#manifesting for 2.2

[yuzuuu4]

(rkgk) damn gambler

[marragurl]

Look. This ain’t true. Like at all. This is so not the dynamic of this ship-

BUT

It’s fucking hilarious

So I made this on a google doc on my phone and I’m heading back to my sleep because of course, this came to me in a dream

[rekoifish]

chat ive been trying to speed run the hsr 2.2 story quest while enjoying it and uh yeah ive hit a roadblock.

[theguyinthemathexamples]

Guns and... Aeons?

May Aventurine grant his luck upon everyone's Boothill pulls!!!

— C/W : spoilers?, set at the end of the 2.2 quest, boothill is boothill ft. argenti, i forgot what his lore is so take anything i say with a grain of salt, LOTS of yapping, guns and roses sneak, very self-indulgent :3

Boothill never really had much faith in Aeons, much less worshipped any. He already lost it all when he gained the information, that darned rain of fire that destroyed everything, was deployed by a zealot.

Don't get him wrong, he still knew they existed. But he internally wished that maybe, if any Aeon took pity on him on that day, maybe he could have changed the outcome of it all.

Well, that was all in the past now. He'd be a rusted out piece of metal by now if he let himself wallow in bygone events.

A low sigh didn't fail to make itself known, inadvertently catching the attention of the knight just at the other end of the room. Boothill even forgot he was there due to how quiet he was.

"A rose for your thoughts, friend?" The knight inquired, sitting at the other end of the couch. He nearly jumped at the sudden question but was just as quick to regain his composure.

"Nothin' much, just thinkin' and all," he replied, only tilting his head to look at this eccentric friend of his.

Ironic that Argenti was a man quite devoted to an Aeon, especially to a long deceased one, when Boothill was borderline detesting a good amount of them.

"This dadgum pull I've been feelin'... D'you know somethin' about it, knight?"

It was something he'd been feeling for a while now but it's been getting stronger as of late. And the voices... He'll leave those out till Argenti mentions something about it.

To put it frankly, he was worried. Quite more so if nothing else.

"Does it make you feel like wanting to visit the Astral Express, friend?" Argenti inquired shortly after,

Boothill simply nodded, curious as to how this Knight of Beauty knew of such. Sensing his curiosity, said knight certainly wouldn't mind going into the further details.

In fact, he was more than enthusiastic to do so.

"As Idrila's reason to have ascended into Aeonhood, it is only natural that I give high praises to the Aeon of Creation for such magnificence— that THEIR creations have inspired my Goddess to reach THEIR most pinnacle potential."

If this was how he talked about his Aeon and this... well, other Aeon, the two would be here till his batteries run out. And he was just about done recharging to full a few hours ago.

It wasn't till a good amount of minutes into the topic that Boothill kinda got a little impatient. No offense to Argenti, of course.

"And it wasn't till recently that their wondrous consciousness graced the unive—"

"Alright, alright, I get it, knight. Don't mean to offend ya, but can ya get straight to why I felt the pull earlier?" Boothill interjected, looking straight at his companion,

He swore that the way this man shone brightened up even more.

"My apologies if I overwhelmed you, dear friend," Argenti said, giving the cowboy an apologetic bow while he was sitting.

"Simply put, this pull you feel is but the manifestations of the Aeon of Creation! Perhaps your brilliant self captured THEIR attention when you were conversing with the Trailblazer," he continued, yapping up another storm as Boothill thought to himself.

"Seriously? This ol' hunk of metal? Catchin' an Aeon's attention? Colour me fudgin' surprised."

"Ah, this is certainly a moment worth celebrating, don't you think so, friend?" Argenti's voice spoke out, bringing his attention back to the knight.

Yet, before this interstellar cyborg cowboy could even agree or otherwise, a black envelope materialized in front of him, the edges lined with red and gold designs.

One surprise after another, huh?

The knight was quick to encourage him to open it up, taking out a letter opener from who knows where. Well now he's starting to get excited.

A golden Star Rail Pass was the first to get taken out of it, its colour shining in the midst of the room's lights. Next was a neatly folded paper that was probably penned by the Astral Express' Conductor. (Somehow; I mean, look at their itty bitty hands) It reads as follows:

—————————✧—————————

Hello, future Astral Express member, Boothill! This letter has been written by Pom-pom to formally invite you to join the Trailblaze.

By all means, this doesn't mean that you should abandon your faith for any Aeon(s) you may believe in, so long as it doesn't prohibit the other members of the Astral Express from going about their days.

As you may have guessed, yes, the golden ticket provided inside is a very formal way for Pom-pom to ask you to join us, as well as a sign that the Aeon of Creation has taken a liking to you!

To compensate for any forms of distress or trouble their consciousness has caused you, the Astral Express will be willing to offer a living space, electricity, wifi, food, water(gasoline?), as well as any other necessities and wants you may have.

Though if you truly want to seek trouble with the IPC, as the Aeon commented, please leave the Astral Express out of association for any crime you may commit in the future.

If you're ready to take on this journey with the Nameless, as well as many others, please use the ticket once the thought of doing so so much as suggests the notion.

• P.S. : Unfortunately, you don't have much time to mull it over, much less get another letter in this envelope to choose who to cover for you instead.

• The Aeon of Creation awaits your presence. •

—————————✧—————————

As Argenti finished reading the letter aloud, the expectant lilt on his face that he looks at Boothill with catches his attention the most.

"I nearly forgot to mention, dear friend, as a faithful believer of this Aeon, one can assure you that THEY don't mean any harm," he spoke, a smile gracing his lips as he continued. "The blessings THEY give to ones that they favour are quite abundant, and your captivating self truly made its impact on THEM."

"Even THEY couldn't help but praise you endlessly for your courage and demeanor!" Argenti proclaimed, almost making the cowboy in front of him want to tune him out again. ... That last part was a lie.

With a reluctant sigh, finally agreeing with the knight, the golden Star Rail Pass and the envelope in hand, Boothill stood up from his seat and went over to exit his friend's ship— to which Argenti quickly stopped him, hand outstretched for him.

"Need me to lead you there, friend?" He asks, head tilting to his left as his eyes brightened up with that usual glow.

"... Yeah, sure. Ya won't stop botherin' this ol' piece of metal to give ya updates if I said otherwise," Boothill laughed at the end of his reply, taking the knight's hand and letting him lead the way.

Maybe making a decision with a third party beside him won't be so bad.

Note : ong this took WAY TOO LONGGGGG TO MAKEEEEEEE 😭😭

My most sincere apologies to anyone whose patience ran out while waiting for this fic to come out 💔

BUT IT'S OUT NOW SO REJOICE EVERYONE ‼️‼️

Anyways, have a lovely day to all of you !! (disappears for another month)

And yes dw my interp of sahsr/sahsrau will come out maybe around late june once my recognition finally comes to pass

[ironunderstands]

ACHERON AND DR. RATIO HAVE THE EXACT SAME PHILOSOPHY IM GONNA BITE SOMEONE

‼️2.2 spoilers‼️

If you are like me, when you got to Acheron’s conversation with the trailblazer in front of the manifestation of IX, you tried to resist over tables BECAUSE AAAAAAAUGHH WHAT DO YOU MEAN

Look, LIKE JUST LOOK

This is part of Ratios conversation with Screwllum in the 1.6 questline:

PAY ATTENTION TO THE LAST ONE BECAUSE

GUESS WHO ECHOES IT WHEN WE TALK TO HER IN 2.2:

IS THIS NOT THE SAME? ARE THEY NOT SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING? THAT YOU SHOULD GIVE PEOPLE THE TOOLS TO HELP THEMSELVES, THEN LEAVE THEM ALONE SO THEY CAN SAVE THEMSELVES AND FORGE THEIR OWN FUTURE? THAT THEY BOTH BELIEVE THAT WHEN PEOPLE ARE LEFT ALONE TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES DO THEY SHOW THEIR TRUE STRENGTH?!?

Like this lines especially are just AAAAGHH literal bar for bar repeating one another

SERIOUSLY, SERIOUSLY WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD DOCTOR AS THE SAME OUTLOOK ON HUMANITY AS A LITERAL EMANATOR OF NIHILITY?!?!

An emanator of Nihility WHO SHOULD’NT EXIST

An emanator of Nihility looking to kill IX and find the Existence on the other side of them.

