#altered echoes

Part 1: The “Original Owner of the Raincoat”

 Fans in my experience tend to treat this theory as if it is baseless or random, so a big first step is to lay out some evidence and address the most popular “debunks” of it - starting with the most common but wildly misinterpreted moment, Otto’s recognition of the yellow raincoat. Typically I’d lay out evidence chronologically but this is the HUGE moment that is brought up as a debunk for Six = Cici so I’ll begin with it.

In TSON episode 6, when Noone finds a yellow raincoat, Otto is clearly alerted and reminded of Cici (we can tell because of context clues and the musical motif that plays, more on that later.) The point often brought up here by fans to prove it cannot be Six and must be RCG relies on Otto recognizing the yellow raincoat as a specific article of clothing Cici wore in the Counties. If this were true, then Cici could not be Six due to Six only acquiring a raincoat in the Nowhere…But here’s the thing, Otto does not even note the fact that Noone found a raincoat - he specifically focuses on the color yellow. If the raincoat were an exact article of clothing Cici wore, wouldn’t his reaction be even stronger here than asking if anyone else was around? Regardless, Otto never specifies that the outfit being a raincoat is important. This alone isn’t immediate proof of Cici not having owned a raincoat or being Six - but here’s what it does prove: Six being Cici would not retcon RCG originally owning the raincoat, because Otto does not latch onto the fact that it’s a raincoat. It is not canon that Cici wore a yellow raincoat, meaning RCG’s existence does not debunk her being Six. This means the criteria here for Cici’s identity isn’t that she wore a raincoat in the Counties, but rather, a connection to the color yellow.

Does Six have a connection to this color? Yes. When Six dons the raincoat in LN - the track played is called “true colours.” David Mervik in an interview (https://youtu.be/mPPNOb0RqBY?si=y0bEbpyJU7EtCFNg) when asked about the paintings of the girl and The Lady - said “If you think in terms of a dream or nightmare, maybe there’s a character in there pulled directly from your real life. But maybe there’s a character in there who just has one element of something from your real life, and that’s colored how they look there so yeah maybe you see a picture of a kid in a yellow dress or coat.

This painting in the files is included in a set named “Six paintings.” LNAE further backs the fact that this girl is intended to be Six from her past, as it is again spammed in her personal distorted childhood bedroom hallway and Transmission room, amidst other paintings of Six. Mervik describes the dress not as white, but yellow. 

One more note on the color topic, look at the small Hypnotist’s design. Yellow glasses and a yellow tie. Given his trauma and fixation on what happened to “his beloved Cici,” this design choice communicates that the color yellow by itself  is important enough to Otto to be reflected in his exaggerated Resident form. 

Therefore, Six does have connection to this color outside of her acquiring the raincoat, and RCG being the “original owner” does not interfere with Six being Cici.

Storytelling through music 

While TSON reuses most tracks, it still utilizes them to tell the story in a way that gives us  “reveals” via usage alone. In Episode 5 of TSON, Noone confronts Otto, asserting that maybe Cici chose to go to the Nowhere in order to get away from him. In this moment, the second Noone says the name “Cici,” Six’s theme begins. Her theme builds and builds throughout the rest of the scene as though it is haunting Otto and rising to the surface. This theme is not there for Noone either, as it continues strongly when Otto has gone to a different room and is reflecting on Cici. In this scene, Six’s theme is used to represent Cici’s presence in the narrative. The only other time Six’s theme plays in TSON? …when Noone finds a yellow raincoat. The music is communicating the reveal - Cici and Six’s theme is one in the same.

The Institute

In the near final concept art for Otto’s office within the institute, there are photos of Six. (4 but my pic here is of the clearer side) We know from TSON that Otto has a photo of Cici in his office, which based on this concept art- originally would have been exaggerated to multiple, communicating his desperation to find Cici. Funny fact here is this is a fan render using the official model, meaning they even googled “Six little nightmares” to get these. So Six’s theme has been used to represent Cici, and Six herself has been used for photos of Cici.

