Schrödinger's Toy Box
I always found so interesting how difficult it is to find what happened exactly with the Toy Box.
The Toy Box segment is one of the ones that simultaneously excited and annoyed me the most because it's so teased by the game but in the end it's very puzzling. I'm mostly gonna talk about what happened to it and not so much about it's meaning.
We first time we learn about the toy box is in the Lost Library. The area is associated with memories and Basil of course. From it's existence as a library as Basil loved reading books and recommended books to Sunny when they were kids to also having both Stranger and HS! Basil making an appearance in the library. But it's mostly were memories are kept which makes as to why this where we first see it.
We get it again way later in the real world, in a scene that has always intrigued me.
When Sunny finds the picture and he sees the back of it he quickly takes the key and hides it in his pocket so no one of his friends sees it. Nobody seems to have noticed the back of the picture and Sunny puts it in the photo album where nobody will ever see the back of it again.
And lastly we see it in the last dream segment, when we enter Sunny's house and then open the said Toy Box to find the broken violin and sheet music to later play it.
Now, this photo and key are fascinating, because they seem to tell us something.
This photo was clearly left in the tree house 4 years ago. It's all weirdly discoloured because of the elements. It's pretty clear that only Sunny or Basil could've left it here.
What's so confusing is how and when exactly did it end up there.
The Toy Box was already in the backyard when the incident happened. This is proven by the photos of Basil and Sunny opening the glass door and the following photo of Sunny looking at his favourite tree.
You can see it already in the right.
Now I thought the Jump Rope could've been taken from there but the description for the photo of the rope seems to state it was already on the ground.
Photo of a Rope - You hear pacing, the crunching of the grass sifting back and forth. You think you see a figure pick something off the ground, but you’re not sure. You keep staring at the leaves overhead. Everything will be okay... You think... Everything will be okay.
Then we later see it next to Mari's hanging body, now on the opposite side of the tree. Basil most likely used it to get Mari's body up and it'll probably be used as to make it look like Mari jumped from there. This seems to be backed up by the description of the picture of Basil tying the rope. The box most likely creaked when Basil stood on it with Mari's body.
Photo of Hands - You hear shuffling. You hear dragging... and creaking... and pulling. Something is happening, but you refuse to look away from the leaves. Your head feels fuzzy again. You bite your tongue and attempt to wake up one last time, but it’s no use... You’re still here.
And then we never hear about it again. From the description of Sunny's POV it seems Basil did the hanging and afterwards held Sunny's hand and that was it. They looked back at Mari and got scared. Basil couldn't be holding it too because he was holding hands with Sunny.
So whatever was done or put in the Toy Box could only have been done after the whole incident and cover up... But it's curious siince you would assume putting the violin in there would be part of the cover up so why is it not alluded to in the truth sequence?
The violin had to go somewhere and it doesn't seem to be something Sunny imagined since the photo is found in the Real World.... except... Wait, the key doesn't show in your menu in the Real World? But it has an item ID different from the key we use in the Dream segment, even if unused, which makes me think it might've been supposed to appear on the game menu after all?
If it's not an actual thing and it was only Sunny's imagination even in the Real World it gets a bit weird how much emphasis there was on it. The photo is real as Sunny's friends saw it so only the back of it would be imagined and that doesn't seem very likely. The closet is real (Kel talks about it) and Sunny sure does seem to want to forget it exists and he'd rather go where Mari was hung than there so again the Toy Box was most likely really used to hide the violin. You can always justify the key not appearing in your pocket in the Real World as Sunny refusing to look at it. It's plausible since Sunny wants to hide it so damn much or the developers forgetting to add it in that's always a possibility
If it's real then it would mean someone went back there just to hide the violin. That would be most likely Basil as
Sunny was a bit out of it... Well they both were but Sunny was mind turned off out of it so only Basil seemed mentally capable to do that
It's Basil who probably had the photo as it's from his photo album. He put the photo in the tree house, wrote on the back only for Sunny to know and taped the key. It wasn't even the first photo he used tape on.
The thing is again: Basil had to go back. Oh my gods. Imagine hanging a corpse then going inside and then having to go back because you need to hide more evidence. Now I see some logic as to why Basil would hide it in there, even if stupid. He probably thought that putting it there would mean nobody would find it because after it being associated with Mari's "suicide" his parents would want to throw it out or something. At the bare minimum it wouldn't just be in the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Of course we know Sunny's parents most likely knew the truth in the end and didn't tell anyone so it didn't actually work but I can't blame a 12 year old for not knowing how to cover up a murder.
