#would you look at that i'm not actually ded

[schoenpepper]

Fishies

Intro: In your dreams, this eel merman loves to bother you the most.

Warnings: bad writing, awful grammar, Floyd is a warning in and of himself, mentions of homicide haha, reader is yuu, i dont think i followed the req very well my bad, u and floyd are like super totally normal besties i prommy ahaha no romance here nope no sir, not proofread im like super ded, the glitch text is funny to me, yandere floyd and reader if u like squint super hard

A/N: Updates are slowing down a lot, I know, I'm so so sorry. Unfortunately, my course and univ are kind of competitive, and as someone who hates studying, I've been forced to actually study. Gross, I know. This is for my 300 follower event, for @anonymousplant. I hope you like it.

Masterlist

You’re a pretty normal person, at least, you’d like to think so.

But starting from when you were 5 years old, you’ve had a permanent, recurring dream. You tell your parents of a rowdy merman that tends to linger in your subconscious: his sharp-toothed grin, his sparkly tail longer than his torso, his pretty fins that fluttered when you tried to touch them. They didn’t believe you when you said he really liked trying to squeeze you to death, though they comfort you when you break into their room in the middle of the night sobbing your little heart out.

Yeah, Floyd is an asshole.

That’s his name, or at least, what he told you. You’re not too inclined to debate him on that considering his fondness of wrapping his ridiculously long (and freakishly strong) tail around you, squeezing you at a moment’s notice.

You thank whatever deity is listening that you can breathe underwater in your dreams. He does not seem like the kind of guy who wouldn’t drown you. You know, for fun. Every night when you fall asleep, you ready yourself to meet with your imaginary friend (that’s what your parents called him, though you prefer the term imaginary acquaintance, at best).

“Shrimpy! You’re here, hehe~”

You look at him harshly with your arms crossed in front of your chest, “You’re never this happy to see me. What do you want, fishy?”

“Neh, shrimpy~” the sparkles in his two-colored irises bring about a sense of fear in you, “do you know what dreaming like this means?”

“That I made up a weird eel merman in my mind?”

“I’m not made up. Don’t be silly, shrimpy!” Floyd’s tail slithers in the water, coiling around your legs, “Jade and I learned about it yesterday. You’re my soulmate!”

Ten-year-old you woke up in a nervous start.

Ew!

Why would you ever, ever, be caught dead being with someone like Floyd?! He’s annoying, and a fish, and so if you got together you’d be a fish too! But you don’t want to be a fish!

Your parents are surprised to find you in a very snappy mood the following morning.

“You left so quick, shrimpy! You don’t wanna be my soulmate?”

You snatch an iridescent fish swimming by, turning it into a big plushie with your dream powers. “But you’re annoying,” you stick out your tongue, “so I don’t want to be your soulmate.”

“Eh…?”

You glance at Floyd. He doesn’t seem too happy with your words—in fact, his eyes are narrowed and he’s swimming slowly, closer and closer to you. “But I like you so much, shrimpy~” he says, but there’s no expression on his face. He’s so, so uncomfortably close that you need to lean back to avoid touching him, “you don’t get to choose your soulmate, y’know? So it’s not like you have a choice, hehe~ But if you really wanna be rid of me, I can always squeeze you ‘til your eyes pop! If you’re dead, you wouldn’t have a soulmate anymore. Shrimpy, aren’t I so nice?”

“You suck.”

You kick at the dream water and swim away from the giggling eel.

“Wanna play chase, shrimpy? Okay~”

He’s not too bad. At worst he’ll get cuteness aggression and suddenly wrap himself around you, but most times you’re just chatting endlessly with him about what he calls “weird human things”, and you pester him for details about “normal fish things”. He talks about his octopus friend that he refuses to call a friend, and how takoyaki is his favorite food in the same sentence. You talk about having to dissect a frog in science class which he found really funny somehow. He tells you about his twin brother and their shenanigans together. You tell him about how your parents, your friends—no one believes you when you say that Floyd’s real.

He says they’re lame.

You’ve learned to keep him a well-guarded secret lest your parents recommend a mental hospital again, but he must’ve stuck himself real close to your heart when he starts becoming inseparable from your mind.

He’s become a really good friend.

With Floyd, no moment is ever dull, even when you’re just sitting together on some dream-conjured rock, leaning on each other silently.

There is no second in a day in which you’re not thinking of him. Your favorite part of the day is going to sleep to see him each night, spending hours with his eccentric tendencies. The fish has become a very important part of your life.

(Your friends in school ask you who you like in a discussion about crushes. You ignore the fact that his name is on the tip of your tongue.)

He’s your best friend. There is no secret you can keep from him, because despite Floyd’s usual laissez-faire attitude, one change in your expression and he’s onto you. You’d thought you would go through your entire life with him as your constant, you really did.

On your sixteenth birthday, he’s gone.

Not that he disappeared, but rather, you can’t dream anymore. You wake up the next day with no memory of any dream, and it fills you with panic. Your stomach is churning like a void is forming inside—an integral part of yourself is missing and everything feels so, so wrong. You make your bed and head downstairs to eat breakfast. Your parents question your demeanor in concern for your well-being, and you force out a smile. You tell them you’re fine? There’s no need to worry them about the loss of your imaginary friend, right? You’re okay. Maybe this is the change you needed. You’ll be an adult soon, and you can’t dream of a weird eel merman forever.

No no n̷̥̜̐ơ̷͉̪ ̴͚̉̾n̷͚̥͒̓o̵͍̾̆ ̵͍͑n̷̩̝͐ő̵̟ ̶̛̈́ͅn̴̟̣͝͠ȍ̴̢̜ ̸̳̾ǹ̷̳̮ö̴̠́

Where is he?

Where is F̸̛̛̛͇͉̳̝̫̹͒̏͒͊̐͜ͅļ̸̪͈̞̱͓̰̖͌̽̉̔̐̇̃̃̏ó̶̻̯̪̭̐͋̏͛͒̈́̇̽ͅy̶̟̳̬͉̙̖̫̙̻̑̏̌̔̇͂̋̌̕d̷̝͕̣͖̺̬̦̟̂͊͜?̶̛̈́̆��̧͎̼͔ Ẅ̶̟̗́͠ͅh̶̦̞͚͙̣͛ỳ̴̢͓͓̗͔̗͓̀̉́͋͜͝ ̸̹́͐̿͛ī̵̡̛͎̪̭͉̫̋s̷̢͇͗̏̔͑̿́̚͜ ̵̡̟̄̀̈̆̎̓͝ͅh̵͕̓͂̍̀̔̊̏́ę̶̹̝̘̙̪̗͊̽ ̸̮̟̞͇̭͕̫́̆̀͑̓͗͜͠g̵̙̰̽̔̈́̃́̓̋̐o̸͚̱̟̳̘̦̖̊͐̓ñ̷̨͕͉͈̱̮̲̟ȅ̷͓͙?̴͖͎̳͚̟̲͚̂̔́̔͝͝

Why has he left you...?

Your vacation to your grandmother’s house does nothing to ease your worries (but if she ever heard you sobbing your heart out alone in your room, she never said anything about it).

There’s an old mirror in your bedroom in your grandmother’s house, owned by your late great grandparents. The floor length mirror is encased in an intricate gold frame, and it’s not too obvious until one night when you’d found yourself staring at it in a daze, but the reflection is off. It’s tinged with a layer of purple light, translucent and barely visible unless you pay attention. You try to sleep (it’s been evading you for three days, since the night of your birthday), cozy in your fluffy blankets and a blue unicorn onesie that your grandma had bought to try to cheer you up.

You’re woken by a bright light.

Careful, tiptoed steps lead you in front of the mirror. Your fingertips graze over its surface when a sudden force pulls you in—right in front of a crowd of a few hundred students.

So that was your first day in NRC.

You’d say it was nothing particularly remarkable considering everyone in this place has some sort of superpower, but to be honest, they think you’re so intriguing because you’re magicless. In their eyes that made you weak.

Helpless.

NRC is just filled to the brim with budding sadists.

Your first night in NRC goes a lot different.

It’s uncomfortable. The blankets and sheets are old and scratchy. The entire place is in disarray. It’s filthy and dusty and you’re sure you’re one step away from falling right through the floorboards because of how creaky they are. But tiredness makes for the best sleeping aid, and you’re prepared for another night of nothing.

You miss Floyd.

It’s a big shock when you’re met with your most beloved dreamscape instead of the void. Cold water that chills you to the bone, schools of colorful fish just passing by. There’s a long tail wrapped around a boulder, connected to a swaying half-human who’s blankly staring at the jellyfish. It’s all so familiar that your feet have acted before your brain has; you’re right next to him again.

(It’s where you should be.)

“Shrimpy!”

His voice is a welcome sound. His squeezing though, not so much.

“Floyd—ack! Ow ow ow!”

You almost swear you hear your ribs crack at some point with the way his tail and arms are putting pressure on it, but he only loosens his hold. He doesn’t let go.

You don’t mind that he doesn’t want to.

“Shrimpy’s so mean, why’d you gotta go no contact like that? It’s been so boring! I was super bummed, didn’t even wanna leave my room for that lame ceremony. Did you sleep when I was awake or somethin’?” he whines mournfully into your hair, “I thought… tsk, I told you soulmates aren’t changeable. Were you tryin’ to stop dreaming again?”

“No, the dreams just stopped,” you reply softly. It’s so oddly comforting to be in his arms, it makes you sleepy even in your sleep.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You weren’t tryin’ to stop seeing me again?”

“I wasn’t. I promise.”

He hums, almost in relief.

(You don’t feel his lips gently, so gently, leaving a kiss on your neck where he’d buried his head. It’s so unlike him, but you make him act so weird.)

Grim wakes you up to look for breakfast in the cafeteria, and your time with your (platonic 💜) soulmate is over all too quickly. But something is stuck in your mind as you’re trudging through dimly lit halls with cat in tow. You knew the name Night Raven College rang a bell, but for it to be the very same school that Floyd had been ranting about for a year is just so unexpected.

(You’re finally in the same world.)

Then, is he here?

You didn’t manage to tell him about your most recent adventures last night. Maybe you should ask around and see if anyone can point you in the correct direction. At least, that was your original plan. Before an almost-burnt statue, a broken chandelier, two idiots who are actually really fun to hang out with, an abandoned mine with hostile ghosts…yeah. It takes you at least three more days before you remember to ask about Floyd in the school. You wanted it to be a surprise, so you kept it a secret from him. Though you probably should have expected that with all the mischief you’d gotten up to, your name was bound to reach his ears sooner or later.

“What the—?!”

“Ack!”

“Woah!”

Your first real meeting with Floyd starts with your cat and your friends being pushed to the ground in a pile.

“Shrimpy! You’re in my school! And you’re the funny student that’s been causing trouble? Now I’m annoyed I missed orientation for the freshies,” he does not hug any looser in his human form, “coulda’ seen you earlier. I coulda’ squeezed you earlier too~”

“Too tight, loosen up a bit please.”

“Okay~”

Ace and Deuce are looking up at you in shock with how casual you seem to be with him, but you pay their reactions no mind, only walking towards them with Floyd still wrapped around you, reaching out a hand to help them up.

(You don’t notice Floyd glower at the trio, or the way his hold tightens ever so slightly.)

They don’t take your hand, but you smile and introduce your best friend anyway. “Guys, this is Floyd. He and I have been in each other’s dreams since forever,” you pat Floyd’s arm that’s slung over your shoulder, “he says we’re soulmates but just ignore him, he’s kinda crazy. It’s probably some freak coincidence.”

“There you go again shrimpy, I thought we were over this? You still don’t believe me even now?”

“Soulmates don’t exist Floyd, don’t think about it too much. You know you’re still my best friend.”

(Ace and Deuce look at each other. Neither of them want to be the one to tell you—)

Soulmates are absolutely a thing.

And with the way that the big bad school bully, known for terrorizing at least half of the student population, is basically hanging off you, there was just no way that Floyd wasn’t completely and absolutely enamored by his cute, magicless little soulmate.

They should probably warn Grim that the eel merman wouldn’t be letting you sleep at Ramshackle tonight.

Or ever.

[dear-mrs-otome]

Jude's 'Love Kiss' from CE

The shitbrained summary version, definitely inaccurate somewhere but you'll get the gist:

Opens on Kate all, OOOH PRETTY FLOWERS Lovely summer breeze, this is heavenly, I could stay here forever 😍

Then the lovely scene is interrupted by a voice bitching that she can't laze about there and never pay them back, and Kate's thinking, nani the fuck, is that Jude's voice? Crap he's right I can't be in debt to him!

She jerks awake and promptly chokes up a shitload of water, looking around all blearily. BEAUTIFUL PLACE GONE :( Ellis is there, banging her on the back asking if she's okay and such, and she says ya she's alright. Ellis tells her, dang girl you nearly drowned!

She's thinking, holy crap was that garden THE AFTERLIFE? If not for Jude's voice, she might still be there, DED. The idea is kinda freaking her out tbh, so she hugs herself.

Jude sighs that it's bit cold for a swim ffs, and Kate's tells him she wasn't swimming, there was this child drowning so she wanted to save them??? She's panicked a moment over whether the kiddo is okay, and Ellis assures her they are - they went off to a doctor to get checked out but seemed fine, just cold. She's relieved and asks, did Ellis save her then? He sets the record straight though, telling her nope, not me, I didn't get here in time - Jude hauled you back to shore and gave you mouth to mouth.

Cue Kate all…..Jude????

She finally notices that he's soaking wet too, and Jude offers her a smarmy line about how it sucks for her she didn't get kissed awake by a ✨prince✨ - she got the wizard. Kate says, no actually thanks a bunch but record scratch wait. Mouth to mouth?????

Jude: That's usually the standard first aid when someone's drowned duh

Then Jude bitches at her for getting all blushy over something like that and how she's gonna make him look stupid for saving her dumb ass. Finishing with exasperation, all …ugh whatever, I'm soaking wet and I'm going home, get ur ass to the doctor just in case. He chucks his jacket at her with a comment about how she's putting on a show (cause her clothes are wet and plastered and see-through) and it'll cause him problems and look bad to be seen with her like that so cover up. She's swimming in the jacket when she puts it on but it's warm and dry and smells like him and she has to scold herself BAD HEART NO SKIPPING BEATS.

Just about then Ellis tells them both to look up, and Jude's startled to see there's some leftover Christmas decoration or something in the tree above, with some mistletoe. Kate's thinking, oh dang, isn't there some superstition about how if a couple kisses under the mistletoe they'll be together forever?? DOES MOUTH TO MOUTH COUNT?

