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Appendix 19: SweepersAnton’s Page posted:Our body is composed of liquid. Liquid is the substance that fuels our body. While humans maintain their form with the shell they call flesh and skin, we maintain our form with the suit we wear. If this liquid runs out, we will stop dead in place. Therefore, the liquid must always be filled, which is the reason we dine. This liquid is what constitutes and moves our body, but we also use the liquid to sweep the streets and dine. The method is simple. When we embed a hook connected to the fuel tank on our back into a human, they melt like a liquid. Then we consume that liquid to refuel. Without this shell, we would deform and spill on the ground like them. The liquid is patented with the approval of the Head; you must change your body to become like us if you wish to join our family. Do not worry about side effects. Mother will give you all the assistance you need. We all could safely become a family thanks to her. Valerie’s Page posted:The Backstreets are our main stage of activity at night. When night falls, our world unfolds. At regular intervals, we start marching from the perimeter of a Nest and sweep everything as we move forward. Even if someone stands in our way, and attacks us… Even if a powerful Fixer kills a Sweeper next to us who was our family, we pay no heed and continue onward. Like a wave of water, we sweep everything in our way, except for those who are strong enough to resist it. From an edge of a Nest to the opposite end, we march without break for 80 minutes until the ‘Night in the Backstreets’ ends. Lyla’s Page posted:That is correct. We are conscious of the attention of people during the daytime. We practice caution. It would be a public nuisance to show up in broad daylight and cause a ruckus, and we have a set of rules that we abide to. Of course, if the Head demands our service, we must assemble, day or night. Oh, and I believe there is a small misunderstanding between us. It is not by the will of us Sweepers that the night in the Backstreets has become a time when no deed is forbidden. Does it appear to you that every denizen of the Backstreets disapproves of the rules? ‘Anyone is allowed to commit terrible acts at night, and there is nowhere to complain to if you are victimized.’ While this means terrible things can happen to you at night, it also means that you are free to be the perpetrator of such a deed yourself. In fact, we do not see much benefit from the freedom of the nighttime, other than being allowed to dine all we want. A Sweeper’s Page posted:If the ‘Night in the Backstreets’ were to be gone, the Backstreets will fall into even worse chaos than before. In other words, the Night in the Backstreets is the rein that keeps this place in check. Because the Night exists, people here show the least amount of human decency.
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Apr 5, 2022 07:10
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| # ? May 20, 2024 14:44 |
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 Yeah that seems like an appropriate course of action if you have a noisy neighbor.
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Apr 5, 2022 07:16
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So The Sweepers are a public service courtesy of The Head. How nice
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Apr 5, 2022 07:19
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Some facts about Sweepers: * They keep neighborhood clean. * They are always on time. * Do not copy this Sweeper (if you do not want Claw visiting you for patent violation). * They are well hydrated. * They give good avice for dealing with rowdy neighbors. * They do not discriminate. * They welcome all. * They are discreet. Conclusion: Sweepers are awesome.
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Apr 5, 2022 07:45
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*Good at math *Bring their own beer *Cannibals *Won't play music at 3AM What's not to like
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Apr 5, 2022 07:51
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Sweepers got a real glow up between the games, yeah. The gasmask cannibals come with government enforced patent protection.
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Apr 5, 2022 12:25
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It's as my momma always said - stay out of the
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Apr 5, 2022 13:35
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I got permission from TQ to post this incredibly spoilerrific image of a character we've seen before doing something he did on screen before. Truly, I am a menace.
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Apr 5, 2022 13:47
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TeeQueue posted:Appendix 19: Sweepers 
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Apr 5, 2022 15:17
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Man Juice: Head ApprovedTM
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Apr 5, 2022 15:27
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Sweepers being explicitly approved and regulated by the Head is something I didn't expect, but in hindsight it kind of makes sense, because everything else in the city is that way. We don't know how many Claws and Arbiters there are, but if Binah's previous deeds are any indication, it wouldn't take very many of them to permanently get rid of Sweepers. Which raises more questions about just what the Head's goal is. At this point even if you assume it's just wealth or power for its own sake, it's hard to see how this whole system they've setup is the best way to get it.
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Apr 5, 2022 15:40
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:We don't know how many Claws and Arbiters there are, but if Binah's previous deeds are any indication, it wouldn't take very many of them to permanently get rid of Sweepers.
