Observation/Communications Blog

Don't expect me to be active too much, I'm just here to watch and talk to select folks.

[dream-recall]

Eagle...Eagle?！！

[dream-recall]

Eagle...Eagle?！！

[prokopetz]

Tabletop RPG with an old school "you can die during character creation" lifepath system, except most of the disqualifying events are stuff like "made it to adulthood with no major traumas" or "discovered a love of carpentry", so your actual goal is to make just enough bad life decisions that your character is a big enough loser to become an adventurer.

[prokopetz]

Starting out in a coastal community is regarded by some as an optimal choice because if you have the bad luck to end up happily married you can make a saving throw to see if your spouse is subsequently eaten by a whale.

[moonslefttiddy]

Wouldn't any location let you do a save to see if they die a premature and violent death?

[prokopetz]

Often, yes, but "eaten by a whale" gives the biggest bonus by a substantial margin when checking to see whether you develop a revenge complex.

[guardiantempest]

Reverse 1999 just revealed its first "alter" in the newest story trailer for CN server. In gacha parlance, an "alter" (presumably short for "alternate") is a version of an existing character. Arknights has lots of these.

It makes sense, Eagle was much younger and inexperienced when she first showed up in the default roster as a 4-star (as shown in this old poster). This is one way to show young characters growing older and honing their skills, certainly cleaner than using Skins.

FGO is no stranger to alters via swimsuit variants (and the literal Alters). Limbus Company has only 12 playable characters, so the gacha ONLY has alters for them.

But why did I still feel heavy? Perhaps the possibility never crossed my mind, that it seemed like it wasn't a thing Bluepoch considered.

Considering what the 3.7 story chapter trailer depicts (an attack on the SPDM), this really is an end of an era (or at least the status quo).

What do you think?

[player-1]

Do you think the Amber Room is related to the White Marble House? They are "closer to the limit", after all.

While I was being flooded by 3.6 poster hype and the Laplace gang getting a full story to let the shenanigans loose, I had to rack my brain around where I might've heard about the Marble House other than Campaign's Tale and maybe Pre-Storm Protocol...But given the Foundation's constant need to preserve humanity/arcanist history by any means necessary (ie. SPDM sanitizing every kids' culture/language into a cookie-cutter template, the adults working under heavy supervision and other bureaucratic horrors), the Amber Room experiments and the Marble House are all an attempt at preservation and decoration of what they believe the 21st century is suppose to look/behave like without putting into consideration that they already have a couple people who grew up and remembered the dreaded age of 1999 before the Storm happened! ...And of course adding to the growing relevance of The Depths as a separate force that the Foundation/Pax House/Manus have zero clue on how to control or harness its power without serious consequences (ie. Everything with The Cave, Folie et Deraison, Flowing Feast, "Fountain(s) of Youth", etc.). Although it definitely lines up with the trope of "time travelers" being seen as delusional/crazy by their home era since the Storm displaced everyone else's memories on what the future is supposed to be, I'm all for it trying to flesh out that existential horror of being the lonely person in a crowd of so-called friends and family... Also looking forward to how the story will flesh out the Foundation and/or Constantine's goals in the future and being just as shitty as Manus, I'm also all for Vertin eventually deviating from their grip even if it was barely hinted at all the way back in 1.4 w. Artificial Somnambulism (though that also adds to the strenuous task of documenting the story since the wiki is bareboned at best and stacking up the theories on the Depths leading her along after Urd escapes the Amber Room or even earlier than that).

[tulipsempai]

[aurora-sadprose]

put down that c.ai thing and read y/n fics like god intended.

[nightingem]

really incredible website just dropped where you larp being an ai and respond to people's "prompts."

Be an AI, answer prompts, trigger a RAM crisis

some fun responses i have gotten so far.

[dickjarvisblogblog]

Great Website.

[ancient-tree-with-deathwish]

my classification of weaponballs:

TRUE ACCURACY SCALERS (hitting your opponent increases your opportunities to hit them in the future)

dagger

bow

shuriken

ACCURACY/DAMAGE SCALERS (hitting your opponents increases your opportunities to hit them, while also increasing your damage. these balls usually scale by 0.5/hit)

spear

unarmed

staff

flail

TRUE DAMAGE SCALERS (hitting your opponent increases your damage. usually scales by 1/hit)

sword

hammer

katana

flask

scepter

ULTRA DAMAGE SCALERS (have some kind of low accuracy special attack that does high damage. usually scale by 2/hit.)

lance

axe

boomerang

crossbow (possibly a "true damage scaler" instead)

