#next world mural

[iamfuckingsorry]

Thinking about that mural from DE

You know which one

TRUE LOVE IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN THE NEXT WORLD, FOR THE NEW PEOPLE. IT IS TOO LATE FOR US. WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS

The next world mural. In the game, you encounter this piece very early on if you interact with everything available, you probably see this mural before you've ever even heard of Dora or before you've started to get really serious about your commie tendencies, if that's how you choose to play. And the reaction is like, "wow, this is kinda profound actually". Or maybe it's like, "oh lol, this game really is commie af isn't it" (even though later on it turns out that the game is much more critical of communism than you'd think at first). And the story in the ledger provides some insight into Harry and Jean and how they work together too, so it feels like it makes sense, it fits in very well at that moment in the game and that's it.

But looking back at this mural after you've played through the entire game, knowing what you know of Harry's relationship with Dora...

It's Harry's own fucking love story in a way, isn't it?

Him and Dora came from very different backgrounds. He's genuinely poor, grew up checking the trash cans on the streets for tare and edible food, spent his teenage years running around with a bunch of kids who all OD'd or got themselves killed one way or another over the years. He had dreams of getting an education, getting a chance to use his creativity and curiosity and learn about all that that is worth exploring in this world (which is everything), but those dreams are long dead. She's solidly middle class, with access to all the education and art and music he's always dreamt of, with her family to always fall back on. She's everything Harry's ever dreamt of growing up. She might as well be living in another world.

They fall in love with each other and she moves to Jamrock to live with him. Jamrock, the biggest fucking ghetto in Revachol, full of tweakers and gangsters and just thousands upon thousands of poor people permanently down on their luck trying to get by, with no proper aid or government and a police station so understaffed and underfunded they never even stood a chance. And they can barely make ends meet even living in Jamrock, moving from shithole to shithole, never knowing when they'll have their electricity cut, when something will happen that gets them thrown out, desperately scrambling for a new place to stay. And Dora could never do that, not really - she never actually lived in Jamrock, she always had the possibility of leaving, of going to work across the river and visiting her parents whenever she felt like it or just escaping, packing her shit and getting on the tram and never going back. And as long as she knew she wasn't really, truly stuck in this miserable shithole forever, she wasn't ever really living in Jamrock. And it could never be enough for her.

And she wanted more - for herself, for Harry, for their family, who even knows. Maybe she saw Harry struggling trying and failing to make a difference as a gym teacher and thought he could do more good with the RCM. Maybe she was getting desperate, living in this fucking shithole, and thought they needed more money. Maybe it was something completely else - but what is certain is that Harry ended up joining the RCM, and the 41st, and everyone there is on speed, everyone is miserable and desperate and always running behind playing catch up with the case load, with the crimes, with the drug addicts and rapists and murderers, and Harry, who's always been like this close to a genuine mental breakdown, just fucking falls apart. He needs to help people, needs to make a difference, and working at the 41st, with the budget and case load and staffing situation and the pure fucking misery in the area. He goes out and meets a miserable person after a miserable person and he can't do anything else than be nice, make their day a little bit more manageable, do his best- but he knows that no matter what he does, his best won't be enough. He won't be able to make a dent in the pure fucking misery that is Jamrock. But he needs to, so he drinks, he smokes, he does drugs, he loses any semblance of control he ever had over the voices in his head, the dude telling him to hit shit and the dude telling him to forget everything and just get fucked up and Revachol herself screaming at him about her imminent death. And in the end Dora can't stand it anymore and she leaves (and, honestly, good for her. I'm happy for her. But this is about Harry, and Harry isn't, he isn't able to be happy for her at this point in time).

And like. I personally doubt that she'd have left just because of the money if everything else was good. I honestly even doubt that the money was that big of an issue for her to start with, it was all the other issues first and then the fact that they couldn't even rent a fucking VHS and play it at times became just one more thing on top of this already massive pile of shit that broke the proverbial camel's back. But in Harry's mind, he was never rich enough for her. She was always the middle class girl who settled for the poor fuck, and he was never gonna be good enough for her because he was just a broke dude from Jamrock. She was perfect and so so beautiful and at one point her love was the only thing keeping him going, and then she left because he couldn't even

And from what we can see in the game she was the only person he's ever really, truly loved.

