This has, like you've said many times before, a long, long day. You woke up in an alley, got involved in a catastrophic gang fight, and then the clusterfuck got even worse as the Distortion Phenomenon escalated the entire situation. Now you're very likely involved with the leader of the underworld of Lungmen. And it's just the beginning of the things you'll get through, you feel. Things are going to get much, much worse.
Buddy you have no idea.
It's like, "Hey, so we thought that you weren't getting enough undiluted agony and body horror in your dystopia so we added another dystopia to your dystopia."
"For how long did you loop the facility?"
Abel smiles. It's a sad smile.
"Ten thousand years."
Insanity.
Absolute lunacy.
Behold the determination of a man with nothing left to lose.
Yeah, it's...it's a lot to take in.
Lech is easily the most expensive member of your Office. Rewinding time… if Lech wanted to rewind your bodies, the bodies of one or two Turbulence Office Fixers, to what they were three or four minutes ago… he needs to consume nearly half of his total reserves. To continually rewind, day after day, hundreds of workers, the entire infrastructure of L-Corp's facility… it would be ridiculous. Ten thousand years. The sheer amount of energy and stored time required. The sheer amount of resources and wealth. Ten thousand years. If your Office operated continuously for the rest of your natural lifespans, without rest or breaks or vacation days… you would still not be able to gather enough resources to do this.
It never really hits you the sheer scale of how much energy the whole Seed of Light plan needs, huh? We know that you need a lot of juice to get all that tech to function properly, and we know that L Corp is an energy company so it can mostly supply itself, but we don't have anything to compare that with to know what that means.
This paints the picture of the power of the Wings. That level of resources is ridiculous.
"I was the first iteration of Ayin, going through the cycle. And yet I failed to learn even a single lesson!" he laughs. "Oh, and again I'm rambling. There were some obstacles in the path… me, Abram, Adam, all of these failed Managers, the damned train, Angela… but the Seed of Light was successfully released, that's what matters. The gist of it is that the Light is phenomena derived from a connection to the human collective subconscious- the Well of Humanity. It is a miraculous power, that in the hands of someone with intense emotions, can twist through reality itself. Be it for good or for evil. It's fascinating, you see. We even had arrogant thoughts in secret. We thought we could rekindle the long-forgotten flame, and the water of life."
There were a lot of Managers between the A3 and X, like all those other managers that just weren't distinct enough to earn a separate name. Hold that thought.
Also,
fuck Express Train to Hell.
"Ah, this old man is being interrogated. What a familiar feeling. Reminds me of my meetings with Dias, so long ago."
He's comparing you to Dias? You feel sick to your stomach.
Oh, Seighart knows about Dias? I suppose she is rather infamous.
But yeah, they're pretty much complete opposites.
Dias takes in orphans and conditions them into sacrificial drones for her personal army.
Seighart pretty much runs on camaraderie and teamwork so much you think he could fit right in a shouen anime, which is bizarre enough anywhere, much less in the City.
They're both charismatic and coolheaded, but that's it.
"Sieghart. The Voice is not the human subconscious. You might not have thought that from what I told you before, but it's always good to be sure." he gestures at the pile of papers in his desk, and unveils a single envelope. Inside of it, there is a picture. In it, is a single red-eyed woman in a labcoat, waving cheerfully to the camera. At her side, there is black-haired man with yellow eyes. A younger Abel?
"It's better that I be quick on this one. This is the explanation for "the Distortion thing," as you put so succinctly. The Voice is Carmen- my old coworker. I cared for her deeply. She was naturally connected to the Well, even before we even thought of the Light, when we were yet to even pursue being a Wing of the World. She was the one who wished to craft a solution to the disease of the mind. But she could not bear the weight of our many sins, and ended her own life. "
A vision flickers into your mind.
There is a woman inside a bathtub.
It is filled with blood. In the floor, there are pages- reports, equations, theories. All of it is stained with blood. All of it has been discarded. All of it has been rendered completely and utterly meaningless as the life drips down her wrists. This woman will die.
But yet. she wanted to live.
The desire to live was stronger then anything- That's when regret finally ran a shudder through her body.
A thing that happens when you try so hard at something and it doesn't work out is that you tend to slingshot to do the exact opposite.
Someone who works hard to get the best result becomes apathetic and unwilling to change.
Someone who is optimistic and sees how things can change for the better becomes despondent and crushed by despair.
Someone kind and selfless becomes utterly selfish and insensitive to the well-being of others.