AND HIS VIEWS ARE CREEPILY SIMILAR TO HERS?

Fuck it, Ratio isn’t just accidentally striding the path of Nihility.

He’s accidentally striding the path of Existence.

Nous be damned the reason why this man was never acknowledged by the Erudition is because he’s striding a Path so starkly different to it that the person who resembles him the most shouldn’t even be there either.

No wonder his in game path is Hunt instead of Erudtion, if he’s this similar to Acheron than her singleminded drive to end IX mirrors that of his to spread knowledge (following how Hunt works in gameplay, a lot more like Vengance in lore).

Please please please Hoyo I’m begging on hands and knees for this to be intentional, and for you to do SOMETHING, SOMETHING WITH THIS PLOTPOINT.

Ratio figured out Dormancy somehow, all of his character stories are told from the POV of other people, so we barely know anything about his past, he’s from a planet we don’t know of yet, AND NOW WE HAVE TO CONTEND WITH THIS??

I NEED ANSWERS I NEED EXPLANATIONS I NEED SOMETHING PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME HANGING. LET HIS LORE AND FUTURE OUT OF THE BOX PLEASE

“I bet they are going to pull an Alhaitham with him”

NO, NO THEY AREN’T. PLEASE TELL ME THEY AREN’T. I know it’s coping, but the mystery around Alhaitham got cleared away when we got his character stories, but Ratio’s character stories only make him more confusing. We have more questions instead of answers and with the 2.2 update I will spontaneously combust if we never get them BECAUSE WHAT DO YOU MEAN AAAAAAA

TLDR: let the Ratio lore out of the box and Hoyoverse pls pls PLEASE let him meet Acheron 

[papamado]

A "theory" regarding Sampo's abilities

okay so this is an absolute mess and more of a ramble but I think it might be worth sharing so here I am Since I'm very normal about Sampo Koski, I've noticed some paralels to.. osme things... and i ended up with a concept that Sampo might be aware/know the future/what is supposed to happen, aka the same/similar thing to what Elio is using as a base to write his scripts, or is aware of the scripts that Elio creates. On Belobog we don't encounter stellaron hunters (for obvious reasons), but Sampo does end up being the one who affects the way the plot goes and actively puts it in motion, he's the one in control (to some extent) He also appears to be aware of stuff that has yet to happen and its possible outcomes (getting Natasha even before we started fighting Svarog, knowing that we will arrive on Luofu despite it being an unplanned stop, the possible future Belobog catastropy) There's 2 ways to approach this: 1. He works with how it's supposed to go, (following the trailblazer around, kinda like stellaron hunters happen to do) 2. He deliberately works against it (Jarilo VI is supposed to face destruction but he prevents it, could be for personal reasons) Theres also the whole thing about him breaking the 4th wall, which could be connected. Awarnesss of the fact that this is a game could result in him having a knowledge of what the plot of said game is.

I strongly HC Sampo to be an Elation emanator, so I thought about what being an elation emanator could mean, as in, how realistically the powers could manifest From the recent guide that was released along side the 2.2 stream, we have a small entry about Masked Fools which confirms that the path powers are DIRECTLY tied to their masks (this could mean both metaphorical or physical masks but from what i get from the context here it most likely refers to the physical ones?? the concept works with both possibilities tho so whatever <3 )

We know that sampo doesn't have his mask currently (which also works in a symbolic way, Masks represent the devotion to Elation, him not having it could represent how he wants to distance himself from what Elation is considered to be and pursue his own idea of it instead. The general description provided here for how masked fools are doesn't exactly fit him either whichmight further prove that idea, i should write a seperate post on that, anyways-) , so how the hell can he do shit that we assumed earlier was Elation-related powers? i have 2 possible explanations for this 1. Him being an emanator lets him use the path powers without a need for a mask, if thats the case - the mask would only provide a powerup 2. Elation emanator powers are something else altogether

when we look at his current power set/abilities it can all be tied to the fact that this is a game so, him bieng an emanator of elation would allow him to ignore the rules of this world/mainupulate said rules, simple as that it would also explain why he can break the 4th wall, why he is aware of the future events, what leads to them and/or how to stop them in the first place and how he can do stuff that contradicts what's been established lore vise (like how nobody should be able to cross the barrier between the Overworld and Underworld), those rules don't apply to him, he's beyond them. But there's more we DO have an in game example of people already messing with the reality in the same manner - Silver Wolf From what I gathered (with help of some friends of mine mwah mwah), the "reality editing" abilites of Punklorde people are directly tied to a technology present in said world - that combined with the world view of those living here results with them reating the world they live in as if it was a game

Adding onto that, during "punklorde mentality" mission we get to hear Leonard say this:

"Masked fools believe it really exists" so are the Masked Fools aware that someone could posses *actual* (not provided by technology) power to alter/manipulate reality and ignore the established rules of the world? We can kinda see such thing happening with Aha in stimulated universe, not only do they break the 4th wall, but according to Herta they also seem to be affecting the stimulated universe itself Aha's manipulation of reality is also mentioned in the "Glimpses into the Beyond"

So maybe to wrap it all up: 1. Sampo could be aware of the possible future events and use the reality manipulation abilities/the fact that the rules don't apply to him to achieve a desired outcome 2. Him and the Stellaron Hunters have some paralels in the narrative when it comes to the role that they play and what they do?? kinda??? 3. Punklorde people could be affiliated with Elation to some extent, even if not directly blessed by it I am probably VERY wrong about all of this but honestly I'm having fun with this theory so idc <3

[feroluce]

Not to make everything about my ship, but if I don't do it no one will, so today we are making meta analysis of Boothill's faceoff match about henghill, because the differences between Boothill's stand off with Luka and his one with Dan Heng- and what you can infer about Boothill himself and what catches his eye in a person- makes me chew concrete.

JUST. I loved the scene between Luka and Boothill so much. I love how wildly unrestrained Boothill is. He really just shoved the barrel of his gun in his opponent's face and put the fear of death into him as a way to test Luka's resolve. I utterly adore him. I hope he does it again. Anyway.

When confronted with all this, Luka freezes. His stress-induced hallucinations were already bad, but you can see how they really ramp up in this match, because before, they were always something familiar. Previous enemies became Silvermanes, or Belobogian automatons, or even Cocolia. Luka is far from home for the first time in his life, and he's so terribly homesick his brain is making everything familiar, because that is what he's desperately craving right now.

But Boothill.

Boothill is something so new, and unique, and horrific and terrifying, that he becomes something entirely unknown to Luka. His hallucination manifests as Something Unto Death, as the very fear of death itself.

And this stand off (which I love so much that this is how this match progressed, because like that's literally just Boothill's in-game skill; he locks the enemy into a one-on-one duel, so this was extremely in character for him) lasts long enough that Owlbert starts having to fill in the silence over the loudspeaker,

and even Boothill himself starts trying to push Luka into making a decision one way or the other.

Given that Boothill is a hunter by trade and is proven to have all the patience to track his prey and then some, this was more for Luka's sake than any impatience on his part, to try to shove him out of his freeze reaction.

And Boothill isn't really hard to read throughout this whole exchange, he all but says outright what he's looking for.

Boothill wants to see him surpass this test and come at him! You can see it in his face when Luka finally takes a step! And in how he congratulates him!

And then he fucking shot him snxhsjksjsn

Boothill admires courage, and bravery, and decisiveness. He admires a person's ability to put their life on the line and still fight in the face of danger and overwhelming odds. Those are the things that catch his eye.

And Luka does kind of get there eventually, but it is a stalling, halting motion that gets him there, and he fell to pieces immediately afterwards. This is his first time with this, and he's still figuring it out.

Dan Heng, on the other hand.

Boothill's stand off with Dan Heng from 2.2 is so fucking far in the total opposite direction that it is HILARIOUS.

Boothill literally breaks into the Astral Express, ambushes Dan Heng, and Dan Heng still has the balls to not only demand info out of Boothill- like doesn't even ask nicely, demands it- he also just straight up calls Boothill a liar. Right to his face! And he still isn't nice about it!!

By the way, that entire conversation? This is how it takes place.

Boothill, phrasing!!

