#askmeme.txt

[atissi]

Eva Yan?

How I feel about this character:

[Spoilers for Bachelor Route in first paragraph]

I like her but I don’t think I know her! For a long time it didn’t make sense to me why she died, and I think it's because I wasn't paying attention for that day, or an event was missed, or maybe it's cleared up when you talk to her on Day 12. (As you would know, Niru) I’ve been studying her character to get a sense of her voice, but I still feel like her ideals and motives elude me...

That might be because I find it hard to engage with characters who are friendly and helpful...they aren’t as compelling to me as characters who are terrible at talking to others jfklgfg. I do enjoy what P2 is doing with her character, and how spacey and idealistic she is, while being simultaneously so morbid. And the way she was in P1, scared of everything but also very stubborn and brave when committing to her own dreams, can be so fun! Her conversations are definitely interesting but it’s difficult for me to get into that mindset and replicate it. Her anxieties about the quality of her soul, and her relationships to the Stillwater and the Cathedral, are already interesting based on what we get from the art book, so I hope to see more of it in Bachelor’s Route!

And I do love her airy, floral aesthetic. She’s one of those characters I enjoy drawing and collecting Pinterest boards for, but can’t really understand lol. Hopefully that changes the more I roleplay as her.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Eva and Maria, obviously! I also think how Eva and Yulia respect each other’s very different perspectives is cute, but I don’t have an idea of how their dynamic would play out. I actually like Eva and Daniil too, even though Daniil is rude to her a lot in P1, just because she’s one of the best people to take none of his shit while still being his friend. I think the dynamic of like, loving each other, but never meeting at the right time or right place to really make it work for their respective life goals, is tragic in a sweet way. Just like Eva!

My non-romantic OTPs for this character:

...I feel bad for saying this, but I have no thoughts about this. Uh, Daniil technically counts? I know she’s friends with the Stamatins, but until Matt and Caden convert me to caring about those guys, I remain completely apathetic towards their existence.

Wait, wait, fuck it. Eva and Grace. I like their parallels and I think they’d really vibe with each other’s outlooks and personalities. They probably hang out at the graveyard and talk about death while weaving flower crowns.

Niru, can I just recommend all of your Eva writing and call it a day?

My unpopular opinion about this character:

[Spoilers again]

Eva is capable of being quite cowardly and mean, and I wish I saw more content of her focusing on that! Her fear of Artemiy and Clara is funny and also so revealing of her social standing...she’s probably a rich girl from a noble family, if she lives in the Bridge Square. She dreams of being a Herb Bride, but the outside world scares her. She’d rather just dress up and dream of souls and death in a metaphorical sense. It was undeniably bold of her to throw herself from the Cathedral, but what I want to see is the hours leading up to that choice...writing letters with twyrine-numbed hands while praying that she dies cleanly and painlessly. Checking her hair before she leaves the house. Closing the windows so it isn’t cold when Daniil comes back. That sort of stuff.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

If I knew where any of her family was it would be so much easier for me to figure her out. How did she grow up? How did she end up moving to the Stillwater? How did she first meet the Stamatins? Has she ever been to the Capital? How does she feel, always living with someone new? Did she always think and act like this, or did something change as she grew up? Please, I just want more backstory for her!!!!

[red-right-eye-blog]

△ what was your biggest mistake?

5/10

Should not have allowed myself to be placed in the simulation. Bad idea.

[dabbling-in-the-pastel-side]

Don’t mind this post, it’s a tag dump because I’m getting myself some new tags haha

Big thanks to selfawared for the idea for the tags, they’re pretty cool so go check ‘em out!

[atissi]

Viktor Kain :)

How I feel about this character:

Well. I simply. I simply love him very much and that’s the end of it. I just love h

If you look at my track record of favourite characters, there’s like, a worryingly high number of boring old men (and I won’t call myself out by listing them. If you know who they are You Know). And I wish I could say I like Viktor because his relationship to familial duty is interesting (which it is) or because the details of his marriage is a fun mystery (even though it is) or because there’s fascinating parallels between him and his son (which there are) or because his design is good (…no comment) but in the end? In the end? I just vibe with him. I think he’d be nice to hang out with. He’d stand up when you enter the room and shake your hand, then sit back down on his desk and ramble somewhat anxiously about clocks for an hour exactly. And I think that’s nice.

