With fear in his wide eyes" in paragraph 13 is a reference to a part of the Queen and the Batter's conversation: "Look… he has your eyes… / They are filled with fear."

The fact that the word "fear" is used in the 13th paragraph is coincidentally appropriate, as triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. There are many superstitions surrounding the number 13, as it's most commonly associated with bad luck. Interestingly, the 13th Major Arcana tarot card is Death, which ties into the fic's theme of death.

Paragraph 30 references Cob's battle dialogues depending on how much health he has left. ("There's no one in the houses of these towns." "The stars of this sky have no name.")

Paragraphs 33-35 is Cob's in-game post-battle dialogue.

Paragraph 45 is a reference to the OF comic where Pablo and Valerie are chatting about the Queen and the three Guardians, only for Valerie to suspect their group to be cultish.

Valerie's killer, of course, is Japhet.

Screenshots of @karbonicc's post below. https://www.tumblr.com/karbonicc/792059638608756736?source=share

Comic text:

Pablo: His mother is wonderfully powerful.

Valerie: Really?

Pablo: Magnetic! Captivating! With her gifts we could rebuild everything! I was quite impressed! You should join us next time.

Valerie: I don't know… It seems kind of like a cult.

Pablo: The furthest thing from it! There's a boy as well.

Valerie: A kid?

Pablo: Yes! Hugo. A convivial little fellow.

Valerie: … Okay. (Yum.)

Pablo: He's certain to please you – come, now!

Valerie: No I don't think I will. Sorry.

Pablo: Hmph.

The first four images are the parts of the post most relevant to the fic, though there is more to it.

Here's my reblog of @karbonicc's post.

Paragraph 75 has a reference to the Batter being an Aries according to Mortis Ghost, hence him being "born beneath [Cob's] sky."

Paragraph 77 references the Batter's final words in the Batter ending. "Escaping from your purpose is impossible."

Sources used for Section #4: OFF-related references

Death (tarot card) - Wikipedia

Tumblr posts (see my blog, iavulture.tumblr.com, if you have a Tumblr account)

Links to other sections:

Section #1: Numbers 3 and 4

Section #2: Cob inspirations

Section #3: Biblical allusions/references

Section #5: Miscellaneous

Section #6: Music

It's speculated that Human Queen has a job that makes her a lot of money but forces her to work/travel a lot. Spectral Queen's later argument with Batter makes it clear that's she's pretty much phoning it in as a mom. The cadence of Queen and Batter's conversation is that of a divorced couple. If this is true, it sounds like Queen has primary custody but just is never around.

Batter is his most emotional during his argument with Queen right before their battle. He is still flat in dialogue tone but it is clear he is passionate about the subject. He accuses her of taking all the steps of being a mother with none of the emotion, care, or memory for who her actions are for (Hugo). Rather than defend herself, Queen just deflects until Batter gets angry.

To argue the point of Queen doing the right moves with none of the personal touch, I want to talk about the three guardians. It is said the Queen appointed them and I think this really happened.

My sister and I speculate that the three guardians represent the specialists that Queen hired for Hugo while she was away on business. Dedan is speculated to be a surgeon based on his temper and excessive need for total order and demand everyone be efficient at their job. Japhet being a bird, dove, and loving books is probably a priest. Enoch would be a private chef. These three were left with explicit orders to keep an eye on Hugo, which is why they're called his friends in the notes. This would also make them opposing forces to Hugo's father and the hard decisions he has to make. One of those decisions is massive and we believe it is what manifests Batter for the first time.

It's the decision to unplug his terminally ill child from life support.

Now, I see a lot of speculation that Hugo bases Batter on Ballman. But I think that Batter is a dual manifestation of Ballman and Boxxer. This would make Batter both the hero and the villain, hence the choice at the end of the game.

This is what brings Judge into the mix. We speculate that Judge is Human Hugo's high consciousness, the one aware of the pain and suffering of the world. Judge thought Batter was a savior but after Hugo's death, he calls Batter a monster. If Batter is both hero and villain, it makes sense that Judge trusted him to help but was unaware this is the action that would taken. He had no clue that this was the only solution that Batter could see.

If Judge is Hugo and Batter is Hugo's father, then the truth that his father is taking him off life support would paint his father as a monster. A villain that is murdering him.

Meanwhile, Hugo's father had to live with that truth and the reality that it is his duty to keep his child from suffering. And the end stages of terminal illnesses are only suffering.

