It's Not Me, It's My Basement
Explained
⚠️ WARNING ⚠️
This Post Contains Soilers Following the First Paragraph.
Proceed with Caution.
That's right! It's Halloween time, my favorite holiday ever, and I'm back at it again with the semi-extensive theory posts. This time I'm tackling something in one of my favorite genre of media -- Horror RPG Maker Games.
Last night I experienced an adorable, eerie little game called It's Not Me, It's My Basement.
Developed by arcadekitten, the incredibly short-&-sweet story follows a non-binary child named Embry G. Oliver who is hiding a horrible monster in their basement. Although they didn't see it for themselves, they believe that the monster ate their parents, and Embry now feeds it whatever they can so that it doesn't attempt to eat them too. Unfortunately, as the story progresses it appears that the more the monster eats, the stronger and hungrier it becomes...
The story then begins to reach its climax when Embry visits the market to find a traveling doctor in town. Since Embry has been telling the villagers that their parents are bedridden sick, they're forced to meet Dr. D. Light (who is acutely of his punny name) and take him back home. Dr. D. is incredibly kind and helpful, even capable of making Embry trust him enough to open the basement door. However, in an attempt to stop him from descending the stairs to meet the monster, Embry accidentally pushes the Dr to his death. Truly tragic ...
Throughout the entire short story, the monster is never truly seen. However, it does demonstrate its ability to mimic voices and presumably shapeshift, all the while acting mercilessly manipulative. By the ending, that took me entirely by surprise, Embry has a nightmare where they confront the demon and get consumed by it, only to wake up and brazenly descend the basement for real.
Now, my intense OCD ass simply can't cope with an ending so sudden and inexplicable, even if it was written incredibly well. In fact, the entire story was cryptic and felt immensely symbolic, steeped so heavily in allusions to depression and guilt that you could serve it at tea-time. So of course, I began to research popular opinions and theorize about what all of it really meant.
Now, the most popular theories (and almost exclusively) are either:
1) Everything is exactly as it's spelled out for you. A monster ate Embry's parents, it can shapeshift and manipulate, and Embry finally gains the courage to confront it instead of running away.
2) Embry actually has a Split Personality, or psychotic alter-ego, which murdered their parents and now the Main Personality of Embry is living with guilt that they don't entirely understand.
3) Something bad happened to Embry's parents that, as a child, Embry cannot understand and the entire story of the game is Embry suffering from traumatic hallucinations.
Obviously, these all have some pretty big flaws. The first theory is simple enough, but relatively uninspired, and feels rather like an insult to the thought put into the nuances of the story. Not to mention, Embry, their parents, and even Dr. D. Light cameo in other arcadekitten games that canonically take place afterwards.
Which farther disproves the second theory, since the characters are all clearly alive and well. Not to mention, as someone with a lot of experience in the field of child trauma and psychological issues, the story really gives no hints whatsoever to Embry potentially having a split personality. Nor does it hint at any potential triggers that would cause them to kill their parents.
And the third theory is the best yet, but still leaves some holes.
So, after careful consideration, I offer you my inspired theory: The Coma Dream.
Perhaps they were in an accident with their parents, like a car crash (or in this world, carriage crash). They were sent into a coma and assumed their parents died based on the sounds they'd heard, since while in a coma they couldn't remember the details of what happened.
Being a child, Embry would have related the sounds they heard during the accident to some sort of monster. Especially if they were asleep when the accident occured.
Within the mysterious subconscious of a coma they could have fabricated a story based on their fears about what really happened and what life would be like without their parents. The heavy theme of guilt and mistakes would even be Embry's immature mind trying to cope with what happened, and feeling like they had done something wrong since they couldn't really understand it all.
Kids have a tendency to blame themselves for things that weren't their fault, simply because they don't understand the situation.
Then of course, facing those fears in the basement is what allows them to wake up.
This even potentially explains Dr. D. Light. Considering Embry's mother was a nurse, as revealed in her cameo in Crowscare, the Dr could be her boss or the family's personal doctor. Someone Embry trusted and liked.
Although Embry acted like they'd only just met the Dr, it isn't unheard of to not entirely recognize (or only subconsciously recognize) someone typically familiar in a dream.
And have you ever had a really intense nightmare where things start to get better, and you think something good might happen and help you, but then your fear and anxiety of something bad ruining it actually causes that to happen in the dream?
Because I have and that would explain why Dr. D was so reassuring only for Embry to panic and push him down the stairs. The more they worried about D getting hurt, the more they thought about what bad could happen, and suddenly those thoughts came to fruition.
Following this theory, after facing the monster in the basement, Embry may have either unlocked their memory about what happened -- a painful, terrifying memory that they were trying to hide -- or perhaps they merely finally gained the courage to wake up from their coma. Either way, when they wake up their parents and Dr. D would be safe and sound, and they could all live together happily again.
Of course, this is only a theory, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
If you're interested in playing the game, you can download it here:
