Round 2: Two stooges and their sponsor

A man wakes up from slumber. He sees a familiar ceiling above him. Then he raises his hand up towards the sky and looks at his hand closely. He wonders "What just happened?"

Then he rose from the bed and saw a mirror. He looks at the mirror and sees a face familiar to him and remembers his name. "Jake."

Now he remembers. He is in some twisted game where you die. "But am I still in the game, or have I been freed?" He thinks for a moment and then says out loud "Or maybe this is some sort of hallucination or dream after I die."

He hears noises coming from outside the room door, so he goes and investigates it. When he opens the door, he sees that he and others are on some sort of beach. Once Jake takes a step outside the room he was in, the sound of a door closing can be heard, and when he looks back at the door, it is gone like it was never there.

He sees other people being hostile towards each other. Eventually he sees a familiar face. It was Tiara. Their eyes meet and each feels a little awkward.

Then a voice can be heard from the ocean. It said "Dear contestants, if you would be so kind as to look in this direction, that would be swell."

People looked, and then they saw a blue woman who had pointy ears and a tail of some sort. She was wearing a sharp suit, which made her look appealing to men that saw her. She was standing on top of water that seemed surprisingly still.

She continued "My name is, um… Stefanie. I came here to… well… tell you about what will happen this round."

One of the people on the beach shouted "You mean this hasn't ended?! You mean I will have to die again?!" More people started shouting different things, and Stefanie meekly said "If… if you would kindly…" but no one listened to her.

Then everyone heard Stefanie's sigh in their head and say "silence please." No one could say anything after that even if they tried. Some sort of magic trick was casted on them by Stefanie's words.

Then Stefanie continued talking "As… as you can see, we are on an island." Then she awkwardly said "Ta- tadaa!" and no voice could be heard, both because of the thing Stefanie did and because it was awkward.

Stefanie continued "Um… well, the theme of this round is to… let's see here…" She looked at some paper form and continued "be the first one to cross the sea or be the last one alive until the round ends. Um… Any questions?"

There was an uncomfortable silence. Then Stefanie realized what was happening and said "Ups. Sorry. Um… you may talk now." and the thing that Stefanie did was removed from the people at the beach.

One of the people shouted "How are we supposed to cross the sea?" Stefanie looked at the paper for a second and then said "Um… well… you are… supposed to figure that one yourselves. See ya. Go- good luck to you all." and then she disappears like a smoke and the sea starts to wave like it usually does.

People are looking at each other, knowing that it'd be easier if they worked together, but since the last round everyone tried to kill each other, the tension was high.

Tiara came up to Jake and said awkwardly "Heeey buddy! Um… about the last round… well… if you could…" Then Jake turned around, looked at the sea before him, and started teleporting away. Tiara was left there standing, sighing and saying "I knew I should have played the long game."

Meanwhile, Jake was teleporting away. One teleport at the time.

After teleporting a bit, he saw a flock of some sort of flying creatures that were charging at Jake. Jake had to do some evasive maneuvers with his teleporting to dodge them. And at the end of the so-called flock, Jake was thinking that maybe a swarm would have been a closer bet.

Eventually Jake sees a column of light and goes towards it. On the base of the light, he sees the land and thinks that that is the place where he must land to finish this round.

Once he landed at the shore, a barrage of party poppers were set off to welcome Jake. And who was it that popped them off, well it was the good old Turpe.

Turpe waved at Jake and said "Congrats on being the first one here. Here is your token, kid." He throws a stone at Jake, which was about to hit his forehead, but somehow Jake managed to catch it with his hand.

Then Turpe said "Here, while we wait for the usual condition to finish, let's have a seat and talk with each other for a moment."

Suddenly a chair appears after Turpe snaps his fingers. Turpe points at the chair expecting Jake to sit on it. Turpe was so pointed at it multiple times, even teleporting himself on different angles to bring out the point that he wants Jake to sit on it. While he was doing it he said "Come on. Sit. Sit down. Sit down please. Would you just kindly sit. Sit. How hard is it to do it? Just put your butt on the chair and you are done. Sit. Sit! Just sit. Sit sit sit sit sit. Siiiiit. Be a fellow and just sit. Siiiiit. Sit. Sit. Sit. Sit. Sit. SiiiIIIt. Sit. Sit down. Sit…" And on and on endlessly, so Jake sat down on the chair. Then Turpe said "Good." and summoned another chair across from Jake and sat down.

