#icepick lodge

[onion-existence]

Can I offer you a nice still beating heart in this trying time, oynon?

[ink-blot-thoughts]

Icepick Lodge really did say, If not for the laws of this land these two male doctors with diametrically opposed views on life would kiss each other on the mouth, huh?

[dimondexe]

[mourningmaybells]

i think it would be funny if i never used patho's soundtrack outside of transitions for this video. im not gonna use up more storage space boy. disco elysium and rusty lake be upon ye

[ragingbookdragon]

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mz. Hyde

Task Force 141 x Reader

Word Count: 740 Warnings: Explicit Language, Archaic Medical Tools (and explanation of lobotomy)

Author's Note: Everyone wanted a part two to this so here you go :) Enjoy! Thorne

**********************************************************************

She smiles when the Lieutenant walks into the clinic, no doubt a scowl on his face beneath the mask, but he says nothing as he stands before her desk. Her eyes crinkle at the edges as she says, “Thank you for coming in, Lieutenant Riley.” She looks to the nurse beyond, watching with interest. “Simone, be a dear and lock the door on your way out, yes?”

The woman nods her head and practically skitters out and she rises from her seat, grabbing a rather large black bag; the thing looks like it’s from the sixteen hundreds. “Sit on the exam table, please.”

He does as she asks and takes a seat, watching the wall as she lifts his shirt and examines the bullet wound beneath the gauze.

“Lieutenant, do you recall my one rule I left you with before your mission?” she pauses and looks him directly in the eye.

“Don’t get injured.”

“Correct!” she smiles. “And if you were, what was the next rule?”

“Apply first aid.”

She tuts and pokes the stitched wound, delighting in his hiss of displeasure. “You seemed to have forgotten my second rule. Never mind that, I shall remind you.”

Her hands drift to the bag and she unlatches and opens it, and the man nearly shits his pants at the archaic surgical tools.

“Did you know that my legally given maiden name is Jekyll? Dr. Jekyll asks. “Some think there’s an ancestor of mine that was actually the basis of the novel with the same name.”

She picks up a tool, a drill and turns it.

“I do so love old medical tools. This one was used to drill into skulls. Mostly to relieve headaches or remove stagnant blood from brains. Sometimes even to treat hemorrhages.” She smiles fondly. “It takes a rather tremendous amount of strength to crank this into someone’s skull. I can only imagine what it was like without anesthesia.”

Putting it down, she picks up a mallet and what looks like an icepick.

“Now these are my favorite.” She holds the mallet in one hand, the pick in the other. “These were used to lobotomize people. One would insert the pick behind the eye socket and break through the little barrier of bone by hitting it with the hammer until it was lodged into the frontal lobes.” She does the motion near the side of his head, his eyes on hers as the pick sinks past his ear. “Then you would jiggle it back and forth until the frontal lobes separated from the thalamus! Thus rendering the patient completely catatonic!”

She puts them down and sighs wistfully.

“Did you know I once worked at a mental asylum where lobotomy was still legalized? I was allowed to sit in on several during my stay in medical school. An archaic but rather interesting process.” her smile is anything but sweet, instead it sends shivers up his spine. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to administer one myself. Perhaps one day I’ll get such an opportunity? Maybe on someone who disobeys my rules?”

He swallows hard, a man whose entire family murdered, himself buried alive, seen death a million times, and even delivered it, scared shitless of the woman before him.

He understands now why they call her Misses Hyde when she’s angry, no, infuriated and seething.

“Lieutenant? Are you alright?” she repeats, and he shakes himself, abruptly standing before her.

“I, uh, have to go, Doctor,” he says, and runs for the door like his head is on fire and his ass is catching.

“But I didn’t even show you the electro-shock therapy tools I have!”

“No need!” he shouts, unlocking the door and swinging it open. “I won’t disobey rules again!”

He’s out of the door before she can say anything else and the nurse returns moments later with two cups of coffee.

“Did Lieutenant Riley leave, Doctor Jekyll?” she asks.

“He did,” she pouts and latches the bag back, setting it down behind her desk. “And I have a feeling he won’t be back for some time. I was simply telling him stories. They weren’t even true.”

“Such a shame,” the nurse replies. “He’s awfully handsome.”

“If you like masked men.”

“As if you don’t like the Phantom of the Opera,” the nurse grins, handing her a cup. “You know he’s handsome.”

