You will find enclosed in this neat little pile of papers a collection of letters, all addressed to seemingly no one at all. All of them have the same handwriting and mannerisms, but no signature marks any of them. There's no date on any, and they seem to be gathered from any number of days. Whoever was writing them seemed almost crazed and delirious, with how haphazardly some of the words are written.

They do present readers with things to think about, however...

Interesting how there are certain characters who have a certain naming convention applied to them. Let's see:

Bachelor
Haruspex
Changeling
Inquisitor
Commander
The Foreman of the Abattoir

The interesting trend is that all of these characters are set apart from the 'main townsfolk', and most interestingly in one key way: they all arrive in town during the story. Our three heroes arrive right at the start of it, the Inquisitor and Commander on the ninth day, and the Foreman, for the start of the story, is out on the steppe before his return to the Abattoir an to the town.

The Powers That Be are so distraught and upset by Recent Circumstances - at the prospect of death in all of its painful and uncontrollable nature - that the very idea that someone, even a fictional, made up character (even something so silly as a doll) believes he can fight it, defeat it, makes them want to make him suffer a little, in that spiteful way where people want to shatter impossible dreams (because they were shattered for them). Inventing a character who wants nothing more than to defeat death, only to tell him over and over again (tell yourself over and over again) that no, you can't do it, we've tried. If we couldn't do it, sitting here waiting for our parents to pick us up and go home from this funeral, no one can.

I always thought it was strange that Lara of all people was part of Clara's Bound, but honestly when you see her Bound as "people who feel, themselves, that they need redemption and are willing to die for it", it makes a little more sense. Of course Lara would be part of her Bound. She is kind to a fault, never feeling like she is doing enough, always pushing herself to do more, always knowing that she will never be able to help enough people. So when given the chance to give herself up for the town, her response is "I could save so many more people doing this than I ever could in life"; redeeming herself from how she sees herself - useless.

(even though she isnt!!! i love her!!!!!!!!!!!)

Honestly, all of Clara's bound are just "people who are willing to die", I think. not so much sinners. Just anyone willing to die will do; it only helps that the people see themselves as sinners and are looking for redemption, whether out of love (Lara), improving themselves (Grief), or fear of punishment and wanting to run away (Anna).

Though, I think the only person who felt a little strange for Clara is Yulia--she felt kinda like a "eh lol may as well die for this" than anything else, I guess? She knows she's not 'normal' and has been kind of 'broken' by the way she thinks, but...not sure to be honest. She does fit vibe-wise, I suppose lol.

If Clara's ending is about the human cost for the sake of preserving what you have, in perfect stagnation, acceptance of the status quo at the cost of sacrifice (so, perfectly saving the status quo, no forward or back) then I guess the Haruspex's ending would be, instead, sacrificing dreams and hope of greater growth for strengthening what you have. No human cost, but the giving up of future growth, making do with what you have, recouping and using whats there (so, working within the status quo, while limiting your growth and dreams greatly). Then the Bachelor would be destroying the foundations, sacrificing whats there, all for the hope of maybe, just maybe building something better (so, destroying the status quo, but leaving no limit on any dreamed-up future).

You have to wonder...in the Bachelor route, the Haruspex is never in his "lair" (cringe word cringe word what are you an ogre or an anime supervillain). I wonder if, because in the Bachelor route you never really care about the Haruspex, he doesnt have the Bachelor there to help his reputation among the town's upper-crust. So, he can't get to Saburov and can't get his warehouse's key. In the Changeling route, yeah sure they fight each other, but they also work together. More than the Bachelor route, where you don't even interact until far later.

Playing through the Haruspex route, it honestly feels like both the Haruspex and Bachelor routes were designed quite equally as the 'first route', interestingly enough. Sometimes, the Haruspex even MORE than the Bachelor, both for difficulty and information given. It makes sense, too; the Bachelor would have not known what questions to ask, or not cared to ask them enough (because plagues tend to be quite distracting and all). For example, only in the Haruspex route, in which the playable character knows the term, is oynon defined by Vlad Jr. Also, playing through the Haruspex route, it's quite interesting seeing just how easily the Bachelor was lead along in some cases - interesting and a but ... annoying, considering that was me, lmao.

I love the parallels between Day 5 Bachelor -> Haruspex jail rescue and Day 9 Haruspex -> Bachelor jail rescue. In (A), Bachelor pays off people to do his dirty work, only stepping in at the last moment, after everyone he hired died, when he needs to. Only then getting his hands dirty (but getting them dirty nonetheless!). All while the Haruspex frees the Bachelor by having gotten his hands dirty, or by dirtying his hands further; either working on the ground with the kids, and letting one live through kindness (on Day 1), or by killing the child guards...much to think about.

world's weakest gun...but infinite bullets

When you realise... 1) the Inquisitor's spoken dialogue of "they've grown old and grown tired of me", 2) the part in the Bachelor route where you visit the very first infected house and the woman inside, infected with sand pest, says something about "hearing a boy and a girl crying; but it's not their fault."