I find the connection between Source and Cob interesting, and not just because they represent life and death respectively, but also because lions and sheep are two of some of the most prominent animals mentioned in the Bible. The Lion of Judah is a Jewish national and cultural symbol, symbolizing the tribe of Judah, one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel; in Genesis 49:9, Jacob refers to his fourth son Judah as a lion ("Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?" - ESV). Meanwhile, in the Christian text Physiologus, it is said that lions are born stillborn until the father lion roars and wakes the stillborn cubs into life — perhaps Source possesses this same roar of life. ("Cubs, new born, live not till the sun three courses has finished, / Then with a roar the Lion arouses his cub from his slumbers, / When he begins to live, and gains all five of his senses") That Source is a lion associated with life might be a reference to the Christian tradition of associating lions with Jesus' resurrection; ergo, with this interpretation, not only is Source associated with the concept of life in general, but also the idea of bringing things back to life (though in Hugo's case, it's possible he's too far sick to be fully and properly restored and "resurrected").

Sheep are frequently mentioned as the animals many biblical figures oversee as many of them are shepherds; they were also sacrificial animals, ritually slaughtered and offered to God. In the story of the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22), a ram is specifically sacrificed after Isaac is spared from being sacrificed by his father Abraham ("And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." - ESV, Genesis 22:13). Not only is Cob specifically in the form of a ram, as the Aries zodiac sign is that of a ram, but he also states that he is death: fitting, as the animal he is in the form of is frequently killed and subsequently used as an offering.

What I found most interesting, however, is that the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God are both referenced right after each other in the Book of Revelation, specifically in Revelation 5:5-6. There, the Lion of Judah is referenced: "Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'" In the verse after this, a strange-looking lamb is described: "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."

Kinda like how Cob (after the other four Zodiacs) comes after Source.

I see Cob as the leader of the Zodiacs, and not only because Aries is the first astrological sign of the zodiac.

Note Cob's boss title when you use Wide Angle: "Sovereign Seraphic Incarnation." What does that mean? I'll try to break this down word for word.

"Sovereign." This word means "ruler"/"leader"/"head of state", such as a nation's king or queen – the ultimate authority of a land. As such, with Cob's great power, he can be seen as holding ultimate authority over the rest of the Zodiacs.

"Seraphic." As stated in the third point of the "Biblical references/allusions" section, a seraph is a kind of angel that has six wings. In Christian angelology, they are the highest-ranked angels out of the nine choirs and are said to be the angels closest to God, who they sing endless praises to. That there are six bosses with the title "Seraphic Incarnation" indicates that they are not of the mundane world, but somewhere else… Perhaps they are from the game's version of heaven or space? After all, they are based on constellations, which consist of stars, and space is sometimes synonymous with the heavens.

"Incarnation." This one is quite interesting as the word refers to a personification of an idea; it comes from the Latin incarnatus, "to make flesh." It's also a word that has a religious connotation, as often seen with gods incarnating in recognizable forms such as those resembling humans, animals, and other things. All six Zodiac bosses are incarnations of ideas and concepts: Source being a personification of life, Maldicion being that of change, Psalmanazar and Herodotus being that of lies, Justus being a mirror (perhaps a personification of a person's shadow self?), Carnival being that of a person's final moments (I'm really unsure of this one), and of course Cob being that of death.

What is interesting about the Bad Batter is that his boss title is "Demented Purificatory Incarnation," which goes with the fact that the Batter is not of OFF's mundane world. In a way, I think the Batter's nature is a lot like the Zodiacs, especially Cob.

I looked at the etymology for the word "cob" in Merriam-Webster, and it read: "Middle English cobbe leader of a group, head; probably akin to cub (young animal), Middle English kebbe old cow or sheep, Dutch dialect kabbe, kebbe piglet." I like to think the words "cobbe" and "kebbe" are especially fitting for Cob, given that he is in the form of a ram or a male sheep and my headcanon that he is the leader of the Zodiacs.

Paragraph 77 also references a famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, said by the titular character himself: There would have been a time for such a word. / Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time, / And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! / Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more: it is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.

Short answer: life is short and futile, and we are all actors and actresses with parts in a play.

Longer answer: Given that the whole fic has a running theme of death, this soliloquy is apt as Cob/death is the one to put out life, which is symbolized by a burning candle. As for the rest of the soliloquy, the game can be thought of as a play (who could forget Zacharie referring to the whole story taking place within a video game?): everyone, whether they are NPCs or playable characters, is an actor or actress playing their own parts in the story, and when their part is done, they leave the game world. Most of this entails a character dying, similar to many of Shakespeare's characters in his tragedies.

