Chapter Text
After five-or-so minutes of shoe swapping into their regular footwear, the trio makes their way to the arcade. Being closer, they could hear the cheers and groans of the crowd. Fortunately, there was a space that was meant for people to walk through which allowed the small group to get closer. They found the crowd had gathered around a retro-style on-the-rails competitive shooter, and were watching intently as a barn-sized Moose-man tries to play with a prop gun that is too many sizes too small for him. His opponent however is a tall and slender snake, wearing an excellent set of Halo Covenant Elite armour, modified to account for the tail that coil below their hips.
From the loud sound effects and gaudy light show, it was clear that the moose was losing the mismatched competition, with his opponent scoring most of the kills and so to the points. Then came the finishing segment of the game, where the players were pitted against a single big bad monster to gun down.
The serpent was methodical in their popping in and out of cover, taking a constant chunk out of the enemy health bar. The moose however kept getting KO’d, with their hail mary shooting only taking small slivers out the Boss.
“GAME OVER!” Blared out from the arcade speakers, the quick final cutscene playing before player scores rolled into frame from the sides. The Moose had barely a 10th the points of the Serpent, who also boasted a high 96% accuracy rating. A small group of other Artiodactyl and Perissodactyla anthro men cheered and jeered as they stepped forward and collected their disgraced friend. The Moose gave a defeated handshake to the Serpent, and left with his herd without issue.
“Its getting late, so I’ll take on one more challenger” The Serpent spoke, voice distorted to thematically match the cosplay armour they were wearing. “Anyone think they ca break my win streak?” The Serpent eyed the remaining crowd, which had thinned out with the group that left.
“I never could get to grips with controls like this.” Peter nudges into Scotts’ side, face tired and disinterested. “Maybe you could try?”
“You probably handle guns as well as you can handle women anyway, mate.” Mario slaps down Peter’s shoulder. “I like CounterStrike on the PC, but this is a no go for me.” The Mongoose and Ocelot turn to Scott, both expectant of what he should do.
“Well I guess I have no choice with you.” Scott sighs. “Neither of you know if I can play, yet you’ll happily throw me into the pit.”
“Don’t be like that. I just figure out of the two of you who need a win, it’ll be more fun seeing you fail than Peter again.” Mario chuckles, putting Peter into a headlock.
“Fuck you.” Peter indignantly replies. Scott snorts a laugh out, and steps towards the cosplay serpent, waving for their attention.
“I’ll be your final challenger.” He declares loudly, getting the Serpents’ nod of approval. “At least I’m closer to the intended size for this thing.” Picking up the player one arcade rifle, Scott puts in the money needed for the two-player session.
“Hey, Scott!” Peter calls from the crowd sidelines. Human and Serpent both look over. “If you somehow beat this noodle, maybe you should take them out on a date?!” Scott can’t help but laugh at the suggestion. He knew is was there groups’ best CS:GO player, but that was a completely different game to this arcade affair.
What Scott didn’t see was the Serpent had stiffened up, glancing between the human and his anthro friends. Mario saw it, and Peter was too busy laughing at his own dumb joke. When the Serpent glanced over his way, Mario gave a warm calm smile and a thumbs up. Enough to settle what nerves the daft ocelot had disturb.
Scott managed to cycle through the menu to find the correct game mode. Three rounds of ‘On the Rail’ with a finale Boss fight as he’d already seen. The game machine lit up and announced the impending start of a new challenge. The remains of the old crowd were joined by the last of the bowlers on their own ways out. There was buzz and chatter in the audience as an opening cinematic played, human and serpent readying themselves with prop guns and respective body parts on the foot plate that controlled their cover.
“3”
“2”
“1”
The machine blared out heavy industrial music, pained grunts of enemies, ricochets off metal cover and barrels, explosions, and the sporadic call of “Reloading!” by the player characters. Even with blue and red coloured impact explosions on the screen, the fluffy of activity and flashing lights made it difficult for the audience to gauge who was leading. Yes they could have looked at the score trackers in the top corners, but that would’ve been boring.
The first two levels were cleared, a short pre-render cutscene of action played. Scott took the brief pause to roll his shoulders and neck. The Serpent caught the action and began to mimic the action, but found themselves behind as the final level started.
