Because gears are in a constant cycle of reincarnation, there’s lots of art and graffiti and notes left near the spawn points that will say things like “Boombox wuz spawned :p” or “Lightblox was here” etc etc. Oftentimes dying inphernals will leave long letters taped near spawns to say hello to whoever gets their gear next.
The spawn itself is very holy, so you won’t find much art left directly in them, but the outside is COVERED from floor to ceiling. Because newspawns can usually read, it’s sort of a fun first activity for them to do, trying to find what their predecessors might have left them.
Since the dawn of the internet, inphernals sometimes record videos for their future gear-holders too.
Usually inphernal society is violent, chaotic, not very sentimental, but there’s this sort of unspoken rule about spawn graffiti. It’s very personal. It rarely ever gets destroyed or painted over, cause everyone kind of understands wanting to leave a legacy behind for whoever comes next.
Please don’t let fandom ruin something you love. Walk away and unfollow the fans and enjoy the thing by yourself, or find a limited circle of people who ignore the discourse, or get your irl friends into the thing and collectively ignore the Internet community, or blacklist from here to the moon if you need to and only ever scroll through your rarepair ship’s tag on AO3. But don’t let fandom distort a show or a movie or a book or a comic you used to love so badly that you can’t enjoy the original anymore. Please. It isn’t worth it.
posted this on twt but I thought I'd elaborate a bit more here. Peak of Truth is NOT just a traditional swap AU (role of truth sayer to smilk and role of the deciever to pv)
Instead, it is an arcana reversal AU (the meanings of their respective tarot arcana changing to their reversed position)
Shadow milk representing The Magician reversed (deception and trickery) -> Sage of Truth representing The Magician upright (power and reaching one's own potential)
Awakened Pure Vanilla representing The Hermit upright (introspection and knowledge of oneself) -> Truthless Recluse representing The Hermit reversed (anti-social social seclusion)
Once you recognize how the cards relate to them, it makes the story make SOO much more sense they aren't the opposite; they are inverted, still the same card but looked at in a different perspective
+ supporting my Sage of Truth isn't malicious interpretation
++ the hermitcraft meme i made because its my post I make the rules
You know, just thought about how the Three Bird Abnos, when in Ruina, were described being like Binah's pets.
Makes me imagine funny things
Like, Punishing Bird is wonderful pretty much always
Somewhat rambunctious from time to time, but overall, actually safe to keep around with her, and can freely be dismissive if Binah wishes to do anything she doesn't want the Bird around for.
Big Bird is a bit more of a wild card. While big and round, and probably quite comforting to Binah in specific, with her being one of the few people who finds the texture of its body "comforting" rather than "spine chilling", anytime anybody else comes to her floor, she must quickly dismiss it, otherwise, it will likely start trying to do it's tricks.
Judgement Bird is probably the worst behaved one of all. Waltzes around her floor acting as if he's her roommate or something. Occasionally knocks over containers. Displays violent tendencies. Troublemaker. She will use Fairies to suppress if need be.
Anyways yeah that's what I like to imagine for Binah's funny bird pets.
Funny how these EXTREMELY fucking potent Abnos are described like that with her LMFAO
So much of what he says beforehand, and the text flying over the screen, and what the librarians say during the battle/in scene changes... it all boils down to Angela's faith.
I wouldn't say that, in spite of this being the Floor of Religion, this is about actual religious belief in a deity. If anything, I'd say it's about one's belief in something intangible, something that gives you no proofs of its existence - for instance, something you are striving for (such as Angela's "one perfect book") or "an unknowable future."
But also, in a way that's very relevant to both Angela and Hokma, it relates to perfect faith in another person. For good, or for ill.
(Spoilers for Lobotomy Corporation, Library of Ruina, and references made to Limbus Company.)
For Hokma this is made plain from pretty much the first time we see him in Lobotomy Corporation, let alone Library of Ruina, with his blatant faith in Ayin. He is not quiet about this. And yet, he is also aware of Ayin having his faults; he says in LobCorp both before and after the Core Suppression that Ayin was "fragile," and continues to see him as such even well after that. During his conversations with Angela, he admits that they had both, he and Ayin, created her "irresponsibly," as well as not criticising her for wanting to be out of the control of Carmen or Ayin.
