#inertia project concept

[drdeltabean]

A couple of concept doodles for Damien, a pivotal character in Inertia :)

I have the idea for him to be a photographer and close with Leo (“close” he says, knowing my plot has them very gay). Just two chill guys, probably in a school paper club or something

Very much a character inspired by artist Jhariah’s music, I’ve been having a lot of fun fleshing out and experimenting with his story!

[cuddlebugmonster]

I present to you Luna Mikey ! From my apocalyptic AU Butterfly Effect !

This has been a little side project that i have been wanting to draw for so long !!!

Whenever i would see others draw peepaw apocalyptic Mikey, they would usually associate his magic with butterflies, materializing them for Casey or just in general

I wanted to play with that concept and make my own ! So yeah ! Born from love and in 2hours with AJR Inertia blasting on loop, this sketch and now full blown mystic warrior was born !

I have a whole story i would love to make, i already have the ending fully ready in my head.

When I was making this design i didn’t initially think about a specific butterfly, but when I drew the dread tails and it made me think of the Luna moth ! So I got curious and did some research, and HOLY SHIT i have never been so happy with results in my life !

YOU CANNOT TELL ME THAT THIS DOESN’T JUST SCREAM MIKEY !! it’s so perfect ! It fits so perfectly ! I swear I’m not crazy !!! It’s just AH ! It JUST.MAKES.SENSE !

I rest my case

Next

[literallys-illiteracy]

Project Moon 8'th anniversary stream overview:

Cut for spoilers

God fucking bless this company, "nervous, one minute *clears throat*"

//as per last time, i will have some thoughts on each section which will be elaborated on in a marked subsection of each area, primarily it will be an overview and analysis of the content shown

Note at the start "This may be a long stream".

Revealed timeline.

Year in Review:

(Graph 1, Pictured, Monthly average players this year)

(Graph 2, Pictured: Daily Active Users)

New ID and EGO extraction:

Devyat association Sinclair (seen in a prior teaser) and Asymmetrical Inertia He EGO Heathcliff.

Sinclair 000 ID:

Likely a rupture ID similar to Rodion's Devyat.

This ID appears to use the same Courier system that Rodion used as well, being able to retreat from battle.

Skill 1 appears to be 2 Blunt coins. Skill(s) 2,3, and 4 seem to each be 3 Blunt coins.

Rather than a skill 4 it seems to be just an empowered skill 3 however, without the coin reuse at all.

It will be interesting to see if this ID can stand to beat Talisman Sinclair's bench passive slot.

Heathcliff He EGO:

Likely a tremor EGO due to its seeming relation to the "bell of truth" abnormality named Clockwork-Time Roly Poly in Mirror Dungeon.

Both the corrosion and awakening appear to be blunt damage EGO with either 1 or 2 coins, however there is a chance for a coin reuse system on the awakening due to the repeated animation before the final strike.

If this EGO is in line with the Roly-Poly, it will likely relate to fragile somehow, and may introduce a new tremor type, or reintroduce Tremor-Fracture to relate its Fragility concept.

Mirror Dungeon 5: Mirror of the Dreaming:

It is noted that this Mirror Dungeon changes are going to be long in explanation and extensive.

Party revive is noted, alongside "Combat changes" likely to include the new Chain Battle system, and abnormalities/EGO that are designed to use said system such as the Devyat ID and latest Fell Bullet EGO.

New EGO gifts, Choice Events, and Theme Packs. This confirms the return of the mirror dungeon floor pack system, allowing us to complain about getting the bosses we chose to fight.

The "new choice events" is likely referring to those that appeared in both Canto 7 and RR4, being "Dreaming Electric Sheep (which likely will be the source of Imitative Generator)", Portrait of a Certain Day, King in Binds, 400 Roses, Rose Hunter, and Hurting Teddy Bear.

There are changes to the pack system, allowing us to change between the hard and normal packs in the selection menu as shown, also i checked the EGO gifts shown in the image, they're all ones we've seen before.

Within Hard mirror dungeons, you have a selection choice between 4 EGO gifts, and the ability to select 2 of them, alongside both their associated Mounting Trials

In this hard pack, a "special shop" is able to spawn.

Within normal difficulty dungeons, the final floor is moved to the 5th rather than the 4th as is current, similar to how current Hard dungeons work.

Shops and rest stops are now one in the same it appears (once again, no new EGO gifts shown).

The aforementioned "Special Shop" that appears within hard packs.

This allows to swap out more skills, it will contain more EGO gifts, and will be able to fuze up to 5 EGO gifts together at once, which likely is due to the increased number of gifts that will be received specifically at floor end.

Duplicates of EGO gifts, they do not apply stacking bonuses, but rather are able to be fused.

When revived, sinners will have their SP set to zero, however all other sinner's SP will remain the same on floor start.

More abnormality battles will be present, and upon winning battles against said abnormalities (boss fight abnormalities encountered in elite or normal encounters), one will receive the EGO gifts related to the abnormality, as if they completed the fight through an encounter.

Hard mode fog of war changes, allowing you to see 2 nodes ahead rather than the current one.

EGO gifts are planned, for the aforementioned abnormalities most likely, and several that are unrelated or completely new.

In both images, fusion "tree's" are mentioned, with fusion gifts that are able to be fused (currently impossible as tier 4 gifts may not be fused), where new and weaker EGO fusions are added, which may be fused into double fusion, or fusion^2 EGO gifts.

Next Week, 28th of November.

5th of December.

some point this season, we will be able to gain achievements, and challenge the dungeon past floor 5 without the rewards, as an added Roguelike challenge mode.

