Scene #9641: T-09-117: Birth Canal

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	In some ways it's business as usual, and in other ways it's unnervingly alien. Like a thousand times before, an Abnormality has shown up and needs testing in order to document its effects, kept in a secure location under Petra's watch. Unlike usual, that secure location isn't a Lobotomy Corporation facility-- in fact, it seems to be 'nowhere particular at all', uncomfortably nondescript like a kidnapper's lair. Holly hasn't been to the City before, but White knows it's not the District 12 warpgate that Petra asks them to come through, or the District 14 one for that matter either. Petra's directions bring them through an artificial warpgate set up in the supply dock of what seems to be a five star hotel, with a black limousine waiting outside the garage. Piling into the back of it, there's a solid wall between the seats and the driver, and tinted windows all around, so it's as if the car drives itself when it smoothly pulls away. Petra is wearing a plain black suit without any accent besides a gold chain attached to her compact mirror in her pocket, taking one of the backwards-facing seats. In her lap is the tablet with Angela's face streaming on it, unusually out in the City, and as the limo gets going, Petra puts the tablet in the seat beside her, leaning back with her hands folded behind her head. "Okay, so, thanks for coming. Lemme go over what we know about Birth Canal from the records that HQ had before it was sent out to the branch, first of all." She pouts to the side, "Why'd they have to name it that, anyways?" Mostly for Holly's benefit and to pass the time during the short drive, shd continues, "So T-09-117, that's the designation for Birth Canal, is a tool Abnormality, so it's not actively hostile, but it does have a WAW rating so it's fairly dangerous. We know something about it 'consuming' flesh, and that there were warnings against putting a corpse in it, so basically that's exactly what we'll be doing." "The Nigel und Hammer Inquisitors definitely wanted something specific out of it, and for my own purposes, I don't really want any Abnormality in the City to be something I don't know about. The group that's holding it now is one that we can for sure trust more than the psycho Inquisition, but it'd be nice for both them and me to know what we can get out of using it." When the limousine comes to a stop and the doors open on their own, it's among the expanse of warehouses in a shipping yard. Petra lifts the door of a warehouse up, and inside is a set of stairs leading down into some basement complex, presumably hidden and likely illegal. It feels completely nonspecific, like this is only one out of potentially hundreds of underground bunkers, easily abandoned at a moments notice without a trace.
Petra Soroka	Downstairs, the salt from the seaside is replaced with dusty and stagnant air, tinged with a whiff of iron. Petra, while going down the concrete stairs, ties her hair up into a short ponytail, and pulls disposable gloves out from the inside pocket of her suit jacket to put them on. "I'll handle the gross parts, at least. I'm used to this. What I'm worried about danger-wise is whether it does something to me for interacting with it, or whether it creates products that'll, you know, try to kill us. Lots of stuff does that." "Oh, and, Dr. Asturias, I hope the smell doesn't bother you. Uh, I'm sure it's all too old to be food." Birth Canal is a large white egg, over twice the height of a person, solid like it's carved from marble. It's surrounded by a nest of almost 'flowery' meat, clinging to the bottom and sides of the egg like fascia, vivid red and torn and spread at odd angles like a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. The huge basement chamber is mostly unlit, besides a series of harsh spotlights centering on the small area around the Abormality. Also down there, arranged in neat orderly rows, are a dozen large black boxes with gold trim, collectively humming loud enough to be audible between sentences. Getting closer, it becomes clear that they're refrigerators, and when Petra lifts the door of one of them up, the thick smell of blood floods out. Angela is placed on top of one of them, which puts her camera at about waist-height. "Alrighty. Ready when you guys are."
White	White isn't necessarily accustomed to luxury vehicles, but she's starting to become more familiar with them after various short car-rides for the more high-profile events she's been to. This isn't really an 'event' though, so she's here in her usual clothes, her hood raised, perfectly comfymoded in the limo seat once she pulls her braided hair aside so that she doesn't sit on it. She could peek at the driver, but it seems unnecessary with Petra already there to help fill the dead air and get everyone caught up to speed. White has her hands in her lap, her thumbs arched against each other just to have something subtle to do while she listens. She offers a shrug when Petra pouts about the name of the thing they're here for; inwardly she's similarly offput, but she doesn't want to interrupt something important! The reasoning for messing with it makes sense to her, too. "Better to find out... What it does... While we're prepared... Than at random." Maybe she doesn't have a strong stake in how the thing is used after the fact, but mitigating risk is a good enough reason to be involved a little. There's not much to be said by White for the rest of the drive, admittedly. She spends the time thinking about where they'll get dead bodies from, though she assumes Petra has already thought of that in some capacity. Getting out of the car after it stops, she only spends a moment freeing her hair back up and brushing a wrinkle out of her skirt before following Petra. Stepping down into the basement, White doesn't seem particularly bothered by the change in smell yet; dust is familiar, iron is familiar-enough, and while she wouldn't be overjoyed to eventually be surrounded by aromatic blood it's not going to turn her stomach over. In the... Exam room? Whatever it might be called, White spends a moment to familiarize herself with the space, with the equipment present, with the location of the Angela-cam (for whom she waves slowly), and to figure out what to do with herself. Even if White doesn't use it, drawing her scythe out and laying it over her shoulder might help Petra feel better, so she starts with that. Her eyes drift open, watching the status of the abnormality and preparing to use less physical means to restrain... Whatever might come out of it, potentially. It doesn't take her much prep to be ready to go, really, so White soon makes a soft 'mhm' sound to signal as much. She does glance over at Holly as if to wordlessly announce that she's paying attention to what she's doing, and steps a short distance away to one side to give her more space. White isn't all that familiar with Holly's movements or techniques, so... Really, she just doesn't want to get ran into or accidentally elbowed in the head if Holly startles.
Holly Asturias	This is definitely Holly's first time in a limousine. Actually, it's her first time in a (moving) vehicle that isn't an old delivery truck that's barely held together. And she's having the time of her life admiring the ride and enjoying it. The destination could not dream of diminishing the experience. "but it does have a WAW rating so it's fairly dangerous." "Waw..." Holly repeats, as she fiddles with the drink compartment to the side. "Ah! It's exactly like in those spy thrillers!" She's listening, don't worry. "What kinds of warnings? Do we have even a little bit of an idea about what'll happen?" Ah, but here they are! She's a bit sad the ride's already over, but maybe on the way back... she'll put on her (slightly more serious) face, since this is a Serious Situation and she's ostensibly here to help with... "Oh, and, Dr. Asturias, I hope the smell doesn't bother you." "Ah." She takes a moment, to rub her nose and smile, sniff a few times, and then let out a deep exhale. "I'm not starving, so I'll be alright. You're quite right that it smells entirely too old to be food though." She approaches the egg, curious, crouching down to poke some of the meat around it with the tip of a nail, experimentally. "So is it... producing this meat, or..." Fridge. Oh. THAT smell. Holly clears her throat and steels herself. "All of these fridges... were you concerned one wouldn't be enough? Ah, ahem. I'm as ready as I'll be. Though I'm quite unsure for what!" 'Something bad will happen if you put a body in this' could mean anything!! With a name like BIRTH CANAL it's quite ominous either way.
