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A tragic scene:

My turtle notices the blueberry I put out for him but in his excitement he drops it into his pond. He considers a recovery mission on his own, then turns to me for assistance instead.

First, will come the wave of Disco Successors. Some will faithfully mimic the aesthetics of Disco Elyisum, others will cling to mechanical and thematic mimicry. Many of them will lean too heavily into the "Skills as characters" conceit, we'll see a wide variety of protagonists, but each game will almost certainly feature a patient, professional NPC companion character that they expect you to imprint on like a baby bird. At least one will feature deckbuilding elements. Most will fail pretty horrendously, some will be actually pretty decent games, but fail because the standard for success is Disco Again, and you cannot do Disco Again. Next will come a wave of games that are NOT trying to be Disco Elysium, but will have learned some lessons from the first wave of imitators. A game can have it's primary loop be about walking around, talking to NPCs, and making skill checks without being Disco Elysium. There will be an intense and ongoing taxonomical debate about if these count as "Visual Novels". These games are not trying to be Disco Elysium again, to the point that they'll aggressively avoid resembling it in the same way the successor games attempted to invoke it. There will be unspoken rules about these games. No amnesiac detectives in ruined cities, skills can talk to you to provide exposition like a GM giving you details but they're not presented as standalone characters, all politics remain firmly grounded in the fictional and fantastical.

I used to prep, wash dishes, and cook at mellow mushroom. I had chronic pain that wasn't NEARLY as bad as it is today, but it was still very debilitating. I told my employer "i cannot stand more than 4 to 6 hours. I CANNOT do shifts longer than this due to my illness." And even though i made my boundaries VERY clear, everyday i worked it was 8 hours at the least and 10 or 12 at the most. I would go up to my manager and say "look i really need to leave, my shift is over, my chronic pain is killing me." And he'd say "we really need to here, you HAVE to push through." And so i did, and after one, ONE month of that job my crps got incredibly worse to the point where i could no longer walk my dog around the block which was .5 miles. I quit, and that was FOUR years ago, and ever since that day I HAVE BEEN BEDRIDDEN AND HAVE TO USE A WHEELCHAIR. It is my biggest regret in life.

My best friend who has seen my whole journey has recently developed undiagnosed chronic pain, and she is in the EXACT same scenario i was 4 years ago. Busting her ass at a pizza place with extreme pain that hurts her so much she tells me "im in so much pain i don't even feel like a person." She doesn't feel LUCID. And her manager and coworkers are saying the same thing "if you don't help us you will let us down, we'll be in the shit."

As they shouted out with glee,

"Unholy Drink Cloaca

Round Two: