amia

Is he the scientist, or the test subject?

[ Theory / Analysis ] 🐾

1.| “Introduction — Self-Concerned Genius”

Medicine Pocket is a character well-known to be a “Self-Concerned Genius” as per Stated in their 80% bond story interview with Pandora Wilson. “You are very ‘self-concerned,’ as many people think.” She says, alongside the other comments Wilson gives towards their tendency to live their life recklessly.

Medicine Pocket is a character well-known for performing “unethical” experiments [of course, on themselves] for the sake of sincerely “having fun,” as per Stated by their character description.

Medicine Pocket wears a sticker depicting a beagle adorned onto their ID badge, to which their only input is the “Humor” behind it’s placement.

Beagle sticker. It’s funny.

In general, this character is shown to be rather relaxed with their implications of what they intend to do with their “talent” they label themself to have.

There isn’t much to it, an excitable young researcher wants to research. Through humor, and carelessness, they want to research. Not to satisfy anyone but their own human curiosity.

Although, scratching behind the surface layer will reveal that perhaps she does have a lot more to say about why exactly she is the way she is. The true reasoning behind such Bizarre methods of experimentation!

After all, Should Just having Fun with the experiments result in so many health complications?

Whats with The lack of sleep? The neglected safety regulations, and the consequence of physical weakness?

They can’t take a discussion about their own mom seriously, if it’s a discussion about funding or resources, suddenly they’re a businessman.

And I swear to you—that beagle sticker just isn’t for the “humor” of it!

There are plenty contradictions to their claim of carelessness, I’ll try to recontextualize before proving them wrong. In Chapter 5 of Ezra’s event story, “As The Driven Snow Falls,” Medicine Pocket states, “..and I would never throw away my own life, no matter how much of my ‘health’ I risk doing these experiments.” Which I do believe does imply a sense of importance tied to her will to keep living, yes? So, It isn’t like she’s suicidal. This, aswell as “it's not a result of masochism” is also directly said—again in that same interview, which proves it isn’t out of enjoyment either.

To circle back, if we know it isn’t to hurt herself, then why perform the experimentation?

We know it doesn’t feel good too. And we know this from the teeth-clenching descriptions of “the agony of blood boiling from alchemical practice,” or “Intermittent stabs of pain spread through their nerves.” Picked out from Medicine Pocket’s character story included with their garment “Forever is too short.” And that’s only one example, noting the clavicular pain “after 10 minutes,” “suddenly stabbing themself” on their birthday letter, self-inflicted damage even in battle, the fainting, the dizziness, gum pain, etc…

But what exactly does “Forever is too short” mean, in the context of willing sacrificial experimentation? The intimacy line, “The experiments I do here… keep them a secret from Laplace,” gets more intriguing considering we know all about what they do now.

What needs to be kept so secret? Perhaps she doesn’t want Laplace noting that their preciously valued lead of the biological pharmaceuticals department is hurting herself—for this.. Undisclosed.. relevant reason.. that IS NOT! out of masochism or self-loathing. Why Is she hurting herself, anyway, Then? and why so often?

If “Forever is too Short” gives us one clue, it’s that “this agony has value— before long, it will serve a greater purpose.”

But what purpose, exactly? What Great Grand purpose could all this agony serve, if not for the sake of mankind? Medicine Pocket is Very reassuring that none of this is in favor of mankind. A character that guffaws at the thought of human being held more valuable than animal.

Well, I believe that her attempts are not out of favor, but rather out of attempt to Race against mankind.

A race, that in the end is not to Benefit mankind, but instead mankind’s Bestfriend!

Medicine Pocket self-experiments for the noble Sale of the laboratory beagle, and I’m going to try and explain how and why she might be doing just that.

2.| “The Laboratory Beagle’s Human-Palindrome”

Man’s Bestfriend is the dog. Scientifically dubbed “Canis Lupus Familliaris,” the last, subspecies name, “Familliaris” being collared on after the dog’s domestication.

The human and the dog have evolved and changed alongside eachother for thousands of years, and in that timescale, mankind has warped and changed the dog’s appearance into hundreds of breeds like something out of “All Tomorrows.” Bred for working jobs of all sorts.

One of these dog breeds is the Beagle. A hound once used for its purpose of hunting small-game animals for their owners. Nowadays, hunting with Beagles isn’t all that popular anymore. So what happens next?

Typically, a beagle’s job now is to be a loyal companion, though leading a much more unfortunate lifestyle in many modern laboratories.

Their sweet and biddable nature—purposefully bred by the humans themselves, is now used against them in those labs, where they are tested on to create every drug and medicine one can dream of.

