He wouldn't approve of the method I used to keep the clerk's rights guys calm... At least Big Bird has a way to get the Qliphoth counter back up, but Violet Noons will become a lot more dangerous now. They can easily wipe out most of Safety and Training, because the clerks just love to gather in the only room.
The other ordeals and breaches pretty much turn into a race against time with Clerk's Rights Activists around. You have to kill them before the clerks suicide on them. For most breaches this is fine, if you see them coming you can get your agents there in time. But with ordeals it means you can't rely on a death ball, because while your agents are killing one set of Green Dusks, the other two will murder all the clerks.
The agents of this thread are pretty fucking too: Let's Play Lobotomy Corporation
ha haGrumpy Turtle wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:34 amHe wouldn't approve of the method I used to keep the clerk's rights guys calm... At least Big Bird has a way to get the Qliphoth counter back up, but Violet Noons will become a lot more dangerous now. They can easily wipe out most of Safety and Training, because the clerks just love to gather in the only room.
The other ordeals and breaches pretty much turn into a race against time with Clerk's Rights Activists around. You have to kill them before the clerks suicide on them. For most breaches this is fine, if you see them coming you can get your agents there in time. But with ordeals it means you can't rely on a death ball, because while your agents are killing one set of Green Dusks, the other two will murder all the clerks.
ha
i once had three clerk's rights activists, two of them ALEPH-level, and two abnormalities that breach when other abnormalities breach (other than punishing bird)
i tried doing a dusk ordeal
long story short i did a first day reset
now my facility is no longer a tangled knot of breach conditions that also cause all others to breach
Angel wrote: ↑Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:03 pmha ha
ha
i once had three clerk's rights activists, two of them ALEPH-level, and two abnormalities that breach when other abnormalities breach (other than punishing bird)
i tried doing a dusk ordeal
long story short i did a first day reset
now my facility is no longer a tangled knot of breach conditions that also cause all others to breach
X-394 is a big facility, full of mysterious creatures known as Abnormalities. Many of these Abnormalities can do very bad things if they're handled improperly, and it's vitally important that our agents know just what may happen if they're careless. What's a manager to do?
Episode 1: Laetitia
Music: trailer
Hi! I'm Paul! Just your everyday plucky employee of Lobotomy Cobotomy, here today to talk about Laetitia!
We all know that Laetitia is a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life, and most employees would never even dream hurting her feelings. Buuut, we're going to find out today what happens if we do!
Oh boy oh boy! I'm sure ready to do some science, Miss Hod!
We've seen it a few times, but the first step is to get ourselves a Normal on a work! Do you think you can screw up just a little bit, Paul?
I sure can, Miss Hod! Was that a good enough job?
It was! Now we can get a good shot of Laetitia bestowing her gift onto you, Paul.
Like so! She throws it right out, and her aim's so good it'll go with Paul no matter what.
Gee willikers! It sure is a pretty heart. 
It is! It's also Laetitia's totally hilarious prank. She's decided you're her friend now, and she wants her friends to meet your other friends! So one of her friends is hidden inside. Now remember: as long as you have it, make sure that you only deal with Laetitia!
But what happens if we don't do that?
Let's see!
That heart is looking mighty ominous, Miss Hod!
Those cracks mean that the prank is about to go off! We can still cancel the work to stop things at this point.
That sounds silly! Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Yowie wowie! That smarts something fierce, Miss Hod!
Yes, it's quite lethal.
The Wee Witch's Friend will then wander the facility, dealing Red damage to anyone it meets.
Hey, Miss Hod? How strong IS The Wee Witch's Friend?
Not very. With only 350 HP and dealing 8-10 damage each slash, most of our agents can take it out.
Kaori can destroy it without even needing backup from a shield bullet.
Wow! I can't wait until I'm a powerful agent like her!
Oh… hey Hod? I just thought of something! If Laetitia is playing a prank on her friend, and that's what kills them, doesn't that mean she is doing something wrong?
Don't be silly! The only reason you had to die was because you went to see someone else. If you had stayed faithful to your one true friend, you wouldn't have ever run into any problems. You did this.
You monster.
Nicely put! I sure do feel terrible now!
Well, that's all the time we have today. Thanks for joining us! And remember…
Knowledge is just pain plus observation! Have a great day!
Episode 1: Laetitia
Music: trailer
Hi! I'm Paul! Just your everyday plucky employee of Lobotomy Cobotomy, here today to talk about Laetitia! We all know that Laetitia is a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life, and most employees would never even dream hurting her feelings. Buuut, we're going to find out today what happens if we do! Oh boy oh boy! I'm sure ready to do some science, Miss Hod! We've seen it a few times, but the first step is to get ourselves a Normal on a work! Do you think you can screw up just a little bit, Paul? I sure can, Miss Hod! Was that a good enough job? It was! Now we can get a good shot of Laetitia bestowing her gift onto you, Paul. Like so! She throws it right out, and her aim's so good it'll go with Paul no matter what. Gee willikers! It sure is a pretty heart. It is! It's also Laetitia's totally hilarious prank. She's decided you're her friend now, and she wants her friends to meet your other friends! So one of her friends is hidden inside. Now remember: as long as you have it, make sure that you only deal with Laetitia! But what happens if we don't do that? Let's see! That heart is looking mighty ominous, Miss Hod! Those cracks mean that the prank is about to go off! We can still cancel the work to stop things at this point. That sounds silly! Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Yowie wowie! That smarts something fierce, Miss Hod! Yes, it's quite lethal. The Wee Witch's Friend will then wander the facility, dealing Red damage to anyone it meets. Hey, Miss Hod? How strong IS The Wee Witch's Friend? Not very. With only 350 HP and dealing 8-10 damage each slash, most of our agents can take it out. Kaori can destroy it without even needing backup from a shield bullet. Wow! I can't wait until I'm a powerful agent like her! Oh… hey Hod? I just thought of something! If Laetitia is playing a prank on her friend, and that's what kills them, doesn't that mean she is doing something wrong? Don't be silly! The only reason you had to die was because you went to see someone else. If you had stayed faithful to your one true friend, you wouldn't have ever run into any problems. You did this. You monster. Nicely put! I sure do feel terrible now! Well, that's all the time we have today. Thanks for joining us! And remember… Knowledge is just pain plus observation! Have a great day!well that's one way to show off what happens if you break an abnormalities rules. I didn't expect a creepy eyeball spider to be The Wee Witch's Friend, not terribly dangerous, but it doesn't need to be, if you're seeing it it's already killed an agent and its purpose is more to rub your face in your error then to be an actual threat.
you also can't really erase employees, as far as I can see! the only way to be rid of them is to feed them to an abnormality that can kill them, like laetitia or T-09-85
no firings. only blood sacrifice
Day 32: Story
Music: story 3 ending
They needed a hero, but ended up beheading said hero with their own hands. A lot of things happened, and a lot of things changed. A changed himself from a healer to a creator. The old promises he had made with her sustained him evanescently, but in a world without her, they ultimately became obsolete. Various sins sprung up from his arrogance, one by one.
He became enchanted by the shadows he had created. The plan to discover the disease of mankind became a relic of the past. He became skeptical of man, including himself. A started looking for something that would guide him without turning against him. The conclusion was very simple.
The answer lay in machines. Machines, which A loathed deeply, became essential to him. Perhaps A wanted to have Wings that would allow him to escape from the hellish inferno he had trapped himself in, to reach the heavens.
That was how I was born.
In summary: A became obsessed with figuring out a way to fix things without relying on humans, who he didn't trust anymore. The answer is robots. We also find out that A despises robots.
Music: Alone
You are in Lobotomy Corporation, and I am the one who woke you. The both of you are “Tiphereth”. You will be working as my assistants, helping me with amazing work from here on out.
Why do we have the same name?
Because there is no point in distinguishing between you two.
The scene fades to black here, then...
Don’t worry, I’ll help you. I’m sure you’ll be fine on your own pretty soon.
Fade to black, again.
In summary: Tiphereth remembers her creation, and also that she used to be a screwup. Good thing Tiphereth was there to help!
Music: Town - Urban Knights
….Huh?
>I'm the manager.
Sorry, you don’t look anything like one.
---
>I'll stay silent.
Ever heard of the saying, “silence gives consent”? Consent enough for even hot lead to be embedded in your skull? You’d better watch yourself.
---
Routes Merge Here
But here, that pompous attitude will knot itself into your noose. Well, seeing that you’ve at least made it here, I guess you won’t be a complete deadweight.
We’re the best department when it comes to combat out of all the teams. We have no need for cowards. You wanna know what kind of person I hate the most? Those crybabies who constantly whine about Abnormalities or employees being pitiful things, how they don’t want to see anything die. It’s the exact same as a soldier refusing to kill in the heat of the battlefield.
>You really seem to hate cowards.
Let me ask you this…
---
>Couldn’t some Abnormalities be pitiful?
---
Routes Merge Here
Holy entities? Poor defenseless creatures caged underground? Precious beings that make energy for us? Totally wrong. They’re none of that. Abnormalities can be damaged, but never destroyed.
Let’s make their unending lives as painful as possible.
In summary: Gebura is the head of Disciplinary. She's incredibly direct, mildly terrifying, and hates cowards. She wants the abnormalities to hurt for some reason, and will probably try to kill us because she's an AI and this is a video game.
This gives us our first Disciplinary mission-which is about as easy as it sounds. HE abnormalities stopped being a threat ages ago.
So it's like what Hod asked me to do, then? Just beat up four different Abnormalities?
Didn't say they had to be different. Just make them hurt.
Huh. Sounds simple. For what it's worth, I normally don't have any problems with suppression in the first place.
Really? Then you wanna explain that thing with the birds before?
Er-that was an exception. Not to brag, but… I've suppressed Punishing Bird before.
Wow. A whole TETH. Try not to let it go to your head, manager.
...Hey! I don't have to take that from some… some washing machine!
If you've got a problem with it, then take it out on those Abnormalities. We'll talk after we're through on the battlefield.
It's a workplace.
Is it, now?
Hey, manager? Following up with you, wondered if you had any new leads about that B guy…
Nothing. I've been busy with the memories.
Oh, yeah. Anything interesting?
...nah. Nothing I can share.
And here I was hoping you'd have some insight on the company now. I had money on you being some sort of genetically engineered super-manager.
You had a betting pool about this?
Between me and myself, yeah.
None of this is stuff you can tell anyone.
I know. You've made that plenty clear, boss.
Right… right. Don't worry, I more or less know what's going on now. We should be fine.
...alright, manager. See you later.
Yeah. See you.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Bullying HEs.
Hey, Tenebrais! How's the department manager thing going?
S'fine. Could ask you the same question.
Oh, you know. Talow tends to do his own thing, so I mostly just have to keep an eye on SeyserKoze and make sure he's developing right. Chesed's a really laid back boss, too.
Well good for you. I'm still getting used to my new duties. Lot more paperwork these days.
Isn't it great?
You… like paperwork?
I showed you that one game, right? It's basically accounting but with spellcasting and explosions and swords.
...In that case, how about I do you a favor? Take mine.
Oh, I couldn't do that. If our bosses found out...
Nobody's going to find out if we don't tell them. Seriously, say the word and it's yours. You said your boss was laid back. That means you should have time, right?
Well…
C'mon. I'll even do your portion of the E.G.O maintenance. Getting to get up close and personal with the gear is more my speed.
I do keep thinking I'm going to cut myself when it's time to sharpen that creepy eyeball sword of yours…
Then it's a deal?
Oh… fine. I'm in! 
Sweet. Pleasure doing business with you.
Music: story 3 ending
They needed a hero, but ended up beheading said hero with their own hands. A lot of things happened, and a lot of things changed. A changed himself from a healer to a creator. The old promises he had made with her sustained him evanescently, but in a world without her, they ultimately became obsolete. Various sins sprung up from his arrogance, one by one. He became enchanted by the shadows he had created. The plan to discover the disease of mankind became a relic of the past. He became skeptical of man, including himself. A started looking for something that would guide him without turning against him. The conclusion was very simple. The answer lay in machines. Machines, which A loathed deeply, became essential to him. Perhaps A wanted to have Wings that would allow him to escape from the hellish inferno he had trapped himself in, to reach the heavens. That was how I was born.In summary: A became obsessed with figuring out a way to fix things without relying on humans, who he didn't trust anymore. The answer is robots. We also find out that A despises robots.
Music: Alone
You are in Lobotomy Corporation, and I am the one who woke you. The both of you are “Tiphereth”. You will be working as my assistants, helping me with amazing work from here on out. Why do we have the same name? Because there is no point in distinguishing between you two.The scene fades to black here, then...
Don’t worry, I’ll help you. I’m sure you’ll be fine on your own pretty soon.Fade to black, again.
In summary: Tiphereth remembers her creation, and also that she used to be a screwup. Good thing Tiphereth was there to help!
Music: Town - Urban Knights
….Huh?>I'm the manager.
Sorry, you don’t look anything like one.---
>I'll stay silent.
Ever heard of the saying, “silence gives consent”? Consent enough for even hot lead to be embedded in your skull? You’d better watch yourself.---
Routes Merge Here
But here, that pompous attitude will knot itself into your noose. Well, seeing that you’ve at least made it here, I guess you won’t be a complete deadweight. We’re the best department when it comes to combat out of all the teams. We have no need for cowards. You wanna know what kind of person I hate the most? Those crybabies who constantly whine about Abnormalities or employees being pitiful things, how they don’t want to see anything die. It’s the exact same as a soldier refusing to kill in the heat of the battlefield.>You really seem to hate cowards.
Let me ask you this…---
>Couldn’t some Abnormalities be pitiful?
---
Routes Merge Here
Holy entities? Poor defenseless creatures caged underground? Precious beings that make energy for us? Totally wrong. They’re none of that. Abnormalities can be damaged, but never destroyed. Let’s make their unending lives as painful as possible.In summary: Gebura is the head of Disciplinary. She's incredibly direct, mildly terrifying, and hates cowards. She wants the abnormalities to hurt for some reason, and will probably try to kill us because she's an AI and this is a video game.
This gives us our first Disciplinary mission-which is about as easy as it sounds. HE abnormalities stopped being a threat ages ago.
So it's like what Hod asked me to do, then? Just beat up four different Abnormalities? Didn't say they had to be different. Just make them hurt. Huh. Sounds simple. For what it's worth, I normally don't have any problems with suppression in the first place. Really? Then you wanna explain that thing with the birds before? Er-that was an exception. Not to brag, but… I've suppressed Punishing Bird before. Wow. A whole TETH. Try not to let it go to your head, manager. ...Hey! I don't have to take that from some… some washing machine! If you've got a problem with it, then take it out on those Abnormalities. We'll talk after we're through on the battlefield. It's a workplace. Is it, now? Hey, manager? Following up with you, wondered if you had any new leads about that B guy… Nothing. I've been busy with the memories. Oh, yeah. Anything interesting? ...nah. Nothing I can share. And here I was hoping you'd have some insight on the company now. I had money on you being some sort of genetically engineered super-manager. You had a betting pool about this? Between me and myself, yeah. None of this is stuff you can tell anyone. I know. You've made that plenty clear, boss. Right… right. Don't worry, I more or less know what's going on now. We should be fine. ...alright, manager. See you later. Yeah. See you.Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Bullying HEs.
Hey, Tenebrais! How's the department manager thing going? S'fine. Could ask you the same question. Oh, you know. Talow tends to do his own thing, so I mostly just have to keep an eye on SeyserKoze and make sure he's developing right. Chesed's a really laid back boss, too. Well good for you. I'm still getting used to my new duties. Lot more paperwork these days. Isn't it great? You… like paperwork? I showed you that one game, right? It's basically accounting but with spellcasting and explosions and swords. ...In that case, how about I do you a favor? Take mine. Oh, I couldn't do that. If our bosses found out... Nobody's going to find out if we don't tell them. Seriously, say the word and it's yours. You said your boss was laid back. That means you should have time, right? Well… C'mon. I'll even do your portion of the E.G.O maintenance. Getting to get up close and personal with the gear is more my speed. I do keep thinking I'm going to cut myself when it's time to sharpen that creepy eyeball sword of yours… Then it's a deal? Oh… fine. I'm in! Sweet. Pleasure doing business with you.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Day 32: Gameplay
Music: neutral 2
Nothing unusual here. The newbies are staying in training for that sweet 10% bonus.
Here's hoping today is quieter than yesterday.
It'd be hard to be much louder. Maybe if the bees got out on top of everything.
Don't worry, that probably won't happen.
Excuse me if I don't feel reassured.
Manager, try to remember to extract The Dreaming Current's weapons today.
The bird needs to give up its weapon too, while we're at it.
No worries-I'll make sure we get geared up for later. Let's get the ball rolling.
Time to kick some ass.
…
The captain's taking a meaningful, reflective pause. I wonder what thoughts are going through his head… what developments this will reveal about his inner character. I'll bet he's having a flashback right now.
You think so? It looks more like one of those imagination pauses to me. Or maybe he's daydreaming about the Sephirah.
Ah, that's gotta be it. Daydreaming.
Orders from the top, everyone! You've been paged down to Training today, to help out with suppressions.
Huh? Ah, sure. Are you going to be okay by yourself?
Don't worry about it! I'm still the best of the Sephirot at getting my work done.
Let's all do our best today!
I hope you three are ready for another busy day! Robin, Big Bird. Morgana, you'll be in Welfare with the Refraction Variant this time. And Chiral? You're going to be doing something a little scary, okay?
Does it pay extra?
No. No it does not.
I'd like to decline, then?
Denied!
Our new Abnormality is a tree, with what looks like a tiny face in the middle.
This is the part where I pretend to ask for volunteers.
You noticed that she left already, huh?
Course I noticed. An eye for details can mean the difference between life and death.
I figure that if you're worrying about details you just need to punch harder.
That's why you're still wet behind the ears.
A planty cutie that wants to talk..? Well, okay. I'm 22, single, and my hobbies include...
You wanna go a round?
Save it for the Abnormalities. We aren't in the same league.
I got put here for punching a hole in a wall.
I remember it being more of a dent than a hole. 
Unlimited… POWER…!
When Mizu's work is completed, the mysterious tree blesses her. This blessing supposedly restores SP and increases her Work Success rate, but nothing's been found in the code for it so it seems to be bugged. It also causes a change in the Abnormality itself.
The tree grows a little glowing bud.
World Tree, huh? Angela, calculate the probability that that orb is a warning.
After running a number of simulations and creating various hypotheses, I would rate the probability at 50%. It either is or is not a threat.
...Thank you for exactly nothing, Angela. Netzach?
I wouldn't trust anything that changes in this place.
Yeah, we're on the same page. We'll continue the work, but make sure to be careful… Meanwhile, we'll have Robin resume work with the-
Hold that thought, everyone. Hod, I should already have Control in position to intercept alongside Medea-you put Chiral to work on that project I gave them, right?
Oh, um, yes sir!
So my dangerous job is just working with you? You're no Laetitia, but you're still just a HE. We'll get along fine.
World Tree has a couple of interesting quirks. The most readily apparent is this one-as works are completed while World Tree is not actively being worked with, it will slowly become more overgrown. If ever we complete five works with other Abnormalities without working it, it will become completely overgrown and its QC will drop to 0. It's very demanding, but we can work with it.
Sending Mizu to work with it cleared it up. That leaf over her head is showing that she's blessed.
Perfect. Team, go ahead and intercept.
I'll take the hits. Pile on!
Got it!
What about the bird?
Could you put off hitting us for about… two seconds? Please?
:cheeky:
Well, it was worth asking.
It's about as much of a curbstomp as you'd expect four agents decked out in WAW gear to provide.
Great job! Now just do that four more times and we're clear.
Maybe you are pretty good at this.
That's what I've been saying.
Oh hey, they've got you with Helper today?
They certainly do. My job is to turn it so that every time it tries to move it runs right into a wall! Muahahaha!
Ahh, they're teaching you how Justice works then?
...is that what they're doing? It just sounded like a good time to me!
Manager, Yang is showing a meltdown.
Have someone get the pendant and put it right back. No pauses.
Yes, sir.
Wow, Zaida. Good job saving the entire facility just now. That definitely deserves the rest of the day off. Thanks, I think I'll take you up on that.
Alright, let's get on-
It's done.
Wha?
We're already done.
There was even time for Omni and Chinely to do their... "victory poses."
