Laverne

Laverne
Normal Mourning Glory (EGO)
Role / Occupation	Head Librarian of the Floor of Social Sciences
Floor	Social Sciences
First Appearance	Urban Nightmare
Relations	Chesed (???) Noah Landau (Assistant)
Arrival to the Library	Trapped in the Library Former Lobotomy Employee
Combat Info
HP	105
STG	59
Emotion Lvl	5
Speed	3 ~ 6
Dice Slot	2 ~ 6 Increases with Emotion Level
Light	4 ~ 9
Key Page	Head Librarian of the Floor of Soc. Sciences' Page Mourning Glory (EGO)
Passive	Speed III Elegy Lacrimosa Requiem
Resistances
Slash DMG	1.0 (Normal)
Pierce DMG	0.25 (Ineffective)
Blunt DMG	1.0 (Normal)
Slash STG	0.5 (Endured)
Pierce STG	0.5 (Endured)
Blunt STG	1.0 (Normal)

"Why, yes. Yes, Miss Angela. Taking the lives of others quells and distracts my ever increasing, ever painful desire to take my own. I know I don't have permission to die here, and I will take as many people down with me until the day you allow me to finally have the sweet release of death."
― Laverne to Angela

Laverne is Head Librarian of the Floor of Social Sciences, serving as Patron Librarian Chesed's Direct Assistant in Roland's absence. He retains his authoritative position as he did in Lobotomy Corporation, and is the superior of Assistant Librarian Noah Landau. Laverne was trapped in The Book of Alriune, but expresses indifference after being saved; lamenting that it would not matter whether or not he was "saved".

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Personality

Laverne, unlike his past life in Lobotomy Corporation, is now fully sober and aware; albeit he is now depressive and struggles to keep a positive demeanor, barely ever smiling anymore. Now, despite being melancholic, Laverne is now finally able to fully express and feel his emotions. However; the drawback of this is after being forcibly stunted for two years due to the influence of Enkephalin, Laverne feels in a new intensity, having difficulty controlling himself when he being feeling more intense emotions.

After Chesed tells Laverne the truth about what happened to him in Lobotomy Corporation, it further drives Laverne into a deeper pit than he already was in. The betrayal he felt caused Laverne to be incredibly distant, keeping people at an arm's length and refusing help from anyone, terrified that he will be taken advantage of once again. He lashes out at Chesed in particular because of the betrayal he felt, knowing Chesed merely watched while he was suffering.

He now has suicidal intentions, but never acting on them knowing that he will only be brought back by Angela. He is open about his desires to die after processing his life thus far. He suffered an exitstential crisis within The Book of Alriune, and has come to a conclusion that he lived an existence merely being a commodity than his own person. Even in death, he has no permission to be his own person, and coming to terms with his life caused him to have a significant breakdown after his first death. He laments his life now, coming back as a Librarian to kill guests and not even being allowed to leave nor die.

Unlike his past life, Laverne seems to take pleasure in receiving guests and killing them. This is revealed to be because he believes if he killed more people, he might start to calm down and clear his mind. It helps as a distraction from his self destructive tendencies, and works as a catharsis of sorts; forcing people to suffer as a means of projecting his own pain. He later being to express jealousy over the guests who are allowed to die, calling them the lucky ones as they no longer have to worry about anything, and wonders how it feels to them. He continues to kill them, hoping that he eventually does calm down.

Laverne's desires become overly concerning much later, as he starts saying he needs to die; giving in to his own despair. He repeats this continuously, becoming more lethargic and displaying physically self destructive habits. He becomes more prone to breakdowns and becomes increasingly more violent and brutal in handling guests, becoming obsessed with taking as many down with him until Angela finally allows him to die. He begins to feel trapped in his own body, throwing himself into a loop and causing him to distort.

Story

History

During the White Nights and Dark Days that plagued District 12 upon the fall of Lobotomy Corporation, Laverne was caught in the fight between the Sephirah against Angela and Binah. Even without Chesed's nor Malkuth's orders, Laverne immediately rounded up the Welfare Team in sending aide to all the injured. He left Chesed and the other Welfare Employees in increasing the Qliphoth Deterrence while he took the front lines as Captain.

Laverne was notably in a state of clarity during the crisis, as Angela was too busy setting her plans into motion to continue drugging Laverne. While Angela was busy, Chesed took the chance to try and redeem himself by giving Laverne the treatment he needed as discreetly as he possibly could. During the final days before the crisis, Laverne was mostly out of commission while Chesed had Welfare continue to treat and run tests to help Laverne recover from all the Enkephalin in hi system. Hence, during the crisis, Laverne was sober and to an extent, back to his old self before the drugging.

He worked in cooperation with Netzach and Carrie in treating the wounded. Laverne personally brought the injured to their infirmaries before assisting the other Captains in suppressing the escaped Abnormalities. He did shifts with Carrie, who did more of the legwork in combat while he helped Netzach manually treat the wounded due to the regenerators overloading. Laverne also chased down panicking employees to calm them down and personally bring them to safety.

