#with visual calculus coming in second

[murderandcoffee]

disco elysium run 1:

intellect - 1

psyche - 3

physique - 3

motorics - 5

signature skill: savior faire

disco elysium run 2:

intellect - 4

psyche - 3

physique - 3

motorics - 2

signature skill: conceptualization

disco elysium run 3:

intellect - 2

psyche - 3

physique - 5

motorics - 2

signature skill: shivers

[disco-archetypes]

VISUAL CALCULUS - Ruination has come. The broken arches betray the once grand history of this building. It towered over the harbour, until *it* happened.

YOU - Form a guess about what happened.

VISUAL CALCULUS - A great force from the northeast fired into the city. Heavy artillery shelled the coastline, fired from the water -- a straight shot into Revachol.

VISUAL CALCULUS - The tenement acted as a defensive wall against the worst of the shelling. Until it was destroyed, and they had a direct firing line.

YOU - Take in the ocean.

VISUAL CALCULUS - The waves of the Martinaise inlet roll over the fallen remains of the building. The dark waters obscure the better part of the remains.

ENDURANCE - This is where the damage came from. From somewhere in the inlet. The cannons.

LOGIC - What didn't fall into the ocean was used as scrap; what wasn't used as scrap was thrown into the ocean.

YOU - Look at the ruins in the water.

VISUAL CALCULUS - Those arches acted as support for something greater than what you see now.

VISUAL CALCULUS - Only three storeys stand where nine to twelve once did. Restoration has failed. What the shelling took out was never re-built.

SHIVERS - Underwater, iron helmets have sunk deep into the sand and the mud. Helmets of soldiers. And their fingerbones, too. And clavicles. Littering the ocean floor...

YOU - Who did this? This damage?

VISUAL CALCULUS - A fleet -- the combined armies of Occident and Graad, with Mesque volunteers. A five-nation army. Hundreds of vessels.

VISUAL CALCULUS - They massed airships further down, in the bay of Revachol. The artillery was so powerful, the ships not only required gyroscopic stabilization -- they were anchored into the ocean floor as well.

VISUAL CALCULUS - Many are still there to this day. If you squint, you can just barely see the shadow on the water, far in the northeast. Cannons still ready to placate Revachol.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Coalition Warship Archer can shoot fifty shells a minute, on twenty co-aligned arches. They will reach the city in 58 seconds.

[silanb]

Self restraint

(A lil snippet I wrote as a warmup)

>>> Interfacing: You look up at the cabinet, rows upon rows of medication bottles and medical supplies lining the shelves. The two bottles in your hand have a place here, somewhere, you just have to find it.

SHIVERS: Lieutenant Kitsuragi shuffles the bottles around, once, twice, three times. The bottles never seem to find their right place. Their home. Not like this is his city. He shuffles them along anyway.

The bathroom is cool. You try not to shake it off.

Visual calculus: there is a system here, if you take the time to examine it. Carefully planned and sorted so he can find everything he needs. Little braille labeled caps that let him find things even when it’s late and dark, or in the early morning when he’s too tired to put his glasses on. To grab them without looking. Yes, there is a system here, you just don’t know it.

Reaction speed: Yet.

Interfacing: You could take the time to try to piece it together, that way you’d know where to place the bottles. It might take some time but it’s only been a few seconds of you standing here. The Lieutenant is busy putting things away, and it shouldn’t take all that long.

Electrochemistry: That’s right, he’s distracted, so he wouldn’t notice if you popped a few of those bottles into your coat pocket. He’s bound to keep some strong stuff in there, maybe leftover prescription pills from being shot. It would be oh so nice to relax with Kim once you have *those * in your system

Logic: he would notice as soon as he went to grab something and his system was disrupted.

Rhetoric: and if he didn’t, what if he reached for a bottle in the morning, without his glasses, and because you’d moved them he picked up the wrong one? He wouldn’t make a habit of buying ones with brailled caps if he didn’t use them.

Electrochemistry: that could be a problem for future you. You might not get a chance like this again to see if he’s got some really good stuff in there. Just, for future reference.

Volition: and violate the Lieutenant’s trust in the process, undo all your work getting sober, and ruin your ability to work tomorrow. You shouldn’t. It would be better to simply place them on the shelf to the side of the cabinet for Kim to handle later.

Interfacing: [Failed] You try to understand the system Kim has put in place, without looking for drugs to pilfer from your friend, but aside from all the bottles being arranged so they can be easily grabbed without shuffling it’s impossible to tell. Some have prescription names you don’t know, allergy tablets and mild pain pills are next to each-other while stronger pain meds and a decongestant are in completely separate locations. You won’t be figuring this one out champ.

You place the bottles delicately on the shelf next to the cabinet instead, front and center so he won’t miss them when he comes in next to grab them.

When you walk back in to the kitchen Kim has only put away about half of the groceries you helped him bring up. The ones left sit half organized and dumped from their bags on the counter.

“I set them next to the counter so I didn’t mess up your groove in there,” you offer, leaning past Kim to grab something in hopes of helping another way. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“No, that’s preferable actually, thank you,” Kim offers one of his small, rewarding smiles.

Empathy: The Lieutenant is tired today. He barely bothered to put on presentable clothes when you came by, maybe even to the store. Not having to clean up your messes is always a good thing but today it’s a relief that you’re just here. He’s glad for your thoughtfulness.

Inland empire: He always is. Now help your partner in arms, he needs the relief.

In a comfortable silence, you get back to work helping him sort the groceries away.

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

RUUD HOENKLOEWEN - To your right, the killer raises his rifle and takes aim at you. His moves are steady, but the long barrel of the rifle sways slowly...

Kim! Where is Kim?!

Blink -- think!

[Reaction Speed - Challenging 12] Dodge the shot.

KIM KITSURAGI - From the corner of your eye you see the lieutenant raise his pistol -- and aim it at Ruud.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - He's trying to find a straight line of sight before the rifleman can take you out. In the background, the leader is still on fire...

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - It's not easy. He has 0.6 seconds to do so. He won't make it. You're on your own.

2. Blink -- think!

RUUD HOENKLOEWEN - You stare down the barrel of the gun. You see Ruud's mask behind it -- his eye in the slit of the helmet. Like a camera lens focusing on you.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Medium: Success] - 0.4 seconds remain. There are six little black dots in the tip of the barrel, like a honeycomb. This is a *nock cannon*. It shoots six rounds in one pull of the trigger.

ENDURANCE [Easy: Success] - Is there anything -- *anything* -- we could use to protect this frail body? That gun will tear us to pieces.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Success] - Just dodge the first shot -- and the second will be easier. Drunks are quick to anger -- and make mistakes.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Challenging: Success] - Titus -- behind you -- must be aiming at him right now. Don't forget, there's additional reinforcements. Just survive this...

3. [Reaction Speed - Challenging 12] Dodge the shot.

+1 He'll make a mistake. +1 Help is on the way.

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Failure] - A low shot rings. You feel a tapping, like rain on your chest plate. Heavy drops of rain. Then the sound of dice rolling, as the cuirass distributes the shot evenly from plate to plate.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Easy: Success] - You got hit. The armour took most of it, but still your rib cage burns. Feels like blood is slowly seeping into your lungs...

KIM KITSURAGI - "God, please..." the lieutenant says quietly, without trembling. He aims, face pale...

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - He's aiming for the eye-slot in Ruud's helmet. An extremely difficult shot...

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - He has to. The rifleman will fire at you again.

DE PAULE - Then -- two shots ring at once. One from the lieutenant's pistol and the other from De Paule's. It's aimed at the lieutenant, but it misses. You hear a scream behind you...

Kim -- did he hit the rifleman?!

Who screamed?

RUUD HOENKLOEWEN - Blood gushes from the helmet's eye-sockets as Ruud staggers back, disoriented. The sounds coming from his helmet are not human.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Easy: Success] - An unbelievable shot from the lieutenant.

Who screamed?

GLEN - Glen -- dying in a puddle of blood behind you. His mangled torso has two gunshot wounds, blood gushes out of them like red geysers.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - OH GOD! WATCH OUT!

KORTENAER - You see two crazed eyes stare at you -- through the burning meat and the flames. With his face boiling off the man raises his pistol at you. Then he squeezes the trigger...

Look the burning man in the eye.

[Reaction Speed - Impossible 20] Evade the shot.

Let it happen.

KORTENAER - The look of vengeance. Framed by melting skin. This is the last thing he will do on Earth -- but he *will* do it. He will end you.

HALF LIGHT [Easy: Success] - Here it comes. Death.

2. [Reaction Speed - Impossible 20] Evade the shot.

REACTION SPEED [Impossible: Failure] - You can't. There is no time. Something inside your pelvis explodes. Your entire lower body is on fire and your legs can't support you... you fall down like a rag doll.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Formidable: Failure] - The pain is too immense to scream. It pushes the air out of your lungs. Everything goes dark, a distant blur as you recede into it...

Listen... *through* the darkness and the pain.

Touch your lower body…

(Try to open your eyes.) What do I see?

REACTION SPEED - The Hardie boys are screaming, fighting, dying. Someone jumps over you -- nearby gunfire shatters glass.

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "STOP!!!"

TITUS HARDIE - "The cop! Protect the cop, he's down..."

2. Touch your lower body…

PAIN THRESHOLD - Feels slick and warm with blood. The pain is too strong to know what has happened there. Even clutching to your consciousness takes everything you got.

3. What parts of me are… missing?

REACTION SPEED - Most of what's down there.

Oh god...

I don't care. Fuck me.

REACTION SPEED - ... it's all gone. Open your eyes now. You have to see what's happening!

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - No. No. It's just a fear. Even if... who cares. No one wants you anyway.

