Game Central Station was bustling not long after closing. It was every night at nine when the entire complex was shaken, a new plug being added, though they were all familiar with it by now. Very few cared to venture into that console. It wasn't like the others, not at all. The world was plain and lacked any detail or characteristic to distinguish itself, as the others did. There were no characters in that world, not until they themselves seemed to decide to appear, and even most of them were nearly lifeless. It was a no-man's-land for every one in Game Central Station.
No one truly understood his inclination to visit that world. No sane person would venture into that game wasteland, and yet he seemed happy to. Of course, he himself knew his own reasons - and perhaps one of two of the tenants in the complex had figured it out, as well, but he doubted even they knew the scope of it.
He felt a little bad, honestly. It almost felt as if he were sneaking around, going into the port late at night, after most of the games had retired to their own consoles, and waiting for Rae to turn her computer on. That was when the world turned from the sterile concrete hallway into a true world. Everything seemed to light up when she turned the computer on, and programs sprang to life. It was unlike anything Felix had seen in his thirty years at the arcade, things materializing out of thin air, the walls taking on seemingly surreal landscapes (Rae called them 'screensavers') making it seem like they were able to be anywhere, far away from the Station.
They would remain in her port - she was rather intimidated by the Station, by the other gaming worlds, and for some time preferred to stay behind her own gate. He did not argue. It was too nice, just to be able to spend time with her, against all odds and logic. Maybe he was even happy she wasn't yet willing to leave her game. He was unsure how such news would sit with the others, how they would react to knowing he'd built such a relationship with Rae, a gamer. It ought to have been impossible! It ought to have been avoided, some would say. He didn't doubt they would, not for a moment.
The relationship between game and gamers has been the same for such a long time, he didn't doubt there would be plenty of objection to him being with Rae, and yet he found himself with her at that very moment, sitting with her in an old Diner Dash game torrent, the perfect place to not be bothered by any prying characters from around the station. It was in Rae's gate, one of the many personas her world could take on, and they both knew they wouldn't be bothered by characters from neither the arcade nor the computer.
They shared a booth, him leaning against her, whose frame was considerably more substantial. She had a good head and a half on him, and he was able to snuggle nicely against her as they chatted. He'd been thinking about her so often lately, during work hours, watching and hoping he'd be able to see her pass his game console, and counting down the hours until closing.
He'd been thinking about being with her more and more, and from what she would tell him about her day, she was doing the same. His heart pounded in his chest at the thought of it, about his plans, and he suddenly didn't feel as brazen as he had when he'd met her at the gate earlier that night. He was nearly petrified as he leaned against her, looking up at her as they talked.
His heart leapt into his throat as she suddenly stopped, mid sentence, and looked down at him. He sat up, rather worried about her, and asked what was the matter. When she didn't reply, he leaned forward and laid a gloved hand over hers.
It happened very quickly, and he wasn't quite sure what had happened until she was an inch away, and then suddenly she was kissing him. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks but didn't pull back. Why would he. This was what he'd been trying to accomplish for the last week or so. It was terribly awkward at first, but he shifted next to her, not breaking, and leaned into it.
When they broke, and he sat up straight besides her, red as a beet, he tried to ask her how she knew.
She merely laughed, her shoulders shaking up and down in a mildly pixellated manner. Felix often forgot that her avatar was not truly her, and that by being a gamer, she was given a range of different liberties depending on the game they found themselves in. "This is Diner Dash, Felix. I read your thought bubble," she said. "And I saw what you wanted."
i don't think i can NOT ship you with Felix after all that cute anon interaction like wow you really deserve someone who treats you like a princess and dotes on you like that ;u;
You know what, fuck it. You're not a character, but i demand you do the ships with /yourself/. Because we all know what they are, but lets just list them all again, shall we?
She'd hang about for hours after closing, until she was too tired to sit upright on the stool, just talking to the games. Some of them were friendly - the girls from Sugar Rush were always really eager to talk. They thought it was neat, to be talking to a gamer. Others she couldn't quite understand; some of the character's languages weren't coherent. Others were uninterested. And yet, still others pointedly avoided her. Hero's Duty, the newest game in the arcade, according to Felix, played the idle animation whenever she walked by after hours. She didn't take offence: she knew it must be an odd concept for them, to interact with anyone on her side of the screen. He told her that they would come around eventually.
In all honesty, she hoped they did. Simply put, this was sensational, and she wanted to get to know every game - every character in the arcade. But, for the meantime, she would place the guns back in the holsters at the end of the day and give the console a little pat, as she made her rounds.
