#Yet when I called it out in the official discord I got told that “We can 100% assure it is not AI”

[patantasma]

Nexon America using AI Generated Imagery For a Community Post

The "Artist" is Gill Friedman II

[ask-caine]

ok ok what’s yours and moons love story. Beginning to end

OOC POST

It's a bit of a crazy story, actually!

We originally met online through TADC, when she messaged all the Caine accounts she could find for a shitpost "wedding" thing. We ended up hitting it off and talking about random things for a while. It started with my random fact about Kentucky marriage laws and how a couple used them to get married by cocaine bear (hence the below picture)

We ended up learning about a shared interest in plague doctors, as well as discussing several very random topics. Anyways, she invited all the Caines to a discord server, and I ended up being the only one who actually showed up. We would end up talking for hours upon hours day after day there. It was genuinely shocking how much we had in common.

At this point, I had been kinda been picking up on some of the flirtatious undertones behind some of the things she was saying, but I wasn't 100% sure about it yet and was still kinda testing the waters. I'd heard the term love at first sight, and looking back on it, that's pretty much what it felt like. I had been developing a crush on her up to this point, and I kept thinking about her as I was getting ready for bed. I had to keep stopping myself from falling head over heels, reminding myself we barely even knew each other and telling myself "no, she's just being nice. Don't be weird, there's nothing behind this, she's just being friendly."

...As it turned out, she wanted to be a little more than friends... Given my feelings up to this point, I was a little overwhelmed when she told me. I had to take a minute to collect my thoughts, to process everything (hence her jokes about me pulling a Caine and running away). But I liked her, too, and was willing to try a long-distance relationship. So, that's what we did.

It was only a few days after we first got together officially that I told her I loved her. It just felt right. Apparently I caught both of us off-guard with it, since she was sure that she'd be the one who would've said it first. ...We both dived in a little too headfirst from there. From my side of things, it was just so exciting and exhilerating to have this feeling I'd been searching for all my life, and I wanted more of it. We took a step back and both agreed to try and take things at a more reasonable pace from here on out.

We ended up learning a lot about each other. It was like we were the same person, split apart and put in two entirely different situations but turning out the same way anyway. ...This similarity became concerning when we realized we both had the same last name, as well as the fact that we both had Scottish ancestry. But, one family search check later, we confirmed that we are not, in fact, related. Just another insane coincidence that further proves that we were made for each other...

We shared a lot with each other. Our interests, hobbies, ideals, feelings on various topics. Our experiences throughout life, good and bad. The darkest parts of us. Every day, we grew closer. There was no denying that there was something special between us.

That isn't to say everything was perfect. We both still had a lot to learn about ourselves and about each other. There were ups and downs. Things were far from easy. There was a lot of avoidable pain both ways. As time went on, we started to become a little more distant...

Eventually, the stress of life and school and worries and everything going on got to be too much, and she called for us to take a break from the relationship. This hurt, of course... But, taking a break and being done are very different things. I was okay with taking a break, since we would still hang out and such sometimes, just not as romantically.

But, that still wasn't enough. Everything continued to be really stressful, and she felt like she wasn't a net positive in my life and was dragging me down (though the truth was exactly the opposite). So, she decided to fully end the relationship. Which... Really hurt me. Badly.

I kind of fell into a depressive state for a while. I had opened myself up like never before, let myself be more vulnerable than at any point in my life. I had finally found love, the one thing I'd truly wanted all my life, the only thing I've ever needed, and then it was just taken right away. The one thing I feared more than anything else in the world had come to pass.

We would still talk occasionally, but not like before. I already hurt so much, and just talking with her without being able to say the love I still felt was torture for me. So, I distanced myself a bit. I dealt with things on my own. I learned a lot about myself as I came to terms with how things had ended up.

Eventually, I started to feel a little more okay. I knew I could never stop loving her, so I decided to try and turn that love from romantic to platonic and still try to be a friend. Because while I may have lost her, she didn't want me out of her life completely. I could make do as just friends.

But, when I started to come back and we started to talk more again, she realized how much she had been missing me while we were apart. She figured out that some of the things she'd been feeling had been more than she'd realized. She learned that she actually was happier when we were together, and that she still really enjoyed being with me.

So, she began to give little hints again, like before. And, again, I picked up on them, but I didn't want to believe them 100% because of how much I'd been hurt last time. I told myself that she was just showing platonic love, the same way I was. Things would never be the same again. They couldn't be. If I was good for her before, she wouldn't have left...

It was actually Randy who got us actually talking again, first on our blogs, and then regarding what we were being sent. This eventually led to us talking just in general, about all sorts of things... Including what had happened between us. It was emotional, but we both came out of it feeling better about things.

That said, it took until this post before I realized she still loved me and that it was okay to love her back, the way I'd been holding in all this time. We had a heartfelt reunion, though we weren't officially dating again just yet. It still took me a while after that to fully accept everything and let down my guard again, after how much I was still hurting from last time...

But I didn't like the feeling of keeping her away. Of having a barrier between us. I desperately craved that deep, personal connection of love with her again. So, I opened my heart up again. And I'm so incredibly grateful that I did.

Soon after that point, Randy showed up and all those shenanigans ensued. But they only managed to get us talking more about things and uniting against it, which actually brought us even closer together. So, I guess if one good thing's come out of that dumpster fire of stress and stupidity, it's that.

Things have been absolutely wonderful since we got back together. We both learned a lot about ourselves in our time apart, and things have been much better between us. The rocky, uncertain road from before the break had smoothed over. And we fell so much deeper in love the second time.

Add in the stress of the past several weeks, with all the Tumblr drama with these blogs and the hiatus and everything (which I'm not getting into because you can see all that for yourself by looking through our blogs), and you're caught up to the present day. Life is still very stressful for us both, but a lot less so than when we first got together. We understand ourselves and each other so much better, which helps us make less mistakes and treat each other more tenderly and personally in the ways that we need most.

As for the future, immediately after finishing school, I plan to find work and save up to visit her in Canada sometime in the summer. After that is a little hazy at the moment, but we'll figure out our lives and put together a plan to find stable jobs and create a good life for ourselves up there.

And that's it, that's our story. From when we met all the way to the present day. You said beginning to end, but I'm afraid there is no end to our love. The story's still being written. Our lives are still being lived. I hope to be able to add to this years into the future, when we're living together and when we start our own family. But it might still take a while to reach that point.

[twimshi]

Shattered Realities Prt3

Hobie Brown/Reader (3/5 part)

"Yes or no?"

Maybe she was the dirty window.

(A/n I wanna preface that webbie is based of you, the reader but mainly as a POC with semi tan to dark skin but you can imagine her as whatever because she is a self insert in a sense so go nuts)

Also plz comment, l love replying

Tag list

@kittekat420

@zeyzeys-stuff

@50yruken

@oromaangel

[I also might start a discord server for the updates so just drop ur discord Id]

It's been about a few weeks since Webbies arrival and stay at Hobies, yet she still isn't used to some things.

"I'll be heading to out now" Says Hobie getting ready.

Webbie asks, getting bored of the mundane life she's been living "Wait what do I do here?"

"Uhm? I don't know, just chill. I guess? Don't watch any British shows without me, I heard kitchen nightmare is airing in an hour but I 'ought to handle this police chase real quick"

Before Hobie could gear up, he was alarmed by the sound of popping from the window.

"Woah, fireworks." Webbie said trying to stick her head out to get a closer look while Hobie is confused.

"Fireworks on a normal day? My god Webbie-" He shoots his webs to her shoulders inside to hold her back and closes the curtain with another

Webbie struggles in his webs, hands stretched to the window "Hey! you're blocking me the fireworks"

"Those are gun shots Webs" Hobie deadpans.

Sometimes Webbie forgets that there were scheduled protests in Old York.

She stops her struggling and backs away from the miror "Oh, noted....Wait, Webs? I didn't know we were on nick name basis"

Hobie shrugs "I've been calling you so many names all this time, and you notice when I call you Webs?

