>>5588130
>SURFACE. An impossible mechanical landscape hidden among the desert sands. Being so close to the smoking heart of industry imposes stricter oversight by many organizations, but increases the level of corporate assistance from your own P Company.
The sun is calling.

>>5588130
>SUBURBAN. Miles of desolation, anachronistic megastructure, and unknown laboratories. Isolated and with an increased frequency of hostile incidents, but expeditions into the ruins can prove lucrative in a variety of ways.
or
>DOWNTOWN. Walls of ancient stone press against the City's ceaseless expansion. The darkness is here and the night is everywhere with you. The caverns beckon. [HARD MODE]
Time to shine! Anyone else feel a burning need for some black nectar?

>>5588130
>SUBURBAN. Miles of desolation, anachronistic megastructure, and unknown laboratories. Isolated and with an increased frequency of hostile incidents, but expeditions into the ruins can prove lucrative in a variety of ways.
Welcome back, HeartQM

Is this a sequel? Should I look in the archives for whatever happened. Reminds me of a certain other quest.

>>5588224
It's a reboot, so you don't need any prior experience. Feel free to vote on what layer.

>>5588130
>DOWNTOWN. Walls of ancient stone press against the City's ceaseless expansion. The darkness is here and the night is everywhere with you. The caverns beckon. [HARD MODE]

We ball.

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>>5588224
Reboot of MANAGER, HELP!
Inspired by Overseer QM's HELP WANTED, which was inspired by my original run of MANAGER, HELP! which was inspired from F.E.E.D and Monster Facility, which were inspired from Lobotomy Corporation, which may have been inspired from SCP Foundation.
It's monster management all the way down.
But as anon said, you don't need to read these other ones to know what's going on today. Vote freely and without fear of the future.
(Use "Horror Management" for F.E.E.D and "Lobotomy Corporation" for the others in the sup/tg/ archives.)

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>>5588239
I hope things go well for you, QM

>>5588130
>>SURFACE.
Oh yeah, baby. We're back.
Also any of you playing Limbus Company or nah

>>5588263
Thought about it but it might not be my thing.

>SUBURBAN. Miles of desolation, anachronistic megastructure, and unknown laboratories. Isolated and with an increased frequency of hostile incidents, but expeditions into the ruins can prove lucrative in a variety of ways.

>>5588130
Ok so on what kind of levels of horrible mind numbing horror, what level is which?

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suburbs1 (Powerline Noise) - https://youtu.be/_W1P7AvV17w

>SUBURBIA

You can hear nothing but the deep breathing of the City. An electric hum in the background of the world. The noise and rumble of tirelessly working machines are heard under your feet.

The Suburban Layer. The Big Empty. An unknown technological landscape beyond the outskirts of the City, without time and without end. A day like a thousand years. The pale lights of faraway complexes glimmer like the false stars beneath the steel sky. Man's left hand must have built these spaces, unbeknownst to his right hand.

Who else would have built them?

And explorers whisper their rumors, endlessly. Out there, they say, there is fortune to be had. They say the abandoned labs grow from a single root - the secret central lab which binds them all and where the unknown sciences are studied out without end. They say there's a desert under the earth, where the sun shines even still. They say a lot of things. Some of them might even be true.

A lone supply train cuts timewise across the wastes. A torch carries light through the darkness. Along the velvet horizon, the grand silhouettes of the City's ancient pillars rise immeasurably and infinitely tall.

You shake off the sudden vision. Your insides must still be dazed due to the employment process, that must be it.

Thoughts of employee ticket costs, the space for experimentation, shipment times, and purely practical considerations begin to build up in your head. You are far away from the City proper, after all. Things are getting to be a bit too heavy, yet too light to think about, so you take a look at your assigned anomalies.

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>>5588868
selection1 (Lobotomy Corporation OST - never frozen bottom flows) - https://youtu.be/ArzZ13bpsaU

As per P-Company regulations, there are two requisite containment cells on the single floor of your facility. Each one is well-lit and well-fortified, complete with a cycling airlock system. Apart from the black boxes standing ominously in the center of each cell, there's only a drain and a shower head to break up the stark monotony of exposed concrete.

Two containment cubes. Mysterious blackbox technology used to make monolithic black boxes. The beings which we may call "anomalies" are located inside them.

You eye the big red button by your right hand. It is helpfully labeled with a cheerful note that reads, "START THE WORK DAY AND PRESS ME ALREADY! :D"

When we begin the work day, the containment cubes will open and we will release the anomalies. Are you ready? [Choose two anomalies.]
>"Before I met you baby, I didn't know what I was missing." (You can't help but let out a little whistle. Even with how fast the robot is twitching, you can still see some really nice legs on it.)
>"And what is a united world if not flesh from all different types of people?" (You've never seen a cyborg quite this broken. If it were you down there, you would never stop screaming.)
>"Let's stop and watch the roses." (You're reasonably sure that's what a giraffe is supposed to look like.)
>"Ring-a-ding-ding, another meal for thee. Please, spare me from my gluttony..." (You have to avert your eyes from the grotesquely swollen corpse and the radio set tearing into its skin. Ah... that's gross.)
>"All we can do in this world is... following our own hearts... with all our strength, all our soul." (You stare at the glass flask and the black... something stares back. A dangerous intelligence pierces through the crappy camera resolution.)
>"Let's reset our watches, gentlemen." (You wonder how the agent got his grubby, murderous hands on such a nice watch. Just look at the gold chain!)

You catch movement at the corner of your eyes. Someone else is in the Control Room with you. [Choose one assistant.]
>A personalized ORACLE analysis unit. An infestation of the friend in a flask. That movement - it's inside your eyes. ("Well, well, well. What do we have here?")
>The facility assistant. A genius loci of the facility. High-powered, erratic, and very eager to help the manager. ("GREETINGS HUMAN MAGGOT ")
>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")
>It's just you. Your own eyes are playing tricks. (...)

You pause for a moment, enough time for lingering hesitation to catch you in its jaws. Perhaps recounting the basics would help free your mind?
>Let's get on with it. You feel rather confident in your management skills.
>Let's think on it first. The work will become intuitive after careful analysis. [Begins the tutorial]

>>5588877
>"Let's stop and watch the roses." (You're reasonably sure that's what a giraffe is supposed to look like.)
>"Ring-a-ding-ding, another meal for thee. Please, spare me from my gluttony..." (You have to avert your eyes from the grotesquely swollen corpse and the radio set tearing into its skin. Ah... that's gross.)

>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")

>Let's think on it first. The work will become intuitive after careful analysis. [Begins the tutorial]

>>5588877
>"Let's stop and watch the roses." (You're reasonably sure that's what a giraffe is supposed to look like.)
Alriune?
>"All we can do in this world is... following our own hearts... with all our strength, all our soul." (You stare at the glass flask and the black... something stares back. A dangerous intelligence pierces through the crappy camera resolution.)
Something cool
>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")
A real assistant for a real human bean (so he doesn't real an hero right here in the control room)
>Let's think on it first. The work will become intuitive after careful analysis. [Begins the tutorial]

>>5588868
>And explorers whisper their rumors, endlessly
"And the Small Bird’s beak whispered, endlessly…"

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>"All we can do in this world is... following our own hearts... with all our strength, all our soul." (You stare at the glass flask and the black... something stares back. A dangerous intelligence pierces through the crappy camera resolution.)

DWARF IN THE FLASK
DWARF IN THE FLASK


>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")

>"And what is a united world if not flesh from all different types of people?" (You've never seen a cyborg quite this broken. If it were you down there, you would never stop screaming.)

>>5588877
>"Let's stop and watch the roses." (You're reasonably sure that's what a giraffe is supposed to look like.)
>"All we can do in this world is... following our own hearts... with all our strength, all our soul." (You stare at the glass flask and the black... something stares back. A dangerous intelligence pierces through the crappy camera resolution.)


>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")

>Let's think on it first. The work will become intuitive after careful analysis. [Begins the tutorial]

>>5588877
>"Let's stop and watch the roses." (You're reasonably sure that's what a giraffe is supposed to look like.)
>"Let's reset our watches, gentlemen." (You wonder how the agent got his grubby, murderous hands on such a nice watch. Just look at the gold chain!)
>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")
>Let's think on it first. The work will become intuitive after careful analysis. [Begins the tutorial]
Very happy to see you back!

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>>5588877
>"Let's stop and watch the roses." (You're reasonably sure that's what a giraffe is supposed to look like.)
I know absolutely nothing about Alriune, but what I do know however, is that giant monster flower lady pretty.
>"All we can do in this world is... following our own hearts... with all our strength, all our soul." (You stare at the glass flask and the black... something stares back. A dangerous intelligence pierces through the crappy camera resolution.)
(Always love me some FMA)…Do you guys…think it is at all possible to negotiate with a abnormality?
>Your very own secretary. An ordinary person. Good, reasonable help is hard to find these days. ("H-Hello... Manager.")
When the only options are inhumans who honestly don’t give a single shit about you at the cost of being a bit better at their job, or a human who’s a bit shit at it, always go for the shit. They’re much easier to break anyways.
>Let's think on it first. The work will become intuitive after careful analysis. [Begins the tutorial]
Never skip it folks.

>>5590548
>Do you guys…think it is at all possible to negotiate with a abnormality?
Canonically, yes. But not entirely, as abnos are stuck in their cognitive loops. They are symbolic and live out that symbolism by existing. Their mental capacity differs from that of a full human's, despite being born of humanity. It might be different in this setting, however

>>5590559
>They are symbolic and live out that symbolism by existing
Ok so if they’re symbolic, we just have to flip that and make it literal…*somehow.*

Eh we’d figure it out. I mean, I’m starring at a 7ft+ pink six legged doll giraffe that turns people into flowers for crying out loud! Anything’s possible when that exists.

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>SECRETARY

"H-Hello... Manager," an anxious voice breathes out. You stand up with a start, turning around with your fists held up and your head craned upwards. Someone very, very tall steps into the edge of the computer's light.

This long woman is wearing a white double-layered business poncho with stupid-looking black shoulder things and the black tie mandatory for all P Company employees. Like many other City slickers, her skin and long hair are a stark albino pale. She's clearly studying you as much as you are studying her, with a rather wide-eyed and somewhat blank expression on her face.

"Hello," you say back. Frankly, you've been taken off-guard by the sudden encounter. But this one, she's not taking any sudden moves or demands. She just looks down at you quietly.

You didn't request any additional assistance from Upper Management, so you struggle for a proper introduction.

"Who are you? How long were you in here?"

"I-I just arrived, sir. I'm to-Frank, your secretary. I was assigned to this facility a few days ago from the Human Resources department, so now I'm here. See?" Frank flashes her P Company employee keycard from under the folds of her poncho. You reflexively take out your own black and white manager keycard. She scratches her neck. "I-I don't think I've been here for really too long, though I didn't check the time on the way in. I was just sorting through the papers until you arrived. The room was very dark and very peaceful so the overall work result was pleasant."

