Chapter Text
Dakota was on his way towards the Murphy house hold, eating some chips from a bag, as he was kind of bored that day, Cavendish was doing paper work and didn’t want to bother him and he also wanted to see what Milo, Zack and Melissa were up to.
He rings the door bell while still eating, waiting for anybody to answer the door.
Sara opened the door and greeted Dakota. “Oh, hey Dakota! How are you doing today?” She said in a friendly manner.
“Doin’ good, just kinda bored. I just wanted to come by and see what Milo was up to, maybe hang out or do help him out with somethin’. I kinda need a distraction because Cav is working on some paper stuff and I just didn’t want to be a pebble in his shoe.”
Sara with no real problem, lets Dakota know he is welcome to enter. “Oh, Milo was setting up some equipment with Zack and Melissa in his room, maybe you can help them out with that.” She smiled, expecting Dakota’s response.
“Some equipment stuff?” Dakota asked. “Sure, maybe I could learn something new with helping those kids out. Thanks Sara.”
Afterwards, he went to Milo’s room, as he was climbing up the stairs, he was able to hear them out loud as they were talking.
“Hey Zack, could you pass me that camera for the monitor?”
“Sure.”
“You know, I really think we are gonna rock with our first livestream. People love to see others try to do video game challenges, and this one is quite good.”
“Yeah, this one is going to be pretty fun to do. Zack got this one in the bag too. He is great at dancing.”
“Aaww come on Milo, I’m not that good. You are gonna have to carry us when we get to the tap dancing section though.”
Ultimately, Dakota was able to reach the room and saw that the door was open. He entered without warning and saluted the group.
“Hey kids! How ya doin’!?”
The trio stopped their activities momentarily to look at Dakota.
“Hey Dakota!” Milo approached Dakota and raised his hand in order to say hello back.
“Hey.” The brunette said with a smirk. “Whatchu doing here? And what is something I heard about a live… Something?”
“Oooohhh, you heard about our livestream plan.” Melissa replied, realizing that she might have talked a little too loud.
“Livestream?” Dakota winced in confusion.
“Yeah!” Zack also came closer to Dakota. “A livestream is like a live event, say, when there is a wrestling match being transmitted to your TV as it is happening. It’s something like that.” The yellow shirt teenager clarified.
“Ooooohhhh, I get it now.” Dakota nodded his head up and down.
“So, are you guys gonna… Live…Stream… A dancing game?” Dakota struggled to say the word properly, as he was still not familiar enough with saying it.
“Yeah, we are gonna stream Just Dance!” Milo said excitedly. “It’s gonna be a pretty fun time, we got the 2019 version, as it is our favorite. It even has a dancing mustache guy! It’s so cute.” The boy was smiling widely, remembering how much fun he has had dancing that specific song with the visuals.
“Yeah, that does sound pretty neat Milo.” Dakota remarked, resting his hands on his hip. “Mind if I watch?”
The trio thought about Dakota’s request first, considering if it wouldn’t mess up with their stream. After a bit, they decided it would be fine.
“Sure, just be in a spot where the camera can’t see ya.” Zack signaled to a spot where the camera would not capture Dakota.
Now having his own little place to sit back and watch the children dance, he relaxed while he also saw the teenagers meddle with their equipment.
They had setup their console to be hooked up to the computer that they would use for streaming and the computer also had a camera hooked up to it. This would make it so that the stream can see the kids move around while also having footage for the game.
Dakota was marveled at the sight, just having a relatively small amount of technology to be able to transmit live on the internet to thousands of people (if those people did tune in to Milo, Zack and Melissa’s stream).
He also did want to have a game where he could dance around and not feel any kind of shame for doing so. The game requires you to dance, so it should be no surprise as to why you would be dancing while looking at the TV.
“Okay, thecato’s software is ready, we are good to go!” Melissa alerted Milo and Zack. The stream would start to run in 2 minutes and in the meanwhile a little chip tune of Chop Chop Chop Away At My Heart started playing, while having a picture of the trio but as a digital drawing.
The brunette took a glance at the computer and saw the neat little drawing, while also hearing the fun and energetic rendition of the hit song. That was selling him more and more in how nice and fun the concept of livestreaming was, and to put the cherry on top, Melissa requested something of him.
“Hey Dakota, would you mind if you read the stream’s chat?”
“Read the chat?” Dakota asked, confused on what Melissa meant.
“Yeah, there is a chat on the right where people can comment and say what they think, send emotes, basically emojis, and do other kinds of stuff.”
“Ooohh, this seems pretty neat.” Dakota spoke with excitement.
Melissa handed him her phone, where Dakota is able to see the stream chat and the stream itself, although it is not active at the moment.
Milo went over the computer and pressed the live button, going with his group as he waited for the program to start the stream properly.
The stream was officially live.
“Hey everyone!” Milo greeted, “I hope you all like watching me and my friends play through Just Dance 2019. My uncle Dakota is also here to help with the chat.”
“Sup everybody.” Dakota leaned forward, to be in the view of the camera and gave a wave.
“So, what song should we do first Milo?” Melissa asked.
“Hmmm… How about Finesse?” Murphy responded, while looking at the song selection of the game.
“That’s a dance crew song, I think we can work with that.” Zack rested his chin on his fist, taking into consideration what type of song they were going to play.
The song and type of dance were decided, and the trio began to play with the routine displayed by the screen.
They were doing quite a good job, although Murphy’s Law was getting in the way in some areas, some of the floor becoming less stable the more they danced and making it harder for them to get the moves correctly, sometimes the game glitching out and not displaying the graphics properly making them miss a few dance moves.