Then Turpe said "No… no this isn't right. Sat on that chair over there." Then Turpe summoned another chair with arrows pointing at it to emphasize Jake to sit there. There were even some lights coming from some of the arrows.

Jake rose from his original chair and sat down to the other chair Turpe created. When he sat down, the arrows disappeared and Turpe teleported across from Jake along with his own chair.

Jake was about to ask "What do you…" but Turpe stopped him by saying "No no no… this is definitely worse. Sit in the original chair." Then arrows started to point towards the original chair with some festive music playing in the background. Jake, reluctantly, moved to the original chair and the arrows and music disappeared. Turpe moved back to where his seat was before as well.

Then Jake tried to say again "Why are you…" but Turpe stopped him again and said "No no. There is something missing from this. Some flair maybe? No no. That wouldn't fit the aesthetic. Campfire? Yes! A campfire between the two of us is necessary!" And with the snap of Turpe's finger, a campfire appeared between him and Jake.

Then Turpe said "There is still something missing. Lighting perhaps? Yes, that should be it. Let's make it dark." And with the snap of his fingers, Turpe turned the bright blue sky to the night sky.

Then Jake asked "Are you done?" Turpe thought for a moment and said "I don't know. What do you think?" And looked horizontally between Jake and the forest next to them. When Jake looked where Turpe was looking, he saw the man that only he saw when he was with Tiara. The person who called him by some other name. Jake tried to remember the name he was called, but he couldn't recall it.

The man with his back against the fire said "It is up to you isn't it, Sponsor." Turpe clapped his hand and said "Of course it is up to me! But as an old friend of yours, I ask for your opinion. Hahaha! The friends we were." The man says "I wouldn't have called us that."

Then Jake asks "Wait, you can see him?" Turpe points at himself and asks "You mean me? See what? This guy?" He points at the man "Of course I can see him. Nothing within my domain can stay hidden from me."

Then Jake looked at the man and asked "Then, who is he?" Turpe waited for a moment and asked "You aren't going to answer him, buddy?" The man replied, "It isn't necessary." Turpe just said "Apathetic as ever, ain't ya? Anyways, you don't have to worry about him kiddo. He is someone… well… How can I put this without telling you the whole truth? Um… Come on guy, help me out here!"

The man then said "I'm something that is connected to you and you only. What our connection is and what all this means isn't something you should know yet. Isn't that what you wanted to say, Sponsor?"

Turpe then says "Ah yes! That's right. He's someone close to you and someone who knows you very well. As of his nature and purpose, it shall remain a mystery to you for the time being. After all, we are just at the start of the season, so we shouldn't bring all the juicy plot twists to light at the start of it all. If we bring all the juicy parts out too soon, we'll have to up the ante and think of some grander twist to the story of the season."

All three stay silent for a moment. Then Jake asks "Why are you taking your time to talk to me?" Turpe says "Why am I talking to you let's see… Because **** *** ***** ***..."

Jake asks "What are you saying?" Turpe says "Oh nothing special. Just about who you are… I mean, who you were before coming here and why it is important to me."

Jake says "I am… Important to you?" Turpe then corrects "Well, important is a strong word. More like… well… Your past piques my interest. You now is a whole other story yet to unfold."

Jake then says "My past… is something you are interested in…" Turpe continues "Yes! Your circumstances sound a lot like someone who is a protagonist in a story. You know, with the overpowered power that is the master token and all. It's like…" Turpe changed his tone to a more mocking one "You are someone who will save the world from the evil…" then he got back to a more cheery voice and continued "Me."

The man who has been sitting there silent for a moment retorts "At least you are self aware." Turpe then points at the man and says "Well you, my good sir, are quite right. I… However insane as I may be… and/or am psychotic and/or am sociopath… am someone who thinks that I pretty much come out to be like I'm insane and/or psychotic and/or sociopath. There is no shame in it. Though I must lean little out of sociopathic behavior, as I do have feelings of my own, however skewed they may be."

