One sunny Tuesday morning, thirty-five-year-old Kayden was playing Love Library on his Nokia N-Gage when suddenly, he had a thought. He had been spending too much time with .DOCXelyn, and he wanted to find a real girl to date. So, he told the truth to .DOCXelyn. He said, "Hey, .DOCXelyn? I really enjoy your game, but I really want a real girl to date. I'm human, and you're a computer character. It just won't work out." Suddenly, .DOCXelyn was angry! She screamed, "BUT WHAT WE HAVE IS SPECIAL! I WON'T EVER LET A REAL GIRL EVER GET BETWEEN US! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANY REAL GIRL WOULD!" Kayden got up from his couch, took the Love Library cartridge out of the phone, smashed the cartridge, and threw it in the trash. He said, "Phew! With .DOCXelyn gone, I can meet a real girl. I'll start at the library!"
So, he walked five blocks to the local library, and he watched video clips of cartoons on one of the public computers, Number 17. Five minutes later, a chubby Japanese girl with long black bangs, black leggings, a white hoodie, and black fuzzy boots walked up to Kayden and tapped his left shoulder. Kayden removed his headphones and she said, "Dude, you're a grown man watching cartoons. That's so cool. I'm Rachel, by the way." Rachel extended her left hand and Kayden shook it. "Nice to meet you", he said. He asked, "I have a WeView channel" Rachel asked "What's WeView?" Kayden replied, "It's a site that's similar to YouTube but with ads beside the video instead of interrupting it. I moved all my older videos there and made new ones as well. Wanna see it?" Rachel said, "Sure. Let's watch." Kayden pulled an empty chair from the computer next to him while his channel was loading onto the screen. Kayden showed her his most recent video, where he unboxed a lot of 165 phones with batteries and chargers he bought from Thrifty. Notable phones in the lot included a Verizon XV6800, an unlocked CAT B26, and a Verizon BlackBerry 7130e. After the video ended, Kayden asked Rachel, "So, I just broke up, and I'm looking for a new friend I can hang out with online." Rachel said, "I have a Friendspace account. We can chat there anytime in the evenings." Kayden said, "A real girl I can share screen time with. Sounds perfect!" Rachel grabbed a ballpoint pen and a yellow sticky note from the checkout desk and wrote her Friendspace information:
RachelK
She added a short message at the bottom:
Feel free to video chat, or just type, whatever you're comfortable with. :)
Kayden said, "I'm free this evening. We can video chat then" Rachel said, "Okay. See you then!"
Rachel waved and left. Kayden was so happy to finally start a healthy relationship.
Later that evening, Kayden grabbed his black Android 13 laptop and logged onto his Friendspace account, KaydenLovesPhones. He searched for "RachelK", and a strange profile picture popped up. It looked exactly like .GIFfany, but with black hair and light-tan skin like Rachel, and no computer cable on her head. In her bio it said, "Profile picture by Paul Robertson, commissioned by me." Kayden immediately sent her a friend request, and she accepted three minutes later. He then clicked the video call and three minutes later, Kayden was greeted with Rachel sitting at her kitchen table, in the same clothes she was wearing earlier. She waved and said, "Hi, Kayden!" and Kayden said "Hi" back. Kayden immediately jumped to conversation. Kayden said, "Do you like Paul Robertson?" Rachel said yes. "Paul's my favorite pixel artist, so I commissioned him to draw my avatar that I use for my videos and my Friendspace chats. Kayden said, "You make videos?" Rachel said, "Yeah. I make collection videos like you do, except I collect old game consoles. She shared her screen and pulled up a five-minute video of her console collection as of 2036. In the video, there was the same pixelated persona from her profile picture. Rachel's persona was wearing a black shortsleeve T-shirt and blue shorts and was pointing at the various consoles she had in her bedroom closet while talking about them. After the video ended, she asked Kayden, "What's your favorite console?" Kayden said, "It's definitely the Sega Game Gear. I've seen other videos of it besides it being in your collection. It's so cool that you have one." Rachel scratched her head and said, "Yeah, I guess it is." Kayden yawned and said, "Well, it's almost eight. I gotta go to bed, or I'll be tired tomorrow from chatting with you all night. But we can meet at the library tomorrow." Rachel said, "I'm free at three." Kayden responded, "Sounds good. Bye!" Kayden waved, hung up, and closed his laptop and put it back on the shelf in his master bedroom.
THE END
End Notes:
Yes, it is an Android 13 laptop. Even though this is the future, Android 13 is still canonically supported in this universe. This version is meant for laptops. It's not ChromeOS.
.DOCXelyn can't wirelessly jump from game to game now that her cartridge is destroyed. So Kayden and Rachel are safe.
Kayden's black laptop is a generic laptop from Thrifty. It came with a wired mouse that plugs in via USB. It was inspired by an old Android laptop I used to have when I was younger. I think that one ran Android 2.2.
Friendspace is just Discord rebranded. It looks exactly the same. It runs well for a laptop with Android 13, which by this time is outdated but still supported.
WeView is a separate fictional site from YouTube, even though YouTube is still a thing in this universe. Kayden moved his videos here because YouTube's policies got so out of control that Kayden just couldn't do it on there anymore. So, he makes money by making videos. In fact, monetization on WeView is much more relaxed. You can still make videos from home, without needing a studio or editing software. The only requirement is that your videos have to be filmed in HD, 4K, or 1080p resolution. Canonically, many other former YouTube content creators make videos here, including DankPods, TheOdd1sOut, and SomethingElseYT. Just know that all the DankPods After Shows are public and free to watch, just like with real YouTube. (He recently closed his and made all the After Shows public on YouTube.)