The unpleasant sound of bones being shredded and flesh tearing and the spinning of metal as the singing machine devoured it's treat. A psychotic chef from district 23. This abnormality is a combination of a music player and a meat grinder. Sweet tunes at the cost of human flesh. Being an inanimate object it can't really escape containment and get prey. Instead the spirit within the damn thing possesses someone. Either to hop into its grinder mouth. Or to bring someone to throw in. so in order to stop the machine possessing my employees. I feed it captured rats. Organ harvesting backstreet thugs who no one will miss. And if it behave's itself aka don't possess my employees. Then it gets a tasty treat. One of the many psychotic cannibal chefs from district 23. The sickos believed that making the person they were planning to cook suffer as much as possible added flavor. I'm not sure if that's true and i sure as hell ain't gonna try and find out. I'd rather eat dirt than human flesh. but that sick mindset clearly added flavor for whatever you could consider this things taste buds to be. Over all. This deal with the singing machine is a win win win. A win for the singing machine because it gets an endless supply of food for its art of music. My employees win as they don't have to worry about getting possessed and they get tunes while on the job. And the normal folk of the backstreets as they now have a few less scumbags out for their organs and a few less psychotic chefs hungrily eyeing them from dark alleys to worry about.
As for my employees, a few caught my attention. A girl with purple hair done in pigtails named dakota…a hard worker but she's grumpy and has a pretty nasty attitude. Then again. That's everyone from the backstreets. Hard to find someone who can really smile in this awful city. But I did find someone who could. A girl with long blue hair named bong-bong. If i had to describe her in one word. It would be silly. Not just her name but she gets up to some silly antics. I don't mind it. Anyone who can act like an idiot meme lord in this hellish facility is a rare diamond. She keeps the stress down. And that's a gift. Even if her red haired lot more serious sister yet equally silly named sister yumyum and yesod don't agree to it.
There was a time i thought gabriels hard ass attitude about safety was super annoying and he was twitchy as hell. And that was true in his end. After elijah died he was next on the chopping block. As his thing with following the rules turned into an obsession, an obsession that damaged his mind to the point where he scratched himself to death. God i still remember finding the corpse. Like if a fucking jaguar lion and coyote got to him. Following the rules isn't my goal. It's to finish this with no casualties which is why i'm willing to lend an ear instead of deafening it out like before. After all it was my hands on the wheel this time. And I would do better…and be better.
The next day rolled around and another abnormality came to the information team floor. This time the forsaken murderer. A guy who's bound and can only move through moving like a snake. And being tied up in an all body asylum uniform doesn't stop from trying to spill blood as a big metal ball chained to him was his way of splattering my employees when he breached.
Another day, another abnormality. This time it was the all around helper. It was cute. Apparently it was a robot to be a helper to humanity. But the fact it's here should tell you that something went wrong with it. Maybe don't give it four blades that turn it into a shuriken that can split a person in two!
The last abnormality to the control team floor was an interesting one. The funeral of the dead butterflies. A five armed black and white creature with a white butterfly for a head. It's two arms constantly lugging around a black coffin. What makes interesting is not only can we use him as an energy generator. But also as a hired gun. If an abnormality breeches we can pay out some PE boxes to the funeral and he'll go out and help my employees get the breeching abnormality back in it's cage.
(author's notes: realized too late that funeral of the dead butterflies isn't one the abnormalities you can request. But just roll with it.)
Soon the week came to an end. So far so good. No casualties. But things are going to get worse as more and more abnormalities enter the fray. So i was brain storming with yesod to think of more safety measures.
"I must admit manager. You are the most likely to listen to me…most people blow me off calling me an hard ass or some other imbecile thing." yesod said. I shrugged.
"Don't get me wrong. I also believe that you should get that huge stick out of your ass…but I understand where this is coming from. We're in a facility extracting energy from dangerous monsters. If we want to keep everyone alive. Then we can't slack with safety…especially considering i know how casualties can go up when your lax with safety…" i said.
"Oh? You ran a facility like this before?" yesod asked…i knew this was going to lead to another meltdown like it did with malkuth…but if yesod was going to finally heal from what happened at the old lab…this needed to happen…so might as well get it over with.