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Apr 5, 2022 15:49
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:Which raises more questions about just what the Head's goal is. At this point even if you assume it's just wealth or power for its own sake, it's hard to see how this whole system they've setup is the best way to get it. Well, the City is an anarcho-capitalist paradise, where the only regulation is that imposed through contracts by private businesses. The Head is the inevitable cartel that sits on top of all that. I think they're probably happy as long as they've secured their own power over the world.
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Apr 5, 2022 15:52
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I don't think it's simply a cartel. A lot of the Head's rulings are weirdly arbitrary yet still ruthlessly enforced. They clearly have some form of specific vision they're trying to actualize.
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Apr 5, 2022 15:59
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MiiNiPaa posted:But why would Head want to get rid of Sweepers? They do not violate any patents, don't use firearms and I do not think that they will be developing AI or starting human instrumentality project any time soon. Remember: head does not care about how vile something if it is happening according to the rules, as Kurokumo books tells us. I know, I was just pointing out that up to now I hadn't realized that getting rid of Sweepers wasn't a matter of "cannot", but a matter of "will not" for the Head.
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Apr 5, 2022 16:01
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It's possible. The main things we know they properly crack down on are humanlike AI and guns. The guns thing is fairly explicable, really - trying to keep the power curve of available weapons in line with how rich you have to be to get them (and hence how invested you are in the existing economy). AI not so much. I wouldn't be surprised if, with the amount that human sacrifice powers so much of the city's industry, it was an effort to control where new people come from. I guess my point is I believe the Head isn't so much hoping to actualise a vision of society as that they've already achieved that, and now just want to keep it stable. Naturally, this doesn't necessarily mean making life enjoyable for anyone within it, possibly not even the people in charge. Tenebrais fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Apr 5, 2022 |
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Apr 5, 2022 16:04
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The Sweepers also are probably well, literally valuable for their name. They clean up the streets every night, sweeping up the dead and the dying and the just plain stupid. That’s the value of liquified Human Resources, they suck everything up as they pass.
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Apr 5, 2022 16:12
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Lord_Magmar posted:The Sweepers also are probably well, literally valuable for their name. They clean up the streets every night, sweeping up the dead and the dying and the just plain stupid. This. They’re also valuable to other groups as a great way to cover up various crimes, and they ensure that all citizens desperately require shelter every night. A lot of powerful people profit greatly from the existence of sweepers, and sweepers don’t pose a major threat to them anyway. There’s no reason for the head to get rid of them.
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Apr 5, 2022 16:42
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Basically 'A solution to the homeless problem' in the most literal sense. Considering how existing cities invest money in making homeless' lives miserable, I buy it.
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Apr 5, 2022 17:32
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Tenebrais posted:I guess my point is I believe the Head isn't so much hoping to actualise a vision of society as that they've already achieved that, and now just want to keep it stable. Naturally, this doesn't necessarily mean making life enjoyable for anyone within it, possibly not even the people in charge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTJQTc-TqpU
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Apr 5, 2022 20:43
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It's interesting if a bit horrifying to think of the Sweepers in terms of the greater ecosystem of the City. The example given in the Sweeper page is kind of a prime example. Murder only needs to be concealed for the duration of a day at most. As long as you can get the corpse out to the street at 3 AM, it's completely cleaned up. There's also the fact that since someone could theoretically have gotten themselves killed by just being out at the wrong time, investigation into a death is nearly impossible in some cases. So... it kind of enforces its own set of social rules. Everyone has motivation to be at least minimally courteous to their neighbors, otherwise the much lower barrier of entry to murder and such self-corrects the problem. There's also the thing that other people have mentioned in that homelessness simply can't exist here. All that gets shoved into the Outskirts, so the City gets to be 'cleaner' in that way. If the Sweepers were to disappear as a whole one day, the City would probably collapse, beset by the wave of disease that happens once the corpses and related detritus stops being cleaned up.
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Apr 5, 2022 21:17
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^That get's me thinking, we really are shaking up this city and messing with it's equilibrium slowly but surely. I can imagine there being some severe consequences once this whole ordeal is over.
