Game of Tag (Patreon)

Everyone was shocked when Sony announced that their latest PlayStation would not only interface with medical nano-bots, something Nintendo already did for limb tracking, but allow them to modify your appearance. Nothing major of course, hair, skin, and eyes only, but enough that the Mothers for Decency almost stopped the release. They didn't include any nano-bots, as was first rumored, but did sell them separately at record low prices. Every 16 year old with a waiver from their parent and virtually every one of university age bought a shot and soon every congregation gamers looked like a cosplay event with orc green or elf blue skin.

While the Sony modifications were active had a life of up to 8 hours before the nano-bots required to recharge, you could buy more expensive nano-bots from China with permanent changes to eyes and skin. Hair wasn't working yet, as that change just acted as a hair dye. Even non-gamers took notice of how this was a great way to get some tats on the cheap, compared to using professional bots.

Chase had nowhere near the cash to get the tats he wanted, but managed to empty his wallet for a shot of Chinese bots. He had already collected a great set of tags in Gang Rivals IV that he transferred to his body. There was quite the sting while the skin darkened slowly in place after place, but numbing is one of the benefits of the professional tattoo bots. Chase didn't really trust Chinese bots to mess with his nervous system anyway. Someone must have taken notice of all the Tagged! messages he spammed the game lobby with and invited him to a game. "Dude, compete about tags?" someone called Zybozz asked. Chase immediately agreed. He had a bunch of tags he didn't care for, and perhaps he got something he liked. He had several hours left on the bots before they flushed out.

His competition felt about equal to him, maybe a bit weaker. After three straight wins and no losses he was pretty pleased with the new tags he got. "Hey, wanna make it more interesting?" Zybozz asked. "Let's go punish mode!"

The punish mode allowed the loser to be modified by the winner. It started as a way to give someone a clown nose or monkey face for an hour. Chase didn't hesitate to accept.

He immediately regretted it. This wasn't the Sony bots that would give him a black eye or a gang tat or a prisoner bar code for fifteen minutes. These were Chinese permanent tattoo bots. It took him 30 seconds to realize Zybozz hadn't played seriously before. He just hoped it wouldn't cover his face, whatever tags Zybozz had lined up.