Among the nine remaining Captains, Laverne was one of the first to die, seeing as both Welfare and Disciplinary were the first to be completely wiped out. Laverne watched as each and every agent in Welfare were killed in action or died of over exhaustion over the four days the entire facility was in a stalemate with Angela and Binah. He knew that he was the only one left in Welfare, and was exhausted. He used the last of his strength to get himself to increasing Qlipoth Deterrence to it's full capacity, sedating the Abnormalities and making them easy to suppress. However; he was cut short by Angela, who abushed him and beheaded him via Execution Bullet, without much chance to even react and dodge. He was not able to increase the Qliphoth Deterrence, and lay as a headless corpse in the main room of Welfare. Alriune appeared before his corpse, showering his body in lavender petals as if mourning him and burying him.

Laverne woke in a lavender field, shocked because he remembered dying. The first thing he saw upon waking was Alriune, who was raining lavender petals down on him. He was confused upon waking, alone with an abnormality that is suddenly alarmingly docile to him. Alone, Laverne thought about his last moments during the White Nights and Dark Days, recalling that he has never felt so clear in so long, remembering the past few years were but a haze to him. As he vocalized his recollections to Alriune, he began to ruminate even further, going back to his far past that he never spoke of nor addressed. When it hit him that in the end he was alone and discarded once again. Laverne began to panic and have an existential breakdown, one that was so intense now that he was alone. His only company could not even speak, and only gently chimed as she rained her petals onto him. Over the time he was trapped, he would develop his own EGO from the dread that consumed him. Eventually, all he wished was to return to dust, tired of being others' commodity that was discarded when he was no longer desired nor useful. After all his rumination, Laverne found himself tired of his existence.

Plot

Upon opening the Floor of Social Sciences and being greeted by Chesed; Roland is then introduced to Laverne and Noah. Because of the appearances of Chesed's assistants being close to familiar faces, Roland expresses some slight discomfort meeting them, but playing it all off jokingly to lighten the mood. Initially, Laverne is receptive and pleased to meet Roland, although Roland can clearly see that Laverne is not all there at the moment. When Laverne and Noah are dismissed, Chesed mentions to Roland that they're both very pleasant people, the situation at hand is simply just something they have to adjust to.

After the Suppression of Warm-hearted Woodsman, after the mention of Chesed's past life as the rich Daniel, Roland offhandedly mentions that Laverne also gave off the vibe of an 'envy-of-all' Nest resident. Chesed laughs and confirms this, as Laverne is a Rivas, a part of one of the most affluent in the City. Roland is a little disgruntled, assuming that Laverne is just being a bit prissy over being stuck in the Library. Though; he takes it back when he makes eye contact with Laverne, and saw the void in his eyes. He meekly apologizes, but Chesed waves him off, mentioning that Laverne is used to hearing such comments.

There is another small episode after obtaining the Book of a WARP Cleanup Agent where Laverne invites Roland over for tea and coffee. Laverne simply asks Roland if he's happy doing his job for Angela, and if he's okay being used. Roland tells him that he's alright with the job overall, but Laverne could tell that there was something Roland was hiding. However; Roland shirks away from it and uses this opportunity to acquaint himself better with Laverne. The latter; however, is roundabout as well and simple asks Roland if he's just tired of being used by Angela. The exchange gives Roland enough insight on what Laverne was trying to get at, and tells him to hold on a little longer. Laverne is entirely pleased with Roland's response, but lets him off the hook since he doesn't really have all that much context as to why he's asking him such a specific question.

There are small episodes after every Abnormality suppression on the Floor of Social Sciences in regards to Laverne's rapidly deteriorating state. Laverne begins to show signs of Distortion and Chesed asks Roland's help in each episode as Laverne gradually stops listening to Chesed. However; with information hidden from Roland, he couldn't do much, if anything at all. However; after the Suppression of The Road Home and Scaredy Cat, Laverne is at his limit, with Roland finding his at the moment dead but heavily distorting body at one of the lower floors. He rushes Laverne's body up to Chesed, who is shaken and drinking coffee to cope. When Roland demands answers, Chesed looks wistfully towards him, and weighed down by his guilt, tells Roland the truth about Laverne's deteriorating state, and how he played a big part in it. Roland is stunned silent, but Angela rushes to the Floor of Social Sciences to ask what happened, and duly restores Laverne. Upon waking up and realizing that he once again cannot die, he looks dreadfully to Angela, practically begging to die. Roland is shocked to see Laverne just breaking down quickly, and when Chesed attempts to de-escalate him, Laverne simply attacks him, blaming himself for trusting him and in the end just becoming another commodity, another casualty to write off. After all the heart he's poured into everything, it turns out everything was a lie once again. He distorts into Lavender Graveyard after another attempt at taking his own life by quite literally tearing his own heart out.

When Laverne comes to after his Suppression, he is dazed and crumbling in on himself. He has another breakdown, begging answers for why he was chosen to come back. There was no meaning to his existence if all he was meant to be was to be used by someone or something. He should have never been born if this was all he was going to be. Chesed asks Roland to leave them for the moment, because this is something only the two of them have to talk about. Roland pities Laverne's broken state, but he leaves because he's not involved with the issue between Chesed and Laverne. The next time Roland sees Laverne, he has controlled his own EGO, Mourning Glory, and sees large splashes of blood spattered all over him. Laverne regards Roland, and apologizes for making a scene the way he did. Roland sympathizes, and asks him if he'll be okay. Sighing, Laverne looks at his bloodied weapon, and says he will be. Roland doesn't press further, only guessing that Chesed allowed Laverne to lash out at him to make things fair. His guess is right when he hears Angela's muttering from the main office, "What a mess he's made..."

Trivia

• The list of Adrian's Passives: