Scene #8587: Lobotomy's Companion ft Stanley and Angela

Owner	Pose
Angela	Angela literally cannot leave Lobotomy Corp's facilities so if you want to have a private conversation--the closest thing you can have to a private conversation with her, even if the fact that someone has come to L Corp to have a talk with Angela is impossible to really hide--you have to go to Lobotomy Corp. Lobotomy Corp has an artificial Warp Gate and isn't too difficult for Stanley to get to as a result. They'll open it up for him and he'll be met at the entrance by Angela. These appointments are scheduled. Angela gives one small nod to Stanley, "Is my office acceptable? Or would you prefer to see some of the departments? Either way, Welcome to Lobotomy Corporation where we face the fear to build the future." Her tone is very secretarial. Angela also looks way more human when in person. Her proportions are correct, for instance, though the big clue she isn't human is how unnaturally pale she is. She wears a labcoat and suit/dress combination and part of her hair is tied off to the side via a scrunchie. The faint smell of disinfectant and blood is omnipresent in the facility. Sometimes it's heavier than normal. Right now it's faint.
Stanley Padgett	Stanley despite having left school months ago, still is wearing that same rotating selection of shirts and ties and decent pants. The hair, though, After the debacle with Rook's powers in Lampport, he apparently had some sort of mental situation. The catharsis has resolved itself into the purple and blue hair color he's got in. He is not carrying the saber, today. "I like the motto at least." Stanley sighs out, hands in his pockets as he quietly follows the AI around the office. "I'm still a little lost on exactly why you wanted to see me of all people. I mean... I don't mind meeting new people, but you seem like the sort of person who's real busy." The smell doesn't both him, really. Neither do the people moving too and fro. It's... Oddly comfortable. He's trying to think of why it feels so comfortable. It's not coming to him. Hmmm.
Angela	''I'm still a little lost on exactly why you wanted to see me of all people'' "You said, 'captain i'll come find you. you too angela'. Well you didn't 'say' it exactly, but you understand my meaning." Angela says. Her fingers splay out briefly as she continues to walk through the office. Stanley gets a few looks of sympathy from the Agents, but most of them just ignore what's going on to move about their day. One of them is sitting on the ground playing solitaire while Punishing Bird pecks them repeatedly in the back. Another Agent stands nearby, ready to take their place. Angela leads STanley to her office. It is lit from several monitors that are presently not transmitting any video but are transmitting a bright teal blue light that illuminates the room. There is only one chair, the one behind the desk. A stuffed bear sits on the corner of that desk. AT the front of that desk, Angela moves to sit down upon it, crossing one leg over the other. "I am busy but my mental processes move at 1,000 times the speed of the average human." She places her hands on her lap. "...Strange. The smell doesn't bother you. That's interesting." He likes the motto. Angela supposes it is a decent motto.
Stanley Padgett	"I suppose I did say that after..." Stanley finds the other chair and sits down, wilting a little bit into it. "...after all of that nonsense." He grumbles quietly, and adjusts his tie. It has tessellating cats on it. "Honestly I think that was more... me trying to reach out for a stable handhold in all of that racket. The... mental garbage that was being thrown around. Whatever Miss Rook's Bad Thought Faerie was doing." Despite his respect for Lilian's prowess, he still does not entirely respect the woman. "I get the sensation that your agents handle that a lot more than I do. I got that sense when OHNO and Tiffany came into the Shadow World too. I wasn't there on that said that day, but they performed as well as anyone would, being in the middle of A Wish when it happened." A sigh. "We're still helping Angie, by the way. The Oracle at Delphi is still waiting for us to handle it. but it seems like her Wish wasn't one of the really dangerous ones." Stanley picks at lint on his shirt, and looks away from Angela's face. Is that guilt? Sure is.
