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It's Turbin' Time (Library of Ruina Modded/Arknights)

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The last chapter took place in one of my favorite places in this fic and that's Sieg's mind. I absolutely love it when Sieg gets introspective.
 
Its not something I would want this quest to become consistently, but I do think it was very fun, and i wouldn't mind the occasional style break going forward

also why does sieg have civilight eterna as a thought. am i missing something or is that really concerning
 
thenew said:
Well, that was a fun experiment, if anything. What did you think of the chapter's style? I liked the feedback- indeed, the lack of a visual element needs more description to compensate. Anything you noticed and found interesting?
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Honestly it was enjoyable, but I don't think it should be something you keep doing as the standard of the quest, Disco Elysium's charm is best saved for special occasions like when you really need to delve deep within Sieg's mind but otherwise it's best to just follow your usual style, that way the novelty won't fade away.

In the end a treat is a treat because it isn't a full meal.
 
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3.11 Disco Elysium - Skills
  • Informational
    • kaillll said:
    the Skill changes, what are each one representing since they are not gonna show up again?
    Also those thought in our cabinets are pretty interesting, I think those are the combination of our discussion and his own personal thinking and conversations?

    Also these are really funny
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    The thoughts are based on some stuff I heard on the thread, and Sieg's own personal idle ideas! Gaslight yourself is obvious, and you internalized Thirteenth Association after the Eternal Persistence fight, with Guest of the Mansion being unlocked after vanquishing the Bloodfiends with Irene and Skadi.

    Hm, the skills.
    Top-Grade Officer

    Navigate through the Hana Association. Understand Fixer culture.

    Cool For: Fixers, Mission-Minded Folks, No-Fun Allowed Types

    Replacing Esprit de Corps, Top-Grade Officer is the spirit of Fixerhood that Sieg lugs around since he left his Syndicate many years ago. It's all business- pushing Sieg to focus on the mission, to complete the mission, to expand and gain influence as a mercenary, to take contracts and go higher up in the totem pole.

    It alternates between behind the guy you saw, hyperfocusing on the contract you have at the moment at the detriment of more personal business, and a very prideful presence- wanting to rise the merc ladder is a natural part of being a Fixer, and Sieg is already at the top, something Top Grade Officer is very, very proud of. It can be very insufferable when it wants to be, but its insights in the cutthroat world of hired guns can be invaluable.

    Top-Grade Officer's appearance doesn't resemble its cop counterpart much. It's more like Volition, being a faceless man with a mass of many sharp blades protruding of the place where its face should be.
    Their Shield

    Keep going. For their sake, if nothing else. They matter, even if you don't.

    Cool For: Turbulence Office Superfans, Lonely People, Self-Sacrificial Lunatics

    Replacing Volition and showing a deep instability in Sieg's mind, Their Shield represents Sieg's drive to protect and safeguard the members of Turbulence Office, and to a less degree, any allies he might gather temporarily.

    Their Shield will always propose the option it thinks will lead to the better result for Sieg's friends as a whole. Oftentimes, during its most unstable moments, it can propose plans that will recklessly endanger Sieg himself for some sort of benefit to his allies. Sometimes it pushes Sieg forward with words of encouragement, though these words are always something to do with other people.

    It also chimes in at times with the stuff your Turbulence Office allies are doing, like Esprit de Corps did back in DE.

    It has a shield-like facial struture, with many eyes arranged in a cross pattern, looking directly at the viewer. It also has a single hand reaching out from outside the frame- which it utilizes to hold itself.
    Leadership

    Inspire your comrades. Push them towards greater heights.

    Cool For: Helpful Guides, Drill Sergeants,

    Replacing Authority, Leadership is one of the most proactive voices. It pushes Sieg to lead, basically being the first to assume control of any situation. Like Authority, which demands respect, an uncontrolled Leadership will roar for command- it will insist Sieg is the most qualified person to lead, even if he isn't. In its better moments, it's often the first responder of the skills, and will provide all sorts of useful advice on what your allies are doing- and what they should do. It can also provide good insights in how to find allies, and will jump at the idea of getting more strays into your office to lead to glory.

