#the Pale

[yekokataa]

"The world of Elysium is a fictional world that is aware that it is fictional. You could think of Pale as what happens when a reader puts down the book and puts the book away. As long as you remember, it exists. When no one remembers it anymore, it stops existing. For me the simple answer would be that Pale is an acknowledgment of the fictional nature of Elysium, the writer’s relationship to its creation and the reader’s relationship to it." - Argo Tuulik on the Pale

[mercuriobebop]

YOU - Why are you doing this? I just want to sleep. I can almost see the dark. ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN - We're trying to help you. All these processes -- these tortures, voices and tremors -- are all just distractions. Flares and countermeasures. To keep you from the last dream. The worst of them all. YOU - The… last dream? LIMBIC SYSTEM - The last dream will be total annihilation. Cinders peeling off the fuselage. We won't be there to help you anymore, Harry. We will be dormant. You will be naked and alone.

Skills version and what came to mind after reading "A Spilled Kaleidoscope" fanfic, what are the consequences of The Pale

YOU - "The pale can damage the mind?" JOYCE MESSIER- - "Extensively." YOU - "How?" JOYCE MESSIER- - "Some say the damage stems from extreme sensory deprivation. Others argue that pale somehow consists of past information, that's degrading. That it's rarefied past, not rarefied matter. They call it the blend-over of the self. The pale does not only suspend the laws of physics, but also the laws of psychology, maybe History, even… The human mind becomes over-radiated by past."

[the-uncanny-dag]

Actually, let me post it by itself

[skeletor9000-blog]

The Pale part 2: The Pale Driver

[s34tiz0p3n]

Pale exposure

Oops, haven't posted art in a while! Made something for disco elysium :)

Reblogs > likes

[theanxiousbookdevourer]

Put me out of my misery. Is the phone call real?

(Disco Elysium spoilers and poll below the cut.)

This has been driving me mad.

I saw this really thought-provoking post on the DE subreddit: Was the phone call with the Ex-Something real, or was it just created by the Pale?

As the original poster says, there are explicit mentions of Dora in the Pale. Does that mean the long-distance call isn't real?

Evidence that it is not real:

The Pale can cause "'entroponetic crosstalk. The one you get in radios and long-distance calls.'"

It can also result in hearing "'the voice of your former lover.'"

We have heard fake calls before, as we do with Tricentennial Electrics in the Doomed Commercial Area.

The number is unusually long, even for a long-distance call.

It seems strange that she would give Harry her new number.

It's also strange that, no matter when you call, she has just woken up. It is always the same time.

Evidence that it is real:

She does not want to talk to us.

She is with someone else.

(Of course, this could be Harry's imagination.)

She responds to whatever we say. For better or for worse.

You can read more proof for/against it in the original post here. Credit to /u/dudu4789 and all the people who responded.

To be honest, it never even occurred to me that the call might not be real. I need to know now. What do you think?

[ritual---impulse]

The way the Pale is described, I can't help but think of Michael Biberstein's works:

[jjangredpanda]

[katt1281]

Somewhere, a worker in the Pale takes off their helmet and surrenders themselves to what lies beyond a porch collapse. Rather than death, their head fills with disco lights. Images of a crumbling marriage and drunken police work hound them, even long after they’ve been retrieved and sent home. These memories are not theirs, yet they hold onto them nonetheless...waiting for the true owner to one day come get what he’s lost.

heya! this is just a lil oc ive been thinking about. tbh there's a lot i don’t really get about the pale, but...hey, harrys memories must have gone somewhere, right? i think it would be really cool (and terrifying for harry) if someone knew his entire past. plus i really really like the art for ‘a worker in the Pale’ from the wiki:

also here's a sketch I did to try and get a better understanding of the suit (with some creative liberties taken):

yeah anyways thats about it! if youve read this far ty :3 reblogs are really appreciated, my paintings never do as well as my shitposts unfortunately

[medusaesque]

Lt. Kim Kitsuragi and the pale-

Warning- it's insanely long.

1. After life, death

One of the first thing you can learn about Kim is that he would hurl himself in death's way to save you. From the very first moment, Kim is related to sacrifice and death, it follows him wherever he goes-

The slaughterhouse.

He lost his parents at two years old. He worked a year in Processing (here's good post about that by @renmorris and @spilledkaleidoscope). He lost his partner, Eyes. People have taken a bullet that was meant for his more than once. His survivor's guilt is insane. He's killed six people. He's afraid of killing recklessly, and has a deeply unhealthy relationship with his gun (made another embarrassingly long post about that).

