Locust City - An Elysium Story

fanfic writing culture isn’t “oh dang! I wanted to write about this prompt with this character but someone else already wrote it, so now I can’t”.

fanfic writing culture is always “two cakes is better than one. the more the merrier. there can ever be enough fics of this character with this prompt!”

"If you use em dash in your works, it makes them look AI generated. No real human uses em dash."

Imaging thinking actual human writers are Not Real because they use... professional writing in their works.

Imagine thinking millions of people who have been using em dash way before AI becomes a thing are all robots.

REBLOG IF YOU'RE A HUMAN AND YOU USE EM DASH

Dudes shouldn't have to prove themselves by having spartan greyscale homes with dollar store rubber shower curtains and a mattress on the floor. Do you know what life is like with linen

im starting a collection

I was recommended @tea-stained-tabby’s disco elysium + rdr2 crossoverer fic and it did not disappoint so I made some art inspired by my favorite parts

On Harry, Jean and severing the ties of codependency

Jean chooses to leave Harry [to die in Martinaise] if Harry is willing to continue his harmful habits. He hangs on if Harry gets any better, even if a little, and if Harry has someone with him, be it Cuno or Kim.

Jean says stuff like "I won't let my life unravel because of this", "I'm clinically depressed, sorry I wasn't there to butter you up", writer Argo Tuulik says "The reason Jean hasn't killed himself is because of work, work is the only redeeming thing that gives him purpose, and he cracks cases with Harry and works like he's got devil on his back", etc. It's clearly the codependency. He feels attached to Harry's wellbeing, he's affected by Harry's antics more that anyone else. He says horrible shit to Harry cause to him saying all that it's something along the lines of, how could you become this way? Do you want me to die with you? I'm not going to die with you. I'm letting go.

When you, as a player, help Harry quit drinking, or taking drugs, or both, if you do good policework, Jean sees hope in that. It seems to me Jean looks at Harry trying to get better and thinks to himself, hey, if *he* being that far gone can do it than I can too. *We* can. Which is... morbidly beautiful to think of. Even when Jean leaves you behind and tells you "This is over" the passive Empathy check tells you "Even now -- you're still his partner." He seems to cut ties with Harry, he puts an end to trying to reach out. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it's not only that. He also gives up on himself, if he as Harry's partner failed to get Harry standing then he's basically nothing. A satellite spiralling out of his orbit, no longer attached to a planet that gravitates towards him. It's death on both sides -- on Harry's and on Jean's.

I think it's important to note how caring Jean is, in really small bits. He loves this motherfucker and absolutely despises him for what love is doing to him. That's his partner and best friend killing himself. You can't be too gentle when things get this rough. Jean still gets like that, at times you catch glimpses of compassion towards Harry, and it's a significant thing. Because Jean cares, and sees his value in helping Harry out, and hates that his value is counted on how he has failed in helping Harry out. It's awful to see, really. And also very realistic for relationships like that.

I hate Jean Vicquemare so much because I perfectly understand what he's going through and how poor mental health and being in a close relationship with someone also mentally ill fucks both of you up. Sending him some Prozac and a kick to the face cause in spite of what I say he's also really annoying at times, and I'm saying this as #1 Jean stan. I get how you feel, can you not call Harry a cretin heart emoji.

kras mazov cosplay what’s good

Every time someone draws Kim as a 20-something Korean idol with said idol's hair and muscles and a broad back I want to scream. Kim is a man in his 40s with a receding hairline, wrinkles and is very thin because of poverty, bc the socio-economic context in which he grew up. Like all Disco characters, his physical appearance speaks about his context, his life and the political situation in the region.

Extra hate points if he is portrayed as a Seolite who misses a country with which he has no cultural ties. Kim's central theme is that all the nationalists, xenophobes and racists in Ravachol treat him as if he were a migrant, even as if he had just arrived as well as humiliated by his fellow cops and superiors, treating him as a teenager and keeping him in juvenile police as punishment not only bc of xenophobia and racism but also under this patriarchal idea of seeing those it oppresses as children. Here we can easily point to the western colonialist and patriarchal fetish of viewing asian people (and global south ppl in general) as underage or eternally young, which the fandom unfortunately does not escape. Surprised that they then draw Harry like an actual 40s or even 50s years old white european guy? not really bc you can't escape the imperialist mindset.

Kim is born and raised in Revachol, he feels as much a part of it as Harry does. I think there's even a dialogue where La Revacholiere tells Harry that Kim is part of Revachol and loves him too.

yet deeply despise him to the point of obliterating everything that makes him Kim Kitsuragi and everything Disco Elysium is about. If they can't stand how the characters are (and how they are tied at their core to the game's story and what the game talks about and its politics) maybe these people should go play a game about a stereotypically attractive, Euro-white teenage girl looking for her neighbour's cat in the alps.

X7/Locust City Act's V Plot Details, Tasks, and Endings!

hi everyone! I created a new sideblog EXCLUSIVELY so that I can post this text (I figured my main account is shadowbanned or smth) ANYWAY

you can read the 1-5 Acts' Summaries done by @parasolemn! They've done an amazing job and I wanted to take part in deciphering too, hehe

note: English is not my first language therefore word-guessing can be pretty hard for me. There are some minor places I couldn't undestand so I would highly appreciate your help!

UPD 10/04/2025 @parasolemn kindly helped to fill in some lacunas I had in Endings! At the weekend I'll try to edit other gaps myself

PLOT DETAILS ACT V

So what is Cunoesse’s story?

