#junction space

First, you go to the southernmost part of Outback Roads where the screen darkens. If you successfully dodge the black and white monster roaming around the area and reach a rock formation that looks like a key, you can use the skeleton key effect to unlock a door there.

Doing this brings you a monochrome blue bedroom. From here, you follow a triangular-patterned pathway to a gateway with serpentine motifs, guarded by black and white monsters on either side.

This takes you to a space with 4 doors. On the left, a red door with one dot, then an orange door with two dots, a green door with three dots and a blue door with four dots. Each door has the same serpentine decorations as the entryway. A person with black hair and a blue-gray sweatshirt vanishes after entering the green door. Irving can go through any of these doors, and doing so causes a slowed down version of a phone disconnecting sound effect to play. This takes you to an extremely staticky void space where letters appear on screen. After seeing this, Irving is returned to the nexus. 

The bestiary entry for this event reads: There was a glimpse of one of my friends in an area shrouded in an unwelcoming atmosphere. Perhaps I was no longer in my own dream.

That's a lot to unpack.

For starters, I think it’s pretty safe to say that each door represents a person here. Irving’s color is overwhelmingly green. His name literally means green water, and more importantly, his section of the Dreaming Serpents World is green. Green crystal trees, green doors, green river. 

Junction Space is obviously a space either created by, managed by, or otherwise connected to the serpents. The doors all have serpent motifs that look nearly identical to those seen in the Dreaming Serpents World. So -- the green door is his. This is also why Irving notes in the bestiary that he is, perhaps, “no longer in my own dream” if his friend went through his door. Put a pin in that for now, we’ll come back to it.

We can also determine the owner of one other door using this color-coordination method. Dreaming Serpents World only loops horizontally; you can see other colors in the far north and far south. There are blue crystal trees in the south, and red ones in the north.

You wanna know what else is in the north? In a hard to access spot near the door that sends Irving to Lowest Point is an out of reach semitransparent version of Lucky. This would make door number one -- the red door -- hers.

This also means that Irving and Lucky have opposite colors from each other -- red and green are typically opposites from each other on the color wheel. Their dominant outfit color has no bearing on their serpent door color either, which is important to note when determining the owners of the other doors. 

So, Lucky’s #1 and Irving’s #3. I made a theory earlier that the white monster outside of Junction Space is representative of Irving based on the fact that the racoon dog transforms into it when copying him. If we take this into account, there’s one other place in the game where Lucky’s #1 and Irving’s #3: their order in the bestiary.

This would make the alarmed person correspond to orange door #2, and Irving’s friend who we see at Junction Space correspond to blue door #4 (meaning the area in the south of Dreaming Serpents World is also theirs). This could also explain part of why the alarmed person is so prevalent in Irving’s dreams. Everyone else with a door is one of Irving’s friends, so maybe they’re a dream-version of a different one of his friends too, or a friend of a friend. Although, I don’t know why he wouldn’t mention that in the bestiary if so. I’ve previously speculated that the person with the beret you see at Vermillion Rooftops is perhaps closer to the “real world” form of the alarmed person since they bear quite a few design similarities (but noticeably lack alarms or other supernatural design aspects). However, that person doesn’t have a bestiary entry we can reference, so your guess is as good as mine.

I think it’s also safe to say the room we see in Junction Space belongs to friend #4. None of those decorations resemble how Lucky decorates her stall, and the computer on the desk isn’t the one we see in the Lowest Point event (which could be Lucky’s or Irving's, but we don’t see it anywhere in Irv's room). Note the stickers on the Lowest Point event computer, and the utter lack of stickers on the one on the desk.

Circling back to the actual events of Junction Space though -- the serpents tend to be heavily associated with phones. Entering any door in Dreaming Serpents World doesn’t prompt a door opening sound effect, but instead, a phone ringing. Similarly, the sound you hear after going through Junction Space is a telephone disconnect sound effect slowed down at 0.5x speed. You can hear the properly timed sound effect in one of the vents in the Ventilation Passageway, where Irving sits facing away from a black landline phone tangled up in an ominous red material.

Notably, that phone is NOT any of the ones Irving typically uses -- it's big, black, and has rounded speakers at both ends. His mobile phone is obviously small, rectangular, and blue. The one he uses to save in his bedroom is similarly small and rectangular (which you can see especially clearly in the game instructions). So, who’s hanging up on who here? It evidently doesn’t seem to be a good kind of hanging up either.

