Ohhh... Library Battle SIMULATION: Let's Play Library of Ruina

[TeeQueue]

History—107.06—Happy Teddy Bear

Music: Lobby




Bishop and Malkuth are both running very quick-moving rushdown decks again, though with Malkuth having extra dice I've balanced her to have a different light curve than 3-or-bust.

Oh, hey, we match again!

I thought that these two bodies would have experience fighting alongside each other.

Is that why..? Well, I'm sure we'll be able to coordinate perfectly, then.

Of course. I'll follow your lead, ma'am.



It's time to face your second Abnormality, Malkuth.

Let's hope it's a bit less rough than mine, at least.

Roland, yours couldn't even move when we first met it.

...Ah.

Do your best, Malkuth!

Don't fail.

Leave it to me!

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Hold on a second… was this Abnormality in the facility when you were working?

It... wasn't, ma'am. Still, I remember it.

Huh… that's strange. Maybe you watched a video on it?

...Maybe… But that doesn't feel quite like it…

Well, it doesn't matter! Right now, we need to focus on the enemy in front of us.

Ma'am!

Would you like to play with me? I was too lonely.

It’s okay. Don’t be afraid. We’re just playing together.

Don’t you want to feel this fuzzy and warm feeling?

It’d be so nice if you could hold my hand and dance with me…

You’re the only one I want to talk with…

Don’t hit me, please… I’m already worn and torn, my cotton stuffing is sticking out everywhere.

Like with all Abnormalities, the first thing we want to do is check on its passives and the pages it's using.



First off, we'll talk about the page it's playing. Timid Endearment is 1 of 2 different 0-cost pages it can use. It doesn't really have the ability to deal any damage, but has a pair of powerful defense dice.



The other page, Display of Affection, is a purely offensive page capable of dealing actual damage. Happy Teddy Bear has custom dialogue when using it.

I’m so happy that you’re playing with me.

You’re a kind one, aren’t you? Let’s do it again, okay?

You were so eager to play with me. I’m touched…

After some testing, it seems to have a ~50% chance of playing either page on any given turn, and I wasn't able to find a pattern to it. Lastly, we'll talk about the page mentioned in its passive ability.



Happy Teddy Bear's passive lowers the cost of this page by 1 each time it's involved in a clash. As it's a 5-cost page, this means it'll take 3 clashes to be reduced to a playable 2-cost page. There's special dialogue for when this page is being used, too.

Come over here and feel this fuzzy and warm feeling of love with my hug.

Everyone loves hugs.

Don’t worry. It’s nothing scary. All I do is wrap you up in my arms.

Anyways, once this page comes out Happy Teddy Bear will always use it if able. It will always Stagger on hit, so Happy Teddy Bear will always have 2 Light after Staggering our Librarians to use it again. Needless to say, once we see this page it will result in a very quick loss unless we can somehow stagger Happy Teddy Bear that same turn.

Those are the rules of Happy Teddy Bear: Don't clash, and slowly whittle it down when able. We're basically going to be ignoring them.





Malkuth and Bishop are both going to start off by firing 3-cost pages at the Bear.



Its attack will definitely go first due to its guaranteed 10 Speed Die, and this adds the two block dice to its defense queue.



This means that targeting it with anyone on Timid Endearment turns causes a clash.



I've opened it up!



And I'll shut it down!

Rampage, meanwhile, remains an amazing page for damage due to having three attacks. Happy Teddy Bear is weakest against Slash dice, but with only Normal resistances otherwise any die is fine.



That trio of hearts appearing over its head is the indicator that we've clashed with it. Thankfully, its passive only seems to reduce the cost once a turn, so we're still doing fine.



I also noticed that last turn Malkuth and Bishop were both tied on speed dice, and Malkuth went first. This means that if we want Bishop to move first, he'll need a higher Speed die. Since Malkuth is throwing out a Retaliate and Bishop needs the clashes to restore his Light, this is our best possible turn.



All set up, Malkuth!



I think we're almost there! Just another push!



While we get our first Abnormality page, this fight tends to be over too quickly for them to really give much additional advantage. I go with Ashes because I like it more.



On Scene 3, Malkuth is the one to use Deflect to eat the two block dice, and Bishop goes for another Rampage.



Alright, he's open!

Great! I knew you'd do it.

We'd do it.

Of course. I did work hard, too.



We hit Matchlight after this turn, but it doesn't matter.



The Bear is staggered, with only 2 HP and 2 Burn. We could do nothing and still win this turn. So for the first time all LP…



I press P.



I press space.



And we win.

Ah, sorry, did you want that kill?

It's fine. You're the one who always had to work with the Abnormalities. It's only right that you finish it off.

Thanks… that's really sweet.

Huh, really?



Happy Teddy Bear is, in theory, an exercise in knowing how to avoid clashes and slowly chipping away at it. In practice, however, it's incredibly vulnerable to being rushed down and beaten before it can get its gimmick off.

VIDEO
Music: MalkuthStory


By the way, I told you before that this is my third life, right?

Oh, yeah. You been thinking about your previous lives? By the way, I heard from Angela that this place is related to Lobotomy Corporation somehow. Is that really true?

It’s not just “related somehow”. I was an AI in charge of the Control Team in Lobotomy Corporation.

AI? As in artificial intelligence? Hoooold on a sec. You’re an AI? Just like Angela?

…Sorry, my wording was a little off. I wasn’t a real AI. I was a human whose brain was restored for a second chance, if anything.



You mean the institution that manages the City?

Yepper, that Head. They usually like to stay awfully quiet, but when they do have work, they’re scarily thorough and quick about it. Or so I’ve heard, y’know?

You’re so casual, aren’t you? I thought we were having a serious conversation here.

Oh, whoops. Sorry. I’ve gone through all kinds of stuff, so my priorities tend to be a bit unusual. It’s not like I was trying to ignore what you were saying or anything, Malkuth. I’m sorry if it made you feel bad.

You have a rather unique personality, Roland.

It was all part of my survival strategy. Anyway, back to your past. You said you used to be the boss of the Control Team back in Lobotomy Corp, right?

That’s right. And now I’m in charge of history here, as you can see. So I started out by tracing back in my own history. Very, very slowly.

Would you like to have a listen?





Hey, don’t be such a mood killer! You’re supposed to agree here!

Well, why bother asking if you’re going to tell me the story anyway?!

Hahaha. You know what, you got me there.

Anyways, I was ordered to work in Lobotomy Corp. as the head of the Control Team, bearing all my flaws. I was given a role to play as soon as I woke up.

Not realizing who I truly was… But with my heart still aching from the unresolved pain and regret from my past, almost about to burst. Just like that, I kept doing inhumane acts for Lobotomy Corp. I didn’t even question what I was doing since it was all just work to me. It felt like a calling, even. The only thing guiding me was a vague feeling that something went wrong because I didn’t try hard enough. My twisted sense of effort pushed many into peril. I forced others into following my selfish standards, like a fretful child.

Must have been rough for you. Being told to work like that without knowing what you were getting into. Did your memories naturally come back after working in Lobotomy Corp. for a while, or…?

Hmm, it’s more like… It’d be more correct to say I was reminded of them! My life at Lobotomy Corp. was actually my second. And when my emotions finally erupted while working there, I could remember my first life.

All the mistakes and faults I had made… And regret. I could understand why I had been so obsessed with trying hard. Turns out what I really wanted was recognition. “Look, I’m trying so hard. I’m a useful person.” I never knew how to stand up without leaning on someone else.

After I vented out all of my emotions, the inner struggle that had been haunting me for so long finally dissolved. I found redemption for my first life during my second life.



I guess that’s one way to put it.

Hold on for a moment. Let’s say that everything else makes sense since it’s the City we’re talking about.

But who revived you, and for what reason? Just to give you that enlightenment?

Maybe. So that I can let out all of my resentment and sorrow… That I can find redemption.

Music: StorySimgak


Whoa! Geez, you scared me for a sec. Were you listening to all of this?

Your salvation was never in his interests.

He only did it as a means to find his own redemption. I wasn’t the one using you. It was him; he used all of you just to satisfy himself.

Sigh… I can’t bear to hear any more of this nonsense.

Angela…

Music: StoryJinji


Oh, it's been a while since we've seen these forms! I won't be updating their icons, but throughout this part each of their titles describes them as either 'AI Secretary' or their team's Sephirah.

…What’s with those faces? It’s the rest you all longed for.

We can’t let you do that! We’ve worked so hard to make this happen!

Worked hard… How funny. Would you really call what you’ve done “hard work”?

We’re not going to sit still and let you take away our light.

“Our” light?

You’re not the boss. And I would never listen to you even if you were.

Of course you won’t. You’re still loyal to that man.

I won’t let you rob me of the meaning I finally found.



Do not feel so lonesome, now. I shall stand by your side if no one else wills to.

Damn it! Binah… Even in the end, you’re…

This must be yet another consequence of his actions. I simply acknowledge all events as valid.

I would have shed a tear of gratitude for you if I could.

Feel free to act upon your wishes.

Angela… A machine consumed by desires… You cannot take this path!

I decide what I can or can’t do now.

Music: StorySimgak


Aren’t you interested in learning more about yourself or living your own life?

My life… It was to save humanity…! That’s why I could willingly sacrifice my life! It was for a greater cause!

…What a bunch of idiots.

Music: MalkuthStory


I gave away my two previous lives trying to save people. And I’m willing to do it again for a third time. We withstood all those hardships and trials for the sake of humanity!

Do we look like idiots to you, too, Roland?

Hmm… Well, it’s not like I know enough of the details. Don’t get this whole “saving humanity” thing, either. But if that’s what you sincerely hoped for, who am I to judge?

Of course I’m sincere! I… …Please leave me be for a bit. I need some time to think.

Alright, you do look like you need some rest. Remember, deep breaths, okay? Oh, and you don’t have to be too courteous with me when we talk, just thought I’d let ya know.

…Yeah.

Music: Lobby


For winning, we get the usual rewards and our next batch of assignments.



It's nothing but books this time, but it'll be a while before we see any of them.



As for Happy Teddy Bear's pages, they're a strong bunch. Nostalgic Embrace of the Old Days is likely the weakest of the three, having a slight chance to deal bonus Stagger damage to a foe when winning a clash. It's not the worst effect, but the other two are so stacked that it simply doesn't compare.

Happy Memories is a very good page which has a number of dedicated strategies built around its effect. This early in the game it's very difficult to do much with as we don't have any ways to get through our deck and play the same page multiple times. As we gain access to pages that let us burn through our deck more quickly this page becomes better and better until the endgame when… well, I'll show it off when we get there.

Lastly there's Display of Affection, which is just good. Because clashes are the most important time to have a bonus to Power, the +1-2 there is well worth losing 1-2 in one-sided attacks. They don't count, after all.

Malkuth's new librarian is coming. I would expect her to be here by now...

She needs to think. I'm sure she'll be here in time. In the meanwhile, I had a question for you.



I know you can hear me, you know. There's no way you couldn't. After all, you heard that conversation from the boss even though you weren't there.



It's simple enough, really: How'd I manage to remember an Abnormality I never even met? I thought it might have been one of those training videos, but I very distinctly remember that hug. No context for it, but isn't that even more strange?



Look, there are two ways that this can go. Either you tell me what's going on, or I find it out myself. We both know you can't take any actions against me, because that'd break your little 'No caring about the peons' rule.



I know you know what's going on. Answer me.



Ma'am, everything alright?

I'm fine. Is something the matter?

Well, it's just that you're being interrogated by that kid from History.

Oh, was I? Well, to whomever you are: I don't care.

I know you can hear me, you damn—

Alright, I'm here. Sorry, Roland. I'm all better now.

Don't worry about it. So, any ideas who we're going to be seeing?

Judging by our path far, it'd be one of Bishop's subordinates on the Control Team…

Subordinates? Ah, right, you were the captain. Then does that mean Steve was..?

I worked with Zaida in the Architecture Team. As for our newbie, it'll probably be Chinely or Omni.

Honestly, it'll be good to have one of them back. They'll definitely get a kick out of this situation.

Right? They were two of our best workers, too…

The process is complete. Please welcome your new team member.



I've returned to help! Please, hold your rejoicing~



So… is that Chinely, or Omni?

Those two anime-addicted guys? Huhuhu… I mean, they're fine and all, if you prefer that kind of help… but compared to what the great Dimi can offer, they're like candles in a fan! No… a storm!

Uh...huh.

_{Oh no...}

Next time, on Library of Ruina

Our Shield Now.


Videos

Malkuth 3

[TeeQueue]

Book 14: Zwei Association 3—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Not it.

