Lurker > Thorn

I'm in Chapter 4 where Mio just punched a Moebius in the face because she's so done with everything.

I guess my protip contribution is that some people's Collectopedia Cards update and I don't think there's any indication they do other than checking periodically. I have mine set to be sorted for "First Time Reward" but every now and then when I check the section of people I've sent items to already they have a different sheet and again reward a big chunk of affinity and another accessory instead of the vastly reduced affinity reward with no accessory.

Xenoblade 3, still in Chapter 4: Mio is so done with this shit lol. I don't know how she managed to punch a Moebius like 50 feet but I'm here for it. Also, dang not sure who had "becomes a mafia boss" down as Melia's future. "That's a nice colony you have there, be a shame if anything happened to it." I'm still not clear on what Cammuravi was doing there. Ethel tried to fill in the holes for me but made it worse at the last second. He got captured by Keves at some point but chose to be "reborn?" What? Can't be literal because his mark was still almost depleted in the scene Ethel said that. Did the Moebius/Evil Noah tell him the whole war is a farce or something but not tell Ethel for kicks?

https://twitter.com/yarbro/status/1557136280785403904

Trump-appointed FBI Director enforces Trump-signed law. LOL "whoops"

Well, from a moral/justice standpoint it very obviously should have been different. At the very least it shouldn't be treated like a sacred text that can't have its motivations and outcomes questioned. It very clearly no longer fits the current times and that has been true... for a while.

~~~

Back to the raid.

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1556968629522014211

The FBI wouldn't, in my estimation, make this kind of move if we were talking about the document equivalent of jaywalking even if they were 100% sure they had him on it so I figured that there has to be something fairly significant about whatever documents they are alleging he took. This might be a hint.

pretty sure the fbi doesn't take the step of "raiding the residence of a former president" if there is any chance of the outcome being "lol got nothing"

Plus we know that they had to submit (and have signed off by a judge) what they were looking for and we know they took stuff back so it feels pretty safe they found (and in all likelihood knew exactly where to go, we also know they were there a while ago talking with Trump's lawyers about documents) what they were looking for.

erica solos season 1 would have been anticlimactic

Kenri posted...

US moderates are literally just conservatives who don't want to identify as conservatives because that would make them look bad lol

It's splitting hairs, but that's how I parse "independent." "Temporarily embarrassed Republican"

But I put moderate in quotes because yeah it's more like what GMUN said.

I didn't pause or anything, but from what we saw it just looked like a summary of events. I saw parts about "drove to Fring's house as instructed", etc.

Late to this, but my quick take would be something like this.

The US is not nearly as conservative as the GOP thinks/acts like it is.
The US isn't really as progressive as some leftists think it is.

What it is is full of "moderates" who really just want the status quo because a culture of individualism kind of ingrains the idea that a collective like the government doing anything big is just intrinsically bad because they're conditioned to believe it will somehow infringe on their pioneer spirit or some shit even when that's just clearly not true.

So you get an electorate that tries to protect the status quo from often imaginary and just nonexistent threats... but then that is applied to an electoral and governmental system which was explicitly designed to empower a minority of wealthy white men which in turn delivers a result far more conservative than that electorate actually wants.

But it all happens under the guise of nothing changing all that much (still two parties, etc.) from an uninformed layperson's point of view so any attempts to alert them that this very much isn't normal, okay, or just is met with rolled eyes and "you're over-exaggerating."

Very much summarized and cut corners there instead of writing an essay for nuance but yeah.

Taken down by Ask Jeeves, truly how the mighty have fallen. Though I guess Saul gets the last laugh there. /s

Great episode.

9

I want to give it a higher score but can't justify it outside memes. THE DNA OF THE SOUL.

MacArrowny posted...

Oh hey an area that's bigger than all the previous areas in the game combined

Gonna be here a while

bigger than fornis or whatever it's called?

i'm already dead

Xenoblade 3: Okay Chapter 3 officially beated. Thoughts below.

Couple of main thought processes here that intersect a lot between past!Eunie and J. I think it's pretty clear that the world, or at least the colonies, is running on a loop of sorts. That the enemy group calls themselves Moebius was pretty much hint enough. I'm guessing that Eunie was remembering a past loop of her life where she was in Colony 18 there. There was no sign of Noah, Lanz, or anyone else we know from Colony 9 so maybe they mix up where they stick people or maybe they're just holding that reveal back. I also think it's kinda interesting that Eunie was in a Gold rank colony there and the opponent *was* Moebius. There's a story there. Did that colony figure out the truth? Is the "reward" for Gold rank that Moebius comes down and kills you off for being too good? Did Colony 18 "win" the war and Moebius was the secret final boss?

As for Joran. I'm actually surprised the party is taking him at his word here. He literally demonstrated the ability to shapeshift as Isurd to psychologically torment Taion but no one goes "Yo, wait up a sec, think he's doing the same to you Colony 9 guys?" I mean *I* believe him because he's named Consul J but they don't have that level of meta awareness! Anyway, not entirely sure what to make of him. Given my above loop theory with Eunie it's entirely possible he's a past Joran who watched what happened to present!Joran in their big theater and is just fucking with them. Alternatively, given my other earlier theory (still live) that the world is some kind of sim or game (and they up the game imagery in the Chapter 4 intro cutscene) it's possible that somehow his death made him aware of the true nature of the world and he's just kind of lost it and is treating the whole thing like a cosmic joke.

Inflation Reduction Act passes the Senate.

As expected the GOP objected to the insulin provision in the bill. The parliamentarian ruled it was outside the reconciliation rules for private insurance (but okay for Medicare) and Dems held a vote to try and restore it, needing 60 votes. It "failed" 57-43.

TeamRocketElite posted...

So much exp. >_>

Last time I checked my BEXP I had 10 levels worth lol.

oh then i guess i will wait a little. darn.

Yeah, if I can succeed (and I might not, I'm at level 36!) I expect to level up like 2-3 times just doing the quest lol.

