#sentience's stuff | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

somekindofsentience · 1 month

Text

car crashes and windmills, or why supernaturality is just an excuse for the events of Petscop

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF DEATH, CAR ACCIDENTS, KIDNAPPING AND CHILD ABUSE

READING-THIS WARNING: THROUGHOUT THIS, THERE IS AN ASSUMPTION YOU HAVE SOME IDEA OF RELEVANT PETSCOP THEORIES. IF ANYTHING DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, YOU'LL PROBABLY FIND A WRITE-UP OF THE THEORY ON REDDIT. ALSO, I'M BAD AND MAY MINSINTERPRET OR NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING.

READING-THIS WARNING 2: THIS IS VERY RAMBLY. LIKE, SUPER RAMBLY. SORRY.

Alright. Petscop. That's a dead kid.

I've spent about two days running down a rabbithole with this series, trying to ignore the sheer horror of it all. It's fascinating in the way it captures this despite being so metaphorical - it reminds me of Yume Nikki and Chapter 12 of Dreamscape, which as we already know, I love and understand very well.

Anyway, I've been reading nonstop theories about this game for some time, trying my best to make sense of it all. And after a few sleepless nights, I think I'm ready to get into analytical about Petscop.

What better way to get rid of that sinking feeling of horror than to write about it?

I don't believe in the supernatural - I probably never will - but instead I believe in the power of coincidence. It's very probable that strange things happen sometimes, but they can all be explained, and we have a tendency to see patterns in the chaos. Things are often more simple than they seem.

Obviously, because Petscop and the world surrounding it are fictitious, the potential that something irrational or out-of-this-world occurred is much higher. However, I want to demonstrate that the idea that it is all reality is far more horrifying than pretending it's all a few ghosts and time travel.

The series clearly draws on the idea that Paul knows (some of) the people mentioned within the game, and is even implied to be a part of the family himself.

If it's not ghosts and time travel... then what's the point of Petscop?

evaluating some petscop theories that imply reality

Paul alludes several times to the game being haunted, or at least it trying to trick him into thinking it's haunted, but he seems unconvinced. He also alludes to the possibility of AI within the game, which is likely too complicated for the game being developed in ~1995-6.

What is a more likely theory surrounding both of these is that a singular game can be accessed from multiple consoles by multiple players, which also explains the prevalence of DEMO recordings and the interactions between Marvin/Belle/the Pink TOOL and Paul. The Pink TOOL is not literally the ghost of Mike trying to communicate with Paul, but rather Belle (considering the handwriting's similarities to Draw Mode) communicating with Paul.

Paul could potentially be Care, but is suffering amnesia as a result of trauma inflicted on him, where the goal of the game (from Rainer's perspective) is to help Paul uncover the truth of his past. There's plenty of debate surrounding the "trans theory" that I'm not really interested in getting into, but the game definitely links Paul and Care, particularly in the "Care-with-Mike's-Eyebrows" room, as well as events in the house aligning with events Paul states he has experienced, and their exact same birthday. I don't know if I agree with the twin theory, but that itself is more plausible than other proposed supernatural theories linking the two.

Both Belle and Care are implied to have been kidnapped (by Marvin?) and forced to undergo some sort of rebirthing therapy (potentially involving the Needles Piano) inside an abandoned elementary school. The rebirthing is implied to be Marvin's attempt to bring back the late Lina, It's possible that the DEMO recordings of Belle are taken during her kidnapping, as the game has reportedly been left on for ~17 years.

Much of the confusion surrounding Lina's death is related to the windmill - how did it and Lina simply disappear, and why is she "unable to be seen"? However, the game makes regular references to car accidents, and Lina's grave says "They didn't see her", which suggests that perhaps she was hit by a car, unseen by the driver, and buried in an unmarked grave (possibly by Marvin, since he knows where it is). Alternatively, the idea that Lina died stuck in a machine within the windmill still alludes to reality.

The game itself is very deliberate, and after Mike dies in 1995, it seems as though Rainer continued it to expose Marvin ("I started it in 1996, for Marvin"). If we consider the possibility that multiple players can access the game from differing perspectives, and the game can track their movements, then Rainer had different purposes for each player. It's suggested that the game reflects real world places, so taking that into account, we can try to determine the purpose of these.

During the segment where Marvin is given a speed boost, it seems as though Rainer wants to know the location of Lina's grave, and perhaps expose Marvin for his kidnapping and child abuse. He also provides deliberate messages to Belle during her demo sections, seemingly trying to break her out of the Newmaker Plane. Paul's journey also seems to surround exposing what Marvin has done, or at least trying to highlight what is in the School and what happened to Care (who may be Paul himself). These goals may correspond with the 'cycles' that were noted in the Comprehensive Progress Document.

