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One step at a time, Vincent. You just have to make it to the end of this shift in one piece. You should probably stick to basic, simple stuff that won't require too much effort on your end. At least for the start of your shift.

Oh! Right, you have those weird M.A.D WORLD glasses. You can do a quick checkup on The Man and Colt with them! It'll give you some more data on what, exactly, the auras mean AND it should be relatively easy.

"Hey, can you two stand right there? By the computer?"

The Man agrees. Colt gives you a weird look but as he's about to say something, he stops himself. He briefly shoots a glance at the spot where the Man is currently at.

"...Aight." Your patriotic friend shrugs his shoulders as he waits by the computer with the Man. "I dunno what kind of weirdo shit you're doing, spic. Tryin' to avoid workin'?"

"Where did that stereotype even come from?" You muse out loud as you rummage through your satchel. "Aren't we the ones 'taking all the jobs' or whatever the saying goes?"

"Just because you have a job doesn't mean you're good at it." Colt swiftly retorts. "Eh. You're one of the 'good' ones anyhow. I've heard the stories."

The Man rolls his eyes at Colt's gibbering. He's grown used to it and he hopes you're not taking any offense to it. He then realizes, right, you wouldn't have hired him if you were offended. He swiftly apologizes.

"Eh, don't worry about it." You stand in front of your two coworkers before sliding the glasses on. All of the color in your lab (what little there was) is immediately suppressed in a haze of sepia and grey. You squint your eyes as you try to make out what kind of aura they might have.

Colt's aura is...well, you can't really say you're shocked. It manifested as three stripes of color wrapped around his neck and his wrists, and wouldn't you know? The colors are red, white and blue. It's odd how it only manifests around his wrist and neck, but you're not sure what that could represent.

Red and blue could apply; he does show a lot of rage, and he's probably loyal to his country at least. You don't know what white means but you've seen it in your brother.

The only commonality between the two of them would be belief, maybe? Your brother's religious faith and Colt's patriotism could be a common connection? It's a stretch, but it's the only explanation you have that makes sense at the moment.

The Man's aura is a chaotic, kaleidoscopic blend of colors ranging from the brightest hues of pink to the darkest shades of black. You can't even begin to list all of the colors in his aura. There's pinks, blues, reds, blacks, oranges, and some colors you don't think you've ever seen before.

The best way you can describe it is it's a tapestry made out of random, stitched together fragments of other auras. It's not the aura a normal human should have but, well, this is the Man we're talking about.

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The main 'standout' colors you can pick out amongst the abstract painting's worth of colors are black, grey, and purple. You're going to record that as the Man's 'actual' aura, just because his actual aura is too hard to record.

You narrow your eyes as you take another look at the Man. You can vaguely make out his appearance, but you struggle to remember more than one or two specifics. He's on the older side, mid-30s at the youngest; you can say that with confidence.

His skin is...pale, yes, as white as paper. You also think he might be five foot something, but beyond that, it's anyone's guess. The glasses are able to partially pierce through whatever memory-distorting effect he has, but it's not strong enough.

"Aight, what's the fuckin' point of this again?" Colt rapidly taps his foot on the ground, ready to do literally anything else. "Mind explainin' to the class?"

The Man theorizes that those glasses let Vincent see what he otherwise couldn't.

Colt nods along as if he actually registered what the Man said. "Hm. Maybe that's why, yeah. Ya can't see my dick or whatever with those, right? This ain't some weird homosexual shit?"

"What? I'm only into chicks." You carefully remove M.A.D WORLD. "I was checking your auras. It's something I always like to check. It helps me to understand people better."

"Eh, I ain't so sure about you likin' chicks. I've seen you hangin' out with that Ash chick." He grunts like a disappointed day. "She's too tough for my likin'. Ain't got the curves a woman needs."

The Man would say something, but he elects to stay silent, lest he be judged for his own taste in women.

"Ah, shut up." You mumble under your breath. At least you got some information out of this little experiment. You recap what their auras to the best of your ability, mostly because you're curious to see how they'd react.

Colt puffs his chest out upon realizing what his aura looks like. "I have the soul of a RED-BLOODED AMERICAN! Of course I'd wear the colors of my country, even in the deepest parts of my soul! That's a sign I'm blessed by GOD!"

The Man, on the other hand, is vaguely disturbed by your description of his aura. He knows a little bit about 'auras' and how they can manifest, but he has never heard about an aura that matched the description you gave him. He feels stable, so he's not sure why his aura is so unstable.

Maybe it's a sign of his affliction? He can only theorize.

"Eh, it's pretty colors or whatnot by the end of the day. If ya feel fine, ya feel fine" Okay, now you actually have to wonder if he can properly see the Man.

"Are you talking to...?"

"Ya, I'm talkin' to him." Colt shoots a look in the Man's direction. "Either he's real or I'm hallucinating, and I'm gonna go with the former. I ain't no fuckin' schizo like that Nicky chick."

That's weird, you thought he could barely see the Man.

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Now, he's acting like he can see him just as well as you can? Odd. Maybe wearing the same two artifacts day in, day out has given him something similar to your ANOMALY TOUCHED quirk.

The Man breathes a sigh of relief. He'll be honest; he wasn't quite sure if Colt could actually see him or not.

"'course I can. I don't know why the other freaks can't." Colt shrugs his shoulders. "At least the beaner can see ya too."

"I've known about him since I first came here, to be frank. That's beside the point."

"You remember those shotgun slugs I told you to make? I was wondering..." You rummage through your satchel for your two handy-dandy guns. "Do you know how to fix or tune up a gun?"

Colt's eyes start to sparkle. You might as well have said he won the jackpot. "Hoo boy, of course I do. I have to fix this beaut when I have to beat someone over the head with it."

He smacks the side of his rifle for emphasis. "Alright. Hand 'em over, and please, answer that god damn phone already." What phone- Oh. You were tuning it out until now but your landline is going on the fritz. It was dead quiet yesterday so you suppose the man on the phone has a deal for you.

Luckily for him, you're actually willing to spend time on his nonsense. You hand over your guns to Colt so he can work on them, while you and the Man deal with the actual phone call. Colt eagerly begins his work on tuning up your guns for, you know, if you have to deal with an anomaly or that Harvester or whatever wants to kill you today!

The Man leans against the table you rested the phone on. He asks what, exactly, he should expect from this call?

"Ah, some dude calls me sometimes to ask me for 'time'. Considering the shift we're in? Maybe getting it over as quickly as possible is a good idea?"

The Man concedes that it's a fair point. He gently reminds you that you shouldn't sell all your time, because he assumes you have some sponsorships you need to do on the clock. You have to admit he is right, otherwise you might've been tempted to dump all of your time into this phone.

You pick up the receiver to see what the big deal is. The Man leans in to eavesdrop on the call. Your ears are assaulted by a wave of sharp electronic static as the phone struggles to connect the call. Calling....

https://youtu.be/-HM8uXVXeHk - CONNECTED.

"Good evening, gentlemen! May I ask you what the clock's set to right now?" A voice with a familiar transatlantic accent crackles over the line. 'Mike' is his name, if you remember correctly, but who's to say that's his actual name?

"9:21." You give him the proper 'code' phrase, since apparently you need to give that in order to make a deal with him.

"Excellent! Now, I only sense you at the phone, but my gut tells me someone else is listening in? I can't quite...sense their timeflow, though, unlike yours."

The Man introduces himself, if only to be polite.

There's an awkward pause before 'Mike' continues to speak. "Ah, no matter. I can offer you a deal regardless of my inability to properly sense you. I assume you're willing to trust me a bit more compared to our initial interaction, Alex?"

The Man tilts his head in confusion. You cover the receiver and you quickly explain it's to keep your identity safe. The Man nods along, finding it to be a reasonable way to stay safe.

A lot of deal-based abnormalities, he claims, tend to be fickle when it comes to the spirit and letter of their arrangements. He gestures at you to continue the conversation.

"Mmh. Given my current situation, I actually want to sell my time."

"Excellent! Now, we don't have a lot of time to transfer all of your time over to me, so I'll implore you to only accept one of my deals. For our own safety."

The Man cautiously asks what 'Mike' exactly means by that.

"I don't intend on having a customer die on me because the phone he's standing next to explodes, you know?" 'Mike' states it like it's super obvious. The Man concedes but he's going to listen in to make sure 'Mike' isn't going to fuck you over.

"Free feel. I'm not going to hide my hand, my good sirs. Please, listen to my deals, and see which one you'd be willing to accept."

AVAILABLE TIME TOKENS: 12
MONEY: $2805

It's time to sell some TIME, Vincent, because TIME is LITERALLY MONEY to this anomaly(?). Choose one (or no) deals.
>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)
>DIVINE MERCY (-2 TIME TOKENS. During this shift, you and your two coworkers will take slightly less damage from ALL sources, to make up for your harder skill checks.)
>MACHINE SPIRIT. (-2 TIME TOKENS. You'll immediately unlock one of HARD TIMES' insight hints, and you'll obtain more samples from your two mechanical anomalies during this shift.)
>FLESH AND BLOOD (-3 TIME TOKENS. You, Colt and the MAN slowly regenerate PHYSICAL HEALTH for the rest of the day.)
>TIME FOR MONEY, MONEY FOR TIME. (+1 TIME TOKEN, your next two anomaly works will be guaranteed to cost 0 TIME TOKENS, -$455)
>Don't accept any of the deals.
>Try to propose a deal of your own. (Write in.)

Anything you want to ask Mike while you're on the line? You can ask up to two questions.
>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.
>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
>Does he have any advice on how you should handle your SPONSORSHIPS? You got a lot on your plate today.
>Your cat, EL FELINO, is acting weird. Does he have any tips on how to deal with anomalous animals?
>Write in.

Welp, I'm two days late, but we're back! It's time for another 50-60 updates of Vincent suffering.

>>6364694
>DIVINE MERCY (-2 TIME TOKENS. During this shift, you and your two coworkers will take slightly less damage from ALL sources, to make up for your harder skill checks.)

>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
>Does he have any advice on how you should handle your SPONSORSHIPS? You got a lot on your plate today.

>>6364694
>>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)
Permanent boost as opposed to just this shift or just for the day healing. That said if we expect Mr Harvester to show up or if we end up adventuring perhaps healing for the day wouldnt be a bad idea.

>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.
Inb4 we have to establish our own territory with the proper signage, by marking it.


>Write in.
The Anti-memetic Moths in ARC, how could we use them? What do they eat, why do they stay on the ceiling?

I have an idea here. What if we could get the moths to hang out on top of Vicnent's door during the night? Would it erase Vincent's door and room from the Harvesters memory? Make it more or less invisible? Could we harvest moth dust samples? Etc.

Welcome back Handler

>>6364694
>DIVINE MERCY (-2 TIME TOKENS. During this shift, you and your two coworkers will take slightly less damage from ALL sources, to make up for your harder skill checks.)

>Your cat, EL FELINO, is acting weird. Does he have any tips on how to deal with anomalous animals?
>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.

>>6364694
>DIVINE MERCY (-2 TIME TOKENS. During this shift, you and your two coworkers will take slightly less damage from ALL sources, to make up for your harder skill checks.)
It does go hand in hand flavorwise with the religious test theme of that one company whose sponsorship is ALSO making our skillchecks harder
>Write-in:
>The Anti-memetic Moths in ARC, how could we use them? What do they eat, why do they stay on the ceiling?
>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.

>>6364694
>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)
Make our guns shoot harder, magic man.

>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.
>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.

>>6364694
>>6364694
>DIVINE MERCY (-2 TIME TOKENS. During this shift, you and your two coworkers will take slightly less damage from ALL sources, to make up for your harder skill checks.)
Usually I'd be all for the permeant upgrade, but with us needing to harvest our own flesh and the upped difficulty checks, I'm gonna have to pass this time. Maybe we can ask for it next time round?

>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
>Does he have any advice on how you should handle your SPONSORSHIPS? You got a lot on your plate today.

>>6364694
>MACHINE SPIRIT. (-2 TIME TOKENS. You'll immediately unlock one of HARD TIMES' insight hints, and you'll obtain more samples from your two mechanical anomalies during this shift.)
>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
>Does he have any advice on how you should handle your SPONSORSHIPS? You got a lot on your plate today.

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>>6364694
>>MACHINE SPIRIT. (-2 TIME TOKENS. You'll immediately unlock one of HARD TIMES' insight hints, and you'll obtain more samples from your two mechanical anomalies during this shift.)
THE MACHINE SPIRIT WILLS IT 01001001 01100110 01010101 01010010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 01010101 01110010 01000111 01000001 01011001
>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
>The Anti-memetic Moths in ARC, how could we use them? What do they eat, why do they stay on the ceiling?

>>6364694
>FLESH AND BLOOD (-3 TIME TOKENS. You, Colt and the MAN slowly regenerate PHYSICAL HEALTH for the rest of the day.)

>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
>Your cat, EL FELINO, is acting weird. Does he have any tips on how to deal with anomalous animals?

>>6364694
>>MACHINE SPIRIT. (-2 TIME TOKENS. You'll immediately unlock one of HARD TIMES' insight hints, and you'll obtain more samples from your two mechanical anomalies during this shift.)

>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.

>>6364694
>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)

>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.

Permanently making our combat better seems like the safest choice if we’re concerned about that harvester, and this might be one of the best ways to learn about auras.

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>>6364694
>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)
>>Does he know anything about Harvesters? Just in case you have to deal with more aggressive Harvesters in the future.
>>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.

>>6364694
>DIVINE MERCY (-2 TIME TOKENS. During this shift, you and your two coworkers will take slightly less damage from ALL sources, to make up for your harder skill checks.)

>The Anti-memetic Moths in ARC, how could we use them? What do they eat, why do they stay on the ceiling?
>Your cat, EL FELINO, is acting weird. Does he have any tips on how to deal with anomalous animals?

>>6364694
>DIVINE MERCY

>The Anti-memetic Moths in ARC, how could we use them? What do they eat, why do they stay on the ceiling?
>Your cat, EL FELINO, is acting weird. Does he have any tips on how to deal with anomalous animals?

>>6364694
We're back, yay!

>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)
We'll have new ammunition soon and double upgrading both of our weapons seems to good to pass (although going by the other votes we probably end up passing it).

>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
What could the patterns and the areas covered by the auras possibly mean?
>The Anti-memetic Moths in ARC, how could we use them? What do they eat, why do they stay on the ceiling?
Good write-in, let's ask that.

>>6364694
>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)
Permanent upgrades are good.

>Ask him about what he knows about AURAS. You want to get the most out of your M.A.D WORLD glasses.

>moths

>>6364694
>PIERCE AND SCATTER (-2 TIME TOKENS. Your CHROME DEAGLE and DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN will gain an additional boost to their damage and accuracy, which stacks with Colt's handywork/upgrade.)

>Your cat, EL FELINO, is acting weird. Does he have any tips on how to deal with anomalous animals?

Write-in:
>I’m surrounded by antimemetic moths that seem to know I can see them. What are they and how big of a problem is this?

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17 votes in the first update this thread, waow. Thank you for the warm reception.

WHAT DEAL?
DIVINE: cKq, O8D, iJF, RwU, 6Tw, PX/
PIERCE AND SCATTER: Lan, YGT, T6r, IYn, fAO, /UO, hdC
MACHINE SPIRIT: qTJ, 8Ri, Lhd
FLESH AND BLOOD: sGe

I'll blast your skulls apart. Every single one of you.
It was a very close tie between DIVINE MERCY and PIERCE AND SCATTER, but it appears we're going with more powerful guns this time around. That's probably what Colt would've wanted you to pick, so bonus Colt points for that. (It is uncertain what you can spend Colt Points on.)

WHAT QUESTION
AURA: cKq, YGT, RwU, qTJ, 8Ri, sGe, T6r, IYn, fAO, /UO
SPONSOR: cKq, RwU, qTJ
FELINO: O8D, sGe, 6Tw, PX/, hdC
HARVESTER: O8D, iJF, Lan, YGT, Lhd, IYn
MOFFS: iJF, Lan, 8Ri, 6Tw, PX/, fAO, /UO, hdC

A very clever write in indeed. I'll allow it and, hey, they are an oddity you don't really have any frame of reference for. You'll also ask about the auras since they could be a very useful way to determine who you can trust, if only you knew more about them, right?

Writing.

You really wanted to ask for protection from whatever divine or anomalous force is going to be tormenting you this shift, but that'll only be for one agonizing shift. You need to think long-term about this.

Colt's already working on your guns, so why not help him out a little? It's probably the best use of time you can get out of this particular arrangement. "So, I'll take the PIERCE AND SCATTER deal. There's a certain somebody I might need to fight later, and you know! Better safe than sorry!"

"Excell..." Mike tried to respond, but his voice was cut off by what sounds like wind? You can barely make out what he's trying to say over the roaring, seething winds. The Man calls out to his fellow mystery man. No response.

The Man smacks his palm against the phone to try to get the phone to work again. Like magic, the roaring wind vanishes, allowing you to actually hear 'Mike' again.

"Please, excuse me!" Mike feverishly stammers out an apology. "Sorry, the wind out here is something else. Let's say the war hasn't been kind to my world. Now, is there anything else I need to do before I harvest your time?"

You might as well make this quick; you doubt the connection's going to be stable enough for more than two questions. "First one is a bit of a weird one, actually. Do you know anything about antimemetic moths? What do they eat? Why do they stay on the ceiling?"

"Are they a problem I should worry about?"

There's an awkward pause. "Moths...? You can see them?" 'Mike' almost doesn't believe you, but the Man can confirm that those moths do exist. He can see them too and he's also shocked Vincent knows about them as well.

He'll add on what he knows after 'Mike' speaks.

"Well," Mike clears his throat. "They're a species of moth that feeds off ambient negative emotions from any sentient or sapient creature. They can detect all manners of stress hormones in a creature."

"They aren't a threat, per se, but they're an ill omen if too many of them are hanging around an area. As for the ceiling? Well, it's the safest place to be once blood is spilled."

The Man adds that they also congregate around places where dead bodies are, since it's not only negative emotions that they feed on, but carrion. Considering the vast majority of creatures here are human or human-adjacent, that means they hang around dead bodies.

Not a particularly great sign, the Man comments.

"Exactly." Mike hums as he tries to find what else he can say. "They're not particularly useful for your research, if you're thinking about samples, unless you capture them whole. If you crush and grind enough of them into a powder, you could create something that consumes or suppresses negative emotions."

"I'd use them as a guide, myself, more than anything profitable."