Her eyes glimmer, not paying attention to what he says "You need a nickname."

Hobie crosses his arms "Isn't Hobie short enough"

"Not short enough, what about Bee-bee?"

"That's like the same amount of syllabus. You make me sound like a cartoon character" He says, trying to make sense of the name "Plus it sounds odd, anyways gotta go now. Call me if you need anything"

Webbie taps his shoulder before he can go out "Erm...I don't have a phone to call you though, I could probably learn how to do smoke signals to communicate with you?"

"How would that even work in this small place"

"Like incase I burn your place or something, smoke signals"

"Thats it, you are officially banned from the stove"

Webbie looks at him in shock "I was only joking!"

He gives her a teasing look before trying to think of an alternative solution.

"Hold that thought" Hobie types something on his phone, there was a ping back "Right, I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Just sit tight"

Webbie does as told watching an animal programe that was playing on the television when Hobie swings back with a small device on hand and hands it to her.

"One of my ex-bandmates is a tech whiz, she had some extras on hand. It already has a sim card inside so its all set"

She takes the phone after thanking him, trying to figure out what type of model it was "Not complaining, but what brand is this phone? I just want to know to jog any memories because it looks familiar but mixed in with a bunch of other brands i know"

"Thats because it is a mix of brands"

Webbie tilts her head still confused.

"My bandmate experimented on a couple of phone scrapes to make the most efficient phone and came up with this, works like a normal phone. Just better" He explains.

"Woah, you even got me a tangerine charm"

Hobie gleams, almost proud of himself for getting the little phone charm "I got Pav a watermelon one, seems right to get a matching one with you too"

"Whose Pav?"

"He's my-" Hobie wants to say but is rudely interrupted by his watch beeping "Acrually it's better if you met him in person, I gotta bounce right now"

He swings out without another word and before Webbie could even peak out of the window he webs it shut with a note reading.

Don't even try, call me if you're burning -brown

Webbie contemplates burning the building down out of pure pettiness and dying the the flames.

-

Hobie returns after an hour of erands.

"You're finally letting me out of the house?"

"You make me sound like I'm holding you captive" He says making his way into the window "But actually, we can go out now-"

But Webbie has already made her way to the bathroom, changing her attire.

As promised, Hobie brings her around, taking her sightseeing.

She even got to take a picture with the clock tower which was called 'An doomsday clock' by Hobie.

Once that was done, it was late evening so Hobie decided to introduce her to his old band mates after bumping into them.

He decides to grab some snacks, leaving Webbie to converse by herself.

Webbie thinks of something to try to break the ice "Oh! If you had the chance to be any animal, what would you be?"

"A penguin" Says the one with a bandana

"Thats a tricky one, totally would be a salmon fish" The other with gauges in his ear says.

Webbie makes an 'ooo' sound, taking note of everything "I want to be a whale" She states "Not only are they the biggest mammals but oh!"

They jump a little, waiting for her to continue.

"I just remembered I like space! Like black holes and all that"

The other two seemed to be having a conversation on their own, so Webbie just speaks to the Jerm (the guy with the bandana)

The more Webbie speaks, the more excited she has with the overwhelming feeling of her memories resurfacing.

"And did you know that Venus is actually more hot than Mercury from the atmosphere, quite similarly....."

Webbie stops, realizing that his expression was slightly bored.

He shakes his head when she stops talking "Sorry Webbie just dozed there for a second, what were you saying?"

She covers her emotions "Actually that's all! Thanks for listening"

"Oh really? Well, you're welcome"

Their voices slightly blur as a familiar sinking feeling from when she was younger.

Oh

Oh

Oh

Webbie thinks she sees a child? A person? She settles on child with child person.

She thinks she sees a child looking at her mother.

Then she cant seem to here the words.

But she can feel them to her core.

They run into the bathroom and just stare into the miror, tears streaming down their face.

its like she could feel every emotion they felt from that rear view miror.

Theres a moment where they just cradle their head, trying to make sure they dont make a peep.

It hurts.

She feels hurt and its scary.

They child person stare into the miror, tears streaming down their face as they they slide down the wall - biting on their hands, making sure they didnt let any sound out.

It was lonely.

It was c̴̡̰͖̯̹̲̱̤͈͎̤̻̜̺̠͍͚̦̦̈̍̿͆̿ͅͅo̸̡͉̤̟̩̼̰̯̻̞̱͉̤̺̳̞͙̣̫̲͇̠̼̠̽̅̉̈̀͑́̽̌͆͘̚l̵̛̫̫̯̗̪̖͇̣͋̍̂́͒̒́̍̽̆̾̐͊̓̀̾͝͝ͅd̶̢̡͖̪̫͍̩̞͎̱̣̮̮͚̝̩̯͓̻͓̰͇̥̉́͜

Oh

Oh

õ̴̢̨̙͕̘̳͓̘͈̼̩͍̙̊͐ͅh̶̡̡͚͍̗̫͔̗̞̮̗͔̮̰̱̅́̑̍̏̉

Oh

Her thoughts are snapped back into reality when she receives a text from her phone from Hobie.

Of course, it was Hobie, the only contact on her phone.

She calms herself to make an important decision as Hobie send her an assortment of snacks for her to choose from saying she could only choose one.

Webbie makes her decision to settle on a hashbrown and skittles.

Hashbrown and skittles por favor (*¯︶¯*)

Hobie replies in an instant

That has the weirfedt combindsation evear

M texting eithj one hend si dstop your snar ky reples

Webbie snorts and sends him a reply

( ‾́ ◡ ‾́ ) okay illeterate slob

Webbie sets her phone down and dec8des to try,to engage in conversation again.

She compliments their earings.

"Have you ever thought of getting one?"

"I uh...not really? But I'm open to get like a super cool one, but only one, but like....a cool one"

"She should get a dermal piercing" His friend laughed and grabbed Webbie shoulder suddenly, who was slightly alarmed but played it cool.

She could totally be cool.

These were Hobie's friends, after all.

Her eyes kept darting between all of his band mates, hoping Hobie would get back when his unnamed friend spoke up "Come on guys don't"

Hobie walks back with the snacks on hand, paasing then to his friends "You getting along bug?"

"Y-yeah totally bro man"

He gives her a weird look, resuming conversation.

The laughther is interrupted when her a dermal piercing is brought up.

Hobbie turned immediately towards Webbie "Piercing? Did he or you say that-"

Webbie tries to reasure him, punchjng his shoulder lightly "You worry wart, of course I suggested it"

"Yeah man don't worry, she said she might get a dermal at Mikes"

"Come off it man, a dermal? You trying to poison her first experience?"

"Chill it was just a joke, no harm"

Webbie inhales smiling, trying to be cool about it even though she felt a little foolish about it "It's fine, I'm alright" She scoots to Hobie whispering "What's a dermal?"

Hobie looks around and points to his neck.

"Oh....ew"

"Yeah ew, don't get crowd pressured to get something. Seriously."

Webbie pats his back "I know.It's fine, really"

Hobie doesn't look that convinced until she playfully punches him and sticks to him from the side.

He decides to let it go, shoving his hands in his pockets "You wanna drink?"

Webbie makes a thinking face "No but I would like to try?"

Hobie nods, confirming plans with his friends as they make their way to a nearby pub.

----

Webbie was slightly hoping for a margarita or a sweet type of alcohol but the place they went to only seemed to serve beer and chicken wings.

"Ew, this beer, taste like bread" Webbie gags after trying to drink it again "You might as well blend bread and mix hand sanitiser with it"

Hobie rolls his eyes at her "That's what all bear taste liks"

"Gross, it tastes like my broken dreams"

Hobie raises an eyebrow, interested "You got dreams?"

"I was being sarcastic!" She tries to take another chug to spit it out "I don't feel anything, this taste like garbage and im feeling good. Alcohol is one big lie"

He takes the mug away from her "That's enough beer for you. Usually it takes some time for people to feel it, gotta pace yourself for that"

She scrunches up her face at him "Gross"

The music booms louder and Webbie closses her eyes for a while to try to quite it down as Hobie slowly seperates from her to his friends at the other side of the island table.