His complexities are less flashy than other characters in Pathologic but I think that’s why he appeals to me. There’s subtleties to the way he talks or carries himself that I could (and have) analyzed for hours. I love that he wears his heart on his sleeve compared to the other town leaders. I love the quiet resentment when he talks about Khan leaving for the Polyhedron. I love that he’s the least weird Kain and still manages to be creepy. I fucking love when he says “…If I’d learned about this earlier, I would have torn his head off already.” Oh, shit, I love this voiceline: “Let’s open the box carefully, and sum it all up” (Viktor you’re talking about Pandora’s box right? You want to open Pandora’s box carefully?). I love that he paces circles alone in his office. I love that he asks for exactly 35 seconds to think about things. I love that he’s political head of one of the most powerful families in Town, widowed husband to the one of the most powerful women, and every single time he’s in a leadership position he looks viscerally uncomfortable. God, what an awkward, fascinating motherfucker.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Someone’s already asked me about Saburov so I’m saving half of my rambling for there, but yeah, it’s no secret, I sell out for Viktor/Saburov. It’s so funny because if you asked me three months ago what my favourite ships were I’d say “Clara/Capella? Tentatively” because I just didn’t care. And now I religiously reread the same three fics that focus on Viktor and Saburov’s relationship because, like, oh my god. Small town political leaders falling into an uncomfortable, secretive pseudo-relationship at the point where they both should’ve ended their romantic careers, except 1) Viktor’s wife is dead and his family is distant and he craves intimacy from anyone bothering to check on him, 2) Saburov is in a loving but uncomprehending marriage to Katerina where he can neither help her nor discuss their mutually blatant infidelity without admitting to himself that his life is a mess, 3) the repressed homosexuality. The Repressed Homosexuality, 4) the drama of falling for a rival while both of your public reputations are on the fritz and you’re both constantly overworked. They’re such painfully lonely people who need each other for intimacy and external validation, but engaging with those needs in the first place can be shameful.

And they really play off each other’s beliefs in that regard! Saburov cares a lot about tradition and Viktor breaks tradition as part of his job. Saburov covers up his gnawing internal conflicts with formalities, while Viktor expresses his conflict through those formalities. Saburov, at his heart, is wildly emotional, and Viktor can’t let himself be emotional in a way that would interfere with his work. But they’re both men who are duty-bound, highly principled, well-meaning (incompetent), and ultimately, needing a friend. My only wish was that their speaking styles were less boring. But I guess it works for the types of character they are.

Nina and Viktor is also quite good because it’s an intellectual exercise. Why the hell did Nina pick him of all people? Why would Viktor “Tax Form Personified” Kain want to marry Nina? My theory is that they promised freedom for each other: Nina would never be restrained by her husband and Viktor would have an outlet for his less sane, more obstructive interests. I’d love to see a slowburn for them where they marry for freedom alone but gradually Nina grows to appreciate and respect Viktor on his own terms (obviously this would be one-sided because it’s impossible not to fall in love with Nina at first sight). I don’t even need a good dynamic to like this ship, though. They love each other to the ends of the earth and I think that’s sweet.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Obviously Viktor and his kids. Some noble souls asked for my Khan and Maria opinions so I’ll discuss this later, but basically, Viktor as a dad is both tragic and tender. I want them to get closure, somehow.

Viktor and Katerina (by proxy of Saburov) is honestly delightful. Bee writes very good angst about them and their mutual relationship to Nina, but I also like them as casual friends. They’re two of the most lowkey people in their social circles and they both like crafts. There’s room for bonding.

There’s also this post I made in a Discord server: “…not to reference niru’s “black pearl” again but…in all seriousness i love the concept of viktor going around the capital hunting for talent on his brothers’ behalves, following newspaper scandals and pulling strings to assemble the weirdest heist team in existence but the heist is the laws of reality. viktor getting coffee with yulia in an austrian cafe. viktor dealing with mark’s bullshit at an opera theatre. viktor having to break into the stamatins’ shared loft because neither of them answer their mail or go outside. itd be a fun montage” So I imagine Viktor is acquainted with all of the outsiders in the town!

