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Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I absolutely called she was pissed as hell they can't die and wanted to do the closest thing possible.

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Boksi
Jan 11, 2016

silentsnack posted:

Also "feel air/water/seasons" definitely fits with Carmen's running theme of idealizing the absurdly simplistic life of Being A Tree :v:

Haven't we already noted that the Sephirah are all named after parts of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life? :tinfoil: And their arrangement in the facility is actually an uspide-down version of said Tree of Life, sometimes called a Tree of Death? :tinfoil:

Come to think of it, it's been a while since we last discussed that symbolism. What are Gebura and Chesed even about?

Chaosbrain
Jun 13, 2013

Mad and loving it.
A Hypothetical Hostile Force (AHHF): "Send forth your last pathetic Abnormality so that I/we can end this human."
X: "Our Facility has no weak Abnormalities, but it does contain THEM! The Invincible Birdzodia!"
AHHF: "Impossible!"
X: "I've released all three special Birds! All three pieces of the puzzle!"
Apocalypse BirdBirdzodia: "ChirpRawkTweet!"

: "Its made of three Cuties, so its a Cutie-Cubed!"

But yeah, the Three Birds turned into an unstoppable creature of destruction. The Birdzodia name makes sense now doesnt it?

Chaosbrain fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Nov 4, 2020

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

MiiNiPaa posted:

Hey, that also means they got a terminally ill kid, gave him hallucinogens, and in the end transformed him into two-mouth shark.

Calling it now: Cogito tastes of grape flavouring.

Dead Reckoning
Sep 13, 2011

Qrr posted:

So, speculation about birdzodia. It's immune to damage. It seems like suppression isn't the answer but apparently it's close enough to make Gebura happy. It sounds like the whole facility will be dark, and it will pick a target, paralyze them, and then eat them, based on the story. Makes it impossible to just move away like you did with big bird? The other mechanic the birds have is punishing bird, so even trying to attack the bird might be a bad idea. Judgement bird didn't really have anything special going on, so not a lot of information there.
Managerial guideline #4 says that the Apocalypse Bird won't go away as long as the other birds exist in the world. I'm guessing that the Apocalypse Bird is straight unkillable and wanders your facility causing mayhem until you suppress the three birds, who are still around somehow. That would let TQ tick Gebura's "suppress three Alephs" mission off as well.

the Orb of Zot
Jun 25, 2013

Apport: the Orb of Zot
The orb shrieks as your magic touches it!
Yoink! You pull the item towards yourself.
You see here the Orb of Zot.
Not every abnormality exists due to L-Corp, though.

While some of the abnormalities, like Nothing There, Forsaken Murderer, or possibly the Dreaming Current are due to L-Corp’s own mistakes, there’s still a majority that have nothing to do with suits wanting more power or Carmen paving another road of good intentions straight to hell.
Some are ripped straight out of fairy tales, like the scarecrow or tin man (although I have no idea how the hell that happened, so maybe that’s due to L-Corp as well). Some are the creations of other companies that went either horribly wrong or horribly right, like the shelter, the All-around Helper, or the Backwards Clock (and presumably our static friend). Some are just living things that exist in the outside world, like our various birds or the Parasite Tree, or the Knight of Despair. And the you have the ones that just flatout are cosmic horrors from beyond the Earth: the Little Prince, the DRV, and the Blue Star at minimum would all qualify for this.

I don’t see there being a single grand unified “source” of abnormalities because there’s too many different ways they come into being. It would be like trying to formulate a source for every single SCP in the SCP foundation while still having it make sense: you really can’t.

Keldulas
Mar 18, 2009
The thing I love about the game's writing is how interlinked it is. I want people to make note of what Tiphereth says to Gebura. Doesn't that situation sound familiar...?

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

the Orb of Zot posted:

I don’t see there being a single grand unified “source” of abnormalities because there’s too many different ways they come into being. It would be like trying to formulate a source for every single SCP in the SCP foundation while still having it make sense: you really can’t.

I actually sort of dispute this point. Abnormalities, as a phenomenon, can very easily have an actual explanation to their being (even if such a thing is yet to clearly manifest), because the story beats and the entire setting is created by the same couple people. SCP can never have such a thing because it's just a bunch of disjointed wiki articles written by literally anybody with no regard to any central plot, themes, or internal consistency.

silentsnack
Mar 19, 2009

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current President of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.

Boksi posted:

Haven't we already noted that the Sephirah are all named after parts of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life? :tinfoil: And their arrangement in the facility is actually an uspide-down version of said Tree of Life, sometimes called a Tree of Death? :tinfoil:

Come to think of it, it's been a while since we last discussed that symbolism. What are Gebura and Chesed even about?

Yea but I was referring to the times when Carmen/Angela directly mentions imagining herself being a tree... metaphorically, metaphysically, or uh, "otherwise" :v:

TeeQueue posted:

Day 28: Story


“What I mean is, if we grow the stalk straight up like a tree, we could reach the sky for sure. Even if it would be a slow climb.”