Monthly ID rotation, reoccurring missions, and Quality of Life UI improvements such as a clear timer.

There are plans to release this in stages, as:

which is the reasoning behind the weekly additions that are listed above, which allows for Consistent quality assurance and constant content rather than a large release and a dead period.

Seasonal ID:

The Manager of La ManchaLand Don Quixote:

actively making use of the bloodfeast keyword, akin to the other bloodfiend ID's

This ID's kit will vary depending on the present allies, specifically changing when other La Mancha Land ID's are present.

Specifically, skill 1 is the Priest, skill 2 the Barber, and Defence skill The Princess.

This ID's skills will be adaptive to multiple situations alongside their defensive skill,.

The defence skill was not shown, however, i believe that this ID's skills will be Slash, Slash, and Pierce respectively.

Wealth and Fame:

"We will need to increase our revenue to make the following a reality: add more enjoyable functions and high fidelity cutscenes; To Begin Production on a new game; or to release animations (Advertisements, previews, Short episodes, full length movies, and/or anime)

Sinner Target Extraction Changes:

Sinner Target extractions will now feature event extraction ID's and EGO from the preceding season, not including those obtained through the event itself such as Chef Gregor, or Multicrack Heathcliff.

In the future, target extractions may have association or syndicate themes, such as a blade lineage themed extraction

Returning Intervallo's with Voices:

Most intervallo in the game are unvoiced, this was due to the ease in creation and flexibility that it allowed them to create and release, with less strain caused by alterations and adjustments within the dialogue.

Adding voices to these intervallo in post is fareaser as the dialogue is already set in stone, which means that there is no worry of future alterations.

These intervallo will be returning with higher level in a "hard mode", each featuring 2 EGO relating to the intervallo's theme.

Why EGO? the sinners tend to receive id's of increasingly powerful characters and LCB's story progresses, releasing ID's for intervallo returns means that they may be, story and lore wise, held back by the strengths of the characters present in past intervallo. However, EGO are free from these concerns, which makes us believe that they are a better choice for the intervallo returns. This does not rule out the release of ID for intervallo reruns, if there is a valid inspiration an ID may be released, however it will primarally be EGO. When an intervallo is voiced, characters will be featured as paid announcers such as the Gnomes, Jun, and Aeng Du.

(Paraphrased) (quoted because Tumblr decided i couldn't have images)

Announcers will be extractable from Ideality (yisang) and from standard extractions, {green marker}: More Money For Anime

Ideally they will also be adding voice acting to the mini episodes between both intervallo and canto's.

5th Walpurgisnacht:

Library of Ruina theme.

2 Full Stop Office Fixers, Hong Lou Liwei and Gregor Stephan (or so appears).

Der Freischütz EGO, sinner unknown, likely Heathcliff due to his being the only Sinner yet to receive a Walpurgisnacht release, and his lack of inclusion in the aforementioned ID.

Intervallo 7.5 1:

Regular Check Up:

episode about health checkups for sunners, specifically their mental corrosion and distortions(?).

This will take place in T Corp.

Refraction Railway Line 5, The Merry Go Round:

As of now there are no definitive gimmicks for this event, however it will cycle similar to RR2.

Yield My Flesh to Claim Their Bones Rerun:

Intervallo 2: Nocturnal Sweeping:

Ill give you two guesses what SWEEPING is going to be about, especially a NIGHT in the BACKSTREETS

Canto 8: The Surrendered Witnessing:

Hong Lou Canto.

Ill let @lu-is-not-ok pick this apart, as they are far better at Hong Lou analysis than i am, as it has been aeons since i read Hong Lou Meng and i don't plan to re-read it any time soon.

Mili Asia concert tour:

this year was delayed due to Cassie's delivery, the current goal is for the concert to be held during the 9th anniversary sometime around the 18th of November 2025.

live tickets will be sold separately for Korea and Japan.

Concert will only feature Mili songs from the Project Moon games.

Starting in Korea, and ending in Japan.

Collaboration:

(Slow, manual movement of powerpoint to the centre of screen while the vtuber model dissapears)

Arknights Collaboration video plays.

(re aligning of the presentation while talking)

"We were invited into Hypergryph headquarters, exchanged merchandise of our games and had a fruitful discussion"

KJH's signed Lappland poster.

4 sinners will be receiving crossover content.

Though it is too early for a full on reveal, the sinners who are getting said EGO have been revealed.

Faust, Hong Lou, Ishmael and Gregor.

We do not currently know who each sinner will be paired with for this collaboration, however if i were to wager it would be Kal'tsit for Faust, and potentially texas for Ishmael (they're both stoic lesbians i think it works).

Reimagined outfits and combat skills will be used as inspiration for the EGO skills. Why EGO skills? see above rendition of this same question. ID's are representative of the power that a certain character may hold, which would alter perceptions of the ID.

One (1) operator from arknights will be featured as a (presumably Paid (more money for the anime)) announcer for the game

Long Term R&D Goals:

ID Skin functionality: Akin to layered armour, using growth materials (shards n threads) to use one ID's animations and moveset layered on top of another's.

EG. Barber Outis appearing as Magic Bullet, and that (the Yi Sang) is a skin and not an ID being San from the Streetlight Office in Library of Ruina, which is not going to be released as an ID, but only a visual.

They are learning how to monetise this game it seems.

However, this is a long term goal, as each ID has different cinematics, effects, and coin counts on each skill, such as altered effects due to charge.

HHPP Store expansion:

Enhance Immersion by making use of panoramic projection.

the physical store is being expanded, separated into different areas, the cafe, a Ruina themed section, followed by a section representing each Canto of Limbus Company.