The Fix-it Felix game was always brightly lit at the end of the day - Felix always stood at the top of the roof before she approached the console, keeping a lookout for her before jumping down the side of the apartment complex, down to the ground level as she sat on the stool, leaning towards the glass.
"Good evening, ma'am!" he chirped, hammer sheathed and hands folded neatly in front of him.
Rae smiled. "Hi, Felix! Slow today, wasn't it?" she asked, casually.
"Unusually so!" he readily agreed with her, making towards the side of the screen. "I'll just be a moment--"
"Uhm--" she started, interrupting his ascent to the screen. He paused mid-step, looking up at her. "I thought, maybe we could try something else." she said slyly, a certain knowing gleam in her eyes. His eyebrows arched up his forehead and he tilted his head at her a fraction of a degree. This was the only way - he should know. He'd visited several different games, trying to scrounge up information about interacting with the gamer beyond the mere joy-stick platform. Rae's smile widened. "I brought something today, thought we'd give it a try. Remember you were telling me about Game Central Station the other night?" the handy-man gave a nod, quietly trying to piece the clues together. "Why don't you go down there for a moment, and we'll see how this works."
Felix opened his mouth to inquire about Rae's scheme. He wouldn't be able to talk to her from Game Central Station, but she'd slipped from his view before he had the chance to explain this. Generally speaking, he thought she'd understood that. Still, it was all he could do to rush off screen, to the train cart that took him dutifully to the clean white metro station. He ran, stumbling into the centre of the station, where he could here Sonic drawling on about inter-game safety.
He had absolutely no idea what to do now. He wandered aimlessly for a moment, vaguely returning any greeting he received and pondering whether or not he should go back to his game. It seemed like a reasonable course of action - maybe from the game he could get Rae's attention and further inquire why she wanted him here, of all places--
There was a tremendous shake, a terrifying rumble that racked the entire station. Some of the newer games didn't know how to take this, weren't sure what was going on, but Felix had been here for thirty years - he'd seen plenty of games come and go, and knew that this violent upheaval of the station was characteristic of the arrival of a new game. But it was after hours! Rae wouldn't be plugging a new game in now, would she? Surely Litwak would want to make sure the game ran smoothly before putting it out for the public?
He ran down the length of the station, weaving in and out of the crowd, some of whom were panicking, while he was making a beeline straight for the source of the ruckus: an empty socket. Well, previously empty, as Rae was in the process of shoving a plug into the strip right now. He skidded to a halt in front of the gate, watching as the digiboard above the entrance flickered to life, to read one stationary word: Pavillion.
It was a game he'd never heard of, not even from one of the other consoles who had travelled from another arcade. He watched curiously as the gate turned on, glowing bright blue for a moment, activating itself now that the game was hooked up to Game Central Station.
He jumped through the gate the moment it opened, rushing forward and trying to find the train cart to whatever game was plugged in. Rae's scheme was steadily being revealed, though he was still a little lost, the proverbial fog having not yet been lifted completely. He was definitely on the right track though.
He boarded the train cart, which took him - rather shakily, he might add. Must have been a slower console - to a blank hall, much like the Station, only darker. It seemed as if the world hadn't been programmed correctly. For all his years, he'd never been to a console like this. Everything was industrial and impersonal, and it was almost frightening. He wandered deeper into the odd space; it seemed to stretch forever, further into the dark. He didn't like this, at all. He didn't even know where he was.
There was a sudden surge of energy, and the blank, dark space was suddenly flooded with light.
This was the world? Where was everybody? Where was anybody, for that matter.
Still, he ventured further, deeper, into the world, a seemingly endless tunnel.
A flicker was caught out of the corner of his eye; he turned.
Immediately to his left stood a figure, human in appearance but completely featureless, nothing but the rough outline of a person.
He scuttled backwards, uncertain about the new character. He was outside of his game and completely defenceless His hammer was all he had on him - all that would do is probably make it stronger. Still, he drew it anyway, holding it out stiffly in front of him, hoping to deter the character from trying to approach him. Felix wasn't normally like this. Like any other game, he tried to welcome newcomers to the arcade, but face it - this thing wasn't like any character. It was... it was...
He staggered back again, as it flickered a second time. Flashes of colour were coded onto the figure. It filled out, taking on a distinctly feminine appearance, as textures were added - clothes and hair and facial features, each in their own bizarre flash of code.
He sheathed his hammer, placing it back in his tool belt, and looking up at this thing, this character that had just been created before his eyes. It - she - she was indeed taller than him, by about a head, and she looked strikingly familiar. She smiled and spread her arms out, her mouth moving in a silent "Ta-da!" He was mildly disappointed to realize that a voice hadn't been coded yet. Still, he moved towards her.