Possibility 1: The phone disconnect in Junction Space is represents a denial of letting Irving enter someone else’s dream. He’s not allowed to go into any of their spaces, even though (and possibly because) someone else is already in his. 

Possibility 2: Irving calls his friends to talk with them about his dreams, which is why you save the game with the phone (that’s him checking in with them). The serpents, on the other hand, call Irving (and his friends) because they want favors of some kind, which is what the purpose of Junction Space is, and which is why the Dreaming Serpents World doors are represented by a phone ringing. Whoever went through Irving’s door was going against some kind of plan or agreement, and Irving’s is not happy about it (see: Ventilation Space, and the monster trying to keep people out of Junction Space).

As an aside, you might see information on the Oversomnia wiki about Irving being “part of a ‘dream club’ whose members share their dreams using different methods.” This is information taken from itch.io descriptions of earlier releases, which you can still find via let’s play footage and the Wayback Machine. I’ve attached both older descriptions below here for reference, but I don’t know how much you can consider this information “canon” since the creator of the game has said to ignore versions that came before the current one and the current itch.io description mentions nothing along these lines. Regardless of whether or not there’s a club though, I think there’s still definitely in-game evidence for the fact that Irving has friends, they also happen to talk about dreams with each other, and they also happen to go onto each other's dreams sometimes (even if they maybe shouldn’t). 

Also, if they can all access each other's dreams, then friend #4 going through Irving’s door makes it hard to analyze Irving’s personality based solely on what he dreams about (not to mention any serpent influence) which is why I haven’t done a personality analysis for him yet like I did with Lucky lol

Anyways, I think Junction Space and the Dreaming Serpents World are opposite sides of the same coin. They both have doors created by the serpents and they both are spaces where Irving and his friends can see each other in their dreams. However, where Junction Space lets them hop into each other's dreams, Dreaming Serpents World actively separates them from each other with fences and castle walls. I think both spaces are set up by the serpents for some kind of endgame that benefits them at everyone else’s detriment. Serpents, in general, are NOT friendly forces in Irving’s dreams and are noted as being “harrowing” and “not good” by the bestiary. For example, seeing the embryo in the ventilation space sends Irving to Deathrow in a VERY literal way!!!

The serpent in Swamp World sends you to the Ventilation Passage, and there is NOTHING good there (besides the alarmed person chilling out with some tunes). The monster in the incomprehensible event -- who also bears a striking resemblance to the pillars in the Dreaming Serpents World -- dissolves another person there!! 

Speaking of the incomprehensible event -- despite its name, the symbols spoken there actually aren’t all that incomprehensible. There are 8 symbols total: Z, a musical coda (or possibly just a really shiny star -- more on that later), the character 无, an eyeball, Xp, a clock, å, and a sheep.

Half of these have to do with sleep: Z as in zzzz the sound when you’re sleeping, sheep as in counting sheep, and a clock as in an alarm clock (or possibly just time in general). The character 无 (which is also the final “word” the monster "says") means “nothing” or “negative,” which would make sense since it's spoken when the other figure disappears at the end of the event. The musical coda, on the other hand, aligns half with this idea of 'endings,' and half with another serpentine motif -- infinity, looping, and repetition. A coda is used in sheet music to denote where the exit from a repeated section of a song is. There are two other things associated with the serpents and looping. The first is the title screen logo, which shows a serpent in the shape of an infinity symbol. The second is the background of the Dreaming Serpents World, which depicts an ouroboros -- representative of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

From all this, I think it’s fair to say the serpents control the dream. Their symbols are all dream related, or cyclical. Maybe they even derive power from dreams somehow… 

It’s also worth noting that the serpents are just generally incomprehensible to the in-game characters anyways. That message at the end of Junction Space isn’t translatable. Take it from someone who’s run the event at least 10 times and has made multiple decoding efforts. The message is always different regardless of which door you enter. Each letter in each word is rolled from a set of 3 values not linked to any others. Each word always has the same number of letters, even if the letters themselves are different. Not to mention some of the “letters” don’t look like letters at all. The only word that stays consistent is the final four letter word at the bottom, which I always thought looked like “RANO” or something. Regardless, I don’t think there’s a message here you can translate. And if there IS a way to translate it, then I've got no clue... I'm out of ideas SOS...