    It does resemble Authority in a way- with a different facial structure- but it is grinning, and the laurels are replaces with rays of light shining around the head.
    Thrill of the Hunt

    Fight for the promise of payment. Bloodshed puts bread on the table.

    Cool For: All Sorts Of Mercs, People Who Need Money, Which Is Everybody

    Replacing Physical Instrument, Thrill of the Hunt represents Sieg's desire to do battle and his combat instincts- with his hunting instinct being the most proeminent. Once Sieg has his "prey" in mind (such as the mafioso, the Eternal Persistence, the Sea-Fiends/Seaborn, the Dreaming Current and so-on) it will propose options to take it down and will act with that thing being its sole priority. It's very short-term oriented, though- more tactics then strategy.

    It's also the skill that will provide the most direct combat advice, chiming in as the voice that will tell Sieg exactly how to brutalize a foe. The check to pin down and butcher Quintus back in Arc 2 was Thrill of the Hunt.

    A canine, diffuse spectre with sharp teeth and shining eyes. In the place where a dog's ears should be, there are things that resemble sharp fingers- thus, the name of "Clawhead" or "Claw-crown" that other skills give it.
    Light of Possibility

    Bask in the warm daylight. Shine with infinite potential.

    Cool For: Distortions, Egoists, The-Diseased-Of-The-Mind

    Replaces Shivers. Glorious light, LIGHT, LIIIIGHT. Basically what Angela was collecting through Ruina, you know it very well. THE LIGHT. Sieg has a particularly strong connection to it, thanks to his abilities and the fact that both Carmen and Abel have been waiting on his head, even if one is paying his rent and the other not. It will connect to other times, show the emotions and memories of other people, absorb them and all sorts of stuff. It's what allows his Distortion-understanding traits to work.

    Light of Possibility resembles The Burrowing Heaven, with the brain it has in Ruina.
    Inner Heaven

    Retreat to within yourself. Become untouchable.

    Cool For: Nirvana Seekers, Monks, Martial Artists

    Replacing Pain Threshold, Inner Heaven is less "control pain" and more "ignore pain." It's the first skill to try and curb down emotional outbursts, and contributes heavily to Sieg's general unflappability. Unlike Pain Threshold, which is a heavy influence in Harry's Sorry-Cop antics of self-flagellation (PT will even outright push him towards killing himself at one particular occasion), Inner Heaven promotes just... repressing everything you feel- be it something as simple as suppressing pain to more complex emotional issues. It can switch between a calming presence and a voice of reason to essentially "ignore it and it will go away."

    Inner Heaven resembles Clouded Monk- with a skeletal appearance, the large hat and prayer beads and clawed hands in a position of prayer.
    Samba do Vento

    Become a blur, and then a flash. Maneuver with supreme agility.

    Cool For: Bullet Trains, Impatients, Speed Demons

    Replacing Savoir Faire, Samba do Vento is a speedfreak worthy of Kim Katsuragi's attention. It's the guy who GOES FAST. It's more present when Sieg is flying around at bullet train speeds, and it was immensely annoyed when Sieg started suppressing his speed to not trigger Fairy's Wound. It becomes proportionally more talkative the faster he's going, and the check to splatter that Seaborn before it could eat up Adrien was a Samba do Vento one.

    Samba do Vento resembles a human lower body, gaunt and skeletal, but "blurry" like Reaction Speed is, and sporting various mismatched lower appendages that give the impression of movement, as if the image had captured it in the middle of a dance.
    Edge Alignment

    Strike at the waist. Cut down your opponent.

    Cool For: Bamboo-Hat Wearers, Salsu and Cutthroats, Hack-and-Slash Fans

    Replacing Hand-Eye Coordination, Edge Alignment really is not different. It loves the feel of striking true. It loves the sensation of an edge moving through the air. It particularly loves the sensation of striking a target and slicing them into ribbons. Its first approach to any target is "kill it with your sword." It's delightfully simple like that, and will guide Sieg through all those motions you need to separate someone's head from their shoulders. It doesn't inch away from other weapons either, mind you, even if it will grumble half-heartedly if you want to bash someone with a mace. Swords are just the favorite.

