The agents of this thread are pretty fucking too: Let's Play Lobotomy Corporation

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Day 30: Story

Music: All Hallows' Eve
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Image I guess now everyone should know that there are consequences to forcefully entering a laboratory with restricted access. Also, you were very careless not to put the supply room key back in its proper place.

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Image We should set up a time for when keys must be returned to prevent people like you from causing this again.

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Image I wore this to prevent chemicals from splashing on my body. Don’t worry, I’m just a little tired. No need to show concern. I’ll go prepare for the upcoming experiment.

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Image For Gabriel, it was the change in his clothes. Maybe it was easier on his mind to conclude that Elijah’s death was caused by a violation of the rules. He tried harder to stick to his principles. He tried to maintain his objectivity. But perhaps his excessive rationality is what destroyed him.

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Image No, there is no point in lying anymore. I pretended that I didn’t hear his desperate cry.

Music: Strange Dream
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I moved off this line while it was mid-fadein. Whoops. :v:

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Image I heard about what you and I did yesterday. I felt like it was the first time I lost myself. It was not quite pleasant, but it was not as terrible as I expected it to be, either. Rather, I feel relieved. Not to say that all the hatred that surrounds me has completely washed away.

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Image However, if there is one aspect that has changed… It’s that I can be in as much despair as I want to now. Someday, a hope will painfully grow out of the rotten wound.

*static*

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Image It’s always the beginning that’s difficult. And your outfit still isn’t up to the company standard. I suppose I should seriously consider having penalty points apply even to the manager.

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In summary: Yesod, as Gabriel, refused to allow himself to despair over Elijah's death, and instead doubled down on making sure all procedures were properly enforced. This led to him going crazy. In the present, Yesod embraces sadness, and the catharsis that expressing it can bring. The manager still can't dress himself, and with The Rationality to Maintain Discretion acquired, the Seed of Light grows still-further to 40% completion.

Image Brutal as always, Yesod. I'm glad that Violet Noon didn't knock you out of commission.

Image It'd take more than that to even keep me out of the office for a day.

Image That's impressive. And here I was so worried that I even tried dressing properly for you today.

Image Did you, now? Your tie is crooked, your shirt is unbuttoned, and I'm reasonably sure you're still wearing sweatpants.

Image That was supposed to be off camera.

Image So you are, then?

Image ...erk.

Music: Romantic
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Image Maybe I was a tree in a past life. Hmmm… Think of a former life as the life my soul lived before being born into the current form you see now. Isn’t this fun to just think about? Ahaha.

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Image I would want to be a person with a beautiful voice, like the wisest person in the world. Then everyone would pay more attention to what I say. No, maybe that’s too much to ask? Especially with all the abilities I already have, haha. Hmm, and what about you? Who or what would you want to become?

Image "….. …… ……."

Image What kind of thought is that? Hahaha.


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Image A form made from a formless concept, isn’t it fascinating? You see, this will become a seed of sorts. Since we’ve discovered an incurable disease, it would only be fair to discover a cure for it, don’t you think?

In summary: After some talking about who they were and who they want to be in their previous/next lives, Carmen shows off a medicine made from the human subconscious. Using this, she plans to somehow cure the disease that's killing humanity's soul.


Now it's time for a side note. By completing the upper layer Sephirot's suppressions, we've been given Tiphereth's core suppression cutscene as well. However, it is as long as the entire rest of this update combined. As a result, I will be breaking it up over the next several days-since we can't even do the Core Suppression until day 37 at minimum, this won't actually affect anything important.

(Tiphereth previous story: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Music: Alone
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Image Sister, we probably aren’t going to go back to our old house anymore. Try to think of this place as your new home.

Image How can you even call this place home? It’s too different from our real home, and there’s no mom…


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Image No…. This isn’t the same at all…. Let me go home, please….

The scene fades to black here.

In summary: Lisa and Enoch, the Tiphereths past selves, talk about having left their home. Lisa wants to go back, and Enoch says that they should try and think of this place as their home. Since their new mom would be Carmen… that new home is probably the predecessor to Lobotomy Corporation.

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Image Hey, Tiphereth. Are you doing alright?

Image Of course I am! I'm always doing just fine.

Image Oh… I just thought you seemed a little nostalgic for a minute.

Image Don't you worry about me, Tiphereth. I have work to do! You just focus on your own duties.

Image Okay. Sure!


Music: never frozen bottom flows
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Image Today wasn’t the best day. Incidents happened one after another, and I’m a bit tuckered out from it. It’s a good thing that everyone has such clear-cut assigned roles. It makes it easy for them to be faithful to their task with no unnecessary contemplation or distraction.

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Image Anytime someone tries to rid themselves of their assigned role… Well, she becomes completely merciless. I myself have learned well that I have a predetermined role to play.

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Image Given that, I’ve made up my mind to simply wait. Wait for what, you may ask? All things must come to an end. So I’ll be waiting for her plan to finally come to a close.

Music: Frozen Moon
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Image This record shows that the Containment Unit’s lock failure was what allowed the Abnormality to escape…

Image ….

Image Yet to my knowledge, that door was fine for the entire day, nor was there any sign of malfunction.

Image ….

Image And the one with authority over the locking mechanisms of the Containment Unit doors is you, Lady Angela.

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Image Angela, please tell me. Why did you do it? You have to know how many employees under my department died that day.


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Image What do you mean by that?

Image Thanks to your “excellent” effort, your department’s escape ratio has been very low these days. You’re a capable Sephirah, I will give you that. I’ve never said this to anyone, and I don’t need to either, but… Abnormalities create more energy through killing people.

Image How could that be…

Image You have written several reports and papers about importing machinery to replace the human workforce that must handle dangerous tasks, no? If soulless, cheap machines were to replace those employees, then yes, the casualty rate would drop sharply. However, that would also drastically reduce our rate of energy production.


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Image We refine energy via the most efficient method available and make a profit. That is the only thing we need to take into account.

Image That’s just… How could you be so cruel…

Image Chesed, any employee who works here is extremely lucky to be hired into one of the Wings. Many people fight for a job here everyday. There will always be someone to take the place of the dead.


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Image ….

Image I understand that you’re a smart one, Chesed. However, why won’t you use that intelligence for something more meaningful?

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Image It seems you’ve taken quite a shock to this. But I warned you before, nothing will change from how it is now. Did you think I was joking around denying you?

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Image How about you try drinking a warm cup of coffee instead of wasting your time like this. You should savour your relatively high position, better than what the employees go through. Do not forget that we have one singular objective. Oh, and Chesed?


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Image So, did you enjoy your little detective game?

Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories
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Image I wonder how I look from your point of view. I bet it’s something distasteful and incapable. Something I would have hated in the past.

In summary: Chesed mentions that Angela is absolutely merciless on anyone who steps out of their assigned role in the corporation, and he reminisces about a time she released Abnormalities to murder his employees because :lobcorp:. Chesed seems to hate what he's become, but all he can do is wait for her play to end.

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Predictably, we get another time limit mission. Seven minutes is the time limit on this one, if done today.

Image ...Mm.

Image You seem down, Manager. It can't be that the time limit's too short~

Image Oh, no. Just thinking. It's been a busy week, and I haven't had the time to consider any of it yet. Now that it's setting in… Mm.. It's nothing.

Image Well, just get that work to me when you can~

Image Right. I'm just going to go breathe for a minute.

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Image Manager, what is the meaning of this?!

Image Medea, please don't just start up a call like that..!

Image ...um… oh, sorry. Thinking. Hi. What's up?

Image We have had four abnormalities show up in as many days, and I've gotten information on one one of them! I checked with the Information team this morning as well, and it's not an oversight in the delivery-the work hasn't been done!

