Petscop Comprehensive Progress Document
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZKQv0ZFHpeIUkOtNjtq4KA
Discord: https://discord.gg/ufPDztz
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Petscop/
Wikia: http://petscop.wikia.com/wiki/Petscop_Wiki
Wiki: https://petscop.rustedlogic.net/Main_Page (If you want the facts and details without all the theories)
THIS DOCUMENT IS OUTDATED. FOR EVERYTHING PAST PETSCOP 10 PLEASE SEE THE NEW DOCUMENT HERE:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w2ynGWEkZFohCwrUJCX3iQ7sTyRSE9JMoskrCNHSJYQ/edit?usp=sharing
Public edits are disabled to prevent trolling. Please be civil. Please use the discord or subreddit for general discussion and developing ideas, and commit them to this document when it makes sense to do so. The primary purpose of this document is to bring anyone new to Petscop up to speed on everything that's already been discovered.
Theories should be clearly denoted in RED to prevent confusion.
Theories should be backed up by evidence. Theories should not be taken as the truth, many of them are personal interpretations and can (and probably will) change when future videos are released.
Message @nullsharp on the Discord to be invited to the document for edit privileges.
LAST UPDATED: JUNE 1 2017 (Added all information from Petscop 8, 9, and 10)
JUNE 4 2017 (Added Petscop font and a few sound effects to bottom of doc)
JUNE 10 2017 (Added Digital Immortality paper to General Theories and Connections)
JUNE 29 2017 (Added Profile Picture and Channel Description and First Mentions of Petscop Online)
SEPTEMBER 8 2017 (Added the Sychronisation and Timelines section to the theories and connections section.)
Table of Contents
Petscop Comprehensive Progress Document
Profile Picture and Channel Description
First Mentions of Petscop Online
Player Character (Fan-named “Naul”)
General Theories and Connections
Outside the Game
This section is for discussion of anything outside of the game itself. This includes discussions of Paul and how he is involved with the game and story.
Paul
Not much is known about our narrator Paul or how he came to possess Petscop. Paul never explicitly states his name, so we only know him by the name he enters into the file select screen. In the description of Petscop 1, Paul says “The game I found”, indicating that the game was probably not given to him by someone else. In Petscop 8, we find out that Paul’s mom “reportedly” has had the game since 2004. His mom may have given him the game, or he may have “found” it in a collection of his mom’s old belongings. The use of the word “reportedly” might indicate Paul’s mom is dead, or perhaps she just doesn’t remember exactly when she obtained the game.
In Petscop 2, he refers to another person “coming home next month” to explore and figure out the game, so there is at least one other “real-life” character that could appear in later videos. The first four videos seem to be intended for this specific person, which explains the lack of introduction to Paul and to how he obtained the game.
In the description of Petscop 5, Paul says “we asked this one after the video ended” and “we were able to ask two questions”, indicating he might already be with previously mentioned person. Alternatively, he could also be collaborating with them online or by phone.
At the end of Petscop 8, Paul seems to be having a phone conversation with an unknown person. We could assume that this is the same person he references in earlier videos. Based on his conversation, it would seem this other person has played Petscop in the past. However, the game seems to have changed since this mystery person played it, as Marvin seems to be running into a wall where a hallway used to be.
The description of Petscop 5 is the first instance where Paul directly acknowledges the public audience. It is still unclear whether this is an interactive ARG or just a web series, but we will probably find out soon.
As of Petscop 6, Paul says he is unconvinced by the game’s attempts to make him think it’s “haunted”. Regardless, if there was a way to communicate with the game in a more direct fashion, he would.
“This game is trying very hard to make it seem like, uhm.. Like there's an entity in it. Like a.. A ghost, or an AI, trying to communicate with me. It's interesting. But you know, the way you know, that there's a ghost in a game trying to communicate with you, is if it comes out, if it stops being distant, and it comes out and you can have a, you know.. A real time back and forth with it. Uh. And it stops being so one way.”
The Note
Apparently Paul found a note with the game, it reads as follows (this is taken directly from the annotation on the video, any misspellings or grammar mistakes are from Paul himself):
“I WALKED DOWNSTAIRS AND WHEN I GOT TO THE BOTTOM, INSTEAD OF PROCEEDING, I TURNED THE RIGHT AND BECAME A SHADOW MONSTER MAN
6/13/97
For you:
Please go to my website on the sticker and also go to roneth's room and press start and press down down down down down right start
“
Little is known about the origin of this note. The way it is formatted indicates it may have been written by two different people (the capital letters in the top half, and the strange date in the middle of the note). The website on the sticker has not been revealed or mentioned by Paul. The stairs referenced in the top half of the note might be the same stairs in one of the hidden loading screen images:
This image can be seen around 4:20 in Petscop 2. You can clearly see a staircase, a door straight ahead, and another doorway on the right with light coming from it. We can assume this is where the mystery person in the note became the “shadow monster man”.
In Petscop 9, Paul discovers how to become the “shadow monster man” by walking right on the stairs to the Flower Shack Basement. This is probably the same stairs mentioned in the note, but this still leaves us with questions about the origin of the hidden loading screen. The loading screen might be unrelated to the stairs in the note, or perhaps the loading screen is a first-person view of the stairs to the Flower Shack Basement.
The second half of the note may have been written by a developer of the game, considering he knew the name of one of the Pets that according to Paul is impossible to catch. Also the fact that he knew the secret button combination indicates that he has a deep knowledge of the game.
The top half of the note may have been written by a child, due to the strange capital letters, the grammatical error “turned the right”, and the phrasing “shadow monster man”. As of Petscop 7, it is likely that this part of the letter was written by Marvin (the shadow monster man). We now know that Marvin has a daughter, so he is probably not a child. That still does not explain the weird grammar mistakes and capital letters.
Save File Weirdness
In Petscop 6, Paul says the following:
“[...] cos I created a new file and I tried to be scientific about it, and went and did all the same things that I did this time and the same things did not happen. None of the things happened. None of the oddities occurred, like the figure in the mirror room for example. So there’s a bit of randomness in it, and it’s interesting how it doesn’t really seem to care if you see everything, I guess.”
Now we have confirmation that the same events will not happen if you try to reexperience them. This could be an attempt by the developer to make the events seem more “real”. It could be an indication that these events are really happening as a result of some entity inside the game.
If in the future Paul decides to release Petscop to the public, this could explain why we do not experience the same events that he does.
In Petscop 10, the game crashes after Paul opens both cages in Amber’s room and tries to leave. Upon rebooting the game, we see that two of the save files have a strange error “PANICSV possible corruption”. First of all, I think that in Petscop 10 Paul intentionally crashes the game because it continuously locks him out of leaving Odd Care after opening Amber’s cages. He probably opened the PS1 disc drive while the game was running. The name “PANICSV” seems to indicate that the game went into a “panic” mode after crashing and tried to save as much progress as it could. It’s odd that both his main save and backup save were corrupted, while his “test” save was unharmed. This might indicate that he made the backup after he crashed the game. However, if he was intentionally crashing the game, then it only makes sense that he had made the backup beforehand. If this is the case, then both of the files becoming corrupted would indicate that they are somehow “linked” despite them being in separate save file slots. This might also tie into the save file weirdness stated earlier where the strange events would only happen in his main save file.
Censorship
At the end of Petscop 7, we get an unusual message:
This message, of course, appears right after we see the first censored object in Care’s room with Mike’s eyebrows (see Care’s Room).
There has been much debate over the meaning of this message. Some believe this to be a sign that all of the Petscop videos are pre-recorded. This would explain how they know what would need to be censored in the future videos. However, the vague nature and strange wording of the message indicate that whoever wrote it has not actually seen the things that need to be censored yet. If this is the case, then how would they know what would need to be censored in the future without actually seeing it? It’s possible that something in the game told Paul what to censor, or maybe something in the game gave Paul this information, and he is “expecting” to censor it himself. It’s also possible that Paul isn’t the one uploading these videos, especially if this is a found footage scenario. The quotations marks in the message indicate that this information is coming from a third party.
As far as what is actually going to be censored, two of the items seem to indicate some kind of text or message. “Something on a wall, in a black house” would most likely be a written message, or possibly a picture. “Written on a chalkboard” is clearly going to be a written message.
A censored object appears out of the gift box in Petscop 9. This is clearly the “big present with a sticker on it” referenced in the message. At first it appears to be an upside down spinning black pyramid. However, it quickly scales up in size and becomes giant and bright red. The censor box obscures the center of the pyramid, but outside the edges of the censor box we can see the red pyramid is spinning. We don’t really know what could be in the center of the pyramid, but judging by Paul’s reaction we can guess it’s something either deeply personal or disturbing.
In Petscop 10, a censor box appears after Paul asks red Tool “Where was the windmill?”. As for why the answer to this question was censored, it might be because Tool tells him the real-life location of the windmill. Note: There was a windmill that collapsed in England in 1977 (source). However, a Youtuber named seventybroad tried to visit the location the windmill used to be, and he was unable to reach it due to overgrown foliage and fences. Also, the windmill’s location appears to be on private property, thus it is unlikely that it is part of Petscop.
