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* ProperlyParanoid: Half Light senses there is something fundamentally wrong about the Princess and constantly urges Harry to kill her. As the Princess is the embodiment of death and change, it is entirely understandable for Half-Light to perceive the Princess as a threat, even when the situation is nominally under Harry’s control. [[spoiler: By the third iteration, with Harry having picked up the knife and not killed the Princess immediately, Half Light realizes that Harry has no chance of winning a confrontation and must flee to survive, as this course of events shapes the Princess into becoming an absolute terror. Unfortunately for Half Light, Harry opts to merely leave the basement and stay in the cabin to make up his mind, leading to him being killed by the proto-Nightmare.]]
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-->'''[[blue:CONCEPTUALIZATION]]''' [[pink:[[spoiler:- Is this how you keep track of your trains of thought? You're really trying to figure us all out, aren't you?]]]]
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** A very interesting case of this arises from a mechanical difference between ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay the Princess''. In ''Disco Elysium'', a CRPG, interacting with objects lets you essentially "talk" to them as unique entities (for example, even before the Inland Empire check, investigating the Hanged Man's corpse has "'''THE HANGED MAN'''" listed as the speaker for the descriptions of the body); however, in ''Slay the Princess'', a visual novel, any descriptions come exclusively courtesy of the Narrator and the Voices. Hence, in this fic, the Skills are a lot more active than usual in order to fill in the gaps in the Narrator's... narration. [[spoiler:Harry even gets a thought during THE DAMSEL, Personal Airspace Violation, that directly comments on this, and it returns in THE ECHO once the Narrator leaves Harry alone on the image of the beach at Martinaise.]]
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** A very interesting case of this arises from a mechanical difference between ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay the Princess''. In ''Disco Elysium'', a CRPG, interacting with objects lets you essentially "talk" to them as unique entities (for entities; for example, even before the Inland Empire check, investigating the Hanged Man's corpse has "'''THE HANGED MAN'''" listed as the speaker for the descriptions of the body); however, body). However, in ''Slay the Princess'', a visual novel, any descriptions come exclusively courtesy of the Narrator and the Voices. Hence, in this fic, the Skills are a lot more active than usual in order to fill in the gaps in the Narrator's... narration. [[spoiler:Harry even gets a thought during THE DAMSEL, Personal Airspace Violation, that directly comments on this, and it returns in THE ECHO once the Narrator leaves Harry alone on the image of the beach at Martinaise.]]
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, saying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:Later ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble earlier?]]), when Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was the best policy, this time."]]
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, saying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:Later ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble earlier?]]), when Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was *was* the best policy, this time."]]
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* GivingUpOnLogic: Not intentionally, but much of Logic's dialogue comes from failed Impossible passive checks, since everything Harry's encountering on the path in the woods is such a massive OutsideContextProblem. [[spoiler:It gets even worse after Harry starts internalizing Flagrant Disregard For Reality, which gives it a whopping ''-3'' penalty.]]
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* GivingUpOnLogic: Not intentionally, but much of Logic's dialogue comes from failed Impossible passive checks, since everything Harry's encountering on the path in the woods is such a massive OutsideContextProblem. [[spoiler:It gets even worse after Harry starts internalizing Flagrant Disregard For Of Reality, which gives it a whopping ''-3'' penalty.]]
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** In his first appearance, the Voice of the Cheated is left furious after witnessing a failed check, thinking the skills have been literally leaving their fates up to a roll of the dice the entire time. Volition insists it's more complicated than that, but the Cheated insists they find a way to stop having to deal with random chance whenever they want to do something important. This is, of course, reflective of the differences between choices in ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay The Princess'': the latter is a visual novel where making a choice is as simple as clicking an option and watching the consequences play out, while the former, being an RPG, has elements of randomness in the form of skill checks. [[spoiler:The thought Harry gets from this exchange, Flagrant Disregard For Reality, even suggests that Harry might be able to do as the Cheated says and [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules throw away the checks]].]]
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** In his first appearance, the Voice of the Cheated is left furious after witnessing a failed check, thinking the skills have been literally leaving their fates up to a roll of the dice the entire time. Volition insists it's more complicated than that, but the Cheated insists they find a way to stop having to deal with random chance whenever they want to do something important. This is, of course, reflective of the differences between choices in ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay The Princess'': the latter is a visual novel where making a choice is as simple as clicking an option and watching the consequences play out, while the former, being an RPG, has elements of randomness in the form of skill checks. [[spoiler:The thought Harry gets from this exchange, Flagrant Disregard For Of Reality, even suggests that Harry might be able to do as the Cheated says and [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules throw away the checks]].]]
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** [[spoiler:The Flagrant Disregard For Reality thought, devoted to letting Harry dispense with the skill checks and just do things, mentions a couple IntentionallyUnwinnable checks in the original game -- opening the bunker on the coast, dodging Korty's LastBreathBullet -- and outright calls them "[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bullshit]]".]]
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** [[spoiler:The Flagrant Disregard For Of Reality thought, devoted to letting Harry dispense with the skill checks and just do things, mentions a couple IntentionallyUnwinnable checks in the original game -- opening the bunker on the coast, dodging Korty's LastBreathBullet -- and outright calls them "[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bullshit]]".]]
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* OCStandIn: [[spoiler:Some of the RCM personnel shown in the Esprit De Corps segments -- Berdyayeva, McCoy, Apricot Pidieu -- are canon characters only briefly mentioned in passing.]]
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* OCStandIn: [[spoiler:Some of the RCM personnel shown in the Esprit De Corps segments -- Berdyayeva, McCoy, [=McCoy=], Apricot Pidieu -- are canon characters only briefly mentioned in passing.]]
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, sying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:Later ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble earlier?]]), when Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was the best policy, this time."]]
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, sying saying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:Later ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble earlier?]]), when Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was the best policy, this time."]]
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** Once the Narrator returns from [[INeedAFreakingDrink getting a drink]] to see [[spoiler:the Damsel dead by her own hand]], He sarcastically apologizes for being gone, something Rhetoric quickly calls out. The Voice of the Hero adds that "Even I could've told you that, and I'm terrible at spotting liars"; in canon, he made a similar remark in the face of [[BadLiar the Razor]]'s attempts to convince them she didn't want to stab them.
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** Once the Narrator returns from [[INeedAFreakingDrink getting a drink]] to see [[spoiler:the Damsel dead by her own hand]], drink]], He sarcastically apologizes for being gone, something Rhetoric quickly calls out. The Voice of the Hero adds that "Even I could've told you that, and I'm terrible at spotting liars"; in canon, he made a similar remark in the face of [[BadLiar the Razor]]'s attempts to convince them she didn't want to stab them.
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** The skills will occasionally take advantage of this in a similar way to the Voices, by materializing objects inside Harry's jacket pockets. Electrochemistry uses it to conjure a painkiller, and Inland Empire uses it to pull out a "Perikarnassian chi-ro" (essentially a cross charm) after Harry meets the Spectre.
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** The skills will occasionally take advantage of this in a similar way to the Voices, by materializing objects inside Harry's jacket pockets. Electrochemistry uses it to conjure a painkiller, bottle of painkillers, and Inland Empire uses it to pull out a "Perikarnassian chi-ro" (essentially a cross charm) after Harry meets the Spectre.
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''The Fury Of A Shattered Mirror'' (stylized as ''THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR'') is a FusionFic between ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' and ''VisualNovel/SlayThePrincess'', written by [=ASpooky=] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn.
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, sying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:When Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was the best policy, this time."]]
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, sying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:When [[spoiler:Later ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble earlier?]]), when Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was the best policy, this time."]]
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* BrickJoke: In their first meeting with the Princess, a failed Suggestion check results in the skill telling Harry to be [[BrutalHonesty completely honest]] about why he's here, sying that "honesty is the best policy" (and brushing off Harry's response that "[[LampshadeHanging I don't think you've ever said that, actually]]"). [[spoiler:When Harry tries and fails a check to convince Kim his plan to enter the Swallow isn't an elaborate suicide attempt, Kim still relents in the end, believing that what his partner says about what he heard from the anomaly is real. As Suggestion notes, "Honesty really was the best policy, this time."]]
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** The prologue mentions him having 4 confirmed kills, meaning he managed to take out Raul Kortenaer; a comment from Hand/Eye Coordination in the second CHAPTER I confirms that he shot Korty rather than using the Spirit Bomb. The latter bit may be EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, though, since [[spoiler:the check in the flashback to hear the sound coming from the hole in the world has a bonus labeled "Heard your tie (may he rest in peace)", implying that "Spirit is eternal" was completed and the Horrific Necktie destroyed in the fire]].
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** The prologue mentions him having 4 confirmed kills, meaning he managed to take out Raul Kortenaer; a comment from Hand/Eye Coordination in the second CHAPTER I confirms seemingly confirmed that he shot Korty rather than using the Spirit Bomb. The latter bit may be EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, though, since Bomb, but [[spoiler:the check in the flashback to hear the sound coming from the hole in the world has a bonus labeled "Heard your tie (may he rest in peace)", implying that "Spirit is eternal" was completed and the Horrific Necktie destroyed in the fire]].fire]]; this was later confirmed by WordOfGod to be a SeriesContinuityError [[OrwellianRetcon and was fixed]].
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Hours upon hours of working on this thing, and I miss one lousy preposition...
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The basic plot comes from ''Slay The Princess'', and is much the same as in canon (path in the woods, cabin, princess, you have to slay her or the world will end), except this time, "[[TheHero you]]" are Harrier Du Bois, lieutenant double-yefreitor of the Revachol Citizen's Militia, recovering alcoholic and amnesiac, and the proud owner twenty-four voices vying for attention in your head -- and that's not even counting the new additions.
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The basic plot comes from ''Slay The Princess'', and is much the same as in canon (path in the woods, cabin, princess, you have to slay her or the world will end), except this time, "[[TheHero you]]" are Harrier Du Bois, lieutenant double-yefreitor of the Revachol Citizen's Militia, recovering alcoholic and amnesiac, and the proud owner of twenty-four voices vying for attention in your head -- and that's not even counting the new additions.
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** In the first CHAPTER III, the Voice Of The Skeptic quotes from [[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53223/of-being-numerous-sections-1-22 George Oppen's ''Of Being Numerous'']] [[spoiler:to strengthen Harry against the Pale]]:
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.
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** In THE PALE, the Voice Of The Skeptic quotes from [[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53223/of-being-numerous-sections-1-22 George Oppen's ''Of Being Numerous'']] to strengthen Harry against the Pale:
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.
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** In THE PALE, the Voice Of The Skeptic quotes from [[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53223/of-being-numerous-sections-1-22 George Oppen's ''Of Being Numerous'']] to strengthen Harry against the Pale:
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.
--> '''VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC''' - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.
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** [[spoiler:Cuno, Cunoesse, and [[WordOfGod Annette]] huddle in the Whirling's shed for shelter.]]
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** [[spoiler:Cuno, Cunoesse, and someone else (possibly Little Lily or Cindy the Skull) huddle for shelter in an abandoned shed.]]
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* AllForNothing: PlayedForLaughs with [[spoiler:Mind Parliament, which takes up five minutes of Harry's time and nearly gives the Spectre a panic attack from thinking she scared the sanity out of him, only to end up a tie vote]].
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' - ...[[LampshadeHanging This was a huge waste of time]].
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' - ...[[LampshadeHanging This was a huge waste of time]].
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** [[spoiler:During Mind Parliament, Interfacing rejiggers the UI so it shows the Voices in proper alphabetical order (as in "'''HERO, VOICE OF THE'''") to make the voting easier and more fair.]]
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** [[spoiler:During Mind Parliament, Interfacing rejiggers the UI so it shows the Voices in proper alphabetical order (as in "'''HERO, VOICE OF THE'''") to make the voting easier and more fair. Near the end, the Voice of the Opportunist somehow puts himself back to normal to try and sneak in an extra vote (since his prevaricating made Rhetoric just mark him down as "abstain").]]
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** The Voice of the Hero is initially aligned to the center with his name in standard capitalization, as in ''Slay The Princess'', whereas all the other voices (including, curiously, the Narrator) are aligned to the left and have their names in all caps, as in ''Disco''. It's initially described as a PokeInTheThirdEye for Harry, but Interfacing is able to somehow wrangle the Hero into a "more comfortable shape", and after that, he and all the other voices are formatted ''Disco''-style. In addition, even after that, the Narrator and the Voices have their text emphasized with ''italics'' or '''bold text''' (or '''''both''''') - and break up their lines with hyphens, whereas the Skills are emphasized with *asterisks* [=--=] and break up their lines with em dashes.
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** The Voice of the Hero is initially aligned to the center with his name in standard capitalization, as in ''Slay The Princess'', whereas all the other voices (including, curiously, the Narrator) are aligned to the left and have their names in all caps, as in ''Disco''. It's initially described as a PokeInTheThirdEye for Harry, but Interfacing is able to somehow wrangle the Hero into a "more comfortable shape", and after that, he and all the other voices are formatted ''Disco''-style. In addition, even after that, the Narrator and the Voices have their text emphasized with ''italics'' or '''bold text''' (or '''''both''''') - and break up their lines with hyphens, whereas the Skills are emphasized with *asterisks* [=--=] and break up their lines with em dashes.
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** After the showing of Harry's memories, the Narrator immediately starts in with the snippy PassiveAggressiveKombat, but quickly drops it for something far more genuine:
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** After the showing of Harry's memories, the Narrator immediately starts in with the snippy PassiveAggressiveKombat, but quickly actually drops it for something far more genuine:the act in a rare moment of genuine emotion.
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* The skills will occasionally take advantage of this in a similar way to the Voices, by materializing objects inside Harry's jacket pockets. Electrochemistry uses it to conjure a painkiller, and Inland Empire uses it to pull out a "Perikarnassian chi-ro" (essentially a cross charm) after Harry meets the Spectre.
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* The skills will occasionally take advantage of this in a similar way to the Voices, by materializing objects inside Harry's jacket pockets. Electrochemistry uses it to conjure a painkiller, and Inland Empire uses it to pull out a "Perikarnassian chi-ro" (essentially a cross charm) after Harry meets the Spectre.
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** After asking her about her name and getting a NonAnswer, Harry tries to come up with a name for the Spectre. [[SubvertedTrope One successful Conceptualization check later]], the skill says that her name should be vast and oceanic -- "feather-light, free, and everlasting". Beyond being a reference to the Shifting Mound's nature, it's also a reference to the lyrics of "Want To Be Free" by Music/SeaPower, who [[JukeboxMusical contributed to]] ''[[JukeboxMusical Disco Elysium]]''[[JukeboxMusical 's soundtrack]], with a trip-hop remix of "Want To Be Free" -- "Burn, Baby, Burn" -- appearing in the game's climax.
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** After asking her about her name and getting a NonAnswer, Harry tries to come up with a name for the Spectre. [[SubvertedTrope One successful Conceptualization check later]], the skill says that her name should be vast and oceanic -- "feather-light, free, and everlasting". Beyond being a reference to the Shifting Mound's nature, it's also a reference to the lyrics of "Want To Be Free" by Music/SeaPower, who [[JukeboxMusical contributed to]] ''[[JukeboxMusical Disco Elysium]]''[[JukeboxMusical 's soundtrack]], with a trip-hop remix of "Want To Be Free" -- "Burn, Baby, Burn" -- appearing in the game's climax.finale.
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** [[spoiler:La Revacholière's send-off to Harry ends in a line that has ''massive'' implications for how the end of the story might play out:]]
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** [[spoiler:La Revacholière's send-off to Harry ends in a line that has ''massive'' ''monumental'' implications for how the end of the story might play out:]]
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* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:It initially seems like Harry and the Spectre are going to be able to make it out of the cabin despite the Narrator's meddling, succeeding despite everything on check after check to keep going... [[DownerEnding until they don't]].]]
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* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:It initially seems like Harry and the Spectre are going to be able to make it out of the cabin despite in spite of the Narrator's meddling, succeeding despite everything on check after check to keep going... [[DownerEnding until they don't]].]]
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** The Voice of the Opportunist and [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]] suggest that maybe doing this is what will actually let them escape rather than slaying or saving the Princess
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** The Voice of the Opportunist and [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]] suggest that maybe doing this is what will actually let them escape rather than slaying or saving the Princess, but Harry refuses to leave before he's found and saved the Princess. [[spoiler:[[KnewItAllAlong Or so he says...]]]]
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* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: [[MrImagination Inland Empire]], usually not good for much more than adding flair and creating [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane remarkably prescient imaginary scenarios]], becomes essentially Harry's new Shivers (since the current one isn't much good away from Revachol) in the Construct, a WorldOfChaos ruled by story and perception.
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!!This page assumes that you've played ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' and ''VisualNovel/SlayThePrincess''. Spoilers for these games will be [[LateArrivalSpoiler unmarked]]. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
[[quoteright:581:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_fury_of_a_shattered_mirror.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:581:''Un jour je serai de retour près de toi.''\\
[-[[https://twitter.com/MoidDoesArt/status/1749874255691465192 Fanart]] by [[https://twitter.com/MoidDoesArt moid does art]] on Twitter. Commisioned by [[https://twitter.com/ICastTrish ICastTrish]].-]]]
->'''ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN''' - You done with your little pow-wow session, brother-man? Ready to wake up and smell the shit-smeared roses?\\
Because you won't like what you see out there. It's not the same track you're used to, stuck on loop.\\
'''LIMBIC SYSTEM''' - It's *worse*.
''The Fury Of A Shattered Mirror'' (stylized as ''THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR'') is a FusionFic between ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' and ''VisualNovel/SlayThePrincess'', written by [=ASpooky=] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn.
The basic plot comes from ''Slay The Princess'', and is much the same as in canon (path in the woods, cabin, princess, you have to slay her or the world will end), except this time, "[[TheHero you]]" are Harrier Du Bois, lieutenant double-yefreitor of the Revachol Citizen's Militia, recovering alcoholic and amnesiac, and the proud owner twenty-four voices vying for attention in your head -- and that's not even counting the new additions.