Image Yeah, we've been... busy.

Image With all due respect, how do you expect us on the Training team to do our jobs if you don't give us at least the bare minimum of information about the Abnormalities we're supposed to manage? Abnormalities are creatures with wants and needs, and understanding them is the key to working them and getting along in this place.

Image Like I said, we've been busy.

Image In that case, Manager, are we expecting any more of those unusual events today?

Image We are not. But Chesed's got a research that means-

Image Then I look forward to receiving the relevant information by the end of the day. All of it.

Image You're not letting me off the hook on this one, huh?

Image Correct, sir. Think of it as one of the assignments the Sephirot give you.

Image You know, they give me cool upgrades I can use in exchange.

Image Then think of it as doing the basic fundamentals of your job as Manager.

Image Okay, one: ouch. And two: I'll do it, but only because I was already going to do it anyways.

Image As long as we get results, that's fine. Have a pleasant day, sir!

Image Um… see you at work today, Manager!

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Absolutely no one tries to kill us, for a change.

Bonus

Gabriel sprite


Yesod robot sprite









Image Wait, so… one of those things is in this big crate? Then why are we throwing it in storage?

Image Don't they teach you anything in the Upper layer? It came today and the room isn't ready for it yet, so we're storing it until we can place it!

Image And that must be why we're back here, right ma'am?

Image Very good! You pass.

Image And, hypothetically, just to say, what would happen were someone to open such a crate? Would it be absolute chaos, death and misery, or more… amusing japery?

Image It'd be a minor annoyance, at best. We'd have to reseal the crate, of course, but the storage area is always kept under the maximum possible deterrence at all times.

Image So we'd just see a sleeping thing in there…

Image You pass too. As expected of my team!

Image Muahahahahaha… I see!

Image :psyduck: Do you always laugh all ominously like that?

Image Of course! It's the only way to laugh.

Image Sir! Ma'am! Please help me push, this is incredibly heavy!

Image Right! Be right there!

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Kit, you fool! You know not what powers you may unleash!

oh hey we've gotten to one of the big :lobcorp: moments, the reveal that everyone dying is "working as intended" (heck, from those lines about being a "perfect AI" that wouldn't leave a trail she set an abnormality loose to make a point) and suddenly a lot of things make more sense. for example; it'd probably be pretty easy to install a few filters in the air ducts connecting to Queen Hornet's containment unit, it's a future setting with time travel. air filtration should be nothing, but the spores get everywhere because people are supposed to be dying.
also Netzach, it's no wonder he gave up on trying to help people when you consider that Angela is actively sabotaging any department that's successful at reducing casualties.

Yesod the mummy bot manages to look just as stoic and disapproving as he always does. I continue to love how well their personalities carry into the toaster designs.

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Jesus Christ, Angela.

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Gespenst wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 3:26 pm
oh hey we've gotten to one of the big :lobcorp: moments, the reveal that everyone dying is "working as intended" (heck, from those lines about being a "perfect AI" that wouldn't leave a trail she set an abnormality loose to make a point) and suddenly a lot of things make more sense. for example; it'd probably be pretty easy to install a few filters in the air ducts connecting to Queen Hornet's containment unit, it's a future setting with time travel. air filtration should be nothing, but the spores get everywhere because people are supposed to be dying.
also Netzach, it's no wonder he gave up on trying to help people when you consider that Angela is actively sabotaging any department that's successful at reducing casualties.
So, Angela core suppression when?

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Quackles wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:28 am
Gespenst wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 3:26 pm
oh hey we've gotten to one of the big :lobcorp: moments, the reveal that everyone dying is "working as intended" (heck, from those lines about being a "perfect AI" that wouldn't leave a trail she set an abnormality loose to make a point) and suddenly a lot of things make more sense. for example; it'd probably be pretty easy to install a few filters in the air ducts connecting to Queen Hornet's containment unit, it's a future setting with time travel. air filtration should be nothing, but the spores get everywhere because people are supposed to be dying.
also Netzach, it's no wonder he gave up on trying to help people when you consider that Angela is actively sabotaging any department that's successful at reducing casualties.
So, Angela core suppression when?
I'm betting that's like the final boss if we suppress all the others in time and get that seed of light to 100%. And we'll have so many more scenes to make us hate her even worse before then.

I was about to ask if there's any system-mechanical counter-force for players doing as well (one unreverted death so far) as TeeQueue is, but that's it, isn't it? We don't have the dead-obvious "Clerks GTFO" button because Angela keeps us from issuing those kinds of orders to keep the "necessary" sacrifices flowing, so there isn't any backlash from the abnormalities or Angela.

...Oh. I also know what Qlipha Angela would/will look like.
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L-l-l-l-l-look at you, manager. A pa-pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone. (panting and) Panting and sweating as you r-r-run through my corridors. (How, how) How can you challenge a perfect, immortal Artificial Intelligence?

Edit/PS: I'm also kind of surprised at boxbot Yesod. I assumed that the black goo, probably qlipphoth-stuff would count as his "body" for his issues (and that those issues were a foreshadowy case of him reacting appropriately to that stuff), and that the boxbot shell would be his "clothing", rather than him having to wear other clothing on the shell.

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I can think of four abnormalities that reward you for getting people killed, but it's a very minor boost with two of them and the others are a bit of a special case. On the other hand, you're penalized for losing agents and you have the Clerk's Rights Squad (I wish clerks didn't count...). You're definitely meant to reset if too many agents die. One or two might be an acceptable trade-off for finishing a difficult suppression, but any more and even if you survive whatever killed them in the first place, you'll lose equipment and any LOB or training you invested in them, receive a LOB penalty and have to replace them with an untrained newbie.

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I've absolutely kept some days when dealing with things we haven't gotten to yet wherein I had 30+ casualties.

My record for everyone fsking dying is 'ending the day with 3 living agents, of nearly 50.'

The next day was a memory repository, and I had 1 LOB.

...yeah, that wound up being a day 1 reset.


Talisriel wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 1:34 pm
I was about to ask if there's any system-mechanical counter-force for players doing as well (one unreverted death so far) as TeeQueue is, but that's it, isn't it? We don't have the dead-obvious "Clerks GTFO" button because Angela keeps us from issuing those kinds of orders to keep the "necessary" sacrifices flowing, so there isn't any backlash from the abnormalities or Angela.

...Oh. I also know what Qlipha Angela would/will look like.
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L-l-l-l-l-look at you, manager. A pa-pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone. (panting and) Panting and sweating as you r-r-run through my corridors. (How, how) How can you challenge a perfect, immortal Artificial Intelligence?

Edit/PS: I'm also kind of surprised at boxbot Yesod. I assumed that the black goo, probably qlipphoth-stuff would count as his "body" for his issues (and that those issues were a foreshadowy case of him reacting appropriately to that stuff), and that the boxbot shell would be his "clothing", rather than him having to wear other clothing on the shell.
also:

1: this is amazing :golfclap:

2: nope, turns out D.A.D. called Yesod their mummy for a reason.

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Day 30: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4
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Image Manager, some news: I've decided to take advantage of some... creative accounting to conveniently allow us to ration slightly more Positive Enkephalin to the gathering of information and gear than we could previously.

Image Oh? I thought you were all about following the proper protocol.

Image So long as it helps our people get the things they need to survive, I'm behind it from here forward. As the head of the Information team, so long as the i's and t's appear to be in order nobody can say a thing otherwise.

Image No arguments from me.

