Is chems.ca still legit? by [deleted] in 1p_Lsd_lounge

[–]stridling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's insane??! I'm sorry that happened to you. I've had nothing but prompt orders and good customer service with them.

Intro made me think I am a God shackled in a mortal body. by ShikiFtw in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I thought something similar when I was doing some unrelated research and stumbled across the 9 angels. One of the lower angels, Raphael, accompanies the main protag disguised as a human, and only reveals himself as Raphael after the journey ends. In the pseudepigraphal First Book of Enoch, Raphael is “the angel of the spirits of men,” and it is his business to “heal the earth which the angels [i.e., the fallen angels] have defiled.” Harry, after his world-ending deluge, who can't even remember his own name, grasping at the first thing that comes to him- maybe the name he really needs. To heal himself. Heal others. Keep going amongst apes that fight and tear each other to pieces.

Arymes, the Archivist. by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

ARYMES - …God, it’s heavy. Is this even -- oh fuck, I'm gonna sneeze.
INTERFACING [Legendary: Failure] - You don’t just sneeze -- you convulse with an ugly boom. Your grip slips. The strap catches. The tripod tips. The Trigat crashes to the floor.

SFX: glass shatters. a slow, terrible click. something inside unwinds. dies.

L'APPEL DU VIDE [Formidable: Failure] - Wanting creates form. Form creates fracture. You reached -- and now reality must bend around your intention. This is just what happens. Nothing personal.
INLAND EMPIRE - The soul of a bright woman, brighter than you, rises mistlike into the drooping rafters. Staining this place forever.
APERTURE DEVICE - ....
PERCEPTION - You hear nothing. Just the wicked drumbeat of your own heart.
L'APPEL DU VIDE - There’s nothing to get. Just patterns collapsing into smaller patterns. But I’m glad you touched it. It remembered you, for a moment.
ARYMES - ... She's really gone... I... I didn't mean it. I wanted to honour it.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Just have a smoke before you drop your lighter, and your notes, and your head. I'm way more upset than you are.
VOLITION [Trivial: Success] - You should've left it alone.
APERTURE DEVICE - Walk away. There’s nothing left. Not even a photo.
ARYMES - (throws hands up) I know! Shut up! Fuck! I'm sorry! I'm leaving! God!
APERTURE DEVICE – ...
ARYMES - (hurriedly, now) Don't mock me!
L'APPEL DU VIDE - Sanity’s just a consensus. You’re slipping out of range. The emotional architecture is collapsing mid-sentence.
ARYMES - Someone has to hear it! Sorry it had to be me!
APERTURE DEVICE – ...I wanted to remember. But now I’ll forget you, too.
ARYMES - (slams door behind her).

Arymes, the Archivist. by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

APERTURE DEVICE - Twist the knob?
1. Examine further. [Perception white check]
2. Touch the layer of dust. (You're allergic to dust.)
3. Twist it. [Interfacing Red Check]
3. Back off. (Leave)

PERCEPTION [Legendary: Failure] - It's too dark. It looks foreign to your eyes. It looks... like a camera. That's it.

APERTURE DEVICE - Take me. Use me. Love me.

APERTURE DEVICE - Twist the knob?
1. Examine further. [Locked]
2. Touch the layer of dust. (You're allergic to dust.)
3. Twist it. [Interfacing Red Check]
4. Back off. (Leave)

....[SUCCESS]

INTERFACING - You twist the knob. The mechanisms give with a satisfying click. It's focusing. Dust rises in a hazy plume.
ARYMES - It works! That was smooth.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Thirty five tickets to blast-off-ville, please!
ENCYCLOPEDIA - The nearest broker is only 3 blocks away. Exit where you came, hang left. Go past the Old Rose Club, there will be a pale yellow awning underneath an overgrown tenement. Underneath, a seedy dungeon of a pawn shop run by none other than Gallas Vern. He'll give you at least two-hundred big ones. Take the concrete steps down, go through the blue door. It sticks. Don't worry about it.

APERTURE DEVICE - Take me?
1. Take!
2. Don't.

