It’s been a long time, so you approach casually. “So, uh… You play games?” you ask, as if you didn’t know the answer. He does. He’s sixteen, if that, and you are aching for someone to talk to. Anyone. And now’s your time.

“Uh, yeah, I do.” Meanwhile, the party swirls around you. Friends of Jill – girls you’ve met once or twice, who never seemed all that interested in you. Work friends, who never seemed to share any interests with. Some weird college friends, who you were never sure if you could fuck or not. I mean, maybe she had some bi-curious phase in college – if so, these were the ones.

“Oh, cool, you like video games? Well, uh, my friend just played BioShock 2. Yeah. And he liked it. Or I think he did, I can’t tell. He won’t tell me until the embargo runs out. Isn’t that cool? Yeah, it is. Yeah, just keep talking me like you think I’m cool until your cousin looks over here. Yeah, then she might think I’m hot and then she’ll tell her friends. No, that’s not the only reason I’m talking to you. What’s your name? Oh, yeah. Great. Now look excited.”

You might have come on a little hard, but you don’t know how long you can keep attention on you. I mean, it’s public service, right, talking to the little cousin – and for this long, you must be earning serious points. Until, a few seconds later, you hear a timid question…

“Hey, have you heard of Chrono Trigger?”

“Have I heard of the fourteenth, secret ending? Yes, I have. Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Yeah, this dude at school said he got it for DS for Christmas and it was totally gay.”

“Listen, you little faggot. I want you to do one thing for me. You go to school tomorrow with this $30 –” and you hand him a twenty and two fives — “And you tell him that your cousin’s friend gave you $30 to slap the cock out of his mouth. Will you tell him that?”

… “Yes, sir.”

The kid takes the $30 out of your hand, and you know it’ll never happen. But the idea of videogames being cool has passed another generation, and somehow you might have been the vessel.