edit: update on the previous page.
The agents of this thread are pretty fucking too: Let's Play Lobotomy Corporation
One more thing: Last call on the Completely Arbitrary Retry Count Guessing Game.
I'll keep it open until I post 25 Gameplay, and then I'll close it and everyone's votes will be locked in. Reminder: Ultimate bragging rights are on the line!
I'll keep it open until I post 25 Gameplay, and then I'll close it and everyone's votes will be locked in. Reminder: Ultimate bragging rights are on the line!
My favorite bit about that was how even in robot form, despite what Angela said, they still showed emotions quite readily and Tiphereth had a cute bow on her robot body. 
This was personally my favourite line among all that, with big thanks to her expression. She's just so grateful, and now she will return the favour.
They also noticeably have blood. That's...not something a robot should usually have. What're the chances that they're brains stuffed into robot bodies?Gloomy Rube wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 8:44 amMy favorite bit about that was how even in robot form, despite what Angela said, they still showed emotions quite readily and Tiphereth had a cute bow on her robot body.
I have been curious on how TeeQueue would handle the core suppressions since I saw that they would be doing an LP of Lobotomy Corporation. Since it's common knowledge now that Malkuth can get a core suppression because she's an AI, then the rest of the cores would get one too (at least, i think it is because of the realization), I am curious on how TQ handles Yesod and Hod's CSs. 
I'll post the jokes I have on hand once we finish their suppressions though.
I'll post the jokes I have on hand once we finish their suppressions though.
Really, I have a number of reaction images I could post, but I'll just settle for this:
(Frantic whimpering commencing)
Edit: Also, I'm hereby predicting that we are to A as Mal is to Elijah.
Double edit: Also-also, what are the chances that the majority of what we're doing here is specifically for Angela's benefit, and not providing power to the outside world?
(Frantic whimpering commencing)
Yeah, that concerns me too, and is pretty much the assumption I'm making at this point.
Edit: Also, I'm hereby predicting that we are to A as Mal is to Elijah.
Double edit: Also-also, what are the chances that the majority of what we're doing here is specifically for Angela's benefit, and not providing power to the outside world?
Probably once we try to suppress her core.
Also, is it just me or does Angela's normal pose look a bit like a praying mantis?
Also, is it just me or does Angela's normal pose look a bit like a praying mantis?
Day 25: Gameplay
Before we get into gameplay, a note: Because I'm doing Core Suppression days twice (once with the mouse visible for a video, and then again without it for the LP footage), for the purposes of my Retry Count I'll be going with the lower retry number of the two recording sessions. Because of this, our Retry Count remains at 6 for the moment despite… well, you'll see.
Without further ado, let's get into it.
Music: neutral 2
We get the final research from Tiphereth, giving us all 3 of the basic shield bullets.
Now that we know the secret and Malkuth is having a proper meltdown, we activate her Core Suppression by clicking on the biohazard symbol in the upper left of the Control team's area on the deployment screen, right here:
We can click it again to turn it back off. The astute of you will notice that Yesod and Hod both have buttons as well, this is because their meltdowns also unlocked at the same time as Malkuth's. This means I have access to their story cutscenes as well, but we'll cover those later.
Anyways, clicking it makes the screen glimmer with some red artifacting, removes everyone assigned to the Control team, and also changes 'Begin Management' to 'Begin Core Suppression.' The Control team now tells us our goal for the suppression, as well as gives us a hint about what to expect. For Malkuth, we need to collect the assigned amount of energy and reach Meltdown Level 6, and our warning is that "An error with the work system is detected."
Manager, allowing her emotions to run rampant like this is going to cause issues with your ability to perform your duties.
I know. Still, we're going to do it. I can't help but feel like this is somehow my fault.
You did immediately attempt to change her previous rules and regulations, setting her off and causing a lasting sense of resentment from yourself as it came to a predictably poor end.
...well when you put it like that. Still, we'll get through it. Let's get Tiphereth's new project done while we're at it. These bullets are nice, I can't wait to see what they come up with next.
DAY 25 CHALLENGE: A COMPETENT SUPPRESSION
Rules: Complete Tiphereth's "Proving your Competence 4" mission. Suppress the Core of Malkuth. All agents must survive.
Shouldn't be too hard. Let's get this underway.
When we start the day, a klaxon plays in the background before the day actually starts. And when it does, we get a strong contender for the best song in the game. :rock:
Music: Second Trumpet
What? What was that?! Angela, what's going on?!
...Angela?
It's clearing up...
While only the mission to suppress Malkuth's core is showing up right now, we can still complete some other missions on Core Suppression days. In general, the only missions we can't complete are the ones that keep track of a variable through the day like Hod's suppression mission did. Tiphereth's completes without an issue so long as we avoid letting any meltdown timers expire before the day ends.
Angela? Yesod? Hod? Tiphereths? ...Netzach? Anyone, respond!
They can't reach you right now, manager.
Malkuth?! Angela, focus on Control.
…Angela?
One of the consistent challenges of Suppression days is that we get no dialogue from any of our other AI. We don't get warnings when someone dies or panics, or when an abnormality escapes. We can't rely on them to tell us things anymore, so we have to be alert. We have to keep an eye out for breaching abnormalities ourselves, but deaths can be tracked using the bottom-left notification readout. Upside: No more Punishing Bird notifications! Meanwhile, in the department that we're suppressing...
Whatever, I'll do it myself.
The sephirah is now an eldritch horror.
Hello, manager! Thank you for coming to see me.
What the hell?! What did you do to everyone?!
Nothing. I just cut you off from hearing them.
...Okay. I'm going to need you to stop that.
I don't think so, manager. I want to know what it's like when you're helpless. When you're overwhelmed. You wouldn't say anything before... So, here we are.
...It's fine. They can do the work without me. Everyone knows what to do already.
I'm afraid that's not an option either.
What did you do.
An AI has gone rogue and embedded itself into the facility's main network. This has triggered the Second Trumpet protocol. Agents are forbidden from acting without direct managerial oversight, on penalty of termination.
I won't kill them for doing their job. They should know that.
That's alright, manager. Their ID cards and E.G.O equipment are synchronized to an execution feature. I can activate it from here remotely, to remove any problems as they crop up.
Well… whatever. Luckily, I prepared for this.
I put Talow close by just in case. I'll just have him get up to the Control main room and take Malkuth out.
We can move someone right into the main room if we want to. Nothing happens-it even keeps healing agents like any other day.
What the… Okay, this is new. ...Mmm… These roots are going under the floor and into the wiring. I can't attack it without risking shorting out the entire deterrence system.
Dammit. Continue to monitor the situation.
Do you understand now, manager? There's only one way out of this.
Yeah… Reach Meltdown Level 6, with the energy required.
Very good! Let's see how you do when you don't have all your crutches-when you're not the one in control.
Alright. Let's do this.
Malkuth talks to us during the entire suppression via text over our interface-it'll probably show up from time to time in screenshots, since it's everywhere. I'll go ahead and put these quotes into their own sections, they change with each meltdown level.
Like any good boss fight, every Core Suppression in the game is a test of some skill that we're supposed to be mastering as we play. The skill Malkuth is testing is how well we can analyze a situation that is CLEARLY going wrong to determine what the root cause is (and by extension, how well we execute a countermeasure to the problem). I know the root cause already because I've played the game before, but I'll be highlighting the clues the game gives you. The first one is from back on the prep screen: "An error with the work system is detected." This is the second, and one that many players will gloss over: instead of telling us the work type we're highlighting, we instead get a ??? over it.
Let's try some Instinct work on One Sin. No matter what happens, he's mostly harmless.
Orders from the top, everyone!
Normally this is the point where managers stop paying attention to the work they're ordering because the game takes over from here. This is a mistake-the game wants us to be diligent. It's the only way to catch this:
Did you see the work type in the gear? Talow's not doing Instinct work at all.
Wait, why does he have a golf club? Malkuth, what did you do?
That would be telling.
Then… Maybe a couple more works.
I have Mr.Black do Insight work on Today's Shy Look, and Sephiroth does Attachment work with a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life. The work log in the lower-left refers to all work done as 'Unknown' work, which would be another clue if anyone ever read the thing.
None of those work types are right. You're altering the orders, aren't you.
How does it feel to know that everything is going wrong even when you do your best, manager?
