Psychoburners

Part 6: A Man Named Octodad

September 1st, 2014

- God and cheese, our FNAF let's play videos are getting more and more views!
- What did you expect? This game is popular ashell, of course all its let's plays would get a bunch of views!
- Yeah, I know, but our ones too? That's surprising!
- Well, think that we pretty much acted like little screaming girls, something that entertains people and makes them less terrified; plus, the fact that we are two instead of one helped a lot, since we interacted not only with the camera, but also with each other. I mean, the fact that we were hugging, looking and screaming at each other was something that caught people's attention!
    John stared at Michael for a few moments, whoseeyes were focused on the screen of his laptop. He bit his lip, sensing apeculiar thought taking over his head. He turned his attention back at thescreen and started reading some comments from the last episode, the one where theydid the 20/20/20/20 mode, which literally took them 10 hours to beat. (Thevideo was edited, of course.) The more he was reading, the more his thought wasbeing confirmed.

- Mike?
- Hm?
- Do you know what shipping YouTubers is?
- You mean that thing where YouTube fans stronglybelieve that two YouTubers, no matter what their genders are, can be a greatcouple, even if they themselves believe the opposite? And they create names foreach coupling, which are actually the combination of the YouTubers' names theyship?
- Yeah, that one.
- Yeah, I know it. Why do you ask?
- Well... They... Uh... They ship us.
    Michael lifted his eyes from his laptop and gave an intense look at John, having a face full of disbelief.
- You got to be kidding me.
    John shook his head and pointed at the computer.
- Check by yourself.
    Michael got up, stood behind John and hovered over his head, reading the comments his friend showed him.
- ...
- Hey, dude?
- Mmm?
- Are you okay with this?
- ...
- I mean, we can't stop anyone from believing whatever they want, right?
- Mmm...
- So? We just let it be?
    Michael turned his attention from the screen to John. His best friend was looking at him, waiting for an answer. He stayed quiet for a moment, looking back at him, locking his brown eyes with his friend's green ones. Then, he just shrugged and replied:
- Sure. As you said, we can't stop them from believing whatever they want. If they want to believe it, fine by me.
- And what do we say if they ask us about dating anyone?
- The truth. We both have girlfriends, we are just friends and there is no chance for us to be a couple. They are free to believe that we could be, they should just not expect it to happen in real life. That's it.
    John lifted an eyebrow, thinking of what Michael said for a moment. He then replied, shrugging:
- Sounds fair enough.

    Michael nodded, and John nodded back. Thegreen-eyed man looked back at the screen and noticed another comment.
- Apparently, another one requested us to play "Stanley Parable"!
- But this game was more popular last year! You know that from the info and its let's play dates we checked about it!
- Yeah, so? We can still give it a shot! And come on, you are as curious about it as I am.
- Hmm... Yeah... You are right... And we can also play in parallel another game that has come out this year and looks interesting too! Any ideas?
    John scratched his head, thinking, while reading some more comments. Until his eye caught another game title. He searched it and started reading information about it. He then pointed at the screen, staring at Michael, who was still hovering over his head.
- What do you think of "Octodad: Dadliest Catch"?

September 3nd, 2014

- This is the story of a man named Stanley. Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was Employee #427. Employee #427's job was simple: he sat at his desk in room 427 and he pushed buttons on a keyboard. Orders came to him through a monitor on his desk, telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, and in what order. This is what Employee #427 did every day of every month of every year, and although others might have considered it soul rending, Stanley relished every moment the orders came in, as though he had been made exactly for this job. And Stanley was happy.
    Psychoburners were quiet, carefully listening thenarrator's introduction.
- And then one day, something very peculiar happened. Something that would forever change Stanley; something he would never quite forget. He had been at his desk for nearly an hour when he realized that not one single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow. No one had shown up to give him instructions, call a meeting, or even say "hi". Never in all his years at the company had this happened, this complete isolation. Something was very clearly wrong. Shocked, frozen solid, Stanley found himself unable to move for the longest time. But as he came to his wits and regained his senses, he got up from his desk and stepped out of his office.
    After the introduction was over, Michael spoke:
- Okay, here we go! Now, let's go outside and explore!
    Michael stepped out of the office and started wandering at the offices and trying to open doors, while the narrator was speaking again:
- All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room; perhaps he had simply missed a memo.
- Hey, I wonder what happens if you try to stay inside your office...
John commented, while watching Michael trying to open door 430.
- I guess you can figure it out when it's yourturn to play! This game has a lot of endings!
    Michael hadn't even completed talking when the narrator started speaking again:
- Oh, please. Are you doing this for the achievement? Click a door five times, is that all you think an achievement is worth? No, no, no, no, no, I can't just give these merits away for such little effort! Amazedly five clicks! Now supposed you would have clicked the door 20 times, I would say that's the kind of effort that's worth recognition.
    Michael lifted an eyebrow, confused for a moment, but when the narrator stopped, he just chuckled slightly, murmuring:
- What?
    He looked at the camera for a moment, still smiling like an idiot, and then he turned back at the game, replying with a sassy tone:
- Okay, Mr. Narrator Dude! I will play your game!
    He started clicking the door, making John ask, having raised an eyebrow:
- You're really gonna do this, aren't you?
- Yes, I will! Can't see why not!
    And with that answer, Michael kept clicking the door, whereas John just shrugged and watched his friend clicking like there was no tomorrow.