The Tale of a Jerk and a Scientist

[denigrator]

Characters: Hojo and YOU
Setting: Throughout the tower. Pick a floor, any floor.
Format: Action to start, but I'll match prose, too
Summary: After some time spent wandering his ruined world like a ghost, Hojo has returned to the Tower. His first priority? Research.
Warnings: A complete lack of scientific ethics, which may come up.


[A great deal has gone on in Hojo's absence--he's been gone months!--and this has had the unfortunate effect of upsetting so much of his research. He has absolutely no idea what's happened while he's been gone.

So what's a scientist to do? Make his way through all the floors he had been so carefully studying, trying to salvage what he can. Sometimes he talks to himself. Sometimes he hums. Off-key or tunelessly. Sometimes he scowls and stops to take notes. Sometimes he smiles. And stops to take notes again. He grits his teeth, doing his best to ignore the cold. He's worked in cold (very cold) climates before. Fortunately, he has a Fire Materia, which provides some warmth.

One might find him in the cafeteria, taking samples of the oatmeal.

In the observatory, he spends a long time looking out, studying the strange creatures visible through the glass.

He takes soil samples in the graveyard, and biological samples on floor Forty-One, collecting insects. He plucks a few blossoms in the meadow (Twenty-Five) and in the garden (Twenty-Nine).

He stops in the clinic to deal with a few of the wounds he's sustained along the way.

He pauses to enjoy the morgue (Twenty-Six) and the laboratory (Twenty-Seven), looking for traces of his old research with Fuhito. He doesn't find much, though what he finds, he gathers up. What a shame. So much work lost. All the more reason to work more, and harder.]

So much to do, so much...

Comments

[denigrator]

[Hojo continued to ignore the radiating hatred. He would rather earn a reaction, but if none was forthcoming, then so be it. He wasn't going to leave.]

Do I generally ask trick questions?

[Or was that a trick question? He certainly asked annoying questions at times, but at times he did genuinely want answers.]

I have undergone a transformation.

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth's thoughts flashed through memories that weren't his own. Of course Hojo must be referring to his self-infusion, finally giving himself completely to the Jenova project himself. Or was he referring to that? Hojo may well have been in the Tower before Sephiroth had arrived - how was he to know? Sephiroth disliked having the wool pulled over his eyes having gone to such lengths to discover the truth.]

I know how you-

[-gave yourself up for me? Was that really what just popped into his head to say? This place was really getting under his skin since they'd pushed their control over him. A dismissive shake of the head locked that thought away. Sure Hojo had sacrificed himself for the Reunion, what did he want a medal? Sephiroth had plenty of puppets he'd summoned for that purpose regardless of the scientists input]

It made no difference, in the end.

[denigrator]

Ah, you know, then. You must be from after that time? Yes, I did what was necessary.

[He laughed again. He had done it for Sephiroth, but also for himself, as Sephiroth was his accomplishment, his monument, so to speak. He'd wanted him to succeed.]

Are you so sure? All the worlds have been destroyed, they say, the life drained from them, and if so, I wonder what might have destroyed them. They never seem to tell us. Just because we've been taken from that destruction, that doesn't mean we've had no part in it.

[He liked to believe that his work had had such a great impact, but it was in his nature to believe such things.]

I haven't given up on my work, you see.

[neverbeamemory]

[Oh no. There was no way that Hojo just summed up Sephiroth's first impressions of this place when he'd first arrived! That couldn't be just coincidence. Maybe there was indeed some truth to what he had thought before; that he had actually destroyed the world and for some reason been brought here away from it.

No, why would he be brought away from it? More likely they destroyed it right from under him. Stolen his destiny from him]

They stole it away from me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here - why should I need to be saved?

[It wasn't a question, just the thought train that went around every so often. Thought quieter this particular of late, as he'd settled more into the routine of living in the Tower. He made no comment about Hojo's work, and didn't intend to - no matter how much it might interest him. After all, Hojo had accurately predicted so much about him before - the thought of given even the slightest hint of consent to Hojo would be opening a door he wanted kept shut.]

[denigrator]

[It seemed logical to Hojo, who had been in the course of transforming and destroying the world, that when it had happened, it had been thanks to his efforts. How could his ego admit anything less? And Sephiroth was part of that effort. The primary part.

Why would you need to be saved? Who can say? They could have thought that you needed to be saved from yourself. They might not have saved you at all. They could have intended to rescue a survivor but made a mistake. They might be lying to you--in fact, they most definitely are lying about some things, it's only a question of what.

I'm sure you could think of a few possibilities, if you used that brilliant mind of yours.

Of course, it's also possible that they stopped you, that you've been stymied. Is that frustrating?

[He doesn't like that possibility as much, but it is--well, possible. It certainly frustrates Hojo. Someone else shouldn't be responsible for the world's transformation when he wants to be.]

[neverbeamemory]

Shut up.

[He didn't need Hojo putting these questions into words - every time he thought of them from now on they'd have that highly irritating voice. A perfect way to make already tedious idle thoughts into triggers of rage.]

Shut up.

[Nope he just carried on, and the last question just popped the bottle top off. Of course he knew it would frustrate Sephiroth, how could it not. And the biggest problem with that, is that Hojo was equally frusrated with it!]

Shut up! [His bellow echoed around the corridor and finally the lift pinged open. Glancing at Hojo once more, his eyes livid with the anger that could so easily be turned violent, Sephiroth entered the lift]

[denigrator]

Hahaha...

[Hojo had to laugh at this. An emotional outburst. How amusing.]

I see no reason to be silent. You've asked yourself the same things, haven't you?

[He didn't need to say we're alike. It was obvious that there were similarities between them, and why shouldn't there be?]

You shouldn't be so quick to discount me. I've been here before. I returned to our world.

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth only glares at Hojo. He's heard of people returning to their worlds before but that in itself just raises more questions. For one, how could they know it was their world and not another elaborate illusion.

As such, there was no reason for Sephiroth to think any higher of the scientist than he had before. After seconds that seem an age - the lift doors close and Sephiroth ascends out of sight.]

[denigrator]

[Hojo had his own ideas about the world that people returned to, or seemed to, but as nothing had been proven yet, they were still only hypotheses. Not that Sephiroth was willing to talk about them, which didn't surprise Hojo in the least. More scorn and dismissal.

It did irk him, even as Sephiroth's outburst had amused him. Still, he hadn't felt inclined to enter the elevator with Sephiroth. He had some selnse of self-preservation. He would see him later, he was sure. He could wait.]