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blood-of-the-bazaar · 14 days ago

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light fingers if it was disco elysium

(spoilers for early light fingers, written under the cut since its long as hell)

YOUR SHITTY FLAT ABOVE A BOOKSHOP - Clarabelle has been lounging in your room for a day. It’s certainly not the best place for a pregnant woman, but where else were you going to take her? It’s gotten messier since she’s arrived; notes and research and expedition supplies are thrown around on the floor without a care.

A LADY’S GUISE [Trivial: Success] - This is preposterous! Terrible! Sloppy! Shameless! Are you some wild beast unable to clean up after yourself? Good god, you are going to cry and it is because you cannot even manage your own home.

STONE-COLD - You do not cry. The suggestion that you would is the preposterous notion.

CLARABELLE - She is pained. The thing inside of her squirms and undulates, writhes around. It tries to fit in a too-small container. She is fit to burst, and yet somehow does not. It is simply a miracle that she is awake.

THE FADED MUSIC-HALL SINGER - “Do you need anything? Want anything? I can get it for you.”

THE LOOKING GLASS [Medium: Success] - She twitches, barely. There is some part of her still adjusting to everything. Still figuring out what happened to her. The Lethean tea took away most of her love for the Orphanage.

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - But not all.

CLARABELLE - “Water. Please.” She adds on, as if just remembering to do so.

THE FADED MUSIC-HALL SINGER - “Do you have anything that isn’t tea or coffee?”

“Would you like to go outside and see for yourself? Preferably out of my home, disappearing forever.”

“Of course!” (Go and spit in the cup of water you get.)

“Of course!” (Bring her tea and spit in it.)

“Did you not say you were going to get it?”

STONE-COLD - [Challenging 12] Go and get a glass of water without insulting anybody.

STONE-COLD [Success: 13] - You go to your shitty sink in your shitty apartment and get Clarabelle a glass of water.

A LADY’S GUISE - See, Marlowe? You are so proper and lady-like. Look how successfully you brought Clarabelle water! Without being crude!

THE FADED MUSIC-HALL SINGER - “I’ll go out. See if I can find Hephaesta. Just in case. If not, I’ll get something for us to eat. Look after Clara for me.” She leaves, lingering for a moment to look at her sister.

THE FADED MUSIC-HALL SINGER - “I love you.”

CLARABELLE - “…I love you, too.”

THE YOUNG THIEF [Easy: Success] Quick! Now’s your chance to escape! Jump out of the window and make a break for it! Run, run, and run!

A LADY’S GUISE - Are you insane? Our dress would be ruined!

JUDGMENT - That is not the problem here. First of all, you live on the second floor. You would surely break your legs. Second of all, how would it look if you were seen running away from your apartment, just to find a pregnant woman inside?

THE YOUNG THIEF - What do we care about looking good?

A LADY’S GUISE - Somebody catch me, I am going to faint.

STONE-COLD - You do not faint. Instead, you move back to your desk, shifting letters and papers.

JUDGMENT - The latest nurse you found suggested going to the University. But you don’t have access.

THE YOUNG THIEF - We break in, find the woman, then leave. Along with some valuables, of course. Who cares about a big, fancy diamond when we could walk out with some rich kid’s wallet?

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - Or we could not do that.

CLARABELLE - “…Why?”

THE MAKEUP OF A COURTESAN [Trivial: Success] - Because you love her, obviously. You care for her, and the minute you saw her portrait you almost collapsed in a fever to rescue this dashing woman.

CLARABELLE - “I don’t get it. You don’t seem like the type of person my sister would be friends with.”

A LADY’S GUISE [Medium: Failure] - Is she insinuating you’re too high and mighty to be friends with a low-life as her sister? How dare she! Truly! Throw something at her and hold your head up high in astonishment and audacity.

Throw something at her and hold your head up high in astonishment and audacity.

(Lie.) "I am deeply in love with you."

(Lie.) "I couldn't leave you or your sister in that place."

(Lie.) "I can't leave a mystery unsolved."

“I was told there was a diamond the size of a cow. I wanted that diamond, and your sister could tell me where it was.”

YOU - “I couldn’t leave you or your sister in that place.”

THE THESPIAN - Oh, is it my turn now? Hurrah! The lie slips easily out of your lips.

STONE-COLD [Challenging: Failure] - But your face drops. These past days have been exhausting. Your lips can lie, your body cannot.

CLARABELLE - “Really? You didn’t have to keep the tea. You didn’t have to traverse through the Orphanage. Or the maze. Or help us escape. Or burn it down. I just don’t believe that you did it out of the goodness of your heart.”

THE MAKEUP OF A COURTESAN [Easy: Failure] - You?! You?! Do the British have no manners? Are they always this crude? She is looking at you, and judging you— you have half a mind to tell her that you are in fact half-British!

THE YOUNG THIEF - You are definitely missing the point.

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - Hmm. She is right. You don’t have one, remember?

THE THESPIAN - Shh, you. We’re pretending to have one, and we are very good at pretending to be a normal person with normal emotions.

JUDGMENT - Wait a second. Do you even know why you came back to the Orphanage?

Uh… I’ve got nothing.

(Lie) Out of the goodness of my non-existent heart, of course!

I never back away from a challenge.

I failed. Me!

Er, why not?

[THE HEART OF A LOVE-STRUCK WOMAN - Impossible 20] - I needed to. I needed to. I needed to.

YOU - I never back away from a challenge.

JUDGMENT [Challenging: Failure] - You tell that to her. For some reason this does not make her feel better. You haven’t the faintest idea why.

