"Yes Yes Yes YES! You Got It!"
I blinked
Hearing the incredibly young squeaky voice that seemed to pierce every single one of the thin walls of the house, my eyes turned to the source of the sound.
An incredibly small physique for a child that should be roughly thirteen, with thin pasty white skin covering every part of his fleshy body, orange eyes gleamed mischievously underneath a head of matted black hair.
'Is that...?'
Opening my mouth in confusion at the sight of a sight so foreign to me, the young child danced around in joy as he held up what I now recognize to be an XBox 360.
'Is that a breadbox? I don't think those were out yet when I was a child?'
Tilting my head in confusion, another voice pierced the veil of confusion surrounding my head.
"You're welcome Danny" Turning to the source, my eyes landed on... me, a much younger me, scar tracing my ear and all.
"Hehehe"
"Hey Danny, what do you say when you receive a gift?" Turning my head, my eyes landed on someone who looked nearly identical to me save for the lack of scars and a fuller beard on his face.
'Oh.'
Blinking my eyes in rrealization, I stared at a face that I nearly had forgotten.
"Thank you Uncle Slade!"
This man was my brother from the same mother.
Born with at a much younger age than me, the man had grown a beard making him seem much older than he really was.
Something that I had much desired.
Beards were cool as fuck.
Anyways
Staring at my brother who was younger than me by at least three years, my eyes looked back at the tiny spawn of devil, my Nephew.
Inheriting the same orange eyes that were apparently extremely rare in the world alongside the much more common combination of black hair, the tiny pasty child was my nephew.
"Yeah don't wear it out."
Grinning stupidly, younger me ruffled the boys head of mat black hair as he hurriedly escaped the dreaded head ruffles.
"I'm a big boy now! And big boys don't get head pats!"
Shouting in response, young me looked to my brother for permission and received it with a nod of his head causing younger me to instantly transform into a snarling beast, legs tensed and arms raised as my face twisted.
"Rah! I'm the evil beast that will give you head pats! Come here!"
"NOOO AHHH!!!" Screeching unnecessarily loud I winced, I forgot how loud my nephew could get when he was younger, at the least he mellowed out once he got older.
'I don't recall myself being so indulgent to my nephew however.'
Staring at the unfamiliar sight of myself letting loose in a comfortable environment, my brother smiled as his wife entered the room.
A beaut she was, being the source of my nephew's pasty white skin as she carried with her a cake the size of a head.
'Ah' And seeing it, my eyes widened in recollection as I looked at the cake marked with the number 8. 'Today's his birthday... Why can't I remember his name?'
Blinking in confusion as I stared at my Nephew struggling in my muscled arms bread box and all, the lights dimmed as smiles covered his face as he snaked out of my grasp.
And with it, the whole house blasted into song, people unfamiliar to me popping out from places as they all sang to my Nephew's birthday.
"Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday dear Danny~~~ Happy birthday to you~~"
Clapping happily, the young child blew out all the candles swiftly before instantly grabbing me and running to the living room
"Mom! Get me Cake! I want to play the XBox with Uncle Slade!"
Shouting those words which I was highly unfamiliar with, he ran towards the living room and began to set up the Bread box with a high degree of familiarity.
'Wait how do you-'
Blinking in confusion, the bread box connected to the wide flat screen as my Nephew logged onto his account.
'Wait but didn't I just give it-?'
Opening up his account, a series of games that I was familiar with appeared in front of me, their respective titles appearing like icons on the green back ground.
The one that my nephew instantly opened up was Minecraft, an old game from 2009, something created 4 years after I gifted the Bread Box to my Nephew when it first came out.
'What the hell-?'
Still extremely confused, I watched before my very eyes as the once thirteen year old boy transformed into a 12 year old pre teen, the boy now having pigtails as his 3 year old sister played around with his long strands of hair
Manipulating the controls of the Xbox otherwise known as the bread box, my Nephew booted up the game and selected one of his many worlds, revealing things I had once forgotten but were always part of the game in their entirety.
Mining ores deep down in the caves in search of the extremely valuable diamonds meant to make diamond armor and tools if not an enchanting table.
Crafting a sword, bow, pickaxe among other tools to better excavate the world as stacks upon stacks of 64 numbered items appeared in his bar, the items being converted into much fancier ones.
Using said blocks gathered into stacks to decorate his home dug out from the inside of a mountain, glass windows exposed a red bed flanked side by side with armor that he once used now discarded.
And when he had finished gearing up and prepping his home, a obsidian portal formed at his side which he subsequently entered to hunt down the mobs of the Nether.
Retrieving the materials needed for both the eyes of ender and potions, a brewing stand appeared in his base which he instantly began using to experiment with ways to create potions.
Stuffing whatever his hands could get on, when he got bored of that, he began to play around with enchantments, following it up with creating eyes of ender right before finding the stronghold.
