u/D4rk_Sh4rds

I don't know if other people discussed this before in this subreddit, but I think the relationship between Jessica and Preston is really peculiar.

Preston was hired to Playtime Co. without being completely aware of what he was signing for. He was wondering at the beginning why the heck a toy factory would need a biologist. And when he finally found out what he was supposed to do, he couldn't leave anymore... not alive at least. The guilt started to consume him day by day: he would spend hours locked in those lockers we see in Project:Playtime, and he stopped greeting the kids because he knew what their fate would be. His guilt eventually made him help the Prototype with the hour of joy and the result was all the misery we see in the game.

Then, we have Jessica. She grew up in Playcare, knew of the absolutely terrible conditions and treatment of that place towards the kids and chose to keep the cycle of suffering but this time playing the role of torturer instead of victim.

I think Playtime Co saw potential in her and even though she was smart, they decided not to turn her into an experiment and let her become a scientist to help with "the work."

How can such contrasting people have such a close friendship?

I think both of them deluded themselves into thinking the other understood their point of view.

In Restricted_Condemnation, Preston says that he and the others who helped with the hour of joy knew that the experiments were wrong and that he knew deep down Jessica was aware it was wrong too.

Jessica the whole time was insisting to Preston that she and the company were right and that the catastrophe was the fact that Preston couldn't "stomach the work", so at some point she must have thought that Preston got used to it and at that moment he was beginning to think he was wrong again until he confessed everything to her.

Even after such discovery and argument, Preston worries about Jessica and calls out for her before he was captured by Chum Chopkins, and Jessica is also looking for Preston in Restricted:Salvation.

They like each other so much that they decided to ignore these massive differences.

What do you think?

(If anything written here is worded strangely, I apologize, English is not my first language)

There's a song from Blackbriar that's called "A Long Cursed Sleep" that I think fits the theme of reality shifting. I bet it many here feel that way or at least felt before shifting... honestly I felt called out 😅 and I think that song perfectly describes my relationship with all of this.

A Long Cursed Sleep - Blackbriar

Here are some of the lyrics so you know what I mean:

"It feels like waking up from a long, cursed sleep

But I deeply loved all of my dreams

Oh, I've been wanting it so bad

Never would’ve believed you if you’d said

That I'd lose some of my devotion

It would've broken my heart in slow motion

To know that right now…

It feels like waking up from a long, cursed sleep

But I deeply loved all of my dreams

Just wish they were lucid

For I believed them to be real

But years did go by

It wasn't just this one delirious night

I had dreams of becoming a poet

A time traveler, and a songstress too

And I've spent decades creating this world For us, but did it outgrow you?"

She uses the term "dream" here but many people confuse shifts for realistic dreams when they don't know about shifting. The character of the song (at least in my interpretation) seems to be in that same scenario, someone who has just returned back to her OR after spending years in another reality.