Survival Of The Fittest

"Yeah." Max agreed. "Him." Danya. "Sick fucker." There wasn't much more to say about the man. It was... Almost strange to him, to see a book like that. He knew it was a thing of course- studying Survival of the Fittest. The conspiracy theories, but he hadn't ever really stumbled into it before today. Hopefully he wouldn't stumble into it again... At least not for a little while. That'd be pleasant.

Max was pulled out of his thoughts as Alex made his comment about Medea's wellbeing. The one-eyed teen blinked for a moment and turned to look at the normally bubbly... Friend... Of his, a little astonished at what he saw. He hadn't actually thought Medea capable of crying, yet there she was, wiping away tears.

"Yeah, we should change the subject." Max concurred, brain ticking over options for a while. There was... Well, there was what he had talked to Ashlyn about? Music seemed safe. And maybe he'd be able to get through a music-based conversation like he had with Ashlyn. "So, uh... Alex. What kind of music do you like?"

Medea sniffled a little, her cheeks becoming a little pink from embarrassment. She smiled at Alex, genuinely appreciating his concern. She was blessed to have such good friends like him and Max.

“I’m fine,” she said, her smile returning back to its former brightness. “I just get a little teary eyed about this sort of subject. Sorry if I brought the mood down a little. But, thanks for the concern, you two... You’re both very sweet.”

Alex suggested a topic change, and Max was quick to suggest music as their next topic. She was a little embarrassed to have been the cause as to why the last topic ended, but was thankful for it. Music was a much better subject over all and she hoped her two friends would find common ground in their favorite genres and songs. Medea sat patiently, eagerly awaiting Alex’s response to Max’s question.

Music. Huh. Alex, uh, he wasn't like, really the sorta guy who liked music? Like, if he had the choice between listening to whatever was on the radio and putting a true crime podcast on, he'd put the true crime podcast on. But, like, Max had asked and if he just started talking about true crime, it would probably sound weird and maybe make Medea sad and then, like, that would just make him look like a douche. So, uh, what music did he like? Dad sometimes put on Armenian-language music that he liked back when he was in Armenia, and it sounded good, but it was sorta niche because not many people knew Armenian and, uh, he should probably say something instead of thinking.

"Uh, I just, uh, I just listen to whatever's like, on the car radio or whatever, you know? Don't, uh, don't really have much of a preference." He shrugged briefly, shuffling around in his seat a little. "What about you guys? What, uh, what sorta songs are you into?" DId people really, like, talk about genres and stuff? Like, maybe he just sorta didn't care about that sorta stuff. Maybe he just, y'know, sorta liked music that sounded good, if it was pop or rap or rock or like, whatever other genres there were. He liked Mass Effect music, but, uh, that wasn't really so much of a genre, was it? And it would probably sorta make him look like a nerd.

"The mood was pretty down anyway," Max reassured Medea, and then turned to Alex and... Really? That was... Really boring. The guy that was into fuckin' child murder logistics had no opinion on music beyond 'whatever's popular right now?' That was disappointing, boring and just kind of a let-down all at once. "Me?" Max said, tapping his own chest. "I'm a big fan of rock... Rock subgenres too. Like metal and punk and stuff. Celtic music as well." He brushed a few strands of his hair out of his eyes, as if to emphasise why he might like Celtic music.

“I uh… I play as well. Bass and guitar.” Maybe this would pull something out of Alex… And he wasn’t actually sure if he had mentioned the fact that he played music to Medea at all. It had never been something he did in public much, after all.

Medea was curious as to what her friends listened to, keeping quiet and nodded her head as the two of them spoke. Max had his taste in rock music, while Alex didn’t really have an opinion. That was fair enough, she thought. After all, she had a hard time picking out what kind of music she liked. If one were to hold her feet to the fire and ask her what her favorite genre was, she’d struggle to have a consistent answer. When Max mentioned he played instruments, Medea’s head whipped toward his direction.

