MY BIGGEST POST YET — I wrote this on the car, now I’m finishing the rest of it.
My Canto order looks a little different from I first imagined based on difficulty. But I looked at the City’s map to make sense of this.
H Corp -> I Corp -> Q Corp -> R Corp -> S Corp -> T Corp -> U Corp -> L Corp -> F Corp -> N Corp -> Y Corp -> Outskirts
Some more parallels I want to talk about is that the story structure mostly follows the main bus.
Canto I kicks off with Fajie, already at home, but feeling kind of detached from it. The Thumb wants her to be a good doll just like her mom, while her dad asks for her help to rebel. It sounds so simple, but Fajie didn’t want to choose until Limbus Company stepped in to make a decision on her behalf.
Canto II… is a little fun, considering it’s not Sirin’s hometown. We explore how she came to stay in I Corp for a while after the Pianist Incident, because her Campanella, Nao inspired her to care for others more. It’s kind of bittersweet like Rodion’s Canto, because Sirin regrets not being able to save Nao, but she steeled her resolve to save as many people as she could going forward.
Canto III, we go with Yoru to hir hometown to see it razed (like in the book) and get our asses beat up by Pinky until Akira saves us. Also introduces Rozen, who is Yoru’s Kromer basically. The persecution of Christianity in their home town made her turned into self righteous fanatic. She survives but will continue to harass us in the future.
-> There should be an intervallo here, where we spend fucking Christmas again with Akira while she makes plans on what to do after losing her home. Actually wait if the date lines up we are not doing Christmas. CHRISTMAS CANCELLED‼️‼️‼️ let’s do something like Lunar New Year instead.
Canto IV, we go to R Corp, probably at the end of the year, just after Christmas, and Holmes’ dad chides us for missing such an occasion probably. Not happy time. He’s been demanding his kid back just like Gubo to Yi Sang. Conflict breaks out and we kill him, but Holmes is very very unhappy about it.
-> Some more intervallo to stabilise Holmes. He’s got a long way to go from such a traumatic loss. Let’s give him some kind of mystery to solve so he’ll be back on his feet.
Canto V has us going to S Corp, to confront Huin’s past. It’s going to be a bit confusing because we will explore the past with Huin and his brother Kaeru. Was xe the abuser or the abused? All we know is that those xe left behind were severely damaged as a result of xis distortion and subsequent death. What LCDT do here is ensuring the surviving parties get the closure they deserve. A funeral, like in Canto V proper.
Canto VI, I haven’t thought of anything yet. 🥲 but following the source events, we are haunted by a dead person, like Catherine. Utterson and the Head are searching for the Taboo Breaker Jekyll, but they can’t find him. Meanwhile Hyde is chilling, but inside he knows the truth… they can’t search for someone who isn’t here anymore. Still, he has to confront what Jekyll has done to hurt others in the name of his creation.
Canto VII, we travel to U Corp’s harbours, where we confront Othello’s acquaintances. It has forgotten who it was, until it was forced to remember how horribly it treated Desdemona, and had that exploited by Iago to turn them into this monstrous mermaid. She grieves what she has become, but through helping Michael Cassio, a survivor of the Killer Whale Office, she found hope to carve out a new life for herself. A life Desdemona never got to live.
Canto VIII, we go to the fallen ruins of Lobotomy Corporation, a barren land after everything that happened. Thrones didn’t recognise it, so she goes about searching for anything that can tell her what happened. This perhaps parallel the ruins of old H Corp in Hong Lu’s story. Then we found a golden bough that wasn’t meant to be for us, but Thrones took it to grant her wish- to make her mother a kind person- come true. It’s insignificant to the world, but it means everything to her. (That gives me umineko vibes, with Maria and Rosa)
Canto IX, we come to the home of Fairies in F Corp, learning about the Fays who Morgen used to belong in. They’re quite similar to the house of Spiders now that I think about it. They conducted experiments on many individuals, but they only found success in Charlie. This was what allowed Lobotomy Corporation to manufacture Abnormalities with their key ingredients: Cogito. The mind is a lock, and the fairies unlock them. However, Morgen is distraught over her own participation, while Alice, her soft speaking manipulator, tells her she did a wonderful job in taking down old L corp so nobody will have to breathe in that gas anymore. She still doesn’t know what’s right. But all she can do is live on right now. Her story is far from over.
-> Also they would pass by G Corp to get to N Corp, that’s when uhhh Chetwyn is going to be unavailable for a while. Like Gregor in Canto 9.
Canto X has us go to N Corp, where Ermine grew up. He has been preparing for this day, where he would finish his magnum opus and destroy everything with his gun. We would witness him distort and become a vessel for Carmen. I feel like a mess rn but once we have more information, I could write him to be like one of the triggers for the second smoke war. It would tie back to the two previous cantos about the first smoke war.
Canto XI slows down to a halt. We finally got Chetwyn back home, where she’s been dying to see his dad again. But upon confirming with her own eyes that his father is fine and well taken care of, he immediately turns on his feet and left. Her father recognised her, but she insisted she was not his son. We split up with Chetwyn, and learned about his childhood through his father, while later on hearing the rest of the story onwards from Chetwyn herself. She wanted to her dad, but with another war on the outbreak, she cannot stand to bereave him again, so she lied again. She had already done this once when the first smoke war broke out, and he will stay firm to her conviction and live out the remaining lie.
Canto XII had us venture out to the Outskirts where the Library lies. That’s where we find the multitude of Shoulings that also tried to evolve just like he did. It’s a monstrous sight really. At first Shou was keen on slaughtering and consuming them to prove that he is the only one worthy of being human, but then he met some of him that were smarter than he is, and that made him doubt whether he deserves to live more than they do or not. Then the Arbiter came and tries to decide that for him, by sentencing all Shous to death because he is a violation of the Head. They demand us to relent partnership with him so he can be slaughtered, but LCDT stands against that and partnered up with the Library to defend Shou. The Arbiter is pissed off, asking why we are obstructing their justice, and the answer Jericho gave was that all Shous deserve to live 😢 and if one day they could be acknowledged as human, then it might as well already be today.
!! Now I can’t wait to see the main bus’ Cantos line up with this. Rubbing my fly hands together. 🪰🪰
