Part 51: Day 25 - Story

Day 25: Story

Music: story 3 ending


Memories, obsessions, wishes, agonies, and the feelings of happiness and sadness. Stronger emotions have stronger impetus. The combined effort of numerous people has brought Lobotomy Corporation to where it is now. We had to keep on with various experiments.



There was not a definite shape at first. Then it slowly assumed a form. Finally, A understood while he was studying the changes… Their abilities, where they lived, their jobs, and their strengths were not so important. What was required was a massive amount of energy.



It’s always floating around, left to rot at the back of everyone’s head. Twisting your mind until you are left with nothing but self loathing. The subconscious. Come to think of it, I haven’t properly asked for your opinion.



Weird swerve, but okay.

>Of course.


I will let A know of your thoughts when he returns. However, do not expect him to give you a warm greeting. A is a person who conceals his mind.



---

>I don't really.


Actually, I’m not sure if I want to meet with him right now, either. What I’ve just said shall remain a secret to A, of course. When his long journey ends and he finally returns…



---

Routes Merge Here

In summary: Angela gives us a few tidbits about L Corp's background, and then asks us if we want to meet A. Apparently she doesn't really want to, probably since he's even more closed off and difficult to read than she is.

Music: Wake up


You must see them as humans, just like yourself. Irritation, smiles, desire, and frowns color their faces… A range of emotions much more human than myself, perhaps. However, are you aware of a key fact?



Only I would fit that criteria. Haven’t I been telling you since the beginning? I am the one and only truly superb AI here. To witness the essence of things is not at all important in this place. All that you see is distorted and filtered quite heavily. “Everything here is constructed just for you.”



Music: Tenebris Aeterna




>Are you really Tiphereth?


That dumbfounded expression never ceases to amuse me. To tell you the truth, this part is usually where it gets boring, but that great expression of yours does give me a chuckle.



All thanks to that stupid “AI Ethics Amendment”. Next, here is… The place where we were born, and where we will return to someday.

Music: STOP


*The sound of a machine revs up.*



*The sound of a press crushing something*







Well then, Tiphereth, I will send the next one over whenever he’s ready.

Thank you, Lady Angela.

*Mechanical door opening*

Music: never frozen bottom flows


What’s happening, Malkuth?

Netzach asked me to fetch a document from the other Tiphereth!

Oh, I’m afraid it’s not ready yet. Something urgent turned up. And make sure to tell Netzach that he should show up himself next time.

Well, Netzach said he’s a bit busy. I’ll tell him to visit you another time then!



But I’m having fun with this errand! Oh, you’re replacing Tiphereth right now. Looks like the cycle’s getting shorter. It must be concerning, Tiphereth!

Don’t worry about me, just be mindful of your notebook! It looks like it’ll fall apart to shreds at any moment by the looks of it.



*Mechanical door opening*

Music: Frozen Moon


Nice to meet you. I’m Tiphereth.



All right.



>He seemed to want to say something to me.


Tiphereth is overloaded. He did seem to have some issues from the beginning… But it’s only gotten worse with time. We have been replacing the machine often, resetting it and leaving only a small portion of the data intact.



---

>What happens to him now?


Ah, are you talking about the machine we just discarded? New errors could pop up if the old one is not completely terminated. And that’d be very troublesome on my end. While “I” am in charge of Central Command, there are two of us at the same time.



---

Routes Merge Here

In summary:

I think I'll let this speak for itself. Instead, here's some bonus content I didn't want to put in the middle of all that! First off, there's a missing dialogue right after Tiphereth's true form is revealed, before Angela introduces her:

I won’t have to introduce myself again, will I?

Secondly, the first choice in this section has only one dialogue option. There is no second option in the game files, but despite this there's still dialogue for a second choice to be picked:

It looks like you’re surprised, but I’m sure we already told you several times that we’re machines.

That's all that's here, which means it's time to scope our new mission.



So you've finally decided to acknowledge me, huh?

If you pull this off, I'll provisionally acknowledge that you're not a total waste of time, I guess.

I'll take it.

You still sound shell-shocked, Manager. Can't believe it?

Can you blame me?

Easily. Call me when you're done with the work, I'll be pulling double overtime to pick up the slack around here.

Right. Later, Tiphereth.

