O-04-72 & Chesed
I hate the mornings when the Qliphoth Deterrence is about to be over. I hate working because I steals me of my free time, where I could be reading a novel. The last moments before the worktime starts unsettle me and prevent me from enjoying my hobbie. It's the worst. If I could copy myself and sent that copy to work in my place, I would be happy. Well, that copy would think the same and send me to work instead, but at least I would have someone who shares my pain. Knowing the corporation, if I did create a clone, they would put the both of us to work. Worse yet, they may mass product Neals in order to make up for all the recent casualties.
Such a scary thought.
I dropped my book. I couldn't focus on reading like that. Something horrible was going to happen soon… and it was my department's turn. Nonchalantly, Chesed took some coffee into the hole in his chassis across the table in our Main Room. I glared at him.
"When are you going to go nuts like everyone else?"
"Why do you think I will do that?"
"The other Sephirahs did. There's no reason a lazy goof like you wouldn't lose a screw or two."
"Harsh~"
"Just try to go all out so that we can finish before meltdown 8. We cannot face another Midnight Ordeal as we currently are…"
My Sephirah circled a finger over his cup's circumference.
"Do you resent me, Neal? I ignored your plea when your teammates were brainwashed by White Night."
"I decided I wouldn't waste doing things I didn't enjoy. Resenting you would demand too much focus you don't deserve."
"Ouch, my heart! Your tongue sure is sharp! As the captain of Welfare, couldn't you try being a little more nic-"
"No way. I'm in a bad mood right now."
Chesed seated next to me and, after a minute of silence, he offered me a mug of his coffee.
"I'm sorry, Neal. At heart, I wish to be a good leader to all of you and help as many employees as possible. My job is to put Safety out of work, yet I have come to accept that nothing will go the way I want."
"Have you even tried hard enough?"
"I… think I have. Employees like you may not know about this, but Angela really keeps every department head in the palm of her hand. We cannot do anything against her… because we fear being reset. Tiphereth B showed us what happens if we force her hand too much, so we are nothing but obedient puppets."
"Why do the Sephirahs go crazy, then?"
Chesed took another sip.
"Because we cannot bear it any longer. We break, we scream and we cry the content of our hearts."
"That's unfair."
"Pardon?"
"Why are you allowed to break? We are the ones risking our lives, yet you get to be the protagonists of this story. Most employees are unwilling to keep working in this place, but we are not given any option. It's unfair."
"At least you can die. I'd rather have you die a quick death than suffer my fate and endure a never-ending journey filled with regret and torment."
Is death… really a good thing… or just a better alternative? No. Death is paramount to giving up… and life has something I will never give up. I stood up and faced my boss.
"Even if I was chosen to become a Sephirah, I wouldn't be able to do the same as you. I decided to live life just the way I want to. If the path I choose leads me to an early death, so be it. Living without a reason is not enough for me. I have something really important to me."
A place I call home. The degraded amber of an aged page where inked creatures forge worlds. My camaraderie with Jackass and Apolo G. is important as well, but rather than being Neal, Welfare's captain, I'd rather be, Neal, just a bookworm.
Chesed rose his mug. The coffee went cold.
"You may be harsh, but you have a good head on your shoulders. I'm glad you won't live long enough to break apart the way I'm about to experience."
That's unsettling, alright. The fact his metallic chassis morphed as he said that made it much worse. The body became an orb with a digital blue eye, with limbs that held the pieces of his old husk and his trusty cup of cold coffee. The orb was suspended on the air. Four column of auras extended from it, but one of them glowed much more intensely.
"Red, White, Black and Pale. Could you have done it any more obvious?"
Rain is falling; this rain, the tears of all the employees. The downpour will never stop.
"I'd be surprised if any idiot in this workplace had any tears left. I sure don't. Tears didn't protect me from the brainwashed employees or the abnos' attacks."
I pointed my black rounded hammer with a mouth towards my Sephirah.
"I'll make you give up hope. Only then will you be able to act the way you truly want."
I picked the suitcase where I held my EGO suit and went towards Information. I was assigned White Night's suit in order to resist its ridiculously high pale damage, so that made me the master of his chamber. I had to visit that god regularly, or else his Qliphoth Counter would decrease and eventually call upon his apostles. I don't fancy that outcome…
Central Command's top floor became our new meeting spot for planning out the meltdown. Although the departments continued to expand, our numbers didn't seem to grow accordingly. Our human resources were really low, huh?
"You have two minutes of my time. Debate." I sighed after checking my wristwatch.
"You do the debate, Neal. It's your department." Izzy retorted, making me grunt.
"I have to explain something so obvious? My team unlocked bullets that heal HP and SP. If a Chesed with a good mood recovers our health, a Chesed with a bad mood lowers it: damages are doubled this day."
"What?! That's crazy! Most employees won't survive even the simplest of managerial works!" Information's new captain, Martin, protested.
"Send anyone who complains my way. I'll let them have some of White Night's tasty Pale damage during managerial work with that sweet sweet increased damage."
