Well, that was supposed to be what happened. Shame things don't always go as planned. Instead of vanishing once their task was complete, the Manager of Lobotomy Corporation's lingering consciousness is cast through the multiverse and crashes somewhere else entirely. Faced with a world that does nothing but remind them of their Facility, the Manager accepts that their work must continue at least a little longer.
How different can raising children be from managing their employees, anyways?
Spoilers for everything.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica and related media are property of Magica Quartet. Lobotomy Corporation, Library of Ruina, and related media are property of ProjectMoon Studio.
"Remember this name of ours.
Now…
Fade away without a trace."
You are the former manager of Lobotomy Corporation. An intentionally-created split personality of the founder, Ayin, you were tasked with completing his final project over the course of countless repetitions. After thousands of years of repeating the same days again and again, you at last completed the Seed of Light to be distributed across the City. Your task completed, you were finally able to fade away into the Light with your creator. As you vanished, you witnessed Angela interfere with the distribution of the Light at the last moment. With both your fate and the fate of your life's work left unknown, your body and mind were finally swallowed into the sea of consciousness. You feel…
Now, you are falling. Not the worst state to be in, considering you expected to die. Still, you can't distinguish anything about your surroundings. There are no landmarks anywhere within view. The Light is empty of any features at all, and even you have lost your body at some point during your assimilation. There are feelings, fleeting moments of anger or sadness or joy, but they are gone as soon as you notice them. You are falling, but you have no idea what you could be falling towards. Your forced movement implies this place has either a natural gravity or some sort of flow, but nothing else seems to be moving with you. Perhaps your entrance gave you some sort of mental momentum, and you're just being flung deeper and deeper into the Light?
Hopefully not that last one. It seems like a horrible way to spend the rest of your life.
At least you've some control over yourself. While your body is gone, you can call a new one from the Light around you easily enough. It's a good thing you can, as the more you think about not having a body the more you notice just how uncomfortable it is. You feel simultaneously exposed and claustrophobic at the same time, and the feeling only gets worse as you dwell on it. Your new body vanishes the first few attempts, but eventually you pull together something suitable. Hopefully this'll fix the discomfort.
Draw inspiration for your body from…
-[] Ayin, your creator. Your previous body was a copy of his, as were you. Seemed nice enough when you were talking to him, but was responsible for all the atrocities you had to manage throughout your life.
-[] Carmen, the driving force behind Lobotomy Corporation. She had been practically dead since long before you were made, but her legacy shaped the Corporation that was your entire world for so long. Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about her.
-[] Angela, the AI created by Ayin who was assigned to assist you. She was always very professional, but not particularly empathetic. Plus, it seems like she had been planning to betray you from the start. Still, she went through the same hell you did and with far less autonomy.
-[] Write-In
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Welcome to my first Quest, a PMMM/ProjectMoon crossover. You will be playing as X, the cloned manager of L Corp who died/disappeared somewhere between LC and LoR. This will obviously make more sense for people with knowledge of both franchises, but I'll make an effort to explain things as they show up. Different votes will be counted separately.
It's you! A wanderer from a cruel world, still retaining your old purpose in this new land. Experienced in leadership and guidance, and takes a great amount of responsibility for those under your care.
Traces of Red: Your body was inspired by Kali, the Red Mist. While you didn't perfectly replicate the legendary mercenary, some traits did carry over. You are far stronger than the average human, and more capable of wielding EGO gear without incurring as many of its drawbacks.
Refracting: You remain inextricably linked to the Well of Humanity. You are highly resistant to mental influences and carry a small amount of authority over anything derived from human emotion.
Cogito Ephemera: You are a living engine for producing the Seed of Light, though at an extremely slow rate. The produced Light is scattered in your vicinity and takes root in people around you depending on your closeness to them. These fragments of Light are only visible to you, and give some insight into the emotions of other Humans within their reach. An ordinary person would only be able to go this far, but your knowledge means you can use this resource to its fullest capacity.
Sapient creatures imbued with the Light gain the capability to develop either EGO Gear or Distortion.
Lobotomy: Capability to modify the "self". Works faster when applied to those who are emotionally vulnerable or with stable personalities and self-awareness. Modifications are incredibly precise and will never have unintended side-effects. Stipulations can be added to modifications such as conditions, time-delays, or durations.
Can be used to remove mental corruption and either increase or decrease resistance to it.
