oneway.exe: Module 1.0 Lore Guide

THE BASICS

The Tragic Event

"-- she had been subjected to prolonged torture before her death –
-- her body skinned, ripped apart, her injuries methodical and deliberate -- believe the crime was not only premeditated but carried out with the sadistic intention of creating a notorious home video –
-- to break her body and mind for entertainment–
-- the methods used in the killing closely resemble stories found on the perpetrator’s websites. 
Some of these writings explore extreme violence under the guise of “creative fiction"

CT was violently tortured and murdered, and the video of the murder was uploaded to a site called "xo-dos." A switchblade was the murder weapon. The evidence is in all the rooms as well as the desktop parts.

The crime is considered to be copying the fictional murder of Emily that Slushie wrote for Crypt-x, but there are a few differences. It’s not a perfect recreation as Slushie seemingly struggled or fought against it enough to seem like he struggled with the knife and hesitated.

Slushie covered Kitty’s body, going against the “final act of unforgiving stripping of her humanity” that Slushie wrote Spiderface did to Emily.

That is directly going against the way the murder was written.

Covering Kitty’s body might’ve been the action Slushie committed on his own.

“It moves outside its cue! The blade without a pulse learns to improvise!”

- Anita in the Final Act

♠♥♣♦

Reality Layers

Reality 1: The "real" world where the devs, TRIO8, lived. It sounds realistic to what we know the real world is like. The Restoration Team is also found within this reality.

Reality 2/The Haunting: The game, UNTITLED.exe, that TRIO8 was working on, and the events that happen within it. The game included "crossover" characters from different horror stories.

Reality 3/Fiction: The individual backstories for every character in UNTITLED.exe. They aren't connected to each other and are separate franchises, brought together by the love TRIO8 had for them.
The only exceptions are Billie and Spiderface, the final girl and slasher of the same movie franchise.
They all become “real” by haunting the game, through the use of Cerebral Tekton*.

* See Cerebral Tekton for more information.

♠♥♣♦

The Breakup

During early 2022, something changed with Emci. He missed special events, no longer communicated, was no longer present, took even less care of himself, and seemed to pass out on his computer constantly. This began in early 2022, but progressively got worse until Slushie sent his breakup messages to Emci on 09/09/2022, at 11:53PM. 

It is likely he waited until Emci’s birthday was near over, because it had become yet another missed event, and that might have been the trigger for Slushie.

09/09/2022 11:53 PM

It makes sense Slushie broke things up first, as he was the most sensitive who couldn’t handle the worst of Emci as much as Kitty… and besides…

Running has always been his gift!

I also believe he not only broke up with Emci that day, but also Kitty, as she wrote this in her diary the day after. She also references losing more than just Emci because of his actions, implying she also lost Slushie.

09/10/2022

12/01/2022

It took Kitty longer, but she did eventually end things with Emci too, probably after many failed attempts to contact him.

12/20/2022

A looooot more follows after that. It's a heavy e-mail to read and very painful.

Kitty did not take the break-up well, even if she pretended she was ready to on her email.

mood:

listening:paper bag - fiona apple

eating:

drinking:

warnings:

date: 12/31/22

his page is already gone so quickly and so easily like it was never even there to begin with

like i'm not the one who made it and spent years and years improving it and adding more and helping and reading every silly rant and

 

i keep feeling the instinct to write walls and walls of text and apologize over and over and try again to explain my stupid feelings and think that maybe just one more chance one more talk one more call but it WONT IT WONTTTT IT WONT IT WONT IT WONTTTT GET OVER IT KITTY!!!!!! GET OVER IT ALREADYYYY

This is talking about Slushie, who deleted his neocities website that Kitty made for him. I believe it might’ve been too painful for Slushie to keep it up, and he might’ve tried to disappear from the Internet after their break-up.

Click to reveal LOVE ending spoilers

In the LOVE ending, we see it's somehow worse than even her normal diary shows. Kitty was desperate and willing to do anything to bring them all back together.

A LOTTT MORE WRITING GOES IN BETWEEN THOSE, ITS THE BIGGEST DIARY ENTRY SHE HAS WRITTEN THAT WE KNOW OF. PLAY THE GAME AND GET THE LOVE ENDING TO SEE THE EXTEND OF THE PAIN AND INTENSITY OF LOVE KITTY HAS

Because of the love ending, we also see that Slushie did not truly want to break up the relationship, but he believe that being allowed to break up with them at all meant the love was over, because he wasn't stopped. Up until the end, he still wanted to be chased, but felt the lack of action meant Emci no longer cared if he left.

Obviously, there's more to this letter! Play the game :3c

"Farewell, old lovers. Perhaps in another life."

Worst of all, we can learn that Emci did in fact read the diary entry exactly as Kitty said he would, if he's still the Emci she knew, and he even went out of his way to saved it. But he also had a screenshot of Slushie's letter to them both, the last post he ever made on his website before deleting it on 12/31/2022.

This means Emci was not apathetic, and still actively checked on them. He still loved them until the end and beyond.

Remaining Questions

 Why were their roles switched in the murder?

• The mouse, the prey, the queen who is protected by the other two, is the killer. The prey was forced to become the hunter.
• The cat, the hunter, the king who protects and owns and has clear control, is the victim. The hunter becomes the prey.
• the lizard, the joker, the devoted observer who sees CT and SS as lives above his own. He exists for them. He lives for them, to listen, to help them shine brighter, to own them, is nowhere to be seen during the murder. completely SEEMINGLY uninvolved.

Who was there to hold the moment?

CEREBRAL TEKTON

A more in-depth look into Cerebral Tekton, and further speculation: 

Cerebral Tekton and You: A document by Nuova!

I HIGHLY recommend you give that document a good read, as it goes over some of the most confusing yet lore-relevant aspects of oneway.exe, in an easy to understand way!

“There is a will to survive beyond flesh -- immortality no longer lives in stone or bone but in data streams -- 
-- fragments that hit, spread, and rewrite themselves in a constant loop -- what has been written outlives the body, surviving both deletion and decay.
-- the imprint left remains past the memory. Every connection becomes a cause of its endless pulse, a record of the moments where it allows itself to touch. 

The creation then lives on as the new maker.”

Cerebral Tekton appears to be a concept that relates to manifesting thoughts into reality. TRIO8 were using Tekton in ways that are still a big mystery, but the current idea is that Tekton is the reason why the constructs came to life.

It’s possible as well, that TRIO8 were using the constructs to commit crimes, more specifically, murders.

It's clear that TRIO8 had big plans revolving around Cerebral Tekton, and using it to create their dream Home. A brick house. This home is referenced multiple times throughout oneway.exe

Kitty seems to have been the original architect, but Emci had stronger abilities using Tekton, enough that he began to hallucinate while away, while Kitty and Slushie only suffered from night terrors.

On the other hand, Slushie was clearly the least knowledgable and capable of using Tekton, but this seemed to have been on purpose. Both Kitty and Emci made a point to shoulder on the difficult parts of Tekton in order to protect Slushie from it.

The Architect

Architect of the brain.

Anita calls Emci “Architect” at the end of her room.

