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Petra Soroka	Earlier, before the Meltdowns began, in the War Room (the break room in Control Department where Curupira the Chinchilla lives):     Petra is, as usual at this point, taking charge of prepping the Elites for the upcoming Meltdown. After running through the general outline of the plan-- let Lilian handle Gebura, support her while she does, stay clear of the areas marked in every department for Lilian to route their duel through, and have everyone else deal with Chesed fast and first to limit how much he can interfere on Gebura's behalf-- she gets into the details of that latter point. Petra, like Lilian, has less faith in the capabilities of 'every Elite besides Lilian combined' than she does Lilian herself, especially given what she explains her own task will be during the Meltdowns.     "So, Woz says we'll need to deal with Melting Love and Mountain of Smiling Bodies for all this. Both at the same time, with Lilian busy, would be... yeah." Petra's body language isn't well-suited for tactical lecturing. Right now she's sitting cross legged on the bar in the break room, and if asked, she couldn't explain how she got there. "So while *you're* all dealing with the forced Melting Love breach, I'll be keeping... well, like, practically every other ALEPH in the facility in check, but mostly Mountain of Smiling Bodies, since it'll be all worked up. So I'm, you know, not going to be around."     "So, uh, about Melting Love, since I don't really know or care much about Chesed's deal; you'll have to figure out the therapy stuff yourself. She's..." Without clicking a remote or anything, the chunky TV sitting on the bar besides Petra flickers to a picture of a pink girl made of slime, then a series of pictures depicting agents in various stages of her infection, from subtly gummy with hints of pink, to disgorging gallons of it, upsettingly showing looping video of an agent being consumed by their own slime and leaving an oozing monster in their place.     "So, any agent that works with her gets infected by her slime thing, and then any agent near them too. Right now, there's a whole subsection of Welfare that's sealed off for the people who work with her to, uh, be quarantined forever in, so it doesn't spread to other employees from them, but, uh...." Petra makes a bit of a queasy expression. "When she breaches, all of them are going to be uh, killed by the slime infection and turned into slime monsters. And one of you is going to be the one to make her breach early, so we don't have to deal with both at the same time."     Helpfully, Petra moves on to the next slide, showing a still, clear picture of one of the smaller monsters, pink with bones inside and fizzing red clouds of viscera being dissolved. Less helpfully, Petra explains that the categorization of these monsters is 'D-dash-03-dash-109-dash-2', as sub-entities of Melting Love.     Reaching behind the bar, Petra lifts up a large metal case and then opens it up to show the contents to the Elites, black and red handguns couched in foam. "The protocol is to, not let that happen. Y-you know. Mercy's the luxury of the strong, and-- and all that. These each have a full magazine of execution bullets in them, which are like normal bullets but they also do a bunch of stuff to the... body, mostly importantly, turning it to ash."     "Er--" Petra continues the gory talk while offering a gun to each Elite besides Lilian. "Melting Love just needs them dead. But we don't want bodies around for Mountain of Smiling bodies, since it eats them."
Petra Soroka	That part was glossed over a little quickly, so Petra repeats it, shifting her position on top of the bar again to fidget with the hem of her EGO suit pants. "... Yeah. Anyone too far gone, we're supposed to shoot. Getting exposed multiple times speeds it up. Hopefully there won't be anyone... *besides* the guys in Welfare quarantine, who gets that bad."     "So: one of you is going in to get Melting Love to breach. It doesn't really matter who, besides Lilian, since the point is to do a bad job working with her so she finishes freaking out. But *after* that, you'll be infected, and everyone else will need to stay away from you. Once Melting Love is *out*, we know that she's both able to..."     Petra shows a slide of a hulking pink slime monster, simultaneously looming and flooding a hallway, then skips to the next one, which looks like a perfectly normal clerk until arrows point out the bits of slime and the tether leading, presumably, to a breaching Melting Love. "Adversary, Intruder, Delusion, Catastrophe. She's basically the worst." Using Antegent classifications isn't helpful given that Lilian is about the one person who isn't going to be involved in this part, but Petra does it anyways. "She can kill you, mind control you-- it's some kind of affection thing-- and disguise herself. So, uh, watch out."     "... And remember, we're doing it for Angela."
Petra Soroka	'Watch out' feels like a bit of an understatement when gathered in the Welfare main room, in front of Chesed and beside the heavy steel airlock leading into the quarantine hallway. Reportedly, there's seven employees total inside: two agents and five clerks. When-- or *if*-- one of the Elites volunteers, there's a short passageway into hallways smelling like sickly-sweet rotten eggs, walls smeared with pink goop. The PA system inside is predictably disconnected from the rest; the infected employees don't know about the plan, the Meltdown, or the upcoming fatal breach.     Working with Melting Love is, as nervewracking as being around the Abnormality is after the debriefing about her effects, surprisingly kind of pleasant. Shaped like a Normal Girl, albeit one with a puddle for legs, whose slimy form is splattered around the room, she instantly affixes on the Elite that enters, burbling wordlessly and smearing herself across the reinforced plexiglass barrier. The cloying temptation to remove the provided gas mask is only a source of stress that has to be resisted for a short time, because any form of Repression work-- shouting at her, threatening her, worsening her environment, hitting her, or otherwise denying her what she wants-- causes a breach with a surge of slime before long.
Angela	This meltdown has had the most pre-planning than all of the others. While neither Tiphereth nor Chesed have been 'passed' before, it is Gebura who made the idea of an end to the torment of the facility seem impossible. A living legend, the strongest singular warrior within the entire history of The City...skilled and deadly enough that even the enforcers of this City threw a horde of monsters against her before they stepped in to battle her as well...and still came up in a draw.... The good news is that the Dame Commander Lilian Rook has agreed to handle Gebura and understands exactly ''how'' she has to handle the Red Mist. The bad news is Chesed, unlike the other loops, decided to do something differently and help the Red Mist instead of whatever it is he usually does. Two Meltdowns for the price of one if it can be survived. More mixed news. Woz has determined that two particular Abnormalities are likely to play a key role in these Meltdowns: Melting Love and Mountain of Smiling Bodies. Knowing what Alephs are bound to break out means that plans can be made in advance to minimize the damage but Petra revealed that Melting Love just breaching means deaths and that the Smiling Bodies get more powerful with more corpses present. Two facility-wide threats that feed into each other. In order to prevent a facility wide disaster, The Manager suggests sending a singular Elite to perform repression work on Melting Love to force a breach. This is a dangerous job that would certainly be fatal for any agent that takes it on but Elites are made from sterner stuff (for the most part)...but that doesn't mean it won't still be dangerous. And to make matters worse, whoever goes in will have to remain some distance away from the others lest they spread Melting Love's plague. As for what qualities that would be good to have? The Manager suggests uh...well... someone with a death wish? Someone who likes to suffer? He won't make anybody go through this--he can send in an Agent if there isn't an Elite who wants to go--but whoever goes should be ready for a bad time. "Well, my friends. I suppose it's our turn now." Chesed says. He is no longer in his boxbot form but like the other Sephirah he has changed as part of his meltdown. He has transformed into a singular orb with an eye as four differently colored appendages burst out of him and into the walls of Lobotomy Corp. A Red one, a White one, a Black one, and finally...A Pale one. They aren't arms, rather they are triangular meshes of material that give Chesed the shape of a cross. The red appendage is spiky and has the appearance of bleeding, the white looks like a cloud the black looks like intenstines or maybe neural matter and the pale looks like planks built from a glowing computer monitor. "Worry not, Gebura. I do not intend to abandon you this time." "Nobody asked for your help!" Gebura's voice crackles on the comms. "Fuck off...!"
Angela	Gebura...is also undergoing a Meltdown! While Netzach and Yesod piggybacked off of Tiphereth and Hod's meltdowns respectively, Chesed isn't content to do that--he's instead electing to HELP Gebura meaning two Sephirah are challenging the Multiverse at the same time. Gebura's form doesn't look like the other Sephirah either. Rather, she simply has reverted to her humanoid form complete with her personalized EGO Gear of chitinous black and red armor that emits a piercing red glow from lines strewn across the armor... seemingly originating from a red and black circle from her chest. In other loops, the Red Mist would wear a steel mask over her helmet but that has already been shattered in an altercation with Meika. The Red Mist instead wears a black helmet with with a singular red eye at its center as part of the EGO Gear. From footage of prior battles with her, Lilian knows that Gebura utilizes a whole slew of EGO Weapons as she hasn't materialized her own EGO Weapon--simply her own EGO Armor. Right now she's wielding Penitence and Red Eyes rather than the ones considered archetypal for her. She paces impatiently in Disciplinary but Angela has warned everyone that she need not STAY in Disciplinary. Lilian knows how Gebura fights. Gebura has also seen Lilian fight battle after battle as well. "Haha...Well, consider this my rebellion, Gebura. Helping even when it's unasked for. Neither Ayin or Angela are in a position to object right now." Chesed says. "Now how about I empower my ally....^t^tA faint red gas spills out of the vents into the facility, lingering around The Red Mist--the immediate effects aren't too apparent but she seems more alert and the grip on her EGO Weapons tighten. "...Fine." The Red Mist refuses to argue any further. "Just don't come crying to me...when I wreck this facility with my own two hands...!"
Angela	BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DHcjEVm-l4            __________________________________________________________                      |ARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING W|                       ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|=|LEGENDARY THREAT|=|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                         ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                                      THE RED MIST PHASE ONE AND TWO                                    __________________________________________________________                      |ING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARN|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯           The Red Mist doesn't wait as anticipated, she starts running through Disciplinary. It has already been emptied of Agents-but that doesn't mean Abnormalities aren't getting in the way. Rather than try to manage all the Abnormalities at the same time through works most of the facility's effort is spent on surviving Gebura which means a lot more Abnormalities are escaping than usual but... Well, Gebura rips through Helper Bot, Forsaken Murderer, and Judgement Bird just making her way towards Lilian and there's distinct sense that she's ''pacing'' herself. She's expecting a long fight. That red mist pouring in thanks to Chesed seems to have a more immediate effect on Abnormalities. Employees throughout the facility struggle with sudden boosts to the Abnormalities' strength and ferocity as easy suppressions become that much more difficult. The Rabbits signal on the local band that they're in position around the facility to help suppress Abnormalities--Myo, grumpily adds that she's in position as well but less so than you might think--she has conveniently picked Central as where she's suppressing Abnormalities putting her smack dab between Lilian Rook and Gebura. The Agents are similarly spread out and about. Ceri is not present today due to working on her rehab but the others are all accounted for. "Sounds like Rita's coming. Seems like she wants to look out for ya." Shajo grins, giving Nonon's hand a squeeze. "Oh my gosh she's so sweeeet..." Nonon blubbers, dabbing at her eyes. "Though uh... feeling a little hot with all this mist coming in..."
Rita Ma	Lobotomy Corporation is a known Petra habitat, so Rita's shown up vaguely presentable. Even so, it's hard to miss what's different: a few inches taller, back a little straighter and eyes a little brighter, flowier fashion sense. Today it's a long daffodil sundress and white knitted bolero jacket- hard to say if they're real or meat.      The atmosphere (metaphorical) and atmosphere (literal; faint scent of blood) here always have her tense, but she's wearing a smile when she settles in to the debriefing room anyway. It's especially sweetly-encouraging when she looks at Petra, and Lilian if she's present.      I owe that to everyone, don't I? I'm the one who can most afford to be cheerful.      She palms her handgun with more familiarity than you'd expect, and after a short discussion, heads through the door into Melting Love's quarantine. Any of the infected clerks she finds on her way through get a murmured "I'm really sorry", and then a bullet.      The intrusive thought to eat some of the jelly from the walls drifts across her mind, and is then dismissed. She doesn't quite dare to take off her gas mask; she hasn't even breathed in the minutes since entering, just in case.      Standing on the other side of the plexiglass is something else. Rita fidgets with her gun uncomfortably. I could use that Noise carbonization power from Hibiki's world. I could use that electric shield to keep from getting touched. I could make her upset and leave before anything happens with Ms. Serenity's taste. I could use a decoy to do it, and then amputate it.      ... What's the benefit of that, though? I'm going to want a taste of her eventually.      Rita, who has experience with being-alloyed-with-the-other, who has experience with don't-touch-me-or-look-at-me, points her gun at the ceiling and fires to startle the ooze with the gunshot.
Kukuru	It can't be surprising these days to see Kukuru ready to help in handling the Meltdowns once again. She's made promises to see this through to the end for Angela and many others, after all, and she's even dressed for work in her usual dark gray jacket and shorts-with-hose combo that leaves no frills or loose clothes to flap about and risk getting snagged at an inooportune time. She's brought food, of course, although it's lighter than her usual fare consisting of stir-fried meat bits, nuts, and chopped vegetables in little half-pint containers so they can be eaten on the go or downed all at once. "These each have a full magazine of execution bullets in them, which are like normal bullets but they also do a bunch of stuff to the... body, mostly importantly, turning it to ash." "Melting Love just needs them dead. But we don't want bodies around for Mountain of Smiling bodies, since it eats them. "Will it work if they're already dead?" Kukuru asks Petra while taking one of the guns in a claw carefully, shuffling her stuff around a bit before just dispensing with her claws entirely. "Because if they gotta be alive first, then I can bring them back... Oh! Or maybe they could get away on their own feet if they're back up." She sounds slightly hopeful as she mentions that, taking a look at the gun itself and feeling its weight in her hand (with proper trigger discipline, surprisingly). A moment later, she takes a deep breath, like she's steeling herself. "... Well, if there's a lotta bodies, I'll be able to get to them real fast once we need to get rid of them. I just need to know where, you know?" Kukuru adds, loosening her belt a bit to slide the gun into her waistband. "Or if there's an area that needs extra help to keep everyone alive, I can... Um. Do that, mhm." "... And remember, we're doing it for Angela." The temptation to work on Melting Love herself, to keep anyone else from having to suffer through that is strong, but her desire and her duty proves to be stronger. "That's right... Angie needs us to focus today, so Lili doesn't have to worry about anything but her fight with Gebura. No distractions. We'll have plenty of time for all that after." Kukuru takes her glasses off and sets them aside, then gets her claws back on to join in the suppression efforts. Her first priority: Locating bodies that need revival and/or execution in that order, but she won't shy away from teleporting to go after any Abnormalities that get called out in the most (relatively) remote areas of the facility and aid those spread out Agents.