Tested on, for the Sake of mankind. Lots of stabbing, testing, bloodwork.

Syringes and bloodwork, Jeez, sound Familiar?

Returning back to Medicine Pocket, we know they have an undying affection for beagles. That sticker is there to declare that in plain English. “Humor” this, “Humor” That! We Know you don’t Just find that sticker funny, just like we know Now that his “self-concernment” and “Enjoyment” he finds in these experiments isn’t Just That either! We also know he connected really closely with these beagles. one example demonstrating this would be the somber pitiful memory describing the glassy-eyed dogs he came upon after self-experimentation in the “forever is too short” character story, possibly implying that it was a memory he frequently returns to.

“Drug Tester” Medicine Pocket displays Many behaviorisms of his beloved beagle. Even if those behaviorisms are completely voluntary. They are often depicted to bite/eat things, [Vertin’s hat, Ezra’s mushrooms that they literally almost canonically died from, their own pillow, they.. Really like icecream, golden badges, paper documents, that one pizza hut collab sticker, ,picrasma candy,,,, ,You,, get the point.,,.] Which,, ,BY THE WAY! Is a Highly prevalent trait of the beagle. They Really like to bite and chew on things. VERY food-motivated dogs. Medicine Pocket will also get on all fours, will Sniff people [also,, another HIGHLY specific beagle trait] and also possess hair color resembling a beagle. This is not even half of the beagle references.

So, if Medicine Pocket is meant to Display a beagle. Resemble (??) A beagle, don’t you think that means something in this “Drug Tester” context? Especially in a game that Loves making metaphors and such?

Theoretically, let’s just say they represent a Beagle.

And then, would that mean that Researcher Medicine Pocket IS the research subject? Rather than being the researcher? Repurposing themselves to serve the noble task of taking the blow FOR the dogs, Because maybe just like the beagle, Medicine Pocket Does display a sweet and biddable nature, just like them, only this time for anybody but mankind.

His story is flipped “upside down” just like he’s featured on the artwork of “Forever is too Short,” made to allude to a Tarot Card “The hanged man,” which represents the need to change one’s perspective, or to make sacrifices to reach enlightenment.

Perhaps he Is a human beagle!! Just in the twisted, palindrome way—taking their historical story upside down with him, in some impossible journey to put an end to animal-testing by creating all those drugs themselves.

Medicine Pocket voluntarily choosing to be beagle-like in their mannerisms kind of supports this theory if you think about it.

Secretively, and with all needles included, he is their substitute.

3.| “Laika & the Painstar”

Well, in all of this cryptic palindrome-testing-whateverness, we actually get even more—plenty more, potential insight into Medicine Pocket’s possible will to replace the beagle, again in Ezra’s event story “As The Driven Snow Falls.” And yet again, in Chapter 5.

In this chapter, Ezra mentions a story that Medicine Pocket was once told by his mother. I tried looking into this story online and could not find any matches that echo the plotline. The only match would be Prometheus stealing fire, which Medicine Pocket compares the story to themselves during their conversation.

This would imply that the story was created for the sake of the game—and Medicine Pocket’s backstory, being relevant enough for Ezra to bring it up despite the story being told to him ages ago. [When they first met]

This gives us;

- Insight to Medicine Pocket’s childhood relationship with their mother

- More beagle savior-complex metaphors

- A parallel to Laika the Soviet space dog

I have my own interpretation for how close he was with his mother ,Though I think that alone could be its own essay.

Reading out the plot of the childhood tale actually gives us a potential point of view for how Medicine Pocket would view the beagles in this theoretical interpretation where he sees himself as the one tasked with saving them.

In this scenario, he would be the climber.

In the story, there is a world of people experiencing bouts of pain and suffering. A star on the top of a mountain is said to be able to heal all of the world’s woes.

The people could represent the beagles, if we take into account the “upside down” story where the roles are reversed. The dogs experience pain and suffering due to their only “use” to the people being what they can create with the cost of their lives.

If Medicine Pocket is the climber, that would mean that his role is to “climb” closer to the star; ending the suffering for those dogs. He “climbs” to stay ontop of all the other corporations, hogging up funding, resources, anything that would make him come out ontop and keep everyone else below. He’s even shown to (dislike??) Lorentz, which is that super secret society always “one step ahead” of Laplace. There has been multiple accounts of him tearing up the letters. Wonder if he feels threatened?? Medicine Pocket also has some potentially mixed emotions of sorts towards Lorentz members aswell. He is “good friends” with X, but “forgets” his name on occasion, and generally is more brash with him than their other friends. How odd!

