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shmowder · 4 months

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What Pathologic characters bring for your birthday Pt.2

[Note: this took...so much more effort than I ever expected, I'm unsure if I'll continue the termites and humbles part. Either way, I hope you enjoy this.]

The Utopians

Andrey Stamatin

he is used to sharing his birthday with his twin brother. As kids, most people would just hand them one present and expect them to split it. He knew better and would always concede the gift to Peter throughout the years. He's not used to attending a birthday that's not his own either. Going out of his way to indulge people was never one of his traits. And yet, he came to yours. Maybe that's a gift of its own. His gifts tend to be self-serving in one way or another, chaotic in nature, and borderline inappropriate. They usually include:

Imported fabric from the Capital, its pattern is unusual, but Andrey claims it's the current peak of high fashion in the industry. He can lend you his tailor's mailing address if you ever wish to fashion it into something wearable, or you could just drape the fabric over your naked self and walk around, Andrey will enjoy the view either way.

A Pythagorean cup he moulded himself from clay. He doesn't tell you the nature of the cup and just hands it to you with a wine bottle he grabbed on his way out of the Broken Heart pub.

A .44 calibre revolver, which is the most beautiful gun you've ever seen. The handle grip is made of brown rich wood with a smooth surface, the trigger gaurd is plated in gold, the frame is engraved with an intricate design resembling silver leaves curling around the barrel and chamber of the gun.

He let's you borrow the Broken Heart bar for a whole day for your celebration party in case you didn't want guests trashing your house. If you insist to throw the party in your own home, Andrey insists to allow him the privilege of kicking everyone out comes midnight, as long as you don't mind some bullet holes in your walls...and roof.

♧

Peter Stamatin

He tends to think of what he would like to receive when tasked with picking out a gift for someone else. He let Andrey pick which flavour the cake for their birthday was each time growing up since the adults would just cut them one slice and expect them to share it. Peter would give up the whole plate to his brother. He's accustomed to people coming to his own birthday rather than the other way around. Maybe the fact that he left his room to walk all the way to your house is a gift of its own. Peter treats the gifting process as another medium for art. His gifts may include:

One of his paintings, a newer one you haven't seen before. Despite the subject depicted being abstract in nature, there is still a resemblance to a human figure on the canvas. The more you stare at it, the more it feels like you're looking onto a mirror, as if he manages to paint the essences of your soul.

The first bottles of twyrine produced from the freshly picked herbs of this season. He much prefers the local drinks over the Capital's champagne and the pubs celler of wines. He usually goes out of his way to secure the first bottles to himself each season, but this time around, he decided to share them with you. Attempting to explain the unearthed magic that is this liquid condensation of herbs before losing interest halfway through the conversation and sipping on his glass in silence.

A tombstone he designed himself. Heavy black marble starting in the base and cut in precise spots midway through to allow for the seamlessly translation to the stained glass art which makes the top of the tomestone. The art piece itself is made from various glass pieces, different in texture and colours. A day celebrating your birth seemed like the perfect opportunity to offer a reminder of your inevitable death.

A bouquet of wilted flowers. What used to be white petals is now yellowish in colour, fragile looking as if the buds might crumble if you look at them for too long. Dried thin stems and falling leaves, flowers rotting from the inside as they fall apart on the outside.

♧

Eva Yan

She arrives late, water is dripping from her hair as she admits she fell asleep in the bath and didn't realise how much time has passed. You help her to the upper floor and lend her a towel to dry up. She asks to borrow some of the flowers from the bouquets you receive to decorate her hair with, and you oblige. Two golden braids crown her head with small flower buds framing them like pearls.

A silk handheld fan with a light blue floral design and rosewood base structure. As she hands you the gift, she makes sure to stay and explain the romantic symbolism behind the choice of flowers in the design. At the end, she teaches you the basics of handheld fan language.

asymmetrical clip-on earrings. One has a dangling delicate chain that ends with a silver moon charm, and the other is made out of thin fabric to resemble the wings of a butterfly. The earrings look like they were taken from two different sets, and yet they match in a beautiful contrasting way of day and night.

A single lotus flower. A real living freshly picked lotus flower with waterdrolpets clinging to the pale pink leaves. It's still in the process of blooming. You're not sure how Eva managed to acquire this flower in such a preserved state this quickly, maybe with the help of a friend or two. When Eva makes a passing comment on how she knows a good herbal recipe to make with lotus flowers, Dankovsky almost chokes on his drink as he opens his mouth to say something before deciding against it.

A blank book, the pages aren't well aligned, and they vary in thickness. The leather cover holding them together is stiched by hand with the spine. Eva made it herself, she confessed, it took a long time. The pages hold the slightest hint of perfume to them, a soft smell that threatens to be washed away with each passing wind. She heard someone was bringing you a pen, and so she wanted to provide you with the pages.

♧

Maria Kaina

She commands the room effortlessly with her presence. Even the more rowdy guests feel a sense of shame under her heavy gaze as they quiet down and keep the destructiveness to a minimum. Dressed up to the nines in one of her best maroon dresses, she looks nothing short of bewitching while walking as if she was floating on air. You find yourself mesmerised by her beauty for a moment while she stands in front of you, your reaction clearly feeding her ego.