    It can also give all sorts of sword trivia, or just weapon trivia in general.

    Edge Alignment resembles a blade- specifically, Sieg's original katana- still on its sheath, held by a tangled mess of six arms that rise from the ground to hold it, with each of those arms having a single eye staring directly at the viewer.

    Some additional thoughts on the Skills:
    Sleepy has Top-Grade Fixer as well, Truce With Fury (a bipolar Physique skill representing his issues with moodswings and violent outbursts) and Hand-Eye Coordination off the fucking charts.

    Arabella has The Thirst (Bloodfiendish thirst, Physique, obviously) and Thespian Feast (Replaces Drama- does the same thing but also has a ton of theatre kid culture stuff mixed in.)

    Wympe has Letter of the Law (Legal mumbo-jumbo experience, basically, an Intellect skill) and Landesknescht (Basically her combat skill, based around her polearm much like Sieg's swordsmanship and the original protag's gun hand.) She also has THE DEEP poke in from time to time. She is not really aware of what it is.

    Capone has Honor Among Thieves (Criminal culture, Psyche, obviously) and a special skill (replacing Perception) called Silvery Tendrils, (Representing his very enhanced senses.) The self-preservation urges that Eternal Persistence had and that still mark him very deeply are also present as Titanic Shell (replacing Half-Light).
     
  • Informational
    • thenew said:
    Wympe has Letter of the Law (Legal mumbo-jumbo experience, basically, an Intellect skill) and Landesknescht (Basically her combat skill, based around her polearm much like Sieg's swordsmanship and the original protag's gun hand.) She also has THE DEEP poke in from time to time. She is not really aware of what it is.
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    awesome (genuine)

    god i love mechanical posts and mechanical posts that include stuff thats fucked up are even better. things like eo3's Cthulhu Casino fascinate me.
     
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    3.12 - Double-Edged Rencounter
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Plan: Three Fixers, three Librarians and a manager walk into a bar.
    -[X] It's common courtesy start a meeting with introductions, also order a drink for those that want it to somewhat lighten the mood. Be cordial.
    -[X] Ask Beats how he's doing and apologize for not finding him sooner.
    -[X] You don't exactly know why the Library wanted to talk to Beats but you have a good guess. Ask them when they got here, and answer their inevitable question regarding that.
    -[X] You have a common enemy in Adam and Carmen, you want to team up to deal with them. They had no way of knowing but their arrival kinda made the situation worse.
    --[X] You can offer them connections in exchange for their aid.

    3.12 - Double-Edged Rencounter

    You are no one in particular.

    You are no one important. Not yet.

    Your mother… gave you a responsibility. To make yourself someone. To fashion an identity out of yourself and those corpses, so you can become someone.

    Your body… it is an indistinct mass. It has no features whatsoever. It is an odd thing. Too elongated, too smooth. Eyes devoid of color. A face with no lines. The faint whispers of the lingering minds of those corpses find it unnerving.

    No lines on this face. A face direct and unblinking and totally devoid of expression. Androgynous, perhaps? No, that is not the word. It isn't a genderless face because it has ambiguity, or because it fashions itself differently. It simply has no defining characteristics- it is a blank canvas.

    You try to move your face into a smile, or a grin. The movement of the muscles is too slow.

    The faint whispers of the girl- you cannot remember her name, it has rotted away- point out to you that it resembles a doll. The man, one "R. Kovacs," complete name forgotten and dissolved in rigor mortis, tells you that this is wrong. You're doing it all wrong.

    You're trying to do what you did with Adrien. You're trying to make a shell. A disguise.

    No. This is a mistake.

    Your Mother will be ashamed.

    If you take this… thing outside, you won't succeed. Because it's not you. You can put great effort into acting like a living person, especially with the memories you obtained, cracked and fragile as they are. But it will be a poor performance.

