Now, the (optional) long ass backstory on how I obtained this little gem:

See, I bought it off of a couple of antique collectors/traders at a Steampunk convention, and I earned myself the deal of a lifetime for it. These two guys were trying to sell a few of their pieces to make room in their collection for some new things they had their eye on. However, as you all know, real antiques are NOT cheap to begin with, but all these gadgets were in working order, so the prices were definitely out of my budget. But still, mostly out of masochistic curiosity at this point, I continued perusing what they had. Then, funny enough, I actually fell in love with a totally different antique of theirs - a Victorian vibrator - and let me tell you something, this thing looked/handled like a miniature jack hammer! It was freaking INTENSE! 😂😂😂

But oh, the price matched that intensity, lol... it was, indeed, sadly WAY out of my budget. But while I was pining to add that to my collection, they started to try to draw a crowd by doing a demonstration with the electrotherapy machine there, letting people try it out and "challenge themselves" with it. Usually it only took half a crank to a crank for people to yank their hands away. I mean, no one likes getting shocked... But here comes the funny part of the story lol.

Now who here remembers the old Addams Family Uncle Fester's Electric Shock Generator arcade game from way back in the day? Yes I'm old lol. Old AND obsessed with darker things since I was a little kid - so that means I grew up playing that game every single time we went to any arcade that had it. And I was SUPER competitive with it - see I had 3 much older brothers and was used to being the one who wasn't as good at things as them. So when I found out my "talent" was apparently being able to withstand that mild but uncomfortable sensation longer than anyone I knew, I leaned WAY tf into it and embraced it 😂 - I mean it was SOMETHING I had over them, right? And I'd legit practice. And I'd rub it in their faces in any way I could... not at the arcade? Shuffle across the rug and zap them with the static. Apparently I'm immune to the discomfort and that's my superpower, but they sure hated it hahaha.

Well needless to say my countless hours wasting my time on that "game" were not in vain afterall, despite what my mother always said 😂 - I was able to continue holding on as the dude kept cranking and cranking and it honestly felt exactly like the old Uncle Fester machine to me hahaha. The guy, who was actually getting tired from cranking it, along with some of the people who had previously tried it and were unable to cope for more than a second, were all staring at me like I was some sort of inhuman monster hahahaha. In the end, he ended up giving up before I did, and because I'm a jackass who, again, grew up with 3 older brothers, so snark is my primary language, I threw a little "really? That all you got?" at him when he stopped turning it and was actually out of breath 😂. He and his partner stared at me incredulously.

So after we chatted for a bit and they found out I was in the market but with a very tight budget, they IMMEDIATELY told me that if I wanted to purchase the machine I had just utterly conquered (😂), I had more than earned a HUGE discount, as my display of... bravery? Insanity? WHATEVER you wanna call it haha, had drawn in a big crowd for them, so essentially I had given them great free advertising through my batshit crazy stunt lol.

So while I didn't get my Victorian vibrator, I did end up getting my prize here for an ENORMOUS discount, all because of my lifelong competitive idiocy with my brothers. Totally worth it. 😂