Angela	''Why'd they have to name it that, anyways?'' Mostly for Holly's benefit, Angela says, "Abnormalities tend to have two names, though of course this is a name we give to them rather than necessarily one that they give to themselves. The first is usually based on first impressions, but the second is usually after a certain level of analysis has been conducted that more accurately reflects the Abnormality in question." She hesitates before adding, "Our Abnormality classifications aren't strictly based on how dangerous they are--they are designated around energy production--but that doesn't mean that a 'WAW' Abnormality is often going to be more dangerous than lower designations. Of course, any Abnormality can be dangerous if mishandled. To give an example of an Abnormality tool that is dangerous, after a fashion, would be 'We Can Change Anything' considering anybody placed within 'We Can Change Anything' is killed. But they do not have quite the level of 'intent' as a normal Abnormality." ''That there were warnings againstputting a corpse in it'' "Naturally considering the name," Angela says. "It will probably release something upon receiving a corpse. No doubt such a procedure produces Enkephalin too under the proper conditions." Angela quirks her head through the camera periodically like she's trying to get more of a view. "The T in that classification code stands for Technology, the 09 stands for Tool, and the number is just a designation number." Angela adds. To be honest, she's not sure what Nagel und Hammer would want out of something like this, but she knows that Nagel und Hammer are an existential enemy to her and--lets face it--she suspects to anyone whose throat is within reach--at least amongst those she cares about. ''White's wave to the Angelacam!'' Angela goes from stoic and bland to a bright little smile. White gets a wave back. "I won't be able to do much from here, but--" She mimics White's style of fist pump. "I'm confident this will not be too much of a hassle." Petra's dealt with worse Abnormalities and White's perfect and Holly is some sort of Blood Fiend Elder. They've got this but... ''What I'm worried about danger-wise...'' Angela thinks about whether it could do something dangerous to PETRA over it. Usually Petra was pretty resilient if not practically immune to Abnormalities like that but making assumptions is how you die quickly. Angela can't smell through the tablet, of course, so she doesn't mind being put on the fridge. ''Were you concerned one wouldn't be enough?'' "Extra preparedness and caution rarely hurts." Angela thinks for a moment but decides Harriet doesn't need to see this so she gently takes her off her desk and places her away from the video feed.
Petra Soroka	"Do we have even a little bit of an idea about what'll happen?" "Fucked up meat monster." Petra nods, thinking about how she's been correct every time she's said that, particularly about Tae Young. "In the City, it's always a fucked up meat monster." "To give an example of an Abnormality tool that is dangerous, after a fashion, would be 'We Can Change Anything' considering anybody placed within 'We Can Change Anything' is killed." "Blends 'em up into a little stew. It's horrible. Top five least favorite Abnos, I think, just from how senseless and cruel it is." Petra mimes out the shape of the iron maiden-esque machine, then wiggles her fingers and makes a 'wrrrr' sound like it's grinding up a person inside of it. "Zero uses of it in the last loop, though. It was kind of a desperation measure. Fuck, it would've been so funny to have a 'days without using T-09-85' sign in Control's lobby." Down in the bunker-- exam room is a fitting word too, but as your eyes adjust to the dark, it's certainly a bunker first and foremost. The walls are reinforced concrete, and a heavy metal door hangs above the singular entrance to slam down in case of emergency, either inside or out. It's coincidentally a little similar to the containment cells in Lobotomy Corporation, but having an Abnormality here, along with the table of dissection equipment, various acids or disinfectant, recording tools like a tape recorder, all seem like they were brought here solely for Petra's purpose, and they'll be gone without a trace later. Replaced with who knows what. "So is it... producing this meat, or..." "That's such a good question, actually." Petra busies herself around before getting to the meat of the issue, turning on the tape recorder and checking over the available tools. "It's more of a curiosity-type question than a mission critical one, though. Because, uh, Abnormalities just come out like that." "Every Abnormality's produced by applying Cogito, which is a, um, special substance that's complicated to get into, to a subject. That starts the process of transforming them, yada yada, into whatever manifestation of the Collective Unconscious happens to appear this time, so the forms they take are usually kind of nonliteral in that way. They're more like storybook monsters than anything else, so for most purposes, the 'meat' is basically the same thing as the 'egg'. If it's destroyed, it'll just reappear looking the same." "All of these fridges... were you concerned one wouldn't be enough?" With a slightly sour expression, Petra looks across the frankly entirely excessive arrangement of fridges, likely all packed to the brim with human corpses. "Uh, I didn't specify how much I needed. Maybe I should have." She can't really be certain whether Dias did this to make sure she'd have enough, or as some kind of fucked up power move. "I won't be able to do much from here, but--" "Well, the other thing we know is that this is an Aberration of Bloodbath. Meaning, something about this is tied to Carmen specifically, not the City in general. So..." Petra chews on her lip, eyeing the egg warily. "So you're probably the most equipped for that, anyways."
Petra Soroka	Petra reaches in and grabs a severed arm, shoulder bandages with bloodstained gauze that doesn't look more than twenty four hours old. Walking over to the giant egg, she starts circling around to see where she should try offering it up, when a bone-splintering crack echoes through the basement chamber. A fissue appears, running down the face of the egg and then fractalizing outwards of its own accord. Petra stops moving to watch it warily, and when nothing else happens for a second, she holds up the arm towards the center of the break point. Then all at once, the eggshell stretches outwards, pushed by cords of horrid red 'muscle' that seem to be packed to fill the whole interior of the Abnormality, fragments of shell held mid 'explosion' in the air by flesh. Inside the egg is a central depression within the meat, immediately reminiscent of a womb in a way that makes Petra's nose scrunch up. It's big enough that an entire adult human could curl up inside, and Petra looks back at White to double check that she's there with her scythe out. "The good news is that it didn't ever do that when a living person walked near it. So, odds are pretty good that it's not interested in swallowing up people like that. But, here goes." She tosses the arm inside, and then several more butchered chunks of people when it doesn't seem satisfied by just the one. Then with the sound of muscle stretching and snapping, the flesh of Birth Canal pulls back inwards to close the egg up again, sealing the shell shut without any visible seam. "Alright. We'll check back in nine months, so...." Then a crack, and pushing out of the egg are the same body parts Petra put in, this time wriggling of their own accord. The arm falls to the ground, dragging itself by its fingers towards the group, along with a torso that crunches like an inchworm and scuttling hands. Petra nods and takes a few hasty steps back, spilling the Silver to defend herself, but mostly unworried and unsurprised with White as back up. "That's test one, then. I feel like I know what a whole corpse is gonna do now."