From the look Jude's giving her as he glances at her it seems obvious to us that Kate's every thought is probably plain as day in her expressions. He rips the decoration down, shoves it at Ellis and tells him: Burn it.

Ellis takes off immediately to do just that, and Kate begins all, uh….soooo…. Jude….

He stops her though and says, you don't actually believe in that superstition right?

Kate: PFFT N-NO >.> why, do you? Jude obesrves that she's a shit liar, before grabbing her arm and saying that he's gonna shove a new superstition into that ditzy head of hers. And with that he yanks her in and kisses her for real this time…but she can't help noticing how there's no warmth to it, not with the both of them freezing cold from the river and such. When he finally pulls back pointedly, Kate is thinking the icy kiss was like proving there's no love between them.

Jude proclaims that kissing under the same spot NEGATES the first kiss, so there - Cancelled. Nulled and voided.

Kate just….okayyyy. Clearly she knows he's just made this up, and she's wondering why the heck he would even bother kissing her again to make up for HER superstition. Does he hate the concept of it THAT much? Because, obviously, they aren't a couple. It wouldn't even apply. They're clearly not making some FOREVER PROMISE to each other.

…But it still kinda stings for some reason she can't explain.

She's chalking it up to the discrepancy between how glad she'd felt that Jude had saved her, and the NOPE attitude here, but Jude says that basically, just a kiss isn't worth it/enough to pledge TOGETHER FOREVER over. Clearly offended by the very idea. Kate's all, what, is a vow that bad??

And Jude simply says:

There's no such thing as forever.

It takes her a second to figure out how that's an answer to her question, and then it clicks. It's not that Jude dislikes the idea of a promise. It's that Jude always keeps his, and if 'forever' doesn't exist like that, he's not going to make that promise because he can't keep it. Nothing is forever, ergo a promise of eternity is bound to be broken, and therefore Jude would never make it. And Kate's thinking, GDI that's actually really sincere of him. People can lie to themselves too, about love and 'staying together forever'…but even if it's just a silly superstition, Jude never makes a promise he can't keep.

She wonders to herself if… someday, he might find someone he wants to pledge forever to. And she's musing how despite bitching and everything, he didn't hesitate to save her. She's spent enough time around him by now to know that he's not a bad man at heart. How behind all his ruthlessness and arrogance, he's not truly cruel at all.

…Someday, someone's going to notice that side of Jude and snag him. And that thought unsettles her, for some reason she can't explain.

[cr-pisacs-evil-brother]

Pathologic Bachelor ARG Megapost

This post is a culmination of months of (mostly my own) research into the Bachelor ARG. For far too many days and far too many hours, I’ve been doing my best to solve this, with the help of a few other people. I looked very deep into most Fyodor Vitin posts, played through The Marble Nest several times, looked extensively through the Pathologic wiki, and read/analyzed countless outside sources for this post, and I will link as many of them as I can. (If there are links that you think would help the ARG that you’d like included in here with credit please let me know.) For any people that are credited, an “@” before their name implies that it’s a Tumblr username, while a “u/” proceeding their name implies it’s a Reddit username. I have discovered and analyzed dozens of leads, some of which are more likely to be important or intentional on the part of IPL than others. The primary purpose of this post is to give all of you Pathologic fans new leads and theories to analyze in pursuit of solving the mystery behind this ARG, so many of the things within this post should be looked into further! With this post, I will lay out my findings in a series of sections, all of them having several connections to each other. This post is more than 10,000 words and is not meant to be read all at once, so feel free to read sections, take breaks, re-read sections, or skip around if you'd like. “Observations, Research, Analysis” is a vast majority of this post and consists of observations made about the ARG material, as well as any research I did into those findings that bore fruit, and analysis/connections to other things. The additional notes section consists of some of the conclusions I’ve reached after putting all of my evidence together, as well as some connections I didn't really make in the previous section, but keep in mind they’re still just theories so they could obviously be wrong. I would like to emphasize that I am not a native Russian speaker, but I did have many native Russian speakers helping me along the way, and in particular, I’d like to thank @kurury-chan for her massive help with this. She transcribed the newspaper for me, provided tons of consulting, translated many other Russian sources, and actually went out of the way to go on an irl tour of a certain ARG-related location to see if my theories about it could hold any ground! Because I'm not a native Russian speaker, the sections where I'm required to analyze Russian text (notably the newspaper section) will probably be the least interesting and I'll probably end up making a lot of points that aren't valid. Additionally, I’d like to thank @cryingsyren (who also happens to be my bf) and @ded-not-ded for their help. As for formatting, since Tumblr doesn't have tiered lists for some fucking reason, all main points will be written as bullet points, and any sub-points within that bullet will then have numbered points afterward. For example like this:

The first main point about a topic

Sub-point of the first point

Second sub-point

The second main point about a topic

I'll either do that or I'll do it like this:

First main point

First sub-point First sub-sub-point

Second sub-point

Second main point

Edit 1: I've had to revert much of the Chat text (the font I used for the sub-points above) to regular text because of a formatting glitch that irreversibly changed most of the Chat text to bold, which was very confusing.

Depending on which looks better in the context of the points. Because that formatting is so awkward and clunky I'll try to minimize the use of tiered lists as I convert this from the Google Docs format to the Tumblr Format. Most of the time that I use tiered lists here it's to deal with the character limit Tumblr has on single blocks of text within a post. With that out of the way, let's just get into the post.

Observations, Research, Analysis:

"The Accident" Fyodor Vitin post

The first thing I noticed about the newspaper when I took a good look at it was the use of bolding with certain letters. If you look at the Newspaper you’ll also see ink splattered on the page in several areas, which could be a clue toward noticing the bolded letters, or it could be something else I’ve yet to discover. I knew I wouldn’t be able to transcribe the entire newspaper by myself, not being a Russian speaker (although I’ve just started learning!) so I enlisted the help of @kurury-chan, a native Russian speaker, and she transcribed the entire newspaper for me in Cyrillic. After getting this transcription I went through and spent a couple of days looking for which letters were bolded, writing them down, and coming up with possible translations/meanings. I’ve come up with lots of possible meanings for these, but for many of them I couldn’t figure anything out, and I’d love help if anyone has any idea what they could mean! To me many of them seem like word fragments that are simply missing one or two letters, and so in the document where I list all of the bolded letters I put some words/phrases that are very close to the seemingly fragmented words. Once again keep in mind that, while I’m trying to learn Russian, my understanding of the language is still rather weak, so I may have mistranslated some of these. Another small detail to mention is that there’s a prominent crease on the left side of the paper that runs through a decent portion of the bolded words. First, I’ll start with the bolded letters on the left side of the page. I may have missed a couple, and I may have written some of them down as bolded when maybe they aren’t supposed to be seen as such.

Here is a link to a list of all the letters I think are bolded on the left side, which lines they’re on, and possible meanings, many of which I’ll be discussing here. I will not go individually through what I believe all the bolded letters mean, but I will go through and explain the ones I think are most meaningful and important, as well as some connections I’ve made with them. And here is a link to the original Russian transcription and my best attempt at an English translation.

It’s possible that the crease that runs through the left side of the paper and notably runs through many bolded words somehow denotes that those particular bolded words are special, or perhaps that they should be seen as separate from the other bolded words.

Line 15 has a rather interesting bolded phrase, because it actually appears to make a somewhat coherent 3-word phrase, but one of the words seems to be a surname, “Pepe.” Additionally, the crease on the left side of the page starts right above the word “ПЕПЕЛИЩЕ” in the title, and splits it so that “ПЕПЕ” is separate from the rest of the word. (ПЕПЕ is Pepe in Cyrillic.) If you want to know what the non-Pepe words say, skip to the next bullet point, because the rest of this one is my analysis of the ПЕПЕ part. So, of course, I looked into the name a bit, looking through all notable historical figures with the last name, and found one that I think is of special interest: Guglielmo Pepe. Born in the small ancient town of Squillace, Pepe entered the army at a very young age, and was an Italian commander during the early 1800s, but his military career was fraught with trouble, as he also had rather revolutionary politics, which angered both the government he was serving and many of his peers, and he was exiled on several occasions. Upon Pepe’s return to Italy at the age of 30, he was given the rank of general. After this, the most notable events in his life would largely consist of his attempts at going rogue in revolutionary attempts to change the existing power structure, for which he was usually punished. (It’s also perhaps worth mentioning that his brother was part of the attempted French invasion of Russia.) All of this is to say, Pepe obviously shares some striking similarities to General Block, perhaps the most striking of which is his status as a 30-year-old general, which is an aspect of Block’s character that is highlighted several times. So, of course, I looked into Block’s character a bit more, and discovered that in the Russian version of the game he is called “General Ash” instead of “General Ashes.” “Strange,” I thought, until I saw that in Russian, Ash is “Пепел” which is pronounced as “Pepel” for anyone that isn’t familiar with Cyrillic. If we look into it, we do see that the letter after the Пепе is л, but it is notably not bold. This is, if you're counting, two separate times in this paper where the plural for ash, пепелище, is split up so that only the пепе is emphasized. As for other connections between Pepe and Block, we could look at them both harboring some revolutionary tendencies and being punished for it, both by The Powers That Be and his peers. General Block also tells Artemy that he was born in a town not too dissimilar to the Town on Gorkhon; this is interesting because there are some connections to be drawn between Squillace and Gorkhon, primarily that both of them preserve the beauties of ancient times that have all but been lost to most people. Related to this, it should also be noted that I believe the plot of The Marble Nest was heavily based on the plot of The Seventh Seal, which is the same movie that inspired the character Alexander Block.

The rest of line 15 is also interesting, but I’m not sure exactly what it’s supposed to mean yet. It translates to “Heaven on Pepe” basically. I consider the “Pepe” part to probably be the most important, since there’s a large crease that runs through it, which I think probably denotes a level of importance? The line’s meaning might be related to the fact that “heaven” is sort of a synonym for “utopia,” or the character that Block is based on is the protagonist of a movie that revolves around the ideas of heaven and Christianity, which is something we saw very briefly with Block in Pathologic 1. If you have any ideas please post about them and tag me, or simply comment/reblog this with your ideas!

Line 1 and line 18’s bolded letters both start out with “ов”, and for my English speakers out there it is pronounced sorta like “ove.” ов is interesting because if you translate it as о-в it actually is the shortened form of “island” in Russian. Line 1’s bolded letters read as “ов по��о”, and for people not familiar with Cyrillic попо is basically “popo.” There are, apparently, many Popo islands in the world, and I couldn’t find one that I think directly connects to the ARG or Pathologic, but maybe someone else out there will, or perhaps that line has a different meaning to it. As for line 18, it says “ов испустивших” and according to Russian wiktionary, the second word is one letter off from the word “Emitted.” I looked a bit deeper, though, because that didn’t satisfy me (why would they use the incorrect spelling of a word after all?) and I didn’t see much, but I did find two things that used the exact word “испустивших” that interested me: A Saudi Arabian newspaper that has been translated into Russian, as well as a Russian poem from 1777 celebrating the birth of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, also known as Alexander I of Russia. The latter is more interesting to me for numerous reasons, the first one being that it might serve my theory about the connection between line 1 and 15, as line 1’s bolded letters end with попо and line 15’s end with пепе. The connection is weak, too weak for me to make it a separate bullet point, but strong enough for me to want to explain. So, as we know, there is a connection between line 1 and 18, it’s what this whole bullet point is about, and this theory (using the term “theory” loosely) relies on us seeing them as very closely connected. Basically, Alexander I was the ruler of Russia during the French invasion, which is interesting because, if you’ll remember, Guglielmo Pepe’s brother, Florestano Pepe, took part in the French invasion. This, to me, is an interesting connection, but I do admit it’s definitely a reach.

That’s where I’ll stop talking about the bolded letters on the left side of the paper. If you’d like to see what other bolded letters there are, what they could possibly mean, and try to decipher the meaning for yourself please go to my linked Google Doc(s).

As for the right side of the Newspaper, there are some bolded letters, but I can't seem to make much sense out of them, and by this point in my research I was starting to pursue more promising ARG leads, so this section is rather incomplete. Just as a reminder, the right side of the newspaper is an advertisement for a lantern/kerosene shop. I personally think the right side is more interesting than the left for a couple reasons, but most of them are either self-evident or will be discussed later.

The lantern on the right side of the paper is the same model that’s used throughout the Haruspex’s route, but most notably it’s used a ton during The Marble Nest as set dressing. And when I say "a ton" I really mean it.

I also remembered vaguely an unused lantern item found in the game files of Pathologic 2, so I went to the Pathologic wiki to look for it, and surely enough the exact lantern used by Artemy, the one that appears so many times in The Marble Nest, is also an unused item present in the game files. When using console commands to give yourself the item, you’re able to click on it and select the “touch” option, upon which you’ll see the number 6192355001378070 where the name of the item should be, and 6192355001378072 where the touch text should be. I’m not sure exactly what these numbers are supposed to mean; my first thought was that they seemed long enough to be coordinates, so I put them into google maps and it does lead to a location in Russia! Nonetheless, the numbers are a little bit too long to make sense as cohesive coordinates. Still, it might be something worth investigating. You'll see later in this post just how significant numbers and number patterns are in this ARG.

The word used to describe one of the victims of this inferno, “academician,” has sorta interesting connotations in countries that were once part of or heavily influenced by the USSR. This person is referred to as “Mr. F.L.” in the article. This guy is also said to be a historian and a “бытооописателя,” which as you can probably tell by the fact that I’m not using the translated English version is a weird word. Perhaps the strangest thing about this word is the fact that it clearly has 3 o’s where there should only be one. The actual meaning of this word is odd, as it’s very rarely used, and according to all sources I could find (including native Russian speaker and linguistics enthusiast @kurury-chan) it is either an archaic term for a historian or a term meaning “writer of everyday life.” I’m honestly not sure what that means, and at first, I thought it meant something like a blogger. The most complete and coherent definition I could find describes it as “author of works describing everyday life.” A different translation I found seems to say it means something like "chronicler," which I suppose makes some sense.

