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Ytlaya posted:I still very strongly doubt that something will go seriously wrong with the chaos event, at least to an extent that isn't mostly resolved relatively quickly. This series is supposed to be a very "slow grind" and Alden isn't even remotely close to being able to meaningfully contribute to some sort of terrible "chaos event" on Earth. Unless it's resolved very quickly, it would also essentially require that the entire "setting" on Earth be set on fire (everything involving the Anesidoran organizations, social dynamics, etc), which doesn't seem like a thing that Sleyca is going to want to do so anytime soon. SupSup 123 While I also doubt that the demon extermination will go drastically wrong with kaiju demons roaming the Earth and trashing the system or something. I do think something absolutely will go wrong when he visits. For instance a hero being injured that Alden jumps in to preserve with his power. He can be Super Supportive and change the status quo (with the gradual ratcheting up out of "intensity level 4") without the world ending
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Jan 15, 2024 14:58
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SS theories I guess: Alden's been shown to have a lot of panic and dread over his affixation. He did the math, and was terrified that it looked like he had only a year left... if not less. It's hugely traumatic. I predict 'poo poo hits the fan' when the System is like "Dude I gotta affix you in the next week" and he calls Stu'arth and goes 'help I can feel my affixation and I'm about to affix like a knight do you know anything that makes this easier/more bearable please?" Stu'arth brings his dad in the loop, and we go to 'intensity level 99.9' (AKA the Knight outfit Mother gave to a quiet rabbit)
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Jan 15, 2024 16:57
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I thought Elder Cultivator might easily be the worst story I've ever been addicted to, but I feel like it's actually getting good about a hundred chapters in.
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Jan 15, 2024 23:52
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Nitrousoxide posted:SupSup 123 Yeah, I think it's likely something will happen, just not something huge or anything like "a disastrous chaos event on Earth." My best guess is just "it somehow results in Alden coming into contact with the Knights." The biggest thing I could see coming of it is "the Knights find out about Alden's situation." I think the Knights would actually be willing to keep Alden's secret, since they understand better than anyone else what sort of situation he's in.
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Jan 16, 2024 05:18
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PerniciousKnid posted:I thought Elder Cultivator might easily be the worst story I've ever been addicted to, but I feel like it's actually getting good about a hundred chapters in. like I definitely have a favorite character and they have experienced Actual Growth and Actual Consequences also the author is really good at handling the... scope creep?... that cultivation stories sometimes fall prey to, you know, like "there's an entire other galaxy out there! no wait an entire other universe! no wait an entire multiverse!" with continually escalating power levels? none of that poo poo.
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Jan 16, 2024 07:37
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I'm uh, 831 chapters in (look I had covid okay I don't have stamina to do anything real) and it is pretty good Aww I was hoping to explore new levels of old.
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Jan 17, 2024 01:30
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PerniciousKnid posted:I thought Elder Cultivator might easily be the worst story I've ever been addicted to, but I feel like it's actually getting good about a hundred chapters in. I'm on chapter 106. Out of ~900 so far. So that's good to hear.
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Jan 17, 2024 07:22
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oh no I ran out of chapters at 854PerniciousKnid posted:Aww I was hoping to explore new levels of old.
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Jan 17, 2024 13:41
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Skill Thief 36 - I didn't see that "twist" coming at all, but it makes perfect sense. Aspreay having been in love with Vasco explains the aspects of his behavior that weren't fully explained by Adam's painting. I love how some of the antagonist characters, like Aspreay, are genuinely sympathetic while also still being unquestionably bad people who don't really deserve forgiveness.
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Jan 18, 2024 04:04
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SupSup 109: I'm glad they're getting into how utterly, completely unhinged people would get once hereditary superpowers became a thing.
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Jan 18, 2024 23:16
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Haystack posted:SupSup 109: I'm glad they're getting into how utterly, completely unhinged people would get once hereditary superpowers became a thing. It really makes perfect sense. Plus how much it would make you into a neurotic mess as a teenager. Every day that passes after the age of 15 or so means "a lower chance of getting a higher Rank." It'd be miserable. It's very easy to understand why it'd mess up the relationship between Lexi and Kon. Unless I misunderstood/misremembered something, the one element I actually find kind of understated is that kids of high-Ranks don't seem very concerned about being a non-Avowed. It's a low chance, but IIRC it's still like 5% or something, which is high enough that you'd definitely worry about it. Maybe I'm misremembering and it's actually lower than that?
