Agreed. [ fucking. terrible. every part of it. it's best not to think of it, for now. ] I still hate that iron puppet so very much.
[ whoever graffiti'd his pod thing was valid and right. ]
But, I think the idea of the center punishing people is something to follow through with. It speaks to the larger deigns of this place as a whole.
...I broached the topic that rather than thinking of it as "indulgence", we could think of it as "corruption". They didn't give me much in the way of that, though.
I bring my own biases into this, but I can only see indulgence as a trite name for some type of energy they're cultivating. The specific nuances of what that energy is eludes me, but. . .
[Okay, she'll just nerd out a little here.]
I'm used to working in the medium of thalergetic and thanergetic energy - life energy and death energy. Most objects in the universe produce thalergy - anything with life, even basic microbial life forms, emits it. It's everywhere, but can't be harnessed in its most basic form. However, anything that produces thalergy also produces thanergy through the process of decay. At all time, every living thing is also in the process of dying at a cellular level, and the thanergetic energy of that decay theoretically can be harnessed.
It is only that the low levels emitted by living creatures is not in a usable form to the standard necromancer. Even an extremely good necromancer needs more to begin the process. The best way to harvest thanergy is death - the initial bloom of death being the most robust source of power, but it is possible to gather enough from other sources; living creatures with injury or sickness radiate it, as do corpses in the process of decay. Bone is ideal because it continues to produce thanergy long after the initial bloom, making it a portable alternative to the more straightforward method of simply making new fresh corpses to harness the energy of their death. But all different methods have something in common - they are a means to take a power source that is everywhere but diffuse and convert it into something more focused and therefore malleable.
None of this is to suggest that thanergy is the power source at issue here. This is my own area of expertise, but my understanding is the actual reason murder is effective is that it reduces the pool of us who are relying on whatever energy that is being produced by our efforts, so it really has nothing to do with death per se.
I only mean in the more general sense - that I see it useful to view this entire place as a means to generate and harness a type of energy that is useful for a purpose in the same way that death energy can be harnessed and used by a necromancer. The tests we've faced in those strange little excursions suggest that what is actually generating the energy is the process of experiencing and giving in to urges, whether for good or for ill, so I would personally not be inclined to think in moralistic terms such as corruption. My curiosity lies more in what that purpose is that our energy is being harnessed for.
admittedly he glazes over a little bit at this i'm sorry ]
... You're just like the old maid....
[ ??? i guess it's a compliment because he's allowed to say it
he shakes his head, clearing the immediate thought and urge to stop this before it starts because it is actually a valid theory. i'm stupid so hopefully i'm parsing this all correctly. ]
...But I see what you're saying. If I'm familiar with anything, it's limited resources. [ considering ziliujin sure as hell isn't renewable - it makes sense. the fewer the drains of it, the better his home and nation can thrive. though... ]
The only thing with that is - the people who are being killed off, that's a resource loss too, isn't it? In this case, the gain from a large action such as killing someone would outweigh the loss, then... It would make sense why we keep running into dangers where we may have to kill each other, since seeing other participants on those excursions seemed to be a commonality. No wonder it punished Misa for not following through.
[ hmmmm.... ]
If I recall correctly, this place was referred to as something as a 'hub', as well, right? My immediate instinct is harnessing resources for protection of this place as a whole - likening it to ziliujin instead, a similar resource is used to power weapons and armor in order to defend the nation. It can be used for smaller things, but, ultimately, the goal is always keeping Great Liang safe and powerful, no matter who is in charge. The Avatars mentioned that they'd been here for some time, but, our group of participants was especially unique. Maybe they were producing enough indulgence for energy on their own, and now... for some reason, whatever that may be, they are not.
[No, he got it. You're not stupid it's just NECROMANCY NERD SHIT but basically she's just talking about energy generation. Anyway, she just side eyes him when he is rude about her nerding out, but. Moving on.]
. . . That is a good point. For the theory about murder to be accurate, it would have to mean no amount of indulgence Eleanor generated in the coming weeks would make up for the resource consumption of her existing here and getting her wish. Whereas if the act of murder itself generates a significant amount of power, that wouldn't be the case.
Then perhaps we are encouraged to come here by promising us a share in the rewards, but our existence in some way also lends power to the indulgence center itself. Whether that means it's a trap or something symbiotic I couldn't say.