2024 AGF (anime games festival):

merchandise being sold:

ID acrylic cards

Limbus Company zip-up Hoodie and attachable patches. note that these hoodies are the same in design as to those worn by the sinners in the Intervallo 1 teaser Image.

Employee ID card and casing. Employee cards for each sinner excluding dante.

W corp Cap (like the ones worn by the ID's, Outis, Don, Faust, Meur, Etc.)

2025 EGO callender.

Paper bag

EGO can badges, including: Sunshower Yi sang, Everlasting Faust, Lesbian Don Quixote, "Contempt, Awe" Ryoshu, Yearning-Mircalla Meursault, Cavernous Wailing Hong Lou, Fell Bullet Heathcliff, Blind Obsession Ishmael, Hex Nail Rodion and Sinclair, Sunshower Outis, and Solemn Lament Gregor.

The Director will have an autograph signing at saturday and sunday from 4-6pm.

HHPP Popup Cafe:

In Busan there will be a popup cafe of HHPP selling several popular dishes.

There are currently conversations being had with other pop up retail booths and locations, namely PAX west 2025.

The merchandise sold at the AGF will later be sold at the popup cafe's, and then later at the main HHPP itself.

In Game rewards:

*director clears his breath*

1300 Lunacy and a 10 pull dextraction ticket.

Thanks You for watching.

Also Thank you for reading this~

[a-minke-whales-tale]

Wow! Reading about your whale suit project is truly inspiring! I can relate to it in a way, in the sense that I wish so dearly that I could return to the woods. I have mobility issues too that make it impossible for me to do so. I hope so much that you are able to achieve your dream, or at least get to partially return to the water.

Thanks friend, I hope very much I can return to the water. I do think I can. In a way being a whale I am quite lucky. I cannot well walk on the land and walk with forearm crutches, but in the water I could move freely and it is wonderful. I also think in a way, taking a human body and forcing it back into a cetacean shape is easier than for most other animals.

We are immersed in water which does make certain aspects like food intake and air intake difficult, it makes a lot of others things easier. Water has a much higher heat capacity and greater conductivity than air. Wearing a shirt in 16-18 degree air is plenty warm enough, but in 16 degree water you are really recommended a wetsuit. But this means we have much more ability to pad ourselves out with material to form our shape better. We can have 10 or more cm of thickness, and can still function perfectly fine thermally. But also being sea creatures our body and all that extra weight is supported by the silicone. I will be around 300-360kg once fixed and am currently around 90kg (and an 'ideal' weight for me is around 65kg). In the sea it is a lot to move around, but in the end it is mostly just additional inertia. But on land, that amount of weight would be unmanageable.

Additionally, the shape of a cetacean body is actually quite manageable for a human body. I imagine if you have looked at my profile you have seen this image.

This concept drawing what I would look like is drawn around my own body. There are some differences to a standard minke body, but unless you knew a lot about whales, you really might not notice. The main things are a slightly higher fineness ratio, and much larger flippers (and the fact that I will be perpetually the size of a month old calf). But if you are not someone who has a pretty significant interest in marine biology and cetaceans, you probably aren't terribly likely to know what a minke whale is, let along that my flippers are bigger than they should be.

Human bodies conform pretty well to a cetacean shape, we have arms that become flippers, and legs that become our tails. Compared to many other creatures our bodies bend in the right way and we do not have a huge amount of additional movement we could not generate from our own bodies. In addition some of the strongest muscles in our backs and buttocks are used to hold up our torsos, in this configuration instead they become our tail following more or less that same motion fully motile humans use all the time. And indeed there are even sports which functionally do this namely mermaiding and finswimming/freediving.

Compare this to trying to make a canid body (just because they are the most easily abundant and my companion is a canid). Covering yourself in fur would be hot in a lot of climates, your back legs would be much longer than your front legs, your torso would be too short, nothing could control your ears or tail, your body would struggle to support the weight in this hunched over position, and with the shape of the neck some additional headpiece would be needed which would have to be supported by the user (which is true for myself as well, but I can use the water to hold myself and the necks of mysticetes at least are fixed).

The things that were done to us were terrible, but in a way, I am quite lucky as I can really see a path forward for fixing a cetacean body, that would be very difficult with most other animals. And I do really believe that someday, I will swim again, I will swim free, and swim forever.

[henghost]

thinking about why i love the jamie/sy dynamic so much. i think it comes fundamentally from their difference: sy's inability to remember, and jamie's inability to forget. we tend to think of memory as something passive, some kind of inevitable degradation, but--as sy reminds us every so often--to forget is something active, a pathway to advantage and strength.

nietzsche discusses this concept in depth in his genealogy of morals: for nietzsche, forgetting is "no mere vis inertiae as the superficial imagine; it is rather an active and in the strictest sense positive faculty of repression," "an apparatus of absorption," "a plastic, regenerative and curative force." finally he concludes, "What we experience and absorb enters our consciousness as little while we are digesting it . . . as does the thousandfold process involved in physical nourishment . . . so that it will be immediately obvious how there could be no happiness, no cheerfulness, no hope, no pride, no present, without forgetfulness." sy is the innocent child who cannot hold onto details that have no immediate value for him. this way, he is closer to a hippo or a vine: he is driven by desire or will alone, rather than some kind of historical debt. this is why he is reckless, difficult to control.

