Hod

* Profile
* Biography
* Technical

**Hod** (호드, *Hodeu*) is the Patron Librarian of the  **Floor of Literature** in the Library, and former Sephirot of the Training Team in *Lobotomy Corporation*. She is met after unlocking her Floor, after completing Episode 1 of  Streetlight Office.

## Appearance

Hod has reddish-brown hair, cut to shoulder length, her bangs are held apart by a couple of plain white hairpins and she has a small cowlick. She wears the Patron Librarian uniform: a brown swing coat with a shade similar to her hair, with a white blouse with puffy sleeves and a black knee-long skirt underneath, accessorized with a grey necktie arranged into a bow with a glossy orange brooch reflecting her Floor's color, along with flats with ankle straps and white knee-high socks. In combat, she wields a black baton like all other Librarians.

## Personality

Hod is a gentle, sociable, and somewhat meek person. She is greatly empathetic to most people, even Guests, being the only Patron Librarian of the lower floors who empathizes with Angela's motivations for breaking out of Ayin's plan and having stolen the light. Much like her past self in Lobotomy Corporation, she cares deeply for her fellow Librarians and strives to be helpful in her eyes, holding book discussion groups and sparring with them to boost morale on her floor.

## Story

Following the events of Lobotomy Corporation, Hod is one of those who oppose Angela's ambitions. After the ensuing battle royale, and the creation of The Library, she becomes a Patron Librarian.

### Cutscene 1 (Floor Unlocked)

Roland walks into the floor of Literature, calling its subject unfitting for the City. Hod introduces herself as the patron librarian of the floor of Literature. Roland greets her, introducing himself as a helper of Angela, then asks if Hod also has a grudge towards Angela. She states that she’s not friendly with her, but has to help her as part of the deal they made. Roland is exasperated that everyone hates Angela and asks what happened that caused everyone to feel this way. Hod tells him that Angela did something unforgivable, just like herself. Roland remarks that something is messed up with the Library and its staff and wants the tension to be resolved. Hod assures him that, if he stays long enough until Angela reaches her end of the deal, he’ll see how the situation gets resolved.

They sit down with Roland venting his frustration about having to receive guests and asking why the librarians can’t be friendly towards each other. Hod doesn’t have a good answer to his questions, instead relaying her purpose and suggesting that he may find answers in the books he brings. Roland is annoyed at Hod’s evasive answers. He then announces that since he got into this mess, he’ll be the one to figure out the mystery behind the library. Hod supports him in his quest to find his answers, which he is grateful to hear.

### Cutscene 2 (Suppression of Today’s Shy Look)

Roland gives Hod the books. She greets him politely as “Mister Roland,” but he tells her to drop the Mister as he’s fine with just “Roland.” She complies even though she finds it awkward. He then asks her if she got any books about Literature as he thinks Literature doesn’t fit the city. However, Hod tells him that every person’s life story counts as Literature. Everyone in the city has their own unique and complex story, and she notes that it’s hard to categorize people as purely good or evil due to this complexity. She wonders if it’s justified to hate someone for this reason and brings up the Streetlight office as an example, an office whose fixers loved each other. Although they came from their own volition, and even though the librarians have their own goal to achieve, she doesn’t believe it was justified to kill them. Roland answers her doubts, saying that everyone has their own personal affairs, and it would take too much effort to consider everyone’s emotional baggage, including one’s own. He tells her it’s easier to just follow their heart, and tells her his favorite phrase, “That’s that and this is this,” which gave him an easier time in life. Hod notes that he has already come to terms with reality, unlike her, and thanks him for the advice. However, she still has doubts that Roland's mindset is truly reasonable, since she believes it only brings short-term relief. Roland respects her belief, then leaves.

