Chapter 1 - #001 /what's up, old world/

“Hey, I told you we closed hours ago” A somewhat familiar voice said in a hesitant tone. My eyes fluttered open and I blinked a few times as rain pattered against my face. Standing above me was a girl about my age, a skinny red head with short hair that was long as the sides, dressed in a baggy graphic tee-shirt and acid washed jeans. I didn't really recognize her till I saw the actual image on her top. It said “High-Score Arcade” and the pieces clicked together. I probably should’ve recognized her sooner. Given I was sleeping on the front step of the place she seemed to work. “Yeah, don’t worry, I did hear you, I’m just chilling here and waiting for you to reopen again” I told her, not bothering to sit up from where I was lying on my back. “Uh, that won’t be till the morning, you should head home” she told me her tone grumpy and corrective. I couldn’t really blame her, she was getting soaked as well on account of the rain splashing down around us. “Eh I don’t really uh, have a place to go, here seemed comfy enough” I told her with a lazy grin. I was being entirely honest. Most people had a tendency to think I was sassing them, but she seemed to take it at face value, though she certainly didn't seem happy about it. “It’s solid concrete- just get inside would ya” she said stepping into the arcade and gesturing for me to follow.

Inside the arcade I took to squeezing the rainwater out of my hair, careful about not getting it on the machines. I had never been inside one after they were closed, with all the booths turned off it had a certain eeriness about it. “Listen, if it’s that much a bother I’ll find a different place to sleep I don’t want to be a problem or anything” I told her gazing down at my jeans. Soaked as they were they were getting pretty uncomfortable. I wanted to take em off, but I had a feeling flashing her wasn’t going to win me as much brownie points as my hot legs probably deserved. “I’m guessing you don’t have any money for a hotel?” she asked looking me up and down. “Nah, spent it all here earlier today.” I said flashing my trademark grin. It’s a smile that’s charming on its own, I’m sure. But coupled with my personality it’s usually labeled dopey. “Well, in that case we’ve got a spare room” she told me with a shrug. “Seriously?” I asked more than a little surprised at her sudden kindness. “Not for forever, It’s just that nobody should out In that weather” she said her gaze shifted a little. I suspected there was more to it. I thought she might’ve found me cute but that was probably just wishful thinking. I certainly found her cute.

“Don’t go thanking me yet!” she said with a dismissive hand wave cutting off my next sentence. I wondered what she was getting at as she led me through the darkened room. Opening a door at the back of the arcade. Inside I saw something that managed to be more ominous than the room we had just arrived from. “It’s a booth graveyard, it takes ages to find someone to sell em to, but we can’t scrap or repair them either” she said explaining the odd decor. The room we were in was a tightly claustrophobic chamber of old booths, that seemed to be stripped of any of their exterior art. With their inside on display, they looked like skinned animals. I didn't mind too much though, so long as they still made the fun noises it wasn’t like seeing what was on the inside killed the illusion. “If I’m going to sleep in your house, you’ve got to at least let me know your name?” I couldn’t help but ask my knight in denim greaves.

“Like I said it’s just for tonight, you already spent all day paying to play here. Geez, the room doesn’t even have a bed” she objected blushing slightly. “Fine, well my names Monika” I told her sweetly. “Jenifer Nishiyama” she eventually muttered with a sigh. I blinked a little at the name but shot her a grin nonetheless. “Just keep it down, my Mom’s asleep upstairs, and I’ve college classes tomorrow morning” she told me. “You go to college?” I asked her surprised. “It’s the 90s not the 16th century” she practically hissed at her. I just shot her my supposedly dopey grin. She looked chastised at having made noise while warning me not too. She also seemed to realize I might’ve been teasing her little bit on purpose, so she soon fled to her room. The pattering of footsteps seemed to mean it was right above mine.

I resolved myself to finding the most me-sized patch of free space between the machines. It didn't seem like it’d be too difficult at first. I was lanky and tall, but flexible enough to make it work. There was this one machine that was separated from the others so there was a decent amount of space. Jennifer likely didn't think it was much. But to me just having that space was pretty nice. I figured I could finally get some sleep, free from the sound and lights of sleeping outside. Yet as I lay down in front of the arcade, pulling off my letterman jacket to use a blanket. The room became flooded with the ethereal blue light of a computer screen. The separated machine bare as it was, had turned on. I blinked bleary eyed up at it. I wasn’t really that tired. Especially not when there was a prospect at a few free runs at a game on the cards.