Bold'd phrase to emphasize this callback to our first conversation with Angela:

TeeQueue posted:

Day 1: Story
I was born from one of the ‘Wings of the World.’ It signifies that I am one of the best to exist in this age. Ah, I know what you must be thinking. Your eyes show that you think I look too human to be an AI, am I wrong? However, there is a great difference between us. I am bound here. I cannot go wherever I please like you do. I may be able to operate the systems of this corporation to open a door or prepare a cup of coffee for you, but I cannot take a step outside of this building to bask in the sunlight or feel the gentle breeze.

Jen X
Sep 29, 2014

To bring light to the darkness, whether that darkness be ignorance, injustice, apathy, or stagnation.

Boksi posted:

Haven't we already noted that the Sephirah are all named after parts of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life? :tinfoil: And their arrangement in the facility is actually an uspide-down version of said Tree of Life, sometimes called a Tree of Death? :tinfoil:

Come to think of it, it's been a while since we last discussed that symbolism. What are Gebura and Chesed even about?

It's not a good move to go into detail just yet, but for the record:

Chesed is kindness, and kabbalistically, that kindness is why the world was even created: God made us so He'd have people to be nice to.

Gebura (or Gevura, because the letter Bet in Hebrew's pronunciation depends on the diacritical mark used) is strength, or in this particular case, restriction and stringency. It's the reason why we don't all just get perfect kindness, and instead can sustain our individuality in the face of the infinite good.

You can probably see some of where these things match the bots using them as namesakes, but proper explanation of the matching can and should wait!

TheGreatEvilKing
Mar 28, 2016





Should we be connecting Carmen the tree with the Sephirot tree?

Lunar Suite
Jun 5, 2011

If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers.
Given that the e: Sefirot describes the ten abilities, or possibly properties, that define God, that is a... worrying proposition.

Actually, let me check something -


Chesed - "Kindness"
Gevurah - "Discipline"
Tiferet - "Beauty"
Netzach - "Victory"
Hod - "Splendour"
Yesod - "Foundation"
Malkuth - "Kingship"

Lol

CHiRAL
Mar 29, 2010

Anus.

Lunar Suite posted:

Given that the e: Sefirot describes the ten abilities, or possibly properties, that define God, that is a... worrying proposition.

Actually, let me check something -


Chesed - "Kindness"
Gevurah - "Discipline"
Tiferet - "Beauty"
Netzach - "Victory"
Hod - "Splendour"
Yesod - "Foundation"
Malkuth - "Kingship"

Lol

Netzach is eternity, victory is nitzachon

Solitair
Feb 18, 2014

TODAY'S GONNA BE A GOOD MOTHERFUCKIN' DAY!!!

Theantero posted:

I actually sort of dispute this point. Abnormalities, as a phenomenon, can very easily have an actual explanation to their being (even if such a thing is yet to clearly manifest), because the story beats and the entire setting is created by the same couple people. SCP can never have such a thing because it's just a bunch of disjointed wiki articles written by literally anybody with no regard to any central plot, themes, or internal consistency.

SCP used to have a canon, and then one of the key authors of that canon was banned for being an rear end in a top hat and he made them delete everything he wrote. From that point on, they decided not to have a single canon; authors can call back to or ignore whatever other parts of the wiki they want to, though they have a system in place for getting rid of articles the community decides is low quality.

Yeah, I've fallen back into this rabbit hole, and it's entirely because of LobCorp. Whoops.

MiiNiPaa
Jan 19, 2020

Solitair posted:

he made them delete everything he wrote.
That what you get when you rely on user-generated content, but forget to properly license it. Making users release their contributions under something like CC BY-SA would help with it.


TheGreatEvilKing posted:

Should we be connecting Carmen the tree with the Sephirot tree?
Or should we connect her to the Parasite Tree?

sorcrane
Jul 30, 2017

Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take flight!
Did someone say Parasite Tree?

Because Credentia is chilling with Parasite Tree before tomorrow's inevitable apocalypse.



The Black Forest should let Parasite Tree in; that'd brighten up the place considerably.

Evil Kit
May 29, 2013

I'm viable ladies.

sorcrane posted:

Did someone say Parasite Tree?

Because Credentia is chilling with Parasite Tree before tomorrow's inevitable apocalypse.



The Black Forest should let Parasite Tree in; that'd brighten up the place considerably.

:eyepop: holy poo poo that's gorgeous. Seriously amazing.

TeeQueue
Oct 9, 2012

The time has come. Soon, the bell shall ring. A new world will come. Rise, my servants. Rise and serve me. I am death and life. Darkness and light.

sorcrane posted:

Did someone say Parasite Tree?

Because Credentia is chilling with Parasite Tree before tomorrow's inevitable apocalypse.



The Black Forest should let Parasite Tree in; that'd brighten up the place considerably.

holy poo poo :five:

I love the coloring on this, it's super well done!

DrKirre
Jun 11, 2014

Am I a mouse dreaming I'm a cat, or a scratching post dreaming I'm a bowl of wet food? Never assume what you see and feel is real!
...
Mmm... wet food...
Hot buttered drat that is a gorgeous painting! Well done!

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....
Three fruits already, and Credentia going to be the fourth?

oh god this is a Better Call Paul episode isn't it


Beautiful work as always :v:

azren
Feb 14, 2011


So, I just caught up, and I'd like to address something from a few pages ago:

Dirk the Average posted:

I almost feel like One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds is referring to A in some way.

