#skills disco elysium | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jerboagoat · 1 year

Text

Folie à Deux

I don't usually post my fics here, but since this is for an exchange I figure I might as well!

She had told you once that they were all in your head.But they couldn't stay there forever.- CONCEPTUALIZATION - Welcome. Today we will share with you a short exploration, explanation, and introduction of… Well, us! Your good friend Harry has a lot going on in his head. We have a lot we want to say to you… But will you be able to hear us?

For @scribblemakes, for the Disco Elysium Secret Santa 2022! Have a happy holidays, I hope you like this. :) I tried to keep it a bit more lighthearted than I usually write, so hopefully I did that well enough, haha.

TWs: canon-typical or lighter Most Things, including suicidal ideation and implied/referenced drug use. also includes semi-graphic description of internal organs, but like, only in metaphors?

read here on ao3, or under the cut!

CONCEPTUALIZATION - It started with one, long before you could remember (even if you could remember).

INLAND EMPIRE - One with long, spindly limbs and a glowing light in its chest, that loomed over you like a radio tower, with not an antenna but an oculus atop its skinny neck; a vast, circular gap in reality for a head. The rounded shape gave way to a spiral of patterns, spatters and speckles of violet and lilac, resembling…

EMPATHY - A distant galaxy, flush with beings you didn't yet know.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - A lighthouse, on the horizon. Guiding your voyage— no, inspiring it.

DRAMA - A thrumming projector! What self-lit vignettes could it show thee?

HALF LIGHT - The dark blood of a gunshot wound staining the wall…

PAIN THRESHOLD - L'appel du vide. Go on.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Oh, oh, let me try. A Kron's disc. Invented in the central Occident, a shallow glass dish, primarily used to culture and grow bacteria. It can also—

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Alright, alright, maybe cool it with the fun facts? We're trying to weave a cohesive narrative, here. Back to The Oneiromancer. The first, but far from the only, the—

ENCYCLOPEDIA - But the term oneiro—

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - Zip it.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Yessir.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Anyway. Let's continue.

INLAND EMPIRE - I came to you when you were young, too young to know fact from fiction. You looked up at me and saw not delusion, not illusion, but prelusion. A beginning and nothing less. I spoke to you, then, and you listened. I told you of the others.

EMPATHY - You were lonely, so lonely, even then.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - Of course you wanted to meet us.

PERCEPTION - It was then that you saw, truly saw, the world as it was. We lived around you as much as we lived within you. My vapors filled the air, bounced off of every surface, sent the information back to your ears, your eyes, your mind. Your senses heightened. The pale itself reflected.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Like echolocation, but with fog. Is there a word for that?

ENCYCLOPEDIA - May I?

AUTHORITY - You may.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - There isn't.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Great, thanks.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - And with your newfound sight you wanted, more than anything, to learn. About the world, about yourself, about us.

EMPATHY - You were young, so young… You didn’t know any better.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - I was smaller then. My pages were simple, limited in their language as you were in yours. But my library is ever-growing. You hungered for knowledge. Every blade of grass, every cracked stone, every creature, every human… You wanted to know. You wanted to…

CONCEPTUALIZATION - See, now you're getting the narrative voice we're going for here.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - You wanted to learn.

PAIN THRESHOLD - And learn you did. Of scraped knees and breaths lost, superficial burns and gaping wounds. You were six years old when you first closed your fist around a radiator, blissfully unaware of the pain to come. I greeted you then, sharp and screaming, and I pierced your flesh. We've been inseparable ever since, haven't we?

ESPRIT DE CORPS - All of us have.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - No matter how lonely you get, you are a live wire, a raw electric current, a being made for and by connections. Always have been, always will be.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - We met the day you (all of you, don't flatter yourself) came up with the name— The Fifteenth Indotribe. Yours, his, hers, theirs. Your first introduction to teamwork. You spoke in codes, conjured behind dumpsters and scrawled in the wet mud below crumbling gutterspouts. I told you where they were, how they were, who they were, until there was nothing left to tell. I've grown in the time since. Colleagues, fellow teachers, partners, allies, even enemies… I've memorized their faces, made them my own, and told you their stories as they happened. The—

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - Hold on. Someone just said something.

