#and now daniil and eva

[coureirsix]

stories are good when they have a man and a woman who are not in love, but a worse third thing

[jajatoc]

Just like a person, the Town is a process. It's movement. In this town, people can make the impossible, for it is a machine. A border-breaking machine.

[leather-field]

pathologic may be about existential dread and futility but in my brain it is actually about wacky shenanigans

[falindankovsky]

Can you tell this game has taken over all my thoughts?

[mutiny-huyutiny]

original comics: nash romi

[oynonrings]

thinking about the baffling p2 character changes again. why did they make bad grief boring when they could have made vlad jr interesting

[florentz]

i had a vision but my skill level is too low for it and it’s also like 2am so this is all u get

[sorcerous-caress]

I'm so jealous of Daniil. Having only played the Haruspex route so far in both game, each time I'm invited to the Bachelor's place I turn green with envy at how he resides at an actual proper house with a real room and a real bed.

A real bed with a whole bedframe. A pillow with an actual pillowcase!! His bed even has sheets!

He has WINDOWS. His house is in a nice neighbourhood, and his roommate is a very attractive woman. There is actual furniture in his room. Not one hint of fungus growing on the walls or rust!

Can you imagine living there as your lair? Spending the whole game knowing you have a real house with a real bed to go back to at the end of each night? Seeing Eva's face every day before leaving to do quests?

Meanwhile, Artemy is stuck in this dumpster room of an abandoned factory. Cuddling with rats on his makeshift bed, held by nothing but a wooden panel, some boxes and a dream.

A pillow so yellow it has its own ecosystem where bugs established real estate. Is that even a pillow or is it some random rock Artemy found and chucked in there? Is it a stale loaf of bread?? Why is it hard looking?

But no, you don't even get to keep the rock roach pillow because in P2, they take it away.

Fuck you Artemy, you had it good for too long. No pillow now because what are you gonna do about it?. Fold your mattress instead to have a resemblance of a faux sense of protection under your most vital organ during the long hours of death rehearsal that you call sleep.

Somehow, they made the bed even more unstable looking. As if that thin panel in the middle could hold Artemy's weight without caving in. Oh, and apparently, I ran out of boxes to use for furniture because the bed and the table have to share custody of the same box.

We have downgraded into barrels now, as you can see :) No, I don't know what they used to contain inside.

Waking up every day to Sticky's snotty face telling me not to spit in the wind and nagging me about cleaning up the week-old human organs thrown around that are stinking up the place.

THERE IS MOLD GROWING ON MY WALLS. RUST FLAKES FALL FROM THE EXPOSED METAL PIPES DOWN INTO MY CEREAL EACH BREAKFAST.

This single wall holds so much mold and fungus that they started crossbreeding and evolved into new, never seen before types of bacteria. Satan's asscrack is more hygienic than whatever biohazard plagues of Egypt this slab of concrete contains.

I live in the gutters. My only neighbours are an illegal gang of minors with a hatred for furries and another illegal gang but of adults this time who sell me bullets way above the market price. A dangerous neighbourhood where you can't have shit because SOMEONE STOLE MY BULL.

The basement I reside in has no windows, the smell is pungent and fucking vile down here. There isn't even a space for a bathroom.

This is my kitchenette/bathroomette/showerette/cupboardette/surgery tools disinfection stationette/sinkette/watercoolerette/toilette/fridge.

also my buckets yk.

One bucket for the makeshift bathroom, another for holding important organs and loose guts during surgery, a third one as a cooking pot for making tasty meat grub soup and the final one for murky water after sweeping the floor.

What do I use to tell them apart? Oh nothing :) I just mix em up every now and then, oppsie daisy.

Oh and the floors are CONSTANTLY wet for some reason. Yeah sticky slipped and almost broke his neck the other day so watch your steps.

There is also this eerie room with literal garbage and broken furniture right next to the entrance. Don't worry about it, sometimes I hear someone crying and screaming for help when I'm trying to go to sleep but it's just the factory being silly lol.

Now this? This is where the M A G I C happens. This is where Artemy the Menkhu makes his famous herbal remedies and natural mixtures. This is where the Panacea for the infamous sand plague gets made!

In a rusty empty food can.

Falling into a bucket with shit stains.

