Ello there! I love Lore hunting, without solving ciphers. And I assume you just like lore- SOOOOOO, Let's start with a... SPOILER WARNING! GO PLAY THE ACTUAL GAME- IT'S FUN! PLEASE GO CHECK OUT https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/928104530/ Hopefully it works ;-; AND ALSO GO CHECK @patchy_bug Soooo, Spoiler warning just in case you didn't wish to read above >:( Let's start with the whole plot (or the outside plot) of A place to stay :) You, are a funny cat. Everyone you talk to also mentions it, but you are in the snow- and want a place to stay, as said by the name. You do multiple quests to get the items you need to rent a 5 STAR HOTEL :3 Now, I hope you have gotten the second ending! :) But in short, you tap on a painting corner- give 5 bells, wake up in a different area, and find someone named Lunacie. She found a place for you to stay. SOOOO Now I'm gonna pry into this! Your player character- is Lio. YOU are Lio. Nowwwww.... We have those established, The rat. and the Lamppost, if you decode the cipher- The rat says, "Things can’t go on like this forever and she knows that. That’s why she brought you here, ????" (Thanks to Dartboards for this! Their project is linked on "A place to stay" GO CHECK IT OUT!) I assume, The rat is referring to Luna. The rat is also tied with being able to wake up- Or waking up in general. The reason why I assume the rat is referring to Luna is because the moon, or night is usually depicting sleep or tiredness. And Luna is just... Literally the moon in cat form. Back to the rat- In his description in the end, it shows what he likes and dislikes. He Likes Wake, But hates Up. Up probably means the moon- Since it's in the sky the whole time, and it just so happens... THE RAT IS IN THE ONLY COVERED SPACE. Completely blocked from the moon. And his WHOLE QUEST REVOLVES AROUND NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE THE SKY. The lamppost- Probably is helping because it likes being useful :) I literally don't have anything on it. Now... THIMBLE! The cat patchwork thing- One of my favorites too! In his Description end thing in the book, There's an extra line saying, "What are you doing here?: And why don't you like ###?" He liked seeing, and he disliked Lio. I think the scratched out words were Lio's name. If you look at his neck, he has the same collar looking thing as Lio, A blacked out bell there as Lio. He looks honestly like a plush copy of Lio, with different colors. AH Now- Some lore and stuff, Apparently Thimble is glad they're not "real brothers" (Ty Tangy_Eats_Mcflurrys to put that to my attention) Which could tie into why they look like each other :) Maybe Thimble was made in imitation of Lio >:) Now, To Lio. They look like the depiction of the sky, sun, and snow all in one. Their dream form looks more child-like and chibi than the awake one. And Luna. She looks like the moon- Sort of a Crescent moon like the ones over the sky in both dream and awake world.
I hope that's everything, Now into the actual theory. What if Luna trapped Lio in a dream world, somehow. Because she was afraid of being overshadowed by the sun- Lio. I can infer things because of the sketch of a Crescent moon over the sun in the rat's page. That's only the first theory though. Second! What if Thimble was sick? Or about to not be alive? Lio tried to save Thimble by turning them into a patchwork cat. But, Thimble hated not being able to see, and by extension- Hates Lio for doing this to them. Lio started to well... Not like what they did, and regretted it. Slowly their mental health slowly well... Deteriorated, which is why their spikes around their head in the real world are so small and much darker colored. So Lio asked Luna to transport them to a dream world which they never made Thimble into a patchwork cat. Which, she did. And Lio was there for... Many many days (I have no specific time frame) Until, Finally, Luna decided to bring them into a different Dream world, of which she let all of their friends try and help Lio out of the dream, and overall Succeed. And finally. What if Lio... Was in the grave? Luna grieved so hard, she made Thimble. A friend she made to replace Lio, but... It didn't feel that same for Luna. Which is why Thimble... HATES Lio. THIMBLE wasn't enough to fill the hole in Lunacie's heart. She then made a dream world. Filled it with her real friends, and... Made a fake version of Lio. Completely contrast to their weakened state before they were buried. She wanted to remember them as well... The cat they knew before. So in place of Lio, she trapped a different cat. Patchwork, like Thimble but more... Realistic. She kept replaying the dream over and over. Watching from above, she used the bells to hide their memories of the replays, and the constant continuation. After a few dozen re-runs... Her friends finally intervened, and she listened. They brought all the memory bells to Lunacie in the painting, and let them free through the door in and out of the dream world. And then... She broke the device that made the dream world. The little (what I assume is) Sun. Ello! If you read this far- GOOD FOR YOU! These theories are not canon at all! None of this is real, and everybody has their own interpretations! That is all, Make sure to check out both @Dartboard anddd @patchy_bug ty for reading :) And also sorry for all the "What-ifs"
