>>530095156
baste.
I don't think they were brainwashed, though, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to act out against Albert, you can't cultivate negative emotions if they're complacent in the acts and there's no point in the limited lifespan, if they're acting out of obedience.
The fly in the ointment is the Model W fragment that makes them super pissed off and warped their world view, but all that negativity got whirr'd from to activate Ouroborus so you could argue they have a clean slate emotionally.
>isn't the fragment still in them???
Just say the fragment is inert from getting slurped to help awaken Ouroborus. Maybe have it flare up at a point of emotional tumult, and have them briefly adopt their model w forms so you can actually play as them for a boss fight.
Limited Lifespan could be stymied with repair capsules left over, or some other character with equal capability to Albert doing some limited repairs to postpone their life spans - ticking clock element, etc
it's workable
Have cyber-elf Giro fish them out of the undersea lab - he ran a delivery business, after all