SPECIAL SCALERS (do not deal damage on hit, instead creating some kind of special effect that will deal damage for you)

scythe

shield

wrench

grimoire

[vieriev]

[guardiantempest]

Limbus 1999: Sonetto and Vergilius

Additional Information

Sonetto

Rigidly obedient, Lawful Good in the sense that she can only do Good by being Lawful about it

Originally aspired to join the Oufi Association but The Crying Children changed her priorities

Wields a crystal "pen" that can write Q Corp runes midair like a wizard wand

H Corp boluses for enhancement, P Corp bodysuit for protection, K Corp ampoules for regeneration, T Corp wristwatch for personal acceleration/weaponized deceleration; all in addition to the standard suite of Fixer upgrades.

The Wings' blessings come with a curse: Sonetto is absolutely mired in red tape because the Wings imposed mountains of "don't use us to hurt us" clauses. This gets super tricky when it comes to N Corp.

Has a running gag where she dutifully recites the specific legal reasons why she can't help in the current situation, much to everyone's dismay

Example: "Regulus, I can't help you given that T Corp is currently in a trade agreement with U Corp, and as such the Wing counts as 'extended third-party affiliates', which means I have no legal basis to intervene regarding the Taboo Hunter."

Equipment alone doesn't make a Color Fixer. Sonetto doesn't have Vergilius' veteran experience and personal abilities. She compensates with Wing resources, an encyclopedic understanding of legal matters, and a polite attitude.

Life in Limbus ain't that bad, especially since she gets to hang out with two of her once-schoolmates.

Vergilius

Filled to the gills with augmentations, from the scientific, to the arcane, to even the divine

My mind is fixated on giving him volcano-themed abilities instead of emulating his blood manipulating E.G.O.

Has a connection with Vulcan, the Roman god of volcanoes and the forge

His scorching gladius is rumored to be forged by that god

Can cause collateral damage so severe it persists across Storm events (it merely gets retconned to have a new explanation)

Example: "Yeah, a meteorite struck here yesterday." // "An arcanist went nuts last week." // "It's a gas leak, don't worry about it."

In Chapter 3 of Reverse 1999's main story, Constantine's schemes to divert the Manus seeking to steal recruits from the SPDM, in addition to dealing with Vertin's breakout attempt.

Vergilius' orphanage was only proofed against The Storm.

"Charon" is the sole Storm-retconned survivor. Vergilius believes she can be restored somehow.

Relegated to guide duty because his active participation spooks all Manus members in the area (which complicates Dante's mission).

I haven't decided what Vergilius' Red Gaze does yet, for now the placeholder is "basically Mystic Eyes of Death Perception". If you're not divine in anyway then you get a nerf when fighting him.

And an extra bonus

[guardiantempest]

Limbus 1999: a Setting Swap AU (feat. Dante and Vertin)

What I meant by "Setting Swap AU" is that the characters and their stories remain mostly the same created through another setting. I apologize for the low artistic skill level, this is all new to me. I feel really strongly about that I want to share them to you. All of the swaps have been decided although it'll take time for me to draw and type down my thoughts. I'll post these pair by pair, maybe with some supplementary images. It's easy to guess which Arcanists have been swapped with the Sinners. Can you guess the connection behind each pair?

For the first pair, here's Manager Vertin and Timekeeper Dante.

Additional Info:

Vertin:

Studied in District 14 alongside Sonnetto, Mesmer Jr, Matilda and a pair of other V Corp aspirants (easy to guess who they are). After graduating from the academy, Vertin returned to District 22 for a vacation. And then she met Philip. :)

Ended up in the Dieci Association's local orphanage. There, she learned and trained until Sonnetto (now a member of the LCB) arrived to recruit her

Counts as Grade 5 Fixer because of her time in Dieci Association and further LCB training

Scar aches faintly whenever Distortions and/or Abnormalities are nearby.

Unflappable demeanor cracks whenever someone is about to Distort.

When did Vertin get the Bough? She got it while unconscious before waking up in the Dieci Association.

Golden Bough infusion had some side effects.

There's no such thing as an underage Fixer. Is child labor a Taboo of The Head? Let's... nudge those ages up a little.

Inherited Dante's ID system, perfect memory, and Durante powers

Dante:

Yes, Dante's head is patterned after the Prague Astronomical Clock, which influenced all of their ensuing details.

Arcanum researcher from Czechoslovakia handpicked by the White Marble House.

Major contributor behind the creation of a holy relic (which is their fancy new head)

Agreed to step down from position to become the Timekeeper and field test The Relic™.