    You can force this parody of a body to breathe, remind yourself to blink now and then, drink water and taste food. But it won't be enough.

    The instincts of those consumed bodies tell you that what you are trying to make will be wrong. Something will scream in their heads, and most importantly, in yours. You are trying to live inside something fashioned poorly for you. This is a mere tangle of base components. If you want to live, not simply survive, you must stop pretending, and start being.

    Method acting. You'll have to complete this performance so flawlessly that it will start being real. You must live and die as a Bloodfiend, and you must fashion an identity so perfectly constructed that it will fit you. That it will be you.

    Your mouth grins far too slowly. You babble incoherent words and the blood within rips its way out of your body.

    You transform yourself.

    This time it will work.

    Flesh melts off bones and the web of nerves that composed your previous self melts as well. Your consciousness now resides in something far more important- your blood. You are the blood. You are thirst. You thirst for the chance to be human, for that sweet and wondrous possibility of being loved. Of being yearned for.

    Mother- Mother will love you.

    You want to be loved.

    You want to be caressed.

    You want to understand love and care and happiness and desire and yearning and all of those wondrous little things that people can feel. You want to miss someone, you want to cry and laugh and sob and-

    You want above it all to be like her.

    You want to stop being Seaborn.

    But you know it's not something you can do. Your origins are true. Your beginning, your past, cannot be erased… no matter how hard you wish for it.

    Your blood reforms. The whispers die. Their forms are melted and their pasts matter not.

    You have learned enough from them.

    Zofia, the little girl who died in a tragic accident. She thinks her poor family did not mourn her- there was simply no need for it. They were not a person worth a time of rest and tears.

    Perhaps all of this is in her head. Perhaps she was mourned for a long time. Perhaps she was loved, and simply did not realize it until it was too late.

    "R. Kovacs," a man who was killed by something impossible to predict. It's always like that, right? People never know what will truly kill them. They never realize it's all about to end- until it happens. What was he supposed to do, when he started choking in his office, from a sudden asthma attack? He'd never had asthma before…

    His last thoughts were of his wife.

    "She'll be so sad when I die," he thought. "I don't want her to be sad."

    …how sad.

    How terribly sad.

    Will anyone mourn you, if you die? You hope so.

    …what was the last one?

    Daria Sawa. How did she end?

    Peacefully, it seems. A merciful death, surrounded by the people she loved. A death that came with no pain- like a wonderful sleep. It had been awaited for a long time. She was tired of life, it seemed. It had grown so exhausting.

    It was a good death.

    Her death is exactly the way she wanted it to be. She died with no regrets.

    Aaah… you only wish you could cry, right now. Death is so sad. You never realized it was this sad, when you were Seaborn.

    It was simply a thing that happened. You did not care for the fact that your kin would inevitably consume you… you were not interested in it at all.

    Yes, you were not concerned. Because We Many would continue. The Seaborn would march on. Your death would strengthen the whole.

    Your shell, long since discarded, would decay, pieces of it dissolving into calcium paste. You would stand there, and your siblings would descend upon you. First, they would take the precious neural nodes stored in that very place… and then they would take all the rest.

    Tear your eyes off and integrate them into other lifeforms. They were too complex- simply digesting them for materials would be inefficient, causing a net loss of energy. Your organs, however, were comparatively simple- not worth the effort. Simply consumed, then.

    They would feast on you, and you would simply stand there. The lifeforms that absorbed the information on each neural node would return to the deep, with a great bounty of information that would assist We Many in growing, evolving.

    Death, in the end, was only a means to an end. And the end was growth.

    This sort of animalistic growth, growth for the sake of growth with no desires behind it. Purely instinctual. It feels somewhat strange, now. You've changed a lot in so little time.

    You don't know what you thought of death when you were a human being, back in Sal Viento, so long ago. Not even the blessings of the Nosferatu could restore that stretch of time lost so long ago.

    But it's okay.

    Everything is fine.

    You're tired of thinking of death. You want to look at their lives, now.

    The whispers return. You gaze into your liquid body, and your nervous system reforms. Hm. All of this gave you some ideas. You want to make something. Something… interesting.