jamie, meanwhile, is of course the opposite. he is cursed to remember everything. he has an inescapable debt to memory in the form of his notebook. make no mistake: this is a punishment. nietzsche writes, "‘A thing must be burnt in so that it stays in the memory: only something that continues to hurt stays in the memory." to me, this suggests that jamie is in constant psychic pain, poor baby. perhaps this is why he must adopt his trademark cautious, skeptical, and above all passive demeanor.

this may also shed some light on the nobility's fascination with project caterpillar--at first it is easy to assume that they intend to use it for themselves as yet another "upgrade," but more likely in my view is that they intend to use it on their subjects. nietzsche documents how, in order to develop the faculty for memory in humans (because it would be a mistake to assume that it is "natural"; most if not all other living beings are incapable of memory in the way we understand it) it was first necessary to punish. punishment creates a kind of "memory of the future," it creates fear to control the natural animal impulse. we remember what happened to recipient of punishment and prevent ourselves from committing that same transgression. it stands to reason, therefore, that the nobility would like to make it impossible for the general public to forget, as it could only increase the nobility's power and control.

[cryptocism]

So we have Bart, Thad, Jude, and Nathaniel... If Three, Five, and Six wanted non-numerical names, what would they choose?

tbh i hadn't really thought of it! Jude and Nathaniel having their names taken away was an intentional story thing, tying in to all the clone stuff about identity and personhood. They were the only two clones not made for the project, and got to grow up as individuals, meaning names.

But Thad/Two, Three, and Four were made essentially via assembly line. Only difference between them being Three and Four knew it, whereas Thad did not. Three and Four telling each other who they have to be right at the top of Frequency (approx 8 million years ago) is them literally forcing each other to be a tiny cog in the larger machine of Project Inertia. They both try to claim the name Thad and they both shoot each other down immediately:

"Three. That's your name. I can't call you Thad, after all. That's me." "You're not Thad. I'm - That's me. You're... you have to be Four."

And even that whole concept; of having to fight over one name because only one of them can Be Inertia, is itself a shadow of what Thad was already doing by claiming himself as Thaddeus Thawne the Second. He has to attach himself to someone/something else (in this case the President and the Thawne family legacy) in order to feel validated. More like a real person.

Five and Six are just another level down in this Inception-style layer cake of trying and failing to belong to something. Thad trying to legitimize himself with the Thawne name, then Three and Four trying to do the same with Thad's name, then Five and Six: the most comfortable with their numerical designations specifically because it holds an explicit connection to Three and Four. Each iteration trying to tie themselves to the scraps of things that only make the earlier versions unfulfilled.

Long winded explanation but a very long way to say, I think Five and Six have the most attachment to their numerical names, and likely wouldn't want to change them in the first place, which is why I hadn't really considered it.

Three on the other hand would have to basically dissolve his entire worldview on who he is and what he wants to be if he were to ever even consider a name specifically for himself. Abandoning the need to tie himself to someone else's identity would necessitate an almost unrecognizable change in his character.

[canmom]

since this seems to be my topic of obsession for today...

turns out Bluesky internally uses content-based addressing and IPFS. I don't have a lot of use for it since it's a Twitter clone, and I've never got on very well with Twitter. Bluesky hides most of that from the user - it looks just like any old web app backed by a central server. i need to look into this more, Bluesky is taking inspiration from IPFS but it's using its own protocol, and it is doing some good things. I think its protocols could be used for something more Tumblr-like.

there's a protocol called PubSub which sounds like it does a lot of what I want, or rather gives you the low-level framework to broadcast info across a decentralised network. you could build a social network on top of that. IPFS uses it as one way of handling mutable data, like 'my website just updated'.

there's an absolute plethora of ideas, protocols, and tools for decentralised file sharing, decentralised messaging, decentralised social networks. this broad idea space is very much the hot new thing at the moment. some of them seem like they're growing. a lot of them have glossy websites with animations and stock photos of smiling people. it's hard to know in advance what's worth paying attention to. the whole field is dense with acronyms and rather abstruse concepts. which unfortunately means the current audience tends to be limited to tech nerds (c'est moi) and crypto cultists (ce n'est pas moi. merde!).

Briar is a protocol I find personally very appealing. it's security-oriented, designed to be crazy resilient, creating a mesh network through whatever protocols are available. you use it for E2E-encrypted messaging, but also you can use it for threaded discussions and blogs. right now it's only available for phones but they're working on a desktop version. the primary use case seems to be like "you're at a protest and the gov shuts off the internet", but it would be a very sexy place to put your blog. that said, I expect it would not be very fast at all.

the major encryptable, decentralised Discord/IRC alternative is Matrix. I broadly like the look of it, but we have the same problem of inertia getting people to switch from Discord, and there's still some jank I encountered when I tried it.

there's a lot of cryptocurrency in this whole area. (not surprising since the underlying tech of crypto is also hash-based, and there's ideological overlap between crypto and torrent people, because 'decentralised').

notably, there's a companion project to IPFS, a complicated scheme called FileCoin which is designed to encourage people to host data for a certain period in return for FileCoin tokens. you get FileCoins for consistently holding onto the data, and you lose a stake of FileCoins if you delete it prematurely. these FileCoins can then be used mainly to pay other people to host data for you: you pay FileCoins to a host, and pay them again to fetch your data(!). or you can trade them for other cryptocurrencies.

I'll acknowledge it doesn't seem as intrinsically environmentally corrosive as proof-of-work crypto, or even as simply 'the rich get richer' as proof-of-stake crypto. it's not filling up HDDs with random crap either. though it does sound like it requires quite a bit of CPU work to be done in all the hashing for the 'sealing' process.

