Rabbits (game)

**Rabbits** is the unofficial name of a mysterious game that Carly Parker is drawn into after the disappearance of her friend Yumiko. It has had 9 modern iterations, each of which is referred to using Roman numerals.

## Steelman

RABBITS is the unofficial name of an ancient, global, session-based alternate-reality game that continues in present-day.

#### **Iterations**

Each iteration starts no more than 5 years apart from the one before it, and all evidence is wiped when each iteration ends.

#### **Wardens**

Deadly security force that acts as gamemasters of RABBITS.

#### Players

There are few players, and they all play under nicknames.

## Rumors

#### **"Episode 101: Game On"**

* The game has been played for centuries.
* The old version of the game was simply called "The Game".
* The modern version of the game is nameless and starts with I, which launched sometime around 1959.
* The number of Players or candidates who participate in the game is relatively small.
* Players come from all over the world.
* There are a handful of Spectators who do their best to track the game as it unfolds in order to keep track of entry points, bet on Players, or cheer for them on members-only forums.
* After an iteration of the game ends, all evidence of that version of the game is wiped cleaned by whoever's in charge.
* Allegedly, the best source of information on the game is in a rare clip called the Prescott Competition Manifesto (PCM for short).
* Like an ARG, a new game starts with a trailhead - a first indicator, typically a cryptic message, that the game has started.
* The trailhead/inception point for I was found by a student at Oxford in 1959 by combining something in a Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post with lyrics to a song from the Everly Brothers.
* The game was unofficially named Rabbits after a list of rules with the title *Manifesto* above a hand-stamped graphic of a rabbit was discovered pinned to a wall of a laundromat in Seattle in 1959. It read: "You play; you never tell. Find the doors, portals, points and well. You play; you never tell. Step through the gates of life and hell. You play, you never tell. The Wardens watch and guard us well. You play, and pray you never tell."
* At the time of the PCM recording, 7 games had been completed and memorialized in The Circle, and iteration VIII was known to be active.
* The game may be a recruiting device for CIA and MI6.
* The prizes are unclear but may involve: large sums of money, NSA or CSI recruitment, and perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe.
* No one has been able to dig up the real identity of the winners.
* Players may die or go insane while playing the game.
* A deadly security force called Wardens exists to guard the game. Around 1995, a rhyme was discovered spray painted in red on a wall in Istanbul: "Pray you never meet a Warden's eyes, or with such takers fraternize. For once they see you, recognize. Your game is up; your world, it dies."
* There was a written warning about the Wardens on the back of a Dewey decimal card taken from an old set of library card catalog drawers found in a thrift store in Scotland: "You'll see the Wardens only once. You'll see them if you tell anyone about the game. You'll see them if you betray the spirit of the game. You'll see the Wardens only once." It's said this was an active clue in iteration VII.

#### **"Episode 102: Concernicus Jones"**

* Jones believes there was most certainly games happening between WW2 and Rabbits Game I; there's just no evidence of them.
* You can never reveal or contact the gamemasters/puppetmasters, otherwise called The Wardens.
* The game can start anywhere, anytime, and sometimes starts years before anyone knows it's running.
* A doctor named Abigail Prescott connected to some well-known game theorists and theoretical physicists recorded some kind of rambling, but interesting infodump/manifesto that's difficult to find.
* Jones shares that the PCM recording by Abigail Prescott is incomplete, and is actually composed of sliced recordings stitched together from Abigail Prescott's original series of quantum game theory symposium speeches. Jones asserts no one has a copy of the original speeches.
* Jones shares that there was no winner of VIII, so the Circle only lists 7 winners so far.

#### **"Episode 103: Marigold and Persephone"**

* Marigold, a radio jockey for a pirate radio, conversed with a caller on the air who was playing RABBITS iteration II.
* Alan Scarpio, the billionaire recluse, came into prominence in 1988 with the help of an overnight fortune obtained by winning iteration VI.

#### **"Episode 104: Doglover in Hell"**

* Iteration III ended in 1970.
* Iteration IV's trailhead instructions involved getting on the BART train, sitting aside the first man with a hat you saw, then getting off when he did and then waiting at the station for a sign.
* Iteration V started in 1979.
* Since iteration I, there has never been more than a 5-year gap between games.
* IX is the notable exception; it likely started around 2016.
* No one's seen Wardens since III, maybe VI.
* Hazel forfeited VIII, despite being the known best RABBITS player.
* The game is now different because Hazel found something, or something important happened to Hazel, during VIII.
* VII ended in 1991.
* VIII started in 1994.
* Hazel's disappearance is linked to what's causing disappearances of players playing RABBITS.
* "The Door is Open" was a phrase that was used to start each iteration of RABBITS, starting as far back as the first Olympic games in Greece around 776 BC.

#### **Chapter 1**

* There was a written warning about the game on a Dewey decimal card discovered in an old set of drawers at a thrift store in Ireland: “Remember the game, or your world it dies. Remember to follow the patterns and signs. We wait in the shadows a-twisting your fate, While you crawl and you stumble blind into the gate. It’s all predetermined, no losses no gains, So play little human, keep playing the game.”

## References

1. ↑ https://www.rabbitspodcast.com/episodes
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum\_game\_theory
3. ↑ RABBITS, "Episode 105: Priesthood One"