#harry: kim don't you want to believe

[emetitur]

the insulindian phasmid - favourite disco elysium moments

[u3pxx]

KIM KITSURAGI - “Is that. My kineema.”

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - Something in him is about to break, *big time*.

EMPATHY - And it’s not going to be pretty, do something!

- DRAMA [Formidable] - Everything is fine!

- “Sure is.”

DRAMA [Formidable: Failure] - Surely he’s aware that he’s not the *only* person in the world who owns a Kineema?

YOU - “Is it really *yours*? I mean, plenty of people have their own Kineemas, right? Like working men, government offices, uh, firefighters I guess, maybe even animal control people? Exactly! A million different people who could’ve driven it into the uh…”

DRAMA - Pause, my liege! Ixnay on the Ineemakay!

YOU - “It could even be our *mysterious* joyrider!”

KIM KITSURAGI - Your frenzied babbling falls deaf to the lieutenant's ears. Instead, he approaches the broken vehicle, sunken in the ice. He moves with a caution and gentleness you haven’t seen him display before.

INLAND EMPIRE - It must be cold and lonely down there, in the icy water. Maybe he could sense its sorrow, calling to him…

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Easy: Success] - His hands, which are always stiffly placed behind his back, are trembling.

ENDURANCE - This is the shuffle of a tired, tired man.

HALF LIGHT - He’s going to do something drastic because of you. Oh god, terrible! You’re a terrible liar! You can’t look at this, you just can’t!

VOLITION [Formidable: Success] - It's not *you* who drove his kineema into the sea. You have plenty of faults, but this one is decidedly not yours.

KIM KITSURAGI - He kneels down with his head bowed, casting his face in shadow. He plants a hand on the ice to stabilize himself, squinting to get a better view of the motor carriage. “Detective, it says ‘57’ on it.”

YOU - Sweat drips down your brow, and you feel a terrible headache coming. “Maybe our joyrider has an affinity for that number?”

LOGIC - He's not stupid, he knows that it's not that.

KIM KITSURAGI - “57.”

YOU - “What about 57?”, you brace yourself.

KIM KITSURAGI - “Precinct 57.”

YOU - You wince. “Kim, look-”

KIM KITSURAGI - “When I woke up in the Whirling-in-Rags with no memory of what happened during the days before, I've taken note that something of mine has gone missing.” He grits his teeth. "A very. Important. Something."

He runs his hands over his face, messing his already unkempt hair in the process. Regret creeps up on his features. “God. Fuck. They’re going to fire me over this, they’re not going to hear me out.”

EMPATHY - Desperation settles in the lieutenant's tone. Sadly, you find yourself in agreement, even if you don’t want it to be the truth.

YOU - “People are more valuable than machines, Kim.”

KIM KITSURAGI - “Not people like me.” He rasps.

YOU - “…”

KIM KITSURAGI - Before you can say anything more, you fail to notice the lieutenant carefully walking onto the edge of the ice. He looks over the frigid water, a dizzying blue that mirrors and distorts his exhausted face back to him.

YOU - “Kim?”

KIM KITSURAGI - Seconds pass as he looks to be contemplating something. Out of nowhere, he casually takes another step where the ice ends and the sea begins. It happens all too quick for the lieutenant to even voice a call for help— if he even wanted to — his body plunging into the cold water before your eyes.

YOU - “KIM!!!!”

uhhh bonus stuff? sorry i have swap au brainworms pfttt

(im not sure what skills kim has at the moment so rn he only has narration as his inner monologue ok whoops, i would like to keep harry as the guy who thinks in dialogue trees so im still figuring it out pfttt)

also, this was done bc i wanted to expand on these old scribbles of mine, just like an idea, i just think that he'd be having an even worse time wheezes

[nthflower]

Cuno should join Hardie boys in the future not RCM btw my unpopular hot take opinion thingie.

[weepylucifer]

So if Precinct 41 is really soooo understaffed and overworked and handling the workload of 4 precincts already, and the whole C-Wing is in shambles bc of Harry’s antics, why do they want Martinaise so badly, to the point of staging a whole cop contest over it? It seems like they’re majorly screwing themselves over just for the sake of posturing? Why take on even more work, all for the dubious privilege of policing a few busted streets? Why don’t they just hand it off to the 57th, who seem to have more manpower and better equipment and less personnel troubles, and focus on the gigantic caseload they apparently already h oooohhhh right they want harbor access for Le Retour. Okay, next-

[canyourfavesurvivecastledracula]

Would Harry DuBois (Disco Elysium) survive the castle?

So literally everything I know about Harry DuBois I learned from the notes of the Kim Kitsuragi post. Which is as follows:

@crabgrave tells me that Harry DuBois is definitely entertaining enough for Dracula to keep feeding him for two months, but declines to state in what respect.

@cicadidae-tm9899 reveals that Harry is the Believer to Kim's Skeptic, and that he is extremely observant when it comes to his case but perhaps pathologically oblivious when it comes to himself, and that he is one half of some kind of Dynamic ... quite possibly the half that's a liability.

I have to say that noticing that Dracula is a vampire without recognizing that he is a vampire who is going to kill you and/or feed you too his roommates is the opposite of what is going to help you survive this.

Now @advestager has given us an actual analysis! To whit, that Harry would not survive Castle Dracula for reasons that have nothing to do with Castle Dracula and everything to do with Harry DuBois. And also that he's a real weirdo but it works for him.

I lied a bit earlier - I do have the teeniest bit of cultural osmos knowledge around this character which is that he's a Hot Mess, probably in a way typical of Noir Detectives? But possibly much much worse.

This isn't enough for me to answer the question, but it might be enough for me to formulate a poll. So here we go:

[crustaceousfaggot]

I love fem!Harry and Kim fanart so much. Because it is so similar. Take Harry Du Bois, ditch the facial hair, give him some tits and change his name to Harriet and bam you have a lesbian. Harry already dresses like That. There's no more work that needs to be done.

It's even easier with Kim. You don't even have to change his name. You can give him tits or a ponytail if you want but you don't even have to. Hell, you can point to any art of Kim Kitsuragi and say "Kim is a lesbian in this fanart." And I will just believe you. Because Kim just has that much dyke swag.

