u/nerdy_by_nature_42

Chapter 4 FEED, Pg 94, paragraph 94 reads:

>!"I recalled a fun little YouTube factoid: the leading cause of death for the vast majority of vertebrates is "predation." A euphemism for getting eaten alive, torn limb from limb, fully conscious and shrieking as you watch the rest of your family flee in terror and realize you were never anything more than flesh and bone and marrow barely held together by tendons and veins. That's what a truly natural demise looks like."!<

There's so much to unpack there, I'm sure, but I just want to contribute some quick initial findings. What the paragraph says sounds more like a description than a "euphemism," so I decided to look up euphemisms for "predation" and this is what I found:

>!"Predation" is sometimes used to describe the act of plundering, pillaging, or ruthlessly exploiting others for personal gain. Eg., predatory financial loans. )!<

>!Exploitation: The standard academic or sociologic term describing individuals or corporate predators who take advantage of vulnerable people or weaker businesses. !<

>!Victimization: A term that associates with predatory behavior, describing the act of injuring or exploiting others for personal gain.!<

All of the main characters have vulnerabilities that one could use to exploit them. My question is, who's behind the exploitation, and to what end? What's the personal gain?

I just finished reading RED FLAGS in CT and something interesting jumped out at me.

On page 88, the light in the main room turns on by itself. When it does, it makes a sound:

"t-t-t-t-tick-bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

On page 89, Macy flicks the switch up and down multiple times before it finally goes dark.

"I flicked the switch up. No dice. Down. Nothing. Up. Down. Up. Down. UP. DOWN. UP. DOWN. The room went dark. "

I'm probably reaching, but the number of "t"s and "z"s stood out to me, so I decided to count them. Then I counted the flicks off the switch.

Ts = 5

Flicks down = 5

I thought I was on to something and remembered there were other instances of this, so I went back to count

Pg 85:

Ts = 6

Zs = 12

Flicks off = 1

Pg 77:

Ts = 5

Zs = 14

Pg 78:

Flicks off = 4

I don't know what any of this means, or if it means anything at all, but the variations in the amount of letters used in a repetitive phrase feels intentional somehow.

What I'm about to say is going to sound absolutely bonkers, and it may very well be, but hear me out. I just finished reading chapter 5 in TC, and something there made me think, "Are the buildings people?"

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The fist paragraph describes The Hawthorne Hotel as being covered in graffiti "as if the building had walked into a tattoo parlor and asked for every piece in the book. " "Jemma called it the 'Post Malone Inn,' said a warlock had cursed the man to forever live as an abandoned hotel. "

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This alone would've been a nothing burger. But I couldn't help but note the fact that Marcus has repeatedly personified the trees up to this point as well. And I've already pointed out that Grace's job posting for a "caretaker" for her elderly husband jumped out at me because a "caretaker" watches over places, a "caregiver" watches over people.

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I don't know what this means yet, but it lit my brain on fire. And my brain was already getting twisted up in knots. Now they're knots on fire. I would have waited to finish reading TC before sharing my ideas, but I have so many notes already I'm practically rewriting the book by hand. At some point I'll try to go back into my notes for WUTLH and all the short stories again, but just off the top of my head I can recall many inanimate objects that could be people.

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- coat racks

- moving boxes

- trees

- maybe even Old House itself

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What if walking through these places is like walking through someone's mind, seeing their memories? What if the overworld is for the living, and the underworld is for the dead? Maybe a simulation where people's consciousness is uploaded? What if people are respawning? What if the simulation was created by witches? What if witches burned in the Salem trials were the fire documents in WUTLH?

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My head hurts. I don't think I'm smart enough for this. Lol. If this is at all interesting, let me know and I'll share more observations that tie into this theory.

Hello again. I'm officially back after almost a year post WUTLH sucking me into this rabbit hole. I just started TC, have only read the preface, and already have eight pages of notes. I guess I live here again now. Lol.

There's so much to catch up on in this thread, so I hope I'm not being too redundant.

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Two things jumped out to me straight away:

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"The Rites" is capitalized throughout the text so it's being treated as a proper noun, like a title or name. I recently started to consider the possibility that OH is an experience from within a simulation. If I look at this capitalization of "The Rites" from that perspective, it feels like a named process. Like a protocol that must be followed for the system to respond correctly. Hence, "Follow The Rites."

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This actually ties back to what provoked my simulation theory suspicion and my second observation. The Caretaker position. The coded message I received recently for an email I sent last year appling for the caretaker postion told me to >!STOP MEDDLING IN PRIVATE!<. Here again, the word >!PRIVATE!< jumped out at me because it was being used as a noun instead of an adjective, so it made me feel like maybe it was referring to private files.

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The Caretaker position posting itself reinforced that suspicion. Why is Grace looking for a "caretaker" for her elderly husband and not a "caregiver." Those two things are not the same. A caregiver is more of a home health aid, companion, personal assistant type role. A caretaker is someone who maintains a property, watches over something, keeps things functioning, protects a place while the owner is absent. It makes me think of the posting more like someone looking for a temp to fill in the role of caretaker that belongs to the elderly husband for three days during which he will be unable to keep the system running himself. Like filing in for the husband, not caring for the husband. The husband could even be the owner.

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Lastly, the order of the "Follow The Rites" preface, followed by the job posting, followed by Part 1 looks a lot like:

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- System rules / terms and conditions

- User agreement / accept

- Program start / program launches

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The Rites are like the rules of the framework.

The job posting is like the invitation.

And the story is the actual experience in the simulation.

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I only recently started looking at the stories in this universe through this lens, so I'm only scratching the surface for this theory. I plan on reading The Caretaker first, then rereading WUTLH and all the content posted here to flesh everything out and share.

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