Urban Legends

*AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*, *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative*, including the Lemniscate YouTube series and the To-Witter Accounts, referenced various **urban legends** throughout its story, both real and fictional.

## Real Urban Legends

### Dyatlov Pass

#### Legend (original)

The Dyatlov Pass was an incident that occurred in the Soviet Union, and is referenced in the universe of *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*.

> In January of 1959, 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov led a group of eight young Soviet hikers, comprising seven men and two women and mostly university students, into the Ural Mountains, attempting to reach Mt. Ortorten from the small settlement of Vizhai. The other hikers where Yuri Nikolayevich Doroshenko, Lyudmila Dubinina, Yuri Krivonischenko, Alexander Sergeyevich Kolevatov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin, Nikolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, Semyon Zolotaryov, and Yuri Yudin. On February 2nd, there was a snowstorm at night, which is when it was determined they died (via their diaries).
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> Six of the skiers died of hypothermia and three died of injuries. They died separately — two of them were found under a cedar tree near the remains of a fire, while three others were found in intervals of hundreds of feet from the tree, and four more were in a ravine another 250 feet away. The two under the tree had burned hands. The four in the ravine weren’t found until May 4, three months after the incident. They were found about six miles away from their destination, in a forest almost a mile away from their campsite, without their skis, shoes, or coats in approximately -30 degrees Fahrenheit weather. Two of them had fractured skulls, two more had major chest fractures, and one hiker was missing her tongue.
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> Their campsite was made on the slopes of *Kholat Syakhl* (Dead Mountain), at about 3,600 feet. All the travelers — early/mid-20s, with Zolotaryov in his late 30s — were experienced mountaineers, having skied across frozen lakes and totally uninhabited areas to get there. Despite nasty weather and slower progress than they’d planned, their last diary entries reflected high spirits. They even produced a little newspaper about the trip, which they titled *The Evening Ortoten* and which bore the headline: *From now on, we know that the snowmen exist*. It goes on to say, “They can be met in the Northern Urals, next to Otorten mountain.” (They were, it’s thought, probably jokingly referring to themselves.)
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> The skiers’ badly damaged tent, it was determined, had been cut open from the inside, and all of their stuff was still inside. To all appearances, they appeared to have left the tent out of their own volition and in a hurry, out into the cold snowstorm raging on, with Zolotaryov in particular fleeing the camp with his camera but not his gear. Slobodin had a small crack in his skull, but it was ruled that hypothermia was what killed him, not the fracture, along with Dyatlov and Kolmogorova, with no external wounds discovered. These three seemed to have died in a pose indicating they were trying to return to the tent.
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> Four bodies were found in the ravine and examined; both Dubinina and Zolotarev had fractured ribs and missing eyes, with Dubinina also missing her tongue; Thibeaux-Brignolles had a major skull fracture. The force required for these injuries were compared to that of a car crash, and it was concluded that it was not caused by another human being, with no soft tissue damage observed, as though the skiers’ bodies were crushed by pressure. With Dubinina's missing tongue, and her and Zolotarev's missing eyes, foul play was suspected, but there were no indications of other people having been nearby, apart from the other travelers in the group. There were eight or nine sets of footprints in the snow, accounting only for the skiers and not suggesting another party’s involvement (on foot, at least), not even for the native Mansi people known to inhabit the area.
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> The dead seemed to have donated some of their clothing items to the living; Dubinina’s foot was wrapped in a piece of Krivonischenko’s pants, while Zolotaryov was found wearing Dubinina’s hat and coat, and some garments had cuts in them, as though they were forcibly removed. Some of these clothing were found to contain significant levels of radiation.
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> After the first five bodies were found, a legal inquest began, eventually determining that the cause of death was hypothermia. The deaths seemed kind of straightforward at first, since, despite their various stages of undress (including one in his underwear), it was explained away as “paradoxical undressing,” which happens in about 25% of hypothermia victims. Soviet investigators listed the cause of death as “a compelling natural force,” and abruptly closed the case not even a month later. Due to “an absence of a guilty party,” the inquest was closed in May of 1959, only a few short weeks after the last four bodies were discovered, and the files were archived and classified. When they finally became accessible in the 1990s, post-Soviet era, parts of them were missing.
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> (Based on an article from Atlas Obscura and the wikipedia page; read them for more info)
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#### Legend (Disappearance of Gary Mathias)

The Disappearance of Gary Mathias , sometimes referred to as "the Yuba Incident" or more commonly referred to as the "American Dyatlov Pass" is an incident that occurred in California in the United States of America, which has drawn various similarities with the Dyatlov Pass incident that occurred in the Soviet Union.