Angela	Angela says, "It is good to remember what you say or your own words will stab you in the back," as if she's speaking from experience. Whether that's experienced being stabbed or the stabber is something she does not clarify. But she does quirk her head at the mental garbage. Angela is not really aware she had intrusive thoughts of her own because they are thoughts she's had on her own all the time. She frowns as she tends to when she gets the sense that Lilian Rook isn't respected but she isn't the sort of person to immediately dive straight into red hot fury. Picking a fight immediately will just cause further trouble down the line for Lilian. ''I get the sensation that your agents handle that a lot more than I do.'' "As a result of what happened, Tiffany murdered most of her team." Angela says, enunciating precisely. "OHNO was troubled for a time but seems to have managed to endure what happened, however." ''We're still helping Angie'' "About that," Angela says, moving onto this topic as if Tiffany's mass murder isn't something she feels the need to focus on irrespective of how she remarked on the event. "Are you certain that her Wish may not have influenced what happened with Exigent Serenity?" She swings a hand free and starts marching her index and middlefinger along the surface, one step after the other. "Sometimes an event that in of itself isn't dangerous has knock-on effects that result in danger." She trails off. "IS 'Angie' herself in danger?"
Stanley Padgett	'Tiffany killed her entire team.' Stanley makes a face, and then grumbles. "...Okay so you guys have... that sort of issue around here." He glances at the room, the office, and the smell of blood is now starting to affect him, knowing... perhaps the source. "...sorry to hear about that, but happy that OHNO is... still okay." The question on Angie and the Oracle catches him off guard, though, and he has to think about it. "Honestly, I don't know. There are a lot of Wishes we haven't caught, it seems, and Delilah, the lady who drives the Velvet Room, hasn't been forthcoming with information lately." A blink. "Oh, right, I don't think you or your agents have met her. She... Honestly, I could just... bring her here. Is there a bus stop, or something similar, inside LobCorp?"
Angela	Angela says, "It isn't your fault, of course. These things happen." Stanley suggests bringing the... Oracle of Delphi? Delilah? Someone to Lobotomy Corp. Angela cups her chin thoughtfully, considering. There isn't a Bus Stop, exactly, but with the Express Train to Hell presently out of commission... "There is a train station, of sorts? It's essentially a ticket booth for a train. Is that viable?" Angela offers, now curious about this Delilah. She slides off her desk, dropping down on her heels. "The train was pretty badly busted up so it will be some time before it can make its trips again."
Stanley Padgett	Stanley smiles, and for once, it is not a Smile, something pasted on Stanley's face like it's supposed to be there. It's a proper smile. "No, I just need something that feels like the sort of place you'd get public transit. At least, if I'm bringing other people on the bus." And he'll follow Angela or whoever else to said broken tram station. Once there, the young man pulls out his phone, opens up a mobile game, and selects... something. There's a vague rumbling of energy in the Corporation, as the building's structure can detect a breach in protocols. And then Angela, and whoever else comes to investigate, will see a shimmering blue bus door slip into existence at the ticket booth. It opens up, into what appears to be the stairs up into a Tour Bus. There is no driver. Stanley takes a step inside, and immediately relaxes, holding out his hand to Angela. "...I know you can't... or don't leave the corporation much, but I think you'll be just fine in here. Can you trust me on this?"
Angela	The Train Station is actually in Training. Hod glances over as they arrive nad waves an actuator arm. "Oh! Is that another friend, Angela?" Hod asks. "...He is a visitor." Angela says, resulting in some chittering from Hod. It seems like the Sephirah don't mind taking little shots at Angela post meltdown here and there. Angela ignores it. Hod is following along all the way. "I don't leave the corporation because I cannot." Angela says though it is possible that this could be an exception. She supposes she won't know until she tries. Hod has followed along. "Ah, Miss Angela--is this a good idea?" "Mm. We'll see. It is an experiment, I suppose." Angela says. Uncertain if taking Stanley's hand is a neccessary component or not, she does so and...heads up into the bus. She lets go after once she's seated. Hod doesn't follow in, nor does she report it in or try to stop it, however.
Stanley Padgett	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBGJtGYm08 The bus is... bigger on the inside. The whole thing is laid out like a VERY Comfortable tour bus, with upholstery, trim, shag carpet, pillows and everything else in a very fetching shade of blue. There is someone else inside. She is a woman of indeterminate age, with a long long white braided ponytail, wearing a crisp blue uniform and a little pillbox hat. She looks like a tour guide or a flight attendant from the 40s or 50s. "Stanley, I didn't know you were bringing guests. You should have said, I would have had snacks ready. Come inside." A pleasant, helpful lilt to her voice. Stanley's keeping an eye on everything, at least, and waves at Hod through the door. "I'm just borrowing her for a bit."
