u/lazdo

JP raws: https://comic-walker.com/detail/KC_001571_S?episodeType=latest

English version will be available on Yen Press for free for the first week: https://yenpress.com/titles/9798855452235-the-summer-hikaru-died-chapter-49-1

Sorry the discussion post was late this week! I haven't been feeling well for a few days.

I'm not very familiar with the modern Chaotix so I don't understand this arrangement or how it happened. Are they..... you know......... 🫳

Starline's chat message is so IC lol

also are they skunks or honey badgers or what

Ever since I read that Kim has two unique skills of his own (in the comments of this post specifically), I've had an idea in the back of my head to figure out what Kim's character sheet might look like in DIsco Elysium. Not if he was a playable character, but rather, what would Kim have done with his own skill points over his life/career? And I figured he'd probably have a handful of other custom skills as well, so I thought up a few for fun.

Quick explanation!

3/5/3/1 - I landed on this by first accepting the fact that Kim has only 1 natural point in Motorics. With that established, it leaves you with a lot of room to put lots of base points into the other three attributes. I decided Psyche would probably be his highest attribute, between the burden of 10+ years in the RCM and just the kind of person that he is in Disco Elysium - he has a lot of mental fortitude in general, in numerous ways.

Unique Intellect Skills: I replaced Encyclopedia with Recall and Conceptualization with Conjecture.

Encyclopedia is replaced because Kim's brain doesn't latch onto random information the same way Harry's does - I think information gets churned through his head in more of a short-term/long-term memory way, where he silently lets things marinate in his head before jumping to conclusions. The most straightforward manifestation of this is how he uses his notebook to jot down details, even if they may not immediately seem important, and then at the end of the day goes over them again. His ability to store and recall information is, I think, more of a dominant part of how he thinks compared to Harry - and maybe perhaps Harry used to have Recall but it was replaced by Encyclopedia when he lost his memory.

Conceptualization is replaced because Kim isn't much of a creative or imaginative sort. When he postulates a theory, he isn't conceptualizing something so much as he's engaging in Conjecture. He thinks within the bounds of rational possibility, whereas I think Harry's Conceptualization fits him more as a daydreamer.

One extra point each in Logic, Recall, Rhetoric and Conjecture, and no extra in Drama or Visual Calculus - he doesn't sniff out lies and inconsistencies with Drama but by making note of details and contradictions. And of course, his low Visual Calculus goes hand in hand with his low Perception.

Unique Psyche Skills: Inland Empire is switched with Compassion and Suggestion becomes Outsider.

Similar to how Kim isn't dreamy/creative in the same way Harry is, Inland Empire doesn't quite make sense for him, at least not Harry's version of it. I thought a good replacement would be something that captures Kim's genuine desire to help others. It's important to point out the difference between Compassion and Empathy, which is sitting right next to it in the character sheet. Compassion is a person's consciousness of others' distress, combined with a desire to help. Empathy on the other hand is being able to put yourself in another person's shoes and understand how they feel and why. I think Kim is someone who'd be well aware of the difference between these two emotional skills and consciously tap into the right one when needed, especially as a seasoned officer who probably saw some upsetting things while working with juveniles. Every time Kim pats Harry on the back to comfort him about some insane thing he's become upset about, he's using Compassion, not Empathy. Kim doesn't always understand why Harry gets upset about weird crap but he can recognize he's upset and want to provide some reassurance.

Outsider is directly stolen from this swap AU fanfic because I just think it worked so well for Kim. Outsider is, basically, a skill that helps Kim grapple with feeling different from others around him. Whether it's because of his race, his sexuality, growing up without a family, being a cop, or even his poor eyesight, Outsider would help him stay grounded in the face of others' judgment and his own self-judgment. The conversation with the racist lorry driver would be an Outsider check, for example. Or, Kim's ability to recognize what was going on between the Sunday friend and smoker.