With all of those failures and mishaps, the trio still kept going at it, with Dakota looking at the chat, and noticing some people from their school joining in.
Oh, look who we got here, Milo I can’t stop making the game glitch Murphy. Said BradleyTree3040.
Hey guys! You are doing great, keep going! MortArtyX20 gave encouragement in the chat.
With those 2 comments, Dakota read them out loud to acknowledge them to Milo and the people themselves that sent those messages.
“BradleyTree3040 says: Oh, look who we got here, Milo I can’t making the game glitch Murphy, and MortArtyX20 says: Hey guys! You are doing great, keep going!”
“Hey, thanks Mort!” Melissa said to the camera as she was panting and doing the dance moves, “oh and can it Bradley! We are gonna get through the challenge with or without Murphy’s Law!”
The group continued on, and as they kept going through every single song, more and more people joined in, with them voicing their opinions on what they were watching on screen.
Come on Zack! You were in a band right? You better move those hips or you ain’t gonna make it!
Go Milo! I’m rooting for you from my grandma’s house here in Mexico! I love you!
Melissa! Melissa!
Dakota read every single comment that came in, with his usually deep and calm tone, having a good time as he saw the teens do their thing, and watching how much encouragement they were getting from the public. It filled him with some kind of thrill. Even though he hasn’t even playing, the comments were just enough to begin a new passion in Dakota’s heart. Maybe this might’ve been what he wanted to feel on his time as a time traveler, for people to love him and give him support no matter what he did.
Then, the last song came on, it was Milo’s favorite song to do with the stop motion, caricature explorer character and the mummy lady. Milo was alongside Melissa and Zack took a break from the action, sitting right beside Dakota.
“Hey Dakota.” Zack greeted as he sat down with his arm resting on his raised knee.
“Hey kid, you tuckered out?”
“Yeah, we were almost done and Milo and Melissa think they are gonna make it this time.” He smiled at the pair as they were getting ready for the dance.
Then Dakota sees a different type of notification in the phone. It mentions something about a donation.
“Hey, what’s this about a donation?” Vinnie questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“What!?” Melissa’s eyes widened in shock. She approached Dakota, took the phone and saw the notification.
“It’s a donation of 30 dollars!” She notified everybody, with her holding her phone up high.
“Oh boy, 30 dollars!” Milo expressed in joy and excitement, putting his hands together.
“Wait wait wait, what do you mean 30 dollars!?” Dakota was even more shaken. Could he gain money from any of this streaming thing?
“It’s a donation from Mr.Drako, he says that he wishes the best for us, and for making it through almost every single song it’s a reward!” The red haired teen showed her friends.
“Heeey, that’s great! Thanks Mr.Drako!” Zack grinned at the camera and gave a thumbs up.
“Yeah, thanks Mr.Drako! Now we have to finish just for you!” Milo replied with a wide smile.
“We got this Milo, for Mr.Drako!” Melissa fist bumped into the air and was ready to go.
Milo hit the button to play the song, and the pair started to play the song.
Dakota and Zack watched as both of them hit the dance moves correctly, and Dakota without even knowing was going with the flow as well, moving his fingers from side to side alongside the music.
Until he heard some pauses on the song right before a compromising word would be said.
Dakota definitely knew what was going on with those: Some curse words or words related to things children shouldn’t be listening to got taken out, and replaced with complete and utter silence, where that sentence would have said a curse word or something suggestive.
The boy right beside him knew as well, he was in the music business after all, he probably would’ve know about that from his producers or directors.
Both Dakota and Zack did not want to say anything, as that would distract Milo and Melissa from their routine and could make the chat ruffle.
Instead, the two started to snicker each time the specific set of words would be said.
“Hehe, high.” Dakota said underneath his breath.
“Ssshhhh.” The black haired teenager scolded him.
Milo and Melissa were about to approach the end of the song, they were gonna make it! But as destiny, or luck wouldn’t be happy with that result, it decided to make the console short circuit, turning the device off and ending their run.
“Nooooo!” Melissa grabbed her head while looking at the console break down.
“Well… There goes that one. That’s probably number 5 this month.” Milo rubbed the back of his head.
“Aawww, you guys were so close too, such a shame.” Dakota told the teens as he got up from the floor and started to approach them.
“Yeah… Maybe one day we’ll be able to make it.” Murphy said as he still had hope for the challenge to be beat.
“I’m sure you will make it Milo.” The brunette smiled, then opened his mouth to speak again. “Well, it was still pretty fun to see you guys move around for this much time. I… I felt something special with all of this. So thank you for letting me stay for the meanwhile.
“Something special?” Melissa queried the man with sunglasses.
“Yeah, I can’t really describe it, but it was pretty special.” Dakota answered as he handed over Melissa’s phone back to her.
She saw how the chat members were leaving, wishing good luck and best wishes to the trio, and how they wish for Dakota to come back at some point.
“Hehe, they say they really like you Dakota.”
“Really?” Dakota leaned over to see if what the girl declared was true, and indeed it was. That put a beam on the man’s face and made him feel like an actual part of the experience, even if he just read the chat and interacted from time to time with it.
“Yeah, maybe we should invite you over again if we have another stream or something.” Zack suggested as he put his hands inside his pant pockets.
“Yeah, that would be pretty neat,” Dakota replied, “But I do have to go, Cavendish is probably waiting for me to come back. So I’ll see ya guys later.” He did a last wave before going out, with the trio waving back.
“Take care Dakota, see you later!” Milo sent off to Dakota, who was already in the living room downstairs.
He exited by the door and went back to his apartment with Cavendish.