4. (Try to open your eyes.) What do I see?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] - Nothing. A persisting darkness. Dancing lights of pain. Distant shadows cast by them, like a hellish play...

KIM KITSURAGI - "You're bleeding out!" Out of it -- a silhouette appears, crouching over you. You hear a familiar voice filled with urgency and fear."

"No one wants to *do* anything with me... no one wants to party with me."

"The wolf is at the door, Kim. He will eat the sun."

"Kim, I lied. About not remembering who I am. I made it up... I remember everything."

"There's a white shadow that smells like apricots, it's... always there."

I really should get you to vote on this one, but I also really don't want to have to go through the entire tribunal again.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Stay with me!" You feel burning hot tears streaming from your eyes.

"I can't forget it. Even when I drank so much..."

"It said I have a vast soul. Do I have a... vast soul?"

"I shouldn't have called her. Now she hates me."

"She would have started loving me again but I called her and now she won't."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Yes! Keep talking!" The lieutenant pushes down on your wound, hard. "You hear me?! Stay awake!"

But you can't. It's so hard. Your eyelids grow heavy and the sounds ever more distant. And a cold comes over you. The lieutenant, too, is somewhere far away. Almost gone... when suddenly! You sense something behind him...

DE PAULE - A slender white shadow, towering. Someone stands there -- raising her pistol at him. The lieutenant does not see it. He's pushing down on your wound with both hands...

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - Scream IMMEDIATELY! He's gonna die.

Just let the darkness take you.

[Authority - Medium 11] No!!! Kim...

+1 The lieutenant trusts you. +2 Kim *truly* trusts you.

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - "NO," you say, and hand out your firearm to him. Your hand trembles and your eyes are full of fear.

KIM KITSURAGI - That's all it takes. There is no room for hesitation. The lieutenant moves, like a spring unloaded. He grabs the gun from your bloody hand and fires behind him.

DE PAULE - You hear a faint scream -- a woman's. Then the sound disappears, like someone pressed STOP on the tape. The woman is gone. So is Kim. Then the whole world...

Fall into total darkness.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - This is death. One more door, baby. One more door.

Tiger King

Will I be a… ghost now?

Good, I want to die.

No. Let me back into the fight.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - Brother, you already *were* a ghost. Up there, screaming -- along with all of them. Scaring each other. Haunting each other.

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.

Good, I want to die.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - Of course. I know you do. Everybody leaves, when they get the chance. Go on, keep falling. Deeper... take the door.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - He's *not* taking it. His body is not taking it. Oh god, no, he's not disintegrating -- he's swelling up instead. Over the hours. Hurting. Moaning in his sleep.

And rotting. And being disinfected. And smelling of drugs and feeling saliva in his mouth. Drifting in painkillers. Thrashing in his wound sleep.

VOLITION [Easy: Success] - He can't go. Not before the case is solved.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - There is a radio in the distance. A radio of the world. Playing sounds: Good morning, Elysium. Soon you will return to the world.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - Hours turn to days. Soon he will get up again and go through it -- again! Again! Finally, we know what the infernal engine was, outside -- the clarion call...

It was *him*. *He* is the infernal engine. He never stops. He only gets worse.

END OF DAY SIX.

[yourfavsasdragondescriptions]

Oh, you gotta do the Harrister, baby.

Let's see how this shall go.

Indeed we shall.

Due to his mutton chops, I see the dragon that Harrier Du Bois would be as an East Asian dragon like the one below.

However, since East Asian dragons are more associated with water than fire, I’ll have Dragon!Harrier’s breath weapon be a highly pressurized blast of fog. This fog can have a variety of effects depending on what skill is his signature skill at the moment. And he’s immune to the effects of his own fog. For example…

* Logic - Necrosis of the extremities, starting with fingers, then hands, then arms.

* Encyclopedia - Overloads the minds of those who breathe in the fog with forbidden knowledge, leaving them catatonic at best and violently insane at worst.

* Rhetoric - Turns allies against each other through arguments amongst themselves.

* Drama - Forces those who breathe it in to speak like they’re characters in Shakespeare stories.

* Conceptualization - Seems to affect the environment that comes into contact with the fog rather than people, causing architecture to manifest from nearby materials, and this can entomb living creatures unlucky enough to also be in the fog.

* Visual Calculus - Less of a practical skill and more for reconstructing crime scenes via casting projections of past events.

* Volition - Causes people who breathe the fog in to never tell a lie or, if they have committed a crime that Harrier is investigating, to confess on the spot.

* Inland Empire - Animates objects that come into contact with the fog and puts them under Harrier’s command. They deanimate when Harrier no longer has need of them.

* Empathy - Causes anyone who comes into contact with the gas, if they are about to do harm to someone or something, to immediately stop what they are doing and apologize. Also functions as a cure for sociopathy and narcissistic personality disorder.

* Authority - Basically mind control gas. Can also be used to make the dead speak (as long as said dead still have the proper organs to talk).

* Esprit de Corps - Gives Harrier’s fellow police officers seemingly superhuman abilities.

* Suggestion - Replaces the fog with a very thick smog with a color that just screams “this gas is cancer incarnate do NOT breathe it in”. And yes, the smog is a carcinogen.

* Endurance - Rapidly eats away at the muscle tissue of any living thing that enters it while not damaging bone, skin or flesh.

* Pain Threshold - Takes whatever pains you’re feeling at the moment and amplifies it a thousandfold. A Dark Eldar’s wet dream.

* Physical Instrument - MASSIVELY increases the pressurization of the steam jet, enabling it to punch through almost a mile of dense bedrock.

* Electrochemistry - Turns the fog into a hallucinogenic gas so potent that just breathing in even a single molecule of the stuff is enough to cause an overdose.

* Shivers - Electrically charges the fog to a point that it fires off lightning bolts in all directions. Though the bolts contain more than enough volts to kill a man in one strike, the charged fog is short-lived and vanishes seconds after it manifests.

* Half Light - Makes the fog highly explosive, catching alight within seconds of contact with the air and has a blast strength strong enough to level buildings if the gas is indoors.

* Hand-Eye Coordination - A gas with anomalous properties that cause whatever is in the gas that isn’t nailed down (up to the size of a truck) to be lifted up and thrown at Harry’s target at the same speed as… well, a bullet.

* Perception - Overloads the senses of those in the fog. Smells become so pungent they drown out all else, quiet whispers become a deafening clarion, and more.

* Reaction Speed - Speeds up the perception of time to whatever breathes the fog in. Can cause insanity to those who breathe the stuff in.

* Savoir Faire - Causes the muscles of whoever breathes the fog in to involuntarily twitch and shudder, the phenomenon becoming increasingly intense over time until organs rip like paper and eyes burst.

* Interfacing - If there is a broken machine in the fog, it repairs itself. Causes scrap metal to bundle together into what I can best describe as an approximation of a machine.

* Composure - Turns whoever breathes in the fog into stone. This isn’t immediate, but a gradual process outside of the fog. This phenomenon greatly accelerates inside the fog, with affected persons and animals turning to stone in seconds.

I’d do more about his appearance, but the breath weapon thing really gave my brain a workout, so I’ll leave you to interpret it on your own.

[mountmortar]

Highschool perfectionists, hearing a college student be excited over making a 50 on the final: "Wow, these students are horrible, I will never be like them." That same student after the college experience: "The class average for exams is consistently in the 30s range can I PLS be above average and pass with a 50 to keep a 90%" 🫡 I feel you SO hard, that was me fighting to get a B in one of my courses. Congrats, and I wish you all the best!

HAHAHAHA THANK YOUUUUUUU <33333 My final is next week and it's like. Hoo boy. C'mon. All I need is a 50 (well. Probably one or two points higher but I'm not stopping to calculate the exact average right now LMAO) and I'll still pass the class with a C, which is the bare minimum that I need to move on to the next class. Ideally I would LIKE to keep my overall B- in the class but I will absolutely settle for the bare minimum. I don't even care. I was a high school perfectionist for the first two years of it before being like "You know what. I'm tired of getting gray hairs at 15/16 years old" and settling more into the motion of going with the flow. Like, really hard. Two semesters ago I had to take a statistics class (which happened to be a night class as well) and the final was scheduled from 8:10-10:10 at night, which already had me like "hrrgh fuck this". I spent the entire semester not paying a damn bit of attention and screwing around on my laptop, showed up for the final (which was all word problems), and man. When I tell you I didn't fully read a single problem on that test I swear to god I'm not joking. I skimmed through the numbers in every question, weighed the answers for maybe half a second, and pretty much chose all my answers by going "yeah, that one sounds right". Somehow, I got an A- on the exam and an A for the class overall. Flabbergasted the fuck out of me.

But unfortunately "going with the flow" is NOT a strategy I can use when it comes to calculus because I have to study overtime for the actual math problems to compensate for the fact that my brain will, most of the time, just physically refuse to process word problems, and the fact that these word problems are asking me to visualize a picture to build equations out of is even worse. I would have a better time if it was something I was actually interested in, but as it is, I get hit with questions like "A North-South highway intersects with an East-West highway at P. An auto crosses P at 10:00AM, traveling East at 20mph. At the same instant, another car is 2 miles North of P, traveling South at 50mph. Find the time they are closest to each other." and it's like man if you wanted me dead you could just say so....

[visual-calc]

How tall do you think can I fall before my shell break by impact? Hypothetically in case

VISUAL CALCULUS [Formidable: Success] — It's difficult to pin down an exact number, given the necessary simplifications, but I can certainly come up with an estimate. Let me just...

To summarize, if we approximate your shell as a hemisphere, we can derive the equations for how fast and how far you would fall as a function of time, assuming you were dropped from rest and not thrown. With those equations in hand, we can then derive an expression for time of impact in terms of the height you were dropped from, and plug this in to our previous equation for velocity, to get your velocity at impact as a function of height. So far, so relatively accurate.

