How Could This Be Real?

43. You Promised!

I of course called Squid in the morning. "Hello there," I answered with a smile.

"Hey," he replied. Something seemed different about him, but I couldn't quite place it.

I dismissed the thought and asked, "How was your flight?"

He shrugged, "I got an extra bag of peanuts so I guess it was better than normal."

I rolled my eyes, "You got any plans for the week?"

He tapped his chin, "The usual. Record, edit, upload, eat, record and edit some more," he glanced at me, "tell my girlfriend I love her, then sleep."

"In that order?"

"I'll probably change it up every other day, got to stay on my toes and all."

I rubbed the side of my head, "Well, I'm going to be working double time to get caught up. That trip cost me five days. My backlog is totally depleted, except for the vlog."

He lifted his eyebrows, "Vlog?"

"Yeah, didn't you see me filming at Minevention? I got you a couple times."

"No, I didn't even notice." He grinned, "Does this mean you're finally showing your face?"

"Nope. Didn't take one shot of me. Other people might of caught me in the background but otherwise, the fans that were there are the only ones who have seen this," I gestured to my face.

He deflated a little, "Oh, alright. It's a baby step I suppose."

"A step to nowhere. I'm not budging on my vow to never do facecam."

He sighed, "You sure are stubborn."

I shrugged and scooped up my laptop, snatching a doughnut off the table before heading downstairs.

"One day you're going to drop that thing."

I glanced at the computer and took in the awkward angle it was sitting at. I walked slightly more cautiously and said, "I'm careful. This is my prized possession, I'd never let anything happen to it." I made it down the stairs without any accidents and plopped into my gaming chair. "So, you ready to record? I think we'll hit the final boss today."

He grinned, "Always."

I quickly set everything up and said when I was done, "Let's do it then."

We started the video and my prediction had been right. We beat the final boss, signaling the end of the game. Once we had done the outro, we talked about other games we could do a series on.

"There's Reissig," I ventured. "I know it's older, but I've been wanting to give it a go."

"Hmm, maybe. But I was more thinking, something a little more... open. Without a storyline."

"Like a sandbox game?"

"Exactly."

I thought for a moment, "I believe Scrap Mechanic is in beta. That looks like it could be fun."

"I do want to try that at some point, but..." he didn't finish.

I urged him on, "What did you have in mind?"

He tapped his fingers on the desk and let out a low breath. It suddenly occurred to me what had seemed different about him earlier. He was nervous.

"Well, there is this one game, not sure if you've heard of it. I've actually made a few videos on it. It's called... Minecraft."

I quirked an eyebrow, "Your memory must be failing you. You see Squid, we've already recorded Minecraft together."

"Please be on my channel!" he suddenly blurted. "I know you're going to say no but I thi-"