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

Would you Distort or manifest EGO?

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eh, W corp. Don't do very much dimension hopping. They do making two places connect with each other by a tear in space.
And because their own singularity, the real one is preservingand reverting a person back to a previous state.
They used technology and exploit it to sell time to Tcorp to make more money.
 
Honestly, even with what we saw, it's unlikely that those are the "true" singularity.

Same with the previous L-Corp and the L-Corp before that.

Lobotomy's Singularity wasn't enkephalin, the abnormalities, or E.G.O. It was the ability to produce Cognito.
Smoke L-Corp's singularity likely wasn't the smoke and whatever else byproduct it was either. Their singularity was the source of the smoke, something so horrifying that it makes Roland and others who saw it get mentally scarred so badly to the point that even after a mind wipe, Roland's trauma still survives to make it into his Distorted form.

We only know of what they can do. Not what they are.
 
yeah.
People in the city don't really care about what they are using. They just care about how much money it makes.
 
Adhoc vote count started by Lepidoptera on Dec 1, 2022 at 12:39 PM, finished with 301 posts and 53 votes.
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Rather close, but here it is.

Roland will show up eventually, though.
 
Lepidoptera said:
Rather close, but here it is.

Roland will show up eventually, though.
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Confirmation of our ability to go back or at least communicate with the library! Or at least, I think so, wouldn't make that much sense to introduce them just to put them back in an oubliette 5 minutes later. We are not Ayin, we wouldn't do that to Angela, yes?

 
questioningmeme said:
Honestly, even with what we saw, it's unlikely that those are the "true" singularity.

Same with the previous L-Corp and the L-Corp before that.
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L-Corp, R-Corp, and W-Corp I think are the only Wings whose Singularities are at least understood on a clear, basic level. Manifestation of the Subconscious, Cloning, and Restoration. A few guesses can be made for T-Corp, the Redirection of Time or something

A really big thing about the Singularities is that they often work best in concert with each other, when the effect desired actually needs to be useful. R-Corp only manages their success with cloning because aid from T-Corp allows them to circumvent the Head's byzantine rules on cloning, and T-Corp somehow relies on "packaged time" that W-Corp provides them from their own multi-millennia dimensional train rides. Which themselves rely on dimensional tear technology that W-Corp inherited or stole from a former fallen Wing. And all of these Corporations chaining their products and byproducts together is what provided L-Corp the means to exploit their own Singularity into completing the Seed of Light.

The almost complete collaboration between A, B, and C-Corp is what makes the Head such an utterly unbeatable power-bloc of the City.
 
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I was thinking about X's self-esteem issues, and (relatedly) why she never seems to pay attention to the patient's thoughts about her when using Lobotomy - the girls really like her, after all, so why doesn't she even note that in her inner monologue?

Well, I had a small epiphany about it.

She doesn't think their good opinion of her is relevant or important, and the worst thing is she's right. The only X they see is the one she presents to them - which is Super Mom X, who cooks their food and doesn't seem to sleep and takes care of abnormalities and scolds them for being reckless and always has a plan. This is especially true in the cases of Mami, Yuma and Homura, who have no parents other than her.

In other words, X is doing the Mami thing, except instead of "Senpai" it's "Mom".

This isn't even wrong. It would probably be irresponsible to stop being the one pillar of stability they have (which is probably a major reason why Homu was so shaken, btw), by forcing them to see the real X - Overworked Manager X, the blind janitor, who dutifully cleaned up the rubble and bloodstains left behind by Ayin, in his single-minded pursuit of an objective X did not, and could not, even understand.

Even as she comforted the Sephirot, she did not understand the deeper reason, only acting out of a personal sense of compassion - all the while, words were directed at her that were meant for Ayin. Even as she rejected his twisted reflections, it was only because they endangered the facility she called home.

