#refraction railway 2

[melliae]

Refraction Railway Line #2 Abnormalities Part 1 (Analysis)

The Möbius strip. The famous 2D manifold that has only one side, meaning that no matter how much you walk, you will always end up where you started. There’s no other path in front of you beyond that which endlessly repeats itself, forever.

Without escape, without release…

“Be still. Just be still, and do nothing more than breathe. For now, that’s how you must live. You cannot fly.” - ??? (Sang Yi), Chapter 48: Bud, Canto IV.

But only to the extent you allow yourself to be trapped in such a cycle, too afraid of soaring away and getting your wings hurt again.

“This is an adequate place to get off this train without getting lost. The refraction rate is already off the charts. For the first time since we embarked on this journey… I see a signpost. Maybe, this is where this railway line ends. Or maybe...this is where we meet our ends.” - Dante, Terminus: The Garden, Refraction Railway Line 2.

Nobody knows what lies beyond the known, familiar and soothing cycle, if there’s a dead end or true freedom. Nonetheless, you must walk towards it, for your and…

For Everyone’s Sake

“Are the talismans filling the room for a wish? Does this wooden doll wish for anything?” - Abnormality Encounter.

An effigy is, in essence, a sculptural representation of someone or something made with the express purpose of acquiring the dignity of that person/thing: whatever happens to the effigy, it will happen to its “model”. Yet one has to wonder what a stiff, featureless wooden doll represents? What kind of person can even begin to bear that quantity of curses on them?

No one.

No human can hope to be strong and resilient enough to carry all that hatred, despair, and sadness. Only a copy of one can do such a thing, especially crafted to be a faceless caricature that will never amount to anything more than that—no one.

It will be forever trapped in that room, bearing all the evils of the world because someone has to do it, and what better “person” to do it than the one specifically made to do so? It can’t wish to be anything but the nameless scapegoat of humanity, the star that weeps for everyone.

“When we look up at our sky… all we see is a pinch of muddled light. But here… I can see lone stars looking down at us. Since the city I can see from here is filled with cries of pain and despair… I’d rather… gaze down at people from the loneliness up in the sky and shed tears with them…” - Unknown Boy, Blossoming League of Nine Littérateurs, Canto IV.

I implied in my post about the RR3’s Abnormalities that Siltcurrent represents the experiences and memories of Mermaids at some level. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Tearful Thing, a human monstrosity with a boundless heart that cries for all misfortunes that befall people, can also participate in the creation of an Abnormality.

However, So That No One Will Cry (“STNOWC” from now on) is not only a manifestation of the Tearful Thing’s trauma and wishes; it’s also one for Yi Sang’s past conflict to an extent.

“Those were the kinds of achievements we accomplished in T Corp’s district. Which is why… I became more engrossed in the mirror. Untainted, unadulterated… I wished to immerse myself in the pure exploration of knowledge. So that… I wouldn’t have to take anything from anyone.” - Yi Sang, Blossoming League of Nine Littérateurs, Canto IV.

It isn’t a coincidence that its namesake skill, “So That No One Will Cry”, is Gloom-based: the expression of bottomless despair born from witnessing the evils of the world and those who one has caused. After all, who doesn’t know the bitterness of not wanting to do anything after doing or getting something wrong? The taste of the lies when someone asks you how you are doing? Those countless cases of martyrs for their loved ones? Maybe that’s why its mid-combat Event has Sloth advantage, because it keep things as they are and were, with the burden being too much to bear for the chosen Sinner.

At the end, someone has to cry, to purge all the accumulated pain, and you can't really be bothered with it.

… But as Project Moon does, things aren’t that simple: for some reason, all STNOWC’s remaining skills are Lust-based and give Cursed Talismans on hit. This last effect can be easily attributed to a mere side effect by the Abnormality’s attack or activity in general, as its mid-combat Event and Logs suggest. The Lust affinity, on the other hand, is a bit more tricky, though thankfully I already explained it in my RR4 post: Lust, in its most general form, corresponds to the Sin of love and passion, which is something STNOWC has in spades—an absolutely selfless love that leads it to carry countless curses.

“We start removing every single talisman in the room. The wooden doll paces here and there, uneasy and anxious. We ignore it and continue removing the talismans. As we were almost finished with removing the talismans, the wooden doll stands before the Sinners as though to tell them that enough is enough.” - Abnormality Encounter.

And like a great part of the Sin’s examples in the game, STNOWC is heavily attached to its role as a bearer of pain too, not wanting to abandon it by any means. This situation is repeated somewhat when you choose to remove the Doll’s talismans, despite the final ambiguity presented by Dante at the end. Personally, I think the Abnormality is ultimately afraid of someone else carrying the talismans.

“The wooden doll at the center seemed to be liberated from a binding force. It walked to you, offering an object.” - Abnormality Encounter.

Because even when you give it freedom through choosing to remove the room’s talismans, STNOWC decides to give you a copy of itself, as if to say that you should still use it to carry curses, brushing aside your sacrifice. 

Such stubborn behavior makes the Sin advantages of the previous choice pretty ironic: you either don’t want the Doll to be trapped by your sins out of a slothful refusal to change, or, more importantly, because you hate allowing someone to bear all that suffering alone. And by that matter, the Abnormality’s weakness to Wrath is explained by that last part, because just as well have felt on some level the bitterness of hiding things from others, the frustration that comes from a loved one doing the same surely is familiar; but no matter how much you worry about them, if that loved one keeps ignoring or rejecting any and all help, only a wrathful worry can truly “save” them, and not more (misdirected) love (which in turn explains its resistance to Lust).

At any rate, the main idea should be obvious at this point, about how the answer to suffering isn’t to make someone carry it in complete solitude; that’s nothing but wishful and magical thinking. To stop the pain you must share it, just like the Talismans in both the battle and with Red Sheet Sinclair, lest everything becomes too heavy for anyone to bear.

Only when everyone shares their curses, truly no one will have to cry.

Refusing to Change

“Did the Steam Transport Machine return to when it was first produced? Leaving behind everything it’s gone through. The older the machine gets, the more of itself it will have to reconstruct.” - Mid-Combat Event.

By definition, meaning must exist in our lives. That’s not an idea anyone can argue against, because I’m not even speaking about any sort of metaphysical reality, let alone some kind of deeper, transcendental truth. It’s all a simple psychological fact: the drive to find (or construct, or whatever word you fancy) is an essential fundament of our psyche, of who we are as a species. We are literally programmed to see them anywhere, anytime, and we can’t function without one.

However, just as the outside world keeps on changing, so does our inner reality, and with it what we hold (or held) as true fades away. Thus, when confronted with the reality of our meaning—our life—disappearing to never return, despair sets in and we wonder what we will do. The answer, as most things in life, depends on the individual, but Steam Transport Machine surely shows what a sizable amount of people did and do.

“Hohmm… ‘twasn’t that it released tiny machines to repair itself; it was as though it un—did the damages that had already transpired.” - Don Quixote, Abnormality’s Observation Log #1.

To regress to the past. To act as if things haven't changed, or to try to restore them to what they were. That’s what the Accumulated Past mechanic is all about, being reflective of the work the Machine does and thus the turns the battle is taking, with a higher count indicating an increase in the use and degradation of its body; RR2 follows the same principle, though it was tied to the overall “time” (i.e., turns)  the Sinners took.

Now, since the “past” is “accumulated”, asking where it’s stored is a natural question, and the Logs, the MD Encounter and the mid-combat Event give an obvious answer: Steam Machine’s past is 100% literally gathered in the nixie tubes (incorrectly called “vacuum tube” by Don) in its body. In fact, reducing the number shown by the tubes allows the Abnormality to return to a previous, less damaged state, as seen in its “Returning Past” passive. You can compare it to save scumming in a way.

Accumulated Past is so important for Steam Machine that it literally affects every other part of its kit, including its Poise or, as stated by Don in the Observation Logs, steam generation… or it should in theory.

While Don seems to be pretty sure about the relationship, there’s no gameplay element that reflects such a relation. The closest thing to it are how some of its skills do more damage based on the Machine’s Accumulated Past, and its RR2 exclusive passive, “Overlapping Past”, which grants it 1 Attack Power Up for every 80 Accumulated Past. It’s possible to make the connection between “more steam means more skills used, and more skills used means more turns”, but I don’t think the Logs referred to that…

At any rate, “Overlapping Past” is a curious name, because it implies that Steam Machine is somehow overlapping (duh) its past states within its current one to achieve greater strength in every attack. Something equally interesting happens with its other passive, “Metronome”, named for the instrument used to set a regular tempo by musicians and dancers to help maintain the rhythm in their work, which means the Steam Machine’s Accumulated Past helps it to set the “speed” of the fight, explaining the defenses and attack modifiers acquired through the tube’s numbers.

All of that clearly shows the Accumulated Past is not some sort of abstraction or symbol for something else; it’s an essential part of the Abnormality. Its past is a tangible reality to which it can not only return, but also clearly manifest in the present, and that ultimately controls it. In fact, one may say that the past is the thing that makes up Steam Machine’s own existence, as shown with the story presented through its skill set.

Beginning with the two “oldest” skills as indicated by their names, “853” and “5384”, these are Sloth-based and thus indicate the mindset the Machine had “back there”: a complete lack of zeal for its “work”, mindlessly carrying luggage without any deeper consideration about its existence. Such a state is as soulless and robotic as you get… or maybe not. Maybe that is its soul, its entire existence from which its very own sense of self and thus pride grew as defenses against its meaninglessness, as shown with the Pride skills, “6463” and “6753”.

“A purposeless machine is bound to lose the meaning of its existence, even if it is functional.” - Abnormality Encounter

But it doesn’t matter how many swords are used to defend one’s ego, everything inevitably has to change, especially within Steam Machine’s absurd lifespan. Thus, when confronted with that truth, what can it do besides raging against the world, as “6475384” demonstrates? It’s unknown if it was betrayed, abandoned or something along those lines, but its hatred is a real and dangerous thing; we all know the horrifying things people and even us can do in order to make our existences feel meaningful (again).

And finally, at the end lies “974569A”, the only possible destination a being that refuses to change can arrive at: envy for all those who can move beyond a monotonous existence, finding meaning within their selves that change with every step of their journeys. For the first time, the Machine finds itself broken in a way its ability can’t erase, for it has gone through an untold quantity of time trying to hold onto the only thing it has through reliving its past, all the while ignoring that single, insulting fact.

This understanding is reflected in its Sin resistances too, especially to Sloth since it’s touched upon when you choose “order it to do nothing” during its Encounter: because it was made with the purpose of carrying things and do work in general, Steam Machine will simply blow up when confronted against a situation in which it can’t do anything, unable to fulfill its only purpose. That’s to say, the Machine won’t give up on its meaning and core essence by any means, despite its own affinity for inertia and refusal to change, which in turn explains its resistance to both Pride and Gloom—it’s too stubborn and bitter to question its ways, let alone be distracted by the despair of losing its meaning.

Steam Machine will keep doing the same, over and over again, for all eternity. And you, the Player, are the only one who can free it from its self-created cycle.

