fantasy
Life and Games
3
When the arcade is open, theyโre fully โin character.โ
They play their roles nonstop: villains are villains, heroes are heroes, NPCs repeat their lines, racers race. They donโt get to improvise or break the scriptโbecause players are watching. The game world feels real, but itโs ruled by code, routines, and expectations.
When the arcade closes, everything changes.
The characters becomeโฆ people.
They leave their games, visit other worlds through the arcadeโs power cables (basically the internet of games), hang out, gossip, complain about work, and live full social lives. Theyโre self-aware. They know what game theyโre from, what their role is, and whether players like them or not. Some love their jobs; others are tired of being stuck in the same loop forever.
Their lives are half digital, half emotional.
They can get hurt for real (losing a life actually matters), they can be erased, and they can d13 if the rules are broken. So even though everything looks colorful and cartoony, the stakes are low-key intense.
Basically:
๐ By day, they perform.
๐ By night, they live.
His name is Kael Virex, the kind of guy girls joke about but secretly believe in. Tall, scarred, unfairly handsome, built like a promise kept, he fights like heโs dancing and jokes like heโs already won. Kael lives inside the game Ashfall Protocol, a brutal combat sim where humanity is being eaten alive by a sentient plague that turns cities into breathing graves. When the game is on, heโs relentless: fists, blades, instincts sharp enough to cut code itself. When the game sleeps, he still exists, stretching sore knuckles, replaying losses, smiling like fear never learned his name.He laughs easily, bleeds quietly, and wins with style, making apocalypse look survivable, even almost romantic. Always
videogames