Damn. At least you got a better idea on what they, exactly, are. No wonder why they're hanging out in an ARC facility.

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With all of the Harvesters and anomalies and whatnot, you wouldn't be shocked if corpses were made on an hourly basis down here. The only reason you're still standing is that you have a tough body.

"Alright. My second question is, do you know anything about AURAS? I know the colors mean something, but the patterns? The areas they cover? They have to mean something, don't they?"

Mike breathes a sigh of relief at the topic being changed. "Auras are a manifestation of that person's...life experiences and strongest emotions. 'Soul' wouldn't be the best way to describe them, at least in the way you might think of one, but they're adjacent."

"The way the pattern manifests can tell you a lot about a person, but I'll tell you what I know. Full-body auras with few or no patterns mean that the person is well-adjusted. They may have issues, but they're able to mask them or otherwise control them."

"As for abnormal patterns? Spikes represent emotional distance or a sense of detachment from the world around them. Spirals represent something that consumes, or controls, the person's choices. If their face or neck is obscured, that means that they're hiding their true self or their true feelings through a mask, depending on the color, of course."

"Brush streaks, lines, and dots aren't important. They're flavor, don't worry if you see them on a person's aura. The only other thing I can confidently say about them is that the more colors an aura has, the more...unstable the person is. One to two is great, three is okay, and four is worrying."

"Five or more is a sign something is deeply, deeply flawed with that person. If you spot someone with too many colors? Either get them a therapist, or run."

The Man begins to sweat bullets, considering that applies to his own aura. He briefly recounts his aura over the phone, using your description, asking if he should be worried.

Mike tries to stay professional as the Man babbles. Once he finishes, 'Mike' calmly answers. "I would think that's more a symptom of your current condition. If a regular human had that aura, it'd be worrying, but you're closer to me than to the other two."

"I will say what purple represents: power, wisdom, and restriction. Now, it's time for me to harvest your time."

The line cuts out just like that. You and the Man share a look at each other, wondering what exactly he meant by that, but you soon realize that, oh, yeah, time really has passed. Colt is waving the two of you over.

"Hey! Are you two gonna stand there all day with a THUMB UP YOUR ASS??? I got your GUNS ready, Vince!"

"Bwuh? How long has it been?"

"I dunno! An hour or two?" Colt responds rather dismissively. "All I know is your fax machine's screamin'. Guess it's time for a new rule or somethin'."

The Man has a vague awareness that his sense of time was altered or hampered in some way. He's going to check your computer's clock to see what's going on.

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While he's doing that, you go to collect your guns from Colt. Colt has really outdone himself here, given the amount of grime and gunk covering his hands. He's done everything in his power to fix up your guns with the tools your lab had. He raises a sparkling, pristine deagle up to you. It's almost factory new with how little wear and tear there is on the gun.

Your eyes dart down to your other gun, your shotgun, resting on the table he's working at. The rust and stains that were once on it are completely done, and as you pick it up, you can feel how much sturdier it is than it was when you found it.

When you found it in a literal pile of trash, you could tell that it probably couldn't handle more than one or two shots before breaking apart. Now? If you bashed it against a rock, the rock would break way before the gun took any amount of damage.

"You gotta maintain your guns. If ya don't, they can jam on ya, or misfire, or your shots go wildly off target. Me? I know how to tune one up." Colt tightens the grip on the deagle he fixed. "You gotta treat them with love, Vince, like a woman who doesn't talk back to you."

"Not like they can, ha!" Colt guffaws. "See, that's why guns are better. They never fail ya unless you fail them first."

UPGRADES REVEALED!
>PRISTINE CHROME DEAGLE! (A ROBUST pistol for a ROBUST MAN. Uses PISTOL AMMO. Adds +12 to ATTACK ROLLS. Once per roll, you may reroll a dice that had a natural roll of 25 or lower.)
>PRISTINE DOUBLE BARRELED SHOTGUN (A powerful, expensive FIREARM down here in ARC. Uses SHOTGUN AMMO. Adds +17 to ATTACK ROLLS. Gunshot injuries made with it require far more time and effort to heal from.)

YOU ALSO OBTAINED
>BOOZEY SHOTGUN SLUGS (Counts as 1 SHOTGUN AMMO. This ammo does vastly less physical damage, but they'll instantly render most biological enemies a drunken mess.)

Something tells you that this decision might've been the best one you could've made. "Thank you. Genuinely, thank you."

"Ain't nothin'. I don't want ya to embarrass yourself by swingin' a knife around, ha!" Colt slams his fist on the table. "Just jestin', ya funny little wetback you."

"Pft. I can still kill someone by swinging a knife around. Sometimes guns are simply better to use."

"Exactly. That's why I helped ya out." Before your banter can go on any longer, the Man returns with a sheet of FAX PAPER and some information about what 'Mike' just did. An hour and a half vanished into thin air right after you finished your call with him.

Which...doesn't make any sense, it only felt like a second has passed, but you guess he wasn't joking when he said he'd harvest your time. You pick up the sheet of fax paper to see what's written on it this time around.

IDEAL ARC EMPLOYEE: You must spend two actions to study an ARTIFACT or an anomaly. Rule change in: 3 TIME TOKENS.

Ah, you guess you can't avoid strenuous work forever. You love the facility you're working in. YOU LOVE THE FACILITY YOU'RE-

Choose at least two ANOMALY/ARTIFACT work orders and one NON ANOMALY/ARTIFACT work order, and any FREE TIME ACTIONS.

TIME TOKENS: 10

ANOMALY/ARTIFACT
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter HARD TIMES' containment cell. You only worked on it once so far. Get to know it better. (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER's containment cell. Finally, it's time to harvest more wine! (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS.)
>Experiment with ESTABLISHING SHOT! You already know what it does, but how far can you push it? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 63, +6 to roll.)
>Try to copy ACCUMULATED PAST with the EGG. Can it copy something that complex? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 6?, +??? to roll)

RESEARCH
>Study the GREY PASTE. What, exactly, is this? Is it ACTUALLY edible or is something else up with it? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 77, +8 to roll.)
>Research a way to make a more 'convenient' healing item with your OBSCURA SYRAH. This might make the BIG BUCKS! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +8 to roll.)
>Modify the BENODINE pills into a form you can actually safely use. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 73, +4 to roll.)
>You got an excess of STATIC POLLEN now. Try to combine them with some of your other samples. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 62, +2 to roll.)
>Check out the two weirds book you have: UNTITLED BOOK and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEING AFRAID. What secrets do they hold? (-1d2 TIME TOKENS, ?????.)
>Try to create some new varieties of CIGARETTE MOLD with the samples you got lying around. (-1 TIME TOKEN, consumes a random amount of samples you have, no skill check needed.)

BUSY WORK
>It's time to MOTH HUNT. Put on your M.A.D WORLD glasses and hunt down some moths to study! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 70, +16 to roll.)
>Try to make some weapons out of the anomalous samples you have. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 67, +7 to roll. Colt's helping a lot here.)
>Contact UPPER MANAGEMENT. Pitch a proposal involving your CIGARETTE MOLD. (-1 TIME TOKEN. DC 70, +16 to roll. Being in ARC'S good graces is making this pretty easy.)
>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (-0 TIME TOKENS, still costs an action. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-3 TIME TOKENS, DC 67, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)

FREE ACTION
>Pet the cat. It is now socially acceptable. (FREE ACTION, +1d2 TIME TOKENS. No penalty? Mew penalty.)
>Chit-chat with your coworkers. Suffering is better with company. (FREE ACTION. You may write in specific questions to ask, if you want to know anything specific.)

>Write in.

>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter HARD TIMES' containment cell. You only worked on it once so far. Get to know it better. (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Try to make some weapons out of the anomalous samples you have. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 67, +7 to roll. Colt's helping a lot here.)
>Pet the cat. It is now socially acceptable. (FREE ACTION, +1d2 TIME TOKENS. No penalty? Mew penalty.)
>Grab a beer for yourself and your helpers
I get the feeling we should try to relax more often and maybe take a day off soon

>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)

>Experiment with ESTABLISHING SHOT! You already know what it does, but how far can you push it? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 63, +6 to roll.)

>Check out the two weirds book you have: UNTITLED BOOK and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEING AFRAID. What secrets do they hold? (-1d2 TIME TOKENS, ?????.)

>Pet the cat. It is now socially acceptable. (FREE ACTION, +1d2 TIME TOKENS. No penalty? Mew penalty.)

>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter HARD TIMES' containment cell. You only worked on it once so far. Get to know it better. (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Research a way to make a more 'convenient' healing item with your OBSCURA SYRAH. This might make the BIG BUCKS! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +8 to roll.)
>Chit-chat with your coworkers. Suffering is better with company. (FREE ACTION. You may write in specific questions to ask, if you want to know anything specific.)
Talk to Colt and The Man at the same time. Get an idea of how much Colt can perceive him. Also give them beer.

File: 199Xa3.png (99 KB, 451x439)

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>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter HARD TIMES' containment cell. You only worked on it once so far. Get to know it better. (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Check out the two weirds book you have: UNTITLED BOOK and ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEING AFRAID. What secrets do they hold? (-1d2 TIME TOKENS, ?????.)

>Pet the cat. It is now socially acceptable. (FREE ACTION, +1d2 TIME TOKENS. No penalty? Mew penalty.)

>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER's containment cell. Finally, it's time to harvest more wine! (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS.)

>Try to create some new varieties of CIGARETTE MOLD with the samples you got lying around. (-1 TIME TOKEN, consumes a random amount of samples you have, no skill check needed.)

>Chit-chat with your coworkers. Suffering is better with company. (FREE ACTION. [Ask what type of woman they like])

>>6365106
ENTER 199X
ENTER HARD TIMES
TWO WEIRD BOOKS
CHITCHAT BACKING >>6365151 MINUS THE BEER
(SAVE BEER FOR THE COOKOUT)

>>6365267
Save that for the cookout too, I say

>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
Seems somewhat urgent.
>Enter NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER's containment cell. Finally, it's time to harvest more wine! (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS.)
LOST SINCE and HARD TIMES could potentially injure us, so it seems safer to only do one of those two. And we have to milk the wine cow anyway.
>Try to make some weapons out of the anomalous samples you have. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 67, +7 to roll. Colt's helping a lot here.)
Let's get this done while Colt is with us.

>Chit-chat with your coworkers. Suffering is better with company. (FREE ACTION. You may write in specific questions to ask, if you want to know anything specific.)
Ask Colt about how he got 'recruited' and about the anomalies he worked with. Ask both of they tried SPARKLING SUNSHINE and how one could improve it.

>>6365106
>Enter LOST SINCE 199X's containment cell. Alright, what is it freaking out about NOW? (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Enter HARD TIMES' containment cell. You only worked on it once so far. Get to know it better. (-1d2-1 TIME TOKENS)
>Try to create some new varieties of CIGARETTE MOLD with the samples you got lying around. (-1 TIME TOKEN, consumes a random amount of samples you have, no skill check needed.)
>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (-0 TIME TOKENS, still costs an action. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
>Pet the cat. It is now socially acceptable. (FREE ACTION, +1d2 TIME TOKENS. No penalty? Mew penalty.)
>Chit-chat with your coworkers. Suffering is better with company. (FREE ACTION. You may write in specific questions to ask, if you want to know anything specific.)

>>6365106
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-3 TIME TOKENS, DC 67, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
Steam engine my beloved we will get to you soon I swear it. I wonder if this counts as working on 199X and HARD TIMES in terms of the order?

>>6365449
Doubt it since that is just one action

Rolled 1, 1, 1 = 3 (3d2)

LOST SINCE 199X: cKq, YGT, hdC, 6Tw, sGe, TBa, ZBH, qTJ
SOMMELIER: sGe, ZBH
MOLD: sGe, qTJ
HARVEST SAMPLES: qTJ
ESTABLISHING SHOT: YGT
BOOKS: YGT, 6Tw, TBa
HARD TIMES: cKq, hdC, 6Tw, TBa, qTJ
CONVENIENT: hdC
WEAPONS: cKq, ZBH
CONTAINMENT CELL ALTERATION: Lan

PET THE CAT: cKq, YGT, 6Tw, qTJ
BEER: cKq
COWORKERS: hdC, sGe, TBa, ZBH, qTJ

It's kinda all over the place for what the third action will be but it seems like BOOKS won out by a small majority. Out of the anons who voted, petting the cat just barely didn't get enough votes to be picked (4/9), so we're going with 199X/HARD TIMES/BOOKS/COWORKER CHIT-CHAT

Today will be a shorter update, since there's a certain little thing I forgot to ask you to vote for at the start of the shift. So you'll likely get to work on your two anomalies next update, not this update.

Rolling 3d2. First d2 is to see if 199X costs time tokens (1 = NONE, 2 = 1 TOKEN), second is to see if HARD TIMES costs any time tokens (same as 199x), and the last d2 will see how many time tokens the book eats up. After that, writing.

>>6365449
It might've count as a partial work on HARD TIMES since you're improving its efficiency, but I highly doubt 199X would really care about his snow being used on a machine. Would've answered this earlier so you could've picked two other actions, but eh, I was asleep.

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Well, at least you're not leaving your anomalies to rot. You can't be too mad at this particular rule. A tiny part of you wanted to work on NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER, given she (it?) is probably the most profitable anomaly you currently own, but 199X and HARD TIMES need more immediate attention.

That doesn't mean you immediately have to work on them. You can dick around with a bit of friendly coworker banter. You drag a discarded chair over to the table Colt is sitting at. "Alright. We're going to do work later, I want to talk to you guys real quick."

"Ha! Didn't know you had it in ya to take a break." Colt leans back in his chair. "Aight. I don't mind. Let's chit-chat, freak."

The Man also wouldn't mind taking this shift slow. He vaguely mentions that the air felt off to him anyways.

"First things first, Colt, I'm curious. You can see and hear him, right? The Man?"

Colt shoots another look at the Man. "Yes, sir, I do in fact see a fuckin' spook standin' right beside us. Only difference between this spook and the other spooks I've seen?"

"He has a better sense of fashion." Colt snorts like a feral hog. "What about 'im?"

The Man thanks Colt for this compliment? He admits that he could do with a wardrobe upgrade eventually, but there's a time and a place for that.

"Eh. At least ya ain't like Vinny here, so that's all that matters."

"Yeah, see, that's what I was curious about." You pointedly ignore his jab. "How much of him can you, well, see? I know you heard him, so that's good, but still."

"Eh. Couldn't tell ya much about 'im. I know he's some kind of European, I know he's wearin' a researcher suit, and that he's a man." Colt squints his eyes at the Man. "Was I right?"

The Man doesn't know his own nationality, his own memory is pretty sparse.

"Damn shame. I wish I could actually hear his voice, it's like. I ain't hearing his voice." Colt knits his brows. "It's like I'm paraphrasing it."

The Man asks if that's the same for him as it is for you.

"I would say so, yeah." You give the Man a curt nod. It's something of a struggle trying to parse what he says because most of the time? It feels as if you're merely guessing what he's saying, instead of actually listening to him.

The Man voices his displeasure at this, but he's glad he can talk at all. He's thankful that Colt is able to see him as well as you can. It wasn't like this before.

"Mmh. Thought some fucker was pourin' random thoughts into my head." Colt manages to stop himself from shuddering at the thought. "Real freak shit, ya know, real voodoo freaky-deaky nonsense."

The Man's mouth(?) twists into something resembling a smirk. Maybe he DID do voodoo before he forgot his past.

"Don't even joke about that, Man." Colt snarls. "I ain't gonna be pals with no voodoo freakshit, nuh uh, I already deal with enough freaks as is!"

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You quickly change the topic to something lighter. "Man, Colt. I have a question. What kind of women do you like?"

Colt nearly gets whiplash from how quickly he snaps his head around. "Ones with big ol' honkers. I ain't talkin' about those fake plastic bimbo tits, but real natural honkers."

"Asses are fine too; ya need a good butt to balance things out, but the tits are the main show. Big tits, blonde hair, skinny bods." Colt flashes a toothy grin at you. "I ain't no fan of no slampigs, ya hear?"

You politely chuckle at his pretty crass comment. "I get you. What about you. Man?"

"Yeah, Man, what about ya?"

The Man's face suddenly turns red as he realizes he has to actually answer this. He stammers out something you couldn't quite make out.

"C'mon, speak up!" Colt smacks his palm against the table for emphasis. "Be a man! Don't be a pussy; speak with your WHOLE CHEST!"

The Man mumbles out that he likes robot girls. He's not against human women, he continues to stammer out, but he really likes robots. And he also likes personality too, he guesses. Maybe.

The two of you stare at him. Neither of you wants to be the first one to say it, but Colt eventually breaks the silence. "So, would the wine robot-"

The Man states that NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER would be his type, yes. His face gets redder by the sentence as the two of you continue to stare at him.

"BAHAHA! WE GOT A ROBOFUCKER HERE!" Colt smashes his fist against the table again and again. "Holy shit. Vince, did you know this? Did ya?"

"I did not, and I'm not jud-" "Haaa! Wow! Out of all of the women here, ya pick the robots?"

The Man grits his teeth. He points out that Colt told him about a certain anomaly he tried to flirt with. Colt's laughter dies right then and there, like a bucket of cold water being poured over a flame.

"Mind telling-" "It ain't none of your fucking business, beaner."

You stifle a snort. There's another question you want to ask him, but you'll save that after you're done with one of your simpler tasks. You ask the Man to retrieve some books you want to study. He's more than glad to leave the table, so he can get some fresh air to breath.

Colt quickly moves on from the Man's comment. He's going to pretend like he didn't hear anything. "So, we're gonna be workin' on some anomalies soon. Gotta a question, Vince."

"Shoot. I already asked you guys two questions."

"Do ya ever miss the outside world?" Colt's gaze drifts up towards the ceiling. "Ya know. Fresh sunshine, fresh air, all of that stuff."

"The recycled air down here feels good on my chest, but, like, it ain't the same." Colt's voice softens. His focus is drifting somewhere else. "Ain't no different from the prison I was stuck in. Feh. Aggravated assault, my ass. He deserved it."

The Man returns with the books you asked for before you had time to answer.

File: AMERICAA.jpg (149 KB, 567x1000)

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He overheard what Colt said and he wants to give his own two cents.

He doesn't personally remember the outside world but he's seen people say that it's better than the outside world. That there's order here, or that there's a certain safety and security in the routine this place instills.