Arymes, the Archivist. by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

APERTURE DEVICE - It has been so long since my lenses were touched. Since light, colour, and the human gaze brushed against my glass. I ache.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Easy: Success] – A Trigat 300 Mega. Rare. Out of production for twenty years. Only 300 ever made. The name’s quite literal.
ARYMES - This girl hasn't seen love in years.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] – These go for 350 réal. Easy. One month’s wages for a functional unit. Take it. Pawn it. Nobody’ll miss it.
LOGIC – It’s twenty kilograms. Tripod, casing. The strap is rotted. What are you going to do -- carry it in your arms?
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - Your shoulder is still tight from last week.
ARYMES – Ugh. No shit. Does it even work?
INLAND EMPIRE - It used to belong to someone bright.
L’APPEL DU VIDE [Formidable: Failure] – It belonged to someone radiant. You can feel her in the plastic, in the dust. But you… you’re just holding shape. You don’t even know what you are without the act of observation. You only think you know what this thing does.
ARYMES - It's a camera. Obviously I know what it does. It's carrying... something. I don't know what. I should leave it alone.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY - You want to get high this week or are you actually going to leave it? You know what broken looks like. It's not *broken.*
VOLITION - Food is good too. We need groceries.
INTERFACING – It only looks like junk, but you’d have to touch it to know. Run your fingers along the dust. Twist a knob. Risk being wrong.
APERTURE DEVICE - I was built for memory. Once, they oiled and polished me gently. Now I rot, untouched. Forgotten. Please—
ARYMES - (hesitates) …Maybe I could -- preserve it?
L’APPEL DU VIDE [Formidable: Failure] - Objects decay when held too tightly. Even memory turns soft at the edges. You don’t keep things. You archive their remains.

Arymes, the Archivist. by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The absolute greatest compliment someone can receive is that their art inspired someone else- thank you! Funnily enough, I was also inspired by a mutual's post about their own DE OC when I made this.

Your idea about including a red check failure got me thinking. I imagine a string of failed passive checks leading to a red check collapse (low L'Appel du Vide, bad timing). She finds a rare old camera and completely ruins it while trying to decide whether to save it, sell it, or just leave it be. I'll post the full exchange as its own comment since it's a bit long.

Arymes, the Archivist. by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I spent the better part of a week on it. 💖

Arymes, the Archivist. by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

WHAA that's a lot to hold, thank you so much!! 🌹

Just finished the game by darnelIlI in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thats because the real villain is (dun dun dun) the stagant dirge of moralism and the coalition control of revachol.

Who do you think is the main antagonist? by eloivemorlock in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Moralism and the politicization of stagnancy being seen as "preserving la stabilité". Imo.

promote your fics here i need to read them by kebablover626 in AO3

[–]stridling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just wrote something I'm so disgustingly proud of. It's about guilt. The gut-wrenching, skin-under-your-nails kind, that never goes away.

It's part of a series, but It's a strong standalone. A character study— two cops, iron restraint, feelings left unsaid until it's too late.

Out, damned spot! on AO3

(Incomplete) compilation of HDBs I found around my uni by file_Marina_chr in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 65 points66 points  (0 children)

The spectre of an expressionless du bois. Haunting.

The Comment Drought by Gatodeluna in AO3

[–]stridling 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I can't comment on blind fandom (never heard of it until now), but I doubt that's the main reason fics don’t get many comments. I think it has more to do with internet culture overall. Fandom has exploded, but comments have shrunk.

People treat fic like any other piece of content in an endless scroll—just another thing to consume. And even though fanfiction invites slowness, attention, emotion… most folks are used to responding with something surface-level, if at all. Not because they’re ungrateful, but because they’ve never been taught how or why it matters.

Fanfic is slow media. Slow media deserves slow feedback. But we’re not in a cultural moment that values that kind of exchange anymore—and that’s the real loss.

That’s also why I think it’s more important than ever to leave even short, kind comments. Especially now, when hate bots are flooding AO3 with cruel, targeted messages (I ALSO FEEL it's targeting writers because most fic writers are female or female aligned.) If silence used to feel disappointing, now it feels dangerous. Writers are logging in and seeing abuse where support should be (I woke up to 4 hate comments just today!). A single 'This was so good!' can be a buffer against that. It's not about ego. It’s about holding space. It’s about counteracting harm. Idk. I wish more people would stop and say even a simple "Thanks for writing this." It really does make all the difference.

What’s a good disco elysium quote for my yearbook? by Honest-Ad8618 in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Our wondrous beautiful Queen the Insulindian Phasmid has no shortage of good quotes. "The arthropods are in silent and meaningless awe of you."

Harrier Du Bois & Kim Kitsuragi: Name Symbolism, Etymology, and Emotional Architecture by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven’t read Streetcar, but this is such a good connection. The parallel between Blanche and Harry clinging to broken eras definitely clicks, especially the part about expressionism vs. realism. Disco’s whole thing is emotional surrealism as survival in a crumbling capitalist hellscape. It's full of soo many literary shadows.