He was silent for a moment, summing the character up.
Rae found herself thinking about the arcade more and more; or, more specifically, a single game in the arcade.
Fix-it Felix, Jr. stood at the forefront of her mind. Something unsettled her about the game, though not in a bad way. It was an odd feeling that she couldn't quite peg, and it set an insufferable itch in her mind: an itch to satisfy the newfound curiosity that accompanied her last play of the game. She'd played the game so often as a child, only to leave it in the arcade of nearly eight years, now, leaving it to other kids. She remembered it, more than anything else about that arcade, she remembered spending hours playing that game.
The more she thought about it, the more disturbing it became, the more impossible. If she hadn't known better, she would have said that the game knew her. It had addressed her specifically, it had talked to her, and cheered her up. But of course, that was preposterous. It was a game, it couldn't do any of those things.
But still, the itch to know for certain burned, eating at her every day in her classes, causing her thoughts to drift and become less focused with every passing minute. She stared up at the clock.
Five minutes.
Five minutes, and summer break would be there. Five minutes, and she would leave town. It wasn't a long trip, nor was it a spectacular one - from any one else's point of view, of course. To Rae, this was the chance she'd been waiting for all semester. In five minutes, she was going three towns over to stay with her uncle Litwak, to work in the arcade as a summer job. He'd offered it to her - undoubtedly because he would need the extra help in the summer, he always did - and she'd accepted eagerly. She felt she couldn't get enough time in that arcade now, with the mystery of her old game nearly consuming her.
She would ask him. She had to ask him, if he'd had the hardware upgraded, if he'd had anything done to that old game that might have added that extra animation. Her fingers twitched patterns out against the marked up laminate wood of her desktop, each tap placed specifically to match the layout of the game console. Her lips turned up and her eyes slipped out of focus, the tapping becoming more audible in the classroom as she played the game in her mind - she was down to two lives, but there was an invincibility pie right there--
"Ahem!"
The tapping stopped abruptly. Half the class was staring at her. The teacher looked more confused than angered, and all Rae could do was manage an embarrassed laugh before the final bell rang, releasing them for summer break.
---
Rae stood in the lobby of the arcade; it a quiet Sunday morning, and the shop was closed until noon. She and her uncle would set up early, clean out the coin machines and replace the tickets in any game that seemed to be low. A little coin dispenser hung around her waist, and she had a small push broom in her hand. It was nearly useless against the knit carpet at her feet, but it was enough to clean up with.
She looked around at the games. Hero's Duty, that was a new one. Sugar Rush, that was new. But there were also some of her old favourites, as well. Pac-Man was still there, and so was Frogger. The old Streetfighters game (which she'd never been too good at, to be honest) was still there, but she made certain to stop and clean the monitor of the Fix-it Felix, Jr. game. She smiled down at the pixel animation, watching as the Nicelanders went in and out of the apartment. Something tugged at her: this was also something she never remembered about the game. For all the times she'd played, never once had she seen the NiceLanders leave the apartment, unless it was to throw Ralph off the roof.
She sprayed the glass, moving the rag in circular motions to bring the screen to a shine that would, undoubtedly, have to be replaced at the end of the day. She wondered if she ever treated these games so harshly as a child. She tisked at the scuffmarks on the bottom of the console and took the rag from the screen.
She paused.
There was absolutely no movement. Not even the idle animation played. She frowned, turning back to see where her uncle was. "Uncle Litwak?" she called. He answered from across the arcade. She went to meet him by the skeeball alleyways. She took one of the heavy wooden balls from him and rolled it up the lane with precision. "Did you ever... change the Fix-it Felix game?" she asked tentatively.
He made a toss, more expert for all his time at the arcade. "Old Felix? What do you mean, change it?" he asked.
She shrugged, as if it weren't of any importance. Quite the contrary, to her, it was extremely important. "You know... have the content... updated, or something. Seems different somehow." she controlled her voice, trying to make it sound nonchalant, as if in casual conversation.
He hummed in though. "No," was his final answer. "Can't say I have. Different how?" he asked, tossing again.
Rae shifted uncomfortably. She was really hoping to avoid telling him about the little greeting she'd gotten last time she'd stayed late.
"Must be me. You know, it's been so long and all."
He nodded as she tossed. "Has been a long time. We're glad to have you back, you know."
The ball ricocheted off the bumper, landing violently in the gutter as she sputtered, almost losing her balance. "Sorry?" she asked, bewildered as she tried to regain herself.