As of January 28th, 2024, it has the unique honor of being the most popular fanfic for ''Slay The Princess'' on [=AO3=], leading the pack in terms of word count, hits, kudos, comments, ''and'' bookmarks.
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!!''THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR'' contains examples of the following tropes:
* AccidentalPun: Interfacing describes [[spoiler:Soona's final readouts of the Swallow]] as "annotated heavily in the scrawl of a woman possessed". The Spectre, currently observing the vision, can only go "[[pink:Heh.]]"
* AlienGeometries: The cabin becomes this in the later chapters, of course, but Harry, who studied architecture as part of his training, can't help but notice something off about it even from the first visits:
-->'''[[blue:VISUAL CALCULUS]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - The floorplan of this cabin doesn't make sense. With the only interior space you've seen being the room you just left, this staircase, and a basement on a lower level, the interior dimensions don't match the exterior ones [=--=] and you definitely saw more than one window on the near wall as you approached the cabin earlier.
* AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness: Not exactly an election, but [[spoiler:the first inaugural session of "Mind Parliament", which Harry holds to decide if he should slay or save the Spectre, is taken very seriously by all involved, [[NotSoAboveItAll even the Narrator]]]].
* AllPartOfTheShow: Drama convinces Harry to think of his meeting with the Damsel as this, resulting in him acting out the role of "[[PurpleProse overblown]] KnightInShiningArmor" the whole time. [[spoiler:Once he drops the act and confesses that he doesn't really love her, the Damsel, thinking she's failed to make Harry happy, is DrivenToSuicide.]]
* AmbiguousSituation:
** How exactly the Voices are connected to Harry is unclear; they seem to think of themselves as part of him, but occasionally refer to [[spoiler:"feathers"]], and have no memory of Elysium. It's implied they were [[spoiler:attracted by the traces of the Long Quiet inside Harry]], but nothing has yet been confirmed.
** The Narrator's connection to the world of Elysium is also a mystery: He doesn't know what reál or [[spoiler:Dolores Dei]] are, but seems to at least recognize the concept of [[spoiler:the Pale]], if His horrified reaction is anything to go by.
* AngerBornOfWorry: [[spoiler:In the FlashSideways scenes to Revachol, Jean is furious at Harry for seemingly getting himself killed and even ''more'' tetchy with everyone around him, but it's clearly hiding a deep sense of anguish over his missing partner.]]
* ArmorPiercingResponse:
** The Voice of the Hero and Half Light deliver one to the Voice of the Cold, who has been bickering with Half Light about their [[BloodKnight contrasting]] [[StrawVulcan views]] on slaying the Princess:
-->'''VOICE OF THE COLD''' - Must you derive such joy from the thought of killing her? It's clouding your judgement.\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - [[NotSoDifferentRemark As if you haven't been saying pretty much the same thing?]] Sure, this one's a bit more... ''forceful'' about it, but the end result would be the same, wouldn't it?\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' - This stone-cold son-of-a-bitch feels the passion of life and violence all too well. He's just hiding it deep down inside [=--=] but it's there regardless. Same for her, same for you, same for *everyone* [=--=] it is a fundamental aspect of the self. To tear out that piece and cast it aside would be to die while still living.\\
'''VOICE OF THE COLD''' - [[VisibleSilence ...]]
* AstralProjection: A rare case of this being done on someone else's behalf -- [[spoiler:Harry uses the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve nature]] of the Construct to project the Echo out from his mind and back as a physical presence in the world.]]
* BadLiar:
** After killing themselves to escape the Narrator's "reward", Drama prompts Harry to tell a convincing lie about why they're suddenly acting so strange. The check, unfortunately, fails:
-->'''YOU''' - Oh that? Icy over there was talking about the office party I just came from. It got *really* dull, felt like being trapped in a void forever, you know what I mean? ...Not that you *would* know [=--=] you weren't there. Definitely weren't. No sir.
** The Princess is still this to a T, [[spoiler:with Flux Et Reflux's attempts to seem like she was [[RememberTheNewGuy there from the start]] so transparently bad that even ''the Voice of the Hero'' got suspicious the second she piped up]].
* BeyondTheImpossible: {{Inverted}}, in a sense. [[spoiler:The highest difficulty a check can be in ''Disco Elysium'' is 20. The check for Harry to stop himself from kissing the Pale in the guise of Dora is ''30''.]]
* BilingualBonus:
** [[spoiler:The Limbic System cautions Harry that, if he keeps helping the Princess, he'll be destroyed, and what little is left of him "returned to the sea". Volta do Mar, the same technique that kept Harry safe from another Princess' influence, literally translates to "[[IronicEcho return from the sea]]".]]
** [[spoiler:The Echo's name as a skill, Flux Et Reflux, is a Latin phrase translating to English as "the ebb and flow" -- one of the titles the Narrator gives for the Shifting Mound.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Plenty of the Voices quickly find pals among the Skills: Drama and the Voice of the Smitten, Savoir Faire and the Voice of the Opportunist...
* BloodOath: At the start of the second run, Harry ''tries'' to sign the Narrator's "voucher" with one of these, but a [[RippleEffectProofMemory flashback]] from Half Light results in him clumsily smearing the paper, and he ends up having to just use a pen.
* BodyHorror: An {{inverted}} example of PlayedForHorror with [[spoiler:the Echo's true form. She's as abstract and bizarre as the other skills, looking "like she's being disassembled and reassembled at the same time", but that bizarreness makes her immediately familiar to the skills.]]
* ButThouMust:
** The Voice of the Opportunist outright forces Harry to ask the Spectre what she can "bring to the table" with the whole possession business, because:
-->'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - We have to at ''least'' ask. If we didn't, I'd be kept up at night wondering what kind of sweet deal we could've made, wouldn't you?\\
'''VOICE OF THE COLD''' - [[BluntNo No.]]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - I wouldn't either, I'm not really interested in 'net worth'.
** [[spoiler:Inherent to Harry's memory of how he came to the Construct: since it's just him recalling things that have already happened, there are never any options to opt out or choose something different.]]
* TheCameo: [[spoiler:The Shivers check in the flashback shows where a number of characters are while the Shifting Mound's song shakes the church apart:]]
** [[spoiler:Cuno, Cunoesse, and someone else (possibly Little Lily or Cindy the Skull) huddle for shelter in an abandoned shed.]]
** [[spoiler:A concerned Evrart Claire (or is it Edgar?) makes a call to a mysterious third party.]]
** [[spoiler:In La Delta, Joyce Messier, implied to be somehow sensing the energies released by the Swallow, fights the urge to [[DrivenToSuicide step out into the open air 37 stories up]].]]
** [[spoiler:The Phasmid waits out the storm under a pylon in the collapsed Sea Fortress.]]
** [[spoiler:Coalition Warship Archer hovers above, not yet noticing the events at the church -- though we already know what will happen once they do.]]
** [[spoiler:Precinct 41 goes about its working day, ten minutes before they receive the call about Lieutenant Double-Yefreitor Du Bois' disappearance.]]
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve:
** As in canon, the Princess runs on this, but it's notably {{subverted}} at one point: after slaying her in the second run, Harry questions if she's really dead, which would normally trigger her change into the Razor, but Endurance's insistence that yes, she's dead, you just stabbed her in the heart keeps her down.
** [[spoiler:It's all but outright stated that the Mother of Silence Tiago worshiped was a form of the Princess. He looked into the Swallow hoping to see something that would let him forget, and the Princess was changed by that perception.]]
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: Electrochemistry has become this incarnate 57 days into Harry's latest fling with sobriety, to the point of going downright ''rabid'' when the Narrator goes to [[INeedAFreakingDrink pour Himself a drink]].
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: While trying to figure out a compliment for the Spectre, Rhetoric abruptly gets sidetracked by "a certain phrase" from Coalition propaganda around the end of the Revolution, leading to Harry [[ThinkingOutLoud musing to himself]] if she might be [[Creator/KarlMarx the spectre of communism]]. The Spectre is confused, the Voice of the Opportunist agrees despite not knowing what that means, and the Narrator is apoplectic at the thought of any form of the Princess being associated with communism.
* CompositeCharacter: With Harry as Maxwell's figurative demon, the Princess starts to change early on: Harry's first meeting with her initially has her as the demure, skittish Princess you encounter if you don't take the knife, but she eventually starts giving the cold, pragmatic speech about trust that you hear if you ''do'' take the knife.
* CrazyPrepared: After hearing about the Volta do Mar and how it can protect from the effects of the Pale, [[spoiler:the Voice of the Skeptic starts composing one in his head almost ''immediately'', [[ProperlyParanoid which ends up coming in handy]] when Harry almost dies of Pale exposure]].
* CuttingOffTheBranches: A few facts of this Harry's run through the events of ''Disco Elysium'' are established over the course of the fic:
** The prologue mentions him having 4 confirmed kills, meaning he managed to take out Raul Kortenaer; a comment from Hand/Eye Coordination in the second CHAPTER I confirms that he shot Korty rather than using the Spirit Bomb. The latter bit may be EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, though, since [[spoiler:the check in the flashback to hear the sound coming from the hole in the world has a bonus labeled "Heard your tie (may he rest in peace)", implying that "Spirit is eternal" was completed and the Horrific Necktie destroyed in the fire]].
** He kept in Kim's good graces (to the point that [[spoiler:Kim refuses to believe Harry is dead despite him having fallen through a ''hole in the world'']]) and convinced him to join Precinct 41.
** Much to Electrochemistry's dismay, Harry has been sober since the events of the game (though he still smokes).
** He got rid of the Expression and briefly flirted with Ultraliberalism before giving up on it. [[spoiler:Which makes it all the stranger when those two things recur with a vengeance in his second run...]]
** Despite Conceptualization's objections, the anodic dance club ended up being named No Truce With The Furies.
** [[spoiler:Harry's flashback to his last moments in Martinaise]] reveals the thoughts he had internalized by the end of the game: [[HyperAwareness Col Do Ma Ma Daqua]], [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast Cleaning Out The Rooms]], [[EldritchLocation Motorway South]], [[QuestForIdentity Jamais Vu (Derealization)]], [[SurvivalMantra The Insulindian Miracle]], [[{{Determinator}} Searchlight Division]], [[RecoveredAddict Waste Land Of Reality]], and [[DeathSeeker Finger On The Eject Button]].
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: The Skills are even less inclined to take the Narrator's guff than the Voices; at multiple points, Authority outright ''commands'' Him to be quiet, ''and He listens''.
* DistractedByTheSexy: The very first thing Electrochemistry says upon seeing the Damsel is "[[BreastExpansion ...Are her tits bigger?]]" It even gets Perception and Visual Calculus in on it, which turns it into a RunningGag: Visual Calculus still can't tell whether or not it's the dress pushing them up once Harry gets closer, and Perception gets its answer when the Damsel hugs Harry.
-->'''[[gold:PERCEPTION (TOUCH)]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - ...Based on the pressure against your chest right now, it's official [=--=] they're *definitely* bigger.
* DoWrongRight: In the first meeting with the Princess, Hand/Eye Coordination critiques the Princess' knifework as terrible while she's in the middle of ''stabbing Harry to death''.
* DoubleEntendre: {{Invoked}} by Drama while setting Harry up to "play the part of the Hero" with the Damsel: when Electrochemistry starts being... well, [[LovableSexManiac Electrochemistry]], Drama reminds it that since this is a period piece, they'll have to keep the sexual content to this trope at most.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Two in quick succession, when the Voice of the Smitten ends Harry's life in response to [[spoiler:the Damsel ending her own upon learning Harry didn't actually love her]].
** This is, of course, the inciting incident for THE SPECTRE.
* DueToTheDead: Harry does this twice for the Spectre: once immediately after he kills her with a LibationForTheDead, and once for her ghostly self [[spoiler:by giving her body the Stations of the Breath]].
* EatTheRich: At the start of Harry's second run, thanks to a bonus from the Overinsistent Vocabulary thought, Rhetoric is much more vocal in its support for slaying the Princess:
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - She's a *princess*. Slaying a member of royalty isn't even really a crime at all [=--=] it's a public service. Normally this would entail an open-air execution (guillotines are traditional but a firing squad works too), but covert assassination works just as well.
* EldritchLocation:
** Inherent to the setting, of course, but [[spoiler:THE PALE turns it into even more of one, filling it with the eponymous "enemy of life and matter". The path in the woods seems to go on forever, Harry starts hearing apparitions of his actions from alternate timelines, and both he and his surroundings start to degrade into nothingness.]] It's somewhat {{subverted}}, though, in that [[spoiler:whatever the stuff is, it's not the actual Pale; Harry doesn't experience any memory bleed-through like the Paledriver, only near-DeathOfPersonality, and even that happened ''far'' quicker than the Pale usually takes effect]].
** The Narrator's "eternity of bliss" also gets this treatment, with Endurance noting that Harry's mind isn't the only thing being "fuzzed out"; his pores are less defined, his heartbeat and breaths come less often and less strongly, and he can no longer feel hunger. It's described as him becoming like "a caricature of a human form".
* ExactWords: At the start of THE SPECTRE, Inland Empire tells the Voice of the Opportunist, who's fretting over whether or not the Princess is really dead, that "Her bones still rest in a mausoleum of old wood, undisturbed for eons." And that's true -- [[CuteGhostGirl for her]] ''[[CuteGhostGirl bones]]''[[CuteGhostGirl , anyway...]]
* ExpospeakGag: In response to the Spectre appearing:
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - A [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Class-II]] Necroplasmic Entity. More colloquially known as [=--=]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - A g-g-g-ghost!
* FeelNoPain: The Voice of the Cold brings its PersonalityPower to bear when Harry has a seizure as a result of the Spectre's possession. The result is a new thought, Breakerbox Of The Soul, whose temporary research bonus removes Health and Morale alerts -- translating to the story as Harry distancing himself from the pain he's feeling enough to (somehow) stop the seizure, [[spoiler:and later, to haul his body towards the door despite the Narrator's KillerGameMaster ploy]].
* FlatCharacter: PlayedForHorror with [[spoiler:the Pale, the result of the Damsel's DeathByDespair. She's essentially a barely-sentient EmptyShell, and the only thing she can even think about is using her shapeshifting to make Harry happy.]]
* ForTheLulz: Electrochemistry throws its weight behind letting the Spectre possess Harry, if only because it would "liven up the place" from its current state of sobriety.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In the prologue, the Ancient Reptilian Brain mocks Harry's DeathSeeker tendencies: "Why else would you have come here, past the inner edge of the world?" [[spoiler:This is the first hint at how Harry ended up in the Long Quiet: going into the 2mm hole in the world.]]
** When the Voice of the Hero muses on the Princess' name possibly being "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Princess Princess]]", Inland Empire comes up with an image that sounds remarkably close to the Shifting Mound's true form:
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - Yes, you can imagine it. Princess Princess, princess of princesses. An exponential royalty, presiding over the heavens and the earth. An infinite fractal tangle of frilly dresses and shiny jewelry.
** In THE DAMSEL, Harry's flask has turned into the Flask of Love and Anguish, and, to the horror of the Skills, is filled with [[TraumaButton sparkling apricot juice]], [[spoiler:foreshadowing the form that the Pale takes in the next chapter]].
** While observing [[spoiler:the meeting about saving Harry from the Swallow]], Rhetoric notices that [[spoiler:Soona]] at one point refuses to mention the Pale by name, even in the context of [[spoiler:it manifesting inside where the church used to be]]. Half Light muses that she's trying to push it out of sight, out of mind -- "but it will come all the same." [[spoiler:The Narrator seems [[MortalityPhobia oddly perturbed]] by that statement...]]
* TheFourLoves: An Elysium-flavored variant is mentioned in THE DAMSEL. When the Voice of the Smitten describes [[spoiler:the vision of Precinct 41]] as "a gathering of people who love you, in their own ways", Encyclopedia enumerates the six types of love described in Perikarnassian philosophy: familial, friendship, romantic, sexual, brotherhood, and love for the world.
* FreakOut:
** Half Light has an extended one at the start of the first CHAPTER II; being Harry's fight-or-flight response, it's completely thrown off by going from a literal life-or-death situation to a path in the woods. [[OverlyLongGag It doesn't calm down for a while.]]
-->'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Heroic: Failure] ]] - [[ClusterFBomb FUCK-SHIT-ASS-COCK-FUCKING-SHIT-FUCKING-FUCK]] [=--=] YOU *DIED*. WE *DIED*! This is WRONG, you should be DEAD, you *are* DEAD.\\
[...]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Does He not remember what happened? I'd say it might be best to keep it that way, but I don't think this one's letting it go anytime soon. Poor guy's traumatized.\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' - *FUCK*!
** And it does it again when it realizes [[spoiler:who exactly Harry's let into his body]]:
-->'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - FUCK! GET YOUR MITTS OFF ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT DO-GOODER! Can't you feel there's something *wrong* with us?\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - [[LampshadedTrope Oh boy, here we go.]]
* FusionDance: In the prologue, while [[spoiler:the Shifting Mound is doing... ''something'' to Harry's soul, Inland Empire detects something worming its way into him, something that "flows like tar, but shimmers with a thin film of oil". From the way successful Shivers checks start to speak in a voice that is definitely not La Revacholière, it's implied this was some form of the Long Quiet.]]
* GivingUpOnLogic: Not intentionally, but much of Logic's dialogue comes from failed Impossible passive checks, since everything Harry's encountering on the path in the woods is such a massive OutsideContextProblem. [[spoiler:It gets even worse after Harry starts internalizing Flagrant Disregard For Reality, which gives it a whopping ''-3'' penalty.]]
* AGlitchInTheMatrix:
** Certain moments in THE DAMSEL seem to indicate that, however Harry is linked to the setting, it's not as solid a link as it might seem: after Harry tries to touch the mirror, the Voice of the Smitten still worries about having "a feather out of place", [[spoiler:and for Harry, the mirror ''doesn't disappear'', allowing him to catch a glimpse of something behind him before it vanishes the second he blinks]]. Later on, the Smitten's attempt to open the basement door with ThePowerOfLove fails, forcing Harry to kick it open.
