History VisualNovel / DoNotTakeThisCatHome

* MultipleChoicePast: [[spoiler:If you ask the Cat where it came from, it will say that it might be [[ArchDevilsAndDemonLords a demon]], [[GodOfEvil a god]], [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien an alien]]...or maybe ''all'' cats can do this. Either way, it doesn't care -- it considers ''what'' it can do more important.]]

* PoweringVillainRealization: [[spoiler:Your connection to the Cat is what's granting it power. If you manage to take control of the dream and cut ties with it, it goes from an unstoppable RealityWarper to a powerless blob monster.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When you play with the Cat it quickly becomes aggressive, and then violent, when it starts losing. Likewise, if you take options that don't directly involve the Cat, it becomes openly crueler. [[spoiler: Like all abusers, it can't stand not being in control, or you having a life outside of it.]]

* CueTheSun: While the first loop is rainy and miserable, subsequent loops are bright and sunny. [[spoiler:You go back to the original rainy loop at the finale, and get a real sunny day after escaping the cat.]].

* DyingDream: [[spoiler:Subverted. The Cat tells you that the events thus far have been your dying dream as it kills you in the first loop, taking you back to that moment so you can finally accept your death. It's lying -- it's another dream, and you need to realise this isn't real either to get the GoldenEnding.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:When you realise that the Cat's entire realm is a dream and you can take control of it, it loses its mind, screaming that only it will ever love you and you're betraying its kindness and generosity. After you actually escape, it's reduced even further, to an impotent pile of slime pathetically begging you not to leave it.]]

* IJustWantToHaveFriends: [[spoiler: The Cat claims a very dark version of this. It wants to have friends...under its complete control, and as playthings for its sadistic whims. In the end, you can tell it that whatever love it has is fucked up and monstrous, and isolation it has is due to it hurting everyone who comes near it.]]

** '''F O R E V E R:''' [[spoiler:You agree to stay with the Cat forever, being another of its many victims]]
** '''Another Day:''' [[spoiler:You take control of the dream, cut off the Cats power and start to rebuild your life and recover from its abuse.]]

* EvolvingTitleScreen: At first the title screen is the cute cat in a cardboard box, with occasional [[OminousVisualGlitch glitches]]. During the endgame, the cat has glowing white eyes and no other features, and the box is bathed in red light. After the ending, [[spoiler: it's the empty box in a sunbeam]]

* AmbiguousSituation: With the reveal that [[spoiler:most of the game takes part in a LotusEaterMachine, the question of just how much of what you've seen is a real representation of the Cat's nature is unclear. Is it ''actually'' a nigh-omnipotent EldritchAbomination, or is it just using illusions to seem like one? It is, after all, an gaslighter and abuser, and you're told repeatedly that it lies.]]

** If you refuse to [[spoiler:chant to the Cat's movie]], ''literally everyone in the world'' turns against you.

* CueTheSun: While the first loop is rainy and miserable, subsequent loops are bright and sunny. [[spoiler:You go back to the original rainy loop at the finale, and get a real sunny day after escapaing the cat.]].

* CatsAreMean: The Cat is very much not a nice being, and its increasingly unnerving and abusive behavior clear that it is really something else. [[spoiler:Its true form is a sadistic eldritch being taking the form of a cat so it can exploit the protagonist's loneliness and torment them however it wants under the guise of "loving" them back.]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Every path except the GoldenEnding ultimately leads to a different, nightmarish death. You need to get through 37 at minimum.

It's been a rough day, and you're walking home on one of your few days off. As you're heading past an alleyway, you hear a mewing noise coming from the darkness! There's a black cat in a cardboard box. It's a very cute cat, eager to be your friend. You could take it home, if you wanted -- you live alone, and could do with the company, right?

''[[https://pixeliminal.itch.io/do-not-take-this-cat-home Do NOT Take This Cat Home]]'' is a 2023 psychological horror visual novel created by Pixeliminal, about your attempts to adopt an adorable kitten, and the various shenanigans you get into while doing so! You wouldn't abandon a cute little kitty, would you...