“Perhaps, he is,” she says back, sipping her coffee with a maniacal grin.

[moss-selfship]

Well it looks like the ask game has died down (lasted longer than i expected lol) Anyway i am a man of my word, and so its time for me to put MY worst "Hear Me Out" character.

No this isnt a joke, this isnt a meme, i am being 100% serious. This thing, this fucking dumb little meme cat. has lodged itself into my brain like a shitpost icepick. my twitter bookmarks are full of this thing, and ive stayed up super late watching youtube videos about the series neco arc is from (there is tons of lore). god i wish i could explain why this thing lodged into my brain and yet it did. i desire the funny meme cat carnally.

[blinkpen]

obsessed with this. i know what it looks like with that thumbnail but trust me that is not what has caused this video to lodge into my brain like an icepick. why does the music go so fucking hard. what is happening.

[alovelyburn]

The Writing A Story Process and Where I Am In It:

☑ Fail for months to make a lot of progress on the things I meant to write. ☑ Come up with a random ass idea that for some reason lodges in my brain like an icepick to the ear ☑ Outline it ☑ Spend a couple of hours to a couple of days reading song lyrics and poetry trying to get inspiration on wtf to call it. ☑ ”I’ve forgotten how to write wtf.” ☑ Set up a document with a tentative title in some stupid fancy formatting to make myself feel useful without getting anything done ☑ Try to write like, good prose and stuff and manage it for a few paragraphs ☑ Hit a wall and go play video games ☑ Procrastinate ☑ “Hurrr ok lemme do this.” ☑ Do something else. ☑ GDI MY SELF-IMPOSED DEADLINE IS COMING LEMME JUST DO SOME STUFF. ☐ crap prose occasionally interspersed with stuff like [HE LEAVES LIKE A DICK], [HE’S ON A HORSE] or [FORESHADOW THIS] ☐ Get to the end and feel good about the fact that if I posted it right now I’d technically have something like a fic that’s X words long even though it would be the worst thing I’ve ever posted, much like this is the worst thing I’ve ever written. ☐ Make it less terrible. ☐ Make it less terrible again. ☐ Make it less terrible for a third time. ☐ Send it to @zombiesgohome with a comment like “please tell me if this sucks, I literally can’t tell anymore.” ☐ Fix any issues she points out ☐ Make it stop being terrible. ☐ Post it with a bunch of typos ☐ Read through it after I’ve already posted it fixing more typos like an idiot ☐ Hibernate

[nowimnothiing]

good sounds

[styxnbones]

what is pathologic and if i wanted to get into it how do i do so. i just know random vibes about it from following u LMAO but idk what it Is really

ok ok so. pathologic 1 was a imsim survival game originally made in the early 2000's by a russian studio called icepick lodge. the english localization was absolutely horrible and ten years later they remastered it into something playable which gave us pathologic classic hd. however when i say 'playable' this game is still very hostile if you go into it with no prior knowledge of how it works or what you need to do (i did my first playthrough with the handholding of several different guides and still shamelessly save-scummed every time something went wrong). the basic premise is that you play as one of three healers (the bachelor, the haruspex, or the changeling) in a small town in the russian steppe dealing with the outbreak of a strange plague for 12 horrible awful days. beyond that the whole thing is also wrapped up in a metaplot surrounding a theater performance and a game played by two children. its hard to summarize succinctly without over simplifying it but i feel like @wonderful101gecs gives a very good overview in her videos on it

there's also pathologic 2, which, to lean into the theater metaphors, is like a new production of an old play, (for better and for worse). released in 2019 it is simultaneously a sequel and a further remaster- it rebuilds the game from the ground up, and takes you through the same core story, with largely similar mechanics, though currently you can only play as the haruspex and the alterations that have been made to the details and the broader strokes of the game are very clearly influenced by that.

there's also also the marble nest, which was originally a demo for p2 and is now a dlc for it, in which you play as the bachelor in a timeloop narrative of one particular day in a version of the games events that has gone very very badly. (i won't say any more than that bc it really is best to experience yourself, but i personally think that marble nest is actually better than the main game of p2 though that's just my opinion)

anyways, if this has interested you at all the whole franchise in on sale on steam rn for dirt cheap (chd is literally like a dollar US), though piratical methods are always available

[onion-existence]

Just got really into the pathologic series so have an Artemy

[hibiscus-tome]

FFXIV Write 2022, day 5: cutting corners

Years ago, Minfilia — the original one, that is — had once tried to describe for him the anatomy of an Echo vision.