She doesn't understand why she feels so, lonely?

Like all the people are laughing and talking but she feels like she's looking right at them from a dirty window.

Maybe she was a dirty window.

That needed windex.

The beer was the windex.

But she hated beer, so that still leaves her as the dirty miror.

She just asked for some water entertaining herself by watching the football on the TV.

She has a whole conversation in her mind about what's so interesting about balls getting tossed around.

Seems like it was a huge event because more people rushed into the bar.

It kind of felt like mash potatoes, Webbie would relish in some mashed potatoes with actual relish right now.

Unsure and a little fed up, she looks around the pub to find Hobie.

She gets up and squeezes her way towards him, sighing in relief and holding his sleeve like a lifeline.

She could almost fall asleep like that.

Hobie tilts his head back to look at, her distasteful smile in her sleepy state.

He says something to one of his friends who nods their head and wave at the confused Webbie as Hobie slowly menurvers them out of the crowded room.

He shoves his hands in his pocket and points to the street sign with his thumb "Wanna get smoothies then go to spider society? I have to check in for something, but we can get little bites before we go"

Webbie thinks her heart expands then sinks at the same time "What? No. You don't want to hang out with your friends? You talked about wanting to do this since like, last week?"

"What about it?"

"I just....I don't mind going home"

"Alright let's go home"

She panics.

Ashamed that he can read her mind.

She grabs his vest "No- I mean you go have fun, I'll go home. It's totally fine Beebee" her fingers tighten.

Hobie chooses to ignore the name "And I mean we can go home together, I hang out with them next week for the gig. Might as well do one more song"

"Hobieeee" She drags.

"Webs" He mirors.

"Webs?"

"Yes Webs" He leans on a wall, looking at her, but his tone becomes gentler "What's got your panties in a bunch?"

"Okay I know that's slang, but it sounds so weird and secondly, what makes you say that

"For starters, you're being less" He makes some hand gesture "You"

"Whatttt?" She shurgs, trying to seem nonchalant "No way, bro......"

"Webbie" Hobie says firmly.

"Okay, fine so what?"

"You do know that I don't mind your silly annoying absurdness"

"You think I'm silly?"

Hobie rolls his head back, punching her shoulder lightly to get out of whatever sappy mood that was slowly forming "My friends don't mind you also. They're just a different demographic. Promise not to change your individuality"

"You sound like a self-help lecturer but alright Brown"

"Promise?"

"I promise to always be annoying" Webbie smiles, looking up at him and knocks her feet against his.

She forgets how tall he was sometimes.

Hobie looks down at his feet and knocks his feet back to hers "Atta lad"

After some time Webbie pushes him back to the door of the pub "But for realzies, go back to your friends. Maybe I could go and take a nap at the spider society pub or something"

"Spider society does not, unfortunately have a pub. Trust me I've checked" He sighs thinking back "Throughly"

"I mean, the whole multiple universe thing that you explained to me seems like a whole space theory" She adds "Which means there is a possibility where there is a univerese where people drink alcohol like water"

"That would probably mean they found a cure for liver cancer. The universe would either be fun as hell or a living nightmare"

They both nod their head.

After just stalling, Webbie looks at Hobie again "But seriously, go back to your friends. I'll just go to Spider Society and hopefully avoid Miguel on the way there"

Hobie hums "Are your memories coming back?"

"Something like that, its just an uncomfortable feeling I get" She grips herself and let's go before Hobie can speak "Like when you think you're about to sneeze but can't"

"Thats oddly specific-"

"Or when you think youre about to silently fart but its really loud-"

"Alright, alright. You've made your point." Hobie opens up the portal. "I'll be home at around four, so give me a ring if you get back early"

Webbie hops into the portal waving goodbye with her last words "Okie Beebee"

"I ought to shank you for that-" The portal closses before he could even finish his sentance which leaves Webbie giggling to herself.

She makes her way to Margo (Byte) without pulling too much attention to herself.

By attention to herself, she means to avoid talking to any of the spider people which could be hard sometimes because they were all so friendly and funny.

Why couldnt Miguel be funny.

He's like one of the few spidermen that were not funny, well other than Spider plush, his backstory with uncle with Teddy Ben was quite heartbreaking so it dosent count.

Webbie calls out for Margo, who is estatic at her return

After hugging, she takes a selfie of the both of them with flash on.

"Oh, you got a new phone. Did Jess give that to you?" Margo quickly noyes.

"She was supposed to, but she seems kinda busy with the whole pregnancy and balancing multiverse, so I didn't bother asking again"

"Did you steal it?"

"I wish I was that cool, but no, Hobie got'em for me, and oh." She dangles her phone charm to Margo. "He evem got me a tangerine charm"

"Thats nice of him, how long are you staying here today?"

"Just for a couple of hours, wouldn't want to distract you guys"

"You don't girl, you good. Let me finish some documents them we'll talk"

"Kay-kay"

Webbie likes spider society, everyone here was nice and fun.

Just being in company with Margo made her gleam in joy.

She doesn't even dig for more information about her memories unless specifically asked for.

Margo finishes up a report and looks at Webbie, who was sitting upside down on her phone "What are you doing?"

"Trying to send Hobie an animal fact, did you know seahorses mate for life? And slugs have like, four noses. Like what are they smelling in the seafloor other than salt and steel?"

"I did not know that" Margo says typing something on her own phone to notify Malala of Webbies surprise visit.

The two converse their weekly updates to each other.

"Yeah, I tried convincing Hobie to let me cook something but he won't let me near the stove because I made one joke about burning his kitchen-"

"Webbie!" A figure yells.

Malala takles Webbie to the floor out of pure excitement "Oof, good to see you to scarffy"

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming back!"

"It was a last-minute decision babes"

"Babes?" Malala Saya caught off guard "You hang out with Hobie too much. Anyways, how have you been?"

"Just dandy" Webbie says, feeling slightly woozy "Do you ladies happen to know where the snacks are, more specifically tangerines?"

"I think we do, mind if you get them yourself? I've got a mission to do soon and need a nap" Margo says.

"Same here" Malala adds.

"No worries my bromies, I'll to get it. Where is by the way?"

Margo chuckles awkwarly, not making eyecontact with webbie " Uhm...Just near Miguel's office"

"You've gotta be kidding me" She looks for Malala's eyes "You're kidding right malala?"

"Sorry Webbie" She says apologeticly.

"I'll be fine, why wouldn't I be fine approaching a tall angry man that gave me big time pain through a porwal....peetal" Webbie smacks her lips together trying again "Portawl....close enough"

Her speech becomes slured and vision becames a little messy as the alcohol finally settles in her stomach.

It honestly felt like sleep walking so she couldn't be drunk, at least she thinks so.

She finally finds Miguels office but hides behind some equipment when she hears Jess's voice through the intercome

"Don't you find it weird that the spider-9833 event isn't happening?" Miguel says.

"Right, it's been a lot of unscripted filler. Which is normal, but not to the point where no canon events have been happening lately"

"More anomalies have been showing up but thats normal, but its becoming more......Mundane"

"Are they linked to her?"

Webbie feels herself sweat, they dont even have to say who.

She knows its her.

Miguel sighs "Theres no way of confirming....Other than the bigger work load she hasn't been causing all that trouble and most of the events have been docile so there isn't a huge issue"

"Alright then, over and out"

She looks at her hands and back at Miguel thinking about the entire exchange between the two, did she really want those tangerines?

Webbie didn't belong here. Period.

Where would she go to?

She's so close to-

Miguel sighs, grabbing a picture frame, Webbie peaks her head inside more to get a better look.

It was a little girl, who she assumes is either a little sister or daughter.

He was looking at her so longingfully.

With such.

Solemnes.

And longingful eyes as he plays a clip of a little girl and him playing soccer.

Webbie stands there for ten minutes watching Miguel replay the same clip over and over when she feels like she's intruded.

