Scene #8759: Contract Work

Owner	Pose
Angela	Angela has given a standing invitation for Rena to drop by to the Lobotomy Corp though she did ask for some forewarning before arrival due to the potential of a dangerous scenario being in progress if Rena just drops by whenever so as long as Rena gives a small headsup, she can pretty much drop by whenever The Artificial Warpgate will open for her, easy peazy! Lemon squeazy! The most immediately noticeable trait Lobotomy Corp has for new comers is the smell. It almost always has a faint smell of blood and disinfectant in the air. It's not overpowering, it's just sort of this subtle undercurrent that is just on this side of impossible to miss. Angela will meet Rena at the entrance along with a box shaped robot(?) with a singular red eye and a dinged and cut up frame. Instead of proper arms, the machine has thin metallic skeletal limbs. She is still holding a cigarette in one of those accentuated hands despite not having a...mouth? The word 'GEBURA' is emblazoned on her forehead in black with a faint red glow around it. "Welcome to Lobotomy Corp," Angela bows her head. "Since you expressed some interest in taking jobs from us, I thought it would be best to talk here and allow you to see some of the facility at work." She also wanted to pet the dog too but she doesn't say that out loud. Yet.
Rena	Rena made time for the trip out to Lobotomy Corp without really having any idea of what she was going to find there. They're hiring, and it never hurts to hear someone out, even if you have no idea if the job is one you can do, or want to. Angela might indeed get the chance to pet the dog, because Rena has arrived with him in tow. The smell of the facility gets Rena to hesitate a moment - she knows what blood smells like, but more pungent is the disinfectant, and so it's what she consciously picks up on first. The smell makes Pochi sneeze instead, but only once before he shakes his head briskly and follows at Rena's heels. "I didn't know what to expect when I came by," Rena says, with a slight bow of her own. She makes it look a little awkward. "I heard about the 'dangerous scenarios' and I wasn't sure what I was going to walk into. Pochi, sit," she adds, because Pochi was about to go investigate the boxy 'GEBURA'-labeled robot. "But, yeah, I take jobs. Hunter jobs usually, but I can be a bit flexible. Even the whole 'Hunter' thing is pretty flexible."
Angela	Pochi sits. "Huh. Well trained." Gebura says approvingly. " Angela asks, "What do Hunter jobs entail, exactly? What do you hunt?" But she doesn't linger, instead she starts to make her way through the Control Department. Rena can see several rooms with locked doors and a circular window she can peek through, each one housing a ... Something ... Inside of it. Angela slows down whenever or shouldever Rena take a look through one. She might see the giant skull on a cross floating around minding its own business! "The danger of the facility," She says. "Is that sometimes the Abnormalities in this facility escape and we are tasked to suppress them so they return to their --rooms. We are also tasked with sending visitors to their rooms to engage in activities that discourage their escape, though as an energy company it is sometimes preferable to allow them to escape than to simply try and encourage all of them to stay in their rooms. It is a bit of a spinning plates situation. Multiversal agents have been very helpful in ensuring the facility stays properly operational by assisting in performing Works on the Abnormalities and suppressing them when neccessary--but we can always use more help." She doesn't pet the dog yet because she needs to find a way to pet the dog in a manner that she can accept.
Rena	"He's more well-behaved than well-trained," Rena says. "He's smart, too. Though, if I'd known what this place was like I might not have brought him in with me." Somehow this doesn't seem like the kind of place you want a dog to go run around and explore. And while he's behaving himself now, who knows what will happen if there's an accident? It is unclear if he would accept pets from Angela, though he is keeping up and occasionally sniffing in Gebura's general direction; robots seem to interest him. There's a question Rena can answer. "Hunting is kind of an all-purpose job. Sometimes it's hunting down monsters - biomutants or rogue robots or combinations. Other times it's finding people, whether lost or criminal, and bringing them back. Sometimes it's going out salvaging, for lost parts or supplies, or taking courier jobs. I do a bit of everything." Rena does slow down a couple times to look. She ends up doing a double-take at one of them and then hurries to catch up again. She seems faintly unsettled. "So, wait, go back a minute," she says. "What do you do with them in there? Like, why keep them? So they don't get out and do... whatever?"