“It was working ceaselessly. The machine has never stopped working since its pressurized, scalding hot steam turned its first gears. We must break the cycle in which it has long been trapped to continue on our path.” - Dante, Station #2: Servitude, Refraction Railway Line 2.

However, during its Encounter, you are also free to perpetuate it through your own indolence and needs.

“Machines exist for a purpose. You feel like you should give it an order.” - Abnormality Encounter.

That’s the reason behind the Sloth and Gluttony advantages in the “order it to carry luggage” choice, and why Steam Machine kind of “turns off” in case you fail the check: the order lacked a purpose, an actual need behind it. But that leaves the Envy advantage unexplained, because what does a Sinner’s envy has to do with the purpose of an order? The only answer I can come up with is that the advantage reflects a twisted desire to maintain the cycle out of fear the Machine might one day break it, to bring it down along with the chosen Sinner. And considering how susceptible and weak the Abnormality is to Envy, it’s plausible.

But if you, ignoring and tempering your own fears and necessities, decide to help it through destroying the cycle in which it trapped itself, there’s only one thing you must do: to break its nixie tubes. Only there, with its past misplaced and lost, out of the shadow of what happened, Steam Machine can truly begin to live in the present, unbounded by the refusal to let go of its past, creating its own life instead of endlessly repeating all it has done.

Maybe that’s why its mid-combat Event has a Gloom advantage, for it’s hard to suppress that desire to act as if nothing has changed. It’s a path full of despair and anxiety that most people fear. Nonetheless, you must walk towards the future and live in the now, because when you take the first, second, third step forward, you will realize it.

Changing isn’t as painful as you think it is.

Note: For those who still haven’t noticed it, all of the enemy debuffs during RR2 are inspired by the non-history Abnos + Fairy duo. In Steam Transport Machine’s case, the buff corresponds to “Hardening”, with the icon literally being the nixie tubes.

Umbrellas of Love

“There is no way to know why the fox remained buried under the umbrellas, but perhaps removing them all will inspire it to move to a different spot. The fox gently holds the old and worn umbrella in its mouth and yips at us, as though it did not want us to take it away.” - Abnormality Encounter.

Driftig Fox is an interesting Abnormality, because I believe is the only who has an excerpt of the Lobotomy Corp.’s original documents, and four different iterations of its EGO: Sunshower Yi Sang, Sunshower Outis, Lobotomy EGO Heathcliff, and Lobotomy EGO Dongbaek. It has a lot of material to analyze, to the point I really don’t know where to begin… So I think its overall kit is a good place to start.

Unlike the previous two Abnormalities, the Fox lacks any gimmicky status, making its fight quite straightforward. The closest thing to Talismans and Accumulated Past is its Gloom skill, “Cries Seeking Something”, that normally allows it to summon Old Umbrellas, which in turn have access to a single Gloom skill that inflicts both Rupture and Sinking. In RR2, the end result is the same despite the differences in mechanics.

From this, we can obviously deduce that hopelessness, despair, and the like are the core part of its existence, with even its defense skill, “Waiting”, reducing the Sinners’ SP through pity alone (apparently). That much is obvious, mentioned even by the Logs.

“In particular... it sometimes does nothing and waits, but the attack that comes after was especially powerful. ...Huh. The fox... sometimes cries.  Looking at the sky, howling for long... as if it's laying bare some kind of sorrow into the sky.” - Sinclair, Abnormality’s Observation Log #2.

But that’s not all, because, just as the effect of its skill shows, the Fox focuses on its survival too. The RR2 version of the skill demonstrates it better, since it gives it the special status “Protection Umbrellas”, which grants it Protection scaling with the former’s quantity; that’s to say, the Old Umbrellas are meant to shield the Fox from the rain, apparently lodging into its body as answer to its cry. The normal version lacks the mechanic and directly summons the Umbrellas, though the overall meaning is kept the same.

This desperate desire for survival is represented by its two Gluttony skills, “Sorrowful Recoil” and “Sorrowful Torrent”, used only by its umbrella-perforated body: even if they are painful and make contact with others unbearable, causing it to recoil, the Fox “gladly” accepts such mutilations in order to survive. This behavior is reflected perfectly in the excerpt I quoted under the image, from the “take the gathered umbrellas” option, and in a couple of battle mechanics:

Its passive, “Last Struggle”, causes the Abnormality to desperately call for help every turn when it’s on its last legs (less than 15% HP), getting weaker and slower every turn. Naturally, those who answer will do everything they can to protect it (Umbrellas with 30% more HP).

Based on the name and effects, the Umbrellas’ “Scattering Sorrow” skill seems to represent how they try to perforate the Sinners and deflect the rain towards them, despite how tattered they are.

It doesn’t matter if one likes it or not, the Old Umbrellas are the only “shield” the Fox has and knows, and they will try their best to protect it… which makes Sinclair’s conclusion in the Logs much more horrifying.

“I, I see where it's coming from. We have to take away the worn umbrellas on that poor child, and embrace it ourselves. We-” - Sinclair, Abnormality’s Observation Log #3.

At first glance, it sounds perfectly fine and sensible, repeating the information given by the fragment of L Corp.’s document in Dongbaek’s Log. However, we know that Sinclair felt bad for destroying the Fox’s umbrellas (for a reason) thanks to the second log, and that removing them as well would have caused the Fox greater pain, as seen in many parts:

Its “Broken Umbrella” passive grants it 3 Fragile every turn once its umbrella-filled body is broken (during a normal fight; the RR2 version was modified to be harder I believe).

The Umbrellas actively hurt the Fox through applying “Umbrella Splinters” once they are destroyed. This happens with Sunshower Dongbaek too, but through degrading her mind with Sinking instead of applying Rupture to her body.

In the RR2 version, two unique Glooms counters were added to its kit, “Volatile Response” for the body and “Volatile Reaction” for the head. Taking into account their names, the Thorns they grant on use, and the previous mechanics, it’s quite obvious what they represent.

And finally, there’s the “pull out the umbrellas” option in the Encounter

“Those umbrellas seem to be causing it pain. When you pull them out with force, bits of its flesh come off with them. The fox yelped sharply and gave us a glare. Then, it smacked you with the umbrella in its mouth. It seemed to reprimand your attitude of pursuing resolution without forethought.” - Abnormality Encounter.

It’s quite telling that Heathcliff—the one who has the Identity with the Sunshower Lobotomy EGO—was the one that snapped (somewhat literally) Sinclair out of his “panic” state

Don’t misunderstand, though. There's no doubt about how the umbrellas harm and bring pain to the Fox, but living in such a state is much more preferable for it than being in pain and exposed to the rain simultaneously. In fact, this paradoxical, self-destructive drive to survive is also seen in Dongbaek’s kit—with two of her skills aptly named “Self-defense” and “Sink It All”—and Outis’ Sunshower, which, beyond her Gluttony affinity, has an interesting contrast between the Awakening and Corrosion voicelines 

“I don't need... any pointless attention!” - Outis (Sunshower), EGO Awakening.

“Don't—leave me this time…” - Outis (Sunshower), EGO Corrosion.

I normally don’t do this, since EGOs are better reserved for a character analysis. But I’m going to do an exception for this version of Sunshower due to how well it translates the Fox’s ambivalence regarding the “affection” given by people: at its best, the Abnormality knows that the people called by its cry will only hurt it, notwithstanding their good intentions; at its worst, it accepts any and all attention without care of the resulting pain, as long as it can take refuge from the rain, however small it is.

At the end, it doesn’t matter how many people come to its help, Drifting Fox will forever remain out in the open, constantly assaulted by the rain as it wanders in dark and damp alleyways, for the umbrellas are too old and worn to be of any help. That’s why it will always be hungry for more, too scared and distrustful of people to not allow itself to be touched and thus satiated, explaining both its affinity and weakness to Gloom and Gluttony.

… But there’s something else regarding the Fox, something that doesn’t fit with its perpetual hunger for a place to rest: why does it keep on crying for help instead of just moving out of the rain? Why does it insist on roaming the darkest, most humiliating places? Those questions were implied in the first quote of this section (again), and then by the two Lobotomy EGO versions.

“Look. See how she is helplessly caught in the falling rain. She must have no intention of avoiding it. She is simply showering herself and all others in the rain…” - Yi Sang, Dogbaek’s Observation Log.

“But… When I'm done, the chill reminds me that I'm alone. I go back to wandering damp, dark alleys… Now I can hardly sleep anywhere else.” - Heathcliff, Lobotomy EGO Uptie Story.

Due to their circumstances in which they are, both Dongbaek and TLA Heathcliff are stubborn individuals trying to bring great changes to the City, with the latter even planning to “go back [somewhere] with pride” after creating a world without technology—to keep enjoying life. Yet, in the following quotes he states that he has no friends left and rejects all sources of possible comfort, sleeping in the cold streets, akin to how Dongbaek lets herself exposed to the rain without care.

What I’m implying here is that the Fox ultimately doesn’t care about stopping its suffering once and for all. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t know better, or because it finds comfort in the pain; there’s no way for us to know. Even so, it keeps on crying out loud for people as it refuses to move on from the circumstances in which it as abandoned, as seen with its RR2 exclusive passive “Vain Heart”, the source of the Protection Umbrella status and that which allows it to summon Old Umbrellas through its defense skill—through Waiting.

This unwillingness to change and simply move on is the last thing that characterizes Drifting Fox, as seen with Lobotomy EGO Heathcliff’s third skill and Sunshower Yi Sang, with their Sloth affinity. Naturally, it’s also reflected on the remaining skills of the Abnormality, all of them being Sloth-based except for the (RR2 exclusive) Gloom skill, “Pleading Cries”, though the name does fit with the Fox’s “vanity”… or better said, its pity-inducing nature.

That’s why all the Sloth skills inflict Sinking, for they are representations of the dangerous notion that one day the Fox is going to receive what it truly wants if it remains on such poor conditions, instead of more unwanted attention. Its last passive, “Ragged Umbrella”, lends the most on such “tactic”, allowing it to inflict more Sinking once the umbrella in its mouth (i.e., its head) is broken and rendered “useless”.

However, nothing really suggests that Drifting Fox is deliberately manipulating people. By definition it can’t due to its fully animalistic nature. If there’s someone to blame, it would be the people that are unable to stand the sight of ugly and miserable things tainting their day, just like when it rains during sunny days. Nevertheless, such events happen, and the solution isn’t simply to lash out against that ugliness without forethought (likely explaining its Wrath resistance), but to simply celebrate it—to share the love during the “wedding of the fox”.

“Its growl recedes. You stroke it once more, and it closes its eyes, pleased. You stroke it once more, and it settles on the ground, comforted. You stroke it once more, and it shrinks to become a statue.” - Abnormality Encounter.

When it finally finds what it wants, the Fox can rest in peace knowing it’s in good hands. That’s the reason behind the Lust advantage of the “pet the fox” option, with the Sloth advantage being its total opposite—utter apathy and indifference for its surroundings and appearance, lacking any judgment or reaction. The Pride advantage is similar to the Lust one, though much more self-centered for obvious reasons; less sensual and warm, but more confident in a way.