** The next chapter continues this: the Narrator describes the cabin as looking the same as the Damsel's, even though it's become [[spoiler:a lookalike of Harry's home from when he lived with Dora]], and the Voices can see the mirror over the doorway when Harry can't.
** THE ECHO pushes it to truly odd levels: Harry still can't see the mirror when it appears in [[spoiler:the church]], and when he throws the knife at it on the suggestion of [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]], Inland Empire insists it's lost to them, even though they could very easily walk over and get it.
* GodzillaThreshold: [[spoiler:The Narrator elongating the cabin to try and kill Harry pushes Half Light to let the Spectre possess him in order to get Harry moving.]]
* GrammarNazi: While some of the Skills are having a discussion over whether to trust the Voice of the Opportunist, Encyclopedia briefly chimes in to remind Savoir Faire that it's "mutualistic", not "mutually parasitic".
* HehHehYouSaidX: Just for the record, Harry is talking about a ''white check'' here.
-->'''YOU''' - Why has it gotten harder?\\
'''[[red:ELECTROCHEMISTRY]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - Well, [=--=]\\
'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - [[PrecisionFStrike Shut the fuck up.]]
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Tiago was left nigh-catatonic when a change in the 2mm hole in the world put him face-to-face with the Shifting Mound, upending everything he thought he knew about his "Mother of Silence".]]
-->[[spoiler:'''TIAGO''' - In the end, he ends up speaking to you alone, a single sentence whispered with a hoarse voice:\\
"I heard her sing, homes."\\
"...She isn't supposed to sing."]]
* HiddenDepths: When Harry asks the Narrator for a fun fact about Himself, the Narrator, after a few moments of reluctance, actually does confess something:
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...Writing. I enjoyed... writing. Storytelling overall, really - but I was always the best at writing. To pen a word and have a thousand meanings attached, [[{{Foreshadowing}} to capture a fragment of the world to preserve for all time]]...\\
It was my calling. And I... I enjoyed it immensely.
* HonorBeforeReason: While searching for the Princess through [[spoiler:the vision of Revachol]], Harry takes a moment to stop and [[spoiler:fill out a missing persons form for her... or try to, anyway]].
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:It initially seems like Harry and the Spectre are going to be able to make it out of the cabin despite the Narrator's meddling, succeeding despite everything on check after check to keep going... [[DownerEnding until they don't]].]]
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler:The Pale, as her name suggests, has taken on a lot of the aspects of her namesake: she lacks a real identity of her own, instead being a [[PerpetuallyProtean constantly-shifting]] cloud of human shapes solely focused on pleasing Harry, and she's become somewhat unstuck in space and time -- Harry offers her his flask from outside the cabin, and she's somehow able to take it.]]
* HypocriticalHumor: [[spoiler:The Voice of the Cheated is immediately untrusting of the Echo, skeptical of her showing up at the same time they end up stuck in the basement -- something which, [[LampshadedTrope as Reaction Speed points out]], could easily be applied to ''him'' as well.]]
* {{Infodump}}: Encyclopedia gives one about various Elysian cultures' beliefs regarding ghosts when Harry meets the Spectre, but it's quickly {{subverted}} by Logic remarking that the Spectre, like most things they've seen so far, probably isn't going to align with any Elysian perspective on the universe.
* InsaneTrollLogic: A failed Suggestion check to convince the Narrator to let him out of the cabin results in the skill telling Harry to just ''[[ViolationOfCommonSense threaten to walk out]]''.
-->'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' - He's not actually holding you in this room physically [=--=] only the implication of an endless void imprisons you here. It's probably not even really there. Call His bluff.
* InsistentTerminology: {{Lampshaded}} InUniverse by the Overinsistent Vocabulary thought, gained from a Rhetoric passive check about the Narrator's use of this trope.
* IrrationalHatred: Half Light has nothing but seething bloodlust for the Princess from the moment it sees her, and most of its dialogue about her is ordering Harry to kill her. It's implied that this is due to Harry somehow subconsciously picking up on the Princess' nature as an EldritchAbomination.
* JumpScare: InUniverse, Reaction Speed gets quite the fright the first few times the Spectre pulls her NightmareFace.
* JustJokingJustification: In the first CHAPTER I, Harry tries to brush off him saying he's come to kill the Princess with this. ''Tries''.
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - The Princess shifts uncomfortably for a moment, clearly not believing you. Can you stop trying to reassure her and focus on the task at hand, ''please''?
* JustThinkOfThePotential: Rhetoric's argument for letting the Spectre hitch a ride out of the basement: if she really is the spectre of communism, that's 0.001% closer to building communism, and if not, she's still an actual, real-life ghost, something that would revolutionize science as they know it.
* KillerGameMaster: [[spoiler:When Harry and the Spectre start their climb out of the basement, the Narrator throws all caution to the wind and begins doing everything He can to stop them: causing Harry's leg to freeze in place midway up the staircase, making him feel too exhausted to open the door, and pulling a Wraith by elongating the hallway far enough that Harry wouldn't be able to make it in his current state.]]
* KnewItAllAlong: [[spoiler:Turns out Harry was never fooled by the Echo's transparent attempt to pretend she was one of his skills. He was just PlayingDumb to throw the Narrator off the scent.]]
* LampshadeHanging:
** When the Narrator chides Harry for "wasting time asking questions'', Rhetoric is left aghast:
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - Questions are not a waste of time. Questions are how you *operate*. You can't make a decision until you've asked all of your *questions*. That's how this works.
** After a failed Suggestion check sees Harry telling the Princess that he's here to kill her (''without'' having taken the Pristine Blade), the Voice of the Hero wonders why Harry had to pick the "least bad option" from a list of completely insane non sequiturs. Volition just comments that he'll get used to it.
** When the Narrator continues to insist that slaying the Princess will lead Harry to a "[[ExactWords happy ending]]" even after Harry has seen [[AndIMustScream what that ending entails]], Rhetoric and Drama proceed to ruthlessly mock His ManipulativeBastard act.
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Challenging: Success] ]] - 'Happy' ending [=--=] is He *really* hiding His true intentions in a bit of wordplay? [[ThisIsReality No one actually does that in real life.]]\\
'''[[blue:DRAMA]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - Only supervillains of the cartoon reels and cheap paperbacks do. Though you could pull it off if you wanted to [=--=] all it takes is the right delivery.
** After a failed roll from [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]], the Voice of the Cheated takes an absolutely ''brutal'' shot at ''Disco'''s check system:
-->'''VOICE OF THE CHEATED''' - And another thing - have you guys been '''''rolling dice'''''? Is that what's happening? We're being put in harrowing life-or-death situations and you ''fucks'' feel like ''leaving it up to a dice roll''? [[WhatTheHellHero What is]] ''[[WhatTheHellHero wrong]]'' [[WhatTheHellHero with you people?]]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Is that what that noise is? I didn't want to say anything about it, thought it might be rude to mention.\\
'''YOU''' - Wait, you're *rolling dice*? Is that what these checks are? I always thought it was some kind of abstraction of the concept of adversity or something [=--=] what the *fuck*?!
* LaymansTerms: [[spoiler:In the second Esprit De Corps vision of Precinct 41, Soona's explanation of the 2mm hole in the world and what might lie beyond it goes completely over Jean's head; another lieutenant, who seems to have followed better, clarifies that she's saying it might be possible for them to follow Harry through the hole and get him out.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** There are a number of nods to the ArtStyleClash between the two games: since ''Slay The Princess'' is DeliberatelyMonochrome save for the odd SplashOfColor, Perception routinely fails to identify the colors of things around Harry, and Inland Empire describes the Princess' blood as "the only color in the world"; Half Light also calls her large, cartoony eyes "unnatural". It starts to bleed into a variation on the MusicalWorldHypothesis when [[spoiler:the Spectre is unable to identify the things reflecting off the magnetic tape reels representing Harry's skills, until Inland Empire tells her it's ''color'' -- and even then, she struggles to identify any of the colors except for red]].
** In his first appearance, the Voice of the Cheated is left furious after witnessing a failed check, thinking the skills have been literally leaving their fates up to a roll of the dice the entire time. Volition insists it's more complicated than that, but the Cheated insists they find a way to stop having to deal with random chance whenever they want to do something important. This is, of course, reflective of the differences between choices in ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay The Princess'': the latter is a visual novel where making a choice is as simple as clicking an option and watching the consequences play out, while the former, being an RPG, has elements of randomness in the form of skill checks. [[spoiler:The thought Harry gets from this exchange, Flagrant Disregard For Reality, even suggests that Harry might be able to do as the Cheated says and [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules throw away the checks]].]]
* LemonyNarrator: The Narrator leans hard into this during THE SPECTRE, seldom missing an opportunity to call Harry and his actions "asinine" or "inane". To be fair to Him, Harry's actions in this chapter include thinking the Spectre is the avatar of communism and [[spoiler:spending five minutes zoning out to hold a "Mind Parliament"]], so it's a little more understandable.
* LifeOrLimbDecision: Aside from the Princess' own habit of trying to chew off her own arm, [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux offers a surprisingly easy check to let Harry do this when he finds himself chained in the basement -- though since she ''is'' the Princess, it shouldn't come as a surprise for that to have been her first option]].
* LovedINotHonorMore: [[spoiler:La Revacholière initially begs Harry not to go into the Construct, where she cannot follow him, but when he insists that he has to save its occupants, she relents, saying that's why she loves him, and tells him that she will be awaiting his return.]]
* {{Magibabble}}: After a failed Encyclopedia check to remember anything Harry might know about ghosts, the skill yields to Inland Empire, who rattles off a long string of this that boils down to "You should help her with her UnfinishedBusiness." Logic calls it a bunch of nonsense, but Inland Empire has been on the money about [[{{Foreshadowing}} far more momentous stuff]] before, [[spoiler:and the ritual it has Harry do to make the Spectre's body more corporeal ''does'' actually seem to work...]]
* MercyKill: In the lead-up to THE SPECTRE, the Voice of the Hero ends up being the one to kill Harry, since the Narrator refuses to narrate for them and Harry doesn't have it in him to do the deed himself.
* MoneyDumb: It's mostly because he doesn't really know what money ''is'', but after seeing Harry's memory of his favorite kebab stand, the Voice of the Opportunist wonders about selling the Spectre's tiara for enough money to get "a couple".
* MoodWhiplash:
** When Harry becomes too exhausted from the Spectre's possession to open the door out of the cabin, he decides to rest for a moment, and takes the opportunity to show the Spectre and the Voices some of his memories of Elysium. It's quite a sweet moment (and one that [[spoiler:offers another vision of Precinct 41 courtesy of Esprit De Corps]]) that even the Narrator joins in on... [[spoiler:but an observant reader might notice the check to get off the floor [[KillerGameMaster getting harder and harder]]...]]
** [[spoiler:The tense, dramatic flashback to Harry entering the Swallow and coming to the Construct is capped off by [[{{Luvvie}} Drama]] congratulating the other skills on the "reproduction" like a director at the close of a play.]]
* MoralityChain: It does nothing to stop him from slaying the Princess, but at the start of the second run, most of Harry's skill checks that relate to doing so have the same modifier: "[[red:-3]] Kim wouldn't approve".
* MundaneObjectAmazement: The Voice of the Hero is entranced by the way water flows around an upside-down cup in Harry's memory of a sunny afternoon spent washing dishes. Inland Empire, of course, joins in.
-->'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - What makes it ''flow'' like that? It's kind of mesmerizing.\\
'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' - No one knows. It is one of the great mysteries of our time.
* MyGodYouAreSerious: The Spectre has this reaction when she realizes that, yes, the guy who just slew her for money and a vague notion of "saving the world" is trying to wheedle his way into a reward for saving her from the basement where ''he killed her''. She settles on ''very'' sarcastically offering Harry her tiara (though it dissolves into nothing and reappears back on her head the second it leaves her hand).
-->[[rtl:[[pink:?Will this cover it, my esteemed murderous associate]]]]
* MythologyGag: ''Plenty'', to both games:
** The fic opens with, once again, a comatose Harry being berated by the inhabitants of his Paleo-Mammalian Cortex. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} in that he's not comatose; he's just deep in the "textured nothingness" of the Long Quiet.]]
** Endurance and Physical Instrument would like to remind you that Harry used to be a gym teacher.
** Inland Empire and Perception describe [[spoiler:the Long Quiet]] in the same way as the omniscient narration does in ''Slay The Princess'':
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Legendary: Failure] ]] - You are alone in a place that is empty.\\
'''[[gold:PERCEPTION (HEARING)]]''' [[gray:[Impossible: Failure] ]] - It is quiet here.
** When the Voice of the Hero describes the Princess' voice as hypnotizing, Volition initially worries that it's dealing with another "compromised" voice in Harry's head. Its only response when [[ThinksLikeARomanceNovel the Voice of the Smitten]] shows up is a long-suffering "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck Oh god, there's two of them now.]]" [[spoiler:And once they meet [[SickeninglySweethearts the Damsel]] and [[ShapeshiftingSeducer the Pale]], the Skills actually ''do'' become compromised, including Volition once the Pale takes on the form of [[LostLenore Dora]].]]
** After asking her about her name and getting a NonAnswer, Harry tries to come up with a name for the Princess. [[HistoryRepeats One failed Conceptualization check later]]:
-->'''[[blue:CONCEPTUALIZATION]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Failure] ]] - Guinevere Rözovy Baudelaire.\\
'''YOU''' - Man, we gotta have a talk about this.
** The Voice of the Hero, meanwhile, says that she looks more like a "Nichole", in reference to her voice actress, Nichole Goodnight, while one dialogue option lets Harry float "Shifty" as a name, a popular FanNickname for the Shifting Mound.
** Electrochemistry at one point tells Harry that despite her weird, spacey demeanor, the Damsel isn't high on anything, calling back to the infamous cocaine addictions of Revacholian royalty you can hear about from René and the statue of Filippe III.
** When the newly-freed Damsel asks Harry what he wants to do, his first response is, of course, to sing karaoke with her.
** Once the Narrator returns from [[INeedAFreakingDrink getting a drink]] to see [[spoiler:the Damsel dead by her own hand]], He sarcastically apologizes for being gone, something Rhetoric quickly calls out. The Voice of the Hero adds that "Even I could've told you that, and I'm terrible at spotting liars"; in canon, he made a similar remark in the face of [[BadLiar the Razor]]'s attempts to convince them she didn't want to stab them.
** Similarly, when Savoir Faire claims that Harry's memory troubles are just part of "the look", Suggestion comments to a confused Voice of the Hero that it's a different thing from [[TheUnsmile the Expression]]; the Hero was equally confused by the Long Quiet flirting with the Razor by giving her "'''''The Look'''''", which was itself a reference to the Expression.
** [[spoiler:The Pale's touch is described as burning Harry's flesh, and her kiss as feeling like drowning; both are references to the Burned Grey and the Drowned Grey, Princesses who you could get from the death of the Damsel or her analogue, the Prisoner.]] Later, Inland Empire mentions a scent of "[[spoiler:deepwater brine]]" as a sign of the Spectre's presence, another reference to [[spoiler:the Drowned Grey]].
** The ✤250,000 "voucher" the Narrator gives Harry is very obviously just "THE EVIDENCE" from the original game repurposed for the situation. After Harry signs it, Savoir Faire has Interfacing put the net worth counter from the Ultraliberal Vision Quest back up.
** During one of his attempts at buttering Harry up, the Voice of the Opportunist calls him "Harrister", a nickname only ever used once in the game by the Ancient Reptilian Brain. [[spoiler:Who deploys it once again after Harry dies trying to escape the cabin.]]
** Before heading to the cabin to meet the Spectre, Volition offers Harry a check to "get your shit together"; one of the bonuses is listed as "Ghost of the Volumetric Shit Compressor".
** While marching down into the Spectre's basement, Half Light tells Harry to "Be ready to claw out her heart if you have to." In the lead-up to the Wraith, the Spectre [[AndShowItToYou does just that]] to the Long Quiet, and even here she half-threatens to do it to Harry a few times. Inland Empire also notes that [[{{Magibabble}} spectres are much easier to deal with than wraiths]], which is ''definitely'' true here. [[spoiler:The climax of the chapter is a WholePlotReference to that other chapter's, with the Narrator elongating the hallway beyond the protagonist's ability to escape and the ghostly Princess piloting his body to freedom, narrating her own actions the whole time to stave off His influence -- except here, it's a joint effort of HeroicWillpower between Harry and the Spectre.]]
** After asking her about her name and getting a NonAnswer, Harry tries to come up with a name for the Spectre. [[SubvertedTrope One successful Conceptualization check later]], the skill says that her name should be vast and oceanic -- "feather-light, free, and everlasting". Beyond being a reference to the Shifting Mound's nature, it's also a reference to the lyrics of "Want To Be Free" by Music/SeaPower, who [[JukeboxMusical contributed to]] ''[[JukeboxMusical Disco Elysium]]''[[JukeboxMusical 's soundtrack]], with a trip-hop remix of "Want To Be Free" -- "Burn, Baby, Burn" -- appearing in the game's climax.
** Conceptualization calls the sensation of the Spectre's possession "ice in the veins" -- a line from "Reflections" by R.S. Thomas, the poem that opens both the game and the fic, which Harry can quote to Tommy Le Homme.
** While trying to wrangle the Spectre possessing Harry into something comprehensible, Interfacing mentions attempting to sync sines with her, much like you had to do with Noid to get him to help you contact Coalition Warship Archer in the Moralist Vision Quest.
** When Harry asks the Spectre why she keeps calling him "killer", she reminds him that he didn't exactly stop to introduce himself before stabbing her in the heart. The following dialogue tree references just about every name or title Harry can pick up over the course of the game: [[IAmTheNoun the Law]], [[FullNameBasis lieutenant double-yefreitor Harrier Du Bois]], [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau]], [[TheAlcoholic Tequila Sunset]], and "[[FirstNameBasis Harry. It's Harry.]] [[LampshadedTrope Why the hell were there so many other options here?]]" The Spectre, for her part, decides to just stick with "killer".