What was odd is they were utterly untouched. The dead also had more colour than we did, but Gluttony seemed to shut down any hypothesis that that was because the dead were physically in there somehow.
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no subject
It poisons my thinking too much.
no subject
Agreed. [ fucking. terrible. every part of it. it's best not to think of it, for now. ] I still hate that iron puppet so very much.
[ whoever graffiti'd his pod thing was valid and right. ]
But, I think the idea of the center punishing people is something to follow through with. It speaks to the larger deigns of this place as a whole.
...I broached the topic that rather than thinking of it as "indulgence", we could think of it as "corruption". They didn't give me much in the way of that, though.
no subject
[Okay, she'll just nerd out a little here.]
I'm used to working in the medium of thalergetic and thanergetic energy - life energy and death energy. Most objects in the universe produce thalergy - anything with life, even basic microbial life forms, emits it. It's everywhere, but can't be harnessed in its most basic form. However, anything that produces thalergy also produces thanergy through the process of decay. At all time, every living thing is also in the process of dying at a cellular level, and the thanergetic energy of that decay theoretically can be harnessed.
It is only that the low levels emitted by living creatures is not in a usable form to the standard necromancer. Even an extremely good necromancer needs more to begin the process. The best way to harvest thanergy is death - the initial bloom of death being the most robust source of power, but it is possible to gather enough from other sources; living creatures with injury or sickness radiate it, as do corpses in the process of decay. Bone is ideal because it continues to produce thanergy long after the initial bloom, making it a portable alternative to the more straightforward method of simply making new fresh corpses to harness the energy of their death. But all different methods have something in common - they are a means to take a power source that is everywhere but diffuse and convert it into something more focused and therefore malleable.
None of this is to suggest that thanergy is the power source at issue here. This is my own area of expertise, but my understanding is the actual reason murder is effective is that it reduces the pool of us who are relying on whatever energy that is being produced by our efforts, so it really has nothing to do with death per se.
I only mean in the more general sense - that I see it useful to view this entire place as a means to generate and harness a type of energy that is useful for a purpose in the same way that death energy can be harnessed and used by a necromancer. The tests we've faced in those strange little excursions suggest that what is actually generating the energy is the process of experiencing and giving in to urges, whether for good or for ill, so I would personally not be inclined to think in moralistic terms such as corruption. My curiosity lies more in what that purpose is that our energy is being harnessed for.
no subject
admittedly he glazes over a little bit at this i'm sorry ]
... You're just like the old maid....
[ ??? i guess it's a compliment because he's allowed to say it
he shakes his head, clearing the immediate thought and urge to stop this before it starts because it is actually a valid theory. i'm stupid so hopefully i'm parsing this all correctly. ]
...But I see what you're saying. If I'm familiar with anything, it's limited resources. [ considering ziliujin sure as hell isn't renewable - it makes sense. the fewer the drains of it, the better his home and nation can thrive. though... ]
The only thing with that is - the people who are being killed off, that's a resource loss too, isn't it? In this case, the gain from a large action such as killing someone would outweigh the loss, then... It would make sense why we keep running into dangers where we may have to kill each other, since seeing other participants on those excursions seemed to be a commonality. No wonder it punished Misa for not following through.
[ hmmmm.... ]
If I recall correctly, this place was referred to as something as a 'hub', as well, right? My immediate instinct is harnessing resources for protection of this place as a whole - likening it to ziliujin instead, a similar resource is used to power weapons and armor in order to defend the nation. It can be used for smaller things, but, ultimately, the goal is always keeping Great Liang safe and powerful, no matter who is in charge. The Avatars mentioned that they'd been here for some time, but, our group of participants was especially unique. Maybe they were producing enough indulgence for energy on their own, and now... for some reason, whatever that may be, they are not.
no subject
. . . That is a good point. For the theory about murder to be accurate, it would have to mean no amount of indulgence Eleanor generated in the coming weeks would make up for the resource consumption of her existing here and getting her wish. Whereas if the act of murder itself generates a significant amount of power, that wouldn't be the case.
Then perhaps we are encouraged to come here by promising us a share in the rewards, but our existence in some way also lends power to the indulgence center itself. Whether that means it's a trap or something symbiotic I couldn't say.
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Unless those who died are somehow being kept somewhere. Wasn't there something odd about the state of the bodies in the life support room?
no subject