I'm still not entirely convinced of the benefit this scheme brings. crypto stuff has a tendency to go belly-up very abruptly when speculative bubbles pop, so I wouldn't be super excited to rely on FileCoin for archiving some valuable bit of data. of course any offsite backup carries risk, e.g. Dropbox could go bankrupt one day. but I'm way less convinced of the benefits of something like FileCoin than IPFS. I guess it remains to be seen if this takes off.

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

Global Underground 016: Cape Town by Dave Seaman 2000 Progressive House / Progressive Trance

Back on my Global Underground grind this week to check out this turn-of-the-millennium double-disc mix from the one and only Dave Seaman, the guy who, among other things, managed to transform UK publication Mixmag from a DJ newsletter into a biblical monthly electronic music magazine, while also becoming one of the world's most revered DJs. Simply put, you can credit a significant portion of electronic dance music's growth and spread to him.

But, just like with Seaman's Buenos Aires set, I think that I might have an unpopular opinion about this one too, which represents Global Underground's first ever dispatch from Africa. See, something that I seem to keep running into with these showcases of super popular DJs (which is a corny concept on its face, to be honest 🙄) is overall inconsistency. One disc will range from pretty great to excellent, and the other will be pretty lackluster, in comparison. But to me, Seaman's discs serve as exceptions; they are neither pretty great, nor are they lackluster; they're just steadily good. And most of the reviews I've read for both this Cape Town release and the Buenos Aires one don't happen to express that opinion; the majority of them seem to think that Buenos Aires is fantastic, and this one is a tick or two below it.

Now, while, overall, I think the darker disc 1 is the stronger affair here, this release's greatest moments still seem to come in the second disc, with a totally sublime three-song run on its back half, starting with short-lived trio Nerva's "Modo VII (Santo Nerva de Mercia Mix)," followed by back-to-back tracks from duo Way Out West, of which the great Nick Warren—who himself put out the most spellbinding GU disc I've ever heard: the second one from his Brazil installment—is a member. First, Way Out West deliver "The Fall," which, personally, hit me *really* hard, because it samples the vocals that were used in one of my most favorite ambient tunes of all time, Mixmaster Morris' pretty legendary remix of Coldcut's "Autumn Leaves;" and then Seaman follows that up with a terrific Way Out West remix of James Holden's "Horizons." I'm basically an enormous sucker for a trance tune that incorporates rich and classy piano stabs, and a song like that one serves as a prime example of it (Max Graham's "Bar None" is another one that immediately comes to mind too, by the way, although it's not on this mix 😌).

And there's some great songs on the first disc too, but none of them really beat Bill Hamel's "Quadrant Dub" remix of Inertia's "Vellum." That one makes for a pretty transcendent, densely-packed climber in its first half. Plus, the "Futureshock Instrumental" of Moby's "Porcelain" is really cool too, as the duo takes the original's iconic strings and chops off their ends in order to meld them with a chugging mid-90s-type of house drumbeat 😎.

So, not fully bowled over by either of these discs, but definitely not disappointed with them either. Not the best GU mix I've ever come across, but also definitely not the worst. Just a steady-Eddie stream of good dance tunes, pretty much the whole way through.

Listen to CD1 here. Listen to CD2 here.

Highlights:

CD1:

Rui Da Silva Presents The Four Elements - "Earth" Moby - "Porcelain (Futureshock Instrumental)" Ian Wilkie - "Guten Morgen" The Ananda Project - "Cascades of Colour (Saffron Mix)" Inertia - "Vellum (Hamel's Quadrant Dub)" Gloat - "Wuarp" Above - "New Day Dawning (Above's Dub)" Breeder - "Tyrantanic (Slacker's Kingdom Come Mix)"

CD2:

Nerva - "Modo VII (Santo Nerva de Mercia Mix)" Way Out West - "The Fall" James Holden - "Horizons (Way Out West Remix)"

[kalessinsdaughter]

The Emperor's Soul, Epilogue: Day One Hundred And One

kalessin reads cosmere

Preface | Day Ninety-eight

There's eighty factions?! For real? Dear me, that sure makes for interesting palace intrigue. A perfect environment for someone like Frava, so dishonest she doesn't understand honesty.

Good to see that Shai completely pulled the wool over Frava's eyes. Hopefully she'll be so busy looking for the nonexistent back doors to the emperor's mind that it takes the edge off her scheming.

I love that Shai stole her own fake of the painting! Atta girl! Also that she feels Gaotona's genuine honesty has rubbed off on her. He didn't deliberately try to manipulate her, but… it works both ways, doesn't it?

I still want to know about the Imperial Fool, though. That feels like a story in itself.

Yes! Introspection! I knew it! Ashravan is going to find his way back to his idealism, arguably his "genuine" self, and break from the inertia of routine. Beautiful!

I love the irony that in the end Gaotona finds himself burning a matchless work of art, just like he was so angry with Shai for doing.

---

On the whole a very satisfying read! I like the focus on intra- and inter-personal development, rather than on epic action and adventure, but then, I've always been a sucker for character-driven stories. The confined setting and limited character gallery, as well as the novella format, all work together to creating a very condensed, intense read.

I also like the way Shai's growing familiarity with her captors and investment in her project blur the lines between protagonist and antagonist. Shai's relationship with Gaotona especially, but also with Ashravan.

I found the concept of Soul Forgery fascinating. Forgery in general, too, and the way the story explores our ideas of what's genuine and fake, what's art and what's forgery.

Very well done, Sanderson!

[miloscat]

[Review] Butterflies: Episode 1-3 (PC)

They understand the concept of love.