Update: 04/09/2017
The first censored object might be a tool. When a tool from Mike's or Windmill Girl's room is moved exactly to the right, it aligns closely with the pixels sticking from underneath the black square:
This would also fit with Paul’s reactions. All the important rooms previously seen by him had tools in them, and they also triggered a message at the easel and were empty, while this one didn't and has a child in it. Yet Paul seems confused whether or not the game recognized his efforts: presence of a tool would explain this and fit with the things he's saying (maybe it really can spawn in random rooms?).
It has been suggested that this tool may have been censored due to being different than others, possibly damaged or deformed, or coupled with another object. It may also be relaying some message, in which case the message itself could be the real target of the censorship. Other options are that Paul found the room out of order, or that the tool spawned there simply by chance, and the uploaders wanted to obscure that fact. (see )
Time Travel Weirdness
So far, there are two instances where the game displays very weird “supernatural” behavior. It almost seems like time travel is involved, although this is only one possible explanation. Of course, the idea of time travel is kind of absurd in a web series like this, but we can’t completely disregard it. First, we’ll take a look at the following gif:
If the gif is for some reason not available anymore, it is basically showing Paul exiting the Windmill Girl’s Room exactly the same way as the “clone” exits. This does not appear to be Paul simply copying what he saw. The chances of him copying the exact right movements the first time he tries is extremely unlikely (As well as being bad writing). So then, how could the game know exactly how Paul would exit the room? There are a few possible explanations.
- Paul has played the game before without remembering, and is making the same exact movements he did before.
- Paul is somehow not in complete control of what he’s doing (the game is controlling his movements).
- The game can somehow predict what Paul is going to do.
- Paul somehow managed to perfectly mimic the clone’s movements, maybe subconsciously.
- Paul has unknowingly traveled back in time and is re-experiencing his past actions.
Obviously some of these options seem more likely than others, but the fact remains that something strange is going on that can’t be explained by normal means.
The other interesting instance of something “supernatural” happening is shown in the following video (thanks to CDriggers24):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc7hxKGVEWM
In this video, you can see the demo player’s movements on the treadmill correspond exactly with Paul’s movements when he’s plucking the petals from the flower in Petscop 2. Clearly this instance isn’t nearly as “supernatural” as the previous example, but it still indicates something strange going on. Technically, it is possible to record Paul’s inputs from Petscop 2 and translate them into the “treadmill” movements required to exactly match his petal plucks. However, it would be extremely difficult to get it to be so perfectly in sync as it is in the video. If it’s not a clever programming trick, then I’m not sure exactly what that would imply.
Another interesting thing to consider is what would happen if Paul had watched this demo before he ever plucked the petals? It might be a similar situation to the example above, where the game has somehow predicted exactly what Paul would do. Obviously we can’t really know what the demo looked like beforehand, but it’s something to think about.
Profile Picture and Channel Description
On approximately June 8th, 2017 the profile picture on the Petscop channel was changed.
Old profile picture:
New profile picture:
On approximately June 24th, 2017 the previously blank channel description was changed to the following:
“"Rainer" gave this gift to us on Christmas 1997 and 2000. It was the single longest day of our lives. We were all certain he was dead at the time. He had been missing since June 1997 and 2000.
We're not as concerned about these things now.
Please enjoy the recordings! We do. :)”
On September 10th the “about” page updated once more:
This basically tells people to stop looking for an ARG, there is none at this point.
First Mentions of Petscop Online
As far as we know, the first public mention of Petscop was on April 8th, 2017 by a throwaway Reddit account named “paleskowitz” (Link). This is the only post made by that user. Many people believe the creator(s) of Petscop were the ones who made this post. The username “paleskowitz” could stand for “Paul A. Leskowitz” or something similar. Interestingly, the title of the post says “There’s something hiding in it.” At the time that Reddit post was created, only Petscop 1 through 4 had been released.
Petscop was also discussed on 4chan in it’s early days. The earliest mention of Petscop on 4chan was 2 days after it’s Reddit mention, or April 10th, 2017 (Thread Archive). This post was most likely made by someone who saw the Reddit post, but it’s possible the creator(s) of Petscop were also using 4chan to get the web series out there.
“Petscop” Game
This section is for the discussion of the surface-level game Petscop (up until the secret code is entered in Roneth’s room).
Petscop is an unfinished, unreleased Playstation 1 game developed in 1997 by a company called Garalina. As far as we can tell, Garalina is a fictional game development company and/or they were never known to the public due to the game never being finished.
The primary gameplay revolves around “catching” creatures referred to as “Pets”. Despite the fact that they are called “Pets”, the game use words such as “somebody” and “someone” to refer to them, both words used only to refer to humans. This could hint at a connection between Pets and humans/children. According to the sign at the start of the game, Petscop was meant to have 48 Pets total. We know there are only 6 Pets in the first level Even Care. It seems the original game planned on containing 8 levels (or “homes”) with 6 Pets in each level.
The meaning of the word “Petscop” is still unknown and/or under discussion. The most obvious theory would be a combination of PETS + COP, as the goal of the game is to pursue or trick pets so that you can “catch” them.
Another theory: The word “scop” has ties to meanings such as scold, scoff, abuse, derision, mock (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scop#Scop.2C_scopf.2C_and_relationship_to_scold). If “Pets” are related to humans or children, this could be a further connection to the child abuse themes in the game.
The menu of Petscop contains the usual suspects: Resume Game, Options, Pets, Quit Game. But it also contains a curious option called “Book of Baby Names”. There is no consensus what the meaning of this option is. It’s random nature might indicate a clue regarding the names of characters in the game. It could also be a reference to adoption, where the new parents will often rename the children (such as Candace Tiara Elmore being renamed to Candace Elizabeth Newmaker). In Petscop 6, Paul shows us that “Book of Baby Names” does nothing upon selecting it. He guesses that at some point you would be able to name your Pets, and the Book of Baby Names would give you name suggestions. This further strengthens the connection between Pets and humans/children, as generally you wouldn’t name your Pet a human name (although many people do).
Characters
Player Character (Fan-named “Naul”)
The player character is a strange creature with light green skin, a dark green shirt, brown pants, and no shoes. It does not have arms, and lacks the ability to open doors according to dialog in the game. The player character itself has no in-game name of it’s own, but is instead referred to by the name of the save file “Paul”.
Little is known about the player character itself. There is no consensus as to what the character sprite is portraying, or whether the character sprite is relevant to the story.
The character has a close resemblance to Pen. They have the same green skin, and whereas Naul lacks arms, Pen lacks legs. Pen’s eyes are closed, Naul’s eyes are open. Pen’s mouth it closed, Naul’s mouth is open. Pen is deaf, Naul can hear (if we assume the game is experienced through Naul’s perspective). Pen is female, and Naul may be male. This might indicate that the player character could also be considered a Pet.
In Petscop 5 the question "who am I?" gets the answer "Newmaker". This could indicate that the player character is the newmaker (as opposed to the player).
Toneth
According to the picture on the wall, we know that Toneth is friends with Randice. One of Toneth’s legs is broken, as can be seen in the painting and his sprite. Some speculate that Toneth might be behind the mysterious door at the beginning of Even Care. Assuming the developers of the game completed the first level, you could assume that there is some intended way of opening this door.
In Petscop 6, Toneth randomly appears while the Shadow Monster Man is messing with the camera. Later, Paul catches Toneth by walking into him. It’s unclear if Toneth was intentionally spawned by the Shadow Monster Man, or if it was just part of the weird glitches that happened while he was messing around.
Toneth’s in-game description reads as follows:
“
(Enter a description here)
---
- A bird. I think I forgot what birds look like.
- “Funny stupid blob monster” says Mike. That’s what it is.
- Painter. Painting puzzle.
- Catch Randice first(?)
- Has broken leg for some reason. I already hung him on a wall, too late to take it back. It makes me think about the dog actually. Because when the car hit him I thought “at least it will be over soon.” He survived it, and I was the only one who still wanted to put him down. A dog is an innocent (the message gets cut off here)
- When that dog wags its tail and it it appears happy, it’s not real.
- I guess that’s toneth then. toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth toneth. The end. It’s yucky outside.
”
We still do not know the intended way to catch Toneth in the “real” game. The description indicates that Toneth might be a painter, and that a painting puzzle would be required to catch him. Because Toneth’s description is clearly not completed, it’s possible that he was never added to the real game.
Randice
Randice is a red flower. She is the only Pet without a face. We first see Randice in the picture along with Toneth, but we later find her being watered by Wavey. As long as Randice is watered, she will teleport away from the player if approached. She is caught by trapping Wavey in a bucket. After Wavey is trapped in the bucket, Randice appears to flinch multiple times and wither away and die, after which the player can catch her. The two plots she is in differ in height, with one extending to underneath the level. This does not occur elsewhere in Even Care.
There are cases of parents denying children food and water as punishment for reactive attachment disorder. This might be related to Randice’s method of capture (source: http://www.childrenintherapy.org/essays/overview.html).
Amber
Amber is the first Pet that is shown in the Pets menu after being caught. The description reads as follows:
“Amber is a young ball. She’s afraid to leave home. If her home is good, this is not a problem. She is very heavy, and that makes her life a little harder, as well as yours. What’s the safest place you can put her in? You should start thinking about that.”
Amber is found locked in a cage, if you pull a switch to open the cage, she jumps into another cage. In order to catch her, you have to trap yourself inside the cage, after which she jumps into the cage with you and is caught.
