Remove ads

“Human Resources” Shouldn’t Be This Literal: A PMMM/ProjectMoon Quest

Would you Distort or manifest EGO?

  • Total voters
    135
Reader mode
Lurker183839 said:
don't get where this came from ngl, it's not like these were her kids?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
X is proud of the Sephirah in the same way a person would be proud of a friend giving up alcohol, considering they were previously subservient to Angela often to their own detriment.

Lurker183839 said:
Aside from the B-rated fiasco/(B)ollywood Drama, I'm pretty sure that's not the case; and even said fiasco could be interpreted as part of the Script given later happenings (Ayin...)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Even if Angela is always following the Script, X doesn't have any context for Angela's personality outside of it. Adding to that the fact that her first act once the Script was no longer in play was to claim the Seed of Light for herself, and X's impression of Angela is notably tinted even if she's not expressly against her.

Lurker183839 said:
@Lepidoptera, is that Book specially prepared for us?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's just the book Angela carries normally, although since she's had it since the beginning I'm not sure whose it is. More likely it's just a terminal to connect to the rest of the Library or something of the sort, considering how she fights.
 
Last edited:
This is a very unlikely theory, but it looks like the poor screenwriters script.
Which means she is keeping the old script by her hand as a keepsake or something else, but yeah, it is unlikely.
 
Last edited:
Lepidoptera said:
Even if Angela is always following the Script, X doesn't have any context for Angela's personality outside of it. Adding to that the fact that her first act
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
(Emphasis mine)
True, but using that lens it's really hindsight speaking here more than X actually knowing beforehand Angela would betray them, right?

E: If you want Porccubus' Sapling that badly (I don't), you can also try voting for
[] Admit you don't want to discuss it
or one of the Deflect options
 
Last edited:
Lurker183839 said:
True, but using that lens it's really hindsight speaking here more than X actually knowing beforehand Angela would betray them, right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There was the whole lie detector with Benjamin where you can ask if Angela is going to try to hurt you, which is a pretty big red flag. I'm not even sure if Angela wanting to hurt the Manager is just a part of the script, considering she saw him as Ayin and her feelings towards him are rather… straightforward.
 
Lepidoptera said:
Yep, alternate timeline world/reality/dimension
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Doesn't the changes seem ...a little drastic for it to merely be an alternate timeline?
Especially given the mention of a world whose borders were tainted by rot in 4.7

E:
kaillll said:
keepsake
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Angela: Would you like to know what I did to it first?
X: ...no thanks

(If that's true I imagine Angela 'just' decided to recycle it a few times first before making that out of what's left)
 
Last edited:
One thing to note...

Angela refered to X as Manager at the end of the chapter...

Thats one thing we need to clarify to her. Call us by our name, X.
 
Lepidoptera said:
Angela begins, conviction nearly completely covering the slight tremor in her voice. When you don't react and remain seated on the table, she exhales almost imperceptibly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Was fearing you would react with anger, reassured that it wasn't the case.

Lepidoptera said:
"You say that like it wasn't completely obvious that you wanted to stab me in the back at the first opportunity. Really, it's more about motive than anything else. Sure, you might've been the one to start the betrayal, but you did it because you thought you deserved better for everything you'd done up to that point." Angela flinches, her previously guarded expression crumbling.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It is beautiful to see her realize we aren't really an enemy, and that we actually did care about her, that we were looking at her. One of her biggest trauma at the end and the catalyst of her decision was the fact that she was forgotten at the end of the script, seeing that X actually didn't has to be a rush of emotions.

Lepidoptera said:
Now, though, there's a note of uncertainty to it. Something really has changed since you were gone.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Probably him saying he's sorry, too little too late but still something.

Lepidoptera said:
Angela shifts her posture slightly, then steps into the room and seats herself on one of the tables opposite you.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Wait, she was at the door this whole time? Man, the awkward rating is far past the chart there.

Lepidoptera said:
Burrowing Heaven from the Floor of Religion,
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, best tree is here!

Also, if it really was judgment bird that Kyubey told us about, seems like he lost and turned back to a Sapling, pretty sure the Adult will try to give it to us as a *gift*.

Lepidoptera said:
Censored
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, guess it's time to make a cult. :V

Lepidoptera said:
"However, there is a place for a sixth Abnormality on your Floor."

You freeze.

That… is a topic you didn't want to get to just yet.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

She deserves the truth, she is intelligent, she'd deduct it quickly anyway, pretty sure she already suspect, and us freezing at hearing it only confirms it.

