Come and join a new manager at a Lobotomy Corporation branch as they scramble to make sure their agents keep on task, their abnormality's don't break loose, and their daily Quota is always met!
Oh, and please ignore the creeping sense that something is very wrong with this situation.
Good Morning Manager! (Lobotomy Corporation Manager Quest)
You put a hand in front of your eyes to shield them from the sudden activation of your office's harsh fluorescent lights. You get that the facility was supposed to be secure, but did they really need to drug you just to enter your office!
Then again this is your first day, so maybe it's normal for facility managers. But your attention is drawn out of your thoughts and towards the suddenly projected hologram appearing in front of your desk. You wonder where the projector could possibly be hidden considering how utterly bare your office is, but the hologram speaking cuts your thoughts off once again.
"Hello Manager, I am Angela, a proprietary Lobotomy Corporation technology that shall work as your secretary." The projection gives you a pleasant but vacant smile at the end of her introduction, and you shudder at the sheer uncanniness of the thing before you. Her face was humanoid but covered with a blue mosaic effect that distorted an otherwise pretty face into an abstract representation of what a face ought to look like. Her body is constantly shifting its proportion, going from an hourglass figure to nearly morbid obese to malnourished over the course of a few moments.
You know that the AI-ethics amendment made any humanoid machine illegal on pain of The Head coming to visit, but why did L-Corp decide that meant they should make their pet robot some abomination The Ring would make.
You decide to focus on her hair, it was the least disturbing thing about her even if you somehow feel it staring at you. The hologram continues after visibly loading the next few lines of dialogue. "You are the new manager of Facility L-8952 otherwise known as-
[ ] (Choose Facility Name)
"-Where it will be your job to ensure that your Quota of E-Boxes are met." You flinch when the artificial creature's voice distorts on those words. You nervously assure yourself that even if L-Corp is still a Wing, it wouldn't just kill off a valuable Feather like you by assigning a faulty assistant. Right? Right.
The artificial assistant vacantly smiles again, and you keep your eyes locked on her hair as she loads up her next lines. The preparatory school had taught you your first duty as a manger, and as the hologram drones on about the Abnormalities you would be harvesting for Enkephalin you begin flipping through the tabs on your suddenly activated computer. Trying to divine the way these monsters would kill your agents and clerks by re reading the single sentence you were given as a description.
"The Abnormalities not chosen will be delivered to separate facilities, as it is your first day as a manager you must choose two to begin filling out your facility." The machine finishes with a smile, and you almost catch a hint of anger in its mechanical expression before you remind yourself that there's no way L-Corp built a machine that goes against The Heads law, and stuck it in a random new facility
Pick Two:
[ ] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[ ] F-7-673: The sword will burn all that it touches, no matter the will of its wielder.
[ ] O-4-210: A moment frozen in time.
[ ] T-3-829: What is the measure of a God?
[ ] O-9-514: So… Who's going to clean up the cursed wood chips?
[ ] F-6-518:Well of course you can trust us, We never lie after all!
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An: I've been on a Project Moon kick, and I've always wanted to do a quest in the setting! So here you are, a fresh manager for an L-Corp facility, and I'm sure you will do great! Probably. Maybe.
Words that I believe might cause confusion have been bolded in the Informational and defined in an Index post named Words And Terms. Voting ends September 15th at 1:00 PM EST
Lobotomy Corporation: Also known as L-Corp, this corporation came to power after a bloody war against Old L-Corp, AKA Lusus Corporation, and is the premiere energy producer of The City.
The City: The City is a truly Monolithic thing, considered both the best and worst place to live in consideration to the massive amount of horrific fates within the city versus the outskirts of it. It is separated into 25 Districts lettered A-Z. The only laws are what The Head and certain Wings enforce through incredibly brutal means.
Wing: The 25 "wings'. or corporations, make up the governments of their slices of The City, subordinate only to The Head. They all fulfill certain purposes that keep the overall City functioning, and their name rarely has anything to do with their service.
The Head: The true rulers of The City, they are composed of A-Corp and their Arbiters who judge those accused of breaking their laws, B-Corp and their Beholders who operate a surveillance network that sees into every aspect of The City, and C-Corp and their Claws who enforce the will of The Head through gratuitously violent means.
Nest: The Nest is the most central part of their Wing. It is where most of the delicate work for the Corporation is done, and where most of their direct employees live. It is also generally safer than other parts of the District, but depending on the Wing they can be much worse.
Feather: Someone who lives in the nest, and is usually directly employed by their Districts' Wing.