"No…i wasn't the one driving the ship. I was just one of the people on the boat…it didn't go well. Things went downhill when an accident occurred that resulted in the death of a colleague named elijah. The next to fall was gabriel. He was a stickler for following the rules for the sake of safety. But after what happened to elijah. It turned into an obsession that lead to him constantly scratching himself…and in the end. His scratching led to him tearing himself apart. When i found him…it was like he was locked in a room with a starved jaguar." i said. Cringing at the awful state i found gabriel in. i can tell from the long silence that i knew another meltdown was on the way. As the room became filled with darkness and a flashback occurred. I saw gabriel strapped to a wall as they forced a health checkup on him…don't know why they bothered it was obvious to anyone that gabriel has already dived off the board and into insanity. But of course ayin being the selfish bastard he was, he tried to force him to get better. He didn't give a shit about anyone about carmen. He just didn't want to lose a valuable asset like gabriel.
"What kind of poor taste is that, to lock us inside metal bodies, and throw us into and endless loop of days that feel just like yesterday. I'm talking to you jon! What is with that oblivious expression!? Why were you the only one to walk away alive from that lab!? Why you!?" yesod yelled.
"I wish i knew…i wanted to leave with all of you…i saw what happened to elijah much later via recording…it was obvious that our goal was unobtainable and ayin had completely lost it after carmen's suicide…some days i wish…i died with all of you…" i said. Revealing my survivor's guilt. It's true. Somedays i hated that I was still alive…when every friend I had died. But i was too much of a coward to take my own life…not just that. I didn't want to leave my folks with the guilt of that…i knew how heavy that burden was. I didn't want anyone else to feel that weight.
"See jon? I told you, i have been rotting on the inside for a long time…" yesod said with a guilt filled voice. And sure enough his metal body exploded into black tendrils forming a tree. It was meltdown time again. Out of all the meltdowns this one was the easiest mainly due to how yesod's way of hindering the work was just to make the monitor blurry so seeing what the hell i was doing was damn near impossible. I was always a more hands on boot on the ground kind of guy. Staying in the monitor room and managing from speakers was never my style. After we got the quota done. I ran to the information team room and checked up on yesod. As i went to shake him awake. Another flashback occurred. It was during a break. With the other employees badmouthing gabriel calling him a hardass. That he should chill. Slave driver. I sat at his table. Much to his surprise.
"Why are you here? Don't i annoy just as much?" gabriel asked i shrugged.
"While i do agree that you should take the stick out of your ass…i know you're doing it cause you don't want to see anyone die. I'm the same. I became more than just colleagues with the people here. All of you are friends and i want to leave with everyone to see our work bring a new era for the city…so" i said i then offered a handshake to gabriel. "Let's makesure our colleagues make it okay." i said. Gabriel rolled his eyes. But shook my hand anyway.
"Yeah…let's" gabriel said with a smile…soon the flash back ended with yesod standing up. "We both failed to keep that promise. Didn't we?" yesod asked.
"Yeah…and i'm sorry that i failed everyone." i said. The guilt eating away at me.
"It wasn't your fault jon…there was only so much you could do then. The downfall started with enoch's death…if only they listened to you. You swam in cogito. You were guaranteed to survive! But no you were deemed too valuable!" yesod yelled with a sigh.
"Yesod…gabriel. I assure. This time will be different. After all. I'm steering the ship now. And i'll run this place my way. I assure you. You me. The sephira. All the employees…angela. We're all leaving this place once it's done." i said.
"Even angela? After everything?" yesod asked.
"I know she seems like a heartless bitch…but that's only because the script forced her to be one. If she did anything to make things safer or do anything to seem like she gave a damn." i said as i moved my hand in a motion similar to a clock reversing. Yesod got the message.
"I see…it's safe to say ayin wouldn't appreciate sharing this info with us." yesod said.
"Fuck ayin." i said.
"Such vulgarity." yesod said with a sigh. He offered me a handshake. "I'm glad a true leader is our manager now…so let's try again. No casualties." yesod said.
"Yeah…we're all leaving here alive." i said as i grabbed his tiny metal hand. That light from before came to me again. And that cold tiny hand became a warm hand of a grown hand. And sure enough yesod was now human again.
With the information team area fully built and assigned it's four abnormalities. It was time to expand another area with another team. No doubt this is where things will get hectic as this time two areas are available for expansion complete with their own teams. The training team. And the security team…oh boy. Better get those ego's ready. This is where things go up a notch in difficulty.