Boothill has him at gunpoint! Dan Heng does not have his weapon with him! He does not flinch, and even stands there with his arms crossed seeming simultaneously pissed and utterly unimpressed. He looks like he should be irritably tapping his foot and looking down his nose at him. Dan Heng could not give less of a shit.

For that matter, Dan Heng even turns his back and walks away from Boothill- right in the middle of him talking, too! Not a single attempt to be considerate of the man who could decide any moment he feels like decorating the wall with Dan Heng's brains.

Dan Heng is brave and courageous and completely unflappable in the face of danger. He is ruthless and decisive in how he conducts himself, even when staring down the barrel of a gun. And through his efforts in Penacony, he shows the ability to put his life on the line and fight through overwhelming odds to save his once-in-a-lifetime companions.

No wonder Dan Heng caught Boothill's eye the way he did, no wonder the two of them were working together and bantering not even minutes after Boothill pulled a gun on him haha

[thatanimewriter]

i have thoughts about sunday now that i DO write for him after i finished 2.2

as mature as he is as like, a leader n stuff, and he's very logical, he's actually quite child-like?? the idea of being able to protect everyone from pain and suffering by yourself so everyone can be happy is a very uniquely child-like way to think

he obviously isn't a literal child, but his whole ena dream situation is an interesting way his inner child manifested

[barbieb0y]

so what do we think about 2.2 update? i saw some are saying flop update until they announced the garments lol. personally i have mixed feelings bc i do agree we couldve gotten more dark-skinned characters. but i found myself liking most of the new things (i'll admit im a bit biased for that shamane garment ...)

miss kimberly/anjo nala becoming a playable character is pretty cool. and white rum is literally a sentient skeleton arm! also mr duncan ... i have to mention him sorry. i wont comment on anything story-wise (which is ironic bc this is a main story update lol) bc ive been trying to avoid 1.9 spoilers

but regardless it's too early to really evaluate it accurately. i'll wait till it comes to global to know whats it about. in the meantime, lets all just manifest for dark-skinned characters in 2.3 i guess ...

[desertleviathan]

On the Company of Heroes

The Warrior of Light: Yo, I heard the Kobolds have summoned Titan. Or are preparing to summon Titan. Or summoned him briefly, dismissed him, and are about to summon him again after acquiring more crystals. Or summoned him, but he's chilling in an incorporeal state so that he can appear dramatically in a way that looks as though he's being summoned for the first time during the cutscene at the start of his instanced battle. It's... not super clear honestly. But what is clear is that somebody needs to do something about it. And I am recently employed as a Primal Slayer so, hey, I'm here to do the thing. Just point me in the right direction.

Wheiskaet: What?

WoL: Oh sorry, I guess it's been a while for you, hasn't it? I've been informed that you know a secret backdoor to the Kobolds' favorite Titan-Summoning Chamber. If you could just tell me where that is that would be excellent, please and thank you!

Wheiskaet: Now hold up there kid, I can't in good conscience send some novice adventurer off to die in battle with a Primal!

The WoL: I appreciate the concern, but for real, don't even worry about it. My axe is literally still hot from cleaving through Ifrit's torso. I should have mentioned that first, sorry! It was a pretty easy fight actually. Took like ten minutes, and more than half of that was waiting for the queue. So, uh, Titan? Just… show me where…

Wheiskaet: When me and my crew fought Titan back in the day we only pulled off a narrow victory by sacrificing countless fighters, literally grinding him to a halt with a mountain of our dead piled up around his big rocky feet.

The WoL: Really? I slew Ifrit backed up by only three random low-ranking Scions who were among the beaten and malnourished captives taken by the Amalj'aa. And we got it done without any casualties. Coincidentally, they're all three in much better shape now, and still available to help me with this. So. Where's Titan?

Wheiskaet: Oh. Uh. Well. We were simultaneously facing Leviathan on a second front…

The WoL: That sounds like a really raw deal, man! Just an absolute mess! Fortunately for all of us, the Sahagin won't get their shit together until Patch 2.2, and Leviathan is nowhere to be seen. Where. Is. Titan?

Wheiskaet: You don't understand, he emits a magical field that can steal your free will! It's a miracle that you got out of Ifrit's lair with your wits!

The WoL: Funny story! I'm one of a handful of individuals who are immune to that! The phenomenon isn't widely known, but it is thoroughly documented. My colleague here, a scholar of some renown who is apparently already known to you personally, and who carries her credentials as a certified Sharlayan master of Aetherology literally tattooed on her neck, can vouch for all of that.

Y'shtola: Hello! My associate is indeed immune to Tempering, as well as a skilled and accomplished fighter. These being the two primary credentials we sought for our new staff position of full-time Primal Killer. The individual standing before you is the most qualified candidate to be found in all of Eorzea, as I can attest to either from personal observation or from the testimony of my most trusted colleagues, depending on which of the three city states their journey began in. Where is Titan, please?

Wheiskaet: Listen. I believe that you both believe this rookie is some kind of badass. But a threat like Titan ain't for the untested.

The WoL: I appreciate the concern, I really do, but let's look at all the pieces in play here before we decide to label any of them useless. My understanding is that once a Primal is fully manifest, it can stay manifest so long as there's a power source. The big heap of earth crystals the Kobolds probably used to kindle him just catalyzed the process, but after that he can sustain himself by leeching aether directly from the land, corect?

Y'shtola: Oh, bravo! You actually listened to my lecture!

Wheiskaet: I guess that all checks out with what I know.

The WoL: So there are three possibilities. In the first one, Titan sucks up aether until he feels confident enough to just Juggernaut his way southwards, killing or tempering literally everyone he encounters until all of Vylbrand is a graveyard, pretty much unstoppable unless you use the kind of brutal sacrifice play the Company of Heroes had to resort to back in the day. And even that's no guarantee. But maybe, just maybe, the Thalassocracy will be able to leverage enough firepower to stop him before the body count gets too catastrophic.

Wheiskaet: (Nodding) Aye, that's what I expect will happen.

The WoL: The second possibility, and tactically the smartest move in my opinion, is where Titan just lurks in place and bleeds Vylbrand dry, winning a war of attrition while guarded behind the innumerable ranks of tempered fanatic Kobolds who are ready to turn the heavily-fortified maze-like tunnels of O'Ghomoro into a meat grinder that would make your last encounter with their God look like a little light sparring. Eventually he'll run out of juice, but by then he'll be so powerful that he can just Godzilla his way over to the mainland and resume feeding from there, practically invulnerable to any countermeasures that wouldn't be considered an Eighth Umbral Calamity in their own right, and leaving every place he goes a withered husk.

Wheiskaet: Huh. When you lay it out like that, it almost sounds inevitable.

The WoL: And the third possibility is that someone gets in there as soon as possible and puts Titan down before he can get too bloated with aether. This being the only possibility that doesn't lead to a mountain of Limsan corpses at best, or star-wide mass extinction event at worst.

Wheiskaet: Mm-hmm, I hear what you're saying and it does make sense. You've got a good head on your shoulders there. You'll make a fine commander some day.

The WoL: Thank you. So even if the third plan involves considerable risk for whoever pulls it off, if they succeed it avoids a tremendous amount of bloodshed. And if it fails… your top secret back door would still work for a second team, right? Or a third? Your secret door obviously isn't just a door. So it will still potentially be a sacrifice play, but channeling our forces through this specific vulnerability will keep the body count from growing quite as massive as it would be if we met Titan on the open field of battle.

Wheiskaet: So you guessed that the way in is an Aethernet Crystal, huh?

The WoL: If it was a physical passage, the Kobolds would have charted it and sealed it up ages ago, given how tunnels are pretty much their main deal. So now that we're on the same page… how do I get to Titan?

Wheiskaet: You don't.

The WoL: I don't?

Wheiskaet: No.

The WoL: Ok. New approach. What are we doing instead?

Wheiskaet: We?

The WoL: If the Company of Heroes is the only 'proven' anti-Titan force you trust, you're getting the band back together to handle this yourselves, right? Where do I enlist? It'll be… an honor, I guess, to fight alongside you.

Wheiskaet: Haha! Hah! Nah, no, definitely not! We're all super-duper retired from God Slaying. I'm head of security at this rich guy's beach house! I can't just take the day off!

The WoL: Wow. Ok. Congratulations. So will you tell Maelstrom HQ how they can access the secret back door, and send through their elite hand-picked team (that I'll almost certainly wind up leading)?