Binah said that Ayin always looked above the things he observed, seeing into the root of them like none other. He looked at Garion - the sadistic, petty murderer - and saw instead the Head's oppressive weight. He looked at Carmen - the fragile, neglected saint - and saw instead the possibility of a better future. The White Ordeal's Fixers are faceless, because the individual identity of a Color is unimportant - but what the existence of Colors represents, is.

This vision of his was a heavy burden, and it was impossible to bear it and be Manager of Lobotomy Corporation at the same time. So X excised it from herself, turned away from the incalculable and immense implications of her actions, and focused completely on the present, at the expense of the future.

In the end, even as she completed the project, the person she had become could not see its value. To face the fear, X had to blind herself, and the sight of the bright future was denied to the one who helped build it.

...So it is no wonder that X does not talk about any of this heavy stuff with her daughters, who she is nominally closest to. Note how the only real conversations about X's past were with Homura, which was for her benefit mostly, and Sayaka, who we don't have to be a mom for.

Aside from these two tiny inroads, no one in Mitakihara has any idea how X feels. This is further exacerbated by Lobotomy - X knowing everyone's inner thoughts makes communicating with them even weirder and more asymmetrical. I'm sure Homura knows all about that awkward feeling.

So, considering the Wind-Up Soldier is probably not in the mood for X's tragic story, and Angela has a lot of baggage with us and little time to clear it, the most suitable person to be our confidant of sorts is Sayaka of all people. What a bizarre timeline...

tl;dr X is sad and lonely and needs to talk to someone

...Well, I say that, but it's not really necessary. X is functional right now, and I doubt all this will affect her managerial duties. It's not like low self-esteem makes it impossible to do good, as Madoka so helpfully demonstrates.

Frankly, I think we could ignore this for the entire duration of the quest and be just fine, but that would also be more boring. Which is why after our little library trip I want to do more social stuff, as opposed to frantically gathering E.G.O and putting out fires.
 
diplomacy said:
tl;dr X is sad and lonely and needs to talk to someone
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Why, it's almost as if she's massively traumatized after being expressly born to fill an emotional role for others that she wasn't adequately capable of handling, on top of living her entire subsequent existence in the confines of a facility where almost everyone she's trying to have good relationships with hated her. And the person she was cloned from didn't seem to make any room for her continued existence after the grand plan he all but forced a major role of onto her finally concluded, even though she was all but integral to it.

I honestly can't possibly imagine anyone who would be able to sympathize with such an absolutely terrible-
Oh, hi Angela, I didn't see you walk in. What was I talking about again?

Provided things don't devolve once X starts getting reintroduced to the Patron Librarians, having access to the Library has the potential to do wonders for her mental health, having people she's not actually responsible for and genuinely likes on some level to associate with. Maybe Angela can share some of the coping strategies she, Roland, and the Sephirah have hammered out between themselves.
 
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diplomacy said:
In the end, even as she completed the project, the person she had become could not see its value. To face the fear, X had to blind herself, and the sight of the bright future was denied to the one who helped build it.
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Also, our true form has no face, we literally don't see having a self identity as important, the only way to make it more symbolic would be for us to have a mirror instead, but it's not the right symbolism so faceless it is.

Zakara said:
Maybe Angela can share some of the coping strategies she, Roland, and the Sephirah have hammered out between themselves.
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Percussive Therapy incoming!

And I don't know if you chose your words voluntarily, but I am going to point something out:
 
Nyarky said:
And I don't know if you chose your words voluntarily, but I am going to point something out:
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Lol, no! I haven't gotten all that far into Ruina, I had no idea that was a thing. Does that make it funnier or not, I wonder?

But really, X needs some adults she can regularly talk to about the absolute bullshit she gets into, along with the traumatized af daughters she adopted with zero forethought. The Librarians likely have negative amounts of advice on how to handle children, but at least it's a place to vent.
 