[Spoilers for Mark Immortell’s backstory in the next paragraph]

Although, in Mark’s case, I guess Viktor tried to recruit him and Mark said “Not right now. Wait until I get fucked up by a Caravan scandal and come running to your Town for refuge” and Viktor was like “??? k.”

My unpopular opinion about this character:

It’s not strictly canon and mostly based on how I type him in the Enneagram (9w1), but I think he has a lot of pent-up anger! He regularly gives up his personal interests out of familial duty, and he’s expected to be relaxed and professional about that. Never seeing your son for years because your brothers told you it was important for his Spiritual Progress has, uh, got to sting! And maybe he feels betrayed by Caspar for leaving him, and then resents himself for being angry at his pre-teen son, and he feels betrayed by Simon for encouraging Caspar to leave, then resents himself for being angry at a dead man, and he gets angry at Georgiy for being so callous about the townspeople’s wellbeings, but resents himself for being angry at his last surviving brother, and etc. etc. etc. Actually my unpopular opinion about him is that he should retire and get a therapist.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

Full transparency, I haven’t finished Pathologic 2. But I’m fairly sure we don’t see Khan and Viktor’s reunion in either game and oh god, I desperately want to see that. I don’t need it to end happily, I just need them standing next to each other, similar appearances, similar voices, similar tics, in the aftermath of the Plague and having an honest discussion about their future with or without each other. I would cry. IPL, you have the power to kill me in one shot.

[red-right-eye-blog]

△ If you had the ability, would you take any of it back? Would you change anything about who you were and what you did?

7/10

That’s a strange thing to ask someone who’s undergone complete personality drift. Yes, some of the things I reportedly did before the neuromod tests now seem incomprehensible, even unthinkable, to me. But then, if I hadn’t made many of those choices, then “I” wouldn’t exist as I do now. The truth is, I don’t think I could bring myself to change anything. I don’t feel I have the right.

Except perhaps implementing stronger safeguards on the Typhon, before entering the tests. How the hell did they break containment? Things could have gone so differently...

[atissi]

maria 🔪🔪🔪

How I feel about this character:

Y’know, I’ve actually become quite fond of her? At the start, I wanted to like her because We Stan Evil Women, but because she was being positioned opposite of Eva as this “bad girl vs. good girl” thing in the Bachelor’s route, I found her a little...trite? Like, okay, she’s hot and mean. We get it. But I’m really enjoying how P2 is fleshing out her emotional relationship to the role of the Mistress and making her, I dunno, more relatable. She’s young and overcompensating because she’s anxious about becoming a self-responsible adult. Kind of a mood!

The way people talk about her she’s a Nina 2.0, but she falls short in too many ways to really control the Plague the way her mother would (or at least the Town’s image of her mother). Maria acts confident, but she has the recklessness and naivete of her youth, as well as the family’s general afflictions: crippled by familial duty, a lacking support network, antagonism towards anyone who could be a part of it, and the egotism to never consider changing her ways. Maria is mean in a way that doesn’t command respect like Nina did, but makes her look like a petulant and insane teenager. Maria is aware of this discrepancy and it scares the fuck out of her. She’s placed as a natural progression of Capella’s character, where she knows her powers and can act on them, but is completely unprepared to fulfill her mother’s legacy. All of the Mistresses in Town feel inadequate, but Maria is the one who gets frustratingly close to being the Scarlet Mistress that the Town needs. She’s trying to close that distance through sheer bluster. And she’s trying really hard...!

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

I’ve been on an Eva/Maria kick recently. Did you know that they have zero fics on AO3? It’s abhorrent. It’s a void that needs to be filled. I think Maria needs someone like Eva in her life, someone who is kind and easygoing and non-judgemental, someone that Maria can relax around. I want to have more thoughts about what Eva gets out of the relationship, but I don’t know Eva well enough yet...thoughts pending on that subject. But they have complementary dispositions and similar ideals, and honestly, I like to imagine them braiding each other’s hair while listening to their favourite songs on records. I think they need girls their own age to hang out with.