Wheiskaet: Why in the Hells would we do that?

The WoL: … Why indeed. What, then? Hold open auditions for Bad Enough Dudes until someone comes along who you think is sufficiently impressive? Even though the difficulty of the task will be ramping up the whole time you stall due to Titan gorging himself without pause?

Wheiskaet: Oh, finally an idea I can get behind! In fact, speaking of gorging, here you go…

The WoL: Is this… is this a fucking grocery list???

Wheiskaet: Aye! We're gonna have a picnic!

The WoL: Fine. Final new approach. I'm gonna kill this son of a bitch with my teeth, and hope that the taste of his blood triggers an Echo Vision that reveals how the secret door works.

Y'shtola: I'll hold his arms for you.

[tabr1-s]

sunday rant and personal frustrations with him that i begun to write at 6am running on an entire 3 and a half hours of sleep (my cats woke me up.....)

(tldr at the end. i might be as bad as Sunday in terms of yap mileage (yappage) but i'll do one better than him and provide you with the concise version if you scroll all the way down.)

i have never felt such intense emotions about a character's moral viewpoint... Ever. and i've liked characters that were mass murderers before. morals (or lack thereof) usually never played a significant role in whether i liked a character or not (unless they did something i considered worse than plain ol murder, then i wouldn't associate with them), and 99% of the time i could find the character's motivations understandable under the circumstances that they were in.

and, technically, i can understand where Sunday is coming from too.

but that doesn't stop me from being Absolutely pissed at him.

(sunday-esque yap about myself incoming, i will eventually get to the point (which i will highlight))

as someone who has been told that i have "ocd features" Multiple times by my psychiatrist (practically each session) i understand the need for control. my obsessiveness manifests in the form of feeling the need to control practically everything - my current obsession for control being my own emotions, which extends to needing to control entire situations, and in turn makes me severely overthink all the possible outcomes to those given situations. i've also been guilty of controlling others before, and having the mentality of "i know what's best for you". hell, i still feel like that a lot, but i really try to push it back.

and this need for "control" is mainly the reason why i even find comfort in fiction. because it's oftentimes very predictable to me (it also made me think of how i do not find any interest in reading books, but i love writing stories of my own. particularly fan-fiction. and the only time i can feel comfortable enough to feel romance is towards fictional characters - because i control the narrative! it's something to think about.). if i like a character or a narrative, it's easy for me to pick apart where the writers will go with that story. and, even if the story turns out to disappoint me/be different than what i hoped for, i would still be Prepared for that possibility.

i somehow... failed to prepare for what would happen with Sunday.

i had set my sights on the wrong thing for 2.2. i invested my whole energy on trying to comfort myself that hoyo wouldn't take the ipc colonialism route (basically turning out to be capitalist/colonialist apologists) with penacony (which i Guess will be explored in 2.3? but now that i have some more context on the story and how it's unraveling i'm not as anxious about it anymore), that i overlooked a lot of other things that could've gone wrong.

namely, my favourite hsr character to be... Like that. (i'm not even being intentionally vague. i'm just dumbfounded)

i had Heard of the theory that Sunday is possessed by Ena (which didn't particularly make sense to me, and i refused to look at leaks concerning Sunday lest they upset me. either way i Really hated that theory. plus, Sunday being said to have ocd would've been an incredibly cheap way to foreshadow that he's "possessed" by the Order. you can't just create your first(?) important/playable character that has a confirmed mental illness and then go "it's okay actually he's Normal! he was just possessed". i took this very personally. and still am.), and saw a lot of theories concerning his involvement with the Order as well. i shut it all out, because i didn't like the implications of that.

which in turn made me Not think/comfort myself regarding the possibilities that he truly Was connected to the Order.

...

well, rest in pieces, me - it's always the things i don't pay much attention to/ignore/fail to think about. which is actually a bit strange because i was not expecting him to be an entirely sane person from the start - he was a politician type, a leader, and a manipulator, to name a few things. that much was obvious. in 2.0-2.1 i wouldn't have been surprised if it turned out that he was the one that "killed" Robin. again, nothing was out of the question. but, 2.1 showed a different side of him. one that cared for his sister and (seemingly) listened to her and cared about what she thought. so they became quite a comforting little sibling duo to me. tragic, yet you could depend on their mutual trust in eachother... or so i thought.

and then he... went and did all That. which just showed me how, despite him caring for his sister, he was still putting other things above her.

to conclude with my yap: in a sense, he is just my "grim reflection of the self". and although i feel sympathetic towards my past self and how naive and selfish i used to be, there are some flaws of mine i will never forgive myself for. and, Sunday, in a way, reminded me of... Everything. it was almost triggering.

(hey, writing this all down in one place helped me calm down! (it's a neverending cycle that will continue tomorrow. all it will take is seeing a post concerning him and his sister and i'll get pissed anew) yay!)

the point(s) (aka my qualms):

- how sunday manipulated robin + was planning to use her in the charmony festival to complete his plan. she was going to be an unwilling participant in creating a "utopia" that she would've been absolutely against, but he didn't stop to fucking. fill her in, maybe? talk it out? the sheer disrespect on the concept of free will and on the fact that your own sister is a human being of her own sickens me

- he should've cherished the relationship he had with her (x1000 because that's the ONE FAMILY MEMBER YOU HAD LEFT AND THAT IS SUCH A PRIVILEGE!!! IMAGINE HAVING SOMEONE CARE ABOUT YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY AND THEN YOU GO AND THROW IT AWAY!!! YEAH I'VE ALMOST DONE THE SAME EXACT THING MULTIPLE TIMES (AND STILL WOULD) BUT THAT'S WHY I ALSO KNOW HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE MOVE IT IS!!!)

- he forsook his own self and shoved down his own biases and interests (fucking rat. you can't change the fact you're human and i'm very much saying that from experience) to become something Grander than life itself and in fucking turn isolated himself and shut out the one person who actually cared and then had the Gall to complain about being misunderstood/alone. (when you're finally sitting in your unreachable throne in this "dream" that you've created, who will you blame for being lonely? who will you blame when you have no one to fall back into? no one to support you? when everybody you did this for forsakes You?)

- HE DIDN'T EVEN HUG ROBIN BACK AT THE LAST SCENE. LIKE SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR FAILED PLANS AND COME DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS A LITTLE - THE JOY YOU SEEK FOR IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!

- all i hoped for was that sunday and robin would reunite and get the chance to be happy together, and the only true reason i'm mad is because i'm guilty of a lot of the same self sacrificial behaviours as him and very much understand the sentiment of "my loved ones would be better off without my negative presence and influence". but instead of empathizing with him, i feel betrayed. i thought he was better than me. i thought he was someone worthy of admiration, and that doesn't come easily from me. despite all the warning signs i fell for his obvious facade, and i Very rarely get taken by surprise - especially in a way like this.

- if it wasn't for the fact that Robin would feel sad if Sunday died i would personally go and strangle him myself

tldr; i'm just a big baby that placed a lot of faith on Sunday and his relationship with Robin post 2.1 and my ego took a Huge hit once he turned out to be just some immature emo idealist type. (come on, man - i genuinely thought you were better than me! someone worthy of respect! and i usually have a feeling of superiority over others! this was the biggest compliment/act of faith i could give! (talking to a wall (fictional character (I'M FUCKING UPSET))))

[s-b-party]

Penacony: Land of Dreams, Exiles, and Choices

****Honkai star rail/HSR 2.2/TRAILBLAZE MISSION/PENACONY SPOILERS AHEAD****

There is A LOT going on in this story & I don’t know if I can call this a continuation of my previous HSR lore thread regarding Ena, HooH, and Xipe but I am pretty much expanding on Ena & Xipe in 2.2 while also talking about important concepts present in the story

It’s hard to really know where to begin when there’s a lot going on especially between Ena & Xipe or rather, between their factions/followers

We can start with a general idea of the situation: it’s established that Xipe the Harmony absorbed Ena the Order a long time ago, the Family is a faction of Xipe but it seems very disoriented overall because not everybody knows the truth behind Penacony and/or is involved with the schemes (the Oak Family was the one mostly involved, others seemed oblivious to what was going on)

