Scene #8495: Scratch

Owner	Pose
Angela	It's not new that Miss Kukuru has been here before, she's been here plenty of times by now but this is the first time that Kukuru is getting greeted by Yesod who will meet her at the Warpgate. Yesod is a boxbot like the other Sephirah though his design encompasses long sheets of metal wrapping around his body, a singular purple eye, and the name Yesod along his forehead. "Miss Kukuru." Yesod says. "Welcome." His left actuator arm reaches over to the right and makes thin motions across the metal, lightly for the moment. "The Fanclub's activities died down for a bit but many of its members have been spending significant amount of time near select Abnormalities including the Blue Star and Nothing There." He pulls his arm from his other arm for a moment. "Ah, I believe this is the first time we are talking appropriately as well, even though I was at the 'Fan Club Meeting', I was chiefly an observer then." Stray Kukuru posters litter the Control Department here and there, some of them potchmarked with blood or messy handprints.
Kukuru	Recently, Kukuru's been a bit down in the dumps after a whole host of things have happened and especially after hearing about plenty more things over the radio, but today's a good day! Why? Because today is another of helping the good folks at Lobotomy Corporation, and maybe even helping teach Nothing There how to not be a danger to everything around them. Knowing that it could be a messy affair again, she's wearing a thick black apron over a sweater and jeans today, but what surprises her is who greets her at the Warpgate. "Yesod...? Ah, he-llo! Oh, it's so nice to see you again~" Although she shows up with a vague undercurrent of general unease, some of that lifts visibly at spotting the boxy Sephirah. She's not sure where to pat him, though, but she settles for a gentle nudge on the side. "Thanks for greeting me today! Oh, the club... How're they doing? I was kind of worried after the last time, but they're still working hard, right?" She asks, tapping her chin lightly while murmuring "Blue Star?" quizzically to herself. "I don't remember seeing that one before... Is it a good thing they've been watching over that one, too?" The bloody handprints have her pausing to stare, but... Surely it's something she can help take care of once she gets there. Surely.
Angela	Yesod flinches away from the nudge but he doesn't get too far enough. Kukuru can feel slight grooves in his body, barely visible when one takes a closer look. It's easier to feel out. Yesod starts walking away. Periodically he rubs at his arms with his hands, a little more forcefully but to no avail. "Mm... It has been designated as a Cult and you have been designated as an object of worship so the club has been asked to stand down operation for the time being. There are those that engage club activities properly, of course, but they were starting to ask Nothing There if they would judge them. Not all, of course, but enough that it became problematic. We've had to be quite particular on who gets to work on Nothing There." Yesod walks quietly across the floor. The smell of blood in the air is a little hicker than normal. "I wished to consider your input on how to proceed as you seem to care for the employees at a level where the managers and most of the Sephirah do not." He is happy--well okay he seems as stern as ever and doesn't seem inclined to ever be happy but he does pause to look back to Kukuru when she asks about the Blue Star. "Mm... It is a complicated Abnormality. Rather than pushing people to despair, it fills them with an immeasurable amount of bliss and joy. When employees die to an Abnormality I often have to erase their records, though the rules do not seem consistent. For all I know it is random." He slows. "We need to convince our employees to cease throwing themselves into it."
Kukuru	A cult. That was what Kukuru was afraid of, and the unease shows rather easily on her face. She's certainly seen her share of them back home and at similar places, but knowing that one came up as a direct result of what she's done puts a knot in the pit of her stomach. What makes it worse is knowing that it might not have happened if she really did know how to be kinder and not just nicer. "That's... O-oh. Yeah, that's... That's probably a good idea, then. Not letting them gather like that. If it's causing problems for you and everyone else..." Rubbing her head lightly, she looks up slightly as she notices that smell in the air. Part of it warns her that danger might be around the corner, but it might also be an indication of someone needing help. Something to eat. Nothing There, even. Fighting back all those instincts to rush ahead, she keeps walking alongside Yesod, albeit at a somewhat slower pace as she tries to work through all these thoughts at the same time. "I think... I might know what I should do? They shouldn't be forming a cult around me, or around Nothing There. It's dangerous if they keep doing this, and I don't want you or Angie or anyone to have even more problems. I just don't know how to..." She trails off for a moment, wrapping her arms around her sides and still looking rather anxious about all of this. "... Get them to do that. Maybe I could try talking to them? But then they might get even more culty, and then it'll get even worse, and..." She fights back those anxious thoughts not with logic, but by distracting herself with what Yesod tells her about Blue Star. She listens intently, blinking in confusion at first when it initially sounds like Blue Star might be making them happy. There's a gap in what she's hearing, though, between what people feel around it and dying, but- "Is that how they're dying? By throwing themselves in?" A pause, and then she asks further. "What happens when they do that? Where're the bodies? If anyone's died because of this, I can bring them back, and we can try to work from there. Right?"
