#nadezdha

"Huh. So it became Mad Max... I'm more disappointed by the fact humanity let that fashion trend happen. Freaks." Now really wasn't the time to be commenting on who clearly got in control of the fashion pulse of the world, there was a bigger fish to fry. "Anyways, thanks for the footage, and that's all I needed to see."

Yasu was a sobbing mess on the other side of the room. Typical. Though given their pouring out of the emotions they've had bottled up for the past hundred years... She'll let it slide. This time. "Komori... Keep your head up." Admittedly, Nadezhda is still on the fence about this whole plan. The data Yasu showed was something that she could sink her teeth into given time. Sadly, time requires a vote. What isn't so sad is that the choice was made much easier thanks to the fact that Yaldabaoth was an absolute douche canoe. 

The others let out their support of Project Sefirot and the idea to stick around to finish the seed. Nadezhda was happy to see Theo smile back at her, even if she did groan a little at her anime-esque shenanigans of dramatic pointing. This really was just some ultimate power of friendship end sequence, wasn't it? Feels a little cliché for her tastes. Ah well, can't win them all.

She once again looks to the crying manager. "As much as I'm with Kaneshiro in not wanting to do another loop, it seems to be the best option at the moment. Besides," she turns over to the spectral malevolence that was Yaldabaoth, "what good would doing a scorched earth strategy be when it looks like it already has been?"

Oh no, Yasu had gone and snapped at Nadezhda thinking that their big bad threat of things turning out differently would have changed her mind, how scary. "You want an honest answer? Because you' won't like it." Nadezhda asked as she lowered her head to meet the frustrated eyes of the kid. "No. I wouldn't. Because I made a promise. We made a promise." She looks over to her beloved, and she flashes the faintest smile just for a moment after the declaration about their wedding before returning to how she was before. "Were one of us to die, the other would live on in their memory. I may be a bitch, but I at least hold my promises and stick to my convictions. You're familiar with the concept clearly given our current state." She would go on more, but that sufficed. It was biting enough. Point delivered. 

Then began the slinging of words once more, Yasu trying to figure out how to cover their clearly unstable plan with Maro's idea, Yaldabaoth continuing the holier than thou type of speech, and then Hideyoshi who as per usual, was keeping things straight. He might find her insufferable and the same the other way around, but nonetheless they did have similar thought processes on how vague this all was. 

She switched between the two figureheads here, judging the fact that everything seemed to be at a standstill at the moment. "I'm with Akutagawa in how nothing you have presented, the both of you, has been concrete. For you Yaldabaoth, I didn't intend for you to anyways, but you go and claim the world is set with ruin and ready to be scorched, and yet you've shown us no evidence of that." Now to tackle this... Absolute mess of a project. "Meanwhile, I get it Komori. You weren't supposed to wind up at this point. Your frame of reference has long since past and you've been doing this all with minimal instructions for over a century now. But it is for that reason that we need to see numbers with our own eyes to believe that us continuing to go along with this is even worth it. You haven't told us exactly how the Seed grows beyond that we all have to use some inner power anime style bullshit, you say we are just meant to believe you when you say it is at 75%, and we are somehow meant to release the light into the world as though that is just supposed to click for us."

She pressed her fingers against her temple, annoyed that she managed to wind up in this situation. She knows why she was hired, but lord, the idiocy here is just.... Much more than she ever anticipated. "If you don't have a plan, we can't run with it. Though you say Elanna did. Can't you go rummage around and try to get out the blueprints she left behind? If you can't get a clear idea on what to do, how about you break your stubborn perception of being the manager and actually show us and talk through it to puzzle it out as a unit? Because you've certainly taken a long time to get where you are now on your own."

Okay so they've made this loop different, they've gotten back the dead people's memories, big fucking whoop-de-doo. Yasu's tears do pull at Nadezhda's heartstrings a little bit, but ultimately it doesn't change her disposition. And that is one of a woman looking cross with her hands on her hips, tapping a finger on her side impatiently. God, these people like to talk more than she does sometimes. 

