Through the past several months, Fluttershy had managed to surprise Zephyr in many ways. He was caught off guard when she suddenly became somewhat popular in school. Representing CHS in the Friendship Games was a big thing for her. Being able to speak to animals also stood out as a big what the heck moment for him. However, her latest stunt seemed to surprise him the most.
Earlier this evening, Fluttershy approached him and asked if she could use his console. He thought she wanted to play that RPG she liked, but to his surprise, she wanted to play Tekken. At first, he didn’t think she was serious, but her tone and attitude toward him said otherwise. Now here he was, setting up all his video game hardware in her room.
“Alright, sis, everything’s ready,” said Zephyr as he plugged the last cable into the console. “All that’s left is to just power up the system and you’re good to go.”
“Thank you,” replied Fluttershy. “So, all I have to do is just turn on the console?”
“Yeah, I made it so the console will take you straight toward the game,” Zephyr explained. “And don’t worry about the arcade stick controls, they’ve already been set to the game’s default options. Oh, and please be careful with the stick ok.”
“Don’t worry, Zephyr, I’ll be careful,” assured Fluttershy.
“Thanks, sis.” Zephyr scratched his head, looking back and forth between Fluttershy and his console. “So, um, you sure you want to do this? I mean, I didn’t think you’d be interested in playing Tekken.”
“I’ll only play it for a little bit, Zephyr,” answered Fluttershy. “I just want to see why you’re so fixated on this game, that’s all.”
“But the only game’s you play are Pokémon and Kingdom Hearts,” proclaimed Zephyr. “Fighting games are completely different than role playing games. I don’t think this is something you want to play.
“Well, maybe I want to try something new for a change,” replied Fluttershy. “It’s not like I’m hurting anyone. Besides, didn’t you just start playing this type of game?”
“Yeah, good point.” Zephyr opened the door and slowly walked away from the room. “So…. I’ll pick up my things once I’m done with my homework, ok. It’ll probably take me an hour or two. Have fun with the game, sis.”
Fluttershy smiled. “Ok, I’ll see you later. Zephyr walked out of the room, leaving her and Angel Bunny alone. She looked down on the arcade stick sitting on her lap. Seeing the joystick, she grasped the ball top and wiggled it around with her left hand. She then used her right hand to repeatedly press all the available buttons.
Wow, this thing feels nice. A bit noisy, but nice. As she finished, Fluttershy glanced over at Angel. “Well, Angel, shall we get started?”
Angel nodded. He hopped on the console and pressed the top cover. The console started to hum as the monitor’s screen brightened, followed by another black screen and multiple company logos.
“I don’t see the point of seeing all of this,” said Fluttershy, rapidly pressing the start button. “I’ll just skip these and get to the game right away.”
After multiple button presses, Fluttershy eventually reached the title screen. The game’s logo flashed in front of her, backed up with a fiery metal background. Another press of a button, and Fluttershy was directed toward the main menu.
“Hmm, what can I do here?” Fluttershy asked herself. Using the joystick, she scrolled through each menu option on the screen. “Well, I don’t want to play online yet, and I don’t know much about these other options. Maybe I’ll just stick to offline play.”
Moving to the offline feature, Fluttershy pressed her button again and was given more options. “Let’s see here, they have arcade mode, treasure mode, versus mode and…. practice mode?” She scrolled down to the last option available. “Hmm, why don’t I try this one?”
Deciding to try it herself, Fluttershy went ahead and clicked on practice mode. The menu soon disappeared and was replaced with techno music playing in the background.
Ok, the music is a nice touch, but why does it have to be techno?
As the music picked up, the screen changed into a bluish white background with glass shards floating in the air. Fluttershy was immediately brought to another menu screen.
“Huh, why is the game telling me that I have to choose between left or right?” Fluttershy asked. She scrolled back and forth between her two options, unsure on what the game wants. “I guess I’ll just pick a side and see what it does.”
She eventually picked the left side and was soon brought to character select screen. Fluttershy was amazed at the sheer number of characters the game had. It was a lot, much more than she expected.
How many characters are here? she pondered. Squinting, she began counting each of the character slots on the screen. “Thirty-seven characters? T-that’s so many. How am I supposed to know which one to choose?”
Unsure of who to pick, Fluttershy began scrolling over the select screen. Character portraits flashed back and forth on the screen, but Fluttershy only glanced over them, never feeling any connection with them at all. She eventually stopped scrolling with a character portrait caught her eye.
“What character is this?” She looked the portrait on the screen, examining every bit of detail. The character was a tall, muscular male who wore body armor and had spiky hair.
“This Lars person doesn’t seem special,” said Fluttershy, unimpressed. He looks like a typical anime protagonist. And why am I feeling so frustrated just by looking at him?”
Moving on, Fluttershy scrolled over to the top of the character select screen. When another character portrait appeared on the screen, she gasped at the sight of it.
“I-is that a bear?!” Fluttershy shouted, nearly dropping the arcade stick on the floor. “You have to fight a bear in this game?!” She immediately tapped the joystick right to avoid the portrait, only to find another animal character appear on the screen.