Not sure if this is a coincidence, but ever noticed half of Epsilon's competences being named "[x] Tragedy" and that they hit multiple targets and can potentially kill said targets? According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of a tragedy (in the play sense) is "a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (such as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror." In many Shakespearian tragedies, especially ones like Hamlet or Macbeth, people usually die after experiencing a downfall. On the other hand, the other half of Epsilon's competences are named "[x] Drama," which I find fitting because while the word "drama" usually has a negative connotation, it doesn't necessarily refer to someone facing their downfall and potential death: while the Drama competences increase different stats, thus causing potential drama for the battle/scene, the fact that they are non-damaging competences means that they don't necessarily lead to an enemy's death.

Very minor, but one of the fic's tags refers to the Batter as "a righteous holy warrior baseball player." "Holy warrior" is a reference to the anime Paranoia Agent, specifically a title one of the characters, a delusional copycat named Makoto Kozuka, calls himself.

For the fic's ending, I was partially inspired by Paranoia Agent's ending, in which the main character, Tsukiko Sagi, comes to accept her puppy Maromi's death after he got run over by a car as being (partially) her fault. While she cries and apologizes to her dead dog, Lil' Slugger (the "antagonist" tulpa in the form of a boy with a baseball bat on gold rollerskates) says "goodbye" and fades away, as his creator Tsukiko finally takes responsibility of Maromi's death. (Long story short, Lil' Slugger personifies the avoidance of taking responsibility for one's own actions.)

I seriously suggest that you should watch Paranoia Agent to get an idea of the Batter's character, especially with his purpose and why I personally don't see him as evil to the core.

Random observation, but I don't think it's that weird that the in-game comic Panic in Ballville has opposing characters who are a boxer (Boxxer) and a baseball batter (Ballman). The word "slugger" refers to two things (Wiktionary): 1) A boxer who tends to deliver hard punches and 2) A batter who has a high percentage of extra base hits. Given that there's Lil' Slugger from Paranoia Agent, it's no surprise that Ballman and the Batter are inspired by him and that they too use baseball bats, while taking the other definition lends to Boxxer. To simplify things, both comic characters are "sluggers," just using different definitions of the word.

Side note: I think the player's playthrough of the game and the comic are inverses of each other, specifically when the Batter is fighting against the Secretaries. In the comic, the protagonist Boxxer is a boxer fighting against clones of Ballman, the antagonist, while in the world outside the comic, the Batter is a baseball batter fighting against many Secretaries in Purified Zones, who resemble Boxxer given their distinct stance.

Considering the number four showing up frequently, I think that every time a Zone is purified, you and the Batter are essentially invoking and reenacting the Book of Revelation, specifically the arrival of the Four Horsemen.

Conquest (White Horseman): You and the Batter kill the Guardian of the Zone and the Batter declares that the Zone is purified, thus conquering a Zone. The leader is dead, and the rest of their subjects will soon follow.

War (Red Horseman): This and Famine are going to be more headcanon than anything else, but I imagine this to tie into the Secretaries showing up and the Elsens trying to fight them in vain – or perhaps they are even fighting among themselves as they try to survive the onslaught. Red is due to the blood that has been spilled.

Famine (Black Horseman): Because of the fighting, whether against the Secretaries or among themselves, the Elsens use up a lot of resources, especially food. Purifying Zone 1 is actually a major blow to the other Zones because it supplies meat, thus the other Zones will inevitably run out of food regardless if they have been purified yet or not. Black is due to the rotting of dying bodies (think of how victims of the bubonic plague suffer from necrosis and their discolored, blackened skin cells dying).

Death (Pale Horseman): Tying into Conquest, this is essentially the state the Zones fall into once they're purified, not counting the Secretaries.

I find it fitting that the Batter is a being that is mostly white, which is almost synonymous with paleness (defined as having little color), as he purifies/conquers the Zones and death follows him.

Just a note, but while the color of Death's horse is often translated as "pale" (as it's pàllidus in Latin), in the original Koine Greek, the language the New Testament was first written in, the word is khlōrós (yes, like the words "chloroform" and "chlorophyll") – making it more green or greenish-yellow. Other translations make it to be "ashen", "pale green", and "yellowish green".