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Apr 5, 2022 21:37
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It aint pretty, but graphic design is my passion so I gave this a whole like, 5 minutes in the hopes it would make someone chuckle.
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Apr 5, 2022 21:51
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Tatters posted:It aint pretty, but graphic design is my passion so I gave this a whole like, 5 minutes in the hopes it would make someone chuckle. Tombot posted:^That get's me thinking, we really are shaking up this city and messing with it's equilibrium slowly but surely. I can imagine there being some severe consequences once this whole ordeal is over.
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Apr 5, 2022 22:03
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Keldulas posted:It's interesting if a bit horrifying to think of the Sweepers in terms of the greater ecosystem of the City. The example given in the Sweeper page is kind of a prime example. Murder only needs to be concealed for the duration of a day at most. As long as you can get the corpse out to the street at 3 AM, it's completely cleaned up. Actually it pretty much ensures more murder overall; people who DON'T want to be minimally courteous just use that lower barrier of entry to murder to indulge themselves more. And fewer people will invest in lower levels of conflict resolution when consequence-free murder is on the table. Honestly I more and more wonder if the Head's goals are deliberate farming of misery or something. It can't be just "maintain control with the Head on top"; death being a common thing is a DESTABILIZING element for a civilization, if you just want crushing autocratic control setting up a civilization like the City where killing is so widespread is counterproductive, it inserts tremendous chaos into things by default. They might try to use that chaos to ruin any other competing power groups that could arise, but one screwup and the Head is the power group that suddenly gets oopsied out of existance by the wanton violence they encouraged. I suppose given the closest thing I recall we've seen to an official link to the Head is Binah and she's pretty blatantly sadistic, maybe maximizing suffering is in fact the goal.
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Apr 5, 2022 22:03
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MadDogMike posted:Actually it pretty much ensures more murder overall; people who DON'T want to be minimally courteous just use that lower barrier of entry to murder to indulge themselves more. And fewer people will invest in lower levels of conflict resolution when consequence-free murder is on the table. Honestly I more and more wonder if the Head's goals are deliberate farming of misery or something. It can't be just "maintain control with the Head on top"; death being a common thing is a DESTABILIZING element for a civilization, if you just want crushing autocratic control setting up a civilization like the City where killing is so widespread is counterproductive, it inserts tremendous chaos into things by default. They might try to use that chaos to ruin any other competing power groups that could arise, but one screwup and the Head is the power group that suddenly gets oopsied out of existance by the wanton violence they encouraged. I suppose given the closest thing I recall we've seen to an official link to the Head is Binah and she's pretty blatantly sadistic, maybe maximizing suffering is in fact the goal.
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Apr 5, 2022 22:17
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Shogeton posted:Basically 'A solution to the homeless problem' in the most literal sense. Given how Sweepers operate, it's more like a solution OF the homeless
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Apr 5, 2022 23:10
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Whispering Morning, keep the streets empty for me Morning, keep the streets empty for me Uncover our heads and reveal our souls We were hungry before we were born
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Apr 6, 2022 00:00
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Zereth posted:That was the mask.  
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Apr 6, 2022 00:43
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Tombot posted:^That get's me thinking, we really are shaking up this city and messing with it's equilibrium slowly but surely. I can imagine there being some severe consequences once this whole ordeal is over. We got rid of 15 Sweepers. I'm sure there's plenty more.
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Apr 6, 2022 00:58
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This whole sweeping discussion is making me wonder how garbage disposal works in the City. WonderLab seems to imply it mostly gets dumped in the Outskirts, but beyond that I don't think there's anything else mentioned. I'm guessing a W Corp brand Magic Hole™ takes it there if you live in a Nest. For the Backstreets, do Sweepers also take care of that? For the organic stuff anyway? If so their sense of civic duty is well above and beyond the average inhabitant of the City. The more I learn about them, the more I like those juicy little goofballs.
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Apr 6, 2022 01:09
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:This whole sweeping discussion is making me wonder how garbage disposal works in the City. WonderLab seems to imply it mostly gets dumped in the Outskirts, but beyond that I don't think there's anything else mentioned. I'm guessing a W Corp brand Magic Hole™ takes it there if you live in a Nest. For the Backstreets, do Sweepers also take care of that? For the organic stuff anyway? If so their sense of civic duty is well above and beyond the average inhabitant of the City. If not the sweepers I'm sure garbage in the backstreets is taken care of by some sort of civic minded monstrosities, that also happen to devour children.