White	When Petra looks back, White is right where she can be expected to be. The loud crunchy crack has prompted her posture to shift immediately from at-ease upright to a subtle half-step forward with her left foot, her scythe lifted just barely off her shoulder and her other hand already relaxing from the start of a 'reaching' motion; if Petra was grabbed with the arm, the obvious thing to do was going to be to teleport her loose again. One can assume her to be uneasy based on the intense way she's examining the exposed interior of the egg as it... 'Eats'? Even if it doesn't show strongly in her expression, her face is still a little tense with focus. Instead, her empty hand turns over slowly, adopting a different resting position as Petra discusses the egg's previous behaviors, and White nods slowly. "That isn't to say... That it never will. But for now..." she murmurs, too quiet to really sound relieved. Obviously, there are a lot of assumptions one could make based on the immediate results after Birth Canal regurgitates the consumed body parts. It barely takes her a moment to confirm the relative agility and threat of the dismembered-but-animated corpse-parts, and her scythe subsequently drifts slightly back while she leans down to plant her palm against the floor and send a swarm of her silk out across it to bind the squirming limbs and torso down. Destroying them would offer fewer chances to learn what to expect, after all. Pending any unexpected complications, White finishes the mass-binding and straightens back upright to step slightly closer, looking down on the dismembered bits with the Evil Eye. Is there a 'status' to read, as if these were newborn monsters? Do they still read as part of the original corpse, instead? Or is there something inside of them, like a parasite or a disembodied nerve cluster, simply pretending they are alive like meat-puppets? Even while she tries this analysis, she directs some of the binding silk to wind around one of the squirming hands' thumbs, tightening and cutting into it to bare the interior flesh down to the bone. Does anything seem visibly unusual there?
Holly Asturias	"anybody placed within 'We Can Change Anything' is killed." "?" Holly blinks, clearly stunlocked by that statement. "But... why is it called that, then? Should it not have been named 'We Can Kill Anything', clearly? Or... is it using the life of the person inside to enact change, somehow?" She thought Horrors were fucked up. "In the City, it's always a fucked up meat monster." "Oh. So I suppose our worlds have something in common, then, though ours are gilded meat. Themes are important, apparently." "Because, uh, Abnormalities just come out like that." "The Collective Unconscious... I see why they insisted on the acronym 'EGO'. There seems to be a bit of a psychological sciences bend to the naming, though I wonder what it says about said unconscious that it comes out..." Poke poke. She gets back up. "Well, like this." "Well, the other thing we know is that this is an Aberration of Bloodbath." "Oh, you mentioned this one before. That one seems a bit more literally named if I recall? I don't think you've explained 'Aberration' though? In-context, could I take it to mean... sub-component? Sub-soul? Something of that nature?" EGG FISSURE!! Holly watches with immediate interest as the egg proceeds to crack, open, reveal a womb, and then schlorp up the body pieces and seal back up. Petra ponders that it'll take nine months, and then the thing immediatly proves her wrong! "Is it... a sort of revival engine? That's... wondrous, and yet I cannot help but fear it won't be that easy." It may have something to do with the fact the body parts aren't just 'alive', they're scuttering towards them with a bit of... hostility? It's hard to tell. Since White already appears to be working on binding them, Holly offers a little bit of support, in the form of a snap of her fingers and a bit of chill in the room. Ichor and golden light turn into bright blue light, the temperature around the binding area rapidly dropping to slow the little wrigglers down. Make them easier to bind! "I feel like I know what a whole corpse is gonna do now." "Oh I simply must know if they come back to life fully sapient or if it just makes them into... zombies? Perhaps the warning was about the taboo of resurrection. You know, it's quite illegal to bring Revenants back to life once they're perished, though it isn't as if the means to do that are particularly common. It's more to discourage research into such, I bet. Perhaps it's the same here?" Once the reanimated parts are bound, Holly actually takes a moment to bend down and examine one. There's an obvious question on her mind, as she tries to simply smell it out: how fresh is the blood in those things? Did it just reanimate the old blood, or make new, fresh blood?
Angela	''In the City, it's always a fucked up meat monster.'' Angela sighs as if Petra had uttered any other embarrassing fact about one's homeland, though it's pretty mild. "On a day to day basis we did not really have serious Enkephalin shortages due to massive Enkephalin influxes thanks to the numerous disasters providing excess energy. With support from the multiverse, and--of course--Petra specfically, our day to day operations ended up fairly smooth by the end." Which almost jepordized things in its own way, but Angela doesn't really want to get into the delicate exercise of ensuring the Sephirah had their meltdowns. Doing too well was sometimes a problem in of itself. ''The 'meat' is basically the same as the 'egg'.'' "Abnormalities can occassionally look like multiple entities while actually being one. I do not mean in a 'hive mind' sense, so much as--well, like this 'Egg' here with its 'Nest'." She frowns as she mentions 'The Nest'. It's reminding her of The Apocalypse Bird. ''Something about this is tied to Carmen specifically.'' "I can provide insight, but I couldn't say if that would help with management of the Aberration until it comes to me." In truth she already has some ideas. The fact that this Aberration has some City motiffs to it is already suggestive, as is the name of course, but it would be premature to assume too much from the name--it wasn't NAMED by Carmen, after all, it was named by clerks who never even met Carmen. The name COULD be coincidence. ''The moving body parts'' Angela frowns. "Mm...It brings dead matter back to 'life'--for a certain value of 'life'? ... I should warn, of course, that some Abnormalities seem innocuous at first use but get progressively more destructive with repeated uses." It's still hard to imagine what Nagel und Hammer would want with this, still. As she leans in, Harriet stealthily crawls back up to the desk counter while Angela isn't paying attention to anything but the screen. ''Should it not have been named We Can Kill Anything, clearly?'' "No. It cannot kill ''anything''." Angela tells Holly. "Only people. It is named 'We Can Change Anything' because in its story it is a technology designed to change the user's problems. Its story is connected to All Around Helper, it is a 'story' about 'machines being inherently untrustworthy and dangerous'." ''I see why they insisted on the acronym 'EGO'.'' "It is a perfect sort of term for people to use when they think very highly of their goals and accomplishments." Angela says. "Though I suppose I prefer it to the names the Psychonauts use if only just." ''come back to life fully sapient'' Angela doubts it. There was a WARNING not to use it after all and she doubts it was because it made the branch facility's work TOO easy. "Ressurection technology exists in The City. There are some restrictions, such as it being disallowed if the brain is destroyed.But otherwise it's generally a matter of bringing the body to a proper facility and having the funds required. I could not speak to the procedures."