Ok, so then what exactly is happening in the incomprehensible event? I personally think the event either depicts ending 1, or the serpents’ end goal (if they’re not the same thing). In the ending, Irving makes contact with the serpents, drowns in the green river, and vanishes from reality. In the incomprehensible event, someone makes contact with a serpent-headed monster, and then vanishes from reality at the serpent’s command. See the parallels? If it's true that the serpents work cyclically, then Irving jumping into the Green River at the end of the game possibly represents him giving himself over to the dream entirely (and the serpents, by extension). He vanishes from reality, but throws himself into this never ending cycle of dreaming and waking up. This is why you “wake up” after ending 1 and get a menu theme -- you’re not actually waking up in reality, you’re just waking up in a dream version of reality so you can continue the loop. Alternatively, Irving’s been stuck in that cycle, nothing was real the entire time (which is why the weather outside never changes, or maybe he just lives in Britain idk), and jumping into the Green River is a way of ending that cycle once and for all (even if it means erasing himself from reality entirely). 

Ok, so how real is reality then? Was Irving trapped from the start? How many times have We done this? At that rate, was friend #4 trying to save Irving by coming into the dream? What the HELL is going on in the abduction event too? Triggering it is so hyperspecific (get to Boiling Water World at night and then find a specific place to stand) and immediately after you wake up, there’s a face in your window. It could just be sleep paralysis, or maybe reality was a dream too.

I feel like it’s safe to say that the supernatural is probably to real in some extent in Oversomnia (there’s people vanishing from reality and connecting to each other's dreams after all), but this is the only instance of something DIRECTLY affecting reality and not just doing weird things in the dreamworld. That is, besides ending 1, which also takes place in the real version of Irving’s room (note position of the pillows, the bag in the bottom left corner, and the fact the doorways to the bathroom and kitchen are still there).

Which brings up to what the hell Lucky is doing in ending 1.

I think Lucky's the first victim of the serpents, which is also why her door is number 1. She’s their first contact. This makes the incomprehensible event both a memory AND a premonition then -- it's what they’ve done to her, and this is what they WILL do to you. That’s also why she’s semi-transparent in the Dreaming Serpents World up north; she’s not there anymore, but she used to be. It could also be that the door order in Junction Space indicates the order in which people reach their section of Dreaming Serpents World, which could also explain why the alarmed person is Like That. They’re also stuck in the dream, but are just kinda chilling. Ending 1 also seems to be “Lucky’s ending” in some capacity -- the emerald theme you get from it has clovers at its corners, the text reading “ending 1” is in her special font color, and she’s literally there during it.

This could also indicate that we’ll get 4 endings down the line? One for each friend, one for each door maybe? And I’ll be shocked if ending 1 isn’t a “bad end” in some capacity. I don’t think Lucky’s dead though -- I don’t think the serpents necessarily want people dead. I think they just want to use people for whatever weird metaphysical shit they’re doing. And if they DO want people dead, it’s to send them through the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Death is not their main endgame; you don’t trap people in an ouroboros if you just want them dead. I think the serpents want people to move into the dream dimension. Permanently. My closest guess as to why they want that is the embryo in the Ventilation Passage -- maybe they need some degree of mental energy for incubating whatever the hell that is. Or maybe they just get energy from dreams in general. I’m honestly not sure.

Speaking of Lucky, there’s one other event that prominently features her -- the Lowest Point.

I don't know for sure if the serpents are aliens, but they’re linked enough that I think you could definitely make an argument in favor of it. The event at the Lowest Point is outer-space centric: Irving sees something in the sky, and then there’s green aliens blocking him from going behind his house. But you know what you have to pass by in the elevator that takes you to Lowest Point? Dragon ship.

