGO, but what does harm mean to her anyway? Why IS she turning people into books? How does that help her? She has a past with the Outside world that is longer than Veronica's connection to it, that is plenty clear by now, as is the fact that no matter her methods--she and her Library are poised against The City, even if The City still has designations and titles for it. Whether that's underestimation or a hope to assimilate the monster as they have so many--both human and not--is unclear but The Library will surely soon be seen as a Star of the City. Like the Blood-red Night, like Rita. Something this expansive will earn that title through inertia if nothing else. Though the morning star rises up high it inevitably falls. Just like all the other Stars of the City.
Angela	The question of how to actually enter the Library's domain isn't really answered except by Angela's assurance that she'll let Veronica in. If Veronica had tried before, even her EGO railing against the barrier wouldn't have made it buckle, but today when she arrives, while there is that golden mist--it doesn't seem impenetrable at all. She can push right through as if there were no barrier at all, but once she's pushed on through that barrier reasserts herself. Yes. Good thing Angela promised no harm. Hopefully her sense of what counts as proper etiquette is similar enough to Veronica's. It's difficult to make out roads, even the wooden flooring has started to grow moss and leaves, but even while the light of the sun is dim, the lanterns make it easy to not trip, at least, even if it is all too easy to get lost. Poking their heads out of little holes and tree trunks and branches are little glowing green creatures. Kodoma, though Veronica might not know of the tree spirits herself. They seem vaguely wary, as if Veronica is made of alien stuff, but they do not aggress against her or even flee. Veronica is like a multi-headed elephant. Or a trainwreck. She's attracting gawkers. Angela's directions weren't exactly precise either, she just said 'the Library's outskirts' but if this forest is really part of her EGO, maybe she just knows. But if she does, she's just letting Veronica walk around the forest for like an hour before revealing herself. Maybe that's part of the conversation. But eventually...
Angela	"So. What do you think of my home?" Not even a little pause before 'home' like what would usually be the case. Angela is willing to come off in many ways to people outside The City, even the locals that have been with her since the fall of LobCorp and before, but she is definitively more calculated with the stranger citizens she's only getting to know now. She's wearing a long black dress covered in crow feathers, and matching black stockings, but she has also put on a hood to obscure her facial features. The normal citizens of The City are her enemy until proven otherwise. That's just how it has to be and that's how she'll present herself. She's also speaking from quite a bit above Veronica as she's reclining on her back along one of the heftier branches of the forest. A friend once told her that even the Manus would see her as more of an arcanist than she herself. Angela has been thinking about what it means to be an arcanist for some time, more and more as she feels her circuits and wires transmogrify into flesh and veins. She was arguably always a kind of magic but maybe she can try feeling it out with her own hands instead of those that made her. So that's what she's been doing, slowly working out the stiffness of her being day by day. A basket of fresh oranges sits next to her. She doesn't offer Veronica any just yet, but their presence is suggestive all the same. One should always be a little wary of what they eat from the underworld though Angela's not going to be delivering any warnings like that just yet either. And besides, being out here feels nice. It's like she's outside, even if she isn't really and the constant psychic presence of the Library assures her of that. ''Inside'' has simply expanded its definition. But she's grown accustomed to simulated freedom and can still appreciate the illusion. Sometimes you have to appreciate the small joys. She lets a leg dangle off the branch as she bites into an orange herself. This too is a simulated freedom. "Personally, when I am too deep inside, or even touching toes in another world, I do not feel as if I am breathing, exactly. The air settles in my nostrils instead of filling my vessel. But here, I feel as if air and I have an understanding. It is not mine to capture, but it can pass on through me as any wanderer passes through space. I have been thinking about 'breathing' a great deal lately." She turns her head, golden eyes gleaming even through the shadowed hood as she stares down Veronica. "What about you? Are you nurturing the seed that so much pointless suffering and bloodshed gifted you or has a little bit of treasure convinced you that you have all you need? Has it truly bloomed or has it yet to effloresce into a proper forest?" Despite the pointed nature of these words, the curiosity in Angela's tone suggests something too.