YOU - "Huh? What?"

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant sighs, sitting across the table from you, and repeats himself. "What does all of this have to do with you running halfway across Jamrock and back just to track me down and drag me here?" He pauses. "I'm not sure where here even is. I haven't gone this far south often enough to know it well."

YOU - "I didn't have to track you down, I knew where you were! That's what I'm trying to tell you!"

KIM KITSURAGI - He crosses his arms, resting them on the table. "And how, may I ask, did you know?"

ESPRIT DE CORPS - That would be my doing.

YOU - "One of the, uh… voices in my head. Told me."

EMPATHY - …He seems… unimpressed.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Yes. That would be because I am."

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - Oh my god! He can hear us!?

KIM KITSURAGI - "I can hear you, detective. Especially when you shout like that… Doing a silly little voice like that doesn't make you inaudible. You do know that, don't you?"

DRAMA - Don't listen to him, sire! 'Tis not silly. Thy voice art imposing, impassioned, im—

KIM KITSURAGI - "Im-becilic?"

YOU - "Hey!"

KIM KITSURAGI - "Sorry… I couldn't resist. Really, though. I don't see what these stories—or voices— have to do with you knowing where I am at any given moment. Or why I happen to be here, now. You still haven't explained that."

INLAND EMPIRE - You had to be. You both have to be. You’ll see soon enough. This is his only chance to understand.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Understand what, exactly?"

INLAND EMPIRE - You'll see. Soon…

CONCEPTUALIZATION - …But we have a bit of time to wait, don't we? Let's get the rest of our introductions in order. Where did we leave off, again?

SUGGESTION - We were discussing childhood friends, but Mr. Cloak-Of-Many-Faces over there started rushing through things a bit.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - It was relevant information! I'm all about the cop stuff now. I hardly do anything else, and you expected me not to talk about it?

CONCEPTUALIZATION - I expected you to adhere to the narrative progression we're establishing! Timeline order! The big guy hardly remembers most of this, we have to at least try to make it make sense.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Challenging: Success] - Across the table, a stifled chuckle… "The big guy…?"

EMPATHY - But he's willing to humor you, for now.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - We'll take it. Who's next? Indotribe fifteen. Go.

SAVOIR FAIRE - I'll go. Your comrades were fast. You were too. You ran with them, as far as your legs would take you… And I ran with you. Leaps and bounds across sidewalk gaps… Sometimes I would guide your legs with my own, your arms with mine. You could feel parts of you that weren't there, and you could move with them. Sometimes I ran beside you. The first time you sat in a motor carriage I followed from outside, and you watched me twirl and leap and climb faster than you had ever gone before. You spent the next few days convinced your calling in life was scaling buildings and jumping from roof to roof.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - There's a word for that. It's called parkour.

SAVOIR FAIRE - I believe the word is actually "cool as hell."

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] - That is three words.

SAVOIR FAIRE - Here's two more! "Fuck", and "off!"

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Settle down, you two. Keep the story going!

INTERFACING - The carriage itself stuck in your mind after that, too. It would be a long, long time before you would get to have one for yourself…

VOLITION [Legendary: Success] - Don't think about it. Don't.

INTERFACING - …But you found comfort in running your hands along the cold metal sides of the ones you saw parked on street corners. Many times you were chased off with a shout from their owners, people who knew themselves and their vehicles to be better than your smudged fingerprints. But many more times you weren't, and you could slide around to the back and inspect the engine. Together we would study the shapes of tubes and rivets and vents. Later you would practice twirling a pencil in your hand when you had one. When you didn't, you practiced the art of—

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - Wait. Maybe we shouldn't say that in front of Kim… He's a cop.

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] - You're a cop.

KIM KITSURAGI - That breaks him. Finally, he lets himself laugh. Quiet but achingly genuine. "Yes. Yes you are."

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - That warm feeling in your chest… Is it yours, or his?

KIM KITSURAGI - He takes a moment to collect himself, then clarifies: "You don't have to worry, detective. If I was going to arrest you for something you did in your teens, don't you think I would have done it by now?"

