Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
All Aboard The Magic Hellbus! Let's Play Limbus Company
- Thread starter ZerbanDaGreat
- Start date
- Let's Play
Season 1 Abnormality Roundup
DimensionalGuy
Lazy Bastard
- Location
- Sweden
Allow me to do a quick end-of-season 1 abnormality round-up. Be it Mirror Dungeons, or Refraction Railway, there will always be some abnormalities that do not appear within the main story, and only in the gacha side content. Here, I'll show them off, talk some about their battle mechanics, and most importantly; show off their Observation Logs, and whatever shenanigans occur within. In season one, we have 5 of these abnormalities, 2 that was in the game at launch, but only as a final boss in the Mirror Dungeon, and the remaining 3 as part of the designated "har mode" content, Refraction Railway. Let's start with the two Mirror Dungeon Abnormalities!
Alleyway Watchdog (classification number O-02-10-11, HE) is pretty neat, but don't ask me what it means or represents, because this one stumps me. A three-headed wolf is common enough iconography, but add in a couple wooden telephone poles stabbed into it's back, and add 2 entire charred upper bodies (slightly covered in barbed wire?) fused to its back and you've effectively confused me. Looks cool though. With regards to battling it: It builds up Lightning with each attack, provided that its telephone pole is whole. In order to reduce Lightning, you need to attack the pole, but doing so inflicts you with a debuff, Shock, that increases any damage you take by a flat amount that turn. If you wait too long, and it builds up too much Lightning, you get inflicted with Shock no matter what you attack. When the Telephone pole breaks or is staggered, all Lightning is lost and the abnormality cannot act for a turn. Also, it gets stronger attacks with higher AoE when it reaches higher Lightning. Few know any of this, because it just dies before it can do anything.
Yup, that's Yi Sang alright. I should not, and will not, comment on the contents of any of these logs beyond such, by the way.
Moving on, we have the second of these Launch Abnormalities:
Headless Ichthys (classification number O-02-11-26, also HE) is as hard for me to discuss as Alleyway Watchdog. Generally, you can divine some manner of feeling or thought embodying an abnormality by the text provided in their Mirror Dungeon Events, but these two lack such events, only appearing in fights. As such, any such theories stem from their observation logs. That's a problem for this one, we'll get there soon. Battling this clapping fish can be somewhat annoying (in my opinion, of course). It has an abundance of body parts, two hands, its tail, and finally the body. The hands will constantly try to clap at you, inflicting Attack Power Down next turn, either 1 or 3, and the tail will try to swipe at you, inflicting Fragile. All of these can be crippling for the wrong team, especially because you really want to try and focus down the body while the other parts do this. You see, that fluid sac (containing a brain? what?) is never actually grey. It starts the fight red, and it charges up for three turns. Then, it will use the skill "Blood Cannon", firing its blood from its headless stump like a high-pressure jet cutter, with a significant 15 + 8 coin, but also inflicting a massive 25 bleed. Then, the fluid sac will turn blue, and start healing the body. This fight has an interesting combat event, that if you manage to fail it the abnormality will use another skill "Clotting", which rolls for 22 + 5, with an attack weight of 7. Should probably not let that happen, ever.
Yep, and that's Meursault. It's hard to get some extra meaning about an abnormality when Meursaults factual observations are all you have. Oh well.
Next one has already been shown of in the thread by Zerban, actually!
Blubbering Toad, affectionally nicknamed Glupo, which seems to have caught on. It's classification code is T-01-23-04, and it's classified as Zayin. It's a ginormous toad, that is constantly crying out. It has the interesting property of those stress toy animals whose eyes pops out, and attacks by just... squeezing its eyes out from its body, using them as giant flails. As for battling it, it's no great threat, but simply engaging in a clash with it will more often then not result in some SP damage. It doesn't take much damage though, unless you focus damage on its eyes until they are destroyed and then continue on to attack its empty eyeholes. Keep in mind, destroying the eyes absolutely tanks the sanity of whichever sinner has the least SP by a massive 35. Destroying both pretty much instantly corrodes a sinner. If both of its eyes are destroyed it pretty much just gives up, not really attacking anymore. This one also has a funny combat event, which if you fail it you take 100 SP damage. Hilarious.
Ishmael, you alright? Sinclair? Depression frog seems to be quite unpleasant for everyone, but Ishmael is correct in wanting to just wait out the crying. Whenever you encounter it in the Mirror Dungeon, Just sitting and listening to it, silently conforting it, is optimal for pleasing it.
Second Railway Abno: Also shown, but more recently!
Ah, yes. KQE-1J-23, classification code O-06-20-02, and a HE. If you've memorized all of those letters and numbers, you've played too much Limbus, and probably need a slight break. This weird amalgam of flesh and circuitry gives of a rather unsettling vibe, in my opinion. Battling it nowadays, you'll probably notice that it stops doing anything turn 2, and then dies by turn 3. If you rewind time some months ago, before KQE got its stagger bar, then I can actually talk about some battle mechanics. It spends the first two turns gathering charge, and on turn 3, it will use its skill "Processing Transfer Reg", sending up fleshy tendrils into the roof, before a massive claw comes down to grab your sinner. This skill cannot be clashed (but can be evaded) and will instantly put its target into captivity, effectively staggering them. After this, you have one turn to stagger KQE (It gains a Stagger bar just for this turn) through 5 Protection. If you fail, KQE will use "Pleased to Meet You, Dear Neighbor", attacking the captured sinner with a 20+5 coin. The second time onwards it tries to capture your units, you can clash the skill, and if you win the clasg it will spawn its heart from the roof, having to spend the next 2 turns rebooting. Killing the heart, staggers KQE. I would be very impressed it you were ever to get this long into the fight nowadays, though.
Alas, poor Gregor. Forever condemned to be bullied by those kids nowadays. And to have nice childhood memories (the few he might have) ruined. Poor, poor guy.
We only have one more Abnormality to bring up, the Final Boss of the first Refraction Railway:
DING! The final boss, My Form Empties (Classification Code M-04-04-04, WAW) is an inanimated stone buddha statue, flesh spilling forth from cracks within the stone. Its name seems to come from a passage in the Heart sutra, "Form is Empty (śūnyatā), Emptyness is form". When entering battle with it, it will have three minions. While these minions are alive, every part of the abnormality (Its Stone seat, and the Buddha Mūrti) will have 10 Protection, giving a 100% Damage reduction. All minions will heal to full at the end of each turn. Basically, every enemy is immortal, or takes no damage. However, helpfully, My Form Empties will try to give away its Karma to the sinners with its attacks, and if it fails, then its minions will get it instead. Karma is the key to the battle, as amassing 108 of it will instantly kill anyone. If you have karma, you take 1% more damage for every stack, but you also transfer 10+ karma on hit with an attack. Naturally, My Form Empties cannot gain Karma while it has minions, it merely offloads it to you. If you destroy the Buddha Mūrti (Like, 10 HP), My Form Empties will spread 30 Karma to its minions, and then start to attack indiscriminately (The Mūrti will regenerate the next turn). It's fairly straightforward. Kill the minions through Karma, or the damage bonus gained through Karma. Once the minions are dead, the statue will crumble not long thereafter.
What do you mean by that first report, Faust? Oh well, Guess we'll know when we know.
Either way, that's that for the remaining abnormalities of season 1.
Lacking Data:
I will describe my impressions of the encounter with this.
It has the appearance of three dark-furred wolves stitched together in a delicate operation. No, there may have been more, as it possessed more than three mouths.
Atop the canine heads was the figure of a person, charred beyond recognition. Though a combustion of that degree normally would have reduced such a figure to ashes, its form was as solid as it could be, its muscles even showing motion.
In addition, a heap of wooden telephone poles are lodged into the wolves' body as stakes would a prisoner. They seem to periodically emit electricity, but I couldn't fathom through what means they were able to do so.
Such is all I have to say.
Observation Level 1:
I had an opportunity to engage it in combat.
It ran at me, galloping in a possessed motion.
Its visage was a far cry from a hound commanded to battle or a beast yearning to feed itself.
Running at me may have been its only choice.
I saw a purple arc of electricity sprint across its back. Which reminded me of animals tested under similar conditions in the laboratory.
Using electric stimuli, those animals were made to move as some other being intended.
It made me wonder if the same is happening to this creature.
While its claws hurt me gravely, I felt an ounce of pity for it as well.
Such is all I have to say.
Observation Level 2:
It had a thunderous roar.
To describe it in more detail, it gathered bolts of lightning as if all the storms and thunders in the world struck it at once, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that its roar has a thunderous property.
Naturally, I was able to identify the source of its electricity.
This creature was like a living battery. Collecting lightning in its body, it used the power to fuel itself.
Alas, its usage of the lightning's energy was not for a self-motivated purpose such as pursuit of strength;
the accumulated electric forces appeared to dictate its motion, giving me the impression that it was the will of the sky that it followed.
While drawing up such thoughts, Miss Faust reminded me that it's not right to have such impressions of Abnormalities.
Thus, I conclude the log here lest it becomes too sentimental.
I will describe my impressions of the encounter with this.
It has the appearance of three dark-furred wolves stitched together in a delicate operation. No, there may have been more, as it possessed more than three mouths.
Atop the canine heads was the figure of a person, charred beyond recognition. Though a combustion of that degree normally would have reduced such a figure to ashes, its form was as solid as it could be, its muscles even showing motion.
In addition, a heap of wooden telephone poles are lodged into the wolves' body as stakes would a prisoner. They seem to periodically emit electricity, but I couldn't fathom through what means they were able to do so.
Such is all I have to say.
Observation Level 1:
I had an opportunity to engage it in combat.
It ran at me, galloping in a possessed motion.
Its visage was a far cry from a hound commanded to battle or a beast yearning to feed itself.
Running at me may have been its only choice.
I saw a purple arc of electricity sprint across its back. Which reminded me of animals tested under similar conditions in the laboratory.
Using electric stimuli, those animals were made to move as some other being intended.
It made me wonder if the same is happening to this creature.
While its claws hurt me gravely, I felt an ounce of pity for it as well.
Such is all I have to say.
Observation Level 2:
It had a thunderous roar.
To describe it in more detail, it gathered bolts of lightning as if all the storms and thunders in the world struck it at once, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that its roar has a thunderous property.
Naturally, I was able to identify the source of its electricity.
This creature was like a living battery. Collecting lightning in its body, it used the power to fuel itself.
Alas, its usage of the lightning's energy was not for a self-motivated purpose such as pursuit of strength;
the accumulated electric forces appeared to dictate its motion, giving me the impression that it was the will of the sky that it followed.
While drawing up such thoughts, Miss Faust reminded me that it's not right to have such impressions of Abnormalities.
Thus, I conclude the log here lest it becomes too sentimental.
Moving on, we have the second of these Launch Abnormalities:
Lacking Data:
It has the appearance of a fish.
-Its head has been cut off.
-The cut surface is clean; it appears to have been done with a single-sided edge, such as a knife or a scythe.
-It exhibits motion in spite of the lack of a head. I am aware that whether or not an Abnormality has an intact head is completely irrelevant to its ability to show activity, but I will note this regardless.
-An inflated sack visible around the chest area. Could not make clear observation.
-Will note new discoveries in a future report.
Observation Level 1:
A silhouette is observed inside the inflated sack around the chest.
-It bears resemblance to a flower, or the central nervous system of a human.
-It expands the sack to use as blunt instrument, and can squeeze it at high speed to expel liquid.
-Overall, the sack is deemed to be a major component of its attacks; quick destruction should prove effective.
-Will note new discoveries in a future report.
It has the appearance of a fish.
-Its head has been cut off.
-The cut surface is clean; it appears to have been done with a single-sided edge, such as a knife or a scythe.
-It exhibits motion in spite of the lack of a head. I am aware that whether or not an Abnormality has an intact head is completely irrelevant to its ability to show activity, but I will note this regardless.
-An inflated sack visible around the chest area. Could not make clear observation.
-Will note new discoveries in a future report.
Observation Level 1:
A silhouette is observed inside the inflated sack around the chest.
-It bears resemblance to a flower, or the central nervous system of a human.
-It expands the sack to use as blunt instrument, and can squeeze it at high speed to expel liquid.
-Overall, the sack is deemed to be a major component of its attacks; quick destruction should prove effective.
-Will note new discoveries in a future report.
Next one has already been shown of in the thread by Zerban, actually!
Observation Level 1:
It wasn't the most pleasant encounter.
You might say that this would apply to facing any Abnormality in battle, but this one just...felt unusual, somehow.
It was sitting languidly still and crying strange noises, looking like it had given up on everything.
The protruding blue eyeballs were shifting around with no confidence...
Yeah. It was kinda getting on my nerves. I thought I might go crazy if I had to hear its cry any longer.
I would rather just...
→ Is that the reason you swung your mace against the orders? I find it hardly convincing.
→ Nah, I'm with her. I'd snap too if I kept listening to that bloody croak. 'Sides, we're supposed to beat those Abnormalities or whatever until they're eggs, aye? What's the problem here?
→ I, I thought so, too… I agreed it would've been better off to reduce it to an egg quickly…
→ What's clockface on about now. They're ticking an awful lot.
→ …Executive Manager asks for some respect for salvaging you tools after you got yourselves killed in an idiotic charge.
Observation Level 2:
I think I've learned one thing.
I don't know how it came to attack its foes with its own eyeballs, but it looks like getting hit by it drains your energy (on top of it being incredibly gross).
…Does it? Gimme a moment.
Hmm… I asked a few other Sinners about this.
In conclusion… The more times you're hit by its tongue, the deadlier the eyeball seems to be.
I couldn't figure out further details, but I think it's safe to plan our tactics around avoiding its tongue, manager.
Which is good. It did not feel good to get hit.
→ Talk about a weirdo. It's not really tough at all, but it makes me feel all weak and drowsy~
→ Really? I, I felt a little different… Doesn't it make you more gloomy than anything?
→ Huh? How?
→ Like… Past memories popping up, or… Wanting to give up and die…
→ …Um, Faustie? Looks like our kiddie needs some mental aid?
Observation Level 3:
The left eye reduces health, and the right eye damages sanity.
So that's how they worked.
Well... Not like this changes the fact that it's best to avoid both.
In any case, we now know why dragging on doesn't do us any favor.
I felt like I was being dragged deeper into the swamp of gloom as the fight went on.
I suggest we make quick work of it with fast and powerful attacks, manager.
P.S. This just occurred to me...
I wonder what would've happened we just waiting until it's finished crying?
No, I'm not saying we should try it. I don't see it being efficient, either.
It's just... I remember someone doing the same for me a long time ago, and it helped me back then.
It wasn't the most pleasant encounter.
You might say that this would apply to facing any Abnormality in battle, but this one just...felt unusual, somehow.
It was sitting languidly still and crying strange noises, looking like it had given up on everything.
The protruding blue eyeballs were shifting around with no confidence...
Yeah. It was kinda getting on my nerves. I thought I might go crazy if I had to hear its cry any longer.
I would rather just...
→ Is that the reason you swung your mace against the orders? I find it hardly convincing.
→ Nah, I'm with her. I'd snap too if I kept listening to that bloody croak. 'Sides, we're supposed to beat those Abnormalities or whatever until they're eggs, aye? What's the problem here?
→ I, I thought so, too… I agreed it would've been better off to reduce it to an egg quickly…
→ What's clockface on about now. They're ticking an awful lot.
→ …Executive Manager asks for some respect for salvaging you tools after you got yourselves killed in an idiotic charge.
Observation Level 2:
I think I've learned one thing.
I don't know how it came to attack its foes with its own eyeballs, but it looks like getting hit by it drains your energy (on top of it being incredibly gross).
…Does it? Gimme a moment.
Hmm… I asked a few other Sinners about this.
In conclusion… The more times you're hit by its tongue, the deadlier the eyeball seems to be.
I couldn't figure out further details, but I think it's safe to plan our tactics around avoiding its tongue, manager.
Which is good. It did not feel good to get hit.
→ Talk about a weirdo. It's not really tough at all, but it makes me feel all weak and drowsy~
→ Really? I, I felt a little different… Doesn't it make you more gloomy than anything?
→ Huh? How?
→ Like… Past memories popping up, or… Wanting to give up and die…
→ …Um, Faustie? Looks like our kiddie needs some mental aid?
Observation Level 3:
The left eye reduces health, and the right eye damages sanity.
So that's how they worked.
Well... Not like this changes the fact that it's best to avoid both.
In any case, we now know why dragging on doesn't do us any favor.
I felt like I was being dragged deeper into the swamp of gloom as the fight went on.
I suggest we make quick work of it with fast and powerful attacks, manager.
P.S. This just occurred to me...
I wonder what would've happened we just waiting until it's finished crying?
No, I'm not saying we should try it. I don't see it being efficient, either.
It's just... I remember someone doing the same for me a long time ago, and it helped me back then.
Second Railway Abno: Also shown, but more recently!
Observation Level 1:
I dunno a lot about robots or machines like this...
Wait, have I...? I might have seen this one before. It was standing still in a room back then.
Right~ That souvenir robot!
Yeah, it had a panel on its chest where you could write stuff.
This thing looks like it'll chop you in half if you dared touch its chest, though...
Come to think of it, I remember running away from the robot because it tried to take away the thing it gave me. Robot arms came out clanking just like now, too.
Reflecting on it, back in my day…
Hah, guess it goes further back, actually. People much older than me used to work with hunks of metal like that, or so I heard.
If the stories are to be believed, some were modified for combat purposes. That sure takes me back…
→ Old fart.
→ …Who wrote this?
Observation Level 2:
Damn, I didn't expect this of all things to get me nostalgic.
In the Backstreets, you could sometimes find toys from ages ago.
One of them was a toy crane where you grab dolls trapped behind the glass. You move the claw using a joystick from the outside, and send it down to grab whatever's underneath.
It was pretty tight. Yep.
And here I am... Being put in the dolls' shoes after all this time.
I sure as hell didn't see this stupid machine play the crane game with us!
And when it catches something, it saws the prize along the neck…
Ugh, talk about ruined childhood memories.
Observation Level 3:
lright, I think I figured it out.
This is pretty disturbing, but... When it tried to grab us, we managed to dodge it one time.
After that big robot claw went upwards… Bah, sorry, I thought I got over it.
It came down again, holding some…machine egg thing.
When I got closer… I saw that the mechanical film was pounding to a beat.
Like a heart.
I know, this makes no sense normally. So don't comment stuff like "a heart can't beat outside an organism's systems" or whatever. You saw that thing move too, right?
.
.
.
I have to write what we did about it in full detail, huh…
I mean, what more do I say, really. We chopped that thing off.
The claw was a pretty big bother to get around, but when we cut into that thing somehow, that tin can stopped moving! Haha, that sure gave us a breather.
…Well, it might be because the heart belonged to the robot.
It's creepy, but whatever. It's an Abnormality, yeah?
I didn't get to spare much sympathy for others during the war, and I'm definitely not wasting any on unknown freaks like that.
We've got to live.
I dunno a lot about robots or machines like this...
Wait, have I...? I might have seen this one before. It was standing still in a room back then.
Right~ That souvenir robot!
Yeah, it had a panel on its chest where you could write stuff.