Veronica	Veronica has heard, both directly and through her link to the City about the mists surrounding the Library, keeping out any who lack an Invitation. The capital 'I' however isn't easy to communicate aloud, so she arrived under the impression that her invitation (lowercase) will suffice. This impression holds until she feels the Library's barrier re-seal behind her like a timelapse of a healing wound. Veronica doesn't turn around to test it, because she'd rather not be certain that she couldn't just leave now. She's strong enough, she'd force her way out in no time. Definitely. So there's no reason to try until it's needed. Veronica wanders the 'forest' for a while, pausing here and there to take in the surroundings. She wonders to herself: is there a vision here? The gleaming spires of a Nest replaced with a new - or very, very old - and very different kind of tower. Thinking back to Flamel's Storm Syndrome experiments, she recalls the image of Firefly Dam transformed into the very thing which she despises: a nexus of wealth and power that reaches its limbs and roots to overshadow and choke out its surroundings. She finally hears Angela's question before seeing her up in the tree, but not from so near as to startle. "It's..." Veronica pauses to collect her thoughts, mouth trying to run ahead of her brain as usual. "Different. A sort of quiet I haven't really had since the White Nights. I don't know if I missed this feeling." The feeling of not always, for good and ill, hearing the multitudes at the back of her mind. "Are you nurturing the seed that so much pointless suffering and bloodshed gifted you or has a little bit of treasure convinced you that you have all you need? Has it truly bloomed or has it yet to effloresce into a proper forest?" "Y'know," Veronica says, trying to lean against the tree but finding no good angle to rest, "Is it one or the other? I don't think I've found the limits of my EGO, or of what it means to have one." She turns, studies the pattern of branches briefly, and begins to climb until she's at Angela's level, sitting across the trunk from her. She swings her feet gently back and forth, partaking in a bit of whimsy. "Can't say I'm a whole forest, really. Not til I know the shape of what we want. Me and my town." A pause. "It's tough. We need money to live, right, so we've been selling the Enkephalin that was left at the plant and are lookin' to get the dam back online. But what we want isn't just to be good at the money game. Or at least what I want isn't. Hard to tell those two things apart." "Your EGO's just you, right? What's it like having all this to yourself?" Veronica gestures at the canopy all around.
Angela	One can certainly think they can punch that way through that barrier, but Angela has yet to be able to. She can let people in and out but she's never been able to overpower it. She'd die before she managed it. ''I don't know if I missed this feeling.'' "I was wondering if you noticed it. The lack of birdsong. The noise of bugs and other creatures." Angela admits. "Even this Library has its present limits." To be frank, Angela's understanding of what had happened as a result of the White Nights and Dark Days has increased over time but in this, well, Veronica is bound to be more informed than she could be from the distance enforced upon her. She doesn't have the full picture of how Firefly Dam suffered either, because her reach into the outside world is still quite limited and nobody cares about what happened to Firefly Dam, making it difficult for her to read the situation there. It's not as if her people are throwing themselves to the Library or anyone who really knows the deal there either. "I've been wondering about what it means for an EGO to be built from a society--the aim was highly individualistic, a personal path. Perhaps they hadn't considered the idea that even here there may be beloved communities. An expected blindspot for such careless revolutionaries, I suppose." When Veronica climbs up, Angela twists her body so she's not looking directly at her--or perhaps more relevantly, so that her face remains difficult to see. It almost reeks of shyness if Angela wasn't speaking directly and confidently. She must not want Veronica to see her actual face for some reason. "You'll run out of Enkephalin eventually. I know little of your town." It might be hard to tell if that's because of not caring or because she couldn't have known, Angela's not exactly clarifying. "You shouldn't ask if it is 'one or the other' and then admit you are not satisfied with what you have in your hand. It is stronger to just admit you are not. Uncertainty won't feed the EGO though, to be fair, neither would bravado. Be confident in the trunk then build the branches outward--then be confident in those. You'll be stranger for it, but it is unavoidable." ''What's it like having all this to yourself?'' Lonely Angela thinks but he's not going to admit this to someone she barely knows so she focuses on the other truths. She is an AI that can tell the truth but she doesn't have to tell the whole truth. "It seems like a lot, but it is not a treasure I am satisfied with. It might be stronger than a seed, but it is no true forest yet. Despite appearances. A sapling, perhaps." Obviously she can't just tell Veronica what she should do. That sort of defeats the whole purpose. Well she COULD, even, it is not really her job to help Veronica be a bigger threat to her but she wasn't lying to Petra when she said this was partly out of curiousity. What WAS all that blood, sweat, and tears for? "I'll read about it." Angela decides. "And you can tell me about it. That will be fastest and it won't hurt." She doesn't ask as she reaches out with her hand as a golden glow shimmers out from Veronica--not unlike the mist surrounding the forest--and coalesces into a number of pages that lands in Angela's outstretched hand. "So what is your home like that it has left its imprint on your back and you wear it on your arm?"