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Victims of the Cat are trapped within it, stripped of their bodies and forced to be its eternal playmates. There's no way for them to escape, but they're conspiring to free you. This will destroy the Cat and, with it, [[IDieFree them]]]]

* ArmourPiercingResponse: [[spoiler:After refusing to believe any of the Cat's claims to love you, it finally hisses that it hates you. When you reply with "''That'' I can believe", it stops talking, with the narration simply noting that there's nothing left to say]]
* BloodLust: The Cat, right from the start, is eerily obsessed with blood, trying to drink yours when you cut your hand. It retains that hunger throughout the game. Near the endgame you can feed it your blood, [[spoiler:causing it to take on a more openly monstrous form.]]
* CatDogDichotomy: One of the places you can go to is the dog park. The Cat is ''not'' happy about it, causing hallucinations of dog attacks and intrusive thoughts about harming them to make you leave. If you still refuse, [[spoiler:the Cat melts all the dogs into one kaiju-sized feral wolf, bars escape and lets it devour you]].
* CatsAreMean: The Cat is very much not a nice being.
* ColourMotif: The Cat's black coloration comes up a lot, with unnatural darkness, inky water, shadowy figures and other forms of blackness heralding its presence even when it's not around.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The game is explicitly a metaphor for an abusive relationship, with the GroundhogDayLoop representing the honeymoon/abuse cycle, and several cryptic messages from previous victims that strongly resemble accounts of grooming. [[spoiler:The subtext is basically made text in the finale, with the Cat screaming that it loves you more then anyone and will die without you while furiously attacking you as you try to escape]].

* IronicHell: Whatever you do, the horrors are in some way based on it -- take an Instagram photo and your phone turns evil, feed it tuna and you get attacked by unnatural fish, watch a jumpscare-filled horror movie and you get shown horrifying images until your heart gives out. [[spoiler:This is because the Cat is drawing on your subconscious to form the dream world. It even thanks you for providing such rich inspiration.]]

* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:At the end you give the Cat a very cathartic one, telling it that it's a monster who hurts and abuses people, that it could have formed healthy relationships if it really wanted companionship, and that everything that happened to it is entirely its fault.]]

* ArmourPiercingResponse: [[spoiler:After refusing to believe any of the Cat's claims to love you, it finally hisses that it hates you. When you reply with "''That'', I can believe", it stops talking, with the narration simply noting that there's nothing left to say]]

* GroundhogDayLoop: Every time you die, you return to the alleyway with the Cat. You don't consciously remember what's going on, but you get [[RippleEffectIndicator hints]] regarding what happened before, and each ending causes more awareness to seep through.

* MeaningfulRename: The Cat is only referred to as, well, the Cat for most of the game. Once you find out what's really going on [[spoiler:the narration and game screen both change to simply calling using "It".]]

* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:At the end you give the Cat a very cathartic one, telling it that it's a monster who hurts and abuses people, that it could have formed healthy relationships if it really wanted companionship, and that everything that happened to it is entirely it's fault.]]
* SurrealHorror: The game has a very dream-logic feel -- buy a doll and become a doll, take a photo and find something that cannot be seen, feed the cat meatloaf and see meat swallow your house. [[spoiler:This is, of course, because it ''is'' a dream.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:When you realise that the Cat's entire realm is a dream and you can take control of it, it loses its mind, screaming that only it will ever love you and you're betraying its kindness and generosity. After you actually escape, it's reduced even further, to an impotent pile of slime oscillating between screaming insults and pathetically begging you not to leave it.]]

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Victims of the Cat are trapped within it, stripped of their bodies and forced to be its eternal playmates. There's no way for them to escape, but they're conspiring to free you and, in doing so, [[IDieFree find peace]]]]
* AnimalisticAbomination: The Cat appears to be a small cat, but it soon becomes clear there's something very sinister about it. [[spoiler:Even when it drops the "cute kitty" facade, it does seem to have ''some'' genuine connection to the cat motif, with all of its forms at least vaguely catlike. Even its pitiful final form resembled a horribly mutated cat.]]

It's a rough day, and you're walking home on one of your few days off. As you're heading past an alleyway, you hear a mewing noise coming from the darkness! There's a black cat in a cardboard box. It's a very cute cat, eager to be your friend. You could take it home, if you wanted -- you live alone, and could do with the company, right?

