"Are you there? "
What?
Where am I?
Who am i?
My... head
"Gerald, Are you alright?"
Gerald composes himself quickly and responds
"Oh, yeah of course I am, Just spaced out a bit is all."
The white haired woman sighs in relief
"Haah, you worried me there for a moment, anyways Are you going to work on 0-03-03? The manager assigned that work to you 10 minutes ago."
Gerald quickly runs his fingers through his hair
"Yeah, I'll get on it quickly"
Gerald rummages through his memories to recall her name
"Uhh.. Lisa..? You should probably get to work aswell"
The woman in question sighs before flicking his forehead
"I was just checking in on you, Maybe next time I'll let you get scolded by the manager."
Lisa let out a playfully smirk before walking away while writing something down in her book
Gerald looks down at his waist and notices a baton hanging off to the side.
What is going on? I... can't seem to remember anything besides working here
Sigh.
Alright let's get this sorted, I know my name is Gerald
Apparently I work at a place called "Lobotomy Corporation" and this is my third day here.
When did I sign up for this, how did I even get here? Who are my family? do I even have family? What if-
Gerald's thoughts were interrupted by a noise
*Beep Beep*
Looking down at something attached to his wrist, there seems to be some sort of a device that reads,
(Gerald please start working on 0-03-03)
Just great, I guess I can collect my thoughts later
-
Walking through the corridors, he makes his way to the listed room and a ping gets sent to his... watch?
(Attachment work)
If my memory serves me right... I was briefed on all of the work types in this place
Attachment is the act of socializing with an abnormality
Right, now that begs the question...
What the fuck is an abnormality?
Apparently, it's the inner thoughts of the human mind brought into physical form
It should be pretty easy... I think
With this in mind Gerald entered the containment room,
A strange white skull with a cross and barbed wire hanging around it's head floats sluggishly in the back of the room
Man... I just had to raise a flag didn't I?
What demented fucker would ever even think of this thing?
Gerald nervously approaches the skull and begins talking to it
"Uhh hey... skull.. dude, how are you feeling?"
No response
What am I even doing? Talking to a floating skull and expecting an answer, I've really lost it
Gerald then began to feel an unusually great desire for confession
"You.. you want me to... repent?"
The skull seemed to react subtlely and clacked it's teeth together producing an eerie reverberation of bone
Gerald scratches his head and tries to find some way to appease it
The hell does it want me to say?
"Well, I can't seem to remember anything about my past, I'm not sure if I'm able to confess about anything you would find acceptable"
Gerald nervously chuckles as the floating skull seems to gaze into his soul, chanting can be heard emanating from the depths of its being
That isn't Intimidating at all
A voice begins to reverberate throughout Gerald's mind
To be willing to bear pain is half the atonement.
Only those who deceive themselves can live truly happy lives. Ignorance is bliss.
Is it not possible to just once forgive an act of evil, as long as the intentions behind it were pure?
An intense throbbing sensation overpowered any other thought he could have had
Gerald looks visibly shaken, not understanding the words that were being spoken to him
"What does that me-"
A sudden surge of pain flows throughout Gerald's mind and he cowers on the ground, thorns begin to wrap around his head as it intensifies the pain being inflicted onto him
IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS!!
Gerald is left gasping with sweat running down his face as he stares up at the entity, his understanding of it has grown.
"What did you do?"
The entity eerily stares into his eyes while a faint light can be seen as it's mouth subtlely shifts open
But there is no answer is produced, just the same clacking noise that had occurred earlier
Gerald stumbles to his feet and rubs his temples while unconsciously letting out a sigh of relief
This sucks...
Gerald then wraps his fingers around the crown of thorns fixed onto his head, he tries tugging at it but it won't budge
Although even if he could take it off, he wouldn't, it's almost as if his mind has been cleared of its fog and he can think clearly now
Looking back to the entity, there is a faint glow in it's pitch black eyesockets before quickly being snuffed out
"Im... not sure what you did, but it seemed to help a bit with my head"
Gerald shuffles in place uncomfortably
"Er.. Thank you."