Angela	Angela blinks once. Someone is talking to her. She starts to speak up, "Ah--" And then she promptly falls over onto her side, spasming like she's having a seizure. Her eyes, while often cold--are utterly devoid of life, her body looking more like a sculpture than anything else in the moment. This happens about as Stanley claims to be borrowing her for a bit. Stanley can hear alarms going off in the facility too, that's probably not great. Though Stanley would not know it, these alarms are more severe than the ones that occur during a Meltdown. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qe54-ZOkC4&ab_channel=ProjectMoonOfficial A Velvet Room attendant may, or may not, recognize that she's essentially just been cut off from her link to the collective unconciousness and a major part of what makes her mind function as HER. This company is doing some FUCKY THINGS with the Collective Unconcious--harvesting from it through a medium? It is unclear what damage will be done if she is kept like this in a prolonged state.
Stanley Padgett	"Oh, bother, I'll park." The girl hops out of her spot, and hustles over to the driver's seat of the bus. As Stanley is holding Angela up and trying to keep her from injuring herself... Delilah slips into position, cranks on the brakes, and then... slides the stick-shift into P. There's a jarring shift in the air, an uncomfortable displacement of air and space... and then a bus physically appears inside the Tram Station, shunting itself, and Angela, back into the confines of LobCorp. "Get her outside quick, if this doesn't work."
Stanley Padgett	The side of the bus reads "Rustport Public Metro", and all the of the livery is in blue and gold trim. The rotating sign on the front reads "All Stops" and "Now Arriving: L Corp"
Petra Soroka	Petra is back at work today, of course. No one gets time off from Lobotomy Corporation unless they're severely wounded in the clinic, or unless they're Petra Soroka, L-Corp's one part-timer and Outside employee, getting exactly one day to recover from debilitating emotional trauma. That is to say, Petra is still extremely on-edge after the excursion to the Factory with Dianna and Elara. Even if she'd complained that being an Elite wasn't as brutalizing or deadly as being a soldier had been in the past for the Eidolon unit, she's unconsciously connected the sea of death inside the machine, and more importantly, the death of one person she cared about, with her job. A meat grinder of a different kind, but her stress over her friends' mortality is at an all-time high, so she reacts strongly regardless. Petra, wearing Song of a Star and wielding Pillar of Creation already, clears the distance between Control and Training in record time when the alarm blares through the facility. Pushing through the metal doors and sliding down the walls of the elevator shaft rather than wait for it to arrive, Petra ignores every barrier in her way in her frantic running towards where she knows Angela is. She's not even running along the floor when she enters the hallway for the Train Station, using the improbable ledges formed by pipes along the wall to sprint past all the bemused clerks and agents. From Stanley's perspective, there's not even thirty seconds before he hears the sound of footsteps pounding outside, and then the steel containment unit door is kicked out of its frame, slamming across the room to crumple against the wall. Seeing the unfamiliar vehicle and immediately deciding it's the problem, Petra barely hesitates before running inside the bus. Petra stands at the top of the stairs into the Velvet Room, reactor-shriek and alarm bells loud enough to nearly drown out her voice. "What the fuck is this? What's going on?" She notices Angela on the ground, and stiffens, silver morphmetal pouring from the sleeve of her trench coat when she points her spear at Stanley accusingly. "What the fuck did you do, Padgett?"
Angela	The facility is freaking the hell out. Angela being removed from the facility is not something that needs to be prevented, it is something that as far as the facility is designed--CAN'T happen. The Bus being able to get into the facility wasn't in the cards, let alone Angela just stepping inside. Time within the facility shifts to two times speed as Hokma panics. He storms up from Records in his boxbot body, a multitool in his hand--but he and Hod, who are lingering outside, cannot enter the bus safely. So it might actually be fifteen seconds for Petra's arrival. She gets there before Hokma does, being faster and having less distance to travel. "Uwawawa...!" Hod flails her arms up and down uselessly. "Can't go in..." Hokma says. "Was this intentional...?" Angela meanwhile is not in a position to communicate or clarify. She cannot speak or see or scream. It's unclear if it is just a matter of time to recover or needing to be pulled free from the bus itself.
