The Father is the overarching protagonist of Among The Sleep. He is the father of The Toddler and the ex-husband of The Mother.
Biography[]
After answering the door to an unknown caller, Mother hands Toddler a present: Teddy, and then proceeds to go upstairs to leave The Toddler alone in their room with their new toy.
In the last area, The player will hear Father and Mother arguing over their divorce, arguing whether who has the right to raise The Toddler. He repeatedly visits his ex-wife, who fell into depression and severe alcoholism. The bottles seen throughout the game are a constant reminder of her alcoholism. It is unknown whether or not the drinking and abuse started before or after the divorce.
Hearing a knock at the door, Toddler will pick up Teddy and open the door. The Father's voice can only be heard happily greeting his child, and saying that he will repair Teddy. The ending suggests Father not only reunited with his child, but also may have regained partial or full-custody.
In the prologue, it is discovered that the father is possibly psychically abusive to the mother, and it can be assumed that the mother resorted to alcoholism as a coping mechanism. Many other speculations have occurred though, see past the voice lines for more info.
Voice Lines[]
- It's going to be all right now.
- Hey you! Come here! It's going to be all right now.
- You're safe now.
- Everything is going to be alright now. You are safe with me.
- Hi there little one! Come here! You will be safe with me.
- I can see you got my gift. Are you two getting along? Ooh, what happened? Don't worry, we'll fix him up.
- Did you like your gift? What happened to his arm? Don't worry, we'll fix him up.
Trivia[]
- He has a similar voice to Teddy, implying that he is a representation of him and is repeating things that he has said. A picture of him is seen on the floor in The Closet.
- In the DLC prequel, bright silhouettes of him and his wife appear, often accompanied with distorted arguing. In one of these, he appears to about to hit his wife, with her crumpled on the ground under defense.
- This along with other things naturally sparked a lot of controversy on the possibility that he was abusive to her, but some evidence may point otherwise. First, the arguments may have been about her addiction to wine. It is possible he was trying to get her to quit, but she either wouldn't or couldn't stop. As a result, the marriage began to fall apart. Second, it is possible she was drunk and about to harm his son. He, then, was merely protecting him from her and then harming his own wife in the process. In this case, the divorce could have been because he recognized she was getting too violent towards their son, or she felt that he was abusive towards her which will cause confusion to the child. Third, they may have got into an argument where she was physically violent towards him first, but he pushed her to the ground and had to restrain himself from hitting her.
- It is also possible that he had been negligent towards his family, causing The Toddler to have a negative view of him. However, after seeing the dark side to his mother, The Toddler may have changed his view of his father, who wanted to make up for his previous failures as a parent.
- Argument voice lines are below, text only for now.
- File name: DLC_monsterfights_01 "Father: There's no reason to keep this mess of a marriage going. Mother: That is NOT fair. Father: That's a lie, and you know it. Mother: Don't pin it all on me. I look after her everyday. And where are you? Father: I don't even dare to you alone anymore, after that last time.
- File name: DLC_monsterfights_02 "Mother: You've always thought I'm weak. Father: Well, we're not happy together. We haven't been for a long time. Mother: But you know what? I don't really care anymore. It's not like it'd make any difference if you left. I can manage on my own!