Something interesting about the Changeling route: when you interact with random townsfolk, the option to [Just Talk] is first, and then the option to [Trade] is below it. I don't knwo why this is interesting but it is :)

(something about how either she sees trade as less important due to maybe not needing material objects, something about how she's the odd one out and shares no dialogue with the other two, something about how maybe it's most likely 100% just a random oversight by the devs)

Something I thought about was how Bachelor and Haruspex are both motivated by hate and love respectively, but...it's hate and love of the Inquisitor. The town, sure, the people, yeah, but more than anything, the decision that either makes at the end comes down to a surprising amount of "I will spite the Inquisitor" or "I will save Aglaya" lmao. She gets around, what else is there to say.

okay i mean day 1-4 changeling were baby games but oh my god day 5. little sister! zero rep! falling fast! any misconceptions i had about townsfolk not attacking you as changeling sure got cleared up real quick! help!! couldn't complete sidequests because mr bachelor locked me in the gay baby jail that was his room and grounded me....i mean i had a save from before...i could do the quests...but i wanted the out, to be honest. no shot. i don't want to run around town being hunted if i can avoid it...help...sorry little albino my brother

later: i am in so much stress. whoever said 'haha low rep is fine! only no shops and maybe a few rep checks for quests' (me. i said that.) had the word 'clueless' comically floating out of sight behind them for the audience to see.

ngl changeling day 11...idk if it was the atmosphere or 70 hours of build-up of all of the little speeches the Bound give but dear lord if i wasn't close to tearing up man...and getting to the end and seeing that [TRUE END] cutscene of the dolls on the stage (which i hadn't seen before because i wanted the steam achievement for swapping endings to i was like 'i'll have the bachelor and haruspex swap endings and let the changeling pick her own)...god. finally. the poor dolls can rest...

Love Changeling route, because I go talk to the Bachelor and Haruspex for daily main quest and both are calmly like 'oh he's around here; we're working on this thing together to stop the plague' and then not even three hours later I get a letter from the Inquisitor that contains nothing but 'Help the Haruspex. The Bachelor is hunting him for sport.' What happened, huh. I left for two seconds. What did you two say.

Something else that Hit was each conversation with the Haruspex and Bachelor in the Changeling route. The Haruspex, having found out that he's a doll from the Inquisitor, and not caring at all; if he can finish his job, he can finish his job. The Bachelor, who also had found out, seeming to have lost his mind a little. Acting all overly-confident as if, by holding the 'doll' information over your head, it can be 'leverage' and 'to his benefit', rather than something that makes him want to die...weh...

(and, of course, the meta aspect of that conversation with him as the changeling; you get given so many choices for what to say, but even disparate ones lead him to sometimes jarringly drag the conversation back to saving the polyhedron...all that denial and desperation to clinging on to the one thing he has...)

the cathedral conversation with the haruspex is so funny. man legit threw out a final attempt at the bachelor's life even though it's all over. 'touch him clara; fucking kill him.' 'you are insane.' shoot your shot i guess.

The 'everything happens...' line that appears a lot in Pathologic 1 really stuck with me as like...a tired, accepting, 'it is what it is...' line. I look it up in the Russian script and turns out it's just 'anything is possible'...which...does not ruin it, per se, but does make it a little funny. How do you translate what is word-for-word in Russian 'everything' 'possible' 'is' and make is 'everything happens........' Everything happens, I guess...

I like how if you play the routes in the 'intended order' (-> this way, Bachelor -> Haruspex -> Changeling), your reaction to the knowledge of 'being a doll' is the same as the character you are controlling.

Bachelor: fucking...life-shattering. Game-ruining. 'Help'. 'What?'. 'What was and is the point?". That deeply melancholic feeling I felt even though I knew the main twist was overwhelming.
Haruspex: Honestly, look, whatever man. Not gonna let it ruin my day. I'm here to help these people I love, whether I'm a doll or not.
Changeling: lol. lmao, even. Of course I'm a doll. I know already dummies!! Now let me surpass being a doll, because that's getting old and stale; let me play, and let me win.

I think playing in the -> intended order works best for the Bachelor and Haruspex, even though both are good as a first route. If you start as Bachelor you hear about Isidor's son a few times and you're all like 'eh cool sounds like a guy I guess' but then if you had played the Harsupex route first you'd be all 'get his help!!! Save his ass!!!'