“L.B.L UP: A” was emblazoned on the screen in the chunky voxel graphics that were common to arcade machines. I glanced down at the peripherals. A joystick and a single button. A little reductive, but I did tend to like them simple. It made it easy to know that to start I just needed to push that single button. As I did, it occurred to me it might make noise. But my brief panic subsided as it silently transitioned to the next screen. I would’ve felt awful waking them up. The screen however completely distracted me from my air headed mistake. It was simple graphic of a tower, divided into several rectangles. All were empty, bar the bottom rectangle which bore a simple command. “Raise the overall score by 110 points” it read. I was a little confused. I could see a big 0 which was logically the overall score. But it took me a moment to notice the + sign in the little command box. "Geez, a little simple don’t ya think, no wonder you’re back here” I whispered to the machine. Nevertheless, I highlighted the + command with the joystick and was greeted by something familiar to any Arcade Gamer. I chuckled.

After having had my fun with the machine I found a different place to sleep where the light of it’s screen wouldn’t keep me up. Folded up in a corner but thankfully, warm dry and entertained for a change. I slept like a baby. I always did even when I was outside. But it was easier to sleep knowing I wouldn’t wake up with anything stolen.

“Hey, wake up would ya” I awoke to a voice I knew belonged to Jenifer and stretched like a cat. Accidentally bumping against the arcade machines on either side of me. I felt my hand brush up against something soft and I realized I must’ve touched her accidentally. “Ah, totes sorry I’m just a little sti-” I started to say but cut myself off as I had actually opened my eyes. Staring down at me from above was Jennifer. That was to be expected. What wasn’t to be expected. Was that the soft thing my hand had brushed against was a belly. A rather soft one that would’ve been best classified as a full-blown gut. The red head glanced down at where my hand was pushing into her soft middle and a blush formed on her chubby cheeks. “How exactly is this helping your stiffness at this point?” she said turning her gaze downward and I hastily retracted my hand. Watching bug eyed as her belly wobbled in turn. She had been skinny the day previously. She had been lanky in the way you’d accept an arcade attendant to be. But the Jennifer I was gazing at was a total butter ball. Her jeans looked to be buttoned with a safety pin, but even then, her belly was a muffin top, bared by the fact her shirt couldn’t be pulled down enough to cover it.

“Uh, sorry you’re Jennifer, right?” I asked her in a tone that for once was likely to be beneficially ditzy. “Yep, don’t shorten either, I can’t stand Jeni or Jen or whatever” she said with an annoyed hand wave. I was still much too hypnotized by the sight of her in motion to care. There was so much of her, where had all that flab even come from. “Anyways I was going to let you sleep, but my Mom insisted I invite you to breakfast” she said after the awkward silence grew long enough to be, well, awkward. “Well, uh yeah just uh lead the way” I said, prompting her to turn, causing her gut to brush up against the table. I couldn’t help but stare at her behind as she walked, it was a big backside to be certain. But it seemed in balance with her gut in front. It all seemed so odd to me. I wondered if I was simply misremembering the previous night. I was sure she had been pretty skinny, if she had been so porky, I would’ve definitely noticed. “Anyways, I hope nothing kept you up, I told you not to make any noise, but I went and kind of got a midnight snack..” she said sheepishly. Her words reminded me of the arcade machine.

The machine had asked me to enter in a name when I had hit the plus command. Having just been given hers I entered it in as a joke. It told me her score was already 110 so I had figured she must’ve previously played it. All the game did was ask how much I wanted to increase her score by. It didn't seem very engaging and the most it would let me do it by was 100. All it took was entering in that number and hitting the sole button. It said her score was 210 and then it locked up. I had been confused at the time and had figured the machine was just broke. But the connection seemed to be right there. I discarded the obvious at the time. Because who was possibly going to believe an arcade machine could make someone fatter overnight, and that they wouldn’t notice. I figured I was just being an air head. I was right about the air head thing, but very much wrong about the machine.