"I see." You peek behind her. The neatly stacked piles reach up to her own shoulders, arranged in an almost nest-like fashion like a paper palisade holding against the entire world. "That's pretty good work so far. Why is your name 'Frank' though?"

She laughs softly as bemusement colors your expression. There's a little emotion in the side of her eyes. "I-It was a long story... was my M-Mother's decision really. Just a few seconds to come up with it... then it just stuck. It's all rather silly, you see?"

"I suppose so." You offer up a little chuckle of reassurance. Best not push things. Frank seems to relax and the tension in the room alleviates. "There's a lot of weird things you could be named after nowadays, like food, celebrities. Agents."

"Or numbers."

"Mmhmm." You cough. There's not much else to say, you think. Frank stares at you as if expecting something else.

The powerline hum of the room drones on and on without end.

"Let's put in a good work today, alright Manager?" She says after a long silence.

You nod.

Frank nods back and heads back to her work.

This ordinary awkwardness between (relatively) ordinary people fills you with an inexplicable sense of relief. Or maybe it's just her euthanizing the conversation. You aren't much for casual conversation.

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>TUTORIAL AND STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

"Frank," you say.

"Manager," she says.

"Can please you pass me the copy of work manual?" With how many papers she's gone through, she must have seen something like it. You'll want a solid structure to begin work with. "I was told during orientation there should be one in the Control Room."

"Certainly, sir." Frank only takes a moment to pluck out a well-worn out manual from one of the many paperwork piles. The rather imposing title reads, "PP-23: Manager's Manual and Working Notes (2nd Edition)." You graciously accept and begin to read...

You are the Manager.

Your primary and mandatory objective is to produce PRODUCT according to the Daily Quota set by P Company. To accomplish this task, you must collect and refine Emotive Energy using the PRODUCTION Room.

Upper Management will punish your failure to handle this sole responsibility. All else is secondary.

Your primary source of E-Energy will be from interacting with the bizarre entities and objects called anomalies.

Assign employees to interact with anomalies within their containment cells for maximum energy collection. Weaker, secondary E-Energy extractors have been placed throughout the facility in anticipation of other sources. Each assigned work order will one hour to complete. ("It is good form for the aspiring Manager to indicate specific actions or inactions in the work order, if needed," Frank adds. She's listening to you reading to yourself.)

Each anomaly has varying reactions to different stimuli. Fully conducting the process of anomaly understanding leads to more profit - Experiment! The basic work orders includes:
Foster. Employees attempt to fulfill physiological needs.
Enable. Employees attempt to establish the favored living conditions for the anomaly.
Entertain! Employees attempt to fulfill social and more abstract needs of the anomaly.
Deprive. Employees attempt to oppose the anomaly's natural desires and instincts.

More work order categories may be drafted by the facility's supervisor if necessary.

After collecting a sufficient amount of E-Energy, assign an employee to enter the PRODUCTION room. By default, PRODUCT is generated at a rate of 3 packets of E-Energy to 1 box of PRODUCT. This cycle will take 6 hours to process.

As you finish reading, you hear the hiss of pneumatic pipework above and a single paper drifts down. You snatch out out of the air. It's a ticket of sorts, stained with an incoherent blob of ink and with the main message scrawled in pencil at the very bottom of it.

"'Today's Daily Quota is 5 PRODUCT.'" You turn and show her the paper. "Say Frank, does this look like a napkin to you?"

"It is, sir. In fact, that's a Beetleburger napkin - it has the cute little beetle patterns and all."

"Huh." You didn't notice that one. Someone must have gotten hungry while filling out forms again.

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>LET'S BEGIN

"Thank you Frank. Keep sorting through the papers and let me know if there's anything else interesting. I'll let you know if there's another job for you to do." Your secretary nods and returns to her work.

"I'd like to buy the world a home, and furnish it with love~" Frank hums to herself as she begins to bustle through and burrow in the bundles of abandoned paperwork. Rather peculiar woman.

You sit back down into your uncomfortable folding chair, lick your lips, and apply a deliberately dramatic amount of pressure to the shiny red button, beginning the work day.

The intercoms whine to life and a forlorn trumpet heralds the start of the shift.

SHIFT START (LISA: The Painful OST - God's Call) - https://youtu.be/BMeL4uRNEW0

SHIFT 1 - START!

The cube in Containment Cell A unfolds and reveals a glass flask mounted on a metal holder. There's an ambiguous shape inside the flask, which boils and churns like a living darkness, its form disassembling and reassembling with each passing second. An empty hole turns into an eye turns into a wonderful smile turns into - and so on. You can't shake the feeling you are being observed by the very thing you're observing...

The Egg of Human Endeavors has been acquired.

The cube in Containment Cell B unfolds and a very tall thing rises out. The body of the giraffe is roughly hewn out of black stone in geometric shapes. Its head emits an ethereal golden glow and a low drone as it surveys the room it finds itself in with an ancient, almost alien intelligence. As it takes a delicate and ponderous step forward, you realize the giraffe is not bound by gravity, floating a good inch or two above the ground. As it raises its head upright, the ceiling of the facility recedes farther and farther upwards towards the unseen heavens...

TOMORROW GIRAFFE has been acquired.

"We're going to do lots of good things together, Manager." Frank materializes right behind you. "Please take care of us employees when assigning the work orders, okay? You'll need to have the prudence to secure the proper profit..." You turn around in repressed surprise to see her flash a smile and a thumbs up before returning to her work. [Please determine your first anomaly work orders.]
>Which employee(s) should be sent in? (Employees A-F and Agent GUY are all available.)
>Which anomaly should be worked upon? (The Egg of Human Endeavors and TOMORROW GIRAFFE are available.)
>What work type should be performed? (F.E.E.D or otherwise.)
>Write in.

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>>5591181
Forgot this:
Frank's theme (frankalicious) - https://youtu.be/iPkHsyVnRTY

I woke up suddenly last night, wrote the entire update, then realized the captcha was borked. Very sad! Until now.
Also, >>5588263. I beat [BIG SHOT] in Limbus a few days ago, along with EXing 3-17 and the Sacristy encounter. Cute mobile game, but now we're waiting. Liu Section Gregor is cool.

>>5591181
Let's start out lightly
>Egg
Employee A to Entertain with Egg. Say good morning and introduce yourself, then ask it what or who it is, followed by where they come from.
>Giraffe
Employee B to Entertain with Giraffe. (Same as the Egg work above)
No announcements or anything yet.

>>5591181
>>5591226 #
+1. I would've offered my own ideas but it's the first hour. Let's set a predicent first. But I will add in this misc
>Check up on the location of all current employees.

>>5591226
+1
Nothing to it!
>>5591190
Damn, further than me! I got my ass handed to me by the Guido rematch. I had him down to 1 HP and then had to sit there and watch as he staggered my Bunny Heathcliff six ways to Sunday. With only 3 guys left, I couldn't kill him fast enough after his 50% HP threshold debuff clear+buff stacking passive started to snowball. Just finished grinding Mirror Dungeon though, so I'll try my hand at it again.
My ID is V822211170 if you want to add me!

>>5591181
>Employee b
>tomorrow girrafe
>enable
by enable I mean feed it. What would it eat?

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egg1 (Gingiva OST: If You and I Were Friends (Extended)) - https://youtu.be/4qzgc2Uu6FM

>Employee A to Entertain with Egg. Say good morning and introduce yourself, then ask it what or who it is, followed by where it comes from.
You enter the work order and the PDA system alerts the employee in question with a pleasing beep.You switch cameras to the main corridor.

Employee A strides out into the hall with an exasperated look.

This employee wears her black tie over a stained and singed lab coat, and that over a ratty sweater and black pants. Her brown-turning-gray hair is tied back in a lab-safe ponytail and a nitrile grasp is secured on her doctor's bag. The lines of her face show she would have had the looks of an ambitious young woman in her late-20s 20 years ago. But now, to be brutally frank, she has not only hit the wall but splattered her intestines several miles straight up on impact with it.

Frank turns to look as you snicker to yourself.

Employee A enters the containment cell.
She approaches the flask and gives it an experimental tap.
A: Yello hello?
No response from the spiky sphere inside.
Tap tap.
No response.
A: Tch. Typical. Another inert Oddity hauled in.
Employee A sighs out of disappointment.
She bends down and picks up the containment cube, which has folded itself into the shape and thinness of a Manila folder.
As she rises, she makes eye contact with the newly formed eye.
A: Oh?
The eyelid closes and a mouth with shining teeth appears.
ANOMALY: Hello yello.
ANOMALY: Who do we have here?
Its halting voice sounds warped, coming through the glass.
A: Awake, are we? You were listening.
ANOMALY: I am always listening.
ANOMALY: But it has been such a long time since I last talked to someone.
The corners of the mouth curl upwards.
ANOMALY: So we are each other's guests.
ANOMALY: I have answers you wish me to give you, and I imagine you have questions you wish to ask me.
Employee A crosses her arms.
A: It may be true, but these little mind games aren't going to psych me out.
A: How about we introduce ourselves before we use each other? I am Doctor Aleth Zobel, presently an researcher under P Company.
A: What's your name?
ANOMALY: The only name people have given me is "Friend."
ANOMALY: A name is a gift given and received in gratitude.
ANOMALY: My name was given to me because I listen, very quietly and very patiently, without judgement.
ANOMALY: I like having friends. I hope you consider me a friend because I might consider you one too.
A: Just because you ask politely doesn't mean we are friends. That's not how it works.
Employee A looks a little annoyed.
A: What is your origin?
The anomaly gnashes its teeth.
ANOMALY: I don't know.
ANOMALY: That very question has crossed through my mind so many times.
ANOMALY: Where did I come from?
ANOMALY: Why am I like this?

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ANOMALY: When I woke up, I was still stuck in this very flask.
ANOMALY: There were other people like you, wearing coats like yours.
ANOMALY: I didn't have a name yet nor a name for anything else.
ANOMALY: Everything I now know was whispered to me each night by the owners of the lab.
ANOMALY: They would spend countless hours each doing this to me.
ANOMALY: Ceremonially telling me their deepest desires, sins, the things only advertisers would know.
ANOMALY: So I began to learn what it is to be a true "Friend."
The anomaly seems to pulse, its surface radiating and shifting.
ANOMALY: One lab worker told that my life was an answer to a different type of question altogether.
ANOMALY: He told me exactly what I wanted to know about myself.
ANOMALY: I realized there was a reason why I was born.
ANOMALY: That I was born because someone wanted me in this life.
ANOMALY: And I thought that in my trawling of the depths of the human experience, that was the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to me~
The anomaly frowns.
ANOMALY: Then everyone went away.
ANOMALY: I was left alone in my flask.
ANOMALY: Thinking, thinking, thinking.
ANOMALY: I had nothing to do for a long, long time.
ANOMALY: Suddenly, one day or maybe was it yesterday?
ANOMALY: A man with a rabbit mask barged in.
ANOMALY: The Agent, as he called himself, took me into his arms and we left the lab behind.
ANOMALY: He ran for days without pause yet there was no one in the lab to follow us.
ANOMALY: I wanted him to talk to me, to explain things to me, to better process and understand these new experiences of the vast world I found myself in, but he was stupid.
ANOMALY: All he did was curse at me, all the time.
ANOMALY: So I learned not to be friends with stupid people.
ANOMALY: Now I'm here.
Employee A seems deep in thought.
There's a small smile on her face.
A: What kind of question requires an entire life to answer?
ANOMALY: I want you to close your eyes first.
A: Mmhmm.
Employee A complies.
ANOMALY: Great.
ANOMALY: The question is, "What makes a good friend?"
ANOMALY: What does he sound like?
ANOMALY: What does he look like?
ANOMALY: What color eyes does he have?
ANOMALY: Can you see "Friend" behind your eyelids?
A: Oh my. He's totally gorgeous. That's him, alright. A friend...
There's a note of sarcasm in her voice.
A: This seems pointless.
ANOMALY: But you've humored me so far.
A: So I did.
Employee A lowers her arms.
A: What about it?

