*Melty Blood* is a game based on the lore of 月姫, the canon of which inspired
the wonderfully complex *Fate* series. *Melty Blood* (simply *Melty* for
short) is a dojin fighting-game co-developed by Type-Moon and French Bread
and is known for being the deplorable alternative to good fighting games
such as Tekken, Street Fighter, and Virtua Fighter. *Melty* was originally
released in 2002 as Microsoft Windows game but it somehow gathered enough of
a following (due to Type-Moon's success with *Fate* people wanted to check
out anything and everything this circle ever put out, what a mistake!) to
warrant the release of an arcade sequel called *Melty Blood: Actress Again*.
And that's just the game I played today.

I'm Fucking Blitzed
-------------------

Let's prefix this with: today was certainly not the holy-Christian's Sunday:
there's something charming about Sundays that makes me want to go to the
arcade and play Dancerush Stardom or DDR or whatever and get blitzed. As it
happens that's exactly what I did today.

Before I headed out today (around noon, after doing breakfast and making
sure I had everything up-to-spec) I slipped some shitty vodka into a water
bottle: this is essential because the arcade only serves Kirin and fuck if
I'm getting drunk off Kirin. If anything I'd rather have
アサヒスーパードライ 瞬冷辛口 ASAHI **SUPER DRY** but whatever, really it's
remarkable that they even have Kirin over here at this little place.

I hopped on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Antioch line and after some
complex maneuvering through the public transit system I was at the arcade:
this was not an easy task considering I already had something before I
even left, so the fact I even showed up at the time I had planned was a
mircale.

The place is pretty packed (especially for a Sunday) but luckily the
good side of the Dancerush cabinet is open; I spend a few rounds warming up
and pairing this sugar-free Rockstar energy drink with that shitty vodka I
packed. It's pretty pleasant and I dance aggressively to some hardstyle,
future-bass, and hands-up before finally calling it quits. There's some girl
watching me and she claps a little for me as I get off but I bee-line to
the *Gunslinger Stratos* machine, only partly because I'm knee-deep in this
liquor but mostly because I don't like girls.

Gunslinger Stratos: it's a great game. I'm severely lacking the hand-eye
coordination to slap the two guns together (which is something like
three-quarters of the game mechanics) but it's still a lot of fun to play
hammered.

Beatmania
---------

I saunter over to Beatmania: my favorite rhythm game! Even though I'm really
bad at it I'm improving slowly... ever since I picked it up during
my last month in Tokyo recently it's become a really enjoyable game and a
great way to pass time waiting for people to get off the Dancerush
cabinet.

If I thought my hand-eye coordination was bad during *Gunslinger* then I'm
really in for a bad time playing Beatmania: but somehow I pass all my songs
(mostly I sort by *my best* and hope I can pass songs I've already cleared
`:3`).

Hello, my name is Kirin
-----------------------

Here's where it all goes wrong: a schooner is only $3 (!) which is insane.
Even though it's not that great, hell, it's there. I order one and sit down
with my tall, tall glass. I'm not sure the bartender realized what a mistake
I was making so she handed it over without any question.

What a trip: I hardly started it before I felt keenly sick. I get up,
slowly, from my seat at the bar and carry my beer in arms-akimbo to the
fighting games corner. I survey the games they've got on-display: Street
Fighter (3rd Strike and Alpha), Tekken, and one lonely **Melty Blood:
Actress Again** cabinet. I feel bad for it because nobody is playing this
wonderful and impoverished machine so I saunter over with my Kirin still in
my caring embrace and have a seat in front of the *Melty* cabinet. I stare at
the graphics and opening credits, mesmerized and confused that anyone ever
funded a *Melty* cabinet.

It's at this point that I transition from feeling very drunk but keenly
happy to feeling very drunk but keenly sick. Not great, actually not good,
not good at all. I'm 20-some kilometers from home and all I wanna do is lie
on my bed and stare at the ceiling but here I am in front of the *Melty Blood*
in Concord, California. Not good.

I rest my Kirin on the cabinet's hardware, right next to the heavy-punch
button. There's no use drinking any more, I've already had more than my
share: not good.

*Melty Blood's* flavor-text flashes on the screen and I feel nauseous: not
good. I wish I could pay more attention to *literally anything* but all I
can pay attention to is how sick-to-my-stomach I feel: not good.

My roomate (who I'll be seeing a lot of next semester, seeing that he's
housemates with my boyfriend) used to play *Melty* in the living room fairly
often. I've partied up and played it once or twice...
I could probably pick up the game again, even though it's been a few months
since I've touched a fight stick. I reach in my pocket to retrieve my
cash-card for the arcade and toss it on the *Melty* cabinet's hardware. I
stop, card in hand: God I feel nauseous again. There's no way I can play
*Melty* like this, despite being a game for drunks and Melee-dropouts and
despite me fitting both those requisites there's no way I can even input
anything more complex than heavy-punch, block, heavy-punch. Fuck.

I've already tapped out my Kirin, it's still resting next to the
heavy-punch button. I collect my backpack (which I set to the right-side of
the *Melty* cabinet earlier when I sat down, evidently) and my cash-card and
my wallet and attempt to stand up. Suddenly my saliva is upsettingly warm
and realize that it's starting to pool up below up tongue. I go to spit it
out before standing up on the carpet under the *Melty* cabinet but my doing so
triggers a fit of coughing and half-hurling that I am rendered immobile
until the nausea passes: not good. Just when I think it's passed I stand up
and surprise: it's back! This time I can't hold it back and I just sit back
down, surrendering to some awkward fit of half-hurling under the fight stick
of the *Melty* cabinet.

As it's still coming out of my mouth I think about what kind of list my name has been
added to by getting hellishly drunk and throwing up in front of a
*Melty Blood* cabinet: considering the game's reputation, I think, it's gotta
be an interesting list and there are probably way more names on it than I
first consider. My name's right at the bottom and it certainly won't be the
last name on the list. I wipe my mouth, somehow invigorated by
my new-found energy, and *actually* collect my stuff, stumbling out of the
arcade. I leave my schooner of Kirin on the *Melty* cabinet, partly a token of
respect but mostly because I can't handle a single sip more.

Somehow, some way, I get home; living in Tokyo taught me a lot about public
transit and that's all become so engrained in my head that I could do it
all blindfolded and inebriated.

I have several more fits of halfway-puking in the Concord BART station sink
before I finally make it home to Berkeley on the Richmond train. It's fucked
but it's also Sunday: you can afford to lose a day or two. And as soon as I
lose enough of those I'll be home in the arms everything I love.