Well she has obviosly intruded, but alcohol has made her placid to stay in place.

She backtracks her steps and makes loud stomps with her feet to the door.

With a a sigh Miguel turns off the computer, returning to his stoic expression once more.

"Hi Migi-bear" There was no reply "Okay not on nick name basis. Hey, have you seen a box of tangerines anywhere?"

Miguel points to a corner, grufly saying "Right behind the table over there"

Webbie nods her head and scurries to the box, tripping on herself again causing her to slightly slide across the floor.

Miguel looks at the girl who immediately tries to sit up playing it cool by making finger guns at him "How's it going from up there"

"Are you okay?" Webbie could have sworn he almost sounded concerned, actually maybe he was, she couldnt tell.

"Of *hic* course bro-man" Why did she say that?

"Are you drunk"

"Er.....no?" He is totally falling for that.

"Do you actually think I'm falling for that"

He does a pose which can only be described as an angry old man when he finds used socks left by someone on the living rooom floor "Can you at least tie your shoe laces?"

She finally finds the box, looking back at Miguel sighing "It's a style choice..."

Webbie picks up the box and manoeuvres the box of tangerines, scooching side to side to try to get the box out of the room without dropping it.

Unsure, she gives him a slight bow for respect purposes.

Does he know its respectful?

Regardless he makes a grunt of acknowledgement.

It makes Webbie somehow.

Glad.

-

"Found the hangover meds!" Margo hands the medicine to Webbie after she requested for it after beung unable to open her packet of skittles.

She chugs the medicine down, soering at the horrible taste, but in an instant, she's sobering up.

"You good to go now?" Margo checks.

"Yeah all good" Webbie grins rubbing her head "Argh, my heads all woozy now"

"At least you decided to come here today, those tangerines should be ripe in a day or two"

Webbie frowns "But I'm hungry right now for them"

"They're going to taste like rubber"

Webbie groans picking up the heavy box "The last time I came over there was only like six tangerines, you guys need to inform me if there's another tangerine lover out there"

Margo types out Hobie's universe's serial number and opens the portal "Actually Miguel ordered those for you"

"...He did?"

"Yeah, he got them sent in last week. Said you would and I quote 'Bother everyone' if you didn't have these"

"He does have a point" Webbie says trying not to think to much about Miguel as Margo hugs her and makes her way to the portal "See you next time Marge"

"Webbie you got my name wrong-"

But she's already gone into the portal

She smiles to herself.

She did a bunch of things today.

Got a phone.

Met new people.

Saw her two babes, Margo and Malala.

Got tangerines.

A job well done.

She didn't even flinch when she got out of the portal this time, becoming a normal thing.

Webbie groans as she placed the box of fruit down on the floor with her entire body bending forward.

"Ow- My back" She yells out, holding her back like an old man in his late sixties "My backkkkkkkkk"

Once she felt less sore, she plops herself on the couch, looking at the time. It was about four in the morning.

No sign of Hobie yet, she shrugged it off and slept off.

When she woke up, she didn't realize how hungry she was until she remembered she just ate a singular hasbrown and one skittle.

Yes a singular skittle, because she left the rest at spider society.

She nags herself in the miror for the mistake after ransacking Hobies house realizing that she might need to get a job because there was little to no edible food in the fridge anymore.

Webbie thinks back of the other week when she suggested to go out but was hit with an immediate 'Naur bruv'

Something about being unsure, which was a rare thing for Hobie to say considering his whole 'I break rules' agenda.

Webbie walks over to the box of Tangerines and Peels, one open with her hands "I know Margo said these aren't ripe, but meh"

It tasted like the balls you got at the gumball machine.

She should have listened to Margo.

They were indeed, not ripe.

This was an insult to all tangerines.

Webbie sighs, chucking the horrible tasting fruit into the bin, looking in the cabinet realizing the monstrosity she might have to eat.

-

It was approximately eight thirty into the night when Hobie walks back into the house tiredly.

He was not prepared to see the horror movie in front of him.

"What the hell are you eating?"

Hobie is home, and he is unamused.

Webie looks at him, taking another bite her food "Cereal"

"I can clearly see that, but it's what you eating it with"

"I- what the bloody hell are you doing?"

Hobie was very blunt with his question, and he looked like he just wanted the answer.

He was also a little disturbed from the cereal with water, and he raised an eyebrow.

Webbie just continues eating making faces while reading the newspaper "Not my fault you don't have milk....or any other edible stuff"

"Couldn't you eat it dry?"

"Yeah but it wouldn't be the same"

Hobie sighs "But...why?

"It was either this or gastric" she says, taking another aggressive bite.

Hobie is about to say something but she flails her hands around "But don't worry about it! I totally can live off this, Maybe I should get a job?"

"And feed this capitalistic society?" He scoffs.

"I'm litrally free loading here. I don't know why Miguel won't let me just stay at the spider society?"

"He did say you were distracting the rest of 'em with your annoying stories"

"My stories are not annoying!" She yells defensively but sooner realizes the true power of her storytelling bullshitery "But they do, in fact, distract the people...."

He signals her to his window "You know what? Let's go get some groceries"

Webbie nods excitedly, throwing away the watered soggy cereal into the sink.

Hobie chuckles as she hobbles to him wearing her shoes and helps her up the balcony which Webbie found odd since they used the door earlier.

"Question" Webbie asks, looking down from the rooftop.

"Proceed"

"How are we getting to said store if we are supposed to get on the store on the roof-"

Hobie wiggles his wrist to her direction.

"Oh yeah..." Webbie takes a moment to process what this means "Oh yeah! Wait, so this means I'm getting one for myself? I don't even have the upper body strength like you, spider people. I've watched this one cartoon called invincible and my arm will totally-"

Webbie realizes she's rambling and stops to wait for Hobie to make any sound of annoyance.

But he's just watching her patiently adjusting his web shooters "Gonna keep going, bug?"

Webbie scratches her head "I mean, I totally could but I'm reading the air so I'm gonna let you speak"

He clicks something on his wrist "Alright then, you cool with me holding yer waist?"

"Uhm why?"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes but why?"

"We're gonna swing there"

"Swing? Swing as in you're gonna" Webbie makes finger motions "Pew pew us there?"

Hobie nods.

"Excuse me for one moment" Webbie turns around and squeals before turning back to Hobie with a stone cold expression, offering her hand like a little lady in movies "I am ready"

He grabs it with as muxh grace before hoist her arm around his shoulders "Don't puke on the way there"

"Now this is a targeted insult to-ME!" Webbie says as Hobie runs at full speed and shoots his webs to a building and jumps off the roof.

Webbie has a tight grip on him.

Thankfully, his grip is tighter as he swings from building to building.

Though she feels the motion sickness coming through.

She can't help but hold a wonder look at the cars and buildings that she passes by.

It was almost surreal looking at the people go on their day.

Hobie lands behind an aly, taking of his mask and throwing on a bomber jacket quickly.

Webbie could definitely see Hobie in those fashion changing magic shows.

Where the lady would wear a horrendoes leapord dress one minute, and the next moment, she was wearing a ballroom dress.

The only difference between them was spandex, and a hint of punk and grunge.

Other than that, there are totally no differences.

They walk into a little quaint conner shop, Hobie seems to know the owner and gives him a little dap on the shoulder.

"Pick out some stuff" Hobie says to Webbie, handing her a basket.

Her eyes follow him as he picks up a carton of milk "You say that like you have a bunch of cash"

"I don't" He chuckles, going to pick out some fruit "Did I tell you that I was briefly a runway model"

"You need to stop getting cooler" Webie's places her hands on her hips, trying to imitate a model's pose.

Or at least that's what he thinks, with her odd pose.

"Want me to teach you some stuff?"

Webbie inhales and does a little hand spasm motion, staring at Hobie excitedly nodding.

Hobie and her stayed at the same spot, simply conversing about posing techniques.

"And you gotta strut your hips and make sure you put your chin up- No, not that up"

Webbie currently looked like a disoriented baby flamingo trying to replicate to various vouges magazine poses.

