“Yeah. Penny is the one who started losing her eyesight in the fourth grade. She still loves playing games, but there aren’t many with visual accessibility adaptations. We still enjoy MUDstogether, and there are modifications that make some games usable for her—” A small gust of wind hits my shoulders.
When I glance up Ant has moved across the room, almost silently. His wings flex, and the wind brushes me gently.
“Sorry, I know this isn't interesting.” I laugh a little.
“I could listen to you talk all day.”
I look at the ground, trying to stop myself from laughing at his sincerity. He isn’t funny, but sometimes all of those serious emotions get turned into awkward laughter. It’s easier to laugh than it is to express my real feelings.
“Don’t you dare roll your eyes.” He menaces lightly. His hand cards into my hair and tugs my face up to look him in the eye, sending pleasant little tingles through my scalp. “I am being serious.”
“I believe you! I believe you!” I laugh and hold up my hands in surrender. His grip loosens, but his fingers stay loosely combing through my curls.
“I hadn’t really considered making gaming more accessible, until recently.” Ant's voice is quiet enough to make me want to continue.
“It’s gotten more popular since the Decrypting too. Some things just aren't built with tentacles or claws in mind. That’s what the company I founded, Penpoint Assist, focused on when we started, making gaming more accessible. We’ve expanded to other types of usability advice and improvements since then. There’s lots of little things companies and developers can do to expand usability,” I say.
“That sounds like it could be useful for everyone.” His looming presence makes me slightly self conscious, there’s a long moment of silence before he speaks again. “Would you like to play it?” He gestures to the game still clutched in my fingers.
“No thanks. I already have it at home, on a couple different platforms. You know they have it on other consoles now,” Itease. His fingers still in my hair. It’s strangely comforting. I gesture to his collection. “You don’t have to keep all these dusty old consoles around.”
“Nah. I like the dusty stuff. I like old, forgotten things.” His antennae shrug.
“Are these left over from childhood?”
He shakes his head. “I collected most of them over the past decade. I loved watching other kids play. I never got much of a chance myself.”
“You came into gaming later in life?”
“I just like getting to know more about the stuff I missed.”
“Why’d you miss out?” I let myself lean against his leg, just a little, not willing to move when he’s stroking my hair like this.
“Well, I grew up without a console, or a TV, or electricity.” He smiles while he says it, even though he is clearly sad.
I know I must not be hiding the shock from my face very well because he sighs loudly before he continues talking.
“I grew up under a bridge in West Virginia. It was a big bridge, a nice one. It used to have trains on it, although it was abandoned when I moved in. I built a cute little nest up under the tracks.”
“Right.” My stomach sinks for him. “Before the Decrypting, you wouldn’t have been allowed to talk to humans.” What a very lonely life that must have been.
He shrugs his antennae. “I got a chance to play games occasionally. I’d find an old Gameboy, or a lost DS. I usually managed to return them to their owners, but I always ran them out of batteries first.”
I giggle at the image of a small Mothman playing with his purloined handheld console. “Your whole family lived there?”
“No.” He shakes his head again, his fingers moving idly through my hair. “Mothmen fend for themselves from birth, the eggs hatch alone, I grew up alone.”
The idea is unbearably sad to me. I’m still close with my parents, and my brother and sisters. I see them most weekends. We still sometimes game together.
“So that’s what your life was before the Decrypting? Just…solitude?”
“I traveled sometimes. Visited other bridges, met another cryptid here or there, no one stuck around. If Mothmen are lucky, we find a mate, and pair off for life.”
“Lucky lady to get you for life,” I tease lightly. His fingers tighten in my hair, and my breath hitches.
“You really think so?” His wings flutter. He’s so cute. I do think he’ll make someone happy. With his gentle heart and the great sex, of course. Can you say that out loud to a one-night stand?
“Wait, then who did you watch play video games?” I ask to avoid answering his question.