Veronica	"I've been wondering about what it means for an EGO to be built from a society--the aim was highly individualistic, a personal path." "Yeah, that's what- I've heard from other EGO users, that it's very personal to just them. I guess the Voice liked all of us, right? Saw we had potential as a whole. Makes sense to me," Veronica says. "City's not going anywhere fast if people aren't getting along, working together." "You shouldn't ask if it is 'one or the other' and then admit you are not satisfied with what you have in your hand. It is stronger to just admit you are not... Be confident in the trunk then build the branches outward--then be confident in those." Veronica hmms. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not satisfied with just what we've accomplished so far. It's just hard to imagine something outside of the world I grew up in, you know? Conceptually, I mean. What should 'not the City' look like? There's a lotta different ways for the world to be." A pause. "How about you? Happy with the City the way it is? Someone told you me tried to stop the Light from getting out." She reaches over for an orange, tears away some of the peel, takes a juicy bite. "Is that because you knew it could turn out like this? Or did you really not want people to get the gift of EGO?" A smidge of accusation to her tone. "People died, because of that." "I'll read about it. And you can tell me about it. That will be fastest and it won't hurt." "You'll- woooah," Veronica exclaims, softly, as Angela draws forth a Page. >When did it start? Did it start in the Dark Days, when the blood of my lifelong friend was pulled from her body to leave a withered husk on the pavement? No. Did it start in the Wing War, when my father was called on - forced - to fight in the name of a Company that had already taken everything from him but his life? No. Did it start under Laryngos Corp, when the soil and water and sky were choked by smog that they still have yet to heal from? No. This City started killing us the day we were convinced to build it. And it succeeded when we forgot there were other ways to live. Now we must rise up from our homes and from our graves and from the earth that is one, has ALWAYS been one with our bodies and souls, not only to secure a future for ourselves but to remake the futures the City has designed for everyone else.< "So what is your home like that it has left its imprint on your back and you wear it on your arm?" "It's a home. It's a place where people live and love and die and dream. That's all it needs to be, to deserve the very best I can do for it."
Angela	Angela thinks about what Lilian had said once about what it means for someone to love ''everyone'' and how that means that such a love could not be for her. She doesn't argue, but somehow the phrase 'The Voice liked all of us, right?' doesn't really seem to comfort her. She tugs the hood more tightly down over her face. Of course, Veronica might have just meant specifically the people of her community rather than everyone, but Angela is intensely aware of just how much love Carmen has for the people of The City because that is not something that was left behind with her. Her thoughts travel onto White and how she spoke to the child that was imitating the mother. Maybe she doesn't need... ''She reaches for an orange.'' Angela places her hand on top of Veronica's for a moment. "Careful. A taste of this and you might find it difficult to leave." But she pulls her hand back after and lets Veronica take it. Her hand is cool to the touch, in that moment, almost too cool. If she does take a bite of the orange she'll find it's the most delicious orange she's ever had, at least amongst oranges of the City. It's been raised with love, care, and focus, raised on the supernatural light provided by what might be the most powerful empath in the Sector. In this, at least, Angela didn't have to make compromises. Maybe that's why she's so attached to them. She won't stop Veronica from taking a second one either if she reaches for it. Her own appetite is satiated already and she's slowly finishing off the one. "No." Angela says. "I am not happy with The City the way it is. But not even Wing leaders are happy with The City the way that it is. It is not special to hate The City, it is the most normal thing about me. People are able to hate paradise, somehow, so The City is effortless to hate. It would be more interesting to ask ''why'' I hate it, but it would still be easy to give normal reasons there too that everyone has." Angela thinks for a moment and then admits, "The most interesting question to ask is what I intend to do about it." But she doesn't give any of these answers to Veronica. Veronica has been perfectly polite, but Petra has warned her to maintain ambiguity and a shared enemy doesn't make friends in The City. ''Someone told me you tried to stop the Light from getting out. Is that because you knew it could turn out like this?'' Rita, Angela thinks. It could've been Lilian too, of course, or Hibiki but Rita is the prime suspect. She cared about fighting her the most. Even more than Lilian. "I did not care whether people got EGO or not, then. It had nothing to do with me. Those billions of people Rita fought for were strangers to me. More alien to me than the Outsiders. They were not a part of my community." "I did not have one of those."