This is the basics of what Malkuth does-for today, our work types are shuffled. These shuffles remain consistent, so Instinct > Repression, Insight > Instinct, Attachment > Insight, and by process of elimination Repression > Attachment.
Not great! I should be able to remember all of this, though. So if my theory is right, and Repression is Attachment, then this should be fine...
Good creepy fleshdog. No sudden movements.
There we go, this isn't so hard.
Of course you'd find it easy, Manager. You're her favorite after all. People without talent can't hope to compare, no matter how hard we work...
Music: malkuthDie
That's fine. I'll just try even harder.
Not hard enough, Malkuth. You Must Be Happy doesn't do anything, and Scarecrow will react the same no matter what the result is.
When suppressing a department, that department's abnormalities are not subject to the normal Qliphoth Meltdowns. We'll never see a meltdown spawn in Control during this fight. It's a small mercy.
Even now… It never ends. It never ends!
You ignore me, you belittle me, it never ends it never ends iT NeVEr ENDs! I'm not an 'even Malkuth!'
Sorry, were you saying something? I was protecting this clerk from Scarecrow.
A clerk! You pay more attention to a clerk then to your own Sephirah!
I just need to figure out who to have handle this.
No need for that sir!
Omni? Chinely? What are you doing there?
'Chinely and Omni! You've survived?! How did you get here?' That's what you're probably asking right now. We can't hear a damn thing you say over all this noise, but it's easy to follow such a simple thought process.
Naturally, we've prepared a proper answer! We were following Bishop, but he realized something was off. He told us to change into the Training team's armband and wait here for the day to start in case the scarecrow got out.
There's no need to worry about anything anymore, for we are here.
Alright. Get back to the Training main room after you're done.
What if he just tells us what to do next like always, Chinely?
Right-We still can't hear you manager! Make sure to use the command console like you're supposed to!
...Ah, yeah. This thing.
Oh, there you are-I thought I saw your names under our team's information. What's going on up there? Where's Bishop?
We have no idea!
Everyone valiantly ran away before anything went down. And after telling us to wait, Bishop just turned a corner and vanished to who-knows-where!
I think he's in the maintenance ducts. Or the ventilation shafts!
And with the comms down we can't contact anyone… this is bad. I hope the others are alright.
Don't worry. You'll all be fine.
You're doing it again! They can't even hear you! Stop ignoring me! Look at me!
Sorry, but I don't have attention to spare for infants throwing tantrums.
...that's just fine. Because I don't have any attention to spare for bosses who are incompetent.
Music: STOP
...shit.
Isn't hopelessness a wonderful feeling? I simply must repay you, time and time again, for showing me.
Then I'll have everyone attack it! With the new bullets…
Bullets can't cover the entire facility, and your feeble attacks can't stop the Blue Star.
It's pointless. An uncontrollable demise.
The script here breaks, and for some reason Blue Star sucks in all agents except the Suicide-types, instead of just all of them like it's supposed to. Sometimes Suppressions just make things funky. Make no mistake: we're dead. We could probably kill Blue Star without any agent casualties at this point, but we'd have to position ourselves for it, and since I just completely forgot to work its meltdown we didn't get to do that.
Rrgh…
This isn't over.
Of course not. I want you to wallow in hopelessness, time and again, until you understand what I do. That's my wonderous repayment.
Music: Second Trumpet
Repayment for what?! I don't remember doing anything to you!
You don't need to. I remember it clear as day. That day when I begged for you to look at me. To help me. You turned away. That's enough.
That wasn't me! Those memories were someone else's!
Is that what you think?
...It doesn't matter what I think! You're ruining Punishing Bird for me! I can't even laugh at Omni right now!
I can understand why you do it, now. Laugh at their pain. I always take my duties seriously, so I never understood it.
Music: malkuthDie
But I see clearly, now. Watching you fluster in this uncontrollable mess is fantastic.
It didn't come up last time, but every time a Meltdown occurs, Malkuth reshuffles the work types. To get around this, we're having Talow work Instinct with One Sin, Mr.Black work Insight with Shy Look, and Sephiroth work Attachhment with Laetitia. With just one glance like this we can see what 3 of the 4 works have been changed into, and that makes the 4th work the odd one out. This time, Repression is still Repression.
You're still sending him to work on an ALEPH, in gear so weak?
Boksi can survive, so long as I know what the works are, and since I know them after the first three works, it's simple to just remember.
I hope you don't make any mistakes, Manager.
No you don't.
No, I don't.
Amber Dawn. While the suppression department is immune to meltdowns, it still can have Ordeals spawn inside of it, so we're one department down to face the same number of worms.
They won't stop mooving..!
It's alright! You just keep smiling there and get eaten for a bit while I shoot into each of them!
Ookaay..! 
Amber Done.
Something's definitely happening this time. She's droopier now.
Losing steam, Malkuth?
Not at all, manager! I could continue for as long as it takes. Get frustrated. Get angry. Fall to despair. And at the critical moment, I want to turn my back to you, too.
I'm not going to get frustrated! I remember everything just fine.
Do you?
Yeah. Attachment is Attachment, and Instinct is Insight.
That was the last meltdown level. I swapped Attachment with Repression this time, manager. You'd know that if you paid attention.
Wait, what?
Don't… think… I'll be able to clutch this one out even with my pedigree…
You've killed Boksi. You know that, right?
You killed Boksi. I just watched and did nothing.
Hey, at least I get to show this off! When Nothing There kills or panics someone mid work, or when someone gets a Bad result with it, something fun happens.
See, Nothing There is a shapeshifter.
I love you. I love you~
...I'll be seeing that in my dreams tonight.
Now, once this has happened Nothing There is supposed to kill the next Agent to walk in, and go into a special event. However… remember what I said about Suppressions seeming to break some things?
I love you.
...Aww hell no.
Tenebrais can just wander in and work with NT like it's any other abnormality. It's weird.
I love yooou~
Manager I don't know what the actual hell you're thinking to shove me in here with a freaky mosshead trying to put the moves on me but I swear on my damn life the second I'm out of here: I will find you. And I will kill you. And anyone else standing in my way.
Oh my. An agent who's gone rogue. Don't worry, sir, I'll activate the execution protocol so you don't have to consider the ramifications of your mistake. There was nothing you could do, after all. It was unavoidable. Inevitable.
Don't bother.
I can't stop here…
But your every advantage is gone. You have to do the one thing you can't do. That you don't know how to do. That you never really learned to do, while you were busy leaning on everyone else's good graces to do it for you: Your job.
…
That look of utter hopelessness… That's what I've been wanting to see. See? Even manager can manage a task as simple as that.
Shut up…
Why? I'm not wrong, am I? It's okay to admit you aren't cut out for the position. Of course, you'll have to be removed, but you won't have to worry about anything after that.
I said shut up!
You know I'm right. Just admit it, and you won't have to handle this difficult job any longer.
…I could just have Angela do your part.
Then you'd just be running away again. I'd still be right. You and I both know it. And knowing how much that would gnaw at you… that's fine by me.
...Gh..! What do I do? This isn't like the other days…!
*CRASH!*
What the-?!
What's going on?
Phew. That took a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would.
Bishop? What are you doing in here?!
Showing up to heroically save your ass at the last moment. Isn't it obvious?
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Once more, with feeling.
Before we get into gameplay, a note: Because I'm doing Core Suppression days twice (once with the mouse visible for a video, and then again without it for the LP footage), for the purposes of my Retry Count I'll be going with the lower retry number of the two recording sessions. Because of this, our Retry Count remains at 6 for the moment despite… well, you'll see.
Without further ado, let's get into it.
Music: neutral 2
We get the final research from Tiphereth, giving us all 3 of the basic shield bullets.
Now that we know the secret and Malkuth is having a proper meltdown, we activate her Core Suppression by clicking on the biohazard symbol in the upper left of the Control team's area on the deployment screen, right here:
We can click it again to turn it back off. The astute of you will notice that Yesod and Hod both have buttons as well, this is because their meltdowns also unlocked at the same time as Malkuth's. This means I have access to their story cutscenes as well, but we'll cover those later.
Anyways, clicking it makes the screen glimmer with some red artifacting, removes everyone assigned to the Control team, and also changes 'Begin Management' to 'Begin Core Suppression.' The Control team now tells us our goal for the suppression, as well as gives us a hint about what to expect. For Malkuth, we need to collect the assigned amount of energy and reach Meltdown Level 6, and our warning is that "An error with the work system is detected."