[x] The Truth
Kalibrius said:
.... wait a moment, did p tweety's commeupance get filled in?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

During the NT fight, no guesses at who was the recipient.
 
SunsetPuppet said:
An excellent point, it seems like she's trying to distance herself emotionaly from X at the very end. She seems worried about how she's going to respond, which fair, its honestly interesting to see how clear she's being about it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, Angela honestly doesn't know X. An interesting if annoying consequence of Angela's role and the length of the Script was that after a certain point, Angela stopped trying to empathize with the myriad Xs, and just started to view them as… well, stage props. NPCs.

Lobotomy Corporation went through thousands of X clones. Tens of thousands. Each one would circle through the loop over and over until they died, went insane, or gave up, whereupon a brand new clone was iterated to do it all over again. Our X is the only one to be different. To succeed. But by the time this became apparent, by the time she existed, Angela was already done. X was just like all the others, a prop in a play destined to fail, so there wasn't any point in paying attention to her beyond what the Script demanded.

You know, right up until Day 48 when she passed Abel's test and faced Abraham. But by then, X was stuck in Keter and all Angela had to go on were her retrospect memories of the clone that finally managed to do it. Her memory is perfect, but there's only so much to be done for someone you're actively trying to avoid interacting with.

So, on top of all the other emotional baggage and psychotic history, Angela is having to completely reassess a fellow inmate of Lobotomy Corporation, someone who's outright calling her "family", that she had previously dismissed as a complete non-entity. Ouch doesn't quite cover it.
 
Zakara said:
So, on top of all the other emotional baggage and psychotic history, Angela is having to completely reassess a fellow inmate of Lobotomy Corporation, someone who's outright calling her "family", that she had previously dismissed as a complete non-entity. Ouch doesn't quite cover it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There's also the fact that "family" also apparently includes Ayin and Carmen...
Ouch is a big understatement.
 
I imagine Binah/Hokma's traits are doing overtime right now wrt to X and Angela's interaction.

Speaking of, are the Librarian's Abnormaltiies thematically relevant for them? Cause I was wondering how this particular choice of Abnormalities for X would work narratively.

Hm.
AiB automatically Sapling'd/converted into EGO for us. Not sure if wishful thinking, but might the others on our Floor do the same unless we aggro them?
 
Last edited:
Lurker183839 said:
Speaking of, are the Librarian's Abnormaltiies thematically relevant for them? Cause I was wondering how this particular choice of Abnormalities for X would work narratively.

Hm.
AiB automatically Sapling'd for us. Not sure if wishful thinking, but might the others on our Floor do the same unless we aggro them?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Schadenfreude, Parasite Tree, Melting Love, Army in Black, and Censored.

Schadenfreude could be X's all-seeing camera eyes.
Parasite Tree ... well ... anyone who has read the Parasite Tree story would understand why it fits really well.
Melting Love ... is it even a question why this would fit?
Army in Black, we already have the answer to this one, our Agents who save people.
Censored is obviously a reference to DoSaM's true form.

While I would love it if we can obtain them without aggro...I don't think any of these guys would be that cool about it outside of Army in Black and Schadenfreude.

Imagine yourself in the other 3's shoes for a moment. It's like someone trying to attack X's kids. It will always end badly. PT, ML and Censored will likely react aggressively if we stop them from "Halping/Loving/Reproducing".
 
[X] The Truth

I'm tempted to add a bit of reassuring Angela that she doesn't have to call us 'manager' anymore but... now isn't the time. Maybe before we go, but not now.
 
Lurker183839 said:
Speaking of, are the Librarian's Abnormaltiies thematically relevant for them? Cause I was wondering how this particular choice of Abnormalities for X would work narratively.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The Floor of Geography Abnormalities are matched to X's personality and trauma. There were a few other candidates (We Can Change Anything, Hammer of Light) but in the end I settled on this roster.
 
Lurker183839 said:
Speaking of, are the Librarian's Abnormaltiies thematically relevant for them? Cause I was wondering how this particular choice of Abnormalities for X would work narratively.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, especially on the higher floors.

I'm not the best at this, but:
Schadenfreude, Parasite Tree, and AiB are all Abnormalities that respond more to the Manager than the Agents. Look at Schaden with the cameras and it will breach. Complete work on other Abnormalities and gain energy and Parasite Tree starts luring in workers. AiB will become more upset the more the Manager deploys them, and is appeased when escaping Abnormalities are suppressed. When she was still the Manager, X probably had to be especially attentive to these three when she had them in order to avoid breaches.