This thing looks like it'll chop you in half if you dared touch its chest, though...
Come to think of it, I remember running away from the robot because it tried to take away the thing it gave me. Robot arms came out clanking just like now, too.
Reflecting on it, back in my day…
Hah, guess it goes further back, actually. People much older than me used to work with hunks of metal like that, or so I heard.
If the stories are to be believed, some were modified for combat purposes. That sure takes me back…
→ Old fart.
→ …Who wrote this?
Observation Level 2:
Damn, I didn't expect this of all things to get me nostalgic.
In the Backstreets, you could sometimes find toys from ages ago.
One of them was a toy crane where you grab dolls trapped behind the glass. You move the claw using a joystick from the outside, and send it down to grab whatever's underneath.
It was pretty tight. Yep.
And here I am... Being put in the dolls' shoes after all this time.
I sure as hell didn't see this stupid machine play the crane game with us!
And when it catches something, it saws the prize along the neck…
Ugh, talk about ruined childhood memories.
Observation Level 3:
lright, I think I figured it out.
This is pretty disturbing, but... When it tried to grab us, we managed to dodge it one time.
After that big robot claw went upwards… Bah, sorry, I thought I got over it.
It came down again, holding some…machine egg thing.
When I got closer… I saw that the mechanical film was pounding to a beat.
Like a heart.
I know, this makes no sense normally. So don't comment stuff like "a heart can't beat outside an organism's systems" or whatever. You saw that thing move too, right?
.
.
.
I have to write what we did about it in full detail, huh…
I mean, what more do I say, really. We chopped that thing off.
The claw was a pretty big bother to get around, but when we cut into that thing somehow, that tin can stopped moving! Haha, that sure gave us a breather.
…Well, it might be because the heart belonged to the robot.
It's creepy, but whatever. It's an Abnormality, yeah?
I didn't get to spare much sympathy for others during the war, and I'm definitely not wasting any on unknown freaks like that.
We've got to live.
We only have one more Abnormality to bring up, the Final Boss of the first Refraction Railway:
Observation Level 1:
Recording the information gained from an encounter with the entity.
This entity was first identified by the Preliminary Observation of LCC Before Team, and it was to be captured by After Team's Special Ops department.
However, it appears that we encountered it through the mirror before they could perform the task.
With the above-mentioned facts in consideration, I will describe the information gathered from Before Team's observation and our encounter with it in a comprehensive manner.
-The Abnormality is speculated to be a statue created as an idol for worship.
-The Abnormality appears to be floating in the air at all times, and shows no particular movement outside of gesturing with one hand.
-Is ■■■■ with a related Abnormality ■■■■■■; may suggest a connection of some kind, though details are unclear. [Authorization from a higher security level is required to access the data.]
-Similar to how it floats, it attacks by "levitating" objects and sending them flying.
Concluding the report.
→ Those cleaners found it first? I thought it was their job to catch 'em and put 'em away?
→ As explained before, we stand between multiple different possibilities via refractions. After Team may have been late in this possibility, or even nonexistent.
→ (A writing seems to have been scribbled out with a pen.) Alright, I got that loud and clear.
→ Someone is unconvincing.
Observation Level 2:
Recording the information gained from encountering the entity in battle.
I will describe its behavior during combat.
It was always accompanied by a group of followers. Observation suggested that they were under the influence of a type of mind control. The lack of any common factors shared by all followers in terms of attire or other external features added further plausibility to the speculation.
It appears to attack using a khakkhara holding spiritual significance. The staff floated in a similar manner to the Abnormality. It looks as though the staff has its own sentience.
Also, due to an unidentified interference...most attacks proved ineffective.
Attacks to the core will not achieve much until the cause is found.
I will note progress made in a future report.
Concluding the report.
→ Wait, wait. You forgot that weird ring.
→ It…gives a strange feeling. I don't know why it comes to us, but when it sticks to the back, it feels...strange. Like a pressure is weighing down on the mind…
→ You had the time to feel all that? As for me, the hit I took while the ring was attached to me cut me in half by the waist. I can almost still feel it even now.
→ Really…? I, I don't think I got hurt that bad.
→ Hm. That does remind me of the occasion when the airborne ring returned to me at one moment. It may be the case that there is a rule behind its movement.
Observation Level 3:
Recording the reason for the unsuccessful attacks.
Its followers appear to be directly linked to the Abnormality.
The Abnormality will most likely not suffer meaningful damage until all followers have been defeated.
There seems to have been a kind of contractual obligation that requires the followers to protect the Abnormality.
There is another discovery to report.
After its body has been broken and the head has fallen, it started attacking its own followers at random.
Although breaking the body was an arduous task, it proved to be quite effective for its suppression.
Concluding the report.
→ It almost looked angry, the way it moved. I guess… It was lashing out at its minions for failing to protect it?
→ To think it would punish its soldiers on the front lines for errors in the operation. It's hardly surprising that a floating statue makes an incompetent commander.
Recording the information gained from an encounter with the entity.
This entity was first identified by the Preliminary Observation of LCC Before Team, and it was to be captured by After Team's Special Ops department.
However, it appears that we encountered it through the mirror before they could perform the task.
With the above-mentioned facts in consideration, I will describe the information gathered from Before Team's observation and our encounter with it in a comprehensive manner.
-The Abnormality is speculated to be a statue created as an idol for worship.
-The Abnormality appears to be floating in the air at all times, and shows no particular movement outside of gesturing with one hand.
-Is ■■■■ with a related Abnormality ■■■■■■; may suggest a connection of some kind, though details are unclear. [Authorization from a higher security level is required to access the data.]
-Similar to how it floats, it attacks by "levitating" objects and sending them flying.
Concluding the report.
→ Those cleaners found it first? I thought it was their job to catch 'em and put 'em away?
→ As explained before, we stand between multiple different possibilities via refractions. After Team may have been late in this possibility, or even nonexistent.
→ (A writing seems to have been scribbled out with a pen.) Alright, I got that loud and clear.
→ Someone is unconvincing.
Observation Level 2:
Recording the information gained from encountering the entity in battle.
I will describe its behavior during combat.
It was always accompanied by a group of followers. Observation suggested that they were under the influence of a type of mind control. The lack of any common factors shared by all followers in terms of attire or other external features added further plausibility to the speculation.
It appears to attack using a khakkhara holding spiritual significance. The staff floated in a similar manner to the Abnormality. It looks as though the staff has its own sentience.
Also, due to an unidentified interference...most attacks proved ineffective.
Attacks to the core will not achieve much until the cause is found.
I will note progress made in a future report.
Concluding the report.
→ Wait, wait. You forgot that weird ring.
→ It…gives a strange feeling. I don't know why it comes to us, but when it sticks to the back, it feels...strange. Like a pressure is weighing down on the mind…
→ You had the time to feel all that? As for me, the hit I took while the ring was attached to me cut me in half by the waist. I can almost still feel it even now.
→ Really…? I, I don't think I got hurt that bad.
→ Hm. That does remind me of the occasion when the airborne ring returned to me at one moment. It may be the case that there is a rule behind its movement.
Observation Level 3:
Recording the reason for the unsuccessful attacks.
Its followers appear to be directly linked to the Abnormality.
The Abnormality will most likely not suffer meaningful damage until all followers have been defeated.
There seems to have been a kind of contractual obligation that requires the followers to protect the Abnormality.
There is another discovery to report.
After its body has been broken and the head has fallen, it started attacking its own followers at random.
Although breaking the body was an arduous task, it proved to be quite effective for its suppression.
Concluding the report.
→ It almost looked angry, the way it moved. I guess… It was lashing out at its minions for failing to protect it?
→ To think it would punish its soldiers on the front lines for errors in the operation. It's hardly surprising that a floating statue makes an incompetent commander.
Either way, that's that for the remaining abnormalities of season 1.
I first planned to just find these fights in the Mirror Dungeons and get a screencap of the fight, but after having failed to ding the Alleyway Watchdog after 10 runs, using only base sinners, I just decided to do it the easy way, that I probably should've done from the start. On the bright side, Counting the weekly MD bonuses, I'm now at BP Level 120. Yay.
Dream Logic
An offseason swallow
- Location
- In transit
Alley Watchdog has strange symbolism but Yi Sang actually spells it out. It's a mix of animal testing/abuse, enpowerment and outside control.
The three heads give it a ceberus motif along with some potential faux crucifism imagery. The latter only really being relevant as headless Pisces seems to recall a symbol that early Christian cults used in leau of the cross.
Given the inspiration being Dante's writings there's a surprising amount of symbolism that eventually circles back to Christianity...kind of. Religion in general is a big motif for abnormalities in Limbus.
The three heads give it a ceberus motif along with some potential faux crucifism imagery. The latter only really being relevant as headless Pisces seems to recall a symbol that early Christian cults used in leau of the cross.
Given the inspiration being Dante's writings there's a surprising amount of symbolism that eventually circles back to Christianity...kind of. Religion in general is a big motif for abnormalities in Limbus.
Birthday
Have a Happy One!
- Location
- Somewhere
I think specifically, it might be symbolically representative of the cycle of mindless violence that is continuously perpetuated across the City. The Watchdog is chained down by the telephone poles that also supply it power, ut's movements puppeted and dictated by what also gives it strength in a messed up parasitic relationship.
Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
notibly, the three sinners who get its ego are heathcliff, don quixote, and faust.
Ariamaki
Judge of Scales
- Location
- Land of Breath and Balance
- Pronouns
- He/They
Given the length of the redacted segments, we can assume that My Form Empties is 'seen' with an Abnormality (and then she either gives a truncated ID code or a short name). We don't know of many other explicitly Buddhism-themed Abnormalities or Aberrations yet, so that's worth keeping an eye on!
Meanwhile the key notes for Headless Ichthys are actually IN Meursault's very dry observation notes:
Something else that critically resembles a flower, and the central nervous system of a human? Lunacy! Limbus Company's main currency, which visually ties into a lot of Very Important Aesthetics: The Golden Boughs strongly resemble ossified nerve samples moreso than tree branches, for one example. I personally feel like it's very fitting for the setting in general to have a living entity be sustained by a disembodied central nervous system, more specifically an entity which has lost its head, which tries to keep going and healing others (like its connected EGO, Faust's Fluid Sac) even if it causes mental strain along the way (like its connected EGO, Don Quixote's Fluid Sac).
What I am saying is that the Dante Fish parallels are kinda interesting, among other things.
Meanwhile the key notes for Headless Ichthys are actually IN Meursault's very dry observation notes:
Meursault said:
Something else that critically resembles a flower, and the central nervous system of a human? Lunacy! Limbus Company's main currency, which visually ties into a lot of Very Important Aesthetics: The Golden Boughs strongly resemble ossified nerve samples moreso than tree branches, for one example. I personally feel like it's very fitting for the setting in general to have a living entity be sustained by a disembodied central nervous system, more specifically an entity which has lost its head, which tries to keep going and healing others (like its connected EGO, Faust's Fluid Sac) even if it causes mental strain along the way (like its connected EGO, Don Quixote's Fluid Sac).
What I am saying is that the Dante Fish parallels are kinda interesting, among other things.
Minisodes 1: Dante's Notes, The Bus' Backdoor, and Beyond The Bus' Corridor
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
So here's the thing. I already have a chunk of Canto IV captured and ready for writing an update. We're not there already for two reasons: one, very stupid personal shit that badly disrupted my ability to focus on anything except dealing with new problems Immediately; and two, there is in fact slightly more story to cover before the Big One. I was possibly duped by the implicit immediacy of Samjo's ominous comment about arranging a second meeting with the Sinners when in fact two months pass in-universe between Hell's Chicken and The Unchanging, but when you get right down to it I just plain forgor.
These minisodes are small, unvoiced story snippets listed as 'Episode Mini' in the story theatre and with especially tiny buttons on the chapter-select screen. Basically just extremely low-cost 'oh by the way' story updates slotted in for one reason or another to tide the fanbase over between content drops. I seriously considered jumping into Canto IV regardless, but ultimately it's still story, so let's hop aboard for a last-minute detour shall we?
Episode Mini-1: Dante's Notes
Faust: "... Dante?"
We open on the bus during a period of rest - neither Mephistopheles nor Charon are imperishable, and both require regular periods of rest and recuperation. Charon by virtue of still being a human being, and Mephistopheles due to the stresses the engine suffers in the course of day-to-day operation. In fact Faust bumps into Dante on her way to perform the required maintenance in question, burdened with tools in place of her zweihander.
Dante: <You're working hard.>
Faust: "This barely counts as work. To witness Faust's magnum opus cordis being overworked with no time for care takes a greater toll, rather."
She smiles slightly, indicating the device Dante is currently fiddling with.
Faust: "Do you like this update in particular?"
Dante: <It's nothing much, I was just... making the most of this new feature I've needed.>
The game's top-level UI is the very same tablet computer that Dante is literally equipped with in-universe (or rather, it seems to be Dante's PDA dumped on their desk with a bunch of other in-universe files strewn about beneath it), IDs being small SD card type objects that they slot into their PDA as a way to select and equip whatever the Sinners are going to be wielding in combat next. I'd show you, but there's an unremovable image link to the current season's battlepass and I'm not completely comfortable with it from a potential spoiler perspective. What's important is that this minisode did in fact coincide with a new function being added.
Dante: <It didn't, surprisingly enough.>
Dante: <... you didn't know that? I thought you were omniscient, Faust.>
Faust: "Faust only knows everything that Faust knows."
Nice save, Fraudst.
But seriously, Dante's Notes serve as an in-character glossary of certain terms, concepts and organisations that have cropped up over the course of the story, with Dante adding their own minor elaborations or notes about what they heard from the others on the Bus about a given subject. We mostly won't be using it, firstly because I'm the one elaborating on new concepts being introduced, and also because it'd be a straight up pain in the ass to cross-reference each entry to make sure I don't talk about something added much later than what I'm actually covering and yadda yadda. Maybe for a filler update at a far later date I'll just run through a bunch of Dante's Notes, but right now all that's important is that Dante is using their work iPad as a diary.
Narration: That's why I must prepare a backup plan like this.
And, y'know, Dante's been wiped clean once before so now they're worried about the possibility it'll happen again for some fucking reason or another in this back-alley barfight of a City so they're taking steps to prevent themself from starting over from scratch should it come to that. Somewhat concerning too that they couch it in the rather more visceral and violent terms of their fucking head getting swapped a second time, especially knowing the Sinners already speculated in-universe that who they know as 'Dante' is an entity of the clock and not the body it sits upon. But hey, Dante's been here three months and already seen the most upsetting shit imaginable five or six times, it's understandable they'd be trying to get ahead of the curve.
Episode Mini-2: The Bus' Backdoor
Heathcliff: "?! W-what the hell?!"
Charon stomps on the brakes as she is wont to do, and the bus grinds to a halt suddenly in the middle of the Backstreets. It's worth noting that the Sinners are travelling through the Backstreets again on their way to their next destination which is still actually within the bounds of District 11 - while the delineation between Backstreets and Nest is very clear in terms of division, spatially the the Backstreets are a network of lower-class districts and slums that enmesh the City such that trying to beeline for their next appointment with Samjo would surely bring them back to the proverbial wrong side of the tracks.
Faust reminds Charon that they still haven't actually reached their destination, Meursault helpfully chiming in that they're approximately 15% short of the target destination (unclear whether he means they're roughly 51 days into 60-day their roadtrip across K Corp, or he means they're just shy of finishing this particular leg of the journey) and that driving another 3% would be ideal for their schedule. Charon has this to say;
Go girl give us nothing, normalise workers just dropping everything and napping.
Don Quixote: "Forsooth, Ser Heathcliff hath crashed his nose unto the back of the front seat for the fourth time, which must signify that this is the fourth screeching halt to occur!"
Charon: " 'Leave the wheel as soon as you start feeling sleepy', said the radio."
Ishmael: "That's a good point, but... you need to be a bit more flexible about that sorta thing."
Heathcliff: "Hah, the minted boy agrees with me, eh. It's funny when the least flexible one says that kind of gabble."
Narration: Ishmael pointed at Outis, whose veins were beginning to stick out on her veteran and placid face.
Truly remarkable. Ishmael gets needled once about being a huge hater and she immediately fires back with aggression and redirection leading to Outis catching strays despite literally just sitting there not saying anything. Also cute that it was Hongler that teased her this time, and Heathcliff is sooooooo happy to finally have somebody on his side for a change.
Equally amusingly, everyone instantly shuts the fuck up at the sound of Vergilius' long-suffering sigh as "a prime example of the terror of learned fear".
Vergilius: "... what is it? You were all happily chattering moments ago. No reason not to continue."
Heathcliff: "Weren't you sighing to go on a proper rampage after?"
Funniest man alive.
Heathcliff: "Load of..."
Ishmael: "Ahem..."
Vergilius: "It's laughable how you behave. You're like dogs that drool at the sound of a bell."
Hey guys I wonder if getting called a dog is triggering for Heathcliff, they've been so subtle with how badly he reacts to it every single time it happens.
Vergilius: "If you've got complaints, remember that my office in the back always has open hours. I'll make time for consultations... Miss Faust, I leave the rest to you."
Vergilius strolls down to the back of the bus with Charon, ignoring the glares he's getting from the Sinners, and stops at the seemingly blank back wall of the bus we've seen in previous end-of-Canto CGs.
Charon: "Open perilla."
Vergilius: "It's 'sesame', Charon."
Charon: "Charon knows. It's not like magic phrases are what open doors, anyway."
Vergilius: "... I suppose so."
The entire back wall of the bus shifts aside impossibly as they chatter, and I admit I had to google what a 'perilla' is to realise Charon's making a joke about saying the wrong kind of seed. This led me to google where 'open sesame' actually came from, as to me it always just seemed like a nonsense phrase with no relation to sesame seeds, but at least according to wikipedia it originates from Antoine Galland's French translation of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in 1001 Nights. There a much darker version of the joke takes place, as Ali Baba's greedy brother enters the cave to steal even more gold only to forget the passphrase in his excitement and frantically try it with every kind of grain he can think of before the titular Forty Thieves return and quarter his ass. So now you know!
Anyhoo the bus is also a TARDIS in case it wasn't already fucked up enough. With the false wall at the back of the bus opened, Mephistopheles simply extends into a seemingly endless corridor lined with doors.
Dante's narration professes that, despite the comfy trappings of what in all regards resembles an upscale hotel hallway, the corridor stirs up eerie feelings to behold. Certainly the strong fisheye lens distortion effect used in the artwork creates such a mood, and helps draw the eye onward and inward to the foreboding shadows beyond the velvet rope.
Gregor: "Now that I think about it... Is that one of those Singularity things belonging to a Wing? Frau Faust, do you know anything?"
Faust: "Of course it is known. But I am certain that you do know that I cannot speak of them in muc hdetail, Herr Gregor."
Gregor: "Could stand to be a bit nicer about it..."
Ryoshu: "This is a corridor."
Faust: "That's correct. It's a corridor."
Gregor: "Haah... Sure is - a long hallway with doors to rooms on the sides, of course it's a corridor."
Ryoshu: "I. F."
Gregor: "What're you trying to... Pfah, whatever. I'm too tired... Dante, please hurry on with it."