MEDICINE BABBYYY. GET YOUR WEAK SOFT BONED ASS BACK TO THE CAPITAL BITCH, THIS IS HOW REAL MEN MAKE REAALLL MEDICINE!! RAWRRRRR🦅🦅💥💥

Meanwhile, dickovsky has the view of the cathedral and polyhedron just around the corner from where he resides. He has a backyard with a lake, and all I have is a swamp behind my basement. I trudge through the mud each night, collecting weeds and herbs to mix and trade so I and the two orphans who adopted themselves into my life don't go starving.

Not to mention the gaggles of herb brides loitering outside and giving me a false bad reputation.

That dandy douchbag has a pharmacy, a grocery, and a tailor right next door. The closest establishment to my shrekcore place of resident is a dingy basement bar with shady drinks and no bouncer to check for ID, I saw two kids in there once.

Pov: a qt3.14 surgeon says his dad isn't home and invites you over.

[slime-water-shrew]

I love how Eva looks in the new game in the sence that she is more beautiful than ever to me based on personal taste. But I hate it. She would never wear that. She is stripped of all of her eccentricities and made to be palatable and simple. She looks like her outfit was picked out for her. Ice-Pick Lodge said she was “ever shifting, a mirror to the observer's soul… Daniil's vision of her.”, and I suppose that is right. All her oddities, her love of death, how she dresses skimpy and is a flirt, all her charm and flaws are taken away to simply be a perfect girl in the fridge. She is made to look like a memory of a women he loved, and he has forgotten everything that made her what she was. In Quarantine he said he used to call her a cat and apologizes but I fully believe he still sees her for less than she really is. I think rather than seeing her as a cat, or pet, he now sees her as this perfect version of her that she never was. All that she was is gone and the reflection of her that remains is so vacant of anything that made her herself she is still dead in all but the flesh.

I can’t see this as him earnestly apologizing. It reads more like desperation to cling onto her now that he saw her go once before. Since he is a time traveler in this it is very possible.

[anemonia13]

@transk0vsky EXACTLY. I also think many people missed some of his meaningful phrases. I can remember at least one right now, though I'm sure there are more.

I don't have a screenshot of this moment at the end of the 2 day's side quest in English, so I'll make a rough translation of what they say (TW/CW mention of su1c1de).

So, Eva makes an excuse for not coming to the station and asks if they can go there now. Daniil replies that no, because the city is blocked and, accordingly, there is no way out. Eva despairs and says that when the epidemic begins, she will have to open her veins. And the Bachelor. Well. In the first dialogue option he tells her to stop talking about it and reproaches her for cowardice. And in the second. He tells he would help her do it, if her hand trembles.

LIKE?? He literally says he'd help her kill herself. I don't believe he could maintain any but friendly-working relationship with anyone, after I've seen such 'excellent' support coming from him.

[noelle666]

Pathologic Visual Novel/Dating Simulator

Absolutely suddenly I stumbbled across this project. Well, I think not completely suddenly cause for several months I am obsessed with Pathologic (I played the original one in 2019, I think, and I don't know why but I recalled this game and yeah, it is my brainrot now and Daniil specifically is my brainrot along with Rogue Trader and Heinrix).

The official sources of the progect:

Page on VK.com

Page on X/Twitter

Unfortunately for non-Russian speaking people, the official pages are only in Russian. But I think you can write them on X/Twitter and they respond even if you are not a Russian speaking person.

The game is WIP and is both in Russian and English. It is free and has versions for PC and phones.

You can download it here!

You have two playable characters: Daniil and Artemy, the events take place right after the end of the main game, you have 5 days to do... something. Not sure what but it depends on a route, I guess. And since it is a visual novel/dating simulator you can actually date a character you liked in the original game. I haven't reached the point where you can chose someone to start a romance or show some affection towards a character you like (I played only a little bit as Daniil), but I hope I manage. I just need to chose who I want to have a romance with... Eva, probably.

All I can say for sure is the art design is very very beautiful. I LOVE how artists drew characters, so so well. Music is also very nice.