Yesod's bonus is arguably the weakest one so far, but it's still far from worthless-in practice our new free energy box for every 4 earned means prices have been cut to ~80% of what they originally were. This makes unlocking information much less of a pain, particularly for the highly expensive ALEPH abnormalities.

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Image Hey, I got the last piece of research all done for you.

Image Thanks for getting this done so fast.

Image Well, less time to clean up bodies means more time to handle research.

I mentioned this before, but as a reminder: This research is normally bugged and does not do anything. I've gone ahead and put in a mod that fixes this, and now our HP/SP healing bullets will be fixing 40 damage a shot instead of 25. Ideally we will still never be using these. :v:

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Image Okay, last chance-anyone else feel like going crazy on me? Tiphereths? Chesed?

Image I'm good~

Image Don't be stupid, manager.

Image Angela?

Image I shall not be 'going crazy' today, if that is your concern. There is absolutely nothing to be dealt with today, aside from your usual duties and the single mission you have been provided with.

Image Okay! Let's… Let's have ourselves a normal day.

:siren: DAY 30 CHALLENGE: A NORMAL DAY

Rules: Complete Chesed's "For the Aftermath 4" mission. Fully unlock all Abnormality research. Don't do anything insane.

...I just did three Suppressions in a row on speedrun mode, I maintain that at this point doing things normally is a challenge. :colbert:

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Image Let’s make the best of today as always~

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Image Orders from the top, everyone! Omni, Chinely, today you two are going to be doing some final polishing on your skillsets. Omni, report to Training to work Attachment with the Knight of Despair. Chinely, you'll be with Blue Star to maximize your Prudence.

Image Image Yes ma'am!

Image Got anything for me?

Image You'll be taking care of any ordeals that show up.

Image Got it, boss.

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Image It's time. Fat Sam, you're… Where is Fat Sam?

Image Hiding right behind me, boss.

Image You promised you wouldn't tell!

Image No, I just said you could hide behind me.

Image He did say that.

Image :sigh: We don't have time for this, Sam. Laetitia. Instinct work. Now.

Image Er… yes sir.

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Image Let's all do our best today! Omni's going to be joining us today, so Medea I need you to work with the Knight before he gets here.

Image Can do. As for you two, Netzach's new breakthrough has given us a novel idea for how to keep Punishing Bird contained to as small an area as possible. We'll be trying it today.

Image Oooo, a new meethod..? I can't waait..!

Image I think I can see where this is going.

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Image Let's get to it, I guess… Hm.

Image Something the matter, boss?

Image Looks like we don't have anything to do.

Image I'm hearing breaktime.

Image Yeah... that works. Have a good breaktime, everyone.

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Image Evil Kit, you're with the All-Around helper for Instinct training. Gaia, Instinct with the Judgment Bird. You guys had better not screw up!

Image ...hey, where is Evil Kit, anyways?

Image Over here, over here. I just got back from doing nothing at all of note! Muahahaha!

Image Ooo...kay then.

If an agent's Pale resistance is decent, then Judgment Bird can actually make for an effective Instinct trainer. Its rates are pretty good, and since it deals damage as a % of max HP, it's easy to hit those good damage modifiers. It's a shame that good Pale resistance is limited to only a few suits in the game.

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Image Boksi, you'll be working with Nothing There to power up your Temperance. Think you can do that?

Image Of course! Prepare to be awed by my unbridled Nothing There-working prowess.

Image Two LOB says we have to save his ass.

Image Alright, why not? You're on.

Image ...Phew. It's just assigning a basic workflow, but it's a lot more draining than it used to be.

Image You could always just focus on the newest departments. The Uppers can be ignored at this point.

Image Tempting, but no. I can't neglect our agents' growth.

This is around the point where the temptation gets really strong to start playing sloppy, neglect our training, and focus on working high-powered abnormalities with high-powered agents to speed through the day ASAP. Do not do this. Lobotomy Corporation is the sort of game that rewards diligence and thoroughness, and we don't want to wind up in endgame with anything less than a facility full of the best agents we can field, since even Hod-boosted newbies are basically a liability come endgame.

But enough of that, we have new abnormalities to look at!

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Image It's… some kind of creepy shark, alright.

Image It certainly is some form of shark.

Image Mizu's notes say that licking it is, "good for taking a mini-vacation."

Image I don't want to know how she knows that.

The good news is that we've been consistently working both our unknown Abnormalities during the Core Suppressions we've been doing, so we have enough PE boxes to unlock all their data immediately should we want to. So we do that.

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Say hello to The Dreaming Current! It's a White damage Abnormality which prefers Instinct and Attachment-which means it's terrible for damage optimization. It's decent at Repression, however, which makes it a decent Justice trainer in a pinch-and it basically never breaches. This is a good thing, since if it ever does breach it's the second-fastest thing in the entire game. Just never let it out, and everything will be fine.

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Image The second one is… a blur?

Image Not precisely. It is an entity which cannot be normally seen at all, but is nevertheless there. Your monitor has been upgraded with the technology necessary to project its form in a manner which you can comprehend.

Image Mizu's notes on this one say "much easier to beat up than the radio, but it likes when someone puts out things for it to roll in instead."

Image It's a truly mysterious being.

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This one is named Dimensional Refraction Variant, or DRV for short. Another Abnormality which deals White damage in containment, this one actually does like Insight work, making it a very useful Prudence trainer. The only caveat is that agents need to have high Temperance to work on it-any work over 40 seconds lowers its QC by one, and when it breaches… Well, we'll discuss its breach later. We'll see it soon enough, after all.

While we're here, we also have enough boxes on Little Prince to buy its last two suits, so we do that as well. That just leaves one more Abnormality to look at.

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Image A storage room?

Image A bunker of some sort, manager.

Image Okay, what do the notes say?

Image There aren't any notes. She doesn't seem to care about tool Abnormalities at all.

Image Ahh… Well… let's send her in.

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This tool is a channeling-type tool, which means one of our agents will sit in here until we tell them to leave.

Image ...this is boring. I'm bored.

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Image I'mma go see if any of the cuties need me.

Image ...did she just…

Image She did, sir.

Image :sigh: I'll… page her back in.

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In total, we'll need to keep an agent sitting in there for 3 minutes to unlock all of the data-this is quite reasonable, given that we have 7 minutes to play around with.

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About 18 seconds later, we get the name to show up: Shelter from the 27th of March.

Image ...yep. Still boring.

We need to keep having Mizu duck in and out within 30 seconds, making actually farming the information a little bit more complicated than some other Abnormalities. It's vitally important that we do this, unless we want to be forced to retry the day.

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If I were thinking, I'd have cleared out the agent selection in the upper-right so we could see the timer properly, but at this point we're at 5:07 left and we're less than a quarter of the way done.

Image Hm. We need to pick up the pace a bit.

Image Having trouble?

Image Not exactly.

Remember, the Dawn is worth 10% of our total as well, and takes little time-we're actually doing pretty okay on energy right now. We just need to focus on the Shelter, which we'll do while working on everything else.

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Image Thank you, Hod. I was actually starting to miss that.

Like Malkuth, Hod also gets new lines for everything, from escapes to deaths to team wipes now that she's revealed her true form. This is the case with every Sephirot, so I'll probably include all the different lines as a bonus update after we finish dealing with all the Core Suppressions.

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Image I've taken the liberty of arranging Talow and Kaori to intercept the Punishing Bird, manager. No matter where it goes, it'll have to run into one of them.

Image Very nice. Thank you, Hod.

With Netzach healing us in corridors, we can now indefinitely keep people stationed nearby for the bird to pick on before going back home. We could also have just one agent sit in the corridor, but since agents walk back and forth in corridors it can take a bit longer for the bird to finish with them vs attacking an agent in an elevator.

