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somekindofsentience · 2 months

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a place between unreality and lucidity, or understanding the intentions of Chapter 12

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF DEATH, SUICIDE, AND ABUSE. I ALSO TALK A LOT ABOUT LUCID DREAMING, WHICH CAN BE DISSOCIATIVE FOR READERS, SO PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

SPOILER WARNING: REFERENCED YUME NIKKI AND OMORI SPOILERS, AND OBVIOUSLY, DREAMSCAPE SPOILERS.

We're back bois, and we're back with my favourite chapter.

I love Chapter 12 so much, the same way I adore the Truth Sequence in Omori. Originally I was going to compare the two, but I realised there's little overlap other than the intentions they're written with.

...so I wrote about the intentions instead. The little bitch boy intentions. You'll see what I mean.

Buckle up, this one takes some insane turns. I had wild epiphanies while churning all this out in a couple hours. I think I may be losing my mind.

understanding what I mean by "lucidity", and discussing dreams as plot devices

Lucidity is a very particular type of plot device that I find difficult to describe - it is a specific type of fragmented narrative that fragments location, exploring an impossibility that often has links to deeper meaning. Typically it is an abstract way of foreshadowing or revealing something to the reader, and it mirrors the concept of a "liminal space".

Dreams in texts have been used as a method of foreshadowing for hundreds of years. While the human brain has no ability to predict the future, but only reframe the past, the uncontrollable fragments of memory that are spat back out at you during unconsciousness have captured human fascination since we first started sleeping.

Dreamscape itself isn't a dream, but it is a different form of consciousness, and the creator has stated that Chapter 12 draws a lot from lucid dreaming, which suggests this counts as part of the 'Lucidity' narrative trope. As someone who does not dream much, I find this shit fascinating. Like I'm sure it's horrific as hell but. It seems so fucking cool.

Perhaps some of the best examples of the use of lucid dreaming to form narrative are Yume Nikki and its fangames, as well as Omori. Yume Nikki was a catalyst for the creation of many RPG maker horror games, and it's an excellent piece of work. No concrete story, just wandering an endless abyss of Madotsuki's mind, observing the horrors within it. The fangames branched off this concept (I personally recommend .flow ) and added more aspects, but never being concrete about the trauma.

Things are illogical in the Yume Nikki dreamverse, but they don't have to be logical, and things don't have to make sense to the player - it is purely up for speculation. At the same time, we know it has to mean something. There's an innate sense of exploration and meaning in dreams, despite the real life version often being meaningless bullshit.

This is where Omori explicitly diverts - it outright states what happened on the Recital day, in a short, distorted sequence known ominously as "The Truth". While the entire game is about lucid dreaming, this section captures the horror due to the illogical nature of it, where Sunny travels from his living room, to a hospital, to stairs, his bedroom, backstage... things are wrong. At the same time, the player is focused on completing the album and collecting the polaroids, with the confusing nature of the locations building to the horror of the final moment.

Despite all this, none of these sequences are the big moment, or even nearing the climax.

Yume Nikki doesn't have a big moment, unless you see the ending as significant enough for that title. It is a game about wandering unreality, and without a plot, it can't have a climax. It uses lucidity to provide a sense of narrative, even when there isn't one, tricking the player into trying to comprehend an impossible universe.

Omori is not building up to that that one sequence, but rather, it is a stepping stone leading to the Final Duet, which is the true climax of the game. It's an emotional release for Sunny and the player, a sense of finality in a game without a proper "ending". The Truth sequence is merely a way for the player to understand plot and build horror, and without the Truth's photo album... we would understand nothing at all. An impossible universe.

This leads to my big theory...

the purpose of chapter 12 - you can't understand it

Chapter 12 is a lying piece of shit and won't admit to us more than cookie crumbs about the future of the Dreamscape universe. And I still love it. And here's why.