This particular piece of SANGRIA truly perplexes me because I can't for the fucking life of me figure out what she means by this, and it's also the only abbreviation Ryoshu has ever said across all Limbus content that doesn't have a suggested translation on her related wiki.gg page. Sis got the entire squad perplexed.
Faust: "Dante, while I understand that you may feel it to be an unnecessary repetitive act... simply put, the executive manager's approval is a vital part of the procedure. Please understand."
Dante: <No need to put it like that, Ms. Faust...>
Dante heads to the front of the bus and makes an announcement to all gathered - meaning the Sinners, as Vergilius and Charon have already fucked off.
Realistically this would already be habit three months in, but we'll give it a pass because the narrative was far too busy juggling other plates to establish minor procedural flourishes before now.
Faust: "Thank you kindly. Starting now, you all will be given a maximum of 12 hours to partake in slepe and rest; the duration is subject to change. Have a good night."
12 hours on 12 hours off but effectively on-call 24/7 - not great but certainly better than the working conditions in most of the City, tell you that for free. Unfortunately for them those 12-hour shifts definitely involve Luxcavation and endless Mirror Dungeon runs as I sent these losers to the proverbial coal mines digging up precious boxes and thread for me.
Don Quixote: "A fine night, Young Sinclair! What say you to another game of chess?!"
Sinclair: "N-no thanks, Don Quixote... You always run to Mr. Yi Sang for hints whenever you're losing!"
Sinclair: "T-That's even worse!"
Meursault: "Bonsoir, Manager, and thank you for today's work. As for tonight's watch..."
Dante: <Oh, Meursault. Thanks for suggesting. Yeah, I wasn't really feeling sleeping today...>
A POWERFUL rat by the name of Charles Entertainment Cheese-
Outis: "Executive Manager! Allow me to remind you that I am always willing to stand in for night watch duty if you ever feel fatigued-"
Rodion: "Yeah yeah babushka-de-camp~ How's about we get inside now~"
Ishmael: "Sure~ Let's get you to bed."
And then Ishmael and Rodion physically drag Outis away to put her ass to bed like a fussy toddler, I'm howling. Outis truly is the visionary this bus needs, only a born leader of men could unite the Sinners so. Even Faust remarks that it's a good thing Outis was dragged away kicking and screaming or else she would've kept nagging for night watch duty for an age. Interestingly, as Dante and Faust continue to observe the Sinners departing for the night it's described that Rodion and then Ishmael both step through the same door in the corridor one by one (Outis indeed having been implicitly hurled into her quarters offscreen) - this is because each door leads to a different room depending on who exactly is opening it and if they are "in the right mental condition" as Faust puts it. Going by the numbers on the doors in the above CG, the Sinners are three to a 'room', with Ishmael and Rodion grouped together with Heathcliff as Sinners 7, 8 and 9. Dante's narration remarks that the Sinners' lodgings more resembled prison cells when last they took a peek, but we'll put a pin in that.
Faust senses that Dante has other questions beyond the Sinners' whacky space-overlapping quarters, despite the lack of any conventionally discernable expression on the clockface. Just Faust things. Dante admits that they're just curious about what lies past the velvet rope blocking the corridor, in the shadowed depths of infinity beyond.
Faust: "... as I have told you repeatedly, it is best not to be curious about it, Dante."
Faust deflects the question with a sigh and heads to bed herself, leaving Dante alone.
Episode Mini-3: Beyond the Bus' Corridor
Narration: It happened exactly a week after that fruitless exchange.
Faust gives the exact same speech about 12 hours maximum rest and leisure time but this time Heathcliff is glowering meaningfully the entire time, drawing Ishmael's attention. Rodion urges Ishmael to ignore it as just another of Heathcliff's Moods, telling the man himself to get it all out of his system before he heads to bed because the thunder keeps her up at night - confirming both that the rooms which share a door are 'adjacent' in some manner perceptible to the occupants and, as Dante's narration later confirms, the prison cells seen in the artwork of each Sinner's base EGO are effectively canon.
The floors, walls, ambiance, and view through the cell window are all reflections of the Sinner's current emotional state, and Heathcliff's is known to "emit wuthering and stormy sounds". In fact as Dante keeps referring to them as 'glimpses through the window' it's possible they're basing these assessments on the EGO art in-universe. Obviously not every single detail should be taken as literal, they're single posed tableus intended to kind of summarise and foreshadow each Sinner's turmoil, but taken as a Vibe I think this is a pretty clear throughline.
Back to the matter at hand, Heathcliff lingers stewing in whatever got his mood all stormy until he and Faust are the last Sinners remaining in the corridor. This at last sparks a change in him, as he mischeviously points past the velvet rope and asks Faust what's back there just as Dante did last week.
Faust: "Heathcliff, I recommend against walking farther into the corridor than necessary."
Heathcliff: "Huh. That sure makes it sound awful suspicious."
Faust: "There is nothing of which to be suspicious. You are better off listening to Faust."
Heathcliff: "What, you keep treasures or somesuch in there?"
Faust: "Heathcliff. Do not do it. You will regret your action."
Unfortunately, as Dante's narration remarks, Faust's usual secretive attitude only heightens Heathcliff's curiosity, and once he's provoked her to be uncharacteristically direct in her warnings that's enough to make him think there's something really worth hiding back there.
So he sprints headlong past the velvet rope, into the dark.
Dante doesn't even have time to ask Faust if they should be worried about Heathcliff before the man lets out a piercing scream from the depths of the bus.
Faust: "Dante, now is the time to take my left hand and run with me."
Dante: <Wha, huh?>
Faust: "I won't be able to get him out in time on my own. I may be engulfed myself if I don't act quickly."
This time Faust ignoring questions isn't for the sake of secrecy, she's genuinely and overtly urgent. She sprints off in pursuit of Heathcliff, sparing no time to wait for Dante.
Dante what kinda fucking square were you in your old life that the word 'shuckaroonies' is rattling around in your gears.
Dante hears screams coming from the middle passageway, but Faust darts to the left without a moment's hesitation.
Dante: <F-Faust! I know you're in a hurry, but... are you sure this is the right way? I could've sworn I heard his voice coming from the centre path...>
Faust: "I know."
No elaboration is forthcoming. At the next fork Faust turns right, and just as quickly enters the fifth door on the left side of the hallway, bringing the two of them to...
... a completely identical copy of the corridor they started their journey at, save for the lack of a velvet rope.
Oh, and there's some kind of gravitational pull making Dante feel like they're in danger of 'falling' straight down the hall and into the dark at the far end. Dante spies Heathcliff halfway down, already fallen victim to the mysterious force - he's trying to crawl back with all his might, inch by inch like he's freeclimbing a sheer cliff face. But I hesitate to describe this as simply as 'oh, gravity is horizontal in this part of the bus'...
... because of whatever the fuck this means.
Dante: <Faust, what's over->
Faust: "Dante, I want you to hold the knob of this open door tightly. Firmly grip my hand as well."
Gripping Dante tightly as her anchor, Faust approaches Heathcliff.
Dante: <This hallway... isn't tilted or anything, is it? Why does it feel like we're hanging off a cliff?>
Faust: "That... is because we're in a 'corridor', obviously. Dante, do not let go."
Chat genuinely what did she mean by this.
Faust: "Heathcliff, grab this if you would."
Heathcliff: "Are you mental?! My hand'll get gashed if I try grabbing that giant blade!"
Faust: "... you'll much prefer deep wounds on your palms to what you can suffer down there."
I would've led with 'incorrect, Faust is a Blunt/Blunt/Pierce ID' but you do you Frau Faust. In any case Heathcliff's eyes dart between the sword and the dark, and he makes the correct choice. Crying out in agony as the sword cuts into his palms, by some genuine miracle of strength Dante and Faust working together are able to safely extract all three of them from the deadly pull of whatever lies beyond the corridor. Having been rendered unconscious by the strain of whatever it is he suffered, Faust and Dante carry Heathcliff between them as they retrace their steps back to the safety of the Bus' known safe areas.
Faust: "Dante, you will have to turn the clock."
Dante: <Heathcliff's... gonna be okay, right?>
Faust: "The psychological damage is likely to be severe. Our work will be encumbered if he loses his mind."
Faust what kinda fuckass bus did you build me.
Dante: <Faust. Just what's in there? Where does it lead? Can't you tell me at this point? I've... seen that stuff now.>
Narration: It was only natural that I want to know. What resides there, and what was chasing Heathcliff? Moreover...
Narration: Why did it never show itself to us, and why did it vanish instead of chasing him any further?
Faust: "..."
Faust: "As stated earlier, there are limits to what Faust can elaborate."
Narration: ... Yep, I honestly didn't expect much.
... have I been overthinking this and it just stands for 'Idiot Face'? Ryoshu I had higher expectations of you.
Faust: "However..."
Dante: <Huh?>
Faust: "You did prevent a sudden vacancy in the bus department. Though I wouldn't exactly call it a reward, I do suppose it isn't a bad idea to inform you of one thing."
Dante: <Ooh... L-lemme hear it!>
Faust: "... Dante, when you traverse a road you have never walked before, what do you do?"
Dante: <Hmm? I mean... you use a map, obviously?>
Faust: "That's right. Then, even if you don't have a map, your brain will form images to serve as one. From there, on that map... there will be a starting point and a destination clearly marked. When you return from your trip, you will trace back through that way."
Dante nods, waiting for her to elaborate.
Faust: "This is why you should remember where you've started in the corridor, especially when you open a door."
And then Faust leaves, refusing to elaborate any further. Absolute sigma female behaviour.
Dante: <Of course it would go like this...>
Dante sighs in frustration, though their clock can expel no air, and can only angrily type out a summary of the day's events in their PDA.
Folks I'd love to leave you with some cryptic comments of my own about the meaning and foreshadowing behind these events but I gotta be honest I have no idea what kinda eldritch entities Faust put in this fuckass bus when she built it. The best I can do to really drill down on what Faust said to Dante at the end there is that I think it has something to do with Dante's memories, or lack thereof. That this journey through the Inferno as a blank slate following a star allows their memories to be engraved all the more deeply and indelibly, becoming the proverbial map to their final destination. First clockhead, now compasshead. Which... has worrying implications, considering past chatter about the clockhead being detached and cast aside/used as an ornament after the return of Dante's organic head. Is all this just in aid of turning Dante into a map to something at the end of the Golden (rain)Boughs? If it is, why would Faust dance around it and imply it? There just isn't enough to go on.
In any case, I hope you all enjoyed this small detour. Next time, we are actually proceeding with Canto IV, and nobody's more excited for it than me.
These minisodes are small, unvoiced story snippets listed as 'Episode Mini' in the story theatre and with especially tiny buttons on the chapter-select screen. Basically just extremely low-cost 'oh by the way' story updates slotted in for one reason or another to tide the fanbase over between content drops. I seriously considered jumping into Canto IV regardless, but ultimately it's still story, so let's hop aboard for a last-minute detour shall we?
Episode Mini-1: Dante's Notes
Faust: "... Dante?"
We open on the bus during a period of rest - neither Mephistopheles nor Charon are imperishable, and both require regular periods of rest and recuperation. Charon by virtue of still being a human being, and Mephistopheles due to the stresses the engine suffers in the course of day-to-day operation. In fact Faust bumps into Dante on her way to perform the required maintenance in question, burdened with tools in place of her zweihander.
Dante: <You're working hard.>
Faust: "This barely counts as work. To witness Faust's magnum opus cordis being overworked with no time for care takes a greater toll, rather."
She smiles slightly, indicating the device Dante is currently fiddling with.
Faust: "Do you like this update in particular?"
Dante: <It's nothing much, I was just... making the most of this new feature I've needed.>
The game's top-level UI is the very same tablet computer that Dante is literally equipped with in-universe (or rather, it seems to be Dante's PDA dumped on their desk with a bunch of other in-universe files strewn about beneath it), IDs being small SD card type objects that they slot into their PDA as a way to select and equip whatever the Sinners are going to be wielding in combat next. I'd show you, but there's an unremovable image link to the current season's battlepass and I'm not completely comfortable with it from a potential spoiler perspective. What's important is that this minisode did in fact coincide with a new function being added.
Dante: <It didn't, surprisingly enough.>
Dante: <... you didn't know that? I thought you were omniscient, Faust.>
Faust: "Faust only knows everything that Faust knows."
Nice save, Fraudst.
But seriously, Dante's Notes serve as an in-character glossary of certain terms, concepts and organisations that have cropped up over the course of the story, with Dante adding their own minor elaborations or notes about what they heard from the others on the Bus about a given subject. We mostly won't be using it, firstly because I'm the one elaborating on new concepts being introduced, and also because it'd be a straight up pain in the ass to cross-reference each entry to make sure I don't talk about something added much later than what I'm actually covering and yadda yadda. Maybe for a filler update at a far later date I'll just run through a bunch of Dante's Notes, but right now all that's important is that Dante is using their work iPad as a diary.
Narration: That's why I must prepare a backup plan like this.
And, y'know, Dante's been wiped clean once before so now they're worried about the possibility it'll happen again for some fucking reason or another in this back-alley barfight of a City so they're taking steps to prevent themself from starting over from scratch should it come to that. Somewhat concerning too that they couch it in the rather more visceral and violent terms of their fucking head getting swapped a second time, especially knowing the Sinners already speculated in-universe that who they know as 'Dante' is an entity of the clock and not the body it sits upon. But hey, Dante's been here three months and already seen the most upsetting shit imaginable five or six times, it's understandable they'd be trying to get ahead of the curve.
Episode Mini-2: The Bus' Backdoor
Heathcliff: "?! W-what the hell?!"
Charon stomps on the brakes as she is wont to do, and the bus grinds to a halt suddenly in the middle of the Backstreets. It's worth noting that the Sinners are travelling through the Backstreets again on their way to their next destination which is still actually within the bounds of District 11 - while the delineation between Backstreets and Nest is very clear in terms of division, spatially the the Backstreets are a network of lower-class districts and slums that enmesh the City such that trying to beeline for their next appointment with Samjo would surely bring them back to the proverbial wrong side of the tracks.
Faust reminds Charon that they still haven't actually reached their destination, Meursault helpfully chiming in that they're approximately 15% short of the target destination (unclear whether he means they're roughly 51 days into 60-day their roadtrip across K Corp, or he means they're just shy of finishing this particular leg of the journey) and that driving another 3% would be ideal for their schedule. Charon has this to say;
Go girl give us nothing, normalise workers just dropping everything and napping.
Don Quixote: "Forsooth, Ser Heathcliff hath crashed his nose unto the back of the front seat for the fourth time, which must signify that this is the fourth screeching halt to occur!"
Charon: " 'Leave the wheel as soon as you start feeling sleepy', said the radio."
Ishmael: "That's a good point, but... you need to be a bit more flexible about that sorta thing."
Heathcliff: "Hah, the minted boy agrees with me, eh. It's funny when the least flexible one says that kind of gabble."
Narration: Ishmael pointed at Outis, whose veins were beginning to stick out on her veteran and placid face.
Truly remarkable. Ishmael gets needled once about being a huge hater and she immediately fires back with aggression and redirection leading to Outis catching strays despite literally just sitting there not saying anything. Also cute that it was Hongler that teased her this time, and Heathcliff is sooooooo happy to finally have somebody on his side for a change.
Equally amusingly, everyone instantly shuts the fuck up at the sound of Vergilius' long-suffering sigh as "a prime example of the terror of learned fear".
Vergilius: "... what is it? You were all happily chattering moments ago. No reason not to continue."
Heathcliff: "Weren't you sighing to go on a proper rampage after?"
Funniest man alive.
Heathcliff: "Load of..."
Ishmael: "Ahem..."
Vergilius: "It's laughable how you behave. You're like dogs that drool at the sound of a bell."
Hey guys I wonder if getting called a dog is triggering for Heathcliff, they've been so subtle with how badly he reacts to it every single time it happens.
Vergilius: "If you've got complaints, remember that my office in the back always has open hours. I'll make time for consultations... Miss Faust, I leave the rest to you."
Vergilius strolls down to the back of the bus with Charon, ignoring the glares he's getting from the Sinners, and stops at the seemingly blank back wall of the bus we've seen in previous end-of-Canto CGs.
Charon: "Open perilla."
Vergilius: "It's 'sesame', Charon."
Charon: "Charon knows. It's not like magic phrases are what open doors, anyway."
Vergilius: "... I suppose so."
The entire back wall of the bus shifts aside impossibly as they chatter, and I admit I had to google what a 'perilla' is to realise Charon's making a joke about saying the wrong kind of seed. This led me to google where 'open sesame' actually came from, as to me it always just seemed like a nonsense phrase with no relation to sesame seeds, but at least according to wikipedia it originates from Antoine Galland's French translation of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in 1001 Nights. There a much darker version of the joke takes place, as Ali Baba's greedy brother enters the cave to steal even more gold only to forget the passphrase in his excitement and frantically try it with every kind of grain he can think of before the titular Forty Thieves return and quarter his ass. So now you know!
Anyhoo the bus is also a TARDIS in case it wasn't already fucked up enough. With the false wall at the back of the bus opened, Mephistopheles simply extends into a seemingly endless corridor lined with doors.
Dante's narration professes that, despite the comfy trappings of what in all regards resembles an upscale hotel hallway, the corridor stirs up eerie feelings to behold. Certainly the strong fisheye lens distortion effect used in the artwork creates such a mood, and helps draw the eye onward and inward to the foreboding shadows beyond the velvet rope.
Gregor: "Now that I think about it... Is that one of those Singularity things belonging to a Wing? Frau Faust, do you know anything?"
Faust: "Of course it is known. But I am certain that you do know that I cannot speak of them in muc hdetail, Herr Gregor."
Gregor: "Could stand to be a bit nicer about it..."
Ryoshu: "This is a corridor."
Faust: "That's correct. It's a corridor."
Gregor: "Haah... Sure is - a long hallway with doors to rooms on the sides, of course it's a corridor."
Ryoshu: "I. F."
Gregor: "What're you trying to... Pfah, whatever. I'm too tired... Dante, please hurry on with it."
This particular piece of SANGRIA truly perplexes me because I can't for the fucking life of me figure out what she means by this, and it's also the only abbreviation Ryoshu has ever said across all Limbus content that doesn't have a suggested translation on her related wiki.gg page. Sis got the entire squad perplexed.
Faust: "Dante, while I understand that you may feel it to be an unnecessary repetitive act... simply put, the executive manager's approval is a vital part of the procedure. Please understand."
Dante: <No need to put it like that, Ms. Faust...>
Dante heads to the front of the bus and makes an announcement to all gathered - meaning the Sinners, as Vergilius and Charon have already fucked off.
Realistically this would already be habit three months in, but we'll give it a pass because the narrative was far too busy juggling other plates to establish minor procedural flourishes before now.
Faust: "Thank you kindly. Starting now, you all will be given a maximum of 12 hours to partake in slepe and rest; the duration is subject to change. Have a good night."
12 hours on 12 hours off but effectively on-call 24/7 - not great but certainly better than the working conditions in most of the City, tell you that for free. Unfortunately for them those 12-hour shifts definitely involve Luxcavation and endless Mirror Dungeon runs as I sent these losers to the proverbial coal mines digging up precious boxes and thread for me.