[lieutenantism]

i'm currently thinking about how jean loses himself completely to harry. just dissolves entirely. very little sense of identity left outside his partnership with him, which i find so intriguing. i mean, it's the definition of codependency, but that doesn't make it any less interesting (long post, again).

"i won't let my life unravel because of this." is just so insane and melodramatic to me because WHO is that man to you, jean? and why is his alcoholism the reason for your life unraveling? jean takes on harry's drinking problem as a problem of his own, a threat to his life before harry's, even though the drinking doesn't affect harry's ability to do his job, and jean acknowledges that as well as everyone else in the major crimes unit.

but why does he have such a big problem with harry's alcoholism? why's he the only one out of the task force who seems to care obsessively? because the one before him failed to save him, and he feels as though it's his responsibility now. to jean, harry's life is divided to three parts; before him, during him, and tragically, after him.

the fact jean puts himself in the same position as dora, harry's ex, tells you enough. almost as if he considers them to be the same, in terms of responsibility for harry's wellbeing. he's cleaning up her mess, he seems to think. she was way before my time, as though they hold the same significance to harry. of course, this isn't entirely jean's fault. both him and harry share the guilt of their twisted relationship; harry's guilty of getting too personal with anybody within arm's reach.

and jean's guilty for wanting to clean up a mess that he didn't make, and losing sight of himself and his true professional duties in the process. so it goes like this; they partner up, harry's bad at drawing the line between personal and professional relationships and jean's even worse, harry goes on benders every week and jean witnesses them and tries to pull him out of them relentlessly, which then leads to whatever fucked up partnership they had, right before martinaise. the question is why did jean feel the need to save him? because he projected onto him severely.

they're both broken men; mirrors of each other, though jean will never say it out loud. he sees himself in harry, and since he can't save himself and everyone's given up on him, even the professionals, he decides not to give up on harry. in a way, jean's trying to prove to himself that he's not a lost cause through sticking by harry's side through it all, because if even the most lost of causes manages to have at least one person who's there for them at all times, who says he can't have one too? why must he be labelled as the anomaly? if harry du bois could be saved, so can he. he maintains this "i have my shit together, i'm better than you." persona during the entire confrontation, when he isn't. like i said, harry is everything jean works hard in order not to become, yet he still manages to lose his sense of identity while "saving" him and only becomes "harry's partner". that's all he is. nothing but a safety net, there to catch him at all times.

that's why he becomes extremely defensive when you choose the "kim's cooler than you." option, because you're practically robbing him of his identity. throughout the entirety of the game, he keeps repeating: "i'm your partner", to reassure himself more so than anything else, and what the game does here is very clever. you first hear him say that on a call, so distant and away from you; he cannot convince you that he's your partner even if he tried. then, he says it when he's in an idiotic disguise that you didn't recognize, and quite frankly it's making you uncomfortable, it's hard to take him seriously when he looks so stupid so you don't believe him, again. then at last, when he confronts you, and he's himself. then you think it sticks.

but it doesn't, and you dismiss him again to ask about the others. i've always found it perplexing how there's no "how can you be my partner?" option during the confrontation. you can ask about mikael heidelstam for fuck's sake, but not your partner. simply because you don't believe he is, at least not anymore. he's just a very angry man who was in a stupid disguise, and that's all you can ask him about. isn't that so insanely tragic? when you think about how dismissive the "confrontation" is? and jean's lashing out that way because his whole identity is hanging in the balance? no matter what jean tells harry, there's no click, no lightbulb flickering moment, nothing. jean tries everything, it's painful to see, really. the "i didn't lie to you. no one lies to you." and his lines to judit and trant where he's like "i told you, it's typical harry behavior. it's our shitkid." and so on are all attempts to prove that he, jean, knows him, harry, better than anyone else, even himself. he KNOWS him, which is why harry has to need him. he has to keep him. as his partner or whatever the hell it was, because nobody else knows him or will ever get to know him that way.

jean's response to harry telling them "i don't wanna be in your unit." only further proves it. "i'm your partner, i answer for you when you're not there." considering the fact harry and jean had begun to blur ever since their partnership came into being makes the line funnier lol. jean had locked himself up in a prison of his own making, of course with harry giving him all the means necessary to build his own cage beforehand. it was a matter of time and conditioning, and severe loneliness. every crime of harry's feels like one jean is guilty of.

[o-wyrmlight]

Harry: Kim, I'm going to start a cult.

Kim: You are? What's this cult going to be about?

Harry: I'm going to call it 'Children of Revachol'. The only people allowed to join are true Revacholians. We will worship Revachol as the spiritual entity that she is and spread her fear of nuclear destruction in twenty-two years across the world. Our goal is to stop her death. I will, of course, be her prophet.

Kim: I see. Very interesting, apocalypse cop.

Harry: You have to help me spread the word, Kim. Posters and fliers and shit. Think of the tax benefits.

Kim: Why are you just assuming I want in on this, detective?

Harry: Are you not a Vacholiere? Do you not want to spread the word to protect our city?

Kim, taking a moment to recover from the whiplash: ...Maybe so, but I'm also a realist.

Harry: That's okay. You don't have to believe that she exists. Revachol loves you anyway. She loves all of her children. That's why every Revacholian is automatically indoctrinated in the cult.

Kim: Are you high

[lifeless-discodancer]

Has anyone ever made a "Harry transfers to precint 57" AU? Idk how it would work in canon (Like what happens? Does Kim feels kinda bad leaving Harry alone with this people who kinda hate him and offers him a spot in his precint? Would that mean that the 57 wins the pissing contest? And the 57 gets Martinaise??!!) but i have a few ideas about how that scenario would work post transfer.

●Harry and Kim get partnered up almost immediately. There would be some delays but i don't know if it would be because everyone wants Harry as a partner (He is some sort of cop legend so i would asume some other officers who might be Kim's superiors or equals also have a say on choosing the Can-Oppener as their partner) or because the capitain doesn't want Harry to be partnered with anyone (He did a big mess in Martinaise and he is a big mess in general so i wouldn't be surprised if the capitain wanted him as far from the rest as possible), but eventually Harry and Kim become partners.

