~*~

The dim-lit room was silent other than the occasional flipping of paper pages. A

male sat on the queen-sized bed, a blanket matching his pillows and complimenting the rest of the carefully decorated room laid gently on the lower half of the male's body.

He yawned, a few turquoise strands falling from the hairstyle that it had managed to hold the whole day. The male ran his fingers through his hair, pushing the loose strands back into position. The sound of the hardcover book closing, revealing the title and author, replaced the sound of turning pages in the room.

The male placed the book down on the nightstand beside him. He reached over

and turned off the lights, finally settling down for the night.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, in England, a different male with charcoal-colored locks instead of turquoise had woken up for the day and was on his way to meet up with two of his friends, Adrion and Claire, for breakfast.

"John! We got you your favorite." a male with spiky blond hair waved to the raven, raising a white cup with a brown sleeve around it just enough for the other male — now known as John — could clearly tell which was his.

John hummed in response, sitting opposite of his friends and taking the cup, tasting the contents to see if he was satisfied before fully indulging in the warm, caffeine loaded drink.

He bathed in the scent of coffee, foods, and of course the sound of light chatter before paying attention to whatever his friends were chattering about, which was usually work but it appears a different topic had taken their attention.

"Hey Adrion," the male with blond hair turned his attention to the female sitting beside him, "you should tell John about that game you found recently"

Video games. John's worst enemy. He simply couldn't understand what was so cool about them or why so many wasted years of their lives playing something that would be

forgotten about and replaced, the number of copies dwindling by the year, when they could pick up a book and enjoy the words the author had carefully chosen and compiled onto the page for the entertainment of the reader.

John groaned, "Claiireeee, I don't wanna hear Adrion geek out about some

stupid-"

"It is not stupid, you cretin" Adrion glared, a disapproving glare shot at the writer. "Anyways, it's called DEADBLADE. The basis of the game is........"

The raven stared at the computer screen. It read in big, bold letters; DEADBLADE. He doesn't know how Adrion had convinced him but he ended up going back to Claire and Adrion's house to play it.

John sat silently as Adrion started his live stream, testing everything, starting the

actual stream, greeting his audience and explaining what was happening.

About thirty minutes later John gritted his teeth, see the screen fade to black with

painfully bright, thin, uncontrolled red lines spelled out the words "You died." He reread them for what felt like the eightieth time......... cause it was.

John had died a total of eighty times before Adrion decided to spare him and catch up on missed donations.

"Uhh... no, even Claire and I simp for him" Adrion laughed.

"thanks????"

"Rei, be gentle, he doesn't play video often... or at all, really." John looked at the screen that Adrion was reading donations from.

"Who in the fresh fuck is 'x-static'?" John squinted, adjusting his glasses.

"....boomer," Adrion muttered, pushing John out of the way and taking over. getting him to the first checkpoint.

John looked at the time and jumped out of his seat, "sorry Adrion, I have a meeting with my editor soon." Adrion nodded and invited Rei to play with him, which he agreed to and joined a call.