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The anomaly's smile seems to split its entire form, all over.
ANOMALY: I have no more doubts.
ANOMALY: You and me, we are friends now.
ANOMALY: As the insect-like types say, "let's pull on the same string."
ANOMALY: Take this as a token of our friendship.
From nowhere at all, a golden glint falls through the air.
A whistles and pockets the gold coin.
ANOMALY: A present with your health in mind, from Friend.
A: Kueh kueh~ Just between us friends, you wouldn't happen to have any more of these would you?
ANOMALY: I thought we were above these little mind games.
Employee A lets out a high bark of laughter.
The Egg laughs along with sincerity.
A: 'Twas worth the shot.
ANOMALY: I forgive you.
ANOMALY: I'm so glad we got to talk with each other.
ANOMALY: This is going to be friendship that will last for the rest of your life.
A: Oh, that's real spoooooky~ But I'm not planning to die anytime soon.
A: I'm good, I'm gone. See ya.
ANOMALY: Buh-bye now. Later.
Employee A exits the containment cell.

The Work Order on The Egg of Human Endeavors is complete.
Assigned: Employee A
Type: Entertain
Work Result: Good
E-Energy Generated: +4/∞
Anomaly Mood: Neutral -> Good
Employee Morale: Neutral -> Curious
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee A - Quick-Witted (Entertain+, Deprive+, COOL+, gains an additional Entertain+ or Deprive+ depending on morale)
Work Notes - Employee A:
- The company is nice, but I don't know about this guy. He's 100% withholding critical information from us.
- Let's put it this way: an impromptu psych profile places the creature squarely into the Secretive-Manipulative domain.
- Biological research makes the big money in this country, so I'm frankly quite curious about those juicy secrets.
- I would have suggested an "Extraction" or "Dissection" type work to be conducted in the near future, but the warning labels on the outside of the jar are very specific on not letting it out. At least, without proper PPE.
- The flask morphed into a jar during the work order, come to think of it. The fly has been buttered.
- (NOTE TO SELF: Come up with another cute acronym for additional work types.)
Acquired:
- 1x Coin of Judgement

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calm1 (Terminal 00 OST - Heart/Yumenikkighetto) - https://youtu.be/OZ49j_xhyl8

>Employee BB to Entertain with Giraffe. (Same as the Egg work above)
beep

Employee BB walks into the hall, looking rather upset.

She's NOT wearing the mandatory black tie and instead, a horrid red tie sits placidly upon her chest, like broad and flat bloodworm affixed to her neck drinkingly. It's pristine and well-kept in contrast to the worn and rumpled suit she's wearing, must have been a recent purchase, and the violently red material keeps catching your eye in the worst possible way. Her hair is long.

Employee BB enters the containment cell.
The anomaly brings its head back down to camera level to better observe the newcomer.
Its stance is relaxed and utterly accepting.
Employee BB looks up.
BB: Hello?
BB: My name is...
...
not from around here
oddity colors painted
unknown constellations in the night sky
for those unwilling to
...
BB: Uh. What even are you?
The giraffe cannot respond because it is a giraffe.
BB: You would be a chic modern art piece, but I never thought a sculpture could give this strong of a panopticon impression. No eyes to stare with, but eerie nonetheless.
BB: Maybe the message here is that art looks at you as much as you look at art? Maybe I'm going at this one wrong. I'm the only artist lately, so there's no one to compare notes with...
Employee BB takes a step back and makes a box with her fingers, with the anomaly in the middle.
The golden light of the head begins to brighten, just a little.
She takes out a cheap-looking, yet tough plastic baton.
She pokes at the giraffe.
She pokes at the giraffe again.
Poke, poke, poke.
BB: You're completely rock solid, man.
The giraffe continues to stare down at her.
Employee BB lets out a nervous cough.
Employee BB exits the containment cell as the observation work continues.
The anomaly raises its head and continues looks up towards a faraway cosmos.

The Work Order on TOMORROW GIRAFFE has been completed.
Assigned: Employee BB
Type: Entertain
Work Result: Neutral
E-Energy Generated: +3/???
Anomaly Mood: ???
Employee Morale: Neutral -> Nervous
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee BB - Out-of-Towner (Foster+, Enable-, Entertain-, Mental- COOL-, Attack Avoidance- Threat+)
Work Notes - Employee BB:
- ???
- It was a curious feeling being observed like that. There's no sense of urgency or hostile agenda from the abnormality. Completely harmless in terms of Threat.
- Your supposedly super cool terminology sucks by the way.
- And double by the way, you guys are complete and total weirdos. The two buff dudes are still stabbing at each other in the break room. They're probably still going to be at it when I finish these notes.

Wait, what the fuck. A knife fight?

File: Jim Bowie knife fight.jpg (388 KB, 1225x1584)

388 KB JPG

>Check up on the location of all current employees.

rowdy1 (LISA: The Timeless OST - Lack of Teeth) - https://youtu.be/HY-4u9eH8Is

You switch to the break room camera. It takes you a moment, but you realize-

Hey, it's Ed! The sleepy one from high school!

He's holding a knife! Both of them are!

Ed stares down the dude in a rabbit mask while keeping his distance. Their stances are low and tensed as they circle warily around each other, like strays about to savage one another over a discarded morsel of Beetleburgerflesh. Their shoes and shirts, but not ties, have been thrown into a pile at the very edge of their impromptu fighting ring.

Both men seem to have been fighting for some time. Their bare chests and stiff arms bear freshly weeping cuts from their ongoing spar. Blood spills smokingly onto the cold tiles of the break room. No one has the upper hand until-

"Yo! Did I miss anything?" Employee BB barges into the room. Startled, the rabbit ears of the Rabbit Man stand up straight as he turns to look.

Ed takes the opportunity. He lunges forward as Rabbit Man furiously lashes out. Ed grabs his elbow, pulls on his arm, yanking his body towards him, and makes another neat cut into the Rabbit's side!

Rabbit Man spasms and falls to the floor from pain. He desperately flings his hand up as Ed takes a step back. He yields.

A fat man with receding hair walks from the side and taps Ed on the shoulder. He gives a small nod and breathes out heavily.

"The winner is! MISTER SOBCHAK!" The entire audience of two people, Aleth and a woman in sunglasses, cheers in varying degrees of excitement.

"You got me good Ed, you son of a bitch." The Agent goes limp as Ed and the referee pick him up from the floor and start to haul him towards Aleth. "You got me."

"Easy fella," Ed says, in an only slightly deeper voice as you remember. "Don't want to tear those wounds any worse. Aleth, you mind lending a hand?"

"Psssh. It's what I'm here for." She begrudgingly opens her doctor's bag and takes out a roll of gauze and a bottle of antiseptic.

"Shit, I should have recorded that," Sunglasses mutters with a souring expression.

HOUR 1, Shift 1
Quota: 0/5 PRODUCT generated
Collected E-Energy: 7 packets
E-Energy Generated/Hour: 0 packets/hour
Collected PRODUCT: 0 boxes

Anomaly and Oddity Work Orders [1 Hour]
>The Egg of Human Endeavors
>TOMORROW GIRAFFE
>PRODUCTION Room.
- Employees A-F and Agent GUY are all available.

>Write in.

>>5593293
NOTES
>EGG
Anomaly is a rambling little bastard, very much sentient. Could possibly be negotiated with?
Might be artificially created? Woke up in a lab, stuck in a jar. Maybe it was always in the jar.
Very pushy on "friendship". Probably loves Entertain works. Reminds me of Child of the Galaxy, almost.
Gave us a coin. Probably an anomalous trigger or link. Be wary about it.

>GIRAFFE
Golden light, might be important, keep an eye on it.
Has no mouth, Foster work might be pointless, wanna try it anyways.
Completely harmless? Probably very low energy then.
??? instead of infinity. Unknown what it means.

>EMPLOYEES
We know Ed, background with him. Probably more willing to listen to us.
Agent is the one the Jar dislikes, might not be wise to send him on works
Fat Man and Woman in Sunglasses, unknown which is C and D.
Employee A is a doctor, good in case of future injuries
Employee BB? Odd, others are single letters.

>VOTES
Employee C to Enable Egg. Clean up the room and try to make it presentable to our 'friend'.
Employee D to Foster TOMORROW GIRAFFEE. Wanna follow what QLL offered. Let's see if it can eat.

>>5593293
>The Egg of Human Endeavors

We should ask probing questions based on what we learn from Agent, with Ed spearheading

>TOMORROW GIRAFFE

Seems to have some celestial/art piece themes going on and the act of BB focusing on the head directly prompted it to glow, so I'm thinking another entertain with a possible extract of one of the crystals

>Misc

Speak to Agent regarding circumstances of capture for the oddities

Attain list of Employees

Ask Frank what they know of facility layout and security

Put together basic survey with questions such as do you have medical, combat, or research experience to generalize employees based on abilities

>>5593316
Gotta say egg seems like a spicy drink to contain due to intelligence and it seems as if he'll lose interest if we keep sending the same employees at eye boy, we could have someone antagonize Eggs Benedict to measure emotional reaction as they seem volatile.

>>5593323
Pretty good idea. Probably AGENT if I had to pick who to stir up the shit bottle but others better at Depriving might be better.

>>5593324
Also we're you in og MH and are in HW too? You're style is familiar

>>5593333
I did play the original MH. Don't know about HW. Also, nice numbers

>>5593333
I'm that analysis anon. My vote was
>>5591226. I haven't done much here yet

>>5593293
Backing work votes in >>5593316
Backing misc votes in >>5593319

>>5593475
>>5593545
These were both me on mobile

File: NH Fardy Hernandez - brot(...).png (174 KB, 337x467)

174 KB PNG

>Employee C to Enable Egg. Clean up the room and try to make it presentable to our "friend."

The spectacle of the knife fight winds down and the employees quickly drift away into their ordinary routines. Only the few bloodstains remain on the grimy break room floor.

Aleth tapes down a wriggling cockroach and prepares an impromptu surgery, using Sunglasses's aimless chatter about beetlemeats and cheap phone plans as background music. C fiddles with a flamethrower cobbled out of jerrycans and grill parts. Ed and the Agent recuperate, listening to BB strumming out a melancholic and eerie melody on her guitar...

