diff --git a/player/mruby/observable.mrb b/player/mruby/observable.mrb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3b97461dd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/player/mruby/observable.mrb
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+# inspired by toy-rx: https://github.com/staltz/toy-rx
+class Subscriber
+  attr_writer :subscription
+
+  def initialize(observer)
+    @observer = observer
+  end
+
+  def next(value)
+    @observer.next(value)
+  end
+
+  def error(error)
+    @observer.error(error)
+  end
+
+  def complete
+    @observer.complete
+  end
+
+  def unsubscribe
+    @subscription.unsubscribe unless @subscription.nil?
+  end
+end
+
+class Observable
+  def initialize(&subscribe)
+    @subscribe = subscribe
+  end
+
+  def self.create(&subscribe)
+    fail ArgumentError, "`create` needs a subscribe block" unless block_given?
+    new do |observer|
+      subscriber = Subscriber.new(observer)
+      subscription = subscribe.call(subscriber);
+      subscriber.subscription = subscription
+      subscription
+    end
+  end
+
+  # XXX probably nicer to define operators in another file
+  def map(&tx)
+    inobservable = self
+    Observable.create do |out|
+      observer = {
+        next: -> (x) {
+          begin
+            out.next(tx.call(x))
+          rescue => e
+            out.error(e)
+          end
+        },
+        error: -> (e) { out.error(e) },
+        complete: -> (e) { out.complete },
+      };
+      inobservable.subscribe(observer)
+    end
+  end
+
+  def subscribe(callbacks = {}, &nextcb)
+    callbacks[:next] = nextcb if block_given?
+    noop = -> () {}
+
+    klass = Class.new do
+      define_method(:next,     callbacks.fetch(:next, noop))
+      define_method(:error,    callbacks.fetch(:error, noop))
+      define_method(:complete, callbacks.fetch(:complete, noop))
+    end
+
+    observer = klass.new
+    @subscribe.call(observer)
+  end
+end
diff --git a/player/mruby/observable_test.rb b/player/mruby/observable_test.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1a5cfcac6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/player/mruby/observable_test.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# require[_relative] doesn't like non .rb/.so/.a extensions in MRI
+load File.expand_path('./observable.mrb', __dir__)
+
+empty = Observable.create { |observer| observer.complete }
+value = -> (v) { Observable.create { |observer| observer.next(v) } }
+failure = Observable.create { |observer| observer.error("some error") }
+
+subscriptions = {
+  next: -> (x) { puts "next: '#{x}'" },
+  error: -> (x) { puts "error: '#{x}'" },
+  complete: -> () { puts "complete" }
+}
+
+empty.subscribe(subscriptions)
+value.("hello world").subscribe(subscriptions)
+value.("hello world").subscribe { |x| puts "block based subscription: '#{x}'" }
+value.(2).map { |x| x + 1 } .subscribe(subscriptions)
+failure.subscribe(subscriptions)
+failure # prints nothing, observables are lazy!
+
+# output will be:
+
+# complete
+# next: 'hello world'
+# block based sub hello world
+# next: '3'
+# error: 'some error'