The look I sent the gathered teams made it clear how low my survival probabilities were for the day. I hate my job. I slammed my hand against the table, forcing the Inspector to stop listing to their bloody headphone and focus on the meeting. They didn't even look sorry.
"Chesed is a nice guy." They stated, winning the prize to the most obvious observation of the day. "I doubt he would develop an overpowered skill that leaves us no wiggling room. What you said about doubling the damage confirms the screams I heard this morning, but there had to be a pattern to the shrieking…"
Their words didn't surprise the old-timers. Only they knew about their unique way to word their ideas.
"You say the weirdest things, Inspector." I crossed my arms and pondered. "A pattern, you say… There is one. Chesed's auras had a color more intense than the others: red."
Qwerty reached the new Training captain, took their Punishing Bird EGO weapon and shot themselves on the leg. Even though they had Nothing There's protective gear, the bullet dealt significant damage. I liked their new decisiveness. I stabbed myself with a borrowed Safety's Fragment of the Universe's lance. White Night's suit wasn't even scratched, but that was of no surprise. Only Chesed's red aura glowed intensely.
My clock beeped. The manager selected me with his cursor and told me what I already knew. Time was up.
"Good luck."
There was nothing else that needed to be discussed. The employees would study which aura Chesed favored and avoid working with the abnormalities that dealt the corresponding type of damage. When it became Pale damage's turn, the manager took a moment of paused time to send everyone to work and fill the Qliphoth Counter as fast as possible. If I was sent into White Night's chamber like that, I would probably meet my end.
Everything progressed nicely. Just some minor casualties at the ASIYAH layer, a few easily containable breaches and some unfortunate… management decision.
Halfway through the day, a Qliphoth Meltdown selected the only abnormality at the recently expanded Record Department. I didn't like going there, considering how nasty the new team there was, but I had to anyway.
The Burrowing Heaven has many eyes. Your eyes are important inside.
Do whatever work you want, but don't look away. It demands your attention.
Since Instinct requires many manual tasks that interrupt the staring contest, avoid that one. –Inspector
A red tree grew tall inside the chamber. Yellow eyes with red irises grew at each juncture and its branches expanded outwards like wings. When I stepped into the room, the eyes fixed on me. I became the center of their attention, so I replied in kind and kicked them.
It was relaxing to repress an abnormality. Violence is one of our tools, but we must selectively unleash it at the right moments. Don't punch the little bird. Don't punch the panicking employee too hard. Don't punch Magical Girl while she's trying to help us. Don't punch Little Red and summon her wrath.
One of the bloody tree's branches extended and stabbed my shoulder. It was a great deal of Black damage. Chesed couldn't have chosen a worse moment to switch targeted damage types.
I made the error to look at the stabbing branch. The Burrowing Haven's wings extended upwards, but they stopped the moment I returned my gaze at the abnormality.
Blinking was okay. It could endure the tiny interruption as long as I offered it my undivided attention.
We stared at each other until enough time had passed. I stumbled my way back out the chamber, not giving up our staring contest. When the door closed, the eyes gave up on me and returned to the cameras that watched them.
Whatever that thing did when it breached, I bet it would be the manager's fault.
The rest of my day was quite simple. The only taxing moments were when I had to enter White Night with increased Pale damage, but the other employees had a worse time at things. Qwerty had to suppress Little Red twice, one time with increased Red damage. Izzy and Zero kept the Magical Girls under control most of the time… but the Queen of Hate breached three times in total. The Inspector moved all around the facility, putting out fires and rescuing injured employees. They gave orders and controlled the ASIYAH layer's progress. They even took over one of my shifts at White Night when Pale damage wasn't enhanced.
My friends were all gone, and I waited alone for dawn to rise out of the darkness. I didn't want to open my eyes again. I just yearned to fall into the infernal pit of hell, bearing my sins on my back.
I sipped some coffee and looked at the stressed figure of my boss.
"You got what you wanted. This is hell."
The beeps from the Qliphoth Counter sounded through the facility.
Is my world… finally crumbling?
"Just take the pieces and make something new."
The day was over. Finally, I could return to my novel.
The end was nigh. The world was going to end. The ship soared through the tempest waters and headed towards the epicenter of the end. That was the only safe spot were a new world could be reborn.
The worst part of it all was the way Peter's beloved would be the one to unwillingly channel the apocalypse.
"I'm sorry, Olive."
Bang!
"No!"
Holy fuck! That was unexpected.
I approached the fainted Chesed and pestered him until he agreed to read the novel I just finished. Life can be very overwhelming at times, so it's important to find shelters every now and then.
"Thank you, Neal. I will read it an exchange with you my impressions. However, I won't use it as a measure to escape from life. I don't care anymore what happens to me. I shall dance at Angela's palm no longer. From now on, I'm going to do what my heart commands."
Since I gained a new kamikaze boss and a reading buddy, two in one, I branded the day a big success. I was curious to find out how Chesed would treat those who were faithful and trustworthy. It would make up for a good novel, I'm sure. My only hope is that it doesn't include religious lunatics. I'm SO done with that...