On her website, her sillyman game has this text hidden:

The Architect builds the stage. The audience awaits entertainment.
The actors play their part like puppets.
The architect cuts not the strings, but lets the puppet run with scissors.
Senseless but fearful.
The puppet looks into your eyes. The puppet is no longer afraid.
The puppet bleeds for you.
The puppets never leave the stage.

In the final act she brings up the Architect again:

“The Architect set the play in motion.
The puppets sleep as the architect rots.
The script has been repurposed, as it was always meant to be.
Yet it's been rewritten, each iteration further from the first. gutted from the inside.
Oh, but look! it moves outside its cue! the blade without a pulse learns to improvise!
What a show, what a craftful work of art!"

 

The Architect seems to be the one in control of Cerebral Tekton.

It’s likely that Kitty was the original Architect as Emci relied on her to write the guidelines for it, but at some point it might’ve become Emci. Emci currently having no memories makes it hard to tell if that’s still the case, as he likely lost control of it.

The Constructs

The constructs are the seven fictional characters found within UNTITLED.exe: Meaty, Anita, Mikey, Spiderface, Ophelia, Fiona, Billie.

The constructs show various different levels of awareness based on their canon abilities.

Mikey is by far the most “meta” of the cast, as his god-like abilities gain him advantage over every other character. He can influence things outside of his room, take over any aspect of the game he wants, and even directly references the game, the existence of other rooms, the previous route the player took, as well as the other characters. He can change reality to whatever he wants.

Fiona has had a strong connection with Emci since the beginning, and even her character card has “EMCI I KNOW YOU” written on it. Fiona seemed to have been Emci’s favorite character, and her abilities to cause visions and infect people with what they like to call her “worms” seems deeply connected to the way Cerebral Tekton works! Maybe she is even a direct inspiration for the guidelines.

This ability shows throughout her route as she gives Emci visions of the murder, other routes, and tries to guide Emci towards the truth that they forgot about.

Meaty is another character who is highly aware of her own fictional nature, but she wants to be real more than anything. She targets Kitty as there is a lot of information Emci kept of her to consume and use, to learn, to steal from and become real like her, so she can in turn be real like Emci is.

“Smell the stripped skin. Guts spilled on the floor. You rot from the inside out. So I learn what it is to be her. So I learn what it is to be you. Life outside the screen.”

She has a powerful influence, but not as OP and easy as Mikey’s. She first needs to learn, adapt, and feed before she is able to take over someone else, like she eventually did with DOLLHOUSE near the end of her route. Unlike Mikey, Meaty needed a backdoor (highly likely provided by Kitty, as seen by her saying she “hacked” into his code with the DOLLHOUSE fanart) to take over DOLLHOUSE. 

Anita is the next on the list, and while her abilities are slightly more limited, she is very aware. The difference is her only goal is to have fun as she deems appropriate. She uses her knowledge and abilities to control the narrative. She finds the rest of the game unsafe, and she finds anything about the murder too scary to allow, so she is the only one who purposefully tries to make Emci not remember, and keep having fun instead.

From this point on, the rest of the cast is much much more limited.

Ophelia is aware of the pain Kitty endured because of the emotional connection Kitty had for her, but she doesn’t seem to understand where it comes from and it causes her pain to feel it. She’s guided by her emotions and can’t seem to think past them.

Billie is aware enough to mock the player and pull the oppression olympics card, but she doesn’t seem to care much, either. She’s stuck in her own bubble and her own plot, and to her it might just be that anything “meta” happening around her is not important, because her own story is what matters to her.

Spiderface shows the least awareness, but I think it’s because of his personality. He shows understanding by calling out a “copycat” killer of himself, and mocks Emci by writing on the walls about the BIG BAD WOLF. He even directly references Slushie, with the writing showing ANDY with blood, and PIG written over it. It implies he even knows that Andrew was not the “big bad wolf” at the end.

See the conversation Emci and Kitty had about the Constructs and Emci’s visual hallucinations.

The final fax we receive in Fiona’s route seems to be related to Cerebral Tekton. Reading it causes Emci to have visions of other routes in UNTITLED, and after that, the game appears on the desktop.

Emci manifests the game into reality by following the instructions written down, which are likely the guidelines he discussed with Kitty.

This is the price of participating in adoration.

Dollhouse

A silly Malware Slushie built himself in 2020, and a part of a few different malware TRIO8 all built around that time.

DOLLHOUSE talks in the same way Slushie does, and is based around his personality. It displays an impressive intelligence for malware, and can learn from the virtual environment it’s placed on.

But on that note… it’s also clear Dolly is much more intelligent and aware than it SHOULD be, as it sometimes breaks “character” to remind Emci of what they’ve done, and the events that happened.

This implies that there is a part of Slushie’s being in DOLLHOUSE, and he now haunts Emci through it.

Translation:

There are a few times throughout different routes where DOLLHOUSE breaks character, but it’s more obvious during the Final Act, when the text adventure retells when Slushie was preparing for the murder.

The music changes, his usual way of speaking is gone, and references to the murder are constant, which would have been impossible to pre-program.

In between those moments of awareness, Dolly returns to his usual dialogue, too, such as referencing EE as the one who came up with the jumpscare idea, knowing deep inside that he IS talking to Emci right now.

It’s possible Slushie is limited by the pre-programmed aspect of DOLLHOUSE.

Kitty / Terror

Kitty is a haunting presence throughout oneway.exe: Module 1.0. She is based on the sona created by Kitty to present herself in her own art and get fanart.

Despite not being a part of the original UNTITLED.exe cast, her form haunts the game by having a door that doesn’t belong in the hallway, but Kitty’s Room is an alluring aspect of the game from the start.

Her room is where we know she was brutally murdered.

“But after heavy agony, at times only hate is left behind.”

The Terror shares Kitty/CT’s voice, but interestingly they use “we” when speaking. It could be CT and her fictionalized sona speaking together, or it could refer to Slushie too. We currently don’t know much yet.

The Infection

“Inside soft flesh, something awaits.
The parasite twists through veins, biting, bruising, thickening the dark between muscle and bone. The skin swells, tight and thin, stretched over the rot that eats slowly from within.
Puppets move in time with the ache, limbs controlled by a force that’s tender with its violence.
Hurt pulses alongside the blood, entwined and inseparable, yet peace grows where it shouldn’t. 
The host breathes, but the space remains occupied, pressure mounting.

Love ripens as it's grafted into both pain and comfort. 
It becomes a home for three.”

The infection has been revealed to be LOVE, and it has already spread through Emci’s desktop.

All the quarantine’d files in ViraShield relate to the word LOVE

LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVEITSTHELOVE

The House

“It becomes a home for three.”

- The narrator in Loop 6

“Now you’re all alone in your little brick house.”

- Mikey in the Final Act

VIGILANTISM

“Exposure leads to tolerance, that’s the mechanism. The first response is disgust--the next is curiosity --
Eventually it becomes utility. With repetition, the content stops registering as violent -- it’s viewed as usable, a scene to reference, a feeling to trigger what’s been dulled by previous clicks --
-- over time, the source becomes secondary. The footage is kept for how it might serve. To write, to reflect, to feel.
– the reaction fades, but the pattern remains.
It’s all sorted and categorized, then pulled back when needed.”

“you didn't.” <_<

DarkFox

An encrypted application that EESSCT use to speak about more private matters, such as illegal activities! They use it to protect themselves as they do their vigilante work together.