Angela	Perhaps it is no wonder, then, that she doesn't seem to care about the dead. Not even a flicker in those eyes of hers. Maybe she needs to read about them first. She flips through the pages at a strange speed, too fast to read properly, but perhaps that is an aspect of her EGO and she can just absorb the information more quickly. Benjamin again, Angela thinks. "The people who were willing to sacrifice you were willing to sacrifice themselves as well--and did." Angela admits. "Because they, too, hated The City. Personally, I feel they were too desperate. But I cannot say if it were my actions or theirs that resulted in your loss--well, I had nothing to do with the Smoke War, anyway. For all I know, it would have happened either way but I am being pedantic." "The truth is, even if I knew it would have killed everyone in your town, I would have paid that price because my circumstances were untenable to me. Not if I had an alternative option, I am no Blood Fiend, but I would have done anything it took." ''It's a home. It's a place where people live and love and die and dream. That's all it needs to be--'' "I disagree." Angela interrupts bluntly, almost by compulsion. "Even Lobotomy Corp's head office was a place where people lived, loved, died, and dreamt. You should aim for higher than that. I can't imagine it not being more than that. So you should think it through and get back to me later. On some level, you already know this or you wouldn't even have a seed." The pages vanish into aether as Angela sends them off somewhere, she turns her gaze up to the sky as if trying to peer at the sunlight between the branches. They have the same enemy, but is this someone she could whisper her plans to? Probably not. It's frustrating, but it is how it is. If only shared purpose meant anything at all then life would be a lot simpler.
Veronica	"Careful. A taste of this and you might find it difficult to leave." Veronica does not, after all, eat that orange. She doesn't know if it's part of the EGO or what, nor how serious Angela's warning is. Serious enough to offer a relative stranger, at least. "The most interesting question to ask is what I intend to do about it." "Hm, yeah," Veronica says, nodding along with the account of how banal it is to simply hate the City. "So what do you intend? You're collecting Light, but not just from EGO users. Where'll it all go? It's a whole world's worth of the stuff, I'd be surprised if it could be bottled up even in someplace like this." An open palm gestures upward, at the Library barely visible through the forest canopy, glistening in the evening sky. "But I cannot say if it were my actions or theirs that resulted in your loss." Veronica carefully reclines on her chosen tree-branch, leaning her back against the trunk in a mirror of Angela. "That's the billion-Ahn question, isn't it," she says. "Whose fault is it all? And what's to be done with them? My people have lived and died under the City for generations - sometimes part of the system, sometimes fuel for it, usually both at once." "Rita asked me to think about it, so I have been. And y'know, a little part of me wonders if punishing people should be the goal in the first place. Violence is just the means, right? There's folks that won't give up what they got without a fight, sure, but they're not my enemies cuz they're stubborn, they're enemies cuz what they believe in's rotten from the roots up. Y'know?"
Veronica	"The truth is, even if I knew it would have killed everyone in your town, I would have paid that price because my circumstances were untenable to me." "I know it's not just about countin' lives," Veronica says, shockingly close to agreeing with Angela. "Ten thousand of these folk for ten million o' those - doesn't make sense. Lives aren't all the same like that. If there were a billion people between me and justice - and there could be - me and mine'd keep fightin' to get there." She shifts a little, folding her hands behind her head as a cushion. "Mad Father says sacrifices can't be something we're obligated to make, or the biggest sacrifice of all wouldn't mean nothin'. So you make a good case for why ya tried to steal the Light. You didn't get all of it, which means I can still fight for my town, and you still get to live..." Veronica trails off for a bit. "Whether or not this is the nicest way things coulda gone, it's what we've got to make the best out of." "Even Lobotomy Corp's head office was a place where people lived, loved, died, and dreamt. You should aim for higher than that. I can't imagine it not being more than that." "Hey, do you think someplace has gotta be real special to deserve dignity, freedom, that stuff? That not everywhere should have it, or that there's not enough to go around? We're not trying to make a good life in Firefly Dam 'n' then call it quits. We want to change the world. Everyplace deserves a chance to be better. When we're done we're not gonna replace the Head or the Wings - we're gonna tear up the whole 'garden of sin', so there doesn't need to be a Head or Wings at all. So there can't be." "I've gotta start somewhere. May as well be where everybody already knows me."
