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Angela	The day the Manager said that they would try to deal with Hod's Meltdown has arrived. Despite his dreams haunting him, he wished to put Hod ahead of his own fears for the moment after some discussions with the Outside World. Angela and Malkuth greet the group as they arrive. Angela informs them that soon they'll be shut down and the Meltdown begins but she offers to Sougo the opportunity to look at Hod's past first as part of an attempt to make this Meltdown smoother than the last. And as Sougo looks into the past... ??? He sees Hod and two scientists--actually maybe three since they're all in labcoats? But one is clearly more nervous and younger than the other two--clearly a child in her midteens, fifteen at the most. She looks like a younger version of Hod. A young man with short hair and golden eyes as well as a young woman with her hair in a ponytail held up by a red bear hairtie are conversing with her. "Michelle," The young man says (he sounds like the Manager). "Let me cut to the chase. We are performing experiments that go directly against the Head's ideals. If you're beloved parents or co-workers try to coax them, are you sure you'll be able to refuse them?" Michelle squirmed uncomfortably. She wrings her hands against one another shyly. She didn't say anything. "Ayin! Don't be so harsh on her. She's amazing to be here at such a young age." The young woman says. Her eyes are eyes are red--the color of carmen to be precise. "You're a regular prodigy, aren't you Michelle?" Michelle still squirmed but her frown relaxed into a smile as she looked up to the young woman, her eyes shone with hope... And faith. ??? A black haired woman sips tea. She's readily recognizable as Binah through presence alone. Standing behind her is a man in a black suit and a face-covering metallic mask. Various vials are connected to his body through cords, though the injectors remain apart from his body for the moment. Green. Blue. Red. He doesn't say anything, but the Arbiter seated at the table does. And Michelle, a bit older, sits across from her. The tea before her is untouched. "Thank you for this information." The Arbiter says. "Rest assured, the facility will be rubble by tomorrow." "W..what?" Michelle says. "No, no--I mean. I just wanted you to stop their research. It's w-wrong... It's hurting them..." "They won't feel the pain for much longer. As thanks for your information, you'll get to live a happy and quiet life with your family in the Nest." The Arbiter smiled, knowing that this was the worst thing she could say to her. ??? Michelle stands on a rooftop. She tried to get in the bathtub first with a razor but she couldn't bear to. All she could imagine when she thought of it was Carmen's disappointed face. This, on the other hand, would simply be a step forward, maybe even a little hop. If she closed her eyes and pretended she didn't feel the wind whipping her hair about, it would be so much easier. "Daniel..." Michelle murmurs. "Kali... Lisa... You'll forgive me right?" She thinks of the countless others of the facility who always treated her so kindly. "...I guess an apology has to be made in person." The wind buffets her body. She takes one last breath and then takes a step...
Angela	NOW As Sougo returns, Angela says, "Ah. We are about to start. Manager. Proceed when you'd like." The Manager takes a breath and Angela shuts down near Hod's frame along with Malkuth's. Hod's eye lightens up and... "...How long was I... Ah...hahah.... You got scared, didn't you, Manager?" "Y..yeah... But... I'm ready now..." "...Are you, Manager? It isn't exactly fair for me to face this blame--to endure this pain. Not alone...It's not strange for me to want to be liked, right? To be forgiven?" "Well I--....what--wait, what is Kukuru and the fanclub doing outside Blue Star...?" "It seems some other unintended consequences are setting off today..."                     WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING      <o>           Let's Be    A L E P H     Hello?      -|-           One Happy  MISS KUKURU         Help! Help!       -            Family     T H R E A T        I love you, I love you      / \            WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *Punishing Bird has escaped again and was stomped on by a Kukuru-face mask wearing cultist! It's now out for blood--it barely misses the Cultist making their way to the Blue Star with a massive chomp. The Manager hurriedly asks someone with Mobility ******* to occupy it until it gets bored and goes back to its cell ... wait ... What? That can't be right... * Captain Sal of the Information Team went in to perform a work on the Funeral of Dead Butterflies which seems to be...a person with a butterfly for a head wearing a tux and carrying a coffin behind its back? The tux-wearing Abnormality didn't seem to like having such a capable employee working on it and it breaches, nearly gunning Sal down as she hurriedly flees the cell and hides behind a trashbin.! It marches around the facility, opening up its coffin and sending slews of butterflies into employees that seem to send them into a panic! The Manager desperately requests Cure******* and Intrusion Immunity ******* and some violence to deal with this problem. Something seems wrong here... * A bunch of members of the Kukuru fan club are milling out about Blue Star. One cultist, who even went so far as to wear a headband that adds horns to the side of his head is trying to organize everyone into a single file line. Miss Kukuru? is there and speaks. "Hello hello hello. I love you, I love you! No bad guys can hurt you in here. We can be together and happy and safe!" The Manager has no idea what's going on here... But it seems like this may be a more complicated problem...
Ishirou	Ishirou got here before things kicked off, and this time, decided to be a relay hub for the Manager and the agents.  Ishirou spends the time sharing his suite of powers with people.  (Specifically Combat Options, Super Humanity, Analysis, Hint, and Debilitation.)  This takes the form of a small POD-like entity called an OPTION that will hover over an agent's right shoulder.  These are also provided to elites if they want one. With two exceptions. When commands from the Manager start coming back very weird, he frowns... and once more attempts to hack into the mainframe of the facility to try and see what's causing this, and see if he can try to counteract the effect.  This /does/ force the agents/elites to use their own scanning equipment provided to them to try and make sense of what needs to go where.   So will the Manager come out on top this time..?  And what did Rook (not Lilian) mean about his eyes that makes him odd..?
Kukuru	Despite having few conversations together, Kukuru has had a soft spot for many of the Sephirah. Hearing that Hod's meltdown would finally be dealt with, then, is reason enough for Kukuru to show up bright and early for once. Or is it dark and early? It's hard to tell deep within the facility, but she arrives earlier than she normally would, and she's dressed for work in a sturdy-looking jacket and shorts combo rather than her usual frilly getup. Spotting Angela and Malkuth, Kukuru resists the urge to run over and hug the two, but she does wave excitedly at them despite the apparent unease on her face. It doesn't get any easier seeing Angela shutting down again, too, but she tenses her jaw while looking listening in on the conversation between the Manager and Hod. "Oh, Hod... It's not." She murmurs quietly, almost as if she's saying it to herself more than to anyone else. When she hears her own name, though, confusion springs up on Kukuru's face, and she listens again to the other information coming about what's going on throughout the facility. Hearing about the matter involving the ~~fan club~~ cult, however, overrides any thoughts she had about going to deal with the Funeral of Dead Butterflies. Instead, she just beelines for the area near Blue Star. She needs to see what's going on with those agents, with Blue Star, and Nothing There. It's her responsibility to fix this problem, after all. As she approaches and starts to see who's there, Kukuru takes a deep breath to steady herself, then calls out. "Kids? What's going on over here? Is anyone hurt?!"
Solty Revant	Solty has no real idea what is going on here, she just heard from her new friend that something was happening and so came to offer whatever help she can. She introduces herself to the others that join the group with a cheerful, "Hello! I'm Solty Reveant! Nice to meet you all!" before she accepts the OPTION drone and thanks Ishirou with a smile. She also looks a bit worried when Angela shuts down. Can Solty also be shut down like that? Even Solty herself isn't sure, but the thought of someone just turning her off is...uncomfortable.      When warnings go off and requests for certain abilities go out, Solty heads toward Punishing Bird. She is quite speedy and agile, and pretty durable as well. She should be good for this sort of occupy task! Whenever she reaches it she calls out, "Hey you! Leave those people alone! And please head back to your cell!" She really has no idea if this is unusual or not, but this does seem to be a dangerous being so perhaps a cell is the best place for it right now.
Timespace Riders	Sougo, as an obligate mute observer, still has moments where he feels compelled to speak--knowing that no one will hear words spoken on a road that's since lost sight of its travelers. It's like trying to catch sunlight, even knowing that the sun itself is responsible for the light.      "Michelle..." That was her name, before she was Hod. The golder-eyed man, Ayin, sounds like the Manager. Knowing what he does about the other Sephirah, he'd be willing to bet that he -was- (not *is*, the distinction is important in a place like this, even more than it normally would be), the Manager.      His fists clench, at the memory of Binah. If he wasn't sure it was her just by sight, the strategically selected words intended to hurt would seal it. Anger wells up inside him, mingling with pain.      That couldn't have been the only thing Binah said. It couldn't have been the only instance where Ayin's vision demanded awful things of her. People are bodies in motion; moments of great impact happen, but they're woven into a greater tapestry, not individual bullet points. To have a power like his is to see more of that tapestry than most people do--and as his travels through the dimension of time take him to the moment of her jump, tears streak down his cheeks freely. They would, even if he weren't in the presence of ghosts.      "Michelle..."      In the present, Sougo is much worse at concealing his temporal jaunt than he otherwise would be. Where before he was fine, resolute, now his eyes are red and his cheeks wet with the tracks of tears, even though he'd tried to maintain the same posture at the beginning and end of his journey.      Woz's hand finds Sougo's and squeezes it, tightly.      "I wish you hadn't felt that way. On that day," Sougo says, shakily, wiping his tears with the sleeve of his pastel pink button-up. "That it was *you* who had to apologize, and be forgiven. *That's* what isn't fair."      One pair of transformation sequences later, Zi-O and Woz are split up.      Woz, in the agile SHINOBI armor, handles the Punishing Bird as he had before, intending to tire it out by putting his speed and nimble feats to use. He is a green and silver blur, the armor's iconic purple scarf billowing past him as he runs along walls, intending to keep the Anomaly's attention on him and anyone else responding. When it seems like he might get caught out, the retainer makes a few handseals and disappears in a smokepuff, teleporting out of harm's way with the archtypical bamoo deer-scare sound.      Zi-O, meanwhile, in the ZI-O II upgrade form, makes his way to the Kukuru cultists. "Hey," says the Rider, his pink katakana lenses gleaming in the light of the hallway. "What's going on?" he asks the cultist with the headband. "Why are you getting everyone into a line like that? ...what does she mean, 'in here?'" The two pairs of clock hands over either lens, serving as the usual Rider antennae, stand at attention, not yet in motion but always ready to be.
Dysnomia	Dysnomia came from the warp gate as the time approached to engage with the meltdown. Her own lack of experience with Hod inspired in her neither disgust nor sympathy, her expression indifferent as the sephirah awoke and took control of the facility.     She rushed down the halls, when the instructions came wondering if she would even RECOGNIZE punishing bird, when she saw it.     Her wings sprouted from her back, and the actual walls and floor of the facility around her seemed to prove translucent and permeable to her body, as she ducked and wove through the air, walls and floors around her.     That was, at least, the plan. It would have been the smart thing. Just that might be enough, but she hated being told what to do. And as the bird came into view, she wondered...     She held out her hand, her telekinetic array purring to life in her suit, the air shimmering around the bird as she struggled to hold it. If she didn't hurt it, maybe it'd tire itself out if she just held it there until it got exhausted, too?
Captain Hook	Dreams are haunting things. The best of them are wishes that disappear with the dawn, leaving an aching, empty wistfulness; the worst of them are spectres that linger despite it as fear and sorrow cling to the soul. There are no dreams that do not haunt, do not linger, without even a taste of madness on the lips.      And this place is born of the madness of dreams. It's a place born of a cloying dream of a better world, drinking far worse nightmares to reach it.      William Hook knows dreams all too well. He's lived his life in an inescapable one. He's sailed other dreams to plunder them, too, riding the backs of flights of fancy and snatching wishes from ephemerality itself. Though he has never been to Lobotomy Corp, though he does not know the dreams being seen, he knows the taste of a dream.      He walks through the hall like he owns the place. His coat flaps about him like a dramatic cape, flowing off his shoulders in all the right ways. His cutlass shines like the the crescent moon, mirroring the shimmer of his hook-hand as it wheels a flintlock idly. A purposeful stride sends him along with boots click-clacking sharply off the floor as he goes.      He's heading for the Funeral of Dead Butterflies. He walks past the panicking agents as if he himself is barely there, swings the flintlock upwards, and on its rotation around his hook, yanks the hook backwards to pull the trigger and get its attention. Then he whistles.      "Ho, there, old boy; bad form of butterflies to dream to be men. Let's get you back where you belong, shall we?"
Touta Konoe	Greetings! Is this your first time having to deal with a rogue cyborg masquerading as a rogue AI? Yes, yes it was. At least the first time doing so in Lobotomy Corp. As far as first visits go, he probably would have tried to have had a more relaxed meeting, or to have been invited in a much more casual way. Though sometimes things don't always pan out as planned. An open request is all but sent out and Touta Konoe is one of but many who end up receiving it. Before Angela ends up being shut down, he's at least provided with that introductory information. The bare minimum that appears to be needed in order for him to assist in the situation. Still, since he's the new guy on the job he does find himself trying not to immediately jump right in. The Blue Star group clearly seemed like something that was something that was better left to those who were in the know, and Funeral of Dead Butterflies notice did seem to make it appear a bit out of his forte. Which left... "Punishing Bird...? Huh...?" It's definitely not something that he has familiarity with but he can see others are already starting to work on the job. The most significant he can pick up on thus far was Woz, attempting to run with the bird as an attempt to wear it down. Touta hasn't immediately jumped in yet, rather... "Oi, Ishirou, how do you use this thing to sca--" Before he can even finish he finds that a UI was already starting up. "That works too." While Woz is grabbing it's attention, Touta's taking a second to see what is the deal with this thing. How fast it's actually running. Any details that might be relevant, and...Also biting into his thumb a tad?
