CD-WTC04 (Aug 28, 1988)
Puzzle
“The start of everything.”
Knowledge | 1 Word
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: The starting day, to be more precise.
Clue 2: On what day does every Universe start?
Clue 3: CD-KIF03, Bad Omens, Otherworldly Adventures.
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Thursday
Explanation: The universe started on Thursday.
Summary of Receipt
Baltimore muses that it's only been 24 days since the beginning of the Universe, though he gets a strange feeling from the pre-scripted memories from before that - since, after all, they're working off a back-up copy of the old Universe. He also mentions that, being from the previous Universe, he'd known Lucifer and Felix for a lifetime while they'd only known him for 24 days. He elaborates: in the previous Universe, he was the Otherman, one of God's agents who corrected the flow of time and made sure things didn't go too catastrophically wrong. Thing is, when you become the Otherman, you become an 'unseen force' without any relations. Enter Lucifer, still his lover. She attempted to use the seven Keys to Hell to turn back time and bring him back, but that failed. Catastrophically. And so the Universe ended. In its last moments Mammon and Belphegor approached him with a deal: the three would work together, using the Pocketwatch, and turn back time to their own will. Of course they'd normally leave it up to God to do, but Mammon gave Baltimore a deal - a chance to kill the greatest foe of God and the Universe. Fate. And so, 25 days ago, the Universe was reborn. Belphegor and Baltimore remade the Universe, Baltimore became mortal, and Mammon now has a chance to rule the Universe. Note, of course, 'chance'. He is not yet overlord of everything, and there is still time to find out where God - the true God - was hidden. Though that will likely take years, if not decades, and all the skills of every single future Cafe and Diner employee. Regardless, once God has been found, they can work together to destroy Fate. Lastly, breaking his own rule, he signs off as 8.
Transcript
AND RECEIPT
RECEIPT NUMBER: WTC04
RECEIPT DATE: X 2X 19XX
MANAGER TITLE: BALTIMORE
RECEIPT NOTES:
It has been 24 days since the Universe began. How time flies. Of course, there is the strangest sensation that lingers from all of the pre-scripted events and reconstructed memories. We are working off of a back-up, after all. A rewinding. So, it hasn’t been only 24 days since I met my dear Lucifer and Felix and began working on the Cafe and Diner. No. It is more like an uneasy dream that I have only just become lucid to. I remember meeting them, but it is only that—a memory based on events that happened in a Universe now destroyed. And, I suppose, it would mean that they have only known me—in truth—for 24 days. But I have known them for lifetimes.
I am, or was, what is known as the Otherman. An agent of God. It was my divine task to maintain the proper flow of time, the correct spinning of Cycles. When a Cycle strayed too far, when things went up that should go down, it was my scythe that cut it free. But—I wasn’t able to stop her, my love, Lucifer, from inadvertently causing the end of the Universe. To be the Otherman is not easy, you must leave behind all that you knew in your mortal life. You become an unseen force of the Universe. But Lucifer thought she could bring me back. She thought she could stop my ascension to the title of Otherman. And so, using the seven Keys to the Gates of Hell she tore across her Cycle in an attempt to turn back the clock. But doing so ruined not only her Cycle, but all Cycles.
In the last moments of the Universe that was, I was approached by Lucifer’s siblings, Mammon and Belphegor. Together they had hatched a rather sinister plan to recreate the Universe using a tool known as the “Pocketwatch,” an instrument of divine creation. With it we could reshape the Universe exactly how we saw fit, but to do so would take both Belphegor’s powers and my own. Under normal circumstances we would have just waited for the Universe to reset on its own, out of our control. But Mammon… clever Mammon… they made a proposal I couldn’t turn down. A chance to rewrite the story. A chance to destroy the greatest adversary of God, of the Universe, of mortals. Fate.
And so, the deal was struck. Belphegor would use the Pocketwatch to recreate the next Universe, I would go back to being mortal, and Mammon would have a chance to rule the Universe. That was all 25 days ago. You might have noticed; Mammon is not yet in charge of all that is or will ever be. We have time to stop them, but first we need to find where they have hidden God. Though, even doing that will take years, decades perhaps, and it will take each and every Cafe and Diner employee I chose to save. Then, once we find God, we can aid Him in the destruction of Fate itself.
To the end of Fate,
Yours…
8.