I'm going to take this a step further with some speculation: What if One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds is A? His "one sin" and "hundreds of good deeds" might even have been one in the same: a great evil done in the name of limitless good. Not to mention that we now have decent evidence that Anomalies used to be human.

My biggest reason for wondering this is kinda metagaming, but it's that (as I understand it) One Sin is always your first Anomaly.

Also, that's an awesome painting!

Chaosbrain
Jun 13, 2013

Mad and loving it.

azren posted:

So, I just caught up, and I'd like to address something from a few pages ago:


I'm going to take this a step further with some speculation: What if One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds is A? His "one sin" and "hundreds of good deeds" might even have been one in the same: a great evil done in the name of limitless good. Not to mention that we now have decent evidence that Anomalies used to be human.

My biggest reason for wondering this is kinda metagaming, but it's that (as I understand it) One Sin is always your first Anomaly.

Also, that's an awesome painting!

Well, from what we have heard/seen of A, including and in particular the various crap that he put the humans through before he made them into boxbots, it might be closer to say that he is closer to One Good Deed and Hundreds of Sins, doing many terrible things for some nebulous single great purpose.

Imagine if this was the case, and that was a guaranteed Final Abnormality where it only had bad effects as opposed to the OSaHoGD's nearly only good effects (working on it damage/san loss aside.)

MiiNiPaa
Jan 19, 2020

azren posted:

So, I just caught up, and I'd like to address something from a few pages ago:


I'm going to take this a step further with some speculation: What if One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds is A? His "one sin" and "hundreds of good deeds" might even have been one in the same: a great evil done in the name of limitless good. Not to mention that we now have decent evidence that Anomalies used to be human.

My biggest reason for wondering this is kinda metagaming, but it's that (as I understand it) One Sin is always your first Anomaly.

Also, that's an awesome painting!

I believe, there is a lot of evidence pointing that A[sshole] is X. That and hints pointing that humans transforms into Abnormalities contradicts this theory.

Nonetheless, this is a cool theory. I had similar theory before: that all Abnormalities are born from X/A, Angela and Sephiroth. For example, Forsaken Murderer could come from Yesod, All-Around Helper from Angela, etc.

CHiRAL
Mar 29, 2010

Anus.
Also A has never done a good deed in his whole life :colbert:

Rogue AI Goddess
May 10, 2012

I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees.
That was a joke... unless..?
One Sin is Morte to X's Nameless One.

A skull buddy who is with the amnesiac protagonist from the very beginning to the horrific end.

OneWingedDevil
Aug 27, 2012
If we wanted to work off the theory One Sin is related to X/A in some manner, Angela has talked about this being a "play" with "actors" before. I think the most recent time was in one of the Chesed scenes, but maybe I'm thinking of Netzach much earlier. In that case, a play generally consists of the actors, the stage, and the props. X and Angela are the leads, the boxbots are the supporting cast, and the agents are extras (with clerks being little more than background scenery). Lob Corp is the stage. Abnos are the props. Somewhere there's also a director, whoever actually arranged this whole thing. Probably something that A intended for himself but it went wrong, and now he's an actor trapped in the play with the rest of us as X.

Since this is a stage, there's no problem with having a "prop" abno to represent ourselves. In this case, One Sin represents our past. When Carmen was with us A was, apparently, working towards a goal for the betterment of humanity. Hence the Hundred Good Deeds. Then Carmen died, our One Sin.

We've committed plenty more sins since then, but they aren't represented by One Sin. They're represented in all the other abnos we bring in (the experiments we continued running after Carmen died), all the pointless clerk deaths that we can't prevent (would A have even noticed them, much less thought of trying to save them by giving orders to run and hide?), our constant "it's all okay, we can just start over" attitude as shown by the time travel mechanic (symbolizing how A saw any actual replacements as carbon copies of each other). One Sin is where all of this started, a play showing Lob Corp's descent into ever increasing madness and death as A reached for something and failed.

We are the audience watching X, our audience surrogate, play the role of A. He might not remember the script, but that isn't stopping the rest of the play from going on as though he did.

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


OneWingedDevil posted:

Angela has talked about this being a "play" with "actors" before.

Plaudite! Acta est fabula.

sorcrane
Jul 30, 2017

Birds with beautiful wings! Gather on the battlefield and take flight!
Speaking of birds, here's Tenebrais vs The Firebird based on Day 24's three fire chicken suppressions.



The Firebird kind of turned into a blob, but I am impatient and want to move on to drawing more topical birds. Big Bird is horribly aesthetic. :swoon:

(Thanks folks! I'm having fun drawing these.)

cokerpilot
Apr 23, 2010

Battle Brothers! Stop coming to meetings drunk and trying to adopt Tevery Best!

Lord General! Stop standing on the table and making up stupid operation names!

Emperor, why do I put up with these people?
Tenebrais "If I see that drat bird one more time!"

TeeQueue
Oct 9, 2012

The time has come. Soon, the bell shall ring. A new world will come. Rise, my servants. Rise and serve me. I am death and life. Darkness and light.

sorcrane posted:

Speaking of birds, here's Tenebrais vs The Firebird based on Day 24's three fire chicken suppressions.