Usage invariably exposes a person's Self to Cogito Ephemera on a deeper level, furthering the progress of their Exposure.
Lobotomy cannot be used to modify Abnormalities, though it can still detect and interact with them in other ways.
Order: Commands imbued with intent. Allows for communication unmarred by misinterpretations and with additional effects on Distortions. Those given commands are not obligated to obey them but can go beyond their normal limits to complete assigned tasks.
Interpretation: The power to sculpt from thought into reality. You can extract from your memories to create creatures, places, or items. EGO Gear can be replicated and integrated into these creations once a suitable blueprint has been given. The EGO of the following Abnormalities can be drawn from Interpretation:Der Freischütz, Punishing Bird, Big Bird, Judgement Bird, Apocalypse Bird, The Knight Of Despair, Army in Pink, Blue Star, and Nothing There.
A Sword Sharpened With Tears
A Sword Sharpened With Tears: An elegant weapon, used to pierce the wicked and protect the innocent. Now tarnished by failure and sorrow. Strikes with great speed and power, penetrating the body and spirit.
Type: EGO Integration: Complete Paired With:The God Delusion
Blessing: The wish of a weary knight who sought to protect. Offers great resilience to a single person, but cannot be removed or replaced as long as they live.
Sword That Pierces Despair: A second array of swords, intended to be thrown rather than wielded. The pale steel of these accursed weapons has been tempered by loss.
Pairing - The God Delusion: A composite sword formed from the madness of divinities dreamed up by mankind. Summoned in four varieties, each of which inflict their own specialized wounds and have unique physical properties. Only one of each blade can exist at a given time in any form.
Beak
Beak: A small pistol with disproportionately high firepower. The pristine white surface is stained red around the barrel. At least, it looks like a stain. Cheerfully wishes to punish misdeeds.
Small Beak: While this weapon's power is normally middling, it increases in strength the more a target is deserving of punishment. This variable is determined according to the wielder's perception, but misdeeds that personally affect them are given far more weight.
Lamp
Lamp: A pitch-black lantern containing a twisting, bright flame. Within its radiance, all other lights are extinguished.
Darkness: The crushing weight repelled only by the lantern's glow, which strips away strength from intruders. Indiscriminately removes enhancements from enemies within a moderate range while active.
Big Eyes: A way to see deeper than a person normally could. Reveals details, invisibility, illusions, enchantments, other modifications, dimensional abnormalities, and other things within your ordinary line of sight. Improves range of vision and eventually accesses pre/postcognition depending on the wielder's paranoia.
Justitia
Justitia: A large sword sheared in a heavy black case wrapped in tattered white bandages. Light in your hands, it carries an unnatural weight to anyone else.
Type: EGO Integration: Complete Paired With:Death
Tilted Scale: Restrained in its sheathe, Justitia is more a blunt instrument than a true sword. Even so, it is among the deadliest EGO weapons ever extracted by Lobotomy Corporation. A dim pale light shrouds the weapon with each swing, and every strike tightens the noose another notch until death invariably arrives.
Long Arm: Justitia serves not just as a weapon, but a tool to measure the weight of a person's life. After a person has been struck, the sins they have committed over their life are revealed. Though the specific details remain obscured, the number and severity of sins the person has committed are shown. Sins are assessed based in the wielder's moral standards, taking into account all relevant circumstances.
Guardians: Wielding the EGO of all three Guardians of the Black Forest should be impossible, but for one who can carry that power all at once a memory of something further is revealed. The Birds serve a purpose as a group, not individuals, and form the pieces of the Black Forest's authority.
Sins that have been revealed by Justitia can be further investigated using Lamp, revealing the specific details of the sin committed. Once a sin has been fully assessed, Beak can be used to carry out the appropriate sentence. The next shot fired will inflict an injury considered a "proper punishment" by the wielder, regardless of the target's defenses or durability. This punishment must be a physical injury of some sort, but is otherwise limited only by what the user feels is appropriate.
Twilight
Twilight: The weapon born from the Beast of the Black Forest which embodies absolute power and authority. Using it puts a severe strain on your body, but it's worth it to guarantee victory.
Type: EGO Integration: Complete Paired With:War
The Beast: Just as the Abnormality from which it is drawn is made from the three Guardians of the Black Forest joining together, Twilight acquires the traits of all of its component EGO weapons. These effects are amplified by their shared state, working in unison as they always did.
