The sound of giddy children and various beeping machines kept most of the arcade in a constant state of commotion, and the sounds were only part of the rambunctious equation. The flashing lights of many different colors shooting off of every available piece of furniture and machine alike made an avalanche of disco balls look tame by comparison, and the scent of many different types of food, most of them unhealthy enough to make your arteries explode without the latest high tech health care available to take care of you, wafted their way through the building through the large open doorway leading to the food bar, most likely intentionally left that way to draw in hungry children who had just spent hours drawn to the pretty lights of the arcade like moths to a flame. It was a sensory overload that would destroy anyone's unprepared nervous system, but it seemed to attract a whole lot of attention from all over town as the go to arcade to spend the afternoon at. Indeed, the Starlight Cafe and Arcade found in the small town of Freebird Ohio had made quite a name for itself among it's citizens. It wasn't the prettiest to look at from the outside with all the hastily done renovations to expand some sections of the arcade, but it got the job done.
A 5'6'' albino boy, kneeling down in a blue and white uniform, smiled politely upwards as a couple seemingly too old for arcade games passed by him for the exit. He didn't judge them for it, however. For the conceivable future he'd probably be spending the rest of his life playing games as well. Might as well. Not like the real world outside the arcade had too much to offer anyways.
"Have a nice day," he called out to them, continuing to clean up the mess that some thoughtless little kids had made with their food and drinks while playing around in one of the arcade machines. It made the bottoms of his white sneakers wet and sticky. He hated that feeling. Gave him the shivers. Luckily he was still able to concentrate enough to power through it, probably because he knew that he only had four more minutes left of his shift that ended at 2:00 pm. Even for only part time work it still left him drained. He wasn't cut out for work, but as far as work went he didn't mind this too much. At the very least it gave him easy access to the hit virtual reality space combat game called Ultimate Horizons.
"Hey, hey, are you a boy or a girl," a little kid questioned lightly from behind, tugging on the back of his shirt.
Little brat. He let out a sigh. Only two minutes left. He can make it.
"I'm a boy, of course," he replied, turning around. Sure, perhaps his "slightly needing a good haircut pretty soon" hairstyle could possibly be mistaken for a girl's from behind, but his face...was actually kind of soft as well. Oh well. He just wouldn't let that bother him. What do they know anyways? He bent down again to finish wiping up the mess.
"Pay up, Jimmy," the other boy nearby, probably his friend, remarked while holding out his hand.
"Ah man," the first boy said, slugging a shiny golden arcade coin at him. It clattered to the ground and the boy scooped it up soon after, pocketing it with a smirk.
William sighed again, taking one last look at his clock. Finished just in time! His face brightened, if only by a little. He expertly weaved through the crowded arcade to the back room, punched out of his shift, said his goodbyes to a few of the co-workers he ran into, then headed up the stairs to another section of the arcade that had all of the more expensive arcade machines for the 16 or over crowd. Nobody really enforced that rule unless someone threw a fuss. It was certainly less chaotic without the little rampaging monsters running around, and at least in his opinion a lot more pleasant because of it. In the right corner of the arcade was his destination. It was a rather large room lined with devices that looked like slender cockpits wrapping around the entire wall. If the windshields were raised then that meant they were open, but unfortunately for him all 40 were occupied at the moment. It was a tad earlier then normal for this to occur. Some of them would probably be getting off soon, but he couldn't afford to wait. He needed to get online right now due to accepting a challenge by TrollerCat57 to a battle to the death after he insulted William's choice of command ship, calling it the Noob Flier and how it could never be any good. William was so going to destroy him with it too...
Then he remembered something, his eyes catching sight of the one cockpit situated off to the side, spare parts scattered around it and the windshield lifted off, propped up against the wall. That function and a few others didn't work, but as far as he knew the device itself was still operational. Yes! He still had a chance to get online in time to not be late for the challenge! But would he actually use a machine without the windshield? During the time playing the game one's senses are transferred into it, making their body in the real world completely prone and defenseless, ripe to be stolen from should the criminals block the view of the cameras during that instant. However, this area was for the more civilized crowd, after all. Could he trust them? Ah, what's the worst that could happen. He had a date to uphold. He hoped into the device, inserting a plastic memory card into a middle panel. While the game was loading up he slipped off his sticky socks and shoes, setting them off to the side for now. If people wanted to steal those then that would be their problem just as much as it would be his. He them placed the helmet onto his head, causing the outside world to disappear from him completely. However, his motor control functions still remained in his body for now.
"Memory loaded. Please grip the handles with both hands to transfer into the game," a voice instructed. He did so, and after a brief second of what felt like someone pulling on his entire body, or perhaps his spirit itself, he found himself staring out into the darkness of space from within his command ship, sitting in the command chair found just behind the pilot seat. He was wearing a light blue bodysuit and helmet that looked like a much less bulky version of what astronauts would wear. He got up onto his feet, stretching his digital body, even after all this time wondering how it feels so real, as if this could very well be his real existence and his life back on Earth was the boring minigame. He didn't have time to dawdle in amazement, however. He slipped into the pilot's chair, causing a holographic popup to appear in his vision. He swiped at the options a bit and the stars elongated into beams of light as his ship jolted forward, warping off through the galaxy to location a-3b12 at a breakneck pace completely impossible outside of a videogame. Perhaps it was moments like this that did prove it was still just a game.
The stars went back to normal, his warp interrupted by the presence of his target, TrollerCat57, occupying a command ship dead ahead. Otherwise the area was empty, at least for now. Perfect. William didn't expect to be able to beat his opponent in a fair fight, but he planned for this battle all day. He would do as much damage as possible the conventional way before sending his command ship on a suicide dive into the enemy's. After all, he didn't say how he would use his command ship to win the fight. After that he could escape using his fighter in the docking bay and perhaps take his opponent down while he was still reeling from the impact. Finally, someone would take him seriously after this. William let out a smirk from underneath his helmet as he pressed forward on the control stick, accelerating into attack speed.
