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queenlucythevaliant · 7 months

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make your choice

Digory didn’t think much on making choices. The whole world would be over when his mother died anyhow.

Of course, this didn’t keep him from being curious or adventurous. It was exciting to meet new people, exciting to go exploring and to speculate about whatever mischief his Uncle Andrew was up to. Being a lively young boy was perhaps the best distraction from being a boy about to lose his mother.

Going after Polly was so obviously right that it might as well not have been a choice at all. What else could he do? It was easy to be righteous in the face of an evil old magician who said things like "Ours is a high and lonely destiny."

Yet once they were there in that rich, in-between place, with all the worlds there were splayed out before them— ((Make your choice, adventurous stranger)) Well. What sort of lively young boy would he be if he turned back now?

Digory could feel the bell’s magic ((strike the bell and bide the danger)) beginning to work on him. There was no use in resisting. He felt tendrils of magic sinking deep beneath his skin, laying claim to any free will he’d ever had. He said as much to Polly, but she wasn’t listening.

Polly said ((or wonder till it drives you mad)) that he looked exactly like his uncle when he said that.

Jadis’s whole world had ended. Everyone had died, and she’d just gone to sleep. She might have stayed sleeping forever if he hadn’t woken her. Sitting outside his mother’s sickroom, Digory wondered ((what would have followed if you had)) if that was really so shocking. Hadn’t he been preparing for just such an end? Were Charn and Mabel Kirke so different?

Narnia was not an end. It was a beginning.

And face to face with the Lion, Digory was forced to admit that the bell had not been magic. Nothing had caused him to strike it. Make your choice, the writing had said. Digory had chosen.

I’ve spoiled everything. There’s no chance of getting anything for mother now.

The enormous Lion asked him, "Son of Adam, are you ready to undo the wrong that you have done?" and Digory sputtered his maybes.

"I asked, are you ready?" the Lion said again.

At that very moment, an ultimatum flashed through Digory’s mind. If I salvage your beginning, will you prevent my end? If make amends, will you save my mother? He thought of refusing, of holding his choice hostage until his future was secure. Could the Lion be bargained with? Could Digory twist his arm, as he'd twisted Polly's?

But what Digory said was, "Yes."

Jadis conjured such lovely visions of the future. His mother's face would lose its gray sheen and she would say, Why, I'm beginning to feel stronger. There would be no more morphia, no more of the terrible drawn look about her when she slept. She would rise from her sickbed, vibrant and whole ((Come in by the gold gates or not at all)) rise and walk to the door and fling it open and then Digory would go running into her arms.

He gasped as though he'd been mortally wounded. Perhaps he had been in a way. After all, had the gate not said ((take my fruit for others or forbear))?

Jadis ((for those who steal and those who climb my wall)) called Digory the Lion's slave. Years later, he would think back over all that those words implied. The Witch seemed to think that Digory had no will, if he was willing to subordinate himself to Aslan.

But was it not Aslan who made Digory realize his own culpability ((shall find their heart's desire and find despair)), and in the same breath gave him a way to repair it? Had not Aslan given his will back to him?

And at the foot of the tree, Aslan gave Digory his future back as well.

He was old, but now he is young again, watching as the stars fall headlong across the black of the world-that-was. The world is ending at last, but Digory does not fear such things any longer.

#'let's get some half-finished stuff done and posted before the Inklings Challenge' challenge #i'm not 100% satisfied with this but I quite like all the concepts. we'll see #i actually have a bunch of these type of character study things from back in the day that i'd like to keep revisiting #anyway. i have always always always been fascinated by the writing on the bell #curiosity would totally be MY fatal flaw in a fairytale/myth so i can absolutely see where Digory is coming from #like of course he has to strike the bell. of course #but the way it gets frames in relation to Choice and Will and Responsibility is just really cool #a neat counterpoint to all the stories of those overcome by curiosity whom the narrative justifies #it was your fault. you need to own that #curiosity for its own sake is not inherantly a good thing #and then of course i can't write about Digory without pulling in the dymanic with his mom's impending death #that is by far the most compelling aspect of MN it is the linchpin of the whole thing #so yeah #founded in song #the magician's nephew no longer #narnia #leah stories #pontifications and creations

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lu-is-not-ok · 9 months

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hello i have no idea if you have analyzed Impending Day Sinclair yet or not (or if u r even still doing analyses) but if you are.... perchance could you analyze Impending Day Sinclair??

Aaaalright, let's get right into it. This is... gonna be an interesting one.

So, as always, let's start off with the Abnormality - Doomsday Calendar. And, my god, what an Abnormality it is. Four whole phases in its fight, each one with unique passives and attacks and mid-battle events (which, mind you, the Fandom Wiki still doesn't list)... I've got my job cut out for me here.