Don Quixote: "A fine night, Young Sinclair! What say you to another game of chess?!"
Sinclair: "N-no thanks, Don Quixote... You always run to Mr. Yi Sang for hints whenever you're losing!"
Sinclair: "T-That's even worse!"
Meursault: "Bonsoir, Manager, and thank you for today's work. As for tonight's watch..."
Dante: <Oh, Meursault. Thanks for suggesting. Yeah, I wasn't really feeling sleeping today...>
A POWERFUL rat by the name of Charles Entertainment Cheese-
Outis: "Executive Manager! Allow me to remind you that I am always willing to stand in for night watch duty if you ever feel fatigued-"
Rodion: "Yeah yeah babushka-de-camp~ How's about we get inside now~"
Ishmael: "Sure~ Let's get you to bed."
And then Ishmael and Rodion physically drag Outis away to put her ass to bed like a fussy toddler, I'm howling. Outis truly is the visionary this bus needs, only a born leader of men could unite the Sinners so. Even Faust remarks that it's a good thing Outis was dragged away kicking and screaming or else she would've kept nagging for night watch duty for an age. Interestingly, as Dante and Faust continue to observe the Sinners departing for the night it's described that Rodion and then Ishmael both step through the same door in the corridor one by one (Outis indeed having been implicitly hurled into her quarters offscreen) - this is because each door leads to a different room depending on who exactly is opening it and if they are "in the right mental condition" as Faust puts it. Going by the numbers on the doors in the above CG, the Sinners are three to a 'room', with Ishmael and Rodion grouped together with Heathcliff as Sinners 7, 8 and 9. Dante's narration remarks that the Sinners' lodgings more resembled prison cells when last they took a peek, but we'll put a pin in that.
Faust senses that Dante has other questions beyond the Sinners' whacky space-overlapping quarters, despite the lack of any conventionally discernable expression on the clockface. Just Faust things. Dante admits that they're just curious about what lies past the velvet rope blocking the corridor, in the shadowed depths of infinity beyond.
Faust: "... as I have told you repeatedly, it is best not to be curious about it, Dante."
Faust deflects the question with a sigh and heads to bed herself, leaving Dante alone.
Episode Mini-3: Beyond the Bus' Corridor
Narration: It happened exactly a week after that fruitless exchange.
Faust gives the exact same speech about 12 hours maximum rest and leisure time but this time Heathcliff is glowering meaningfully the entire time, drawing Ishmael's attention. Rodion urges Ishmael to ignore it as just another of Heathcliff's Moods, telling the man himself to get it all out of his system before he heads to bed because the thunder keeps her up at night - confirming both that the rooms which share a door are 'adjacent' in some manner perceptible to the occupants and, as Dante's narration later confirms, the prison cells seen in the artwork of each Sinner's base EGO are effectively canon.
The floors, walls, ambiance, and view through the cell window are all reflections of the Sinner's current emotional state, and Heathcliff's is known to "emit wuthering and stormy sounds". In fact as Dante keeps referring to them as 'glimpses through the window' it's possible they're basing these assessments on the EGO art in-universe. Obviously not every single detail should be taken as literal, they're single posed tableus intended to kind of summarise and foreshadow each Sinner's turmoil, but taken as a Vibe I think this is a pretty clear throughline.
Back to the matter at hand, Heathcliff lingers stewing in whatever got his mood all stormy until he and Faust are the last Sinners remaining in the corridor. This at last sparks a change in him, as he mischeviously points past the velvet rope and asks Faust what's back there just as Dante did last week.
Faust: "Heathcliff, I recommend against walking farther into the corridor than necessary."
Heathcliff: "Huh. That sure makes it sound awful suspicious."
Faust: "There is nothing of which to be suspicious. You are better off listening to Faust."
Heathcliff: "What, you keep treasures or somesuch in there?"
Faust: "Heathcliff. Do not do it. You will regret your action."
Unfortunately, as Dante's narration remarks, Faust's usual secretive attitude only heightens Heathcliff's curiosity, and once he's provoked her to be uncharacteristically direct in her warnings that's enough to make him think there's something really worth hiding back there.
So he sprints headlong past the velvet rope, into the dark.
Dante doesn't even have time to ask Faust if they should be worried about Heathcliff before the man lets out a piercing scream from the depths of the bus.
Faust: "Dante, now is the time to take my left hand and run with me."
Dante: <Wha, huh?>
Faust: "I won't be able to get him out in time on my own. I may be engulfed myself if I don't act quickly."
This time Faust ignoring questions isn't for the sake of secrecy, she's genuinely and overtly urgent. She sprints off in pursuit of Heathcliff, sparing no time to wait for Dante.
Dante what kinda fucking square were you in your old life that the word 'shuckaroonies' is rattling around in your gears.
Dante hears screams coming from the middle passageway, but Faust darts to the left without a moment's hesitation.
Dante: <F-Faust! I know you're in a hurry, but... are you sure this is the right way? I could've sworn I heard his voice coming from the centre path...>
Faust: "I know."
No elaboration is forthcoming. At the next fork Faust turns right, and just as quickly enters the fifth door on the left side of the hallway, bringing the two of them to...
... a completely identical copy of the corridor they started their journey at, save for the lack of a velvet rope.
Oh, and there's some kind of gravitational pull making Dante feel like they're in danger of 'falling' straight down the hall and into the dark at the far end. Dante spies Heathcliff halfway down, already fallen victim to the mysterious force - he's trying to crawl back with all his might, inch by inch like he's freeclimbing a sheer cliff face. But I hesitate to describe this as simply as 'oh, gravity is horizontal in this part of the bus'...
... because of whatever the fuck this means.
Dante: <Faust, what's over->
Faust: "Dante, I want you to hold the knob of this open door tightly. Firmly grip my hand as well."
Gripping Dante tightly as her anchor, Faust approaches Heathcliff.
Dante: <This hallway... isn't tilted or anything, is it? Why does it feel like we're hanging off a cliff?>
Faust: "That... is because we're in a 'corridor', obviously. Dante, do not let go."
Chat genuinely what did she mean by this.
Faust: "Heathcliff, grab this if you would."
Heathcliff: "Are you mental?! My hand'll get gashed if I try grabbing that giant blade!"
Faust: "... you'll much prefer deep wounds on your palms to what you can suffer down there."
I would've led with 'incorrect, Faust is a Blunt/Blunt/Pierce ID' but you do you Frau Faust. In any case Heathcliff's eyes dart between the sword and the dark, and he makes the correct choice. Crying out in agony as the sword cuts into his palms, by some genuine miracle of strength Dante and Faust working together are able to safely extract all three of them from the deadly pull of whatever lies beyond the corridor. Having been rendered unconscious by the strain of whatever it is he suffered, Faust and Dante carry Heathcliff between them as they retrace their steps back to the safety of the Bus' known safe areas.
Faust: "Dante, you will have to turn the clock."
Dante: <Heathcliff's... gonna be okay, right?>
Faust: "The psychological damage is likely to be severe. Our work will be encumbered if he loses his mind."
Faust what kinda fuckass bus did you build me.
Dante: <Faust. Just what's in there? Where does it lead? Can't you tell me at this point? I've... seen that stuff now.>
Narration: It was only natural that I want to know. What resides there, and what was chasing Heathcliff? Moreover...
Narration: Why did it never show itself to us, and why did it vanish instead of chasing him any further?
Faust: "..."
Faust: "As stated earlier, there are limits to what Faust can elaborate."
Narration: ... Yep, I honestly didn't expect much.
... have I been overthinking this and it just stands for 'Idiot Face'? Ryoshu I had higher expectations of you.
Faust: "However..."
Dante: <Huh?>
Faust: "You did prevent a sudden vacancy in the bus department. Though I wouldn't exactly call it a reward, I do suppose it isn't a bad idea to inform you of one thing."
Dante: <Ooh... L-lemme hear it!>
Faust: "... Dante, when you traverse a road you have never walked before, what do you do?"
Dante: <Hmm? I mean... you use a map, obviously?>
Faust: "That's right. Then, even if you don't have a map, your brain will form images to serve as one. From there, on that map... there will be a starting point and a destination clearly marked. When you return from your trip, you will trace back through that way."
Dante nods, waiting for her to elaborate.
Faust: "This is why you should remember where you've started in the corridor, especially when you open a door."
And then Faust leaves, refusing to elaborate any further. Absolute sigma female behaviour.
Dante: <Of course it would go like this...>
Dante sighs in frustration, though their clock can expel no air, and can only angrily type out a summary of the day's events in their PDA.
Folks I'd love to leave you with some cryptic comments of my own about the meaning and foreshadowing behind these events but I gotta be honest I have no idea what kinda eldritch entities Faust put in this fuckass bus when she built it. The best I can do to really drill down on what Faust said to Dante at the end there is that I think it has something to do with Dante's memories, or lack thereof. That this journey through the Inferno as a blank slate following a star allows their memories to be engraved all the more deeply and indelibly, becoming the proverbial map to their final destination. First clockhead, now compasshead. Which... has worrying implications, considering past chatter about the clockhead being detached and cast aside/used as an ornament after the return of Dante's organic head. Is all this just in aid of turning Dante into a map to something at the end of the Golden (rain)Boughs? If it is, why would Faust dance around it and imply it? There just isn't enough to go on.
In any case, I hope you all enjoyed this small detour. Next time, we are actually proceeding with Canto IV, and nobody's more excited for it than me.
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DimensionalGuy
Lazy Bastard
- Location
- Sweden
Corridor tech is wild. Either way, I'm fairly sure that I.F stands for ignorant/idiotic fool, or something to that effect.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
My guess is that it's Ignorant Fool, because I strongly suspect that's not "corridor" that Ryoshu said, but "Corridor" with a capital C because she knows exactly what this is.
... have I been overthinking this and it just stands for 'Idiot Face'? Ryoshu I had higher expectations of you.
Notably, this was a seperate login event that happened one week after the first one.
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- Location
- France
The City, the place where even your work bus is an Eldritch abomination!
As said above, maybe "Ignorant Fools".
... have I been overthinking this and it just stands for 'Idiot Face'? Ryoshu I had higher expectations of you.
Personally I took it more down-to-earthly: that this corridor is not a place with a set configuration (at least past the cordon) and that it's your mind that create the paths as you walk in it, without any end, and so it's very important to remember the exact route you took because it's the only way to go back to the normal parts of the bus.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
My best guesses would be "Incorrect, Fool." or "Idiotic Fool." In which case...
...You may be overthinking it! They can't all be works of art.
Meursault: The Manager is not a square, they are circular in nature.
NOT SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE.
Now that it's been mentioned, yeah Ignorant Fool fits the bill better the Idiotic Fool.
- Location
- Portugal
The Sinners' living conditions are really like this? Gosh. I can't make much of the explanation for whatever's going on in the deep bus, though. To take a slightly more literal reading, if the inside of the bus is like a map (of Hell?), but trying to traverse it without first experiencing the route it details on your own two feet will... have you lost to something malicious that will drag off into the darkness there?? How this ties into the workings of Dante's clock and the pact seems very ambiguous either way. But that bit of Dante worrying about their memories seems ever more concerning.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Going by the "Sinner's Original EGO is how their room looks" theory, some Sinners' have better rooms, like Don, but some Sinners have worse rooms, like, the worst room that exists, Ishmaels. Which of course, is submerged like 80% in water.
We shall take "Ishmael effectively drowns in her sleep" with, perhaps a grain a salt though. As suggested by Zerban.
Redsoff
[DETACHMENT]
- Location
- By [your] side
It is mentioned that Heathcliff should calm down before entering his room, so it's likely that they only reflect their base EGO if a Sinner enters while in an emotionally agitated state.
They're probably normal rooms most of the time, they only transform if a Sinner enters with negative sanity.
They're probably normal rooms most of the time, they only transform if a Sinner enters with negative sanity.
- Location
- Vermont
I think that, given we know the rooms for the Sinners change based on emotion and intention, traversing the "corridor" requires a much more complicated process to travel through and create a functional "map". Heathecliff sprinting into the totally unknown because he's incredibly pissed off probably didn't establish a map to anywhere safe or stable, but the rest of my stuff to talk about space in the Hellbus comes up after the next Canto and Intervallo, so details would have to wait to avoid spoilers.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
There is, of course, the Project Moon general thread if you need to get whatever spoiler thing off your chest.
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I think Ishmael outright called Outis 'granny' here.
Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
yes they do, thats the whole point of a sangria!
Ariamaki
Judge of Scales
- Location
- Land of Breath and Balance
- Pronouns
- He/They
Critical not to forget this: Rodion did the same thing right alongside her, with here absolutely cutting 'babushka-de-camp' comment! Almost everybody on the bus is near-constantly ragging on everybody else, but as time goes on it's clearly starting to pick up less of an imminent homicide vibe and more of an emotionally-open coworkers ribbing each other energy... with undertones of still-omnipresent potential homicide.
I deeply appreciate these dorks and the way they show aggression and affection, it's like a mobile terrarium full of murderhobos.And yeah I think Zang nailed the issue: The Corridor is something you have to explore with intention and information from what we're seeing here, which would (theoretically) mean that the total lack of information about what's beyond the rope might literally be what makes the area behind the rope dangerous. It might not just be arcane and dangerous but even be in flux and undefined, like walking out of the working RAM and into unrelated data that isn't meant to be parsed as terrain, to compare it to old video game tech.
Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
an area defined by ones perception of it, huh?
wonder if there trying to do a metaphor with that one.
- Location
- Lost in Hell
Incredible Fool, Impossible fool, I almost said Idiotic Fool but that's too close to Idiot Face. It would probably be easier to check what the Korean fanbase thinks she said and just translate that.
As for my take on the Corridors… I'll say we don't know enough about them to even identify if there's multiple types of Corridors, but I fairly strongly feel it's possible that some random-ass Ruins and Outskirts monsters or a stray Abnormality or two could wander their way in and make it their forever home.
Mostly because they, too, don't have any fucking idea how to leave.
That or there's a literal demon that Faust stored in the back of the bus or something who even knows by this point.
Canto IV: The Unchanging (Part 1) - A Bird Whose Wings Are Endlessly Cut
New
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Do you remember the day when we first felt that we were breathing?
Back then...
That breath alone would suffice.
Or perhaps...
It was the air that was exceptionally clear that day.
Back then...
That breath alone would suffice.
Or perhaps...
It was the air that was exceptionally clear that day.
Narration: Terrified screams, hopeless outcries, pained moans, and the sounds of hard objects breaking create a cacophany.
Yi Sang: "It is time... to turn the clock."
Narration: I can hear Yi Sang, the only conscious Sinner at the moment, muster up his remaining strength to speak. The others are on the floor among dismembered corpses like powerless puppets.
Narration: Fatal injuries were left by an Abnormality. Yet, we are in the middle of a Nest.
Narration: Weren't Abnormalities... supposed to be confined within Lobotomy Corp's branch facilities or dungeons?
Narration: Meanwhile, the Abnormality pierced Yi Sang's abdomen as I wondered.
No, I didn't miss anything, that in medias res opening of Canto IV was so jarring that I too had no idea what was going on when I replayed this for capture purposes. Perhaps it was intended mostly as a vibe reset, a quick 'hey I know we left you with some chortles and smiles last time with Hell's Chicken, but let's remind you about the blood and death and carnage that we opened on'.
Faust answers that Hong Lu is asking the wrong question - the current mission concerns a person, not a place. Yi Sang asks who this person might be, but Faust unhelpfully replies with "we have a client" rather than any actual information. Ishmael is plain flabbergasted that the bus takes outside requests like a real Fixer Office, presumably thinking that Hell's Chicken had been a one-off solely due to its rather unique circumstances.
Look at Yi Sang back there, bro is fully ensconsed by Don lance and Ishmael hair after barely getting a word in edgewise.
Vergilius tells everyone to shut the fuck up and seizes the reins on exposition - they got lucky in the first couple of Cantos, J Corp and D Corp having no interest or awareness of the Boughs, which meant they only had to contend with Backstreets rifraff and low-level Syndicates. Now they're dealing with Wings, and not even a mere expeditionary force like Nagel und Hammer occupying Calw to convert the branch office into a grisly cathedral of human suffering. Gregor asks, puzzled, didn't they already take K Corp's Golden Bough?
VergiliusSmile.jpg is a treat every time, the only joy his life holds any more is being shitty to these losers.
There is no simple one-per-district system to the distribution of L Corp's branch facilities. They're spread everywhere, "quite literally like tree branches", and to further complicate things there are no "clear definitions about who owns the Boughs". L Corp fell, after all, collapsing their branch offices with all hands still inside, leaving them to go fallow. Absent any higher ruling, it's finders-keepers plain and simple. The current request is being undertaken quite explicitly in exchange for the Bough in K Corp's custody - more interestingly, that it was K Corp that first made the offer, and with the Bough on the line LCB was in no position to refuse.
Vergilius: "Thus... Haaa, I don't know how many times I have to remind you of this, but do not do anything to aggravate the client."
[Always Sunny In Philadelphia title text] THE GANG FUCKS THE CEO'S WIFE
Dante: <By the way...>
Vergilius: "Now then, keep your mouths shut until you're there. All as usual."
Dante: <...>
Faust: "Dante seemed to have something to say."
Dante: <... Thank you, Faust.>
Look at this shithead, look me in the eye and tell me he didn't do that on purpose.
Dante: <... So what are Golden Boughs used for, anyway? When I think about it, all we were told was a vague order to collect them... And nothing about what the company plans to do with them.>
Faust: "..."
Faust: "They are asking about the purpose of the Golden Boughs."
Vergilius: "... Uh-huh."
Vergilius: "I see you've finally begun to ruminate on subjects, Manager Dante. Here you are, growing curious about the company's plans."
Vergilius: "Then I ought to aid your management as a guide by providing a kind explanation."
Vergilius: "The Golden Boughs..."
Dante silently seethes that Vergilius' dipshit answer made them look like they don't even know what a branch is, and Rodion shrugs at them like 'what, were you expecting a real answer?' Also fucking losing it at Don being like "ooooh i see :O" when she has literally already seen three up-close by now, but then again I think if The Red Gaze Himself told her the sky was blue she would treat it with the exact same enthusiasm and reverence.
The conversation comes to a halt along with the bus as Charon announces a blockage in the road. Ishmael is halfway through remarking how strange it is for there to be a blocked road in the middle of K Corp's Nest when a corpse slams into the windshield and bounces off. Meursault is able to immediately rattle off a broad description of the man and his injuries, along with an assessment that he was already dead before impact.
Vergilius: "Pitstop. If it's a problem you can handle, come back after you're done."
Rodion: "... And what about if it isn't?"
Vergilius: "The clock'll have to spin until it's been dealt with."
Dante: <That's one elegant way to tell us to go die a thousand deaths...>
Rodion: "Hm, now then..."
Rodion, mimicking Vergilius' gruff voice: "Off the bus."
In this moment I fully believe that Rodion did the risk assessment and decided the odds of getting her ass kicked by Vergilius for fucking with him were worth the prize, and she was right.
Hong Lu exclaims that he just can't wait, wondering what adventures are in store for the bus group this time, and the Sinners disembark to investigate the disturbance. A fleeing civilian runs headlong into them in her haste to check behind her, tumbling to the ground in shock.