Petra Soroka	Petra's been at the facility all day, because she usually is nowadays. Hod's Meltdown is a scheduled event, so there's plenty of time to do her work for the day on Fragments of the Universe, be awkward around Cinder at lunch, head down to Extraction to pick up her new E.G.O. weapon, and then take the elevator back up to Training to meet up with everyone as they filter in.     Petra frowns a little at Angela shutting down on her feet again, but-- She's been through thousands more Meltdowns than we ever will, so it's not like she doesn't know her limits. But maybe I'll ask if she'd prefer something more comfortable next time. The Manager's voice from the speakers makes her expression twist from a worried frown into an irritated one, but without knowing what buttons she can push without causing problems for the Meltdown, she has no way of venting it at him.     As Kukuru hurries past, Petra calls out to her lackadaisically while checking her tablet for high threat containment cells. "What'd I tell you, Kukuru?" With her other arm, she's leaning on a spear that looks like it's made of black glass, speckled with bright orange and green to match her hairpin, along with streaks of gold-- the E.G.O. weapon of Fragements of the Universe: Pillar of Creation. Her lean, the way her arm wraps around the weapon and her shoulder angles over it, comes across as more protective than it does disrespectful to the tool.     Funeral of Dead Butterflies' breach is obviously the problem that Petra is most capable of helping with, the moment she's made aware of it, even if she'd like to see what happens with Kukuru's disastrous cult. Ishirou's Options spread out to the group of agents, and when one flies over to Petra while Ishirou is distractedly letting them assign themselves, she swings her spear at it and pierces it like a fish.     "It's not actually dangerous," She says to Cinder beside her, pulling the Option off the tip to drop it on the ground, while the pair of them take the trip to Information. "He's just kept up his streak of being useless to me long enough that I don't want him to ruin it accidentally."     Panicking agents aren't cured by Petra's skin-crawling aura as she walks by them, instead only receiving the unpleasant side effect of painful itching. For Cinder, and anyone else that Petra moves to defend, the itching surges in intensity, raw and irritating beneath the skin, every time that the stream of butterflies hits them, but with none of the corresponding harm.     Petra clenches her hand around Pillar of Creation, and rivulets of silver trickle out from beneath her suit sleeve to crawl up the length of the spear. When the Abnormality aims its coffin at a cluster of cowering clerks, Petra steps in front of it and blocks the butterflies with her body, then swings forwards with the spear, stabbing through the coffin and the Abnormality behind it.
Meika Kirenai	EARLIER . . .     The evening light of Kagoshima stretches shadows out earlier and earlier each passing day, as summer reaches its height and just carries on past. Humid air and sea breeze, car exhaust and tobacco smoke, hissing cicadas and static filled radio advertisements. The returning regularity of things like school make the days once more distinct enough to tell apart, even if the clouded haze that Meika's head has been stuck in for weeks isn't fading. Looking at her calender, these days, is an effortful gauntlet, but today she has a duty she's been looking forwards to, something to work at that maybe, this time, could lead to good- or just make up a little bit of the bad.     Her shift over at the coffee shop she spends her weekend afternoons working at, Meika's apron is unceremoniously stuffed into her messenger bag, and an old red thermos, littered with fading logo stickers from an ice rink, is filled up with lukewarm coffee she ought to have registered in at the till, before she hurries out to the train station with a wad of tip jar cash and coins shoved into her jacket's pocket. She's on a timeline to be long gone before her father is supposed to come by and deliver her home, and she needs the fare to make it to her city's warpgate, somehow- and this is for a good cause, so it makes it worth it, right? There's no cameras anyway. Nobody saw.     NOW . . .     Holding her shoulderstrap like a lifeline and her thermos like a trembling shield, Meika is comforted, for only a moment, by the familiar unfamiliarity of the Lobotomy Corporation. Curt nods Angela's ways, cautious sips of black coffee to fight back her lingering bone-deep exhaustion, and anxious foot tapping fill the time until the Manager is ready to begin. Her piercing red eyes, complete with a scowl she doesn't really bother to hide, linger between Ishirou and the crying Sougo- and, once the Meltdown is set to begin, to Hod. 'It isn't exactly fair for me to face this blame--to endure this pain. Not alone...'     Meika's lip curls at Hod's speech- twitching faintly, at the hundreds and hundreds of milligrams of caffeine in her body. "Are you just whining? What sort of penitance is that..?" She wishes she'd just thought, or just whispered those words, but they come out normal volume, even if the harsh expression on her face isn't mirrored in the pang of softness in her voice. Quieting herself with the tin-tasting coffee in her thermos, as the warnings blare out, Meika turns to head out, a crumpled-up piece of paper fished out from her bag, and its ensuing flash transforming her. Chevalier Vermillion is already rushing down the corridor, her hissing armored ice skates marring the floor with vibrant-glowing cracks. It's the same as last time, Punishing Bird needs someone to take it for a walk, and she's happy to play distraction.     Ishirou's OPTIONS go entirely unnoticed-- or noticed and ignored --by Vermillion, and by the time she's face first with the abnormality, her hockey stick held out in both hands, like a barrier, her voice is already echoing and jeering at Punishing Bird, the sound twisting and coming out as if it was said a full half-second behind Meika as she flies through the path of her skating acrobatics.     "Hey, you big lug! Keep your beady little eyes on me, chicken! I'll make you regret it if you don't!" She has, frankly, no idea if the bird can even understand speech, but it's not stopping her from trying. It's less embarrassing knowing she can make people forget she said anything in the first place, but she does truly hope it can do a bit of good.
Hibiki Tachibana	It's not smart at all to show her face here, right now.     But there are plenty of things that are more important than doing what's smart.     Hibiki is very likely to be the last person that actually gets here, stepping through the Warpgate already clad in her Symphogear. If she has any concern about walking into Lobotomy Corporation again--when she knows Petra will be here, when she knows Ishirou will be here, and that's at bare minimum--then it doesn't show on her face past what can be seen of it underneath her scarf. If anything, her late arrival was to minimize any reactions to her presence before there were other things to worry about.     She didn't need to be here to hear any of what Sougo saw in the past. She knows enough. She's felt enough.     But she'll be here for Hod waking up. She said she would be. That's one promise she refuses to break.     "Hod..." And the Manager, too. He finally worked up the courage. Now he just has to keep hold of it. While she has the chance, her eyes turn to the now-awoken Sephirah. "...It's been a while, huh? A lot...of things happened since then. I wish we had more time to talk. To you especially. But there's someone you have to do it with a whole lot more right now. And..."     Her head tilts up at the warnings--the 'unintended consequences'. "...I have to make sure I do what you asked me to. Just remember what Malkuth said. You're not fighting alone. Okay?" As much as she'd like to, every second she spends here is another second where she's /not/ doing that. So right after doing so, Hibiki takes off, sprinting down the hallways of L. Corp.     After what happened with Kukuru last time, she's not taking any chances. Plenty are already moving in Punishing Bird's direction. Petra is handling Funeral of Dead Butterflies, so... ...Plus, Will is going to be there.     Therefore, she's joining Kukuru and Sougo in dealing with the cultists. The whole situation with them really got this bad...all of them lining up to move into a containment unit...and is that...?     With a purse of her lips, Hibiki physically puts herself between the growing line and the entrance to the unit, while the other two attempt to figure out what's going on.
Angela	Ishirou tries to hack again! It seems that Hod is running some kind of SUPPRESSION FIELD that seems to act as a general debilitation for anyone in the facility. The Manager's orders aren't being intercepted so much as they are being expressed in an extreme way because of the active suppression field throughout the facility. It's certainly affecting the Agents, the Outsiders? Who knows. He could try and fight Hod for control over this system but... Ah, if it isn't Ishirou again. You're all work today. Would you like to have a chat about humanity? Sougo speaks to Hod. Hod says, "I betrayed them. I acted carelessly and people died. People who wanted to live. My friends. As much as I'd like to be the one apologized to..." "Do you think the people I killed indirectly would think the same way?" Meika whispers words that Hod picks up. "W..what? Penitence? I gave my life! Isn't that enough? I work so hard to prepare and protect the agents here, and still...they still haven't forgiven me...! Everything still goes wrong!" She starts 'crying' even though she has no tear ducts so she just sort of makes 'ahuhh ahhuhh' noises in an attempt to cry. It is maybe a bit pathetic. To Hibiki she says, "A..ah... that's...I was out for so long I... Malkuth... But it's so hard, what else can I do to be forgiven...?" "I.... don't know if there's an answer to that," The manager says.
Angela	Woz, Dysnomia, Solty, and Meika...AND TOUTA are all heading towards Punishing Bird. Touta can learn that the Punishing Bird tends to be docile unless activated by someone accidentally (or purposefully) hurting it. This might seem reasonable but it has a tendency to run underfoot and get in the way of people like it's a glutton for punishment. Dysnomia grabs at it and pins it, which only makes it more furious. It tries to bite at her, it tries to bite at Woz and Solty and--yes!--Meika but every time it's about to get close and CHAWMP someone, someone else is able to divert its attention and avoid another bite! Eventually, the Punishing Bird pouts and vanishes--returning to its cell. Hook approaches the Funeral of Dead Butterflies. "Shit shit shit!" Sal says. The Funeral of Dead butterflies shoots at him! He deflects it with his cutlass. The Funeral of Dead Butterflies shoots again. Once again it's deflected. Each deflected bullet slams into one of the floating butterflies, sending it tumbling to the ground like dead fairies with their wings plucked. "Peaceful death in one's finest hour is an unexpected blessing..." The Funeral of Dead Butterflies speaks, trying to reach into Hook's mind. "Some thought death would be a new beginning, but there is naught but the void after death. The employees here have no choice but to endlessly repeat. Do you not wish to free them?" It is simply communication rather than an attempt at control. Cinder is rushing to Hook's aid alongside Petra. As fellow agents of the Control Team it's reasonable for them to be working together. Before the creature can try and take another shot at Hook, she steps in the way--interrupting the communication, bracing against butterflies surging forth, and stabs the creature in the gut. Hook can get another swipe into it, sending the Abnormality back to its cell in the process. Cinder doesn't get a chance to actually HELP Petra directly but she does bap Sal in the head to try and snap her out of her panicked state--and to stop her from clawing her arms bloody. "You're a natural with that EGO, Petra." Cinder says, smiling grimly despite the situation.
Angela	Sougo, Kukuru, and Hibiki make their way to the Blue Star. It hasn't breached yet but the entrance way opens up for each clerk or agent making their way in one at a time. "No," The head cultist--Kukuru recognizes the voice as Jeff. "Miss Kukuru, I'm so glad you're here. Miss Kukuru taught us the way to escape. We will dive into the Blue Star and leave this place for good. We will be free, Miss Kukuru, We will not die. We will become a family of stars." Nothing There doesn't seem hostile either. "You said I could only eat bad people, Miss Kukuru. You said good people needed to be kept safe. They will be safe forever. You have a voice mail waiting. Goodbye." Jeff looks over to Zi-O and says, "Nobody ever returns from the Blue Star, it was nice knowing you." But Hibiki outright muscles her way out to the front! One person has already made their way in before she gets a chance to get in front. "Hey!" A cultist says. "Let us through! We wish to ascend through the Blue Star!!" * A hallway suddenly goes dark as Big Bird escapes--thankfully after Punishing Bird was returned to its cell. Big Bird is a giant black bird that holds a tiny lantern in a claw and has many...many...many eyes. It stomps through the hallway, intent on eating any agents or clerks in its path. Strangely enough, some seem to be approaching the Big Bird like they're welcoming this fate.... Extraordinary Senses *******, An EGO Weapon, Intrusion Immunity *******, Superhumanity ********, Field Shaping ********. These requests are getting wild... * The Singing Machine has a work being undertaken but it's actually possessing all the employees present! The Manager asks for someone with some degree of Control Immunity to interfere. A song to drown out the Singing Machine's influence on the other employees wouldn't be remiss either... The employees, smiling big and wide are about to go off and beat down other employees to feed to the music... OHNO seems to be struggling here, even with her earbuds. "Babadadoop da dee doo... o/~" *A cultist is about to jump into the Blue Star! "Shit...!" The Manager shouts. "The T2 Protocol is down, can someone get in there and rescue them?" Unfortunately they're already being pulled in--The Manager isn't sure what to do to rescue the clerk in time! Nothing There isn't hostile yet, but preventing their family from being 'safe' may make them hostile. "Please let us in, let us in, let us in." Nothing There pleads with Hibiki--and the others!
Ishirou	'Ah, if it isn't Ishirou again. You're all work today.' 'Would you like to have a chat about humanity?' Ishirou isn't sure about how to respond to that... of course, he does but he can't exactly take time away from what he is doing either.  He tries to hack, attempting to push on HOD's suppression field.  If he can't affect it from here, then he'll at least try and direct people to where the nodes can be disabled.   "I wouldn't mind, Carmen.  Excuse me if I seem a little distracted, but you are getting my attention.  Though what parts of humanity did you want to talk about?" he says, trying to keep himself under control.  The last time they talked he got part of his soul accessed to him.  Memories of a different person... life at its most horrible.   He takes a breath... right now the best course of action is engaging with Carmen and trying to find a counter to the field.
Captain Hook	Petra and Cinder arrive. Hook winks (which is an odd thing to see, considering he only has one eye) at them as he sweeps his cutlass through a field of butterflies, cleaving them all about him. He'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the falling faerie wings. A little bit of vengeance on a midsummer night.      The Funeral speaks to him as he pushes his way through the butterflies, and his lips push into a frown. He's silent as Petra stabs it in the gut, idly and reflexively parrying a butterfly as he thinks. Then, his foot wheels around into the thing's stomach to shove it back into its cell.      "Sell that rot to a man who hasn't died before," Hook says, his voice light and airy and playful, but his eye cruel and cold, and his finger trembling against his cutlass. He taps the cutlass against his shoulder, his face hidden by his hat and his hair for a moment as Sal gets bopped on the head.      "...still," he mutters to the cell, and leaves the thought unfinished as he turns away. There's a smile on his face but it doesn't quite meet his eye.      "Never a dull moment, aye?" He says playfully to Cinder, Sal, and Petra as he walks past them, already heading for the Singing Machine.      It's not as if he doesn't understand. Not as if he doesn't understand yearning to wake up from the endless grey, no matter the cost. Not as if he doesn't understand the taste of the muzzle and the gunpowder sharp as spikes on his tongue. Not as if he doesn't understand the miserable moment when the gun is cast aside, and the resignation to face a future in monochrome.      Resignation of a future that won't come.      He turns the corner into the hallway of the Singing Machine and bursts into a slow, methodical song.      "Here's forty shillings on the drum for those who volunteer to come, to 'list and fight foe today, o'er the hills and far away."      "O'er the hills and o'er the Main, through Flanders, Portugal, and Spain, King George Commands and we obey, o'er the hills and far away."      "When duty calls me I must go, to stand and face another foe, but part of me will always stray, o'er the hills and far away."      "O'er the hills and o'er the Main, through Flanders, Portugal, and Spain, King George Commands and we obey, o'er the hills and far away."      "If I should fall to rise no more, as many comrade did before, then ask the pipes and drums to play, o'er the hills and far away..."