Petra Soroka	"So I suppose our worlds have something in common, then, though ours are gilded meat." Sounding pleased with herself, Petra nods at Holly, spinning a pen between her fingers. "Right. So you see, that's why I'm so qualified to look into the Resurgence and stuff. I'm experienced in this kind of thing." ". . . though I wonder what it says about said unconscious that it comes out..." "Awful, of course. The City is a psychologically diseased place. Even the one person who ever loved the people of the City said so." It was the whole cornerstone of Carmen's project, after all. "But before we go pointing fingers, I think it's important to say that Abnormalities aren't, like, perfect representations of the City's psyche. Even if it does seem like it sometimes." "Cogito and Abnormalities and everything are still interpretations. A lot of the awful shit about the City comes from the top down. The Head rules the City and engineers everything so that people are tearing each other's throats out all the time, and the Wings under the Head treat everyone like animals to be sacrificed to the meat grinder, so they all act like it. So I try not to say, 'it is what it is', as if it isn't someone's fault." Saying that while standing next to a line of fridges full of uncountable human corpses that she's literally feeding into a Wing's creation might not send the right message, though. "I don't think you've explained 'Aberration' though?" "Aberrations are Abnormalities that come from the same psychological source as an Abnormality we extracted before, with a different take on it. There's not really any inherent, uh, hierarchy, besides which one we happened to name first. Bloodbath came from Carmen's suicide, and Birth Canal being an Aberration of that is...." Petra gestures with the severed arm towards the egg, wrist flopping limply. "Well, Carmen's personal presence is uniquely strong in Abnormalities, compared to the diffused psychological profile of the City. Being that the extraction vehicle for Cogito was her corpse." It's not really difficult at all for the combined efforts of Holly and White to pin down the resurrected body parts. You can imagine, if the pieces of some larger monster were tossed in there that they could be a threat, or if an unsuspecting agent turned their back after doing Instinct work how they could be strangled to death by surprise, but they're not supernaturally strong. Just supernaturally alive. They don't feel pain, for sure, when they're cut into. As White holds them down, they keep mindlessly writhing, fingers scrabbling against the concrete to try and pull themselves out of her webbing and towards whatever warm body happened to be closest. Slicing down to the bone reveals flesh, and, flowing blood. Her Evil Eye brings up a title, rather than the name of the person whose corpse this used to be: CHILD OF THE LIGHT. Only dubiously made out of the same material as the original corpse, as if it was digested and then reassembled with the same meat, it reads like they're newly generated monsters 'birthed' from the Abnormality, so it's unclear whether they'd count as human for the purpose of Ichor. They're not self-sustaining, only alive for at most a few hours before collapsing back into inert meat, but while they are alive, their overwhelming primary directive is to drag more organic material towards 'mother'.
Petra Soroka	Petra crouches down next to the torso, drawing out a surgical knife. With the silk holding it down, she cuts through its chest, tugging the ribcage apart with her gloved hands and scooting her shoes away from the ensuing spill of blood. With the chest opened up, Petra looks up at Holly and scoots out of the way, showing off the actively beating heart like a cool bug she found on the ground. "Woah, that's sick. I mean, sick sick, it's super gross. I guess this might have been meant for some organic prosthesis type shit for the Inquisition, or meat-based transhumanism stuff. If anyone would be comfortable attaching one of these things to their body, I wonder how long they'd last?" "I should warn, of course, that some Abnormalities seem innocuous at first use but get progressively more destructive with repeated uses."" Petra stands back up and makes her way over to the fridge again, with blood already staining the cuffs of her sleeves despite the gloves. "Yeah, there's always the risk of some Qlippoth counter shit where it goes berserk after a while, so we can't be tossing limbs into this like pennies in a fountain. But, uh, White, could you give me a hand lifting?" The first full corpse that Petra pulls out of the fridge looks perfectly unblemished, like she's just sleeping and was mistaken for dead. Petra averts her gaze, looking upwards at the high ceiling of the bunker, while carrying the corpse under its shoulders towards the egg, which cracks and bursts open again. "It would really be so sick if this just brought anyone back to life. But, here goes." This time, there's several long minutes after the egg contracts closed around the body where nothing happens. When it does crack open again, it's with the tearing of a thin veiny sac that formed around the corpse, spilling a thin trickle of blood onto the ground before the corpse's foot steps out and it starts unsteadily walking. Shambling, like a zombie, sticky with fluids and smeared with blood but otherwise with skin as seamlessly harmed as when it went in. Rather than going for any of the presently organic people, though, it swerves and shuffles straight for Angela's tablet, picking up speed like it's excited. Draping its arms over the tablet and fridge in a lifeless mimicry of a hug, its lips move silently at first, and then it gurgles noises that turn into words. "h-... hhh.... dddarling! You're ssss-so beautiful now!"
White	While examining the results from the analysis of the Evil Eye, White manages to boil down what she's seeing after a few moments to a satisfactorily short summary. "They're like... Worker ants. Not just animated, either. Changed. To bring stuff back, to the egg." Back at home, one of her agents is crawling into the cardboard box under her table and getting a tablet out to painstakingly scribble an artist's rendition of the status screen her Evil Eye has produced, but that can be finished and passed along later for Petra's more detailed examination. "After the processing... I would be surprised... If any of it... Was safe for transplantation." That said, she has no problem walking over alongside Petra when asked for a hand; her scythe is placed in a silk string and dangled behind herself to free up her hands, and she either hefts the corpse into Petra's arms or takes (more than) half of the weight from the other side, depending on what it seems like Petra's doing. It's not exactly a fun activity, and the discomfort of basically feeding dead people to some unknowable monster is somehow enough of a step beyond the usual to make her frown just a little, but... She's handled corpses before. Still, usually not like this... This feels dangerously close to what she might consider 'Potimas-type' stuff. The waiting gives White time to reason her way through the discomfort a little more with her internal council of ten, but not quite enough to really relax before she's grasping her scythe again and closely watching the... Well, there's no pretty word for it. The... Birth. It's a relief that it's over fairly quickly, before she can ruminate too unusually long on the sheer level of detail her eyes pick up. This time, when a walking and speaking figure steps out, White... Waits. Scrutinizing the stride, the places their gaze crosses, the tone of voice... There was a moment when the 'zombie' started to step forward that she began to shift her weapon down as if to ready a slash, but her posture loosened again after. Internally, within the span of only a second or two, that 'council' of hers rattled through a relatively substantial debate amongst themselves. 'Is this a threat?' Probably not, not really. It didn't go for Petra, either, and she's the one White would be most worried about something abruptly happening to. 'What is different, now?' It has to be the memory of speech, right? It's drawing from one of... Two sources, going by her current understanding, for memory and the ability to speak. It's either the body's own brain, or... That 'Cogito' stuff. Which, apparently, was processed through Carmen, who White... Does seem to recall was related to Angela to some extent. Unfortunately, that also supports the reasoning for why the body has beelined for Angela's tablet on sight. There's still a reflex to cut this short, a sort of dread for the possibility that Angela might be harmed in a way that White can't understand, despite not being here physically to attack. But White... Waits. She waits, she holds her breath, and she gets just a little bit closer, maybe just enough that Angela can still see her in the background. So that if Angela wants it to be over, it can be over, immediately. At least on sheer gut feeling and instinct... It feels like if she acts now, Angela might lose some kind of opportunity. White has her reservations, but... She'll give it a moment. Standing close enough that she could reach out and grab the zombie's shoulder, White asks the simplest question in the world; "How do you... Know her?" That and, obviously, she analyzes this body with the Evil Eye too, like the previous ones. She expects one of two outcomes; either a person's status with some kind of modifier, or another 'Child of Light' monster-like status, that will provide evidence one way or another about whether the speaking corpse is just using stolen memories for mimicry.
