Cassie's Collection is a level in Psychonauts 2. It takes place within the mental world of Cassie O'Pia, a member of the Psychic Six.
Description[]
Owing to Cassie's lifelong connection to all sorts of writing and printed works, her mental world is largely themed around literature. Much of it is constructed of paper, books, and writing and printing paraphernalia, and its centerpiece is a colossal library manned by Librarian Cassie, one of her archetypes. The library is further divided into several sections, each inhabited by a variety of mental figures made of paper based on characters from literature. Some of these subsections are also home to their own archetype, which includes Teacher Cassie, who is found somewhere past the Children's Corner.
Certain books can serve as two-dimensional passages between areas of Cassie's mind. At least one of these contains a passage that leads outside of the library, to a waterfront area that resembles Shanghai[1], where Cassie lived for a while as a young adult. This harbor town made up of books in the middle of an ocean of ink is Counterfeiter Cassie's haunt, and it reflects Cassie's memories of some rather harsh living conditions, as she used to assist in organized crime. It features a fish cannery, a print shop, and a marketplace.
Another notable feature of Cassie's Collection is an area up in the ceiling, above the Librarian's Desk, that can be accessed by climbing onto the globe-shaped chandelier and using Projection to flip a switch on the ground. This area contains paper facsimiles of the other members of the Psychic Six that indicate how Cassie remembers them.
Points of Interest[]
- Writer’s Room: A room floating in a black void that Raz starts out in, home to Writer Cassie. It is quickly taken by the Librarian and locked away before Raz can get her help.
- Librarian's Desk: The center of the library in Cassie's Collection, this is where Librarian Cassie hangs out. There's a huge chandelier shaped like a globe above her that can be pulled up into the ceiling. The walls are covered in filing cabinets of all shapes and sizes, and heaps of books are scattered on the floor. Gates close off the entrances to the Children's Corner and Literature Lane.
- Children's Corner: The section of the library dedicated to books aimed at young readers. It is every bit as disorganized as the Librarian's Desk area. It's populated by various paper figures, such as the Lady of the Lake and the Gentleman Skull.
- Literature Lane: The section of the library presumably dedicated to classical literature. It's populated by more paper figures, including William Shakespeare and Lance. It also distinguish itself on appearance by the large stack of books in the center.
- Counsilium Apum (Book Sections): To navigate properly across the landscape, Raz must take a deep dive into some magical books which leads him to different areas like the Teacher's Domain, the depths of it and to reach Fannie Flats or more specific; the Waterfront which also includes its own sub-locations. The translation of the book’s title is "The council of Bees".
- Teacher's Domain: A section filled with educational books reached through the Children's Corner. Teacher Cassie usually resides here along with many other paper figures. Some of this includes Sir Knight and Silverwind, Dragon or the Paper Math Diagrams.
- Deep Inside Teacher's Domain: Past the second book located inside a gate, Raz finds himself on the depths of this area. A enormous bottomless room with a large border that has many books piled or stacked too, a set of books that leads to a bigger book which consequently leads to a much larger one where Teacher Cassie will reside (on the first run of this area that being said).
- Waterfront: An area resembling Shanghai's harbor, but made of ink and books. The print shop, marketplace and fish cannery are all in this area.
- Print shop: A memory of the print shop where Cassie worked as a counterfeiter in order to survive. It's tinged in pink light. A huge strip of paper comes out of a set of printer rolls on the side of the building, making the entire thing look like a massive mechanical adding machine for bookkeeping.
- Marketplace: A memory of the local (fish)market, where less-than-honest paper merchants try to peddle their wares. It's tinged in orange light. The market is covered by a very tall roof of books that a single paper lantern hangs down from.
- Fish Cannery: A memory of a local fish cannery. It's tinged in green light. Ink is constantly spewed from large inkwells attached to the building, giving it a sort of moat of ink that large tuna cans float around in. Behind it are two enormous waterwheels that look like rolodexes.
- Die-Brarian's Beehive: This ink-flooded library is the battle arena for the Die-Brarian. Contains a hexagonal platform in the center of the room which resembles the cover of a book, multiple book shelves around the area with the similar shape as the one of the platform; giving the impression of being on the inside of a giant beehive. The area also includes a pillar with a head statue of Cassie herself and another with a giant book where the archetypes of Cassie remains, waiting for Raz to jump into action.