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Jan 18, 2024 23:40
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Ytlaya posted:It really makes perfect sense. Plus how much it would make you into a neurotic mess as a teenager. Every day that passes after the age of 15 or so means "a lower chance of getting a higher Rank." It'd be miserable. It's very easy to understand why it'd mess up the relationship between Lexi and Kon. The chance of (SupSup, nothing spoilerish but discusses a Sleyca comment on Patreon) two avowed parents having a kid that isn't avowed at all, IE a whiff, is supposed to be something like .1%. Or at least someone asked Sleyca if it was like 10% and she said no, it was extremely rare. It's probably the kind of thing kids from avowed families sometimes secretly worry about, but it's so rare it wouldn't be considered a real possibility. If your parents are both A ranks or whatever, the more likely worry is that you end up being B or C ranked, while not getting selected at all is more the getting struck by lightning sort of thing people tell themselves they don't have to worry about.
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Jan 19, 2024 06:59
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That line about the whiff was straight up cruel
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Jan 19, 2024 07:29
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Thoroughly enjoying the hazel stans in the comments slowly realising that maybe it's not a switcheroo and actually she's just a giant dick
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Jan 19, 2024 07:49
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Supsup 124 patreonquote:“I just want to hang out in the background and find ways to use my power to support everyone else,” he said finally.
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Jan 19, 2024 10:14
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Hazel never had a chance. Soupsoup109 she's a massive nepo and eugenics baby who was always taught she was better than anyone and that that was a good thing, never any boundaries until she went way, way too far, then punished in a way that probably fostered more resentment rather than growth and certainly no reconciliation at the age of eight. Not to mention all the expectations placed on her turned out to have been largely unfulfilable. She sucks hard, but I feel it's saying less about her and more about how hosed up the Velras are in general and how successful Jessica was in raising Lute to be a decently kind and stable human being.
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Jan 19, 2024 12:21
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We still don't know how Jessica was involved in the whole.. thing.. though yet I think.
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Jan 19, 2024 15:42
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I saw a great theory on RR (109) comments that I had mostly thought about a bit before but never connected all the dots: Jessica is clearly illegally genetically engineered with artonan dna or something. But the poster speculated that she's TOO good of an avowed, in that she either has huge authority but no chaos potential, or an actual authority sense (or at least the contract figured the odds of her gaining one are too high) because we know that the artonans would consider binding somebody with an authority sense would be a reprehensible act. That's why her kid with a normal human has the artonan dna diluted enough to merely be SS rank. This would also explain the Leafsong thing because Aulia is working on getting her some teaching or that knowledge somehow. I wonder if this then means (RR patron 122 or so) If earth's chaos does rise a bit due to whatever goes wrong at the demon summoning, if she is badly affected (which would imply the latter of the two theories above, because the system says it stabilises avowed and she couldn't have that). I don't mean a full chaos apocalypse or anything, but some kind of Event. Although having said that we've seen that little wizards are naturally resistant to chaos so maybe it'll be her and Alden saving people (which also redeems her somewhat). e: I looked at some timeline pdf on the discord and the Matadero boat trip that Alden was invited to happens before the Stuart visit. gonadic io fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jan 19, 2024 |
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Jan 19, 2024 16:07
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gonadic io posted:I saw a great theory on RR (109) comments that I had mostly thought about a bit before but never connected all the dots: I suspect this as well, particularly because (SS 121) Manon tried her skill on Jessica first because weaker targets usually work better. But it didn't take. So at the least it would make sense if she has significant authority Anyway (SS 124) Lute is amazing. He identified that a person was badly burned from 2 floors down in seconds. I didn't know he had a wordchain that could do that. Depending on how lenient the rules for banking chains are, that's a huge amount of flexibility at his fingertips.
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Jan 19, 2024 17:19
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Enkor posted:I suspect this as well, particularly because (SS 121) Manon tried her skill on Jessica first because weaker targets usually work better. But it didn't take. So at the least it would make sense if she has significant authority Ah, but (SupSup 124) that wasn't a banked chain. It was his super hearing. Notice how he cocked his head? He put a ton of points into his hearing with an associated ability to turn it up or down as needed. So it seems to me they heard the scream, and then he cocka his head and turns up his super hearing to identify what was going on. Lute does indeed rule. I just think it's neat that Sleyca let his super hearing shine with so little fanfare.
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Jan 19, 2024 17:40
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gonadic io posted:I saw a great theory on RR (109) comments that I had mostly thought about a bit before but never connected all the dots: There are a number of issues with this. One is that it relies on "a very early attempt at inter-species splicing producing an authority sense," which is a pretty huge leap to begin with. Another (and probably the biggest one) is that Artonans don't have "a lot more authority." It's not like they all have the same authority as top-ranked Avowed. They just have an authority sense that lets them use their authority to do magic. It's not like the Artonans are all powerful to such an extent that merely having their diluted DNA makes someone a "super-Avowed." Most Artonans presumably don't have enough authority to be useful (which I think is why most don't have the potential to be wizards). As far as I can tell, the main important difference between the species is that Artonans have an authority sense, rather than "the amount of authority they have." So there's no reason to think that a human having spliced Artonan DNA would make them "more powerful" unless Aulia somehow got her hands on a high-ranked Knight's DNA which...I'm pretty sure didn't happen. Also, it seems like Aulia understands very little about "actual magic." She probably isn't even aware "authority" is a thing, since neither are the vast majority of other humans. How would she even be aware of stuff like "if Jessica has an authority sense, she'll need an education in wizardry to use it"? And keep in mind Jessica would have been born pretty early into the existence of Avowed on Earth, so they would have known even less when she was conceived.
