(continued from first post due to character limit)




>RESTORE
Game restored. You are standing in Devan's lab, and Devan is conviniently there too.

>DEVAN, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.
"Jazz is nosing around my lab again?"

>DEVAN, NO. RELATED TO THE GAME-UNIVERSE THING.
"Oh, right. I've tended to forget about that since you re-installed realtime for the Devan universe."

>DEVAN, ONE OF THE PLAYERS OF THE GAME HAS GOTTEN SUSPICIOUS.
"He knows that the game he owns is actually a copy of another universe?"

>DEVAN, HE SUSPECTS AS MUCH.
"How did he find out? When I copied my entire universe and turned it into a game for you to publish, I made it completely game like, right up to the annoying Parser."

>DEVAN, APPARENTLY, YOU MADE THE PARSER TOO CLEVER. HE ACCEPTS TOO MANY COMMANDS THAT OTHER GAMES WOULDN'T.
Devan glowers. "Well, he's just another human.. you can easily take care of him."

>DEVAN, IT WOULD BE KIND OF SUSPICIOUS TO FIND HIM DEAD IF HE JUST OPENED A PACKAGE FROM MY COMPANY.
Devan thinks about this for a while, then nods. "I've got it. I just need to create one more machine.."
Devan gets out his tools, calls a few lizard assistants, and begins work.

>WAIT UNTIL MACHINE IS FINISHED
You stand there for some time, munching on food the lizards bring you from time to time. After a while, the machine is done.

>THANK DEVAN
You thank the turtle.
"Don't bother. After all that work removing the very existance of a real Spaz, right under Jazz's nose in countless universes, I'm not going to have that work undone in any way by a mere human.
"Now, once you have the code for the machine, replace the startup screen with a message telling the player to press enter. Have enter start the machine's code."

>DEVAN, IS THAT ALL?
"Yes.. no. You might want to make pressing enter a one time thing, because otherwise it can happen to other people who come across his computer. Now go away."

>SAVE
Game saved.

>EXIT
Game exited.



>RESTORE
Game restored. You have just reassured Amy you won't erase lives.

>AMY, I'M BACK.
She looks at you oddly for a moment before deciding the time runs differently in your universe.

>AMY, THEY SENT ME A PATCH FOR THE GAME WHICH WILL "FIX THE PROBLEM I MENTIONED".
"Make us not real at all?"

>AMY, I'M NOT SURE.
She looks concerned. "So you have no way of knowing what this patch will do?"

>AMY, NO. FOR ALL I KNOW IT'S A TROJAN.
"Trojan?" Amy asks, which is understandable. There's no Trojan Horse in the past of Carrotus, after all.

>AMY, SOMETHING THAT WILL MESS UP MY COMPUTER.
She understands, but says nothing.

>AMY, I HAVE AN IDEA.
About time you did. You haven't typed anything for around eight minutes.
Amy looks hopeful.

>AMY, I'LL BACKUP ALL MY FILES, MAKE A COPY OF THE GAME, AND INSTALL THE PATCH ON THAT ONE.
She looks thoughtful. "And no lives erased?"

>AMY, IF THE PATCH IS A TROJAN, I CAN REPLACE THE FILES, AND THE GAME WON'T HAVE BEEN RUN. IF IT MAKES YOU ALL UNREAL, YOU WON'T REALLY HAVE LIVES TO ERASE. AND IF IT IMPROVES MATTERS, IT'LL BE A COPY OF THE GAME, SO YOU'LL ALL BE THE SAME PEOPLE.
She thinks this over for a while, but finally gives you permission to do this. Yes, I know that sounds funny.

>SAVE
Game saved.

>EXIT
Game exited.



The changes were instantly apparently. The menu screen of the game was gone, and all that was there now was a red message atop the black screen, reading "Please press the enter key to initiate changes."
He pressed the enter key. And then he felt a very odd feeling, as his monitor opened up, and sucked him inside it, before closing contentedly.

The Player looked around him in amazement. He was in a castle.. the main features of the room were a bed, a desk, a red rabbit standing motionless near the door, and a fuschia rabbit sitting in front of the desk..
"Amy?" breathed The Player.
The fuschia rabbit looked away from the red one, surprised. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"
"I'm The Player.... I've been controlling Spaz.. and now it seems I'm in your world instead of him."
Then a deep booming voice startled them both. "Indeed you are, Player."
"And who are YOU?" asked Amy, trying to stay calm. In the past hour or so, she had learned Spaz was being controlled by someone from another universe, and her entire life might be just one part of a program. The controller had just now apparently appeared in the universe She lived in, and after all that, some voice was not her top concern.
"Me?" asked the voice. "I'm the Recorder.. I record everything that happens, and I know all. Your human friend there knows me as the Parser."
The Player sat there, stunned. "It's..... all real?"
"Oh, it's real, all right." said the Recorder, laughing. "This - everything around you - the whole universe around you - isn't just some game created by a game company back in your universe, Player boy. Nope! You've heard of Devan, I trust?"
"Of course.." said The Player, looking around. Amy just nodded.
"Well, he and this other guy from Your universe got together - due to a wormhole in the space-time continum which plopped the other guy in This universe -, and together they created a program to turn the entire universe into a game, with Spaz as the main character. Spaz is crazy and random enough normally, he was the best canidate for it, not to mention it would be a real cool revenge on Jazz, completely destroying his little brother's soul. This universe is merely a copy of the original, the only other version of this universe to have realtime. Devan and the other guy were nice enough to let you be able to live, considering nobody will ever be able to control that paticular Spaz again."
With that, the Recorder was gone. Considering he was unsolid, they weren't sure how they knew he was gone, but they could tell.
"What..... now?" asked Amy, quivering. It was quite evident to The Player that one more thing might well push her over the edge.
"There's only one thing I can think of, other then just forget about this all and live normally.." said The Player, hesitantly. "And that's finally find that end of game...."


Legend tells of a rabbit and a human who explore the universe, searching for what they refer to as the "end of game". Many times they found hints as to where it might be, and just as many they could not find it there. They first travelled to Turtle Town, to find a small door only visible in the night time, but it just led to an old, deserted manor which, despite their careful searching, held no end to their quest.
Next, we are told, they travelled to Lagunicus, where they defeated a submarine type thing. Skeptics, ones who don't believe the legends, hold this as one of the major points bringing it down - everyone knows Jazz defeated that thing some time ago!
After this, historians and tall-tale-tellers lose track of the exact order of their adventures, but they have been known to ski down a large snowy hill towards a secret hidden base, to explore countless worlds searching for "Chaos Emeralds", to rescue anyone in need of rescuing (paticularly princesses), and many other adventures.
In times of trouble, when they were between leads or at a loss of what to do, they were known to call out for the "Parser" to help them, but there was never any response. Musicians have decided they probably actually said "Purser", and have written ballads of the two coming from "the train ride from Dam Nation", many of which still are popular tunes today.
Are they alive or dead? Did they ever exist? Will they ever find the "end of game"? Time may tell.. but I won't. Better to leave Some mystery in the world.
(From Collected Recordings of the Recorder, volume 7)




Yes, that was weird. You know you're in trouble when you have this little care-free story about a rabbit going around and having random adventures and suddenly all you can think of to do is have it all get revealed as some evil plot.