Kukuru	EARLIER 'What'd I tell you, Kukuru?' "A lot of things." Kukuru calls back to Petra in passing, pausing briefly to make sure she's headed in the right direction. Luckily, teleportation means knowing directions is optional! It's also rather convenient so she doesn't have to look backwards. It helps keep the lumps from building in her throat too much. NOW With Sougo and Hibiki nearby, Kukuru can... Not necessarily relax, but she does feel a bit of the weight coming off her shoulders just knowing that they're nearby. It's only by a small amount, though, once she hears what Hod is saying, what the cultists are telling them, and (after Sougo brings up the door) realizing what's going on with Blue Star's room. She realizes that it's Jeff speaking, and she stops where she is. "J.. Jeff? What are you talking about? You can't just... Go in like that. You'll...!" '... to be quite clear, we are not entirely sure they are dying, but they are effectively... ''gone'' and beyond our reach.' If even Yesod didn't know, there's no way anyone here would know, either. It really might as well just be a death sentence for everyone that goes in. Rather than joining Hibiki in blocking people from getting into Blue Star's room, Kukuru instead opens up a portal and steps halfway into it. "You need to stay here where you're really safe with your family and friends and everyone else! Therey..." 'You said good people needed to be kept safe. They will be safe forever.' "That's not... I-I mean, keeping people safe is good, but this isn't..." Was this what Sougo was warning her about? And Yesod? "This isn't the way to do that, if it means they're gone. C-come on, there's still time to get stop this." She states with an anxious noise coming out of her throat, stepping all the way through the portal to get right into Blue Star's room and get to the cultist trying to jump in. "Hey, no. Stay out of there!" She shouts at the cultist shortly before grabbing at their shirt, arm, whatever she can reach to just yank them right back. Kukuru's counting on Sougo and Hibiki to keep anyone else from getting in, so it's just a matter of getting this person out before things can escalate further. "Jeffy, Therey, everyone, cut it out!"
Dysnomia	Dysnomia takes off in a burst of speed, flying through the halls like a bullet, passing through the employees in her way. It's big bird that she runs into first, and she lands in front of it, and the employees advancing on it.     She inhaled, turned behind her and breathed a line of plasma across the hall, drawing a line between the enraptured employees and the bird, creating a burning barrier. "Get BACK, idiots! If you won't be scared of it, then be scared of ME!" One of her hands malformed into a claw, glowing violet as she rounded on the monster.     The darkness was no object to her; all wavelengths of light were plain for her to see. She didn't wait, not for a moment; she lashed out, snarling. "Back in your damn cell!"     The savage swipes of her plasma-wreathed claws could have cleaved through solid steel like a jet engine through aluminum foil.
Timespace Riders	Woz lands from a nimble midair moonsault following the Punishing Bird sulking off back to its cell. "You are abnormally durable, it seems," says Woz to Touta. "It will prove useful, no doubt. Yet, have a care for Meika and myself--as you have seen, these Abnormalities often require unusual tactics to subdue." Mia is given a cordial nod by the smartwatch-(and ninja)-themed Rider.      >Are you just whining? What sort of penitance is that..?      Sougo will remember this. >Do you think the people I killed indirectly would think the same way?      The Demon King of time ovearhears Hod's response through the PA system, and answers in vehement kind. "Hod, it's true that... you have a responsibility to the memory of the people who are gone because of you," says Zi-O, helmet tilted downwards. A soft noise of steeled resolve, as his helmet whips upwards, pink lenses glaring at the speaker.      "But having that responsibility doesn't mean that you stop living! It doesn't absolve everyone who ever hurt you beforehand, just because you did something bad later! Why would anyone *ever* change, if they could just wait on the people around them to do something worse than them?" His clenched, gauntleted fist is thrown to the side.      He might have been about to say something else, but for Jeff's response. "*Don't* talk like that," says the Rider, as another Zi-O pre-empts the agent attempting to jump into the Blue Star, emerging from a pillar of pink light.      "If you guys leave... then *that* Kukuru will be sad," says the Rider, struggling to push the agent free of the Abnormality's pull. "Ms. Kukuru," shouts Zi-O, volume control at a premium as he exerts himself to such a degree, "Ms. Kukuru!! Please stop this! Keeping people safe by separating them from everyone else--no amount of safety is worth that! You have to trust that we'll do everything we can to keep your family safe, right here!"      Woz, meanwhile, moves to engage the Big Bird. Rather than directly fight it, he's using the Shinobi armor's scarf as a prehensile tool, flinging it outwards to have it extend impossibly. It wraps around agents that get too close (prioritizing the ones whose self preservation instincts are compromised), yanking and sometimes even outright tossing them clear.
Touta Konoe	There's a genuine surprise to see that Punishing bird's handled so easily, or perhaps it'd be best to say with a certain level of tedious effort by the others. The back and forth of the group to alternate receiving its bites before ultimately it seems as though it resigns itself back into its cell. It seemed like it was a thankful situation that it resolved itself so smoothly, clearly these Elites definitely had experience when handling these Abnormalities. "Eh, no, if anything you guys were putting in way more work that time...I was just running the ropes if anything. So should we be helping the others now or...?" Woz is given that remark as he tries to give those words. Though when it comes to those words of advice, He can already be seen shaking out the finger he had bitten a moment ago. And then there's the notice that more Abnormalities were coming about. He really shouldn't have said anything. There's a clicking of teeth at that realization, but at least Ishirou's POD is keeping him up to date on the situation as it's unfolding. Especially when it comes to Big Bird, the information comes in no issue. "Hey guys, if you got Ishirou's stuff, you're gonna wanna use it now!" The warning goes out to Woz, Solty, Meika, and Dysnomia as out from the ground a black fog begins to fill that portion of hallway that the Black Bird comes from. Even with the light it holds, within this absolute darkness of the black fog, it feels like a pitch-black night that only Meika's wall of fire seems to illuminate through, but not too far. Though perhaps the bird's sight was capable of withstanding such darkness, if the other agents or clerks were trying to make their way to it, they'd find that doing so with sight alone might be much more difficult. With the wall of flames as a deterrent, with Woz's support, they also find there are hands constantly guiding them along in one way or another. But never towards the Bird itself. Just constantly aimless inside of it. At the same time he could hope that all the Elites had taken up Ishirou on his support item, so that it wasn't as problematic...Otherwise... They could hear Touta's voice attempting to guide them through the darkness, so close. For the Big Bird itself. It's an odd phenomenon. With all those eyes scanning through the darkness it can feel it's definitely being attacked. Not just by the Elites...But what felt like the fog itself. As though it was legitimately forming limbs from thin air and just assaulting it. Stabbing into its eyes, attempting to knock out the lamp it held in its arm. Anything that could be done to debilitate it would be attempted.
Solty Revant	Punishing Bird goes away. Another bird escapes. "I-is this just a part of the meltdown?!" Solty exclaims to whoever is nearby, following after Dysnomia to the next monster. Solty has super hearing and vision, so she might just pick up on whatever Big Bird is doing to control the others. But, she doesn't have any way to counteract it. She also has superhumanity - plenty of strength, durability, and speed to spare.      She hasn't really had time to process what's going on with Hod, but hearing the others talking about it is starting to put things into perspective for the young android girl. She still doesn't have time to worry about that, though! Big Bird is actually trying to eat people! She leaps at Big Bird along with Dysnomia, throwing energy-packed punches and uses her super speed to place herself between it and whoever it is trying to eat. "Eating people really isn't nice!" she exclaims at it.
Meika Kirenai	Chevalier Vermillion, clad in her knightly armor that shines harsh and overbearing beneath the facility's fluorescent light, is once again almost dissapointed that the suppression of the Punishing Bird came to such quick an end- less so for the fact of it being done, and more so from a growing bitterness in how many allies there are to share in the toils. Only needed two of us last time... and even then... She shakes her head, as if it was an attempt at banishing thoughts that won't leave her.     Still. There's ever more to do. Always more. Her breath escapes her lips, trembling, but clad in her gleaming raiment, her shoulders stay squared and tall. Hod's reply to her earlier statement goes unanswered by Vermillion for a long time, but as she rushes through the hallways, her own voice echoing and rebounding as it must to reach Hod, her tone has shifted from softly derisive to hollowly resolute, even if she hesitates, regret building from having even addressed her. 'Penitence? I gave my life! Isn't that enough?'     "...What'd you die *for*? What'd it help? If- if you're going to repent, and sacrifice for something, you can't just leave it behind, you have to..." She falters. Words don't come, and her thoughts jumbles, choked out, and a hand reaches over to clutch her gauntlet tight, the metal bending with a creak. No more distractions. There's work to do.     Vermillion diverts, as others she'd just been fighting alongside move on towards the Big Bird, and she heads-- selfishly --towards where the warnings of the Singing Machine. Music isn't in her wheelhoise- sound and noise is. If it needs to be drowned out...     She wants to do it right. She's here to help, to be a hero, to be a Knight. If her own instincts aren't good enough to go off of, at least she can take a move out of her sister's playbook, and see if that helps at all. She takes a deep, silent breath, and looks around the region that the Singing Machine is affecting.     "No siren song will turn you! Vermillion Phantasm: Storm's Roar!" An echoing nova of sound, as utterly and horrifyingly silent as the eye of a storm, right at Vermillion's feet, but deafening further and further, inch by inch from her, radiates. Loud enough for ears to ache and bleed, for thumping sound to wipe out the wavelengths of song, to shake pipes and lights and jawbones. Energy builds up around her, encircling and spiky, as she approaches the abnormality, and tries to situate herself to neutralize it. She doesn't hear Hook's song, to go with it, as she approaches- she can't, really, as she holds her magic this way- but if she would, she'd feel guilty for providing the least-congruent accompaniment possible.
Petra Soroka	Petra looks down at Sal on the ground freaking out and thrashing, the point of Pillar of Creation sinking to the ground after Funeral of Dead Butterflies disappears. "I don't... have any SP-E bullets on me. Should we just..."     She glances down the hallway, considering leaving to help with something else, but then sighs. The thin outline of morphmetal on her EGO spreads into a coating, encasing the spear in a silver cocoon, and then it all dissolves back into her body as if it was pure morphmetal. Petra looks as surprised at this outcome as anyone, looking up at Cinder. "Huh. I guess that's what being so attuned with Fragments gets me. It's kind of cool, right? Does yours feel like it's... vibrating? Too? Do they all do that?"     Now with both of her hands free, Petra picks Sal up and hoists her over her shoulder, then grabs an unconscious clerk to do the same. "Could you keep me safe while I take them to the medbay?" Hook gets a smile back, with Petra seemingly unaware that his is strained. Funeral of Dead Butterflies' little speech didn't get to her nearly as much as it did to Hook-- or at all, really. <J-IC-Scene> Hod says, "I didn't mean for it to go so wrong... What can I do...? Even my Training doesn't protect them." <J-IC-Scene> Hod says, "The idea of being hated forever by anyone..."     While indisposed in a combat capacity, dual-wielding writhing-mad coworkers, Petra checks in on Hod in the radio. The trip over to Welfare isn't long, but it's long enough that Petra can put her two cents in. <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Well... I mean, yeah, at least you killed yourself about it." <J-IC-Scene> "That's better than most people manage to do."     Big Bird is roaming around Welfare, but with Cinder helping her, Petra is able to navigate through to the medbay to drop Sal and the Clerk off. Once they're situated, Petra scans the rest of the beds, still mostly crowded by incidental work injuries and Elite outings-- definitely going to need more overtime from me after this-- then swivels around to reenter the hallway and engage Big Bird.     She pulls Pillar of Creation back out of her hand, and the silver coating flakes off in iron-filing curls as she twirls the spear around to point it at Big Bird. The curls plink onto the ground, then melt into a thousand tiny metal puddles which all quiver and harden again at Petra's command. The sea of morphmetal flechettes lift off the ground again, and after Petra moves to push a dazed agent aside, they swarm into Big Bird to slice at all of its eyes at once.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Damnit--" Hibiki has only a moment to glance behind her towards the agent that got through, before the rest of them asking to be let in begin their pleading. Nothing There being in Kukuru's shape again is throwing her entirely off, but if she gets too caught up in that, she won't be able to do anything in time.     If things get violent, she's not sure what she's going to do. But she can't let the one who made it in just slip past her, either...!     Kukuru is on it, though, with the power of teleportation. As if Sougo, with the power of time. She only has two hands, though--and they're being used to ensure no one else makes it through. Can she trust those two to be able to handle it...? When the last time, she--     If she can't trust Sougo and Kukuru of all people, there are very few people she could. So Hibiki squares up her shoulders and once again face down the line, and the Abnormality leading them. Just words have failed so many times before. If it comes down to it, she'll have to use more. ...Wanting to run away to somewhere where everyone you care about can be safe forever sounds awfully nice. Really nice.     "...It really is way too hard, Hod. That's why..." She whispers to herself, before her voice picks up.     "If you care about Kukuru at all - the Kukuru trying so hard in there right now - then please listen to her! Family isn't just about--staying safe no matter what! It's also about relying on each other when things are too difficult to deal with! Ascending to some place where you'll never have to worry about being hurt is is too good to be true--and even if it somehow wasn't, that's not the way to really be happy!"     And so she doubles up her efforts to physically bar the way, arms outstretched to either side. "Hod, right now...is trying as hard as she can to work up the courage to keep facing things instead of running away again. I'm not going to stand here and let that happen here! If you can't trust me, then trust Kukuru--the member of your family you'll be leaving behind!"