I haven't even said anything yet.

It's about time for you to send one of us out to kill more people. Not us this time.

...I will consider your statement once I've sent the invitation and seen who we'll be greeting as guests.

That's the best I'm going to get, isn't it..?

_{Every one of you simply wants everything handed to you…} Enough. I have work to do.

VIDEO
Music: StorySimgak




From the information we’ve gathered so far, it’s the accumulation of knowledge.

Accumulation of knowledge, you say…

The Library simply offers a deal. It has no influence on the outside world; it only rewards or punishes those who have entered. The winner can get the books they want, and the loser becomes a book that the Library wants…

Any linkage to the Distortion phenomenon?

That… is unclear, sir. But my instincts suggest that it has to be related to the phenomenon somehow.

And why is that?



A common feature is that it’s impossible to observe them for an analysis of their constituents or components. We cannot carry out a comparative analysis because of this, but this inability to observe itself can be considered a common trait.

It’s not like you to make such baseless claims, is it? Section 6 will not needlessly obsess over the Library. There is simply too much uncertainty for us to recklessly jump into the case. The Zwei Association gets hundreds of requests every day. A fair number of them are allocated to us at Section 6. I’m sure you understand that your claims are not compelling enough to make us give up all these requests in favor of the Library.

I am aware, sir.

And yet here you are, requesting additional manpower for investigating the Library. Are you sure you aren’t simply using the alleged linkage to the Distortion as an excuse to get your revenge on the Library or retrieve the books of your colleagues?

……



And there are yet more insane individuals looming over the city, no? And our duty is to protect our clients from such shade in the City, is it not?

…You’re right, sir.

Remember the slogan of our association?

"Your shield", sir.

Exactly. Our role is to be a trusty shield for our client. So don’t put down that shield without good reason, got it? You may leave now.

…Will do.

Isadora?

Yes?



No, sir. I haven’t received any new invitations yet.

What is the current risk level of the Library…?

It’s currently resting at the Urban Legend-class, but it has been slowly rising with every new report.

Now I see… The Book of Distortion, is it…

They’ve been using irresistible bait like this to attract their victims, haven’t they?

Music: Lobby


I simply offered them what they needed the most at the moment. I am better than anyone at understanding the situation at hand and coming up with an appropriate response.

Precisely, ma’am. You surely did come up with a perfect solution to lure out the Zwei.

Heck, if you can print out books right away, wouldn’t it be nicer to just make a whole lot of ‘em ourselves?

I can only write books about the things I know. I need more time to write another one, too.

Oh, I see… So, can I ask for your publications from time to time, then?

I am willing to cooperate, since you’re doing your job as my assistant. Just don’t pester me too much.

Sure thing, ma’am~ A mere servant such as I wouldn’t dare commit such atrocity as bothering our mistress Angela, oh no.

Do you think this will work out well?

The director of a section in an Association like the Zwei should be more than enough as our next step. The information he holds has got to be on a whole ‘nother level from what we’ve collected so far.

Music: Entrance


You’re right, sir.

If we can get this case resolved, we can finally get out of Section 6. It’s nice to be finally collecting information about the Distortion directly from the source instead of having to get my hands dirty engaging with those lowly Syndicates. Neither of us should rot in Section 6 for the rest of our lives, wouldn’t you agree?

Yes…

We can have revenge for your colleagues, get a lead on the Distortion Phenomenon, and aim for a higher position all at the same time. How fascinating is that?

…Everything seems to fall into place too conveniently.



You must be Angela. Director and librarian of your role’s namesake, right?

Indeed, it’s just as you said.

I’ve seen reports about you, but is it true that you are a machine, not a human?

…



You’ve made quite a huge deal out of your little library. It’s rather troublesome to have a non-human like you cause a fuss this big, you know?

Sir, I don’t think we should provoke her any further…

May you find your book in this place.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: A fervent beatsdown of the Zwei.

Videos

Zwei Association 4








HAHAHAHAHA! Always good to see another smiling face around here!

Yes, and my face is the best of all~ Ah, I can't wait to get back to work—things must have been about to fall apart without me here to hold it all together.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Why, the people make such delightful noises when they die and turn into books!

That sounds positively… wait, people?

Yes, didn't you know? We fight people here, and turn their smiles into books to preserve that happiness forever!

Ah… that's… great! Of course, I know all there is to know about murdering my fellow man as well. Definitely have done a lot of that in my day… they can just leave it all to Dimi. Those chumps won't stand a chance!

Good, good! It's great to have someone truly powerful and confident here! Why, I've died in combat already! The pain… it was delectable! I haven't smiled so widely in years!

D-die? We die here, too?

Why wouldn't we? They're battles to the death, after all! HAHAHA!

Yes… That… um… o-of course I have this well in hand! I just… need to powder my nose. I'll just go take care of that, and then right to slaying everyone with my incredible, unending prowess!

HAHA! That's the spirit!

[vulpixall]

Dimi is a gem. Walter is decidedly less of a gem, and I relished beating him up very much. Especially since his page is pretty good, though I'll leave the specifics of that for later.

[Talisriel]

Wow, Walter must be outright suicidal, if perhaps subconsciously. Not only does he dive headlong into the jaws of the Library with the merest hint of promotion material, after lecturing Isadora on what a waste it would be, he immediately recites an Ayin quote Angela loathes to her face. Isadora was the one that called for backup in the first place, and she can see that something's wrong. Oh well, books for the book abnormality.

[Kacie]

Ambition is a hell of a drug. Throw in some desperation, and Bob's your Uncle.

Walter being awful to Angela isn't nice, but 1) lots of people are dying due to Angela's lures, and 2) he's no where near the level of cannibal chef who "seasons" their fresh human meat with torture and fear. Thus far, he's less of a gem, but doesn't seem to be particularly that bad compared to who's come before - unless something is revealed later on why his defeat would be particularly delicious. So to speak.

[TeeQueue]

Book 14: Zwei Association 3—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


Looks like we're finally up again. Everyone's sober, right?



Ready to go on my end.

Steve, did you ever figure out how you wanted to fight?



I wasn't sure what to go with, so in the end I went with ol' reliable: Hitting people really hard with a bat!


While Zaida and Roland both have largely defensive builds, Steve's using something more offense oriented. Guardian's his 1-cost option because it powers up everyone else's defensive dice.



Today's reception is a 2-Act battle with us having a maximum of 2 floors available—our very first truly fair fight. The first wave is another trio of Zwei with one blue leader and two green underlings.



Music: KeterBattle01


We've done this exact fight twice already, so I'll just cover some highlights.



Roland clashes Retaliate vs Retaliate. Since the base Zwei page is Weak/Fatal to Piercing, this could have been bad—instead he just wins both rolls and Staggers the other guy.



Zaida also takes some damage from an enemy Retaliate.



So she gets the Heart to heal some of it off.



Steve downs his first guest in Scene 3.



I realize that E-endure is kind of terrible against these guys due to their resistance to Blunt damage.



And I go with Pulsation, to up our offensive abilities.

Music: KeterBattle02


I'm really feeling it… wait, I'm not feeling anything yet.

Maybe give it a minute?

Oh, so it's one of those delayed gratification things. That's... not great.

While Abnormality pages are picked between rounds, it's after the point where end-of-turn effects kick on. This means that our first turn under Pulsation doesn't give us any Strength, but the negative effect still applies if we fail to deal damage.



Despite being the one with actual offensive dice, Steve is the only one to fail to harm his opponent, and he loses 25% of his HP at the end of the turn.



Once our Strength comes online, though, the Zwei have no chance.



Steve sets up the last one…



And Roland finishes them off.



Hey, that went pretty smooth!

Is there time for a break before the next round?

Sorry, not my call.

Music: GuestBattle01


Act 2 puts us up against our main opponents. The third Zwei is another of the green flunkies, but the other two…



Isadora isn't too bad—trading the HP healing passive for one that deals bonus Stagger damage—but Walter is our first opponent with a Speed passive. This means we're going to have 4 dice coming at our 3.

_{I think I'm missing a kidney…}

Eh, walk it off. I nearly lost a scythe and you don't see me crying.

Your team seems to still be operating within acceptable parameters.

Why thank you, ma'am~ Seems like the others took a bit of a beating, though.

Regardless, I'll entrust the rest of the reception to you. Handle it.



Music: KeterBattle02


Isadora. Keep your guard up.

Yes sir.

Welcome, guests. We'll be your ordeal this evening.

Stop joking around. This is a fight to the death, isn't it? And that uniform of yours is a reminder of what happens to us should we fall.

Don't get so paranoid! I just happen to like this sword a bit, is all.

<sub>Didn't you wear that other kid's body to—

Listen, that stuff only works with amateurs and sentimental types. There's no way I'd try it here.</sub>

Enough whispering! Draw your blades, men!

Sir!







Just some basic clashes. Since we're not using Mars, Isadora's attack gets to go through uncontested. Nothing we can do about that.



That body's from one of the Hook Office, isn't it?

What's it matter?

My men have fought the Hook Office a few times. Brutal tactics like theirs should—



I've got the body, not the tactics. Going all out like that's too high energy for me.

As I thought from watching the first round...



And you… that's our tactics.

Begging your pardon, sir… that's simply how things work around here.

You're both defensive specialists… but if it's a fight of endurance, I'm certain we can't lose.



Hey, boss..!

Ahh, hell.



Their offensive specialist is on his last legs, sir!

What the—did we just get juked?

We just got juked.

Blame it on your own inexperience.



Because our Emotion Level was already at 3 at the end of the last fight, our final Abnormality Page comes up this turn. On levels 3 and 4, the level 2 Abnormality Pages show up—giving us two options. Given that Steve is likely to die no matter what we do, this is actually an ideal situation to use Fervent Beats.



It's the only way. If this drags out, I'm dead regardless… give me the power. I can take it.

Until your heart explodes, anyways.



The librarian under the effect of Fervent Beats gets a beating heart attached to them, which we'll be able to see better once the fighting starts.

Sir, something's strange about the one we targeted.

Observe for now, and focus on the quiet one. If he's going to blow, we don't want to be near it.



Walter's Suppress is a 2-cost page with dice rolls close to Strong Strike, a 3-cost we saw last tier. It's very good, but Retaliate with our +1 Strength from Pulsation should break in our favor overall.



Blade Whirl, meanwhile, is Isadora's unique page for this battle. Its first two hits are decent dice that give out a pair of status effects, but this is really a Power-stacking target like C-chop it Off! before it.



Steve is going for a one-sided attack with Strong Strike, which should be overkill given Walter's resistances. This turn's going to suck for Zaida a little bit, but that's life.



I'm going to make you pay for what you did to San and Julia!

I didn't do anything to them, though?

They came in here and died!

Yeah, on a different floor.

You're still working with the killers, so it's—



Hey! That was a cheap shot, you little..!

Sorry. I just wanted you to stop talking.



Don't worry, Miss Isadora, I have your back!

Thanks…



Geez..! Right in the gut?

I told you, boy. Zwei Association is the ultimate shield. Every move you make I can see right through.

Guess that's true…



But any shield breaks if you hit it hard enough.

You... lured me in…

"Blame it on your own inexperience," right?

Nnghh…

Sir! Don't worry, I'll protect you!



You won't get the chance!

Look at that 22 damage. That was on a minimum roll.



One down. Who's next?

That heart's giving you a hell of a powerup, huh?

It's exhilarating. I can hear my heart beating in my ears, and every thrum is pure power.



At this point, the fight has entered mopup mode. Neither one of the remaining pair has enough offensive presence to take out our Librarians.



Combat Preparations is the other new page in this reception. The 2 Endurance it grants all party members is invaluable when using defensive-heavy decks, but it's coming out too late to change the flow of this fight.





The others target the add-on. Because having her allies die will raise Isadora's Emotion Level and I want more copies of her book, this is the best order to handle things in.



That power… it's overwhelming. Who are you?!

I'm just a normal guy, driven into a corner.

Is that so…

Steve knocks off half her HP in a single clash.



Roland knocks the other enemy for a loop…



And E-endure remains a very bad page for this reception.



This is the last turn… I can feel it, about to blow.

It's gonna be tight…

We'll just do what we can.



One last set of pages—Steve should be enough to handle Isadora, and Roland and Zaida might be able to clear the last one out.



One enemy on a platter for you, boss.



It's done.



Steve staggers Isadora, and she's at 2 HP with 3 Burn. She's gone at end of turn.

...I did it.

Did what? You're about to die.

I know that. But… I heard you guys talking about your heart exploding. From the second Walter died, I was dead… I knew that. But still…



I may burn, but I've taken one of you down with me.