In the bottom right part of the paper, you will notice what at first appears to be a signature. Admittedly I had almost no hand in this part of the investigation, except for the isolation and upscaling of the text. Most of the work here was done by @cryingsyren with some help from @kurury-chan and @ded-not-ded. Here is the image that I got for them of the text, and here is our current interpretation of it: It at first seemed to be Russian cursive (and it probably is supposed to be), which complicates things quite a bit, and @cryingsyren spent a couple days trying to figure out exactly what it says, (with some help from @kurury-chan) and as far as we can tell it’s four letters, which are separated into either two or three sections. I think we have a decent grasp on what they’re supposed to be in Cyrillic, but the interesting thing is that they do look a lot like both Russian and Latin cursive. I’ll describe them now using what Latin character they look like in quotes followed by what Cyrillic character they look like in parenthesis. The first section is an “M” (М) and a “K” (К), which are very clearly connected. The next section is either an “H” (Н) or an “H” and an “n/u”. We’re not exactly sure whether the H and the n/u are supposed to be connected, but the n/u being lowercase seems to imply it is. The interesting thing about the n/u is that, while it looks like it could be a Latin n or u, it also looks like it could be a Cyrillic и, which is the italicized version of the Russian letter и. It seems all too coincidental that all of the letters they used have almost exact visual counterparts in the Latin alphabet. At the moment our working theory is that it could be initials, and this is where I come in, because for days I knew I recognized the "MK" part of the signature, but I couldn't remember exactly where from until today. For anyone that has played too much Pathologic Classic HD like me, you may recognize the "MK" signature from the center of the loading screen in that game, scrawled in a way that most people wouldn't pay attention to it, and certainly that most people wouldn't have it committed to memory like me. During the roughly 170 hours I've spent playing the game I've probably looked at that MK more than I've looked at my youngest brother. This presents the question, who is MK? Well at first I thought it could be Mr. Katzman, as referenced in the "Mask" post, but that didn't seem right to me. This is when the fact that so much of my brain is Pathologic lore facts came to help again, when I remembered state inquisitor Mark Karminsky, who you may remember as being one of the men people thought would come to the town before Aglaya Lilich showed up. As for the rest of the writing, I'll leave that up to you guys to figure out.

Something to note for later on: We know there to be 19 inquisitors when Pathologic takes place, and in this ARG the number 19 becomes very important with later clues.

"Mask" Fyodor Vitin post

Arguably this is the Fyodor Vitin post I’ve done the most research into, and it eventually led me to develop a very deep and passionate interest in the Buryat peoples that has so far caused me to read several books and around a dozen academic papers about them. I haven’t only done research into the Buryats for this post, though, because although the Buryats are the primary inspiration for The Kin, they’re not the only inspiration. Despite all of this research work, this section will be rather short because I’ve already been through and exhausted most possible leads I’ve found, and this is what remains. Since the post is in English, and I think everyone that follows me presumably knows English (если вы не говорите по-английски, я хвалю вас за то, что вы зашли так далеко) I won’t summarize it, so I’d recommend reading the Vitin post and then coming back.

We see in the post the mask of “Muu Shubuun,” which we’ll immediately notice is almost the exact same mask as is used by the Executors in the game. Actually, in the Marble Nest, you can acquire the Executor mask, and its touch text reads, “The mask of Muu Shubuun, ‘the wicked bird.’ Part of the Reaper costume from the local theatre.” I have found several different sources that lead me to believe this is based on actual Buryat folklore, however, I’ve heard several conflicting accounts on whether Muu Shubuun is an evil spirit that tricks people by taking the shape of a beautiful woman, or if it’s closer to what we see in the game/ARG, but both seem to be documented as existing within sources on the Buryats. I think this confusion between the two likely means the stories and connotations associated with Muu Shubuun vary based on different groups of Buryats. An alternate spelling I’ve seen used is “Mu Shuvuu.” Possibly related to this is the character “Shar Shuvuu” (which means “eagle owl”), who appears in The Marble Nest during the “marriage” scene in the steppe camp behind the cathedral. In fact, a surprisingly high number of NPC characters in this DLC are named after birds.

The phrase used in the post to describe a seasonal festival, “dosoo ba beshē tēēhēē” is where I’ve devoted much of my research, with most of that research being from about a month ago. Only the third word in this phrase, beshē, appears as a kin word in the games as far as I know. However, we can use a method here that people in the Pathologic community have been using for years to figure out the meaning of kin words: Most of the steppe language in the game is based on one of many languages: Buryat mostly, Mongolian sometimes, Tibetan sometimes, and some parts of it also take inspiration from other languages of similar origin to these. A majority of the language seems to be based on Buryat, and many Kin words come straight from the language. A few words in the game seem to be made up entirely by Ice-Pick Lodge, and many are based on words from the aforementioned real languages but tweaked slightly, as if to indicate that the steppe language spawned from those languages but has some distinctive elements. To determine what this phrase means, I tried my best to dig into the languages and find parallels:

“Dosö” in Buryat means “inside”

In Mongolian “dooshoo” means “down”

In Mongolian “ba” means either “and,” “we,” or “sorcery”

In Tibetan, “ba” means “cow”

“Beshē” in the game’s steppe language means either “not” or “other”

The prefix “të-” in Buryat means “to transport”

In Mongolian the prefix “te'e-” also means “to transport”

As for the “-hee” part of the word, I have not found a single source that could tell me what it means. I’ve found several Buryat words that end in “he,” but I can’t seem to find a connection between them strong enough to suggest what it denotes.

Upon first seeing this festival mentioned, I believe I commented somewhere on the Pathologic subreddit that it might be the same one we see in the Kin’s camp behind the cathedral in The Marble Nest. While I’m not 100% convinced still, I also don’t doubt it that much. One interesting thing to note for any people that might wanna investigate this in the future is that I’m pretty sure what we see in the Marble Nest is the same thing that Nara and the Haruspex perform in the abattoir, as they both seem to happen on day 10, and if you look close you can see that Nara is the one that is cut open in The Marble Nest. Seemingly with the Haruspex gone, there is no one that knows the lines and so the ritual doesn’t go as smoothly as it could.

“Messages” Fyodor Vitin Post:

This particular Fyodor Vitin post is the third one, which if you know Ice-Pick Lodge certainly has some importance to it. The post is a series of letters and images, one depicting an Executor and one depicting Voronika Kroy, who's a minor character in Pathologic 2 and the main character in the Pathologic Feverish Feelings ARG. The letters detail how the recipient’s reports about Voronika Kroy have been seen and have started an investigation by the Federal Bureau. What’s most interesting to me are two things: the jumble of (Latin alphabet) letters in the bottom left, and the number used within the letters (the post-card letters in this case).

The number in question is “196-17-1” which is apparently the case number used for the Voronika Kroy investigation. This number will be more important later in relation to other clues. One interesting thing I've found is that the RGB value for 196-17-1 is a deep red.

The jumble of letters at the bottom of the picture is “eiamrucdvrturxoevecid”. It is 21 letters and can be divided up into chunks of 3 or 7 letters. 3 and 7 of course being Ice-Pick Lodge’s favorite numbers. Up until this point, it has been assumed that this is an anagram, and I have no reason to doubt that. It has already been pointed out in the Pathologic subreddit that the words “Executor” and “Corvid” can be found in the anagram, as well as the Latin words “Cura”, “Curare”, “Curari”, “Medici”, and “Vivam.” Credit for finding the Latin words goes to u/apostforisaac who is apparently studying Latin at university! Additionally, u/Own_Sympathy_9814 deduced a possible meaning by unscrambling the anagram and finding “MAVRUD + VERIDIC + EXECUTOR”, which they believe hints toward the answers lying in the Marble Nest (I wrote the entire Marble Nest section of this post before finding their post about that, so I do feel pretty validated by it). Many people have been approaching this anagram, like many other parts of the ARG, as if they have one right answer, and frankly, I just don’t think that’s in the style of Ice-Pick Lodge. I’ll quickly list out some words/phrases I found in the anagram and what they mean/how they could relate. I will also include words that have already been discussed, and they’ll be marked with a “*” so you don’t think I found them. Most of the ones marked with a * I won’t be discussing, as most have already been discussed extensively. I also won’t be discussing the ones that I think probably don’t have much meaning, but I’m including them because it still could be something later on down the road.

I am You don’t actually even have to unscramble the letters to get this one, as the second, third, and fourth letters of the jumble simply spell it out. What's interesting is that the 7 "I am" discourses are a crucial part of the Christian Gospel according to John. The Gospel according to John was an important clue during the Feverish Feelings ARG, which revolved around Voronika Kroy and her Inquisitor father, Peter Kroy. If we're speaking of the four canonical gospels, we must also address the Gospel according to Mark, which coincidentally is the name of an inquisitor that has popped up elsewhere in this ARG. Following this theme, there is actually a non-canonical Gospel According to Peter, which seems too cool to be a coincidence.

Eve This is one you don’t have to unscramble also. Interestingly, Daniil is often compared to a snake, even being called a snake-man in Marble Nest by Shaazgai, a man belonging to the Kin. In the biblical story of Adam and Eve, it is a snake, often thought to be the devil, that convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Retroviridae The scientific name for a retrovirus. If I was more knowledgeable about biology I would say more, but this seems important.

Rex Iudaeorum Translating in Latin to “King of the Jews,” this was the inscription that allegedly was put on the cross that held Jesus of Nazareth, as detailed by 19:19 in the book of John. Very interesting as Daniil does compare himself to Jesus at least once in the Haruspex route, on the night before Aglaya comes. The Gospels, as discussed before, all detail the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The "19" connection is also interesting because of the inquisitor detail, and I'll talk about more of the connections to 19 later in the post.

Cardio Commonly used medically as a prefix for heart conditions, “cardio” is a Latinized version of the Greek “kardia,” which simply means heart. Heart imagery is very common and significant to the Bachelor.

Eva This is similar to the Russian version of Eve.

Corvid*

Cura*

Curare*

Curari*

Medici*

Vivam*

Mavrud*

Veridic*

Executor*

Order Could relate to the committee in The Marble Nest and the fact that after they’re replaced by tragedians the absurd order begins getting sent out to the orderlies.

Carex ericetorum This is a plant that would almost definitely be present in/around the Town on GorkhonThis is a plant that would almost definitely be present in/around the Town on Gorkhon

Creature

Marble Nest:

The Marble Nest, as we know, is very concise, only really lasting half a day in-game. Because of this, the dialogue does tend to feel a lot more intentional, as though the named characters are not necessarily speaking only to The Bachelor but also trying to convey a message to the player. This, of course, is because The Marble Nest takes place inside Dankovsky’s head. If this ARG will be revolving partly around The Bachelor, as it seems to be, then there’s no better place to start than digging into his head, which is why I’ve played so much of the Marble Nest for this.

There are several specific stories/myths/historical figures that are mentioned through Marble Nest. First, we’ll go through some of these.

There is a very interesting conversation that The Bachelor has with Georgiy Kain, where he is trying to justify his decision to lift the quarantine restrictions to The Bachelor, who is rather upset obviously. I’ll cut down and paraphrase most of the dialogue, since if I didn’t this would be much longer, but basically the conversation goes as:

[Georgiy introduces himself, and says he decided to let The Bachelor sleep so that he would have the strength to face the upcoming trial] [Daniil asks if Georgiy lifted the restrictions and let the plague into The Stone Yard] Georgiy: “Quite so. It's plain to me that you are on the verge of shredding me into pieces. But still your wrath. As a great Athenian once said, ‘Strike, if you will, but hear.’” Daniil: “Themistocles, I know. He met a rather gruesome end, by the way. Died of plague.” Georgiy: “No, it was Pericles. You are a learned man, but history is not your strong suit. Which is why you should listen to me. Perhaps it will help you see something that you missed in your previous studies.” [Georgiy then goes on to explain a bunch of other stuff about the plague, which as far as I’m concerned isn’t all that useful to the task at hand.]

I find this so interesting because The Bachelor, in his own head, poses a question to himself, gets it wrong, and then has another separate figment of his imagination correct him, and then proceeds to tell The Bachelor that he’s not great at history and should listen to Georgiy more. What’s even more interesting is that, as far as I can tell, Georgiy and Daniil are both wrong, it was actually Themistocles that said “Strike, if you will, but hear,” and it was Pericles that died of plague. I found this interesting enough to look into who Themistocles and Pericles were, and here’s what I found:

Themistocles was a politician and general that broke the mold by being non-aristocratic and populist, which gave him the support of the people but put him at odds with the nobles and some of his peers. He turned 30 in 494 BC, which qualified him to run for the position of Archon, which he did, and won the position the following year. He had a prominent rivalry with another politician named Aristides. Whereas Themistocles was populist, Aristides primarily fought for the upper class. Themistocles eventually 20the rivalry after Aristides was exiled. Years later, though, Themistocles himself was exiled, and while he was gone his enemies took the opportunity to charge him with treasonous activities, knowing he could not defend himself. Because of this, Themistocles could never return to Athens, and so found employment and a home among the people that he once fought against while serving Athens. Given military command once more, he was actually Themistocles who said “Strike, if you will, but hear,” and it was Pericles who died of plague. I found this interesting enough to look into who Themistocles and Pericles were, and here’s what I found: Pericles, to me, has less interesting things about him in relation to Pathologic, with the main two being that he rehabilitated the image of Themistocles and he died of a plague. What could be interesting is the fact that General Block and Captain Longin are in both Pathologic 1 and 2 often compared to Achilles and Patroclus, two Greek soldiers from ancient folktales, primarily known for being two of the most important characters in The Iliad. To me, drawing a connection between Achilles and Block, as well as Pericles and Longin, isn’t that absurd. What could also be interesting to note is that Pericles was the main character in a play written in part by William Shakespeare. While Themistocles' life almost exactly fits the character arc of General Block, down to the weird connection between him dying of the plague in The Marble Nest and Themistocles drinking bull blood (as well as Dankovsky thinking Themistocles died of the plague), I think how Pericles fits in could lie in the Shakespearean play, as we all know how important theater is to Pathologic. You see by now at least partially what I think this alludes to, but I’ll talk more about it in the additional notes section.

