ignoreher: (22)
Malkuth ([personal profile] ignoreher) wrote in [community profile] synflux2024-04-01 11:07 am

[closed] we shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us

WHO: Malkuth & Others
WHAT: Various threads for April (hmu for starters if needed!!!)
WHERE: Pretty much anywhere
WHEN: Anytime during April
WARNINGS: probable violence, drinking, cannibalism, sex, spoilers for Lobotomy Corporation & Library of Ruina will be marked as needed

penaltypoints: (06)

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-02 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
[ A systematic approach would have been preferable, but there was hardly any time to confirm the exact layout of the premises and every generator to locate. There certainly hasn't been enough time to form balanced teams to distribute their efforts among these locations. Instead, the resulting countermeasures to respond to the latest threat are rather spontaneous, generator upon generator to find and disable amidst the mounting chaos.

Some indication of the remaining number would be ideal as well. The lack thereof is becoming as distracting as the inability to monitor others' whereabouts with ease, aside from resorting to the implants, repeated interruptions that risk further distraction.

Pausing to reorient himself, Yesod is forced to acknowledge that the entire combination has him on edge. It's then that he notices the same faint sound that he hasn't been able to place thus far, something separate from the very air crackling with electricity. It grows louder this time, no longer a whisper of buzzing in the background, distinctly nearby.

It lets him trace it to its source soon enough, to catch sight of the unfolding scene. ]


...Malkuth—

[ He calls out to her, taken aback by her appearance, if not her methods, as her weapon sinks into its target. ]
penaltypoints: (11)

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-05 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Malkuth's argument sounds reasonable, but her expression contradicts reason, and so does the odd quality to her voice. It's not quite the same inappropriate brightness in moments that were far from bright — still, it reminds Yesod of those times. Then there are Malkuth's wings, not an unfamiliar sight. He has new questions to ask, though he keeps them to himself for now. Now isn't the time to seek an explanation for Malkuth's unexpected transformation.

Malkuth hauls the carcass along; Yesod follows. Malkuth may insist that it falls to her to watch over her coworkers, and she possesses abilities that they don't — evidently even beyond the equipment provided to their employees — but Yesod's misgivings aren't laid to rest. ]


We can dispose of it while I locate the next generator.

[ And he can observe Malkuth in this form. ]
penaltypoints: (10)

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-09 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ Malkuth's remark glances off him — "annoying" is nowhere near the worst thing that others have called him, and it isn't especially surprising that Malkuth finds his intervention irritating, if she perceives it as questioning her ability to complete the task at hand on her own. Most likely, she could quicken her pace to give him no say in the matter, leaving him to wait for her return. Her intention must have been to protect both him and Netzach without their knowledge.

And yet, Malkuth hasn't flitted away. Yesod plans to avoid drawing attention to himself, of course, considering that his components wouldn't withstand the Yamadenki's attacks or any more direct encounters with the traps hidden around the area, but he divides his own attention between Malkuth and their surroundings, the ground to cross. ]


...It is.

[ Perhaps it feels as though they can make a difference, like this, albeit in another world. ]

It was still our employees who lost their lives, when we stood against Angela. Now... you have a single human body.
penaltypoints: (03)

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-11 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ As far as Yesod is concerned, there were risks to keep in mind then, and there are risks to keep in mind now. It's as if Malkuth has partially fused with an Abnormality, going beyond wearing an extracted suit and wielding extracted weapons, and while it's clear that she has repeatedly made use of these abilities at her disposal (are they all capable of the same, in the future?), precisely that remains cause for concern, the toll. The look that settles over Malkuth's features tells him as much.

Yesod doesn't look away. What good would that do? If Malkuth requests it of him to escape an awareness of his predicted disapproval, acquiescing would only isolate her even further, one more painful barrier to reinforce the others.

The strangeness of his existence here feels cruel enough. The boundaries to maintain between themselves and their first incarnations are taxing enough, too, without an Abnormality's voice added to the mix. ]


...No.

[ This isn't the past repeating itself — all the more reason for his own actions to reflect that. ]

What is there to hide by now, Malkuth?
penaltypoints: (01)

some lobotomy corporation spoilers

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-14 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ Yesod's gaze stays trained on Malkuth, tracking her movements as she reaches for the transformed stranger's limp hand. Whether or not he witnesses it, the Abnormality will demand its expected payment in exchange for the borrowed abilities in use.