Damn… We were too late.

Sucks, but that's the job. Let's clean up and get moving.



While Zwei 3 is our first battle where the enemy has two speed dice, Walter is relatively fragile in practice—and his lack of draw power means that he'll quickly run out of pages to play if he stays alive for more than a few turns anyways.

Music: Result


How you feeling?

Like spikes are thrusting into every part of my head… But I'll take it, all told.

I guess that lady didn't realize we just come back, huh?

People normally die when they're killed. We're just an exception. Where's the boss?

Angela called him. Probably wanted to talk. Anyways, you're alive. And I'm out.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


Boy, not that topic again…

Someone I used to know loved to say that phrase.

Like I told you before, making machines with emotions or sapience is forbidden. Even if one were to be made, the Head has long settled the ethical implications and all that. That means they’ve decided on a solid answer for the long-standing question: “How is a machine with emotions different from a human?”. Their answer being: “Even if a machine carries emotions and intelligence, and is nearly identical to a human in every aspect, it is still a machine by birth. Machines should always be below humans…”



In short, “Machines are machines, and humans are humans. Machines exist solely to serve humans.” is what they’re saying. That’s the mindset people in the City decided to have.

Where would human brains stuffed in heaps of scrap metal belong?

Those would still technically count as humans. Some might consider them “defiled”, and others might look down on them, but the brains themselves are natural. You get what I’m saying?

What about an electronic copy of a human brain?

That… would be a machine. Since it’s not “born” human. To be frank, I don’t really get these standards, either.

I guess birthright matters to them the most. Maybe it’s a defensive reaction born out of the urge to “preserve” humanity as a species.

…That’s unfair.

Nothing is ever fair in this world.

You’re right, it seems everyone lives with a share of unfairness they must bear.

Now you’re talking like a City dweller.



By the way… I've written another book.

Oh? And what knowledge have you seen fit to provide today, ma'am?

I've written a book about Lobotomy Corporation itself. Using this, I assume we can get additional guests.

This book shows up after we beat Zwei 3, and follows the same rules as the Book of Distortion we got earlier.



Acquiring the Book of Walter opens up Yesod's next Abnormality Battle, as well. And on top of that…



It seems there's a branch in the path! The days of being on rails are almost over—this is about where Library of Ruina begins to open up a little bit, and that means it's time for another poll.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"Blood covers the whole floor, screams echo, people are running away..."

It's! About! Sending! A damn! Message!

A Drunk on a Train.


Videos

Zwei Association 5

New Key Pages





New Combat Pages

[vulpixall]

This is the only time I will ever vote for anything that isn't an abnormality battle when there's one available. One of these options opens up an avenue to a stupid card that doesn't really do good in battle and isn't really good to have in most decks, but is really, really funny.

[TeeQueue]

Appendix 8: Zwei Association

Is there a person or a group dedicated to stopping violence or murder in the Backstreets? Not quite. You’re on your own, unless you have the money to hire Fixers. Protection isn’t some volunteer service you can get for free. Fixers risk their lives for it, it’ll take our lives’ worth of money to get motivated to work. We aren’t robots. If you’re so afraid, why don’t you hire Fixers or move to a Nest. You’re free from all outside threats when you live in a Nest. Unless the Nest falls, of course.

Zwei Association is your shield. We protect you, your family, and your home from Syndicates of the Backstreets or crazed murderers. If you have the wealth to make a direct request to the Association, that is. Without due payment, the Association will not move.

Do you believe our request fee is too expensive, and you would rather request a Syndicate? Hmm… While making a request to a Syndicate is an option… We don’t recommend it. The reason is obvious. No organization in the City that operates without abiding formal procedures can be trusted.

Associate Fixers are classified into multiple levels, too. From Section 1, which is the apex, to Section 6, the bottom… There’s a world of difference in the salaries and treatment they get. I guess that’s because they’re much more experienced than us… If I keep trying hard, then maybe I’ll be able to join Section 5 someday!

It’s not an easy feat to get out of Section 6, of course…. It takes a huge effort, or perhaps something that can’t be accomplished with effort alone. I’m a fresh member here, so there’s still a lot for me to learn… Still, I’m gonna pick up experience as I resolve the missions assigned to me, and I’ll probably figure out what to do in time.

The Zwei tends to be more defensive than other Associations or Offices. Our main purpose is not to fight and win, but rather to ensure the safety of our clients. We don’t perpetrate unnecessary killings in our duty of protecting people.

Thus, if you’re looking to make a request for someone’s death, we recommend seeking other Associations for it.

An associate Office is one that is in a cooperative relationship with one of the Associations. The advantage of this designation is that its Fixers will not have to worry about starving, since they’re paid a stable salary… And that the Office simply has to handle tasks given by the Association with proficiency, rather than having to deal with clients and accept their requests as ordinary Offices do. Spending days without any incident happening in the area designated for peacekeeping can be admittedly boring… Though it’s a blessing to have such a peaceful day in the City. I was grateful to have such serenity each day, reasoning with Lulu’s occasional complaints.

Is boredom the only downside of being an associate Office? That’s not quite true. Because we’re under the direct command of the Association, we’re forced to take on any undesirable tasks they give. Even if it carries the risk of wiping out the Office…

…I can’t blame the Association, so I only have myself to fault for failing to save my guys.

I still remember the day when the three of us met for the first time. It was when I joined my previous Office.

I was actually scared back then. It was the first workplace I was assigned to just after I became a Fixer. I was hesitating in front of the glass door, wondering whether I should go in or wait for someone to open it, but then I heard a sound coming from inside. Two people arguing with each other… I decided to get close to the door and eavesdrop on them.

“How tight did the bonds between our fates have to be to lead us here… Sigh…”

“I mean, both you and I are first timers, isn’t it reassuring to be with a familiar face?”

“Not at all! When is this Julia person coming, anyway? Don’t tell me she got disappointed by your pathetic impression and went back already.”

“She’s not coming in because she’s intimidated by your facial expression.”

She gave me a glance, turned back to the tall person with an even fiercer gaze than moments ago, then kicked him in the shin and came striding along towards me. The tall person followed, rubbing his shin. As the person with pigtails got closer and closer, I found myself stepping backward, even though I knew I should be saying hello to her… Soon, the chime on the door rang as it opened up, and we stood still for a few seconds like that, not one of us saying a single word. I don’t know why, but it was so funny to me that she was puckering her lips, just as hesitant to speak as I was, so I burst out laughing.

The Associations handle requests often made for Fixers such as security, combat, assassination, intel, patenting, and trades. When there is money, there are Associations. The Associations follow the demand, not the other way around. Demand equals requests, and requests equals profit.

It may seem too materialistic to you, but seeing how the Associations work, you’ll have to agree that money is their prime objective. For instance, the Associations sort and classify every single notable event in the City. Urban Myths, Urban Legends, Urban Plagues, Urban Nightmares, and Stars of the City… Risk is not what determines their grade. The only question that matters is how much people are willing to pay to have the threat eliminated.

San and Julia are old Fixer friends of mine. And San’s from the streets of District 21, the same place I grew up in. This is a secret I’ve only told Julia, but San actually used to be a huge coward. It’s probably not that surprising to you since he still acts like a coward from time to time. Thinking about the old days makes me laugh, though? He’d always “train” himself so he “doesn’t lag behind” and end up getting scars on his face. And one time, he walked into a dark alleyway, saying exploration shouldn’t be a problem for a brave person even though his face was already full of fear, and then ran back to me in less than a minute.

We almost got into serious danger one time. The two of us were hanging out until after dark, and ran into something nasty in a remote street. It happened when I was a little kid, so my memory of that is blurry… All I can remember is looking at San’s back, standing in front me holding a tree branch he hurriedly picked up. My heart was racing with fright, but looking at his shivering legs made me chuckle a little on the inside. I don’t really remember what happened after that, as I said.

Why am I bringing this up all of a sudden? I don’t know. I was just reminded of the old times seeing San kneel down for the sake of his Office juniors. He never changes, huh?

[TeeQueue]

I think now's a good enough time to close the poll. Guess it's time to hear more from Yesod!

[TeeQueue]

This is the only time I will ever vote for anything that isn't an abnormality battle when there's one available. One of these options opens up an avenue to a stupid card that doesn't really do good in battle and isn't really good to have in most decks, but is really, really funny.

I can think of quite a few pages that this exact quote applies to, and I'm planning on trying to find uses for all of them.

Because I'm a crazy person.

[AweStriker]

I can think of quite a few pages that this exact quote applies to, and I'm planning on trying to find uses for all of them.

Because I'm a crazy person.

Glad to hear this. We may have jank but

[TeeQueue]

Technological Sciences—208.41—All-Around Helper

Music: Lobby


Finally, someone who takes care of their attire.



You do look nice in uniform. Better than bandages, any day.

That was a different time. I no longer need them.

Hey, good for you.

Walter and Mars all but ensure our victory today by themselves—the combat pages we pick basically don't matter.



Let's get this farce over with.

This 'farce' is the key to your gaining the power you need to receive guests.

And if we didn't have this 'agreement,' I wouldn't need power.

But you'd still do it to help us worker bees wake up, right?

We'll never get a chance to find out.

Aww… Yesod…

He says it like that but there really isn't a question, is there?

No there isn't. :mmmhmm:

...Just send us in already.

As you wish.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


Boss… we didn't have three of these things back in the day, right?

You know we didn't.

Then… what are we looking at?

This machine was originally based on a mass-produced house cleaner model by XX Inc, and these books simulate an idealized environment for the Abnormalities to exist. Thus…

In its ideal world, these things are everywhere.

It's good to see you still grasp things quickly.

The helper-bot can help you with any household chores!

What kind of task do you want me to do? I can help with anything.

Contamination scan complete. Initiating cleaning protocol.<

Beebeebeep~ Beep. Contamination spotted! Proceeding with trash disposal protocol.

I will help you with my wide selection of tools.

Like with any Abnormality Battle, let's start by checking out the opponents.



All three Helpers have the same stats and deck, and the first page all three of them play is Charge. Its guaranteed 5-5 Block die is actually an obstacle we find difficult to go over, and it's not a bad idea to simply ignore this page whenever it comes up. If we have to ram into it, it's best to do so by having both of our Librarians target just one charging Helper.



I decide I want Emotion Levels more than I care about avoiding a Stagger beating, so I ignore my own advice.



The protocol for these enemies wasn't to attack while they were charging, as I recall.



We usually hid in an elevator while it charged, then hit it after it stopped. Given that this is a corri-no-doors, I think we'll have problems there.

We'll have to update our data, then. Any ideas?



Extreme violence?

That's barely an idea.

It's all I've got for ya, Yesod.

...We'll give it a shot. The enemy's fully charged, so there's no time to think of another option.



It always did like flinging itself full-body at us right after, huh?

Indeed.

When their Light is full, the All-Around Helpers use their only offensive page, Clean.



Charge gives each of the Helpers +4 Strength, making this die actually a 10-10 roll—not something that we're likely to be able to stop with the pages we have access to right now. Worse, if this hits without any damage mitigation it'll deal the 10 damage required to activate their passive and let them regain 1 Light. This lets them use it multiple scenes in a row, albeit only for 6 damage from the second time onward.







I line up a set of clashes that will keep the damage below 10, not realizing that I'd already negated the gimmick of this fight back in Key Page selection.



...That barely scratched me.

Guess we have the right resistance.

Both of our Key Pages resist Slash dice. This means that even if their attack hit us full force it'd deal only 5 damage, putting them well below the threshold to activate their passive. In a complete inversion of our first fight against Bloodbath, this time I've accidentally stumbled into a fight I basically can't lose.



I proceed to not realize this until the turn before we win. :shepface:

So long as we can blunt the blow of their offensive die through either a block die or having resistances, Clean turns are actually very good times to go on the offensive and pour on the damage.



On the next scene, the top two Helpers use Rest—the third and final custom page in this fight. It does nothing outside of having two small Block dice, and is effectively our invitation to go ham on them. Since D.A.D. needs to get to Emotion Level 2 and has low Stagger Resistance remaining, having them clash with one of these with an Evade die would be ideal to get them back into fighting form and grab us our last Abnormality page.



So we do that.



D.A.D. recovers a good chunk of their stagger gauge…



While Yesod knocks the Helper into a Stagger.



Neither of us brought a lot of blunt attacks, did we..?

I'll take it. I've got one on me right now. Besides, the ringing in my head doesn't feel much different than talking to that rogue AI.

Heh. Good one, boss. :mmmhmm:

I didn't tell any jokes.



