Spoilers for the Spring Cultivation Intervallo ahead, will put the big bulk of it under a cut. Also posted this to Reddit.
Meur's behavior in this Intervallo is… interesting. And very amusing. Showing what can be seen as "self-awareness" and a seldom-seen "deliberately cheeky" side to our favorite N. Corper. He's shown a side that both knows how and is perfectly willing to take the piss.
First, his original proposition for his part of the curriculum:
The interesting part isn't that he took advice from Rodion, but what he sees as a unique strength to himself. Standing still for a week until receiving a command, huh? The other Sinners (including Dante) have brought up that he is a bit of a brick wall that doesn't do much unless ordered, but a whole week of stillness seems to be a bit much for him, more like the Flanderized "Meursault, claim the bough" "Yes, Dante" [claims it instantly] memes than his own actual normal sensibilities. Could it be him deliberately leaning into the joke version of how others see him? Or is he really just being that literal?
The former possibility didn't seem likely to me at first, but then I actually got to his class in the mini-game and saw something odd:
His class is one of the few that gives Morale on its own. The only other two that do that on their own are Don's and Rodya's. How could a class given by the resident stoic brick wall give morale? Then I got into the "first class" dialogue and saw why.
(In order: Imitating Sinclair, fake heart attack, divulging about spilling some secret relating to an "Incident" [presumably the Clock Shenanigans with Yi Sang])
His entire class seems to be 90% fucking with his students (primarily Sinclair). Teaching succinctness, verbal efficiency, stoicism, and unreadability through god-tier ragebaiting. He broke from his general single mouth expression outside of an April Fools event to imitate Sinclair, and funny thing: The nervous expression he made is not the same sprite as the Rodion-in-Meursault's-body body swap shenanigans one from A Midspring Night's Dream 2. Both sprites for comparison (Midspring 2 Rodya-in-Meur's-body on left, Spring Cultivation Sinclair imitation on right):
He went above and beyond what anybody would think of him to normally do to slip right under Sinclair's skin like a stinging paper cut, and he did it well. There was never any on-screen ribbing of Xichun from Meur (which I think is a bit of a shame), but I wonder if he ever imitated and/or ragebaited her in his lessons off-screen. This also leaves me to wonder how good he is at imitating the other Sinners (outside of Dante, unless he really feels like going out of his way to poke some fun at our favorite clockhead), if he's so willing to imitate Sinclair in both speech and facial expression... Or, honestly, how exactly he learned to imitate them or why he'd find imitating them worth learning in the first place. He's a man of many hobbies, that's for sure.
The Intervallo just came out and I already can't wait for the Bokgak, the Meur teaching segment getting voiced feels like it'll be a riot lmao. The actor getting a chance to flex some practice from the April Fools event.
That shit was hilarious lmao. The artists and voice actors were definitely having a blast with it.
I'll be putting stuff under a cut to shroud them from those that haven't experienced it yet.
Yet another Fucking Weird Nightmare for Dante. It is BODY-SWAP FUCKERY. Cursed Images™ abound, it's great. I hope this event and its sprites all get extracted and compiled, because there's a LOT.
Hong Lu in Ryoshu's body (which I'll call "Ryo Lu").
Rodion in Meursault's body (which I'll call Rodisault).
More Rodisault.
We've got COMBAT SPRITES IN THIS BASTICH. First Sinner wave (Yi Tis, Faust Quixote, Don Faust)
Been thinking about what Sin Affinities the Black Forest Bird Trio (Big Bird, Judgement Bird, Punishing Bird) would have for their E.G.Os if they were brought over to Limbus (i.e. Walpurgis).
TL;DR: Punishing Bird could have Pride, Wrath, and/or Envy; Judgement Bird could have Pride and/or Sloth, and Big Bird could have Pride.
More detailed info under the readmore.
All Three: All of the birds, due to commonly being seen as interpretations of The Head from the Well of Humanity, have a Pride-lean. Stubborn belief that they are the only ones capable of "protecting" the Forest despite the criticism and fear from the denizens that they claimed they were protecting.
Punishing Bird:
Pride - See "All Three"
Wrath - Blind, destructive violence towards those it believes are "guilty". General association with violence and the color red.
Envy - Gameplay-wise (both in LobCorp and Ruina), it only uses its big nuke damage attack upon being attacked itself. Retaliation.
Judgement Bird:
Pride - See "All Three"
Sloth - Stubbornness, unwillingness to make own decisions. The idea of having to make a complex judgement if its scales were to ever not lean in one particular direction terrified it, so it loaded its scales to always lean in a direction.
Big Bird:
Pride - See "All Three"
Big Bird isn't a particularly complex bird rofl. I wasn't sure if any other Sin Affinities fit for it killing others to "save" them from a possible "worse" fate.
My Follie finally finished cooking, so I was finally able to try out an idea I immediately had when I saw her: Corru.observer Qou fashionframe.
Follie, with her usage of Corrosive (i.e. acid), strikes me as a Tir (though with a Vel-esque personality), which I feel the specific signa fits. Some Captura shots of the head and signa because they get cut off in the arsenal screen.
