00;00;09;17 - 00;01;05;18 Unknown And if you dig the twisted, admired the outlandish and are enamored by the unusual, you're in the right place. True crime, the supernatural, the unexplained. Now you're speaking early, which if you agree, join us as we dive into the darker side, you know, because it's more fun over here. Welcome to Total Conundrum. When some users move forward in court to stop this disclosure. 00;01;05;21 - 00;01;11;05 Unknown Is it balanced? 00;01;11;07 - 00;01;42;05 Unknown Hey there, conundrum queue. Welcome back to another mind bending episode of Total Conundrum. I'm your co-host, Jeremy, and alongside me is the queen of all things mysterious Tracy. Hey. Hey. Ready to dive into the depths of the Internet? Strangest corners. Well, buckle up, because today I got a chill that'll make you question reality itself. We're delving into the back rooms theory, a labyrinth journey that begins in the mysterious realms of Creepypasta. 00;01;42;11 - 00;02;10;09 Unknown That's right. The back rooms where no clipping out of reality is the ticket to a maze of empty office spaces. It's like a real life game of hide and seek, but with a twist. Get ready for some laughs, gasps, and maybe a few existential ponderings. And here's the kicker, folks. We've got a fantastic guest joining us today. Courtney from Hantz Cast is in The Conundrum House Boo Boo. 00;02;10;11 - 00;02;36;05 Unknown So grab your virtual flashlight, charge up your sense of humor. Let's embark on this wild ride into the uncharted territory of Internet folklore and back room theories. Ready, Tracy? Born. Ready, Jeremy. But before we let the backrooms unravel, before our very ears, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit that notification bell so you'll never miss an episode. 00;02;36;12 - 00;02;59;03 Unknown And don't forget to give us a thumbs up if you enjoy this episode. That's right, Tracy. Also, a rating and review would mean the world to us. If you're listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Plus, drop us a line. If you got any spooky stories or a chilling mystery you want us to dive into. We'd love to hear from you before we shock you with our episode of The Backroom Theories. 00;02;59;06 - 00;03;34;08 Unknown We'll be playing trailers that were shared with us. Sounds interesting Podcast and scary tales and serials. Podcasts. A big thank you to them for collaborating with us. Everyone go check out their podcast and show them the love and support that you show us. Enjoy listening to the trailers from our friends during our episode. Coming soon on sounds interesting. 00;03;34;11 - 00;04;08;09 Unknown The doctors insisted it was their medications that had fended off a fatal threat from seizures. But I had a hunch. Music played some heart, and it might also kill her recovery. If I could find the right formula in time, and I think I've heard it, but I can't say for sure what it is that is. It's something you can't explain much in your kitchen. 00;04;08;11 - 00;04;33;05 Unknown Sometimes you see what you measure and you said it's back. So what's back? You said the UFO is back. I went home and change clothes and collected a few people to take with me. We went out in the forest and we had an experience that's haunted me ever since. here he comes from the south. He's coming towards us now. 00;04;33;08 - 00;05;00;19 Unknown While observing what appears to be a beam coming out of the ground of. Hey, Jeremy. How are you today? Good. Tracy, How are you? Good. We have a special treat today. No way. We do. Come on, You pulling my leg? You know what it is? No. Tell me. We have Courtney from Homs cast. Wow. A superstar. You guys got. 00;05;00;21 - 00;05;28;04 Unknown She is. You guys are essentially. thank you. Doing our. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so glad to have you here. This is going to be so much fun. Our first crossover. That's not live. Farah scared the crap out of us. Couple of weeks ago with the live episode. But. But why don't you tell us about your podcast and tell us where we can find you so everybody can go and listen? 00;05;28;07 - 00;06;03;22 Unknown Okay. Yeah. So if you guys listen to, like, the little spooky Halloween episode, you guys have probably heard this spiel before, but in case you missed it. My show is called Haunt Cast or Haunt Podcast. It's a narrative style podcast that takes an objective, sometimes skeptical look at different paranormal stories from around the world. I've been doing paranormal research for almost nine years now, not quite nine years, so I pull a lot of different theories from parapsychology and kind of expand on when I think it's a legitimate argument for paranormal activity or when it's obviously a hoax. 00;06;03;24 - 00;06;31;03 Unknown And I tell the stories kind of in that manner. So it's a good mix of credible sources, objectivity, a little bit of skepticism, and also a lot of me believing in the paranormal as well. If you guys are interested in listening to it, we release episodes every week overnight on Sundays. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or those are the two or three main ones that I feel like people are easily able to find me. 00;06;31;03 - 00;06;54;26 Unknown But we're on every major podcast platform and then you can find me also on social media at Hunt's cast. So yeah, she is great people. She is, like I said, in her Halloween one when I first listened, I binged and I binged hard. They were all so good. The way you do the narrative and you have the perfect background music. 00;06;55;06 - 00;07;13;04 Unknown thank you. Yes. I love them. I love them. It's a lot. Well, thanks, guys, so much. Yeah. I'm so glad that we got to, you know, connect. I feel like we were really fast friends and definitely also being on the show, it's just been so I guess it's my second time being on it. I'm just very excited to be here. 00;07;13;04 - 00;07;30;24 Unknown And I've also I feel like I've changed a lot of your show as well, and it's always nice to be able to find another podcast like that, especially one that's so different from mine. Obviously you guys do talk about spooky stories, but every once in a while I need that palate cleanser from ghost stories, and that's kind of when I turn dials. 00;07;30;24 - 00;07;57;13 Unknown So thank you guys for being there. Well, it's been fun, like you said, a very fast friendship, and the group that we have is amazing. Yeah, you know, we didn't have that before. It was just everybody was out for a number one and didn't care about anybody else. And I love how everyone is so supportive in promoting and helping and just chatting and everything. 00;07;57;13 - 00;08;30;14 Unknown It's it's been a it's been awesome where you need kind of a village. You do? No, no, it's great. We do the support and the positivity and it's not negative at all. It's it is truly amazing. I love it. But I was going to say, I have a special treat for you today, Candy. Not candy. Not no candy. 00;08;30;14 - 00;08;57;23 Unknown How I quiver. I'm going home. You can't go home. You're part of this show. You say, yeah. yeah, yeah. You're sure? Good call. Good call. So the story we have today is the back rooms theory. I know a lot about this, but I've seen, like, bits and pieces here and there, and I'm excited to do a deep dive and learn more about it. 00;08;58;00 - 00;09;27;20 Unknown So while this could honestly be a podcast on its own, I'm sure so much information. And at first I was like, I can't really find anything different. And then I came across the back rooms. Fandom wiki Holy Hannah It blew my mind how much information and how it has turned from a creepypasta to this whole like what do they call it? 00;09;27;20 - 00;09;49;06 Unknown It's kind of a genre of its own. It reminds me of like fan fiction. I mean, people are out there claiming level numbers and they're creating the levels and but, you know, some people believe it's reality. Most people believe it's fiction. It's like an urban legend type thing. You know, like, sometimes like a really good video game to me, there is video games that. 00;09;49;06 - 00;10;15;15 Unknown Exactly. Nice. Exactly. And then, yeah, like you were saying, and and like we were saying kind of earlier, before we started recording, it's like Slenderman, where obviously I don't believe in Slenderman. Right. But the story I remember, like years and years back, it like, blew up. And then you had the Marble Hornets YouTube channel. And I feel like this is kind of the new version of a story like that. 00;10;15;15 - 00;10;45;00 Unknown Obviously, it's not the same sort of entity by any means, but it's the same kind of cult following that I think this has. So yeah, it's crazy. Some of it gets kind of for the Gen X generation, I don't know how many people have heard about it. I actually heard about it for the first time listening to a podcast and I had never heard of it before, but I believe it's a big thing with like the the later Jenner generation, the Jazz Maddy. 00;10;45;00 - 00;11;13;22 Unknown But she knew about it, but it was something a little bit different. So our daughter, she's Gen Z, she's 19. And what she told me was similar to it, but it wasn't the actual. So I think there's multiple different things with it too, that multiple revolution. Yes, there you go, multiple reversions. Interesting. Okay. Thing is just crazy and it's own that. 00;11;13;22 - 00;11;36;20 Unknown When I first started researching it, I wasn't finding too much. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to write my own little story, kind of pull in some of the research that I had. So I'll start off with a story that I wrote in regards to the back rooms, and then we'll go into more of what are they, how did they come about and where they've gone from there. 00;11;36;25 - 00;12;05;06 Unknown What would be awesome? I'm so take it away. Take it away. One day in a busy suburban mall, Alex was out shopping for some clothes for the new school year. It was just a regular day in his life until he stumbled upon something accidentally that would haunt him from that day on, Alex was going from star to star, looking for the best deals for the new fads that he just had to have. 00;12;05;08 - 00;12;29;08 Unknown He was being more frugal than normal, for he was having to fork out some of his own money this year for the name brand clothes that he wanted. He worked really hard and more a lot of grass that summer to save up for his new kitchen wardrobe. He took a break, feeling a bit famished, he headed to the food cart, devoured some Chinese food, and of course, he had his Cinnabon for a treat that could not be avoided. 00;12;29;15 - 00;12;54;02 Unknown yeah. He's going to say this is the most quintessential mall trip you could ever. The intoxicating aroma leaves you right to there stand like a cartoon mouse floating in the air, smelling the delicious cheese. After his little lunch detour, he sat out the restroom before heading back up to the mall's main floor to continue his shopping adventure. 00;12;54;05 - 00;13;22;28 Unknown As Alex wandered down the dimly lit corridor further and further, he was overcome by a feeling of unease, like in an employee area that he was not supposed to be in. He then rounded the corner to another seamlessly endless hallway. His attention was drawn to a flickering fluorescent light overhead. Then when he looked down the hall again, as if by magic, he found himself transported into an eerie version of the hallway. 00;13;22;28 - 00;13;47;04 Unknown He was just in the transition was subtle. It felt as if he merely blinked and suddenly he was no longer in the mall hallway, but in the parallel universe of sorts. Sweet The Matrix. Yeah. This. This gives me anxiety, right? Like just walking into a whole new like, literally a whole new world, right? And not having a way back. 00;13;47;04 - 00;14;24;00 Unknown Like, I know in this moment he doesn't know, Right? But I know, right? And that distresses me. So the surroundings were chillingly dull. Endless yellow tinted rooms with dingy stained wallpaper stretched as far as the eye could see. A faint fluorescent hum filled the air and the ever present scent of mildew lingered and the silence was deafening. Panic set in as Alex realized that he had somehow stumbled onto a place and had no idea how to get out. 00;14;24;02 - 00;14;53;19 Unknown The room seemed to go on endlessly, and every turn led to an identical corridor. Fear and anxiety coursed through him as he ventured deeper into the seemingly infinite maze, desperately searching for an exit. Hours seemed like days as Alex aimlessly roamed the lifeless, empty hallways. The oppressive sameness began to play tricks on his mind, and the once vivid memories of the mall started to fade. 00;14;53;22 - 00;15;18;08 Unknown It felt as if, though he were becoming part of the back rooms themselves. yeah. The anxiety is just like over the heartbeat. The not knowing good with it that you're good with it. Yeah. You want to be in the back rooms of Roman? Yeah. All by yourself, he said. Let me leave all of my problems behind. No more podcasting. 00;15;18;10 - 00;15;50;10 Unknown He'll be staying. Going down the hallways all by myself. Yeah, actually, yeah, I can see the appeal a little bit. I'm sure I'm going to take that back right as we continue through this episode. But for now, I see him from. So eventually, in a moment of desperation, Alex noticed something different. At the end of the hallway stood a door that was ajar, that stood out to him for all of the other doors were always closed and he had to open them. 00;15;50;12 - 00;16;21;10 Unknown He approached it cautiously and peered inside. Needs a key, man. What's that Key man? Key man Matrix reference. So he opened it up, approached it cautiously, and peered inside, only to be met with a blinding white light with no other options. Alex stepped through, hoping to escape this never ending nightmare. As the light enveloped him, he was jolted back into the mall as if he had never left. 00;16;21;13 - 00;16;51;16 Unknown Wow. All right. Sorry. That just gave me goose bumps. Good for him getting out. Although he returned to the real world, something had changed with an Alex. The memories of his time in the back rooms haunted him like a persistent shadow. He now had a newfound appreciation for the simple beauty of the mall's sterile white walls. The crowds of people, the mixtures of scents from the food court, the overwhelming perfumes from Hollister and Abercrombie. 00;16;51;18 - 00;17;26;17 Unknown And all of us can relate with that. We all know those smells. Yeah. Just overpowering. Yes. Like musk. Yeah. You lost me. A people and people. I want to go back to the back room. He turns right around. Let me back in. I'm going home. However, he gained a lingering fear of empty corridors. The back rooms had definitely left a mark on his psyche and would be a constant reminder that sometimes reality can be far stranger and more terrifying than we could ever imagine. 00;17;26;20 - 00;18;02;15 Unknown So with that, what are the back rooms as described by Wikipedia? The back rooms are an online fiction originating from a creepypasta posted in 2019 on a Fortune thread. One of the best known examples of the internet is static or liminal liminal spaces, which usually depict busy locations as unnaturally empty. The back rooms were first described as a maze of empty offices that can only be entered by no clipping out of reality. 00;18;02;18 - 00;18;23;22 Unknown By what? Yep. This does not mean, as I was reading this, there was all of these terms. I'm like, All right, so my next statement is who's ready to return to school and get a bit of a vocab lesson? Me? Yeah, me too. There's a bit of terminology that was new to me, so I assume it'll be new to some of you as well. 00;18;23;24 - 00;18;54;16 Unknown If not, you'll get a bit of a refresher and there will not be a pub quiz following this episode. Sobriety. Thank you. So for Chan. I've heard of it, but I wasn't 100% sure of what it was. It's an anonymous English language Image Board website launched by Christopher Moot Pool in October of 2003. The site hosted boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics. 00;18;54;19 - 00;19;17;27 Unknown So then I was like, What the hell's an image board? So an image looks like a forum, isn't it? Yeah, it's. It's sorry. You're going to answer that question. Yeah. that's good, because I didn't know. It focuses on posting of images alongside text and discussion. So kind of like an Instagram, Facebook type thing, but I'm assuming that was more of the old school forums like Jeremy. 00;19;17;29 - 00;19;41;14 Unknown Yes, I think it's like a less what's the word that I'm looking for? Less user friendly form of Reddit. Not that I'm a big Reddit person either. I don't really understand boards like this. Hopefully no one comes to me, and that's actually correct. But I want to say they're kind of maybe similar. I could be totally wrong, but I do think they're less flowery than like the social media's and stuff. 00;19;41;15 - 00;20;06;21 Unknown Yeah, it's there for like, conversation. Yes. Yes. Right. Okay. Jeremy created quite a bit of forums and I know you go on forums all the time because he was a while. Still is, but was a web developer and you do a lot of that on the side. So they're great for tutorials. Tutorials. Yeah. Now we get into, you know, clipping. 00;20;06;23 - 00;20;37;06 Unknown I when I heard that someone I didn't know, I was like, what the hell is no clipping? Well, no clipping is a video game term that it's a cheat that allows players to pass through normally impenetrable objects like walls, ceilings and floors by disabling clipping. And I'm like, okay, so what's clipping? Right. Clipping is defined as the programing used to ensure that the players stay within the physical boundaries of the game world. 00;20;37;08 - 00;21;02;17 Unknown So if you have, like those old World games, you can only go so far. Yeah. So it allows you to push the envelope per se. Correct. So, Jeremy, you're right. It's literally a video game. I like video. Scary one. Real life. Very kind of like air without the air headset, but it's like doom. That's what I'm imagining is doom, you know, not doom. 00;21;02;19 - 00;21;27;07 Unknown I'm sorry, not VR. Alternate reality is a VR. Virtual Virtual reality. Virtual world. It's not alternate reality. Right. It sounded like very dumb, but that's what they say. It's virtual reality. Yeah, I've heard, though I've heard it referenced as well. Both. But like the Oculus that people where it's augmented reality. That's what I was looking for. Okay. Sorry. 