The game is also implied to be an elaborate suicide note - the Pet description for Care A ends with, "Fuck you all, and fuck me as well. Merry Christmas. Check your bathroom now.", which is signed by Rainer. This, along with some events in the House, suggest this game might be an exploration of Rainer's guilt over working with Marvin on the rebirthing process.

Time is particularly prevalent during the game - the colours of the calendars representing different years, for example - but it is still distinguished, which is to note. This suggests that time travel isn't necessarily occurring.

reality as a pathway to trauma procession

Allusions to reality in texts can act as a path for characters to begin trauma procession, which may be the intentions of deliberately connecting Paul and Care within Petscop. The idea of things being realistic is infinitely more horrifying that unrealism, because unrealism forces a disconnection between the viewer and the events unfolding.

This is actually the reason why I really dislike the idea that Basil was dream-sharing with Sunny, or Spirit Mari is literally Mari's spirit trying to communicate with Sunny - it's because it misses the presentation of forgiveness, abandonment and regret in the text. Stranger is a representation of guilt over leaving Basil behind, and Spirit Mari is a representation of Sunny's hidden desire for forgiveness.

Taking things as the supernatural in this type of game tends to make you overlook the purpose of their existence. For example, blankly taking the Pink TOOL's words as Mike from the grave misses the discovery that they are Belle's previous attempts to connect with the outside world.

It's easy to miss the finer details this way, which is why I've always disliked these theories. There's more to it, keep digging!

special thanks to the giant document on the Petscop reddit that details everything.

i'll admit it, this was just a big excuse for me to write about what i think petscop is about... jhshjsjhshjs.

song i listened to while writing this: YY by 23.exe.

i'm such a pussy that i need to blast upbeat vocaloid music when thinking about Petscop. isn't it so weird that i absolutely adore psychological horror but i'm a massive wimp who can barely sit through it?

#petscop #game analysis #sentience's stuff #tw: car crash #tw: child abuse #tw: kidnapping

19 notes · View notes

eudaemon-m · 6 months

Text

bottom text

#sentihua #herrscher of sentience #fu hua #honkai impact #umm bruh how to tag stuff like this i have noidea #hashtag “sex implied”?????????#suggestive #ig #just in case #and i can't imagine hua smoking but you know #just for laughs..

392 notes · View notes

menolly5600 · 4 months

Text

Dick Grayson, Ghost Superhero

👻🦇👻

I just found out and needed to share, that the Injustice version of Dick Grayson died and became a ghost superhero. He took up the Deadman mantle. He has flight, invisibility, intangibility and possession as his powers.

So all the basic Danny Phantom ghost powers.

The Injustice dimension had the Batfamily develop almost identically to the mainline dimension before the Joker broke Superman by killing Lois and his unborn child.

So, you know, it's DC canon there's a nearly mainline ghost Nightwing-Deadman out there being a ghost hero in another dimension.

And the Infinite Realms connect to other dimensions and timelines.

DC is out here writing DP x DC fanfiction for us and not realizing it.

And since this is one of the many alternate versions of Dick Grayson, you can have a fic with him and living Nightwing (and Danny Phantom in the mix) at the same time!

This stuff writes itself!

Tumblr, do your thing. ❤️

#dc #dpxdc #dp x dc #batfam #danny phantom #dick grayson #DC be out here writing DP x DC fanfiction #between this and what I read about the recent Lazarus World arc and the City Boy anti-hero character #I wonder if DC is taking ideas from the Danny Phantom fandom fanfiction #City Boy has a Lazarus Lightning animated piece of Gotham City as a sidekick/pet that tells him Gotham City secrets #he has psychometry and preternatural sight for hidden places as powers from Lazarus stuff #he makes friends with City sentiences (city spirits?)#spoiler warning #I guess #Tumblr do your thing #writing prompt?#fanfiction go brrrrrr

164 notes · View notes

an-albino-pinetree · 1 month

Text

first hug ;v;

#my stuff #sentience and softness #tree makes an appearance #carnival au #carnival!jax #the amazing digital carnival #non sentient professor boi #tadc #the amazing digital circus #tadc jax #jax #selfship

101 notes · View notes

digitalsnail · 18 days

Text

the herrscher of sentience from honkai impact 3 for a patron!

