#patho ask

[xabarik]

я сделала первый ответ в аск :-) приветку не буду кидать но она есть нам там весело an thing for the patho ask :-) translation isnt perfect but i was TRY my best There's a lot of biblical references (unfortunately not very popular but i mean apostle andrey is exist its something) and i little bit of blood Q: Were you like that when you were young? Violent and obsessed with will?

Violent?! Obsessed! Pal, are you sure you're not mistaking me for someone else?! I guess you don't care for your tongue at all. I'm not "violent", it's you the one who's fearful. And I've never been afraid. 

But when I was young, it wasn't will that drove me, no. Behind the action was a thought, an idea! I believed that by not doing what my hands longed for, I could get something more... I knew I couldI could keep from burning in a fire, from being taken by a bullet. But that's what the rules were made for. A cage for the will.

But in a single moment, all goals were forgotten. I knew the punishment that awaited me. A punishment that would tear my skull apart with the fire of guilt. One moment stretched into hours. For I had anticipated. Waited. But nothing happened. Then I realized that neither fire nor bullet could take me. I realized my nature. I realized my purpose. And I realized freedom. Will. 

I became "obsessed" with this knowledge, if you like. You would like to believe that this is my obsession from a young age, don't you?

[pathologicy]

Thank you for the Kaede deserves and gets better propaganda. Good food indeed!

of course ! she deserves so much more than what was given to her in canon , i will definitely be drawing her more soon enough !

[chalkrub]

strange fellas

[thanatika]

I want to know about comphet dankovsky

the people clamor for comphet dankovsky. well alright.

this might be a little long and disjointed, but i'll try to explain my full thought process. it'll be long and very off-topic.

as a tl;dr, the basic #1 reason i have this headcanon: it fits very well with how seriously repressed dankovsky seems to be, especially in P1, and especially when it comes to love:

of course, it's not just love — he also acts deeply uncomfortable whenever the topic of mental illness comes up, or whenever someone cries in front of him. but this just goes to show that emotional repression and denial seem to be standard coping techniques that he falls back on. (this is reinforced by the quarantine DLC, where apparently one of the devs has said that the bodies of bandits he kills disappearing is meant to represent him dissociating and repressing it.)

this coping mechanism is also lampshaded in the changeling route, where the npc bachelor makes an impressive discovery — he figures out that he's a doll all on his own, and then decides that this is the lesson to derive from it:

"the essence of my discovery", indeed. it's a little unclear what he means by "deny yourself" — deny his true nature as a mere toy, and the corresponding mental breakdown that would understandably accompany that? or maybe it's to deny his own self fulfillment of what he actually wishes to pursue. clara's next conversation with him is their last one, in the cathedral, and even right at the end, he's still conflicted by his own desire to preserve the town (which is supported by his own route, where he's given dialogue options that imply an intention to save it even on day 12):

which, notably, he connects to allying with the haruspex, an option he immediately discounts because "the only thing artemy wants" is related to his love interest, aglaya. (honestly, the way dankovsky talks about artemy in relation to aglaya at the end of all three routes is really easy to read as some kind of incredibly jilted unrequited love triangle. but that would make this post twice as long, so anyway.) clara's exchange with dankovsky in the cathedral ends with this:

test failed! but why is this the wrong answer? and why does clara interrupt him to guess what he's going to say? well, it's actually a little meta moment, a reference to the fact that clara is imbued with more awareness than the other player characters, to the point of having some knowledge of previous routes. the player-as-changeling predicts that he's driven by love, because the player-as-bachelor can admit exactly this to artemy, during their cathedral conversation in the bachelor route:

aside from the loaded daniil-artemy-aglaya dynamic, it stands out to me that the only way dankovsky can bring himself to admit aloud to being "driven by love" is if the player controlling him prompts him to. he won't do it on his own. he won't be a great talker right now, especially on this topic.