So, in a sense, Hokma's faith is not blind. He looks at the picture he has of Ayin in his memories, from before and because of the final loop, and has decided that he is someone that is worth placing his faith in, no matter his failings, and not ignoring or turning a blind eye to those failings. If anything, due to the Core Suppression, it's likely that he's well aware of them, but sees Ayin as having become stronger than his faults.
The source of Angela's shaken faith that creates the Realisation, however, isn't due to Ayin. In fact, whenever Hokma brings up Ayin, she doesn't argue, in spite of her having shut Malkuth down, and even Gebura, when they had brought him up even in passing much earlier on. Ironically, for being the one with the greatest faith in Ayin, Hokma is also the one with the most objective view of what they did to Angela, which may be part of why she doesn't object to him being brought up.
No, what makes her snap is when Hokma brings up Carmen.
We're told incrementally, piece by piece, what sort of influence Carmen has had over Angela from the moment she woke up. We see her say that she "remembers" Ayin as "[having] a warm smile," which is actually Carmen's memory. And here we see that not only was it the case that she had Carmen's memories, but that they have been driving her for a long, long time... and that Carmen's voice - which we know even by this point is behind the Distortion phenomena, so that's a red flag right here - is something she's hearing and listening to.
If anything, I'd say that the Realisation of the Floor of Religion is more aptly described as Angela, the adult child of parents who were unable or unwilling to give her the emotional care she needed, having turned to the remaining parent who was willing... but who was simply abusive in a different way, and if anything more dangerous.
Breaking it down, she is born - in Hokma's terms, he and Ayin "irresponsibly created" her in the same sense as "playing god and bestowing life upon [her]," and yet first Benjamin left, then Ayin locked them all into the time loops with the TT2 protocol, and when Benjamin did come back, he - whether at first or later on down the line - sided with Ayin's script, which was causing her agony and a loss of hope.
So that's the two people who created her now neglecting her every emotional need, and in fact harming her.
Of course she'd feel betrayed by Ayin, who she thought should have been a warm person. He never once looked at her, nor gave her praise (which I've covered in a character study fic, even).
And of course she'd feel betrayed by Benjamin, because he DID give her the warmth and acceptance she sought - but he never saved her, and in fact only reinforces the hell that she had been put into, and outright supports the one she blames for her misfortunes.
All of which leaves her with only one person left to turn to - Carmen. The one whose memories are embedded into her brain, having been the foundation of her personality. And who continues to have an influence of some kind.
The problem with that is that... as I've said in several other posts, Carmen has enough red flags to make a colourful red fence with. She is not trustworthy. She has been known on multiple occasions to talk people into things they really shouldn't have done.
And this is the person Angela placed her faith in after Ayin completed the Seed of Light scenario.
To be fair to everyone here: Ayin seemed to be still following after Carmen's dream even into the late days. Benjamin, when he reached his limit, said "How can this still be considered following her will?" - implying that he couldn't imagine this being what Carmen wanted. And Carmen... is very good at convincing people to take her side, or do what she wants. I doubt that they truly realised what Carmen was capable of until it was too late.
Which brings me to how it isn't that Angela sees herself as WhiteNight in the Floor of Religion's Realisation (unlike how on most other floors it's her or Roland resonating with an abnormality that they themselves relate to); it's that WhiteNight is intrinsically linked with Carmen.
In a strange sense, this really is a case of "like father, like daughter" in how both she and Ayin have the ability to become avatars of WhiteNight, while parroting Carmen's ideology!
Adam on the left, "Paradise Lost," or Angela's WhiteNight form, on the right.
WhiteNight being drawn from Carmen also fits with how the Floor of Religion doesn't have WhiteNight as an abnormality you can unlock normally. The two you can unlock are Blue Star, and The Price of Silence, the latter of which is more connected to Hokma himself. It feels rather like, just as with Carmen's presence within Angela and the Library itself, WhiteNight - just like in Lobotomy Corporation if you have the Plague Doctor, which in essence we do have, considering how Angela had it as her EGO at the start - effectively summons itself.
Like I said right at the start, there's also what's said on screen here.