If only other ships didn't fly in to interrupt him then he had the upmost faith that he'd be coming out of this battle victorious and with the resources taken from his destroyed enemy's command ship. His comeback tour begins now!
A 5'6'' albino boy, kneeling down in a blue and white uniform, smiled politely upwards as a couple seemingly too old for arcade games passed by him for the exit. He didn't judge them for it, however. For the conceivable future he'd probably be spending the rest of his life playing games as well. Might as well. Not like the real world outside the arcade had too much to offer anyways.
"Have a nice day," he called out to them, continuing to clean up the mess that some thoughtless little kids had made with their food and drinks while playing around in one of the arcade machines. It made the bottoms of his white sneakers wet and sticky. He hated that feeling. Gave him the shivers. Luckily he was still able to concentrate enough to power through it, probably because he knew that he only had four more minutes left of his shift that ended at 2:00 pm. Even for only part time work it still left him drained. He wasn't cut out for work, but as far as work went he didn't mind this too much. At the very least it gave him easy access to the hit virtual reality space combat game called Ultimate Horizons.
"Hey, hey, are you a boy or a girl," a little kid questioned lightly from behind, tugging on the back of his shirt.
Little brat. He let out a sigh. Only two minutes left. He can make it.
"I'm a boy, of course," he replied, turning around. Sure, perhaps his "slightly needing a good haircut pretty soon" hairstyle could possibly be mistaken for a girl's from behind, but his face...was actually kind of soft as well. Oh well. He just wouldn't let that bother him. What do they know anyways? He bent down again to finish wiping up the mess.
"Pay up, Jimmy," the other boy nearby, probably his friend, remarked while holding out his hand.
"Ah man," the first boy said, slugging a shiny golden arcade coin at him. It clattered to the ground and the boy scooped it up soon after, pocketing it with a smirk.
William sighed again, taking one last look at his clock. Finished just in time! His face brightened, if only by a little. He expertly weaved through the crowded arcade to the back room, punched out of his shift, said his goodbyes to a few of the co-workers he ran into, then headed up the stairs to another section of the arcade that had all of the more expensive arcade machines for the 16 or over crowd. Nobody really enforced that rule unless someone threw a fuss. It was certainly less chaotic without the little rampaging monsters running around, and at least in his opinion a lot more pleasant because of it. In the right corner of the arcade was his destination. It was a rather large room lined with devices that looked like slender cockpits wrapping around the entire wall. If the windshields were raised then that meant they were open, but unfortunately for him all 40 were occupied at the moment. It was a tad earlier then normal for this to occur. Some of them would probably be getting off soon, but he couldn't afford to wait. He needed to get online right now due to accepting a challenge by TrollerCat57 to a battle to the death after he insulted William's choice of command ship, calling it the Noob Flier and how it could never be any good. William was so going to destroy him with it too...
Then he remembered something, his eyes catching sight of the one cockpit situated off to the side, spare parts scattered around it and the windshield lifted off, propped up against the wall. That function and a few others didn't work, but as far as he knew the device itself was still operational. Yes! He still had a chance to get online in time to not be late for the challenge! But would he actually use a machine without the windshield? During the time playing the game one's senses are transferred into it, making their body in the real world completely prone and defenseless, ripe to be stolen from should the criminals block the view of the cameras during that instant. However, this area was for the more civilized crowd, after all. Could he trust them? Ah, what's the worst that could happen. He had a date to uphold. He hoped into the device, inserting a plastic memory card into a middle panel. While the game was loading up he slipped off his sticky socks and shoes, setting them off to the side for now. If people wanted to steal those then that would be their problem just as much as it would be his. He them placed the helmet onto his head, causing the outside world to disappear from him completely. However, his motor control functions still remained in his body for now.
"Memory loaded. Please grip the handles with both hands to transfer into the game," a voice instructed. He did so, and after a brief second of what felt like someone pulling on his entire body, or perhaps his spirit itself, he found himself staring out into the darkness of space from within his command ship, sitting in the command chair found just behind the pilot seat. He was wearing a light blue bodysuit and helmet that looked like a much less bulky version of what astronauts would wear. He got up onto his feet, stretching his digital body, even after all this time wondering how it feels so real, as if this could very well be his real existence and his life back on Earth was the boring minigame. He didn't have time to dawdle in amazement, however. He slipped into the pilot's chair, causing a holographic popup to appear in his vision. He swiped at the options a bit and the stars elongated into beams of light as his ship jolted forward, warping off through the galaxy to location a-3b12 at a breakneck pace completely impossible outside of a videogame. Perhaps it was moments like this that did prove it was still just a game.
The stars went back to normal, his warp interrupted by the presence of his target, TrollerCat57, occupying a command ship dead ahead. Otherwise the area was empty, at least for now. Perfect. William didn't expect to be able to beat his opponent in a fair fight, but he planned for this battle all day. He would do as much damage as possible the conventional way before sending his command ship on a suicide dive into the enemy's. After all, he didn't say how he would use his command ship to win the fight. After that he could escape using his fighter in the docking bay and perhaps take his opponent down while he was still reeling from the impact. Finally, someone would take him seriously after this. William let out a smirk from underneath his helmet as he pressed forward on the control stick, accelerating into attack speed.
If only other ships didn't fly in to interrupt him then he had the upmost faith that he'd be coming out of this battle victorious and with the resources taken from his destroyed enemy's command ship. His comeback tour begins now!
