Lankyfam (lankybox fanfiction)

Chapter 1

Read from Justin's POV.

"Have you guys ever thought you were missing something in life?"

"Cut that clip out, Justin. That's too serious for our audience. Our average demographic is little kids," Adam mutters. My facial expression doesn't change. No reaction whatsoever. The fact is, I'm used to Adam reminding me this.

"I know bro, only 5 year olds have the mental capacity to watch us." I respond back after a few seconds of thought. He gives a weak, almost forced, chuckle. But I hadn't intended to come off as ironic. "It's getting kind of old, don't you think?"

"It's what we have to do to pay the bills. Just accept that this is our life now, Justin. It beats working a 9-5 office job."

Does it though? As a kid, playing games for a living was my dream career. Which kid didn't? You make money to do what you do all day... every, single, day.

I'll admit it's not exactly the paradise it's been hyped up to be.

"Now call one of the editors to continue that, we need to film another Roblox video. I forgot what it was about."

The truth is, Adam and I aren't as close as how we appear to be on screen. Well, we used to be, 2-6 years ago. Back then, we made silly K-pop videos. Funny parodies. They were goofy as hell, but they were fun and enjoyable to make.

Ever since our whole channel changed, things haven't been the same between Adam and me. We're close friends, but we're both exhausted. All the work required to entertain toddlers takes up your whole life.

I guess neither of us have enough time and energy to build a steady social life outside of our apartment. It's a good thing we're a duo, I think.

Now that we're in our mid to late twenties, things change. Our audience varied from kids to teenagers. Now we've built up a reputation as an infamous "subscriber farm."

Not exactly ideal. It's actually the farthest thing from ideal.

But you can't decide the algorithm. You can't decide who your videos are recommended to. And eventually, you're forced to create the same type of content targeted towards the same 2nd grade audience.

"Hello? Justie, can you hear me? Bozo."

I snap back into reality at the sound of his voice.

"What? Oh, yeah, sure. The video. What was it about again?'

"Let me check."

Staring at Adam while he scrolls on to our shared iPad, I see his face light up. It was beaming; it had been long time since I'd seen my best friend's genuine smile.. I could picture his face like that everyday.

I have no idea what he was smiling about, but I couldn't care less.

"Justin! OH MY GOD!"

"What's wrong?! Can we retire?"

"No! The opposite! We... we were nominated for Roblox's Innovation Awards!"

Processing what Adam just said, I felt exhilarated. And then I felt nervous. Really nervous, and at that moment all the emotions came flooding to my head. Have we really built a career out of this? Was this a confirmation that I'll be doing this until retirement?

What was I thinking? How could I have these thoughts when Adam is so happy? I shouldn't just be thinking for myself. Maybe he's right, I should just be happy I don't have to work a 9-5.

"Justin, do you know what this means?"

"They send us an award, yeah?"

"No... They're going to send us to Roblox! We're going to Roblox!"

Wow, I didn't expect that. I had seen a few articles before about Roblox's new system or something, now that they're all serious, they're going to do more than just put our names in a game, or whatever. I didn't believe it.

Trying to keep the positive energy for Adam, I planted a fake smile.

"That's so cool, dude! But where is Roblox? And what do you mean we're going to Roblox?"

"I... I don't know, dude."

Typical Adam. He's a big dork.

Honestly, even though he's just a few months younger than me, I feel like Adam is older. Mentally. He's responsible, caring, nice, of course. He doesn't usually get flustered when we're alone, because he keeps his composure. That's why I know he's really happy whenever he loses his words.

I feel better when he's happy.

"That's so cool! But where's Roblox?"

"I... I don't know,"

Typical Adam. Honestly, even though he's a few months younger than me, I feel like he is so much younger. Mentally. He's not that always looking on the positive side of things,

"We can worry about that later Justie, let's just find a way to celebrate our nomination! We're gonna be famous!"

"Yeah, bro, we're going to be famous, despite having 20 something million subscribers, yay,"

I hope he understood how sarcastically I said that.