Next is another Clean turn. Only the bottom Helper is able to hit a 10 on their die, but since they can't deal more than 5 damage there's nothing to worry about.



I block them anyways, because I still haven't figured this out. :shepface:



Our Endurance 4 from playing a pair of Combat Preparations last turn means Yesod barely takes any damage from the big Clean.



Meanwhile, some lucky rolls Stagger the middle Helper.



And Retaliate wipes out the first Helper.



Another Rest turn from the bottom Helper. Because we've already won this fight, here's an interesting tidbit instead of further strategic discussion: When the Helpers activate their Repetitive Pattern-Recognition passive, they get special lines on the next turn!

When I’m done cleaning, people would always praise me!

They’re giving me orders with a loud voice. That means I’m doing a good job.

Beepboop~ Piii! Pattern data accumulated.

People love to shout when they compliment me.

The helper-bot has excellent learning capabilities.

Yesod fails to finish off the Staggered All-Around Helper...



And D.A.D. finishes off the other one on the next turn.



I'm about out of energy for the moment. Think you can..?

It shouldn't be any trouble.



And with a final Retaliate, the fight is over.



Three down, and we're both still standing. That's a clean sweep, alright. :mmmhmm:

…Mmn.



Like I said, we basically won this fight at Key Page selection. All-Around helper isn't a difficult fight, and it would have been even easier if we'd used Blunt pages to take advantage of their weakness to it. Just don't use Key Pages that are Weak/Fatal to Slash and there's no problem.

(As an aside, I sincerely apologize for giving this a , I remember them being much more difficult than this. )

VIDEO
Music: YesodStory


Oh, greetings, Angela’s lapdog.

Come on, still at it with that?

The books you brought me last time were interesting, to say the least. I learned that the technologies employed in the Backstreets were interwoven in a disorderly manner. From crude equipment made of junk, to clothes woven from antimatter. All kinds of technologies at various levels of advancement can be seen.

There’s cutting-edge tech out there, but only few get to benefit from it.

I assume wealth is the determining factor.

We’re in an era where rich people don’t have to worry about any disease. We have all sorts of cures now, too. Granted you have the cash to buy them. And then we have people playing God with those technologies called ‘Singularities’.



Aren’t you shameless. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you.

Hey, stop treating me like an idiot. I’m not THAT stupid, you know?!

Lobotomy Corporation’s Singularity was physically manifesting the human mind, an abstract concept. Converting human emotions to physical energy, in the same vein as the Library. Human emotions can be interpreted as a complex mass. That mass is built up through experiences. When emotions are heightened enough, a page will be chosen. A spot is reserved for a person’s book; it is a comprehensive manifestation of their ego. As the battle becomes fiercer and the combatants get agitated, the egos will grow intense and allow their mental states to be physically expressed.

Physically manifesting the mind, huh~ _{…Certainly seems similar to the Distortion…}



Oh, nothing. Just a bit of monologue. Anyway, uh, that sure sounds like a Singularity alright. Impressive indeed! You know, makes me wonder. Malkuth said you guys were part of a project that aimed to save humanity, right?

…That is true.

What kind of saving was that all about, really? Make money rain from the sky or something? That’d save everyone for sure.

It can’t be compared to such ridiculous nonsense. And you have no right to talk so lightly about the sacrifices we made.

Whoa, alright, calm down now. Sheesh, can’t even crack a joke around here.

We sought to cure the mind. Carmen was the leader of our research team. She said every person in the City had a diseased mind. And that the disease was so severe, humanity would slowly lead itself to self-destruction at this rate. She described the situation as no better than lemmings willingly jumping into a pit of fire.



And everyone agreed to what she said just like that?

And now you’re taking me for a fool. Of course there were quantitative indices to scientifically prove her claim.

I suppose it would be useless to describe them to you in detail.

Okay, egghead. Setting that aside… Did you guys succeed with that goal of saving humanity?

You never cease to annoy me. If we succeeded, we wouldn’t be here doing this.

Oh, yeah, fair point.

The fact that we failed to save humanity is not what makes me upset the most. We have committed countless sins. All in the name of a single righteous purpose: saving humanity. We convinced ourselves that we had no other choice. We performed unethical experiments, and knowingly drove employees to death in Lobotomy Corporation. We tolerated all those vile deeds for a greater good. But all of that is about to be for naught.

What will be made of their sacrifices?!

All the pain me and my colleagues endured… Angela ruined it all!

Music: StoryJinji


Fatigued already? What a shame, my employees and I are up for more.

Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll kill you for sure this time.

Binah! Not even you will manage to break through our combined effort.

You raise a valid concern. It is true, even I cannot stop all of you in such a short time. We will need to act quickly, Angela.

I was just about to do something about it.

Music: Second Trumpet


A warning klaxon sounds.

Aw, shucks! The Qliphoth Deterrence is being lowered. She’s overriding my authority on the system…

We get another blank screen next, with the sound of a THUD and howling.

The Abnormalities are breaching…



The Control Team will be in command now! Hokma and the Architecture Team, please stop Angela from taking over all the systems!



Gebura and the Disciplinary Team, please keep Binah at bay!



Hod and the Training Team, provide the employees with the right manual and information!



Please act accordingly to the following instructions!

Netzach and the Safety Team, please focus on treating the wounded.



Yesod and the Information Team, please identify the weaknesses of the escaping Abnormalities right away!



Chesed and the Welfare Team, please work on restoring the Qliphoth Deterrence as soon as possible.



No time to feel guilty, Chesed! Tiphereth and the Central Command Team, please support everyone with your resourcefulness!



It brings me joy to see you all act in such coordination. Now, try and stop us till the end.

Music: YesodStory


And the guilt we feel from compromising at the end.

You’re right, I won’t. All I care about is helping Angela. I want her to achieve her goal, y’know.

So you simply want the results, whatever the process may entail. You’re no different from Angela in that you only care about your own well-being. You’re despicable. A typical example of an inhabitant of the City, suffering from the disease of the mind. You use the technologies the City has to offer for your immediate convenience, not knowing or caring about the sacrifices those technologies were built upon. …Not knowing that you’re bringing about your own demise.



I should value the process more than the result? Hah, you were a bunch of dreamers and snobs all along. I bet you’re from one of the Nests. Look, I know better than anyone about the price of those technologies and Singularities.

Diseased mind my ass… And your point about people using Singularities without knowing how they really work?

That’s because they literally have no other option! The corporates have concealed so much the consumers eventually gave up inquiring. Because they’re tired! They’re already too busy sustaining their everyday life!

It appears that I’m not getting through to you.

Oh, what a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing, too.

No matter what you say, I do not want to turn a blind eye to this reality nor conform to it.



That damn pompous…

Back already? I thought you were delivering books.

Yeah, and I nearly lost my head for my trouble. Has that guy ever even pretended to have a hobby?

Yesod? He's played word chain before. The way I heard it, there were multiple casualties.

And he's coming here for a new librarian… I'm just going to hole up somewhere until he's back on his floor.

Grab a seat.



Our new assignments are all book-related, so it'll be a while before we come back to these.



As for Abnormality pages… Recharge is somewhat nice, giving us a boost whenever our Light is full at the start of a scene. This does count when our Emotion Level goes up, but as a level 2 page we won't see it right now until everyone is maxed. Once we gain access to pages that boost our light gain, this becomes a better pick.

Repetitive-Pattern Recognition is a decent Light gain option as long as the librarian who has it continually wins clashes. Yesod's floor is one of the best in the game for this purpose, so it's a decent pick right now and becomes better once we branch out into having more dice. As a side note, the Light refill mechanics mean that it's unlikely this page will actually be giving us any Light back until we're at least Emotion Level 3—before that, getting into 3 clashes will give us a full emotion level and refill our Light regardless.

Finally, Clean. Right now Clean is a powerful if situational page that gives us up to +3 Power on all offensive dice, depending on our speed vs the targeted dice. For the purposes of effects like this, Staggered dice have an effective speed of 0, making it also good for capitalizing on Staggered foes. While it's a decent pick right now, we'll want to keep it in mind for later. There are some shenanigans we can get up to with this thing late in the game, and they're glorious.

Are they ready yet?

The process is nearly complete.

Then I'm wasting my time here.

Ah, it's fine. We can wait a couple minutes.

...Fine.

…

…

Well… this is some tension. What's going on?

We're getting a new member, and the ol' mummy's mad at Angela for obvious reasons.

Aha. Well, hope it goes better than ours. She's locked herself in a bathroom until we agree to meet her demands.

Demands?

Something about a theme song and network access.

Heh. Well good luck with that one, kiddo.

Yeah, you too.



Well, speak of the devil.

Welcome back, Kaori. We're leaving. Now.

You really should get over it already.

I will not.

Mmm… Did I come at a bad tiime..?

Just Yesod being his sunny self. You missed a few things, so I'll catch you up.

Okaay… I have soo many questionns…! Mmm… Where to staart..?

What part of 'leaving' was unclear? Come on.

Aaww… Ookaay…

Next time, on Library of Ruina



It's! About! Sending! A damn! Message!

A Drunk on a Train.

[vulpixall]

I also remember this battle being a lot harder, but that's probably because I didn't bring Walter...

[TeeQueue]

Looks like we're heading to a train in the Project Moon universe. What could go wrong?

[Whilimbird]

I for one am certain that all this tension between Angela and literally everyone else except Roland will not blow up in everyone’s face.

[vulpixall]

Nothing could ever go wrong when a train is involved. Definitely. 100%

[Kacie]

I love D.A.D. They're awesome.

Oh Angela. What did you do? X worked so hard to break everyone free...

[TeeQueue]

Book 15: Molar Office—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


The second book I wrote seems to have been immediately useful.

Of course. Any information about a Wing is sure to be valuable, even if it's fallen.

Then all that's left is to receive the guests. Roland—

We've had a difficult fight, ma'am. The team would appreciate a break.

—go let Malkuth know she'll be fighting, as she still refuses to speak with me.

Ah. Yes, I'll get right on that, ma'am.

VIDEO
Music: WarpStation




Oh bugger, I’m ‘boutta vom…



They occupied the whole pub and got wasted all night, I heard.

Sigh… Just how much did you drink this time?

Oi Rain, my head’s still ringing from the hangover, so keep the lecture for later, yeah? Maybe in an hour or so.

And what’s this? This receipt says… You used our Office funds to pay for it, too…



The next train departing is WARP train UW-212. All passengers please check your pass and make sure you are in the correct carriage for travel. And remember: Watch for it. Warn us. We’ll all be good.

Seems it’s our turn now.

I always feel ill and out of sorts when I board WARP’s trains.

Just don’t make an arse of yourself like the last time.

Anyway, this request is rather unexpected. One from R Corp. of all places.

Isn’t it something right dangerous if R Corp. has to request another party to do the job? They might be just using a no-name Office like us as bait to test the waters ‘fore they do it themselves.

Say, who’s the client for that request?

The captain of the Rabbit Team herself?

Huhuhu… You kids might be thinking I’m just an easygoing drunkard, but every action of mine is calculated, you see?

Here she goes again.

That Myo lass is an old mate of mine, I drank with her just yesterday!

You mean…

Said she’s got an easy job for me. Says all I gotta do is give her a small cut of the rewards.

No wonder you were so proud about going out for a drink.

I was in a rather good mood, so I let her dine like a king and paid for all that with the Office card~

Is Myo a trustworthy person?

She acts like a hotheaded lass, but she’s actually pretty nice deep inside when you get to know her.

I swear down I’ll curse you for the rest of my life if it turns out to be weird nonsense again.

All passengers please board WARP train UW-212.





These two, Tommy and Merry, do have pictures but they don't show up until a bit later. I'll just use them now.

You’re such a worrywart, darling. So many people use WARP every day.

I heard there were several accidents when they were first starting out.

You can just stay by my side and keep your eyes closed if you’re so worried silly.

Okay. I’ll stick fast to you and hold tight.

…Take care of the mess if I happen to vomit on this carriage, Rain.

Big Sis, please!

Music: WarpTrain


We’re departing now.

Oi, I’ve always wondered, what’s the point of these seatbelts?

Courtesy, I suppose. Who knows, it might actually be better than nothing.

We will be initiating the warp in ten minutes.

Oh you. You’re clinging onto me like a baby.

Well you never know…

We’ll be there just ten seconds after the train starts! But you’re cute, so I’ll let you be~

Why’d we hafta sit right behind those two lousy lovebirds?

Shh, shut it, they’ll hear us.

Please do not open the doors while the train is in warp.