Cosmetics and colors will be under the cut.
Body
Default helmet (though Sfumato also works)
Smoke A18
Storm A10
Smoke A18
Smoke A18
Infested E7 + Void Trader A1
Hallow's Eve B16
Attachments
Invictus Apex Signa (similar to Miltza's receptors)
So I got and uptied the new Heishou Mao Outis ID and...
RRGRGRRGRGRG THAT'S NOT HOW ANIMAL LEGS WORK. I DON'T THINK THERE ARE ANY "REVERSE-JOINTED" ANIMALS, LET ALONE HARES. THE WORD THAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IS "DIGITIGRADE" (though Hares are also plantigrade at rest). DI-GI-TI-GRADE. GOT THAT? NOT "REVERSE-JOINTED".
I had a cursed joke thought about Meursault's future Canto.
Leaning very heavy into the "cursed" and "joke" parts. You have been warned! >8}c
I'll be putting it under a read-more.
PMoon is saving all of the Gacha Coomer Shit™ (though still reigned within PMoon's standards) for Meur's Canto. Because I know multiple people that have read the book and keep on mentioning how casually horny book-Meur is lmao. The large majority of his non-philosophical thoughts are about (hot) chocolate and his girlfriend's tits.
And it'd be Coomer Shit™ for EVERYONE. Let the bisexuals eat good. Marie's tits. Meur's tits. Distortion tits. Abno tits. Tits. (and chocolate, don't forget the chocolate)
Meur'll be going through The Wringer™, but at least he'll have chocolate and tits along the ride. Meur's Tiddy Misadventure™ (Now with added Horrors™!). And he'd still be stone-faced the entire time (unless he deals with the Chaplain Round 2: Electric Boogaloo™).
Canto 9, Part 2 annoyance thing (so, spoilers, will be under a cut
9-25 can go fuck itself. The FUCK is this EX condition combined with it. Go to HELL.
How the FUCK are you supposed to beat it (Shock Centipede) in ten or fewer turns? I've been reading the skills and trying to win clashes to minimize how much self-charge it gets and prioritizing destroying the head, but it still keeps hoarding self-charge even when the head is destroyed. This fight honestly was not made for being beaten in few turns outside of juiced MD runs, let alone with only four Sinners lmao.
My team composition (All level 60):
Yi Sang - Wu (UT3, don't have enough shards for UT4 but he's still a beast)
Seeing discussion about my post and possible Sinner/E.G.O combinations in regards to the Magical Girl E.G.Os, I ended up slapping this chart together, mainly of personal theorization.
I used the Sinner symbols for the Sinners, and Card Suits for the Abnos/E.G.O. For the Abnos, from left-to-right: Diamond for King of Greed/Magical Girl of Happiness (Gold Rush), Heart for Queen of Hatred/Magical Girl of Happiness (In the Name of Love and Hate), Spade for Knight of Despair/Magical Girl of Justice (the Sword Sharpened With Tears), Club for Servant of Wrath/Magical Girl of Courage (Unknown E.G.O name). I will be shortening their names to KoG (King of Greed), QoH (Queen of Hatred), KoD (Knight of Despair), and SoW (Servant of Wrath).
It was a massive pain in the ass lmao. There are twelve Sinners and four Magical Girls, so it would logically be a trio of Sinners for each E.G.O, but trying to cut them out so cleanly was... not possible with my skills and knowledge, to say the least lmao. Servant of Wrath fits for so many of the Sinners, it's unreal. Also, wtf do I do with Ryo, Hongler, and Outism rofl.
More detailed thoughts (and a blank version if any of you want to take a stab at it) under a cut. [Includes spoilers for Murder on the WARP Express (and things before it). You have been warned.]
Yi Sang - I'm not going to lie, I mainly just gave him Knight of Despair because... well, just look at him lmao.
I put a tentative check for King of Greed because he simply desired to bring happiness for others, but was consumed... though by despair instead of greed/gluttony like the KoG.
Faust - Inside the Limbus fandom, people tend to forget that Gloom is normally replaced by Greed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins in real life, but Greed has been swallowed up and assimilated into Gluttony within the City. We don't know much about "Our" Faust, disconnected from the Gesellschaft, but something that we see between both of them is this: Curiosity. An all-consuming curiosity, a hunger for knowledge.
I put a tentative check for Servant of Wrath because of the possibility of her turning against the Gesellschaft at some point in the future, making it her "Hermit of the Azure Forest" figure. This is entirely theorization, hence the tentativeness.
Don Quixote - Both the QoH and KoD seem to fit her quite well. She's made of two drastically-different sides, after all, and could both work depending on what her future is in her Canto and beyond. Someone desperate for purpose and usefulness, their manic personality possibly falling into hysteria and twisting themselves into a monster... or a monster twisting themselves into a human, in this case. And the Knight of Despair was originally the Magical Girl of Justice, after all.
I put a tentative check for KoG because of the possibility of her being consumed by her desires, trying to seek happiness through serving others in something that could be seen as selfish means.
Ryoshu - I honestly wasn't sure what to do for her. Ended up just slapping on the King of Greed because her... art tastes, combined with her love of making this "art", can be seen as a selfish pursuit of happiness.