Got decapitated by an ambush en route to the Foundation Headquarters, survived anyway.

Hasty procedure causes amnesia, losing Dante's knowledge (and keeping WMH obscure).

Dante's fancy outfit was selected by their old self.

Inherited Vertin's Tunings, Storm Immunity and the Suitcase.

The Spinning Wheel may be replaced with something else, I dunno.

I need to wait until the Canto is done before deciding on Ryoshu's counterpart. From the details I have so far, my candidates are: J (big sword, family instinct), Tuesday (unfazed by horror, maternal), Anjo Nala (it's complicated), and Coppelia (grew up amongst the wolves, so to speak).

More images to come. Next should be Vergilius/Sonnetto.

[galaxyghostr]

up in the clurb weapon ballin and by balling... lets just say my family of 3

its like horse race test but with yaoi and power scaling

[creature-wizard]

So, you know how certain Christian missionaries are trained to act in a very obnoxious way, so that most people they preach to will reject them outright, so they feel like the world hates them for being Christian and they can only be friends with fellow Christians? You know that thing?

I think as activists, we sometimes need to stop and ask ourselves whether we're acting like those missionaries. I think this type of behavior is a little more ingrained into our society than some of us realize, and some of us have internalized it without realizing what it's actually meant to do.

[penrosesun]

OP I know that this is probably a different direction than you were going, but genuinely this advice would do so so much to help people not fall into secular political cults.

A lot of high control groups use this tactic to isolate their members. It’s absolutely not just evangelizing Christians. New age wellness cults often encourage their members to make outlandish and offensive accusations regarding the mental and physical health of other people or their children, because they know that the backlash their members receive will reinforce the idea that the “mainstream” simply has no room for people who like crystals and essential oils. White supremacist cults will seed the vocabulary of new recruits with Nazi dog whistles that fly over those recruits heads, specifically so that they will get clocked as possible neo-Nazis and shunned by anyone who might offer them another perspective and help them to get out before it’s too late. And a lot of left-leaning political cults strongly encourage members to share their views in the most inflammatory ways possible, and then say “you see? everyone outside of this small circle is evil and cannot be relied on” when, inevitably, that produces bad results.

Sometimes I think that activists fall into these patterns completely accidentally, either because they were raised in culturally Christian evangelical environments and never unpacked it, or else because they just aren’t any good at approaching things in a non-inflammatory way and no one’s shown them how.

…But sometimes, these structures emerge in activist circles because those circles are legitimately becoming high control groups.

I think some things to watch out for especially in this regard are:

Are you being directed to behave in an extremely hostile and alienating way? (even if it’s by someone who you trust!)

Does the group you are in immediately shut down any conversation about the effectiveness of an antagonistic strategy? In particular, do they shut that conversation down using in-group stock phrases?

Is experiencing harsh rejection seen as something of a rite of passage?

Do you receive more validation from the group you are in after you have been rejected by someone outside the group than at any other time?

Have you ever been concerned that the antagonistic strategy you are using hurt someone you cared about, only to be quickly advised by members of the group that that person was toxic and that you should actually completely cut them out of your life?

These to me are all pretty significant red flags about the group in question, whatever the specific thing that brings people together there is. If you start noticing them in a group that you are a part of, be that an in-person activist circle or a Discord server or anything in between, take a step back and seriously consider the possibility that the good thing that you joined is turning into something different, and possibly dangerous.

In the words of Jonestown survivor Deborah Layton, “Nobody joins a cult. You join a self-help group, a religious movement, a political organization. They change so gradually, by the time you realize you’re entrapped – and almost everybody does – you can’t figure a safe way back out.”

[stealingpotatoes]

i hauve a cold

[stealingpotatoes]

[stealingpotatoes]

[stealingpotatoes]

happy anniversary to the funniest i have ever been in my life and happy one year of Lady Normalgirl and Her Eunuch!

[gingeraleconsumer]

How I imagine the beginning of canto 9 will go

[gingeraleconsumer]

@mtmerm just for you bestie. Btw you guys can repost this wherever you want. Please do. I want everyone to see it

[skewedcanvas]

Model / Avatar / Species Swap (Part 2)

I enjoyed drawing the model swap so much that I've made a part two. Since some people were confused in the last post, what I am doing is I'm redrawing the characters as different species/avatars, swapping them with another character's species (e.g., what if Jax was a clown instead of a rabbit or what if Ragatha was a frog instead of a rag doll).

[Part 1] [Part 2]