There are multiple cases of adopted children with reactive attachment disorder being punished by being locked in cages. The method in which Amber is caught might be a reference to this.
Amber may also be a reference to Michael and Sharen Gravelle, who adopted children and were sentenced to jail for, among other things, keeping children in cage-like enclosures. Amber is found in a cage.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_and_Sharen_Gravelle for reference.
Roneth
Not much is known about Roneth. We only know it’s name because of the note Paul found with the game. In Petscop 1, Paul says he could not find a way to catch Roneth. It runs away from the player when approached, and flies into the sky when it reaches the dead end.
Roneth appears to be a hybrid between Toneth and Randice. It has the head of Toneth, and a plant-like body similar Randice. Additionally, the name Roneth is a combination of Toneth and Randice. Due to this, some say Toneth and Randice may have had a child together.
The player may have to run past Roneth, and then run backwards in order to capture them.
Pen
Pen is a Pet found floating above a piano. She has no legs and floats above the ground. She appears to have a string hanging from her abdomen. In order to catch her, the player must solve a puzzle revolving around musical intervals. When the player steps on the piano, 2 clones are created at an octave apart (i.e from C to C on the piano, D to D, etc). Using a treadmill, the player can change the location of Pen, starting from the far end of the piano. The correct solution is 7 because that is the number of white keys needed to go up an octave on a piano (C->DEFGABC).
She appears to wear a brown beanie or possibly a yarmulke. The white object in her hand is not known, but is speculated to be a snowball. As to why or how she would obtain and keep a snowball in her hand, we don’t know.
In Petscop 7, we finally see Pen’s description. It reads as follows:
“Pen is an aspiring mathematician.
She’s entirely deaf. She doesn’t even know what sound is, let alone music.
I don’t know what she’s doing here.”
The fact that a deaf character is in the piano room is strange, and even her description acknowledges the strangeness. This might just be a goofy detail added by the developer for fun, or it could have a deeper meaning. The fact that she is an aspiring mathematician is also strange, although her puzzle does involve a small amount of math to “solve” (although Paul seems to have just brute-forced it). Pen’s description and puzzle may be a hint that the music at the beginning of Petscop 7 has a hidden message or meaning behind it. Perhaps we are meant to use a similar method used to solve her puzzle to also solve the mystery of the music in Petscop 7. I have personally tried numerous methods of deciphering a message from the music, but I have had no luck so far. However, there are still plenty of things to try.
Wavey
Not much is known about Wavey. He is found in the same room as Randice. Wavey is a rain cloud that follows Randice wherever she goes. In order to capture him, the player must push a bucket underneath him, after which he ends up pouring himself into the bucket, where he is trapped. After he is trapped in the bucket, you can see his face at the top of the water.
Wavey may be a reference to depression, as it typically associated with rain clouds, as well as crying, or rain. Wavey also appears to be unhappy. This may suggest that Wavey and Randice are two parts of the same entity, Randice being the representation of happiness, while Wavey represents the more depressive side. This is further supported by the fact that Wavey follows Randice around (Randice is unable to escape their depression).
There are cases of children being force-fed water as a punishment, Wavey might be a reference to this (source: http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/07/ctv.death.by.water/).
Locations
Gift Plane
The Gift plane is where the game begins, and contains the Even Care.
The Gift Plane has several heaven references, ranging from the cloudlike floor to the pink buildings. It’s also worth noting that the Gift Plane is entered through a large gate (Pearly Gates of Heaven). Heaven is also a place where the dead reside. Are the pets potentially dead?
It is also possible that the Gift Plane could be a representation of an orphanage due to the way the messages on the signs are presented to the Main Character.
The word “Gift” is also referenced on Michael Hammond’s gravestone. The message “Mike was a gift.” could have ties to the Gift Plane, along with the fact that his headstone is shaped like the gifts found around the Gift Plane.
Even Care
The first, and possibly only level of the Gift Plane. All of the known pets encountered so far have been found here.
The name “Even Care” seems to be related to the character Care. The level itself has flower imagery (a symbol closely related to Care), as well as the flower Pet Randice.
“Even Care” might be a reference to the phrase “Do you even care?” or “I don’t even care”.
“Even Care” might be a reference to the number of petals on the flower. If the flower has an even number of petals, then it will land on “love me not” just as it does for Care (16 petals).
“Even Care” might be an insult or joke nickname given to Care. If you consider the note in Care’s room, it talks about a child that goes to school and comes out crying “Nobody loves me!”. Something must have happened to her to make her react this way. If you consider that Care does not grow eyebrows, or that she obsessively plucks her own eyebrows, this would give school kids something to pick on her with. The word “even” is synonymous with featureless, like someone with no eyebrows. Without eyebrows, expressing emotion is very difficult, giving you a constant expression of boredom. This also relates to the Dr. Seuss story, where kids pick on Daisy-Head Mayzie because of her unique appearance.
Odd Care (Fan name)
We are first introduced to Odd Care in the demo that plays after waiting at the Petscop main menu. Although the area closely resembles Even Care, I believe it is a completely separate area from the normal Even Care, which is why it gets it’s own section. Odd Care is differentiated by new background music, newly open/closed doors, the lack of a piano in Pen’s room, and it's strange connection to the Newmaker Plane.
The treadmill in Pen’s room appears to be connected to the number of petals on the flower in the Flower Shack. Paul uses this to catch Care NLM.
The cages in Amber’s room appear to be connected to the doors connecting to either side of the Quitter’s Room.
More connections between the rooms in Odd Care and the Newmaker Plane will likely be explored in future videos, although for now it seems the doors to the other rooms in Odd Care are closed. Perhaps there is a way to open them by doing something in the Newmaker Plane.
The symbol blocks and background images appear to associate areas of the Newmaker Plane with areas in Odd/Even Care.
Secret Game
This section is for the discussion of the secret portion of the game, after Paul inputs the code in Roneth’s room.
Characters
Michael Hammond (aka Mike)
As far as we have found, Michael Hammond does not refer to a real person. Candace apparently had a brother named Michael, but there is very little information about him. It’s possible her brother was adopted by a new family and given the last name Hammond. We know very little about Mike other than the information we could gather from his room (see Mike’s Bedroom), as well as the possible connection to his pink color (see Color Theory). The message on his tombstone might be a reference to the Gift Plane (see Gift Plane).
Mike is first referred to in Petscop 2 at 4:40, when the player interacts with a grey tombstone in the “Newmaker plane” with a face marked upon it. The tombstone reads:
The name “Michael Hammond” is written in a light pink hue. The time period specified suggests that Mike was either 6 or 7 years old, which our narrator reacts to after a few seconds with:
“That’s a dead kid.”
Mike’s headstone appears to be shaped like a gift box. In addition, the message on Mike’s grave reads “Mike was a gift”.
The face that appears on this tombstone seems to change at multiple times. Primarily, the eyebrows seem to disappear and reappear as the player walks around it. This is probably just a graphical glitch due to pixel rounding. The theme of eyebrows being removed is prominent with Care (see section: Care’s Bedroom/Care), alongside the pair of tweezers that appear on the table in Mike’s Bedroom (see section: Mike’s Bedroom).
Mike is then referred to again in Petscop 3 at 6:34 when the player uses the face from the tombstone on the painting canvas in the child library (see section: The Child Library).
A message appears, stating:
“Mike is not inside right now. He is dead.”
“You may visit his room.”
Interestingly, the name “Mike” in this message is not written in a pink hue, however this is consistent with the earlier use of the nickname “Mike” (see above).
After a few minutes, the player enters the room that was opened for them (see section: Mike’s Bedroom).
Mike is later referenced in Petscop 6, when Paul reads the description of Toneth: “‘Funny stupid blob monster’ says Mike. That’s what it is.” We know from his tombstone Mike is a child of only 6 or 7 years old. We can probably assume Toneth’s description was written by the developer of Petscop, so Mike may be the developer’s son. This might explain why Mike’s tombstone is in the game, as a memorial to his son that was lost during development. This might explain the sudden dark turn the game takes after the secret code is entered. It could also explain why the original game was never finished.
According to the color theory, Mike may be the one talking through pink Tool.
Care
We are first introduced to Care when we receive a phone call in the Office. “Care left her room” might refer to Care’s bedroom, as she is not found there. It could also refer to the school basement, where she escaped from.
Also in the office, we find a strange note with the letters A/B/NLM. The NLM most likely stands for “nobody loves me”, due to the connections to Daisy Head Maisy and the Flower Shack. We know from the note in Care’s Bedroom that she does not grow eyebrows.
In Petscop 9, Paul manages to catch Care NLM after entering -1 into the treadmill in Odd Care and returning to the Flower Shack Basement. Her description is as follows:
“Care NLM escaped from the school’s basement and wandered the Newmaker Plane for days.
To catch her, you had to lie, but it may not be a lie forever.
You’re the Newmaker. You can turn Care NLM into Care A, and close the loop.”
Apparently Care was trapped in the school basement, which ties in with the note in her room. We know from pink Tool there is a “machine” beyond the school basement stairway. The treadmill in Odd Care directly correlates with the petals of the flower, so by entering -1, you are telling Care that she is loved despite the fact that the flower ran out of petals on “Love me not”. “Close the loop” may refer to the cycle of abuse.