** The Pristine Blade is once again tossed somewhere, though down the stairs instead of out the window, [[spoiler:and then again at the mirror in the church]].
** When the Spectre asks what the world is like, one of the dialogue options has Harry saying "It's basically just a bunch of apes duking it out on a ball."
** [[spoiler:The Flagrant Disregard For Reality thought, devoted to letting Harry dispense with the skill checks and just do things, mentions a couple IntentionallyUnwinnable checks in the original game -- opening the bunker on the coast, dodging Korty's LastBreathBullet -- and outright calls them "[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bullshit]]".]]
** [[spoiler:When Inland Empire prompts Harry to turn back in the flashback, the following dialogue tree is similar to certain ones in the Tower route: a series of greyed-out options forming a brief monologue on the futility of trying to resist, and a final option to fulfill the inevitable.]]
** Shivers briefly refers to the nascent Shifting Mound the same way she does: "solitary lights in an empty city."
** [[spoiler:Some of the potential names for the case Harry doesn't pick are references: THE HERO AND THE PRINCESS, DICK MULLEN AND THE FRACTURED GLASS, APOCALYPSE COP'S REDEMPTION...]]
** [[spoiler:Something the Shifting Mound says to Harry is the direct inverse of a line she can say to the Long Quiet: "You are more like a person than you are like me."]]
* NonAnswer: The Narrator refuses to tell Harry anything he doesn't already know when asked who He is, just repeating His spiel about being Harry's "guide" and keeping him on task to slay the Princess.
-->'''[[gold:COMPOSURE]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - He's nervous about this subject. Either He thinks you won't like the answer or He doesn't want to dwell on it much longer.
* NonIndicativeName: {{Discussed}} by Dual-Booted Ghost In The Machine, the thought Harry gets from letting the Spectre possess him: it mentions that he was originally going to call it "Ghost Cop", but he's not a ghost and the Spectre's not a cop.
* OCStandIn: [[spoiler:Some of the RCM personnel shown in the Esprit De Corps segments -- Berdyayeva, McCoy, Apricot Pidieu -- are canon characters only briefly mentioned in passing.]]
* OffTheRails: Each CHAPTER III Princess is an OriginalGeneration unique to the fic:
** For the Damsel, [[spoiler:Harry tells her that he doesn't truly love her, causing her to commit suicide out of despair, at which point the Voice of the Smitten does the same. The path in the woods becomes choked with the Pale, the cabin is transformed into a replica of Harry's old place on Voyager Road, and the Princess has become a HumanoidAbomination composed of pure Pale, who is essentially the logical extreme of the Damsel's nature as a FlatCharacter: a PerpetuallyProtean entity with no will of her own, just the desire to be someone who makes Harry happy... and unfortunately, one of those someones is Dora, and Volition is still powerless to resist her.]]
** For the Spectre, [[spoiler:Harry lets her possess him, forcing the Narrator to get them both killed by warping the dimensions of the cabin and causing Harry to succumb to exhaustion. Harry wakes up in the basement of the cabin, a chain around his wrist and a 25th voice in his head -- Flux Et Reflux, or the Echo. When Harry leaves, the world outside the cabin has transformed into a faded memory of Revachol, eventually leading to the old swingset by Harry's crashed motor carriage, where Harry and the Echo briefly sit together before the Shifting Mound takes her away.]]
** Even besides all that, some of the chapters result in Harry gaining ''two'' new voices when they would usually only give one; for example, his actions in the lead-up to THE SPECTRE (namely, [[spoiler:killing the Princess for a promise of payment and then killing himself to escape the cabin]]) yield the Voices of the Opportunist and the Cold.
* OhCrap:
** Volition has one in the prologue when it initially seems like Harry's amnesia has relapsed, so to speak.
** Rhetoric has one that's played for some pretty BlackComedy:
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' - You don't *know* that she's going to stab you [=--=]\\
[[rtl:[[pink:.I'm sorry... I'll try to be quick]]]]\\
'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - [=--=] [[InstantlyProvenWrong No, yeah, she's definitely gonna stab you.]]
** Multiple of Harry's skills have one when the Narrator says that his death meant "an entire world has been damned to oblivion", initially thinking He means Elysium before Esprit De Corps reassures them.
** The Voice of the Hero has an outright ''panic attack'' once [[spoiler:the Skills fill him and the other Voices in on the nature of the Pale -- and the fact that they're ''in'' it]]. Shortly after, Endurance has one itself when [[spoiler:the Skills realize that, due to Pale exposure, Harry hasn't been breathing for almost ''two minutes'']].
** ''Everyone'' taking up space in Harry's head panics when [[spoiler:it becomes clear that the Narrator isn't going to let them leave the cabin alive with the Spectre in tow]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** The Voice of the Opportunist starts getting uncharacteristically worried when it seems that Harry is going to let the Spectre possess him, fearful of losing the advantage of being invisible and inaudible to her.
** After the showing of Harry's memories, the Narrator immediately starts in with the snippy PassiveAggressiveKombat, but quickly drops it for something far more genuine:
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - Are you quite done now? Finally sorted through all the memories of a world you apparently don't care about saving?\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Why do you keep going ''on'' about this? What about our actions so far would have you think we'd even ''consider'' killing her now?\\
'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...[[SincerityMode Didn't you see]] [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome how beautiful the world is]]? The people, the places - freeing her would destroy '''all''' of them, all of it. It would be the end of everything you know and love. Does ''that'' sound worth it to you? ''Hm''?
** The Narrator's demeanor cracks again at Harry's final question in THE ECHO:
-->'''YOU''' - ...Do you know how I could get home? You didn't let me leave, before, even when I did what you asked.\\
'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...[[ChangeTheUncomfortableSubject Ask something else]].\\
'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - But-\\
'''THE NARRATOR''' - Just - ask ''something else''.\\
'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Legendary: Success] ]] - He doesn't know. More than that [=--=] He doesn't understand.
* OutsideContextProblem: Harry, with his "unconventional" attitude and borderline-supranatural detective skills, sends the events of ''Slay The Princess'' completely OffTheRails.
* PaintingTheMedium: The whole fic is formatted using CSS to appear straight out of ''Disco Elysium'' itself, complete with skill checks, both passive and active, and gaining thoughts over the course of the story. For a few more specific examples:
** The Voice of the Hero is initially aligned to the center with his name in standard capitalization, as in ''Slay The Princess'', whereas all the other voices (including, curiously, the Narrator) are aligned to the left and have their names in all caps, as in ''Disco''. It's initially described as a PokeInTheThirdEye for Harry, but Interfacing is able to somehow wrangle the Hero into a "more comfortable shape", and after that, he and all the other voices are formatted ''Disco''-style. In addition, even after that, the Narrator and the Voices have their text emphasized with ''italics'' or '''bold text''' (or '''''both''''') - and break up their lines with hyphens, whereas the Skills are emphasized with *asterisks* [=--=] and break up their lines with em dashes.
** The Princess' text is aligned to the right, lacks a name, and is colored in [[pink:pink]] (or [[red:red]] when she gets angry), all of which hearkens back to her own case of this in her home game. Harry tries to make her words more comfortable like with the Hero, but the check is Impossible, and fails. When the Spectre possesses Harry, he's initially completely unable to hear her, but Interfacing wrangles her successfully this time, aligning her to the left (though still colored and nameless); [[spoiler:when she's [[SymbioticPossession possessing Harry's skills]], their text turns pink as well, and any skill checks she makes are dyed pink and have the result text giving "HER" instead of "YOU" as the speaker.]]
** [[spoiler:The narration in the prologue -- implied to be coming from [[MissingProtagonist the Long Quiet himself]] -- is nameless, italicized, and center-aligned.]]
** In the first CHAPTER I, the Narrator essentially starts bickering with Harry's task list, hastily appending a task to "Slay the Princess" after Rhetoric comes up with one to "Question the Princess". Later, Harry jogging to the cabin at Coach Physical Instrument's insistence completes a secret task: "Get your morning jog in".
** A very interesting case of this arises from a mechanical difference between ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay the Princess''. In ''Disco Elysium'', a CRPG, interacting with objects lets you essentially "talk" to them as unique entities (for example, even before the Inland Empire check, investigating the Hanged Man's corpse has "'''THE HANGED MAN'''" listed as the speaker for the descriptions of the body); however, in ''Slay the Princess'', a visual novel, any descriptions come exclusively courtesy of the Narrator and the Voices. Hence, in this fic, the Skills are a lot more active than usual in order to fill in the gaps in the Narrator's... narration. [[spoiler:Harry even gets a thought during THE DAMSEL, Personal Airspace Violation, that directly comments on this, and it returns in THE ECHO once the Narrator leaves Harry alone on the image of the beach at Martinaise.]]
** [[spoiler:As the Pale starts to degrade Harry's mind more and more, the difficulties for his passive skill checks start to become higher and higher, and dialogue choices start to be replaced by just ellipses, symbolizing how much harder it's becoming to think.]]
** The Voices' influence on Harry is shown by the modifiers they give to various checks: for example, the check to stop the Voice of the Smitten from pulling a ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' has a -5 modifier from the Smitten himself, and the Voice of the Cold, with his LackOfEmpathy, tends to give a flat 0 modifier to demonstrate how detached he is -- making it all the more telling when he starts giving bonuses to Harry recalling memories for them.
** [[spoiler:During Mind Parliament, Interfacing rejiggers the UI so it shows the Voices in proper alphabetical order (as in "'''HERO, VOICE OF THE'''") to make the voting easier and more fair.]]
** While possessing Harry, the Spectre [[spoiler:comments directly on aspects of the game's UI, like reacting in surprise when a bunch of "Task updated" notifications pop up, or mentioning seeing the Thought Cabinet and task lists]].
** [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux retains the pink text from her earlier selves, and though this site can't show it, the red used to highlight her name is a different shade than that used for Physique skills. She also gives massive penalties to checks involving Harry trying to figure out where she came from. Once Harry projects her out of his head, her lines go back to being right-aligned, though they keep the name. The skill profile given at the end of her chapter has additions from her in pink; it also shows her to be Harry's new Signature Skill, reflected in her physical appearance by the crown used to designate such in the game.]]
* PetTheDog:
** The first time he meets the Princess and asks about what she's been eating, Esprit De Corps prompts Harry to offer her a flask of strawberry punch he's been carrying around to help wean himself off alcohol.
** Pretty much everything Harry does for the Spectre is to [[TheAtoner make up]] for slaying her in a fit of Ultraliberalism: [[spoiler:using a cross charm to make her more solid, performing [[DueToTheDead the Stations of the Breath]] for her corpse]], and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick offering to kill himself]].
** [[spoiler:When Harry and the Echo are sitting on the vision of the swingset at the Martinaise beach, two checks come up -- [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve an Easy Conceptualization check to "remember the sunrise", and a Formidable Inland Empire check to "imagine a sunrise"]]. Harry chooses the latter, and the check succeeds, meaning that the Echo and the Voices get to bear witness to Harry's best rendition of ''the Sevenfold Sun Miracle''.]]
* ThePowerOfApathy: After making the decision to question the Narrator, Harry twists His arm by threatening to just plonk his ass down and let the Princess escape. The Narrator tries to remind him that if the Princess escapes, she will (supposedly) end the world, which (supposedly) includes Harry, but neither Harry nor the skills are taking that anymore.
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...You really are that suicidal, aren't you?\\
'''[[purple:VOLITION]]''' - [[MentalHealthRecoveryArc There are good and bad days.]] [[ManipulativeBastard *You*]] definitely haven't helped make this [[TraumaCongaLine a good day]], you know that?
* ThePowerOfHate: Stated by Empathy to be what lets [[spoiler:the Spectre pull Harry to his feet when the Narrator's trying to [[MythologyGag describe them into submission]]: her sheer UnstoppableRage at his manipulation and cruelty letting her essentially shout him down and keep them moving]].
* ThePowerOfTrust: [[spoiler:Kim is initially baffled at Harry's insistence that he has to enter the Swallow... but at the end of the day, he still truly trusts his partner.]]
* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler:With Harry dying of exhaustion on the floor and the cabin's dimensions stretched out by the Narrator's bullshit, Half Light finally relents and allows the Spectre to possess it]], resulting in the normally cool, collected Princess ''roaring'' at Harry to--
-->'''[[red:HER]]''' [[red:- Get the]] ''[[red:FUCK]]'' [[red:up!]]
* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
** When the Skills are fighting to keep the Narrator from using Harry's body to slay the Princess, Physical Instrument declares that "This flesh is *OURS*, not *YOURS* [=--=] GIVE. IT. BACK."
* PurpleProse: Harry leans ''hard'' into this during THE DAMSEL, at Drama's insistence. It's PlayedForLaughs both for the nature of the lines themselves and for how sharply they contrast with the Damsel's [[FlatCharacter vacant cheeriness]].
* RapidFireNo: A variant in response to the Voice of the Hero wondering if they really did want the proto-Damsel to kill them:
-->'''[[purple:VOLITION]]''' [[gray:[Trivial: Success] ]] - No.\\
'''[[red:ENDURANCE]]''' [[gray:[Trivial: Success] ]] - Nope.\\
'''[[blue:LOGIC]]''' [[gray:[Trivial: Success] ]] - No.\\
'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - Maybe? No, probably not. She sure seems to think you wanted that, though.\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Fuck no, you should kill her instead.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** After the Personal Airspace Violation thought finishes and Volition gets a bonus to balance out the penalty from Overinsistent Vocabulary, it shuts down Savoir Faire -- whose Ultraliberalism got Harry into the mess that leads to THE SPECTRE -- with one of these:
-->'''[[gold:SAVOIR FAIRE]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Failure] ]] - Money's always a great motivator, but He's obviously pulled a fast one on you [=--=] if you would've known this would be the outcome, you'd never have committed to this [=--=]\\
'''[[purple:VOLITION]]''' [[gray:[Challenging: Success] ]] - Shut *up*, you greasy slimeball asshole! You've already screwed up enough [=--=] now it's up to the rest of us non-insane ones to put the pieces back together. Stick to keeping us from falling on our ass and stop trying to break into venture capitalism, for god's sake.
** The Ancient Reptilian Brain and Limbic System still love giving these out. [[spoiler:On their second appearance, though, they've found a new audience: the Spectre.]]
* TheReveal:
** In THE DAMSEL, a FlashSideways from Esprit De Corps shows how Harry ended up where he is now: [[spoiler:he somehow managed to ''enter'' the 2mm hole in the world inside the anodic dance club]].
** More details about what's happened since Harry's been gone are revealed in THE SPECTRE: [[spoiler:In the month ([[YearOutsideHourInside yes, month]]) since he disappeared, the Moralintern have torn down the church and began putting up some kind of facility around the Swallow; on the RCM's side, Soona has surmised that Harry might have survived his trip, and Precinct 41, on the orders of [[TheConspiracy Captain Ptolemy Pryce]], are planning to find a way inside the Coalition building and, if possible, [[RescueArc mount a rescue mission for the lieutenant double-yefreitor]].]]
** And THE ECHO reveals the full story:
*** [[spoiler:After a call from Soona inviting them to an experiment dedicated to finding out what lay on the other side of the Swallow, Harry and Kim arrived to find Tiago sitting, horrorstruck, on the steps of the church. All they could get from him was that his Mother of Silence had apparently started to "sing"...]]
*** [[spoiler:According to the anodic dance crew, things inside the church had felt strange all day; Noid talks about the sines of the place going "rancid", like something fundamental in the space had been torn apart, and Acele's contact mic ''melted from the inside out'' when she tried to record some new samples from the anomaly...]]
*** [[spoiler:The experiment began, and immediately things started to go wrong, with whatever sound was coming from the Swallow shaking the church apart even worse than before and causing a ''storm'' to begin brewing over the area...]]
*** [[spoiler:At the insistence of Inland Empire, Harry turned back, and heard the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet singing to themselves from oblivion, split apart and unable to come back together...]]
*** [[spoiler:...And after getting La Revacholière's blessing and convincing Kim to let him go before shoving him to safety, Harry sent himself through the Swallow and entered the Construct, hoping to reunite its occupants and, in so doing, save everything.]]
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Upon seeing Harry's memory of the Insulindian Phasmid, the Voice of the Hero wonders why it has so many eyes. The Voice of the Opportunist comments that the "best way to make decisions is to see everything you're working with, know all the angles" in a clear bit of PsychologicalProjection, but Visual Calculus says that he's actually fairly close to right; the Phasmid, being a herbivore, needs a wider field of vision to keep watch for predators.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Harry has this between runs, to an extent; his progress on tasks and thoughts persists, the Voices are still calibrated to fit into his mind, and some of the details remain (for example, Reaction Speed finishes the Narrator's monologue for Him on the start of the second run). Inland Empire, for its part, ''definitely'' has this, as shown by its response to the Voice of the Hero at the start of the second run:
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Challenging: Success] ]] - This one hasn't seized your flesh or manipulated your conscious thoughtfields in this or any adjacent reality. You can still trust him.
* RunningGag:
** Poor, poor Hand/Eye Coordination keeps failing checks to remind Harry that [[spoiler:he has his gun on him]].
** Several chapters have the "Everything goes dark, and you die." line delivered by someone different: in [[spoiler:INTERMISSION I]] it's Perception and Endurance, in [[spoiler:THE SPECTRE it's the Ancient Reptilian Brain and Limbic System]], and in [[spoiler:INTERMISSION II]] it's Visual Calculus and Half Light.
** [[OpenSaysMe Doorkickers Anonymous]]. With members ranging from Physical Instrument, to Inland Empire, to [[spoiler:the Princess herself]].
* SarcasmFailure: Suggestion finally meets its match when the Voice of the Opportunist weighs in on the existence of the mirror.
-->'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - I don't know, He seems pretty sure of himself - that has to count for something, right?\\
'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - No, it doesn't have to. Conviction doesn't automatically mean someone is correct.\\
'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - [[OpinionFlipFlop Solid point, solid point - that's why we keep you around.]]\\
'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' - [[FlatWhat What?]]