00;21;27;14 - 00;22;04;00 Unknown No, just terms threw me for a loop. I'm good with vocab sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. So as its popularity grew, Internet users expanded upon the original concept by creating different levels and entities which inhabit the back rooms. Fan made video games, collaborative fiction wikis, and YouTube videos have also been created from the whole back room theory. And collaborative fiction is a form of group writing groups that write, and then they share control of the story. 00;22;04;00 - 00;22;35;13 Unknown So one person will start it. The next person can take it from there, and they all build the story together. Yeah, that's intense. Right. And I tried doing something like that. Four or five episodes ago. I started a short story on Insta, hoping to get people to add to the story to create something fun we could read, but I think I scared people with it so I feel like if you reached out to like directly to people, you might be, I would do it. 00;22;35;14 - 00;22;56;23 Unknown That sounds like fun. That's what I thought because I got it too. I did like three or four paragraphs, and then I left it as like, okay, what happens next? So I might have to try again. Now that we've got more followers and stuff now, too. I would I would send it directly to people because it would be cool to have like a bunch of different podcasters writing a snippet. 00;22;57;03 - 00;23;33;24 Unknown that would be really cool. And stay tuned for that, guys. That sounds cool. Yeah, maybe we could even do it like each person would read or record their part of it and we can put it all together. we're on to something. Trademark that. Somebody write it down. All right. So on May 12th, 2019, an anonymous user started a thread on for Chans paranormal themed board asking users to post images that were disquieting that just felt off. 00;23;33;28 - 00;24;01;13 Unknown And one of the posts, the original photo of the back rooms, a picture of a large carpeted open room with yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lighting on a Dutch angle was presented and it's not known where the photo was taken, but it appeared in an earlier thread on April 21st, 2018. So I used to be a photographer and I didn't know what a Dutch angle was. 00;24;01;14 - 00;24;29;16 Unknown Yeah, I was going to ask, but yeah, again, another vocab term. It's also known as the Dutch tilt canted angle or an oblique angle. It's the type of camera shot where it involves setting the camera at an angle. So the shot is composed with the vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame. So basically, in layman's terms, if you were looking at a picture and you tilted your head. 00;24;29;18 - 00;24;56;13 Unknown So it's a weird angle. And they use this a lot in cinematography. The Dutch angle is one of the many cinematic techniques that's often used to portray psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed. So it's just I feel like I know what you're talking about. It's like off balance, off kilter, and it causes that uneasiness. I'm going to look it up really quick. 00;24;56;14 - 00;25;21;07 Unknown Yeah, you can obviously keep going. I'm just it's definitely like an eerie way to look at a scene. I'll also post the original pictures and there'll be other pictures of creatures. There'll be pictures of the different back rooms. And there's a few other things that will come across in here. We'll definitely put those pictures out on Instagram and Facebook and stuff for everybody to see. 00;25;21;10 - 00;25;42;07 Unknown Cool. So another use. It's definitely an eerie way to look. It's kind of bleak. I feel like is a good way to describe it. The other thing is with the original picture, the way they viewed it, you can see it's like at an angle in the room and it's also at an angle for like the lines on the floor and stuff. 00;25;42;09 - 00;26;07;00 Unknown And you can see down three hallways, but you can't see all the way down. So it gives that that eerie, you know, what's beyond what's at the end of it. So it was definitely a really good capture and it's that creepy nineties vibe with the outdated while it reminds you of being like in an empty H&R BLOCK office or somethin. 00;26;07;02 - 00;26;49;12 Unknown Like if you step back in time, that's a good way of describing it. Yeah. So it's kind of like a reception room type thing. Was that's the level zero, which we'll get to that. But another user replied to this post with the first description of the back rooms, and they said, If you're not careful and you know, clip out of reality into wrong areas, you'll end up in the back rooms where there is nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum humbugs is everything yellow because, well, that and like the buzzing between the color because it's like a very like a 00;26;49;14 - 00;27;13;17 Unknown almost like a mustard. And then the buzzing I feel like that's enough to, like, slowly drive you mad. Yeah. Which I guess is the point probably. Well, like some said, kind of like back in the nineties because everything was like the warm light bulbs. Like nowadays we all have like the daylight bulbs in our house versus the warm because we want to be able to see where. 00;27;13;19 - 00;27;35;19 Unknown Right. Okay. In a lot of houses in the nineties you had very little lighting, even in offices and stuff. Everything was kind of darker and more school cool while you had those bright eyes, but that everybody knows that feel like you're in an interrogation room now. That was just because you were. Now I feel like, yeah, that's true. 00;27;35;23 - 00;27;55;12 Unknown But when you say that hum from the fluorescent lights, everybody can relate to that. Well, unless you're pretty young. Fluorescent lights aren't around as much as they used to be, but I can totally relate. I feel like it's very identifiable. But also I grew up in the nineties, so maybe that's just what I dealt with from an early age, right? 00;27;55;14 - 00;28;27;11 Unknown It's very Yeah, that hum is very. It's hundreds. Yeah. It's like a fly buzzing you or something. I mean maybe even worse if it doesn't stop. But they also say that there's a proximately 600 million square miles of random segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you. 00;28;27;12 - 00;28;53;02 Unknown You. What is it? Do we know what it is? It's just some that's just. Have you listening in the background. Yeah, that's all they said that was. This is level one. When somebody posted that picture, it had no detail, no nothing. There was no. Okay, I was going to say a picture of this room and this is what somebody replied on that spooky man. 00;28;53;05 - 00;29;22;00 Unknown I mean, how. yeah, that's like starting off quick. What are the higher levels of this is like the entry lobby. Yeah, Well, anyways, continue. I didn't go too far in according to that wiki page I was on, there's like 4000 some levels and there's like thousands of different creatures and different supplies and materials. But we'll get more into that here soon. 00;29;22;02 - 00;29;59;07 Unknown Like never ending. It blows my mind. So that post was posted on May 13th, 2019 by an anonymous person on the Fort Chen post. Okay. Days after the original Creepypasta, users began to share stories about the back rooms and subreddits such as Creepypasta back rooms in fandom began to develop around the back rooms, and creators explained upon the original iteration of the creepypasta by creating additional floors or levels and entities would populate them only when the game. 00;29;59;09 - 00;30;27;22 Unknown How do you get points You get out alive. As new levels were devised in the back rooms, a faction of fans who preferred the original back rooms split off from the fandom. A Reddit user named Lit Peep created another subreddit called True Back Rooms, focusing only on the original version so lit b 24 was one of the many who wanted to keep you laughing at the name. 00;30;27;23 - 00;30;55;18 Unknown Yeah, Let Me 24 was one of the many who wanted to keep things simple and ditch the additional lore. They launched a new forum called Two Back Rooms, and they actually are true back rooms. And I'm assuming that was Reddit, but I'm just right. So each subreddit has like a like a back slash or something. I just did a story about this for my own show where somebody was posting in R Paranormal. 00;30;55;20 - 00;31;11;22 Unknown And I think that it just like their way of like describing that it's a subreddit. Okay. So I don't know, I was trying to get a full understanding of what Reddit was earlier this week, so I kind of do it like a folder structure, kind of like when you're looking on your computer and you're digging down into each folder you got. 00;31;11;24 - 00;31;30;15 Unknown I think so, yeah. Slash and then yeah, I think that's yeah. So that's kind of it. That's a good way of like, I think so again, like that was my kind of interpretation. I'd obviously heard of Reddit before, but I feel like this was my first, like dipping the toe into kind of like looking at the actual story that was posted there. 00;31;30;17 - 00;31;48;07 Unknown And I want to say that that's right. But I could be, again, totally wrong. So yeah, I've gone to read it a few times, but definitely don't know much about it. I've been led there for different stories here and there. Black Kids was the biggest one. The black. Yeah, I'm sure that that's like all the stories were out there. 00;31;48;08 - 00;32;08;16 Unknown Does that have its own subreddit? I'm assuming I just started that episode today. I of you all, so I haven't gotten too far into it, but I think it's under that. The paranormal one. okay. I believe it is, but it's also some people consider it paranormal. But I'll have to go back and look. I just. I didn't even look at what it was under. 