Back from Italy. Today a fragmentary story based on my favourite meme. The backrooms are a fictional concept first mentioned on a 2019 4chan thread. They're a fictional, liminal place that lots of people talk about because they're spooky and weird. Imagine a place that's like a giant maze of empty rooms that go on forever, and you can get there by "no-clipping out of reality" at specific points.
Without further ado, some fiction I wrote when I just found about the meme. Does anyone know of an analogue game based on the Backrooms?
Happy reading.
#1 Planning field work
L.S. /o thrm.
First of all, thank you for all your hard work in unearthing information about this relatively new phenomenon. Your diligent efforts in uncovering information is greatly appreciated. I’m very lucky, as this discovery/ these discoveries tie in with the start of my PhD. I (Becky, two cats one housemate) recently finished my masters thesis at the university of Harderwijk, the Netherlands. I was lucky to get a PhD position in allophenomenology with the esteemed professor F. Alsvanouds.
Before my first semester starts I want to do some fieldwork to the backrooms this summer. I have a lot of camping experience, because as a little girl I used to camp every summer with my dad in the Black Forest in southern Germany, where on a morning fishing trip my fascination for the anomalous was born. So, are there any tips experienced noclippers can give me?My inaugural field trip awaits at week's end.
Affectionately,
Becky
PS If anyone knows good books on allophenomenology I’m all ears.
#2: mind cloud
Since encountering this subreddit I have been unable to think of anything else. I installed the Pie on a Installing the Pie on a Plate game, I find myself fixated on the monochrome yellow corridors and the abyssal expanse devoid of external realms, populated only by labyrinthine passages and decrepit carpeting. I’ve begun to remove the furniture from my room and play a grainy hum over my speakers. This afternoon I will go to the home improvement store to get yellow paint and I hung a cheese sandwich in the tree outside so it can get modly to smell.
These corridors haunt my thoughts, eclipsing all other engagements. I've forsaken appointments to immerse myself in the game, ensconced in darkness with headphones ensnaring my senses.
When I fell asleep last night I had sleep paralysis. Sometimes when I wake up at night, I carry over dream images into my waking consciousness for about 30 seconds. The image that stuck to me was that of a 1920’s miner: all grimy soot covered face and grey clothes. The hum was still on so I didn't hear what he said. After a couple of seconds he disappeared and I felt my room unnaturally warm, even while I slept onder an open window. The air was not moving at all.
Affectionately,
Becky
#3: home experiments
I am so frustrated. I haven’t slept at all last night. Yellow paint adorns my walls, a carpet blankets the floor, and a fluorescent tube hums incessantly. Windows are taped shut. One wall of my room is plastered with over fifty prints of the original meme picture. I’m dog tired and my neck hurts. I only ate lemons yesterday. I’ve always loved yellow. My housemate kept banging the wall. Or at least I think it is my housemate.
I’m going to stay awake tonight again and camp out in a abandoned office building across the street from my house. A friend of my ex boyfriend gave me the keys. I packed my backpack and am waiting for the sun to set. My skin appears to react to the hum. Sometimes my face gets all flushed and other times I cant feel my feet. I heard of an experiment in which you cut open a pingpong ball and wear the halves over your eyes as a form of sensory deprivation. I cant wait to noclip. I’ve looked all over this subreddit for clues, but found nothing.
Next week: number3 four to six.