After Bomb Rush Cyberfunk wowed me, I wanted to take a second look at this even more indie project memorialising Jet Set Radio. I've played Episode 1 (and some pre-release demos) before but since then, French lead dev Le Capitaine and their Le Crew have finalised Episodes 2 and 3, and published them to Steam as a bundle. Supposedly it's still to be continued but for now the team is hard at work on an F-Zero homage. Hopefully they come back and keep expanding this because what's there so far is really good!

Rather than using JSRF as a jumping off point for gameplay, Butterflies seems to prefer refining what the original JSR was doing. This means a more realistic sense of inertia, and managing the momentum of your crew of inline-skating delinquents. The dash button is there to pick up speed on the ground and grinding rails is not effortless. It's clearly set on improving the clunky play control of the Dreamcast game though, and the result is fast, technical, and satisfying... when you've put some time into mastering it.

To get you there is a low-pressure kind of game design with a set of missions that populate the large levels. You can roam around, tackling them and finding tag spots as you please without a timer ticking down, which on its own is a big step up from JSR for me. These tasks are usually races that pass through checkpoints or specific line runs that require keeping a combo going—some in Episode 1 are particularly strict—while Episode 3 adds in extra graffiti challenges. Going through the checklist is a nice way of showing off these urban sandbox levels as you hunt for write spots or (as of Episode 2 onwards) collectible music tracks.

Each episode has one map to itself while advancing the overall story. The first two are hilly suburban areas, with a bit of industrial in E1, and E3 features a sprawling inner-city area connected by train tracks. Powerlines to grind on and the ability to wallgrind on almost any wall if you have enough speed help you traverse the high degree of verticality built into these zones. The first two episodes have an interesting grungy, sketchy look while the third revamps things with more colour and shiny detail. Populating the maps are your typical low-poly NPCs (I spotted some modelled on Lammy and Parappa!) as well as bear-hugging cops, flying police drones, and zap-projectile-slinging cameras: as of E3, these can all be dealt with by a quick application of spray paint (which by the way is unlimited).

The story is handled a bit more seriously than in some other street punk simulators. In this near-future world, a Japanese city has seceded and is now run as an independent autocracy by one General Sakamoto, and by the end of E3 the rebellious Nat and her growing Butterflies crew are gearing up to rise above petty rudie squabbles and vandalism to really fight back against the fascism. The inclusion of real-world cultures and concerns keeps the tone grounded, like when one of your teammates Jae (who tags in Hangeul) comments on the treatment of Korean immigrants; another, Zinnie, wears a hijab and interjects in Arabic, while Rin is a trans girl and you follow her journey of self-discovery in dialogue which I thought was handled pretty well.

On top of their characterisation in cutscene dialogue, these touchstones make the characters deeper and more relatable, more than just a cool cel-shaded character design. They also for the most part have clear strengths in their stat distributions; I favoured speed specialist Zinnie for getting around. Each one has distinct graffiti designs (they all get a refresh in E3 as well) that, while simple, usually include their name (in katakana) and tell you something about their personality. Writing involves a three-stage timing-based minigame so everyone has three unique designs, although you might find you end up with the simplest "bare minimum" one all over just to save time with the ~200 spots per map.

Since Butterflies has been released episodically over five years, it's interesting to watch as the new instalments make changes and become more polished. It's still rough around the edges even as of E3 but solid enough, and this release structure gives me hope that even more refinements will be implemented going forward (a better in-game map would be nice!). Either way, I've enjoyed what's there so far, and it's refreshing that multiple projects have been springing up in this vein while having their own character: in this case a little bit subdued, down to earth, but it's got heart.

[doomedandstoned]

Pittsburgh’s MELT Airs Astounding New Spin, ‘Replica of Man’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

Armageddon, religion, technology, shame and greed -- here's a band dealing with some heavy lyrical themes, and doing it with excellence. It's prog-stoner metal trio MELT from the Steel City, and today they're giving us an advance listen to the upcoming album, 'Replica of Man' (2023)

The album opens with narration from an interview long past from the incredible age of Pandora's Box tampering that the 20th century was: "The concept of the thinking machine has been man's dream for centuries, also his nightmare." To accompany this roving commentary on creeping technocracy, the bass slaps out a wicked jazzy stoner groove with vivacity and conviction. By the time drums join in earnest, it feels like we're in Prodigy territory, with metal vocals and doomy riffs. Recording engineer Nate Campisi takes great care in capturing a lusty sound from all of the instruments, and this serves as a captivating vessel for the message:

It fulfills the prophecy Unstoppable technology Steel has seized the upper hand We concede as it commands It’s too late to intervene Mating man with machine No forgiveness for the damned Heed the replica of man

Indeed, we are several chapters deep into a fledgling Technological State and already the human animal is being stretched and contorted in ways that are alien to his nature, but somehow pleasing to the great labyrinth of circuits that make up our computers and smartphones. It's no longer fodder for fun sci-fi blockbusters like Terminator, but an urgent question for our time as to what makes us truly thrive as human beings and how technology can assist us toward that end, not hurt us. Obviously, the band struck a chord with me straight away!

"It isn’t passive music," remarks frontman Joey Troupe. "It has weight, inertia and leaves a mark. We are writing the soundtrack to global annihilation. That includes elements of destruction, despair, gratitude and sometimes, hope."

Elsewhere on the album, the band conjures Lucifer's Friend vibes on "Problem Child" and "Skeleton Girl" exhibits an infectious nu-metal energy -- both captured within a cocoon of fuzzy low-end and performed with all the vibrancy of the garage experience. "Swamp Water" is a good, old-fashioned swampy stoner romp that would make a good companion to Weed Is Weed's "Alligator Crawl." And "Shame" would fit in great with the likes of Mudhoney and Coal Chamber.

