Table 15

Chapter 21

"You do have 3 controllers for the PlayStation right?" I called to Ross. Danny and I were sitting on the couch in front of the TV, waiting for him to return. Dan winced when I shouted. I'm always so loud; it happens all the time. You get used to it.

Ross shook his head as he walked through the doorway and into the recording space. "No, we won't need one. We'll just switch out," he replied, sitting beside me. While Dan checked the microphones, I popped the disc into the PlayStation 1 and turned it on.

The retro start-up sound made childhood memories come flooding back to me. I beamed happily, adjusting my cap. Ross looked over the recording set-up and prepared to start it.

"Ready?" He asked Dan when the menu screen for the game popped up. Danny gave him a nod of approval. I shot him a thumbs up. Ross started the recording.

"1...2...3...," he said. He moved the joystick as he counted off, then he clapped. (In case you don't know, this is one way on making sure your audio and video is synced up properly! A little secret I learned a while ago; when I still played horror games daily.)

"Welcome to back Grumpcade!" Ross said excitedly. "Yeah! So, who's this lovely fellow?" Dan cheered.

Ross started to respond in a very dry tone, "Why Dan, that's-"

"Wa-pish! Top o' the mornin' to ya laddies! My name is JackSepticEye!" I shouted loudly, nearly high-fiving the microphone. I saw Ross jump at my outburst, and Danny shrieked a bit in surprise. I saw the audio wave on the laptop spike.

I exchanged a look with Dan, who cracked a smile. "What the fuck was that?" I chuckled.

Danny desperately tried to cover it up, "A uh...A pig squealing impression," he responded. We both burst out laughing. Ross just chuckled awkwardly.

"J-Jack wrong channel," Ross muttered over the sound of our laughter.

"So, I can't be loud and obnoxious? 'Cuz I thought we had agreed to let me be loud and obnoxious," I replied in between laughs, pretending to scold Ross.

"So! What are we playin' today?" Dan asked, trying to actually start the episode. He wiped a single tear from his eye. All that laughing made his eyes water.

"This, Danny boy, is Crash Team Racing!" I shouted excitedly. Realizing how loud I was being, a cleared my throat and dialed it down a notch. I scooted my microphone array from my gave for good measure.

"I have never played this before," Ross said. Danny nodded in agreement. I smiled brightly at them both.

"I used to play this as a kid with my friends, but I always lost because I fuckin' suck at it," I continued with a chuckle, selecting the VS. option on the menu.

Dan, Ross, and I continued on with the episode, recording a couple more after the first. We played on a few different tracks, starting with my most favorites of course. Out of the five races we played, I only lost twice. Once to Ross, and once to a CPU. I won every race against Danny.

In my defense, that CPU loss was my first race! I was just getting readjusted to the game. I haven't played it in ages, cut me some slack! And Ross lost to it too, so I'm not a total loser.

There was a lot of shouting and cursing, mainly from me, but it was all in good fun. We made Ross play as Dingodile because they're both Australian. Danny played as Polar the the polar bear, and I played as Crash Bandicoot, naturally. Destruction is basically in the name! How could I not pick that one?

"Well, I think this is it," Ross said dryly towards the end of the last episode. I was still cheering happily over my final triumph over Ross. I had beaten him by a fraction of a second. I literally pulled into 1st place as we passed the finish line!