{off.}

Creative Section Literature
1

{prologue.}

He awakens in the middle of an island. There is nothing around him but water. White, colorless water. The land is painted a cheerful yellow, but the lonely feeling that hangs over the land contradicts the color.

There is nowhere to go but up, it seems.

So he goes up. He keeps going up, until he finds a cat. A cat with a suspiciously demonic smile. “Ah,” it says, its voice rather raspy, “I am sure that I was the only creature here. Very well, it seems that I am falling into the pits of insanity to see my own puppet. Pray tell, what is your name?”

He lifts his chin into the air, tries not to look at the demonic cat. “I am known as The Batter,” he says rather smugly.

The cat stalked towards his foot, circling it and rubbing its fur against the leg. “It seems that it is not the puppet who answered it, but the puppeteer controlling it,” it rasps, meowing as it rubbed its back. “So, dear puppeteer, what is your name?”

The Batter looks down, its face filled with disgust as the cat sits there, staring at him, its smile only seeming to grow wider. “The one who controls me is [your name]. [He/She] cannot talk, but can see and hear.”

The cat’s smile grows wider. “Ah, how nice to meet you, [your name]! Now, pray tell me, what brings you here, The Batter?”

“I have come with a sacred mission.”

“And what mission is that?”

“To purify the world.”

“Ah… such a sacred mission, indeed. Come, let me lend you a paw. If you so greatly desire to fulfill this mission, come with me. I shall help you,” the cat meows, padding onward to the tall, yellow building just a few steps beyond.

Footsteps could be heard as The Batter steps forward to follow.

[hr][/hr]

basically a book version of the game “OFF”.

fancy title lettering. whoop.

2

{chapter 1.}


[i]“You are now entering Zone 0.”[/i]

[hr][/hr]

The cat pads on, leaping high into the air to reach the ledge just ahead. “Hurry, hurry. We’ve got no time to lose, dear Batter,” it urges.

The Batter climbs up the ladder, and the cat moves on, higher and higher up the twisting paths of the ledges. “Zone 0 is a rather… confusing place. Voices of many kinds whisper here, yet, in reality, nothing lies here but a mangy old cat. I am known as The Judge.”

The Batter follows the cat intently. “How, exactly, are you going to help me?”

“By teaching you the ways of battle, of course! I know for a fact that you are controlled by a rather new agent of the union—no offense to you, [your name]—and I know I should teach you the viciousness yet rewarding grace of battle,” The Judge replies, stopping. “Now, shall I tell you how it works?”

——

The Judge steps out into the light yellow spot on the ground, completely calm. “You may test your battle skills on me,” it says, “I am strong. I can handle the pain.”

“Now,” the cat known as The Judge says, “[your name]. Try and control The Batter to attack.”

Immediately, The Batter steps forward and lashes out at The Judge with his bat.

“Ah, impressive,” The Judge comments. “Now to use some… competence.”

The Batter swings his bat, though it didn’t hit The Judge. Suddenly, he knows everything about the Judge. It was a rather eerie experience, but this new knowledge made [your name] uncomfortable. [He/She] never knew what the body [he/she] was controlling could do.

“So, you know everything about me. That could be a problem, but no matter. You can also flee, but that option is for cowards. Of course, if you know you are losing, you can run away,” The Judge explains. “Now, the battle ends.”

“Follow me,” the cat meows, stepping into the entrance of a building, walking down the stairs. They arrive in a room. It seems to be a dead end, but The Batter notices there are blocks blocking the way to the stairs leading down.

“Well,” The Judge says, sitting down, “it seems you have to use your organ. You know, the one flabbily swimming in that skull of yours. It was called the ‘brain’, right?”

The Batter looks around. There are numbers on the wall. There are floating blocks sitting in mid-air, arranged neatly in rows of three. Three rows, and in each of them are three blocks. A single floating block sits at the edge of the rows, sitting below the second block from the right.

He looks at the numbers on the wall. Then at the blocks. Then back at the numbers.

The Batter steps forward and begins to solve the puzzle.

[hr][/hr]

i got stuck at this part once.

i hate those kinds of puzzles. :c

3

{chapter 2.}

After mere minutes, the Batter steps back, watching the now-transparent floating blocks. After a few moments, the blocks that guards the entrance to the floor below gives way, granting entrance.

The Judge purrs in satisfaction. “Very good. Very good, indeed.”

The cat climbs down the stairs, arriving in yet another room with floating blocks. The entrance is blocked by yet more blocks fixated on the ground. There are more numbers on the wall. “Now, let’s see if you can solve this one,” the Judge says, sitting on a pedestal next to the fixated blocks. The floating blocks are in the same order as the blocks in the room before.

The wall has different numbers now. The Batter looks at the order of the blocks, then at the wall. It surprises [your name] how The Batter can stay so calm. [your name] [himself/herself] is getting rather panicky. It would take [him/her] hours to solve this if The Batter wasn’t here.

Yet, [he/she] could only watch in amazement as The Batter solves the puzzle himself, without his puppeteer’s help.

Yet again, the entrance to the first floor opens, and yet again The Judge congratulates The Batter, and yet again they go down.

There are more blocks this time.

There’s something wrong.

The code isn’t there.

——

The Batter remembered seeing a door he didn’t explore in the island. He goes out the door of the first floor, since there was a door leading to the outside, and finds an entrance to a room on the side of the building. Once he goes in, he saw the code. He burns the code into his brain and went back to the first floor again, then solves the code quickly.

The blocks guarding the basement floor disappears.

The Batter and The Judge goes down at the same time. At the middle of the basement floor is a bowl of cat food.

The Judge mewls in delight. “Ah! Finally!” The cat pounds towards the bowl and began eating.

The Batter ignores it, and instead goes for the treasure chest beside the bowl. Inside was a card of sorts. The Judge looks up and says, “Ah, the Leo-card. Hurry, dear Batter, take it and go to Zone 1.”

He looks at the room in the basement. “The door leading to the Nothingness?”

The Judge nods. “Hurry, hurry. We’ve got no time to lose.”

Soft footsteps is heard as the Batter steps towards the door.

[hr][/hr]

i envy the batter. he can solve the puzzles in just 3 minutes and here i am sitting here still trying to solve the first one. :c

4

Hi, Lyra! This is a really great story you’ve got here; I’m having a good time reading it, and I hope you continue!

second person ftw