Now, beyond trying to comfort it, there’s also another method to confront the Abnormality, shown with the mid-combat Event, where the chosen Sinner is sent to approach the Fox and its Umbrellas. Since it has Gloom advantage, it’s easy to see how the identities who are most familiar with despair and pain are able to reach the epiphany the Fox lacks easier than any other: that its cries and thus the umbrellas are ultimately unneeded. That revelation is so shocking that it even causes the Old Umbrellas to lose 30% of their HP, representing their loss of meaning.

“The umbrellas look like they've been standing there for Wings know how long trying to protect the fox, but it certainly doesn't seem like they're doing a good job at it.” - Mid-Combat Event.

Although, things are a little more complicated than just “waiting for the rain to stop”, since the Fox is already waiting, isn't it? In fact, that mentality is its main problem, and what led Yi Sang to not do anything when Dongrang began to doubt himself.

“Some considered the assemblage to be mere noise… While some considered the commotion to be growth. As for me… I saw it slantwise as always. As heavy rain might pour for days after a spell of clear skies… I saw no meaning in attempting to fathom the caprices of the weather. Yi Sang: I would simply wait for things to calm, looking out for the day’s arrival.” - Rowdy League of Nine Littérateurs, Canto IV.

And we can’t forget K Corp. eagerly “awaiting” for the Tearful Thing to cry, nor the bitter conclusion of Dongrang right before the Fox’s battle, about how there was no need for him to do anything thanks to K Corp.’s ampules.

Waiting for the end of things you can’t change is good and all, but sometimes doing nothing can actively worsen things. So even if you can’t do much, you still must stand up and brace yourself to fight against misery, unless you want it to consume and rust you like it does with the “little world” that surrounds you.

“I ran off and roamed the Backstreets like a thrown away umbrella until they took me in…” - Heathcliff, Lobotomy EGO Uptie Story.

“We know, however, that the umbrellas piercing its body are not there for the rain. For the fox has not once opened them for itself.” - Dante, Station #3: Rainfall, Refraction Railway Line 2.

And naturally, what better way to confront the rain than through sharing an umbrella~?

Devouring Lives

“The fairy's smile stretches into an eerie grin. The strangeness didn't need to be pointed out for everyone to share the same sentiment. Even though we knew we shouldn't trust things by the looks, we still fell for it. We'll have to pay the price for it.” - Abnormality Encounter.

Everyone should know what kind of being are fairies within the British Isles’ folklore by now. It’s one of “curiosities you must know” repeated ad nauseam in every article, video or media that deals with them in any capacity, no matter how bare-bones the actual explanation is. Thus, there’s no need for me to explain in-depth those aspects, especially when you consider all the other fairy-related Abnormalities that Project Moon has created.

So to begin, Faelatern isn’t really that connected to Midsummer Night’s Dream beyond its tricky behavior, despite what the name of its first EGO gift, “Midwinter Nightmare”, may suggest. There’s a complete lack of commentaries regarding the play’s main theme, the fickleness and irony of love (or Lust, in Limbus), which seems to have been replaced by the predatoriness of the “fairy” itself, cunningly acting upon its gluttony instead of… any other goal, really.

However, a parallel with a certain character of the story can still be drawn: Puck, the servant of the fairy king Oberon. This is not solely due to his role as the one who charms and tricks the human characters of the play and queen Titania herself, but also thanks to one of his folkloric sources, the celtic púca/pwca/pooka.

The legends of the púca, as most stories, are varied, but they mostly focus on the fairy’s penchant to trick (mostly drunk) people during the night, shapeshifting into diverse animals to offer them a ride to their homes… just to lead them anywhere but there. Still, there’s a particular version I think is important to the Abnormality, the one that came from “British Goblins: Welsh Folklore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions” by Wirt Sikes:

“Pwca, or Pooka, is but another name for the Ellylldan, as our Puck is another name for the Will-o’-wisp; but in both cases the shorter term has a more poetic flavour and a wider latitude. [...] This form presents a peasant who is returning home from his work, or from a fair, when he sees a light travelling before him. Looking closer he perceives that it is carried by a dusky little figure, holding a lantern candle at arm’s length over its head. He follows it for several miles, and suddenly finds himself on the brink of a frightful precipice. From far down below there rises to his ears to his ears the sound of a foaming torrent. At the same time the little goblin with the lantern springs across the chasm, alighting on the opposite side; raises the light again high over its head, utters a loud and malicious laugh, blows out its candle and disappears up the opposite hill, leaving the awestruck peasant to get home as best he can.”

As far as I know, the equalization between the púca and the will-o’-wisp isn’t common, but it kinda fits at the end: both entities (commonly) lead astray people that decide to accept their help/follow them. One can even say the play supports this, with Puck claiming that he can appear like “fire” as he leads people through “bogs, bushes, brakes, and briers” during the third act, despite the more well-known domestic nature of the hobgoblin—an aspect that is present at some level in Faelatern’s illusion.

In more than one sense the Abnormality is a distorted mirror of the three fairies: while the púca, the will-o’-wisp and the puck/hobgoblin act during the night, either through helping people or causing (relatively speaking) harmless scares, Faelantern presents itself during the day as a homely and mysterious light that promises rest to people, with its true nature as a voracious abyss lying underneath the “fairy fire”.

If the púca/puck causes all sorts of pranks and tricks that, as the literary Puck said, are no different from dreams, then Faelatern is a nightmare that begins with a hypnotizing beauty whose true nature will soon be learned and never forgotten.

… And yeah, that’s the possible inspiration behind this Abnormality, and the hard part to analyze. The rest of it, like its skills and game mechanic, are quite self-explanatory:

“Snagged Lure”, “Burrowing Roots” and “Encroaching Stems” are all Gluttony skills to represent how survival-driven Faelantern is.

“Expanding Roots” is Sloth-based thanks to its Modus Operandi, resting and waiting in a single place until a prey appears.

The “Leading Lure”, “Evolving Lure” and “Charmed” passives explain how it works, continuously trying to “improve” its Fairy Lure to catch more people.

The “Broken Stump” reinforces the Gluttony affinity, with the Abnormality focusing on stealing the nutrients so it can (apparently) restore its broken body.

Lastly, and as curiosity, the “Fairy Dust” passive is an obvious reference to another fairy, Tinker Bell. But where her dust allows people to fly, Faelantern’s dust only makes them faster and more agile (i.e., Poise).

The only part of its kit that requires a higher level of interpretation is the passive and Pride skill that share the name, “Uncovered Abyss”. In tandem, the two elements likely point that, whatever higher thinking the Abnormality has, it’s more preoccupied with a self-absorbed appreciation of itself as an “abyss” that devours everything in the forest than with meaningfully improving its hunting tactics.

Another element that requires further analysis is, obviously, its weaknesses. While Faelantern’s resistances to Gluttony and Gloom should be obvious, being a monster that fully accepts its hunger and that genuinely doesn’t care about anything else, it being weak to Pride and Lust likely derive from how those dispositions can interfere with the Abnormality’s behavior: a pride that sees the Fairy’s “gift” as useless or irrelevant from the get-go, or maybe messing with its (lack of) love in a no so dissimilar way to Midsummer’s Puck.

And finally, there’s the mid-combat Event with Sloth advantage, implying that one needs to be “guided” by the Lure without question or care to destroy it along with the question given: Who will answer the bait?

I like to think that part shows the underlying meaning of the Abnormality, how it’s a symbol for an all-devouring thing that conceals itself through charm and light. It may be a person, an organization, or even an ideology; it doesn’t matter, because all it smokes and mirrors, a trick, a sick and twisted hoax. Faelantern doesn’t care about anything else but to satisfy the gaping hole of its “stomach”, unlike, say, Siltcurrent and Skin Prophet, who completely believe their own delusions.

You should always take care when you walk the (dark) forest of life, for no matter how bright it may be, disguised predators are bound to appear.

Note: Following the pattern I mentioned in Steam Machine’s section, Faelantern’s buff corresponds to “Inhaling”. The symbol likely represents the Abnormality’s stump/branches forming into a mouth to “steal nutrients”, which is also seen in its EGOs’ healing (beyond its own passives, of course).

Post-Commentary

This time I bring the first four Abnormalities of RR2. I began to write about them a couple of weeks after I finished the RR3 post, before RR4. However, since I only have one of the Abnormalities for the next part done (Shock Centipede), the second post will take some more time. Not much though, considering Wayward Passenger and Sign of Roses are on the easier side to analyze.

Anyway, in regards to some other thoughts I had while writing… I already commented how Steam Machine and Portrait of a Certain Day are similar on how they represent the weight of the past. The difference falls, I suppose, in that one is born out of love and nostalgia, while the other out of fear—Steam Machina lives to work, unable and fearful to imagine any other life beyond what it has done from its birth.

Another thing I wish to note is about Faelantern, since while I’m pretty sure about its meaning, it’s not so in the folkloric inspiration. In the first place I searched about the Will-o’-Wisp since the Lure acted like one in a way, and I found (in wikipedia, naturally) that the púca may be related to it. I lost a couple of days watching videos about it xD I wonder if Fairy Gentleman and Long-Legs will have a similar inspiration…

And since we are speaking about a “fairy”, I think it is funny that Drifting Fox is a trauma-related Abnormality and not a fairy-tale one, despite its EGO name’s origin. So instead of focusing on any folkloric element, I tried to see the meaning behind the colloquial names of sunshowers: the devil beating his wife (or doing anything undevil), or an animal’s wedding. I ultimately reached the conclusion it was because, just like animals or the devil don’t actually get wedded, there shouldn’t be a rain during a sunny day. It’s something that doesn't make sense.

[unbinilium120]

FUCKING FINALLY!

AFTER SO LONG I'VE FINALLY FINISHED THE FUCKING RAILWAY WITH A DECENT TURN COUNT!

I don't even care that it's not sub 150 I just wanted to do it before it's over, it technically will be done tomorrow night so i did it before the deadline yay

And all I've got to show for it is a fancy looking card that nobody looks at

Idk if people send requests if anything i accept that as I've got lots of 000s with uptie 4 so it could be useful

[haupia-lcb]

Okay, so it would have been total turn 121 even if I didn't fight the wood man on the cycle count 5

[vivienna-vivid]

While Railway 2's gimmick of jetting you to the first point constantly is a tad annoying, I sure do like curbstomping the bosses again. I know their tricks. They're nothing to me.

[sailordaimp]

Been going through refraction railway for the past 8 hours. How do people clear this so quickly??? Like??? Genuinely??? This is as far as I’ve gotten over the course of eight hours.

My cycle count is only at 3 and I’ve already accumulated 136 turns… what do you MEAN people can clear this entire thing within 200?

[movedraptor5913]

Let's talk a bit about Refraction Railway 2

I'm like a month late on this post, but time means nothing when the track loops infinitely (or at least until the next one comes out). I'm going to give a few thoughts and insights on bosses and mechanics that appear and try to scrape what useful info I can out of my 157-turn first clear. Note that this won't be super in-depth info, just some useful stuff.