Captain Hook	Chesed transforms.      Hook adjusts his hat with the golden hook that is his reminder of the last Meltdown as he watches. Red, White, Black, and Pale. Revelations. It's not lost on him. Lord knows enough Sunday school when he was a boy stuck, and he's had a copy of the Bible with him alongside his trusty thesaurus for most of his time as Hook. Every little bit, right? Every little bit of information is something. This is as far as they've come, before, so it's new, and new means they need as much information as they can horde. And information is ammunition in a place like this - knowing is more than half the battle, it's half the war and then some.      "'And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were a noise, of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.'" Hook cites as he taps his blade against his shoulder, "'And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.'"      He sighs, again. "Can't say I don't think it's clever, this rebellion of yours. But you strike me as a clever sort to begin with. Are you a clever sort, Chesed? Well-read, mayhap?"      "Still. What sort of Captain would I be if I let a mutiny stand?" He swings his cutlass up to point at Chesed. "So let's see to the end of this little end."      The cutlass settles back onto his shoulder. "Tell me your grievances, hm?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine nods along to Petra's explanation of the meltdown procedures. Even though the details of the Seed of Light were still obscure to her, she'd been through a meltdown before - how different could this one be? The talk of Melting Love's infection has her a little unnerved, because her body - though an expression of uttermost void - is still flesh and blood, and no hardier against normal (or normal-enough) contagions than any Agent's. She silently hopes it's a spiritual or magical transmutation of some kind, because *that* she knows how to deal with, even if it would strain her.     Upon receiving a gun with execution bullets, Madeleine turns it over in her hands. She doesn't actually use firearms much, but she's had to enough times to know which how to use the thing at least. Total destruction of the body... best hope she doesn't end up on the other side of these. But there's not much time to contemplate her own destruction when there's a meltdown on, is there?     Chesed transforms, Abnormalities start to breach and get cut down by Gebura, Rita enters Melting Love's chamber near Welfare. Captain Hook's apocalyptic scripture catches the huntress's attention and she wanders over to join him in confronting Chesed while waiting for Melting Love to breach. If nothing else, she can guard him while he does the emotional heavy lifting, but she suspects, with what she's seen of Chesed's feelings about this 'rebellion', she may have something to contribute here herself...
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna	Shinmyoumaru, as she often does, arrives early, riding in her bowl; she's a little bad about keeping track of units of time shorter than about a quarter hour as she never wears a watch, but in her case she's at least not likely to end up late, if only out of eagerness to do things. Once again she watches the entire video, part of it with her hands over her eyes and peeking. She has a weird relationship with the over-the-top goriness of some of it. "They're going to die when she gets out...?" An employee used until they break... Shinmyoumaru doesn't seem very happy about that part. If it was uncertain death, she would mind it less than the certain death they're doomed to, but by other standards they are already dead. She accepts the handgun. It looks too big for Shinmyoumaru's hands, child-sized as she is, and she does not keep it in them; she immediately sets it down in the bowl so she can get it later. (Fortunately, the safety is on.) She's already holding her needle as they march (or, in her case, hover) toward the quarantine zone, polished to a gleaming shine, which is a weapon she is much more comfortable with. She needs the other for the Mallet. Where's a gun going to go? "...right! For Angela." Who Shinmyoumaru doesn't actually know very well. She's met Agents more often than the boss (or near-boss). She's doing it for her, but she also did her part for Lilian by setting up some tsukumogami earlier, and she's doing it for... well, Shinmyoumaru couldn't put a name to it, really. Having embarrassed herself already on the radio - by assuming Hook couldn't fight, by offering a one-handed man a second gun, and by not volunteering (which isn't really worth the embarrassment but Shinmyoumaru feels vaguely like she should have and isn't being a team player by not, but she really, *really* did not want to) - Shinmyoumaru is predisposed to be quiet on the way down. <J-IC-Scene> The Manager says, "Wow you hit a growth spurt, Rita." Shinmyoumaru immediately crosses her arms and looks annoyed for no reason she communicates to anyone else. The impression she gives is more impatience than anything else, with some determination behind it. Maybe she just wants this to be over? She finally does speak again: "I'll make sure nobody sneaks out of here!" She's going to watch for the employees that absolutely, positively aren't allowed out of this zone, and make sure they don't get there, while others do the hunting. She doesn't really have it in her to shoot employees that aren't trying to kill her. Shinmyoumaru is also, thereby, within vision of Chesed. She stares at him for several long moments, since he doesn't look anything like the time she met him before. "It's important to follow your dreams! That's how the weak can become strong... It's the first step at least!" "So I guess this is how you want to be strong...? For other people?" Shinmyoumaru pipes up. This is her first Meltdown; she's not quite sure how to initiate it.
Sarracenia	The mighty princess of the Sundew Kingdom...is not feeling all that mighty right now. She is facing down possibly her second ever actual life threatening situation in which not only her life but lives of other people will actually be in danger. Sure, she's commanded her soldiers but she never really considered the situations she encountered with them to be life threatening.      She's assigned to the Melting Love team. The monster that you -can't- just charge in on and hammer at. Sure, she has plenty of ranged weaponry to choose from but she was expecting facing the other.      And to make matters worse, she's presented with the command that any infected personnel should be shot and thus turned to ash with those black and red guns that Petra is providing. One of her few cardinal rules is not to kill if at all possible. So, she is very slow to take one of those handguns, a type of weapon she has never actually used. She knows through pop culture how to use one (she thinks) but...she holds the handgun in both hands, looking down at it akin to how one looks at a spider or something that one happens to be holding.      The slide show does little to help alleviate any of the feelings of fear that are built up in the princess now. She slips the handgun into her seemingly bottomless purse, then starts pulling out proximity mines. She sets them on the briefing table. "Should I set these or leave them for you?" she asks Petra directly. "I presume you will be supporting her closely."      One way or the other the mines will be set since that seemed to be the one idea she offered that the others were alright with.      '... And remember, we're doing it for Angela.'      Sarracenia mmphs softly. "...right." Sarra is really here for herself, but helping an ally is also a good thing. "For Angela." she agrees quietly.      Then, having been assigned to Melting Love, Sarra follows after Rita. She does not pull her hammer since...well, splashing contageous goo around seems like a bad idea. Instead, Sarra pulls out an ice flower and turns her black and red battle dress blue and white in the process.      She definitely does not have an urge to eat any of the jelly, and she certainly isn't going to remove that gas mask despite how terrible of a fashion choice it is. She doesn't even enter the passage, since it was suggested that only one elite actually enter.      And she flinches heavily whenever Rita exercises mercy on any of those agents or clerks they find along the way. Sarra does not watch the process of the bodies turning to ash.      Instead, she makes sure the mines are set, then joins those by Chesed. "...how...does one handle doing such a thing?" she asks those gathered.
Timespace Riders	... And remember, we're doing it for Angela. For her, before anyone else. But not just for her.     The gun Sougo had been given feels heavier than anything he's ever held. Woz seems like he's held one before. Both of them wait in the airlock. Sougo slips a hand into his pocket and squeezes the friendship necklace the Girl in the Mirror had given him.     The thought of being able to come back, of keeping his promise, is enough only to subdue the whirling, conflicting emotions instilled by the cold metal in his other hand, but not enough to quell them completely.     Why does it always come back to this? Deciding when someone is 'too far gone.' I hate doing that, no matter what kind of 'gone' it is. I... if I have to do it, I won't do it as Zi-O.     Sougo doesn't volunteer, because he neither likes to suffer nor has a death wish. Woz doesn't, because of his fealty to Sougo. Well, my friends. I suppose it's our turn now.     "Henshin!"     "Henshin."                   KAMEN RIDEEER.. (RIDER..!) ZI-O--ZI-O!! II!                                                Amazing! Time! Future!                                                          KAMEN RIDER WOZ? WOZ?!                                 Zi-O's twinned minute-hour hands don't budge an inch. He still remembers what he saw, the last time he looked. "Chesed... it wasn't your fault. What you did, you did out of fear for your own life. If anyone blames you for that... then they're either lucky enough to have never been in that position, or just looking for someone to blame. You know whose fault it really is--she told you herself who sent her."
Hibiki Tachibana	Right now, there's a whole subsection of Welfare that's sealed off for the people who work with her to, uh, be quarantined forever in, so it doesn't spread to other employees from them, but, uh....     Ah.     These each have a full magazine of execution bullets in them, which are like normal bullets but they also do a bunch of stuff to the... body, mostly importantly, turning it to ash.     Oh.     Melting Love just needs them dead. But we don't want bodies around for Mountain of Smiling bodies, since it eats them.     Hibiki, who personally helped the Welfare Team with their efforts to get better work conditions for themselves, does not especially go for the idea of systematically executing quarantined employee in that department regardless of how necessary it is. She wouldn't on any day. And maybe because of her relationship with the Noise in her world, when Petra offers handguns that turn bodies into ashpiles, she doesn't even make the smallest attempt to take it.     If anything, she looks sick to her stomach while slowly shaking her head. "...Can't. Sorry," she murmurs roughly. "...I'll make up for it during the suppression."     ...     After wishing for Rita's safety, she'll notably be in a better state when it's time for the forced breaching - if only because she doesn't exactly have any other choice /but/ to be ready, but having a clear focus also helps keep her centered. As such, she's on a very tense standby while waiting for the results of Rita's repression work, hands tight at her sides and breathing made steady through a lot of exertion on her part.     This, somewhat like Shinmyoumaru, puts her in a position where she can actually get some words towards Chesed before the real fight to survive begins. Having seen pretty much every Meltdown up until now, his monstrous form doesn't seem to make her look at him any differently at all, and she simply stares at his singular eye for a long moment.     "...I'm glad you're sticking it out with Gebura to the end," she says to him while she has the opportunity. "Despite anything else, I'm happy to see that. I'm sure you're not able to that fear you mentioned... no, I know you can't."     "But you're really set on being trustworthy this time, aren't you? For yourself? Or for Gebura? ...Both?"
Petra Soroka	This might be the worst image Lobotomy Corporation has presented Outsiders yet. After Rita first executes a quarantined clerk to turn them to ash, the sound of gunfire and the person administering it sets off a panic inside Melting Love's domain. The pink-glistening employees shudder and flee and beg for their lives, but there's really nowhere to go to hide-- maybe by design, for this eventuality.     They were dead anyways, whether it's now or in a minute when the breach happens. But the knowledge that they've done nothing wrong but be the unluckiest employees at one of the worst jobs in the multiverse makes the task incredibly unpleasant.     Melting Love's not human at all, at least. None of the Abnormalities are, but it's a little harder to believe it when it's something like the Queen of Hatred (from before) or the Girl in the Mirror, who look and talk and have emotions like one. Melting Love is a pile of slime with hips, chest, hair-- slime strands, at least-- and face, so there's some justification to being afraid that she'll turn out to be the same, and that always makes Elites weirder about being violent to them.     That's not the case with Melting Love, the moment Rita fires the gun. Animalistic expressions on a humanish face, she recoils in fear from the gun, sludge pool heaving backwards along with her. Her semi-curious burbling and the mind-teasing allure of her presence both hard switch into betrayal and anger, a mental screech intense enough to make Rita freeze in place and cower-- legs jellified (appropriately) with fear.     Harsh chittering and warning alarms provide the auditory backdrop for Melting Love's preparations to breach, piling herself up into a heaping centauric mass of slimy bulk with the girl form still on top. It surges against the plexiglass, creaking and cracking it, and then a second slam shatters it and sends the pink tide flooding out of the cell. Rita's fast enough to escape if she runs, but Melting Love is quick behind her, greeting the Elites in the central Welfare chamber with the sound of squealing steel as the slime punches its way out of the airlock.
Petra Soroka	It bullrushes through the Elites and employees still outside, feeling like being hit by a sticky pink truck, before lunging towards a drain to escape from the room. One of the clerks in the room (skittishly moving a cart of E-Boxes while staying as far away from his fucked-up triangle boss) gets caught up in it, absorbed into the mass, and then strained out when Melting Love pours herself into the drainage system, along with a loose skull or two.     The clerk is alive but shaken, and most importantly, glistening pink and dropped right in front of the wide door to get from here to the rest of the facility. Moving them might mean getting close, tossing them in the slimed quarantine zone might mean accelerating the infection, and who's to even say whether the clerks will hold themselves together under these kinds of conditions, and if they know to stay still and alone?     The Meltdown still proceeds as normal, despite Melting Love. Chesed's tampering with the facility causes Abnormalities to threaten breaching all across the departments, and the fog he's pumping through the now-Melting Love-infested vents makes them berserk beyond what you've seen before. The Manager is kind enough to tell you where the stress points are, though! It's your good friend, Punishing Bird again! Punishing Bird is flapping around Control department, pecking at Yuri, but where typically its un-aggressed pecks are practically harmless, with Chesed's mist it's actually making pretty severe wounds even while calm. Hitting it while boosted by Chesed might be too much for *anyone* to handle-- containing or enduring it long enough for it to return to its cell on its own is likely best. Down in Central department, Melting Love has dripped through grates in the ceiling, and is pummeling employees with fused-arm bashes that shatter concrete. Force her to retreat quickly and she won't have the time to infect Nonon and Shajo! Singing Machine's music is playing all throughout Information department. Amplified by Chesed's mist, the grinding, grating song reaches every corner of the department, pulling far more employees under its thrall to draw them towards its cell. In addition to being bewitched by the Singing Machine, the mind-controlled employees start trying to fight each other to drag others into the cell and feed them into Singing Machine's shredder! Shake them out of it and try healing them without falling under the spell yourself! ... And shouldn't Rita know better than to be right outside the cell where the employees are the densest?
