19.1 A Friend Indeed

Earlier…

As he watched Amelia leave the room Stan frowned "hey Jamie you want to know a secret?"

"Hit me" he said absently.

"That whole airsoft match was a shit show."

This had Jamie glancing at him "what do you mean?"

Stan sighed and went on to give an abridged explanation of his grievances which mostly revolved around the lack of challenge he felt.

By the end of it Jamie took a moment to contemplate his answer before speaking "can't say I sympathize with your plight there Stan."

"I know, I was just venting."

"Do you want my honest opinion? Completely unfiltered and uncensored?"

Now it was Stan's turn to glance at his friend "what am I, a pussy?"

"Alright I just figure I at least owe you that courtesy since you've had the patience to carry my dead weight. Now I feel that as your friend I should tell you that you're acting like an entitled bitch."

Stan stared into Jamie's impassive eyes "…explain."

"Oh woe is me I'm so good at airsoft that it's not even a challenge anymore~" he mocked with that same bland expression and dry tone of voice "you sound like the main antagonist in an anime and that's cringe as fuck."

'…fuck he's got a point.'

"That said" Jamie continued "since this issue of yours is obviously more concerning to you I'll keep the roast to a minimum" he then cleared "so my advice, either find a different hobby or just find another aspect airsoft to enjoy" he suggested then gestured to himself.

Stan could see where Jamie was coming from. Unlike him Jamie did not take airsoft seriously most of the times they play. He treats the entire thing as if he were in a videogame with aggressive plays, shouting one-liners, taunting, bantering and generally just screwing around. He's just in it for the lols, having fun while making meme worthy fire content. Hell the reason why he chose a KSG sawed off spring loaded shotgun as his weapon wasn't because it was the best weapon or that he was particularly proficient with it but because he liked the pump action aspect.

Jamie's approach heavily contrasted Stan's own approach of treating it like a combat simulation. The only one-liners, taunting and clowning he did were either in his head or after a match. During a match however Stan was like the Terminator, a machine going through the field with focused precision and mowing down the enemy with tactical flare. Funny enough despite their contrasting methods Stan and Jamie were unironically the perfect duo.

Stan had better skill and proficiency but Jamie had creativity on his side and was a font for implementing the most unorthodox plays. Mind you these plays come as a result of Jamie just thinking completely off the rails and thinking it would make for great content which more often than not would result in him getting shot. This is where Stan comes in because not only was he the only one who would entertain Jamie's most outlandish ideas he was also skilled enough to help pull some of them off and watch his back.

Realistically most of the time the plans don't work but in the rare instances that they manage to pull one off it was truly a beautiful thing. In fact some of Jamie's highest viewed videos were of him and a masked Stan going insane-o style on the field and pulling off the sickest of airsoft trick shots and plays. As someone who admittedly took airsoft more seriously than he should Stan was not a fan of players who break the combat simulation 'immersion' and wipe their asses with it. The only reason why he even entertained Jamie with his indulgence in these goofy plays was because Stan has been a fan of Jamie since before they even met.

He got into Jamie's content a little after the man himself came back from a multi-year hiatus that saw him rebranding his channel from a purely gaming channel to a variety channel with a focus on reactions, commentary and exploring the obscure. The very first video of Jamie's that Stan watched was called 'Dildo Trick Shots' and from there it was a wild ride down an interesting rabbit hole. Imagine a playlist of over 50 videos from a single channel and it is called 'Sex Toy Adventures.'

And it really was an adventure.

In Jamie's own words the thought process behind his videos was what's the most insane shit I can get away with that no YouTuber will ever dare try for fear of getting demonetized?

To that end Jamie took the concept of a sex toy and did literally anything and everything that YouTube would allow him to put on the platform without getting demonetized. He did things like dildo trick shots, bottle cap challenge with 'fleshlight nunchucks', hosting dildo slap fights, turning dildos into race cars then hosting a pinewood derby and that's not even a quarter of the shit he got up to. He ordered a 3 foot tall 75 kg super dildo and turned it into a go kart then ordered six more and had his friends compete in Olympic style challenges revolving around said dildos for a $10,000 cash prize.