    Your name is Beats.

    You're… kind of surprised, now.

    You were doing okay with your life before, well, the Major. You were hosting a prank show. Pretty cool gig, you got to organize all those absurd setups purely to fuck one guy over.

    The falling sky one is your favorite so far.

    Before that, you did some gigs for the Armorless Union. The contacts you made on the job were what got your prank show off the ground, actually. Because you need investors for that sort of thing.

    Kazimierz isn't the City, but you think it's close enough.

    And the way it's chugging along, there won't be much difference between knights and Fixers.

    Well, anyway. And then Linette showed up out of nowhere and told you Lech had a job. The guy kind of became the unofficial leader of the Turbulence Office remnants since… well, since you found each other. So he told you to jump, and you went off to jump like a good little robot that you are.

    Frankly, he's changed a lot in the meantime.

    More stilted. More… mechanical.

    You think he's trying to cultivate an aesthetic. The robot man, the Reunion leader that disappears as mysteriously as he appears.

    You've seen some of the stories Linette got. You don't really… get it.

    What his plan is, actually.

    Fighting Rhodes Island in the middle of a crumbling, Catastrophe-plagued city alongside that Sarkaz mercenary. Vanishing off without a trace, in a flash of light afterwards.

    Killing random people and bring their bodies… somewhere.

    Fucking off to some castle in the middle of what used to be Gaul for a year with absolutely no explanation, appearing inside your house, next to your bed, at 3 AM, stealing your fucking brand new laptop, and running off to the castle again.

    Appearing again inside your house, a few months later, and handing you a bunch of papers- you think they were scripts? And telling you to store them somewhere safe.

    And you were not supposed to read them, apparently.

    You did it anyway.

    It was… a script to Frost Buck and Snow Doe? You think that's a famous play? Your scanning instruments tell you the script is old as shit, but you don't think he came to your house to hand you some random relic.

    And then there's that… clock.

    He gave it to Linette. Neither of you have any idea of how it works. It's a stopped clock. The hands don't move an inch- but somehow, it never displays the right time.

    She gave it to you, after she got here. After she tangled you in all of this.

    You take it out of your pocket.

    It's just so creepy.

    There's a sense of inexplicable dread in you. This rusty pocket watch- made with a material your scanners cannot recognize- how… strange, it is. It doesn't have any openings- it's a solid piece. And there's no way to wind it up, but there doesn't seem to be a battery-powered watch either.

    Where does Lech even get this stuff, you wonder.

    You slide your mechanical finger over the glass. You turn your eyes away from it for just one second- shutting off the cameras pointed at it. It's currently at… 9:35. According to your internal clock, it's 9:34- in one minute, it should be at 9:35 as well. You have a meeting in a certain bar, a few minutes' walk, at 10:00. You'll do this little experiment.

    You wait.

    You wait a little more.

    9:34:56

    9:34:57

    9:34:58

    You open your camera feeds instantly. It takes less than a second. You're about to witness this damn clock moving.

    It's 9:35…

    And the damn clock moved. It's at 10:40 now- wait.

    No, it always was at 10:40. Your memories- you remember, thirty seconds ago, your finger brushing against the glass. In that scene, it was at 10:40. What the- what the fuck? You look across all your memories, stored in your backup hard drives and in your organic brain.

    10:40.

    When you received the clock from Linette, it was at 10:40. It had always been at 10:40. What the actual- what the actual fuck-

    …something clicks in your head and you look back at the clock. Wait, it's too late now. Your internal clock says it's 9:56. Did you miss your timeframe for your experiment…? Damn, and you tried to do this earlier, but something always came up at this exact time. You missed your opportunity again.

    What were you… what were you talking about? You… you think you forgot something you had to do. Did you get lost in daydreams for 10 minutes? You sigh and put the clock- 9:35, like always. You need to meet up… with the Library.

    Damn if that wasn't an unexpected reunion.

    You're just doing your job- which you got by threatening some K.G.C.C asshat- and all of a sudden, when you're scanning the crowd, what do you notice?