All three stay silent for a moment and then Turpe says "Why are you two silent? I'm not the only weird one here. Jake here has plenty of things going on with him. Trusting a random woman for… reasons… and getting stabbed in the back. The most obvious signs that she would betray him did he not notice. What a shame. What a shame. Little mister nice guy thought he could trust someone in this world as much as to lend the thing that can end him to another person. But enough about our little Jake, let us go and dig the dirt of… well… damn, I don't think we have dealt with the issue of our mysterious apathetic man's name over here."

Then Turpe points at Jake and says "Come now Jake boy, you are a smart one, think of a name for our guy over here." Jake says to the man "Why don't you just tell us your name?"

The man is silent and Turpe says "It's because it builds mystery for the rest of the season. Come on now little Jake, I expected more from you. But still, work with me here a little kiddo and come up with a name for the guy."

Jake thought for a moment and then blurted out with an unsure tone "Adam?" Then Turpe slams his hands together excitedly and shouts "Adam! YES! I knew you had some good parts of your head intact still! Adam. YES! The first human to exist according to the bible. The very image of God himself. HAHAHA!... Aaahh, what a grand name that is. And a fitting one at that. What do you say… Adam."

The man stays silent for a moment until he gives a sigh and says "I guess that's how I'm going to be called." Then under his breath he says "Not like I can do anything about it with the rules you made."

Then Turpe claps his hands together excitedly as he says "Yes. Yes. A suitable name for a suitable man. Now let's… wait, now that this guy is named Adam I feel like he needs a female counterpart named Eve. Shoot… Adam my guy, you wouldn't happen to have any women in the same state of being that you are now that you know?"

Adam is silent and Turpe says naggingly "Come on now man? Work with me here. Doesn't our past mean anything to you?" To which Adam states "Our past means everything to my current predicament."

Then Turpe says "But still you exist, right? There's got to be some chicks that exist in the same metaphysical realm that you exist. You've got to have at least someone in mind right? Come on. Work with me here, my guy."

Adam then says "There really isn't anyone that I can contact at my current state…" Turpe then says defeated "A bummer. Truly a bummer." But Adam continues "But I did have someone who I cared about when I was still alive."

Turpe gets excited after hearing this and says "Really?! What was her name?!" To which Adam says "That's a secret you may find out at the later part of this season, Sponsor." You could feel the smirk from behind that mask.

Turpe clicks his tongue and says "You really did deserve your current state after all. Using my words against me."

There is silence yet again until Turpe says "At least this version seems to respect me." Jake asks "What do you mean by this version?" Turpe is flustered for a moment and says "You know what, let's move to the why of all of things, shall we? You know what the ultimate end of all things means to the living beings?"

Jake is hesitant, but answers "What?" Turpe then says confidently "It means to tell the mortal that nothing you do matters in the end. How do you feel about that?"

Jake says "If nothing matters, why are we doing all of this?" Turpe is about to speak, but Adam opens his mouth first by saying "It's all for the sake of finding our own meaning. Everyone in Alitas Sporiatis have accepted the deal to find their truth in here, even though they had little choice."

Turpe clears his throat and says "The goal of this game is for the viewers to find entertainment by watching and players to find the end of their path. Tiara, Shiro… Heck, even Adam here has seen to it that the season ends and they make their choice. Out of all three of them, Adam is the only one who remembers. Well, that is the privilege of being in the condition he is now. Watching you on the side while reminiscing about his past. And you… well, you didn't ever have a choice. That's why you are quite unique in this regard."

Turpe lets Jake ponder for a moment until he continues "Back to the topic. Nothing matters. A fact that exists in this reality. How each person chooses to interpret it is their own choosing. Either they accept the fact that nothing matters by stopping to try and lamenting, sometimes even killing themselves by the end. Or they accept the fact that nothing matters by stopping to worry about consequences all together and becoming chaotic. Now, there is an in between of all of this, but the choice that the people choose is to either lament and watch this survival game as viewers, or stop giving a crap and join the roster for the next survival game of Alitas Sporiatis."

There is a pause for Jake to think again for a moment. Then Turpe says "Not that any of this matters to you by the next round, as your memories will be scanned and dealt with appropriately."

