OK, this is just a stupid idea I had, and I wrote it in under an hour. If you like it, cool, if not, fine. I wrote it partly because there are a whole lot of stories with people going to the video game land of their choice and they always appear in a convenient place at the start. I may continue it if I get good reviews ) .
Disclaimer: None of it is mine except the plot.
Dave Miller was once again playing a video game late into the night. FFX, to be precise. It was one in a series of re-releases of the 'world's greatest RPGs', and it claimed to be bigger and better than the original.
Pretty much the same, thought Dave. He was at one of the game's many turning-points; meeting Yunalesca in Zanarkand. So far the graphics were pretty similar to those of the original, and the rest was identical.
Dave watched Yunalesca tell the younger Summoner about the choice she had to make, feeling pleased with himself that he'd killed the Spectral Keeper on his first attempt. Onscreen, Yuna was looking around at her guardians, her panic showing despite the bad graphics.
A menu appeared, and at the bottom of the screen a subtitle:
Yuna: who should I choose?
At the top of the list was the option: No-one! There then followed a list of the guardian's names.
Well, this is new… Dave thought. As he moved the cursor down the camera swung to each character's face.
Then, he saw it. At the bottom of the list: David Miller
Dave felt his eyes widen. He moved the cursor down, and the camera changed to the silhouette of a person in heavy shadow.
Examining it, he couldn't make the features out. It's just a special effect, I must have had to input my name sometime… or the PS3 has information on it about me…
He looked at the figure again, then flipped back to the option he knew would get him further in the game: no-one. I've got to see what happens if I click myself; anyway, I saved after taking on the Spectral Keeper.
He clicked his own name.
Yuna moved forward towards the shadowed figure.
"I know that you haven't been with us long, but." a tortured silence, the summoner shook her head emphatically.
"No. I can't ask you to do this."
She turned away from the whole group, hands clasped and head bowed.
That was a cheap trick, thought Dave, they had me going for a while.
Then the figure stepped forward to Yuna.
"Anything you ask of me, my Lady"
It didn't look or sound exactly like Dave, but enough like him to creep him out a bit. The hair was quite like him, but then, he rationalised, it was like most other brown-haired boys' hair. And you hadn't seen his face yet.
The thought didn't make his heart rate go back down, and his fingers felt sweaty on the controller.
Yuna walked with his strange avatar up the steps, following the High Summoner (unsent evil cow, Dave thought, wishing he could remember the plot of FFX better).
The screen faded out and Yuna, Dave and Yunalesca were in a room with pieces of rock floating by. Yunalesca spoke.
"This is your last chance to turn back, Dave"
The screen zoomed in to Dave's face, and real-life Dave jumped back in shock. The face on the screen was an exact replica of his own, down to the chicken-pox scar between his eyebrows and the one curl of hair that stayed stuck down obstinately, however much gel he put on it.
"I'm sure" his on-screen self said. In real life, he might well have clicked a back option if one was available - he was thoroughly creeped out now. The view swung back to the two fictional characters, and Dave noticed with a shiver that the characters were no longer rendered in dated PS2 graphics, but looked as if they were on normal TV.
That was it. He was outta there.
He leaned behind the telly to the PS3 console, noticing for the first time he was near enough the TV that his mum would have had a fit had it not been 3 am.
He pressed the re-set button.
Nothing happened.
Onscreen, a voice told Dave to move forward.
He pounded the re-set button, hit the eject disc button, hit the power.
He heard footsteps from the speakers.
He changed the channel.
Nothing changed.
Shaking, he backed away from the TV, watching the screen with a defeated gaze. He saw himself standing in the centre of an arcane pattern on the floor, his perfectly rendered eyes looking straight forward with a determined air. Yuna was in view, biting her lip, the whiteness of skin under pressure apparent. She had tears on her face, and the skin under her eyes was reddened. The camera panned: Yunalesca's lips moving silently in some strange prayer, the sounds too clear to be coming from the speakers. It made Dave's blood run cold.
He was struck by a sense of urgency; fumbling with panic, he leaned over to pull the plug on the stupid telly.
Onscreen, light flared from the glyph and began to slowly envelop the image of Dave.
The real Dave pulled the plug.
One of them screamed, the TV went black, and Dave slumped over, the plug still in his hand.
Some time later, his mum's voice said "I told him not to fall asleep in front of the telly"
He felt hands shake him.
He opened his eyes…
fin