Manager, allowing her emotions to run rampant like this is going to cause issues with your ability to perform your duties. I know. Still, we're going to do it. I can't help but feel like this is somehow my fault. You did immediately attempt to change her previous rules and regulations, setting her off and causing a lasting sense of resentment from yourself as it came to a predictably poor end. ...well when you put it like that. Still, we'll get through it. Let's get Tiphereth's new project done while we're at it. These bullets are nice, I can't wait to see what they come up with next. DAY 25 CHALLENGE: A COMPETENT SUPPRESSIONRules: Complete Tiphereth's "Proving your Competence 4" mission. Suppress the Core of Malkuth. All agents must survive.
Shouldn't be too hard. Let's get this underway.When we start the day, a klaxon plays in the background before the day actually starts. And when it does, we get a strong contender for the best song in the game. :rock:
Music: Second Trumpet
What? What was that?! Angela, what's going on?! ...Angela? It's clearing up...While only the mission to suppress Malkuth's core is showing up right now, we can still complete some other missions on Core Suppression days. In general, the only missions we can't complete are the ones that keep track of a variable through the day like Hod's suppression mission did. Tiphereth's completes without an issue so long as we avoid letting any meltdown timers expire before the day ends.
Angela? Yesod? Hod? Tiphereths? ...Netzach? Anyone, respond! They can't reach you right now, manager. Malkuth?! Angela, focus on Control. …Angela?One of the consistent challenges of Suppression days is that we get no dialogue from any of our other AI. We don't get warnings when someone dies or panics, or when an abnormality escapes. We can't rely on them to tell us things anymore, so we have to be alert. We have to keep an eye out for breaching abnormalities ourselves, but deaths can be tracked using the bottom-left notification readout. Upside: No more Punishing Bird notifications! Meanwhile, in the department that we're suppressing...
Whatever, I'll do it myself.The sephirah is now an eldritch horror.
Hello, manager! Thank you for coming to see me. What the hell?! What did you do to everyone?! Nothing. I just cut you off from hearing them. ...Okay. I'm going to need you to stop that. I don't think so, manager. I want to know what it's like when you're helpless. When you're overwhelmed. You wouldn't say anything before... So, here we are. ...It's fine. They can do the work without me. Everyone knows what to do already. I'm afraid that's not an option either. What did you do. An AI has gone rogue and embedded itself into the facility's main network. This has triggered the Second Trumpet protocol. Agents are forbidden from acting without direct managerial oversight, on penalty of termination. I won't kill them for doing their job. They should know that. That's alright, manager. Their ID cards and E.G.O equipment are synchronized to an execution feature. I can activate it from here remotely, to remove any problems as they crop up. Well… whatever. Luckily, I prepared for this. I put Talow close by just in case. I'll just have him get up to the Control main room and take Malkuth out.We can move someone right into the main room if we want to. Nothing happens-it even keeps healing agents like any other day.
What the… Okay, this is new. ...Mmm… These roots are going under the floor and into the wiring. I can't attack it without risking shorting out the entire deterrence system. Dammit. Continue to monitor the situation. Do you understand now, manager? There's only one way out of this. Yeah… Reach Meltdown Level 6, with the energy required. Very good! Let's see how you do when you don't have all your crutches-when you're not the one in control. Alright. Let's do this.Malkuth talks to us during the entire suppression via text over our interface-it'll probably show up from time to time in screenshots, since it's everywhere. I'll go ahead and put these quotes into their own sections, they change with each meltdown level.
All Levels wrote:
Level 1 wrote:
Like any good boss fight, every Core Suppression in the game is a test of some skill that we're supposed to be mastering as we play. The skill Malkuth is testing is how well we can analyze a situation that is CLEARLY going wrong to determine what the root cause is (and by extension, how well we execute a countermeasure to the problem). I know the root cause already because I've played the game before, but I'll be highlighting the clues the game gives you. The first one is from back on the prep screen: "An error with the work system is detected." This is the second, and one that many players will gloss over: instead of telling us the work type we're highlighting, we instead get a ??? over it.
Let's try some Instinct work on One Sin. No matter what happens, he's mostly harmless. Orders from the top, everyone!Normally this is the point where managers stop paying attention to the work they're ordering because the game takes over from here. This is a mistake-the game wants us to be diligent. It's the only way to catch this:
Did you see the work type in the gear? Talow's not doing Instinct work at all.
Wait, why does he have a golf club? Malkuth, what did you do? That would be telling. Then… Maybe a couple more works.I have Mr.Black do Insight work on Today's Shy Look, and Sephiroth does Attachment work with a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life. The work log in the lower-left refers to all work done as 'Unknown' work, which would be another clue if anyone ever read the thing.
None of those work types are right. You're altering the orders, aren't you. How does it feel to know that everything is going wrong even when you do your best, manager?This is the basics of what Malkuth does-for today, our work types are shuffled. These shuffles remain consistent, so Instinct > Repression, Insight > Instinct, Attachment > Insight, and by process of elimination Repression > Attachment.
Not great! I should be able to remember all of this, though. So if my theory is right, and Repression is Attachment, then this should be fine... Good creepy fleshdog. No sudden movements. There we go, this isn't so hard. Of course you'd find it easy, Manager. You're her favorite after all. People without talent can't hope to compare, no matter how hard we work...Music: malkuthDie
That's fine. I'll just try even harder.Level 2 wrote:
Not hard enough, Malkuth. You Must Be Happy doesn't do anything, and Scarecrow will react the same no matter what the result is.When suppressing a department, that department's abnormalities are not subject to the normal Qliphoth Meltdowns. We'll never see a meltdown spawn in Control during this fight. It's a small mercy.
Even now… It never ends. It never ends! You ignore me, you belittle me, it never ends it never ends iT NeVEr ENDs! I'm not an 'even Malkuth!' Sorry, were you saying something? I was protecting this clerk from Scarecrow. A clerk! You pay more attention to a clerk then to your own Sephirah! I just need to figure out who to have handle this. No need for that sir! Omni? Chinely? What are you doing there? 'Chinely and Omni! You've survived?! How did you get here?' That's what you're probably asking right now. We can't hear a damn thing you say over all this noise, but it's easy to follow such a simple thought process. Naturally, we've prepared a proper answer! We were following Bishop, but he realized something was off. He told us to change into the Training team's armband and wait here for the day to start in case the scarecrow got out. There's no need to worry about anything anymore, for we are here. Alright. Get back to the Training main room after you're done. What if he just tells us what to do next like always, Chinely? Right-We still can't hear you manager! Make sure to use the command console like you're supposed to! ...Ah, yeah. This thing. Oh, there you are-I thought I saw your names under our team's information. What's going on up there? Where's Bishop? We have no idea! Everyone valiantly ran away before anything went down. And after telling us to wait, Bishop just turned a corner and vanished to who-knows-where! I think he's in the maintenance ducts. Or the ventilation shafts! And with the comms down we can't contact anyone… this is bad. I hope the others are alright. Don't worry. You'll all be fine. You're doing it again! They can't even hear you! Stop ignoring me! Look at me! Sorry, but I don't have attention to spare for infants throwing tantrums. ...that's just fine. Because I don't have any attention to spare for bosses who are incompetent.Music: STOP
...shit. Isn't hopelessness a wonderful feeling? I simply must repay you, time and time again, for showing me. Then I'll have everyone attack it! With the new bullets… Bullets can't cover the entire facility, and your feeble attacks can't stop the Blue Star. It's pointless. An uncontrollable demise.The script here breaks, and for some reason Blue Star sucks in all agents except the Suicide-types, instead of just all of them like it's supposed to. Sometimes Suppressions just make things funky. Make no mistake: we're dead. We could probably kill Blue Star without any agent casualties at this point, but we'd have to position ourselves for it, and since I just completely forgot to work its meltdown we didn't get to do that.
Rrgh… This isn't over. Of course not. I want you to wallow in hopelessness, time and again, until you understand what I do. That's my wonderous repayment.Music: Second Trumpet
Repayment for what?! I don't remember doing anything to you! You don't need to. I remember it clear as day. That day when I begged for you to look at me. To help me. You turned away. That's enough. That wasn't me! Those memories were someone else's! Is that what you think? ...It doesn't matter what I think! You're ruining Punishing Bird for me! I can't even laugh at Omni right now! I can understand why you do it, now. Laugh at their pain. I always take my duties seriously, so I never understood it.Music: malkuthDie
But I see clearly, now. Watching you fluster in this uncontrollable mess is fantastic.It didn't come up last time, but every time a Meltdown occurs, Malkuth reshuffles the work types. To get around this, we're having Talow work Instinct with One Sin, Mr.Black work Insight with Shy Look, and Sephiroth work Attachhment with Laetitia. With just one glance like this we can see what 3 of the 4 works have been changed into, and that makes the 4th work the odd one out. This time, Repression is still Repression.
