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The Batter looks at the Darkness.
It is not a Nothingness yet. The game mission has not started.
The Batter looks at the Puppeteer.
The Player is nothing but a mere black phantom, yet the purest being the Batter has ever met. A cold, but warm grip that closes on the protagonist. He likes that. As always.
The Batter looks at The Judge.
The Judge introduces himself and does his role: being a tutorial. The vibrant yellow of the Zone 0 is witness of their interactions. Soon, the Batter wishes to continue.
The Batter looks at the Elsens.
They look nervous. The Batter searches.
The Batter looks at Alpha.
The add-on joins. The Player welcomes. The Batter sighs. Three is multitude. But it is scripted.
The Batter looks at the Spectres.
Purify them. It is the only thing he has to do. Purify the world. Purify it.
The Batter looks at the Merchant.
The mask of a frog glances back and laughs. All this whilst he offers items to buy.
The Batter looks at the Spectres.
Purify.
The Batter looks at the Elsen.
Then, a higher sigh comes from the short man. And their head explodes. The Batter senses this as an immediate impure and knows what to do.
The Batter stares at the Puppeteer.
The Player looks uncomfortable. None of them says anything.
The Batter looks at the Spectres.
Purify.
The Batter challenges Dedan.
The First Guardian rages. It is the only thing his condition allows him to do. There is no need to write what happens next.
The Batter looks at the Nothingness.
The Puppeteer follows him but directs the movement. The Player talks, they have been trying to get a topic to talk about. The "puppet" hides his true ignorance by keeping quiet and walking to the next Zone.
The Batter looks at Omega.
Hello, second useless company.
The Batter approaches to "Valerie".
Denial and sarcasm. The Batter fights. If he is the chief of the spectres, then it is worth it to try once again the same actions. The Player starts to doubt. As always at this point.
The Batter looks at the Spectres.
Purify.
The Batter looks at the Elsens.
Poor, helpless beings whose only destiny is to burn. Anxiety will be the wood, anger and tiredness the fuel. Their body will be the beacon. Purify.
The Batter looks at The Judge.
The grinning cat begs. Family is something vital that you have to protect. It sounds like a joke.
The Batter faces Japhet.
Both the Puppeteer and The Judge look in horror. The small bird tores the cat’s brother until their corpse is just a ridiculous hat adorning the head of the phoenix. The Batter has just seen it too many times. There is no need to write what happens next.
The Batter looks at the Nothingness. Again.
This time, the Player does not even talk. It is happening again. The Batter does not change his gesture. It is more complicated than it seems.
The Batter looks at Epsilon.
It is. An Add-on. But it is also a nuisance.
The Batter stares at Zacharie.
A cat mask. Ridiculous. But it is scripted like that. The Player seems a little bit happier by the stupid "miaou" Zacharie says every time they interact with him now. That is something for the Batter. The Guide/Marchant could not care less.
The Batter looks at the Spectres.
Purify them.
The Batter looks at the Elsens.
It is scripted like that. They are born to die.
The Batter rests in the train.
The Guide sits near him. The Player stands. The Batter counts in silence (arrives to ten and starts again, because he does not know the next ones). He is not surprised when the train abruptly stops. Nor when Zacharie sends them to see "what was that".
The Batter looks at the Player.
The Batter has the urge to stop them, but the Player enters in the carriage almost running. For the first time, in this playthrough, he frowns.
Enoch.
The Giant is crazy. Trapped in a fantasy forever. The Third and last Guardian to progress. There is no need to write what happens next.
The Batter stares at the Player.
The Player exits the game. They come back the next day. None of the characters is able to notice. The Batter included.
The Batter stares at the Nothingness.
It will be the last time here. If the Player hurries, the Darkness will return soon.
The Batter "listens" the words the Merchant says.
The ending will not differ. This is canonically the Merchant’s last appearance.
The Batter looks at the Spectres.
The Spectres are just an excuse.
The Batter encounters Vader Eloha.
The entity keeps repeating the same words. Just like the incomplete entity she is. A figure made to resemble the long lost mother the Father never got to know.
The Batter looks at Hugo.
Father, here I am. To end your suffering. To follow your subconscious orders. They are the reflect of the words said by the progenitor you hate. Hugo stops coughing. In a couple of hours he will be sick again.
The Judge faces the Batter. Fiercely.
It is the same. The Cat speaks by heart. Offers a solution to save the reaminings of this world. It sounds like a joke.
The Player stares at them both: saviour and saviour.
Some of them will stick with the Purifier until the end. They want to finish as quickly as possible. Shut the game and forget. Then there are the ones who really DO something. Choosing The Judge means a change. Just like the Elsens turn into Burnts, the Batter is transformed into the expected monster. The reality warps through perspective. The Cat may say that it is an illusion, that it is just how he sees the Protagonist, but the claws and hunger feel very real. The Batter despairs.
One way or another, the screen will end up in Black.
When the game repeated for the twentieth time, the Batter realized what he was. That happened in 2007. Then, the Batter learned that he was fully conscious of every time his story loop was reseated. Zacharie and The Judge, by default, would sometimes remember. Vaguely. The rest were just mere Puppets. A play forced to be represented again and again.
But then there was the Player. A fascinating being, unequaled. The reason why the world is the way it is. The true epicenter of everything. Nothing but shadows with humanoid silhouette, yet the purest beings the Batter has ever met. It was difficult, especially for someone like the Batter, to realize that each Player was a completely different entity than the previous one and the incoming. They would react differently, always so naïve and intimidated by the functioning of this world. But when everything happens exactly the same in a nonstop basis, any difference it is just as attractive as light to a moth. The Batter usually dreams, in the Darkness, with every Player he has met. Keeping them from going away from him.
Bad Batter refuses to look at the Puppeteer.
His Player has chosen the latter option, The Judge smiles widely, and the combat begins.
"Stay. Tell me who you are. Let’s talk about you."
But the dialogue is scripted.
The Batter looks at the Darkness.
This time things will not be different.
But the Batter wants to look at his Player again. Old and New ones. A cold distant gesture accompanies the thought of one day breaking the dialogue just like he broke his fourth wall, long forever ago.