Medicine Pocket also shows some kind of affection for the storm, calling it his friend, remarking on the “funding” and “opportunities” it brings him. Guess what the storm also does?? Eradicates humans. Laughing emoji.

They compare this star-story to the tale of Prometheus stealing fire. Which, in Western classical tradition!!,,[Medicine Pocket spent their childhood years in Utah.. which is?? A US state?? Western much??] this tale actually represents the quest for scientific knowledge, and the risk of unintended consequences. Which, happens to sound a LOT like our Mad Kid.

He keeps getting knocked down when climbing up the theoretical mountain, if we’re going by the story, but in the end the climber makes it. Medicine Pocket makes it. Finds the “star,” some medical invention to satisfy every other researcher and to put a stop to animal testing.

Perhaps that part hasn’t happened yet, maybe it’s just a story—what he hopes will happen next.

But even if Medicine Pocket could satisfy every corporation in the world, he’d still end up “nothing more than a snowman,” figuratively being lost, exhausted and alone in the snow.

Perhaps not getting the recognition? Perhaps exhausting himself to death.

They are said to do these experiments just for themselves, but it seems like overtime their idea of self-expectation has shifted to a subconscious need to stay on top of everything. Maybe it’s pride, maybe it is “self-concernment,” but taking this theory into account could maybe shift one’s perspective. They keep the newspaper articles that mention them, highlight their own appearance in the arcane biology dailys to others, and it’s easy to wonder if they’ve begun to see their own purpose as soully being to complete that one goal.

Their childhood tale is mentioned only once in a small event story. I've found that not as many people bothered to play it. But, i believe it is referenced again one more time in an in-game skin a lot more people are familiar with.

Medicine Pocket’s “cosmos photographer” garment.

The garment generally seems very random to the character. A Soviet-inspired design with a motif for stars. And what’s with the cat?

Well, the “star” they are featured holding up in their splash art could very well be related to the snow-capped mountain story. It highlights a potential award, perhaps the symbol of another cure, medicine they’ve developed, along with Russia just generally being viewed as a colder country, [“snow” capped.]

The metals they obtain, they are stated to not care for, since the metals don’t mean much if their actual goal is still left incomplete. They are stated to enjoy the chewy texture of gold, however.

But there’s another interesting [possible] reference. A reference that would contextualize Soviet Russia, the cat, and the star / space motif.

And that reference would be to Laika the astronaut dog!

Her story is one of much popularity. Laika was a little stray dog that had been picked up off of the streets of Moscow by scientists, before being sent to space in a tiny little spaceship.

In the end, she had not made the trip back home. It was meant to be a one way flight up into space just to see if it could be done. A tragic tale.

But her unwilling sacrifice had given everyone back at home so much wonderful information, given them knowledge of how to keep progressing into the far black abyss that is space.

She gave information in exchange for her life, which sounds just like Medicine Pocket.

With Mad Kid’s theme of animal testing, making a garment based off of Laika would be absolutely genius. And if the clues they left still feel a bit like a stretch, Medicine Pocket’s beagle udimos in their ult attack have little astronaut helmets!!! And the little cat in the splash art bares a Striking resemblance to Fellicete, a stray Cat in France who was also tested on for the sake of space experimentation.

Medicine Pocket seems to be an advocate for every creature and critter that isn’t a human, honestly.

The Unfair and Cruel treatment of all those animals could resonate closely with someone as conventionally different as they are.

Afterall, being an “odd” looking intersex kid with poliosis (??) in the 90’s, whilst living in a heavily Mormon populated state probably warranted them some weird looks. It would not be surprising if it was revealed their dislike for adults / mankind started early on.

We can only hope they feel much less out of place at LSCC,, since now they get to be surrounded with people just as strange as they are.

4.| “Conclusion”

Medicine Pocket is a character we now know to be a little less “self-concerned” as many may have originally thought.

Because perhaps to find their loyal and biddable nature often frequenting in beagles, all one has to do is look at it from a different perspective, just as the hanged man tarot card suggests. Flip their story upside down, and listen to that fairytale they had told Ezra about woe-curing stars.

We see that their loyalty lies not with mankind, but with the dogs themselves, and that they relentlessly chase in pursuit of an impossible reality where no dog (or animal) has to go through anything of the sort, again.

But, just as their most recent garment states, even “forever is too short” to fulfill such a purpose.

Now, the real question lies! Will Medicine Pocket ever accept that reality? Or end up “nothing more than a snowman” when their veins run out of blood to self-experiment on? Only time, and another canon story-appearance or two will tell!