Story[]
Razputin and Ford find their way into Green Needle Gulch, where they must use the Astralathe to reinforce the mental construct in Lucrecia's mind to make sure Maligula does not rise up again. Unfortunately, one problem with the Astralathe is that it is swarming with angry bees. Raz heads to a house surrounded by beehives to the left of the Heptadome and enters to find Cassie O'Pia, the one responsible for the area's enormous bee population. Cassie is delighted to hear of Ford's return and immediately volunteers to assist, but several swarms of bees shaped like her that are supposed to be under her own control stop her and keep her prisoner inside. Razputin asks Cassie if he can check inside her mind, which she gladly agrees to.
Inside Cassie O'Pia's mind, Raz finds a single room, where he tries to ask a paper version of Cassie, the Writer, for help. While she seems more than eager to, she's quickly interrupted by another Cassie, the Librarian, who closes the entire area she resided in like a book and stores it away. Raz agrees to help her collect some other restricted books in exchange for her assistance with a problem in the real world, but mostly wants to keep her placated while he figures out what's going on. It becomes clear eventually that Cassie has used her talent at Projection to divide her personality into four paper cutout archetypes; personas she had to develop throughout her life to survive. The Librarian Cassie, representing a cold and logical side of Cassie obsessed with results, has become convinced she alone should be in charge of Cassie's Mind, and is determined to locate and store away the other three, who she dismisses as no longer useful.
Raz passes through the Children's Corner, and soon encounters Teacher Cassie, who teaches Raz the power of Projection to help him on his journey, allowing him to summon his own Archetype for assistance. Teacher Cassie comes up with a plan to take care of the Librarian: she won't be able to fight off all three of the other archetypes, so she urges Raz to find Counterfeiter Cassie, and then return the empty books they belong in to the Librarian while they stay with him.
To gain the Counterfeiter's allegiance, Raz heads out into the Waterfront area, a representation of Cassie's memories of living in Shanghai, where she worked as a bookkeeper at a print shop that produced counterfeit money. Once there, he heads to the print shop, fish cannery, and marketplace to collect three pieces of incriminating evidence against her crime lord boss, Fannie Flats. Afterwards, the plan goes as predicted: the Librarian receives her books, but double-crosses Raz and attempts to store him away as well.
With the three Cassies and Raz united, the Librarian resorts to drastic measures to retain control, transforming into an enormous paper-craft being called the Die-brarian. Raz fights her off as the other Cassie archetypes join up with her one by one to fight her influence from the inside. In the end, the Die-brarian is defeated, and the Cassies make up and accept that all of them are the real Cassie, albeit at different points of her life. They fuse into Cassie's three-dimensional full self, who thanks Raz and agrees to help him out.
When Raz comes back to Cassie's Collection after clearing the world, he finds all four Cassies standing near the Librarian's desk, agreeing that the heaps of scattered books on the floor could do with a clean-up, but also that it can wait a little longer.
Collectibles[]
Figments[]
Cassie's Collection contains 227 figments in total, spanning a great variety of themes due to Cassie's very broad interests. See the figment guide for more information.
Figments of Interest[]
Among Cassie's figments, some that stand out include:
- Seven different busts of Cassie with different hairstyles at different points in her life.
- A Discworld novel, with "Pratchett" clearly legible on its cover.
- Cassie's Library Card.
- A set of figments that includes every animal in the Chinese zodiac.
- A set of figments shaped like the letters of the alphabet, each one containing several letters.
- A set of figments shaped like accomplished historical women and feminist activists. These include Amelia Earhart, Hatshepsut, Hypatia, Joan of Arc, Maya Angelou, Marie Curie, Nina Simone, Rosa Parks, and Wang Zhenyi.
Emotional Baggage[]
- Steamer Trunk
- Bag: Located at the Librarian's Desk. Climb up onto the globe chandelier and use Projection on a timed pull-lever on the ground to the left of the entrance to Literature Lane. Jump off the chandelier onto a platform that loops around the roof containing Cassie's memories of the Psychic Six. Past her memory of Lucrecia Mux, jump a short gap towards the bag.
- Tag: Located in the Waterfront, before reaching the Marketplace look to the left to see some library cards in the wall. Jump across them towards the tag.
- Suitcase
- Bag: Located at the Librarian's Desk on top of a stack of books.
- Tag: Deep Inside Teacher's Domain, on a column. Turn right from the first updraft to the Mental Connection bubbles, or simply fall onto it from higher.
- Hatbox
- Bag: Located at the Waterfront on an island in the middle of the ink lake.
- Tag: Located at the Waterfront in the cannery area behind a waterfall of ink.
- Dufflebag
- Bag: Located at the Waterfront on the docks to the right side at a dead end near some crates.
- Tag: Located at the Waterfront on the top of the printer section behind a door Raz must use Projection on to open.