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** PlayedForLaughs in the first CHAPTER I: After Harry rejects Conceptualization's fancy name for the Princess, it throws a bit of a tantrum and declares that it's leaving. Of course, since it's a part of Harry's brain, it's right back a few lines later [[HypocriticalHumor to critique the Voice of the Hero's choice of name]].
** The Voice of the Opportunist and [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]] suggest that maybe doing this is what will actually let them escape rather than slaying or saving the Princess
-->'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Hey, you said you were packing up and leaving. You don't get to criticize my name choice after calling it quits.
* SharingABody: [[spoiler:The Spectre's ability to possess the skills includes using Savoir Faire to pilot Harry's legs up the stairs, or Perception to taste the hot chocolate he offers her.]]
* ShoutOut:
** The kebabs from Harry's favorite food cart, an unnamed vendor in Jamrock, are referred to as "[[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment the Nameless Ones]]".
** [[spoiler:During the second encounter with them, the Limbic System taunts Harry that he's met his end -- "but [[VideoGame/TheStanleyParable the end is never the end]], is it?"]]
* ShutUpHannibal: [[spoiler:The Narrator tries to describe Harry being overwhelmed by exhaustion and collapsing on the floor to die. To say the Spectre isn't having it would be an understatement.]]
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - You can't feel anything at all, actually - [[spoiler:you don't even manage to take one step before -]]\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] [[red:[[spoiler:- WHEN WE'RE OUT, I'M COMING FOR ''YOU'' NEXT.]]]]
* SolarAndLunar: The Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet are given this dichotomy, with Inland Empire dubbing the Princess the "Priestess of the Sun", and the Voices "Emissaries of the Moon"; in addition, the floor of the Damsel's cabin is described as warm, as if it had been in the sun for a while.
* StepfordSnarker: When Harry comes out of his reverie [[spoiler:after holding "the first inaugural session of Mind Parliament"]], the Spectre is panicking, worried that she's "broken" her only ticket out of the cabin. When she realizes he's back, she slips into something resembling her typical DeadpanSnarker attitude, but both the Narrator and Composure note that it's a front.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: At the start of the second run, one of Harry's unchosen dialogue options in response to the Princess asking if he's here to kill her is an example of this that would do the Razor proud:
-->3. [[cinnamon:- "What? No way! I'm not here to kill you [=--=] why would you even say something like that? Do I look like the kind of guy who would kill a princess chained up in a basement for a fat wad of cash [=--=] you know, hypothetically?"]]
* SwappedRoles: [[spoiler:At the beginning of THE ECHO, ''Harry'' is the one chained up in the basement of the cabin, with the Princess nowhere to be seen.]]
* SymbioticPossession: The Spectre takes this even further than in canon, [[spoiler:being somehow able to possess Harry's ''skills''. Unlike the primary possession, this does give her control, but in an inversion of HeroicHost, it also lets her use their abilities -- for example, possessing Conceptualization lets her understand the image she sees of Harry's soul as a tape computer.]]
* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality: Drama {{invoke|d}}s this a time or two, saying [[spoiler:in Mind Parliament]] that a misguided hero seeing the error of his ways (saving the Spectre) would be more likely to meet a favorable end than a villain returning to finish the job he started (slaying her), and later that it makes dramatic sense that [[spoiler:solving the problem he came to the Construct to solve -- the current states of the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound -- would open up a way back home for him]].
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: {{Inverted}} -- [[spoiler:knowing that Kim's ordered, hyperrational mind wouldn't be able to cope with the chaos of the Construct, Harry shoves Kim away before he can follow him through the hole in the world.]]
* TitleDrop: [[spoiler:When Harry finally names the case, three of the options are DISCO ELYSIUM, SLAY THE PRINCESS, and the one he ultimately chooses, THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR.]]
* UncannyValley: The Skills, Half Light especially, find the base form of the Princess ''deeply'' off-putting, with Half Light utterly losing it and raving that Harry *needs* to KILL HER *NOW* as soon as he gets close to her. It's implied to be just as much {{Foreshadowing}} to her true nature as it is a case of LeaningOnTheFourthWall (see above).
* WaitWhat: Reaction Speed's... well, reaction to the Princess nonchalantly suggesting Harry [[LifeOrLimbDecision saw off her arm to get her out of her chains]].
* WhamEpisode:
** THE DAMSEL. [[spoiler:The origin of Harry's arrival to the Construct is revealed, [[AGlitchInTheMatrix glitches]] start to appear in the events of the chapter that raise even more questions about how it all fits together, and the transition to CHAPTER III comes courtesy of the Damsel ''[[DrivenToSuicide killing herself]]'', showing that [[OffTheRails very little is going to go as expected here]].]]
** INTERMISSION - THE MOTHER OF SILENCE. Hoo boy.
*** [[spoiler:Harry finally remembers exactly how he came to be in the Construct, and why -- to save the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet, and hopefully all existence, from the Narrator's plan...]]
*** [[spoiler:The Shifting Mound is finally, if briefly, able to communicate directly to Harry...]]
*** [[spoiler:And the case finally gets a proper name: [[TitleDrop THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR]].]]
-->[[green:ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: The real 'THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR' starts here]]
* WhamLine:
** When the Voice of the Hero first speaks to Harry, a successful Shivers check reveals that someone new is broadcasting to Harry's sixth sense:
-->'''[[red:SHIVERS]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - ''You can trust him.''
** In THE DAMSEL, when Harry goes to check the mirror, it initially seems that things will play out just as in canon... and then:
-->'''[[gold:PERCEPTION (SIGHT)]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - Also, all three of them are wrong [=--=] [[spoiler:[[AGlitchInTheMatrix the mirror is still here]]]].
** For those who know the lore of ''Disco Elysium'', the very ''title'' of CHAPTER III will be enough to set off ''[[OhCrap massive]]'' [[OhCrap alarm bells]]:
-->CHAPTER III: [[spoiler:THE PALE]]
** In the same chapter, the Narrator's reaction to [[spoiler:the Pale itself leaking into the Long Quiet]] ("No, it wasn't supposed to ''be'' like this!") raises a ''lot'' of questions about His place in both universes.
** The Spectre's reaction to a passive Shivers check while she's possessing Harry reveals something very interesting that links to the first example here: [[spoiler:she can't hear the Long Quiet speaking through Shivers]].
** After freeing himself from his bindings in THE ECHO, Harry makes his way up the stairs, and opens the basement door...
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - You are standing in... [[spoiler:[[WhereItAllBegan a church]].]]
** [[spoiler:La Revacholière's send-off to Harry ends in a line that has ''massive'' implications for how the end of the story might play out:]]
-->'''[[red:SHIVERS]]''' - [[spoiler:TELL THEM THEY ARE WELCOME TO MY SHORES.]]
** "Five yet remain." [[spoiler:This line from Inland Empire comes ''after'' Harry's already brought the Pale and the Echo to the Shifting Mound, further showing just how OffTheRails everything has gone.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: InUniverse, Harry's {{Dialogue Tree}}s still show a number of different choices other than the ones Harry ends up picking.
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: [[spoiler:After Harry falls and shatters his kneecap, sealing his and the Spectre's fates, the Narrator berates him for not just following the script, slaying the Princess, and living forever in mindless bliss, even calling the slow, painful way He sent them to their deaths "[[IDidWhatIHadToDo what has to be done]]".]]
* YearOutsideHourInside: [[spoiler:The Esprit De Corps segment in THE SPECTRE reveals that in the short time Harry's been in the Long Quiet, ''33 days'' have passed in Elysium.]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux gives one to Harry when he starts fretting over all the harm he caused to people before he lost his memory, reminding him that he can change and has changed from the man he was, and encouraging him to keep going. It's very clearly filtered through the Echo's remorse for how she treated Harry as the Spectre.]]
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: [[spoiler:Harry, not being a god, is unable to understand the Shifting Mound when she speaks to him. This also applies to the Spectre while she's possessing him, but Interfacing is able to fix that one.]]
* YouExclamation: Half Light gives one of these when it realizes that [[spoiler:[[IrrationalHatred the Spectre]] is currently riding side-saddle in Harry's psyche]].
* YouMonster: The only response the Voice of the Hero can give to [[spoiler:the Narrator taking away the hopes of both Harry and the Spectre to escape the cabin in the cruelest way possible]].
----
[[quoteright:581:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_fury_of_a_shattered_mirror.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:581:''Un jour je serai de retour près de toi.''\\
[-[[https://twitter.com/MoidDoesArt/status/1749874255691465192 Fanart]] by [[https://twitter.com/MoidDoesArt moid does art]] on Twitter. Commisioned by [[https://twitter.com/ICastTrish ICastTrish]].-]]]
->'''ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN''' - You done with your little pow-wow session, brother-man? Ready to wake up and smell the shit-smeared roses?\\
Because you won't like what you see out there. It's not the same track you're used to, stuck on loop.\\
'''LIMBIC SYSTEM''' - It's *worse*.
''The Fury Of A Shattered Mirror'' (stylized as ''THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR'') is a FusionFic between ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' and ''VisualNovel/SlayThePrincess'', written by [=ASpooky=] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn.
The basic plot comes from ''Slay The Princess'', and is much the same as in canon (path in the woods, cabin, princess, you have to slay her or the world will end), except this time, "[[TheHero you]]" are Harrier Du Bois, lieutenant double-yefreitor of the Revachol Citizen's Militia, recovering alcoholic and amnesiac, and the proud owner twenty-four voices vying for attention in your head -- and that's not even counting the new additions.
As of January 28th, 2024, it has the unique honor of being the most popular fanfic for ''Slay The Princess'' on [=AO3=], leading the pack in terms of word count, hits, kudos, comments, ''and'' bookmarks.
----
!!''THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR'' contains examples of the following tropes:
* AccidentalPun: Interfacing describes [[spoiler:Soona's final readouts of the Swallow]] as "annotated heavily in the scrawl of a woman possessed". The Spectre, currently observing the vision, can only go "[[pink:Heh.]]"
* AlienGeometries: The cabin becomes this in the later chapters, of course, but Harry, who studied architecture as part of his training, can't help but notice something off about it even from the first visits:
-->'''[[blue:VISUAL CALCULUS]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - The floorplan of this cabin doesn't make sense. With the only interior space you've seen being the room you just left, this staircase, and a basement on a lower level, the interior dimensions don't match the exterior ones [=--=] and you definitely saw more than one window on the near wall as you approached the cabin earlier.
* AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness: Not exactly an election, but [[spoiler:the first inaugural session of "Mind Parliament", which Harry holds to decide if he should slay or save the Spectre, is taken very seriously by all involved, [[NotSoAboveItAll even the Narrator]]]].
* AllPartOfTheShow: Drama convinces Harry to think of his meeting with the Damsel as this, resulting in him acting out the role of "[[PurpleProse overblown]] KnightInShiningArmor" the whole time. [[spoiler:Once he drops the act and confesses that he doesn't really love her, the Damsel, thinking she's failed to make Harry happy, is DrivenToSuicide.]]
* AmbiguousSituation:
** How exactly the Voices are connected to Harry is unclear; they seem to think of themselves as part of him, but occasionally refer to [[spoiler:"feathers"]], and have no memory of Elysium. It's implied they were [[spoiler:attracted by the traces of the Long Quiet inside Harry]], but nothing has yet been confirmed.
** The Narrator's connection to the world of Elysium is also a mystery: He doesn't know what reál or [[spoiler:Dolores Dei]] are, but seems to at least recognize the concept of [[spoiler:the Pale]], if His horrified reaction is anything to go by.
* AngerBornOfWorry: [[spoiler:In the FlashSideways scenes to Revachol, Jean is furious at Harry for seemingly getting himself killed and even ''more'' tetchy with everyone around him, but it's clearly hiding a deep sense of anguish over his missing partner.]]
* ArmorPiercingResponse:
** The Voice of the Hero and Half Light deliver one to the Voice of the Cold, who has been bickering with Half Light about their [[BloodKnight contrasting]] [[StrawVulcan views]] on slaying the Princess:
-->'''VOICE OF THE COLD''' - Must you derive such joy from the thought of killing her? It's clouding your judgement.\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - [[NotSoDifferentRemark As if you haven't been saying pretty much the same thing?]] Sure, this one's a bit more... ''forceful'' about it, but the end result would be the same, wouldn't it?\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' - This stone-cold son-of-a-bitch feels the passion of life and violence all too well. He's just hiding it deep down inside [=--=] but it's there regardless. Same for her, same for you, same for *everyone* [=--=] it is a fundamental aspect of the self. To tear out that piece and cast it aside would be to die while still living.\\
'''VOICE OF THE COLD''' - [[VisibleSilence ...]]
* AstralProjection: A rare case of this being done on someone else's behalf -- [[spoiler:Harry uses the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve nature]] of the Construct to project the Echo out from his mind and back as a physical presence in the world.]]
* BadLiar:
** After killing themselves to escape the Narrator's "reward", Drama prompts Harry to tell a convincing lie about why they're suddenly acting so strange. The check, unfortunately, fails:
-->'''YOU''' - Oh that? Icy over there was talking about the office party I just came from. It got *really* dull, felt like being trapped in a void forever, you know what I mean? ...Not that you *would* know [=--=] you weren't there. Definitely weren't. No sir.
** The Princess is still this to a T, [[spoiler:with Flux Et Reflux's attempts to seem like she was [[RememberTheNewGuy there from the start]] so transparently bad that even ''the Voice of the Hero'' got suspicious the second she piped up]].
* BeyondTheImpossible: {{Inverted}}, in a sense. [[spoiler:The highest difficulty a check can be in ''Disco Elysium'' is 20. The check for Harry to stop himself from kissing the Pale in the guise of Dora is ''30''.]]
* BilingualBonus:
** [[spoiler:The Limbic System cautions Harry that, if he keeps helping the Princess, he'll be destroyed, and what little is left of him "returned to the sea". Volta do Mar, the same technique that kept Harry safe from another Princess' influence, literally translates to "[[IronicEcho return from the sea]]".]]
** [[spoiler:The Echo's name as a skill, Flux Et Reflux, is a Latin phrase translating to English as "the ebb and flow" -- one of the titles the Narrator gives for the Shifting Mound.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Plenty of the Voices quickly find pals among the Skills: Drama and the Voice of the Smitten, Savoir Faire and the Voice of the Opportunist...
* BloodOath: At the start of the second run, Harry ''tries'' to sign the Narrator's "voucher" with one of these, but a [[RippleEffectProofMemory flashback]] from Half Light results in him clumsily smearing the paper, and he ends up having to just use a pen.
* BodyHorror: An {{inverted}} example of PlayedForHorror with [[spoiler:the Echo's true form. She's as abstract and bizarre as the other skills, looking "like she's being disassembled and reassembled at the same time", but that bizarreness makes her immediately familiar to the skills.]]
* ButThouMust:
** The Voice of the Opportunist outright forces Harry to ask the Spectre what she can "bring to the table" with the whole possession business, because:
-->'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - We have to at ''least'' ask. If we didn't, I'd be kept up at night wondering what kind of sweet deal we could've made, wouldn't you?\\
'''VOICE OF THE COLD''' - [[BluntNo No.]]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - I wouldn't either, I'm not really interested in 'net worth'.
** [[spoiler:Inherent to Harry's memory of how he came to the Construct: since it's just him recalling things that have already happened, there are never any options to opt out or choose something different.]]
* TheCameo: [[spoiler:The Shivers check in the flashback shows where a number of characters are while the Shifting Mound's song shakes the church apart:]]
** [[spoiler:Cuno, Cunoesse, and someone else (possibly Little Lily or Cindy the Skull) huddle for shelter in an abandoned shed.]]
** [[spoiler:A concerned Evrart Claire (or is it Edgar?) makes a call to a mysterious third party.]]
** [[spoiler:In La Delta, Joyce Messier, implied to be somehow sensing the energies released by the Swallow, fights the urge to [[DrivenToSuicide step out into the open air 37 stories up]].]]
** [[spoiler:The Phasmid waits out the storm under a pylon in the collapsed Sea Fortress.]]
** [[spoiler:Coalition Warship Archer hovers above, not yet noticing the events at the church -- though we already know what will happen once they do.]]
** [[spoiler:Precinct 41 goes about its working day, ten minutes before they receive the call about Lieutenant Double-Yefreitor Du Bois' disappearance.]]
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve:
** As in canon, the Princess runs on this, but it's notably {{subverted}} at one point: after slaying her in the second run, Harry questions if she's really dead, which would normally trigger her change into the Razor, but Endurance's insistence that yes, she's dead, you just stabbed her in the heart keeps her down.
** [[spoiler:It's all but outright stated that the Mother of Silence Tiago worshiped was a form of the Princess. He looked into the Swallow hoping to see something that would let him forget, and the Princess was changed by that perception.]]
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: Electrochemistry has become this incarnate 57 days into Harry's latest fling with sobriety, to the point of going downright ''rabid'' when the Narrator goes to [[INeedAFreakingDrink pour Himself a drink]].
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: While trying to figure out a compliment for the Spectre, Rhetoric abruptly gets sidetracked by "a certain phrase" from Coalition propaganda around the end of the Revolution, leading to Harry [[ThinkingOutLoud musing to himself]] if she might be [[Creator/KarlMarx the spectre of communism]]. The Spectre is confused, the Voice of the Opportunist agrees despite not knowing what that means, and the Narrator is apoplectic at the thought of any form of the Princess being associated with communism.
* CompositeCharacter: With Harry as Maxwell's figurative demon, the Princess starts to change early on: Harry's first meeting with her initially has her as the demure, skittish Princess you encounter if you don't take the knife, but she eventually starts giving the cold, pragmatic speech about trust that you hear if you ''do'' take the knife.
* CrazyPrepared: After hearing about the Volta do Mar and how it can protect from the effects of the Pale, [[spoiler:the Voice of the Skeptic starts composing one in his head almost ''immediately'', [[ProperlyParanoid which ends up coming in handy]] when Harry almost dies of Pale exposure]].