I think Lucky saw something on that computer that connected her with extraterrestrial life (hence why she glitches out and her face vanishes during said glitch out) and now they’re all screwed. Maybe the serpents/aliens/whatever communicate via radio waves and that’s why they’re in your phone and your computer, and that’s why electronics are such a big theme throughout Oversomnia in general. If the serpents are aliens, it could also explain why they’re so incomprehensible. Speaking of the incomprehensible event, one of the symbols the monster-headed figure speaks is an eyeball. The other most prominent eyeball in the game is the planet that stares at you during the stargazing event. The stargazing event also gives you menu theme 7, which happens to increase your chances of seeing the event at Lowest Point too… If you don’t want to interpret that one incomprehensible symbol as a sheet music coda, you could also see it as a star or planet, which would be yet another connection. It even resembles the pattern on the ground where the abduction event takes place...

The Lucky we see at Lowest Point is also definitively linked to Lucky in the Nexus. After seeing that event, Lucky will always be gone from her shop, leaving a little sign in her place (presumably reading something like “closed” or “back in a few”).

On the other hand, Lucky from the shop and Lucky from the ending don’t seem to be aware of each other. If you talk to Lucky at the shop after seeing ending 1, she asks if Irving is alright because he looks worried about something. Lucky saw him drown in ending 1. If shop Lucky was the same as ending Lucky, she wouldn’t need to ask this.

I don't know for sure which one is more “real,” but I think shop Lucky might just be Irving's imagination. The bestiary even refers to her with different terms compared to friend #4, saying that shop Lucky “looks like one of my friends” vs friend #4 who Irving catches a “glimpse of.” Not resembles, not looks like -- that friend was there.

I think shop Lucky is an accurate representation of her as a person, but I don’t think it’s one-to-one where she’s literally IN Irving's dreams. That’s also not to say shop Lucky is completely unaware of the ending though. She cuts herself off before she can ask if Irving is something, which implies that she also knows something.

I think ending Lucky is trapped in whatever serpent cycle is going, and that look over the shoulder in the ending isn’t a look of disdain or annoyance, it’s a look of “I can’t help you and you shouldn’t have done this.” At the end of the day, seeing ending 1 is a choice. You have to collect all the effects, find the right door in the Dreaming Serpents World, and then offer it all up to the serpents… that’s a lot of work for what amounts to Irving playing right into their hands. This would also be why the game continues after ending 1 AND gives you a menu theme that’s very Lucky-themed -- you’re joining her in dream hell in a sense. I also don’t think it’s the true ending. Alternatively, maybe Irving was doing all this to try and get her out of there, but uh. My man cannot swim. I guess.

If you really wanted to put Lucky in a bad light, I think you could argue that she’s doing this to trade places with him. He gets to go with the serpents and she gets to walk free since there’s someone else in the river now -- he’s trapped in the dream instead of her. I don’t think there’s much evidence for that though, and I still don’t think Lucky’s malicious. She shows genuine concern at her shop if you talk with her after the ending (and if you just talk with her with certain effects too), and regardless of how much of a connection there is between shop her and real her, she knew SOMETHING was up before cutting herself off.

Alternatively, shop Lucky IS real Lucky, but since she’s trapped in dreamland she can be anywhere at any time and you’re seeing her soul or a representation of Irving’s memory of her or something along those lines in the river. It would also explain why she’s always at the shop regardless of when you go to sleep if she’s stuck there.

This could also be why, if you show Lucky the tuning fork effect at the shop, she remarks "I used to have one of those, too. What's up?" If she had her own dream quest to reach the Dreaming Serpents World and then dropped off her effects, no wonder some of them would be gone. Tuning fork is one of the effects you need to get other effects after all, so she definitely would have had to pick it up at some point. Could also be why she’s selling temporary extras if she has some leftover from exploring and knows from experience how to get them.

Well wait, if she’s helping Irving in his quest to reach Dreaming Serpents World, then that makes it sounds like she’s working for the serpents. But also, if she can provide him with effects that won’t count towards the final total to unlock the door, maybe that’s also working against them? What does she need the money for anyways? Money looks like moons, which looks like outer space, which is serpent themed… but you only really need money to buy stuff from her or the vending machines? I have no idea.

TO SUMMARIZE:

Irving has friends! At least two (Lucky and Junction Space guy), but possibly three (alarmed person).

Irving’s friends can enter each other's dreams through Junction Space, but it’s probably not a good idea to do that.

Junction Space is managed by the serpents, who control dreams and want people to vanish from reality, which is what happens in ending 1.

Lucky is probably already a victim of that, hence her appearance in ending 1.

