Tag: game

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Family Storytime: Defending the Pedestal

KC J. Hutchins

While growing up, our town would celebrate the 4th of July in grand style. A pancake breakfast, parade, fireworks, and an exciting midway. There were a few inflatable attractions to partake. A basketball dunking contest where we connected to military recruits by bungee cord. After beating one of them, I was offered to a spot to join them which I politely declined. Next was another bungee one. Two people start attached to them with vests and they run as fast/strong as possible to place a beanie at the end of a Velcro track. Now these two were fun, but nothing beat the last one. An inflatable small arena was set up with two pedestal/platforms. Each person received a helmet and a cushioned staff to knock their opponents off.

Now, back then I was quite physically fit and still keeping up with my karate. These two factors made a marathon of others trying to defeat me. To the point where people paid me to rumble with them. Of course, I couldn’t employ the same strategies over and over again… That would be predictable and easy to counter. This led to an epic few matches since I didn’t want them to predict anything. One of my first moments, was a bout where the match wasn’t going anywhere. There needed to be a change to upset the rhythm of the fight. So, I jumped on the other person’s pedestal and pushed them off. They were sooooo annoyed and surprised by the move while trying to get the ref to side with them. However, the rule was just to stay on a pedestal and knock your opponent off. The next one was hilarious. I’d gone a few rounds with the same opponent who was annoyed at how I kept winning. They finally managed to get the staff out of my hand. I smirked at him as he tried to bat me off with a hard swing. The problem was when someone goes for a heavy attack, it was quite easy to counter it. Watching the path, I grabbed the staff on impact and pulled my opponent off the pedestal. They were shocked but gave me a high five for the tactic. At one point, I was getting really tired from the constant matches one after another. So, as they were preparing to steady themselves at the beginning of the bout, I threw the staff and knocked them off because they tried to catch it instead of blocking it. I’m very unsure what their mindset was at that moment. Made me laugh a bit too as I helped them up. However, all of these paled in comparison to my favorite moment in the ring. Her I was facing off with one of my friends. We’d done this a couple times now, and he improved after each one. So much so, he blocked every strike I gave him as I did the same. Finally, I saw an opening as our two strikes met. I slid my hand down his weapon and grabbed one of the handles. In an effort to stay on, he let go of his staff and just looked at me. I gave them a twirl as I readied myself to strike again. However, he looked at me, their hands, back at me, then jumped off the pedestal themselves. I laughed so hard I needed to sit down… Such fun times back in the day. For the record, I was undefeated.

About the Author, Story Time

Family Storytime: My Brother’s Title

KC J. Hutchins

Those who didn’t read my other story about my cousin’s title might not understand what this means. If you want the explanation, click here (https://kcjhutchins.com/2023/06/13/video-game-storytime-my-cousins-title/). Otherwise, I’m continuing on. So, I grew up playing video games with my younger brother. This, of course, meant we played a lot of co-op games since competitions would occasionally end badly. For those who’ve never played a game with someone, you might find people think very differently from you. For instance, boulders are blocking your path and your thought is to blow them up to clear the path. However, your partner thinks to jump over the rocks instead. When he was a kid, he’d always head straight to the treasure… often at my expense. There would be hordes of enemies after us, but the glitter of gold would pull him away… leaving me with the enemies.
Barely scraping by, I’d annoyingly yell for him to come back… which he’d often respond with, “We need the treasure.”
I’d remind him by saying, “We could grab it afterwards. You know once the enemies aren’t trying to kill us?”
“Oh, I’ll remember next time.” He’d always say.
While I was in high school, we played this dragon game (The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon) where we were linked. Try to pull too far away and you’d pull your partner. Surrounded, my brother went straight for the treasure. I, unable to stand my ground or really fight, soon fainted and this causes us both to lose.
He asks, “What the heck? How did you die?”
Which I responded, “I was a victim of greed.”
He laughed realizing what happened at which I joined in the revelry. However, it gets worse. Since he’d left me to fight on my own so often, I was a considerable high level… while he wasn’t. We ended up playing the stupid siege level sooooo many times due to this little hiccup. But, oh no, this isn’t what gave him his title. After all, this was too soon before the idea came to my head.

Fast forward to around myself starting college. My brother convinced me to play this Zelda game where we fight on a battlefield (I don’t remember the name). At one point in the game, you need to face three boss fighters at once. Now, they are quite far from one another at first… so you could take them down one at a time. I mean the only way they’d come together is if you lured them over. No one in the right mind would do this… right? Can you tell what happened? That’s correct… my brother purposedly lured them over to me as he went to swipe the treasures. An act of betrayal while he laughed and watched me take these down by myself. Which was working… until a boss noticed and rolled after him. The fight was much easier at that point.
When it was all over and done, I turned to him and exclaimed, “You are officially known as the Treasure Seeker, and I will remember that!”
We both were laughing our butts off from the whole thing. To this day, he continues to hunt for the treasure to stay true to his title.