Next, I’ll discuss a mythical story brought up in the Marble Nest: The Tower of Babel. This is brought up by the clerks sitting directly outside Georgiy Kain’s house. I think most people would talk to these guys right before talking to Georgiy, but I have more to say about it so it’s written second. When talking to one of the clerks during their argument about the plague, one man mentions that he thinks The Polyhedron is at fault, and no matter how Dankovsky replies (he has 3 options), the man then says “History already knows an example of people trying to erect an impossible tower. It ended in tragedy.” I could go on explaining why I believe this guy is talking specifically about the Tower of Babel, this post is already long enough so just trust my reasoning here, please. Notable to the point I’m trying to make, one of the other clerks brings up that he thinks the plague was started because of the irreconcilable differences between The Kin and the town, and the fact that the Kin have been forcibly mashed into the town. When Dankovsky asks the man if something is holding the Kin in the town, preventing them from leaving and returning to the earth, the man says “Someone is… our rulers. They have embedded the steppe people into this town, carved them into its warm flesh. This isn't a town, it's an honest-to-God minotaur. A chimera. And chimeras have remarkably short lifespans and bad health. Can you breed a snake and a crane? You can, yes. But the progeny won't live long.” This dialogue is interesting for a few reasons, one related to the tower of Babel and two related to other possible ARG clues. The first interesting thing is that what he’s describing, drawing a connection between the Tower of Babel and the Polyhedron, actually makes a lot of sense. To him, the Polyhedron is not only an affront to God, but its accentuation of human hubris coincides with a beating down of nature and the earth, represented in part by most of the Polyhedron’s mass being concentrated far above the earth while also piercing the earth’s heart. The story of the mythical tower, to oversimplify it, is essentially a tale of people from many different walks of life all coming together to construct a giant, seemingly impossibly tall tower in order to avoid the possibility of a second biblical flood destroying most of humanity. God sees this attempt as an affront to both him and the natural order, and so before the men are able to finish the tower he divides them all by making them speak different languages, making it impossible for them to understand each other. So, in this second clerk’s interpretation, the plague is a result of the town both rebelling against/abusing nature and also taking the Kin into itself. Unlike the first man, who believes the tower itself is at fault, this second one believes it’s all because of the town making itself into a “chimera,” which he believes cannot live long. What’s clear to me, though, is that although these men believe they disagree, their explanations complement each other very well, which brings us to our third man, who has a rather simple but somewhat confusing explanation. This clerk believes that this plague occurred in the town because men should not be “remodeled or altered,” and when asked what that has to do with the epidemic he replies “I don’t know… It wasn't we who designed the world like this. I believe in men, Doctor; in superhumans, I do not. This earthly life wouldn't fit them. Immortals have no place in the world of the living. This is just how it works. Take from it what you will.” This man seems to be implying that Simon Kain, the immortal man, is the reason why this plague appeared in the town. This is when it all started to come together for me: these men's stories do really all complement each other, because here they are posing the Polyhedron, chimera, and Simon as all the same. This will further be explained in the additional notes section. Three parts of one whole if you will.

Now, the mention of the Tower of Babel is interesting for two other reasons, one of which will be discussed in the additional notes section and one of which I’ll discuss here. In the Fyodor Vitin “One can work here” post there are numerous items displayed in the room pictured, but perhaps most interesting to me is the golden bull statue that sits at the front and center of the photo. My first thought when seeing that image was “Oh! This reminds me of the biblical story of the golden calf statue, which I bet is what they’re referencing.” For those who aren’t familiar, I’ll be oversimplifying another biblical story now. While trekking from Egypt to the holy land, Moses leaves his people behind to climb to the top of a mountain and commune with God. Moses is gone for forty days, upon which the people are fearful that he will not return, and so they molded a calf statue out of gold to worship. God, upon seeing this, sends Moses down to the base of the mountain to punish his people for their sins. Moses burns the golden calf in a fire, ground it to powder and water, and forced his people to drink it. He then killed all of them basically. My thought process was related to the fact that The Bachelor is punished severely by The Powers That Be for his own affront to God, the pursuit of immortality. Now, after that previous discussion about the Tower of Babel, I am noticing some very interesting things in this picture, and primarily that there are two other related statues. Now that we have the previous context about The Tower of Babel and the clerks in our mind, we can see new meaning in these statues: a black statue of a centaur, and a white bust of a man. The interesting thing about the centaur should be obvious, it is another chimera. The bust of the man, which seems to be made of marble, reminded me somewhat of ancient Greek statues that are chiseled to glorify certain leaders and make them seem somewhat perfect while also immortalizing them in stone. You can probably see the connection I’m making here, and so I will leave the rest of the explanation for the additional notes section.

Another thing that's interesting to note is the aforementioned three men, unlike most characters in Pathologic 2 and the Marble Nest, do not stop moving when you pause the game; their animations continue to play even after you bring up the pause menu. If you’re unaware, there is actually a small detail in Pathologic 2 where pretty much everything nature-based or that is a natural force of the world, as well as everything that’s supposed to be seen in a meta-narrative sense, does not stop moving when you pause the game. This includes rain, leaves falling, the particle effects that come off the clocks, fire, executors (not orderlies), plague particles, etc. Once I noticed this (while trying to get a screenshot of some things to analyze) I tested out some other NPCs in The Marble Nest, and all of the other people I tested seemed to freeze when the game was paused. However, this is not to say that no other characters in the Marble Nest move when the game is paused. I only tested about 4 guys besides the primary trio we're discussing, mostly just to make sure it's not a thing that all Marble Nest characters do. If one of you people reading this would like to go through and see which characters in The Marble Nest also possess this trait, it could prove fascinating.

Finally, I’ll talk about two somewhat modern (at least modern compared to the previous two) stories that are brought up in The Marble Nest, although not directly: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe. Admittedly, I have not read either of these stories (it’s possible I read the EAP story 5-6 years ago and just don’t remember it), but I do actually know quite a bit about the stories and their themes from a couple of literary studies on specific genres I’ve done over the years. Additionally, for this section, I have done some more research on the plots and themes of these stories which yielded fascinating results.

The Time Machine is brought up when The Bachelor visits The Cathedral and speaks to a Tragedian standing within. The Tragedian talks about how the building is not a temple, but a machine. Daniil asks what kind of machine, and The Tragedian responds “This is a time machine. Time works differently on the inside and on the outside. It's frozen now. I think something's broken.” To which Dankovsky can say “A time machine? Are you saying it can transport me to the past or to the future? Like in that Englishman's book, what's his name…” For this, I did some research into what book he could be referring to, and almost instantly Time Machine stood out to me for a number of reasons. I think there might be something interesting to be said about how this relates to the ARG, but I’m not going to be the one to say it, because I’m honestly not sure how or if it does. I will describe how it connects to Pathologic though, in case that sparks anyones mind. The work is apparently seen as popularizing the idea of time travel and the time machine, which relates to what IPL has said about The Bachelor’s route I suppose. As for the plot, it’s about a Victorian man using a time machine to travel to the year of A.D. 802,701. He meets two races of people, one descended from the oppressed working class and one descended from the pampered owning class. Over hundreds of thousands of years of this lifestyle, the two races have started to diverge, with the owning class becoming child-like and basically useless, while the working class has been forced into a life of toil and hardship which has shaped them into a race of underground-dwelling animalistic race of people. Essentially the novel is a depiction of class struggle and the class contradictions inherent within capitalism, but with a bit of a metaphorical twist. The toiling of the working class underground is what allows the upper class to live in abundance without the need for work. There is very interesting commentary here to be made on the worms/odonghs in the game, as well as the eternal youth that is present in some elements of the stone yard, but this isn’t a Pathologic essay, it’s a Pathologic ARG essay.

The Masque of the Red Death is alluded to by The Bachelor in a dialogue with a wandering citizen, who opens up the conversation by saying “A masquerade ball will be held in the main square this evening. People want to celebrate our victory over the sand pest. You don't mind…?” To which The Bachelor has 3 possible replies, one of them being “I seem to vaguely remember a rather famous story about a masquerade held to celebrate a victory over a plague. Remember how it ended?” To summarize, The Masque of the Red Death is about a group of noblemen taking refuge in an abbey to hide from a plague (the plague is known as the Red Death). The plague’s symptoms are gruesome, and all people who contract it apparently die within a half hour. The main character, Prince Prospero, and his fellow noblemen believe themselves to be entirely safe, though, as they have welded shut all the doors and isolated themselves in the abbey. To entertain the guests, the prince holds a masquerade ball that takes place in seven of the rooms of his abbey, each colored differently. The first six rooms are blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet, with the last being black and illuminated by a red window. No guests venture into the seventh room, as they are all scared to enter it. Every hour a clock in that room chimes, upon which the guests freeze and go silent momentarily, before resuming normal activity once the chiming stops, only to do the same thing after an hour. Once midnight comes, a person appears in robes covered in blood and resembling a funeral shroud, wearing a mask that depicts a person clearly infected with the Red Death. This figure walks through six of the chambers before the prince starts chasing them with a dagger. Confronting them in the seventh room, the prince immediately falls dead upon seeing this person’s face. The other party-goers all charge the figure, stripping them of their clothes and mask, only to find that there is no one underneath. The conclusion of the story states that the figure was not a person, but rather an embodiment of the Red Death. The Red Death also appears as a reference in the novel The Phantom of the Opera, as well as several film and musical adaptations. The titular phantom dresses up as The Red Death, and in many adaptations wears a skull mask as part of the costume.

I believe Hamlet is also brought up at some point in The Marble Nest, but I can’t seem to find the dialogue so I’m unsure if that’s true.

Next, I'll talk about another random Marble Nest clue

The Bachelor’s hover text for the beetle item says “I used to collect these as a kid. Left the collection with my father.” @pseudoquiddity found that a paper on the top of “The Beginning” Fyodor Vitin post spells out Mechnikov, which is almost definitely referencing Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, who was a Russian zoologist and immunologist who achieved incredible scientific discovery during his life, and notably for us he was largely focused on the issue of aging and extending human life. Mechnikov was actually brought up in an IPL teletype post as one of the Bachelor’s main influences scientifically, alongside Albert Einstein and Max Planck. The relevant thing about Mechnikov here is that, as a zoologist, he did many notable studies on insects throughout his career to see how their bodies reacted to things compared to how ours did. One thing that’s interesting to me is that the type of beetles we see in the game, I believe, are based on Trypocopris Vernalis, commonly known as the spring dumbledor or spring dor beetle, which is not known to inhibit the region that the Town on Gorkhon would reside in. Another thing I find interesting is the touch text from the Alpha version of the game, which reads “Some fifteen years ago, the Soul-and-a-Halves, the gang of children who are defined by sharing special bonds with their pets, actually considered to allow flower chafers as their "Halves" due to the beetles ‘looking as though they knew something’. The idea was quickly abandoned as ridiculous.” Maybe I’m just 8.6 thousand words into this post and have finally gone insane, but I think the beetles “looking as though they know something”, combined with their close connection to Dankovsky, it seems too intentional.

In the “Feverish Feelings” ARG, the Beatles (the band) were brought up indirectly and used by the players as a clue to get more information. This also related to the clue relating to the Gospel according to John. Additionally, speaking of Mechnikov, u/Fantastic_Advice5593 theorized that the numbers on Daniil’s train ticket from one of the original ARG notes could be hinting toward the date May 15th, or 5/15 (15/5 if you use the non-American dating system I believe), which is Mechnikov Day, and is commonly recognized as Mechnikov’s date of birth. Proving this connection further, the “Messages” Fyodor Vitin post was posted on May 15th. Another interesting thing is that if we convert the time that the “Messages” image was posted to the time scheme used in Pathologic (that is, a 24-hour clock), it comes out to 19:35 (Using GMT+3 time zone, as that’s where Moscow is located.) This is interesting because “Messages” was also posted 19 days after the previous post, and I know for a fact that 19 is an important number in this ARG: The newspaper from the “The Accident” post was labeled as issue number 19, the bible passage that we saw referenced in the anagram from the “Messages” post is John 19:19, the jumble of letters that we found in the touch text for the unused lantern item includes “19,” and so does the 196-17-1 number from Messages. In a way, the number 19 is sort of a self-checking method to substantiate some of the clues we’ve found thus far.

Griffins’ Tower

Many of the details in this section wouldn’t be possible without @kurury-chan who, upon my inquiry about the tower and its accompanying pharmacy, actually visited it, got tons of cool pictures, and translated a ton of the history for me! I literally cannot thank her enough for her help with many elements of this post, but especially in this section. In the original Pathologic ARG, “Feverish Feelings,” the Griffins’ Tower is brought up a couple of times throughout, and was part of an intensive fandom discussion because many elements of it paralleled many themes and plot points of Pathologic. The following connections/possibly related facts are a combination of fandom discussion from the time and my own research:

The tower is connected to a pharmacy that has existed since the 18th century. Both were once owned by the Poehl family, who were a rather eccentric yet somewhat mysterious rich family. Rumors from the time (The 18th/19th century) speculate that members of the family engaged in “…alchemy and witchcraft, and in the basements of the house he turned mercury into gold and bred griffins. Since ancient times, it was believed that griffins, mythical creatures with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle, were the guardians to secret sacred knowledge and treasures.”

In 1994, the artist Alexey Kostroma, together with the society "Here and There" (Tut i tam), organized a demonstration/art-piece to advocate for the preservation of the tower and the revitalization of the city, which they believed was falling apart before their very eyes. During this demonstration, they hoisted a large egg (approximately 1.5 meters) onto the top of the tower, and they painted (I’m not sure what was used to put the numbers on the tower, but I assume it was paint) numbers on almost every brick of the tower. While the purposes for the those two additions rarely get brought up in conversations surrounding it, the egg and the numbers are now some of the most well-known parts of the tower, despite the fact that neither of the two are there anymore. The Polyhedron, as we know, is a tower that at the top houses children and is made from its own complex blueprints. Additionally, in the Marble Nest, but also throughout Pathologic as a whole, there is a common piece of imagery that connects eggs and the Utopians. In the opening of The Marble Nest, the item that’s used on the loading screen is an egg. If you look at the egg sprite in P2, you’ll see a crack in it that heavily resembles the Polyhedron. Daniil Dankovsky commonly uses the Latin phrase “ab ovo,” which means “from the beginning” but when literally translated means “from the egg,” and his touch text for the egg in Marble Nest reads “To understand anything, start ab ovo — ‘from the egg.’”

While playing through The Marble Nest several times for this ARG, I noticed something that gave me more confidence in The Griffins’ Tower playing a role in it. If you guys have played Pathologic as much as I have you’ll know there’s a tower in between the Stone Yard and the steppe that you can’t enter and is barely ever really explained. If I’m picking apart my brain correctly for Pathologic 1 knowledge, I believe it is implied to be a Focus of some sort. If you’ve only played Pathologic 2, or you haven’t played through The Bachelor’s route in P1 enough, or you haven’t read through the Pathologic “Corpus” entries, you probably have an incomplete idea of what a “focus” is and all that it entails. I won’t go too deep into it now, but it’s said in one of the Corpus entries that, on top of the Polyhedron, Cathedral, Stillwater, Crucible, etc., there were a number of experimental Focuses that were built for Simon Kain to test the limits of what buildings could capture the human soul and memories. It’s a building you can’t ever enter, but it does have a visible door, which is very similar to the way that Simon’s focus is described by Victor Kain. I’d like to draw your attention to the visual similarities between that tower and the Griffin Tower. I’d also like to draw your attention to the fact that, in the original design concepts of Pathologic 1 every character is associated with a specific animal, and Simon Kain’s is a griffin. What is a griffin? Well, it’s a fusion between two drastically different creatures, a lion and an eagle; a griffin is a chimera.

