Zacharie

A kingslayer and a merchant. You have to be a man of many talents to get along in the world of OFF.

Of course, Zacharie isn’t keen on telling you any of that. He wants you to know as little about himself as possible, in favor of selling his wares. You see, Elsen and other residents of the zones aren’t qualified or desiring of his items. They only go to ‘heroes’— or rather, people who will wield them. They don’t necessarily have to be heroes as Zacharie doesn’t concern himself with morality one way or the other. Knowing friends of friends are getting killed as he counts his credits, the only thing Zacharie seems to care about is profiting— key note, seems. He hints quite often that he’s interested in the player’s progress and the Batter’s as well, to the point where he invests himself by helping the Batter get to the train, telling him not to ‘fidget’ (if the Batter gets up and walks around, controlled by the game player). He seems to wax poetic on and off, as though this were ‘nothing more than an app section’.

Oh right, he’s a fourth wall breaker. However, in LifeAftr, that will be limited to only the Batter, who has heard it before. Being on the islands will force him to acknowledge himself as a real person and not a set of pixels, script, and a voice, though he will certainly suspect that something is putting him in motion. However, it will be only that. More curiously, he’ll focus on the Batter’s autonomy, and encourage him to develop feelings beyond the scope of his strings, or else he will surely perish with nothing to purify.

Deep down, beneath his shirts and sweaters and masks, he has a personality— made solely of curiosity and charm and mystery. The charm comes from being a businessman— he will be enthusiastic when faced with a potential buyer, and proudly display his wares. If they can’t afford them, he will nonetheless cheerfully encourage a potential buyer or trader to come back. The curiosity is within his video game programmed identity— he takes more interest in the player than the Batter because the player is the only sentient thing besides ‘him’ (he knows he’s a script, too). The Batter he takes a secondary interest in, being the ‘hero’ and seeing how he takes his interests out on the world around him. His interests, of course, being purification.

There’s a tale in game about the Masked Man who slew the horrendous Toad King sometime prior to the events of the game— the French version of the game confirming it was Zacharie. So, in addition to being a merchant, he keeps a lot of secrets. Perhaps even once being the ‘last’ hero to walk this world, with the Batter being the one to see it to its end. This could be an explanation as to why Zacharie does not stop the Batter— he knows it’s this world’s time and perhaps its destiny to come apart and break when everything has come down to this. Perhaps he even remembers the Zones in a different time, as a different way. Perhaps that’s how he has items only meant for ‘heroes’ and why he is eager to sell them.

The only time he shows sadness is when the Batter kills the only other ‘human’ in game— Sucre— who is a person of importance to Zacharie. He doesn’t laugh and suggests it was probably for the best (that she died). Because the game itself does not go into this, Zacharie’s relationship to Sucre is unknown even to himself. Perhaps a sister, or once a beau, or even just a best friend. All he knows is that he had the fondest feelings toward her than he did anyone else in the game.

In general, Zacharie is sentimental. He will give an essential clue to the player in exchange for a music box. For someone programmed into a game and should know everyone is as flat as himself, he keeps himself entertained and happy. Even moreso will he be when he meets others who clearly aren’t from video games (do not speak like him, et cetera), he’ll be grateful to be in a world that’s full of life. The world of the Puppeteer. In his test drive, Zacharie cruelly teased the Batter that the Puppeteer may be among them, which soured their conversation directly. In truth, he knows the Batter has no identity beyond his purpose and what the player made him do, so he would be very invested in what happens to a man who is no longer controlled and no longer in a place of their purpose?

Zacharie tends to not involve himself in other people’s affairs unless they are 1. The Batter’s. That’s it. He didn’t even involve himself with Sucre’s death, and that was a person that was implied to be important and cared about by him, down to his own words. He might have faint memories of Sucre, but they are very banal— dancing, eating real, non-ash sugar. My interpretation of his ‘Maybe it’s better this way’ is that he’s glad Sucre won’t experience the game while it’s OFF.

He will definitely be more serious about helping a world around him grow if it means that he can be alive in it—the more he will experience of LifeAftr, the more the atmosphere of a game will feel intolerable to him, unfixable, unchangeable. Therefore, he will work in the Storyteller’s, and everyone’s, favor.