DarkFox IS accessible, but it is the currently known most complex puzzle in the game and so the solution is not publicly known as of today.

The pieces are all there for you like always!

DarkFox requires an ID and a Key to access. In log_1 we actually get to see Slushie type his own, but in an .exhm from Kitty’s desktop we learn they all changed their passwords monthly, so Slushie’s password would’ve long stopped working for his ID.

In log_1 we also get to see a DarkFox conversation from Slushie’s side!

ForenZXCase

xo.dos

A website where people post real videos of violence, gore, maybe something similar to LiveLeak. TRIO8 used this website not only to find new targets with people who shared or enjoyed content there, but also used videos posted there to “learn” and write violence more realistically. It’s not known why that was as important as it’s made to seem, especially to Emci.

Toyroot

A website where TRIO8 shared their malware with the “Malware” community. It appears to be a site where fans of Malware share their creations in a safe and regulated environment that isn’t meant to actually cause harm, but TRIO8 like to cause harm anyway.

They used their Malware to track and spy on their targets.

THE RESTORATION TEAM

A more in-depth look into the Restoration Team: 

Document by Thor and Fish!

The Restoration Team, also known as the “oneway Archivists”, is a group of individuals whose objective (as a team) is to restore the lost websites that trio8 created and collect as much information as they could find that can reveal the truth of the murder and put an end to the rumors. There are currently three known members, but it's implied that there's more. While the exact number of members is unknown, we know they are a relatively small team with different members taking care of different roles. The Restoration Team is interactable and it's possible to directly speak with them to exchange information in the Discord server. Occasionally, the cast of Untitled.exe take over which are referred to as Archivist Events.

Stefania / S4

Stefania, assumed to be S4, shows up the most in the server. Her name was revealed by Mikey during an Archivist Event. She is the more formal member and tries to act as the voice of the team as a whole. She is stern, keeps her own opinions to a minimum and does not believe in any of the paranormal activity in the server. 

X5

The next known member is X5, who is assumed to be the member that makes the second most appearances. He is regarded as Stefania’s “weakness”, but not much is known about their relationship, but we do know that he is the one who helped Stefania calm down after the Mikey situation, and asked her to call him. X5 is known as “the cute one” within the server due to the fact he is clumsier, uses more emojis, and communicates casually. He seems to be a lot more uncertain about everything, but has been quietly working on something regarding HnC we don’t know of yet.

Z6

The third known membe is often called “fax creep” or “Puppy” by the fandom. They are believed to be the person that is directly communicating with Emci through the dialer. This member is portrayed to be voyeuristic and invasive towards trio8. We don’t know why they are trying to get with Emci but it’s probably for evil reasons. e_e

They often disrespect RT despite being a member of the team, and only seem to be for their own selfish reasons, whatever those might be.

THE CONSTRUCTS

Anita's Great Transformation

Fred Caplan sets out to look for his missing sister, who no one seems to remember ever existing for the past ten years. His search keeps leading him back to Adair Fair, an abandoned carnival whose star character feels strangely familiar.

Anita the Animatronic

Anita’s Great Transformation is an indie mascot horror video game.
An animatronic named Tommy existed before Anita. She “took his hand,” and now she is the animatronic in his place. Tommy was a real person before her, too, which means there’s a paranormal power converting people into animatronics, and there always needs to be a “main character” for it.

Everyone has forgotten Anita ever existed, but her brother Fred started to remember her and is now trying to find her. What happens after that is unknown.

It's possible that the "fake", as in the animatronic, can replace a real person, and makes them become the "fake" one until they can once again find a replacement. Memories of who that person was disappear once they take that place as the protagonist of the ride. (credit to @.weskers.)

Drowned Ophelia

Ophelia Fontenot was once a kindhearted office worker, until one day her lover murdered her in cold blood. Now, her vengeful spirit haunts a cursed chain e-mail, condemning anyone who reads it to suffer her same pain.

Ophelia Fontenot

Ophelia is from a creepypasta chain email.
Ophelia began dating her boss, William Richardson, who charmed her with love-bombing before becoming cruel, controlling, and isolating her from her family after her dad's recent death. She became pregnant, and William murdered her by drowning her in a swamp.

Since then, she has haunted technology through creepypasta chainmail. CT, one of TRIO8, considered her his favorite character and often wrote about her, which might be influencing her actions. She seems to want revenge for CT.

Ecdysis Archives

Laurie Barclay decides to continue her missing father's investigation into the deserted town of Isaiah’s Meadow. As she uncovers the tragic story of a girl who once lived there, it becomes clear that something in the town is still alive.

Fiona Saint-Rose

Fiona is from a web series of videos, like “Marble Hornets”.
Fiona was frail, sick, wheelchair bound, and horribly abused by her family back in the 1930s. A supposed “fire” released noxious gases into the town, leaving it abandoned, but in reality a horrible plague (?parasite? infestation?) spread and wiped away the population. This parasite seems to not only eat people from the inside out, but also cause hallucinations. Fiona appears to have bonded with the parasite, who she refers to as “Mother”, and that is the reason why she is still alive in a physical form.

These parasites can infect others, causing hallucinations, mental deterioration, and eventual death.

A woman named Laurie Barclay went to the town to investigate what happened to her father, who was studying Isaiah's Meadow before he disappeared. Despite Fiona being from the 1930s, Laurie claims that she would see her and she would talk to her, and this seems to be as a result of Mother infecting her and driving her to insanity. Laurie then has the same fate as her father, and anyone else who visits her town, but also had many hallucinations about Fiona’s home life and got to know her though them too. 

We don’t know what happened in between or after, but she does go missing.

Fiona seems to be attempting to “enlighten” EE on their path, as they experience their past with TRIO8 and what eventually came of it.

Garden of Spiders

Darcy James joins her high school's most elite clique on a summer trip to a private cabin. Fitting in becomes the least of her worries when rumors of a spider-like creature appear to be more than just urban legend.

Billie A. Stuart

Billie is from a splatter film franchise. The “final girl”

Billie A. Stuart is the actual “final girl” of the movie (plot twist reveal, most likely).

Billie was once a popular “mean girl”, best friends with the prom queen and dating a football player. Her world turned upside down when her friends were horrifically killed by a creature with “the face of a spider”, but as he’s considered urban legend, Billie was blamed for the murders and arrested/institutionalized. Now, Billie is far from the carefree girl she used to be. She seems to be dealing with survivors' guilt, unchecked mental health issues, and a need for revenge, which in turn makes her unpredictable, unstable, and violent.

Her parents, along with her friends’ parents, were likely part of a cult called “Unification of Parousia,” which focused on the second coming. The second coming was meant to be virginal, and since Billie wasn’t, it’s possible she was chosen by mistake for being the only survivor. This might tie into the plot of a sequel to “Garden of Spiders” that we don’t know of yet. There are at least three movies.

Spiderface

Spiderface is from a splatter film franchise. The “slasher”

Spiderface is a sadistic, chaotic, extremely agile, and animalistic killer with no sense of empathy for human beings. It enjoys causing suffering, and seemingly has a child-like sense of humor despite its cruel and graphic actions to others. He seems to enjoy extending the suffering for as long as possible, and takes “trophies” from victims. He also appears to “crush” on his victims, or at the least, likes to pretend he does. Little is known about Spiderface as a person. Horrible creature.