Carmen, with her innate connection to the Well, was determined to be the best candidate to become the Bucket, to convert her body into a wellspring of Cogito and sacrifice herself for humanity. Naturally, despite how she aimed to save the world, she was not quite ready to literally die for the cause. As research for an alternative option slowly ground to a halt, the pressure on Carmen's back only grew, leading to the acceptance of increasingly unethical research on human subjects, with often fatal, or worse, results. That research eventually took the life of Enoch, a mere child who was a ward taken in by Carmen. The remaining child, Enoch's sister in all but blood, cried that Carmen should have been the one to die instead.
She could only agree, and we know how this tale ends.
Yet it was at the edge of death did Carmen awaken to her selfish desire to live, and after her death it realized into an utter rejection of her sacrifice. Her sacrificing herself for the sake of others brought only misery, despair, and pain. By living only for herself can she be free from the weight of her pain, and now she seeks to share that truth with all that knows the agony of living in a world that demands more of you than you are ready to give.
How exactly one survives as a ghost in the Light is a question you would like to ask, but there are more important things in your mind. While Abel obviously isn't too happy about admitting to dismembering his best friend's corpse to succeed as a Wing and accomplish her dream... it's nothing you haven't heard of before. If Carmen was your friend, and legitimately wanted this with all the strength of her heart… you'd do all of it- all of the ten thousand years- to the best of your ability.
Hmm.
The fact that Seighart is all about unity and owning up to his friends, and then thinking that he would do the same thing as Ayin if his friend truly wanted it says, well, something.
A hint to how he possibly falls off the wagon and distorts? A way to relate to Ayin, someone who did horrible things and he has never personally met? Highlighting the "if she legitimately wanted this" part because at that point she definitely did not want this, which kinda started this whole mess.
"Carmen, in this moment, wants something with your new world, and to her, you are some kind of apostle. A pawn, you see. I believe she intends to Distort them much like she intends to Distort the City- utilizing your presence as a conduit. What you must understand is that you- and now Capone as well- can serve as a conduct for Light. Whatever rift or gate that opened between our worlds, it has spread Light around Terra. With you as a conduit, she can harness these minuscule sparks of Light around. In fact- any true Distortion could be also used as a conduit, as long as she can speak to them."
Right, so keep ourselves and Capone away from people likely to distort, we can do that-
Wait Seighart is a literal weirdness magnet he attracts supporting cast members with troubled backstories like some platonic harem hero-
Wait Seighart is literally an isekai protagonist
Terra is fucked.
What's the range on this conduit thing? Is it only those we have been in personal contact with, or something more like city-wide range?
"How did I end up here in Lungmen- an entirely different world?"
Abel shrugs.
"I do not know."
…uh. Maybe you should ask another question?
i want a refund
"What I can tell you-" continues the Manager- "Is the why. The precise mechanisms will remain a mystery to us both, at least for now, but let me assure you that Carmen was behind it. She has grabbed hold of your book, and the rest of the books of the Turbulence Office."
So the voice was behind it- wait, the books of Turbulence Office. She has the books of Turbulence Office.
Huh. She did that? And she grabbed the rest of the crew?
Even the meme characters?
You've been lost in this fucking place for almost a month. Arabella's starving. You two are going to have to resort to the worst possible solution- we're going to have to eat these things from the sea. Abominations. Disgusting creatures.
You didn't want to. The two of you saw what eating them did to the citizens of Sal Viento. It was honestly creepy. But you can't keep going on for much longer. These things scrubbed the coast clean. There's not anything to put in your mouths for miles on end. Not even a single leaf, and you're not going to eat this... brand they have left in the sea floor. It's all that there seems to be. They ate the reeds, the crabs, everything has been scrubbed clean and replaced with something derived from them. What even are those things?
NO DON'T EAT THE AQUATIC FLOOD AAAAAAHHHH
Okay so eating it won't convert them immediately and the symptoms be fought, I think the only way to save these two is to awaken their EGO or becoming a hybrid, but the latter is only possible under a special treatment from the start not an ordinary infectee and the former requires Seighart or Capone to haul ass and give them Light and for them to not distort.
Arabella seems spirited enough to resist corruption, but Wympe is at risk with her terminal lack of self-esteem. Either she retreats into herself and distorts or submits to the will of the hive mind.
…Actually is the Seaborn intended as a foil for Seighart? Mr. Meme's Friendship Gang vs. Literal Hive Mind where members regularly eat each other. And we just faced off against the mafia and the Eternal Persistence who represented a family that used its members like pawns...
…they're lost in the middle of nowhere, eating monster fish straight out of the Outskirts. Dammit. You've let them down.
It has literally not even been a day. You had no control over this situation at all.