Angela	"I see. So he does not bite or anything of the sort, outside of the reasonable circumstances." Angela says. Gebura meanwhile just goes ahead and pets Pochi. She has a robot arm so, like, Pochi can bite that limb all he wants but Gebura is reach out from below the head--Gebura learned that dogs prefer approaching them that way instead of from above while they're still getting to know you while coming from above can startle them. Angela is more robot than Gebura and she frowns at Gebura without explaining why. "Yes, a job not unlike acting as a Fixer." She raises an eyebrow at the term 'rogue robots' but doesn't comment. ansi153, "Some Fixers have specialties but others, I'm told, have general talents.") She slows down a bit in her walking to stealthily get closer to Pochi (or Rena?) (Pochi). "An excellent question, Miss Rena. We keep them because we draw an energy source called Enkephalin from them. We use the Enkephalin to power the City. More enkpehalin is produced during an escape due to Enkephalin being a power source closely related to heightened emotions though, of course, escapes are more dangerous and it is more beneficial to manage works long term rather than just let them all run loose. We still need the facility to stand, after all." Rena sees a strange looking girl suddenly place her face up against the window, her skin pale and her eyes wide, her body twitching slightly as she looks at Rena. "Want to be friends? Bestest friends??" "Do not agree to be friends with Laetitia, we have specialists for that." Angela advises.
Rena	"Oh, no, he's pretty good about that." Rena ruffles the back of Pochi's neck as she walks, absently, before he goes ahead and - Well, Gebura pets him. Pochi accepts this, leaning into it for a moment before sniffing at the mechanical arm. He does not bite it, but it seems to interest him despite being presumably non-edible. Rena says, thoughtfully, "I don't know the 'Fixer' job, but it sounds like it could be. I fix things, too, though mostly for myself. There's a lot of junk out there that isn't actually junk if you can spend some time with it. If I had a specialty, it's my tank. I can take jobs other people can't, because I can tow supplies or hunt the bigger targets." But Angela explains a little more as she slows down. "Enkephalin," Rena repeats. It's clearly not a word she's ever heard before, and she's trying to put to memory. "And you keep them here to take their... energy? Their emotional energy?" She's not sure she understood it right, but it sounds somewhere between unpleasant and monstrous, depending on how much like animals those anomalies are versus how much like people - There's someone in that window. Rena's first instinct isn't to make friends with it; it's to draw her pistol, though thankfully she does not shoot it. Pochi, alert from her sudden startlement, pulls away from Gebura, growling faintly - "No, Pochi, it's ...fine." It doesn't sound fine for Rena, and Pochi - who can't see in the window from down there - apparently can't find what the threat is, but is still picking up on her discomfort. He gives a growling huff which may be as much because of the undercurrent of blood as anything else; he's on edge. She looks over at Angela instead. "Specialists," she says, more flatly. Rena reholsters her pistol, dusting her hand off on the side of her leg - or, more accurately, the side of her tattered coat.
Angela	Gebura eventually brings that hand behind their back rather than pet Pochi forever. Rena can say Agents moving to and fro. They all have different outfits, though most are 'suit' flavored and they all have armbands. Each armband has a letter and a color, one wearing a red armband and a white M passes by, throwing a wave to Rena before hurrying on into one of the rooms, the door sliding shut behind them. "It is essentially emotional energy." Angela says. "I am simplifying for the sake of getting through the basics." She glances to Rena. "We turn that energy into power--we essentially power the whole of The City." This is a mild overstatement but she's fine with that. Rena draws a pistol and Angela requests, "Please do not shoot through the window. Laetitia requires very particular management. Laetitia's friends explode into spiders if you step too far away from her, and it would be best to avoid that." Angela reaches towards Pochi but Pochi has stepped back and is growling so Angela pulls her hand back, stealthily.
