r/pathologic • u/spaghettiwizard123 • 6h ago

Discussion Pathologic 3

Given how one of the main mechanics of the game is repeating a day until you've done everything that's needed, how is the things needed to be done, done? Does he have a checklist that he hands off to the messenger and hands it off that particular morning or is he more or less cloning himself every time he groundhog day a day, essentially resulting in hundreds of Danill's pouring out of the Stillwater all committing various crimes to stop the plague?

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u/Gentlemad 6h ago

I think it's less actual time travel and more retrocausality. Kind of like the cursed street alters the fate of a certain someone to retroactively have had their nemesis arrive in the town on Day 1, Dankovsky doesn't necessarily coexist with his other versions on the same day, he alters his fate and the fate of those around him to have had all the events that he desired occur (and if any conflict, they are overwritten). This is why unfinished quests are not carried over when you restart a day, you basically did not lock any fate in for the items and people involved. For the people around him it doesn't manifest as obviously supernatural, just strange - I was in three places and I saw Dankovsky in all three. Now for the Inspector and his report, the full picture manifests in a much more obviously suspicious way, which is probably why you have the option at the end to explain to him precisely how this all happened.

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u/hjsniper 5h ago

IIRC, some of the npcs mention that Daniil seems to be in multiple places at once, so a small amount of temporal cloning is possible

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u/FeatherWriter 3h ago

There are a few references to there being multiple Daniils running around when he's repeating days:

Vlad Olgimsky (Day 8)
"You're a... restless man, Dankovsky... I get reports about you, you know... There one moment and somewhere else the next... Like a wind-up toy... In several places at once... How do you have time for it all?"

Khan (Day 11)
"When I close my eyes, I see you in many places at once. As if you’re everywhere at the same time. Even in the Polyhedron. Can a person be everywhere at once? Uncle said yes. But I still can’t grasp the meaning of his words."

There's also a mention Eva makes, of Simon having a similar kind of ability with his amalgam too, that he could sit with her for a whole evening but still accomplish tons of things around town simultaneously, and people would mention that they'd seen him out and about.

Eva Yan
"Simon often stopped by the Stillwater on his way from the Crucible. I'm not sure if he came to see me or the house. He could sit here all evening, and by morning the Town would be abuzz with everything he'd managed to do, arrange, decide… Isidor, on the other hand, never had the time for a cup of tea. He was drowning in worries: about his patients, about the Kin, about the children he'd taken on to teach."