●Kim keeps the Kineema. Why would they take it away from him if he isn't going anywhere?

●The caseload in the 57 is much smaller than the 41's. Harry would be considerably more relaxed and that would made quitting drugs easier for him.

●Headcanon Kim's coworkers however you like. Idk if they are assholes or just normal, polite people but what i do know is that nobody is mean to Kim in Harry's watch. (That probably means that Kim has to tell Harry not to punch the people calling him Kimball at least five time a day, it annoys him a little but is also kind of endearing in a fucked up way)

●Things are still fucked up, i mean Harry and Kim are still cops, Harry still doesn't remember anything and Kim is still represed asf, and the seaside view is not changing any of that soon. (But i least they have eachother, in a slightly less stressful enviroment... compared to the 41...)

●Not so serious idea but i firmly believe that Jean, in all of his pathetic might, is finding the time to go all the way to the G.R.I.H and yell at Harry's face. (And he IS dragging Judith and Trant with him)

●To be honest that's kind of it. It would be pretty boring or at least very similar to how it would be if Kim transferred to the 41, the only differences would be that Harry isn't specially know by any of his new coworkers but Kim is, and that any crime you can imagine happening at a building in Jamrock could also be happening at the G.R.I.H. but like in a boat or something of that sort.

[bensonsballerz]

elysium

You can feel the piercing of something long and sharp careen through your massive gullet, the sound of organs being gnashed and blood spilling filling your eardrums. You never thought pale could hurt this much, but you were wrong. You don't even have time to say anything, the only sound exiting from your filthy mouth the choking of your blood. It's warm and copper taste feels familiar somehow, but you wouldn't remember. And you won't get to.

HEALTH CRITICAL!

You hear somebody screaming your name, a voice usually composed and quiet undone by years of grief and isolation that's toppled over at the sight of your death. You were his last hope, his anchor for a boat that's been cast away at sea for many years; you thought he was your anchor, but in reality, it was quite the opposite. You have never heard somebody scream like that... actually, yes, you have many, many times. You just never thought somebody would scream like that over you.

MORALE CRITICAL!

The man next to him is white as a ghost, eyes big and wide in terror. He mutters his favorite curse word (he'd make sure you died a second time if he found out you said he had a favorite curse word) under his trembling breath, his lip quivering. In the end, your relationship was far from perfect, but he believes you deserved better than this. Anything than this.

Your eyes feel heavy and you know it's ending soon, but all you can feel is guilt: you couldn't save anybody, not even one person. You were their only hope, the only tether to Elysium in all of Her glory, and you failed exquisitely. You deserved a far crueler death than this, but all you can do is cry, cry, cry.

Let me say goodbye, at least. I don't want them to be sad.

Life is no fairy tale, Harry boy- this is the end for you. There are no goodbyes and there are no happy endings. You're going to die, then Kim is going to die, then Jean, then the rest of Precinct 41, then Martinaise, then the rest of Revachol, and finally Elysium. There is no hope; just death.

Let it happen, Harrier! Let it happen!

You finally close your eyes, anticipating the warmth of darkness and death like a hug from a friend you haven't seen for a time. All you can hope for is that death will be kinder to Kim and Jean, if She is inescapable.

It's over. It's all over...

...

...

...

SHIVERS: NO.

SHIVHER: YOU ARE NOT DONE YET. YOU WILL NOT DIE.

HIHER: THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO NEED YOU. GET UP.

But I can't.

HER: YOU WILL. THERE IS STILL MUCH FOR YOU TO DO. IT IS NOT YOUR TIME YET.

Through your closed eyelids, through the darkness, you can sense a light below you. You can also hear again. It's quiet at first...

LGIC: GET UP

HAF LGH: GET UP

ESPR D COS: GET UP

But then they grow louder. And the light grows brighter.

COMPOSURE: GET UP

ELECTROCHEMISTRY: GET UP

EMPATHY: GET UP

HER: GET UP

HEALTH AND MORALE RESTORED

THE MIND: GET UP

Ok, ok! I'm getting up, you guys don't need to yell.

You open your eyes, and you see that your lungs are glowing and you are bleeding gold. You are light and you are holy, finally, after 44 years of being nothing but a tar pit of misery.

Is Kim ok? Please tell me he's ok.

You look to him and the light reflecting off of his glasses and tear stricken face. As always, he is an awe of you and he mouths a raspy "how," adjusting his spectacles.

And Jean?

He says his favorite curse word for the second time this day, a hand on his forehead. But he is relieved, you can tell.

Your shining lungs expand with an echoing sigh. As long as they're ok, then this is all worth it.

You try to move your limbs, but all you can feel is tingling; they are weak. The pale is still impaled in you. No pun intended.

HER: I AM YOU. AND YOU ARE ME. I AM YOURS AND YOU ARE MINE.

You can hear the cricking and cracking of bones being forced to move, and you jerk your head to your left to see your arm moving on its own. Your meaty fingers contract and stretch like a overturned bug being poked, and all of a sudden, your hand grips the pale. The sensation is everything and nothing, like touching water, fire, needles, and blankets all at once. It's horrible and it's beautiful.

There is an astounding crack that sends chills down the spines of every citizen in Elysium as your fingers clutch the pale, nails digging in, and you rip it out swiftly, your blood spilling the snow and soil below. The hole in your body emits a gorgeous light, perhaps the most wonderful thing you've ever seen your body exhibit.