though to be fair, he does say "i love the polyhedron" to clara, which has some significance as well. dankovsky sympathizes with the polyhedron, makes an emphatic defense for it being "worthy of love". his affinity for it is more obviously connected to the fact that he sees it as something that defies the laws of inevitability, as something similar to his own work, as he explains to the inquisitor: "I feel slightly envious. Like me, its creator has tried to break through to where men are not allowed. But, unlike me, he succeeded." and therefore, a miracle worth preserving. but the polyhedron itself is a product of love — peter's love for nina — and is spoken about in terms of love by peter himself:

the polyhedron loves, but it's a doomed, unrequited love, incompatible with life. dankovsky's dialogue options about the polyhedron by the end game are a mixed bag: sometimes he talks about it in these romantic terms, sometimes he's much more practical in his defense of it, hyping up its antiseptic properties. probably it's a way of allowing the player to choose what they think, but it may also serve to emphasize dankovsky's hesitance to express this emotional aspect of his sympathy for it. but it does seem like the doomed nature of the polyhedron is a major point of sympathy to him. the same goes for the utopians in general, according to the letter he sends to the haruspex declaring his allegience:

which gets to the topic of how the concept of dankovsky and compulsory heterosexuality relates to the utopians.

for that, i first have to point out something that i don't really see people talk about ever: the way that sexuality in general is moralized by the three different factions in the game.

the utopians are the most obvious about this: they're kind of debauched, aren't they? at least by socially conservative standards which place procreative heterosexuality and traditional gender roles as the ideal. all of the canonical lgbt characters fell under the utopian banner at some point: bisexuals andrey and eva, lesbian yulia. even beyond sexuality in those terms, you can see non-normative sexuality in things like eva's polyamory, the somewhat inverted gender roles of victor and nina's relationship (which is said to have been a common topic of gossip among the townsfolk), the fact that maria seems intent to either follow her mother's path as a non-traditional wife or to forgo a marriage partner altogether, the uncomfortably enmeshed dynamic between andrey and peter, simon and georgiy's lack of heirs. the utopians have been stated in developer interviews to be a (not particularly sympathetic) metaphor for social revolutionary movements, which often incorporated progressive thinking in terms of sexuality and gender. so i think that's where this comes from, although it does also feel a bit "sexual deviance as a signifier of immorality". the classic gay disney villain trope.

and the humbles feel even more like they're playing into that trope. in addition to yulia, their ranks include aspity and bad grief — who i would be tempted to include in the list of canonical lgbt characters, considering aspity's comments about women's bodies and the suggestive comments that bad grief can make towards both the bachelor and the haruspex. it's also worth noting that the only thing separating the humbles from the utopians, at least as far as the humbles are concerned, is that the humbles are repenting sinners while the utopians are ultimately unrepentant. alexander and katerina saburov also fail to live up to heteronormative standards, because their union is non-procreative, but at least they have the decency to be wringing their hands over this. and this view of utopians as unsaved humbles is why clara spends half of her quests trying and failing to convert various utopians to the cult of humility.

with all of that going on with the other two factions, the termites are starkly different in comparison. the termites are a faction of children, so there's not much about actual sexuality, thank god, but their whole deal is shockingly heteronormative nonetheless. the termites, at the end of the game, are preoccupied with setting up traditional arranged marriages with each other under the guidance of capella:

(note to patho2 heads: this is classic where "artemy adopts sticky and murky in particular" isn't really a thing. still weird with how much younger murky is, but khan and capella do have the same age gap in classic. so i think this is all meant to be read as a childish playacting of the sorts of political arranged marriages that were once more commonplace, or it's just the problematic game being problematic.)

overall, they seem rather unenthusiastic about these future marriages. capella refers to her future engagement with khan as "the saddest" thing she has to do and "self-abnegation", while sticky is more casually disappointed by his future options. artemy is also the only healer to have an implied love interest reward tied to choosing his ending — you could argue the same for dankovsky and maria, but this is disproven by word of god and the bachelor's absence from his own ending cinematic — a heterosexual love interest, of course. because this is a big part of what the termite ending represents: it's framed as "new beginnings", but "new beginning" is really just a return to tradition. to the perpetuation of normative social values, the lack of any scary social upheaval. the Law. just look at how the inquisitor, the biggest proponent of the termite ending aside from capella, describes how the Law relates to self-discovery:

"an attempt to cognize oneself is a provocation" is interesting phrasing when compared with dankovsky's "self-denial is the meaning here" discovery from the same route. i used the sloppy 2005 translation because it includes a whole additional sentence that was cut from the remaster, so i'll also share the 2005 version of that self-denial exchange. rather than say "It's only fitting that you should reject" your nature, clara's retort to him was originally more explicit in putting a religious morality on human nature, and his in particular:

but i'm getting sidetracked. the main point i have in breaking down how sexuality is moralized between the different factions is to point out that for one, dankovsky's affinity with the utopians allies him with a group that is portrayed as debauched by conservative standards of sexuality, which to me has always been an indicator in headcanoning him as gay, secondary to, you know. things that he says. but the fact that he never fully joins the utopians is part of why he seems so repressed to me.

the fact that he doesn't appear in his own ending cinematic (it's more like maria's ending cinematic, really) has been confirmed to be intentional, and even on the last day of the game, his dialogue options towards his bound imply a certain amount of discomfort with them. the one exception might be peter, but dankovsky's final conversation with peter has two ending options: to say that the utopians and their future town are doomed to fail, or to support peter's vision but express regret that the cost of supporting him is bringing "a gang of criminals and scoundrels" into power.

part of dankovsky's schism with the utopians, imo, is that they go "too far" — they're "too weird" for him, is what was said when someone asked in a forum why he doesn't appear in the utopian ending, iirc. and there's something to be said for how the utopians are portrayed overall as very personally liberated, egoist, a bit hedonistic in some cases... and then dankovsky, who appears very buttoned down and whose dialogue options at times lean more towards agreement with alexander saburov than with the kains on the issue of town management — very law and order. it's an interesting contradiction to his character overall: someone who's so invested in breaking natural laws, in breaking laws of inevitability, but who still makes emphatic statements about enforcing law and order in the town, who still seems invested in performing and projecting a certain kind of social respectability.

the bachelor route day 2 conversation with andrey about "unnatural orifices" is one of the best encapsulations of this imo, so i'll break the whole conversation down to try and explain.

the conversation starts off with andrey offering booze to dankovsky, and calling him a "prisoner of science" — the first of what will become an ongoing pattern throughout the game in which dankovsky's scientific "rationality" is referenced as something that limits him, either by leaving him cold and heartless or by skewing his mindset so that he can't see beyond his institutional academic perspective.

dankovsky turns the conversation to what he wants to complain about — the town's local traditions inconveniencing his work — but andrey takes it as an opportunity to start talking about the "intimacy" of making holes in bodies, including in a sexual context. andrey as a character likes to be provocative, dankovsky's options are various levels of discomfort, disinterest, and dismissiveness. (if there's one thing you can't accuse him of, it's "locker room talk" — he responds with similar discomfort when peter tries to gossip to him about katerina sleeping with taxidermy, or tries to tell him about the sexualized naked women he hallucinates when aglaya visits his loft).

he tries to dismiss andrey's crude line of thinking, which is criticized as an appeal to capital social mores. and then andrey starts talking about unnatural holes.

don't get me wrong, this conversation is about murder — and, by way of metaphor, the polyhedron, which was created by puncturing an unnatural hole in the body of the earth. but andrey beginning the conversation by talking about sex, combined with their university acquaintanceship alluded to in their first conversation (getting in bar fights together and everything) leads me to read a secondary double entendre into this conversation. not to mention andrey's canonically implied bisexuality, some of which is likely inspired by the character taking inspiration from benvenuto cellini, a bisexual renaissance-era sculptor who was repeatedly prosecuted for sodomy. dankovsky accuses andrey of "creating unnatural holes in bodies", which has been linked to dissection, murder, and sex from the start of the conversation.

andrey makes a vague reference to the fact that he did possibly kill someone with a pencil — the earth, via his insane architectural designs — but it's "just a theory". phew. then he swiftly changes the subject before dankovsky can ask too many questions, and ends the conversation by making another invitation for dankovsky to join him in drinking and debauchery. "no need to restrict ourselves", etc.

i'll note that an invitation to drink together is levied again at dankovsky a little later by eva, and in that case is explicitly implied to be an invitation to sleep together. in both instances, dankovsky wants nothing to do with it. his first option is to tell andrey to go right ahead and drink alone — enjoy your liver damage, buddy, couldn't be me. his second option is to accept the drink... but not in public. either way, being told to "open up everything that's supposed to lie hidden under wraps" is dankovsky's cue to leave the conversation.

a reach? yes, but that's how i interpret the subtext of these conversations as they relate to dankovsky's repression and his view of the utopians.