Angela	''What sort of Captain would I be if I let a mutiny stand?'' "Ahah... an easy going one?" Chesed offers. "You sound a bit like Hokma sometimes, but--well I was a bit of an Elite in the City. Even had some of those Butlers Ceri was talking about. But I know you know that sometimes that's not a life you feel you can choose even if everyone seems to think it'll be easier, right? Sometimes someone comes knocking and offers you something more and before you know it..." ''Tell me your grievances, hm?'' "Well, haha, even though it ended badly, I don't really regret choosing this life." Chesed sounds embarrassed. "There's only one--no two things I'd take back if I could. Even if it wouldn't have changed anything in the end." There is a small pause and then... "I shouldn't have opened the doors." Chesed murmurs. "...And I shouldn't have given up on making life easier for those in the facility just because Angela said it was against the rules and that they had to suffer for the energy production." Rita Ma enters the cell. Chesed breathes in like he's going to say something about that but he ultimately doesn't. A nervous reaction perhaps? The eye whirrs to look towards Madeleine. She isn't saying anything but he recalls her defeating the Big and Will Be Bad Wolf solo. "Ma'am," He says, in greeting. ''So I guess this is how you want to be strong...? For other people?'' "I don't know if I'd say strong for other people in general, but certainly for those I care about. What about you? Why do you want to be strong? Trying to change the way people think?" ''You know whose fault it really is--she told you herself who sent her.'' This results in the first time Chesed is startled and truly unsettled. "You... Haha, go straight for the weak point, huh? ... Yeah, I know it's not really ''my fault''. After all, once The Head was here...it was too late. But ... it isn't as if I was thinking that at the time. You see the kind of person you are in a moment like that. And what I saw...was a ''coward''. That's why this time... I will fight alongside her. Had it not been for you, I may have never had this courage--so really, I have all of you to thank. Showing me a better, kinder facility was possible. Maybe I've been quiet, but it doesn't mean I wasn't listening." "I heard how she and the Commander spoke of having to handle everything themselves again and again. I don't want her to have to think like that anymore. ... And you're here to do the same for the Dame Commander, aren't you?" ''But you're really set on being trustworthy this time, aren't you? For yourself? Or for Gebura? ... Both?'' "...Glad you understand, Bikki. I guess you'd know what it's like to see that coward in yourself. Right now I have to act for her, even if she doesn't want my help."
Angela	Meanwhile, Gebura has to deal a passage vanishing before her eyes forcing her to take the long away around to the Elevator--she would see through the illusion easily if it was that, but since it's hypnosis and Gebura isn't expecting Kitsune Trickery, she ends up taking the long way to the Elevator in Central which does end up putting her closer to Welfare for a moment but she doesn't seem that interested in what's going on there. Once she makes it to the Central Elevator, Gebura presses the up button and... BGM INTERRUPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0RJPFOpBlg&ab_channel=Sanctferum Gebura waits. The first of Sukuna's traps seems to have gone off. The Elevator just isn't opening for her. And it isn't heading down to her level. She taps her foot impatiently, occasionally getting interrupted by an Abnormality and having to cut it down. Gebura ... doesn't seem to immediately realize that something is wrong with the elevator. "Uggh... Hurry up..." Gebura crosses her arms. "...Why is it taking so long to get everywhere today of all days...?" GEBURA SUCCESSFULLY DELAYED
Touta Konoe	Hours prior to the Meltdown:     Touta Konoe stares into the Warp Gate. His next step will take him from his home and into Lobotomy Corp. for what would certainly be what many would have considered a workplace straight out of hell. And more than that, it's a place where he knows he's made mistakes, and a place where if he goes he might make more even when wanting to try and do otherwise...     All alone, he holds at his blade the miniscule katana in jet-black, his hand rattling a moment. A part of him is afraid, not because of what might happen to him, but what he might do instead. Would he lash out? Would he act in a way that put others in jeopardy? Would he only reaffirm what everyone else had already been thinking...     As an immortal creature, such worries shouldn't ever have been an issue, but...     "Fight the Fear, Build the Future..."     There's another thought that had been coming to mind, those deprecating words. But instead he finds himself muttering /that/ company's motto instead. After a brief talk with Malkuth those words feel like they can resonate with him a bit more than before. And for a time, he finds his hand steadying. With a light breath he's able to step through the Warpgate.     Arrival at Lobotomy Corp. Time of Petra's prep work:     At the time, Touta would have been seen lingering around parts of the facility. Each Department that was allowed to him, every elevator, every hallway, he'd made a point to once again familiarize himself for more than one reason. Though, for better or worse, no one can say that he failed to show up, and when the meeting begins he does listen as the plan is made rather simple. Albeit a bit gore-ish given the elaboration of Melting Love's and Mountain of Smiling Bodies details.     Admittedly when he takes the gun, while he doesn't have an issue taking it, the moment he looks it over, there's a long pause. Clearly some sort of hesitation to it still, but another slow inhale as he tries to think back to Petra's words in this case. "Yeah, for Angela." Though in the time that those words are said, he finds his gaze drifting to not the Elites, but some of the Agents. The captain of Disciplinary as he brings his hand to squeeze at Nonon's. ...And for more...     Well, my friends. I suppose it's our turn now.     The true countdown of the Meltdown goes underway as the boxbot form alters into that of the ill-formed cross. Like the others, Touta's yet to act. He's not jumping to act to support the potential Abnormalities that are to come, he's not trying to look to the vents as they dispense that red mist through the halls. He's not wielding up his blade, he's simply...Listening as the others do. He already knows what he has to do this time, and if there's a point where he knows he can help beyond that...He thinks he knows when to act for that too. But for now...     He tries to listen. To Woz as he speaks to Chesed's past actions. That there's no fault for him to take, that his actions were understandable. Hibiki speaks of Chesed's desire to be trustworthy to Gebura after all that's come from their shared past. Of how Sukuna speaks of wanting to be strong for others, or at least for that one...
Touta Konoe	Before Chesed, Touta can't find himself but awkwardly smiling. "You've truly taken the phrase bearing your cross pretty seriously...Chesed, right?" Perhaps it's a phrase meant to try and ease the mood. "...It looks really heavy..."     What follows isn't in any way sounding like a joke. It's just an honest observation. That Chesed looks burdened. Though Touta can't comment on that. He thinks that perhaps he could sympathize, but he's thought that many times before. Thinking he understands when he's just been painting his thoughts on others. So instead...He finds himself speaking bluntly, "Chesed...You're facing the fear this time...Right? It's just...The future this rebellion builds...Doesn't it seem..." Empty? A gesture of trust, a way to help guide his ally, but only to do so down a path of oblivion? He can't utter the last word, but certainly Chesed's wise enough to understand his thoughts, and utter to him as to why that was still fine when all was said and done.
Captain Hook	Hook laughs. "Aye, I'd be easy-going. I'd also be useless. Not the job of the Captain to be easy-going. The job of the Captain to be a right and proper hard-ass when it matters most. A Captain who won't shape up is a Captain who doesn't deserve a ship."      'Sometimes someone comes knocking and offers you something more and before you know it...'      "Before you know it, you're out the window, heading for the second star on the right straight till morning, where a glittering future awaits."      He draws his treasure chest out of his coat and sits down on it, leaning forward on the cutlass like it's a cane.      "And then the world moves on."      The chaos around him is the problem of others - he has people keeping an eye on him to make sure he isn't interrupted, and he's hardly a use against most of these beasts, himself. His smile is wry and distant at that. "You were tested, and broke. Your own will wasn't strong enough to stand." It's not accusatory. It's just kind of...a statement. "Whether it was your fault or not, you failed yourself, and failed them, too."      Hook sighs, again, like an old man. "The only story, really, isn't it? All the others are just trappings. Gilgamesh blamed himself for Enkidu's death, even though Enkidu threw the Bull's intestines at Ishtar. Don't get much older, as stories go. We blame ourselves for what we see as our failures, whether we did it or not, and that drives us. Sometimes it drives us to be better. Sometimes it drives us to dig deeper into the pit. Sometimes it makes us so miserable that it drives us six feet down. Old, old story. Universal, probably. I suppose there are people out there who don't have that little twinge, but if there are, I'd rather not meet them, my own self. Must be awful hard to get on with, someone who thinks they've done everything in their life right."      He adjusts himself on the chest. "Damned uncomfortable, this. I'm sure I've a seat in here but I just can't bring myself to dig through it and find it and risk it being damaged. And it's probably some damned throne and God forfend I sit on a throne in *this* place. Probably set off some sort of metaphor about the Lord no one knows about yet." Hook chuckles. "Don't happen to be able to provide, do you? You're Welfare, so I figure it's worth an ask, while we chat."      "And you want someone to listen to you, I wager. Whether it's about how much you want to support your colleague, how much you blame yourself for your cowardice, or anything in between."      "So, here you are, lad. All my attention's on you. If I get decapitated or shot or devoured or whatever else, well, that's a risk I'm willing to take, and a trust I'm willing to give the people here."      "Just as you're trusting Gebura to handle the hard work for you."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine sees the look of respect in Chesed's single eye and nods in reply. "Chesed." She tries to think of something to say, but balks at the Sephirah's dedication to Gebura. Caring about people is... new to the huntress. Not so new that she's completely unfamiliar, but it's a language she struggles to speak plainly. "So, uh. Why Gebura? What's she done for you to earn this? To earn you risking everything in her name? How could *anyone* be worth that much to you?"     As she speaks she keeps her eyes on the infected clerk. She lacks the ability to cure him, and the look in her eyes tells the clerk as much. She does, however, approach as she awaits Chesed's reply, and shove him out of the way of the door with her boot. "Stay put," Madeleine commands, checking her gun as she speaks and looking down the hallway to see if anything's incoming.
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna	While Shinmyoumaru hadn't been able to set up some of her traps - a tripwire isn't going to stop Gebura for any time at all, and neither will a net unless she's there to sew it out of energy lines - she had used her Miracle Mallet to have a ... discussion with some parts of the facility, awakening some of the tools and equipment as minor tsukumogami. She doesn't know exactly what has stalled Gebura. But she's going to thank that elevator later. Shinmyoumaru might have been on the verge of sulking because she, unlike Rita, is *not* having a growth spurt anyone would notice and is still cheating outrageously to even be as tall as she is (about four feet, give or take a little bit - it's hard to tell when she's in her bowl) but being able to talk to Chesed helps bring her back around. "I don't know if I'd say strong for other people in general, but certainly for those I care about. What about you? Why do you want to be strong? Trying to change the way people think?" "Me and my people are ignored by everyone!" Shinmyoumaru puffs out a breath. "We're so small that even when people see us, they don't think we can do anything, and the worst part is, mostly they're right... the inchlings can't do anything that would get them noticed, or someone will squish us." "Well, I want to be strong for them. I'm the only one of us who is. I want a place where the people who get overlooked, or - or treated like dirt, or taken advantage of because nobody believes they can do anything else, but what they are, until they die - " Shinmyoumaru gestures with her needle. "I want a place for them too." "You said you're a coward but *I* think you're just like us, instead. People expect things because it's all you've ever done, and they think you can't manage to make yourself anything else... But you want to." She glances over toward Hook, who takes a different tack - just as Melting Love rushes through the room. Shinmyoumaru's response is immediate - she ducks down in her bowl and slams the lid on hard, so it doesn't touch her.
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna	It seems to work, even though Melting Love only strikes the bowl like a runaway truck, slamming into into the wall so hard that, even though the bowl is enchanted and modified and a lot tougher than it looks, it threatens to crack. Inside it, Shinmyoumaru is slammed around about as hard as the bowl slammed into the wall, thrown into the side of it hard enough that she should probably check to make sure she didn't break a rib. She pushes the lid up again, peeking out rather than opening it all the way. She sees a mess of slime on the floor, a clerk, and the grating. ...hmm. "I'll be right back!" she assures Chesed on the others, then lifts up her Miracle Mallet, hesitates for one instant, and then smacks herself on the side of the head with it - hard enough to feel through her hair, not hard enough to hurt. "Be small again!" Shinmyoumaru - and her bowl - shrink down to a much, much smaller size; Shinmyoumaru is only an inch and change tall, tops, and the bowl is...well, bowl-sized. Not even a large bowl. At her true size, Shinmyoumaru flies over to the grating and pauses. Still too big... "Smaller!" Another impact of the Miracle Mallet, another pulse of magic, and a nearly invisibly tiny Shinmyoumaru dives through the grate after Melting Love, chasing the blob all the way to Central. (She returns to about an inch tall once she's past the grate.) A few moments after that, and an energy hook on an energy thread - both far larger than the currently inch high Shinmyoumaru - descends through the grate as Shinmyoumaru attempts to literally drag Melting Love upward and away from Nonon and Shajo. She isn't using her strength for this, which is good because her strength would never manage it - it's her danmaku power, as she strains, her needle bending as she uses it like a magical fishing rod to swing Melting Love around and give people a chance to get away from it. Once the line snaps, though, she's preparing to run - she doesn't want Melting Love to drown her in the pipes!