There is a disorder called trichotillomania that can be caused by traumatic experiences in childhood. This disorder is defined as “a compulsive desire to pull out one's hair”. If you consider the fact that Care might be plucking her eyebrows, this would explain why she doesn’t appear to grow any. This theory further ties into the A/B/NLM note. If you consider the only difference between the A Care and the B Care is her hair, you could conclude that the note is showing progression of something happening to her hair. If Care has trichotillomania, she could be obsessively pulling out her own hair resulting in lowered self confidence and eventual depression. Ultimately this results in the “nobody loves me” part of the note, and we see her crying in the Flower Shack where she eventually becomes a glitchy mess.
In Petscop 6, Paul discovers that there are 4 more pets in the Pet menu. Interestingly, 3 of these Pets appear to be the different versions of Care. This might invalidate the theory that the note is representing 3 different stages of Care’s disorder, but it is still uncertain. The 4th pet, however, is still unknown.
Tiara
The name Tiara is mentioned only 3 times in the videos. The first mention is in the note in Care’s room (8:55 in Petscop 3): “Tiara says young people can be psychologically damaged ‘beyond rebirthing’”. The second and third times are in the questions asked to Tool in Petscop 5:
“Who is Tiara?”
Answer: Petscop kid very smart
“Remember being born?” (the full question "Do you remember being born?" didn't fit)
Answer: I'm not Tiara
There may be a connection between Tiara and the Creepy Quitter’s Room Girl, because of the note on the wall in the Quitter’s Room “do you remember being born?”. The fact that Tool redirects the question to Tiara indicates that she has a connection to this question. To “remember being born” is probably impossible, unless you are talking about “rebirth” and “rebirth therapy”. If Tiara remembers being born, this could mean she has gone through rebirth therapy.
Candace Newmaker’s birth name was Candace Tiara Elmore. Tiara might be a reference to her, or it might mean the actual Candace Newmaker is somehow a part of the game.
Candace Newmaker was also called a quitter repeatedly before her death. This further connects Candace to the Creepy Quitter’s Room Girl, and also to Tiara.
Tool’s answer “Petscop kid very smart” can be interpreted two different ways. Tool could be referring to the player, calling him a “Petscop kid” and saying he’s smart for asking the right questions. Alternatively, Tool could be referring to Tiara calling her a very smart Petscop kid. The meaning of “Petscop kid” is unknown. It could mean anyone that plays the game, or it could have a deeper meaning depending on what “Petscop” actually means.
Creepy Quitter’s Room Girl
Very little is known about this “girl”. It’s unclear whether she is a separate character or just a reflection of the player with a different head. For a few seconds in Petscop 2 she seems to be controlled or possessed by another entity (see Quitter’s Room).
In Petscop 7, she stops following Paul’s movements while a strange song plays. After the song plays, she instantly teleports back to reflecting Paul’s movements. Also, once the song is complete the note on the wall is answered with “COME HERE”. Because the color and font are the same, it appears that whoever was playing the music and writing on the note is the same entity that speaks through pink Tool. It’s unclear if this is the same entity that possessed her in Petscop 2. The fact that she instantly teleports leads me to believe that she is not really a separate character from the player, but maybe some kind of symbolism representing the player’s identity.
In Petscop 10, Paul is finally able to enter the “unreflected” side of the Quitter’s Room, and she appears on the “reflected” side of the mirror. This confirms that she is not confined to either side of the mirror, and neither is the player.
She may have connections to Tiara (see Tiara) because of the note in the Quitter’s room.
Her face appears in one of the secret loading screen images (7:25 in Petscop 1):
Her face appears to be vertically squashed in this image. Something appears to be covering her face as well. They could be hands, or just a creepy glitch effect.
Red TOOL
Little is known about what exactly Tool is.
The answers provided by the red Tool make me think they are automated responses, as they are instantaneous. Also the fact that it responds “I don’t know” to so many questions make it seem like it only answers pre-programmed questions. To solidify this theory, in Petscop 5, Paul asks it both “Tiara?” and “Who’s Tiara?”, and it responds “I don’t know”. However, when asked “Who is Tiara”, it answers “Petscop kid very smart”. This seems like irrefutable proof that red Tool is not sentient, and can only answer predefined questions. As to who originally programmed Tool to give these responses, it is still unclear.
Every response by red Tool:
Questions in which red Tool answers “I don’t know”:
What?, Care?, Mike?, Michael?, Who is Care?, Who's Care?, Who is Mike?, Who's Mike?, Who is Michael?, Tiara?, Who's Tiara?, Where are you?, When am I?, What is NLM?, NLM?, Newmaker Plane?, Who is Newmaker?, Newmaker?, What is Petscop?, Petscop?, How to see windmill?, See windmill?, Windmill?, What is this?, bababababab?, !?, ??, Who is Marvin?, Who's Marvin?, Marvin?
Petscop 2:
Q: (Paul looks at the windmill?)
A: “Keep watching the windmill”
Petscop 5:
Q: “Who is Tiara?”
A: “Petscop kid very smart”
Q: “Who am I?”
A: “Newmaker”
Q: “Where am I?”
A: “Under the Newmaker Plane”
Q: “Who are you?”
A: “TOOL” (with a crude drawing of Tool)
Q: “Remember being born?”
A: “I’m not Tiara”
Petscop 6:
Q: “Where is my house?”
A: “You’ll never go home”
Q: “Where is the school?”
A: You can’t go back in time”
Petscop 10:
Q: “What month is it?”
A: A red calendar/notepad floats down from above and animates back and forth
Q: “What year is it?”
A: The red calendar/notepad continues to animate back and forth
Q: “Where was the windmill?”
A: Tool’s answer was censored
Note: This is the first time Tool has responded with an object. The calendar/notepad might indicate that Tool wants the player to input the month/year into the Ask box.
Pink TOOL
Contrary to red Tool, pink Tool does seem to be sentient. Not only does it take much longer to answer Paul’s questions, but its messages indicate a “living” person on the other side. According to the Color Theory (see Color Theory), Mike might be the one talking through pink Tool. For more information on pink Tool’s messages see Marvin.
As far as we’ve seen, it appears pink Tool has been ignoring the questions asked by Paul. This could be because the person speaking through pink Tool does not receive Paul’s questions, or maybe the person just doesn’t care (or is unable to answer) what Paul is asking. Alternatively, it could just be a trick to make the game seem like it’s haunted, despite the fact that the game can’t possibly have a conversation with Paul.
Every response by pink Tool:
Petscop 5
Q: “Who are you?”
A: “TURN PLAYSTATION OFF”
Q: “Why?”
A: “MARVIN PICKS UP TOOL HURTS ME WHEN PLAYSTATION ON”
Petscop 7
(in Quitter’s Room): “COME HERE” (same color and font as pink Tool)
A: “I LOVE YOU NEWMAKER PLEASE SHOW MARVIN WHERE HIS HOUSE IS”
Q: “Who are you?”
A: “GO THERE AND HE’LL FOLLOW YOU HIS DAUGHTER IS THERE”
Q: “Remember being born?”
A: “ALSO WANTS 1000 PIECES FOR “MACHINE BEYOND SCHOOL BASEMENT STAIRWAY””
Blue TOOL
On the walls in Tool’s room, you can see multiple crayon drawings of a blue Tool. We have yet to be introduced to this blue Tool, but apparently someone has an obsession with it.
According to the color theory (see Color Theory), blue is associated with the wife in the note in Care’s room. In addition, we see a common theme of crayons found both in Care’s room and on a shelf in the Flower Shack. This seems to indicate that Care is the one who made these drawings of blue Tool. If the wife is also the mother of Care, then it’s possible that blue Tool could be none other than Care’s mother. According to the note found in Care’s room, it seems like the wife is concerned for Care, whereas the husband is not.
Newmaker
Tool answers “Newmaker” when Paul asks it “Who am I?”. The “Newmaker Plane” is referenced in the note in Care’s room, as well as the answer red tool gives in Petscop 5 to the question “Where am I?”: “Under the Newmaker Plane”. The capitalisation of Newmaker is important, as it means that “Newmaker” is a proper Noun- this could then refer to a name or a place.
Most probably a reference to Candace Newmaker, although it is still not clear whether game is referencing Candace or anyone in her family directly, or rather using it as an analogy/clue (see section: Candace Newmaker Connection).
The secret portion of the game may have been developed specifically for this “Newmaker”. Whether Newmaker is meant to refer to the player character, the player (Paul), or the “intended” player, we still don’t know.
In Petscop 9, the note in the Windmill Girl’s room is written by “Rainer, Newmaker”. This seems to indicate that “Newmaker” is not a name, but rather a title. This weakens the connection to the Candace Newmaker theory, although we are still unsure what a “Newmaker” actually does.
Mystery Man
The mysterious figure seen at the end of Petscop 4. Has many similarities to the player character. Appears to maybe wear a hat and has the same body/walking animation as the player character. This character may be someone we already know, but for now we will assume it is an entirely separate character. Near the end of the video, the figure was slightly visible, however, when Paul moves closer, the figure fled into the darkness.
As of Petscop 8, there is a good chance that this is the “non-shadow” Marvin, although we really have no way of knowing that for sure right now.