* CuttingOffTheBranches: A few facts of this Harry's run through the events of ''Disco Elysium'' are established over the course of the fic:
** The prologue mentions him having 4 confirmed kills, meaning he managed to take out Raul Kortenaer; a comment from Hand/Eye Coordination in the second CHAPTER I confirms that he shot Korty rather than using the Spirit Bomb. The latter bit may be EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, though, since [[spoiler:the check in the flashback to hear the sound coming from the hole in the world has a bonus labeled "Heard your tie (may he rest in peace)", implying that "Spirit is eternal" was completed and the Horrific Necktie destroyed in the fire]].
** He kept in Kim's good graces (to the point that [[spoiler:Kim refuses to believe Harry is dead despite him having fallen through a ''hole in the world'']]) and convinced him to join Precinct 41.
** Much to Electrochemistry's dismay, Harry has been sober since the events of the game (though he still smokes).
** He got rid of the Expression and briefly flirted with Ultraliberalism before giving up on it. [[spoiler:Which makes it all the stranger when those two things recur with a vengeance in his second run...]]
** Despite Conceptualization's objections, the anodic dance club ended up being named No Truce With The Furies.
** [[spoiler:Harry's flashback to his last moments in Martinaise]] reveals the thoughts he had internalized by the end of the game: [[HyperAwareness Col Do Ma Ma Daqua]], [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast Cleaning Out The Rooms]], [[EldritchLocation Motorway South]], [[QuestForIdentity Jamais Vu (Derealization)]], [[SurvivalMantra The Insulindian Miracle]], [[{{Determinator}} Searchlight Division]], [[RecoveredAddict Waste Land Of Reality]], and [[DeathSeeker Finger On The Eject Button]].
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: The Skills are even less inclined to take the Narrator's guff than the Voices; at multiple points, Authority outright ''commands'' Him to be quiet, ''and He listens''.
* DistractedByTheSexy: The very first thing Electrochemistry says upon seeing the Damsel is "[[BreastExpansion ...Are her tits bigger?]]" It even gets Perception and Visual Calculus in on it, which turns it into a RunningGag: Visual Calculus still can't tell whether or not it's the dress pushing them up once Harry gets closer, and Perception gets its answer when the Damsel hugs Harry.
-->'''[[gold:PERCEPTION (TOUCH)]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - ...Based on the pressure against your chest right now, it's official [=--=] they're *definitely* bigger.
* DoWrongRight: In the first meeting with the Princess, Hand/Eye Coordination critiques the Princess' knifework as terrible while she's in the middle of ''stabbing Harry to death''.
* DoubleEntendre: {{Invoked}} by Drama while setting Harry up to "play the part of the Hero" with the Damsel: when Electrochemistry starts being... well, [[LovableSexManiac Electrochemistry]], Drama reminds it that since this is a period piece, they'll have to keep the sexual content to this trope at most.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Two in quick succession, when the Voice of the Smitten ends Harry's life in response to [[spoiler:the Damsel ending her own upon learning Harry didn't actually love her]].
** This is, of course, the inciting incident for THE SPECTRE.
* DueToTheDead: Harry does this twice for the Spectre: once immediately after he kills her with a LibationForTheDead, and once for her ghostly self [[spoiler:by giving her body the Stations of the Breath]].
* EatTheRich: At the start of Harry's second run, thanks to a bonus from the Overinsistent Vocabulary thought, Rhetoric is much more vocal in its support for slaying the Princess:
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - She's a *princess*. Slaying a member of royalty isn't even really a crime at all [=--=] it's a public service. Normally this would entail an open-air execution (guillotines are traditional but a firing squad works too), but covert assassination works just as well.
* EldritchLocation:
** Inherent to the setting, of course, but [[spoiler:THE PALE turns it into even more of one, filling it with the eponymous "enemy of life and matter". The path in the woods seems to go on forever, Harry starts hearing apparitions of his actions from alternate timelines, and both he and his surroundings start to degrade into nothingness.]] It's somewhat {{subverted}}, though, in that [[spoiler:whatever the stuff is, it's not the actual Pale; Harry doesn't experience any memory bleed-through like the Paledriver, only near-DeathOfPersonality, and even that happened ''far'' quicker than the Pale usually takes effect]].
** The Narrator's "eternity of bliss" also gets this treatment, with Endurance noting that Harry's mind isn't the only thing being "fuzzed out"; his pores are less defined, his heartbeat and breaths come less often and less strongly, and he can no longer feel hunger. It's described as him becoming like "a caricature of a human form".
* ExactWords: At the start of THE SPECTRE, Inland Empire tells the Voice of the Opportunist, who's fretting over whether or not the Princess is really dead, that "Her bones still rest in a mausoleum of old wood, undisturbed for eons." And that's true -- [[CuteGhostGirl for her]] ''[[CuteGhostGirl bones]]''[[CuteGhostGirl , anyway...]]
* ExpospeakGag: In response to the Spectre appearing:
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - A [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Class-II]] Necroplasmic Entity. More colloquially known as [=--=]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - A g-g-g-ghost!
* FeelNoPain: The Voice of the Cold brings its PersonalityPower to bear when Harry has a seizure as a result of the Spectre's possession. The result is a new thought, Breakerbox Of The Soul, whose temporary research bonus removes Health and Morale alerts -- translating to the story as Harry distancing himself from the pain he's feeling enough to (somehow) stop the seizure, [[spoiler:and later, to haul his body towards the door despite the Narrator's KillerGameMaster ploy]].
* FlatCharacter: PlayedForHorror with [[spoiler:the Pale, the result of the Damsel's DeathByDespair. She's essentially a barely-sentient EmptyShell, and the only thing she can even think about is using her shapeshifting to make Harry happy.]]
* ForTheLulz: Electrochemistry throws its weight behind letting the Spectre possess Harry, if only because it would "liven up the place" from its current state of sobriety.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In the prologue, the Ancient Reptilian Brain mocks Harry's DeathSeeker tendencies: "Why else would you have come here, past the inner edge of the world?" [[spoiler:This is the first hint at how Harry ended up in the Long Quiet: going into the 2mm hole in the world.]]
** When the Voice of the Hero muses on the Princess' name possibly being "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Princess Princess]]", Inland Empire comes up with an image that sounds remarkably close to the Shifting Mound's true form:
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - Yes, you can imagine it. Princess Princess, princess of princesses. An exponential royalty, presiding over the heavens and the earth. An infinite fractal tangle of frilly dresses and shiny jewelry.
** In THE DAMSEL, Harry's flask has turned into the Flask of Love and Anguish, and, to the horror of the Skills, is filled with [[TraumaButton sparkling apricot juice]], [[spoiler:foreshadowing the form that the Pale takes in the next chapter]].
** While observing [[spoiler:the meeting about saving Harry from the Swallow]], Rhetoric notices that [[spoiler:Soona]] at one point refuses to mention the Pale by name, even in the context of [[spoiler:it manifesting inside where the church used to be]]. Half Light muses that she's trying to push it out of sight, out of mind -- "but it will come all the same." [[spoiler:The Narrator seems [[MortalityPhobia oddly perturbed]] by that statement...]]
* TheFourLoves: An Elysium-flavored variant is mentioned in THE DAMSEL. When the Voice of the Smitten describes [[spoiler:the vision of Precinct 41]] as "a gathering of people who love you, in their own ways", Encyclopedia enumerates the six types of love described in Perikarnassian philosophy: familial, friendship, romantic, sexual, brotherhood, and love for the world.
* FreakOut:
** Half Light has an extended one at the start of the first CHAPTER II; being Harry's fight-or-flight response, it's completely thrown off by going from a literal life-or-death situation to a path in the woods. [[OverlyLongGag It doesn't calm down for a while.]]
-->'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Heroic: Failure] ]] - [[ClusterFBomb FUCK-SHIT-ASS-COCK-FUCKING-SHIT-FUCKING-FUCK]] [=--=] YOU *DIED*. WE *DIED*! This is WRONG, you should be DEAD, you *are* DEAD.\\
[...]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Does He not remember what happened? I'd say it might be best to keep it that way, but I don't think this one's letting it go anytime soon. Poor guy's traumatized.\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' - *FUCK*!
** And it does it again when it realizes [[spoiler:who exactly Harry's let into his body]]:
-->'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - FUCK! GET YOUR MITTS OFF ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT DO-GOODER! Can't you feel there's something *wrong* with us?\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - [[LampshadedTrope Oh boy, here we go.]]
* FusionDance: In the prologue, while [[spoiler:the Shifting Mound is doing... ''something'' to Harry's soul, Inland Empire detects something worming its way into him, something that "flows like tar, but shimmers with a thin film of oil". From the way successful Shivers checks start to speak in a voice that is definitely not La Revacholière, it's implied this was some form of the Long Quiet.]]
* GivingUpOnLogic: Not intentionally, but much of Logic's dialogue comes from failed Impossible passive checks, since everything Harry's encountering on the path in the woods is such a massive OutsideContextProblem. [[spoiler:It gets even worse after Harry starts internalizing Flagrant Disregard For Reality, which gives it a whopping ''-3'' penalty.]]
* AGlitchInTheMatrix:
** Certain moments in THE DAMSEL seem to indicate that, however Harry is linked to the setting, it's not as solid a link as it might seem: after Harry tries to touch the mirror, the Voice of the Smitten still worries about having "a feather out of place", [[spoiler:and for Harry, the mirror ''doesn't disappear'', allowing him to catch a glimpse of something behind him before it vanishes the second he blinks]]. Later on, the Smitten's attempt to open the basement door with ThePowerOfLove fails, forcing Harry to kick it open.
** The next chapter continues this: the Narrator describes the cabin as looking the same as the Damsel's, even though it's become [[spoiler:a lookalike of Harry's home from when he lived with Dora]], and the Voices can see the mirror over the doorway when Harry can't.
** THE ECHO pushes it to truly odd levels: Harry still can't see the mirror when it appears in [[spoiler:the church]], and when he throws the knife at it on the suggestion of [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]], Inland Empire insists it's lost to them, even though they could very easily walk over and get it.
* GodzillaThreshold: [[spoiler:The Narrator elongating the cabin to try and kill Harry pushes Half Light to let the Spectre possess him in order to get Harry moving.]]
* GrammarNazi: While some of the Skills are having a discussion over whether to trust the Voice of the Opportunist, Encyclopedia briefly chimes in to remind Savoir Faire that it's "mutualistic", not "mutually parasitic".
* HehHehYouSaidX: Just for the record, Harry is talking about a ''white check'' here.
-->'''YOU''' - Why has it gotten harder?\\
'''[[red:ELECTROCHEMISTRY]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - Well, [=--=]\\
'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - [[PrecisionFStrike Shut the fuck up.]]
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Tiago was left nigh-catatonic when a change in the 2mm hole in the world put him face-to-face with the Shifting Mound, upending everything he thought he knew about his "Mother of Silence".]]
-->[[spoiler:'''TIAGO''' - In the end, he ends up speaking to you alone, a single sentence whispered with a hoarse voice:\\
"I heard her sing, homes."\\
"...She isn't supposed to sing."]]
* HiddenDepths: When Harry asks the Narrator for a fun fact about Himself, the Narrator, after a few moments of reluctance, actually does confess something:
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...Writing. I enjoyed... writing. Storytelling overall, really - but I was always the best at writing. To pen a word and have a thousand meanings attached, [[{{Foreshadowing}} to capture a fragment of the world to preserve for all time]]...\\
It was my calling. And I... I enjoyed it immensely.
* HonorBeforeReason: While searching for the Princess through [[spoiler:the vision of Revachol]], Harry takes a moment to stop and [[spoiler:fill out a missing persons form for her... or try to, anyway]].
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:It initially seems like Harry and the Spectre are going to be able to make it out of the cabin despite the Narrator's meddling, succeeding despite everything on check after check to keep going... [[DownerEnding until they don't]].]]
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler:The Pale, as her name suggests, has taken on a lot of the aspects of her namesake: she lacks a real identity of her own, instead being a [[PerpetuallyProtean constantly-shifting]] cloud of human shapes solely focused on pleasing Harry, and she's become somewhat unstuck in space and time -- Harry offers her his flask from outside the cabin, and she's somehow able to take it.]]
* HypocriticalHumor: [[spoiler:The Voice of the Cheated is immediately untrusting of the Echo, skeptical of her showing up at the same time they end up stuck in the basement -- something which, [[LampshadedTrope as Reaction Speed points out]], could easily be applied to ''him'' as well.]]
* {{Infodump}}: Encyclopedia gives one about various Elysian cultures' beliefs regarding ghosts when Harry meets the Spectre, but it's quickly {{subverted}} by Logic remarking that the Spectre, like most things they've seen so far, probably isn't going to align with any Elysian perspective on the universe.
* InsaneTrollLogic: A failed Suggestion check to convince the Narrator to let him out of the cabin results in the skill telling Harry to just ''[[ViolationOfCommonSense threaten to walk out]]''.
-->'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' - He's not actually holding you in this room physically [=--=] only the implication of an endless void imprisons you here. It's probably not even really there. Call His bluff.
* InsistentTerminology: {{Lampshaded}} InUniverse by the Overinsistent Vocabulary thought, gained from a Rhetoric passive check about the Narrator's use of this trope.
* IrrationalHatred: Half Light has nothing but seething bloodlust for the Princess from the moment it sees her, and most of its dialogue about her is ordering Harry to kill her. It's implied that this is due to Harry somehow subconsciously picking up on the Princess' nature as an EldritchAbomination.
* JumpScare: InUniverse, Reaction Speed gets quite the fright the first few times the Spectre pulls her NightmareFace.
* JustJokingJustification: In the first CHAPTER I, Harry tries to brush off him saying he's come to kill the Princess with this. ''Tries''.
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - The Princess shifts uncomfortably for a moment, clearly not believing you. Can you stop trying to reassure her and focus on the task at hand, ''please''?
* JustThinkOfThePotential: Rhetoric's argument for letting the Spectre hitch a ride out of the basement: if she really is the spectre of communism, that's 0.001% closer to building communism, and if not, she's still an actual, real-life ghost, something that would revolutionize science as they know it.
* KillerGameMaster: [[spoiler:When Harry and the Spectre start their climb out of the basement, the Narrator throws all caution to the wind and begins doing everything He can to stop them: causing Harry's leg to freeze in place midway up the staircase, making him feel too exhausted to open the door, and pulling a Wraith by elongating the hallway far enough that Harry wouldn't be able to make it in his current state.]]
* KnewItAllAlong: [[spoiler:Turns out Harry was never fooled by the Echo's transparent attempt to pretend she was one of his skills. He was just PlayingDumb to throw the Narrator off the scent.]]
* LampshadeHanging:
** When the Narrator chides Harry for "wasting time asking questions'', Rhetoric is left aghast:
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - Questions are not a waste of time. Questions are how you *operate*. You can't make a decision until you've asked all of your *questions*. That's how this works.
** After a failed Suggestion check sees Harry telling the Princess that he's here to kill her (''without'' having taken the Pristine Blade), the Voice of the Hero wonders why Harry had to pick the "least bad option" from a list of completely insane non sequiturs. Volition just comments that he'll get used to it.
** When the Narrator continues to insist that slaying the Princess will lead Harry to a "[[ExactWords happy ending]]" even after Harry has seen [[AndIMustScream what that ending entails]], Rhetoric and Drama proceed to ruthlessly mock His ManipulativeBastard act.
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Challenging: Success] ]] - 'Happy' ending [=--=] is He *really* hiding His true intentions in a bit of wordplay? [[ThisIsReality No one actually does that in real life.]]\\
'''[[blue:DRAMA]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - Only supervillains of the cartoon reels and cheap paperbacks do. Though you could pull it off if you wanted to [=--=] all it takes is the right delivery.
** After a failed roll from [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]], the Voice of the Cheated takes an absolutely ''brutal'' shot at ''Disco'''s check system:
-->'''VOICE OF THE CHEATED''' - And another thing - have you guys been '''''rolling dice'''''? Is that what's happening? We're being put in harrowing life-or-death situations and you ''fucks'' feel like ''leaving it up to a dice roll''? [[WhatTheHellHero What is]] ''[[WhatTheHellHero wrong]]'' [[WhatTheHellHero with you people?]]\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Is that what that noise is? I didn't want to say anything about it, thought it might be rude to mention.\\
'''YOU''' - Wait, you're *rolling dice*? Is that what these checks are? I always thought it was some kind of abstraction of the concept of adversity or something [=--=] what the *fuck*?!
* LaymansTerms: [[spoiler:In the second Esprit De Corps vision of Precinct 41, Soona's explanation of the 2mm hole in the world and what might lie beyond it goes completely over Jean's head; another lieutenant, who seems to have followed better, clarifies that she's saying it might be possible for them to follow Harry through the hole and get him out.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** There are a number of nods to the ArtStyleClash between the two games: since ''Slay The Princess'' is DeliberatelyMonochrome save for the odd SplashOfColor, Perception routinely fails to identify the colors of things around Harry, and Inland Empire describes the Princess' blood as "the only color in the world"; Half Light also calls her large, cartoony eyes "unnatural". It starts to bleed into a variation on the MusicalWorldHypothesis when [[spoiler:the Spectre is unable to identify the things reflecting off the magnetic tape reels representing Harry's skills, until Inland Empire tells her it's ''color'' -- and even then, she struggles to identify any of the colors except for red]].
** In his first appearance, the Voice of the Cheated is left furious after witnessing a failed check, thinking the skills have been literally leaving their fates up to a roll of the dice the entire time. Volition insists it's more complicated than that, but the Cheated insists they find a way to stop having to deal with random chance whenever they want to do something important. This is, of course, reflective of the differences between choices in ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay The Princess'': the latter is a visual novel where making a choice is as simple as clicking an option and watching the consequences play out, while the former, being an RPG, has elements of randomness in the form of skill checks. [[spoiler:The thought Harry gets from this exchange, Flagrant Disregard For Reality, even suggests that Harry might be able to do as the Cheated says and [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules throw away the checks]].]]