Stanley Padgett	Even in the panicked state of the building, Petra's agitation, all of it, entering the Velvet Room feels calming, feels like people are supposed to be in the bus. Even with death alarms going off outside, and an angry Elite inside the place. "Hello, Miss Soraka. We're doing some triage, she'll be just fine." The girl behind the wheel is calm and neutral, as Stanley gathers up his arms under Angela's limp shell and pushes past Petra and out the door of the Velvet Room. "Hi, Petra, didn't expect to see you here like this, sorry." He slips out to the little bench at the Tram Station, and places the malfunctioning AI down. "Come, on, you're fine. Please be fine." There's a shimmer in the air, as Mercutio manifests. Stanley's frame glows for a moment, as he murmurs- "Vivisis!" Stabilizing energy slips through Angela, shunting her status meters back to neutral as best they can be."
Petra Soroka	The only sense of calm in the multiverse that can comfort those exposed to Petra Soroka is Persephone herself. When Petra is inside the Velvet Room, the soothing atmosphere is replaced with stinging, painful itch, burrowing beneath Stanley's skin like needles. The painful aura washes off of Petra in pulses, throbbing with the unsteady scream of her reactor heart, and Petra stares at Stanley with wide eyes, stiff and shaking. Her battle stance doesn't soften at all when he apologizes, and she flinches when he moves to scoop Angela up. "Don't! Stop. I-I-I don't care what you're trying to do, stop. You're killing her!" A series of thin bars of morphmetal jut out of the pool spreading through the containment cell, briefly blocking Stanley's way before he can even acquiesce to Petra's demands, and she snatches Angela away from him. <J-IC-Scene> Hokma says, "Petra, her connection to the Light has been disrupted. Can you get her to Architecture?" Holding the lifeless Angela in her arms the same way she did Yuri, Petra nods frantically at Hokma while morphmetal squirms wildly beneath their feet. She dashes out of the door, slower than Stanley would be able to, but she knows this facility like the back of her hand. The elevators are disrespected again, and this time Petra kicks the doors out rather than jostling Angela by using a hand to pull them open. She skids down the walls, accelerated by Hokma and taking his instructions towards a Department that she's somehow never heard of before. It's L-Corp-- so that isn't too surprising. When she staggers to a halt inside the barren Architecture main room, she looks around at the monochrome patterns on everything for whatever it is that'll help Angela. She's clutching Angela to her chest, shaking violently, and her reactor hasn't died down at all.
Angela	Hod ultimately stays behind. Sephirah don't usually travel down to other parts of the facility and particularly not Architecture. Hokma and Binah, the Lower Level Sephirah, are unusual exceptions in a lot of ways. Angela's spasming slows down. Is that a good thing? It might be a bad thing. Within the Well, Nerve Endings reach for her. Hokma delivers some exposition on the way down. "Her neural system is connected to Carmen. She doesn't ''function'' outside of the facility." Hokma explains. "Perhaps she saw an opportunity to destroy herself, or--or she simply believed that stepping inside would not truly constitute leaving the facility." It was a bit uncertain. Down past Central, Down past the Lower Levels--even Records. The Elevator goes down one more. Petra hasn't heard of 'Architecture' before but Rook did tell her there was a department that had yet to be open. This is it. Hokma sticks his actuator arm into the key panel. There's a faint whirring noise and the doors slide open. Pulling the arm free, the boxbot with a monocle heads down a long hallway, patterned white black and grey into a central room, entirely empty but for a singular haunting pillar, a black door with an access pad. Yet more hauntingly are the black lines swirling across the floor ceiling and walls. A 'road--or perhaps a vine' artistically travels down a set of portraits along the central pillar, starting from the visual expression of Malkuth as seen with the Cognition Filter on--albeit human, truly human. The black line twists through Hod--recognizable, but younger, then Yesod, then Netzach (looking gloomy), over to a pair of NON-identical twins though the girl is recognizable as Tiphereth. The line swirls across Gebura and Chesed before passing on to a blurry photo (Binah?) and a young man in glasses with grey hair (Hokma?) before culminating in another young man in a labcoat with black hair and golden eyes. Hokma steps in. There's a second smaller elevator in the center of this room and and a door to an office but Hokma ignores that, instead heading down a second door which leads to a long abandoned lab that seems plugged into various parts of the facility--particularly leading upward. "Get her on the slab. This was Ayin's specialty but I should be able to fix this..." Hokma mutters, moving to work on Angela. He doesn't waste time once she's there.