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Image This is much better… I really prefer having a real live cutie in the room, you know?

Image When did she-

Image She wanted to work with an Abnormality, so she did. No point getting worked up over every little thing our agents do, sir.

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Green Dawn spawns not long after. We're about halfway through our timer, and have 342/800 energy. Defeating the Dawn will give us 10% of our goal, putting us at 422. Our next meltdown is a Crimson Noon, which will be worth another 15% if we defeat it, giving us 542/800 accounted for overall. We're making excellent time.

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Image Making a note for later: assigning agents out to intercept Punishing Bird for the day makes fighting these things take a lot longer.

Image Fighting alone would do that. Do you want me to call for backup?

Image Don't bother-it's just a dawn, after all.

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The entire affair lasts about 20 seconds total. It would be hard to overstate just how far we are beyond Dawn ordeals-I might start skipping over them on longer days. In the meanwhile, we've been slowly working towards our goal with the Shelter-we're over 2 minutes of the 3 we need now.

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Image ...wait, what's that last one?

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Image Well, I'll be. Mizu's short attention span may well have just saved everyone's lives.

Image What a nice outcome for our agents.

This is the downside to Shelter, and it is a big one. Every 30 seconds it causes some other Abnormality to do its Bad Stuff-this could be anything from Blue Star popping out of containment to say hi, to 1.76 MHz staticing up the facility, to Punishing Bird beating on Talow for the hundredth time today. One of the most common mistakes managers of any skill level make is sending someone to deal with a meltdown on this Abnormality, and then forgetting about it until the facility is filled with WAW and ALEPH tier threats wreaking havoc on everything.

This is usually followed by a retry.

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We put SeyserKoze to work on finishing off the observation. We need to log 55 more seconds with the Shelter, and we have 3 minutes and change to do it with-plenty of time.

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Image Hey, manager?

Image Talk to me, Bishop.

Image This is just a thought, but… you haven't called in the past few days. Everything okay?

Image Oh, yeah. I'm just busy piecing everything together bit by bit. You don't have to worry.

Image If you say so, boss. Did you figure out anything juicy?

Image Nothing I can tell an employee, sadly. No big, it's all old news anyways.

Image Is it related to those events we've been having?

Image Not exactly. Like I said, nothing I can tell an employee.

Image ...Alright. Talk to you later, manager.

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Image Now, can you turn into my grangran? No, not like that. She's got a more dour look. There you go. Now give her a pointier nose. Pointier. Less pointy. Perfect. You're a pretty good whatever-you-are, aren't you?

Image ...This only counts as mildly creepy, I guess.

Image So long as they're making energy, I think it's just fine.

Image Fair enough-

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Image

Image :mad:

Image But I don't knoow where your friends aare…

Image :colbert:

Image You smell theem..? Ooh, you mean the one in Centraal…? I guess I know thaat one… but not any otheers…

Image :doh:

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Image Manager, the research is finished. That is all of it.

Image Perfect. Do we have time to get all the gear together?

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Image Less than two minutes remain on Chesed's deadline, and the Crimson Noon has just appeared. We will need to ensure that our energy goals are met first and foremost.

Image You're right. Where is it?

Image My clerks are sustaining losses, manager.

Image Information it is. I'll send Safety over to handle it.

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Only 1:48 left to go, but as soon as we suppress this Noon we'll gain 120 energy and be just over our threshold.

Image We've got this, you guys run away.

:v: We can't! You're our heroes!

Image Manager…

Image Right, right. I'll… red bullet the one taking the hits, at least.

Image You know what the best part about suppressing Crimson ordeals is? They're always smiling like good boys and girls do!!

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Image Suppression took 17 seconds. Clown split has been confirmed, 1:31 remaining.

Image I have eyes on one in training!

Image Get Medea on it, where are the others?

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Image One in upper Central! Sending the team to suppress it now, naturally.

Image Lower as well. Boksi's already in the room to handle it.

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Image Suffer you drat ordeal! Grovel on the floor before me! Muahahahaha!!!

Image I appreciate the enthusiasm, but this is serious! We're in a hurry!

Image I just got out of training with Judgment Bird, and now this… well, duty calls!

Image One minute and 17 seconds remain.

Image Come on…

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Image We have done it. Congratulations, X.

Image Alright. We should have just enough time for one last round of work. Let's knock that out and then call it a day.

Image I'll get my agents right on it, manager.

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Image Look… Since this is the last work for the day, I just wanted to thank you. For everything. I've learned so much from you-how to stand, how to talk, how to constantly lament a past darkness that's overtaken my entire soul, I feel like this day has progressed my own development forward by leaps and bounds. I really appreciate it, Knight of Despair.

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Image Well, I hope you had a nice easy day while I did all the work the department was assigned, Tenebrais.

Image Hey, you had to stop having me carry your sorry ass eventually. I'm outta here come tomorrow, mosshead.

Image You're… what? I can't have heard that right.

Image I'm outta here. New department's opening up, and someone's gotta run it. I made a bit of an impression during the interview yesterday.
Last night… wrote:
Image I'm calling dibs. Give me the position, now.

Image It's not that simple. We have to consider-

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Image ...Aand I've considered! It's yours. Congratulations!

Image Um… I'll get someone to fix the wall, manager!
Image I'd say it's been real, but it's only been real annoying.

Image Yes, I won't miss a ruffian like you one bit either. It'll be nice to be able to breathe through my nose again.

Image Please. You've always been a mouthbreathing loser, mosshead.

Image Hnhn… Oh, I won't miss you.

Image Same. Don't die before I can kill you.

Image I won't be dying at all.

Image It must be nice to have such good friends.

Image I… really don't think that's friendship, Tiphereth.

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Image Work's done.

Image That's the last one. Angela, where are we at?

Image Three seconds remain.

Image Not enough time for any more works. The gear?

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Image We have managed to manufacture everything except for The Dreaming Current's weapon.

Image Good enough. We'll have to make it tomorrow.

This isn't a very big loss-Ecstasy is easily the worst WAW weapon. We can do without it for one extra day.

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Image That was a quiet day. Let's have some more like it in the future, hm?

Chinely, Boksi, and Fat Sam have joined the maxout club. :woop:

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Finally, since the Bird has not yet been placed, we do not select a new Abnormality today. This is because the game remembers the Abnormality we've already chosen, and it stays in storage until it's properly placed. This also could have happened when opening Safety and Training, but the way things worked out meant that we placed each Abnormality as we got it. Things simply advance to day 31.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Gebura.

New Guidelines

The Dreaming Current
Dimensional Refraction Variant

New Gear

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Requirements: Prudence 3

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Requirements: Level 2, Temperance 2

New Story

The Dreaming Current
Dimensional Refraction Variant
Shelter from the 27th of March
Last edited by TeeQueue on Mon Oct 12, 2020 4:11 am, edited 2 times in total.

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:allears: I knew Tenebrais was a shoe-in for that promotion.

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Tenebrais deserves the promotion full stop.

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I was very happy to get Ecstasy when it came around because I was lacking white damage at the time

now I have too much white damage and am desperately angling for birbs or nothing there

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I like how the Shelter, both in the story and in the game, is a giant room-shaped monkey's paw. It certainly is the safest place on Earth, because it's making the rest of the world crappier to compensate. Although I'm kinda curious what would require an Agent to duck in cover for a short while, since anything that would require that is just as likely to massacre someone else in the near-vicinity.

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The birds can smell each other? Hmmmmm...

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Refreshing return to "normal", for a certain definition of normal. Looking forward to a new department.