* ArmourPiercingResponse: [[spoiler: After refusing to believe any of the Cat's claims to love you, it finally hisses that it hates you. When you reply with "''That'', I can believe", it stops talking, with the narration simply noting that there's nothing left to say]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler: The Cat claims that it just wanted to be loved by the protagonist. They point out that they were perfectly willing to love the Cat and let it live in their house up until it ''repeatedly tortured them to death''.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The game is explicitly a metaphor for an abusive relationship, with the GroundhogDayLoop representing the honeymoon/abuse cycle, and several cryptic messages from previous victims that strongly resemble accounts of grooming. [[spoiler: The subtext is basically made text in the finale, with the Cat screaming that it loves you more then anyone and will die without you while furiously attacking you as you try to escape]].

* HeroicWillpower: [[spoiler: How you defeat the Cat, taking control of the dream and reshaping it with your own will.]]
* IronicHell: Whatever you do, the horrors are in some way based on it -- take an Instagram photo and your phone turns evil, feed it tuna and you get attacked by unnatural fish, watch a jumpscare-filled horror movie and you get shown horrifying images until your heart gives out. [[spoiler: This is because the Cat is drawing on your subconscious to form the dream world. It even thanks you for providing such rich inspiration.]]

* ItIsDehumanizing: A slightly odd example. given the Cat is referred to with it pronouns anyway (what with being, well, a cat). Still, once its true nature is revealed, [[spoiler: it's referred to only as "It", seemingly to distance it from actual cats]].

* MeaningfulRename: The Cat is only referred to as, well, the Cat for most of the game. Once you find out what's really going on [[spoiler: the narration and game screen both change to simply calling using "It".]]

* MultipleChoicePast: [[spoiler: If you ask the Cat where it came from, it will say that it might be [[ArchDevilsAndDemonLords a demon]], [[GodOfEvil a god]], [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien an alien]]...or maybe ''all'' cats can do this. Either way, it doesn't care -- it considers ''what'' it can do more important.]]

* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler: The Cat's first "death" leaves behind a bloody corpse, which [[JustToyingWithYou quickly reanimates]]. In contrast, when you ''actually'' kill the Cat, its body just fades into nothing, leaving behind only its empty box.]]

* SurrealHorror: The game has a very dream-logic feel -- buy a doll and become a doll, take a photo and find something that cannot be seen, feed the cat meatloaf and see meat swallow your house. [[spoiler: This is, of course, because it ''is'' a dream.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: When you realise that the Cat's entire realm is a dream and you can take control of it, it loses its mind, screaming that only it will ever love you and you're betraying its kindness and generosity. After you actually escape, it's reduced even further, to an impotent pile of slime oscillating between screaming insults and pathetically begging you not to leave it.]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler: The Cat claims that it just wanted to be loved by the protagonist. They point out that they were perfectly willing to love the Cat and let it live in their house up until it ''repeatedly tortured them to death''.]]

* CatDogDichotomy: One of the places you can go to is the Dog Park. The Cat is ''not'' happy about it, causing hallucinations of dog attacks and intrusive thoughts about harming them to make you leave. If you refuse, [[spoiler:the Cat melts all the dogs into one kaiju-sized feral wolf, bars escape and lets it devour you]].

* ColourMotif: The cat's black coloration comes up a lot, with unnatural darkness, inky water, shadowy figures and other forms of blackness heralding its presence even when it's not around.

* CueTheSun: While the first loop is rainy and miserable, subsequent loops are bright and sunny. [[spoiler:You go back to the original rainy loop at the finale]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The game is explicitly a metaphor for an abusive relationship, with the GroundhogDayLoop representing the honeymoon/abuse cycle, and several cryptic messages from previous victims that strongly resemble accounts of grooming. [[spoiler: The metaphor is basically dropped in the finale, with the Cat screaming that it loves you more then anyone and will die without you while furiously attacking you as you try to escape]].

* HeroicWillpower: [[spoiler:How you defeat the Cat, taking control of the dream and reshaping it with your own will.]]
* IronicHell: Whatever you do, the horrors are in some way based on it -- take an Instagram photo and your phone turns evil, feed it tuna and you get attacked by unnatural fish, watch a jumpscare-filled horror movie and you get shown horrifying images until your heart gives out. [[spoiler: This is because the Cat is drawing on your subconscious to form the dream world, and thanks you for providing such rich inspiration.]]