“A-and panda too?! That’s horrible! Why have two animals fight each other!”
Angel hopped over to Fluttershy, squeaking as he did his best to calm her down. As soon as Fluttershy had a good look at him, she shook her head and took several deep breaths before sliding back down on her seat.
Calm down, there’s no need to panic over this. It’s only a video game. None of this is real. Fluttershy sighed as she recomposed herself. “But why animals though? I don’t want to fight animals.”
Scrolling down, she found another character portrait that she found strange.
“Um, what’s with this Yoshimitsu person?” Fluttershy asked, staring blankly at the character portrait. “Is he…. is he wearing tentacles on top of his shoulders?”
Fluttershy turned to Angel for an answer, but he only shrugged in response.
“I think I’m going to pass on this one. I’ve watched too many anime to know where this is going.”
Moving the cursor away from the strange character, Fluttershy began scrolling at the bottom portion of the screen. She stopped when she saw the portrait of one of the game’s female characters.
“Why is this Nina person wearing a dress in a fighting game? And why is it a wedding dress of all things?!” Fluttershy scratched her head. “This game is weird.”
Fluttershy continued scrolling across the character select screen, looking for at least one character that appealed to her. But none of seemed interesting at all, not even the other female characters.
“Oh dear, I just don’t know who to pick,” said Fluttershy. She sighed while staring at the screen. “Maybe I should just pick one random character and move on.”
With no other choice, Fluttershy began moving the cursor to the random select option. However, she stopped when a character portrait caught her eye.
The character looked dark. He wore a black and red jacket, with spiked pads on his shoulders. His hood nearly covering his forehead as he gave Fluttershy a somewhat serious look.
“It’s another one of those cliché anime protagonists,” Fluttershy commented, carefully examining the character. “Jin huh? I guess I’ll go with him. At least he’s looks cute.”
Tapping the “A” button on the stick, Fluttershy watched as the game cursor flashed on Jin’s portrait while the announcer boldly shouted his name. After selecting a sparring partner, she was redirected to the stage select screen.
“I have to pick a stage?” Fluttershy asked. “Well, maybe just choose random select for now.”
After pressing the confirm button again, the game immediately choose a futuristic stage and zoomed away from the previous background. The announcer’s voice roared as big words appeared, followed by the two portraits of the characters Fluttershy choose.
The portraits zoomed out, finally redirecting the Fluttershy to actual gameplay. She was amazed at the game’s graphics. Each bit of detail, from the background to the character models, looked crisp. In the center of the stage stood her character, standing firm. It was almost as if he was ready to attack to opposing character.
“Ok, time to finally try this game out!” said Fluttershy.
Grabbing the joystick, Fluttershy began to move her character back and forth. She then pressed multiple buttons to get a feel of the game. Jin responded by moving and attacking the other character with rapid punches and kicks. However, none of his moves seemed special to Fluttershy. They were just simple attacks, not those special combos from the video she saw earlier.
“What am I supposed to do now?” asked Fluttershy. “How am I supposed to do those flashy combos? Does it vary from different characters?”
Fluttershy stopped moving her character and took a second to look at the start button. “I’m sure this game has a start menu. If take a quick look at it, maybe it’ll have something that can help me.”
Desperate, Fluttershy pressed the start button in hope that there’d be some answers. However, she was immediately greeted with the game’s start menu.
“Oh dear, I wasn’t expecting there would be so many options! Which one of these will help me?”
Moving the joystick, she browsed through the practice menu to try and find something that might help her. Eventually, she found something at the bottom of the screen that caught her eye.
“A move list! Maybe this can help me.” She quickly scrolled down and selected the menu option right away, but her enthusiasm vanished as she saw the new menu screen.
“What in the world?” The move list wasn’t anything helpful as Fluttershy thought. Her character had a very long list of moves at his disposal. Some ranged from different button combinations, to directional inputs she knew little about.
“O-over ninety moves?” Fluttershy said, bewildered by the overwhelming information dump. “That’s so many. How am I supposed to know which ones to use?”
Fluttershy scratched her forehead and sighed. “Maybe I’ll find something if I try out every move. I have plenty of time before Zephyr comes back, so it wouldn’t hurt if I try.”
Fluttershy grasped the stick and began the long trek of attempting every one of Jin’s moves. Fortunately for her, performing each move, from button to joystick inputs, wasn’t that difficult as she thought.
“This isn’t so hard,” Fluttershy remarked. “These moves are easy to do, and there’s a demonstration option on the menu in case I get stuck. But still, I wonder why this character has over ninety moves? Does every character in this game have long move lists like this? I don’t think every player in the game would use all of them.”
Minutes passed as Fluttershy slowly treaded down the long list with relative ease. As Fluttershy continued downward, she eventually found a move that caught her eye.
“What’s this?” She scooted her chair closer to the screen for a better look. “Wind Hook Fist? The inputs for this one are completely different than the previous moves. Is there something special about this move? What could the star in the command list mean?”
Angel began squeaking.
“What is it, Angel?” Fluttershy asked. In response, he pointed to the laptop sitting on her bed, which he apparently opened somehow.
