strm/cnscsnss 230218

People all around were gathering for the festival. It was set to be a wonderful time for all, full of many theme park rides and attractions. I turned up in the feastival in my tracksuit bottoms and tshirt like normal, justnormal clothng attire, nothing too special.

Looking around, I noticed many arcade machines scattered around the place, manynot even plugged in or turned on. One particular machine caught my eye – a fighting game entitle d”KING OF FIGHTING 34567”. Some kind of parody of the king of fighters game, obviously.

Whatever, it was the only one that was actually turned on. I dunno where it was even plugged in but I didnt think about that at the time. I simply walked up to it and pushed a token into the credit slot.

A voice boomed from the machine - “GET READY TO FIGHT, CHALLENGER.” The machine immediately showed a cariacture of myself – a pixelated version of me?? Where did that even come from? I don’t know, but I didn’t get a chance to think because Round 1 of the game began just a few seconds later. My opponent was some kind of French dude who waved about many plastic cups.

I started the fight figuring out what buttons worked – this button to punch, that button to kick, etc, dealing damage left right and centre to my oppponent. These typos are annoying fucking hell. Anyway, my opponent fought back and started throwing the cups at my video game self – but here’s the thing,, it wasn’t the video game version of myself that felt it. It was me. I could feel the plastic hitting my skin as if it was myself being fought, every touch felt real and made contact. I flinched a little but kept on dealing damage until the french villan had been knocked out cold. “K.O. YOU WIN.” flashed on the screen.

At that moment, everything blacked out around me. Looking around, the festival had completely gone, and it was just me and this cabinet. The cabinet boomed with it’s voice again. “THAT WAS JUST A TASTER OF THINGS TO COME. GET READY FOR ROUND TWO – THIS TIME, YOU’RE IN REAL DANGER.”

Hesitantly, I positioned myself against the arcade cabinet again, hands ready at the buttons and joystick.

Round 2 showed my opponent to be Yoshi from the well known nintendo series, Mario. He made a little nom before the fight again.
Immediately, Yoshi’s tongue wrapped around my virtual self’s body, and I could feel the pressure along my own waist, looking down. Nothing there. The tounge’s grip got tighter and tighter, slightly crushing me. Choking a little bit, I scrambled for the buttons trying to get Yoshi off. The kick button did the trick – I was able to kick yoshi’s tongue causing him to flinch and release.The pressure from my waist immediately lifted, and I let out a little sigh, catching some breath again. Back in action, I got to work beating the big dinosaur right up.

Punch! Slam! Bam! Whittling down his health I tried my best to make sure he couldn’t move around or get any chances, going at him every single second. Yoshi pulled his tongue out again, but this time I was ready. A button combo allowed me to grab his tongue and pull it right across the screen, dragging him on the floor. I could actually feel my real hands getting a little slimy… With a stomp to Yoshi’s head he became knocked out immediately. “K.O. - YOU WIN.”

Three lights lined up each side of me. Looking around, I still couldn’t see where I was. Was I at the festival still? Somewhere out of this world? A parallel dimension? I had no clue.

The cabinet spoke again, this time with a more sincere voice. “YOU MOVE WELL… BUT SOON, YOU WILL BE BROKEN. YOUR BODY WILL BE NOTHING BUT A BROKEN PILE OF MISERY ON THE FLOOR.” Quite a moving threat.

Third round. My avatar bobbing on the screen, the next opponent was someone much more dangerous. Some unnamed villan with a red hockey mask, a trenchcoat, and a tall figure. But none of that mattered compared to what was in the opponent’s hands – a knife.

Could I actually bleed or be stabbed? I didn’t want to find out, and so immediately tried to make the first move, not wasting any time. He mooved swiftly, dodging my attack, and I moved further as he tried to pounce the knife at my back, just narrowly missing me. I immediately lunged for him again, pinning him down to the floor. Bad move. Still with control of his arms, he plunged the kinfe straight into my back. It felt absolutely painful, as I jolted backwards away from the controller and let out a scream of pain. I could feel a trickle of liquid coming down my back – blood?? Did he make me bleed?? I didn’t know what to think, everything becoming a blur… I had to get this knife out of me.

Reaching weakly back to the controller, I mashed buttons hoping something would work, and my avatar attempted to pull the knife out of his back. God, it felt even worse then when it came in, he took his fucking time pulling that out. I screamed loudly, tears starting to roll down my face as the knife was finally removed. I just pressed whatever buttons I could, eyes blurry and watered up. I dont exactly know what happened, but from what I could hear, the avatar stabbed the opponent straight in the chest, causing them both to collapse and fall, the opponent dying within seconds. “K.O – YOU WIN!”

I collapsed on the floor. I could feel blood running all down my back, lights slowly dimming as I struggled to keep myself up. The booming voice was back - “NOT SO FAST. YOU STILL HAVE ONE MORE ROUND TO COMPLETE. THE BONUS ROUND.”

Sitting myself up, I refused to go back to the cabinet. But I Didnt have to. The cabinet slowly started to transform, it’s sides splitting off and lifting up, the screen lifted high above them, and the bottom split into two, forming legs. A screwed up face appeared in the cabinet screen, grinning.

This time, the cabinet itself was my opponent.

It ran for me almost instantly, and I quickly rolled out of it’s path. Standing myself up again best I could, I saw that the space around me had transformed again – now, it was a real boxing ring. Red and blue rope covering the sides all around, a bouncy almost trampoline like base beneath me.

The cabinet didn’t take long to turn back round and lunge for me again, so I tried to prepare myself.

(fell asleep, no finish)