ARG / Caught Not Sleeping

You ever do something that you know wasn't going to help, but you do it anyway? And you don't even know why you're doing it?

Caught Not Sleeping is an Alternate Reality Game centered around the title character Caught, who initially goes to the Internet to seek help regarding his insomnia. It got worse from there.

The main YouTube channel can be found here. Secondary youtube channels for 1AmTheHelp3r, RoivasSevil, and samadoyht (aka Mirrors/Yasurc). Official twitter maintained by Natalie, and abandoned tumblr account. As well as viewer-compiled logs of all plot-related character visits to the Butterfly Tiny Chat.

Also, Caught Not Sleeping's main wiki page, set of timelines depending on how you wish to follow the story, Slendernation subforum for discussion (complete with its own thoroughly complete link list), and semi-official Tiny Chat room.

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Tropes:

• Amnesiac Hero: Caught reveals in a long night. that he doesn't remember anything about his childhood or past. Not even his own name.

• Arc Symbol: The Operator Symbol was this up through "For Your Review". Help3r's Alchemical symbol is also one of these.
• Arc Words:
  • "Welcome to the Game" and any other use of the word game.
  • "You ever do something that you know wasn't going to help, but you do it anyway? And you don't even know why you're doing it?"
  • "There are no coincidences."

• An Arm and a Leg: Warren lost use of one of each, due to a heroic Noodle Incident.
• Ascended Fangirl: When Natalie was first introduced, it was as a viewer who had just managed to find where Caught was living. She has since become a main character.
• The Assimilator: Mirrors seems to be this. After it took R3n3's light, it began calling itself Samadoyht (the reverse of Thyodamas, R3n3's butterfly name), and using her image on its youtube channel.
• Audience Participation: Heavy amounts of this in the form of the Butterflies, a downplayed form of the Ascended Fanbase with lots of Official Fan-Submitted Content.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The hug between Natalie and Caught at the end of Willow's Peak.

• The Big Board: Caught's chart of alliances on the wall of his apartment in The Coffin.
• Blood from the Mouth:
  • sleepwalking. Caught starts grinding and chattering his teeth while he sleeps, and wakes up with bleeding gums.
  • "A Dark Place" After Caught takes a good solid beating from Slenderman.
  • Aftermath When Natalie gets stabbed by the evil puppet Caught.
• Buffy Speak: In Willows Peak, Natalie has a bit of a communication breakdown trying to describe what she saw to Caught.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Caught walks by Natalie a few videos before her official introduction.
• Chess Motifs:
  • Scott Is seen winning against Caught multiple times in a flashback in A Hole In The Ground.
  • In Willow's Peak, Scott's body is found holding a chessboard.
  • Also in Willow's Peak, a chessboard is found covering a pit of blood.
  • A chessboard or checkerboard appears in an early RoivasSevil video.
• The Chosen One: According to Help3r, Checkers Valentine. With the audience as the Chooser of the Chosen One.
• Color Motif: The use of the color blue to represent "light" and "love," and thus also Roivas, who is most strongly associated with those.
• Come Alone: Yasurc: "It she we they want a single conversation, privately." *

• Creepy Blue Eyes:
  • Caught's eyes while sleepwalking in Rule #1
  • The butterflies' even glow in the Willows Peak Tape.^note  Also an example of Family Eye Resemblance since Roivas calls the butterflies a family.

• Curb-Stomp Battle: "A Dark Place"
• Cut Phone Lines: Yasurc did a variation on this when it cut off all communication between the Butterflies/other viewers, and most of the major characters.
• Deadpan Snarker: The sarcasm readings are off the charts with this one.
• Defector from Decadence: Devin finally gets fed up with his organization and Opts Out of an assignment to kill the butterfly Paradox/Loxura.
• Defiant to the End}: In "A Dark Place" Even after being beaten almost to death, Caught continues to tempt fate, saying "You still can't take me."

• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Caught leaves a gift for the 'slender man' as a God Test, resulting in a critical Skepticism Failure in "For Your Review".
• Don't Go in the Woods: After the discovery of the coffin, Lansing Place, Willows Peak, and "Dark Place"/Aftermath, this seems pretty justified. ^note Although, being Seattle, this could be hard.[/note]]

• Entry Point: Initially, players are hooked by trying to help Caught, solve his insomnia problem. This is presented by means of Youtube videos.

• Evil Twin: Actually, Caught has three of them. And they are puppets.
• Flower Motifs: Between Roivas' flower ritual, yasurc's habit of referring to Roivas as "Flower Dawn", and the flower that appeared in "_Look_Closer_", one of these seems to be developing.
• For Your Own Good: Caught's rationale for telling Natalie to go home and forget about him in The Umbrella.
• HA HA HA—No: Caught pulls one of these in Vlog 3.
• Happy Flashback: Happens a couple times in the form of a We Interrupt This Program with a Happier Home Movie. [[note]] Could also tie in with Transferable Memory
  • 1472 Lansing Place: 5 When Caught is out in the woods and the recorded video is replaced with old footage of birdwatching.
  • "A Dark Place" mostly in the form of Freeze Frame Bonuses.
  • Running The appearance of the woman in Natalie's room.
  • A hole in the ground. Some of the memories Natalie wanders through are of happier times for Caught and the Cranbrook runners.
• Hive Mind: yasurc/Mirrors may be one of these, due to the numerous pronouns it uses whenever it refers to itself.
• Human Notepad: In unknown footage when Caught discovers his arm is covered in the word "RUN." ^note May or may not be a Note to Self.

• Identity Amnesia: He is simply called Caught and claims to not remember his name.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: The umbrella Roivas leaves for Caught in a long night. Cue the Rain.

• Kryptonite Factor: The bottle that Help3r left for Caught in Lansing Place works like this on Slenderman. That is until it stops working.
• Leitmotif:
  • Help3r's theme
    • unknown footage: Right at the end. After a few seconds, all ambient noise and sounds of Caught running fall away leaving only the music.
    • Dead End: After Natalie discovers that Lansing Place is missing, she can hear the music coming from the woods.
    • 1472 Lansing Place: When Caught attempts to leave the house and ends up in the woods, the music can be heard.
  • "You Are My Sunshine"
    • Aftermath: Natalie hums it to herself for comfort.^note Until the puppets begin to sing along.
    • Running: Natalie listens to the song in her room.^note And then it's used again to lure her outside.
    • A hole in the ground.: The Butterflies sing the song to help RoivasSevil get Natalie out of the Dark Place.
• Living Battery: "Light", which powers Roivas and which Mirrors has attempted to steal.
• Malicious Misnaming: In vlog_03: Goodbye, Caught goes through several ridiculous alternatives to Checkers Valentine's name. It's played as an [1], but the tone reveals different.

• Mirror Self: yasurc, based on its name and a warning from Roivas, appears to be this for butterfly and player Crusay.
• Mocking Sing-Song: Caught's self-deprecating "I can't work a tripod" in A brand new day.
• Named Weapons: Natalie's baseball bat, Franklin: Lord of the Dance.

• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Yasurc has made several of these, often forcing the butterflies to walk straight into its trap.
• Only Friend: Natalie said that she and Caught are these for each other in Dead End.
• Open Sesame: Every door in Lansing Place will lead out into the middle of the woods unless the proper Winnie the Pooh character is spoken before attempting to open it.
• Power Parasite: Based on some of the things Yasurc has done, they may be after the butterflies' "light" to increase their power.^note  And they may need a form of invitation in order to get it.
• Pretty Butterflies: Pretty self explanatory.
• Protagonist Title
• Psychic Link: Warren has this with the Weaver, and apparently also with those whom the Weaver helps (in this case, Paradox/Loxura).
• Riddle Me This: Help3r's Rule #4 poems. The answer to each riddle was the password to a door in Lansing Place.
• Ritual Magic: Numerous examples of this have appeared so far, including
  • Roivas' flower ritual
  • Mirrors' two separate mirror rituals
  • the anti-Mirrors wards the Butterflies came up with
  • the attacks on Mirrors
  • the attacks on Searching_For_Loxura
  • the summoning of the Weaver
  • the leading of Rosemary to Mirrors
• Sadistic Choice: Yasurc forced R3n 3, one of the butterflies, into one of these, causing her to sacrifice her own light to save her friend's.
• Sleepwalking:

• Rule #1: One of Help3r's videos, which includes a sequence of Caught filming himself while sleepwalking.