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Jan 19, 2024 20:32
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Another argument for it that was pointed out to me is (SS 121 spoiler) quote:She tried Jessica first because weak people were usually easier. Then Cady Velra.
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Jan 19, 2024 20:47
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Ytlaya posted:
Yes, but (RR109) she doesn't have to be aware of any of that to say "I spliced my daughter with an artonan wizard therefore she might become a wizard therefore I should start a side project to see if I could get contacts in a wizard school just in case".
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Jan 19, 2024 20:49
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gonadic io posted:Yes, but she doesn't have to be aware of any of that to say "I spliced my daughter with an artonan wizard therefore she might become a wizard therefore I should start a side project to see if I could get contacts in a wizard school just in case". Why would this result in her having "SS-Rank" levels of authority, though? I don't think wizards have more authority than Avowed (I think they might actually have significantly less than higher-rank Avowed because of the lower growth from friction between bound/unbound authority), just an authority sense. Plus "successful interspecies gene splicing with an Artonan wizard" is a pretty crazy thing just to begin with, especially since this would have happened decades ago. I also feel like "allowing a human to splice Artonan genes" is a really huge thing that even Aulia doesn't have the influence to accomplish (even assuming it's possible). It just seems far more likely that Aulia, who has a bunch of really dumb/goofy ideas, thought "being more like an Artonan" would increase someone's ability to do magic. We've already seen other people who try to make themselves look Artonan. edit: The only thing that makes me think there could be something weird going on is Lute himself (who is very unique due to having two S-Rank Skills at affixation. It's not really clear how unusual this is (like whether it's just "really rare" or "literally has never happened before"). If it's the latter, I think that's better evidence for something like your theory than anything else. gonadic io posted:
This is the relevant part - quote:She tried Jessica first because weak people were usually easier. Then Cady Velra. Her reaction implies that there's nothing too strange about this (she says "usually" and isn't that shocked about it). It sounds like it's very situational since it depends on whether the person in question even has any useful "levers" for her to work with. My assumption reading this is just that "Jessica didn't have any thoughts that could be nudged towards making the environment worse for Alden/Aulia." It isn't even clear if this is due to some "mental resistance" so much as "Jessica just not having any thoughts that could be pushed forward to accomplish the desired goal." Since Manon can't read minds, she basically just has to try out her Skill with different people until someone has a thought that can be "pushed forward" towards making the environment better/worse for someone else. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 11:58 on Jan 21, 2024 |
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Jan 19, 2024 21:06
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Sure, that's a good point. I'm not going to die on this hill or anything it's just a theory that I think makes some crumbs that Selyca has left lying around add up. As for how, SS 121ish I agree that's definitely a presumption on my part and wouldn't have been possible too soon after the Artonans arrived unless she found some healer or life shaper or however that works to do it. Wordchain of retrieving a filled condom from the trash. Something like that seems like it could in theory be something that exists in this universe, or possibly not also.
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Jan 19, 2024 21:16
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SupSup 124: Stuart is such a good kid. I'm glad Mother pointed Alden his way. He keeps doing wizard bonding stuff with Alden that he probably thinks fly over the human's head, but Alden actually sees all the thought and effort that goes into it and absolutely appreciates it.
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Jan 19, 2024 21:20
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Nitrousoxide posted:SupSup 124: He's going to give Alden an authority pat and poo poo himself when Alden paths back.
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Jan 19, 2024 21:20
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gonadic io posted:He's going to give Alden an authority pat and poo poo himself when Alden paths back. SS124 Poor Stu is gonna be stressed to high heaven about his only friend meeting the same fate his sister did when he finds out.
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Jan 19, 2024 21:47
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The unspoilered lead-ins to some of these spoiler blocks seem to spoil sometimes. Please be careful with that. They're also unnecessary, no one involved in the discussion needs a teaser and everything is CIA redacted blocks anyway.
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Jan 20, 2024 00:06
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Fair enough I will not do it going forwards. Let me know if there's any currently that you would like me to remove.
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Jan 20, 2024 00:14
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Mostly referring to the Hazel stuff in this particular case but I’ve figured spoilers out a few times from the lead-ins before.