Don Quixote: "Come now, you may rest easy! We have galloped hither to save innocent lives such as yours for we are-"
Ishmael: "We are no such things as heroes, so please don't say anything unnecessary."
Heathcliff: "Oi, we need to cross here. If you're here to stop us for nothing, then I'll give you a taste of this bat."
"Never talk to us and our tiny daughter again. No she's not a minor she's just short and has ADHD."
Running Civilian: "There's... something ahead... something that shouldn't be real... I dunno what it was, I've never seen anything like it... Everyone was screaming and running, and then... people rolling on the floor... set on fire..."
Meursault: "Did the entity you witnessed have a form that does not resemble a human?"
Running Civilian: "... Yeah, you're right. That's right...!"
Ishmael: "Then, if it isn't a person..."
The gang rush onward, towards the epicentre of the disturbance.
Average Thursday Thread Luxcavation Experience (The Horrors Are Unending)
Heathcliff: "It could, er... be a Distortion or whatever, no? Like that chicken place?"
Dante: <No... That's different... That one is an Abnormality, not a Distortion. I'm sure of this... somehow.>
Faust: "As Dante suggested, that entity is likely to be an Abnormality. Our manager is able to 'sense' it."
But this still begs the question, how is it in the middle of K Corp's Nest? Even Faust can think of no explanation - every branch facility was sealed with the Wing's fall, and even if an Abnormality was able to physically breach both containment cell and rubble to get to the surface, there should've been a report to that effect informing them before they even got there. All the while K Corp security staff are running at the Abnormality like lemmings and getting absolutely fucking bodied, to the disquiet of Sinclair and Ishmael.
Gregor: "Mmh... It sorta takes me back to the time when we got beat bad in D Corp's DIstrict..."
Rodion: "Aw c'mon~ First that chicken restaurant guy goes cuckoo, and now this? I'm really over this kinda Nest K welcome..."
At this point debris thrown up by the Abnormality's rampage comes hurtling in a busward direction, the Sinners narrowly avoiding getting pasted as mere collateral. Heathcliff shouts for the others to get in gear instead of watching from the sidelines like lemons.
Don Quixote: "Ho, hark? I prithee, who dost thou mean by this 'insane brat'?"
Outis: "The guide only instructed us to return once the commotion has been dealt with. He never ordered us to deal with it ourselves."
Heathcliff: "For goodness' sake, what's there to be so damn obtuse about? Didn't you see what just happened? It almost blew my head off! Who knows what else will happen if it keeps up!"
Heathcliff: "This'll be over if we just beat that damn thing down... What else do we got? Parking a seat to keep watching, gobbling some chicken? Huh?!"
Outis: "There's no need to waste our lives on fights unrelated to our missions. I'm sure you filth didn't even realise, but here's the thing... The more you die, the less efficient you become in battle. Experiencing a certain pain will make you learn to fear and avoid it."
Meursault: "..."
Even though Heathcliff couches his protests in terms of 'okay literally what else do we have to do' and complaining about the danger of flying debris, Dante did note that he was just as incensed by the sight of K Corp goons breaking up that family at the checkpoint last Canto. It's possible that he's trying to dress up his disagreement in more practical words in an attempt to sway Outis - and failing miserably of course, but that's because Outis is Outis and thinks she's the Assistant Manager because she's sucked Dante's toes enough.
Hysterical in pure screenshot form. "Okay but the carnage in the streets???"
Outis: "Although it will cost much time and many lives... they will eventually suppress it. Just as we do."
Outis: "And I must say... I didn't expect a whining amateur who'd cry out for his parents whenever he died to willingly suggest self-sacrifice. Death has become a triviality to you, has it?"
Sinclair: "..."
God, that was straight-up filthy, Outis. There's no need to do the boy like that he only just got done with one evil woman trying to control him. Taking advantage of Sinclair's stunned silence, Meursault chimes in to agree with Outis, stating that it's "the best decision between the Sinners".
Dante: <I...>
Narration: We're not Fixers, and we certainly cannot be heroes. Turning the clock obviously hurts whenever I do it, and the pain is something I can never get used to.
Narration: And yet...
Dante: <We should suppress it. I can't logically explain why, but... I feel like we should.>
"I'd have killed you if you didn't side with me" is normally not a good sentiment to express out loud but we're grading on a curve with people like Heathcliff, and it certainly confirms he felt rather strongly about intervening against the Abnormality.
Meursault and Outis acquiece to Dante's order without complaint, while Gregor and Sinclair in particular thank them for making the right call. Ryoshu, of course, calls this shit unartistic as fuck and Dante will never be an artist. The Sinners go on ahead, leaving only Faust to linger beside Dante - giving them a noticeably "peculiar" stare.
Dante: <What is it? You think my judgement was inefficient?>
Faust: "No, I just thought it would be interesting to see how you react once you've reclaimed your memory."
Faust's strange response briefly leaves Dante stunlocked, but they decide that they want to deal with more immediately pressing questions rather than anything like that. Instead they ask her the more immediately obvious qustion of 'why' - why would someone of her talent and skill be okay with slumming it on the bus, getting into fights to the death all day, when she could no doubt find a cushy job in a Nest for the rest of her life no problem? She replies that she doesn't mind, and moreover the word 'talent' is incorrect to describe her.
Faust: "Among the Sinners, if we were looking for a talented individual of the most commonly agreed definition, that would be... Yi Sang. For your information, I am a genius."
Narration: Yi Sang stops walking behind the other Sinners and turns around to face me.
Narration: Looking again, his eyes actually stare into the emptiness behind me.
Yi Sang: "I have long stopped fluttering my wings. Thus, it would be of no use to discuss my talent, Manager."
Narration: Curiously enough, I find that some Sinners feel more distant as we spend more time together.
This is Yi Sang's Canto, no two ways about it. He has a subtly-implied connection to this place, the Canto opened with narration from him, and we even had an aside from Faust to gas him up. The question is only what it's going to be about, what great sin he'll be forced to confront along the way to the Golden Bough. He's been fairly quiet so far, and that distance from Dante compared to most of the other Sinners is only further emphasised, but he soon won't have the luxury of staying at such a remove.
Further down the road Ryoshu is immediately aggroed by some K Corp drones in the vicinity. Ishmael is at first excited by the sight, expecting them to be combat drones sent in by K Corp to help suppress the Abnormality, but Faust swiftly dashes her hopes - they're merely camera drones.
'Abashed, Ishmael mumbled'. She's so upset she got caught out being so wrong, I have had this exact thing happen to me and know exactly how much she wants to end it all rn.
Don Quixote exclaims in excitement that they may just be featured on "the thing called the 'news' " but Sinclair has a far more pertinent, far less encouraging observation: why are they only filming the dead and the dying? Gregor and Rodion downplay it, assuming it's the 'if it bleeds it leads' principle in action, but before Sinclair can even muster up a counteragument he is nailed by flying debris just as Heathcliff warned of and hurled to the ground. A painful moment that, nonetheless, vindicates him.
Upon rewatch it's actually crazy that Sinclair is soaking this messy hit to such an extent that he can focus clearly on the drone's weird behaviour and how it vindicates what he was saying. He even opens his eyes and stares straight down the barrel of the camera in the second variant. Outis can eat shit with that 'the one who cries for his parents each time he dies' comment huh?
Ryoshu swiftly dispatches the offending drone with a comment about disliking "a soulless audience", failing to beat the mothered behaviour allegations. Meursault observes that there are a considerable number of the drones, not just filming the carnage but actively preventing the Sinners from getting any closer to the rampant Abnormality. Gregor's attempt to go "what no that's insane why would they do that" and push forward is instantly rebuffed by the drones forming a literal cordon wall, piping up via prerecorded message that they must keep a distance of 10m for their safety while they wait for K Corp security staff. Heathcliff and Ishmael grumble that K Corp security staff have been dispatched and a distance of 10m sure didn't keep Sinclair safe from a flying hunk of masonry.
The group unilaterally decide to just beat the shit out of the drones and make their way in, because they have learned zero lessons about attacking K Corp property.
We enter the first battle of Canto IV, and I put an end to my 'only base IDs' restriction from earlier because quite frankly LCB Yi Sang is so crap I had no confidence in him being able to survive later fights in the Canto. Unfortunately my restrictions of only using level 35 IDs (as the level cap rises by 5 with each Canto release) and Uptie 3 IDs (because Uptie 4 was only released with Refraction Railway Line 2 in September 2023, meaing it is LP-illegal until Canto V) quite harshly limited my teambuilding options. I ultimately settled on the Dieci Association, because Yi Sang's Dieci ID is mid enough I hadn't bothered upgrading it at all (and yet it is still better than LCB) and fortuitously I had not levelled or uptied Hongler and Meursault out of legal range either. I would've restricted available IDs to only those available in Season 1 or 2 but I genuinely can't really do that, so this is my best compromise.
Those in the audience familiar with the game are probably screaming about Cinq Sinclair and Cinq Outis, and they would be right, these two but especially Cinq Sinclair are noticeably stronger than the rest of the team and I ultimately swap them out after this set of fights because I feel bad watching them dogwalk the enemy. All you need to know about the three who stick around is that while the Dieci Association are technically a Sinking faction they are pretty bad at it (except Rodion thanks to Rime Shank but she's upgraded out of LP legal range). The Dieci are instead more well known for their Insight mechanic, that book icon status effect beneath their health bars. You see the Dieci are Discard IDs, and Discard is a mechanic where broadly speaking each time the ID uses one of their skills the other available skill is also thrown away almost as if it were used (but it doesn't generate a sin resource in the process). This tends to make them if not more powerful then more effective than most IDs as it allows them to cycle through a full 'hand' of skills in the skill deck with far greater speed than a conventional ID, often being able to get away with using nothing but skill 2s and skill 3s. This is minorly complicated for the Dieci with their Insight mechanic, where they constantly have an Insight level equal to the rank of the skill they most recently Discarded. Most Dieci skills gain some kind of bonus scaling off Insight, meaning you usually want to throw away the first s3 you get in a given fight and maintain that tasty Insight 3 as much as possible. This is most effective with Hong Lu and Rodion, as they gain useful things like coin power and coin recycles at high Insight, and less effective with Meursault and Yi Sang as the former has a mechanic to outright spend his Insight and the latter simply gains very little from maintaining high Insight.
Does my gay little run that pisses you off.
K Corp Filming Drones are fairly weak, having exclusively one-coin skills and a dismal -8 Offence Level mod. The first wave of them you fight are even a special weak variant that can barely even put up a fight with their dinky little onboard guns before being replaced by a second wave of mixed Arresting and Filming Drones. The 'full strength' Filming Drones are still pretty weak but specced more to harry and weaken the Sinners - a skill that inflicts Fragile next turn, one that inflicts Paralyse next turn instead, and most aggravating of all the Flash Flash skill that drains 10 SP on use rather than the previous [On Hit] effects. Every gamer in the know got a certain friend named Fluid Sac you'll probably be seeing later but still, SP is so precious a resource in this game losing it can really sting.
AmongUsScan.gif - your guess is as good as mine how this is dealing Pierce damage.
The Arrest Drones are slightly different and arguably weaker as their variant of Flash Flash instead inflicts SP loss on hit (5 on hit, another 5 if it was a heads hit), albeit the Arresting skill inflicts a shocking 2 Bind and 3 Paralyse next turn which could really give you grief if the normal-battle targeting algorithm decided to shit in your eyes. However we are level 35 and these nodes are level 27 and 29 so we rinse these stupid robots in short order. Both variants of drone share the Caution: Delicate passive that makes them take another 30% damage from Rupture procs but this is genuinely statistically insignificant considering the pathetic Rupture numbers you're likely to be putting out with contemporary IDs and EGO compared to the damage of... y'know... hitting them.
No, the real star of the show here is the Brazen Bull (formerly Brass Bull), somewhat infamous for having skill ceilings of One Billion and tearing you to shreds in Thread Lux. Ironic that my Dieci Rodion is so used to crushing its balls that she's too strong to come back and do it again, but we can handle this just fine. For this bout it has the Momentary Cool status which cuts its ordinary max hp in half, and its passives don't even take effect because it never uses the skill that causes its pattern to change. Instead it just spams three Wrath skills over and over until you simply beat it to death
Charge In is genuinely such a pain to deal with on-level you don't even know, EGO is usually the only reliable way to deal with it - yet here we see Cinq Sinclair poised (literally) to bust it down to size like the soulful white boy he is all the same. Cinq Sinclair is so good that he was finally, finally the 000 ID that gave people a reason to slot anything but N Corp Sinclair on him.
Oh yes, I should mention ID rarity since I skimmed over that during the prologue. IDs come in three rarities: 0 with brown/copper borders, used exclusively for the base IDs that everyone has (which can be pulled in the gacha, as the constant dupes yield a steady trickle of upgrade materials for that Sinner), 00 with red borders which are generally slightly better than the LCB IDs but not by much, and 000 with gold borders that are usually where you look first when you want something strong and unique. These correspond with concepts in the Kabbalah, somewhat unsurprisingly if you're aware of PM's previous history with the Sefirot - Ohr Ein Sof for Endless Light (or Ain Soph Aur if you're a Granblue fan), Ein Sof for Limitlessness, and Ayin for Nothing. Honestly I remembered them being listed in reverse order so 0 is Ayin and 000 is Ohr Ein Sof but right now I'm being told the inverse so I leave it to the more well-informed of the thread to fact-check that. Anyhoo! All this to say that Dieci Yi Sang is merely an 00 ID so he's bad-
Upon being defeated the Brazen Bull freaks out and leaps back and forth across the screen in a manner that is extremely funny in motion so I'm sad I don't have a gif to show you, before ultimately fleeing offscreen. We'll be fighting it again later, in about three map nodes, because Canto IV has a sin and that sin is that every time a battle of some kind happens narratively it is stretched out to five map nodes of combat, every single time, like fucking clockwork. The filler fight problem is so bad that to this day there is still no Canto with more total map nodes than IV. Fortunately for you lot you're reading an LP, so it's not a problem for you at all!
In the aftermath, Rodion frets that K Corp might ask them to pay for the damage they've done to the fleet of drones they've mulched. Faust states she will try to report that it was an act of self-defence.
Faust: "You were rather late to realise it."
What can you say to that besides 'certified Faust moment'?
The Sinners chatter about the battle with Brazen Bull some, Dante even mentioning that they remember encountering it in Mirror Dungeon for certain skillcheck events - never in a fight though, as it hadn't been implemented as a boss until this very Canto. The event in question is an encounter with the torture device of its namesake, a poor unfortunate prisoner trapped inside the brass body as it slowly heats up to burn them alive. While on the subject Dante also asks what's going on with the nonhostile Abnormality encounters seeded through Mirror Dungeon, which Faust explains is mere glimpses into the "mental spaces and habitats" of the relevant Abnormalities through the cracks. Heathcliff even blurts out that the Brazen Bull was tougher than the enemies they faced on "the railway" to quickly make Refraction Railway canon, which I will not be elaborating on right now because it's currently so irrelevant Line 1 didn't even get its own minisode to justify it.
What's important is that everyone points out the obvious neon blue fluid dripping from the Brazen Bull in the previous CG and its combat sprite, which it does not have when encountered in the MD event (but it does when you refight it via that event or in thread lux because they couldn't be assed making a new sprite, skills and behaviour for it which like I respect but it's worth mentioning when it's a plot point). Faust recommends nobody touch the gunk since she has no time to analyse it, to which Rodion replies 'yeah no shit i wasn't going to'. Heathcliff is in the middle of wondering if the Abnormality ate off the floor or caught rabies when-
-he is suddenly and cartoonishly pasted by falling rubble.
Ishmael: "Manager... it looks like you have your work cut out for you."
Outis: "... please remember that I gave you my expostulation, Executive Manager. All men, prepare for battle!"
Dante: <Figured it would come to this...>
Narration: I've come too far to be afraid of pulling dead Sinners back to life.
Dante: <Let's beat 'em and head back.>
Honestly, this is understated compared to some other moments but Dante is shockingly locked in right now compared to the vast majority of their previous showings. They made an executive decision, ran into opposition, then said <fuck it> and committed to the course they set rather than flip-flopping. We say a lot about knowing when to quit but in a situation like this being a flip-flopper means your subordinates can't even be sure your orders will stay orders for the next ten minutes, so it's the more canny option for Dante to ignore Outis and Ishmael's light heckling to finish the job.
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Anyway there are two more fucking nodes which are just two waves of K Corp drones with no story content at all so we ignore those and jump to the rematch with Brazen Bull at 4-6.
As you can see, in honour of his canto I have swapped Cinq Sinclair for Racist Sinclair, and to continue the Season 1 theme subbed out Outis for Yuri Faust. Here I'm showing you exactly the thing I bitched about in Hell's Chicken, where the headchickens get their 'took no damage last turn' conditionals fulfilled on turn 1 but when I rock up and Faust is fortunate enough to draw her s3 on the first turn it's not rolling 4+11x2 like it's supposed to. Actual transphobia.
Brazen Bull's basic pattern is that it will only spam its three Wrath skills on turn 1, then start using Overflowing Sorrow twice each turn. Overflowing Sorrow is a skill which deals a whopping 15 SP damage on hit as well as raising the target's Stagger Threshold, but mercifully has a -5 Offence Level so it's relatively easy to clash. More importantly, when it loses a clash with Overflowing Sorrow it gains a stack of Unresolved Sorrow, inflicting Attack Power Down equal to the count and thus making it even easier to win clashes with it that turn. However you don't get a free ride for long, as once it has 3+ Unresolved Sorrow stacks it gains a new Head Part and changes pattern. The Head will use the very deadly Gloom skills Heated Cries and Heated Screams as the human figure locked inside the bull writhes partyway out of the open mouth and starts personally bitchslapping the Sinners. These skills have the perilously high power ceilings of 18 and 20 with positive Offence Level modifiers to boot, netting the Bull Haste and Attack Power Up next turn on [Clash Win] while simultaneously inflicting Wavering Emotions (converts to a random negative status effect next turn) and a bunch of Sinking for good measure. Add onto that, the Body will still have one action slot left with which it uses Charge In to mop up a weakened Sinner. This is the crucible of a fight with Brazen Bull where you must absolutely DPS Check the head, as once it becomes Staggered the Body automatically follows suit next turn, allowing you to pile on the damage and break the Head entirely if you left the job unfinished. Once the Head is broken the Body takes another free Stagger turn and the Bull will permanently have 3 Attack Power Down, essentially securing you the win.
So anyway this team beat it to fuck so bad it didn't even get to the Head phase because it's weak to Blunt and Sloth and fatal to Gloom. Guess what this team comp accidentally had a bunch of?
Satisfied with a job well done (absent the usual amount of casualties) the Sinners wrap up and climb back onto the bus.
Dante summarises the battle with Brazen Bull on the collapsed highway (via Faust) including the various oddities they experienced and braces for another cold admonishment.
Vergilius: "... The existence of Abnormalities has been almost completely unknown to the public, and we don't possess all the details on them either, Dante."
Dante: <Didn't think you'd admit it right away.>
Faust flinches, but doesn't relay the catty comment.
