Army of Cuteness Part 4
#4 of Army of Cuteness
Army of Cuteness Part 4
a short story by Relee the Squirrel
Alone in my cozy pink chamber, I had time to myself again. Sunshine wasn't coming back until dinnertime, and there was a new addition to my room to explore. The television set was covered in a pink case, and a white bunny-rabbit face was attached to the front surrounding the screen. Power and video in cables led down the back of the pink plastic cabinet and into the wall, and there was a connection that attached the game console to the input cable as well. The console sitting in the cabinet was made out of a pastel blue plastic, with pastel pink half-spheres on the sides and top. The top spheroid had a cartridge intake, and I found three cartridges in a case next to it. The cartridges were red plastic and shaped like hearts, with a sticker label on the front that showed the game title. The three games were titled "Fun Fun Puzzle Time", "The Good Life", and "Cutie Racers".
Putting the cartridges back, I pressed the television's nose, which worked as the on button. The screen came to life with a magenta glow, not on any channel and with the game system turned off. I fiddled with the white plastic and found a small control panel hidden under the right whiskers. Small carrot-shaped buttons allowed the choosing of a channel or the game console. I set it on the first visible channel, channel two, and the screen came to life. There was a cartoon program on that I watched just for a few minutes. It seemed like one of those after-school specials, but it was all about the importance of hugging everyone no matter what. Flipping through the channels it all seemed to be cartoons about different aspects of this Love, Joy, and Happiness lifestyle the plushies were pushing on us; "The Best Ways to Make Friends", "How to Share Your Love", "Tying Bows for Beginners" and so on.
I decided to set the TV. back to game mode and try the console. Looking at the three cartridges, I picked "The Good Life" to start with. The cartridge slipped easily into place, and a heart-shaped 'power' button brought the console and the screen to life. I picked up the first controller and sat on a pillow that was in front of the cabinet as a logo of a heart spun around on the screen. The controller was set up like a modern joypad, with a direction pad on one side, four buttons on the other, a pair of analog sticks and a couple of shoulder buttons. It was pastel blue like the console, and the heart-shaped buttons were pink. The case was shaped like a pair of hearts stuck together, too.
I looked up at the screen as the heart faded away and a landscape title-image appeared. "The Good Life" it said, in brightly-coloured bubble letters, and beneath that the option to start a New Game. I pressed the A button to begin and began looking through the character creation options. It seemed I could play as a boy or girl plushie, or a boy or girl doll. The dolls looked like humans, but with plastic skin and exaggerated features. They were more like small children's dolls than the fashion dolls that many young girls play with. I chose to play as a girl plushie, and was given a whole host of further options. Base species, fur colour, patterns, accessories, and more exotic things. There were options for different kinds of plushie eyes and noses, and you could put hearts and stars anywhere you wanted, and there were over six hundred different kinds of head bows! It took me a while to decide what I wanted to play as, but I made my character a plush squirrel with a white tummy, and I made the eyes white plastic like the plushies in the fort. The nose was shaped like a heart and I coloured the fur a bright blue; basic brown like my own fur just wasn't an option. Since there were so many to choose from, I also added a pink head-bow. When I had my character done I pressed continue, and the screen faded away to the image of an empty cartoon house on the edge of a yellow street painted with flower designs. My character walked onto the screen and a text box appeared with my character's head in a circle next to it.
"At last, a home of my very own!" said my character. "I'm going to have such a good life here in Cutopia!" I clicked continue, and my character walked inside the house, but it was barren. Another text box appeared, and my character said "I'd better order some furniture for my new house!" I pressed continue and my character went to the telephone. The screen changed to a topographical map of the house, and gave me a selection of furniture options. The furniture truly matched the aesthetic of my captors. Everything was in pastels and primary colours, with hearts and stars and images of cute critters everywhere. Still, I did like cute things myself, when they weren't holding me prisoner. I started to decorate the house with a big living room and a kitchen on the main floor, and a library, bedroom, and bathroom upstairs, all in hearts and stars and teddy bears. When I finished, my character hung up the phone and the doorbell rang. My character answered the doorbell and was greeted by two plushies wearing delivery uniforms. They quickly brought in all the furniture I had picked, and my house was complete. My character stood in the middle of the foyer and smiled, and a console slid up from the bottom of the screen. It was bright pink and had bar meters marked "Needs" and labeled off as Love, Joy, and Happiness. I sighed at the continued propaganda, but decided to continue playing the game.