The album closer is bathed in dank, watery shadows, with a grungy, forlorn bass groove. It's called "Hive Mind" and lives in the neighborhood of Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard. The song is about how the secrets of life evade us because we're stuck in rigid mindsets ("Sacrament is our demise"), and struggle to find a meaningful role in this artificial maze of concrete and asphalt ("Disguised by life, destroyed by time"). At least that's my interpretation. As I said, the lyrics are thought provoking -- but there's no mistaking the last lines of the track:

We all seek a higher mind So take your breath and blaze a fire Take flight. Ignite. Leave them all behind

Melt's Replica of Man is a virtuosic blend of influences, captivating themes, and crisp, joyful musicianship. Out Friday, July 7th (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Snail, GoodEye, Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol, Null, and Deep Purple.

Give ear...

Replica of Man by Melt

SOME BUZZ

Melt is a Pittsburgh-based fuzz rock band formed by Joey Troupe, J.J. Young, and James May – three seasoned musicians with a diverse range of experience in the music industry.

Joey Troupe (lead guitar/vocals) has played in various bands around the city since 2007, including Blackbird Pie, The Electric Pear, and Paddy the Wanderer — which released several LPs and EPs, toured regionally, and had a song featured on a Netflix series.

J.J. Young (drums) has played in or appeared with over 10 different musical projects, including Fortune Teller, Daisy Chain, and his own solo project, BITE. He is also a co-founder of Steel City Death Club, a Pittsburgh music multimedia collective.

James May (bass/vocals) started Aberrant Kingdom in 2008 and has also played with Spare Arrows. In July 2021, Melt released their self-titled debut and performed live for the first time, quickly making a name for themselves in Pittsburgh music for their lively stage presence and unique extraterrestrial-inspired aesthetic.

Since, the band has headlined shows across the region, been named the WYEP Artists of the Week, held a featured spot on the Deutschtown Music Festival mainstage, and opened for Silver Synthetic of Third Man Records. Their second studio album, Replica of Man, will be released July 7, 2023.

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

[drdeltabean]

"Not Finished Yet"

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I had some fun playing with environment colors, so he's a little illustration of Leo!

SPEEDPAINT up on YouTube! vvv

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While trying to get my series off the ground, anything helps if you could share and check out my video! :D

[upwardwrites]

Placeholders

I love placeholders. They keep me moving, they let me fly through an idea or explore a concept without pausing or let my writing get weird without consequences. They let me not think.

I also hate them.

I hate placeholders today. Mostly because they are making me have to think.

Not talking about stand-in words or names. I do those all the time until I finally hear a better version to correct whatever dumb words I come up with. Davey Jones becomes Deacon Whitlock. Husband Alice Mom becomes Hobbart Monroe. etc.

No. I’m talking about using placeholders when I don’t want to do something. Like research bullet calibers or common reasons for home foundation failure. In goes XXFigure This Out LaterXX.

See ... My brain loves things like cancelled plans or when the project management system at work crashes and I don’t have to do whatever tedious thing was in front of me. It loves the snappy moments when pieces click into place but it does not love sifting through the mess to find the corner and edge pieces or all the other stuff that comes with making it all one cohesive picture.

Now in my re-second-drafting-phase, I need the edges and the corners and all that shit. So I had to set a rule: No. More. Placeholders.

As I’m replotting these scenes in Obsidian, if I hit a section where I’m inclined to say “I’ll figure this out later,” my tag is #figurethisoutNOW. I am giving my cranky brain the option to overcome its inertia and do the thankless edgefinding OR we go work on another “TO SORT” file in the Bible. Whichever is less painful for CrankyBrain, we do that. 

Or ... we write.

I have a whole folder of prompts or ideas for deleted scenes. And if we’re mad enough at the need to research and CONFIRM exactly what type of encephalitis we’re dealing with here? We go write something and have fun. 

We’ll let the Placeholders back in the house eventually. But for now, they have to go. There is no making this work unless we let the stupid foundation set and we can’t let it set if we half ass it. No more placeholders for now.

[layazone]

Critical analysis

Lev Manovich (2001), “Post-media Aesthetics”,Available at: https://manovich.net/index.php/projects/post-media-aesthetics

Has the concept of traditional art media become outdated in the cultural and technological changes of the late 20th century? Lev Manovich believes that the media categories that have long relied on, such as painting, sculpture, film, etc., have been overturned by emerging art forms, mass media, and digital technologies. However, although this framework is no longer applicable, it continues to exist due to institutional inertia and a lack of feasible alternative conceptual systems.

This article explores the changes in contemporary art and culture based on media classification frameworks, revealing the impact of technological and cultural changes on artistic practice. At the same time, traditional classification methods have limitations in the current era. I have chosen to analyze pages three to five of this article, which discuss the significant challenges brought by the digital revolution to traditional media. Combined with the impact of AI technology on the traditional art industry, including the digital technology industry, this will further break down the distinction between media. Personally, I think this is a very interesting topic.