Rita Ma	Rita isn't used to "killing people who don't deserve it" at all. That it's the familiar framing of 'dealing with a monster' pushes her forward, but by the time she reaches Melting Love she looks distinctly unwell.      Adrenaline, she's lucky, is good at stopping rumination.      Audible just before Melting Love's onrushing gurgling are Rita's feet pounding the floor. "Look out!" she yells from the other side of the door, but doesn't manage to open it before Melting Love slams through, and she's--      Nowhere to be seen? No, there she is, dropping down from the ceiling above where it'd just passed. It's a mystery why it didn't see her.      Rita makes horrified eye contact with the regurgitated employee for just a second. "Please be gentle," she says to the others, and then zips over the infectee in a quick wall-ceiling-wall spiraling dash maneuver. Following down the slimy vent is out of the question; instead she 'flicks' out of existence, and for one second the only real things in the world are Rita and the floor of the Control department.      Accordingly, she freefalls through the intervening floors and lands/materializes in a tight crouch just a second after it arrives, and then has no time to feel smooth about it at all. "Ms. Nonon! Mr. Shajo!!" Eyes widening, her back straightens like she's about to grow tentacles- but if I make contact, I can't support them close!- and she scrambles for other options. One hand magdumps the execution bullets into Melting Love's back while the other grabs for a head-sized chunk of rubble; she rears back and hurls it through center mass hard enough for it to sound like a whipcrack. Hopefully that draws its attention, or weakens it for Shinmyoumaru's fishing.      "Please, retreat," she says with face drawn tight. "We still haven't had that vacation, Ms. Nonon."
Timespace Riders	Dare Ja? Ore Ja! NINJA! Futurering Shinobi! SHINOBI!!     Woz's smartwatch-themed armor is briefly durrounded by a laser printer, which burns purple shuriken motifs onto the breastplate, pauldrons and helmet, replacing the 'hands' of the watch formed by his visor with the exaggerated tines of a throwing star. An iridescent purple scarf billows dramatically as a polearm flies into his waiting hand.     "That Well birthed something truly repugnant on the day Melting Love was formed," notes the retainer with a glance towards the clerk. "You," he says, denoting the clerk with a point of the green-bladed sickle polearm. "Have been infected. Your previous responsibilities are hereby suspended. Do -not- move from where I place you. I will know." That last part is a bluff--but it's one he hopes will be backed up by his reputation here.     Rather than touch the clerk directly, Woz flings the iridescent scarf towards them. The prehensile garment twists supernaturally around the clerk and tosses them 'gently' into the quarantine area, wringing itself out after the toss. The Rider strikes a kuji-kiri with his hands, disappearing in a puff of smoke, with the archetypical bamboo deer-scare noise one would expect.     Zi-O, meanwhile, swaps in a Ridewatch of his own--bearing a cameo of a headlight-lensed, racing-striped Rider of the past. Removing the pink-silver half of the twin Zi-O II watch, he replaces it with the other...                            Start Your Engine! DRIVE!                                 ...and becomes a speed demon's take on a knight, his silver-gold-pink motif gone and replaced with candy apple red, accented with two white racing stripes. The katakana lenses shift colors to the refractive white of a car's headlights, and the twinned hour-minute analog watch hands serving as the classic Rider antennae become the needles of speedometers.     "My blood cells are in top gear," says Zi-O, mangling Drive's catchphrase, before he's off after Melting Love with the audible growl of a supercar's engine. The red-white blur slips and slides on the pink trail left in the Abnormality's wake, nearly taking a spill, but for 'steering' into a slipslide that turns a stumble into a powerslide.     Pausing briefly, he looks one way, then the other, searching for any Agents or Clerks in the path of the Abnormality. If he should find any, they're scooped up and deposited, if not 'safely,' then 'out of a ruinously dangerous Abnormality's immediate reach.' I don't want her to have to think like that anymore. ... And you're here to do the same for the Dame Commander, aren't you?     Catching his breath:     "She's helped me learn a lot about how to be the me I want to be. I don't want to just 'take.' So I'm here, and I'm not playing around. I can't, if I want things here to turn out even remotely good for Angela, for the Sephirah. If I want the road there to be fairer and kinder to the Agents."     "I'm happy that you decided to do something about those feelings, even if I don't agree with what it is you chose to do. 'Courage' is something the City tries to beat out of people with one hand, and demand with the other, isn't it? The Chesed back then was doing his best. It's easy for the Chesed of right now to say he's a coward. But it's important to understand that, even so, if you want to keep getting better. It's a marathon, Chesed--not a sprint."
Kukuru	With Melting Love breaching as expected and the facility undergoing the Meltdown proper, Kukuru gets herself focused on the likely unpleasant task at hand: Shooting the infected, and pacifying the other Abnormalities. Part of her can't even bring herself to blame Chesed for doing this all, but the rest of her... No, even the understanding side of her is still rather agitated at him choosing now of all times to start his Meltdown. Sure, they're necessary to advance the goals of Lobotomy Corporation, but everyone's already been through so much. Too much! And for this to threaten Angela's freedom and Lilian's peace yet again... "I heard how she and the Commander spoke of having to handle everything themselves again and again. I don't want her to have to think like that anymore. ... And you're here to do the same for the Dame Commander, aren't you?" It's probably better she isn't in the same room as Chesed, or she might be tempted to encourage him after all. It'd certainly go against her promise to help Angela above all else, so instead, she's counting on the Manager's intel to figure out where to direct her efforts. After all, there's little reason to stay with Chesed right now when so many departments are already getting hit at the same time. That means going to Singing Machine first. A short teleport and a hop later, and she's in Information, listening to the strangely irritating song from outside the thresher's cell. Kukuru can even feel that pull at her mind, telling her to step inside the cell and join the others. Under any other circumstances, she might even be tempted to see what's in there, but... This is all for Angela. Kukuru keeps reminding herself of that, and the stabilizing implants help to keep her head on straight as she steps between the oncoming employees and that cell. If it was just two or three employees, she would have an easier time, but there's way more of them here already than she expected! They're also throwing hands far sooner than expected, and the blows actually catch Kukuru off-guard enough that she has to step back in mild shock. "What...? Angie taught you better than that. Now behave!" Putting her foot down, Kukuru starts shoving the Agents back with her prodigious strength, not necessarily trying to splatter them, but hard enough to toss them around like rag dolls before spreading healing nanites out to mend those bruises and broken bones from both her and their own fighting. "Everyone's really having a tough day today, huh...? But it sounds like everyone's already... Yeah, everyone already knows who they wanna help. That still doesn't mean you're off the hook, though, Chesed." Kukuru speaks through her headset, raising a hand to one of her drills briefly to flick the microphone toggle on so she can keep her hands free for handling the employees. "Being kind to some people can still mean hurting others, even if you didn't mean to... But are you?" When was the last time Kukuru heard any of the Sephirah truly sounding personally fond of Angela, anyway? "... Oh. Manager? Aside from healing these kids-" Kukuru pauses to pick one another Agent by the neck, wrestling with them briefly to keep them from pinning her arm down before shoulder-checking them against another employee. "-is there anything else I can do to speed up theee... Getting Singing Machine to settle down?"
Sarracenia	Sarra might have to wait for an answer to her question since...well, a pink tsunami is coming through! She throws a few ice bolts at it before getting slammed into, causing her ice powers to pop. She notices at least one agent or clerk or something got slimed out here, but her main concern now...      ...is the slime on her! She looks like she is somewhere between horrified and terrified, and quickly pulls out a towel to try and dry herself off. Does that even make a difference? Probably not, but she does not want to melt into pink goo!      That done, she pulls out more ice flowers and tosses some around to the others. "Here! Maybe we can freeze the goo to keep it from spreading!" she calls out.      She herself pulls her hammer and prepares to follow Shinmyoumaru down in a much more destructive way. She is expecting Rita to deal with the employee. That way Sarra wouldn't have to get her hands dirty.      ...instead, Rita rushes after Melting Love, leaving the clerk behind with the request for them to 'be gentle'. Sarracenia stares at the clerk with a bit of panic. "Y-you want...?!"      Luckily for her, Woz handles that. Which gives her just enough time to consider Chesed. "...doing this for her? Not precisely. While I do intend to lighten Lilian's burden, it is more for me than her. I want to be strong so that others can depend on me. So that I can become a proper noble hero, worthy of the adoration of my subjects and others. And so that I can inspire hope, which seems to be sorely lacking these days."      After that, she follows after Shinmyoumaru. But, unlike the other princess...Sarracenia just uses her hammer to smash her way through the floor. "You will not get away!" she exclaims as she drops into the room. She uses one of her ice flowers again, and more ice goes flying. She is really hoping that all this ice will freeze that slime and the goo girl making it. "Just...cool it, okay?! We do not wish to hurt you! If you return to your room now there is no need for anyone else to be harmed!"      Apparently Sarra did not get the memo that Melting Love only looks like a person.
Hibiki Tachibana	I guess you'd know what it's like to see that coward in yourself. Right now I have to act for her, even if she doesn't want my help.     Hibiki doesn't change her expression very much, but she does give an understanding nod. "...Yeah. So one from one coward to another, I hope you fight hard enough to make up for before and then some. I know you're doing it because you can't forgive yourself, more than anything..."     "...But I hope Gebura'll see you as someone she can rely on. Maybe not after this. But eventually."     Of course, it's not long after that when the sound of agonized metal fills the air, and Melting Love breaks out. That means it's her time too, and she gives Chesed and Hook one final look before turning on her heel and sprinting off at full speed. Despite being unable to do a thing about infected Agents, handling Abnormality suppression is something she can do without hesitation. Therefore...     "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron...!"     The flash of light masking her transformation happening during a convenient camera cutaway, Hibiki is just in time to fail to catch Melting Love heading down the grate to one of the lower floors - and she's only partway into giving chase when she picks up on the abhorrent sound of the Singing Machine screeching into her eardrums even from over in Information. In a split second decision on what to go for...     ...she heads towards the source without letting anything slow her down. Kukuru won't be alone in trying to stop them all from throwing each other up for sacrifice; she also has Hibiki trucking into the fray, five feet of raw strength being put to use bowling over brawling agents and clerks with exactly enough strength to send them sprawling without actually harming them too bad. There might be a broken bone or three, but that'll be a small price to pay. After overcoming so many darknesses     Shouldn't you finally be able to see         The light of dawn shining in the sky--!?     The last word punctuated by a shout of exertion (from shoulder-checking a clerk), Hibiki doesn't only push back against the Singing Machine by stopping its victims, but also with her own song - one that's clear, from the heart, and also more than loud enough to resonate through Information itself. Whether she'll be able to drown it out or not is one thing...     ...but even if it's only for herself, a song with hope for the future in it will keep any supernatural temptations out of her own mind, and team up with Kukuru to knock some sense into the employees and keep them out of the cell.     "It won't be as simple as just breaking it, will it!?" Hibiki's lyrics only briefly break just so she can also inquire up to the Manager. If she could chop the Machine in half like she can punch other Abnormalities, that'd be nice.
Angela	BEFORE THE MELTDOWN Angela listens to plenty of people say 'For Angela' even in her office. She grips at her sleeves for a moment, tensing, before murmuring to herself. "Will you all say that to the end? ... I wonder..." She leans back in her chair. "They can do this. They can do this. You'll open your eyes and it'll be terrible but... ... We're so close to the point of no return. ... I can't wait... Only a few nightmares left." ''And for more...'' Nonon sees Touta looking at her and Shajo and purposefully reaches between Shajo's legs and squeezes while using her other hand to point towards her eyes and then towards Touta's like she's warning him to stay away from her property. Shajo gives Touta an apologetic look and leans on Nonon all the same. NOW ''You've taken the phrase 'bearing your cross' pretty seriously'' Chesed's eye swivels to Touta. "You speak like you're not sure of your own thoughts. It's better to act and risk making a fool of yourself than to be paralyzed with fear and be a fool that can't move instead." ''Before you know it, you're out the window...'' "Sounds like you know what it's like. Both that wonderful high of leaping out a window, and the pain of hitting the floor after." Chesed pauses. "...And you know what it's like to lose your flying legs. You, too, are older than you look... Like the rest of us. Thanks for getting through to Tiphereth. We weren't exactly the best caretakers." ''Just as you're trusting Gebura to handle the hard work.'' Chesed laughs. "As if I could stop her!" Madeleine asks a real important question actually, even if for some the answer might be obvious enough to never feel like asking it is worth it. But it ''is'' worth it. That eye turns towards her. Every bit of it is important. But it can best be summarized as... ''Why?'' right? "Mm... Well mostly she just kidnapped me and whisked me away to this fate. But I could never blame her for that. I had a choice, and Carmen's ideas were intriguing. I don't think she ever particularly did anything for me but..." Chesed sighs wistfully. Isn't... 'Love' enough of a reason?" Chesed asks. "I don't know how else to describe how I feel about her besides love. Platonic? Romantic? Something else? I don't know. But I'm happy seeing all her faces."
Angela	He listens carefully to Sukuna because Chesed can tell this is something important to her. The way he listens to people and responds to them so effortlessly might be a sign of his elite upbringing--even though he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth--his family were the type to hold high expectations for themselves rather than the sort to fall apart the moment things went wrong. "...Wow... That's a wonderful dream." Chesed says, sincerely. "What you want isn't so different from what Carmen wanted. For small people to not be crushed against the weight of such big forces that are out there--of course, in our case it's more a metaphorical 'small' than a literal but ... Nobody here believes that height dictates what you can do. Besides..." He chuckles. "You seem to have caused our most Legendary Fixer a spot of trouble. Maybe there are some things only the ones who are overlooked are able to accomplish. Just some food for thought, champion of the inchlings." ''Courage is something the City tries to beat out of people with one hand, and demand with the other,'' "Starting to sound like a King," Chesed admits. "Are you saying I'm being too harsh on Daniel? For opening those doors? What would you have done in my shoes, Sougo?" ''And so that I can inspire hope, which seems to be sorely lacking these days.'' "A noble goal," Chesed admits, not even rolling that eye of his despite what he says next. She's here so he'll take her seriously. "But royal brats that pick fights don't inspire hope, those born with wealth and power don't inspire hope. You surely know why that is, don't you? Because anybody with half a brain can see what you accomplish isn't the result of dedication or strength--but with how much of a starting advantage they've got! To inspire hope from such a position you have to fight a hundred times harder, a thousand times harder--so that your effort can be seen through all that glitz and glamor. You can't tell me honestly that's how you've lived, can you? I don't think you could even lie and tell me that it is, can you?" But he certainly seems to be giving Sarracenia a chance to denounce it. ''Are you?'' "Kukuru, sometimes helping someone else means hurting someone else. I know it's not ''cool'' but just because something isn't ''cool'' doesn't mean it isn't true. I'm fighting for Gebura, you're fighting for Angela. That means we are at odds right now. It's a little sad, but that doesn't mean anybody's wrong." Getting singing machine to settle down?'' "Uhh... Suppress the employees... Having someone TOO tough or weak willed working on it is bad. That's what I've got this moment!" The Manager, who is kind of distracted, manages.