* MeaningfulRename: The Cat is only referred to as, well the Cat for most of the game. Once you find out what's really going on [[spoiler: the narration and game screen both change to simply calling using "It".]]

* MultipleChoicePast: [[spoiler: If you ask the Cat where it came from, it will say that it might be [[ArchDevilsAndDemonLords a demon]], [[GodOfEvil a god]], [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien an alien]]...or maybe ''all'' cats can do this. Either way, it doesn't care -- it considers ''what'' it can do more important]]

* ThisWasHisTrueForm: The BroughtDownToNormal variant: [[spoiler:after you strip it of its power and escape its illusion, the Cat is revealed as nothing but a pile of immobile goo, unable to do anything but tearfully beg you to stay.]]

''[[https://pixeliminal.itch.io/do-not-take-this-cat-home here Do NOT Take This Cat Home]]'' is a 2023 psychological horror visual novel created by Pixeliminal, about your attempts to adopt an adorable kitten, and the various shenanigans you get into while doing so! You wouldn't abandon a cute little kitty, would you...

* TheAloner: Your protagonist talks a lot about their desperate loneliness and lack of connections. [[spoiler: It's this isolation that the Cat uses to prey on you, and if you escape, you start to make friends and even get an ''actual'' pet cat.]]
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: With the reveal that most of the game takes part in a LotusEaterMachine, the question of just how much of what you've seen is a real representation of the Cat's nature is unclear. Is it ''actually'' a nigh-omnipotent EldritchAbomination, or is it just using illusions to seem like one? It is, after all, an gaslighter and abuser, and you're told repeatedly that it lies.]]
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler: Victims of the Cat are trapped within it, stripped of their bodies and forced to be its eternal playmates. There's no way for them to escape, but they're conspiring to free you and, in doing so, [[IDieFree find peace]]]]
* AnimalisticAbomination: The Cat appears to be a small cat, but it soon becomes clear there's something very sinister about it. [[spoiler: Even when it drops the "cute kitty" facade, it does seem to have ''some'' genuine connection to the cat motif, with all of its forms at least vaguely catlike. Even its pitiful final form resembled a horribly mutated cat.]]
* BloodLust: The Cat, right from the start, is eerily obsessed with blood, trying to drink yours when you cut your hand. It retains that hunger throughout the game. Near the endgame you can feed it your blood, [[spoiler: causing it to take on a more openly monstrous form.]]
* CatDogDichotomy: One of the places you can go to is the Dog Park. The Cat is ''not'' happy about it, causing hallucinations of dog attacks and intrusive thoughts about harming them to make you leave. If you refuse, [[spoiler: the Cat melts all the dogs into one kaiju-sized feral wolf, bars escape and lets it devour you]].

* CueTheSun: While the first loop is rainy and miserable, subsequent loops are bright and sunny. [[spoiler: You go back to the original rainy loop at the finale]].
* DarkIsNotEvil: At several points in the game, you get eerie messages and images of sinister eyes watching you. [[spoiler: They're the Cat's former victims, and are trying to help you escape.]]

* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: Deconstructed. [[spoiler: Turns out being loved by a malicious, reality-warping alien horror [[DomesticAbuse isn't a good thing.]]]]

** If you refuse to [[spoiler: chant to the Cat's movie]], ''literally everyone in the world'' turns against you.
* DreamApocalypse: [[spoiler: When you finally realise what's happening, the dream breaks down completely, reduced to nothing but distorted images and flashes of the Cat's eyes and claws.]]

* DyingDream: [[spoiler: Subverted. The Cat tells you that the events thus far have been your dying dream as it kills you in the first loop, taking you back to that moment so you can finally accept your death. It's lying -- it's another dream, and you need to realise this isn't real either to get the GoldenEnding.]]

* FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler: When it speaks to you, the Cat is perfectly friendly and pleasant...as long as you don't defy it in any way.]]
* HeroicWillpower: [[spoiler: How you defeat the Cat, taking control of the dream and reshaping it with your own will.]]

* ItCanThink: Right from the start, the Cat shows signs of eerie intelligence, seemingly understanding what you're saying and "accidentally" using tools. [[spoiler: In the final loop, it drops the facade completely, pleasantly speaking to you in perfect English]].

