Chapter Text
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 Rosemary, Oregon closed.
He intook 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 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 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.
“Apologies, that was unprofessional of me.” He cleared his throat again, “Greetings and salutations Mr…”He looked at the name of the game, “...Polybius, Mr.Polybius, my name is Darwin.” He stuck out a hand, waiting for a shake, before immediately pulling it back in embarrassment. He coughed awkwardly to the side.
The arcade machine made no response, the only sound being the same heartbeat-like beeps Darwin had heard since he first broke in. He scribbled some more things down in his notebook.
“Do you have any sort of way to communicate?” Darwin looked at the arcade machine expectantly.
The arcade machine looked back, he technically was able to put text up on his screen, but why should he even give this guy the time of day? Or night… He was just about to fall asleep when this guy came in and ruined his night! And yet,
The arcade machine’s screen lit up and displayed a [YES]
Darwin’s face lit up in awe again, the spark of excitement filling his eyes, it was almost endearing. Darwin shook his hands violently in delight before turning to the side and taking a calming breath. He scribbled some more things down in his notebook and turned to a bookmarked page.
“Ok, so I have a few questions, is that alright?”
The arcade machine’s screen remained at a stagnant [YES]
“Okay, okay, umm, what should I call you? Unless are you only able to answer yes/no questions? Ah geez, oh gosh okay um, lets see…” Darwin bit on his nail anxiously, “You know what, I’ll just call you polybius, or poly, it’s simple enough.”
‘Polybius’ stared at the man, who was so nervous, and for what? He’s literally just talking to an arcade machine, but perhaps this is just how humans act when talking to another? He wouldn’t know, the only words that had ever been spoken to him before were kids complaining about losing. He can’t even remember people calling him by his name, can't even remember his actual name. He can only remember people calling him polybius, because that's what he was. He was the arcade game polybius, that's all people knew him by.
So, really, this man, ‘Darfield’ or whatever his name was, calling him Polybius shouldn’t bother him, but it did.
He changed his screen to [NO!!!!!!! >:(]
“O-oh! Okay, well um, what do you want to be called?”
[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]
“Okay well that’s helpful. Um lets see, you’re a man, living inside an arcade cabinet, or you are the cabinet…whatever, I’ll just call you cabinet man. Is that better?”
[YES]
Darwin smiled, “well then, Mr.Cabinet Man'' he looked down at his notes, “okay um,” he started giggling, “sorry, sorry, it's just, this is the first time I’ll have concrete evidence for one of my theories.” He coughed into his hands, “apologies, so um, are you the guy that died a few years back, where like, they reported you were dead, but they couldn’t find your bodily organs or anything?”
[YES]
“Really!! Yes!” Darwin shook his fist as yet another one of his theories was confirmed, “so, who put you inside the machine?”
[ME]
“Really? Huh…” he crossed something out of his notebook, “well there goes my ‘evil extraterrestrials' idea,” before writing something down underneath it. “Okay um, How old are you?”
[ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]
“Do you remember how old you were when you became an arcade machine?”
[NO]
“Oh.” Darwin frowned at the arcade machine, which sent a strange sensation through it’s electrical wires.
Was this guy, feeling bad for him? Actually showing human emotion towards him? When was the last time that happened? He couldn’t even remember.
“Do you remember anything at all before you became an arcade machine?”
[ONLY THAT LIFE WAS BORING]
Darwin had a finger held up to his head as he nodded thoughtfully, “That’s okay, just another mystery for me to solve next time!”
NEXT TIME !?!!”!!?!?
He looked down at the questions he pre-wrote down in his notebook, quickly realizing that most of the questions had to do with how this half-man half-machine came to be, but considering he couldn’t remember anything, those questions were essentially worthless…
He shut the notebook closed, standing up and fixing his glasses, he turned towards the cabinet man, “My research before coming here has failed to sufficiently provide me with the needed questions. I shall come back tomorrow with better questions.” He gave a bow to the arcade machine, “Farewell.” He then turned to go and leave out the door, closing it softly behind him, the sound of a bobby pin locking a door echoed through the arcade until it fell silent again and the only thing that could be heard was the beeping heartbeat of the cabinet man.