I’ll be taking a nap. Wake me up when we’re there.

It’s going to take less than 10 minutes anyway.

Whatever~

There's a page turn effect here, to indicate the passage of time.



Hell, what’s it this time?

Something seems to have gone wrong. It’s been an hour since we departed, but the train still hasn’t arrived at its stop.

What’s happening, Merry…? You said we’d be there in just ten seconds.

That’s strange… It shouldn’t take any longer than that…





WARP hasn’t had any accidents in the last ten years, though.

We might end up getting trapped here.

We’re breaking through that door if anything goes wrong.

You’re insane! The warnings said you’ll get sucked out into space if we try to open the doors while the train’s in warp.





Where are we?

I can’t even take off this seatbelt…

Tommy… Everything will be fine soon enough… I’m sorry, it’s my fault for asking to take a WARP train…

The train seems to be operating still…

Oi! Take out your tools now. We’re cutting off this bloody seatbelt.





The atmosphere is getting eerie. Everyone seems more sensitive than usual.

What’s funnier is that I’m not feeling any thirst or hunger even though we haven’t had anything in the last 31 hours.

There's a whirring like a power tool here.

It won’t even leave a dent on this bloody door.

Guess we really are trapped. I don’t see a way out. All we can do is wait.

Looks like others are slowly losing their minds, too.



What do you mean, a gamble?

I’m saying, maybe we use this.

An invitation…?

It’s the stuff I got from Myo. Never thought I’d use it now.

Here’s my pen. I’d do anything to get out of this train, too.

Music: Lobby


It was supposed to arrive at the destination in only 10 seconds, right?

Yep. The WARP trains, operating with W Corp’s Singularity. They can get to any station in 10 seconds no matter how far away they are. A 30-second delay would be a big enough issue already, and a 30-hour delay? That’s gonna be outright fatal to the corporation’s trust.

Even a Singularity can malfunction, it seems.

I guess no technology is ever really flawless.

Anyway, I might be able to have an unexpected reunion soon enough.

You have any familiar faces in that Office?

No.

You mean Myo, the captain of the Rabbit Team, then?

Yes.

Hunh… So you had connections with one of the captains from R Corp? That Olga person knowing her is surprising enough, but you have some impressive networking finesse, too.

Though we probably won’t be greeting each other with smiles when we do meet again.

What, you weren’t friends with her? Eh, you know what, I guess it makes more sense this way.

What did you expect? Did you really think I would have any friends to casually chat with?

I was just wondering. R Corp. is different from Fixers on a fundamental level. Their work might seem similar to what Fixers do, but they take on things of a much larger scale with a much more professional mentality.

I expect no less from one of the Wings.

Aren’t you relaxed.

Music: Entrance


Much faster and better than W Corp’s idiotic Singularity.

Are we really sure we can proceed so carelessly? You said you got that invitation from R Corp.

Mika, shut him up for a bit. I think I’m gonna vomit right ‘ere if I hear another peep outta him.

Rain is speaking the truth, though. Maybe we should have been more cautious.

Sure, sure~ No one is on my side. It’s all thanks to my quick judgement that we could escape from that buggered train.



Good to see you too, lassie~

I apologize. We’re in a bit of confusion right now. And she’s hungover as well…

I understand. I do have experience dealing with drunkards.

Ey, you know what the hell was going on back there?

All I know is that you are our guests invited to the Library, I’m afraid.

Huh. She’s a bit nicer than what Myo told me.

Do you know her?

Ye see, we were supposed to dig into the relationship between L Corp. and the Library; that’s what Myo asked us to do.

I see, so that’s how you know about me.



Let’s not anger her now. We’ll just take the books listed on the invitation and leave, okay?

Let’s be blunt, lassie. You know what relationships the Library has with L Corp, donchya? Myo says the fact you’re in the Library is indisputable evidence that this place is related to L Corp somehow or another.

…I’m sure you can find the answer to that in the books you seek.

We’re terribly sorry. We’ll be going in now.

May you find your book in this place.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: An actual deck archetype!


Videos

Molar Office 1








_{I am prepared. I am the greatest. I am unmatched!}

Talking to yourseelf..?

GAH! How long have you been there?!

Mmmm… Since just noow..? Malkuth sent me to make suure you were cooming...

Aha. Don't you worry—I know everyone's completely hopeless without me around to carry them~ I'll be there!

I seee…

Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that?

No reaason… You just seeemed… ooff…

That's not—you don't—you can't prove anything!

Huuh… Okaay. I also wanted to ask… Save me some boooks… I really want to read aall about that train trip.

The one we just saw? Why?

It's a malfuunctioning singulaarityy… There's nothing more innteresting than thaat..!

...Not even aliens?

No… I found thoose…

What?! Where?! When?!

Seecret..!

A secret that I don't know? Hmph. HMPH! Well then, I'll go out, win this fight, get those books, and make you tell me all about these 'aliens' you found!

Good luuck..!

I don't need luck, you hear me?! I'm amazing!

[Gespenst]

and so the theme of Project Moon trains being cursed entities continues.

[vulpixall]

Ah, the first deck archetype, which I...almost never use...Oh well.

[TeeQueue]

Ah, the first deck archetype, which I...almost never use...Oh well.

That's a shame. I really like it for... reasons we'll go into probably right when I start using it.

[vulpixall]

To be fair, I did things in a really weird order, so that probably had a nonzero effect on what my decks look like. Which is awful, by the way! They look awful! But they work.

[Seniorswitchback]

and so the theme of Project Moon trains being cursed entities continues.

What are the odds that express train to hell is our next big abnormality fight? Either that or it will somehow be the final boss.

[Gespenst]

Ah, the first deck archetype, which I...almost never use...Oh well.

That's a shame. I really like it for... reasons we'll go into probably right when I start using it.

All I can say on this is that Olga's page was a mainstay in my receptions for a long time, I will have some words next update. there's actually a specific Abnormality battle that an Olga deck can have hilarious interactions with, and I'll bring it up when we see it

[TeeQueue]

Book 15: Molar Office—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


Huh… that setup looks a bit odd.

I suppose it would. Hod and I talked it over, and we've decided to try handling her assignment.



Oh right, that thing. So you're all using specific costs today?

You got it.

I need to get this done to get any further, so I've decided to just toss it on the pile while handling Molar Office today. Since Malkuth is in Walter, she's getting pages with a Defensive die to lead off.



And you're using that guy's sidekick, huh…

I'm sure I don't know what you're implying.

Oh, nothing at all.

Bishop has a slightly more offensive tilt to his pages, to take advantage of Isadora's Minimum Offense.



And you're… What do we have going on here?

Huhuhu… stare into the face of perfection, person I don't know! I have the page that hits hardest! I have the one that hits most! I can give myself powerups! In every way, my plan is flawless.

Ah… sure, sure. Okay…

For Dimi… None of these pages are particularly amazing anymore and YOLO is outright bad, but I guess Guardian might help Bishop and Malkuth?



As for our opponents, Olga, Mika, and Rain all have unique Key Pages.




Each of their passives is related to either not having a hand or to discarding pages from their hand. Several of their pages are designed to work alongside them.



All three of them have Daring Decision, a page which gives insanely good rolls in exchange for their entire hand. Since Olga's Margin will give her bonus Light+Draw when her hand is empty and the other two only have 1 die each, this isn't a bad deal for them.



Mika has a pair of Fierce Onslaught as well, a 1-cost page which discards a single page in return for three okayish attack dice. It's… underwhelming.



Rain has two copies of Gamble, which is very powerful for its cost and a straight upgrade over Fierce Onslaught in any deck that can't consistently stack 3 or more Power on its dice.

It'll be important to keep on our toes and not ram into a Daring Decision without a good reason.



Music: MalkuthBattle01




They look like Zwei Association Fixers…

Oh, yeah… Myo mentioned something about that. Seems they can use the powers of people they've defeated previously.

I'm really not looking forward to facing the Zwei's techniques.

It's fine, it's fine! I've arm wrestled Zwei Fixers plenty of times!

That's not the same, Big Sis.

So… what's your fixer experience telling you?

Well—

Get the one in the middle! She's the tallest, she's the midpoint of their formation, and she smells like a hangover! Easy prey!

That's… not how I would have put it, but I agree.

Then let's do it!







Everyone teams up on Olga for this turn. Since the majority of Molar pages use 3 offensive dice, Retaliate is an effective counter for most of their plays.



...Usually.



You're pretty good. I've never seen anyone use such a short weapon so well.

There're some things you just can't do without getting up close, ya' know?

Seems like it. Did you get the information you needed, Malkuth?



Sure did.

Oi, oi… that's not very nice.



Well… that didn't do as much as expected.

The only downside of using Retaliate on Olga herself is her high resistance to Pierce attacks. Ultimately, we won't do much damage.



Don't worry, boss. We've got your back.



We won't let anyone one-sidedly pick on you.

Aren't you all forgetting someone?!



The true threat here is me!

Gh… That was a pretty heavy blow, after all.

Yes! That's right, you should be respectful of my obvious power, and—



...Hey! Don't just ignore meeeeee!

Olga's using 4 Light this turn, which means a Daring Decision is coming out.



Fine! This one's slow, so I'll take it head-on!

...Be careful there, okay?

Huhu… I don't need your concern!

Since Dimi is at full health, I have her eat it. She'll take damage, but the clash will let her get Emotion Level as well, and she's the only one still empty after last turn.







The others do some basic clashes with Olga and Mika, and Malkuth's last attack is a one-sided to continue whittling down Olga.



If I didn't have a hangover right now…

Don't worry, I've got your back!



Sorry, but I'm not letting you hit my boss. You understand how it is, right?



Rain, can you handle this guy?



I'd prefer you didn't pick on my teammate either.

So you do know.

I'd prefer you not talk so calmly while you're being sawn in half.



HECK!!!

Oi, you gonna' squeal so loud every time I hit you?

Daring Decision hurts. A max roll on the die that Dimi is fatally weak to hurts even more.



Alright. Kinda' startin' to feel it.

C-could you feel it somewhere else?!

Oi, you attacked me. You don't get to complain that I stuffed you for it.

I-I-I was clearly holding back! Couldn't you tell? I suppose not, at your level...




We get our first Abnormality Page at last, and I slap it on Bishop so that he can start throwing out lower-costed Nonstop Assaults. This would have gone on Malkuth, but all her pages in hand were 1-costs.



Hey, booss..?

What is it?

These guys were stuck in a traain for thirty hoours, riight..?

That's the story we were shown, yes.

I've seen a loot of hangoveers… They don't usually last thaat long…

Can confirm.

...Hm. I'll look into it.

Thanks booss..!



H-hey, why are you focusing on me?!

You said you were more powerful than I knew, right~? Well, I can't help but want to test that.

A-aha. Ahaha... Huhuhuhu!! Alright then, come at me!







Just some ordinary clashes here, though I want to note that because of Malkuth's Endurance and passive her minimum roll on that Evade die is a 5, meaning there's almost no chance of Rain getting an attack through it.



Ah, this isn't good…

Knocked her off guard, Malkuth!



I'll be just a minute! I'm busy with this one.

Mika was right. Those Zwei techniques are a pain in the rear.

This one's actually from a smaller Office. It's really quite astounding what Fixers can come up with!



Power stacking lets Malkuth evade all three attacks as planned, and then follow up with two one-sided strikes.

Done here. Now, who're we following up on?

H-HURGHH-!



The great Dimi has knocked this one for a loop! Feel free to heap praises and adulations upon me, I'll accept them all graciously~!

Gonna seriously hurl… need a minute..!



Nevermind, I'll go over here!



So, so?

You did a good job, Dimi.

As expected of a member of our team!

Yeah! And while I'm fired up, I'll take the next gift!

Alright. Use it well.

Music: MalkuthBattle02


This fight's in cleanup mode now—it's my first time actually using Silent Night, and I'm quite pleased to see how well it enables Evade die-first plays against the Molar Office's offensive pages.





Anyways, we go in on taking Olga out and dealing damage to the others.

History team, all out attack!

Right!



I've taken care of the tall one!

Big Sis..!



You don't have time to be looking somewhere else!



Twintails isn't dead yet. Please continue the attack!



...We couldn't save Big Sis.

Ghh…

I don't think I can protect you either. This gamble hasn't worked out at all.





Malkuth is out of pages, so she gets the turn off—and I have Dimi intercept another Daring Decision.



And now it's your turn! Face the wrath of… wuh-oh.

"Wuh-oh?"

W-weapon malfunction. G-give me just a second, and I'll—



You killed the boss. You don't get seconds.

How… how rude! You cheater!