* MasterOfIllusion: [[spoiler: Most of the events of the game (and [[SchrodingersButterfly maybe]] ''all'' of the events of the game) are a dream you've been trapped in by the Cat.]]

* MissionControlIsOffItsMeds: The narration very often gets weird, bringing up past events, mocking you, or flashing to the Cat's perspective. [[spoiler: This is because the narration ''is'' the Cat, shaping the dream you're trapped in.]]

** '''Nyat a Fool:''' [[spoiler: You just don't take the Cat home in the first place, avoiding the entire plot.]]
** '''F O R E V E R:''' [[spoiler: You agree to stay with the Cat forever, being another of its many victims]]
** '''Another Day:''' [[spoiler: You take control of the dream, cut off the Cats power and start to rebuild your life and recover from its abuse.]]
** '''... :''' [[spoiler: As above, but you return to the Cat, willingly returning yourself to its dream.]]
* OneWingedAngel: At various points, the Cat takes on monstrous forms, ranging from simply a panther-like big cat to giant monsters, walls of flesh and tentacled abominations. [[spoiler: [[ClippedWingedAngel Once you strip away all its illusions]], you see it's true form as an impotent BlobMonster.]]
* PoweringVillainRealization: [[spoiler: Your connection to the Cat is what's granting it power. If you manage to take control of the dream and cut ties with it, it goes from an unstoppable RealityWarper to a powerless blob monster.]]
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler: At the end you give the Cat a very cathartic one, telling it that it's a monster who hurts and abuses people, that it could have formed healthy relationships if it really wanted companionship, and that everything that happened to it is entirely it's fault.]]

* ThisWasHisTrueForm: The BroughtDownToNormal variant: [[spoiler: after you strip it of its power and escape its illusion, the Cat is revealed as nothing but a pile of immobile goo, unable to do anything but tearfully beg you to stay.]]
* UnreliableExpositor: [[spoiler: The Cat is a gaslighting, deceitful MasterOfIllusion, so it's unclear how much ''any'' of its already unclear exposition about its nature and origins is honest.]]

* {{Yandere}}:[[spoiler: The Cat loves you, like it loved all its prey. It will not let you escape to be loved by anyone else.]]

''Do NOT Take This Cat Home'' is a 2023 psychological horror visual novel created by Pixeliminal, found [[https://pixeliminal.itch.io/do-not-take-this-cat-home here]], about your attempts to adopt an adorable kitten, and the various shenanigans you get into while doing so! You wouldn't abandon a cute little kitty, would you...

** [[spoiler: You just don't take the Cat home, avoiding the entire plot.]]
** [[spoiler: You agree to stay with the Cat forever, being another of its many victims]]
** [[spoiler: You take control of the dream, cut off the Cats power and start to move to recovery from its abuse.]]
** [[spoiler: As above, but you return to the Cat, willingly retrapping yourself in its dream]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Every path except the GoldenEnding ultimately leads to a different, nightmarish death.

* PoweringVillainRealization: [[spoiler: your connection to the Cat is what's granting it power. If you manage to take control of the dream and cut ties with it, it goes from an unstoppable RealityWarper to a powerless blob monster.]]

* AnimalisticAbomination: The Cat appears to be a small cat, but it soon becomes clear there's something very sinister about it. [[spoiler: Even when it drops the "cute kitty" facade, it does seem to have ''some'' genuine connection to the cat motif, with all of its forms at least vaguely catlike. Even its pitiful final form resembled a horribly mutated cat.]].

* CueTheSun: While the first loop is rainy and miserable, subsequent loops are bright and sunny. [[spoiler: You go back to the original rainy loop at the finale]]

* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: Deconstructed. [[spoiler: Turns out being loved by a malicious, reality-warping alien horror [[DomesticAbuse isn't a good thing]]]]

* GroundhogDayLoop: Every time you die, you return to the alleyway with the Cat. You don't seem to remember what's going on, but you get [[RippleEffectIndicator hints]] regarding what happened before, and each ending causes more awareness to seep through.

It's a rough day, and you're walking home on one of your few days off. As you're heading past an alleyway, you hear a mewing noise coming from the darkness! There's a black cat in a cardboard box. It's a very cute cat, eager to be your friend. You could take it home, if you wanted -- you live alone.