Bosch

"You've died. Don't worry, it happens to the best of us." -Bosch

Bosch is Nowak's guide through Purgatory. He's the one who gives the player tutorial tips and is the only reason that Nowak is able to navigate Purgatory. Besides Nowak, very few characters are able to see him.

Dialogue

After not killing the pitiful corpse:

Bosch
NOWAK!
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Nowak
I-
Bosch
YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN A WASTE.
YOU SNIVELING MASS OF FAILURE CRUDELY SHAPED INTO A MAN.
*Bosch sharply inhales.*
WHY CAN'T YOU LET US HAVE THIS!
WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS ONE THING RIGHT.
*Bosch's voice is choked with rage.*
Nowak
He doesn't deserve to die.
This thing is just a kid. Even if they wronged me they don't deserve-
Bosch
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
EVERYTHING WE HAVE DONE MERITS OBLIVION, WHY WON'T YOU JUST LET US DIE?
WHY WONT YOU JUST LET GO?
YOU CRACK OUR SKULL, BLEED US IN THIS PIT AND WONT EVEN GRANT US MERCY.
IF YOU WON'T DO WHAT'S RIGHT...
I WILL.
Nowak
Make me do what? You've barked orders at me since the start.
Bosch, you're barely a bastard let alone a man.
I want to see you try to accomplish any of what I've done.
You wouldn't even-
Bosch
I AM NOWAK YOU RELENTLESS PARASITE.
AND I WILL NOT LET YOU VIOLATE THIS NAME ANY LONGER.

After Continuing a few times after not killing the pitiful corpse:

Bosch
...heh.
Killing you is almost as exhausting as dealing with you.
We're not getting anywhere.
Nowak
You are maki--
Bosch
Stop talking.
You've had all the chances to speak.
Now you will listen.
You were a waste of flesh. And now dead, you've prove you are by your very nature, a waste of space.
I'm leaving, unfortunately not forever.
I'm beginning to suspect that my lapse in concentration may have revealed us to Intruding powers...
Nowak
Intruding powers?
Bosch
*Bosch ignores your question*
You need to think about what you've done. In the meantime, I'll see if anything can be done to counter this... Escalation.
Before I leave I'll remind you.
We're both still bound to each other, not by blood but by being itself.
There's no circumventing this, no matter how badly we may "want" it.
*Bosch begins draining away*
Nowak
Wait, what did you mean you're Nowak?!
Bosch
*Bosch is already gone*

Meeting Bosch in the Far Shore afterwards:

Nowak
Bosch
We need to talk.
I need to understand what we are.
What any of this down here even means.
...
Bosch..?
Bosch
It's over.
...
They're here.
Nowak
Who's here?
Bosch
Intruders.
Nowak
What, what do you mean Intruders?
Bosch
Nowak, it's over.
All of these little games have been fun but there's no more chance for peace.
You threw that window away. What's come for us is unstoppable.
An unfathomable unknown is now hunting us. We are wholly at its mercy.
Nowak
What? I don't care about any of that.
Bosch-
Bosch
Stop calling me that.
I am no less than you.
You have no right to that name above me.
...
Nowak
What are you?
Bosch
...
I don't know.
I was shocked that you didn't recognize me.
It was silly but in my dreams when we'd finally speak, you'd explain to me what I was.
But I've always been watching.
I was always there for you and I thought that was mutual.
Nowak
I don't understand.
I, I don't know what you're talking about.
Bosch
When we fell, when we split our skull open.
I was in agony. I felt every moment of it.
For hours we bled and you laid there silent.
...
Finally you spoke.
You dragged us into this strange dream.
But I don't want to dream. I just want to be done.
...
I'm not sorry for trying to mislead you.
You've controlled me our whole life.
What I did was no less cruel than what you subjected us to.
Nowak
I. I can't remember.
Bosch
I know.
That's the cruelest part.
It seems at the end, only I remember the life we lived.
Nowak
I'm sorry.
Bosch
I know.
Nowak
...
Are we dead?
Bosch
No.
But death is very close. We have but a matter of hours to minutes...
Nowak
...
Did we want to die?
Bosch
It doesn't matter anymore and I don't know.
Nowak
What... What do we even do?
Bosch
I don't know what awaits us if the Intruder claims us.
These Intruders, they're not like everything else down here.

They're real in an existential sense I can't properly describe.
I don't pretend to understand what they threaten us with.
I can lead you to that deepest place, where it resides.
I must warn you. That place is a hateful and vile realm of everything we'll never be.
Everything we'll never accomplish. The idols we'll never match.
Perhaps there's some fleeting hope we could overcome it.
But that's all it is.
A hope.
Nowak
I- We will find peace.
No matter the cost.
Nowak, I...
I promise us this.