"First of all, quick assertion of no, nope. No thanks. I'm good without a reset. We're all still alive here and now, and even if whatever the hell Yaldabaoth is can be somewhat contained, there is no way we can guarantee preventing our deaths." The mental imagery of Yaldabaoth scurrying around the facility on all fours like a rat as Yasu said was frankly unsettling and was not helping her keep her thoughts straight in the slightest. Frankly, it is slightly uncomfortable to think about. "If we apparently haven't managed to contain them in over a hundred years, I don't see that starting anytime soon, and I would rather once again like to mention I prefer the option that leaves us more certainty of us here now living than potentially not."

And then an offer of.... Godhood? Is that the best way to interpret it? Whatever the hell it was, just fucking what? "Okay, excuse me HAL 9000, over here." She snapped to try and gain the attention of the... Mystery enigma. "How about no to both of those? I want out of here, I don't want another loop, but I will make one thing clear: In my plans for the world, I don't see any of them involving you." 

Her eyes squinted more as her mind travels to all her thoughts she has harbored for all of these years. For all of her ideas of rebuilding the world. For the very reason she came to this job in the first place. "I came to Gisei to get my information and take it down as a stepping stone. The world we came from ruined us, true, but I don't seek to raze it. I want to remold it in the image of what it should be. Take down the companies and governments that have oppressed our people for centuries. Society was not at fault, those in power were. I don't seek to punish those who are innocent by unleashing the hellish nightmares we have seen in here upon them. You can't lead a true revolution when you inflict the suffering on your citizens." 

She makes her eyes wide now to try and capture the direct gaze of the white being. "So take your plans and shove it up your ass." 

Okay seriously, what in the world is up with these stupid memories being able to wash over them at every whim? At this rate, these just seem as though someone is controlling them, which... Probably is true honestly. Whatever though. That's probably the least important thing at the moment because wow! Shocker! Nadezhda was right. Like always. 

Anyways, what the fuck is that the brain again?!

"You people really have to stop using Elanna's brain as decoration, gods that is just a creepy visual..." Again, probably not the thing she should be focusing on at the minute. Centering her attention, Nadezhda looks and sees how new clothes seemed to have materialized on Yasu out of seemingly nowhere. Compared to everything else she has seen here, she will accept this as a perfectly normal occurrence. 

And so the chaos had begun after Nadezhda spoke the only conceivable truth thus far. Yasu was expectedly upset at the accusation, Yaldabaoth had tried to quell them, and from there, things started to get weird. The rules were starting to be bent as Yaldabaoth ignored Leveret's nomination, and... What was that flickering over Shuuya's podium? And where had the other vote come from? It put what she was about to say into doubt in her mind, but she knew better than to be a fool right now unlike the rest of them.

"You want to know why, Komori?" Nadezhda addressed the small one with a stern tone. "The answer is what else did you expect me to do?" Admittedly, Nadezhda felt a bit ambivalent about the current scenario. This could go one of a few ways, and the chances of it being the best option are slim. "I'm doing what I think will reward me with the majority of our safety. I don't know what that freakish angel is going to do if we don't follow its directions." At this rate, it feels as though Yaldabaoth was going to go to the beat of their own drum whether they all agreed or not anyways. "I admit, I don't know what it has planned for you either when this is done, but I will take the risk to see the rest of us come out fine."

This became a game of worthy sacrifices long ago, put in motion by the death of Shuuya and continued by Tsugumi and Yora. Since then, it was twisted and distorted to fit more selfish goals, but this? This, Nadezhda can control. Nadezhda can make this work for the rest of them. Nadezhda cocked her head over and tried to reassure Theo. "There isn't anything else, milyy. It's the truth, whether Komori was even aware of it due to memory loss like the rest of us, or not."

Nadezhda let out a deep breath as the others finished wrapping up their discussion thus far. They had it on the tip of their tongues. So close, oh so close. Like they said, the fact that it was pizza from a century ago of all things that really synched everything down was a bit much. In that case, fair play. Hideyoshi did try and move along to the other bit she mentioned, and so here they were. "Alright, fine. Guess I'll just go ahead and say it then."

She turned to face Yaldabaoth, since this might as well get marked down as an official nomination. "It's Komori." It was straight and to the point, as before anyone else had a chance to pipe in, she looked around the rest of them, her eyes settling on the accused. "And here's why." 