Angela	Yesod is a stern man, at least overtly, but he is not a cruel man. He notices that something is up with Kukuru and stops to take a look at her. "Mm. You seem troubled, Miss Kukuru. This sort of thing happens in the Facility quickly and that is why we are so strict with protocol. While it may be possible to achieve a slightly better solution with kindness, the possibility for events like this is exceedingly high without excessive amounts of care. And even then, problems still occur even with all our experiences. It can be safe to assume that there are few permanent solutions, but that does not mean there cannot be improvements to procedure that we can learn from attempts and adjust afterwards. It only truly becomes problematic when we simply repeat the same mistakes." Yesod crosses his arms, distracted for a moment. He nods to Kukuru's question about the Blue Star. "Oh well ... to be quite clear, we are not entirely sure they are dying, but they are effectively... ''gone'' and beyond our reach. It may be easier to show you." He frowns becaue he says, "It...would be tricky. Let us pay it a visit." Yesod turns again and starts making his wall down the hall. A small grouping of clerks are lurking around the cell of an unknown entity. Through a thin slit of a window, Kukuru can glimpse wehat appears to be a glowing blue heart. "This is not appropriate." "Ah..." one of the clerks says. "We're actually...trying to get someone to leave the cell. Maybe you can...?"
Kukuru	"Is it that obvious?" Kukuru asks with an awkward chuckle that absolutely makes it even more obvious than it was before. The forced smile fades shortly afterwards, though, when Yesod explains the need for those protocols in detail, and the reality of what she's done starts to hit her just that much more as the seconds pass. "I see... Ergh. Sorry, Yessy. I had no idea I was creating even more work for everyone like this. I just... I was hoping what usually works for me would work for everyone here, too." Running a hand through her hair anxiously again, Kukuru tries to perk herself up by focusing on... The wrong thing! "But if excessive care is what it takes to fix this, then... I can give plenty of that!" She suggests with a hopeful lilt in her voice, but there's still the undertone that makes it clear she's still not fully convinced of what she's saying. Hearing about the uncertainty surrounding the Blue Star, Kukuru furrows her brow as more of that confusion starts seeping in. "Gone like... Somewhere else? Or... Y-yes, please. I need to see what all that means so I can try and fix some of this." Doing a quick aboutface when Yesod turns, Kukuru picks up the pace a bit on the way to the group of clerks around that cell. "Are they being stopped from leaving? Is the... Um. The Abnormality keeping them from getting out?" Looking through the window slit, Kukuru squints to get a better look at the blue heart thing. Even that tiny slit is enough for her to use her freaky eye-vision to see, but she's holding off on teleporting inside right away. Yesod and Angela have already already warned her about the dangerous consequences of careless actions before. She needs to actually think about this one first.
Angela	"Mm." Yesod says. "Yessy, is it. This may be a strange question, Kukuru, but is there a particular reason you default to nicknames like this so frequently?" He is, at this point, largely curious but he is also trying to reassure this girl without lying about it. "You've been a great help in the past. Sometimes people make small mistakes. They fail to return a key to the proper spot, for instance, and secure it so someone else takes it and they sneak into an area they aren't supposed to go into. It is little mistakes like this that lead into bigger mistakes down the line. That is why being strict about your behavior is important, especially when your job is a dangerous one." ''But if excessive care...'' "To be clear, excesive care means--excessive caution, not excessive caring." Yesod says, because he has a feeling where this is going. He should probably be the exact kind of person who doesn't care for someone like Kukuru but-- --He isn't really giving off that sense at all. "W-well..." The clerk says. "I wouldn't say he's being kept from getting out, it's more...the Abnormality is making it so he doesn't want to leave?" Kukuru takes a peek through the window slot and... https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lobotomycorp/images/7/76/BlueStarCloseUp.png There's...a lot of legs. And a blue outlined heart that seems to have a black interior--no, it's a hole leading to... Somewhere. An employee seems to be kneeling and swinging their arms up and down towards the big heartleggy thing. "That is the Blue Star." Yesod says.