F-04-83, Fairy Festival. The Abnormality Records immediately come to mind, the product of his department's work to analyze and profile the Abnormalities — and to manipulate and release information selectively, as ordered. He'd remained silent then, just as he did after Enoch and Carmen and Elijah, and paltry gestures were no better than stricter rules and regulations after the fact. ]


If you acknowledge that there is nothing to hide, are you asking me to look away for my sake or yours?

[ I don't need you judging me right now, Malkuth said, but she has already revealed what will follow.

Once, a long time ago, he'd expressed his condolences, and in the same breath, he had called Ayin careless, pinned the blame for irreversible incidents on things that didn't address the root cause, the truth of the disease incubating beneath the surface to spread among their team. What did monitoring supply room keys and the like more closely ever achieve, in the end?

The existing weight of every sin on their conscience is heavy enough. ]
penaltypoints: (03)

human experimentation references... truly a projmoon thread

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-17 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It is his choice to watch every second; he positions himself where he can do so, seated by the wall on the other side of the dying hybrid. The jagged teeth of Malkuth's scythe tear into flesh, severing tendons and nerves, gleaming with freshly-spilled blood. The fairies must be urging Malkuth not to keep them waiting. They simply devoured whatever they could of their targets, after all, and their preference might be for Malkuth to forgo cutting the meat intended as payment into manageable portions, to slice the body open and help herself to the organs within.

Yesod watches Malkuth's expression, her altered features. She gave in unwillingly, without answering his question. He watches Malkuth's hands.

When Elijah died, her remains were treated as nothing more than a specimen to dissect, a source of findings to demonstrate the need for further testing and adjustments. And then, much later, what was preserved of her was reused.

Ayin handled all of them clinically, Yesod thinks. But then, the disgust and the anger haven't wholly dissipated; perhaps that thought fails to consider that even Ayin may have found his chosen path unbearable, yet there was no alternative and no turning back. ]
penaltypoints: (01)

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-21 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The sounds of battle grow distant while Malkuth's chewing mouthful after mouthful of flesh fills the foreground until she speaks. No, even before that, it wasn't quiet — to Yesod's ears (to his components receiving and processing auditory input), Malkuth abruptly inhales sharply before she makes the next cut to access the hybrid's still-fresh innards. The telltale noise is discordant. So is Malkuth's voice before long, trembling as though her emotions are welling up to spill out of her, try as she might to restrain them.

During their time in Lobotomy Corporation, Malkuth never sounded like this. (Did Elijah, in her final moments...? Even prior to that day?)

Would it be worse to acknowledge it or to leave it alone? ]


...Malkuth.

[ The true issue is complex, unrelated to the flavor of this type of meat — raw or cooked, unseasoned or seasoned, it would change nothing.

Yesod has no handkerchief or packet of tissues to offer Malkuth, and he knows that his presence provides no more comfort to anyone now than it did when he feigned indifference. But he remembers the taste of despair, rotting from within, the lonely darkness closing over one's head. There are sins not to forget, things not to tolerate any longer. He thinks again that Malkuth shouldn't be left to choke down all of the pain by herself.

Reaching out — an attempt to steer Malkuth's attention away from the fairies' demands and her thoughts, to direct it to her humanity in spite of everything — Yesod's fingertips brush against Malkuth's cheek, thumb wiping away a smear of blood there. ]
penaltypoints: (10)

[personal profile] penaltypoints 2024-04-28 08:45 am (UTC)(link)
[ For a fleeting fraction of a second, while Malkuth goes still, Yesod's fingers — too convincing and disconcerting an illusion — maintain the contact. They register more than he expects, once again, presumably because the cloaking technology is designed to enable its user to blend in with ordinary humans, possibly even simulating certain sensory receptors to ensure appropriate responses to one's surroundings. Malkuth's tears, turning her lashes wet and tracking thin glistening trails down her cheeks, mix with the blood coating Yesod's thumb.

And then Malkuth recoils, as if to jerk away from a blow or a scorching flame or the bite of an unpleasantly cold surface. Yesod's hand remains outstretched a moment longer, giving it the appearance of reaching for Malkuth, beckoning to her. The sight is, without a doubt, as strange as the touch that came before it — Yesod is acutely aware of it himself.

Finally, he lowers his hand. His body lacks a heart, but something clenches where it might reside, his mind all too capable of emotion, and he recognizes this powerlessness. ]


...That was my choice as well.

[ But it has accomplished nothing positive. ]