YOU - "Oh. Fair point."

INTERFACING - Well… Stealing. I was just gonna say stealing. You did that. A lot, actually. Were pretty good at it, too!

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Easy: Success] - A slight roll of the eyes, and an even slighter smile.

RHETORIC - You fancied yourself a heroic thief, the kind they tell stories about. Or at least that's the tale you and your friends spun together on late nights. You were the lowest of the low, then, but you would beguile and outsmart those in power, scrape by, until one day you were on top of the world… And then what? You'd spend hours on the debate. Take it all for yourselves? No, share your spoils with the downtrodden! What sort of world would you build? Anarchy, that you all would run.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - An oxymoron, but…

RHETORIC - That wasn't the point. The point was talking, talking with people who understood you. Your peers. Forming your worldviews. Molding them together.

INLAND EMPIRE - It swallows itself, over and over again, but can never consume…

RHETORIC - There was no end goal, then. The Indotribe is gone. But the words, the thoughts? They live on.

EMPATHY - Even if you can't remember them.

SUGGESTION - In the end, you got hooked on talking. Nobody was safe. Strangers, friends, enemies, men, women, and all in between… The more years passed, the more you spoke— And then the less you spoke. You learned which words you needed and which could go unsaid. My flowing tendrils stretched out from your skull to reach all those you met, to learn all you could. Siphoning knowledge and secrets from an unbroken connection between minds. You relished in it.

EMPATHY - The world was out there, and each and every person had lived a life just as beautiful and disastrous as your own. You'd stop people in the street just to ask them where they got their coat, where they were headed, who they were going to meet. A few times you asked to come along. Once someone agreed. An old Graadian woman heading home to an empty house. Her children had aged and gone, her husband had done the same. She had been making a stew. She served you some, warm and bubbling.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - It was far too thick, far too salty, and a little undercooked, but you scarfed it down like life itself depended on it.

EMPATHY - People. Connections. You met people on city streets, in buildings big and small, on rooftops, in parks, at bus stops…

VOLITION [Godly: Failure] - Oh no, no, don't…

EMPATHY - I burn like incense. I live in the shape of her. Which of us came first? Did you mold me to fit her curves, or was I always this way? Did I always hold myself so close?

INLAND EMPIRE - Always, always.

EMPATHY - Kim, don't. Don't move your arm. Don't interrupt… We want to stay in our thoughts. In the memories.

INLAND EMPIRE - You met at the bus stop. Do you remember? Do you remember?

YOU - "I… I…"

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Godly: Success] - You remember what you were at that bus stop FOR! YOUR GOD-DAMNED MOTHER-FUCKING GYM-TEACHING JOB! RISE AND GRIND, BOY!

VOLITION - Oh, thank god.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - You LOVED that damn job! We both did! Dodgeball, kickball, running the mile, even climbing that old scratchy rope. We did it all together, my arms wrapped 'round yours. Not that you needed the help back then! Man, those were the days. What happened to you, son?

EMPATHY - Oh, wait, wasn't that… You're trying to remember…

INLAND EMPIRE [Impossible: Success] - The first time someone else acknowledged us.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - OH MY GOD, I FORGOT!

KIM KITSURAGI - "Oh?" His eyes widen slightly.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Failure] - There's something happening with his expression, something familiar, but… You can't quite place it.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - I got it wrong, son, I wasn't always by your side. When you had the kids spread out in lines, doing push-ups 'till they dropped, I'd help you keep their postures in check. One of them, a little skinny blonde kid towards the left corner… He was younger than all the rest. I think he skipped a few grades? Maybe he was book-smart, but he clearly had no clue what he was doing in our class. He wasn't going down far enough to lock his elbows properly. So I pushed down on his back and—get this—the kid just dropped like a sack of potatoes!

KIM KITSURAGI - He adjusts his position in the chair and nods for you to continue.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - There! Barely, just barely, he's smirking! He’s… amused.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Host Almighty… He doesn't believe in us.