You're still sending him to work on an ALEPH, in gear so weak? Boksi can survive, so long as I know what the works are, and since I know them after the first three works, it's simple to just remember. I hope you don't make any mistakes, Manager. No you don't. No, I don't.Amber Dawn. While the suppression department is immune to meltdowns, it still can have Ordeals spawn inside of it, so we're one department down to face the same number of worms.
They won't stop mooving..! It's alright! You just keep smiling there and get eaten for a bit while I shoot into each of them! Ookaay..! Amber Done.
Level 3 wrote:
Something's definitely happening this time. She's droopier now. Losing steam, Malkuth? Not at all, manager! I could continue for as long as it takes. Get frustrated. Get angry. Fall to despair. And at the critical moment, I want to turn my back to you, too. I'm not going to get frustrated! I remember everything just fine. Do you? Yeah. Attachment is Attachment, and Instinct is Insight. That was the last meltdown level. I swapped Attachment with Repression this time, manager. You'd know that if you paid attention. Wait, what? Don't… think… I'll be able to clutch this one out even with my pedigree… You've killed Boksi. You know that, right? You killed Boksi. I just watched and did nothing.Hey, at least I get to show this off! When Nothing There kills or panics someone mid work, or when someone gets a Bad result with it, something fun happens.
See, Nothing There is a shapeshifter.
I love you. I love you~ ...I'll be seeing that in my dreams tonight.Now, once this has happened Nothing There is supposed to kill the next Agent to walk in, and go into a special event. However… remember what I said about Suppressions seeming to break some things?
I love you. ...Aww hell no.Tenebrais can just wander in and work with NT like it's any other abnormality. It's weird.
I love yooou~ Manager I don't know what the actual hell you're thinking to shove me in here with a freaky mosshead trying to put the moves on me but I swear on my damn life the second I'm out of here: I will find you. And I will kill you. And anyone else standing in my way. Oh my. An agent who's gone rogue. Don't worry, sir, I'll activate the execution protocol so you don't have to consider the ramifications of your mistake. There was nothing you could do, after all. It was unavoidable. Inevitable. Don't bother. I can't stop here… But your every advantage is gone. You have to do the one thing you can't do. That you don't know how to do. That you never really learned to do, while you were busy leaning on everyone else's good graces to do it for you: Your job. … That look of utter hopelessness… That's what I've been wanting to see. See? Even manager can manage a task as simple as that. Shut up… Why? I'm not wrong, am I? It's okay to admit you aren't cut out for the position. Of course, you'll have to be removed, but you won't have to worry about anything after that. I said shut up! You know I'm right. Just admit it, and you won't have to handle this difficult job any longer. …I could just have Angela do your part. Then you'd just be running away again. I'd still be right. You and I both know it. And knowing how much that would gnaw at you… that's fine by me. ...Gh..! What do I do? This isn't like the other days…!*CRASH!*
What the-?! What's going on? Phew. That took a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would. Bishop? What are you doing in here?! Showing up to heroically save your ass at the last moment. Isn't it obvious? Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Once more, with feeling.
A good manager knows how to delegate and use the people under him effectively. This is something that Malkuth never learned, since she always wants to do everything herself.
EDIT: Oh, god. What the fuck are the retries like for Tallow with Malkuth on the loose?
EDIT: Oh, god. What the fuck are the retries like for Tallow with Malkuth on the loose?
and it's finally here, the games first "bossfight" and it's a work day but the mechanics are laughing at you. I really love core suppressions and Malkuth so good, undermining the most basic mechanics is such a terrifying thing to deal with, and as TeeQueue has demonstrated, even if you know the exact mechanics it can still kick your ass. If you don't then it's a harrowing experience trying to manage what works you can safely while still getting enough energy to finish as quickly as possible.
this was where I really fell in love with the game in my own playthrough.
this was where I really fell in love with the game in my own playthrough.
Day 25: Gameplay Again
Music: neutral 1
Bishop, how are you here?
There's a kicked-open wall vent right there. You sure that's what you want to ask?
No, it's. You shouldn't… Why didn't you…
Rewind with everyone else?
Yes. Also: how do you know about that?
I've known since the cameras went out that there was some T corporation tech in the building. TimeTrack is known for being able to rewind or fast-forward things in small areas, so I wasn't sure why.
I thought you didn't mess with the camera wiring.
Doesn't mean I didn't see it. Anyways, you being so darn sure I'd be fine when we talked earlier made it click: It was theoretically possible to use TimeTrack to rewind, if there was a big enough supply of energy available.
And we're a big enough supply of energy.
Yep. So I took advantage of some known security holes in the process to try traveling down here to you-you know how deep down you are, manager?
Over my head, clearly. Let's… get back to the matter at hand.
Right… the boss.
Bishop… you know it's against regulations to be in there. If this is how you want to tender your resignation...
I'm not resigning today.
...You came down here without your E.G.O? And no armband, either… what ARE you doing?
Getting you the help you need.
What? I don't need any help! I have everything perfectly under control, as always.
She's trying to kill me, Bishop. If you're trying to help her...
Just start the workday, I have an idea.
Right.
Music: Second Trumpet
I know she's messing with the work systems somehow, in a way that keeps it shuffled differently at every level.
So for now Red is Red, White is Pale, and Black is Black. That means Pale is White. You're with me so far, right?
It's Instinct, Insight, Attachment, and Repression, but yes. It's easy to remember now, but when it changes...
Hard to keep track, and you make basic mistakes, right? Try this.
This is..! You're kidding.
I never kid.
Hey! Don't think you can save yourself with something just by keeping it offscreen like that!
So. Malkuth, I know enough to know that you don't fly off the handle like this… ever. What happened?
I remembered dying. Giving everything for my job, for an experiment, and dying uselessly on the floor in front of the manager. In the end, he never even turned around to check on me. He's always thought I was too incompetent to be worth paying attention to!
I never did that!
Manager, I need you to be quiet and listen.
But she's wrong.
And she's been kicking your ass. Try it my way. You focus on your work, and really listen.
Mrgrgr…
Music: malkuthDie
And even now, even here, when I worked as hard as I could to be a perfect Sephirah for the Control team, what does he do? He questions my systems, he demands I change things that are in place for a reason, and he still takes for granted that I'll keep going like always!
Are you listening to this, manager?
Yeah. Look, before we cover this I need to get these Meltdowns handled.
Ah, yes. We wouldn't want you to lose the entire facility again, would we?
You would.
Yes. I would.
This time around, we can show off the real reason I rush three works like this: Meltdowns. Having 3 dedicated workers to determine the work types at every level is the best way to deal with Malkuth without risking anyone to an inevitable meltdown on your more dangerous abnormalities.
A meltdown from Judgment Bird today would normally be dangerous, since randoly hitting Repression when we work it after a shuffle could suddenly deal enough damage to even kill Tylana. After figuring our work types, though, we already know that Insight = Insight, and we can use that to easily work with it. That's not the real problem, though. That problem, as usual, is Woodsman.
After we work its meltdown, its QC drops to 0. If it gets another meltdown, then we can't work it without losing someone-we'd be in trouble.
Being brilliant, I decide to dunk Kaori's stats into the ground so that she can work it without decreasing its QC before I realize that if I send her in there to work with it now, she'll just die.
Senseless… senseless! You're already thrown off again! It's just a matter of time, manager.
Gh… It'll be fine, I'll just have her hide out the rest of the day.
When you're dealing with stress, it can be easy to forget things. What matters isn't that you made a mistake, it's how you deal with it from there.
When did you pick that up, Bishop?
I learned it from watching a certain someone giving it their all every day.
Oh my god. You totally do have a crush.
Wh-WHAT?!
I totally do not, sir!
It's fine. Everyone has a type. I think mine is girls with side-ponytails, which makes several things awkward.
Wait… wait! You're doing it again!
Don't know what you're talking about.
I'm not blind, manager! You're making fun of us so you don't have to think about what you did!
Allegedly did.
