A/N: I am gonna warn you-

In this chapter I mention about a game called "Outer Wilds" and mention about the sun {Redacted} and the race {redacted} and other things (jokes lol)

This game's fandom is very... VERY (Hard press on very) Sensitive when it comes to spoilers, and for a good reason. So if you do not care about spoilers of that game, go right ahead :)

I also give a slight nod to the game SOMA from Frictional Games, so spoilers for both.

Richard looked up at the roof of the ceiling of the surge protector, as his head gently hit the wall behind him as he was sitting on the ground.

"I hope you're enjoying your time here at least," He heard Swizzle say.

"I... well, I kind of am," Richard smiled, turning to face him. "You guys are making it bearable."

At that moment, the power came back on. Everyone sighed in relief. At least none of them would be trapped in the station for more than one day.

Suddenly, Surge materialized out of thin air. "Remember!" he said quickly as the characters scrambled back to their games or to their friends' games. "The storm hasn't cleared yet, so be careful out there!"

Rancis stood up, stretching. "Hey, you guys wanna go to Tappers?" He asked.

Gloydbeamed. "I'd love to! But don't you think we should race for the roster tomorrow?"

Swizzle shrugged. "With how bad this storm is, I don't even think Litwak is going to open tomorrow,"

Richard sighed. "And I'm still not out there... he told me that he needed me to be there to switch the breaker,"

"But why would he even ask you to do that though?" Rancis asked. "We can survive just fine without someone outside doing that,"

Swizzle looked at Rancis, "Do... Do you think Litwack knows about us?"

"What?" Rancis asked. "Don't be silly, definitely not. No humans know that we are alive. Well, all except Rich at the moment," He said, looking at their Human friend.

Gloyd shrugged. He took Richard's hands, "Let's go, I can already taste the rootbeer!"

Rancis playfully rolled his eyes. "Again with your sugar rushes..."

Just as they were about to head off, Ryu came up with Richard. "Rich, wait, hold on-,"

Richard stopped and then looked at the Street Fighter character. "Huh? Oh, yeah?" He asked.

"Here," Ryu reached into a pocket and pulled out some golden coins, "take this, since all of you are going to Tappers," He must have heard they were going.

Richard looked down at it. "Uhh... coins?" he questioned as he took them from Ryu's hands.

Ryu nodded. "I'm not sure if Taps is going to give you another free rootbeer, so take that with you,"

"Oh... O-Okay," Richard stammered before continuing to walk with the racers. "Thanks."

He glanced over at Rancis, holding up one of the coins. "So... you guys use currency here?"

"Hmm-mm," Rancis nodded as he pulled out a coin from his pockets.

Richard blinked. "So... how do you guys get paid? Do you... work somewhere or..."

Gloyd giggled. "Doing our games is the work dummy," He giggled.

"Yeah," Swizzle said. "We get paid these gold coins when we win a race, fight, level, whatever. All the game characters here get paid in their games,"

"Wow..." Richard said as he looked at the coin closer. "The coin... it looks a little familiar..." He turned it around and looked it over. It was golden, round, and had an 'I' shape in the middle.

"Probably. It was Mario who helped us integrate the coin system. Since he's the only character in the entire arcade that has coins in their game, I think at least," Rancis said.

Richard gasped when the realization hit him. "Oh! That's why it looks familiar... ah! Okay, so this is a Mario coin," He smiled. "You know, 'ding-ding'!" He tried to make the sound of the coin when you collect it in a Mario game, but then he accidentally dropped it. "Oh crud," He said as he picked it back up.

Gloyd let out a "pifffttt," And softly giggled. "The way how you said that,"

The four of them were sitting at a table, and each of them had a rootbeer-filled glass cup in their hands.

"Why does this thing taste so good..." Richard muttered to himself as he sipped his drink. "Like... wow,"

"I dare you to chug the rootbeer!" Gloyd blurted out, his voice suddenly cutting through the room.

Richard was taking a drink of his, but then nearly choked on the rootbeer once he heard Gloyd say that. He was never great at chugging anything, especially something carbonated.

Swizzle grinned mischievously. "Yeah! Do it!"

Richard eyed his glass—already half-empty from his casual drinking. "I can't, it's almost done—" But before he could finish, Gloyd leaned over and poured a hefty splash of his own rootbeer into Richard's cup.

Richard blinked at Gloyd, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Gloyd giggled cutely, "No takebacks now~,"

Richard rolled his eyes, then picked up the cup.

"Chug, chug, chug!" Gloyd chanted, thrusting his fists up and down.

Tapper was cleaning a cup nearby and just shook his head softly as he heard the shenanigans over at the table over.

Richard took a deep breath, then started to chug the rootbeer. He managed to do it, then slammed the cup down on the table as he gasped for air.

