Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 65: Damien and Shayne and Nathan

Josh is evidently missing his usual crew of Mythical team members to try out his ideas on, so he appears at their studio with a sample of Oreo Cheetos in the short break they take between their next two shoots as they set up a Minecraft game, all three players needing an intro from one of their sound guys on how to actually play the particular competition they were going to be doing.

"Courtney told me everyone was in here, anyone want to try? I promise I already tried and they're not terrible," Josh gives a less-than-stellar intro, but their sound guy, one of the camera men, Damien and Nathan all opt to try.

"It's too soggy," their sound guy speaks up first.

"It tastes kind of like a wet chocolate cookie," Nathan agrees, evidently realising that he's allowed to be honest.

"Needs more cream to be an oreo too my guy," Damien gives his feedback.

"Okay, okay, got more work to do. But thanks for the help, guys! Hey, Nathan, you do like mac and cheese right?" he adds, before he steps out of the room.

"Of course," Nathan replies, almost aghast at the possibility that he doesn't, before Sarah shoos Josh out of the room and they settle in for their third shoot.

It's a little more low-key at their computer setup, and it takes them a while to get the hang of the game. Damien ends up the clear winner, although Shayne and Nathan end up giving up on whatever the main point was – something to do with arrows – and instead hit each other's characters repetitively with swords while trying to hide behind the trees. It ends up being their longest shoot by far, and they figure a lot of it will be cut although there should still be enough to actually make a video.

"That one didn't go as good, right?" Nathan asks Shayne after they cut, walking beside him back to the office.

"Yeah buddy, sometimes things don't – but the editors will be able to take bits and pieces of it and still make it good, I bet. And I think us sword fighting is probably going to be most of it," Shayne answers, before switching topics, "we get a longer break now for lunch, we can order food here if you want, anything you feel like?"

"Josh did say he'd cook something for lunch... I couldn't tell if he was joking or not though," Nathan muses, and Shayne laughs.

"Yeah, I can't tell with Josh either sometimes. Come on, you want to go see his big kitchen over the other side of the building?" Shayne offers, Nathan nodding in response.

"Oh, hey guys!" Josh greets them with enthusiasm when they hesitantly wander in, finding him entirely alone in the kitchen set, "good timing, I felt like making mac and cheese anyway so I have a couple different versions that will be ready in a sec. If you want it, I guess, no pressure."

"What versions and do any of them contain bugs?" Nathan speaks up, Shayne choosing to simply tilt his head expectantly at Josh and waiting for him to answer Nathan's question. It doesn't escape him that Nathan's confidence around their office is growing as the day progresses.

"Well one of them is pretty normal but it's got extra cool cheese and caramelised onions so it's kind of like in-n-out animal style but not quite because there's no fries? Wait, do you guys got in-n-out in Seattle?" Josh clarifies.

"No, but I had it here in January," Nathan confirms.

"Okay, cool. Also I made a kind of kit kat one, the actual noodles are normal but the sauce and toppings are chocolate," Josh confirms.

"Oh my god!" Nathan exclaims, and Shayne groans.

"His parents are gonna hate me Josh! They give me their kid for like, 24 hours, and all he does is play video games and eat junk food," Shayne sighs.