#echoes talking

[sygneth]

Echoes lore time! (And also my random DE thoughts about Harry's place!)

Reading the last page, you might have had a feeling we're going to see the inside of Harry's place soon, and you were right!

So to make everything clear (and because, in the first place, I had a place with a very specific plan in my head when I've been writing scenes at HDB's) i drew a lil cheat sheet.

(Yes. I like to make building plans. A lot.)

I believe Harry inherited this place, and thus he owes it. And also, this is why it's in a not-the-worst of tenement houses and in not-the worst standard. It was a place where they used to live with Dora, and I think he made it a sanctuary of a kind after she left. He never moved anything from its original place deliberately, and so the place slowly started to become a decaying memorial of a nonexistent relationship.

Harry's place is a whole big meta topic to explore and I feel like there is a lot to it in terms of the psychology of a place.

Assuming that he is still living in the same place as he used to when with Dora, oh boy. The bad days, when every single thing reminded him of her. The remorse, the memories, the past. A scratch over the floor, where she tripped while dancing. Her favourite mug, or rather the few pieces of it, after he broke it in a fit of rage. An empty space after a painting that she loved so much. The scratched wall over the bedhead. The bed itself.

Then, the better days, when he tried to take care of his apartment, but some things were already damaged beyond repair. The plants died, he could buy new ones, but he knew that, sooner or later, they'd share the previous one's fate. The ripped carpet, stained furniture, cracked tiles. Could be replaced, but sooner or later they'd share the previous one's fate. A scratched floor. The scratched floor.

And then, rather sooner than later, the days become bad again.

I don't think Harry liked to spend time at his place. Especially in the bedroom. Especially when he wanted to quit. There was too much past in there, staring at him from every corner, every crack of the floor. I think a good deal of his past relapses might have been caused by this place. Sometimes a forgotten something he found while cleaning it up, sometimes just the space itself, soaked with memories.

(And to all my faithful readers of Echoes, I just want to let you know I read every single one of your tags and comments and it always makes my day <3 Thank you for that everybody, and if I don't always reply to the comments, I want you to know I do read them and I do appreciate them a whole whole lot, life is just very overwhelming sometimes)

[sygneth]

allright i have few thoughts about Jules Pidieu and yall need to listen

He is old. Probably good 10-15 years older than most of his colleagues. Maybe more. From guys like Jean, Chester, Torson, definitely more. He has to deal with a bunch of guys with unsophisticated sense of humor all the time. The talks with Harry makes absolutely no impression on him, he is used to that kind of shit. It may seem that he is tired of it, dealing with drunk officers on duty, with their stupid jokes and using him to banter with one another via official channels. He tries to stay professional. And yet still plays the game and passes all the messages, even not the relevant ones. And even though he seems reluctant, it doesn't take much to convince him to pass even the extreme ones. In his own manner, but he will.

Heck, if Harry will refer to himself as "Firewalker" in the first conversation, Jules will go along with that too, if you call the precinct more than once (well, right after he told Jean that Harry refers to himself as *firewater* and I refuse to belive he didn't do that on purpose as he literally said that right a statement before)

But there is another thing. There is constantly someone in the comms besides him. The rest of the precinct, or at least the C-wing seem to hang out in there all the time. He is a man that others like to have around. What is more, if Harry will ask him for the details of his personal life, what Jules says, suggests he and Harry have been talking quite a lot too. "You're not really keen on mentioning your home life, so I've always assumed things weren't that good on that front" - is what he says.

Yeah, we may assume that Harry is rather keen on talking to people and also talking about himself, though one still needs to talk to another person quite a time to notice which topics they'd rather avoid.

Another thing is, that Jules seems to have heard about Harry's life before the RCM, it's just that the question takes him off guard and then Jean appears and cuts it short.

Even if he looks like he's done TM with the shit he has to deal with, I think he finds some satisfaction in it. He will never admit it, because what he does is sigh and probably roll his eyes while lighting another cigarette, but he actually likes the fact that people come gossip to him, that he is in possession of most of the precinct's secrets, that there won't be a drama he will miss. He wouldn't go into all this if there wasn't a part of him that liked it. He is just very subtle showing this.

[sygneth]

my absolutely random headcanons that are not tied to anything they just popped in my head unprompted (and i'm not even sorry half of them is about Jean)

(if you read EOE it may be useful knowledge? or not lol)

Judit's husband is a writer, he's semi-successful in his job, probably currently writes articles for some paper or something like that, and works on a novel in his free time.