ELYSIUM: SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

[mytragedyperson]

ok, kinda wish we got to see the conversation between Choi Han, Deruth and Hans at the beginning of the novel, when he tells them about Harris Village. Because what did he say for Hans to see him defeat the Count's knights and just not question it? How much of the tragic backstory did he tell them, all of it or just the Harris village bit? Because if he didn't tell them everything, to them, it looks like Cale just came home one day with a random homeless stranger, who told them about the assassination at Harris Village, and possibly that he'd killed the assassins but, again, not clear if he actually told them that part or just the assassination of the villagers. And then the homeless stranger from Harris Village fought and defeated Count Deruth Henituse's knights. and they had no further questions? What did Choi Han tell them? Because while it makes more sense that Choi Han told them the whole story about the assassination and that's why neither Hans nor Deruth questioned it, I'd find it a lot more funny if this wasn't the case, that Hans just saw this, was impressed so forgot to question it and then just went on with his day. Maybe he even forgot to mention it to Deruth and he found out some other way, or maybe Deruth didn't know about this. Hans forgot to mention it in his report and none of the knights were about to admit that they'd been bested by some random stranger who their young master randomly found. God, imagine being one of those knights. seriously, no one, not one person, questioned it? Not one of them was so paranoid they worried that Choi Han was lying about who he was or where he was from. I can't imagine every single knight knew about what happened at Harris Village, though I could be wrong. They might've been told in case the assassins were sent to their territory again. But this was still early on. everyone just took this at face value and accepted it? Honestly, one of the things that makes this story work is how utterly unphased everyone around the main character is. Yes, Choi Han and Rosalyn and Lock and the Calefam are completely unphased. But even the unnamed knights, Hilsman and Hans just never question anything. Honestly, I love Deputy Butler Hans. He comes the closest to questioning Cale but you can almost tell he wants to ask but then realizes actually, on second thought I don't wanna know, and just goes about his day, oblivious to the craziness that surrounds him. Either that or he's about to ask or say something but gets interrupted before he can and then it just feels too awkward to ask later. This book wouldn't work half as well if the characters didn't all share a brain cell.

every time I remember Choi Han is physically seventeen and Cale is physically 18, it makes me sad that they're dealing with this shit. I know Cale is 20 now but that's insane. i know mentally or whatever they're older but can you imagine? 18-year-old Cale acts as a father to On, who is only 8 years younger than Cale Henituse. Like Kim Rok Soo is older, I get that but damn. To everyone else, this 18-year-old who's acted like trash for years is suddenly helping people, making friends, and adopting children. every time he returns home there's someone new with him. He's best friends and brothers with the crown prince. God they drive me crazy. i love them

Also, the way Hans asks Cale if it will be okay for Choi Han not to go back to Harris Village in the beginning of the novel is everything. He just automatically trusts Cales judgement and sees him as the person to ask. Now he may have asked the Count as well but we have no proof of that and, if there's no proof it didn't happen so I'm choosing to believe he waited to ask Cale since it was his guest, which is even better when you consider that the day before he was scared Cale was going to throw a bottle at him. Like the fact that he trusted Cale enough to trust his judgement on this matter after he'd been different for two days. God I love Hans and Cale. And I've never seen anyone talk about them and their relationship but like Hans is one of the first people to feel completely at ease around KRS!Cale. It doesn't take him that long to drop the formality. Man I love deputy butler hans. His relationship with Cale feels so underrated.

Also for future reference when I talk about relationships in this sense I mean the Canon relationship. If I make headcanons, which is a real possibility, that may change to include a romantic aspect, but for now, in this case its purely platonic.

And Hans mentioning Ron hurting himself while working again, and that letting us, the audience know that Cale is wrong when he says Choi Han, Ron and Beacrox seem to be getting along. Because we already know about their first spar, but none of the other characters do. Uts another example of unreliable narrator Cale and we love to see it. OK so I really like this story. There's a huge chance that any posts I make are just gonna be this, like talking about unreliable narrator Cale, nobody ever questioning anything that happens and just general reactions as I reread and most of it is just gonna be random thoughts I have while reading. I already feel like I'm going to be so annoying about this but I have zero regrets and refuse to apologise so consider this a fair warning for if you seem to stumble across my posts a lot

Also Cales immediate response without thinking about it being "give him medicine". Further proof that KRS!cale is way nicer than he gives himself credit for. Also I'm sorry but him saying this while thinking "he probably killed somebody again" absolutely sends me. And the fact Ron hasn't actually killed anyone yet. Also its giving "I don't care if he's a murderer, he's one of my people" which is just so Cale

The interview scene is a great example of why Cale can never seen to get rid of the strays he collects. So, as usual, he thinks he's being selfish and using Choi Han, whatever. And obviously there's the whole, if you can kill people, then you should be able to protect people thing, which is already a pretty good message for Choi Han to hear at this point, that he's good for something more than hurting other people or things. But more than that, by phrasing it as an interview, when Choi Han passes that means he's qualified, that Cale believes he can protect/save people. Cale is probably one of the first people to believe in him, to believe he's capable of more than hurting others, and for someone like Choi Han who's just lost everyone he cared about and killed people for the first time, and is probably suffering some serious surivivors' guilt, it's probably what he needs to hear, that someone still believes in him, even if it is a complete stranger. And it's not actually like Cale is being selfish because, if everything went how he planned at this point, it wouldn't even be like he'd gain Rosalyn and Lock's skills to use because he planned to just send them on their way. Also, the way he asks Choi Han's name and introduces himself - it shows a certain level of respect that most wouldn't expect from a noble. He's not looking down on Choi Han, He's treating him as an equal and, by saying he's heard his name from others but wants to hear from Choi Han himself, it shows that he wants him to have his voice and speak and that he'll listen. this may seem like a reach because it's such a small thing but how many nobles would care enough to ask a commoner, one who looked homeless, their name. Most wouldn't even bother to ask to confirm the name they'd heard was correct but Cale does. Imagine how that must feel to Choi Han, knowing his status, that Cale bothered to ask and treat him like an equal.

also can you imagine if Choi Han had slipped up and admitted Cale sent him when he first met Rosalyn and Lock. It wouldn't be completely insane for him to assume they knew each other. that would've looked so bad. oh yeah, this guy who you've never met somehow knew, not only who you were, but where you'd be in order to send me to find you. God the amount of times Cale just gets lucky is insane. He's also insanely unlucky. i Can't decide if the God of Luck loves or hates him.

also don't know if this was the intention but I've always in my head read the "I'm glad you know how to read" bit as sarcastic and throwing shade, especially because he knew before this he could read and because he doesn't offer any further information about who these people are and why Choi Han has to go get them or whatever. i get that it was probably written down on the paper, or maybe he just didn't mention it. It probably wasn't intended but that's how i always read it.

[ferallair]

Cunoess is a ghost.

