I woke up and looked around the bedroom. There was my charging Nintendo Switch dock which I set up last night and a wooden drafting desk with a piece of artwork Wendy made on it. My main priority right now was getting my phone so I could talk to Clark and The Boy Named Crow and tell them what has happened so far. I see Malcolm and ask him where my phone is since I gave it to him to charge for me. Turns out I was too dumb to realize it was just in the kitchen.
I then kept trying to wake up dad for some reason that I forgot and when he finally got up we had eggs for breakfast. Malcolm’s eggs were different from what I was used to but I guess it was ok. I then spent my time playing Dragon Quest XI and I did the part where you fight Jasper and his cronies at Gondolia and then after I got the boat I did half an hours worth of grinding just so I could buy the cat suit for Veronica. I gave the boy named Crow a text asking if we could meet up somewhere this time today or something but he lives in Mesa which is too far. This is like the second time we were in the same state at once. I tried so hard, and got so far, but I guess it didn’t matter in the end.
I texted Clark and we talked about Devil Survivor Overclocked. The greatest SRPG of all time and arguably the greatest game in general. Then because I was bored, I walked up to the desktop PC running Windows 7 that Malcolm and Wendy used to share and there was no internet connection which was lame and I check a bunch of random folders and found nothing special until I went to the folder titled “Pictures” and found some things that warmed my heart the moment I saw it…
It turns out that Wendy’s art was in that folder and it looked beautiful, dreamlike even. It was so pretty that I would have shed a tear if it were not for the fact that I refuse to cry. I was surprised how good she was at art since she’s a fujoshi and fujoshi are shit artists. Despite doing anime art primarily, she did have a decent understanding of drawing realism so her output was diverse to say the least. I did some further digging and I found more art and some drawings from other people she saved on her computer which included what appeared to be fan art of Devil Survivor 2 and some short writings she presumably wrote for school or something. Assuming she didn’t just write what she wrote to get an A, she came across as very articulate and I felt like I really learned more about her.
It just gives me a warm feeling knowing that my own blood is an actually successful artist when I had given up on that type of career a long time ago. In the living room I found an old picture of mom and dad sitting on a couch with a young Annie who is holding the an even younger Wendy in her arms back in 2002. I took a picture of the photograph with my phone and sent it to Annie.
Me: Where did it go?
Annie: Where did what go
Annie: I don’t even remember your sister like that
Me: The old days
Me: Dad said this picture was taken in 2002
Me: Life was so simple!
Me: I wasn’t even aware that you even met Wendy at that point
Me: Maybe as a baby but not later than that
Annie: I don’t remember it. Mom told me she was pregnant and I would head but her stomach
Annie: The only pregnancy that was cool was you
Annie: She was on her best behavior. Healthy eating. Lots of smoothies and she would get her nails done
Annie: We were happy for a little while. We’d go to the park and I’d push you on the tire swing.
Me: Were my cheeks fatter than they were now?
Annie: Yes and you never cried. We would just lay you down and you would chill
Me, dad, and Malcolm then went to tons of places to go do errands and then we went to Gamestop where dad bought me Smash Ultimate. We bought an ice cream cone at McDonald’s. When we drove home I tried to play “Hate You” (Everything Sucks version) by Reel Big Fish on the Bluetooth radio. When we parked the car I didn’t go into the house through the garage like last time, instead I walked to the normal entrance where I saw 2 doors in front of me. I opened the door on the right and immediately realized that was a huge mistake.
…What I didn’t realize was that Malcolm lives in a duplex. In the living room was a grown man sitting in some recliner and when I opened the door he turned his head to see me and he was steaming within a nanosecond. “HELLO????” he shouted. I immediately shut the door and went into the door on the left. I spent the rest of the night laughing at how much of a dumbass I am.