Angela	What is a human, Ishirou? Is it a body, a mind, or a spirit? Or is it a will? Would you like me to make you human? I can't, yet. But would you like to make a deal? Help us germinate the Seed of Light and then you'll be human and free... Ishirou is able to eventually work around Hod's defenses and shut down the field. The Orders should go through normally now but... You want to earn it right? Meanwhile there is some discussion over the radio. Hod goes quiet as she tries to contend with this. Is she just running away? Is she just repeating the same mistakes hoping something else will be different? Petra tells her, you know, maybe killing herself wasn't the worst option and some people don't even manage that. Yeah, that spins Hod's mentality around three times and makes it dizzy. <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "... I'm just trying to understand how you feel. And I-- don't think the rest of everyone's advice comes from, that. Actually acknowledging your feelings." How does she really feel? That's what Hook is asking isn't it too, in a roundabout way, isn't it? "...I want to be a better person." Hod says. "I want to be someone they can like because ... they're so incredible, and driven, and I've looked up to them. I just wanted it to stop hurting to see them fall but..." "...A sinking stone can't rise to the surface again, so I thought I could sink to be with them again and that it could just be like old times. My nice acts...They were just for me." "Maybe they can tell that I just wanted to be forgiven and loved once more. Maybe that tainted my work, got Agents hooked on Enkephalin..." The manager speaks. "Hey, you know, Malkuth likes you. I..." "I'm sure you hated me most of all, Manager. Have you finally started to look at yourself?" "...Those dreams... they're my memories aren't they?" Hod seems to be relaxing some. "Mhm mhm mhm.... I think... I still have to try to be better. And it's okay if some people hate me for that. If my efforts can at least help..." Sougo speaks to those who hurt her before her and despite it all... "But Binah's another one of my victims in the end. I didn't tell her about the EGO."
Angela	"Not during a meltdown for sure," Cinder quips to Hook as he (and Meika) make their way to the SInging Machine. Hook goes into facing the Singing Machine Directly and endures the song's temptations while overpowering its song. Meika, on the other hand, unleashes a deafening storm. At first the agents and clerks taken by the Singing Machine start to freak out, they cry out for their Singing Machine, they long for that salvation--but as the connection is wholly severed, they calm down and realize--just how close they've become to being food for the song. OHNO offers Hook a fistbump. "Badadadee da da shaboww." OHNO says to him gratefully. Then winks and hums the very song he was singing, traipsing along to her next work. Touta tries to provide some assistance for the agents hunted by the Big BIrd. Some will listen, but others keep traipsing forward. The lantern pushes through the fog, but the Bird doesn't slow down. "TWEET." The Big Bird says. Touta rushes in, stabbing at the creature's eyes. This does at least slow down its approach. He's about to go for the lantern... But after a few good stabs, the Big Bird rears back with its beak and CHOMPS down on Touta's head before he gets the chance, ripping it free from the rest of his body and swallowing it down its gullet. TOUTA KONOE: DEAD?? Solty might just get a nice view of this. With her extra-senses she's able to get in the way of the Big Bird's next meal--and she likely would have been it herself had it not been for Touta--but the Agents can't get past her since she keeps busting in the way of their approach. The barrier of fire that Dysnomia certainly helps--and she even overrides the effect of the Big BIrd by terrifying the Agents away from HER and causing them to run further into the facility. Hopefully it'll be okay. Either way she gets a few good swipes in with her claws. Woz flings away any Agent that is still approaching the Big Bird after that and that seems to handle the rest of the Agents from getting CHOMPED on. Cinder and Petra arrive. Petra is able to blind the rest of the eyes, giving Cinder an opportunity to unleash a burning swipe across its face without fear of being pecked--giving Dysnomia the opportunity to finish it off with her claws, sending it back to its Cell.
Angela	MEANWHILE...at the Blue Star... Hibiki, Sougo, and Kukuru have a tricky situation to deal with. Hibiki continues to bar the way, spreading her arms out ride that (for now) prevent anybody new from throwing themselves into the Blue Star. This distresses Nothing There considerably and they make fretful noises. "I'll bake you a cake if you let them through... I love you?" "I'm really thinkful to you, Miss Kukuru." Jeff says. "You taught me what it felt like to be safe. To be cared for. I had actually totally forgot about that, Miss Kukuru. But now thanks to the other Miss Kukuru, I have an out! It's...different. But different isn't really bad is it?" Jeff seems confused by Kukuru's words. "Huh? But.." Nothing There is also befuddled. "I am.... Not Miss Kukuru? But... We Listened. We Had A Voicemail. Aaaah! aaaah!" Kukuru steps in to help, the Agents here aren't strong enough to stop her from going in. She reaches out and grabs Ya-Boy--the very Agent who was about to throw themselves in! ...Unfortunately she's starting to get pulled in as well as the Blue Star's heart pulls and pulls and pulls with intense gravitic pressure. Ya-Boy's body starts to twist and warp and-- TIME LOOP Sougo is there in a flash and shoves all three of them back out the door, the cell shutting itself after. * It's time to work on the Happy Teddy Bear! The Happy Teddy Bear needs to be loved. Someone needs to love the Happy Teddy Bear. Someone needs to hug the Happy Teddy Bear. The Happy Teddy Bear sometimes hugs too hard and CRUSHES its friends to paste. This makes the Happy Teddy Bear sad so at least Toughness*** is really needed so it can make a friend it doesn't murder! * Hey, remember when Angela released that Express Train to Hell so Cinder, Yuri, and Sal could jump off that train to get on the Infinity Train? Well, the Ticket Booth has started to light up and "CHOOOOO! CHOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Suddenly the train is heading all across the facility! It's gonna just RUN a whole level over soon! The Manager asks for Speed *** in order to get everybody out of the way in time! It's heading straight for the Information Department where M.O.M and Chewie just got finished taking down the Fairy Festival while everybody else was busy with other Works! * The situation with the Blue Star is deteriorating. This is the last chance to calm down Nothing There before they go berserk and try to kill everyone in the facility.
Petra Soroka	<J-IC-Scene> Hod, nervously, "Did you feel...worthless?" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "... I'm just trying to understand how you feel. And I-- don't think the rest of everyone's advice comes from, that. Actually acknowledging your feelings." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou to Petra, "You... are? That is so awkward..." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Die." <J-IC-Scene> Captain Hook clucks his tongue. "Might you not?" <J-IC-Scene> Captain Hook says, "Mayhap we focus on helping and not each other." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Yeah, no problem. If he says another word to me I'll just go back up to Control and impale him, rather than arguing." <J-IC-Scene>Captain Hook laughs. <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Just immediately does the thing..."     People overcomplicate Petra's internal processes. She's not, really, that hard to understand. Petra directly says what she's thinking, what she's planning, what her boundaries are, and usually does so as truthfully as she can. People not believing her when she says them isn't actually complexity on her part-- it's just an ingrained assumption that no, no one could possibly be that predictable. No one bothers to read the fucking manual.     Petra said that she was done bickering and that if Ishirou talked, she'd stab him. It's an unfair ultimatum, disproportionate as always, designed to give her the last word-- but still, she'd fully intended to stick by it. And Ishirou talked.     "Stay safe, Cinder. I'll be right back."     Once Big Bird is suppressed, Petra silently turns around, ignoring the Manager's new set of callouts. Behind her, trailing behind like a comet streak on the ground, growing every second with the drip-stream from her arms, the tide of morphmetal follows Petra as she trudges to the elevator, boots scraping on the ground. I wish I had my gunblade. It doesn't fit on her uniform, without her jacket-- it feels *weird* to be without her jacket, but it just looks awful with the suit, and the damage from Abnormality work and suppressions always threatens to damage it.     At least she's got her revolver strapped to her hip, one of her vast array of birthday pistols on her ankle, the spear in her hand, and the ocean of bristling quicksilver behind her. Running through the list is comforting, keeping her mind occupied while she taps her foot impatiently in the elevator headed up, away from all the breaches. Her fists work too, really, though that metal suit of his is a hassle. If she could peel it off of him, she could just grab his face and squeeze until it crumpled inwards... would it be more like crushing a can, or actually like a skull?     Dimly, Petra thinks about that nameless Paladin messenger who came to her cell shortly after Dimo turned her. The way all these kinds of thoughts came to mind back then, and she made herself sick fighting them off. But they weren't really new, even then, were they?
Petra Soroka	The elevator opens into Asiyah, and Petra steps out, her humming almost drowned out by the shriek of her reactor. Approaching behind Ishirou as he interfaces with the facility's communication network, Petra flicks her spear out to her side, and the morphmetal parts into two streams on either side of her. With a single motion, she lunges forwards to shove Pillar of Creation into Ishirou's lower back, at the same time as the split streams shoot up into a fractal, irregular net of quivering fencing around the pair, caging Ishirou in if he tries to run.     "What the fuck did I say, Ishirou? Why the fuck can't you listen? Over, and over, and over again, I tell you the *exact* fucking line not to cross, and you just can't help yourself. Can't fucking stand not getting the last word. Can't stand poking, and prodding, and *bitching*, about every little thing you don't like."     Leaving the spear stuck inside him, Petra uses her other hand to draw her revolver, loading the moon clip into the cylinder with the help of a morphmetal pseudopod. "You, of *all people* should know that I fucking *mean it* when I say something like that. I'm not *fucking* letting you ruin this Meltdown. Not for me, not for Hod, not for Angela most of all."
Captain Hook	Hook clamps down on his hat as the storm of silence sweeps over him. He tilts his head back so his good eye can see Meika, and he smiles at her. Clearly he's not especially bothered that his song got overwritten. Probably because he has something else to focus on, with Hod.      As the silence passes, Hook sheaths his cutlass and pats Meika on the shoulder with his good hand. "Fine work, lass," he says. He's thoroughly puzzled by the fistbump from OHNO, but, you know, give him a break, he's from the early 1900s. It's an awkward return but a return nonetheless.      He turns around and looks up at the ceiling. A siren song. "Ought to make wax standard operations 'roundabouts. Or, mayhap, at least read your Homer."      Then he sighs. "Hod, my lass, you don't want things to stop hurting."      He strolls out of the hallway Meika's in and starts walking into the elevator, talking to the air. "It's when things stop hurting that they become intolerable. It's when even pain stops being colour that the world is at its worst." He holsters the flintlock he's been spinning in his hook hand and presses a button on the elevator. "It hurts because you want to be better, and if it stops hurting, it's because you've stopped wanting to be better."      "Let it hurt. The colours on the other side of pain are so much sweeter, you'd be a fool to give it up."      Hook taps his hook hand against the wall. "Take it from me, lass. Grey isn't a colour worth living in."      The door to Information opens. The sound of the train roars in his ears. Choo, choo. The pulse of the wheels. 'Round and 'round they go, and 'round and 'round he goes, all the way back to his youth, to the starry-eyed gaze of a boy riding from London for the first time.      "Ah," Hook says as the train gets closer, "Now you, you bring me back."      He's not fast. He's not strong. He's not tough. William Hook is, for all intents and purposes, a perfectly ordinary human being - not someone who can swiftly clear a group or face down a train and stop it with brute force.      "But," he says aloud, bracing his hat with his good hand, "God forfend the day Captain William Hook cannot keep time with a train's wheels."      He holds out his hook-hand.      He steps slightly to the left.      He catches his hook on the train's door and swings aboard in time with the rhythm of its engine, and makes for the controls to wrestle it into place.
Ishirou	Ishirou is still locked into the system, still trying to do his best to keep Hod from confusing suggestions and readouts, despite everything he's doing a good job, and managing to keep a conversation with Carmen... despite the question she asks him.  His eyes go wide as he skips a bit, but regains control seconds later... though for computer time is significantly longer.   'What is a human, Ishirou?  Is it a body, a mind, or a spirit?  Or is it a will?' He doesn't have an answer to that, no matter how much he tried to get one, he couldn't ever find a concrete answer.  But... that's alright, isn't it?  "I don't know, Carmen.  All of them?  Some of them?  None of them... it's some combination?  Or maybe there is something /else/ we can't see that makes us human..." he pauses, "It's why I'm trying to find out.  I want to know and be one..." 'Would you like me to make you human? I can't, yet. But would you like to make a deal? Help us germinate the Seed of Light and then you'll be human and free...' 'You want to earn it right?' "I..." he pauses, it's a difficult question.  A difficult request... "I..." THRUST Ishirou is forced out of the system due to significant damage to his unarmored body.  He slumps forward, impaled from the back while Petra is getting the gun ready.  She has... no idea what she just cost him... He coughs... dark fluid escaping from his wound and his mouth.  His hand grabs the spear... and with a bit of effort tears it through his body and out again.  He screams in pain, agony... but nothing could compare to the agony he just went through having lost another chance.  He looks at her, with every ounce of hatred he can muster.  She can /feel/ his hatred at that moment.   "You won't do it to me again," he says, fear and terror, but also that anger and hatred seething off of him.  A target to put all of those complicated feelings.  A singular point.  He turns, his hands shooting out and armor starting to coat him as the RESCUE is activated.  Energy flies, attempting to mess with her heat systems, attempting to simply turn them off.  Attempting to make it the more she uses her reactor, the more dangerous it'll be to continue. "It wasn't a prod.  I /do not understand/ you.  You and your hateful tongue, and your absolutely horrid remarks.  Your violent attacks and overreactions.  You make no sense to me, and I am tired of being on the end of your attacks... and this time you don't have a warcrime to do your work for you."
Solty Revant	It is lucky that Solty knows Touta, because if she didn't seeing his head eaten would really really disturb her.      As it is, it only just really disturbs her. She gets a pretty grossed out look on her face after seeing that. "T-touta!!" She knows he will probably be okay, but...losing a head is usually pretty serious so she is still very worried. Not to mention feeling a bit sick from seeing a head eaten. "Hey! Give that back!" she demands, her fists clenching. Both begin to glow in an odd yellow-orange light and seem to blur as if vibrating. She dashes forward, delivering an energy-packed punch to the creature's belly in an attempt to push it back and perhaps even get it to cough Touta's head up.      But, would he even want it back? Can he grow his entire head back? Would he be alright after? Whatever the case, it seems that Big Bird is back in its Cell. New calls go out, and it sounds like one is perfect for Solty! She immediately heads toward the Happy Teddy Bear, making it there quite quickly thanks to her running speed. And she is happy to hug it! It looks a bit worse for wear, so she even feels a bit sorry for it.      Even as she is likely hugged to the point that her frame creaks and a few cracks appear in her skin-armor. "N-nng...t-too tight...!" she manages, still with a smile though it is somewhat strained.