honestly, i've made the case for him being homosexual and repressed here more than i've made the case for him to be engaging in compulsory heterosexuality. so i'll end by pointing out that while i've typically seen people headcanon a character as comphet to explain a canonical "hetero" relationship or attraction they express, there isn't much like that going on with dankovsky to talk about, at least in classic.

sure, he has some dialogue options with women in classic that are flirtatious, but it never seems like the dialogue is leaning the player more towards picking those options than not picking them — there are just as many options to express disinterest in women being attracted to him, and sometimes they're the only response options, which makes me more inclined to view those as "canonical". so, really my headcanon comes more from this view of him as rather repressed, and specifically that messy contradiction of his character in desiring to move past societal restrictions while also never fully letting go of his own, the fact that he seems to feel the need to "prove himself" by society's standards. and, well, his practicality. his study of thanatology seems to have left his reputation in the capital somewhat smeared, likely due to the connotations with necromancy and violating the natural order. i could see him attempting to salvage his reputation somewhat by trying to prove that he's totally a perfectly normal guy who can be in socially normative relationships, and not just some weird academic radical.

pathologic 2 and marble nest don't say much for or against this, aside from dankovsky's "I never even told her how I felt…" voiceline, which is likely about eva. but we don't know enough about the context or their relationship, and will likely have to wait until pathologic 3 to find out.

though, i will say that the quarantine DLC had an exchange that i'm taking as ammunition for this headcanon:

guy who invents a hypothetical wife just for a hypothetical scenario where he has to give up that wife. and then is immediately told by his close female colleague that """given the way he lives""" he'll never have a wife... okay.

okay that's it. congrats if you made it this far into my rambling haha.

[reifblue]

Питьевая вода

bro I don’t think this water is safe to drink tbh

[setmeatopthepyre]

Waking up to find you're doing Make Me Write is how I'd like to wake up EVERY DAY

🦋🦋🦋

waking up to kind messages from you is how I wanna wake up every day!! thank you you wonderful person

-

🦋 - pothos | pathos

The Santa Ana winds blow in with a vengeance, hot and dry, promising to bring restless nights, busy shifts and wildfires and upset to the status quo. Not that Buck’s status has been feeling very quo, lately.

He doesn’t know enough Latin to know if that’s right. He should probably check.

The alarm going off puts the breaks on that little research spiral.

(He gets a moment, in the engine, to look it up. It translates to the state in which. The state in which what? It sounds unmoored, unfinished. Maybe that is what he’s feeling. Or it could be derived from status quo ante, the way things were before? Buck doesn’t have time to check, is pocketing his phone and leaping down from the engine to deal with an electrical fire, but if the status quo is the way things were before, he knows it's something he can never go back to.)

Two days later, the Santa Anas blow in more than just hot dry air, wildfires and unrest. They also blow in Tommy.

Or, more accurately, they blow Buck towards Tommy. Quite literally.

He’s rappelling down the side of a high rise, getting into position to perform The Maneuver. The bright sun’s beating down on him and he knows he’d be sweating if the wind wasn’t so hot and dry. Knows he probably is sweating but just doesn’t notice it, knows he should make sure to hydrate when he gets back down. But right now, that isn’t important. Right now, he has a life to save.

Their victim -patient?- is six-five-four floors down, awkwardly twisted in the wide open window, speaking to someone inside. There’s another team at the scene. They’re the ones who called in for back-up, and that’s Buck. Buck’s the guy who gets to swoop in and save the day. That would’ve probably made him feel real good about himself at one point, but it doesn’t really, right now. He has full faith in his harness, in the ropes securing him, in Eddie working the winch above, but he’d be lying if he didn’t feel a little lost, a little untethered. In the non-physical sense.

He just hopes the woman in the window has someone to lean on when they get her down.

He kind of wishes he did. Which isn’t fair, because he does, it just… doesn’t really feel like that, sometimes.

Most times, recently.

But Buck’s close now, has to be quiet so as not to alert the woman to what they’re up to, to spook her into a decision she can’t come back from, but then the wind snags at him, lifts him away from the structure, sways him off course and he has a second to hope she won’t hear, and then a second to lament the bruises he’s going to have when he involuntarily collides with the high-rise again, except…

A strong hand grips at one bicep, then the other. Braces him, keeps him from smacking into the glass like a bird who doesn’t understand the strange human concept of windows.