The serpents might also be aliens.

LAYER 1: SAFE BETS

Box Guy in the Basement World

REASONING: He literally turns into Irving when you use the angler effect. I don't know if it gets any more clear-cut than that. There's also a bunch of dust bunnies around, and bunnies in general tend to be one of Irving's symbols.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: This is an area pretty tucked-away from everything else (you have to solve a moving box puzzle to get here). Could be representative of how Irving sees himself -- he's hidden himself away in some dusty corner with a bed and a desk and doesn't want to be found.

Pan Flute Player in Boiling Water World (Bestiary Entry #12)

REASONING: In the Curtain Den, if you interact with the racoon dog when you have the wendigo effect equipped, the racoon dog will rapidly switch between forms, switching to the monster at Junction Space and the Pan Flute Player before stopping alltogether. If we follow the logic that the racoon dog is trying to copy Irving, then any forms it switches to are extensions of Irving himself.

There's also the fact that when you go to Lucky's stand with the deer effect equipped, she remarks "A deer, of course..." Her unsurprised response would imply Irving has some sort of history with deer, though what exactly that isn't really the focus of this post (and is also very confusing).

MEANING INTERPRETATION: ???????????????? As previously stated, Irving's relationship with deer is very confusing!! I'll probably tackle it in its own post eventually. Maybe this means that Irving played the pan flute at some point though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Pan Flute Player has an interesting reaction to the wendigo effect though. They stop playing music and have a shadow cast over their face.

The Monster at Junction Space (Bestiary Entry #3)

REASONING: Same as the Pan Flute Player -- the racoon dog in the Curtain Den transforms into the monster when copying Irving.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: The monster is one of the only chasers in the game, and the only one who chases you unprovoked, but the bestiary makes note of the fact that it's protecting something rather than lashing out in rage. This means that between the chaser and the skeleton key lock, Irving is subconsciously REALLY trying to keep himself away from Junction Space and whatever it represents (which, again, is extremely confusing and not really the focus of this post, though I do have a theory post about that half-drafted). The whole "Am I even in my own dream?" comment from the Bestiary might have something to do with it...

LAYER 2: PROBABLY, BUT COULD BE SOMEONE ELSE TOO

The Shadow from the Incomprehensible Event (Bestiary Entry #22)

REASONING: The incomprehensible event shows a looming figure saying some "incomprehensible words" (though most of them are either symbols of sleep or nothingness, so it's not all that incomprehensible). The person on the left dissolves when the speaking figure utters the character "无" meaning "nothing" or "negative." This resembles ending #1 of Oversomnia in a LOT of ways. The looming figure on the right bears a striking resemblance to the pillars in the Dreaming Serpents World (a resemblance that's somehow even more visually obvious in older versions of the game, as seen in the image on the far right) and the sleep-related symbols also align with the idea of a DREAMING serpent. Ending #1 also shows Irving drowning/dissolving in a green river at the very end before vanishing from reality, which would also align with the event here where the figure on the left dissolves.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: The serpents are a Lot to handle. What they want, where they came from, how real they are and their influence on reality are all questions at the core of Oversomnia's mysteries. To quote the bestiary though, whatever they want, it's probably not good. Either way -- how I see the event is that either the monster approached Irving, or Irving approached it, and the monster ended up meddling in Irving's affairs with the end result of him possibly vanishing. How real this vanishing is and how "real" ending #1 is are up for debate -- the fact you "wake up" after ending #1, get a menu theme, and can then go chat with Lucky about Irving's worries are suggests that ending #1 might just be another dream. Alternatively, maybe Irving DID vanish from reality and the rest of the game is a dream in the afterlife. Or maybe he's been dreaming this whole time and nothing was real, etc etc. Ending #1 and the serpents have a dedicated post coming later too. Anyways, the only reason I hesitate to say with 100% certainty that the dissolving figure IS Irving is because we know for a fact some of his friends are also caught up in this whole serpent business. Lucky's the obvious one given her presence beyond the gate at the very north of the Dreaming Serpents World, but the figure depicted here doesn't resemble her too much (no skirt, no coat, no clover). There's also Irving's friend in Junction Space (bestiary entry #4) who goes through a door adorned with distinctly serpentine iconography. So the dissolving figure could be Irving as seen in ending #1, or it could be one of his friends.