It's a shame you missed them, sir! We practiced really hard.
Well… keep up the good work.
We will, manager.
Wait-you meant right now?
Obviously.
It's no problem, we've got this handled.
With our Scarecrow bullying project 3/5ths of the way done, we also unlock the full information on our newest Abnormality. Its real name is Parasite Tree, and it is very touchy. How touchy? We'll get to that as soon as I stop being insanely lucky.
Crimson Dawn.
Manager, there's a Dawn up here at One Sin. Can you dispatch someone?
I'll have Bishop go.
Bishop's not going to be fast enough to kill this thing, so we get a good opportunity to see exactly what it does to an Abnormality's PE boxes when its shenanigans are successful. Note that we have 915 banked on One Sin.
And now we have 641. A full 30% of our boxes, gone. :sadwave:
Anyways, beating the Dawn pushes us over the halfway mark. Not bad so far!
Don't forget to suppress two more HEs before we call it a day.
What, the ordeals didn't count?
Those things? They don't even qualify as a warmup.
So picky…
Back to work, everyone.
Yeah... what she said.
Hey newbie. You learned anything about that Bird yet?
I've determined a number of things-for one, despite its demeanor and the manner in which it acts when breaching it seems to like a large amount of birdseed and pats.
Sounds like you've been doing Instinct work.
Well, yes. I already perfected my Attachment approach yesterday-it was in the documents I handed over at the end of the day?
Those things? I just pass 'em off to Yesod's bunch of nerds without even reading them.
Hmm… So Big Biird likes talking about saafety protocools… and really diislikes it when people lie about being an aalien…
It doesn't say that.
Oh… dooesn't it..? How would yoou know..?
I read all the docs as they come in. Nice shot, kiddo. Keep it up.
It was worth a tryy…
This is the fourth time.
Should just be one more, and then we'll be all set for the day.
It's certainly been action packed. Can't wait for a good break.
Manager! Something's going on with that new tree. Look into it.
Huh?
I feel… leafy.
What the hell just happened?
The incomplete bar on the lefthand side tells us that the QC dropped in the middle of a work. When this happened, the work immediately stopped and the Tree activated its special ability-calling one random person to its containment cell in order to give them a blessing and get another orb. As for what dropped the QC? Every time an Abnormality escapes, there is a 30% chance that the QC drops by 1. There does not appear to be an exception in the code for Punishing Bird. Also, most of Gebura's missions involve letting Abnormalities break out in order to suppress them. I had completely forgotten this rule when choosing Abnormalities yesterday. I've made a terrible mistake.
Oh well, too late now. Let's deal with it.
Speaking of dealing with it, the next Scarecrow breach sees another QC reduction in Parasite Tree. This time it's attempting to pull Tenebrais in to bless her. Luckily, there is a way that we can stop this.
While the game is unpaused, we have to click on her a whole lot. Doing so slows her to a stop, until after a few more clicks…
Wait, what the hell was I doing out here? ...Eh, forget it.
The effect goes away and she returns to wherever she was before it went off. This is only mentioned in a couple of very early Abnormalities, and is always phrased as something like 'attempting to talk to them' so it's very easy to not know about this trick. It works on almost any Abnormality that possesses our agents to come to their cell, though, so it's vital to dealing with certain problem Abnormalities like Parasite Tree.
That said, while dealing with this the team in Training's corridor handles the fifth Scarecrow breach, which means…
Hah! How's that, Gebura?
You pass. Good job.
You don't sound too impressed.
That's because this is the bare minimum to be considered competent. We'll make things more interesting tomorrow.
Ah. I bet I know what that means.
Around now I also trade the newbies around-Morgan to work Repression with a Dreaming Current, Robin takes over training Insight using DRV, and Chiral finally gets to work on a WAW, training with Knight of Despair. They should be maxed out and ready to go anywhere in just a couple more days at this rate.
I see… The T-pose is to assert blessedness!
Unfortunately I miscount my works and then miss Credentia due to 2x speed, meaning she gets the blessing as well. That puts us at 3 glowy buds. We've still got wiggle room since nothing happens until 5, but… whoops.
Same bless!
Same bless!
Really don't see what the big deal is.
I'm like… right here.
Hm hm hm~
...ouch, man. Ouch.
Manager, we will be seeing a Violet Noon with the next level.
I'll try and have us done before then. Doesn't Yesod normally mention it, though?
I ah... Thinking about them makes my head hurt, manager.
Oh… oh yeah. Right. Sorry about that.
It's alright, sir.
Around now I wind up wanting Chiral to start a work on Knight of Despair, but don't want to wait for them to recover SP. This is the best time to use a SP bullet-or MP bullet, as the game's interface still calls them. By restoring their SP, we can immediately send them right back to work on Knight of Despair without waiting for the regenerator to do its work. So we do that.
Enkephelicious!
Mmm… it's been rather quiet around here of late. Not much for a Safety team to do when it's all so safe!
Weren't there multiple breaches today?
Ah… so there were! HAHAHA! I suppose they were safe breaches!
And why are we all standing around here..? Shouldn't we move out of the way of the Violet Noon?
It would take more than a Noon to kill me…
Hey… we just got word that things are going to be closing up soon. I guess the manager's done for the day.
I guess that explains it.
Hey, Kit? I've been getting some weird reports of… sightings.
What sort of sightings?
People have seen you swapping the contents of their lockers, and carving the soap into the shape of… well it's not work appropriate!
Why, I would never carve the soap into anything inappropriate!
Ssssure you wouldn't. Anyways, just try and keep the chaos to a minimum?
Oh… I will. I can promise you, I will keep it to an absolute minimum. Muuahahahahaha!!!
Um..?
Well... he did promise, so it should be fine now. Let's get those final reports turned in.
Everyone's back here, right? Great, it's time for debriefing.
How'd everyone's days go?
I got some valuable research data on the Abnormalities and their responses to Insight and Instinct works.
I got ten times more awesome than I started the day.
I got a fancy tie to go with my hat.
...man, now I want a fancy tie.
We'll see what we can do.
Good effort. I'll expect the same tomorrow.
Evil Kit and the newbies all make it to level 5, putting the entire facility there. So long as it's only a handful of agents, we can max them out relatively quickly-though another really good Repression trainer besides Blue Star would be wonderful to see today. Speaking of…
Music: never frozen bottom flows
D-03-109: ...and my dear employees, I do hope you all put on the gas masks we distributed to you before we enter.
T-01-31: From break and ruin, the most beautiful performance begins.
D-01-105: "Tales say that the moon bewitches man, yet in reality, it is the man that despairs at the moon."
We've spoken about -31 before, the ALEPH whose QC decreases on Good or Bad results. Its gear would still be nice, but I don't want to have to deal with it and Birdzodia at the same time, so it's currently a 'no,' at least until we can find a way to make the bird a nonissue.
Next is -109, which is also an ALEPH and one of the most infamous Abnormalities in the game for… let's say 'several reasons.' The one relevant right now is its tricky handling rules, which effectively require us being able to have an agent be completely alone while dealing with it. I'll be honest-I almost took it, just because its position would be ideal for dealing with it-the upper layer of Disciplinary would only have it and a tool abnormality, and I could set whoever was working with it on the upper layer of Disciplinary's main room and largely forget about them. If not for the missions we have coming up making it impossible to avoid having agents scrambling every which way, we'd be grabbing it today. In the end, though, this is another definite no right now.
With two hard nos, that leaves -105 by default. Luckily, it is incredibly stylish.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: It turns out Hod appears in one more scene than I originally thought.
New Guidelines
Parasite Tree
New Gear
Requirements: Fortitude 3, Prudence 3
Requirements: Prudence 3
Requirements: Level 3, Fortitude 2
*Not affected by Attack Speed
Requirements: Level 4, Temperance 3, Justice 3
Requirements: Prudence 3
New Story
Parasite Tree (Part 1)
Parasite Tree (Part 2)
Music: neutral 2
Nothing unusual here. The newbies are staying in training for that sweet 10% bonus.
Here's hoping today is quieter than yesterday. It'd be hard to be much louder. Maybe if the bees got out on top of everything. Don't worry, that probably won't happen. Excuse me if I don't feel reassured. Manager, try to remember to extract The Dreaming Current's weapons today. The bird needs to give up its weapon too, while we're at it. No worries-I'll make sure we get geared up for later. Let's get the ball rolling. Time to kick some ass. … The captain's taking a meaningful, reflective pause. I wonder what thoughts are going through his head… what developments this will reveal about his inner character. I'll bet he's having a flashback right now. You think so? It looks more like one of those imagination pauses to me. Or maybe he's daydreaming about the Sephirah. Ah, that's gotta be it. Daydreaming. Orders from the top, everyone! You've been paged down to Training today, to help out with suppressions. Huh? Ah, sure. Are you going to be okay by yourself? Don't worry about it! I'm still the best of the Sephirot at getting my work done. Let's all do our best today! I hope you three are ready for another busy day! Robin, Big Bird. Morgana, you'll be in Welfare with the Refraction Variant this time. And Chiral? You're going to be doing something a little scary, okay? Does it pay extra? No. No it does not. I'd like to decline, then? Denied! Our new Abnormality is a tree, with what looks like a tiny face in the middle.
This is the part where I pretend to ask for volunteers. You noticed that she left already, huh? Course I noticed. An eye for details can mean the difference between life and death. I figure that if you're worrying about details you just need to punch harder. That's why you're still wet behind the ears. A planty cutie that wants to talk..? Well, okay. I'm 22, single, and my hobbies include... You wanna go a round? Save it for the Abnormalities. We aren't in the same league. I got put here for punching a hole in a wall. I remember it being more of a dent than a hole. Unlimited… POWER…!When Mizu's work is completed, the mysterious tree blesses her. This blessing supposedly restores SP and increases her Work Success rate, but nothing's been found in the code for it so it seems to be bugged. It also causes a change in the Abnormality itself.
The tree grows a little glowing bud.
World Tree, huh? Angela, calculate the probability that that orb is a warning. After running a number of simulations and creating various hypotheses, I would rate the probability at 50%. It either is or is not a threat. ...Thank you for exactly nothing, Angela. Netzach? I wouldn't trust anything that changes in this place. Yeah, we're on the same page. We'll continue the work, but make sure to be careful… Meanwhile, we'll have Robin resume work with the- Hold that thought, everyone. Hod, I should already have Control in position to intercept alongside Medea-you put Chiral to work on that project I gave them, right? Oh, um, yes sir! So my dangerous job is just working with you? You're no Laetitia, but you're still just a HE. We'll get along fine.World Tree has a couple of interesting quirks. The most readily apparent is this one-as works are completed while World Tree is not actively being worked with, it will slowly become more overgrown. If ever we complete five works with other Abnormalities without working it, it will become completely overgrown and its QC will drop to 0. It's very demanding, but we can work with it.
Sending Mizu to work with it cleared it up. That leaf over her head is showing that she's blessed.
Perfect. Team, go ahead and intercept. I'll take the hits. Pile on! Got it! What about the bird? Could you put off hitting us for about… two seconds? Please? :cheeky: Well, it was worth asking.It's about as much of a curbstomp as you'd expect four agents decked out in WAW gear to provide.
Great job! Now just do that four more times and we're clear. Maybe you are pretty good at this. That's what I've been saying. Oh hey, they've got you with Helper today? They certainly do. My job is to turn it so that every time it tries to move it runs right into a wall! Muahahaha! Ahh, they're teaching you how Justice works then? ...is that what they're doing? It just sounded like a good time to me! Manager, Yang is showing a meltdown. Have someone get the pendant and put it right back. No pauses. Yes, sir. Wow, Zaida. Good job saving the entire facility just now. That definitely deserves the rest of the day off. Thanks, I think I'll take you up on that. Alright, let's get on- It's done. Wha? We're already done. There was even time for Omni and Chinely to do their... "victory poses." It's a shame you missed them, sir! We practiced really hard. Well… keep up the good work. We will, manager. Wait-you meant right now? Obviously. It's no problem, we've got this handled.With our Scarecrow bullying project 3/5ths of the way done, we also unlock the full information on our newest Abnormality. Its real name is Parasite Tree, and it is very touchy. How touchy? We'll get to that as soon as I stop being insanely lucky.
Crimson Dawn.
Manager, there's a Dawn up here at One Sin. Can you dispatch someone? I'll have Bishop go.Bishop's not going to be fast enough to kill this thing, so we get a good opportunity to see exactly what it does to an Abnormality's PE boxes when its shenanigans are successful. Note that we have 915 banked on One Sin.
And now we have 641. A full 30% of our boxes, gone. :sadwave:
Anyways, beating the Dawn pushes us over the halfway mark. Not bad so far!
Don't forget to suppress two more HEs before we call it a day. What, the ordeals didn't count? Those things? They don't even qualify as a warmup. So picky… Back to work, everyone. Yeah... what she said. Hey newbie. You learned anything about that Bird yet? I've determined a number of things-for one, despite its demeanor and the manner in which it acts when breaching it seems to like a large amount of birdseed and pats. Sounds like you've been doing Instinct work. Well, yes. I already perfected my Attachment approach yesterday-it was in the documents I handed over at the end of the day? Those things? I just pass 'em off to Yesod's bunch of nerds without even reading them. Hmm… So Big Biird likes talking about saafety protocools… and really diislikes it when people lie about being an aalien… It doesn't say that. Oh… dooesn't it..? How would yoou know..? I read all the docs as they come in. Nice shot, kiddo. Keep it up. It was worth a tryy… This is the fourth time. Should just be one more, and then we'll be all set for the day. It's certainly been action packed. Can't wait for a good break. Manager! Something's going on with that new tree. Look into it. Huh? I feel… leafy. What the hell just happened?The incomplete bar on the lefthand side tells us that the QC dropped in the middle of a work. When this happened, the work immediately stopped and the Tree activated its special ability-calling one random person to its containment cell in order to give them a blessing and get another orb. As for what dropped the QC? Every time an Abnormality escapes, there is a 30% chance that the QC drops by 1. There does not appear to be an exception in the code for Punishing Bird. Also, most of Gebura's missions involve letting Abnormalities break out in order to suppress them. I had completely forgotten this rule when choosing Abnormalities yesterday. I've made a terrible mistake.
Oh well, too late now. Let's deal with it.
Speaking of dealing with it, the next Scarecrow breach sees another QC reduction in Parasite Tree. This time it's attempting to pull Tenebrais in to bless her. Luckily, there is a way that we can stop this.
While the game is unpaused, we have to click on her a whole lot. Doing so slows her to a stop, until after a few more clicks…
Wait, what the hell was I doing out here? ...Eh, forget it.The effect goes away and she returns to wherever she was before it went off. This is only mentioned in a couple of very early Abnormalities, and is always phrased as something like 'attempting to talk to them' so it's very easy to not know about this trick. It works on almost any Abnormality that possesses our agents to come to their cell, though, so it's vital to dealing with certain problem Abnormalities like Parasite Tree.
That said, while dealing with this the team in Training's corridor handles the fifth Scarecrow breach, which means…
Hah! How's that, Gebura? You pass. Good job. You don't sound too impressed. That's because this is the bare minimum to be considered competent. We'll make things more interesting tomorrow. Ah. I bet I know what that means.Around now I also trade the newbies around-Morgan to work Repression with a Dreaming Current, Robin takes over training Insight using DRV, and Chiral finally gets to work on a WAW, training with Knight of Despair. They should be maxed out and ready to go anywhere in just a couple more days at this rate.
I see… The T-pose is to assert blessedness!Unfortunately I miscount my works and then miss Credentia due to 2x speed, meaning she gets the blessing as well. That puts us at 3 glowy buds. We've still got wiggle room since nothing happens until 5, but… whoops.
Same bless! Same bless! Really don't see what the big deal is. I'm like… right here. Hm hm hm~ ...ouch, man. Ouch. Manager, we will be seeing a Violet Noon with the next level. I'll try and have us done before then. Doesn't Yesod normally mention it, though? I ah... Thinking about them makes my head hurt, manager. Oh… oh yeah. Right. Sorry about that. It's alright, sir. Around now I wind up wanting Chiral to start a work on Knight of Despair, but don't want to wait for them to recover SP. This is the best time to use a SP bullet-or MP bullet, as the game's interface still calls them. By restoring their SP, we can immediately send them right back to work on Knight of Despair without waiting for the regenerator to do its work. So we do that.
Enkephelicious! Mmm… it's been rather quiet around here of late. Not much for a Safety team to do when it's all so safe! Weren't there multiple breaches today? Ah… so there were! HAHAHA! I suppose they were safe breaches! And why are we all standing around here..? Shouldn't we move out of the way of the Violet Noon? It would take more than a Noon to kill me… Hey… we just got word that things are going to be closing up soon. I guess the manager's done for the day. I guess that explains it. Hey, Kit? I've been getting some weird reports of… sightings. What sort of sightings? People have seen you swapping the contents of their lockers, and carving the soap into the shape of… well it's not work appropriate! Why, I would never carve the soap into anything inappropriate! Ssssure you wouldn't. Anyways, just try and keep the chaos to a minimum? Oh… I will. I can promise you, I will keep it to an absolute minimum. Muuahahahahaha!!! Um..? Well... he did promise, so it should be fine now. Let's get those final reports turned in. Everyone's back here, right? Great, it's time for debriefing. How'd everyone's days go? I got some valuable research data on the Abnormalities and their responses to Insight and Instinct works. I got ten times more awesome than I started the day. I got a fancy tie to go with my hat. ...man, now I want a fancy tie. We'll see what we can do. Good effort. I'll expect the same tomorrow.Evil Kit and the newbies all make it to level 5, putting the entire facility there. So long as it's only a handful of agents, we can max them out relatively quickly-though another really good Repression trainer besides Blue Star would be wonderful to see today. Speaking of…
Music: never frozen bottom flows
D-03-109: ...and my dear employees, I do hope you all put on the gas masks we distributed to you before we enter.
T-01-31: From break and ruin, the most beautiful performance begins.
D-01-105: "Tales say that the moon bewitches man, yet in reality, it is the man that despairs at the moon."
We've spoken about -31 before, the ALEPH whose QC decreases on Good or Bad results. Its gear would still be nice, but I don't want to have to deal with it and Birdzodia at the same time, so it's currently a 'no,' at least until we can find a way to make the bird a nonissue.
Next is -109, which is also an ALEPH and one of the most infamous Abnormalities in the game for… let's say 'several reasons.' The one relevant right now is its tricky handling rules, which effectively require us being able to have an agent be completely alone while dealing with it. I'll be honest-I almost took it, just because its position would be ideal for dealing with it-the upper layer of Disciplinary would only have it and a tool abnormality, and I could set whoever was working with it on the upper layer of Disciplinary's main room and largely forget about them. If not for the missions we have coming up making it impossible to avoid having agents scrambling every which way, we'd be grabbing it today. In the end, though, this is another definite no right now.
With two hard nos, that leaves -105 by default. Luckily, it is incredibly stylish.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: It turns out Hod appears in one more scene than I originally thought.
New Guidelines
Parasite Tree
New Gear
Requirements: Fortitude 3, Prudence 3
Requirements: Prudence 3
Requirements: Level 3, Fortitude 2
*Not affected by Attack Speed
Requirements: Level 4, Temperance 3, Justice 3
Requirements: Prudence 3
New Story
Parasite Tree (Part 1)
Parasite Tree (Part 2)
X-394 is a big facility, full of mysterious creatures known as Abnormalities. Many of these Abnormalities can do very bad things if they're handled improperly, and it's vitally important that our agents know just what may happen if they're careless. What's a manager to do?
Episode 2: Tools
Music: trailer
Hi! I'm Paul! Just your everyday plucky employee of Lobotomy Cobotomy, here today to talk about tool abnormalities!
There are three tools in our facility that can come with some very serious repercussions. We'll be going through each of them in order, today!
I sure can't wait to get on that, Miss Hod!
The first one is an Abnormality all of our agents should be at least somewhat familiar with, called Portrait of Another World.
Make sure they get my good side!
Oh, they will Paul. They always do. Anyhow, when working the Portrait of Another World, it's important to only have one person touch it. If not, there can be some unfortunate consequences.
Gee golly! You mean like Funkadelic Spider unfortunate?
Something like that! Let's have our volunteer Saianna work with it and see what happens.
It sure looks like she just got the portrait's effect! I guess that means it transfers over!