The level had far more sweeping motion sections, and environmental hazards the player characters needed to avoid. Scott’s shooting slowed down as he was interrupted by these obstacles a few times before he clocked onto the mechanical impact they had, giving the serpent a chance to catch up.
Level cleared, and another short cutscene, it was time for the final boss showdown. The Player Characters circled around the over-engineered and excessively armed military tank, which gave some chances to score hits on the opposing player.
“GAME OVER!” The arcade speakers decalred as the machine of war exploded on screen. The final player scores rolled into frame from the sides revealing just how close the challenge had been. So many numbers on either side were similar, but ultimately the score was decided by a roughly five hundred point lead in favour of Scott.
The serpent sighed loudly through its voice modulator, and the gathered crowd cheered. Scott was seemingly unmoved, holding the arcade gun up in a ready position with his finger off the trigger. Mario and Peter started walking up as the serpent turned to acknowledge Scott as the winner. With a brief touch of his shoulder, Scott tensed, and whipped the prop around.
The Serpent, Mario and Peter were all surprised by the motion. Mario stepped up forward to slap Scott on the back and push the gun down to the floor. The jolt brought Scott back to his sense as he looks around a little disorientated.
“Great game, man!” Mario half-shouted into his face. Scott noticed his briefly was heavy, and took a moment to recompose himself.
“Uuh, ye, that was pretty intense, wasn’t it?” He answered while trying to avoid eye-contact with the Mongoose, though finding himself look towards the serpent that had re-placed their prop gun into the machines’ rack. “Hey, hum!” He called out, the Serpent jolt their head in his direction. “Sorry for my behaviour, but that was a great game. Hope it wasn’t too long a win streak I broke.” The serpent straightens up, lifting a small rucksack onto their shoulder.
“Without defeat we cannot improve.” The Serpent reaches forward to shake, which Scott accepts. “You were a worthy opponent.”
“Sure, sure, but I don’t see any swapping of digits” Peter chimes in like a smug video game tutorial. Scott and the Serpent look to the ocelot, while Mario just facepalms with one hand before reaching up and swatting the man across the back of the head. “Ow! Mutha Fucka!!”
“How about, instead?” Mario starts, taking hold of Peters’ jacket by the shoulders. “You swap digits to see if they would like to join our gaming group, a we never acknowledge this charismatic black holes’ suggestion.” The Mongoose starts moving and steering the Ocelot towards the doors, leaving Scott and the Serpent alone.
“Sorry about him, the feline not the Feliform, haha!” Scott laughs softly, growing interally awkward. “But he makes a good point. We have an online gaming group, and you may have fun joining us from time to time if that interests you?” Scotts’ attention returns to the serpent, who has their phone out seeming to be texting someone.
“I appreciate the offer.” They say without commitment, and starting towards the doors themselves. Scott falls in-line beside them. “If you give me your number, I’ll consider it and message you back about joining?” They hand over their phone, screen showing a new contact form. Scott types in his details, including his gamertag as his contact name. The pair pass through the doors into the brisk night air.
“That should be everything.” Scott states as he hands back the mobile phone. “You got long to wait for a lift home?” He looks around at the half full car park. He notices they’re standing at an off and on loading bay for taxis.
“No, my brothers should be here soon.” The serpent replies as a high-end people carrier rolls beside them. The side door opens, and a bald man hovers at the door, meanwhile another opens the drivers’ side window and leans out. Scott is immediately needing to do a double take by the brothers of the serpent being not only two humans, but also seemingly identical humans.
“Hey Oswald, hey Alfred!” The Serpent greets and they slide forward towards the open door.
“Had a good night wrecking jocks again” “Who’s this guy?” The identical brothers have identical voices. Oswald helps the serpent load themselves into the back of the people carrier, while Alfred eyes Scott from the drivers’ seat.
“I did, and this is a friend I made.”
“Great, you can tell us about it later.” “Mum will look forward to hearing that.” The pair speak again. Alfred rolls up the window as Oswald closes the side door. Scott briefly catches a glimpse of the serpent without their helmet on, back only sees a cascade of dark as night black hair.