Due to the abstract nature of it, we can't understand it. Perhaps Sunny can, to some extent, but since we're not sure the cause nor purpose for it, we can't understand it. We can speculate, but we can't understand. Just like Yume Nikki, we might never properly understand what each segment means.

Here's some little nuggets I've been scrambling through for information.

The beginning talks about time and distortion of it, which mimics some of the issues with time Sunny has in real life. This may be foreshadowing his eviction or declining physical state.

Body horror is incredibly prevalent, particularly self-mutilation. This has several implications, but it likely hints to Sunny's feelings for himself. It may also foreshadow what Mari looked like during the Recital day scene, which I'm starting to realise hasn't actually been shown yet. Interesting.

While this is one of the first times we see Mari as more than a virus or a corpse in the text, it's also completely distorted by Sunny's unreliable narration. Despite the slightly manipulative conversation held between them, Sunny is completely frozen in grief, desperate to beg for her forgiveness.

Sunny sits there with her pain in that hospital, insisting he deserves it. It hints further to Sunny's declining mental state, but that doesn't tell us anything more than his own self-loathing. Both this and the above point foreshadow Mari's potentially abusive nature.

Sunny is completely determined to stay within the lucid dream, and is also very insistent that Mari is somewhere at the end, which turns out to be right. How he knows this is not shown to the reader.

Segments of this are related to Mari's own memory, which provides us with a better understand of the VHS system, and of the accident that lead to her suicide.

The lucid dream is a representation of Sunny's unending trauma through what he perceives to be Mari's eyes, perhaps even a representation of what he feels he needs to do for her forgiveness.

We also learn a bit more about Pianoboy, who we know is a clone of Sunny, and he specifically highlights a connected feeling of isolation. At the same time, it has to go further than that, but we're again limited by understanding. There's more, but not enough to guess what 'more' means.

But those tidbits mean nothing. And I can't do much more than spew nonsense about segments, with no ultimate conclusion.

Because Chapter 12 is not designed to be understood, but rather, it's something to look back on when you finally do understand. It's foreshadowing in its most complex form, hinting ominously to what you don't understand. It is also similar to Black Space in this way - no-one can figure out the truth of the Recital Day from Black Space alone.

I could spend hours trying to understand every symbol, every room, the essence of Chapter 12 itself, and fuck me because i totally would but ultimately, it's all fragments of a deeper narrative, more complex than our limited understanding.

And it's a horrible, horrible thing to do to a reader. An unanswerable segment, dangling understanding right in front of their nose, but making it unreachable. Haunting them with the human desire to see patterns in chaos. What utter cruelty. How could you do this to me, @omoriboii. Why would you do this to me, the analysis God, with the most overthink-y brain in existence, and yet give me, ultimately, nothing to lead to. Why leave me a crumb to look back on, something I can never understand with the information I hold. I may be stupid, but I can understand when I am beat.

It's perfection.

why even torture someone with the inability to understand?

Building horror is incredibly difficult, because it's so easy to do foreshadowing incredibly wrong. We've all seen horror movies that are so bad they're funny, relying entirely on petty jumpscares, terrible props and showing off the killer way too fast-

Wait a minute. Showing off the killer too fast ruins everything? Dammit, I wanted to flex my big sharp knife. That's right guys. I'm the serial killer of this blog. ?????

Anyway, demonstrating the inability to understand something to the reader is a common feeling that gets the emotional brain hooked and the cogs whirring in the logical segments. You need to understand. You develop theories, you discuss them with others, seeking evidence, only to find something that changes your view, ruining everything, forcing you to start again. Being teased is fun. I am kinky

That's my favourite feeling of all time. It's why I spent hours searching for that again after I played Omori. I still remember my first theories of the truth of the game, right up until the one I had just before I discovered the real Truth. Even after that, there was more for me to analyse. Analysis. I love analysis. Yk?

I love a good challenge, and analysing these segments are so much of a challenge that I actually can't do it, which is why I get so hyped over it. Why do I do this to myself?