Stanley Padgett	Delilah pokes her head out of the bus and murmurs. "Please don't die, Stanley. I'll keep the bus parked up here in case the Agents need any information to help." Petra may not trust Stanley, but that doesn't mean he's not about to try and fix this situation. Even if Petra is throwing off massive Bad Vibes. "I'm guessing Architecture is in the basement?" And indeed it is. Petra calls up those bars, and then Stanley is standing on the other side of them, sighing. "I'm not running away from this, Soraka." And indeed, he's pacing the Agents as they get Angela deeper and deeper. The hackles go up along his back, seeing the place... and feeling the draw of the collective unconscious, even down here.
Petra Soroka	""Perhaps she saw an opportunity to destroy herself," "Don't fucking say that. Lilian and I are here for her. That's not it." Petra shakes her head angrily at Hokma, insisting for her own sake as much as she's trying to convince Hokma. Petra, of all people, would be able to tell, right? "I'm not running away from this, Soroka." "Running away?" Petra's voice cracks as she runs to the elevator alongside, reluctantly, Stanley, though she isn't out of breath at all. "I don't give a shit about your fucking sense of honor or whatever, you fucking tool. I just want you people to stop fucking hurting the people I love!" Petra is distracted from focusing on the pillar and the human Sephirah, because Angela takes precedence over anything else in her perception. Waiting for Hokma to direct her to the right door, though, she glances at the top of the tree and narrows her eyes. Is that Ayin? Angela is placed on the slab, slightly more hurriedly than carefully. Petra stares at Hokma with wide, anxious eyes, shifting her weight back and forth between her feet as if she needs to keep running somewhere. "What's wrong with her? Is there anything I can do to help? Is she going to be okay?"
Stanley Padgett	"It's not about honor. If I did this and just left what would you have done, huh?" Stanley sits nearby, looking from Angela to Petra. "'Ooops, I broke Angela and left her here, sorry bye'? No. This isn't about honor, it's about courtesy and being responsible for your actions." There's... no defensive posturing there. "Rook and the Cap'n talk about growing up and whatever... breaking something and leaving is childish. Breaking someone and leaving is cruel."
Petra Soroka	"Fine. Sure. Whatever." Petra doesn't bother to look over to Stanley, still entirely focused on Hokma and Angela. Morphmetal, traveling slower than Petra herself, squeezes through the cracks of the elevator door and slides across the monochrome floor to approach Petra as if it has a mind of its own. "It would be worse if you ran away. So just sit there and do what you're told, so you don't fuck it up any more than you have." It's the first time that Stanley has seen the Silver's true effects on Petra. The way the fluid mass of metal crawls up to Petra and slithers up her suit leg to rejoin her body is gross and unsettling, especially given that she doesn't react to it at all.
Angela	Strangely, Ayin is at the ''bottom'' of the tree. And if anything, down here--the draw of the collective unconciousness is stronger. The Tree of the Sephirah is upside down. This place is ''wrong'' though Stanley probably didn't need to be in its deepest depths to know that. Hokma hopes that Petra's correct. It's a nicer reality to believe in for him, that somehow she was able to... "You're right." He manages. "The circumstances have changed." He pries open a hidden panel in the back of Angela's neck and sticks a cable into it. "Come on Carmen... Hook back up." He mutters. And Carmen chooses to. The alarms gradually die down and come to a stop though there isn't a lot of fanfare in the room itself. The cable connected to Angela's neck turns green for a moment and then Hokma carefully removes it. "We'll know in a moment. I appreciate your speed, we can't--Her mind is already active, I can't reprogram it now without risking fundamental alteration to her identity. If her connection to Carmen is restored it should be enough... Ayin needed a...a process, not a person, and yet..." The boxbot body sinks to the floor, bringing both limbs up to its head. Angela's eyes snap open. She sits up slowly as a familiar room greets her. Another reset? No, she thinks with relief, Petra is here. Unless she reset too... "...I suppose I cannot leave that way after all, Stanley." Her eyes turn towards Hokma, on the floor and a sudden surge of cold seething rage hits her. "...The Sephirah don't deserve what I do to them. Not even Binah." She says. "...But you are the exception. You left me alone here with him in here." She turns back to Petra, reaching out for her. "...I'm sorry, I was reckless." ''Breaking someone and leaving is cruel'' "Indeed." Angela says, looking at Hokma once more, however briefly. She heard those words. Despite the level tone, Angela is visibly shaken. It is slowly coming to a realization for her that it may be actually impossible for her to leave this place. Even after the Seed is complete. She's going to try and hug Petra in gratitude. She can imagine what she had done while she was out. Stanley Padgett's understanding of Angela may have increased! Social Link up?! Regardless, Hokma is staring at his own hands, his faith shaken. "May we go back to the upper levels?" She asks. "I may need a moment."