Since this is concept art, you can technically shrug it off if you really want…. but here’s why it’s harder to do that.

Six is still prominently featured in the Institute in the final game. With Descent to Nowhere, we now know for certain that Residents’environments are largely shaped and pulled from their inner lives in the Counties. The Stone Giant is full of jails due to Homer being a sheriff and imprisoning children, chains again reflecting her occupation + her leash for her pet ferret, an indoor zoo reflecting this unique pet of hers, a large amount of clocks, and her watch. This is what we see with The Hypnotist as well - the majority of the institute reflects Otto’s inner life in the Counties. The sweets, the Zahir’s Gaze painting, the Ferryman. etc. This is reflected in the paintings. There are paintings of the Stone Giant due to Otto’s “alliance” with Homer for example, and a room + painting representing Otto’s desperation to forge his own gateway to The Threshold. These are not all things Low would know about, they, like The Stone Giant are mostly pulled from Otto’s mind. Given this, the Six painting that can be found in The Institute is a huge piece of evidence that proves Otto somehow knew Six, in a way where she was prominent enough to get her own Nowhere generated painting.

But what if it’s not Six? What if it’s Noone? Isn’t she also an important character that Otto lost to the Nowhere?

She is, but here’s why this painting can *only* be Six. 

QUICK NOONE DEBUNK

This is actually the exact VLN concept art of Six but traced and reworked to fit its new context.

A picture of Noone does appear in LN3. Here on Otto’s conspiracy board, the only picture that is connected to Noone’s brain scan is a reused picture of Spoon Girl from

LN2 - but with the scribbles placed so that it looks like she has short hair and side bangs. This photo represents Noone. 

Furthermore, a photo of Six in this exact style exists in LN2. If Six were meant to be Noone, why not use that instead? If the painting is meant to be Noone, why use a design other than Noone’s?

4. When Myra is looking through Homer’s belongings in LN3, the panel focuses on the file of a CPI patient we don’t see on floor -1 that gets an odd amount of focus. In DTN, Otto claims Homer chose him to tend to floor -1 due to him being the only one to care about the children… but this is his unreliable narration. A child went missing under Otto’s care back in TSON. Homer is the chief of police and a former elected official in the Counties.. I think the real reason she chose him to tend to floor -1 is because she had blackmail. This means that this file Homer had in her “scheme” files is Noone, which is why it gets emphasis as DTN references many existing and future LN stories. It matches the edited Spoon Girl model used for Noone in LN3 as well. Lighter short hair and a side part.

Therefore, our one candidate is Six. Six is undeniably the character in this painting. But she’s wearing a hospital gown, so could it be that she was just a patient of Otto’s? No. Here's why (...aside from it being a very odd direction to place her story and a weird choice given we have three other characters, including the protagonist of LN3 who could be used in a painting simply meant to represent one of Otto’s patients.)

Painting analysis: 

 In this scene, Otto’s trauma has just been brought to the surface after hearing the Mall’s dialogue. He mentally reverts to Cici’s disappearance.

He is speaking to Cici here, not Noone…. making this line very interesting in what it implies about Cici.

"You're not sick."

This is why Six is in a hospital gown. Not because she was a patient of Otto’s, but because this painting represents the last time Otto saw her before she was taken to the Nowhere… a time where she would have been physically sick. 

Here’s why this is Otto’s last memory of Cici.

Sinking, drifting away, and crossing over an “ethereal ocean” to get to the Nowhere are all constantly used as metaphors for transitioning to the Nowhere in TSON.

DTN has a cool and tragic detail here, in that one symptom of The Sleep is their stomachs sounding like waves… because the coma patients are mentally in the Nowhere. Drifting away to Nowhere and crossing the ocean is exactly what Six is doing in this painting. On a bed no less. To Otto, this painting shows a sickly Cici being lost to the Nowhere during her sleep/final nightmare.