Stan may be genius in videogames but there is no doubt that Jamie is a content creating savant. It says something about him and his style that despite the videos being age restricted (meaning the algorithm wasn't supporting them so the videos weren't being recommended) yet most if not all of those videos reach over a million views after a year. And this was at a time when his channel was considered dead because of the prior hiatus.

What makes Jamie unique as a content creator is that his entire online style and persona is antithesis to the usual content creator. In a deliberate and complete contrast to YouTubers who have an overly happy persona and over exaggerated reaction that often came off as forced and try hard Jamie kept a deadpan expression and has the emotional range of a potato with his reactions being muted.

He makes up for this seeming disadvantage by being witty, oddly knowledgeable, utterly fearless and blunt honesty. Of all the people he knew Stan would go so far as to say that Jamie would be the only person who could handle being in his situation with Ezraphel better than him without falling to her charms or resorting to something drastic.

Also while Stan may complain that his overall experience in the airsoft match was disappointing he couldn't say that he didn't have fun and a major source of that fun factor came when he was paired with Jamie. The man has an uncanny ability to make things infinitely more fun with his antics.

With that said "I guess you have a point."

"…wow."

"What?"

"This stuff was really getting to you huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"I expected more of a fight. I just called you an entitled bitch" he emphasized "nothing to that? Really?"

"Look man I've got some shit going on in my life right now and I need this thing to work out for me okay."

"Does this particular 'shit' have anything to do with Ezraphel?"

"How'd you figure?"

"Believe it or not I've had a girlfriend before."

"I know dude, I watched the video."

Said video being the one where he, for some reason, decided to tell the story of how he acquired his first girlfriend. It is one of about a dozen or so videos where Jamie has revealed particularly embarrassing aspects of his life in the past. They are one and all the type of stuff you would look back on and think what the fuck was I on back then followed by making sure none of it ever reached the light of day by burying them deliberately in your mind.

For some reason Jamie just decided to tell those stories because, in his words, he's grown past those mistakes and saw no reason why they should bother him now. Also it would make for great content and once again he was right. Last he checked the Story Time With James playlist all had videos upwards of a million each.

So yeah Stan knew about Jamie's girlfriend…he also knew his first date went terribly, that he's an hypochondriac, that he used to think listening to rock music would get him sent to hell and that in highschool he used to act like a 'mysterious anime character' because he thought it made him look cool. There's more where that came from and it was listening to stories like those that made Stan like and admire Jamie as an individual.

At the cost of coming off like a weirdo he felt like Jamie was a kindred spirit especially since he's pretty sure he has a bad case of 'main character syndrome.'

Unaware of Stan's thoughts Jamie continued "I'm talking about my second girlfriend, Chelsea."

"You had a second girlfriend?"

"Yeah I don't really talk about her because well…" he paused to find the right words before continuing slowly "I see your point about relationships not worth the investment unless you can guarantee there's something there worth your time."

Stan didn't really know what to say to that especially since the expression on Jamie's face carried a rather heavy emotion.

"I…"

"We didn't break up or anything" Jamie interrupted "she just uh…she passed away."

'What the fuck!?'

"Oh…oh shit dude I..."

Stan really didn't know what else to say to that since through his abilities Stan picked up on the sadness that the other man was trying to hide behind his usual blank façade.

'What the fuck can I say to that?'

"I'm sorry for your loss" swallowing more than just dry saliva Stan spoke up "how did she…"

"Car accident, she went on vacation with her family up north for Christmas" he shook his head "her dad decided to save money on snow tires for the icy roads."

"Fuck."

"Yep" Jamie's lips purse "I got over it but…it fucking hurts man."