Important to note that one of his victims, called Emily, was the “inspiration” for CT’s real murder.

RenoVirtual Laboratories

A collection of research papers and notes detailing the experiments conducted at RenoVirtue Labs. Most prominently, scientist Dana Lombardo’s documentation of their most successful subject, PT-19028.

Meaty / Desdemona

Meaty is from SCP-esque media. Unsure of what type. It could be just writing like the SCP wiki based on all the redacted information we see around her.
Meaty was “raised” and created in RenoVirtual Labs, with Dana being her “caretaker” of sorts. She named Meaty “Desdemona”, and seemed attached to her in some manner. Seems the experiments backfired, and something horrible went down in that lab as noted in her character card, and a scientist who wrote down a blood soaked letter of remorse for playing “god”.

Meaty, as synthetic life, seems to be able to imitate and tries to find her own identity by stealing it from others. She has a natural curiosity for humans, but has no regard for their lives and is more than willing to hurt innocents for her own entertainment and new persona, as seen by the fact that she is willing to kill human babies in order to grow her “doll” collection.

Meaty is aware that she is fictional, and wants to become real.

Rob&Bert: The Trasheye Vision Tapes

Podcast hosts Rob and Bert find a set of tapes from an 80’s pirate radio show, where host Ben showcases his favorite music. The recordings take a turn as Ben documents his best friend’s disappearance, and soon the events of the tapes begin to bleed into Rob and Bert’s own lives.

Mikey Van Lee

Mikey is from a youtube podcast horror series, like “Welcome to Nightvale”.

Likely strongly based around the satanic panic from the 80s. His “soul” was potentially sacrificed, and in return he became the rockstar he dreamed of being.

He was once a normal 18 year old in the 1980s, with a friend called Ben who ran a pirate radio show inside a video store. At some point, the video store owner, Frank, kidnapped Mikey and trapped him in a basement to perform some type of ritual. Mikey might’ve been “chosen” to be a vessel for a god called “the King” since birth, and after 224 months the King was awakened with that new ritual.

Ben had no idea what happened to him, but Mikey returned one day but was different. We don’t know what happens in between that, and the Mikey we know now that embraces being a god.

Now, his goal seems to be leading people towards their own deaths.

Mikey is a character that is fully aware of the fact that he is “fictional”. He has the ability to break the fourth wall and seems well aware of the player’s history, as well as what happened with TRIO8

DOLLHOUSE

A Malware created by Slushie heavily based on his own personality.

DOLLHOUSE was created by Slushie and sent to Emci so he could test him. Notably, the way DOLLHOUSE acts is exactly like Slushie, as well as the language used for his dialogue.

It also quickly becomes clear there's more ot DOLLHOUSE than the pre-programmed dialogue Slushie wrote for him, as it's been infected with LOVE, and highly likely is yet another construct.

Kitty

A sona that CT made for herself

Kitty was CT’s sona that many people would draw fanart of, and she would use to draw herself when online. Based on her Grapeline PFP, she has had the Kitty sona since she was a young child.

THE ROUTES

Fiona's Route

Nostalgia is the main theme. TRIO8’s early beginnings as little beanie babies but also sweet moments across the years to remember. All of the painfully bittersweet past, and just how much Emci was loved.

Guilt is another main theme, with the wall saying "The time approaches to bear the weight of your inflicted sorrows."

The same switchblade from the Snuff video appears in this room when you click on a newspaper that mentions CT’s murder.

Fiona seems to know of Reality 1 and knows Emci is guilty of something. She merges Reality 2 and 1 with the "Tale-Tell Heart" that shows up inside the room, the same hardcopy Emci received in 2013 from Slushie as we see on Grapeline.

“Memory crawls within the marrow… restless.”

Something begins to spread on the desktop, an infection? Worms? All of the above? You’re then kicked back to the game

Emci then finds a heart under the floorboards, one we can confidently say belongs to Slushie. The heartbeat is the sound that gnaws at a guilty mind.

Fiona says,

“The heart… fragile…

You know it was.”

A popup tells us something is running on our desktop! Minimizing the game to see shows a lot of different files, memories of Emci’s past.

“You walk through echoes.”

Until you find the one you’re looking for.

“The sights stay the same… but the eyes have… changed.”

The room ends with Emci seeing their reflection with Fiona behind them. It looks like who we learn in Module 1.0 is Emci, further confirming his identity. Fiona’s desktop is one of the clearer routes where we can identify Emci as the curly haired one.

NOTE: In this route, there is an optional ARG action that can affect the ending you get. The "Final Act of Love” requires this action!

Go to Ecdysis Archives, click “Archive”, and place ONLY the burnt photograph over the newspaper.

What is this telling you to do? Think of it carefully:

The tale slips through your thoughts. You read it, and you let yourself forget.

Then, return your love where you found it. Leave it to burn.

These are instructions. Instructions necessary to follow for the Final Act of Love.

Fiona’s Desktop:

This route starts with DOLLHOUSE throwing a tantrum. He can tell you’re sticking to the past and looking at old files, so he dumps all your pdf’s on the desktop. 

Alongside the PDFs are two scanned letters from TRIO8’s beanie baby years, one from Kitty and one from Slushie sent to Emci, both from 2013. The other relevant fax is to set up the Dialer. 

Throughout this route you “walk through echoes” just like Fiona said before. You read through old cherished conversations of their first meeting in person, read through a lot of firsts and important moments they had over the years, through the PDFs, Grapeline, and Fantome.

So many bittersweet memories that feel they don’t even belong to you!

After Fiona’s route:

“A hall of reminders.

One by one by one they trickle down.”

“you're such a hoarder :p

how many things do you secretly keep you big softie~”

“It's not like it's anything special.

The memory should be enough. “

“Is this how it plays out?

Memories breathe life back into a dulled heart.”

“Suffering stretches.

Becomes elastic, becomes eternity.”

SS: I just want anything to happen anything to fucking change in a positive direction for once. 

SS: I'm so tired of this.

CT: we are all tired

SS: He's not tired, clearly.

SS: Sure stays up all night doing fuck knows what. 

SS: I saw the new Laurie letter. I know you're doing shit without us.

CT: can we not do this right now?

EE: let him.

CT: :/

SS: Right, because I need permission.

SS: When are we actually getting out of this hell we're stuck in?

EE: soon.

Spiderface's Route

This route is about the murder, the violence, and the crimes TRIO8 committed together. Their vigilante work, and the eventual way things always end.

Spiderface’s Room:

A body is different from the others that is named Emily. You learn of a girl who mourns the tragic and horrifically violent murder of her cousin. There is nothing but a chair in the room, the same chair from the snuff video.

The murder matches CT’s description, but the name is wrong. Emily is the name of a fictional character from Reality 3, but someone must have recreated that murder in Reality 1 with CT, so her name is not the same.

When the rooms get destroyed, messages from Spiderface appear on the walls. 