Seemingly pleased the skull clacks it's teeth together once more before resuming it's low and eerie chanting
*Beep Beep*
Gerald looks down to see his watch announcing that his work is over, he glances one last time over at the floating skull and quickly makes it out of the room
*Ding*
Lisa strolls over to Gerald waving before stopping in her tracks and going wide eyed at his performance level
"Wow, perfect score huh? Didn't think you had it in you."
Gerald shrugs before stepping out of the way for 2 other people going in to the chamber with cleaning equipment
"What's their deal?"
Lisa puts a hand on her hip and sighs
"Those are the clerks, it's their job to do the things like paperwork and janitorial stuff."
"This is the second time you needed to be rebriefed on information"
Lisa leans her head in a bit with subtle concern in her eyes
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Damn, she's sharper then a thought.
Gerald forces out a sly smile, no doubt looking very strange
"Never been better"
Lisa scoffs before looking at his head and notices the crown of thorns, quickly shutting down what she was about to say
"Wait, you got an E.G.O gift too!?"
So that's what this thing is called
"Yeah I guess, it seems like its stuck to my skull"
Lisa recoils in shock before showing a look of pity
"D-Does it hurt...?"
Gerald chuckles at her funny looking face, before breaking out into laughter
Now Lisa's face twists into annoyance
"The hells so funny?"
Wiping the tears from his eyes Gerald recompose himself
"Oh nothing, you just looked funny"
Realization hit him at that moment, was that a bit strange or insensitive?
Before another word could exit his mouth, a notification chimes on Gerald's watch
(Break is in effect, return to work in XX:15)
Gerald nods before getting curious and asks Lisa a question
"What abnormality were you working on?"
Lisa recalls with a bit of annoyance
"It was some disgusting bug abomination, before i could even step 3 feet into the room, the damn thing screamed at me"
Then a look of guilt paints her face
"I.. I couldn't take it anymore, so I hit it to make it shut up"
"But then it kept going so I hit it again, and again.. and again."
Gerald looks shocked
Holy shit.
"... you beat up an abnormality? Is that even allowed?"
Lisa gets a bit defensive
"I-I'm not really sure? Repression work is usually supposed to be suppressing the abnormalities desires, I suppose for the sake of my job what I did could count as that...?"
"I don't think that's how that works Lisa."
"Oh whatever, I got a good score for my work, I have to be doing SOMETHING right."
Lisa looks over to the cafeteria
"Come on, why don't you sit with me for a bit?"
-
Approaching the vending machine, Lisa bought a coffee for the both of them, she then sat down on the sofa and patted the seat next to herself.
"Arent you gonna sit down?"
Breaking out of his stupor, Gerald recoils before a dry chuckle exits his mouth
"Haha alright"
Gerald robotically sat next to Lisa with the coffee in his hands
"So Gerald how was your life before working at L Corp?"
Damn it, thats what im trying to figure out myself.
"Huh?"
Gerald contemplated lying to her since he didn't want to seem unusual but decided against it
"Honestly, I don't really remember Is that weird?"
Lisa seemed slightly perplexed
"You don't remember anything?"
"Not really"
Lisa took a sip of her coffee, savoring the flavor before speaking
"That honestly is a bit strange, but nothing out of the ordinary"
There was a silence.
"Don't be ashamed by it though, there's probably a reason you can't remember anything in your life before this"
Lisa tries her best to crack a joke
"Maybe you were experimented on by some wing huh?"
Lisa chuckles but quickly stops seeing that Gerald isn't talking, making her self-aware
...
"Maybe so."
Gerald took another sip of his coffee before directing the question to her
"What was your life like before working here?"
Lisa's eyes dimmed before she quickly covered it up with a smile
"Thats not important, just a bum trying to make ends meet."
There was a pause between her words
"Surprisingly, i got an invitation from one of the wings of the world"
"I finally got a chance to do something more with my life, and I'd be damned if I would pass it up"
Lisa let out a sigh and sank deeper into the sofa while staring at Gerald
"Anyone ever tell you that youre awfully plain?"