Cunoesse has brought Cuno to Hämärä Maa as a replacement for a kid she drowned three years ago.

Cuno and Jaakko – the drowned kid – don’t have much in common. Both are/were boys with red hair, and about the same build but that’s about it. Only a child’s mind would come up with a plan to replace the dead kid with an ‘identical’ one so she’d be accepted back in her tribe.

But Cuno can’t just be like Jaakko, he has to *become* Jaakko.

The Suru(?) have a coming-of-age rite that involves drinking a brew made of the bone marrow of a blind underwater cave fish. This experience has sometimes profound, sometimes devastating effect on one’s consciousness.

Perhaps this “Naming Ceremony” doesn’t happen until the Hämäräns are 10 years old, so that’s why Cunoesse never got her name, and this is the pretense under which she lures Cuno into the ceremony – a name for herself (but Cuno doesn’t know it’s also going to be a new name for him.)

Cunoesse believes that if she subjects Cuno to this ceremony and “spirit guides” him through this process Cuno might actually *become* Jaakko. Or at least accept he’s Jaakko now. She’s been laying foundation for this transformation throughout this whole journey.

Cunoesse’s people thought her dead, drowned with the boy. Hardly anyone could recognize her at first sight.

Maybe Cunoesse hid the body (under a rock in one of the caves) before she fled Hämärä Maa, so in her mind no-one can definitively claim the kid she brought back isn’t Jaakko.

Psychedelic Sequence

We want this to be a truly visually … and spectacular setpiece where you can bind the rules of everything <…> and apply dream logic.

The entire underwater showdown will be in FELD.

We can depart form/ play with the … perspective, switching into a side-view showing the vastness of the dark screen, with the C&C small figures sinking.

Experiment with overlays, filters as well as tainted and/or 3D mode/ed addictions (??) in the scene, showing people, motifs and icons elements from their journey. There can be lots of … with the visual elements reflecting decisions the players has made throughout the game.

Competitive Red Checks are the key now feature we want to test here, to create unique playthroughs and the impression of truly “fighting yourself” as the rolled value of Cuno or Cunoesse’s Red Checks affects the difficulty of the other’s counter attack.

For the first time, … and commune with each other.

Cunoesse comes out of the trip with +1 Psyche is she lives.

Blue notes:

Multiple life/death outcomes.

Swarm/Locust City side-plot reaches its conclusion.

New home for Locusts

Funeral cultural event

(another note totally unreadable for me, sorry)

_____________________________________

TASKS ACT V

The path through Act V is still largely TBD

In its bare minimum implementation Hämärä Maa could have the same density as the Deserter’s Island finale of Disco Elysium, where the game’s entire conclusion is communicated through a small number of characters – three very extensive and immersive dialogues (one of which is a stylized dream sequence) followed by a posse epilogue. Although railroaded, Disco’s finale had a “page-turning” quality to it that we should aim for as going too much into the mundane idle of the Hämärans would kill the pacing. However, since the entire journey has been about getting to the island, we should give the player at least a little more to see and do than the Deserter’s Island did.

An example of how the task chain at Hämärä Maa could look:

Face Cunoesse’s folks

Find a new home for the Locust City.

Learn how the brew works

Make the brew

Go to the caves

Survive the caves

Bring “Jaakko” to his parents.

Reactivity/Outcomes

Cuno drowns and Cunoesse is this time for real exited by her people

Cunoesse drowns and Cuno returns to Jamrock alone.

ENDINGS

Ending 1 – Jaakko Ending

Location: Hämärä Maa

Cunoesse is alive, Cuno is brainwashed

Notes:

Cunoesse’s manipulations worked. Cuno has fully internalized Jaakko.

The scene closes with Cuno diving dead-eyed among the Hämäran boys. He’s one of them now.

Loss of Identity. No more Cuno-sentences.

Ending 2 – Pale Ending

Cunoesse is dead, Cuno is alive

Location: Tréville, deserted

Notes:

With Cunoesse dead, Hämärä Maa holds nothing for Cuno anymore. He turns back, aimless.

He lands back in Tréville and finds it deserted. The prison has finally moved.

Cuno sits with him. With Cunoesse’s death, Cuno’s prison has left him too. The thing about freedom is that no one tells you where to go.

Cuno waits with the prisoner indefinitely. We fade to white and roll credits.

Ending 3 – Bad Ending

Cunoesse is dead, Cuno is dead

No notes, no location

Ending 4 – Circle Ending

Cunoesse is alive, Cuno is dead

Notes:

With Cuno dead and her plan failed Cunoesse must exile herself from Hämärä Maa again.

She goes into another Murder Hangover, back to sleep and hibernation.

The Internal Skull(?) announces “A new epoch of timekeeping is beginning”

(two another unreadable notes for me)

Ending 5? – New Tribe Ending

Cunoesse is alive, Cuno is alive

No notes, no location

It’s been a while, and this project fought me every step of the way, but I managed to finish this book. This is a Frankenstein’s monster of two fan translations of Sacred and Terrible Air slapped together and haphazardly edited some more to my personal satisfaction. As far as I could tell while I was typesetting it was even more bleak than already bleak world of Disco Elysium, and deeply nihilistic to boot.

So I wanted to make it look as disturbing as I could manage (and still want to hold it long enough to read).

🫁 Endpapers are hand-inked neurographics;

🫁 I painted and splattered the edges to look as moldy as possible;

🫁 The spine is linen, and titled by hand;

🫁 The design on the cover is a concept art for the game (I know the book is not set in Revachol, but I wanted a very specific brand of Eastern-European angst, and that church fit the bill).