    The motherfucking Black Silence.

    Well, turns out he's her husband, according to the Library guy accompanying him. You were a bit hesitant in talking to him, because, you know, he killed you before.

    One shot to the shoulder.

    Another to the left arm.

    A spear passing through your side- sparks fly out. Your torso- half metal, half flesh- feels warm with blood.

    A hammer blow to the back of your head. Your optics fizzle out for a second, and your vision is blurry. You can't move your body. You're not fast enough to react to this assault.

    A katana is unsheathed- tears open through your clothes and the blade leaves wounds all across you. Then, it's sheathed again. It didn't even take a second.

    A claw manifests, and then another. One swipe.

    Two swipes.

    A knife to your ribs.

    An axe to your head. You try to scream. The silence is drowning.

    The maul strikes your neck. You fly to the side, and hit the floor. It's still not over.

    The gigantic club smashes you to the ground.

    There is a brief pause. You try to stand up- a mistake.

    Two blades bury themselves in your chest, and disappear.

    He's behind you- with a shotgun.

    With that point-blank impact, your torso is mangled, unrecognizable.

    The sword comes out. One slash severs an arm.

    The second slash severs your head.

    You collapse, and as you vanish into pages… your last thoughts are of awe.

    The gulf between a Grade 1 and a Color Fixer truly is incredible, no? You knew Sieghart was above you, but it's another thing to taste it in your flesh.

    Oh well.

    You're sure your allies will take care of this asshole. You can see that Nicole is aiming right at his throat.

    Bang.

    He gasps, and blood paints the floor.

    You finish dissolving just as he starts to do the same. If only you could laugh.

    Nasty memories.

    It's best if you don't dwell on them.

    Well, Linette's taking your place for your job today. It's best if you don't keep the Library waiting. You won't lie- you want to know how they got here, as well.


    Your name is Linette.

    Well, right now people call you Beats, but eh. You know exactly who you are.

    You take a look at the audience.

    They're not as stoked as they normally are. You're pretty sure you can nail this performance, so it's probably just boredom. Today there isn't anything really important until the match between Little Miss Shiny Candle and Little Miss Back-From-Exile.

    Honestly, why would anyone want to come back to this dump is beyond you.

    You're here because Lech told you to.

    The Black Knight isn't even here- this whole event is being boring as shit. Now, she was amazing. She had you coming back for more even after being crushed to powder.

    You like to grumble and complain about her, but you know full well it isn't true. The entire reason you stayed here was her presence.

    Oh well. You have a job to do.

    You hope the Library won't give Beats too much trouble.


    Your name is Sieghart.

    Beats is fidgeting nervously on the other side of the table.

    The Black Silence- Roland, apparently- is staring directly at you.

    The blue-haired guy and his assistant- you think they're Librarians? They introduced themselves as Chesed and Louise. Anyway, they're whispering to each other. You could listen, your hearing is certainly capable of it. But it feels impolite. So you won't.

    Wait. The Black Silence…

    You're not sure if this guy even is the Black Silence. It's 100% the guy who went on a rampage against the Middle and a whole lot of other people- you've seen the footage- but wasn't the Black Silence a woman?

    You've never really talked to each other but you remember a silver-haired woman in one of your visits to the Hana. She was with him. You're not sure if you're forgetting something important or you're simply overthinking things.

    You narrow your eyes and look at him.

    Wait, does Abel know who the Black Silence is?

    "I have no idea. I haven't kept up with the affairs of Fixers since the construction of the facility. As you know, there was a situation preventing me from doing so."

    Well. Okay.

    Right.

    Slow down time first. You need some time to think.

    It's common courtesy to start a meeting with introductions, but after you did that the conversation sort of died off.

    "Uh, sorry for taking this long, Beats." you say. "I didn't mean to leave you guys behind for this long."

    His screen flickers for a second.

    "It's nothing. Good to see you, boss." he says.