The placement of this painting is in the middle of The Ferryman catching a child, and Noone’s flower. This shows Otto’s chronological mental connection of these events. The Ferryman caught Cici. Cici became sick and drifted away to the Nowhere in her nightmares. Decades later, he meets Noone, who brings this trauma to the surface again.

The more analysis heavy stuff is done, but here’s a host of other evidence or neat links as well

Six is deeply tied to music. Even in the LN1 comic, the music box is obviously important to her. While it’s a myth that “Cecilia” means “six,” it does originate with Saint Cecilia - the patron saint of music.

Cici is the character who gave the Ferryman his official, canon name. This feels like a very relevant feat to give to a character named “fake six” in the files of a mobile spinoff (I love VLN this isn’t a stray)

You could say that the Hypnotist’s Resident design and boss fight parallel Monster Six’s in many ways with the stun feature, huge bodies, long arms and chase sequence structure.

In LNAE, a game stated to include hints towards Six’s story and echoes of her past, present and future - there is a shattered Spiral mirror in one of the levels. Given that these levels are largely influenced by Six’s mind and given form within the Transmission - I think this is an echo from Six’s future. A peek at what her brother is up to.

In the chest of clothing Noone finds, Mono’s trenchcoat is also there. I find it hard to believe personally that the outfits of our former protagonists are meant to be a reference to Mono and… raincoat girl.

Part 2: What was Six’s life like before the Nowhere?

This is the more character analysis/lore speculation section that I held off on in the evidence section. If Six is Cici, how does that add to her story? What does it tell us?

A really interesting moment included in TSON 5 is that when Noone first sees the photo of Cici, she bluntly comments that her and Otto do not look alike. Otto does not respond to this, instead getting prepared for the session, stuttering and sighing. The fact that Cici looks very different from Otto is important enough to get a little scene dedicated to it in the penultimate episode of TSON. To me, this implies that Otto and Cici are not related by blood, and not the same race. Otto’s reaction in this case shows him deeming Noone’s comment as somehow socially taboo, as she is a child who doesn’t know yet that this is a blunt thing to say. Cici/Six being adopted is something that I believe can be linked to so many aspects of Six’s story and journey through the Nowhere, so let’s get into it starting with some environmental storytelling from LNAE.

It’s important to note (so I don’t look like I’m grasping at straws) that LNAE is stated to have hints regarding Six’s story, and echoes of past events. The whole game after the very beginning takes place in the Transmission, which seems to give form to Six’s memories and struggles with “identity and belonging.” This is why LNAE is not just a retread of her time in the Nowhere. Thus, I will focus on analyzing the levels and paintings under the lens of how they relate to Six and her life/struggles.

The Train: Pre-Adoption. A runaway

There are three paintings of Six in the mansion level of LNAE - she is the only Visitor depicted in all of them, and the features match perfectly. Each painting of her is next to a family portrait, which will be important later. This painting is definitely her roughest. She’s in a nightgown with no shoes, a horrified bulging eye, messy long black hair poking out, and a giant box concealing her identity — this is where the train nightmare comes in. We can borrow some character analysis from Mono here - in LN, when a character’s face is covered, they are hiding something.

When you break down the fears present in the train chapter, it’s easy to see how it could relate to Six’s past as a runaway or refugee. She’s on a train going to a location she doesn’t know, surrounded by the upper class, and she is the only one on the train who does not belong there. She doesn’t have a ticket. I believe this can be tied to this painting of her, the earliest in her timeline, because she is distraught and hiding her identity. Wherever it is Six was running away from, she can’t risk being found out… and (a running trend you’ll notice) she feels out of place when surrounded by the upper class. Therein is her struggle with isolation and identity for this stage. Throughout Six’s story, there’s this repeated theme of her not belonging anywhere. She cycles through many Nowhere locations, is directly told she doesn’t belong in the LN1 comics, and as Cici, did not feel she truly fit into her new life. 