Backstreets: The most dangerous part of the city, these mazes of machinery and ruined buildings are almost lawless and are subjected to "The night in the Backstreets" where all crimes are considered legal and vicious monsters called Sweepers kill everyone not inside a building.
The Ring: One of the five fingers, the biggest criminal syndicates in the backstreets. The Rig are a group of 'mad artists' who see the human form as a canvas upon which they paint a portrait of their choice. Normally this leads to their 'canvas' dying horribly.
Enkephalin: The primary form of energy in The City, it is normally an electric green colored liquid and is used to fuel the entire City. It can also be used in its pure state as a drug that induces feelings of pleasure and euphoria, and is incredibly addictive and hilariously lethal over the long term.
E-Box: The product of working with an abnormality, these boxes contain tons of Enkephalin that will be used to fuel The City's never ending hunger for more fuel.
Facility L-8952: This is your facility! It's new, so you haven't done anything noteworthy yet, but maybe that's a good thing?
Quota: While it changes based on your contained Abnormalities, your Quota is the minimum amount of E-Boxes you are required to make to fulfill your contractual obligations. Do Not Make a Habit Of Failing To Reach It.
Abnormality: Creatures contained by L-Corp that, when interacted with, produce Enkephalin. The problem is the more they produce the more dangerous they are, with the most productive being so dangerous and unstable that they are considered Wing-Ending threats should they escape.
Qliphothic Deterrence: In order to keep abnormalities somewhat docile and weak, this system was developed to prevent these creatures from immediately killing everyone. As Enkephalin is collected the dregs will accumulate in this, and eventually it will cut itself off in some areas to prevent its total collapse, allowing some abnormalities to breach if an agent does not manually fix it.
Rats: Rats are the dregs of the city, they are the scavengers that pick over what other scavengers rejected, they kill the unwary in back alleys to sell their organs to the highest bidder and are defined by their desperation and their seeming inability to not betray each other.
Guns: The Head has heavily restricted guns due to their belief that Taking a life should be no small matter, which has made maintaining firearms and purchasing ammunition prohibitively expensive. There is also little research into improving them, meaning those who primarily use them will quickly fall behind those who fight with more esoteric weapons.
Association: The Associations are the biggest offices of fixers in the city, they all specialize in certain tasks and have high expectations of their members. The highest ranking members are always the most skilled in their associations preferred forms of combat
Zwei Association: The Zwei specialize in bodyguard work, they keep paying clients sfe from all dangers in the backstreets, from gangs of rats to vicious syndicates. If you have the money, the Zwei are ready to be your shield!
Fixer: A fixer is someone who takes up a weapon and is willing to do almost anything for a paycheck. They are normally regulated by the associations, but some choose to work outside of them and straddle the line between Fixer Office and Syndicate
Warp Corporation: The premiere transport company in the city, they use warp technology to get their trains anywhere in the city in 10 seconds flat! That's the public face at least, in actuality they take the people on their trains, stick them in a separate dimension for ten thousand years subjectively, then bring them back into reality in objectively 10 seconds, kill the passengers before resurrecting them and wiping their memories, and then selling off the time harvested from this whole operation.
R-Corp: Somewhere between mercenaries and arms manufacturers, R-Corp produces security for the other wings and mass produces weaponry, nothing that you would find in a workshop but someone has to make all the swords. Their Fourth Pack is considered one of the most fearsome combat groups in the entire city.
[X] Facility Name: The R-Corp Branch
[X] Abnormality: O-9-514: So… Who's going to clean up the cursed wood chips?
[X] Abnormality 2: O-4-210: A moment frozen in time.
I honestly had no idea what to call the Facility, so I panicked and went with one of L-Corp's allies. If anyone has any GOOD names, please suggest them
Also, is that Manual (AKA the non-sentient and Non-Sapient copy of Angela) or is that a holographic projection of the AI with the most daddy issues in The City?
Also I'm assuming that we aren't playing as X. Seeing as we are picking two Abnormalities out the gate, when usually Skull Jesus would always be our first pick.
[X] The Fool's Nest
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[X] F-7-673: The sword will burn all that it touches, no matter the will of its wielder.
Name is honestly kind of awful, but I like the idea of embracing the idea of black comedy as a coping mechanism.
first abno is fun because Not-Rodya // Baba Yaga vibes.
Second is simply because tool abnos are always a good time. Doubly so if they wish to be used (on, for and against our purposes).
[X] The Fool's Nest
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[X] F-7-673: The sword will burn all that it touches, no matter the will of its wielder.
Might chance my vote if I can come with a name myself. But this works for me.
Also @Cult of Scruples question, do we vote in plan format? Or just like this is fine for this vote?