Now, because of just how many phases this fight has, I'm going to go in a slightly different order than I usually would for Abno analysis. We're gonna go Phase by Phase, as I personally think that's a slightly better way of analyzing it than throwing all the Attacks on the table at once and trying to dig for a meaning there.

Got that? Alright, cool.

The fight against Doomsday Calendar starts with Phase 1, which for the sake of the Analysis I'll call the Prelude.

During the Prelude, we're met with a couple of Doomsday Clay Dolls, a sort of "minion" entity to the Abnormality proper.

Let's briefly talk about those Clay Dolls so as to not get distracted later. First of all, it's not really shown to us how these Dolls are made so to say, but we do get to see the Calendar revive these Dolls with every progressing Phase. This is confirmed by their passive, Idolatry, which says that they don't die when reaching 0 HP, simply staying there untargetable and immobile until the next phase, or until the Abnormality is fully surpressed.

Interestingly enough, the Abno Logs describing the Clay Dolls never explicitly say that they're made of clay, but there is that implication that that's the case as their bodies are describes as resembling muscle fibers, and with their name being corrected from "flesh dolls" to "clay dolls" in an Abno Log later on. I don't think it's too important to Doomsday Calendar itself, but I did notice that just now and have a feeling it connects to some wider themes that are slowly being presented throughout Limbus Company.

Beyond that, their passive name and Lust skills imply they only exist to admire, love, and serve the god-like figure that is Doomsday Calendar.

Looping back to the Prelude, during this phase Doomsday Calendar does not act and is completely unargetable. It has only one Passive during this stage - Let the Blood Festival Flow, describing what has to be done to progress to the next phase.

This gives us a very interesting image already. Each of the phases after the Prelude are "Festivals", or specifically religious celebrations. A very dark and ironic take on this idea, seeing as each of these Festivals requires a human sacrifice, though I may be getting a little ahead of myself.

Once the Clay Dolls are defeated, Phase 2, the Blood Festival begins. The Clay Dolls are revived, with an extra one joining in. Doomsday Calendar awakens, sprouting arms that it uses to attack the Sinners.

Here, Doomsday Calendar makes use of two different Sin Affinities. Sloth for the attacks Quake and Slam, the animations of which are the Calendar literally just slamming its fists against the ground as if having a tantrum; and Lust for Live Offering, in which the Calendar grabs a Sinner and puts them in its... uh... Mouth? Facehole? Basically, the Calendar is hungry and needs to be fed.

The first mid-fight event happens after one turn. Immediately, the text here paints a specific image. The sacrifice done to appease is called a gift, a tribute if a Clay Doll is offered. It's described to be the way to calm someone down that the Abnormality likes the most. The gift it specifically seeks here is fresh blood, and it becomes satiated once it recieves what it wants.

Perhaps the phases are Festivals to the Calendar as it's recieving gifts in the form of these offerings, but to the people around it they're really more like Rituals meant to stave off whatever calamity this god will bring.

Something else to note here is an interesting sense of inevitability. Doomsday Calendar becomes satiated by the blood, yes, but it only calms down "for a moment". It will inevitably grow hungry once more, and will need to be fed again to quiet down its tantrums.

Once again, the Calendar's Passive here gives us an idea of the next phase - Let the Fire Festival Ignite.

Upon being damaged enough, Doomsday Calendar's phase 3 begins, the Fire Festival.

In this phase, all of the Clay Dolls begin Burning, creating fire within their masks and gaining the Wrath Affinity skill to belch out the fire, perhaps expelling it out as if trying to get rid of it.

Additionally, Doomsday Calendar takes on some interesting behavior here. It doesn't actually attack, only using a guard skill named Stalwart Altar, something that further exemplifies its role as something to give Ritualistic offerings, as well as adding to the idea of it being inevitable, indestructible. Something that will always come back, no matter how many times it's staved off.

Beyond the Phase-changing Passive, Doomsday Calendar also has a second Passive during the Fire Festival - Frenzy, which inflicts burn to all its enemies.

If the Blood Festival was about satiating the Calendar's hunger for blood, then the Fire Festival is about cooling down its simmering rage and raging fire.

The second mid-fight event takes place two turns into this phase. The text says that to weaken the Abnormality's flames, one would use cool water, before noting that the Sinners don't just carry buckets of water around. Does this imply that the 'proper' Ritual here would have been to offer up water as a gift? It would make sense, after all during the Blood Festival the Calendar only wants blood, not specifically human blood. Perhaps in that case, just animal sacrifice would have sufficed as well.

Tangent aside, if a Sinner is chosen to be offered up, the prompt for the skill check specifically asks for someone with a "cold heart", and even beforehand the text asks for someone "cool" to be offered up instead of water. Upon success, the Abnormality's fervor is cooled, and its flame shrinks to a flicker.

