An Unusual Abnormality - Redux (A Lobotomy Corporation x ??? Interactive Quest)

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

>Think on what would make a suitable gift for them.

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Gift
>...Perhaps, a feather? You really don't have that much to give. Although if power of Yatagarasu changed your body, perhaps it can change bodies of other people?..

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>You consider giving them some of your feathers... Plucking feathers is kinda painful, but they'll grow back.
>Of course, you're not sure if they'd provide anything beyond cosmetic benefits, unless all of your feathers are blessed by Yatagarasu for being part of your body or something.

>A butterfly man? What's he like?

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>You wonder what a butterfly man would be like. Would it just be a guy with butterfly wings, or a butterfly in the shape of a man? Or is it a butterfly-shaped human? That would be kinda creepy looking if it was the last one...

>"Does the butterfly man flutter around alot?"

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>"Not really, his wings -- if you can call them that -- are his head, and I don't think they're big enough to lift him."

>Finish assembling the table.

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>You finish.
>The buzzer rings, signaling the end of the session.

>"Alright, that seems to be all the time we have for now." Archer notes, "Oh, and hand me the screwdriver. I'm not allowed to leave it with you due to protocol."
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

>"How come? The screwdriver was pretty handy when I was putting the table together, so wouldn't it be better for me to keep it for other pieces of furniture that need to be assembled?"

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>"It's mostly just to make sure you can't use it to tamper with the systems in this containment room. Frankly it's a stupid rule since many abnormalities don't even need to tamper with things to escape containment, but protocol is protocol..."

>Hand back the screwdriver to him.
>"So the butterfly man is a youkai?"

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>You hand the screwdriver back to him.
>"A what?"

>Remeber to ask Alyssa or Archer when they come in for Attachment work if there are any youkai who work with humans outside the facility.

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>You make a mental note to do so.
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

Are there any panels in our cell that can be manipulated by a screwdriver? Vents, panels, anything?

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//There is potentially the door mechanism at a minimum, plus the meltdown console when it shows up.
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> Explain what a youkai is.

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>You explain to the best of your knowledge.
>"Ah... I guess you could say 'Kinda' taking into account the supernatural part of it, otherwise I'm not really sure. Anyway, I need to get to my next assignment."

>He makes his way to the exit.
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

>Take a nap

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>"Goodbye!"
>Try to take a nap while thinking of contacting Yatagarasu. Again.

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>You lay on the bed while thinking of Yatagarasu...

>...

>You are standing in a cold, empty structure. It's old and ancient, and you feel like you should know what kind of structure it is, but for some reason your memory feels blurred.
>Another odd thing you notice is how... familiar... this place feels, despite the fact that you've never been here before. Around you, the gentle thrum of a heartbeat is the only sound that permeates the structure.
>Your gaze is drawn to a small altar, surrounded by unlit torches and candles. A few crow feathers lay scattered about. As you walk towards the altar, the sound of the heartbeat grows louder. You feel like you should be doing something, but you're not sure what that something is...

>You awaken to the sound of a buzzer, feeling like you just had a weird dream.
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

>Get up, greet whoever is coming in.

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>You get up, you notice Alyssa standing at the door.
>"Hello, Utsuho. This meeting will be a bit different than normal. I urge you to stay behind the yellow line for now." she speaks.

>Now that you are awake, do you have any idea about the meaning of this dream? Odd structure? Altar?

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>Do you?
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

>"Uh... sure?"

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>"Hi, Alyssa. Alright."
>Do as she says.

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>You stand behind the black and yellow line on the floor.

>Feels like the buzzer interrupted the dream before you managed to do anything. We might have had an opportunity to do something, if not for it. Aside from that.. Whole thing might be a metaphor? Sounds of heartbeat might actually be your own heartbeat? That eye of Yatagarasu is in your chest, and you are more or less trying to contact Yatagarasu (or at least a part of it) through the power that is contained in your own body. Empty Altar might be a hint toward needing some sort of a tribute next time, or perhaps a hint toward your own inadequate understanding of Yatagarasu's power, percieved lack of respect for him or something else, and how you are supposed to contact him. Honestly, it could be for the best to discuss this with someone. Another god would be for the best, but it is a big question if you actually can contact any, especially from here.
>If you can recall the general shape of the "strange structure" at all, that might be helpful. Dreaming more might be helpful too; previous dream was different. If Yatagarasu is trying to tell you something, then there probably are going to be at leat some consistent elements in those dreams.

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>You attempt to interpret the dream, thinking about the strange structure. You feel like you should know what this is, as you've seen something similar to it before: You remember talking to the Snake God lady and the frog girl (whose name you think was "Some Wacko" or something, she had a funny hat) in it.

>"What's the occasion?"

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>"Why don't you see for yourself?" Alyssa replies, stepping aside to allow a new person you haven't seen before into the room.
>It appears to be a young woman with brown hair, with a very large and noticeable cowlick on the top of her head. She is wearing a black suit with an orange tie, and an orange band like the one Alyssa and Archer wear on their left arms is present on hers as well, sporting a marking that looks like "H"

>"Hi there." the girl smiles, "My name is Hod. I heard that you are interesting in a possible job in this facility, potentially with suppression work?"
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

>ask who hod is

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>Don't ask who Hod is because we already know of her since we asked Alyssa
>Try to be extra polite to Ms. Hod

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>Greet Hod politely.

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>You greet her.

> "Yes, I am."

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>"That's great." she gives you a small smile, "Would you mind telling me a bit about your terms? I mean, I did hear some of it from my department's Captain, but I would just like to confirm it in person if that's alright with you."
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

Work motivation
>"So. Work. Staying in this little room all the time doing nothing is just too much. I want to do something, and things I am good at is blasting things with fire and making nuclear reactors. "
We are offering
>"You seems to have a lot of things that need blasting on the regular basis, so that is what I am offering. I can do non-lethal danmaku, or I can actually burn things."
Payment
>"I don't want to do things for free."