Gerald deadpans at her, before scoffing slightly in disbelief
"Thanks."
Before Lisa could tease him even more, their devices chimed but both for different reasons
Lisa sprang up and began stretching her arms
"I'll be going first then"
Gerald waves her off
"Alright, I'll see you later"
Gerald stretches aswell before composing himself and checking his messages
(Gerald can you please come see me in the main room?)
There was a little M by the message, indicating that it was from the control team sephirah, his boss.
Gerald entered the main control room and a short brown metal box with a big eye in the middle of it began to walk over to his position
"Gerald, over here!"
"Greetings, Control team Sephirah Malkuth"
The metal box in question placed it's hands on its... Hips? Corners?
"Gerald! Just call me Malkuth!"
"Sorry err... Malkuth"
The toaster in question seemed to cross its arms and make a dissatisfied grunt
"Whatever, I'll excuse it this time!"
"Anyways, I wanted to congratulate you on your first work!"
Malkuth gave Gerald a thumbs up which... looked a bit unusual
"Be sure to talk to me about any complaints you have for my department"
Gerald nodded while rubbing his head
"Yes, I will be sure to tell you"
Gerald pauses for a moment before asking
"Hey Malkuth, do the abnormalities have names?"
The robot in question seemed to get lost in thought
"Well they have nicknames that the agents call them for convenience, but traditionally they go by a serial number, it's much easier for listing them in our system"
Gerald nodded at her explanation
"Are the names by the agents official, or just something said and not on paper?"
Malkuth hummed a bit while analyzing Gerald's face.
"Well If the naming of abnormalities increases the efficiency of work, then i guess you could submit a suggestion, and it will be added to our database."
"Oh cool, then i guess ill submit a few names for the sake of 'convenience' "
Malkuth sighs and feels as if her workload almost doubled at that comment alone
"Well alright, just submit me the names you come up with for the abnormalities, it is my job as the CONTROL Team Sephirah afterall Hahaha"
Was it just me or did that last part seem a bit unhinged?
Gerald brushes it off, probably just her quirk... or something like that
"I already have the first idea for a name"
-
Gerald continues walking through the facility checking out the layout of everything waiting for his next work when he gets to the end of the corridor
He turns to his right and inspects the door "O-02-56" is written at the top, Gerald turns to his LC-230 on his wrist (Malkuth told him it's name)
(Insight work)
Insight is adjusting the environment to suit the abnormalities needs
Reaffirming this Gerald enters the room and surveys the inside of it, he sees a tiny little bird sitting on the floor.
Wow, it's not an unfathomable horror beyond my comprehension, that's surprising.
Seeing a broom hanging on the utility rack from outside the room, he pokes his hand out of the chamber to grab it
Gerald begins walking around the room while sweeping the excess feathers scattered across the floor
"Don't mind me little guy, I'm just gonna clean your room a bit."
The bird then jumps up and flies over to land on Gerald's head before straightening some of his hairs into a nest like formation
"What the hell? Thats.. unexpected."
The bird tugs on his hair again prompting a reaction out of him
"Goddammit stop, that shit hurts!"
The bird ignores his cries of pain before adjusting it's tiny body to get comfortable on its new head nest while pulling the rest of his hairs into bedding with its small beak
This goes on for about 15 minutes and when Gerald finally stops sweeping and secretly rejoices that this torture is finally over, the bird jumps off of his head and begins to peck at his face
"... You are a sick little bastard."
Gerald throws his hands up in an attempt to shield himself from the barrage of pecking
"That hurts!"
"Are you hungry or something?"
The bird stops violently pecking Gerald and seemingly perks up at his offer with a tilt of its head
Digging in his pocket, he pulls put a granola bar he bought earlier and gives it to the bird
"This is my peace offering alright?"
The bird saunters over to the food in Gerald's hand and pecks at it while perching on Gerald's arm
it can eat surprisingly fast for it's tiny little frame
In a matter of a few seconds the entire bar got consumed whole and the bird jumped happily
"Are you bipolar or something?"