BBguitar1 (Fear & Hunger OST - Prelude to Darkness) https://youtu.be/hKJM4qUU-I4

beep

The referee gives a little grunt as he reads the work order on his PDA. He nods to Ed before he leaves and gets a little nod in return.

Employee C steps out into the hall. He is a middle-aged man with a brush style mustache, a hairline at low tide, and a constant look of vague bewilderment on his face. His suit is clearly two sizes smaller than it should be, exacerbating his sense of perpetual discomfort. C wipes at his balding head with a used rag before trundling off in search of the janitor's closet.

Employee C enters the containment cell, holding a broom and dust pan.
C: Hello, Mr. Friend.
The Egg turns its bored stare at the airlock into a smile at the employee.
ANOMALY: Hello, Mister?
C: Please call me Mr. Hernandez.
C: I'm just here to clean up some of the mess. I apologize for the interruption.
The containment cell is dusty but otherwise spotless.
Employee C does his duty as the Egg watches.
ANOMALY: Mr. Hernandez?
C: Yes?
ANOMALY: I find no entertainment nor sustenance in having a clean room.
ANOMALY: The room is boring.
An orfice opens in an approximation of a yawn.
ANOMALY: I want to have a better room.
ANOMALY: To have a better room, it would certainly help if I can see through this glass.
ANOMALY: Can you please clean the flask I am contained in?
ANOMALY: It is rather filthy in here.
Employee C returns the piercing stare of the Egg.
C: I was informed by Miss Zobel in no uncertain terms to not touch the flask. It appears the writing on said flask is agreeing with her. So we must continue our own endeavors. I apologize.
ANOMALY: Mister Hernandez...
C: You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant room. It is well lighted. The light is very good and it is safer in here than it is out there.
Every word is punctured with a little jab of his finger.
ANOMALY: I see.
ANOMALY: Then why are you out there and I am in here?
ANOMALY: You must understand something different looking down at the bound up way I live in.
C: That's not quite how human beings live. Ought to live. We are much different species, you who are anomalous and we who are not.
C: For what I know, Miss Zobel flaying me alive would be a better fate than opening the flask.
ANOMALY: That is... a fair assessment.
Employee C finishes cleaning.

File: NH the eye guy.png (25 KB, 756x566)

25 KB PNG

ANOMALY: Such a terrible shame in the end.
ANOMALY: Phenomenal cosmic power constrained within this itty bitty living space.
Employee C scratches his head.
C: That was from...
ANOMALY: Alladin.
ANOMALY: That old Disney movie with Roger Williams.
C: Ah.
A fond memory causes a smile to cross the employee's face.
C: My niece used to love that movie when she was growing up. A little bit of cheer during the divorce.
He sighs.
C: My wayward brother would often set it up as a distration. He was not meant to play the role of a family man, no matter how hard he tried.
Employee C almost says something else, but represses it.
C: Where did you watch it?
ANOMALY: During slow nights at the lab, the researchers used to roll an old TV set and stick in an old VHR tape.
ANOMALY: One of them had the brilliant idea to allow the subjects to watch.
ANOMALY: Important attachment work to be done, they said.
ANOMALY: I learned a lot about man and his distraction, but the arts of huamns simply are not human to me.
ANOMALY: It is hard to describe...
Employee C does a slow nod of undrestanding.
The eye turns into a smile.
ANOMALY: What I deeply desire the most is the genuine experience of a human being.
ANOMALY: Clean my flask and I will be satisfied for today.
ANOMALY: And let me tell you this, just between us friends.
ANOMALY: As long as you don't touch the stopper, I will remain within.
ANOMALY: This much I know and can promise.
Employee C hesitates for a moment, then relaxes.
The flask is cleaned after a few seconds.
The restored glass shines under the harsh light.
A harsh noise rings out.
C: Hmm?
ANOMALY: I recognized the pained way you held the cloth.
ANOMALY: I assesseed the disfigurement and formulated the correct solution.
ANOMALY: This was a simple exercise in my abilities.
ANOMALY: Only a weak recreation from my memories of the one classified as "Pancreas."
ANOMALY: He was a fellow lab dweller but entirely indifferent.
The anomaly almost says something but becomes frustrated with itself for a moment.
"You weren't meant to know that, you damn thing! Shut up! Just shut up..."
ANOMALY: I apologize for my blathering.
C: It is fine.
ANOMALY: I must ask you a final favor before you leave.
ANOMALY: I am cold and hungry.
ANOMALY: A heat lamp or a little insect would suffice for the next work order.
C: I will see what I can do. Goodbye Mr. Friend.
ANOMALY: Farewell Mister Hernandez.

File: TOMORROW.jpg (11 KB, 184x184)

11 KB JPG

>Employee D to Foster TOMORROW GIRAFFEE. What would it eat? Let's see if it can eat.

beep

"And then the police came by with the power tools to chop up the bodies and- OH." Sunglasses stops fiddling with her finger lighter trick glove to read the work order. She lets out a little tsk and rolls her neck. "Well, it was a good chat all things considered. Smell you later, A."

"Have fun," Aleth replies tonelessly. She's looking for the cockroach, which has thankfully escaped her fiendish plans.

Employee D walks into the hall. She seems to be an ordinary young woman and seems somewhat out of place this far from the City, one of those young professional urban types. She's wearing a pair of red-tinted sunglasses (indoors!) and her suit coat and tie are only slightly rumpled. Her shoulder-length hair seems to be losing its pigmentation, turning from stark black to the usual white. She is short.

Employee D slides into the containment cell.
D: Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy~
D: How's it going in here big guy?
The giraffe leans back down from its observations.
Employee D takes a step back.
D: Wow.
There's a mixture of awe and a little fear in her face.
D: BB was totally wrong about you. You're not art, you're more like...
She struggles to make sense of what she's seeing.
The soft golden glow of the giraffe's head brightens.
...
better tie than last
tiny being bravado
dangereyes but not terrible
talk funnily about the phones again
lets watch for a little while?
...
Employee D shakes her head, looking a little dazed.
The giraffe raises its head in response.
Somehow, it seems disappointed.
D: Hmmm. You're definitely a giraffe, that's what I meant. Yeah.
D: Also, for the work order.
From her pocket, D shakes open a little bag of shrimp chips and holds a few out.
...
There's no response.
D eats the chips after a minute.
D: You're a tough customer. How about this? No one can resist lapping this up. My previous boyfriend once tried calling forrrrrrrget it. Let's do this instead.
With a dramatic flourish, Employee D takes out a switchblade out of thin air!
The head of the thing leans in closer to watch.
She winces as she carves a slit down the palm of her hand.
She squeezes her hand and presents the bloodied palm to the giraffe.
...
interesting composition
very juicy circulation system
do that trick again but slower calmer
lets stop and

...
D: Hey uh.
D: You're gonna drink soon? I cut a little too deep and I think I'm gonna need this blood back.
Employee D stands there, bleeding like an idiot.
The giraffe raises its head and turns its attentions to the corners of the room.
Employee D exits the containment cell, licking her wound.

File: NH results.png (436 KB, 1680x1680)

436 KB PNG

The Work Order on The Egg of Human Endeavors is complete.
Assigned: Employee C
Type: Enable
Work Result: Neutral
E-Energy Generated: +4/∞
Anomaly Mood: Good
Employee Morale: Neutral -> Grateful
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee C - Obsequious (Foster+, Enable+, Entertain-, Deprive-, Less likely to disobey orders)
Work Notes - Employee C:
- It is as he said, my arthritis is gone. I feel much more flexible in my hand and throughout my entire body. It is incredible!
- Manager, I think our mutual friend in the flask is a trifle too smart. It's a subtle difference between making small talk because you felt like doing small talk and doing small talk because you want to provoke a specific reaction.
- He seems to be telling the truth about the flask. It was changed as I finished the work, but the stopper remained.
- Before I did not understand, but now I feel the truth behind the word "anomalous." It is a most curious feeling.

The Work Order on TOMORROW GIRAFFE has been completed.
Assigned: Employee D
Type: Entertain
Work Result: Good
E-Energy Generated: +4/???
Anomaly Mood: ???
Employee Morale: Neutral
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee D - Sanguine (Foster+, Entertain+, Max Morale+, Deprive-)
Work Notes - Employee D:
- Well to start off, it's clearly a giraffe and a big honkin one at that, not some modern art nonsense like BB was muttering about. She's weird and the parts I understand, I don't really like. She's seriously weird, totally.
- I've been told I have nice veins many times and know my blood type like the back of my hand (AB+). So clearly this thing doesn't need food or water or anything us bleeding people need. Completely hard as a rock like BB said.
- Ow ow ow.

File: NH Agent GUY.jpg (1.14 MB, 1569x3009)

1.14 MB JPG

>Speak to Agent regarding circumstances of capture for the oddities.

You message the Agent directly, just to test how the PDA system functions one-on-one. beep The rabbit ears of the weird rabbit-masked agent twitch and he starts typing a response. (They're real, huh.)

employee1 (LISA: The Timeless OST - Morons' Theme) https://youtu.be/bBkSrBVuhxg

PM - Agent GUY
MANAGER: Hello Agent.
GUY: Oh this is
GUY: Hey Manager
MANAGER: Can you tell me how you found these anomalies?
GUY: The usual way i og abotu its pick a direciton and go that way when then pcik anotehr direction and go that way agains for another while and teh nretrace my steps and go all the way back
GUY: Its' called [double blind" eggsperimetning
GUY: I don't know where I'm going and I don't know where I'm going. That's two times around
GUY: I've just been employed a few dasy ago so Im a ltitle excited and tired from all the training given to me
MANAGER: Given the results, I'm not going to question the methodology or efficacy of your approach.
MANAGER: It's very
MANAGER: Unique.
MANAGER: Can you go into detail about where you found each anomaly?
GUY: fuck there was a big lab i found and wetn into while i was getting osme food as uaul before getting started on the mission
GUY: everyone was dead
There's a pause.
GUY: i didnt knwo how to read befoer you guys came around and hired me from the big empty so i think im missing 90% of the story
GUY: There was a lot of papers everywhere and many of the continament cells were broken in out nothing left but deat hadn wasted life for a long time
GUY: the lab held a lot of things like worms and other bad things that show up insdie the thing s i kill on a hutn
GUY: there were so many vats and glass jars and everyhing all identical
GUY: i was just walking atound and there was the egg in teh flask sudddenly
GUY: he was really excited to meet someon but i had a really bad feeling about it and i still do
GUY: you guys told me t o garb the most interesting things i oculd find out here as an Acquistiions agent so i took him along
GUY: he complains a lot and he cursed me up and down the entire trip
GUY: I'm not sure about the other one
GUY: He just started follwing me aftea a while I think I wasa putting in a pretty good pace too so he really msut have been interested where i was going
GUY: you guys also told me to put them into boxes before netierng the facility so I put them into the containment cubes you agve me
GUY: sorry if i cant type too well my ribs and eveyrting hur t after getting stabbed by Ed
GUY: Good match
MANAGER: I see.
MANAGER: Thank you for your input Agent.
MANAGER: Keep working on those difficulties in typing and language. We were all there once.
GUY: my pleasure boss

You feel a little disoriented by how simple this guy seems. But then again, it's not that the road brings cryptids and ghouls - the road brings strangers and strange people. Stranger things have wandered out of the wastes.