Stanley Padgett	Stanley remains seated as Angela comes back to life and Petra gets her hug... and he frowns at the comments... and the little box bot that seems to be trying to hide itself from Accusing Eyes. "I guess you can't leave that way either." A wry smile, as his phone beeps. "...Delilah got the snack trolley out for people, so... we don't have to go back on the bus with you, Angela. You're welcome to partake as well, Petra." Padgett pockets his phone again, and waits for... well. A trek back upstairs.
Petra Soroka	Petra rushes to hug Angela at the first indication that she's back, before Angela can even make the attempt herself. "Oh my god. You're-- you're okay. Fuck. God. You're feeling alright? I don't-- you feel like normal? Everything's fine?" Petra quiets down after the barrage of questions, just for a moment, and then squeezes Angela closer, pressing her face into her shoulder. She tries to say something, and it comes out as a muffled wheeze instead, and her shoulders start trembling. "God. I-I-I'm-- sorry, I'm s-sorry. I'm so glad you're okay." Quicksilver tears, identical to her blood, drip to the ground from her chin. The rest of her face is hidden behind the curtain of hair, and obscured by Angela's shoulder. "I-- I g-got so scared, after-- after that, b-before, and I-- I was so worried that-- that all of a s-sudden..." Her sentence trails off and she sniffles, trying to calm down her shaking. "Y-Yeah. U-um." Petra pulls her face away and glares over at Stanley, her cheeks glittering with a sheen of silver, daring him to say anything. She swallows, readjusts her hair, and her voice is a little less shaky when she continues. "Yeah. Lilian and I will figure out a way that works. It'll be okay. You'll be okay." Following Hokma back up to Training, Petra doesn't stray far from Angela's side. "Fine. I'll have some snacks. And I'll escort you out when you leave."
Stanley Padgett	Upstairs, in Training? Something... unauthorized is taking place. Obviously word got around that Something Had Happened, so when Agents starting turning up to try and rubberneck and 'help'? What they ran into instead was Delilah, a Blue Tour Bus... And Delilah's snack cart. The little cart, made out of blued steel... seems to be endless. And Delilah somehow seems to have Your Favorite Snack On Hand, even if that would be outlandishly rare or biologically improbable for her to have on hand. This has of course made the Tram Station suddenly very popular as scuttlebutt gets out.
Angela	''Delilah got the snack trolley out for people, so... '' Angela is helpfully being hugged right now so she doesn't try to murder Stanley right then and there. She narrows her eyes at the idea of snack trolleys but it's brief--and she ultimately doesn't comment on it. She does not share that she is unable to eat once more. "I'm still me." Angela tells Petra. "I'm sorry, you ... I'm sorry..." It's not heavily emoted, but Angela leans into Petra. I wanted to mantain relationships. It was a futile dream to have, in the ever-repeating cycle only I could remember. ...It ''was'' a futile dream. Petra's here. Lilian promised and a promise from Lilian... You made her cry. You fool. You're just like your father. "I'm sorry for worrying you." And then she laughs pathetically at the idea of being worried over. "I'm so glad you're here." Hokma will lead the group back to Training but will get off at Records. He doesn't really feel like snacks. He feels like the world's biggest heel right now, he feels like he's a fool for letting his faith get shaken, these two conflicting ideas are warring within him. He doesn't argue against any of the barbs Angela threw his way. By the time Angela gets back up to Training she is back to normal. "Everything is fine, Hod. Just a false alarm." Angela says, since she's an AI that can lie. Hod doesn't seem too convinced.