nakoruru
may 30, 2006
^ photo by mileena
- who oddly enough saw me for the first time in this near identical position
about 10 years ago in an arcade. yes, that's me slashing thru mai shiranui's
boobage.
in a previous life, i was a hardcore gamer girl. the kind who spent hours at the arcade, not necessarily playing but more watching and absorbing. i would stand off to the side of the machines and take in the sounds, the flashes, the hits and slashes, the taunts, the moves, the combos, summoning the secret bosses and characters and all that pretty stuff. perhaps i secretly longed to be one of those cutesy characters with powers to destroy evil and with kick ass moves that would defy all reason.
after playing around on several games and trying out the various consoles, i settled on what was to be my trademark character, nakoruru from samurai shodown. it's not that i was drawn to her big red bow in her hair, nor her swordsmanship, nor that little red and white outfit she wore and not because she has giganticly round anime eyes either. but rather she wasn't one of those characters with boobs or ass hanging out all over the place and she was an animal lover with her beloved hawk, mamahaha and in some versions, her wolf shikuru. plus she had that cute little voice.
for one reason or another, this character stuck and i became rather decent at playing a mean game of samurai shodown with her.
but then came responsibilities. growing up. life. and i tucked nakoruru away in the back of my mind. i didn't touch a joystick or console for many moons but i often looked back in my mind to the girl who stood or sat in front of the flickering screen while putting quarter after quarter into the machine. i liked that girl a lot. she was carefree, fun, free spirited and the simple pleasures of video games were enough to tame her crazy side. the hours of pleasure she derived from just watching, learning and playing was inexplicable.
about a month ago, i went to have dinner with friends and we decided to hit up the arcade afterwards. not only were we the oldest ones in there but we were also hitting up on the oldest grandaddy games in the whole joint. but as my eyes descended upon one of the newer samurai shodown versions, my hands couldn't help but slip that token into the slot and bring my nakoruru back to life.
of course, i died after about a minute.
oddly enough, i sometimes wonder if i love martial arts as much as i do because i want to be my beloved video game character?
currently listening to: gene loves jezebel, desire
