Isolated • Hesitant • Wordless

Some of us want to be the best in the world at something. Cade was no different. He could never get any results in those arcade scoreboards no matter how hard he tried.

Being young and desperate for something to be recognized for leads to dumb mistakes, which again, Cade was no different, unless you note that his rise to the top wasn't until they were much older, and less obsessed about being good. At this time, he ran his own arcade, and worked to restore cabinets as well due to being a collector. After stumbling upon a cabinet of legends, POLYBIUS, he snapped at the opportunity to have it, blinded by excitement. Once he plugged the cabinet in to play test it, an otherworldly being sealed inside escaped, taking his body for it's own. Cade was from that day: physically unbeatable in any game. When not being puppeted by the spirit, he's quiet and reluctant to play anything with anyone. They just watch, wordless.

I wanna be the very best!

Video games were a phenomena to hit the world by storm. A weapon to destroy us all by rotting our brains into sludge to some, maybe just a little thing to have fun with to pass your lunch period. The hedgehog was fascinated at first touch, and declared that someday, they would be the best. Cade's name isn't even Cade, by the way. It's been so long with days blurring into eachother that they don't remember what their name even was. Cade had spent many, many hours slaving away at the cabinets trying to get some semblance of a pay out, but they just never were good enough. It was frustrating, because even if they got close, they never were the best. Just another loser that was good, but not good ENOUGH. After finally accepting that it wasn't feasible for him to do, he let the goal lay to rest. Instead, he aimed to just have an arcade instead. One in a mall actually, as he ended up settling in that location.

But at what cost?

It was successful, of course. Kids and enthusiasts alike lined up to play the various games. Cade, being a collector was one of the few outlets able to actually allow the public to play otherwise near-lost games. Some cabinets he had were even of games that either weren't finished or never released to the public. A love letter to retro games, all in a place where you could actually PLAY them. Cade's habit of collecting and refurbishing cabinets actually ended up being his downfall, as it lead to his innevitable body snatching by some kind of gamer demon hiding inside of an arcade cabinet. It's what happens when you buy them from weird people, I guess. The main side effect of this body snatching, apart from immortality and spontaneously losing control over their body, was that they could never be beaten in any video game regardless of if Cade ever played it or not. The only way he could lose was if you were to cheat, and it would know. You would also be dead, as nobody likes a cheater.

Modern Times

The whole sharing a body with some arcade cabinet demon thing caused Cade a great deal of problems. Not wanting to upset anyone or be revealed to the public to have this predicament, he isolated. He went from being out and about all the time to literally only ever being in his arcade. His friends and family were lost on his whereabouts, as their previously social and frequently visited pal just suddenly became a recluse. Due to the entity's presence as currently being freed, the arcade also began to have weird shifts in the pass of time or reality itself. You'd be playing for hours but you could swear it's only been a few rounds. Someone's face behind the screen seems oddly familiar, you could have sworn you saw them weeks ago, but you can't prove they ever existed. However in the end, Cade really just wants you to have fun, and still tries to do what they love despite the unfortunate circumstances. They're just a little distant.