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Abnormality Roundup 7

Every agent is Level 5 except for Evil Kit, who's hit level 4 yesterday and is well on their way to being as maxed as I want them-their Temperance will never go above 2. We have all three pieces of Birdzodia ahead of when I absolutely need them. Our gear situation is doing as well as it can be, given what we've had to work with this run. We ran through Chesed's missions while handling the first handful of Core Suppressions, and it proved to be significantly less trouble than I thought they'd be.

We're doing well. Too well, honestly, and it worries me because now I'm concerned that this luck can't hold out. Something's got to give-though I'm hoping that it won't because I would love to have an easy endgame.

We'll be adding on 3 new agents with the new department, so I'll need to focus on maxing out the agents we have and training up the new guys for the next five days. It shouldn't be too much trouble, and that is exactly what worries me. We have to remember that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

The Little Prince
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If The Little Prince didn't have those absolutely maddening rules to keep track of when working with it, it would be the perfect Abnormality. Its worst work rate is 40% in Instinct, which is still paradoxically pretty good for training Fortitude, its Black damage makes it good at training any stat, and it's got Repression as one of its highest work types. On paper, it's amazing! It's just that in practice it may not be worth using due to the complexity of remembering when to do Insight and to trade off works with other Abnormalities. Despite this, it's still an absolute must-take due to its E.G.O weapon-the Spore spear.

This weapon is the White damage booster, damage boosters being a series of three WAW weapons which each have a 25% chance per hit of adding a 1.5x multiplier to all the damage of a specific type dealt for 3 seconds. We get 3 spears from The Little Prince (versus 2 of the Red weapon or 1 of the Black weapon), and they attack faster than the other weapons by a large margin as well-making it fairly easily the best of the trio. It's not for everyone, but since the weapon makes it a must-take I recommend playing around with it the first time to see if the training potential outweighs the complexity-even if for me it really doesn't.


The Dreaming Current
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In a word: Meh! In several words: Those work numbers are incredible but it deals only White damage, so it's an easy to handle abnormality that in return doesn't give us the damage modifiers we need to have really good training sessions with it. It's got a ranged White weapon, which can be useful-but it's the worst weapon in the entire WAW tier in terms of damage. It also gives us a lot of suits, but the suits are a slightly worse Hornet, making them second-string even among WAW gear. In return for being incredibly lackluster, it's also never going to break out unless we miss a meltdown on it or something similar to that. I hope to show off its breakout at some point, but… we'll have to see since right now we do not have any agents capable of making it breach. Altogether, it's a very safe Abnormality pick for almost any facility-and the rewards it gives are lackluster enough to match.


Dimensional Refraction Variant
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DRV has two duties in a facility. The first is fairly obvious: maxing out an agent's Insight at ludicrous speeds. The second is less so: its breach is easy to trigger and on the easier side of WAWs to deal with, making it helpful for dealing with missions where we need to beat up Abnormalities. It doesn't grant a suit, but its weapon is a very reliable source of White damage and combos nicely with our Spore spears. For what we have coming up, we want as many good sources of White damage as possible-this fits the bill nicely. Overall, it's a good addition to any facility and I can't wait to show what happens when it breaks out and runs wild on the facility.


Shelter from the 27th of March
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Ahh, Shelter-what else is there to say that hasn't already been said? Remember to stay out of it or it will ruin your day with mysterious Abnormality releases. It's that simple. With Abnormalities like this one and Yang where forgetting to deactivate them can lead to retries, I find it best to keep it on the screen and dedicate my attention to them until I've seen them start up, and then immediately have the work end/the tool return. It's not a very good Abnormality overall, but there are enough shenanigans we can get up to with it to make it worth picking.

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Huh, interesting.

How do you suppress an abnormality that's, like, 1.76 but weirder, anyway?

We actually have one use for the shelter already; it can protect agents from the Queen Hornet's spores, granted this is pretty worthless if you have the shield bullets, but it's an option if you want to save ammo.
also it can apparently bug (heh) out and prevent the spore effect from cancelling so your agent is trapped in a cloud of bee particles for the rest of the day.

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Updated the fanart post, and also added Indigo noon to the Ordeal bonus update.

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Day 31: Story

Music: Alone
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Image You know we don’t have to. Besides, Carmen told us that we didn’t have to worry about anything here, too.

Image Of course, it’d be really fun to spend time with you here, without a care in the world. Sometimes I imagine a future like that. It would be a very happy one. But, how would we be able to find meaning in our lives there?

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Image We were only able to live on thanks to an unexpected turn of events. Settling for simple comfort in this place is not what I was born to do. And it shouldn’t be, either.

Image Your words are too hard for me. Why do you have so many thoughts on your mind? They say too much thinking might make you a weird person.

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Another fade to black. Tiphereth 5 basically starts with a lot of little scenes put together (which is very lucky for me since I'm cutting it up over a few days :ssh: ).

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Image I never loved my own life for even a second. How nice would it be to live in a happy world next time?

Image Enoch… Are you hurt?

Image No, it doesn't hurt one bit.


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In summary: Enoch agrees to help with the proto-Lobotomy Corporation's tests, and in the end he winds up dying because of it. He remains optimistic to the end. :smith:

Image Tiphereth, you're doing it again.

Image ...huhwhat? No I wasn't! You were!

Image It's okay to take a break if you're not feeling well. I can cover for you.

Image Thanks, but no thanks. I'm alright. Tiphereth is the greatest Sephirah in the entire company, after all.

Music: Dungeon - Spooky Subway
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Music: Wake Up
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Image That’s great! Now I can really see what a jack-of-all-trades can do. To be frank, I thought I was pretty great too. But now, watching you makes me think I was terribly full of myself.

Image ....

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Image I think I would make a serviceable assistant. It’s good that you’re up and passionate again. It is an honor to take part in a project with a scholar I respect. Is something the matter? …. Are you okay right now?

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Image If a ray of sunlight breaks your heart and collapses your mind with longing and nostalgia… And seeing plants outside evokes an unknown rage, tearing down your rational thought… Then we have no choice but to stay underground.

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In summary: We remember B offering to become our assistant. Angela cuts in and states that we went underground because the simple act of being outside was enough to send A over the edge.

Image Wait… that's why we're underground? Because she.. Died?

Image Other managers found it difficult to believe as well. I recommend shutting your eyes and picturing it. The green grass, the sun on your face as you-

Image -This is stupid, let's just move on.

Image Of course, X.

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Image That's the plan. Looking forward to-

Image Skip the smalltalk, there's a battle to prepare for. See you later, if you survive.



Image ...yeesh. She didn't even look over at the camera.

Image She is quite focused, Manager. I'm sure you'll have more time to speak tomorrow.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: :ducksiren: Bird is the word :ducksiren:







Image Mmmmmmmm…

Image Kaori? What're you up to?

Image I've been assiigned to the iinfoo team again… That means another chaance…

Image I'm not sure how that leads to you hiding in here and peeking down the entire hallway with those binoculars.

Image You don't understaand… I'm sure that D.A.D.'s one of theem…

Image An abnormality?

Image An aalieen..! I'm going to traack it down and proove iit..!

Image Um… okay. And how long have you been having this delusion?

Image It's noot a deluusion..! It's the truuth..!

Image ...Kaori, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me.

Image What foor..?

Image Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a standard psychiatric evaluation.

Image ...I'm noot craazy…

Image You're thinking that one of our team captains may be an alien. That's a little crazy.

Image I don't thiink, I'm suure..! We've been iinfiltrated..! Proobed..!

Image Okay, I've seen enough. Come on, Kaori, we'll get you all taken care of.

Image Nooo..! I don't waannaa..! I'm innocent I tell yoou..! Innnoceent..!