Kukuru	Finally, a normal question! That brings things back into a familiar space for Kukuru that helps her gain back some of that lost confidence. "Oh? It's not a weird question at all, don't worry! It's because nicknames let people know that you care about them." A beat, and then she scratches her cheek lightly. "At least... It is for me. I know others can be pretty cruel with them, but I don't like doing that kind of thing." Weirdly enough, though, the more Yesod speaks of the importance of care (and also clarifies that he means it in the caution sense), the more Kukuru actually seems to... Straighten up? She doesn't look like she's getting discouraged, but in fact focusing further to try and commit all of this to memory. "Things can really fall apart quick from small mistakes, huh...? That's... Something I gotta work on harder, mhm." In time. That will come with more conversations and studying better people than herself, but that won't be happening today. There's still getting that person out of the Blue Star's room, but why wouldn't someone want to leave the room to begin with? Wait. Yesod mentioned that feeling of bliss and joy coming from it earlier. "That's why he doesn't want to..." She murmurs while watching the employee seemingly worshipping the leggy heart thing, furrowing her brow for several moments and taking a deep breath before turning to the clerks outside. "I can get him out. Can you catch him for me?" She suggests while approaching the door, closing her eyes and letting her arms droop to her sides to start limbering up. A moment later, though, she turns to Yesod, suddenly looking less gung-ho than she did before. "Is... That okay? Would it be dangerous to everyone else if I got him out?" Kukuru's thinking! Finally. There might be risks she's not aware of involved in letting someone like this clerk out, after all. Can't hurt to defer to the experts for once.
Angela	"Ah." Yesod says. "I understand." Yesod doesn't add more about it. Behind Kukuru, she can hear a faint scraping noise as she looks into the the Blue Star's containment zone. Metal on metal. ''Something I gotta work on harder, mhm.'' "I as well," Yesod says, quietly behind her. ''That's why he doesn't want to...'' "Indeed." Yesod says. "While it is against regulation to have more than one person in a cell at a time, I believe you are a viable exception to that rule. There is some danger, of course, that the Clerk may try to hurt themselves or others but we can subdue them once they are out." A fainter scratching noise. "Without Hod active our training procedures have stalled but we will standby. Do not linger long, while you may ahve some resillience against this entity, that is no reason to give it time to try and break past your defenses." (rscratch)
Kukuru	Metal? Where's that sound coming from? Should she be worried? Having something to deal with metal could help, but.... Kukuru can't remember seeing anything metal in that room. At least, not unless the employee's limbs or all those legs are actually made of metal. But... No. Too risky. She can get them out without the claws to stop any metal weapons coming at her. Besides, she's already breaking some kind of rules in place for handling the Abnormalities, and putting more pressure on Yesod isn't permissible even to her right now. It should be straightforward, though, if she can just reach that clerk inside. "... Thanks, Yessy. For trusting me. Once we're both out, it should be okay, even if they struggle. I'm really strong, you know?" Some of that genuine confidence comes back, too, as Kukuru raises her arm in a brief flex to try and instill confidence in Yesod and the clerks outside. She doesn't look like she's particularly muscular, but that's probably not too surprising by now. "I'm gonna grab him, throw him out, and then you can close the door. I'll get out right after, so there's no chance of anyone else getting pulled in before I get out." Kukuru takes a deep breath, gets into a sprinter's stance, then nods. "I'm ready." The plan is about the same as she explained: Wait for the door to open, run in, throw someone out, teleport herself out, then heal the clerk from any injuries she might have inflicted! There's no way this plan could possibly go wrong, especially with Kukuru's questionable speed and accuracy.
Angela	It's coming from behind Kukuru, of course, that scratching noise. There's at least one metal person there. But it stops for a moment. THe clerks seem heartened by Kukuru unleashing that wave of confidence--Yesod, of course, is rather hard to read. He doesn't have a face but he does seem to straighten up a bit and that scratching metal on metal noise doesn't start up again. "Understood." Yesod says, nodding once to Kukuru and the door slides open and-- --Kukuru is immediately hit with that pulse of joy and happiness, of that pull, of that SUGGESTION that she take a dive in--and become a star... But her Control Immunity wards off the worst of the effects. This gives her time to heft up the clerk, who writhes usually in her grasp, chuck him out--and teleport herself out just as quickly before a second pulse hits her. Yesod catches the flying clerk and wraps his arms around the clerk. Those indentations across his arms seem a little more readily visible, if only just slightly. "Well done." Yesod says, as nothing goes wrong with the plan. The clerk is still writhing but isn't in a position to hurt anyone. "...If this keeps up, I'm likely to have to wipe the records of this one again..." He sighs. "...You've met Malkuth, haven't you Kukuru? Most Sephirah do not care about the well being of the clerks. You are a bit of an exception to that rule though, I suppose, that would only be if we saw you as 'one of us'. I imagine many other Outsiders would see how we treat Clerks as abonimable--but it is practically impossible for us to look after these ones as well as you Outsiders can. As shameful as that is."