But saying all this it meant Basil
Went to retrieve the Violin at the bottom of the stairs
Got the key
Went outside where Mari was
Opened the box and put the violin there (with Mari directly next to him 🙃)
Closed it with the key
Went back again to get the photo, write on it and tape they key and show it to Sunny, because Sunny knew about it well enough to remeber it in Headspace
Went outside for the third time, this time directly to the tree house, taping the photo to the tree house wall
This is seems so hellish that I have difficulty imagining Basil doing all that when he himself was terrified of the situation. Going back to the scene two times more? That's awful. And I have unfortunately very little to go on to make this time line so it's mostly speculation from my part.
And it's pretty clear it's the same Toy Box in the black photo album and dream sequence.
It doesn't seem believable that it was done days after the day of the incident so this is the only string of events that seem to be possible.
I have an impression the developers really wanted to add it in but they really didn't think of it that much? We know the idea of hiding something in a box was present already in the game's demo, so it has been in consideration for a long time, even if ended up being different in the end.
However I'd say the execution in the final game is kinda weird..
For something with so much emphasis it ended up not making a lot of sense in the whole story. From a metaphorical standpoint it works just fine but from an actual linear story it's a bit confusing.
Toy Box is in Sunny's backyard → Basil uses it to hang Mari → Might've been used to hide the violin and the sheet music??? Not completely clear??? Not sure how or it if happened at all??? → a photograph with the key from said Toy Box is taped to the Tree House?? → the Toy Box is put in the closet????? Was it really? Where the parents who put it there?? → four years later Sunny is still terrified of going into the closet
In conclusion: Can a developer please explain what the heck happened with this damn Toy Box. This is not even an analysis at this point I'm just begging for an explanation.
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at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"
like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.
"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."
... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.
and i'd still keep writing.
i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.
i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley
"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"
and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.
it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.
you create because you're greedy.
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Guys get to be major sports fans. tiktok. com/@mdmotivator/video/7244712873048558854?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc It's kinda sad that some people don't understand the TS love. The concerts are their moment to see her live. It's not just her dream- it's a start for some- look at Ed. I remember when the Cubs won the world series- it made me think of all the fans & players who saw it but sadly I also thought of the ones that never got to see it happen. The sacrifice & cost for dreams.
this topic gets brought up a lot in fan discussions, but as a disliker of sportsball (i don't get it and i don't need to, it's not #for me), it is really frustrating at times that sports fanaticism tends to not get the same sort of ridicule that things typically classified as "fangirling" do (along with why more male-oriented fandom like superhero comics/action films/etc are widely dominant, but romance is cringey) - and obviously we're being broad in say that, but it's a cultural topic of note in examinations of those double standards. if somebody enjoys a sport and excitedly follows their team's success and wants to go to any games they can, then let them do that. if someone loves a musician and follows their success and wants to get to any show they can, then let them do that. it all stems from the same place, from similar passion. one isn't inherently lesser, we all have our likes and our fave things. but it's a shame how one gets treated quite differently.
and in regards to your last point, that's something i think about a LOT in regards to both the past and people who aren't here and haven't gotten to see wonderful things, and in regards to the future too
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Still not looking at Tumblr or scrolling past things real quick at the speed of light so I don't read/see anything, keeping a low profile when it comes to activity right now but you know what doesn't sit well with me?
Despite Neil's warnings
Despite Amazon Prime's warnings even though they were involved in "The Leak"
Some people apparantely throw things in the wind and seem to--
Actively spoiler Good Omens Season Two on the very day of release????
Are you kidding me??
I'm currently laying in bed, pretty much KO'd by my Summer cold and this is going on.
I just can't wrap my head around it.
At all?
Most of us haven't even seen it I figure or were crazy enough to watch it at night I don't know
I know for a fact I've yet to see it most likely while laying on the couch under a comfortable blanket
But how about those that do spoiler right now keep their spoilers under the specific tag and faaaar out of anyone's eyesight who haven't seen it yet???
I know there's freedom of speech and all but still. This is about a matter of having some respect is all?
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