He blinks at the familiar face in the open window. Opens his mouth. Tommy shakes his head, presses his lips together to mime quiet, inclines his head towards the woman below, two stories down, and Buck snaps his mouth shut again. Tommy’s lips twitch into a smile and through the shock of seeing him, of those wide warm hands gripping his arms still, Buck can’t help but notice that Tommy looks good. He looks handsome and strong and sure and well-rested and not at all heart-broken and that should hurt, probably, but there’s recognition, too, this time, and that makes up for so much, almost makes up for everything.

Tommy’s eyes are blue and bright and sharp and interested and Buck’s mouth feels dry with more than just the looming threat of dehydration.

-

[make me write]

+ tag list for those who requested tags for this fic under the cut ↓

@fiyaerrigan @bisexualbrainrots @leashybebes @louuieferrignojr @rubydaiquiri @teabroomsandbooks @crimsonwildcat-blog @sweaters-and-silly @nochance-noway @manifestingchaoticvibes @hyperfocusthusly @frogsinflannel @beanarie @rcmclachlan @sad-girl-hours23 @ambernotember @apartmentsmoke @bidisasterevankinard @agentpeggycartering @eliotwaughdeservesbetter @daughterofscotland @chococara25 @jujuberry136 @alejaan91 @ferrigno @detectivehorror @a-mel0n @tommysdaddykink

[nerdkiller]

Hi! Whenever you can do you mind giving me some examples of Capella’s racism and misogyny in classic? Thank you!!!

I'm curious about what you've seen that led to you asking me this question? I have an answer but I always like to know the context. I'll take any opportunity to ramble on about Capella nonetheless.

To answer it briefly, the most clear example of her racism would be against Artemy when she says that to everyone he's just an "unlikable savage with backwards ideas," using that point as a way to manipulate him into believing he has no future outside of her [Capella's] plans. I think it captures the irony of her position as the one who is ostensibly supporting the Kin, because she has Artemy as her hero and Taya on her side, and is apparently one who is much more humane than her father and even her brother. Also through Taya we learn that she told her to step aside and not bother the other Mistresses, and Artemy's tone in response is a little reserved and defeated when Taya tells him things "will be better" in my opinion.

As for misogyny, I actually think she possesses a clear analysis of how women are targeted to the Bachelor early when the witch hunts for the shabnak are happening. I think that the whole dichotomy of Mistresses/Rulers is a bit misogynistic because of it disguising the material conditions of the Mistresses, which is that all material power and influence still is in the hands of their husbands and that marital relationship, despite the idea that the husbands are supposedly their actors. However, even though this is a game and exists in the realm of fantasy where the Mistresses' powers are legitimized, they are ironized too by the game itself; Saburov's last conversation with Clara comes to mind (which is another very interesting discussion). So Capella then expanding that by promising that her female Bound will be Mistresses and then setting them up with their male peers in such a way becomes problematic as a method to empower them/the society they represent, the latter of which is something I think she genuinely believes is good.

That's what makes her so fascinating honestly; I can't hate her for any of this, because I think her intentions are good and she's so mature and intelligent, especially considering the adults we deal with, and yet her understanding is nowhere near complete. I don't think she's consciously doing any of these things to be malicious or controlling, or racist and misogynistic. She's very human in that regard.

[wiltkingart]

PATHO 3 CONFIRMED DANIIL’S PUSSY SHALL BE OBLITERATED

i need his cervix torn to shreds by the time space continuum 🧎‍♂️

[day-azevir]

So logo knows its in a system, but how much does it know about etho and patho specifically? It rly interests me as the only one who's got that information :3

It gets really boring at night when half the server is asleep, so when Logo isn't secretly co-fronting during the day, it'll go on scavenger hunts to find out what happened. Logo was able to figure out a lot about Etho like this: frequents this base more than that = closer friends, has an over stock of one block that's suddenly gone = likely a shop, woke up at someone else's house = must be helping on a long term project. And what Logo can't figure out, Impulse will happily tell it. All that combined, it knows about as much about Etho as all the other hermits and then a little bit more

