Chapter Text
“Yes!” Dan tosses his controller down and jumps up, shaking the desk and camera. Hips swaying in celebration. “Oh yeah, who won, I won. Who’s the best, I am. Yeah, uh huh, that’s right. I kicked that puzzle in the butt. What big butt, your big butt. And that makes five wins for me,” he trails off and stops dancing. Phil has that look. He knows that look. Dan hates that look. “Phil, don’t you dare say it.”
“Dan, no, listen,” his voice is all serious business. Like he’s delivering closing statements for a grand jury. “It’s too late. The gauntlet has been tossed, all your chickens have been hatched and the money is on the table. All or--”
“No,” Dan interrupts and sits back down beside his best friend, decidedly not responding to the pair of hands shaking him by the shoulder.
“Dan..” Phil’s voice is pleading now, lips puffing out in a pout. “Come on, you know you want to,” he clenches his fists dramatically. “All. Or. Nothing.”
“Ugh, Phiiiil,” Dan groans and sinks lower into the sofa. Arms crossing in defiance. “NO. You always do this. And I always regret it.”
“Please? Just one more round.” Phil stares and waits. He knows Dan will say yes, but he plays up the pouting for the fans, eyes going wide and watery.
“Fine.”
“Yesssss.”
----
Four hours later, Dan is sat awake scrolling through Tumblr and most certainly not still grumping about his loss. On a good day, Daniel Howell is a generous gamer. A man who will gladly forfeit the win for a friend’s enjoyment. He’ll sell you Park Place or trade you crafting items if it will make you smile. But today was not a good day. Between work stress and feeling poorly (he’s beginning to think sniffling peasants seek him out on purpose) Dan’s just had a bad week. It’s not that he’s upset with Phil, but he’d just really, really wanted to win.
He cheers himself up with a reminder that now it’s his chance to pick the game for their next Versus video. With Phil’s sneaky ‘all or nothing’ win the scores are tied. The next video will be a tie breaker and this calls for something.. extra special. Closing out the tabs for his usual game shops, Dan starts with Google and finds himself tripping down the depths of the rabbit hole known as Reddit. By sunrise he’s landed on an obscure store page whose order screen is a barely decipherable mix of Kanji and Romanji with broken English. He hesitates for a moment, but his sleep addled brain reminds him he’s made sketchier coffee binge purchases before.
The game is called Tabi, which a quick Google translate tells him means 'voyage' and the parenthesis subtitle of Journey tells him it’s close enough to accurate. There are three gameplay screens which seem to be as diverse as they are intriguing. Forests, graveyards, desert temples and something which may or may not be an abandoned high school. The game is listed as a 2 player co-op with versus option. Just what he needs. Squinting he tries to see if the menu screens are in English but shrugs and clicks the PayPal option. We can just wing it, Dan thinks. They got through Bishi-Bashi, they can guess their way through this one.
----
When the order arrives six days later, Dan has trouble containing himself. Dashing downstairs to greet the postman with all the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas morning. He considers playing the game first to test the waters, but decides against it. Dan is a patient man. He can save his genuine reactions for the video. Victory will come in due time. He secrets the package under his bed and heads to the kitchen for coffee.
“Morning,” Phil greets around a mouthful of cereal. He swallows and looks Dan up and down. Surprised to find his flatmate out of bed so early. “Was that you I heard running down the steps earlier?”
“Yeah,” Dan cannot be arsed to produce multisyllabic answers before noon.
“Anything good?” Phil asks.
Dan considers keeping the secret a bit longer. He smiles, eyes going wide before throwing a cheeky wink. “Oh yeaaah....” He takes his coffee back to his room and closes the door, hoping his giggles are muffled.
“Dan?” Phil is not a patient man. He is curious and when prodded, relentless. “What are you doing?” He is stood just beyond the younger man’s door, socked feet tapping away. Cereal soggy and forgotten in the lounge.
Dan composes himself, and mentally reviews their schedules for the day before answering. “Go set up the camera in the gaming room and I’ll show you.”