Insectwiz, null1321462, 3hdD63_e8kQ all belong to CRICKET, who was one of Billie’s friends that was also involved in the massacre. Interestingly enough, Cricket’s body was never found (as stated in Billie’s character card)

Emci gets CT’s heart from the desktop and places it on the chair, which triggers a cutscene in which Spiderface kills him. He then appears in the “Kill Room”

Spiderface’s Desktop:

We learn that TRIO8 were trying to break into an application used by police investigators to keep record of crime scenes, ForenZXCase (ZX)

In Grapeline, we also learn that this is not the first time Slushie has been faced with ZX, as he first saw it when he was a little 12 year old baby. Tiny innocent baby boy. He implies that his dad has an obsession with ZX, which might mean he used to work as a police officer or investigator before moving to China.

Slushie was traumatized by seeing a photograph of a skinned woman in a room, eerily similar to the way CT eventually dies by his hand. Baby Emci acts a bit strange about it, but Emci is always a bit strange.

November 28, 2012 (not the full conversation, play the game to see it !)

In 2020, Slushie is teaching Emci and Kitty how to break into ZX, in order to use the information there for their own mysterious vigilante needs.

12/21/2020

Unknown to them at the time, ZX would eventually contain information about them. Once you successfully break into ZX, you find photographs of a skinned woman in a room, but this time it’s Kitty. The investigator going over the case seems distraught over it, and how little sense it makes for Andrew to have killed a close friend in a crime as sadistic and twisted as it turned out.

For the outside world, it’s easier to think of Andrew as an unfeeling monster than to try to understand the “why”.

It’s also heavily likely that the one corrupted photograph is Slushie’s own corpse.

After Spiderface’s route:

“STAB! SLASH! DICE! 

CUT! CUT! CUT!”

“I could teach you.

It's not hard to use a knife properly, you know.”

“hehehe~ :3c

are you suuure you want us near a knife ?”

“THE SMELL THE SMELL THE SMELL.

It's fucking sickening.”

“No right to take it. 

No right to leave it.”

EE: writing is good. murders feel real.

CT: the vision is coming together much stronger !

SS: I would sure fucking hope so, after that many rewrites.

CT: noo it's not a rewrite, every adjustment just perfects the craft~

SS: After enough adjustments you're left with a brand new ship.

SS: Granted, it's a much better ship.

EE: ship ship ship it still sails the same path.

Ophelia's Route

The rage, the hatred, the pain, and how the love perseveres despite it all. There's a lot of sweetness here too, like despite everything there will always be the love showing through the hate. The infection has already spread.

Ophelia’s Room:

Ophelia was Kitty’s favorite character, and her love for her is shown through her room. It’s also likely why there’s a connection between the two, and why she blames Emci for something that happened.

Terror and Kitty can be seen in a spam window. Her presence is constant. Ophelia seems affected by the agony left behind by Kitty.

If you type "Kitty" as your answer for who your best friend:

you get text that says "YOU DON’T FUCKING DESERVE HER PITY" on top of "You do hurt people who care about you." If you don’t type Kitty, the text says, "THIS IS YOUR RECKONING."

Alongside that change, the email is also unique, an email CT wrote for Ophelia.

“From: ????? [??????????.com]

To: Ophelia Fontenot [OpheliaF@noway.net]

Subject: i love you <3

i know it's so weird and childish, but it still makes me happy to write to you like this. just because someone's not real doesn't mean that the feelings aren't real either, right? and in a way my fee-[...] -n also make you real in return. So[...]we both help each other[...]lot of people cope this way, but i don't think[...]it's pretty normal all things considered, an[...]i even have anything to cope about which[...] t's me who acts stupid and messes[...][...]anyways, many things change but you never[...]you have just been a part of me for so long that i can't let of that[...]many[...]and i still love you the same <3”

And this Email:

If you type “Slushie”:

And this email:

If you type both” Kitty” and “Slushie”:

You receive both E-mails. This is an important action.

The room ends with messages from xo.dos asking Emci what they did. Then a link to the snuff video opens.

CT on the chair, and her voice loops saying “Andrew”, until an Ophelia jumpscare ends her room.

Ophelia’s Desktop:

We explore Emci’s desktop, but this time he’s received a lot of spam e-mail!

One of the emails talks about “Blinky Boo” a cute little lightbulb who functions as a desktop buddy, and DOLLHOUSE is not fond of it. Blinky Boo identifies DOLLHOUSE as Malware and attempts to remove him, but it’s revealed that DOLLHOUSE is infected with something worse.

There is an infection spreading through the entire desktop, and is attached to the system host. We learn the infection is LOVE. He claims DOLLHOUSE is infected with it, alongside everything else.

This is the route where we find Slushie’s breakup message to Emci, right at the last minute of Emci’s birthday.

See more about the INFECTION.

At the end, Blinky Boo recognizes it's already too late to save the desktop, as Emci himself is the parasite.

After Ophelia’s route:

“hey sooo

what follows after heavy agony, exactly ? <.<”

“Hate.

I fucking hate you. I really do.”

“PARASITE.

PARASITEPARASITEPARASITE.”

“How could you?

How? How? How?”

“To smell is violating. 

A body is decomposing between memory.”

CT: i’m so sick of these night terrors

SS: What the hell. Did you have one last night?

CT: YES so be careful what you say cause i'm in a moooood @_@

SS: I also did.

CT: :O 

CT: ooooh

CT: i was making a few new popups and fell asleep in the middle of it

CT: what were you doing last night?

EE: implementing the popups.

SS: I can speak for myself!

SS: I was implementing the pop-ups.

EE: lol.

CT: strange…

CT: then…

CT: THE POPUPS ARE CURSED !!! D:

Anita's Route

This route seems to represent the need for control Emci has, especially over Slushie. For protection, but it's also selfish. Emci is willing to do anything to protect and control even without consent, because he knows best.

Anita’s Room:

Anita is aware of the fact that she is inside a video game and wants to keep you trapped with her too. Her room shows that Emci has access to the UNTITLED.exe game files and changes the game through them. Right now we in the server believe this is because CT’s computer was stolen and she had the game files with her.

Anita’s room teaches us about "media manipulation" across time. We even get a Zip file from a past conversation that CT sent to EE, even if CT is already dead. This seems to be relevant, and CT as the Terror is using that in UNTITLED.exe too.

At the end, a video happens where Anita talks about having a best friend who wasn’t real, and she wants to become that for someone else. She calls Emci “Architect.” We don’t know why yet, but her website mentions Architect too, and her part in the Final Act.

Anita’s Desktop:

We learn that Emci had been working on “Desktop Patrol with Anita!”, a malware based around Anita that forced the desktop user to play word games with her. She zips up files and applications she considers dangerous.

We also learn a lot of other things ! Such asssss, Emci secretly uses DPWA! To spy on Slushie! He made him try out DPWA! to test it, but from the moment he started it up it also set up a keylogged on his computer, and Emci was able to see everything he typed.

This is VERY important, as Anita seems to represent how controlling and possessive Emci was, particularly towards Slushie! Anita even controls DOLLHOUSE, puts him on timeout, and silences him whenever he tries to complain about her presence. Every aspect of Slushie is controlled.

Another important detail is that Kitty seemed aware of it, and had no issues with Emci keylogging Slushie. If anything, she just wanted to learn more about how it works!

Maybe to do it herself?