### Cutscene 3 (Suppression of Red Shoes)

Roland delivers more books to Hod, and she praises him for his hard work. Roland mentions how Angela doesn’t seem to appreciate the hard work, and this leads Hod to start a conversation about Angela. Roland admits that Angela is scary but manageable, but Hod notes that Angela seemed to be the most comfortable when talking to Roland. Roland is surprised until he remembers that everyone hates Angela. Hod then shifts the conversation to Roland’s motto “That’s that, and this is this.” While she can understand the rationale behind that, she can’t fully accept it as she doesn’t think she can judge someone solely based on their actions, even someone like Angela. Roland is a little concerned at her response, and asks if her patience with Angela is due to Angela’s own complex and tragic story. Hod confirms this, as she doesn’t want to judge someone for their actions without understanding their history. Roland remarks that she’s an angel and way kinder than Yesod and Netzach. However, his remark prompts Hod to ask if he thinks she’s a good person. He is unsure since Hod is “kind” but not necessarily “good.” Hod then goes on about her first life at the research laboratory, where she wasn’t a “good” person since she killed a lot of people. Roland mistakes her meaning as a serial killer, so she explains that she feels responsible for their deaths by snitching to the Head about their experiments and the atrocities they committed. Because of her, they sent an Arbiter to wipe out the laboratory, and Hod committed suicide due to the guilt. When Roland asks what atrocities occurred, she explains that Malkuth, Yesod, and Netzach all died horrible deaths, a young boy suffered during an experiment, and they injected people with drugs and studied them. Roland asks if this happened inside the City. Hod denies this, explaining that it took place in the Outskirts to avoid the Head and the Eyes. Since Roland is silent, Hod asks if he believes she’s not a good person. However, he denies this and instead asks why the Head even bothered to send an Arbiter to destroy a laboratory that killed people outside of the City. He asks if it was really an Arbiter, and Hod confirms it from what she heard and what she saw in Lobotomy Corporation. Hod then calls Roland odd since he’s asking about the Head instead of despising Hod for what she did, but Roland nonchalantly states that betrayals happened a lot and that her betrayal wasn’t as cruel as she thinks. He then asks if she and the other librarians are from the Nests. Hod confirms that she’s from the Nest and most of the other librarians are too, except one from the Backstreets and one from the Outskirts. Roland realizes that, despite their fortunate circumstances, their lives were miserable, and yet all of them were determined to work in a research facility in the danger of the Outskirts. Then, he apologizes for calling them “spineless snobs.” Hod mentions that she betrayed their passion. Roland asks if her refusal to hate Angela is because Hod was trying to excuse herself. Hod claims that, though she made a huge mistake, she wants to become a better person, but a part of her also can’t forgive Angela.

Angela tells the Sephirot that they’ve spent two days in a stalemate and is surprised at their persistence. While Malkuth refuses to go to sleep, Binah calmly states that they will fail soon, which angers Gebura. Hod alerts her team that the employees suffered too much damage, and Netzach also notes that the regenerators are at their limits. Angela tells them that, even though she used to pass two days quickly, the last two days felt really slow. Hokma claims that she will not reach her goal since it was done out of selfishness. Meanwhile, Gebura is losing her fight against Binah as she’s now aware of the power of E.G.O. Yesod announces that the employees from the Welfare and Disciplinary Teams are all dead. At this point, Angela tells them that the Light would only shine for four days at most, and that Angela would only have about two or three days worth of light, so no one would win this battle. Hokma asks what she wants, and Angela offers them a deal so that she could live.

Hod tells Roland that many of the Sephirot (the Librarians) were against the deal. Herself, Malkuth, Yesod, Netzach, and Hokma were the ones who opposed the deal, and Roland notes that the other four (Tiphereth, Gebura, Chesed, and Binah) approved it. Hod restates that the four who approved it didn’t necessarily agree with it. Roland then asks why Hod was against the deal if she thought Angela would become a better person. Hod admits that she thought she could atone for her sins by dying at the end of the original plan. The planned death surprises Roland, and she confirms that she and the other Sephirot were meant to be shut down forever in an eternal slumber, with the satisfaction of completing the seed of light. Roland is surprised at their acceptance of death, and Hod notes how he’s always surprised at odd details. She assumed he would call her out for running from her problems, but Roland assures her it’s a natural reaction, something he would have done. To recap, Roland summarizes Hod’s story: first she was against the plan because she wanted to die in order to atone for her actions, but now is willing to give Angela a chance at redemption. Hod confirms this and notes that Roland’s outside perspective made the topic less heavy. Then, she thanks Roland for listening to her and helping her sort out her thoughts.

### Cutscene 4 (Suppression of Spider Bud)

Roland walks in, praising the floor for being tranquil like Hod, then asks what she and the other librarians are doing gathered together. She explains that they are holding a book club meeting, talking about books that interest them. He commends her on her participation with her librarians, expecting some of them to protest. He notes that he wouldn’t be able to do the same with his and jokes that Netzach would’ve ran away from the idea. Hod tells him that she used to do the same back in Lobotomy Corp by holding training programs to lessen the fear of Abnormalities. However, she admits that she only did so to repent for her sins, and that she pushed her ideals too hard on her employees.  Roland politely tells her that her past self sounds like a pain, which she agrees with. She admits that she only helped others to be forgiven for her betrayal, and, because of this, she ended up making things worse for her and her employees. She even tried Enkephalin, but couldn’t escape from her guilt. Even when Angela was stealing the light, she wanted to repent for her sins, which is why she opposed Angela. However, Hod realized that she can’t repent with good deeds, but only through her mindset. Roland, curious, asks how she learned this, and she tells him that her realization came from personally speaking to her librarians and, later, by holding book club meetings, which her librarians initially opposed but decided to join in order to help Hod with her feelings. Hod explains that the purpose of the meetings is so that everyone can be honest and help each other by speaking their mind. Hod then suggests that Angela wanted something similar, but Roland rejects this as a possibility. Regardless, Hod tells Roland that she wants to stand up to Angela and voice her opinions even though she is scared to do so. Roland encourages her despite Hod’s warning that he might lose his limbs. Roland admits that he’ll do so from a distance, and Hod realizes that he is a coward like herself. Then, they both decide to be brave as cowards.

## Dialogue

**Combat Entrance**

* "If we brace ourselves and react calmly, we can win this."
* "Even now, I have a lot to improve… Still, I’ll receive the guests sincerely and earnestly."
* "I’m nervous, but… I’ll do my best…!"
* "Alright, here I come…! I want you to take this fight seriously."
* "Be prudent, and everything will work out… Maybe…"
* "The other librarians are doing a great job! I gotta get on their level, too…"
* "Okay, I should stay calm and spot the opponent’s weak points, so let’s think…"
* "It’s alright, I can dodge their attacks… I can do this."
* "With all these people around me, I can muster up courage once again."
* "I hope nothing bad happens…"

**On Kill**

* "I had no choice but to do this to fulfill my role."
* "I’m sorry, you probably didn’t want to die like this…"
* "I’m sure my opponent did their best too."
* "I hope we can finish this without any losses…"
* "…You did well enough. Please rest in peace now."

**Teammate Death**

* "I’m starting to be unsure of what to do now."
* "I couldn’t be helpful to the others…"
* "I should’ve done a better job."
* "I can’t get the other librarians shaken up, too…"
* "I won’t let your death go in vain…"

**Death**

* "…I was, nothing but trouble until the end. I’m—I’m just…"
* "My body feels numb, what do I do…"
* "I tried so hard, and yet… Why does it always have to end like this…"

**Victory**

* "Thank goodness we finished the work smoothly."
* "I’m glad I could make it through this with everyone."
* "Thanks for staying with me till the end. Good work!"
* "I’ll try to improve further the next time we fight together."
* "We won…! Thanks for the stellar work, everyone."
* "I’d be glad to know I helped in this battle at least a little bit."

## Trivia

* "Hod" is an aspect of The Sefirot, a concept in Kabbalistic philosophy. While many interpretations exist, it can be understood as a kind of interplay between certain emotions. It is best described as "Glory" or "Sincerity".
* Other schools see Hod as the quality of "conquering oneself", as opposed to conquering an external obstacle.