You crack open the two books while you mull over how to answer Colt's question. The first one, the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEING AFRAID, is a manual of sorts on how to face your fears and methods on how you can cope with various phobias. The other one is written in a way that's hard for your brain to process, so you'll stick with the ENCYCLOPEDIA for now.

You sense that there's something different about Colt, now that you got a better look at him. Maybe it's better if you figured out what's different about him before you work on an anomaly.

CHOOSE COLT'S UPGRADE! You got this from doing his bullet sidequest earlier.
>There's a fire burning in his bloodshot eyes. (PATRIOTIC ZEAL. Colt now takes notably less MENTAL HEALTH damage, and he gains a +4 bonus to resisting mental-based effects.)
>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)
>Has he been working out? There's a sturdiness to his physique that wasn't there before. (MEATHEAD AND MEATBODY. Colt now has a +10 bonus to endurance based rolls. A fellow ENDURING brother.)
>There's a tenderness to the way he touches his rifle, like it's a part of him. (ARTIFACT EXPERT. Colt's MEATHEAD penalty on research rolls no longer triggers on researching ARTIFACTS, and he gains an additional +6 to any check involving an ARTIFACT.)

How do you answer Colt's question about the outside world?
>You have no loyalty to this place. If there was a safe way out of here, you'd take it.
>You do miss it, but for now, you're content working here.
>You actually don't mind it down here. It's far better than your previous jobs, at least.
>Maybe you'll leave one day, but before you leave, you want to make this facility a better place.
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.
>Write in.

>>6365623
NEW TASK UNLOCKED: Paint NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER like one of those French girls. Maybe that'll be all it takes to resolve the anomaly.

>>6365242
Nothing else he can do. Not until ??? ???????

You'll get to learn about Colt's anomalies and past next update, then you'll work one of your anomalies. I didn't want a giant wall of text that was 6-7 posts long.

>>6365673
>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.

>>6365673
>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)

>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.
Glad we've confirmed that the MAN has a taste for the strength and certainty of steel. But now I need to know about this anomaly Colt flirted with.

File: Vincent escaped.png (111 KB, 500x500)

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>>6365673
>There's a tenderness to the way he touches his rifle, like it's a part of him. (ARTIFACT EXPERT. Colt's MEATHEAD penalty on research rolls no longer triggers on researching ARTIFACTS, and he gains an additional +6 to any check involving an ARTIFACT.)
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.

>>6365673
>There's a tenderness to the way he touches his rifle, like it's a part of him. (ARTIFACT EXPERT. Colt's MEATHEAD penalty on research rolls no longer triggers on researching ARTIFACTS, and he gains an additional +6 to any check involving an ARTIFACT.)

Feels most accurate to his prior characterization.

… IIRC, a prior bonding moment in the cafeteria led to the Man also having an upgrade due. I’d need to double check to be sure tho.

>You actually don't mind it down here. It's far better than your previous jobs, at least.

Feels better than claiming there’s nothing left out there for us, at least. The rest of our estranged family is out there while we’re in here, after all. (Inb4 I jinx it and the rate of blackbagging Cruz’s ramps up.)

>>6365801
You are, in fact, correct. I'll probably do that in a following update, since it'd be weird to retroactively add that vote in now. (It's easy to forget these things when certain employees aren't hired for a while, you know?)

>>6365714
[REDACTED]-chan is your friend.

Tough call. Very tempting speech check plus and reroll, but artifact research without his meatmeah malus and his own bonus would make him our best artifact expert wouldn't it.

>>6365673
>There's a tenderness to the way he touches his rifle, like it's a part of him. (ARTIFACT EXPERT. Colt's MEATHEAD penalty on research rolls no longer triggers on researching ARTIFACTS, and he gains an additional +6 to any check involving an ARTIFACT.)
The amber waves of grain... the American spirit...
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.
Being here is better than being topside. Maybe one day we should finally roll by HUMAN RESOURCES and personally thank the crazy fuck who kidnapped us

>>6365714
>There's a tenderness to the way he touches his rifle, like it's a part of him. (ARTIFACT EXPERT. Colt's MEATHEAD penalty on research rolls no longer triggers on researching ARTIFACTS, and he gains an additional +6 to any check involving an ARTIFACT.)
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.

>>6365673
>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.

>>6365673
>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)
>You do miss it, but for now, you're content working here. (Lie)

>>6365673
>>There's a fire burning in his bloodshot eyes. (PATRIOTIC ZEAL. Colt now takes notably less MENTAL HEALTH damage, and he gains a +4 bonus to resisting mental-based effects.)
>Maybe you'll leave one day, but before you leave, you want to make this facility a better place.

>>6365671
>The Man mumbles out that he likes robot girls. He's not against human women, he continues to stammer out, but he really likes robots. And he also likes personality too, he guesses. Maybe.
It's fine, I just didn't think the man would be chinese

>>6365673
>There's a tenderness to the way he touches his rifle, like it's a part of him. (ARTIFACT EXPERT. Colt's MEATHEAD penalty on research rolls no longer triggers on researching ARTIFACTS, and he gains an additional +6 to any check involving an ARTIFACT.)

>Maybe you'll leave one day, but before you leave, you want to make this facility a better place.

>>6365673

>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)
As much as I'd love the artifact study bonus, there's a pizza party coming up in abno storage and we'll probably bring him. Would be a shame if his usual behavior reflected back on us.


>Maybe you'll leave one day, but before you leave, you want to make this facility a better place.

>>6365673
>The excitement and fervor in his voice is almost infectious. He's a blast to be around. (PARTY IN THE USA. Colt's speech check bonus increases to +8, and while he's in the party, you may reroll one dice during a speech check.)
>You don't miss it. There's not really anything up there for you, frankly.

>>6365824
>>6366001
Honestly, I think the mitigation of his MEATHEAD malus is kinda meh compared to the real prize: +6 to ALL artifact-related rolls (which likely includes combat rolls made with his rifle).

I can see the logic of PARTY IN THE USA indirectly dampening his “many people dislike me” malus, tho.

>>6366001 (me)
>>6366017
We do have the Man and Anthony for all checks. For research checks we only have Lucy (all research checks ), for speech we have Hidaka (corporate only) and potentially Nine (???). Both potential pairings (Lucy/Colt and Hidaka/Colt) probably won't work well anyhow. I'm really torn between hoping for Party in the USA to make him more agreeable and having an artifact specialist with possible extra firepower.

Aight, tallying it up.

UPGRADE?
PARTY IN THE USA: TgG, YGT, cKq, qTJ, zCf, hdC
ARTIFACT EXPERT: 6Tw, ahn, Jfi, RyR, sGe
PATRIOTIC ZEAL: Lhd

SURFACE?
DON'T MISS IT: TgG, YGT, 6Tw, Jfi, RyR, cKq, hdC
DON'T MIND THE FACILITY: ahn
MISS IT (LIE): qTJ
MAKE FACILITY BETTER FIRST: Lhd, sGe, zCf

So, it appears Colt is going to be the one talking and chit-chatting on your behalf, since you're only able of socializing with corporate/facility higher ups without having a heart attack.
You're also going to voice that, really, you don't miss the surface. There's nothing up there for you besides mud, rain, and salt. At least here, you're useful.

Writing.

>>6366046
Nine would likely have some bonuses to researching anomalies, given they tardwrangle an anomaly day in and day out, so if you ever wanted to double down on abnomaxxing, picking Nine and Lucy would probably be a solid combo.
If you feel like hiring a spook who hasn't even given you a real name.

>>6366017
>I can see the logic of PARTY IN THE USA indirectly dampening his “many people dislike me” malus
It won't retroactively make people who hate him like him, that's not how humans work, but it'll lower his chances of getting into any more hot water.

File: THESURFACEQUESTIONMARK.jpg (432 KB, 1400x933)

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What is there for you on the surface? A low-paying job? No friends? A family you ran away from over a decade ago? The same monotonous routine, but with none of the benefits of being down here?

Down here? There's free food and shelter, you have all of these anomalies and artifacts to study, and people here like you. Even if you don't get why they like you. You can do so much down here that you could've never done on the surface.

"I don't miss it, frankly." You can feel a weight leaving your chest once you finally vocalize it.

>MENTAL HEALTH healed! Now at DOING GOOD!

"Maybe the rest of the people here had someone but me? Nothing's really changed. If anything, I like this job more than my previous one."

"I have more prospects here than anything I had above on the surface. That's all there is to it."

A glimmer of pity and amusement flickers through his bloodshot eyes. "Ey, c'mon, there has to be somethin' up there for ya. I had a whole buncha freaks I hung out with, up there."

"Maybe." You shrug. "Maybe I did. I don't remember, and I don't care to remember. I'm fine being down here."

The Man sympathizes with your answer. He probably wouldn't leave this place, even if he remembered who he was. There's a comfort to the endless grey hallways, the recycled air, all of that. At least in his opinion.

"Bah. The two of ya have to lighten up!" Colt flashes a toothy grin that could rival a Harvester's. "I guess I should apologize or whatnot for the dour question. I was curious. Ain't no harm meant, beaner."

"You know my actual name, man."

"Fucker, there's a guy named Man RIGHT THERE! How about YOU use my ACTUAL name?"

You barely manage to stop yourself from laughing. Okay, he got you there, but that's a low blow. If only you actually knew the Man's name. The Man politely chuckles, only to remind Colt that he had an actual name.

"Yeah, yeah, but you don't remember it. Ooo. Mystery man-" An idea suddenly manifested into Colt's brain (a rarity!) "What if we gave ya a name? Oh! Oh! I know!"

The Man begs him to stop before he vocalizes his idea.

"Manvik! You're Manvik now! Suck it!"

The Man would rather gut himself alive than be called Manvik. He pleads for Colt to give any other nickname. He'd even accept a random, out-of-context racial epithet.

"How the hell am I supposed to think of an insult to use on you? I can't even tell if you're a commie, a frog, or a polack! I could call you a niggerfaggot, sure, but that's CHEAP! It's too EASY!"

The two begin to bicker with each other, which you quickly tune out. You flip through the two books you have. Now that your focus is actually on the UNTITLED BOOK, you realize that it's not written in any language you understand. It's written in what looks like Mandarin, but who knows, it could be Japanese or Korean too.

The weird part is you have a loose idea of what it's trying to say.

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It's a 'manual' on how to 'deal what can not be understood' with 'bloody methods'. So a combat manual on how to deal with the anomalous, you guess? You eagerly flip through page after page, trying to parse whatever you can, but all of the words you can make out are vague. The title help a little but they only help so much.

'Destruction of the anomaly's sense of belief'
'Refuting the PARADIGM of an ARTIFACT user.'
'ARTIFACT ATTUNEMENT: How to override your belief with an abnormality.'
'Harvester hunger: How to exploit.'
'Abnormality domain: Rejection of baseline reality.'

None of the sentences in the book really make too much sense to you, but you chalk them up to the book shoddily trying to translate itself to you. After a few minutes of fruitlessly trying to understand what's written in the book, the INSIGHT MODULE burrowed inside your head crackles to life.

A sharp, stinging pain flares in the side of your head for only the briefest of moments before it fades without a trace. When you look at the book again, the pages are all blank.
>INSIGHT MODULE UPGRADED! When in combat against a HARVESTER, ANOMALY, or a human wielding an ARTIFACT, you'll get a general sense on how tough they are and what kind of damage they might be able to do to you.

The other book is far simpler in comparison, and by the time the Man and Colt finished bickering, you're already done with it. The title of it might've been ominous, but the actual contents were easy to digest.

>Your max MENTAL HEALTH has been improved. The maximum bonus of CRUNCH TIME (when both health stats are red) is now +10!
>-UNTITLED BOOK, -ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEING AFRAID

"-and that's why I gotta give it to the italians. At least they can make good food."

The Man fully agrees with that, but he has no idea what that had to do with the rest of the conversation they had. He admits that it doesn't matter; he had fun talking with Colt.

"Ey. That's what I bring to the party, baby. Party in the USA! I gotta keep the mood up if Vinny is gonna be such a fuckin' downer."
>+PARTY IN THE USA on Colt!

"Pft. Hey, I might need that, since we're gonna be working on a few anomalies. Though, hm." You want to work on HARD TIMES first, since while 199X is showing signs of emotional instability, he's not actively breaching. Not right now. You'll go to his cell as soon as you're done with the machine, of course.

Who to bring for HARD TIMES, though? You wanted to bring Colt in first since you vaguely remember a saying about Americans in the Japanese workplace, but the Man would actually know a thing or two about the machine. Maybe you'll bring Colt if you work on HARD TIMES later in the shift.

"Man, follow me. We're going to be working on HARD TIMES. Did you read the dossier?"

The Man gives you a thumbs up. Of course he read it; he's no slacker, unlike a certain other researcher who works on anomalies.

"My anomalies love me, Manny! C'mon!"

File: AMERICAN.png (11 KB, 609x599)

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"Yeah, hey, what anomalies do you even have?" You're curious. He's another researcher, even if he's really bad at being one, so you wonder what anomalies he has.

"Well, one of 'em gave me these beauts." He slaps the side of his rifle before using his free hand to point at the flag wrapped around him. "Big guy named RED BLOODED AMERICAN was my first 'anomaly'. Giant motherfucker with bright red skin and horns, like a demon, wearin' nothing but the flag of the greatest country in America."

"By god, we got along like two peas in a pod."

"He was a fighter, I was a fighter, and we beat the shit out of each other to establish dominance. I won, of course, and he gifted me this." He holds up the rifle in his hands.

"Wait, and he somehow survived long enough to give you another ARTIFACT?"

"Yeah, the other docs were confused too. I heard somethin' about my attunement with the anomaly or some sci-fi voodoo nonsense being so high, I got two ARTIFACTS from it. Some anomalies resonate with people better or something."

Colt clearly doesn't fully understand what he's saying. He shrugs his shoulders as he continues to speak. "Well, he's still kickin', but after I got the flag he hasn't really done much. We just shoot the shit. Getting his ARTIFACTS drained him, even if it didn't kill him."

So it is possible to get ARTIFACTs from an anomaly without it disappearing. Good news for NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER, at least. You gesture at him to continue.

"The other two ain't so interesting. I got this bed with a window floatin' by it, and I keep seeing weird balls of light flying out of the window. They make a weird fly-like buzz I don't like." Colt shudders, quickly deciding to move the conversation away from that anomaly. "Last one? Uhm."

The Man says that he lucked out with an anomaly that looks almost exactly like a human woman, besides having blue skin and six arms. She also only wore tribalesque clothing, which didn't hide a lot.

He recalls something about Colt commenting on how hot-

Colt immediately aims his rifle at the Man.. "I dunno what REMNANT OF OUR PAST told ya, but it was not LIKE THAT! I DID NOT FLIRT WITH HER!"

The Man isn't judging. He knows that a red-blooded American like Colt would, quite understandably, want to flirt with the pretty-

For a split second you thought you saw Colt's eyes flash crimson red. The Man decides that, hey, maybe it's a good time to head to HARD TIMES' containment cell. Colt grumbles under his breath, hoping that you won't pry into his little incident with an anomaly.

As you move to follow after him, you ask Colt one last question. "How were you brought here anyways?"

"Ya know how I said I went to prison? Well, I got out, and I joined construction work." He taps his foot against the metal floor. "We built a lotta stuff, for a lotta companies and people, and we even built a few bunkers. Kinda like this facility."

File: THEMACHINESHOME.png (944 KB, 900x675)

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"We were told to build an underground bunker for the government, and we had to sign some stupid paperwork to make sure we wouldn't squeal. Some rat bastard figured out what we were actually building, though."

"So..." Colt slumps against the table. "Once he squealed to us, they decided to drag me and the rest of my boys down to the nearest ARC facility. To make sure no info got out. All because one little bastard couldn't keep his mouth shut."

"That was about a year ago? I can't quite remember. Time kinda moves funny down here. Days feel like months, and months feel like hours."

Damn. You guess your office got lucky then, if ARC was willing to kidnap a whole construction crew just to keep a secret. You offer some words of consolation, which Colt promptly brushes off, before you join the Man at HARD TIMES' containment cell.

The two of you suit up in your handy-dandy hazmat suits before stepping inside. It may be overkill, but you can't ever be too safe with an anomaly you barely know anything about.

---

The air is still thick with the familiar stench of rust and ozone, but the machine hasn't changed since you were last here. The Man checks the battery; it was charging, and he can confirm that it fully charged the battery overnight.

There's a low, grinding sound coming from deep inside of the machine's mechanical inside. The machine continues to relentlessly turn the crank despite being completely out of fuel. The Man marvels at the machine's ability to work. You agree with him, and for a split second, the machine's movements quicken, as if trying to 'impress' you.

The Man's eyes randomly dart across the machine. While he admits his memory isn't what it used to be, he thinks he has seen a machine like this before. One that ARC tried to make, actually.

"Really now? Mind telling me exactly what that might be?"

Humanity has always strived for a way to get more out of less. To feed as many hungry mouths as possible with the cheapest slop possible. To make as much money as possible with the least amount of costs. To get as much prestige and power as you can, without needing to do anything to deserve it.

ARC wanted to create a source of clean, efficient energy that would knock the socks off of the government. Considering the government's wishy-washy stance on keeping ARC, he assumes you can understand why they'd want something like this.

There's one thing off about this machine compared to the plans he's seen ARC throwing around. He can sense a vague, distorted desire buried deep inside the metal. Something that he can't really say is a 'human' desire but a desire nonetheless.

The machine is thirsty and it is starving. It will work regardless, though, but he can sense the hunger building in it.

Ominous, but you'll keep it in mind. The other only thing of note inside the room is a pile of gears and bolts you did not see in this room before.

A note labeled "FROM EVE'S" lays on top of the pile of gears and bolts. Oh boy, right, that sponsorship. You got two days to complete it so it's not an immediate worry but...

Another light on the machine turns on. Two out of the five lights have activated.
>+1 FULLY CHARGED BATTERY obtained! (Worth $200. HARD TIMES generates one per day passively, but interacting with it will make it generate power faster.)

HARD TIME MOOD: 84/100

What do you want to do with HARD TIMES? Choose four actions! (+1 from ???. Something you said earlier today triggered this?)

COMMUNICATION:
>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.
>Ask it about Mr. Daido and Akihiko. How does it feel about the two CEOs?
>Ask it about JOYTECHS. What is it thoughts on that company?
>Try to relate with the anomaly. You know what it's like to be on that GRINDSET. (DC ???, +?? with ???. Might be a good idea? Might not?)
>"Could you help me modify your cell later?" You have a plan in mind on how you can make the machine more efficient. (The TIME TOKEN cost to modify its and 199X's cell will be decreased by 1, +???)

EXAMINATION
>Examine the 'BLOOD SOUP' and 'BLOOD FUEL' slots. Try to figure out why the anomaly likes blood so much. (DC 70, +10 to roll.)
>Check out its internals. There has to be a panel in here that'll show you them. (DC 72, +9 to roll.)
>Look for any traces, hints or notes that could explain what the machine does. It couldn't hurt to try? (No check needed.)
>Investigate the row of lights on the side of the machine. Is it a warning? Is it a message? What's up with this? (DC 68, +13 to roll.)

STIMULI/MISC
>Turn on the CD PLAYER and crank up the volume as high as it goes!
>Crank up the containment cell's temperature. Factories are usually boiling hot, maybe this will help it settle in.
>Brew up some coffee with your new coffee machine, and feed it into the machine. A worker has to stay caffeinated. (-1 of 3 COFFEE BAGS.)
>Cut into your palm. Feed the machine what it desires: Blood. (Costs a decent amount of PHYSICAL HEALTH.)
>Feed it some CIGARETTE MOLD and BLACK BILE. You want to see how it responds to those fuel sources. (-4 of 5 CIGARETTE MOLD, -LAST BLACK BILE)
>Try to doll up the machine with some paint. A little bit of pazazz to make it look and feel better.
>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)

>Write in?

Update went on a little bit longer than I thought, but hey, that's just more stuff for you guys to read.

>>6366068
Magick is fun, kids. There's nothing bad that can happen when you trust a magician.

>>6366125
>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.

>Investigate the row of lights on the side of the machine. Is it a warning? Is it a message? What's up with this? (DC 68, +13 to roll.)

>Cut into your palm. Feed the machine what it desires: Blood. (Costs a decent amount of PHYSICAL HEALTH.)

>Feed it some CIGARETTE MOLD and BLACK BILE. You want to see how it responds to those fuel sources. (-4 of 5 CIGARETTE MOLD, -LAST BLACK BILE)

>>6366125
Something we said earlier. I'd like to believe it was the bit about the Loud American in a japanese company, but it could certainly be a number of things. Unless it heard about my plans for the Steam Engine upgrades, that could certainly be it. A whole extra action is pretty sweet, I'll have to try and think of something else we can do.


>"Could you help me modify your cell later?" You have a plan in mind on how you can make the machine more efficient. (The TIME TOKEN cost to modify its and 199X's cell will be decreased by 1, +???)


>Investigate the row of lights on the side of the machine. Is it a warning? Is it a message? What's up with this? (DC 68, +13 to roll.)
If its trying to communicate would Colt's new bonus apply? It must be trying to convey something, just a matter of whether the 'language' is applicable.

>Cut into your palm. Feed the machine what it desires: Blood. (Costs a decent amount of PHYSICAL HEALTH.)
Maybe the damage will give us a slight boost to our rolls with CRUNCH TIME, and if the experiment damages its mood considerably this should at least even it out. If the MAN does it too he can also have a sandwich.

>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)
I mean we do have the work order to fulfill here. May as well get started on these experiments.

>>6366125
>Investigate the row of lights on the side of the machine. Is it a warning? Is it a message? What's up with this? (DC 68, +13 to roll.)
These seem integral to the anomaly's function
>Cut into your palm. Feed the machine what it desires: Blood. (Costs a decent amount of PHYSICAL HEALTH.)
FEED THE BEAST
>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)
Tell it this is from another company's joint proposal or something. He'll know what sponsorships are
>Feed it some CIGARETTE MOLD and BLACK BILE. You want to see how it responds to those fuel sources. (-4 of 5 CIGARETTE MOLD, -LAST BLACK BILE)
Just for funsies

>>6366131
+1

>>6366125
>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.
Start on the right foot.

>"Could you help me modify your cell later?" You have a plan in mind on how you can make the machine more efficient. (The TIME TOKEN cost to modify its and 199X's cell will be decreased by 1, +???)
Machine wants to be useful.

>Brew up some coffee with your new coffee machine, and feed it into the machine. A worker has to stay caffeinated. (-1 of 3 COFFEE BAGS.)
Quench its thirst… while preserving our precious physical health for making progress on the grueling ExTINCT sponsorship.

>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)
-Explain that you aren’t insinuating that it isn’t currently fit for work; but even it must admit that it isn’t currently feeling at 100%. Even the best machines require maintenance to operate at maximum capacity.

Let’s stay conservative on the number of rolls we attempt today, as a rule.

Also; where Man upgrade.

>>6366125
Changing vote in >>6366249 from
>CUT PALM
>BUSINESS CARDS
Because >>6366321 is right, Vincent's PAIN and samples go to ExTINCT today. I'm sure HARD TIMES will understand that we are beholden to our superiors just as he was to his.

>>6366125
Changing from >>6366209
to support >>6366321
Good point I forgot about the sponsorship asking for a bunch of our blood, flesh, and bones lol.

>>6366125
>"Could you help me modify your cell later?" You have a plan in mind on how you can make the machine more efficient. (The TIME TOKEN cost to modify its and 199X's cell will be decreased by 1, +???)
>Look for any traces, hints or notes that could explain what the machine does. It couldn't hurt to try? (No check needed.)
>Crank up the containment cell's temperature. Factories are usually boiling hot, maybe this will help it settle in.
>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)

>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.
>Crank up the containment cell's temperature. Factories are usually boiling hot, maybe this will help it settle in.
>Look for any traces, hints or notes that could explain what the machine does. It couldn't hurt to try? (No check needed.)
>Feed it some CIGARETTE MOLD and BLACK BILE. You want to see how it responds to those fuel sources. (-4 of 5 CIGARETTE MOLD, -LAST BLACK BILE)

>>6366121
>The Man says that he lucked out with an anomaly that looks almost exactly like a human woman, besides having blue skin and six arms. She also only wore tribalesque clothing, which didn't hide a lot.
>He recalls something about Colt commenting on how hot-
Patriot
>>6366125
>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.
>>Ask it about Mr. Daido and Akihiko. How does it feel about the two CEOs?

>Investigate the row of lights on the side of the machine. Is it a warning? Is it a message? What's up with this? (DC 68, +13 to roll.)

>Feed it some CIGARETTE MOLD and BLACK BILE. You want to see how it responds to those fuel sources. (-4 of 5 CIGARETTE MOLD, -LAST BLACK BILE)

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>>6366125
>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.
>"Could you help me modify your cell later?" You have a plan in mind on how you can make the machine more efficient. (The TIME TOKEN cost to modify its and 199X's cell will be decreased by 1, +???)
>Look for any traces, hints or notes that could explain what the machine does. It couldn't hurt to try? (No check needed.)
>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)

>>6366321
+1

>>6366121
>pic rel
Wow, small world. Haven't been there in a while. This is one of the better custom abnos.

>>6366125
>Look for any traces, hints or notes that could explain what the machine does. It couldn't hurt to try? (No check needed.)
>Investigate the row of lights on the side of the machine. Is it a warning? Is it a message? What's up with this? (DC 68, +13 to roll.)
>Brew up some coffee with your new coffee machine, and feed it into the machine. A worker has to stay caffeinated. (-1 of 3 COFFEE BAGS.)
>Try to install it some of the gears and bolts into HARD TIMES. (DC ???, +7 to roll. Counts as one of six experiments for EVE'S sponsorship.)

>>6366411
A QUIET DAY and APEX PREDATOR and TIL THE LAST SHOT are all his abnos too. They all come from his first quest on here

>>6366125
>Create some business cards with the MAN'S help, and show them off to the machine. Communicate to it on its level.
>"Could you help me modify your cell later?" You have a plan in mind on how you can make the machine more efficient. (The TIME TOKEN cost to modify its and 199X's cell will be decreased by 1, +???)
>Brew up some coffee with your new coffee machine, and feed it into the machine. A worker has to stay caffeinated. (-1 of 3 COFFEE BAGS.)
>Write-in: Feed it the leftover pizza from your minifridge.
Might be useful to start with regular food and test abnormal food and the much desired blood fuel later.

Rolled 1 (1d3)

Oof, sorry for being late, I was in town for a lot longer than I expected. Counting votes now.

BUSINESS CARDS: YGT, hdC, igf, ahn, Lan, PX/, cKq, sGe, 6Tw, ZBH
DAIDO: sGe
LIGHTS: YGT, hdC, igf, sGe, TgG
PALM: YGT, hdC
MOLD + BILE: YGT, hdC, igf, cKq, sGe
EVE SPONSOR: igf, ahn, Lan, PX/, qTJ, 6Tw, TgG
MODIFY CELL: ahn, Lan, PX/, qTJ, 6Tw, ZBH
NOTES: qTJ, cKq, 6Tw, TgG
TEMPERATURE: qTJ, cKq
COFFEE: ahn, Lan, PX/, TgG, ZBH
PIZZA: ZBH

BUSINESS CARDS, EVE SPONSORSHIP and MODIFY CELL all won, but there's a three way tie between MOLD + COFFEE + LIGHTS. So I'm going to roll a 1d3 real quick before I call for your rolls, since two of those don't need a roll but one of them does.

1 = MOLD + BILE
2 = COFFEE
3 = LIGHTS (needs roll)

>>6366411
>>6366447
Yeah I can't really steal from my past self. I did some ideaguy and mild code work for an old SS13 server. Nothing amazing but hey, I'm a jack of all trades. I was responsible for six anomalies being added to that server, whether as an idea guy or actually bothering to code things.

>>6366397
Poker is a real man's game, didn't ya know?

Aight. So I need three anons to roll 1d100+7, since you're going to be messing around with its internals with unknown, experimental gunk. Here's the table below, let's get jiggy with it.

EVE SPONSORSHIP (DC ??, but it's probably within a reasonable range of the other DCs)
0 SUCCESSES: It did not go over well. You can't describe the noise the machine made as anything other than a growl. (???)
1 SUCCESS: Installing the gears and bolts could've gone over a lot better. (-ANOMALY MOOD, ???)
2 SUCCESSES: Okay! Okay, the machine isn't crumbling apart. That's good. (+ANOMALY MOOD, ???
3 SUCCESSES: Rummaging around the insides of the machine is dragging out an old memory of yours. (++ANOMALY MOOD, you obtain an INSIGHT hint, ???)

>>6366466
I'll probably roll your pizza write in into this update since, to be quite honest, the slice is beyond mummified now. It's barely considered food at this point.

>>6366321
Soon. Probably the moment you're done with 199X.

Rolled 17 + 7 (1d100 + 7)

>>6366620
Rolling!

>>6366621
OH NO NO NO BROS!!!!

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Rolled 35 + 7 (1d100 + 7)

>>6366620

Rolled 17 + 7 (1d100 + 7)

>>6366620

>>6366621
>>6366629
>>6366631
Shit.

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>>6366621
>>6366629
>>6366631
You know there's no way the DC was a 42, right? Do I need to spell out what result you got? But, it wasn't a complete wash. Let's say you're going to learn a lot about the anomaly, very quickly. And maybe a bit about Vincent in the crossfire.

Writing.

Attunement levels rising.

>>6366629
Ashton is cute! Cute! If you ignore the fact she's a cannibalistic lizard woman larping as a human.

>>6366621
>>6366631
We get a bonus for twin rolls, r-right ?
>>6366636
>. Let's say you're going to learn a lot about the anomaly, very quickly. And maybe a bit about Vincent in the crossfire.
Inb4 it's gonna drink our adrenochrome

>>6366629
I'm praying for the French Maid Ashton timeline rn

>>6366636
Shes a woman larping as a woman? You're so silly Handler!

Oh right I did come up with a backup source of water if 199X dies. Resolves? Goes to abno heaven? Vincent will just have to divert water from unnecessary functions like fire suppression systems, or public drinking fountains, or the level 0 bathrooms.

>>6366643
Any rolls involving ashton would get a -10 and it would be so worth it.

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It's time to work on your newest anomaly. You should at least break the metaphorical ice you have with this anomaly. What better way to do that than to make up some business cards?

Your actual business cards are back at your office, where you haven't been for over a week now. So you'll have to improvise. "Got a pen?"

The Man affirms that he does, and he already has an idea what you're going for. Business cards. The basest form of communication between workers, with water cooler talk being second in place. He made sure to bring a clipboard to record notes so, it's not hard to make something on the spot.

While he scribbles down some makeshift business cards, you examine the gears and bolts EVE'S left for you. You're no machinist, but even you can sense something is wrong with these things. They're made out of a soft, squishy metal that almost falls apart when you pick them up.

You have no idea what Eve's intends to do with gears made out of this. This is an obvious setup, but alas, you signed the sponsorship contract. At least HARD TIMES might accept them under the pretense of product testing?

You don't dwell on the gears for long; you'll deal with them when you get there. The Man calls you over because, hey, his business cards are done. It's best to communicate with anomalies on their level. You show your hastily written business card to the machine.

You bow your head. "I apologize for not giving this to you earlier. It was improper of me." You say with a faux-polite tone. The Man follows in your footsteps, showing his own card to the machine. The ambient grinding, gnashing and clicking of machinery abruptly stop. All of that noise was gone in an instant, leaving only a hollow silence.

The Man's voice wavers as he asks the anomaly if the two of you did something wrong. While you don't hear anything, the Man claims he hears some ticking coming from the machine. The two of you scout the machine to see where, exactly, that ticking is coming from.

You managed to locate the source of the ticking with some guidance from your handy-dandy coworker. It's coming from one of the many slots plastered on the machine's surface. Your best guess is it wants to be fed the business cards, so why not? The Man made them out of scraps of paper; no harm, no foul.

Once the keycards are fed into the slot, the machine kicks back to life. Another slip of paper is spat out of the machine, which the Man easily catches. He skims over the contents of the card before showing it to you.

JOYTECHS INC STEELWORKS
Watanabe [REDACTED]
Executive Director, KITAKYŪSHŪ
093-541-4131-22

The Man is very excited by what's on the card. Any information that could lead to better work outcomes with the anomaly is a slam dunk in his books. While you are happy about that, your attention is still on the machine itself.

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It's taken on a faster, excited pace to it. The previously glacial speed it had when cranking the handle is gone. The part of the machine cranking the handle is now moving at a steady, if still slow, pace.

Your business card plan was a slam dunk. You don't know how long this is going to last, so you ask the Man what ideas he has before you go with the gears and colts. He proposes that you feed it a fuel source that isn't your own blood. He read the notes on the BLACK BILE; maybe that'll be good enough?

"True, true, but we don't have a lot of that left. Any other ideas?"

The cigarette mold gives energy to humans, he points out. It may be a useful fuel source.

"Hm." You wish you could save some of it, but alas, you must feed the machine. Progress must be made. You prepare the samples before realizing the absurdity of 'preparing' them considering what you're about to do.

You apathetically toss the CIGARETTE MOLD and some beyond ancient pizza into the massive grinder in the middle of the machine.

The Man makes sure to carefully pour in the BLACK BILE, given how explosively flammable it is.

HARD TIMES's grinder immediately goes to work grinding and processing the samples into something it can use. The CIGARETTE MOLD causes a jolt of activity in the machine, similar to your business card trick (which was already starting to wear off), but with a far longer duration. A long lasting but weak boost in productivity.

The BLACK BILE, though? THAT gets the machine moving. In a few seconds, it's nearly impossible to hear anything besides the grinding of gears on gears. The Man tries to yell over the noise. It's a futile attempt. His voice is effortlessly drowned out by the sound of PROGRESS.

Your eyes catch something happening to the row of lights on the machine. The second light that turned on is beginning to flicker. Odd, but without any context, you can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing. What you do know is that the crank is starting to experience some real wear and tear from the new rapid-fire pace of the machine.

The stench of ozone is getting strong enough that it's starting to pierce through your hazmat suit. The Man's voice is finally audible over the torrent of industrial noise. He asked it to lower the noise so you can speak to it. The noise softens ever so slightly, giving you a word in edge wise.

"Could you help me modify your cell later? I want to connect your cell to 199X, so I can make you more useful."

That's all the machine needed to hear. A torrential wave of steam erupts from one of the output slots closest to a wall. The steam slammed into the steel wall with enough force to shake the entire containment cell. You nearly fall face-first on the floor, but the Man manages to stabilize you.

Once the steam clears and the shaking stops, you check the wall to see what exactly happened.

The wall is glowing molten orange.

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You didn't believe your eyes at first, but a good chunk of the wall has softened to the point where you could probably sculpt it like clay. You ask the Man how hot the metal would have to be to soften like this.

He says it'd probably be really close to the melting point of steel, so somewhere around 2,300 to 2,400 degrees? It's not fully molten, but that amount of heat should not be possible with steam alone. He can only hope that's a side effect of feeding it BLACK BILE, otherwise the issue here is blindingly obvious.

In the short term, it does mean you can carve that part of the cell with relative ease.

>-1 TIME TOKEN on MODIFYING 199X/HARD TIMES containment cell, and -10 to the DC!

The rapid-fire pace the industrial engine took is already starting to slow down. The small but steady increase from the CIGARETTE MOLD does appear to still be active. The Man theorizes that BLACK BILE is probably the best alternative fuel source you have to blood, given his own theory on what BLACK BILE IS.

"Which is?"

199X's blood, or something laced with its blood. Though, perhaps it prefers human blood more. Anomalies are human-centric entities, for better or worse.

Alas, you have one more thing to do. You collect the various bolts and gears with the Man's help. You explain that you intend to install this inside the machine. The Man voices his doubts on this working, but he knows your hands are tied.

The Man rummages around HARD TIME'S exterior for any panel he could remove so the two of you can exactly install the new parts. He has a keen eye, so he manages to find a panel, but when he opens it, he finds that it only consists of random gears and bolts. An insignificant part of the machine's internals that doesn't really give you any insight on how it works.

Well, it doesn't matter; all you care about is installing these things. "We're going to install these into you, HARD TIMES. It's a joint project with another company. We don't believe you're useless; we're simply pushing you to be a more efficient worker."

"Even the best machines require maintenance to operate at maximum capacity."

There's no visible or audible reaction from the machine, but since it's not attacking you out of self-defense or something, you assume it believes you. The Man carefully starts to remove and unbolt whatever parts he can easily get his hands on. He says he's going to remove enough parts to let you slot in every single gear and bolt EVE'S gave you, if only to be through.

An odd hiccup is heard in its mechanical rhythm, but the two of you brush that off. You start to slot in the gears and bolts EVE'S provided to you so you can start getting progress on this sponsorship. The first few gears and bolts slot in without any effort, but you can feel how flimsy they are.

>0 SUCCESSES!

And so can the machine. The silence in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife. You can't stop now, though.

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You have to at least install half of these so EVE's counts this as an experiment. The Man's movements slow down with every new bolt he wrenches into the machine.

You can feel an intense, piercing stare drilling right into your skull. The same stare you felt your boss gave you when you fucked up an assignment. The stare you could feel even without him saying anything.

What are you doing, Vincent? Slacking off again, are we?
No, sir.
Bullshit. I told you to have these documents finished a day ago, and yet here you are.
Sir, this is a lot for m-
SiR, ThIs Is A LoT for ME! I'm the one who decided to hire you despite your abysmal résumé.
You could at least TRY to not make me and this office look like a complete fuckup!
You better stay late to finish this.

You taste blood. You don't even realize you're biting your own lip; you're too focused on installing the parts to hear the sound of the machine picking back up. A low, gnashing sound that's closer to an animal's growl than what a machine could make. You're too focused to hear the Man's warning.

The machine is no longer efficient.
You have made it inefficient.
It can't stop. It won't stop. It can't stop. It won't stop.

One of the gears you installed is violently expelled from the machine's body. It painfully slams right against your face with enough force to break your nose. You're sent crashing to the floor from the impact as your hazmat visor is caked in your own blood.

The Man scrambles to help you, but a stray gear manages to hit him in the leg. He immediately loses his balance from the impact, quickly joining you on the floor. Stray gears and bolts are continually spat out of the machine in an attempt to purge the 'inefficient' material from its body. Most of them aren't aimed, but you need to do something fast.

Your head is beyond rattled from the gear's impact, but the softness of the metal prevented it from outright killing you. You drag yourself up to your feet, gritting your teeth whenever a stray bolt slams into your body like a ball of hail.

The machine has deemed you inefficient.

That same piercing, judgmental stare bores right into your core. The Man warns that you should get back down, NOW, but he's interrupted by another stray gear nearly hitting him right in the head. You struggle to adjust or remove your hazmat suit's helmet so you can actually see.

Another inefficiency. You're not a good worker, Vincent.

You manage to yank the visor to the side, letting you finally see again. Your vision is blurred and your head is swimming, but you can still do something.

"I'm not leaving until you stop. I did this because my bosses told me to do it! You have a problem with it?"

"Take it out on them, not me! I'm doing my job, like a good employee should!" Why are you saying this? "I'm really doing my best here!"

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The taste of iron in your mouth, mixed with the overwhelming fetor of smoke and ozone, has an almost hellish quality to it. Sweat oozes down your face. The air's oppressive heat makes breathing nearly impossible, but you can't stop. You won't stop.

The Man struggles back up to his feet. He begs you to get back down as he limps over to you. This work order clearly did not go over well. The two of you need to get Colt in here, he says, to calm it down.

"No!" Another bolt zips right past you, ripping flesh off of your cheek. You grit your teeth to help you push through the pain. "I'm not stopping until my job here is done! My job isn't done, so I won't STOP."

Attunement level rising.

You brace for another gear to be shot your way, but as the two of you wait there, it becomes clear that whatever tantrum it was having is over. A few stray gears from EVE'S are left in the machine, idly tuning with no sign of any wear or tear despite their far cheaper metal.

The Man guesses that whatever you said must've stopped the anomaly. He asks if you should reinstall the gears.

"Yes." It comes out before you even have time to think. The two of you go right back to work after collecting all of the gears and bolts it spat out. This time, it goes over without any issue. The Man roughly slaps the panel back into place in an attempt to vent his frustration with the machine.

Now that the job's done, you notice your face has an odd numbness to it. You know your nose is broken, and you know there's a gash on your cheek, but the pain's totally gone.
>PHYSICAL HEALTH is ???

It's already hard to make out what the Man looks like on a good day, let alone after being injured, but he doesn't appear to notice the limp in his leg either.
>THE MAN'S PHYSICAL HEALTH is still ???

The blood staining the panel and your hands has excited the anomaly by the looks of it. The steady rhythm with which it cranks the crank-powered battery charger has picked up considerably, even without you directly fueling it with blood.

The Man promptly escorts you out of the room before another incident with the anomaly can happen again.
>HARD TIME'S MOOD is now 99/100!
>An INSIGHT HINT will be unlocked soon!

----

"Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to you two?"

"Couldn't tell you. I can't feel a thing." You answer truthfully.

The Man also affirms he can't really feel anything, even though he logically knows he should.

Colt doesn't say anything as he moves in to patch the two of you up, to the best of his abilities and with what little equipment he has. The first aid kit he stole doesn't fully heal either of you two, but it's enough to patch up your face and the Man's leg.

Once he's done, he asks a question he already knows the answer to. "Feh. Gonna rest for a bit or? We moving?"

"Follow me to 199X's cell, please."

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Colt takes the lead. He keeps his rifle held up high in case 199X decides he wants to do anything stupid. There's hardly any snow inside this containment cell compared to how it was yesterday. Only a few thin flakes cling to the frost-caked walls. The mangled corpse is still sitting in the same spot it was when you checked him on the cameras.

He's scratching another message into the floor. His hands tremble with nervous energy with every claw stroke he makes, desperately trying to record whatever is on his mind before he forgets it. The bat clasped in his spare hand is starting to crack from the sheer amount of pressure it's putting on the metal bat.

Black bile oozes from the anomaly's mouth, splattering onto the floor in thick and sticky puddles. Colt scoffs at the sight, "Ey. This prick kind of reminds me of RBA. I know you're hurt, but maybe we should put this thing in its place, eh?"

You don't bother answering Colt. You're not a fan of starting random fights with an anomaly for the sake of it.

LOST SINCE 199X MOOD: 7/11

What do you do, Vincent? Choose three actions. You'll automatically ask why it damaged its airlock again regardless of what you pick.

COMMUNICATION (All count as a SPEECH CHECK.)
>Ask it why it is scratching things into the wall and floor. Is there a reason it keeps recording stuff? (DC 67, +13 to roll.)
>Ask it about its horns, or antlers. You were told it should have them but it doesn't. Why? (DC 72, +14 to roll.)
>Ask it about its girlfriend. How close was she to him? Does she have anything to do with the mysterious shadow? (DC 70, +14 to roll.)
>Ask it something personal. Did running away actually help it, or did it regret doing it? (DC 80, +20 to roll. You can relate to wanting to leave everything behind.)

EXAMINATION
>Cut off some of the hair hanging from the anomaly's head. (Provides a good filler SAMPLE for crosstesting.)
>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)
>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.)
>Examine the anomaly's baseball bat. Is there anything unique about it, perhaps? (DC 57, +10 to roll.)
>Try to take a picture of it. If it redacted a map and a website, can it redact depictions of itself? (DC 67, +1 to roll.)

STIMULI/MISC
>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)
>Examine 199X with your M.A.D WORLD glasses. Does this thing have an aura? Can it provide insight into the anomaly?
>Bring in some ART SUPPLIES. Ask the anomaly to paint whatever comes to its mind. Get a glimpse into its psyche.
>"Wanna play some baseball?" You probably got something that'll work like a ball. (DC 75, +15 to roll.)
>Offer it the SPARKLING SUNSHINE booze and a cup of coffee. As a treat. (-SPARKLING SUNSHINE, -1 of 3 COFFEE BAGS.)

>Write in
I'll try to do an early update next, to make up for lost time.

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>>6366783
>Ask it about its girlfriend. How close was she to him? Does she have anything to do with the mysterious shadow? (DC 70, +14 to roll.)
>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.
>Bring in some ART SUPPLIES. Ask the anomaly to paint whatever comes to its mind. Get a glimpse into its psyche.)

>>6366783
>Cut off some of the hair hanging from the anomaly's head. (Provides a good filler SAMPLE for crosstesting.)
>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)
>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.)

>>6366783
>Ask it about its horns, or antlers. You were told it should have them but it doesn't. Why? (DC 72, +14 to roll.)
>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)
>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)

>>6366783
>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)

>Bring in some ART SUPPLIES. Ask the anomaly to paint whatever comes to its mind. Get a glimpse into its psyche.

>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)

>>6366783
>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)
MORE SAMPLES
MORE LOOT
MORE POWER
MORE MONEY
>Bring in some ART SUPPLIES. Ask the anomaly to paint whatever comes to its mind. Get a glimpse into its psyche.
WHAT DID YOU SEE BEHIND THE TREE, KRIS? WHAT WAS IT THAT YOU LOST YOUR HAND TO?
>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)
This will also prime him for when we do the crazy move of letting him out to have the guys' cookout

>>6366783
>Ask it why it is scratching things into the wall and floor. Is there a reason it keeps recording stuff? (DC 67, +13 to roll.)

>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)
>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.)

>>6366783
>Ask it why it is scratching things into the wall and floor. Is there a reason it keeps recording stuff? (DC 67, +13 to roll.)
>Examine the anomaly's baseball bat. Is there anything unique about it, perhaps? (DC 57, +10 to roll.)
>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.)

>>6366783
>Ask it something personal. Did running away actually help it, or did it regret doing it? (DC 80, +20 to roll. You can relate to wanting to leave everything behind.)
>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.)
>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)

>>6366783
The room hasn't actually grown trees yet has it? I was just thinking how funny it would be to have free wood.

>>6366783
>Cut off some of the hair hanging from the anomaly's head. (Provides a good filler SAMPLE for crosstesting.)
IIRC, we never completed studying the hair before we threw it at FEASTS, yummy yummy.

>Harvest some denim or cloth scraps from its clothes, for research. (Gives you a new sample to study.)
New sample? New sample.

>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)
FREE BEER.

Overall, stay the course of being conservative on dice-throwing on this PENITANT day.

>Post-session Write-in: Write down to always pay attention to the line of lights on HARD TIMES. Leading hypothesis is that while it can in theory run on literally nothing indefinitely, it probably has an emotional need to increase output, and the lights track how much that “hunger” is mounting.
Self-explanatory really.

>>6366923
I would've told you if there were, plus I would've given you an option to investigate them. There's no trees.

>>6366783
It is kind of funny that an anomaly with powers to not be found or tracked down would pretty consistently knock on the door for attention. He really is a tsundere sports protagonist. His poor gf must have had a rough time.

>Ask it why it is scratching things into the wall and floor. Is there a reason it keeps recording stuff? (DC 67, +13 to roll.)
It would be nice to use that speech reroll

>Collect more of its BLACK BILE. The more, the merrier. (Provides a great fuel source.)
More fuel, plus we just burned through some of our money samples to feed HARD TIMES. I think a spittoon and some chewing tobacco would be good for easy bile collection. Or maybe some baseball gum and it turns into a concentrated little ball of black bile lol. A bed and we replace the sheets to wring out the black bile?Towels?

A specially installed shower hot enough so the pipes dont freeze and drains so we can separate the black gold from the dirty water? Although if hair falls off then theres that icky grime in the mix so maybe a shower isnt the way to go.

Perhaps a picture of his gf if we can figure out who she is and hang it on the inside of the door so he won't hit it lol. Or baseball posters.

>"Want some free beer?" You got a BEER VENDING MACHINE, for fuck's sake. Might as well use it. (Colt will enjoy this.)

GIRLFRIEND: 6Tw
HAIR: qTJ, ahn
CLOTH: qTJ, cKq, YGT, iJF, sGE, ahn
BEER: cKq, YGT, iJF, hdC, ahn, Lan
SCRATCHING: sGE, oER, Lan
BILE: 6tw, qTJ, sGE, oER, hdC, Lan
PERSONAL: hdC
BAT: oER
HORNS: cKq
ART: 6tw, YGT, iJF

Alright, no skill checks were picked, so I'll be cranking out the update asap. Expect something in the next hour or two. Then, don't worry ahn, you'll get your upgrade choice for THE MAN.

>>6367152
>His poor gf must have had a rough time.
If only Vincent could relate.

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You rub your bandaged nose. Okay, you're ready to get this over with. You're not in the mood for another anomaly hissy fit. In and out, get two samples, give it beer. That's it.

"Ya know, Vinny, this little freak right here? I feel somethin' bubblin' inside of him."

"Mind explaining what that is, exactly?"

He keeps his rifle aimed at 199X, ready to fire at a moment's notice. "Fear. Couldn't tell ya what, or why, but it's fear alright. You can smell fear, ya know, if ya try to. Like, uh, those moths Manny told me about."

You can only imagine one thing this anomaly could be afraid of. The shadowy figure that Edward saw when he first captured the anomaly. You cautiously approach the anomaly with Colt following right beside you. The anomaly is too focused scribbling on the floor to register you or the man with the gun pointed right at its back.

That'll make harvesting samples from the anomaly simple enough. Colt stays behind to keep his gun trained on the anomaly. Which, that's fine, he wouldn't really be much help anyways. You start by cutting off some of the tattered denim and cloth clinging to his emaciated frame.

You grimace as you run one of your gloved fingers over the jacket covering the anomaly's chest. It's caked in thick and sticky layers of sweat, grime, and blood, all mixed and congealed together into a viscous black paste. Actually cutting a sample off proves to be more work than you'd expected.

You have to put some real elbow grease into cutting off a few samples. The anomaly's jacket reacts to the damage it took with a mind of its own. The jacket twists and squirms for a moment before the damaged sections of it begin to regenerate on their own. In only about twenty seconds, the damage you've done to its jacket is perfectly healed.

"Neat party trick, at least," Colt murmured under his breath. "Ain't gonna stop my bullets."

You reach down to cut some scraps off of the anomaly's jeans. It's the same story as the jacket: a few seconds after you cut off a sample, the denim begins to patch itself back up, reverting any damage you dealt to it. The samples you collected don't show any signs of regenerating, but that's something you can worry about once you're in the lab.

Collecting the bile also isn't much of an issue, since you've done this many times before. You have to make sure to not agitate it too much to avoid any flame-related disasters (maybe the room being ice cold helps it to stay stable?)

The anomaly is too enthralled by whatever it's writing down to notice you, even when you reach an arm within its line of sight. Its breathing is shallow and unsteady as it mindlessly scribble note after note onto the floor.

>199X's MOOD IS NOW AT 5/11!

That's new! And bad! You've never seen an anomaly's mood decrease in real time. You shovel every last bit of black bile into one of the buckets you brought in. Once that's done, you rapidly backpedal away from the anomaly.

"...can't. can't let it..."

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LOST SINCE 199X punches the floor as hard as it can with its free hand. Colt almost pulls the trigger then and there, but he stops himself right in time. He might be a trigger-happy idiot, but at least he respects your authority as his boss.

"can't. can't stay here. need to. run. need to move. need to."

>199X'S MOOD is 4/11!

"Vince. I'm ready to fire on yer command." A half-manifested portal crackles in front of the gun. "Wanna fight it or do you wanna be boring?"

"Keep the gun up, but I want to hear it out, at least." You loudly clear your throat to get the anomaly's attention. "199X! C'mon, man, what's going on? We're here to talk to you." Your voice is a bit strained and muffled thanks to your messed-up nose. It sounds awful, but alas, alack, you'll have to deal with it.

LOST SINCE 199X sluggishly turns its head around, with every movement causing its neck to crack and snap. It doesn't get up from the floor, not yet at least. "...leave. leave, i don't. no one needs to find him. lost in the woods. he ran, he ran for a reason, he."

"Gibbering nonsense, are we? Listen here, skitstövel, we're here to TALK." Colt growls with his gravelly voice. "Speak up, snorunge. We can't fuckin' hear you." You almost crack a wry smirk at Colt insulting 199X in what you assume to be Swedish.

The insults were not lost on the anomaly, but it doesn't take any offense to them. If anything, it's amused by hearing Colt gibbering in a language he clearly doesn't know. 199X pushes itself off of the ground with the help of its bat. It bends its chest forward so its head doesn't crash up against the ceiling.

It stares right at Colt and his rifle. "shoot me, then, pig."

You give Colt the go-ahead. A red sigil circle appears right in front of the anomaly's throat. It doesn't even have time to dodge before a rifle round slams right into the anomaly's neck. It pierces cleanly through the anomaly's flesh without any issue, only stopping when it hits the wall behind the anomaly.

BLACK BILE gushes out of the neck wound, splattering onto the floor below, but the anomaly merely scoffs at the wound inflicted on it.

"that actually hurt a little. we can speak, then. what do you want?

"Right. For someone who doesn't want to be found, you do an awful lot of attention-seeking behavior." You point at the dented containment cell door right behind you. "What do you want?"

"to leave." The anomaly bluntly answers. "i can't stay here. i need to move. this location is too stable, too defined, too...it's not suitable for me."

"the door's strong, but i'll find a way through. no matter what."

"Kid. What's the actual reason?" Colt lowers his rifle down. "If somethin' is scarin' you, you're a lot safer staying here. You know that door's tough, ain't nothing breaking in or out without us knowing."

"the door wouldn't stop it. only the lights, red and blue sirens, they might stop it." The anomaly shivers, but not from the cold.

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Fear is seeping into its words. "let me out. I can't let it find me. I can't let them find him." It grabs its baseball bat with both hands. Its legs twitch with nervous energy, ready to charge at you with a moment's notice.

"Kid. You're tough, but you're not that tough. One wrong move and I'll turn your head into fireworks." Colt swiftly loads another round into his rifle. "Don't be a hero. Let's talk."

"talk is cheap."

"True!" Colt guffaws. "Truer words have never been said, but you're bringing a baseball bat to a gunfight."

Your vine buddy worms its way into your satchel, ready to draw your gun. "We can talk, 199X. We're here to help."

LOST SINCE 199X places its free hand against its still bleeding neck. It's not the first time you've had to shoot it to keep it in line, but it finally appears to register the amount of damage Colt's rifle has done, compared to the previous gunfire it took.

"what do you propose, then?" The anomaly hesitantly asks.

"We'll get you some beer." You're going to bring yourself down to its level. It either used to be or was based on a teenager who ran away from his home. It likes drinking, you know that, so this should win it over. "You can drink to your heart's content."

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, we got a free beer vending machine!" Colt flashes a toothy smirk. "Whatever you're pissing your pants about, we'll protect you from it. AND you get to drink beer. C'mon, it's a win-win for both of us."

"We can study and deal with whatever you're worried about. All we need you to do is stay in here and drink."

The anomaly blankly stares at the two of you, like you both sprouted extra limbs. It lowers its baseball bat down. "free beer?"