Sunday who should have been a follower of Xipe alongside Robin ended up being a follower of Ena because he was pessimistic about the Harmony due to situations like the 3 stories he presented as questions to us (Charmony Dove, stowaway who sold everything he had including his children to come to Penacony, Robin getting hurt in an accident) & as a result, he sought control over the fates of others so that everybody would only get happy endings

*Initially I wasn’t going to say this in my other thread because I wasn’t sure if I was reaching by comparing a character to an Aeon but this quest made it much more prominent to see: Sunday’s desire for control was something that I wanted to bring up previously because Herta stating how she doesn’t like Ena’s control freak behavior in their simulated universe dev log made it hard to ignore Sunday’s own issues in the previous patch; it just set off alarms in my head that he might not actually have been following Harmony*

The way Sunday explained he would achieve his goal is that he wouldn’t resurrect Ena but instead he would have people never experience hardships through Order which I guess he could have achieved from memoria (manifestations of memories & emotions) & the Stellaron since Ena isn’t physically around to enforce Order

The reason why we see aspects of Ena present at all in the story is due to their remnants; as I suggested in my other thread, Aeons can die or disappear but their paths & concepts don’t disappear easily so to clarify, Ena isn’t alive at any point of the story but we see many hints of them in the story despite being gone

For example, the area where we answer Sunday’s 3 questions has the notable open eye on the ground; the many puppets we begin to see as we go through the Penacony Grand Theater refer to Ena’s puppet appearance; note that when you try to use clockwork but are unable to change the emotions during this part of the story, on top of looking very…unsettling, Clockie gains the same eye colors as Ena’s open eye while having puppet strings attached which references their puppet strings

Boss Sunday in the 3rd phase has eyes on the rings behind him, the faces in all phases look very similar to Ena’s white porcelain face with closed eyes, the hand that comes out for the Michelangelo’s God & Adam attack looks very similar to Ena’s puppet hands but it doesn’t have the puppet joints & the thumb is purple when Ena’s hands were white with golden joints

As it is explained by the data bank, the Septimus boss is supposed to be Dominicus who is one of the Harmonic Choir (Emanators of Xipe) but due to Ena’s influence, his appearance changed; in other words, Sunday usurped their powers originally for Harmony & turned them to serve Order

I find it really intriguing how much impact Ena had in this story despite being gone (keep in mind that Ena never enforced their concept onto anybody including Sunday & Gopher Wood, these characters saw a concept that they believed in & twisted their understanding of it for their own purposes; this also goes for Sunday’s freak control behavior which was all him & not Ena even though Herta claimed they had similar behavior)

Meanwhile one of the biggest moments we witness regarding Xipe is when the Trailblazer gains the path of Harmony

There are two main details I want to point out; first is their eyes are actually open when normally their eyes are closed & the second is they are glowing very brightly which, by themselves might not mean much, but together they say a lot when we look at other Aeons

Nanook is the first to gaze upon us & acknowledge us then it was Qlipoth; in both cases some part of their forms glowed brighter than the rest of their bodies when they gazed upon us which seemed to be their eyes/head

*Sidenote: interestingly something similar happens in Swarm Disaster and Gold & Gears

When you complete everything that you need to get the paths of Propagation & Erudition respectfully (which implies that the simulated versions of Tayzzyronth & Nous have noticed & acknowledged you), the actual art of the Aeons will change; the main difference is that they glow brighter whether it be their “eye(s)”, their entire being, certain parts, etc.*

Going back to the cutscene with Xipe, it seems that opening their eyes was a sign of noticing & acknowledging us

There’s one particular line from Sunday regarding the Aeons that stood out to me which was “And through Harmony, we obtain Order” which is interesting because the same can be said of the opposite “Through Order, we obtain Harmony”

What Sunday did was try to impose Order to force happy endings for everybody but that is simply not how life works because there’s always going to be pain; if you never experience pain or suffering then do you really know the world as it is & are you truly living? Yes it would be wonderful if everybody could get along & nobody ever had to suffer, but unfortunately that is not feasible forever

It’s the reason why balance is needed; when you face suffering, it makes all the good things that happen in your life feel much better; it’s not good to have only one or the other & that’s the point regarding Ena & Xipe

Even though Xipe absorbed Ena, their two concepts are very much intertwined & they both can’t really exist without the other; Order has been there all along, just without an Aeon for some time

Also keep in mind that Order & Harmony are both forms of balance which I mentioned in my other thread; to reiterate, Harmony is the fusion/unity of many into one while Order refers to the idea of specific arrangement (under Ena, civilizations rose & fell which established a cycle to follow; they created laws that the universe followed) but Sunday takes it to the extreme which is complete control without considering how others would truly feel about this plan of his

Before I continue, I just want to say that I liked how Sunday was characterized as an antagonist because you can tell he does truly care about other people (why would he go so far to obtain happy endings for everybody when he might not even like or know them?)

We know he cares about Robin very much despite how misguided he was in taking away her voice but as we saw, he was desperate to protect her which we see in his reaction after hearing she suffered a neck injury & when he thought that Gallagher actually killed her; these two instances explain his desire for control so well since he was powerless in both cases

He definitely was wrong about how he went about things but he loves humanity enough to go so far

Moving onto concepts, when we look at the overall story of Penacony so far, we see that dreams are an important concept; after all, it is the planet where people come to experience beautiful dreams but what makes these dreams unique is that everybody has a shared dream once they enter the Dreamscape & there are 12 distinct dream worlds in total that guests can choose to visit (each one representing a moment on the clock)

However not many guests on Penacony either know about or would come to Dreamflux Reef which was introduced this patch; when compared to the more well-known Dreamscapes, Dreamflux looks more somber & there are less people living there but it still has a few establishments so it is not entirely devoid of life

It is referred to as the Land of Exiles & to enter this area, with the exception of the teleport waypoints that we use, you usually would have to get brought by Something Unto Death whose real name is Dormancy & its affectionate nickname is Sleepie; in other words, Dormancy is the guardian of the Land of Exiles as explained by Firefly

The description of Dreamflux Reef from the Family is that it’s the “Nightmare” but it’s also how the Dreamscape is supposed to look

When looking at both this dream world & the other more popular ones like Golden Hour, they appear to represent aspects of life, specifically escapism (Golden Hour & the more beautiful dreamscapes) & reality (Dreamflux Reef)

Golden Hour is designed to be like amusement parks like the ones in Orlando with a mix of casinos like in Vegas; we can see why Penacony is so popular

On top of the fun tourism aspect, while you’re in the Dreamscape, your physical body doesn’t experience many of the changes you go through inside your dreams so you could stay in the Dreamscape as long as you want (as long as you can afford a room...)

Meanwhile Dreamflux Reef is representative of the non-glamorous things in life which can encapsulate struggles, pain, sadness, etc. Its other name “Land of Exiles” is also a nod to Penacony’s darker history as a former prison planet

However Dreamflux does have its lively moments which bodes well because it means that reality isn’t completely bad, it just might not be as fully glamorous or great like how the other dreamscapes are depicted

This topic of reality vs dream is constantly brought up with Sunday whose main struggle involves wanting to provide only happy endings even if that goes against reality or what should be; in fact we face the topic at the start when we meet Acheron & she asks us questions which she repeated along with much of the dialogue after the questions at the end right before we fight Sunday for a 2nd time at the exit of the nihility realm(?)