She straightened out her back, fully standing tall as she reviews the points in her head. "First, the nickname bit. Yes, they were referred to as kid, but that wasn't exactly what I was going for. Like Akutagawa said, we are all around the same age, so that is circumstantial at best, though the kid moniker fits Komori the best due to their height. That also fits with the fact that Maacah called them little. Even amongst ourselves, many of us called them a kid too." She glances at Theo, who she knows calls them that often. "The actual nickname I was mentioning was Yassenpai. The nickname that only Shinozaki ever used. If you managed to see that memory, remember we saw him, but never saw Komori in it. Why? Because they were the perspective we were seeing from." Was it a stretch given the wording? Possibly. But that was why she came prepared with more.

"Next, continuing off of what Kaneshiro said, the notes for Shame Reel were highly categorical of only two people here, being Komori and Byrne." She had her suspicions on it before, but Chiaki having mentioned it helped her bring it all together in her head. "They are the only ones who write with that much affection for the rest of us. Not to say that we all don't care, but they are the only two who are so out there with their fondness of the rest of us. Since we've already eliminated Byrne from the list, that leaves Komori".

And now for the dumb part. The point that was so stupid to base this entire accusation off of, but it certainly wrapped it up with a bow as she faced the game developer. "Finally, yes, the Hawaiian pizza as you said, Komori. You were the only one to eat a slice of it from what I can recall."

So we're back at it again, except this time, there isn't a murder. That's good at least. Is there also presumably no execution afterwards? Because that would be better. These are the thoughts floating around in Nadezhda's mind currently, alongside the probably most important one being the fact that the facility is seemingly going to collapse at any literal second.

Which is totally fine. Nothing wrong here. What a grand time.

"Gods folks, let's just make this really quick..." Nadezhda groaned, fully prepared to sprint to grab her things and get out at any moment. To her, this was a headache, both literally and metaphorically. The whole investigation she kept having to clutch the side of her head because of the pressure building up, and shaking it to clear away the visions of the deceased.

It seemed that Hideyoshi had the same idea, immediately narrowing down the suspect pool to only three people. Honestly if he could have just said the other two important bits this could have been done after the first few moments of him speaking. "Correct, they wouldn't be seen. They would only be referred to if mentioned at all, which I will say, they were once by name." 

And then Yasu wanted to focus on Yaldabaoth. Of course the kid wanted to. How fitting. "Hold your horses, Komori. This isn't so much a puzzle as it is putting shapes in holes. We can focus on being mad at that scrap heap in a minute." Nadezhda then let out her normal sigh, hoping that in leading the horses to water, that they will all drink. "There are two other main pieces needed to help decode this person's identity, being the nickname generally used for them and... What slice of pizza they ate at the icebreaker... As asinine as that sounds." Never would she have thought that pizza would be a vital clue in any of these meetings, but here she was. 

So that was it then. Just a simple accident, with no way of knowing the true answer. It wasn't as though Yehidah or any of the other members of management would be able to give a definitive answer. They tried to circumvent the need of this after all, and they were just as clueless as the rest of us were before the investigation began. Thus unlike the others, Nadezhda didn't feel that this was a waste. In fact, this was for the better. As much negativity had gone through this, largely in part due to her own handiwork, they all entered, and they all exited no. No one else had to die.

At least not this time.

The others were sobbing, latching onto each other, or just simply standing around in the elevator. Chayah was the first to speak. His sentiments were acknowledged, albeit dismissed immediately by the others. Hideyoshi tried to say some moral life lesson that frankly went in one ear and out the other as she doesn't hold much respect for the man outside of his efficiency alongside chiding the members of the staff. "Akutagawa, they didn't know just like us. The cameras were obscured. No need to prattle on about it." Her voice was her more regular deadpan tone, just a bit softer than a regular speaking volume.

Always with her morally perceived high road. She didn't care what the others had thought about her by the end of this experience. She was still right about everything she had said. She didn't care if anyone was grieving. She wasn't going to take any shit from anyone, let alone have them get away without it being thrown back at them.

"The Seed must be close then..." If what Chayah had said was true, that they have gotten to this point before, whatever that may be, then surely they were quickly approaching the end of this project. Whether or not they will meet their goal though is a different story. 

"This next Ordeal is going to be the worst one..." She whispered to herself, remembering what they were told before. The Ordeals seemingly working off of energy of previous events. If this meeting was to ensure anything, this share desire amongst them all but her to condemn someone, probably her in all fairness for whatever reason, then these thoughts are going to coalesce into something much more catastrophic.