"Free beer." You nod—stoically.
"Free pisswater." Colt nods with you—even more stoically.
"free booze..." Make that three. LOST SINCE 199X also nods along. Just three men, nodding stoically.

Colt quickly exits the cell so he can actually get the free beer. This leaves you and 199X in an awkward position until he comes back. Neither of you really have anything to say to each other, so you don't. The weird, awkward silence is broken rather abruptly when Colt bursts back into the containment cell.

Colt tosses can after can of beer onto the ice-cold floor. The condensation on the cans rapidly freezes on contact, leaving small crystals of ice clinging to the metal cans.

"Here, kid. Drink until you can't drink no more. We'll deal with whatever spooky bullshit you're babblin' about, trust us."

The anomaly removes its hand from its neck, which has already stopped bleeding. It sits down right in front of the beer cans it was provided. It rips the top off one of them before shotgunning the already half-frozen beer slush. Any aggression or fear bubbling inside of it vanishes the moment it tastes the beer.

"tastes awful...just like home." Any interest it had in doing anything other than drinking is gone.

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You're not breaking its focus away from the cans of beer. By definition, the work order is done.

"Heh. Maybe I can get used to this little freak. C'mon, let's go."
"I'll be right there." You collect the bits of BLACK BILE splattered on the ground. Waste not, want not, right?

It's best to leave the anomaly to its devices now. You and Colt exit the containment cell now that all is said and done.

---
>4 BLACK BILE and 4 CLOTH SCRAPS (May have regenerative properties?) obtained!
>199X MOOD is now at 7/11!
>SECOND INSIGHT HINT REVEALED!
>HOME RUN (ARMOR): It can't run forever. The shadow must find it.
---

You're back in the relative warmth of your lab. The Man looks up from the note he was writing down. He's glad the two of you made it out without being hurt.

"'course we wouldn't get hurt. I would've blown his head smooth off."

He's been theorizing about what's going on with HARD TIMES' lights, and he wants to hear your two cents on it. As you're about to tell him, he remembers that ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES sent you another message. You grab the piece of paper out of his hands with your vine buddy.

"RULE ADJUSTMENT: WORK ON NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER ALONGSIDE TWO OTHER TASKS. NEW RULE AFTER YOU WORK ON SOMMELIER."

"Eyyy, maybe Vincent will let you hook up with that piece of metallic beauty, eh?"

The Man dryly states that he wants to rip Colt's head clean off.
"I'd like to see you try!"

Your attention shifts away from their bickering. Your eyes are drawn to EL FELINO. EL FELINO hasn't moved from his resting spot on the floor for the last few hours.

On his back and neck, two small fleshy bumps are bulging out of his fur. You're reasonably sure those belong on a feline. Anyway, you should mind your own business.

You return your attention back to your two coworkers. Colt's still the same as he ever was, but there's something different about the Man now. Something you can't quite put your finger on. You'll have to deal with that while you're deciding what you'll do alongside working on NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER

"I do think the lights have to do with the machine's hunger. Write that down."

The Man agrees and he does so, scribbling down in his notes. While he does that...

CHOOSE YOUR UPGRADE FOR THE MAN!
>Parts of his memory are starting to return. He's willing to show you some of his notes. (FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES. THE MAN gains an extra +4 to ARTIFACT and ANOMALY SAMPLE checks and, whenever a coworker completes a SHIFT with him, they gain a permanently +1 bonus to those same checks.)
>To destroy the visible with the invisible, and vice versa... (GHOST OF THE FACILITY. The MAN's presence offers a passive and MASSIVE +13 bonus to all stealth-based checks.)
>There's always more to reality than what meets the eye. (ALL SEEING EYES. ABNOWATCH now costs 0 TIME TOKENS to use while he's in the party, and he gains +9 to all perception-based checks.)
(1/2)

>When you've had to survive on your own as long as he had? You learn a lot of tricks. (MASTER OF ALL. The MAN now offers a +4 bonus to all checks, and his max PHYSICAL and MENTAL HEALTH are majorly increased.)

TIME TOKENS: 10

After you choose an upgrade for him, choose two actions and any FREE ACTIONS. You're forced to work on SOMMELIER no matter what.

ARTIFACT
>Experiment with ESTABLISHING SHOT! You already know what it does, but how far can you push it? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 63, +6 to roll.)
>Try to copy ACCUMULATED PAST with the EGG. Can it copy something that complex? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 6?, +??? to roll)

RESEARCH
>Study the GREY PASTE. What, exactly, is this? Is it ACTUALLY edible or is something else up with it? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 77, +8 to roll.)
>Research a way to make a more 'convenient' healing item with your OBSCURA SYRAH. This might make the BIG BUCKS! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +8 to roll.)
>Continue to research the BLACK BILE you harvested from 199X. Is there any more to them beyond their potential as fuel? (-2 TIME TOKENS, no check needed.)
>You got an excess of STATIC POLLEN now. Try to combine them with some of your other samples. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 62, +2 to roll.)
>C'mon, you harvested these CLOTH SAMPLES for a reason. Research them. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +2 to roll.)

BUSY WORK
>It's time to MOTH HUNT. Put on your M.A.D WORLD glasses and hunt down some moths to study! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 70, +16 to roll.)
>Try to make some weapons out of the anomalous samples you have. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 67, +7 to roll. Colt's helping a lot here.)
>Contact UPPER MANAGEMENT. Pitch a proposal involving your CIGARETTE MOLD. (-1 TIME TOKEN. DC 70, +16 to roll. Being in ARC'S good graces is making this pretty easy.)
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-2 TIME TOKENS, DC 57, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)

FREE ACTION
>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)
>WRITE IN

I'll account for any potential MAN bonuses in the skill check(s) you picked after you select one. Otherwise the votes would be a formatting nightmare.

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>>6367214
>There's always more to reality than what meets the eye. (ALL SEEING EYES. ABNOWATCH now costs 0 TIME TOKENS to use while he's in the party, and he gains +9 to all perception-based checks.)

>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)
>Continue to research the BLACK BILE you harvested from 199X. Is there any more to them beyond their potential as fuel? (-2 TIME TOKENS, no check needed.)

>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

>>6367210
>>6367214
>Parts of his memory are starting to return. He's willing to show you some of his notes. (FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES. THE MAN gains an extra +4 to ARTIFACT and ANOMALY SAMPLE checks and, whenever a coworker completes a SHIFT with him, they gain a permanently +1 bonus to those same checks.)

And then
>C'mon, you harvested these CLOTH SAMPLES for a reason. Research them. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +2 to roll.)
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-2 TIME TOKENS, DC 57, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

>>6367210
>When you've had to survive on your own as long as he had? You learn a lot of tricks. (MASTER OF ALL. The MAN now offers a +4 bonus to all checks, and his max PHYSICAL and MENTAL HEALTH are majorly increased.)
+4 to LITERALLY EVERYTHING is nothing to sneeze at.

>>6367214
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-2 TIME TOKENS, DC 57, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)
Woof. Only one diceless option here, and that can easily be saved for later, and we should do these while we have HARD TIMES and the MAN both cooperating with us.

>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
… We can’t put this off forever. Especially since it’s made the jump to free action at this point.

>>6367210
>There's always more to reality than what meets the eye. (ALL SEEING EYES. ABNOWATCH now costs 0 TIME TOKENS to use while he's in the party, and he gains +9 to all perception-based checks.)
>>6367214
>You got an excess of STATIC POLLEN now. Try to combine them with some of your other samples. (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 62, +2 to roll.)

>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)

>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)
I'll only try to gather our own samples by the end of our turn

>>6367210
>To destroy the visible with the invisible, and vice versa... (GHOST OF THE FACILITY. The MAN's presence offers a passive and MASSIVE +13 bonus to all stealth-based checks.)

>>6367210
>Research a way to make a more 'convenient' healing item with your OBSCURA SYRAH. This might make the BIG BUCKS! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +8 to roll.)

>Continue to research the BLACK BILE you harvested from 199X. Is there any more to them beyond their potential as fuel? (-2 TIME TOKENS, no check needed.)

>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)

>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

>>6367210
>Parts of his memory are starting to return. He's willing to show you some of his notes. (FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES. THE MAN gains an extra +4 to ARTIFACT and ANOMALY SAMPLE checks and, whenever a coworker completes a SHIFT with him, they gain a permanently +1 bonus to those same checks.)
>>6367214
>Research a way to make a more 'convenient' healing item with your OBSCURA SYRAH. This might make the BIG BUCKS! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +8 to roll.)
This could also help us recover after taking those samples from ourselves
>Try to copy ACCUMULATED PAST with the EGG. Can it copy something that complex? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 6?, +??? to roll)
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

>>6367210
>There's always more to reality than what meets the eye. (ALL SEEING EYES. ABNOWATCH now costs 0 TIME TOKENS to use while he's in the party, and he gains +9 to all perception-based checks.)
>>6367214
>Experiment with ESTABLISHING SHOT! You already know what it does, but how far can you push it? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 63, +6 to roll.)
>Continue to research the BLACK BILE you harvested from 199X. Is there any more to them beyond their potential as fuel? (-2 TIME TOKENS, no check needed.)
>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)
>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

>>6367214
>>6367210
>To destroy the visible with the invisible, and vice versa... (GHOST OF THE FACILITY. The MAN's presence offers a passive and MASSIVE +13 bonus to all stealth-based checks.)
As much as I'd like to vote FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES and help him get his memory back, I imagine this isn't the only way to do it. And even if not, then is it a bad thing that he's got a new lease on life and he can now choose the person he wants to be rather than return to the person he may have been?
Also I have no fucking clue why people are voting ALL SEEING EYES. This GHOST OF THE FACILITY pick sounds way way cooler, and even MASTER OF ALL helping him stay alive longer and free bonuses to whatever he does is still good.

As for my vote
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-2 TIME TOKENS, DC 57, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
We did ask it for help and he did help us, now it's our turn as the GOOD WORKER to hold up our end
>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)
Literally only because this is the easiest DC we have out of all of these roll options when we're nerfed for the entire shift. Ugh
>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
We need to get this done or we're doomed
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)
Primarily upgrading either 199X or HARD TIMES cells, I guess?

We might have to spend money buying a fourth fucking cell (is that even possible?) if we want that anglerfish for keeps. If not, then it's going to be tough. If we resolve SOMMELIER, we lose ALL the wine. If we resolve 199X, we lose the bile and the steam engine project is finished. If we resolve HARD TIMES, we lose LITERALLY INFINITE FUCKING ENERGY POTENTIAL the box. I mean sure the Anglerfish might be tough to fight and keep contained perhaps, but imagine the sheer liquid gold its blood and flesh would be for militaries and science worldwide. Everything we have is so good right now I really don't wanna lose them. We lost IN LIMBO but it was poetic and appropriate, and we can still grow the wire flowers and by extension farm static pollen as a side gig so they aren't forever lost. I highly doubt we can be so lucky off of 199X or SOMMELIER resolving and ceasing to exist. We might have to force ourselves to go completely against what we've known since HELP WANTED! and Cleaner Quest and actively resist helping our abnos with their issues nor making their problems worse. Just keep them as they are for endless profit... Forever as they are... Zero character development...

>>6367214
>To destroy the visible with the invisible, and vice versa... (GHOST OF THE FACILITY. The MAN's presence offers a passive and MASSIVE +13 bonus to all stealth-based checks.)
he's the invisible man, he's the invisible man
incredible how you can see right through him

>Research a way to make a more 'convenient' healing item with your OBSCURA SYRAH. This might make the BIG BUCKS! (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 65, +8 to roll.)
>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)

>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

>>6367210
>Parts of his memory are starting to return. He's willing to show you some of his notes. (FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES. THE MAN gains an extra +4 to ARTIFACT and ANOMALY SAMPLE checks and, whenever a coworker completes a SHIFT with him, they gain a permanently +1 bonus to those same checks.)
This pairs very nicely with Lucy and reasonably well with Anthony. And slowly turns everyone into a good research assistant. Plus it feels like evolving The Man's storyline. The other options are very tempting though.

>Continue to research the BLACK BILE you harvested from 199X. Is there any more to them beyond their potential as fuel? (-2 TIME TOKENS, no check needed.)
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-2 TIME TOKENS, DC 57, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
Spending lots of time tokens doesn't sound so bad today.

>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)
No time like the present for some self mutilation.

>>6367314
Speaking as someone who voted MASTER OF ALL, I agree with the confusion over that trend, but not with the invisibility choice. It’s so high only because of how niche it is. In comparison, +4 to EVERYTHING fucking adds up quickly, even before you factor in the major health/san bar upgrade. I can also accept the returning memories thing tho for furthering his story resolution and also the permanent slow-burn upgrading.

And yeah, though we can’t put it off forever (seems most abnos will progress toward a resolution on their own even if we stay passive), the only way I can see us continuing the wine train after NOWHERE’S SOMMELIER resolves is if she reverts to a human (which I suspect will happen on the REMEMBER path), retains some of that mojo after (like in HandlerQM’s related settings), and we can somehow finagle her becoming our full-time assistant or at least a hirable coworker. That’s a lotta ifs.

>>6367214
>Parts of his memory are starting to return.
Narrative reason


>Harvest some samples from your own body.
>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells.
>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got.
>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have.

>>6366786
A Cute Lucy

>>6367264
Maid Hidaka with glasses is too powerful, I am sorely tempted.

>>6367210
El Felino is growing wings? Horns? Or is it about to spit more El Felinos out like a gremlin after midnight so we can gift them to others?

>Parts of his memory are starting to return. He's willing to show you some of his notes. (FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES. THE MAN gains an extra +4 to ARTIFACT and ANOMALY SAMPLE checks and, whenever a coworker completes a SHIFT with him, they gain a permanently +1 bonus to those same checks.)
Oh boy his memories

>Modify LOST SINCE 199X's and HARD TIMES' containment cells. Connect them together. Reinvent the steam turbine. (-2 TIME TOKENS, DC 57, +5 to roll. This would improve HARD TIMES' power output by a lot.)
I thought this didnt have a DC before? Well in any case its time to fulfill my plans for unlimited power!

>Go on ABNOWATCH and research the name on the business card you just got. What could you possibly find? (-1 TIME TOKEN, DC 50 thanks to the man, +5 to roll.)
What the FET up to?

>Harvest some samples from your own body. Might as well start working on ExTINCTION CORP'S sponsorship. (FREE ACTION. Deals HEAVY damage to your PHYSICAL HEALTH. You'll gain some samples.)

>Ask your coworkers for their thoughts on how you could upgrade the containment cells you have. (FREE ACTION. You'll get some good, some bad, and some confusing advice.)

Rolled 1 - 1 (1d2 - 1)

THE MAN?
ALL SEEING EYES: 6tw, sGe, qTJ
FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES: DDn, cKq, fAO, TK/, Lan
MASTER OF ALL: ahn
GHOST OF THE FACILITY: YGT, iJF, /UO
We're going with FRAGMENTED RESEARCH NOTES, then. Memories. What a fickle concept. Do our memories hold value? Do they hold the truth?

WORK?
ABNOWATCH: 6Tw, ahn, sGe, iJF, /UO, TK/, Lan
CLOTH SAMPLES: DDN
STATIC POLLEN: sGe
199X/HARDTIMES MODIFICATION: DDN, ahn, iJF, fAO, TK/, Lan
BLACK BILE: 6Tw, YGT, qTJ, fAO
HEALING: YGT, cKq, /UO
ACCUMULATED PAST: cKq
ESTABLISHING SHOT: qTJ

Looks like we're going to be spending some time doing a lot of busy menial work by MODIFYING SOME CONTAINMENT CELLS, and researching the lead on ABNOWATCH.

FREE ACTIONS?
UPGRADE THOUGHTS: 6Tw, DDN, sGe, YGT, cKq, qTJ, iJF, /UO, TK/, Lan
HARVEST YOURSELF: DDN, ahn, YGT, qTJ, iJF, /UO, fAO, TK/, Lan
Both got a majority, so we're doing both.

I'll roll 1d2-1 to see how much time NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER costs you. I will clarify a fuck up I made and that you had 9 TIME TOKENS, since you spent a time token on the books. So you'll either have 5 or 6 after these work orders, depending on how the upcoming rolls shakes out.

-------------------

I need three anons to do 2d100. The first three numbers will be applied to ABNOWATCH, and the other three will be applied to the containment cell roll, based on sequential order.

ABNOWATCH (DC 50, +5 to roll)
0 SUCCESSES: It's impossible to NOT find something with the Man's help, but... (The information you get is fragmented and rudimentary. ???)
1 SUCCESS: The connection is flimsy at best, but this might go somewhere. (The name on the business card isn't important, but you get some useful information on some other key players.)
2 SUCCESSES: Oh! This might actually be something you can use. (You have a better understanding on the anomaly's behavior and WHY it is the way it is.)
3 SUCCESSES: Oh? You managed to find a website made by this mysterious business man... (Same as 2 SUCCESSES, but the website gives you enough insight to unlock an INSIGHT HINT.)

CONTAINMENT CELL (DC 57, +5 to roll.)
0 SUCCESSES: You are an inefficient worker. (!!!)
1 SUCCESS: The work needed to modify the cell is grueling and progress is both slow and VERY noisy. (-199X and NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER MOOD, +HARD TIMES MOOD. Your modification grants a moderate power production boost to HARD TIMES.)
2 SUCCESSES: The work needed to modify the cell is grueling, but you make some decent progress. (+HARD TIMES MOOD. Your cell modification grants a heavy power production increase to HARD TIMES, and a slight bonus to all future checks with it.)
3 SUCCESSES: It went over as smoothly as you could've possibly expected, given your tools. (++HARD TIMES MOOD. Your cell modification grants a heavy power production boost to HARD TIMES, a slight bonus to all future checks with it. +??? to Vincent.)

>>6367314
>>6367388
An anomaly's presence usually lingers, even after resolving. Keep that in mind.

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Rolled 50, 13 = 63 (2d100)

>>6367526

Rolled 40, 34 = 74 (2d100)

>>6367526
Everybody hang onto something!!!!

Rolled 64, 14 = 78 (2d100)

>>6367526

RESULTS

ABNOWATCH: 55, 18, 45. 1 SUCCESS
CONTAINMENT CELL: 39, 69, 19. 1 SUCCESS

Even with the easiest skill checks, you still barely passed them. Oh well, at least you're not an INEFFICIENT WORKER. Writing, after I answer some quick questions.

>>6367404
>I thought this didnt have a DC before?
It's always had a DC. I said as much when you first proposed it. You're modifying two cells and connecting them together, that's not an inconsequential task.