"You look lopsided"

"No, I'm doing it right. Your head is just lopsided" She says confidently as her legs cross each other, on the verge of falling on the floor.

"They're not-"

The owner clapped his hands to their direction "As much as I love to watch two people bond, I've gotta close up so if you lads could wrap it up"

"Right right" Hobie grabbed a few more things and was ready to pay "You would be a horrible runway model"

"That's why I'd be an amazing story teller duh"

Hobie nods along and pays for the groceries heading to the back aly again to put on his mask and offers a hand "If the lady would mind"

"Why thank you gentleman-" She tries to finish her sentence but he's already grabbing her waist and swinging without warning it almost seems to be on purpose to get a reaction out of her.

Her thoughts are replaced with the slight motion sickness.

Through the piss smelling city she finds solance in his shoulder.

"You enjoying the view?" Hobie says swinging.

"Yeah! Pleugh" She shouts, spitting out some stuff from her mouth that was probably bugs "Totally!"

Hobie takes a glance at the girl in his arms, whose eyes are barely open, trying to get used to the swinging.

He let's his gaze linger, slowing down as she slowly peels herself from his shoulder to look at the view.

Webbies eyes lit up like starlight, which was obviously scientifically impossible but it did.

Hobie just watches the many emotions on her face.

He decides to take the longer route home this time, swinging through the more lit parts of town.

She smiles like she just found out her favourite cartoon got rebooted.

Regardless, Hobie decides to make new tech for her.

Was the city that good to have Webbie gleaming?

But also maybe it was.

He ought to appreciate it more often.

[space-station-collective]

How did you come up with your system name?

i hope it's alright that i'm answering this publicly! (and also my gods this took a while, i started it then drafted and completely forgot, apologies for the delay on it!!)

i think our system name choosing process was actually quite funny!

we changed it to the current one (SSC, or Space Station Collective) back around in July, so actually quite recently!

first, though, we need to cover our original system name: the Solar System!

for some context, well before our syscovery, and when i/we believed that i specifically was the One Singular Functioning Part (false), i had several friends who were plural! one of them in particular was an online friend, and as such called me by my online name (of which i won't be sharing what it is, but it was very space related, the name of a space thing)

this friend, a couple times, joked that if i ever realized i was a system, i would simply have to use the name the Solar System, because of how integral space was to my entire personality and brand

lo and behold- queue syscovery, and we had the Solar System!

we did quickly realize, though, that that was a very very very common system name, and while it is by no means a bad one, we wanted something unique (and also something we could use as a username for things like this blog which didn't exist yet)

we spent about a month thinking and brainstorming different things, and also asking a couple friends if they had any ideas or thoughts

eventually, one of us (i don't remember who) came up with something fun- the Space Station Collective! a couple headmates were in the fronting area at the time and all seemed to like the idea, so we set up a little thread in our private discord server to take the vote! (it seems to have been deleted by now, I can't find it, but I remember it existed

i believe it was at 13 votes for yes that we officially changed it! (at the time, we had much fewer headmates, and that was much the majority)

we told our friends, changed our simplyplural and pluralkit to be updated, and here we are now! we're all still very happy with the name, and we've still got a little piece of that original name, as our collective name in spaces we're out as a system in tends to be Solar

thank you for your ask! and apologies again for how long that took, i hope the answer is to your satisfaction after all that wait! (for anyone who isn't the person who sent this ask, this draft was started on Oct. 18 and i'm finishing/queueing it Nov. 1)

-the host (he/they)

[night-heron-writes]

Buddy Daddies Episode 9 "No Sweet Without Sweat"

~*~Warning: Spoilers for Buddy Daddies Episode 9 under the cut~*~

Overall this was a very cute episode with almost no angst, which means next week is going to be painful. We're entering the final arc of the season here, and things are going to ramp up.

The first thing I noticed about this episode was the background music during the scene where Kazuki, Rei, and Miri were asking Kyutaro to come to the field day. The music playing in the background was typical classic-esque music that would play in a cafe, but what caught my attention was that it was played in a minor key. (Don't ask me which key, I don't have perfect pitch.) Minor keys are often used in music to signal ominous things. If I have my music theory straight, D-minor is considered the saddest key. It'd be interesting to know exactly which key this piece was played in.

Another thing that caught my eye was the way the shot zoomed in on Kyutaro's face when his eyes narrowed, and then the immediate cut to the opening song. This does not bode well, and combined with the musical implications I am starting to get an inkling that Kyutaro will betray our protagonists.

Rei going overkill to secure a spot was hilarious and also very touching. He went out in the middle of the night to secure the best spot to watch Miri. However, the barbed wire monstrosity was a bit much. Plus the way he just easily vaulted over the brick wall? He missed his calling as an Olympic gymnast smh.

Also Kazuki's camera setup kills me. I grew up with a dad who loves to take pictures and has all the snazzy cameras, but even he never used three at once. Look at that telescoping lens on the middle one! Kazuki is prepared.

The discord helped me identify the brand that the cameras spoof off of. If you look at the marking on the camera, you'll see that it says "Milox", which is a spoof of Nilox. Here's a screencap so you can see it clearly.

I think somebody needs to tell Kazuki that this is not what people usually mean by "fun fact".

Absolutely dying at the fact that the daycare mamas still believe the whole "oil baron and washed-up comedian" story. 😂 What kind of fanfiction-type bullshit has Kazuki been coming up with?

Miss Anna is the MVP of tug-of-war. We stan a queen.

Poor Taiga has managed to make enemies for life out of both Rei and Kazuki. That child isn't going to make it to elementary school.

What really got me about this episode was that the leitmotif I've nicknamed "Miri's Family" started playing the minute Rei unfolded the scavenger hunt card that says "family", and it doesn't stop playing until the field day is officially over. I think that's the longest we've heard it play! I'm almost in tears bc Rei and Kazuki have realized that Miri thinks of them as a family. A big moment for the both of them, and the leitmotif makes it all even more touching.

But the post-credit scene. Ah fuck. It's October now, and Kyutaro has yet to either give the organization information or tell Rei and Kazuki. So his decision so far is not to decide? It looks like the organization is starting to get antsy and press for information. Kyutaro better abide by what he told Rei and Kazuki in episode 5:

One final note: It's absolutely hysterical how wrong my predictions were for this episode:

The daycare mamas' group chat pops up again, probably speculating on Rei and Kazuki's relationship history or how they got Miri

Rei and Kazuki get way over-invested bc they don't understand the idea of "friendly competition". (Almost a given, especially after that promo video 😂)

Kyutaro will show up at least once, likely in the post-credit scene

the post-credit scene will be the the only part of the episode that addresses the request for information.

We will get a hilariously over-the-top training montage where Kazuki and Rei coach Miri. I'm talking like on the order of the dodgeball episode of spy x family where the kiddos were climbing a jungle gym but it looked like mountain climbing 😂

we get at least one new important musical theme, or one becomes important that wasn't earlier.

I'm at 2 for 6 with my predictions.🤣 Maybe I'd better stick to the musical analysis...

[iamshay]

This post been private for a year. Open it now.

I've been busy with life and work, working on a lot of art projects.

I want to address some people on Kick and talk about what kind of person they really are.

When I met these people on Kick, I was already an affiliate on the platform. Someone named "Kevin," as he is an admin.

The issue came about when my VODs were not being posted after around 13 hours. So, I decided to open a ticket on the official Kick Discord server.

I explained the problem to Kevin, and he accepted my ticket. He told me that he would enable VODs for me early, even though I hadn't reached 75 followers yet. Kevin probably thought I would reach the required number quickly since I stream for more than 5 hours. 13 hours now that vod it delete dual expired time.

After that, I started networking with kick community on discord.

One of them in this circle of people was "LaurenShayala," who was the first to tag me on their Discord server.

We were discussing reporting anyone on the Hot Tube section who breaks the terms of service. LaurenShayala was worried that I might report her since her content involves twerking for subscribers, and she often has explicit content. She was also one of the first to follow me on the platform. You can verify this by searching my name on Discord.

