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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
Pathologic ARG
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Author Message
Twiler
Decorated


Joined: 04 Mar 2006
Posts: 209

 		Pathologic ARG
An ARG based on the remake of the russian game 'Pathologic' has just started.

So far, this site has appeared: http://feverishfeeling.com/

Signing up has netted me the following mails:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Hi. Name's Voronika.

Bet you didn't expect a personal letter from me. Of course you didn't. You thought you'll submit an e-mail and receive ads from a company producing weight loss socks or dog wool coats. Or a startup, or something. Whatever were you thinking?

Don't worry, I won't be bothering you. Can't write too often from where I'm at now. No, I'm not talking about a metaphorical afterlife — I'm simply stuck in the middle of nowhere, and the closest town that has a telegraph office is three days away from me. I've coded the site on my laptop, and then I took a flash drive with me to the only village nearby that has a cyber cafe and internet access. I'm not even sure the site is really on. I think local PCs work on coal.

So if you're reading this that means I do still have some skills.

One of my skills is dying. That's what I'm doing right now. Actually, same goes for you, but I'm way ahead; if you want to catch up with me, you'd better hurry since I know I'll die this September.

Please don't ooh me. Just listen.

I'm privy to a secret — no, it's not a secret I have to tell the world before I die or else it dies with me. The opposite, really: there are quite a few who share it with me. But you don't. They are special, you see, and you aren't. You know that, right? And the secret — the secret shared by way too many — will keep living after I die. It'll grow. Develop. Root itself in the world deeper and deeper.

Well, what if I don't like that? What if I want to play rebel? My rebellion looks like a website with scantily clad girls and a bunch of pretentious slogans, yeah.

But I can't offer you anything better, so here we are. At least they say I'm a decent artist. Enjoy my portfolio.

And don't worry. I'll tell you the secret. Just you wait.

Voronika,
http://feverishfeeling.com

P. S. Why not a blog, you ask? Because everyone knows that only fools and lunatics start blogs that aim to uncover deep dark secrets. Also because it's easier to keep away a database of e-mail addresses than a domain.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Hi.

It was so obvious: leaving the city means throwing my life out of the window. A curious thought when your life is already thrown in a trash bin because of a diagnosis, huh?

Deadly diseases are all fuss and trouble. Doctors are lost, friends are found—every night another one comes by to drink and talk. They feel obliged to try and save me. They feel like they can.

Don't waste your breath.

And still it felt like there's no life beyond doctors and friends when I left. Getting somewhere without a car? Being unable to take a hot bath? Watching mosquitos dance in the air instead of a video podcast or a TV show?

Sounds horrific. It really does.

But somehow there's only one thing I really miss: marchpane. There's nothing else lacking on the bogs.

I'm sitting on my cabin's steps right now. Somehow I managed lock myself out—was too eager to slam the door, I guess. I also guess it means now I have a reason to go to town and send you this letter.

When I was a girl, father used to say that once you've got a key, a matching door will strike your eye soon. I wonder if my current state is a key too. What's the reason for all this? What do my fever and shivering unlock? How does a sesame that lies behind my coughing and nightmares look?

It doesn't look and it doesn't unlock. Poor Peter is bravely guarding the doors to nowhere.

Well, sine me, liber, ibis in urbem. You will go, my little book, without me to the city. Father loved these words—a shame I don't remember where the quote comes from and can't google it from here. Every quote is also a key though, and it unlocks something. Or maybe not the quote itself, but rather something that has to do with it. There's a door out there waiting for every word. And something important's most certainly waiting behind that door.

So don't throw this little book away. The mystery will be unveiled a couple pages later.

Voronika,
http://feverishfeeling.com

P. S. When you see a half-naked girlish silhouette on a bog, don't fool yourself into believing there's a face behind her mask.


The answer to the clue here is
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Tristia
, which can be entered into the field here:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
http://feverishfeeling.com/secret/ (can also be reached by clicking on the left head at the main site)


I don't know if there's any more to discover yet.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 3:45 pm
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mathews512
Boot

Joined: 30 Sep 2011
Posts: 16

 		After entering
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Tristia
in the blank box, I came to a picture of
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
a young girl with the words "Do you remember?"
Just wondering if it was the same for all...FYI, I got the 1st E-mail immediately, haven't yet received the 2nd.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:03 pm
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kira1000
Decorated

Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 255

 		I got the same image.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:23 pm
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Twiler
Decorated


Joined: 04 Mar 2006
Posts: 209

 		Same here.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:01 am
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suncrusher
Boot

Joined: 09 Jun 2014
Posts: 66

 		Same. Does anyone know who it is in the picture?

PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:16 pm
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Toner_Demon
Greenhorn

Joined: 24 Jul 2014
Posts: 4

 		My second e-mail from Voronika
Got this message about 4:30 EDT yesterday:

Hi.

Memory is a funny thing. When I was a girl, my father and I lived in Russia. So here's what I remember. An address: Saint Petersburg, 7th Line of Vasilievsky Island, 18. A precise date: July 31, 1998. I remember the boy—he was 25, I think, but strangely enough he didn't seem like a grown-up even to my childish eyes, somehow he was "a boy" from the get go. I remember a storm brewing for three days straight and passing the city by the next morning. I remember what happened, although I don't. I remember dad and his, erm, colleagues leaving the city soon afterwards.

