I was originally just going to do this on Twitter but I realized that I had way too much to say and there are people asking questions here. So may as well kill two birds with one stone. But only the mean birds, not the good birds.
This whole update was about “show don’t tell”, so here’s the opposite agenda of me telling you what happened after you’ve seen it. You can read all about that under the cut.
So the first big question I’ve gotten with this update asks: “Where did the words go? Isn’t Vast Error well established to be a lengthy and confusing motherfucker to parse? Are you shortselling me?”
The answer to this question is really simple. Pairing up text about Dismas AND Albions entries simultaineously WHILE throwing in foreshadowing and foreboding nonsense just due to the nature of White Noise’s narrative musings AND making sure everything is known to the ACTUAL reader (the other you). It would be a fucking nightmare. I’m talking like there would be paragraphs per page. Dismas and Albion can wait in goddamn line and talk about it afterwards like everybody else will.
Alright now lets go over everything else.
With entries in general, after Arcjec and Taz before EOA1 and a little extra info during Taz’s entry, we really don’t need to go into any more entries on a long term scale. We don’t need to see them fucking with the etchelizer, we don’t need to see them inserting pillar codes, we don’t need to see them interacting with the text box that gives them the numbers for their personal codes that you probably forgot existed. The only important things worth seeing in an entry now are how their personal codes are obtained, and the use of the paragon repository that hold their denizens. Both of these are indicative of circumstance and character, both of which we have too much on to dawdle about.
We see that the horrorcore demons are actually here to help with that as Edolon suggested. They speed up the entry process for the players and ensure they are intimidated enough on top of their percieved planetary doom to continue moving forward. Never forget that this game is all about forcing character development, that is its main focus. These guys are being made to help jumpstart that goal. Nobody except Edolon and Weird Al are very pleased about it, but as we’ve seen, only their opinions matter.
Lets go over Dismas’s entry in depth first, since it takes place earlier.
We see Dismas’s lusus come crawling back with a vengance, the vindictive fucker has been chased away from his domain and he is HUNGRY and out for clay blood. We know that Murrit warded him away during Dismas’s entry because he has everything handled, as he knew he would be wasting a bit of time and planned accordingly.
What Dismas’s lusus was NOT hungry for, was knowledge. But he got it anyways, as he is then POSESSED by the Denizen of Mind once he is in proximity. Dismas is then chained down and restrained as his denizen comes up to see him, his denizen has him right where he wants him. In place of imposed fear and without choice of action.
This didn’t HAVE to occur with Dismas’s lusus, by the way. If you didn’t know, in VE the concept of fate is mostly bullshit. It’s the actions of The Vivifier and The Exemplars meticulous setup that allows for this stuff to go as smoothly as it did, but while they could PREDICT the route of the future with White Noise’s guidance they cannot hold 100% accuracy. Circumstance and free will forbids this from ever being the case, especially within our cast. Dismas did not find the barren, nor the bloom, and especially not where they met.
This is where Weird Al comes into play, he knows that these inaccuracies can and will occur, it is basically his self-made job to notice them. Dismas didn’t have time to find his personal codes where he was supposed to? Find them himself and show it to him. Has a broken arm AND a broken computer? Help him do some of the more strenuous game work. Has an abusive father figure meant to challenge him in this very moment? Can’t have that! Enjoy oblivion you baby Godzilla knockoff.
Circumstance plays a big role here, as Dismas’s challenge with his paragon repository could have been a number of different things while still holding the same moral value. His challenge was malleable, it depended on what Dismas had at that moment and the action taken would need to reflect that.
In this case, Dismas is chained down without any sort of recourse and is forced to watch this long haired happy happy joy joy cultist goon take away the one thing he’s wanted to do for his entire life. His one true goal, taken away from him in an instant. It was never about killing ALL the skulltitans for him, that was a blanket statement meant to cover up the truth of the matter like a bandanna over a sore set of scars. The fact was that he wanted revenge on an abusive father figure who hurt him and took a toll on his MIND and on his body. He had to watch that toll be paid, that was his task. That is what will help him move forward in the eyes of The Game.
Dismas says to Albion a couple updates earlier that he wants to try and understand how she feels.
Well, I’m sure he knows now.
Speaking of Albion, lets talk about her.
Albion’s path is a lot more straightforward than Dismas’s path, but shes been through so much that it kind of needs to be. She has a big task to try and fulfill and has been through a lot today, still trudging along through shit.
Albion, like Dismas, also doesn’t know where her codes are. But unlike Dismas, she has the sneaking suspicion that where they might be is now unobtainable. ‘A place of fading color’ sounds a lot like the colorful space beyond any comprehnsible boundaries that she frequented her whole life, thinking it was just the inside of her head. Turns out that was all fake and only given to her as a resource to store power for The Game ahead out of spite from an ongoing jealousy binge from her ancestor. And since shes dead and her Star Guardian is gone, and the last she saw of that place was that it was melting into nothingness. There is an assumption to be made that she once again can’t access this place anymore.
Edolon has an idea about this, and begins to stress that maybe the best thing is that she should try utilize her emotions to her advantage again, like she was earlier with her being enraged with the demons keeping her down. Only instead of a burning anguish, she should try remembering that makes her feel like she did once before. Something about that place that gave her HOPE as her mind is cleared. She does this, and she is able to force herself back within The Cell just long enough to see her codes written there clearly behind the colored walls which she saw waste away before her multicolored eyes.
She also sees this:
You should know who this is.
You should start thinking about her a lot. Because she is the reasons everything in this story is happening. And she is the reason why The Cell will never stop being an important construct of this comic.
Edolon deploys Albion’s paragon repository while she makes contact, and it is nothing more than a large, blinding white light that begins to consume the land around her. It’s so powerful you can even see it consume and destroy a few horrorcore demons and take over the view of Albion’s entry gate.
Her challenge is also a lot more straightforward than Dismas’s, her challenge is predicated on the idea of blind faith. Despite the fear of whats happening, and despite the fear of whats to come, will she go into the light and move forward? Or will she stay and let the stagnation consume her?
Albion hesitates, and is clearly not very pleased about whats happening around her. But she does make her choice, she once again makes the attempt to move forward despite not knowing whats ahead. Albion is far from okay, she may talk to Dismas fine enough, she may have apologized to her matesprit, but ultimately she is still challenged by her past and by her mistakes. She will not be able to change easily, and that fact may very well continue to hinder her. But it’s not a quick process, and shes only able to fix herself by trying.
And by doing that, there is always a way to fix yourself.
Take care, hope this explained things well enough.
Vast Error wallpapers! The first is the cast taken from Vast Error Vol. 1 and Vast Error Vol. 3 and the other was done byt @circlejourneyart for the track ‘Ultima Hoc Fatum’, also from Vol. 3.