I just found out that when the Batter was described as resembling a "pale king" when Cob first finds him after the switch had been turned off, I made an unintentional reference to the Pale King in Hollow Knight; it's really meant to reference the Pale Horseman/Death, thus the Batter could be seen as the Pale Horseman in this context.

Sources used for Section #5: Miscellaneous

Lion of Judah - Wikipedia

Cultural depictions of lions - Wikipedia

rendell-theobaldus-physiologus.pdf

The Lion and the Resurrection

Bible Gateway and Bible Hub (for the various verses referenced; these are listed here because this is the last section that mentions biblical verses)

COB Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Paranoia Agent Episode 13 Part 2 (English) (warning: this is the last episode of the anime series, so don't watch this if you don't want to be spoiled of the ending! I'd watch the previous episodes first)

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Wikipedia

Links to other sections:

Section #1: Numbers 3 and 4

Section #2: Cob inspirations

Section #3: Biblical allusions/references

Section #4: OFF-related references

Section #6: Music

For my portrayal of Cob in this fic, I kinda took inspiration from the Wolf/Death in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Like Death in Puss in Boots, Cob does not tolerate those who disrespect him, hence the description of him "hunting them down like a wolf that has sighted its prey" – much like how Death in Puss in Boots hunts the titular character down in the form of a wolf for taking eight of his lives so frivolously instead of holding them dearly, thus disrespecting Death and life until Puss learned his lesson. Death then leaves Puss alone, approving his newfound respect, showing that Death is actually decent and mostly just leaves people alone until their lives come to an end at their appointed time. I also headcanon that the Puss in Boots' version of Death does not have a fixed form, and that he appears different to anyone who sees him; similarly, I headcanon the Batter and Cob to look different to those who view them.

I'd also like to thank my friend, who goes by the pseud Magi_Delcatty, for pointing out to me in Discord the "wolf in sheep's clothing" idiom since I wasn't aware of it while writing! Interestingly, the idiom has a biblical origin, namely from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as narrated in the Book of Matthew ("Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves." - ESV, Matthew 7:15).

My other source of inspiration is Loving Reaper by Jenny Jinya. Though Cob's portrayal in this fic is not completely similar to the Grim Reaper/Death in the webcomic, I really liked the idea of a more or less benevolent figure of death, and I thought to give Cob some "good" traits for an otherwise neutral character. You can see when he speaks with other characters that he is calm and hardly ever raises his voice, and while he's not shown within the story to interact with outright hostile characters – it's only mentioned in the first part that he seldom actively hunts down those who disrespect him – it's clear that he doesn't really judge others or hold grudges. It's even heavily implied that he dislikes hunting down beings who disrespect him, as doing so "never [brings] him any amount of happiness and satisfaction, … only a bitter taste in his mouth." Lastly, I also liked the idea of a reaper character being closely associated with non-human animals, as Death in Loving Reaper is shown to comfort and help animals (and humans to a lesser extent) that have recently died, so it's quite fitting that the main death figure in OFF is in the form of an animal himself.

Sources used for Section #2: Cob inspirations:

Technically nothing too specific, just the two works mentioned here (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Loving Reaper)

Links to other sections:

Section #1: Numbers 3 and 4

Section #3: Biblical allusions/references

Section #4: OFF-related references

Section #5: Miscellaneous

Section #6: Music

3 and 4 are the two most prominent numbers of this fic, just like in the actual game (see how there are four Guardians (if one counts the Judge as the Guardian of Zone 0), three Add-Ons (making four party members when including the Batter), four total Zones). I'm sure you can find more references to either of these numbers and draw your own conclusions than what has been shown, but these points are about the ones I was aware of while writing and after rereading the fic. Some of these I wasn't even aware of while writing and only after analyzing the fic's structure, interestingly enough.

In East Asian countries such as China and Japan, the number 4 is considered an unlucky number, as the words for "four" and "death" are similar in those languages. If you've read some of my other works such as Hand-Delivered Letters, The AVL Files, and Le Temps Perdu and my notes for said works, you'll already know there's a high chance that anything that is related to four or a multiple of four stands for something either related to death or something bad about to happen (e.g. a fourth chapter, something is repeated four times, or something shows up on the fourth time).

One notable thing that I noticed while in Zone 2 is the time limit given during the Residential Area quest to defeat the Specters summoned by Japhet: 4 minutes.