There's one thing I can't remember though: did I really become infected then and there?

When a little girl meets a stranger, let alone a boy, she starts to imagine things—like what the two of them may have in common. I remember looking him in the eye and thinking: nothing, we have absolutely nothing in common!

I was wrong.

Father never allowed me to play in the street unattended since then. So why am I alone today?

Voronika,
http://feverishfeeling.com

P. S. I feel like I'll need this memory later. Or not. Maybe you've just read a couple pages from a girl-y diary. I think everyone agrees that's enthralling reading.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:02 am
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Toner_Demon
Greenhorn

Joined: 24 Jul 2014
Posts: 4

 		Addendum
I forgot to mention the subject line was "Unattended"

Tried a search of major US and UK news for that date, turned up nothing. Could be that the events of that day went unnoticed or are just personal to Voronika.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:09 am
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Kaefha
Boot


Joined: 08 Nov 2009
Posts: 46

 		Re: My second e-mail from Voronika
Toner_Demon wrote:
An address: Saint Petersburg, 7th Line of Vasilievsky Island, 18.

Here you go. There is a pharmacy.


PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:47 pm
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Kaefha
Boot


Joined: 08 Nov 2009
Posts: 46

 		And awesome Tower of Gryphons in the courtyard.


PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:13 pm
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Renna
Decorated

Joined: 01 Jul 2006
Posts: 165

 		new email:

Voronika
To Me
Today at 1:39 PM
Hi,


I know how the internet works, thank you. You are correct: I have no idea who you are and why you're interested. I also mean no offence. I just know I wouldn't care for you, so why would you care for me?


Why would anyone care for anyone else? Is there a reason at all?


Yet people do.


I thought it wasn't simple biology until recently. But it's just our cute and desperate herding instinct. And instincts don't matter in the end.


Voronika,

http://feverishfeeling.com


P. S. Your optimistic postcard quote is taken out of context. Here's a quote back.


You can't act death. The fact of it is nothing to do with seeing it happen — it's not gasps and blood and falling about — that isn't what makes it death. It's just a man failing to reappear, that's all — now you see him, now you don't, that's the only thing that's real.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 23:23:12 +0100
From: mikhaelcircleSPLATyahoo.co.uk
Subject: You'll never walk alone
To: voronikavSPLAThotmail.com



Hi Voronika,



I don't want to be a bother, and your internet connection is unreliable, so feel free to ignore my message, but I thought you should know there are people on the internet discussing you. Unfamiliar people. Here for example.



As one of those people I just want to assure you that it's not meant to be offensive. We're interested in what you have to say.



You keep an indifferent facade, and your tone is sarcastic, but you wouldn't even write a single letter - let alone follow it up with doors and mysteries - if you were truly resigned.



Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.



Mike

Is Mike one of us? Voronika's attitude is putting me off....js

PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 2:56 pm
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Nadif
Unfettered


Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 318
Location: Brazil

 		Got the same email.

Voronika's quote and the last line from Mike's email are from
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead



Not sure what to do with it. Ideas?
_________________
M.
[Yay, I still love kitties!]

PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:49 pm
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Kaefha
Boot


Joined: 08 Nov 2009
Posts: 46

 		I don't know about new password. Well, I tried what came to my mind.
But what if the forwarding of this email is an invitation to a dialog?
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Even the name of the sender is very tongue-in-cheek.


PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 6:12 pm
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Twiler
Decorated


Joined: 04 Mar 2006
Posts: 209

 		I note that the name of the image on the site has changed from first_secret_photo.jpg to first_secret_photo_remember.jpg. Perhaps this is meant to be a hint?

PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:51 pm
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Nadif
Unfettered


Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 318
Location: Brazil
Twiler wrote:
I note that the name of the image on the site has changed from first_secret_photo.jpg to first_secret_photo_remember.jpg. Perhaps this is meant to be a hint?


Well, I did try that, but putting "remember" or "doyouremember" in the /secret input field returns nothing. I also tried http://feverishfeeling.com/remember/ but it gives just a 404 page.

Do you think we need to run steganography on the "remember" image? It seems a bit far-fetched to me.
_________________
M.
[Yay, I still love kitties!]

PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:12 pm
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dbwj787
Boot


Joined: 10 Aug 2005
Posts: 26
Location: New York, NY

 		Re: My second e-mail from Voronika
I've been lurking, but am here to play now!

Kaefha wrote:
Toner_Demon wrote:
An address: Saint Petersburg, 7th Line of Vasilievsky Island, 18.

Here you go. There is a pharmacy.


The website for this pharmacy is here:
http://aptekapelya.ru/

Apparently, it's not a pharmacy anymore, and just functions as a sort of museum tourists can visit. It was founded in the late 1850s by a man named William Poel, who was fond of alchemy and other mysterious types of "pharmaceuticals." Not sure if this is significant at all. I couldn't find anything associated with the 1998 date Voronika gave us, so who knows?

Here's a link to one of the sites about the pharamacy (you will need to translate it to English, unless you can read Russian Very Happy ):

http://kudago.com/spb/place/apteka-doktora-pelya-i-synovej/

EDIT: Further research brings about a coincidence, so it seems. William Poel was also a very famous British playwright/actor, who staged a production of Hamlet in 1881 (which could relate to the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern quotes). Just thinking out loud!

PostPosted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:01 pm
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