Her not originally being from the Counties (the city where as of now, it seems the Nowhere takes either all or most of its characteristics from with DTN’s reveals) works wonderfully with this theme. On a sad note, perhaps this is why Six is shown to be quick, outpacing all other kids so far. She’s used to looking out for herself, she is very familiar with how to run away.

The Orphanage

The next painting of Six takes place when she has arrived in the Counties, and in the care of some sort of orphanage. She is no longer hiding her identity, her face is visible and she has access to stuffed toys. This painting of Six is again, clearly lower class. Her hair is long and messy/uneven on the outside lines, her nightgown is tattered, and her stuffed bunny is torn and the stuffing is pouring out. An important thing to note about this stuffed bunny, is that Six is holding it with obvious care. It’s tattered and broken, but she’s hugging it closely and sincerely. Her hair is messy and her gown is tattered, but we can see her face. While her situation is unpleasant, Six is herself in this painting.This will be important in a bit.

Little Nightmares 1 Interlude:

Before AE, I had this same theory for the most part thanks to LN1’s possible hints towards Six being adopted. We know that the places Visitors are put are “the best continuation of their journey.” Six is put on the Maw because, according to Mervik, there are characteristics that reflect her life and shape how she views it.

Looking at LN1 through a lens of how it could relate to characteristics and fears present in Six’s life, The Maw’s “childcare” facilities  heavily resemble a twisted orphanage. What really stands out to me however, is the fact that the Lady, in files, is also referred to as “The Governess,”  a woman employed in a private household to teach, train, and educate children. This isn’t simply an outdated title either, as it appears in LN3’s files again to describe new assets related to the Lady. In the infamous blogpost where Mervik debunks Six being the Lady’s daughter (or even being remotely motherly in her dynamic with Six), he notes that the two are unrelated and thrown together by forces against their will… and that the Lady “wants to keep the child (Six) trapped forever.” Given this… what fear/ element of Six’s life does The Lady remind her of? A wealthy female authority figure that reflects Six’s culture, a governess that rules over an orphanage, and the need to keep Six trapped forever… Since we know that “mother” is ruled out…. I think we have a good candidate. To Six, the Lady represents the head of her orphanage, and Six’s fear that she will be stuck there forever, unable to escape. This would also be why Six envisions her orphanage-self (long messy hair, white gown) at the Lady’s side in this painting.

(quick sidebar that I don’t think the Lady IS the head of Six’s orphanage (though In not against speculating it), just that this is largely what she represents in Six’s mind. In TLO, the protagonist is reminded of the angry faces her parents would make by the antagonist’s anger. This is how I see it.)

“Riches” - post adoption

The final painting of Six parallels the previous.. except her class has clearly changed. Her messy long hair has been cleanly cut and brushed, she now wears a large fancy white gown instead of a tattered nightgown, and as opposed to her old brown and broken stuffed bunny - she now has a white, perfectly intact bunny doll. In this painting however, she is holding the bunny doll roughly, without care, and her face is scratched out. To me, this can be read as Six not feeling like she belongs in this new life. Separated from her culture and home, given this clean hair cut, fancy gowns and dolls… it’s not where she fits. There’s the identity and belonging theme again. She’s technically better off now, but doesn’t feel like it.

Family

In AE, we get this family portrait, often next to one of the 3 Six paintings. I believe this is a Nowhere representation of Six’s adoptive family: the parents, and young Otto. It’s worth noting that there is a prominent room in LN3 in which young Otto might also be represented by a bully.

The Hunter’s stuffed family that is also present in the mansion level has the same structure of mother, father, and son. The tables and other assets throughout the mansion are designed for four people. This is a family of four, but Six is left out.

LN2 interlude:

I don’t think the stuffed family is merely asset reuse, I think it shows that Six’s capture by the Hunter was thematically connected to her life in the Counties. Six is alone and trapped in the basement of this house, while a rough replica of her family structure (parents and brother) “eats dinner” above as a family. Isolation, even with her new family.

Interestingly, the stuffed dad has the son on his lap. This is similar to how in the family photo, the son is all the way on the father’s side instead of in the middle or by his mother.