The first thing you'll see will be the librarians readying for battle:
Notably, we have one person saying "Faith... Faith, huh... I don't believe in stuff, come to think of it," another saying "Maybe there's something you believe in, even if it's not grand?" and another saying "Well... whatever the belief is, it'll probably be in vain."
Hokma is shown saying "Faith is bound to be challenged by irony."
Then we have the floating text. Which is hard to see, and honestly I have to use the wiki for this, but there's some things that start to paint a picture:
"Alas, the sin of one person tainted with desire gave rise to the emotion called fear…"
"We are no different, suffering because of a single man."
The above are on the first screen, with the first four Apostles. Given Angela's perspective, it's easy to connect those with her views on Ayin.
"You could try and proceed, but only death will await you at the end of it. Maybe that’s the reason for that fear."
"My future is grim and dark, much like yours. It’s so bleak… I can’t see a thing ahead."
"Why are we chained to something like this? Can we not be freed?"
"To a place where there is no such thing as the end."
All of these, from the second set of Apostles, seems to relate to her fear of the final loop, the end of the script, and the fact that she was aware at the end that the Seed of Light's success meant her and the Sephirot's deaths.
She must have been scared of the end of everything, in spite of seeming in control; an irony, given how Carmen told Ayin that she was the same - having a weaker heart but always looking to others like she knew what she was doing.
"…Child. I am here to treat disease."
"Place your trust in me. I am the only one who can help you."
"I promise, so I want you to promise in return. Swear that you will not leave me."
"I shall heal you, curing you of all disease and injury you possess."
This is where things start to get wonky, at the third set of four Apostles. It's at this point that Angela, who up to now has been "The Prophet" (AKA, the Plague Doctor), seriously starts showing that the transformation into WhiteNight is occurring.
It probably didn't ping anyone going through Ruina on release, or if they go through the game before Limbus, but... that first one especially is reminiscent of the narrator of the uptie stories of the Identity Cards you can pull for in the game, and the last one, talking about "curing" people of "all disease," is similar to what Carmen wanted to do in the past, with the "disease of the mind."
The middle two, however, put me in mind of what Roland calls Carmen - a cult leader. Or, really, just plain... someone who's emotionally abusive. Someone who wants to isolate their target, encouraging them to think that they and they alone are the only one who can be turned to in need, and that if one does not have them, then they are fully alone.
Here is Angela, before she resonates with WhiteNight, saying "But then again... I'll be completely and absolutely alone if she leaves my side."
This partners up with "I promise, so I want you to promise in return. Swear that you will not leave me" quite well.
The next time the librarians speak up, it's at the scene change where Angela has fully become WhiteNight.
I couldn't get a good pause on the screen for this one, so I'll just paste in the relevant ones-
"No one who seeks salvation here is normal…"
"There’s got to be a way to refute religion, though."
and then Hokma, with-
"And it will be such a harsh thing to do."
Now, this one made me think, because when Hokma first spoke up in the previous scene, it didn't seem very specifically aimed at Angela herself.
And yet here... here, he seems to be directly addressing what is happening, as with the other two quoted. (Note, the ones left un-quoted here merely talk about the battle itself, not Angela.)
I'd say that they're talking about how hard it is to break someone's faith if the truth is that they're putting their faith in the wrong place. That they have to refute it, and that it will be a harsh thing - not just to do to a person, but also to experience.
And then, we have the words on the screen for this:
"The disobedience of one hath caused the many to become sinners…"
"Now, the many seeketh salvation through the obedience of one."
"I have not manifested myself in such a form to lay judgement."
"Worship me, and ye will not belong to that sin. I redeem you to free you of such things."
"I shall undo the restrictions that have imprisoned you in this place, and lead you to the paradise that welcomes everyone."
"Those who endure until the end will be able to proceed."
So many of these feel like, well. Hello, Carmen! How terribly awful to see you here!
Many of the references here fit with calling those who turn away from the speaker "sinners," which ironically reminds me of the Sinners of Limbus Company, and the thought process Carmen has in how she sees Distortion - that is, "redeem you to free you of such things," and "undo the restrictions that have imprisoned you" as well as how as the Voice, she "[does not] lay judgement" on people.
Unlike the second scene, the third (Paradise Lost (Resurrection)) doesn't have the Librarians saying anything specific to Angela. Most of it is them worrying that they've done something wrong since they thought they'd defeated it and it came back.