KIM KITSURAGI - "No no, I… I believe that you believe all this, and I know that sometimes these… 'voices' are useful, but…" He struggles to find the words, too caught up in steadying his own expression. "I mean, I think that's just a coincidence, no?"

EMPATHY - He's trying, desperately, for your sake and his, to keep his voice level. Sometimes you lower his guard too far for your own good.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - IT HAPPENED! I remember now, too, uh, he shouted! Little guy yelled out something like "What the fuck!?" as he went down.

AUTHORITY - You were never one to stop the kids from swearing in your presence, but the way his profanity echoed through the gym's high ceiling meant you had to do something, even if only to keep up appearances to the rest of the school’s staff.

SUGGESTION - You told him to stay after class for extra reps, and, in between your usual teacherly chants, you probed for information.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - "WHAT IN THE HELL HAPPENED BACK THERE, SON!?"

PERCEPTION - The distinct feeling of a hand, square in the center on his back, firmly pushing down.

INLAND EMPIRE - There was no other way to explain it. One of us had broken through. We were real.

KIM KITSURAGI - His brows furrow. "Still… I can't say that's proof of anything."

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - IT HAPPENED, GOD DAMN IT!!!

VOLITION - No, no, don't punch the walls. This place is dilapidated enough already.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Don't worry. Doesn't seem like it left a mark.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Of course it…" He takes a breath. "Nevermind. I'm sorry if I frustrated you. You can go ahead and keep telling your story."

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Yes, yes, the story!

AUTHORITY - The kids were extra rowdy the next class you had with them, jumping as they always did at the chance for a bit of good old-fashioned mockery. As far as they were concerned the poor twig had simply slipped and face-planted on his own. Amusing, but mostly unremarkable. But the ensuing shout turned a medium-tier mishap into something every kid in class saw. You had to shut it down. That's where I came in. Kids, especially teens, can be brutal, but we always managed to wrangle them in the end. All we had to show them was that, in their eternal struggle for dominance over their peers, in the endless game of social status, you were not the loser, not the winner, but the judge himself. You stood taller with me by your side, and we ruled our empire together. That kept them in line.

REACTION SPEED - It kept them in line… most of the time. They couldn't truly respect you if they didn't test your limits from time to time. I helped with that. A whispered insult to your pride shot through the air? I'd help you catch it, and send it back two-times over in an instant. It got you in trouble once or twice, when the more spoiled kids would run home to their parents and complain. But the rest of them lived for it. Just another game. Each time they passed you the baton your vision would blur with me and your body would move before your mind. Hey, think fast!

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Impossible: Failure] - Whuh— Hey!

REACTION SPEED - Aw, come on, that was an easy one.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - If you'd just given me more warning… Ugh, I know that's not your style. No more metaphors. You know all your tossing and throwing is no good if you can't aim, right? And you can't do that without me. Not balls, not boules, and certainly not, oh, I don’t know, our gun? That's a situation where I'm much more useful.

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - You work better in tandem. Sacrifice one and you'll miss your mark, sacrifice the other and you'll be too late to shoot in the first place.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Hm… Fair enough.

ENDURANCE - It was only after someone convinced you to change career paths that I truly flourished. You had kept yourself healthy before, kept yourself in shape. But in shape doesn't mean unbreakable, and for this job, that was what you had to be. You started at the bottom of the barrel, climbed your way out, built up your stamina, made yourself harder, denser, more and more. So we could take anything.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Challenging: Success] - Did you say take anything?

ENDURANCE - Yes. Yes I did.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Heh. Okay. Good. Just checking.

LOGIC - Alright, that's enough, you meatheads. It's my turn.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Trivial: Success] - Ha ha, ha. Meat.

LOGIC - Quiet, you. Don't you know there's more to life than hitting, getting hit, and taking hits? Especially since we started this job. Finally, we had the chance to make use of all those little shards of humanity we'd been collecting all those years. That was your next addiction. Of course, you were still learning along the way, but now your knowledge had a purpose as pieces in a grand series of puzzles to solve. You finally, finally began to see the value in me, and you built me from the ground up with all the pieces left behind. Sometimes I would crumble, your logic would fail, and you took it as a challenge. You found something better. Not always the truth. That's simply the nature of things. Incidentally, this was around the time you rekindled your childhood passing interest in entroponetics.