Kim also hears pale 'ghosts' on the police radio all the time, and talks about it like it's normal, and says he doesn't believe in ghosts.

If harry is with Noid during the Moralist dream quest (more on it later), Harry can even wonder if Kim is a ghost, prompting this beautiful exchange-

And he's not entirely wrong. When Harry gets shot, after Kim fulfills Espirit's promise he'll stand in death's way for him, you can ask as you fall into darkness what will happen to you-

It's the living who are ghosts. You can leave them behind and rest. Go into the wild pale yonder, along with everyone else Kim has ever cared about. Or at least you can try to.

When death is at the door, you have two options-

2. After death, life again

Kim might associate himself with death, but Harry associates him with life again and again- Death is darkness, Kim has a light bulb halo. Death is a sunset, Kim is a sunrise. Death is where you are when the game start, it's ready to take you, and then- a clarion call, the sound of a motor carriage, a detective arriving on the scene, and you open your eyes.

The game is very clear about Harry being a ceaseless agent of the world (here's a good compilation by @junawer) but he's not the only one. Harry stands at death's door twice, and Kim is his way back to the world both times.

3. After the world, the pale

So what is Kim's relationship with the pale?

As casual as he might try to appear, Kim is clearly uncomfortable with the pale, attempting to protect Harry from it. When Harry brings up the pale, he intervenes, genuinely worried for the fragile stability of his mind.

It's no more terrifying than water or death or that we're stuck behind our eyes for all eternity?? Sounds pretty terrifying Kim...

The key is in the moralist vision quest, When Harry attempts to each the Committee of Responsibility, and he hears the pale crosstalk coming through the radio, when suddenly-

"Pale is a shroud of memories and it doesn't really distinguish to whom those memories belong to. You could hear anything." You could hear anything, but you hear Kim. If he isn't with you, Soona even says that the odds of us hearing him, out of all the voices in the pale, are astronomically low.

We know the past has not been harmless to Kim, we know it's full of ghosts and cold winters, but that's not the thing that's eating at him-

Kim is afraid of forgetting. He's constantly writing, he thinks through his notebook, always recording, so he wouldn't lose anything. That's why the pale is so terrifying.

4. After the pale. the world again

The world is what it is. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.

Volta do mar is a skill unique to Kim, according to the stats of this pilot jackets-

It makes sense, seeing how the only real advance in pale transit is the speed with which an aerostatic craft can pierce it.

His Black jacket is a bit more complicated-

DISTANT ENEMY OF HIMSELF?? kim.... The connections to Seol is intriguing here, considering how Kim tries to distant himself from it. I'm also not sure what 'sitting down for volta' would mean in this context, would love to hear some of you guys' thoughts.

It's driving me crazy to think how Kim wanted to be pilot as a kid, and is walking around dressed like a pilot as an adult, to give himself the ability to navigate the pale. To return from the sea and fulfill the role he has to play in the world, the thing Harry thought about a million times-

But we know Kim has a bigger role to play, he's trying to do his part right now, convincing Harry to stay-

His connection to Harry can keep him on this world once again. Keeping the two of them together. Your real work is down here, both of you-

Kim was right, each of them has a role to play in the world, but it's not a minor one. Him and Harry are Revachol's only hope. If they stick together they could keep her on this earth, stop the end of the world.

UNITY AMONG THE RANKS IS PARAMOUNT.

I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT.

I LOVE YOU.

[aois-amaterasu-painting]

Deracine vs The Pale

[milliebugydementia]

white mourning

[mercuriobebop]

"it's not Dolores Dei nor Dora Ingerlund, but a monster of your own invention"

Typography from the PJÕL titles I experimented doing, and WIPs under the cut

EDIT: second version (TW body horror)

[baolinart]

Paledriver - "The smell of liquor on Gabriel's lips after the shoot. In the motor park. The roses on the day of Franconegro's coronation. On the grand stairs of Raehl. The smoke from the fowling piece, when Dolores Dei was shot..." Paledriver - "The look on her face -- like an orgasm. The wound in her chest. My hand in my father's hand..." She closes her eyes, her eyelids trembling. "Except I never had a father. And I never shot Her Innocence Dolores Dei."

Happy @palestaticexchange, here is the paledriver lost in memories for @eraserbitz :)

[skeletor9000-blog]

ZA/UM we will remember you