It starts with a headache — sharp and piercing, like an icepick lodged into your temples. Then there’s a great swooping feeling, as your surroundings transform before your very eyes into a picture painted in someone else’s memory. It matters not how long the memory extends — the one bearing the vision will come back to themselves within a few moments. It’s a disorienting feeling, to come back — to see past events unfold over hours or even days, only to find that practically no time has passed at all in the present.

—so, when Rhea’s brow creases into a grimace and she gingerly raises a hand to her temples, it’s obvious what exactly is happening.

In an instant, Urianger is at her side, gently pushing her down into a chair. It doesn’t take a genius to discern what she must be seeing right now. A lack of privacy is to be expected, if one wants to continue associating with someone with the Echo — but it will never not be embarrassing, to be confronted with the fact that your memories, no matter how much you’d rather keep them buried, are no longer truly your own.

When Rhea comes back to herself, her eyes immediately flood with tears — and that, too, is an embarrassment. The emotions that must have flooded her, upon seeing that memory, cannot be her own. Thancred knows this — and yet, as she brings her hands up to her eyes, sniffling, it’s physical evidence all the same of just how poorly he’d handled that situation, with Minfilia.

Rhea looks up at him with far too close to pity in her eyes. “All this time…” she says in a shaking voice. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

From the other side of the table, Urianger levels him with a long, pointed look.

Right. No cutting corners.

—and for the first time in years, Thancred talks about just what it had meant, when they said goodbye to Minfilia that day, when she followed the so-called Warriors of Darkness to the first.

[arkhmlcst]

headcanon.

dewey has poor eyesight that she refuses to get checked out.

“ everyone sees things a little blurry, ” she claims, brushing off any concerns

she squints to see things from a distance and bumps into things unintentionally. she does her sewing by hand, mostly so she can bring it closer to her face.

…something about an invasive procedure at seventeen involving icepicks lodged up her eyelid might explain it.

you can’t take her to the eye doctor. she outright refuses to go. she’ll kick - scream - bite and practically fight for her life if she ever gets dragged there. even something so little as an eyelash in her eye can set her off. she’s never trusting any doctor near her, especially not ones who’s specialty is poking around your eyes.

[funstealer]

I got tagged by Mr. @wintercorrybriea to put my music on shuffle and post the first 10 songs so here they are. 1. Cluster - In Ewigkeit 2. Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto - The Girl From Ipanema 3. Hunting Lodge - Icepick Method 4. Sadesper Record - Lose Your Sight 5. Spacemen 3 - Losing Touch With My Mind 6. Royksopp - Eple 7. Duster - Feel No Joy 8. Paysage D’Hiver - Einsamkeit 9. Stars Of The Lid - Requiem for Dying Mothers 2 10. Lovesliescrushing - Babysbreath

I tag @thesegreydays @marlsborohaven @mybloodiedvalentine @shoug

[rathologic]

Hi! First of all, awesome blog! Thank you for making Pathologic make sense to me.. Secondly, do IcePick Lodge have any other games worth checking out? Besides Pathologic 1 and 2? Haven't heard of their other stuff so I was just wondering :)

hi, thank you! the short answer is no and the long answer is they have a couple other games but don't bother paying for them if you decide you're interested

their second best known game is The Void (2009) aka Tension, a game distinctive for being even fucking weirder about naked girls who get killed than patho. it's also more challenging in terms of resource management / survival and has a fixed time limit, gameplay is about using "color" to open the hearts of the "sisters" imprisoned (naked.) in a weird dimension without causing other weird creatures to tear the hearts out of them or you. once you're aware of the dybowski csa situation it shows through a Lot in this one :-|

knock-knock and cargo: the quest for gravity are also games that exist, I'm not super familiar with these ones but they're more puzzle-y? knock-knock is a side scrolling horror adventure with nonlinear time mechanics, and all i can find about cargo is that "it has a vehicle crafting system"

then Know By Heart is their most recent project released earlier this year, there's a town in it and a group of friends reuniting in the town and experiencing disasters but it's set in the modern day so not quite like pathy2 :-) because the studio expanded recently it's Probably more polished than the two above but again I never tried it out...

[maisew]

i love you icepick lodge games i love you icepick lodge characters i love you icepick lodge plots i lo