A golden picture frame. You've seen similar ones hanging around the crucible with paintings inside, depicting her late mother while others capture her own likeness with. Gold is her colour. You come to the conclusion as you lift the frame and look through it at the elegant figure of Maria, looking at you unimpressed with one lifted eyebrow. If you're out of paintings, she'll let you borrow one of the Stamatin twins to make do with, they technically work for her family after all.

perfume...or is it a colonge? You can't really tell. It's certainly strong with an ever-lasting smell, but the smell itself doesn't sting your nose despite how intense it is. It weaves itself seemingly through your senses, and for a second, you almost find yourself in a trance as your heart skips a beat. Hours later into the party, you find yourself still reminiscing about that lovely scent. The reproctutions of using that bottle might outweigh the benefits, and you realise you must think twice before touching it again.

A carving of flowers made from mundane stone. The material looks unexpectedly dull with a simple design until you view the art piece under direct sunlight. That's when it... remains an ordinary stone. Maybe for someone surrounded by gems, marbles, and silks all her life, the beauty of the mundane is hard to come by. You're reminded of the tale of Meduca as you stare at the hardened petals. Which one of the goddesses did this humble flora anger, you wonder.

♧

Mark Immortell

You're not sure when he arrives. You don't see him come in, nor do you hear the door. You just turned around a corner in your room and saw him staring out of the window. He smiled at you as he offered you one of three choices.

A snake's venom, you feel the glass vial staring back at you. The liquid is transparent red, much like diluted blood swirling around itself.

A bull's horn, with a hollow inside only the shell of bones remains. You put it to your ear and listen to the sounds of worms digging beneath the earth.

A mouse's heart, it's barely the size of your fingernail. Beating still, contrasts of red and blue veins pumping nothing into the void. You say hello, and it squeaks back.

♧

Vlad the Younger

From the way he seems to be studying the atmosphere of the party, it becomes apparent he is out of his usual element here. If you confront him about it, he admits that he never attended a birthday celebration before, even his own he'd usually ignore and be absent for. He simply didn't care for them, never saw the point. Although, since the day his sister was born, he made a habit of leaving gifts for her the day prior. It's a shame she grew out of playing with toys too soon.

A ruby ring it, was for someone else. The framing is made out of solid gold. It weights heavy on your palm and doesn't fit your finger quite right. A clear crimson crystal sits in the middle, not a single flaw amidst the professionally cut gem. For a second, you wonder if it's a proposal from how much the thing resembled an engagement ring. Vlad quickly clears the misunderstanding before it has time to occur. It simply is just a ring. Nothing more and nothing less. If the size is too off, just send it back to him, and he'll take care of resizing it for you.

a precious doll in a puffy dress. It's clearly meant for children yet is still on the high-end expensive kind of dolls, the ones you see in glass box displays. It comes with two different dresses and a golden hairbrush with a butterfly engraved on the back. You think you've seen a similar doll of this style on one of the shelves in Capella's room. Except this one is brand new while the one belonging to his sister was clearly well-loved and played with constantly in the past. He hands it to you with a melancholic smile.

♧

Georgiy Kain

He's very punctual with time, arrives exactly on the stroke of at the hour you've informed him the party would start at, and leaves on the dot at 9pm before bidding his farewells and congratulating you on throwing a successful social event. Saying he looks forward to next year's party, ah, but maybe you'd rather borrow the crucible for it? The location you've picked isn't exactly the most fitting, nor was the space accommodating enough. If you offer to walk him home, he'd find it amusing and indulge you by accepting the offer. The two of you walk about life and its meaning during the short walk.

A one of a kind vase, moulded by his own hands from clay. Countless hours must have been spent in the workshop for a vase to look this effortlessly flawless, as close to perfection as humanity can strive for. He humbly insists it was not a bother, the work was worth it. After all, if he doesn't push his limits with every single piece he makes, how is he supposed to improve? Each one has to put the last to shame, or else the whole process has been a failure, is what the judge explains to you as you awkwardly stand there holding the vase, hands getting sweaty and making you more aware of the possibility of accidentally breaking it. You hurry to carefully place it down a stable surface midway through his speech.

♧

Victor Kain

His congratulations are exactly tailored to fit the minimum standards of what's socially acceptable. He mostly keeps to himself through the party, discreetly keeping an eye on who's Maria's mingling with and making sure Casper doesn't break anything with the wooden sword he insisted on bringing while fighting with Notkin. Midway through the event, him and Bad Grief end up engrossed in their own conversation near the grandfather clock at the entrance of your house.

flowers, a bouquet of pure white roses and peace lilies, to be precise. A milky silk ribbon holds the deep green stems together in a delicate bow. A smaller ribbion made out of transparent lace makes a second bow right below the first one serving a decorative purpose. As you hold it and stare at yourself in the mirror, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach. You quickly place it into his brother's vase instead.

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