Zakara said:
Lol, no! I haven't gotten all that far into Ruina, I had no idea that was a thing. Does that make it funnier or not, I wonder?
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If you're ok with spoilers: This is the silent girl, the last opponent in the Keter realization and as such, the last obstacle between Angela and enlightenment, she is also the first abnormality extracted by LobCorp and you don't so much fight her as you fight Carmen synchronized with her.

So, yes, definitely funnier.

Zakara said:
But really, X needs some adults she can regularly talk to about the absolute bullshit she gets into, along with the traumatized af daughters she adopted with zero forethought. The Librarians likely have negative amounts of advice on how to handle children, but at least it's a place to vent.
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I'm pretty sure Tiphereth will have some things to say about handling children, probably things like: "Don't accept their offer to replace you in a deadly experiment where you are the one most likely to make it work anyway" or "Maybe making your dead children into boxbots then arranging it so that one of them constantly bug out and need to be replaced, therefore pushing the other into a psychotic break is not a good idea, just saying."

I think they are good advices, by the way. :V
 
diplomacy said:
X Analysis
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That makes way too much sense, and also really reminds me of a LoR mod I was shown which pretty much gave Roland his own Keter Realization with Ayin during his trip into the Light to save Angela. X was one of the phases of the fight... and X was given [CENSORED]'s equipment. Yeah. They went out of their way to effectively unperson X. Make them into a nameless, faceless thing that only existed to do a job, and nothing else. It didn't matter if X's life was agony. Didn't matter if they couldn't even be called a person, at the end. Only that the job was done.

It hits even harder when you look at what little realization dialogue you can see during the video I saw. There's absolutely no dialogue talking about X themselves. Only reports. About how employees died to internal bleeding or incineration or who knows what else, and whether or not the corpses could be recovered...

Combined with Human Resources, that shit hit me hard. And it was great. 10/10 would have that gut wrenching realization again. I'll link the video I was sent in the spoilers. There's probably a better one somewhere or something but eh.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65orMZKjwU
 
@diplomacy while I can agree that X probably feels pretty bad hiding things from girls, I disagree with your characterization of X. She understood the importance of the Project - otherwise, she would simply sabotage her work and not risk her employees. She would agree with Hokma that the way things are going is not bad at all. And I do not think that Binah would have believed in a blind drone so much that she began to consider the coming war with the Head as a not hopeless undertaking. And although empathy helped in dealing with Sephirah, the key was always not kindness at all, but understanding.

And in general, fundamentally, both X and Ayin are the same person - only their experience differs. X is the culmination of many iterations of her own over thousands of years - and while she had to start over with no memory each time, we know there was actually continuity between her iterations. Due to her experience, X has strong empathy and is more determined. Unlike Ain, who could not find the strength to change anything before the appearance of Carmen, X has the will to move on her own. She willingly takes part in the Plan, even if she hated what was happening, even if she had to die in the end.

But that's an important part of her guilt, isn't it? She didn't just follow the instructions, she made the decision to follow the Plan herself, hoping that the result would be worth all the sacrifices. And while others suffered, she remained on the sidelines, safe in her position as Manager. That is why she is now so careless about her own injuries and so eager to protect her children from threats. And there's probably a part of X that thinks she doesn't deserve good things - for example, she has no doubt that she'll go to Hell if she dies for real. She wants to pursue goals and dreams, to create connections that will be hers only this time - but she can't let go of the thought that it will only ruin everything. And since she realized that the Abnormals followed her to Earth, she actually got confirmation of this.

I'm in a hurry, sorry if this is a bit rambling, but I hope I was able to get my point across.
 
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I think the fastest way to say it is simply to say that X has severe impostor syndrome, she thinks that all she did is the work of A, that she is just a little part of it and wasn't really important in and on herself, only her role was, not her, The manager was important and X acted as the manager but didn't think she was worthy of it.

But while she didn't think she was worthy, she still thought the goal was worth it, that helping others was important enough to endure, and that's why she managed it when Able and Abram failed.
 