Jake says "You mean you control our memories?" Turpe says "Well, I have that kind of ability, but I let the staff deal with those kinds of matters by lending them my power. Since I don't have the sense of the viewer experience quite right, I let the staff deal with most of the details. Heck, they are probably furious at having to play along with my whims by letting me have this chat. After all, this round was solely designed to let us two talk for a moment, viewer experience be damned."

Jake says "Who are the viewers?" Turpe says "It doesn't matter. The rating will go down because of this round. Maybe some of them are, what they call, lore enthusiasts or something? But as a bonus for you, I'll tell you a thing that you'll end up forgetting by the next round. Listen, the humanity that exists outside of Alitas Sporiatis and this world is on the brink of extinction. The only reason they still exist is because… come a little closer."

Jake leans a little forwards towards the Turpe. Then there is a small pause and Jake asks "What is it?" Then Turpe rises from the chair, spreads his hands and says loudly "Because I felt like it!"

Jake is stunned by all this information. First Turpe said that humanity is close to extinction and then he said that it is all because of Turpe's whims.

After some time, Jake asks "Are you serious?" Then Turpe sits back down and says "Totes."

Jake waits for more, but after waiting for a moment, Turpe just summons a mug of something and pours it into his mask like everything was fine.

Then Jake asks Adam "Is he being serious?" Adam then says "Welcome to reality, kid."

Then Turpe began to laugh for a moment, and when he stopped, he said "Awww, you two go so well together. Why don't we closen your two's relationship by… um… well… AH! Adam, remove your mask!"

Turpe rose from his chair and began tangling with Adam, who wasn't so pleased. Turpe said "Come on my guy, it'll be totes fun!" And Adam said while trying to get Turpe off his back "Stop it. It isn't the right moment yet."

Turpe said "Come on… Come on… You are such a downer. It's not like you have the same kind of ability as me, so you have no excuses." Adam says "Even though I don't have that sort of ability, I still don't want him to see what I look like."

Then Turpe starts singing while trying to take off Adam's mask

"Little chicken little shy,

come and eat my pinky pie.

Adam is a bummer,

being a little toddler.

Once I know that I surely won,

you meet your mom gauged with pikes.

Hey! Ho! Hey! Ho!

Gauged… with… pikes."

Eventually Adam manages to push Turpe into the fire and Turpe begins to burn. Turpe just stood there while being inflamed. Then he said "Geesh, you didn't have to be so rude Adam. Now look at me. My skin is literally melting away."

Adam says "Don't kid yourself, we both know you are near impervious to fire." Turpe steps out of the campfire and brushes himself off a bit. Eventually the flame around Turpe dies down and he is left with nothing but his mask.

Adam says "You really couldn't have made your outfit more resilient?" Turpe says "It's fun this way. The illusion of damage is a must when fighting an opponent."

Jake says "Could you at least make yourself clothes?" Turpe says "What? I'm not ashamed. Sure, the staff will have to edit this part a bit for the youngsters that watch this. Who knows, maybe they'll make an uncensored version of this and sell it with profit. After all, I think I'm quite the looker if I do say so myself."

Adam scoffs and Jake says "Still, would you be so kind or we aren't continuing whatever this is any further."

Turpe ponders for a moment, and then says "I suppose we still got some time to talk. Sure, I'll humor you." Then with the snap of his fingers, Turpe made clothes that looked exactly like the previous ones appear on his body.

Then Turpe says "Now then. Let's sit for a brief moment now shall we?" Then Jake and Turpe sat down. Adam was a little hesitant, but sat back down, still facing the forest rather than the fire.

Then Turpe says "So, if Adam doesn't want to show off his face, how about I do it Jake?" Jake immediately says "I rather you not do it." Turpe asked "Are you sure? Even though you saw it once, I bet you don't remember what it looked like, eh."

Jake tries to remember Turpe's face, but he just recalls a mushy face beyond recognition. Still, Jake said "No thanks, I know what will follow if I do see it."

Turpe then says with a surprisingly understanding voice "Suit yourself." And then summoned another mug of something and poured the contents of it into his mask. After he was done with the mug, he threw it into the fire, which surprisingly made the flame much larger for a brief moment.

Then Jake asked "What are you Mr. Turpe?" Turpe says calmly "What am I indeed? What are you little Jake?" Jake says "I'm human, but you are clearly not." Turpe says "Are you sure about either of those?"