EDIT: Tumblr wouldn't let me post more than 30 photos so there are some missing in this portion & later towards the end and I didn't want to post photos while leaving out the others that would give more context; head to the Twitter link if you would like to see the thread in its entirety https://twitter.com/SBParty_Ryusa/status/1789763474546905198

Interestingly even as an Emanator of Nihility, Acheron still sounds hopeful; in fact she reminds me of the Doctors of Chaos (a faction of Nihility) who have been faced with IX’s display of hopelessness but these members still try to prove to IX that life isn’t all that meaningless

Another interesting thing I noticed is that Acheron is the opposite of Sunday when it comes to facing hopelessness: even when faced with the idea that everything will return to nothingness, she still moves forward but Sunday turns away from the pain of reality & relies on sweet dreams that don’t truly change your circumstances in the real world

So I’ve mentioned Penacony being both the Land of Dreams & Exiles but how do “choices” come into play? Something that I’ve seen become a huge part of Penacony’s plot is the concept of choice

Aside from Acheron’s questions, we’ve seen other displays of choice being an important concept; for instance, Sunday’s plan to obtain happy endings for everybody essentially takes away the ability to choose (yes everybody gets to be happy but it’s not happiness obtained by their hands/doing)

Robin had her voice taken away by Sunday even though she wanted to continue on her path of Harmony; Sunday’s plans only would have made him happy in the end

One of the saddest parts about this is that we do see an example of somebody who was not happy with their enforced dream despite how blissful it was for them: Robin herself

We along with Acheron & Black Swan found Robin who was actually the first to wake up and she guided Acheron & Black Swan

She explained that she was able to wake up due to the major flaw in her dream which was Sunday agreeing to not cage the Charmony Dove after it got better; while it would have made her happy that he agreed with her, she also knew that her brother wasn’t like that & her painful reality still would have been the same even if she chose to ignore the discrepancy because it already happened in the past

Of course everybody is different & may make different choices from each other; you can choose to wake up or keep living in a dream (in both cases you still have to deal with the consequences whether that be coming back to reality or becoming afraid to wake up) but the important part is that everybody gets to make their choices themselves without interference

This is Acheron’s main point when she says that the answers don’t matter because you’ve made a choice & you’ll hopefully go through with your decision

I do need to talk about the Nameless not only because a lot of backstory was given in this quest than any previous ones but also because as part of the Trailblaze, choices are definitely one of the biggest concepts for this path

The Nameless is an important faction that has followed the deceased Akivili even to this day; this group includes many curious & brave characters, both playable & NPCs including the Astral Express Crew

As part of the Trailblaze, the Nameless have faced unknown futures & dangers but ultimately made the choice to move forward into the unknown; this path is definitely not easy & it is bound to be filled with struggles & pain but for many of the Nameless, they’ve all blazed their own paths no matter where they were or where those paths led them even if it meant their end

The new Clockie event has a free lightcone reward that shows Pom-Pom with Mikhail, Tiernan, and Razalina back when they were still on the Astral Express & after the trio left; this is a bittersweet memory for Pom-Pom because I’m sure they’re happy that they left to follow their hearts but it’s still sad for them because the LC mentions many previous Nameless having left the Astral Express as well (I definitely didn’t tear up reading this LC 🙃)

Even for Pom-Pom, as part of the Astral Express, they have been through a lot with many of the Nameless departing to follow their hearts & yet they still choose to remain the conductor even to this day

That takes a lot of dedication & it just reminds me of Acheron’s question “Might I ask if you fear losing these bonds?” because that definitely applies to their situation considering they’ve been around for a long time; I’m sure Pom-Pom misses them very much 😢

*This might be one of the longest threads I’ve written so far but considering how much was going on in the quest, I think I yapped an appropriate amount 😂

*I know not everybody enjoys reading extremely long text but I hope that there are at least a few who will enjoy it

*Also I didn’t know what to title this, I’m not creative enough 😭

*This quest just gave me a lot to think about, there were good parts & iffy parts for me but I did enjoy the story overall; I hope that others were/are able to enjoy it even with how long it took :3

[ironunderstands]

Here’s my comparison of Acheron, Aventurine and Ratio that I made in 2.1 which I forgot to upload here lol, I would like you to know my thoughts then because OH BOY HAS THIS AGED WELL

Aventurine, Acheron, Ratio and what the Nihility means to them

(Inspired by a convo I had with @aoxizu on Tumblr!)

The ending scene of the 2.1 update (the one featuring the black hole) is perhaps one of my favorite in all of fiction. I genuinely adore the way it was done and what it says about both the characters and life itself. This game has THEMES and by god did they come through then. So, I want to go over why I love it so much, and why it’s such a vital moment for Acheron, Aventurine and Ratios characters.

First, some context. Prior to Aventurine’s and Acheron’s conversation, Aventurine was taking the riskiest gamble of his life. Prior to the confrontation between him, Acheron and the Astral Express, Aventurine set up a plan to try and get to the secret at the heart of Penacony, as well as provide a ruse for Topaz and Jade to do, well whatever they planned on doing, the ending scene says they came there to “harvest”, so in 2.2 I assume we will find out what exactly that entails.

In order for this plan to work, Aventurine needed his cornerstone and to trick Sunday, so pre-2.0 he went to Dr. Ratio to include him in this plan, and set up a fake betrayal to fool Sunday and allow him to keep the Aventurine stone, with the Jade and Topaz stones also being acquired pre-Penacony. We know this because of Aventurine’s conversation with Topaz post 1.4 Belabog mission in which he requests her help in Penacony, something which we didn’t get confirmation on whether or not she accepted until 2.1, in which it’s revealed that one of the Cornerstones in the box is Topaz, meaning when they got confiscated in 2.0 she had already accepted his offer (we can assume a similar situation for Jade). 

Essentially, everything had been going according to plan for IPC (even if Aventurine was absolutely not having a fun time during it), Ratio even says as much, stating that the IPC is pleased to hear of his death sentence, so that part of the confrontation was already predetermined. This leaves Aventurine with one final gamble, hoping the Astral Express and Acheron take the bait, and that they will try and stop him from destroying the entire dreamscape, which if Acheron acts on it, he could entire the true dreamscape to find the truth, as only an emanator could break through the power of the harmony. 

Luckily for Aventurine, the gamble pays off and Aventurine does indeed draw her blade, both stopping him and sending them both into another plane entirely, it’s there in which one if my favorite scenes in fiction ever occurs. 

You see, even if Aventurine planned this all from the start, he hasn’t exactly been having a fun time while doing it. Being sentenced to death and then slowly hallucinating on Harmony sh1t until the manifestations of your past self and your present doubt and insecurities come to haunt you isn’t exactly fun for anyone, especially Aventurine. 1) Because his backstory is horrifically tragic and being faced with a reminder that you will never feel secure or valued or truly happy would be enough to erode away the psyche of anyone 2) A version of himself which claims to be his future, but is more like a personification of how much Aventurine doubts and hates himself. It’s even more telling that this isn’t the first time he has talked to this version of him, in fact it saved his life several times, meaning one of Aventurine’s driving motivations is his own self loathing. 

A trait that on the surface you don’t think he would have, Aventurine plays the role of the confident, unflappable gambler who always wins, when in reality his other hand is under the table, clutching his chips for dear life (something I quite literally paraphrased from the game). 

Therefore, going into this conversation, Aventurine is more relieved than anything, yet another one of his gambles paid off, but now he will have to see how to go from there, and that’s when Acheron’s advice comes in. She’s not stupid, and immediately recognizes that he won (or at least got what she wanted), and that killing him is meaningless, it’s not his time yet. However, what Aventurine is really focused on is the fact that out of all the emanators he could have come across, the one he faces now is an emanator of nihility.

And well, in the face of overwhelming nihility, one’s own value comes into question yet again, and that’s something Aventurine doesn’t even need the aeon for to ask. So, he talks to Acheron, as IX isn’t exactly going to answer, but she might know. Now, I’m just going to lay out the dialogue (then explain it obviously) because it’s genuinely amazing. 

Aventurine starts out by asking Acheron if she is an emanator of nihility, and I find her response to be really interesting. She doesn’t view herself as someone chosen by IX, as nihilism (the feeling of meaningless) envelops everyone equally, but she has simply walked in their shadow longer, tainted on the feeling. This leads Aventurine to question if this is the end, as if life has lost all meaning, in the face of overwhelming nihility, would that mean he’s dead?

Luckily Acheron immediately disagrees, stating that this is merely a manifestation of IX, not the end (he’s not dead guys idk how anyone can think that). However Aventurine still questions if his death has been determined, but Acheron doesn’t promise it. She mulls over his plan and and Aventurine asks her why she thinks he did it, and Acheron believes it was to find a secret deeper than the dream “deaths: the Real Penacony. He wonders how she found out, and Acheron says it’s the trailblazer’s identity which allowed her (and Aventurine) to come to this conclusion (we don’t yet know how this happened for either of them yet, but 2.2 should give answers).