Get to the point, how hard is it?

Well, I can't answer that accurately, as I meta-played my way through my first clear (Charge team hits hard). If we compare it to Mirror Dungeon 2 Hard, I'd say it waves around the difficulty of floor 3's fights. The challenge mostly comes from doing it quickly and with few options for healing. There aren't very many attacks I would consider to be "use EGO or die" like there are in later stages of MD2H, but there are some like that.

Overall, if you can consistently clear MD2H in a reasonable amount of time, you probably don't even need my advice to get a sub-200 run. Just take your Mirror Dungeon dream team and send it. If you can only get about halfway in MD2H, you can honestly still probably do this, albeit with some effort. The only caveat about team comp worth mentioning is that Tanks aren't very necessary. You mainly need to worry about winning clashes and hitting things very hard.

As for EGOs, it's a good idea to have some healing ones available like Fluid Sac, Pursuance or Lantern (Sinclair). Fluid Sac will always be the best option for this since it affects everyone and also restores SP. You'll also want some AoE EGOs, if possible, as they'll help trivialize some boss summons and hit multiple parts. Overall, EGOs are going to play a large role in lowering your turn count and keeping your DPS high, so bring a variety, if possible.

About looping

If you're like me, you expected the line to loop from start to finish every time. Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you don't have to do the full rotation every time. The bad news is that you're going to see those first three bosses more often than you'd like. Each loop adds more stops until you reach Cycle 5, but you'll always start with the same three bosses. Before we get into them, let's talk about-

Choosing Buffs

Each loop, you'll get a selection of 2 buffs: one for you and one for the enemies. The buffs you choose might not seem huge at first, but you start to feel them as time goes on. Ally buffs you pick will be unavailable for the next loop, but you can pick them again the loop afterwards. Enemy buffs are chosen once each until loop 5. You also get a free revive at the end of Cycle 4, in case one of your units drops dead before you enter the final fight.

For Ally buffs, you'll want to work around your playstyle. Have a lot of a sin affinity or damage type on your field team? Pick buffs that correspond to those. Mileage with effect buffs may vary, as some bosses have caps on how high the count can go for certain effects. I'd strongly suggest not going for the one-off heals if you can avoid it, as you're getting that heal at the cost of DPS in a mode that encourages DPS. If you take a hit you don't think you can recover from via passives/EGO in a fight, there's a retry button built in now. A case can be made for picking Heal All on the stop before Terminus, but that's only if you think you need a full heal before the final boss.

For Enemy buffs, my order is Opportunistic, Inhaling, Accelerating, Thirsting, Hardening. Opportunistic is basically free. There's rarely a point where you don't want to deal HP damage to the enemy. Accelerating and Inhaling are both mildly annoying but can ultimately be relatively harmless. Thirsting and Hardening sit better at the end since Thirsting drains your resources faster and Hardening makes the fights longer. What order you pick them exactly should depend on what you're most confident won't have a high impact on your turn count, but generally, this is what you're going to pick.

The First Stop - So That No One Will Cry

The name apparently stems from it beating you to death. Nobody can cry when they're dead.

The Talisman Doll is the first boss of the railway. This first encounter is probably one of the harder fights due only to a lack of resources. This fight will mark the first and most noteworthy instance of my personal mantra for low odds clashing: "They only need to lose one coin toss." When you clash with multiple coins against bad odds, try to ensure you can at least beat their lowest roll with just one coin.

The Doll will enter a block phase on turn 3, during which it becomes near untouchable. During the block phase, you can use sinners with Curse Talisman on them to attack the blocking parts to force larger stacks of Reattached Talismans on the doll. The event gives it 5 Reattached Talisman on success, so you can either give it 6 beforehand to inflict Bind or give it more than that to give it Attack Power Down. Breaking its arm reduces its Attack Power by 1.

The only scary part about this fight beyond getting your sanity up at the start is the three 17 +2 *5 hits it does on turn 4. It having 10+ Reattached Talismans reduces the coin power by 1, making it 17 +1 *5. Use either EGO or a sufficiently big normal hit to clash, because the Doll's multi-coin attacks hurt.

Steam Transport Machine

If you put a faucet on it, it'll be a time sink in more ways than one.

This dude is the first big sack of hit points you'll fight. It gains bonuses depending on the current total turn count of the run, gaining Protection and Attack Power Down on even turns and Fragile and Attack Power Up on odd turns. Later on, it gains a passive heal and extra skill slots.

Break its Steam Blaster to make it gain Fragile every time it gains Poise. You can't target the blaster once it breaks. Once its main body breaks, it gains Ineffective resistances to everything, and the fight slows to a crawl as your attacks do .25x damage. You'll want to dump as much damage as possible into it the same turn you break the body. Any attacks after that are going to be entirely dependent on Fragile to deal meaningful damage.

Alternatively, you can stack damaging debuffs on it, such as Burn, Bleed, Sinking or Rupture. Burn and Bleed have limits on their stacks against it and Sinking does half damage due to it being Gloom affinity, so Rupture works best of the bunch. Hex Nail can also be useful here if you're running a team with a lot of Envy or Pierce damage.

Drifting Fox

Whoever keeps giving that fox umbrellas, can you knock it off? It's getting angrier.

The Fox itself is pretty straightforward: clash the hits, punch the face. The only noteworthy part is the umbrella summon phase, where it Counters and gains Thorns (reflect 50% damage dealt). More umbrellas are summoned each cycle. The umbrellas power up the big scary hit that occurs the following turn (adding Clash Power +2 to a 16 +6 *1 attack), so kill them quickly.

Big AoE EGOs (Sunshower (Yi Sang) in particular) are useful here on later cycles, even if you accidentally hit the Fox's counter. If you're creative with your targeting, you can wipe out all the umbrellas in the same turn with a combination of AoEs and normal attacks while minimizing stray hits going to the Fox. While I don't know if it changes anything for sure, you can use faster units to take out surviving umbrellas before clashing with the big hit.

Cycle 1 - T Corp. Class 3 Collectors

Unsurprisingly, the only humans in the otherwise all-monster lineup feel a bit lackluster by comparison.

T Corp is the only fight with an enemy sanity gauge in the entire railway, but it only goes down with Sinking. Not much to write home about here in terms of difficulty. You know the drill.

If they end the turn with 6%-24% health, they'll be back up to 80% next turn, so try to knock them to around half on turn 1, then wipe them out on turn 2. On my first run, I fairly consistently killed them in 3 turns due to the healing mechanic until I got used to dealing with it. From Cycle 3 onwards, there's a second wave. It's just the same two dudes again, so 2 turn them again.

Cycle 2 - Faelantern

I have no joke. This is a DPS check and nothing else.

At the start of the fight and any turn when the Fairy is alive, some of your sinners will be charmed and unable to deal damage (the number of which increases with Cycle count). You can't clash with anything until the Fairy dies, so just hit it.

Deal enough damage to kill the Fairy in a turn, then nuke the tree. The Fairy revives the following turn unless the body is staggered. Rinse and repeat until the tree dies. Not the most interesting fight.

Shock Centipede

"Even in death, I stall."

Shock Centipede is a straightforward fight with its main gimmick being Self-Charge. It gains Self-Charge at the start of the fight, at Combat Start with most of its skills, and when it hits you if you have Charge. It having high Self-Charge means it gets more shield when it coils up and its big scary hit becomes bigger and scarier. When it uses High Voltage Discharge (the big hit), try to delay it to the end of the turn to prevent it from benefitting from the Self-Charge it gets at the start of combat from its other skills. When it coils up, hit it in the head to wear down its self-charge. Break its Head to remove its passive Protection and reduce the amount of shield it gets from Coil Up. If you fight it with an Envy-heavy team like I did, Hex Nail can be helpful here. Otherwise, you'll want to have someone who does good Gloom damage or inflicts Sinking to exploit its Gloom weakness.

When the Centipede dies, it doubles however much Self-Charge it had and become invincible. At this point, all you can do is win clashes to wear it out faster. In the best case, you can try to kill the Centipede during a Coil Up to skip this part.

Cycle 3 - Fairy Gentleman (Cycle 4 + Fairy-Long-Legs)

Take a breather, this one's on the house.

Nothing to talk about here, really. Break his arm and take the wine when it's available. Let him use his big scary hit to hit a Tipsy sinner for 0 damage and take the free stagger on him that follows. Just don't let the Tipsy sinner get targeted with multiple big hits, because only the first one will be 0 damage.

When Fairy-Long-Legs joins on Cycle 4, break his arm to lower his Attack Power. When he summons his clover, ignore it and deal with Fairy Gentleman and his gimmick first. FLL will stand there spamming Counter until the clover is destroyed. Just try not to let either of them heal off of you while the clover is alive. Alternatively, kill FLL before he gets the chance to summon the clover. The goal is to get one down before the other.

Cycle 4 - Wayward Passenger

Local Dead Space extra misunderstands "Make us whole", makes holes.

Break its blades to reduce its damage and limit its ability to charge. Be mindful of its Counter and manage who you want to eat the hit from it, because hits are going to hurt this far into the run.

After turn 2, it will disappear and leave behind portals. Break these within 2 turns. If you need to decide which ones to prioritize, focus on the green and blue portals, as they buff Passenger's health and coin power respectively if left alone. After the portals go away, it reemerges and can be hit again. It'll disappear again after being exposed for a turn, but breaking all the rifts forces it to expose itself early. The Passenger's big scary hit is High-Speed Rip Space, which powers up the more rifts you fail to close. You'll only have to deal with it when the Passenger is <30% HP, so it's not unmanageable.

Terminus - Sign of Roses

No matter what happens, at least it'll be over fast.

Sign of Roses gets more health but deals less damage the more cycles you wait to fight it. On turn 2, the Sign summons 7 Roses. This is where you'll want to spam AoE EGOs to kill them quickly, as each flower does a fixed 25% HP in damage to whatever sinner is attached to it by the color of their skill 1. You'll want to kill red Roses with a relatively weak hit, as the damage that kills it will be dealt back to the attacker.

The event that repeats throughout the fight has three outcomes: Refuse to dye the flowers to reduce the damage taken and damage dealt by 10%, Accept to either increase damage dealt and damage taken from the color used to pass the check by 10% or, on a failed check, have nothing happen. If you're going for speed, there's no reason to not Accept every time and just nuke its flesh once the threat of the Roses is managed.

End of the Line

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'm definitely going to have to challenge the Railway again to see one of two things: Can I do it with a lower turn count, or can I do it with a more specialized team? My first clear was a Charge team and that's the current meta (W Corp Don/Ryoshu and Rabbit Heathcliff are the epitome of "hit it very hard"). I'm currently in the process of building a Sinking team, but I might wait until the 10/11 patch to actually use it since Sunshower Heathcliff is getting his Protection changed. A Rupture team would also be fun to try, but I'd need more resources to get that team uptied.