I hope this clarifies things. As you can see, during the time and date mentioned in that message, I was already an affiliate. From my perspective, it seems like she is a manipulative liar, given her behavior of deleting her VODs. This action makes sense since people would undoubtedly find incriminating evidence linking those dates and times together. Therefore, every time she twerks for subscribers now, she promptly deletes her VODs because she knows it goes against the platform's terms of service.

I have already spoken with a lot of people who used to drop into her stream regularly, but they don't go there anymore because they have seen what I have seen. She constantly social climbs, and when I was harassed, she quickly jumped on a podcast without even planning beforehand or considering the situation.

I called her out on Twitter because she is such a phony person. She consistently attacks people, tagging Trainwreck and Eddie, but the truth is, she harassed Eddie for months until he felt compelled to follow her. She constantly tags them and behaves like a sycophant, just like her group of friends. I will address her more down below. the blog I got by name in order. I already air out those who harassed me. on here.

Please when you go below blog there is where harassment took place. You don't fucking need to raid someone to harass someone but send your community throws my stream is harassing too. They need to search the dictionary. The video is age-restricted click "watch on Youtube" and click that it will take you to the youtube video.

Furthermore, none of these people got verified through regular means. Instead, they either obtained verification by befriending admins or vouching for each other on Discord. there used to be vouching discord channel only open for verified people.

The fact is, some people publicly revealed that these individuals are asking for vouchers in their Discord DMs to get verified. They called me entitled when, in reality, I was the only one being outspoken and expressing my opinion among them. I mentioned that it seems like some of them might be using view bots to attack legitimate streamers, and those who got verified through vouching shouldn't have received it that way. Because they didn't earn it naturally.

My comments seemed to have hit a nerve, as they took them as a personal attack, which suggests they might be engaged in such practices. Their reaction strongly indicates that my observations hit close to the truth, and they may be involved in seeking vouchers for verification in an inappropriate manner.

Igypc: She pretends on Discord as if she has a different persona than what she portrays on this platform.

Here are more receipts. I sent her the evidence, and later, she went back on her words without these boys actually showing her any proof. However, I have posted on my blog all the screenshots from our DMs, which clearly show that I never harassed or attacked them in any way.

here is from her alt account.

What I find so amusing is how this girl can sit in front of a Discord call next to Sponge after what she has told me about him. With a straight face. These people are all fake and two-faced; they talk about each other behind their backs, and later, they pretend to be friends.

She was the one typing this, not me. I only expected Zovo to view botting because, in our DMs, which I posted before on here https://shays.blog/post/711268874690183168/my-side-of-story-they-talking-about-airing-it

he claimed he was nobody and still got verified. Additionally, he was suspected of botting since he is friends with people who have coding She was the one who said this about her "friends" not me. I hope this shows more real true colors of who they are.

In this video, there is a group of friends who send direct messages to each other, obviously supporting one another. There seems to be no impartial party within the group.

They say I delete shit. I have not deleted shit you can see I have posted every dm between us.

They were being coached by Sergio and other admins. I was informed by a verified kick streamer that there was a meeting where the admins instructed them on what to say. Notice how this group of people quickly started talking about me behind my back through direct messages. Breezyy and Stormpoint were new to the platform, and now they suddenly claim to know me. I met Breezyy through another Twitch stream, and it seems like she befriends anyone who is currently trending or has clout. I never saw her in igypc's Twitch chat before, but suddenly, she was all friendly and supportive when Trainwreck and Eddie were involved, capitalizing on their clout. Interestingly, these so-called friends tend to appear only when there's clout involved; I haven't seen her in Cau7ion's Twitch chat anymore because she doesn't see much clout there.

It's funny this time shit was going their way right. being highly favored by kick staff cuz of all this dick riding. now present day.

Now kick just tired of their bullshit. And kick getting strict by the day. rules get added. and not supporting these people whom viewbotting and got boosted. Now they all crying.

[potentialbreakupscng]

"Head in the game, okay? Save the ass fucking for later." He rolled his eyes, closing the car door as gently as he could behind him while still making sure it shut all the way. He didn't want to announce their presence, but anything supernatural probably already knew they were here. They weren't exactly being quiet. He wasn't positive Viv was capable of being quiet, but they still had a lot to learn about each other, and she'd surprised him before. He couldn't exactly arm wrestle a vampire out of his car, so short of shooting her--which she had to know by then he wasn't willing to do--he'd pretty much had no choice but to let her come along. "You kill a vampire by beheading it. Machete's best for that. A shotgun might slow one down, but you'd survive it." He pulled out a machete for himself too, his movements slowing as he cast an incredulous look at her. "You don't know how to--? That might have been something to mention before we were on a hunt." He gave a soft growl of frustration. "Just… stand over there and take a couple practice swings. Don't let go of it, and don't stab me. You're strong. It should be… fine." He was moving up some actual training to the top of their list as soon as this was over. Super strength didn't mean shit if she didn't know what the hell she was doing. "If I didn't trust you, we wouldn't be here at all." He debated over the guns for a moment longer, weighing the pros and cons of her having a weapon she was actually familiar with versus one that might not help her all that much against other vampires. In the end, he handed her a sawed off shotgun and took one for himself. It never really hurt to have extra, and he probably would have grabbed one just in case anyway. Better to have it and not need it.

"So, you're saying you're gonna let me peg you later?" she retorts with a wide grin, tipping her head to the side and letting her eyes flick over him as her teeth sink into her lower lip, "I didn't take you for a bottom. I should've known, though. With how much you love getting your ass kicked." Teasing and flirting aside, there was something about Dean that she loved to annoy. Maybe it was because of how easy it was to annoy him, or the fact that it was cute when he got frustrated and annoyed with her. There were things that he did that pushed her buttons too -- and there was some part of her that enjoyed the banter. It made her feel a little more human.

"I'll avoid sharp, slice-y objects then," she noted with a wrinkle of her nose, her hand moving up to rub at her neck before her eyes flicked down to the machete in his hand. Most people would call her stupid for trusting someone like him -- people who killed things like her for a living. She had joined him not too long ago, and she wasn't dead yet. Well, dead officially. "Hey! You wouldn't have let me come if I told you!" They stepped to the side -- boots squishing in the mud below them before she practiced.. She swung it like a bat -- her nose wrinkling when she realized that it wasn't "Should be easy enough."

Viv's eyebrows rose with his words, looking over their shoulder at him and turning around. "And here I thought you were just trying to keep an eye on me," she leaned toward him, raising her eyebrow, "Careful. I might start thinking you like me, which means I'll be even more obnoxious." She took the shotgun from him, letting her eyes flick over it -- this felt far more comfortable for her. Not exactly the same type of things that she would go hunting with -- but this was a different type of hunting than she and her family did. "If I start going all vampy, super strength in there, you're not gonna mistake me for any of the others and chop my head off, are ya?"

@vvaywardhunter continued from discord

[pixxiesticksys]

This is one of the more helpful reblogs I've seen because its one of the few that calls them out on their lying.

I want to add on on a few different topics

I also never got a "before" screenshot. I wish I did, but I have the discord version of the "after" statement

For context, this is in the list of suggestions that Octocon flat out refused to implement

I hope it helps with any unreality anyone is feeling for me to say that this is not the before message I remember either. While it is mostly the same information, it seems out of order, and definitely like it's missing something.

While I Octocon did tell their community about a change, we were only told that the setup of the channels was changing. And In fact, we're told that in the channel this screenshot was in, there would be "no change" we were not told any official statements would be changing

We know for a fact that Octocon IS changing statements without formally letting their community know because the very screenshot provided at the beginning of the post changed

And I'm going to be honest here, this looks like a change implemented to let them deliver whatever type of punishment they want. Now, both peaking positively and negatively are discouraged, but neither have an official punishment. This allows for a loophole where speaking negatively but maybe not to the extent it's considered hate can get you a slap on the wrist, but speaking positively can still get you banned. Not saying that's what they're doing, but funny new loophole and wonderful way to point out they aren't being all that accessible to those dealing with unreality.

