Rocko's Modern Obsession

By: Lost Shoe

It's my first fic. In it, Rocko grows an obsession with Dance Dance Revolution and it ends up getting to his head. Dance Dance Revolution is a game in which you move your feet on a 4-arrow keypad to music.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Rocko, Sony or Konami. Enjoy! Lets D...D...R!

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It was about 2:00 in the afternoon at the O-Town mall and Rocko was at the Play-O-Lot arcade getting in touch with his youth. It was a pretty big arcade filled with neon lights and a "club" feel to it. There was a big disco ball and a lazy attendant looking at his watch waiting for a shift change.

"Come on you stupid thing! He's right there!" He shouted at the game. A game over sound effect played.

"Yea? Well same to you, you stupid game!" he grumbled "I never knew it was so hard to beat somethin' like PAC-MAN." He took a few steps out of the arcade when he noticed a very loud game with bright lights. A young teenager was moving his feet fairly quickly on a game pad with 4 arrows while staring at a screen. Rocko stood there watching the movements while noticing a sign above the game that read "DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION EXTREME".

"Looks like a tough game." he said to himself "Maybe I should try it...can't be that hard…" Afterwards, he took a short glance at the screen that said FAILED right in the middle. He walked up to the machine where the kid had a stern expression on his face.

"That was amazing!" Rocko spoke to the tired kid.

"Huh? Oh...yea I guess. I've been playing for like a few months." Responded the kid.

"Mind if I give it a shot?"

"Go ahead. I'm done!"

Rocko went up to the coin deposit spot and put in 3 quarters. The game then said "Dance Dance Revolution!" He pressed the green button assuming it was the Start button since the text above it was in Japanese. The screen then displayed what Rocko believed were instructions in Japanese and others in English. He chose Single play, seeing that it was the only choice. Just then, 4 other choices came up. They read Beginner, Light, Standard and Heavy.

"Have you ever played before?" asked the kid.

"Don't suppose I have" replied Rocko.

"Choose beginner then. It's the easiest mode."

"Ok. Thanks."

When he got to the song selection screen, he noticed a variety of songs in English and Japanese that he'd never heard of before. At the bottom of the screen, he also spotted a rating that had two little feet on it with a number 2 by it. Scrolling through the songs, he found one that caught his ear. It was called "Colors". He confirmed his choice by pressing the Start button. A new screen then came up saying "How To Play". Of course Rocko didn't understand the instructions seeing that they were in Japanese, but he used his intuition with this one. He pressed the green button again and the game announced "First Stage!" The song began with simple steps but they seemed hard to Rocko since he was a first time player. But he felt good afterwards when he saw that he got a B as a grade.

"Hey. I did pretty good!" he celebrated.

"That is good for a first time." Said the kid feeling impressed a little. Rocko finished the game with an A rating to his own surprise.

"Wow! This game is great!" he declared to himself. A strange force inside him was urging him to play again. So he played a few more times and was starting to get the hang of it. Little did he know that it was around 7:30, his favorite show, "W.W.W.W.F Wrestling" was on and he was also down $20.

"Oh no! I've spent all my money!" He glanced at his watch "And my favorite show is on!" he shouted with shock. Rocko rushed home just to catch the end of the show when a loud knock rapped at his door.

"Hey Rocko!" greeted Heffer.

"Hey Hef." responded Rocko dully.

"Hef...I think I'm obsessed."

"With what?" Heffer asked.

"I played this new game at Play-O-Lot called "Dance Dance Revolution". It's a fun game but it's getting to my head." Rocko explained. "I keep seeing little arrows whenever I close my eyes and whenever I hear music, I end up moving my feet like I was playing. What should I do?"

"Hmm..." Heffer started. "Just go with it."

"What do you mean Hef?"

"It's alright to be obsessed with somethin'. I mean I'm obsessed with eatin and I see nothing wrong with me" His gut pops out.

"Thanks buddy." Heffer stayed over for a little bit playing Rocko's Playstation 2. Feeling exhausted, Rocko went up to bed. Heffer noticed that he hadn't come back down so he decided to go home. Rocko was starting to get a good night's sleep when he began to see complicated patterns of arrows while he was on the DDR pad. They were seemingly endless and Rocko's feet couldn't keep up! People around him were laughing, booing and pointing fingers. Meanwhile, in the real world, Rocko was practically covered in sweat from the horrible game induced nightmare he was having. The announcer from the game then yelled "BEAT IT!" Rocko woke up with an "AAAAAAAAHHH!". It took him about 10 minutes to calm down. His heart rate skyrocketed and he was breathing quickly and heavily.

"Oh God! What a horrible nightmare!" He said with fright. He couldn't go back to sleep so he went down to watch TV to calm his nerves. There was nothing interesting on but old movies and embarrassing personal hygiene product ads seeing that it was 3am. Just when he was about to switch off the TV, an ad came up advertising a DDR home game for the PS2. "Maybe I oughta buy it…" he thought. He dozed off and woke up later around noon. Since his little episode was over, he got dressed and decided to go to the Games Eternal game store. He browsed around when he saw a brand new game pad for DDR that was advertised. It was a very nice one but it cost $200.