Marvin
There is a strong possibility that Marvin is also the following people:
The Shadow Monster Man
The husband mentioned in the note in Care’s room
The person that wrote the top part of the note that Paul received with the game
The Mystery Man
Marvin is first introduced in Petscop 5. After Paul asked why he should turn off the playstation, the pink Tool responds “MARVIN PICKS UP TOOL HURTS ME WHEN PLAYSTATION ON”.
According to the message, Marvin is hurting whoever is speaking through pink Tool. From this we can conclude he is an evil man. If you believe in the Color Theory (see Color Theory), you could say it’s Mike that’s being hurt by Marvin. The only other “character” we have been introduced to that seems to have evil tendencies is the man mentioned in the note in Care’s room (see Care’s Bedroom). If this is true, then Marvin might also be the one responsible for Care’s downfall as well as other children.
The phrase “MARVIN PICKS UP TOOL” is still under discussion. It could be that Marvin is using Tool to hurt the child, or the “picking up tool” could be unrelated to how the child is being hurt. This message might also be referring to the smaller Tool-like objects found in Care and Mike’s bedrooms. As we are still unsure of the purpose of these objects, we can’t say for sure if they can be used to hurt someone. Some might say that the white Tool in Petscop 9 is used to stab the Windmill Girl (it could also be freeing her from the gears).
The fact that Marvin only hurts the child when the Playstation is on could indicate that the “people” in the game might not exist as long as the Playstation is off.
In Petscop 7, we learn more about Marvin. The following messages are from pink Tool:
“I LOVE YOU NEWMAKER PLEASE SHOW MARVIN WHERE HIS HOUSE IS”
“GO THERE AND HE’LL FOLLOW YOU HIS DAUGHTER IS THERE”
“ALSO WANTS 1000 PIECES FOR “MACHINE BEYOND SCHOOL BASEMENT STAIRWAY””
These answers strongly imply that Marvin and the Shadow Monster Man (see Shadow Monster Man) are one in the same. Not only this, but it also strengthens the connection between Marvin and the husband mentioned in the note in Care’s room. We now know that Marvin has a daughter, and that he is looking for his house. The “HE’LL FOLLOW YOU” is very similar to the message given by the Shadow Monster Man in Petscop 6: “I WILL FOLLOW”. We also now know that he is connected to the school, which is also mentioned in the note in Care’s room.
In Petscop 8, Marvin appears from where the blue and red cars come from. His movements appear to be pre-recorded, as he ends up running into a wall where a hallway used to be. Along the way, he stops in front of the picture of the school and runs around in circles. He also stops in front of the picture of the house and does the same thing. After running into the wall, he appears to run around in circles again. This might indicate that the blocked hallway contains another picture. Finally, Marvin runs up an invisible staircase until he is off screen. Marvin appears to be trying to tell Paul something during this encounter. We already know Marvin is looking for his house and the school, so maybe he is just telling Paul that the house and school in the pictures are his.
Shadow Monster Man
In Petscop 6, a new figure can be seen walking around the windmill. It appears to have the same body as the player character, with a horn or wavy hair on it’s head. Strangely, the direction of his head does not appear to change. This character may be the same one mentioned in the note Paul received with the game (see The Note). This character remains a silhouette the entire time he is on camera, despite the fact that he is surrounded by objects that seem to be perfectly lit. This, along with the strange horn protruding from his head, leads me to believe that he is the “Shadow Monster Man” mentioned in the note.
In Petscop 6, this character creates 3 messages in front of the camera:
“WHERE IS MY HOUSE”
“WHERE IS THE SCHOOL”
“I WILL FOLLOW”
While these messages are being created, the character accidentally makes multiple misspellings. This would lead me to believe this character is probably a child. Also, the note Paul received with the game had strange grammatical errors (“TURNED THE RIGHT”) and was written in all caps. The questions asked sound like this character is lost in the Newmaker Plane, perhaps he intends to follow Paul in the hopes that he will lead him back home. As of Petscop 7, it is implied this character is Marvin, and that he has a daughter. Therefore, this character is probably not a child.
The house and school that this character refers to are probably the same buildings we see in the picture frames in Petscop 2:
It may be important to note that the school building plays a spooky noise when Paul looks at the picture. This probably indicates that something bad happened there. This might be the same school referenced in the note in Care’s room (see Care’s Room).
In response to the question “Where is my house?”, red Tool responded “You’ll never go home”. In response to the question “Where is the school?”, red Tool responded “You can’t go back in time”.
In Petscop 7, we learn Marvin is looking for his house, and that his daughter is there. He also needs 1000 “pieces” for a “machine beyond the school basement stairway”. This seems to imply that the house and school still exist, whereas Tool’s responses make it seem like they are gone. However, it’s possible that red Tool is referring to a different house and school. Marvin’s house may be different than Newmaker’s house.
This character also seems to make this strange pink screen appear. The black object in the center strongly resembles a CD. Directly after this screen appears, the character begins spawning map tiles as if he was a developer of the game. I believe this screen indicates the loading of some kind of debug or map editor mode that allows the character to create new parts of the map. This might be an indication that this character has a deep knowledge of the game code.
Locations
Newmaker Plane
This is where the entirety of the Secret Game takes place.
If the Gift Plane really is a representation of Heaven, then the Newmaker Plane is Purgatory. Both Purgatory and the Newmaker Plane are mostly empty space.
The Newmaker Plane appears in one of the secret loading screen images (11:25 in Petscop 2):
Office
Where Paul receives the phone call “Care has left her room.” Also the location of the A/B/NLM note (see Care).
It is unknown who the person on the other side of the phone is. It could be an automated call when any child leaves their room.
Quitter’s Room
Perhaps one of the more mysterious rooms in the game, the Quitter’s room has the appearance of a typical bedroom. However, the room is split by a giant “mirror”. On the opposite side from the player, we see a reflected player character with a strange smiling face. Upon walking behind a bookshelf in the room, the strange reflection appears to be possessed by something else. In addition, we hear the strange beeping sound also heard when the door opens in Newmaker Plane. This sound could indicate that these two events are connected. Perhaps the same entity that opens the door is also the one possessing the reflection. At first glance, the reflection seems to follow the player's movement at a delay. However, if you watch closely you can see the reflection is making movements that Paul did not originally make, almost as if a second player was controlling the reflection. The way the reflection seems to “mock” the player might indicate it being controlled by a child.
In Petscop 7, Paul is heard shuffling through papers as he stands in the northeast corner of the room. Suddenly, music starts playing from the opposite side of the room. Because of the mirror, we are unable to see what is actually happening, but it is interesting to note that the Quitter’s Room Girl is no longer following Paul’s movements anymore. The strange music plays for almost a minute. The randomness and atonality of the music may indicate a secret message is hidden within it. Once the music is done playing, the Quitter’s Room Girl instantly teleports back into place as Paul’s reflection.
“Quitter” may be a reference to Candace Newmaker’s story. In the transcript of her death video, one of her “therapists” repeatedly called her a quitter (source: http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/candace.htm).
The note on the wall says “do you remember being born?” with a line on the bottom to indicate it’s meant to be filled in. This is yet another reference to the common “rebirth” theme found throughout the game. As for who this note was intended for, it’s unclear. It could be talking to the player directly, or it could be meant for whoever is on the other side of the mirror. It’s unclear whether the girl in the reflection is a separate character or just the player with a different head (see Creepy Quitter’s Room Girl). This message may also be connected to Tiara (see Tiara).
In Petscop 7, the note is filled in by (assumedly) the same entity that speaks through pink Tool. However, rather than answer the question, it simply says “COME HERE”, with a strange zig-zag line above it.
The clock on the wall reads around 7:45, or 4:15 if you consider it is reflected. However, the clock does appear to work like a real clock, as you can see the minutes change as the video progresses. The significance of these times is unknown. Interestingly, the Playstation 1 does not appear to have an internal clock, so the clock in this room might not reflect the “real” time, but rather just a passage of time starting from a specific point. Also the room which the player first enters after Newmaker Plane appears to have an image of clocks on the wall. They appear to read around the same time as the clock in the Quitter’s room.
In Petscop 7, the clock in the Quitter’s Room reads a very different time (around 4:30, or 7:30 reflected horizontally).
In Petscop 10, Paul is finally able to access the other side of the Quitter’s Room. There is not much new of note, other than the symbol block on the bed that indicates the room is connected to Amber’s Room (see Odd Care), and the fact that the Quitter’s Room Girl now appears on the other side of the mirror.
In addition, the Quitter’s room can be seen from above in one of the hidden loading screen images (around 1:00 in Petscop 2):
Tool’s Room
This is a secret room where Tool stands. In this room, the player can ask questions to Tool. Objects of note found in Tool’s room are drawings of blue Tool (see Blue Tool), several written notes which seem to be illegible, Tool itself (see Red Tool and Pink Tool), and a giant screen that shows the spinning windmill (see Windmill).
The Child Library
The room which contains the face easel as well as the strange hole in which a child can be placed outside. Inside the room, you can apply a face to the easel, and the room will violently shake for several minutes. If you look at the door while the earthquake is happening, you can see the rooms appear to be falling past the door at high speeds. When it stops, you are able to enter the bedroom. Paul enters several different bedrooms throughout the videos, most notably Mike’s (see Mike’s Bedroom) and Care’s (see Care’s Bedroom).