That's two down. Just the last one left…



How're you holding up, Dimi?

_{No more terrible guess the item puzzles please, I've had plenty…}

She'll be fine! Let's finish up and get to cleanup!



Since Malkuth has a 5 and a 3, we can use the 3 to redirect Mika's 2 die, and then attack one-sided with the 5 to have an unopposed attack before she can do anything.



There we go... One each. We've all done our fair share of the work.



Oogh… what hit me?

Don't worry about that now. It's time to clean up the books and go home.

Oh. Haha. Of course! With me around, that's just to be expected!

Yeah, yeah. Good effort, everyone.



Molar Office's high focus on offense can be jarring for new players, and I've definitely heard of several falling prey to them early on. So long as we accept that the Daring Decisions are going to hit and just try to spread the damage around, though, we can use Evade dice to beat most of their other pages and grind them down. The best part about this strategy is that it also gives them a lot of Emotion Levels, making sure we get a lot of books from them.

And we want a lot of their books.

Music: Result


Well, we made it out without any casualties… the best we could hope for, I think.

Yeah. That wasn't so bad at all, compared to the stuff we used to fight.

Your bodies seem weaker than back then, too—be sure not to overextend in the future.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


L Corp. was a major client of R Corp, and it disappeared into thin air, so it’s natural for them to want to look into it.

A major client of R Corp, huh… I guess that makes sense. L Corp. and its Nest weren’t really special in terms of military power. It must have been a very important client for R Corp. if they were asked to protect a whole Nest.

It was a mutual relationship, too. L Corp. was supplying all the energy R Corp. needed, and W Corp. depended on L Corp’s energy supply as well.

Three Wings in collusion with each other, huh. So much for trickle-down economics.

There’s no use complaining to me. I was simply following my orders.

Yeah. Employees gotta do whatever their boss tells ‘em to do, whether it’s the Wings or the Backstreets.



Now that we've gotten Olga's book, Hod's floor has a new... Wait, what?



Hod… we did the research, didn't we?

Um… about that…

Come on! We used only odd costed pages throughout the entire battle! You can't say we did anything wrong!

I'm sorry, but I checked it three different times…



No matter how you look at it, this is a 2, is it not?

That… counts?

That counts.

That… counts...

Make sure not to use any cost-lowering abilities while trying to do this assignment, because it only cares about the current light cost of the page being used! By the same token, we could do it with 0 and 2 cost pages in our deck, so long as we only play ones that cost 1 or 3.

Huuuuf~~

Pah~!

Bishop! Dimi!









How is it now?

This should work perfectly. Thanks, Malkuth!

<sub>Ma'am, I have another question.

Yes?

Those guests… didn't I already "receive" them, ma'am? How could they be slain twice?

It's the power of this library. Should we send the same books, it's only natural that we receive the same guests a second time.

...Ah. I still don't understand, ma'am.</sub>

Anyways, now we have access to our next Abnormality Battle—it's Hod's turn to get her third Librarian.

Next time, on Library of Ruina



"The girl begged in tears. "Mister, please cut off my feet..."

It's! About! Sending! A damn! Message!


Videos

Molar Office 2

New Key Pages





New Combat Pages

[vulpixall]

Molar Office was very easy for me, despite my...deficiencies in deckbuilding. This is likely because this part is the part where I started just using Yesod to beat everyone up, though.

[TeeQueue]

This is and shall remain a very valid strategy from here through most of the game.

[Gespenst]

Yeah, when the main down side to extra speed dice is that lack of sustain, the fact that Olga's page just has inbuilt sustain is amazing. also Wait Up! a light gain page without a crippling downside! it's garbage as an attack, but if you throw it out one-sided then you just get the upside.
oh and there's a battle symbol involved that's great too

[TeeQueue]

Appendix 9: Molar Office

Myo and I are old friends. I honestly don’t ‘member how our first meeting went, other than being Backstreets buddies, but eh… That just goes to show how long our friendship’s been, don’t it? We’ve done requests together, been in life or death situations together. We’d been too busy to contact each other often ever since I moved to this Office, but then Myo called me out for a date one day.

Maybe it was because I got to drink with my old friend after a long while, or maybe it was the honor of having a seat with the famous captain of the Rabbit Team, but I was in a mighty good mood. I was taking swig after swig of booze… Rain would’ve scolded me for sure if I went back drunk as a broom, I felt that… But that happens all the time anyway, so I didn’t care much. “How’s it going?” “So-so, how about you?” “Same as you, lass.” After some meaningless chatters, Myo gasped like she remembered something and started skimming through her fanny pack. Then she shot me a stealthy look.

“Psst, Olga. Come closer. We don’t want anyone peeping at us, so stick right next to me. And stay quiet!”

“You’re the noisiest one here and you already stick out like a sore thumb, so just say it already.”

“You’re not a woman of style, are you. It’s more fun to talk like we’re secret agents exchanging confidential info when we’re discussing topics like this! It’s stylish that way. Forget it, R Corp. has been investigating something of late. It’s…”

“Are you giving work to our Office? Or are you just bragging. By the way, I guess it’s pretty serious if R Corp. is paying attention to whatever that is, just how big is it? Oh, I heard people’s been going missing lately… Does it have anything to do with that? Or…”

“Shut up and listen for a sec! You always have too much to say… Here’s the deal, Olga; I’ve got a lush grassland to show you, so graze it to your heart’s content and bring some of its veggies for me. How’s it sound?”

Some words she chose. I clicked me tongue and took a close look at the black card and WARP train tickets Myo pushed to my side, before drinking off my glass and agreeing to give it a go. I wouldn’t have taken it if I’d known it’d bring us to this complete lunacy.

Every useful workshop technology is patented. The City strictly forbade making or selling products using technology patented by another workshop without purchasing the rights to it. If anyone infringes this regulation and still uses technology they shouldn’t have access to… They will receive a cease and desist letter up to three times. When you receive the warning, you must pay all profit you’ve earned through the infringement to A Corp. as a fine. Why A Corp. out of all places? Because that’s the corporate in charge of managing and granting all patents. It’s the Head we’re talking about. In any case, if you can’t pay the penalty by the third warning… The Claw will tear you down.

To tell you the truth… Yes. I’m the daughter of a small workshop owner. My father dreamed to make his little brand famous one day. Its name was… Sorry, I don’t feel like saying it out loud. It’s long gone, so you’ll get nothing even if you look for it. That’s right. As I explained moments ago… If you can’t spit out the money you illegitimately earned from manufacturing or selling products using stolen technology, punishment awaits. W-wait, please listen to my story to the end. My father was a victim of fraud. His friend gave him a technology and asked him to make weapons for his Office out of it, so he made them per his request. He didn’t even realize that the technology was stolen from someone else. He’d already sent the weapons to the Office, and when he was waiting for his friend to test them out and transfer the payment, a cease and desist was sent. …You can guess the rest of this story.

When an Office accepts a request, an official deed of contract must be drawn up before the case can be dealt with. It sounds big, but it’s basically just a mutual promise; I think it’s “consideration” in legal terms. The client will pay a certain amount of money as reward, and the Fixers will do their best to resolve the case… They’re plain and natural clauses for the most part. It seems people in this City are prone to breaking promises as simple as those without a contract to bind them, though. In any case, contracts serve as physical evidence to prove our performance and secure our payment when we submit reports to the Association. Without a contract, there’s no assurance that we’ll score a record for our career or get our due payment. To give you an example, Big Sis resolved a huge case the other day, but we got absolutely nothing out of it because she forgot to sign a contract for it.

Requests made by Wings are quite different from those assigned by the Associations in several aspects. You’ll be made the envy of everyone once you get a request from a Wing. First of all, a Wing commissioning a regular Office indicates that the Office has been recognized to be worthy of its trust, and that alone can be a significant achievement. You’ll have something to brag about to other Fixers… And the payment is big as well. A single request from a Wing resolved can keep us afloat for three months minimum. If I must be honest, however, I am rather… unnerved. As rewarding as work given by Wings can be, there’s significant risk associated with it. Imagine how dangerous and difficult this mission may be if R Corp, a Wing specializing in combat, requested us to resolve it for them. Big Sis happily accepted the job, though I still can’t help but be worried a little. Still… I hope it goes well.

[TeeQueue]

Surprising probably no one, it looks like we'll be facing off with Hod's new Abnormality next.

[vulpixall]

When will the thread let us go do the funny fight /j

[TeeQueue]

This is the last poll for this chapter, so...

Right after this, I guess.

[Gespenst]

honestly it's probably for the best that you keep getting the abnormalities as early as possible, 'cause when they aren't on an early floor they aren't really a power increase, also because having more floors available to avoid "Roland does everything" is just better for storytelling

[TeeQueue]

Literature—309.08—The Red Shoes

Music: Lobby


I put Hod into Mars because I didn't remember what The Red Shoes did, and Mars has better resistances than Walter does.



Medea, meanwhile, will be demonstrating the power of Olga today. Normally Gamble would be used over Fierce Onslaught, but I like Fierce Onslaught with Literature's Abnormality Pages more.



Miss Hod… I'll accept that you agreed to help Angela, but does that really mean we just have to do whatever she says?

That's the way it is. Try to think of her as the new manager.

I wasn't a fan of the old one either, to be honest… But I'll trust you, if nothing else.

I appreciate it. We're ready, Angela.

Very well. I look forward to your success.

We'll do our best.

SNAP

Music: AbnormalityBattle01


This one again… I remember having to put down a few employees who got on the wrong side of it.

Maybe they won't try and allure us since they're currently being worn?

Let's hope so. This body hasn't gone through the training I usually put in.

This glamour should be mine alone.

The red is so vivid, isn’t it simply dazzling?

Words cannot describe the bloodstained magnificence.

When there are no feet left to wear these shoes, then…

I want a more sanguine hue of red… more luscious. Would you give it to me?

Our opponent today is split into two targets, the Left and Right Shoe. As usual, the first thing to do is check out their stats.



The Left Shoe only uses this page, which inflicts Bleed on hit. Because the rolls are relatively high, more times than not it'll get through and inflict Bleed on whoever is targeted. Its Speed Die is always a 6, which is higher than we can currently roll without buffs.



The Right Shoe uses one of two pages, both of which have effects when targeting opponents with Bleed. Bursting Desire is one of them, which recovers a nice chunk of HP on hitting. Its passive forces it to target a Librarian with Bleed if one is available. Its Speed Die is always a 1, which is lower than we can currently roll without debuffs.

Effectively, this fight is a glorified "Do you know how to redirect attacks?" check.



While I do know how to redirect attacks, the same can't be said for basic controls. Right now, I'm clashing with Medea's Wait Up!, which is not suited to deal with that Bursting Desire. By selecting the die we can swap it to Daring Decision up there, so I do that with the Tab button. However, I then want to clear all the information from the top of the screen. There isn't a button to do that on keyboard.

So my brain decides the correct answer is to just push Space, because that'll definitely. fix it.



So maybe I should… or maybe…

They're coming!

What?! But I'm not ready yet—



That was… unfair.

That's the story of how I completely forgot to have Hod move on the first turn by pushing the wrong button.



On the bright side, Medea's Daring Decision/Wait Up! combo knocks the Right Shoe for a loop. This does leave her without a hand, but that's where Olga wants to be anyways.



Unfortunately, both our draws are Daring Decision. This is fine, as we only need to intercept the Right Shoe before it can target Hod and gain back a lot of its health.



Hod fully commits to targeting the Left Shoe, and I'm praying for good (or bad!) rolls to get her Emotion Level up a bit.



Medea takes the hit from the Left Shoe, giving her Bleed next turn. It's worth noting that this Bleed won't activate the passive abilities on the Right Shoe's pages—they only turn on when the Bleed is active, not when it's about to be active on the next turn.



Nice try, but you're not getting around me!

Not that it matters, as Medea stops all three attacks from the Right Shoe cold with Daring Decision.



Hod, meanwhile, lands enough emotion coins to get a Light refund as well.



It's time again. I feel it.

Then I'll borrow its power.

It should work better with your techniques right now, anyways.



The Right Shoe is on its last leg, so this turn is a good time to finish it off.




Hod pulls the attack from Right Shoe. Obsession is the other page from Right Shoe, and it gains +5 Power if it's clashing with an enemy with Bleed.



This frees up Medea to go all in on it with two Fierce Onslaughts at +2 Power.



Hod does have to eat the one-sided attack from the Left Shoe...



I'm not sure where you grew those strange legs from...

But this just frees Medea up to Stagger the remaining one.



But take them and get out of here!