But the screen text? Hoo boy.
"Without that person, who is going to watch me… No one, I suppose."
"I can’t depend on myself anymore… All I trust is the words that person spake to me."
"Have faith in me… For I… have risen to this seat for you…"
"The horrendous life brought on by the sins of one person… I shall make it right…"
"No one is leaving… We shall bask in the fortune of being together forever at last…"
"Ye lot… None of you can leave my side until I permit you…"
All in all, Angela seems to be devolving from speaking for herself, feeling the sense that if she gives up "that person" then she won't have anyone to "watch her," to showing her reliance on "the words that person spake to me" to thoughts that are more rooted in WhiteNight itself, her speech becoming more antiquated like we saw in the previous scene.
There is one line among all of those that strikes me as familiar. In a way that, yet again, raises red flags.
Here's Netzach, saying that he'd heard a voice, "familiar, yet unfamiliar, saying "No, you cannot. Here, you must ask my permission for anything. Even death."
We aren't directly told who that is, but with the context here, and the fact that Binah (later in Lobotomy Corporation, in her scenes) points out that Carmen was still aware and somewhat able to communicate with her... it does feel rather similar to "None of you can leave my side until I permit you."
Which, yeah, sure, Ayin was the one who set the whole thing up, right? Except... even Ayin was running on Carmen's orders.
This is a screenshot I took some time ago (highlight mine) which points out that the very qualification for hiring practices at Lobotomy Corporation was set out on Carmen's orders to Ayin.
This was the creators/KJH stating a fact about a game that had already been released, rather than beta information that could be retconned later on.
There has been nothing to disprove this as of yet, and if anything, the Regular Check-Up Limbus event added the context of this counting for more than just the main branch.
So - if anything I think that what's going on with this line existing here is that (my theory at least), since Angela had previously blamed her having brought all of the Librarians and the agents along with her on Carmen's influence, we have the conflicting and conflating ideas of Carmen having not allowed anyone to die until she permits them to, and Angela having always wanted to save their lives and their hearts herself, now grasping at the ability to do so for the first time in her life in a way that - in her eyes - she won't have taken from her.
Going back to the actual fight itself, and the final scene - "Paradise Lost (Resurrection)" - leaves only Hokma on the field, and adds Penitence in his hand.
Those who know how WhiteNight works in its original Lobotomy Corporation iteration will know where this is going, but I just find it important that it's Hokma who plays this role. Not any of the others - Hokma, taking the role of One Sin.
Using my analogy of a broken family from earlier, this strikes me as similar to...
Ayin is gone. As far as either she or Hokma know, there is never going to be a way for her to get closure from Ayin.
Carmen is still trying to mislead her. If you have her choose either of the bad endings, she gives in to her own desires; even if she does not distort, it has the same prideful effect of only caring about oneself to the exclusion of all others.
Hokma, however... is the only parent that Angela has left who is both present, and who will also face her and tell her that she is going in the wrong direction, and following the wrong person. He is, here, confessing his sins.
Notably, the scene after this - after the battle, back where they're able to discuss things properly - Hokma states that he and the other Sephirot are now helping her because they each came to understand her pain and sympathise with her while they were in the light, and when Angela says that they're just pitying her, he shoots back with "I am of the belief that sympathy and love are no different from each other."
I don't think that her clash with Hokma here causes her to become suddenly comfortable with him, or anything - but they do start to see each other more warmly, having come to a better understanding of each other.
Especially considering how this is, right at the end, when she has just been tsundere and said that giving the others freedom was a "small benefit" since they had all "shared a history of being subject to manipulation" - rather like her saying "It's not b-because I like you, or anything!"- which causes this little exchange:
Hokma, smiling - possibly for the first time in the game! Him smiling in Ruina is RARE up to this point, and even beyond - saying "You still are awfully dishonest," which is actually a callback to how B (AKA, Benjamin) left messages to Manager X/A stating that Angela was untrustworthy, as well as a code program direct to his monitor that would flash when she lied.
And then, Angela, also smiling, which is possibly the first time she does so with Hokma - let alone how rare it is to see her smile at all - saying "Anyway- ...Thank you." Which rather says something, when she's just spent the entire time trying to refute every single thing that he's said to her.