Interestingly, in 2005 (the year Pathologic came out) the pharmacy connected to The Griffins Tower was closed for a while because it became flooded with water while trying to extinguish a fire.

There is a photo in the pharmacy connected to the tower (which has now been converted into a museum about the history of the place and pharmacies in general) that depicts, during the early 1900s, the pharmacy sitting next to a theater called “Simpatiya” (Sympathy).

While @kurury-chan was on a tour of the pharmacy/museum she found an interesting marmite that was on display. It was created by Samuel Clarke and it’s called “Pyramid,” and the marmite has an accompanying poem: Когда ночи темные, подумайте о Кларке, который попал точно в цель. Его ночные огни создают светлые ночи, в которых вы прекрасно видите. (When the nights are dark, think of Clark hitting the mark. His night lights create bright nights in which you can see perfectly) This is interesting largely because the poem reminds me somewhat of the body text for the lantern ad found in the newspaper post.

In the original email mentioning the Griffin’s Tower, Voronika Kroy appends the message by saying “P.S. I feel like I’ll need this memory later.”

Seventh Seal

I watched this movie after discovering all of the allusions to General Block we’ve seen thus far, but being unsure what to do with any of them. For those that don’t know, the movie The Seventh Seal’s protagonist Octavius Block has been listed as one of the main inspirations for Alexander Block, and since IPL seems intent on leading us to analyze certain works of literature/film/theater for this, I decided to look into it. What I found is incredibly interesting I think, because it seems that one of the main inspirations for The Marble Nest is The Seventh Seal.

The title is based on a bible verse (from the Book of Revelations) that reads “And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” This verse appears both at the very beginning of the movie and then again toward the end. This thirty minutes/half-an-hour element appears prominently in both this story and The Masque of the Red Death. One other place it appears is on the pocket watch in the first Fyodor Vitin post, where the time on it is 2:30. I am very confident that it also appears in The Marble Nest once or twice, but despite looking I was unable to find it. If anyone else knows where it might be, either comment on this post or message me, and I will put it in this section and credit you.

The movie's plot revolves around Antonius Block, a disillusioned medieval knight returning from the Crusades. Block is struggling throughout the movie with his inability to believe in God and his realization that his whole life has been wasted. He wishes more than anything to do one last deed before his death to give his life meaning. The movie is set during the Black Death, with prominent elements of the story revolving around the plague. The movie largely focuses on how Block takes in several poor and out-of-luck folks fleeing the plague, inviting them to stay at his castle and escorting them along the way.

Toward the beginning of the movie, Death comes to take Block, but he convinces Death to play him in a game of chess for his life. This game of chess continues throughout the movie, with Death allowing Block to take several breaks in order to find clarity about his life and death. Toward the end of the movie, he allows Death to take his queen, effectively ensuring he would lose the game in the next turn, so that his companions could get away without Death noticing. After returning to his castle, everyone has a nice meal before Death arrives and takes everyone, excluding the people that Block helped get away by tricking Death.

Many things from Pathologic seem to take inspiration from this movie; most notable being the storyline of The Marble Nest (Dankovsky’s “People” screen categorizes people as chess pieces, essentially implying that his struggle against death is a sort of chess match), but there are also some smaller things. For example, there is a scene where the characters encounter someone afflicted with the plague who cries out for help, and one of the women tries to get closer to give the man water, but another person stops her, as giving water to a plague victim is futile and dangerous; almost immediately after this, a personification of Death appears. This heavily reminds me of the intro/tutorial of Pathologic 2, where a similar scene occurs.

While watching the movie, it’s very easy to see how Block was directly inspired by the main character, but it’s hard to convey exactly how without describing many scenes in detail, so I will simply describe one of them. After leaving a church confessional where he admits to his faith faltering and wanting to perform one meaningful deed before he dies, Block encounters a young woman who’s about to be burned at the stake for allegedly having ties to the devil. He takes pity on this woman, seeing something special in her, and believes she can tell him about life after death. This, to me, seems very reminiscent of Block’s storyline with the Changeling in P1.

Another small lead before this part of the post is finished: This lead, I will admit, I stumbled across completely at random, and will not talk about much because there’s not much I can say about it that isn’t obvious. It might be worth looking into the Russian philosopher Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov, and perhaps thinking about if Fyodor Vitin was based partially on him, since we know Vitin works closely with Daniil.

Additional Notes/Comments:

In the newspaper clipping, it is said that a man with the initials “F.L.” had been one of the apparent two victims of the fire that burned down several buildings. This man (who I’ll simply refer to as “F” from now on) is an academician, historian, and writer of everyday life, which obviously fits well with the man that we know as Fyodor Vitin, and it has been assumed up until this point that he was the victim of this fire. I think there are three possibilities here: Fyodor Vitin was not the victim of this fire somehow, Fyodor Vitin is not his real name, or the newspaper is lying to us. In connection to the light/lantern emphasis in the newspaper, it might be worth it to note that the word “vitin” in Faroese means something like “the lighthouse”/“the beacon”, while in old Swedish it means something like “to know.” What’s more interesting is that Vitin in old Swedish is a second-person plural present indicative, and for people that got a useful education, that means it’s a verb that’s used to factually describe the current actions of the people that the speaker is saying it to. If Vitin isn’t his real surname, his username could mean “Fyodor beacon”, or “Fyodor (that you all) know”.

As discussed extensively in the section on the Tower of Babel, there is a direct connection drawn between the Polyhedron, Simon, and chimeras. We elaborated a bit on this connection in the section on the Griffins’ Tower. What’s especially interesting then is the fact that, in The Marble Nest, the Polyhedron is labeled as “focus,” implying that Simon’s essence is infused in the Polyhedron, as is what happens in the first game. This, I believe, confirms our theory about the connection even further. What then makes this even more related to the ARG is the fact that in the “One can work here” post by Fyodor Vitin, we see the three statues depicting the golden bull, the centaur, and the marble bust of a man. It is then worth noting that this bust of a man made of marble could be a reference to The Marble Nest, perhaps trying to get us to look there for clues. I believe, if the golden bull is meant to represent the Polyhedron (or at least the Polyhedron argument in The Marble Nest), and the centaur is meant to represent the chimera, then the marble bust of the man is meant to represent Simon (or, once again, represent the Simon/immortal man argument from the Marble Nest). This is supported by my point about the marble busts both immortalizing men and also making them more into concepts than men (as the statue can only depict a small part of a man’s life, usually depicting him in battle, leading a governmental position, etc). In the original game, and as can slightly be seen in hints of the second game, Simon is sometimes seen as more of a concept than a man; he is the ideology of the utopians incarnate, the perfect man that represents everything humanity could be. As a chimera is vital to Burakh’s quest, so too is it vital for Dankovsky’s (and it’s interesting to note that Burakh has the chimera revelation while in conversation with Dankovsky.) If the Marble Nest is used to represent the stone yard, or the “town” in its purest form, then Simon Kain is the marble man. It then becomes important to figure out where the “One can work here” picture is supposed to be depicting. I believe, if the statues there are supposed to represent all that we’ve said so far, the location should be representative of Dankovsky’s fight against death, and therefore I say it probably has to be Thanatica.

Now, as for all the connections with General Block, there are obviously many of them, from the Guglielmo Pepe hypothesis to the mention of Aristides/Pericles to The Seventh Seal to the whole “ash” thing, it seems far too much to be a series of coincidences. I don’t think it’s too crazy to connect the prominent appearance of the number 30 in the Block/Pepe/Aristides context to the prominent appearance of the number 30 (as in half an hour) in The Seventh Seal, which makes the appearance of the number 30 in that first Fyodor Vitin post even more interesting. It’s long been theorized that, from what we see in the Haruspex’s route and what we’ve seen in Pathologic 1, the Bachelor’s new route will probably feature General Block much more prominently. Perhaps, as the first ARG was so focused on the inquisitors, we’ll also get to learn more about the army in this one. Maybe General Ashes even had something to do with the building that was reduced to ashes?

The topic of religion, and specifically Christianity, comes up a lot in The Marble Nest. I think all the connections I’ve made in this post to Christianity have convinced you that it’s seemingly an important part of this ARG. In the first ARG, there were certain biblical passages that acted as clues, specifically from the Gospel according to John, which we talked about in the section on the “Messages” post. As is also mentioned in that section, the connection to Inquisitors Peter Kroy and Mark Karminsky seems to be driving us toward looking into The Gospel according to Peter and The Gospel according to Mark. It’s also talked about in that section how these both relate to Daniil. Mark Karminsky specifically also seems to have had something to do with the "Accident" mentioned in the newspaper, and so perhaps combining numbers from the newspaper within the Gospel of Mark could lead to some clues.

Still, as much as I’ve said in this post, there is more I wish to analyze but have not yet. This post has been in the works for a while, though, and I don’t want people to be waiting any longer, so I’ll have to save that other stuff for another day.

If anyone can somehow get into the game files of the Marble Nest and retrieve the texture/model for any of the letters or books (like the two linked images), that will end up being very helpful.

Other screenshots from Pathologic 2/The Marble Nest that could be of interest:

Grigory Gorky (Pathologic 2) Grigory Gorky (The Marble Nest) Mikhail Goba (The Marble Nest) Daniil Death Certificate (The Marble Nest) Rug (The Marble Nest) Book (The Marble Nest) Familiar Bloody Handprint (The Marble Nest) Tipped Over Lantern (The Marble Nest) Staff Sergeant Plover (The Marble Nest) Avrely Gubar (The Marble Nest) Odd use of Roman Numerals (The Marble Nest) Cathedral Letter (The Marble Nest) Plant that I found several times in the Cathedral (The Marble Nest)

[darcytaylor]

Luke has said he isn't the best at seeing himself and I actually agree with him. I think he belongs in comedy, his timing is perfect, even in emotionally loaded scenes ("But you'd already be dead" hello??? Willow scene? ded). I'm sick of male egos and needing to be seen as a Tough Guy™. What's the point of trying to turn him into Austin Butler when a) AB already exists and b) I personally don't like him? I'd much rather see Luke in roles than this Glenn Powell guy they keep trying to force down our throats. Give me more Manny Jacinto. At least Nick Galitzine and Leo Woodall are thriving, but they're also massive, athletic dudes. It's a self-perpetuating problem if they won't let men depict sensitivity.

Masculinity is evolving but the old men making the decisions in Hollywood won't let it happen on screen. It's a big reason why they have a male lead problem - they're refusing to adapt their concepts to the new reality because they're from a different era. Shonda is on to something, as she always is, but the rest of the industry won't catch on until it's too late. And tbh, men are always so desperate for the approval of their fellow men that they'll prioritize it over everything else. I feel like so many problems in society would be solved if men would let themselves (and each other) be soft.

I would love to see Luke in a comedy! But then I don't think I would mind seeing him in a darker role as well. I was thinking about what kind of darker roll I could picture him in. Maybe it's because I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I think if they ever do a reboot of it (there were talks), Luke could play an Angel type character. Angel was dark and broody (he was a vampire), while also being very soft (he had a soul). It's the best of both worlds. I think Luke could do well with that.

I do agree with you that the 'tough guy' thing is rooted in ego for men. Which then can lead to it being a stepping stone for toxic masculinity. It's very harmful for men and women.

And while I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to look more 'tough' as an aesthetic, it's the actions that can follow that will inevitably cause the issues.

I think a lot men just don't understand the female gaze. While we are okay with looking at an attractive person, that's not what makes us swoon. It tends to be the emotional availability of the man that most women find attractive.

[ourlittleuluru]

I just... I just want to like... grab something and shake it. Chew on it. like... AHHH /head in hands, internally screaming into the void/ .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

First, it was that Incident that you can get from the rouge dungeon...

AND THEN AFTER, IT'S THE MESSAGE XAVIER SENDS!!! after you 100% the case!!!

MY HEART....! My body's already hurting enough... now my heart too 😭😭😭

Imma put this in the read more. Spoilers ahead!

So... there's this incident you can trigger... it's called Chaotic Dataspace. You would think it's nothing much aside from being all creepy and hive mind like... and then suddenly THEY TALK ABOUT YOUR PAST MEMORIES! FROM THE LIGHTSEEKER MYTH

Btw, this is my first encounter with this incident so... I haven't unlocked all the other options yet but gosh it's already hitting the feels so hard with this

^ isn't this the part where MC was lost that one time and Xavier came to find her???! Like she and Jeremiah went back into Starfall forest.

FOR XAVIER! ToT (Btw the choices here was just to either Lighten the Load > lose an item or something-something Trudge through it... I picked the latter because I had like 0 items lol)

The way Xavier's just there, holding you and waiting 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 AND MC JUST LETTING HER REAL THOUGHTS OUT! "It's nice being in Xavier's arms" WELL YOU BET IT WAS T^T I'm sure he gives the comfiest of all embraces

Okay... but seriously... the way he just says 500 years give or take... It feels like this is an actual glimpse into how long he's well alive for, in total since the Lightseeker days, me thinks. This doesn't feel like a random throw away ballpark number to me. BUTTTTT I may be tripping and looking too deep into it... idk;;; ¯\_(⊙﹏⊙∥)_/¯

And this ending??? Hello???? I'm sure Xavier was extremely worried this whole time but just holding onto MC grounds him and then you coming back to him unlike the other times... o(-(

I'm... i'm ded... gone... passed...

.... okay and then... the message after completing this whole case....

MC wants to give Xavier a cozy nest!!! 😭 that's so cuteeee! I CANT EVEN WITH THESE TWO!

and Xavier just drops a bomb on how he's recently getting dreams of MC disappearing... so... his past is still haunting him really bad and... and.. 🥺🥺🥺👐 the way he says the plushies they got together as something that links them. And even if MC isn't physically there, it will be like she was and it comforts him... i cant... cantttttttt

just let me dig a hole and rest there forever...

I totally did not go back to really read what I typed so some parts may be just a tiny bit.. incoherent...pardon me...