Kukuru	It's time to charge in! It's... Not so bad in here, is it? It's not as euphoric as what Yesod made it sound like, but it's not bad at all. She's got a job to do, though, and Yessy's counting on her! Angie's counting on her! Hod's...! Hod might not know she's here, actually. Either way, she doesn't even spend the moment to smack her cheeks to refocus herself before rushing deeper in, getting the clerk out, and teleporting out! In her haste to get out, the teleportation cloud nearly tosses her into the ceiling, but Kukuru stops herself at the last moment to look over at Yesod and the rescued clerk. Things worked out as well as expected! Breathing a relieved sigh, she approaches them to give the latter a gentle flow of healing nanites while the former gets a light pat on an arm again. "Thanks, Yessy. It's... The least I could do, after causing this to happen." She looks back at the Blue Star's room momentarily, but her confusion returns moments later. "Malky? A few times, mhm! I don't know what Sephirah really means, and I don't think I'm good enough at what any of you do to count as one." She admits with a gentle chuckle. "I just hope I can become smart enough and better enough to change that one day. For now, though, I'll trust in you and everyone else to know what's best for everyone here, and you can trust us to do the impossible stuff!" She doesn't state it outright, but she's already demonstrated her cruelty before just for the sake of feeding Nothing There. Going further under direct orders from Angela and the Sephirah certainly isn't out of the question. Casting that darker thought away, she turns to Yesod and the clerks with a raised eyebrow instead. "Speaking of impossible stuff... Um. Did any of you hear the scrapey noises before? There was something... Metal-y."
Angela	Hod doesn't know anyone's here. She's SHUT DOWN. Is it like some kind of mind prison? the Sephirah don't really get into details like that just off the cuff. "The qualification of 'Sephirah' has very little to do with competency, I assure you." Yesod says. "We do try of course but for other reasons." The Blue Star vibrates like it's upset but it doesn't do anything else just yet. The rescued clerk isn't exactly wounded, but they do seem to calm down with that little bit of euphoria injected into them though and Yesod lets go. "Your imagination, Miss Kukuru, I assure you." Yesod says, on the matter of that scratching noise. "Allow me to show you to another specimen. The CENSORED." He didn't SAY Censored, it got bleeped out like a CENSORED topic might be, automatically. A part of the protocols of the facility, perhaps? And despite Yesod moving forward ahead of Kukuru, and despite Yesod stating it was her imagination--now that he is ahead of her she can hear the... Scrrratcch... But also just overtly see where it's coming from. Those metallic 'fingers' on the Sephirah's metal arm is digging into his own arms and dragging them along. Yesod makes no mention of it, however, but that scratching noise is coinciding directly with hthose movements. "It is funny, is it not?" Yesod asks. "That we, the Info DEpartment, are often asigned to the removal of i information?" The clerks meanwhile had just given nervous looks at Yesod when asked that question.
Kukuru	"It... Doesn't? Huh. That's good to know. It's not an excuse for me to be lazy, though. It just means I gotta earn it better." Kukuru declares with a firm fist pump, then starts to follow Yesod again while... Did she just hear a beep? Maybe it was that scratching noise again. But... Yesod just said it was her imagination. Maybe she did hear something wrong. She's not hearing any more beeps now, at least, but the scratching noise doesn't stop. It takes a while for her to finally realize it's coming from around Yesod's arms. She glances over at the clerks briefly to see if they're reacting to the scratching noises, then back at Yesod again when he speaks. "Funny...? Hmm. I mean... It makes sense. Information's real important, not just the way you use it, but when. I'm not the best at figuring that out, but I know plenty of people that are really good at it to make things happen." She replies while actually looking rather calm, even pausing to chuckle about something a moment later. "If the procedures had worked back then... Maybe things would be really different by now. But there'll be time for that later!" Confidence regained, she hurries up a bit to lean over at Yesod's side. "Unless... That was a joke? I'm sure it'd be funny if I got it!"
Angela	"Mm. On second thought it is getting a bit late." Yesod says, turning back to Kukuru. His gaze settles on her. He sees a lot of his old self in her, in a way. Certainly, he was a seriousminded person even then, but...he surely wasn't smart enough. That story about leaving that key out for Malkuth to grab... It wasn't just a story. He may not have engaged in cute fistpumps or comical bonks on his head while sticking out his tongue, but that doesn't mean he hasn't felt too naive, too immature to properly run this facility, to protect its inhabitants--if it were even really possible. The clerks seem uncomfortable but they are definitely not acting on the noises, just looking anxiously uncomfortable like--well, it's sadly true to life. "Mm... Not a joke, no." Yesod sighs. "...I believe we've done enough for one day. CENSORED is no lauging matter." He turns right back around, intent on leading Kukuru back to the warpgate. The scratching continues all the while but, of course, will stop once Kukuru heads back through the warpgate. Looks like it really was nothing!