Rena	Rena is so surprised that an agent waves at her that she reflexively waves right back with the hand that doesn't have a gun in it, and then feels a little silly that she's done so at what is probably a bad time. "I'm not going to shoot anything right now." Given she's put her pistol away it seems like she's telling the truth. She's still working through what Angela said. It doesn't take a lot of work. "I would rather not explode into spiders and I think Pochi wouldn't either," she agrees. Pochi is starting to settle down now that nothing is jumping out at anyone, though he's still skittish from the scent of the place. He looks over at Angela, having spotted her approach. But Rena is taking the lead now; she crosses her arms, looking as fierce as she can given she has to look noticably up at Angela. "Look," Rena says. "Let me be real up front with you. I don't like slavery. And I'm not gonna help if that's what it is no matter how much you offer me." This is an understatement; there's real heat behind those words. "That's a hard line. Rock solid. If you're a slaver, this talk ends now." "But if it's keeping dangerous things, dangerous animals - even dangerous people, if they're treated well - off your City streets, I can understand that. Someone that turns all their friends into spiders is not someone it's safe to have walking around, unless you can teach her not to do that." Rena doesn't like it, but she does understand biomonsters that are dangerous to have around, and she can extrapolate. "And if it's animals you keep for Enkephalin, I wouldn't even say much about that. It's a farm, then." Or things, but it doesn't even occur to Rena that a thing could produce it, if it's emotional energy; most 'things' don't think, if they do they tend to not be called a thing.
Angela	''I don't like slavery'' Gebura laughs. Angela quirks her head, "What?" She seems to be confused as to what Rena is talking about--no, not exactly. She knows what slavery is, she just isn't sure where Rena got that from. "...We pay our employees," Angela frowns. "Our employees are paid generously relatively to other Wings." She doesn't exactly sound insulted though, and she's avoiding mentioning that she herself is arguably 'a slave' because she certainly isn't here by choice but by the standards of her society it's legal to just execute her on the spot. She can't exactly tell Rena that in order to leave she needs this job done, especially not in front of Gebura. ''But if it's keeping dangerous things, dangerous animals - even dangerous people, if they're treated well...'' "Hm..." Angela considers. "Then perhaps it may be easier to participate in one of our Ordeals--It'll teach you the most quickly about the sort of events we're trying to prevent." She nods slowly. "All Abnormalities are dangerous if treated improperly. Some can be treated properly, and be relatively peaceful but it is difficult to know the proper method without study." She glances towards Laetitia's room for a moment before turning forward, bringing a hand behind her back and extending out a dog biscuit behind her back, still very stealthily. "Humanoid Abnormalities are rare, most have unusual forms. And some of the humanoid ones have unusual forms as well."
Rena	'What?' "I mean her." Rena gestures back toward Laetitia's room, eyes not breaking gaze from Angela. "People like that. If they're locked up so you can take the energy they make, that's slavery. I didn't mean the employees." To Rena, who doesn't know the details about Lobotomy Corporation, she just saw a girl stuck in a room. And while she has Angela's assurance that she's dangerous, that's all she has. She doesn't know anything else about Angela, or about Lobotomy, or about anything here, really. Her instincts are generally not positive about the situation. "I'm not sure what an Ordeal is. What is that?" Rena has, at least, stopped using body language that implies she isn't listening; she's not crossing her arms anymore, and while she hasn't precisely relaxed she at least seems more open. "And Abnormality. That's all the things you work with here?" Behind her back, Angela sneaks a dog biscuit. Pochi's ears perk up, and he leaves Gebura and Rena to wander behind Angela where he can get to the biscuit. Rena doesn't notice - until there is a suspicious crunching as Pochi snags the biscuit and chews on it, momentarily distracted. "Oh, Pochi." Rena sighs. "You could have asked," she adds, to Angela. "The answer is yes, anyway, provided he's all right with it. Which, apparently, he is."