Jake says "But I'm clearly human." Turpe says "What makes you human, and what makes me non-human?" Jake answers "I have human features, like hands that can grab things and I walk on two legs."

Turpe asks "But I have both of those things. What makes me less human than you?" Jake says "Well… You have horns for starters." Turpe says "What makes you think that isn't a human feature that you and the others lack?"

Jake says "But… Humans don't have horns." Turpe says "Don't they?" Jake answers "They don't." Turpe says "How can you be so certain?" Jake says "I know for a fact that the human race doesn't have horns."

Turpe asks "But where do you base that information from?" Jake tries to say "It's from… well… what? Where have I…" Turpe then says "See? You don't know if what you say is true or not. You don't know what "Human race" looks like, as you haven't seen anyone who knows for a fact that you are a human. You just assume that you are human with words your muddy memories provide. You know not what "Humanity" is in the broader sense."

Jake is confused for a while, but eventually he manages to ask "Well, do you know if you are human or not?" Turpe then says "I know what I am to beings like you."

Jake collects himself more and then asks "Care to elaborate?" Then Turpe says "Well… Humans have this concept of eldritch gods. Beings that are beyond the comprehension of the human mind. I am something akin to that in a sense, but… Well, that's all you need to know."

Jake says "But…" But Adam says "It seems that there are only two players left in this round." Turpe says "It's that time already? I thought we could have a little more fun during this round. How will I be able to wait patiently for the tenth round to come up? And don't go telling me to git gud." Adam says "I wasn't going to say that." Turpe responds "Good, because I would have found a way to torment you more if you did."

There was a brief moment of silence until Turpe sighs and says "Look, little Jake boy. Don't disappoint my expectations for you okay. There are so many lives that have been crossed over because of you and I'm willing to add more to that list. Don't make me put your name to that list, because once you do… oh, there is an even better version of hell that I can put you through."

Then the serious tone changes suddenly to a cheery one as Turpe says "Good luck!" And so Turpe disappears. Now it was only Jake and Adam left.

Jake asks "Why are you still here?" Adam says "Aren't you going to see what that token would give you?" Jake then says "You're right. Let me see."

Then Jake absorbs the token and sees what it is. It is called "Pillar of torment" and its effect is to cause negative feelings that may or may not impair living things. It may also cause hallucinations if the living thing has weak will or constitution. Only a glimpse is enough to cause negative feelings, such as fear, panic, disgust or other conditions.

Jake asks "Why are you helping me exactly?" To which Adam says "You will find out eventually, but first…" Adam rises from his chair and starts walking towards Jake. Then he touches Jake's shoulder and says "May Lex Abrem be victorious in this round." Jake's head started hurting really badly and eventually he blacked out.

The next thing Jake sees is a burning body infront of him. He feels that it is his token's power that burns the person, so he stops the flame that the token initially caused. The flame weakened, but it still burned the unmoving body.

Then Jake hears a meek but familiar voice behind him "Pi- ping pong." Jake turns around and sees the blue woman. She continues "The player Jake has won round 2 and is hence given the prize. I-if the player Jake would be so kind, a-and come and take it." Stefanie extends her hand that holds the prize token. Jake goes and takes it. As soon as the token is in his hand, Stefanie retracts her arm and teleports ten meters away from Jake.

Then Stefanie says "I-I would recommend that you absorb it now and enter this door within ten minutes." A glowing white door appears where Stefanie pointed and when the door appeared, Stefanie says "Pl-please be sure to enter the door within the timeframe, o-or there might be some consequences. Se-see you later." Then Stefanie disappears in a blink of an eye.

Now Jake is left with another token. He promptly absorbs it and receives a power named "Invisible hand". This power seems to give Jake an extra third invisible hand that can extend up to 30 meters. Other people aren't able to interact with the hand, but the hand may do any hand movements that the person could normally do as the user pleases.

With that, Round 2 had ended and Jake saw no reason to stay around. He started to walk towards the glowing white door, but just before he touched it, he looked around at the burned corpse. Jake wondered "What exactly happened when I blacked out? Did… Did I do all that?"

With these questions plaquing Jake's mind, he entered the glowing white door and round 2 officially ended.

Round 2 has ended.

Preparing for Round 3