'Command Card Obtained: Fron Irontooth'
"Thou art, and we master." the deep and slightly accented voice of a dwarven king rang out in the space of white light that Andrew found himself in. "I am Fron Irontooth, King of Dwarves, master of shield and hammer! Wear my form, and bring victory to dwarvenkind!"
The light compressed, revealing...the armored dwarf of the iron-helm crown, where Andrew had once stood. His shield and hammer dropped and dematerialized as Andrew looked down at the hands of the body he was controlling. He looked a bit like an oil painting come to life, and yet also a living breathing person in the same style of himself. Slightly a compromise, but about what the artstyle on the cabinet was 'expecting'.
"Oh, you're a first-timer?" Fron exclaimed psychically, manifesting himself as a vague auditory presence that Andrew looked about in. "In Warriors of Aelfwood, players manifest us through Command Cards. These are abstract cards, allowing you to gain or withdraw our bodies and equipment at will. Try concentrating me into your hand, and you'll return to normal. Other TF enterprises products are similar, but depending on desire sensor effectiveness most people switch between different forms directly."
With focus, Andrew raised his left hand, and...flickers of light. Like a magical girl transformation in reverse, his body seemed to stretch out taller again and glow as his armor dematerialized and a card-shaped object depicting the king he'd just become, titled FRON IRONTOOTH in dramatic red text above. The card back was a simple 'Warriors of Aelfwood' logo, and the card itself slightly thicker than normal. The king on the front shook his head a bit, and spoke up quietly, waving his hammer arm as Andrew double-checked his returned body.
"Alrighty! Tutorial step done." Fron exclaimed. "Now, you can just put me back on by focusing on my body image. You don't have to actually hold the card once you've rolled it, it's just an expedient physical thing if it needs to be transferred. Summon it or send it to some storage place whenever."
Still just going along with this, Andrew willed Fron back into himself and again compressed into light, returning as a dwarven body. He held out his hand and focused on the idea of the hammer, causing it to materialize, before willing it away again and letting it dissipate.
"As you may have noticed, a Command Card's basic equipment can be willed in and out of existence as desired." Fron continued in thought-speak as Andrew flexed to judge the condensed feel of his newly acquired dwarven muscles. "What that equipment is and the body it's on is harder to change, but can be altered through magical components, bind spells, and in the case of minor physiology, even physical activity. In the event of our body being destroyed in battle, you'll be ejected from the command card a safe distance away while the card reconstitutes the body from magical energy generation. This process can take a few hours, during which I'll be very weak. I might go to sleep if the issue resolves itself like for a friendly battle, but I'll stay available for commentary and recommending an escape route if it's appropriate."
Fron synergized his mind as well as body with Andrew's, granting him intuitive memory of various physical motions and...summoning magic?
"Commanders in Aelfwood tend to have far fewer castles and standing armies than other fantasies, though changing that can be arranged in time." Fron kept expositing, Andrew experimentally forming hovering magical light around himself. "We can conjure soldiers and battle-ready equipment on a whim, giving us the numerical advantage in most Turnkey Fun gacha combats. Given the fetishistic nature of the other products I'm seeing here, that probably means the benefits of being every other partner in bed."
The resulting mental wink was slightly unnerving to receive, but Andrew just said "Sounds like a good time." to brush it off. He glanced around at the relative privacy of the arcade and slid behind some nearby cabinets into a lounge-looking area for privacy, instinctively high-jump vaulting over an orange couch and landing silently. Sitting down on a red chair opposite as a makeshift throne, from behind the further visual obstruction of a fake plant, Andrew cast a simple summoning spell and suddenly saw himself from the perspective of another hardened dwarven warrior atop the coffee table, while seeing that warrior at the same time. The orange-bearded dwarf with flowing hair parted by a sheathed sword on his back ruffled his chain tunic almost instinctively and dusted off green pants, letting black mining boots dissipate along with the sword. The experience was something like an area-wide sensation, compositing attention into some areas of clear visual perception and others into a vague fog of war, proprioception, and 'it's known that stuff was there earlier'. Fron interjected once again "For ease of use while piloting multiple bodies, sensory information will be partially abstracted into a conventional real-time strategy interface, simultaneously presenting first-person cameras into a third person camera fashion as necessary to reduce psychological strain between perspectives. That's just what the programmer said to tell you, you already seem to get it. Have fun!"
Both of Andrew's bodies smiled. This was gonna be interesting. His warrior-body hopped down from the table and got into Fron's personal space, with the king's body in question answering with a boner. Wordless approval at a man's man floated by as Andrew dematerialized Fron's clothing and let the warrior lower his pants conventionally, thick short cocks frotting against each other. The two bodies started kissing while mutually masturbating, playing with pecs and otherwise enjoying the sudden burst of sexual activity. Fron moaned while the warrior-body merely grinned as the two reached orgasm shortly after the other, letting the pantsed warrior flop onto the chair-side while Fron cast a quick cleaning spell as Andrew just took in the afterglow from two bodies at once.
"If you want to see a body again, don't worry about it." the dwarf-king clarified mentally, reclining cock out and absentmindedly stroking the chest of another dwarf on his belly. "Constituent sub-summons are recorded for future use. Even if you dismiss this guy or he gets blown up he can be recalled. Just takes a simple call and a cursory expenditure of magical energy that'll regenerate way faster than me."
"I'll, uh, send him back for now then." Andrew sent back, with his Fron-body leaning down to give the summoned warrior a goodbye kiss and letting them disappear in a puff of light sparkles.
Andrew then rematerialized Fron's clothing, stood up, and stretched. "What else can we do?" he asked his kingly companion (rapidly just resembling an exposition fairy and fuckbuddy generator, if you asked Andrew).
"That's the fun part." Fron said mentally with a chuckle. "TFE gacha cabinets can be physically entered by the projected bodies of their transformations. You even get another transformation of 'you' so you can switch back without having to leave. But, if you die as yourself you get ejected from the game or have to switch to another transformation. At least until you recharge or get sent back out for being out of transforms. If a gacha card breaks it sends a signal to the enterprise guys to fix it by lack of signal too. So, even if you get glitched and stuck in something they'll check in what's going on if you've been stalled too long. So, let's try heading in?"
Andrew smirked physically to match Fron's mental face, and approached the cabinet. A set of gameplay options came up.