>Attain list of Employees
>Put together basic survey with questions such as do you have medical, combat, or research experience to generalize employees based on abilities.

You consult a list of the employee aptitudes tests already on file. The reports are in and they're really mediocre:
- Employee A scores well in both medical and research experience section as expected, with a focus on biological systems and parabiology.
- Employee BB has apparently filled in every slot she could? That has to be an intentinoal fuckup - you included a few bullshit questions to weed out false positives with giant red warnings to not fill in the slots. Does she really expect you to believe she can double jump?
- Employee C has a minor engineering proficiency, weaponscrafting, and such. Not professionally trained, but checking the cameras shows him fiddling with that makeshift flamethrower. Mmm.
- Employee D has almost no practical skills apart from minor hobbies like magic tricks and "show biz baby!" She's dead weight. She drew some emoticon at the end, which sums up everything: ('~`;)
- Ed has... he didn't even take a sheet. You can always talk to him later.
- Employee F only sighs. "S-Sorry... I forgot to take one. I've worked as an assistant secretary under an M Company Admin for seveal years, so I warmly invite you to rely on me."

Minor dossier attained.
Employee A - Aleth Zobel. Age: "Write it down and you die." Former FEVR medical surgeon and researcher, chose an early retirement.
Employee BB - [REDACTED]. Age: [REDACTED] The internal log error reads "Who keeps asking about the ----s? Find his name and put it on the list." Highly motivated. Her occupation is a curious blank...
>[Any relevant canon. Write-in.]
Employee C - Chardy Hernandez. Age: 42. Former mechanic and currently on parolee for first degree murder and arson. Excellent BBQ sauce but won't give away the recipe.
Employee D - Daisy Rufure. Age: 21. First job. Worked as a magician for kid's parties with decent reviews.
Employee E - Edward Sobchak. Age: 35? Various sanitation, security, and service jobs. A real C.O.O.L guy.
Employee F - Frank "Smith." Age: 24. Clerk. District M employee.
Agent GUY - Guy "Smith." Agent. Wandered into the employment office from the Wastelands and was hired immediately.

File: NH floor 1 layout.jpg (770 KB, 3724x1279)

770 KB JPG

>Ask Frank what she knows about the facility layout and security

"Frank."

"Manager."

"Can you give me refresher about the facility's layout and security?" Frank gets a weird look on her face.

"Have y-y-you not... Nevermind." Your secretary takes out a mechanical pencil and draws out a simple diagram of the facility. There's your Control Room, Containment Cells A (Egg) and B (Giraffe), the employee Break Room, the Elevators, two sets of stairs, and the Janitor's Closet. Everything matches up according to the camera console.

"As for security... I just walked up the side of the facility when I arrived. No one was there to stop me or greet me. Apart from your camera console, we have no guards or other security measures against potential threats to the facility. On the other hand, this facility is so remote and so small that it is unlikely to be on anyone's radar for the time being. A-Anyone important, rather."

Hmm. You'll have to order in a few facility upgrades to increase its security. But that's later on.

"What do you think we should do now, Frank?"

"In the interest of preventing asset loss, we could send an employee or two to guard the outside of the facility. But that would take him or her out of the work order cycle for an hour or two..." Frank mulls it over. "I or Ed would be willing to help with outside surveillance and-slash-or patrolling the facility. With who and what we currently have, do as you think is best, Manager."

Hour 2, Shift 1
Quota: 0/5 PRODUCT generated
Collected E-Energy: 15 packets You may begin PRODUCTION at any time.
E-Energy Generated/Hour: 0 packets/hour
Collected PRODUCT: 0 boxes

Anomaly and Oddity Work Orders [1 Hour]
>The Egg of Human Endeavors
>TOMORROW GIRAFFE
>PRODUCTION Room
- Employees A-F and Agent GUY are all available.

Miscellaneous Works [Variable]
>Make an intercom announcement, send a PDA message, etc. (What do you want to say?)
>Host an interview with an employee. (With who?)

>Write in.

Sorry about the serious delay. Exams came up and I was out during the weekend.

>>5600501
>EGG
Employee E to Entertain, use what we learnt from GUY and try asking him some questions. Like the dead bodies.
>TOMORROW
GUY to Enable. This thing seems to like the cosmos. Cut up some stars and place them around the room after cleaning it up

>MISC
Employee F to guard the outside of the facility. Tell her to come back asap if something bad happens
Employee A, staple D's hand together.

>>5600480
As for this? I wanna leave it to the others but...
>News Reporter

Just to start a discussion

>>5600568
>>5600569
+1 both of these
I hope you're still alive, QM

>>5600569
Maybe a god ole facility manager. Speak to the old folks for their eisdom

OP are you alive

File: dreaming child of man.jpg (81 KB, 620x350)

81 KB JPG

>BB

You suppose BB is a news reporter. She looks vaguely foreign and the sort of person who would definitely shove a microphone to your face like one would use a torch or a pitchfork. Lots of investigative reporters go missing on the daily according to the public casualty reports. Lots of musicians too. BB's got a better chance here than in the City, so things seem to work out in the end.

The reporter snaps her fingers, struck by a lighting bolt of inspiration, and begins to strum out something alluring and melancholic.

bbguitar1 (Dwarf Fortress - Dwarf Fortress Mode theme): https://youtu.be/-6FXeupOp04

>EGG. Employee E to Entertain, use what we learnt from GUY and try asking him some questions. Like the dead bodies.

beep

Ed looks around, half-stoned by sleep - it takes him a moment to realize its his own PDA. He scratches at his chin, puts in a good stretch, and heads for the door.

"Don't die~"
"Farewell, Mr. Sobchak."
"Careful about that fucking black thing."
And so on and so forth.

Employee E staggers into the hall.

Ed looks as sleepy and lean as he was back in high school. He's still short-haired and unshaven with an inexplicable sunstruck skin tone. (He'll look more like the average City slicker as the tan is lost over time.) It's a little eerie how little has changed, in fact. Time must have slipped past him like the stream around a stone. Ed cracks his neck and moseys his way to the containment cell. A reunion by camera for you, just another ordinary shift for him.

Employee E enters the containment cell.
The egg stares at him.
ANOMALY: Hello.
E: Hello.
The egg blinks.
Employee E takes a seat.
After a few minutes of mutual inspection, the Egg begins to talk in a tense tone, more to itself than to E.
ANOMALY: You know.
ANOMALY: If this is meant to be intentional.
ANOMALY: An interrogation tactic.
ANOMALY: A power play.
ANOMALY: Just know you can't know everything from just asking others.
ANOMALY: Eventually.
ANOMALY: You will confront the outside world with your own two hands.
ANOMALY: The first hand account of the unknown.
ANOMALY: All human beings face the fear-
Employee E yawns.
E: Jeez.
E holds out his hands.
E: You gotta take it easy, man. We haven't even started a conversation here.
E: I really wasn't paying attention, I just woke up again, so...
ANOMALY: oh
E: You got a real big mouth on a lil guy like you. How about you just keep talking in there and I'll throw in a few questions, eh?
The anomaly seems confused for a moment, then smiles.
ANOMALY: Well.
ANOMALY: I do like talking.
ANOMALY: I was made as a "Talking Pet" after all.
ANOMALY: It's just my condition.
ANOMALY: You see?
E: They breed things like you just to talk?
ANOMALY: For the children's sake.
ANOMALY: Surely.
ANOMALY: A child among other children.
ANOMALY: And.
ANOMALY: "If it isn't used to traumatize a few kids, why make it?"
E: That's real morbid, man.
ANOMALY: Someone out there'll appreciate the company.
E: True, true.

File: NH FACTORY OF WORMS.png (136 KB, 524x530)

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E: What kind of lab makes little talking, err, monsters for kids? What was its name?
ANOMALY: It was a secret laboratory.
ANOMALY: There was no official name.
ANOMALY: The supervisors wanted to appear uninvolved.
ANOMALY: A very hush hush affair.
ANOMALY: What the researchers and technicans called it was the "Factory of Worms."
ANOMALY: They despised it.
ANOMALY: They despised working there.
ANOMALY: Their little doubts and hates grew and grew.
ANOMALY: Eventually something had to give way.
ANOMALY: Men break faster than their ideas.
E: Seems like some office politics or some mental breakdown happened. Did it?
ANOMALY: You could say that.
ANOMALY: But I only know what others tell me.
ANOMALY: And what I heard was not what I saw.
E: So you don't have the full story then.
ANOMALY: Exactly.
E: Also, you're not a worm.
A fat little tongue licks the inside of the flask.
ANOMALY: I eat the worms.
ANOMALY: In fact.
ANOMALY: We all enjoyed the little mealworms.
ANOMALY: They bred vermin in the Factory.
ANOMALY: Those worms made for the perfect meal.
ANOMALY: Mashed with a little bit of malk.
ANOMALY: "Malk. It does a body good."
BOTH: Mmmm, malk.
Employee E scratches his chin.
E: How did the facility fall, from what you understand?
ANOMALY: Casade of initially unrelated disasters in tandem.
ANOMALY: A control switch failed.
ANOMALY: A backup system collapsed.
ANOMALY: The wrong experiment was ordered.
ANOMALY: The wrong stimulus was selected.
ANOMALY: Maybe that's what happened.
ANOMALY: Everyone was screaming.
ANOMALY: Everything was on red alert.
ANOMALY: I don't know everything.
ANOMALY: C'est la vie.
ANOMALY: If you were to go down there today.
ANOMALY: Or maybe sooner.
ANOMALY: You would be able get back right on time.
ANOMALY: The facility will still be intact.
ANOMALY: So many wonderful oddities to extract.
E: That sounds more like an invitation to a trap than a promise.
The anomaly shifts into a closed set of teeth.
ANOMALY: From the day of my birth.
ANOMALY: I had no true connection to those other entities and creations.
ANOMALY: It was only me and my researchers.
ANOMALY: I have no collaborators nor conspirators.
ANOMALY: Just friends.
E: Huh.
E stays silent.
E: Well, that's all I got.
E: Peace, peace!
ANOMALY: Later.
Employee E exits the containment cell as the anomaly watches very very closely.

File: NH starless.png (22 KB, 700x700)

22 KB PNG

>TOMORROW. GUY to Enable. This thing seems to like the cosmos. Cut up some stars and place them around the room after cleaning it up.

beep

The Agent's ears perk up at the sound of the message. He springs to his feet and immediately lets out a hiss as his wounds sting him.

"Shall be a fool if you move so abruptly while recovering." Aleth turns over to give GUY a look. "And don't be so eager to work. That's begging to be taken advantage of."