Kim would, I think, dump a lot of points into Psyche skills. He'd absolutely hate having an unlucky low roll in a stat that he expects to roll high, so he'd be the kind of person to save skill points for when he needs to retry a roll. High Volition is definitely a must I think for Kim, it simply makes too much sense between his controlled smoking, neutral affect and tendency towards being a party pooper.

Unique Physique Skills: Electrochemistry becomes Joie de Vivre and Shivers becomes Volta do Mar.

Joie de Vivre is something that was also inspired by that fanfic I linked earlier, but instead of basically stealing it 1:1 like I did with Outsider, I think my version of it would be a little different. In that fic, Joie de Vivre is basically just a renamed Electrochemistry that expresses itself in a less crude manner. I think my concept of it would be a little different, since Kim isn't a hopeless addict like Harry is. Instead, Joie de Vivre is Kim's more silly, playful side, the part of him that relishes in beating Harry at Suzerainty, or gives in to dancing in the church. Yes, it's probably also the skill that kicks in when Kim is on a date or something, but I don't think it would be quite so obsessed with pleasurable physical sensations like Electrochemistry is.

Volta do Mar is obligatory since it's one of the two unique skills we know he'd have, and that it's a Physique skill. I decided to replace Shivers with it since Shivers is so connected with Harry's psychic world spirit thing, which Kim doesn't have. But aside from that, and from knowing it's named after the poems people tell themselves while traveling through the pale, I'm not sure exactly what Volta do Mar would do. (Honestly if I didn't know it was a Physique skill, I would've put it under Psyche.) Any ideas?

Despite not knowing what to do with Volta do Mar I guessed he'd have some extra points in it, lol. Maybe it helps Kim resist Harry's likely pale-induced insanity? One extra point in Endurance (he does manage to keep up with all of Harry's running somehow) and Half-Light (copperino needs to keep himself alive when something unexpected happens on the job).

Unique Motorics Skills: Savoir Faire becomes Kinetic Dressage.

This is similar to Volta do Mar in that we know this is a unique Motorics skill that Kim has. That being said, I'm not sure exactly how it would be different from the other Motorics skills. I was on the fence with whether it should replace Savoir Faire or Interfacing, but ultimately decided that Interfacing is too fitting for Kim as someone who likes tinkering with machines, so Savoir Faire got replaced instead. There's been some interesting discussion online about what Kinetic Dressage even means - "dressage" doesn't mean anything in English aside from the equestrian sport, so I think it's probably meant to be a reference to that, but whatever the "kinetic" adds is kinda unclear. Since Savoir Faire has to do with being sneaky and underhanded, and Kim seems to generally disfavor those tactics, perhaps Kinetic Dressage would lean more towards the acrobatic/speed elements of Savoir Faire.

I left the other Motorics skills as they were because I think Kim's low Motorics skill is a fairly important part of envisioning what his character sheet might look like. Composure is both his signature skill and the only skill with extra points in it, despite the attribute being low overall. Kim is nothing if not composed. Maintaining his composure is clearly very important to him, on several different levels. I think this is the only skill where he'd put those points in preemptively to try to compensate for low rolls ahead of time. He most likely gets bonuses to Composure through Thoughts and clothing as well, but editing a screenshot to incorporate those bonuses was a little too time consuming for something like this. Pretend it says +2 or +3 from thoughts instead of -1.

Credit for the artwork I used for the unique skills:

Recall - Beatrice Werlie

Conjecture - William den Broeder

Compassion - Marijana Rakicevic

Outsider - u/a-lost-sketchbook

Joie de Vivre - Svetlana Gudilova

Volta do Mar - Simon Bernard of Saint Andre

Kinetic Dressage - Victor Vasarely

I'd love to edit some screenshots to show his inventory screen and thought cabinet as well, but I think it would be too time consuming. And probably a lot easier by just modding the game, although I have no idea how to do that, lol.

Anyway thank you for reading this weirdly long post for my frivolous headcanon 🎉