> *On February 24, 1978, five men from Yuba City, all basketball fans – Gary Mathias, Jack Huett, William Sterling, Ted Weiher and Jack Madruga – left a college game in Chico, 40 miles away, in Madruga’s car, a Mercury Montego. All five were to play in a league game on the 25th. They all had mental issues of varying sorts and had met at a local support group. Ted Weiher’s mother woke that morning to notice her son hadn’t made it home. Quickly, the families of all five established that none of them had returned home from the previous night.*
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> *Although all were described as “retarded” in the original coverage of the story, their disabilities (in at least a few instances) weren’t quite that severe. Certainly both Ted Weiher and Jack Huett seem to have been pretty severely disabled; Jack Madruga seems to have been a bit “slow” but certainly not to the same extent. Gary Mathias, on the other hand, was schizophrenic rather than truly disabled. He was under a doctor’s care and had taken his medication on the day of the trip to Chico. Both Madruga and Mathias, after all, had been able to serve in the military and both were licensed drivers. The police launched an investigation, and although it took a few days, on February 28th they finally located the Montego.*
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> *On an isolated mountain road 30 miles away from Chico, near the town of Palmetto. The car was stuck and had been spinning its wheels, but was fully functional and could easily have been pushed to more stable ground. It had enough gas, and nothing untoward was found in the automobile. There were maps in the glove compartment, but all were present. This at least heavily implied that the men weren’t lost, as it would certainly be expected that if they had been, the maps would be out. The heavily-built car had made it up the winding mountain road with no fresh dents or damage otherwise, implying a familiarity with the road. Except that none of the five were familiar with it…*
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> *A witness named Joseph Shones gave a statement (once the bodies had been found) about the night where he had driven up the same road and gotten stuck. He was digging himself out, suffering a heart attack while doing so and getting back in his vehicle. While waiting in the car, he heard “whistling” noises, and looking up saw a group of men and a woman with a baby in the light cast by another car some distance up the road (which proved to be Madruga’s after further investigation). He called out for assistance, whereupon the lights shut off and the noises ceased. It was later noted that Gary Mathias had longish hair, and it was theorized that Shones’ “woman with a baby” was none other than Mathias, possibly clutching something or hugging himself against the cold. Aside from that, there was no sign of any of the missing men, but it was also March in the Sierra Nevada’s, and nothing much could be done in the way of investigation until the snow had thawed.*
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> *On June 4th, a group of motorcyclists discovered a body, which later proved to be that of Ted Weiher, in an unheated ranger cabin a mile or so from where the car was discovered. He was shoe-less, lying on a mattress with a makeshift shroud pulled over his body. Opened tin cans of military C-rations littered the floor of the cabin. Some had been opened with a military-issue can opener, and it was theorized that either Madruga or Mathias may have had this as both had served in the Army. Oddly, there was no sign that a fire had been built for warmth, although there were plenty of matches and flammable objects lying around. Later investigation proved that an exterior tank was full of propane, and had that been opened the cabin would have filled with heat.*
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> *There were other anomalies with Weiher’s body. He was shoe-less, as noted, but otherwise he was fully clothed. A table beside the bed on which he lay held some of his personal effects, as well as a wristwatch with the crystal missing which was confirmed to belong to none of the five. Most investigators feel this watch may have been left there by a previous tenant of the cabin and likely had no relevance. Furthermore, Weiher had two to three months growth of beard on his face, had lost nearly a hundred pounds, was badly frostbitten, and had died of starvation. He had starved while a locker in the room, locked but easily forced, was stocked with enough food to keep all five men alive for a year.*
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> *Within a few weeks, the skeletal remains of Huett, Madruga, and Sterling were discovered in fairly close proximity to the trailer in which Weiher’s body lay.*
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> *In any case, it is generally assumed these four made their way to the cabin and ate a meal there. Later, they left and met their fates in the woods nearby by uncertain means. The condition of Weiher’s body is a bit problematic, as he had stayed behind in the cabin rather than leaving with the others, despite slowly starving and freezing. Part of the explanation may lie in his disability, but it all remains a mystery.*
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> *Although the remains of four of the five men have been recovered, Gary Mathias still remains missing. He may have come out of his hypothetical schizophrenic episode and is living somewhere under a new name. It is generally accepted, and far more likely, that his remains also lie somewhere in the area and are merely undiscovered.*
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> *(Based on an article from Into The Fray; read it for more info)*
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#### In *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*

The Dyatlov Pass incident became famous enough that even Ota Matsushita, living in Japan, had heard the details about the story. On May 11th, 2019, on To-Witter, he briefly mentioned the Dyatlov Pass incident before going into detail about the Disappearance of Gary Mathias, for which he had spent the day learning about through online searches.

While not explicitly stated, the Dyatlov Pass incidents bear striking similarities to the Cyclops Serial Killings and to the Disappearance at Bloom Park. The latter relates to how the young girl at Bloom Park and Gary Mathias both disappeared without a trace (save the speculative skull at Bloom Park) following strange circumstances. The former relates to the strange murders that seem to have no definitive murder suspects, as well as the bodies of some of the Dyatlov Pass victims seemed to be missing their eyes, much like the Cyclops's various victims.