Angela	MEANWHILE ''We still haven't had that vacation, Ms. Nonon'' Nonon and Shajo look at each other, there is a hurried and hushed discussion between the two of them--Nonon, as Rita knows, HATES running away but she also LOVES doing what Rita asks so she's conflicted. Fortunately LOVE wins out as eventually Shajo says, "Look you don't want to make her cry, do you?" And Nonon cringes and looks back to Rita, "Alright, RIta. Wouldn't want to give up on THAT dream!" The two of them fall back to help with other Abnormalities. AND YURI TOO Yuri...doesn't get aid from the Elites at a real bad time. Hitting Punishing Bird would make things even worse for her but those basic pecks are tearing into her body. She can't do anything about it. The bird tears into her body again and again until it gets a good hit in her chest and she goes down. She dies alone as the bloodied Punishing Bird wanders off to find a new target and-- MANIPULATOR OF ODDS! No that doesn't happen actually. Yuri takes a couple hits from the Bird but as she recognizes just how badly off she is, she realizes that she has something different this time that can help her out. She has a belt she didn't have before. Yuri draws out the ID Core: An icy blue thing core with a fluffy bee head in white on it. She backpedals as she slots the ID Core into the belt and shouts. "HENSHIN!" A white and blue armored form with an ice-blue and white bee head helmet ripples around Yuri's body, a snowflake pattern forming around her. She raises Frost Splinter into the air and slams it into the ground, a wall of ice erupting around Punishing Bird and trapping it there for a moment... ...and letting Yuri run away. ...Was it supposed to go this way?
Petra Soroka	The clerk tumbles back when Madeleine so much as nudges him with her boot, shielding his head with his hands while a little bit of slime leaks out of his ear. He recognizes the gun-- he has one himself, though mostly for self-application-- and immediately expects to be shot. Cowering, he coughs and spews a bit of pink gunk on Madeleine's boot.     The clerk yelps when lifted up by Woz's scarf, and gets tossed squelchily into the slime-coated, dented and torn graveyard of the quarantine zone. "A-ah-- yes s-sir, I won't move, I-- I'm infected?" Sitting in that slime probably isn't good for his prospects of surviving to the point that he can be cured after... but where else could he go that won't risk bumping into people?     Kukuru and Hibiki and Rita(?) hurl employees away from Singing Machine's door, and with them prevented from reaching the whirring blades of the hungry hungry machine, no one has to die. They're battered from each other's efforts to bludgeon each other into suitably unconscious machine food, but the wounds are light enough that Kukuru's healing can patch them up with short work. Hibiki's singing drowns out the enthralling song, and... it's actually *easier* than breaking it in half, though less satisfying. Once the employees are snapped out of their trance (through violence), there's nothing stopping Hibiki from walking into the cell and pressing the emergency shutoff button to quiet the terrible music.     But... Singing Machine wasn't the only Abnormality present. Rita's form distorts, after having bodily slammed around employees with the other two, and the skin coating sloughs away to reveal the pink, which matches the mucous clinging to easily *half* of the employees Kukuru and Hibiki thought they saved. The Abnormality morphs back into her typical googirl form and puts a hand to her mouth to make an uncomfortably human giggling noise, before wrapping one of the employees in a hug and darting away with them. The others panic and scatter, potentially spreading the infection even further.     Shimyoumaru feels practically suffocated by the cloyingly sweet sulfur stench of Melting Love's slime in such close quarters. It's *also* probably not good for her to be weaving around in her trail, but that's a problem for Welfare department after the Meltdown. Hooking Melting Love slows the colossal ooze monster down, but Shinmyoumaru can't manage to 'swing it around', especially not with her having such an amorphous form. She can slow it, though, and that gives Rita the chance to hurl rock through its gut and splatter the walls pink, an infection vector that could potentially be disastrous if Sougo didn't swipe up all the clerks who might've been in the splash zone.     Melting Love sloshes towards Sarracenia, each hit of freezing projectiles succesfully landing, but its mass keeps flowing over and around the frozen chunks of itself like a wave. The featureless 'head' on top of the semi-humanoid Abnormality opens up with a gaping hole, like a mouth stretched from chin to forehead, and then it disgorges a flood of slime that batters and overwhelms the Elites, giving Melting Love the chance to vanish into the vents again.     And there's still more breaches!
Petra Soroka	The Burrowing Heaven is-- well, Hook and anyone else still in Welfare with Chesed doesn't need the Manager to tell them about this. A treelike spread of gory nerves sprouts out of the ground, draped in strings of tendons, unblinking eyes as 'fruit' numerous enough to lock on to every Elite present with a dozen unblinking stares. They *do* need the Manager to explain that if there's a moment where there's no one looking at the Burrowing Heaven, even just by a blink, it'll explode and kill-- at least for an agent-- every person in the room. Does Hook have the luxury to keep looking directly at Chesed, and not add a pair of eyes to keeping the Burrowing Heaven stable while it's violently suppressed? The lights flicker in the whole facility, causing red backup lights and panicked alarms to start blaring. But this is not some ALEPH threat, or terrifying Ordeal to fight-- it's something worse! The Girl in the Mirror, the new face-stealing Petra-shaped abnormality, is having a tantrum that so many people are here and they're all *avoiding* her because they *hate* her, and her tantrum is generating enough negative Enkephalin that power supplies are being drained. Someone needs to go comfort her, but be careful what you say to the needy mirrorgirl! Information department has a severe outbreak! With the stealthy Rita-fascimile getting her hands on that many employees, there's now the risk of some of them panicking and running out of the department! Sealing off doors and elevators could trap them inside, but maybe someone's able to manage a gentler approach than that? The Ordeal of Crimson Dawn has started in Records department, a fairly low-threat parade of little meaty clowns. No Elite's been called for the Ordeal before due to its minor presence, but today, Melting Love has appeared to infect the knee-high clowns with thick pink slime, turning them into traveling vectors of the disease that fight back rather than accepting help. Melting Love itself is also terrorizing Tennant, wetly crawling through the hallway towards them as they ineffectually pepper it with sniper fire.
Captain Hook	BEFORE THE MELTDOWN      "Yes," Hook says without hesitation.      NOW      Hook smiles. "I do. And I am. And you're welcome."      He shrugs his shoulders. "No one's the best, but I'll wager you did what you could in this place. This place is an image of Hell. And I don't mean this company, but this whole blasted City. No wonder you loved Carmen so much - she must've been a saviour to you all. Someone with a dream. Someone with hope, when the world itself has given up."      "'And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.'"      "Anyone trapped in darkness, even if it's darkness born of privilege, would gravitate to that. Even if they don't understand it."      He shifts a bit. "Oh, come now. Just because you can't stop her doesn't mean you have to trust her. It doesn't mean you have to help her. You're trusting her because *you* want to, right?"      "Because you don't want to trust yourself."      Hook rocks back and forth on the chest lightly. "No chair, then. Fair enough. Anyhow. You've no desire to trust yourself after your last failure, have you? Someone so *certain*, so *aware*, so *unchallengeable*, with such a *reputation*. Easier to let her take charge and just help out, aye?"      "That way, you don't have to commit anything. If you fail, you lose nothing. If she fails, it was her fault, not yours. No decision to be made. No risk to be taken. Simple. Straightforward."      Hook raises his cutlass and points it at Chesed's eye. "So, cui bono, lad? Who benefits when you risk nothing? Not you, certainly. Not Angela. Not Gebura, not anyone here."      The cutlass goes back down. "Tell me, then. Tell me really. Why do you want to mutiny? To prove to yourself that you can? To feel sure of yourself?"      "I can't help you if you don't talk to me," Hook says, softly, "And I doubt you'd appreciate the King of Pretend like Tiphereth did. Don't think it's your sort, really."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine rests the butt of her spear on the floor, holding the weapon out to her side as she listens to Chesed. Its single eye lazily regards the Sephirah.     "Isn't... 'Love' enough of a reason?"     The huntress's free hand curls into a fist, her nails digging into the leather of her glove. "N-no," she stammers, anger creeping into her voice. "No, it's not. There's- there has to be more than just your feelings for her. She has to- she owes you something, if you're giving this much of yourself for her. Even if it's..." Madeleine sighs, voice cooling a little but still on edge. "Even if it's just her gratitude." She turns to look at Chesed again, her expression grave. "I don't know if I understand you, but I think I get some of it. And you need to find what brings joy for *you*, not just live to see a smile on her face."     Madeleine is about to continue when the tree-like growth erupts in the center of Welfare. "What the devil-" she shouts, leaping back and away from the new threat. A moment later she has her composure again, and she grits her teeth as the Manager explains the abnormality's trick. "Drogrung," she says. "Let's get to work. Keep talking, Captain. You're better at this than I am."     Then she's lunging forward, across the room and into spear's-reach of the fleshy mass. The abnormality doesn't seem especially motile, let alone *agile*, so she can afford to be very aggressive here. With each sweeping blow from her spear, ice clings to split tendons and severed nerves, withering and numbing the site of each blow. The Burrowing Heaven's eyes shrivel under the assault of biting cold steel - but Madeleine is careful not to spray too much ice into the air, lest she sting the eyes of the other Elites in the room. And the frozen blood doesn't get in the eyes either, not as much as if it were hot and fresh.     As for her own eyes, well. She's not entirely sure if she counts as an observer to the Abnormality, given the strangeness of her eyes and of her perceptions in general, but it never hurts to play safe around these things. "Blinking!" she calls out, just before she does so. A second or two later, Drogrung echoes her announcement in its own voice, timing its blinks to never quite line up with Madeleine's. And with as close a view as the spear has of the action, it's eye is always on the proverbial prize.
Sarracenia	'A noble goal, But royal brats that pick fights don't inspire hope, those born with wealth and power don't inspire hope. You surely know why that is, don't you? Because anybody with half a brain can see what you accomplish isn't the result of dedication or strength--but with how much of a starting advantage they've got! To inspire hope from such a position you have to fight a hundred times harder, a thousand times harder--so that your effort can be seen through all that glitz and glamor. You can't tell me honestly that's how you've lived, can you? I don't think you could even lie and tell me that it is, can you?'      Sarra growls a bit...but huffs after a moment. "No. It is not how I lived for a very long while. But, one thing about me - for good or ill - I am stubborn. Once I set my mind on something it is nearly impossible to sway me. And I like a challenge! I like a fight! And that glitz and glamor can be turned to an advantage! Everyone likes their heroes to be sparkling and glamorous while being strong and dependable at the same time! They cannot always be glamorous perhaps, but when a shining symbol -looks- like a shining symbol it is a powerful thing!"      Sarra might be out of earshot after that, though. Melting Love rushes at her, and Sarracenia yelps and leaps upward. She may not look it but she can leap quite high! She grabs onto the ceiling and pulls herself flat against it, eyes wide as Melting Love goes past. "Stop running!" she exclaims at the pink goo.      She follows after, trying to catch up by using her ice to form stepping stones and leaping as far as she can each time.      Then, there's someone there! Weird clowns and a sniper! "H-hey! Leave them alone!" Her ice just isn't cutting it. How do you slow down liquid if not with ice?!      The others say seal the vents. How do they seal all of them?! Sarra doesn't know, but she has a Tennant to save! She gets ahead of the pink wave and throws a Power Wing at Tennant. Once it touches Tennant it gives them raccoon ears and a tail...and the ability to fly forever. At least until hit. "Get out of here! I will hold it off somehow!"      Not knowing what else to do she pulls out some bob-ombs, gives them some ice flowers, and tosses them toward Melting Love. The explosives become ice bombs. Sarra hopes they will form a wall of ice, stemming the tide of pink and giving Tennant a chance to get away.
Timespace Riders	Are you saying I'm being too harsh on Daniel? For opening those doors? What would you have done in my shoes, Sougo?     "That's exactly what I'm saying. I would have done something worse, if it were 'the me of the past.' I would have thrown my life away--" <J-IC-Scene> The Manager syas, "What the--Girl in the MIrror?! Fuck! Someone needs to talk to her or we won't get past the day even if we DO survive!" <J-IC-Scene> Madeleine Cadrasteia says, "Sougo, Woz, can you handle that? I've got my necklace but am a little busy up here..."     "Sorry, one second, Chesed! Woz, can you tag in?"     It's carried over the broadband to the retainer, who has appeared in Records to help with the Ordeal of Crimson Dawn. "I am somewhat preoccupied, sire, but will do my best." A spread of explosive shuriken is hurled at the meaty clowns, from the apex of a nimble moonsault that carries him out of their immediate reach.     "Had Daniel done as you believe he should, Chesed," says the retainer, landing nimbly and striking a defensive stance with his sickle-headed polearm, "He would have changed less than a percent of a percent. Far better for the people of this place that he survived to be their advocate a while longer. To challenge the impossible is noble--but there are right and wrong ways to do so."     Meanwhile, another revving engine sound as Zi-O crosses the boundary into the Girl in the Mirror's containment unit. The racing-motif rider holds up the friendship necklace he was given. "Hey! It's Sougo. Can I come in?" he asks, his helmet bobbing inquisitively. His voice is breathy, the kind you get after running for a while.