The difficult piece is determining the force of impact, and the force necessary to actually break your shell. The physics of how things break is messy, and while I can reconstruct objects the detective finds already broken, pre-constructing potential damage is much harder.

Our model is therefore somewhat simplistic— we take the force transferred to your shell upon impact to be the change in momentum divided by the time the impact takes. Since you go from impact velocity to zero velocity upon hitting the ground, the momentum change is simply your mass multiplied by your impact velocity. The time the impact takes is, admittedly, an educated guess on my part. We know it must be short, as lengthening it would require either padding on the ground your shell to break and slow you down gradually, which is the exact failure mode we're trying to avoid. We'll say it's about 0.005 seconds. We'll also say that it takes around 4500 Newtons of force to break your shell, and that your shell only breaks if the impact force exceeds this number. A more realistic model would take into account the possibility of varying degrees of damage, but again. Simplifying assumptions.

With all of these pieces, we can then plot the time of impact, impact velocity, and impact force as a function of drop height— shown in blue, green, and purple on the plot below.

Impact force increases incredibly quickly with drop height, so much so that it appears like a straight line on this plot. The purple curve crosses the 4500 Newton threshold at a mere 1.75 meters. Given the simplifying assumptions we've made, I'd say err on the side of caution and try not to fall a distance further than 1 meter without some manner of protective gear.

Please tell me you don't have any parachute-less skydiving trips planned...

[cicerosfavouritelistener]

Got WIP'd Wednesday'd on Out Of Touch Thursday

Tagging: @pyrotechniccake @manekinoodle and anyone else who wants to

Tagged by @plutoprophecy Cheers bud

Got like 6 Disco Elysium fics on the burner and this is the one that opened on. It does not have a proper name yet.

Harry groans as he walks into the Whirling-In-Rags, arms shaking from the cold as he stumbles into another man.

I have a key.

Shit, sorry didn't see you there.

YOU -- "I have a key." You tell him as you fumble in your pockets, pulling out the key and showing it to him. "Do you know where this is?"

The man looks at you with mild annoyance, though as his eyes catch something shining on your shoulder and the mild annoyance becomes abject horror.

EMPATHY: 'No,' he thinks. 'This can't be the man from the 41st'.

"10-4 officer, I uh, believe it best that you speak with Satellite-Officer Kitsuragi about this. Over."

ESPRIT DE CORPS: 20 minutes away from you a button is pressed by Officer Jules 'Oldboy' Pidieu. This button causes electrons to zoom through the wires in the floors and walls of the RCM to the desk of one Satellite-Officer Kim Kitsuragi, causing a small but bright red light to flash on his desk.

A wave of relief washes through him, followed by one of anger as he stands up. It doesn't take him long at all to get out of the bullpen, down the hallway and into the communications office where Oldboy was sitting. Oldboy nods and hands him the Radio.

KIM KITSURAGI: "Officer,"

EMPATHY: Shame washes through you as the word reaches you past with the power of radio waves. This word, when said to you by him, in this tone, makes you want to shrivel up into a ball and melt into obscene nothingness.

-1 MORAL

KIM KITSURAGI: "Why haven't you contacted us in days?"

AUTHORITY [Challenging:Failure]: Don't let him speak to you like that! You answer to no one, make sure he knows this.

EMPATHY: No. This man is deeply worried about you. Do not frustrate him more by insulting him.

DRAMA: Sire, perhaps you should change the story here. Calm him down by telling him how busy you've been while working on the case.

"Hey, fuck you, buddy! If I don't want to make contact, I don't have too!"

"" (Lie)

"I'm sorry, I don't know where I am or what's going on"

Say nothing.

JEAN VIQUEMARE -- The man puts his lighter away, pointing a yellow-nailed finger at the first row. "This first one here has eighteen perforations. That means you've got eighteen years of RCM service."

YOU -- "Wait, eighteen years I've done this?"

JEAN VIQUEMARE -- It's difficult for him to tell if the surprise in your voice is genuine or feigned, he doesn't like the idea of his partner not knowing what the hell's going on. He nods slowly as he takes a drag of his smoke.

"Yeah," he says. "You're a veteran now."

YOU -- "I don't feel like a veteran."

VOLITION -- That's simply because you've forgotten. Relax, it'll come back to you and you'll feel better than before.

EMPATHY -- The lieutenant doesn't respond to your statement. How would he know how to react to that? He's just a man on a job. He wasn't here to babysit an amnesiac and remind him of who he once was.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Challenging: Successful] - You count 216 perforations. Considering that nice, large number, a wave of pride washes over you, though you can't say why, precisely.

JEAN VICQUEMARE -- "Do you know what this second set of perforations means?"

YOU -- "No, but there's two-hundred sixteen dots."

JEAN VICQUEMARE -- "Two-hundred sixteen," Jean repeats, feeling a wave of disbelief. "Yeah, that means you've closed over two-hundred and seventeen cases in your time with the RCM."

YOU -- "Yeah, I don't think I can ever re-become this person… What's the last number?"

JEAN VICQUEMARE -- "This right here is the last set. Three perforations, meaning you've taken the life of three people in your entire 18 years of service."

YOU -- "So I'm a killer…"

JEAN VICQUEMARE- "Hey, don't think about it like that," he says, trying to keep you from getting upset. "Three kills in eighteen years? That's nothing. I know some officers with higher body counts after their first year of service alone."

YOU -- "Have you ever killed anyone, Jean?"

JEAN VICQUEMARE -- The man sighs as he drops his cigarette, crushing it under his heel as he pulls out another and lights it. "Yes. Plenty of them."

ESPRIT DE CORPS -- He's not proud of this, but he was doing his job. There was nothing to be done.

As you walk down the stakrs you see two men standing in the foyer.

He raises an eyebrow at you and you're locked in place. "And… what colour would you have associated me with, Detective?"

"Green."

"Orange."

"Wait, actually, nevermind. This is actually stupid."

"Thank you kindly." 2. EMPATHY: Try to figure out what he's thinking about.

EMPATHY (Challenging: Failure) -- You cannot. The lights from the disco ball shine over his glasses and the darkness blankets his face. You cannot tell what is going on in this man's head.

Maybe in another life.

1. "Thank you kindly."

[zyafics]

https://www.tumblr.com/zyafics/769767991388848128/hi-this-isnt-a-request-but-more-so-of-asking

this is a different anon:)

so rn im in college with biomedicine major. and i think I'm going to pass biology class with a C. I know that for many it's that I have to be okay with that but I just can't stop thinking that I'm a failure. I have always been an A student in school and to think that I AM GOING TO PASS A CLASS WITH A C feels like my world is going to end. and I would like to explore other options before it is too late and I realize that being a doctor/medicine in general is not what I want. But every time I try to visualize myself with some other career, I get the feeling that it is not for me or it is not what will make me happy. and I don't know what to do. I don't want to graduate late but I also don't want to stay stuck in something that maybe isn't for me and I just haven't realized.

And I don't just say it because of the C, but in the biology exams I got a D and the teacher always looks at me with a disappointed face and tells me that she recommends that I move to accounting. and it discourages me a lot :( because thats not want i want but she makes me feel so stupid. I have spent the last few days feeling very bad about myself (and crying ofc) and I feel very frustrated because I don't know what I want.

hi baby! sorry i didn't know how to answer this because it didn't have a question that i can precisely target so i'll try to respond to everything.

first and foremost, you're not a failure. ur academic grades does not determine a single thing about u outside of ur ability to study and pass an exam. an exam is not your worth. and i completely understand the revelation/feeling of coming to terms with the fact that you might pass a class with a grade u weren't expecting. i was an A student too, but college is incredibly different from high school. the system, the structure, and how fast paced it was is different. you used to spend a whole year learning calculus/science/whatever and now it's only 15 weeks (i go on quarter system so it's actually 10 weeks for me) and it's such a different experience. truly, all u can do is give yourself grace because you can't expect to succeed perfectly in a structure that was set up for the historic white, neurotypical white man!

if being in medicine and being a doctor isn't what you want, it isn't too late to switch! i'm a junior and i decided on economics this year. one of the things that helped me come to this self-realization of what i wanted from life was taking the summer for myself. doing absolutely nothing and explore who i am. what i want. one of the roughest times i had in college was because i was navigating school, my career and figuring out who i wanted to be. everyone around me felt like they had ONE of those down, and i had none. i was panicking every second of the day because of it. really hone down what makes you happy. what you want out of life, what you want to do that makes you happy by the end of your life. mine is this: i want to publish books. i want to travel the world. i want to be able to make systematic change in my lifetime. i want to build a legacy (i'm the first in my family to go to college), etc. and then i started to cultivate a career around it.

and there's nothing wrong about graduating late! i think i am also gonna graduate late and i grieve it because i won't be with my class, but at the end of the day, it's my education. not anyone else.

and if your teachers look at you with disappointment, switch profs! teachers truly make or break your learning experience, and they should never discourage you to the point that they don't want to participate anymore. that's a shame on them not you.

[james-town]

Okay people said yes!! Kim skills under the cut.

Cognition

Bounded Rationality

Cool for library workers, discouraged philosophers, and single mothers.

Logic and reasoning. With too little, you’ll be useless in the field. But with too much, you’ll be something much worse: a binoclard.

Logic equivalent

In reference to the idea that individuals necessarily have limited rationality when making decisions, and will choose satisfactory options over optimal ones.

In a stunning display of useless metacognition, Kim is aware of his own intellectual shortcomings.

Notation

Cool for kids who get pushed into lockers, university professors, and all-seeing eyes.

Memory and connections. With too little, you won’t remember key details. But with too much, you’ll be too caught up in your mnemotechnique to notice anything.