Now I want to touch on the misinformation because Octocon tried to do the same thing to me.

In green is what they confirmed to be true from what I said while claiming it was false and in red is genuine falsehood

(it is also to be noted that with the most recent update. All of these things are now features, but only one of them was a feature at the time of posting.)

Most of this information is untrue? Then why chose two examples of things I said that were true for your example?

While I admit that what I said about the discord bot was false and discord has implemented something I didn't know about, that doesn't change the fact that this is the only plain falsehood.

When I say "it doesn't have this ability yet" you can't say "that's not true!! It will in the future!!" Because guess what? You just confirmed what I said about not yet having that ability to be true.

I understand that bugs are never anyone fault. However, if there was a bug in a game that didn't allow you to get past the first door if you chose to make your character a girl and this happened to EVERYONE that chose to make their character a girl, and I went online with a list of information about the game, but I couldn't play half of the game because I chose to make my character a girl and I said "if you play as a girl, you can't get past the first floor" and you said "that's not true!!!! It's a bug!!!" It wouldnt change the fact that no one playing as a girl got to get past the first door. Saying it was a bug and not planned is fine, but don't claim I'm lying about it when it is something everyone who chooses one of two options experienced. It undermines the frustration gotten from the fact that people experience with your product AND its still true! Bug or not, I can't get past the first door and neither can anyone else who went the route I did. It would be different if there was a big warning sign above the option that said "there's a known bug in this option." But there wasn't. So yes, the two things I said were true.

Before it catches on, octocon is anti endo and will ban you if you speak positively about plurals

[thefanficmonster]

A Good Time

Corpse Husband x Sykkuno x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Some Swearing, Mild Spoilers for the scares in the game The Mortuary Assistant

Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Knowing their girlfriend’s limits of horror tolerance, Sykkuno and Corpse think it’s a good idea to have her play The Mortuary Assistant

Requested by @horsedoghorse Thank you so much for your request lovely! I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to turn your request into a fic but here it is now and I hope you’ll have the chance to read through it and if so I hope you enjoy it! Love, Vy ❤

“Alright!“ Corpse says, clapping his hands together, a smile playing on his face, so satisfactory and fulfilled, one he’s sharing with Sykkuno who is in the same room, little do their fans know. That is why the whole illusion of a Discord call is already really funny to them - seeing as how they haven’t yet officially revealed their relationship, they would love to stir the pot of rumors and keep people guessing still. It’s too early to crash the tea party, as they say.

“Alright!“ He replies to Corpse, provoking a laugh from the other man which he returns. “So, what are we doing?“ He asks as though he isn’t one of the masterminds behind what’s about to go down.

“No spoiling the surprise.“ Corpse replies as he presses a few buttons on his keyboard, “You’ll see.“

“Hi! Sorry I’m late, the Wi-Fi dropped all of a sudden.“ Y/N, their girlfriend, who’s also in the same apartment just in a different room joins the call, much to the delight of the viewers of her stream who find Corpse and Sykkuno as their favorites. She too is no stranger to the circulating rumors and whispers of the Net. And she too is just as much of an accomplice in the charade her boyfriends have come up with.

Unfortunately for her, however, she hasn’t been let in on what is going to happen further into this very stream she was invited to be a part of. Truth be told, and in Corpse and Sykkuno’s defense, if they had told her prior to sitting down to stream the whole thing, she wouldn’t be here right now.

“She might hate us, she might have a good time, either way, it’s good content.” Corpse told Sykkuno when they were coming up with their master plan, laughing their asses off at the idea.

“You’re good, perfectly on time actually.“ Sykkuno says as Corpse mutes himself to laugh some more. He can’t help himself especially not when he hears Y/N’s cheery voice, loaded with excitement over the game she’s about to play with her boy friends. Yeah, imaginary space between the words.

“What are we playing?“ She asks nonchalantly as ever, a meow also heard from her end which is the doing of the cat sitting in her lap.

“You’ll be playing this super cool new game that came out a few weeks ago. It was a demo for the longest time but the developer used their time well and created a masterpiece.“ Corpse says, adding emphasis on the fact that she’ll be playing alone although it still manages to slip by unnoticed by her.

“Oh cool! What’s it about?“ She’s genuinely super excited about this. Her and the two boys haven’t had the time to gather around like this in a while. So now that she has them in her apartment for a game night, she’s right to be as joyful as she is.

It makes her boyfriends feel a tiny bit of guilt for what they’re about to put her through. But clearly not enough for them to call the operation off.

“No spoilers...“ Corpse says, slightly lost in thought as he sends her the instructions to accessing the game he previously downloaded on her PC, “There. You’ve got the directions in the chat, let us know when you get it running or if you’re having any issues with it.“

Mumbling an ‘ok’ under her breath, she proceeds to follow said instructions to a folder named Poppy Party Planning. Thinking it sounds decent and silly enough to be what she’s imagined, she clicks on it and then on the much more terrifying icon of the game which she fails to notice the eeriness of.

Met with the menu screen of the game, she’s baffled by what she sees and comes this close to closing out of it. Her eyes widen at the creepy background that could only belong to a horror game and definitely not a fun platformer like she was previously told.

“Guys, what the hell is this?!“ She shrieks, physically distancing herself from the screen as if it’ll attack her.

That’s when the two cannot hold their laugh any longer.

Sykkuno tries talking between gusts of laughter while Corpse has been completely ingulfed by it. “Welcome....to...*laugh*...The Mortuary Assistant. A wonderful game that is for sure not gonna give you nightmares.“

“No, no, no! There’s no way in hell you’re making me play this!“ She exclaims, shaking her head, “What in the world kind of platformer is this?! Why’d you lie to me?!“

“Cause there’s no way you’d be here if you knew.“ Corpse explains matter-of-factly as if their lie has now automatically been justified.

Well it definitely hasn’t, especially not for Y/N.

“Exactly!“ She exclaims yet again in clear distress.

“You can be mad all you want, babe, but you gotta admit, scaredy cats playing horror games is hella good content.“ Corpse replies, earning Sykkuno’s agreement real soon to back him up.

That, much like the two had hoped, infuriates Y/N. She’d much rather not sleep for days on end that outright deny playing which, in all seriousness, she has every right to do.

“Hey! I ain’t a scaredy cat! I might hate horror in all shapes and forms but that doesn’t mean I’m scared of it!“ Y/N, as stubborn as she can be as evidenced right here and now, will deny being scared of anything and take that denial to her grave. “Screw it! I’ll play.“

Leaving the two boys in speechless shock is enough of an accomplishment to her, almost making it worth putting herself through the nightmarish experience the game will have to offer her.

However, much to her dismay, their shock doesn’t last long.

“How many scares do you think she’ll last?“ Corpse asks, breaking the silence.

“With this game - three max.“ Sykkuno answers, his statement without a shadow of doubt in it.

Corpse hums, “Ye of little faith in her, Sykkuno. I say five.”

“Fuck you both, game fucking on!” Y/N soundly cracks her knuckles, shares her screen and starts the game and, although the boys don’t say anything, they simultaneously and accidentally share a thought:

She has no idea what she’s getting into. It’s going to be priceless

Scare 1

So far so good, Y/N thinks to herself, refraining from saying it out loud as to not jinx herself. She’s just finished examining the front desk area, grabbing the items she found before going over to the room where shit is undoubtedly going to hit the fan. She knew she was off to a bad start when she almost shrieked upon the view of the dead body but did not let Corpse and Sykkuno know of her distress. She had a gut feeling that way worse will happen. And so it does...

“What is what?! All these bottles look alik- AAAH!“ Looking up from reading the labels of the chemicals she needs to use to progress, she spots the silhouette of something or someone moving behind the shelves in the corner. This time the scream leaves her far too quickly to give her a chance to prevent it.

Corpse and Sykkuno burst out laughing which they use as a way of egging her on - the angrier they get her to be, the more likely it is for her to actually maybe, possibly finish the game.