We're not going to get anywhere like this. X, why don't you tell Malkuth what you meant when you ran that experiment on day 5.
Hold on, she's shuffled everything around again and the work's triggered an ordeal.
It's a Crimson Dawn. Surely you could defeat that while telling me why you decided to undermine my authority so quickly.
Well, you're not wrong about that. Okay, look. I didn't like the idea of just letting people die for no reason. I show up here, I don't remember anything, and then you show up and you're talking about how you just kill people without a second thought.
Our job isn't to keep employees alive. It's to produce energy. You're too soft, manager.
She's drooping… something's changing when that happens. Is it based on the meltdown level, or something else?
...I wasn't soft, Malkuth.
Manager, this is Lobotomy Corporation. People will die. Employees who can't cut it as part of my Control team will make more people die. It's better that we get rid of them before that happens. Trying to save everyone is weak leadership. It's a lesson that took me quite a while to learn.
Bishop, are you really going to let her just say that stuff?
You've seen how things happen around here. Can you really say she's wrong?
...I can say I understand your thinking, Malkuth. This place is dangerous. One wrong move and someone can die, and it's my own fault. Hell, the clerks die regardless-there's no point caring about them.
Then you'll finally start listening to me?
……...No.
Since Kaori is as weak as a kitten and we're about to be facing down a Green Noon, I let her push us over the threshold to the next level. She'll be safe in there, and there's no point taking chances.
Then this is all just a waste of time! Clearly you just don't know how unpredictable things can be! I can show you… I can work just a bit harder.
Music: Red Dots
Sir, I'm pretty sure you just made everything worse.
I see that, Bishop. Let me just handle this real quick.
With our Red bullets, we actually manage to get through things without anyone ever coming anywhere near dying. Except for a couple of clerks, of course.
There. Now then. I've been… very angry with you. That's... Probably not entirely fair. But. You're forgetting the nature of our relationship, Malkuth.
You're the one with amnesia! I remember everything now, manager.
Then why the hell do you decide it's fine to just undercut me right off?
You didn't know what you were doing. I did what I had to do to-
Shut up! I listened to you, and I'm dealing with your work mess, now you listen to me.
Bishop, please punch him in the face.
No, this is how it works. You had your turn to say what was up, he should get one too.
You're just betraying me now too? Turning away from me for him?
I'm not betraying anyone. I'm just here to make sure this ends.
Once Malkuth hits Level 4, things change slightly. She shuffles the works like normal, but she also removes our ability to cancel works we schedule. If we make a mistake now, we can't take it back even if we notice. Luckily, this is the home stretch. Also, check out Twee's sweet new visor-it's a 1% gift drop rate when working with Blue Star!
Malkuth. I understand that you're one of the Sephirot. You're supposed to know what you're doing. That doesn't give you carte blanche to undermine my orders when I want to try something new.
Your orders were going to keep energy from being produced efficiently. I wanted to efficiently show you that, manager. You learned, didn't you?
Oh I learned something, alright. I learned that you were definitely not to be trusted with anything outside your little program you had figured out.
I worked very hard on it! It's designed to make sure the Control team is able to keep running no matter what!
Then tell me why! Explain it! Don't just say 'yes sir' and then do something shady like try and get our employees killed or pile bodies in our conference room! Hell, it's not just me-I've seen the way you talk to the others, too!
The others? The others aren't nearly as competent as me, manager. They cut corners and take half-measures to get by.
That doesn't mean you get to condescend to them!
You called me a toddler.
Gh… I… guess that's true.
Pfft… so this is what it looks like through that filter thing? This is pretty funny.
Sorry, I guess.
How haven't you forgotten anything yet? We're nearly to meltdown level 5, and you haven't forgotten once, even when we were talking so much. An inexperienced manager like you should have made a mistake by now.
Oh, that? Eh… I just borrowed one of your techniques.
You… what?
I'm using a notebook. Bishop handed it to me before.
A notebook?!
Yeah. You were right. In the event of an emergency like this it could be useful to figure out how to use these systems properly. Remembering repeated changes on top of it was beyond me, so I just wrote it down. Like you do.
You decided to take one of my techniques to heart..?
Manager, don't want to interrupt, but we officially have a problem.
A second meltdown landed on Woodsman, meaning that we have to work it in order to complete Tiphereth's mission.
Oh… hell.
We'll have to repeat the day? I'll get to see the manager's hopeless face again, and we'll repeat the day.
Is that really what you want? You're too much of a professional for that, and we both know it.
...No. I just wanted someone to recognize me. That's why I joined the experiment... That's why I work so hard...
And that's why you're doing all this.
I won't apologize. You're a jerk, manager.
So are you, Malkuth. But… leaders have to be, huh.
Do you have a plan?
No, just a stupid idea. We're at meltdown level 5. If I send everyone to work on units that aren't melting down, or melting units that take 40 seconds or less, we should be able to push the level to 6 before any of the meltdown timers expire. Thoughts?
Let's… try it.
There you go. Now you're working together.
This is actually a perfectly valid strategy. Whenever we're at the very end of a suppression, we can just throw everyone at works haphazardly in order to skip the final level entirely. The meltdown timer's 60 seconds is enough to perform one full work on anything HE or below and have time to start a second after cooldown.
So we do that.
Now, I think we've made some excellent progress here… so how about you both tell the other something you like about them.
Are you serious right now?
This feels unnecessary.
Clock's ticking.
Ugh… Fine! Malkuth, you know how to get things done. I can have Control members pivot to other teams because you're there to handle things.
You mean that?
If you ask me that I might change my mind.
Let's just try and trust that everyone's being upfront here. Now, Malkuth…
Oh… well…
Come on, there must be something.
...mmm…
When we hit meltdown 6, so long as we have the energy the day immediately ends. And so with a thunderous quaking sound…
Ah… So I couldn't do it…
She shrinks away and the day comes to an abrupt end.
Wooah..! What was thaat..?
No idea. I guess I finally have to admit something weird's going on around here.
I seee… How iinteresting..!
There'll be time for that later. Let's get comms back online and try to patch through to Training.
Because we ended the day without having a timer hit 0, we get the clear for both of our missions. It was a skin-of-our-teeth win, though.
...I can't help but feel vaguely insulted by that.
There there, sir. I'll just be on my way before anyone finds out I'm here.
Hey. How did you know how to do that?
...Fixer's intuition, I guess?
Don't give me that.
I'm serious. I just figured out how she thinks at some point. She just seemed like she had a lot of stress on her mind, and mom told me a couple things about how to help with that.
… 
Don't even say it.
Get out of here before you really tempt me.
Music: never frozen bottom flows
-nager… Manager… X? Can you hear me, X?
Yeah. Day's over. Everything's fine now.
It most certainly is not fine. Makuth dealt a great deal of damage to the facility's inner wiring as a result of the suppression. It will need to be repaired.
Got it, sorry. You can handle it, right?
Of course, X. I am your most reliable partner, after all. For me, this is a trivial matter-it is merely the principle of the thing.
I'll leave it to you, then. We're going to be adding a new abnormality tomorrow, right? Let's get on that.
...Yes, X.
T-04-06: Its memories began with a warm hug.
O-04-66: Even if this turns out to be a curse, I will love this curse like a blessing.
F-02-44: NOT YOU.
How weird, we seem to only have two abnormality choices today. Oh well! We'll start with -06, a HE abnormality which can instantly kill agents if handled the wrong way, and boils down to a memory game. Its gear is kind of meh, and it deals White damage while preferring Attachment work. It doesn't breach or do anything, so if nothing else it's a decent 'safe' pick, but I don't do safe picks when I can turn a profit instead...
Which really leaves -66 by default, huh? It's also a memory game abnormality, but a WAW with significantly more complicated rules. It's a useable-to-good trainer in every stat due to its work rates and its Black damage type, and so long as you can work with its rules and remember them it's perfectly safe. On top of this, its weapon is insanely powerful, and since it gives three copies of it it'll give us a perfect setup for dealing with more problematic opponents as we move into the midgame.
We take the clearly superior option of the two.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We find out what happened to Malkuth.
Bonus
VIDEO: Malkuth Core Suppression
(I recommend watching this if you're interested in seeing how this plays out in real time, as well as how I usually tend to play the game when not capturing footage.)