00;32;08;16 - 00;32;33;21 Unknown I just. I was brought there by an article that led me to it, so I didn't even look at it. Found yourself down a rabbit hole. I did find myself down many rabbit holes with that story. Right. And then to find out, there was wide eyed kids, too. I'm a Come on. Yeah, I've never heard of that. I'm like, that's why obviously, like I said, I just started that episode earlier this afternoon and I haven't gotten to that part yet, but I'm really interested to see what those are. 00;32;33;28 - 00;33;02;16 Unknown They're crazy. It's insane. No kids are showing up at my doorstep like that. I'm going to make them into a hollow version. So there are 15,000 members that focus solely on the look and the feel of the original Faustian image. They embrace the fan interpretations that show what the yellow corridors or adjoining rooms could look like from a different angle. 00;33;02;19 - 00;33;29;01 Unknown But they don't get involved in the spinoff fiction. So I believe they think theirs is nonfiction and the other is fiction. okay. What? I work for them, right? So when I first heard of the back rooms and I saw its accompanying image, I was taken aback. Lipp says viewing these images of barely furnished are many times unfurnished yellow tinted rooms. 00;33;29;03 - 00;33;52;27 Unknown It prompted this feeling of longing and nostalgia. Sometimes those feelings even gave away to a bit of anxiety for Let Be. There was no place. Ah, no need to have the extra layers or hidden monster. There's the strangeness of the place was more than enough, and it brought back childhood memories of spaces that they felt they probably shouldn't have been in. 00;33;52;29 - 00;34;19;18 Unknown For instance, maybe a parent was working late at the office one night, left us to our own devices and a big empty building full of winding maze like corridors. Maybe we got stuck after school for one reason or another and wandered the empty halls of a place that was usually bustling with activity. So that definitely makes sense because imagine, you know, you're at your school and it's during school hours and it's bustling and you're there at night by yourself. 00;34;19;18 - 00;34;57;24 Unknown And that creepiness factor would set in, right? That makes a little bit more sense in terms of not necessarily that it's nonfiction, but more just so like we don't need all of the extra stuff added on top because that is a very Yeah, like that is eerie enough. Nostalgic is a good way. Yeah, nostalgia is a good way to describe it because at least, I mean, there have been plenty of times where not plenty, but when I was a kid having to stay out after school and, I mean, it's a big school without anybody but me and then like my mom there or something like that. 00;34;57;24 - 00;35;26;22 Unknown So I get yeah, I get why that would be like creepy. But also I'm sure the other stuff is just is B Right. So some sources believe the backrooms to have been the origin of the internet esthetic of liminal spaces which depict usually busy locations that are unnaturally empty. The hashtag liminal spaces has amazed nearly 100 million views on TikTok. 00;35;26;25 - 00;35;47;15 Unknown Wow. Okay. That hashtag, which I'm interested in checking it out now, I want to see what some of these liminal spaces are that people are hashtagging, and I wonder if they're like creating them like this. Know, you can create images and stuff with like, Hey, I am or just even just doing it yourself. I wonder I might have to look into that. 00;35;47;15 - 00;36;10;19 Unknown I just dabbled with that. I image creation for Jeremy's story Blue Drag because it was a story he made. Yeah, we didn't have an image of him, so I used his description from the story and use the eye to generate that. No way. Yeah, that's so cool. And it turned out pretty good, but it's not perfect. First one, it generated. 00;36;10;19 - 00;36;30;13 Unknown It had. Well, it was. I thought it had three legs, six legs. It was really odd. So yeah. Any clothes and it was a cool image. But when you really looked at it, you could, they say with air, a lot of times there's something that's off with the image and there was definitely something off with that one. Yeah. 00;36;30;15 - 00;36;53;25 Unknown Well I think that also helps make it kind of eerie. Yeah. You know, like if you're using it for this, like something is supposed to be off, right? So definite. So I took look into it and report back. Definitely. Yeah. So a Tik Tok trend of videos that zoom in on Google Earth to reveal an entrance to the back rooms have also grown in popularity. 00;36;53;28 - 00;37;32;17 Unknown And so with internet and statics and liminal spaces, they are empty or abandoned places that appear eerie, forlorn and often surreal. Broadly, the term liminal space is used to describe a place or state of change or transition. This may be physical, for example, a doorway or a psychological. The of adolescence. Liminal space imagery often depicts this sense of the in-between capturing transition phases such as stairwell, roads, corridors or hotels and suddenly devoid of people. 00;37;32;19 - 00;38;02;17 Unknown The esthetic may convey moods of eeriness, surreal ness, nostalgia or sadness and elicit response, both comfort and unease. So such a dichotomy to have to. It's crazy in And you get that from a picture. Just a picture, right? But it makes sense, like you said earlier, with like the school, obviously childhood is such an easier time than adulthood. 00;38;02;20 - 00;38;30;18 Unknown So you have that kind of comfort of like not having to worry about the weight of the world, but also when it's empty, it feels off, right? It's anxiety inducing. totally. So there is a game, it's a free game that you can play. It's called the Back Rooms Game Free Edition. It gives you all the advice you need at the start venture as far as you can without going insane. 00;38;30;20 - 00;38;58;17 Unknown Check your watch every 30 seconds to remember who you are and why you are there. Don't. 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Okay. Why are you there? Remember what it like. I would so quickly forget that. Right? And then it says, Don't look at it. I don't know what that's in reference to. This is quoted from an article from Bloody-disgusting Tor.com probably talking about those young walls. 00;38;58;17 - 00;39;26;18 Unknown Could be I wouldn't want to look at those things that would drive me crazy. Right. And then you are immediately dumped into the never ending hallways tasked with staying alive long enough to find the exit controls are as simple as they can be w a SSD. These are keyboard controls to get around e to interact tab to view and watch. 00;39;26;21 - 00;39;56;14 Unknown Partial controller support is available but not necessary for a game like this. It's essentially a walking simulator with little anxiety where reflexes are concerned. The anxiety is supplied by the visuals and sound design, which are rigidly faithful to the original description posted on for Chan. The lights hum madly, the wallpaper repeats endlessly, and the hallways go on essentially forever. 00;39;56;16 - 00;40;14;25 Unknown Let's go play it. Come on, it sounds fun. I know. I'm like, I kind of want to play it. I don't think I'd be very good at it. Jeremy. Pretty easy. I know. Yeah, dude, just walk through the tunnel after we look over. It's true. We'll look over at Jeremy. Jeremy on the video here, and he'll be like, What? 00;40;14;28 - 00;40;48;15 Unknown What's My name is Sir Me. How long have you been here? Don't know why I talking about. Jeez, I said his name wrong is Jeremy instead of Jeremy. my God. I'm married for 12 years. I still can't pronounce my name. Wrong time when we first met. Funny squirrel moment when we first met and started dating, my sister was like, If you're going to date him, you should probably learn how to say his name. 00;40;48;23 - 00;41;10;04 Unknown And I was like, What do you mean, no. She's like, His name is Jeremy. I said, Yeah, Jeremy. And she's like, No, it's Jeremy. And I'm like, Yeah. Jeremy. And she's like, No, listen to yourself. And I couldn't hear the difference. And we had a first cousin growing up that lived right down the road. We always everybody called him Jeremy. 00;41;10;09 - 00;41;40;18 Unknown Jeremy And now I'm getting confused. So the jerk, Jeremy instead of Jeremy. So when we first met, I was so self-conscious about saying his name wrong. You're pronouncing every syllable what I would actually say. He told me his uncles and everybody would call him JT Jeremy or Germ, which doesn't help, but they call them JT Jeremy Thomas. So for the first five years we were together. 00;41;40;20 - 00;42;03;29 Unknown It was JT and then I got brave enough and that I could actually, like say it without screwing up that it was. I started calling him Jeremy, and then my daughter, my youngest daughter shortened it and we just started calling them Jay. So hearing a multitude of names spun out a lot of nicknames, you do, You really do. 00;42;04;02 - 00;42;35;28 Unknown But so, yeah, that's funny. I haven't slept like that in a long time. It's been a second. I say pillow. No, I've. How do you say it? No pillow pal. no. Okay. That's like beg. There's another one friend of mine when I was in my twenties I used to say, and Tanner instead of. And Tanner and I and Tanner and Hannah and she's like, you see. 00;42;35;28 - 00;43;01;20 Unknown And again I didn't hear the difference. And until she like, really pointed out to me, she's like, it's not the band Santana, it's an aunt and Tanner. And then I heard the difference, but she was like, I was like, Are you sure? I'm saying it wrong? And she stopped at a gas station and we were made me go in and we had to ask the gas station attendant who she was that. 00;43;01;23 - 00;43;45;21 Unknown Yeah, I say a lot. That's amazing. But just love me for who I am. And so anyway, actually kind of awesome. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I just. What's funny? It's just one of my many quirks. People pick on me all the time. So that's why it's all Minnesota accent. And growing up in northern Minnesota and I'm assuming it was from growing up that I would hear these things, but, well, even with my son doing his spooky story on the Halloween episode where we were recording, he kept saying an attic, but he was saying it was an extra syllable at the end of it, like addict attic instead of attic. 00;43;45;21 - 00;44;05;19 Unknown It was like addict or something like that. And so in editing, I cut out that extra syllable. So he was saying it properly, and then I called him I myself. Where did you learn to say that word? I said because it wasn't from me. So there's many words I say wrong with that. It's not one of them. And he's like, I didn't even realize I did that. 00;44;05;21 - 00;44;29;01 Unknown But it was an easy enough. I didn't say it wrong. But it's funny how everybody or a lot of people have like certain words that they struggle with. Then I struggle with what's right. Words are words are hard. I always say that. Right? So anyway, getting back to the video game, I smell a vision of that thing. This Game would include the stink of old moist carpet. 00;44;29;04 - 00;44;56;11 Unknown There isn't a story or a goal or an escape. It's just a random generation of back rooms that you could wander for an hour or you could find an exit inside of 10 minutes. There is, of course, a hideous creature to avoid. Yeah, but it's laughably easy to do. So if you listen carefully and take care not to sprint around corners without checking what lies ahead first, you may never see it again. 00;44;56;14 - 00;45;18;13 Unknown The game wants you to check your watch every 30 seconds to keep your sanity in check. But the further you go in, the more unhinged you become regardless. Kid checking your watch every 30 seconds when they drive you to go mad. I would think so. I would think. Right. Does it prompt you to do I not to do that, Jeremy, You'll have to download it and try it out. 00;45;18;13 - 00;46;00;21 Unknown Sweet. Yeah. And January 2022, a short horror film titled The Back Rooms found footage was uploaded to YouTube created by then 16 year old Kane Parsons of Northern California, known online as Kane Pixels. The short horror film is presented as a VHS tape. Hey, guys, I'm Tara and Mara, and together we are scary tales and serials. Their two best friends, ghost hunters and moms who know all too well that moment. 00;46;00;21 - 00;46;27;02 Unknown Easy. So we do this to relax and unwind. We communicate with spirits because let's face it, they're the only ones that truly listen. Anyway, if you like the paranormal, all things spooky, true crime, and downright murderous tales, then you're in the right place. Join us on our spooky adventure. Each episode we tell you a story and use humor and some great banter to keep the craziest stories light. 00;46;27;05 - 00;46;51;07 Unknown We share tales of our ghost hunting adventures and hot takes on some of the wildest cases out there with our episodes, you may hit a range of emotions laughing, horror, anger and even some tears depending on the case. But we promise we keep it fun. Tara That's me. Is the self-proclaimed overachiever, delving deep into the cases to uncover as many fans as possible. 00;46;51;09 - 00;47;17;00 Unknown And Mara sprinkles in the razzle dazzle with her wit and humor. There's something for everyone with us. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts. Just about anywhere you listen to your podcast. You can also follow us on our socials. We are on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Give us a listen and tell your friends we hope to see you there until next time. 00;47;17;03 - 00;47;51;20 Unknown You need to do. Recorded by a filmmaker who accidentally enters the back rooms in the 1990s and there's pursued by a monster person use the software blender and Adobe after Effects to create the environment of the back rooms, and it took him a month to complete it. He described the back rooms as a manifestation, as a poorly remembered recollection of the late nineties into the early thousand. 00;47;51;22 - 00;48;17;29 Unknown He admits to being spooked by his own creation at times working deep into the night, a clip would sometimes leg and he'd jump unexpectedly at shadows on the yellow walls. So he was creeping himself out, making these videos. And it's got to be good in terms of it. Yeah, I watched Little bits and pieces of it and I was listening to this other guy tell the stories of his compilation of videos. 00;48;17;29 - 00;48;46;01 Unknown He has 16 of them now, but the first video as of October 20, 23, 53 million views. God, good for him. Wow. Right. That's awesome. That's really I mean, obviously that goals you have to put in like a lot of work to get it because if it's animated to like truly that's awesome for him. Well and his videos look like it's reality almost. 00;48;46;01 - 00;49;21;02 Unknown So he does the blender and he's creating these real looking people. And Jeremy's dabbled with Blender and watching him do that stuff blows my mind because there's so much to it. It takes just make a circle and something crazy. How much time? And so I'm assuming Adobe must not have had like 3D creation back then because for him to go to an open source platform blender where it was in January of 2022, so he started making it in 2021. 00;49;21;03 - 00;49;44;01 Unknown So set it took a month to complete. Well, then it might just be because of its open source. Wouldn't it be free? Yeah. Yeah, it is. I hope that he's, like, just. I mean, Blender is, like, really a top notch software. It is. It's crazy. Okay, Yeah, but Adobe after Good for him is a paid software. 00;49;44;01 - 00;50;30;02 Unknown Yeah. Which. Right. They also have 3D creation in Adobe too do they. Okay so okay. Doing this he has now expanded his videos into a series of 16 short as he introduced the plot aspects such as async, an organization which opened a portal into the back rooms in the 1980s and it conducted research within it. The series has collectively garnered over 100 million views views, and it's credited with lifting the backrooms from obscurity into the mainstream Internet, causing a surge in back room content, particularly on YouTube. 00;50;30;04 - 00;50;56;01 Unknown For his shorts, Person received a creator's honor at the 2022 Streamy Awards from the game theorists, but Also some of the is and he has his own little storyline going. I mentioned before there's this wiki fandom and people are going in there and they're like, No, that's not how it is with pixels story or whatever. I kept seeing things that came. 00;50;56;01 - 00;51;21;14 Unknown Pixels doesn't want his stories in these forums. His stories are separate. He doesn't want us to write our views like how he is. He wants his backrooms to be their own entity. But just from a picture, this kid started generating all of these shard and now in a compilation of a hundred million views and I'm sure he's going to keep going and yeah, he ought to. 00;51;21;17 - 00;51;42;11 Unknown Yeah, these videos, the ones that I saw, I was watching a guy talk about them. He was showing like short little clips from the videos and he was talking about it. It's incredible, the animation. And it is this kid's going to Hollywood. He's 18 now, right? I mean, I know what I'm watching tonight. I can't wait. Yeah, definitely. 00;51;42;11 - 00;52;11;24 Unknown Get yourself lost in another world there. All right. Like, really good for him. But anyways, let's continue. So now we're going to get into some of the levels. Level zero is known as the lobby. It's supposed to be safe, but unstable and devoid of entities. So level zero is the first level of the backrooms being the first location most wanderers will initially find themselves in. 00;52;11;26 - 00;52;39;15 Unknown It's an expansive space resembling the back rooms of a commercial building. All rooms in Level zero share the same superficial features such as the worn minor yellow wallpaper or the moist carpet scatter or electrical outlets and inconsistently placed fluorescent lighting. Aside from these common features, no two rooms within the level are identical in layout, except for the color and the color. 