Perhaps with her husband and son already having a tight bond, the mother latched onto Six as a perfect daughter to treat essentially like a doll. Ripping her from her old life and culture, and forcing one into a world where she doesn’t feel like she belongs. The mother gets the most emphasis, and shares traits with quite a few antagonists Six is put up against. Her face looks similar to the Pretender’s, with the circular blush and small face, while her neck is like the Teacher’s. This could help explain why Six is initially put on the nest, and is constantly put up against the upper class. The Pretender to her represents the type of child her adoptive mother wanted her to be.

For the school, I think it’s the clearest in terms of how it relates to Six’s story. While it calls back towards some moments in LN2’s school chapter, I think the implication goes deeper- Six was bullied in the Counties. There’s a locker you can open where you can see a plushie strung upside down just like Six, with gashes (remember the painting?) in it leaking cotton, and a drawing of a spiral and girl with her face crossed out next to it. Six is both being mocked for being strung up in chapter 2, and implied to have been bullied in her previous life as well.

The main emphasis seems to be on the Teacher however. Perhaps the Teacher treated her worse than most students in the Counties, or Six was reminded of her adopted mother in some ways by the Teacher’s strict demeanor. Whatever it is, Six’s new life in the Counties was fraught with identity issues and bullying at school.

Cici and Otto:

Visitors have been officially described as  “kids who felt out of place in the world.” 

I believe Six’s tragic tale of being forced to leave home (possibly on the run based on the hidden identity) and eventually being adopted by an out of touch upper class family could tie in really well with her feeling out of place and isolated in her Counties life. In terms of her dynamic with Otto, it explains why he never truly knew or understood her. Even though she clearly was kind enough to him to tell him about the Nowhere and seemingly look out for him, she had a whole realm of baggage and untold stories that he wouldn’t be able to grasp at that age… and so she chose the Nowhere. When Noone accuses Otto as being the reason Cici left, he remarks that he was “just a boy.” as a self defense coping mechanism. Based on the bully Otto, perhaps there was a point where he joined in, or did not stand up for Cici in the way she did for him. Otto says himself that he has always been cowardly… So at the end of the day, to her, he became just another bully. 

Cici was someone he looked up to, but could never understand. She had already been through so much, and still felt alone, emotionally neglected, and out of place. The Ferryman told her she would belong, somewhere safe and whimsical, somewhere she could just be herself again, not a perfect child or older sister.

Six’s character:

I’ve always disagreed with the popular interpretation of Six as this very icy character. I could go into it for a long time so I’ll try to keep this section clean, while Six is ominous and strange at times, she is also very whimsical. She’s a bold and intelligent kid who struggles with loneliness, identity and self destruction. Due to her hardships in life, she had to become someone who looks out for herself at a very young age. Just because this is the way she’s learned to be though, does not mean it is what she truly wants. Based on LN2, and the devs consistent comments about Six feeling vulnerable and alone in LN1, she *does* crave companionship, and for someone to care. During togetherness 2, Six seems genuinely shocked that Mono came back to help her - it’s a moment that clearly means a lot to her on a personal level. When you consider Six having been an isolated, self sufficient child, emotionally neglected by her family and relied on by her spoiled little brother, this makes a lot of sense. 

At the end of LN2, the Transmission shows Six a fantasy- and if I had to guess what it was, I’d say a place where she feels like she belongs and is safe. When it’s ripped away, this creates a hunger. She needs to chase down that feeling again. In LNAE, Six (literally) runs away from her memories and the person she was up until her capture in chapter 4. As she runs away, these memories fade into what the files call “oblivion.” Massive black holes that absorb her memories… she’s shutting them out and trying to get rid of Dark Six. My read of this is that Six rejects herself at the end of LN2, she rejects her past along with that. If there is nowhere she belongs, maybe the Nowhere’s next plan for her will involve giving her the twisted ability to forge her own at the cost of identity and warmth.