I've been thinking about this for a while and I want to make a little short video about it, but first I want to get it out in writing.

I think Cunoess is a ghost. I know there is a theory that Cunoess is the Gnome of Geroma, a ugly little red haired creature that eats kids, but I think her being a ghost is more likely.

There are ghosts all over Revachol. The ghost in the chimeny, the Headless Faln rider, The voice in the machine in the doomed commercial area, memories of the Revolution, "Glory to the Ghost of us!" The Pale Driver, Tiago, The Hanged Man, Harry himself.

You - Fall into total darkness.

Ancient Reptilian Brain - This is death. One more door, baby. One more door.

You - Will I be a… ghost now?

Ancient Reptilian Brain - Brother, you already were a ghost. Up there, screaming -- along with all of them. Scaring each other. Haunting each other.

Ancient Reptiliain Brain - It's the living who are ghosts. The dead are silent. They don't rattle windows or write letters in blood. The living do. Leave them behind. Rest.

Ghosts are every where.

But there is a sequence of facts in particular that lead me to believe that Cunoess is actually a ghost.

The 24 hr Window business.

You - "What's up with the broken windows?"

Novelty Dicemaker - "Oh, this one's a mess." She sighs. "There used to be a company that promised to repair windows 24 hours a day. What could go wrong with this one, right? Turns out the business was actually set up as a front for an illicit group that was producing *snuff milieus* -- who would have guessed..."

Encyclopedia - Hm, what's a snuff milieu?

Half Light - Trust me, you don't want to know.

Novelty Dicemaker - "And they never cleaned up the debris either. Now it's just littering the hallway and I have no idea how to get rid of it on my own."

You - "Cool, very cool about the debris -- but what's a *snuff milieu*?"

Novelty Dicemaker - "It's a sub rosa radio station that broadcasts real murders, with real victims. Some people pay good money to get off on it."

Drama - Nothing changes in her tone as she says that -- as if it's just another piece of information to lay out for the world.

2. How Cunoess is found:

You - "Is she your sister?"

Cuno - "Fuck no, she's not my sister. She's just a stray who got in. Like a mad dog or some shit."

You - "Stray?"

Cuno - "Yeah, she was just there." He points at the apartment building behind the fence.

Cunoesse - "What was that, Cuno?" The little one twists her neck, looking at the building.

Cuno - "She was in the hallway, dripping wet." Cuno flinches, then lowers his voice even more. "By the fucking shoe rack. In the dark."

Visual Calculus - A shoe cupboard just off to the right? Have you been to this place?

You - "That hallway there, with the janitor's closet?" (Point.)

Cuno - "Yeah that's the place. She was just balled up near the closet. Psycho-style."

You - "Why was she dripping wet?"

Cuno - "Cuno's got no fucking idea. Her hair was all wet. I think she pissed on the floor too. She was there for three days -- in the corner. Every time Cuno went out."

You - Murder hangover? From when she…

Endurance - …killed a kid, yes. Makes them look for a quiet, dark place and just hibernate there. Usually goes on for a few days up to a week.

Half Light - Must have been her first one. You only get it on the first one.passive check (requires approx. 2 in Half Light)

You - (Return to the conversation.) "You said she got in? How?"

Cuno - "I don't know…" He looks at you suspiciously as you come out of your thoughts. "Someone left the door open. Cuno comes home, she's sleeping under the desk, under a pile of clothes. Like a dog."

Reaction Speed - Someone left the door open? It was him. By accident or…

Empathy - …on purpose.

3. The Red Chair

Inland Empire - It's only a red chair. Just a red chair in an empty shack -- with what looked like a dusty bow tie on the shelf. Nothing to see here, right?

You - "Hey Kim, where are we?"

Kim Kitsuragi - "In someone's abandoned shack. On the coast. In Martinaise..." He looks at you. "In Revachol."

Rhetoric - He's afraid you've forgotten suddenly. You - "What's with the red chair?"

Kim Kitsuragi - "Nothing. It's just a piece of furniture." He looks at the chair gathering dust.

Inland Empire - Red paint is peeling off it. Looks like blood, no?

You - "What's with the red bow tie?" (Show it to him.)

Kim Kitsuragi - "It's just a piece of clothing you've picked up. You do that, officer -- you collect clothes sometimes."

Empathy - He sounds a little worried. It's an odd habit.

Composure - Don't be worried, lieutenant. Clothes are therapeutic.

You - "Could our suspect be staying here?"

Kim Kitsuragi - "Here?" He looks around. "I don't see signs of recent habitation. This place is abandoned."

Suggestion - See? He doesn't like the *vibration* from the red chair either.

4. If you try to shoot Cunoess and miss you learn about the näkki.

Cunoesse - "Can't believe you missed... We were so close, you and I... fucking noodle fingers! Can't you see I'm *IMMORTAL* now!"

Cunoesse - "I'm never getting out." She touches her face and then her body. "I'm in it for life now. I'm doing life with you pigs! Fucking sweaty pigs. Fucking fisher-people."

You - "What do you mean *fisher-people*?"

Cunoesse - "Fucking *näkki*...

Kim Kitsuragi - "Come. We need to go now." The lieutenant puts his hand on your shoulder.

You - "No, Kim! I wanna hear about the *näkki*!

 Cunoesse - "Merrow..."

You can then ask Cuno about them:

You - "What's up with the näkkies? The fisher-people? That stuff?

Cuno - "Yeah, I saw you get the näkk treatment… Dark shit, huh?"

You - "The näkk-treatment?"

Cuno - "Back when you waved your gun and it went off -- she does the fisher-people-näkk thing when she's way in the red. On overdrive."

Cuno - "She used to say it all the time: näkk this, fisher-people that. Now she only says it when she's on the lightning. Or when guns go off."

You - "What the hell is a näkk?"

Cuno - "Her people? She's one of them? Then she hates them. Then everyone's a näkk and she's trapped? Look…"

Cuno - "It's none of our business. That's what a näkk is. Cuno keeps his nose to himself -- doesn't go poking around in näkk shit. Cuno's wise that way."

Drama - She regresses and pretends she's a mythological creature when she's under too much stress.