“You never told me you play an instrument!” she said, looking at him in awe while leaning in towards him. “That’s really cool! You’d have to show me some time! I don’t play any instruments, myself. I do like to play rhythm games though! Not really the same but…” she laughed sheepishly, scratching the side of her head while she backed off. “I mean… There is this one game, Songbird Symphony, and it is a super cute and charming game, and I played it on my stream a few times, and… Uh…”

She cleared her throat, sheepishly looking around when she realized she started going on a tangent.

“I, uh, I’m not sure what kind of music I’d say is my favorite,” she admitted. “I like a lot of stuff! Like that Tracee Bluebell! She’s pretty and a good singer!”

Tracee Bluebell. She was OK, Alex supposed. There had been all that controversy a while back about her doing something stupid and kinda racist when she was younger and he had sorta lost respect for her because, like, it wasn't hard to not be racist. Alex wasn't racist, and he hadn't been like, making a concerted effort not to be racist. It just came naturally to him, like eating and drinking and breathing. Same with the rest of his family. Well, uh, Dad wasn't a fan of Turkey or Azerbaijan, but like, he didn't like the countries because of the whole genocide against Armenia thing. That was fair. And he didn't like, dislike the people. Probably. Anyway, he wasn't gonna rain on Medea's parade.

"I mean, uh, you know that game Mass Effect? With the aliens and the like, genocidal space robots and stuff? It, uh, it sorta has good music. Really catchy." That was all Alex was going to let himself say, before he ended up going on a tangent about the Suicide Mission and the Geth and Legion and what not and made himself look like even more of a dork than he already did. At least they sorta didn't seem to mind him reading the book about SOTF logistics, so it coulda went much worse.

"You play the uh, guitar? And, uh, bass? That's cool." Huh. Not trying to be offensive, but he had sorta assumed that missing an eye would mess with playing stuff because you lacked 3D vision or something like that. That was sorta cool. Mary used to want to play the piano when she was younger, but after a couple of lessons she realised she didn't like it and quit it. She wasn't the most patient person so that probably didn't lend itself to mastery of an instrument, so Max must be pretty patient. And good, if he only had one eye.

And then Medea mentioned she streamed, and that was something he knew something a little more about. One of his crime podcasts had done a stream once, and while Twitch was sorta confusing to him, it had been fun to ask them questions and have them respond in real-time. Maybe he could watch her stream one day. It didn't particularly hurt to ask, anyway. "You stream, Medea? What's, uh, what kinda, uh, w-what stuff do you stream?"

(OOC: Skipped with permission!)

Medea beamed at the question. It wasn’t often where people asked her about her streaming!

“Oh! I play video games!” she said, bouncing in her seat. “I like to play some lighthearted stuff. I like rhythm games or simulators for the most part. Lately I’ve been playing some Stardew Valley and MMO Tycoon 2 a lot lately. Occasionally I play my copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons when it is a slow day.”

She paused, pondering to herself. “I think right now Ketchup is my favorite villager.” she said. “She’s just this super cute aspiring popstar. Reminds me of Laci in a way.”

She shrugged her shoulders and moved on. “I do play a lot of different games. Not too big on shooters like Call of Duty. Those are kinda boring. I did play Mass Effect though! That was pretty fun! Tali is super cute and I wish she were romancible with lady Shepard. But, anyway, I love streaming! Makes me happy knowing I’m doing something to brighten someone’s day even for a little while!”

Max didn't play many video games. The only thing he had to really use the internet was a beat up laptop, and sure, it could run some stuff, but it wasn't good enough for any of the games most people seemed to be playing. He'd enjoyed a bit of TF2 when he was younger, but he'd pretty much aged out of it by now; he had other hobbies anyway, unlike his brothers. "I'm not familiar." He ventured when Alex started talking about Mass Effect... But luckily for him, Medea had him covered.

Streaming. Max had, quite honestly, never seen the appeal. Why watch someone else play a game for you? It wasn't like video games were like sports either- you didn't need to physically go out and find people to play with, it was right there, on the same device you were using to watch the streamers. "Always found streaming kind of weird," he remarked without thinking too much about it. "Just don't get it at all. Seems kinda whack to me."

