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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Welcome to the [[Trope Namer|Black Bug Room]].''
''Everyone has their own Black Bug Room.''
''This is yours, Scott.''
|''[[New X-Men]]'' #116}}
The opposite of the [[Happy Place]] and the darkest corner of the [[Mental World]], the '''Black Bug Room''' is the place inside a person's head where all of his or her negative feelings dwell and fester. A person's consciousness may get sent there when his or her mind breaks under the strain, or other characters may end up there by taking a wrong turn during a [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]].
In movies, entering the Room is often shown with a [[Madness Montage]]. Compare [[Room 101]] for the non-metaphysical version with all the same effects. Not to be confused with [[Debug Room]].
{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is the event in ''[[X-Men|New X-Men]]'' #116, where Cassandra Nova [http://en.marveldatabase.com/Black_Bug_Room sends Cyclops there].
** It's brought back in ''Astonishing X-Men'' #14, where Emma Frost brings him there for some [[Psychic Surgery]].
* After a group of villagers hangs the titular [[Anti-Hero]] protagonist of ''[[Nemesis the Warlock]]'', he kills one of the culprits with a literal
* [[Scott Pilgrim]]'s worst enemy Gideon Graves specializes in this.
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* This is what hell is like for the main character's wife in ''[[What Dreams May Come]]''.
* In ''[[The Cell]],'' a lot of Carl Stargher's subconsciousness functions as his
* The Hospital from ''[[Jacob's Ladder]]''. Complete with grimacing eyeless anesthesiologist of doom.
* ''[[Flatliners]]'' involves accessing a
* ''[[Inception]]'' has this in the form of Cobb's reconstructions of his memories. Specifically, of his greatest regrets.
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* [[Dollhouse|The Attic]]
* In the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Terrorform", a planetoid is transformed into a physical representation of Rimmer's Black Bug Room. It turns out to be designed to represent his entire [[Mental World]]. Unfortunately, most of Rimmer's psyche is
* Glory's description of the madness she induces to Tara in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' strongly suggests this.
{{quote|'''Glory:''' Think about it. You think your hand hurts? Imagine what you'd feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain. ''(Tara looks very scared)'' It doesn't kill you. What it does ... is make you feel like you're in a noisy little dark room ... ''(Glory frowns and fidgets uncomfortably)'' naked and ashamed ... and there are things in the dark that need to hurt you because you're bad ... little pinching things that go in your ears ... ''(Tara begins to cry)'' and crawl on the inside of your skull. And you know ... that if the noise and the crawling would stop ... that you could remember how to get out. But you never, ever will.}}
* In ''[[Farscape]]'', the episode "Won't Get Fooled Again" involves Crichton becoming trapped in a [[Mental World]] that becomes progressively
** "Mental As Anything" gives D'Argo a
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'', this (referred to as "the Quiet") is one of the possible results of botching a spell, especially one that relates to mind magic. The mage goes on a [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]] through their
** So it's [[Twin Peaks|the Black Lodge.]]
** In ''[[Mage: The Awakening|Awakening]]'', Insanity Realms are said to by far be the most dangerous and disturbing parts of the [[Mental World|Oneiros]].
* ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]'' has a similar example known as the Harrowing, which occurs when a wraith is discorporated (takes enough damage to lose coherency). It's as much a struggle against one's own personal nightmares as a fight against some of the more insidious influences of [[Eldritch Abomination|Oblivion]].
* If you botch a Pilot Safety/Nightmare check in ''[[Bliss Stage]]'', this is where you end up. Your Anchor loses control of the dream and the other players get to add [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|personalized]] [[Nightmare Fuel]] to the narration.
* This trope is the bread and butter of manitous that animate [[Came Back Wrong|the Harrowed]] in [[Deadlands]]. Every time a Harrowed goes asleep, the manitou puts them into their
** Subverted with [[Hero-Killer|Jasper Stone]]. His manitou has no power over him and is himself afraid of him.
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* In ''[[Psychonauts]]'', a secret room in "Milla's Dance Party" is a cage made of fire with ghostly monsters behind it, whispering menacing things about a tragedy from Milla's past. Keep in mind the ENTIRE rest of the level has a bright, disco/party theme, and this single room is the disturbing exception.