LAYER 3: EHH YOU COULD ARGUE THIS ONE EITHER WAY

Pallid Beings in the Emergency Room (Bestiary Entry #31)

REASONING: A lot of my logic in this is based on two assumptions. Firstly, that the monster protecting Junction Space IS in fact Irving, as I argued earlier in this post. Secondly, that the pallid creatures are sick versions of the monsters from junction space. My reasoning behind that second point is based on an earlier post I made noting that the monster and the pallid creatures have a lot of visual similarities -- primarily white in color, big heads and bodies but small legs and arms, melty, have horns (only present in some pallid creatures), and have black circles around their eyes with black rings around their necks (only present in the pallid creatures still capable of walking). Additionally, the monster at Junction Space will send you to the Emergency Room if you get caught by it.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: Irving might be sick in some way, or had some sort of serious illness before. Could also be a dream-sickness? The monsters are melty, and Irving does dissolve in ending #1. Could be representative of that. There's also this sprite in the left of Irving's bathroom that could be a pill bottle, but it could also just be his laundry detergent -- it's too small to say definitively either way.

Oversomnia does, in general though, have a decent number of "sickly"/"guarding someone" type events. There's obviously the emergency room and the nurse here, but there's also the bat creature protecting the sickly person who you get vampirism from (bestiary entry #6) as well as the monster guarding the wilting flower in the garden center basement (bestiary entry #37) so even if you don't buy this exact comparison, there is some other possible evidence for the broader Irving Illness Theory.

LAYER 4: OK NOW YOU'RE STRETCHING IT

Person on the Pink Beach (Bestiary Entry #9)

REASONING: This theory requires you to believe all the other comparisons I've made up until this point. The only way you get to the Pink Beach is through meeting the ghost in the emergency room by using the tuning fork. If the emergency room and the pallid creatures are already representative of Irving, then anything connecting to them probably is too. Additionally, the figure on the beach is wearing a bone mask, like the Pan Flute Player is, except the Pink Beach figure is covering their whole face. Additionally, both the Pink Beach and Boiling Water World are EXTREMELY pink areas with a focus on water. ALSO the Pink Beach's music is the same as the Title Screen of Oversomnia, which could indicate that the Pink Beach is more important and more broadly emblematic of Irving and his dreams than it initially lets on.

MEANING INTERPRETATION: The bestiary entry for this area reads "Hidden away in a place where it had been forgotten was a beach made of pink sand. The only person on the beach had also been forgotten…" You COULD possibly interpret "the only person on the beach" to mean Irving in this context which could indicate that his friends have forgotten about him, OR he's worried about being forgotten. 50/50 shot on that one, if you believe it at all. Alternatively, it could be representative of something Irving's forgotten about himself. This IS where you get the skeleton key effect after all, and the skeleton key is all about unlocking hidden dreams and hidden memories!!

The Bestiary description for friend #4 has Irving note that he is perhaps "no longer in his own dream." I've theorized in the past that Junction Space (where friend #4 is seen) is a place where dreams are linked together (this friend goes through a green door which is heavily implied to be representative of Irving's dreams, Irving then feels like his dreams are not his own, etc). Could this description be a nod towards the blending of the two dream worlds both in-canon and in real life with the content merge? Irving is "not in his own dreams" because some of them literally WEREN'T his at the start...

There's also the fact friend #4 and Tyran look rather similar to one another.

Blueish black hair, sweaters/jackets with a white stripe at the top and subtle checkerboard pattern towards the bottom, a single stray hair pixel in the top left, etc...

There's even a few visual similarities between the Junction Space bedroom and Tyran's bedroom in Mesonoxian. The main one that stands out to be me though is the circular blue rug in the middle of the room. They event have the same sideways L shape -- just flipped.

There's even similarities between the second room of Junction Space and the rest of the house. A sliding glass door leading outside, and different wood paneling for a kitchen space (to the left in Oversomnia, mostly obscured by the triangles, and to the right in Mesonoxian, again reinforcing this idea that the space might be flipped).

Even Outback Roads, the world Junction Space is located in, is an area that was in Mesonoxian first.

Hey, there's even serpents in Mesonoxian too. What are the odds.