Harry inherited the apartment he is living in when he was a young adult, so he was, fortunately, wrecking only his own property (but it also implies it's probably still the same apartment since Dora times, oof.)

Jean cannot walk the stairs. Running. is the only option. Hoppin' two steps at a time. Free workout time, yeah?

Piss and Fuck witnessed Harry's kamikaze jump over the canal and I refuse to believe they didn't have that on the back of their minds while checking out Kim's MC on the plaza.

Harry would totally eat pizza with pineapple and say it's the best kind and Kim would totally want to divorce him over it.

Jean totally learned how to play piano when he was young, he probably forgot most of it since though. He probably sings well too.

Jean hates spring & summer seasons due to allergies, he's totally allergic to pollen, not sure if anything else but probably yeah.

Kim is one of those people whose feet get absolutely massacred by each new pair of shoes he tries to wear, so he tends to wear one pair for literal years not to have to struggle with a new one.

Play a late '00s pop dancing song (like Kesha or Lady Gaga) to slightly drunk Jean and see what happens (everybody has guilty pleasures, right)

Before becoming a cop Jean tried to study... something. Or more than one something, but nothing slapped (fuck yeah depression), so he decided to go RCM because eh.

Kim's hair has a magical ability (or maybe he's just not cheap on his hair products...) to stay neatly combed regardless of the circumstances. He could get into a most violent fistfight and still play in a hair product commercial afterward.

Jude has an older brother.

When Plaisance and Annette move out from Martinaise, Annette will switch schools to the same where Mikael is going. I need them to be friends who will nerd about books and games and computers.

[sygneth]

my DE comic "Echoes of Elysium" so you'd know what am I even talking about

Okay so the next few (like, quite a few) pages of Echoes will take place mainly at the Precinct 41 so here are few sketches I did when I was designing it? hope that may help clear up what happens where and such

(I finally decided that the part of the building where gym is, should be shorter than lazareth/wing D part. Also the top left buildings were built later, like in the communist times, so they were not part of the original silk mill)

Here's the wing C floor with the layout of the rooms. I see this floor as a place that has been changed many times and I'd say there isn't one big bullpen for all the C-wing, but rather three or so rooms. There is one room that could be a room for the leaders of the wing (i.e. Harry and Jean) but I think Harry would be too much of a social man to move there (and I feel like every time Jean would be annoyed at Harry he'd say he's moving there on his own but then ofc never actually be doing that). This particular bullpen never had a lot of sense but I belive it used to have more once. Then G.Bevy left and Jean decided he has enough of bumping into Harry every two seconds so they made a little rearrangement. The desk on the right bottom is hated by everybody for some reason so it stays unused for now.

[sygneth]

The funny thing about DE is that I have a silly funny chill AU and an angsty AU where one of them is post-game and another is post-apocalypse but it's not how you'd think it'll be

[sygneth]

Not to be nitpicky but in your EoE comic newest page, Jean is promoted to Lieutenant? Or is this an yefreitor-type thing like Harry has? Wasn't he already Lieutenant in game-canon (I think Jean mentions in when Harry asks him about the task force)? Or is that an AU element of the comic where he was only a sergeant on top of satellite officership? Anyways, love your art, and the way you draw everybody! Your style and use of color bits to indicate movement & draw attention is very cool!

First of all thank you!

And to answer the question: I always understood it like Jean was a 'satellite-officer in function of lieutenant' (so saying 'Major Crime Units, under Lieutenants Du Bois and Vicquemare' still makes sense), but taking his relatively young age into consideration I assumed he was just a sergeant on top of it, yeah. (Probably the fact that he is always seen in his uniform gave me this idea too...? On the other hand he probably just doesn't *do* casual clothing to work. Even if he could.)

I feel like the game is vague enough here for many interpretations to be true, but we can assume that's an AU part here.

[sygneth]

sometimes I think about the collection of absolutely random shit HDB must have at his place, I mean this man can canonically decide it's a good idea to buy a goddamn street lamp?? WHat else do you hide in your nest, Harry?

[sygneth]

I am not much around lately but it doesn't mean I am gone for good don't worry, only really fucking busy. THat's why I guess I won't be able to post any new pages of any comics for a while. Hard to tell how long of a while, but three weeks at least, but may happen six weeks as well. Just so you don't worry, new pages will come eventually.