My only complaint is that solo/<7 unit fights are dead since you can't gain skill slots in RR2, so we can't meme on the bosses as hard anymore. Imagine the madness that could have ensued now that Sinclair can heal himself with Lantern corrosion. (As I write this, I found this clip of Yi Sang soloing the doll. Solo boss memeing isn't quite dead yet, it seems.) Otherwise, I think Refraction Railway 2 is pretty alright. It's a bit of a time investment and it's still the gameplay you're likely used to at this point, but it's something different to do.

[movedraptor5913]

I'm not super familiar with how all these IDs play (I play like a gorilla and use Charge), but it seems like it'd be a fun team to run. You probably know more about the kind of team you're gonna be running than I do, but it feels to me like you're playing a bit safe. I'll get into it below the cut.

My main thought for swaps would be to forego Zwei Sinclair's passive for Mariachi Sinclair's, if you have him. Zwei's can be a potential safety net if Yi Sang or Rabbit Heathcliff have a particularly bad clash early on or if your tanks are taking a second beating after a first, but I'm not sure a safety net is needed with the options you have. Sin requirement for Mariachi's passive is the same, so it just slots right in. I would also consider bringing Grippy Faust for mechanical benefits (Gaze, Bleed potency, Passive) if that's an option, but I do prefer Zwei Faust's vibes.

As for Uptie 4, Rhino Meursault benefits most since he gets more Charge to turn into more Speed and Bleed. Zwei Gregor would get more Aggro to use his passive more when fielded (especially since he could be competing with other UT4 tanks like Rhino). Everyone else gets more benefits to what they already do, which is always nice. Overall, no bad Uptie 4 picks on your main field units (*glares at Rabbit Heath and his +3 ammo and nothing else on UT4*), but I'd say only Meursault is absolutely needed. Everyone else's is just icing on the cake.

I've said it in a previous post I made about my thoughts/tips about Railway, but I didn't really find Railway mechanically challenging myself. Most fights can be summarized with "go face" or "break its arms." I'd put it around Floor 3 of MD2H in terms of difficulty. If you can consistently beat that, Railway shouldn't really be hard in terms of "Can I beat this?". The main difficulty of the mode comes from "Can I beat this quickly?".

Don't psych yourself out too much about whether it'll be too hard to win clashes or whether you'll lose units and botch the run. The hardest fight in the whole thing is the first one because you don't have resources yet. Fluid Sac does fine covering for the occasional cheap shot, and there's a built-in retry button if things get too hairy during a fight.

If you want to get Railway done as fast as humanly possible, well, there's room to optimize. Charge is meta for a reason. If the goal is just to get it done, get the rewards you actually care about from it, and maybe have fun along the way, you can absolutely do that with the team you picked as soon as your units are leveled.

Best of luck in there.

Okay, so I told myself I would try and get Railway done by the last last week of Season 2 since I was still mostly dicking around with my teambuilding and not making anything meta out of stubbornness, and that day is quickly approaching. Originally I was going to be lazy and just use W Corp because Charge is busted, I have Don Telepole, and I will play Meta if it means getting through a bad/annoying series of fights over with faster.

However.

I also want to at least try and be original and do something a little out of pocket, to beat this challenge my way using strategies and units I personally like using or want to use. To that end, before I ultimately cave and just Uptie 4 Warp Don for the mother of all Charge Teams I wanted to give Railway an earnest go the way I'd prefer to. And my inner Hod is acting up this week so I'm going to try and built a (Non-N Corp) bleed team.

Keep in mind I'll be bring all these units to Level 35 over the week and possibly going to Uptie 4 a few of them, namely Ryoshu and maybe Meursault. I wanted to hear the fandom's opinion before I dive into this.

That said, here's the quick summary of this team.

Yi Sang is here for Crows Eye View to buff Don and Meur's clash/coin power with that much needed haste boost.

Don is here for her good clashing numbers and declaring duels.

Heathcliff is actually more on support than a mainstay since I don't feel like dealing with his ammo.

The Zwei IDs are there to tank and Faust fuels her own Fluid Sac.

Outis is an emergency tank/rupture gal.

Ish is here to support Yi Sang's sinking if need be.

Okay, onto the breakdown.

Yi Sang: Yi Sang is going to be the on the active team is probably the most important member of the team. Along with his good clashing and Sinking application for chip damage, Crow Eye View practically required for this team so I can boost Don and Meursault's speed and let them access their extra bits as they hit +7 speed. Sunshower being a good AoE ego also helps.

The Bleed Team: With the understanding that I'm going to be pushing hard with the bleed team characters like Kurokumo Ryoshu, Rhino Meursault, and Hook Hong Lu are a must. I was debating between Tingtang and Hook, but since I have little in terms of bleed potency already I went with Hook Hong Lu. I'm hoping that Hong Lu can put in the work for bleed potency, but I can't be sure sense I only use him in mirror dungeons at the moment. I know Steam Machine's gonna' be a pain with their Bleed-Cap, but that's what Seven Outis, Molar Ish, and Yi Sang are for in case the first round with it feels too tedious. I'm tempted to put Heathcliff on the bleed team, but I'll be saving him for when I really need his Quick Supression since I can not afford to lose an expensive unit like him early on. and I can actually do stuff with his support passive with this team.

The Tanks: From what I've gleamed Zwei Faust and Zwei Gregor sync well with each other, and I'm gonna' need some damage sponges and Aggro because I can NOT afford for ANYTHING of the DPS units to die in this run. Everyone is too vital to go missing save for maybe, ironically, Rabbit Heathcliff. Faust is especially useful since she fuels her own Fluid Sac and the only thing we're really hard pressed on is Envy, but overall have units with good clashing so it shouldn't be too bad.

The Extras: Rabbit Heathcliff is here to get 45 Sanity on the first boss, then spam the shit out of Quick Supression to delete Steam Machine ASAP. Ironically, he'll be the one I'm saving until maybe the third or fourth cycle. I need at least one DPS unit I can switch out at any given time and Heathcliff is too valuable to risk losing early on. This is the same mentality I have for putting one Seven Outis and Molar Ish. Seven Outis is mostly here as an emergency unit with good clashing just in case I either lose a tank near the end or when I feel like I'll really need that spammable base EGO rupture chip damage. Molar Ish is there to help support sinking with Yi Sang along with also having good clashing power. Mostly emergency units at the end of the day.

The Supports: I have no good Rodion or Sinclair IDs, at least for Railway, so I'm gonna' be using base Rodion's passive and if I have the thread to spare I'll Uptie Zwei Sinclair for his surprisingly decent support passive. Heathcliff is ironically on the support team too since he can boost quite a few of my units with this time with his pierce boost, namely Yi Sang and Ryoshu, but Hook Hong Lu might get some usefulness out of this too if I play my cards right (or wrong).

And... that's the team. Any thoughts so far? Anyone I should Uptie 4 first before I dive in? Is this actually going to be possible or am I'm just screwed and should Uptie 4 Warp Don for MAXIMUM CHARGE TEAM to get through this?

[sleepyminty]

AhahahAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHHAHA

i absolutely hated here

[chessozh]

Refraction railway unalived my ass so fast so many times so here is what I do to survive just a little bit longer than the last round.

When you start off you know those ego materials will be saved for the next fight. So plan your team and plan the materials you need to hoard. Basically, plan your team around the ego you're gonna spam through the stages. (Personally, I reccomend the AOE ones)

- Faust base ego

- Hong Lu base ego

- Gregor Legerdemain (Battle pass)

First two battles are Easy and we take advantage of easy. Skills only. No ego (unless in a pinch). Only skills. Hoard the ego materials. You will need it for later battles. Especially to win clashes. (Sometimes do damage).

Like Kromer s boss battle!! Remember to read the enemies skills, passives and weakness!! They will save it in battle for you don't worry. But, I screenshot their weakness and have them somewhere as a reference when I restart the dungeon. It makes it easier to form teams and plan the ego you're gonna base your team around a lot easier.

New enemies are new so what I do, is just throw whatever attack combination I have on them. To get their weakness and their resistance. Screenshot. And then leave the battle and restart it with a team that's more better suited for it. If not, I'll try survive and beat it. Try and see how far I'll go while collecting the enemies info, and then restart the entire dungeon.

At this point I dont really know what else for pointers I have, but. Don't be afraid to restart the dungeon. If you gotta restart, you gotta restart. I have been staring at the game from morning after I updated it.

Good luck!

[moemperor]

[movedraptor5913]

Based on what I can see here, you might need an SP battery to keep your team going. Fox has a move that just reduces your SP directly at the start of its combat phase.

The quick fix is to bring Faust for the battle to spam her base EGO or a few Fluid Sacs, if possible. You can tag her in with whoever is doing 3rd/4th best SP-wise or whoever makes the most sense to do so. Having base Hong Lu as a support would probably be useful as well for his passive SP gain for 5 Sloth Owned, if you aren't already doing that. Gaining 6 SP per turn likely won't cut it well enough to stave off the -20 SP on everyone effect by itself, but it can likely help enough to make other fights more bearable.

Refraction Railway is kicking my ass so far.

[melliae]

Refraction Railway Line #2 Abnormalities Part 2 (Analysis)

In Order to Survive

“We must sometimes become selfish things, full of animosity if it means our survival. Sometimes, we make others suffer so that we may not.” - Dante, Station #6: Exploitation, Refraction Railway Line 2.

In the same vein as King in Binds, Shock Centipede is an Abnormality that bares its meaning openly. It’s not a secret about how the Centipede represents the brutality of living, about how you sometimes have to make other people suffer to get what you want. The sections of Canto IV’s final dungeon previous to its fight make it clearer, showing how Dongrang sold the League of Nine, and how K Corp. (and Alfonso in particular) decided the new protocol for tears’ production.

However, while presenting such a reality as a tragedy, the MD encounter implies it’s necessary at some level, because causing the Abnormality pain is the only way to produce vital items such as a battery that powers mundane activities and electronics (that’s, a standard-duty battery), or an automated electronic defibrillator without apparent limits. Yet, it also tells us that just because the results are useful, the process doesn’t stop from being fundamentally evil in the end, and that we shouldn’t abuse it unless you want the Centipede—the victim—to do more than merely bite your ass. They, too, want to live.

Now, I obviously can’t answer that ethical problem. You are free to make whatever choice you want, but keep in mind to not deny the evil you are committing in case you decide to “push the button”, because the Centipede is keenly aware of it. 

But moving from Shock Centipede’s meaning into its overall nature and attitude (because I really don’t want to end things too soon), it’s impossible for me to not compare it with two Abnormalities of the Railway that I previously analyzed: Drifting Fox, and STNOWC.

Beginning with the Fox, the first thing that should catch your attention is that they share two out of three Sin affinities, those being Gloom (in the normal encounters; not so much in RR2) and Gluttony. That’s to say, they both have the same focus of a desperate survival, doing whatever they can to avoid/survive the pain that continuously assaults them. But whereas the Fox is ultimately unchanging, hopelessly waiting for that show of true affection, Shock Centipede is characterized by a deep Envy that—beyond its association with electricity—points at how its mind has become thwarted by its captivity, to the extreme that the Abnormality can only think of how much it resents and envies everyone else during its last moments, forsaking its primitive drive to survive.