If you calculate the total number of possible rooms, you end up with 288,000 unique “faces”/bedrooms. This number may or may not be significant.
My original calculation came up with 144,000, which interestingly does have biblical ties to rebirth. For now, I think this theory is busted, but if you’re curious just google “144,000 rebirth”.
In Petscop 7, Paul finally discovers that a Pet can be placed in the hole in front of the Child Library by accessing the Pet menu in front of it. However, the Child Library will only accept “people”, not any of the 6 original Pets.
The fact that this building is called a “Child Library” has a few disturbing implications. A library is a place where a large collection of books can be temporarily borrowed and read by the public. Libraries also generally contain a “book return” slot so you can quickly return the borrowed books to the library. The name “Child Library” implies that children are stored in this vast network of bedrooms to be “borrowed” by people to do with what they wish. Once they are done with the child, they are dropped in the “child return” slot, where they are returned to their bedroom/prison cell. The fact that Care was apparently able to leave her room in Petscop 2 might imply that the children aren’t necessarily trapped, or that she was “borrowed” by someone else.
The Child Library could be a metaphor for the adoption/foster care system.
In Petscop 9, Paul drops Care NLM into the return slot. Upon doing so, the game gives the following message:
“You’ve decided to leave Care NLM.
If you change your mind within 6 months, you can take Care NLM back.
What month is it, anyway? What year is it?”
Upon dropping her off, Care NLM now appears in her bedroom (Care’s face without eyebrows) crying on her bed. Paul then catches her again.
It’s unclear what will happen after 6 months. Perhaps if Paul leaves Care NLM in her bedroom, and then uses Tool to change the month or year (assuming that’s what the calendar/notepad means), we can see what happens.
Generic Children’s Rooms
The children’s bedrooms besides Mike and Care’s do not seem to contain much useful information. The “children” sitting on the beds do seem to each have unique features. The children’s gender and age/height appear to differ. Most of the children have toys on their table. One child appears to have an original GameBoy. Every room has the same dark passage to the right of the back wall.
As for whether these children are just mannequins or if they represent real children it’s difficult to say.
Mike’s Bedroom
(For information on Mike, see section: Michael Hammond (aka Mike)).
The player enters what is stated to be Mike’s bedroom in Petscop 3 around 6:30-6:40, as told by the Child Library Canvas.
Inside the room:
Upon inspecting the table:
Sitting on this table is what appears to be a pair of tweezers and a small version of the red TOOL (see section: Red TOOL). The tweezers may have some importance, due to the importance of eyebrows in the case of Care (see section: Care). Perhaps taking the eyebrows off of Mike’s “face” could have an important effect? (see section: Mike). We can also see eyeglasses on the floor, which might be an indication that Mike wears glasses.
In Petscop 7, Paul enters Mike’s face without eyebrows into the easel, and we see the following bedroom:
The important things of note in this room are the blue car on the table, the roads on the carpet, and the gift boxes on the carpet. The gift is associated with Mike, as seen by his tombstone message: “Mike was a gift”. The roads and car might be related to Toneth’s description, in which Mike is mentioned, and in which a story about a dog being hit by a car is told. The toy blue car looks very similar to the blue car seen driving past at around 3:25 in Petscop 2:
Also possibly important to note that there is a mannequin sitting on the bed in this room. He appears to be taller than most of the other mannequins. He also appears to have longish hair that goes down over his ears. His mannequin also appears to be “standing” directly on one of the roads on the floor. It’s possible Mike’s cause of death could have been being hit by a blue car.
Care’s Bedroom
(For information on Care, see section: Care).
The player enters what is stated to be Care’s Bedroom. Unique only to Care’s room, there is a note on the back wall.
- Upon entering the room:
- Upon inspecting the table
Here we see the same tiny red Tool as in Mike’s room (see Mike’s Room), as well as a box of crayons. The crayons may be significant to the blue Tool connection (see Blue Tool).
Full conversation with the note:
- Your wife says, “Care isn’t growing eyebrows.”
- You say, “That’s a puzzle.”
- You’re secretly very excited to hear this news.
- You’re in the bathtub thinking about her.
- I have a guess at which child you’ll pick next.
- When you find her room, the passage to my right will lead to her.
- She'll appear from the darkness limping, and I'll shoot her in the head.
- Tiara says young people can be psychologically damaged "beyond rebirthing".
- A young person walks into your school building.
- They walk in with you. You're holding their hands.
- They come out crying into their hands, because nobody will love them, not ever again.
- “Nobody loves me!”
- They wander the Newmaker Plane
While this note seems very cryptic at first, it starts to make sense once you piece things together. Note: This is my own interpretation of the note, I could be very wrong about what it means:
- The wife (Care’s mom?) seems concerned when she notices Care isn’t growing eyebrows. If Care is plucking her own eyebrows, then it seems like the wife is not aware of her disorder (see Care).
- The husband acts like he doesn’t know why Care doesn’t have eyebrows.
- Here we see that the husband actually does know why, and that he takes pleasure in it.
- This further emphasizes that the husband thinks about what he’s doing to Care all the time, almost obsessively.
- This message in particular is confusing. I’m guessing the husband is moving on from abusing Care to another child (maybe adopting a new one?).
- This most likely refers to the Windmill Girl.
- This seems more like a metaphor than a literal message. Once he finds his next target, he will break them even more than they already are (possibly until death).
- Here we are initially introduced to the name Tiara, it seems like Tiara is speaking like a therapist here, but that goes against other theories (see Tiara).
- This part of the note seems to tell a separate story. We can assume the young person is Care, because of the yellow “Nobody loves me!”.
- The plural “hands” seems slightly weird, but I’m not sure if it’s significant.
- Care comes out crying, possibly because of her eyebrows (see Care).
- This connects Care to the A/B/NLM note, as well as the Dr. Seuss story.
- Not sure exactly what the meaning of this is. The note seems to be talking about a story that happened in real life, but as far as we know the Newmaker Plane only exists inside the game. “Newmaker Plane” might be a metaphor for something else.
Take for a moment the use of the first person perspective here which this doesn’t take into account.
“Your wife” is speaking of eyebrows.
“You” answer, then secretly are pleased, then think of Care.
Then “I” guess who you will think of next. The first person perspective makes it seem as though the writer of the note is guessing. Then you find her room, and take the path to this same person or thing’s right, and then whatever or whoever this is shoots them in the head.
Pink Tool said that when the PS1 is on, Marvin will pick up tool and use it to hurt them. “I will shoot them in the head” could this be the perspective of Tool?
In Petscop 7, Paul enters Care’s face with Mike’s eyebrows into the easel. He enters the following room:
The objects on her floor and wall seem to be mostly flower related (a common theme of Care’s). The dark objects on her floor look kind of like gears, but they could also be flowers or the sun. The longer objects appear to be flower stems. She also appears to have roads on her wall, similar to the roads on Mike’s floor.
Care’s room with eyebrows also has a mannequin on the bed. She appears to wear a blue baseball cap. (Possibly unrelated, but Mystery Man also kind of looks like he’s wearing a baseball cap (see Mystery Man)). It’s not clear if she has hair or not. She also seems quite a bit shorter than Mike.
Upon interacting with Care’s table, we see this:
On the left, we can clearly see 3 toy blocks spelling “CRE”. It’s strange that there is a block missing, it’s possible the other block is behind the censored box, spelling out a message. The censored box has been a huge subject of debate. There does seem to be a slight red glow protruding from the bottom of the black box.
Based on Paul’s reaction, and the message displayed at the end of Petscop 7, most people agree that the object that’s censored is probably not something violent, sexual, or disturbing. Many believe it to be some kind of message, possibly a message revealing the personal information of someone involved with the game or the child abuse cases surrounding it. However, it is important to note that whatever this object is, it would not be particularly out of place in any other child’s bedroom, according to Paul. For more discussion on the censored items in Petscop, see Censorship.
Windmill Girl’s Room
Upon putting the windmill girl’s face on the easel, the following message appears:
“You found her.
You may visit her room.”
“You found her” is most likely referring to the note in Care’s room: “I have a guess at which child you’ll pick next. When you find her room, the passage to my right will lead to her.”
The room itself has a few notable traits. The shapes on the walls and floor seems to be gears, windmills (the circle with four dots), and the triangle shaped machine piece. There is a windmill on the table, along with the same red Tool seen in previous bedrooms. Upon entering the room, another player character can be seen reading (or possibly writing) the note. It then exits the room in the same exact way Paul exits the room a couple minutes later (see Time Travel Weirdness). There is a note on the back wall that reads as follows:
“You must have guessed, but I was looking through your things.
I found that picture of you from 1977, standing in front of an old windmill with your friend.
You went there, and it was a bad idea. Your friend and the windmill both disappeared into thin air.
Her sister was holding the camera. She took another picture minutes later; just you, no windmill, and no friend.
You married her sister, and years later, your friend was reborn as your daughter.
Your wife won’t admit this is true, but I know it, because I found the evidence.
Your friend never returned with you, and the windmill was gone. I went to see it myself. Where is it? What did you do?
- Rainer, Newmaker”
Upon entering the passage in the northeast part of the room, a loading screen image appears that resembles the triangular machine piece (it also resembles a party hat). After the loading screen, Paul ends up in the Party Room.
