#David plays Arknights

[xenodile]

Very very fond of new operator Corroserum for being a completely sociopathic amoral scientist that loves to kill people but is very genial and well spoken about it.  Like he presents himself as “Oh me, I’m just an R&D scientist with Raythean Industries, I just analyze data and write reports, I’m honestly better qualified to be a secretary than an operator” but his field of research is acid-spewing chemical weapons and their efficiency at killing droves of people so he’s like “I’m working :)  I’m gathering data :)” as he’s hosting down a crowd of people with a pressure washer full of battery acid.

His 2 star and mission failed lines are like “Don’t feel bad Doctor, I know you can do better, after all I have calculated my weapon to be far more efficient that these results would indicate” which is a fancy way of saying “we can kill so many more people than this, figure out how I can kill more people at once”.  His squad leader line has him offering everyone an acid resistant chemical coating spray but making no promises it’ll work, but assuring them if it fails, their deaths will contribute to science.  For all his polite manners he just LOVES to kill people.

He’s also very VERY openly into the Doctor.  His 3 star mission complete line has him unsubtly asking them out, his challenge mode success line has him getting all excited over how Doctor’s strategy has pushed his weapon beyond what he thought was possible, so now he needs to collect EVEN MORE DATA (kill way more people) to test these newfound limits..!

He’s your evil mass murdering lizard boy sexy secretary and I’m going to pound him against my desk.

[xenodile]

Beanstalk mentions the word “breeding” fairly often because her job is animal husbandry and everyone jumps up and starts clowning about it.

But then Perfumer’s interlude has her make this face

and now her new Christmas outfit is called “Gift Uncompleted” as she drapes a ribbon lazily across herself, with a box of heart chocolates, giving come hither eyes to the camera.  Keywords “Warm/Silky”.

It was always intentional.  Beanstalk really is for breeding.

[xenodile]

For the Year of the Tiger, I'm going to go down on Waai Fu so hard that I'll be coughing up hairballs. I would also do this if it were not the Year of the Tiger, but it's more meaningful this year.

[xenodile]

The R6S collab very subtly pushes Arknights into cosmic horror territory because Originium has now been established to be capable of seeping out of Terra and into other dimensions, and when embedded in flesh with the right stimuli, it actively replicates itself and grows with conscious, deliberate intent.

And now that we've seen exactly what happens to victims of Oripathy, and how uncannily similar it is to ants infected by cordycep fungus, as well as the other effects it has on Infected peoples' psyche and behavior, I think we can safely conclude that Originium is in fact some kind of living planetary parasite, almost like a mineral based fungus that's gradually overtaking the world.

[xenodile]

There’s just something that gets me so bad about Saga like

Dusk tried to send Saga to hell.  Saga saw through Dusk’s paintings, but didn’t succumb to despair like Dusk did.  She spent 10 years inside Dusk’s paintings, knowing full well that they were fabrications that could disappear at any moment, but she didn’t love the wonders she saw and people she met in them any less, and Dusk is furious about it because the whole reason she’s been pulling people into her paintings is to make them see her nihilistic, self pitying worldview.

When Saga unwittingly brought Nian down on Dusk’s head, she gave up all pretense of niceness and just tried to destroy Saga’s mind.  She sent Saga to a painting where there were dozens of identical versions of her.  How could anyone stay sane when they were surrounded by mirrors, each reflection saying they were the real one, you must be the illusion?

Saga could.  She didn’t doubt she was real, nor did she doubt any of the reflections were real.  All of them were her, choices she might or might not take, paths she could or couldn’t walk, and she loved all of them just as much as she loved herself.  Dusk tried to break Saga by telling her that the self is an illusion with no meaning, and Saga responded by loving the illusion of self and every form it might take, because the self has always been what we choose to see.  And every reflection, every possible Saga responded in kind.  That no matter what happens, what road she walks, Saga is still Saga.  They laughed together, ate together, and walked together, dozens and dozens of possibilities of the woman named Saga, and decided they are all real and worthy of love.

[xenodile]

Arknights feels like the same problem I had with late game FGO in that I have a bunch of powerful units that are maxed out, I have a good handle on how they work, but the game keeps power creeping and wanting more and more time and strategic investment and like

I don’t want to be challenged playing a mobile game!!  You are a tiny disposable distraction that I fiddle with when I can’t play real video games, I don’t come to you for heavy engagement, I come here to drop my funny anime girlsnboys on the map and win because I’ve already fully upgraded a bunch of end game units.