• Squishy Wizard: Warren's connection to the Weaver makes him invaluable, though his injuries prevent him from engaging in physical combat.
• Survival Mantra: She tends to sing "You Are My Sunshine" in times of panic. Of course this is used against her as a taunt by a "Puppet Caught."
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Caught. Again.
• Tempting Fate: Caught jokingly tries to summon Slendy by drawing an Operator symbol and leaving a twenty dollar bill in the middle.
• Terms of Endangerment: yasurc/Mirrors calls the butterflies its "best friends", though it has made it clear it's not their friend.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Showtime has found his way to OOG butterfly group activities via OOG tumblrs, Mirrors has referenced discussions taking place on tumblr/OOG forums and edited the OOG wiki, and Roivas has pulled photographs and video from OOG facebook accounts and youtube channels. ^note And if they come anywhere near the tropes... ^note Aw, that's not the spirit at all miss >=D ^note  OH MY GOSH
  • Since January 2013, the butterfly Paradox/Loxura has been terrorized and attacked repeatedly by some malevolent entity.
  • After the butterfly NattiKarlo/Allyni assisted 1AmTheHelp3r in waking Caught, she experienced a number of negative side effects, including hostile hallucinations, dreams of an alternate reality, possession and psychic torture at the hands of Mirrors, and subsequent post-traumatic nightmares.
  • The butterfly Zero/Antiopa was nearly murdered by both the Mars Brothers, and 1AmTheHelp3r.
  • Due to the seriousness of Paradox/Loxura's and Zero/Antiopa's situations, the butterfly Chewie/Laparus was tasked with killing the Mars Brothers in exchange for Paradox/Loxura's continued protection.
• The Insomniac: The entire reason Caught starts the series, in fact.
• The Television Talks Back: The puppet T.V.s in 925 Cranbrook Dr.
• That Mysterious Thing: a long night. Caught got in a fight. With a guy. He had a nice coat.
• This Is Reality: A Double Inversion of this is used quite often. Phrased to sound more like a MST3K Mantra but delivered like a false reassurance, it plays on the fact that to the characters, this really is a Matter of Life and Death, but to the viewers, it's just an Alternate Reality Game.
  • The Puppets
    • 925 Cranbrook Dr. Puppet Caught says, "Welcome to the Game."
    • Aftermath the puppet tells Natalie, "It's just a game."
  • Yasurc (All from the May 14 visit)
    • "you take the sport out of the game..."
    • "you make this game and play all day we you us they all the same"
    • "good to see someone is paying attention, welcome to the game"
    • "you cannot cut what lives inside you us them to win the game you will have to try again"
    • "welcome to the game"
    • In the original - video, it said, "Welcome to the game, let's play."
  • The Showtime Killer
    • 1472 Lansing Place: Four. the radio news report describes a serial killer who leaves notes reading, "the show must go on" on all his victim's bodies.
    • Whenever the Showtime Killer enters the Tiny Chat he writes, "It's Show Time."
  • Roivas Sevil
    • "Learn to Play" Roivas's advice to Caught.
  • A different take on this trope also appears when the characters declare it to not be a game.
    • Roivas: "in a game... no one dies. this is *not* a game."
    • Help3r: "this game" is a horribly juvenile description.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: Roivas' hint about the umbrella^note  "Look for cover, but that's not going to help you." could be seen as this since it promptly caught fire after Caught found it.
• Traumatic Haircut: Help3r gives Caught one of these some time between Rule#2 and A Brand New Day.

• You Can't Go Home Again: Natalie tried to leave her problems and go home in Running, but Slenderman Knew Where She Lived.

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