So hear me out. At some undisclosed time in the past a snuff milieu in Martinaise killing people and recording. In the fishing village (away from the prying eyes of the Hardie Boys perhaps?) is a shack that give you some serious creeps. Sure, one of the mercenaries might be currently using it to spy on you, but it could also have been where the snuff milieu's were recorded. All you find is a bow tie and post card of coal city with the words "I got out. I got out." written on it. Got out of coal city? Or got out of this shack? Who knows. The bow tie tell you nothing except "You're sure that wearing this tie is a statement. You're not sure what kind of statement, though." and gives you a +2 Drama for Theater Kid. But what kind of theater is was happening in a creepy shack in a mostly abandoned fishing village off the cost of Martinaise? Snuff millieu's perhaps? And if Cunoess was one of the victims of the snuff milieu, that might explain her odd appearance in Cuno's apartment.

Then there are the näkkies. Näkkies are based on a germanic folklore about shape changing water spirits.

Here are some interesting facts from wikipedia:

The Nordic näcken, näkki, nøkk were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, luring women and children to drown in lakes or streams.

It is difficult to describe the appearance of the nix, as one of his central attributes was thought to be shapeshifting. Perhaps he did not have any true shape.

When malicious nøkker attempted to carry off people, they could be defeated by calling their name; this was believed to cause their death.

We can't really tell if Cunoess thinks that SHE is the näkki as a way to protect herself from others, or if being murdered has turned her into a näkki. If Harry is the näkki for attacking her or for trying to take Cuno from her, or if it is the killers who lured her away to Martinaise (perhaps with some anodonic dance music?) are the näkki. But if she was abducted, killed (and god knows what else), her body dumped into the water between the fishing village and the apartments, and she crawled from her watery grave into the apartments to be reborn as a näkki, it would explain a lot about her. Her fear of everything, her anger and aggression, her lack of a name or past, her encouraging Cuno to be violent (and protect her) and do drugs with her. It just explains so many things.

Harry and Cuno both think she's a killer, but she can just as easily be the victim of violence. And she might have seen other girls killed before her. She might have fought back against her killers, she might even be the only one who "got out. got out." And now, like Harry, she's a ghost of herself. A spirit of vengeance, haunting a half crazy boy that looks just like her. And like Harry, this could be a psychological death, not a real one. But then there's the Pale.

You - Where have you gone?

The Hanged Man - Into the wild pale yonder.

You - Where is that?

The Hanged Man - In the past. Way out west.

Reaction Speed - What was that -- 'pale yonder'? Do you know what the pale is?

You - What is the pale?

The Hanged Man - The pale, Coppo... it spooks me out.

You - Why does it spook you out?

The Hanged Man - The corpse is silent. The nose in the middle of his face is swollen, so are his cheeks. His lips are motionless.

The Pale is a wild card. It creates ghosts. It stores ghosts. Perhaps it is a ghost. So, whose to say if Cunoess is a real life girl, or the memory of one spit out by the 2mm hole in reality in a church, near a fishing village, where a snuff milieu was one recorded?

[hogpostingcrooner]

Kim Kitsuragi Feet Analysis

It's time we stopped fucking around and focused on what really matters: how big are Kim Kitsuragi's feet? It's never stated in-game but I believe we can get an accurate guess of his gripper geometry without too much grief. How tall is Kim Kitsuragi? Well there are no direct references to his height in-game or otherwise, but we do get a sense of Harry's height when trying to climb the feld ladder:

FELD LADDER – In addition, the first rung is going to be *tough* to reach. It's, what, three metres above ground, and you're -- 180...?

YOU – One-eighty seems about right. 180cm converted to inches is 5'10, so we can say Harry is about that. In official art Kim is shown to be a good bit shorter than Harry, shown here

So if we go full matpat, we can count the pixel difference in their heights. Kim is slouching but Harry appears to be as well so I'm not gonna worry about that.

Guessing where their feet are and cropping the image I can say Harry is 260 pixels tall in this image, we know he's 70 inches tall but those don't divide neatly and I'm bad at math so instead im just gonna cut them in half.

130 pixels, the way god intended. This represents 35 inches I'm pretty sure and I don't want to keep cutting it in half because I don't like doing math. If we crop down to Kim's head it become 100 pixels and I don't know what to derive from that but here's that for evidence.

so if Harry is 30 pixels taller and 260 pixels is 70 inches then I need to go back to school bc I have a headache :( 260/30 is 8.6 so uh through the diffident property i can say that i'm going to try to divide 70 by 8.6 and i dont think it's the right kind of math to do. i get 0.28 and now i kinda want to give up writing this post. i dunno maybe i should divide 260 by 70? that gives me 3.7 and im feeling kinda bad because i didnt eat breakfast. so if 1 inch is 3.7 pixels or something? then 230/3.7 is 62 which i think means kim is 5'2? i dont know i dont really care anymore we're going with that.

now if we look at this concept art i get kinda overwhelmed because i dont want to do math again.

im gonna say he's like 8 shoes tall and not worry any further. 62/8 is 7.75 which seems too small i dunno nothing really matters to me anymore.

[queen-beefcake-sqx]

Please do your Sanctifying Kim Take!

Perceiving that man through HDB coloured glasses put me off of most fandom depictions of him. Not to mention how absolutely tiny he's depicted when he's of completely average size. (2-3inches shorter than Harry who is above 6ft. Like I get people do be havin size kinks, but that man's not short)

Canon Kim is the most trigger happy cop depicted in the entire game. He shot 6 kids people between working in juvenile detention and processing, is a severely repressed speedfreak with unprocessed grief (still working Dom's cases) and a wild card (not above using Harry's amnesia to manipulate Joyce when he knows him for a couple of hours), who can maybe have 2 Auth over world soggiest superstar but let's be honest don't we all?

He is so petty that he will die in the tribunal if you give away his pen lmao. Like that man is literally two steps above Harry when it comes to being a weird cop, and that's being lovingly understanding. He needs Martinaise just as much as HDB does.

op I am holding your face gently and shaking like a wet chihuahua. you, you get it.