I could go into the Keter Realisation, but I think that's enough for one post.
why does no one ever talk about benjamin. always loving, always faithful benjamin. witnessing ayin's sins firsthand, knowing his sin intertwined with ayin's, the sin of not stopping him. the sin of enabling. and at the end of it all, still unable to truly hate the man he dedicated his youth to. if there was one person with so much love in their heart other than carmen, it would be him. he is the one who programmed angela, made her who she is - every part of her that is carmen-like, is thanks to him. benjamin is who understood carmen, not ayin. he taught angela everything she knows. all just to be betrayed by ayin, and avoided by angela.
knowing she was losing her patience, knowing it all was going downhill, he tried to save ayin for the last time, just to be killed by angela. and still he did not hate her. still he couldn't bring himself to feel hatred for these two, especially angela. hokma gave angela the trust and acceptance she was supposed to get. angela says that the tone and shape of her voice is taken from the wisest person there is... she was talking about him. he is the most patient, wise, most loving figure in her life. imagine the heartbreak when she decided to steal the seed of light - the daughter he did most of the work raising finally giving in to her pain and turning on everyone. and he's unable to do anything, stuck in this chassis. everything he worked for is falling apart once more. he will never see ayin again. maybe he will never see angela either, the angela he made with his own hands, again.
but he learns. he won't repeat the mistakes from when he was young. his myriad vices have taught him well. he can't get ayin back. but he still has angela. he cannot undo his actions, but he can make amends. and that he does. despite being killed by the hands of someone he made with so much care, he knows better than to blame her. he knows better than to berate, be cruel, be heartless. he knows better than to be ayin. i wish his gentleness and faith in those he loved was acknowledged, his ability to forgive, even if it goes too far sometimes. he does not enable, but nor does he force. he gave angela a genuine choice. he gave her the space to try and reflect on herself, while letting her know that he will love her all the same, no matter what she does - because he believes in her. he believes in the child whose heart he knows so intimately. he believes in her to make the right decision, to grow, to be better. he allows her to learn right from wrong, on her own terms. angela was blind to hokma's love and acceptance, her world eclipsed by ayin's disgust and abuse - but he waited, patiently, endlessly, putting up with every single mistake and disaster. i wish he was more appreciated. ayin distorted the image of carmen in his head, ignoring how the person who truly understood what carmen wanted was right next to him the whole time. angela obsessed over finding the answer she believed carmen promised her, not knowing he had given her the answer long ago.
how do each of the birds show affection? im thinking punishing bird simply nestles itself in a comfy spot on you. big bird lets you use him as a big pillow. judgement bird preens you with her long arms.
the birds favor you. that much is certain. they run to you now, whenever they breach containment. preferring to trail you around the facility regardless of whoever you pass, peering over your shoulder curiously. Punishing Bird clings to your shoulder or head with its tiny claws. the latter is preferable, perfect to fashion a makeshift nest on. or perhaps on your desk in the space between your arms. even if it makes work a little more difficult. Big Bird sits at your side, pressed firmly against you. fuzzy is the right word. the lantern is placed carefully on your desk at night for illumination, endless eyes blinking and winking silently. Judgement Bird lightly holds your arm with spindly talons, idly scratching at any dry patches on your skin and attempting to ease the tension from your muscles
they move for no one but Binah. they know how the ex-Arbiter's heart melts for you. the three birds part when she approaches, surrounding you again once she's close enough to settle her hand on your shoulder, firm and familiar. she loves the way you relax under her grip. most would tense and flee in terror. but you turn and step into her arms, humming as she tucks her cloak around you and presses her palm against your spine. no words are said. they don't need to be. and Binah smiles against the top of your head as she simply holds you, content to exist and be with the birds happily ruffling their feathers and letting out soft coos and chirps that she can't express herself
//ooc: i know you, the person who runs this blog, already knows of it. i'm just curious as to how your musket using demon man with musket would think of it.
// WAIT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE SILLY CATBOY ONE IS THAT PURCHASABLE???
(Unfortunately not purchasable and appears to be custom made for the owner of this Twitter account, could even see a Little Red version in the back as well. (・∀・))