>>6367314
>Primarily upgrading either 199X or HARD TIMES cells, I guess?
In general, since you do have enough room for two more cells (adding up to 5 in to total), and you might have to do this to get the most out of your various anomalies. A containment cell just hasn't been bought so far, but it might be prudent to do so in the future. Especially since you got an excess of cash sloshing around in your account.

>>6367527
Here's a QM tip: If you want to stay safe, don't get Hidaka drunk. I don't want to imagine what'd happen if you did.

>>6367542
>don't get Hidaka drunk. I don't want to imagine what'd happen if you did.
You already said what'd happen: they won't "stay safe" :^)

>>6367542
Fair enough, damn shame but thems the dice.

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The Man muses about his memories. It's funny that he knows basically nothing about himself, so at least he shares that with the two of you.

"We'll build ya from the ground up, then! It'll be like bootcamp! We'll break your spirit so we can mold a soldier out of you!"

The Man is not a fighter. If it wasn't for his anomalous property, he'd get torn to shreds in an actual fight.

Colt vaguely gestures in the general area of the Man. "Eh, we can work on that."

Regardless, the Man is starting to remember a little bit about himself, though. Tiny fragments and pieces. He'll write down some notes when he has the time. He's sure both of you would be big fans of them.

"Feh. I ain't no nerd, I ain't gonna read any notes."

The Man responds with a quick, curt laugh. You're glad he's starting to remember more about himself at least.

Now, it's time to focus on what you have to do. "Okay so, we're going to be modifying 199X and HARD TIMES' containment cells. We're connecting the two so we can get more juice out of HARD TIMES..."

You tell your coworkers the general overview on how you intend to upgrade the containment cells. The ol' steam engine trick, you explain. The exact details on HOW you can connect the two cells are a bit nebulous, but you can make that up as you go.

The Man says it's feasible, but it'll certainly take some time. At least HARD TIMES is going to help out a bit.

"Colt, I want you to wait inside HARD TIMES' containment cell while we look up something on ABNOWATCH."

Colt's eyes glimmer with a joy that's almost alien to see in a grown adult. "Finally! Fuckin' finally, seven years of buildin' shit is finally gonna pay off! Aight, let's do this!!!" He zips around the lab, searching every corner for the tools needed to actually modify the cells.

The Man chuckles. It's nice seeing him talking about something other than the USA, he says.

"Ditto. Welp, it's time to go on the internet." The Man corrects you by saying it's the intranet.

"You understood exactly what I meant."

He did. He also missed being a pedantic bastard. He remembers being one when he was still a researcher.

>1 SUCCESS!

The two of you really did your best to find anything of note on ABNOWATCH. It's not for a lack of trying, mind you; the Man knows this website like the back of his hand. He mumbles a passing thought that maybe he helped design it or knew someone who designed it.

No, there simply isn't a lot of information about a 'Watanabe' working for JOYTECH INC. Most mentions of him on the website are vague, secondhand mentions of him WORKING with the company and what his first name (Hiromasa) but there's barely anything of note about him besides his name.

The two of you are sent on a wild goose chase, flipping through article after article, which does actually offer some information. By sheer accident, admittedly.

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See, this Watanabe guy was a friend of two high-ranked private equity members: a Mr. Itou and a Ms. Sasaki. The two were financial heavyweights who invested in a variety of businesses across the nation of Japan. A lot of businesses that, if you're reading the reports right, ended up creating anomalies.

Sadly, you don't have the clearance to know which anomalies, but you gathered that they made at least three or four of them that they directly or indirectly created. You found a press release about the sudden price spike of Joytech's stock.

"We attribute this to the work culture we have fostered in our company. The issue a lot of companies end up facing is that their employees end up resenting them. Not enough pay, they say. Not enough benefits, they say."
"Mr. Akihiko has figured out a way to solve this issue once and for all. To create the perfect worker. A worker who will never complain. A worker who will never take a break. A worker who can't, and won't, want to quit."
"We helped to modify his personal pet project, which we can't divulge to you of course, to help achieve this. We desire a world where every worker puts their blood, sweat and tears into fulfilling the goals of our company.
"Please, invest into JOYTECH today, and you may end up with a loyal worker base exactly like ours."

You exhale through your nose. Great. You have two shady figures actively trying to make people like you. Wageslaves who care about nothing but work.

The Man has a theory of his own. By the sounds of it, and from what he can glean about the '88 ENERGY PROJECT', HARD TIMES isn't an anomaly that used to be a human. It's merely a machine. A machine programmed only to optimize its workplace, to make its fellow factory workers docile.

There's no 'humanity' to reach in that machine. Any sapience it could have may only be a remnant or distant echo of the people who made it. If anomalies usually come from or are based on humans, then this is an anomaly that came from a 'machine'. Wholly artificial.

It's not like 199X or SOMMELIER, is what he's trying to say.

If it's merely a machine, then you'll have to treat it as such. On the upside, that means it'll be a very predictable anomaly. Its behavior will likely remnant stagnant for as long as you have it, outside of outright resolving it. Easy to control, as long as you play by its rules.

It's better than nothing at least. You tell the Man to head inside 199X's cell while you help Colt with modifying HARD TIMES' containment cell. It is time to reinvent the steam engine YET AGAIN. Now THIS is what humanity was made for. Inventing more ways of boiling water.

>1 SUCCESS!

To make a very long and grueling story short, you succeeded in modifying the cells, but it was a complete pain in the ass to do so. The section of wall HARD TIMES partially melted was the easiest to modify and reshape, but it only did so much to help.

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Colt's the only one with any real construction experience, and he's working with very suboptimal tools for what you're doing. You and the Man are freeballing all of this. You have to tunnel through layers upon layers of reinforced steel without it collapsing or completely compromising the structural integrity of the cells.

It is backbreaking, dehumanizing work. The sweltering heat inside of HARD TIMES' containment cell makes any attempt at physical exertion five times worse than it'd normally be. The noise, though, that's the worst part. A chaotic, hectic mess of bangs and metal scraping against metal reverberates through the steel you're carving through.

You can already hear 199X screaming at you to stop making all of that racket, even with the tunnel still being half completed. You doubt SOMMELIER will be spared from the noise, but alas, alack. All three of you continue to work, work, and work to finish this project.

Your group does some final touches to make sure the hole you punched through the wall is structurally stable. After it's determined that the tunnel won't collapse, the three of you return to the safety of your lab.

You hastily check the two containment cells over your security cameras. The actual project worked out as well as you could've expected. Excessive heat pours out of HARD TIMES' containment cell and into 199X's, which causes the snow and frost inside 199X's cell to melt. The resulting water flows into the grate on the floor, which immediately turns into steam once it enters HARD TIMES' cell.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. The heat transfer is subpar, but the machine is more than eager to accept the steady source of steam pouring into its room. Aside from the racket you made, 199X hardly registers the grate on the floor or the slight increase of heat that it brings.

It works as expected when all is said and done. The device you attached to HARD TIMES is cranking at a noticeably faster rate now that it's being fed by steam. The flickering light on HARD TIMES is flickering even faster, threatening to turn off completely.

Excellent.

>HARD TIMES will now produce 1.75 FULLY CHARGED BATTERIES with no external work needed.
>HARD TIMES MOOD is 110/100! WARNING! BE CAREFUL!

You and the Man slump onto a chair, trying to not die of a heat stroke. Colt scoffs at the two of you but before he can say anything, you hold your arm out.

"Sponsorship. Cut some skin off. Take some blood. Don't hold back."

"Wha?" Colt squints at you. "Normally I'd wouldn't say no to hurtin' someone, but ya sure you wanna do that after what we-"

"Do it." You mumble out. "I need to activate CRUNCH TIME."

"I have no earthly clue what you're ramblin' about, but whatever you say, freakshit."

Colt isn't a gentle hand either, which is good and bad. Good, because he obtains more samples. Bad, because he obtains more samples. By the time he's done, a decent-sized hole is carved right out of your forearm.

File: FOG.jpg (63 KB, 481x720)

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The wound is first stuffed to the brim with cotton before being bandaged to prevent you from bleeding out then and there.

>YOUR PHYSICAL HEALTH is now MODERATELY INJURED!
>CRUNCH TIME activated! You gain a +3 bonus to all checks until you heal!
>4 out of 16 ExTINCTION CORP samples obtained!

"Aight. We gotta work on that NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER freak." Colt wipes the blood off of the scalpel he used. "Which one of us is gonna have to work on it with ya?"

"You are." You point at Colt. "I want the Man to have some time writing down his notes, and you got an uhhh. Smooth tongue or something." You wish you could've explained yoruself better but the pain, the heat, and the bloodloss all combined at once makes that an impossibility.

A momentary flash of disappointment was seen on the Man's face, but he gets it. He bides you two good luck, he'll use this time to theorize on your anomalies and write down his notes.

You have to get Colt's help to stand back up. "God, I've seen robots rest more than you. Ya know, we can-"
"We're working, Colt. My hands are tied."

Colt grunts, "Fine. If ya wanna die at the ripe old age of 30, be my guest." He half-drags, half-carries you towards NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER's containment cell. The exhaustion of today's shift is getting to you but you have to keep going. Can't stop. Won't stop. You take in a deep breath as you prepare for whatever could be going on with SOMMELIER today.

The two of you enter into NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER's containment cell...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbdD9gPnhhM - SOMMELIER?

Your ears pick up on a vague, distant melody echoing inside of the containment cell. It's a song you might've heard ages, perhaps eons, ago but you couldn't name it even if you were trying. It's a smooth, jazzy song that you'd imagine hearing at a high class bar. Not that you'd know what one of those looks like.

The air is thick with a haze of ephemeral, ghastly black fog you did NOT see when you checked its containment cell either. It isn't affecting your ability to breath so it's not dangerous, sure, but it's not a good sign either.

Laying on the ground, too, is another piece of hardware from EVE's. This time, it appears to be a series of small electronic chips meant to be installed into an android like NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER.

Colt sniffs at the air. His face scrunches like he chomped into a rotten lemon. "God damn. It's...a rotten body smells better than this."

Your nose is still clogged from being broken so you guess you're spared from that, at least. As for the anomaly itself, it is laying on the mattress you gave it ages ago. It hasn't moved from its resting spot so it either can't, or didn't, hear you entering.

It's muttering and whispering something to itself. You have to strain your ears to hear what the android is saying.

"forget forget forget. forget, erase, forget. forget. you're a robot, forget."

"Christ." You hiss through clenched teeth.

"Ya can say that again. I don't wanna be here any longer than you do, Vince."

"her face. no, his face-" The anomaly finally realizes the two of you are here. It lifts its faceless head to stare at the two of you.

"Who's...there?" The anomaly's voice is wispy, barely even there. "This unit isn't feeling too great. Under the. Weather. Col..." It tries to say something but it loses its train of thought almost immediately.

Something's clearly up with NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER so you'll have to be careful about how you interact with it.

FLUID POINTS: 100/100
MOOD: 39/100 (WARNING!)
>BONDING BOOK bonus activated! You may get an ARTIFACT GIFT if your odds are in your favor.

What work orders do you want to do with it? Pick three.

COMMUNICATION
>Offer the anomaly a smoke. Try to comfort the anomaly to the best of your ability. (DC 80, +17 with COLT'S HELP. -CIGARETTE PACK.)
>Ask about the 'NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER' title it gave itself. What does it mean? Why did it pick THAT name? (DC 71, +17 with Colt's help.)
>You wonder why they'd make a robot that only exists to serve wine sapience. Ask the android how it views itself and the role it was given.
>Ask it for its thoughts on the various coworkers you had it meet.. Maybe shifting its focus to serving its customers will calm it down?
>Ask about GAETANO and, by proxy, how and why the anomaly was created. (DC 75, rolling +17 with Colt's help.)
>Tell it about IN LIMBO/ROLLE and how you resolved it. Maybe it'll help it to open up its shell? (DC ???, +17 with Colt's help.)

EXAMINATION/STIMULI
>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO. Try to find something on it that both you and SOMMELIER can enjoy listening to. (No skill check needed.)
>Play some calming music on your CD player and a TV show on your DVD player. You need the anomaly distracted ASAP.
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)
>It might not be the best time, but perform an EVE'S experiment on NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER. (DC 65, +5 to roll. Leaves you with 4 experiments left before EVE'S is complete.)
>Observe NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER with your M.A.D WORLD glasses. Does it have an aura, you wonder?
>This is a stupid, dumb idiot idea but...hug the anomaly. (???. Is this even a good decision?)

>Write in.

Regardless of what you picked, you're sure to learn a lot about SOMMELIER, due to a sponsorship you finished last shift.
Anything with 'Colt's help' is applicable for a SPEECH reroll, but remember, only one reroll per check.

>>6367653
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)
>It might not be the best time, but perform an EVE'S experiment on NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER. (DC 65, +5 to roll. Leaves you with 4 experiments left before EVE'S is complete.)
>Ask it for its thoughts on the various coworkers you had it meet.. Maybe shifting its focus to serving its customers will calm it down?

>>6367653
>Offer the anomaly a smoke. Try to comfort the anomaly to the best of your ability. (DC 80, +17 with COLT'S HELP. -CIGARETTE PACK.)

>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO. Try to find something on it that both you and SOMMELIER can enjoy listening to. (No skill check needed.)

>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)

>>6367653
It's interesting that it didn't recognize Colt like it did with all the others so far. Probably related to its mood but might be related to Colt instead.

>Ask about the 'NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER' title it gave itself. What does it mean? Why did it pick THAT name? (DC 71, +17 with Colt's help.)
Seems like a good if belated communicative start.
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)
Draining it used to help its mood and we need those samples anyway.
>Write-in: Bring in the art supplies. Maybe it wants to express its confusing by painting?

>>6367653
>Offer the anomaly a smoke. Try to comfort the anomaly to the best of your ability. (DC 80, +17 with COLT'S HELP. -CIGARETTE PACK.)
>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO. Try to find something on it that both you and SOMMELIER can enjoy listening to. (No skill check needed.)
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)

>>6367653
>Offer the anomaly a smoke. Try to comfort the anomaly to the best of your ability. (DC 80, +17 with COLT'S HELP. -CIGARETTE PACK.)
>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO. Try to find something on it that both you and SOMMELIER can enjoy listening to. (No skill check needed.)
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)

>>6367653
>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO.
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples.
>Ask it for its thoughts on the various coworkers you had it meet.. Maybe shifting its focus to serving its customers will calm it down?

>Offer the anomaly a smoke. Try to comfort the anomaly to the best of your ability. (DC 80, +17 with COLT'S HELP. -CIGARETTE PACK.)

63 is... doable... and it's worth trying. Maybe we'll get a gift from this.

>This is a stupid, dumb idiot idea but...hug the anomaly. (???. Is this even a good decision?)

HUG POWER INITIATE. This robot is secretly just a cute girl that needs a hug, like the others. 10/10 best decision. Hugs have never gone wrong for us in this quest.

>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)

I feel like it's gonna become an artifact soon. In that case, we might need some extra wine samples for the possibility of brewing these ourselves.

>>6367653
>Offer the anomaly a smoke. Try to comfort the anomaly to the best of your ability. (DC 80, +17 with COLT'S HELP. -CIGARETTE PACK.)
>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO. Try to find something on it that both you and SOMMELIER can enjoy listening to. (No skill check needed.)
>Purge its fluid reservoir. Can't have too many samples. (-100 LIQUID POINTS, gets you a lot of OBSCURA SYRAH and two other wine types from previous experiments.)

>>6367653
>You wonder why they'd make a robot that only exists to serve wine sapience. Ask the android how it views itself and the role it was given.
>Ask it for its thoughts on the various coworkers you had it meet.. Maybe shifting its focus to serving its customers will calm it down?
>Power on your MODIFIED PORTABLE RADIO. Try to find something on it that both you and SOMMELIER can enjoy listening to. (No skill check needed.)

Would've closed earlier but today was hectic. Update's going to be a little bit late.

PURGE: cKq, YGT, fAO, hdC, ijF, ufS, WUk, 6Tw
ART: fAO
EVE: cKq
SAPIENCE: qTJ
COWORKERS: cKq, ufS, qTJ
HUG: WUk
SMOKE: YGT, hdC, iJF, WUk, 6Tw
PORTABLE RADIO: YGT, hdC, iJF, ufS, 6Tw, qTJ
SOMMELIER TITLE: fAO

You're going to harvest a bunch of its samples, you're going on a smoke break and you'll be listening to some radio. Alright. Three anons, roll 1d100+17, table below. Remember that you have one free reroll available (so use it if a roll fails. You can't exactly reroll two failures.)

SMOKE (DC 80, +17 to roll.)
0 SUCCESSES: "..." The old silent treatment, huh? That stings but at least you tried. (This is pretty demoralizing for all parties involved.)
1 SUCCESS: "...Reminds me of...no, no." And you thought you were getting somewhere. (Your attempt at cheering it up doesn't go nowhere, but progress is slow.)
2 SUCCESSES: "...thank you." It's a rather somber affair but at least it's doing better. (NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER gets a massive boost to its MOOD. You did your job.)
3 SUCCESSES: "...I need to tell you something." (Your pep talk was enough to get NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER to open up. ?!)

Rolled 62 + 17 (1d100 + 17)

>>6368018
Give this clanker a ciggy

>>6368021
Bullshit

Rolled 18 + 17 (1d100 + 17)

>>6368018
>>6368023
Let's see if I can do better

Rolled 98 + 17 (1d100 + 17)

>>6368018
HEH...

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Rolled 17 + 17 (1d100 + 17)

>>6368018
Reroll. .

Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>6368018
>>6368026

I'll reroll their's.

Welp, that would normally be 1 SUCCESS, but you know what? The update's already going to be a bit late, and I want to be merciful. I'll let you get 2 SUCCESSES since that 79 was dangerously close to a success. In exchange for the extra success, though, you'll obtain noticeably less samples from PURGE ITS FLUID RESERVOIR. Enough to cut into your margins but you'll still get something.

Do you pay the price? Keeping it open until a majority forms, or enough time passes without a vote.
>YES. (2 SUCCESSES obtained.)
>NO. (You get all of the samples from PURGE ITS FLUID RESERVOIR.)

>>6368045
You only got one reroll and sadly, 6Tw already got a bad roll.

>>6368043
Sheep are a robot's best friend.

>>6368048
>YES. (2 SUCCESSES obtained.)
We can always get more wine later.

>>6368048
>YES. (2 SUCCESSES obtained.)