In this quest, it's possible to kill 3 Elsens who become Burnt, and one of these soon-to-be Burnt even says a rather peculiar thing when found by the Batter: "No, no, go away, Masque of the Red Death…"

One of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories is titled "The Masque of the Red Death." In this story, a prince and other nobles have a masquerade ball in the prince's abbey, hiding themselves away from the outside world, which is being devastated by a plague called the Red Death. At midnight one night, a mysterious robed figure covered in blood shows up, and the prince, named Prospero, considers dealing with the stranger via hanging him, as he thinks the stranger's costume to be in poor taste. Chasing after the stranger into a dark room, Prospero confronts him, only to drop dead as the figure turns to look at him. The other guests try to confront the figure, and as they fall dead, it's revealed that the figure is none other than the Red Death, the same plague that has been killing people outside of the abbey's walls.

If you know the story of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," then you'll be clued in on the Batter being a sort of avatar of death. In fact, one of the interpretations of Poe's story is that it is about the inevitability of death.

Fun fact: one of the lines in "Red Death" references the Bible, coming from 1 Thessalonians 5:2. "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." (KJV)

The Masque of the Red Death Full Text. This page also has annotations, which I think are interesting to read.

According to one annotation in the link, "The biblical book of 1 Thessalonians 5:2 reads: 'For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.' 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 focus on the preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the prophesized apocalypse where all souls will be judged for their sins. By using the phrase 'thief in the night,' the narrator casts the coming of the Red Death as both biblical and apocalyptic. Biblical theology states that the Second Coming will be preceded by the arrival of the antichrist and humanity's descent into sin. This allusion offers an interpretation of the story as an apocalyptic event in which Prospero has led his people to sin and folly and the Red Death has arrived to deliver its gruesome judgement."

How does the above sub-bullet point relate to OFF? Well, do you remember what Japhet thought of himself, after having the people in his Zone be driven into constant fear and worrying over every little thing? Japhet eventually grew mad at what has befallen his people, and he essentially wishes for the sweet release of death. It can be thought that Japhet has "led his people to sin and folly," just like Prospero, while the Batter fulfills the role of the Red Death to deliver his judgment and above all, death.

"There was nothing else to be done but wait for the man who would rise forth to destroy him. For deep inside his soul, there was no doubt that what he did was Evil." - the last page of the puzzle that talks about Japhet's story and his relationship with the Elsen in Zone 2

Meanwhile, the number 3 is a frequently occurring number in many religions, e.g. the Holy Trinity in Christianity, the Trimurti and Tridevi in Hinduism, and the Triple Goddess in Neopagan traditions. As such, you can think of it as a divine number.

There are four parts, not counting the two split sections in the third part. Even then, I consider it serendipitous that the third part is split into two, technically making an "unofficial third" and "unofficial fourth" part and thus consequently making the very brief epilogue into the "unofficial fifth" part.

The reason for it being serendipitous is because I personally interpret the second half of the third part/the "unofficial fourth" part as being all about death, as the two main characters present are both associated with it, whereas the first half/the "unofficial third" part mentions three "living" beings who end up dying (Hugo, Valerie, and Pablo). The "unofficial fifth" part, following the "unofficial fourth," has an unnamed "living" character (the man who had lost everything) and a "lost sheep" that is heavily implied to be Cob.

3 comes before 4 = life going into death, 5 comes after 4 = leaving death but still has traces of it

There are a total of 103 paragraphs. If you separate the numbers so that they're 1, 0, and 3, then add them together, you get 4.

1 + 0 + 3 = 4

The first three sentences mention the word "name" four times in reference to Cob/Death. 

There are three "fors" or "words" that are modified biblical verses at the end of each part except for the epilogue. Alternatively, there are four "words" if one were to count paragraph 38 ("Let there only be light") as a separate line from "For even when the child walks… ".

Cob is mentioned to wait outside Hugo's door four times.

After paragraph 39 ("The switch had been turned OFF"), the fic describes Cob following, reaping, and escorting three named characters (Hugo, Valerie, and Pablo).

It's also worth noting that the names of the three named deceased characters aren't revealed until the moment of their deaths, thus invoking "The Dead Have Names" trope.

This is more of an aside, but even though I don't personally see the Batter as having four eyes like in some fanart, I find it quite fitting for a being associated with death.

Sources used for Section #1: Numbers 3 and 4:

Tetraphobia - Wikipedia

The Masque of the Red Death Full Text

3 - Wikipedia

The Dead Have Names - TV Tropes

Links to other sections:

Section #2: Cob inspirations

Section #3: Biblical allusions/references

Section #4: OFF-related references

Section #5: Miscellaneous

Section #6: Music