Holly Asturias	"Abnormalities can occassionally look like multiple entities while actually being one. I do not mean in a 'hive mind' sense, so much as--well, like this 'Egg' here with its 'Nest'." "Oh, interesting. But you say 'mind'... is this egg..." Holly knows better than going right up to it, but she indicates it obviously. "A thinking being, then? Lacking communication methods, but capable of some manner of thought?" Even if it's just 'like an animal' that's still important to know! "Only people. It is named 'We Can Change Anything' because in its story it is a technology designed to change the user's problems." "Oh. How grim. Technology isn't a thing to fear or be warned against, that's ridiculous. We may as well be warning people against vaccines or Tylenol!" Nobody tell her. Please nobody tell her. "I'm experienced in this kind of thing." "So I can see! I don't know by what miracle it is my world attached to these, but the more time passes and the more of a blessing I find it to be. - wait. Your... interest, in blood and meat, surely it isn't... born of this expertise?" "Cogito and Abnormalities and everything are still interpretations." "Through a lens... so Carmen, for example?" She's paying attention. "If it's possible to change how they manifest and act, through the story books, might it be possible to alter the lens that projects these into the world to begin with and make it, say, more pleasant?" "Woah, that's sick. I mean, sick sick, it's super gross." "It's..." Holly, now crouched over the open torso, reaches into it to pass a finger by the heart, no hesitation. A bit of blood on the fingertip, to smell it up close. And then, regardless of how it smells... a quick lick. How bad could it be? She needs to know how complete of a profile it is, and it's the fastest way. "They're like... Worker ants. Not just animated, either. Changed. To bring stuff back, to the egg." "Oh my. I see. So it turns people, or parts of people, into helpful little drones. Horrifying, but less surprising than it just... working." "h-... hhh.... dddarling! You're ssss-so beautiful now!" Then there's a long moment of idleness, as they wait for the egg to do its thing. It's longer, this time, but then it's... definitely more interesting. And more morally questionable. Holly tenses, but when the corpse goes for the tablet, she allows herself to relax, glancing at the others to gauge their reactions. White also seems calm, so... "It seems peaceful? No, perhaps it's too early to say, but..." It's after Angela? "Was the body someone you knew?"
Angela	Angela wonders, as Petra speaks about The City being psychologically diseased. Is her attempts to 'rehabilitate' the Abnormalities a push back against that? Can changing the Abnormalities that came from that collective unconsciousness in turn change the 'River' they came from? Well, she doubts she's been harboring some secret reason like that. Certainly, she'd be pleased if The City grew to be less shit if only because it is never great to have to say, occassionally 'Hello I am Angela I am from what everybody in the multiverse agrees is The Worst Place In The Multiverse'. She has no loyalty to The City, of course, but it always feels just a bit embarrassing to say where she's from as a result. But ultimately she decides she's not being that altruistic or even that selfishly altruistic about it. They're just her fellow prisoners, after all. ''Is this egg... A thinking being, then?'' "Mm... That is a difficult question to answer." Angela tells Holly. "Anything that produces Enkephalin has some level of neurological or emotional energy but I wouldn't say they're all capable of thinking in some meaningful way." ''We may as well be warning people against vaccines or Tylenol!'' "There could be such an Abnormality as well. Even if most people acknowledge 'These things are not dangerous', that is not important to the development of an Abnormality. Because fear and emotional biases always exist, even if the danger itself is unlikely or rare or even non-existant." She turns her gaze onto Holly. "They aren't designed in such a conscious way. They are born from the heart. Call it illogical and silly all you like, nevertheless--it is here. And capable of harm. Much like in life." Angela was not raised to be gentle about this topic. She seems satisfied when Petra acknowledges they're not going to use ALL THESE BODIES. Maybe it's wasteful, she thinks distantly like she's been pushed out of her own body and has stopped being able to think normal. But it seems silly to get weird about it. The City has so, so many people and they really do need to learn what N Corp was after, and what this Abnormality does. Perhaps she could even have more insight on Carmen whom always felt a little alien to her even before she became some sort of supernatural force. Angela turns her head upon seeing that Harriet has crawled back up to the top of her desk, turning her attention off the feed for a little while as she murmurs, "Oh, but you surely don't want to see this, do you? Should I cover your eyes?" to the spider. ''They're like... Worker ants.'' "Mm... I can see how that could spiral out of control. Facilities never got along too well with Abnormality situations that can be multiplicatively disruptive and get out of control quickly. If one is ready for it, one corpse placed inside the egg is hardly a problem but if the facility continues to fail to prevent future transformations, it could spiral out of control in a hurry." But she pauses, quirking her head. It's still hard to imagine why N Corp would want this. Were they just planning on putting the egg in some rival District and hope it just ate it all up?
Angela	''h-... hhh... dddarling! You're ssss-so beautiful now!'' Angela's hit point total probably can't be affected by this, it's true. But Angela's SP total, on the other hand... Angela slowly turns to look at the corpse moving for her pad. She doesn't scream or panic or anything, that is not her way. Attachment is obviously a no go. Instinct is potentially fatal and beyond her ability right now as is Insight, which seems like the best choice, but you know what? Sometimes you pick Repression because that teaches you the most about what you're dealing with. "I don't know how to feel about that when it comes from something that looks as nauseating as you." Angela tells the corpse. Her gaze flits towards Petra. "That voice ... it has some elements that are similar to Carmen's voice, but she doesn't slur her speech like this. She does say things like this, however." ''Was the body someone you knew?'' "No. This is most likely some sort of ... Carmen impression that is coming through from it being an Aberration of Bloodbath." She frowns. "Strange that it is talking in this manner, however."
Petra Soroka	"Changed. To bring stuff back, to the egg." Petra looks down at the wriggling fingers trying to grasp for her wrist. "Well. Now I take back what I said about it not wanting living people. That's simple enough though; explains the WAW rating, since it's got the drive to reproduce rather than just kill randomly." "A thinking being, then?" "Kinda. Abnormalities are all sort of alive, with like, specific desires and stuff. I don't know whether it thinks though. I'm not a telepath. But what Ange meant was like... take the Express Train to Hell for example." Really, the example being a train isn't likely to make things clearer for Holly, but Petra's not thinking about that right now. "Both the booth and the train itself are the Abnormality, even though it's all made of, you know, wood, paint, metal, whatever. It's all the same thing." "Your... interest, in blood and meat, surely it isn't... born of this expertise?" Petra recoils, one hand coming up to her face and accidentally smearing blood from her glove onto her cheek. "What? Ew, no. Gross. Come on, that'd be freak shit!" But, she can't say that the actual reason is because she mirrored a fragment of her former friend's psyche into her own mind in order to get the power to escape from being murdered by that same friend and accidentally became a cannibal about it for a little while and her neurological connections have been permanently fucked up by that. So instead she says, "This is just work. I'm not going around accusing you of mindlessly feeding on every human within reach, am I?" "If it's possible to change how they manifest and act, through the story books, might it be possible to alter the lens that projects these into the world to begin with and make it, say, more pleasant?" "Well, method's gone. No more Abnormalities are gonna get produced ever again." Maybe one day, Petra will create a powerpoint presentation for catching new Partners up on the City, but until then, she's stuck explaining it herself. "The Extraction Department in L-Corp HQ's totally gone now. I think the Well is just vanished, and Carmen's basically an evil spirit haunting the City and turning people into monsters. Abnormalities weren't a natural phenomenon, they were just created by L-Corp for energy production. Their individual traits, honestly, were completely incidental." > Tasting their blood As expected, they're not alive enough to produce ichor, unfortunately for not being able to immediately solve the Revenant food crisis. Similarly to White, Holly can sense that their lifespans are temporary, 'reanimated' rather than resurrected, but there's a foreign energy source inside of them that isn't just blood that's providing the semblence of life. To her familiarity with the Horrors, it has that same 'transformative and monstrous' sheen to it, like the sun beating down on the lifeless body parts so strongly that the concept of death itself is washed out by the light. Watching Holly lick the blood of the tied-down arm, Petra silently wipes the smear of blood off of her cheek, then changes out her gloves.