About the Author, Story Time

School Storytime: A Smell

KC J. Hutchins

While in high school, I befriended many people in the marching band. (A shocker I know) So, almost every Friday I went to the games while it was in season. This particular night I went with a friend of mine. We didn’t possess any money at the time, and it cost a little bit to attend the game. Usually, we stayed after school to avoid this obstacle. However, I was sure there was some money in my room at home. We went to my house and gamed for a couple hours before leaving. My mom was nice enough to drop us off and agreed to pick us up later. My friend and I walked up to the gate, and I looked in my wallet… empty. Well, that’s a problem. We can’t go in through the school because it’s locked at this time of night.

As I’m wracking my brain on how to slip in, my friend suggests an idea. The back way around was never monitored. I mention a concern about how sketchy people seem to hang around there. He assured me it would be fine. We made our way around and are greeted with smoke. Several individuals were doing so as we passed by. We tried not to look at anyone between some make out sessions and the others. Finally passing through, my friend and I looked at each other and shook our heads. Almost at the same time we both said, “Never again.” Remarking, afterwards at how someone back there must of angered a skunk for the smell was awful.

The game went on normal enough. A few looks here and there. Later in the night, we noticed the cops blocked off the passage we originally entered. We didn’t think much about it. Figured they caught some of the underaged smokers back there. Towards the end of the night, one of the officers came towards us. Asking if we went into the roped off area. We told the truth and he seemed satisfied with the answer. The rest of the night was uneventful; just a normal night of fun and our team lost again.

When it was time to leave, we crawled into my mom’s car. Immediately, she turned around, glared, and growled, “What were you doing?”
My friend and I were like deer caught in the headlights… looking at each other with baffled expressions. We both were calculating what we could’ve done to anger her so quickly.
“What do you mean Mom?” I asked
“The smell…”
“What smell?” My friend asked.
“You both know what smell. It’s so distinctive.” She snapped.
“Is it a skunk smell? We smelt it earlier, but we didn’t think it sprayed us. Quick pull over and we cant put a coat underneath us.” I said hurriedly.
She pulled over, turned around, and said, “No! Boys you smell like weed!”

Click. Soooooo many things made sense from our night.
My friend was the first to say, “I swear we didn’t.” Following this up by explaining our night to her… including the part of avoiding entry payment. I, being the savvy health student, pointed out some facts.
“Our eyes aren’t bloodshot right? And isn’t hard to be coherent while under that influence? If we were high, there’s no way we could hide that.”
She looked at both of us and figured we told the truth. Commenting afterwards, if we needed the money to enter we could always ask her and not to take the passage again. Not that we ever would after everything. Besides we couldn’t, the cops watched the area from then onwards. We breathed a sigh of relief from the whole ordeal… and we now knew the smell. As an adult writing this, I don’t know why we couldn’t smell it on us.

About the Author, Story Time

Work Story Time: The Umpire and the Bat

KC J. Hutchins

Way back when I was young, one of my first jobs was as an umpire. A great little job to ease me into the working world… sort of. Anyways, I came to one of the games as usual and met with the other two umpires. One of them was a friend of mine and the other I worked with before. Both these guys were doing this job longer than me. Remember that cause it’ll be important later. So, in most situations the most senior of the umpires is supposed to go behind home plate. However, neither of them wanted to do it. I, who wants to get the job done, volunteered for the duty.

I’d say we were halfway through the game. Dust in the air, people cheering, and a general sense of enjoyment by all. Nobody showed ill will towards anyone, but enjoyed the game as they should. Keep in mind these were little kids playing. One came stumbling over to the plate. I was minorly concerned the kid would hit himself as he tried to take practice swings! The coach came over to steady and reteach him. A nod of assurance led the batter to the plate. I readied myself to watch as the pitcher wound up. The ball came down the plate and WHAM!

My helmet vibrated and eyes went blurry for a moment. I steadied my legs as I tried not to fall forward on the catcher. An audible “Ooo” of sympathy rolled through the crowd… only broken by my word calling “Time!” The back of my head was throbbing for the batter had hit me in the back of the head. I walked off the field trying to steady myself. I stumbled a bit while groaning and growling from the pain. Rubbing the back of my head, I made sure there was no blood. A parade of people came to check on me. First was the two coaches who patted me on the back for taking the hit. The head of the umpire association (My boss) was the next to show up. Seeming a bit more worried than the rest and offered to give me free food for the rest of the week. Finally, my fellow umpires came to check on me. Knowing I was fine at this point, they were giggling to themselves. I asked them what was so funny? They responded that both of them didn’t want the home plate duty for they were worried about getting hit by the ball… but now they were afraid of bats!

Videos

Streaming Tonight

KC J. Hutchins

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know I’ll be streaming tonight from 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM EST. Hope to see some of you there! I’ll be playing Civilization VI which is a strategy, civilization building, diplomatic handling, and a bit complicated game where one can win one of four ways. It’s a ton of fun to play once one figures out how to.

https://www.twitch.tv/kcjhutchins