Warning: due to the mystery format of the series, spoilers may be present.
For characters exclusive to Nifty, see here.
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Real Life People
Paul
Paul Leskowitz
"Alright, so uh, this is just to uh, prove to you that I'm not lying about this game I found."
The channel's narrator. He found the titular game Petscop and decided to play it to uncover its secrets. He also decided to record himself doing so and have it uploaded to YouTube. He has an unknown friend who he talks to and directs his commentary towards.- Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: When he shows up in other players' gameplay, his Guardian has a red pyramid for a head.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Like Care, Paul is represented by yellow text. However when his name is said in game it is written with the colour red; his avatar's head is also red when seen by other players.
- Disappeared Dad: He's mentioned his mother twice but he says nothing about his father. The inputs he types out before being cut off by something in an attempt to talk to Marvin correspond to "Da—", however.
- Identical Stranger: He is revealed to have the exact same facial features as the in-game character Care. He is also the same age (day and date) as a girl whom he states went missing (who is represented by Care). Notably, he reacts uncomfortably to the (at first censored) red vase in his Child Library room, an object which was previously involved in an incident where Marvin was emotionally abusive towards Care.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: What clues the audience into something being off in Petscop 11 is that he appears to be swearing a lot more in the 11th than he did in the videos before that. Weirdly, this is just after it is found out that he "passed ownership of the channel" to an enigmatic "us". We get the vibe that he's not continuing the videos of his own choosing.
- Put on a Bus: Has been absent since Petscop 15 and we don't know what happened to him. His voice is heard again for a time in Petscop 22, but the Green Key indicates this is more Anachronistic Order.
- The Stoic: Despite all the crazy stuff he sees, Paul manages to keep a calm attitude most of the time. Key word being most.
- Vague Age: One might guess from his voice that he is perhaps in his late teens or early twenties. As Carrie Mark, whom Paul shares an exact birthday with, was born on November 12, 1992, that would make Paul 24 years old when the first video was uploaded.
- The Voice: We only hear his voice in much of his playthroughs. As the series is just recordings of "a game [Paul] found," we never see him—only hear his commentary.
Paul's friend
Belle
The person for whom Paul recorded the first few videos. He is heard speaking to them via phone in some videos.
- Ambiguous Gender: For most of the series, Paul's friend never has their gender mentioned. It is not until near the end that we learn the friend is the female Belle.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She is Belle. Paul addresses her by name in Petscop 22.
- Happily Adopted: Takes offense to the notion that she is "not family," implying that she is an adopted non-blood relative.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Paul refers to them as a genius in Petscop 22. His response immediately after implies they reacted with modesty.Paul: "No, no, you're... you're a genius."
- Newhart Phone Call: Their only "appearances" have been when Paul is speaking on the phone with them, but we only ever hear Paul's side. She does appear in-game as Tiara.
- The Smart Guy: Paul describes them as possessing "puzzle genius." It's possible he wouldn't have gotten very far in the game without this friend's help.
- Two Aliases, One Character: She is also Tiara Leskowitz, the figure with a white head seen in-game.
- Vague Age: In Petscop 2, Paul makes mention of them coming home "next month," which would have been May 2017 based on upload date, suggesting that they may be a college student.
Jill (spoilers)
A woman in the real world whom Paul makes reference to sometimes. Is the leader of the Family and the real-world primary antagonist, and one of the series antagonists, who is forcing Paul to play Petscop for some unknown purpose.
- Ambiguously Evil: She's close enough with Paul that she was with him on his birthday. Despite this, their relationship seems antagonistic, with her serving as an envoy for the Family. Paul also does not want his friend to be contacted by Jill, claiming that they wouldn't be able to "escape" if she were to start doing so.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Alongside Marvin Mark in the game. As the leader/envoy of the Family, she is the antagonist of the real world side of the story, as she and the Family take over the Petscop channel halfway through, hold Paul hostage, and force him to play and record the game for some unknown purpose. It is unclear if she and Marvin are working together or not.
- Connected All Along: Later revealed to be Care's aunt.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: It is unclear why she is forcing Paul to play Petscop.
- Karma Houdini: We never see her or the Family receive any punishment for holding Paul hostage.
- Unknown Character: Despite being one of the two antagonists, she never appears in the game or in the commentary, and her relation to Paul is not known. He calls her by name, so she probably isn't his mother.