[neptuniadoesstuff]

Abecias Malice Ref (God OC Ref Sheet Remake)

(Edit: Had to pic the drawings a bit bcs I FORGOR I HAD THE FACIAL HAIR AT 30% OF OPACITY LIKE THE MORON I AM!)

AND HES DONE!

After a few days this gae bacon-haired moron is finished & tbh I like this new ver of him more than his original design. (If you wanna see his original design the link is here- (Plz remember the post is pretty old on here as well as the pic bcs originally this fella was actually a Early b-Day gift for my frend back when this year just frikin started.)

& yes that is some wine coming out of his mouth. (He loves his wine) & of course.... Bro is flipping u off. (But it's censored, also I originally was gonna draw a bird crossed out but then I forgor SO LETS PRETEND ME FORGETTING WAS INTENTIONAL & NOT SOME GOOF I COMMITED!) Look we a bit of somewhat vulgarity even if I'm not the person who would just curse. (But I do say byastord, which this guy is, so its fitting.)

Also Lil rewrite of his bio bcs frik u:

|| Name: Abecias Malice (aka Adder'Synn Malkovich) | Gender: Male (Trans), He/Him | Age: ?? (Died at the age of 22-23) | Sexuality: Gae | Height: ??'?? ft (Possibly was 6'2 ft tall when alive) | Enithcity: ?? (Possibly was a Rozokeen/Osmort mix when still alive) | Personality: A very unhinged & crazed individual who seem to have a unhealthy obsession with men & himself?? Seems to really like seeing oeppel die yet despises getting himself dirty to the point that he will literally start avoiding anything that has a SINGLE speck of dirt! What im saying is, hes narcissistic, sadistic, & also very lazy & wants others to do stuff for him. (Also is very racist to bird ppl idk, why though) I Occupation: The King of his kingdom of Vallenfholt (This is Godhome's hew name) | Family: ?? (When alive he had a older brother, a younger sister, & 2 parent but one of them was ded) | Species: Bloopmo (Halflett type) (Formally), Ascended God | Other: Can't seem to get drunk from the wine he always drinks EVERY SINGLE FRIKIN DAY! Is literally a rich pompous a-hole who despises the porr, homeless, & ugly ppl. Also thinks the mailmen are coming for him /hj ||

(A lot of the info here is not filled on purpose bcs gods... dont really care about mortal nonsense.)

Extras: Was originally a college student (or whatever he was when he was still alive) pretty much dealing with a pretty ab*sive father who would not respect his identity & was basically a complete snake. Although one Adder just.. snapped & ran off the campus to drive to his father's house &... kill him... But that was not the end of it, by the next day he had murdered around 12 people & injuring 2 (that being his now ex- bf & his now rival) only to be killed by his once best friend, Hugo.. When he died his soul was sent into the ring of Wrath but over the years, the regret he had turned into pride... He enjoyed what he had become... Not only that but his personality had started to shift, become extremely lustful & abnormally greedy to also having his appearance be shifted also, this was normal for a Sinner, but this Sinner was different... He risen up the rank & eventually became a God, not a well known god but a God nonetheless. Eventually going up into Vallenfholt & making a kingdom there which suited his needs. He however became so obsessed with himself that he pretty much just lost it & became the thing he originally despised the most... A rich, greedy, & selfish monster like his father was. Not only that anyone was below him was eventually killed instantly in the arena that he built for prisoners (Usually bcs he didn't like bcs of their appearance) to fight to the death in. Now as for how the hell he became obsessed with men & started to h8 on bird ppl (+ the whole thing about the mailmen coming for him... idk bro-). Now keep in might he was BoRN in a time humans (the morons from earth) did NOT come to Eeross.

Also if you wanna see the uncensored puc of the guy flipping u goofs off then here- (plz click read more but if u are offended by ppl flipping u off plz don't.)

Yeh no body pic bcs this is a friend's oc (that I made for em) but it would be VERY WEIRD OF ME TO POST THAT! (Even if we are AroAce & its a *full body ref* but plz don't ask me to post it in respect of MY FRIEND!)

ANYWAYS CREDITS BCS I H8 MYSELF! (Not really but I sorta do.... I need help-)

Character: Created by ne but belongs to a frend of mine who I'm gonna keep anonymous but they are on here (I ain't gonna say who BCS THEY ARE MEANT TO BE ANONYMOUS!)

Art: MinE

Program: IbisPaint x.

Bubs' TOS: Plz don't repost/steal, trace, or recolor my art WITHOUT MY PERMISSION! If you do, I'll take yur femur and pelvis.. SO, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! (The PNS on my blog's pinned post clearly means "Please No Steal" plz follow that rule.) If you do post my art on anything like yur blog or somewhere else (With my permission) PLEASE CREDIT ME!

[melrosing]

I come from a family of three girls and one boy and can I just say I know exactly that you mean? Not that it is revolutionary to say there is misogyny from mothers to their daughters but when I read the headcanons it felt familiar. I'm the eldest daughetr as well. it doesn't actually matter if you're the perfect daughter or not, they're gonna treat you the same

no fr... i'm one of two daughters of a woman who literally never wanted sons but like GOD this shit. the last time I visited my (now ded) grandmother - which was always really fucking fraught because my mother was convinced her mother had hated her since the day she was born and had often told me so, and had all these memories that she said showed her mother liked her younger brother better but that my grandmother remembered differently, and my grandmother was loving with me as a kid even if she lost a little interest when I was nine and my uncle had sons - anyway the LAST time I was sat with her whilst my mum was at fucking Tesco getting food she was going to cook for the three of us (that she’d pre-warned me my grandmother would criticise once it was on the table) and we were having a nice enough chat and it kind of felt warm like when I was kid and I was like you know what this lady AIN’T so bad as my mum says and there’s two sides to everything etc etc and then my gran said ‘btw you should really come see me without your mother some time. your mother. I’m telling u. there’s something twisted about her. when she was three and your uncle was a baby I left them with your grandad’s brother Terry and he was bouncing Nigel on his knee when I came to get them in the evening and he said what a jolly boy Nigel was but he pointed at your mum and he said that one: is a little witch. and she’s been giving me bitter looks all day.’ and then my gran looked at me all knowing like there you go, there’s your mum for you and then started talking about something the gardener said but I was just like excuse me I am going to the loo!! and I went to the kitchen and cried a bit!!!

anyway. we were talking to a cousin of my mum’s a year or so later and turns out great uncle terry fucked with kids so. there we fucking go i guess

[mowsyling]

Willow season finale some thoughts &stuff

Ermahgerd!!! The end... 👀👀👀😱😄

But first things first... I was so frickin scared going into this. I had a crappy first half of the day and when I got around to having time to watch I hesitated, afraid I'd be disappointed again &turning a crappy into a horrible day... I wasn't.. it didn't.. 😅

Anyway, some scenes and thoughts..

Sibling & "lovers" reunion scene was delightfully awkward &weird.. Wtf Airk? Acting like nothing is wrong.. He guys great you made it!🥴

The cliff scene with the rest of the gang went pretty much exactly as I expected, including Willow not jumping at first.

Meeting unexpectedly hot Crone.. Also not far from what I thought would happen.. I was pretty sure they'd end up caught in an illusion type thing. I had even had considered a wedding scenario once, still surprised that actually happened. A surprise was Madmartigan's involvement.. Hadn't considered that! (It makes me think it really was his voice Kit heard in the treasury in the mines.) Anyway..

This...😆

I cheered!! ��😂🙌

(There's someone far better suited.. he just needs to get through his corruption arc first.. *coughs* I'm getting ahead of myself..)

Of course Willow turns up on time to save the day, shatter the illusion &de-petrify everyone.. fighting ensues..

This was funny... 😆

👆This was hilarious to me😆😂 I want it on a shirt! 😂

This scene was... oof..

My poor foolishly brave baby boy!!🥺🥺😭 I had such a hard time getting through this🫣.. hit pause to collect myself.. I knew he was gonna "die" just didn't know how ded hed get.. When she poofed him through the passage l was very uncertain.. torn between "she literally shredded him - there were pieces!😳 and "but he went though the passage so there's a chance..?" Ooof..

I made it through.. and on the battle went.. Wand broken but Elora now fired up & lo & behold! Shooting lightning from her hands!😅

I was so tense through all this, still worried about Graydon's fate.. I knew everyone else was gonna be fine..

Important realisations &decisions (Boorman)

Then.. I cackled so hard when this happened! They really went there! 😆

(Monster fuckers unite!😂😆)

Kit's face!🤌😆😂😂 The personification of "Eww"...

Croneified Harbinger Airk.. Evil is really not great for your skin it seems.. Do not recommend..

Jade finally activates the cuirass for Kit... I have to say I absolutely love the design of that armour! Gimme!😍

I had considered Willow deliberately breaking his staff but my guess had been the crystal might be needed for the Lux instead it was used as detox or anthelmintic I guess you could say😆😅 for Airk.. kinda..

Boorman.. I feel you..

This is when I finally shed some tears... 🥺😭😭

I was almost convinced at this point Gray was gone for good.. was mentally preparing myself to be very sad disappointed 😅

But..

BUT!!!

I shrieked! I was so happy! Idc that he's in Wyrm-land with (fake) Dark!Elora.. He's alive! (-ish?) The relief!😅😅😄😭

Man bun Graydon has rights!

Dark!Elora is hot!

(can't blame Graydon if he's gonna fall for that for a bit..😆)

(This looks exactly like the Battlefield from Willow's vision btw.. (sadly reached the picture limit😆)

So I guess Graydon might have a corruption arc next season... And it looks like they planned for three seasons!

That's it.. not super detailed just what hit me most..

Not all hope is lost for Graylora nation! 😄😅🙌

💜

[asmrtist-brainrot]

Give me any and every Scythe thought. I want to see if our thoughts are matching up (the video notes are kicking my ass)

First of all, I haven't been looking too hard at the YouTube hints that Scythe left in the community posts, so I had no idea about the puzzle apparently leading up to the announcement???

Also, video notes?

I was on the polls for the first universe to travel to so.... I did end up voting for the World of Witches because I was curious about how he'd handle the Siren.

Jay-Jay is my baby, one of my favorite bois, and I'm really worried about him, and I've been so on edge since the beginning of this whole thing.

I've been trying not to post anything about the Patreon stuff because Maverick's got hold on most of Scythe's social media right now.

I might know a lot of things y'all don't but I'll keep them to myself unless you wanna go into DMs for it.

(Putting it under the cut for the people that haven't listened to the Reddening yet. :3c)

I've been crying about Marcus for forever, I am very sad. He ded now but hasn't stopped me from simping before, so, I guess it doesn't change much?? Seriously, I have so much suppressed brainrot for him, and I am devastated he is gone.

I would have also loved more Cole because, well... He was just a silly little guy, and he was really funny. 😭

I also kind of got like a separate idea of how the World of Witches storyline will go, but it's more my interpretation. More so, the forward move for Creed and the Chosen Witch.

I feel so badly for Creed, man, this is gonna be rough.

I'm happy Siren had the mind to just... Fly away because he's got self-preservation.

It's interesting to know that Maverick can overpower Celestials.

... And strong enough to blow up a planet! (It actually feels very DragonBall Z.)

I really liked Killian and Sparkles too, so I'm sulky. I'm kind of relieved Blaine is okay, and very interested where Dominic and the Goddess of Decay will shoot for after they find out Zappy is gone. :T

Maverick had literally dropped into the Demon Hunter universe just to get Hunter to unravel and fucking off elsewhere is a little funny.

Also the small bites of...

[MatPat voice] LOOOORE.

//clears throat

Sorry about that.

But uh, also live for the thought Scythe is just angrily floating in a void - it brings me so much amusement.

He was literally just chilling in his home, and Maverick just yoink.

But anyhow, finding out who Maverick's shooting for next made my heart fuckin' drop.

~ Dari

[generalconceptofacat]

I'm just gonna make a pinned so you can access all my art blogs

This is my main. It's an art blog. I post almost nothing but art here, don't expect me to reblog much here. even if we are mutuals.

@ded-bunnyzxx is my music blog. It's where I post my music links and where i wanna post more about my mascot. (art, lore, etc) If you're looking at the titles and thinking "ugh another schizoposter" don't worry! my entire music catelogue is about my struggles with psychosis, I actually fucking hate schizoposters. (ones that arent schizospec at least)

@mspaintpokedex is my side blog where I post mspaint pictures of pokemon

@generalconceptofagamedev is my game dev blog check it out

Hi, I'm cat. I'm a sfw furry artist. I make art, music, and stories about my personal struggles with mental health.

I prefer minors not interact for comfort reasons, but also because I sometimes make things I don't feel would be appropriate for kids, even if they're not sexual.

I try to tag stuff appropriately. I tag my triggers with tw trigger.

You can ask me to tag things and I most likely will.

I put my IDs in the Alt Text. I try to describe things best I can.

That's all I can really think of. I'll edit this post if I think of something I want to add.

[wench-and-jezebel]

Dark Angel Reaction: Pollo Loco

Jezebel (@typicalopposite) reacts [with occasional asides by Wench (@scripted-downfall)]

The pre-episode conversation:

Wench: Here it is.  You ready?  ARE YOU READY??? 

Jezebel: YUSSSSS

Wench: I CAN'T HEAR YOU: ARE YOU READY??!?!?!

Jezebel: YUSSSSSSSSSSS

Wench: Okay.  OKAY.  Here.  We.  Go.

Jezebel: AHHHHHHHHHH! READYYYY????

Wench: YESSS

Jezebel: 3!  2!  3!  4!  5!

Wench: alsdkfjladskjf Gooooo

Jezebel: 4!  3!  2!  1!  GOOOOO

��� – – 

GOD DAMN NOW A LIVE CHICKEN…  Ma’am!