Apocalypse: Twilight is the weapon of the pinnacle of might, the first and most primal of authorities wielded by humanity in shaping the world. It is through sheer power, in one form or another, that all other authority is derived.
To be struck by Twilight is to be wounded. Any injury one could suffer will be suffered, and weakness that could be exploited will be exploited. Just as nothing is beyond their authority, there is nothing that Twilight cannot cut down. Even if one is not so much as grazed, simply being considered opposition by Twilight's wielder wears down their very being just by being in the weapon's presence. Any who defy the order of the world will disappear.
Peace: Twilight is a weapon that protects through violence. Any individuals who are assailing someone or something that the sword's wielder considers "under their protection" is a viable target for it to strike, no matter what distance or barriers stand between them. One must be cautious, however, as attacking in this way forgoes much of the control and precision that Twilight's wielder can usually exercise.
Pairing - War: The greater the scale and duration of the conflict that the weapon is drawn in, the more sheer power it will be able to bring forth.
Magic Bullet
Magic Bullet: A plain rifle made from wood and metal with a fine, well-cared coat of blue paint. The barrel glows with a blue flame that saps the heat from the air.
Type: EGO Integration: Low Paired With: -
Devil's Implement: This weapon is a gift from the Devil itself, and bound with an innate cursed magic that applies itself to each round fired. The specific spellwork on each bullet can be altered even by one not proficient in magic, and each of the seven bullets loaded into this weapon can carry an additional enchantment.
Some favored spells include acceleration, enhanced force, seeking, or more esoteric features such as the ability to render a target immobile or guarantee a successful strike regardless of defenses.
Dark Flame: The malice of the thing which cursed the rifle, spilling out with each shot. The gun's tainted black flames stain both their user and target, confirming the mortality of all living creatures and burning away any attempts to divide one from death. Can only be summoned by one whose heart has been torched black by the fire of evil.
Pinks
Pinks: A rifle used by those who seek an end to violence, but can a weapon of war bring peace? Each round is fired with force beyond what ordinary technology could produce, striking with an unknown power drawn from the human heart.
Type: EGO Integration: Complete Paired With: Last Helix
Protection: Army In Black manifests as a collection of many soldiers, acting as one to accomplish their goal. These soldiers can be called to attention and given orders, but cannot act beyond the commands they are given. Each soldier is specialized to suit whatever role it is called for. The total number of soldiers that exist is unknown.
Blackhearted: To cleanse the darkness that taints the human heart, great strength is required. Army in Black carries with it massive destructive power, but its last orders will be carried out indiscriminately.
Pairing - Last Helix: Creation of specialized, unique mechanical soldiers in the form of your lost agents. While these soldiers do not truly carry EGO, their imitations make deadly enough weapons.
Sound of a Star
Sound of a Star: A nimbus of swirling starlight that rends the world around it. The flickering lights twist and pulse to devastate enemies, although more precise usage can bend space in creative and unique ways.
Type: EGO Integration: Normal Paired With: -
The Dull Glimmer of Hope: Your coat has taken on a silvery shimmer, much like the divine being that the EGO originated from. This unnatural cloth mends both the mind and body, although extended use instills a sense of devotion and supplication.
The Bright Gleam of Despair: The Sound of a Star is an otherworldly tool that defies traditional understanding. It becomes easier to comprehend as your sanity wanes, and in turn reveals its more complex capabilities. Alternatively, the bizarre weapon may bestow its secrets to one who receives worship in the Star's place.
Event Horizon: An ability revealed under immense mental strain. Releases a pulse of burning light over a wide area. Interferes with both gravity and sound.
Mimicry
Mimicry: Crude and misshapen, this horrid weapon eschews finesse for brutal power and ferocity. Its strikes carry more force than an ordinary human could ever hope to bear.
Regeneration: Inflicting damage with Mimicry allows the wielder to heal depending on the amount of damage done.
Following: Mimicry, despite its sturdy composition, is not bound to a single shape. The weapon can shift and transform according to the needs of its user, reacting to their desires as though it had a mind of its own.
As a result of your chosen body's preference for this weapon, Mimicry can transform itself completely into any simple physical weapon instead of just adjusting its characteristics.
Pairing - Eternal Meal: An endless, insatiable hunger. Mimicry becomes capable of producing multiple smaller weapons. In addition to allowing the wielder to use additional weapons, can also imitate weapons with multiple separate parts such as a bow and arrow.