Regarding the weaknesses and resistances, I think it’s relevant to note that both Abnormalities are extremely resistant to Wrath and Envy, likely due to the two just being used to being abused and mistreated, wondering who could even envy their situation. In contrast, their shared weakness to Gloom means how neither of them have any defense against the despair and suffering they feel beyond thrashing wildly, desperate beyond belief; the same cannot be said of the Centipede’s unique weakness to Sloth, likely referring to how being indolent to its situation is anathema to its essence and instinct of survival, as seen with every single one of its passives

“Did you know...? Apparently, centipedes' nerves stay active and go wild for a good while even after their heart stops beating. This one's the same.” - Gregor, Abnormality’s Observation Log #3.

Literally, all the Centipede’s passives are an in-the-name thing, just as much as Faelantern’s. I suppose all the “Persistence” passives are more related to the Abnormality’s extremely durable exoskeleton than its electricity, but they are still obvious.

Now, moving into STNOWC, the main difference falls into the position of the trapped being: the Doll allowed itself to be trapped out of a misguided love for others, while the Centipede… Well, any ounce of love it could have potentially had is now but history and dust. The only thing remaining behind those adamantine plates is pure resentment and envy born of the ruthlessness needed to survive over all others. Nevertheless, don’t get confused: Shock Centipede isn’t wrathful per se, despite all the anger towards its captors, it… just envies you, for being able to be free and live however you want.

“The centipede writhes as if to coil up. The Shock Centipede's body is starting to coil up into one spot. "It seems electricity is gathering." As the Sinner pointed out, sparks are flying from the center of its coiled body. It might be a good idea to stop it.” - Mid-Combat Event.

And maybe that hints at why the affinity for the Event above is Envy, because surviving in general breeds all forms of jealousy within everyone involved, at how easy “they” have it thanks to the things and opportunities “they” have and others—you—don’t. Thus, from those seeds, a cycle emerges, of people endlessly abusing and utilizing each other, bringing each other down so they can rise triumphant—all the while ignoring the poison they have accumulated under their feet.

Interesting, really, how the exploited Centipede can easily become part of this cycle when driven entirely by its instincts and feelings. But then again, it’s not as if you were any different, weren’t you? It may be impossible to erase the curse of life, and we will one day have to confront it and take our choice. Whatever path you take, however, keep in mind a single thing: don’t deny the consequences of your action—don’t deny your “evil”.

Sensual Decadence

“The Fairy Gentleman spoke with a jolly laugh. ‘Huhu... Didn't think this much would be gulped down.’ A short hiccup could also be heard. ‘I admit, it caught me off guard a tiny bit... Just a tiny bit.’ The fairy then puts the cup in his hand to his mouth.” - Mid-Combat Event.

Absinthe is one of the most famous and influential liquors or spirits in the entire history of the west, and with good reason! It was cheaper to produce and buy, and thus was sold like hot cakes when the great french wine blight hit Europe around the second half of the 19th century. Hundreds and hundreds of gallons were consumed daily by the common folk, and it was extremely well received in artistic circles, to the point of being the signature drink of painters and writers alike, like Vincent van Gogh or Ernest Hemingway.

However, such popularity ultimately spelled its doom because, for reasons I won’t go into, absinthe was reported to cause all kinds of hallucinations and delusions, as some sort of magical source of inspiration. The reputation grew and grew, and more myths and stories were added, like it causing mental illnesses or driving people to commit all kinds of crimes and atrocities. By the mid 20th century, absinthe, the so-called “green fairy” thanks to its emerald color and infamous reputation, was finally banned, and only in recent years it has had a resurgence due to its legalization in many countries.

Now, I suppose all of you are wondering why I explained the history of absinthe, and the answer should be obvious if you had any encounter in the MDs with Fairy Gentleman. After all, its first EGO gift, the only one obtainable without fighting, is a glass of green spirit, with the characteristic spoon and all. Taking into account this, along with the Fairy’s gracious attitude, its meaning reveals itself once more.

“I hope you have been well since we conversed last. I see flowers bloom outside, and the birds chirp every now and then. Though the scents of flowers spread as they like, they create a rather sweet smell once mingled in one place. I wonder if you have taken in such a smell.” - Yi Sang, Blossoming League of Nine Littérateurs, Canto IV.

“All that I ask… is to keep this as a moment of laughter, solely between us.” - Yi Sang, Blossoming League of Nine Littérateurs, Canto IV.

It’s abundance and happiness, the joy that one derives from sensual pleasures and sharing them with others, not so dissimilar to how the League of Nine was during its first “days” in District 20, akin to children discovering and feeling the world in all its glory through their senses. They became enamored of what they discovered and showed between them, just like the artist (supposedly) did with the visions and inspiration given by the green fairy. Yet, for external eyes, such joy is no different from debauchery, a slavish and animal-like attraction to the appetites of the gut (or of the mind, in the League’s case).

However, while the League of Nine was an innocent group, devoid of any malicious intent, Fairy Gentleman is… Well, Rodya explained it best.

“I mean, as soon as our eyes met, he flew up, like swoosh~ all of a sudden and then squashed me with the mouth on its belly! Like, splorch, y'know?” - Abnormality’s Observation Log #1.

No matter how nice and polite the Fairy actually is, when its desire and hunger reach their maximum, it won’t have any second thought about satisfying them. That’s why its most powerful skill is Lust-based, because it’s already as drunk and satisfied as it can get, yet it keeps on asking for more and more, to the point it will devour its ��privileged guests” due to them simply being there, emanating that sweet smell that it’s craving.

Again, it’s not that the Abnormality is a bastard or something; it’s just that it doesn’t have any temperance, lacking any and all control over its appetite. That’s the reason many of its skills are Gluttony-based, trying to fill its empty stomach, as well as it being resistant to Lust and Gluttony. Though, if you are lucky, you may be able to convince it to control itself for once during the mid-combat Event, by simply imposing your necessities over its. The Fairy, more than anyone else, should know how being hungry sucks.

Outside of this, I think it is important to note the strange relationship the Fairy has with Envy. Its only Envy skill, “Not This Time!”, is an obvious reference to how it doesn’t want to lose the Wine to you once more. But its affinity to Envy is more complex, since it’s resistant to it in normal encounters, while being weak to it in RR2. That’s to say, it doesn’t care about how other people feel about it as it keeps moving around like a “bully”, yet it also finds itself flabbergasted once other’s resentment—their wrath and bitterness—hits it in the face. If anything, it seems the Fairy in RR2 is more “infantile” in a way, and prideful as well, not aware of all the damage it is doing; the one found in the MDs and history mode is more mature, knowing what to ignore and when, unless they simply refuse to move and be moved, and force themselves into it.

“The glass in its thick hands clatters to the floor, spilling fairy limbs and green fluid everywhere. 'Some visitors you are! How rude!' The mouth on the blob's abdomen splits open and spews sour fluid in our direction.” - Abnormality Encounter

Like when you make it drop its precious cup and wine! Fairies really love their drinks, did you know? That’s more or less the idea behind the “fairy cup” motif, stories about how a person is offered a drink by “the little people” or fairies, but ends up scooting away with the cup. It’s not exactly a precise comparison, yes, but I still wanted to mention it, since it’s a Fairytale Abnormality, and the contents of said stolen cup tend to have magical properties, or are simply acid—classic fairy move.

Finally, in regard to the passives, most of them are pretty self-explanatory, with the only remarkable one being “Stimulating Smell, Isn’t It?” due to the implications of Fairy Gentleman using its body to produce its putrid-smelling liquor… 

Imagine having so little control over your cravings and desires, letting them direct your every action to the point you mutilate and cannibalize your own body solely to feel satisfied. Fairy Gentleman is no different from an animal solely guided by its “erotic” and primitive instincts, not unlike Faelantern. And in the same vein as the latter, that may be the point of the Abnormality: a “fable” about the risks of going overboard with your appetites, whatever those may be, for if you obey them without question or thought you’ll end up destroying yourself spiritually and physically, longing for the filthiest of things.

You are a human with a soul—so much more than a fairy. Please, learn to use it.

Civilized Pretence

“If that's the case, the reason it makes the clover tree to grow... is to keep us from being hit by the harmful rain so that gains more benefits when eating our flesh? To... make its meals tastier. Ugh, I really think that thing doesn't deserve to be called a fairy.” - Ishmael, Abnormality’s Observation Log #3.

And here we have another tricky and predatory fairy!

At first glance, Fairy-Long-Legs is really similar to Faelantern and Fairy Festival, feigning kindness in order to trick and get close to their prey. Yet, one would be hard-pressed to say the latter two are exactly the same as Long-Legs, when this last Abnormality is much more civilized than the rest of its kin, especially when compared to its easily tempted companion. Its behavior is unmatched in terms of patience and elegance between the fairies, always taking time to “care” for its food’s flavor and bringing itself with dignity when taking chunks of flesh from it. Damn! Even its Pride-based guard animation has a certain grace to it!

But no matter how much a fairy pretends to be civilized or cultured, it is and will keep on being a gluttonous fairy. The summoning of giant clover is just an extension of that: a needed step so it can fulfill its desire for “quality food”, as seen with the rest of skills being Lust- and Gluttony-based. Even its pride at the end should be no more than mere vanity, regardless of how that disposition shows certain evolution in the fairies’ behavior and “culture”, because it’s solely reactionary.

In regard to the rest of the Abnormalities’ elements, the most noteworthy ones are the affinities, as usual. Particularly, its weaknesses to Envy, Wrath, and Gluttony during normal encounters tells us that Long-Legs is not used to being on the receiving end of being hunted, being filled with all sorts of curses and resentment. That may be too problematic for its taste, likely preferring more lazy prey that won’t fight back, that won’t challenge it and make it exposed to the rain, despite its lack of any Gloom-related affinity… And yes, that last part is the reason behind the Gloom advantage of the “weather the rain” option during its MD encounter, following a similar logic to Drifting Fox; the Gluttony advantage focuses more on the necessity of overcoming the rain, in the goal that lies after it.

Now, moving on to its RR2 version, Long-Legs’ affinities change when you confront it, in the same way as Fairy Gentleman before. Neither Wrath nor Gluttony seem to take it by surprise anymore, almost as if it expects to be hunted and preyed upon too, if the new Gluttony and Lust resistances are something to go by. Nevertheless, it still doesn’t like to be mocked, as seen with its new weakness to Pride and the conservation of the old one to Envy.

And thus, returning to one of the previous points I made, I can only conclude that Fairy-Long-Legs is a “tale” made to represent the risks of when the advancements of culture are solely guided by instinctual, gross needs, not unlike the animalistic joy of Fairy Gentleman. This naturally paints an interesting picture of what Fairies mean within Project Moon’s universe, from the fully instinctual, simple-minded Fairy Festival to its two, more elegant “cousins”: parodies of humanity’s susceptibility to their own desires and cravings. But again, that much is obvious, no? Library of Ruina already went about it through the Floor of History Realization, about how “nothing in the City is made out of pure goodwill”.