Right! But let's see what happened to the original owner, shall we?
Great googly moogly! That sure didn't feel good!
Please remember this rule of dealing with the Portrait-it took our janitors six hours to clean up what was left of Paul from the floor when we were done!
That's terrible! Are there any other tools that are just as dangerous?
I'm glad you asked!
Saianna here decides to celebrate their newfound photoshoot by getting a mood boost using-
-I know this one! It's You Must Be Happy!
That's right! A nice Abnormality that boosts the stats of any agent that works with it. But Saianna did something they shouldn't.
Oh no! What'd they do?
They used it more than four times in a row. This machine is a little touchy, so something really bad happened just after.
Jeepies! That's another highly lethal thing to have happen!
It sure is! Remember to keep your daily uses to 4 or less, or else you too could end up guts on the floor! If not for yourself, please think of our janitors who have to clean up after you-it's not easy work!
I love our janitors, Miss Hod, so I promise I won't be dying!
That's a good attitude to have, Paul!
Still, it looks like our tools can only kill one or two people. I'm really glad there's nothing as scary as that Blue Star among them.
Oh, I don't know about that, Paul. There's one more tool to talk about today.
Gee golly, Miss Hod! Can this one do some real damage?
It sure can, Paul! What we have here is a fully wound up Backwards Clock. When used by a level 5 agent, it instantly fixes most problems in the facility all at once!
I know all that already, but what happens if a level 4 or lower agent uses it, Miss Hod?
Great question! Luckily, we have our brave volunteer Alis here on site to test exactly that!
It looks like it's working..!
It does, doesn't it? But if we wait just a second-
Yowie wowie! Everyone's dead! That's a new high score, Miss Hod!
It sure is, Paul! That Alis managed to kill or panic everyone in the entire facility except for themselves!
Sounds like it's time for a retry.
Silly Paul-that's always a purely managerial decision. You don't get any say at all!
It's a good thing our manager's so smart and cool. Otherwise I'd have to think for myself!
Sure is. Well, that's all the time we have today. Thanks for joining us! And remember…
Knowledge is just pain plus observation! Have a great day!
Episode 2: Tools
Music: trailer
Hi! I'm Paul! Just your everyday plucky employee of Lobotomy Cobotomy, here today to talk about tool abnormalities! There are three tools in our facility that can come with some very serious repercussions. We'll be going through each of them in order, today! I sure can't wait to get on that, Miss Hod! The first one is an Abnormality all of our agents should be at least somewhat familiar with, called Portrait of Another World. Make sure they get my good side! Oh, they will Paul. They always do. Anyhow, when working the Portrait of Another World, it's important to only have one person touch it. If not, there can be some unfortunate consequences. Gee golly! You mean like Funkadelic Spider unfortunate? Something like that! Let's have our volunteer Saianna work with it and see what happens. It sure looks like she just got the portrait's effect! I guess that means it transfers over! Right! But let's see what happened to the original owner, shall we? Great googly moogly! That sure didn't feel good! Please remember this rule of dealing with the Portrait-it took our janitors six hours to clean up what was left of Paul from the floor when we were done! That's terrible! Are there any other tools that are just as dangerous? I'm glad you asked! Saianna here decides to celebrate their newfound photoshoot by getting a mood boost using- -I know this one! It's You Must Be Happy! That's right! A nice Abnormality that boosts the stats of any agent that works with it. But Saianna did something they shouldn't. Oh no! What'd they do? They used it more than four times in a row. This machine is a little touchy, so something really bad happened just after. Jeepies! That's another highly lethal thing to have happen! It sure is! Remember to keep your daily uses to 4 or less, or else you too could end up guts on the floor! If not for yourself, please think of our janitors who have to clean up after you-it's not easy work! I love our janitors, Miss Hod, so I promise I won't be dying! That's a good attitude to have, Paul! Still, it looks like our tools can only kill one or two people. I'm really glad there's nothing as scary as that Blue Star among them. Oh, I don't know about that, Paul. There's one more tool to talk about today. Gee golly, Miss Hod! Can this one do some real damage? It sure can, Paul! What we have here is a fully wound up Backwards Clock. When used by a level 5 agent, it instantly fixes most problems in the facility all at once! I know all that already, but what happens if a level 4 or lower agent uses it, Miss Hod? Great question! Luckily, we have our brave volunteer Alis here on site to test exactly that! It looks like it's working..! It does, doesn't it? But if we wait just a second- Yowie wowie! Everyone's dead! That's a new high score, Miss Hod! It sure is, Paul! That Alis managed to kill or panic everyone in the entire facility except for themselves! Sounds like it's time for a retry. Silly Paul-that's always a purely managerial decision. You don't get any say at all! It's a good thing our manager's so smart and cool. Otherwise I'd have to think for myself! Sure is. Well, that's all the time we have today. Thanks for joining us! And remember… Knowledge is just pain plus observation! Have a great day!
I was hoping it would only be Paul dying to the abnormalities every time, stats being readjusted as needed to get the intended effects (of dying).
Oh, is the name of the segment a reference to Better Call Saul?
Oh, is the name of the segment a reference to Better Call Saul?
Day 33: Story
Music: triumph of the scratching demons
Music: Romantic Memories
"…. ….. …… …..."
But A, surely you already know. Did you put in all that work for just a simple vending machine that dispenses soda at the press of a button?
"…. ….. …… …..."
At the very least, you should give it a name. There is nothing I can do even if you put on an expression like that.
"…. ….. …… …..."
Don’t dump your job on someone else, you’re the designer. Go ahead and tell the machine its name. There, the door over there.
In summary: A created a super advanced robot but didn't want to name his creation. B insisted, however, so he headed off to do so.
As a side note, there's another removed line here, right at the very end:
…
X?
Leave me alone. I need time to think.
It is my express duty to guide you, X. If there is anything you require-
I require that you leave me alone.
...of course, X.
Music: Alone
We might be even better partners than we thought!
Yeah, I think so too.
Fade to black, then:
Why do you worry about that? We’re a part of the Central Command Department, and we’re sitting on a mountain of work to do. We just need to focus on the task at hand.
We’re radically different from normal machines. I think about you, and you think about me. We both ponder about things, feel pain, and recognize our own existence. There must be some reason for it.
It fades to black again here.
In summary: Tiphereth and Tiphereth make an awesome team, but sometime later Tiphereth started doing the same things we saw Tiphereth do during the rest of their plot, questioning the meaning behind his existence.
And then… ugh, why am I remembering this again?
You look tired, Tiphereth. Seriously, you should take a break.
Yeah… I think I'll take a short walk through storage. Make sure those clerks get their reports done!
I will. See you soon.
Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories
Though, a couple times you were too indecisive and passive. Next time you should…
Alright, now move along if you’ve spat out what you needed to.
C’mon, you know a similar incident happened before~ I’m the head of the Welfare Team after all, so I just felt I should point it out.
Yeah yeah, got it. How about you head on back to your department now and lap up that coffee you love so much?
…I’ll be sure to make it up to you. But if you press any further on this, those E.G.O you value so much may be pointed at your head.
Aye, aye. I’ll be on my way then~ Man, why’d I have to draw the short stick? The companions I have are either a hotheaded warmonger or some weird kids with unreadable minds.
Regardless of our progress with Hod's core suppression, she will always look human here. I guess the cognition filter is just active over the entire level?
Oho, are you here to see Gebura? Careful what you say, you may just end up with a hole in your head. Take care~!
Oh get lost, Chesed. Hod, what brings you here?
So, um, it’s about the suggestions you made involving the Abnormality Breach Training. I feel it needs some adjusting.
Go on.
…
Does it seem alright?
But, then…
Hm?
Um, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.
…Forget it. Since you’re the head of the Training Team, your opinion is final, right?
I am, well, as long as you’re willing to…
Do it.
Oh, thank you! See you later!
Hod!
You forgot your report.
A-Ah, I could have lost it. Phew, I thought you were going to shoot me in the head like Chesed said. Thanks again!
Hod’s too soft. If I were the head of the Training Team, I’d never act like her.
In summary: Interoffice drama!
Gebura submitted a plan for a suppression training operation, but Chesed thinks it's too much and Hod thinks there will be too many casualties. Grudgingly, Gebura allows them to scale it back. Chesed implies that Gebura has been borrowing E.G.O to do some suppressing of her own, and Gebura implies that she'll stab him through the face if he doesn't shut his mouth.
I've heard you've handled plenty of WAWs before. Should be child's play.
…
Manager! Hey! Pay attention!
Wha? Oh… yeah. Right. We'll handle them. Needed to do a third Firebird anyways, I think.
Tch. There's no room for distractions here. Get your head back into it.
Yeah… right. Just haven't had time to process all of-
Don't care. See you on the battlefield, manager.
Manager, I've taken a look into that door as you requested. It doesn't look like we have any files on it.
Oh… uh… that's not great. We're probably going to deal with it sooner or later, since I have a feeling I know what Gebura's working up to… We need information.
I can check again, but I've looked everywhere.
Just to be safe, get on it. We need to know what will happen if all three birds go through that door. This can't be the first time it's occurred.
Yes sir. Will that be all?
There is one more thing. Can you forward me our agents' work records? Whenever you have the chance.
Of course. Is there anything you're looking for?
Not exactly. Just need to do something to get my mind off of my mind. Solving a stupid mystery sounds about right.
...As you like, manager.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: The game breaks in a way I hadn't seen before.
Hey, Malkuth? Is it okay if I take a look in storage later?
Sure. Anything in particular that we need? I remember filling up on our office supplies earlier…
It's nothing like that. I just wanted to take a look around and see if there was anything in there that needed to be cleaned up. You know how old, half-finished work tends to pile up in there.
Oh, like the rehab flyers Hod kept giving Netzach?
Yes, that-wait, he was throwing them into storage? ...doesn't matter. Well, stuff like that. Either things we can do without, or that I can make work for us.
I don't have any problem with it. If it's in storage, it's pretty much open as long as you fill out the forms to requisition it. Just don't take any of the Sephirot replacement parts. We go through those pretty fast lately…
We do?
Between Tiphereth needing replacement and Gebura's maintenance, it adds up. Then there was Yesod's headplate…
Oh yeah, I heard about that.
Anyways, as long as you stay away from that you're clear. Just make sure you sign off for anything you think is worth looking at.
Sure thing, boss. Take care.
I will!
Music: triumph of the scratching demons
Music: Romantic Memories
"…. ….. …… …..." But A, surely you already know. Did you put in all that work for just a simple vending machine that dispenses soda at the press of a button? "…. ….. …… …..." At the very least, you should give it a name. There is nothing I can do even if you put on an expression like that. "…. ….. …… …..." Don’t dump your job on someone else, you’re the designer. Go ahead and tell the machine its name. There, the door over there.In summary: A created a super advanced robot but didn't want to name his creation. B insisted, however, so he headed off to do so.
As a side note, there's another removed line here, right at the very end:
Removed content wrote:
… X? Leave me alone. I need time to think. It is my express duty to guide you, X. If there is anything you require- I require that you leave me alone. ...of course, X.Music: Alone
We might be even better partners than we thought! Yeah, I think so too.Fade to black, then:
Why do you worry about that? We’re a part of the Central Command Department, and we’re sitting on a mountain of work to do. We just need to focus on the task at hand. We’re radically different from normal machines. I think about you, and you think about me. We both ponder about things, feel pain, and recognize our own existence. There must be some reason for it.It fades to black again here.
In summary: Tiphereth and Tiphereth make an awesome team, but sometime later Tiphereth started doing the same things we saw Tiphereth do during the rest of their plot, questioning the meaning behind his existence.
And then… ugh, why am I remembering this again? You look tired, Tiphereth. Seriously, you should take a break. Yeah… I think I'll take a short walk through storage. Make sure those clerks get their reports done! I will. See you soon.Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories
Though, a couple times you were too indecisive and passive. Next time you should… Alright, now move along if you’ve spat out what you needed to. C’mon, you know a similar incident happened before~ I’m the head of the Welfare Team after all, so I just felt I should point it out. Yeah yeah, got it. How about you head on back to your department now and lap up that coffee you love so much? …I’ll be sure to make it up to you. But if you press any further on this, those E.G.O you value so much may be pointed at your head. Aye, aye. I’ll be on my way then~ Man, why’d I have to draw the short stick? The companions I have are either a hotheaded warmonger or some weird kids with unreadable minds.Regardless of our progress with Hod's core suppression, she will always look human here. I guess the cognition filter is just active over the entire level?
Oho, are you here to see Gebura? Careful what you say, you may just end up with a hole in your head. Take care~! Oh get lost, Chesed. Hod, what brings you here? So, um, it’s about the suggestions you made involving the Abnormality Breach Training. I feel it needs some adjusting. Go on. … Does it seem alright? But, then… Hm? Um, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. …Forget it. Since you’re the head of the Training Team, your opinion is final, right? I am, well, as long as you’re willing to… Do it. Oh, thank you! See you later! Hod! You forgot your report. A-Ah, I could have lost it. Phew, I thought you were going to shoot me in the head like Chesed said. Thanks again! Hod’s too soft. If I were the head of the Training Team, I’d never act like her.In summary: Interoffice drama!
Gebura submitted a plan for a suppression training operation, but Chesed thinks it's too much and Hod thinks there will be too many casualties. Grudgingly, Gebura allows them to scale it back. Chesed implies that Gebura has been borrowing E.G.O to do some suppressing of her own, and Gebura implies that she'll stab him through the face if he doesn't shut his mouth. I've heard you've handled plenty of WAWs before. Should be child's play. … Manager! Hey! Pay attention! Wha? Oh… yeah. Right. We'll handle them. Needed to do a third Firebird anyways, I think. Tch. There's no room for distractions here. Get your head back into it. Yeah… right. Just haven't had time to process all of- Don't care. See you on the battlefield, manager. Manager, I've taken a look into that door as you requested. It doesn't look like we have any files on it. Oh… uh… that's not great. We're probably going to deal with it sooner or later, since I have a feeling I know what Gebura's working up to… We need information. I can check again, but I've looked everywhere. Just to be safe, get on it. We need to know what will happen if all three birds go through that door. This can't be the first time it's occurred. Yes sir. Will that be all? There is one more thing. Can you forward me our agents' work records? Whenever you have the chance. Of course. Is there anything you're looking for? Not exactly. Just need to do something to get my mind off of my mind. Solving a stupid mystery sounds about right. ...As you like, manager.Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: The game breaks in a way I hadn't seen before.
Hey, Malkuth? Is it okay if I take a look in storage later? Sure. Anything in particular that we need? I remember filling up on our office supplies earlier… It's nothing like that. I just wanted to take a look around and see if there was anything in there that needed to be cleaned up. You know how old, half-finished work tends to pile up in there. Oh, like the rehab flyers Hod kept giving Netzach? Yes, that-wait, he was throwing them into storage? ...doesn't matter. Well, stuff like that. Either things we can do without, or that I can make work for us. I don't have any problem with it. If it's in storage, it's pretty much open as long as you fill out the forms to requisition it. Just don't take any of the Sephirot replacement parts. We go through those pretty fast lately… We do? Between Tiphereth needing replacement and Gebura's maintenance, it adds up. Then there was Yesod's headplate… Oh yeah, I heard about that. Anyways, as long as you stay away from that you're clear. Just make sure you sign off for anything you think is worth looking at. Sure thing, boss. Take care. I will!Yesod's wrappings are funnier if you imagine those are bandages from when he got crushed by that violet ordeal.
So Gebura wants us to intentionally let Abnormalities out so we can beat the crap out of them, even if that kind of behavior results in heavy loss of life. I guess if you're someone who loves fighting and you're forced to work in an advisory role instead, that would make one rather antsy and reckless.
She rewards you for being prepared enough to handle the threats, she doesn't tell you to let the threats loose yourself. Even if that's the only way to actually beat the mission from a gameplay standpoint, that's still on the player.Blastinus wrote: ↑Sat Oct 31, 2020 5:42 pmSo Gebura wants us to intentionally let Abnormalities out so we can beat the crap out of them, even if that kind of behavior results in heavy loss of life. I guess if you're someone who loves fighting and you're forced to work in an advisory role instead, that would make one rather antsy and reckless.
Day 33: Gameplay
Music: neutral 3
Now that we've cleared her first missions, let's take a look at Gebura's upgrade options.
Execution Bullets: These bullets instantly delete targets that they hit, but only agents or clerks. This is actually more useful than it sounds because no Clerk's Rights Abnormalities notice deaths by Execution Bullet. They also do not leave bodies behind, which some Abnormalities can use to do additional nasty things to us-the only one of these we've seen so far is Sweepers, who can use dead bodies to heal themselves. If someone in our facility has to die (and clerks frequently do), this is the preferred method of removal.
Qliphoth Intervention Field: Lowers the target's move speed by 50%. It doesn't effect things like attack speeds or cooldown timers or anything else, just the specific move speed stat. Most of the time this bullet is completely useless, but it's good for slowing an Abnormality down so that your agents can hit it with melee weapons while it's trying to run away, and for making it so that a Wander-type panic agent can be hit despite their speed buff. Just remember that this won't stop something from just murdering your agents, it only makes them move slower.
The Rabbit Team: Calls in a group of mercenaries that really will need their own mechanics talk post to fully go over. The short version is that they lock down an entire department, wiping out anything that's still alive in there before hopping off to other fields. Calling them costs 25% of your current energy per department that you call them into-to a maximum of 4 departments. Central counts as 2 departments towards this. They're a 1/day desperation tactic that can deal with almost any Abnormality in the game, but we shouldn't need them in most situations.
We really want the execution bullets. They're why I usually recommend new players go Disciplinary first, the research simplifies handling a number of Abnormalities.
The plan is to take out WAW abnormalities five times today.
Yes, X.
And I intend to start with Firebird, which I've done plenty of times-three times in one day.
Yes, X.
Then why… do I keep having problems now?
Retry count: 9. This day required two restarts. One is boring, and everyone died because I couldn't engage Firebird as I wanted to and it charged over my entire team and killed them. The other…
I'm telling you, it's because your mind's somewhere else. You can leave the suppression to me, manager.
Or he could always not release the monsters just to pick a pointless fight with them.
No, this is… it's my job. Let's do this. One more time.
Time to-
Make the best of today as always~
Don't you have some swill to be chugging?
Okay, cool it you two. We've got work to do.
Let's all do our best today!
Okay team, you're going to be headed over to Safety to work on your Fortitude and Justice. There's going to be a lot of fighting going on on the lower levels, so make sure you stay out of anything below Information.
Yes, boss!
First things first, our new abnormality is a classy lady sitting at a piano. Clicking on her to perform a work gives us our first unique feature about this Abnormality.
Some Abnormalities get special yellow work types instead of the normal ones-in this case her Insight work has been replaced with Performance work. As it is not Insight work, it does not train an agent's Prudence. It's generally a good idea to hold off on doing yellow work types until it's known approximately what effect they will have. To be safe, we'll be having Mizu do Attachment work.
Yesterday I get to talk to a cutie, and now today I get to talk to a cutie that wants me to sit next to her? My cup runneth over.
Manager, this weirdo's really got no place on this team. Please consider moving her.
If I did that, she might destroy half the facility on her way to be the first to work new abnormalities. Just bear with it 'til there's somewhere else to put her.
Fine.
Thanks to Yesod's bonus, that one work is enough to grab her initial data. Meet El Llanto de la Luna, or La Luna for short. She's a White damage abnormality which cannot train Prudence due to her special work command. She does have some special abilities, but if she breaches she doesn't count as a true breach-this means she's effectively useless for our purposes today. We'll talk more about her some other time, when we don't have multiple WAW suppressions on the docket. Just assume we're having Mizu talk with her about pianos in the background.
Bird provoking duty, huh? I can do that.
Our first WAW is going to be Firebird. Our strategy is the same as it was back when we first got it. Tenebrais does the heavy lifting of working with it until its QC hits 1.
At that point, we gather everyone like we did back when it first showed up, and do the dance back and forth in Central until it breaks out.
Now Tenebrais just has to attack it and…
I suddenly wonder what that tree is up to.
You're kidding me.
Parasite Tree chooses this breach to interfere (at a 30% chance), and to hit Tenebrais instead of literally any of the clerks inside of Disciplinary who would have been closer.
Dammit… Bird got away, I couldn't engage it. It's coming your way, team.