The Firebird kind of turned into a blob, but I am impatient and want to move on to drawing more topical birds. Big Bird is horribly aesthetic. :swoon:

(Thanks folks! I'm having fun drawing these.)

:golfclap:

This bird is in mid-charge and Tenebrais about to turn around and punch it through the face.

Tenebrais
Sep 2, 2011

sorcrane posted:

Speaking of birds, here's Tenebrais vs The Firebird based on Day 24's three fire chicken suppressions.



The Firebird kind of turned into a blob, but I am impatient and want to move on to drawing more topical birds. Big Bird is horribly aesthetic. :swoon:

(Thanks folks! I'm having fun drawing these.)

This is incredible and I love it

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....
The fanart flowing in like crazy. That's how you know you've really made it as an LP :v:

TeeQueue
Oct 9, 2012

The time has come. Soon, the bell shall ring. A new world will come. Rise, my servants. Rise and serve me. I am death and life. Darkness and light.
Day 34: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2


The second research I generally grab from Disciplinary is Rabbits. They're good in a pinch, but sadly they're completely useless against the challenge coming today. Don't worry, their time will come. Oh yes… it will come.




Our gear has been shuffled around somewhat as well. All of my HE or higher level White damage weapons are assigned to our Agents, for reasons which I shall make clear later.

So, I take it you have a plan?

Honestly… no.

You could have lied, Manager!

Yeah, but then you would have wanted to know what the plan was. Look I just… When I'm not managing, actively managing, everything's a mess and I don't know what I'm doing. These feelings… They don't have anywhere to go and I'm just tired and my head hurts all the time from thinking about it and apparently some rear end in a top hat-who might be me?-banned drinking during business hours so I just have to deal with it.

You could try Enkephalin.

You and Hod have convinced me to stay clean, thank you.

Your loss, manager.

Feh. It's all just excuses. If you keep those thoughts rattling around your head, today's going to be a lot harder than yesterday. You wanna pay those Abnormalities back for all the employees they've slain too, right?

Not really, but I'll indulge you because that's my job…

Huh? Speak up, manager!

I said let's just see what we're dealing with.





Time to kick some rear end.



Since today is going to get a little crazy, we'll start with our tool: a literal heart. It is very simple to understand: We can hold on to it all day and as long as we never try to return it nothing bad can happen.



So we let Mizu do that, since she's got a big heart-shaped hole in her clothes.

It's probably just a design.

Now, to Apocalypse Bird. The first step of fighting it is triggering it, which means we have to free two of the three Birds. There's some debate about what the best way to purposely release the Birds is, but my favorite is to start by reducing Big Bird down to QC 1 to start with.



With Repression work to give us on-demand Bads, this isn't very hard for Tenebrais to do. Doing this kicked the Parasite Tree to 4, so we also have Mizu work with it. Now as soon as 5 employees die Big Bird will breach. As for how to kill 5 employees quickly…



This might be the stupidest plan I've ever been part of, and I hate that it's going to work. :geno:

Judgment Bird deals a maximum of 7 Pale damage per hit. Talow has a 0.8x multiplier from his suit's level, and 0.5x from his suit's resistance. This means each hit from JB is at most 2.8 Pale damage, or a little under 3% of his HP. Even if he fails all 24 boxes, he'll only take a little over 67% of his HP in damage, making using him to provoke the Bird into breaching incredibly easy. The best part is that if we're trying to fight Apocalypse Bird, we should have a Justita suit already.



No can do, Tiphereth. We're looking to cause a bit of havoc today.

Alright… as long as you're aware of it.

Hey. You should make a bet with yourself like you used to.

How do you know about those?

-! I-I told him, of course.

So, do you think we'll be able to get through the day without losing any of our agents?

Of course not!

Well… then I'll believe in the manager.

Heh. Sounds good.

Judgment Bird, when freed, wanders the halls and occasionally attacks the entire room it's in for 30-40 Pale damage, like so:



Clerks have 2.0x Pale modifiers, and as their suits are considered ZAYINs they have an additional 1.5x modifier. This means that Judgment Bird will deal them between 90-120% of their max HP with every attack. Since Central has 20 clerks instead of every other department's 10, it doesn't take long before…

Music: First Trumpet




We'll be dealing with all three at once. Who's got eyes on the door?



It's in Control! My clerks are engaging, but they aren't really doing much…

Well, they are clerks. Still, that gives us plenty of time to set up.



Tenebrais and Boksi are set in front of Yang and Nothing There.

I thought I was done hanging out with you, mosshead.

Trust me, the feeling is mutual. Let's see how a low-class like you handles the day.



Credentia is hanging out in Firebird's corridor.



Meanwhile, Sephiroth and Mr.Blond are keeping an eye out in Safety.

Don't do anything stupid today, got it?

These birds… they seek their own reunion. I would be a fool to stop it… but I truly wish to test my powers against theirs.

I said no stupid.



We've confirmed the entry of the first bird!

Roger that. Is everyone in position?

All set here.

I've got the regenerators running at full output, boss.