Kukuru	At first, Zi-O shouting Miss Kukuru confuses Kukuru. She even looks over at him when he does, only then realizing that he's referring to... Right. Nothing There's name has changed, hasn't it? Because of her. Kukuru pushed Miss Kukuru in this direction, she enabled this cult to form by being too nice to so many of the clerks, and now... The cult wants to throw themselves into Blue Star specifically because of what she showed them. Nothing There wants to give them the happiness that the cult thinks they... Wait. Is that really what they want? Her gut tells her it isn't, but how can she know if that's just what she wants to think? Normally, just pulling someone in a direction she wants them to go would be simple enough with sheer physical force, but this situation is a little too different for her to rely on the usual methods. If she pulls too hard, Ya-Boy could be seriously injured before being sucked into Blue Star's heart! At best, that would only be a brief moment of pain before death, but... What if what's on the other side keeps them alive in that mangled state? Feeling that dread seeping back in, Kukuru wedges her feet into the ground to try and buy some time for something, anything to happen, and Zi-O makes the save before things get terribly worse there! Landing flat on her back outside of Blue Star's room, Kukuru winces lightly as she lays there for a moment, clenching her jaw tightly as she tries to hold it together. "What... Do you want an out from, Jeff? Therey? Hod? E-everyone?" She asks while getting up unsteadily, turning to the clerks and Nothing There. Seh remembers what Nothing There was like before she first met the Abnormality. Before she first tried to show them another way to exist. Stepping forward, Kukuru trips briefly on the way before running straight into Nothing There, wrapping her arms around the facsimile of herself. "What do you want to keep everyone safe from? I know getting hurt sucks, and the last thing I'd ever want is for any of you to get hurt, but... Being separated like this won't make anyone happy, either. I want you all to be happy, alive, and together! Going into who knows where, without even knowing where you'll end up, or if you'll ever be able to see anyone else again..." Her hold on Nothing There tightens, but she keeps her gaze fixed on Jeff, Ya-boy, and all those clerks gathered. A small part of her is bracing slightly, but the rest is just waiting. Expecting. Hoping that perhaps the Abnormality can be trusted to understand. "I don't want you leaving everyone else behind, either. Families are supposed to help each other through the hard parts of life so they can enjoy the good parts together, and not just leave or make things harder for each other." Her grip on Nothing There loosens just a bit, and she looks at her own face. "Stay here with us. Please."
Timespace Riders	"In a manner of speaking, yes," says Woz to Touta. "During a Meltdown such as this, swift and decisive action is necessary. Stay moving, always, from one Abnormality to the next, until all are contained. Prioritize those your talents recommend you to--" Touta is dead. "Ah. How unfortunate." Woz is really kind of shitty with people outside his guard, as it happens. >But Binah's another one of my victims in the end. I didn't tell her about the EGO.      Zi-O's moment of relief over having saved the agents from the Blue Star is short-lived. "What are you waiting for, Hod?!" he shouts at the PA. "For some... hearing, where you're brought before some kind of court and finally tried, finally found guilty or innocent? Where the books *finally* get balanced and you can know for good whether you're forgiven or not? Guess what!" An armored palm slaps against the black-silver breastplate angrily.     "*I* had one of those! And it was exactly as humiliating and painful as I thought I deserved, and do you know what happened the next day? -Everyone- still had lives to go back to! *I* still had a life to go back to. Time kept marching, the world kept turning!"      "There *isn't* any closure," he says, "There's no grand gesture that you can make, that'll give you everything you think you want! There's just... you, and other people, and whether you decide to be good to each other or not! Maybe you never get forgiven. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you remember, what you said, just now--that you'll try to be better than the day before."      Zi-O II's helmet sweeps, slowly, towards the Abnormality Kukuru. "You can protect people without taking away their ability to be hurt." The Rider's helmet dips down. "In fact, I'd go as far as saying you *can't* protect people by taking that away. It isn't protection--it's a cage, and that's what it'll be no matter how prettily it's painted."      Meanwhile, Woz... heaves a heavy sigh, following the announcement of a certain Abnormality's breach. His shuriken-bedecked pauldrops dip dejectedly. At present, he's well suited for this, and he loathes it. He reaches for another Miridewatch--this one bearing the wrench-adorned visage of a robotic warrior.                       Hakai! Gokai! Futurering Kikai! KIKAI!                            "Ahem," says the retainer, approaching the Teddy Bear, arms held wide. His armor has shifted, with his cuirass notably bulkier and golden in hue. His pauldrons are square, bearing cameos of wrenches, while the usual rider antennae on his helmet are represented by crossed golden wrenches. With every weighty step, mechanical motors can be heard whining, and four golden, clawed manipulator arms sprout from his back, held just as wide as his arms, in invitation for a hug.      "There there." Crushed 'to bits' is unlikely to happen, but the armor will certainly groan and squeal in complaint, tested to its absolute limit by the Abnormality's doting strength. He can only hope that Solty will be of some use in mitigating the crushing strength.
Dysnomia	As her claw cleaves through the bird, Mia growled softly to herself, frustration writ plain on her face. "What are they even doing! It's like they WANT to die." She said to Cinder, Woz and Solty.     She stared at the place that Touta had stood, for a moment. Her expression fluttering. Dysnomia hadn't known him. She didn't really care about him. But the irritating little tourist was dead, and she wasn't sure--     --Alarms kept buzzing through her suit. She grimaced, turning away. Her wings opened, carrying her up, through the ceiling...     ...And she rises from the floor as the train screams through the facility. She grabs two handfuls of employees on the way up with a pair of oversized claws, and opened her mouth, pouring a cascade of plasma into the floor below her.     She dove, then, through the hole her breath had burned, trying to drag the employees away from the train, kicking and screaming, after her.
Touta Konoe	Within the fog there likely wouldn't have been little worry for the sounds of a head being torn off its neck and swallowed down a gullet. To most, it likely wouldn't have been noticed, especially by those handling the other matters at the time. Though that wouldn't involve every member there having Ishirou's gear or some level of gear to see what unfolds. And well, likely spotting as a young man being decapitated is probably somewhat traumatic for anyone. It really would be something tragic. It's just that... It's not in his desire to leave that kind of scar on the girl. So he wouldn't...Or he would have liked not to, but... While at his peak, something like this could have been regenerated at such speed that one might have even questioned if he even had been decapitated in the first place. Even if it doesn't show outwardly, he's not exactly in tip-top shape at the moment. There is that brief moment of a decapitated body lingering for anyone with Ishirou's gear might catch. Just standing up right within the fog as if there had been no issue. Though only for a few moments before it starts fading away...His body...Vanished from within the mist. What's more, even when Solty attempts to force the head out of the bird's gullet well...Even before the thing had swallowed it felt as though his head had simply dissolved? Faded? Regardless, if there are heads she's hoping to retrieve it likely won't be Touta's sadly. Maybe one of the other agents perhaps? One could at least call it a win that she did know him well enough to know not to worry too heavily for him. At least comparatively to the others "You are abnormally durable, it seems," says Woz to Touta. "It will prove useful, no doubt. Yet, have a care for Meika and myself--." It's hard to say if he truly is durable, or just someone that's able to bounce back. Though after a good ten seconds after Woz's remark, Solty's punching, Dysnomia's fluttering expression and a moment where the Manager probably has to figure out if Touta Konoe's death is a liability to the company...From the mist he returns as if it's a respawn point or something. Albeit, for a moment he looks...A bit out of place, as though he's trying to collect his thoughts. TOUTA KONOE: ALIVE?? "Ah, right, Abnormalities...Always moving..." At this point, the teddy bear seems appropriately handled, and the issue with Hod appears to be dealt with by Hibiki's group. Which meant...He's on train duty too. While he doesn't have speed of that level, he can get himself around surprisingly quick when it comes to different points around the facility. In one instance at ground level, before the next appearing on the next floor. At least...When he's grabbing for agents and clerks on the path of the train. It seemed that whatever sort of teleporting trick he had wasn't too effective with an extra person along. Constantly repeating a cycle of appearing before anyone on the path of the train, trying to get them off the path, and then blinking away attempting to get to the next one down the line. He can't say if this is the best way to handle this, but he's at least remember Woz's advice to keep moving!
Meika Kirenai	Like fading to a trickle, Vermillion's cacophany of sound slows and eventually cuts off, once the agents around her and Hook seem to have normalized. A fistbump is offered to Hook, for helping- and Vermillion's hand grasps her own shoulder, as the gleam on her armor shifts, fading and twisting, for just a moment. You're not doing it for thanks, that's not how it works. Stop thinking about it. What reason would they, after how you messed it up last time? Her skates click silently against the concrete, as she turns on her heels and makes to move on. 'It hurts because you want to be better, and if it stops hurting, it's because you've stopped wanting to be better.'     As Hook passes her in the hallways, his words spoken to Hod, they're overheard by Vermillion, the girl's already defensive posture shifting more so. Her breath audibly hitches. Does it stop then?     His following words make her turn away, and make her clamp her hands over earmuffs, ineffectual, but the practiced motion is impossible to not latch onto, as eyes squeeze shut, equally ineffectual. Let it hurt? What if it's not worth it, and you don't get to see any sweeter colors, and don't make it to that other side? He's already gone, and she goes to wipe a metal gauntlet across her face- but it's not a jacket sleeve, it's cold and hurts to rub her skin against, doesn't clear her eyes, and she pulls it away, quickly. She winces, embarrassed at even thinking to try. Knights don't cry when they're hurt. They hold on, and stand firm.     Hurrying back into motion, to catch up with some of her lost momentum, she heads towards an access route further up above, aimlessly rushing through hallways, waiting for the next call until- 'CHOOOOO! CHOOOOOOOOOOOO!'     Her stomach drops, and her veins turn icy. The alarm notice that a train, an *entire* train, is going to run rampage through whole regions of the facility, is a matter above something hungry escaping, or a monster to fight. It's something with collateral damage, with dozens of victims. The kind of thing that makes news, the kind of thing to have statistics instead of names- the kind of thing that someone can still put a stop to.     They hold on, and stand firm. The thought repeats in her mind, as she cautiously tries to listen further, to hear the echoes of movement she expects an actual train to leave behind, and get close enough to do something. She's fast, on her skates, gauntlet-clad fingers grabbing into the corners of hallways, cracking wall material beneath her grip as she leverages her turns to corner just a hair faster. It's just rushing to intercept a pass, you've done it a thousand times before. Her heart races, as she slows, facing down the hallway where the echo is loudest.     I can't get them out of the way, I'm just me, but- She takes a steeling breath. -I can take it on myself. Crashing through the walls, the Train careens through, and her own eyes stare down at the oncoming abnormality, its horrifying bone-like construction utterly spine chilling.     But she doesn't just stand firm. Footwork twists, she pushes off against linoleum with a scraping hiss, accelerating *towards* the train, caustic energy building up around her, encircling her armor and audibly roaring out, pressure waves rippling the air. I'm strong enough. And I won't let you hurt anyone else. If I'm going to be good, if I'm going to let it hurt, then I'll-
Meika Kirenai	Her gauntlets stick out, fist-like, as she collides with the eyeball at the front of the train. A thunderclap rigns out a fractional moment after impact, through air and walling and bone and pipes, force jumping through her and into the monstrosity barreling towards her. Teeth set in her jaw, and she follows the impact, along the structure of the train just like the force flows. Intangible nothingness, for just a moment, the tearing sound she'd wrapped her body in ripping outward as she goes, through the eyeball and through the structure of the rest of the engine car. Intangible something pushes outwards from the inside of the engine car with similar force to what Vermillion's initial hit the train with, resonant and bitterly furious. She barrels through it, in turn, through and through until she's at a car she can form back together at, and *reel* from it all, as the pain sets in.     How's that for trying to be good...?
Petra Soroka	"It wasn't a prod. I /do not understand/ you. You and your hateful tongue, and your absolutely horrid remarks. Your violent attacks and overreactions. You make no sense to me, and I am tired of being on the end of your attacks... and this time you don't have a warcrime to do your work for you."     "How." When Petra's voice lapses into this deadened, flat tone, it isn't numb and distantly frigid like Lilian's gets.     "How do you not get it. You don't need to have a fucking model of my whole goddamn psychology to understand that I mean *stop* when I say *stop*. But you know-- I gave you one of those, too, and you fucking *gossiped* about it." Instead, it's rough and jagged, scraping like it bleeds coming through her throat, clattering from her lips like spitting up scrap.     Petra doesn't really 'use' her reactor, in the same way that Ishirou wouldn't use his heart if he had one. The imitation-sun housed in her core, thrumming through her body and infusing every tiny clicking mechanism with relentless strength, pulsing through synthetic-synaptic broadcasts to the fluid macroscopic cellular structure making up the morphmetal fencing outside, isn't something she 'utilizes' so much as it is something that she 'draws upon'. That is to say-- Ishirou lodged a data-spike in Petra's heart, and she doesn't know how to make it stop beating and slicing itself to pieces.     The reactor shriek doubles in volume, then builds even further past that, the sound causing teeth to rattle in employees' mouths down the hallways, loud enough to pierce down through the layers of floor to Solty's superhearing. The morphmetal warps and ripples with the noise, fence gaps melting and shifting around erratically while it tightens together to force Ishirou down. A morphmetal tendril wraps around the Pillar of Creation and throws it back to Petra, and she catches it in her free hand. The other one spins the cylinder of her revolver frenetically with her thumb, a twitchy tic.     "You keep saying war crime. Why. It's a fucking machine. That you fucked with to make worse, and then handed over to a bunch of dangerous idiots. You've done more harm with it than I ever did, you know? Where the fuck do you get off?"     "I can't believe how little you ever change. Everything you say feels like it could be from anyone, at any point in the past half a fucking year. How am I supposed to even see you as a person, instead of some... tumor that talks at me. I'll kill you if I want to. It's only because I'm too fucking *generous* that I keep waiting until you give me a new reason to want to."     Morphmetal absorbs Pillar of Creation back into Petra's hand, just for her to grip the revolver with both. She fires it into the ground, flipping up and over Ishirou, then uses a second shot to propel herself downwards, drawing Pillar of Creation back out of her hand to pin it through Ishirou's RESCUE with all that downwards momentum.     Seemingly unnoticed by her is the shrinking control she has over her external morphmetal, and the burning smell radiating from her chest.
