Editing Quest:Ruby Quest/Theories (section)

===Theories Concerning Ruby===
====Ruby is Going Insane====
'''VIABLE'''

Several of the events in the story make it seem that Ruby's grip on reality is failing. Possible instances of hallucination include:

<strike>Her third eye appearing (she was the only one to experience this and her character prevents her from asking Tom to verify).</strike> Confirmed to be quite real and working: Tom sees it too.

Her "waking dream" in which she seemed to wake up from bed, take a key from her dresser that may have actually been a filing cabinet, and attempt to interact with Tom. When she did, she came to her senses, and found it was the dummy.

Her corpse in the "DO NOT OPEN" box. Although she was highly perturbed by this sight Tom had no apparent reaction to it, and when asked about the box, he only mentioned the finger bowl.

<strike>The Dummy in the room where she woke up and the eye painting in the bear zombie room both seemed to "watch" her as she moved about.</strike> Confirmed by Tom's presence.

 Jan 16 07:13:08 <TG_Weaver> 2) Ruby may be going bonkers.
 Jan 16 07:13:13 <TG_Weaver> This seems a reasonable assumption

'''Courses of action suggested by this theory: Do not trust all of Ruby's perceptions and rely on Tom for verification of anything that seems odd, out of place, or scary. This includes threats, if possible.'''

====Ruby is Psychic====
'''VIABLE'''

So far, Ruby has had four hallucinations or visions.  Of those, three turned out to be true in one or more ways.

The first was directly after the Hound fight, and Ruby's vision was herself safe at home. There was nothing particularly significant about this vision, and though she found a key during it, the dream didn't obviously do anything to highlight the key (which may or may not have existed in the real world). However, if she is indeed developing psychic abilities, this was the moment of their first arrival (probably due to the injury sustained in the fight).

The second hallucination was while touching the corpse that was nailed to the wall (who was probably Stitches the Bear). It's not entirely clear whether the body grabbing her hand and calling her name was real or not, but the following sequence featured Tom complaining of eye pain, Red in possession of the Eye Dial, and Red "cutting the world" as the hallucination shattered.

We later find that Tom lost his eye during the time of that vision, that Red (presumably) stole the Eye Dial and hid it in a safe, and that the main room had been sliced in half with a bizarre physics-bending rift. Even if the third is coincidence, the fact that Ruby knew ahead of time that Tom's eye was injured, is telling.

Ruby's third hallucination was right after waking from the second, when the met Tom. She had a momentary vision of Tom with four arms -- which, of course, was later revealed to be quite literally true.

The fourth was when Tom finally opened the Do Not Open box. Tom apparently saw nothing but a bowl of fingers, while Ruby had a hallucinatory vision of her own corpse in that box. Later, on viewing Red's video, we find that Ruby was indeed apparently killed and stuffed into that box.

There is also a bit of circumstantial evidence for this theory (and the following one); for centuries, the Third Eye has been a metaphorical reference to what we would call psychic power.  (It corresponds to the "brow chakra" in Indian medicine, which is responsible for guidance and intuition.)  Ruby has manifested a literal third eye, which may not be coincidental.

'''Courses of action suggested by this theory: Apparent hallucinations should be considered warnings or visions.'''

====Ruby is Dead====
<s>VIABLE</s> '''CANON'''

Ruby was listed as deceased in two official looking documents, and a video was shown of Red assaulting Ruby some time ago, and stuffing her body into the DO NOT OPEN box, where it was discovered by Ace. Though, he ALSO was the one who reported her deceased, and the corpse wasn't seen by Tom, so questions are raised by this theory.

A lot of recent evidence - accident form, experiment file, and video of Red beating her down, show that this is pretty likely to be true. However, we see, for a brief moment of the video, Ruby is still alive. She may not have died after all, but it seems possible.

Stitches and Tom have both also, apparently, died and come back to life, greatly supporting this theory. <s>There has been no evidence of Tom's death, and Weaver has implied that Stitches may not have "died" as we suspected.</s> Oh wait, scratch that. Filbert's confirmed that almost everyone here is dead, most notably DEFINITELY Ruby, Tom, and Stitches.