Petra Soroka	"I don't know how to feel about that when it comes from something that looks as nauseating as you." "Awww, don't be like that! Bully." The tone of the gurgling speech coming out of the zombie is oddly playful and cutesy, like she 'knows' Angela doesn't really mean it. "What the fuck? Awful. That's..." At Petra's command, the Silver arches up in a razor sharp ring around the resurrected corpse's head, hovering a short distance away but ready to compact inwards and slice it to pieces if need be. Petra herself is staying away, eyeing it uncomfortably more than warily, coming to the same conclusions as Angela. "No way it's anyone who would have ever known Ange even existed. No one outside of HQ did, and this is probably just some rando who got unlucky. No, it's gotta be because of Carmen." "Petraaaaaa...! You know, everyone's so grateful for how h-hard you've been working. Especially with that nice... n-nice...." Its voice trails off with a confused shudder, blood drooling from its mouth. Petra steps away when it swivels towards her, unnerved. "No fucking way this is just resurrecting Carmen?! That's what it sounds like, right?!" The corpse's next target is White, stumbling towards her closely enough that it'll just slump over on her arms unless she steps away or catches it. "And w-we...! We might be sisters-in-law some day! Isn't that exxxxciting? You're so beaut-tiful... but isn't there another way that's even more beautiful? Your proper shape?" "Okay. Carmen for sure. But... sisters-in-law...?" This is a 'Child of the Light' too, like the other one. Functionally, there's almost nothing different, including the drive to bring everyone it can into 'mother's grasp, except that this one is conscious and not physically grappling you towards Birth Canal. The status 'Mother's Gift' is slowly ticking down, representing its lifespan, the details of which seems to be that this is an effect channeled from an outside source, that nurtures the true form of the affected-- in this case, being an ambulatory, sort of, human. "Angela... s-sweetie... you're following your heart, aren't you? You seem so afraid of yourself lately. What's stopping you from chasing your dream all the way to its end, as fast as you can?"
White	More than the corpse's own behavior, it's Petra's reaction that decides White's working assumption of the situation. She spares a moment to make eye contact with Petra and nod slightly, though it might not be clear immediately whether it's an 'I understand' nod or a 'I'll leave it to you' nod, or something else entirely. It may or may not help, when she softly tells Petra, "It won't be long." Having even soft confirmation of the mind's identity, irrespective of the body, changes White's demeanor a little. White won't let 'Carmen' close enough to lean against her fully, but she will at least support one of her arms so that she can stand upright without wobbling unsightly. With a slight shift to widen her footing, that much is easy even with one hand. At times like this, even White isn't really sure what to think about her own policies on the dignity of the dead, but there's some kind of reflex to it at any rate. From close enough to do so, White's stare is hard to miss. Her face is turned slightly away but her eyes are focused on the corpse's. She doesn't flinch over the unexpected compliment, but there's a very, very small waver of confusion at what follows. The question about her 'proper shape'. It's a little bit vexxing, as far as things to hear cryptically mentioned by someone she's never spoken to. But at the same time, it's not really something she hides... Is it? "You must... Be watching a lot... To know about that." White says, either to let off pressure by acknowledging something obvious, or to probe for elaboration, either or. "But I've never had... A 'proper' shape. I'll be... What I feel like." White isn't sure why she felt the need to say that on the spot under zero pressure. Maybe she's hoping she can learn something useful if Carmen keeps indulging in conversation? White isn't scared, certainly not while she can actively watch the reanimated body's lifespan trickling away with every passing moment. But... She's uneasy, still. This person has a lot to do with Angela's past. How would White feel, if Angela had a pleasant conversation with D? Or a hostile one? She might be worried either way. It feels complicated. Maybe all she can do is- "... Angela is living her life. Don't pressure her. I'll get mad." The line is delivered more briskly than usual, but not quite as emotionally as she might feel. It's the same old dull, soft tone from her. Her grip doesn't tighten- not that she expects a corpse to be intimidated by that anyway. But it's sort of a message to Angela, too; that White thinks she's doing fine. And, as if to drive the nail in afterward, "Get your own body... Before you start talking... About in-laws."
Holly Asturias	"What? Ew, no. Gross. Come on, that'd be freak shit!" "Is it? I think it's normal for the thing you spend countless hours doing - a job, hunting, fighting, any other hobby - to kind of... bleed, if you will, into yourself. Desensitization, at its most basic level, is extremely common!" She pauses, to look at Petra, and Gets The Hint maybe a bit too late. "Ah, but, if you say it isn't, then it isn't." "The Extraction Department in L-Corp HQ's totally gone now." "Oh, I see, I see. Shame. At least the story books are an option, so that's something." BLOOD TASTING. "Mm. This is definitely not it," Holly comments, circling back to FREAK SHIT, letting her hand fall to her side a bit disappointed. "This is like tofu that's soaked in meat gravy for too long. It's got the spirit of the meat alright, but none of the texture or macros. If there was a way to infuse Ichor into it... but even then, I have a feeling this stores for even less time than blood normally does." Blegh! "They are born from the heart." "I wonder why that makes me feel sad, then." Maybe she'd have liked to think things born from the heart are always beautiful. Or maybe the idea all these horrible things are from there too just makes her uncomfortable in a reminder-y way. "Strange that it is talking in this manner, however." "Oh. Well, I'm glad it isn't just me who finds it strange then. Would you mind if I tried caring for it? I can't say what'll happen, but I'd quite like to see if a healer's touch can..." Ah. Maybe it's not necessary. The corpse's speech fixes itself somewhat, and now it's conversing outright. She chooses not to intrude on their discussion. This is clearly someone important to them, judging by how they've spoken of her. Judging by how they're speaking to her now. She peeks at White, at the semi-threat. Oh my.