I’m also playing with the idea of Maria’s future marriage prospects. It’s discussed in P1 that Maria needs to marry someone who will ground her as the Scarlet Mistress, the best option being Vlad Jr. Where would Maria’s romance with Eva fit in the picture? How would Eva play off of the Scarlet Mistress’s absurdity? How would the Kains react to that romance, and how would Maria react to their reaction? I’ve written three scenes trying to play this story out, but...no promises when it will be done, lol.

I’ll discuss this more later, but I see Maria as fairly young, so there’s not many other characters I would be comfortable shipping with her. Fuck it, Anna, I guess? Crazy girls being crazy together.

My non-romantic OTPs for this character:

Alright, let’s do it, let’s talk about Maria and Viktor. Warning that I’m going to be wildly extrapolating off of my own headcanons for a while.

So, if you’ve been following my character dissections, you’ll know that I see Viktor having a lot of pent-up anger towards his family members, but I deliberately left Maria out of that list. A detail that really interests me is that Viktor has this life-sized painting of the Scarlet Mistress in his foyer, and while in a meta-sense it’s the art of Maria for the tabletop game, in an in-story context it makes more sense for this woman to be Nina. And then, at the same time, isn’t it both women at once? Viktor sees so much of Nina in Maria, from her personality to her appearance to her role, and he loves her unconditionally as his daughter. Unlike the rest of his family, she hasn’t betrayed his trust in any significant way. Her unpredictability and unruliness is part of what makes her special. But at the same time, she’s not her mother, and she’s fucking things up, and people keep telling Viktor to discipline her. But how can he chastise the only family member he can, no-holds-barred, care for?

At the same time, for Maria, Viktor is a manifestation of all the familial responsibilities and restraints that are weighing her down. He is the old system, old bureaucracy, and he expects her to be Nina when she just. Can’t. Maria hasn’t run away like Khan has, but in P2 she makes it clear that she doesn’t listen to Viktor about anything. She’s carving her own path. And wouldn’t that hurt both her and her father, to be grieving the same woman but unable to interact with someone who understands that grief without reminding each other of her? Anyways.

Maria and Khan are a fun sibling dynamic to think about. They diss each other in their voicelines, but they also trust each other more than the rest of their family, and probably bond over wanting to break away from them. I imagine them as, like, the kind of siblings who were never close growing up but have formed an alliance out of necessity. At the same time, I love the image of Khan kicking Maria out of the Polyhedron once she turned 18. They probably annoy the shit out of each other.

Oh boy, I also hope we see more of Maria and Capella in P2. Like I said, they share a lot of personal issues, and they’re also being set up to share the same rivalry as their mothers. When Maria says “Capella is so cute... it would be charming to sing a canon with her.” ...I want more cute content like that, please. Content of them, like, knowing they should hate each other, but still respecting and in some ways pitying the other girl? And being condescending. And handling politics between their respective followings of youth. That could be fun.

Aaand, I think Maria and Vlad Jr’s dynamic could be funny. Not necessarily as friends, but I think Maria could really dig into Vlad Jr’s brand of Utopianism and Vlad would be the straight man to all of Maria’s bullshit. Maybe more of a drinking buddies dynamic?

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I like that they aged her down for P2. Now, I hope that they don’t keep her romances with Daniil and Vlad Jr in P2, because that would be really weird. But I think making her young--barely an adult--drives home her insecurities about her role. She’s not a 26 year old sassy woman controlling the Town with a silk glove and an iron fist. She is a 20(?) year old girl who doesn’t belong among either the kids or the adults. Now, all her antics running around Town lose their credibility. Her glaring weaknesses are compelling, and they parallel all the other people trying to save the Town by repeating old mistakes. What can I say? I love a good coming-of-age premise.