"Whoo!" The three other boys cheered.

"Holy crap, that was way too fizzy," Richard huffed, panting. "Never doing that agai— *URRRRPPPP*." A huge, thunderous belch erupted from his mouth, catching him completely off guard. His eyes widened in shock, and he quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, mortified.

The table fell silent for a moment before Gloyd, Swizzle, and Rancis burst into fits of laughter.

"That was so loud!" Gloyd laughed, "I think it vibrated the room!"

Richard was so embarrassed he covered his face.

Still chuckling, Swizzle drank more of his own soda, then he leaned closer to Richard, then purposefully burped loudly right in his face.

"Ew! Swizz!" Gloyd giggled so much from this.

Richard, about to protest, suddenly paused and blinked. "Why... Why on earth does your burp smell like candy?"

Swizzle snorted, then giggled at this, "We're literally candy people silly," He said.

Richard remembered when Gloyd hugged him, he had notes of honey, the smell of Candy corn or mellow creme.

"All of us smell like the candy we represent," Gloyd slammed his hand onto Richard's nose, who gasped at this sudden action.

After he eased, he sniffed Gloyd's hands. He definitely smelled like candy. He decided to tease Gloyd a little. "If you don't move your hand from my nose, I'm gonna eat it..." He stuck his tongue out and gently brushed it on Gloyd's hand

Gloyd gasped with a giggle, and quickly removed his hand, "What no! EWW!"

Richard laughed softly, then got another rootbeer to sip on, with the extra coins Ryu had given him. "Your hand didn't even taste like candy," He said to Gloyd.

Gloyd, was still being playful, and he came up with another chugging challenge. "Rancis, you're up next! I dare you to chug the rootbeer!"

Rancis rolled his eyes, not because he didn't want to, but because that was too easy for him. "You know I'm like, a pro at chugging rootbeer, right? Gotta thank Vanellope for teaching me,"

Gloyd smirked. "But... if you fail at chugging all the soda in three seconds, you have to kiss Richard~," He said, getting a little giddy.

Richard spat out his soda out of shock and nearly choked on the drink.

Gloyd snorted and laughed loudly at what happened. "Uh oh, sorry Rich~," He giggled.

Rancis blushed softly. "What? B-But... three seconds? There is no way I can drink it that quick,"

Gloyd went back to making a smirk. "I thought you said you were a pro?"

Rancis grunted. "Fine!"

Swizzle got out a stopwatch.

Rancis sighed, then picked up his glass, and brought it up to his lips, Swizzle got ready, "And... go!" He started the stopwatch.

Rancis tipped his glass and began chugging, slamming it down confidently when he was done. "See? Easy."

"Dude, four seconds," Swizzle said.

Gloyd giggled. "Uh oh... someone deserves his kiss~,"

"What? Okay, You're lying. That was definitely three seconds..." Rancis said.

Swizzle shook his head. "Nope," And he showed him the stopwatch. "4 seconds, see?"

Rancis sighed, then looked over at Richard, whose face looked like a tomato by now.

"Oh god, look at him! He's so red and you haven't even kissed him yet!" Gloyd giggled uncontrollably.

Rancis stood up from the bench, then walked over behind Richard. He kneeled, then gave Richard's cheek a little peck. "There,"

Richard felt like he was dying. He looked away, as his face was about to self combust.

Gloyd giggled. "Rancis, the heck was that? Ugh, give him a better kiss than that!"

"Yeah, right on the lips~," Swizzle giggled.

Rancis groaned, then stood back up, "Ugh, finnnneeee," He made his way back over to Richard, grabbed his cheeks, then pulled his face up his, and just gave his lips a soft little smooch, then walked back to his seat again.

Richard was in a daze by this point. He slowly turned back to his drink, then went to drink it, but then he dropped it and it fell on the floor.

"I'll get it," Tapper quickly said.

Meanwhile, Gloyd and Swizzle were laughing so hard they could barely breathe. "Rich, are you okay?" one of them managed to ask between giggles.

Richard just let out a tiny, helpless squeak, which only made them laugh harder.

Swizzle smiled. "So... what other games do you play? Besides the arcades here?"

Rancis chuckled. "Seriously? You just continued with a conversation after making me melt him?"

Gloyd let out a few laughs. "I mean-,"

Richard blushed more, but he smiled after. "Geez you guys are insane..." He looked at them. "Well, I play a lot of games. I had... well, I recently got into this game called Outer Wilds," He said, smiling, remembering really getting into this specific game.

"Outer Wilds?" Swizzle tilted his head slightly. "What's that about?"

"It always gets confused with Outer Worlds. Hrmf it's better than Outer Worlds," Richard grunted. "It's a space-themed game, where you fly around to different planets," He said. "I love it a lot,"

Swizzle giggled at the little huff noise Richard had made. "Seems like you really like that game," He said.

