“Well you look positively awful… I think that will do nicely” was the first thing Terry heard as he opened his eyes, he did not remember closing them. The voice was musical and casual, it was almost happy and maleficent all and once. He did not like the feeling it gave him. There was suddenly a pit where his stomach was, it was all thanks to that voice.
“Not much to look at, but they never are at first. This world can change you, but not always in the way you want… yet it is always the way you need. Look at me boy and I will give you a tale before you’re forced out into this place.” the voice said, it was like a command in the end.
Terry looked around in almost a dreamy state, the place around him was strange. It was a void, he was floating in a white void with nothing near or far around him. Then there was a man that popped in front of him, but this man was also strange and almost stranger than the void. He wore a clown suit, all one piece with bright colors lining his puffy sleeves and leggings. The stripes on his sleeves were red, gold, and blue. The chest part was done up with gold buttons with a green vest done up with the same buttons. There was a thick red belt with a bright red jester's hat on the buckle. The same hat was on his head with the same colors as the stripes on his sleeves. Tinkling bells danced of their own accord on the pointed end that dangled around his face.
That face was painted white, with black around the eyes that made them seem to pop out at you. There was red on his lips and nose and green in a circle almost encompassing that creepy predator's smile. Yet it was a playful grin, but it was not the sort of play that anyone would look forward to. Under the hat his hair was many colors striped in a rainbow, poofing out in a curly light afro. This man was the definition of a clown.
“Hello, hello there, it’s Terrence right? But you like Terry don’t you. I mean, do you seem to like anything these days? You seem a bit brooding, hmmm. Well it has been hard for you” a screen expanded in front of them and on it played the day Clair had broken up with him. It was like there was a camera where his eyes were, it was like living it all over again. “Yeah that is a tough break there, and then” Then it changed, the scene was now like a montage of the blind dates. “These were fun to see, truly miserable you are here” the clown laughed and continued to taunt and jibe Terry, who was feeling more hot and embarrassed as the odd movie moved on.
Then the scene changed again. “And this was the crowning moment, where I knew I could set my cards and pull you in here for an offer and a chat.” The scene was not from his eyes this time. This was outside as a car t-boned another. He saw that Ron intentionally ran the red light and was hit on the passenger side by the car speeding through the green. It was night, but the streetlight showed what happened clearly and he heard his mothers scream as the car was about to hit. His head swam, Ron got out of the car yelling and screaming curses at the other driver. It didn’t even seem like he realized something happened to his wife before the clip changed. Now he was in a hospital, he could see from the instruments attached to his mother. She had her face buried in her hands and Ron was white faced listening to the doctor explain the stage 4 cancer they had found. When the scene changed again a sheet on a table in the morgue with his mother underneath waiting for the funeral that was supposed to happen soon.
Terry’s eyes were wet, he had just seen the whole situation, the final moment of his mother’s life and it was horrible. He felt the clown put an arm around his shoulders. “I know it hurts,” the clown spoke very softly at first, but then went right back to the musical malevolence he had spoken like before, “but because you are now alone, you can really and truly escape. Escape to the Deck!!!!” He spun Terry to not a screen, but a view of what could only be a planet.
It was a mainly blue marble spinning, the land masses that he saw were alien and then familiar. The continents were in the shapes from a deck of cards, a diamond, heart, clubs, and spade almost exactly as if drawn by a practiced hand and thrown onto the ball at random. The Diamond and heart were close to one another and on nearly the other side of the world and slightly north was the spade. Between those two masses and far south, like Australia, was the landmass shaped as clubs.
“What is the Deck” Terry replied, speaking for the first time, his voice was croaky and hard like he had not spoken for days. He did not want to talk about what the screen had shown him. He needed a distraction from all that awful.
“This is the Deck!” The clown held out an arm like he was presenting a project to Terry. “And you get to go there and get away from all the problems you have on your earth. This is my planet and it has very special conditions, wanna know what they are? Of course you do” The clown barely let him answer and Terry was just glad to not see his dead mother on the screen. The image changed as he was turned around again to face it.
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“In this world, you can have power and abilities. You can use magic you will barely be able to describe or understand. You can fight monsters and lead parties against enemies beyond explanation. All of this is in the pursuit to make you stronger and truly unstoppable… Or you can just die and get that over with.” He explained as the images on the screen showed an animated Terry fighting and flexing and leading and at the end it showed him being struck down with an arrow to the face. This was all animated like a cartoon, not much better than stick figures, but he could tell the character on screen was meant to be him from his curly hair on the figure's head. Terry gulped as the arrow stuck into his head and his eyes turned into x’s.