Alex didn't really get streaming either, but he sorta got why people listened to streams, or watched them or streamed or whatever. "I think it's, uh, sorta a social, a social thing, y-y'know? Like, some people might be too tired to play whatever game they wanna play or they, uh, don't have a good enough PC, or-or enough money to buy it so they watch someone else play it, interact with their, uhm, their community. At least, I think that's why." It was something kinda familiar to him. Like, a big part of his social interaction was talking to people on Discord, hearing about whatever games they were playing or what they were working on. It wasn't hard to extrapolate that to the sort of person who watched people stream online.

Animal Crossing wasn't really his thing; he didn't have a Switch, and honestly, it sounded kind of boring? Like, uh, shaking trees and getting money and fishing and farming and all that. If you wanted to fish, you could just get a game built for fishing, or one for farming, and uh, there was probably one for shaking trees out there, the internet was weird like that. The villagers and stuff were probably cool as well, but, like, Alex didn't really get the appeal, and that was probably fine because not every game had to appeal to him. And even if he wanted to get it, he had no Switch and he wasn't buying one just to play one game. He did emphasise with not being able to romance people because of your gender, though. Why did they have to lock romancing Kaidan behind like, either being a woman or being at the last game? There were mods that could fix that, but it was sorta janky in the second game.

"Oh, uh, that sounds cool. I've never played Stardew, is it any good? What, uh, what do you do in it? Is it like, uh, is the gameplay like Animal Crossing?" The question was half out of curiosity, half just, like, sorta keeping the conversation going, because it would feel sorta weird if he just said OK and then continued with another topic. Would it be? Didn't matter, because he was going down this conversation and he wasn't gonna get lost in his thoughts again.

Medea shrugged at Max’s comments. She figured these two might not be interested in streaming as she was. After all, not everyone is going to be as interested as someone else might. “It is like Alex said for the most part.” She said, “Personally for me, I just like trying to make people’s days better! If watching me play a game for a couple hours helps with that, then I’m happy.”

She turned her attention to Alex, nodding enthusiastically. “Yes! It is really good!” She answered. She was more than happy to answer his questions. If was interested at all in the game, maybe she could help him decide if he should get it. “It is kinda like Animal Crossing in that you do farming, but it is also an RPG with combat. So you aren’t limited to just farming.”

Medea hummed to herself, then added, “You know, you guys can watch my stream sometime! Just give it a try. Even if you just put it on to listen to it in the background, I’d still love it if you two checked it out! Then you can tell me what you thought! And if you don’t like it, at least you tried!”

And now Max was officially lost. They had entered a realm he was unfamiliar with, and didn't care to add much to either. Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing were just words to him, and although Medea's enthusiasm was admirable, it failed to penetrate his thick, spikey hide of apathy. Still... He supposed, that as a friend of Medeas, that now was the time that he would promise to do something she asked for, right? Yeah, that seemed about right, even to him.

"Sure. I'll tune in at some point this week," he nodded to her. "On uh... Youtube or...?" He trailed off, now suddenly feeling awkward. Why was he feeling awkward? He didn't care about streaming and video games and that sort of stuff. This shouldn't have been embarrasing, and yet here he was, with a sensation of being out of place running down his spine.

Right, so Stardew Valley was like, one of those games that was half farming stuff, half, like, fighting stuff. Someone in the conspiracy Discord swore by one of those simulator games that was kinda like that, but he couldn't remember if it was about driving trucks or farming stuff. Either way, it honestly seemed, like, kind of boring to sit down and play a simulator game about farming or driving trucks? Like, uh, if that's your thing then sure, go ahead, but while he didn't really play them, he got why people would rather play Call of Duty or FIFA or, like, something more mainstream. He couldn't get why people would play a farming game. A realistic one, to boot. Still, uh, if they wanted to spend their time hoeing stuff, then that was their prerogative. But, uh, Alex was going to stick to Mass Effect.