Encyclopedia equivalent

In reference to Kim’s blue mnemotechnique a6.

Obsessive over particular rules and phrases, loves solving puzzles and crosswords.

Outsourced mostly to Kim’s actual notebook.

Call-and-Response

Cool for smart alecks, gossipy aunts, and standup comedians with a political bend.

Pay attention, respond. With too little, conversations will fly over your head. But with too much, your pedantry will drive allies away.

Rhetoric equivalent

In reference to a musical technique in which two distinct phrases act as a conversation

Kim’s valuable ability to come up with a witty reply to anything.

Intuition

Cool for Vespertine detectives, tarot readers, and disliked grade school teachers.

Gut feeling, recognition of patterns. With too little, anyone will be able to pull the wool over your eyes. But with too much, you’ll be a paranoid wreck.

Drama equivalent

Reference to detective media like columbo, sherlock, inspector gadget, ect. More of a secret agent/sleuth/detective, even. Sniffs out lies from truths.

Notes: calls Kim “officer”

Artiste

Cool for urban planners, muralists, and sharp dressers.

Appreciate and understand aestheticism. With too little, you won’t be cool anymore. But with too much, you’ll be as spacey and caught-up in scenery as Harry is.

Conceptualization equivalent

Lit. a skilled performer or artist. Can be used ironically for someone demonstrating little professional skill or passion

While Kim does not consider himself to be particularly good at art or conceptualization, he is remarkably skilled at putting things together into a whole picture.

Also based on French stereotypes, so this is the part of him that likes smoking because it looks cool.

Sandfall

Cool for church bell ringers, late shift workers, and parents of annoying children.

Passage of time, path of objects. With too little, you won’t be able to tell time or move adequately in traffic. With too much, each second will drag on and you will be unbearably fussy about symmetry and being on time.

Visual calculus equivalent

In reference to a variety of forms of sedimentary transport under the larger category of mass wasting. Also in reference to sand moving within an hourglass.

Kim’s sense of passing time, the thing that lets him wake up early each morning.

Emotion

Mon Ange

Cool for fragile men, older brothers, and welfare workers.

Outsource inspiration, take care of others. With too little, you’ll be cold and impersonal, and unable to relate. With too much, you’ll wear your heart on your sleeve, visible even to those who would hurt you.

Volition equivalent

Lit. my angel

Sort of works like an internal empathy? Kim is driven by Restraint and Lieutenant so instead Mon Ange works like Harry’s empathy.

Heartfelt and a soft touch. Always looking out for the little guy.

Revolted by killing, death, and senseless violence.

L’Appel du Vide

Cool for little boys with aerostatic dreams, people whose favorite holiday is new years, and bridge-jumpers.

Ponder the unknown, yearn for the sky. With too little, you’ll have barely any curiosity or interest. With too much, you’ll probably walk into oncoming traffic or throw yourself into the pale, or start roleplaying as a revolutionary aerostatic pilot.

Inland Empire equivalent

Lit. call of the void, referring to intellectual suicidal thoughts unaccompanied by emotional distress.

Mostly talks about throwing himself into moving traffic or about the Pale.

Notes: calls Harry “the dog” and variants

Complicated Grief

Cool for kids without parents, widows, and police officers whose partner died in the field.

Know yourself, observe others. With too little, you’ll bumble through emotional moments gracelessly. With too much, your own feelings will overwhelm you.

Empathy equivalent

In reference to the mental disorder of the same name which occurs following the death of a close family member opr friend which has a distinct set of symptoms including depression, emotional numbness, loneliness, identity disturbance, and difficulty managing interpersonal relationships.

Due to the deaths of his parents at a young age, and similar repeated incidents of people Kim is close to “dying in his place,” Kim is closed off, doesn’t want to become too attached, and has a hard time with other people’s emotions. But even so he is remarkably compassionate and has a big heart.

Lieutenant

Cool for middle schoolers, RCM officers of any rank, and the sexually dominant.

Know your place, keep others in theirs. With too little, you’ll fold to the smallest contest. But with too much, you’ll challenge even the authority of those above you, leading to your ruin.

Authority equivalent

Legendary eyebrow raise

Stat levels are apparently “off the charts”

Prideful and a little vain. Never wants to be the butt of the joke.

Expert strategist. Wants to maintain or raise Kim’s standing in all areas.

Notes: calls Kim “Officer.” Calls Harry “the detective”

Coupe de Maine

Cool for RCM hopefuls, closeted members of the homosexual underground, and cop fetishists.

Understand and connect with fellow members of the RCM. With too little, you’ll be an obvious outsider, and do poorly in your career. With too much, you’ll be a hapless yuppie and unable to relate to civilians.

Esprit du Corps equivalent

Lit. blow with the hand. In english usage, a surprise attack. In french slang, a helping hand.

The RCM has been there for Kim when no one else has. And yet, he was kept down by the boot of supremacy and corruption within the force.

Notes: sometimes refers to Harry as “your superior officer”

Obligation

Cool for little boys with strict foster mothers, insufferable rule-followers, and buzzkills.

Do what you must, encourage others. With too little, you’ll barely be able to get out of bed in the morning. But with too much, you’ll be constantly nagging those around you about following the rules.

Suggestion equivalent

It’s easier to convince someone to do something they think they have to do.

Sensation

Conservation of Energy

Cool for point-and-click protagonists, longtime smokers, and Samaran monks.

Keep moving, but don’t do more than you have to. With too little, you’ll overtax yourself on simple activities and spend money and time on frivolities. But with too much, you’ll be stiff as a board and unable to move off the beaten path.

Endurance equivalent

In reference to the law of conservation of energy, which states that total energy in an isolated system remains constant. Also in reference to how point and click characters will take the shortest path of least resistance to their goal.

Kim always takes the least possible amount of steps in order to get to his destination. His movements and reactions are controlled.

Human Shell

Cool for anodic music fans, people who’ve never had a religious experience, neurostimulant enjoyers.

Know your limits, stay in tune with your body. With too little, you’ll be so detached that even basic self-care will elude you. But with too much, every sensation, each pleasure and pain, will feel all-encompassing.

Pain Threshold equivalent

Feed it, water it, take it for walks, Kim is detached from his human body but tries to care for it, or at least maintain it. In worse shape than the Kineema, that’s for sure.

Volta do Mar

Cool for Dolorian nuns, Mesque navigators in the age of expansion, paledrivers.

Return to shore, keep a steady course. With too little, your self-image and resolve will be fragile and breakable. With too much, you’ll be self-sufficient, but alone.

Physical Instrument equivalent

Lit. turn of the sea. Refers to a portuguese navigational technique allowing sailors to take advantage of the north atlantic gyre to return to shore quickly. In reference to the exclusive stat Kim’s black hardcore jacket gives him.

Ecompasses Kim’s sense of physical and moral direction, his drive and sticktoitiveness, and part of his pride. Also, his stubbornness. Loves feeling in control and wearing all leather.

Affair de Cœur

Cool for homosexuals, Suresne fetishists, lonely men.

Love and be loved. With too little, you won’t be able to see this world’s beauty, won’t get to experience the miracle of connection. With too much you’ll be an inconsolable bleeding heart.

Electrochemistry equivalent

Lit. affairs of the heart, referring to a love affair.

Kept under lock and key by Lieutenant. Kind of like a sad mime, loves smoking (oral fixation) and tragic romance. Practically virginial compared to Harry’s electrochemistry.

Notes: calls Kim “Monsieur,” calls Restraint “foul beast”

Folded Horizon

Cool for science fiction authors, Harry du Bois, big nerds.

2mm hole in the world, the pale and Harry and you. With too little, the detective’s machinations will escape you. But with too much, you’ll be an amped up radio, receptive to signals that no one should hear.

Shivers equivalent

In reference to the “folded M dimension” Kim mentions.

50% seolite, 100% revacholian

Likes science fiction

Abattoir

Cool for war orphans, sequence killers & their victims, Juvie cops.

Trauma-and-stressor disorder. With too little, you will be reckless and unwise, unaware of the dangers around you. But with too much you’ll be too aware, unable to look away.

Half-Light equivalent

Lit. slaughterhouse, in reference to the Kim quote “that’s my position- the abattoir.”

Outsourced and all-encompassing fight-or-flight.

Never shows weakness. Hates teenagers. Internalized all the people Kim’s killed.

Perception

Clockwork Precision

Cool for watchmakers, people with good fine motor skills, aerostatic miniature enjoyers.

Accuracy and routine. With too little, your perfectly maintained routine will escape you, the machine that keeps you going will fail. But with too much you’ll be little more than an automaton.

Hand-eye Coordination equivalent

In reference to the regularity or quality of something that occurs without problems or delays.

Everything Kim does is with the steady perfect hand of a clockmaker.

Blind Man

Cool for bespectacled people, nerd characters in media, kids who are scared of the dark.

Stay aware and keep your glasses on. With too little, you’ll be even more visually impaired than you already are, and completely helpless without your glasses. With too much, well, you wouldn’t know. You’re flying blind no matter what.

Perception equivalent

It's ironic that Kim relies on vision so much when his own sight is easily impaired. Blind man is a master of sight, and easily frightened when Kim can’t see.

Sharpshooter

Cool for Boiaderos, science fiction protagonists, people who are really good at pinball.

Eyes on the target, you know what to do. With too little, you’ll be slow, inaccurate, and unconfident in every area. But with too much, you’ll be quick on the draw, shooting first and asking questions later.

Reaction Speed equivalent

In reference to the Kim quote “I’m no sharpshooter, but I pass my shooting courses 7/10.”

Quick on the draw. Always knows what to do. 7/10 on the precision test even with impaired vision and don’t you forget it.

Speedfreak

Cool for TipTop racers, adrenaline junkies, drug addicts.