Foreshadowing

I FEEL YA OC

I FEEEL YAAAA OC! ☠️☠️

It’s Ben  [Ben ded]  Oh?  [That's what they just said; they found a dead body with a barcode, and it's Ben]  Well now I’m confused

Bby Ben  [He was a storyteller :(]  😭😭😭

Wot?  [Was this about the Nomlies?]  I think yeah lol  [Nomlies are, essentially, Manticore rejects.  Flawed genetics, personalities, etc, to the point that they've been moved to the basement for reprogramming or permanent retirement]

…. Wait.  Wait.  🤔🤔🤔🤔  WAIT.  Isn’t that how she… Is this 🤔🤔🤔  [SPEAK]  Is this the future and the episode is leading up to the death?  [*whistles*]

[Nope.  I just lied to you]  You.  My friend.  Are a *redacted OFMD!Izzy cursing*

[Ma'am didn't say the nickname :(]  LINTLICKERRR  [There we go]  🙂

OOOOHHHH AHHHHH  [This is a thing now :)]  LIKE FUCKING NAILLSSSSS ON A CHALKBOARD

Bruh  [Ma'am didn't even wait for a response]  WHY NOT TELL HIM  [Max is being Max again, what can I say]  *sigh*

[I'm actually starting to recognize the kids this go-round]  

Holy hell deep voice

[I don't know if that kid's dealing with the tryptophan thing btw]

When he said the blue lady was he referring to the Virgin Mary?  [Yup.  Ben storytelling again]

ACKLESSSSS HAS ARRIVEDDDD  [He has indeed]

BUDDY WHATCHA DOING 👀👀👀  [Being homicidal.  As one does.]  

👀👀👀

Well damn

[Okay, look.  I know we know that she was lying.  But to be fair.  It's kinda ridiculous that they act like the kids would all be recognizable.  It's been.  11.  Years.]  Yeah that’s fair… But I mean I think I look like me from 11 years ago ☠️  [You didn't go through puberty in that time tho.  I think they were like.  9]

["Closest thing to a brother"  Bitch, ZACH IS SUPPOSED TO FILL THAT SPOT]  Excuse you Zach doesn’t need to be filling no spots 👀😮‍💨🤢  [MA'AM WATCH THE SHOW]

‘Cause I’m an angsty bitchhhhhhh  *sigh*

[Church]  Time to repent.  Then kill the priest.  Then repent again.  ["There's things, there's…people… feelings that I want to experience differently than I have before"]  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Awww man… Teef.  That’s brutal.  Blech  [“Summer teef.  Sum 're teef, sum 'ren't”]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

☠️☠️☠️☠️ Noooo

Priest is like… ma’am you gud  [No, she ain't]

I had stuff to say but Ackles has reappeared instead (like an Angel)

Oooh jumpscare

The smileee

The smile is gone  🙁

Uhhh no… I don’t

Speed run  ["Blurring," in the in-universe speak]

☠️☠️☠️ I swear he comes in so randomly WITH GROCERIES  like

– – – 

Wench: What were you saying when Ackles showed up? alskdjf

Jezebel: 😮‍💨😮‍💨  It was a joke and I don’t fully remember it enough to retype ☠️  Ackles just rewired my brain and it erased.  Irrelevant.  Non existent.

Wench: :))) Fair

Jezebel: But noooo the smile at Max 😮‍💨😮‍💨 I-  I swoo— I’m married sir how dare you

Wench: Nooo

Jezebel:  I- I have forgotten how to midpoint! All I wanna do is fangirl rn ☠️ and he’s only been in two scenes

Wench: I almost spilled my cereal at that one alksdjflaksdjf  But I understand completely

Jezebel: Will be a better endpoint

Wench: Aight… on we go?

Jezebel: YESSSS

– – – 

The priest is gonna get ded

“Faith in the lady”  That’s… ok  🤣🤣🤣

Priest is like… shit.  Time to find another line of work

[The eagerness with which he seized on the soldier explanation 😭]  😭😭😭

“The lady”  I’m dying

Oh noooo

I fucking jumped

["I'm not a liar"... murder = okay, lying = not.  This says something]

Ok I see what he’s doing I think

I’d be ded.  “Slide the wot IN WHERE!?!  Pretty boy help!”

“Click”?  Oh, or maybe it was loaded after all

Poor priest

A lot, lady.  A lot

[Poor Ben having a crisis of faith :(]  💔💔💔 Damn.  It be like that kid

Oooop  [He invaded her perch]  He gonna start talking in circles now  [He already did... Devour-coded]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️

[THIS IS THE "SHE"!  (The one I said to be concerned about)]  Ohhhh… That wants the kids killed?  [Yup]

[X5-493 = Ben, btw]  494 Alec?  [Yup.  And X5-452 = Max, iirc]

Ohhhhh military Karen  [She calls him Deck]  Milataren… Lintlicker and Militaren.

[Oop- Ben is back.  Important scene!]

Bruh he looked back like oh shit  [She annoys me here too btw.  Like.  bro, your brother is clearly losing himself.  And you're more interested in being bitchy about it than being caring.  “Bet he’d love to figure out what the hell went wrong with you.” Whyyyy did that need to be said?]

Lintlicker is like a fucking dog fighter with his little gaggle of pit bulls

Oh shit, crazy kids  [Azazel-coded]  Ooooof, trueee  [I heard it in his voice alksdj]  

[he wears fine blood well]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️  [Sorry, kinda had to]

Logan whatchu doin  [He sneak]

Lintlicker whatchu doin  [He protecc his kid]

Oooop- Logan you been had

["You think because she's so pretty, she isn't as dangerous?"  Bruh, there was a whole unit designed to use attraction as a weapon asldkfj  *cough cough* Alec]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

[I'd be concerned about Ben too, tbh]

Ooooop  [“Do you hate yourself that much?”  Yes  He does.  Have you not been watching?]

[This woman sees her brother losing himself and is like.  Aight.  I got this.  Let me make it worse!]  ☠️☠️☠️

AHHHH 

NOOOOO 

THE SAD

OMG HIS HEIGHTTT.  It’s visible here

YOU COULDN’T HAVE DONE THAT THE WHOLE TIME???  [Her physical acting there was so weird]

Ooooop

Oh.  The forest.  THE forest.  Ack.  ACKKKK.  [:)]

[This man playing the actual original comic book villain: "It seems his faith wasn't strong enough."]  RIGHT

OH CRAZY SMILE

BRUH

HOLY SHIT

Oh.  Oh that’s broken.  Ack

OH SHIT

ACK

AAAAAAACK  ["Ben, I can't carry you; we'll both get caught"  Bitch, tell that to your pilot-episode self]

ACKKKKKKK

HIS VOICE  [I KNOW]

ACHKKS

Nooooooo

Why couldn’t you just do it

Why

We don’t need a story

Ack

Ooooof

Ack  [Coherency has gone bye-bye]

Welp… Ack

Mood, Max

I’m

Um

Ack

Also tho.  The thing back then isn’t entirely fair they were kids

The priest is gonna be like…. Nope

[Priest survived, but he also has a weirdo barcode tattooed on his neck, and that's gonna make his life hella tricky in s2]  Ohhhh, he comes back?  [Nope.  They forget about it.  But everyone learns about the Manticore barcodes.  And that's the main way of IDing transgenics.  So like… Buddy boutta get slammed.]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️ Fair

– – – 

Jezebel: So, like, endpoint….  What even is an endpoint?

Wench: "Ack,” perhaps?

Jezebel: What even is life?  I’m not ok

Wench: I broke you alskdjf

Jezebel: … Ack.  Which is like ack…les. So even more ack.  I hope you and the minions are satisfied.  Evil.  Evillllll!  ACKKKK!!!!!  I AINT EVEN GET ANY JAM PONY TO MAKE IT BETTER

Wench: Okay, but s2 is better!  Alec is only three episodes away!

Jezebel: I got two seconds of OC- THAT’S A WHOLE THREE HOURS AWAY!  😭 180 minutes

Wench: Do you see what I mean about it being the best episode of season 1 though?

Jezebel: Yes!  It very much so was!

Wench: HAH!

Jezebel: Also noooooo the titleeee makessss sense nowwwwww!!!  Ackkkkkkkkk  What am I doing with this pain????  It’s like a reverse gift

Wench: You just kinda acked your way through the emotional scenes; I sent the script so you can compose your thoughts :)

Jezebel: Ohhhh.  Well… That was a lot of 😦 Like, I get him going crazy.  Also, I think I missed a part of Logan saying he had been doing this for a while (How long is the part I missed)

Wench: I don't think they said how long it was.  But, regardless, Lydecker's been covering for Ben.  Shutting down the investigations and all.

Jezebel: And, about that… On one hand I could go the anti Lintlicker route and say he’s only covering his ass because the woman wants to put them down and he doesn’t want to. And it’s nothing about him caring about them or anything.  But I could also go the pro Lydecker route and say he was trying to cover it up to get to him so they could in his eyes fix the problem and he would have another “kid” home.

Wench: I think it's probably a mix of both, tbh. He does care about them, but, like we've discussed, in a twisted kinda way?  So it might have been a "bring him home if we can" kinda thing.  And… thoughts on Max?

Jezebel: She was meh at best this episode but the end, with the story, I really felt for her.

Wench: Yeah, I get that.  I don't fully agree --- I think her handling of the Ben situation was pretty atrocious, tbh, even if it did end up working for a bit --- but otherwise... yeah, not bad.  And the end was kinda hard to fully hold against her.  (Also, talk about a picturesque death scene alsdkfj)

Jezebel: Right?! Like, oh, let’s have this lovely scenery, and plop a dead kid in his sister’s arms… oh, and sister is the murderer… Like… Wot?  Ack

Wench: Also, the childishness of the way he was speaking tho 😭

Jezebel: I KNOWWW  😭😭😭😭  Budddyyyyy

Wench: Honestly, the character as a whole has that quality.  He's so... beseeching.  Legitimately, all he wants is someone to understand 😭  He tries to get that with the priest in the confessional --- "I'm a soldier"--- and with Max at the tower --- "Don’t tell me you don’t wake up with the sound of your heart pounding in your ears." --- and then again with Max at the end.  Even the goading-Max-into-hitting-him bit.  He wanted her to understand the violence and she didn't even give him that 😭

Jezebel: 🥺🥺🥺 I just 😭😭😭😭 He’s such a good actorrrrr  😭😭😭

Wench: Agreed... *sigh*  But there ya go!  Ben episode!

Jezebel: *sigh* indeed!

Wench: Final thoughts?

Jezebel: … ACK

[zumpietoo]

Oh the Irony....

And perfect timing!!! Cuz I'm SURE you sent similar to the BB with their latest waybackmachinings??? (to say nothing of, WTF do you care what I entitle or post it---tho, I do have nu inspiration--and I posted all kinds of positive Cole stuff just this AM):

Oh and to say nothing of, sure enough, I called EXACTLY what your transparent asses are butthurt about....

Ah yes, we begin with assorted racism, elitism and lookism....umm...she lives an easily drivable distance from NYC AND for all we know Mommeee sent her a ticket (that she grifted for freeeee!!!). Plus who knew A) I was an evvvolll Poor? B) being a Poor was a sin?

At least I know US geography.....even tho Silly is in Georgia, which is also a relatively drivable distance to NYC....so you'd think she'd know that, too....maybe Silly is Amab? She's in 'Bama and was remarkably ignorant about basic US geography....especially since she taught school, in a grade where that would be part of the curriculum.

Ahhh.....I fuckin' knew it! They're pissed that nobody wants to doubledate/be besties with CabanaPee for realsiessss.....

But SweatBoi will react like a pissy little bitch, which, ofc, makes him the awesomest awesome that ever awesomed!!! Perhaps Silly/janASS should look up, "I didn't want to be part of your stupid clubhouse, anywaaayyy!!!"/sour grapes?

Oh yes, bad grammar BB member (Silly foaming at the mouth), PP does indeed gives a MANY shit(s) about everything Cole's doing. BTW, since he and Ari have been together for nearly 3 years, live together and probably will eventually get married....I think it moved past "hooking up" quite some time ago.

That would be Peepster and CB. And FB. And Austyn. And Charli. And whomever she slipped a few extra $$$ to at The Box.

Meanwhile....while Cole HAD already stated he'd be attending many parties for Halloween (versus just one, while beating a very ded, now revealed as fully AN ILLUSION(ary) horse).....considering we had CB yet again cosplaying Cole and PP being with CB entirely because of that....if Cole DID "run away" (no), moar like "from his stalkers".....cuz I most assuredly did NOT notice any "hotties"....

Dude, she posed for group pics with Cabana Pee....maybe she just knows an asshole when she sees one. And to the OG anon----what was that about "almost a month ago"??? You're here still droning on about CB cosplaying Cole the first time. Which is why PP's with him (and the ONLY reason).

MM is ninety billion times prettier than PP, actually a better actress, has been with her BF for way longer, he's a bigger fucking deal than CB could even dream of and she's with him cuz she legit loves him, versus making him pretend to be Walking Tat....

Ummm....it would be two words, "dumb ass", not one....ignorant dullard, however......it's as if FB legit likes Cole better than PP (let alone Sweatboi) even if PP lets him fuck her from time to time.

And not "at", IN....and Fancee Nicola also visited Cole on set, were roomies with him during quaranteen, etc....plus, no, dude....PP doesn't "always support him".....Cole (and MM) were at FB's premiere, Cole made a speshul trip to DC to attend a different premiere of FB's back in 2019.....PP was also in NYC then and didn't bother herself.

And why would he "support PP's nu relationship"? He and PP aren't really friends (they're sidepieces, at best), especially anymoar and CB is a nobody asshole.....and his wife hates PP (and probably Sweatboi)....

However, I do love how y'all are admitting it, even as you attempt to twist it. Plus, again....did the OG anon talk to them about shit in the past?

Why TF would they "feel pity for Cole"? He remains 90 billion times richer and moar famous than all the rest of them combined....

Plus, PP's production company is dick (you really need to stop with that idiocy).....so has Cole (and is legit friends with Alisters), and, again, I don't see PP leading any successful theatricals....she scabbed a student project for her cult for less than scale cuz she needed $$$ that fucking desperately.

Love how they ignore how Cole spent the strike at A list fashion events in all Europe, while PP did a purse party.....and attends other A list events? PP? Does tiktoks with CB's loser friends (who still hate her), now....

And lastly....even if true? Doesn't matter. Cole could easily fade into obscurity and just sit around counting his $$$---PP remains a slutty, dimwitted, talent-free bimbo, up to her eyeballs in debt....and, again, then they wouldn't have tried the sad little threepeat costumey....

[stray-tori]

trigun stampede reaction compilation & thoughts

it is trigun stampede time. <- can't watch new link click ep

funfact: I called Meryl Merelyn for like. the entire watch. I can't hear :)

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finally watching trigun stampede. i enjoy it a lot so far. sometimes the animation is a bit too overly animated (lol) but that's my only nitpick so far.

Meryl going "!!! journalistic integrityyyy, don't flatter meeee" was so cute, she's very endearing.

I didn't think it'd hook me that well, I just kinda wanted something to distract me a bit.