I wonder why Binah decided to throw down with Angela during her bad ending, if Binah didn't bother she could easily have just left at that point
 
Lurker183839 said:
I wonder why Binah decided to throw down with Angela during her bad ending, if Binah didn't bother she could easily have just left at that point
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As far as I know the Sephirot would essentially die, or "go to sleep" in a permanent fashion. I am not sure Binah would want that, rather I don't think she would, even with the 10k years of staring into the Well.
 
One binah does not mind going to sleep.
Two, She only acts because of enjoyment or intrigue.
She sees enjoyment out of people's struggle, struggle for wealth, struggle for success, struggle for life, and struggle for a future.
And this is why I think she helped Angela.
As the agent of the head, The only interaction she had with AI was destroy everything and destroy the place.
She was intrigued by Angeles behavior, and she sees enjoyment out of Angelas struggle to go against the wishes of her master.
She want to see this through. to see that do Angela decides to be better or become another member of the city. So she decided to help.
 
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Eternal_0bserver said:
@diplomacy while I can agree that X probably feels pretty bad hiding things from girls, I disagree with your characterization of X. She understood the importance of the Project - otherwise, she would simply sabotage her work and not risk her employees. She would agree with Hokma that the way things are going is not bad at all. And I do not think that Binah would have believed in a blind drone so much that she began to consider the coming war with the Head as a not hopeless undertaking. And although empathy helped in dealing with Sephirah, the key was always not kindness at all, but understanding.

And in general, fundamentally, both X and Ayin are the same person - only their experience differs. X is the culmination of many iterations of her own over thousands of years - and while she had to start over with no memory each time, we know there was actually continuity between her iterations. Due to her experience, X has strong empathy and is more determined. Unlike Ain, who could not find the strength to change anything before the appearance of Carmen, X has the will to move on her own. She willingly takes part in the Plan, even if she hated what was happening, even if she had to die in the end.

But that's an important part of her guilt, isn't it? She didn't just follow the instructions, she made the decision to follow the Plan herself, hoping that the result would be worth all the sacrifices. And while others suffered, she remained on the sidelines, safe in her position as Manager. That is why she is now so careless about her own injuries and so eager to protect her children from threats. And there's probably a part of X that thinks she doesn't deserve good things - for example, she has no doubt that she'll go to Hell if she dies for real. She wants to pursue goals and dreams, to create connections that will be hers only this time - but she can't let go of the thought that it will only ruin everything. And since she realized that the Abnormals followed her to Earth, she actually got confirmation of this.

I'm in a hurry, sorry if this is a bit rambling, but I hope I was able to get my point across.
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I think what you're saying makes a ton of sense, and is a much more reasonable explanation for canon. But we live in an almost-AU where X has drifted so far apart from Ayin that I can't even consider them to be the same person anymore. To put it bluntly, she's way too nice and direct compared to him, and from what we've seen of her memories, she was like that in the facility, too.

I was mostly struggling to explain how X could be hopeful, of all things, in the face of Angela undoing her life's work and reasserting the cycle of the City. The only reason I could come up with is that the Seed of Light wasn't her life's work, it was instead the daily struggle to save just one more employee from their fate.
 
diplomacy said:
I was mostly struggling to explain how X could be hopeful, of all things, in the face of Angela undoing her life's work and reasserting the cycle of the City. The only reason I could come up with is that the Seed of Light wasn't her life's work, it was instead the daily struggle to save just one more employee from their fate.
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It could also just be X sympathizing with Angela and understanding her reasoning. I mean. It's X. If someone stabs her in the back and gives her good reasoning she would hug them for it. (Oh shit this is actually true now...)

Another factor I think about is the fact that Angela betrayed X after day 49 and day 50. By that point, I don't think X even has the energy to be angry at Angela anymore.

Though one thing I find weird...and somewhat ironic.

Originally, we voted for X to be Hopeful in the first vote.

Currently, she is the opposite of being Hopeful.
 
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