"I can't afford to buy that!" he thought. "But it does come with the game I played a few days ago...I dunno..." he held his paycheck in his hand eying the amount and then the game set for a minute. This was a tough decision for him seeing that Mr. Smitty is kind of a cheapskate towards his employee.

"I'll buy it!"

Sure enough, he purchased one of the highest quality pads available in O-Town and DDR Extreme for the PS2. When he got home, he opened the package, dumped out the parts, and took a glance at the instructions.

"WHAT!" he yelled. "How am I supposed to get this done tonight! I've got work tomorrow!" The instructions had around 10 pages of Part A, something D, doohickey F and so on. It drove the poor wallaby nuts. He got to work building it immediately since he was inching to play. When he finally got done, it was 4 in the morning and sure enough, he had work.

"Grr…that blowhard Smitty is gonna be all over me when I get there late." he muttered. "I better get some sleep." He went right to bed only to be awaken 5 minutes later by his alarm. He grumbled and got into the shower. "Arrghh! Why do I have to get up at 5 in the morning just to sit on a stool for 9 hours!" His grumbling got him nowhere so she decided to shower and leave. Once he got on the congested freeway, he knew he was going to be late. He only saw 2 miles of backed-up traffic so he decided to turn his radio on.

"Well Chip it looks like the freeway is clogged and this backup may cause some major delays on Route 582 and some of the exit ramps into the downtown area." Said the newscaster.

"Oh great..." Rocko grumbled. He slammed his head on the wheel knowing he wouldn't get anywhere. It seemed like hours before he finally got to work, but he did manage to catch a few minutes of sleep on break. He punched in at Kind Of A Lot O Comics and his day of boredom began. The day seemed to drag on forever due to his lack of sleep. Almost every customer that made a purchase said something about getting sleep. His simple response was "Ugh. I know." He sat there looking at the clock with his keen yet bloodshot eyes. The seconds' hand slowly ticked its way up the face of the clock. "Tem more minutes?" he moaned to himself. Rocko watched with eager anticipation to get home and use his new pad. There were, of course, no new comic shipments so the boredom was abundant. The second's hand made it past the 12 and his shift was over. "Ahh. Freedom." He sighed. Bolting to his car, Rocko punched out, drove home at the speed of light and skid to a stop in his driveway.

When he opened his door, he immediately went to his PS2 and turned it on. The loading screens then passed and Dance Dance Revolution Extreme showed up. Hours went by that to Rocko seemed like minutes. When he finally stopped playing at 9:00 pm, he was exhausted, his feet were killing him. To Rocko, it felt great. He was now able to play 9-foot songs with a breeze (9 foot being the closest to the hardest difficulty which is 10). This was his sort of "second life". Rocko was a very quick learner and got the hang of a very challenging game after 3 days, which was incredible. Since he was a great player at the game he decided to go to Play-O-Lot and show off. As soon as he got there, many teenagers and other people were watching the so-called "crazy people" dance. All of the skaters and punks that he usually saw were there. He was only a newbie when he started playing but he felt ready to take on anyone. His blue shirt stuck out like a sore thumb and it would destroy his reputation...even though he never really had much of a reputation amongst teenagers. A quick change of clothes would make him fit in better. Rocko ran off to the local store and bought himself a long sleeved black shirt with a pair of loose jeans.

"There. Now I don't really stick out so badly." He said to himself. He walked up to the game and saw that nobody was playing. Feeling confident about his abilities, he put in his money and started his game. Rocko was having a bit of difficulty choosing his song since he hasn't played in the arcade for a while. He chose "MAX 300" seeing that a crowd of people was behind him. When he started, the music got the peoples attention and everyone started wow-ing. He actually did pretty well for his first return to the arcade. He got a grade of A which was the 3rd best grade. One teenager came up to him and said "Dude! That was really good!"

"Heh heh, thanks mate." Rocko replied. He was actually gaining popularity amongst the regulars, which was a good thing in his mind. A huge boost of confidence went through his mind. For his next song, he chose one of the hardest songs in the game...PARANOIA Survivor MAX. Everyone turned to watch the wallaby move his feet. Halfway through the song, he started to sweat big time. "Oh, I don't think I can take much more of this." He huffed. He pressed onward despite his lack of energy.

"Come on buddy you can do it!" Heffer said from behind him. Everyone was cheering for him because of his tremendous efforts. He was trying so hard and his feet were about to fall off when...the song ended. It practically drained all of his energy but he passed the song with a B. Woos and Wows came from all around him and he waved his hand like he was the president of the U.S in a parade.

"Wow!" Rocko huffed and puffed for energy.

"Here buddy. Have a drink." Heffer handed him a drink of water. Rocko gulped the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

"You were awesome Rock!"

"Thanks Hef." Rocko said exhausted. They walked out of the arcade while Rocko was sweating...practically creating a walking fountain.

"That is just about the best game I've ever played in my entire life." He said to himself. "I'm coming back tomorrow!"

THE END