(insect bomb thingies) JESUS CHRIST

(idv reference) breaking wheel crossover spotted.

i like that the antagonist is just in this wack-ass clothed hood (how is it so big?) and is just.... slowly walking across the desert to the goal, like dude you couldn't get... a vehicle or sth? damn

a funny dude ominously terrifying but kinda funny

nvm absolutely terrifying the hood is still a lil goofy

why's there another kid that has the same hairstyle as the other two as kids......

(Kni obliterating the town) ok but why tho dude

oh hey wolfwood. oh. he ded. epic.

lmao his speech to god with that deadpan voice and wide kneel is sending me he is kinda creepy- i get that hes being nice to this traumatized child. but he comes across. as so creepy lol- "hey kid WANT A LOLIPOP" (this is even weirder in hindsight, like did he know?? he being an actor out here)

well. they ded. rip NO SPLITTING THE PARTY this show is genuinely creepy

???? they were too busy with the flir compliment to notice Roberto just fucking vanishing in front of them?? okay okay i see how it is

Wolfwood: "you fool!!" (proceeds to keep standing in front of the worm too)

HIS NAME IS NIKOLAS???

fellas does it mean sth to take the words of your thematic foil to heart and eat something again?

awww they're both sleeping in the back of the car lol, adorable

Meryl: im dying of a heat stroke Meryl: (in jacket)

Hello Norton from the 4vs1 asymmetrical game Identity V.

ooh it was a flashback :0 smooth ... mAN :( NO THIS DUDE. NOT THIS DOCTOR DUDE

why did his death actually bring the wind back i dont understand... like uh, I get that there's some religious theming going on here; but is the show saying that it's actually true and he was needed as a sacrifice? idk about that one chief. Maybe it's "sth sth natural order restored" but hmmm

Subtitles sure would be nice for this silent movie segment (dub was too incompetent to add subtitles for the text, so i had both sub and dub open and alternated as the segments happened. fun times. tbh it probably wasn't that relevant but oh well)

this artstyle and animation of this orphanage segment is SO NICE

that was adorable and way more "eyo?" than i expected from this show. dude smoked as a toddler too though, goddamn.

i…… what about wolfwood being against the cult until they blackmailed him made blue-hair think killing everyone they can blackmail him with would make him a better devotee. Like I guess he's not genuine now but I feel like killing everything he's trying to protect by helping them, is just.... kinda counterproductive.

Wolfwood: ILL SKIN YOU ALIVE AND PLAY WITH YOUR BONES UNTIL YOU BEG FOR DEATH Vash: 🥺

(the context does make sense but this fucking killed me)

ik that its literal for him bc he doesnt need it but saying he wont eat the food bc its "a waste" just hits different for me.... hng.

im gonna cry bc this "home" segment is so nice and im sure soon ill cry bc its gonna get RIPPED AWAY

LUIDA SURVIVED THAT??? HOW DID SHE SURVIVE THAT- Halleluja.

NO HIS HAIR- UNDO THIS RIGHT NOW. WHAT IS THIS- WHERE'S SOFTIE- epic callback tho (? idk what the relation to the other trigun media is.)

apparently it's sort of an semi-divergent prequel? according to the comments at least..... which..... probably means the hair is gonna stay... *sob*

okay, what is even happening-

goddamn the fucking burning animation on Knives.... they went insane, that looked so good.

I- what is happening-

I'm assuming the name of the newbie Meryl will take on is meaningful to the franchise bc it was framed like that but I just sat there like... "w-who? should i know them?"

where's vash :(

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On characters and dynamics

So, some stuff I didn't really comment on but the whole plants thing is very cool, lots of interesting philosophical arguments. Even if the whole... scientist shows journalists around thing was a little.... well, damn, aren't you nice, huh? IDK THAT WAS SO RANDOM WHAT DHSAJD-

Also the imagery of Vash having cords to all of the plants sure was something. (not negative)

I... was really confused on what was going on with his vine thingies at the end. I'm pretty sure both him and Knives got 1 wing each with their... tentacle... thingies, but they never really focused on it well (or maybe I was too tired to notice) so I was like "?? what is this noise behind him" for like... 2 minutes.

I think the show peaked with everything except the end for me (like all the plants stuff, like everything going on with the morality aspects and all that)- which might be my lack of trigun investment going into it to be fair. I feel like.... they did set it up but then didn't really deliver on it in a way that felt impactful to me, things were just kinda... happening and people were just kinda... there. Which like, i get this is kinda beyond anyone's capabilities but. YOU KNOW-

Maybe I just don't get it (likely), but I feel like it was kind of set up well, but then also not really resolved with the same "pieces"?

Like uh. we had wolfwood and vash redirect the cannon from the orphanage, which is very similar to vash redirecting the core-space-cube-thingy from the city in the end.

And we also had the whole "reach the person inside" aspect with livio, which then kind of came back with vash. But Meryl... idk, her part in the climax felt kind of unearned or... not as impactful to me? She wasn't really involved in the livio stuff at all.

I'm not saying Wolfwood would have made sense to be there in her stead, not rly, but her being there just didn't really do anything for me. She even already had her moment of not running away in the orphanage arc too. And she also didn't really have a huge impact in the end either, because it was mostly Rem's memory? Which like, you could argue makes my whole problem irrelevant which is fair, but idk. felt strange.

So yeah, I do think that i find it a jarring that the ending kinda had this whole Meryl->Vash and Wolfwood->Meryl rescuing thing going on, when I feel like the show almost exclusively focused on Meryl+Roberto and Vash+Wolfwood.

[bylightofdawn]

So I saw a car drive down the road when I went out to feed the ferals tonight, I went down and looked, didn't see any road closed signs so I am ASSUMING tomorrow I should be able to leave my house to go to HEB. Surely city workers aren't going to be working on the weekend, right?

In before the universe clowns on me tomorrow and I wake up to more construction noises and people actually resurfacing the roads. It's weird, I didn't get like....ANY notice in my mailbox that I saw. No sign on my door either which I know the utilities company will do at least whenever they have to do service to the water or electric and there's some kind of interruption.

You'd think if they were going to close the roads I would have at least gotten something in the mail surely?

Meeeeeeeeeeh. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Taking two days off of work this week was definitely the right decision. I was a lot less stressed and worn out today. Let's hope it was just sleep deprivation because I really don't like or want to have to be taking mental health days every bloody month. I"m going to be chewing through my vacation hours quicker than I can accrue them if that's the case.

Alright I'm going to go concentrate on writing and NOT looking at more hot fanart of D&D characters. Someone pointed out Chris Pine's character name is Edgin and I am just DED. Because it's not pronounced like edging but it sure is spelled similarly enough for my '13 year old boy brain' which is typically where my emotional maturity level when it comes to most anything sexual lays. aka it resides in the gutter. Also apparently his ship name with Xenk is Xedgin which just looks like a 90's edgelord usenet name on top of it everything else and I just cannot take anything about this pairing seriously. And I am desperately trying to avoid just breaking and going to AO3 to see what no doubt terrible fanfic offerings there are to be found. I doubt there's anything SUPER GREAT because it's a new canon and usually it's like...mediocre at best and then you check in after a year and there's a couple of really good fanfics. I could be just prejudging but I've been a fanfic reader for a long-ass time even before I started to put out my own mediocre fanfic offerings. But if I am incorrect, please let me know.

I am also fighting the urge to take a dive into my dumpster of Artemis/Jarlaxle fics because talking about Forgotten Realms got me all kinds of nostalgic for my favorite trashy 'antihero/villain depending on how ol' Sal is feeling when he writes them' duo.

BUT I AM GOING TO TRY AND RESIST THE SHINY NEW HYPERFIXATION AND WRITE.

[housamo-stories]

MC's accident chapter 15 (Housamo)

Shinjuku hospital rooftop

MC was happy that the threat to their life had been taken care of, Ophion and Gyumao showed how much they loved them just in that one punch to their aggressors face. The others showed up a bit later, disappointed they missed all the action, Ded was happy beyond belief that his lover was safe, banged up a bit but safe, Krampus gave them the biggest hug he could muster, just happy to see them alive, Ahura had arrived despite usually thinking MC was evil incarnate his view changed after seeing the broadcast and the wounds they suffered days before as well as the wounds they currently had that had been carefully tended to by Snow and Barba, Ahura opened his arms and held MC close, this surprised MC usually Ahura Mazda never hugged them when they were together, MC looked into Ahura's eyes seeing some tears fall from his face, Ahura was crying, he was actually crying for them, MC returned the large mans embrace to which Ahura lifted them into his powerful arms and rested them against his chest, Ahura had seen the face of true evil today and that almost cost someone their life, someone he secretly loved, he then vowed in his mind that he would try to see past the exiles soul inside of them and get to know the real MC within, thunderbird had shown up later and saw MC running over to his lover and putting a gentle hand on their head saying "i'm happy your alright baby, i'd be lost if something ever happened to you", everyone was happy to see their loved one alive and kicking, Perun had shown up and almost crushed MC to death in his arms, Hippolytus and Volos having to actually pry him away from their beloved, MC knew Perun cared deeply about them and knew that Perun was just relieved they were alright.

1 month later

MC was happy as they were being discharged soon, their left arm now fully healed and no longer having bandages had made moving easier, their friends and adopted family visited quite often, Fenrir had come alone a few times to get some alone time with his beloved alpha and Asterius would come by with bigfoot (they live together as roommates BTW) and ask how they were doing with their recovery, Leib came by with Cusith and Jambavan the two practically cried their eyes out at seeing their lover and friend doing alright, Aegir, Dagon, and Ahab had also come by to see them telling them they couldn't wait till they were better as they were making plans to take them on a weekend getaway sometime in the near future, Ashigara and Yasuyori had visited bringing Wakan and Gunzo along the four were elated seeing their beloved and talked about all the things they would do when MC was discharged, the outlaws had stopped by to see how they were doing as well, Shino had practically gotten on his hands and knees apologizing for his weakness, they were able to calm him down after a short chat, Gyobu was just glad he could hold them in his arms again, Marchosias was beaming when he saw them he basically picked them up and twirled them around before embracing them, Hephaestus was happy he could see his "mama" as he had been to busy to notice any events going on outside of his workshop, they really enjoyed when Barba and Tora came by sometimes with little gifts like candy or chips or even a small bouquet of roses.

The day they were discharged they felt a weight lift off their shoulders the moment they walked out the door they could smell how fresh the air was and noticed the sky seemed bluer, they heard a voice say "oh my love" they looked down to see Snow and Claude standing there by their car, Snow holding the door open, Claude then extended his hand before saying "your chariot awaits" before they take his hand and guide them gently into their seat, Snow then guides Claude into the car before shutting the door and getting into the drivers seat, after what seemed like an eternity the car pulled up to Shinjuku academy, Claude told them to close their eyes before getting out of the car MC complies and Claude helps guide them out of the car, Claude keeps his hand over their eyes telling them not to peek, Claude and Snow move in front of them to they're positions before telling them to open their eyes as soon as they do they hear "SURPRISE! CONGRADULATIONS ON YOUR RECOVERY MC!!" Everyone they know is there clapping with smiles on their faces, MC begins to swell up with happiness tears falling down their face they think to themself "I must be the luckiest person in the world"

Chapter end.

[mind-me-n0t]

Like a Dragon: Yakuza - Episode 3

I'm of two minds on this

The last episode of today's triple release leaves me in a weird spot. I want to divorce the show from the games and enjoy it on its own, but I'm constantly drawing parallels and comparisons in my head. And rightfully so, it is an adaptation after all, isn't it?!

Some of the changes I find genuinely cool. Some are choices I wouldn't have made myself, but I'm interested in how they play out. And some are just bad.

I'm not onboard the hate train that's rolling through the fandom at the moment. I am still looking forward to next week where the conclusion will take place. But I also mourn what could have been if the show had been placed in more loving hands.

Thoughts and spoilers below.

Oh my god heyyyy Haruka... Okay, byeeee Haruka...

God, I was yelling at my screen "Don't you dare just drop her off here". I was so pumped after Kiryu saved her at the end of episode 2. But she's not going to be important to the plot, is she? This just feels like a checked box. Aiko and Yumi both got some parental trauma, what with their mom going fishing for kulipaas in the lake, and it would make sense for Haruka to factor into the resolution of that. Now you are the self-destructive mother, Aiko. Are you really going to do Haruka dirty like your own mom did?

It was cute how Kiryu came to Haruka's defence when Yumi got a bit harsh on her, I loved those little moments. Sad we won't see any more of those.

Nishiki still likes Kiryu? Didn't see that coming. An interesting twist and a welcome one. In episode 2 there was a moment or two where Nishiki felt like a background character to Kiryu's story, which could be a catalyst for him going bad, like the game does it. "Oh man Kiryu went to jail? Shame, it should have been someone worthless like Nishiki". But Kiryu probably never gets to that level of recognition here, so it would be a weird aspect to keep. Although again, if Nishiki doesn't turn evil in those 10 years, what the fuck has he been doing with his time?

Although it is kind of a trope in the series that the more polite someone is from the get go, the more evil they get when shit hits the fan. Some of your best buddies start out as rude and even hostile. That's how you know they are great friend material. Perhaps Nishiki will reveal his true colours later.

Yumi: "You haven't changed. It's as if you were frozen in time." Nah, girl. He actually changed a lot. Like a lot a lot. It's one of the things i praised in my post for the last episode. Maybe in the jump from right before prison to now, he hasn't changed. But we the audience wouldn't be able to tell because we are not there yet in this bullshit double timeline. God, it annoys me to no end!

Oh my god heyyyy Taiga... Okay, byeeee Taiga...

My boys have been done dirty. I feel like this is a testament to the show's creators missing the point completely. Solid proof that they failed basic characterisation or worse, didn't care about it. The Majima from the games wears many masks, and it's easy to just think of him as a obsessive, knife-wielding maniac. But what he isn't underneath these masks is stupid. Majima is not stupid. He just doesn't care and weaponises his carefreeness against his enemies.

Likewise with Saejima. He is not stupid. But in the show they are prancing around like buffoons, opening fire in the middle of the street in broad daylight. And none of them seems to understand the gravity of a bullet wound in the torso? "If you die on me, I'll kill you" Woohoohoo, we're so kooky! Ah shit, he ded.

I do like Majima's actor's performance. And I like how in the opening of the fight he comes across as a more seasoned yakuza than baby Kaz and Nishiki. More of that Majima, please. But now I have zero confidence in the show handling post-downfall Majima with any cleverness or skill.

Halfway there, I guess. See y'all next week.