You're Quinner
Project Lorica was eaten by scheduling. Here's the big spoiler plurk
You're Quinner
The premise of Lorica is as such
You're Quinner
One day in the year 2130, six college students look up and see a strange distortion in the sky, then lose consciousness
You're Quinner
the next thing they know, they wake up in a facility and are told that they have to pilot three giant robots called Lorica Units to fight aliens
You're Quinner
which they do
You're Quinner
the aliens are the Symphony, a mysterious and extremely varied swarm of strange creatures that are constantly attacking Grand Island
You're Quinner
they were in a coma for a year, it's 2131 and they've lost all contact with the mainland
You're Quinner
the Lorica Units are piloted in pairs, with their power coming from the metaphysical space between the pilots
You're Quinner
as their bonds with each other strengthen, so do the Lorica powers
You're Quinner
after several battles, they face the first Conductor, one of the seven ultra-powerful beings that lead the Symphony
You're Quinner
when facing the Conductors, different party members see other figures in the metaphysical pilot mindspace that their power comes from
You're Quinner
of people close to them, acting cryptic questions
You're Quinner
like "why don't I exist"
You're Quinner
in the second Conductor fight, the battle ended with the party being teleported far away from the island
You're Quinner
only to find a strange, otherworldly landscape full of impossible shapes and skylines
You're Quinner
with the sensors picking up the Lorica base hundreds of miles away
You're Quinner
that was where the campaign ended
You're Quinner
Here's where things would have gone from there
You're Quinner
The next arc is the Lorica Units traveling back to Grand Island, though what should ostensibly be America but looks nothing like it
You're Quinner
they are attacked by mysterious machines that don't resemble the Symphony along the way
You're Quinner
then, when the Second Conductor attacks again, those machines join them in fighting against it
You're Quinner
and it is destroyed
You're Quinner
It eventually turns out that the mysterious machines are feral Lorica Units
You're Quinner
of which there are supposed to only be three
BWAAAAAH!
I have
You're Quinner
but there are dozens of them out in the wasteland
BWAAAAAH!
A theory
You're Quinner
one of the pilots of the feral Loricas is revealed to be an impossible amalgamation of humanoid limbs and features
BWAAAAAH!
Which I will wait for Quinn to confirm
You're Quinner
along the way, another impossible sight is discovered
boo(f)
holy shit
You're Quinner
in the middle of the desert, a perfectly spherical hole
You're Quinner
several kilometers across and filled with water
You're Quinner
in which they find
You're Quinner
an abandoned, ruined exact replica of Grand Island
You're Quinner
complete with a destroyed Lorica Base
You're Quinner
eventually the team makes it back to the real Grand Island, just in time for them to fight the Third and Fourth Conductors
✶ 𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨!
You're Quinner
and confront the Chairwoman about all the weirdass shit they saw
You're Quinner
and she just, deflates
You're Quinner
and concedes to tell them her full story
You're Quinner
She gave a partial explanation of it early on
You're Quinner
there was an FTL experiment in 2120, where a spaceship warp jumped across the galaxy
You're Quinner
and something strange happened to it that drew the Symphony to Earth, but also gave them enough information from its final transmissions to build the Lorica tech
You're Quinner
this is sort of a half lie
You're Quinner
what actually happened was a little different
You're Quinner
when the jump happened, the crew was exposed to an alien information-based sapient lifeform
You're Quinner
the gulf between their mental framework and the Akashic Code's mental framework drove them insane
You're Quinner
When they made contact with Earth, they began transmitting information back to the base
You're Quinner
which would have been a transmission of the Akashic Code to Earth
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
oh
You're Quinner
but Dr. Hiroko Rock managed to contain the infiltration
You're Quinner
by killing the crew who were receiving the information and quarantining everyone else involved
You're Quinner
the ship is now returning to Earth
You're Quinner
and they need to prepare for it
You're Quinner
their weapon against it being hypertech developed using an incomplete version of the Akashic Code
You're Quinner
she prepares for this in multiple ways
You're Quinner
one is to craft weapons that she believed might be able to stop this Thing that is coming to rewrite Earth's reality
You're Quinner
but there's too many unknowns
You're Quinner
so she also oversees the construction of a fully-automated device on the moon
You're Quinner
which has the ability to store physical matter arrangement information down to the molecular level on a huge scale
You're Quinner
then reconstitute it later
You're Quinner
the Akashic Host, the last surviving human from the FTL mission, arrives at Earth, ten years later in 2130
You're Quinner
the fight to stop it failed
You're Quinner
but the six party members were instrumental in humanity's last stand
You're Quinner
and the six of them, plus Rock, were used as the basis for her final gambit
You're Quinner
uploading their consciousness into a self-adapting inorganic system
You're Quinner
designed to wait and survive through Earth being distorted beyond survivability
You're Quinner
then terraform it after the Akashic Host leaves
You're Quinner
until Earth can once again support life
You're Quinner
humanity is wiped out
You're Quinner
all life on Earth dies
You're Quinner
and the Symphony activates to heal the planet
You're Quinner
under the guidance of seven Conductors
You're Quinner
nine million years pass.
boo(f)
!?!??