Alright. I'll handle the lower corridor.
I'll keep an eye on the upper.
It's upper!
Everyone, be careful.
Make it bleed!
Like usual, everyone charges.
Those poor clerks…
It's about to chaarge..!
Fall back, everyone!
Like usual, it attempts to charge and everyone runs away.
GAH!! That… BURNS.
As usual, Chinely gets hit and tanks the-wait what?
Yeah, I made a minor mistake here. Chinely has a melee weapon and a suit with 1.2x Red resist. Because of this, he's weak against Red damage, so whenever Firebird's damage goes off, his speed is reduced to 0.1x what it would normally be. Because of this, he wasn't able to run away with the others. This error then makes me burn my last bullet this meltdown on healing Chinely's SP-in hindsight this was another error since there was basically no way he'd survive a second hit regardless. I swear I'm good at this game.
Anyways, after the charge our deathball is able to dogpile on the bird again and deliver an onslaught of furious numbers too dense to make anything out. That's how late game combat usually looks in Lobotomy Corporation!
That's one.
Third try's the charm.
Seventh, technically!
...thank you, Malkuth, that will be all.
Anytime, manager!
Hey, I've been wondering. Does anyone know what a 'Mizu' actually is?
Never heard of one.
Oh, there was a Mizu down in Disciplinary. She's… interesting.
Interesting good or interesting bad?
Interesting vaguely terrifying.
...I think I want a new title.
Hey! You three are supposed to be in Safety! Get over there, now.
Now that I've beaten the first five minutes of the day I can go ahead with the rest of the plan. These three will be working with Blue Star and Queen Bee to power up their two remaining stats.
Easy peasy.
...Why do I find this cute? This isn't cute. It's the opposite of cute, and I want to pet it. I hate this.
They'll be fine. In the meanwhile, we need a good plan to get WAWs 2-5. Ideally we'd have an Abnormality with a very easy breach condition we can abuse, which isn't too hard to handle.
That first suppression got pretty heated, huh guys?
It could have gone a lot worse.
My hair nearly overheated a couple of times there. I really preferred the quiet days before this.
You mean the ones where the upper layers were dealing with all the problems?
Yeah. At least we were safe down here.
Don't count on it staying that way for long. We've got new orders. Someone from that hothead's department is coming to work on the Refraction Variant.
Why? We can do it without any problem, even after the Firebird's penalty.
I think that's why they called her in.
DRV's QC lowers whenever it's worked for more than 40 seconds. After Firebird's penalty, Tenebrais takes exactly 41 seconds, making her ideal for letting it out of its box.
Gotta say, I think we're through the hard part.
We spent the entire first meltdown on one breakout.
We'll speed up from here. Trust me.
Just make sure to keep an eye on the clerks, manager. A number of them are already dead thanks to the Firebird.
Pah. If it makes them suffer, it's worth it.
Hate to interrupt, but that Disciplinary captain finished provoking the Variant.
...where is it?
When Dimensional Refraction Variant breaches, it moves to a random location inside of its current department. Given that it is a blur, it is very hard to see. With most Abnormalities, if we don't know where it is we could simply click on its cell and dispatch people to suppress it that way-however, this does not work with DRV. We have to find it. Luckily the breach gave us a big hint this time. Can you find DRV?
The damage number at the beginning of the corridor was a huge get, as DRV automatically deals decent Red damage to anything it passes over. Anything that dies due to this is left floating in a cloud of interference, so tracing the dead clerks to the end is a decent plan.
Kind of like this. Anyways, now that we've found it we can select agents and have them attack the Abnormality directly. It's only a threat to things in front of it and I've never seen it turn around, so attacking it from behind is the best way to approach it.
Twee, get Welfare in there and take it out.
On it, boss!
Didn't that Discipline lady do this in the first place? Why aren't they sending her?
I'm sure there's a plenty good reason for it.
DRV is actually immune to Red damage, so Tenebrais-and any other Red damage source-would be useless against it.
Hey guys, what're you doing?
Suppressing the Dimensional Refraction Variant!
Huh. I don't see anything.
Yeah, it's not easy.
My hair can feel it out, so I think I have an advantage.
I just visualize it in my mind's eye!
Thaaat's definitely not a thing. Well, whatever. Have fun fighting something that isn't here.
Since its HP is low, it's suppressed by the end of the main room. Two down, three to go.
Send Tenebrais back to work on it, and then-
Manager, we've got a situation.
Don't tell me…
Newbies touched the Queen, and now there are bees.
I said not to tell me. 
Thankfully, a Red shield is enough to make sure nobody else dies while I have everyone in Safety dogpile on the bee. At this point a Queen Bee breach barely qualifies as a threat anymore-our agents have come a long way since day 17.
Can you find DRV in this picture? It's at the end of the hallway near the elevator again.
Get in there, you three.
On it!
The fight goes without any complication, which puts us at 3.
Manager, we've lost a number of clerks. If this keeps up, then Big Bird may breach.
That's what I'm hoping for.
...Manager?
It's a WAW, we need two more after this. The ones who died were probably going to die anyways, and at least DRV does it fast.
But…
I'm not going to say they don't count-each one is contributing to our research this time. Besides, I've made sure your guys are safe, right?
...I guess that's true. Just do what you can.
I will.
All the deaths between Firebird and DRV have lowered Big Bird's counter to 1. When this happens, we can either ignore it and hope we don't have 5 more deaths, do Good works with it to raise its QC back up...
Or have Tenebrais bully it with Repression work so it escapes after a Bad.
Chesed! I'm borrowing your agents!
Manager, please try to have her bring them back in one piece.
Will do.
Oh my gosh, you got elf ears!
Huh, really? They came from the tree. I like them.
They totally suit you.
So… we're over here to suppress that Big Bird, right? Is it going to go like last time, with the door?
Maybe. I hope not, though.
Don't worry about it! It's just a big cutie anyways. When the lamp goes swing, we go WHOOSH and then it's not a problem anymore!
Hey buddy. Let me tell you what's about to happen. You're gonna walk out that door. Then you're gonna try to 'save' people with your stupid bites. And me? I'm going to be right out there, and I'm going to beat you into oblivion. Because your 'justice?' It's just some stupid birdbrain pretending that it knows anything about anything at all.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
You… really shouldn't be so proud of being able to do that. Breaches are normally bad, aren't they?
Eh. They give me something to do.
We discussed this a little bit earlier, but the basic idea with suppressing Big Bird is simple-we wait for it to shake its lamp, escape to another department to ensure nobody gets marked for an instakill, and then charge back in to continue the beatdown.
During one of our attempts to flee, Twee is the one who's marked. This yellow halo protects her, but it enables Big Bird to use its instakill when in melee so it has to go.
I also got a gif of Big Bird instakill chomping a clerk. This proved harder than expected, since the Bird shakes the screen with every step when the camera's zoomed in on it. Still, as long as we keep to our basic battle plan Big Bird by itself is no problem.
Four down. One to go.
That was it? Pfeh. Weak.
It was trying to lure us in to kill us. One slip and we would have lost someone.
Yeah… I think I nearly tripped at one point-would've been bad.
Well, we won-and that's what matters!
Was there ever any doubt?
Not even a little!
Perfect. That should reset the Big Bird's counter, giving us plenty of wiggle room for the rest of the day.
Two Birds, one stone, huh? I like it.
What? No, it's only one bird no matter how big it is.
...oh. Okay, now it's two birds.
And clowns, manager. Two birds, and clowns.
...Yes. Thank you, Malkuth.
Anytime!
Oh, you're back boss. Where'd you get off to?
I was digging around in storage. Work stuff.
Cool! What kind of stuff?
Don't you guys have some rule where if I tell you the plan it won't work?
He's right. Probably shouldn't ask too many questions.
Right. Mum's the word, boss!
Manager, we are currently progressing smoothly. Has your focus returned?
Yeah. Heck, maybe I should go after Judgment Bird and deal with all three in one day?
You dummy! Judgment Bird isn't like the others, it deals in Pale damage and won't escape easily!
...maybe not, then?
While you're figuring that out, I got your information on the new Abnormality.
La Luna doesn't offer a lot of gear, but it's among the most stylish in the game, and she does have an Insight work rate-this can be useful to know in the event that Malkuth should ever shuffle her work rates around-Perform will hide whatever Insight was hiding but act like Perform, while Insight can move to another option and function as it normally would. It's an incredibly niche thing to keep in mind, and pointless now since we've suppressed her.
While working on getting DRV to breach one last time, we hit the next level. Also, Punishing Bird gonna Punishing Bird.
Here we have both Shelter and Yang melting down. When this happens I like to make sure to keep the screen out wide so I can keep an eye on both of them. When the bar goes away, I click on their cells to make sure that they don't backfire on me. It's a good way to handle their meltdowns as efficiently as possible.
Uh… Where is it?
This time, I ran into a little trouble actually finding it-the DRV spawned near the edge of Welfare and moved right on into Central. When having problems locating it, it can be a good idea to pause the game and slowly sweep the mouse over each corridor at the height where it floats. Whenever we go over it, the mouse cursor changes from its normal color to a distinctive red-that's how we know where it is.
...Got it! Central, upper corridor, Welfare side! Tiphereth, clear out Tylana's group! Chesed, move in to suppress!
Got it! Everyone, up one level and await further orders!
If you say so, manager.
Yesod. That clerk's about to die.
...Most likely. The Abnormality deals roughly 60 damage per hit, and even with a shield there's a strong possibility it would hit twice while passing through, sir.
Right. And we definitely don't want Big Bird getting out again, right?
Obviously not. I'm not sure I follow.
I'm just making the rational call, here.
There are two main schools of thought about using Execution bullets. The first is that it's best to immediately clear out as many clerks as possible, aiming to remove all of them and avoid any problems with clerks dying the rest of the day. The second is to only use them on clerks that are about to die in order to avoid triggering the effects of Abnormalities like Big Bird. The exact strategy I use depends on the challenge in question, but for the most part I prefer to only execute clerks who are about to die anyways.
The clerk's signature has been removed.
What did you do, manager?
Gave a dead man a painless out. Let's move on. I'll take care of any clerks who get too close before they can get themselves killed.
Decisive. Just like a leader should be!
I'm just thankful there's no cleanup.
The main problem, though, is that clerks have no sense of self preservation so you go through a lot of bullets with this method. For instance...
That's two…
Hey guys what's going on over he-
Three…
Should we be worried about all that?
Four...
Only if you've done something to piss management off.
Five…
Whatever it is, it's not setting the hair off. It should be fine.
Ookay… if your hair says so.
Si-
Manager, that's Evil Kit!
...ah. So it is. Five, then.
Greetings my Welfare bretheren!
Get the hell out of the way!
Ah! Are you perhaps… inconvenienced by my presence?
There's an Abnormality right here, it's invisible and if you don't move it'll-
Hah! You think me a fool! I shan't fall for such paltry tricks!
Yes, we're VERY inconvenienced!
Muahahahaha!! Then my work here is done!
I cannot believe that worked.
I guess sometimes it's best to just work with the crazy.
Got it in one.
Where were you?
Motivating!
...uh… huh.
My presence served as a powerful uniting force to cause just enough additional stress to ensure the suppression of a foe. Precisely according to my machinations! Muahahaha!
That, uh, sounds like an excuse for losing the order to meet up here, sir.
...I can't get orders when I'm working with the Woodsman, you know.
Ah, fair enough. Be careful next time.
Kit would have probably survived contact with DRV, but try not to forget agents that in works can't receive orders. It can get agents killed-or worse, mildly inconvenienced!
Setting that aside, the DRV suppression finishes just after this-which means…
Mission complete!
You made them feel some serious pain. Good.
Even if you spent more than half the day on one Abnormality.
We are less than 200 energy away from our quota. Please continue to fulfil your obligations, manager.
Yeah, I got it.
Hey… this is for a Disciplinary mission, right?
Yeah. Why?
Just a thought, but… we were the only ones involved in every fight. Why are we doing their research?
Eh, it's best not to think too hard about it. As long as everyone goes home alive, what's it matter?
Besides, Tenebrais helped! She let out that Bird, and that other Bird, and the Refraction Variant three times, and… huh.
I'm starting to get why they don't let her work with the abnormalities anymore.
Manager…
Bees, right? Handle it.
Yeah, it's just the one.
It wouldn't be a Fortitude training day if clerks weren't exploding into bees.
Excellent. Now to get the gear…
We have it already.
What?
El Llanto de la Luna's gear was not overwhelmingly expensive. We have already gotten it. The day can be ended at your option. It is good that you were able to properly throw yourself into your work once more, rather than thinking about unnecessary things.
...ah.
X? Shall we continue?
…
X?
...end the day.
Manager, there is no reason to do so so quickly. Noon has not even-
I said end the day, Angela. The second the adrenaline wore off, I… I need to think, and I need to put together a plan for whatever's on the other end of that door.
Manager, we still have no information on-
Then I'll plan for everything. Or we'll rewind a few dozen times and then I'll make a plan. It doesn't matter. We're done here.
Congratulations on getting through another routine day, newbies!
...routine? Bees are routine now.
Eh, it was kind of fun to snap a thorax in two.
It was… a curiosity, at any rate.
HAHAHAHA! Yes, things here grow curiouser and curiouser by the day!
We survived another day, somehow. Time for a drink.
Angela, get me some coffee and the list of new Abnormality options.
Of course, X.
The newbies are coming along great, they're all just about maxed out now. Not bad at all!
Music: never frozen bottom flows
T-09-80: "The tree simply reaped from what it sowed."
T-09-96: Eventually, intellect loses all meaning as they forget even how to exist.
T-09-77: Excessive aspiration would bring about unwarranted frenzy.
Tool time! We've seen -80 before, it randomly kills agents instantly in return for some healing, making it strictly worse than bullets (which can either kill or heal reliably at our option). The other two are new, and actually very similar. Both are equip-type tools, both of them can be carried for the entire day without a problem, and both of them buff Justice at least somewhat. The main differences are that -96 lowers Prudence while -77 boosts HP, but not Move Speed. Both are incredibly solid picks, and which one to take is basically a matter of personal preference.
Between the two, I just prefer -77 overall.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Gebura's tragic backstory.
New Guidelines
El Llanto de la Luna
New Gear
Requirements: Level 4, Fortitude 3
*Not affected by Attack Speed
Requirements: Temperance 3
New Story
El Llanto de la Luna
Music: neutral 3
Now that we've cleared her first missions, let's take a look at Gebura's upgrade options.
Execution Bullets: These bullets instantly delete targets that they hit, but only agents or clerks. This is actually more useful than it sounds because no Clerk's Rights Abnormalities notice deaths by Execution Bullet. They also do not leave bodies behind, which some Abnormalities can use to do additional nasty things to us-the only one of these we've seen so far is Sweepers, who can use dead bodies to heal themselves. If someone in our facility has to die (and clerks frequently do), this is the preferred method of removal.
Qliphoth Intervention Field: Lowers the target's move speed by 50%. It doesn't effect things like attack speeds or cooldown timers or anything else, just the specific move speed stat. Most of the time this bullet is completely useless, but it's good for slowing an Abnormality down so that your agents can hit it with melee weapons while it's trying to run away, and for making it so that a Wander-type panic agent can be hit despite their speed buff. Just remember that this won't stop something from just murdering your agents, it only makes them move slower.
The Rabbit Team: Calls in a group of mercenaries that really will need their own mechanics talk post to fully go over. The short version is that they lock down an entire department, wiping out anything that's still alive in there before hopping off to other fields. Calling them costs 25% of your current energy per department that you call them into-to a maximum of 4 departments. Central counts as 2 departments towards this. They're a 1/day desperation tactic that can deal with almost any Abnormality in the game, but we shouldn't need them in most situations.
We really want the execution bullets. They're why I usually recommend new players go Disciplinary first, the research simplifies handling a number of Abnormalities.
The plan is to take out WAW abnormalities five times today. Yes, X. And I intend to start with Firebird, which I've done plenty of times-three times in one day. Yes, X. Then why… do I keep having problems now?Retry count: 9. This day required two restarts. One is boring, and everyone died because I couldn't engage Firebird as I wanted to and it charged over my entire team and killed them. The other…
In another, more doomed timeline wrote:
Both the Firebird and everyone sent to suppress it went into the circled door transition.
And they stayed in there for over two minutes. Now, agents and Abnormalities in door transitions cannot be damaged in any way shape or form, so everyone's just sort of floating in limbo. With the game effectively stuck, I wind up having to click-drag a box over the general area of the transition to select all the agents currently in it, and had them run out to Central to see if that unstuck things.
Upside: It unstuck things. Downside: the agents were no longer in the proper position to deal with Firebird. I had to throw white shields on everyone and pray.
Zeta21 and Medea died from the attack due to Firebird's effect killing anyone reduced to 0 SP in its charge. This caused everyone in the corridor to take 10% max SP damage twice in fear, which sent more agents over the edge due to the White damage they'd taken from the charge-which in turn made every agent in the room take 10% more SP for each of them... long story short, there's an immediate panic spiral and everyone dies.
Never lost a day like that before.
I'm telling you, it's because your mind's somewhere else. You can leave the suppression to me, manager. Or he could always not release the monsters just to pick a pointless fight with them. No, this is… it's my job. Let's do this. One more time. Time to- Make the best of today as always~ Don't you have some swill to be chugging? Okay, cool it you two. We've got work to do. Let's all do our best today! Okay team, you're going to be headed over to Safety to work on your Fortitude and Justice. There's going to be a lot of fighting going on on the lower levels, so make sure you stay out of anything below Information. Yes, boss!First things first, our new abnormality is a classy lady sitting at a piano. Clicking on her to perform a work gives us our first unique feature about this Abnormality.
Some Abnormalities get special yellow work types instead of the normal ones-in this case her Insight work has been replaced with Performance work. As it is not Insight work, it does not train an agent's Prudence. It's generally a good idea to hold off on doing yellow work types until it's known approximately what effect they will have. To be safe, we'll be having Mizu do Attachment work.
Yesterday I get to talk to a cutie, and now today I get to talk to a cutie that wants me to sit next to her? My cup runneth over. Manager, this weirdo's really got no place on this team. Please consider moving her. If I did that, she might destroy half the facility on her way to be the first to work new abnormalities. Just bear with it 'til there's somewhere else to put her. Fine. Thanks to Yesod's bonus, that one work is enough to grab her initial data. Meet El Llanto de la Luna, or La Luna for short. She's a White damage abnormality which cannot train Prudence due to her special work command. She does have some special abilities, but if she breaches she doesn't count as a true breach-this means she's effectively useless for our purposes today. We'll talk more about her some other time, when we don't have multiple WAW suppressions on the docket. Just assume we're having Mizu talk with her about pianos in the background.
Bird provoking duty, huh? I can do that.Our first WAW is going to be Firebird. Our strategy is the same as it was back when we first got it. Tenebrais does the heavy lifting of working with it until its QC hits 1.
At that point, we gather everyone like we did back when it first showed up, and do the dance back and forth in Central until it breaks out.
Now Tenebrais just has to attack it and… I suddenly wonder what that tree is up to. You're kidding me.Parasite Tree chooses this breach to interfere (at a 30% chance), and to hit Tenebrais instead of literally any of the clerks inside of Disciplinary who would have been closer.
Dammit… Bird got away, I couldn't engage it. It's coming your way, team. Alright. I'll handle the lower corridor. I'll keep an eye on the upper. It's upper! Everyone, be careful. Make it bleed!Like usual, everyone charges.
Those poor clerks… It's about to chaarge..! Fall back, everyone!Like usual, it attempts to charge and everyone runs away.
GAH!! That… BURNS.As usual, Chinely gets hit and tanks the-wait what?
Yeah, I made a minor mistake here. Chinely has a melee weapon and a suit with 1.2x Red resist. Because of this, he's weak against Red damage, so whenever Firebird's damage goes off, his speed is reduced to 0.1x what it would normally be. Because of this, he wasn't able to run away with the others. This error then makes me burn my last bullet this meltdown on healing Chinely's SP-in hindsight this was another error since there was basically no way he'd survive a second hit regardless. I swear I'm good at this game.
Anyways, after the charge our deathball is able to dogpile on the bird again and deliver an onslaught of furious numbers too dense to make anything out. That's how late game combat usually looks in Lobotomy Corporation!