I feel like I owe our good friend Small Bird an apology because; oh boy, we finally get to meet my favourite Bird. Its design is great, its mechanics (both for QC and supression) are fun and its story... lets just say it's fitting for the third Bird.

also RIP Kaori.

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Day 31: Gameplay mini

Music: First Trumpet
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Image We have been in this day for five minutes. Does anyone want to tell me why is there a fish in the middle of Central?

Image I think I may know, sir. Look at this.

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Image Welcome to the team, you two. I'm sure you've heard of me, so I don't need to introduce myself.

Image I've heard a few things, most of them… words.

Image I heard you were the best captain of all time, Boksi. Related note, I'm going on break.

Image What? But the day just-

Image That's not very best-captain-ever of you.

Image ...Alright. Fine! I suppose I can allow it! At least grab the Yang amulet before you go, we're reading a meltdown.

Image Sure, I guess. :rolleyes:

Image:doh:

Image And now there's fish, Manager.

Image Yes. Great. Wonderful.

Image Do we engage?

Image We've never faced these two before. It's dangerous.

Image Let's observe for now.

Image ...ugh, fine. :mad:

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Yang (fish mode) doesn't actually attack, instead releasing a wave that heals HP and SP of nearby employees. It isn't completely defenseless, mirroring any damage it takes as White damage to its attacker.

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Yin (fish mode), on the other hand, is kind of a beast. It deals 25 Black damage periodically in an aura around itself, and has a special laser attack which deals 100 Black damage. Trying to suppress them is incredibly difficult, as if either one is suppressed, the other must be suppressed in a relatively short time or else it will revive at full HP.

The two of them select a room in the facility to meet up, and both begin moving towards it. In this case the room was Central 3, so despite Yang starting on Central 4 and Yin starting just to the left of it, they both go through the entire room to get to their destination.

Image Welfare is open as a shelter. The agents should hide there.

Image Let's do it, then. Everyone, report to Welfare.

I hide most of the agents in Welfare while the fish are swimming towards each other, because when they meet…

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Image They've merged!

Image Brace for impact!

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At the end of the beginning, the dragon which now became a great avatar soared through the sky.
-Yin's story


So yeah. Giant dragon.
abnormality with a full QC it flies through to 0.
Image Status report, everyone!

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The dragon flies through the facility, and does two things. The first is that it instantly inverts the HP/SP of anything it touches. 100% HP becomes 0%, 47% becomes 53%, and so on. Given that everyone in our facility was at full health, this means it would kill anything that it touched. The second thing that it does is instantly lower the QC of any abnormality with a full QC it flies through to 0. This means that in addition to the list above, we have Queen Bee firing off some spores.

The birds all being freed also triggered something, but nothing came of it and we'll cover it later so let's skip over that bit. I'll bring it up later when it matters, I promise. :ssh:

One other note: while the girl Tiphereth is currently considered in meltdown status by the game, the boy Tiphereth is not. This means that the game will still check and see which Tiphereth is saying the line when Central has a breach or death, and if it's the boy then the line still shows up. That's really neat, and I didn't know about it until grabbing this footage.

Music: STOPS
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So anyways, we've got Blue Star out in Disciplinary, and I decide to see if our facility can take care of it now.

Image Finally. Let's get to work, people!

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We wind up taking some casualties, Evil Kit and a couple of newbies, but our damage is much better than it was-with White bullets we're able to take the thing out!

Image Manager, our losses aren't sustainable.

Image Right-we'll be rewinding then. Let's just see what we can manage.

Image Blue Star's been suppressed. With extreme prejudice.

Image Let's handle the new bird now, then.

Music: Second Trumpet
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The darkness in Disciplinary is because of our new Abnormality, which has just succeeded in killing our last newbie. We'll cover exactly what it does in the full update, but for now? :iiam:

Image Gebura, what the hell are you doing down there?

Image Making sure we hurt this thing as much as it hurts ours! Nobody retreats 'til it's dead!

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Image Gebura, your musclebrained strategies are getting my agents killed.

Image Maybe if you weren't so damn soft on them, they wouldn't fall over at a stiff breeze!

Image Hey, that's not too nice~

Image Less talking, more attacking! Regroup and crush it!

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Image It's really hard to see what's going on.

Image We're making it hurt. That's all that matters.

The suppression ends without incident after that.

Image Manager, the lights are back on!

Image Let's take a look at what happened to Twee and-

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Image What the..?

Image They've been decapitated.

Image And so precisely it left Twee's E.G.O. gifts and the shield our new agent had behind!

Image Holy… Good thing we beat it. Everyone, back to your-

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Image What.

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Image It's moving again. Get ready to take it out, people.

Image No. No. Nuh-uh. Not happening. I've seen enough-we can go back now.

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Retry Count: 7

Yeah, I just completely forgot that Zeta21 was holding Yang until it was too late. Don't do that. We could have survived, but with a handful of agents down and Twee (who has the Good E.G.O gifts) being one of them, I didn't feel like keeping the day. This is an example of what days in this facility would probably look like if I didn't know what I was doing. Lobotomy Corporation does not pull punches.

But mostly, it serves as an object lesson in what happens if Yin and Yang breach. :eng101:

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Birds, but we actually find out what the new one does.







Image ...Ah, well. That does it for this timeline, I guess.

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Image I should probably move on to the next one.

Image ...

Music: Town - VIP Lounge
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Image Eh, a week or two of vacation first won't hurt. No rush.
Last edited by TeeQueue on Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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I realized I had a thing that wouldn't fit well into the update, but that I wanted to show off, and so I made it a mini-update. Enjoy. Might do this again in the future, might not, who can say? :shrug:

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Hurray, a week or two vacation from the chaos that is Lobotomy Corp.

yup that sure exploded, always fun to see what happens when things go sideways, and the more abnormalities you have to manage the easier it is for something to trigger the avalanche of crashing plates. make a few bad picks and your facility is balancing on a knife edge.
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who would have thought that Sesame street was a good place to find abnormalities?

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oh fun fact, yin-yang's ability technically doesn't set qliphoth counters to 0. it actually inverts them. the problem is i think it doesn't work on 0 counters if they're breaching, so abnos with a qliphoth counter of 1 max will just be activated, and ones with a 2 max are similar--at 1 nothing will happen, since it's already the sky and the land the exact middle. you don't get to see the inversion except with abnos with at least 4 max that fluctuate tho, so might as well be setting to 0

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That’s interesting AF, tbh. I’ll have to update that information in somewhere. Thanks.

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So if there was a non-breaching abnormality with a Qliphoth counter, and that counter was at 0, Yin-Yang would raise it back up? Or to be exact, would that fix -15?

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Angel wrote:
Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:40 pm
oh fun fact, yin-yang's ability technically doesn't set qliphoth counters to 0. it actually inverts them. the problem is i think it doesn't work on 0 counters if they're breaching, so abnos with a qliphoth counter of 1 max will just be activated, and ones with a 2 max are similar--at 1 nothing will happen, since it's already the sky and the land the exact middle. you don't get to see the inversion except with abnos with at least 4 max that fluctuate tho, so might as well be setting to 0
That's super interesting.

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Day 31: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4
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Image Well… that sucked.

Image Do you just immediately screw up whenever you meet a new Sephirot?

Image I didn't have any problems with Chesed!

Image He was fine with most of the upper layer, too.

Image Maybe you two just intimidated him, hmm?

Image It doesn't matter now. Let's get back out there.

Image Hold on a sec. Are the newbies still ready to go?

Image Image Image

Image Fresh out of training! They won't even remember getting sucked into Blue Star, manager.