‘Well, he was weird, enticing and interesting, but weird’
~🕹☎~
Darwin stepped into the chilly winter night air, but the cold did not affect him, as he was far too full of excitement. He finally had a theory that could be proven! Hell, it had already been proven, he just needed to tell people! Oh boy, once they found out about this they’d surely have to fund his research!
He stepped into his car, placing all his supplies on the passenger seat before eagerly driving home.
He drove past the many Christmas decorations lining the streets and front yards of houses, suddenly nostalgic for when he would decorate the front yard of his own house. He remembered his dad buying an alien in a Santa Claus outfit blow-up, and just how excited he had been. He’s always been obsessed with aliens, and other ‘myths’; to others they were just silly things, but to him, they were his life , quite literally. He had devoted any of his freetime to studying these conspiracy theories, until he was finally able to go out on his own to prove them.
So far he hasn’t been able to do much, it’s not like he doesn’t have evidence,he just doesn’t have physical evidence. He’s seen plenty of weird things! He just always forgets his camera, or even if he did manage a picture, people would call it a fake, so it’s not like it matters.
But this, this was different. This was an arcade machine, that stays in the arcade, that’s able to communicate with him! It’s perfect, and once people realize that he is capable of proving his theories, he’ll be able to continue doing it for the rest of his life.
He reached his house and raced inside towards his room picking up his touch-tone telephone and dialing the number of the local AM radio station.
The phone rang, Darwin tapped his leg against the floor, anxiously waiting for someone to respond, rehearsing what he’d say inside his head.
Ring, ring, ring, beep!
“Hello! Rosemary radio station! How can we help you?” A lady’s voice answered
Darwin fumbled with the phone cord, “um h-hi! I was wondering if I’d be able to come on for a talk show one day?”
“What for- wait a second, is this Darwin?”
“Ummm yes? Wait, please just hear me out! I have something with actual proof this time!”
“Oh yeah? And what might that be? A colony of people with no eyes living in the woods?” the lady let out a laugh.
“No actually,” He had already investigated that, wasn't able to find anything though, “You know the legend of one of the machines at the arcade being alive? Well I was able to speak to it~”
The lady’s laughter only increased.
“Oh please, that’s just a story that kids makeup so they get to spend more time playing the game, not that the story works, everyone seems to like that one- point is! We will not let you on unless you have something with actual proof, Darwin.”
“I do have proof! Look, give me a week, and I’ll have all the proof you need!”
“A week, so that would be what, Christmas Eve? Ok then yeah sure, I can arrange a meeting with the boss for you.”
“Really?!” Darwin’s voice hiked up before he coughed and brought it back down, “I mean, that sounds wonderful. I’ll have that evidence for you before midnight on Christmas Eve! That’s a promise.”
“Yeah yeah, Can’t wait to see your ‘concrete evidence’ the lady laughed. “See you later Darwin.”
The call ended.
She’s laughing now, but just wait till I show them all that I’m right!
Darwin leaned back in his chair before getting up to do a little dance. This was it! He just needed to ask cabinet man more questions and he’s done! He was going to be on the radio, and everyone would hear him and congratulate him and and!
What about cabinet man though? If Darwin proves to everyone that the arcade machine is living, what would they do to it? Take him out probably, but then again, why should it even matter to him? It’s just a sentient arcade cabinet, he just needed him to answer his questions and that was it. What happens to him is not of concern to Darwin
He stretched and looked at the clock, ‘12:13 am’, yeesh. He yawned and got changed into pajamas, pondering about his day tomorrow. He’d probably go to the local library or something to look for files on the guy that died, maybe find out his name. But mainly find little key points to maybe spark cabinet man’s memory. He stumbled into his bed staring at the ceiling, his eyes felt heavy, but he was unable to close them.
Everytime he did all he could see was the arcade machine, how strange it was that he was alive, how did that even happen? All questions he was itching to know the answer of, but he couldn’t, not yet, he was going to visit the cabinet man tomorrow after the arcade closes, he could ask him then.
He closed his eyes, the beeping of a heartbeat ringing in his ears.