** This is the only time you'll get to take a good look at the monsters-you'll see them twice more over the course of the game, and you'll be busy fighting them both times. They're a representation of a person's nightmares. They're caged up here because Milla has iron control over them, which, considering what they actually ''are'' (dig the memory reel in the vault you find nearby and you'll see what I mean), is pretty impressive given how relevant they are to her current job.
*** The nightmares were actually originally designed to be Milla's personal demons, not as generic nightmares. [https://web.archive.org/web/20111106034011/http://www.doublefine.com/Psycho-pedia/Nightmare/ The developers moved them] to the Milkman stage because it didn't make sense story-wise for children to be attacked during a training lesson from a fully-fledged Psychonaut. Their design matches up with the tragic secret locked in her vault. Milla is constantly running this noisy party in her mind to {{spoiler|drown out the nightmare-inducing memories of her childrens' cries as they died in a fire. Seriously, ouch...}}
* The ''entire town'' of ''[[Silent Hill]]'' may be one of these. Also, the dark room full of literal bugs in the Historical Society of ''[[Silent Hill 2]]''.
* The {{spoiler|entire game}} in ''[[Twisted Metal]]: Black'' is either {{spoiler|Sweet Tooth's}}
* In ''[[Second Sight]],'' the interrogation room appears to function as this during John Vattic's flashbacks and visions. {{spoiler|Or ''does'' it?}}
* The elevator in ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]],'' where Ellen is confronted by a biography of her traumatic
* After being temporarily consumed by the Nightmare in ''[[Devil May Cry]],'' Dante retreats into his
* [[Drakengard]] 2 features this near the end of the game, when Nowe travels into Manah's mind to save her from a [[Heroic BSOD]]. [[Nightmare Fuel|It's freaky enough to begin with]], what with the series of empty doorframes, and having to chase around the constantly teleporting [[Creepy Child]]. And then you have to fight a goddamn army of [[Nightmare Fuel|red-eyed black-and-red-silhouette ''things''.]] And they keep coming. And then during the second stage, the background [[Nightmare Fuel|becomes row upon row of these things, just ''watching you''.]]
* ''[[Yume Nikki]]'': The entire game. Other than possibly the rooftop and {{spoiler|Masada's spaceship}}.
** The fansequel ''[[Dot Flow]]'' has an even more disturbing case of this.
* In ''[[
* Desmond finds himself in one come ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'' with a twist: {{spoiler|he's actually exploring his own memories in an attempt to piece together his past and separate them from those of his ancestors so he doesn't end up like Subject Sixteen.}}
== Web Comics ==
* This is one possible explanation for the entire ''[[Dark World|city]]'' in which Zimmy of ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' spends much of her
* Shelly's boiler room in ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' is a subversion. It is dark, unsettling, and occupied by one of the creepiest little girls in the history of fiction. However, the girl is easily the friendliest [[Our Demons Are Different|personal demon]] to appear in the comic, and essentially acts as a conscience.
* Kano Jurgen's mind in ''Kagerou'' by Luka Delaney seems to be one giant "Black Bug Room" called the Zones where some of his personalities live.
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* Dib's nightmare world in the ''[[Invader Zim]]'' [[Halloween Episode]] falls into this category.
* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' has one; [[Idiot Hero|his subconscious stores it in a cardboard box]]. {{spoiler|[[The Reveal|A day job? At an office?!]] [[Big No|NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!]]}}
== Other ==
* Tangency, the off-topic section of RPG.Net, uses the "Black Bug Room" tag to describe stories of miserable events where the posters reading cannot try to stop things like that from happening again by doing something
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Metaphysical Place]]
[[Category:Black Bug Room]]
[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]
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