~~~

Stranger Things: wow how dare you doubt the integrity of my boy dustin

Hyped for Season 4.

Inflation Reduction Act Update:

It has mostly survived the parliamentarian. Only provision that seems to have been thrown out for sure was a provision that would require pharmaceutical companies to pay the government if they raised prices beyond rate of inflation. Parliamentarian said it was fine for Medicare but tossed the part that applied ti to private insurance as well.

Medicare being able to negotiate prices is in, and a $35 cap on insulin for Medicare is in. I've heard conflicting reports on $35 cap on insulin for private insurance though. Best I can tell is we don't have a ruling on it so we can expect some GOP asshole to object to it and get us a ruling in real-time. Based on how they split the decision on the above provision I feel like they might similarly rule it out for private insurance here too. If so, I imagine Dems will (and they absolutely should) call a vote (needing 60) to put it back in to get them on the record. Climate provisions appear to have sailed through as well.

Vote-a-rama (the price of a reconciliation bill being that literally any Senator can propose amendments to be voted on until they're literally out of ideas) strategy from Dems appears to be to just vote down any amendment regardless of policy because this deal is basically a massive jenga tower that could fall apart because Manchin, Sinema, or whoever might pull support if we god forbid put more good stuff in here. Senators from Markey to Manchin himself have gone on the record saying they're just going to blanket vote down any amendment regardless of policy to preserve the deal as-is. By contrast, Sanders says he'll still offer amendments so prepare to see a lot of good stuff voted down because of the above.

Motion to proceed has passed 51-50 (Harris tiebreaker) and the marathon has begun and will likely continue all the way through the night.

kevwaffles posted...

Time to split into teams. I pick Yukiko because I feel like the game will make me go with her anyway.

Yeah, if you pick Yosuke or Chie someone complains about the teams and forces you to go with Yukiko.

I haven't been giving updates lately but I'm still moving along. I'm still technically in Chapter 3 but I'm willing to bet it'll pretty much end if I walk a couple of feet in the direction the game wants me to. I just fought Consul J and I'll have much more thoughts on that when I officially end the chapter.

...But I noticed Skip Travel seems to be available at the moment so I might see if I can tackle the Iota Hero Quest. I would have preferred another level or two before attempting it but why not?

Jobs report for July is out. It came in well above expectation.

As of now all jobs lost in the pandemic have been recovered and the unemployment rate is tied at a 50-year low.

mnkboy907 posted...

Thaumaturge class (wtf is that name)

I think the literal translation from Ancient Greek is basically "miracle worker." But yeah it's basically another word for mage/magic. It's used for a branch of magic in the Trails series too, for instance.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Once you gain the ability to climb them, every one you've bypassed is automarked retroactively.

This makes me wonder about a few I saw and thus didn't approach all the way as opposed to the ones I got close enough for a party member to chime in.

I want the ability to place markers on the map for unique monsters I can't take on yet though so I can remember the spots for later. AFAIK you can only place 1 down which is not helpful for that.

Definitely wish it had the ability to level down like in X1 DE's Expert Mode. I liked being able to move my level around to meet whatever content I was doing at the moment.

Stomach viruses suck, yeah.

Also an update on the Inflation Reduction Act: Sinema is onboard now after some tweaks.

https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1555360370134499330

Out:
Closing the carried interest loophole
Language on accelerated depreciation

In:
$5b in drought relief
1% excise tax on stock buybacks.