Live fast, get fucked. With too little, nothing will bring you joy. But with too much you’ll be totally out of control.

Savoir Faire équivalent

Live fast and get fucked or whatever. Loves the release of control, loves wearing all leather, loves impressing people, loves smoking.

Notes: calls Kim “Kimball”

Kinetic Dressage

Cool for motorcarriage enthusiasts, gearheads, aerostatic pilots.

Understand and interact with machines. With too little, you probably won’t be able to drive or use your radio. But with too much you’ll be an unbearable torque dork, and entirely too sentimental towards your vehicle.

Interfacing equivalent

In reference to the exclusive Motorics stat kim’s pants give him

Oh yes… the perfect chrome face of our beloved… her rumbling engine and shining hubcaps… she deserves those halogen headlights, she does.

Restraint

Cool for repressed people, followers of Dolorianism, closeted homosexual Seolite police officers in Revachol.

Control yourself, look down on others. With too little, you’ll be a fucking mess. But with too much, you’ll be so tightly wound that you won’t remember what it was like to be free.

Composure equivalent

Very high stat for Kim.

Notes- calls Kim “kitsuragi”

Unconscious Mind

Cerebellum

Ancient Reptilian Brain equivalent

In reference to the cerebellum, a part of the hindbrain that controls automatic functions among others. In Latin, cerebellum means “little brain.”

The personification of evil, the objectification of a hostile and destructive force.

Who can divine what the devil wants? This evil source of doubt and sorrow.

Notes- calls Kim “kimball” and mammalian cortex “fool”, calls Harry “the dog” or “that great dog” and variants.

Mammalian Cortex

Limbic System equivalent

In reference to the scientific name for the limbic system.

A scared, small creature hunkering down in the shadowed cockles of Kim’s brain.

Scarier to Kim than the Cerebellum. Better the Devil you know, after all.

Notes- calls Kim “little mouse”

Do you guys want to see my DE Kim skills headcanons. Yes or no.

[mortalityplays]

answering this in its own post @skullamity bc it could probably help a bunch of people. I use Sweepy, which has no joke turned me from a person living in a fortress of fast food containers and dirty sweaters to someone who can invite company over any time without a second thought.

You start by adding each room in your house, and then you assign tasks to each room. For every task you can set how frequently it needs to be done (including one-time / daily / as needed / certain times of year only), and how much effort it takes. It will then track each chore with a progress bar that goes from green (did this task recently) through yellow (not urgent yet) to red (this task is due). This visual indicator has been insanely helpful for me, bc it turns a negative reminder (task failed by default until you do it) into a positive one (you can turn the red into green!!! you can turn...the YELLOW into green!!!)

The effort rating is used to generate a balanced daily to-do list (this is a premium feature but I highly recommend it, it's the best part of the app and I haven't regretted it for a second). If you live with other people, you can add everyone to the same schedule and individually set the energy people can spend per day. The app then assigns each person chores up to their daily limit, based on what most needs doing. All my life people have assured me that if you do 'a few things' every day, the house stays clean. Madness, witchcraft. It actually works.

Other nice QoL things that have helped my difficult brain stick to this effortlessly for 6 months now:

there is a streak counter, but every 10 days you earn a 'wildcard' that will be automatically used up if you skip a day, maintaining your streak. good for busy or bad mental health days, and effective at making you do the calculus on whether getting up to sweep the bathroom is REALLY hard enough to warrant burning a whole cheat day.

if you can't do a specific task that day (you can see I've been putting off mopping for a while bc I need to pick up a new mophead) you can reroll your schedule or just manually pick a different task from your task library to make up points.

it has a few simple achievements that helped motivate me over the first few weeks - things like 'do every task in a room in one day' or 'have every room in the green at once'. cunning, bc once you've done these, daily maintenance gets way easier.

being able to put in tasks that only need to be done once a year or so weirdly keeps me interested. instead of walking around thinking 'ughhh I need to get around to clearing out that storage cupboard' I'm thinking 'ooh, one of these weekends I get to clear out the storage cupboard, I wonder when it will come up in the rotation'

tl;dr: I have depression and anaemic fatigue, Sweepy did tricks on my mind and now my kitchen counters are always clear and I vacuum daily.

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

"Disco Inferno!" (Press the button.)

+5 XP

+1 Superstar Cop

MEASUREHEAD - As you slam your fist on the button the man collapses entirely, his head rolling to the side...

MEASUREHEAD'S BABE - "Looks like you're the new Measurehead now."

SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - Her voice is surprisingly calm.

KIM KITSURAGI - "No one is the new Measurehead -- let's go. Before he gets up..." The lieutenant makes haste toward the door.

+1 Reputation

We can now enter the harbour.

The door is locked and cannot be opened from this side without a pass card.

Guess you have no choice but to talk to the Union leader.

*EVERY WORKER - MEMBER OF THE BOARD* is written at the top of the flyers.

And at the bottom: the Union logo and *DEMAND DEMOCRACY*!

This is a *Dewy* typewriter -- the model name is on the back.

A standard office file cabinet. The drawers seem to be locked.

Someone left the coffee machine on.

The dark liquid in the pot looks almost sentient.

POSTCARD "LE JARDIN '21"

This laminated post card offers a glimpse across the river. A little more than a decade after the war, the eastern bank is already fully renovated. The hillsides are lush with gardens and residences, someone's parked a small beige airship by the fountain. This postcard will sell for a pretty penny.

NEAT OFFICE SHADES

+1 Visual Calculus: Eye of the reckoner -1 Drama: A bit dry

These were stuffed away in the Dockworker's Union office. They're perfect for scribbling down paperwork when the sun tries to get in your eye. Good for staring down suspects too.

There's also a Magnesium in here.

FILE CABINET - On second glance, someone has forgotten to properly close one of the drawers.

KIM KITSURAGI - "It's *unfortunate* for the Union to just leave their paperwork lying around like this..."

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Easy: Success] - ...let's see what's inside, he thinks.

Open the drawer.

Ignore the drawer for now. [Leave.]

FILE CABINET - The drawer opens smoothly. Inside is a well-organized selection of brown folders.

Browse through the folders.

Close the drawer. [Leave.]

FILE CABINET - Hundreds of documents containing logistical data. Two kinds of transactions stand out: materials coming into Revachol from the outside world -- from Mundi, Graad, and even Iilmaraa...

...and the same materials being handed over to companies inside Revachol. Couron, Coal City, La Delta, and Jamrock are listed among the many districts where the imports are being sold.

Anything interesting? (Browse them.)

FILE CABINET - It's hard to make sense of this thicket of company names, dates, quantities, and percentages. You try to focus, but the lines are getting blurry...

2. [Volition - Medium 10] Force yourself to go through the folders.

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - Whatever's hidden here is hidden well. Concentration isn't enough, only a trained accountant, with a background in logistics, would be able to *really* make sense of it. However there *is* a little hand-written note, stuck on the side of the drawer.

Look at the note.

"Never mind the note." (Close the drawer.)

FILE CABINET - It appears to be a to-do list written in large, uneven capital letters:

REMEMBER, LEO!

* EVRART'S SHOES * SPECIAL WHIRLING BORSCHT * WATER EVRART'S PLANTS * SWEEP OFFICE FLOOR * MORE BANNERS

All items on the list have been crossed out and the note itself is crumpled.

(Turn to the lieutenant.) "Look, Kim, a to-do note with a list of errands for *Evrart*."

Ignore the note.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Evrart Claire, probably -- the head of the Débardeurs' Union." He inspects the note. "One of his aides must have left it. Nothing incriminating here."

+5 XP

3. Close the drawer. [Leave.]

FILE CABINET - The drawer slides shut smoothly.

THOUGHT COMPLETE: COL DO MA MA DAQUA

BONUSES: +3 Perception: Golden ear -1 Encyclopedia: No room for anything else

It's not only your eardrums that register sound anymore – your very skin has become an organ of hearing. Looking for a whisper light and low, a god who’s very, very silent. Nothing escapes you – a cockroach in the other room, a candy wrapper falling on dry grass, a drunk falling from a chair in a bar 20 metres away. In fact, you haven’t heard the Col Do Ma Ma Daqua, but you *have* discovered that you have amazing hearing. It must be the only part of you the alcohol hasn’t drowned out. Keep listening!

That's a lot of Perception. It'll be worth looking around Martinaise some more, once we get back on the streets.

ITEM GAINED: BOOK "LA FUMEE, VOL. 1 NO. 4"

The leading intellectual organ of Martinaise communism. Offers a radical Masovian perspective on a range of contemporary issues. The cover features a stylised portrait of the late King Frissel with a pair of white antlers growing out of his head.

Let's read this later.

A giant assprint on the pillow and a pattern of coffee rings on the armrest...

The radio is emitting strange buzzing sounds.

PUNCH CLOCK/PAYPHONE - An imposing combination of a punch-clock and a payphone is looking down at you from the wall. A note on the side says: "Tokens unavailable due to strike. Use change."

Insert 10 cents.

[Leave.]

Why not?

PUNCH CLOCK/PAYPHONE - The machine swallows your coin and seems to be waiting for your next move.

[Interfacing - Challenging 12] Let your muscle memory dial a random number.

[Leave.]

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] - Your fingers run over the dial pad. 005... that's the dialling code for Revachol -- 49-52... and a moment of hesitation before entering the final numbers: 993.

PUNCH CLOCK/PAYPHONE - Calling...

Calling...

Still calling... then...

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - ...a crackle, someone picks up! They say: "Video Revachol, 24 hour video rental. We rent eight- and ten-millimetre film for home use. This is Lemmy, how may I help you?"

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - The voice of a youngster on the other end sounds as enthusiastic as that of a man walking towards the gallows.

"What is this place?"