Image Alright, let's get this back underway.

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Image Time to kick some ass.

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Image Credentia. Mizu. Good to have you.

Image Good to be here.

Image I just came for the brand new cutie.

Image Get to it then, I guess. I hear we've got someone coming down to handle things after that.

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Image These clothes are kind of…

Image They're a colorful mess. Hope we get new ones soon.

Image Bad news about that. Since they're good all-around but not great at anything, those are the new agent suits-we're just now putting them to work. Also, they're bright and colorful!

Image So you can pick our bodies out quick after a breach.

Image Um… yes, actually, though with the protection they provide it hopefully won't be necessary in your case. You're with Laetitia, Chiral.

Image Ooh, I've heard good things.

Image How about me?

Image Well… Hod was really impressed by your approach to handling abnormalities, so we've decided to send you to Disciplinary today to work with the new one.

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Image Let’s make the best of today as always~

Image Gee, Talow, you look great.

Image Just a good night's sleep. You know how it is, right?

Image Sure do! I use a dreamcatcher to take care of nightmares so every night is a good night of sleep.

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Anyways, let's meet our new Abnormality properly. It is a bird carrying a lamp.

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Image My, your eyes are lovely. Can I stare into all of them? Uh-one at a time of course. :swoon:

It deals Black damage and likes Attachment work, making it a very useful Abnormality.

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Image Test one: discuss hobbies. Hmm… Do you have any favorite ways to pass the time?

It's actually particularly useful for training new agents, since it deals a decent amount of damage but probably won't kill them even on a poor result. :eng101: Our overall strategy today is to have Robin work with Big Bird, Chiral with Laetitia, and as for Morgan…

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Image I appreciate your blessing, Miss Knight. Please be kind to the next agent to come along-she's brand new here.

Knight of Despair will work fine.

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Image How was your first work? Aren't these cuties wonderful?

Image I feel about half-dead and half-crazy. ...I'll have to see if that happens every time.

Robin's work gives us enough boxes to unlock the basic information, so we do that.

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Say hello to Big Bird, everyone!

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...no, not that one. Anyways, Big Bird is the last of the Bird trio that I've been hunting for the entire game, and is our first Clerk's Rights Squad Abnormality. Those useless clerks who have been running around all game now matter-but we'll get into that later.

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Image Violet Dawn coming soon, manager.

Image Should be easy enough. When it gets here, we'll crush them before they have a chance to go off.

Image You're well-prepared for this.

Image Obviously. 'Know your enemy' is rule number one.

Overall, Chiral can work Laetitia about twice as often as the other two can work with KoD and Big Bird every meltdown level, since I'm trying to play things very safe. Keep that in mind for later.

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Image I always feel a little bad about doing Repression work on you, but it feels safe enough so I guess you don't mind.

The rest of the works are getting filled in by rounding out stats on our other agents who still aren't maxed-like SeyserKoze here.

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Image My own hobbies include creating and testing hypotheses. From the way you stare, I assume you do not particularly care. ...Interesting.

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Image Oh, hey there kiddo. Where have you been?

Image Compulsory therapy session… It waas… baad…

Image Huh. What for?

Image Medea thinks I'm craazy… That's soo silly, riight..?

Image We're all a bit crazy around here.

Image Yeaah… The ones of us who aren't aalieens, anywaays…

Image Oh? And who would those be?

Image Ooh… yoou knoow…

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Image We'll have to wait on Punishing Bird, Hod. Meanwhile-

Image All agents, engage and destroy the closest enemy! Show no mercy!

Image Uh… that's usually my line.

Image Suppression is my life, newbie. Given how yours went last time, you can just leave this to me.

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Image That wasn't the usual guy giving the order, was it?

Image You mean the manager?

Image Definitely not. I think we've got a new character.

Image That'd be the new Sephirah. Her department's just opened up.

Image Definitely a new character.

Image I bet she's got some kind of dark backstory.

Image ...real life isn't those shows you guys watch, y'know. :sigh:

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Image You smell your friend again? Well, I definitely hope you find them.

Image :shobon:

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Violet Done.

Image Suck on that, ordeals.

Image ...Y'know what, this is fine. At least she likes her job.

Image Our models have shown that enjoyment of one's position increases work productivity by 5%. It is negligible enough to be ignored, however when a synergy occurs it is not a bad idea to keep it in place.

Image Why am I not surprised to hear that job satisfaction is optional..?

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Image And now, I shall tilt all the woodland pictures in your room so that they're a little bit off kilter! Muahahahaha!!

Image ...speaking of job satisfaction…

Image They're a natural at being exactly too much of a jerk to set the Woodsman off. It's commendable.

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Image Late noon today…

Knowing when Ordeals can spawn can be useful for trying to plan our way through some of the harder missions and Core Suppressions. For Noons, they have a roughly equal chance to spawn on levels 4, 5, and 6. Since our 4 and 5 are both now confirmed to be meltdowns, we know that it'll come when we move from level 5 to 6. That's pretty good for learning about Big Bird in peace.

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Speaking of, we've just hit all of the information on Big Bird. To summarize: it has a QC of 5. Every 5 deaths in our facility (clerks or agents) lowers its QC by 1. We can raise its QC by having good results, meaning that we should be fine so long as we don't have a lot of deaths in a short period of time.

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Image Oh, hey, that's a Green Noon next, right?

Image That is correct, manager.

Image Should be fine. You ready to go, Gebura?

Image Born ready.

Image And Yang is melting down again…

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Image Tiphereth, have Fat Sam return it immediately.

Image Yes, manager.

This time, we don't accidentally murder the entire facility. Progress! :dance:

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Image I've heard you don't quit days before we've got the new gear. Is that right?

Image You heard right. Thanks for the update, Angela, but we'll keep going 'til we have all the new stuff.

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Image Everything's been going super well today. The training videos really make it all look much more dangerous than it is.

:v: Oh, yeah, it's not really all that dangerous around here at all.

Image Really?

:v: Yep! Right up until something happens that kills all of us clerks, but we have Tenebrais to protect us so we'll be fine.

Image ...the Disciplinary captain?

:v: She's incredible. :swoon:

Image ...huh. I'll have to meet her.

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Image It's good that you're getting exercise, but I'd really rather you stayed in containment.

Image :shrug:

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Image Here it comes.

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Image First target's directly east, in the Bird Corridor. Get to it!

Image Finally!

Image Hey… wasn't Big Bird at 5 a second ago?

Green Noons are suddenly dangerous again due to their ability to shred clerks like nobody's business. Since it only takes 25 deaths to go from full QC to a breach, and our facility currently has ~70 clerks, the 8 Green Noons that spawn now will quickly chew through enough to cause a problem.

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Image We've taken care of one in Central, but we suffered some losses.

Image It took a moment to get into melee range, sir! The fault is mine!

Image It's just two clerks, it should be fine.

Image Yeah, Clerks don't-uh. I mean. You did the best you could.

Image ...appreciated, manager.

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:v: Where's our backup?

:j: I'm sure it's on the way.

Image Manager, Welfare is…

Music: First Trumpet
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Image Ah, it's no rush I suppose. They're all dead now, anyways…

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When Big Bird breaches, the department it's in is shrouded in darkness. This is important as it shows the Bird's area of control.

Image All agents, engage! Show no mercy!

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Image It's… biting the head off of our clerk!

Image That explains what we saw last time…

Big Bird's only attack is an instant-kill chomp in melee, which decapitates the target. However, there are conditions before it can be used on an agent. When suppressing Big Bird, there's a tell to look out for-we want to watch its lamp.

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Image It's trying to do something! Everyone, fall back!