Parasite Tree, AiB, and Melting Love are also semi-beneficial Abnormalities that have the potential to get out of hand very quickly if the Manager tries to get cute with their effects. Overuse, abuse, or depend on them too much, and the facility will be falling apart in short order.

In addition to that, Melting Love and Censored are two Abnormalities that tend towards using X's own tactics during breaches. The go-to and generally most effective response against Abnormalities is to pile on as many Agents that can take the heat as possible, and drown the enemy under superior numbers. Censored can reproduce ridiculously fast if you allow it, and Melting Love's replication rate doesn't bear mentioning.

And, in special regards to the "Realization Abnormality", Censored: someone brought up a Ruina mod a while ago featuring boss battles against Abel, Abraham, Adam, and X, and the X battle was based on Censored. It had to do with how X, in Lobotomy Corporation, was a position, not a person. With every failure, the person that had grown from his amnesiac origins would be redacted, and a new one issued for the next series of loops. Personality, memories, opinions, even dreams, all scrubbed away in service to the Script. In that sense, Censored is a horrifically meaningful Abnormality relative to X.
 
Last edited:
Zakara said:
Censored: someone brought up a Ruina mod a while ago featuring boss battles against Abel, Abraham, Adam, and X, and the X battle was based on Censored. It had to do with how X, in Lobotomy Corporation, was a position, not a person. With every failure, the person that had grown from his amnesiac origins would be redacted, and a new one issued for the next series of loops. Personality, memories, opinions, even dreams, all scrubbed away in service to the Script. In that sense, Censored is a horrifically meaningful Abnormality relative to X.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I personally disagree with most of your post, but with Censored, I completely agree.

I can't believe I forgot about that.
 
questioningmeme said:
Censored is obviously a reference to DoSaM's true form.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Or we just dethroned it as the pinacle of white damages and this is us establishing our dominance. :V

Lepidoptera said:
(We Can Change Anything, Hammer of Light)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Man, the level of self-sacrifice in these two potential choices…

Lepidoptera said:
The Floor of Geography Abnormalities are matched to X's personality and trauma.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Ok then, let's try analyzing it:

-Shadenfreude: really don't like you looking too close, has a theme about looking elsewhere when others are suffering. I'd say it's about X not being able to act and only watch.

-Parasyte tree: well, *I can help you, just let me take care of everything*, with a terrible price, not that difficult to see.

-Melting Love: must protect daughteru. Must have more daughteru.

-Army in Black: funnily enough, not the protect part, the *taking the black in human's heart upon ourself* part

-CENSORED: something incomprehensible, just looking is dangerous (relation with shadenfreude here). Must make more daughteru.

Edit:

Just had an additional thought:

Army in black: *I am totally a Zayin, honest*
 
Last edited:
questioningmeme said:
I personally disagree with most of your post, but with Censored, I completely agree.

I can't believe I forgot about that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Mmm. I honestly looked more at mechanics than anything else since I'm not too familiar with the lores, so I'm not surprised if it mostly comes off shallow. But Censored fits so well even I can see it, even with our own X. She's standing at the top of a mountain of faceless bodies, and they're all "her". Not a single one is going to be remembered, and even she only has the vaguest idea of their existence. But they're there all the same, the invisible price behind her existence.

Looking at it again, I can sort of see the "Breakdowns" X unfortunately tends to induce represented in Parasite Tree, Melting Love, and AiB. X honestly only wants to help, has genuine intentions, and is a capable person. But the people she tries to help are often so broken by circumstance or design that things eventually… explode. We saw it enough in the Sephirot, and we're seeing it again in the Magical Girls.

Further, I can kinda tell a division of intention between the three? Parasite Tree is an altruistic love. It thinks it's making things better for everyone through the few people it helps. Melting Love is possessive. She doesn't have any grand intentions beyond spearing her "love" far and wide. AiB would be defensive I suppose. "Fight the threat, defend what I care about." X displays them all from time to time.

AiB, I think reflects X's Agents, the forces she commanded. I'm not sure how much has been established on what exactly X feels about her employees, but AiB is heavily emblematic of the Lobotomy Corporation workforce, the way their breach all but mirrors them.

Schadenfreude… a lack of identity, or perhaps a sense of self? X was a blank slate of a clone that the Script attempted to mold into Ayin, but that failed, leaving her an individual without a truly solid self-image, a sense of "this is who I am". She probably wouldn't have been able to make herself her new body otherwise.

She's made a bunch of progress since the start, built up and decided for herself what and who she really wants to be with her escape from the Script, but she's more nebulous than others, can't quite tolerate intense examination towards parts of herself she hasn't truly decided on yet.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top