It falls the same turn, due to the hideous damage output of Olga's Key Page at +2 Power.



This leaves us with one shoe that can use only a single die, on a single page, against two fully capable librarians at full Light, with mostly full hands and four times the plays per turn.

We've got them, now.

Yes… Good job so far.

Let's just wrap things up quickly.



The Red Shoes doesn't have any more tricks to show off, so we do just that.



The Red Shoes are ultimately a test of whether or not we understand how attack redirection works. We do, so they're basically a snoozefest—though Olga's page makes them even more of a joke through its raw power.

VIDEO
Music: HodStory


Hi, Roland. You’re working hard as always.

You tell me. If only our Miss Head Librarian could appreciate all this hard work with a huge reward or anything.

How are you doing with Angela by the way?

Eh, so-so I guess? She can be scary at times, but I can live with it.

Angela seemed to be the most comfortable when she was talking with you.

Really? To be fair, all the librarians I’ve met so far did seem to despise Angela.



I’ve been thinking, and I don’t think I can follow that. I’d have to loathe Angela with all my being, but I just can’t get myself to bear any unconditional hatred towards her.

Oh boy, that took a turn. I’m guessing it’s because Angela has her fair share of tragic history and stuff?

That’s right. Everyone has their own stories. Even if someone is committing bad things right now… I don’t want to judge them based on solely the snippets I see of them.

So I try to understand them in depth.

Man, you’re an angel. I wish Yesod and Netzach were half as kind as you.



Hmm, dunno about that. “Kind” and “good” aren’t exactly one and the same.

Is that so? I wasn’t really a good person, you see.

Oh, is this about your first and second lives? I remember Malkuth talking about ‘em.

I see, that’s how Malkuth put it. Yeah, you’re right. My first life was a tragic one.

That seems to be the case with everyone here. You were all doing research to “cure” humanity, right?

So many people were killed because of me…

Huh? You’re admittedly pretty good at fighting as a librarian, but you don’t smell like a serial killer or anything.



I snitched to the Head. About the experiments we were doing, and about the atrocious things we were committing. They sent an Arbiter to the laboratory and killed so many of my colleagues.

When I heard the news, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I… took my own life.

What happened there…?

I had to watch as Malkuth, Yesod, and Netzach died horrible deaths in that laboratory. And what happened to a young boy who participated in the experiment… That’s not all. We injected people with drugs and recorded the changes and side effects they made…

Within the City?

No, the laboratory was in the Outskirts. To avoid the Head and its Eyes.

Hmm…

Now you can see that I’m not a good person at all, right?

Nope, it’s not that. I’m frowning because there’s one thing about this story I don’t understand.



This part doesn’t make sense… Are you really sure it was an Arbiter?

That’s what I heard… It matches what I learned in Lobotomy Corp. during my second life, too.

Hnngh. It’s still too hard for me to believe.

You’re pondering over odd things, Roland. I thought you’d lambast me for being a traitor.

Well, betrayals happened on a daily basis where I used to live. Besides, real betrayals tend to be a whole lot more cruel. Are you from one of the Nests, Hod?

Yeah. I was born in a Nest, and went to a school in a Nest.

And the other librarians are too?

Most of them are. There’s one from the Backstreets, and one from the Outskirts, but that’s about it.

Damn, you guys were all elites, huh. I gotta wonder how you ended up living such miserable lives. And you all had the drive to leave behind the comfort of living in a Nest for a research facility in the Outskirts. That must’ve taken some determination. My bad for calling you a bunch of spineless snobs.

We were full of passion, too. Which I ended up betraying…

That means the reason you can’t blindly hate Angela was mostly an excuse for yourself?

I guess. I made a huge mistake once, but…

I wanna be better now. I want to become a better person. I’m sure everyone wants to. At the same time, a part of my mind still can’t forgive Angela.

Music: StoryJinji


You’re holding up much better than I expected.

Of course we are! Did you really think we’d go to sleep just because you told us to?

However, it is only a matter of time.

Hrk… And time is what matters to you most right now.



The regenerators are at their limits, too…

I put up with the play for such a long time, I could pass a day or two in an instant. But the last two days have felt so long and slow.

Angela, your filthy deed born out of your personal desire shall never be brought to fruition.



The circumstances are no longer the same as before, Gebura. I am now aware of the existence of E.G.O and its capabilities.

All employees from the Welfare and Disciplinary Teams have fallen…

You’ll never get to spread the light for those seven days you all planned. It would last… hmm, perhaps four days at most? And I’d be left with only two or three days’ worth of light for myself. In any case, none of us will have won this battle.

What is your point…?



…I want to live, you see.

Music: HodStory


Sephirot?

Oh, that’s what the librarians were called back in Lobotomy Corp. The nine librarians sleeping on each floor, you know.

I see. Yeah, the ones I met didn’t seem too happy with this job. I guess that’s why you all hate Angela so much.

Me, Malkuth, Yesod, Netzach, and Hokma were the ones opposing her offer.

That means the other four approved it. Angela wasn’t completely alone, huh.

To be fair, they weren’t actively supporting it… It was more of a deferral.

One sec. Why were you against her offer if you thought she could eventually become a better being?

It’s silly, I know… Even in the middle of that, I was thinking I could repent for my sins with death.



Yep. The whole thing was meant to end with us shutting down, falling into an eternal slumber knowing that our long-desired wish was fulfilled.

Geez, you were all ready to really accept a morbid fate like that?

You’re always surprised over the oddest details, Roland. I thought you’d blame me for running away from my problems, even at the end.

Nah, that’s a totally natural reaction in my opinion. I’m not a very strong or spirited person, so I get why you’d do that. So, in summary, you objected to Angela’s offer at first because you wanted to forfeit your own life as the last step of your atonement, but now that you had some time to think things over, you’re willing to give Angela a chance?

Yeah, that’s about right. It was a rather heavy topic for me, but you summed it up neatly.

Well, things are bound to seem lighter from an outsider’s perspective.

Thanks for listening anyways. It helped me sort through my thoughts, too.

You’re welcome, Miss~ It’s all part of my work.

Music: Lobby


With that, we've hit our next floor level for Hod, and unlocked another trio of Abnormality Pages. Let's take a peek.



Glitter is an interesting page, since it gives us 1-2 Power on every clash against enemies in exchange for the enemies dealing more damage when they hit us. Unfortunately it's a random power boost, and ultimately unreliable—although there's something to be said for having an option to force the opponent to target one specific opponent if we're using a very defense die-oriented build.

Obsession is build-defining, and Hod's floor is the queen of Bleed specifically because of it. Doubling all Bleed stacks can lead to some absurd amounts of HP being lost with every attack, even with the reduction after each offensive die.It's just unfortunate that we have to wait for Emotion Level 3 for it to show up, getting this at level 1 or 2 would be nuts.

Lastly there's Axe, which is a +1-3 Power for all Slash dice, and a penalty should they fail to connect. This is another incredibly strong effect, and if stacked with Look of the Day our Slash dice should never be losing clashes in the first place. Even without it, our ability to choose how to attack means we should rarely, if ever, run into a situation where this downside is an actual liability. It's good.



We also get our new assignment, which is just more books. This is a trend for the rest of the game—we don't actually see any novel assignments like the ones we had before. It's kind of a shame, I was curious at first about what sorts of other weird hoops we'd have to jump through as the game progressed.

How's our librarian?

The process is going smoothly. It should be at most another few moments.

...Hey, Hod?

Yes?

When you said before the plan was for everyone to die… Did that include us?

...I'm sure that Manager would have thought of something to avoid that, in the end.

So it was the plan.

We were all supposed to sleep together, content that our work was finally finished.

I see...



Well… THAT was a nap. Phew...

They awoke slightly earlier than expected.

I've always been reliable like that. I'm not too early, am I?

In terms of awakened librarians, you're the thirteenth.

Oof, unlucky. Well, I'll make the best of it. I survived a lot of battles inside that company, and I aim to thrive here, too. Where's the gear?

We don't have gear. We wear people now.

Huh. How's that work?

All of us have bodies made of light now. They're weaker than before, but…

Weaker? In that case, I'll just get back to training. That's our middle name, after all.

I don't think that's really an option.

Hod, as interesting as it may be to watch you talking to yourself… you are free to go at any time.

She's talking to us, though..?

I'll explain later. Thank you for your time, Angela. We'll be off.

Next time, on Library of Ruina

It's! About! Sending! A damn! Message!


Videos

Hod 3

[Talisriel]

But Roland, *I* am the great therapist PagliHodcci!

[TeeQueue]

Book 16: Stray Dogs—Chapter 1

Music: Lobby


Now that I'm back, I'm raring to get back to the daily grind.

Just so you're aware, our new duty is to turn people into books by killing them.

Do we still get paid the same?

We don't.

Man… we're getting ripped off.

Tell me about it.

Still… we made a deal and we'll honor it.

All patron librarians, please ensure your floors are prepared to receive guests. The next invitation is ready to be sent.

You heard her. Battlestations, everyone.

Right. Let's see how this all works.

VIDEO
Music: StorySimgak


Right out of the gate we get a nice, meaty punching sound complete with the customary screen effect for massive and gruesome violence. This is probably fine.





The effect continues with every new line while Gyeong-mi here speaks.

Need! Some! Beating! Get! It! Into! Your! Thin! Skull!!



District 22 may be our turf, and these chumps you’re beating to a pulp may be from Zwei’s Section 6, but we’re talking about an Association here… We’re gonna be in even bigger trouble if you kill ‘em all.



The beating continues here, with another effect between every line.

Walter!

If! Only! That! Bastard!

Kept! His! Promise! We! Wouldn’t have! Gotten into this mess.

We! Needed! The! Floorplan! Of! L Corp’s! Nest!

The Zwei!

Had it!

We should! Teach!

These fuckers! A lesson!



Night will fall soon. Sweepers could come for our asses any second now. And the Thumb wouldn’t even contact us.



Those zealots at the Church of Gears took out more than half our Syndicate.

Their leader was an inhuman freak, alright…

We worked our asses off securing the goods from the Church, and for what… If we can’t hand over the floorplan of L Corp’s Nest to the Thumb…

All that’s left for us is to get purged by the Thumb for failing our job.

Shouldn’t have made a deal with an Association in the first place.

At least Walter was a sensible one. Maybe something happened to him. He might have been a cunning old fart, but he was still the director of Zwei Section 6. Besides, he’d usually leave field jobs to his men. Doesn’t make sense for him to die all too suddenly.

Anything can happen.



That’s one more option for us. You’ve done it again… Flew into a blind rage and crushed their bones and guts to a pulp.

Gyeong-mi! Even if they were a bunch of small fry from Section 6, killing this many of ‘em might get Section 2 or 3 to chase us down.

The Zwei could send an army of Fixers at us now.

…These sons of bitches… needed to understand what the weight of a promise is.

I hope you have a backup plan for when the Zwei come to “thank” us for that lesson.

Just look at this.

An envelope?



Hold on, among the “books of the day” they listed… there’s… The Book of Walter? So that’s what happened? You had a plan after all.

What… Gyeong-mi! So you already knew that Walter died in the Library and still pulverised Section 6?



One last time, the red violence effect appears with each line.

It’s!

About!

Sending! A damn! Message!

Music: Lobby


Anyway, what were they trying to do, getting Sweepers and the Thumb involved?

I might know about the Sweepers.

You do? Well, I guess they are infamous.

I saw them tear humans to pieces and use them as fuel. Are they like that in real life, too?<

Sort of. One Sweeper is tough as is, but what’s really scary is their organizational power. They crawl outta the woodwork every night and clean the Backstreets. We can’t even guess how many of them are there. No matter how many we take down, more would show up the next night.

Music: Entrance


It is, but we’ll probably get back just in time.



Scratch that! Just let us in. We’re in a hurry.

You are rather impatient, I see.

I said shut up!

And let us in. Now.

May you find your book in this place.

Next time, on Library of Ruina: This book is about PUNCH.

Videos

Stray Dogs 1








_{Mmmm… the Thummb are invoolved..?}

THERE you are! I demand my answers! Who's the alien?!

Ooh… Hi Dimii… Why am I telling you agaain..?

I beat up those guys and turned them into books, flawlessly, because I'm amazing. You need to hold up your end of the bargain!

I don't recall making any deeals with youu… You just made it on your oown…

Don't you play coy with me! I'm too smart for it. Now, 'fess up: Who's the alien?!

I toold you alreadyy... It's a seecreet..!

Hm… Hmm..! Huhuhu! I see! No matter, as my magnificent detective work's already figured it out! It's so obvious! The alien… it's D.A.D, isn't it?! They're the one you were always investigating, after all!

