"What can I trade for tickets?" Marke asked the ticket person. They were fanning themself with a stack of the tickets.


    "Step right up! You can trade one year of your life in servitude to the great Eighth Lord of Pain for one thousand tickets at this booth, or you can trade prizes and valuables at any of the ticket stands around the fair. Step right up!" The person''s smile never wavered as they answered the inquiry.


    "NOPE." Kente said. Marke walked past the ticket booth and entered the crowd. Even though the crowd was very large, Marke found that the people were, for the most part, conscientious of personal space and didn''t push or shove. Many of the people were some kind of animal, like a zoo had been trained to walk on two legs and set loose. Marke and Kente observed the people and the attractions as they walked through the fair. To their surprise, many of the booths and rides were completely ordinary and not torture themed at all. One booth even handed out free samples of florescent cotton candy.


    "Um, Kente. I really want to try that glowing cotton candy." Marke said. Kente just sighed in response, so Marke asked for a sample of the glowing purple flavor. The worker, a lizard person dressed in a striped circus costume, glanced at his name tag and Marke felt a tingle across his chest before the worked handed him the sample. "What was that?" He asked the worker. "I felt a tingle."


    The worker smiled at him with pointy fangs. "Jusssst checking yourrrrr level, gentlebeing." The worker handed Marke the sample and turned to the next person. Marke looked at his own name tag as he wandered off. It just looked like a normal piece of paper.


    "Try looking at someone else''s name tag." Kente suggested. Marke looked at a name tag of someone coming the other direction who had a squid head. The name tag read, "zmTXh8BZuw" but then the text shifted to read "Level 98". The squid person stopped and glared at Marke.


    "Ah!" Marke yelped as an immense pressure descended on him. "Sorry! I''m sorry! I didn''t mean-" Marke heard a snap and everything went black.


    ----


    Marke woke up in the pale yellow cave again. He felt the unpleasantness of transferring from a body full of adrenaline to a body with none. "Sheesh!" He exclaimed.


    "My bad." Kente said. "Guess we have learned two things about this place: Don''t touch the workers and mind your own business."


    "Right." Marke agreed. He stood up and checked his condition. He immediately noticed that he didn''t have a shirt, but his name tag was stuck to his chest. "Uh oh. No shoes no shirt no service?" He said.


    "Do we lose clothing every time we die? What''s the point of that?" Kente asked. "Is this a function of the realm or the QuARK side of things? Shouldn''t we incarnate as a completely new... um... instance of us after each death?"


    Marke stared down at his name tagged chest as he contemplated. "I would guess it''s a function of the realm. It would be ridiculous to have quality assurance workers incarnate naked a thousand times. I suppose there must be other ways to resurrect in this realm and it can track that somehow." Marke walked back through the tunnel, avoiding the banners and rolling through the terms and conditions. "Was that death bad?" He asked Kente.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "No. It was very quick, thank goodness." Kente said. "Or thank badness. I don''t know that squid person''s alignment."


    "Step right up! Welcome to the fair!" The ticket person said as Marke walked past. Marke had a sudden thought and returned to the ticket booth.


    "Can I get a name tag?" He asked the ticket person.


    "Additional name tags cost ten thousand tickets. That''s right bucko!" The ticket person fanned themself with the black leather hat again. Marke shook his head and continued on to the fair.


    <hr>


    "That purple cotton candy was awful." Marke complained for the fourth time.


    "No one made you eat it." Kente reminded Marke for the third time.


    "I died getting that cotton candy. It should have been better." Marke said.


    "Tell me the flavor again." Kente said.


    "Sour oranges mixed with blood." Marke answered. "I think it imprinted the flavor into my mind. I can''t seem to forget the taste."


    Marke wandered through the fair, looking for more free samples. After walking for a few hours, Marke started feeling very thirsty. He approached a ticket booth to ask for directions.


    "Where can I get some water?" Marke asked.


    "Step right up! Looking to buy some tickets, bucko?" This ticket person had green scaly skin and a white leather cowboy hat. They fanned themself with their own stack of tickets.


    "Can tickets buy water?" Marke asked.


    "Tickets can purchase concessions all across the fair. Step right up!" The person replied.


    "What can I trade, exactly?" Marke asked.


    "You can trade prizes or valuables for tickets. That''s right bucko!" The person said.


    "What sorts of valuables?" Marked asked.


    "You can trade prizes or valuables for tickets. That''s right bucko!" The person repeated.


    "Can I trade my pants for tickets?" Marke asked. Kente laughed.


    The ticket person froze. They flickered for a second before replying. "Only prizes and valuables earned inside the fair can be traded for tickets. Step right up!" The person resumed fanning themself.


    Marke moved to the side of the ticket booth and sat down on a patch of scrubby black grass. I want to talk face to face, Kente. He thought. Roger that. Meet you there. Kente replied.


    Marke closed his eyes and tried to meditate. He took slow, even breaths. After a few minutes, he opened his avatar''s eyes in the shadow sea. Kente was standing nearby. "This is a pickle, Kente."


    Kente just stared at Marke. Actually, he was staring at Marke''s chest. Marke looked down. "Why is my name tag here?" He asked in surprise.


    "Weird, it''s tied to your soul somehow. That must be how the System tracks how many times you die." Kente reached out and plucked the name tag off Marke''s chest. "Ha! They didn''t anticipate someone entering their realm with two souls in one body." Kente slapped the name tag on his own chest and it stuck.


    "Hold up." Marke said. "There was something on the back." Kente removed the name tag and flipped it over so they could both look at the back.


    The back of the name tag didn''t have something on it--it was a window onto something else. Part of a word, "EVE" ran across the top, with the tops of other letters across the bottom. Kente tried tipping the name tag to change the perspective but it didn''t work. Marke tried pulling the sides of the name tag to stretch it wider. Marke and Kente pulled the four sides of the name tag until it stopped expanding.


    <blockquote>


    NAME: Priority One


    LEVEL: -1


    TICKETS: 0


    DEATHS: 2


    HP: 10


    MP: 10


    STR: 10


    DEX: 10


    INT: 10


    CHR: 10


    </blockquote>


    "Well, well, well." Kente said. "They hid the status box in the name tag. Are other boxes hidden in other things?"


    "More importantly, why is our level negative one?" Marke asked.