Hey hi, I saw the shop was open. I'm a gamer, gay, otter with blond hair. I got some time in between my art contracts and I am a huge fighting game fan. Is it possible for me to get it?
The game cartridge shows the familiar dragon symbol, but you don’t recognize this entry in the series. Being a fighting game fan, you’re used to keeping up with the latest news and entries. Apparently one escaped your research over the years.
You select “ARCADE MODE,” and the screen erupts with violence. Two fighters tear into each other with brutal, exaggerated force. Bones cracking, sparks flying, muscles bulging with every strike. You feel a pulse in your palms where they rest on the controller. It’s warm.
The first match begins. You throw a punch. Your character’s fist explodes forward with savage weight, sending the opponent bouncing across the arena. A thrill shoots through you so sharp it leaves you breathless. You’ve played fighting games before. Every hit lands with a satisfying, physical thud that you can practically feel in your ribs.
The combos feel so natural.
You win the round easily.
You laugh nervously. Probably just edgy flavor. But the controller shifts in your hands, adjusting its weight like it’s guiding you into a better grip. You loosen your fingers. They tighten again on their own.
Round two. A harder opponent. You go for the throat. Aggressive. Precise. You hear yourself breathing louder, heavier, syncing with the game’s brutal rhythm.
When you land the finishing blow, splitting the enemy open in a shower of glowing crimson pixels, something electric races up your arms.
Your forearms look just a little larger, a little tighter, more defined.
Your breath shortens, deepens.
You tell yourself it’s just adrenaline. Your heartbeat thumps in your ears, matching the music.
Match after match, you fall deeper into the rhythm of violence. Your whole body moves with the attacks and combos, rolling your shoulders, shifting your stance, twisting your waist. You feel like you’re actually fighting.
Your arms bulk subtly with each win, veins tightening under the skin.
Your face looks fiercer and fiercer with each second in combat. Glaring at the screen.
At some point you tug at your shirt because it feels tight across the chest. Now it stretches slightly, the fabric clinging to a fuller shape beneath. But the game doesn’t give you time to process. It throws you straight into another fight.
You certainly don’t complain. You like the heat rising in you.
You like the twitch in your jaw, the burning in your muscles, the hunger for the next hit.
A voice buried in the bass, speaking in a tone that curls into your skull:
You lean forward, eyes locked on the carnage, and your reflection in the screen catches your attention. Just for a second.
Your eyes… focused in a way that feels almost predatory.
The next fight is a boss battle. Massive, armored, monstrous. Exactly the kind of foe that should intimidate you, but you grin. A grin you don’t recognize. Wide. Confident. Mean. The type that shows you’re not to be messed with.
The fight is brutal. Perfect. Every punch you land sends a shock through your chest, and your chest answers by growing tighter, broader, stronger. Your back feels heavy with new muscle. Your neck thickens. Your breathing becomes a growling rumble.
When you land the final blow—an uppercut that sends the boss’s head clean off—your whole room pulses red. The controller shudders violently and then… merges to your grip. You can’t tell where your fingers end and the plastic begins.
Your shirt splits at the seam of your shoulder.
Your chest pushes forward even more, thick and solid.
Your arms balloon with dense muscle, roping with strength.
You stand without meaning to.
The reflection on the TV screen shows a fighter. Square-jawed, brutal, muscular, a body carved for violence, wrapped in tight clothes that weren’t tight ten minutes ago. The shirt rips off from the movement, tired from clinging on for dear life.
The voice returns, clearer now:
The final stage loads. But instead of an arena, it shows your room, your TV, your walls, your carpet.
You step closer without thinking, acting purely on instinct.
Your reflection steps too, perfectly in sync, but stronger, bigger, more savage.
The screen warps, turning glossy and deep like liquid metal.
When your fingers touch the surface, the glass ripples and grabs you. There’s no fear. Just exhilaration. Finally, a world that matches the strength pounding through your veins.
You fall forward into the screen, into the fight, into the hot roar of a crowd chanting for blood.
And you smile. Wider, sharper, hungrier than you ever did in your old life.
A champion forged in violence.
Exactly who you were meant to be.
Another opponent crosses your path.
Another Fatality in the making.