entranceway | Juego [video]

[The video opens up to the beach. Still just as pretty as anything else Wonderland has to offer on the surface. Nice weather, beautiful and clear waters. And a masked, 4th wall breaking merchant.

He's sitting in the sand near the edge of the water, back to the camera and a little ways from it. One might think he set it up so he was filmed this way but judging from awkward angle it's more likely Zacharie simply dropped it and it turned on randomly, as Wonderland's communicators tend to do. Zacharie himself seems fairly relaxed yet is dripping wet. Evidently someone decided to go for a dip, even though one might question why you'd go swimming in a sweater and jeans.

Then again, Zacharie's a weird guy. He claimed to be from a video game so maybe he just like swimming in heavy clothing.

The feed continues to record him simply staring at the sea before him. Nice weather today. Always nice.]

....A-a-a query, Wonderland. [Was he someone who stuttered like that?] Would you all leave here if you could? Could? Switch strings to something else? I know some of you won't leave. Won't walk away or Qu-

[Whatever Zacharie was about to say is cut off by a sudden burst of static. If any Wonderland's residents remember a certain man and a certain entry he made a long time ago might recognize it.

Something is wrong here and something is very wrong with Zacharie.]

--at is fine. That is why we are here. So we are fine and we should not worry. Everything is fine. It's okay, it's all okay. I promise, I mean it I͟ ̴̧͝me̸a̕͢n͞ ͞͡i̛͏t̢ I̴ ̷̛m̴̡ęàn ͝ì́̕t̵̀͜ ̢I̶͠ ̵͢͢m̴e̵an͘͟͡ ̴i̷̧͘t͞ ̡̢I̧͘͞-̸͟

<̴͢>͜͠M̨̕͟e̸s̡̛s̡͠͞a͞g̷̀e:̶̴ ͜T͞ó̡ ̶͝m͘u̸̵c͟҉̀h.̴ ͢͞Th̵͡er̛e'̴̢̀s͝͡ ̷to ḿ̡u҉ch҉͜ ̛o͜f̵ ̢̨i͢͠t͢͢. ̢Į̶ ̴̷t̨͘h̶͡i̷̛͏n҉ḱ̴ ̶̛I͞ ̷̷un̛d̡̛ę̵͞ŕst̢̀á̴́nd̶ ̧t̢̨h̵̀͠e̢͜m̕ ̵̢ņoẁ̴.͞

[The audio begins to glitch out as another distortion kicks in as Zacharie sharply turns to look at something that's behind the camera before it cuts out. Quickly words flash on the black feed:

'HELLO AGAIN'

The feed re-appears and Zacharie is walking down one of the many hallways of the mansion using the camera as a recorder. He turns to one of the doors, although the camera fails to catch the number, and tries to yank it open. Locked. Then the camera freezes and the action repeats. Still locked! An unpleasant screech distorts the audio as it cuts out once again.

It picks up in the forest. Zacharie walks through it quietly but there's still something wrong the audio. For some reason it sounds like there are two sets of footsteps despite the merchant being the only one there. He doesn't seem to be looking for anything in particular and at one point Zacharie turns around and the camera catches the still-visible mansion in the background.

He's not that far away. But again a distortion corrupts the image and a few more words appear before it ends for good.

'DtDtDt

* HERE WE ARE

SWITCH IS off']

[ooc: as the links suggest, thanks to an overdoes of DT and interactions with the Operator Zacharie's not doing so good. Zacharie may or may not respond to this, so feel free to threadjack if you like!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Zacharie, you are all a jumble today.

[Their powers are very similar, so the Judge is able to pinpoint his location and casually walk into the current screen. That's just what he does, you know cats, appearing where-ever they please.]

[However, Zacharie's current predicament is a little beyond what the Judge can fix, or even comprehend. It looks like he had gone too far into the "clockwork", as the Judge liked to refer to it as, for his own good this time. Digging too deep into the numbers and commands can rattle the brain.]

It looks like you've been hit by a particularly nasty aneurysm. I'm not familiar with this type of ailment. Can it be cured with Belial's meat?

Edited 2017-03-24 02:39 (UTC)

[Gone to far into code and there was something else that had Its metaphorical hand in this as well. But at the end of the day these were consequences. His. His alone.

The Judge speaks and Zacharie disappears and reappears a little ways away, although judging by the fact he also stumbles suggests that wasn't on purpose.]

Not this time. Don't know how to fix it. Or maybe It can be fixed but I'm not paying attention. But it's okay, I promise. It'll be okay.

[That's not how Zacharie normally talks to him. The friendly cadence is gone, and there is an edge of fearful desperation. The Judge ceases to smile.]

You can't continue popping in and out right in plain view. You'll frighten some poor puppeteer. They don't like it when things acts out of their control.

[Of course, Zacharie doesn't need a lecture, but the point must be made.]

You know that I can't see the things you do, but can I be of assistance somehow?