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Apr 6, 2022 01:38
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GilliamYaeger posted:You are now recalling how L-Corp required the suffering and misery of sentient beings in order to generate Enkephalin. Having drones manage the Abnormalities would have explicitly reduced efficiency. Edit: The really funny thing to me is they got away with it precisely because horrific death is commonplace in the City, imo. They were even considered a relatively safe and beneficial place to work!
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Apr 6, 2022 17:37
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PetraCore posted:To be fair, L-Corp was skimming massive amounts of energy off the top to hoard in order to germinate and release the seed of light. If they actually just kept to a quota for energy needed to fuel the City I expect things could have been played significantly safer, although some amount of horrific death, loss of sanity, and outright feeding employees to Abnormalities is inherent in the system. Wonderlab shows the non-HQ offices were fairly safe, although they still did the human suffering thing. None of the energy HQ was producing was going out into the city actually, it was all being self stored or being used to send the Abnormalities to branch offices.
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Apr 6, 2022 17:43
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Lord_Magmar posted:Wonderlab shows the non-HQ offices were fairly safe, although they still did the human suffering thing. And in the end, the release of the seed completely fucks over every employee still in an office, right? They got trapped.
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Apr 6, 2022 17:46
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PetraCore posted:Yeah, like, if you follow the rules in a branch office you'll usually be okay, but sometimes you'll get completely hosed over just to produce a massive amount of energy despite that resulting in the loss of an excellent employee in the long run. You know the Abno I'm talking about. No not really, the people got trapped but not intentionally alongside the release of the seed. The trapping wasn't intended and wasn't in the plan. In the case of Wonderlab the issue was the manager was long dead to begin with for that branch office, and specifically the abnormalities got released which standard operating procedure in such a scenario is to sink the facility. They were trapped because there was nobody to actually get them out, but it wasn't an intentional thing and plenty of people got out of the offices after the light started.
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Apr 6, 2022 18:23
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Keldulas posted:It's interesting if a bit horrifying to think of the Sweepers in terms of the greater ecosystem of the City. The example given in the Sweeper page is kind of a prime example. Murder only needs to be concealed for the duration of a day at most. As long as you can get the corpse out to the street at 3 AM, it's completely cleaned up. If you look at historical dueling cultures, the politeness never really increases, but the murder rate absolutely does. So I doubt this version of consequence-free murder would help either. I think MadDogMike is right. The superpowered serial killers and syndicates in the City are the intended state of affairs, and the Head is happy to see this level of casual violence all around, although we don't really understand why. The only things we know about the head are the things Binah says, and the implication that the Birds are in some way based on the collective unconscious opinion of the Head.
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Apr 6, 2022 19:34
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Lord_Magmar posted:Wonderlab shows the non-HQ offices were fairly safe, although they still did the human suffering thing.
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Apr 6, 2022 22:47
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Competently played LobCorp kind of has time rewind to fix the times when something goes wrong. Several abnos are of the snowball problem variety after all. I will say that the branch offices don't feel that sustainable what with the complete destruction that happened to two of them, though maybe they generated so much excess power from that they could just afford to rebuild. And it's not like the life cost is important in this universe... I take the point about dueling cultures. It would make sense with all this legitimized supernatural murder happening constantly, that the regular people would be getting in on that poo poo too. Just look at the Rats, really.
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Apr 6, 2022 23:34
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I think the thing with the whole setup of The City and the Head is it's the classic dictator ploy of "if you keep everybody below you fighting each other, it means they won't team up and come after you". The City very clearly needs a fundamental shift in the status quo but most people are too worried about getting murdered by neighbours to start any sort of movement. And when people do start to get powerful enough to threaten the status quo, the Head still has ways to handle them - look at LobCorp itself. It started off as some rando lab doing weird experiments but once it started to get threatening to the people in power, they got elevated to being a Wing, basically trying to get them more invested in the maintenance of the status quo because now they're invested in it to maintain their own power. When that didn't work and Carmen and the gang still kept working on the thing that was going to completely upend the social order of The City, that's when they had an arbiter sent after them.
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Apr 6, 2022 23:52
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