CaughtNotSleeping

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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?

CaughtNotSleeping is an Alternate Reality Game centered around the titular Caught, who initially goes to the Internet to seek help regarding his insomnia. It got worse from there.

Main youtube channel can be found here. Secondary youtube channels for 1AmTheHelp3r and RoivasSevil. 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, CaughtNotSleeping's main wiki page, Slendernation subforum for discussion (complete with its own thoroughly complete link list), and semi-official Tiny Chat room.

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Tropes used in CaughtNotSleeping include:

• Alien Geometries:
  • 925 Cranbrook Dr.
  • 1472 Lansing Place
• Amnesiac Hero: Caught reveals in a long night. that he doesn't remember anything about his childhood or past. Not even his own name.
• 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.
• 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.
• Big Bad: Slenderman
• 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.
• The Chosen One: According to Help3r, Checkers Valentine. With the audience as the Chooser of the Chosen One.
• Cowardly Lion: Natalie.
• Creepy Blue Eyes:
  • Caught's eyes while sleepwalking in Rule #1
  • The butterflies' even glow in the Willows Peak Tape.
• Cryptic Conversation: Just about everything Help3r and Roivas say to anyone.
• Curb Stomp Battle: "A Dark Place"
• Daylight Horror: Quite a few run-ins with Slendy (and other dangerous things) happen during the day time, including some of the most brutal and terrifying attacks.
• 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.
• Evil Laugh: The puppets have this.
• Evil Twin: Actually, Caught has three of them. And they are puppets.
• For Your Own Good: Caught's rationale for telling Natalie to go home and forget about him in The Umbrella.
• Happy Flashback: Happens a couple times in the form of a We Interrupt This Program with a Happier Home Movie.
  • 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.
• Hive Mind: Roivas has alluded several times in the Tiny Chat to being multiple, despite referring to themselves as "I" almost all the time.
• Human Notepad: In unknown footage when Caught discovers his arm is covered in the word "RUN."
• Humanoid Abomination: Slenderman is one of these.
• I Am Not Shazam: Subverted in that, even though Caught is not really his name, since he has never provided an alternative, it has become his canonical nickname.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: The umbrella Roivas leaves for Caught in a long night. Cue the Rain.
• Jerkass Woobie: Caught.
• 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.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: In vlog_03: Goodbye, Caught goes through several ridiculous alternatives to Checkers Valentine's name.
• Named Weapons: Natalie's baseball bat, Franklin: Lord of the Dance.
• 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.
• Riddle Me This: Help3r's Rule #4 poems. The answer to each riddle was the password to a door in Lansing Place.
• Sleepwalking:
  • Sleepwalking. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
  • Rule #1: One of Help3r's videos, which includes a sequence of Caught filming himself while sleepwalking.
• Tall, Dark and Snarky: Caught. Again.
• 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."
  • 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
    • In the original - video, Roivas said, "Welcome to the game, let's play."
    • "Learn to Play" Roivas's advice to Caught.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: Roivas' hint about the umbrella 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.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Relationship between Caught and Natalie.