But in his mind, they could never be together again. They could try as they might, but it was never gonna work out, because she was a rich girl and he was just a poor miserable fuck. He grew up looking for change on the streets, she took piano lessons in a fancy part of town. The difference was just too large to ever truly be bridged.

So for post-breakup Harry, prior to Martinaise and even during the events in Martinaise, true love was never actually possible. It is possible only for the new people, in the next world. It was too late for him - he had his chance, and it was an impossible thing, it could never have worked out and now he's wasted it. Because of the inherent differences between different social classes. It is too late for him. So yeah, fuck it, wreak havoc on the fucking middle class. Fuck those rich bastards who took Dora from him, and fuck Dora too.

On another note, this was also one of the most recent cases him and Jean worked on prior to Martinaise. I don't remember the date exactly, but it was in his last ledger, it must have been pretty recent. Do you think he saw the mural and thought about it the same way I did? Maybe this was the one that truly pushed him over the edge? The impossible love. It truly was too late for him. The only way to fix it is a new fucking start. And how do you get that?

After life - death. After death - life again.

[andromerot]

disco elysium / alejandra pizarnik in tree of diana, trans. by me

[flhoarder]

Jean canonically "can draw". Thoughts?

There’s can draw and there’s can draw

[disco-dancing-in-the-desert]

[mihotose]

pieced together a short timeline now that ive replayed the game. followup to this

november 7 '50 - date of issue of harry's new badge

november '50 - klaasje arrives in martinaise

december '50 - the strike begins

january 29 '51 - harry is assigned the two drunks case

february 4 '51 - soona arrives at the church

february 12 '51, overnight - the next world mural appears

mid february '51 - joyce arrives in martinaise

krenel arrive in martinaise

around february 28 '51 - lely's birthday

sunday march 4 '51, 23:30-00:15 - lely is killed

thursday march 8 '51, past midnight - klaasje calls the rcm to report the body

friday march 9 '51 - harry arrives in martinaise

afternoon - ruby flees martinaise to the fishing village to hide from harry

night - harry tells people about the investigation and shows everyone his gun

saturday march 10 '51, night - harry crashes his coupris and parties all night with the union of moribund alcoholics

sunday march 11 '51, morning - harry leaves the alcoholics

night - harry listens to disco before trashing his room

monday march 12 '51, around 08:00 - ruby flees to the feld building

08:30 - harry wakes up without his memory [DAY 1]

[disco-archetypes]

DAMAGED LEDGER - The mural is enormous. Two silhouettes -- a man and a woman -- are kissing. The text cut into their forms reads:

DAMAGED LEDGER - TRUE LOVE IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN THE NEXT WORLD -- FOR NEW PEOPLE IT IS TOO LATE FOR US WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS

[cardboardcheese]

the next world mural

check tags

[sygneth]

what if we kissed in the ruins of Revachol

it turned out much deeper than I expected, but there is also a meme version (under read more)

[ignitingthesky]

The Previous World Mural — a dreamscape transposition of The Next World Mural to somewhere, somewhen else.

The gif compressed the images but I will also post them as a clearer image set, to be linked in a reblog.

Excerpt of accompanying ficlet below. Decided to just post the segment of it I've finalised since I won't have the time to work on it for a very long while.

artblog @chromacandescent

kofi | inprnt 🪻🌷🌹

Excerpt:

You stand on an unfamiliar street, across a familiar mural. The pavement is dimly lit, blue warring with orange between the shadow and light. The streets are populated with faceless shadows. The sky, indistinguishably and eerily hazy, holds the morning moon and the dawning sun distantly together. The world is fading… smearing at its edges.

PERCEPTION — The mural is the only thing you recognise here, depicting featureless silhouettes: one in white paint, engulfed by one in black. They are lovers leaning together, heads meeting in a kiss. A circle of red paint forms a halo around their heads, enclosing that moment of tenderness.

CONCEPTUALIZATION — Despite being close enough to melt into one, the lovers remain distinct, separate, impossibly apart.

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] — Like The Next World Mural, from your ledger.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT — Wasn't that one about a man and a woman?

Is *this* Grand Couron?

Is this... the next world?