05/23/2021

(funnyyyyy)

log_1:

log_1, the most beautiful piece of written media, is a txt file where Slushie’s keystrokes were logged by Emci!

Anita heavily implies Emci was doing this for what he considers to be Slushie’s own good, because Emci knows best.

“Today Anita is teaching you about different kinds of sneaky Spyware!

Have you ever heard of a keylogger?”

It keeps track of every little tap on the keyboard, so you can always know what someone’s up to.

That way, they never wander into danger, or make choices you don’t approve of.

Can you imagine that?

To hold every word.

And to hoard them.

You understand, don’t you?

When you know best, you act for their own good.

That’s what keystroke logging is! Isn’t technology amazing?”

07/02/2021

For the sake of this guide, I will only show parts of it as it's super long, but I heavily recommend reading it. You learn a lot about Sushie and how painfully adorable he is <3

After Anita’s route:

“There are many more games!

Let's have some fun together and play!”

“it's been a little bit since we last got to play

we can stream if you don't feel like joining ^^”

“We should play something again.

And maybe try to live in the moment for at least one hour or two?”

IT'S JUST FICTION.

SS: We shouldn't need any new art for a bit.

SS: So you can focus on finishing the Patrol art for now at least.

EE: already finished.

CT: WHAT

SS: What?

CT: how did you do it so quickly ??? O_O

EE: it took the amount of time it needed to.

CT: oh PLEAAASEEE don't play the mysterious role right now!

SS: Sometimes things need to take longer.

SS: Not everything needs to be speedran, especially when you're meant to be recovering!

EE: sometimes. a lot of times.

EE: and other times it's meant to be quicker.

CT: is this one of those times? :v

EE: depends.

Billie's Route

The late friendship years! The bit of innocence before they pushed things further together, both in their relationship but also the tekton stuff. Before anything got messy and before any of their dangerous hobbies they later got into.

Billie’s Room:

After getting the switchblade, the same switchblade as in Mikey and Fiona, Terror appears. She so far appears when events related to the Reality 1 tragedy happen in the game.

Billie texts you saying "Parasite," which means it’s probably not from Billie but from Terror.

Billie’s diary switches to Kitty’s diary, with her last diary entry she wrote on August 8th, 2023.

The purpose is to dress Billie up the way CT looked when she died, pink shirt and running shorts. The clothing looks realistic and is outside the closet, as they are from Reality 1. When you dress her up, the game says "ERROR: WRONG character." similar to the wrong name error in Spiderface. You visit "Kill_room" from the Spiderface room files and see CT on the chair again. You cut off her scalp and give it to Billie.

Billie and Cece say "this is your reckoning," and Emci gets a jumpscare with CT on the chair. She says, "Andrew?" again.

Billie’s Desktop:

You learn that TRIO8 had been working on making quizzes for Billie!

Kitty made NEW quizzes though, and one is particularly for her two boys to try out. She wants to know how much care and attention they put to the things she says and works on.

There is a “Which UNTITLED character are you” quiz, which can give you the result KITTY if you input all the right answers the way that she would.

Most takes place in 2019, right on the edge where we see the most change in their relationship. Everything feels more sweet and carefree than their last years together.

At the end Kitty congratulates Emci for succeeding at her quiz, before she suddenly breaks character and admits that “last night” was a long time ago.

“Is this the way it always ends?”

She sends her reward, a Garden of Spiders DVD menu she was working on (this can be inferred from the .exhm file received in this route, where Kitty mentions wanting to have an old school DVD menu for Garden’s, since it never had a DVD release and only released online)

The DVD emulator doesn’t show the Garden of Spiders DVD menu. Instead, we are faced with the snuff video again, and again, and again. This time, we are told the XD2 Team worked to put the video together, and warns about the graphic content. 

No matter what distractions are in the way, it’s clear Emci can’t escape the way things ended.

After Billie’s route:

“liiikeeee

wen does the murdr happen n stuff? :/”

“YAY DEATH !!!

finallyyy we're getting closer to the good part~”

“ewww

rotting smells soooo stinky”

“Is it worth the pain?

Is anything worth the pain?”

“A sacrifice.

A gesture of love, a gesture of hate.”

Meaty's Route

This route seems to represent who Kitty was, and the love between TRIO8. Meaty is the one who helps us humanize Kitty the most and see the many sides of her! And how complex she is. She is real. She is possessive, she is intense and aggressive, she wants to own and collect and protect. She is not the defenseless victim of this story.

Meaty’s room:

Meaty knows about Kitty and wants to steal her skin. She also knows that Emci has CT’s computer and files, and she proves it by pulling up Kitty fanart. She steals the fanart and steals CT’s voice to talk to Emci. She even references the way CT died when she talks about stripped skin.

She mentions Emci rots from the inside. Meaty wants to become real and be a part of Reality 1, like Emci is.

In one of the diaries from CT, it’s entries we can find on her website now that we have it. All from 2023, the year that she died.

The Terror appears at the end of her room, likely triggered by CT’s diary entries and fanart. She calls Emci "sick parasite."

Meaty’s Desktop:

We learn that Slushie made the OS system TRIO8 uses, called TriOS (cute <3). Kitty is told she has to use a secure password from the password generator Emci made for them.

The puzzle is to find what her password is through an assortment of fun clues~

Once you do, you enter her Virtual Computer where she has the green OS look and all of her files!

Kitty created a desktop application based on Pompom, that eats files and spits out files related to that file! Really fun to take your time and explore~

There are a lot of gems hidden here, and a lot of Kitty’s personalities and hobbies. She really feels like a real person, and the love she has for Emci and Slushie feels real too. 

Things that seemed important to her stay inside Pompom’s “BELLY”, which becomes a folder you can look back on after you have already played Meaty.

Notably, most things important to Kitty were made with love for Emci and Slushie.

At the end, Meaty takes over her desktop, feeding more and more from Kitty to learn what it’s like to be as real as she is. All her files have been consumed, except for the sweet memories left behind inside of the BELLY.

After her route:

“don't be scared~

isn’t it just so cute cute cute !!!”

“Boring boring hallway.

Let's run ! #Exertion “

“It's not freaking cute.

But it's not “scary” either. I don't know what this is.”

“Is it your fault? Is it ? Is it ?

I learn the lines to say. Sick parasite.”

“It outlives the thing it imitates.”

CT: we really should change some of the controls :p 

SS: Back with this again.

SS: It's just not a current priority when there's much else to focus on.

CT: i didn't say right nooowww but we'll have to get to it eventually!

SS: Playtesters got through Meaty's room just fine the way it is.

CT: i thought we agreed playtesters can't be relied on <.<

CT: maybe we just need a stronger tutorial ?

EE: players rely on repetition.

EE: patterns are the only tutorial that matters.

Mikey's Route

This route is about destruction. The need to make each other worse and ruin each other together. Self-destruction, too, with the way Emci was willing and is still, I think, willing to destroy himself for the sake of Kitty and Slushie.

Mikey’s Room:

Mikey can break the fourth wall from Reality 2, he can create things in the game that didn’t happen before. This is likely because he is a god. He speaks to Emci directly after making them jump off of the radio tower and implies they have no memories of anything.

A switchblade is visible in an animation where Emci holds it, and Emci hallucinates that it’s covered in blood.