Angela	Angela nods to Petra. "Mm.. It is a strangely common--well perhaps not so strange and not so common, but common enough that it is a bit of a running concern with Abnormality management." Of course, most of what she's saying is for the benefit of Holly and maybe for White to a lesser extent, but it is easier and more soothing to treat it as a conversation with Petra than direct exposition. ''Abnormalities weren't a natural phenomenon.'' "--To be clear, there are still 'monsters' or other unusual entities in The City and the Outskirts, but 'Abnormality' as a classification was one designated by Lobotomy Corp for, specifically, what Lobotomy Corp was creating. But Abnormalities have classifications specific to them, such as their ability to 'reset' upon being killed." She doesn't argue about Carmen not being an evil spirit though. But Angela is pretty hyperfocused on an Abnormality talking to her. Really, not even the Abnormality directly but a product of the Abnormality. Her presence here seems to have caused an unusual situation. Well, 'presence'. "Mm... Naturally, this Aberration wouldn't have been able to react to ''me'' before." ''Awww, don't be like that! Bully.'' "I am a bit of a bully." Angela admits to the corpse, almost smiling but she bites her lip to stop it from getting there. She's letting the Abnormality get an edge in. Always dangerous. ''Petraaaaa...!'' Abnormalities having a connection to Angela is not unusual. But an Aberration capable of recognizing Petra and alluding to her... "It is possible she--the Abberation is reading our minds to get information about you." Angela says, hesitantly. Did N Corp learn about Carmen as a person? That doesn't seem impossible. Every answer she's getting here is adding like five questions. ''We might be sisters-in-law some day!'' Okay, an Aberration knowing of her relationship with WHITE seems borderline impossible. Sisters-in-law?? Petra speaks up about how strange that turn of phrase before she can. Angela stares, stunned silent. ''You seem so afraid of yourself lately. What's stopping you from chasing your dream all the way to its end, as fast as you can?'' That's a critical hit. She has been ... having second thoughts lately. Concerned about things beyond her immediate escape. Distractions. Relationships she wants to hold onto. Worried-- She clamps her mouth shut. Even if she would tell Carmen the answer to that question, which is a big if, answering everyone in this room is well beyond her willingness. "Abnormalities sometimes call me a sister. Like Love. But not usually Carmen." MAYBE if she wanted to tease though, Angela thinks miserably. "I can think of a few reasons why Nagel und Hammer might want access to this Abnormality now, though I cannot say those are the reasons at play here. If they know of Carmen's connection to the Voice, to Distortions --- but it is difficult to imagine they'd hear 'Carmen' in this way--there'd be a report about this, surely, in the branch facility." She frowns. "Assuming they weren't completely incompetent." Ugh. "White's perfectly beautiful in any shape." She adds, firmly as her senses come back past her period of disorientation.
Angela	''Angela is living her life. Don't pressure her. I'll get mad.'' Angela's eyes slant towards White, her expression almost--confused. Like the turn of phrase is a little alien to her. But-- --She smile, privately, looking down at her hands. Why does that make her so happy to hear? All Carmen(?) is doing is telling her to do what she wants to do. It doesn't make sense, does it? She closes her eyes and exhales slowly. Don't be pressured, Angela thinks. Somehow, it's a gift to you those words. She looks towards Holly. "Caring for it..?" She thinks it over. "That woudl be informative...I suppose." She looks to White and adds, "You did choose to cast your body off." She says to 'Carmen' despite looking towards White. "Why would you step back into a corpse?"
Petra Soroka	"It won't be long." Petra responds quietly to White without taking her eyes off of the undead. "Carmen skeeves me the fuck out. I know she's basically, like, my step-mom, but I've never trusted her for a moment. Whatever she was like when she was alive, being dead has just made her off her fucking rocker, even worse after she started haunting the City as a ghost that turns people into insane monsters." "You'd think that'd be a normal opinion to have. But for some reason basically everyone disagrees." "It's got the spirit of the meat alright, but none of the texture or macros." Petra points accusingly at Holly, distracted from the corpse for just a moment. "Tofu's got macros! Sure it's got less protein than meat does, but it's still got plenty, and it's low in fat and high in iron and fiber. It's not even like meat works for you either!" "You must... Be watching a lot... To know about that." "Hmmm...?~ Of course I'd want to know about Angela's girlfriend!" The cheery tone is undercut by the fact that the corpse's eyelids have slid vacantly half-open to look at nothing, eyes replaced with the familiar white glow from the White Nights and Dark Days. Picking itself up off of White's arm, it staggers away a few steps, lurching like a baby deer learning to walk. "Ahaha, you're sssso c-cute! What a good answer! Feel free to come to me anytime you n-need help, okay? But only if you keep treating Angela right!~" "Don't pressure her. I'll get mad." The zombie claps its hands together with a wet squelch, clumsily knocking itself off balance. "I'm nnot. I would never ever. I want nothing, nothing more, than for Angela to follow her heart. And her heart is s-so beautiful! You've seen it too. But this City has a way offff... stamping out the most beautiful hearts before they can fully bloom. And Angela's not fully bloomed yet." "Mm... Naturally, this Aberration wouldn't have been able to react to ''me'' before." "That's sort of the thing..." Petra murmurs uneasily, watching the Child of the Light coo over Angela. "If this was what the Aberration was doing this whole time, the branch would've reported it, and-- well, to be honest, you would've had them all killed and it'd be shipped back to HQ. But it's never been around you, and it was just extracted from the Well and shipped out like any other."
Petra Soroka	"It is possible she--the Abberation is reading our minds to get information about you." Petra shakes her head. "Not mine. And it was Carmen that led Argalia to me, which this thing knows about, so..." "Ohhhh-h! That was his name, right! He's been such a good help to Mom! Someone who r-really knows... the shape of... everyone's imprisoned s-souls." Petra recoils, not at the blood-leaking husk that's cheerfully shambling around and drawling, but at the word 'mom'. "Oh. You're not Carmen. You're-- you think she's your mom?" Says Petra, who has accidentally called Carmen mom before, who is even less blood related to her than this random woman from the same world is. "She is! She's everrrrryone's mother, all the poor babies in the City!" The corpse throws out her arms and spins, but loses her balance. Stumbling, and slamming headfirst on the corner one of the fridges, there's a sickening crunch and a smear of blood drawing down from where its temple impacted, but after a second, it lurches up to its feet again. "hhhh-Hhhhh... Th-those... those sweet lost children who still can't hear her Voice! Can't y-you hear them crying for her help? It breaks Mom's hhhh... heart, you know. To see them trapped in the shackles that they could escape if they let her in, like s-so few already have." Suddenly, it lunges over to Holly and reaches for her, not with any kind of hostile intention, but like a hug. Holding itself up on her shoulders, its cold hand traces her right arm. "You should know! A nnnnew friend... of Angela's, aren't you? I can see something sso beaut-beautiful in you, just under the surface." "The light shining within you... don't be afraid, sweetie. When the flesh falls away, it's only to shhhed the soul's cocoon. Inside, a butterfly waits to unfurl its wings. You're going to be so beautiful too." The timer on the status effect that White can see has been draining rapidly, already at just a quarter duration. The zombie sways on its feet, unable to stand on its own, with a thin trickle of radiant white leaking out along with the blood from its mouth and temple, that dissipates like dry ice in the air.
Holly Asturias	"It's not even like meat works for you either!" "Of course, but there's nothing more disappointing than biting into tofu when you thought it was meat. And the macros are completely different! Tofu demands a plate built around its presence, but meat complements many things." Everyone's allowed to be a bit wrong sometimes. "She is! She's everrrrryone's mother, all the poor babies in the City!" "How charming, though. To leave that kind of impression... no, I suppose I shouldn't judge solely based on this, when you've so much still to tell me," Holly muses, in the sense of needing to popquiz Petra (and Angela, and White) for more information later. "You should know! A nnnnew friend..." Holly stiffens the moment the corpse's hand starts passing along her right sleeve. Nothing about this is okay, suddenly. Words that are meant to be compliments burn worse than real insults would, and Holly no longer likes Carmen, or this... weird offspring of Carmen, whatever the consensus ends up being. "... there's..." She frowns, and doesn't finish her denial. The zombie is starting to lose its life quicker, and Holly attempts to support it, despite wanting to pull away oh-so-badly. She just can't let it fall, if it wants to keep latching onto her shoulders. "What will happen to you? When you expire? Are you dying, or are you returning to where the Birth Canal pulled you from? ... or is there even a difference between those things?" The hurt doesn't matter if you put a patient in front of her. Or, it's easier to ignore, at least. There's nothing she could really do to save the zombie. Even if she reached in and cranked it up... what it's missing might as well be Ichor under another name, and there's simply no way to heal that. At best she could slow it, and not enough to matter.