=====Ruby is Supernatural=====
'''PLAUSIBLE'''

Quote from IRC that may have relevance or may just be a red herring. The quote was in red text:

 <TG_Weaver> If man is 5
 <TG_Weaver> And the devil is 6
 <TG_Weaver> Then God is 7

List of numbers, from the book of revelation:
 1: Unity
 2: Strength
 3: Divine
 4: Earth (Human)
 5: Completeness
 6: Evil
 7: Perfection
 12: Religion

Ruby was listed in the documentation as "Subject #7" and she was being held in "Cell #7." Tom was also kept in cell/storage #5 in a more recently found letter. This could possibly mean a number of things if it's not simply an attempt to throw us off. Ruby may be a ghost. Ruby may be in some sort of causality paradox or alternate dimension, or she may be living in a fractured reality. She may have even created a causality paradox, alternate dimension or fractured reality herself a la Donny Darko. 

This may lend some credence to the "psychic ruby" theory, which is at the time of this writing listed as viable. 

Additionally, Ruby's third eye is in the same location that the iconic "Third Eye" or "Inner Eye" found in certain eastern spiritual traditions is in. The Third Eye is usually symbolic of someone having attained enlightenment or divine awareness in Eastern religions. Elsewhere, it symbolizes clairvoyance, precognition, and out-of-body experiences.

The eye may be in the place it is because it was the first thing Weaver thought of.

'''Courses of action suggested by this theory: No courses of action, but it does allow us to categorize any apparent inconsistencies (such as Ruby's postmortem documentation) in the story as being encounters with an alternate reality, the "real" reality, or perhaps a "possible" reality.'''

'''A Side Note''': the effects of the "numbers" as described in Revelation appear to have been swapped, to a degree, in their effects on the subjects. #1, Stitches, is in no way united, seeing as how he appears to be continually coming apart at the seams. #2, Maddie, was not strong, judging by how she was the only one to NOT come back from the dead (aside from #3, who we know almost nothing about). #4, Jay, was hardly human in nature based on our encounters with him. #5, Nook, was not complete, based on how he continued to expand and his great fear of Ace. #6, Tom, though decidedly bloodthirsty, was also a gentleman and a good companion, and can be decidedly considered not evil (though these are also traits that have been noted in the Devil himself- we just don't know, honestly). And #7, Ruby, is not perfect, based on her "problems" with the third eye.

====Ruby is a Ghola-Like Clone====
<s>PLAUSIBLE</s> '''UNLIKELY'''

In the sequels to the Dune books (not the fake ones, but the ones by Frank Herbert), there are clones of people, called "gholas."  These gholas are born in special tanks, and are the exact clones of whoever's DNA they came from.  The thing is, they are able to retain the memory of their past, but only after a traumatic moment.

Perhaps we can adapt this to RQ; if Ruby dies, then gets clones, but the clones have no memory of her past.  This can also fit in some of the things Ruby sees, such as her extra eye, the seeing of her dead body, and some of the blackouts she has after emerging from the box.  Only after some type of moment will she be able to remember her past.

AGAINST: According to Filbert, Ruby's memory loss is due to her death and subsequent regeneration.

====Ruby is the Original Monster====
<s>PLAUSIBLE</s> <s>UNLIKELY</s> '''PLAUSIBLE'''

Red beat down Ruby, apparently in an attempt to kill her. Maybe she died, maybe not. In either case, Red would probably have some motivation to do so. Red may have killed her because she is the original abomination, and he was attempting to stymie the experiments going on there by taking out the key person.

Ruby is obviously some kind of mutant due to her third eye. In her file, it seems to indicate that it is dangerous for her to get hurt or put into a crisis. If Red beat her, she may have gone all monster-y. And when she got clawed by the hound zombie and lost three days, she may have done so again.

'''AGAINST:''' <strike>Stitches died well before Red attacked Ruby, and #6 was isolated for becoming violent and unpredictable.</strike> Ruby was the one who murdered Stitches by shoving him over a railing, long before she died. She appears to have begun suffering from some kind of insanity, presumably as a result of the medical treatment.

'''Courses of Action Suggested by this theory: If wounded, get the hell away from Tom!'''

====Ruby is the Cure for the Infection====
<s>PLAUSIBLE</s> <s>CANON</s> '''VIABLE?'''