[rathologic]

out of curiosity, do you have any ships you enjoy? or pairings that arent romantic? its possibly the last thing i would expect you to talk on your blog so (excluding some posts)

laughed a little at this message I guess I really don't talk about shipping... awesome. I partake in some from time to time and there Is some stuff I really enjoy but it tends to have low output... well,

lara/yulia (p1): I am a HUGE YULILARA FAN which is a low bar since there's like 3 of us. what is there to lack?? yulia and lara textually were once close friends, then had a falling-out (partially over yulia's fatalism and hypocrisy), and now they're bitter. really easy to read as exes. I love human suffering I think that's the point of pathologic so I'm mostly into pairings that won't work out :-)

yulia/maria (p2/3): okay hear me out I have privileged information (read the quest titles in quarantine) But this will be good. and it's even good from what we have so far. I love women who are mutually jealous of each other's relationship w/ eva + hate each other on ideological grounds + have nasty sex. aglayulia (didn't make this list but I enjoy it) makes it even crazier... me when my detested aunt comes to town so I torture her ex about it.

artemy/the fellow traveler (p2): deal ending is the best ending and choosing to reject mark's play and travel forever with the one person who's been consistently kind to you is the Best choice for har2spex. the Entire scope of anything in the world could be reached by deal ending artemy/ft. the motif of "a fate like a good wife"/"escaping fate" frames him as a romantic partner. "now that we're inseparable, I'll hold you tight". it's so good MY PLAYLIST

artemy/grief (p2): bartemy nation. artemy and grief are obsessed with each other however you slice it in p2 (you told your gang I'm your best friend and they all recognize me on sight? I bring you up unprompted in various conversations? we had a secret lair together?). it's really fun in that context of a long timeskip (read 301, a great piece of writing), but also just a great dynamic during the game, especially considering the direct parallel between grief asking artemy to escape + aglaya's escape. one of VERY FEW patho ships where the parties involved have a history and also get along in the present day

aglaya/artemy (p1/2): another really good dynamic but this time it's even canon. I think every day about their p2 escape sequence and how integral that is to the game's themes (...how fucked a mistake it was to doom that + how it was handled even worse for nara). compelling (author's note: I forgot to finish writing this paragraph please imagine I did that, will be left for another post)

daniil/eva (p3): honorable mention since this is topical today. I'm neutral on it in p1, but I think it has a lot of potential for p3! Mostly if the writers show eva's survival to be incompatible with the utopia. Trying to save her makes sense as the core of a game that's now about time travel... we've seen what happens when Dankovsky doesn't stop her and lives with the linear time consequences in 1, and I'm really into the idea of rearranging everything else that happens to the Town in hopes of avoiding that. whatever's being set up with the "married to his work" theme is going to work nicely with establishing a choice between his mission/eva, and it's a beautiful parallel with p2's "fate like a good wife" theme, And it means we'll have to look at eva's rationale and interiority in more than just an optional task that lasts 1 day. it's also like... I love characters being forced to grow and I love that the scene we have of them in quarantine includes dankovsky apologizing to eva, it seems like a very Groundhog Day attempt at altering the course of events. hopefully can + looks like it will be good. 🙏

vasily filat/me (p3): you know it.

[whyareweherereally]

I did love quarantine but I gotta say I do miss the hunger and exhaustion meters and such. I do think that how the game is now fits daniil as a character but it was always attractive to me that no matter their differences both in character and in social status all three characters went through the same struggle in that way. It connected them in way and made patho 1 for the mess it can be cohesive in my opinion. I understand why the change was made but I will miss it.

I would also hate if the kinda fast traveling mechanic stays. They can pry my walking out of my cold dead hands -(I hope it's just a demo thing lol)

On happier thoughts i did love the manifestations of the plague and the kinda redesign of the stillwater and especially of Eva. Major glow up

[suffer1nsappho]

okay it's 2:30 pm and im sleepy as hell so if this text is a mess don't blame me. also, these are just my thoughts that are mostly assumptions, I'm not saying it's a 100% canon thing.

been thinkin of eva in patho1 and of her relationships with men.

we know that she's in an open relationship with andrey, and I suppose, it's because they're both utopians, they think in the same way. moreover, the stamatins created the polyhedron; eva loves the tower and, probably, being close to andrey for her means being close to.... I don't want to call him her idol, but I think she really respects and admires him as a utopian, as an architector, as a genius. also from original patho character concepts we know that eva drunks alcohol, takes drugs and that she's kinda lustful. andrey also likes to drink and he's described as a wild and energetic person. so, basically, I guess their open relationship is mostly about having sex and sharing the same ideas.

but after the bachelor's arrival eva gets totally obsessed with him.

and I suppose this situation is literally the same as eva's relationship with andrey. she finds a new genius who aims to make impossible things possible. she finds a new great utopian to believe in, to be inspired by, to live for and to die for.

as long as eva/andrey is an open relationship and eva is described as lustful, I think that she had sex with other people before, and he probably did too, and there was no jealousy. although I think andrey might get jealous if he noticed that now eva is charmed by another genius - cause it's not about sex, it's about being the real genius in her opinion, to be admired by her.

if there was a pattern in eva's behavior, we could imagine what her future with the bachelor would be like.

in a nutshell: eva would've probably fucked daniil if she had a chance.