- Walking Spoiler: Unlike with Marvin, her malice is not immediately apparent.
The Family/Proprietors
"Please enjoy the recordings in Petscop! We do. :)"
The current owners of the Petscop YouTube channel, who took control of it from Paul.
- Ambiguously Evil: Though never outright confirmed, it is heavily implied that they are holding Paul hostage and are forcing him to play Petscop for some purpose.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Like with their leader, Aunt Jill, exactly what they intend to gain from forcing Paul to play Petscop is unclear.
- Karma Houdini: We never see them receive any punishment for holding Paul hostage.
- Unknown Character: Even more so than the other unknown characters, as besides their taking over the channel, the audience doesn't know anything about them or their motives. Whether they are an actual family, some kind of malevolent organization, or both, we don't know.
Rainer
Daniel Hammond
"When the messages run out, I'll be out of your hair forever and ever."
The mysterious creator of the game Petscop. The soundtrack's Bandcamp page
also lists him as the In-Universe composer, as well.
- Ambiguously Evil: At best, he could be seen as Creepy Good if we assume that he created Petscop, a frightening and incomprehensible game, in order to expose and/or punish Marvin for his crimes. At the same time, other individuals have become ensnared by the game, all of whom are innocents as far as we know.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: All white-on-black text boxes are messages from him.
- Connected All Along: He was Care's cousin and Marvin's nephew. It is also suggested that he is Daniel Hammond and that Michael Hammond is his brother.
- Despair Event Horizon: The death of his younger brother Mike appears to have affected him greatly, as there are numerous references to him in the game.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Implied at the end of Petscop 11, which has the scene of him giving Petscop to The Family in the first place, immediately before he goes to the bathroom. Paul then has to climb into the bathtub to progress. The episode ends with this message:Fuck you all, and fuck me as well. Check your bathroom now.
- In the unused music track "bathroom-tomb," a shot of Wavey and Randice's room, which corresponds to the bathroom in the House, is shown.
- Implied at the end of Petscop 11, which has the scene of him giving Petscop to The Family in the first place, immediately before he goes to the bathroom. Paul then has to climb into the bathtub to progress. The episode ends with this message:
- Mr. Exposition: He tends to explain some things involving the family through text boxes.
- Noodle Incident: Something happened between him and Marvin. The event, we can assume, was not nice.
- Pen Name: The first ever channel description puts Rainer's name in quotations, leading people to believe Rainer is a pseudonym for someone else, probably to hide the actual creator of the game, presumably Daniel, based on Petscop 19.
- Posthumous Character: It is implied that he was Driven to Suicide before Paul started playing his game.
- Unknown Character: He is the creator of Petscop (or at least the Newmaker Plane) and leaves notes for the players to find, but is never seen in person.
- Vague Age: Described as older than the older kids at a birthday party that Paul attended.
Thomas
A man who is said to be Care's uncle.
- The Ghost: Him being Care's uncle is the only thing we know about him.
Game Characters
Players
Guardian
- Ambiguous Gender: Neither Paul or the game ever refer to it directly by any gender identifiers, and the design is too bizarre to tell.
- Armless Biped: Like Marvin and Tiara, it lacks arms. This is lampshaded when it's mentioned that it doesn't know how to open doors because of this.
- Cartoon Creature: It's hard to say what it is or is meant to be.
- I Have Many Names: In early videos, the closest thing to a name the character had was "Newmaker" which was mentioned when the player asked Tool what he was. However, the In-Universe game files imply that the character is actually named "Guardian".
- No Name Given: "Newmaker" is implied to be a title of some kind, as Rainer signed one of his notes in-game with "Rainer, Newmaker."
- Player Character: The one that Paul plays as. It also happens to be the shared avatar of all Petscop players.
Marvin V. Mark
"Funny"
"Ha. Ha."
"Ha. Ha."
A mysterious recurring figure/player who first appears in Petscop 6. He serves as the in-game main antagonist who is responsible for many of the strange happenings and abuses his daughter Care.
- Abusive Parents: A few videos (Petscop 5 and 11 more specifically) imply that he's this, especially when he kidnaps Care. Petscop 11 also implies he's a Domestic Abuser and 20 revealed that he was emotionally abusive to his daughter Care.