    You smile and look back at the Librarians. Maybe you should order a drink? Hm, probably should think of an icebreaker. The situation is kind of awkward.
    It occurs to you- the Black Silence had a wife, didn't they? Or was she the Black Silence and he was her husband. That silver-haired woman… you remember something. A bit of office gossip some time ago, about the Black Silence. You are quite certain the Black Silence had a wife or a husband.

    Damn it all. Why can't you just remember it already? Alright, here goes nothing.

    "How's the wife?" you ask, trying to start a conversation.

    It's the wrong thing to say.

    The mood immediately becomes more somber, and the Black Silence's face twists into a sneer for just one second. You made a mistake- the blue-haired Librarian sighs and the horned woman winces.

    You bury your face in your hands. It barely started and it's already gone to shit.

    "Okay." you say. "Does anyone want a drink?"

    Maybe alcohol intake can fix your blunder.

    "No."

    "No, sorry~"

    "Yeah, nope."

    "Can't drink, boss. Have a job and all."

    "I'll take one," says Arabella. "Say, tentacle-boy, want something either?"

    X pauses.

    "I don't think I ever drank alcohol before in my entire life."

    Abel sighs in your head.

    "Please do not try and get drunk."

    X rolls his eyes.

    "Okay, forget about it then."

    He then smiles. Arabella just shrugs and goes off to fetch her drink.

    "How's it going, Chesed? When did you guys get here?" asks X.

    …that was a question you were planning to ask.

    Well, it doesn't really matter who asks it.

    The blue-haired librarian looks at the television on the wall.

    "Roughly two days ago, maybe? We met Beats yesterday~"

    Beats's screen flickers again.

    Right.

    So.

    Time for the real question.

    "Why are you here?" you ask them.

    "...the Abnormalities." says the Black Silence.

    "Ah. Right- that issue." mutters Abel in your head.

    You tilt your head.

    "What about them?"

    The librarian with the Liu Association coat slams her fist on the table.

    "That's what we are asking. They vanished from the Library alongside your books. How the hell did you guys take it?"

    "...I feel kind of lost here." says Beats. "What's an "abnormality." I'm pretty sure I didn't take any. I just woke up here after Mr. Black Silence here chopped me up."

    "Here on Kazimierz?" you ask.

    "Nah, Kazdel. Made my way here after a while. That place is kind of terrible, all in all."

    "...weren't you guys here for half a month…?" asked Louise. "You already seem to know the place really damn well. How did you even get that kind of job as an announcer?"

    You tap your fingers on the table.

    "It's somewhat complicated." you switch to a whispering tune. "We've been scattered through time."

    "What?"

    "I arrived in here roughly a week ago, with the same being true of Wympe and Arabella." you explain, but not before taking a look at the other people in the bar. Your enhanced hearing picks up on their conversation- and no, they're thankfully not hearing your own.

    "Linette arrived 15 years ago, or more. Sleepy and Nicole arrived here two or three years ago."

    There's a second of silence. Beats is completely immobile. You've seen him do it before- using his partial neural interface to shut down his body cues. Simple things like the habit of mimicking the posture of a conversational partner, sighing, reclining when you're relaxed- all sort of automatic responses to particular feelings.

    You'll have to come clean with them.

    "Look- we both have a common enemy. It's in our best interest to work together. You're wondering how the guy next to me-" you say, pointing to X, "Is even alive, right?"

    "Yeah, I recognize the guy. He's supposed to be Mr. Manager, right? Didn't something happen to him, after the end?" says Louise.

    "As far as I know, he had to dissolve into the Light, to complete the project~" says Chesed. "But I'm interested in hearing about how you survived, Manager."

    X frowns.

    "I just… didn't want to die. I'm not Ayin anymore. I didn't want to fade away after all of it. So I tried to… rebuild myself over time. It took effort, but with some help, I got here."

    The Black Silence- Roland- looks at the door of the bar. It seems he's thinking of something- or someone else.

    "Hid where?" he says.

    "...the Library. I was… waiting. Inside Yesod's city."

    "Wait, so there were-"

    "Four managers. Three ones that failed the cycle, and me. They were hiding somewhere, too, while they slowly gathered a body out of ambient Light. Not sure where."

