Chapter Text
At a glance, it's just a Youtube channel.
The banner across the top is a piece of art done in an imitation of the ukiyo-e style. It depicts a scruffy man in a cowboy hat and red serape smoking a cigar next to a green-haired samurai dressed in black, with the Grand Canyon as a striking backdrop. Links to social media and are sprinkled across the bottom of the image like breadcrumbs, a trail for a curious viewer to follow should they so choose. To the right of the page, the listing of people that this Youtuber is subscribed to is labelled "The BF and BFFs" and has quite the variety of links to poke at, from speedpaints to gaming to cosmetics tutorials.
It's competently put together, as channels go; there's a number of playlists displayed in both side-scrolling and grid-based styles, ordered last-to-first in most cases. These are labelled clearly as Monday Rants and Vlogs, Game Time, Challenge Accepted, and Collabs. Meanwhile, a side-scrolling list at the bottom shows several more playlists as compilations of multiple videos centered on the game or game franchise they came from, ordered first-to-last for archival and binge watching purposes.
And as for those who aren't subscribed to the channel, they get a little bonus video to reel them in.
"Howdy folks. The name's Jesse McCree, and this here's my channel."
It looks promising from the start, the video of a scruffy, deeply tanned young man in a red flannel shirt over the top of a Red Dead Redemption tee having crisp video quality and even crisper audio quality as it begins to the tune of something chipper and retro. Clean, smooth edits take the viewer through a number of short clips after the initial statement: footage of a flubbed blink in Dishonored, a nearly-muted clip of mad desk-slapping cackling over harassing NPCs as a literal whale in GTA, a meticulously crafted Minecraft treehouse being set on fire with a bucket of lava. This mini-montage ends on a high note with a video clip of Jesse with his leg propped up on his desk, pant leg rolled up to his knee, as a green-haired young man rips off a waxing strip; the circumstances aren't explained, but the comedic timing of Jesse yowling about it is perfect.
Then the video cuts back to Jesse speaking, grinning crookedly. "This right here is where I post my videos about games," here, there is a clip of facecam-included Silent Hills PT with both Jesse and the green-haired man screaming, "music," a clip with no audio of Jesse sitting with an acoustic guitar in his lap, "and anythin' else that springs t'mind."
His statement finishes with a clip of Jesse grinning stupidly with what has to be half the contents of a bag of jumbo marshmallows jammed into his mouth at once. This is clearly not a serious channel.
"I run this channel with my boyfriend Genji," there is a brief clip of the green-haired man in an oversized sweater beaming and waving enthusiastically at the camera, "who's got a channel of his own if you'd like t'see more of us two bein' nerds together. Or, y'know, if you wanna see more of him in general. Can't say as I'd blame ya, he's real cute."
The chirpy background music pauses for a moment. "Stop calling me cute!" comes a yell from offscreen, possibly even from another room entirely, faintly accented and distinctly pouty. Jesse doesn't take his eyes of the camera, merely grinning and waggling his eyebrows; afterwards, the music resumes.
"Links in the description for his channel, both our social media, 'n my alternate channel where I put my, uh, embarrassin' attempts at playin' guitar." A clip is included of something that's obviously a blooper from said guitar-playing, where trying to tune out a sour note ends in one of the strings springing free of the fretboard with a twang, and Jesse gives it about the same deadpan look that one might give a cat that just blarfed in their shoe. "If y'see somethin' you like, go ahead'n subscribe. Tell a friend. We've even got a patreon if you're feelin' generous."
For a few seconds, the viewer is treated to a clip of Jesse sitting slumped in his chair, staring blank-eyed at his screen, and the aforementioned boyfriend standing over him and poking him in the leg with a crutch. True, it's not obvious that the green-haired man is the one doing the poking - his face isn't visible from that angle - but the hands and the oversized sweater are obviously the same, so the connection isn't too hard to make.
"Either way, that's all for this one." Jesse throws a wink and a lazy two-fingered salute to the camera. "Y'all stay good to each other now."
On that note, the video ends-- another video on another channel, likely to be lost in a sea of other such videos on other such channels and quickly forgotten.