And guess what he did with the strong hold?
Open a portal to the end where he began to fight a black and purple dragon by destroying the crystals that healed it, I watched as my Nephew fought against the dragon, defeating it many times and dying to it even more times.
Some times I watched as my Nephew fought the dragon with friends, sometimes I watched him do it alone, sometimes I watched him enter the end full of gear, sometimes I watched him do it with beds alone, sometimes I watched him enter, sometimes I didn't see him enter at all.
And whenever he didn't enter it at all, I was able to see him accompanying friends as they opened up the minecraft world on Xbox, creating more and more worlds together as buildings and worlds alike began to pop up like mushrooms in the rain.
That was Minecraft.
My Brother's only child, my nephew, born in 1996 Dec 12 got his XBox 360 at 9 years old, one month after it came out.
When he finally left the minecraft world that came out four years later, he was already 17.
Looking out the window right besides the living room, I saw frost had caused the windows to fog up, allowing the once 3 years old girl now 14 to boredly draw crude snowmen and smiley faces on its surface.
Face planted against the cold surface and transmitting how cold it was outside, my Brother burst through the door covered in so many clothes that you could barely see the man as his wife hurriedly fussed over him.
"Hey Kids! Guess who I brought with me!"
"No need to guess! Because I'm here!"
"Uncle Slade!" X2 *BARK BARK Hearing a chorus of voice shouting my name as a dog of the Basset hound breed ran up to me ears flopping everywhere.
"Hey there Danny, Sarah and yes, you to Bartholomew" Ruffling the ears of my favorite dog in the whole wide world alongside the heads of my favorite children in the whole wide world, I hugged the wife of my favorite brother in the whole wide world.
It was home to my favorite things in the world.
Grinning widely as I hugged the two gremlins now at my neck in height, my Nephew grinned as he brought up his ipad and showed me a game.
"Hey uncle, can you look at my Terraria World?"
"Your what?"
Young but visibly older me with some whites in his hair tilted his head in confusion, the orange in his eyes gleaming brightly in vapid confusion as he turned to look at the bright screen displaying a pixelated world of green trees.
"Uh... Is that supposed to happen?'
Pointing at the screen that had shifted into a purple hue, my nephew glanced at it in confusion before chuckling "Oh that's normal uncle, that's just the Corruption"
"...You're going to have to explain to me alot young man." Solemnly declaring it as if I was going to interrogate my own nephew, Which I obviously wasn't going to, he chortled before gesturing for Young me to follow.
Doing so with pleasure, I tossed my heavy snow coat over the drying rack and followed my nephew to the heated living room where the location of a heater was much appreciated to young me's soaked bones.
And with it, I sat behind my nephew as my Niece grabbed an ipad of her own and opened up the same game.
Glancing at the two of them, young Me's eyes opened in amusement. "Is this multiplayer?"
"Yeah, Why?" Tilting his head, My Nephew opened up his world exposing an account leveled up with fancy looking gear even to my eyes that hadn't touched the game a single time
"Well I might just play it with you."
Grinning at my words, my Nephew responded awkwardly. "Uh... Yeah."
Well ignoring the fact that young me was just snubbed by my nephew in the field of gaming, I watched from beyond his shoulder as he began to play the game.
Similar in execution to the Game Minecraft that I had watched him play, the fifteen year old boy began to play much smoother and less agitatedly than before.
In other words, the squeaker voice shouting throughout the day and piercing the walls and annoying the neighbours was nothing more than history.
Watching my Nephew in action, I couldn't help but notice my Niece using a large number of summons to beat up a giant bee with a crown aiming to skewer her pixelated avatar with its massive stinger.
Then time began to speed up much faster again, with me actually noticing the progress this time
Destroying a giant eye the first they entered the world, they progressed to a red colored place called the Crimson and destroyed three red orbs, summoning a giant brain which they then subsequently tore apart.
Beating up an old man turned giant skeleton in a dungeon, the duo entered the dungeon soon after rescuing a mechanic from within right before they met a giant deer walking on two legs which they then burst apart with explosions galore.
Entering the cave systems, their pickaxes bypassed physics and dug through the stone and exposed a layer heading straight down to hell which they then exploited to summon a large wall of flesh.
Grabbing the resources gathered from slaying all these titanic beasts, new materials appeared in the world which they then used to craft better and better armor
And following this progression of beating up boss after boss to create better and better gear, I noticed that the once simple wooden hut built to house the initial NPC of their world, the Guide had now expanded to a full on mansion complete in trophies they had gathered from their slain enemies
'...'
And staring at it all, a youthful voice different from that of my nephew and niece's interjected in this memory.
[What do you think? Did it jog your memory?]
Grinning, the God of Fun appeared in pajama's with a lion print, his multicolored eyes gleaming as he gestured at my two relatives.
And instantly I reacted
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