    "The Floor of Literature, in my case. It is a vast plane of stairs, lights, boxes and bookshelves. Navigating it is difficult. I believed that as long as I kept quiet and avoided the battles, I would be safe."

    Well, guess he was right.

    "Carmen's doing something." you say. "X's helping me out in trying to beat her."

    Drop the bomb, and keep talking.

    "Listen, I got tangled up with a group- sort of a Wing, a PMC mixed up with a hospital. I can offer you guys some connections, if you help me in beating her. Because it seems that when you got here… things went downhill. She has already Distorted five people already and it's only going to get worse."

    The three of them are staring at you in confusion and disbelief.

    Maybe you should have gone a little bit slower?

    Right.

    Roland massages his forehead.

    "I really should have remembered about asking Angela for that memory erasure thing. I spoke to you for all of two minutes and I already want to forget those." he says, with a long-suffering tone. "Okay. So the… Voice of the Distortion came here. And the Manager guy's here too, because why not. What do you guys think of it?"

    "I'll throw my lot in with this guy, frankly. I don't like the idea of more Distortions. That Yan guy gave me the creeps."

    "...it sounds reasonable to work together~"

    You smile again.

    "I'm kind of lost here." mutters Beats. "What are you people even talking about…"

    Okay- that's another obstacle done! Alliance worked out!

    What exactly you're going to do with this alliance in an immediate sense is still unclear, though.

    So, what now?

    [ ] Write-in.
     
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    • You don't have to worry about how the conversation is going and how incredibly badly you whiffed at the start if you throw in so many other conversational bombs theres no time to get mad at you.
     
    thenew said:
    "How's the wife?"
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    As to what we should do next, having Roland tail Jamie seems like the quickest way to find Adam, though Adam might be ready for it if Carmen snitches on us. Other than that we need some way to contact each other and establish the connection between RI and the Library. To that end having a librarian, preferably Chesed come with us to our meeting with our bosses seems like the best course of action.
     
    In short, our short term list is as follows.
    talk with the library about dealing with adam In case of a apocalypse. done
    Talk with Rhode Island about Adam in case of the apocalypse. not done
    Protect our own folks from being turn into an apostle. In progress.
    Get Abram out of the book for at least a little bit more firepower. not done.
    Deal with hostile apostles. 1/more than 2.
    Kill Adam (Or at least get him in a state that he cannot fight back anymore). not done.
    Snatch the members of our office and get the hell out of this place. not done.
    hmm.
    Thinking about snatching whitenight's book and just running off.
    And... Deal with all the trauma of our office, in progress.
     
    The Library wants the Abnos back, and we want them gone before they can do more damage to the world. Luckily, we know WhiteNight is here so that's more incentive for the Library to not stab us. Probably should tell them about it.

    Maybe bring the Library to Rhodes? Having them link up is going to help a lot in hunting the big Distortions like TEoU.
     
    thenew said:
    The gulf between a Grade 1 and a Fixer truly is incredible, no? You knew Sieghart was above you, but it's another thing to taste it in your flesh.
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    The word Color is supposed to be here, I think.

    Beats got Furioso'd on the round before Nicole shot at Roland huh? He really should have attributed Argalia before coming in. I'm pretty sure only Sleepy and Emil brought in Anti-Argalia guns. Maybe Puffy Brume too, to deal with the Smoke.
     
    drearyArchon said:
    The word Color is supposed to be here, I think.

    Beats got Furioso'd on the round before Nicole shot at Roland huh? He really should have attributed Argalia before coming in. I'm pretty sure only Sleepy and Emil brought in Anti-Argalia guns. Maybe Puffy Brume too, to deal with the Smoke.
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    Right, fixed.

    Well, Fixer'd.
     
    abyssal hunters remains a damn good IS strat, though the basic floor 5 boss being flying means that grabbing someone who can attack from beyond its giant range (ie, goldenglow) is a good idea.

    just remember that the skill tree exists and will help immensely once fully upgraded.
     
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