YOU — Is this... the next world?

INLAND EMPIRE — No. A previous world…

PREVIOUS WORLD MURAL — True love remains impossible. We are not new people.

PAIN THRESHOLD — There is no escape.

VOLITION — But you can, and you have started anew.

PERCEPTION — Either way, the silhouettes *are* too ambiguously rendered to belong to the Next World Mural, so…

YOU — "I've never seen you before… have I?"

PREVIOUS WORLD MURAL — Of course you haven't. Look around you... Where were you, and where are you now?

ENCYCLOPEDIA — You have no idea. 

BLOCK ??? — Before you is a towering, utilitarian structure, built to shelve a massive population. This building is one of many, its sequential sign obscured by the mural.

There are 11– no, 12 floors in total, including the ground floor, which has been obscured behind sheet metal barriers.

PERCEPTION — The scent in the air is unfamiliar. Despite the fumes of traffic and paint, the distant cigarette smoke, the wet pavement, the damp grass…

INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] — There is nothing haunting in the air. No ghosts between the molecules — not for you. The wind is silent of her sighs.

(tbc)

[yellow-yarrow]

The way so many people draw the next world mural with the "wreck havoc on the middle class" very separate from the first sentence, like no!! Thats part of the whole sentiment and not an afterthought

[stressfulsloth]

I know I have disco on the brain but this song is really making me think of Harry...

[whimsicmimic]

once again thinking about trigun + DE quotes and how i could write full essays about how they apply and different angles to look at them from

[flhoarder]

omg the next world mural pleaaaaase

Faithfully captured the essence of the mural if I do say so myself. Poured my heart and soul into it when I arted that one out I really did

[chelseahotel2004]

playing disco elysium made my depression worse but it also made me better equipped to deal with my depression does that make sense

[57sfinest]

the next world mural. discuss.

the mural and the collapsing tenement both fuck me up like damn. i already posted about the tenement but the mural... they had the people who did it. there were tons of complaints, it was a pain in the ass, everyone called it *the thing* and *that fucking thing* and *the bummer* and yet:

jean was the one who started the argument to keep it.

it was a whole ordeal, and the graffito crew was poised to get rid of it, but jean got the gears turning that ultimately allowed it to stay. apparently his given reason was "civic conservation" but what good is that, in a place that's liable to crumble to dust or get bombed to shit at any moment? why is this something he'd go to such lengths to preserve, when surely he was overtaxed to begin with?

we can never know how harry voted, but clearly jean would have voted to keep it. i'm sure harry did too- it seems like something he would've agreed with. what were they feeling, when they cast their votes? was harry thinking about dora? was jean thinking of harry, knowing harry wasn't thinking of him?

[twcheaded-a]

PEOPLE AS BIRDS !!

SPARROW

innocence, big dreamer, waking up too early, walking home, being afraid of meeting new people, slim hands, always cold, reading a book under a tree, the smell of the forest, missing your home.

EAGLE

independent, caring too much for others, sharp looks, walking down the city late at night, the tallest and most spectacular building, iron, being single and okay in a world that tells you that being single is bad.

SWIFT

falling in love easily and heavily, traveler, the infinity of the bluest sky, storms, broken smiles, forgetting people who used to be your beloved ones, feeling out of place, mistrusting people, a fleeting romance.

CROW

feeling as if you have seen so much and as if you know a lot, prejudge, tight hugs that leave you breathless, a grey sky, serenity, intelligence, being left behind, chains, smoke, the pride of someone wise.

DOVE

petals, jealousy, being tired of living with the same old faces, whispered secrets, marble, sundresses, white clothes, the first sunset of winter, pride in who you are, learning to get over someone.

SEAGULL

family, golden light, the sea murmuring in your ear, summer afternoons, caramel ice cream, collecting seashells and other things and calling them treasures, living breezy and carefree, swimming in sunlight.

CANARY

artistic, getting excited easily, dancing and singing while you are alone, looking at your friends having fun, no phone, being afraid of judgement, spring, a meaningful gift, the first ray of sunlight.

tagged by: stolen from @pessimistics >:3c

tagging: @ariveth @coinquinatvs (Mitchell) @rancoeur (Lyme) & anyone who sees this (steal and tag me!)