Angela	''Veronica does not, after all, eat that orange.'' Angela, feeling a little guilty, "It should still be good when you leave." There it's safe now. This is what she gets for trying to be cute about it. Rita, Angela thinks again. Of course. She is too clever to really hide her footprints. Hasn't she figured that out yet? Maybe she just didn't care to. Also possible. It's not as if she's going to be troubled by Veronica using her brain a little. Least she hopes not. That'd be embarrassing. "Don't forget the ones who do not believe in anything at all." But she was expecting stronger pushback from Veronica on the matter of the lives she'd be willing to sacrifice. Perhaps because it is in the realm of 'willing' rather than 'for sure is responsible'. Frankly, Angela would have preferred clarity on the matter herself. It'd be nice to not have that sword of damocles hanging over her neck. ''Mad Father says sacrifices can't be something we're obligated to make.'' To be fair, Angela thinks bitterly, Binah would say the same thing and she's a monster. Still, it's an argument that she has to believe in anyway and that means she's of the same mind as the Mad Father and also the Rogue Arbiter. IF she had gotten all of it and just left then and there, would she even have some of the connections she has now? She certainly wouldn't have stopped to help Firefly Dam--not out of malice, or even really ignorance--just she'd have too many things on her mind to think about the town she indirectly doomed. But she's not so sure getting none of it would have saved Firefly Dam at all. It could just have easily doomed everyone in The City. This half measure is unsatisfying to everyone. Some people would say that makes it fair and Angela would send those people to the iron maiden she has been holding onto. "I suppose the heat has died down." Angela drops down out of the tree. She wants to move her legs and walk and maybe even try that 'running and jumping' Petra talks so much about, though she's not going to do that in front of Veronica either. ''Do you think someplace has gotta be real special to deserve dignity, freedom, that stuff?'' "That doesn't matter." Angela sounds a bit annoyed this time, like she's reiterating a lesson she's has to repeat a thousand times and is being harsher to make sure it sticks this time. "It's ''your'' EGO. My point is that if you are the bearer of that place's will, then there has to be ''something'' about it special to ''you'', not some bullshit that I could say about anywhere. I'm not speaking about cosmic significance here." This is why Petra wasn't expecting much from her, she thinks, even with an EGO she isn't expressing her Reason yet. Maybe it's because she's stubborn or maybe it's because she can't. It doesn't matter. "I am going to find the truths of this world that The Head has long buried. I will uncover every secret, learn every intricate detail, and then I am going to use that to get my revenge. Figure out what is special about Firefly Dam, Veronica, to ''you''. Not some idealistic slop I'd expect out of a cartoon, the ugliest or most banal possible reasons you can dig out of yourself, that's what you will need or the seed will just be a cool mech you can hit people with. And if that's all it is..." She shakes her head. "Then I really should have devoured all the Light in this world."
Veronica	"It should still be good when you leave." "Oh, uh, sure," Veronica says, now even less sure how safe these oranges are. "I'll take one for later, 'kay?" She reaches out again and grabs an orange, sliding it into her jacket pocket for now. "It's ''your'' EGO. My point is that if you are the bearer of that place's will, then there has to be ''something'' about it special to ''you'', not some bullshit that I could say about anywhere." Veronica gently double-takes at Angela's harsh response. "I... think I had your meaning wrong, then," she says cautiously, clambering down from the tree herself. "How do I put a town into words? It's... the way the bricks smell. The ball games we'd play in the high-voltage corridor. Cigarettes at sunset up on the old dam. It's the way those people - my people - fight, every day and every night, toward something we call 'better'. It's how we're still here, despite the Head's oppression and the City's hazards and the Wings' neglect and despite you, now," a pointed stare, "and we're not going away." "We're not the only town like us, but we're the first to be given this chance," she says, flexing her concrete arm until it crunches, "and we're fucking taking it. You can have your revenge. We'll be building the future." She tosses the orange in the air like a baseball, catches it, and turns to go.
Angela	''We'll be building the future.'' "Mm." Angela doesn't comment on Veronica's next answer about her people and her town because she did ask Veronica to take ''time'' and think about it. She'll see if she has the same answer in a year or whatever. But that quip about 'building the future'--certainly, Veronica knows the Lobotomy Corp slogan of 'Face the Fear, Build the Future'. She could throw it back at Veronica, point out that the very war criminal responsible for her suffering more than anyone else, certainly, was quite keen on building the future himself. But she doesn't. She doesn't see the point. A common enemy, but not a friend, as expected. She briefly considers going back on her word and executing Veronica here and now and adding her to the Library. She is an AI that can tell the truth, but she is also one that can lie. The fact that she has a community to go back to, to protect, and she needed to be pushed that hard to start going on about why that means anything at all--it's infuriating to her. But there's no purpose in making an enemy of Veronica or The Watch and it's best she stick to her vows when she can. So Veronica has no issue getting out of there. The barrier opens up once more and once Veronica is outside, it seals shut--the Library and Angela a stranger once more.