Starting from the new art forms that emerged in the 1960s, such as installation art, conceptual art, and cross media art, they challenged traditional media classifications. Traditional art media are supported by physical objects such as paintings, sculptures, etc. Later, digital media also include cameras, tapes, DVDs, etc. These new forms often combine multiple materials and even attempt to separate artistic objects from simple material forms. The inclusion of photography, film, television, and video in artistic practice further complicates the classification of media. Traditional photography emphasizes capturing moments, while film is an art appreciated in specific situations and conditions, which are classified as time art and space art, respectively.

video and television share the same material basis and viewing conditions: watching on self media blurs this boundary. The digital revolution of the 1980s and 1990s disrupted the concept of media. Digital tools unify the creation and processing of different media, eliminating differences between forms such as photography, painting, film, and animation. The multimedia and global accessibility of the internet have made art no longer privatized but openly displayed and even used by others. Similarly, fanart on the internet, like memes, have disrupted the traditional media based artistic identity of art. The new categories of "online art" and "interactive art" continue the old practice of dividing art based on materials or technology.

At the same time, the distinction between art and popular culture has introduced new standards, such as audience size, distribution methods, and economic systems. Artworks are usually created in limited editions using mass media technology, which conflicts with the traditional art economy. Due to popular culture and online media, art resources are quickly leaked and become part of big data. The uniqueness of art is quickly disseminated through AI's efficient learning and following trends. Manovic criticized this method in the article, stating that such classifications often fail to consider differences in user acceptance and interaction. Compared to traditional art, media such as photography, painting, film, animation, etc. that are released on self media lack touch and cannot bring experiences of time, texture, and atmosphere. He proposed replacing outdated media classification frameworks with new concepts from computer and network culture. Future discussions should focus on artistic practices under post digital and post internet cultural conditions.

Nowadays, traditional media classification can no longer describe contemporary art and culture. The new conceptual framework shaped by digital and online reality is gradually emerging. The article highlights the tense relationship between technological determinism and human agency. Although digital tools facilitate new forms of integration and interaction, they do not determine artistic practice or audience interpretation. This indicates that the future of art will be shaped by the complex interaction of technology, culture, and social factors, rather than simply shifting from media classification to post media frameworks.

[novemberdevils]

im so obsessed with inertia you dont even know. im rotating it in my mind constantly AHHHH i was up late about to sleep when i got the update notification and it was so tragic cause i Knew i was too tired to be able to read it all so i had to wait til the morning. but it was so worth the wait 😭 the characterization of both of them but especially jack since hes our pov character... like hes so bewildered by nico's behavior at every turn because he just can't even conceptualize that nico doesn't share or at least understand his fucked up little worldview. like no baby you dont make any sense to him either!!! hes got his Own fucked up little worldview!!!! you're both just flying blind being absolutely obsessed with each other!!!! and god do i love it. thank you for this new years gift

thank you!! i’m glad you’re enjoying the fic i appreciate the kind words 🫶🏻🫶🏻 writing jack in this fic is such a time let me tell you but i think he is such a fun character to analyze… like yes i am writing him but i do spend a lot of time rolling him around in my head lol. nico too. as i’ve said before i have a lot of thoughts about his character but too many of them classify as spoilers to share right now 💔 but i love him. i love both of those idiots

jack is sooo egocentric nico clocked him fr like yeah he really can’t fathom the inside of nico’s brain because he is unable to overcome the fact that it will look completely different to his. and the egocentrism is where a lot of his mischaracterization of nico stems from. like dawg stop with the projecting… he also has the things he already knows/believed about nico and doesn’t know how to shake those conceptions. sorry i’m rambling 😭 but ur right they’re flying blind to some perceivably mutual obsession. like yeah jack was watching nico’s interview clips when they were in different racing series, but also nico was talking about him !

[jonathankatwhatever]

It’s early 28 Dec 2024. I was sick or something yesterday. Began at 4AM and lasted until mid-afternoon. The ‘something’ is that this may be because I reached a new depth of compression in my abdomen and yesterday I felt a distinct pulling up the middle front, almost a tearing it was so unusual, and after this unpleasantness had somewhat abated, I experienced a tightening across that area so I was able to look in the mirror and see myself. I would describe this location as the heart chakra, the plexus which draws into the heart. Oh I see, so the concept relates to the exercising of the heart by exercising its surroundings, thus enabling the heart to exist in sana corpore.

A lot of that conception, the ancient idea of a corpore, of a body being not something we know exists in scientific and technical terms, but something which is to you whatever makes sense to you. So when you can compress that spot, that will obviously correlate to a higher degree of health. Draws all those connections together at the heart and that keeps the heart beating, so the idea of a corpore is that the heart drives the body and the body drives the heart, meaning you do these things by choices you make as a human, as a Roman in the Latin version. In CM terms, you exist in Triangular in which you generate a continuing string of results which are choices tending in one direction or the other, with the choices developing into choices.

It’s amazing how this works to explain sudden choice changes: the clarity which emerges in that Abrahamic moment of the irrevocable act. Spent a lot of time working on that and I’m glad to see it pay off in mathematics. That is, let’s say you’re a junkie and you hit bottom: that clarity emerges because we describe how choice narrows toward where you can see down an Extent, meaning when the MB, the Metaphoric Bundle of that choice, carries to you. This is true in insignificant moments and in combat. Same mechanism.

I’m watching Blood Simple. The direction is so well done. Or rather, the writing is so well done and both are so well done because the brothers were.

Anyway. Triangular movement into the future. We discussed that and here it maps to Start-Between-End and thus to gs: you over the choice pairings of Between, which is where the finite nature matters, where we see the context structure, to you as a projection. This becomes inertia: a Thing is a tObject and an iObject and the tObject’s inertia calculates to a D3-4 existence.

I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say what inertia exactly is before. Inertia generates in the iObject which generates moment to moment to moment tObject existence.

On that note, I need to try to sleep. My stomach is not yet fully settled.