Rita Ma	Rita looks almost like she'll cry anyway. It's too soon to look relieved, she knows- nothing's for sure on a battlefield. "Thank you, Ms. Nonon," she says, with a softness that belies her body's tension, and then blinks in front of them as they flee. She babbles to soothe herself: "I'll introduce you to Bota and Kana properly, and make you more nice food, and..."      The wave of goo. Right.      With a jarring suddenness, ropes of pale blue flesh erupt from Rita's upper spine and whipcrack-weave together into a hemispherical barrier. It calcifies and dehisces from her just before the pink stuff hits- no biological contact- and the wave breaks around it. When she bursts through the shell to counterattack, Melting Love is already gone. Her glowing hand lowers with a tense little sigh. <J-IC-Scene> Shinmyoumaru Sukuna says, "Just chase it! It went to... um..." <J-IC-Scene> Shinmyoumaru Sukuna pauses for a moment, then: "Records!" <J-IC-Scene> Shinmyoumaru Sukuna says, "I'll start sealing vents!" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma ! <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Mr. Manager! Where's Records, from me?" <J-IC-Scene> Kukuru says, "The... Melting Love was just in Information! Oh dear, and it got away with someone, too..." <J-IC-Scene> The Manager says, "Down the elevator and into the 'white and clock' patterned area rather than the 'spooky dark pillar' area. ... Uh, since Gebura is at elevator closer to Welfare, take the one closer to Disciplinary. We don't want to get her going until this is settled." <J-IC-Scene> The Manager says, "Shouldn't delay you, that one is closer to Records too." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Down and... okay!"      Rita hops, stops existing in Central, subjectively experiences 'plummeting through who-knows-how-much-facility' and resumes existing in Records in the same instant. A couple of slimy clowns suffer biolaser-induced ashing on sight.      Cold slimy tendrils ooze out of a vent just above Tennant and Sarracenia, wrap around their limbs and bodies, and yank them up to safety through an uncomfortably tight and bumpy metal chute. Rita sets them down on their feet in the hallway above with a hasty little apologetic head-bow- "I'm sorry! I'm just glad you're okay-" and then glows like the filament of an incandescent bulb with her outstretched hand as the center of brilliance.      If Melting Love follows Tennant and Sarra up the vent, it'll catch her life energy blast full-on the second it pokes out. If it stays below... well, she can always shoot it through the floor.
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna	"What you want isn't so different from what Carmen wanted. For small people to not be crushed against the weight of such big forces that are out there-- " "Maybe there are some things only the ones who are overlooked are able to accomplish. Just some food for thought, champion of the inchlings." "...maybe," Shinmyoumaru said, before she darted off. "But that's exactly what I want...!" --- Honestly, Shinmyoumaru would have been surprised if she had managed to heft the entirety of Melting Love up. It's big and oozy and while she's managed to lift surprising things before, there are limits. Slowing it is enough - But eventually the thread of shining silver-blue energy she's using snaps, popping in a cloud of sparkles. Shinmyoumaru was waiting for that to happen; it's her cue to duck back up into the vents, because she expects Melting Love to chase her in anger - it's what she'd do if someone tried to pick *her* up, even if it didn't work. She fires some danmaku as she goes, stabbing with the needle at long range and projecting a spear-like bullet with each thrust. So when Melting Love goes after Sarracenia, and then a different path through the vents, Shinmyoumaru isn't there. This doesn't mean she's safe; she's on the route Melting Love just used, after all. She can *smell* it. But that is a problem for Future Shinmyoumaru. Just to be safe, though, she's kept the bowl mostly closed, peeking out from a small slit and being very careful not to touch any walls. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Seal the vents!" Shinmyoumaru, who is *in* the vents, almost objects to this, but then she has a better idea. What if she sealed them herself? What Chesed says sticks with her. Some things only the ones who are overlooked can accomplish... Shinmyoumaru reaches into her bowl and rummages. She eventually pulls out a die - you know the kind, six sides, black dots - and drops it to the 'floor' of the vents where she is. "As big as you can, and then stick!" The die expands, growing until it slams into the sides of the vent, filling it edge to edge and even denting it slightly. Under the Miracle Mallet's power, it adheres to the sides, locking itself in place. No way to ooze past that! Shinmyoumaru looks satisfied as she turns her bowl, zipping off. Shinmyoumaru continues to litter the inside of the vents with objects as she takes a random route through them, grown until they wedge against the walls to block the entire thing and then sealed in place. A few coins stacked on top of each other; a thimble; a screw that she's pretty sure isn't supposed to be in here. Melting Love can probably get past them - if nothing else it could destroy them - but it would slow the Abnormality down, and they're a lot tougher than they look under the influence of the Mallet. It would certainly interrupt a fast escape through the vents. "Okay, if there are more seals you can drop them now!" Shinmyoumaru pops out of a vent in Control, just in time to see Yuri book it and Punishing Bird frozen in ice. "Hey...! Kamen Rider!" Is she supposed to introduce herself at a time like this? Does she have to get HER belt out? She looks at Punishing Bird. Practically staring. Shinmyoumaru doesn't like a lot of birds or cats or many other small animals, because many of them seem to think inchlings are edible. She advances on the temporarily-frozen Punishing Bird and, very deliberately... ...drops a length of scrap cloth over the ice block, so when it gets out it's dark. Though Shinmyoumaru is still small, the cloth expands to completely cover the ice. Nap time, Punishing Bird! (Does this work on Punishing Birds? Shinmyoumaru certainly doesn't know!)
Kukuru	"I know it's not ''cool'' but just because something isn't ''cool'' doesn't mean it isn't true. I'm fighting for Gebura, you're fighting for Angela. That means we are at odds right now. It's a little sad, but that doesn't mean anybody's wrong." "It really is sad, isn't it...? HHmm. Yeah, I get it, I think. We're all gonna be wrong to someone, but that's fine as long as we're doing it for who we care for. I think that just makes us cooler, doesn't it?" Even in the middle of that melee, Kukuru finds some time to chuckle lightly at Chesed's comments. Hearing that familiar chant and seeing that familiar flash of light from Hibiki's transformation has her turning her head a bit while remembering the task at hand, sighing softly in relief a moment later. "Probably not.. Oh, but if it is, then we're perfect for it." She replies with a little fist pump, looking a little more confident right up until the Manager's directions come through to keep her on track. She looks over at Hibiki again moments later, squinting slightly while really mulling that over. "Then Bikki here probably shouldn't work on it, then... She's real tough, AND she's super strong-willed." She affirms with a nod, then turns to Rita(?) with the same look and a shake of her head, perking up visibly when she realizes that she's(?) even there. "Oh, Ritaaaa~ Ah, no. Rita's matured so much, too, so  that wouldn't really work, either. But who else do we have that's not too weak or too tough?" Not realizing that she might very well fit that bill herself, Kukuru nevertheless heals and fights the enthralled employees alongside Hibiki and Rita(?), only allowing herself a moment to relax once the Singing Machine is finally turned off. That moment proves to be just what the Abnormality needs to start sowing more chaos, though, and that surge of slime bowls Kukuru right over with a startled yelp from getting shoved up right between the floor and the wall. "Ow, ow, what...? Was that Melting Love?" Kukuru shakes her head quickly as she reaches up to tap on her headset, turning the microphone off. "Melting Love just showed up here, and it cap-" Wait. Kukuru flicks it back on. "The... Melting Love was just in Information! Oh dear, and it got away with someone, too..." Hibiki Tachibana, strained following Kukuru's statement, "And infected a ton of other employees here...! We can't let them split off everywhere, or let her get away!" That means it's just a matter of time, doesn't it? And with herself and Hibiki possibly already infected, the time limit becomes that much more palpable. "Hmm... Okaaay. I'll take care of the employees." She calls out to Hibiki in her usual easygoing tone, trying to sound as relaxed about this as anything else. "Good luck, dear. Once I'm done here, I'll catch up." Just in case, she sends a cloud of nanites to help suppress some of that potential infection in Hibiki, then starts approaching the employees that had been hurt and healed prior to the infection. "Don't worry, everyone. Come gather around, okay? I..." She pauses, swallowing lightly before putting on a calmer smile and letting the psychic suggestions start to drift out. "I'll fix you right up. Just come on over, and none of us will have to get hurt."
Kukuru	Those that listen to those psychic suggestions from her would have a far more painless experience overall. Kukuru's strength and claws makes it all too easy to carve through closely gathered necks with a quick squeeze and swipe, and not having to aim at moving targets means the execution bullets can be utilized without any waste afterwards. Those that don't get to experience what it's like for Kukuru to hunt them down in earnest: A brief pause to realize they're moving away, then starting to appear from around corners or directly in front of them with those familiarly evil-looking clouds, massive claws coming down to pin them down long enough to see that usual calming smile of hers preceding an execution bullet to the ribs.
Hibiki Tachibana	It might not be destructively satisfying, but honestly, getting out of this with as little harm to the enraptured agents and clerks as possible is plenty enough for Hibiki Tachibana, known girl who is happy with people simply continuing to be alive. With Kukuru's healing, she's sure they'll be just fine in the end, so once the coast is clear, she hurries in. All these feelings carved into my heart     Aren't just pain, they're seared-in memories...     Click. She lets out a beleaguered sigh once the Singing Machine is shut off, and her own inexplicable instrumental backing also quiets down. She'd probably debate the 'strong-willed' compliment from Kukuru, but at least she can press an off button without too much trouble. There's no time to rest though, and she steps back on out. "Thanks... Kukuru, Rita. I dunno what I'd do without you..." Both of them get a thankful no--     Wait. Rita wouldn't be here, after being the one to make Melting Love breach.     By the time she catches on, Hibiki can only watch in horror as what can only be Melting Love drops her disguise, and it becomes obvious just /how many/ of the crowd she infected. Caught in the middle of the panic and the Abnormality outright kidnapping one away, she suddenly becomes a lot more grateful that both her and Kukuru are here... because she doesn't have a choice but to believe she can handle them. Anyone infected should be fine if they just make it to the end of the day intact, right?     Then I'll go after her! Just-- be careful, Kukuru!     Of course, Hibiki. It's... It'll be okay.     Kukuru's easygoing tone doesn't assure her as much as it probably should, but she nevertheless gives her a trusting nod before sprinting after Melting Love - this incarnation of Melting Love anyway, knowing the fight further down is still ongoing. It's probably good those nanites are watching out for her infection, as her own safety is the last thing on her mind right now.     Not when she's putting her all into catching up, which is mostly a matter of 'when' and not 'if'. She's well aware that Melting Love is smart enough to fool them - both from Petra's briefing, and from what just happened - but being afraid of walking into another scheme won't stop her from closing the distance while readying a clenched fist, the piston in her gauntlet priming back.     "No you don't...! Manager, make sure the way ahead is cleared out!" And the moment she does, she throws it forward in a tackling punch angled for Melting Love's lower half, where it shouldn't carry through to who she's hugging - while an ordinary punch might not do anything to slime, the explosion of kinetic force from her Symphogear's machinery slamming back in should leave most of the googirl's body mass splattered on the hallway floor and wall, and make it easy to secure the abducted employee.     No wonder she asked X for that.
Petra Soroka	Drogung having a set of eyes to give backup to Madeleine helps a lot with Hook not taking his attention away from Chesed. The Burrowing Heaven is a threat, but, unlike most of the other Abnormalities threatening the facility during the Meltdown, it doesn't actively benefit from the boosts that Chesed feeds to them. Nerve vines cling to Madeleine while she forces the Abnormality's eyes shut one by one, but as long as she times her blinks with Drogung, it's nearly placid until she suppresses it. Shortly after she does, her friendship necklace stings and scratches at her, and her face seals over to wipe away her eyes and lips for a few minutes. That could've been really scary if it happened a minute earlier! It's also really scary now, to be blind and mute!     Sougo hadn't given the Girl in the Mirror his name last time, but she recognizes his voice even through the cell door and audibly-- and *visibly* with the trembling lights suddenly stabilizing-- stumbles her tantrum to a crawl. As Sougo gets closer to her, her smooth face peels open with his eyes and tearily babbles with his voice. "Sougoooooooo!! I'm really really really happy to see you, *sorry* I ruined everything and messed everything up and forced you to come talk to me. You dont't hate me, right? I know I messed it up. I was just *so* lonely because I *knew* you were here and I know Kukuru is here and I know that other girl with the pretty star eyes who was so nice to me before is here but I just know they're avoiding me now because I've worn them out and they're bored of me or sick of me or just too busy with more important things so they'll just leave again when they're done and forget all about me but I'm glad *you* didn't because I *love* you and I would go insane if even *you* my absolute best friend in the entire world couldn't stand to be around me anymore. I'd get it, I would, I'm sorry, I know what I'm like, but I'd still be so so so sad and..."     Kukuru, as she hunts down and evaporates the infected majority of Information department, is subject to the same effect as Madeleine. A newly hired agent still in low level EGO is scurrying away from her in horror, leaving a slimy pink trail behind, when her eyes and mouth seal shut from the Girl in the Mirror's whining. Temporarily blinded, the scattered few living Information employees make it to Control to start pleading for help from not any of the active Abnormalities, but Kukuru. They're still infected though: one grabbing Cinder's shoulders leaves pink goopy handprints on her EGO.     Hibiki meanwhile tracks the scent of sugarcoated rotten eggs, to where the extension of Melting Love is dragging the employee away towards the vent that a tendril of slime connects it to. Exploding the girl-shape also means exploding the attachment point affixing her to the main mass of Melting Love, and the splattered slime crawls across the ground to slip back into the vent, but one of Shinmyoumaru's enlarged obstacles prevents any of it from getting anywhere. The employee she saves is worryingly infected, though, with patches of skin corroded away and replaced with pink sludge; it's pretty dangerous for her to be nearly tackling them.     The wall of ice from Sarracenia and the long ranged attacks from Rita and Woz were the right call for the infected clowns of Crimson Dawn. Each one of the horrible little things explodes when killed, spraying not just their own normal-- calling the bloody viscera of a tiny evil clown 'normal' just goes to show how terrible a place Lobotomy Corporation is-- innards around, but the pink slime that Melting Love forced into them. At their careful distance, though, none of them get hit by the wet shrapnel.