Here’s my thing — as a general theme, I’ve noticed fandom takes seem to lean into the belief that because Harry’s deification of Dora crashed and burned so spectacularly, that (1) deification of Kim would be just as unhealthy and (2) Kim would outright reject that kind of worship.

And like. Okay. I can see how you’d make a case for that, sure. Except as you pointed out Kim is actually really fucking weird, and damaged in his own way, and most importantly — Kim wants to be cool. There’s a purple check that outright states Kim values being perceived as cool FAR MORE than he lets on. I’ve already written a post that mentions how significant it is for Kim that Harry thinks he’s cool, and what I’m gonna say next is an extension of that:

I think, somewhere deep down and repressed, Kim would actually love being deified by someone, and if Harry put in the work to have a healthy relationship with religion, they could actually make that dynamic work.

Long thoughts and explanation under cut:

Alright a little background on me: I was raised Unitarian Universalist and have a history of deifying my lovers. Harry’s anguish over Dora was very heartbreakingly familiar (although I didn’t destroy my life quite as spectacularly), and the way Harry uses inquiry to engage with belief systems (personal, political, scientific, and religious) is VERY Unitarian. One of our precepts is literally the constant and continuous search for truth and meaning in the world, and that’s Harry’s whole MO. So a lot of this is personal experience coloring interpretation.

A few years ago I wrote a piece of meta about why Tian Guan Ci Fu, a novel about a worshiper’s love for a prince turned god, is better treated as a fairy tale instead of a typical character-driven novel. I bring this up because in the meta I set forth that there were three really big themes that the story teaches us about divinity:

Books Two and Four encapsulate Xie Lian’s biggest lesson - that no one person can hope to end all suffering, even a god, and that putting a person on a pedestal places unachievable expectations upon them.

The rest of the books deal with two different but tangential lessons — devotion means seeing the best in people, regardless of their flaws; devotion also means inevitable destruction when you are not valued to the same degree.

I bring this up because, incidentally, these are the EXACT same themes that Disco Elysium deals with in regards to deification and devotion. I firmly believe the rest of the text about Innocences corroborates this, but even just looking at Harry and Dora, these themes are SCREAMINGLY relevant. Harry destroyed himself when Dora, his Innocence and god, left him. Their relationship was never really equal — there was a class difference, the abortion and difference in want for parenthood, the fact she walked out on him at least one before. Harry placed Dora on such a high pedestal that he set her up to fail him when she couldn’t handle Harry’s addiction and deteriorating mental health at a job she encouraged him to pursue.

Because a really important caveat about those themes I didn’t elaborate on — “regardless of flaws” doesn’t mean never acknowledging them. I really think Harry got into his head that Dora could truly do no wrong and found himself increasingly hurt and floundering when she proved just how wrong that was, and instead of acknowledging things they BOTH needed to work on — to do better, to improve, to grow — Harry got angry, resentful, and depressed and Dora got out of there.

And I don’t blame her, nor anybody else who did the same. I don’t blame Jean’s anger with Harry’s carelessness with his life, even if the way he expresses it is actively harmful. But the problem is Harry is a vast, vast soul — he feels things very deeply and extremely. I like fics where he learns to work through it and love a person to a Normal(tm) degree, but there’s a part of me deep down that feels like that is impossible for him. There is vitriol or there is devotion and there is little to nothing in-between for him, and for him a healthy relationship isn’t less devotional/religious as much as it is reconceptualizing what it means to be divine — stealing from my TGCF meta, he needs to remember that deities were human before they were ever his god, and as someone who’s worked as a cop, he should KNOW how messy humans are.

And minus himself, fuck if there isn’t a human messier than Kim Kitsuragi.

I’ve written a bit about Kim’s self-image and the significance of Harry finding him cool before. Kim is honestly a mess. He’s implied to be still struggling with the death of his partner some time in the past, is trigger happy and hates it, and is also implied to be ostracized from his coworkers. Kim does his job because he genuinely thinks it’s one of the only ways he can do good under a military regime that’s got airships ready to attack at a moment’s sign of rebellion. He smokes one cigarette a way to challenge his own volition and give off an air of untouchability because he has to be cool, he has to, he has no power in his life if he doesn’t!

But I genuinely believe that cool is tested at every turn, and I think there’s very few people who see the cool without seeing everything else about him — all the things he’s ashamed of, that make him feel lesser or othered. And Harry sees all those things over time, with a thorough enough run — he learns about “Kimball” and the bad eyesight and his fierce protection of his status as a “true Revacholiere”.

But it’s day one that Harry can call Kim cool. Regardless of flaws you uncover or not, Harry can see Kim as someone to be admired. Because that’s what Harry does with people he likes. And when was the last time anyone called Kim cool and meant it genuinely?

I think it’s noteworthy that Kim tries to stay humble when Harry gets excited about Kim — he downplays himself or pulls Harry out of flights of fancy about the degree of his “coolness”. He reminds Harry that he’s human… even if inwardly he preens at praise and recognition. (I’m too lazy to go through the Fayde viewer right now to back myself up, but just really pay attention to his Empathy checks sometime). Kim keeps Harry from constantly putting him on a pedestal like he did to Dora.

It’s also noteworthy that regardless of what a hot mess you are re: addiction, Kim still respects you as a detective and will defend you to your precinct. Remember that third theme, about relational devotion? Devotion doesn’t work if you’re deifying someone who doesn’t respect you, and thus won’t hold you to the standard of their divinity. There’s a thing in teaching where teachers want to shy away from difficult or disruptive students, thinking we’re accommodating them when in reality we’re not challenging them and are disrespecting their right to learn. Respect also means setting boundaries and trust, and I don’t know how much of either Dora and Harry had by the end.

Kim sets boundaries right off — No, we will not talk about the pissing contest until the field autopsy is done, don’t even try asking again. Yes, I do think now is a bad time for a drink and you should stop being careless with your life. No I will not tell you a secret about myself. Kim isn’t afraid to draw lines in the sand with Harry, because not only does he respect himself, but he wants to see that Harry respects him, too.