...How... Diid you knoow..?

Because I've learned detective work from carefully observing the every action of my newest boss, Bishop. It may seem quick, but for a genius like myself it's nothing.

Woow… :neckbeard:

Hmmhmhm! Yes, I'll accept all your adulation for the time being. Now, back to work for me! So much to do, and only I can do it! Farewell!

...pheew...

[Gespenst]

ah Obsession, extremely potent but also nigh-unusable. there's a lot involved in what abno. pages get drawn, but what matters is that drawing obsession basically just doesn't happen unless you're getting your ass kicked to the extent that it isn't helpful.

[TeeQueue]

Book 16: Stray Dogs—Chapter 2

Music: GuestBattle01


Miss Aangelaa… I'd like to speeak to these guyss… Can wee take caare of it..?

Angela, we're all outfitted already, and Elle seems ready to go.

In that case, Hod, we'll go with your floor.



Aww… but I called diibs..!

I think if you want to fight, you'll need to have Yesod be the one to ask.



Ooh… Hey, booss..?

We'll read their books when the fight is over. There's no need for us to go, if Hod's volunteered.

...daarn…



Well, glad this worked out. Let's see how rusty I am after all that sleep.

Hod and Medea's decks haven't changed at all, but for Elle Tee I've gone ahead and put together a classic Olga-less Molar deck. Instead of Wait Up! we're going with three copies of Stay Calm. Light won't be an issue for her with only one Speed Die, so we just need to be able to Daring Decision and still have a hand afterwards.



This is another 2 Act fight, with the first Act being all generic Stray Dogs members.



Their Blunt attacks deal +2 damage due to their skill. I'm reasonably sure that this +2 damage effect works the same as Fragile bonus damage, so it's more effective against people who are weak to Blunt damage.



Music: HodBattle01


Oh… I'm getting a lot of attention. This must be another of those trials by fire.

We'll have to stop them. It's rude to gang up on someone like that.

One each, then?

Sounds good to me.







While Hod is going to have problems with her clash, Daring Decision is basically an instant-win right now, and will continue to be for the next while.



We're also going to be getting in some extra one-sided attacks while we can.



Hi. This is my first day, so I'm a little nervous.

You know I'm here to beat the fuck out of you, right?



Always be polite your guests. That's hospitality 101!



I don't think this is really 'hospitality,' Elle!

They're going to be staying here for a while, so it's close enough?



There's enough time to discuss this later on. For now, please keep an eye on their motions.

Ah—right! Sorry, Miss Hod!

Music: GuestBattle01


With Crush as their strongest page, and us having effortlessly blown it away with Daring Decision, this fight is basically just an attempt to whittle down a bit of our health before the main event. Molar Office's pages are just so overwhelmingly strong that they just beat everything right now.







Our job, then, is to try and keep as much of our blood inside us as possible before Act 2. Winning clashes will be vital to that.



The extra attack is just to ensure we finish off the top Dog. In general, we want to be playing every page we can with Olga, every turn.



The plan goes off without a hitch, and Medea defeats the first Stray Dog.



Oh hey… I haven't felt quite like this before.

It's our friends coming to help.

You see them as friends?

Every one of them is just a lost child seeking understanding. If they're offering us their hand, then we're friends.

I suppose that's the sort of answer I'd expect from you.

Music: HodBattle01


This turn, the plan is to have Medea pull the bottom Dog's die away with her second die and get a one-sided attack with her Daring Decision. Meanwhile, Hod and Elle are focused on the remaining Stray Dog.



Second one's down!



Elle Tee, if you would?



Of course!



And so, we finish off Act 1 in ~3 turns. Unlike the Molar Office, the Stray Dogs as a whole don't have much of a theme outside of 'vaguely decent Blunt pages,' making most of them much less interesting as a fight.

Most of them.

Music: GuestBattle01


Act 2 has the three named characters we met earlier as our opponents: Gyeong-mi, Dino, and Zulu.



Dino and Zulu are just slightly upgraded Stray Dogs. They have a couple of more unique pages, but there isn't a lot to say about them.



And then there's Gyeong-mi. Up until now, while our opponents have had fewer than 9 pages in their decks they'd follow the same general rules of deck construction that we have to otherwise—no more than 3 of a page in their deck, etc.



Gyeong-mi, however, does not give a damn about such foolish concepts as 'rules.' He runs only two pages, and he runs four of each of them.



The first page, Scratch That!, is a trio of 5-10 dice that are actually 3-8 in practice. This puts this page on par with Daring Decision, if slightly more random to make up for lacking a downside. It's also our first Objet d'Art combat page. Unlike the other pages, any Objet pages that we try to put into decks are strictly 1-ofs. Again, this absolute unit has four copies.



The other page, Brawl, is unusual. When used, all of the dice on it are removed. Then, a random page in hand is selected and its dice are copied to Brawl instead. For Gyeong-mi, this means that Brawl will either copy a second Brawl (giving it very powerful dice listed on the page itself), or else the three powerful dice of Scratch That!. While this page will copy the effects of dice like its own Restore 1 Light on Clash Hit, it doesn't copy any On Use effects like Scratch That!'s -2 Power, letting it play those three dice at full power.

It also doesn't copy any Counter dice. We have not seen Counter dice, so I'll explain them later.

Gyeong-mi's game plan is simple: he beats someone down with huge dice, wins clashes, gains an Emotion Level, and does it again. If he ever runs out of Light, then his passive means he'll have at most one turn of downtime before he's ready to go again.



Music: HodBattle02


I don't think it's right to be so callous about the deaths of your comrades, dear guest.

Talking like that… you're the one in charge here, aren't you?

I'm the Patron Librarian of the Floor of Literature, if that's what you're asking.

You heard her, boys. We have a target.

What?!

We'll take care of her, then.

All at once.







Gyeong-mi leads with a Scratch That!, and our best option to blunt the damage is a Your Shield. Taking damage is inevitable when looking at dice that big, but we'll see how things shake out. The others aren't doing anything particularly frightening at the moment.



This should let us get through the turn with a minimal amount of damage to ourselves.



The lot of you look soft! Too soft!

We're not as soft as you—

I! Don't! Care! Just! Lie down! And—



You blocked it?

I told you. We're not weak.



Despite what he says, ganging up on someone like this means Gyeong-mi's acknowledged that they're dangerous.

Is that so..?

He prefers bashing the faces of weaklings in himself, after all.



I see. Thank you for the information.

Don't say that while stabbing me…

Hey! What's happened to Zulu?! You were supposed to attack next!

Oh, him?



He couldn't make it. Sorry~

Gyeong-mi… She got me…

Oh, I'm just getting warmed up.



Now I'm finished.

This wasn't… what I came for..!

Did you really think I'd let you fuckers get away with that?



I don't think you have a choice!

Hmph. You call that a hit?



Oh, it's that feeling again… They're coming to help us?

Very good, Elle. Is any of us carrying a high number of slashing attacks?

Er…

I have a couple, if I get lucky.

It'll have to do.



Dino. We're changing target.

To the one in the suit? Gotcha'.

Let's remind them of why they shouldn't mess with our syndicate.

Are you alright, Medea?

Should be fine. I just have to use my…



Good… attacks…

Medea's going to be taking a bunch of damage this turn, and there's not a lot we can do about it. Oh well, the Olga giveth and the Olga taketh away.



Looks like we've got a fracas down there.

I'm not a fan of these unrefined tactics.

It's just how it goes sometimes. Fights between fixers and syndicates can be brutal.



Upside: Medea's 5 die ties with the enemy 5's, but she winds up getting to act first.



Cut! That! Shit! Out!

Holy hell he hits hard!

As a reminder, Medea had full HP and Stagger Resist at the start of this turn.



He's not the only one who hits hard.

Had any of the rolls gone even a little worse, we would have gone from full Stagger straight to Staggered. The damage we take from eating multiple high-cost one-sided attacks can't be ignored, even this early in the game.



That's enough out of you!

Oh..? Enough?

Yeah! You've already lost. Just surrender and make this easy!

And you'd promise to spare our lives?

Well, no, we can't, but you're too weak to—

Bah! Pointless! Before you speak, think!

Are you really the sort who should be talking about that, mister made promises he couldn't keep and ran into a fight he can't win?!

A promise made should be kept. Those fuckers are the ones who didn't understand that. So I gave them a lesson!



But I can see you need one too!

Ah, heck.

Dino. No more holding back!

For Zulu.

We're getting exceedingly unlucky with the speed dice, here.



Dino comes at Elle with I'll End You, his unique page. It's one of the best pages in his deck, but Gamble is roughly equal to its dice rolls for one Light lower.

Molar Office, ya'll. :synthy:



Hmmm…

I know you wanted to fight for some reason, but why are you staring so intently?

Ooh… thaat..? I was just thinkiing… Elle's pretty clever, isn't shee..?

Ahaha… you noticed, huh?

Uuuuuuh..!

We can hear what the observers say when we're down there. You'll understand once you experience it.

You're right. I set them up by provoking them, just a bit.



Who the hell are you talking to?

The audience. But I don't mind explaining it to you, if you want. You take your lead from that mountain over there, right?

...I can't deny that.



And?! What! Does that! Matter!

Oof…! See..? You're a proud individual. With the right… provocation… I'd be on the receiving end of a punch.

So you wanted me to pound your face in first? To protect the others?

Not… exactly.



She just didn't want you focusing on either of us. We'll take it from here, Elle.

What… the..?!



The two of us were both faster than her. If your hits had knocked any of us off guard, we'd lose the chance to take care of the both of you. But not if it was Elle.

You played me… But how did you know I'd rise to the bait?

That was simple. We've dealt with providing therapy for all sorts of people. We're trained to cut to the heart of a person's baggage to provide them the support they need.

That's… bullshit!



It's basic psychology, you musclehead.

Gyeong-mi got totally played. This isn't good… not at all…



Honestly, I just picked Obsession here to save a click. The fight is over.



I expected you'd try to run now.

There's nowhere to run to. Besides, I owe it to my bros to go down in the same way as them.

I understand… Everyone, let's make this quick.

I knew this was a bad idea. Knew it…





The guests have been eliminated.

Yes. Good job, everyone.

Thank goodness they were so easy to provoke.



While Gyeong-mi's absurd cheater deck gives him a lot of damage output, in the end his allies aren't much more than a cut above normal Stray Dogs—they're strong, but they come up short compared to Molar Office pages.

Music: Result


Um… before we all get to sorting, I had a proposal. Do you think you might like to… read some of these together?

Like, their books?

Yes. I must admit, I wonder what sort of life that Gyeong-mi must have lived to become the man he is today.

Mmm… I dunno if I want to read about someone who gave all three of us bruised ribs.

Then perhaps a different book. We can discuss it later?

Yeah, that sounds alright.



VIDEO
Music: Lobby


To listen to your silly chirping?

To deal with the things those guests say, I mean. A lot of ‘em don’t hesitate to spout harsh words at you. I’m surprised you can withstand it all.

They’re our precious guests we invited, so it’s only fair to treat them as such. Besides, I’m already used to keeping others pleased in conversation.

I envy that professionalism of yours. Maybe you should give a lecture on hospitality to all the restaurant owners in the Backstreets someday. They could really learn a thing or two from you.

…But still, it’ll probably be a lot easier on you to be more flexible with greeting guests, rather than sticking to the same polite attitude.

I’ll take note of that.



With our latest battle done with, Netzach's got a new Abnormality Battle opened up. There's not a poll here, however. Just like last time…



We're stuck once more. The Library's floors need to wake up more fully.



Everyone's staring at me right now, aren't they..?

That's correct.

Yeah… yeah. I get it. It's my turn to fight. Nevermind that I died the last time…

There's nothing to worry about. Your death is nothing more than a temporary setback. You can die as many times as is needed to complete your goal.

I'm so honored, miss.

Next time, on Library of Ruina

"A teardrop fell from the child's dewy eyes, as stars showered from the sky. The world falls into a slumber, trapped in an ecstatic lullaby."


Videos

Stray Dogs 2

New Key Pages







New Combat Pages

[vulpixall]

oh boy oh boy time for this pain of an abno fight

[Gespenst]

Brawl is kinda great and also trash at the same time, somehow I completely forgot it can play cost 4 pages, so that is a use, but a lot of higher costed pages have effects that are beneficial, and while it benefits from a smaller hand to limit the potential picks that can lead to some pretty dead hands. that said; brawl is one of the rare handful of cards this early that don't really ever get obsoleted, and I'm sure plenty of later game decks can benefit from a "play something else" card