00;52;39;19 - 00;53;12;15 Unknown Yeah, the carpet and. But how different the rooms be if they're empty. Yeah, right. Well, don't they have like, furniture and stuff in them or. No, supposedly from what I've read, it's all empty. But I know that as you go up and different levels. okay. They change and they get like each level has a different look. And there was a level that I'm not covering, but I did go into, I think it was level five. 00;53;12;17 - 00;53;38;01 Unknown That level looked cool as hell. It was like an old fancy hotel set back in like the 1930s. And there's like jazz music playing and but I'm like, I can't I've got to stop at some point. I've been thinking about this like the entire time, and I was gonna bring it up at the end. But while we're on the subject of a hotel, this reminds me of the elevator game. 00;53;38;01 - 00;53;57;14 Unknown Yes. Do you guys know what that is? Yes. It reminds me so of it. Or like the Elisa lamb case. Yes. And you scare me. You know what it is? No. You've never heard of it? I've never heard it. Okay, describe it. Describe it for you. So it's a paranormal game, they say, like a ritual. I don't know if it actually works. 00;53;57;14 - 00;54;20;23 Unknown There's some argument that it does. And unfortunately, someone lost their life playing it allegedly. That said, what you do is you go into an elevator and I want to say there has to be at least 14 floors. It may be 11, but I want to say it's 14 and you have to press the buttons in a series of basically in a series of predefined numbers. 00;54;20;25 - 00;54;45;14 Unknown And if you do it correctly, it takes you to a different realm, supposedly. Okay. And then back in. So again, 2016, cheap comps. Yeah, right. And I want to say it was like 2016. A girl was in California, her name was Elise LAMB. And she unfortunately lost her life while staying at I forget the name of the Cecil, I think the Cecil Hotel. 00;54;45;16 - 00;55;11;13 Unknown Yep. Right, Right. And they said there's some speculation that she was playing this game. There's a security camera like video of her acting really just out of character and kind of strange. And ever since that, we started talking about this and describing, like, how you find yourself there. It's I've been thinking about her in that story and I wonder if maybe she was on level five question mark. 00;55;11;13 - 00;55;37;20 Unknown I know that this is like, likely. All right. Not likely. It is very fictional, but it's been reminding me of that story. A What story? Just so strange because that elevator footage. You'll have to watch it. Jeremy It is. Isn't the Cecil Hotel haunted too? It is. See, that's a thought You would know about the elevator game. Kazak Pagans did an episode at the Cecil, and he did the elevator game, and they were talking about a Alice. 00;55;37;23 - 00;55;58;02 Unknown I was probably in the back room when he said that. So I missed that part of it. Yeah. So he tried to imitate the game and but yeah, it's just the way she, like, peeks her head out, like she's looking for something. And then she goes back in and she peeks her head out again. And then it looks like she's. 00;55;58;03 - 00;56;23;12 Unknown It's what she does with her. Her arms. Yeah. Really freaks me out. It doesn't look. I mean, it doesn't look. Who knows what was happening? Yeah. Who knows what was happening with this poor girl? Because there was unfortunately, like, a lot of stuff happening in her life at this time, and it's all pretty heartbreaking. But what she was doing, like with her body like language and her body motions, was just bizarre. 00;56;23;21 - 00;56;50;14 Unknown I have I mean, I have no other way to say it, but anyways, I'm going to say it's a ghost possession. Well, in part of the elevator game, supposedly a woman's supposed to come on to the elevator and you're not supposed to talk to her. Yeah, and you're really not even supposed to look at our population that people say that they believe that that woman was actually on the elevator and she was talking to her, and that's why. 00;56;50;17 - 00;57;17;07 Unknown But like even those elevator doors, they didn't close that entire time. Yeah. And then she gets out and then they finally closed you know, it was just strange. They were open the entire time, so. Right. definitely. Rosa, let's go. I don't know. Yes, I don't think the Cecil's open, but. it's a different the building is still open. 00;57;17;07 - 00;57;37;09 Unknown It's still it's still a hotel. And I think you can go to like the room she was staying in and stuff like that. But it's a completely new hotel now. But people still investigate it. It's on my list, but I won't go alone for obvious reasons. No, I think we need to do podcast in fieldtrip. I like it looks for adventure. 00;57;37;11 - 00;58;03;21 Unknown I know my sister, her neighbors been listening to our podcast and she wants us to go to the raft house in Illinois. I've never heard of that. It's an Airbnb. B, it's supposedly the first possession in the United States. I you know, this house? my gosh, it's horrible. You guys at home could see my face. I just got really excited. 00;58;03;24 - 00;58;26;09 Unknown But some guy bought it and renovated it back to its original glory. And it's an Airbnb and you can rent it out for like 200 and some bucks and needs and on the weekend, Illinois is not that far. You should go. We should go. We let's do it. There's like a game for rooms or whatever in between your equipment and our equipment. 00;58;26;15 - 00;58;51;02 Unknown we could have some fun. Yeah, we have fun. So. Yeah. Courtney speaking. I was going to show us she has the same. Yeah. I'll send you guys a video of, like, how I get it to reverse Spirit box. yes, She gets. It's a reverse. You don't actually hear words unless actually go speak. so they're just white noise and then it's just the white noise. 00;58;51;07 - 00;59;11;18 Unknown Think or whatever. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I meant to do that. It's been kind of a wild week, but you're right. We don't have many trips planned for adventures right now. It's clear we need to find hotels and stuff like that. So. Yeah. Palmer Homes. yes. The Palmer House is another one I want to do. That's not too far from us either. 00;59;11;20 - 00;59;36;05 Unknown Like 45 minutes. I have a Palmer House story that I wrote up that I've been saving. And so we go to the Palmer House, but there's not any, like, elaborate stories like what happened to poor Elise the LAMB. But yeah, that's a sad story. That's a very sad story and disgusting in the same that. Yeah. I just thought she was that couple things. 00;59;36;08 - 00;59;58;04 Unknown Yes she was found in the tanks on top of the building. I heard that. Yeah. And the there was English because it weren't they saying that the water tanks are like kind of in the middle of the roof and how they had that she'd jump that far. Well yeah. She needed a ladder to get up there but to be able to lift and close the lid. 00;59;58;10 - 01;00;23;08 Unknown She went, the lid was closed. Yeah. It was really heavy. Right. And she wouldn't have been able to close it once she got in. I know that part. Yeah. Yeah. That part is gross, but yeah, makes my stomach turn. I will only drink. Even who? We were in Vegas, it was $9 for a bottle of water. I refuse to drink tap water out of hotel. 01;00;23;09 - 01;00;43;03 Unknown Fuck yeah. Place in the world where alcohol is cheaper. Yes, alcohol is cheaper than bottled water, which is crazy. really? Yeah. $9. I'm going there in a couple of months. Make sure you go to Walmart or Target and bring bottled water into your hotel, because it's if you buy it from the hotel, at least at the MGM, $9 a bottle. 01;00;43;05 - 01;01;17;15 Unknown Okay. We're staying at the Luxor to do like an investigation, so. how so? Excited. Very fun. All right. So we were at the mono yellow paper wallpaper. No, two rooms within the lab. Okay. The fluorescent lighting in level zero hums at a consistent frequency. This buzzing is notably louder and more obtrusive than ordinary fluorescent lights. An examination of the fixtures to determine the source has proven inconclusive. 01;01;17;15 - 01;01;46;17 Unknown So they don't know where it's getting power or where the sound is, like how it's generating louder. They can't figure out why. Additionally, the fluid saturating the carpet cannot be identified and it is not water, nor that it be consumed. I thought it was funny that they have to include that of their don't suck any liquids out of the carpet people because you don't know what it is that was going to be. 01;01;46;17 - 01;02;17;07 Unknown It's not water thing. Level zero is considered to be a linear space. It's possible to walk in a straight line and return to the starting point and end up in a completely different set of rooms than the ones previously traversed to. So almost like it's ever changing. So due to this phenomenon and the visual similarities between each room, consistent navigation of Level zero has proven to be very difficult. 01;02;17;10 - 01;02;53;06 Unknown Devices such as GPS locators and compasses fail to function within the level. Radio communications are audibly distorted and often proved to be unreliable. Above the ceiling tiles and level zero lies a cramped dark space roughly one meter in height. The air in this area is stale and thick with dust, making it difficult to breathe, and the electrical wire lines in the ceiling are coming from all directions, attempting to use this space as a means of navigation, as impractical as the ceiling tiles will easily give way under pressure. 01;02;53;09 - 01;03;18;12 Unknown The most prominent threat in Level zero is the stark lack of available resources as the fluid saturating the carpet has been deemed unsafe for human consumption. It's the fact that that's like a thing that you have to warn about. Like surely you haven't been stuck on level zero so long that you're dehydrated to the point of sucking something off the carpet, right? 