Ruby seems to have the least beastly and dangerous mutation. She doesn't have terrifyingly massive jaws, or weird T-Rex arms, or a ravenous lamprey mouth growing out of her eye. Just a third eye. While she is afflicted with whatever condition, she has a fairly benign mutation. Perhaps she is able to keep the mutation from being dangerous. Red, in his desperation to escape, may have tried to kill her in an attempt to let all the monsters kill whoever is keeping them, or to create a diversion to go about the business of blowing himself up.

Her file seems to mention that it is important for her not to be hurt. This may be because she needs to be alive for the experiments to work. Also, as mentioned, she has an apparently benign mutation, as opposed to the violent and gory mutations of others.

<s>If Filbert is to be trusted, confirmed.</s> Filbert confusingly stated that Ruby was "the cure"--that the new medical treatment cured her blindness and made it unnecessary to eat or drink, but then went on to say that her death had messed things up, and that she was now "bad." Whether or not the "infection" can be removed is still unknown.

====Ruby allowed Red to Assault her Willingly====
<strike>PLAUSIBLE</strike> '''UNLIKELY'''

Ruby didn't seem to make any attempt to resist Red or Escape from him. It could be that she was lucid at this point, knew that she was dangerous if not why she was dangerous, and had agreed to be killed for the sake of the others in the facility.

'''AGAINST:''' In the video, Ruby seemed unaware of Red's impending attack, and reached out of the box with a trembling hand when she saw Ace.  Red's notes imply that he attempted to kill Ruby due to her mean left hook.

====Ruby's Violent Actions====
Put theories on Ruby's apparent attempts to murder Red and Tom seen in the recordings, as well as her remembered attack on Stitches, here.

=====Induced Insanity=====
<s>VIABLE</s> '''LIKELY'''

Ruby attacked Red and Tom out of psychosis, brought on by the new "treatment" that Red proposed.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: Ruby's flashback of her attack on Stitches indicates that she pushed him into the fans without intending to. This occurred after everyone began receiving the new treatment. Unless Ruby is an extremely unreliable narrator and consummate actress, she feels remorse and confusion over these actions. Filbert has also confirmed that she was "probably" insane during her attacks.

=====Ruby was Already Insane=====
<s>PLAUSIBLE</s> '''UNLIKELY'''

Ruby attacked Red and Tom out of psychosis, and she was psychopathic to begin with.

CONTRADICTING EVIDENCE: There are no indications of violent behavior on Ruby's part until the new medical treatments began.

=====It Was Not Ruby=====
<s>PLAUSIBLE</s> '''UNLIKELY'''

The recordings were faked, or "Ruby" in the recordings was actually a third party capable of disguising itself as other characters. It has been hypothesized that "#6" could be such a shape-shifter. If the Animal Crossing theme is continued, the logical character capable of shape-shifting would be Blanca, the cat without a face.

CONTRADICTING EVIDENCE: Ruby's flashback of her attack on Stitches appears to indicate that she was the one who made the attacks, but was not in sane control over her actions.

=====Ruby Was Possessed=====
<s>PLAUSIBLE</s> '''VIABLE'''

It seems that the facility was being used to experiment with some new kind of medical procedure or therapy, that much is fairly certain. But what is the nature this treatment?

Several odd symbols and markings appear throughout the building. It is possible that some kind of Lovecraftian power was being experimented with for medical usage-- the odd holding tanks where Tom discovered his note to himself that read "don't trust 7" seemed to be connected to a peculiar symbol or diagram. Additionally, several of the tools we've made use of have been strange symbols, sigils like the wooden disk, and seemingly arcane tools such as the ODD STAFF. 

It's possible that the treatment, which perhaps relies on some dark and malevolent power or entity, exposes the subject to said evil power in some way and causes them to lose their minds. It is also possible that such exposure makes the subject vulnerable to possession.

NEW EVIDENCE: Red's and Filbert's notes and testimony seem to indicate that "something" came along with the new treatment proposed by Red.

=====Ruby was Lucid and Knew What She Was Doing=====
'''UNLIKELY'''

It could be that Ruby had a good reason for attacking Red and Tom--perhaps she knew something that made this course of action justifiable or even necessary.

New evidence showed in a flashback, where she threw Stitches down to his death with no regret, warning, planning, or any kind of justification whatsoever, goes very strongly against this theory.