Music: neutral 1
Bishop, how are you here? There's a kicked-open wall vent right there. You sure that's what you want to ask? No, it's. You shouldn't… Why didn't you… Rewind with everyone else? Yes. Also: how do you know about that? I've known since the cameras went out that there was some T corporation tech in the building. TimeTrack is known for being able to rewind or fast-forward things in small areas, so I wasn't sure why. I thought you didn't mess with the camera wiring. Doesn't mean I didn't see it. Anyways, you being so darn sure I'd be fine when we talked earlier made it click: It was theoretically possible to use TimeTrack to rewind, if there was a big enough supply of energy available. And we're a big enough supply of energy. Yep. So I took advantage of some known security holes in the process to try traveling down here to you-you know how deep down you are, manager? Over my head, clearly. Let's… get back to the matter at hand. Right… the boss. Bishop… you know it's against regulations to be in there. If this is how you want to tender your resignation... I'm not resigning today. ...You came down here without your E.G.O? And no armband, either… what ARE you doing? Getting you the help you need. What? I don't need any help! I have everything perfectly under control, as always. She's trying to kill me, Bishop. If you're trying to help her... Just start the workday, I have an idea. Right.Music: Second Trumpet
I know she's messing with the work systems somehow, in a way that keeps it shuffled differently at every level. So for now Red is Red, White is Pale, and Black is Black. That means Pale is White. You're with me so far, right? It's Instinct, Insight, Attachment, and Repression, but yes. It's easy to remember now, but when it changes... Hard to keep track, and you make basic mistakes, right? Try this. This is..! You're kidding. I never kid. Hey! Don't think you can save yourself with something just by keeping it offscreen like that! So. Malkuth, I know enough to know that you don't fly off the handle like this… ever. What happened? I remembered dying. Giving everything for my job, for an experiment, and dying uselessly on the floor in front of the manager. In the end, he never even turned around to check on me. He's always thought I was too incompetent to be worth paying attention to! I never did that! Manager, I need you to be quiet and listen. But she's wrong. And she's been kicking your ass. Try it my way. You focus on your work, and really listen. Mrgrgr…Music: malkuthDie
And even now, even here, when I worked as hard as I could to be a perfect Sephirah for the Control team, what does he do? He questions my systems, he demands I change things that are in place for a reason, and he still takes for granted that I'll keep going like always! Are you listening to this, manager? Yeah. Look, before we cover this I need to get these Meltdowns handled. Ah, yes. We wouldn't want you to lose the entire facility again, would we? You would. Yes. I would.This time around, we can show off the real reason I rush three works like this: Meltdowns. Having 3 dedicated workers to determine the work types at every level is the best way to deal with Malkuth without risking anyone to an inevitable meltdown on your more dangerous abnormalities.
A meltdown from Judgment Bird today would normally be dangerous, since randoly hitting Repression when we work it after a shuffle could suddenly deal enough damage to even kill Tylana. After figuring our work types, though, we already know that Insight = Insight, and we can use that to easily work with it. That's not the real problem, though. That problem, as usual, is Woodsman.
After we work its meltdown, its QC drops to 0. If it gets another meltdown, then we can't work it without losing someone-we'd be in trouble.
Being brilliant, I decide to dunk Kaori's stats into the ground so that she can work it without decreasing its QC before I realize that if I send her in there to work with it now, she'll just die.
Senseless… senseless! You're already thrown off again! It's just a matter of time, manager. Gh… It'll be fine, I'll just have her hide out the rest of the day. When you're dealing with stress, it can be easy to forget things. What matters isn't that you made a mistake, it's how you deal with it from there. When did you pick that up, Bishop? I learned it from watching a certain someone giving it their all every day. Oh my god. You totally do have a crush. Wh-WHAT?! I totally do not, sir! It's fine. Everyone has a type. I think mine is girls with side-ponytails, which makes several things awkward. Wait… wait! You're doing it again! Don't know what you're talking about. I'm not blind, manager! You're making fun of us so you don't have to think about what you did! Allegedly did. We're not going to get anywhere like this. X, why don't you tell Malkuth what you meant when you ran that experiment on day 5. Hold on, she's shuffled everything around again and the work's triggered an ordeal. It's a Crimson Dawn. Surely you could defeat that while telling me why you decided to undermine my authority so quickly. Well, you're not wrong about that. Okay, look. I didn't like the idea of just letting people die for no reason. I show up here, I don't remember anything, and then you show up and you're talking about how you just kill people without a second thought. Our job isn't to keep employees alive. It's to produce energy. You're too soft, manager. She's drooping… something's changing when that happens. Is it based on the meltdown level, or something else? ...I wasn't soft, Malkuth. Manager, this is Lobotomy Corporation. People will die. Employees who can't cut it as part of my Control team will make more people die. It's better that we get rid of them before that happens. Trying to save everyone is weak leadership. It's a lesson that took me quite a while to learn. Bishop, are you really going to let her just say that stuff? You've seen how things happen around here. Can you really say she's wrong? ...I can say I understand your thinking, Malkuth. This place is dangerous. One wrong move and someone can die, and it's my own fault. Hell, the clerks die regardless-there's no point caring about them. Then you'll finally start listening to me? ……...No.Since Kaori is as weak as a kitten and we're about to be facing down a Green Noon, I let her push us over the threshold to the next level. She'll be safe in there, and there's no point taking chances.
Then this is all just a waste of time! Clearly you just don't know how unpredictable things can be! I can show you… I can work just a bit harder.Music: Red Dots
Level 4 wrote:
Sir, I'm pretty sure you just made everything worse. I see that, Bishop. Let me just handle this real quick.With our Red bullets, we actually manage to get through things without anyone ever coming anywhere near dying. Except for a couple of clerks, of course.
There. Now then. I've been… very angry with you. That's... Probably not entirely fair. But. You're forgetting the nature of our relationship, Malkuth. You're the one with amnesia! I remember everything now, manager. Then why the hell do you decide it's fine to just undercut me right off? You didn't know what you were doing. I did what I had to do to- Shut up! I listened to you, and I'm dealing with your work mess, now you listen to me. Bishop, please punch him in the face. No, this is how it works. You had your turn to say what was up, he should get one too. You're just betraying me now too? Turning away from me for him? I'm not betraying anyone. I'm just here to make sure this ends.Once Malkuth hits Level 4, things change slightly. She shuffles the works like normal, but she also removes our ability to cancel works we schedule. If we make a mistake now, we can't take it back even if we notice. Luckily, this is the home stretch. Also, check out Twee's sweet new visor-it's a 1% gift drop rate when working with Blue Star!
Malkuth. I understand that you're one of the Sephirot. You're supposed to know what you're doing. That doesn't give you carte blanche to undermine my orders when I want to try something new. Your orders were going to keep energy from being produced efficiently. I wanted to efficiently show you that, manager. You learned, didn't you? Oh I learned something, alright. I learned that you were definitely not to be trusted with anything outside your little program you had figured out. I worked very hard on it! It's designed to make sure the Control team is able to keep running no matter what! Then tell me why! Explain it! Don't just say 'yes sir' and then do something shady like try and get our employees killed or pile bodies in our conference room! Hell, it's not just me-I've seen the way you talk to the others, too! The others? The others aren't nearly as competent as me, manager. They cut corners and take half-measures to get by. That doesn't mean you get to condescend to them! You called me a toddler. Gh… I… guess that's true. Pfft… so this is what it looks like through that filter thing? This is pretty funny. Sorry, I guess. How haven't you forgotten anything yet? We're nearly to meltdown level 5, and you haven't forgotten once, even when we were talking so much. An inexperienced manager like you should have made a mistake by now. Oh, that? Eh… I just borrowed one of your techniques. You… what? I'm using a notebook. Bishop handed it to me before. A notebook?!I'm not honestly sure if this is by design or just a happy coincidence, but it turns out the best way to deal with remembering all of the swaps for Malkuth's meltdown is really just to jot them all down into a nearby notepad each meltdown, and refer to them any time you schedule a work.Level 5 wrote:
Yeah. You were right. In the event of an emergency like this it could be useful to figure out how to use these systems properly. Remembering repeated changes on top of it was beyond me, so I just wrote it down. Like you do. You decided to take one of my techniques to heart..? Manager, don't want to interrupt, but we officially have a problem.A second meltdown landed on Woodsman, meaning that we have to work it in order to complete Tiphereth's mission.
