Kibitzer

CONTENT WARNING for sensory deprivation, self harm, and unreality.

When Kibitzer was 14 and living with their adopted parents, they made friends with the Prince of Spades, and the two spent all day just running around the kingdom and having fun, wrestling, eating snacks, teasing the fish in the river, and so on. One day, when Kibitzer was sleeping over at Card Castle, they woke up in the middle of the night and got heckin lost trying to find a bathroom, and on their way back to Lancer’s room, they got into the elevator and found a button with a strange label on it.

Choosing adventure and risk, they pressed the ‘??????’ button and fell—oh wait, no they didn’t—WENT down the long flight of stairs to meet the quirky prisoner at the bottom all alone. He introduced himself as Jevil, and then asked if they wanted to play a game. They played an innocent game of Uno and then Kibitzer went back up to bed.

Kibitzer continued to visit Jevil whenever they could, playing more games with him and listening to the... uncomfortable things he had to say about the world. Vague stuff about freedom—about how life was just a game—about how they had died a lot more times than they remembered.

They became paranoid and restless, unable to stop thinking about the claims he made—unable to stop noticing the way things changed at the last moment. Did they really grab that key? Did they really eat those poison berries?

Eventually, Jevil convinced them to seek out a way to open the door to his cell, and long story short, they did. They opened it, stepped inside... and fell in.

Jevil attacked them. For the first time, it wasn’t just cards or a board game. He threw scythes at them, and bullets of every shape, tearing into them. He was grinning wildly and laughing, but there was an intense frustration in his eyes. He could tell that the key hadn’t worked the way he’d hoped. He still wouldn’t be able to play with everyone else. So he played with them. And then—he hadn’t, actually. Not a scratch on them. But they remembered it that time.

They went back home, back to normal, but they started to notice something else. Gradually, things stopped tasting as good. It stopped hurting when they scraped themself up playing outside. It stopped smelling so strongly of the food they would cook with Lancer or all the stupid perfume Rouxls wore. The world was fading away—or, they were fading away. Desperate to prove to themself that they could still feel something, they started encouraging Lancer to play rougher, hit harder, scratch them even—anything. But it was no use, and eventually they lost touch with the world entirely. They could still see and hear—they could go anywhere—but no one could tell they were there. No one except Jevil.

Kibitzer was forced to contemplate the things he had told them again, now left to watch their family and friends as a spectator. It was beyond frightening. It was too much for them. If it weren’t for a mysterious someone tipping Rouxls and Seam off about their situation, they might have been “free” forever.

They never saw Jevil again.

When Kibitzer entered Jevil’s domain, they became veiled by the same spell that was keeping him locked away from the world. And when Seam dissolved the spell, their soul remained “veiled.” Their access to their full power is limited because of this.

Over time, Kibitzer and Lancer hung out less as Lancer took over his dad’s kingdom.