Early estimates is that the stock buyback excise will actually bring in more revenue than the two drops Sinema demanded would have but still a joke she demanded those.

Triple post, sorry, but I'm dying laughing.

https://twitter.com/annamerlan/status/1555203790185562113
https://twitter.com/annamerlan/status/1555203953692127232
https://twitter.com/annamerlan/status/1555205337275215872

please disregard

Yeah, she's one of the better FE characters. The endless arguments around her less so.

Leonhart4 posted...

Foes unite to shut down an unlawful business from operating on one of their properties.

Super Mario RPG.

LOL that's where I'm at, but at Level 32. (No idea on BEXP)

Also Schumer said he wants to hold the vote to proceed on reconciliation (Manchin's IRA/BBB) Saturday. Unclear if they have the votes because of, of course, Sinema.

Said vote wouldn't be final passage but would start a process that would probably see the final vote sometime next week.

Xeybozn posted...

Does he want to kill them? He seems to be saying that we should make them discretionary so we can deny certain people benefits. That's not how it works, obviously, but it's hard to say whether he wants to kill them and is appealing to race/class to convince voters to support that or if he's just too stupid to know what he's talking about. (Or maybe even both?)

I mean, he doesn't outright say he wants to end them but that is the obvious outcome of moving them to discretionary spending. Even if you take him at his word (and I'd say the Johnson and the GOP absolutely have shown they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt) and he "just" wants to deny "certain" people benefits that's pretty much guaranteed to be so against the purpose of the programs that it is killing it in spirit if not name.

Like, killing these programs has been a long-term goal of the GOP for decades. They keep trying to find a way to frame it that they think can run cover for them but that's what it has always been about. Privatization, this, etc.

This all sounds wild, haven't read past the tl;dr versions yet.

In other news, Ron Johnson just comes out and wants to kill Social Security and Medicare by taking them out of mandatory spending and placing them into discretionary spending.

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1554606259596320770

wisconsin please

HanOfTheNekos posted...

And yeah, Chain Attack I haven't quite yet figured out the key to getting more orders in it? For awhile I was getting 3 max but I've started to get 4 by using less people per order, so idk

I don't know if it changes later but every time you use a main party member's order it depletes the Chain Gauge by 1/3 and it ends if it empties so that's why it was 3 max.

But Hero Unit Orders don't deplete the gauge so if you work them in it can go to 4.

And yeah, I've been using Interlink as a desperation measure myself, for me or if I notice my partner member is in trouble.

LordoftheMorons posted...

I failed this at level 22 in normal mode tempted to just use my bonus xp and retry (or alternatively I guess I could switch to mastered classes, but Id rather get whatever CP he awards)

It took me a bunch of retries at Level 22 but I managed to get him eventually. Probably would have been a lot simpler to use BEXP or change to mastered classes like you said but I'm stubborn.

I definitely don't have the greatest handle on the battle system yet trying to juggle when to Chain Attack, Interlink, etc.

I've been going around doing hero quests and have made zero main story progress in Chapter 3 lol. But once I sweep Colony Gamma for any quests I think I'll be out of side content for the time being.

Anagram posted...

Four friends have to stop someone they already stopped.

Final Fantasy

Kenri posted...

Man goes searching for his missing father, ends up feuding with his crush's dad.

Probably not it, but Fire Emblem 7 kinda fits!

I mean, the US's policy on Taiwan has basically been "We support Taiwan... except we just won't say so officially." But we also say we'll defend them militarily from an invasion and sell them weapons and basically have had shadow diplomatic ties with them the whole time.

It also would inflame tensions with China and likely for no real gain which is why I presume the Biden administration is against it. If it actually advanced things maybe it'd be different. But I would assume they'd rather not strain things with China during a global supply chain and inflation crisis while NATO is also got its focus on assisting a nation in conflict with another big nuclear power and probably wouldn't be in the best position to help Taiwan god forbid it came to that.

All that said, now that Pelosi has decided to do this I do kinda think backing down would be a mistake. So it's just a shit situation.

Leonhart4 posted...

Small town life revolves around appointment television

Persona 4

TeamRocketElite posted...

That's pretty similar to what I did. I didn't find a path the first time. When I got the quest I went to Lv40 zone before turning around. Then I jumped down to finish the Hero Quest. I didn't even know there was a path until you mention but I guess it makes sense there is one.

Oh, you managed to jump down from there? I tried a few times where it looked like I could maybe hit a ledge to break the fall into two survivable jumps but I kept dying from fall damage because it never took.