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>Hod nods, listening as you explain things.

>"You usually pay with Enkephalin, right? Can I get like, a quarter of the stuff I produce? Uh... is that reasonable?"

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>"A q-quarter!?" Hod blinks, "I mean, that seems like a large demand for an abnormality to make... I mean, you don't produce as much as a normal Aleph so it might be okay, but, then again, it would be sacrificing a portion of energy constantly for services that you may even be needed for depending on how well a day goes... Would you consider a fixed amount or a small percentage of our daily quota, paid whenever we need you, rather than continuously...?"

>"Oh, and definitely a bigger room. Gotta stretch my wings, you know?"

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>Hod offers you a sympathetic frown, "Unfortunately, these containment rooms are all the same size. We can't make them any bigger."

>"...I have no idea what to do with Enkephalin honestly. If it is worthless for me, I am going to ask for something else. If it is valuable for me, I'll ask for more later. What others are doing with their Enkephalin payments, anyway? I asked Alyssa, but she has no idea."

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>"That information is classified." Hod replies.

>"Maybe the occasional spell-card duel if possible?"
>"I don't want my skills to get rusty."

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>"Well, I guess it could benefit the employees if they had more advanced practice on suppressing threats," Hod taps her chin in thought, "though I would need assurance that you wouldn't cause lasting damage to them... It wouldn't do them any good if the training could kill them."
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

Question for Nazgul

Spoiler: Spoilers for Lobotomy Corporation

So considering Hod is a normal person and not a robot "yet", does this mean this takes place before they all became turned into robots? Wait in that case why is she called Hod and not Michelle?

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Spoiler: Reply to spoiler

The Cog Filter makes the Sephira look human-like to everyone including the manager. Utusho would have to interact more with them to realise that something is up

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Spoiler: Reply to reply to spoiler

Cog Filter exists for the manager because he sees everything through a camera. If Cog filter worked even when something was in front of you [CENSORED] wouldn't be nearly as big of a problem as it is.

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Spoiler: reply to all

I would say that the Sefirot each have a personal filter built into their frames and projected around themselves for three reasons:

1. Some of the cutscenes are implied not to take place through the manager's cameras.
2. The Sefirot interact directly with employees in several cutscenes, and it's neither confirmed nor denied that the employees perceive them as human form and not robots.
3. (Perhaps the biggest one) In one of Gebura's cutscenes prior to her meltdown, she is shown having taken some damage when assisting with Suppression, and the damage shows as her cognition hologram glitching and flickering, which would imply that it was among the parts of Gebura damaged in that scene. I would assume that if the filter was purely in the manager's cameras, it would've shown her damage as actual injuries (though toned down due to the nature of the filter) rather than visual glitches.

-----------------------------

>"And maybe a quarter is a lot? I don't actually know how much nice I am making... so, a quarter of a quarter? Or maybe a quarter of a quarter of a quarter? That's like, a really small amount I think!"

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>Antivoting this bit. We really haven't been playing Utsuho as bird-brained enough for this, I feel.

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>You hold your tongue.

>"danmaku don't kill! Spell card rule stuff! As long as I am using spell card rules you will only feel lots of pain and pass out! Don't actually know how that works, but it's cool!

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>"I see... Is there anything you can do to support this claim?" Hod asks.
>"If I may," Alyssa speaks up, "She did use it on some Sweepers before, and it left them incapacitated enough for Archer and I to swiftly deal with them. Of course, Ordeals and Abnormalities aren't the same as actual humans, so I'm not sure how it would affect us."
>"Hmm..."

Can't say i disagree - they don't know or capabilities and we don't know what anomaly juice is good for. I'm thinking...
>Show interest in fixed payment per work

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>"That would be a better option." Hod nods, "Do you have any preferences on a price for the fixed amount? If not, then surely we can come up with a reasonable amount of payment for your services."

>Ask how much daily Enkephalin they produce and how much Enkephalin we produce.

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>"That is classified." Hod replies, "Though the quota does get larger every day. As for how much you produce, well, it's much less compared to most ALEPH-class abnormalities."

>You weren't really good with this bargaining thing.
>You often left this type of stuff to your master or Rin.

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>You lament the lack of Satori-sama being here. She was the best "negotiationator" as she could read minds and stuff. Rin was pretty good at it to, but that was usually to convince someone to let her have custody of a corpse so she could cart it back to Hell...
>_

 

[Evil_Nazgul0616]

Just general attitude
> Sigh heavily.
> "I really miss having someone who can read minds negotiating for me."

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>"Glad we don't have to negotiate with someone like that..." Alyssa mumbles something.

Price
>" Since I do not know how much you produce, I have no idea what would count as reasonable or unreasonable. How I am supposed to name a specific price? More than what non-Aleph Yokai... Sorry, Abnormalities get paid with, I guess. "
>"Going to warn you, though. I never head of Enkaphalin before, never saw it, have no real idea what it is. Asked for samples before, received none. If it ends up being useless to me, I'll ask for something else as payment later."

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>"Hmm, yes, I think I remember Alyssa telling me you requested a sample." Hod nods, "Unfortunately, I don't have any extra boxes to spare at the moment, but we could certainly give you a small sample for your first 'payment' if that helps and then negotiate a more reasonable price from there. Would you be okay with that?"

Lethal and non-lethal attacks
>"Danmaku does hurt... If anyone actually decides to have a friendly duel with me, I promise to somewhat easy on them, instead of just shooting a giant laser or a storm of fireballs at them as I usually do."

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>"That's good to know. I'll hold you to that promise."
>_