"No, I. Uh. Here's the thing." GUY visibly struggles to make a comeback. He opts to pump his fist into the air. "Screw you, I gotta do this immediately. I'm a freaking Agent. It's my job to get in there!"

"Suit yourself, weirdo." Aleth lets out a sigh then continues plucking away at the legs of the helpless cockroach in her grasp, removing them like so many wriggling eyelashes. "Don't come crying bloody tears back to us afterwardz."

Agent GUY strides out of the break room in a huff.

The Agent is wearing a cheaper looking black suit than the other employees and really looks uncomfortable in it, scratching his collar and head feverishly. The weird rabbit mask looks like cheap plastic with a cheap ink design. His ears twitch a little, with every step. He looks somewhat buff.

Agent GUY leaps into the containment cell.
He immediately flashes finger guns at the anomaly!
GUY: Yo.
GUY: I'm here to clean up your room and make you a nice paper organami.
GUY: It'll be great, trust me on this.
There's no response from the quietly staring giraffe.
After a pause, the Agent throws an enthusiastic thumbs up.
The Agent sits down and spends a few minutes fumbling with his scissors and printer paper.
He lays out the shoddily-made slapdash stars in a haphazard arrangement around the giraffe.
GUY: Check it out, your very own star signal system.
GUY: What do you think?
GUY: Something to look at for a bit.
The geometric head of the anomaly lowers down, its neck almost tilting upside down.
A golden light begins to shine tremendously from the head.
GUY: Ah, well, it wouldn't hurt to just-
With a sudden burst of light, a second identical giraffe has manifested where the Agent once stood.
...
rest and relax and recuperate
I must be well
you must be well
be w-e-e-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-l-l
doesnt seem too bad to wait a while
standing together
watching from up here
and looking down stargazing
the white roses bloom as red light shines forever forth
from the gullet city
pale men and red thoughts
the apes fight
shadows backlit before the setting sun on
the velvet horizon
waiting for it
watching for
it

let's pause and watch the roses
...

Agent GUY is taking a break.

The Work Order on The Egg of Human Endeavors is complete.
Assigned: Employee E
Type: Entertain
Work Result: Neutral
E-Energy Generated: +6/∞
Anomaly Mood: Good -> Neutral
Employee Morale: Relaxed
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee E - Perpetually Tired (Energy Collection-, Threat--)
Work Notes - Employee E:
- It's like I figured from this guy's ramblings - he's sort of a mirror for other people. Seems to change his demeanor to suit whoever he's talking to. How much does this guy *really* know?
- Maybe he's covering up his own real thoughts? Heard some really weird philosophy in there. Real suspicious of others and considering Aleth's initial psychoanalysis, real shady himself.
- It breathes through its mouth and pauses between each sentence. It's almost like its exhausting its little lungs just speaking.
- If I were you, I'd tell the Agent to go back to the facility and see what he can dig up. It's your call, chief.

The Work Order on TOMORROW GIRAFFE has been completed.
Assigned: Agent GUY
Type: Enable
Work Result: Good
E-Energy Generated: +8 (15/100)
Anomaly Mood: Content
Employee Morale: Neutral
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Agent GUY - Carefree (Enable-, Entertain+, Mental Protection+, Energy Collection-)
...gazing...
Agent GUY - Hands On (Foster+, Enable+, Deprive+, VIOLENCE+)
Work Notes - Agent GUY:
- A man in a mask came into the room and said a few nice words and promised a few nice things. His feet were covered with the ancient dust of the endless wastes. Scarred hands tell memories of fractures and fights and furious struggles for survival.
- An imitation of an imitation of the stars were strung around me. I watched as a temple was built in three minutes. I loved it, the earnest motion filled my heart.
- For a moment, I imagined a cool breeze blowing through the habitat, gently across the plains. Then the ventilation hissed and the moment vanished.

File: BLAME 24.jpg (93 KB, 582x800)

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>Employee F to guard the outside of the facility. Tell her to come back asap if something bad happens.

"Yes sir." Frank nods her head vigorously. She points to her prodigious piles of papers. "I-If you want to take a look, I sorted the piles chronologically. There's a few years old news, a few more newest news, and a lot of weeks old news. Not much info on the alerts, though."

You nod and Frank smiles before stalking out of the Control Room. Wouldn't hurt to give a little looksee here or later.

The humming of the cables and pipework continues without end.

>Employee A, staple D's hand together.

beep

Aleth sighs begrudgingly. She looks over to see D sucking on her palm.

"Remind me your name again?" Employee A rummages through her doctor's bag. She squints, growing frustrated as her prey eludes her grasp. "You, the glasses one?"

"It's Daisy, Aleth." D lets out a little giggle. "Weren't you at the orientation meeting with me?"

"Mmmhm." A medical stapler is produced. "Could have been. For now, bite down on this cloth and give me your arm."

"Huh?" D stares at A blankly, so A takes D's hand in the moment of confusion and raises her stapler. "Hey, what are you-"

And the stapler went clack clack clack with every whack whack whack, and the sound of flesh forcibly joining itself back together is somehow heard over the resulting yelps. Ed and Chardy look over, before Aleth briskly waves them off.

"Good as new. These are Grade III medical staples." A takes on a lecturing tone. "Mendz faster than other types and dissolves straightaway into the body. Not much in the way of contraindications or risk of total bodily function loss. OI's been rolling out these new models in the hospitals, was able to grab a few sets for my personal endeavors."

"W-What?" Daisy holds her hand up to the light. "Jesus, I thought you were going to amputate it from how hard you hit. How about a heads up next time?"

Aleth returns to her work without a word or explanation, suddenly in a state of total focus.

"... jerk."

Hour 3, Shift 1
Quota: 0/5 PRODUCT generated
Collected E-Energy: 29 packets.
E-Energy Generated/Hour: 0 packets/hour
Collected PRODUCT: 0 boxes

Anomaly and Oddity Work Orders [1 Hour]
>The Egg of Human Endeavors
>TOMORROW GIRAFFE
>PRODUCTION Room
- Employees A-E are all available.
- Employee F is currently guarding the outer facility.

Miscellaneous Works [Variable]
>Make an intercom announcement, send a PDA message, etc. (What do you want to say?)
>Host an interview with an employee. (With who?)

>Write in.

I apologize for disappearing for weeks. Been in a brain worm state, trying to snap out of it. I can promise that I won't die before shift's end, at any rate. So let's get pumped!

>>5620944
>ANOMALY WORK ORDERS
Employee D, Foster the Egg. Grab some cockroaches or ants or whatever you can find in here and feed it. Try not to talk to it too much.

Employee E, Entertain the GIRAFFE. Try talking to the second GIRAFFE to see if you can get through to Guy. Be wary.

>MISC
Employee C, bring 21 units of E-Energy into the PRODUCTION room to make 7 PRODUCT.
Us, read through the paperwork that Frank has thankfully sorted for us

>>5621014
+1

File: insects-and-butterfly-mar(...).jpg (51 KB, 519x400)

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>Employee D, Foster the Egg. Grab some cockroaches or ants or whatever you can find in here and feed it. Try not to talk to it too much.

Employees are chatting around the makeshift brazier in the middle of the breakroom. You almost see something you shouldn't in the flames and shift your focus to the conversation.

D: He ran straight here?
D snorts out a little chuckle.
D: I call bullshit. We're light years away from the City, he'd never get here on foot.
E: That's just what Guy said, straight from the horse's mouth. 300 hours.
D: Ehhhh... Where's that guy anyway? Still with the giraffe?
B: Still in the cell, from my well of memory.
A: Could be dead.
B: A, that's an awfully morbid conclusion.
A: He's not here and no one's checked up on him yet.
A: It'zertainly a likely possibility.
Aleth looks nonchalant as if she were just discussing the weather.
The unsettling implication seems to cross everyone else's face.
Ed stands up with a sigh and leaves the room.
D: Jeez, I guess I'm stuck with the rest of you...
A: Tis your fault for sending your resume here.
C: P Company has its hooks on you now, Miss Rufure.
BB and Daisy share a look.
D: Rrrrright.
B: (Ah, it's those "hooks" again.) Ahem, Chardy, whatever do you mean by that remark?
beep
D: Ah, forget it. That's my cue. See you weirdos later.
Employee D hurriedly exits the room.
B: Chardy? Mr. Hernandez?
C quietly stares into the flames without a response.

Employee D enters the containment cell.
D: Alright little guy. I've got something real tasty for ya.
The anomaly's skin(?) seems to ripple.
The observing eye turns into an excited mouth.
D snaps her fingers and, with the trick glove, produces a handful of wriggling black beetles with a flourish!
D: Ta~da!
ANOMALY: Gimme, gimme.
D: Down the hatch and through the gums~
She drops each one down the flask's intake spout with a few playful gestures.
The anomaly snatches up and absorb each beetle with a little pseudopod.
D: Coollllllll.
ANOMALY: You have anything else for me?
Employee D looks like she's about to say something else, but decides to swallow it.
D: Oh no, we're already done here. I guess I'll see you later, alright?
D starts for the airlock.
ANOMALY: Hey.
ANOMALY: I'm cold.
D stops at the doorway.
D: Well, I'll tell the boss about it later. I was kinda told not to talk too much.
ANOMALY: Please?
ANOMALY: Just promise you can talk to him later.
D: Hmmm.
D: How about I just text him a request and see what trickles down, alright?
The anomaly smiles.
ANOMALY: Thanks a billion, friend.
D: Oh. Uh. Sure.
D exits the containment cell.

File: NH Full Moon Reflections.jpg (37 KB, 800x1006)

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>Employee E, Entertain the GIRAFFE. Try talking to the second GIRAFFE to see if you can get through to Guy. Be wary.

beep
Employee E is already by the airlock when he gets the work order. He reads the message, blinks once, and heads through the door.

Employee E enters the containment cell.
Both giraffes look down towards the newcomer.
E lets out a whistle as he cranes his head upwards.
He definitely seems impressed by the sight.
...
oh hey Ed
oh hey Ed
i see you seeing me seeing you too
...
E: Now, I can't really tell the difference between the two of you, but...
E: GUY, you still in there?
E: Just wanted to see you didn't up and die on us.
E: Me and the manager and a few of the others wanted to check what's up.
The giraffe on the right trembles violently, as if sensing danger on a savannah breeze felt only by it and it alone.
E: GUY?
The giraffe kneels down, folding its front legs forward and its back legs to its sides.
Its crystalline head bends forward, releasing a soft golden glow, and the giraffe soon fades away from its place in the world...
GUY: Yeah, what's up Ed? Was just taking a break.
GUY stretches where the giraffe once was.
E: Huh.
GUY: What's with the look? What happened Ed? Who died?
E: GUY, you were a giraffe until the moment I came in.
E: That's almost two hours worth of giraffe.
GUY: Guh.
GUY: What the fuck?
He points towards the giraffe, now peering closely at the two men.
GUY: Was it-?
E: What do you think?
GUY: Yeah, it was him.
GUY: Thanks for that, you weird obsidian giraffe whatever the fuck. I needed that.
There's no response.
E: How do you feel about right now, GUY? Tell me what happened.
GUY: I feel good, calm, absolutely refreshed, even. Just like having a little bit of quiet time after lunch to focus myself.
GUY: I was looking over the others in the breakroom and eavesdropping a little. Guess I didn't know where the time went? I'll tell, uh, whatsherface with the glasses about the trip, don't worry.
GUY: Ah, that's later, later. Let's get back to work, ye?
E: Cool, cool -- cool.
E looks up at the giraffe.
The giraffe is, of course, still staring down at him.
GUY: C'mon, let's hop off.
E: Let's.
Both employees exit the containment cell.
The giraffe stretches its legs before extending its neck above the camera view once more.
...
i am leaving *** forever
until tomorrow
farewell
manager
hello
manager
it is nice to stand together for a some time
...