That's one. Third try's the charm. Seventh, technically! ...thank you, Malkuth, that will be all. Anytime, manager! Hey, I've been wondering. Does anyone know what a 'Mizu' actually is? Never heard of one. Oh, there was a Mizu down in Disciplinary. She's… interesting. Interesting good or interesting bad? Interesting vaguely terrifying. ...I think I want a new title. Hey! You three are supposed to be in Safety! Get over there, now.Now that I've beaten the first five minutes of the day I can go ahead with the rest of the plan. These three will be working with Blue Star and Queen Bee to power up their two remaining stats.
Easy peasy. ...Why do I find this cute? This isn't cute. It's the opposite of cute, and I want to pet it. I hate this. They'll be fine. In the meanwhile, we need a good plan to get WAWs 2-5. Ideally we'd have an Abnormality with a very easy breach condition we can abuse, which isn't too hard to handle.
That first suppression got pretty heated, huh guys? It could have gone a lot worse. My hair nearly overheated a couple of times there. I really preferred the quiet days before this. You mean the ones where the upper layers were dealing with all the problems? Yeah. At least we were safe down here. Don't count on it staying that way for long. We've got new orders. Someone from that hothead's department is coming to work on the Refraction Variant. Why? We can do it without any problem, even after the Firebird's penalty. I think that's why they called her in.DRV's QC lowers whenever it's worked for more than 40 seconds. After Firebird's penalty, Tenebrais takes exactly 41 seconds, making her ideal for letting it out of its box.
Gotta say, I think we're through the hard part. We spent the entire first meltdown on one breakout. We'll speed up from here. Trust me. Just make sure to keep an eye on the clerks, manager. A number of them are already dead thanks to the Firebird. Pah. If it makes them suffer, it's worth it. Hate to interrupt, but that Disciplinary captain finished provoking the Variant. ...where is it?When Dimensional Refraction Variant breaches, it moves to a random location inside of its current department. Given that it is a blur, it is very hard to see. With most Abnormalities, if we don't know where it is we could simply click on its cell and dispatch people to suppress it that way-however, this does not work with DRV. We have to find it. Luckily the breach gave us a big hint this time. Can you find DRV?
The damage number at the beginning of the corridor was a huge get, as DRV automatically deals decent Red damage to anything it passes over. Anything that dies due to this is left floating in a cloud of interference, so tracing the dead clerks to the end is a decent plan.
Kind of like this. Anyways, now that we've found it we can select agents and have them attack the Abnormality directly. It's only a threat to things in front of it and I've never seen it turn around, so attacking it from behind is the best way to approach it.
Twee, get Welfare in there and take it out. On it, boss! Didn't that Discipline lady do this in the first place? Why aren't they sending her? I'm sure there's a plenty good reason for it.DRV is actually immune to Red damage, so Tenebrais-and any other Red damage source-would be useless against it.
Hey guys, what're you doing? Suppressing the Dimensional Refraction Variant! Huh. I don't see anything. Yeah, it's not easy. My hair can feel it out, so I think I have an advantage. I just visualize it in my mind's eye! Thaaat's definitely not a thing. Well, whatever. Have fun fighting something that isn't here.Since its HP is low, it's suppressed by the end of the main room. Two down, three to go.
Send Tenebrais back to work on it, and then- Manager, we've got a situation. Don't tell me… Newbies touched the Queen, and now there are bees. I said not to tell me. Thankfully, a Red shield is enough to make sure nobody else dies while I have everyone in Safety dogpile on the bee. At this point a Queen Bee breach barely qualifies as a threat anymore-our agents have come a long way since day 17.
Can you find DRV in this picture? It's at the end of the hallway near the elevator again.
Get in there, you three. On it!The fight goes without any complication, which puts us at 3.
Manager, we've lost a number of clerks. If this keeps up, then Big Bird may breach. That's what I'm hoping for. ...Manager? It's a WAW, we need two more after this. The ones who died were probably going to die anyways, and at least DRV does it fast. But… I'm not going to say they don't count-each one is contributing to our research this time. Besides, I've made sure your guys are safe, right? ...I guess that's true. Just do what you can. I will.All the deaths between Firebird and DRV have lowered Big Bird's counter to 1. When this happens, we can either ignore it and hope we don't have 5 more deaths, do Good works with it to raise its QC back up...
Or have Tenebrais bully it with Repression work so it escapes after a Bad.
Chesed! I'm borrowing your agents! Manager, please try to have her bring them back in one piece. Will do. Oh my gosh, you got elf ears! Huh, really? They came from the tree. I like them. They totally suit you. So… we're over here to suppress that Big Bird, right? Is it going to go like last time, with the door? Maybe. I hope not, though. Don't worry about it! It's just a big cutie anyways. When the lamp goes swing, we go WHOOSH and then it's not a problem anymore! Hey buddy. Let me tell you what's about to happen. You're gonna walk out that door. Then you're gonna try to 'save' people with your stupid bites. And me? I'm going to be right out there, and I'm going to beat you into oblivion. Because your 'justice?' It's just some stupid birdbrain pretending that it knows anything about anything at all. Yeah, that's what I thought. You… really shouldn't be so proud of being able to do that. Breaches are normally bad, aren't they? Eh. They give me something to do.We discussed this a little bit earlier, but the basic idea with suppressing Big Bird is simple-we wait for it to shake its lamp, escape to another department to ensure nobody gets marked for an instakill, and then charge back in to continue the beatdown.
During one of our attempts to flee, Twee is the one who's marked. This yellow halo protects her, but it enables Big Bird to use its instakill when in melee so it has to go.
I also got a gif of Big Bird instakill chomping a clerk. This proved harder than expected, since the Bird shakes the screen with every step when the camera's zoomed in on it. Still, as long as we keep to our basic battle plan Big Bird by itself is no problem.
Four down. One to go.
That was it? Pfeh. Weak. It was trying to lure us in to kill us. One slip and we would have lost someone. Yeah… I think I nearly tripped at one point-would've been bad. Well, we won-and that's what matters! Was there ever any doubt? Not even a little! Perfect. That should reset the Big Bird's counter, giving us plenty of wiggle room for the rest of the day. Two Birds, one stone, huh? I like it. What? No, it's only one bird no matter how big it is. ...oh. Okay, now it's two birds. And clowns, manager. Two birds, and clowns. ...Yes. Thank you, Malkuth. Anytime! Oh, you're back boss. Where'd you get off to? I was digging around in storage. Work stuff. Cool! What kind of stuff? Don't you guys have some rule where if I tell you the plan it won't work? He's right. Probably shouldn't ask too many questions. Right. Mum's the word, boss! Manager, we are currently progressing smoothly. Has your focus returned? Yeah. Heck, maybe I should go after Judgment Bird and deal with all three in one day? You dummy! Judgment Bird isn't like the others, it deals in Pale damage and won't escape easily! ...maybe not, then? While you're figuring that out, I got your information on the new Abnormality.La Luna doesn't offer a lot of gear, but it's among the most stylish in the game, and she does have an Insight work rate-this can be useful to know in the event that Malkuth should ever shuffle her work rates around-Perform will hide whatever Insight was hiding but act like Perform, while Insight can move to another option and function as it normally would. It's an incredibly niche thing to keep in mind, and pointless now since we've suppressed her.
While working on getting DRV to breach one last time, we hit the next level. Also, Punishing Bird gonna Punishing Bird.
Here we have both Shelter and Yang melting down. When this happens I like to make sure to keep the screen out wide so I can keep an eye on both of them. When the bar goes away, I click on their cells to make sure that they don't backfire on me. It's a good way to handle their meltdowns as efficiently as possible.
Uh… Where is it?This time, I ran into a little trouble actually finding it-the DRV spawned near the edge of Welfare and moved right on into Central. When having problems locating it, it can be a good idea to pause the game and slowly sweep the mouse over each corridor at the height where it floats. Whenever we go over it, the mouse cursor changes from its normal color to a distinctive red-that's how we know where it is.
...Got it! Central, upper corridor, Welfare side! Tiphereth, clear out Tylana's group! Chesed, move in to suppress! Got it! Everyone, up one level and await further orders! If you say so, manager. Yesod. That clerk's about to die. ...Most likely. The Abnormality deals roughly 60 damage per hit, and even with a shield there's a strong possibility it would hit twice while passing through, sir. Right. And we definitely don't want Big Bird getting out again, right? Obviously not. I'm not sure I follow. I'm just making the rational call, here.There are two main schools of thought about using Execution bullets. The first is that it's best to immediately clear out as many clerks as possible, aiming to remove all of them and avoid any problems with clerks dying the rest of the day. The second is to only use them on clerks that are about to die in order to avoid triggering the effects of Abnormalities like Big Bird. The exact strategy I use depends on the challenge in question, but for the most part I prefer to only execute clerks who are about to die anyways.
The clerk's signature has been removed. What did you do, manager? Gave a dead man a painless out. Let's move on. I'll take care of any clerks who get too close before they can get themselves killed. Decisive. Just like a leader should be! I'm just thankful there's no cleanup.The main problem, though, is that clerks have no sense of self preservation so you go through a lot of bullets with this method. For instance...
That's two… Hey guys what's going on over he- Three… Should we be worried about all that? Four... Only if you've done something to piss management off. Five… Whatever it is, it's not setting the hair off. It should be fine. Ookay… if your hair says so. Si- Manager, that's Evil Kit! ...ah. So it is. Five, then. Greetings my Welfare bretheren! Get the hell out of the way! Ah! Are you perhaps… inconvenienced by my presence? There's an Abnormality right here, it's invisible and if you don't move it'll- Hah! You think me a fool! I shan't fall for such paltry tricks! Yes, we're VERY inconvenienced! Muahahahaha!! Then my work here is done! I cannot believe that worked. I guess sometimes it's best to just work with the crazy. Got it in one. Where were you? Motivating! ...uh… huh. My presence served as a powerful uniting force to cause just enough additional stress to ensure the suppression of a foe. Precisely according to my machinations! Muahahaha! That, uh, sounds like an excuse for losing the order to meet up here, sir. ...I can't get orders when I'm working with the Woodsman, you know. Ah, fair enough. Be careful next time.Kit would have probably survived contact with DRV, but try not to forget agents that in works can't receive orders. It can get agents killed-or worse, mildly inconvenienced!
Setting that aside, the DRV suppression finishes just after this-which means…
Mission complete! You made them feel some serious pain. Good. Even if you spent more than half the day on one Abnormality. We are less than 200 energy away from our quota. Please continue to fulfil your obligations, manager. Yeah, I got it. Hey… this is for a Disciplinary mission, right? Yeah. Why? Just a thought, but… we were the only ones involved in every fight. Why are we doing their research? Eh, it's best not to think too hard about it. As long as everyone goes home alive, what's it matter? Besides, Tenebrais helped! She let out that Bird, and that other Bird, and the Refraction Variant three times, and… huh. I'm starting to get why they don't let her work with the abnormalities anymore. Manager… Bees, right? Handle it. Yeah, it's just the one.It wouldn't be a Fortitude training day if clerks weren't exploding into bees.
Excellent. Now to get the gear… We have it already. What? El Llanto de la Luna's gear was not overwhelmingly expensive. We have already gotten it. The day can be ended at your option. It is good that you were able to properly throw yourself into your work once more, rather than thinking about unnecessary things. ...ah. X? Shall we continue? … X? ...end the day. Manager, there is no reason to do so so quickly. Noon has not even- I said end the day, Angela. The second the adrenaline wore off, I… I need to think, and I need to put together a plan for whatever's on the other end of that door. Manager, we still have no information on- Then I'll plan for everything. Or we'll rewind a few dozen times and then I'll make a plan. It doesn't matter. We're done here. Congratulations on getting through another routine day, newbies! ...routine? Bees are routine now. Eh, it was kind of fun to snap a thorax in two. It was… a curiosity, at any rate. HAHAHAHA! Yes, things here grow curiouser and curiouser by the day! We survived another day, somehow. Time for a drink. Angela, get me some coffee and the list of new Abnormality options. Of course, X.The newbies are coming along great, they're all just about maxed out now. Not bad at all!
Music: never frozen bottom flows
T-09-80: "The tree simply reaped from what it sowed."
T-09-96: Eventually, intellect loses all meaning as they forget even how to exist.
T-09-77: Excessive aspiration would bring about unwarranted frenzy.
Tool time! We've seen -80 before, it randomly kills agents instantly in return for some healing, making it strictly worse than bullets (which can either kill or heal reliably at our option). The other two are new, and actually very similar. Both are equip-type tools, both of them can be carried for the entire day without a problem, and both of them buff Justice at least somewhat. The main differences are that -96 lowers Prudence while -77 boosts HP, but not Move Speed. Both are incredibly solid picks, and which one to take is basically a matter of personal preference.
Between the two, I just prefer -77 overall.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Gebura's tragic backstory.
New Guidelines
El Llanto de la Luna
New Gear
Requirements: Level 4, Fortitude 3
*Not affected by Attack Speed
Requirements: Temperance 3
New Story
El Llanto de la Luna
Day 33: Supplemental
Facility X-394, ??? department, Main Room
My, you're back here a little earlier than usual aren't you?
I'm calling in a favor.
This isn't that sort of place, Talow. I don't deal in favors, least of all for my employees. Favoritism sets a poor precedent.
A trade, then.
I suppose you went through all the trouble of visiting such an old man. I may as well hear you out before asking you to leave.
I know we have information here on all the Abnormalities. I need the one on that thing the Birds turn into.
That one? The manager should earn it with the blood and sweat of you employees, like he always does. What could you possibly trade me that I'd think worth fiddling with this place's gears?
The thing you want most of all: the manager.
...and how could you, a mere employee, deliver that?
That'll take some explaining. You might never have told me anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't picked up on a few patterns.
Oh? Such as?
Every time Gebura shows up, things get bloody. First HEs escape. Then, WAWs. It's always the same, and with the way they break out it's like the manager is doing it on purpose. It's some task that she's giving the manager, isn't it.
Perceptive. Your point?
The next step is the bloodiest. ALEPHs. Always three of them, always different ones. That's what we have to deal with tomorrow.
You don't know that for sure. The manager is free to handle any request in whatever order he likes. He could do it after we've reunited, for one.
This one's going to do it tomorrow. Every time he gets a challenge, he does it as quickly as he can.
Then maybe he'll understand the difficulty, and deal with three other ALEPHs?
We only have two. If he wants that mission done, then he'll go after the bird. Without knowing what he's up against, everyone will die and the manager's progress stops.
He's stopped before. He'll stop again. It doesn't matter… I'll see him again eventually.
Maybe… but it feels like you should really see this one soon.
What do you mean?
This manager… it's still his first go at things, but we've only gone back a handful of times. The Abnormalities we've been getting haven't been too much, and we've been dealing with them without any major incidents. He isn't like any of the other managers we've had before.
Is that so? How would you know what's unusual or not, from where you stand?
I know he fought a Green Dusk back on the 21st day. No bullets. No deaths. Before that, his first Violet Noon without a single death. Before that, he suppressed Punishing Bird without losing anyone, either.
...hm. That is unusual.
We need that information. Then, you'll be able to judge for yourself in a couple of days.
Yes… yes, I think an anomaly like this should be looked into. It will be nice to see him again. You need the information on the bird? I don't suppose you plan on just showing up with a folder in hand, do you?
Yesod's running a search on it now. Knowing him…
He'll be doing it all night, yes... Very dedicated, that one. Very dedicated.
Right. So if it happened to show up in some obscure database somewhere, I'm sure he'd find it.
...When did you get so cunning?
If I didn't pick up a couple of tricks along the way, we'd never get to talk.
So long as it doesn't get in the way of your job, I suppose it's no issue.
Right, well. Do we have a deal?
We do. I shall place the information somewhere where Yesod cannot fail to notice, and the manager, this manager, shall make his way to my department so that I can take his measure properly. I look forward to it.
I've never seen you not excited to meet that guy. Honestly, it's kind of creepy.
You should return to the building, before Angela is aware of your disappearance. Neither she nor I would like to deal with the complications your discovery would cause.
Got it. Pleasure doing business with you, boss.
See you soon, Talow.
Facility X-394, ??? department, Main Room
My, you're back here a little earlier than usual aren't you? I'm calling in a favor. This isn't that sort of place, Talow. I don't deal in favors, least of all for my employees. Favoritism sets a poor precedent. A trade, then. I suppose you went through all the trouble of visiting such an old man. I may as well hear you out before asking you to leave. I know we have information here on all the Abnormalities. I need the one on that thing the Birds turn into. That one? The manager should earn it with the blood and sweat of you employees, like he always does. What could you possibly trade me that I'd think worth fiddling with this place's gears? The thing you want most of all: the manager. ...and how could you, a mere employee, deliver that? That'll take some explaining. You might never have told me anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't picked up on a few patterns. Oh? Such as? Every time Gebura shows up, things get bloody. First HEs escape. Then, WAWs. It's always the same, and with the way they break out it's like the manager is doing it on purpose. It's some task that she's giving the manager, isn't it. Perceptive. Your point? The next step is the bloodiest. ALEPHs. Always three of them, always different ones. That's what we have to deal with tomorrow. You don't know that for sure. The manager is free to handle any request in whatever order he likes. He could do it after we've reunited, for one. This one's going to do it tomorrow. Every time he gets a challenge, he does it as quickly as he can. Then maybe he'll understand the difficulty, and deal with three other ALEPHs? We only have two. If he wants that mission done, then he'll go after the bird. Without knowing what he's up against, everyone will die and the manager's progress stops. He's stopped before. He'll stop again. It doesn't matter… I'll see him again eventually. Maybe… but it feels like you should really see this one soon. What do you mean? This manager… it's still his first go at things, but we've only gone back a handful of times. The Abnormalities we've been getting haven't been too much, and we've been dealing with them without any major incidents. He isn't like any of the other managers we've had before. Is that so? How would you know what's unusual or not, from where you stand? I know he fought a Green Dusk back on the 21st day. No bullets. No deaths. Before that, his first Violet Noon without a single death. Before that, he suppressed Punishing Bird without losing anyone, either. ...hm. That is unusual. We need that information. Then, you'll be able to judge for yourself in a couple of days. Yes… yes, I think an anomaly like this should be looked into. It will be nice to see him again. You need the information on the bird? I don't suppose you plan on just showing up with a folder in hand, do you? Yesod's running a search on it now. Knowing him… He'll be doing it all night, yes... Very dedicated, that one. Very dedicated. Right. So if it happened to show up in some obscure database somewhere, I'm sure he'd find it. ...When did you get so cunning? If I didn't pick up a couple of tricks along the way, we'd never get to talk. So long as it doesn't get in the way of your job, I suppose it's no issue. Right, well. Do we have a deal? We do. I shall place the information somewhere where Yesod cannot fail to notice, and the manager, this manager, shall make his way to my department so that I can take his measure properly. I look forward to it. I've never seen you not excited to meet that guy. Honestly, it's kind of creepy. You should return to the building, before Angela is aware of your disappearance. Neither she nor I would like to deal with the complications your discovery would cause. Got it. Pleasure doing business with you, boss. See you soon, Talow.I know it's just what the EGO rngs gave em, but Talow's edgy tear really is such a perfect touch.
Day 34: Story
Music: My Inspiration
Make yourself as comfortable as possible, so that your mind finds itself comfortable too. It tickles, no? But just wait. Now, fade away without a trace… Feel the water and air during the different seasons, inside a different dream and a different body, forgetting and remembering everything.
I don’t know what it is. But I’ve already left for somewhere long ago. Please don’t look for me, I will no longer be able to teach you.
Unusually, the screen fades to white instead of black for the transition here.
Music: Sentimental Moment
Music: malkuthDie, but with some really unpleasant ripping sound effects over top of it.
K-Kill… me…. Please k-kill me A…. I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry….
Fade to black, then:
Music: Dungeon - Sewer Crawler
The reception is good. Everyone thinks that it’s a new employment method that does not concentrate on just one’s abilities. The number of applicants is projected to meet the initial calculation. The experiments are almost complete.
I’ve also arranged a meeting with TimeTrack.
…Are you thinking about those who have left you?
In summary: X has a number of brief memories, from Carmen saying she's gone to Malkuth saying she's ready for Cogito (she wasn't ready) to Angela telling us about the preparations that have been completed before asking if X is reminiscing about those he's lost. Apparently the company's employment method is different from the other Wings, as well. It's probably nothing important.