They continue, Aventurine reveals that he believes the barrier the family built using the power of the harmony was not just to keep death out but the nightmare that is the real dreamscape. That the Memory Zone is simply a vast island built atop a violent ocean with the barrier keeping whatever nightmarish secrets from washing ashore. In order to break through this barrier and find the real dreamscape, which is why he kept killing himself earlier in the dream, but to no  avail. When Sparkle gave him the hint, he realized it was referring to Firefly, someone who had seen the other side and survived it, even if she was unable to let others know if it. It wasn’t proof of the families wrongdoing, but it was suspicious enough for him to try and get Acheron to kill him, rather than try and find the Meme to recreate Firefly’s death. 

Acheron points out just how insane this plan was, that if he hadn’t gotten lucky and crossed path with her, it wouldn’t have succeeded. Then, she commends him for playing it perfectly, pitting her perfectly against him and creating a plan that would be beneficial for the IPC no matter what happened, as even if he dies that would be great leverage. However, Aventurine disagrees with that last point, he truly can’t guarantee the IPCs success or even his own survival, that if she hadn’t drawn her blade it would have all be pointless. 

She’s doesn’t let him continue along this line of thought, what-ifs are pointless and he earned his ticket to the dreamscape. What matters now is what happens next, and Acheron asks him if he can return from the abyss (Childe reference?), but more importantly, she questioned if he has ever wavered, as even a gamble as seemingly insane as the one Aventurine just did seems to have not shaken him (from her POV, we know how terrified Aven was but everyone else minus maybe Ratio does). 

Aventurine tells her perhaps the most fundamental aspect of his character; he gambles simply because he has no other choice, betting on everything because he has nothing else to lose. Acheron tells him to wake up from this “dream” (aka find the true dreamscape), and she presumably goes to leave.

However (and this is my favorite part of the scene), he asks her one more question before she leaves, thinking she might know the answer as a pathstrider of nihility, “Why are we born in this world if it’s just to die?”

Her response is the best possible way you could answer this question. Acheron is an emanator of nihility, but she doesn’t think life is meaningless. The feeling of emptiness and pointlessness envelops everyone equally and that’s exactly why the nihility is pointless. It doesn’t matter that nothing matters, and we aren’t born into this world just to die. 

Aventurine still worries though, after all if the dice of fate will always roll to the same conclusion, then destiny is predetermined, so why struggle? Why does it matter?

Her answer again is not one he would expect, but one that absolutely makes sense. Acheron says the answer has been with Aventurine throughout his entire life and journey on Penacony, and that he’s already somewhat realized it. Aventurine said himself that sleep is a rehearsal of death, but people aren’t ready to welcome death, which is why they sleep to get a taste of it. Sleep is much like death, a realm of unreality in which anything might be possible within the dreams that define its existence. Death itself is an unreality, and nobody truly knows what it’s like to die, but dreams are the closest we might ever get before the end. Like Acheron says, in a way, dreams are just a preparation for death, a practice before it can be welcomed. 

However, much like how dreams can contain anything, even if we cannot choose to experience them or not, life itself is full of choices, regardless of if the ending is determined or not. Acheron understands that there are an infinite amount of things people cannot change before the end, but there are choices you can make up until it. Death is inevitable, but the life you live before it isn’t. This is what the words in red mean, both here and in my opinion, in general. 

Acheron reminds the trailblazer to make the right choice when time comes for it, in our first meeting with her. However, I don’t think the path we choose matters, but rather the the fact that we chose at all. Now the next paragraph will include a minor discussion of 2.2 leaks, so skip to the next slide if you don’t want to hear it. 

Sunday is getting a bossfight in 2.2, and it’s highly theorized that he works/believes in Ena the Order, especially because it looks like it’s their hand he’s touching in that one animation of the bossfight. Now here’s the thing, Order as a concept Chooses For You. I think the trailblazer making a decision is the thing that will save them and the rest of the gang, as within the face of an entity defined by limiting choice and free will, choosing to well, choose will save them (us?) and perhaps be the thing that gets the trailblazer acknowledged by the Harmony, a concept greater than Order. 

Anyways, after she says that, Acheron leaves Aventurine, saying the answer to his question was from his friend.

And Aventurine pulls out the vial from Dr. Ratio

The vial telling him that the only impossible thing in the dreamscape is dormancy (meaning the secrets from before are destined to rise and destroy the “island” that is Penacony.

The vial telling him to stay alive and wishing him the best of luck, which in the Chinese version is: 

Ratio answered both of Aventurine’s questions. The physical one, the one that pertains to Aventurines goals in Penacony, informing him of a vital aspect of the dreamscape that will help him win his gamble. But more importantly, he also answered Aventurine’s emotional one. What is the point of living? There is no real deeper meaning but to stay alive, survive and keep on living, because at the end of the day, that’s the only choice Aventurine can make, and that’s the one Ratio wants him to make.

Ratio Gives Aventurine A Reason To Live. 

Aventurine says that he has nothing left, his family is gone and he has nobody and nothing to fall back on which is why he gambles. But Acheron proves him wrong, he isn’t alone, she calls Ratio his “friend”, says that he’s the solution to his doubt. Someone caring about Aventurine is what saves his life, he walks into the massive black hole unafraid not because he holds some secret power or technique or trick, but because someone cares about him, and that someone taught him that caring about himself is enough. Aventurine didn’t need the power of an emanator to survive the true dreamscape, he only needed a friend, and the will to keep going that he realized from them. 

This is the true meaning of nihility, not that  Aventurine says that he has nothing left, his family is gone and he has nobody and nothing to fall back on which is why he gambles. But Acheron proves him wrong, he isn’t alone, she calls Ratio his “friend”, says that he’s the solution to his doubt. Someone caring about Aventurine is what saves his life, he walks into the massive black hole unafraid not because he holds some secret power or technique or trick, but because someone cares about him, and that someone taught him that caring about himself is enough. Aventurine didn’t need the power of an emanator to survive the true dreamscape, he only needed a friend, and the will to keep going that he realized from them. the universe is meaningless, but that regardless of if it has one or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s this realization that saves Acheron from losing herself like other emanators, it’s this realization that allows Aventurine to cross the event horizon of that manifestation of IX, and it’s this realization that I believe is why Dr. Ratio was never acknowledged by Nous: he was already treading the path of nihility without even realizing it. 

Now this is where my conversation with @aoxizu comes in, and I’m just gonna paste directly what they said because I think it’s amazing and everyone should read it, more importantly it’s what inspired this slideshow in the first place.

Ratio tells Aventurine to live despite everything because that’s the only thing he can do. It doesn’t matter how absurd life is, or how meaningless it all seems, choose to live anyways, because all you have are choices, and it doesn’t matter if they lead to some grand outcome or future or whatnot. To Ratio, life doesn’t, and shouldn’t care about that. Existence doesn’t need to make sense to be worth it, and that’s a sentiment both me, the characters and the og poster share.

Acheron is a lot like Ratio, she chooses to live despite having discovered the meaninglessness of the universe. In an existence seemingly black and white she chooses to paint the world red with her choices, accepting its reality and choosing to forge her own path rather than succumb to the madness. That’s why she says in her trailer, “there is no other choice but to move forward” and that’s because there really is no other choice, the universe doesn’t have some grand plan for anyone and you can’t turn back time to change anything, so all you can do is move forward.

My contribution! I’ve already kinda started but I do want to talk about how Ratio could be treading the path of nihility, but I’ll let this amazing post finish.

So yeah, amazing post, and I don’t think I could reword what they said in a better way than they did. Bringing up the philosophical aspects of this scene makes me really happy because they are so prominent, but most people aren’t really aware enough to notice. Absurdism is one of the driving inspirations behind the dreamscape, and it’s nice to see someone else besides you (see: my slideshow about Penacony and its American influences for an elaboration on this) bring it up. Honestly I think that philosophy fits Ratio far better than any of the Ancient Greek stuff you try to slap on him. Sure he obviously has the inspirations, but he’s closer in spirit to philosophers from the 1700s to now than them, a reinterpretation of Greek scholars rather than a copy of them. 

And this is where my idea that Ratio is a pathstrider of nihility (and he doesn’t even know it yet) comes in. He doesn’t view knowledge in the same way that pathstriders of Erudition do; knowledge for knowledges sake has never been something Ratio has cared about. Knowledge means something to Ratio because it allows people to better themselves, not because it has some sort of inherent value. That’s why he’s so determined to spread it, he wants everyone to reach their fullest potential, and dedicates his life to doing so. Regardless of if the universe has meaning or not, that doesn’t mean people can’t try and live their best lives, and that’s the philosophy Ratio truly believes in.