As for what I assume is the intended path: From the ground level facing the wall, there's a pipe-like opening on at one spot that spits you out there. Might be on one of the smaller interior spots you can climb up. The minimap shows like a small protrusion/line where it is. Sorry that's not a better description.

And yeah I basically explored the entire 40+ area while I was over there lol.

AoT Openings: Season 4 Part 2 is my favorite, but Part 1 is great too, yeah.
AoT Endings: Probably Season 4 Part 2 again but it is my duty in this topic to stand up for Season 2's ED whenever the topic comes up.

~~~

Xenoblade 3: In early Chapter 3 now. Affinity Chart just unlocked and with it I will perhaps never progress in the game again.

I also was completely blind and never noticed the path behind the wall that is needed for the Hero Quest just prior to this. Way back during general exploration I tried to see if you could find a path to jump down there but couldn't. Seeing that cave there and looking at the area map I convinced myself it'd be accessible later. Then the hero quest sent me there, I again missed the correct path and ended up on a crazy journey into the Level 40+ part of the zone thinking "oh hey the other end of that cave could plausibly be here and the game is letting me over here now after having it blocked off this must be the right idea"

Also the Information/Discuss with Party mechanic is totally my jam. I know it has no relation to this but it feels a lot like the Info gathering from Triangle Strategy but way more like what I would have wanted from it.

End of Chapter 2: that escalated quickly. I was mostly joking last time when I wondered why Riku just happened to have a super OP sword on hand but I am *no longer joking*. Curious about the Flame Clocks now. So if it's active but empties out a colony dies but it's totally fine if you just destroy it outright and now everyone is free? The whole AR thing and how a lot of the discussions are game mechanic-y and how Consul K (and the guy before him) keep talking about playing and shit I am not ruling out this is some elaborate simulation for some purpose.

you hear that, noah?
lanz wants something a bit meatier

MacArrowny posted...

Is Tracy even beatable without Chain Attacks? Also where is she again?

I got her down to like 5% after fighting through the self-heal like 4 or 5 times and I'm convinced if I swapped everyone back to their original classes I could have won (but they're currently capped so I refused) because I got near that HP range another time or two but yeah had to go back and win after Chain Attacks were unlocked.

Also, second big area near where you enter.

oh right the actual most important part of that xenoblade 3 update for me

i met, and after far too much effort, defeated my new nemesis sharpwitted tracy

if you know, you know

RIP

MacArrowny posted...

Yeah but they're giving us the worst FGO character

goredolf when

XB3 later into Chapter 2. First major story event after unlocking Chain Attacks and freely changing Time of Day.

Noah lowkey an asshole. Flashes back to Mio telling him she's nearly out of time and marking the days in her journal, then elects to take the slower route. I'm kidding but still I lol'd at that. Also what the *hell* was Riku doing with just casually owning a sword out of Metal Gear Rising?

On to more serious matters, Ethel just showed up to execute a kill order on us. A brief shot from her PoV confirmed what I was suspecting from the end of Chapter 1 - the reason everyone is after us is because their Irises have been altered to show us as fog monsters. Taion hints at such when Mio's team is on the run but it was confirmed this was the mechanism right there rather than like widescale brainwashing/Order 66. The Irises and their AR-like functions clearly play a big role in the setting so I suspected this was the case. Also has some interesting implications for the Nopon. We know that Riku at least does not have an Iris which means he (and unless he's an exception, but all the tube grown we saw were humanoid) and the entirety of the Nopon are immune to this kind of manipulation. Hell, if Ethel had her own Riku present there he arguably could have defused the situation. I wonder if this will come into play later - because if the Nopon are truly independent of this system that is... interesting and raises some serious questions.

Also this is ceasing to be funny what is wrong with me that I can't tell these voices apart.

Nah, while I stopped immediately after that it seemed pretty clear it's part of a tutorial of how it's going to work. There's some cross-class arts/skills equipping stuff and I'm assuming there'll be some mandatory fights on the way where it'll stick some tutorials in to show how it works and wants to make sure you don't revert back to the initial classes and ruin it lol.

XB3 End of Chapter 1: oh what a surprise. lol Noah finally realizing that "now the world's your enemy" was actually kind of a heads-up. o ya, Mio supremacy. She was really fun to play as. Also, man, my inability to really tell voices apart is already really bad with Mio/Eunie and to a lesser extent Sena, you can't just introduce SEELE/The Gazel Ministry and give them letter codenames my brain can't possibly deal. Also let me put Mio as the lead on the menu you cowards, this is the real future I mean to rebel against.

Also played a bit of Chapter 2. Up until class changing was unlocked... and then re-locked lol.