01;03;18;29 - 01;03;44;07 Unknown most are likely to perish before managing to find an exit due to the extended dehydration, starvation and exhaustion. Well, there you go. Well, maybe I was wrong. I forgot to mention this is the Whiskey fan. So this is the one where they start building the rooms, the creatures, all of that stuff. So this is separate from that original that lip peeps poke or whatever. 01;03;44;09 - 01;04;13;24 Unknown So entrances and exits level zero and by extension, the back rooms can be accessed by accidentally. No clipping out of bounds in normal reality. In addition many levels can lead one to level zero access. There are five currently known methods of exiting level zero. A variety of factors will eventually cause the hallways to fade into level one. Breaking through a wall will lead you into level one. 01;04;13;26 - 01;04;50;05 Unknown Breaking through the floor may lead you to level 27. It also may lead you into the void. Rarely wandering far enough in any direction may lead you to the Manila room. One may occasionally find doorways constructed out of glass. These doors lead to level 13. I need a frickin flow chart by level 13. I don't know. They and every single one of these rooms has different ways to get into either to the next level or random levels. 01;04;50;07 - 01;05;26;21 Unknown Okay, so this will be your rabbit hole to report back on. Honestly, Yeah. The habitable zone. That's a hard word to say. A safe, stable and minimal entity counts. Level one is a massive warehouse with concrete floors and walls exposed rebar, dim fluorescent lights placed on the walls and low hanging fog with no discernible source. The fog often consolidates into condensation, forming puddles on the floor in inconsistent areas. 01;05;26;21 - 01;06;01;22 Unknown Unlike level zero, this level possesses a constant supply of water and electricity, which allows indefinite habitation by wanders, providing the appropriate precautions are taken. It's also far more expansive possessing staircases, elevators and isolated rooms and hallways. The fluorescent lights at any time can flicker and turn off for minutes or even hours. When this occurs, no hostile entities may appear and supplies may even vanish unexpectedly. 01;06;01;24 - 01;06;29;17 Unknown How rude those hours You're in there in the dark for hours, I think I prefer the fluorescent lights and then the humming. To be honest, these entities rarely attack in groups and they tend to avoid light and large gatherings of people. If the lights turn off, it's strongly advised to try to navigate more carefully by avoiding any strange noises and find secure rooms to seek shelter in. 01;06;29;19 - 01;06;51;20 Unknown It's also recommended to bring a light source of this occurs. Yeah, because you're just going to have a light source in your back pocket as you accidentally no clip into another realm, right? It's like you're planning to go. There is like a trading post. There's like different levels, there's different groups that are created within these that you can try to be a part of or not a part of. 01;06;51;20 - 01;07;30;17 Unknown And there's as we'll get into in the next level, I guess it's in this level, crates of supplies will appear and disappear randomly within the level, often containing a mixture of vital items, for example, food and arms and water, batteries, tarps, weaponry, clothing, medical supplies, as well as non-essential objects such as assorted car parts, boxes of crayons, used syringes, partially burned paper live mice, mice in a catatonic state that have been injected with an unknown substance, shoelaces, loose change, bundles of human hair. 01;07;30;19 - 01;08;06;29 Unknown Consequently, these crates should be approached with caution due to their contents unpredictability, but they can contain valuable resources. In addition, crude paintings and drawings with no apparent origin or meaning will appear on the walls and the floors. And they're also known to change in appearance and disappear when not in direct line or sight. Since light fixtures in level one are prone to flicker and fail at inconsistent interval and man, I need have a I need you doing great. 01;08;07;01 - 01;08;33;29 Unknown So basically they're just saying that things will disappear and reappear because of light and no light be careful of these crates. They can contain things that you really need, other things that can be dangerous and other just random. I mean, bundles of human hair. You know, the one that gets me is the used syringes. Yes. Why? Why? Why are they used so? 01;08;34;01 - 01;09;09;09 Unknown They brought up armor and water. Armor and water is the only water that you can drink in the back rooms. And if you drink expired, almond, there is severe consequences. And there's a list of the different consequences that I think I documented later. But Almond water is also used in trade. And then you can go to certain surplus areas that are kind of like a quote unquote store and trade some of your weird things for human hair. 01;09;09;12 - 01;09;43;28 Unknown Yeah, human hair, syringes. But the almond water known to be sweet, a sweet, sticky substance found in numerous levels across the back rooms. It's critical source of hydration and it has a slight nutritional value. It's a sweet almond, vanilla flavored fluid that can be found in bottles of several types, typically without a brand or label on them. Almond water can be found in clear water bottles, metal, water bottles, glass wine bottles and even cartons. 01;09;44;05 - 01;10;15;28 Unknown It can be traded for or traded with, and it can also be used to repel certain entities and cure ailments. Some levels even use it as a form of currency. Okay, who's the top ranked player this game? Because like, I mean, this is a lot of detail. There's a lot of detail. You know, somebody must have really took their time to go through every tree and like, look, there's in this one and think of all of these different things. 01;10;15;28 - 01;10;48;01 Unknown I mean, I guess that's what game creators do. But but I mean, it's also like these are just people writing story together, isn't it? Right. The collab stories, compilation stories like that. Yes. That's like nuts. The level of dedication that have to write for a thousand levels of essentially a video game. Right? How cool. Okay, so expired almond water looks just like normal almond water, except for it has green blue or white mold floating inside the bottle. 01;10;48;04 - 01;11;11;13 Unknown It smells like rotten milk with a hint of cheese. GROSS okay. Yeah. It says that it does have certain properties, but there's also good uses for it, but yet it's bad if drink it, but it doesn't say what the good uses are. But if you do drink it, you may get flu like symptoms, weakness in the muscles, bones or cartilage abdomen. 01;11;11;20 - 01;11;51;06 Unknown Aortic aneurysm loss, my glory, insomnia and general internal bleeding. Yeah. my gosh. That escalated quickly. Right? So a couple of the entities that are in level one, they lurk especially in dark areas. The known entities include adult face, slings, hounds, skin stealers, and there were scratchers, but they are now extinct. So what's a face ling? Do we know our face when our species of humanoid beings that roam the rooms? 01;11;51;08 - 01;12;21;14 Unknown These creatures are remnants of human beings. However, they harbor several unsettling and unorthodox features. Most explorers insist that they will look human enough from far away if certain parts of the body are concealed or if they are oriented in a certain way. Basically, from the images that I saw, their faces are blank. okay, so they're human. But their face is nothing. 01;12;21;14 - 01;12;51;10 Unknown Just empty, just skin. No, no nose, no mouth, but they have hair and everything else. So it's just interesting with the erased face, which is horrifying. And the hounds are humanoid and steers with canine attribute. It's they have uncapped black hair on their heads, large mouth filled with sharp teeth. They have long, bony limbs, sharp claws, and their eyes are fully white. 01;12;51;14 - 01;13;20;16 Unknown Lacking irises are pupils, and they walk around on all fours like a dog. Hence their names. There's of the more common hostile entities found in many levels of the back rooms, but are less common in the deeper levels. They're extremely dangerous and become agitated when they see someone in a hostile state. But they can be intimidated. Avoid hounds at all costs, even if one is in its neutral state. 01;13;20;23 - 01;13;42;22 Unknown So then each of these creatures has I mean, it just keeps going. They each have different states that they neutral aggravate that. I mean, I don't even remember. I didn't even go into all of that again that there's so much. Yeah, but this is like a rabbit hole. It is But it says throwing things may scare the hounds away. 01;13;42;24 - 01;14;15;29 Unknown Make number ten more commonly known as skin stealers are large humanoid that are commonly known where the skin of their victims as a disguise, which makes them rather difficult to identify. They are commonly observed to have the ability of mimicking human speech, albeit they're not very good at imitating. It's highly suggested to run away from any wander who seems to be repeating the same words or speaking in a monotone voice. 01;14;16;05 - 01;14;46;15 Unknown There's a rumor that's been circling around for many years that you're able to identify a skin stealer by the color of its blood while its presence red blood, skin stealers possess clear blood. So. But how can you tell you before you know? Yeah. When they're close enough? By the time I guess. Okay. Says that way to expose them stabbing, shooting or by any explosive. 01;14;46;18 - 01;15;21;27 Unknown Yeah, but it can also be a person. Yeah. You'll find out once you start. sure. They're bleeding, right? Damn, It was a human. I'm so sorry. Oops. My name? Yeah. This. Some of these are just crazy. As I mentioned, they do have, like, bases and outposts. There. Colonies. There's like, communities and there's, I guess that you'd have to find immune unlike who chooses to stay there. 01;15;21;27 - 01;15;51;29 Unknown But sometimes I guess it's not usually a choice, is it? No. Level two is called pipe dreams. It consists of long term concrete maintenance hallways with steam pipes lining the walls and ceilings. Doors are rarely found. They house metal shelves and ventilation ducts. The pipes cause the heat in level two to reach temperatures reporting to be 200 degrees Fahrenheit and higher. 01;15;52;00 - 01;16;16;29 Unknown God it can boil any wonder alive. Right? It's generally described as very decrepit compared to the other levels with. Cracks in the stone surfaces and pipes being rusted from what appears to be decades of neglect. Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, no one's going to be able to survive there, too. I mean. No, especially with that. He. That's right. 01;16;17;02 - 01;16;45;10 Unknown Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yuck. I don't like this one at all. Fall through the floor, get out of there. Or some sections of level two are completely devoid of light, while others are only lit by alternate sources of light such as flashlights and lamps. A notably musty smell can be found in areas where the pipes exist, and that's due to different species of mold growing on the pipes, walls and floors. 01;16;45;14 - 01;17;13;24 Unknown Despite the inherent humidity, water itself is scarce, except for a few small puddles scattered throughout these puddles should only be used as a source of water when one has no other supply. I'm sorry. Okay. Lap And up your floors. Honestly, since I've never heard about a bathroom so far here, right? yeah. I haven't even got had no more thought about that. 01;17;13;27 - 01;17;44;09 Unknown I honestly, I was probably what's on level one or level zero or whatever it is in the carpet. you definitely don't lap that up. I know that mental image man summarizing some of the is so and still is again we have the face leads, the hounds, the smiles and the extinct scratchers. Now I know why they're extinct, I guess. 01;17;44;12 - 01;18;11;08 Unknown How can any of them survive up there? I don't understand. So the smile was I did not do I Description of shoot. Let me go to that page quick. I can't believe that people have created this entire world. it's insane. And like said, if you go, I'll send you this, the link to this wicked fandom or whatever, and it's insane. 01;18;11;09 - 01;18;44;24 Unknown You just keep going and going and going. That's why I want to see what's on level 999. I'll look good on the 13th is why do we sit there right? Entities. The Smiler is one of the 13 coasters. yeah. The site looked up what they're supposed to be. They look intense. The smiles. Yeah. Says they're also known as the smiling things or the night hunters treacherous entities that roam most of the back room levels. 01;18;44;26 - 01;19;17;24 Unknown The only distinguishable features of the smiles are their beady eyes and their enormous grins carved across their faces. They kind of look like a Cheshire cat. Yeah, I think we're on the same page. Yeah, but, like, that's what I imagine. It's just the eyes and smile, nothing else. So there was another. And here the clumps, you know, they are hostile entities, which resemble massive clumps of human limbs which flail about in the sand in every direction. 01;19;17;26 - 01;19;47;04 Unknown They are known to inhabit events and other tight spaces. They literally the picture of it is like human arms and legs all put together in a ball that sounds like a braided Sanderson monster. I don't know if you guys read any of his books, but there's this thing in misfortune. It's like a mystery, and it's just supposedly people's, like, bodies kind of smushed together into these things. 01;19;47;06 - 01;20;08;26 Unknown And I think that's the right word for. Yeah, but anyways, let's see here. Levels. What did you say 13 is the first one. Yeah. Because we jump to that from level zero and I want to know why. okay. So it says that level 13 is a seemingly infinite apartment building with an extremely high number of floors within each floor. 01;20;08;26 - 01;20;27;10 Unknown There are many small residences, each with a number on the door. These numbers are in a system where it lists the floors, the section of the floor in the apartment number. The current design of the building is similar to that of a typical 1980s architecture. The walls in the hallway are white and the carpet is brown geometric wall designs. 01;20;27;13 - 01;20;52;25 Unknown This design is consistent throughout all the floors. So essentially it's just more hallways, I think. I wonder why it's so creepy. You can never get off of it. Well, I know, I know you picked this one, Jeremy. 999 is a floating tropical island that runs deep within a starry space like void. Yeah, I like in the USA. That sounds great. 01;20;52;25 - 01;21;16;15 Unknown Yeah. Yeah. How do you get to it, though? Because 13 is infinite. that's true. So how do you get off of it? Maybe. Well, that might just be like if you get to level 13 and this is all just. Yeah, me, me. But if you get trapped there, you got to find one of those warped floors. Yeah, because I feel like it's like you go in on level zero and that's pretty much like, game over. 01;21;16;15 - 01;21;38;00 Unknown This is where staying. I'm probably misinterpreting that, but I wonder if that's the case. You can interpret it any way you want, obviously, because that's what they're doing. It's everybody's it's a I just added to the story. You heard it here first, guys. That's right. Trademark. Trademark. But yeah, so your 999 is a beach level. yeah, I know. 01;21;38;00 - 01;22;06;12 Unknown That sounds like the nicest of all of them. Yeah, I want to go there. But it says on the top, it says that it has unchanging landscapes, unchanging structures. It's just unchanging. But it says the survival difficulty is class final. And what that mean, this is your final destination. Normally they'll have like little winks, right? But this one does not have a link to tell you what that means. 01;22;06;14 - 01;22;35;20 Unknown Another vocab term. But yeah, it's still it's crazy. I mean, there's so many and the stories and everything, but in a nutshell, that kind of wraps up the back rooms theory. And like I said, it was a hard one, harder than I thought to research because there's so many damn rabbit holes, right? You're lucky I didn't get lost and I just didn't poof and disappear. 01;22;35;23 - 01;22;57;01 Unknown Don't do that. We've missed you too much. But also that is so interesting to me. Just like the lore surrounding it, I'm definitely going to go watch that YouTube channel tonight and just see what all that's about. Because also I just can't get over the fact that it's gotten like what, over 100 million views since he started? Yeah, it's got to be creepy. 01;22;57;03 - 01;23;33;11 Unknown I was like, intrigued and like, I was researching and listening to this guy recap his stories. So it was another YouTuber recapping these, you know, short videos or whatever. And I'm like, Well, what happens next? What happens next? You know, I was getting sucked into it, too, but I'm like, no focus, focus, no squirrel moments. But I can see Jeremy getting into this with the video games and all, and you can literally see the gears turning only if you can make up your What if I can make my own levels? 01;23;33;14 - 01;23;57;27 Unknown You can. All you have to do is go into this wicked fandom and find a level that's empty And if it's make your own level, I like it. Then we'll have to do a podcast about my experience, please. All right. Well, that's it. Does anybody any other questions, comments, concerns? I Yeah, no, I just want to know why everything on the floor in level zero. 01;23;57;27 - 01;24;18;02 Unknown But other than that, I guess we'll never know what it is. Probably not. I don't know if we want to know it. Yeah. No. Yeah. It's almost not worth thinking about. No. All right, well, with that, I guess. Well, I don't think we have any. Do we have any updates or news or anything this week? I don't think so. 01;24;18;06 - 01;24;38;25 Unknown I don't think so either. Conundrum challenge. We have not had an answer to that one yet, so I'll leave that one out there for one more week. See if we can get somebody that can answer that riddle correctly. And if not, we'll move on to another riddle. But you don't go out there, see if you can get it and get your shout out the show. 01;24;38;28 - 01;25;09;04 Unknown But other than that, we love you. Goodbye. Love you. Bye, smelly. Later. Goodbye. Thanks for hanging out with us here at Total Conundrum. 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