Petra Soroka	Melting Love tries to chase after its prey when Rita yanks them away, and it's clever enough to try to circulate through the vent system to appear above or behind Rita and the gang; an effort that's *prevented* by its rushing through the ducts slamming into Shinmyoumaru's supersized die. Forced to take the shorted and straightest route, Rita's life-energy blast pierces directly through its entire length, practically carving it in half-- no, literally carving it in half, and the two pieces just heave themselves upright in the hallway to stitch themselves back together with stringy clumps of goo.     Infection update! Somehow, the group right in front of Melting Love is the least infected of all. Pink slime oozes between seams in Rita's skin and clothes, but she's solidly in the relatively safe early stages of infection. Sarracenia and Shinmyoumaru are slightly worse off, with Shinmyoumaru's bowl having a small pool of goop collecting in the bottom from where it drips off of her arms.     Kukuru and Hibiki have it the worst, though Hibiki's infection is being slowed by Kukuru's nanites. Each of them have been exposed to dozens of infection vectors, and even more than merely being kind of sticky and gross, they feel feverish, sluggish, and their coughs hack up terrible-smelling goop that stings like acid.     Sougo, Woz, Madeleine, and Hook are largely fine, having consistently kept their distance. The clock moves onwards, and after Crimson Dawn is suppressed, the Ordeal of Green Noon appears in Training department! OHNO blasts the big blocky robot with attacks from her EGO orb, but a spray of gunfire from its arm, enhanced by Chesed, forces her to retreat. Find some way to suppress the supercharged robot, surviving its long ranged automatic gunfire from one arm, and the massive chainsaw that makes up its other! Maybe you should ask that nice pink girl who just oozed up out of the vents? She seems really eager to help, and she's durable too! Treat her as a valued member of your team! The Manager isn't quite sure what's going on here, so his announcement comes late. Some strange effect in Welfare department hallways has started pulling the panicking employees apart limb by limb. Invisible except for an unnatural shimmer in the air, leaving employees, infected and not, disassembled and bloodless, it's hard to even track the effect until the deadly results have already happened. Find some way to trap or destroy an abstract physical force! Destroy the scattered pieces of corpses before Mountain of Smiling Bodies breaches! Avoid getting infected, despite the presence of lots of slime! Melting Love is still in Records department! Its attempts to escape were stymied by ice walls in the hallways and blockages in the vents, and rather than force its way out into a limited retreat, it's trying to simply overwhelm the Elites arrayed against it. Limbs smash down, projectiles of slime shoot out of its mouth, and mental pressure to just acquiesce and let the slime Abnormality absorb you scales with the progression of the infection. All the way down in Extraction department, Vincent is engaged in a duel she can't win. The purple haired agent in Red Hooded Mercenary's EGO gear is facing off against the Abnormality herself, but where they would normally be evenly matched, Chesed's mist reaches even down here to overclock Red Riding Hooded Mercenary's power into overwhelming threshholds. She heals as fast as Vincent can land attacks from her flintlock or crescent blade, and each hit presses the agent back towards the elevator. Stop Red Riding Hooded Mercenary from decapitating Vincent and accessing the elevator, and the rest of the facility!
Angela	''I don't mean this company, but this whole blasted City.'' "At some point, I suppose, we let too much of the City in before we even realized it." Chesed answers mildly. ''Because you don't want to trust yourself ... I can't help you if you don't talk to me,'' "Ahahh.. Well, we are talking aren't we?" Chesed asks. "It's not like it's been a boring conversation... I can't deny I don't trust Kali more than I trust myself but I think most people in the City would say that. Not trusting myself at all..? I can't deny that's a possibility, but I don't know if I'm convinced." ''N-no'' Chesed's eye rolls towards Madeleine. "...Man, that would've been a hit with the ladies back home. Maybe I'm losing my touch. Hey, can you ... explain to me why that upsets you?" He considers Madeleine's words on what brings HIM joy--that easygoing friendly smiley day persona of his doesn't seem to be obscuring his own misery. Chesed sighs, he didn't really want to trouble anyone with that. "...You have a bad relationship in the past, gave too much of yourself away? ... Well, what would make me happy for me, something that doesn't involve Gebura... I think..." The eye rolls up, looking at the ceiling. "...Rest..." It might occur to Hook that Chesed, no matter how energetic he seems, no matter how much coffee he imbibes--he always looks just plain WIPED and EXHAUSTED. LIke he hasn't slept a wink in years. But he must have. It must be like waking up tired. ''I am stubborn,'' "And that is unlike most royalty...how?" Chesed chides gently. ''A shining symbol it is a powerful thing!'' "Symbols are most easily corrupted of all." Chesed says, but Sarracenia might have already left. ''If it was the me of the past I would have thrown my life away'' Chesed hesitates, that eye looking down at Sougo. He hesitates enough that Sougo has to leave before he can answer. Woz tags in and presses the point further. "...RIght and wrong ways to do so huh. Maybe I'm trading one extreme for another. What would you suggest I do, Woz? Play at being my retainer just for this moment... What advice would you give me now were I your Demon King? How should I change so that I am better than the me of before, but ...more proactive, more prosocial, more...a teammate of hers than a goon." Are the combined efforts finally getting through to him. He doesn't seem to be having a heavy emotional reaction just by looking at him but it'd be real hard to tell anyway. He might just be this way even if there isn't a singular King of Playing Pretend tanking it all. "I really like that 'Inchling' woman. It's kind of inspiring isn't it? Seeing someone like her being so self-assured, confident, strong... It's kind of super encouraging, isn't it?" ''I think that just makes us cooler, doesn't it?'' Chesed laughs, "Well said! Thanks for helping us all this time, Kukuru." Records is a strange place--one of the more alien looking portions of the facility but Rita Ma can smell plenty of human bodies in here. Dead? No. Not dead. But maybe not alive either. Frozen, perhaps, somewhere within this department but well hidden. Whatever they are, they read as stable ... and not immediately relevant. There's just no way Rita wouldn't notice.
Captain Hook	'...Rest...'      "Ah," Hook says, "Well, then."      He stands up and adjusts his hat, kicking the chest onto his hook. It vanishes into his coat, somehow, as he does so. "It wasn't just that she was a saviour. It's that she was someone you wanted to be like, is it? You loved her because you wanted to be like her? Assured, confident, and strong. And that's why you're helping Gebura, hm?"      "And you don't know how to get there."      "Can't say as there's an easy way, lad. It's bit by bit, a hell of a climb. Be a liar if I told you a simple path, myself. But start by putting down the cup and putting down the smile. You don't need the coffee. You don't need the smile. You're using them like crutches, aren't you? Relying on that coffee to stave off the night. Relying on that smile to stave off the dark thoughts."      "Start trusting in others more than in your coffee. Starting trusting in yourself to hold their hand when they need it, and trusting them to hold yours when you need it, and you'll be a step closer to the kind of person you want to be. Self-assured, confident. Strong. A teammate."      He scratches the back of his neck. "Can't jump there in one go, but that's alright, aye? Little by little, you close the gap."
Rita Ma	One tendril gently lobs Tennant down the hallway, away from Melting Love. A handful more erupt from Rita's back, shredding her bolero jacket- so it was real fabric for once.      Leaping and scurrying and swinging, she moves almost like a liquid herself, like oil-and-water with the pink slime. Where it erupts or sprays, she retreats, and where it makes a gap she advances, sometimes just an inch away from touching. It's meditative. Her body moves on its own, and so she can almost daydream even with her heartbeat pounding in her ears.      I think I understand the thing Ms. Gebura hates so much. Ms. Angela's monsters are bright and colorful. They carry a feeling with them.      Tight beams of light lance out at it where Rita can afford the split-second to aim. She erupts in an omnidirectional corona to batter it back where she can't. It's rare she spends this much bio-energy; her body's starting to coldly ache, especially her gut.      But when it's a bunch at once, the feelings are just noise. The colors run together. They stop being special little things, and become 'the world', like Ms. Rook says. Like the Queen was too, blending everyone's specialness. Some part of her dimly registers that Melting Love is nearly the same color as the Queen's eyes.      When Melting Love seems like it's on the ropes, Rita finds solid footing and fans out all her tendrils. They sway and curl forward like vipers readying to strike- and then they do. Drinking Melted Love, even in part, is surely a horrible idea. She's spent long minutes carefully not getting herself infected, but now bubbles of pink drain up the greedy tentacles, direct central line.      'Trying to protect her friends from the world, alone'. 'Failing or being betrayed'. 'Not getting to see the brighter future she hoped for'. 'Still never being helped or thanked'. How many times has that happened to her?      I think I can give her what she wants. Obey me. Cease.
Timespace Riders	You dont't hate me, right?     Zi-O's gauntleted hand extends slightly, towards the mirror, fingers splayed as if to touch her. A little sound escapes him. Of course he doesn't. "How could I?" I just know they're avoiding me now because I've worn them out and they're bored of me or sick of me or just too busy with more important things so they'll just leave again when they're done and forget all about me but I'm glad *you* didn't because I *love* you and I would go insane if even *you* my absolute best friend in the entire world couldn't stand to be around me anymore.     There's a pause, notable. Hearing all of that in his own voice is very unnerving... but it's not like it's her fault, is it? "I haven't forgotten what you made for me," he says. "Actually, it helped me find the strength to be here today." She didn't take his advice, last time. So... maybe he has to trick her into taking it.     "If we don't stop this meltdown--or if we can't stop any of the ones after--then I wouldn't be able to visit you. It'd be like we never met. I don't want that, and neither does anyone else. Everyone is fighting to keep that from happening--so it's not that anyone's tired of you at all."     "And, you know, when you talk about ruining everything, or 'wearing people out,' well... it's like you're saying that we're wrong, for wanting to keep that from happening. I'm gonna come back, next week," says Zi-O, with a self-assured nod. "And I'll come with something for you to work on."     What would you suggest I do, Woz? Play at being my retainer just for this moment... What advice would you give me now were I your Demon King? How should I change so that I am better than the me of before, but ...more proactive, more prosocial, more...a teammate of hers than a goon.     "I would counsel you to address your motivations for *being* her teammate. If they are borne of guilt, then you will never feel adequately punished, and nothing you do will seem a fitting act of penance. However," he says, striking another kuji-kiri to disappear in a puff of smoke...     ...reappearing in Welfare. "If instead you draw strength from your admiration of her--and from knowing how difficult, exhausting and isolating it is to be 'one who is depended upon,'--you may then truly, effectively support her, just as we are supporting Lilian Rook. You need not be unfailingly strong--you need only be 'there.'"                      Hakai! Gokai! Futurering Kikai! KIKAI!                         The ninja motif with its purple accents on Woz's sleek silver armor is replaced with gold and red trim,evoking the pathways on a circuit board. His cuirass sports a pneumatic harness for a hauberk, with the golden shoulderplates sporting wrench cameos, to match the wrenches now serving as his smartwatch-visor's 'hands,' while the gold katakana features over the visor spell out 'KIKAI.'     Four mechanical manipulator arms sprout from his back, each one equipped with a heavy-duty toothed claw. The arms spread out, lifting one table from Welfare's little cafe each. Woz strides through, using the tables to corral in much the way a lion tamer would, intending to trap the force by pinning it between his makeshift wall and one of the sturdier walls in the department. "Simply put... if *you* do not believe you are enough, no one will."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine's eyes seal over just as The Burrowing Heaven falls. For a moment she panics, sure that she's done something wrong and triggered the abnormality's effects - but she can still hear, and Captain Hook is still chattering away. Then she feels the necklace stinging at her skin, and realizes the EGO gift has turned against her. She'd curse, if she had a mouth. She'd roll her eyes, if she had any. A tense few seconds pass as she blindly stomps around in anger, arms outstretched to feel for a wall, then Chesed's reply to her remarks brings her back to her senses.     She's better than this, she's stronger than this. Some girl's anger? A magic spell (or thereabouts) cast out of jealousy and rage? She's so much *more* than this. Madeleine stops wandering and lowers her arms to near her sides, palms facing downward. The nothing inside her, though tainted by the world, is yet numinous and potent. This creational parlor trick simply won't do! As she reasserts her void-nature her eyes are there - were there all along, even if she remembers feeling them seal over - and her mouth grows back into place. She smacks her lips a few times, and is apparently satisfied that they're good as new. She's just in time to answer Chesed's question.     "...You have a bad relationship in the past, gave too much of yourself away?"     "...Something like that. I loved someone, and was only a tool to him. That's why- I don't want it to happen to anyone else if it doesn't have to. You need to live for *you* at least as much as you do for the people you might love." Madeleine picks up her spear from where she dropped it when her face disappeared.     Then the Manager's on the PA again, and screams echo through the Welfare department. Madeleine's fought invisible beings before; it's literally all in a day's work, really. She's not sure if this is a creature, but she sets off through the halls, relying on the Manager's intercom callouts to help track down whatever's disassembling the clerks. As she runs she draws her gun, firing shots here and there to dissolve the bodies she stumbles across.     In a minute she's chased it into the cafe, where Woz corrals it against the wall. Madeleine prods at it with her spear, attempting to discern its corporeality. She's just about concluded it's not a physical being when it finally grabs her. Woz sees her arm come off like it's cheap plastic. Wait a minute, that *is* cheap plastic! As the force rends the decoy limb from limb, Madeleine is laughing, just out of its reach. The threat shifts to pick her up again, and comes up with only another decoy. By the time a better-informed containment team arrives there's a dozen shredded decoys strewn about the makeshift enclosure - good enrichment for something so fond of tearing limb from limb!