Vergilius (smiling talksprite): "Enigmatic as they are... let's leave Ms. Faust and other departments of our proud Limbus Company to uncover all the details in the future, as we likely ought to."
Faust: "... Will do."
I'm not ringing the Fraud alarm, but I will say that the fact Vergilius used his smiling talksprite does lead me to believe he heard Dante again. After all, Terminally Cagey Omniscient Genius Frau Faust is the only one on the bus he shows a remote modicum of respect to, having prompted her for guidance more than once already, so he might have smiled and let Dante off the hook for Theoretical Backtalk because it made her squirm.
Deeper into the seats, Dante overhears -what else?- somebody catching random strays from Outis for sitting with a hunch.
"Height is a choice and you chose WRONG, SOLDIER"
Don Quxiote: "... I hoped to meet Lord Siegfried again..."
Gregor: "(Who was Lord Sieg... fried, again?)"
Ishmael: "Wasn't that the man who took photos of himself while cutting us down with one hand?"
Gregor: "(Right... That Zack Friture guy...?)"
Homegirl is still so upset about that and honestly same, those levels rinsed me on launch.
Don Quxiote: "Eager was I to show him... my valiant acts of rescuing imperiled civilians... I vowed that I shall meet him again as a Fixer of noble cause..."
Gregor: "Reunions are more touching if it's after a long time, Don Quixote. Try thinking that it's a good thing he didn't show up today."
But Vergilius interjects, for once not to tell Don to kill herself, but to comment that it is strange Siegfried was a no-show. That was a devastating commotion in the heart of K Corp's Nest that killed innocent people and K Corp security staff by the droves, lasting long enough for the Sinners themselves to personally fuck through it all and win by attrition as always. Siegfried is a star Fixer and K Corp usually takes advantage of disturbances like these by sending him as a PR stunt. So... why wasn't Siegfried there?
Dante: <That means this isn't something they want people to notice...>
Don Quxiote: "On the fifth row of Page 42 of his autobiography 'A Hero Should Keep Smiling Until His Last', he writes that he shall be there to aid the weak no matter when and where!"
Vergilius: "... hah. Alright, you'd best hold that belief of yours dearly."
Vergilius: "That way, you'll have something to cling to when you face the extreme in the future."
Chat what did he mean by this?
(That was rhetorical, I know what he means, I'm just not telling you cuz I'm a naughty bitch.)
The discussion inconclusive, conversation dies down until the bus pulls up at the rendezvous site for the client - "a building so tall that it would take a while to count the floors", which is a delightfully prosaic yet indirect way to describe a big skyscraper. I would provide an overworld screenshot but the building is in fact so fucking big it's multiple phone-widths tall and canto maps don't let you scroll out very far so it'd be pointless. Dante notices a couple of the Sinners shrinking down as if intimidated by the building and its implied wealth, not just Sinclair but Heathcliff and Ishmael too. Others seem to stroll right in "as if they knew they deserved royal treatment", such as-
It's a testament to how cowed Heathcliff is that he didn't immediately kill Hong Lu on the spot for this comment.
Heathcliff: "Lemme make one thing clear... If the request and the reward's a load of tosh like the last time, I'm out."
Samjo: "Ah, you're a little late as expected."
Dante: <As expected?>
Bro is having none of it.
Dante: <Give it a moment! Let's at least hear what he has to say, okay?>
Heathcliff: "Let go! Do you even get how it feels to have nightmares about doing the tango with raw chickens? Huh?"
Samjo admits what we as the audience already knew, that the Hell's Chicken incident was a sneaky little performance review as a lead-in to the real job, which he claims the group "passed with flying colours" despite how free everybody is with hater behaviour about Limbus Company in general. Heathcliff, buying none of it, is just about ready to call him every slur under the sun when the real brains behind the affair makes his appearance.
Don Quixote: "Fan??? Didst thou say just now that we have earned thine adoration?"
Rodion: "It's just flattery, Don Quixote..."
Dongrang: "If I'm being quite honest... the test wasn't my idea. I mean, you aren't lab hens or anything, and you deserve better than involuntary tests."
Samjo: "Indeed, it was my suggestion. I had reason to do so as your 'Limbus Company' is a little-known firm that... could or could not be newly established. We couldn't take the risk of entrusting an unknown organisation with a request on Mr. Dongrang's word alone."
Incredible, Ishmael is so charmed by the idea of someone actively wanting to associate with her fuckup of a workplace she completely missed how suspicious this setup is.
Dongrang: "..."
Dongrang: "Ah, why don't I show you to my lab? There are many fun things to see."
Even Dante can tell that the silence where Dongrang was supposed to explain why the fuck he wanted to hire specifically Limbus Company in the first place is deafening, and Samjo asks if Dongrang's really sure he wants to take these murderhobos up to his lab.
Dongrang is a softspoken sort with an unflappable, slightly playful line delivery that makes him sound like he's straight chillin' no matter what he's talking about, just so you have an idea of the tone of his lines.
Dongrang: "And if they've got the skills to take down what they called an 'Abnormality' as we saw today..."
Don Quixote: "Aha~ Thou hast heard? My, traces of heroic deeds indeed make themselves known to the masses in no time! fufu..."
Dongrang: "Haha, that's a fun way to put it."
And then, all of a sudden, Dongrang (with Samjo's help) steps in and pulls Dante away for a quick sidebar in the lobby despite Faust's initial attempt at protest.
Dongrang: "I was too embarrassed to bring it up in front of the whole group, but actually, one of your... employees was an old friend of mine."
Dante: <Oh, who is it?>
Dongrang: "And he wouldn't give me a nod, either. Perhaps he was embarrassed like me. It was a struggle to hide how disheartened I was."
Dante: <Maybe you weren't as close as you thought, then? ... Wait, can you hear my voice?>
Samjo: "Mr. Dongrang, this individual is unable to communicate normally."
Dongrang: "That's why I'm speaking, Mr. Samjo. It's like I'm back to being a child, muttering my woes to a wind-up toy, don't you think?"
Scenes like this are why I'm convinced Vergilius can hear Dante, because they're instantly so much more frustrated trying to 'talk' to Dongrang who definitely can't hear them.
Dongrang confirms what just became very obvious - he sent this request because he already knew his old friend was on the team, to which Samjo admonishes him for being "too easily influenced by human attachment". Dongrang asks Dante to be tactful and refrain from letting on that they know about the relationship between Dongrang and Mystery Yi Sang Shaped Employee. Dante can only shake their head and grouse that Dongrang didn't even tell them which employee he meant. He wasn't asking forgiveness or permission but the secret third thing which is 'I'm gonna do this so you better be cool with that!'
The impromptu tour moves on, Samjo leading the group up the lift to the lab.
Samjo: "But since you've been invited by Mr. Dongrang... I will show you the interior."
Samjo really sounds like he's having none of it, it's pretty funny. Sinclair is adorably wowed by the sight of all the tech, having wanted to work at a company like this back in the Before Times. Rodion asks why he didn't apply for a job then, only for Ishmael to harsh the vibe as only Ishmael can by stating that firms like this only accept the best of the best, like Faust or Yi Sang. Dante is simply glad for the opportunity to jump on a question they'd already had in mind - why did these bookish gigageniuses take a job that's mostly slumming it in a bus and getting killed repeatedly?
Faust is just The Fucking Most.
Dante: <What about you, Yi Sang?>
Yi Sang: "Let me take the trouble of asking in return, Manager, why did you join the company you work for?"
Dante: <I mean, that's because I had no other choice.>
They weren't kidding around with that 'prison uniform' aesthetic and 'sinner' themeing - people work for Limbus Company because they had nowhere else to turn (except maybe Faust who is Gigachad and does not elaborate on anything). Dante decides that Ishmael wasn't kidding about the qualifications for working a high-level job like this and lets the matter drop.
Narration: The laboratory was dominated by a stillness that could only be achieved with everyone in total focus.
Narration: And we would break that stillness with nonchalance.
Food-Motivated Poverty-Stricken Upbringing Woman strikes again. Dongrang, still in 'transparently butter up the Sinners' mode, orders Samjo to make some care packages out of snacks from the breakroom to give to the group later.
Rodion: "That's awesome, Ishy, maybe we should quit our job and join up here?"
Ishmael: "Everyone can hear you, Rodya..."
Faust of course cuts in with the boilerplate about the work contract until Rodion can cut her off explaining she was just kidding, and I feel it's probably noteworthy that Ishmael called her Rodya and not Rodion despite Being A Buzzkill again as she is wont to do. It seems that despite the fact Ishmael is second only to Outis in the "wouldn't piss on the other Sinners if they were on fire" Olympics, Ishmael doesn't hate Rodion that much.
While I'm picking at details, check out the right side of the CG. We've got a whole trophy wall, framed photos on the bottom shelves that are clearly glamour shots of research groups and trophies up top for various accomplishments. One of them's even an entire chicken (a mutant one with two extra wings) and the other a chicken drumstick. See? Told ya Hell's Chicken was important.
Occasionally nameplates glitch out, I've only seen it happen in the replay so I assume it's to do with how fast I click through at times. At least Dongrang introduces her right away.
Dongrang: "Ah. Pardon me for a moment. This is Shrenne. She's the manager of the department next to mine and a colleague who joined the company at the same time as I did. Visiting me to hurl hurtful words takes up much of her daily routine."
Shrenne: "I figured someone's got to point out the massive drain on our company's welfare budget that is your team."
Dongrang: "Ah, if you're wondering about how we spend our welfare budget... You'll see when the Department of the Year trophy is awarded. Right, Samjo?"
Samjo: "It would take a full day to list the benefits the department chosen as the best receives."
Spoiler: Canto IV is actually a slice-of-life petty office politics arc.
Gregor: "Hm. Is that a rival? I do suppose excellence is followed by envy wherever it is."
Dongrang: "Envy fuels advancement, as they say, so it's only right for us to show a little generosity for those following behind."
And then he recommends Samjo gifting Shrenne's department some gourmet pies in what could only read as a backhanded gesture. That line about envy is definitely one we'll want to remember for future analysis. In the meantime Dongrang finally approaches the point, revealing that he knows about the Golden Boughs and that they can be found in abandoned L Corp branch offices. The discovery was recent, because they'd been using the local Lobcorp branch as an external lab until a few months ago anyway.
Heathcliff: "You... set up a lab in that horrible place?"
Sinclair: "But I thought they were all buried underground..."
Gregor: "Well... I guess there were rare resources and documents they could use..."
Faust: "... did the scope of your research include Abnormalities?"
Dongrang: "Why, certainly. No researcher could overlook such intriguing subjects."
Heathcliff: "Researchers must be all soft in the head if that's what they're interested in..."
Heathcliff: "When you were mumbling rubbish and tossing a rock at one of them chickenheads, did you..."
Samjo: "Ahrmhrm..."
Faust: "I will say, Heathcliffs unexpected fits of insight suprise me sometimes."
Quick Heathcliff take the compliment, the sigma female who calls herself omniscient just praised your ability to interpret data. Amusingly the two of them have IDs that place them in the Seven Association, a Fixer office themed around detective work and being very smart, where Heathcliff gets in trouble for not doing his paperwork correctly but is still very effective at his job. Bro isn't stupid he just never went to school, and based on some implications in Library of Ruina it appears that functional illiteracy isn't even that uncommon in the City due to the massive levels of social inequality.
Dongrang: "Please understand. We had no means to clearly distinguish a Distortion from an Abnormality. A person distorts 'when the mind crumbles to figurative pieces' was it? That was a stellar figure of speech. Did you restore his crumbled mind back to health, then?"
Faust: "There is no way to peice together someone else's broken mind. We merely showed him the way. It was the choice of the restaurant owner whether to stay there or take that path."
Dongrang: "Wow, you know so much. If I were just a bit younger, I'd have jumped and hopped trying to high-five you."
Faust is the character of all time.
Samjo reminds Dongrang he's gotten sidetracked again, so he cuts to the chase - terrorists attacked and seized the branch office, making it their new base of operations and forcing Dongrang's team to move back into the main building.
Dongrang turns his gaze from Yi Sang to the scattered empty chairs around the lab.
Dongrang: "You see, those empty seats... They'll stay that way for a while. The owners died in that act of terror."
Looking closer, Dante notices snacks and flowers placed in the seats as makeshift memorials.
Dongrang: "Ah, this fellow we only managed to recover a finger from. We couldn't find the right place to put it, so we've been keeping it in storage. It should be over at the display on the second floor."
Dongrang: "There is so much we had to leave behind."
Gregor: "... Dongrang..."
Dongrang: "I especially miss the plaque modelled after the face of my character, that was a favourite souvenir of mine."
Gregor: "I'll be stumped, I can't tell how much of what he says is a joke and how much of it is serious."
We'll set aside what the hell Dongrang meant by 'the face of my character' (is it an awkwardly translated description of having a plaque shaped like his face? is it a character from his favourite TV show? idfk man) and springboard off Gregor's comment. Dongrang is acting weird. He manipulated and engineered a face-to-face meeting with an old friend only to ask said friend's manager not to spoil the surprise while going off on a bizarre psychodrama where he leaves it as long as possible to actually say anything about the personal connection, and then makes off-colour jokes about the fact some of his colleagues got murdered recently.
Perhaps fortunately the discussion is diverted yet again by the sight of a completely empty desk, no personal effects, no memorial, no nothing. Dongrang explains that it's not a recently-vacated seat, but a one waiting for its new owner to arrive.
Ishmael: "Guys shut up you can't just 'apply' for a job at places like this, they're prestigious, they only take the elite of the elite."
Also Ishmael:
Samjo clears his throat pointedly, to Dongrang's amusement. It could be that the seat is reserved forYi Sang the mysterious employee under Dante's watch as part of Dongrang's weird stageplay of a request, but based on Samjo the Hypercompetent Secretary getting annoyed I assume it's a cushy much-vaunted Full-Time Employee post that's been dangling over his head as a potential promotion opportunity for who-knows-how-long and he was ready to tear out Ishmael's throat with his teeth if she jeopardised it.
The conversation at last shifts to negotiating the actual contract of what Dongrang wants from them, Samjo and Faust going bar-for-bar on the legalese at such speed and technicality that Dante is hopelessly lost inside six sentences. Ishmael explains with a sense of relief that signing a contract about receiving the Golden Bough for services rendered at least prevents them from getting fucked over like back in Canto II (by "Ayuda" of the "Merry Archils" as Gregor recalls it).
I want to make a 'my boyfriend when I start talking about Project Moon' joke but no I recently poisoned him into installing Limbus just like I poisoned him into installing FF14, please pray for him.
Gregor: "Isn't that a coincidence? It's the same for us, too."
Ishmael: "Aren't you supposed to be the last person to be ignorant of your secretary's words...?"
Hong Lu: "Aha, still, I guess making a contract with K Corp's laboratory means we won't be fighting against the Wing's staff for a while. You know, those people who would keep healing their wounds."
The entire group takes a moment of silence to have a PTSD flashback about how fucked up the brawl at the Nest checkpoint was. Genuinely such a great bit that the characters themselves found that shit as harrowing as all us gamers did.
Dongrang: "Ah, so you've seen K Corp's regenerative technology already."
Rodion: "Ugh, we've more than seen it!"
Gregor: "Had to deal with it over and over, I get sick of the thought..."
Dongrang: "Ah... Why don't I show you around my lab instead, then? It's not here, though... You'll have to take the elevator once more."
Bro is gabberflasted
Dongrang: "Hah, you just made a really funny noise, Mr. Samjo. Well, it shouldn't hurt. We're hanging out a bit to celebrate the provisional contract being signed."
Even Dante can tell Dongrang's still being a weird fuck, but with no more objections levied the group all file into the lift (which must be a real chungus lift to take all fifteen people) up to the next level.
Dongrang: "They're publically called 'HP Bullets'... but the underlying principle is a nanobot-based medical treatment. There have been struggles here and there, but at the moment, the ampule I sliiiightly modified recently is the most commonly used version."
Heathcliff and Ishmael again express their deep, abiding trauma over having to deal with HP Bullet users. Dongrang expresses his sympathies (albeit while acknowledging that "death on the job" means something a little different in Limbus Company) and explains that with HP Bullets already a mass-market sensation he's stopped working on them directly. No, he's using them to improve livestock.
Dongrang: "If 'cutting' as a concept is reduced to irrelevance... if it becomes limited to a fleeting moment..."
Dongrang: "And it's not just any meat; the flesh will come from lovestock researched and improved with the combined efforts of countless minds... That's the quality and rarity we're talking about."
Hong Lu: "It seems..."
As you can see, in honour of his canto I have swapped Cinq Sinclair for Racist Sinclair, and to continue the Season 1 theme subbed out Outis for Yuri Faust. Here I'm showing you exactly the thing I bitched about in Hell's Chicken, where the headchickens get their 'took no damage last turn' conditionals fulfilled on turn 1 but when I rock up and Faust is fortunate enough to draw her s3 on the first turn it's not rolling 4+11x2 like it's supposed to. Actual transphobia.
Brazen Bull's basic pattern is that it will only spam its three Wrath skills on turn 1, then start using Overflowing Sorrow twice each turn. Overflowing Sorrow is a skill which deals a whopping 15 SP damage on hit as well as raising the target's Stagger Threshold, but mercifully has a -5 Offence Level so it's relatively easy to clash. More importantly, when it loses a clash with Overflowing Sorrow it gains a stack of Unresolved Sorrow, inflicting Attack Power Down equal to the count and thus making it even easier to win clashes with it that turn. However you don't get a free ride for long, as once it has 3+ Unresolved Sorrow stacks it gains a new Head Part and changes pattern. The Head will use the very deadly Gloom skills Heated Cries and Heated Screams as the human figure locked inside the bull writhes partyway out of the open mouth and starts personally bitchslapping the Sinners. These skills have the perilously high power ceilings of 18 and 20 with positive Offence Level modifiers to boot, netting the Bull Haste and Attack Power Up next turn on [Clash Win] while simultaneously inflicting Wavering Emotions (converts to a random negative status effect next turn) and a bunch of Sinking for good measure. Add onto that, the Body will still have one action slot left with which it uses Charge In to mop up a weakened Sinner. This is the crucible of a fight with Brazen Bull where you must absolutely DPS Check the head, as once it becomes Staggered the Body automatically follows suit next turn, allowing you to pile on the damage and break the Head entirely if you left the job unfinished. Once the Head is broken the Body takes another free Stagger turn and the Bull will permanently have 3 Attack Power Down, essentially securing you the win.
So anyway this team beat it to fuck so bad it didn't even get to the Head phase because it's weak to Blunt and Sloth and fatal to Gloom. Guess what this team comp accidentally had a bunch of?
Satisfied with a job well done (absent the usual amount of casualties) the Sinners wrap up and climb back onto the bus.
Dante summarises the battle with Brazen Bull on the collapsed highway (via Faust) including the various oddities they experienced and braces for another cold admonishment.
Vergilius: "... The existence of Abnormalities has been almost completely unknown to the public, and we don't possess all the details on them either, Dante."
Dante: <Didn't think you'd admit it right away.>
Faust flinches, but doesn't relay the catty comment.