Note again the idea if only pushing back the inevitable. The Abnormality's flame isn't fully put out, it only shrinks to something much more manageable, something that will need time to build up again. These Festivals aren't really solutions to the problem, they're merely bandaids and duct tape meant to give people a little bit more time.

The last part of this phase is the Passive that tells us of the next one - Let the Star Festival Fall, which activates when Doomsday Calendar is hurt enough.

During Phase 4, the Star Festival, none of the Clay Dolls act, and the Calendar only uses one attack - Universe Aflame, which has Envy Affinity. First, it uses them on its allies, and if the last mid-fight event, it uses it on all the Sinners, which causes a unique death animation when it kills. And uh, it will Very Likely kill, because that shit is a 35-45.

As for the reason it's an Envy attack... I believe the event that happens after it kills its allies explains it well.

The Abnormality isn't the one being given an offering here, and it's not the one causing the calamity, rather it's only a gateway, a vessel for the actual cause of the Doomsday - the stars.

Stars are... an extremely important theme in Limbus, and it began as far back as Lobotomy Corporation. I don't want to go on too long of a tangent about that here, since it's only a small part of Doomsday Calendar, but let it be known that the stars in this series seem to be entities of unimaginable power in their own right.

Back to the event at hand, the text here describes the stars as "twinkling", saying that when they shine, they will rob the Sinners of their sight.

That specific idea makes me think of the sun specifically, as its (hopefully) common knowledge that staring directly at the sun could blind you. This is fitting for Doomsday Calendar, which includes a sun-like design as part of its stone plate. Doomsday Calendar being related to the sun also explains a lot of its other quirks, such as its connection to fire and even the whole thing with human sacrifices, as that connected with it being clearly inspired by Aztec stone calendars further relates it to the idea of a sun god.

Just like with the other sacrifices, this offering is also called a "gift", though here it is explicitly given to the stars rather than the Abnormality. This event also forces you to pick a Sinner rather than a Clay Doll, and the skill check prompt explains why - the person being offered up needs to have a voice that could "lull the stars to sleep". If this lullaby succeeds, the stars are put into a deep slumber, their light leaving people be "for a while".

For a while... again with that idea of inevitability. Putting the stars to sleep only puts off their awakening for later, it doesn't actually stop it. With time, they will inevitably twinkle once more, and their starlight will again threaten to "blind" everyone.

While this may not be enough to fully stop the stars, succeeding at this skill check is enough to suppress Doomsday Calendar.

That was... a lot. Let's take a look at the Abno Log before we try to come up with some themes for this thing.

The main details that we learn from these Logs are as such:

The pedestal the stone plate is on is actually made of wood, it only looks like it's woven from muscles.

The plate is confirmed to be a form of calendar, tying into the idea of foretelling some inevitable calamity.

The plate physically changes with each progressing Festival, being noted as becoming more ominous with each change.

Being killed via offering to the Calendar doesn't seem to kill in the traditional sense, rather it seems to disconnect the consciousness of the offered from their body and... it's unclear what exactly they see since Yi Sang's too traumatized to make sense in the Log, but it's clear it's some form of End of Everything.

Now then... What the hell kinda themes can we extract from all this?

The biggest one that I've probably spoiled in this write-up is the theme of some inevitable calamity. An End of the world, whether literal or metaphorical, that can never be truly stopped, only delayed indefinitely.

Another theme I can see here is this dissonance between two parties. Something that one sees as a horrible act being seen as something to celebrate by someone else. Sacrifices seen as gifts, Rituals seen as Festivals, the stars' light bringing forth darkness for others.

Last theme I want to bring up here is the concept of a harbinger. A calendar with a deadline on it isn't what's causing that deadline, it's only warning you of that deadline approaching. Likewise, the Star Festival shows us that the Doomsday Calendar isn't the one directly causing calamities, it's only a vessel through which other forces act, and through which they can also be calmed to delay the inevitable.

With all of that laid out... Impending Day Sinclair. Oh man, Impending Day Sinclair.

Let's start off with the Awakening attack, shall we? Here, the... staff? Mace? Hammer? The weapon that Sinclair uses takes on a form mimicking the shape Doomsday Calendar's plate has during the Blood Festival phase. This corresponds nicely with the effect this attack has, being healing and granting a buff on a kill, as if devouring the target similarly to how Doomsday Calendar needs blood to be satiated during the corresponding phase.