"Uh, yeah, do you, like, do your streaming stuff on Twitch, or is it more, uh, on YouTube?" Alex added to Max's question. He seemed sort of like, unfamiliar with the whole gaming thing which was probably like, hard to maintain because everyone played games nowadays. Even if it was just like, one of the mainstream games mentioned earlier, most people would at least hop on something to play with their friends. So, uh, kudos to you, Max, for, like, managing to avoid one of the world's most popular hobbies. And that wasn't Alex being sarcastic, because, uh, it was, uh... where was he going with this? It, uh, didn't really matter, but, yeah, cool. "Oh, and, uh, what's your username? Or, uh, whatever they call it on the site you use." That was important too.

"Oh, and, uh, I'll look up Stardew Valley uhm, when I-when I get home. I'll, uh, see if it looks like something I'd like."

“Oh, I usually use Twitch,” Medea explained. “I usually upload the VODs to my YouTube channel. My Twitch Channel is Medea Plays, and my YouTube channel is… well, just my name!”

Medea giggled to herself and looked back over to the where gym class was actually taking place, seeing that her fellow students were beginning to file out of the room. She hadn’t been paying attention to the time, having been so caught up in the discussion with her two friends to notice.

Medea sheepishly looked to Alex and Max, gesturing to the exiting class. “Ah, it looks like things are wrapping up,” she said, smiling sheepishly. “Thanks for talking with me you guys! Sorry if I took up your time, but I really appreciate it.” She reaches around the two boys, pulling them in close with a hug, cheerfully oblivious to whether or not they were comfortable with the action.

“Love you guys!” she said before releasing them from her personal space invasion and hopping up from her seat, making a few quick hops down the bleachers then quickly hurrying out of the gym back to the girl’s locker room. Overall, she was having a really nice day! And she hoped that her two friends were too.

(Medea Parth continued in and we can be anything, even apart…)

Twitch and YouTube. Alright, he'd give her a look he guessed. See what the Stardew Valley thing was all about if that was what she was playing, and if not he'd just like, sort of hang out. Vibe, as his sister would say. Alex would have went on a tangent in his mind, something rambly and self-aware, but Medea pointed out that they were leaving, and that got his attention first. Picking up his book and hurriedly shoving it into his bag, Alex turned around to be assaulted with a hug. Aaah.

"Y-yeah, uh, no problem. See you around, Medea." Argh. He wasn't like, entirely opposed to physical contact like some introverted people would be, but generally he liked to have knowledge he'd be hugged in advance. He wasn't gonna get, like, mad or anything though because Medea was nice and she was just trying to be friendly. Extroverts were an enigma, Alex concluded as he stood up, shrugging the backpack on. "Uh, see you around Max." Alex made his way down the bleachers slowly; tripping and knocking himself out didn't sound fun, and with how clumsy he was it was a possibility. Maybe next class he'd get a chance to read up on SOTF logistics without being disturbed.

((Alex Avanesian continued elsewhere))

Twitch. Right. Max made a mental note to look up what Twitch was, besides just an errant movement. As Medea looked back over her shoulder, so too were his eyes drawn down to the gymnasium itself, and the people filtering out of it. A sigh came to his lips: he'd gotten almost nothing done, but he supposed at the very least he had managed to avoid being horribly antisocial. That was a positive sign, right?

Suddenly, he was jolted from his thoughts by physical contact. Medea's arms squeezed around both Alex and Max, and so caught off guard was the latter that he almost dropped everything in his lap at once. As Medea ran off, claiming she loved the pair of them, Max's brain was reduced to little more than a malfunctioning computer, his eyes blinking a few times as he tried to catch up to reality. He didn't even hear Alex's words as the other boy departed, taking a full minute to sit there on the bleachers before finally packing up and moving on.

The feeling of Medea's arms around him lingered for even longer though.

((Maxwell McCormick: Continued in The Earth's Bounty.))