Due to a strong affection towards you from both halves of this pairing, it is usable even in your restrained state.
Rejection: The consequences of refusing a complete transformation into an Abnormality. Leads to periodic moments of pain and immobility that increase in intensity and frequency over time, eventually resulting in death. The process is accelerated by usage of Abnormality-based powers relating to oneself.
[X] Hopeful
Because hope is the driving force of a lot of stuff in these settings.
Now, who would X want to aspire after. Maybe not be a magical girl but a supporter? Or maybe...
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance.
Why not resemble the (second) biggest badass the City has yet produced? Even if this is just cosmetics, it feels appropriate.
-[X] Understanding. -[X] Ayin, your creator. Your previous body was a copy of his, as were you. Seemed nice enough when you were talking to him, but was responsible for all the atrocities you had to manage throughout your life.
[X] Hopeful
[X] Ayin, your creator. Your previous body was a copy of his, as were you. Seemed nice enough when you were talking to him, but was responsible for all the atrocities you had to manage throughout your life.
One interesting thing here is that you chose for X to be a clone of Ayin, rather than the man himself getting mind wiped time and time again. The City has very strict laws on clones (which mostly come in play for R Corp, since their singluarity is build around cloning) and everytime an Ayin variant (Abel, Abram, Adam and Ayin himself) showed up in canon that was literally just Ayin talking to himself/a split personality. But this is ultimately a minor thing, so let's see where this goes.
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance
[X] Hopeful. [X] Carmen, the driving force behind Lobotomy Corporation. She had been practically dead since long before you were made, but her legacy shaped the Corporation that was your entire world for so long. Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about her.
[X] Frustrated. [X] Carmen, the driving force behind Lobotomy Corporation. She had been practically dead since long before you were made, but her legacy shaped the Corporation that was your entire world for so long. Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about her.
[X] Understanding. [X] Carmen, the driving force behind Lobotomy Corporation. She had been practically dead since long before you were made, but her legacy shaped the Corporation that was your entire world for so long. Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about her.
[X] Hopeful
[X] Ayin, your creator. Your previous body was a copy of his, as were you. Seemed nice enough when you were talking to him, but was responsible for all the atrocities you had to manage throughout your life.
One interesting thing here is that you chose for X to be a clone of Ayin, rather than the man himself getting mind wiped time and time again. The City has very strict laws on clones (which mostly come in play for R Corp, since their singluarity is build around cloning) and everytime an Ayin variant (Abel, Abram, Adam and Ayin himself) showed up in canon that was literally just Ayin talking to himself/a split personality. But this is ultimately a minor thing, so let's see where this goes.
That's just poor phrasing on my part. X is still a split personality of Ayin, but since he was created intentionally while the actual Ayin personality waited until the end to show up I just called it a "clone". Chapter will be edited to clarify.
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance.
Because become carmen might let us start a cult, become ayin might make us a C simp, become Angela might let us dwell on pass events like it's our only comfort/trauma.
But become Kali might make us lose our arm, so…
[X] Understanding. [X] Ayin, your creator. Your previous body was a copy of his, as were you. Seemed nice enough when you were talking to him, but was responsible for all the atrocities you had to manage throughout your life.
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance.
[X] Understanding.
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance.
I like how votes diverge on MC future form. Some prefer a pure idea of utopia (Carmen), some accept more grounded pragmatic view on idea (Ayin) and some just want that badass booty. Just like everything should be.
Ah yes, and nobody want that teenage AI drama.
Wow another Project moon quest? And a crossover too! Happy to see more Project Moon quest around here
[X] Hopeful
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance.
Boy, there sure are a lot of Project Moon quests these days And I love it I need MOAR
[X] Hopeful
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance.
[X] Write-in: Draw Inspiration from Kali. The Red Mist, greatest warrior to ever walk the City; a true heroine. A star of hope amidst the countless atrocities. She, too, was ultimately brought low by Ayin's aspirations. It is only right her legacy lives on, even if just by resemblance
edit: whoops just saw the vote ended. Guess that's what I get for speedreading.
Neat but are you not using the tally system to count the votes? As there may be more people that will notice this quest and will vote. Or are you just counting since there isn't as many people for now
[X] Understanding.
[X] Carmen, the driving force behind Lobotomy Corporation. She had been practically dead since long before you were made, but her legacy shaped the Corporation that was your entire world for so long. Everyone seemed to have only good things to say about her.