- Alliterative Name: Marvin Mark
- Big Bad Ensemble: Alongside Jill and the Family in the real world. He is the one responsible for Care's abduction and abuse in an attempt to "rebirth" her, abused Tiara/Belle as well, and is hinted to be involved in the deaths of Michael Hammond and Lina Leskowitz. Basically all the mysterious events in the game tie back to him. It is unclear if he and Jill are working together or not.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Text relating to him is green.
- Crazy Homeless Person: According to Rainer, he was kicked out of the house by Anna and now lives in the school, which Rainer describes as a "dirty building," and he's single-mindedly obsessed with Care because of her resemblance to his dead friend.
- Dark Is Evil: When we first see him, he's in silhouette, and he has a dark color scheme overall. He is also one of the villains of the series and an Abusive Parent to Care.
- Evil Teacher: He is indicated to be a teacher at the school, which is referred to as "Marvin's school", and likely a music teacher given his knowledge of music. He also kidnapped Care and held her at the school for five months.
- Game Master: He possesses several in-game abilities that the other players do not.
- His movement speed is faster than normal, which in Petscop 20 is revealed to have been granted to him by Rainer.
- He can manipulate the Windmill in many various ways.
- He can spawn objects into the game, which he first demonstrates in Petscop 6 to communicate to Paul.
- He can also spawn in the pet Toneth, which is how Paul catches him. This is the only way to catch Toneth that we ever see.
- He controls the green Tool in the school, which he uses to direct Paul at times.
- While more likely a trained skill rather than a special ability, he is able to input commands into the game's text system much faster than Paul or Tiara, as if it is second nature to him.
- Conversely, there are things that Paul and Tiara are capable of that he is not. Marvin must rely on them to accomplish his goals.
- He cannot pick up any pieces. In fact, as Petscop 20 shows, his version of the game does not have any lying around at all. This is why he needs Paul and Tiara to collect 1000 of them (500 each) in order to activate the Machine.
- He cannot find the house or the school on his own, he needs to follow Paul to do so.
- While he can spawn in the Needles Piano for another player to use, he cannot, or will not, play it himself.
- Hidden Villain: We never see him in person, only his in-game character, and he is shrouded in mystery. We do know that he is a bad father to Care.
- Karma Houdini: He ultimately pulls a Villain: Exit, Stage Left and is never seen being punished for abusing Care and Tiara and attacking Paul, as well as the other acts he is implied to commit.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: It is never stated what the "V" stands for.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: A dark example occurs in Petscop 23, when Paul reveals which room he's in to Marvin.Thanks. Here I come.
- Sinister Silhouettes: First showed up as this, where he was known as the "shadow monster man."
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He leaves as Paul plays "Paul's melody" on the Needles Piano in the machine room. The green Tool disappears from the school at the same time.
- You No Take Candle: In later videos, he "talks" something like this. This might be justified because the answer responses in-game are limited as far as typing and wording goes.
Tiara
Tiara Leskowitz
- Blank White Eyes: Her eyes aren't coloured in. Until her appearance Petscop 22 where she inexplicably has pupils for some reason, she goes back to having no pupils in Petscop 23.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Text related to her is purple.
- The Ghost: Verging on The Voice, she gets a brief mention when Paul sees the notes in Quitter's Room and asks Tool one of the questions, getting the answer, "I'm not Tiara."
- Noodle Incident: Given that Rainer says she's not family in Petscop 12, one would have to ask exactly how she got to be involved with the other characters.
- Out of Focus: Though she seems to be somewhat important to the story (being one of three people who are currently playing Petscop) her character hasn't gotten much explanation or elaboration, in spite of being one of the first mentioned characters in the game.
- Same Surname Means Related: Possibly Subverted as Tiara's given last name is 'Leskowitz' like Lina, yet according to Rainer she is "not part of the family." This could mean that "Tiara" is family but Belle is not.
- The Smart Girl: Tool memorably describes her as "Petscop kid, very smart". In the internal recordings of her playthrough, she figures out the puzzles of Even Care very quickly.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: We get a clue that she's a girl because of the exaggerated eyelashes.
- Two Aliases, One Character: She is Paul's friend, named Belle.
Pets
General
"48 Pets remain here, at the time of writing."