Music: Alone
Apart from the fact that his condition is abnormal, his excessive questioning will affect the manager’s duties as well. Since this behavior is unacceptable under any circumstances, I’ll have to reset him to the default status now. Don’t worry, you’ll be alright. You are simply going back to your first day at the company.
But, Lady Angela… Tiphereth has spent so much time with me…
Tiphereth, Tiphereth, I’m sorry… Tiphereth…..
Why are you crying, Tiphereth?
I’m sorry, I couldn’t do anything for you…
Yeah…
In summary:
Every… time…
Tiphereth? Oh, you're going to storage again?
Yeah. I need to think.
Hmm… okay. Just make sure you don't do anything rash. I wouldn't want you to be reset.
Y-yeah…
Music: Frozen Moon
…
Manager, if it’s alright with you, could you pass my words along? Gebura, she’s… She’s strangely obsessed with suppression, wouldn’t you say? Any casualty to employees during the suppression process… she entirely disregards it.
Gebura’s great at handling the Abnormalities when they breach. It’s as if she was born for this job. So I suppose a few extra dead employees is considered a reasonable tradeoff. But you see, as a manager, you should know that massacring Abnormalities is not our only priority. Well, I dunno if Gebura will listen to you, but I’d really appreciate it if you could give it a go~
Be honest with me, I can see everything.
….
Don’t act as if you know everything. I’ve been here for a long time. I’ve seen much more than you have.
Music: Today is for Nothing
What does it mean to have a soul?
It means one may truly have worth. It’s the center of the faith our Venerable Lord A believes in. I participated in this experiment because I trust him.
I don’t know if I have a soul… If I’m disassembled, will there be a soul inside me?
Well, it can easily be determined just by talking with you. A soul cannot be seen, but it can be felt.
Fade to black as time passes.
Oh, meet Gilly, our daughter. She is kind and sweet, just like you.
Does this child also have a soul, then?
Of course. A soul is something every living creature has. It’s the essence of us all, yet not known to many. This world only believes in things that can be seen with the eye. It’s a sad belief that will eventually lead everyone to destruction.
Another fade to black.
That is what we call an Abnormality, Gebura.
How is it different from monsters?
Monsters are in themselves repulsive, terrible creatures at the core and start of their existence. However, Abnormalities originate from humans.
You see, Gebura, that's because Abnormalities originated from 'them'. It's not like they materialize all of a sudden or come into existence from nowhere.
Do Abnormalities eat humans? Is it mimicking Mr. Christopher like that because it devoured him? I don't understand.
That is a complicated thing to explain, Gebura.
Fade to black.
Music: triumph of the scratching demons
I don't know, Gebura. You know she isn't known for explaining the purpose of every experiment to us. I think I heard that it's to rigorously determine the “loss of humanity”, but I don't get what it really means.
That's definitely going to end up hurting Mrs. Isabel. I should tell Miss Angela to stop it.
…
Please, if you are feeling anger, I suggest that you rather embrace that anger and move on.
Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories
Where did Christopher's wife and his daughter Gilly disappear to? I won't ever know, either. Hard to say if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but the experiment was not under my responsibility.
Most people wouldn't even talk to us, since machines weren't worth putting their minds to. But Christopher and Isabel, they told me I was worthy of something… They looked past my exterior and saw what was inside of me, something I wasn’t even aware of. Those monsters we’re obligated to call Abnormalities have killed many people since then.
It’s not fair. Why do we have to treat them nicely? Don’t pay any heed to the employees in front of you. When an Abnormality shows up, their lives will be the least of your worries. Since it’s clear that those monsters feel pain… I’ll dish out as much pain as possible. That’s the only reason why I’m standing here.
In summary: Gebura had some friends once-an entire family of them, even. This was rare, as most employees back then didn't talk to the robots at all. One was changed into an Abnormality. The other two probably wound up getting murdered by the Abnormality. As a result of this, Gebura decided that Abnormalities need to feel as much pain as possible.
...We only have two ALEPHs, though.
The birds count for this one. Just kill what they turn into.
We still don't have a plan.
Just make them hurt. That's all I care about. Don't chicken out on me now.
This mission. This mission is the first major sticking point after getting past the early game suppressions. Readers have probably noticed, but ALEPH Abnormalities tend to be kind of terrifying. Luckily for us, the Bird fight counts as enough separate ALEPH Abnormalities for this goal, letting us clear it by killing just the one Abnormality. If we can pull it off, anyways.
...mmnh.
Manager?
These memories are concerning… and not knowing anything about that bird is concerning. Then I'm surrounded by AI, and one of those memories was of the sun on my face, and of her, which…
It was uncomfortable?
Obscenely. I just… the more I think, the more my head feels like it's gonna' burst. I'd rather be managing, but I don't know anything about that Bird, and there's no other way to defeat three ALEPHs in a day.
Perhaps it would be best to do the mission another time.
Not an option. I'll just have to think of something…
Manager, I've got something.
Oh thank god. Please give me good news, Yesod.
I'm not sure how good the news is, but we have an ID on what happens if all three Birds happen to walk through the door. It was in the Codex and… well, nobody checks it very often. It's no wonder it took so long to locate.
On the main screen, there is a link to a Story review, and a second link to something called the Codex.
...So you wound up checking in the Codex, and found something there? Huh. Now that you mention it, I've never once opened the thing.
The Codex shows us all the Abnormalities we've fully researched, as well as gives us a completion % in the upper left corner. This percent does not include any of the D-type Abnormalities, it only counts the base game's content. Right now, it only shows Abnormalities that we have seen in our playthrough (since it's our first loop). However, either when we get all 3 birds or when we first call up the door (I'm not 100% sure which it is) an extra Abnormality is added to this page.
Tomorrow's opponent is Abnormality O-02-63, Apocalypse Bird.
Apocalypse Bird..?
The file isn't very clear, and there's some junk data, but it's the best we have.
I'll take a look.
We could have also seen this screen by trying to pull up the information window on any of the 3 Birds during the event, but there wasn't any reason to show it off yet. Ignore the work preferences, work damage, PE boxes and Observation Level bonuses-they were copied wholesale from a different Abnormality as we cannot work Apocalypse Bird.
New Guidelines
Apocalypse Bird
What the… So apparently it's invincible? As long as the three birds are doing… things? Great, I feel so much more confident now.
I'm sure it'll make more sense once we see the thing.
I hope so. I'll figure something out based on this. You stayed up all night finding this hint. I can't just leave you hanging.
Best of luck, manager.
Yeah, thanks. Go get yourself a coffee.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: The Apocalypse.
New Story
Apocalypse Bird (Part 1)
Apocalypse Bird (Part 2)
Apocalypse Bird (Part 3)
There's nothing here today. Go read the Apocalypse Bird story.
Music: My Inspiration
Make yourself as comfortable as possible, so that your mind finds itself comfortable too. It tickles, no? But just wait. Now, fade away without a trace… Feel the water and air during the different seasons, inside a different dream and a different body, forgetting and remembering everything. I don’t know what it is. But I’ve already left for somewhere long ago. Please don’t look for me, I will no longer be able to teach you.Unusually, the screen fades to white instead of black for the transition here.
Music: Sentimental Moment
Music: malkuthDie, but with some really unpleasant ripping sound effects over top of it.
K-Kill… me…. Please k-kill me A…. I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry….Fade to black, then:
Music: Dungeon - Sewer Crawler
The reception is good. Everyone thinks that it’s a new employment method that does not concentrate on just one’s abilities. The number of applicants is projected to meet the initial calculation. The experiments are almost complete. I’ve also arranged a meeting with TimeTrack. …Are you thinking about those who have left you?In summary: X has a number of brief memories, from Carmen saying she's gone to Malkuth saying she's ready for Cogito (she wasn't ready) to Angela telling us about the preparations that have been completed before asking if X is reminiscing about those he's lost. Apparently the company's employment method is different from the other Wings, as well. It's probably nothing important.
Music: Alone
Apart from the fact that his condition is abnormal, his excessive questioning will affect the manager’s duties as well. Since this behavior is unacceptable under any circumstances, I’ll have to reset him to the default status now. Don’t worry, you’ll be alright. You are simply going back to your first day at the company. But, Lady Angela… Tiphereth has spent so much time with me… Tiphereth, Tiphereth, I’m sorry… Tiphereth….. Why are you crying, Tiphereth? I’m sorry, I couldn’t do anything for you…
Yeah…In summary:
Every… time… Tiphereth? Oh, you're going to storage again? Yeah. I need to think. Hmm… okay. Just make sure you don't do anything rash. I wouldn't want you to be reset. Y-yeah…Music: Frozen Moon
… Manager, if it’s alright with you, could you pass my words along? Gebura, she’s… She’s strangely obsessed with suppression, wouldn’t you say? Any casualty to employees during the suppression process… she entirely disregards it. Gebura’s great at handling the Abnormalities when they breach. It’s as if she was born for this job. So I suppose a few extra dead employees is considered a reasonable tradeoff. But you see, as a manager, you should know that massacring Abnormalities is not our only priority. Well, I dunno if Gebura will listen to you, but I’d really appreciate it if you could give it a go~ Be honest with me, I can see everything. …. Don’t act as if you know everything. I’ve been here for a long time. I’ve seen much more than you have.Music: Today is for Nothing
What does it mean to have a soul? It means one may truly have worth. It’s the center of the faith our Venerable Lord A believes in. I participated in this experiment because I trust him. I don’t know if I have a soul… If I’m disassembled, will there be a soul inside me? Well, it can easily be determined just by talking with you. A soul cannot be seen, but it can be felt.Fade to black as time passes.
Oh, meet Gilly, our daughter. She is kind and sweet, just like you. Does this child also have a soul, then? Of course. A soul is something every living creature has. It’s the essence of us all, yet not known to many. This world only believes in things that can be seen with the eye. It’s a sad belief that will eventually lead everyone to destruction.Another fade to black.
That is what we call an Abnormality, Gebura. How is it different from monsters? Monsters are in themselves repulsive, terrible creatures at the core and start of their existence. However, Abnormalities originate from humans. You see, Gebura, that's because Abnormalities originated from 'them'. It's not like they materialize all of a sudden or come into existence from nowhere. Do Abnormalities eat humans? Is it mimicking Mr. Christopher like that because it devoured him? I don't understand. That is a complicated thing to explain, Gebura.Fade to black.
Music: triumph of the scratching demons
I don't know, Gebura. You know she isn't known for explaining the purpose of every experiment to us. I think I heard that it's to rigorously determine the “loss of humanity”, but I don't get what it really means. That's definitely going to end up hurting Mrs. Isabel. I should tell Miss Angela to stop it. … Please, if you are feeling anger, I suggest that you rather embrace that anger and move on.Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories
Where did Christopher's wife and his daughter Gilly disappear to? I won't ever know, either. Hard to say if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but the experiment was not under my responsibility. Most people wouldn't even talk to us, since machines weren't worth putting their minds to. But Christopher and Isabel, they told me I was worthy of something… They looked past my exterior and saw what was inside of me, something I wasn’t even aware of. Those monsters we’re obligated to call Abnormalities have killed many people since then. It’s not fair. Why do we have to treat them nicely? Don’t pay any heed to the employees in front of you. When an Abnormality shows up, their lives will be the least of your worries. Since it’s clear that those monsters feel pain… I’ll dish out as much pain as possible. That’s the only reason why I’m standing here.In summary: Gebura had some friends once-an entire family of them, even. This was rare, as most employees back then didn't talk to the robots at all. One was changed into an Abnormality. The other two probably wound up getting murdered by the Abnormality. As a result of this, Gebura decided that Abnormalities need to feel as much pain as possible.
...We only have two ALEPHs, though. The birds count for this one. Just kill what they turn into. We still don't have a plan. Just make them hurt. That's all I care about. Don't chicken out on me now.This mission. This mission is the first major sticking point after getting past the early game suppressions. Readers have probably noticed, but ALEPH Abnormalities tend to be kind of terrifying. Luckily for us, the Bird fight counts as enough separate ALEPH Abnormalities for this goal, letting us clear it by killing just the one Abnormality. If we can pull it off, anyways.
...mmnh. Manager? These memories are concerning… and not knowing anything about that bird is concerning. Then I'm surrounded by AI, and one of those memories was of the sun on my face, and of her, which… It was uncomfortable? Obscenely. I just… the more I think, the more my head feels like it's gonna' burst. I'd rather be managing, but I don't know anything about that Bird, and there's no other way to defeat three ALEPHs in a day. Perhaps it would be best to do the mission another time. Not an option. I'll just have to think of something… Manager, I've got something. Oh thank god. Please give me good news, Yesod. I'm not sure how good the news is, but we have an ID on what happens if all three Birds happen to walk through the door. It was in the Codex and… well, nobody checks it very often. It's no wonder it took so long to locate.On the main screen, there is a link to a Story review, and a second link to something called the Codex.
...So you wound up checking in the Codex, and found something there? Huh. Now that you mention it, I've never once opened the thing.The Codex shows us all the Abnormalities we've fully researched, as well as gives us a completion % in the upper left corner. This percent does not include any of the D-type Abnormalities, it only counts the base game's content. Right now, it only shows Abnormalities that we have seen in our playthrough (since it's our first loop). However, either when we get all 3 birds or when we first call up the door (I'm not 100% sure which it is) an extra Abnormality is added to this page.
Tomorrow's opponent is Abnormality O-02-63, Apocalypse Bird.
Apocalypse Bird..? The file isn't very clear, and there's some junk data, but it's the best we have. I'll take a look.We could have also seen this screen by trying to pull up the information window on any of the 3 Birds during the event, but there wasn't any reason to show it off yet. Ignore the work preferences, work damage, PE boxes and Observation Level bonuses-they were copied wholesale from a different Abnormality as we cannot work Apocalypse Bird.
New Guidelines
Apocalypse Bird
What the… So apparently it's invincible? As long as the three birds are doing… things? Great, I feel so much more confident now. I'm sure it'll make more sense once we see the thing. I hope so. I'll figure something out based on this. You stayed up all night finding this hint. I can't just leave you hanging. Best of luck, manager. Yeah, thanks. Go get yourself a coffee.Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: The Apocalypse.
New Story
Apocalypse Bird (Part 1)
Apocalypse Bird (Part 2)
Apocalypse Bird (Part 3)
There's nothing here today. Go read the Apocalypse Bird story.
Oh, I do also have one question:
Do you guys want a video of this fight when I finally finish D34-gameplay? 'Cause like, I don't have a cursor in my footage so you can't see my exact mouse movements but it should still be possible to tell what's going on and it's a little bit cool I guess.
Do you guys want a video of this fight when I finally finish D34-gameplay? 'Cause like, I don't have a cursor in my footage so you can't see my exact mouse movements but it should still be possible to tell what's going on and it's a little bit cool I guess.
I support apocalypse in video form.
I know that's just the portrait you had on hand, but Elijah's smiling face going 'kill me' is creepy but also funny.
I know that's just the portrait you had on hand, but Elijah's smiling face going 'kill me' is creepy but also funny.
So if Gebura’s scene means that LobCorp is making the abnormalities does that apply to all of them or just a few?
A few of the stories reference places like the birds in the Forest or the Scarecrow and the Emerald City, so are they just made up cover stories or were there abnormalities found there? Then again it would not be passed LobCorp to send abnormalities out into the wild for some experiment so maybe it’s both?
I’d love to see the bird fight in the video if only because its probably one of the few times we will hear the higher trumpet music in action.
A few of the stories reference places like the birds in the Forest or the Scarecrow and the Emerald City, so are they just made up cover stories or were there abnormalities found there? Then again it would not be passed LobCorp to send abnormalities out into the wild for some experiment so maybe it’s both?
I’d love to see the bird fight in the video if only because its probably one of the few times we will hear the higher trumpet music in action.
if I recall, some abnormalities, like apocalypse bird and all-around helper are specified as having been found, which makes me think that abnormalities are a naturally-occurring but rare phenomenon, but that somehow, lobotomy corporation is able to acquire largue quantities of unique ones... (and by somehow, I mean through this exact method, most likely)Seniorswitchback wrote: ↑Wed Nov 04, 2020 4:03 pmSo if Gebura’s scene means that LobCorp is making the abnormalities does that apply to all of them or just a few?
A few of the stories reference places like the birds in the Forest or the Scarecrow and the Emerald City, so are they just made up cover stories or were there abnormalities found there? Then again it would not be passed LobCorp to send abnormalities out into the wild for some experiment so maybe it’s both?
Day 34: Gameplay
Music: neutral 2
The second research I generally grab from Disciplinary is Rabbits. They're good in a pinch, but sadly they're completely useless against the challenge coming today. Don't worry, their time will come. Oh yes… it will come.
Our gear has been shuffled around somewhat as well. All of my HE or higher level White-damage weapons are assigned to our agents, for reasons which I shall make clear better.
So, I take it you have a plan?
Honestly… no.
You could have lied, Manager!
Yeah, but then you would have wanted to know what the plan was. Look I just… When I'm not managing, actively managing, everything's a mess and I don't know what I'm doing. These feelings… They don't have anywhere to go and I'm just tired and my head hurts all the time from thinking about it and apparently some asshole-who might be me?-banned drinking during business hours so I just have to deal with it.
You could try enkephalin.
You and Hod have convinced me to stay clean, thank you.
Your loss, manager.
Feh. It's all just excuses. If you keep those thoughts rattling around your head, today's going to be a lot harder than yesterday. You wanna pay those Abnormalities back for all the employees they've slain too, right?
Not really, but I'll indulge you because that's my job…
Huh? Speak up, manager!
I said let's just see what we're dealing with.
Time to kick some ass.
Since today is going to get a little crazy, we'll start with our tool: a literal heart. It is very simple to understand: We can hold on to it all day and as long as we never try to return it nothing bad can happen.
So we let Mizu do that, since she's got a big heart-shaped hole in her clothes.
It's probably just a design.
Now, to Apocalypse Bird. The first step of fighting it is triggering it, which means we have to free two of the three Birds. There's some debate about what the best way to purposely release the Birds is, but my favorite is to start by reducing Big Bird down to QC 1 to start with.
With Repression work to give us on-demand Bads, this isn't very hard for Tenebrais to do. Doing this kicked the Parasite Tree to 4, so we also have Mizu work with it. Now as soon as 5 employees die Big Bird will breach. As for how to kill 5 employees quickly…
This might be the stupidest plan I've ever been part of, and I hate that it's going to work.
Judgment Bird deals a maximum of 7 Pale damage per hit. Talow has a 0.8x multiplier from his suit's level, and 0.5x from his suit's resistance. This means each hit from JB is at most 2.8 Pale damage, or a little under 3% of his HP. Even if he fails all 24 boxes, he'll only take a little over 67% of his HP in damage, making using him to provoke the Bird into breaching incredibly easy. The best part is that if you're trying to fight Apocalypse Bird, you should have a Justita suit already.
No can do, Tiphereth. We're looking to cause a bit of havoc today.
Alright… as long as you're aware of it.
Hey. You should make a bet with yourself like you used to.
How do you know about those?
-! I-I told him, of course.
So, do you think we'll be able to get through the day without losing any of our agents?
Of course not!
Well… then I'll believe in the manager.
Heh. Sounds good.
Judgment Bird, when freed, wanders the halls and occasionally attacks the entire room it's in for 30-40 Pale damage, like so:
Clerks have 2.0x Pale modifiers, and as their suits are considered ZAYINs they have an additional 1.5x modifier. This means that Judgment Bird will deal them between 90-120% of their max HP with every attack. Since Central has 20 clerks instead of every other department's 10, it doesn't take long before…
Music: First Trumpet
We'll be dealing with all three at once. Who's got eyes on the door?
It's in Control! My clerks are engaging, but they aren't really doing much…
Well, they are clerks. Still, that gives us plenty of time to set up.
Tenebrais and Boksi are set in front of Yang and Nothing There.
I thought I was done hanging out with you, mosshead.
Trust me, the feeling is mutual. Let's see how a low-class like you handles the day.
Credentia is hanging out in Firebird's corridor.
Meanwhile, Sephiroth and Mr.Blond are keeping an eye out in Safety.
Don't do anything stupid today, got it?
These birds… they seek their own reunion. I would be a fool to stop it… but I truly wish to test my powers against theirs.
I said no stupid.
We've confirmed the entry of the first bird!
Roger that. Is everyone in position?