The dialogue line, "I’ll crush you…", doesn't really tell us much by itself. Sinclair's delivery here is sort of strained, not exactly scared but not angry either. Anticipating, perhaps? Readying himself? Trying to show restraint? It's a little bit hard for me to tell. What I do find interesting is how this line seems to roughly correspond with the type of attack Doomsday Calendar does during its Blood Festival phase - pounding and slamming the ground with its arms. Likewise, the type of attack Sinclair goes for here is slamming down onto the target, pushing them further down to the ground.

Considering how the Blood Festival phase shows us Doomsday Calendar seemingly having a tantrum out of impatience, is this meant to be a reflection of Sinclair in some way?

Of how he acted out, not exactly out of impatience but more so out of the anxious anticipation of his upcoming prosthetic procedure, leading to him breaking his family's trust and indirectly causing them to be "crushed" by Kromer?

Then, there's the Corrosion attack. Sinclair's weapon here takes on a form mimicking that of Doomsday Calendar's plate during the Fire Festival phase, showing the progression of intensity. The mechanics and animation aren't as close of a parallel to that fight's phase, considering Doomsday Calendar only guards during it, but I think there is still something to be noted here.

During the Fire Festival, Doomsday Calendar can be best described as "simmering" in my opinion. Letting its raging flame be known while also seemingly calmly waiting for an offering to be given. Likewise, Corroded Sinclair could also be described as simmering in this attack, gaining a buff but also being hurt if he fails to kill. His dialogue line's delivery also gives off that vibe of a controlled frenzy - sounding calm yet at moments being so intense it almost makes him sound ecstatic.

His line here, "You, too, will be a live offering.", is... interesting. It's as direct of a reference to the Abnormality as it can get, but there's just something about it that makes me wonder. The wording of 'You, too' brings to mind the image of someone having already been offered up beforehand. Who was this previous offering? Who is this current one?

In the Fire Festival phase, the offering given to the Abnormality is meant to weaken its flames, to cool its fervor. It patiently waits for it, like an Altar, while damage is caused all around it. Perhaps, just like in the Awakening the calamity being brought forth represents Kromer, the Corrosion represents how Kromer patiently waited for the second 'offering', Sinclair himself, to show up at her altar, while N Corp's Inquisitors burned down everything for her in the meantime.

Finally, we have the Sin Analysis portion of this post.

Impending Day's Sin Affinity is Wrath, the Sin of defiance and the audacity to try and change the world. I think that perfectly represents what sort of 'impending day' this E.G.O represents. By acting with Wrath, by trying to delay the inevitable procedure and trusting Kromer, Sinclair became the harbinger of the calamity she brought.

Just like how in Doomsday Calendar's fight delaying one calamity only brings forth another, Sinclair delaying the end of his world that losing his organic body meant to him only brought forth a different kind of end to his world.

When it comes to Sin Resource Cost, Impending Day requires two Sins - Wrath (3 of them) and Lust (2 of them).

Wrath requirement is already partially explained by the Affinity. Sinclair needs to wish to defy his reality, to delay the seemingly inevitable, to be willing to rebel against his family, for the Kromerity (that is, Kromer calamity) to take place.

Lust is an interesting Sin requirement here. I believe it's meant to represent Sinclair seeking fulfillment, specifically a fulfilling life and a form of social fulfillment. On one hand, he's seeking a way to continue living this his organic body, as it's the way of being he finds far more preferrable and comfortable to the cold prosthetics he sees his family using. On the other hand, there's the social fulfillment that comes from befriending Kromer and listening to her further justifying his own disgust. Both of those contribute to him being compelled to trust Kromer, thus bringing forth the Kromerity.

When it comes to Sin Resistances, interestingly enough the only one Impending Day Sinclair shares with Doomsday Calendar is being Fatal to Sloth. By resigning himself to his fate, to the initial calamity, Sinclair could have avoided this whole situation, which is something he's painfully aware of.

Impending Day Sinclair being fatal to Gloom is also a reflection of his regrets. If only he had listened to his doubts and worries in the moment, if only he had let his initial anxiety around Kromer lead him away from her, perhaps this all could have been avoided.

On the other hand, Wrath is ineffective against Impending Day Sinclair. After all, Wrath is what led him into this situation in the first place, but it's also what can get him out right now. By directing that Wrath against Kromer, by defying what she wants, he can delay her next inevitable calamity.

To properly summarize, since I really should summarize these posts more often, Impending Day represents Sinclair's role as a harbinger of the calamity Kromer would bring, and how his attempts at delaying his own prosthetic procedure led to him and his family becoming 'offerings' to her. It's a reflection of his guilt, of the role he believes he played in this tragedy.

So... yeah. Hope that was enjoyable to read, I don't know how long this post turned out to be and at this point I'm afraid to ask!

#ask #impending-day-sinclair #lu speaketh #limbus company #lcb analysis #sinclair #sinclair lcb #impending day sinclair #something something target audience

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