Moreover, this is why it’s so meaningful that Ratio is the one to help Aventurine, he’s teaching him something Ratio himself learned long ago when he got rejected by the Genius Society. Despite all of Ratio’s intellect and qualifications, he will never be good enough for them because he simply doesn’t view knowledge in the way they do. But instead of this meaninglessness (nihility) consuming him, Ratio dedicated his life to doing what brought him meaning and validation rather than searching for some hidden answers from the universe (specifically Nous).

And it’s not like he just accepted it happily. Ratio still wants their acknowledgement, and it still hurt (and hurts) him a lot to not have it, which is why I think he unknowingly strides the path of nihility. To Ratio, his view on knowledge is simply how knowledge is, and the fact that Nous will never perceive it in that way because his philosophy is more nihilistic than it is erudite is something Ratio might never come to terms with. But that’s ok. The point is that it’s ok, Ratio doesn’t need to be acknowledged or to understand the truth of the universe to be happy or do well for himself. Our universe might mean nothing and yeah that can and will suck, but existence is more valuable than some grand cosmic plan, and even if you don’t realize it, choosing to live is enough.

Continually, this reminds me of the conversation Aventurine had with his hallucination self, in which he told real Aventurine that him and Ratio are very similar. In a way, they are, both struggling to find meaning in their lives, and Ratio helps Aventurine find meaning in his without really even knowing how. Sure the note was meant to keep Aventurine going, but Ratio caused Aventurine to come to a conclusion that probably won’t find Ratio for a while. He helped Aventurine overcome nihility without even knowing it, without Ratio even realizing that THAT is the thing he has been struggling with, and the path he has been walking the whole time.

I really hope we get to see Ratio again, and at the very least I want a story quest for him because I want to analyze his brain under a microscope. Him and Acheron need to meet asap I want more Ratio content idc if everyone else in the fandom hates him I love him and he’s my pookie bear and I will write 3039493494 things about him when it comes to me UGHHHH. Anyways I didn’t know how end this so this is the ending yaaayyy! I hope you liked it and if you have any thoughts let me know! 

_________________________________________

Og post over! That was a long ass read and past me was absolutely cooking up a storm, oh god did this age well and I was right about or close to right about a lot of shit haha. Anyways I really do hope you enjoyed reading this, and this will hopefully provide some needed context for my next posts on this subject. Also feel free to repost this onto other sites I’m very proud of it

[starblizzard247]

Hsr 2.2 leak spoilers

I need Boothill and Jing Yuan to interact and bond/angst over adopting children

I WILL MANIFEST THIS

THEY NEED TO BOND WITH PEAK DAD ENERGY (and also give each other therapy)

[elekinetic]

dustin has a running mental bet with himself on how long it’s gonna take for people to get together. he puts money up against himself and if he loses, he has to put it in his college fund. running bets include: how long it’ll be before max and lucas get back together (2.8 weeks, $5 cause he’s pretty sure), how long till steve and robin hook up (2.2 months $10 bc he’s MANIFESTING, people), how long til el dumps mike and then mike plans an elaborate way to ask her to prom to get her back (absolutely within the next 3 days, $25 cause mike and el are acting weird which can only mean one thing).

he loses so much money to himself.

[ambrosialiqour]

Quantum physics has proven that the universe is not locally real and without consciousness the 3D doesn't exist. So how can 3D be considered a reality?

!!! TW: quote from reddit

I hope this post will help you by making it easier to live in the end, to ignore the 3D knowing at it's truely not reality, and also to remove resistance.

In 2022, three physicists won the Nobel Prize for proving that quantum entanglement exists and that the universe isn't locally real, proving Einstein wrong.

♡ 1. First things first, what is Quantum entanglement? Locality and Realism-ness?

1.1 Quantum entanglement:

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon where two or more entangled (connected/related) particles share a condition or trait such that the state of one particle instantly influences the state of the other, no matter how far apart they are or what lies between them. This means that a change or measurement in one particle will instantly affect the other, regardless of the distance, even if they are separated by billions of light-years. This connection occurs without any direct (Direct in the sense of wire or wireless communication technology) communication between the particles, which can, in an instant, at a faster speed than light, transmit information to one another. Challenging the classical notion that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

Original/conventional (but wrong) concepts of Locality and Realism-ness:

1.2 Locality: Things/objects can only be affected/influenced by their immediate environment/surroundings and can only interact with each other through physical contact. Also, the cause effect of these interactions cannot move faster than the speed of light.

1.3 Realism-ness: Particles like atoms, electrons, photons, etc. have certain properties/qualities/attributes/values that are inherent to them, whether you measure/observe them or

Measure in this context means observing. Obviously, you cannot observe something without Consciousness/Awareness.

2. So what does Quantum entanglement actually prove, and what does it tell us about Locality and Realism-ness?

2.1 What does Quantum entanglement proof?

Proving that particles be affected not only by their immediate surroundings/environment, but also by causes light years away. At speeds greater than the speed of light. And that certain operties/values/attributes are only apparent aka "real" when consciously observed aka measured. Otherwise the particles remain in a superposition.

♡ 2. So what does Quantum entanglement actually prove, and what does it tell us about Locality and Realism-ness?

2.1 What does Quantum entanglement proof?

Proving that particles n be affected not only by their immediate surroundings/environment, but also by causes light years away. At speeds greater than the speed of light. And that certain properties/values/attributes are only apparent aka "real" when consciously observed aka measured. Otherwise the particles remain in a superposition.

Superposition: Particles exist in multiple states at once, and they choose to be in one of those states only once they are measured/observed.

2.2 And what does it tell us about Locality and Realism-ness?

Locality: Particles n be affected/influenced by causes other than their local immediate environment/surroundings, even if light years separated from each other. At a faster pace than light.

Realism-ness: Particles have properties/ quality's/attributes that haven't really made up their minds until you actually measure/observe them consciously. That they exist in a superposition of possible states and only when you actually take a measurement do they really make up their minds. (Decide which state they are in).

Thus proofing that the original concepts of Locality and Realism-ness are

wrong.

♡ 3. How does all of this to Manifesting and Neville? And why the 3D cant be reality

3.1 The process in a very simplified way

A) Particles exist in a superposition of possible states

B) Particles get observed/measured by one's consciousness

C) Particles collapse(become) into a single definite state with a well defined value of a given measurable quantity.

Consciousness is the cause of process. Without the interaction of consciousness (observer/measurer) process isn't possible.

Why, you may ask?

Because without conscious observation/measurement, particles cannot collapse (become) by themselves into a certain defined state, they remain in a superposition, that is, they exist only in a possibility of states.

Without this process of observation/measurement, no "3D" objects, so an observer (consciousness) is needed for the quantum particles to collapse from a superposition into a 3D object. Consciousness is necessary for this process to happen.

In short, without the interaction of consciousness there is no 3D "reality". If things are not observed/measured, they do not exist in 3D. Truely reality does not exist until you measure/observe it.

Now enough science.

3.2 Why it cant work without Consciousness / Conclusion

As proven by the 2022 Physics Nobel Prize without the interaction of consciousness, particles have no definitive state and cannot take on a state by themselves, in other words they do not exist in 3D.

So how can the 3D be seen as reality if things/objects only appear with the interaction of consciousness. If there is no consciousness then there is no 3D, so how can the 3D be seen as the true reality when it cannot exist without consciousness?

Without consciousness the 3D doesn't exist. Furthermore, consciousness is necessary to create the 3D, in conclusion, consciousness must be primary.

How in the world can you still react to the 3D? Think about it?

Consciousness is the only reality!

Neville and the i eacher where right all along, i are truely the animating power! Even science says so.

Quote: Nothing isn't consciousness, because there is no case when a thing can be experienced without it.

4. Sorry's n' sources

I've been studying quantum physics for a while now, to mention im not a physicist, so please excuse me if there are any flaws in my thinking. BUT if there is anyone who can improve and/or disprove this post, I'd be very grateful.

I think the videos and articles below make these concepts easiest to understand.

I hope this makes it easier stay in your desired state.

cr: idk. i find it loa archives in my drive. i just wanna help ur searches. if you find the person who wrote this or finding the link, you may write.