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - "Video Revachol is a 24 hour video rental. We rent eight and ten millimetre film for home use. This is Lemmy."

"No, I meant, what is this place to *me*?"

"Do you know me?"

"Why did I call you?" (Continue.)

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - "Sir, I don't know. It's a video rental. Maybe you rent videos here?"

2. "Do you know me?"

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - "No."

3. "Why did I call you?" (Continue.)

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - "Maybe you called to extend your rental period? Do you need to extend your rental period?"

"Maybe, but I don't even know my *name*."

"My name is Raphael Ambrosius Costeau. Do you have anything on my name?"

Quietly hang up the phone. [Leave.]

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - "Raphaël *what*? Listen, I can't help you over the phone." He sounds annoyed now. "If you need further assistance you can visit us on the corner of Voyager and Main. Are we done?"

+5 XP

Level up!

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - He thinks you're pulling a prank on him.

VIDEO REVACHOL, 24H - The call is terminated by the other party. You're left with the discomforting sound of the disconnect tone.

That... that's enough for today.

[justdecadentcollectiondestiny]

KORTENAER - You see two cold eyes looking at you -- through all the smoke and the panic. And a pistol, raised, aiming at your chest, point blank. Then the man squeezes the trigger…

1. - Wait -- Kim -- I can’t see Kim…

2. - Look him in the eye.

3. - [Reaction Speed - Impossible 20] Evade the shot.

4. - Let it happen.

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant is not visible in your peripheral vision.

YOU - Then where--

LOGIC - He is behind you.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - As he so often is.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - In dodging Ruud’s shot, you stepped to the left of the lieutenant. After the chaos of the last few seconds, you now stand between him and the mercenary Kortenaer.

INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] - That’s right. You can feel his presence behind you. You know what it feels like by now. He’s there. 

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - Don’t. Move. Stay right where you are. 

COMPOSURE - You mean--

VISUAL CALCULUS - Yes. If the bullet that is about to emerge from the barrel of that gun does not hit you, it will hit Kim Kitsuragi.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Trivial - Success] - No. No, you can’t do what you’re thinking of doing. Have you forgotten the *automatic weapons* already? Getting shot by one of them won’t just *hurt.* It will *exterminate* you. Just standing here deliberating is going against every animal instinct in your primal-brain.

SAVOIR FAIRE - You could make it, if you dodge. There’s got to be a chance.

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Failure] - There could be. As far as you know, there is.

EMPATHY - It doesn’t matter if there’s a chance or not. Not with what’s on the line. Any chance is too much of a risk.

YOU - Can’t I warn him?

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - There is no time. By the time the signal from your brain reaches your mouth and the sound of your words reaches his ears and the signal from his brain reaches his muscles, it will be too late. 

VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - The lieutenant cannot see what is about to happen. His eyes are still on Ruud, and the aftermath of his miraculous shot. 

DRAMA - You are in an advantageous position, my liege. Only you are aware of the imminent peril. Do you dare use that knowledge to betray him?

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - There will be no exit wound. Your body will be enough to slow the momentum of the bullet and it will come to a stop somewhere inside of you.

RHETORIC - All that to say: a bullet in your chest will keep it out of the lieutenant’s.

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - This bullet, at least.

ENDURANCE  - You won’t be able to take it. That bullet will tear through you and leave nothing left. You’ll fall to the ground and feel every drop of life leak out of you. You don’t want that. Believe me. Take the chance.

VOLITION [Easy - Success] - What would that make you? Think about it. Would you be able to stand it? Would you be able to stand knowing that you were a person who would sacrifice a solitary spark of warmth in a cold world just to continue breathing the very air that chills and freezes your lungs with every inhale?

INLAND EMPIRE - That spark will keep you warm. No matter where you go. Hold it close. Cling to it.

ENDURANCE - Please, no. Leap. Twist. Move. Do anything. I’m begging you.

KORTENAER - The explosion rattles your back teeth as the bullet rips through the air. 

REACTION SPEED - Your time has run out. Decide. *Now*.

1. - Fuck this. I was insane for even thinking it. I’m dodging that bullet.

2. - I need to try. I’m too scared to stand still.

3. - God… I don’t know. Don’t make me decide.

4. - It’s taking everything in me. But I can’t move.

5. - I’m not moving a muscle. I won’t do it.

VOLITION - Why? Why for him?

1. - Because he’s my fellow police officer. He’d do the same for me.

2. - Because he’s my fellow human being. We all have a duty to each other on this planet.

3. - Because he’s Kim.

KIM KITSURAGI - There was never a decision to be made here, you realize. You have already made it. You made this decision when you felt a hand on your shoulder as you sat in despair on a swing set. You made this decision every time the sensation of the neatly folded handkerchief in your breast pocket steadied your buckling knees and strengthened your fracturing resolve. You made this decision when you were released from paralyzing, furious agony in a dark underground tunnel and your first thought was to turn around because, despite your quarry standing right in front of you and the throbbing pain still ringing through your own ears, the safety of the man behind you was most important -- and still is. Because you made this decision a fraction of a second ago, when you stared down the barrel of a gun and didn’t immediately leap out of the way of danger, because ensuring this man would come to no harm came first, before anything else.

INLAND EMPIRE - Somewhere in a parallel yet distant universe there may be a world in which you can bear to knowingly step away in refusal to protect him. The one you exist in is not one of them. You know this.

Don’t you?

1. - Look him in the eye.

2. - [Reaction Speed - Impossible 20] Evade the shot.

3. - Let it happen.

YOU - Let it happen.

REACTION SPEED - You simply blink. Then something inside your pelvis explodes. Your entire lower body is on fire and your legs can’t support you… you fall down like a rag doll.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Challenging: Failure] - The pain is too immense to scream. It pushes the air out of your lungs. Everything goes dark, a distant blur as you recede into it…

YOU - (Try to open your eyes.) What do I see?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] - Nothing. A persisting darkness. Dancing lights of pain. Distant shadows cast by them, like a hellish play…

KIM KITSURAGI - “You’re bleeding out!” Out of it -- a silhouette appears, crouching over you. You hear a familiar voice, filled with urgency and fear.

YOU - “Kim…”

KIM KITSURAGI - “Yes, it’s me! Keep talking!” The lieutenant pushes down on your wound, hard.

YOU - “Kim… you’re okay, right? I stopped it…”

KIM KITSURAGI - “I’m -- I’m alright, you stay with me!” The dots are connecting in the lieutenant’s mind, he is realizing what you have done. “God, no… Stay awake! Look at me!” 

You want to. But you can’t. It’s so hard. Your eyelids grow heavy and the sounds ever more distant. And a cold comes over you. The lieutenant, too, is somewhere far away. Almost gone… when suddenly! You sense something behind him…

DE PAULE - A slender white shadow, towering. Someone stands there -- raising her pistol at him. The lieutenant does not see it. He’s pushing down on your wound with both hands…

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - Scream IMMEDIATELY! He’s gonna die.

1. - Just let the darkness take you.

2. - [Authority - Medium 11] No!!! Kim…

VERY HIGH

97%

+1   The lieutenant trusts you.

+2   Kim *truly* trusts you.

CHECK SUCCESS

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - “No,” you scream: “BEHIND YOU!” from your bloody lips. Your eyes are full of fear.

KIM KITSURAGI - There is no room for hesitation. The lieutenant turns around and fires, his body falling on yours in the course of the motion…

DE PAULE - You hear a faint scream -- a woman’s. The darkness is rushing in on all sides, like the iris of a camera quickly closing. Everything’s so far away…

YOU - (You can’t go yet. Push the words out of your mouth.) “...You hit her?”

KIM KITSURAGI - “Yes,” he replies breathlessly. “I hit her.” 

YOU - “…Good. …Had to make sure first…”

KIM KITSURAGI - There’s a clatter, his gun hitting the paving stones as he scrambles upright to resume compression on your wound. You can’t feel it. “Hey. Hey! No, goddammit, stay! Come on, keep your eyes open for me, okay?!”

But it’s impossible. You’re slipping away from everything. Dimmer and quieter and colder. The woman is gone. So is Kim. Then the whole world…

“HARRY!”

YOU - Fall into total darkness.

…

…

…

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - You just can’t stay away, can you, baby? You had the chance. But you didn’t take it. You just had to come crawling back.

YOU - What are you talking about?

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - Let me ask you a question, Harry-boy. This is death, you know. Look, there’s the door. Is that what you were looking for? Is that the *real* reason you wouldn’t even *try*? 

1. - You got me. Lemme at that door. 

2. - No. I did it for Kim. It was worth it.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - Well, well, well. Looks like we were right about you, in the end. Love did you in after all, didn’t it, Brother Coppo? No matter. Fall deeper. Take the door.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - He’s *not* taking it. His body is not taking it. Oh god, no, he’s not disintegrating -- he’s swelling up instead. Over the hours. Hurting. Moaning in his sleep.

And rotting. And being disinfected. And smelling of drugs and feeling saliva in his mouth. Drifting in painkillers. Thrashing in his wound sleep.

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - The case doesn’t care that you just died for your partner. Get up.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - There is a radio in the distance. A radio of the world. Playing sounds: Good morning, Elysium. Soon you will return to the world.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - Hours turn to days. Soon he will get up again and go through it -- again! Again! Finally, we know what the infernal engine was -- outside, the clarion call…

It was *him*. *He* is the infernal engine. He never stops. He only gets worse.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - Go on then. Go through it again if you want. And when you come back -- and you know you will -- then you can tell us if everything, all the pain and the thrashing and the moaning, really was “worth it.”

…

…

…

KIM KITSURAGI - “Sunrise, parabellum.”

Inspired by this piece by @tuinendraws that I've loved ever since I first laid eyes on it as well as the amazing work of @even-disco-baby!