Richard nodded. "It's very amazing... but now... I'm having thoughts..." He said, looking down, his face scrunched up slightly as his brain was thinking about things, about how the games work.

"Thoughts?" Gloyd asked, curious.

"Yeah... games are alive... that means all of the Hearthians literally can see me while I play the game? All the times I crashed into the sun trying to land on the sun station... did the Hatchling feel all that? The Nomi... did they really exist and all went extinct?"

The three racer boys exchanged glances with each other.

"I'm assuming you're talking about the backstory of the characters in that said game," Gloyd said. "Some... characters have backstories that... well, scar some of them,"

"Yeah, like mom," Rancis said. "But she got over it,"

"M-Mom?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, remember we told you, Sergeant Calhoun is our mother," Rancis said. "She adopted us,"

"O-oh! Right, I forgot..." But then Richard's mind started to race with thoughts. "So, characters in games... they actually feel and live whatever they're programmed with or something?"

"Some do, some just get over it because they know it... well, isn't real," Swizzle said.

Richard stared at the table. "Jesus... So... Simon... Simon Jarrett actually feels all the pain he went through in SOMA? Did he really have the brain scan? Did he really lose Catherine at the end?" He shook his head. "Oh crap and I made him kill his clone... I made him kill all the other robots in Pathos II-,"

Ranis quickly left from his spot of the table and made his way over to Richard. "Hey-," Rancis grabbed Richard's shoulder, cutting him off. "None of that," He said. "They're all okay, alright? And please, if you ever get out of here, never interact with any game character in a way to talk to them. We're just game characters. We're just programmed to entertain you guys... we are all fine, I promise you,"

Swizzle nodded. "Seriously. You cannot talk to even us. I mean, all of us in this arcade will know you, and we would give a subtle hello, but other humans would probably look at you as... insane or something if they see you trying to stick up a conversation with the arcade machines-," Swizzle added that last part with a quiet giggled.

Richard sighed softly, "Yeah..." He said as he took another sip of his soda.

"Hey, don't sweat it," Gloyd rubbed the back of Richard's back. "So what other games do you play?"

"Uhh... well, Train Simulator..." Richard said. "That's one of them at least, what I've been playing on my laptop recently..."

Swizzle blinked. "Train—" He snorted, trying to hold back laughter. "Wait—hold on—" He giggled.

Richard rolled his eyes. "Ugh, what is it?" He smiled, a bit embarrassed.

"I mean, that was kinda random," Gloyd said. "And kinda nerdy too~"

Richard shook his head as he looked away, "Shut uuuppp," he said shyly. "I just find trains interesting..."

Ranis shook his head, "Geez, you really are a nerd," He said in a playful tone.

"Ugh, not you too!" Richard grunted softly, and he hid his head in his hands.

"So what's the goal in that game? Just drive trains?" Swizzle asked as he sipped his rootbeer.

Richard lowered his hands from his face. "Yeah, pretty much," He said. "Pick up passengers, drop them off, if you're doing a passenger run... check water levels, shovel coal into the firebox if you're driving a steam locomotive..." He said, looking at them. "I also have a YouTube channel!" He said.

"YouTube?" Swizzle tilted his head.

"Yeah, although I'm planning to abandon YouTube and move to BuzzTube. They have way better payouts than YouTube apparently. And... They're not as... censory," Richard said.

"Oh! BuzzTube!" Gloyd gasped. "Isn't that what Ralph used?" He looked at the two other racers.

Swizzle nodded. "Yeah, he got the money from that when they got the wheel. Or, so Vanellope said,"

Richard looked at them. "What do you mean Ralph used BuzzTube?"

Swizzle looked back at Richard. "When Ralph and Vanellope went to the Internet, apparently Ralph used BuzzTube, and made a bunch of vidoes or something, and got a lot of money for it,"

Richard's jaw hung open a little bit.

"I know, you're still confused about how we can go to the internet?" Gloyd asked, with a giggle.

But, it wasn't that at all. Richard closed his eyes. "Hold on.. let's get something straight with this-," He said.

Swizzle let out a little giggle. "Oh? What? What you wanna say?" He placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his hand.

"You're telling me-," Richard started. "That those random viral Wreck-It-Ralph videos that took over the front page at BuzzTube a few years ago... wasn't made by an animator, with the algorithm making them lucky?!" He finished with a very shocked tone. "It was made by Ralph himself?!"

"Oh... uh..." Rancis snorted. "Yeah... those were made by Ralph..."

"I guess what Ralph said was actually true... he did go 'viral'," Gloyd laughed.

Richard blinked in disbelief. "Holy shit..." He shook his head. "I'm never going to look at games—or the internet—the same way again..."