Oh… hell. We'll have to repeat the day? I'll get to see the manager's hopeless face again, and we'll repeat the day. Is that really what you want? You're too much of a professional for that, and we both know it. ...No. I just wanted someone to recognize me. That's why I joined the experiment... That's why I work so hard... And that's why you're doing all this. I won't apologize. You're a jerk, manager. So are you, Malkuth. But… leaders have to be, huh. Do you have a plan? No, just a stupid idea. We're at meltdown level 5. If I send everyone to work on units that aren't melting down, or melting units that take 40 seconds or less, we should be able to push the level to 6 before any of the meltdown timers expire. Thoughts? Let's… try it. There you go. Now you're working together.This is actually a perfectly valid strategy. Whenever we're at the very end of a suppression, we can just throw everyone at works haphazardly in order to skip the final level entirely. The meltdown timer's 60 seconds is enough to perform one full work on anything HE or below and have time to start a second after cooldown.
So we do that.
Now, I think we've made some excellent progress here… so how about you both tell the other something you like about them. Are you serious right now? This feels unnecessary. Clock's ticking. Ugh… Fine! Malkuth, you know how to get things done. I can have Control members pivot to other teams because you're there to handle things. You mean that? If you ask me that I might change my mind. Let's just try and trust that everyone's being upfront here. Now, Malkuth… Oh… well… Come on, there must be something. ...mmm…When we hit meltdown 6, so long as we have the energy the day immediately ends. And so with a thunderous quaking sound…
Ah… So I couldn't do it…She shrinks away and the day comes to an abrupt end.
Wooah..! What was thaat..? No idea. I guess I finally have to admit something weird's going on around here. I seee… How iinteresting..! There'll be time for that later. Let's get comms back online and try to patch through to Training.Because we ended the day without having a timer hit 0, we get the clear for both of our missions. It was a skin-of-our-teeth win, though.
...I can't help but feel vaguely insulted by that. There there, sir. I'll just be on my way before anyone finds out I'm here. Hey. How did you know how to do that? ...Fixer's intuition, I guess? Don't give me that. I'm serious. I just figured out how she thinks at some point. She just seemed like she had a lot of stress on her mind, and mom told me a couple things about how to help with that. … Don't even say it. Get out of here before you really tempt me.Music: never frozen bottom flows
-nager… Manager… X? Can you hear me, X? Yeah. Day's over. Everything's fine now. It most certainly is not fine. Makuth dealt a great deal of damage to the facility's inner wiring as a result of the suppression. It will need to be repaired. Got it, sorry. You can handle it, right? Of course, X. I am your most reliable partner, after all. For me, this is a trivial matter-it is merely the principle of the thing. I'll leave it to you, then. We're going to be adding a new abnormality tomorrow, right? Let's get on that. ...Yes, X.T-04-06: Its memories began with a warm hug.
O-04-66: Even if this turns out to be a curse, I will love this curse like a blessing.
How weird, we seem to only have two abnormality choices today. Oh well! We'll start with -06, a HE abnormality which can instantly kill agents if handled the wrong way, and boils down to a memory game. Its gear is kind of meh, and it deals White damage while preferring Attachment work. It doesn't breach or do anything, so if nothing else it's a decent 'safe' pick, but I don't do safe picks when I can turn a profit instead...
Which really leaves -66 by default, huh? It's also a memory game abnormality, but a WAW with significantly more complicated rules. It's a useable-to-good trainer in every stat due to its work rates and its Black damage type, and so long as you can work with its rules and remember them it's perfectly safe. On top of this, its weapon is insanely powerful, and since it gives three copies of it it'll give us a perfect setup for dealing with more problematic opponents as we move into the midgame.
We take the clearly superior option of the two.
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We find out what happened to Malkuth.
Bonus
VIDEO: Malkuth Core Suppression
(I recommend watching this if you're interested in seeing how this plays out in real time, as well as how I usually tend to play the game when not capturing footage.)
The thing about -44 is that this is the 5th or 6th time it's shown up in my abnormality selection options, and it's basically just 1.76 MHz but slightly worse in every way.
I just want it to leave me alone.
We're back into the one-abnormality zone now, yeah. Which is fine, because the game ramps up again in other ways.
yamiaainferno wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 5:56 pmAt last, therapy for Malkuth. So, is she just...gone now? Or is she better?
44 is the annoying stalker that's been hounding the LP since the first department, it's a TETH with no real niche so it's just worthless at this point. to add some context to TeeQueue's "just a worse 1.76" line it likes repression but will kill if repression work is done twice in a row, there's a clear visual cue for when it's ready to kill so it's not even much of a memory test. it's story is real good, but it simply has nothing to offer the facility.
44 just wants you to love them...
I've had them twice now and they're okay to work with, but the second time I rolled 1.76 MHz the day after I picked 44 and yes I am salty about that.
I've had them twice now and they're okay to work with, but the second time I rolled 1.76 MHz the day after I picked 44 and yes I am salty about that.
Day 26: Story
Music: Romantic
I’m really, really glad to join this team! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is ------! I’ll try my best to be helpful to the team! Oh, I was writing a report. Where’d it get off to?
Nothing could be achieved through passion alone. It was obvious what mistakes impatience could cause, so we needed to take our time. The situation wasn’t bright enough for me to remember everyone’s name or personally respond to meaningless gestures.
Music: Strange Dream
This choice doesn't matter.
I think you confuse us for humans from time to time. I feel like I had a real dream for the first time in a while. The other Sephirot told me that I damaged the facility a lot.
......
That feeling of sailing the ocean without a map or any kind of guidance. The feeling of groping blindly through a vast darkness. It feels like I’m an island on that vast ocean.
I work in the Control Team.
I’m sure you know how it feels, manager. Everything starts tumbling down on top of you when you start thinking you might not be able to handle it.
Don’t look away from them, saying that there’s nothing you can do for them. Don’t just be sorry for the dying sacrifices. Don’t blame yourself, thinking that you could have done better. Only after you can confront those moments as they are… Will you be able to see other things.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure you would make it.
We can’t change the past, I know. I don’t expect you to be a shining beacon or a lighthouse in the vast ocean, or that this place will suddenly become all peaceful and warm. But… Maybe we can just try and wait, right?
*Static*
....Like we are now.
And finally, the Generation of the Seed of Light ticks up from 0% to 10%. Hooray?
In summary: Malkuth seems much more lucid now, and asks us to not turn away from our responsibilities over the lives of our employees. All of this hoopla causes our Seed of Light to grow from 0 to 10%, presumably this is the 'seed that breaks the cycle' that Angela mentioned yesterday. The perception filter over Malkuth stops, letting us see her true form from now on.
So… you don't remember anything?
Like I said, it was like a dream. I feel much better now, though. I should be able to resume my duties.
Perfectly, right?
Things may not go as we expect… but I'm sure that it'll work out fine.
Huh… Alright. Let me know if you start feeling like a couple days ago, okay?
Will do, sir!
Well heck. Whatever I did, it fixed her.
Music: Dear Lorenne
I attempted to tell you that it was reckless, however, it wasn’t such a big loss on our end. I realized that a large quantity of energy was refined during the process of restoring that Sephirah. If you wish to know why such an occurrence passed, well, the day will come when you find out.
In summary: We didn't deal as much damage as Angela thought we would, and she says someday we'll find out why something like this occurred. There's also some text left in the script that doesn't show up here, so I'll put it below.
So… doing that was profitable?
Yes. All told, we managed to create several thousand times more energy than we have on any of your previous days. Even after the repairs are accounted for, this was a startling success.
Sounds pretty good. And Malkuth?
She has hit all required benchmarks to resume regular function, so it is not necessary to replace her at this time.
Geez… So they go crazy and change into that, and we still don't replace them? Is this part of that 'play' thing, too?
The day will come when you will find that out, as well.
That again? Can't you give me anything more to go on?
Hmm...
Music: Romantic Memories
I can remember everything.
That belief was hope, a light full of aspiration. Proof that the world was not yet wholly beyond saving, a compass that guided people towards and along the path they should follow. A destiny placed upon them, meant to be carried since the beginning of time. A noble instinct forgotten by most people.
The same person also told us that we are all losing something, and that we don’t even know what it is we are losing.
Not a single soul believed that story at first. Everyone was able to walk, see, hear, and speak. All disease had long since been conquered. Eventually, more and more people joined alongside the strong belief held by that person.
Although, it took a lot of time to conclude that the shell must be broken… Once the decision had been made, all seemed well.