Mikey shows snuff videos from the same site CT’s video was posted, and says "that’s too bad they loved you," which probably is about the other TRIO8 devs.

He makes the Rob & Bert video become the snuff video, which we now know is called ">one way," where CT’s chair she died in is centered.

A comment says the killer’s name might be "Andrew." We have confirmation across the game that Andrew is Slushie’s name.

Emci wears what looks like a hoodie and gloves that are the same as the snuff film perpetrator, but we know the perpetrator was Slushie, who did not dress like that.

Mikey’s Desktop:

In Mikey fashion, this route doesn’t go as usual. It’s a Mikey takeover!

Mikey takes over DOLLHOUSE and makes it his own to control the narrative and guide Emci towards his own self destruction.

He exposes Emci to a sweet and vulnerable moment in Emci’s life, and the close relationship he had with Kitty and Slushie. Then, he encourages Emci to share it to a creepy outsider who seeks personal gains from peeking into TRIO8’s private life.

This route is important, because it comes with a heavy choice.

In order to get back into UNTITLED.exe after DOLLHOUSE takes the shortcut away, your only option is to give the creepy fax guy (known as Z6 after the RUIN end) what he wants, so he will repay you with the private build of the game RT had been putting together.

There is an option you are guided to give in exchange. A private and intimate moment between TRIO8 that Emci exported years ago. Giving that singular .exhm file is good enough for Z6, so the interaction can quickly end and you get to move on and away from it. Easy !!!

But... what about all your other .exhm files? Do they work, too? Of course! You can give many other .exhm files and get more information from Z6 that way, both about RT and about TRIO8. Some advance you right away if they're intimate enough for HIS standards, but others don't, so you get to send more and more and get more information that way. But while that sounds fun, it comes with heavy consequences.

Z6, not so endearingly called the Fax Creep by the fandom, is, well, very CREEPY!!! His motivations are unknown, but he's extremely parasocial and voyeuristic about TRIO8. There are BIG implications to giving him more faxes, as it breaks the trust Kitty and Slushie had placed on him when alive.

Think about it carefully. How much do you respect those memories? What are you willing to sacrifice to move forward? What are you willing to give away?

The decision you make here, affects MULTIPLE endings. It's one of the most important ones we know of.

SCREENSHOTS NEEDED HERE!!!!

He’s forced to face memories of the past, of Slushie honestly and genuinely opening up to him, saying he loves both him and Kitty, after tainting the memory by having to use it to advance on Mikey’s game and obtain UNTITLED.exe again. No matter what, Kitty and Slushie have become online spectacles for entertainment, to misrepresent, to use by people who aren’t Emci.

The ending of Slushie’s heartfelt confession to Emci is contrasted with graphic photos of the murder, showing the broadcast of their misery will never have an end.

After his route:

“The same old hallway.

Pacing pacing pacing.”

“Looking for someone?

THERE'S NO ONE HeRE BUT US CHICKeNS, BABE !”

“Missing me already?

Too bad these aren't voiced.”

“You build. You refine. 

Then you rot. And you rot.”

BACK FOR MORE HUH

Must be a drag, doing the same thing again.

Waiting to notice every tiny little bit of…

CHANGE.

But haven't you seen it all already?

The Final Act

The way it ends.

The Final Act brings together all you have learned from every previous route. During the Final Act, DOLLHOUSE often breaks character.

He starts it off with a text adventure that retells the actions Slushie was influenced to make on the night of Kitty’s murder. Starting with his outfit of choice, between a familiar leather jacket, or a hoodie that holds bittersweet memories. The hoodie is implied by Mikey to have belonged to Emci, which Slushie borrowed from him and didn’t give it back.

This leads you to Billie’s Dressup.

The next action is to pack the weapon necessary. We also hear of something that “doesn’t exist” that was also packed that night, but that is still a mystery.

Packing the bag uses what you learned in Spiderface’s route, with the knife.

After that, DOLLHOUSE returns to himself and gives you a pre-programmed routine during his Intermission, where he makes you play a game of snake. Once you fail, he decides to snoop through your emails.

There, you find E-mails sent by Ophelia, discussing the curse of love.

After your E-mails, fax creep is back. They want to learn about the diary. You use the screenshot of the diary to feed it through Kitty’s algorithm, which is…

Meaty’s Pompom!

Then you have access to her diary. So much to learn here and I won’t give it all away in this doc. But it’s good and intense ! Her diary has a link to the demo of UNTITLED. 

But, the game is taken over by Mikey. He corrupts it until eventually it crashes.

Anita then appears, and says if you can learn a new word with her she will let you play the scary game.

The word is, unsurprisingly, PARASITE

After that, the menu from the menu screen appears… and you can play UNTITLED.exe again.

Fiona’s voice narrates as the game shows you visions, bodies, the things Emci forgot and is maybe responsible for… and at the end, she guides you right into Kitty’s Room.

“The seed that planted the rot… left to fester, grow… do you like it? Do you love it? The thrill of feeling anything at all… a puzzle to complete as the silence fails to shift.”

THEORIES

Some of my personal theories!

Slushie was the "DOLL"

Theory: Slushie was forcefully controlled and forced to kill Kitty.

The evidence:

Throughout oneway.exe, Slushie is referred to as a doll/toy/object in many different ways. The theme of puppetry is very pressed throughout, especially with Anita, which is the route that seems to represent Emci’s need to control Slushie in particular.

• Dollhouse
• Dolly
• Puppet
• Tin Soldier/Tinsoldat
• Blade without a pulse
• Stupid toy

In Spiderface’s room, Spiderface directly refers to Slushie as a toy:

[insectwiz]

PARASITE

SICK FUCKING PARASITE

[SenorSeymour]

THREE LITTLE PIGS

WHO IS THE BIG BAAD WOLF?

[xX_rh1nos_Xx]

THE SMELL THE SMELL SICK SMELL

SMELL SMELL

[Null1321462]

STRRIPPED SKIN

RIPPED MUSCLE

[3hdD63_e8kQ]

LITTLE ANDY PIG STUPID BITCH STUPID TOY! PLAY PLAY PLAY!!

Retelling Slushie’s actions through a “text adventure” feels meaningful, as we are the one controlling his character!

These all sound like commands given to Slushie, not like it’s his genuine actions made out of his free will.

From what we know, it makes no sense that Slushie would be the one to act out on violence. He not only loved Kitty, but his role was known to be that of the prey, not the hunter.

Even during his breakup to Emci it's clear he never blamed Kitty for anything and still loved her. There is no motivation I could ever see making sense for Slushie to do something so horrifically out of character, unless he’s not the one controlling himself.

“The bag will hold objects meant to serve the intrusions.”

Intrusions implies something unwanted. Something that doesn’t belong in his home taking over and guiding his actions.

Dollhouse implies the actions of the doll (Slushie) feel like habit, but the thought “This is not my home.” repeats anyway. To me, that implies he’s aware that what he’s doing are not his own actions, but it feels natural to follow the flow of control despite it.

The intrusions have taken over Slushie, so his own body and mind are no longer his own. This is not his home.

The Altars Theory

Theory: Emci created Altars of Slushie and Kitty that resulted in them becoming fictionalized versions of themselves within UNTITLED.exe. Kitty made one for Emci days before her death.

