.
It's not like they never talk.
They literally spend most of their waking hours laughing, screaming, and crying at each through their computers. (And Delirious isn't sure which he likes better; the games themselves that get played, or the sound of his friends' voices. It's even better when he has a face to put to the names, the grimacing expression of an early death. Unexpected laughter when Nogla's character glitches out of the map shooting to the heavens like a rocket and Mini Ladd shoots soda out of his nose laughing and screaming as he holds his nose, complaining about how much it burns.)
But it's not enough. (There's something missing.)
Tyler is as Tyler does, and Delirious just can't put into words what feels off. It's more of a gut instinct than anything really. The man still laughs at his jokes, still makes fun of him when he messes up. Still does all the things he's always done.
But. There was the soft sound of someone biting their words off mid-sentence when he sat down, pulling his chair forward and yelling his greeting to the chat.
The barest of pauses, he feels awkward enough of as it is, he always feels awkward around other people, before his headphones are exploding and he's grinning wide.
.
It's only four hours into the session, and they've already switched games twice.
Tyler doesn't know what he wants to say, doesn't even know where to start. But there's something sitting at the back of his tongue and he has to keep swallowing it down.
When he first connected, he immediately dialed Evan saying, "I saw something you wouldn't believe" without knowing that Brian was already in the chat, laughing.
Cracking first thing at him, "We don't want to know what you see when you go to the bathroom, that's the kind of thing trained medical professionals are for."
Evan's hysterical giggle covering his half-hearted "Fuck you."
"But seriously, what did you see?" Brian is bitting his lip and grinning on his webcam, Tyler can see the next joke just fine behind the teeth and laughs.
"Your momma, sucking this DICK!"
Everyone laughs at the joke. And that's that. And they move on.
Despite Evan subtly texting him as the rest of the crew begins connecting, asking "What happened?"
He doesn't even hesitate as he sends back, "Nothing. Just a stupid dream I had."
After all, who's to say it wasn't? It was late and he was tired. The monitor was too bright and the webcam too dark. It could have been anyone in Luke's house. He could have dreamed the whole thing.
Who knows?
.