### Mother Horse Eyes: The Interface Series

#### Story (*Interface Series*)

The *Interface Series*, written by Mother Horse Eyes, is a large fictional narrative, described as the story of "what has never been, and what must never be," that spans 4 different narratives told in parallel and set in the past and the future. The narratives are as follows:

1. *The first narrative deals with attempts to create, understand and control interdimensional portals with the form of tunnels lined with human flesh, named "flesh interfaces", created by subjecting people to large doses of LSD. Flesh interfaces are first created in 1944 in Treblinka, and research about them is abandoned around the year 2020.*
2. *The second narrative takes place in 2039, with a large share of humanity spending their entire lives connected to virtual reality internet feeds. An unknown entity named Q hijacks the Internet to take over the minds of humanity.*
3. *In the third narrative, a young kid is abducted by a supernatural entity made of animal body parts, including horse eyes, which names itself Mother. Mother makes his parents disappear, keeps him locked at his own house and forces him to perform magic for it.*
4. *The last narrative focuses on the experience of addiction through the eyes of Nick, a failed writer struggling with alcoholism and childhood trauma. The novel Nick claims to have written reflects the first parts of the story about flesh interfaces and Q.*

> *(Source: Wikipedia)*
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#### Legend (\_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9)

The story of the *Interface Series* was written by a reddit user named u/\_9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9, published as replies across many comment replies and public posts throughout various subreddits on the site. Spanning 4 months, the narratives were collected and originally organized in the subreddit r/9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9, which was later locked and then moved to r/9M9H9E9. A summary of this wild narrative's creation and development can be found in the following YouTube link.

#### In *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*

On October 31st, 2019, Ota Matsushita shared the video above detailing the story the Mother Horse Eyes, as a spooky legend to share with his fans on Halloween. The story was never elaborated further than that by Ota.

The story of the *Interface Series* shares some similarities to the story of *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*. MHE's narrative about surviving humans attempting to create a timeline in which the villain Q is stopped bears similarities to how *AI* applies its branching stories and Kaname Date's journey to stop the New Cyclops Killer. It also bears similarities to the distinctions of the Game timeline and the ARG timeline for the *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES* series, with Kotaro Uchikoshi and A-set using the narrative of the game as a way to prevent future occurrences from happening.

The creation of the *Interface Series* by Mother Horse Eyes also has similarities to the creation of the Lemniscate ARG series. Both narratives were created using multiple platforms: the *Interface Series* being told across reddit posts and comments throughout many unconnected subreddits, use of secondary accounts, and interviews with outside news sources; the Lemniscate ARG was developed through a YouTube channel, a wide set of Twitter accounts and Weibo accounts in three languages, interaction through a Discord server, real-life conventions and livestreams, and official interviews.

## Fictional Urban Legends

### Disappearance at Bloom Park

#### Fictional Legend

In the universe of *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*, there exists an urban legend of a mysterious disappearance that occurred at Bloom Park in the Kabasaki District of Tokyo, years before the park was closed down.

The urban legend claims that, prior to 2013, a family came to spend the day at the park, chief among them their elementary school daughter, who was riding the merry-go-round. The girl had been given a cellphone with a GPS, paired with her father's phone so the latter's alarm would go off if she ever went too far from them. As the girl was riding on the horses in the merry-go-round, her father was filming her on his phone. But the father became terrified as he realized that his daughter's face seemed to be mysteriously blurred out on the phone's screen. He waited for the ride to end, but as the ride went around the central column for the last time, the phone's GPS alarm suddenly went off, and as the ride came back into view, the horse's seat was completely empty, the girl nowhere to be seen. Both parents began panicking as they tried to find their daughter. However, the GPS locator still indicated that the girl was still on the ride, the girl and the phone could not be located, all phone calls would fail, and the girl never responded to any text messages sent to her. Just as the parents were about to give up, a mysterious text message was sent to them that said "Daddy? Mommy? I can't find my head."

After the disappearance, the case went cold, no information on what happened to be directly found on the case. A few years later, in either 2013 or later, after the chemical explosion occurred in the Kabasaki District and the park was shut down, workers began tearing down the rides. While digging right under the merry-go-round, the workers found the skull of an elementary school child. This was believed to be the head of the missing girl from the disappearance case, however, the rest of the body was never found, despite the workers digging around that area looking for it.

#### In *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES*

The urban legend spread amongst the locals of Tokyo, eventually being taken up by parents in order to scare the children away from the wasteland that remains in the Kabasaki District. One of these was Hitomi Sagan, who told her daughter, Iris Sagan, the urban legend of the missing girl. This eventually became on of Iris's favorite urban legends, inspiring her to attempt an urbex trip to make a video on the topic at the abandoned Bloom Park, the video titled "There's No Way This Trespassing Idol Can Be This Cute!"

This urban legend, while given many details in the Lemniscate series, was never brought up in *AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES* in any way, making it unique to the YouTube series