“In order to help you grow and learn more about this world I have brought you here” the clown gestured around and the screen collapsed and went away. He walked around turning and spinning as he talked. “This is my tutorial. I am a god of this world, not the only one but I think you will find that I am different from the others here” he said and his grin was white and menacing, the pit returned to Terry’s stomach. “Think of this as a test or a training to see if you can be worthy of the power you could gain in your new world. Complete this and you begin a journey only some from your world would even dream of.”
“But who are you, A god! What do you mean? Another world? A tutorial? I don’t understand.” Terry was confused before, but what the clown had just said seemed to snap him out of the spell he was in.
“OH me… I’m the Joker can’t you tell” the clown said with a smile. “I bring others into my world, into our world really. I have two brothers. The King and his Jack. Also the King has his Queen of course.” He spoke like it was a riddle though it seemed plain enough. “And Yes this is a whole new world, there are many worlds but that is not important, you will only see this one, The Deck for now.”
“After the tutorial another will answer questions for you. I wanna make sure you are capable before I get too invested…” The smile on the Joker’s face was darker than the statement, it made Terry shudder.
“I guess I can give you a little bit, you see The Deck is a world of fun, trials and magic. Real magic, mind you, not card tricks or pulling this outta that. Spells and incantation and potions like in stories! and this magic is everywhere and a part of everything. You can gain the magic through trials called Levels. Levels are challenges that you are able to take part in to grow strong and become powerful. You may also win prizes in the levels. Anything can happen in these levels, mind you. That is why I am testing you. To offer you a tutorial and let you lose in a new world away from all your troubles.”
As the clown talked he danced here and there as if they were not floating in an endless white void. He danced like a school-boy skipping and prancing. like this would be the most fun Terry would ever have.
The sight was unnerving to Terry, but the words drew him in. Terry didn’t have a reason to return, he barely had a plan for the next month let alone the rest of his life. This Deck seemed like it could be an escape and it seemed too good to be true. Magic? Spell and incantation. MAGIC? He said before it could change me, what does that mean? Is this all too good?, thought raced through his head.
The clown continued unaware and still dancing. “Every tutorial is different and any god can give a tutorial. Mine are not the most difficult, but I try to make them fun! I am always making things more fun, but I want you to be strong and to be better than you were before. When I bring in someone from the outside, they need to work twice as hard to belong after all. There are not just humans in this world, but peoples from all the planets and worlds and lands, that is really how it is in most places. It’s Earth that is the strange one. But enough about that, we can’t get side tracked. Do you want in or shall I drop you back on the road with no memory of this ever happening, you just get the feeling that you missed an opportunity, really and truly an opportunity of a lifetime.”
Terry fumbled and stumbled out some words. He would try anything usually at least once, but this was a decision that seemed much bigger than the gravity the Joker seemed to give it. “What about my things? Rosa and my clothes… I just can’t leave without telling someone something…”
The Joker cut in, “but who do you tell, and what do you tell them? I would like to be a fly on the wall with that one ‘oh Ron I am going to go to a different planet with magic and levels.’ Really Terry, do you think he would care? I mean I know a lot and that guy never liked you, so you not showing up is really just what he thinks you will do. You’re barely a blip in his life, you lasted just about the same really. Or you going to say something to Claire, she was right when she told you that you were boring. You need to get some adventure on your trail before you have a lady again. Not that Claire is a lady mind you, Kyle and her were not just a thing after you two broke up, you know.. He is very exciting, well not really but I am a god and all I can do is judge…” The Joker went on and on. Each example drove it home more and more for Terry. No one back home would miss him, no one would go looking. Maybe he was boring, but this was a chance to change that.
Terry finally got to cut into the rambling to ask one question, “Can I at least get my turtle back, Rosa? She might not miss me the same way a human does, but I would at least worry about her if I left?”
The Joker’s smile put the pit back in Terry’s stomach. “Well of course, in fact let's make her part of the fun. ‘She might not miss you like a human,’ you said. But we can make her a little closer to one.” with that the Joker laughed and the pit was replaced with ice and a feeling like dread. Then the clown snapped his fingers and cartwheeled away and the void started to change around Terry
Ground came first under his shoes, a nice grass field that stretched endlessly in all directions. Out of the ground came obstacles. Some of them were just inclines, others were walls, all were made of earth. Rocks came from the ground to litter the field and he could see holes and divots in the floor, some a single step across and others he might need to leap. Tall trees of no discernible type and thick bushes came next. They created paths within the obstacles like an extreme trail head each of them twisting and turning out of sight and soon there was not much sight to see. There were too many trees and foliage like a forest untamed. The paths disappeared ahead and he had no clue how long he had been standing there watching the world change around him.