HtH105 – INTERREGNUM Take A Break!
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The girls have some fun after Opening Day.
Late in the night, when the other denizens of the house had gone to sleep, a single door is left ajar, warm light spilling out after a successful Opening Day. The house finally exhales from days of busywork, rain pitter-patters softly against the second-floor windows.
"Now THIS is gaming!"
The purple-haired girl tightens the last screw on the odd-looking contraption: what looks to be a small box and screen, connected with numerous wires to a stationary bicycle.
"Piaccta wants to try!" Practically leaping onto the stationary bike, the energetic ball of yellow puts foot to the pedal, and starts racing fast and furious! As she does, the lights on the small box flicker to life briefly --- which encourages her to pedal even harder!
Suddenly, the screen pops to life, illuminating the room with a pixellated glow!
"Success! Retro-game Revival Machine is a go!" Piaccata pumps a fist in the air, overjoyed at her hard work paying off!
Leaping off the bike, she takes hold of a controller for the Retro-game Revival Machine, and starts flipping through the dazzling selection of games from the main menu. As she hovers over each game's cover image, her eyes twinkle in excitement at worlds familiar and unfamiliar to her!
A game about a plumber who jumps and saves princesses!
A game about a blue mouse that goes fast!
A game about hungry hungry ghosts that are cannibals!
"Woah, I never expected this clanker of a machine to work..."
From the side, Minara leans in, watching Piaccta hop into a spaceship and start gunning down aliens in isometric top-down view. Somehow, the blue mouse ended up being a boss on the other side of the screen...
"Hmm hmm! Of course it works! I literally designed this myself! No power plants needed!" House is on the bike, pedaling effortlessly. As she does, the two tubes on each side of the screen begin to fill with flowing neon, like a bottle of water being slowly filled up.
Aside from the odd power source, this was clearly a sort of video game device. While they aren't very common here on the New Continent, modernized versions of this device exist in her homeland of The Floating City of Arcadia. These days, 3D-projections from a phone are all the rage, no screen required! This was obviously a device to emulate the feel of a primeval era of gaming.
Still, it looks pretty fun.
Piaccta has sent the mouse with blue arms flying with her spaceship's lasers; it falls off the screen while dropping numerous golden rings as phat loot.
Victory!
"Does Miss Minara want to have a try too?"
Piaccta minimizes the space game she was playing, and offers the Player 2 controller to Minara, who greedily accepts it! She scrolls through dozens of cartridge titles on the selection screen, before landing and pointing to one with a giant orange lizard on its box art.
Unfortunately, Player 1 used her veto powers!
"(groan) No, Miss Minara, nope! Piaccta doesn't like Pxkxmxn!"
Piaccta uses the controller to shift two cartridges to the right, "THIS is what Piaccta is interested in!"
The gothic-inspired box art shows a handsome young man fighting off an array of creatures of the nights, skeletons, wraiths, zombies, gargoyles and the like. Ah, what a wonderful selection! A classic about fighting off the forces of darkness!
"Wow, Piaccta, I never knew that you were a Konamxchad! Tendies foiled again!"
However, Piaccta shakes her head, smiling at House's misunderstanding.
"No, it is because this is a two-player game! How can I play with Miss Minara if we play a single-player game?"
It is an innocent, sincere reply from the young girl!
Somehow, it landed a super effective hit on Minara!
Her slightly auric eyes go goggly from the consideration given to her, sudden and unexpected! Then, turning her side to the other two while she dabs her eyes out of sight, she suddenly turns back with a loud, shouting laugh!
"Sure... Piaccta! but you better not drag me down when we are playing!"
"(smirks) You bet, Miss Minara!"
The sound of furious button-mashing in co-op mode would continue for some time.
Laughs and enjoyment were had, another normal day at the theatre house.
We are trying something different! This is a simul-posting at the same time as the Scribblehub release! Go check out the entire series at this link!
