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Underwell

Raven Underwell

Somnicultos, or "Sleep Guardians." These simulacra are my creations, but the somnicultos are not. If anything, we may be their creation.

― Raven Underwell[src]

Raven Underwell (aka the "Nightmare Sculptor") was a bluepill artist who had a redpill experience. She self-substantiated and briefly awoke from the Matrix, momentarily witnessing the Real World, before getting reintegrated back into the Matrix. Using the experience to create and promote sculptures of the Machines she saw, she gained renown for her nightmarish creations. And though initially believing the Machines to be benevolent carers of humanity, and feeling specially superior because of this misunderstanding, she would later understand through another vision that the Machines were, in fact, closer to the role of caretakers.

History[]

When Raven was briefly disconnected from the Matrix, she witnessed how her body was connected to tubes in her pod, how the pod was attached to a power plant, and how the docbots and sentinels flew around. Soon after, a docbot reintegrated her back into the Matrix.

Considering it simply as a vivid dream and some kind of vision of a transcendent reality, she named the Machines as Somnicultos ("Sleep Guardians") and started to believe that god-like alien machines cared for and, perhaps, even created humanity.

Artistic Freedom

Raven, with one of her sculptures.

Inspired by the vision, she became an artist of nightmarish sculptures that captured the likeness of the Somnicultos. Her work became controversial and she had many exhibitions which scared off the viewers, her sculptures being both familiar yet uncanny, giving viewers sleepless nights or nightmares, and eventually gaining her fame and fortune.

During an interview at Hednet Gallery, in one of her exhibits, she expressed how she did not care that her work scared her audience as she was simply an artist. Is fact, she welcomed the raw reactions as they were sure to promote her work. She also expressed how she wanted to capture how beautiful and caring the somnicultos appeared to her after getting asked about her inspiration by one of the women from the audience. But when that woman also worried about the uncanny fear her work instilled into people, Raven got annoyed and regarded the woman ignorant.

There are no spoons

The mysterious boy

She then took interest in a boy, somewhat out of place, curiously looking at her exhibit. Asking him what he thought about her exhibit, the sculptures, as if given life, just started to move and ravaged everything around them. With everyone around her getting killed by the Somnicultos, she ran off, terrified, into the streets.

The destruction soon followed her as the Machines spilled out into the city. Near her, a phone booth suddenly rung. She picked up, not knowing what else to do, when a sentinel destroyed the booth and sent her hurtling to the ground. Yet still, she continued to hear a cryptic message from the disconnected phone warning her that she lacked understanding of her beliefs. Confused, she asked back what it was she was supposed to understand when the broken walls before her opened up a path to an endless graveyard.

It is not enough to believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.

― Voice from the phone, Artistic Freedom[src]


She closed her eyes, understanding what this meant, and realizing that the Machines were more akin to "caretakers" of sleeping graves more than anything else. When next she opened her eyes, she was back at her exhibit, feeling foolish and sorry. Asked by the woman from her audience if she was alright, Raven admitted she was not, and apologized for her actions.

Appearances[]

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