[X] The Fool's Nest
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[X] F-7-673: The sword will burn all that it touches, no matter the will of its wielder.
Might chance my hire if I can come with a name myself. But this works for me.
Also @Cult of Scruples question, do we vote in plan format? Or just like this is fine for this vote?
[X] Midgar
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[X] F-6-518: Well of course you can trust us, We never lie after all!
Also I'm assuming that we aren't playing as X. Seeing as we are picking two Abnormalities out the gate, when usually Skull Jesus would always be our first pick.
[X] Facility Name: The R-Corp Branch
[X] Abnormality: O-9-514: So… Who's going to clean up the cursed wood chips?
[X] Abnormality 2: O-4-210: A moment frozen in time.
I honestly had no idea what to call the Facility, so I panicked and went with one of L-Corp's allies. If anyone has any GOOD names, please suggest them
Also, is that Manual (AKA the non-sentient and Non-Sapient copy of Angela) or is that a holographic projection of the AI with the most daddy issues in The City?
Also I'm assuming that we aren't playing as X. Seeing as we are picking two Abnormalities out the gate, when usually Skull Jesus would always be our first pick.
Don't worry, if the name ends up being a branch i will just say it doesn't have a different designation since the collaborating Wing didn't like the old one.
Yeah, you will not be playing as X and, if all goes to plan, you will have very little to do with Ayin and his plan in general.
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[X] O-4-210: A moment frozen in time.
Time-based Abnormalities are always fun and never agonizing to interact with.
Oh Boy a Lob Corp Quest! And since we're voting on original Abnormalities speculation on what they could be! Let me just grab my notes document where I copied down what each part of a Abnos Classification Code should/could mean.
[ ] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
Going on the Classifications and Vibes I'm getting…
[X] Facility Name: The R-Corp Branch
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
[X] O-9-514: So… Who's going to clean up the cursed wood chips?
A Humanoid and a Tool should be fine to start out with.
[X] F-7-673: The sword will burn all that it touches, no matter the will of its wielder.
[X] T-1-082: The Girl smiles, even as the frost consumes her and all that she loves.
You lean back in your chair with a sigh as the system registers your choices, and the other mechanical system in front of you springs to life with that same uncanny smile. "Your choices of abnormalities have been registered, I will now begin camera orientation." When it finishes that sentence the walls beside your desk roll aside to reveal a collection of screens, which pop out and arrange themselves in front of your desk.
You were slightly concerned when you saw the R Corp branch logo on one of the monitors, was it really a good idea to put an untested feather like you in charge of a facility aiding one of your wings closest ally's? You shake your head to ward those thought away, doubt wouldn't help you do your job better.
You tune out the robot as it walked you through accessing the facility's cameras, instead you begin moving the facility wide camera around, noting where the abnormality containment rooms are in relation to the central workroom. Currently the layout is simple, a large boxlike central location filled with clerks chipping away at a never ending pile of work, and two hallways to the left and right with the containment room at their end. You sigh as you notice how it's only ten minutes till the Quota comes in and the facility begins preparing the Qliphothic Deterrence for Enkephalin production and only one of your agents is ready for their day.
The other one had better get here quickly, but until they do you can plan out how you want to meet your Quota for the day, though given how only one of your contained Abnormalities even can produce Enkephalin there isn't much to plan.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ji-an Lee rushes into the facility, shooting the red armored figure she bumped into a dirty look as she pushes open the doors and enters what she thinks is the main room. She catches a glance at her watch as she heads to the changing rooms, relieved that she still has a good four minutes till her shift starts.
She still can't believe she's working as an Agent! When she tried out for the recruiter that came to her section of the backstreets she thought she might get a job as a security guard or something. But during her talk with the recruiter a group of Rats decided to attack, and apparently her managing to take down three of the malnourished wretches made the recruiter think she was agent material!
She finishes putting on her uniform and while the gray suit was stiff and she felt the bright red tie was more of a target than anything else, the shock of seeing a Gun in the provided supplies drowned all that out. She guesses that wings really do play by different rules than the average person, the money spent on just the stock of ammo she was provided could have bought her entire old apartment building outright!
Still her shock wore off quickly, and while it's awkward and takes a lot of fumbling to put on her gun's sheath (It might be called a holster?) she eventually manages it, and leaves the changing room. She immediately runs into a man a few heads taller than her who wears a similar uniform to her, and has a smile on his face as holds a hand out to greet her.
"Hello! You must be the other agent, right?" The man says with a cheerful voice, and Ji-an immediately felt that she wasn't going to like this guy. His smile was too sincere, his eyes looked too innocent, this man- no, this boy wasn't going to last.