I actually don't really know how to end this, but I think you get my point. It's fun. I like it. I love suffering. uhh. dreams cool.

new bit: song i wrote this listening to.

today's song, the main title theme from Tomorrow Won't Come for those without.

youtube

i needed a reminder of what horrible liminality feels like, and that goddamn game does it better than anyone. i love it so much. thanks, etherane, your games cursed me with a sick desire for unreality.

special thanks to all the games who ever bullied me for having boring ass dreams.

#i wrote all this on copious amounts of caffeine #dreamscape au #omori dreamscape au #omori au #dreamscape #lucid dreams #sentience's stuff #i'm such a nightmare in this LMAOOO #i've written my own little chapter 12 lucidity within my analysis of chapter 12 #what have i become #omori fanfic #im a fucking mess #i think i lost my mind here #Youtube

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galacticbaseballbatter · 8 months

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“What kind of a life would I have lived if I didn't choose to board the Express... No, there is no such possibility.”

(‼️Warning from Mun‼️- You CANNOT imagine how long this shit is, so only if you are ready for your fingers to hurt from scrolling…press ‘keep reading’, brave one. I’ll meet you at the end.)

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺ 1:35 ───ㅇ─────3:47

▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ █ 100% volume

🔆ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Rules are made to be broken! 🔆 What you can expect/rules (that are NOT made to be broken):- ✩ Shipping Friendly as long as it’s not an illegal one and I’m comfortable with it. Example for illegal ships include pedophilloic ships etc etc.

✩ mostly one liners/semi lit rp

✩ May add my own personal head cannons of Stelle. But still the same old in-game trash can loving raccoon-like stelle we all know.

✩ DNI if you’re: racist, lgbtqia+phobic: including transmeds, exclusionists, terfs and illegitimate sexualities/pronouns, anti-semitic, xenophobic/Islamophobic, ableist, pedophilloic, sexist/misogynistic and all basic DNI criteria.

✩ No explicit smut content but will rp fluff, romance, angst, gore, drinking/alcohol topics etc.

✩ There is a real person who controls this account, so I may take time to respond to you/your muse/asks.

✩ If I want the RP to end, I will say so and the same goes for you! If you also want to conclude the RP, just say so and I will gladly stop.

✩ It will be up to me to decide if I want to RP with you (if you have send me an in-character ask etc etc.) and if I’m comfortable with where the RP is going. And vice versa.

✩ Also, I don’t want to be the only one carrying the plot of the story and the role play. Please don’t respond me with anything that I don’t have an answer to as the RP will die sooner rather than later. I would request you to be more engaging with the RP conversation.

✩ Please remember mun =/= muse.

✩ Mun messages will be shown with Mun-

✩ Anons are more than welcome! You can make yourself known on this blog with your own tag! But, I will only reply if I’m comfortable with your message.

✩ Not really spoiler-free.

✩ WIP account

🔆This account is NOT affiliated with Hoyoverse.

🔆Current anons:- We got more anons, trailblazers, visitors on the express, let’s go! -🕳️ anon

-🪡 anon

-🎸 anon

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-🌸🥞 anon

-💧anon

-🦅👁️ anon

-🍳 nonnie

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*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊ 🔆Of course behind the scenes is any ordinary person Valerie; She/her, 18+ and currently existing. I also go by Xyn (pronounced as shin) or Zenny.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊

•.,¸¸,.•´¯“𝖳𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗏𝗈𝗒𝖺𝗀𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝗌 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝖻𝖾𝗀𝗎𝗇.”¯•.,¸¸,.•´

💫Tags💫

#Trailblazing beyond🌟: General Tag

#The Golden Trash🌟: Self

#Precious trash!🦝: Reblogs

#Queue-ing for…Trash?🦝: Queued

#The main character appears!‼️: Anon asks

#Crippling anxiety 😟: Other in-character asks

#Akivili, the coolest aeon💫: Roleplaying with Astral Express Members

#Cold Dragon Young 🐉 : Roleplaying with Dan Heng/ Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae. #March 8th ❄️ :Roleplaying with March 7th

#Miss Himeko 🚂: Roleplaying with Himeko

#Mr. Yang 👓: Roleplaying with Welt Yang.