We also put Talow and SeyserKoze in the elevator in the far left of Welfare. If we're lucky, none of them should be doing any fighting today.



While the birds work their way up to Control, Big Bird snacks on each Clerk it runs into on the way. This gives me more than enough time to get everyone else moved into position.



That position is this elevator. It's a nice central location with quick access to everywhere in the facility aside Welfare, letting me quickly move wherever we need to go. This stack has every source of White damage in the entire facility, including all of our Spore spears (which, as you'll recall, increase their target's vulnerability to White attacks) :getin:

Also Mr.Black is there for some reason.

...We're ready. Let's get this going.



Why isn't anything happening yet?

The waiting is honestly the hardest part at this stage.



Manager, the second bird has entered, and the door is entering its final stage.

Music: neutral 4


...That's all well and good, but what happened to the alarm?

It was deemed unnecessary and ended.

We are literally about to fight something called 'Apocalypse Bird' and the alarm is unnecessary.

Of course. No one has died and no additional breaches have occurred in some time.

Whoever designed this system is a hack.

If you remember the Emergency Level Mechanics chat, the danger level in the facility goes down by 1 every 15 seconds. It takes Big Bird so long to get from Disciplinary up to Control that no other threats spawn and the music resets before it even gets there.



Here it comes..!

At this point, with Big Bird almost into the gate, I do two things.



The first is to zoom all the way out. The second is set the speed down to 1x.



A loud roar echoes, and Apocalypse Bird spawns into Control.



And for the first time in this LP, I am Not Screwing Around.

All the lights… what happened?!

It's a side effect of the Bird, manager.

Right, then I'll just pause time and--

=ACCESS DENIED-ERROR DETECTED IN TT2 PROTOCOL=

...oh poo poo.

Let's talk about this Bird, shall we?



Apocalypse Bird has a number of options to damage Agents, and any attempt to fight it head-on is doomed to failure due to its complete immunity to any form of damage and 330,000 HP. None of that matters because we never want to engage it directly, and since it's too big for hallways it's stuck teleporting between main rooms. Unfortunately for us, it will steal control of our Agents and force them to slowly walk to its room-taking them away from us until they arrive, at which point if we don't move them they will try to engage the Bird in combat and die horribly. On top of this it spawns Meltdowns periodically through the facility. This means that if we don't stay on top of things, we can suddenly find ourselves dealing with Nothing There, Yin or Blue Star breaching in the middle of the fight-all but a death sentence for our facility.

Oh. And of course, we can't pause.

In order to damage it, we need to target three eggs, which spawned into three random Main Rooms. Each one gives Apocalypse Bird one of its attacks, and they can also do other things as well. Let's go through them next.



The Big Eyes egg is weak to White damage and absorbs Black damage. If destroyed, the lights come back on and we don't need to worry about the possession ability any longer.



The Long Arms egg absorbs Pale and is 0.3x vs everything else, and combined with its high HP it is the tankiest of all three eggs by far. Destroying it disables the Pale attack, and most importantly it will give us back our ability to pause. It is unquestionably the highest priority target.



The Small Beak egg only enables a single attack. It's weak to Black, but absorbs Red. It's generally the lowest priority target.

Putting it all together, the fight is basically a battle of trying to attack eggs in the Main Rooms while running away from Apocalypse Bird when it appears in those rooms-all the while keeping an eye out for possessed employees to pull back or critical meltdowns that need to be addressed before ending our day the hard way.

To that end, my overall strategy looks like this:



This fight has too many moving parts to let me stick too closely to it, but if nothing else it's a fairly strong setup. Additionally, since none of our targets are immune to White damage, our weapon setup means we won't have to do a lot of micromanagement and our Spore spears will keep our damage boosted against each target.



Everyone, attack!

Make us an omelette, agents!

As planned, everyone charges at Long Arms. Meanwhile, the Apocalypse Bird will sit up in Control performing attacks and mostly just killing Clerks. Every 15-25 seconds, it will teleport to another main room. So long as it isn't in one of the egg rooms, it's not an immediate threat to us right now. We still want to keep it on screen as much as possible.



This is what we're keeping an eye out for-it means the Apocalypse Bird is teleporting. We want to have all our Agents selected whenever we see this, and be ready to run out of the room we're in.



Luckily, its first teleport sends it to Disciplinary so our Agents can keep up the pressure. The particularly astute will notice that our mission is saying we've already finished 1 of our 3 suppressions. This is because the entrance, each egg, and the Apocalypse Bird itself each count as a different Abnormality for the purpose of this mission. It's theoretically possible to clear the mission by killing only two eggs and then ending the day, but there's absolutely no reason to ever do this.



The next teleport places it in Information, and out of our way again.

So… belatedly, I think I know what 'concealed the time' meant.

Oh, um… is that why you're targeting the egg that appeared in the Training Team first?

Yeah. That's the hope, anyways. We just have to keep on top of things and hope the agents can manage.



Manager, we've got a meltdown here on All-Around Helper!

There are several spawning throughout the building!

...Nothing important-just ignore them, we'll round them up when we have time!

