Starfish Arcade

Starfish Arcade
Description
"You are in the amusement arcade on Starfish Street. The games and gambling machines beep and whirr."
Information
Area	Town
Location	Starfish Street
Opening Hours	9AM - 9PM
Role	Utility
Inhabitants	Kylar

The Starfish Arcade, otherwise referred to as simply the "arcade" for short, is one of several places of interest the player can visit. It is located on the aforementioned Starfish Street, and can be used to play several arcade games.

It remains open all throughout the week, including weekends.

Description

• During opening hours: "You are in the amusement arcade on Starfish Street. The games and gambling machines beep and whirr."
• Outside during closing hours: "The arcade is closed. A glowing sign beside the door reads "Opens: 9:00 am"
• Inside during closing hours: "You are in the amusement arcade on Starfish Street. The games and gambling machines lie silent."

How to Enter

The player can easily access this location from Starfish Street.

First Steps

Entering the arcade for the first time will have no notable event occur.

Notes

When the player arrives at the arcade they can:

• Play | - £5 | - Stress - only during opening hours
• Pick the lock - only during closing hours if Skulduggery is at least rank D+
  • If the player picks the lock and Skulduggery is rank C, they can also examine the cash register, and pick it.

People of Interest

• Kylar. The player spots them playing at one of the cabinets.

Walkthrough

The following will detail the various events that go on at this particular location.

Small Events

When playing games, there are several possible events to occur:

Playing a fast-paced SHMUP

The player start a fast-paced shmup, and can have another three random possibilities:

• "It's a little too fast for you, and you're shot down halfway through the game."
• "You almost make it, but the final boss proves too tough."
• "Luck is on your side. The right powerup drops at the right moment, and you blaze through to victory.'"' | - Trauma

Playing a Fighting

In other possibility Player will start a 1v1 fighting game where you can choose one of the four character:

• You choose the villainous-looking one in the long coat. She/He gives off a menacing look.
• You choose the one with the spiky hair. She/He raises her/his fists up, and strikes a pose at you.
• You choose the scantily-clad dressed one. Her/His clothes leave little to the imagination as she/he gives a suggestive wink to you.
• You choose the very muscular one. She/He flexes her/his muscles at you.

Whoever the Player chooses doesnt seems to matter, they will lose against the computer, leaving them with a thought that it might be cheating.

Playing a Shooter

Another possibility is that the player starts a shooter in which they have to kill dozens of monsters, soldiers, or other things with guns. It has three random outcomes:

• "You swear the gun isn't working properly. You try to shoot an enemy attack out of the air, but instead take it to the face."
• You manage to get to that one part of the game everyone complains about. You're reminded why.
• You blow the final boss' head off with a satisfying squelch. | - Trauma

Second Player

There's a chance that another person wants to play with you, and picks up the second gun. The person starts shooting, and doesn't say anything. The player has four options to choose from:

• Keep playing: If the player keeps playing, the second player will be of great help, resulting in them reaching the end of the game. Afterwards the person leaves without a word.
• Shove and dual wield | - Trauma: Dual wielding the weapon will result in the other person leaving. The game will get easier, even though the management of the lives becomes more difficult.
• Steal | Crime: Stealing will result in a Skulduggery check. The player will drop their gun, and tries to reach for the money sticking out of the person's pocket while they try to dual wield. If the check fails, they'll notice the player and tuck the money further into their pockets, leaving the player with no chance to steal it.
• Stop: Stopping won't net any scene.

A competition

The Player chooses to play space themed shooter when a person offers a match, if the Player refuses they simply back away without consequences. But if they accepts the offer it will put them in tough position where the rival will have more points than Player, in this case you can choose either safely collect points or risk and get lots of points.

• When choosing to play it safe the rival on the other will start to play it risky which will result in them getting enough hits to fall behind in the final wave.
• If risky path was chosen then Player will start to defeat the enemy while dodging their bullets at the last seconds, which will result the player winning rival with a big gap between them.

Regardless of a choice winning will result in crowd starting to whisper about your daring/superiour gameplay which will result in + + Status and even the person that lose will compliment you which will result in - Stress.