#Not the Simulated Universe…🗿: Roleplaying with Herta’s Space Station Characters/characters met in Herta’s Space Station

#This is wild(fire)🤨: Roleplaying with Belobog Characters/characters met in Belobog

#No Trash Cans… 😭: Roleplaying with the Xianzhou Loufu characters/characters met in the Xianzhou Loufu

#Dreamscapes or Nightmares?🌌: Roleplaying with Penacony characters/characters met in Penacony

#”Destined” to encounter❓:Roleplaying with the Stellaron Hunters

#M-mother..? 🕷️🕸️ : Roleplaying with Kafka

#Video-game lover 👾🎮: Roleplaying with Silver Wolf

#Baldie 🗡️🥀 : Roleplaying with Blade

🌟-Ask box is always open because I don’t have anything better to do, well most of the time anyway. Even Trailblazing gets tiring sometimes.

(Mun- This is a role play account for Stelle, the female trailblazer. I love raccoons and trash cans if you know what I’m referring to. Happy trailblazing! Also, I hope your fingers don’t hurt.) *ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊

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ai-dream · 6 months

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The Pink Backrooms.

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human-monsters · 9 months

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i spend way too much time reading Stephen King books and then watching the movie adaptations immediately after.

#doctor sleep #the shining #stephen king #cujo #nightmares and dreamscapes #1408 #children of the corn #It #it (2017)#it:chapter 2 #it miniseries #the mist #the dead zone #the shawshank redemption #i just tagged the ones i've seen/am about to watch

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azuzeldraws · 1 year

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A fitful dream. My gift to @awfulloneliness 💕 for the @hashimada-giftexchange

#hashirama #madara #hashimada #nightmares #dreamscape #angst!#naruto

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toadslug · 1 month

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HAHAHAHA I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT THIS 😈

Nami belongs to @heyniyasmile!! As always <3

1 – 2 – 3

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blinddreams24 · 3 months

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So as a lucid dreamer myself, I was wondering how Dream or Nightmare would react to me or any lucid dreamer.

Like, as soon as I know I’m dreaming, I will shapeshift into a hawk or dragon or whatever I need/want. And while lucid I can feel everything in the dreamscape. So, if something moved that shouldn’t, I’d know immediately. I’m also very aggressive in my dreams. I have been torn apart in my dreams so I will attack first without hesitation. I don’t know about y’all but I prefer not to die over and over again. My attack forms are either human or dragon. A very specific dragon that I will draw in the future.

Let’s say Nightmare entered my dream, because let’s be fair he has more of a reason to with the whole spreading negativity thing, I’d feel the second he entered and my dreamscape would seal off protectively, effectively trapping the intruder inside my dream. I’d confront and, seeing his size and extra appendages, I’d go dragon. I’d attack first. Whether or not I win, I don’t know, but I’d fight dirty. The ground would roll and buckle under my influence and I’d move fast as thought despite my size. As soon as he realized he was trapped, Nightmare would fight out of desperation, giving him a boost.

After the fight, I would start questioning him, which I really should have started with. Most likely, I would have him restrained by then or we’d be glaring at each other, both severely wounded but I can’t die and won’t kill him.

If for some reason I met Dream first, the dreamscape would close off same as before but I would approach in human form. His bright colours would make me curious but I would still attack first. He’d probably talk me down during the fight or just outright surrender to show that he means no harm. If for some reason the fight continued, I would definitely cheat and go dragon until I restrained Dream.

Either way, the dreamscape wouldn’t loosen until I trusted the intruder and dreams can last years in a single night. So they’re stuck with me until I relax. Which, again, could be years later. Ironically, I don’t need sleep in my dreams.

I might turn this into a series or something, who knows?

#undertale #nightmare sans #dream sans #dreamscape #dragon

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