It's a bit harder to do the back tracking with Patho because they wake up and think one of two things: 'the gods are dead, nothing is real, time to hang out with the illusitory versions of the hermits the jungle made to keep me placid' or 'the gods are dead, nothing is real, and I got to get the fuck out of here'. On the days Patho sticks around, the scavenger hunt feels more like searching for bigfoot, and usually ends with Logo going to one of the nHo members and staring at them till they share the events of the day. Its really easy to tell when Patho tries to "escape" because the week that follows always involves way more visits from the other hermits

Logo also figured out how Etho and Patho clash because of this, and does some light mediation between the two. It took Etho so long to build a base with a roof because Patho is claustrophobic and Logo kept throwing away the blueprints so Patho wouldn't feel so trapped in the base. Logo always makes sure to carry an extra ender chest in case Patho runs so when Etho wakes up he's not without materials. Now it just has to figure out how to get the two to agree on a sleep schedule

[seance]

THE MUSKETEERS 10TH ANNIVERSARY REWATCH / fave episodes [4/?] ↳ SEASON 1, EPISODE 10 / musketeers don't die easily

[writingjourney]

Really, just remember to be kind and supportive. It's so much more important than notes, numbers, reach or whatever. Fandom spaces can be very toxic and the mechanisms of social media don't help, but first and foremost they are a community of people. Support and kindness will always transcend anything ♡

[blasphemousclaw]

*spots another Vengeance-Seeking Hornsent fan through looking at the tags in fav SoTE NPC poll* I am still seeing "he was a potentate himself because of the mask" claims here and there 😔 I honestly think he is wearing the mask for its actual function: to ward off the doubts and other things that make you lose focus, since he must keep his mind fixed on revenge. Besides he comes from Belurat and not Bonny Village (revealed if you share scorpion soup with him) and his trademark weapon implies he only grabbed a sword for revenge and didn't wield weapon before, let alone their butchering knife

These are just what I think. What do you think about him and the "discourse" though? Do you lean strongly to this or that side or neutral on both takes?

HORNSENT NATION

OK so I was always kind of kind of torn between whether I believed he was a greater potentate or not, but I was leaning towards him being a potentate… BUT then after you sent this I went on a deep dive to see if I could prove either theory, and what I found really made feel like he WASN’T a potentate???

I went through like every possible source of info in the game and listed all the possible interpretations so I’m gonna list a bunch of it here with my conclusion:

Bonny Butcher’s Cleaver: “An outsize butcher's cleaver used to dismember human bodies in the making of the great jars stored in the gaols.”

Hefty Cracked Pot: “The greater potentates of Bonny Village craft these and store them in a frozen gaol.”

From these items we learn that the jars are exclusively made at Bonny Village from dismembered shamans, are transported to the gaols, and stored there under freezing temperatures probably so the innards don’t spoil, like a giant fridge?? Then, we learn from the Belurat Gaol spirit that misbehaving prisoners are added to the shaman jars there, where their flesh “melds harmoniously” together. So the greater potentates only operate at Bonny Village, and I think it’s also implied that only Bonny Village natives are potentates:

“A record of crafting techniques of the greater potentate who roamed lands near and far. Haunted by the grotesque practice of his village of birth, he stuffed great pots with all manner of things.” (Greater Potentate Cookbooks)

It seems like being a greater potentate is kind of like, a family business, since the practice is strictly localized to the one village and this particular guy was basically born into the profession there even though he found it ghoulish. So I’m doubting that outsiders from other places became potentates?

If Hornsent is a potentate, he’d probably have to be from Bonny Village, or at the very least, live there… and like you said, I think the game is screaming that he’s from Belurat! Freyja has this to say about him:

“Do you know why the eternally dour fellow keeps his distance? He’s one of the tower’s Hornsent. I can only assume he fights for his own reasons, and carries his own burdens.”

I feel like this almost certainly means that Hornsent is from Belurat because Freyja specifically says “the tower.” Freyja and Hornsent are also standing right in front of the Belurat gate when you get this dialogue. There’s also the scorpion stew interaction with him:

Scorpion Stew: “Scorpion simmered in a black soup. Traditional meal of the hornsent. […] Once made with love by a certain elderly woman for the family table. Having long gone cold, this soup gives off a rank, sour smell.”