Angela	"The Abnormalities aren't employees. They are prisoners." Angela says, sighing tiredly. "They're not people like you or I even if they may look it. 'Monster' is a more applicable term, though I know there are those from Outside who do not believe so about everyone here." Before she can answer that last question, however, Pochi takes the biscuit! Angela extends out her hand and-- ''You could have asked'' --Angela pulls her hand back. Foiled. "That is quite alright, Rena." "Just pet the damn pooch, Angela." Gebura grunts. Angela exhales in frustration but does crouch down a bit to pet Pochi on the head. ... She feels her worries flying away as she enters the dog zone. She stares in the distance. Pet pet. Pet pet pet. And then she pulls her hand back and straightens up. "Understood." She says, without a change in her expression in the slightest. "Ordeals are when monsters invade the facility and cause problems. We occassionally have Meltdowns as well, but they are a bit more difficult to predict or explain. I can give you a video of Hod's explainer, of course." She turns around so she can look at Rena directly. "Naturally, if you feel you cannot accept work from us, I understand." Normally, she thinks, she'd be much better at plugging for this kind of Contract Work but... "Or you can see us in action and then decide. It is ultimately of no matter to me. We acknowledge your skill but there are plenty of mercenaries even within this City." She actually hasn't seen Rena at work much but she has heard her describe her world and she seems like a capable monster hunter. And more importantly: Dog. But Angela still isn't going to just admit that.
Rena	Rena looks like she doesn't entirely believe Angela. 'Monster' is a term that gets thrown around a lot. When Rena uses it in relation to her own world, she means biomonsters, biomechanical horrors, and killer robots left over from NOAH - not things you could ever mistake for people. "Prisoners. Right." Rena doesn't push on that immediately, instead focusing on other things Angela is saying. "I'll take the video, if you're offering. I can watch it when I get back, if it's in a format I can actually look at. My stuff is..." She looks around. "Kind of primitive compared to this setup." They lost too much, she thinks - or maybe they never had it. Rena isn't sure she wants them to ever have had something like Lobcorp. "But for an Ordeal, if it's an invasion, I'd be willing to take that job," she says tentatively, after a few moments longer. "Barring me finding something in that video that's going to be a problem." And, privately, she makes a note to look more into Lobotomy Corporation. She wasn't expecting anything this... big. Extensive. Complex. She's never seen an organization quite like it. She needs to know more before she signs herself up. "Seeing you in action might actually help. But yeah, I guess there's always another person willing to take the job, huh? There's so many people here." She does smile faintly when Angela pets the dog, under Gebura's urging. Pochi seems to like it, or at least he doesn't go anywhere, accepting attention as if he was due it. He sits down afterwards - about halfway between Angela and Rena. "Don't have dogs here, I guess," she says. "I always thought they were pretty widespread in places that hadn't collapsed, but I guess I was wrong."
Angela	"We have a Capybara but that is more for the Agents, and it isn't really ours so much as Petra's." Angela says. "But pets would not last long here." Maybe she should get a pet of some sort, she thinks, when she finds a way to leave. What kind of pet would be best for osmeone like her? hm... On the other hand, having someone whose life she has to have in her ands is maybe too close to work. On the other, other hand though it'll be someone whom she has chosen to actually look after and occassionally it'll wag a tail and lick her. Decision made, she elects toa dd it to The List. "It is. I'm finding it is easier to spend a day 'on the job', so to speak, rather than to try and explain every key detail of the job. Typically during these events we receive orders from the Manager which directs us to handle any number of emerging problems. How you elect to deal with them is up to you, ultimately, as we cannot micromanage." She doesn't disagree that there are plenty of people who lend a hand here. Some of them she can't even keep away, she thinks. "Ah, you might not want to bring Pochi during work. Even if he is a capable fighter, he is still a dog. I do not want him to be...distressed." "Yeah if anything happens to that dog I'd kill everyone in the facility." Gebura quips and it's hard to tell if she's joking or not. "We'll get you the video."