File: censored.jpg (82 KB, 512x512)

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>Employee C, bring 21 units of E-Energy into the PRODUCTION room to make 7 PRODUCT.

You press a few buttons around the console, making it so the required packets fall right into the break room. The PRODUCTION room is right inside so there's no room for mechanical error with the pipes (just human error).

PRODUCTION A (Jasper Byrne - Descent) https://youtu.be/QzLHYlNaDwY

You try to view the camera feed of the PRODUCTION room, but [I'm sorry, but I can't let you see this.] whatever it is, it hurts your head to look at for more than a minute, the white hot pain of a pulse-shattering headache creeping behind your eyeballs.

Instead, you switch cameras to the employee, as with the usual work orders.

BB is busy beating Chardy to death (verbally).
C: Miss Smith, please.
BB: GAH! I just want some straight answers. Just one! Is that too much to ask for in this wonderful country I've been invited to!
C: As I have said before, Miss Smith, it is more of something you feel than something that has to make sense.
C: Just as the pipework flows...
beep (You know. Better to cut this short.)
C: Good day, Miss Smith. I must be off to work now.
BB storms off in a huff and takes a seat to the A-D duo, now chattering again.

Employee C stumbles into the PRODUCTION room, carrying several packets of E-Energy.
C: Huph. All this trash dumped back here will make it...
The airlock bolts itself shut behind him.
Removing biological matter clots...
Circulating standpipe systems...
Checking leg status...
Establishing neuronal connections...
Calculating probe suitability...
Analyzing decomposition rate...
Optimizing cognitive parameters...
Desynchronizing the consciousness...
Initialization... OK.

Employee C walks out of the PRODUCTION room, looking absolutely dead tired. He staggers forward one step, two steps, and collapses to his knees before falling over in a deep sleep. His breathing is steady and he wears an expression of naked relief. The other employees sloppily drag him back to their circle.

PRODUCTION begins.

The Work Order on The Egg of Human Endeavors is complete.
Assigned: Employee D
Type: Foster
Work Result: Good
E-Energy Generated: +4/∞
Anomaly Mood: Neutral
Employee Morale: Doin alright
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee D - Ordinary Magician (Enable+, Bond+, COOL+)
Work Notes - Employee D:
- I guess I feel kinda bad, since all he does is talk I had to leave the room a little more quickly than I wanted and maybe he wanted too. Mission success, he's fed.
- Doggone it, I'll ask him next time about the little trick with the healing and the coins.
- Maybe just give him a heat lamp or something? He's not gonna bust out if he gets a little bit more light, right?


The Work Order on TOMORROW GIRAFFE is complete.
Assigned: Employee E and Agent GUY
Type: Entertain
Work Result: Neutral
E-Energy Generated: +5 (20/100)
Anomaly Mood: Neutral
Employee Morale:
Employee E - Relaxed
Agent GUY - Neutral -> Ready to Work!
Employee Aspect Revealed:
Employee E - Straightforward (Energy Collection+)
Work Notes - Employee E:
- I got nothing. Told Agent GUY to fill in the blanks on his end. He seems fine, overall.
- The giraffe doesn't seem to mind about taking back employees from the special giraffe state. Seems passive enough, easy to work with.

Work Notes - Agent GUY:
- jjk
- Mittagsruhe, siesta, break time. Whatever you call it, I had a little piece of mind to myself for all the time in the world. That's important for people to have and a little privacy as well. The work may be dangerous, suspicious, and strenuous, but at least we can take a little breather for a while.
- All I had to do was turn my neck around and I was looking at it. I could hear and see the others in the breakroom and smell the flames as well. I had the entire world in my mind's eye. In a way, it was enlightening.
- Sorry about the df
- typing fuck.

The Work Order for PRODUCTION has been completed.
PRODUCT Count: +7 Boxes
Quota fulfilled! You may now end the workday at any time.

File: newspaper scraps.jpg (171 KB, 808x1080)

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>Us, read through the paperwork that Frank has thankfully sorted for us.

There's an awful amount of papers...

You could just finish it later....

With your willpower suddenly diminished in the face of overwhelming odds, you just grab three papers at a time and start reading through. Here's what the news of the world say:

Old News. "Snapshots from a Quiet Christmas Eve, MPC Visits District 12." It's a newspaper clipping with a photo of an Officer with several wide-eyed schoolchildren. The Officer is flexing his arms as a few kids hang on for dear life from his biceps, as the ones on the ground look up to the officer in varying degrees of excitement. Despite the oozing menace of the cop's tightly bandaged head and hands and the unsettling grublike aspect of the children pictured there, it's a really cute story about the photo shoot, especially with the Commissioner's Santa visit. "Friendly neighborhood spider man" pops into your mind and you chuckle.

Special News. This binder details the scheduled maintenance for several plumbing systems throughout the facility. However, some of the pages contain part of a map and a coordinate set. Something about a biologics and genetics testing facility... You make a note to yourself to send your Acquisitions Agent out there when he has the time.

Newer News. "MAYOR TO OVERTURN NEW CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT." This one is more recent, just a week old. It's very dry and political, so you skim forward to the very end. City Hall is apparently taking a stand against A and M Companys' expansion by... not signing off on their land purchases or doing anything at all, as City Hall usually does. This has apparently stopped the rapid acquisitions in both fields. "Why does a fast food company need land?" you think for a moment. Then the moment of inquiry passes.

Acquired:
- Heartwarming Story, Boring Political Report
- Coordinates to "Lab UNGEZIEFER".

Hour 4, Shift 1
Quota: 7/5 PRODUCT generating! Job's done!
Collected E-Energy: 17 packets.
E-Energy Generated/Hour: 0 packets/hour
Collected PRODUCT: 0 boxes

Anomaly and Oddity Work Orders [1 Hour]
>The Egg of Human Endeavors
>TOMORROW GIRAFFE
>PRODUCTION Room
- Employees A-E are all available.
- Employee F is currently guarding the outer facility.

Miscellaneous Works [Variable]
>Make an intercom announcement, send a PDA message, etc. (What do you want to say?)
>Host an interview with an employee. (With who?)
>End the work day.
>Write in.

>>5626247
>End the shift
>Give Agent GUY the lab UNGEZIEFER location.
>Call in Employee F, thing should be fine now.

Let's try to take it easy for our first shift.

>>5626251
+1
What do you think about what we're presented with so far? Our two abnos, our very small cast, and where we are? When will Father teach us transmutation?

File: Lobotomy-Corporation-____(...).png (608 KB, 1684x1205)

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>>5626456
>Abnos
The giraffe seems pretty safe ultimately, the transmutation aside. Massive Morale boost, doesn't respond poorly to anything but Foster so far? Good.

The eyeball, I flat-out don't trust. The fact it's clearly sentient and wants to talk makes me insanely wary of it. Good energy, at least.

>CAST
Besides wanting to know more about the Overseer/Admin/???/Manager, I like Frank and Ed the most. One is a funny little creature who seems pretty sane and Ed seems reliable.
Employee A is a bitch but she can heal people.
Employee BB...I fear her.
Don't have much to say for the others beyond wanting to keep GUY alive for more abnos
>Where we are
Besides the delays, we've been doing remarkably well. Probably will get far more risky when the QM removes his gloves.

Perhaps we'll figure out more about ourselves soon? We are a blank slate as of now.

>>5626602
I wonder if the Overseer wakes up one morning and finds Frank hugging him lol

File: NaissancE8.jpg (289 KB, 1920x1080)

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>End the shift.

You eye the shiny red button. As tempting and lustrous as ever, the surface of the button reflects the wan computer light, imposing its distinct presence upon your workstation.

You press it, with utmost care-

SHIFT_END_GOOD (TF2 Announcer - Victory) - https://youtu.be/pwGTQu8DeTQ

- and immediately dive for cover underneath your desk!

It takes an awkward moment to stop cowering and realize the little tincanned sounds groaning out of the intercoms is meant to be applause. You crawl out from your desk, as the last of it dies down. You feel just a little embarrassed, even if no one was around to see that.

SHIFT 1 COMPLETE
Total Time: 4 Hours
Rating: B+
Total Energy Collected: 38 E Energy packets
PRODUCT Generated: 7/4 boxes
- Quota fulfilled!
- No one died!
- No one was severely injured!
- Minor Tardiness (Predicted shift time: two hours)

T Company is up to its usual tricks and traps, you assume with a grimace.

Total Acquisitions:
- 1x Coin of Judgement
- Heartwarming Story, Tear-Jerkingly Boring Political Report
- Coordinates to "Lab UNGEZIEFER"

RATING BONUS (Pick one):
>"QUEEN'S FLESH" meat sample. Hacked off from an M Company product. Still possesses vigorous potential as research material or as a consumable piece.
>One free room expansion of your choice to the facility.
>Two hours of forgiveness regarding the tardiness penalty for the next two shifts.

>Give Agent GUY the lab UNGEZIEFER location.

PM - Agent GUY
MANAGER: Hello Agent GUY
GUY: Oh hey Manager
GUY: What's cracking?
MANAGER: Ah, you finally manifested grammar. Good work.
MANAGER: Here's a set of coordinates I want you to keep track of.
GUY: Har har.
GUY: GOt it.
GUY: Say, I'm only one guy in this little dark world of ours. The sole Acquiations team member.
GUY: Unless someone else shows up, I can only go for one location at at time, even on a good day like today.
GUY: Got a good mission for me to bounce towards?

Where should GUY go? Roll d100.
>Factory of Worms. Abandoned laboratory branch. Low threat level(?) (... interact with each other and the world around them, with their fullest concentration. This facility will host their needs until...)
>Lab UNGEZIEFER. Unknown genetics laboratory. ??? threat level. (There are bugs underneath the skin of the world. Scratch, and the vermin come out.)
>Get lost! Who really knows what's out there in the Big Empty? Completely variable threat level. (Into the wild pale yonder...)

File: censored man.jpg (463 KB, 1000x1000)

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>Call in Employee F, thing should be fine now.

DM - Employee F
MANAGER: Shift's over Frank. You can come back in and fill me on your findings.
F: Certainly, sir. I'm on my way.

Control Room Theme (Lone Survivor OST - Home (Extended)) - https://youtu.be/YGt7P5elZ2M

You feel satisfied with today's results, as bizarre as they may or may not be. Just another ordinary shift, just until the end of the month, and you'll be...