INLAND EMPIRE - Maybe not the best of timing. It all did a bit of a number on you.

LOGIC - It's no wonder you started listening to him more often.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Who, me? What's so wrong about listening to li'l ol' me?

EMPATHY - A slight grimace from across the table. He already dislikes this voice.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Oh, come on, Kimmy, I'm probably your biggest fan out of all of us!

KIM KITSURAGI - His grimace deepens.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Ugh. Alright. Maybe I don't always steer us in the exact right direction. But can you blame me? Your body wants what it wants. I don't think you'd count as human if you weren't thinking about sex and drugs and sex at least some of the time.

LOGIC - You said sex twice.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Yes.

VOLITION - Alright, this one is useless. Can someone else do his description so we can get this over with?

INLAND EMPIRE - It digs into your skin like veins, sending its nerves through your bloodstream. Tendrils like arteries sprout from its shoulders. Its exposed brain sags out the side of its skull, prime for any addictive influence. A wire like a battery runs through its back, charged with electric current ready to burst. It sings to you in the dark hours of legs and arms and hips and breathing quickly—

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Hell yeah I do! Booyah!

VOLITION - Okay, that's good enough. Let's move on.

EMPATHY - This part of the story isn't much better, though…

VISUAL CALCULUS - To make a long, long story short, you were stuck in the past. Rebuilding the same structures, replaying the same scenes. The revolution was over long before. I helped you solve cases, sure… I crafted scenes and played them back for you. My mind's cubic eye projected its vision onto yours. But you got so lost in those events far come and farther gone that you neglected the present. Eventually "someone" realized that there was still a future ahead. And that that future could be brighter. Without you. Yet you only got more lost. You only saw how things were, how you thought they should have been…

VOLITION - I kept you going as long as I could. Confidence, even false, was all I could offer you. We built our walls together. I tried to keep you safe, keep you standing… but walls built to keep the outside out are just as good at keeping the inside in. I couldn't keep the others from dragging you down… And in the end, I couldn't keep the world out either. I'm sorry. It was my fault.

INLAND EMPIRE - We'll spare the gory details this time around. Tonight is not a night for suffering.

HALF LIGHT - Before the reset, the only thing you had left was your instincts. It doesn't matter what kind of animal you are. They all understand, deep down, what it's like to feel hunted. What it's like to be the hunter. That fatal dichotomy was all we had left, us two. The only choices; fight or flight or fight. So? We grit our teeth and fought. Fought everything. People, objects, concepts, ourselves, all of it was a threat. It was you against the world. Frankly, it still is…

EMPATHY - But there are little pockets, moments in between, where the world doesn't seem so scary.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Shining stage lights on the floor like light through trees.

DRAMA - There are infinite people in this world, sire, and you could be any one of them. You could be all of them, individually or all at once. You rebuilt yourself from the ground up with the faces you had left behind, and you shared them with me, let me make them my own, borrowing them whenever you needed! Take any face you need. I shall keep thine safe 'til the performance is over.

KIM KITSURAGI - "It is an impressive performance, I have to admit." The soft half-smile has returned to his lips.

YOU - "Wait. Which one?"

KIM KITSURAGI - His mouth opens, then closes. It takes a moment before he tries again. "…This one? I don’t know, I’m still not sure what the point of all this is, but… you are doing a pretty good job portraying all these different characters."

EMPATHY - He still doesn’t understand.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - The lieutenant is far too practical to accept something like us without empirical proof. He has to see it for himself, with his own eyes.

VISUAL CALCULUS - But how? I’ve been trying, this whole time. It works so well in this mind…

LOGIC - You know that isn’t how it works.

YOU - "Maybe it’s not meant to be… Maybe I should just give up."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - No, we can’t! It has to work eventually. Surely something will get him to see us! Maybe even touch us.

VOLITION - But it could just as easily be impossible. We have to accept that.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Is the gap between us truly too wide to bridge?