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna	Having dumped the cloth over Punishing Bird, Shinmyoumaru makes a face at the ice block and escapes back into - Wait. She blocked the vent. She scoots into the main halls instead, zipping off at her top speed, her slightly oily-looking needle poling the bowl as if it was a coracle on a river. She only drips a little bit of pink off the tip of the needle as she goes. More of it has ended up in the bowl itself. She was keeping her stuff in there and now it's all ruined! Shinmyoumaru doesn't slow down as she does a complicated movement of her bowl and her legs all at once and ends up running on the inside of its side like a hamster wheel for about ten meters; most of the goop collecting in the boat falls out in a tiny trail. Fortunately, Shinmyoumaru - at her true size - simply does not produce very much of the goo, so it's not a lot of trail for anyone else compared to what has been left around by any other infected, even if it's a lot for *her*. She drops back into her bowl with a practiced movement as she changes direction. She's lost. She doesn't even know what floor she's on. She wants to get back up to Chesed but she got turned around in the vents and isn't quite sure where she is or where she's going. And she doesn't want to blunder into some other people, or bring the infection up to him... So Shinmyoumaru talks to Chesed anyway. She raises her voice. She's pretty sure he has access to vision everywhere, and while she doesn't know if he can *hear* everywhere she's going to make a guess. "Chesed!" she calls, accidentally-on-purpose also leaving her radio on. "I just wanted to say..." What did she want to say? She wanted to hear him, too, and she can't, which is frustrating. "I get why you are doing this, if you had that dream too. You're really not a coward! Just because people think you can't do anything else doesn't mean you really can't, even if you are overlooked... you're right. There are some things only the overlooked can do, and I'm glad people like you can think of them!" She couldn't imagine ever wanting to be ignored, but if Chesed wants to be in the background, supporting the people he loves... That's not wrong, to her. "Just don't let them take advantage of you! Give what you want, instead!" Shinmyoumaru makes a turn and finds herself in a place she does recognize: approaching Training! She does not recognize the blocky robot in it, but it's firing and that's enough for her. Shinmyoumaru is infected, upset (and frightened, even if she won't admit it) at being infected and oozing, mad that she can't do more for Chesed or to help Lilian with Gebura (even if she is *really* going to praise that elevator afterwards)... She takes it out on The Ordeal of Green Noon. Shinmyoumaru focuses for a moment, stopping at the entrance, before letting loose a chaotic whirl of sword-shaped danmaku, pulsing fire and spreading out from her in all directions without much aim. She didn't even see the pink girl at first... But that's a mere... 'distraction' isn't quite right, they're effective enough, but it's not her focus, just crowding the room with a horrible swarm of energy knives. The tiny inchling's *actual* attack is to draw her needle and use it to strike at a distance, launching a veritable bullet-like stream of strikes from it as she tracks it into the Ordeal of Green Noon, hammering it repeatedly while using her tiny size to try to avoid the worst of the gunfire in return. Once or twice, when bullets get too close, Shinmyoumaru swings the Miracle Mallet with her other hand - and the bullets transform into tiny koban, oval gold coins but far too small to actually be worth a lot. They hurt a lot less when they pelt her, though, or bounce off the bowl. Her only defense against the chainsaw is to simply not be, there - striking something as small and fast-moving as she is gets frustrating, especially if you are a bulky robot optimized for power and not speed.
Sarracenia	Cold slimy tendrils grab Sarracenia. In the current situation...Sarracenia freaks out. "EEEK! IT HAS MEEEEEE! SOMEONE HE-" She tries to fight, but she realizes Tennant is also being pulled along. This at least lessens her struggles and cuts off her words. She could hurt Tennant...or look bad in front of the person she said she was going to save. So, she grips her hammer and braces, ready to swing at whatever has them.      They pop out by Rita, who is already apologizing and launching an energy blast. "...oh..." Rita fires that blast, and by the time it passes Sarracenia is looking down at Rita Ma with a bit of a smile. "Rather heroic~ And Madeleine says the only one to be depended upon is oneself." she says to Rita.      Then, Sarracenia blinks and leaps back from Rita and Tennant. For Tennant of course it may be too late. Sarra -was- splashed with pink after all. Did she come in contact with Tennant? The princess isn't sure...      But, with pink goo flying upward at them, Sarracenia doesn't have much time to think about it before getting blasted upward by Melting Love. She lands right down in the goo, and already dripping with it she is really starting to panic a bit herself. "...th-this is...reversible...right?" she says worriedly to Rita and Tennant.      And then, Rita is going full monster girl mode! Sarracenia hastily gets out of the way so that Rita can concentrate. Of course, what she sees leaves her wide eyed and somewhere between awed and horrified. Did...did Rita just drink some of that noxious goo?      One advantage to being pulled up by Rita is that Sarra can respond to Chesed again. She should be close enough, right? 'And that is unlike most royalty...how?'      "The issue was more about hope than royals. And being stubborn is another way of saying I will not give up. Which is good for both heroes and symbols of hope." 'Symbols are most easily corrupted of all.'      Sarra has to consider that one a moment. Are symbols easily corrupted? "...perhaps. But, when those symbols are people, and when those people have others to back them up. People on whom they can depend. And sometimes being someone your hero or symbol can depend on means doing what is right. Not just helping them blindly. Will Gebura truly appreciate your help if she destroys the people she has been working so hard to protect all this time?"      Sarra talks like she knows what she is talking about. Of course, she's never faced a situation like that. Not really. She's just going off of what she's learned in her romanticized hero books and shows and what she's heard listening to the radio chatter. Gebura seems like the type who would be upset if she destroyed the place she usually protects.      Apparently someone named Vincent is in danger. Sarra vaguely recalls that name from somewhere. Still, she's a walking biohazard now. Can she even go help other people without causing a bigger problem? Well, she's going to give it a shot. "My apologies, Chesed, but I cannot stay and talk. There are others in danger that need saving. Thanks to you." She reaches into her purse and after a bit of rummaging pulls out...a set of rubber waders and a rain poncho. She is hoping that will contain the pink slime to her. After getting them on, she heads down to Extraction to assist with Red Riding Hooded Mercenary. Surely this is a problem that swinging her hammer is good enough for. A hammer she will apply liberally to the Abnormality upon her arrival.
Kukuru	Kukuru knew she could count on Hibiki chasing after Melting Love in her stead! It's better than the alternative of having her execute these employees herself, and Kukuru is all too happy to see her off with a smile before turning her attention to the employees. Without having to worry about someone interrupting her, it should be easy! Of course it won't be easy. It's never as easy as Kukuru would like, and all that extra work is draining on her in all respects. She knows the infected employees won't exactly be thrilled by the idea of her coming to kill them, but is melting into an unrecognizable goop really that much better? What ends up putting her up against the wall, though, is having her face suddenly forced shut while the necklace nestled within her shirt has her scratching at her shirt to try and pry it out. Trying to do so many things at once has her staggering towards a wall, and then she starts trying to scream to no avail when the infection's worst effects seem to come all at once. She claws at the ground, thrashing about like a wild beast without having a single clue about what's going on as she's blinded and unable to utter a sound. That just makes the intensifying infection that much worse, too, as there's no way for her to get rid of all that stinging goop for several minutes. What really makes it terrible for Kukuru in particular, though, is the fact that she just hasn't felt physically ill like this in years. She's cared for others that have, of course, but being sick herself has become such a distant memory that getting hit with the worst of it with no respite until her face opens back up means she's just lying there while forcing her nanites to push harder just to get her body to settle down. She can't lay there forever, though, and she still needs to make sure the infected Information employees aren't left to keep spreading it around. She can't trust her nose with how foul the stench is, but she can still hear them far, far away. They're... Scared of her? But she's supposed to be the one that reassures them, that makes sure everything is fine, that... "Well said! Thanks for helping us all this time, Kukuru." That's right. That's why she came here, and why she's been coming here for so long. She can't let her own little bit of rending heartache and snotty crying stop her from making sure that the Meltdown is stopped and Lilian can have her uninterrupted battle with Gebura. Closing her eyes, Kukuru keeps listening to who's talking, the sounds of in the halls, the names being said to finally understand that the infected are heading to Control. Another portal opens up in the hall leading towards Control, and Kukuru comes right back out of it. "Of course, Chessy. It might not be the kind of help that makes everyone happy, but it's gonna be the right kind of help, so I never cause more problems like last time again." Kukuru locks her gaze on the pleading employees, then on Cinder. Grimacing slightly, she takes a deep breath, then goes right back to that Serene smile. "Manager? has Melting Love settled down yet?" She has the gun held in her unclawed hand, down at her side while waiting to hear if she should continue into Control next.
Hibiki Tachibana	The employee she saves is worryingly infected, though, with patches of skin corroded away and replaced with pink sludge; it's pretty dangerous for her to be nearly tackling them.     It sure is, which makes it probably a good thing that Hibiki has gotten used to restraining herself when it comes to dealing with ordinary humans. One this sick is even more fragile than normal, so the exact moment Melting Love's tendril has been severed and she grabs hold of them, she turns her body so that she's the one eating the bulk of the impact that comes with hitting the ground.     "Got-- got you..." The words come out not only tinged with relief, but also a cough that upends some awful goop that she has to turn her head to not get on who she's holding. Despite her head swimming, and illness steadily setting in from head to toe, she's careful to ease who she rescued against the hallway wall, well away from any of the slime still littering the floor. "Damnit... no time to get them to quarantine... but as long as the Manager keeps this hall clear and we finish soon..."     She's sure Kukuru has her hands full keeping everyone back there coralled, so doubling back is something she doesn't have time for either. Hibiki staggers back to her feet, pulling up her scarf so that she doesn't end up splattering anything else onto the ground. Eugh. Still, she still has plenty enough energy in her to hear the Manager's new warnings, glance down the corridor, get a running start and...!     ...she ends up half-collapsing against a hallway airlock, taking in a breath that's halfway between strained and frustrated, before mumbling something up to a camera to ask the Manager to seal it. She doesn't care about feeling a little like crap. If that was all it was, she'd happily be kicking her way down into Extraction to apply her fist to Little Red's face and give her a hello from Rose.     But with how infected she is, going anywhere else in the facility would make her a massive vector for potential infection that has to be worked around. Which means, no matter how much Hibiki personally hates it, the best thing she can do is sit right here and brace for any breaches that /really/ need to be stopped on the spot.     She turns and slumps against the surface, exhaling. "...I'm gonna get an earful for letting it get this bad, I bet..." Not that they really could have stopped it. But still. Wait.     Does this mean Petra's going to execute her?? No way. She really does have to have trust and faith Melting Love will be taken care of soon.
Angela	''Start trusting in others more than in your coffee.'' "Ahahhah...you've noticed huh... The coffee--well my love for it is genuine, I admit, but it was an acquired taste. A taste that Angela demanded of me... to replace my desperate desire to actually help the people in this facility. But maybe you're right. I am putting the cart before the horse and am trying to do more than I can all at once." Tennant startles as Rita starts drinking Melting Love. "Um. Are you sure. You should...do that, Miss Rita?" They feel like Rita's heartbeat is larger and and louder than her whole body for a moment, they see something in Rita's eyes. "...Nevermind, you know what you're doing, ma'am...!" And they bolt. They are not great at aiming so it's best to not fire that EGO of theirs while everyone is so close to the Abnormalities. ''I would counsel you to address your motivations'' "Mm... Focusing on the positive rather than miring myself in guilt, in dark thoughts...is it...?" ''I loved someone, and was only a tool to him.'' Chesed closes his eye for a moment, emitting a sigh. "I'm sorry to hear that. By the same token, I shouldn't be asking her to use me as a tool, then--I shouldn't try to make her into someone like that, though...being honest..." He has another small laugh. "I don't think I could. I'm sorry you went through that, Madeleine. Truly I am. I am glad you get to thrive here beyond him. In the end ... It is his loss." ''Give what you want, instead!'' "Hm...What I want... I wonder what that is..." ''Will Gebura truly appreciates your help if she destroys the people she has been working so hard to protect all this time?'' Chesed admits, "Likely not at all. But once again you speak wisdom you fail to follow." ''Manager, has Melting Love settled down yet?'' The Manager watches Rita drink Melting Love on the monitor. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....." He says, transfixed.
Angela	Gebura, still stuck by the elevator, yells at Chesed from Central. "Ugghh... You've been acting like all the idiots in Disciplinary! I don't think you're a coward because you opened those doors, I think of you as a coward because despite all this time you still see me as a ''Color'' before you see me as a ... Just shutup!" Chesed is too smart to not realize what Gebura was going to say. And maybe that's the final straw. "...Maybe you're right. There's other ways to support her. And why help her hurt those she's sworn to protect... when I can tease her and draw out that side of hers she struggles to show." The gas stops flowing, finally (Gebura, predictably, yells at Chesed that she's going to kill him) and Chesed relinquishes control of the systems he's been hogging. "Finally! Stop hogging the elevator!" Gebura complains. "Wasn't me~" Chesed trills. Gebura realizes that wasn't Chesed's plan... but rather the plan of someone in the Elites. "Oh you... were trying to hide from me, huh...?" Gebura's currently equipped EGO weapons vanish as the giant golden gauntlet of Gold Rush appears on her fist. "You don't want this elevator to work? ... Then I guess neither of us need them!" She rears back with her fist and punches the elevator doors. A shockwave ripples up the elevator shaft as golden explosions erupt on each floor, utterly disintegrating the elevator--and rendering the elevator itself unstable with crumbling walls and tumbling debris. And you best believe she does the same to the OTHER elevator leading down to Central. Gebura exerts her MIT Gebura exerts her END Gebura exerts her PRE Gebura exerts her POW Her hair is no longer hair, it's glowing red energy. Her EGO Weapon vanishes again, being replaced by Smile (you've never seen this EGO before, but it seems to large grey hammer with faces and teeth at the end) and Justitia (a large rectangular blade covered in cloth wrappings). Gebura reinforces! "Fuck pacing myself." Gebura says. "We'll make this quick." And also...            __________________________________________________________                      |ARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING W|                       ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|=|LEGENDARY THREAT|=|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                         ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                                          THE RED MIST HIT KEEPS                                        __________________________________________________________                      |ING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARN|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯           Fortunately the red smoke has stopped filling in but it seems like this the hardest part has just begun.