While there, it spawns the first set of meltdowns, hitting Forsaken Murderer, Laetitia, and Helper. None of them are an actual threat to any of my Agents, so I just ignore them and focus on hitting the egg while I have the chance.



Time to fall back, everyone!

Our luck runs out on the third teleport, and Apocalypse Bird shows up in Training. I retreat our agents to the elevator and take stock of the situation.



That is a very big bird.

It's hard to see it with the lights off…

We could go in there and finish off the egg right in front of it.

That's suicide, Gebura…

But just think about it-smashing the thing's egg right in front of it. How much that would hurt. We should do it, manager.

...yeah, no. We wait.

During this time I also move the camera around to see if any other meltdowns have appeared-there's one on the Shelter, but it can be ignored like the others. So far, so good.



The path is clear. Attack!

Manager, more meltdowns.

One's on the Firebird, sir.



Credentia seems to have wound up somewhere else, so I throw Boksi at it and wait for the Long Arm egg to die.



Meanwhile, we start to see some breakouts...



But we take down the first egg, returning our ability to pause. :getin: The hard part of the fight is officially over.



Alright… time to take stock.

Apocalypse Bird moved down to Welfare, and spawned more meltdowns. We'll need to have Talow and Seyser take care of the two WAW in Welfare before they cause problems. Meanwhile, Firebird still hasn't been worked… why?



I'll show you the true power of a nestborn you drat bird!

...Ah. Boksi apparently got possessed and picked a fight with the Apocalypse Bird, by himself. That cancels the work order we made, so we'll just quickly retreat him to the hallway to heal before he gets murdered. Since he's hurt we'll just have Tenebrais deal with Firebird-



:what:

This is how things can and do spiral out of control while dealing with Apocalypse Bird. In many ways it boils down to a fight to suppress the Long Arms egg before there's too much to deal with in real time, and then mopping up once we can pause again.



Tylana's up in Central 1, and she's possessed. This is inconvenient since it means she's going to wander around to try and find the Apocalypse Bird, and until she gets to him she can't be controlled. Worse, since she's a long way away from it she can't get to it quickly-we won't be able to control her again for a good while.



Credentia here is in the same boat, but she seems much more into it for some reason. (it's because the animation randomly broke on Tylana. :lobcorp:)



We do get lucky, though-Tenebrais is only being called by the Tree. We can break her out by clicking on her and send her to the Firebird so it doesn't break out-we do it, since it breaching would be a massive headache.



Meanwhile, I order a mass attack on the egg. Mr.Black is removed from the attack party, due to his Lamp E.G.O dealing Black damage.

This isn't going so badly.

It's not over yet. We can't afford to get cocky, kiddo.

Can I call diibs on the eeggs..? I want to study theem…

Not if I get to them first. Who knows what secrets they could hold?

Can you wait until these things are suppressed before figuring out what we're doing with them?!



Apocalypse Bird teleports up to Control again, and I'm just circling where Mr. Black is sitting, by himself, in an elevator. This is important for later.

Music: First Trumpet




...Angela.

Yes, X?

So the Apocalypse Bird didn't restart the trumpet.

Correct.

But a scarecrow and a murderer and that All-Around Helper thing breaking out, that's definitely more of a threat than that super terrifying monstrous bird that is literally named after the freaking apocalypse. Better sound the alarm for them!

The algorithms which dictate our warning system are complex and-

Incredibly stupid?

...capable of providing counterintuitive results. They are incapable of mistakes.

Sure. :rolleyes:



More meltdowns spawn, Firebird wants more attention and we need to deal with La Luna unless we want to deal with her as well… and with Credentia wandering around randomly we've got nobody on that side. I set this aside for a moment.



HAHAHAHA! All alone, with a scarecrow? I'll make sure you're smiling for days after this!

Mr.Black engages the Scarecrow, but he's got it handled by himself.



Meanwhile, it's time to have everyone run away again.



Now it's Ppodae AND the scarecrow.

...eh, I'll toss him a Black and Red shield, he should be fine.



Twee also gets tapped to run down to Disciplinary and deal with La Luna. She's got ~35 seconds on the timer to do it, and as the fastest person in the facility by a lot she'll make it there easily.



It's moved to Welfare again. Take out the egg, now!

Shouldn't be any trouble.



While the Agents do that, I wake up this random Clerk from getting pulled in by Parasite Tree. All the breaches mean it's been working overtime, and while we're only at one blessing I don't want to make more if I can avoid it.



That's basically all the time there is before the second egg gets finished off. :hellyeah:



This turns the lights back on and stops Apocalypse Bird from possessing anyone else, though it doesn't help the agents who are already possessed. Credentia continues to do… whatever she's doing.



...Can we turn the lights back off?

We can't.

drat.

Here's a better closeup of the Bird now that everything's working again. Its health bar is 2/3rds empty now, since there's only one egg left to crack. Unfortunately, things aren't going to get easier-now that it has fewer attacks to choose from, it can spawn meltdowns more frequently.



Like so. We have Boksi handle Nothing There, and Talow run over to handle Yin since Tenebrais is busy with Firebird.



Blue Star is also melting down, so we throw Mr. Blond at it, and I manage to remember 1.76 MHz exists as I throw Bishop up to handle it as well.