INLAND EMPIRE - She never believed in us either…

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - Across the table, at a distance that now feels much too far, Kim holds his pen tightly. Should he interrupt, try to snap you out of this? But what would he say? He’s never been good at these things, he didn’t think…

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Success] - Wait. His pen? …Has he been taking notes this whole time? Why?

HALF LIGHT - To mock you. Or worse, to prove what he’s always known: you’re utterly out of your mind, and a danger to the world around you.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - No. He trusts you… Right?

ENDURANCE - Your breathing quickens, and you start to feel sick. Are you going to pass out?

COMPOSURE [Legendary: Success] - Calm down, Harry. Take a deep breath… There. Air, sweet air, fills your lungs. Take a few more breaths for a few more moments. Hold your head up.

KIM KITSURAGI - He gives you those few moments. Finally, when your breathing steadies, he looks back into your eyes, and takes a breath of his own. He lets it out slowly before he speaks, almost hesitant. "…I liked that voice. Which one was that?"

COMPOSURE [Godly: Failure] - Uh, um… Um… Oh, I don’t know, uh…

VOLITION - Really? I thought you out of all of us would be able to handle a simple question.

COMPOSURE - Listen, you have no idea what it’s like to meet your idol! The person you’re made from! You’re just a crown! You wouldn’t understand!

EMPATHY - Kim’s face changes, subtly, from emotion to emotion. Surprise, confusion, then amusement… Then confusion again, as he thinks further.

KIM KITSURAGI - "...Made from?"

YOU - "Yeah. Made from?"

COMPOSURE - I didn’t used to look the way that I do. I stayed small and neglected for most of our life… You wear your heart on your sleeve, for better or worse. You always have. Someone like that had no need for me. I hid on walls and in shadows. Tried to straighten your back when I could. But, um… When we woke up…

EMPATHY - Let’s just say you were very impressionable.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Like a baby bird, newly hatched. Imprinting not on the first thing you saw, no, but the first thing you heard. The perfect choice.

COMPOSURE - I may have taken… a bit of inspiration. Sorry.

KIM KITSURAGI - "I… still don’t know quite what you mean. But… It's fine. If anything, I suppose I’m flattered."

COMPOSURE [Impossible: Failure] - ACK! HOW

CONCEPTUALIZATION - ARE

EMPATHY - YOU

ESPRIT DE CORPS - SO

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - COOL!?!?!?!?

KIM KITSURAGI - He covers his face and laughs, quietly.

EMPATHY - We’re embarrassing him… Maybe we should stop.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - No, we’re almost done! It’s my turn.

KIM KITSURAGI - Through another half-breath half-laugh, "There’s even more of you?"

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Yes, of course! I’m the only reason any of this made any narrative sense. I’m the artist in us. Your life is a story, Harry, and it’s up to us what we make of it. What you make of it. See how much you’ve grown since you hatched? All these voices, all doing our best to help you fly. How many metaphors do you need? I hold them all in my hand, contained within a single point, outlined in a frame. Blues and reds and greens, traffic lights and racing through them. I know there’s a way to make ourselves known. Here, tonight. I hope this was all a good opening act.

YOU - "...Opening act?"

KIM KITSURAGI - His eyes widen slightly, but he says nothing.

INLAND EMPIRE - It’s time. Go up to the roof.

KIM KITSURAGI - You glance at each other. "Are you sure?" he asks you.

VOLITION - You are.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - None of us truly know why you are here, in this old, abandoned building, down in Jamrock’s southern reaches. But we know it is for a reason. There’s a staircase down the hall to your left. It’s time to climb.

INLAND EMPIRE - Watch the third step. The wood is rotting through.

ENDURANCE - Your heart is beating fast in your ears. Hold steady.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - The old wood creaks below your feet as you skip the faulty step, but the others hold you firm.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Finally, you reach a small landing at the top of the stairwell. In front of you is a door. The door is a metaphor. That’s a simple one. I’ll let you figure out the rest.

YOU - Turn to Kim and nod.

KIM KITSURAGI - He nods back.

EMPTY ROOF - The sky is the first thing you see. When you arrived here, it was a blurred palette of red and purple and gold; now, it is black, flecked with stars. The air is cold, and the roof is small. Simple asphalt. Only a short dark metal railing lining the edge.