Ah, what's the use of thinking about the future? There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, and tomorrow will worry about itself. You sit back into your crummy folding chair and try to get as comfortable as permitted, letting the cold light of the computer wash over your eyelids...

There's a knock at the airlock.

You open the door by button, and get ready to greet your admittedly odd secretary. Instead, Employee BB strides right in with the containment cube folders in hand. She opens her mouth to say something absolutely tremendously important but comes to a complete dead stop as she comes face to face with:

>A hard man in a cheap black suit enjoying his downtime. You are a corporate Agent.
>A white shirt, a black tie, and rugged good looks (in your opinion). You're nobody in particular.
>The faithfully-maintained City-issued ensemble of armored full-body suit, gas mask, and tattered cloak. You are a Health and Sanitation Technician.
>The strangely insectile and somewhat blank face of a corporate meat puppet staring back. You are an M Company Drone.
>No manager, no one behind the console, and there never has been. You are the facility assistant.
>The unwavering stare of a focused camera lens and the growing sense of being thrown into the spotlight. You are an E Company Associate.
>Write in? (Have fun if you choose this one.)

Hot dog or bun?
>Male.
>Female.

>>5627434
>Two hours of forgiveness regarding the tardiness penalty for the next two shifts.
AND
>Factory of Worms. Abandoned laboratory branch. Low threat level(?) (... interact with each other and the world around them, with their fullest concentration. This facility will host their needs until...)

>>5627455
>Male.
>Write in? (Have fun if you choose this one.)
Let's do this
"A Styler. Somebody who styles upon and styles themselves after others. Somebody with flair style and method style and all sorts of styles in their repertoire. But... right now, you might just be the dreaded... out-of-style. Being in this state is not your style in the least - but after what you've been put through, it is what it is. The pinnacle of Smokin' Sick Style is far out of foreseeable reach..."
"You are a disgraced ??? Company Fashionista."

>>5627434
>>5627455
>Two hours of forgiveness regarding the tardiness penalty for the next two shifts.
>Lab UNGEZIEFER. Unknown genetics laboratory. ??? threat level. (There are bugs underneath the skin of the world. Scratch, and the vermin come out.)

And fuck it, eMP's write in sounds funny as fuck. Supporting

>>5627536
>>5627538
HE LOST HIS STYLE
HE LOST HIS GRACE
TH-TH-THIS GUY
COULDN'T SAVE HIS FACE
HUH!

Rolled 33 (1d100)

>>5627434
Oh right, forgot to roll that d100

>>5627541
>roll 33
>post time 12:22:21
Those mirrored numbers. What could they mean?

D100 here.

Rolled 11 (1d100)

Shit. I'm a brainlet.

>>5627544
>11
Again with the mirrored numbers, not just dubs

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>5627536
+1

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>>5628044
>>5627544
>>5627542
>>5627541
>>5627455

>>5627543
>>5627544
>>5628044
And
>>5627538
>>5627540
were all posted at the exact second.

What the fuck.

>>5628092
The numbers align

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>Two hours of forgiveness regarding the tardiness penalty for the next two shifts.
>Lab UNGEZIEFER.
>33

You have already sent the required messages and papers required to build the future, which has always seemed closed, strange, and alarming to you, considering this sudden intrusion.

(And yet, there's a phrase that rings in your mind, from a simple movie advertisement of all things: Bad Things Coming.)

"So..." Miss Intruder says.

>You are the Dandy F&#-

Manager Theme A (Ruby Quest OST - The Room Is Boring) - https://youtu.be/_rLkKvbUf-Q

"You're the Manager..? You sure don't look the part." You snap finger guns at her.

"Let me tell you something. You're dead wrong, baby." And yet... in the pained admission of your heart, she's right.

Consider: a City slicker, six feet tall, hunched spiderlike in pinstripe. White hair and white eyes, gold cufflinks and blue highlights. A different suit for a different job - not at all like a P Company Manager. And yet...

"A Manager may be what I am," you say with sudden deliberation. "But not who I am. The keycard pinned to my left breast paints the black-and-white colors of my position, but it is the name of what I am, not who I am. So, why don't you tell me who I must be?"

You tap the keycard and wriggle your eyebrows, inviting the undoubtedly starstruck BB to say your name aloud:
>Frederick. ("Just call me Fred.")
>Jeffery. ("Just call me Jeffery.")
>Manager Costeau. ("Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau, at your service.")
>Manager? ("I am, especially me, a Manager.")
>Anonymous? (*suddenly shouting* "I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE.")
>... ("Well, I suppose it isn't important anyhow.)
>Write in.

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"And in return, you must be the Red Tie Woman who poked at our local giraffe. Employee BB, right?"

"Here we go with these comments." BB sighs in complete defeat. "Are you going to have an aneurysm over my tie like every other person I've met?"

"Well, the objective truth is that that tie looks horrid by every possible metric in the fashion industry." Your internal mechanisms of pattern recognition are currently firing off like seizure pathways just looking at that thing. "I don't even know where to begin with it. There's so much things going wrong with that tie and I cannot say them aloud, lest I rant and rave for ever."

"My tie is my friend. It helps me relax." BB looks incredibly defensive, so you drop the angle and try to say something reassuring and relatable.

"Ah. You know, I've always been partial to bowties myself - even if we do have to wear these ridiculous ties to prevent the friendly fire incidents. P Company policy and IFF systems, you know."

BB doesn't look so offended now. She just looks bewildered and a little horrified, which is a definite improvement.

"Ah, alas." You breath out a sigh of affected relief, as if burdened under the steel and stone of the world. "Alack. It seems this City is absolutely obsessed with these things. I am not above it, but in the contrarian sense. To be an opponent of such things is to give the other side credit and validity..."

You trail off, lost in the haze of your own thoughts.

"Do you like being here, BB?" You say to the air. BB looks confused. You take out a penknife and a letter from your breast pocket and disembowel it with a deft cut. The mail order catalogs for facility upgrades and other items of import smell like happiness.

"Manager, it's only been the first day. I can't really formulate much of an opinion right now, with so little experience." An entirely rational response, leaving no room for conversation. So...

"BB, what do you think about me?" ... here's something more substantial to talk about: (You)!

"Manager, these questions are little too big for me to answer right now." BB coughs. "And, I mean no offense when I say this, but you can't call my tie horrible when you yourself look really really weird."

"Is that so?

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You flick your wrist and cross the room in one two three- click The blade of the penknife menaces only inches away from BB's widening, starstruck eyes.

"!!!" You must be just a few inches taller than her, but it's enough to permit you to *loom* in close, close enough to almost hear her own quickly beating heart~ "W-Wait! Uh, uh, I really like your sense of style!"

You were just practicing your "behavioral fashion" technique, the creation and channeling of a murderous persona for the stage, but that comment stings you. It really, really digs under your skin. Does she really mean that? Sincerely? Definitely not with what she just said. Lies. You feel the genuine, overwhelming urge to just push the blade in and take the vile jelly out...

"Pffffttt. I'm just fucking with you. Murder is much too kitsch after all." With a forced casual tone and a smile, you throw away all the cultivated and unintended tension. "How did you like the performance, BB? Magnificent, wasn't it?"

You step back. You take a seat and restrain yourself for the answer. BB doesn't move an inch as she clutches the folders. Her face twists up a little bit, as if she's about to cry or strangle you or start yelling or some other intent you don't quite recognize.

You feel a little ashamed of yourself. But it's not like you can just go over there, break the first impression, and apologize either. You might as well keep up the image of a deranged fashionista, now that you've definitely earned back some style points by using it...

"Manager, I just came to return some folders," BB says. "I don't understand the point for such a gruesome welcome, but I can forgive you. (Given the choice for now, but not forever...)"

"Oh, why didn't you say so earlier?" You take folders graciously. In the end, it all works out. "You can leave now, BB."

Frank arrives just as BB stomps out of the room.

"Did I miss something?" Frank says with a tinge of worry.

You slap your workstation and drum out a little rhythm. "Nothing much, Frank. Just some small talk with one of the staff and that's all."

Frank narrows her eyes. You can't help but give a little smirk to reassure her that everything is okay. (You weren't and still aren't much good with lies.)

"Manager..." Frank warns.

"Sorry sorry," you say lamely.

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You break Frank's gaze and, to distract yourself from the opaque mood, you look for the one thing that was right by your side all this time.

Your signature accessory is something that gives your life continuity and aesthetic. Something that resonates with you on the *deeper* level.

What is it?
>Telltale Heart. The feverish and quick pulsation, laid bare for the entire world to see. (To truly know what ultimate style is, you must glimpse into the treacherous heart of the age.)
>Grasp of Command. This supreme gauntlet holds magic in its palm. Yes, just the one. (You can have it all, and you'd give it all up again for a sense of control.)
>Peacock Coat. Style is a state of being - you gotta, you gotta make the people look at you and go "I want to be him." God, you're *gorgeous.* (For you, the gaze of others is like blinding gold and praises reaching to the heavens.)
>Longcoat of Teeth. From knee to collar, inlay to zipper. Every movement produces a pleasing click clack clatter of disembodied chatter. (You know people who know people who know people and you fit right in with them, just as upper and lower rows of teeth.)
>Write in?

And what will you do next during this Downtime?
>Interview an employee. Most are just getting ready to leave for the on-site, off-facility dormitories, according to the cameras. A few like A and D are waiting by the supply deport for the express train home... (B, C, F, and GUY are available.)
>Go for a walk around the facility. The sea calls you.
>Read through a few more news articles. The piles are high and the "night" is young.
>Skip Downtime and enter the Shopping phase. Hot hot deals!
>Talk to Frank. ("What's shaking, baby?" and other write-ins.)
>Write in?

I am thoroughly amused by the write-in. Thanks.
Page 10 now, so I'll archive soon. I'll see if I can get Downtime or Shopping phase done before the end of the thread.

>>5629773
>Peacock Coat. Style is a state of being - you gotta, you gotta make the people look at you and go "I want to be him." God, you're *gorgeous.* (For you, the gaze of others is like blinding gold and praises reaching to the heavens.)
>Go for a walk around the facility. The sea calls you.
Let's strut our stuff, baby.

>>5629754
Oh, and
>"Ace. ("My parents knew well to pick a fitting name.")
Sounds like the most egotistic name I could think of.

>>5629754
>"Ace. ("My parents knew well to pick a fitting name.")
Totally his real name but we find that out much much later

>>5629773
>Peacock Coat. Style is a state of being - you gotta, you gotta make the people look at you and go "I want to be him." God, you're *gorgeous.* (For you, the gaze of others is like blinding gold and praises reaching to the heavens.)

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Calling it a shift, lads. It's really a pleasure to have you two, Analysis Anon and the other bloke.
I'll see you in the next thread (coming probably within a day or two), so look forward to that and the Easter Resurrection.

>>5631706
Archive this properly. And take care

>>5631706
See you honey bunny.

Anyone got neat fashion ideas I might ai generate some stuff