[He is sorry that he's causing this sort of distress and he knows the Judge doesn't mean to lecture. Jokes about Zacharie's quirks were made often sure, but the cat's sharper words went towards a different man and not the merchant.

Zacharie kneels down to dig his fingers into the ground to keep himself there. Sometimes it was better to hold onto something.]

I know. Can't not know.

[He's omniscient. The day something happens in their world that Zacharie can't predict is the day the Puppeteer actively messes with the code. Which could be good or bad and he doesn't want to think about that too hard.]

Don't know. I may...may have to ride this out. Go forward until I find the place I went back to. Very, very...ahaha. Painful.

[Also dizzying.]

[The Judge winds his way around Zacharie, and lightly drags the tip of his tail under his chin.]

If you go to the end, will the game start again?

[The first thing you should do when a game misbehaves is to turn the console OFF, and then back ON again.]

[That certainly is one way, hence why the last time something of this sort happened Zacharie had called it 'crashing'. It was close enough to that unpleasant sensation when the game froze. Not fun.]

Perhaps. I-I do not die unless the end is reached. But I hope that is not the sort of ending I need.

[His Mirror may want it but Zacharie himself does not.]

...and I am sorry, Pablo, for how things turned out. W...with our game, I mean.

[It was inevitable, but that doesn't mean Zacharie didn't feel bad about it.]

I would prefer it if you did not. It wouldn't be the kind of death a Joker can cure.

[The kind of death Valerie suffered. Beings like them-- NPCs, Zacharie called them-- were not so easily revived. Their ends held too much significance to the all-important narrative.]

You played your role magnificently, Zacharie. The helpful merchant to the very end. I hold nothing against you.

[Their game had no room for the man who slew the Toad King.]

[If an NPC was going to die, generally it was not a meaningless death. Certainly in the context of the story it could be meaningless, but it was not something that you could walk away from. Only the protagonist could and that was only because of the Player. If the Batter died in combat and the Puppeteer choose to walk away from that....Game Over.]

Ehehehe. Wonderland does not seem to like to be cheated out of suffering so my Jokers do not work like normal anyways.

[Which is a rip-off, let him tell you. But Zacharie's body glitches out again and he digs his fingers into the dirt just a little more.]

I know. But you, Valerie, Hugo and Sucre are my dearest friends. I took no joy out of the suffering the plot heaped upon your shoulders.

[There was no room for that man, no. Zacharie had already stated to another friend of his that he had no desire to go back to it. It's better like that.

Probably.]

We suffer together, friend. [The Judge sits, and rubs the top of his head against Zacharie's chin.] I doubt what you are forced to watch is pleasant. You have lost as much as any of us. And you have no choice but to accept that brute's credits.

[Zacharie laughs quietly and, after wiping a hand on his leg to get rid of the dirt, brushes it against the Judge's fur.]

Perhaps I am finding difficultly with burying my regrets when I do not possess a shovel. Or that escape is well and truly impossible for someone like me.

[Zacharie, unlike his Mirror, did not put much stock in the Batter's final words when he won. However, he was thinking of them more and more lately. Wonderland gave him a place where he knew as little as anyone else, yet stuck to his role. There was a door, so to speak, but Zacharie didn't walk through it.]

I too, lack the dexterousness to handle such an instrument. What sorry creatures we are.

[The Judge heaves a sigh like a bellows.]

...Seeing you in such a state makes me glad of the things I don't see, and what I forget. Please forgive me for this moment of schadenfreude.

Ah ah ah. We are. Perhaps we should attempt to invest in metaphorical thumbs one day.

[But it's hard to let go of the many regrets that piled up on their shoulders. Same as Zacharie's attempts to metaphorically remove his mask and find out who he was without his roles.

Nothing remains and no escape. Hard to find the land in-between the sharks.]

It's okay Pablo. As I have said to a few others here, I would not give this role and knowledge to anyone else.

[He knew how the story and game would end. And, while Zacharie wasn't happy with it, he didn't wish that knowledge on anyone else.]

Someday when we are all freed from this horrid karmic cycle, you will be our saint, Zacharie, for all the burdens that crawl upon your back. And not just from what results of carrying around that endlessly deep bag of yours. Someday when my judgement comes at the correct moment, and that Child's true mother finally takes him away from that Room.

[He knows that the Judge means it to be kind, but Zacharie barks out a laugh.]

I am the last person to stand as a saint, my friend. One couldn't call the Masked Man a hero as no one could say his motives.

[Zacharie's not one to talk about that openly, but it's a point that anyone could draw from reading the text. It never touches on why that man slayed the Toad King.

As always...before you crown a king slayer, make sure they are no worse than the toppled tyrant. There was a reason he vanished once the body cooled.]

Maybe one day Hugo could become King. But in the end, this is just a video game.

Juego [video]

please tell me if this is going too far!

it's okay!

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