From kidnapping people and sometimes replacing them with “copies” that are “off”, to the common but unfounded myth about having no soul, Fairies, as a concept, will forever act as dark mirrors of humanity’s most cruel and animalistic tendencies. Maybe that’s the reason behind the “Long-Legs” name, for a Daddy-Long-Legs isn’t necessarily a spider to begin with; it can also be an arachnid that, despite being inoffensive to humans, is eerily similar to spiders.

Instead of being fully “alien” creatures, Fairies may be a lot closer to us than we like to think.

Note: Following the pattern I pointed out in my previous post about RR2, the buff related to Fairy-Long-Legs seems to be “Accelerating”. But beyond the shared color and the focus on legs, those two don’t share any mechanics. I’d like to point out that there’s no boss in the entire Railway that’s tied to speed or Haste, beyond Fairy Gentleman and its Wine, so there aren’t many options to choose from…

OSHA's Worst Nightmare

“This stranded employee was approaching us, preparing to go through the motions.” - Abnormality Encounter.

Everyone hates their job… Well, not everyone, really. Not remotely close to everyone. But still, it’s a famous sort of joke or snarky appreciation about all the awkward situations in which one ends up thanks to the attitudes of coworkers, bosses, and those despicable, all-withering beasts we commonly call “clients”. Needless to say, the City isn’t an exception, with all those daily massacres and use of literal human resources.

However, from among all Districts and Wings in Project Moon’s universe, from among all ways of life and works, the one who holds the crown of hateable jobs—the holy grail—is none other than W Corp. and its cleanup crew. There’s literally no character that actually likes working on cleaning the mess inside warp trains, with the sole exception of Ryoshu (and maybe Mersault, but he doesn’t like it either). The work is vomit-inducing, the knowledge is abhorrent, and the only solace is the absolute resolve to never take a warp train.

… Still, work is work, especially if they come from a Wing—no one really wants to die of hunger or worse, after all. So in order to survive, getting our hands dirty is just a small price. Though, the nagging envy and dissatisfaction will never quite disappear, no matter how much time passes. But that’s a part of the job—of any job.

Such is the meaning behind Wayward Passenger, the trauma W Corp. has caused on every person who has used its trains and those who work in them, but especially the latter as seen with the new options added to its MD encounter. That’s why it only has Gluttony and Envy skills, for the W Corp. cleanup agents want to be anywhere else but there, in the trains, yet duty bounds them. They simply do not have any choice in the matter. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they even envy the passengers, who are made to forget about all that happened, continuing their lives without worry.

(And yes, the Envy skills in this case also have the usual relation with electricity/energy. Its blades are literally energy, and it has to spend it to regenerate them in the same way it does with its Dimensional Rifts).

Outside of that, it’s quite interesting to see that Wayward Passenger is weak to Lust and Gluttony—to love and survival. It seems the Abnormality doesn’t take it well to be reminded that the “things” it’s dealing with are living beings too, able to love and, more importantly, fight for their survival. While the Passenger may be able to distance itself psychologically from its “workload”, it isn’t perfect, never reaching the indifference proper of Sloth.

On the other hand, its resistances are nothing too special. The Envy one in particular is obvious, since Wayward Passenger already shares the same feeling—nobody wants to be in what is basically the bloody bowels of hell. As for the Pride resistance, it goes hand in hand with its weaknesses: the expression of love and the instinct of survival are terrifying things to witness in this line of work, but pride… to defend oneself through an empty sense of self-grandiosity is simply irritating, not arousing a single bit of compassion or doubt.

And finally, there’s the Sin affinities during its Encounter, which are surprisingly easy to understand as well. You either pity and/or love Wayward Passenger enough to entertain it and make its work easier, or you just simply don’t care enough and want it gone as soon as possible, pointing to whatever direction you find convenient.

Hellish work indeed. Horrible workload, and horrible customers. I wouldn’t even touch it with a 10 feet pole… But if there’s genuinely no other option, we should at least make it a little more pleasant for others, don’t you think? It may not be much, but trying to acknowledge the humanity of what we have in front of ourselves is a step up from ignoring it, from turning into resentful monsters that wander through the endless possibilities of life solely with their eyes, squandering our (one) true path.

It’s not about defending or taking pride in your work, necessarily. But about seeing what’s in front of you, what you can actually seize and not lose.

Note: And here comes the second-to-last enemy buff from the Railway, “Opportunistic”. Just like Steam Machine’s “Hardening”, the symbol of “Opportunistic” is one of the blades from Wayward Passenger.

Sign of Roses

“What does this signboard say? It hangs itself on a tree, trying to make its content known. Its desperation is almost pitiable.” - Abnormality Encounter.

I already commented this many times in my theory posts, but I suppose doing it a third time isn’t that unwarranted. After all, the relationship between the nervous central system, the psyche, God, and the archetype of the Self is an important symbol and topic in the game.

And yes, all the previous images are connected one way or another. And the main connective tissue is, naturally, Jung’s theory of the mind: analytical psychology.

Jung was a student of Freud originally, postulating that the unconscious contents of the psyche—all the psychological contents which your conscious mind or Ego, the thing that you normally call “yourself”, is ignorant of—are personal in nature. But after acquiring his own experience (and some mental breakdowns), he reached a conclusion vastly different from his teacher, that the psyche, the totality of one’s mind, isn’t only an individual thing, but also a collective one—you aren’t an isolated island, but the sea that connects every island as well. Naturally, this doesn’t refer to the individualized, conscious mind, but to the other half that makes the psyche, the unconscious mind, which exists both as the personal unconscious that Freud described… and a collective unconscious, equal and shared by all humankind.

“A more or less superficial layer of the unconscious is undoubtedly personal. I call it the personal unconscious. But this personal unconscious rests upon a deeper layer, which does not derive from personal experience and is not a personal acquisition but is inborn. This deeper layer I call the collective unconscious. I have chosen the term "collective" because this part of the unconscious is not individual but universal; in contrast to the personal psyche, it has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals.” - Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

I’m not going in-depth about all of Jung’s theory; that would merit post after post just to cover the basics. But that main gist is that Jung proposed that most, if not all, psychological problems rest in the relationship one has with the unconscious, be it the personal or the collective one. This is because the unconscious is the matrix of life, the source of all change and energy, as well as the “eternal wisdom” that applies everywhere and everywhen, since it’s the product of the countless experiences of all forms of life since time immemorial.

“The collective unconscious, however, as the ancestral heritage of possibilities of representation, is not individual but common to all men, and perhaps even to all animals, and is the true basis of the individual psyche. [...] Theoretically it should be possible to “peel” the collective unconscious, layer by layer, until we came to the psychology of the worm, and even of the amoeba.” - Jung, Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche.

So it’d be correct to say that, instead of you having an unconscious that’s common to all life, the unconscious of life has you. You aren’t the subject, but an object, a product born out of the countless interactions of the unconscious, and thus inherently tied to said collective. You cannot overcome the unconscious, because it’s the mother that birthed you, the parent that raised you, the teacher that showed you the world, the first love that made you feel complete, the friends that blessed you, the enemies that diminished you, the obstacles that brought you to the bottom—joy and misery alike.

Truth is, the collective unconscious is everything that surrounds you. There’s nothing outside of it, and nothing lower or higher than it. It’s all existence that can be possibly known by life… Yet, consciousness, as its name indicates, isn't that unconscious; it’s “alienated” from it. It perceives itself separated from the whole, despite being nurtured by said whole. And the more differentiated the conscious mind becomes, the more separated and afraid it becomes of the world, and from there all problems come forth: the inability of the Ego to properly grow inwards, which in turn means it can’t properly grow outwards.

Depression, anxiety, psychosis, neurosis, schizophrenia… All of those problems, one way or another, are rooted in an improper relationship with the unconscious and thus the external world. Jung wasn’t able to found a one-size-fits-all solution naturally, but he got pretty close by suggesting an archetypal process he called individuation, the process by which the conscious mind integrates contents of the unconscious, allowing the reach a middle point between them, a harmonic relationship that allows everything work as a whole—the collective working for you, and you working for the collective. Jung called such an archetypal situation of wholeness the Self.

“I have called this wholeness that transcends consciousness the ‘self.’ The goal of the individuation process is the synthesis of the self.” - Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

The Self is not only consciousness, but also the personal and collective unconsciousness. It’s darkness and evil, and light and good as well. It’s the whole of life that existed long before you, and that will endure long after your death, because you yourself are part of the whole, which in turn can be said to be the only thing that truly exists. You are an image through which the Self becomes conscious of itself.

If all of that sounds like a headache-inducing mumbo jumbo, then you are on the correct path! The Self and the collective unconscious are, by definition, beyond the scope of what consciousness can fully grasp, just as it’s impossible to understand the universe—of which you, as the subject that experiences it, are part of—as a whole. Yet, just because it’s impossible to comprehend in its totality, doesn’t mean humanity didn’t have intuitions of the Self, represented in the form of mythological and folkloric symbols, because that’s the kind of language the unconscious speaks.

“Because of its unconscious component the self is so far removed from the conscious mind that it can only be partially expressed by human figures; the other part of it has to be expressed by objective, abstract symbols. [...] Plant symbols are generally flowers (lotus and rose). These lead on to geometrical figures like the circle, the sphere, the square, the quaternity, the clock, the firmament, and so on.” - Carl Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

I… I’m not going into all of this; it’s simply too much. However, the main point I wanted to rescue is how the rose can act as a symbol for both motherhood and of the Self, because the archetypal figure of the mother is nothing but another property that belongs to Wholeness, being the psyche that birthed everything. Even Christ himself, the figure in which humanity/consciousness and the divine/unconsciousness are joined, is a manifestation of the Self, just like Buddha. Naturally, it’s not a question about wether they existed or not, but about what they unconsciously represent for people.

“In truth, Phanes is the happy day. In truth, Phanes is work and accomplishment and its remuneration. He is the troublesome task and the evening calm. He is a step on the middle way, its beginning, its middle, and its end. He is foresight. He is the end of fear.” - Jung, Hymn to Phanes, Black Books.

Because it represents the same thing for Jung, as seen in the excerpt above of the Black Books, the diaries in which he registered his experiences of “active imagination” or explorations of his unconscious. So even if he put the somewhat partial and subjective name of Phanes, the primordial deity of orphism, the same thing occurs for all Self-images in humanity’s myths, legends, tales, and so forth: salvation. That’s the root of the famous parable of the vine imparted by Jesus, how humanity is completely lost without “him”, the Self.

However, every archetype—the psychological principles that make out the collective unconscious—has both darkness and light alike, for they are the accumulated of all experiences without exception. Thus, it’s natural that the individuation process has its dangers too. It’d be all too easy for people to give in to the “madness” inherent to the unconscious without opposition, too tired of fighting back against life. But the Ego is an essential part of individuation, the fulcrum around which everything must be balanced because it’s the only thing that can make something conscious and realized.

“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life. [...] Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim.” - Jung’s Soul, Red Book.

“Embracing the madness is a necessary step for humans to move forward. A crystal rose that seems to be facing a certain direction at all times. This humanlike object is said to absorb the moisture from a certain river to bloom.” - Lunacy’s Flavour Text.