Ishirou	"You act like /existing/ near you is a crime.  You act like any attempt to understand you is worthless.  You act like /you/ have never done a goddamn thing wrong, and heap abuse on me.  I /tried/ accepting it as punishment.  I /tried/ to understand it... but I /don't/.  Why do you keep heaping pain and suffering on everything and everyone?!" he shouts back, absolutely done.  "You just keep trying to hurt and kill me.  IS that just it?  Is your ENTIRE EXISTENCE about causing pain?" She comes down, and he's in a bad way trying to fight from a place of disadvantage.  She is up over him, but he can see her, she comes down with momentum and Ishirou moves impossibly as she stabs.  The blade cut through the upper layers of armor but bounced just enough so that it doesn't find purchase in him and impale him again, but enough to make a long and shallow cut across his chest and thigh.  He grabs the spear the moment he can while pointing another hand toward the center of her mass.   He throws enough physical force into her to move a very heavy object, trying to separate her from the spear and send her flying.  His eyes blazing in anger, but also in pain.  He's in a corner, he's on the ropes, and he's being threatened with death /again/.  "You're even here right now defending your pride instead of helping Angela.  I was even talking with /Carmen/ on the other side..." "But no, here you are making /everything/ and /everyone/ worse."
Hibiki Tachibana	Thankfully, we've all been spared from the timeline where Ya-Boy, and maybe Kukuru as well, fall victim to the Blue Star.     Which still leaves the rest of the situation to deal with, and it's only going to get harder, with Nothing There slowly losing itself in the situation. She sincerely wishes baking cakes was enough to solve every problem. ...She imagines the actual Kukuru thinks the same thing. If it were really, really that easy, if jumping into the Blue Star would solve everything--     Well, Hibiki wouldn't be here right now. She probably wouldn't have gotten out of Lance's ploys back on the Infinity Train, either.     "...Sougo is...right," she says, picking herself up from having to get out of the way of the containment unit trio having been tossed out. It's not towards the group here, but Hod. Maybe just a little bit, despite everything, she wanted--still wants, something like that to happen for her, too. Maybe she wants, expects, hopes against hope that Lilian and Petra coming after her for everything she blames herself for will be her 'hearing'.     The immensely humiliating, painful thing that everything can get better from, after she gets what she rightfully deserves and they get their catharsis. Is that part of why she refuses to let it be anything but a fight? It's so, so stupid to think that way. She knows that. She's seen it. The Kamen Rider is explaining it so aptly right now. But these tangled-up, mixed-together feelings of hers stewed and twisted over the majority of the last year really don't make a lick of sense. Whatever the future holds, will she be able to take a step towards it like she wants to before then?     ...Maybe she's pretty broken herself.     That doesn't have to go for Hod, though. Not her, who has already punished herself so, so much. "...Remember what we talked about? Even if we keep screwing up in all sorts of ugly, terrible ways trying our hardest...the only thing we can do is keep making them and struggling to do a little better. Holding the hope to be better people. I ended up becoming a worse one...and I'm going to have to live with that..." She admits under her breath, though not so quietly that the systems can't pick it up.     "...But time keeps marching on," she says to herself as much as the Sephirah. "So if you can bear people hating you and still try your best...then you'll get there, one day at a time. I think I'm going to end up playing catch-up with you," she admits, a second time. "...But one day. Even if nobody else thinks so, I want you to be able to look at yourself a month...a year from now, and see someone a little bit better than before."     Pause. "...And thanks for caring about me...again." She heard those noises over the radio. "That's why I know you can do it, you know?"     Of course, that still leaves the problem of the cult. Kukuru and Sougo have both said so much she can't really add onto, but she still steps close to the other agents while Kukuru has her hug.     "...She really loves you guys," Hibiki murmurs. "And the only thing she wants you to do is be safe and happy. For real. ...So please think about her feelings, too." She'll put up her 'hypocrite of the year' award after that one.
Petra Soroka	"Is your ENTIRE EXISTENCE about causing pain?"     Petra laughs, sharp and shrill and a little deranged, a dizzying reversal from her earlier deadpan. "God! Can you imagine if it was? I'd be leaving you *alive*! You're *so* much worse for the world alive than dead. You're one of the most disgusting, brainlessly harmful people I've ever known, here or anywhere. The Paladins are worse for having you, and everyone around you loathes you so much that you're genuinely a detriment on missions."     Petra fights to keep her grip on Pillar of Creation, harder than she reasonably should. She's equipped with other weapons, as she enumerated earlier, but she struggles against Ishirou's attemmpts to separate her from it with her entire body, even giving up on throwing any attacks in return, like she can't bear to let go of it.     "I *don't* make everything worse for everyone! I make things worse for *you*, because I *hate* you. All of you. I'd kill any one of you in a fucking heartbeat if it meant making Lilian's life a tiny bit better. Or Angela's-- don't fucking talk to me like you have any idea what helps Angela."     When Ishirou body-checks her, Petra still refuses to let go of the spear, to her detriment. The impact, absorbed entirely without knockback, ripples through Petra's body and carries through to the other side, knocking a spray of morphmetal out of her as her arm vaporizes from the shoulder down at the collision. The metal skeleton beneath, shaped entirely unlike a human skeleton, with branching supports spread through the formerly-present fluid base, is bent and twisted in the brief moment it's visible before the metal tide starts crawling back around it. Her other hand, on the spear still, slides back along its length, gripping so tightly that layers of metal are stripped away and streak down the hilt.     "You've never managed to help a girl that needed you. And that's what this whole fucking facility *is*. Don't you think it's *embarrassing* that *I* was opening up to Hod and trying to help her, while all *you* could do was antagonize me and make fun of me for trying?"     At this close distance, Ishirou feels the rapid build-up of heat from Petra's reactor, washing across his face with prickling dry pain. Within seconds, the exponentional scaling heat radation from her core escalates from 'standing too close to a campfire' to 'eyes boiling in their sockets', her sweltering presence quickly becoming unbearable. Heat pulses off of her, for lack of a heartbeat, surging and fading only because sensors and nerves overload and shut down at the unbearable sensation.     Petra finally notices when she twists her feet to adjust her posture and get a better position to yank Pillar of Creation out of Ishirou's hands, and instead of scraping on the floor, her boots slide across the sludgy surface of the melting concrete. "What the fuck?" When she looks down, she also sees that her uniform top is charring black and starting to crumble. "What the *fuck*?!"
Angela	"Oh, don't worry." Cinder says confidently. "No way I'm biting it ''before'' the date." Though in truth she's really nervous that she'll die today and she won't even get to see a really beautiful place and have a fun day in her life. She's not going to let herself feel invincible. She knows how that will end. "...You are too afraid to live as a human." Carmen tells Ishirou. "But you know, that's just how most humans are." But before Ishirou can give his answer he gets stabbed. Carmen's presence fades as he's forced out of the system. But she isn't going anywhere. Not yet. Angela might have stepped in to stop something like this but she's off. And Justin Rook is halfway across the facility dealing with Helper Bot and the Manager is struggling with Hod. As far as L Corp is concerned, it's not getting in the way of Petra--but nor are they sending any aid her way. Cinder would have but she was sent away. Yuri would have but she's with Rook.
Angela	Solty goes to get a hug from a giant teddy bear. It GLOMPS her lovingly. Maybe a bit too lovingly. But her GYNOID BODY can take it! It just feels a bit uncomfortable... Eventually it les go because The Happy Teddy Bear might hug for a bit too long and too hard but it isn't going to be , like, a total creep about it. The Happy Teddy Bear has standards. But one hug... is not enough! Not for a huggy wuggy bear like the Happy Teddy Bear! Woz offers himself up--he too...gets the HUG. He doesn't quiiite fair as well as Solty though. The armor does an admirable effort at resisting the Happy Teddy Bear's hug, but eventually the armor start to creek, snap, and distort as the hug just gets tighter, and tighter, and tighter...
Angela	Sougo and Hibiki speak to Hod but they might as well be speaking to the people here, too. It's the same, really. These people have lived hard lives in Lobotomy Corporation, they faced horror, every one of them has lost one friend or comrade that probably could have survived had they been a bit more careful, or more attentive, or more competent and capable. The allure of the Blue Star is gone. It is a path of escape. All they need to do is throw themselves in and they'll be free. They'll be... more than human. Or less than human. They'll be...stars. ''There isn't any closure'' Sougo speaks the truth. He tells her that all that matters is that she try to be better than the day before. Forgiveness is not something you can earn. It is a gift if it come to you. All you can do is be a better person and hope that a better story awaits you. Nothing There is hugged by the true Miss Kukuru. She tells them that being separated from the rest of existence won't help. Because there's another part that's important. Being together. Nothing There is distressed. It doesn't understand. It opens up its mouth and sloughs itself around Kukuru's head. They just need to engulf it. If they devour Kukuru perhaps they'll understand. Bite a little harder...They messed up again. Hibiki speaks to the clerks and agents. Their fervor dies down. They look a little uneasy. They know it's not exactly been easy for Hibiki as of late--maybe not everyone knows the full story, but rumors pass through Lobotomy Corp as it happens everywhere. "...I... guess." Jeff mumbles. "You've been so good to us, Miss Kukuru, always trying to ease our pain. If...you say that we need to be strong enough to face it. We'll try. If we don't get to be happy together..." Ya-Boy shrugs both shoulders. "I guess we can be unhappy together and that's not the worst thing right?" Jeff nods slowly and then says, "Yeah I--OH SHIT NOTHING THERE IS ABOUT TO EAT KUKURU." The Agents draw weapons, or stand back in horror. Nothing There senses something is wrong. The eyes spin around their head to look at everyone and... They pull back without devouring Kukuru. The eyes spin back around to look at her, tears in their eyes. And then they splatter themselves into a shapeless mass, swooshing past them, down into Dysnomia's hole, and deeper deeper through cracks and miniscule fractures until... NOTHING THERE HAS ESCAPED THE FACILITY
Angela	Hook does something metal and uses his hook to catch a ride on the train. His arm strains and is probably going to be INCREDIBLY sore tomorrow as he feels the sudden TUG of the vehicle on the rest of his body. He's lucky it wasn't torn off. Maybe it just wouldn't have been a good story. The Abnormalities are...sensitive to that in a way. But he is able to get himself onto the train and make his way towards the controls. The train seems empty outside of some spectral souls lingering about and minding their own business. They have no matter to them, Will can even go walk on right through them. It doesn't seem like anyone really has an ideal solution but Dysnomia can dig a hole with her breath. She might want to get IN that hole too before the train runs her over. Chewie and M.O.M drop down into the hole. "Is this deep enough?" Chewie asks. "Haha...it might just...tumble down upon us... But it's our only shot...!" M.O.M says. "...I wanted to prepare Rita a meal..." Chewie says softly. They crouch down and will hold onto Dysnomia, and each other, as they brace for impact. Touta teleports to throw Rose out of the path of a train--which he manages, successfully! He gets a clerk out of the way too, at the last moment, just before the Train SMASHES through him, splattering him across the front eye. Blood goes EVERYWHERE. TOUTA KONOE: DEAD AGAIN??? Meika tries something a little different. She hits the train--then BECOMES SOUND--the windows on the train SHATTER simultaneously as she rips through them, passing all the way through, tearing thick chunks of train apart. She makes her way towards the engine room and-- ...Hook is also heading towards the engine room. He begins the process for turning the train off course and hopefully into a wall or something rather than people-- She passes through the engine--then passes through right back out the back half of the train. The engine explodes shortly after, Flame--hellfire--erupts through the train and passes from the back of the train all the way to the front as it spins out of control, nearly crashing through our heroes hiding in the hole--and ultimately sending its numerous cars flying to pieces in multiple directions creating a smorgasbord of destruction as the cars go flying into walls this way and that. Fire lines the floor as massive damage is done to the Information Department in the process.
Angela	Hod is also listening. She listens to Petra. She's even listening to Petra as she argues with Ishirou, but she also listens to what Kukuru, Sougo, and Hibiki say to the Cultists--just as much as they are saying what they're saying to her. ''And thanks for caring about me...again. That's why I know you can do it you know?'' Hod doesn't actually need to cry. She doesn't need to shed tears. She can't. But she can make noises and she makes all sorts of Krathian noises as she stammers and stumbles over her words in a failed attempt to say anything coherent. There is no closure, but it feels like closure all the same as she says, "O-okay... Ahh.n.... I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Hod wails. "I... I won't give up again... I... I'll be better, for my sake, for the sake of those I hurt. Even if I'm not forgiven, I'll...live on... With this pride as a stepping stone." She makes a faint wheezing noise before saying. "I'll hold onto the hope that I can be a better person, I'll really do it. Not just words..." "...Yeah... I'm glad you're back with us... I guess that's what I have to do too." Hod's eye lights up. "Are you really willing to face yourself, Manager?" The Manager is quiet for a long moment and then says, "Yeah... I can't deny it anymore. I'm... I'm Ayin. Or at least, I was." "...B...but... It's going better this time, bit by bit--maybe we can get out of here together and--" "Ah, Manager." Yesod says over unexpectedly. The damage in the Information Department has allowed him to awake--and start seizing the facility back from Hod.. "Do you really think you can erase the past that easily?" Vid screens turn on across the whole facility (except, ironically, the Information Department). The feed shows the damage done to the Info Department. And the dead. Most of them are clerks. There's at least seven dead clerks (and Touta for sure!!) strewn about across the Info Department. Everyone's efforts were able to save most of the Agents (and some of the clerks) but two have been crushed into paste. Chewie and M.O.M climb out of the hole together, trying not to think about Nothing There that slithered past. "You know," Chewie says. "I used to think of human life as just ingredients but in that moment, I felt alive again." "Yeah no kidding," M.O.M exhales. "Looks like everything is fucked but we're okay--" Chewie looks around and sees it first. One of the facility cells have been ERADICATED by a train slamming into it. "Isn't that..." SOMETHING fleshy bursts out of the smoke and flame towards M.O.M. Chewie pushes him out of the way and gets speared through the back and through the chest. He looks down for a moment, "...Ah." He says, reaching into his pocket and throwing a recipe book towards M.O.M. "...I guess the ultimate flavor I was searching for..." He hacks out blood across the tendril. "...Was me. Look after...Sal." The tendril snaps back, dragging Chewie back into the smoke as something horrible makes noises in the smoke and dark. Crunching noises. Juicy noises. Noises indescribable. "You forget your motto, Manager. You can reverse time... But you cannot reverse a tale. Even now, your incompetence has resulted in numerous dead." Yesod's eye gleams. "Let us see if we can face the past, Manager." Chewie is dead.