Still, she should play nice, at least until he does something stupid. "Yes, I'm Ji-an, pleased to meet you." She shakes his hand lightly and stumbles a bit at how vigorously the boy shakes it in return.
"Nice! I'm Daniel, and you're new too right?" At his question Ji-an cautiously nods, and has to hold in a scowl at the smile the boy gives her. "Wow, so that means this is a new facility! We are the first agents to be here!" The boy seems inordinately proud of that, like not having experienced coworkers was some sort of prize rather than a liability.
Still the boy was at least pleasant to listen to, and she nods her head as he begins inundating her with questions about herself. Luckily she is saved from answering any of them when a burst of static is released from the speakers and a voice that makes Ji-an's skin crawl comes out of them.
"This is Angela, the facility is beginning operations, all agents should check their tablets for further instructions." The voice ends its mercifully short assault upon her ears, and Ji-an pulls out the medium sized tablet she was provided, wondering what her first orders will be.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assign Your Agents - Current Quota at 0/30 E-Boxes Produced - Living Clerks at 10/10
The way to get to your Quota is to do work on abnormalities, but what kind of work? These kinds!
Instinct: This kind of work involves going to the containment room and trying to make it better for the Abnormality, how to do this? Just follow your instincts! However you should always keep in mind that sometimes the discomfort is the point.
Insight: When this is ordered the agent will try and understand the Abnormality through observing its chamber and questioning it on what it thinks it is. Careful though, some things were never meant to be understood.
Repression: When an agent does Repression they will try to deny the abnormality what it wants. Sometimes that means refusing to engage with it, other times it involves bringing in what they want and refusing to hand it over. This cruelty will be repaid by those who detest it a thousandfold.
Attachment: An agent will try to ingratiate themselves to the abnormality by interacting with it and following its whims, so long as the agent does not think it will make the abnormality breach. Some will seek to sever this unwanted connection.
All abnormalities will have different reactions to each type of work, with the ones they like most giving you a boost to produced E-Boxes!
You have 2 Agents: Ji-an, Daniel. All Agents Must Be Given Orders
[Agent Name Here] Will…
[ ] Work With T-1-082 Through…
[ ] Instinct Work
[ ] Insight Work
[ ] Repression Work
[ ] Attachment Work
[ ] Pick up F-7-673
[ ] Stay In Department Central And Immediately Respond To Any Breaches
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AN: All Right, the first day of the new facility! Just to be clear, if an abnormality breaches they will normally go on a rampage and kill anything they find, but if an agent is on response duty they will keep it occupied in a deserted hallway, thusly preventing a mass clerk die-off. Then again since they're useless right now why bother?
Voting should be done by Plan, and it ends September 18th at 5:00 PM EST
[X] Plan: First Shift!
-[X] Daniel Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Insight Work
-[X] Ji-an Will…
--[X] Stay In Department Central And Immediately Respond To Any Breaches
Better have Ji-an ready on styand by in case Daniel fucks up his assignment and the abnormality breaches.
We dont have access to the agents stats right? I guess they would be 1 in everything as they are noobs on this.
[X] Plan: Give that Girl a warm blanket
-[X] Ji-an Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Instinct Work
-[X]Daniel Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Attachment Work
I mean, I don't see a rule saying the agents have to work on different Abnormalities and tool Abnos shouldn't produce any enkaphalin (unless there's a change for the sake of Quest gameplay), so we might as well knock the quota out first and then maybe investigate the tool after.
[X] Plan: Give that Girl a warm blanket
-[X] Ji-an Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Instinct Work
-[X]Daniel Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Attachment Work
I mean, I don't see a rule saying the agents have to work on different Abnormalities and tool Abnos shouldn't produce any enkaphalin (unless there's a change for the sake of Quest gameplay), so we might as well knock the quota out first and then maybe investigate the tool after.
[X] Plan: Give that Girl a warm blanket
-[X] Ji-an Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Instinct Work
-[X]Daniel Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Attachment Work
[X] Plan: First Shift!
-[X] Daniel Will…
--[X] Work With T-1-082 Through…
---[X] Insight Work
-[X] Ji-an Will…
--[X] Stay In Department Central And Immediately Respond To Any Breaches
Better have Ji-an ready on styand by in case Daniel fucks up his assignment and the abnormality breaches.
We dont have access to the agents stats right? I guess they would be 1 in everything as they are noobs on this.
Just caught this question, yes their stats are all at 1 since they are new.
Starting from day 2 they will be shown in a short character sheet spoiler just above the actions, but for now all of them have the exact same stats and loadouts.