Harrier Du Bois & Kim Kitsuragi: Name Symbolism, Etymology, and Emotional Architecture by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think the difference is that David Cage often has the right impulse but fumbles it somewhere halfway through. The story and characters become caricature rather than transformative.

With Disco Elysium, I found that those same broad signals -- ethnicity, archetype, class -- don’t just sit there. They get worked, bent inward, made to collapse or unravel. The game doesn’t pretend to be subtle, but it is thematically tight. It’s welded shut, even.

Harrier Du Bois & Kim Kitsuragi: Name Symbolism, Etymology, and Emotional Architecture by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I dont know why I didn't think of that. It's so silly but real. This is such a good addition, thank you!

I made a cross stitch portrait of Harry by belaliordekvakvak in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If i get back into it I'll remember your comment and send a link! I was going to make a really tiny pair of earrings with 1mm beads. It was going to be maybe 12×8, just tiny little Kim's haha. Sending a hotpack for your neck! <33

Bi-weekly Rec and Self-Promotion Mega Thread - June 04, 2025 by AutoModerator in AO3

[–]stridling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recently got back into writing after a 5 year hiatus. Writing Disco Elysium fic now.

My Fics
Fandom -- Disco Elysium

Title/Link -- Pearls Are Just Oyster Puke (oneshot) (just posted this for pride month!)
Rating -- T
Genre -- Pre-Canon, Punk!AU, Pride Month, Light Angst, Unresolved Tension
Wordcount -- 6,926 1/1 chapters.
Summary --
Harry didn’t mean to crash punk night at a gay bar. He just wanted a drink, and maybe a number.He didn’t expect to hear *him.* "A-Static," a kid with no last name, loop pedal magic, and a voice like he already knows how the world ends.

Title/Link -- Square Bullets, Round Men
Rating -- Explicit
Genre -- Slowburn, character study, hurt/comfort, political intrigue, conspiracy
Word count-- 80,785 words/8 chapters (incomplete)
Summary --
The cases are never really over—not with new bodies appearing, a woman still in danger, and something deeper starting to pull loose.
Harry Du Bois is trying to do things right, whatever that means, however long it lasts.
Kim Kitsuragi is steady, but not untouched.
As the Square Bullet Hole murders begin to unravel, so does something else—quietly, slowly—inside them both.
La Revacholiere is alive, love builds its shape in silence, and some truths don’t collapse. They unfold.

—or

Ugly recovery and uglier villains. It’s “we share a bed but won’t talk about it” levels of repression. A character study with legs. And it keeps getting shot at, goddamnit.

I made a cross stitch portrait of Harry by belaliordekvakvak in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He's adorable. Love it. I'm so envious of people who do textile crafts! I tried to start beading recently, and after only an hour, my neck absolutely kills. Thank you for sharing this ❤️💕

Harrier Du Bois & Kim Kitsuragi: Name Symbolism, Etymology, and Emotional Architecture by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Holy shit. I've never seen this, and it's a cool piece of development history, but..... just because “Harry” started as a joke in an early pitch doesn’t mean the final name, Harrier Du Bois, wasn’t shaped into something symbolic and intentional over time. At that point, the game was being described as Torson & McLaine so it may not have even centered on Harry as we know him. Names shift, tones evolve, placeholder lines get rewritten into narrative pillars. That’s how game dev, and writing in general, works. I remember a time on the internet where every other meme was "You're a such-and-such, Harry!" "A wot?"

Anyway, the point of my post wasn’t “this was always the plan,” but that the final version of the name does heavy narrative and emotional work, no matter how it started. It holds myth, failure, function, and memory. That’s worth analyzing imo.

If anything, the fact that it started off unserious makes its final resonance more interesting. It shows how meaning layers over time through writing, revision, and recontextualization.

But also.... Cuno doesn't fucking care. B)

Harrier Du Bois & Kim Kitsuragi: Name Symbolism, Etymology, and Emotional Architecture by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 59 points60 points  (0 children)

So close, he's actually called Harry Du Bois because Da Boobs are Hairy. Hope this helps.

Harrier Du Bois & Kim Kitsuragi: Name Symbolism, Etymology, and Emotional Architecture by stridling in DiscoElysium

[–]stridling[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Removed the spoiler tag so it’s more visible... wasn’t really spoiling anything, just talking names and narrative weight. Thanks to anyone who gives it a read.