The unconscious is uncertainty, the collapse of the superiority of the conscious mind. It’s the acceptance that life itself won’t go as you want, that it dances and moves as it wishes. And that you’ll accompany it in that celebration, not as its slave, but as its equal, for you are its long-lost brother/sister that it wishes to join to once more. You, too, are a creation of God, the “rose” He gardened for so long by the side of His “river”, inside His “womb”.

Unsurprisingly, like all Abnormalities, that’s where Sign of Roses falls, because the City has been possessed by its own madness. It has become so alienated from the unconscious that its inhabitants are unable to understand they are guided solely by that kind of trauma, hidden under the slogans of retribution, vengeance, righteousness, and rationality. The City has repressed everything irrational, yet it's smothered by it.

But if such is the case, if the disease of the mind has expanded so much, then the unconscious must fight back, to release itself from the yoke humanity puts it under so its one wish can be heard: to be realized. That’s the underlying meaning of the Sign, the caricature of Christ, the dark side of the Self that embraces all that exists without judgment, filled by a naive, all-encompassing love that allows any and all atrocities. That’s to say, it’s the Devil or Beast, the dissolver of consciousness, the agitator of the unconscious, the exhausted inner tension of all living beings that wishes to be resolved.

“This is an adequate place to get off this train without getting lost. The refraction rate is already off the charts. For the first time since we embarked on this journey… I see a signpost. Maybe, this is where this railway line ends. Or maybe...this is where we meet our ends.” - Dante, Terminus: The Garden, Refraction Railway Line 2.

The Sign of Roses is at the center of the Railway because the Self is the whole and center of the psyche, the “smaller than small, and bigger than big”. Thus, it’s also the terminus and its beginning, the Abnormality or psychological tendency that causes people to give in to their desires and instincts without care, after a long life of “self-control”. It’s the respite that Christ promised to his followers, the celestial Jerusalem that will become the last place of rest for the believers and faithful.

“Oh, and... the color of those roses changed as well. Everyone told me that it was as though the bottled—up feelings inside them were melting away. And so did I.” Hong Lu, Abnormality’s Observation Log #3.

“Psychologically, it is again a question of the self, enthroned in the place of the middle, and referred to in Revelation as the beloved city (Jerusalem, the centre of the earth).” - Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

It’s no coincidence that Sign of Rose's arena is filled with ruins overcome with brambles and roses—the dregs of the unconscious that bring down the works of the conscious mind. However, I previously said roses are symbols of the Self and thus of the Ego, since the latter is an “image” of the former, so… why are there roses in a landscape that has abandoned any sort of consciousness? Well, that’s because the Ego is a “complex”, a psychological “entity” that acts as a personal instance of the archetypes so to speak, and the unconscious happens to have many of those.

“Eyes are round and in common speech are likened to ‘cart-wheels.’ They also seem to be a typical symbol for what I have called the ‘multiple luminosities of the unconscious.’ By this I mean the seeming possibility that complexes possess a kind of consciousness, a luminosity of their own, which, I conjecture, expresses itself in the symbol of the soul-spark, multiple eyes (polyophthalmia), and the starry heaven.” - Mysterium Coniunctionis.

That’s both the reason why the Flesh part has so many eyes, representing the Self as a union of those “multiple consciousnesses”, and why the unconscious can be compared to the firmament, which has its own layer of symbolism in Limbus. But more importantly, it tells us something extremely important about the Abnormality’s appearance: just like STNOWC, Sign of Roses bears the effigy of humanity—its flesh—in a twisted way, as the singular vine (yes, that’s the reason behind the passive’s name) from which every other "rose" blooms.

Thus, Sign of Roses is nothing else but the weakening of the human spirit against the unconscious compulsions and drives, an “individuation” gone wrong that ends up with the collapse of consciousness, slaved eternally under the complexes' yoke for whatever remains of its life. And what else it could want if not to share such a prospect with the world, as seen with the unique death animations for the Sinners, now becoming their own “whole individual”—their own garden—from which every desire can bloom, like a mother and its children.

“Yes, as you have learned, extracting Abnormalities is my job. But creating them is Carmen’s, whom you buried a long time ago. She is the mother of all Abnormalities that have existed in this facility and all that will emerge in the future.” - Binah, Lobotomy Corporation.

Really, it shouldn’t be a surprise that all of this connects with Carmen, the maternal aspect of the unconscious mind that accepts any and all things, wanting people to give into their unconscious urges as she herself hinted in “Leviathan”. She is the Christ-like figure who baptizes/drowns people in the waters of the River, making them reborn in a shape that’s able to “love” everything. It’s not a coincidence she’s the (666) Beast, the shadow of humanity and the Self, twisting God’s greatest virtue that saved both Dante and Faust in their respective books.

And keeping on with the parodies of Christ, Sign of Roses’s “Crown of Thorns” status stands for a symbol of the pain that comes from containing all fears and desires within, to keep an image of “self-control” or purity, as if to say you aren’t Christ and you shouldn’t resist the temptations. That’s why its Pride and Lust skills are the ones that apply the status, saying to you that you should take pride in who you are and love yourself, to let bloom every kind of atrocity.

From the rest of the skills, the only ones that are worth highlighting are two. First, it’s “Wishing for Eternity”, solely due to the connection it has with King of Greed’s flavour text about greed and happiness wishing for eternity, expressing clearly the suffering that is brought about through the differentiation of consciousness after eating “the apple from Eden”. The second one is its Envy skill, “Wall of Separation”, because…

“See? Wish, wish for it. Knowing that it is a sin. Only then can you bloom such colorful roses.” “You have to bloom the roses. You want to escape this garden don't you?” “Let us... let me help you.” “Our only wish is that our garden will bloom full of flowers.” “Now, what will you do?” - Mid-Combat Event.

The Sign can’t nurture its own roses. It lacks the ability, the drive to do so. It speaks so highly about the Sinner’s capacity to bloom and accept themselves, yet itself is unable to do so because it’s ultimately empty. It collapses into countless petals the moment the brambles come undone, because it lacks any and all substance beyond the chains of desire, not so different from King in Binds in a way.

It envies living beings because they can take care of their seeds and bloom. It envies them because they are alive, while itself is dead and unable to change. They have a soul, while it doesn’t.

I wonder what this tells us about Carmen…

Note: The last enemy buff, “Thirsting”, obviously belongs to Sign of Roses, and the bible says everything that there's need to know.

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” - John, 4:11-15.

Post-Commentary

Hello, once more! It’s with great pleasure that I bring the last part of the Railway 2’s Abnormalities. This one took a long while, mainly because I lost some of my motivation due to university during Fairy Gentleman’s part… which, coincidentally, returned the day in which Nikocado Avocado announced his lost weight xD What a curious coincidence, really.

But anyway, seeing how that man took like, what? 2 years or so to get in “shape”? It motivated me enough to finish both Fairies’ sections quickly, like one to two weeks in total. After all, I couldn’t mope around when I had (and still) many things to do in my life.

Regarding some curiosities about my analisis, I think the biggest one is the Sin advantage of the “press the droplet-shaped button” option. I didn’t analyze it because it’s weird now. Like, the first version of the Encounter didn’t award the player with any EGO gift, strengthening the idea of how the Abnormality represents the idea of being needlessly cruel and sadistic, hence justifying the Envy and Wrath advantages. But since the option now gives you a new EGO gift, it somewhat diminishes the previous idea, though it doesn’t blatantly contradict it: you are still being an asshole.

Another includes Wayward Passenger, where I’ve to stress out something: said Abnormality is connected to W Corp. first, and then to the general concept of escapism and envy. The need of having to expand that latter part was due to the Dimensional Shredder EGOs, especially those of Yi Sang and Hong Lu—instead of envying people for their choices they have, they decide to take pride on the “journey” their external circumstances put them on (Sloth and Gluttony, apathy and duty/necessity).

And finally, if you didn’t understand 'Sign of Roses’ section…

TL;DR: Roses are symbols of the Self/psychic wholeness, but also of consciousness, for the flowers “are” brains. Thus, the Sign wants your “rose”/mind/soul/being to become a vine from which all other “roses”—the smaller “consciousnesses” or complexes that make out the unconscious mind—can bloom and live through, sacrificing your own existence. That’s due to the Abnormality being unable to bloom its own flowers (anymore?), having to “drain the sin” from others.

Now, with all of this said, my next post about Abnormalities should be about none other than Railway 1, thanks to Canto VII coming soon and thus giving us a big dose of needed context for Headless Icthys and Alleway Watchdog. After that one (and RR5’s, naturally), I plan to finish with an analysis about the Abnormalities that were left out from the RRs: those from Canto I and Canto II, and Brazen Bull.

As always, feel free to comment your own thoughts and point out any spelling mistakes!

[nor2on]

took like 4 days but new refraction railway is over ............ take this as a part 2 to my previous RR drawing

[firestorm09890]

so um. I beat Refraction Railway 4 tonight. this is unusual for me- line 3 I got to the Moth and dropped it, then returned to it a couple months later, reset from the beginning, and did about 2 battles a day until it was done; all I remember about line 2 was that it took ages and I hated it the entire way through; and then I never finished line 1. I can’t tell if this railway was actually the easiest, or if it was just because I was doing things optimally (poise team builds up over time so you can totally sweep later waves + I brought a bunch of good clashers) or how much not being underleveled for once helped me, but the only time I had to reset was when NClair turn 1 Self-Destructive Purged at high speeds and killed someone immediately (as opposed to the painful amount of resets in the prior two railways), and the only time I pulled from backups was during section two when I had to call in a #7 and section three where I had to call in #7 and #8. overall it was definitely my favorite. partially because I didn’t feel like I was suffering the entire time but mostly because the THEMES OUGHHHH the way everything connected to each other!! the way they started talking about masks and falsehoods in the cutscene before (which, I’m pretty sure the only time the specific contents of a refraction railway have been mentioned in story prior to this was just Dante writing in their notes that everyone hated the line 2 cycles) and then it got carried through the teams of peccatulum invidiae and then all the way to the final boss! WHICH WAS PEAK, BY THE WAY

the vibes were immaculate, the animations were impressive and far more than I was expecting, and the MUSIC! oh my god!!!! I wasn’t expecting such a complex song for a refraction railway final boss, and then they made TWO?? holy shit!

Portrait and Sheep were also fun fights. it was nice not having the fucking “take unclashable bleed damage and die” and “7 billion rolling skill that sets you on fire and kills you” type of fights this time. the gimmicks were pretty easy but at least they were cool and also made me sad for both abnos. anyway section 4 was so fucking awesome I need to draw and write or something because it made me feel alive in ways I would’ve expected from, like, main story, and not the god damn refraction railway

look at the heights bl yi sang reached

[sailordaimp]

today I woke up bright and early (noon) and decided I was gonna finish refraction railway. five hours later, and…

IM FREE!!!!!!!

That experience was so long and excruciating I am NOT going to try for under 200 I think I’d explode.

Anyways ty to the people who responded to my cry for help in terms of team building!!!!!! Here’s the total amount of damage that everyone did:

[movedraptor5913]

Geoff Keighley voice: Gaming