All set here.
I've got the regenerators running at full output, boss.
We also put Talow and SeyserKoze in the elevator in the far left of Welfare. If we're lucky, none of them should be doing any fighting today.
While the birds work their way up to Control, Big Bird snacks on each clerk it runs into on the way. This gives me more than enough time to get everyone else moved into position.
That position is this elevator. It's a nice central location with quick access to everywhere in the facility aside Welfare, letting me quickly move wherever we need to go. This stack has every source of White damage in the entire facility, including all of our Spore spears (which, as you'll recall, increase their target's vulnerability to White attacks)
Also Mr.Black is there for some reason.
...We're ready. Let's get this going.
…
Why isn't anything happening yet?
The waiting is honestly the hardest part at this stage.
Manager, the second bird has entered, and the door is entering its final stage.
Music: neutral 4
...That's all well and good, but what happened to the alarm?
It was deemed unnecessary and ended.
We are literally about to fight something called 'Apocalypse Bird' and the alarm is unnecessary.
Of course. No one has died and no additional breaches have occurred in some time.
Whoever designed this system is a hack.
If you remember the Emergency Level Mechanics chat, the danger level in the facility goes down by 1 every 15 seconds. It takes Big Bird so long to get from Disciplinary up to Control that no other threats spawn and the music resets before it even gets there.
Here it comes..!
At this point, with Big Bird almost into the gate, I do two things.
The first is to zoom all the way out. The second is set the speed down to 1x.
A loud roar echoes, and Apocalypse Bird spawns into Control.
And for the first time in this LP, I am Not Screwing Around.
All the lights… what happened?!
It's a side effect of the Bird, manager.
Right, then I'll just pause time and--
=ACCESS DENIED-ERROR DETECTED IN TT2 PROTOCOL=
...oh shit.
Let's talk about this Bird, shall we?
Apocalypse Bird has a number of options to damage agents, and any attempt to fight it head-on is doomed to failure due to its complete immunity to any form of damage and 330,000 HP. None of that matters because we never want to engage it directly, and since it's too big for hallways it's stuck teleporting between main rooms. Unfortunately for us, it will steal control of our agents and force them to slowly walk to its room-taking them away from us until they arrive, at which point if we don't move them they will try to engage the Bird in combat and die horribly. On top of this it spawns Meltdowns periodically through the facility. This means that if we don't stay on top of things, we can suddenly find ourselves dealing with Nothing There, Yin or Blue Star breaching in the middle of the fight-all but a death sentence for our facility.
Oh. And of course, we can't pause.
In order to damage it, we need to target three eggs, which spawned into three random Main Rooms. Each one gives Apocalypse Bird one of its attacks, and they can also do other things as well. Let's go through them next.
The Big Eyes egg is weak to White damage and absorbs Black damage. If destroyed, the lights come back on and we don't need to worry about the possession ability any longer.
The Long Arms egg absorbs Pale and is 0.3x vs everything else, and combined with its high HP it is the tankiest of all three eggs by far. Destroying it disables the Pale attack, and most importantly it will give us back our ability to pause. It is unquestionably the highest priority target.
The Small Beak egg only enables a single attack. It's weak to Black, but absorbs Red. It's generally the lowest priority target.
Putting it all together, the fight is basically a battle of trying to attack eggs in the Main Rooms while running away from Apocalypse Bird when it appears in those rooms-all the while keeping an eye out for possessed employees to pull back or critical meltdowns that need to be addressed before ending your day the hard way.
To that end, my overall strategy looks like this:
This fight has too many moving parts to let me stick too closely to it, but if nothing else it's a fairly strong setup. Additionally, since none of our targets are immune to White damage, our weapon setup means we won't have to do a lot of micromanagement and our Spore spears will keep our damage boosted against each target.
Everyone, attack!
Make us an omelette, agents!
As planned, everyone charges at Long Arms. Meanwhile, the Apocalypse Bird will sit up in Control performing attacks and mostly just killing Clerks. Every 15-25 seconds. So long as it isn't in one of the egg rooms, it's not an immediate threat to us right now. We still want to keep it on screen as much as possible.
This is what we're keeping an eye out for-it means the Apocalypse Bird is teleporting. We want to have all our agents selected whenever we see this, and be ready to run out of the room we're in.
Luckily, its first teleport sends it to Disciplinary so our agents can keep up the pressure. The particularly astute will notice that our mission is saying we've already finished 1 of our 3 suppressions. This is because the entrance, each egg, and the Apocalypse Bird itself each count as a different Abnormality for the purpose of this mission. It's theoretically possible to clear the mission by killing only two eggs and then ending the day, but there's absolutely no reason to ever do this.
The next teleport places it in Information, and out of our way again.
So… belatedly, I think I know what 'concealed the time' meant.
Oh, um… is that why you're targeting the egg that appeared in the Training team first?
Yeah. That's the hope, anyways. We just have to keep on top of things and hope the agents can manage.
Manager, we've got a meltdown here on All-Around Helper!
There are several spawning throughout the building!
...Nothing important-just ignore them, we'll round them up when we have time!
While there, it spawns the first set of meltdowns, hitting Forsaken Murderer, Laetitia, and Helper. None of them are an actual threat to any of my agents, so I just ignore them and focus on hitting the egg while I have the chance.
Time to fall back, everyone!
Our luck runs out on the third teleport, and Apocalypse Bird shows up in Training. I retreat our agents to the elevator and take stock of the situation.
That is a very big bird.
It's hard to see it with the lights off…
We could go in there and finish off the egg right in front of it.
That's suicide, Gebura…
But just think about it-smashing the thing's egg right in front of it. How much that would hurt. We should do it, manager.
...yeah, no. We wait.
During this time I also move the camera around to see if any other meltdowns have appeared-there's one on the Shelter, but it can be ignored like the others. So far, so good.
The path is clear. Attack!
Manager, more meltdowns.
One's on the Firebird, sir.
Credentia seems to have wound up somewhere else, so I throw Boksi at it and wait for the Long Arm egg to die.
Meanwhile, we start to see some breakouts...
But we take down the first egg, returning our ability to pause. The hard part of the fight is officially over.
Alright… time to take stock.
Apocalypse Bird moved down to Welfare, and spawned more meltdowns. We'll need to have Talow and Seyser take care of the two WAW in Welfare before they cause problems. Meanwhile, Firebird still hasn't been worked… why?
I'll show you the true power of a nestborn you drat bird!
...Ah. Boksi apparently got possessed and picked a fight with the Apocalypse Bird, by himself. That cancels the work order we made, so we'll just quickly retreat him to the hallway to heal before he gets murdered. Since he's hurt we'll just have Tenebrais deal with Firebird-
This is how things can and do spiral out of control while dealing with Apocalypse Bird. In many ways it boils down to a fight to suppress the Long Arms egg before there's too much to deal with in real time, and then mopping up once we can pause again.
Tylana's up in Central 1, and she's possessed. This is inconvenient since it means she's going to wander around to try and find the Apocalypse Bird, and until she gets to him she can't be controlled. Worse, since she's a long way away from it she can't get to it quickly-we won't be able to control her again for a good while.
Credentia here is in the same boat, but she seems much more into it for some reason. (it's because the animation randomly broke on Tylana. )
We do get lucky, though-Tenebrais is only being called by the Tree. We can break her out by clicking on her and send her to the Firebird so it doesn't break out-we do it, since it breaching would be a massive headache.
Meanwhile, I order a mass attack on the egg. Mr.Black is removed from the attack party, due to his Lamp E.G.O dealing Black damage.
This isn't going so badly.
It's not over yet. We can't afford to get cocky, kiddo.
Can I call diibs on the eeggs..? I want to study theem…
Not if I get to them first. Who knows what secrets they could hold?
Can you wait until these things are suppressed before figuring out what we're doing with them?!
Apocalypse Bird teleports up to Control again, and I'm just circling where Mr. Black is sitting, by himself, in an elevator. This is important for later.
Music: First Trumpet
...Angela.
Yes, X?
So the Apocalypse Bird didn't restart the trumpet.
Correct.
But a scarecrow and a murderer and that All-Around Helper thing breaking out, that's definitely more of a threat than that super terrifying monstrous bird that is literally named after the freaking apocalypse. Better sound the alarm for them!
The algorithms which dictate our warning system are complex and-
Incredibly stupid?
...capable of providing counterintuitive results. They are incapable of mistakes.
Sure.
More meltdowns spawn, Firebird wants more attention and we need to deal with La Luna unless we want to deal with her as well… and with Credentia wandering around randomly we've got nobody on that side. I set this aside for a moment.
HAHAHAHA! All alone, with a scarecrow? I'll make sure you're smiling for days after this!
Mr.Black engages the Scarecrow, but he's got it handled by himself.
Meanwhile, it's time to have everyone run away again.
Now it's Ppodae AND the scarecrow.
...eh, I'll toss him a Black and Red shield, he should be fine.
Twee also gets tapped to run down to Disciplinary and deal with La Luna. She's got ~35 seconds on the timer to do it, and as the fastest person in the facility by a lot she'll make it there easily.
It's moved to Welfare again. Take out the egg, now!
Shouldn't be any trouble.
While the agents do that, I wake up this random clerk from getting pulled in by Parasite Tree. All the breaches mean it's been working overtime, and while we're only at one blessing I don't want to make more if I can avoid it.
That's basically all the time there is before the second egg gets finished off. :hellyeah:
This turns the lights back on and stops Apocalypse Bird from possessing anyone else, though it doesn't help the agents who are already possessed. Credentia continues to do… whatever she's doing.
...Can we turn the lights back off?
We can't.
Damn.
Here's a better closeup of the Bird now that everything's working again. Its health bar is 2/3rds empty now, since there's only one egg left to crack. Unfortunately, things aren't going to get easier-now that it has fewer attacks to choose from, it can spawn meltdowns more frequently.
Like so. We have Boksi handle Nothing There, and Talow run over to handle Yin since Tenebrais is busy with Firebird.
Blue Star is also melting down, so we throw Mr. Blond at it, and I manage to remember 1.76 MHz exists as I throw Bishop up to handle it as well.
Meanwhile, Apocalypse Bird shows off the attack it gets from Small Beak. It literally fires a projectile that's like a second mouth while it fires out its first mouth and it's just not something we want to get hit with.
Think you kiddos are ready to handle an Abnormality that isn't a helpless egg?
After today, pretty sure I could fight anything without getting nervous.
Apocalypse Bird teleports over to Training and starts some more meltdowns in the meanwhile.
Is it… throwing a tantrum?
Most birds would, if they found their eggs destroyed.
I guess that makes sense…
Good.
Meanwhile, Bishop finishes up his work and expresses the thoughts of everyone in the entire facility.
Music: neutral 3
Gratuitous deathball shot.
Also, the music changes back again.
We've got things in hand, I guess.
We do have to snap Tenebrais out of the Tree's spell again, though.
Teleported again-it's in Information!
Right. Continue the suppression, team.
You got it, manager!
Circled here is Twee, who walked all the way back up after finishing her work on La Luna. I order her to go down and help out.
Everyone, fall back!
Can I stay for like three seconds to hug the big cutie?
No! Move, move, move!
We don't get to finish it off, as the Bird decides to come say hello again before we take down the egg.
Everyone runs from the Bird to the safety hallway, and I have circled Twee to remind everyone that she's still faithfully carrying out her last orders.
So let me tell you about how I was just about to crush the giant bird, before the Manager called me away…
Meanwhile Boksi handles Nothing There before it causes a problem.
Manager, it's rearing up for an attack!
Good thing there's nobody there to-
Okay! I'm finally here to take care of that egg, as ordered!
...Goddammit, Twee…
You're the one who didn't change the order!
Yes. This is entirely your fault, manager.
Lady Angela's got you there~
Ugh, it's too late to blame anyone now!
I swear I'm good at this game.
Finally we get a good shot of an attack. Apocalypse Bird fires off its mouth behind everyone in front of it, where it hovers.
It then grows teeth. Damage is done at this step, so Twee is fine.
And then it fires back through everyone to go back into the Bird. Looking closely, it seems Twee took ~28 Red damage from that hit.
No matter how powerful Apocalypse Bird is, its bite just can't beat the OG. :smugbird:
It's back in wellfare, manager.
Everyone, move in!
Finally! Let's finish this bird off!
The agents push in. The egg's owner isn't around to protect it.
The final egg falls.
A final, desperate roar crashes through the facility.
The Apocalypse Bird reaches one final time to the sky…
And then stops moving, crashing to the ground.
...Is that… did we do it?
I don't even care right now. I just want to know if we did it.
...It didn't move when I nudged it. Seems like it's down for the count.
Well, THAT was an eventful first meltdown period! What's next?
Unlike every other Abnormality we have, Apocalypse Bird's bits have nowhere to return to. They'll be hanging around the facility for the rest of the day. Also, we can't have an Apocalypse Bird come out twice in a single day-we don't have to worry about freeing it again today.
Manager, there's incredible potential within this Bird's remains. Shall I send the data for E.G.O extraction?
Yeah… do that.
Hey, do you guys feel different?
it's probably the wing you've got now.
The what? A wing?
Yes! It looks like something off of that Bird creature that appeared.
The first major reward we get is a brand new E.G.O gift for all our agents: the Through the Dark Twilight wing. It's a flat +7 to all stats, and one of the most powerful gifts in the game. Everyone who lived through the day gets one, which is… everyone.
Hey, what happened to your wing?
Eh, I decided it wasn't for me. I don't need a reminder of a day like this.
It's your loss. I'm just sad I never got to give it a big ol' hug!
Manager, hurry and find somewhere else for her to be.
Everyone except Credentia, that is. She was in the middle of being blessed by Parasite Tree when Apocalypse Bird died, so she was never given the wing. Oh, well.
We also had the heart equipped for long enough to get its full data. It's called the Heart of Aspiration, and it raises HP and Attack Speed. Just slap it on someone, let it do its thing, and never put it back-that's what it's designed for. In the future we should put it on someone whose weapon doesn't ignore Attack Speed, though. Whoops.
I can't believe all of that was only on the first level…
The day should speed up from here, Manager.
Yeah. After that, what else is going to stop us? Crimson Dawn? Man, this place eats Crimson Dawns for breakfast.
Hey, I know you're angry and all, but maybe calm down? I'm getting your room just back how you like it, sir.
Don't worry. I'm not here to kick you around again. I just wanted to make sure you knew that if I'd been in the fight? It would have been over five minutes faster.
Crimson Dawn.
I worked through one break today, you do not want to be in my way right now, clown.
Crimson Done.
Job's done. Now to go figure out how to lean back in a chair with this thing coming out my back.
Huh… you're not as energetic as normal. Tired?
That's understandable.
At this point, my goal is to get the day done with ASAP. The Bird seems especially prone to triggering the memory leak bug, and while my system's never given me problems before, I figured it would be a good idea to save things quickly.
Crimson Noon.
Incoming clown scorpion!
I'll hold it here! Back me up!
Muahahaha! Fire, my feathers! Fire!!
Good teamwork, everyone!
It's at this moment that I notice something absolutely awful.
Evil Kit's Temperance has been boosted to 3 by the wing. He can no longer fulfil his purpose in this facility because of this, so I need a new agent to throw at the Woodsman. Whoops.
Anyways, Crimson Noon finishing up gives us the energy we need to complete the day. And what a day it was.
Shall we end things here?
Yeah, send off the signal. I need some serious sleep.
It's time for E.G.O maintenance, everyone~ Good work on a hard day. Have a coffee break before we get started.
Will do, sir! Man, this was a really full day, wasn't it?
Keeping an eye out for meltdowns was nerve-wracking, knowing you guys were all fighting. I thought I was going to phase through the floor things were vibrating so badly!
Yeah, that thing could really hit hard!
Say… where'd Talow go?
He went off when he heard the Noon alarm. I'm sure he's fine.
...Well, you're not pointing a gun at me, so this is kind of an improvement.
We survived that thing. I survived. You wanna tell me now what's going on?
Hold on, you think you're out of the woods?
We did just beat the creature from inside the black forest, so. Yes. Quite literally. Talk.
I will, I will… but you've still got one more day.
We've dealt with the Sephirot spewing chaos all over the facility, Abnormalities escaping left and right, now this, and you're telling me what kills me isn't any of it?!
Well, not usually. You are a pretty good fighter, after all.
Then what? What could possibly be a threat at this point?
Are you asking me because you don't know, or because you don't want to admit it?
…
You know… I always thought it was funny that your name was Bishop. See, Bishops move on diagonals, dashing through positions at an angle when charging straight through's impossible. They're sharp. Reliable. But if they don't pay attention, they can get their escape routes cut off by the movements of the other pieces around them. Then… just like that, they're helpless.
If you're saying what I think you're saying, then I'm still in danger right now. Is that right?
You do have a knack for getting yourself cornered. Good luck.
Rrgh… you are so. Frustrating.
Trust me, the feeling's mutual.
...And he's gone. Huh. Guess I'll page the Manager.
Oh, hey, I was meaning to talk to you today. Something up?
Just… curious, about something. Did you ever find anything out about the old man?
Not a thing. Though, I did find something interesting.
Oh? What do you have?
Work records for our clerks. I always said they don't count, but... Apparently they can be handy. Turns out, there was only one other clerk assigned to the area Delta3 died. An engineering specialist, Gamma34.
Huh. So another clerk offed her?
That's the thing. Every other day, our clerks number from 1 to whatever the highest number there are is. We didn't see 34 again until we were over halfway through the upper layer. So, this is a fake, right? It's got to be.
That… would seem accurate, yes.
Then, who would have had the ability to fake a log after the fact? Only someone with technical expertise, like the sort that could load a program onto our network without Angela's notice.
Hey, I never-
I've pretty much got it figured out. You lied to me, Bishop. Is there anything else I should know? Are you really even freelancing down here?
I told you, I never-
We'll talk tomorrow. I've got things to do, and you probably have a lot to think about.
…shit.
I hope that Bird hurt when we struck it down. It felt good to watch its last moments of movement.
Our newbies are all basically maxed out, so we'll likely be bringing some more in tomorrow.
But for now… our long day is finally over.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet the Rabbit Team captain
New Gear
Requirements: Listed above
*Not affected by Attack Speed
Requirements: Fortitude EX, Prudence EX, Temperance EX, Justice EX
New Story
The Heart of Aspiration
Bonus
VIDEO: Apocalypse Bird Suppression
Music: neutral 2
The second research I generally grab from Disciplinary is Rabbits. They're good in a pinch, but sadly they're completely useless against the challenge coming today. Don't worry, their time will come. Oh yes… it will come.
Our gear has been shuffled around somewhat as well. All of my HE or higher level White-damage weapons are assigned to our agents, for reasons which I shall make clear better.
So, I take it you have a plan? Honestly… no. You could have lied, Manager! Yeah, but then you would have wanted to know what the plan was. Look I just… When I'm not managing, actively managing, everything's a mess and I don't know what I'm doing. These feelings… They don't have anywhere to go and I'm just tired and my head hurts all the time from thinking about it and apparently some asshole-who might be me?-banned drinking during business hours so I just have to deal with it. You could try enkephalin. You and Hod have convinced me to stay clean, thank you. Your loss, manager. Feh. It's all just excuses. If you keep those thoughts rattling around your head, today's going to be a lot harder than yesterday. You wanna pay those Abnormalities back for all the employees they've slain too, right? Not really, but I'll indulge you because that's my job… Huh? Speak up, manager! I said let's just see what we're dealing with. Time to kick some ass.Since today is going to get a little crazy, we'll start with our tool: a literal heart. It is very simple to understand: We can hold on to it all day and as long as we never try to return it nothing bad can happen.
So we let Mizu do that, since she's got a big heart-shaped hole in her clothes.
It's probably just a design.Now, to Apocalypse Bird. The first step of fighting it is triggering it, which means we have to free two of the three Birds. There's some debate about what the best way to purposely release the Birds is, but my favorite is to start by reducing Big Bird down to QC 1 to start with.