Flower Shack and Basement
Right next the Mike’s grave, there is a strange shack with a basement. If you enter the ground floor of the shack, you find a giant daisy that has broken through the floor. This flower is connected to the Dr. Seuss story (see GOOD GRIEF AND ALAS). When Paul plucks the petals from this flower, the screen tints red after every other petal. It also plays a “good” and a “bad” sound effect. These both probably reference the “loves me” “loves me not” game that children play and that is referenced in the Dr. Seuss story. When Paul plucks all the flowers from the daisy, the final petal lands on “loves me not”, which is probably what causes Care to turn into a glitchy mess.
In the basement of the shack we find a strange crying girl. This girl is suspected to be Care (see Care). She appears to be kneeling directly in front of the daisy. Whereas in the Dr. Seuss story the girl has a flower growing from her head, the flower in the basement appears to be coming from the ground behind Care (although the imagery is definitely intentional). She appears to be sitting on a strange pedestal that lowers each time a petal is plucked. Before all the petals are plucked, she is shown covering her face and crying, exactly like the A/B/NLM note (see Office). After the petals are plucked, she turns into a glitchy mess. It’s unclear whether this means Care is dead.
The Windmill
This refers to both the windmill on the screen in Tool’s room, the windmill in the picture frame, and the “ghost” windmill seen in Petscop 4.
The windmill seems to have some mystery surrounding it. When Paul first talks to Tool, it tells him to “keep watching the windmill”. However, when Paul does this nothing really seems to happen other than two creepy sound effects. This may be a clue for the audience that “we” should examine the windmill further.
After examining the windmill further, I found a few interesting observations. First, the windmill in the picture frame and the windmill on the screen in Tool’s room are reversed:
As you can see by the blades of the windmill, they are mirrored. Also, if you consider the direction the windmill on the screen is rotating, it is rotating the wrong direction from a real windmill (the “poles” of the blades should be leading the sails). However, even if the windmill was reflected horizontally, it would still be rotating the wrong direction. In Petscop 6, Paul decides to “keep watching the windmill” for a very long time. After 2 hours and 39 minutes, a strange figure walks behind the windmill (see Shadow Monster Man). After a few seconds, the windmill starts spinning the opposite way. Now, the windmill is spinning the way a real windmill should (with the poles leading the sails). The windmill also starts to produce a constant humming sound, as if it was generating power.
Another mystery surrounding the windmill is the strange events of Petscop 4. Paul finds a camera that seems to be pointing to where the windmill “should be”. However, the windmill is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Paul finds a strange transparent floating platform that vibrates back and forth. Assuming the camera pointing at the floating platform is transmitting directly to the screen in Tool’s room, there is something causing the windmill to only be visible on camera. There are not really any solid theories to explain this, other than the camera is somehow showing another “world” that the player can not see. In Petscop 6, after watching the windmill for around 4 hours, the windmill suddenly vanishes, and leaves behind the same transparent floating platform we are familiar with. However, the humming sound continues to play even when Paul goes back to the surface. This might indicate that it’s not the camera that allows us to “see” the windmill, but rather the windmill can suddenly disappear and reappear for unknown reasons.
Finally, another strange thing I noticed was this object on the wall outside of Tool’s room (6:40 in Petscop 2):
This object animates between the three frames shown above when Paul first walks past it. Paul stands in front of it for quite a few seconds as if it’s important. Interestingly, this object appears to stop animating after Paul first stares at the windmill (it remains stuck on the third frame). In Petscop 6, after staring at the windmill for a very long time, this object begins to animate again. It could be a representation of gears, pistons, or power coming from the windmill.
This object can also be seen continuing to animate in Petscop 7 at around 2:13.
In Petscop 9, Paul figures out how to become the shadow man. Upon exploring the Newmaker Plane, he finds that he is now able to see the windmill. After walking behind the windmill, he is able to enter it. The red camera may have significance to the story told about the disappearing windmill.
In the windmill, there’s a sign with an unknown face, a translucent girl with the same face over a spring, gears with what seems to be “machine pieces” and a white tool. When Paul uses the white tool, it is plunged towards the girl/spring and Paul collects 50 pieces. You can then hear a loud hum afterwards. The girl inside has been speculated to be the one who disappeared along with the windmill. When Paul comes back as his non shadow self, the windmill is gone, which might mean that he went back in time as his shadow counterpart, since the windmill disappeared in 1977.
Judging by the way the machine pieces vibrate and girl vibrate, it would seem they are stuck in the gears. For some reason, the girl seems to be attached by a spring to the rest of the machine pieces. The girl appears to be more of a hologram than a physical object. Upon freeing the girl from the gears, the player is able to collect the 50 pieces and the windmill starts rotating in the right direction. Upon entering the girl’s face into the easel, Paul enters the Windmill Girl’s Room.
Party Room
A strange black and white “room” that Paul can enter from the Windmill Girl’s Bedroom. It resembles more of an outdoor area with trees, a picnic table (the picnic table is barely visible on the right side of the room), and a bench. In this room, Paul receives a green key from one of the presents. This key probably opens Marvin’s house, as the picture of his house is green. Paul also opens the “present with a sticker on it”, but it’s contents are censored (see Censorship).
It appears a birthday party was taking place, as there is a cake with a backwards “9” on it (or maybe it’s a “P”). Through a window you can see a bench with a slice of the cake on it, along with a yellow pinwheel. This pinwheel might have some relevance to Care, as she is associated with yellow.
On the left side of the room, Paul finds a smaller room with another present in it. This present leads him to a different version of the Newmaker Plane as well as Odd Care. Also of note, upon entering the present a strange choir sound plays during the loading screen.
GOOD GRIEF AND ALAS
This message is seen on the wall near the beginning of Petscop 3. It is a reference to the Dr. Seuss book “Daisy-Head Mayzie” originally published in 1994. It is about a girl that grows a daisy out of her head. Near the end of the book, she starts crying and yells “Nobody loves me!” This is most likely the meaning of the NLM on the A/B/NLM note. Eventually she picks the petals off the flower and realizes they do love her. Unfortunately things did not go the same way for Care. (see Care).
See http://www.timelessteacherstuff.com/readerstheater/DaisyHeadMayzie.pdf to read the book.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPI8Md2zBtg to watch the cartoon.
General Theories and Connections
Use this for any theories or connections that don’t necessarily fit with the specific sections above.
Color Theory
Various colors are used to reference specific characters throughout the videos. Some speculate that these colors are intended to provide insight into the story.
Michael Hammond’s name on his tombstone is pink. When Tool turns pink in Petscop 5, it is possible that this is Mike talking through Tool.
In the same room that Tool is found in, there are various drawings of a blue Tool (see Blue Tool).. We see the color blue associated with the wife in the note in Care’s room. We also see blue associated with Amber’s name when Paul examines the trophy. The car that drives by at 3:25 in Petscop 2 is blue.
Care is strongly associated to the color yellow. Daisies are also yellow, and are associated with her character. The text “Nobody loves me!” in the note in Care’s room is yellow, indicating that it is probably being said by Care.
The husband in the note in Care’s room is green. Randice is also green. If the husband is Marvin, then Marvin would also be associated with green (see Marvin).
Tiara’s name is purple.
Toneth’s name is red. This may indicate a connection to red Tool.
All of the colored text as of Petscop 7 (image by DrunkCat):
Digital Immortality
This might be an unintentional reference, but I think it’s worth noting in case it becomes more relevant in the future. In Petscop 8, the colors of the passing cars are as follows: “Blue Blue Red Blue Red Red Blue”. If you convert that pattern into a binary number (blue = 0, red = 1), you get “0010110”. Upon searching this binary number in google, the first result is a research paper entitled “DIGITAL IMMORTALITY: SELF OR 0010110?”. You can read the full paper here: http://documents.mx/spiritual/digital-immortallity.html.
Here is the synopsis of the paper:
“In this paper, we explore from several angles the possibility, and practicality, of one of the major tenets of the transhumanist movement — the intention to upload human minds to computers. The first part of the paper assumes that mind-uploading is possible and will become quite commonplace in the near (21st century) future a là Ray Kurzweil and cohorts. This assumption allows us to explore several of its problematic implications for personal identity, especially the effects it will have on questions of duty, responsibility, interpersonal relationships, and culpability in the case of crime. In the second part of the paper, we take a deeper and more critical look at whether mind-uploading is indeed metaphysically possible, and offer some neurobiologically-inspired arguments against its feasibility.”
Interestingly, this could be an explanation for the weird “haunted” behavior seen in Petscop. Instead of a ghost haunting the game, maybe someone’s consciousness has been uploaded inside it. This theory doesn’t have much evidence to support it at this point, but this reference seems too eerily relevant to the events of Petscop to be a coincidence.
As further argument for this being an intentional reference, here is some more evidence:
Some people might say "Why translate to binary? Why not hex or anything else?" Well, binary is a number system with only two possible digits. We only have 2 colors, therefore it makes the most sense to convert it to a binary number.
Some people might say "Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe it's just random". Well if this were truly random, there would be a 1/128 chance or around 0.8% for it to be this specific number. If you try to google any other 7 digit binary number, you'll just get the same generic links over and over.