I don’t want to have to sit and wrack my brain for hours trying to figure out which specific deployment and perfect frame skill activation this challenge stage wants.

I don’t want to spend hours out of my day mindlessly grinding easy stages because some cunt in an office decided X number of AP spent was mandatory for ~*~full completion~*~.

I don’t want to see a endless list of chores to do because the game doesn’t want to ever end, it only wants me to engage with it forever so I keep spending money.

I want to see a goal, achieve it, and be able to say “I’m done” so I can engage with it at my leisure, and that is just antitheses to mobile games in general.

[xenodile]

Way back when Nian debuted with the Ancient Forge event, I made a bunch of long ass posts speculating about what her goals her and what her deal is.  The theory I put forth was that Nian and her similarly divine siblings used to just fight for the sake of fighting, before eventually settling down into their own crafts/niches, with Nian being metallurgy and smithing.

Additionally, Nian’s goal in interacting with Lava and others is to make them stronger.  The way she leaves clues, presents threats, and pushes them forward, she wants to leave people stronger and better than she found them, as she is the Beast of the New Year, the disaster that heralds a fresh start and prosperity.

Now my thought that the reason she did this was to leave a legacy.  That the people she “forged” would remember and tell stories of her long after she ceased to be, that civilization surviving would be proof she existed, and with the new information in Who Is Real, I think I’ve been proven correct.

Nian, Dusk, and their siblings are fragments of some greater beast of disaster that lies dormant, a true old god, and some day, possibly in the near future, this sleeping god will wake up and the beasts born of its essence will be consumed to resurrect it.

Nian and Dusk talk about how the unique individuals they are will cease to be, made into a singular being once again, but that Nian intends to resist the will of their original form.  Dusk mocks her for thinking a single piece can stand against the whole, but Nian tells her that more than a few of their siblings agree with her.

Leading back to my original idea.  Nian isn’t just forging people for her own sake, she’s trying to make them strong enough to kill the old god when it subsumes her.  She’s going to get as many of her siblings on her side and convince them to resist their original will in order to weaken the beast, so that the mortals she’s taught and strengthen will be able to defeat it.

Just like how the traitor god gave the people of Yen and the True Lung the means to fight and defeat the gods, Nian is giving Rhodes Island the means to fight and defeat the beast of disaster.

[xenodile]

Arknights horse women make me behave abnormally.

[xenodile]

Love Saga's 200 Trust file because it confirms exactly what I thought. After escaping from Dusk's painting, Saga bids farewell to Lava and co. and sets off to continue her journey, saying perhaps they will meet again some day.

And then she more or less followed them home completely by accident and arrived at Rhodes Island at about the same time, running into each other like

[xenodile]

Saga looks at cosmic and existential horror beyond human comprehension and just says "Hoh, how fascinating!" and walks away totally unaffected.

[xenodile]

Dusk making the Tails Gets Trolled face when Saga just leaves her existential nightmare prison with no side effects is peak comedy.

[xenodile]

The "two suns" referenced in the name Dossoles are actually Candela's left and right balls.

[xenodile]

So I happened upon 6 star Nearl’s art by chance

AND HOLD ON, ZOOM, ENHANCE

HELL YEAH BAYBEEEE THAT’S WHAT I’M FUCKIN’ TALKIN’ ABOOOOOUUUUT!!!!!

[xenodile]

Welcome to Terra, where the ocean is alive and wants to hurt you, and the land itself is infected with parasitic crystals that are alive and want to hurt you.

[xenodile]

Schwarz's Operator Record is so intrinsically tied with the themes of the R6S event I wish it was in the event itself so people that don't have Schwarz could appreciate it.

On Schwarz's last day in Siesta, the day before she left for Rhodes Island with Ceylon, Herman acknowledges her as his daughter. The man she was sent to kill when she was twelve, who took her in, trained her, and raised her, tells her that she is his daughter just as much as Ceylon is, and his last wish before she finally leaves home is to live for herself.

She'll stay with Ceylon of course, but from now on she can't live for Ceylon or Herman's sake as a servant to the Doykos family. He tells her to live and fight for her own sake, to pursue what she believes in, not follow orders.

So we fast forward to the R6S event and we get to see Schwarz doing that. She's fighting to protect people, to stand up to injustice and cruelty just because it's what she believes is right, orders be damned..!

[xenodile]

This event is really fucking good.