When it starts to shake it, we want to have our agents retreat. This is because it's trying to activate its special ability.

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This manifests as a yellow halo over an agent's head. Once they're marked Big Bird will bite their head off when gets into melee with them, becoming invincible until the chomp is completely finished. The halo does protect the agent from other sources of damage, but over time it turns red-when this happens the agent is removed from our control and forced to walk up to Big Bird. When this happens, they're doomed.

Image How long are we retreating?

Image Until this tingling down my spine stops.

Luckily, all we have to do to clear it is leave the department! Thus, Big Bird suppression has a simple pattern: attack, wait for the lamp to shake, disengage, send everyone out (or just the person affected, if you prefer the added micro), and then re-engage.

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Image We've got this cutie taken care of!

Image Thank goodness it's simple-

Image Don't jinx it!

That said, it's vitally important that we pause all work whenever suppressing Big Bird, and also to make Punishing Bird go back home before any time we might suffer lots of casualties. If not...

Image Let's have everyone get back to work. We can finish this off while we're letting the newbies train.

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Image Huh… Punishing Bird seems really restless. Is there something the matter?

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Image It's just Punishing B-

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Image That can't be good.

Image Judgment Bird just breached containment as well! What are you doing, manager?!

When two of the Bird trio have escaped, the third automatically breaches and starts this event. During it, all three of the Birds are completely invincible and cannot be suppressed.

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Image I came up here to get away from the combat, and now there's this door..? Uh… Is anyone getting this?

Image Manager, it looks like the birds are trying to head over there.

Image Contact the others, have all available agents try attacking it.

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Image Oh hell, already? Twee, come on.

Image Huh? Oh, sure. What's up?

Image We need to destroy that door or we're all dead.

Image Oh… okay!

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Image Judgment Bird's almost in the portal!

If we manage to destroy the door, we can end the event early. However, the door has a lot of HP and 0.3 resists in all damage types. Moreover, whenever a bird enters the door it gets healed. It's very rare for the event to end by having the door die-but this actually happened in the last update. The dragon's flight freed multiple birds, but the door then spawned in its path, and… well, it was at full health and not immune to dragon. :v:

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Image Ooo, the door got a new bit..!

Image That's bad, isn't it?

Image Very bad.

Image We've got every agent in the whole damn facility focused on the door right now. There's no way it can hold out.

Pay careful attention to the HP bar here vs the next time we see it.

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All that work undone. :(

Image HAHAHA! I never expected a piece of architecture could possibly be so resilient!

Image Who cares?! If we just keep smashing it, it's sure to-

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Image Oh, crap.

Image The lights…

Image It means the last thing is near. We don't have much time.

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Big Bird is also almost always the last to arrive during this event, since it stops to chomp on any clerks it sees along the way.

Image There's no way… this door's too sturdy to break! Let me out there, I'll-

Image You are forbidden from taking the floor at this time, Gebura.

Image We don't have any other choice! Chesed, prep an E.G.O for me!

Image You shall do no such thing, Chesed.

Image If Lady Angela says so, I'll have to hold back~

Image If that bird gets through that door, what will happen?

Image That is unknown at this time.

Image :sigh: Alright. Then there isn't any other choice.

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Freeing the birds cost us 11 LOB, but it was worth it to show what happens.

Image What?! We could have taken it!

Image Not without a plan.

Image This could have been avoided if the clerks weren't left to die, manager.

Image Yeah. I guess they do count now, huh. Man, I didn't get to extract that new gear...

Congratulations are in order for Omni and SeyserKoze for hitting the maxout club. I also want to draw attention to one other thing, the stat gains of our newbies.

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Chiral had more works with Laetitia than either of the other two had with their WAW-class Abnormalities, but the damage the WAWs dealt was enough to let our other agents max out while leaving Chiral in the dust. There was even time for some Prudence and Fortitude work. The takeaway from this is pretty simple: Once Hod's suppression is complete, we really should be using WAW or better Abnormalities to train our agents if we can. There is one exception to this, which I'll get into later, but for the most part WAWs are the most efficient way to get our stats up now.

Music: never frozen bottom flows
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F-01-18: Over time, her unbearable sorrow grew into a mournful obsession, covered in countless, lengthy hairs.
T-04-53: Bearing the hope to return to dust, it shall go back to the grave with all that desires to live.
D-04-108: 'Ease yourself, do you not have need of the blessing?'

Oh! It's been a while since we've had a choice like this! Actually, we might never have had a choice like this. Welcome to 'three options and they're all terrible.' Image

I think we've discussed -18 before. It's bad because it's a TETH and therefore doesn't have any meaningful gear or training ability to contribute to the facility. It'd be a wasted pull that doesn't give us anything, but it is the 'safe' play. Then there's -53 which... will probably drive us mad. It's an incredibly escape-prone WAW that teleports all over the place and while it won't kill anything but clerks unless we're careless… it'll kill a lot of clerks, and we have a Bird to think of. It's a very pretty Abnormality, but it's not a good take. Lastly there's -108. It's an unusually needy WAW which forces us to work with it frequently or else it punishes our facility. It deals White damage, makes an alright Insight trainer as a result, and if we ever fire off its secondary effect then we're going to have some big problems.

With -53 being a hard no, I'm left to choose between -108 (kind of annoying, but with a decent reward) and -18 (TETH, but free). Honestly, in a normal playthrough I would probably pick -18 just because it's a safe pick and this week is going to be a problem already.

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This is not a normal playthrough, and I have a certain reputation to uphold. Let's do something stupid and risky. :getin:

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Angela talks to us about humans and also robots.

New Guidelines

Big Bird

New Story

Big Bird

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Oh wow. Enjoy. This one sucks.

I actually figured out a pattern of works to make escapes on -53 unlikely enough that I could safely extract its information. That took a bunch of retries though. It's possible to suppress it fast enough that clerks won't be in too much danger too.

I'm as disappointed as Gebura at bird time being cut short. The wind really go plucked out of the sails there.

anyway I think -108 is cool but a pain to deal with. I found it to be more difficult and demanding than even some ALEPHs, personally speaking.

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I AM INCREDIBLY EXCITED ABOUT YOU PICKING -108. I love -108 so much. It's so troublesome but the gear and benefits are awesome

oh boy it's Big Bird! it's a friend that just wants to to save people from the horrible monsters. it also does not really understand the concept of death so chomping peoples heads off is "saving them"
also its design is great, it resembles a bird, but it has hands. also:
TeeQueue wrote:Image
firstly it has teeth, secondly it has too many jaws. BB is a wonderful bird shaped thing, and it just wants o protect people.

I'll take this moment to mention that I once had BB get trapped in a stairwell between floors in central. I think it was something to do with clerks that could have triggered it but it was basically just making stompy noises forever and the only way I could find to fix it was to trigger one of the other birds.

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TeeQueue wrote:
Sat Sep 26, 2020 8:28 am
Day 28: Story
A bunch of the images near the end of this update are absent, just saying "image" where they should be. Seems okay on the SA thread, though.

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I went to check and it looks proper on this end. Dunno what's causing that, sorry. :shrug:

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azren wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:32 pm
TeeQueue wrote:
Sat Sep 26, 2020 8:28 am
Day 28: Story
A bunch of the images near the end of this update are absent, just saying "image" where they should be. Seems okay on the SA thread, though.
I think that's just a loading issue from having a lot on one page.

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Yeah, once we roll over onto the next page, things should load just fine again. It's just a lot of information to load in all at once.

So this is what is meant by the so-called Clerk's Rights cases. Trying to keep those guys alive is going to be a fun juggling act in itself, but I think Yesod would approve.

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