His character, a tiny man with a flower on his head while wearing a suit, gathers their harvest of carrots into a wheelbarrow to be sold to their neighbor - a female anthropomorphic giraffe. The coins he was paid with was enough to buy the cheapest furniture set. 

“Thought you can’t play Colorful Island offline,” Daniel observes while hovering over John’s shoulder. 

“You can’t enter other people’s island offline,” John corrects and puts down his coach closer to the entrance door of his house. The walls were still the boring default beige that accompanies the white wooden floors. 

“Hm, cool, guess that’s fun with friends and shit,” Daniel comments and moves away from John’s space. The long drag to inhale from his vape before exhaling the smoke out in swift motion. 

John scrunched his nose from the strong vanilla scent. 

“I hope you’re not overdoing your cigarette break. The boss would have to scold you again,” John warns, which results in a chuckle from his younger and a bit of a rebellious coworker. 

“Can’t be scolded if I just lie about using too much vanilla-scented perfume.” And no one can deny otherwise when there’s barely people hanging around the corner they’re in. 

The company has a park. There were only a few benches to accommodate the number of employees that wanted to experience the fresh air in between work hours. John was one of those and so was Daniel and they both managed to find a bench far enough from the building. 

John saves his progress and turns his console off from the realization. His face reflected on the black screen, noticing the reluctance from his expression along with the similarities his sister had pointed out with Luis’s facial feature. 

‘He got that sad pouty look from you,’ Melissa said to him when his nephew was a toddler - disappointed that he was denied extra TV time and now had to take a nap in the afternoon. 

Now, Luis naps a lot. 

The rustle of leaves from the wind and the occasional car passing by soothes the anxiety within John. It wouldn’t hurt to ask, right? 

“Have you heard of the upcoming Siege Fire Tournament in Nazareno City?” John asks while putting his console inside his backpack. 

“Yeah - why?” Daniel immediately answers. 

“Oh, well, my nephew could only go if I’m supervising him and his friends…” John could’ve ended there but he persists, “and, honestly, I don’t know if I’m the right person to accompany him.”

“Well, if your nephew wants you, what else are you worried about?” 

“His friends?” John brought up a reasonable concern. 

However, Daniel shrugs. “Not like they’re ditching your nephew and going to the venue by themselves. They’re friends - teenagers importantly. They know some of them can’t go without an adult chaperoning them around and who is a more fitting candidate than someone that plays the game.” 

He was getting checked out; Daniel’s eyes were going up and down on his figure. 

Being the subject of a younger person’s attention brings a slight discomfort. Regardless of Daniel’s intent in observing him, John feels cornered. His clothes were a bit bigger than him and his slouched shoulders and head slightly bent down to look down on his lap. His glasses slipped to the tip of his nose but he didn’t correct its position, far too meek to move from the pair of eyes staring at him. 

“What else got you so worked up about?” Daniel prods for more answers. 

“I’m old, you know, I’d probably be in a sea of teens and people your age,” John admits the truth. He scratched the back of his hand and watched his skin stretch and wrinkle with the direction of his fingers, feeling the callous pads of his fingers on his loose and soft skin.

Daniel snorts then erupts to an obnoxious laugh. 

“Wha-what are you laughing about!?” John exclaims. His face reddened and eyes widened by the reaction, he even checked around the area and felt his tense muscles loosened as there was nobody hanging out in the area.

It didn’t stop John from glaring at Daniel, however. 

Laughters dies down into a chuckle and Daniel eventually stutters his answer. “Bruh, you’re still in your early forties. The fuck are you on about - if you actually know the developers of Colorful Island, you’d know they’re older than you; wrinkly, white haired, and likely have shitty backs from staring at a computer twenty four-seven.”

“But they’re making games for teens,” John deflects the obvious and his point deflates at the tongue click from Daniel, the disbelief written all over his coworker’s face. 

Not going to lie but John’s pride feels like it’s hanging by the threat from the argument and he can’t help but stand up to face Daniel, watching his shadow covering the younger man and feeling the heat burning his back. 

As his front feels cold. 

Daniel sighs. “Nobody’s gonna gatekeep you from playing those games though. Not even the teens themselves. You may be a minority but, like, it’s the modern age. Technology’s advancing and you’re here stuck categorizing people from what they can and can’t do - which is something I’d never thought you do, man.”