*beep, beep*

Huh… Malkuth's paging me? What's she wa-NGH!

My… head…! GAH!

_{(Malkuth previous story: 1, 2, 3, 4)}

Music: Romantic




..............



When I looked over the list of participants, I couldn’t find my name on it. I mean, there’s probably a ton of reasons behind it, maybe I’m just not good enough for the experiment yet… But, may I join the experiment too?



I’ve learned a lot here. I’m sure I can help you in some way. I’ll be sure to not disappoint!

What… what was that..?

*beep, beep*

Right. The call.

Music: UNKNOWN from M5


.......

It’s sad to not have enough talent, isn’t it?



That they don’t acknowledge you. That they don’t even care about what expression you may be making. That they feel no need to see what you’re doing, as they’ve already come to a conclusion.



It really does sound excruciating. But in reality, the moment I completely lost my fingernails, I felt nothing. You stare at the flesh where your fingernails used to be, and just before you lose consciousness… When you feel that you aren’t yourself anymore, you start to laugh frantically.

Even though it’s not funny at all.

And on the ground you catch a glimpse of someone’s shadow, and their feet as they look down on you.



When the person who disliked looking back so much finally turned around, everything was over. Did you see the fragments of despair from there?

Or were you staring at the bits of my fingernails scattered on the floor?

That was the exact moment I knew true helplessness.



Now, what about you, manager? Have you ever felt helpless to control anything?



….....

Come on, please tell me.



Rewarded? What are you babbling about? I've never-AAGH!!



She once went on a long, winding filibuster of why she needed to finish the experiment, but I don’t remember the details. Whenever she was told that she wasn’t ready yet, I could see the strong desire in her eyes. It was a craving, a bizarre obsession.

If another person had been in my place, they may have turned around for the sound of her hasty footsteps. Cogito was something that she couldn’t access at her level of authority. The only task she was ordered to do was record the changes that occurred in the test subjects.

Music: STOP


When I finally realized what was going on, half her teeth had fallen out, and…



Music: Boss Warning


In summary: Malkuth is breaking down. She apparently used to be someone named Elijah. She remembers how she died as Elijah, and is blaming us for it. Weirdly enough, we get a flashback to it too.

What the hell was that…

Hello, X. How are you doing?

I'm… fine. Fine. Malkuth, though...

Music: Dear Lorenne


Manager, there is something I hadn’t informed you of when we spoke for the first time. The Sephirot of course wholeheartedly want to meet you; they admire you and follow you… However, at the same time, they earnestly yearn for you to be swallowed up in resentment and curses. Please be careful with them.



What I mean to say is you are free to go back to your daily routine. It’s no big deal for me to fill their roles if some of our Sephirot go mad. Though if you do, then you will lose something important forever…



In summary: The Sephirot both admire us and want us to suffer. We can ignore their challenges if we want and press on like normal, but if we do that we'll miss out on something that can break the cycle-whatever that is.



Please, simply rely on me so that we can continue as before, X.

...No. My employee has decided to screw with me. Again. Last time was a draw, but I've grown a lot as a manager since then.

This will be incredibly dangerous, X. Several previous Managers have met their end while attempting to suppress the Core of a Sephirah.

I can rely on everyone else to help out, and if things go badly I'll just rewind. Don't worry so much.

As you wish, X.

Just tell Tiphereths to be waiting for that research data when I'm done. Might as well kill two birds with one stone, right?

It is Tiphereth, Manager-but I shall inform them.

Thanks.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Malkuth tries to kill us because she's an AI and this is a video game.








It's still…

What do you mean, sir?

Listen. There's no clerks moving around here, and have you seen Malkuth at all today?

Come to think of it… She said she had a meeting, but not since then.



_{This must be what he was talking about…} You two, we're getting out of here, now.

What's going on, sir?!

I don't know and I don't plan to find out. Come on, both of you!

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to stand here and face whatever's coming together?

Like the great unemployed ninja, Izuna!

If you want to stay here and die to god-knows-what, that's fine by me. I don't plan on biting it today.

That's our boss. We should go, Omni!

Huh? But didn't we just agree-

If we go with him, we'll be the plucky side characters. And plucky side characters…

Never die! That's brilliant!

I know.

Are you two coming or not?

Yes sir!