And in exchange, Kim displays his respect openly in front of peers — in front of the organization he’s worked to protect his reputation within — to defend Harry. Known drunk, bad-cop-or-cop-with-bad-days, sad sack Harry Du Bois. It’s acknowledgement from the object of his devotion that he’s done good work and can do more, if he keeps putting in the work to get better.

The point is — I don’t think Harry can change how he loves people, I think its just inherent to who he is as a person, but devoting himself to the altar of Kim Kitsuragi might actually work, if only because Kim wants that worship and will hold Harry accountable for not letting it consume them both.

[d1sc01nf3rn0]

Everyone argues that authority is a skill that's about how much you make people obey you BUT I disagree, and I say it's a skill that's about being trustworthy.

Like, yes, if you have high authority the skill starts getting authoritarian BUT only you are able to hear it, and you're free to listen to it or not. And even then, even Volition gets paranoid and reactive like that.

HOWEVER people feel compelled to listen to you when you say it, and based on the dialogues I say it's because they're evaluating how much they can trust said authority. That's why when you fail the skillcheck you come up with authoritarian or nonsensical arguments.

On the contrary, if you pass a high authority check, your arguments can be pretty sensible and well intentioned (like asking Titus to tell you who's the "rape" victim, because the victim needs help, regardless of what happened to the guy that did it).

The most perfect example of this, is the skillcheck at the Mercenary Tribunal.

It could be a reaction speed skillcheck, but no. It's an authority skillcheck, and they make emphasis on the fact of whether Kim trusts you enough or not.

Kim listens to you not because you're his superior, he listens to you because he trusts your orders.

Kim starts listening to you from the beginning because you're from the RCM, and he believes and trusts in the RCM, despite everything. It's after multiple things in the game that he *TRULY* trusts YOU.

It's a repeated fact in the game that no one listens to you because they don't trust the police; but modifiers that give bonuses to authority come AFTER you do things that make them trust you, even a little.

Another similar example is that "Evrart told them to cooperate" is a modifier. They listen to you, because they trust Evrart. They don't believe he would have told them to cooperate otherwise. They only listen to you based on that trust.

Cuno would be another example, where he starts telling you stuff because you respect him; not because you're an adult, and certainly not because you're a cop.

In the same sense, that's also why you're able to fail an authority skillcheck regardless of you lvl of authority if you lack certain modifiers. You could have a lot of authority, but that doesn't mean people will trust you enough to do or say everything you ask.

A missed point when it comes to positions of authority is that they must be trustworthy, because at the end of the day, it's does not matter how high in the hierarchy you are, people won't listen to you if they don't want to.

Harry's "human can-opener" reputation comes because people feel compelled to tell him stuff; maybe because they understimate him, feel at ease with him, or another reason, but it rarely is just because he's from the RCM.

[brainrotdotorg]

Thinking very hard about how enjoyable the swap AU Is on its own when we switch around Harry and Kim. Like it could just be left at that. Or. We go deeper. We get silly with it. We swap more than just the main two.

Why don’t we switch Soona with Plaisance and Tiago with Neha, so the bookish believer in the supra-natural thinks the crab-woman living in the rafters of a church and making dice as a tribute to the father of silence is actually some kind of ghost. She tasks Annette to help her with rituals and whatnot to contact the spirit. Soona runs a dying business selling radiocomputers and assorted technology, constantly pestered by the construction worker upstairs.

And what if we get even more silly with it? What if we switched Klaasje and Garte? The blonde bombshell working the bar hates if you call her a bartender, she is a woman who manages THREE cafeterias, and she deserves respect, god damn it. She tried to ask out her coworker, a butch redhead who normally mans the bar, but the timing was inappropriate and she scared her away. Now, she has to deal with attempting to play off the failure while managing the cafeteria on her own. The kind of schlubby guy is actually… weirdly charming, in that purple jumpsuit, smoking a cigarette. He’s used his wiles for corporate espionage, and is on the run, he’s got new passports in a buoy just off the coast, and he is very experienced at becoming a new person. No one pays attention to someone who looks like him. His natural appearance is the perfect disguise.

Let’s get more ridiculous. The Hardies and the Speedfreaks. Acele is a young woman studying to be a lawyer, her history with her father’s crimes has made her intimately familiar with the law. Which is perfect, because the group of three anti-authority vigilantes that have taken over the now-defunct union box need someone to watch their asses. A group of downtrodden men in a church seek new life through music (that's their cover story- in reality, they just want to sell speed, but through intimidation tactics, theyve kept people out of their business.)

Switch Pissfaggot and Fuck The World with Steban and Ulixes. PF and FTW run an “exclusive gang” (that they formed because the couldn’t make it as SKULLS) and basically just spout philosophical bullshit back and forth at one another, trying to bring back true punk. The Student Communist and Echo Maker have jackets that have their names on the back of them, and you can find them talking about jacking Kim’s car— you know, for communist reasons. Giving back to the proletariat.

Gaston and Rene swapping with Tommy and Call me Manana. The jolly older man sitting on the railing is part of the Union, he’s seen jams like this come and go, he’s more than used to it. The lorry driver is an ornery old guy, just wants to do his job and do it with dignity and honor— even though that job is just transporting FALN goods. Tommy and Manana are two old friends, guys who grew up together, young during the war. There’s a girl they both like, they’re passing her back and forth. Tommy wonders why Manana doesn’t just settle down with her, she clearly loves him. Manana says he can’t, he’s living the boiadero lifestyle. Or maybe there's something else that's keeping him from tying the knot...

What if we got sad with it. Lillienne and Uuno swap. And with them come their kids. Uuno is a fisherman who lost his wife, and now has to care for his rowdy son and a runaway child all on his own. You don’t learn much about Lillienne except that she’s a passed out drunk, her apartment is a mess, and her twin boys, too young to be in such a situation, are milling around behind the fence, looking at a corpse.

Who is that corpse they're looking at? His field nickname was "Idiot Doom Spiral". Across the water lock, a drunk named Lely ferments with his associates, slurring about how they used to be big shit.

More notable swaps- Goracy Kubek and the FRITTTE teen swap places, Sylvie takes Ruby's spot, I don't know how it would work, but Measurehead and the smoker swapping while the babes and sunday friend swap places as well... that one's just funny. cant do anything with it though lmfao