Meanwhile, Apocalypse Bird shows off the attack it gets from Small Beak. It literally fires a projectile that's like a second mouth while it fires out its first mouth and it's just not something we want to get hit with.



Think you kiddos are ready to handle an Abnormality that isn't a helpless egg?

After today, pretty sure I could fight anything without getting nervous.



Apocalypse Bird teleports over to Training and starts some more meltdowns in the meanwhile.

Is it… throwing a tantrum?

Most birds would, if they found their eggs destroyed.

I guess that makes sense…

Good. :getin:



Meanwhile, Bishop finishes up his work and expresses the thoughts of everyone in the entire facility.

Music: neutral 3


Gratuitous deathball shot. :black101: Also, the music changes back again.

We've got things in hand, I guess.



We do have to snap Tenebrais out of the Tree's spell again, though.



Teleported again-it's in Information!

Right. Continue the suppression, team.

You got it, manager!

Circled here is Twee, who walked all the way back up after finishing her work on La Luna. I order her to go down and help out.



Everyone, fall back!

Can I stay for like three seconds to hug the big cutie?

No! Move, move, move!

We don't get to finish it off, as the Bird decides to come say hello again before we take down the egg.



Everyone runs from the Bird to the safety of the hallway, and I have circled Twee to remind everyone that she's still faithfully carrying out her last orders.



So let me tell you about how I was just about to crush the giant bird, before the Manager called me away…

Meanwhile Boksi handles Nothing There before it causes a problem.



Manager, it's rearing up for an attack!

Good thing there's nobody there to-



Okay! I'm finally here to take care of that egg, as ordered!

...Goddammit, Twee…

You're the one who didn't change the order!

Yes. This is entirely your fault, manager.

Lady Angela's got you there~

Ugh, it's too late to blame anyone now!

I swear I'm good at this game. :eng99:



Finally we get a good shot of an attack. Apocalypse Bird fires off its mouth behind everyone in front of it, where it hovers.



It then grows teeth. Damage is done at this step, so Twee is fine.



And then it fires back through everyone to go back into the Bird. Looking closely, it seems Twee took ~28 Red damage from that hit.

No matter how powerful Apocalypse Bird is, its bite just can't beat the OG. :smugbird:



It's back in wellfare, manager.

Everyone, move in!

Finally! Let's finish this bird off!



The Agents push in. The egg's owner isn't around to protect it.



The final egg falls.



A final, desperate roar crashes through the facility.



The Apocalypse Bird reaches one final time to the sky…



And then stops moving, crashing to the ground.

...Is that… did we do it?



I don't even care right now. I just want to know if we did it.

...It didn't move when I nudged it. Seems like it's down for the count.

Well, THAT was an eventful first meltdown period! What's next?

Unlike every other Abnormality we have, Apocalypse Bird's bits have nowhere to return to. They'll be hanging around the facility for the rest of the day. Also, we can't have an Apocalypse Bird come out twice in a single day-we don't have to worry about freeing it again today.

Manager, there's incredible potential within this Bird's remains. Shall I send the data for E.G.O extraction?

Yeah… do that.



Hey, do you guys feel different?

It's probably the wing you've got now.

The what? A wing?

Yes! It looks like something off of that Bird creature that appeared.



The first major reward we get is a brand new E.G.O gift for all our agents: the Through the Dark Twilight wing. It's a flat +7 to all stats, and one of the most powerful gifts in the game. Everyone who lived through the day gets one, which is… everyone.



Hey, what happened to your wing?

Eh, I decided it wasn't for me. I don't need a reminder of a day like this.

It's your loss. I'm just sad I never got to give it a big ol' hug!

Manager, hurry and find somewhere else for her to be.

Everyone except Credentia, that is. She was in the middle of being blessed by Parasite Tree when Apocalypse Bird died, so she was never given the wing. Oh, well. :lobcorp:



We also had the heart equipped for long enough to get its full data. It's called the Heart of Aspiration, and it raises HP and Attack Speed. Just slap it on someone, let it do its thing, and never put it back-that's what it's designed for. In the future we should put it on someone whose weapon doesn't ignore Attack Speed, though. Whoops.



I can't believe all of that was only on the first level…

The day should speed up from here, Manager.

Yeah. After that, what else is going to stop us? Crimson Dawn? Man, this place eats Crimson Dawns for breakfast.



Hey, I know you're angry and all, but maybe calm down? I'm getting your room just back how you like it, sir.



Don't worry. I'm not here to kick you around again. I just wanted to make sure you knew that if I'd been in the fight? It would have been over five minutes faster.



Crimson Dawn.



I worked through one break today, you do not want to be in my way right now, clown. :mad:



Crimson Done.



Job's done. Now to go figure out how to lean back in a chair with this thing coming out my back.



Huh… you're not as energetic as normal. Tired?

:(

That's understandable.

At this point, my goal is to get the day done with ASAP. The Bird seems especially prone to triggering the memory leak bug, and while my system's never given me problems before, I figured it would be a good idea to save things quickly.



Crimson Noon.



Incoming clown scorpion!

I'll hold it here! Back me up!

Muahahaha! Fire, my feathers! Fire!!

Good teamwork, everyone!