* LemonyNarrator: The Narrator leans hard into this during THE SPECTRE, seldom missing an opportunity to call Harry and his actions "asinine" or "inane". To be fair to Him, Harry's actions in this chapter include thinking the Spectre is the avatar of communism and [[spoiler:spending five minutes zoning out to hold a "Mind Parliament"]], so it's a little more understandable.
* LifeOrLimbDecision: Aside from the Princess' own habit of trying to chew off her own arm, [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux offers a surprisingly easy check to let Harry do this when he finds himself chained in the basement -- though since she ''is'' the Princess, it shouldn't come as a surprise for that to have been her first option]].
* LovedINotHonorMore: [[spoiler:La Revacholière initially begs Harry not to go into the Construct, where she cannot follow him, but when he insists that he has to save its occupants, she relents, saying that's why she loves him, and tells him that she will be awaiting his return.]]
* {{Magibabble}}: After a failed Encyclopedia check to remember anything Harry might know about ghosts, the skill yields to Inland Empire, who rattles off a long string of this that boils down to "You should help her with her UnfinishedBusiness." Logic calls it a bunch of nonsense, but Inland Empire has been on the money about [[{{Foreshadowing}} far more momentous stuff]] before, [[spoiler:and the ritual it has Harry do to make the Spectre's body more corporeal ''does'' actually seem to work...]]
* MercyKill: In the lead-up to THE SPECTRE, the Voice of the Hero ends up being the one to kill Harry, since the Narrator refuses to narrate for them and Harry doesn't have it in him to do the deed himself.
* MoneyDumb: It's mostly because he doesn't really know what money ''is'', but after seeing Harry's memory of his favorite kebab stand, the Voice of the Opportunist wonders about selling the Spectre's tiara for enough money to get "a couple".
* MoodWhiplash:
** When Harry becomes too exhausted from the Spectre's possession to open the door out of the cabin, he decides to rest for a moment, and takes the opportunity to show the Spectre and the Voices some of his memories of Elysium. It's quite a sweet moment (and one that [[spoiler:offers another vision of Precinct 41 courtesy of Esprit De Corps]]) that even the Narrator joins in on... [[spoiler:but an observant reader might notice the check to get off the floor [[KillerGameMaster getting harder and harder]]...]]
** [[spoiler:The tense, dramatic flashback to Harry entering the Swallow and coming to the Construct is capped off by [[{{Luvvie}} Drama]] congratulating the other skills on the "reproduction" like a director at the close of a play.]]
* MoralityChain: It does nothing to stop him from slaying the Princess, but at the start of the second run, most of Harry's skill checks that relate to doing so have the same modifier: "[[red:-3]] Kim wouldn't approve".
* MundaneObjectAmazement: The Voice of the Hero is entranced by the way water flows around an upside-down cup in Harry's memory of a sunny afternoon spent washing dishes. Inland Empire, of course, joins in.
-->'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - What makes it ''flow'' like that? It's kind of mesmerizing.\\
'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' - No one knows. It is one of the great mysteries of our time.
* MyGodYouAreSerious: The Spectre has this reaction when she realizes that, yes, the guy who just slew her for money and a vague notion of "saving the world" is trying to wheedle his way into a reward for saving her from the basement where ''he killed her''. She settles on ''very'' sarcastically offering Harry her tiara (though it dissolves into nothing and reappears back on her head the second it leaves her hand).
-->[[rtl:[[pink:?Will this cover it, my esteemed murderous associate]]]]
* MythologyGag: ''Plenty'', to both games:
** The fic opens with, once again, a comatose Harry being berated by the inhabitants of his Paleo-Mammalian Cortex. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} in that he's not comatose; he's just deep in the "textured nothingness" of the Long Quiet.]]
** Endurance and Physical Instrument would like to remind you that Harry used to be a gym teacher.
** Inland Empire and Perception describe [[spoiler:the Long Quiet]] in the same way as the omniscient narration does in ''Slay The Princess'':
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Legendary: Failure] ]] - You are alone in a place that is empty.\\
'''[[gold:PERCEPTION (HEARING)]]''' [[gray:[Impossible: Failure] ]] - It is quiet here.
** When the Voice of the Hero describes the Princess' voice as hypnotizing, Volition initially worries that it's dealing with another "compromised" voice in Harry's head. Its only response when [[ThinksLikeARomanceNovel the Voice of the Smitten]] shows up is a long-suffering "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck Oh god, there's two of them now.]]" [[spoiler:And once they meet [[SickeninglySweethearts the Damsel]] and [[ShapeshiftingSeducer the Pale]], the Skills actually ''do'' become compromised, including Volition once the Pale takes on the form of [[LostLenore Dora]].]]
** After asking her about her name and getting a NonAnswer, Harry tries to come up with a name for the Princess. [[HistoryRepeats One failed Conceptualization check later]]:
-->'''[[blue:CONCEPTUALIZATION]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Failure] ]] - Guinevere Rözovy Baudelaire.\\
'''YOU''' - Man, we gotta have a talk about this.
** The Voice of the Hero, meanwhile, says that she looks more like a "Nichole", in reference to her voice actress, Nichole Goodnight, while one dialogue option lets Harry float "Shifty" as a name, a popular FanNickname for the Shifting Mound.
** Electrochemistry at one point tells Harry that despite her weird, spacey demeanor, the Damsel isn't high on anything, calling back to the infamous cocaine addictions of Revacholian royalty you can hear about from René and the statue of Filippe III.
** When the newly-freed Damsel asks Harry what he wants to do, his first response is, of course, to sing karaoke with her.
** Once the Narrator returns from [[INeedAFreakingDrink getting a drink]] to see [[spoiler:the Damsel dead by her own hand]], He sarcastically apologizes for being gone, something Rhetoric quickly calls out. The Voice of the Hero adds that "Even I could've told you that, and I'm terrible at spotting liars"; in canon, he made a similar remark in the face of [[BadLiar the Razor]]'s attempts to convince them she didn't want to stab them.
** Similarly, when Savoir Faire claims that Harry's memory troubles are just part of "the look", Suggestion comments to a confused Voice of the Hero that it's a different thing from [[TheUnsmile the Expression]]; the Hero was equally confused by the Long Quiet flirting with the Razor by giving her "'''''The Look'''''", which was itself a reference to the Expression.
** [[spoiler:The Pale's touch is described as burning Harry's flesh, and her kiss as feeling like drowning; both are references to the Burned Grey and the Drowned Grey, Princesses who you could get from the death of the Damsel or her analogue, the Prisoner.]] Later, Inland Empire mentions a scent of "[[spoiler:deepwater brine]]" as a sign of the Spectre's presence, another reference to [[spoiler:the Drowned Grey]].
** The ✤250,000 "voucher" the Narrator gives Harry is very obviously just "THE EVIDENCE" from the original game repurposed for the situation. After Harry signs it, Savoir Faire has Interfacing put the net worth counter from the Ultraliberal Vision Quest back up.
** During one of his attempts at buttering Harry up, the Voice of the Opportunist calls him "Harrister", a nickname only ever used once in the game by the Ancient Reptilian Brain. [[spoiler:Who deploys it once again after Harry dies trying to escape the cabin.]]
** Before heading to the cabin to meet the Spectre, Volition offers Harry a check to "get your shit together"; one of the bonuses is listed as "Ghost of the Volumetric Shit Compressor".
** While marching down into the Spectre's basement, Half Light tells Harry to "Be ready to claw out her heart if you have to." In the lead-up to the Wraith, the Spectre [[AndShowItToYou does just that]] to the Long Quiet, and even here she half-threatens to do it to Harry a few times. Inland Empire also notes that [[{{Magibabble}} spectres are much easier to deal with than wraiths]], which is ''definitely'' true here. [[spoiler:The climax of the chapter is a WholePlotReference to that other chapter's, with the Narrator elongating the hallway beyond the protagonist's ability to escape and the ghostly Princess piloting his body to freedom, narrating her own actions the whole time to stave off His influence -- except here, it's a joint effort of HeroicWillpower between Harry and the Spectre.]]
** After asking her about her name and getting a NonAnswer, Harry tries to come up with a name for the Spectre. [[SubvertedTrope One successful Conceptualization check later]], the skill says that her name should be vast and oceanic -- "feather-light, free, and everlasting". Beyond being a reference to the Shifting Mound's nature, it's also a reference to the lyrics of "Want To Be Free" by Music/SeaPower, who [[JukeboxMusical contributed to]] ''[[JukeboxMusical Disco Elysium]]''[[JukeboxMusical 's soundtrack]], with a trip-hop remix of "Want To Be Free" -- "Burn, Baby, Burn" -- appearing in the game's climax.
** Conceptualization calls the sensation of the Spectre's possession "ice in the veins" -- a line from "Reflections" by R.S. Thomas, the poem that opens both the game and the fic, which Harry can quote to Tommy Le Homme.
** While trying to wrangle the Spectre possessing Harry into something comprehensible, Interfacing mentions attempting to sync sines with her, much like you had to do with Noid to get him to help you contact Coalition Warship Archer in the Moralist Vision Quest.
** When Harry asks the Spectre why she keeps calling him "killer", she reminds him that he didn't exactly stop to introduce himself before stabbing her in the heart. The following dialogue tree references just about every name or title Harry can pick up over the course of the game: [[IAmTheNoun the Law]], [[FullNameBasis lieutenant double-yefreitor Harrier Du Bois]], [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau]], [[TheAlcoholic Tequila Sunset]], and "[[FirstNameBasis Harry. It's Harry.]] [[LampshadedTrope Why the hell were there so many other options here?]]" The Spectre, for her part, decides to just stick with "killer".
** The Pristine Blade is once again tossed somewhere, though down the stairs instead of out the window, [[spoiler:and then again at the mirror in the church]].
** When the Spectre asks what the world is like, one of the dialogue options has Harry saying "It's basically just a bunch of apes duking it out on a ball."
** [[spoiler:The Flagrant Disregard For Reality thought, devoted to letting Harry dispense with the skill checks and just do things, mentions a couple IntentionallyUnwinnable checks in the original game -- opening the bunker on the coast, dodging Korty's LastBreathBullet -- and outright calls them "[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bullshit]]".]]
** [[spoiler:When Inland Empire prompts Harry to turn back in the flashback, the following dialogue tree is similar to certain ones in the Tower route: a series of greyed-out options forming a brief monologue on the futility of trying to resist, and a final option to fulfill the inevitable.]]
** Shivers briefly refers to the nascent Shifting Mound the same way she does: "solitary lights in an empty city."
** [[spoiler:Some of the potential names for the case Harry doesn't pick are references: THE HERO AND THE PRINCESS, DICK MULLEN AND THE FRACTURED GLASS, APOCALYPSE COP'S REDEMPTION...]]
** [[spoiler:Something the Shifting Mound says to Harry is the direct inverse of a line she can say to the Long Quiet: "You are more like a person than you are like me."]]
* NonAnswer: The Narrator refuses to tell Harry anything he doesn't already know when asked who He is, just repeating His spiel about being Harry's "guide" and keeping him on task to slay the Princess.
-->'''[[gold:COMPOSURE]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - He's nervous about this subject. Either He thinks you won't like the answer or He doesn't want to dwell on it much longer.
* NonIndicativeName: {{Discussed}} by Dual-Booted Ghost In The Machine, the thought Harry gets from letting the Spectre possess him: it mentions that he was originally going to call it "Ghost Cop", but he's not a ghost and the Spectre's not a cop.
* OCStandIn: [[spoiler:Some of the RCM personnel shown in the Esprit De Corps segments -- Berdyayeva, McCoy, Apricot Pidieu -- are canon characters only briefly mentioned in passing.]]
* OffTheRails: Each CHAPTER III Princess is an OriginalGeneration unique to the fic:
** For the Damsel, [[spoiler:Harry tells her that he doesn't truly love her, causing her to commit suicide out of despair, at which point the Voice of the Smitten does the same. The path in the woods becomes choked with the Pale, the cabin is transformed into a replica of Harry's old place on Voyager Road, and the Princess has become a HumanoidAbomination composed of pure Pale, who is essentially the logical extreme of the Damsel's nature as a FlatCharacter: a PerpetuallyProtean entity with no will of her own, just the desire to be someone who makes Harry happy... and unfortunately, one of those someones is Dora, and Volition is still powerless to resist her.]]
** For the Spectre, [[spoiler:Harry lets her possess him, forcing the Narrator to get them both killed by warping the dimensions of the cabin and causing Harry to succumb to exhaustion. Harry wakes up in the basement of the cabin, a chain around his wrist and a 25th voice in his head -- Flux Et Reflux, or the Echo. When Harry leaves, the world outside the cabin has transformed into a faded memory of Revachol, eventually leading to the old swingset by Harry's crashed motor carriage, where Harry and the Echo briefly sit together before the Shifting Mound takes her away.]]
** Even besides all that, some of the chapters result in Harry gaining ''two'' new voices when they would usually only give one; for example, his actions in the lead-up to THE SPECTRE (namely, [[spoiler:killing the Princess for a promise of payment and then killing himself to escape the cabin]]) yield the Voices of the Opportunist and the Cold.
* OhCrap:
** Volition has one in the prologue when it initially seems like Harry's amnesia has relapsed, so to speak.
** Rhetoric has one that's played for some pretty BlackComedy:
-->'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' - You don't *know* that she's going to stab you [=--=]\\
[[rtl:[[pink:.I'm sorry... I'll try to be quick]]]]\\
'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - [=--=] [[InstantlyProvenWrong No, yeah, she's definitely gonna stab you.]]
** Multiple of Harry's skills have one when the Narrator says that his death meant "an entire world has been damned to oblivion", initially thinking He means Elysium before Esprit De Corps reassures them.
** The Voice of the Hero has an outright ''panic attack'' once [[spoiler:the Skills fill him and the other Voices in on the nature of the Pale -- and the fact that they're ''in'' it]]. Shortly after, Endurance has one itself when [[spoiler:the Skills realize that, due to Pale exposure, Harry hasn't been breathing for almost ''two minutes'']].
** ''Everyone'' taking up space in Harry's head panics when [[spoiler:it becomes clear that the Narrator isn't going to let them leave the cabin alive with the Spectre in tow]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** The Voice of the Opportunist starts getting uncharacteristically worried when it seems that Harry is going to let the Spectre possess him, fearful of losing the advantage of being invisible and inaudible to her.
** After the showing of Harry's memories, the Narrator immediately starts in with the snippy PassiveAggressiveKombat, but quickly drops it for something far more genuine:
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - Are you quite done now? Finally sorted through all the memories of a world you apparently don't care about saving?\\
'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Why do you keep going ''on'' about this? What about our actions so far would have you think we'd even ''consider'' killing her now?\\
'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...[[SincerityMode Didn't you see]] [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome how beautiful the world is]]? The people, the places - freeing her would destroy '''all''' of them, all of it. It would be the end of everything you know and love. Does ''that'' sound worth it to you? ''Hm''?
** The Narrator's demeanor cracks again at Harry's final question in THE ECHO:
-->'''YOU''' - ...Do you know how I could get home? You didn't let me leave, before, even when I did what you asked.\\
'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...[[ChangeTheUncomfortableSubject Ask something else]].\\
'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - But-\\
'''THE NARRATOR''' - Just - ask ''something else''.\\
'''[[blue:RHETORIC]]''' [[gray:[Legendary: Success] ]] - He doesn't know. More than that [=--=] He doesn't understand.
* OutsideContextProblem: Harry, with his "unconventional" attitude and borderline-supranatural detective skills, sends the events of ''Slay The Princess'' completely OffTheRails.
* PaintingTheMedium: The whole fic is formatted using CSS to appear straight out of ''Disco Elysium'' itself, complete with skill checks, both passive and active, and gaining thoughts over the course of the story. For a few more specific examples:
** The Voice of the Hero is initially aligned to the center with his name in standard capitalization, as in ''Slay The Princess'', whereas all the other voices (including, curiously, the Narrator) are aligned to the left and have their names in all caps, as in ''Disco''. It's initially described as a PokeInTheThirdEye for Harry, but Interfacing is able to somehow wrangle the Hero into a "more comfortable shape", and after that, he and all the other voices are formatted ''Disco''-style. In addition, even after that, the Narrator and the Voices have their text emphasized with ''italics'' or '''bold text''' (or '''''both''''') - and break up their lines with hyphens, whereas the Skills are emphasized with *asterisks* [=--=] and break up their lines with em dashes.
** The Princess' text is aligned to the right, lacks a name, and is colored in [[pink:pink]] (or [[red:red]] when she gets angry), all of which hearkens back to her own case of this in her home game. Harry tries to make her words more comfortable like with the Hero, but the check is Impossible, and fails. When the Spectre possesses Harry, he's initially completely unable to hear her, but Interfacing wrangles her successfully this time, aligning her to the left (though still colored and nameless); [[spoiler:when she's [[SymbioticPossession possessing Harry's skills]], their text turns pink as well, and any skill checks she makes are dyed pink and have the result text giving "HER" instead of "YOU" as the speaker.]]
** [[spoiler:The narration in the prologue -- implied to be coming from [[MissingProtagonist the Long Quiet himself]] -- is nameless, italicized, and center-aligned.]]
** In the first CHAPTER I, the Narrator essentially starts bickering with Harry's task list, hastily appending a task to "Slay the Princess" after Rhetoric comes up with one to "Question the Princess". Later, Harry jogging to the cabin at Coach Physical Instrument's insistence completes a secret task: "Get your morning jog in".
** A very interesting case of this arises from a mechanical difference between ''Disco Elysium'' and ''Slay the Princess''. In ''Disco Elysium'', a CRPG, interacting with objects lets you essentially "talk" to them as unique entities (for example, even before the Inland Empire check, investigating the Hanged Man's corpse has "'''THE HANGED MAN'''" listed as the speaker for the descriptions of the body); however, in ''Slay the Princess'', a visual novel, any descriptions come exclusively courtesy of the Narrator and the Voices. Hence, in this fic, the Skills are a lot more active than usual in order to fill in the gaps in the Narrator's... narration. [[spoiler:Harry even gets a thought during THE DAMSEL, Personal Airspace Violation, that directly comments on this, and it returns in THE ECHO once the Narrator leaves Harry alone on the image of the beach at Martinaise.]]