The collectible characters of the game. Originally there were hundreds inhabiting the Gift Plane, but the owners had to close, and so 48 remain. The ostensible goal of the game is to collect them.
- Ambiguous Gender: The Pets don't have visible gender identifiers, but their gender seems to be clarified in their pause menu descriptions.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The ostensible goal of the game, as given by the sign at the beginning, is to collect all 48 pets scattered throughout the 8 levels.
Care/Carrie Mark
A girl that we repeatedly meet in the Newmaker Plane. The plot of the game seems to revolve around her.
- Abusive Parents: Petscop 11 has her being kidnapped by her father Marvin.
- Petscop 20 states he emotionally abused Care via shaving off her eyebrows and using a distorted reflection in a vase to convince her she was an ugly monster.
- Break the Cutie: When we first see her, she's in NLM status, where we see her crying into her hands.
- Cheerful Child: She loves to dance or, rather, she loved to before hitting NLM status.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Text relating to her is written in yellow.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Her room in the Child Library has no colour.
- Distinguishing Mark: Her lack of eyebrows. Episode 20 suggests Marvin shaved them off to make her look ugly.
- Floral Motifs: Daisies, given their showing up in her room and the fact that Paul finds her after plucking a daisy's petals. Petscop 20 implies its because Marvin abused her emotionally by using her reflection in a vase to convince her she was an hideous freak.
- No Brows: Her defining characteristic. However, as stated above, she used to have eyebrows.
- Reincarnation: May be the reincarnation of her late aunt Lina. That, or Marvin and/or Rainer are completely insane.
- Suddenly Voiced: Her voice clips from Petscop 17 are the first time we hear a real person speak who isn't Paul.
Toneth
Funny stupid blob monster
A bird pet that's a friend of Randice.- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Whenever his name is written, it is written in red.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Quite a literal example, though only in-universe. Toneth is mentioned in the text box at the end of Petscop 13, clarifying that he hasn't been added yet.
- Mercy Kill: His description mentions this to do with a dog that was injured in a car accident. The dog turned out fine but, for some reason, the writer of Toneth's description mentioned wanting to put the dog down.
- Noodle Incident: We get more details than the usual as, from what we can guess, he got hurt in a car accident.
- Those Two Guys: We see him and Randice together in a picture, where it's mentioned that they're friends.
Randice
If you are considering Randice, you should adopt Wavey as well.
Wavey knows how to trick Randice.
A pet that's a flower.Wavey knows how to trick Randice.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Whenever his name is written, it is green.
- The Faceless: Because he's a flower.
- The Mentally Disturbed: His bio stating that "he does need water, but not as much as he thinks" evokes the image of an eating disorder.
- Plant Person: He is a sentient flower. Although, like most pets, he never speaks, he is said to be friends with Toneth and wants water, "but not as much as he thinks."
Amber
What's the safest place you can put her in? You should start thinking about that.
A large ball pet.- Aerith and Bob: Unlike the other pets (besides maybe Randice), her name is a more conventional one.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Whenever her name is written, it is blue.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We don't know why she prefers to be in a cage but it's probably not an idea you want to dwell on.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Her preferring to be in a cage alludes to this.
- Vague Age: We learn little of her (or any other pets') age, other than the fact that she is "young."
Roneth
He's good.
A bird-plant hybrid pet.
- Chekhov's Gun: His looking both ways in the first video.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Roneth looks truly odd, being a bird's head mounted atop a barbed, purple stem or vine, which seems to be erupting from a bean.
- Noodle Incident: According to Petscop 13, the reason he looks both ways is because he saw his older half-brother Toneth getting hurt in what's implied to be a car accident.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: His description mentions he doesn't get into trouble because he learns from his older half-sibling (Toneth) and his mistakes so as to not make them himself.He doesn't get into trouble. You won't have to watch him all the time. He's good.
Pen
I don't know what she's doing here.
A pet that wants to be a mathematician.- Amazing Technicolor Population: She has bright yellow skin.
- Cartoon Creature: While the other pets we have a clue of, it's hard to describe what Pen is. Her torso seems to be sort of an umbrella, she looks something like a doll, or, if we remember her connection to math, she could look like a scale (this one), but that's all you can really compare to real life besides the fact that she has a face.