“Fine. But it better not be another scary game, Daniel, or I’ll cut off all your toes.” Phil answers before leaving to do as he’s told.
“It’s not,” Dan answers fifteen minutes later as he enters the lounge, game behind his back.
“Did you just answer my question from earlier like some TV character cut away shot?” Phil laughs. He adjusts the camera angle and sits on the big black sofa waiting.
“Shut up. And get ready to get beat,” Dan pauses, checks the camera to find it’s not yet recording. “Wait, hold on. Ready?” One final fringe check and he settles beside Phil on the sofa.
“Hey guys,” Dan starts them off.
“Hello Dan and Phil.. Secret.. Salamanders??”
“Sala… I’m not even going to.. Phil?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you ready to defend your Versus title?”
“Ummm… yes?”
“Then get your controller callouses ready for... “ he pauses, picking the correct camera angle for the dramatic reveal. “The Japanese adventure game hand crafted three thousand years ago by the ghosts of sake demons...” he flips the box from behind his back holding it up to the camera before turning to show Phil. “Tabi!”
“Ahh!” Phil plays up the shock, grabbing his heart and jumping back from the box. “That sounds terrifying. What is it?”
Dan hands him the game. “Beats meee,” he sings out with a shrug, “I ordered it at four am on a website I could barely read!” Dan smiles at the camera, hamming it up.
“What?!” Phil’s voice betrays actual shock. He’ll have to lecture Dan about irresponsible purchases later. Flipping the box over, Phil catches sight of the dark forest level. His eyes go wide. “Dan. There’s a forest. A dark.. forest. You promised me this wasn’t going to be like Slender, you butt.”
Dan grabs the box back, peeling open the plastic wrapping with his teeth. “It isn’t scary don’t worry,” he shoots Phil a reassuring look. "Plenty of nice games have forests.”
“Like what?” Phil asks skeptically as he looks around the desk for scissors.
“Umm.. Zelda,” Dan answers. He waves off the scissors Phil hands over, holding up the opened CD in triumph. “And Pokemon. There are nice tree riddled maps in Hoenn where demon spawn do not eat your face off.”
“Okay… I guess.” Phil settles back into the sofa as Dan boots up the game. He nervously fiddles with his controller, watching and waiting. Phil is impatient, impulsive some days. But he’s grown used to planning their videos. Though his heart is racing in excitement, part of his mind is cautious.
Dan settles back to his spot on the sofa and picks up Player 1 controls. He checks the streaming preview on the PC to make sure game capture is working before proceeding. Fringe check. “Ready Phil?”
“Ready.”
Both men lean forward instinctively as the the soft strains of midi violin belts out a haunting melody through their speakers. The startup screen is plain blue, no developer or copyright date listed. Just the game title in simple black block lettering and two clickable options: Co-op or Versus.
“Boy I am just sick of these modern games going overboard with graphics. I mean geez, save your budget mate,” Dan jokes. Beside him Phil half smiles but he finds the whole thing a bit unnerving.
Dan selects ‘Versus’ and a new window loads. Are you sure? Y N
Y
Okay… if you insist.
Dan and Phil share a glance. But they’ve seen creepier game intros. The screen goes black and a keyboard appears below a blinking cursor.
Player 1, enter your name.
D A N
Player 2?
P H I L
Let us begin.
Dan can feel Phil tensing up beside him and laughs awkwardly, trying to lighten the mood. Phil turns to say something just as Dan presses the start button, but he finds his mouth has gone numb. For the briefest moment, the room smells electric and Phil thinks they’ve been struck by lightning. There is a flash, blinding white light and then, darkness.
“Dan?”
Five seconds pass though it feels like ages. Phil squints, feeling about his surroundings. He is still sat but his knees are elevated and his bum feels uncomfortable. “Dan?”
Rubbing at his eyes, shadows slowly emerge, taking shape and Phil doesn’t smell a thunderstorm any longer. No. This new scent is earthy and wet and… oh no. Blinking he looks around. He’s in a bloody forest.
“Dan!”