[shmowder]

THEY DID IT IN TWO DAYS there are 31 other people on this island yet these two befriended each other on the first day then proceed to fall in love in the second

[mindblownie2]

after finally watching a playthrough of Quarantine, my thoughts:

PROS:

I'm glad we are still walking around town and interacting with people on the streets, since some early interviews made it seem like that won't be the case

I love the mechanic of pointing a gun at people to make them halt and then running away, it feels very tense and also realistic that you can intimidate them to buy time but they can still stab you in the back when you turn around, but at the same time maybe you don't want to just murder everyone on sight... That was good I liked that.

Affecting the state of things in town with the decrees is also cool, great potential for agonizing over choosing from two bad decisions and getting yourself screwed over with unforeseen consequences and so on

Eva is wearing clothes again yaaay congratulations IPL you did it

Speaking of Eva I also love coming back to her at the end of the day and talking with her, bouncing ideas off of her but also getting to know her better, it's something I've always liked to imagine happening but was only in the realm of headcanon until now. Also the more they bond the more devastating her death will be and I love pain <3

I think the dialogues were decent and a good gradient of asshole to kind-hearted to choose from

The POV switching is interesting too!

Oh I also saw that only once in the letsplay I watched, but it seemed like maxing out apathy resulted in this film reel filter and I liked that on like, a symbolic level? Idk something something surrendering your agency and just going through the motions like a character on screen rather than taking active decisions to affect events

CONS:

I can already tell I'm gonna be so sick of Yakov Little. Surely there were less grating ways to incorporate a tutorial. Especially with the nonlinear framing, say a flashback to Daniil being a student and being instructed how to do a diagnosis?

While on paper I think replacing the survival stats with the mental state slider is cool, I really don't think it's well executed. The bar fills up way too fast, so you have to deal with it almost constantly, which is just distracting, like how often you're breaking up whatever you're doing to open the inventory to eat some drugs is just annoying, and stuff like kicking a trashcan so you don't kill yourself is just so unserious. I think it would have been better if getting too far or spending too much time in either extreme would affect the tone of your dialogue or the availability of quests or certain actions, but not prevent you from playing. This way it could be a trade off, neglect your wellbeing to achieve something and then deal with the consequences, or a way to explore different facets of your character, or affect the course of the story. Maybe the game could keep track of some points you accrue by maxing out apathy/mania, and this could affect the ending, like maybe you unlock a wild swing reckless decision with mania points, or end up with The Suicide Ending if you have too much apathy (and preserve the impact of something like that happening, because if you can shoot yourself at any point when your extremely fast depression counter runs out, it is going to very quickly lose meaning or emotional effect and become just an annoyance). And if they don't tweak it that will suck because it's like, the biggest new thing about the game and has the potential to make or break the experience for me

This is a smaller thing but I had a viscerally hateful reaction to how Barbie doll beauty influencer looking Serafima's face is. Game devs look at real women challenge. At least the glasses cover it up a little bit

THINGS I'M ON THE FENCE ABOUT

I think the diagnosis mechanic is an interesting novelty, but it does take a lot of time, especially when having to go across town to investigate the patient's house, and I'm a little worried it might get boring/a chore if you have to do it too much and it takes away from other plot points. I do like how it serves to flesh out random NPC's though, makes the townsfolk feel so much more alive and real, especially in comparison with how cardboard cutout everyone felt to me in P2

The capital/Thanatica... Man idk. Some of those bits were cool, some details I liked less, and I still feel like I preferred to have it all left to my imagination, but I guess it could've been worse...

The burning woman apparition was scary (which is good) and I like the theory that it's a hallucination from seeing the bone stake lot incident, if that's true I'm glad we're finally acknowledging how traumatising this must've been to witness, but I feel like any mechanic of fighting her kinda cheapens it. Should be just something you maybe briefly see in bonfires and question your sanity rather than a monster chase, imo.

The whole time travel bit, I'm still curious but also wary of how well it will be executed, guess we'll see.