- Purse
- Bag: In the Teacher's Domain, in the room with the knight and dragon on top of a railing to the right of the dragon.
- Tag: In the Teacher's Domain, in the room with the knight and dragon just to the left of the exit of this room.
Memory Vaults[]
- Cassie's Escape Plan: Turn around after entering Deep Inside Teacher's Domain to find this vault.
- Protect the Queen!: At the Waterfront on top of the printing area, after climbing the ladder to the top area, turn right and jump on some stamps to the top of a stack of books, go through an archway and jump over a pencil continuing left through a cut open book that transports you to an island in the lake. Climb to the top of this island to find the vault.
Half-a-Minds[]
- Found in the Children's Corner. Before entering the book go to the right and use Projection to open a locked door.
- Found on the floor in the main room of Literature Lane.
Nuggets of Wisdom[]
The Nuggets of Wisdom in this world are shaped like bottles of ink with quills in them.
- Found at the Librarian's Desk in one of the clam shaped wall indents.
- Found Deep Inside Teacher's Domain, use mental connection up towards the last node to find the Nugget.
- Found at the Waterfront at the cannery next to the rail at the end that brings you back to the main island.
- Located in the Waterfront, before reaching the Marketplace look to the left to see some library cards in the wall. Jump across them and continue past where the Steamer Trunk tag is. This path will bring you to the Nugget.
Enemies[]
- Bad Idea
- Bad Mood (Mid-Boss Fight / Post-Completing Bob's Bottles)
- Censors
- Heavy Censors (Mid-Boss Fight)
- Little Censors
- Stamping Censors
- Deep Regrets
- Die-Brarian (Boss Fight)
- Doubts
- Enablers
NPCs[]
- Axeman
- Cassie O'Pia
- Cassie's Archetypes
- Counterfeiter Cassie
- Librarian Cassie / Die-Brarian
- Teacher Cassie
- Writer Cassie
- Dinosaur
- Dragon
- Dunce
- Fish Skeleton
- Fisher King
- Fish Market Vendors
- Market Panda
- Mrs. Karpovna
- Mrs. Xuan
- Mrs. Yi
- Gentleman Skull
- Gerda
- Horse kid
- Lady of the Lake
- Lance
- Librarian's assistant
- Muscle Man
- Market Cat
- Mind Chart and Heart Chart
- Pinky and Slinky Worm
- Paper Cops
- Elephant Cop
- Snake Cop
- Turtle Cop
- Paper Math Diagrams
- Alligator Magnet
- Cone & Cylinder
- Easy Snake Equation
- Hard Snake Equation
- Hourglass
- Molecule
- Sphere
- Paper Psychic Seven
- Pirate
- Scarecrow
- Sir Knight and Silverwind
- Skeleton Dog
- Umbrella Goblin
- William Shakespeare
- Witch
- Wizard
Trivia[]
- The main book featured in Cassie's Collection, "Consilium Apum" (the Counsel/Assembly of Bees), is written in Latin, and its words are used all over the level and other places. It tells the story of six bees who try to fend off a wasp in their midst, a clear allegory of the Battle of Grulovia.
- It can more or less be translated as: "Once, a wasp said she would destroy the hive. Six strong bees began to buzz. The first bee told a story; it was bad. The second sang a song of peace. The wasp did not love him. The third asked for help from the ants; and they refused. The fourth used a vine; but she broke loose. The fifth bee tried to freeze the wasp; she didn't notice. The sixth finally won the day. But he lost his mind. The first bee is the most destitute. She was the first to fail the many. She will build herself up stronger. She discarded her mercy upon the shelf. She left the hive and made another. But she is alone in her new hive. She frightens away outsiders; and lives there to this day."
- The paper figures across this mind, meanwhile, have Latin text on their backs that seems to be generated from the Lorem Ipsum.
- In the Children's Corner, several of the scattered books have legible titles. They include: "Goofy Grail Facts", "101 Fake Dinosaurs", and "The Pretzeland Murders". Gerda no doubt is a character from the latter book.
- The paper mental figures will hide whenever a fight breaks out between Raz and the censors. They will return after the enemies have been defeated.
- Some paper mental figures only appear before or after the level has been completed.
- The first door Raz opens using his Archetype is on the front of a book whose spine reads "History's Best Doors!".
- One of the figments in this mind is shaped like a book from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. This figment was designed by a Fig backer.
- Use of the "plucky" pin in Cassie's collection picks up an untitled book from the ground.
- ↑ Though this is never stated in-game, the title of the music track that plays in this area of Cassie's Collection is called "Cassie's Library and Shanghai Memories".