side character enthusiast

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and when it released for ios? holy fuck were they DROWNING in money. when they took a weekend to put the game on sale for a dollar, down from five, a couple months after release, they made as much in that one weekend as they did since its release. it was among the top paid apps for weeks.

with critics, peggle was among some of the top downloadable, mobile, and general best games of all time at the time of its release in 2007 and onwards, and it only shot up in popularity as they made it more accessible to more people. and this was in a time before candy crush.

the thing about simple addictive puzzle games is that they make you feel competent, confident, smart, and cool for being good at them. not everybody can learn how to aim in a shooter or the best strategy in an rpg. but anybodys grandmother or baby brother can play a simple puzzle game, and the nature of these games and the way they make you feel only makes you want to play more and more.

however very very fucking few people who play simple puzzle games that you can master on the toilet would be going to E3 in the early 2010s. remember in 2012 when every ~hardcore gamer~ would screech about ‘fake gamers’ who only play candy crush? thats what peggle was. it was THE crack mobile game from the pre-candycrush era.

no one who was excited about peggle was going to E3. the hundreds of thousands of people who played peggle were not the type of people who would consider going to (or even giving a shit about) E3.

but it sold like hot cakes, and candy crush was churning out content like a madman, and EA owned popcap now, so because the game sold amazingly, and because they wanted to keep cashing in on it, and because corporate drones who controlled the scripts didnt comprehend that their consumerbase isnt one homogeneous mass, they decided to announce peggle 2 at E3 2013.

but not just “oh by the way peggle 2”, no. peggle sold like skyrim, it sold like black ops, clearly they should be saving the best for last, they should announce it like it was the craziest most incredible announcement of the night!

thus:

i need to update it. we still are looking for housing in Portland but now we have medicaid to tide us over and that will be easy to switch to OHP once there. our current housing is no longer safe and we need out asap.

V whose excitement at being alive again is short-lived as anxiety sets in. It has been years, after all. What if Johnny has moved on? What if he has a whole life now that V doesn't fit into? What if this thing with them doesn't work in separate bodies? What if what they had is still and forever lost?

V who decides that even if that's the case, they still need to at least see Johnny again. Need to make sure he's okay. Then they'll move on too.

So they track him down. He's far from Night City. Has a little apartment, a few friends. A job as a bartender, of all things. So V goes to the club where he works. Figures they'll just check. Just see him. Maybe touch his hand when he passes them a drink. That's all. Just feel things out.

Johnny who is just coming back in after helping a very drunk patron into a taxi. Who quickly scans the people on the barstools to see if any of them were recent arrivals who he should get to quickly.

Johnny who sees a face he's never seen before, and his heart twists in his chest. He can't explain it. He walks closer. The person turns away like they're trying to pretend not to see him. Then he's uncomfortably close, inappropriately close, standing over them where they are sitting on their stool.

Eyes he's never once gazed into turn to meet his. His breath doesn't catch, it's just all the damn smoke in here. Those aren't tears at the corners of eyes that weren't always his, that's a trick of the light.

The other person just looks at him, like their whole fucking existence hinges on this moment.

He doesn't know how he knows, but he knows. "V?"

Their voice is unfamiliar, but the cadence settles into Johnny's soul like the pleasant hum of a familiar tune. "Hey Johnny. Been awhile."

They barely get the words out before Johnny has hauled them off the stool into a crushing hug. He's kind of laughing breathlessly, his chest shaking with it.

"I knew it. I goddamn knew you'd find a way. Fuck, I missed you."