[Intro — CRT hum, electrical static, distant arcade ambience] [coin drops] INSERT COIN [old 8-bit startup melody, slow and slightly detuned] PLAYER ONE... READY? [long silence] [Verse 1 — soft, nostalgic vocal] Dust upon the cabinet Names beneath the glass Tiny hands once held these controls Now nobody comes back A thumbprint on the fire button A fingerprint in the light A little worn-out pattern From a thousand Friday nights The screen still knows the initials Three letters in a row A record from a childhood That nobody remembers now [Pre-Chorus — distant synth pulse] The machines don't know That children become old They only know The hands they used to hold [Chorus — melancholic 8-bit melody enters] Insert coin Come back home The arcade is waiting But you're grown Insert coin One more game Your little name is glowing But you forgot your name [Verse 2 — bitcrushed piano, distant cabinet sounds] High score number seven Still carrying your mark A secret combination You discovered in the dark The racing game remembers The corner where you turned The fighting game remembers Every pattern that you learned The buttons have your fingerprints The joystick knows your hand The cabinet keeps the map Of a child it couldn't understand [Pre-Chorus — music thinning] The machines don't know What happened after school They don't know you stopped playing They don't know you became someone new [Chorus] Insert coin Come back home The arcade is waiting But you're grown Insert coin One more game Your little name is glowing But you forgot your name [Bridge — almost silent, CRT static] [old game-over sound, stretched and reversed] I remember your pattern. Left. Left. Down. Fire. [soft 8-bit notes] You always missed the last jump. Then you learned. [long pause] You never came back to show me. [Childlike distant arcade voice] PLAYER ONE... READY? [Silence] [Verse 3 — female vocal, intimate] Somewhere you are older now With different hands to hold Different streets beneath your feet Different stories left untold Perhaps you have forgotten The summer when you came Perhaps you don't remember The cabinet with your name But beneath the dust The little lights remain And every time the power comes They call you back again [Final Chorus — huge ambient chiptune swell] Insert coin Come back home The arcade is waiting All alone Insert coin One more game Your fingerprints are glowing But nobody knows your name Insert coin Don't be afraid The years can take the children But they cannot take the game Insert coin... One more time. [Outro — machines shutting down one by one] [coin slot click] PLAYER ONE... [static] READY? [one lonely 8-bit note] [power-off click] [Silence]