CLARABELLE - “So you only did all of this because it was a challenge?”

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - Would any other reason be better? You got her and her sister out. You could have just left. You wanted to leave.

THE YOUNG THIEF [Legendary: Success] - You didn’t! A case of hurt pride. What kind of thief are you if you can’t break into a god-damned orphanage. A terrible one, that’s what!

CLARABELLE - She shakes her head. She looks down at her hands, then her stomach.

THE LOOKING GLASS [Challenging: Success] An uneasy expression rises in her face. She’s uncomfortable, in a place she does not recognize, pregnant with a parasite, a thing, with a woman who stares at her with cold eyes and a cold smile, and says that she’s her sister’s friend.

STONE-COLD - Sometimes there is nothing behind your eyes even as you smile. You’ve tried to get rid of it; it’s bad for the general public.

THE MAKEUP OF A COURTESAN - All of you are terrible influences. We have to placate her, not worry her, and that is what all of you are doing. Crawl over to her and hold your cold hands into hers and tell her a little lie. One with a hint of truth.

THE THESPIAN - Oh, I love those. The lies with a little truth in them. So deceitful, so tangled up in a web of our own making! Let me have at it!

[THE THESPIAN - Formidable 13] Crawl over and tell a little lie. With a hint of truth.

Turn back around and continue working.

“I dislike talking to pregnant woman; they make me queasy.”

“Do you think you’ll give birth to a diamond? A cow-sized one, perhaps?”

“Please do not cry. I can’t afford you snotting mucus into my new dress.”

Pretend to not notice her and busy yourself with cleaning your outfit.

THE THESPIAN - [Formidable: Success] - You’re good. You tell this to yourself as you raise a shaky hand to the side of your hair, pushing it behind your ear. You pretend to think about it for a moment before going over to kneel by Clarabelle’s side.

THE MAKEUP OF A COURTESAN - Look a little teary-eyed. Your lips wobble. This is all so easy, is it not?

THE THESPIAN - She truly has no choice but to look you in the eyes. I know what you’re going through, your whole body, your whole face, your mind all express this towards this sad, terribly tragic woman. One of your hands gently caresses hers. The words flow easily out of your mouth: You may not know it, but I understand. And I truly do want to help, even if it seems like I do not. I understand. I understand.

A LADY’S GUISE - My, this insinuation is so dreadfully scandalous. Let us stop insinuating these scandalous things and go back to looking over letters.

THE YOUNG THIEF - It would be incredibly funny if you stole something from her right now. Trust me. I am a very trustworthy person.

CLARABELLE - She does fall for it. She softens, placing her own hand on yours. Her eyes flicker away, before she reclines back into her seat.

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - No wonder she was so easy to capture. You would have never fallen for such a trick.

JUDGMENT [Legendary: Failure] Absolutely. You are too smart and too skilled to do such a thing.

CLARABELLE - But she lingers on something. Lingers on your hands. On your forehead.

CLARABELLE - Did… did something happen?

JUDGMENT [Godly: Failure] - ABORT. RUN AWAY. HIDE. DO NOT RESPOND. DO NOT RESPOND.

THE THESPIAN [Challenging: Success] Oh my god, do not freak out.

STONE-COLD [Legendary: Success] You do not freak out. Perhaps there is a twitch of a brow. You are perfectly normal.

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - Something beats inside of you, thrumming against your rib-cage.

(Lie.) “Nothing happened. I was fine. Everything is fine. We’re very, very fine. So fine we’re good.”

(Lie.) “The only thing that happened was me blowing ten thousand candles on getting through the orphanage. You should repay me for that, by the way.”

(Lie.) “All shall be well and all shall be well.”

[HAIR-TRIGGER - Trivial 6] - Find your gun and shoot yourself in a preferably non-lethal, not-very-noticeable area.

[THE THESPIAN - Challenging 12] - “I’m alright, just a little shaky from all that’s happened.”

[THE HEART OF A LOVE-STRUCK WOMAN - Impossible 20] Tell her the truth.

5. [THE THESPIAN - Challenging 12] - “I’m alright, just a little shaky from all that’s happened.”

THE HEART OF A LOVE-STRUCK WOMAN [Godly: Success] - You can’t. You know this. We all know this. There is no scars on your fingers, no broken nails. There is no jagged line on your forehead, no tears still on your cheeks. You never cried more than one or twice in your life, and you have never been six feet under.

THE THESPIAN - You are ruining my attempt at salvaging our REPUTATION, damn you!

THE HEART OF A LOVE-STRUCK WOMAN - You feel a kiss on your brow. A blanket around your shoulders reading: Marlowe. A loving ruffle through your hair. The exchange of cash; a sad, weeping face. She says your name one final time. A kiss to your lips, a hand at your stomach. None of this happened, none of it did.

A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST - If that never happened, would we even be here?

THE HEART OF A LOVE-STRUCK WOMAN - No.

STONE-COLD [Easy: Success] - In the end, you’ve got Clarabelle. For now, at least. She cannot decipher the inner turmoil behind your still-smiling face.

THE MAKEUP OF A COURTESAN - And it looks truthful this time. Is that not wonderful?

YOU - “Now, let me return to my work. I’ll surely set a record time in excavation, no?”

JUDGMENT - Of course. You’re just that good.

THE THESPIAN [Impossible: Success] And you are well. You are so, very well.

#oh this fucks hard op #fallen london #light fingers #light fingers spoilers #others ocs #fallen london ocs

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