** [[spoiler:As the Pale starts to degrade Harry's mind more and more, the difficulties for his passive skill checks start to become higher and higher, and dialogue choices start to be replaced by just ellipses, symbolizing how much harder it's becoming to think.]]
** The Voices' influence on Harry is shown by the modifiers they give to various checks: for example, the check to stop the Voice of the Smitten from pulling a ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' has a -5 modifier from the Smitten himself, and the Voice of the Cold, with his LackOfEmpathy, tends to give a flat 0 modifier to demonstrate how detached he is -- making it all the more telling when he starts giving bonuses to Harry recalling memories for them.
** [[spoiler:During Mind Parliament, Interfacing rejiggers the UI so it shows the Voices in proper alphabetical order (as in "'''HERO, VOICE OF THE'''") to make the voting easier and more fair.]]
** While possessing Harry, the Spectre [[spoiler:comments directly on aspects of the game's UI, like reacting in surprise when a bunch of "Task updated" notifications pop up, or mentioning seeing the Thought Cabinet and task lists]].
** [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux retains the pink text from her earlier selves, and though this site can't show it, the red used to highlight her name is a different shade than that used for Physique skills. She also gives massive penalties to checks involving Harry trying to figure out where she came from. Once Harry projects her out of his head, her lines go back to being right-aligned, though they keep the name. The skill profile given at the end of her chapter has additions from her in pink; it also shows her to be Harry's new Signature Skill, reflected in her physical appearance by the crown used to designate such in the game.]]
* PetTheDog:
** The first time he meets the Princess and asks about what she's been eating, Esprit De Corps prompts Harry to offer her a flask of strawberry punch he's been carrying around to help wean himself off alcohol.
** Pretty much everything Harry does for the Spectre is to [[TheAtoner make up]] for slaying her in a fit of Ultraliberalism: [[spoiler:using a cross charm to make her more solid, performing [[DueToTheDead the Stations of the Breath]] for her corpse]], and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick offering to kill himself]].
** [[spoiler:When Harry and the Echo are sitting on the vision of the swingset at the Martinaise beach, two checks come up -- [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve an Easy Conceptualization check to "remember the sunrise", and a Formidable Inland Empire check to "imagine a sunrise"]]. Harry chooses the latter, and the check succeeds, meaning that the Echo and the Voices get to bear witness to Harry's best rendition of ''the Sevenfold Sun Miracle''.]]
* ThePowerOfApathy: After making the decision to question the Narrator, Harry twists His arm by threatening to just plonk his ass down and let the Princess escape. The Narrator tries to remind him that if the Princess escapes, she will (supposedly) end the world, which (supposedly) includes Harry, but neither Harry nor the skills are taking that anymore.
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - ...You really are that suicidal, aren't you?\\
'''[[purple:VOLITION]]''' - [[MentalHealthRecoveryArc There are good and bad days.]] [[ManipulativeBastard *You*]] definitely haven't helped make this [[TraumaCongaLine a good day]], you know that?
* ThePowerOfHate: Stated by Empathy to be what lets [[spoiler:the Spectre pull Harry to his feet when the Narrator's trying to [[MythologyGag describe them into submission]]: her sheer UnstoppableRage at his manipulation and cruelty letting her essentially shout him down and keep them moving]].
* ThePowerOfTrust: [[spoiler:Kim is initially baffled at Harry's insistence that he has to enter the Swallow... but at the end of the day, he still truly trusts his partner.]]
* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler:With Harry dying of exhaustion on the floor and the cabin's dimensions stretched out by the Narrator's bullshit, Half Light finally relents and allows the Spectre to possess it]], resulting in the normally cool, collected Princess ''roaring'' at Harry to--
-->'''[[red:HER]]''' [[red:- Get the]] ''[[red:FUCK]]'' [[red:up!]]
* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
** When the Skills are fighting to keep the Narrator from using Harry's body to slay the Princess, Physical Instrument declares that "This flesh is *OURS*, not *YOURS* [=--=] GIVE. IT. BACK."
* PurpleProse: Harry leans ''hard'' into this during THE DAMSEL, at Drama's insistence. It's PlayedForLaughs both for the nature of the lines themselves and for how sharply they contrast with the Damsel's [[FlatCharacter vacant cheeriness]].
* RapidFireNo: A variant in response to the Voice of the Hero wondering if they really did want the proto-Damsel to kill them:
-->'''[[purple:VOLITION]]''' [[gray:[Trivial: Success] ]] - No.\\
'''[[red:ENDURANCE]]''' [[gray:[Trivial: Success] ]] - Nope.\\
'''[[blue:LOGIC]]''' [[gray:[Trivial: Success] ]] - No.\\
'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - Maybe? No, probably not. She sure seems to think you wanted that, though.\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Easy: Success] ]] - [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Fuck no, you should kill her instead.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** After the Personal Airspace Violation thought finishes and Volition gets a bonus to balance out the penalty from Overinsistent Vocabulary, it shuts down Savoir Faire -- whose Ultraliberalism got Harry into the mess that leads to THE SPECTRE -- with one of these:
-->'''[[gold:SAVOIR FAIRE]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Failure] ]] - Money's always a great motivator, but He's obviously pulled a fast one on you [=--=] if you would've known this would be the outcome, you'd never have committed to this [=--=]\\
'''[[purple:VOLITION]]''' [[gray:[Challenging: Success] ]] - Shut *up*, you greasy slimeball asshole! You've already screwed up enough [=--=] now it's up to the rest of us non-insane ones to put the pieces back together. Stick to keeping us from falling on our ass and stop trying to break into venture capitalism, for god's sake.
** The Ancient Reptilian Brain and Limbic System still love giving these out. [[spoiler:On their second appearance, though, they've found a new audience: the Spectre.]]
* TheReveal:
** In THE DAMSEL, a FlashSideways from Esprit De Corps shows how Harry ended up where he is now: [[spoiler:he somehow managed to ''enter'' the 2mm hole in the world inside the anodic dance club]].
** More details about what's happened since Harry's been gone are revealed in THE SPECTRE: [[spoiler:In the month ([[YearOutsideHourInside yes, month]]) since he disappeared, the Moralintern have torn down the church and began putting up some kind of facility around the Swallow; on the RCM's side, Soona has surmised that Harry might have survived his trip, and Precinct 41, on the orders of [[TheConspiracy Captain Ptolemy Pryce]], are planning to find a way inside the Coalition building and, if possible, [[RescueArc mount a rescue mission for the lieutenant double-yefreitor]].]]
** And THE ECHO reveals the full story:
*** [[spoiler:After a call from Soona inviting them to an experiment dedicated to finding out what lay on the other side of the Swallow, Harry and Kim arrived to find Tiago sitting, horrorstruck, on the steps of the church. All they could get from him was that his Mother of Silence had apparently started to "sing"...]]
*** [[spoiler:According to the anodic dance crew, things inside the church had felt strange all day; Noid talks about the sines of the place going "rancid", like something fundamental in the space had been torn apart, and Acele's contact mic ''melted from the inside out'' when she tried to record some new samples from the anomaly...]]
*** [[spoiler:The experiment began, and immediately things started to go wrong, with whatever sound was coming from the Swallow shaking the church apart even worse than before and causing a ''storm'' to begin brewing over the area...]]
*** [[spoiler:At the insistence of Inland Empire, Harry turned back, and heard the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet singing to themselves from oblivion, split apart and unable to come back together...]]
*** [[spoiler:...And after getting La Revacholière's blessing and convincing Kim to let him go before shoving him to safety, Harry sent himself through the Swallow and entered the Construct, hoping to reunite its occupants and, in so doing, save everything.]]
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Upon seeing Harry's memory of the Insulindian Phasmid, the Voice of the Hero wonders why it has so many eyes. The Voice of the Opportunist comments that the "best way to make decisions is to see everything you're working with, know all the angles" in a clear bit of PsychologicalProjection, but Visual Calculus says that he's actually fairly close to right; the Phasmid, being a herbivore, needs a wider field of vision to keep watch for predators.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Harry has this between runs, to an extent; his progress on tasks and thoughts persists, the Voices are still calibrated to fit into his mind, and some of the details remain (for example, Reaction Speed finishes the Narrator's monologue for Him on the start of the second run). Inland Empire, for its part, ''definitely'' has this, as shown by its response to the Voice of the Hero at the start of the second run:
-->'''[[purple:INLAND EMPIRE]]''' [[gray:[Challenging: Success] ]] - This one hasn't seized your flesh or manipulated your conscious thoughtfields in this or any adjacent reality. You can still trust him.
* RunningGag:
** Poor, poor Hand/Eye Coordination keeps failing checks to remind Harry that [[spoiler:he has his gun on him]].
** Several chapters have the "Everything goes dark, and you die." line delivered by someone different: in [[spoiler:INTERMISSION I]] it's Perception and Endurance, in [[spoiler:THE SPECTRE it's the Ancient Reptilian Brain and Limbic System]], and in [[spoiler:INTERMISSION II]] it's Visual Calculus and Half Light.
** [[OpenSaysMe Doorkickers Anonymous]]. With members ranging from Physical Instrument, to Inland Empire, to [[spoiler:the Princess herself]].
* SarcasmFailure: Suggestion finally meets its match when the Voice of the Opportunist weighs in on the existence of the mirror.
-->'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - I don't know, He seems pretty sure of himself - that has to count for something, right?\\
'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' [[gray:[Medium: Success] ]] - No, it doesn't have to. Conviction doesn't automatically mean someone is correct.\\
'''VOICE OF THE OPPORTUNIST''' - [[OpinionFlipFlop Solid point, solid point - that's why we keep you around.]]\\
'''[[purple:SUGGESTION]]''' - [[FlatWhat What?]]
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** PlayedForLaughs in the first CHAPTER I: After Harry rejects Conceptualization's fancy name for the Princess, it throws a bit of a tantrum and declares that it's leaving. Of course, since it's a part of Harry's brain, it's right back a few lines later [[HypocriticalHumor to critique the Voice of the Hero's choice of name]].
** The Voice of the Opportunist and [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux]] suggest that maybe doing this is what will actually let them escape rather than slaying or saving the Princess
-->'''VOICE OF THE HERO''' - Hey, you said you were packing up and leaving. You don't get to criticize my name choice after calling it quits.
* SharingABody: [[spoiler:The Spectre's ability to possess the skills includes using Savoir Faire to pilot Harry's legs up the stairs, or Perception to taste the hot chocolate he offers her.]]
* ShoutOut:
** The kebabs from Harry's favorite food cart, an unnamed vendor in Jamrock, are referred to as "[[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment the Nameless Ones]]".
** [[spoiler:During the second encounter with them, the Limbic System taunts Harry that he's met his end -- "but [[VideoGame/TheStanleyParable the end is never the end]], is it?"]]
* ShutUpHannibal: [[spoiler:The Narrator tries to describe Harry being overwhelmed by exhaustion and collapsing on the floor to die. To say the Spectre isn't having it would be an understatement.]]
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - You can't feel anything at all, actually - [[spoiler:you don't even manage to take one step before -]]\\
'''[[red:HALF LIGHT]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] [[red:[[spoiler:- WHEN WE'RE OUT, I'M COMING FOR ''YOU'' NEXT.]]]]
* SolarAndLunar: The Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet are given this dichotomy, with Inland Empire dubbing the Princess the "Priestess of the Sun", and the Voices "Emissaries of the Moon"; in addition, the floor of the Damsel's cabin is described as warm, as if it had been in the sun for a while.
* StepfordSnarker: When Harry comes out of his reverie [[spoiler:after holding "the first inaugural session of Mind Parliament"]], the Spectre is panicking, worried that she's "broken" her only ticket out of the cabin. When she realizes he's back, she slips into something resembling her typical DeadpanSnarker attitude, but both the Narrator and Composure note that it's a front.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: At the start of the second run, one of Harry's unchosen dialogue options in response to the Princess asking if he's here to kill her is an example of this that would do the Razor proud:
-->3. [[cinnamon:- "What? No way! I'm not here to kill you [=--=] why would you even say something like that? Do I look like the kind of guy who would kill a princess chained up in a basement for a fat wad of cash [=--=] you know, hypothetically?"]]
* SwappedRoles: [[spoiler:At the beginning of THE ECHO, ''Harry'' is the one chained up in the basement of the cabin, with the Princess nowhere to be seen.]]
* SymbioticPossession: The Spectre takes this even further than in canon, [[spoiler:being somehow able to possess Harry's ''skills''. Unlike the primary possession, this does give her control, but in an inversion of HeroicHost, it also lets her use their abilities -- for example, possessing Conceptualization lets her understand the image she sees of Harry's soul as a tape computer.]]
* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality: Drama {{invoke|d}}s this a time or two, saying [[spoiler:in Mind Parliament]] that a misguided hero seeing the error of his ways (saving the Spectre) would be more likely to meet a favorable end than a villain returning to finish the job he started (slaying her), and later that it makes dramatic sense that [[spoiler:solving the problem he came to the Construct to solve -- the current states of the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound -- would open up a way back home for him]].
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: {{Inverted}} -- [[spoiler:knowing that Kim's ordered, hyperrational mind wouldn't be able to cope with the chaos of the Construct, Harry shoves Kim away before he can follow him through the hole in the world.]]
* TitleDrop: [[spoiler:When Harry finally names the case, three of the options are DISCO ELYSIUM, SLAY THE PRINCESS, and the one he ultimately chooses, THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR.]]
* UncannyValley: The Skills, Half Light especially, find the base form of the Princess ''deeply'' off-putting, with Half Light utterly losing it and raving that Harry *needs* to KILL HER *NOW* as soon as he gets close to her. It's implied to be just as much {{Foreshadowing}} to her true nature as it is a case of LeaningOnTheFourthWall (see above).
* WaitWhat: Reaction Speed's... well, reaction to the Princess nonchalantly suggesting Harry [[LifeOrLimbDecision saw off her arm to get her out of her chains]].
* WhamEpisode:
** THE DAMSEL. [[spoiler:The origin of Harry's arrival to the Construct is revealed, [[AGlitchInTheMatrix glitches]] start to appear in the events of the chapter that raise even more questions about how it all fits together, and the transition to CHAPTER III comes courtesy of the Damsel ''[[DrivenToSuicide killing herself]]'', showing that [[OffTheRails very little is going to go as expected here]].]]
** INTERMISSION - THE MOTHER OF SILENCE. Hoo boy.
*** [[spoiler:Harry finally remembers exactly how he came to be in the Construct, and why -- to save the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet, and hopefully all existence, from the Narrator's plan...]]
*** [[spoiler:The Shifting Mound is finally, if briefly, able to communicate directly to Harry...]]
*** [[spoiler:And the case finally gets a proper name: [[TitleDrop THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR]].]]
-->[[green:ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: The real 'THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR' starts here]]
* WhamLine:
** When the Voice of the Hero first speaks to Harry, a successful Shivers check reveals that someone new is broadcasting to Harry's sixth sense:
-->'''[[red:SHIVERS]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - ''You can trust him.''
** In THE DAMSEL, when Harry goes to check the mirror, it initially seems that things will play out just as in canon... and then:
-->'''[[gold:PERCEPTION (SIGHT)]]''' [[gray:[Formidable: Success] ]] - Also, all three of them are wrong [=--=] [[spoiler:[[AGlitchInTheMatrix the mirror is still here]]]].
** For those who know the lore of ''Disco Elysium'', the very ''title'' of CHAPTER III will be enough to set off ''[[OhCrap massive]]'' [[OhCrap alarm bells]]:
-->CHAPTER III: [[spoiler:THE PALE]]
** In the same chapter, the Narrator's reaction to [[spoiler:the Pale itself leaking into the Long Quiet]] ("No, it wasn't supposed to ''be'' like this!") raises a ''lot'' of questions about His place in both universes.
** The Spectre's reaction to a passive Shivers check while she's possessing Harry reveals something very interesting that links to the first example here: [[spoiler:she can't hear the Long Quiet speaking through Shivers]].
** After freeing himself from his bindings in THE ECHO, Harry makes his way up the stairs, and opens the basement door...
-->'''THE NARRATOR''' - You are standing in... [[spoiler:[[WhereItAllBegan a church]].]]
** [[spoiler:La Revacholière's send-off to Harry ends in a line that has ''massive'' implications for how the end of the story might play out:]]
-->'''[[red:SHIVERS]]''' - [[spoiler:TELL THEM THEY ARE WELCOME TO MY SHORES.]]
** "Five yet remain." [[spoiler:This line from Inland Empire comes ''after'' Harry's already brought the Pale and the Echo to the Shifting Mound, further showing just how OffTheRails everything has gone.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: InUniverse, Harry's {{Dialogue Tree}}s still show a number of different choices other than the ones Harry ends up picking.
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: [[spoiler:After Harry falls and shatters his kneecap, sealing his and the Spectre's fates, the Narrator berates him for not just following the script, slaying the Princess, and living forever in mindless bliss, even calling the slow, painful way He sent them to their deaths "[[IDidWhatIHadToDo what has to be done]]".]]
* YearOutsideHourInside: [[spoiler:The Esprit De Corps segment in THE SPECTRE reveals that in the short time Harry's been in the Long Quiet, ''33 days'' have passed in Elysium.]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: [[spoiler:Flux Et Reflux gives one to Harry when he starts fretting over all the harm he caused to people before he lost his memory, reminding him that he can change and has changed from the man he was, and encouraging him to keep going. It's very clearly filtered through the Echo's remorse for how she treated Harry as the Spectre.]]
* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: [[spoiler:Harry, not being a god, is unable to understand the Shifting Mound when she speaks to him. This also applies to the Spectre while she's possessing him, but Interfacing is able to fix that one.]]
* YouExclamation: Half Light gives one of these when it realizes that [[spoiler:[[IrrationalHatred the Spectre]] is currently riding side-saddle in Harry's psyche]].
* YouMonster: The only response the Voice of the Hero can give to [[spoiler:the Narrator taking away the hopes of both Harry and the Spectre to escape the cabin in the cruelest way possible]].
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