We don’t know much about the altars yet, but based on Kitty’s website, the concept seems connected to “shrines”, which is when a fan makes a shrine of their favorite character, like she had one of Ophelia.

Altars seem to be a step above that, and highly likely connected to Cerebral Tekton. We know Emci had one or more altars, and worshipping real people in a way connected to fictional characters might have something to do with the two people he worshipped becoming fictional.

Kitty had a hand in her own murder

Theory: Kitty had a hand in her own murder, as well as the events of oneway.exe.

The evidence:

THERES NEW EVIDENCE I NEED TO ADDDDDDDD 

• Kitty was working on an altar of her own on 08/05/2023, just three days before her death.
• Kitty made it clear multiple times across her diary that she would do ANYTHING to have Slushie and Emci back, and she never actually got over the breakup at all. Even up to her death, she still wanted them back and implied she was willing to do something for it.

CLICK TO SEE SPOILERS FOR LOVE ENDING

She seemed to have no limits as to what she'd be willing to do to bring her boys back, to bring her family together, and rebuild their home. She would kill and die for it.

Slushie died right after Kitty (08/08/2023)

On the email from the apartment complex the murder took place in, residents are told “At this time, investigators have told us they do not believe there is any ongoing threat to other residents.”

For a graphically intense crime, the only reason I feel there is to say that, is if the perpetrator is dead.

Personally, I find it hard to believe Slushie could live with himself after the fact. He acted strange after the murder, cleaned up Kitty’s apartment and was weirdly fixated on a wall. The way the investigator talks about him, it also sounds like there was no moment to try to learn of any motives.

I believe he might’ve killed himself after cleaning up Kitty’s apartment and covering her body up.

Emci's isolating was Cerebral Tekton

We learn that starting in 2020 Emci was experiencing hallucinations and visions about the constructs. It’s also implied he saw visions of the future, as the conversation with Kitty implies he was seeing the sona version of Kitty, rather than the real person. 

Knowing what we know of Emci, I find it personally unlikely that he would prioritize himself enough to pull away for emotional reasons. No depression, no sickness, nothing would make him lose sight of the only two people he cares about, but I do believe he would self-destruct for them.

Maybe he lost his mind to Cerebral Tekton, or took it too far, or there’s a greater plan he couldn’t share with CTSS, not even to Kitty.

It’s the only explanation that makes sense to his character, to me, even if there is still much to learn about Cerebral Tekton.

Kitty seems surprised by the effects Emci is suffering from as a result of Cerebral Tekton, as her reactions were limited to night terrors. It might be important that he had a stronger reaction than her.

Anything to keep it safe...

Emci lived in Kitty's apartment complex

This email was sent to residents of the apartment Kitty died in, which means Emci either had to be a resident in it as well, or somehow got this email through other mysterious Emci means.

I am led to believe he lived in the same apartment complex, because the beginning of the game starts with Kitty’s voice muffled saying:

“Can you hear me?... fine, I’ll leave.

But one day you’ll wake up–”

It sounds like she’s in person, maybe behind Emci’s door, but she still can’t get through him.

I think at that moment, Emci is having one of his “episodes” where he has visions/hallucinations because of Cerebral Tekton and the Constructs, maybe specifically Fiona.

Another Influence caused the tragedy

What if there was another influence we don't know of yet at play? What if there was someone, or something, that Emci had to keep CTSS away from? Tekton got too dangerous. We can see the risks. It worsened Emci's mental state, gave him visions, hallucinations, apparitions while awake. Tekton takes from you the more you give. I do agree with Nuova that Emci might've been a natural born prodigy, and I think that he ultimately made the decision to break his link with Kitty and no longer share control, to stomach the consequences of Tekton alone. Or whatever there is that might have influence.

I think it's possible the murder happened to take the role of the Architect away from Emci.

So many years spent protecting the Queen, and I think it's those roles Emci was obsessed with that ultimately led to their downfall. Slushie WAS fragile, he was weak, he was clearly the weakest one when it came to Tekton, which made his mind vulnerable, unprotected the moment Emci and Kitty didn't have him in their grasp anymore. The distance Emci might have created to protect him just left him wide open. Years spent protecting never let Slushie build up a strength for Tekton.

Easy to control for the intrusions! Easy to turn into the doll. The prey was still the prey even then, like a sheep wearing the wolf's skin.

And why kill Kitty? She was the second in command, and she still had a strong link with Emci. Getting rid of Kitty gets rid of half of the architect's power, even if Emci wanted to have it all by himself. Based on her diary, the altar, I don't think he did. The connection was severed but NOT gone, and she still had power over what they built together. Over the House.

So, using the unprotected Queen to kill the King leaves the Joker entirely vulnerable. His role as the Architect would easily fall, everything he worked for, the people he loved, the roles he needed respected to operate, all gone in a single night.

I could see that leading to the loss of control of the architect role, letting someone or something else take it, and then spiraling into the events of Module 1.0.

No memories, no control, no Architect powers.

The question then would be WHAT caused this. Vague theory inspired by a discussion with Nuova tells me it’s possible that influence could be LOVE itself, the infection. We are told love is a LIVING parasite. It is alive, despite being a concept. 

“It’s love, isn’t it?”

“The constructs are not supposed to be vague. Maybe not because you CAN'T make one with a vague concept, but because you SHOULDN'T. It's too abstract, too fluid.

The Love gets grafted into both pain and comfort, it fills every space.

The constructs have their own separate rooms in the brick house, they play within their rules” - Nuova in the theory channel

I was also inspired by "wolf's skin" from Mikey’s route. I used that as my inspiration for Slushie still being the prey even as the Hunter, but on that line of thought, doesn't it imply that even Mikey is a sheep?

Despite currently being the most powerful construct we know of, he’s still not the big bad wolf— he just dresses like it.

THIS THOUGHT ALSO LEADS TO THE NEXT THEORY:

The LOVEBUG Theory (a theory by Nuova from the server!)

A more in-depth look into the LOVEBUG theory, as crafted by Nuova!

A construct-esque thoughtform creation which formed out of the love shared between Trio8

The theory suggests the constructs are thoughtforms born from the love shared between Trio8, functioning essentially like an actual living parasite. Most constructs are clearly defined, given the UNTITLED cast are all sourced from fictional stories, or constructs like Kitty's sona and Dollhouse (based on CT and SS respectively), which limits their power to what they're based on.

Love, however, is fluid and undefinable. Love can be comfort, pain, memory, fire, or infection, and that vagueness makes it dangerous.

Constructs with unclear rules, especially and most obviously Mikey, are able to breach containment and surpass limits set by UNTITLED itself, showing what happens when boundaries aren't set. Yet, in his own ways, Mikey is still limited by the mere fact that he is a fictional character. He exists as something to entertain, and be projected onto.

If a construct formed directly from LOVE, it could be uncontrollable, since love exists everywhere: in every room, every construct, and the minds of Trio8 themselves. Love also feeds easily on attention, growing stronger whether it’s intended or not. Emci’s love is especially risky due to both its intensity and his ability to create constructs. His emotional distance seems meant to control it, but instead allows it to fester and act independently, already compromising the project from within.

“Not vaguely” because you can’t, or because you shouldn’t?