#honkai impact 3rd #herrscher of sentience #patreon stuff #commissions #sfw #clem art

59 notes · View notes

solsticesoda · 3 months

Text

Here's Cooper my TADC oc in @sm-baby 's Carnival AU. He is playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and you are the unfortunate guest.

#my stuff #my art #the amazing digital circus #the amazing digital carnival #carnival au #my oc #carnival!cooper #jax calls him a freak cuz coop actually enjoys being beat to hell and back #coop copes with his sentience by dissociating and going 'huh. neat.'#pomni doesn't like hanging out with him cuz he asks shit like 'why were we programmed to feel pain? sadness? is it like how the programmers #feel? can our code even try to replicate that? why were you programmed to be able to puke before the rest of your stuff?'#or he'll go 'hey wanna see how many carts i can cram in this box before they explode' and wont wait for an answer #oh btw his bug name is 'stickbug'

87 notes · View notes

cloud-ya · 9 months

Text

the nonchalant

#honkai impact #herrscher of sentience #should i tag her as fu hua like i do with kiana on hov stuff?#and should i replace fur down her spine with spikes or stay with fur or. bare back #idk how im feeling about whip tail anymore either #seele vollerei #veliona #dragon

217 notes · View notes

splatoon-edits · 5 months

Text

YATTA!!!

#aka im making memes only i will find funny #i swear i will work on frostyfest stuff eventually #mod shiver #splatoon #splatoon 3 #misc edits #marie #marie splatoon #herrscher of sentience #honkai impact

89 notes · View notes

kiwisandpearls · 7 days

Text

personal headcannon of mine: most of the herrschers (but specifically senti and hov in this case) have pointy teeth and cat-like pupils

#draw n’ sketch ⌞ 🍒✍️⌝#herrscher of the void #herrscher of sentience #honkai impact #honkai impact 3rd #hi3rd #my art #fan art #idk I just like the idea that the herrschers have small animalistic features #nothing big but like #idk herrscher of flamescion or finality having tiny bits of car fur on their shoulders #or senti having scales near her legs or stuff like that #I think it’s fun #imagine mei has a bunch of teeth marks on her neck and someone points it out to her and she’s like #“ITS FUNNY YOU MENTION THAT ACTUALLY” and quickly tries to change the subject #that’d be funny to me lol

39 notes · View notes

somekindofsentience · 2 months

Text

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

10 notes · View notes

thetwilightroadtonightfall · 6 months

Text

One of my pseudo predictions/ideas for khml is that it could involve a manhunt for Master’s Defender

Let’s say that Ephemera passes MD down through his family—four generations after him as Nomura mentions, til we get to present day missing link. He gives the specific instruction that it must be returned to Brain whenever he’s destined to arrive in Scala in the future (which might be mentioned in the Book of Prophecies). At the end of khux, Ephemera said he still considers MD belonging to Brain, so he wants to return it to its original owner.

But by the time missing link takes place, and Brain appears, what if the current wielder of MD (aka one of Ephemera’s descendants) refuses to return it, firmly believing that it’s their right to wield it rather than Brain.

This causes a stir within the family, as certain members would find this to be selfish, unreasonable, and going against Ephemera’s wishes. Along with just being dishonourable to Brain, assuming they respect him. Meanwhile, other members of the family end up agreeing with this wielder, believing that MD should stay in the family.

I can see this drama getting so out of hand that it spreads to Scala’s wider community, causing the wielder to go into hiding with MD, and leading to a widespread manhunt alongside other various conflicts. Maybe the game is about finding a missing link to the past in the form of MD, assuming that the titular “missing link” could be a physical item and not just a metaphorical or symbolic thing. As far as I know, MD and No Name are also the only keyblades to have chain-related abilities? Just as an added layer

Brain’s whole role in this is up in the air. I’m going to assume that he’d want to get MD back because of it being Ephemera’s wish (and he will get it back eventually, so it can be passed down to Eraqus), but I can see him getting exhausted by all the drama caused by it. Either way, he feels a sense of responsibility to try and fix everything that goes down

#khml #you’ve heard of sharing a keyblade: get ready for KEYBLADE THEFT!!#technical ownership of a keyblade has always been an interesting topic to me #I miss when keyblades had more sentience and could actually choose their wielder depending on the circumstances #I was talking about this with my gf and it’s actually insane how much potential ml has #there’s gotta be some wack stuff going on in this city in that family in the society #I just think this can be a really fun set up #my theories #my posts #(also still feels weird for me to use brain buuuut here it is)

65 notes · View notes