In summary: Angela gives us a quick history lesson, about a figure who was sure that the world was leading to its own destruction. Given that one of the shadowy figures up there is clearly Malkuth, she's probably talking about the history of Lobotomy Corporation itself.
Just like days 11-20, we have a choice of where to open now between two departments: Welfare and Disciplinary.
Disciplinary is headed by Gebura, who is awesome. For players who are new to the game, I very strongly recommend heading to Disciplinary first, since there are a number of very useful researches there that let you use Execution bullets to remove clerks as an issue and call in special help to save you from emergency situations. You basically can't go wrong with Gebura.
Chesed's research is all related to the Healing bullets-which are less effective than Shield bullets-and one of his researches is bugged out so that it does nothing at all without a mod to fix it. It's not ideal, but to be fair he carries a mug at all times so our choice is obvious.
I suppose I'll get right to work, then~
Yeah, you won't be introducing yourself properly until tomorrow, right?
How observant. I can see you've done this a few times before.
Pattern recognition is one of my strong suits, I guess.
How nice for you. I'm going to put some coffee on and get right to setting things up. See you in a few hours~
Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Shrooms and also tripping.
Bonus
Elijah sprite
Malkuth robot sprite
Hey guys, how are you doing?
Bishop! You're back! Did you fix everything?
Naturally. How's Malkuth?
She got back before you, ready to go like usual.
Since we're all finally back here, let's give it our all like always.
Right. Fall in, everyone.
Yes sir, captain!
Actually…
What?
I'm showing all three of you were out of the department yesterday? According to company policy, your seniority's all been removed. It'll be seven days before Bishop's 'captain' again.
Boss that is a load of horsepiss.
Sorry. I don't make the rules. 
Well… it doesn't matter much.
We know who the captain is either way, right?
...You guys… 
I guess I can allow that. Control team…
Move out!
YEAH!
Music: Romantic
I’m really, really glad to join this team! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is ------! I’ll try my best to be helpful to the team! Oh, I was writing a report. Where’d it get off to? Nothing could be achieved through passion alone. It was obvious what mistakes impatience could cause, so we needed to take our time. The situation wasn’t bright enough for me to remember everyone’s name or personally respond to meaningless gestures.Music: Strange Dream
This choice doesn't matter.
I think you confuse us for humans from time to time. I feel like I had a real dream for the first time in a while. The other Sephirot told me that I damaged the facility a lot. ...... That feeling of sailing the ocean without a map or any kind of guidance. The feeling of groping blindly through a vast darkness. It feels like I’m an island on that vast ocean. I work in the Control Team. I’m sure you know how it feels, manager. Everything starts tumbling down on top of you when you start thinking you might not be able to handle it. Don’t look away from them, saying that there’s nothing you can do for them. Don’t just be sorry for the dying sacrifices. Don’t blame yourself, thinking that you could have done better. Only after you can confront those moments as they are… Will you be able to see other things. To be honest, I wasn’t sure you would make it. We can’t change the past, I know. I don’t expect you to be a shining beacon or a lighthouse in the vast ocean, or that this place will suddenly become all peaceful and warm. But… Maybe we can just try and wait, right?*Static*
....Like we are now.And finally, the Generation of the Seed of Light ticks up from 0% to 10%. Hooray?
In summary: Malkuth seems much more lucid now, and asks us to not turn away from our responsibilities over the lives of our employees. All of this hoopla causes our Seed of Light to grow from 0 to 10%, presumably this is the 'seed that breaks the cycle' that Angela mentioned yesterday. The perception filter over Malkuth stops, letting us see her true form from now on.
So… you don't remember anything? Like I said, it was like a dream. I feel much better now, though. I should be able to resume my duties. Perfectly, right? Things may not go as we expect… but I'm sure that it'll work out fine. Huh… Alright. Let me know if you start feeling like a couple days ago, okay? Will do, sir! Well heck. Whatever I did, it fixed her.Music: Dear Lorenne
I attempted to tell you that it was reckless, however, it wasn’t such a big loss on our end. I realized that a large quantity of energy was refined during the process of restoring that Sephirah. If you wish to know why such an occurrence passed, well, the day will come when you find out.In summary: We didn't deal as much damage as Angela thought we would, and she says someday we'll find out why something like this occurred. There's also some text left in the script that doesn't show up here, so I'll put it below.
I guess this is supposed to explain why the other Sephiroth don't talk to you during the meltdowns, but I couldn't find it mentioned anywhere else so this could have been changed or just deemed unimportant.Cut content wrote:
So… doing that was profitable? Yes. All told, we managed to create several thousand times more energy than we have on any of your previous days. Even after the repairs are accounted for, this was a startling success. Sounds pretty good. And Malkuth? She has hit all required benchmarks to resume regular function, so it is not necessary to replace her at this time. Geez… So they go crazy and change into that, and we still don't replace them? Is this part of that 'play' thing, too? The day will come when you will find that out, as well. That again? Can't you give me anything more to go on? Hmm...Music: Romantic Memories
I can remember everything. That belief was hope, a light full of aspiration. Proof that the world was not yet wholly beyond saving, a compass that guided people towards and along the path they should follow. A destiny placed upon them, meant to be carried since the beginning of time. A noble instinct forgotten by most people. The same person also told us that we are all losing something, and that we don’t even know what it is we are losing. Not a single soul believed that story at first. Everyone was able to walk, see, hear, and speak. All disease had long since been conquered. Eventually, more and more people joined alongside the strong belief held by that person. Although, it took a lot of time to conclude that the shell must be broken… Once the decision had been made, all seemed well.In summary: Angela gives us a quick history lesson, about a figure who was sure that the world was leading to its own destruction. Given that one of the shadowy figures up there is clearly Malkuth, she's probably talking about the history of Lobotomy Corporation itself.
Just like days 11-20, we have a choice of where to open now between two departments: Welfare and Disciplinary.
Disciplinary is headed by Gebura, who is awesome. For players who are new to the game, I very strongly recommend heading to Disciplinary first, since there are a number of very useful researches there that let you use Execution bullets to remove clerks as an issue and call in special help to save you from emergency situations. You basically can't go wrong with Gebura.
Chesed's research is all related to the Healing bullets-which are less effective than Shield bullets-and one of his researches is bugged out so that it does nothing at all without a mod to fix it. It's not ideal, but to be fair he carries a mug at all times so our choice is obvious.
I suppose I'll get right to work, then~ Yeah, you won't be introducing yourself properly until tomorrow, right? How observant. I can see you've done this a few times before. Pattern recognition is one of my strong suits, I guess. How nice for you. I'm going to put some coffee on and get right to setting things up. See you in a few hours~Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Shrooms and also tripping.
Bonus
Elijah sprite
Malkuth robot sprite
Hey guys, how are you doing? Bishop! You're back! Did you fix everything? Naturally. How's Malkuth? She got back before you, ready to go like usual. Since we're all finally back here, let's give it our all like always. Right. Fall in, everyone. Yes sir, captain! Actually… What? I'm showing all three of you were out of the department yesterday? According to company policy, your seniority's all been removed. It'll be seven days before Bishop's 'captain' again. Boss that is a load of horsepiss. Sorry. I don't make the rules. Well… it doesn't matter much. We know who the captain is either way, right? ...You guys… I guess I can allow that. Control team… Move out! YEAH!
Last edited by TeeQueue on Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
and that was the point of the whole core suppression thing, helping Malkuth with her "issues" instead of just "replacing" her. given the whole "seed of light" stuff it's probably safe to assume that any past managers simply disposed of the Sephirot when they started misbehaving. that or they couldn't handle the suppression, but given the whole thing with re-sets that's basically the same thing.
also I just noticed that #nofilter Malkuth keeps the hairband and that is very cute, the box-robots are extremely good.
Chesed looks like he's slept roughly two hours in the last month and is functioning entirely on coffee, though I have words about his missions.
also I just noticed that #nofilter Malkuth keeps the hairband and that is very cute, the box-robots are extremely good.
Chesed looks like he's slept roughly two hours in the last month and is functioning entirely on coffee, though I have words about his missions.
I already said it in SA but I'll say it again here: Gebura is fucking hot as hell and I want to marry her. She has overshadowed the entire update for me.
yamiaainferno wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 2:08 pmI already said it in SA but I'll say it again here: Gebura is fucking hot as hell and I want to marry her. She has overshadowed the entire update for me.
Rarely has there been a more predictable or more understandable wave of hornyposting.