With Repression work to give us on-demand Bads, this isn't very hard for Tenebrais to do. Doing this kicked the Parasite Tree to 4, so we also have Mizu work with it. Now as soon as 5 employees die Big Bird will breach. As for how to kill 5 employees quickly…
This might be the stupidest plan I've ever been part of, and I hate that it's going to work. Judgment Bird deals a maximum of 7 Pale damage per hit. Talow has a 0.8x multiplier from his suit's level, and 0.5x from his suit's resistance. This means each hit from JB is at most 2.8 Pale damage, or a little under 3% of his HP. Even if he fails all 24 boxes, he'll only take a little over 67% of his HP in damage, making using him to provoke the Bird into breaching incredibly easy. The best part is that if you're trying to fight Apocalypse Bird, you should have a Justita suit already.
No can do, Tiphereth. We're looking to cause a bit of havoc today. Alright… as long as you're aware of it. Hey. You should make a bet with yourself like you used to. How do you know about those? -! I-I told him, of course. So, do you think we'll be able to get through the day without losing any of our agents? Of course not! Well… then I'll believe in the manager. Heh. Sounds good.Judgment Bird, when freed, wanders the halls and occasionally attacks the entire room it's in for 30-40 Pale damage, like so:
Clerks have 2.0x Pale modifiers, and as their suits are considered ZAYINs they have an additional 1.5x modifier. This means that Judgment Bird will deal them between 90-120% of their max HP with every attack. Since Central has 20 clerks instead of every other department's 10, it doesn't take long before…
Music: First Trumpet
We'll be dealing with all three at once. Who's got eyes on the door? It's in Control! My clerks are engaging, but they aren't really doing much… Well, they are clerks. Still, that gives us plenty of time to set up.Tenebrais and Boksi are set in front of Yang and Nothing There.
I thought I was done hanging out with you, mosshead. Trust me, the feeling is mutual. Let's see how a low-class like you handles the day.Credentia is hanging out in Firebird's corridor.
Meanwhile, Sephiroth and Mr.Blond are keeping an eye out in Safety.
Don't do anything stupid today, got it? These birds… they seek their own reunion. I would be a fool to stop it… but I truly wish to test my powers against theirs. I said no stupid. We've confirmed the entry of the first bird! Roger that. Is everyone in position? All set here. I've got the regenerators running at full output, boss.We also put Talow and SeyserKoze in the elevator in the far left of Welfare. If we're lucky, none of them should be doing any fighting today.
While the birds work their way up to Control, Big Bird snacks on each clerk it runs into on the way. This gives me more than enough time to get everyone else moved into position.
That position is this elevator. It's a nice central location with quick access to everywhere in the facility aside Welfare, letting me quickly move wherever we need to go. This stack has every source of White damage in the entire facility, including all of our Spore spears (which, as you'll recall, increase their target's vulnerability to White attacks)
Also Mr.Black is there for some reason.
...We're ready. Let's get this going. … Why isn't anything happening yet?The waiting is honestly the hardest part at this stage.
Manager, the second bird has entered, and the door is entering its final stage.Music: neutral 4
...That's all well and good, but what happened to the alarm? It was deemed unnecessary and ended. We are literally about to fight something called 'Apocalypse Bird' and the alarm is unnecessary. Of course. No one has died and no additional breaches have occurred in some time. Whoever designed this system is a hack.If you remember the Emergency Level Mechanics chat, the danger level in the facility goes down by 1 every 15 seconds. It takes Big Bird so long to get from Disciplinary up to Control that no other threats spawn and the music resets before it even gets there.
Here it comes..!At this point, with Big Bird almost into the gate, I do two things.
The first is to zoom all the way out. The second is set the speed down to 1x.
A loud roar echoes, and Apocalypse Bird spawns into Control.
And for the first time in this LP, I am Not Screwing Around.
All the lights… what happened?! It's a side effect of the Bird, manager. Right, then I'll just pause time and--=ACCESS DENIED-ERROR DETECTED IN TT2 PROTOCOL=
...oh shit.Let's talk about this Bird, shall we?
Apocalypse Bird has a number of options to damage agents, and any attempt to fight it head-on is doomed to failure due to its complete immunity to any form of damage and 330,000 HP. None of that matters because we never want to engage it directly, and since it's too big for hallways it's stuck teleporting between main rooms. Unfortunately for us, it will steal control of our agents and force them to slowly walk to its room-taking them away from us until they arrive, at which point if we don't move them they will try to engage the Bird in combat and die horribly. On top of this it spawns Meltdowns periodically through the facility. This means that if we don't stay on top of things, we can suddenly find ourselves dealing with Nothing There, Yin or Blue Star breaching in the middle of the fight-all but a death sentence for our facility.
Oh. And of course, we can't pause.
In order to damage it, we need to target three eggs, which spawned into three random Main Rooms. Each one gives Apocalypse Bird one of its attacks, and they can also do other things as well. Let's go through them next.
The Big Eyes egg is weak to White damage and absorbs Black damage. If destroyed, the lights come back on and we don't need to worry about the possession ability any longer.
The Long Arms egg absorbs Pale and is 0.3x vs everything else, and combined with its high HP it is the tankiest of all three eggs by far. Destroying it disables the Pale attack, and most importantly it will give us back our ability to pause. It is unquestionably the highest priority target.
The Small Beak egg only enables a single attack. It's weak to Black, but absorbs Red. It's generally the lowest priority target.
Putting it all together, the fight is basically a battle of trying to attack eggs in the Main Rooms while running away from Apocalypse Bird when it appears in those rooms-all the while keeping an eye out for possessed employees to pull back or critical meltdowns that need to be addressed before ending your day the hard way.
To that end, my overall strategy looks like this:
This fight has too many moving parts to let me stick too closely to it, but if nothing else it's a fairly strong setup. Additionally, since none of our targets are immune to White damage, our weapon setup means we won't have to do a lot of micromanagement and our Spore spears will keep our damage boosted against each target.
Everyone, attack! Make us an omelette, agents!As planned, everyone charges at Long Arms. Meanwhile, the Apocalypse Bird will sit up in Control performing attacks and mostly just killing Clerks. Every 15-25 seconds. So long as it isn't in one of the egg rooms, it's not an immediate threat to us right now. We still want to keep it on screen as much as possible.
This is what we're keeping an eye out for-it means the Apocalypse Bird is teleporting. We want to have all our agents selected whenever we see this, and be ready to run out of the room we're in.
Luckily, its first teleport sends it to Disciplinary so our agents can keep up the pressure. The particularly astute will notice that our mission is saying we've already finished 1 of our 3 suppressions. This is because the entrance, each egg, and the Apocalypse Bird itself each count as a different Abnormality for the purpose of this mission. It's theoretically possible to clear the mission by killing only two eggs and then ending the day, but there's absolutely no reason to ever do this.
The next teleport places it in Information, and out of our way again.
So… belatedly, I think I know what 'concealed the time' meant. Oh, um… is that why you're targeting the egg that appeared in the Training team first? Yeah. That's the hope, anyways. We just have to keep on top of things and hope the agents can manage. Manager, we've got a meltdown here on All-Around Helper! There are several spawning throughout the building! ...Nothing important-just ignore them, we'll round them up when we have time!While there, it spawns the first set of meltdowns, hitting Forsaken Murderer, Laetitia, and Helper. None of them are an actual threat to any of my agents, so I just ignore them and focus on hitting the egg while I have the chance.
Time to fall back, everyone!Our luck runs out on the third teleport, and Apocalypse Bird shows up in Training. I retreat our agents to the elevator and take stock of the situation.
That is a very big bird. It's hard to see it with the lights off… We could go in there and finish off the egg right in front of it. That's suicide, Gebura… But just think about it-smashing the thing's egg right in front of it. How much that would hurt. We should do it, manager. ...yeah, no. We wait.During this time I also move the camera around to see if any other meltdowns have appeared-there's one on the Shelter, but it can be ignored like the others. So far, so good.
The path is clear. Attack! Manager, more meltdowns. One's on the Firebird, sir.Credentia seems to have wound up somewhere else, so I throw Boksi at it and wait for the Long Arm egg to die.
Meanwhile, we start to see some breakouts...
But we take down the first egg, returning our ability to pause.
The hard part of the fight is officially over. Alright… time to take stock.Apocalypse Bird moved down to Welfare, and spawned more meltdowns. We'll need to have Talow and Seyser take care of the two WAW in Welfare before they cause problems. Meanwhile, Firebird still hasn't been worked… why?
I'll show you the true power of a nestborn you drat bird!...Ah. Boksi apparently got possessed and picked a fight with the Apocalypse Bird, by himself. That cancels the work order we made, so we'll just quickly retreat him to the hallway to heal before he gets murdered. Since he's hurt we'll just have Tenebrais deal with Firebird-
This is how things can and do spiral out of control while dealing with Apocalypse Bird. In many ways it boils down to a fight to suppress the Long Arms egg before there's too much to deal with in real time, and then mopping up once we can pause again.
Tylana's up in Central 1, and she's possessed. This is inconvenient since it means she's going to wander around to try and find the Apocalypse Bird, and until she gets to him she can't be controlled. Worse, since she's a long way away from it she can't get to it quickly-we won't be able to control her again for a good while.
Credentia here is in the same boat, but she seems much more into it for some reason. (it's because the animation randomly broke on Tylana.
)We do get lucky, though-Tenebrais is only being called by the Tree. We can break her out by clicking on her and send her to the Firebird so it doesn't break out-we do it, since it breaching would be a massive headache.
Meanwhile, I order a mass attack on the egg. Mr.Black is removed from the attack party, due to his Lamp E.G.O dealing Black damage.
This isn't going so badly. It's not over yet. We can't afford to get cocky, kiddo. Can I call diibs on the eeggs..? I want to study theem… Not if I get to them first. Who knows what secrets they could hold? Can you wait until these things are suppressed before figuring out what we're doing with them?!Apocalypse Bird teleports up to Control again, and I'm just circling where Mr. Black is sitting, by himself, in an elevator. This is important for later.
Music: First Trumpet
...Angela. Yes, X? So the Apocalypse Bird didn't restart the trumpet. Correct. But a scarecrow and a murderer and that All-Around Helper thing breaking out, that's definitely more of a threat than that super terrifying monstrous bird that is literally named after the freaking apocalypse. Better sound the alarm for them! The algorithms which dictate our warning system are complex and- Incredibly stupid? ...capable of providing counterintuitive results. They are incapable of mistakes. Sure. More meltdowns spawn, Firebird wants more attention and we need to deal with La Luna unless we want to deal with her as well… and with Credentia wandering around randomly we've got nobody on that side. I set this aside for a moment.
HAHAHAHA! All alone, with a scarecrow? I'll make sure you're smiling for days after this!Mr.Black engages the Scarecrow, but he's got it handled by himself.
Meanwhile, it's time to have everyone run away again.
Now it's Ppodae AND the scarecrow.
...eh, I'll toss him a Black and Red shield, he should be fine.Twee also gets tapped to run down to Disciplinary and deal with La Luna. She's got ~35 seconds on the timer to do it, and as the fastest person in the facility by a lot she'll make it there easily.
It's moved to Welfare again. Take out the egg, now! Shouldn't be any trouble.While the agents do that, I wake up this random clerk from getting pulled in by Parasite Tree. All the breaches mean it's been working overtime, and while we're only at one blessing I don't want to make more if I can avoid it.
That's basically all the time there is before the second egg gets finished off. :hellyeah:
This turns the lights back on and stops Apocalypse Bird from possessing anyone else, though it doesn't help the agents who are already possessed. Credentia continues to do… whatever she's doing.
...Can we turn the lights back off? We can't. Damn. Here's a better closeup of the Bird now that everything's working again. Its health bar is 2/3rds empty now, since there's only one egg left to crack. Unfortunately, things aren't going to get easier-now that it has fewer attacks to choose from, it can spawn meltdowns more frequently.
Like so. We have Boksi handle Nothing There, and Talow run over to handle Yin since Tenebrais is busy with Firebird.
Blue Star is also melting down, so we throw Mr. Blond at it, and I manage to remember 1.76 MHz exists as I throw Bishop up to handle it as well.
Meanwhile, Apocalypse Bird shows off the attack it gets from Small Beak. It literally fires a projectile that's like a second mouth while it fires out its first mouth and it's just not something we want to get hit with.
Think you kiddos are ready to handle an Abnormality that isn't a helpless egg? After today, pretty sure I could fight anything without getting nervous.Apocalypse Bird teleports over to Training and starts some more meltdowns in the meanwhile.
Is it… throwing a tantrum? Most birds would, if they found their eggs destroyed. I guess that makes sense… Good. Meanwhile, Bishop finishes up his work and expresses the thoughts of everyone in the entire facility.
Music: neutral 3
Gratuitous deathball shot.
Also, the music changes back again. We've got things in hand, I guess.We do have to snap Tenebrais out of the Tree's spell again, though.
Teleported again-it's in Information! Right. Continue the suppression, team. You got it, manager!Circled here is Twee, who walked all the way back up after finishing her work on La Luna. I order her to go down and help out.
Everyone, fall back! Can I stay for like three seconds to hug the big cutie? No! Move, move, move!We don't get to finish it off, as the Bird decides to come say hello again before we take down the egg.
Everyone runs from the Bird to the safety hallway, and I have circled Twee to remind everyone that she's still faithfully carrying out her last orders.
So let me tell you about how I was just about to crush the giant bird, before the Manager called me away…Meanwhile Boksi handles Nothing There before it causes a problem.
Manager, it's rearing up for an attack! Good thing there's nobody there to- Okay! I'm finally here to take care of that egg, as ordered! ...Goddammit, Twee… You're the one who didn't change the order! Yes. This is entirely your fault, manager. Lady Angela's got you there~ Ugh, it's too late to blame anyone now!I swear I'm good at this game.
Finally we get a good shot of an attack. Apocalypse Bird fires off its mouth behind everyone in front of it, where it hovers.
It then grows teeth. Damage is done at this step, so Twee is fine.
And then it fires back through everyone to go back into the Bird. Looking closely, it seems Twee took ~28 Red damage from that hit.
No matter how powerful Apocalypse Bird is, its bite just can't beat the OG. :smugbird:
It's back in wellfare, manager. Everyone, move in! Finally! Let's finish this bird off!The agents push in. The egg's owner isn't around to protect it.
The final egg falls.
A final, desperate roar crashes through the facility.
The Apocalypse Bird reaches one final time to the sky…
And then stops moving, crashing to the ground.
...Is that… did we do it? I don't even care right now. I just want to know if we did it. ...It didn't move when I nudged it. Seems like it's down for the count. Well, THAT was an eventful first meltdown period! What's next?Unlike every other Abnormality we have, Apocalypse Bird's bits have nowhere to return to. They'll be hanging around the facility for the rest of the day. Also, we can't have an Apocalypse Bird come out twice in a single day-we don't have to worry about freeing it again today.
Manager, there's incredible potential within this Bird's remains. Shall I send the data for E.G.O extraction? Yeah… do that. Hey, do you guys feel different? it's probably the wing you've got now. The what? A wing? Yes! It looks like something off of that Bird creature that appeared.The first major reward we get is a brand new E.G.O gift for all our agents: the Through the Dark Twilight wing. It's a flat +7 to all stats, and one of the most powerful gifts in the game. Everyone who lived through the day gets one, which is… everyone.
Hey, what happened to your wing? Eh, I decided it wasn't for me. I don't need a reminder of a day like this. It's your loss. I'm just sad I never got to give it a big ol' hug! Manager, hurry and find somewhere else for her to be.Everyone except Credentia, that is. She was in the middle of being blessed by Parasite Tree when Apocalypse Bird died, so she was never given the wing. Oh, well.
We also had the heart equipped for long enough to get its full data. It's called the Heart of Aspiration, and it raises HP and Attack Speed. Just slap it on someone, let it do its thing, and never put it back-that's what it's designed for. In the future we should put it on someone whose weapon doesn't ignore Attack Speed, though. Whoops.
I can't believe all of that was only on the first level… The day should speed up from here, Manager. Yeah. After that, what else is going to stop us? Crimson Dawn? Man, this place eats Crimson Dawns for breakfast. Hey, I know you're angry and all, but maybe calm down? I'm getting your room just back how you like it, sir. Don't worry. I'm not here to kick you around again. I just wanted to make sure you knew that if I'd been in the fight? It would have been over five minutes faster.Crimson Dawn.
I worked through one break today, you do not want to be in my way right now, clown. Crimson Done.
Job's done. Now to go figure out how to lean back in a chair with this thing coming out my back. Huh… you're not as energetic as normal. Tired? That's understandable.At this point, my goal is to get the day done with ASAP. The Bird seems especially prone to triggering the memory leak bug, and while my system's never given me problems before, I figured it would be a good idea to save things quickly.
Crimson Noon.
Incoming clown scorpion! I'll hold it here! Back me up! Muahahaha! Fire, my feathers! Fire!! Good teamwork, everyone!It's at this moment that I notice something absolutely awful.
Evil Kit's Temperance has been boosted to 3 by the wing. He can no longer fulfil his purpose in this facility because of this, so I need a new agent to throw at the Woodsman. Whoops.
Anyways, Crimson Noon finishing up gives us the energy we need to complete the day. And what a day it was.
Shall we end things here? Yeah, send off the signal. I need some serious sleep. It's time for E.G.O maintenance, everyone~ Good work on a hard day. Have a coffee break before we get started. Will do, sir! Man, this was a really full day, wasn't it? Keeping an eye out for meltdowns was nerve-wracking, knowing you guys were all fighting. I thought I was going to phase through the floor things were vibrating so badly! Yeah, that thing could really hit hard! Say… where'd Talow go? He went off when he heard the Noon alarm. I'm sure he's fine. ...Well, you're not pointing a gun at me, so this is kind of an improvement. We survived that thing. I survived. You wanna tell me now what's going on? Hold on, you think you're out of the woods? We did just beat the creature from inside the black forest, so. Yes. Quite literally. Talk. I will, I will… but you've still got one more day. We've dealt with the Sephirot spewing chaos all over the facility, Abnormalities escaping left and right, now this, and you're telling me what kills me isn't any of it?! Well, not usually. You are a pretty good fighter, after all. Then what? What could possibly be a threat at this point? Are you asking me because you don't know, or because you don't want to admit it? … You know… I always thought it was funny that your name was Bishop. See, Bishops move on diagonals, dashing through positions at an angle when charging straight through's impossible. They're sharp. Reliable. But if they don't pay attention, they can get their escape routes cut off by the movements of the other pieces around them. Then… just like that, they're helpless. If you're saying what I think you're saying, then I'm still in danger right now. Is that right? You do have a knack for getting yourself cornered. Good luck. Rrgh… you are so. Frustrating. Trust me, the feeling's mutual. ...And he's gone. Huh. Guess I'll page the Manager. Oh, hey, I was meaning to talk to you today. Something up? Just… curious, about something. Did you ever find anything out about the old man? Not a thing. Though, I did find something interesting. Oh? What do you have? Work records for our clerks. I always said they don't count, but... Apparently they can be handy. Turns out, there was only one other clerk assigned to the area Delta3 died. An engineering specialist, Gamma34. Huh. So another clerk offed her? That's the thing. Every other day, our clerks number from 1 to whatever the highest number there are is. We didn't see 34 again until we were over halfway through the upper layer. So, this is a fake, right? It's got to be. That… would seem accurate, yes. Then, who would have had the ability to fake a log after the fact? Only someone with technical expertise, like the sort that could load a program onto our network without Angela's notice. Hey, I never- I've pretty much got it figured out. You lied to me, Bishop. Is there anything else I should know? Are you really even freelancing down here? I told you, I never- We'll talk tomorrow. I've got things to do, and you probably have a lot to think about. …shit. I hope that Bird hurt when we struck it down. It felt good to watch its last moments of movement.Our newbies are all basically maxed out, so we'll likely be bringing some more in tomorrow.
But for now… our long day is finally over.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet the Rabbit Team captain
New Gear
Requirements: Listed above
*Not affected by Attack Speed
Requirements: Fortitude EX, Prudence EX, Temperance EX, Justice EX
New Story
The Heart of Aspiration
Bonus
VIDEO: Apocalypse Bird Suppression
Last edited by TeeQueue on Tue Nov 10, 2020 2:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
fun fact, the memory leak with apocbird is so bad my pc can't actually handle it!!! now mind you, my pc is such a potato that omaru polka would blush at it, but my first victory ended in a yin meltdown that i had to call the rabbits on, so it kinda just froze on me before i could do anything. i had to complete the event a second time, and then use a console command to fill my energy quota all the way up so i could actually end the day!!! so all in all i had to do it twice and i think i deserve compensation for that.