Also I dislike her design in both games, but I don’t know if that’s unpopular lol. I want her...to look more gothic and edgy. Is that so much to ask.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

Oh, god, I wish Artemiy didn’t have the option to flirt with her. Even if she was older they are so uncomfortable to sit through. But that’s not really a plot thing, so, hm… I guess I wanted to see more friendships from her in general, but specifically to women. Like, I hope Eva and Maria interact in P2 Bachelor’s Route, because they’re the only two Utopian women and I think they deserve some kind of dynamic. I want a better idea of how Maria talks to people she actually likes!!

[atissi]

i do not know anything about pathologic 2 (yet?) but i do know that the girl character you can play as seems very good and would love to hear the take on her

hi cyan!!! yes clara is very cool! i’ll try to make my response approachable for you in that regard

How I feel about this character:

She’s very fun. I love that in a game about serious plague doctors and back-alley murder you can play as this teenage miracle worker and feel no less condescended for it. It’s so rare for girl characters to be grimy, mean, and powerful without apology, and then being able to see the world through their eyes (except for the girls in XXXX I guess, Cyan). I love that she’s judgemental, and I love that her dialogue spins wildly between cute and ominous. I love that the saint girl is told to befriend and save the nastiest people in town. I love that she has this evil twin that centralizes all of Clara’s worst traits and harmful actions, but ultimately it’s not clear where one twin’s guilt ends and the other’s begins. Her route is just jam-packed with interesting themes and concepts, and I think it’s a shame they don’t get more attention.

Alright, the next parts are where I start throwing out things like character names and plot.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

I like Clara and Capella! They are two of the Mistresses coming into power in the town, aligned with rival families, and on a level Capella knows Clara doesn’t belong in the story. I think the tension and antagonism that can be mined from that is fun. Capella’s kindness being tested by Clara’s teasing, and bringing out some of her meaner side. I love that! I also love the scandal of it all: the rich Olgimskiy’s daughter running around with the girl who crawled out of a grave.

Grace and Clara is also cute, I’m just less committed to it. They’re graveyard girlfriends! One of my weirder ship ideas is Clara and Notkin, solely because Clara would be too cool for him and the resulting rough-n’-tumble showboating between those two could be funny.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I like Clara and the Saburovs in the sense that, like, they’re her weird aunt and uncle who buy her a lot of gifts at holidays and give advice, but the moment she needs them for emotional support they’re in their summer home. That’s okay. That’s why she has her other dad. I’m too fond of the Clara and Saburov dynamic to give it up entirely, but they definitely aren’t fit to be her full-time parents.

Shocker, but I also like Clara’s dynamic with Artemiy and Daniil. Again, I think as a family they’d be disastrous. But they have so many narrative parallels and a long history working together that I imagine them being inextricably drawn together over time, kicking and screaming along the way, but never escaping each other. I’ve said it before but they’re like partners on a group project who only interact through bullying but nonetheless hang out constantly. (And, yes, maybe they can be good friends too. Baby steps.)

Clara being friends with the Humbles is hilariously morbid and I want to see more of it. Clara being friends with the Termites is plain sweet, and I’d also like to see more of it. Clara just works well with so many different characters, but maybe I’m biased from writing longfic for her.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I think the predominant image of Clara is a chaotic little gremlin child, which is, you know, not entirely wrong. But I also see her as very principled. She has a lot of ideas about the right way of healing and scolds people who go outside of that, and she’s certainly not a ditz. I like to imagine she reads a lot of dense religious texts, not absorbing all of it, but basking in the ideas of piety. Also she folds the corners of pages to mark them.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

[Spoilers for Clara route]

I’m far from the first person to say it but it’d be so interesting if she could actually convert people to be Humbles and it wasn’t all flavour-text for a pre-chosen cast. Clara would get to be a charisma leader and really play with the ideas of what may lead someone to self-martyrdom. But y'know. Might be difficult for IPL to write all of that.

I also think she should have acne because teenage!! girl!!! rights!!!!!

[petulant-bunpd-blog]

Sun, Taurus, Lilith

sun: what makes you feel like you?

disablesian club and tarako

taurus: are you a dog or cat person?

kitties are my fav, but i love the puppers too

lilith: what’s your biggest turn on in some one?

tbh they just have to b rly nice