Nessa scrolled through the options for mini games. Instead of the more linear experience she has expected, the game, which apparently was called Help Wanted, was comprised of various mini games, and even included characters from Fazbear Entertainment.
Being in VR was disorienting enough already, but this felt too realistic. It wasn't fully realistic, of course, but this felt too advanced. Not even non-VR games were supposed to look like this. It was unsettling, but it seemed like it was supposed to be a creepy experience anyway. Nonetheless, she'd be putting that in her notes. Even if it wasn't relevant, she was there to make notes, right? Who knows. She'd been given irritatingly little information beyond 'let us know how the game performs'. Should be relatively fine, since they'd already gone through alpha testing, but who knows what she'd find.
Seeing all these characters again was a mix of nostalgia and that delightful dread that was far, far too common to her.
Ness decided to explore the main environment before playing any of the games. There was a button labeled 'prize counter'. She pressed it curiously.
She blinked as she was suddenly transported to the aforementioned prize counter. As much as she hated this game, she had to admit it was seriously impressive. Not that that made her like it anymore.
Nessa looked around and saw a gum-ball machine. There was something strange in it. A purple glow. It looked... glitchy. It probably was some sort of glitch.
She reached out to touch it curiously, despite fully believing nothing would happen. Maybe the game would crash or cause a bigger glitch, but nothing else.
To her surprise, it simply seemed to disappear at her touch. How strange.
Nessa shrugged and turned towards to the counter itself. After a moment she quickly found that there was a basketball available simply from the game being opened. She pressed buttons until she eventually got a hold of it.
She turned it around and inspected it for a moment, nothing strange about it.
There was another one of those odd glitchy things behind the counter. She glanced at the basketball and threw it at the glitch, hitting it first try. As she watched it disappear she firmly decided that it must not be a glitch, but a feature.
No need to make note of it then.
She played around and inspected the prize counter for a few more minutes before returning to the main station.
Nessa flicked through the mini games, none of them sounded very appealing and some of them she very much wished to avoid, despite that she knew she'd have to play it all by eventually. Might as well rip off the bandaid right now and get the worst ones over with.
She flicked through the levels. 'Night Terrors'. That'd be a good one to start with.
She glanced around the room, totally not trying to delay the inevitable of having to play this. She glanced to the right.
"What the heck..." Nessa muttered, stepping back, though that movement wasn't reflected in-game, disorienting her further, while simultaneously reminding her this wasn't reality.
It was a strange figure, it seemed a bit rabbit-like, or rather like a human in a rabbit costume. It was yellow, it certainly had rabbit-shaped ears, and she could just barely make a vest and bow tie. They appeared to be purple, but it was hard to tell.
It reminded her far to much of the Spring Bonnie costume. She wondered if William still had that in his basement from when he stole it a few years ago. Probably.
Nessa tried to gesture for the weird rabbit costumed character to shoo, before realizing how silly that was and turning back to the selection menu.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It's not real. It's just a game. None of this is real. None of those memories are real and none of them should affect you. None of them can affect you. You're safe. You're fine. Everyone around you is safe," she whispered to herself before opening her eyes.
"Here goes nothing."
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Nessa pulled off the headset and shook her head. She'd only been playing for a couple hours but could barely stand. It wasn't that she felt sick or even had a headache, it was simply that the game was much more than she bargained for.
She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. It'd been three years since she'd had to deal with the nightmares, yet she couldn't get through some silly game that was created to make light of rumors of nightmares Where had the rumors even come from?
Nessa sat on the ground underneath her desk as she tried to remember. It was childish and cramped, but it was cozy and it wasn't like anyone was going to walk in without knocking. Small spaces were nice. Out in the open, anything could come at you from anywhere. In a small space, it was easier to see where things came from.
What had she been thinking about? Oh yes, the rumors. Some newspaper article. An interview done with the Afton kids and their adopted father. What was his name again... Henry... Henry... Henry Emily? That sounded right. Hurricane was a small town, so the news about the whole situation had spread like wildfire. The fire had been so strong it spread outside of the city into a few of the nearby towns.
It hadn't been too long ago, only a couple years ago when William was arrested. It was a shame he was rich enough to have only spent less than two years in there.
It seemed as though this game had been started while he was still in jail. Most likely before.
Maybe he'd anticipated rumors would eventually spread. Maybe this had been his backup plan for if kidnapping just kids had gone wrong.
What would they think of this stupid game? They'd probably find a way to stop its production in its tracks. They'd certainly hate it. Yet here she was, play testing it. Ever the person to end up aiding William in one way or another.
But what could she do? She'd signed a contract. She had to stay and help finish this game. Besides, surely people would realize how stupid this whole concept was. Maybe if her name was on it she'd end up in jail and William would go back to jail.
A false, dim hope, that much Nessa knew. Still, she hasn't stayed alive and somewhat sane this long by accepting reality for what it was.
She took a deep breath and stood back up. She placed the VR set back on her head.
Maybe her false, misguided reality would help her through this, it had before. How bad could this possibly be?