I took my character around the house, and everything was where I had placed it on the design map. My meters were starting to go down, so I decided to go out of my house. I left the house and went onto the street, where two small plushies were getting ready to play jump rope. They both walked up and hugged me, and a text box popped up asking if I wanted to play jump-rope with them. I pushed yes, and they started to spin the rope. I found that I could jump by pressing the A button, and did my best to jump the rope as the two plushies sang a skipping song about how much they loved each other. My joy and happiness meters both started going up, so I kept playing until they were full. When I stopped, the two plushies asked if I would spin the rope now. I agreed, and another mini-game started up. The wave of the rope appeared on the screen, and I had to spin the analog stick in time with the rope. As I did, I found my love meter was rising. I guess because I was helping the other two. Once my meters were filled up I stopped playing with the two, and went back into the house. I picked up the phone to get at the game options, and saved, and quit. It was... interesting, but I wanted to see the other games.
Before I could pick the next cartridge, however, my door opened and Sunshine pushed her little cart in. I stood up, and we hugged, and she said "I brought your dinner, Miss Relee! I hope you like it." It was the same as before, a bowl of white fluff and a tall glass of pink liquid, but there was also something more, a small pastry tart with a pink swirl of shiny goo inside.
"What is that tart?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.
Sunshine just put on a big smile and announced, "That's a Sweetie-tart! Its good food for a sweetie like you and we heard you liked food..."
I blushed and thanked her, and she left the cart with me. I took the food to the table and began to eat, but I saved the Sweetie-tart for last. I finished my fluff and lifted the tart to my nose to smell. It smelled like a mix of strawberries and roses and that odd joyous odor the plushies give off. Licking the frosting, it tasted even better than it smelled! It was like pure silky bliss in pudding-form! I quickly ate the tart, hardly noticing that the pastry-shell seemed more like a crumbling plastic than dough. I gave a big smile as I savored it, and I even giggled a bit. It was strange feeling it roll off my tongue, like a belch after a soda, only cuter. Looking down into the bowl I saw my reflection, and I noticed that my tongue and the inside of my mouth had been stained an even, bright pink by the tart! I rolled my eyes back in my head, but knew I had to eat if I was going to survive.
I placed the dishes on the cart just as Sunshine arrived. We hugged each other first, like before, but unlike before, she closed the door behind her and stood over the television set. "They gave you a gamecute? Oh you're so lucky!" said Sunshine. She pulled out "Cutie Racers" and put it into the machine. "Let's play together!" she said, patting the pillow I was on before.
We both sat down and the game loaded up, a kart-racing game in a cute and colourful world. There were eight racers to pick from, but Sunshine picked first, choosing a yellow plushie girl similar to herself. I looked at the racers, four plushies and four dolls. I hadn't seen any dolls while staying here, only plushies, but they seemed to divide evenly in these games, and likewise with the gender assignment. I picked the other girl plushie, a blue rabbit wearing an apron. The first track loaded up, and all eight racers lined up in little heart-shaped cars. 3! 2! 1! GO!
It played like any other kart-racing game, though the power-ups all seemed to be super-cute and non-violent. Sunshine won the first track, but I won the next three, taking first place overall.
"Congratulations!" squealed Sunshine, as she gave me a big hug. I smiled and hugged her back. The two of us played two more rounds before she said she had to go back to work. She stood up, and we hugged, and she wheeled her cart out of the room, and I was all alone again.
For a while I sat on the floor and just thought about that time we shared, it just felt so good to be close to someone. Still, Sunshine was one of the people keeping me and the others here against our will.
I sat up on the pillow and decided to try the last game. I plugged "Fun Fun Puzzle Time" into the "GameCute" as Sunshine had called it, and the game loaded up. It was an anthology cartridge, with a wide selection of puzzle games. Most of them were variations on familiar puzzles, but all were done up in the supercute style I was growing more and more used to.
I won't bore you with the details, for soon I was tired and it was past dinner. I curled up in the plush bed and hugged the soft plush cushion to my chest as I fell asleep.