He gave her an odd look. "Me and the games. We've missed having you here. You used to come every weekend, you remember?"
"Y-yeah." she answered. Through the mild panic the memories began to come back. She smiled "Yeah, I do."
---
She offered to close shop for him that night. The Sunday rush was a bad one this weekend. He told her light-heartedly that it wasn't always like that. Probably just because it was the first weekend of the summer, was all.
She didn't mind, of course. It was all worth it, for a chance to further investigate the games that had been on her mind for a little over a month now. He readily agreed to let her close up, just as long as she remembered to lock the register and the doors, and switch off the lights before she left; the games would remain on, as usual.
It got dark fast,time slipping away from her as she searched the back room first, trying to find any evidence of a game upgrade. She knew her uncle wasn't usually one to lie, but he was certainly one to drag you along for a joke. She thought perhaps there would be record of a transaction with a software company somewhere, but there was nothing.
Eventually, she meandered back into the lobby of the arcade.
Something wasn't right.
The arcade was silent.
Well, perhaps silent wasn't the right word. The idle animations of the games still played, but there was something entirely eerie and cautious about the sound.
She walked through the arcade, looking from game to game. It almost seemed as each animation faltered a little as she walked by.
She frowned as she moved through the rows of games, watching as frogger was accidentally crushed by a vehicle - that wasn't supposed to happen in the animation - she watched as the DDR avatar nearly tripped. Little things caught her eye that were just entirely wrong.
Her gaze travelled to Fix-it Felix, Jr.
The idle animation was almost flawless from what she remembered, save for one detail: Felix wasn't fixing anything. She moved in a bee line towards the game to watch the progression of the animation. All he did was dodge the bricks that Ralph smashed from the building. They began piling up on the ground, in neat little pixelated mounds, and Rae's eyes widened.
Again.
She toggled the joystick, but nothing happened. They continued their little project, though she sat there, staring dumbly, confused and scared and amazed all at once.
"Fix-it Felix, Jr. just what do you think you're doing?" she breathed, frowning deeper and leaning in to watch.
Both characters stopped very suddenly, the last bricks falling to the ground with a clink. Ralph looked down at Felix and Felix looked between his game partner and the screen. His hammer was placed back in the slot on his tool belt and he turned towards the screen, hands clasped in front of him. A speech bubble appeared over his head, and this time, she heard him, clear as day, the voice coming from the speakers on the inside walls of the console. "Miss Rae? Well... it was supposed to be a surprise, but..." he laughed nervously.
Ralph's speech bubble appeared. "Looks like you caught us."
Rae stared blankly at the game for a moment. "You..." she managed. Her frown deepened. She held up a hand. This was ridiculous. "How many fingers?" she asked sharply.
Felix's voice drifted over the speakers, no speech bubble this time. "Uhm..." he laughed. "Four, ma'am."
"We can count, you know," Ralph offered. He sounded slightly bored by the whole ordeal.
"I know, I know," Felix said, making little jerky hand movements that were a little hard to follow. "It is usually something we keep to ourselves. No need to be alarmed, though!" he assured her. He smiled. "Even when you were a tot we had our own lives after-hours. It's good to see you back!" he greeted her enthusiastically.
She smiled half heartedly, unsure of what to think. They were alive. It was obvious, it was right in front of her, but a part of her didn't want to believe it. A part of her couldn't believe it, that they were alive.
"You do it yet?" she heard a hiss from behind her. Already in shock, Rae spun around, nearly toppling off of the stool, to face the intruder.
"No, no!" Felix called from the console. "It's allright, that was just Yuni, over from the Dance Dance Revolution game." he told her. It was as bizarre a notion as anything else that happened tonight, so she decided he must know better than she did. He addressed the game across the hall. "Yeah, Yuni! She knows, it's allright."
"Finally!" came another voice.
Rae curled in on herself: there was, all at once, a violent surge of activity from every game console in the room. Lights grew brighter, sounds grew louder, and her ears were bombarded by several different electronic beeps and dings and musical tones, all undermasking the unmistakable sound of cheering.
She looked around the room in a stupor as she took it all in, eventually turning back towards her game console as the noise and the lights died down.
"You know," he said, his hammer in his hand again. "You uncle's been here for a long time. We think he knows about us games. And after last month, we were all sort of wondering when you'd be back." he tapped one pile of bricks, and they reformed on their own, into a miniature staircase off to the side of the screen. "Of course, now we're all wondering if..." he tapped another pile of bricks and they became a second staircase, a bit bigger than the first, that allowed him to be able to continue upwards. "Well... if you're staying, this time." he asked.