Kukuru	What Zi-O says about the lack of closure, the pointlessness of hearings on someone's guilt or innocence in the things they do, all of that starts to resonate with Kukuru as well. There's certainly things she could've done better, more people she could have saved, people that didn't need to get hurt. Some of them are even somewhere else in this facility today, and others... She might never see them again, but she'll still carry that guilt with her. Hibiki, meanwhile,  addresses Hod and pushing through the hatred, and Kukuru's jaw clenches again as she tries to keep her own cool around Nothing There and the many agents/clerks in danger of throwing themselves at Blue Star, and at Nothing There. Kukuru feels the Abnormality closing in around her head, and there's a reflexive flinch and brief inhale through her teeth at the pain. She feels more of her body starting to get covered up, but this isn't the first time this has happened. After all, Nothing There did this when they met, didn't they? She can withstand this much just like she did before, if that's all it takes to teach Nothing There more of what she truly means. Hearing Jeff and Ya-Boy, Kukuru raises her hand from around Nothing There's side, palm open to try and signal that things are okay even if it does hurt a bit. She probably deserves this, anyway, for everything she's done to hurt everyone here. What Kukuru doesn't see, though, is the Agents drawing their weapons, nor does she see Nothing There's eyes spinning back around. She does, however, feel Nothing There stopping. She feels them pulling back, and she sees that look on their face with the tears and everything. "Therey...?" Kukuru only manages to utter that much in confusion before the Abnormality moves back, splatters into the hole, and disappears. "Therey!" Kukuru hurries towards the hole and tries to get a better look through all those cracks, but it's too late to catch up even with her teleportation. Kukuru steps back once, trips over herself, but doesn't bother getting up right away. She's going to need a minute to process what she's feeling about what she saw, what's going to happen to these Agents, and how much trouble she's brought to Angela again with all of this.
Ishirou	"How is anything you said helpful!?  Talking about how people you personally don't find worthy should kill themselves?!  I don't even /understand/ how it makes her feel better!  I don't understand how trying to understand someone through that lens helps /anyone/.  Time and time again, people want to hurt themselves and others..." "/I/ do not get it.  I hate it, I hate it!" Ishirou says, completely frustrated, both by Petra and his inability to understand how what she was saying was helping.  "More than that, why do you think everything I saw is some stab at you?" "But I'm done trying to understand you.  You keep trying to harm me, trying to tell me that my existence is less than yours.  It's not.  Nobody's existence is worthless, even yours." he points the spear at the melting Petra.  He could do it.  He could do it right now.  Nobody would blame him... He stops the virus.  He throws the spear on the ground in front of her.  He just can't understand her.  He can't understand it. The anger and hate from earlier drain out of him. "I hate you so much, I am afraid that every time we're in the same mission or room or just on the same radio channel you're just going to come kill me.  But I can't be you, I can't... keep being like this at you.  Lilian loves you for whatever reason. I won't hurt her again." "...I want this to stop, Petra.  I'm trying... I'm really /trying/.  Unlike you, I didn't start as a human.  I don't have my past life in me.  I had to learn everything... and then I fucked it all up because you hurt my feelings and gave it all up because I'm vapid..." he sighs, "I'm trying to change, to be someone who isn't weak and who hurts Lilian.  Who leans on her strength all the time but I'm /not/ a hero, or strong, or anything resembling someone who can.  I /want/ her to have a better life and be happy... so if keeping my life at risk because you have to hurt me to thrive to keep her happy then sure..." "I don't need to understand that."
Dysnomia	There wasn't any thinking involved. No logic or spiels of duty of honor or the sanctity of life or friendship. Mia's body simply twisted, her swing swelling to near its full size, one of her claws curling around Chewie and M.O.M and all the rest...!     She closed her eyes, her whole body tense, until all there was left to do was trust in her scales and hope...!     It wasn't the kind of impact she expected. There was a detonation, a scattering of shrapnel, tearing through her flesh and when Dysnomia cried out her voice voice was deep and resonant and almost a roar as they dug into her wings and side.     Her body shuddered. Shrank, until she was sitting on her knees in her own hole, hands held out to brace against the warped metal below. Her hair, loose in the chaos, fell over her face as she panted, and blood dripped down from her back.     "Fuck. You." She said to the agents, for lack of anything else to say.     She took a moment to herself, to breathe, as the manager and Hod seemed ready to make up, and...         The tendril snaps back, dragging Chewie back into the smoke as something horrible makes noises in the smoke and dark.     The corner of Mia's mouth twitched downward. She stared. And then--     A claw reached out back from the hole, pulling M.O.M. back into it. "Keep your head down, idiot!" She hissed, climbing back out.
Captain Hook	William's never driven a train before. It's more complex than it looks - especially when you've only one hand, and even more when one of your arms feels like it ought to have been torn off. He's very focused on unravelling how exactly to do that.      And then Meika just bursts through in an explosion of sound, and every window shatters at once. Glass sparkles in the air - a certain prelude to greater catastrophe. Will can feel his teeth vibrating as the wave of force runs through him. The cold metal of his hook hand trembles against his muscle. His arm, already sore, quakes. He stumbles backwards.      The engine explodes.      It's a rush of fire and glass and steel almost directly in front of his face. Stumbling is the only thing that put any distance between him and the explosion - without that it would have been lethal for sure.      Quick as you please William Hook's blade is in his hand. Fire comes roaring forward, and smoke, and the cutlass meets it, carving straight through the flame. Heat and pressure sweep outwards. His hair and cloak flap about him as the train disintegrates. Cleaving through the explosion saved his life from heat and pressure but not momentum - rather than being blown backwards he's still being carried forward at the speed of the now-shattered train, directly towards a wall.      All he can do is drive his hook into the ground as hard as possible and cling to his hat.      His arm practically wrenches itself out of place. It's certainly broken. He could hear the 'pop' and feel it come out of his socket. But better a broken arm than a smear on the wall. Something's probably torn and the pain is tremendous, but, well, it's not his first time at sea.      Will sheathes the cutlass and uses his free hand to pry the hook out, then pulls on his coat properly to use as a makeshift sling.      He's busy trying to right his arm when Chewie gets impaled. He starts moving, but he's too injured, too slow, to stop the *thing* dragging the man back, to stop the noise, the crunching, slurping noise, the horrible noise of a man being eaten.      His fingers tighten. His hat hides his face.      Can't reverse a tale.      His hand goes to his face, and he laughs. "Can't reverse a tale?" He says aloud to the air, to Yesod, and to the Manager, and to the facility as a whole, "Balderdash."      "Just watch me."      Hook's fingers drag along his face. He strolls forward towards the door from the tendril. He drops a plain-looking treasure chest and kicks it open, and pulls out...      ...a plant.      Then he kicks the chest shut and stows it back in his coat. "I am Captain William Hook, and I will *never* be a prisoner to a story again. And there is no story on God's green Earth that I will not challenge to spare others that same fate. I will rewrite, revise, reverse, and relitigate every tale in all the worlds until they end the way *I* see fit."      The plant smells so sweet. So warm. So delicious. So appetizing. Hook flicks it into the hole.      The minute the monster eats it, it will, almost assuredly, want to vomit up everything it's eaten. It's a poison, a fierce and terrible poison, the kind of poison you use to kill a dangerous monster to get the treasure.      This time, the treasure is a vomited-up, mangled corpse for Kukuru.      This time, the treasure is telling other people that William Hook won't suffer half-heartedness.
Petra Soroka	"I can't... keep being like this at you."     "Then *stop*. I've given you a million chances. I've given you more forgiveness than literally anyone else. I've been so *fucking* patient, I've *asked* and *begged* and *bargained* for you to stop being like this. You're not being 'like me'. You're being like *you*."     Petra takes a step back when Ishirou stops struggling, pulling the spear away. With one hand pressed to her chest to keep the charcoal remnants of her suit together, and the other protectively clutching Pillar of Creation close, it seems like Petra's anger dissolves more from Ishirou saying 'Lilian loves you', rather than any of his other pleading.     "I don't care whether you fucking started as human. I don't care whether you understand, or whether your feelings are hurt, or what you fucking aspire to or anything. There's literally nothing redeemable or likable about you to me." Morphmetal drains back towards Petra from all around the room, sliding over her upper body as a smooth armor coating to replace the charred suit. "But I'm not *asking* you to do anything difficult. I've never expected or wanted anything more from you but for you to leave me *alone*. Think back over how this fucking fight started today, and then reconsider your fucking words."     Petra looks queasy, exhausted, scorched from her own reactor. She was never melting-- obviously-- and the surrounding area was far more damaged from her reactor overloading than she was, but the energy drain still seems to have taken its toll. Or is that just because it's Ishirou, again, again, again, again, again, the same fucking argument.     "You seriously make me ill. Please. Don't turn this into a fucking-- healing moment, or something where you try to forgive me. Every time you talk like this, every time you fucking open your mouth, I feel like either you're hallucinating or I am, because nothing you say makes sense. I'm seriously, actually begging you to leave me alone, or I'll kill you however many times it takes."
Ishirou	"Alright. No more. Don't talk to me I won't talk to you. We'll leave each other alone," Ishirou says and just sags. He's tired of this, and running into the brick wall that is trying to understand Petra.
Timespace Riders	>Yeah... I can't deny it anymore. I'm... I'm Ayin. Or at least, I was.     Zi-O's hand braces against a wall. He's still reeling from the escape of Nothing There. He'd suspected, of course. To have it confirmed in such a way isn't surprising, but... it still elicits a complex mix of emotions. Part of him is still very angry at the man who was Ayin, for what he did in that time, and for what he built in that time. Part of him still thinks about the question Angela had asked. 'Are you brave enough to care about anyone?'     "CHEWIE-!" Too slow. He falls to his knees for his failure, only for Hook to come in at the eleventh hour, and reverse the tale. He takes a shaky, steadying breath, fingers scraping across the floor as his hands curl into fists.     Kukuru can manage, at least.     Another shaking, steadying breath, and he's back on his feet, slowly. "The past colors us, Yesod, but it doesn't control us. You can hold him accountable for what he did without writing off the future. Mia... thank you, for keeping M.O.M. safe."     Woz struggles with the Happy Teddy Bear--"That will do," is what he would say, if he were capable of speech. What comes out instead is a nonverbal wheeze, a raspy sound only recognizable as human for the distinct presence of vocal cord within it, rising above the whine of smoking motors.     The armor can only withstand so much before a sound like the shearing of metal pierces the air. Woz is ejected from the armor, and with the scant second of time he has, he immediately flings out his scarf, teleporting away from the bear and vanishing into a single point. The scarf billows outwards a moment later near Zi-O.     Carried on the current of air disturbed by his teleportation are several loose pages from the book he always carries, billowing and flitting away.
Dysnomia	"Oh shut up!" Dysnomia scowled at Zi-O. "They were in the way."
Solty Revant	Solty sounds like the breath is being squeezed out of her, but luckily she doesn't need to breathe. When the bear finally lets go and goes to hug Woz instead, Solty looks a little worried. So, after giving them a few moments to hug, she reaches to take the bear's arm. "Hey! Uh...show me your room! I bet a cute bear like you has a great room, right? A-and, I could use another hug on the way!" she says, trying to get it to release Woz. But, Woz makes his own escape, which relieves some of the worry!      The sounds coming from the facility and the people in it are increasingly worrying, and Solty realizes she is just hugging a bear while people are getting hurt elsewhere! But, she can't just leave the bear if it would end up hurting other people! And she isn't one to take the route of kill the bear to solve the problem! So, instead of waiting for the bear to direct her or for something else, she tries to just...lift the bear. She can lift an 18-wheeler with trailer, so surely a big huggable super bear is no problem, right? That would make it easy to get back to its Cell. Which she'd ask the nearest agent or clerk about.      It would certainly be a curious sight. A short, skinny girl who looks somewhere between 16 and 18 carrying a giant teddy bear over her head through the facility.      Once the bear is back in its Cell, Solty makes her way to where Chewie was lost and the train crashed. She hasn't said anything to Hod or the Manager so far, but as the voices over the intercom come through she smiles a bit. She's about to say something when Yesod speaks up. She listens some more as she runs, and skids to a stop as Chewie's body is recovered. "I don't know if you can actually reverse a tale, but you can always add a new chapter!" she says, then blinks. "...Touta...?" she says quietly, realizing she doesn't see him. Was she wrong thinking he would be alright?! And there's someone else she was unable to help, someone named Chewie! And several clerks on display on the screens!      Solty's long green ears droop, and her fists clench. "...okay...this Meltdown thing needs to end now, before more people get hurt!"
