Tomo's Silly Posts

working on a bigger post so have this doodle + small side thought that wouldn't fit there, as always, take with a pile of salt

Alright, recently [due to thinking about Dante as this always starts] I've been pondering about the role of authors and stories in Limbus - primarily the fact that despite both Lobcorp and LoR having their fare share of literature references, they are not as upfront as within Limbus, and I have cobbled together something about that.

See, so far we have had our fare share of clues that the current story of the LCB is scripted or predicted in some manner, via the Flow being followed by those on the bus - as evidenced by Faust's talk of things that weren't supposed to happen against Riccardo, Hohenheim talking about how the flow of the world with preserve Dante and generally most talk of the flow itself, Ahab and how the LCB got to her just in time for the journey to the heart - and it is thus why I believe the Cantos are as they are, generally loose adaptations of their source material focusing on some of the key points instead of a vaguer inspiration. There remains a script [the work that serves as inspiration] and the story of Limbus is only focusing in on some elements - the script is both followed and changed for a different end, as I believe to be happening with Dante themselves.

Though for their case specifically, I have two thoughts on what the 'original work' was: 1) their 'fall from the sky' but in reverse, learning things they unlearned and making progress back up the social ladder of the world, becoming again that 'big shot' Vergie noted that they used to be and returning to the sky/heaven. 2) Something 'written' by pre-clock Dante to be a loose adaptation of Lobcorp itself, in a bid to recreate the SoL by allowing the Boughs to feed on Character Development the same way the SoL's percentage in Lobcorp went up after each meltdown. Or perhaps it is some mix of the both of these ideas, one cannot be sure as our total amount of pre-clock Dante information is FuckAll.

Yet this does not fully cover their connection to the Little Prince via Demian, as with that they are narratively given the role of a pilot on their way home stranded in the desert - but again the majority of the characters are not compound ones like Demian and Dante are, so this may be a topic I come back to another time if we get more of these obvious compound characters. Still, his near perfect quoting of Enoch at some points gives a bit of credence to the idea that the story being played out by the LCB and somewhat enforced by Demian and his group being based in some manner of the happenings of Lobcorp.

I've seen some map the current story onto the stories of the Oddessy and the Divine Comedy both, but I cannot find the doc for the first and the second one is too long for my tired ass to list here, soz mates, but the thought is one to keep in mind I feel.

But I digress, the reason this post started existing is actually regarding the role of Author within the Sinners, which fits two characters to my knowledge: Dante and Yi Sang. Dante is of course essentially a self insert from the irl Alighieri, whilst Yi Sang of Limbus is a mixture of the stories of the irl author by that name and his works, thus granting both of them the status as an Author.

As well, Herman[n] is the name of not only Greg's mumsy, but also the authors of 'Moby Dick', 'Demian' and - as I've seen pointed out by others, there is a work called 'The Death of Virgil' which was writ by one Hermann Broch. Even if it's a coincidence, tis a funny one.

This 'author' status is what may be differentiating them from others, most possibly through sheer influence, intentional or not, possibly of great relation to the MWs due to their nebulous existence - as in, it's hard to tell if a MW is truly real or not, especially as they seem to primarily show alternatives for whomever is looking into it, with us knowing little about how much they exist beyond that. Or something. If one gains sufficient control over the mirror and its associated tech, one could essentially either 'author' their own MW or alter reality in a similar way to the creation of the dough in Canto 6.

Continuing on from the mirror:

The mirror worlds used for generic IDs are essentially retellings of the Sinners' lives with some differences that made them end up in a different organisation - and more generally they are worlds that show a different version or adaptation of the life of whomever looks within it. This seems to be primarily be based on the underlying wants & beliefs as well as the knowledge held by the one looking in the mirror [I say primarily due to the Canto 6 sequence wherein we saw many mirror versions of Catherine and Heathcliff, some of which like the one with all the yellow eyes possibility being influenced by the river under the manor because idk how else that would happen] and it is with that that I need to do a full pivot directly into Jiashmael's whole. Thing.

So this is the ID that most obviously asks the question of 'how much can a Sinner’s story be changed while remaining the same person'. Her appearance is the same, voice, name, her constant in the rope she still wears on her - yet she hasn't been before to the Great Lake, instead being a child born and raised in the Jia family. Though she does encapsulate many of the same feelings and emotional experiences of our LCB Ishmael, like her current lack of direction and want within her life. It is impossible for her to be Ishmael, and yet she is undeniably Ishmael.

Just as how most Don Quixote's are impossible, if one talks of the lighthouse, yet still undeniably happen.

This sort of ship of theseus-esque idea of 'how much of a Sinner’s story can be changed until they are no longer the same' is real interesting to me - and the fact this question is explored through the mirror may connect to how each NPC based Sinner ID shares at least a little or similar story once boiled down to their constituent parts connection to the Sinner that gets said ID, like with, say, Olga!Outis. The ID seems set before the events of the Library & she is soon to go on a much, much longer than expected trip that shall end with the deaths of those under her. Perhaps also working as an indication of what Outis' pre-war personality was like as well, a generally far departure from the grizzled vet she is now. There near always is some notable similarity, some link, that allows for the IDs to be used due to being similar to a core facet of the Sinner.