[volumina-vetustiora]

BLONDE PRISONER - "DRAGON!"

IMPERIAL CAPTAIN - You hear the soldiers draw their swords.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Medium: Success] - It's hard to imagine engaging this thing in hand-to-hand combat.

IMMENSE BLACK FORM - The dragon, if that's what it is, opens its mouth.

A clap of thunder, and the sky *changes*, to a shade of burnt orange. Clouds gather from nothing.

HALF LIGHT [Easy: Success] - Like the fucking *end times*.

GENERAL TULLIUS - "Don't just stand there, KILL THAT THING!"

VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - You're not dreaming--flaming rocks are actually falling from the sky.

IMMENSE BLACK FORM - The creature opens its jaws again, another thunderclap rings out, and suddenly you're knocked to the ground.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - Like it *breathes* power, *exhales* force.

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - The executioner went down with you. So there's that.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Trivial: Success] - All you can see now is the ground.

GENERAL TULLIUS - "Guards, get the townspeople to safety! Someone get the battlemages out here, now!"

IMMENSE BLACK FORM - You hear the monster take off from the top of the tower.

INLAND EMPIRE [Trivial: Success] - Black wings in the cold...

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Easy: Success] - Get up!

VOLITION [Medium: Failure] - But you're not getting up, are you?

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - There is nothing. Nothing but darkness now, brother-man. Embrace it! It's a better way to go than the *chop*.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - But he can't let it go. No matter how hard he tries, he can't stop feeling the world around him. Feeling it *existing*.

SHIVERS [Trivial: Success] - The searing heat from the dragon's fiery rain cuts through the cold air. The ground is hard and rough against your face. You are in the world, and the world is waiting for you.

THE SNOW TOWER LIES SUNDERED, KINGLESS, BLEEDING.

RALOF (BLOND BRAID GUY) - You feel yourself being shaken. For the second time today, you open your eyes to see a blond man with a braid.

"Hey, Breton, get up! Come on, the gods won't give us another chance!"

New task: Escape the town.

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - There is nothing. Only warm, primordial blackness. You don't have to do anything anymore.

LIMBIC SYSTEM - But what's this? An awareness creeps up on you. A jumping, juddering sensation forces your head up and your eyes open.

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - You are moving. On a cart of some kind.

INTERFACING [Trivial: Success] - Your hands are bound. This is a *problem*. With your magic digits out of action, you're helpless!

RALOF (BLOND BRAID GUY) - There is a blond man with a braid in his hair sitting across from you. He tries to get your attention: “Hey you! You're finally awake.”

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - He has piercing blue eyes. Oceanic.

RALOF (BLOND BRAID GUY) - “You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush. Same as us, and that thief over there.”

LOKIR, THE HORSE THIEF - He gestures towards the meek looking man next to him.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] - Imperial. Of the Empire. What Empire? *The* Empire. The great Empire of Men, centred at the Imperial City, in the Imperial Province of Cyrodiil. These guys used to rule the world.

AUTHORITY [Challenging: Failure] - Clearly they still do.

LOKIR, THE HORSE THIEF - “Damn you Stormcloaks! Skyrim was fine until you came along!”

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - His sudden anger is a thin disguise for terrible, terrible fear.

LOKIR, THE HORSE THIEF - “Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell.” He turns to you. “You there. You and me—we shouldn't be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.”

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Formidable: Failure] - Stormcloaks?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] - Cool name.

RALOF (BLOND BRAID GUY) - “We’re all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief.”

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - Brothers and sisters? Like he wouldn't trample over the lot of you for a chance to get out of here.

IMPERIAL SOLDIER - The cart driver speaks up: “Shut up back there!”

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Easy: Success] - Silence.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] - You watch the snowflakes dance in the air.

SHIVERS [Easy: Success] - This land is cold. Bitterly cold.

[turtleations]

Pink Couldy Sky, Chapter 04 – Howl (Summarized) - Part 1

Chapter 00 - 01

Chapter 02

Chapter 03

Note: This chapter is broken into two parts due to length. I hope to have the second part up before next week.

Note 2: Just a reminder that when the text talkes about "currently", "now", or "today", it's doing so from the perspective of REM in 1999.

At the time REM joined SAVER TIGER, hide was not only a musician but also a hairdresser. He worked – or rather, helped out – at his grandmother’s “Beauty Parlor Midori”, located at the back of Yokosuka Central Station, where he washed hair or gave haircuts. This had a strong influence on his sense of visuals and esthetics.

When it came to the appearance of the band, hide especially focused on hair and make-up and he used his experience and knowledge to advice his bandmembers on hairstyles and cosmetics to get them on the same visual level as him. The band mustn’t look uncool, after all.

Before he joined SAVER TIGER, REM did not wear a lot of make-up on stage, but thanks to hide’s guidance in these matters, which was both patient and thorough, he came to recognize the importance of hair and make-up.

A stylish sound should be wrapped in a stylish look. The performance isn’t cutting it if it doesn’t satisfy the eyes of the audience as well as the ears. This mindset was a SAVER TIGER tradition that the current members inherited. All the concepts used by the bands representing the VK-boom of the late 90s were naturally put into practice by hide more than ten years ahead of them.

One more thing that changed for REM was that he got a stage name, as until that point, he was not actually going by “REM”. The person who named him was, of course, hide. The name is based, somewhat semantically incorrectly, on REM-sleep, because REM had a tendency to fall asleep. It’s the name he is still known by in the music scene.

REM follows up with a memory he has of hide the beautician: After REM officially joined SAVER TIGER, he and hide wend out to Dobuita-Street almost every day. One day they had plans to go again, but before they were to meet, hide called REM to inform him that work at the beauty parlor was taking longer than expected that day and asked him to come over and wait for him to finish. So REM went to the Midori, sat on the waiting seat and looked through the weekly women’s magazines he would usually ignore while he waited for hide to be done. He also watched hide being a hairdresser and found that he quite enjoyed doing so. When hide was done with his current task and saw the result of his efforts, his expression would turn soft, and REM thought that this was hide turning back into pure, unstyled Matsumoto Hideto. It was nice to observe that.

After the last customer had left and the store was tidied up, it was time to leave for their nightly drinks. Before they left, however, hide suddenly asked, “REM, should I wash your hair for you?”

REM thought it was a bit weird to have his friend wash his hair, but he had no real reason to refuse and also found the offer kind of charming. So he lay down on the hairdresser-chair and looked at the ceiling while above him, hide’s face changed into his hairdresser-face, which was different from what REM was used to.

While hide himself always protected his skin from the sun, he now said things like how REM, who had quite the tan, should get an even darker tan, while he was expertly washing his hair. The sensation was so nice that REM relaxed more and more until he finally fell asleep right there in the middle of getting his hair washed. Even today, he still remembers how good it felt.

That night they went out with REM’s hair all smooth from hide’s magical hands.

Jumping forward to February 1997, REM tells how hide, accompanied by his younger brother, came to the dental clinic REM was director of to get his dental calculus removed before going to Los Angeles. The staff had already gone home and REM took care of the treatment himself. As hide was lying down in the dentist’s chair and closed his eyes, in REM’s mind the image overlapped with the memory of himself in the hairdresser’s chair 12 years earlier, and he wondered if hide remembered that, too. Now he cannot ask him anymore.

To give an easily understandable example of hide’s focus on visuals, REM explains how hide poured more passion into the graphic design of their band’s posters and flyers than anyone else. He made them all on his own, and since computers weren’t common back then, he made them from scratch. It was hide who noticed that the abandoned car near drummer Ken’s house was pretty cool! So he made photos of the band with the rusty, junky car as a feature in it. He put the photos together on drawing paper, added cut-outs from magazines as a collage, and then the time and place of their upcoming shows. Since there was no color-copying either, he took the enlarged posters and colored them all by hand. The small copies became black-and-white flyers.

Hide was lively and cheerful while working on the designs and seemed to really enjoy it.

Those posters and flyers are still hanging on the wall of REM’s recording room (i.e. the 8-Tatami room in his family’s house that is just for his own use). Interestingly, those flyers started with the words “VISUAL LOUD & CULT”. Even in the mid-eighties, hide already naturally used those words. REM speculates that the design of the pamphlet for hide’s first solo tour was probably also his idea: An elaborate design based on the kind of power book that hide used at the time.

When REM joined SAVER TIGER, the band had about one live per month at the live house ROCK CITY in Yokosuka. REM’s first live with them was also at that location. Since drummer Ken and bassist Jimmy both worked at that place, the band got to practice there every Sunday afternoon. Afterwards, they all gathered at the house of hide’s family. What they were after, there, was his mom’s plentiful and delicious homemade food.

It was really good, and there was enough of it for their (financially) poor, hungry inner beasts starved by the harsh training to be fully satisfied. Vocalist Rolly always said, “Let’s stuff ourselves!” and have a second helping.

Their favorite dish was Mama Matsumoto’s homemade gyoza. Even now, REM can’t forget the taste. If he thinks about it, his stomach growls automatically. Anyone who ever went to “Parkside X”, a pub hide’s parents would later run, and ate their famous homemade gyoza-dish, would certainly understand.

But Parkside X also doesn’t exist anymore.

[Note: It is difficult to find anything about it, but from what I could gather, Parkside X was in business until the 1st of May 1998.]

Hide’s parents have taken care of successive generations of SAVER TIGER in other ways as well, but it was thanks to his mom’s cooking that the band got its power even in the present.

Unfortunately, those loving parents and hide also fought about the fact that he wanted to devote his life to music. Sometimes, REM would want to drop by for a visit only to run away again when hearing the sounds coming from hide’s 2nd floor room, sounding like a rebellious rampage. Even when coming across them now, REM thinks that hide’s parents just had a very normal way of thinking, and were worried that their beloved son would waste his life on such an insecure and intangible profession as the music industry.