Vergilius (smiling talksprite): "Enigmatic as they are... let's leave Ms. Faust and other departments of our proud Limbus Company to uncover all the details in the future, as we likely ought to."
Faust: "... Will do."
I'm not ringing the Fraud alarm, but I will say that the fact Vergilius used his smiling talksprite does lead me to believe he heard Dante again. After all, Terminally Cagey Omniscient Genius Frau Faust is the only one on the bus he shows a remote modicum of respect to, having prompted her for guidance more than once already, so he might have smiled and let Dante off the hook for Theoretical Backtalk because it made her squirm.
Deeper into the seats, Dante overhears -what else?- somebody catching random strays from Outis for sitting with a hunch.
"Height is a choice and you chose WRONG, SOLDIER"
Don Quxiote: "... I hoped to meet Lord Siegfried again..."
Gregor: "(Who was Lord Sieg... fried, again?)"
Ishmael: "Wasn't that the man who took photos of himself while cutting us down with one hand?"
Gregor: "(Right... That Zack Friture guy...?)"
Homegirl is still so upset about that and honestly same, those levels rinsed me on launch.
Don Quxiote: "Eager was I to show him... my valiant acts of rescuing imperiled civilians... I vowed that I shall meet him again as a Fixer of noble cause..."
Gregor: "Reunions are more touching if it's after a long time, Don Quixote. Try thinking that it's a good thing he didn't show up today."
But Vergilius interjects, for once not to tell Don to kill herself, but to comment that it is strange Siegfried was a no-show. That was a devastating commotion in the heart of K Corp's Nest that killed innocent people and K Corp security staff by the droves, lasting long enough for the Sinners themselves to personally fuck through it all and win by attrition as always. Siegfried is a star Fixer and K Corp usually takes advantage of disturbances like these by sending him as a PR stunt. So... why wasn't Siegfried there?
Dante: <That means this isn't something they want people to notice...>
Don Quxiote: "On the fifth row of Page 42 of his autobiography 'A Hero Should Keep Smiling Until His Last', he writes that he shall be there to aid the weak no matter when and where!"
Vergilius: "... hah. Alright, you'd best hold that belief of yours dearly."
Vergilius: "That way, you'll have something to cling to when you face the extreme in the future."
Chat what did he mean by this?
(That was rhetorical, I know what he means, I'm just not telling you cuz I'm a naughty bitch.)
The discussion inconclusive, conversation dies down until the bus pulls up at the rendezvous site for the client - "a building so tall that it would take a while to count the floors", which is a delightfully prosaic yet indirect way to describe a big skyscraper. I would provide an overworld screenshot but the building is in fact so fucking big it's multiple phone-widths tall and canto maps don't let you scroll out very far so it'd be pointless. Dante notices a couple of the Sinners shrinking down as if intimidated by the building and its implied wealth, not just Sinclair but Heathcliff and Ishmael too. Others seem to stroll right in "as if they knew they deserved royal treatment", such as-
It's a testament to how cowed Heathcliff is that he didn't immediately kill Hong Lu on the spot for this comment.
Heathcliff: "Lemme make one thing clear... If the request and the reward's a load of tosh like the last time, I'm out."
Samjo: "Ah, you're a little late as expected."
Dante: <As expected?>
Bro is having none of it.
Dante: <Give it a moment! Let's at least hear what he has to say, okay?>
Heathcliff: "Let go! Do you even get how it feels to have nightmares about doing the tango with raw chickens? Huh?"
Samjo admits what we as the audience already knew, that the Hell's Chicken incident was a sneaky little performance review as a lead-in to the real job, which he claims the group "passed with flying colours" despite how free everybody is with hater behaviour about Limbus Company in general. Heathcliff, buying none of it, is just about ready to call him every slur under the sun when the real brains behind the affair makes his appearance.
Don Quixote: "Fan??? Didst thou say just now that we have earned thine adoration?"
Rodion: "It's just flattery, Don Quixote..."
Dongrang: "If I'm being quite honest... the test wasn't my idea. I mean, you aren't lab hens or anything, and you deserve better than involuntary tests."
Samjo: "Indeed, it was my suggestion. I had reason to do so as your 'Limbus Company' is a little-known firm that... could or could not be newly established. We couldn't take the risk of entrusting an unknown organisation with a request on Mr. Dongrang's word alone."
Incredible, Ishmael is so charmed by the idea of someone actively wanting to associate with her fuckup of a workplace she completely missed how suspicious this setup is.
Dongrang: "..."
Dongrang: "Ah, why don't I show you to my lab? There are many fun things to see."
Even Dante can tell that the silence where Dongrang was supposed to explain why the fuck he wanted to hire specifically Limbus Company in the first place is deafening, and Samjo asks if Dongrang's really sure he wants to take these murderhobos up to his lab.
Dongrang is a softspoken sort with an unflappable, slightly playful line delivery that makes him sound like he's straight chillin' no matter what he's talking about, just so you have an idea of the tone of his lines.
Dongrang: "And if they've got the skills to take down what they called an 'Abnormality' as we saw today..."
Don Quixote: "Aha~ Thou hast heard? My, traces of heroic deeds indeed make themselves known to the masses in no time! fufu..."
Dongrang: "Haha, that's a fun way to put it."
And then, all of a sudden, Dongrang (with Samjo's help) steps in and pulls Dante away for a quick sidebar in the lobby despite Faust's initial attempt at protest.
Dongrang: "I was too embarrassed to bring it up in front of the whole group, but actually, one of your... employees was an old friend of mine."
Dante: <Oh, who is it?>
Dongrang: "And he wouldn't give me a nod, either. Perhaps he was embarrassed like me. It was a struggle to hide how disheartened I was."
Dante: <Maybe you weren't as close as you thought, then? ... Wait, can you hear my voice?>
Samjo: "Mr. Dongrang, this individual is unable to communicate normally."
Dongrang: "That's why I'm speaking, Mr. Samjo. It's like I'm back to being a child, muttering my woes to a wind-up toy, don't you think?"
Scenes like this are why I'm convinced Vergilius can hear Dante, because they're instantly so much more frustrated trying to 'talk' to Dongrang who definitely can't hear them.
Dongrang confirms what just became very obvious - he sent this request because he already knew his old friend was on the team, to which Samjo admonishes him for being "too easily influenced by human attachment". Dongrang asks Dante to be tactful and refrain from letting on that they know about the relationship between Dongrang and Mystery Yi Sang Shaped Employee. Dante can only shake their head and grouse that Dongrang didn't even tell them which employee he meant. He wasn't asking forgiveness or permission but the secret third thing which is 'I'm gonna do this so you better be cool with that!'
The impromptu tour moves on, Samjo leading the group up the lift to the lab.
Samjo: "But since you've been invited by Mr. Dongrang... I will show you the interior."
Samjo really sounds like he's having none of it, it's pretty funny. Sinclair is adorably wowed by the sight of all the tech, having wanted to work at a company like this back in the Before Times. Rodion asks why he didn't apply for a job then, only for Ishmael to harsh the vibe as only Ishmael can by stating that firms like this only accept the best of the best, like Faust or Yi Sang. Dante is simply glad for the opportunity to jump on a question they'd already had in mind - why did these bookish gigageniuses take a job that's mostly slumming it in a bus and getting killed repeatedly?
Faust is just The Fucking Most.
Dante: <What about you, Yi Sang?>
Yi Sang: "Let me take the trouble of asking in return, Manager, why did you join the company you work for?"
Dante: <I mean, that's because I had no other choice.>
They weren't kidding around with that 'prison uniform' aesthetic and 'sinner' themeing - people work for Limbus Company because they had nowhere else to turn (except maybe Faust who is Gigachad and does not elaborate on anything). Dante decides that Ishmael wasn't kidding about the qualifications for working a high-level job like this and lets the matter drop.
Narration: The laboratory was dominated by a stillness that could only be achieved with everyone in total focus.
Narration: And we would break that stillness with nonchalance.
Food-Motivated Poverty-Stricken Upbringing Woman strikes again. Dongrang, still in 'transparently butter up the Sinners' mode, orders Samjo to make some care packages out of snacks from the breakroom to give to the group later.
Rodion: "That's awesome, Ishy, maybe we should quit our job and join up here?"
Ishmael: "Everyone can hear you, Rodya..."
Faust of course cuts in with the boilerplate about the work contract until Rodion can cut her off explaining she was just kidding, and I feel it's probably noteworthy that Ishmael called her Rodya and not Rodion despite Being A Buzzkill again as she is wont to do. It seems that despite the fact Ishmael is second only to Outis in the "wouldn't piss on the other Sinners if they were on fire" Olympics, Ishmael doesn't hate Rodion that much.
While I'm picking at details, check out the right side of the CG. We've got a whole trophy wall, framed photos on the bottom shelves that are clearly glamour shots of research groups and trophies up top for various accomplishments. One of them's even an entire chicken (a mutant one with two extra wings) and the other a chicken drumstick. See? Told ya Hell's Chicken was important.
Occasionally nameplates glitch out, I've only seen it happen in the replay so I assume it's to do with how fast I click through at times. At least Dongrang introduces her right away.
Dongrang: "Ah. Pardon me for a moment. This is Shrenne. She's the manager of the department next to mine and a colleague who joined the company at the same time as I did. Visiting me to hurl hurtful words takes up much of her daily routine."
Shrenne: "I figured someone's got to point out the massive drain on our company's welfare budget that is your team."
Dongrang: "Ah, if you're wondering about how we spend our welfare budget... You'll see when the Department of the Year trophy is awarded. Right, Samjo?"
Samjo: "It would take a full day to list the benefits the department chosen as the best receives."
Spoiler: Canto IV is actually a slice-of-life petty office politics arc.
Gregor: "Hm. Is that a rival? I do suppose excellence is followed by envy wherever it is."
Dongrang: "Envy fuels advancement, as they say, so it's only right for us to show a little generosity for those following behind."
And then he recommends Samjo gifting Shrenne's department some gourmet pies in what could only read as a backhanded gesture. That line about envy is definitely one we'll want to remember for future analysis. In the meantime Dongrang finally approaches the point, revealing that he knows about the Golden Boughs and that they can be found in abandoned L Corp branch offices. The discovery was recent, because they'd been using the local Lobcorp branch as an external lab until a few months ago anyway.
Heathcliff: "You... set up a lab in that horrible place?"
Sinclair: "But I thought they were all buried underground..."
Gregor: "Well... I guess there were rare resources and documents they could use..."
Faust: "... did the scope of your research include Abnormalities?"
Dongrang: "Why, certainly. No researcher could overlook such intriguing subjects."
Heathcliff: "Researchers must be all soft in the head if that's what they're interested in..."
Heathcliff: "When you were mumbling rubbish and tossing a rock at one of them chickenheads, did you..."
Samjo: "Ahrmhrm..."
Faust: "I will say, Heathcliffs unexpected fits of insight suprise me sometimes."
Quick Heathcliff take the compliment, the sigma female who calls herself omniscient just praised your ability to interpret data. Amusingly the two of them have IDs that place them in the Seven Association, a Fixer office themed around detective work and being very smart, where Heathcliff gets in trouble for not doing his paperwork correctly but is still very effective at his job. Bro isn't stupid he just never went to school, and based on some implications in Library of Ruina it appears that functional illiteracy isn't even that uncommon in the City due to the massive levels of social inequality.
Dongrang: "Please understand. We had no means to clearly distinguish a Distortion from an Abnormality. A person distorts 'when the mind crumbles to figurative pieces' was it? That was a stellar figure of speech. Did you restore his crumbled mind back to health, then?"
Faust: "There is no way to peice together someone else's broken mind. We merely showed him the way. It was the choice of the restaurant owner whether to stay there or take that path."
Dongrang: "Wow, you know so much. If I were just a bit younger, I'd have jumped and hopped trying to high-five you."
Faust is the character of all time.
Samjo reminds Dongrang he's gotten sidetracked again, so he cuts to the chase - terrorists attacked and seized the branch office, making it their new base of operations and forcing Dongrang's team to move back into the main building.
Dongrang turns his gaze from Yi Sang to the scattered empty chairs around the lab.
Dongrang: "You see, those empty seats... They'll stay that way for a while. The owners died in that act of terror."
Looking closer, Dante notices snacks and flowers placed in the seats as makeshift memorials.
Dongrang: "Ah, this fellow we only managed to recover a finger from. We couldn't find the right place to put it, so we've been keeping it in storage. It should be over at the display on the second floor."
Dongrang: "There is so much we had to leave behind."
Gregor: "... Dongrang..."
Dongrang: "I especially miss the plaque modelled after the face of my character, that was a favourite souvenir of mine."
Gregor: "I'll be stumped, I can't tell how much of what he says is a joke and how much of it is serious."
We'll set aside what the hell Dongrang meant by 'the face of my character' (is it an awkwardly translated description of having a plaque shaped like his face? is it a character from his favourite TV show? idfk man) and springboard off Gregor's comment. Dongrang is acting weird. He manipulated and engineered a face-to-face meeting with an old friend only to ask said friend's manager not to spoil the surprise while going off on a bizarre psychodrama where he leaves it as long as possible to actually say anything about the personal connection, and then makes off-colour jokes about the fact some of his colleagues got murdered recently.
Perhaps fortunately the discussion is diverted yet again by the sight of a completely empty desk, no personal effects, no memorial, no nothing. Dongrang explains that it's not a recently-vacated seat, but a one waiting for its new owner to arrive.
Ishmael: "Guys shut up you can't just 'apply' for a job at places like this, they're prestigious, they only take the elite of the elite."
Also Ishmael:
Samjo clears his throat pointedly, to Dongrang's amusement. It could be that the seat is reserved for
The conversation at last shifts to negotiating the actual contract of what Dongrang wants from them, Samjo and Faust going bar-for-bar on the legalese at such speed and technicality that Dante is hopelessly lost inside six sentences. Ishmael explains with a sense of relief that signing a contract about receiving the Golden Bough for services rendered at least prevents them from getting fucked over like back in Canto II (by "Ayuda" of the "Merry Archils" as Gregor recalls it).
I want to make a 'my boyfriend when I start talking about Project Moon' joke but no I recently poisoned him into installing Limbus just like I poisoned him into installing FF14, please pray for him.
Gregor: "Isn't that a coincidence? It's the same for us, too."
Ishmael: "Aren't you supposed to be the last person to be ignorant of your secretary's words...?"
Hong Lu: "Aha, still, I guess making a contract with K Corp's laboratory means we won't be fighting against the Wing's staff for a while. You know, those people who would keep healing their wounds."
The entire group takes a moment of silence to have a PTSD flashback about how fucked up the brawl at the Nest checkpoint was. Genuinely such a great bit that the characters themselves found that shit as harrowing as all us gamers did.
Dongrang: "Ah, so you've seen K Corp's regenerative technology already."
Rodion: "Ugh, we've more than seen it!"
Gregor: "Had to deal with it over and over, I get sick of the thought..."
Dongrang: "Ah... Why don't I show you around my lab instead, then? It's not here, though... You'll have to take the elevator once more."
Bro is gabberflasted
Dongrang: "Hah, you just made a really funny noise, Mr. Samjo. Well, it shouldn't hurt. We're hanging out a bit to celebrate the provisional contract being signed."
Even Dante can tell Dongrang's still being a weird fuck, but with no more objections levied the group all file into the lift (which must be a real chungus lift to take all fifteen people) up to the next level.
Dongrang: "They're publically called 'HP Bullets'... but the underlying principle is a nanobot-based medical treatment. There have been struggles here and there, but at the moment, the ampule I sliiiightly modified recently is the most commonly used version."
Heathcliff and Ishmael again express their deep, abiding trauma over having to deal with HP Bullet users. Dongrang expresses his sympathies (albeit while acknowledging that "death on the job" means something a little different in Limbus Company) and explains that with HP Bullets already a mass-market sensation he's stopped working on them directly. No, he's using them to improve livestock.
Dongrang: "If 'cutting' as a concept is reduced to irrelevance... if it becomes limited to a fleeting moment..."
Dongrang: "And it's not just any meat; the flesh will come from lovestock researched and improved with the combined efforts of countless minds... That's the quality and rarity we're talking about."
Hong Lu: "It seems..."
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Vineboom.
Dongrang: "Hmm... Love, you say? You might be right, if endlessly devoting time and care could be called love."
Heathcliff: "Hah. I guess snobby bunches get along well, eh?"
Dante: <Don't beat up our client, okay Heathcliff?>
Heathcliff: "Depends on how they behave."
That particular exchange between Heathcliff and Dante is adorable, since there's a subtly lighter and warmer tone to it than usual. Canto III was a crucible and the passive level of affection for Dante noticeably improved now that we're on the other side of it, which I think is neat to observe. Not that we should let that distract us from Dongrang's continuing weird phrasing.
The Sinners take a moment to watch the process at work, an assembly line of mutant six-winged four-legged chickens stuffed in bloodstained steel boxes being carved apart only to be regenerated moments later by K Corp's miracle ampules. Sinclair squeamishly asks if it's really necessary to go so far for food - Heathcliff teases the rich boy about dining on juicy meat his whole life only to get green around the gills at how the sausage gets made, while Rodion gives the much more sincere and sombre response that there's plenty of people out there who'd do anything for meat.
It's hard to discern exactly what the Sinclairs had on their plates in the flashback CG in Canto III but their plates vanished anyway once they fullborged so it's kind of much of a muchness really.
Sinclair: "Why does it have to be like this? What I'm trying to say is..."
Ishmael: "It does feel rather unnatural, doesn't it? If it was simply for the sake of improving food... there could've been more efficient ways to do it."
Rodion: "Ahh~ There's one thing I can say for sure. If this technology had been made available in the Backstreets... my friends and I wouldn't have had to rummage through trash cans."
Yi Sang: "No, this is no more than breeding."
Yi Sang: "They will never realise they have the ability to fly for their entire lives."
Samjo: "I must object. Chickens cannot fly in the first place, and this technology is providing quality welfare to many-"
Dongrang: "It's okay, Samjo."
Dongrang: "For someone who usually wouldn't look others in the eye to glare directly at a person..."
Dongrang: "That's a sign of desperation, isn't it?"
Dongrang goes to elaborate, only for Samjo to interject and cut him off. Something's happening down in the lab they just left - though he doesn't elaborate it's already clear by context that it's another attack by the aforementioned terrorists. Samjo seems to ask whether it'd be wiser to stay put and wait out, but Dongrang waves the Sinners ahead - if they survived the fight at the checkpoint (for a given value of 'survived' my guy but ok) then they'll be able to handle the commotion downstairs.
Boy this place ain't doing so hot.
Announcement: "A second explosion has been detected. Please activate the regeneration ampule in your possession, and..."
Announcement: "Please wait for K Corp's security staff that will arrive within 18 seconds of, of, of..."
??? (Woman on the left): "Won't a little gasping and panicking be more effective in getting people to evacuate? See, getting so preoccupied with all that technology and science nonsense dulls your empathy with feelings."
??? (Man on the right): "... You talk too much. Be quiet."