White	Petra's sharing with White evokes the sort of placid understanding of someone whose opinion has only been reinforced by new information, though with an undertone of fresh concern. White has never had much confidence with ghosts, spirits and the like, due to lack of familiarity. Things you can't see or touch kind of interact poorly with someone so dedicated to those two forms of interaction. She remembers bits of chatter from previous times, like that one time she met Moses and Ezra, or the results from examining Veronica once or twice. She's not an expert on distortions, but it's still concerning that Carmen seems so central to the phenomenon. Whatever the case, White doesn't need those details right this moment. She doesn't appear terribly comfortable keeping the banter up, but there's not long left. She'll live. "... Angela has... People looking after her. She'll make it. In time." Crap, maybe White should've tried to say something cool, like 'Flowers bloom on their own time' or something like that? Wait, why would she want to impress Carmen? That's weird. Don't overexert yourself, girl. But this... Isn't Carmen? It makes sense that might be the case, given the Evil Eyes couldn't draw up any identifying information to directly point at her, but it still hadn't quite clicked until Petra spelled it out. Actually, this does make a thought cross White's mind! Kind of a strangely obvious one, actually. She needs time to consider though. This is all slotting weirdly smoothly into a paradigm White is already familiar with, which might be helpful or it might just narrow her awareness of what's going on... When the not-Carmen bangs her head so badly, White only manages not to have a reaction because she's already mentally written off the animate corpse as 'soon to be dead'. Instead, she wonders to Petra, "Maybe... It's like what I've done. Splitting up the soul. She could put... A little bit of hers... Into things with the right... Traits. Like me and my... Agents." She honestly hopes it's like that, and not like Potimas's 'Diligence'. "So they're different... But a little bit 'her' too. Her will has to be... Fairly strong... But she doesn't... Seem very stable. So doing it... Too often, might be difficult." Who cares if the not-Carmen is right there? She seems to be able to spy quite thoroughly on them anyway, and frankly... There might even be something to the mind reading thing. Thinking that, White has the entire inner-manifestation Parallel Minds chibi-spider-council try to flip her off at once, but that doesn't work very well on account of their forelegs not actually having fingers. Anyway, maybe making it like a callout might win her some intel, if she gets corrected. While Holly sees to the corpse in those last moments, White steps a little closer to Angela's tablet and gingerly picks it up on some impulse or another. She keeps the camera pointed in the corpse's direction, and stable too, but... Well, she could go to support Angela in person in an instant, if she had to. The work is almost done. Then they can handle what comes after, and process whatever they're feeling. So, rather than speak to Angela just yet, she slips in one more comment to 'Carmen', or Carmen's speaker, or whatever one might call this weird situation. "... I'm not letting... Your mom meet my mom. For the record." That came out... Weirdly petty, didn't it? Actually, didn't White say she killed her mom?
Angela	''Being dead has just made her off her fucking rocker...'' "Maybe she just has no more reason to 'contain herself'." Angela murmurs. "She's in a position beyond any serious interference." While Angela has always been more hesitant to talk all that harshly on Carmen, she is also very wary of her in a way that it feels like, to her, that Petra only really surpasses. It's kind of a relief, actually, hearing Petra talk about she doesn't like her mother and upon realizing that, Angela also feels a bit silly overall. Both for feeling that way, and also for always having that impulse to be a little nicer to Carmen than she really feels is appropriate. "It's certainly concerning. I understand that ... I might be the reason for it being destructive and dangerous in that way. But we can't really speak as to what the ultimate end hope was. Even if everybody became Distortions at the same time, it's hard to imagine that resulting in a better future when the violent impulses remain." Angela is actually a little surprised that Holly tasting the blood and shit is actually helping and providing information but it'd be so rude to just say that out loud. Maybe some of Roland's unease around the Blood Fiends has unconsciously influenced her. She could probably trust Holly, right? Or she could at least play around with it. She doesn't seem hostile or anything. A bit silly sometimes, but not in the City way where that results in dead bodies. She's a Concord agent. And she's her senior. She shouldn't be weird about her even if she feels a little more 'Blood Fiend' than Yuuki did despite them both being 'Vampires'. 'I want nothing more, than for Angela to follow her heart.'' Angela knows that's true, more or less, because that's all she ever hears. And she has to. It's the voice that's been telling her to act for so long and she wouldn't have gotten this far without the voice in her head and, now, in her gore telling her to keep moving forward no matter who she tramples. But... "You take after her." Angela tells the zombie. "You're not wrong. The City does do this. But I--" Not fully bloomed yet. "--The EGO, you mean. Do you see Distortions as a more fully realized heart?" ''If this was what was the Aberration was doing this whole time...'' "True. I would have done that." Angela had almost forgotten that trampling is what she was bred to do. "The security risk would have been incalculable, especially since this Aberration predates us connecting to the Multiverse." ''You think she's your mom?'' "...It ... isn't really wrong for an Abnormality to call her that. Necessarily. They would not exist if not for her, and they were drawn from her. Not unlike..." She gestures towards the Egg. "Naturally it isn't quite like in this manner, but the essence of the idea is true enough."
Angela	''Those sweet lost children who still can't hear her Voice!'' "We all knew that even in an ideal scenario, the seeds would take time to bloom. Don't despair too much." She's starting to pity this creature. The Abnormality. Being this much like Carmen while not being her. It's hitting so close to home. "It's funny. I think this one's more like Carmen than I ever was. Even when I was young." She laughs, not exactly kindly. "Perhaps Ayin was just looking in the wrong direction this whole time when he should have sought ''you'' out. Just throw a body in there and he'd have been a perfectly normal happy City villain." She's grateful that Holly is there being a Doctor about all this, Angela's too disturbed right now to manage that. God, she feels pathetic. She anticipated some sort of impression of Carmen, certainly, but not this. ''Angela has... People looking after her. She'll make it. In time.'' Time, Angela thinks, she's been patient for so god damned long so her 'sister' has a point. Why is she hesitating even a little now? Her life has been hesitation. But as weird as it feels, White's support is still paradoxically soothing. It's cool enough for her. ''Splitting up the soul. She could put... A litttle bit of hers... Into thihngs with the right... Traits.'' "Didn't you mention there was a danger to that?" Angela asks, thinking back. Angela pets Harriet in lieu of squeezing White's hand. She's briefly uneasy when White steps out of frame and she's 'picked up'. "White...?" She asks. ''I'm not letting... Your mom meet my mom, for the record.'' Angela would feel stupid if she said 'didn't you kill your mom?' so she just says, "Understandable." Instead. Maybe the giant spider that birthed White also has some sort of ghost lingering around these things happen.
White	White does briefly confirm for Angela, "Yes. Putting part of your soul... Into something with its own will... Usually ends up with one, or the other... Consumed. I lost a piece like that once." She doesn't explain why she's picked the tablet up, and Angela probably can't feel her adjust her grip, but White squeezes it a little against her stomach.