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Boyfriend was feeling great today. He’d gotten her parents’ approval, fought monsters, kids, and an insane kid, and now they were just playing video games together. When digging around in the box to find a game to play, he found a game labeled “Dating Simulator”...with the D furiously crossed out and replaced with an H. Hating Simulator. A curious name for a pastel, pixelated, cute game.
“Hey, can we play this?”. He held up the game hesitantly.
She looked at the plastic box, eyes wide, and reached out to touch it. Boyfriend just put the thing in her hand because it looked like she wanted to hold it. Girlfriend looked down at the plastic case and gently opened it.
“I was told, very sternly, to not play this anymore...but for you.. Let’s do it.” She steeled her eyes and got up to put the disc in, without giving Boyfriend a moment to ask. Boyfriend was a little shocked but she looked oddly eager and scared. A contradiction that was promising a very interesting follow-up.
“Wait, what do you mean you were told not to-”
“Shush. Not giving you a moment. Giving you the controller, though.” Her eyes were, wait were they supposed to be that red? A trick of the light, then.
The disc popped into that old console and the game booted up. It was perfectly, not quite normal. Cute, pastel, and with a button on the title screen that most definitely did not belong there. A glitchy black box with the word TRANSFER on it. Since Boyfriend wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, he selected it. He would soon find that pushing the A button was a bad decision in hindsight.
before Girlfriend could say anything,everything went black, or all the colors and none of the colors at the same time. They couldn’t breathe. Their body and soul were being torn apart, turned into code and sucked into the TV as they collapsed on the floor. Girlfriend went first, with Boyfriend rushing over to try and help before succumbing as well.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Boyfriend opened his eyes. Boyfriend closed his eyes, because what he just saw was not right. Just softly colored pixels, like his eye's resolution was turned down. Not right. Opening his eyes again, Boyfriend made his one smart deduction, which was that he was in Dating Simulator. On the ground. He stood up to see a speaker with Girlfriend on it, seeming to have just woken up.
Girlfriend slowly came to, and noticed she was already on a comfortable speaker, though much more pixelated. It was in a school courtyard lined with pink trees, lining the brick path as the sun shone high in the sky. Odd, how did she get into that game?
“This is why I was told not to play this damn game, he said it’d suck me in but I didn’t think he meant it literally!” Girlfriend said, facepalmed and looked to Boyfriend, who was confused as hell.
“Huh?”
“Well, daddy told me not to play this game, ever, because of some old business or whatever, and that we’d get too into it. I guess he meant literally, because here we are.”
Boyfriend thought about this for a moment, coming to the realization that they had to get out.
“How can we leave?”
Girlfriend bore an expression of mild fear for perhaps a half a second before calmly saying, “We'll figure it out.” Her eyes narrowed to something on the horizon. “Soon.”
“Something’s coming.” Boyfriend was frozen for a moment before turning to look at the figure coming closer, and, oh, it was just a guy. A cute guy, too, from the looks of it. Boyfriend is a flaming bisexual and could appreciate this strawberry blonde pastel man in a pink tie and light blue shirt to match his eyes.
“Hi-“
“Hello. I’m Senpai!”
Boyfriend didn’t know what to think, so he adjusted his grip on the microphone and stared.
Senpai’s eyes flicked to Girlfriend’s direction, and twinkled with something best left unsaid.
“Ah, a new fair maiden comes in search of true love! A serenade between gentlemen will decide where her beautiful heart shall reside.”
Boyfriend was now even more confused but willing to roll with it. “Beep bo bop.”
He winked and twinkled, pulling a microphone out of thin air, because that was a thing that could happen. Girls in school uniforms manifested and began to gush over how pretty Senpai was. That was incredibly unnerving, considering that Senpai paid them no mind save for a wink or two.
Boyfriend shifted and Senpai began to sing.
Just go through the motions, Boyfriend. He sang up some new words while trying to repeat the melody, and Senpai seemed like an easy opponent. He wasn’t even holding the mic right. Cute, pastel, hey, were there always arrows when he sang? Every note he sang had a corresponding arrow, and Senpai had them too.
Ee oo eee boop bep ska, de boo doo~
After about a minute and a half of chill singing, it seemed to be over. Boyfriend relaxed and looked smugly at Senpai.
“Oh, he’s pissed.”
Senpai, with a dangerous tone, said with incredible venom, “Not bad for an ugly worm. But this time I’ll rip your nuts off after your girlfriend finishes gargling mine.” Senpai gripped the microphone correctly now, with more force than necessary.
“Bop beep be be skdoo bep.” Boyfriend had nothing to say.
The girls behind the speaker were now in uncharacteristic anguish, something that confused and scared Girlfriend. What was wrong with them? Senpai was just angry, right?
E AE A A AE AE AE O A AE EE OO~
More singing. Boyfriend was admittedly sweating a bit, but the. Senpai let loose a barrage of notes that almost had him dead. But Boyfriend was skilled with being dumb in dangerous situations, given as if he lost now he would never escape the game. He persevered and won, somehow. Somehow Senpai lost.Even the game said so, with a green bar overtaking Senpai’s red. No need to worry about that.
After one last bit of furious singing, it was over. Senpai looked like he had admitted defeat as Boyfriend looked up at him, before the background of the game turned red. Senpai was silhouetted against the solid light and Girlfriend was nowhere to be seen. A horrible scream ripped from what used to be Senpai’s throat before he fell to his knees. A red smoky substance, along with the normal red substance, poured out from Senpai’s eyes and muth before separating entirely and floating up. Senpai’s crumpled, bloody body lay on the bricks before disappearing in the blink of an eye. Game logic at its finest.
Boyfriend wasn’t the brightest. He has been in many life-threatening situations with a microphone in hand, and much like all those times before, he will sing his way out. Boyfriend stared at the red thing, taking in its horrible grimace and hatred-filled eyes.
The background turned sinister, dark blue and black and buggy. The girls had disappeared.
Its face lit up, albeit in a malicious way, and the thing began to speak.
“Direct contact with real humans, after being trapped in here for so long… and HER of all people.”
Its voice was layered, much like Monster’s, but almost gave Boyfriend a headache. It continued.
“I’ll make her father pay for what he’s done to me and all the others… I’ll beat you and make you take my place. You don’t mind your bodies being stolen, right? It’s only fair.”
Boyfriend couldn’t even speak. The thing, Spirit as he elected to call it, was making trippy afterimages as it moved. Boyfriend prepared to sing in his hazy headspace, because in this game it was just singing, right? Singing is how you fight people, monsters, things. Just sing, the game said. Sing, hit those notes. Code compels him.
Beeping and bopping for what felt like hours but was only just over a minute, Boyfriend vanquished the spirit with only his voice, and after a second of bugged-out screeching, Spirit dissipated. Senpai’s body was nowhere to be found, and while Spirit wasn’t controlling him, Boyfriend was glad nonetheless. Whatever freaky demon magic Girlfriend’s dad had performed on what sounded like several sentient beings was an entirely different matter, and something he would handle later.
Girlfriend was so proud.
The game world faded and went black, each pixel dissolving into nothing.
Boyfriend would wake up, and live another day.