Fun bunch! Samjo is all business once the group reach the lab level, reminding everyone to give themselves a regeneration jab if they can. Gregor questions how he can be so unfazed, Samjo hurriedly talking over Dongrang's attempt to describe how he hid under his desk the whole time the terrorists hit the lobby in their first attack. Dongrang proceeds to ask for and receive a health ampule from Samjo because he sprained his ankle in what I have to say seems like an absurdly wasteful use of the magic heal-anything juice but hey what do I know, I'm not the egghead who gets paid the big bucks.
Outis: "Are they the terrorists that are occupying the Lobotomy Corp branch?"
Dongrang: "Indeed. Speak of the devil."
Sinclair: "They're part of the terrorist organisation? They don't really look like well-trained combatants."
This is funny but also I think this is a good-natured tease, because yeah Heathcliff was right there during Canto III he knows Sinclair's seen some shit.
Samjo: "It's natural. They aren't the ones directly engaging in combat. It should take a single glance to notice that they appear to be lean and frail just like Mr. Dongrang."
Heathcliff: "I've seen rich sods that don't get into fights still get body-enhancing augments just in case. You sure they aren't just acting weak?"
Faust: "It's not necessarily the case. As varied as ways to augment the body are, some may be repulsed by it, physically or mentally. Some Nests even forbid their residents from getting procedures above a certain level of power if they aren't qualified."
Rodion: "They don't want the lowly to rise up and topple the ruling class over, huh?"
Faust: "I couldn't deny those possibilities. Each Nest must have its own reasons. But, fundamentally speaking, augmenting procedures are like high-performing vehicles. If an unqualified driver were to try and handle a vehicle with a power output above what they can handle... Layers of order in the Nest would fall apart in no time, so they'd like to prevent that from happening."
Dongrang: "Sorry to interrupt your passionate exposition, the pain was genuine for me, just so you know."
l m a o
While Rodion is valid for slipping the barb in about Nests wanting to Control The Masses, I've always thought Deus Ex Human Revolution style "the shadow government is AFRAID of ROBOT ARMS" type shit was walnut-brained so I appreciate that Faust acknowledges the spirit of the suggestion while refuting the specifics. The City isn't really the kind of setting where you can grab the Sandevistan and suddenly be schmoving circles around everybody, it fundamentally still places a great deal of importance on a fighter's skill and experience because it's not like raw power really solves all your problems for you anyway - just ask Vergilius. Hell the Sinners all being bound to Dante's time and reset to level 1 despite some of them clearly being way stronger than the others (i.e. Ryoshu, probably Outis, maybe Gregor) is probably intentional, forcing all twelve to stand on equal footing and rely on each other. But then in comes Dongrang with the 'i understand but my stummy hurts ;-;' and all is right with the world.
Anyway K Corp security personnel march in to contain the threat and the Sinners' fucking bones go into defence mode on sight again as Don and Sinclair seem to instinctively believe another fight is on the way, Ishmael remarking with a sense of relief that "now they're our reliable allies". They might have laid it on a tiny bit thick with this last reference, but I do think it is the last one, and it is pretty humanising for the characters to express such relief to have the indomitable corporate soldiers on their side for a change.
??? (Man in the coat): "Heomorrhage within five seconds. Spinal damage at least 12 centimetres in length. Direct impact on coronary artery. Destruction of the cranium. These steps will ensure that the enemy meets immediate death without unnecessary suffering."
??? (Woman with goggles): "It can do that, but wasn't it mainly to fully destroy the brain so that they can't regenerate themselves? Hey, if you don't mind, could you pretend to be dead if this doesn't kill you right away? My buddy stayed up all night upgrade the instakill function."
??? (Man in the coat): "Quiet."
Dongrang comments that the K Corp forces have robots of their own, noticing the arrival of an autonomous regeneration ampule administration drone.
Samjo: "Injuries like holes in internal organs..."
K Corp Security: "... Kurgh!"
Look at these hacked-together dopefish Robot Wars ahh droids, they seriously put an entire wrecking ball on a hydralic arm and had it fall on people as their master plan to overcome K Corp healing ampules.
Ishmael: "Even still... They wouldn't be immune to pain. How can they be so calm about it... They won't even bat an eye at a colleague right next to them being cut down."
Meursault: "Natural behaviour. If all wounds can be healed up in seconds, all judgment regarding it will be secondary."
Hong Lu: "If that's the case... Will we become like that eventually?"
Meursault: "I don't see a reason to think about such things."
Hong Lu: "I was just curious."
It's an interesting little aside - it stands to reason Meursault would be the one to make the observation, and to be so blase about the answer or lack thereof, but more noteworthy that it would be Hong Lu asking if that's where they're headed. It's a concept that Outis already brought up before before the highway fight but from the opposite direction - that throwing their lives away needlessly would make them too averse to pain to be as effective in combat. I think even by this point it's clear that the difference is Dante... y'know, cares about people, and doesn't want to see them suffer needlessly. Not just pain of the body, but pain of the heart and mind as well, that's why they were able to break through their barriers and beg Sinclair not to succumb to Kromer's words. Pain is another theme of this Canto so let's all keep an eye out for this idea to crop up again in the future.
??? (Woman with goggles): "By the way... Who are these new faces with unfamiliar outfits? Anyone wanna introduce yourself?"
??? (Man in the coat): "None of our business."
??? (Woman with goggles): "True. But it's kinda awkward to be just facing them. Someone's gotta talk, no?"
Ishmael: "... why should we introduce ourselves to a terrorist organisation?"
??? (Man in the coat): "We're no mere terrorist organisation. Watch your words."
??? (Woman with goggles): "I don't hate the sound of it. It lines up with my beliefs when I was four. I had to answer the call of a grad school because the paper I wrote on atoms won a prize at the age of eleven..."
??? (Man in the coat): "Shut it. We are the technology liberation alliance."
Wait, ma'am what do you mean by that. 'Lines up with my beliefs when I was four'? I think this is another 'a phrase slipped through the cracks in translation moment' because it doesn't parse to me.
Hongler really hit them with the 'based? based on what?' and we love that for him.
Amusingly Sinclair takes a stab at it and guesses that they're animal rights activists who want to free the horrible mutant factory farm chickens they saw upstairs, which the woman in the goggles finds deeply amusing. No, they did not work day and night assembling anti-regeneration death machines just to fight for the rights of happy free range chickens fried in healthy oil. She even grouses that the type X-32 bolts she used for them are so hard to get she had to mail order them from other Nests, adding a boatload in 'international' shipping fees.
Faust: "You can substitute type X-32 bolts by casting a c-9 bolt and tempering it at an interval of two hours."
??? (Man in the coat): "You aren't gonna win us over by acting all smart..."
??? (Woman with goggles): "Oh... huh... No, she might be right... It could work."
Gregor: "Could you tell us why you're offering advice to enemies, Ms. Faust?"
Faust: "You wouldn't understand. Researchers have a creed more valuable than life."
We honestly must respect the grindset, nothing more to it.
Anyway there's a battle with two waves of junky robots and then a second battle with two waves of junky robots before a third battle with two waves of junky robots so as per usual we'll be doing some Time Kompression.
The first tier of TLA attack robots are junky, obviously cobbled together pieces of shit, but like the K Corp camera drones we've already fought they have permanent stacks of Bleed Damage Down which reduces but hilariously enough does not entirely negate Bleed buildup inflicted on them. Both the wrecking ball and sawblade variants have a minor resistance to Slash and are fatal to Blunt, making them fold like cheap suits to the combined assault of NClair, Dieci Yi Sang and Dieci Meursault (Hongler's Keyblade is mostly slash but he's just plain strong enough it doesn't really matter). They have two weak skills apiece, the wrecking ball type inflicting and bursting Tremor while the sawblade inflicts Rupture count and Fragile plus Defence Level Down, though they themselves are particularly vulnerable to Tremor and Rupture - in fact they have bonus Stagger Thresholds stored at below 0hp that can only be revealed by hitting them with sufficiently potent Tremor Bursts, not that these models are tough enough to live long enough for that even if we were running full Tremor.
After two nodes of battle we return to Gregor marvelling at the convenience of recovery ampules from the right side of the battlefield for once. Dongrang once again brags about just how handsomely his team was rewarded with research grants for continued work on the recovery ampules, with a quick 'lmao don't tell Shrenne she'll be furious about it for months' for good measure.
Ryoshu: "Hmph... Clock would only wind the thing after we've died, scared of a little hurting."
Dante: <.....>
The extra-length ellipses has me convinced that Dante isn't even intimidated by Ryoshu at this point, she just said something so managerphobic they're hitting her with the clockcel stare. Meanwhile Rodion complains about a minor bump in her hand attempting to get a free health pot from the nearby regen drone, only for the drone to yap for an entire paragraph about how she doesn't qualify for healthcare because she hasn't taken the cross-compatibility test nor is she bleeding enough to qualify for an emergency injection.
Rodion: "Wha~? What are you talking about, you want me to cut off an arm or a leg or something?"
Sinclair: "They're..."
Sinclair: "They're already doing that."
WAH-WAH
Samjo: "It's a necessary requirement. It would be a tremendous financial waste to use regeneration ampules for every little scratch. I hate to make comparisons, but its value is far above the calibre of small firms like yours."
'Tremendous financial waste' he says as there are dudes literally hacking their limbs off in order to qualify as injured enough for the green goo dispenser and having two minutes ago jabbed Dongrang for a sprained ankle luh fucking mao.
Sinclair honestly looks about ready to fucking decapitate Samjo, or somebody, over this new information but fortunately is able to control himself. Dante smartly recognises that all of this is a bit fucked and starts backing up further from the lines of fire to avoid their frail not-as-easy-to-heal body coming to harm.
There is then a loud warning beep, and Dante realises they fucked up bad.
Ishmael leaps into action, interposing herself between Dante and the suddenly hostile K Corp serum administration drones as a hail of darts rains down upon them, sticking her in multiple places. .
Ishmael: "I'm the one who got hit, Outis..."
Outis: "I should have taken the projectile for you. Curses!"
Ishmael: "Excuse me..."
Christ alive it's genuinely the "out here living my best life" "[Ishmael] is [dying]" "this isn't about [her]" meme.
Outis: "Hah, see what your robots that cost a bomb to make are doing. It fired at an ally!"
Samjo: "I must object. That was not friendly fire. However... it does appear that exceptions couldn't be fully configured. I apologise for that particular shortcoming."
Outis: "What rubbish are you..."
Samjo: "As you are aware, you could come into this place purely thanks to Mr. Dongrang's whim. Having visitors in this place is an extremely rare occurrance, and as such, a factor that wasn't put into consideration."
Ishmael: "What, ngh... are you talking about?"
Samjo: "That K corp's regenerator drones do more than just heal people."
Samjo: "Normally, K Corp's drones administer regeneration ampules to injured personnel..."
Samjo: "However, it injects a decay ampule to deserters."
Gregor: "Ain't that just revolting... Think you can pull off summary executions when there isn't even a war going on? Why not just make the drones fight instead?"
Samjo: "The Nest you're from must have valued human life, am I right? The value of each drone we have far surpasses that of ten class 2 staff members combined. Do you understand?"
Gregor: "... 'You should understand', 'you accept it'..."
Gregor: "I've had crappy coercion shoved in my face too many times, I don't feel like complying anymore."
Faust, being Faust, chimes in that she sees the logic to it and cites a research paper stating the deployment of K Corp's drones (presumably in the manner they are now, ie graphically melting anyone trying to flee the combat zone) increased the odds of victory by 23.5%. Outis, coming at it from another angle, claims it's been proven time and again since ancient times that deserters are a greater threat to morale than even an overwhelming disadvantage in numbers or a weak leader, and that public punishment of deserters is the norm for a reason.
It's nice to see Gregor biting back on moral grounds on occasion despite being the Comedy Failgirl of the bus.
Dante, being normal, interrupts the conversation to the effect of <guys what the fuck ishmael is melting>. Faust prompts them to turn the clock sooner rather than later, as Ishmael probably won't have intact internal organs for much longer.
Yi Sang thinks, but says nothing, and the endless combat nodes continue.
N Corp Sinclair continues to put his mono-blunt Gorilla Racism to good use, absolutely shredding the machines by the score. Here we see the absolutely ludicrous 30 base power of Self-Destructive Purge being put to use, as the first hit alone deals more damage than his base ID could even dream of in an entire combo - and while the machine is obviously Blunt Fatal I honestly don't quite know where the other 80% damage bonus is coming from, since the damage conditional from having Fanatic is only 15%, his <Mechanical Amalgam> passive should only trigger against cyborgs not out-and-out robots, and two Wrath Res shouldn't be enough to make up the difference. Might be the difference between his Offence Level and the bot's Defence Level, that part of the calculations gets very funky and opaque.
While difficult to capture in screenshot form it's worth noting that Nclair's animations closely resemble those of his base ID, just with much more flashy effects and a far greater sense of power and force behind each blow. Like many IDs these can also be modified depending whether the associated coin lands heads or tails - for example he says "That filth... I'll purge it off you!" when landing the final coin of his s3 (at least according to the excel doc I was provided that translates the handful of combat barks that get no official localisation) but on a heads hit it's a reedy, insincere cry compared to the zealous snarl of a tails hit.
Suddenly Shrenne bursts in with goons at her side as we finally get done with five straight nodes of combat, heralding an end to the filler and my salvation.
Dongrang: "For sure, who could these be, Shrenne~? Made new friends other than me?"
Shrenne: "They're Fixers from the Rosespanner Workshop, the ones we're working with for the current project. They've visited here several times already, you really should be familiar by now."
Dongrang you put that tilde away only Rodion has a license to use them.
This man's face is unfavourable.
With almost comical bluntness the two TLA robot operators instantly fold and fuck off at the sight of the Rosespanner reinforcements, leading to Niko literally saying they ran from his aura.
Dongrang: "Thanks, Shrenne. This made me seriously consider the possibility that your department might be picked as the best next year for the first time. Shame about your precious trophies being destroyed, huh?"
Samjo: "Miss Shrenne, pardon me for suspecting, but you did not perchance wait until the trophies were broken beforeb ringing reinforcements, did you?"
Dongrang: "I don't mind losing them. So long as the photo is fine."
Dongrang's ambiguous comment about a photo comes and goes, all present more concerned with the current situation than whatever odd shit the man's said lately. Gregor can't help but be stunned by the extent of the damage now that he has a chance to see it clearly, which Samjo says is further proof of just how urgently the TLA must be cleared from the branch office for the safety of the firm.
Yi Sang: "Why, then, does K Corp... not provide assistance?"
Dongrang: "Mmm... Clearly, it's because they don't want the general public to know that such a thing happened in the Nest, don't you think?"
Yi Sang: "While I may concede on that matter as innocent feathers were involved, this concerns researchers and a laboratory directly affiliated with the Wing..."
Dongrang: "It's evidence that they want it to remain discrete that much, don't you think?"
There's a particular Energy to these interactions that's so hard to define, but I think I empathise with all the same. It's like Yi Sang can genuinely only bear to engage with Dongrang directly for very short bursts - Dongrang specifically commented on how difficult he finds it to gaze at someone head-on in their previous conversation after all - and both times when his social stamina runs dry Yi Sang is forced to retreat, demoralised. Dongrang is clearly fucking with him too, I'd even venture to say he rope-a-doped Yi Sang and just tired him out knowing he could outlast an attempt to make him give a straight answer for a change. It certainly lends credence to his claims that he has personal history with this Unnamed Old Friend on the Limbus Company roster. Just, y'know, not in a good way.
Dongrang subsequently invites himself along for the expedition into the abandoned branch office for good measure, planning to bring a generous supply of regeneration ampules with him. He brushes off any concerns for his safety, claiming that he feels all the safer for having seen the Sinners in battle personally (bullshit, these losers are canonically dying in droves every map node), but Faust sees through his shit easily and informs him that he'll gain nothing useful for his own research by observing Dante's clock in action. "Rather than regenerate, it restores", wording that seems to pique Dongrang's interest.
Dongrang: "I wouldn't do such a thing. I'm not the kind of person to cram down food that I know I can't digest."
First envy, now gluttony, I'm onto you with your pointed sin-themed remarks you rat bitch.
Outis: "It has to be common practice for someone like you to send capable underlings to do the fighting for you, and yet you insist on being on the front. Are you that hungry for a medal?"
Dongrang: "No, it's that I left..."
Dongrang: "A number of things I couldn't take with me in time."
Dongrang: "Like the photo commemorating my third consecutive year of winning the excellence award, the plaque of appreciation from K Corp, the photo taken to celebrate my lab's expansion, and... what else was there, Samjo?"
Samjo: "... classified documents concerning the research, sir..."
Outis: "... So it's more that you wanted to gain back the medals you had."
Dongrang: "Oh right, that too."
I feel like Outis looks at Dongrang with that 'when you see someone 2% more autistic than you' Cain Instinct but with Being A Rat. You know damn well she's already calculating ways to murder this man in the back of her mind, not really expecting to be able to act on them. Just, you you, In Case. Meanwhile Gregor seems to bemore concerned about Shrenne and how she's holding up.
Shrenne: "I guarantee you, that nerd Dongrang has never swung a fist in his life. He's too carefree. At least bring some Fixers like me."
Samjo: "Is your department going well, Ms. Shrenne? I don't see how you could benefit from the success of this operation."
Samjo: "Ms. Shrenne..."
Samjo: "In that case, will I be correct to assume that the payment for the Fixers will be handled by your department-"
Samjo: "The Lobotomy Corp branch we must reclaim isn't too far from here. Let's head there together."
Dongrang: "I was hoping I could get a ride on your bus... What a shame."
Samjo: "I'll secure you an opportunity next time. Let's get moving for now."
Rodion: "Huh? Who do you think you are to decide that...?!"
God, I can't with this guy. He really said "but i wanted to ride the limbus from limbus company...", something is built orthoganal in this man's mind. The now quite large group of assembled Limbus Company Sinners, Rosespanner Workshop Fixers and K Corp researchers I guess just all swarm out of the building and walk down the street in one great big blob to the branch office, a mental image that gets funnier and funnier now that I actually stop and try to picture a group of what has to be over 30 people sweeping aside all normal foot traffic like a great wave.
Rodion: " 'All~ in.' "
Gregor: "Haah... I wanna stop hearing it... It's giving me nausea."
And Rodion is immediately jumping on the chance to tell her One Cool Story to a dozen new people, we love a woman who clings to a single solitary W as hard as she physically can.
Niko: "There's nothing like headshake poker at J Corp's casinos. Those people who sit at the slot machines all day long, they're the morons."
Heathcliff: "What, you mean there's something up with the machines?"
Niko: "This is something I haven't told anyone else. You see..."
Heathcliff: "Hold on, you gotta explain in more detail..."
Dante: <Things are lively this time around.>
Ryoshu: "D.L.I."
Sinclair whispers the obvious translation, 'she says she doesn't like it', to Dante.
And we will leave it there for this update, as I would rather quit while I'm ahead than attempt to condense the next 350+ screenshots of plot into a single extra post. Each post-launch Canto is quite noticeably longer and denser than those that came before it, resulting in them being split into three parts or 'acts' and released space one week apart at the start of their relevant season. For the most part these breaks between parts where current-content players would have to stop and wait a week make perfectly fine cliffhangers for the LP, so I'll be aiming for about two updates per part per Canto from now on.
Next time, the L Corp branch office, and the motives of our players begin to reveal themselves!
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