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Like I said it happened years ago now and I'm over it. The point I was trying to make before all this heavy shit is that you went from living alone to taking up some random woman off street. I won't even go into how fucking weird and unbelievable that story of how you two met is but I've been there too. When…Chelsea moved in with me that took some getting use to."

"I mean yeah but…" he trailed off still stuck on the fact that Jamie had a secret second girlfriend who died "that was months ago dude, I'm over it. Me and Ezraphel, we're good."

"You sure about that? I distinctly remember you admitting you don't go outside unless it's necessary. Did that change since Ezraphel showed up?"

"Yes?"

Why the hell did that sound like a question?

"Really? You go on dates?"

"Yeah we've been on a date before."

"How many?"

"…"

"You said a date, please tell me you don't mean a single date."

Stan looked away with furrowed brows.

"Stan you've been together for half a year."

"We still do couple stuff!" Stan half snapped "and it's not like I'm keeping her chained to my basement or anything it's just…" he trailed before shaking his head "what does that have to do with anything?"

Jamie stared at him for a moment before shaking his head "Stan, relationships, like really serious relationships, change people. I've done more new things with Chelsea that I never even considered before I met her and before I knew it some of the things I used to love doing just didn't hit the same way anymore."

Stan almost said something along the lines of "don't I know it" before he held his tongue.

"Maybe I'm just reaching here but I really think you should consider looking into stuff for you guys to enjoy as a couple outside the house."

…it's not as if Stan didn't consider that though saying that he gave the thought consideration is like saying someone deliberately stepped on a bear trap. When it came down to it Ezraphel was actually fairly low maintenance. All she asks for is love, sex and spending time together all of which are things that they do. Anything more was a question of how much he was willing to give up of himself.

He sighed 'so this is what it comes down to.'

Change.

"God dammit."

"Hey it's just a suggestion and my personal opinion but if you already have a good thing going then who am I to ask you to rock that boat?"

"How the fuck did we even get here?" Stan groaned whilst massaging his eyebrows

Jamie gave a thoughtful expression "you know I completely forgot."

At that moment Kendrick entered the room and upon seeing both their expressions raised a brow "what's up with you guys?"

Stan and Jamie shared a glance with the former answering "we just decided we're going to be playing Warzone while we wait for dinner."

"We did?" Jamie raised a brow and Stan gave him a meaningful look that him sighing before he stood up "so we did. I'm gonna take a shower. You two play nice while I'm gone."

Kendrick ignored him in favor of looking to Stan "what the hell? We literally just spent the last two hours shooting at people and you want to play Warzone?"

"That's right."

Airsoft may have been an overall bust so he'll have to get his fix of gun violence the the old fashioned way.

"You do realize there's five of us right?"

"About that…" he trailed off as Kendall entered the room.

"What's going on?" she asked as Kendrick regarded her.

Stan chose to answer "we're playing Warzone, you in?"

"Pass" she waved off plopping herself on the couch before plugging in her wireless earphones and drowning out the rest of the world.

Kendrick looked to Stan who could only shrug with a smug expression "there problem solved."

"…I'll have to reinstall the damn thing."

"We still have time."

As Kendrick left to do his business Stan's expression dropped into a frown as he considered the conversation he just had with Jamie. Then he had an epiphany about the man, see the current Jamie was a completely different content creator in his early years. Along with primarily being a gaming channel he didn't show his face, his uploads were random and sporadic and his content mostly consisted of gameplay montages featuring copyrighted rock music.

Compared that with now, he streams every day, uploads videos every day, reached out to other content creators for collaborations, started an E-Sports organization seemingly on a whim as a passion project, opened a merch store for said organization, co-created an original indie comic that's seeing moderate success, does acting (and voice acting) on the side and generally just kept himself busy.

What's the epiphany?

The radical change in Jamie's schedule occurred after his hiatus and at no point did he ever give the details of those 'missing years' despite willingly telling embarrassing stories of his youth to potentially millions of people online.

"Oh…" Stan leaned back to put his palms over his face and groaned out a long "fuck."