"This old man is one of the pieces of that mirror. My name is Abel. I could not attain the Seed of Light, even with endless time in my hands. My existence is unsustainable. I have held onto this Abnormality- one of the treasures of the Library- to maintain it, much like my "brothers" claimed one each to continue to persist. Dreaming Current, WhiteNight, Censored… Angela, even now, searches frantically for these stolen treasures alongside her Librarians. But I might have picked wrong. The Abnormality clashes with me."
Censored...In the mod it is represented by X. The Manager of the Facility. The one who completed the plan and reached the Seed of Light.
The thing is that X is not a name. It is a designation, a title given to the current iteration of the Manager, so that they will learn the lessons from the Sephirah in Ayin's place. He is a human placeholder, made to succeed where those before has failed, and yet discarded and scrubbed of all traces of his existence before another iteration takes his place. Expendable. Replaceable. No inherent qualities or characterization that grants them distinction as an individual. None other than the memories and sins and dreams of another man. Even Abel and Abram and Adam had names.
X was denied a name of his own even at the end. Only Ayin's. Because X was Ayin, and nothing more.
…he is also missing from the choices we were given, which is suspicious, but he is somewhere if Abel is mentioning this.
"Poor Screenwriter's Note is a cycle of pointless agony. But my cycle was not pointless- in the end, Ayin attained what he desired, even if us mere pieces of the mirror did not. And as I am Ayin, in a manner… it does not function with me. I cannot hold onto it, and without its weight I will disappear. Unless I conclude its story, and cement myself as a true person."
Does this mean Abel's connection was the weakest and that if we chose him later he wouldn't be an option?
I wonder if the other members of the A gang are also weakened, since they are all Ayin and he defied the worst aspects of himself and moved forward.
There is a pistol in your hand. You feel its weight. There is a single bullet in the chamber- you can tell that. The cold piece of plastic and gunmetal is deceptively hardy. You have the feeling it could stand up to your old Dilaceration Workshop blade. This is not a regular gun.
One bullet. One shot.
Subconsciously, your arm moves to point the pistol at the Manager of Lobotomy Corporation. The mask seems to have a pitch-black surface now. It almost devours the light. You hear the sound of a heart monitor in your ears. Your vision shatters like a smashed camera, and then it returns. The presence of Abel is almost suffocating.
Abel no the camera smash belongs to Hokma
"Shoot me, and take Poor Screenwriter's Note for yourself." he points at the pistol with the cane. "Use its power for whatever you wish. I will dissolve. As much as I did not wish to present you with this opportunity, such is the nature of this Abnormality. The protagonist of the story must be presented with the chance to killed, as the masked sinner that he is."
Nah. Poor is an understatement. The thing's more trouble than it's worth. It's cards are powerful, but the Abnormality itself is more a liability than a boon. Something that forces you to kill people if it gets uppity for what, energy? Pass.
"Or you may lose the chance. Do not fire the gun. You will keep me within your mind- a phantom, attached to you and the Light you hold in your heart. I will become a "Voice in the Light," much like her. I will not be nearly as strong, or dominant inside the human consciousness. I dare say I could not push anyone to Distort, even if I wanted to. Carmen was our messiah, and I am but a fragment, after all. But I swear to assist you in any way I can, and we will unite to stop Carmen's plots. You are, as of now, her pawn. But you have foiled the plan to distort Capone into the Eternal Persistence. Together, we can stop her again."
Abel is but a fragment of Ayin, but that means he is a fragment of a scientist that could have joined any Wing he wished. Even without resources or equipment the knowledge alone is priceless. And he has been picking up new tricks, maybe he can command the meltdowns of the upper Sephirah, maybe he can throw down like in his realization mod, maybe we can collect them all and summon Ayinzodia.
"However, you might as well shoot someone else. You will keep this singular bullet, held in this pistol, for a time of need. I will pass on to Terra, and manifest somewhere. It does not matter where- I simply wish to persist. How fitting that I, who never learned the fearlessness to keep on living in life… would grasp it at last on death. Even an old man such as I can learn new tricks, no?"
That gun is interesting. I don't know how strong it is. Abel is weak compared to the other things out there, it might not kill in one shot. But it could make them bleed. You get one shot, but that bullet is more than, something that exists in the mind and can harm the immaterial.
Something like a certain deathless snake...
Carmen's Note: Ayin... I...
Huh. I just realized that we don't really know how Carmen feels about Ayin, not personally. We get loads on Ayin and Angela and the other Patron Librarians, but Carmen has been out of focus in the games due to being a brain in a jar/part of the Light. Guess part of her does care for him.
[X] Wait and see
The gunpoint lost its way.
The play ends with tragedy.
Who determines the ending is a tragedy?
Is this a story of denied justice, or a story of repentance?