For more discussion about the paper, see this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Petscop/comments/6akbgq/something_interesting_about_the_cars_in_petscop_8/
Synchronisation and Timelines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfvCk1N_AWo
There appears to be a long subtle chain of synchronized events in episodes 9 and 10 that starts on both sides when Paul reloads the game after a crash. It may imply that Paul split the timeline by duplicating his save file, and that the calendar summoned by the Tool was the 6 month countdown for catching back Care. For further details and considerations you can read the video’s description on YouTube.
http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DnogEDJu2Z4c&start1=727&video2=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DnogEDJu2Z4c&start2=865&authorName=aphrocarlin (Youtube doubler isn’t perfect, might take a couple of refreshes to get the videos to start at the same time)
There is also a seeming connection between the game crashing in part 9 and catching care. When aligning the two instances of “catching” care and working backwards, we can see that the game freezes on the earlier video as soon as care is placed into the Child Library chute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2FsPLWyqmQ&feature=youtu.be
In this instance, the windmill’s rotation change is aligned, and in part 9 Paul continues to exit the windmill in an eerily similar fashion to the shadow character (presumably marvin) in part 6.
It seems that Part 9 is almost a “hub” for synchronised events, with these being a few of them. This most likely ties in to the timeline wierdness in the about page, as well as the movement repetition in “her” room in part 9 (Seen here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/301463720570388481/317222960085598208/videotogif_2017.05.25_04.46.57.gif), as well as the demo/petal synchronisation between parts 2 and 9 (Seen here: https://youtu.be/Rc7hxKGVEWM). Furthermore, the statement “You’re in the other place too” in Petscop 9 seen here: https://youtu.be/nogEDJu2Z4c?t=12m52s seem to reference these instances, almost as if one time is affecting the other for some reason.
This seems to be the most poignant evidence in-video for time discrepancies and the idea of two “Newmaker” or “Paul” characters, as Part 9’s numerous jumpcuts can be interpreted as being an amalgamation of the events of two separate timelines interacting with each other, as referenced in the Youtube ”About” page for the Petscop channel, that directly conflates two completely separate years into one ("Rainer" gave this gift to us on Christmas 1997 and 2000. It was the single longest day of our lives. We were all certain he was dead at the time. He had been missing since June 1997 and 2000.).
What’s Under the Censors?
At the end of part 7 we are given a simple black ending card:
We have a few clues about what could possibly be under these censors. The use of Quotation Marks and the slightly unfinished sentences (“Written on a chalkboard” as opposed to “Something written on a chalkboard”) means these may be quotes from a TOOL. The writing style is consistent with that of Pink TOOL, as we know 1. Tool uses short responses like these, 2. Pink TOOL is a sort of 4th wall breaking type character, who literally begs paul to “turn off playstation”. Telling paul(?) to censor videos isn’t out of character, 3. Pink Tool is able to use punctuation (“HE’LL FOLLOW YOU” with an apostrophe) and 4. They don’t seem to know what they need to censor as of yet due to the use of “expecting” combined with “in the future”, meaning they themselves haven’t seen these censors yet suggesting they’ve been given a list before seeing it for themselves.
Censor 1: In Care’s room with Mike’s eyebrows. Petscop 7.
There’s a small slither of red pixels underneath the censor, still visible.
It’s quite possible this is a Red TOOL, retaining the Y axis position and overlaying windmill girl’s or mike’s tool matches up near-perfectly with the red pixels. This could imply the tool placement is consistent as part of a randomly generated algorithm instead of being manually placed using a 3d editor. Note that there is a much larger space censored above it. It could be that there is floating text above the tool, which would explain why it was necessary to censor that answer explicitly but not mind too much about censoring all of the tool, in the same fashion he left parts of the spinning triangle in part 9 left visible. They’re not the important part to censor.
Censor 3: In Petscop 10 the apparent answer to “Where was the windmill” is censored.
The walls of the Tool’s Room seem to use a black version of the texture used on Marvin’s House. This could mean that said room is in fact the black house mentioned at the end of episode 7, which would indicate that what’s censored in episode 10 isn’t a floating message from the Red TOOL (which may be simply “I don’t know”), but the screen behind it. This would also mean that the censors were listed in a chronological order (Note that some answers fit under the censor, whereas others do not).
It’s possible that an event occurs in the (presumably) live feed of the Windmill and gets censored for an unknown reason. Alternatively, it has also been suggested that the Tool hijacked the screen to display its answer.
Above: previous answers compared to the size of the censor in part 10. Left: Comparing the texture on marvin’s “house” and the walls on TOOL’s room.
Random Tidbits
This section is for anything unusual or interesting that appears in the videos, but doesn’t really seem important or relevant to what we know so far.
The O’s in the Shadow Monster Man’s messages in Petscop 6 are the same texture found in one of the generic children’s bedroom (it’s also in Mike’s room):
The small Tool in Mike’s room seems to have a strange texture on the bottom half:
Whereas the one in Care’s room appears slightly different:
Note: This is most likely lighting playing with the texture.
The floating platform in Petscop 4 is slightly transparent.
The handwriting on the note in the Quitter’s Room, red Tool, and the Pets menu are similar:
The same shovel and rake found in the Flower Shack randomly appear in Petscop 6 while the Shadow Monster Man is spawning blocks:
Boxes of crayons are found both in Care’s room and the Flower Shack:
Randomly during Petscop 6, the Shadow Monster Man spawns a sporadically teleporting lamp (the same lamps are found in the children’s bedrooms). It later changes into a gift box (which is also found in the Gift Plane). Finally, it turns into Toneth, which Paul later catches.
The dirt in Randice’s room extends below the floor of the level. This kind of thing does not happen in any other part of Even Care:
Various strange floating collectibles (Canonically called “Pieces” in Part 7 (see below) but you may hear them called “dinglebops” by fans) are found throughout the game. It may be interesting to note that they can still be found even after the player enters the secret portion of the game. In Petscop 7, pink Tool tells Paul that Marvin wants 1000 “pieces” for “machine beyond school basement stairway”. It’s not confirmed, but we can assume that the “pieces” referred to are the same collectibles Paul has been collecting since Petscop 1. As of Petscop 9, Paul only has 344 pieces.
There is a Petscop twitter, however this has been proven to be fake- the uploader was using assets taken from another ARG on 4chan, as well as accidentally using the Petscop twitter account to upload posts intended for their personal account. Do not harass this individual.
If you invert the colors in CAUGHT, the same colors appear on opposite sides.
The game does have a save feature. We aren’t sure exactly how it works yet. In Petscop 1 Paul says he can’t turn off his console because he wouldn’t be able to find the cellar door again. It’s possible he didn’t know there was a save feature in the game at that point. After all, it is hidden behind the “Quit Game” option. It’s also possible the game doesn’t save your exact position, so maybe he would’ve respawned somewhere away from the cellar door.
(no picture) In Petscop 6, around 5:32 a strange song can be heard in your right ear. It appears to be a simplistic version of the “CAUGHT” sound. It has similarities to the song that plays when the cellar door opens and when the Quitter’s Room reflection is possessed, although the notes are different. The fact that it only be heard in the right speaker makes me think it’s coming from something far to the right of Paul. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to notice it, so he doesn’t try to follow where it’s coming from. Petscop does have positional audio, this is especially obvious if you listen to the footstep sounds as the character walks across the screen (e.g. https://youtu.be/6e6RK8o1fcs?t=414).
In Petscop 5, around 6:30, the video seems to glitch out. This looks to me like video compression artifacting, but it could be intentional.
Candace Newmaker Connection
The general crux of this connection is the use of keywords such as “Rebirth”, “Tiara”, and “Newmaker”. Candace Newmaker was originally named Candace Tiara Elmore, but was taken from her abusive family at age 5 and given a fresh birth certificate in 1996 with the name: Candace Elizabeth Newmaker. She was a child going through a 2 week intensive therapy session with her mother to treat RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder). Part of this session included a session of “rebirthing therapy”, a process which reenacts the experience of travelling out of the birth canal by being bound in sheets and pressed on by multiple adults. The child is then meant to fight their way out of the birth canal to be born again, but Candace Newmaker was unable to get free and suffocated to death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Newmaker
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/candace.htm (transcript of the video evidence provided in the court case against the therapists involved)
The “Quitter” from the Quitter’s Room may be a reference to Candace in this transcript. Quote from the transcript: “Ponder: Quitter, quitter, quitter, quitter, quit, quit, quit, quit. She's a quitter.”
It should be noted that two of the connected terms in this (Newmaker and Rebirth) have now been given separate in-universe meanings. It seems this was only to add the flavor of a child abuse story, just like the daisy-head maisy reference was to add the idea of the daisy plucking and “nobody loves me” to NLM.
Every child’s bedroom as of Petscop 7 (image by DrunkCat):
Birthday Cake Topper
Final Frame of White TOOL activation
Sound effects that we have found:
Clap sound effect at the end of a dialog box (claps015 from a big free sample collection called kiarchive) (found by nullsharp)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/301463720570388481/310229819860451329/claps015.wav
Snap sound effect during dialog box (fsnap3 from a big free sample collection called kiarchive) (found by nullsharp)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/301463720570388481/310228299387502592/fsnap3.wav
Earthquake sound in child library after putting a face on the easel (found by Xkeeper)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLBmLoL2Aw
Petscop TrueType font (Thanks to DullandBoringDude on Reddit for the font image)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Petscop/comments/6f3m0s/petscop_font/difw7rh/