#egotron

“It sucks, though,” Dan sipped his drink and fiddled with the cup, turning it so that the logo was facing him. “Because if I’ve been busy in the daytime, I never have the energy to record Grump videos with my Arin. And that makes him mad, and- I never want to upset him, but…” Dan frowned softly, looking over at Arin, who had stopped eating his burger to watch Dan with concern.

“Oh yeah, Game Grumps…” Arin nodded, setting his burger down. “So- it’s you and me then, right? In your dimension? What happened to Jon?” Arin looked curious, his brow furrowing as Dan looked back at him in shock. “You know, Jon J-”

“Yes, I know him. Uh…” Dan took a sharp breath in. How was he going to break this to him? He opted for asking questions instead - he’d need something to report back to Arin anyway. “You haven’t... met me before, right?” He tilted his head, watching as Arin took another big bite of his burger - his second burger - shaking his head.

“I think my friend Ross showed me a video of yours when I was in high school.” Arin said with a hand over his mouth as he chewed. “You’re in a band called Ninja Sex Party, right?” He smiled hopefully. Dan nodded with a grin, feeling a wave of relief rush over him - at least he knew Ross. “Yeah, I’ve seen your stuff. It’s really good!” He grinned.

“Aw, thanks man,” Dan chuckled lightly. “Though I think the Dan from this dimension would rather hear it than me.” He quietened and looked over Arin, raising an eyebrow. “What do you do for a living? If you’re not doing Grumps, you don’t know Suzy- you don’t know me…?” Dan asked with slight concern. He watched Arin shift in discomfort, finishing off his burger. He smiled softly and itched at the back of his neck.

“I get an unemployment check.” Arin admitted sheepishly. “But sometimes I get commissions for animations and stuff. Less so now than I used to.” Arin took his own drink and bent the straw backwards and forwards, trying not to make eye contact with Dan. “You, uh… Game Grumps, it must be popular, right?” He finally looked up at Dan, who was eyeing the younger man uneasily.

“Yeah, we do it for a living. It’s enough to pay the bills- Really I couldn’t have asked for anything better.” He laughed softly. “Especially now that I get to tour all over the place with NSP.” He grinned. Arin smiled with him, though there seemed some kind of sadness behind his eyes. A longing for a life like this Dan had.

This version of Arin Hanson had bunked out on the convention he was meant to go to, because he’d been hanging out with his new friends Jon and Barry instead. They all went to Barry’s house and played video games for the entirety of the day. Later on in life he’d started up a gaming channel with Jon called ‘Game Grumps’, but Jon eventually left to pursue his own career - that much was accurate to Dan’s own dimension, at least. But because this Arin had never met Suzy, and he’d never met Dan, he dropped Game Grumps for good, and started animating more. After dropping out of school, he found it difficult to find a job, and he’d already had over five in the past year. Now he was trying desperately to live off of his animations, which were doing well, but they were never enough to pay bills of any kind. And here he was in the present, sat in Wendy’s with a complete stranger from another dimension as he considered getting another burger, just to pass the time.

After Arin spilled his soul out to Dan, he felt defeated and tired. Dan’s life had turned out so much better, and he wondered if there was anything that he could do now to try and fix things. Dan felt absolutely sorry for this version of Arin - he really didn’t have much going for him, and he’d do anything in the world to try and change that. But he knew that he couldn’t. He looked at the clock on the wall and sighed quietly, knowing that he only had around ten minutes left.

“How do you feel?” Dan asked the other Arin, something he often did. “About your life, yourself…?” He waited for a response. Arin began eating his fries and shrugged.

“I never stopped to think about what might have been.” He confessed, with a small smile. “I didn’t realise that I could be married and successful by now, instead of like… eating my own body weight in burgers.” He snorted, Dan looking over him with a soft sigh.

“You could change that, y’know.” Dan frowned. “There’s still plenty of time.” He reached over and patted Arin’s shoulder.

“I should get going anyway… my roommate’s probably worried.” Arin smiled with a shrug, standing up. Dan stood up with him, looking confused.

“Roommate?” He questioned. Maybe it was Barry or Ross. Arin furrowed his brow.

“Yeah, y’know.” Arin chuckled softly. “Jon Jafari.”

Dan screamed into the cushion on Arin’s couch in anger. Arin watched him in fear, not knowing whether to ask what was wrong or not. Dan had stormed into Arin’s office at midnight and immediately crashed on the couch, seemingly upset. Arin scooted his chair towards Dan and gently touched his shoulder.

“What happened…?” Arin asked softly, rubbing Dan’s shoulder. Dan sat up slowly, looking at Arin with a big frown on his face.

He told Arin all about his day, and how the Arin he met was doing pretty worse for wear (but not as bad as some of the other’s he’d met). Arin admitted that he fancied going to Wendy’s after hearing about it all, but Dan sadly informed him that it would be closed round their way this time of night. He eventually got to the end of it all and told Arin about the other Arin rooming with Jon. Arin seemed tense.

“You know we still talk though, right?” Arin explained. Dan shook his head and sighed in response. “We’re still friends-”

“I know, but- Jesus Christ you didn’t even know me or Suzy! You were basically stuck with him, Ar!” Dan ran his hands over his hair and growled in annoyance. “Would you really want that?”

“I’d rather be here than there. Especially if I was caught in Wendy’s at three in the fuckin’ morning.” Arin laughed it off, shaking Dan’s shoulder. “Don’t get too upset, man. There’s probably like a million different dimensions out there; it’s stupid to get worked up about just one.” Dan stared at Arin with a permanent frown.

“I’ve watched you die in my fucking arms before, Arin.” He said gravely, sitting up. “These are real people with real lives. God damn it, don’t you realise that? I can’t do shit for anyone.” He rubbed at his eyes whilst Arin’s face fell. “Maybe if you saw different versions of me in your daily life, you’d get it. But you don’t. I’m the only one who has to suffer with this bullshit.” He sighed shakily, fiddling with the corners of the cushion he was holding. Arin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Dan stood up and began walking out of his office. “I’ll be on the couch.” He grumbled, walking to the recording room.

Arin stared after him in shock. He hadn’t seen Dan so angry before. Maybe that’s what he got for getting angry at him yesterday. He stood up from his chair and walked towards the recording room with a clipboard of their schedule.