You're Quinner
the moon station determines that Earth has been repaired to the point that humanity can survive there
You're Quinner
loads up its saved copy of Grand Island
You're Quinner
and pastes it back on the surface
You're Quinner
the Symphony is alerted to the presence of humans on the planet
You're Quinner
and over millions of years, its memory of the purpose of its mission has distorted
You're Quinner
and all it remembers is
You're Quinner
when humanity is restored, their purpose for existing is over
You're Quinner
therefore, it sees the return of humanity as a herald of its own death
You're Quinner
and it reacts by attacking the new human city with overwhelming force
You're Quinner
the city is destroyed
You're Quinner
all humans are killed
You're Quinner
but the Symphony can't leave the Earth
You're Quinner
so, the moon station begins accumulating energy again
You're Quinner
to reconstitute another Grand Island
boo(f)
jesus
You're Quinner
with the only difference being that Rock has access to all the data from the previous reconstruction and how it ended
RobotApocalypse
holy shit
You're Quinner
meaning this time she can prepare to stop the Symphony from killing them
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
holy shit.
You're Quinner
she fails.
You're Quinner
again.
You're Quinner
this goes on
You're Quinner
for thousands of iterations
You're Quinner
of Rock trying and failing to keep the Symphony from killing everyone
You're Quinner
until we finally reach the start of the campaign
You're Quinner
attempt 8745
You're Quinner
the last one
You're Quinner
because the Akashic Host is returning to Earth
You're Quinner
in order for humanity to survive into the future
You're Quinner
they must communicate to the Symphony that they are not enemies
BWAAAAAH!
My theory was wrong
You're Quinner
and then reach an understanding with the Akashic Host
You're Quinner
to stop it from glitching Earth out again
You're Quinner
the final twists being the nature of the Akashic Host
You're Quinner
which is that it's a fractal identity data lifeform
You're Quinner
It perceives identity fundamentally from how humans do
You're Quinner
in that the whole of the Code is an individual
You're Quinner
and also every subset of the Code is an individual
You're Quinner
and if any of it simulates in its mind anything with intelligence, that simulation/thought is an individual
You're Quinner
which means that when it sees humans
BWAAAAAH!
So wait what is the Symphony
You're Quinner
it sees a human thinking about someone
You're Quinner
then, stop thinking about it
BWAAAAAH!
Where did they come from
You're Quinner
and from the Code's perspective, that's murder
You're Quinner
BWAAAAAH!
they're the terraforming system created by Rock to repair the Earth after the Host left
BWAAAAAH!
Ok
You're Quinner
when someone sees his father in the Lorica metaspace saying "why don't i exist"
BWAAAAAH!
Separate from the moon base
You're Quinner
yes
You're Quinner
that's not his father
You're Quinner
it's his mental construct of his father, in his mind
You're Quinner
which to him is just an idea
You're Quinner
but to the Code is a living entity
You're Quinner
and it doesn't understand why he won't let it exist
boo(f)
holy fuck
You're Quinner
(this was in the Symphony because the Symphony was built using incomplete information from the AC)
✶ 𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨!
this is sooooo fucked i LOVE it
You're Quinner
so the finale would have been, functionally
You're Quinner
both an end of eva apocalyptic surreal kaiju fight
RobotApocalypse
that's such a cool sci-fi concept, goddamn
You're Quinner
and trying to communicate with the Akashic Code to get it to understand how human consciousness works
You're Quinner
and I just want to say
You're Quinner
13sar spoilers
You're Quinner
V FJRNE V pnzr hc jvgu nyy bs guvf orsber V cynlrq 13 fragvaryf
You're Quinner
so that's what Project Lorica was about
You're Quinner
BWAAAAAH!
what was your theory
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
god this is all so cool
BWAAAAAH!
That the symphony had stolen grand island and taken it to their world for some reason
BWAAAAAH!
And we hadn’t been on earth for the whole game
RobotApocalypse
so what was the deal with the feral loricas?
✶ 𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨!
LMFAO I WAS READING ALL THIS LIKE
boo(f)
The real question I have is whether the fact that all of us were super fucked up would have contributed to the final battle, since, as I recall, pretty much all of us had people we DIDN'T want to think about and presumably the Akashic Host is VERY confused about this
✶ 𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨!
dhvaa zhfg unir orra FB CVFFRQ jura gurl jrer cynlvat 13 fragvaryf
You're Quinner
the feral loricas were previous copies of the PCs who had escaped from their Grand Islands and continued to live in the wild
You're Quinner
using the Loricas too much draws the identities of the pilots closer together
You're Quinner
until eventually they fuse into one mass
boo(f)
who had presumably gone insane due to overstaying in their Loricas beyond the time limi- yea
You're Quinner
thus the one hour limit
You're Quinner
the party all having fucked up emotional baggage was mainly to make the fractal consciousness confrontations more dramatic
BWAAAAAH!
So they were literally us
You're Quinner
yes
You're Quinner
as were the Conductors
You're Quinner
six + the chairwoman
BWAAAAAH!
Fucking wild
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
oh shit
ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ
I missed that the conductors were the pcs too
RobotApocalypse
oh man
BWAAAAAH!
The conductors were ALSO us???
You're Quinner
as the leaders of the first fight against the akashic host and therefore the ones closest to it
You're Quinner
the seven of you uploaded your consciousness into the symphony to oversee its reconstruction of earth
BWAAAAAH!
GOD
BWAAAAAH!
ITS TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN
You're Quinner
so when you saw that sky distortion at the start of the campaign
You're Quinner
that was the akashic host
You're Quinner
then when you blacked out
You're Quinner
there was a ten million year timeskip
boo(f)
JESUS
Princess Emily
yyyyyyup wild shit
go тo вread
woooooooow
dragon time
Yo what the FUCK
dragon time
Holy shit
Love Snake Kaja
Amazing