Touta Konoe	"Move it!!!" It's the briefest words he offers to Rose before he's forced to move them off the path, it's abrupt, but getting out of the way is, getting out of the way, even if it's rough. Touta's visage fades from her vision as if she had blinked and he was all but gone. If their eyes had scanned the room, Rose might have seen the same person moving another clerk from out of the train's path before... *SPLAT* The young man experiences disappearing in a completely different form as blood splatters from the path of impact. With how fast the train's moving it's a question if he even felt what had happened, the impact so abrupt that it was a question on whether his body had simply just liquified on such impact. One could say if they didn't know him that he had basically sacrificed himself for that clerk, no? A gesture that could have even been considered noble. To put your life on the line not knowing if you'd come out of it or not. It does raise one question though, does such sacrifice diminish if after the fact he ends up alive, perhaps even looking unscathed at the end of it? Regardless of the answer, it seems the death count for today was going to be off for more than a few reasons. From the rubble of one of the train cars that had ended up flying this way and that, Touta Konoe ends up pulling himself from the rubble. Something that Solty can be relieved to see if she had been taking the time to check to find where Touta had gone about. "Ugh, okay, still not as bad as the dar--" TOUTA KONOE: ALIVE AGAIN??? All a sudden he finds himself cut-off as peril still persists, the sound of a tendril reaches out while Touta's trying to collect himself again. From his revival, his head was still cloudy as he's only able to process the sight before him at the last moment, "Wait, stop!" A hand reaches out as if hoping a tendril of his own would attempt to stop the creature, but no such thing happens. He doesn't know of Kukuru's ability to bring others to life, so the thought of going after it doesn't even cross his mind. Only the sounds of the crunching and gnawing. His hand slowly drops only to see the Captain's efforts after the fact. It's...A good ending there, one that even he can appreciate despite his thoughts on the guy. However... Looking back at the scene, it's clear. There were plenty more people that died, plenty more that he's not sure are coming back. There's a small breathe that escapes his lip as he decides what to do next. "Hey! If you're alive and need help, or know someone that does say something now!" He was going to handle evacuation and retrieval of all injured agents and clerks, then aid all the unharmed clerks and agents that still needed some level of assistance. Then finally...He'd find all the bodies that had been left behind, and attempt to bring them back where they needed to be as well. If that tendril still was going to attempt grabbing him after being sickened, well, Big Bird tried to eat him before...I'm sure it'd be interesting to see what might happen this time.
Meika Kirenai	Out on the other side, standing once more on her own two feet, Chevalier Vermillion fli-fli-flickers, her shiny metal cuirass reflecting the dancing hellfire in the scattered wreckage. Her head spins from the adrenal fear of staring down the train, her body hurts, and she's glad that whatever bruises or harm that maneuver accrued aren't visible, and that the ache is too all-encompasing for her to guess specific injuries to herself. Luckily, it's not on her mind right now.     Lobotomy Corp's facility always smells, in part, like blood- but mixing in with the sulfrous hellfire, it's far stronger than it had been. Shaky eyes glance around, where walls are crumbling due to burning scrap and shrapnel, and the red smears are all too visible. And the viscera. "Oh, God..." Her hands cover her mouth, red eyes stretched wide. I was just trying to-     Her limbs move without conscious descision, trembling and weakened. Count by the left legs, not the hands, shoes are more distinct than fingers are. That's easiest to count by. Fingers scramble into her skirt's pockets for a few torn up scraps of notecards, and a ground-down, way-too-short pencil. ...Six, seven... eight, is that..? Oh. Nine. Her teeth tear into the inner skin of her cheeks, the ensuing taste of blood entirely unnoticed. They've got to have IDs, right?     There's not a lot of time for her to get to work, for her to kneel down besides the bodies of fallen workers, to try and check for pulses, to try and check for names,-- You need to be fast. If they're passing slowly, there's only a short time before they'll vanish, so, --She shakes her head. That's not right, not here. This wasn't a Temptation attack, these are just... normal bodies. She'd gulp if her throat was anything other than smoke-ragged and dry.     As the Agents start to filter back towards the wreckage, as Hook emerges, injured- and her heart trips on a beat the same way a hangman figure trips the bucket out from the gallows- sinking, before shifting into a sudden sharp pain. Her voice is timid and choked when she speaks up. "M-mister..? Are you alright..? Do you need-" Vermillion *yelps* when the tendril lances through Chewie, and pulls him out of eyeline. Every instinct in her pushes her to react, to do anything, to rush to his aid, but she can hear the crunch, before she's even taken a step. She knows better than to hope he survived. The steps do follow, slow and shaky, and stop, quickly. No. No, it's triage, go look for survivors. Not him, just because you saw it happen. She pulls her eyes away from the cracked-open cell, for all the good it does. It won't stop the thought of just how it'd opened from ambushing her later.     Quiet and crackling, as if distant thunder had mixed in with the roar of hellfire around her, Chevalier Vermillion does her best to add the names, or descriptions, or pitufully vague approximations, of seven Clerks and *three* Agents to her notebook.
Hibiki Tachibana	"...Hod...there you go."     Hearing those blubbering noises is...well, she didn't want Hod to cry. She didn't want that at all. But it's a kind of closure in its own way to hear her resolve to try and do better, for real, through them. For someone who cries so much, even without the ability to actually do it, Hod is a whole lot stronger than she is, Hibiki thinks. As long as she can hold onto that...     ...maybe she can do the same, soon enough. Not just yet. Petra was right. 'Nothing now'. The pain is too raw and fresh to start on the road to being a better person just like that. There's too much wasted time she has to make up for, before she can start following on that road too. Or maybe that's just a blatant excuse, to stop her from starting right now. She's not sure.     The Manager admits a truth. After their talk before...she thinks she's glad to hear him coming to grips with himself, more than any kind of surprise. She doesn't know everything that comes with the name 'Ayin'. But she knows enough to know he's going to be going through his own struggles with himself. Just as much as the Sephirah. ...All of the agents right here seem to have given up on trying to sacrifice themselves to the Blue Star. But it's not that simple.     Nothing There had tears to shed--just to equally tearfully escape. "...! Wait--!"     And Yesod, entirely catching her off-guard, has to show them first-hand that everything is far from that clean. Even before their eyes, it's not that clean. The sights stops her in tracks as she's in the middle of rushing towards the hole that the Abnormality disappeared down, eyes widening in delayed horror at the sight of the dead--and what happens to Chewie.     Captain Hook's save barely subtracts from the pain of it. Being able to be brought back, as miraculous as it is, doesn't take away the fact that it happened. At least in her eyes. A whole host of complex feelings bubble up inside of her, and she's not sure what to do with them right away. But after a moment, Hibiki lets her tensed body loosen up to the point she almost doubles over, and slowly trudges to where Kukuru has laid herself down.     "...Hey. Kukuru." Her voice is a whisper as she takes a knee, and hesitates before putting a hand on her shoulder. "We--" That might not be right, soon enough. "...You can still find them again. It's not all over yet. There are still things can do." Hibiki isn't going to rush her at all. Although her head can't help but turn towards the screen depicting the clerks, and...Chewie. At least this time, she can help gather the dead and injured.     ...But she shouldn't stay here too long herself, after all of this. There are only so many problems she's capable of solving, compared to all the ones she could create.
Angela	M.O.M stares in shock and exhaustion and grief before being shoved back into the hole. He morosely looks down at his shaking hands. Another friend lost, seemingly to random chance. You can't reverse a tale. "Thank you," He says softly to Dysnomia. There's no reaction to the insults. She can't say anything to him that he isn't saying to himself right now. He doesn't even laugh through it this time. Hook says 'Balderdash!' to the entire thematic conceit of Lobotomy Corp and he makes his move. Maybe he can't change EVERY tale--certainly many more died in that crash--but he can at least change Chewie's fate. Not alone, of course, it's really up to Kukuru to make that choice. The corpse is ... not pleasant to look at. But Hook has to worry about something else. First he has to find the mouth. It's tough to find, honestly, but he also has to stomach looking at this thing. This gross amalgamation of flesh and goo and impossible proportions. Just looking at it is a drain on the spirit, the will. Hook might be able to endure it, but it's not pleasant. Not even for the mightiest of Agents. The expulsion of Chewie doesn't go through what's most recognizable as a mouth. He is propelled out from some other place. "I'm...losing control...Ahh.... Manager...! The Rabbit Team!") RABBIT PROTOCOL ACTIVATED A swarm of rabbit-themed power armor men and women rush the strange creature. Half of them open fire on the creature and the things its...excreting. The others start moving through the facility, offering COGNITIVE INHIBITION goggles to the Elites. Whether they choose to put them on is up to them, of course, and the Rabbit Team isn't going to provide explanations.
Angela	Meika and Touta can scour the Information Department for someone who needs help. The problem is, is that train derailments are hilariously fatal. Not as fatal as if they'd done nothing, certainly, but a third of a train crashing into you doesn't really change the math too much compared to a full train hitting you when you aren't an Elite. They find one clerk who they can help. He's lost an arm because a piece of train clipped him there but they can readily evacuate him. Meika can go through and collect IDs and other bits and pieces from the bodies. One has a picture of their family in their shirt pocket, now drenched. Others had various lucky charms and tokens. There's no ''dog tags''--they don't wear that sort of thing--but she can gather what she can and through that--with the help of L-Corp--can eventually help identify them. This isn't going to be an issue in the immediate term because there's still one monster left, lurking in smoke and darkness as it seeks for more to ... ??? to. "You rewrote the past." Yesod says to Hook. "Even your tale moves forward. You've left the Storybook, but the Storybook hasn't left you." Yesod emits a sigh. "You save Chewie, but many clerks are dead. Agents are dead. Will you bring them all back? What about the ones in the Paladins facility. Can you name them?" Yuri arrives in Control and her eyes widen at what she sees. "What--what happened here?" She asks, startled. "...Ahh, shit! Petra! Are you okay? CENSORED has broken loose. That's one of the real bad ones. We're facing a Third Trumpet here already... If we don't act fast..." "A little mistake... Always leads to tragedy. So one must learn. And evolve." Yesod says, his tone calm and cold. "Or nothing will change. I neglected to put the key away, Manager... But who put the idea in Malkuth's mind?" And with that ominous inquiry, CENSORED starts to push out of the smoke, pushing through the Information Department, ready--certainly--to CENSORED.
Kukuru	Kukuru starts to hear about multiple deaths, and she starts to feel even worse than before. Thankfully, it only lasts for a short while before she's informed of a death that doesn't involve a missing body! Just one that might be getting eaten. Despite being somewhat emotionally and mentally drained, she still has a job she can physically handle to perform one more miracle for her extended family, and that job is... Hoping she can still put a mangled corpse back together! Assuming that Chewie's body does get regurgitated, she'll get to work bringing the AgenKukuru starts to hear about multiple deaths, and she starts to feel even worse than before. Thankfully, it only lasts for a short while before she's informed of a death that doesn't involve a missing body! Just one that might be getting eaten. Despite being somewhat emotionally and mentally drained, she still has a job she can physically handle to perform a few more miracles for her extended family. Hearing Hibiki, she pushes herself back up slowly, then lets out a tired noise before starting to get up unsteadily. "Y-yeah. I know. Whenever they come back, we'll... There'll be a place for them, here or wherever. We just gotta make sure everything here's still running okay until then, right?" She lets out a weak chuckle, but some small amount of her spirit does seem to be returning as she remembers what she has to do (eventually). That job, of course, is hoping she can still put all these dead and mangled corpse(s) back together! It won't be pretty no matter where the parts are coming from, it won't be pleasant for whatever shape is left, and she'll need to do a bit of trial and error on to make sure things regenerate where they should, but at least they won't stay dead! Anyone besides Chewie should be easier in comparison, even if they're missing something. As long as everyone's alive, things can change eventually. The only thing she won't do is put those goggles on. It's easier to work without them, and hiding from reality is the last thing she'll ever want to do after doing it for so long already. It won't be pretty, it won't be pleasant for whatever shape is left, and she'll need to do a bit of trial and error on to make sure things regenerate where they should, but at least they won't stay dead! Hopefully, she'll have enough time to actually get to everyone before further tragedies can mount./
Captain Hook	Hook's eye doesn't look away. No, it isn't pleasant. No, it's horrifying. In the back of his mind he is screaming. He is just a man - nothing more, nothing less, a man composed of iron willpower born of an oath sworn to his own freedom, to his own self-control, but there's nothing supernatural about it. He's screaming in his mind and the only reason he's keeping his lip shut is to make a point. He stares at the thing as long as it takes, as its image crawls into his mind, as it works its way into the soft recesses of his brain, as it makes its hideousness known to him in all its awful and rotten glory.      He stares at it with the determination of a man who has already been resigned to die. Slowly, slowly, he draws his flintlock with his good hand, levels it, and-      -and Rabbit Team sweeps past him before he can fire the shot. His arm falls, his hand trembles and shakes, and he finally looks away rather than put on the goggles.      Yesod speaks to him.      "Can't name a one," Hook replies with a weary smile, "Can't bring anyone back my own self. I'm just a man, end of the day. But there's others who can. I can hold the page open for someone with a pen. Although the metaphor's become a bit twisted, now." It's a smile he doesn't feel, a forced smile, a smile that's pushing back what he had just been looking at and the fact that he more or less came out of a train crash unscathed (if you don't count the assuredly broken arm) (which he doesn't, because, really, comparatively, that is unscathed).      He slumps down against the wall and takes his hat off his head at last, pressing it against his chest with a sigh. "God's wounds, though, I am certainly *feeling* that I'm just a man, aren't I? Broken arm and no profit to show. Still."      "Kindness of strangers is supposed to be given freely. Ill-suits a pirate, but I've my own sort of rules, haven't I just."
Solty Revant	Solty is much less able to control her reactions as the body is recovered and the creature comes into view. She looks sick to her stomach despite being an android and tears form in her eyes. She can't just keep looking like Hook does. She has to look away.      Until the Rabbit Team rushes in! Not having any experience here, Solty takes the goggles when offered and puts them on, then watches in some awe as the creature Hook poisoned is rushed and dealt with. With things seeminly under control down here, she asks the other elites if they are alright before she heads to help evacuate the wounded and dead. She gives Touta a hug when she finds him, then goes to check on Angela. Is her new friend back online yet? Why did she have to be deactivated in the first place?