“You want me to look it up?” Angel nodded. “Um, ok then.”
Putting the stick aside, Fluttershy took her laptop and began searching for answers on the internet. Her search didn’t last long though, as she found the answer almost immediately.
“Ok, so after I do the first input, I need to move the joystick back to its ‘neutral’ position. Seems simple enough.”
Taking the stick again, Fluttershy attempted the joystick movement first. As she did, she noticed that Jin began moving at a faster pace, weaving his body downward and upward. It was almost as if he was “waving” his body at his opponent.
After finally getting used to the inputs, Fluttershy attempted the move for the first time. To her surprise, she managed to pull it easily.
“I did it!” Fluttershy cheered. “Wow, that was easier than I thought.”
Satisfied with her attempt, she moved down to the next move on the list. However, sight of the next move caught her off-guard again.
“It’s the same exact move from before!” Fluttershy said while reading the move’s name out loud. “Electric Wind Hook Fist? What’s the difference between this and the previous one?
Fluttershy rubbed her cheek. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to see an example of this.”
Selecting the demonstration option, Fluttershy watched as the game showcased the move. Unlike the previous one, the Electric Wind Hook Fist caused the dummy to fly backwards away from Jin.
“H-how do you do that?!” Fluttershy asked as the demonstration ended. “Is there a special command that you have to do?” She immediately went to her laptop and began searching for answers. Thankfully for her, it didn’t take long to find an answer.
“The move is a just frame(1)?” Fluttershy said, reading the contents of the page. “It says here I have to input the button and the correct joystick input at the same time. Ok, I guess I can give it a shot.”
For the next several minutes, Fluttershy attempted to perform the move. But unlike the other moves, this one proved difficult. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t pull off the move
“How am I supposed to do this?” Fluttershy asked as she reeled her left hand back. The constant motion on the joystick caused her hand to become sore.
“I don’t think I should be clenching the ball top with my entire hand,” she said as rolled her wrist in attempt to ease the pain. “It hurts if I do that. Is there any other way I can hold it?”
Fluttershy looked down and took a closer look at the joystick.
“Wait a minute.” She moved her head closer to the joystick. “There’s metal portion just below the ball top! I can’t believe I didn’t realize this till now!”
Using her left hand, Fluttershy used the tip of her fingers to get a feel out of the small metal bar poking out from inside the stick.
“Hmm, what if I do this instead?” Taking her left hand, Fluttershy once again grasped the joystick. But instead of using her entire hand to grab the ball top, she slid the metal bar just between her ring and pinky finger.
“That’s better. If I hold it like this, it won’t strain my hand that much as before,” Fluttershy commented. “Alright, let me try this again.”
Feeling more confident in herself, Fluttershy began attempting Jin’s complicated move once more. With a flick of her left hand and a press of a button, Fluttershy heard the magic word coming out of Jin’s mouth.
Da!
Fluttershy watched in awe as the training dummy flew away from Jin, spinning and tumbling as he fell to the ground helplessly.
Angel smirked.
“I-I did it.
Fluttershy looked down at the arcade stick on her lap. Both of her hands were still on the joystick and buttons respectively.
She blinked. “I really did it.”
A wide grin began to appear on her face.
“I did it!”
Out of nowhere, Fluttershy stood up and raised both of her arms in the air. Her sudden motion almost caused the arcade stick to fall out of her lap. It only took her a few seconds before she realized what she was doing.
“Ok, calm down, Fluttershy. That was beginners luck.” She slid back down to her seat, cheeks turned red as she blushed in embarrassment. “Let me try this again.”
Fluttershy moved her character closer to the training dummy and attempted the move repeatedly, over and over again. Despite missing the input a few times, Fluttershy managed to perform the move correctly with little difficulty.
“This is…. fun,” remarked Fluttershy as she performed Jin’s move again. “But…. I still don’t know how to perform combos like those other players from that video. From what I played, this character is completely different from what the other players played.
Suddenly, Fluttershy heard Angel squeaking at her.
“Hmm, what is it, Angel?” asked Fluttershy as she turned to her longtime friend. Angel nodded in response and pointed to her laptop. Fluttershy looked at it and noticed that the screen was different from before.
“Um, Angel, were you just using my laptop just now?” Fluttershy asked. Angel nodded. How does he do that? “Um…. ok what do you want to show me?”
Angel hopped over to the laptop and pointed at something on the screen. Fluttershy noticed that he had loaded a video online. Apparently, it was a video related to Tekken.
“A…. combo video?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head. She took a closer look at the video and studying it carefully. “It’s a Jin combo video. I can use this! Oh, thank you, Angel!”
Angel smiled as Fluttershy reached over to him and gave him a big hug. “Now that I know what to do, I can start practicing now.”
Taking the arcade stick once more, Fluttershy sat firmly in her seat and began moving her character again. Clicking sounds echoed across the room as she played with bliss. Time passed, but she paid no attention to it. She was having fun and wanted nothing to distract her. Not Angel, not her phone vibrating in the background, and not even the sudden knock on her door.