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Jan 20, 2024 02:27
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gonadic io posted:Sure, that's a good point. I'm not going to die on this hill or anything it's just a theory that I think makes some crumbs that Selyca has left lying around add up. As for how, SS 121ish I agree that's definitely a presumption on my part and wouldn't have been possible too soon after the Artonans arrived unless she found some healer or life shaper or however that works to do it. Wordchain of retrieving a filled condom from the trash. Yeah, just to avoid confusion I don't mean to sound combative or anything. I think that Lute's status as an abnormal S-Rank could definitely be hinting at something, but I have no idea what yet.
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Jan 20, 2024 03:06
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Edit: Whoops, sorry for the back to back posts. It's easy to do that when using my phone, since it's harder to just quote twice in one post.A big flaming stink posted:SS124 Poor Stu is gonna be stressed to high heaven about his only friend meeting the same fate his sister did when he finds out. I feel like he probably has the highest chance of being the first person to learn all the details of Alden's situation, too. Stu-art'h isn't already a knight, right? I imagine not since he's at wizard school, which probably wouldn't be practical if you kept having to lose your free authority. Do we actually know the age when Artonans start becoming Knights (and have their first affixation, I guess)?
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Jan 20, 2024 03:11
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Ytlaya posted:Edit: Whoops, sorry for the back to back posts. It's easy to do that when using my phone, since it's harder to just quote twice in one post. Stuart said that he had to visit with Alden on the 15th of December, and he couldn't wait until Alden's winter break because he "had things." Alden took this to mean that Stuart was planning on affixing at some point in his winter break. When Alden was delivering food at the 'art'h residence he encountered a pair of twins, one sworn (with the knight embroidery) and one not who looked slightly older than him. quote:It could have been a coincidence, but as Alden traveled down the hall, the residents seemed to get younger. And more stressed out. He delivered one of the meals to a room shared by a pair of seemingly identical twin girls—really rare on the Triplanets despite the high rate of fraternal twins compared to Earth—who looked like they hadn’t slept in days. They appeared to be just a few years older than him, and one of them was in the knights’ uniform while the other was wrapped in an oversized towel. She was swearing tearfully at what Alden thought was a pot full of red moss. So somewhere between Stuart's age and slightly older than Alden seems to be our best measure of when they affix, at least in Stuart's family.
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Jan 20, 2024 04:18
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We've also seen Stu, during one of their phone calls enchanting items containing basic spells saying he was enchanting some items with basic spells since he will want them soon (that's chapter 70, apparently. So no need for spoiler tags. Searchability is handy!).
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Jan 20, 2024 04:50
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Ytlaya posted:Edit: Whoops, sorry for the back to back posts. It's easy to do that when using my phone, since it's harder to just quote twice in one post. Ytlaya, just so you know you tend to cut the spoiler tags out of quotes when you're spaghetti quoting, this is at least the second time it's happened. Maybe it has something to do with it being posted on the phone. I feel bad because I'm sure this thread is already rough enough for RR SupSup readers.
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Jan 20, 2024 07:45
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Nitrousoxide posted:
Ss80 or so I think Alden might use the sex gum to show Stu how affixing feels to try and convince him not to suffer that misery. Stu will of course assume at first Alden is coming on to him. When this, of course, fails I have the very wild speculation that over the course of the rest of the novel, Stu will handle his affixation badly as a contrast to how insanely serious and dedicated he is now. When he's considering self-sacrificing, Alden will eat that bone fragments and make the first start to "Alden & Gorgon's affixation-b-gone" business empire.
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Jan 20, 2024 10:16
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gonadic io posted:Ss80 or so I think Alden might use the sex gum to show Stu how affixing feels to try and convince him not to suffer that misery. Stu will of course assume at first Alden is coming on to him. When this, of course, fails I have the very wild speculation that over the course of the rest of the novel, Stu will handle his affixation badly as a contrast to how insanely serious and dedicated he is now. When he's considering self-sacrificing, Alden will eat that bone fragments and make the first start to "Alden & Gorgon's affixation-b-gone" business empire. I feel like every theorycrafting post you do presumes an incoming Intensity 102 and Super Supportive does not seem to be that kind of story. Even the moon arc was more creeping dread than "And then Alden fights an abomination."
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Jan 20, 2024 18:41
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Bremen posted:Ytlaya, just so you know you tend to cut the spoiler tags out of quotes when you're spaghetti quoting, this is at least the second time it's happened. Maybe it has something to do with it being posted on the phone. Do the quoted parts of those posts not show up as spoilered for you? Both the quotes appear to be spoilered in the same places for me. I'll check on my PC later, maybe the Awful app deals with the tags differently.
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Jan 21, 2024 03:06
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Ytlaya posted:Do the quoted parts of those posts not show up as spoilered for you? Both the quotes appear to be spoilered in the same places for me. I'll check on my PC later, maybe the Awful app deals with the tags differently.  Just this one instance that I can see? Seems to just lack the open spoiler tag https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3831668&pagenumber=402#post537273897
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Jan 21, 2024 03:47
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