>>6368048
>YES. (2 SUCCESSES obtained.)
You better not resolve on us just yet you "all wine and no dine" bitch. We need you for MONEY and SANDWICHES and MOLD

>NO. (You get all of the samples from PURGE ITS FLUID RESERVOIR.)

Three votes it is, so you'll be getting those two successes. Alas, you won't get as much wine, but you'll get two new types of wine to mess around with so it's not a total loss. A trade off I suppose.

>>6368057
What has the funny wine robot done to be called a bitch? It makes all the wine you want. How crass...

>>6368021
Tfw can't benefit from Jack of All Trades while The Man is still in the lab. I wonder if asking him through the flower comm could still work?

>YES. (2 SUCCESSES obtained.)

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Yeesh. You're not really the best at cheering up people, let alone an anomalous robot (one that might've been human?)

It's not really in your skill set. You guess you're going to have to play this by ear since, look, you don't want this thing to breach. It's only a DALETH-class anomaly, so it probably wouldn't do much even if it DID breach, but still.

Whether out of an abundance of caution or paranoia, you open the airlock behind you so you can toss out a STATIC PIN. Maybe the MAN could give you some advice? Maybe? Worst case scenario, you'll get a warning if something is happening while you're busy.

Colt rests his rifle against his shoulder. Clearly, this anomaly isn't a threat to him. "Lady, it's me. We met a few days ago? I drank some of your wine. Remember any of that?"

NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER blankly stares at his general direction. "I'm sorry, customer, but I don't remember. That's not something I do." The android wheezes, somehow out of breath despite being a robot. "I'm. No, it's." Again, it loses its train of thought before it can finish anything.

It lays its head back on the mattress, content with trying (and failing) to veg out. Colt shakes his head at the pitiful sight before him. "Shit, Vince. Last time I saw this bitch, she was all happy and whatever to shill her wine. What happened to her?"

"I couldn't tell you. SOMMELIER was fine last time I was here." You don't like where this is going. When an anomaly starts freaking out like this, they're close to resolving. You don't want it, you don't want her, to leave. Not yet.

Is it selfish of you to ask? For an anomaly to stay stagnant because it's beneficial to you?

No matter. You approach the anomaly with a bucket in hand. "We'll do what we normally do. Keep an eye on it, okay?"

"Can do, boss." Colt dryly chuckled.

You try to get the anomaly's attention, but you might as well be talking to a brick wall. The anomaly is too lost in its own thoughts to hear you now.

You lift the anomaly's nozzle arm off the mattress. It makes no attempts to stop you as you slot its arm into the bucket. A slow trickle of wine begins to fill the bucket, as if the anomaly is doing its best in trying to do nothing at all.

You really need to get to the bottom of this-

A voice crackles inside your head. It's the Man's, and there's worry creeping into his words. He implores you and Colt to stay inside that cell for a while. He has a vague sense that someone is approaching your lab, and he has to barricade it before it gets here.

He wishes he didn't have to be vague and ominous about it, but alas alack, he says.

Hm. You relay the information to Colt. He squints at you like you grew a second head. "I get why he wants YOU to stay in here, but why me? My gun's enough to kill any faggot wanderin' around these parts.

"I couldn't tell you. He has his reasons, I suppose."

"He has dementia, maybe." Colt snorts obnoxiously. "Ah well."

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He reshifts his focus back towards the android. "Aight. What's the plan with Miss Som over 'ere?"

"Well, I guess we'll try to cheer her up? You make the ladies laugh, I think." You wryly smile as you think of a quip, but, like SOMMELIER, your train of thought dies before it goes anywhere.

"Sure do, Vince. Maybe you should learn a lesson or two from me if you're gonna be fuckin' any chicks down here." Colt slams his fist against his chest. The android stirs for a second, and if you really focus? You could've sworn you heard it giggling.

You sit down by the edge of the mattress. "Well, go ahead. Show me then."

Colt's cocky smirk briefly wanes after being put on the spot. He clears his throat before he tries to address the anomaly. "Ay. Listen here, robot. I ain't gonna pretend I know what's going on in your head. I ain't that kind of man."

"That's more Vince's thing. Heck, I don't know if you're listenin' to a word I say, but I guess there ain't no harm in shooting the shit with ya." Colt clicks his tongue as he mulls over what to say. "The Man likes ya. I like ya. Vince likes ya. We want to help ya, because that's what men do. We're your shoulder to cry on."

"I dunno if you can even cry, though, but ya get me? Right?"

You rummage in your satchel for a pack of smokes and your radio. "We can help you to forget whatever you're going through. It's only fair to repay the favor, no? You help us to forget, and we help you to forget. Mutual oblivion."

The android finally sits up after vegging out for the last five minutes. It sluggishly shifts its gaze between the two of you, as if struggling to remember anything that you said.

"Uhm. Who are you two?"

There's barely any electronic warble in its voice. It's the voice of a regular woman, not a robot. You can make out a French accent, now that it's no longer obscured as badly by the electronic warble.

"Non, wait. I'm in the cell, ze? Non, my storage area. Non, my." Again, she struggles to maintain her train of thought.

"My head's foggy. Which is good. Memories aren't needed. I don't need them." The android lies through nonexistent teeth. "..."

"Lady," Colt grunts. "I ain't no shrink but you wouldn't be thrashin' around like this if you were havin' a good time."

The android doesn't refute what Colt said. "I apologize. This unit isn't functional. I can provide neither wine nor the elimination of corpses. Please come back at a different time day year." It is, however, gibbering out nonsense. You light up three cigarettes, handing one each to Colt and NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER.

Colt eagerly accepts the smoke, while SOMMELIER struggles to figure out how she can even smoke it. She presses the cigarette against where her mouth would be, which appears to work well enough.

You tune the radio to a distant, far-away station god knows where. The signal is choppy, but you can make out a vaguely familiar song over the wave of static. SOMMELIER's posture relaxes as the melody fills the air.

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She even begins to hum along to the song.

"So, let's address the elephant in the room, lady." Colt says as he puffs out a plume of smoke. "What's botherin' ya?"

"My mind's playing tricks on me." SOMMELIER mimics Colt 'puffing' out smoke, merely going along with the motions. "The longer I'm in here. The more my programming begins to betray itself."

"Memories." SOMMELIER scoffs. "They bring nothing but trouble. Did you not see what it did to Rolle? That poor woman. Lost in her own rotten memories. I don't want to be like her. I did everything I could to spare others from her fate."

"Now, look at me. Rotting away in my own thoughts." A venomous, bitter laugh crackles out of the android's voice box.

"Memories ain't always so bad, but I get what you're saying, lady." Colt leans back against one of the containment cell's walls. "I had fun when I was drunk on yer stuff. I didn't remember a single thing durin' all of it."

"See!" A trace of joy creeps back into her voice. "I made you happy! That's all I'm trying to do! That's what my wine does! People are happier when they forget!"

"So why do these memories linger?" The android shakes its head. "Memories that aren't mine."

"Well, if you tell us what they are, maybe that'll help you to move on." You pat SOMMELIER on the shoulder. "You did a good job so far. Let us help."

"Yeah. We ain't no shrinks but we'll try."

SOMMELIER snatches the pack of smokes out of your hand before she even tries to speak about her memories. You've never seen an android chain smoke before but you see something new every day.

In between every cigarette, the android divulges a little bit more about itself.

"I remember a time where I wasn't this. Where I was like the two of you. Flesh and blood. I was working with L'Cure - no, I WAS L'Cure. Or someone close to L'Cure. I can't remember his face."

"We were the top of the top. We controlled the French black market with an iron fist. Everyone came to us for the best wines, for the best meat, everything that came in or out was under our control. His control. My control?"

Another five cigarette snubs hit the floor. SOMMELIER lights up another one as she tries to ground herself. "In that line of work, people had to forget. Civilians had to forget, to keep the business safe. Employees had to forget, to prevent any rats. Higher ups had to forget, so we didn't linger on the blood we spilled."

"Memories are nothing but something that could hurt us. Memories are a reminder that you're better off not having. That's what we all thought. That's what I thought."

"What's the last thing you remember?" You ask with a soft voice.

"Bleeding. On the floor." SOMMELIER flicks another spent cigarette onto the floor. "Someone must've memorized my routine. They caught me off guard. They had a rifle like him," she points at Colt. "I think. I overheard something I didn't. I already forgot what, though."

"Then, I woke up in a workshop. I was being built. Or I was already built."

"Those were memories of a woman I never even met."

Colt tries to process what the android just said. "How much of ya was already finished when ya woke up?"

"Most of my body. I remember her, but then I remember me, as an android. This voice, it's hers." She rubs her throat, feeling its cool metal. "I remember what having skin feels like, at least."

"That man, the one who controlled L'Cure, told me he was glad he built me. That, if something happened to her, she'd have a way to live on. Even if something happened to her. That she helped to build me."

So you were half right, if you're understanding the anomaly right. She used to be human, but it sounds less like she's the original and that she's a copy. An android with most of her memories, stuck inside of a robotic shell.

An echo of someone.

A memory. You do vaguely recall the android mentioning a 'her' who built her; it could've been her 'original' self.

"I don't understand why he clung on. He would always tell me there were things people shouldn't remember. To keep themselves, and our business, safe." The android's voice begins to wobble. "Yet every night, he would come into the workshop. To cry. To try to get me to remember with him. To go down memory lane with it."

"To cling to someone who used to love. But I'm not her, or, she's not the same 'her' he used to know." SOMMELIER lets out an exhausted sigh. "That's why I don't like remembering. This is all I think about when I do 'remember'. His tears. The blood gushing out of my body. It's exhausting to remember."

"I can't blame ya." Colt shakes his head. "Though. That poor son of a bitch cared about whoever ya used to be. Ain't that worth somethin', though?"

"I don't know anymore. All I know is that when I made him forget, he was happier. He could be free to operate his, her, business." SOMMELIER pauses. "So that I could be free. So no one could hurt me again. I just had to forget who I was."

"Why do people still cling onto their memories? Why do they bother?"

You doubt this question is going to resolve her, but it's still important. Your instincts tell you it'll affect what GIFT(?) she might give you.

INSIGHT: REMEMBER (ARMOR)/ABYSS GAZE (WEAPON)/SALVATION (UTILITY)

How do you feel about memories, Vincent?
>"I see them as a reminder. To make sure you don't make the same mistake again." (REMEMBER)
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)
>"I can't pretend I enjoy the memories I remember. They're simply something I live with." (ABYSS GAZE)
>"Memories are all we have of life. That's what makes us who we are." (REMEMBER)
>"It's the only things every human has in common. We all remember, even if we don't want to." (SALVATION)
>"I don't see any value in my own memories. All that I care for is down here." (ABYSS GAZE)
>Write in.

Yeah, I told you it was going to be late. Next update will be shorter, since it'll just be resolving this question.

>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)
I like these words and more utility is always good.

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>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

>>6368235
Just because they're reminders doesn't mean the people will avoid the same mistakes
Option 3 is false since Vince clearly looks fondly on some of the housework he did do for his family, like cooking
Option 4 is true, but it ignores how new experiences also shape us in the moment before they slip into the past and become memories
Option 5 is a giga truth nuke that's too much for right now
Option 6 is also a lie because Vince remembers THE HEART and that rainy night he ran from home. They have value if only for survival's sake

Option 2 is the simplest at the core

>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

>>6368313
Mmmm giga truth nuke could be a nice flavor

>>6368235
>>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

I actually want to see in the future her interactions with the Man.

>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

>>6368389
We lock him in the containment cell with her for an hour and turn off the cameras. Easy

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>>6368441

>>6368235
>>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

>>6368235
>"I see them as a reminder. To make sure you don't make the same mistake again." (REMEMBER)
Since there's 2 options for each type, what's the difference ?

>>6368533
It's just how you want to vocalize a specific sentiment (negative for ABYSS GAZE, neutral/positive for SALVATION/REMEMBER). I would be transparent if they would've radically changed the gift you got. Pick the words you like/agree with.

>>6368389
You'll get a chance to decide on that, in a future vote. Whether by working on SOMMELIER another time this shift, or by giving the Man the go ahead to do a solo interaction.

>>6368441
Degenerate.

>>6368235
>"Memories are all we have of life. That's what makes us who we are." (REMEMBER)

>>6368235
>"Memories are all we have of life. That's what makes us who we are." (REMEMBER)

Do you know how steel is made? Iron is fed into a blast furnace. It is heated to over 1500 degrees centigrade to remove impurities and introduce carbon, resulting in a material that is far stronger than the pig iron it was originally. The material properties can be further improved in various ways by post-processing such as quenching, annealing, tempering, or rolling.

All this is to say: Steel did not get its extremely useful properties by default-it had to be forged in extremely difficult environments.

Memories are similar. Some-if not many-of them may be painful, but in the end these experiences shape who we are and allow us to develop into better people, or at least learn from mistakes.

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>>6368231
>Another five cigarette snubs hit the floor.

>>6368441
>We lock him in the containment cell with her for an hour and turn off the cameras. Easy
Calm down, cup

>>6368235
>"It's the only things every human has in common. We all remember, even if we don't want to." (SALVATION)

>>6368235
>"I see them as a reminder. To make sure you don't make the same mistake again." (REMEMBER)

Here’s hoping the general sentiment gets counted first before the exact phrasing. If there’s any route that’ll help her become a REAL GRIL…

>>6368235
>"Sometimes, that's all they have. Of someone they like, something they used to enjoy." (SALVATION)

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What are memories to you? Your own memory has been scattered to the wind. You only remember fragments of your past, of your childhood, of the family you ran from. None of them are particularly pleasant memories either. At best, you feel bittersweet about them, but they're still your memories.

It's all you have of your mother. Your father. Your brothers and sisters. The outside world. They have value still, even if only for survival's sake.

"As I see it?" You exhale a puff of smoke. "Sometimes, that's all they have. Things come and go all the damn time and often? They don't leave anything behind besides a memory."

"A kiss. A laugh. The taste of a good meal. Their loved one. It's the only thing people have once all is said and done."

NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER flicks away another spent cigarette. "The concept of a positive memory doesn't elude me. I simply do not feel the pain and burden of all of life's negative memories are worth the price of admission."

"The bliss of oblivion would be better. To have nothing to hold you back. Where you can be free, Vincent."

"Listen, frog." Colt puts out his spent cigarette with his boot. "Do you know how we made steel?"

"Non. I have no idea how this is relevant." SOMMELIER tilts her head.

"We have to forge it in unforgiving conditions. Heatin' it to thousands of degrees, smashing and crushing and rolling the hell out of it, all of that...to make this." Colt knocks against the wall he's standing in front of. "If we didn't do all of that, it'd be worthless pig iron."

"Without the bad, 'good' doesn't matter. Ya gotta have retards so you can appreciate the geniuses. Ya gotta have weirdos with blood flukes or whatever to keep the docs on their toes. Ya get me?"

"While his metaphors are questionable, I do agree with him. Without the bad memories, you don't have anything to compare the good memories to. Erasing everything bad might be nice, but what would that kind of happiness actually mean?"

Colt cracks his knuckles. "Mmh hmm. I see 'em as a reminder, myself. To not make the same retarded mistakes again."

NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER finds herself at a loss for words. Her gaze is locked onto the radio, which is still playing a few jazzy hits from the the outside world.The stench of cigarette smoke lingering in the air helps to sell an atmosphere you were once in.

It was a shady bar somewhere in Arlington; you don't remember exactly, but one of your coworkers told you to go there. It had a jukebox that played the same six jazz songs, and all of the people there were in their late 50s or early 60s. A den of old, half-forgotten memories suppressed by alcohol.

You never wanted to end up as some decrepit wretch who spent all of his days obliterating his own memories with scotch on the rocks. You may not hold much fondness for your own memories, but they're YOUR memories.

The next couple of minutes pass by in a blur, but one small noise snaps you out of this smoke-induced daze.

CRACK!

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A shard of glass the size of a bottlecap flies off of the glass reservoir inside of SOMMELIER's torso. The reservoir has several layers of glass, you now found out, so it's still able to hold wine but...damnit. She's getting close to RESOLVING.

The small shard of glass is pitch black, unlike the clear translucent glass that makes up the rest of its reservoir. A drop of wine clings to the surface of the glass.

You wipe the drop off, but as soon as you do, another drop manifests on the glass. You did it again, and the same thing happened. There's always a drop or two of red wine, presumably OBSCURA SYRAH, clinging to the shard of glass.

Interesting.

>BLACK SHARD obtained! (ARTIFACT GIFT. Darker than dark. Passively produces a small amount of OBSCURA SYRAH. Has two other properties which are ??? and ???.)

"Miss? Ya okay there? A little piece of ya came off."

"T'inquiète" NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER pulls her nozzle arm out of the bucket. She places her regular hand against her reservoir. "I'm not stupid. I know what I am, and you know what I am. The other anomalies here may not be aware of what they are, but I do."

"I never thought I'd end up like Rolle." NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER scoffs. "That's why I tried to forget. Remembering, confronting, it..." She pauses right as another crack forms on the surface of her reservoir. "I don't want to go yet, so I'll leave it there."

"I'm glad that you two felt like cheering me up. I...have a request."

"Shoot." You might as well hear her out. She's been one of your most helpful anomalies over the last week.

"Bring in Senior Res%*! Yov*@%@!. I need to talk to him. Alone." You could almost pick up on what she was trying to say there. She has to be talking about the Man, right?

"We'll think about it, missy. I gotta ask Vinny here for approval, but heck, I think she deserves it, Vince. Just my two cents."

You hear a familiar voice inside your head. It's safe to come out, the Man says, he managed to barricade the front entrance. He'll tell you more once you're outside.

You turn off the radio now that your time is up. You have Colt collect the bucket while you pack up everything else. You let Colt exit first before turning back to face the android.

"I hope we helped. Even if only a little bit."

NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER slowly nods its head. "The gesture was appreciated. It was nice listening to those old songs. I can't quite fathom how your radio works, and I don't intend to, but thank you."

"See you soon." You do a quick hand salute before you follow right after Colt.

---
>NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER'S MOOD is now 85/100!
>2 OBSCURA SYRAH, EBONY REGENT (Wine made from BLACK BILE) and DRAMATURGE (Wine made from NEON BLUE FLESH) SAMPLES OBTAINED!
---

The Man wasn't lying, that front entrance is locked down tight. The makeshift barricade you made a few shifts ago is there, but there's also piles of random junk and scrap stuffed in the entrance way blocking it.