- Deaf Composer: Implied. It's mentioned in her description that she's completely deaf (and wouldn't know what sound is), yet she's found/caught in a room that uses music. She also seems to be holding the ball that is used in the Sound Test menu.
- Eyes Always Shut: Even as far back as the concept art, her eyes were always closed.
Wavey
He is afraid of everything. He is especially afraid of freezing.
A rain cloud pet.- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Randice's bio states Wavey "knows how to trick Randice", most likely regarding his over-consumption of water.
- Meaningful Name: Wavey does have a wavy look.
- The Mentally Disturbed: He is afraid of everything and believes that he is never the same person for more than a few seconds, suggesting that he suffers from some kind of delusional condition.
Hudson
- Cartoon Creature: It is a strange mix of a bee and a pendulum.
- Dummied Out: In-Universe. As far as the Petscop lore goes, it is this, as it doesn't make an appearance in the game.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Its pupils look like little stitches; small slits with other lines intersecting with them.
- Meaningful Name: As its name indicates, it was originally envisioned as a sun, before evolving into a bee-like creature.
Others
Tool
I don't know
An odd object that Paul encounters in the Newmaker Plane.- Ambiguous Gender: Being a giant living object with no discernible characteristics, it does not seem to have a gender.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Tool is usually red, but turns purple whenever Tiara communicates through it. In the school, a separate green Tool will follow and direct Paul. It's associated with Marvin's presence and may be controlled by him.
- It Can Think: At first, it doesn't seem to be sentient. Then Paul asks it a question, and it responds "I don't know" ... and then, without any prompting, it tells Paul to "keep watching the windmill."
- Living Prop: Players only interact with it by asking questions and not much else.
- Mr. Exposition: The closest thing to an expositor we have, providing a text box to ask questions - though it rarely returns a helpful answer.
Michael Hammond
Mike was a gift.
A child we don't see in-game besides his gravestone.- Break the Cutie: In Petscop 11, Rainer implies that, like Care, Michael had the "A, B and NLM" stages like Care does but was too far gone in the last stage to be helped. However, we don't know if he was referring to Michael Hammond specifically or not.
- Creepy Changing Painting: His gravestone seems to be acting like this, as its eyebrows or nose disappears at random intervals.
- However, this may be a result of the PlayStation's rendering.
- Death of a Child: We only see his tombstone and the inscription mentioning that he was about seven when he died.
- Noodle Incident: We never find out exactly how he died, however, the yellow version of his room and his apparent connection with Toneth implies that cars had something to do with it.
- Unknown Character: Well, he's dead, so there isn't too much to know. However, we get some details from both versions of his room, in which case, the tweezers imply that he might have had his eyebrows plucked and he wore glasses (in the Eyebrows version).
Anna Mark
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Anything written that's related to her is in blue.
- Domestic Abuse: Petscop 11 implies that she (and Care) were on the receiving end of this.
Windmill Girl
Lina Leskowitz
You found her.
You may visit her room.
A mysterious figure we see in the Windmill during Petscop 9.You may visit her room.
- The Bus Came Back: She reappears in the final scene of the series, sitting on a bench, "waiting for her son," likely Paul. It is indicated to be her spirit of sorts.
- Death of a Child: She was around 9 years old at the time of her death.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Like Care's room, her room has no colour, however, her room is brighter.
- Distinguishing Mark: Like Care, she lacks eyebrows. However, unlike Care, her lack of eyebrows isn't really explained.
- Gory Discretion Shot: If one interprets the scene of Paul plunging a Tool towards her to be a murder.
- No Brows: Her defining characteristic, as mentioned above.
- Noodle Incident: Exactly what happened to her? We don't know besides that Marvin may have had a hand in it and that she was never seen again after that. Petscop 17 heavily implies she was run over by a car while nobody was paying attention to her, but we still have no information beyond this, let alone who did it.
- Posthumous Character: She died in 1977. How is not clear, but it is implied to be either a car accident or something involving the windmill.
- Small Role, Big Impact: We only see her in Petscop 9, and all we know is that something happened to her and, from what's said, she is Anna's sister and Care's aunt. But her mysterious death seems to be one of the things that motivated Rainer to create Petscop.
- Strong Family Resemblance: If we take it that she's Care's aunt and Care's resemblance to her is why Marvin seems to gravitate towards her.