Standing Very Close

A person stands very close besides the player, and watches them playing while offering tips of dubious wisdom. There are two possible ways to deal with the situation whilst the latter one having different outcomes:

• Stop | + Stress: If the player chooses to stop playing, they move away from the person to be Better safe than sorry.
• Keep playing: When picking to keep playing, the outcome will be determent by the player's Allure. If the Allure is low, the person will soon wander away to offer advice to someone else. Otherwise the person comes even closer, initiating a non-consensual encounter.

Passing Out

When passing out at the Arcade, there are multiple outcomes to this. One possibility is the normal situation that can happen all across the town, where the player is carried on a stretcher to the hospital. However, they may wake up on a bed of plush toys inside one of the automats, being tied to it. A metal claw hovers over the player, and there are several people trying to grip the player with it, damaging their clothes or causing + Pain No matter how the outcome of this event is, the player will get rescued by an arcade staff sooner or later.

Another possibility is that the player will be thrown into the Elk Street Landfill, being one of three ways to get there.

Tenyclus

"You spot a lone cabinet tucked away in the corner. Oddly enough, no one else seems to notice it."

The player can only see this cabinet when they are hallucinating.

The player is drawn to a seemingly standard cabinet that is jet-black and although not new, strangely pristine.

The player has the option to "Play?" the game or leave. When choosing to play:

First time: "The screen suddenly flashes to life, almost blinding you with its incandescent glow. In the center of the screen, you see the word 'Tenyclus' bolded with a unique font. A copyright in smaller text is seen below.

'1982, Lüsterngrad'"

"You start to play the game. It's pretty fun for the most part, if not a bit basic. You wonder why you haven’t seen anyone else play on this cabinet.

The graphics are so primitive, you’re not really sure who or what you’re playing as. All you can make out is that it looks like you’re fighting off something. Your best guess is aliens, but it could really be anything."

Random Outcomes:

One alien narrowly misses your shot. | + Stress

You shoot at a pair of aliens. Direct hits! | + Control | - Stress | - Trauma

You feel like someone is watching you. | + Stress

You just can't stop winning. | + Control | - Stress | - Trauma

You feel like the game is getting easier as you play. | - Stress

You feel like the game is getting increasingly more difficult as you play. | - Control | + Stress

You have a headache. | + Stress | + Trauma

You feel words creeping into your mind. | - Control | + Arousal

You can’t stop playing. It’s so addicting! | - Control | - Stress | - Trauma

There's a large amount of aliens to deal with, but you manage to clear the wave. | + Control | - Stress | - Trauma

At the end of each session, the following text appears unless an event is happening:

"You wipe out the last alien on screen. You've won! | + Control

You swear you can hear voices creeping into your mind. It's oddly soothing, telling you all sorts of things that seem pleasing to you. You look around for the source of the voice, but the moment you look away, the cabinet shuts off without warning. Strangely enough, there seems to have been no power cut. Others in the arcade play happily on their own cabinets.

You feel the urge to play again tomorrow."

Timed Events

In 5 days in a row of playing "Tenyclus", the player will be put in neck deep water on the beach.

"You smell something strange, but you choose to ignore it and continue playing. You feel as if the game is sucking you in, and just before you’re about to reach a new high score, a splash of water hits you in the face.

You look around for the culprit, but notice you're standing in neck deep water on the beach. Your head feels fuzzy."

After 6 days of playing, pink mist will spew from the machine increasing arousal, followed by tentacles coming out of the arcade cabinet and initiating a non-consensual tentacle sex scene.

After 7 days of playing you will be kidnapped and wake up in a van with the "Tenyclus" machine next to you, when you get to your destination there is a non-consensual sex scene with your arms and legs bound, regardless of the outcome of this encounter, afterwards you wake up in your bed and the "Tenyclus" machine is no longer available. You also take a major hit to awareness (around 200).

Items

Currently there are no items to be obtained here.

Trivia

• This is one of two locations the player can encounter Kylar outside of school, with the other being the Park.
• The "Tenyclus" cabinet is most likely based on the "Polybius" urban legend due to the several similarities: mind altering effects; faux german name of publisher; the quick disappearance of the cabinet; the strange graphics; and many other small details.

Gallery

The following images showcase below what the arcade looks like at different times of the day.

• 

  The arcade at dawn.

• 

  The arcade during the day.

• 

  The arcade at dusk.

• 

  The arcade at night.

In the Winter

• 

  The arcade at dawn.

• 

  The arcade during the day.

• 

  The arcade at dusk.

• 

  The arcade at night.