It's at this moment that I notice something absolutely awful.



Evil Kit's Temperance has been boosted to 3 by the wing. He can no longer fulfil his purpose in this facility because of this, so I need a new Agent to throw at the Woodsman. Whoops.



Anyways, Crimson Noon finishing up gives us the energy we need to complete the day. And what a day it was.

Shall we end things here?

Yeah, send off the signal. I need some serious sleep.



It's time for E.G.O maintenance, everyone~ Good work on a hard day. Have a coffee break before we get started.

Will do, sir! Man, this was a really full day, wasn't it?

Keeping an eye out for meltdowns was nerve-wracking, knowing you guys were all fighting. I thought I was going to phase through the floor things were vibrating so badly!

Yeah, that thing could really hit hard!

Say… where'd Talow go?

He went off when he heard the Noon alarm. I'm sure he's fine.



...Well, you're not pointing a gun at me, so this is kind of an improvement.

We survived that thing. I survived. You wanna tell me now what's going on?

Hold on, you think you're out of the woods?

We did just beat the creature from inside the black forest, so. Yes. Quite literally. Talk.

I will, I will… but you've still got one more day.

We've dealt with the Sephirot spewing chaos all over the facility, Abnormalities escaping left and right, now this, and you're telling me what kills me isn't any of it?!

Well, not usually. You are a pretty good fighter, after all. :rolleyes:

Then what? What could possibly be a threat at this point?

Are you asking me because you don't know, or because you don't want to admit it?



You know… I always thought it was funny that your name was Bishop. See, Bishops move on diagonals, dashing through positions at an angle when charging straight through's impossible. They're sharp. Reliable. But if they don't pay attention, they can get their escape routes cut off by the movements of the other pieces around them. Then… just like that, they're helpless.

If you're saying what I think you're saying, then I'm still in danger right now. Is that right?

You do have a knack for getting yourself cornered. Good luck.

Rrgh… you are so. Frustrating.

Trust me, the feeling's mutual.



...And he's gone. Huh. Guess I'll page the Manager.

Oh, hey, I was meaning to talk to you today. Something up?

Just… curious, about something. Did you ever find anything out about the old man?

Not a thing. Though, I did find something interesting.

Oh? What do you have?

Work records for our clerks. I always said they don't count, but... Apparently they can be handy. Turns out, there was only one other clerk assigned to the area Delta3 died. An engineering specialist, Gamma34.

Huh. So another clerk offed her?

That's the thing. Every other day, our clerks number from 1 to whatever the highest number there are is. We didn't see 34 again until we were over halfway through the upper layer. So, this is a fake, right? It's got to be.

That… would seem accurate, yes.

Then, who would have had the ability to fake a log after the fact? Only someone with technical expertise, like the sort that could load a program onto our network without Angela's notice.

Hey, I never-

I've pretty much got it figured out. You lied to me, Bishop. Is there anything else I should know? Are you really even freelancing down here?

I told you, I never-

We'll talk tomorrow. I've got things to do, and you probably have a lot to think about.



poo poo.



I hope that Bird hurt when we struck it down. It felt good to watch its last moments of movement.

Our newbies are all basically maxed out, so we'll likely be bringing some more in tomorrow.



But for now… our long day is finally over.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet the Rabbit Team captain

New Gear


Requirements: Listed above
*Not affected by Attack Speed



Requirements: Fortitude EX, Prudence EX, Temperance EX, Justice EX

New Story

The Heart of Aspiration

Bonus

VIDEO: Apocalypse Bird Suppression

TeeQueue fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Jul 4, 2021

Rogue AI Goddess
May 10, 2012

I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees.
That was a joke... unless..?
Wow.

Morand
Apr 16, 2004

1: Start New Game
2: Start New Game
3: Start New Game


:aaa:
That video hammered home how loving awful I'd be at this game.

Hwurmp
May 20, 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc4QTqslN4

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....
Apocalypse Bird is very much a puzzle boss. Pretty doable with the right strat without the need for ultra mega agents (though these obviously help), but is such an absolute rear end when you run into it blind for the first time. Even then though, this was a really clean run.

hobbesmaster
Jan 28, 2008

Is there some sort of catch with the weapon and suit from the bird or are they just that good?

the Orb of Zot
Jun 25, 2013

Apport: the Orb of Zot
The orb shrieks as your magic touches it!
Yoink! You pull the item towards yourself.
You see here the Orb of Zot.
So that’s the big secret superboss dead and the ultimate weapon and armor in our grasp.
It’s all downhill from here, isn’t it. Right?


hobbesmaster posted:

Is there some sort of catch with the weapon and suit from the bird or are they just that good?

They require 110+ in all 4 stats when the cap is 100.
Is it even possible to use them right now?

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Materant
Jul 22, 2010

see, what you don't understand is he now has

THE MANLIEST MUSTACHE

it defies physics


hobbesmaster posted:

Is there some sort of catch with the weapon and suit from the bird or are they just that good?


the Orb of Zot posted:

They require 110+ in all 4 stats when the cap is 100.
Is it even possible to use them right now?

You need a combination of EGO Gifts to equip them, but it's absolutely feasible, I think?

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