Gerald rubs it's head with his fingers and surprisingly it doesn't attack him, instead it stays still, seemingly appraising him.
The bird then nods before flying over to a corner of its room and coming back with a necklace in it's beak
The little bird then placed it around Gerald's neck before flying away and laying on the ground lazily.
"Thanks little bird"
-
Gerald exits the room and decides to check his work result, it was a bright green happy face with 23 PE boxes next to it
Gerald touches the necklace before fiddling around with it in his hands, this one makes him feel much lighter then usual
Instead of the usual chime he has been getting used to on his LC-230, there was a deep vibration eminating from it in a rhythmic pattern, on the screen there was the letter 'X' next to it
It's the Manager.
(Agent, please enter my office immediately)
Gerald stops wandering around the control room before slowly making his way over to the manager's office
Gerald contemplates knocking on the door, but a female voice beats him to it
"Please come in."
Gerald cautiously steps into the room and looks around, everything seems dark and there are multiple computer screens with a desk and chair infront of them
A figure then swivels the chair around and comes face to face with Gerald
"Hello, Agent."
The man in question sheepishly makes himself known and waves his hand
"Hey Manager."
The manager is a man with black hair, yellow eyes and a black office suit, the overall vibe he is giving off is one of authority
"Please take a seat, I need to talk with you for a bit."
Gerald makes his way deeper into the Tigers den and pulls out a chair for himself before sitting down
The manager folds his hands and leans into the table before asking
"Agent... Gerald was it?"
"Yes.. sir."
"Well, do you know why I called you into my office?"
Before Gerald could even speak, a slender white hand approached from behind him and placed a paper containing his work results from the two abnormalities he worked on today
"What the Fuck!?"
...
Realizing that he caused an outburst infront of his boss, he quickly apologized
"Sorry, I got startled by your... assistant?"
This so called assistant was giving Gerald the meanest look he had ever seen
"It's fine, back to what I was saying."
"I called you into my office because your work results are abnormally high"
Huh, so my suspicions were correct
Gerald scratched his head while thinking of an excuse
"Well how would you consider my performance Abnormal?"
The manager adjusted his position and cleared his throat
"Well Gerald, you would know that all abnormalities have a PE box counter that determines your score, correct?"
"Correct sir."
"You also know that this counter has an upper limit per abnormality correct?"
Well I know that NOW
"... no?"
The manager sighs and points toward the paper sitting on the table
"0-03-03's result was overwhelmingly positive and the enkephalin produce was much higher then it's base 10 upper limit"
"Oh, your talking about One Sin?"
"... One Sin..?"
"Yeah.. that's the uhh.. name thats in the database."
The manager stopped for a second to think
"Oh right, you agents did request naming of the abnormalities"
"That's besides the point, I ignored this whole event because I thought it was just a very rare fluke, but while working with O-02-56-"
"Punishing Bird."
The manager deadpanned
"Can you stop interrupting me over these silly names?"
"Sorry."
The manager tried to recall his train of thought
"While working with Punishing Bird, you got a score of 23 Enkephalin Boxes while it's own upper limit is of 12"
"Do you see how unusual this is?"
Yeah of course I do, your making it painfully obvious for me
"So what do you want me to do about it?"
The manager began to smile and cross his hands together
"Nothing at all, in fact I'm encouraging you to continue doing this as its a major increase in our Enkephalin production"
The manager made a signal to his assistant as he smiled back at Gerald
"Starting tomorrow, you start handling E.G.O equipment"
"Don't I already have E.G.O though?"
Gerald points to his crown of thorns and his necklace
"Those are different, they are gifts the abnormalities give you if they feel like you are deserving of one"
"E.G.O Equipment is fundamentally different and much more dangerous then a gift."
The manager swivels back to his desk as he grabs a glass of wine sitting on his desk
"I think we've talked for long enough, keep up the good work Agent."
"R-Right."
Just as Gerald was about to make his way out of there, he recalled an idea he had
"By the way, Punishing Bird seemed a bit bored when I entered his containment room, could you maybe consider getting him a perch for him to rest on?"
