THE ARCADE MACHINE IN THIS TOWN IS ALOVE AND KINDA CUTE?!?

December 17th, 1989

It was a silent night at the arcade, the last worker of the night had left at least an hour ago, and now he was alone. Of course, this was nothing new. He had grown accustomed to the tranquil peace that came after 10 pm when the only arcade in this small town in Oregon closed.

He took in a breath, the myriad of coins in his lungs allowing him the air he needed. The faint beeping of his heart was heard as he started to doze off, it was hard work being an arcade machine all day, having to manually control the game, ensuring the player never won. But it was worth it, because those kids just kept coming back, back to give him the attention he craved since he was a child.  Everybody in the arcade wanted to play his game, everybody loved him.

They all gave him their quarters just to experience what he had to offer, and it was amazing . Albeit, part of him felt it wasn't enough, given that everyone only liked him because he was an arcade machine and not because of who he was. Although that's what he gets for deciding to become an arcade machine in the first place.  He can hardly remember anything about his life before it, all he knows is that it was boring and dull, -except for the days when he would visit the arcade machine-  but now? Now that he was an arcade machine? Well, life had been anything but dull-

The door to the arcade creaked open.

He startled, a few loud beeps reverberating through the arcade. He tried to focus on the footsteps, maybe he'd get to have a snack tonight.  He saw a figure approaching, the man was tall and slender, he had a small notebook in his arms full of tabs sticking out, the dim moonlight from outside reflected off his cracked glasses.  He was holding out a flashlight and seemed to be looking for something...could it be, he knew there was a human inside this arcade machine? No, that'd be impossible... maybe?

His heartbeat started to pick up, producing a series of quick paced beeps. The man with the flashlight noticed this and turned to look directly in his direction, the arcade machine's heart beat faster and the man started walking over to him.

Once the man was standing right in front of him, he flashed the flashlight directly into the screen of the machine, was he able to see him inside? What was he even trying to do? He didn't look like the typical teens that would break in and vandalize the place...

The man scribbled something down in his notebook, muttering to himself,

"Maybe my sources were incorrect, this just seems like a normal arcade machine." The man sighed, looking at the arcade machine once more, "Sorry, I thought all those little beeps had meant something heh, but someone must've just forgotten to turn you off-"

The man looked behind the arcade machine at the large extension cords which had all the machines plugged into it, when he noticed, this arcade machine wasn't plugged in. and yet-

Beep, beep, beep

It still beeped...The man's face lit up as he turned back to look at the screen of the machine,

"So you are alive! Ha ha! I knew it!" the man punched a few fists into the air, dropping his flashlight in the process. He quickly crouched down to pick it back up, shaking some dust off his shoulders and clearing his throat before unknowingly making eye contact with the arcade machine.