A tentative KoD check because... Well, she might have already gone through her original "despair arc" before joining the company, if you understand what I mean (something related to her original literary inspiration).
Meursault - See the post this is a sequel to for more info, but I may as well copy-paste a copy-paste from it:
"QoH seems to define herself by “usefulness” or “purpose”. When there’s evil in the world, she has a purpose! She’s happy to serve, in the name of Love, when there’s a villain on the loose! But without evil, without a villain, she’s “useless”, and risks being… thrown away.
QoH seeks Love (and technically Happiness, though that’s technically more King of Greed), while Meur has been attempting to seek happiness. QoH is eager to serve, until she is considered “useless” and goes ballistic, while Meur tends to obey without complaint and both has difficulty expressing his emotions and was probably taught to repress them heavily, and probably feels some bottled-up resentment over the idea of being discarded…"
And on that note: QoH's "hysterical" state and monstrous transformation could also bring to mind his book counterpart emotionally blowing up at the end of the book.
He has tentative checks in KoG and SoW. Starting with SoW: His "Hermit" figure could be many people/figures as he grows more independent and self-driven. For KoG: He's been trying to "seek happiness" for a long time. Who's to say that, as he grows more independent and self-driven, that his ways of seeking happiness don't become more selfish and/or possibly self-destructive? Just because a character is progressing doesn't mean it has to be entirely "positive", especially in The City.
Hong Lu - Oh, I have no clue what to do with him lmao. It's why he has no "certain" checkmarks.
I have tentative checks in QoH and SoW. Starting with QoH: He simply wishes to selflessly make people happy, from just being nice to lying to try and soften the blow of a tragedy upon another. For SoW: He seems to have some form of both admiration for and resentment towards his family, members of which could act as his "Hermit" figure(s).
The question mark for KoG is because of what his reasons could be for joining the Limbus Company in the first place, despite the high risk of death and people often treating him like garbage. Some kind of self-destructive attempt at freedom?
Heathcliff - KoD may seem like an odd pick... but he was originally seeking "justice" against Cathy for her (as he perceived it) rejection of him, and even know he seeks justice for Cathy and vows to bring her back. His Distortion is also caused by him falling into despair over the idea of never growing into more than a "violent beast".
There are tentative checks for QoH and SoW. Starting with QoH: He is also heavily motivated by love, and his Distorted form is called "The Heartbroken". For SoW: His "Hermit" figure could be Nelly.
The question mark in KoG is because, beyond everything, he just wanted to be happy for once.
Ishmael - She's definitely with SoW. Ahab is easily her "Hermit" figure.
She has a tentative check in KoG because the entire reason she got involved with Ahab and the Pequod in the first place was because she desired more than just a soul-numbing Nest office job, and this desire for freedom and excitement ended up almost consuming her entirely.
There's question marks for QoH and KoD. Starting with QoH: A lot of the danger outside of the Lake itself in Canto 5 all started because she mentioned Queequeg, who it was... well, you've seen how popular Ishmael/Queequeg is entirely because of stuff in-game, so you should get the picture. She also grew increasingly manic, violent, some would say hysterical throughout the Canto. For KoD: She genuinely believed that she was valued on the Pequod... at least, for a time. Then, well...
Rodion - She's definitely KoG, no contest. Her own selfishness and desire to be "special" is what led to much of her group being slaughtered, which she then tried to numb with attempts at mindless hedonism and gluttony.
I put a question mark for QoH because I've heard many people interoperate the QoH as being representative of hypocrisy, which she has in spades... or hearts, in this case.
Sinclair - Yep, definitely SoW. Kromer is his "Hermit" figure, he's generally considered the youngest of the Sinners (like how the SoW is the youngest of the Magical Girls), and he tends to lash out with surprising, rage-filled murderous violence.
Outis - I had no clue what to do with you, either lmao.
I put a check in KoG because she seems to desire happiness through seizing power. She's the resident notorious ass-kisser, and she is implied to have been a higher-ranking military rank, which is something she seems to desire the high of again. The KoG also seems to have been the leading Magical Girl, if some of QoH's breaching lines are any indication.
I put a tentative check for KoD because of possible reasons why she's no longer a high-ranking military figure. Her information is heavily redacted and unknown, so that could mean one of two things: She was either forcefully expelled from her position and now has bad blood with her original work, or she left of her own volition for a reason. And she seems to genuinely care for her subordinates...
Gregor - He feels like he fits SoW to me, with Hermann acting as his "Hermit" figure. A child abused and manipulated, used as a tool of propaganda, turned into a monster, by his own mother...
I put a tentative check for KoD based around the "originally bright-eyed and happy to help, but turned jaded and sorrowful by his military service" angle, which is more pronounced in his "G Corp. Manager Corporal Gregor" Identity.
I put a question mark for QoH because of his possible desires to love and the "an upsurge of emotion or a sudden change of environment may cause parts or the whole of his body to transform into insectile (notably akin to a carapace, resembling that of the _) tissues" information from his introduction information possibly being a good analogue to QoH's Hysteria and Serpent states.