The manager hummed while tapping his finger impatiently
"I'll think about it."
-
Walking out of the office, Gerald could finally let out a sigh of relief
The atmosphere was suffocating in there
Gerald involuntarily shivers a bit
Although from that interaction, I've gathered some important and invaluable information
*Beep*
Checking his LC-230 a notification appeared
(Work finished for the day, report to living quarters before XX:30)
Gerald scratches his head
This quick?
Walking around he encounters somebody cleaning the floor with a suit different from his own, it's maroon in color with a yellow tie, much like the people who were entering One Sin's containment unit.
Not wanting to be an anti-social type, Gerald tried to spark up a conversation
"Hey, you doing alright there?"
The Clerk slowly turns her head up to see Gerald showing concern for her
"A-are you asking me?"
"Yeah, who else would I be speaking to?"
She grew silent for a bit before building up the courage to speak
"I'm alright."
... This is getting awkward.
"Well that's... good."
"Anyways I wanted to ask, where are the dormitories located?"
The Clerk shuffled in place before pointing in a direction
"It should be on the first floor to the left, down the hallway"
Gerald gave her a half grin, maybe he can make another friend here
"Thanks, what's your name by the way?"
"O-oh... its Beta7"
"Excuse me?"
"D-Did I do something wrong?"
The Clerk looked to be on the verge of tears while quivering in despair
"I-I didn't mean to offend you I swear!"
What the fuck!? The hells up with her?
"All im asking for is your name, y'know the one you were given by your parents?"
The Clerk calmed down and let out an awkward laugh as she went bright red in embarrassment
"h-haha, sorry I-I misunderstood what you were asking"
The Clerk pushed down the urge to crawl into a hole in pure shame, and cleared her throat before speaking
"My name is Vera, I'm a clerk for the control team"
Gerald nods in response before introducing himself
"My name is Gerald, Agent of the control team"
"Since we both work in the same department, I guess we will be seeing each other more"
A smile started to creep up on Vera's face
"Yeah, maybe."
-
After getting lost twice and entering places he shouldn't have, he finally found the living quarters
"Hey pal, ya lost or somethin?"
A middle aged man leaned against the wall while smoking a cigar, he had a mean look on his face.
"Isn't this the living quarters?"
"Ain't just THE living quarters"
He then jabbed his thumb into his chest
"MY living quarters"
"Oh sorry, must've went to the wrong room or something"
The man snorted before shooting out a puff of smoke
"Whatever, doesn't matter to me"
He then reached into his pocket and held out a box of cigarettes
"Ya smoke?"
Did I? I'm not sure, and it's not like this damn thing on my head helps
"Uhh... Yeah.."
Gerald then took a cigar and the man lit it, taking a deep puff of it he couldn't help but relax on the spot
Haah, that's refreshing, really soothes the nerves
The man smirks a bit at his reaction
"So, what's the name?"
Gerald releases a plume of smoke before clearing his throat a bit
"Gerald, Its my third day working here"
"Name's Mao, nice to meet ya Gerald"
Mao then shoved the tip of his cigar into the ash tray beside himself before yawning
"You should probably get to sleep, don't wanna be tired for work tomorrow do ya?"
"You're right."
Mao then pointed out the room with Gerald's nameplate, much to the latter's embarrassment but nonetheless Gerald finally made his way inside
It was pretty cramped and compact, only having a shoddy bed with an old wooden dresser, to the left there was a desk and chair with a Lobotomy Corp manual containing what seemed to be the training procedures and protocols
Gerald practically threw himself onto his bed before letting out a long sigh
Damn.. this really is my life, fucking sucks man...
The room was silent except for the ceiling fan which kept it's monotonous pace
Who am I really?
This question kept popping up in his head as he tried to rest, he didn't even know why he was there, he didn't know how he was there, the only thing he knew is the company he works at.
The crown of thorns on his head throbs a bit in response.
Gerald wraps his hands around it before frowning
Now you decide to react? stupid thing...
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