When they met for dinner at hide’s home, his mom’s favorite advice to all of them was, “Please get a normal job!”

REM thinks that such feelings are very normal for all parents, especially now that he is a father himself. Even so, he also knew that with hide’s personality being what it was, he would never have given up the path of music that he had chosen for himself.

After hide later started to climb the ladder towards being a professional musician with the very successful Budokan-performance, his parents started to support him with a positive attitude – though REM isn’t sure if this is because they were finally at peace and stopped worrying now that things were going well, or if they had simply resigned themselves to the fact that this was really happening and there was nothing they could do to change that.

When REM visited hide and saw the love his father and mother had for their son as they chatted casually about his current circumstances with him, he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.

SAVER TIGER practiced a lot in those days. And since their leader was perfectionist hide, the practice was also hard, of course. They practiced two to three times per week, starting at night and going on until six in the morning. In that time, they only had te10 to 15 minute breaks, but even during those, they – and especially hide – would continue to talk about music: What to do here, if it wouldn’t be better than change that, etc. So, it was like going until morning with no break at all.

Consequently, by the end of it, they were all exhausted, and no one more so than REM. But on the other hand, they improved a lot, and it was ultimately a fun time.

There are bad band leaders who cannot get the members of their bands to follow them, but hide was a natural in that regard. He saw the strong points of each member and managed to pull out their best.

He was also considerate.

When REM had only just joined the band and struggled with the unfamiliar songs, hide gave him a cassette tape one day. On this tape were all of SAVER TIGER’s original songs, with hide singing along to his guitar and giving a narration on various parts regarding what to do there. A full commentary on all songs. It was very well done. Hide must have put a lot of time and effort into it.

REM can only admire hide’s willingness to devote time to making good music and his care and attentiveness towards his bandmembers.

REM is SAVER TIGER’s leader now, and it often makes him think of hide’s skill in getting the best out of the band, as well as the hardships of the position that are hidden from view.

When there was no practice, hide would often visit REM at his apartment. In winter, he would slip under the kotatsu [Note: heated table] and spend all evening playing guitar. Then, suddenly, he would put a radio cassette recorder on top of the kotatsu and record the phrase or melody he just thought of. He would then ask REM for his opinion, and they would discuss what to do here or there until morning. On the days they didn’t see each other, hide would still call REM to discuss their songs or what to do with their guitars at their next live, so in regard to music they basically met every day.

REM’s weekly schedule at the time was as follows:

2-3 times practice.

At the same pace, band meetings that doubled as drinking sessions. Those lasted until morning as well and always ended on Dobuita-Street.

On the other days, he and hide created songs in his apartment.

REM and hide also often went to see the lives of indie bands that got famous, to form connections, do promotion, and get references for songs and stages etc.

While REM, as expected of a guitarist, always looked at what the guitars were doing, hide always looked at everything: Ensemble, harmony, rhythm, etc., but also things like guitar technique and sound. Even then you could catch a glimpse of the qualities of an excellent music producer that hide possessed.

As a little side story, REM tells of the t-shirts that SAVER TIGER also produced at the time and sold at their lives. That wasn’t exactly a common thing for indie bands to do. Hide had an admirably professional mindset when it come to things like promotion even then. This showed even when they went to the lives of other bands as well.

The guitar REM mostly used then was a white Stratocaster with “Flying V” in black on it. He also had a Les Paul for lives, but mostly he used the Strat.

Hide’s favorite was the Mockingbird. He also brought a substitute to lives, in case the strings broke, but if he had the choice, he would choose the Mockingbird, claiming that other guitars were hard to play.

What set them apart from other indie bands were the double leads of REM’s and hide’s twin guitars. REM doesn’t know for sure when it comes to the entire country, but in the vicinity of Yokosuka, there was no other band with guitars like that. It had already been that way before REM joined: Back then, the twin leads had been hide and another guitarist, whom REM replaced.

It was generally more popular to have one lead guitar and a side guitar, because twin leads required the guitarists to work together and harmonize perfectly. In that regard, REM, who identified fully as a guitar-artist, was probably perfectly compatible with hide, who used to say, “Even though I play the guitar, I am not a guitarist.”

He said that while he was a guitarist in the band, he would leave the solos outside the twin parts to REM, since he was doing other stuff as well. It showed that even then he jumped out of the frame of being a guitarist and was just generally an artist as well.

At the time, beyond the quality of their music, hide also had an awareness for entertainment and always considered the looks and staging of their performances as well.

There were many things that REM realized suddenly about hide through the years, and one of them was that even during their amateur days, hide thought like a professional musician.

Another thing hide used to say was that their appearance and everything they did on stage was one whole. He strongly believed that all aspects played together to create one big picture, and he wouldn’t allow himself to have even one damaged part in it.

This principle is the origin for the focus on his way to becoming a vocalist and the stylish staging of his promotional videos, REM thinks.

What made him so charismatic in Yokosuka were the sharpness of his expressions, the abundance of his ideas, and the speed in which they pulled them out. His mind was like a surprise box, and he had the strength of will to immediately materialize his ideas. This, combined with the lightness of his performances, made up the artist hide.

Those things brought a sense of urgency, tension, and anticipation to SAVER TIGER’s performances, which was found in no other band in Yokosuka.

When REM had watched SAVER TIGER perform that first time, he thought, “It’s like watching a theater play.”

And that was it for the serious side story. Back to the fun part!

Speaking of which: When REM praised hide’s diligence too much, hide would get embarrassed and tell him to stop. When it came to things other than music, he also loved fun, interesting stuff and often made plans that were extremely, if innocently, naughty.

When it came to song titles and the like, hide had a unique sense for words.

He organized everything on his own: Live house booking, member schedules, communication with the bands they performed with, or against. When it came to music, he was an extremely energetic person.

As soon as the live was decided, hide would gleefully begin to create the flyers. He included the pictures of the members, then their names, and the other info. At one time, SAVER TIGER had a new drummer names Kosuke, who is also SAVER TIGER’s current drummer in 1999. And for whatever reason, instead of putting his name as “Kosuke” under his picture, hide spelled it as “KILL WITH POWER”. Nobody ever called him that. Maybe hide thought it had more punch. REM didn’t know about it and didn’t pay attention.

At that time, REM’s apartment was the SAVER TIGER OFFICE, because he was the only one living on his own. His phone number was their official contact number as well. So one night the phone rings and the voice of a young girl says, “Uh, is KILL-san there? I am a big fan of KILL-san. KILL-san!” Completely oblivious to the fact that REM’s heart raced and he thought he was about to get murdered.

Continued in part 2

[visual-calc]

Say, does quantum physics correlate with time traveling journey? Time traveling machine quite tempting to be made..

VISUAL CALCULUS [Heroic: Success] — Quantum physics actually has very little to do with our understanding of time, or the possibility of time travel. Most of the relevant theory falls under the theory of relativity, with a little bit of thermodynamics sprinkled in.

At its most basic level, relativity states that our reality exists in four dimensions: the three spatial dimensions we usually think of, and time, which is why we sometimes refer to it as "spacetime". Time is connected to the other three dimensions in a special way: the faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. Similarly, the closer you are to very massive object, such as a black hole or Elysium's core, the slower time passes for you.

This means that it is almost trivially easy to travel forward in time— just steal an aerostatic and fly very, very fast, or take a vacation at the bottom of the ocean. Either of these will cause you to experience less time than a friend who stays stationary or at sea level, so upon your return you will have effectively traveled to the future— by a few billionths of a second. A difference in elevation of a few thousand feet is not enough to create a significant difference in time, nor are there any means of transportation able to reach the necessary speeds to make this a practical means of time travel. But traveling forward is at least theoretically possible.

However, based on your prior interaction with Savoir Faire and Interfacing, I suspect that you are interested in traveling backwards, and I am afraid I need to be the bearer of bad news: it is simply impossible. The arrow of time only points forward. This is a law higher than you, or me, or Authority, or any of us. There is nothing we can do to reverse it, in any normal reality.

Physically, this is intrinsically linked to the idea of entropy, a measure of disorder. Entropy can never decrease— any process that is possible can only increase disorder, never decrease it. Reversing the flow of time and traveling backwards through it would allow you to increase order. For example, if you broke a glass, then traveled back to a time where the glass was whole again, you would be returning it to its ordered state, making backwards time travel impossible just from a physics standpoint. That doesn't even scratch the surface of the possible paradoxes of causality such travel would cause.

However. Not all of Elysium is part of our normal sense of reality. Entropy and entroponetic share the same root, after all— the Pale is entropy incarnate, disorder made manifest. Deep enough in the Pale, this disorder is great enough that our usual notions of time and space have no meaning. Reality ceases to have dimensions at all and the laws of physics break down.

The only way we can travel through the Pale at all is using Pale latitude compressors— devices that allow us to force the Pale into having dimensions again, taking on the shape of our familiar four-dimensional spacetime. No one has ever tried forcing the pale into being anything else. It's easy to see why— for transport of human beings, you want to make sure that they stay cocooned in a reality they can safely exist in. But, I do confess to having wondered whether it might be possible to use a Pale latitude compressor to impose a different type of reality on the Pale. If we're imposing dimensions anyway, perhaps it's possible to pick how they relate to each other such that traveling backwards in time is possible?

Please do note that I do not recommend that you try this, Turtle. Harry's brief encounter with the latitude compressor in Martinaise has more than convinced me that they are not to be trifled with. Additionally, there's no telling whether a set of dimensions that would allow time travel would also allow you to exist, or whether such a set would even exist at all. Most of us have come to like you quite a lot— I would hate to see you perish as a result of an entroponetic accident because you tried to time travel.