YOU - Step forward.

SHIVERS - Before you can lay your palm on the rail, a gust of wind sears your eyes with cold. You squeeze them shut in reflex, and you hear…

I AM LA REVACHOLIÈRE.

I AM THE CITY.

…

TONIGHT, IN TWO MINUTES AND FOR TEN MORE, THE CITY WILL CHANGE.

IT WILL BE BEAUTIFUL, AND IT WILL HURT. THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP IT, AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO.

I HAVE BEEN AFRAID FOR AS LONG AS I HAVE BEEN— MY END WILL NOT COME TONIGHT. FOR NOW I AM SAFE.

BUT YOU ARE NOT. I HAVE SEEN YOU. I HAVE SEEN YOU TOGETHER. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND. YOU CANNOT PROTECT MY VEINS ALONE. THERE ARE NO TRUE WALLS WITHIN ME.

TONIGHT YOU STAND AT THE BASE OF MY SPINE AND LOOK ACROSS ME. I MOVE AND SHIFT LIGHT TO DESCRIBE THE CITY TO YOUR EYES. YOUR ORGANS, MEET MINE. GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.

I HELD YOU WHEN YOU WERE BORN, AND I LOVED YOU. I HOLD YOU NOW. I SPEAK TO YOU, AND YOU HEAR ME. YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD ME BEFORE.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER.

WHEN YOU LIVE, I LIVE.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - You squint an eye open to glance towards Kim. His mouth is open, but he is not speaking. His eyes are wide. He looks at you, and breathes, near-silent with awe.

KIM KITSURAGI - "I can hear it."

YOU - (Nod, then look upwards.)

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL?

KIM KITSURAGI - His pupils are wide. "...Yes," he whispers.

YOU WOULD SEE IT EITHER WAY.

SHIELD YOUR EYES. THE FIRST BURST IS THE BRIGHTEST.

GREY FLARE - You barely have time to raise a hand to your eyes when the world erupts into light, so bright for a moment that it shines through your defenses, staining your eyelids in rich shades of red. In the same millisecond, you are struck by something else— Sound, deafening in your ears. A voice— no, voices. Layered one on top of the other until you can barely tell there are words. For a moment you think you hear a laugh. Someone complains about the weather. Another is reading a child’s storybook aloud, voice full of affection. Beneath it all, someone sings, "For you, I am returning…" Wind whips at the slowly fraying edges of your coat, until…

PERCEPTION - Just as quickly as it began, the sound fades to a quiet hum. Your skin loses its scattered vibrance. You see darkness once more, so you lift your eyelids and part your fingers.

GREY FLARE - The city has gone dark, and the sky is lit up in grey… Is that grey? On closer inspection, it’s white… No, black… No, neon reds and greens and blues and yellows… No, it’s all of them, isn’t it? New ones, even, colors yet unnamed. Monochrome or polychrome, your eyes can’t identify the shapes they see suspended in the air. Whatever they are, they’re bright and flickering, shifting through the sky, swirling and moving in waves. It’s hypnotizing, but you tear your eyes away to look at your partner.

YOU - "What is this?"

KIM KITSURAGI - His gaze is fixed upwards. "…I think it’s a pale storm. I’ve heard of them, but… I never thought they could be visible from this far outside… It’s incredible." The look on his face is one you have never seen before.

EMPATHY - Hopefully you’ll get the chance to see it again.

INLAND EMPIRE - Don’t worry. You will.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - You drink it in for a moment longer regardless.

YOU - "By the way… Do you believe me now?"

KIM KITSURAGI - He is too transfixed to spare a glance your way, but he hears you. "I… I think I might."

YOU - (Look back up and smile.) "I’ll take it."

#DESecretSanta2022 #Disco elysium #harrykim #fanfiction #harry du bois #kim kitsuragi #skills disco elysium #disco elysium skills #totally lost at how to post fics to tumblr. i am not used to this.#and since you asked in the prompts: yes you may draw fanart.#and if you do i will cry with joy <3

19 notes · View notes