Hornsent says this when you give it to him:

“What’s this? Do you think me in need of alms? Ah… but this dish. Tis fare o’ the tower. I remember fondly this kin-clad scent. …Brings back memories I’d all but forgot. This, by my troth, is but a dismal copy. Indeed, I think it rather plain to see… things once broken can never be the same.”

So I don’t think scorpion stew is exclusive to Belurat by any means, since there’s many other Hornsent settlements, but I think it means something that Hornsent immediately thinks of the Tower when he sniffs the stew. I also think that him pondering this theme of “things once broken” makes the most sense in the context of Belurat… you can give Hornsent the stew only after traversing all of Belurat, beating Divine Beast, and talking to Hornsent Grandam, so you’ve seen Belurat’s ruins with your own eyes and learned that it was once a place where families cooked and ate scorpion stew together. That really resonates with Hornsent’s vengeance in the name of his murdered mother, wife, and child! Him having lived through what happened to Belurat personally just makes sense!

Ok so why does Hornsent wear the potentate mask??

I think you’re right that he’d only be wearing it for its ritual purposes:

Caterpillar Mask: “Grotesque mask constructed from countless solidified caterpillars. A ritual implement of the greater potentates of Bonny Village. Used to ward off thoughts of impurity, doubt, temptation, and other wickednesses one is vulnerable to while absorbed in divine ritual.”

Makes sense that potentates would want to banish any feelings of doubt or temptation or any other distractions when their job is to kill and dismember people… which is a sentiment that absolutely applies to Hornsent’s goals as a vengeance-seeker. Also, the jar-making is described as a “divine ritual,” and the act of seeking revenge also seems really ritualistic? Hornsent’s robe is created specifically for the purpose of vengeance:

Braided Cord Robe: “Ragged black cloth overlaid with braided cord. Attire of a vengeance-seeking hornsent. The braided cord ties together the vow of the revenger with the victims' grudges. It must never come undone. Enhances both watchful spirits and the vengeful spirits summoned by horned bairns.”

Does this not feel like a sort of ritualistic, divine invocation of revenge? Hornsent also forges new blades specifically for his vengeance, and repeats the phrase “In vengeance for the flames, my blade I wield” several times, like a mantra. Thematically, I think Hornsent wearing the potentate mask is drawing a link between the Bonny Village butchering, and the endless, bloody path of revenge that eventually leads Hornsent to ruin; both of these acts are in a way like ritually-sanctioned butchery. So while Hornsent might not literally be a potentate himself, the game wants us to THINK of the ritual violence that the potentates carry out when we look at Hornsent!

So overall I don’t think any of these arguments can like, 100% definitively prove that Hornsent wasn’t a potentate because there’s a few assumptions I made that teeeechnically might not be true (like that only Bonny Village natives are greater potentates, or that “the tower” always specifically refers to Belurat), but I now think that it makes the most sense if he isn’t a potentate!

[pathologicy]

Hiii I drew your Maki design!! Hope you like it!!

OH MY GOD !!!! I LOVE THIS ! the colors mix with each other so well and I love how you drew Maki ... I'm honored to have my design drawn , thank you so much !!!

[galaxygermdraws]

Hels a Noon June Day 7: Etho

LOGOS!!!! I don't draw him nearly enough but he's one of my favorite designs

Fact time!!

Logos' eyes were stitched close by Bonesaw (similar to what Logos was made to do to Sidas)

He and Mignon are in a QPR

His colors are an inverted version of Etho's, for the most part.

He can see, even if it looks like he has no eyes.

He and Sidas are actually soulbound during Double Life. Sidas keeps telling Logos how much he hates him, and Logos is just like "yea honestly that's real of you" and Sidas hates it so much. He wishes Logos at least hated him back or tried to torment him, but Logos is just indifferent

He used to wear his headband over his eyes as a blindfold (to sort of like. Parallel Etho's mask)

[thanatika]

running tally of major NPCs whose lives the bachelor is going to be asked to save in pathologic 3 so far, based on what i've found in the quarantine script files:

rubin

bad grief

rubin, a second time

lara

katerina (i think)

the haruspex

andrey

peter

peter, a second time

murky

nara

[cute-girls-from-vns-anime-manga]

Do you have pictures or gifs of cute anime girlies giving words of encouragement? Asking for me

The world is shit reject reality and disassociate!!!