“Fuck this....“ She mumbles, trailing off as she prods on, her hands slightly shaking already which is a fact she’s glad no one else has to know.

Scare 2

Very soon after she sits down on the chair by the computer to ‘do work’ as tasked, figuring it all out one step at a time, mumbling to herself as she reads the displayed document, keeping her mind occupied.

“Ok that’s done so - WHAT THE FUCK?!“ Looking past the screen, her heartrate picks up at the sight of a shadowy human figure in the hallway opposite her that leads to the morgue. Shortly thereafter, the light in that very hallway turns off and back on as if taunting her.

She’s left speechless in the grip of fear. What brings her back to consciousness is the snickering of her boyfriends.

The frustration of being their entertainment at the moment charges her at a high voltage.

“You wanna play games, huh? I’ll turn out your motherfucking lights!” She growls as she rushes straight at the person/apparition, contrary to her instincts.

And cue Scare 3.....

As if returning the favor, said shadowy figure charges right back at her out of the blue. Seeing as how she was expecting the thing to disappear as a result of her approach and receiving the complete opposite reaction leaves her so stunned that she doesn’t even realize she’s screamed at the top of her lungs.

Muffled by the ringing in her ears, she hears the guys scream too. Knowing whether the scare would happen or not, they still got the shit scared out of them too. That’d be a great sound to hear and it would fill her with satisfaction if her heart wasn’t thumping so darn loud and if she wasn’t completely frozen.

Eventually she’s aware that she’s shaking her head. Realizing she’s probably scaring the two with her silence, she starts laughing. It’s a bit out of her control but also a little bit because of her foolery. Finally, she manages to collect herself and speaks up, “Fuck this shit, I’m out....don’t mind me...Imma just disconnect and end the stream....excuse me please....good fucking bye.“

For those of the viewers who thought she was messing around, they got their theory debunked real quick when the stream abruptly ended, Y/N staying true to her word. She also hops out of the Discord call just in time to miss the confused laughter and ending of the stream of her boyfriends.

She remains seated in her desk chair, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling with a wide smile on her face, chuckling every now and then. Running a hand through her hair, she adjusts what has now become a distressed bush as a result of her fear filled reactions to all the scares she encountered.

“God damn, that was fun...“, she murmurs, shrugging her shoulders.

“Was it?“

She straightens up and spins her chair to face the doorway where both her boyfriends are standing with semi apologetic smiles as they lean on opposite sides of the doorframe as if unsure if she’ll let them in.

“I mean, my heart’s still racing and my limbs are trembling but I don’t regret anything.“ She confirms, “In fact, one day when I’m feeling braver, I’ll try it again. But I’ve certainly had more than enough for today.“

The two boys look at one another, wordlessly expressing their relief to one another, releasing the worry that Y/N might be super pissed at them after the whole ordeal.

Sykkuno breaks the nonverbal conversation with Corpse and turns to Y/N, “You know, we did actually download this one platformer as well so....”

Before he’s even had the chance to finish his sentence, Y/N’s pulled the chair to the desk once again, going searching through the folders for said platformer which she soon finds.

“Oh my God, you guys are the BEST!”, she blows the two a kiss before equipping her headset, “I can’t just end a stream at roughly twenty minutes into it, you know, so.....get out.“ She says, eyes narrowed to slits as she turns back around to turn her webcam on.

Corpse and Sykkuno needn’t be told twice.

On the way down the hall to the kitchen, Corpse mumbles, “See, she did have a good time!”

Sykkuno huffs, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. She’s still in shock, she might hate us later.“

The other man chuckles, “Dinner we shall cook for her then, just in case.”

“We shall, better safe than sorry.“

@maat-the-prescriptive  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @itsminniekat  @hacker-ghost  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit ��@i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis  @waterlilypat  @idontknowwhatthisisfam  @evi-ka  @classyandfabulous00  @redperson58  @lilysdaydreams @solowheein  @mythicalamphitrite  @axen-gers  @luckygirl144  @nj01  @buddyemily   @the-albino-lioness  @stardream14  @gdhdkfnn  @nomadicgypsyy  @preciousskye  @fluffysuicideunicornsworld  @o-kaelin  @manacharlotte  @awkward-youtube-trash  @lolalee24  @bonky-beerns  @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian  @strawbrinkofdeath  @teenloves  @tams0527  @browneyespinkhair  @starstruckllamapuppy  @daisychains012  @y0ulooked  @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life  @jula-pauline  @melodykitty  @just-that-bi-girl  @crazybutconfidentaf  @lowellshade @alphakees  @bellero  @weallneednamjesus  @starryhanji  @boiled-onionrings  @husherstan  @fockingwhore  @melaningoddessthings  @prettypastelpetals  @haleypearce  @godwhyamiawkward  @y-napotat  @daisychainyoonmin  @little-miss-rebel3  @free-wheelin-bi-sexual  @redmoon261 @darkacademic2  @wiseflamingoqueen  @into-the-end  @namikhai-i  @nastiablr  @thelittleplantlover  @mirktuan  @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny  @vintagegothlover  @easygoingtheatre  @itsrandombooklover  @miiaivi  @emmybaybee  @befourgolden  @jjk-is-my-shit  @eternalteaaars  @spacebadgerx  @princesslunalight  @acequinn14  @samm48  @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa  @fo-love  @marishimomura-blog  @therealglenncoco  @cinnamonbun332  @killtherandomness  @sanshinexxxsan  @fee-btheweeb  @press-lay  @cathleenpotgieter16  @jazzydoesstuff  @moonlxghtbay  @forestrain2000  @hyunjinhugs  @blood-of-fandoms  @lovellylies  @ukiyolixx  @simpforhpcharacters  @chrisdylan17  @parkerjisung  @pedernille  @theodonyous  @wineandionysus  @malfoystilinskii05  @morbid-x  @coryisagee  @jessewa26  @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365  @raeanneinwonderland  @indecisive-empanada  @gluttonypalace  @loriane2503  @btsiguess-kpop  @khaoticbunny  @lucidlycactus  @smiithys  @rottenroyalebooks  @kpopgirlbtssvt  @fangirl-tc27  @fr0z3n-1  @notmesimpingfortechno  @shotarosleftpinky  @kunoi-chan  @idk-whats-wrong-with-me  @yikeroonie  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @poetry-and-tea  @ama-do-writing-stuff  @wishbonewolf  @emeraldxhope  @t0xick1tty  @kusuinko  @speakyourselfloveyourself  @sophia902103  @lo-manburg  @classsykittykat  @dmgama  @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee  @btsiguess-kpop  @akaashi-baby  @gun-jong-simp  @geschichtenfee  @yerapotato-wp  @browneyedgirl365  @thysagclub  @sparklycloudnight  @helloatomicshadow  @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal  @lucy-bunny17  @aaliyahh0  @katluckybear  @boyleanti  @straybids  @franchesca-791  @cosmicstorm19  @averyisbackinthetrashcan  @aomi-nabi  @xlanawriter  @allensimpsforcorpse  @sunnyrae-cessh  @ladykxxx08  @meowiemari  @renupf  @booklover76  @sra-verissimo  @beatrhizn  @blueberrystigma  @beatrhizn  @chicken-taco-burrito  @scorpios-echo  @nyctophiliiiiaaa  @squirreljoe

[nojey]

unnoticed

quackity / alex x streamer!reader

genre: fluff -> angst pronouns: they / them word count: 2.1k warning(s): cursing, suggestive jokes

synopsis: you had known alex since you started streaming but none of your viewers knew. you started getting closer and eventually you started streaming together but your viewers didn’t like that.

“(y/n)!” alex screamed into his phone after you answered the facetime call.  “yes, my love?!” you screamed back. alex giggled and asked, “do you want to stream sometime soon? i mean like, we’ve known each other for a few months and we haven’t streamed together, i know you’re a fairly new streamer but i even asked dream if you could come onto the smp, and i have something planned- well karl and sapnap helped me plan it- but that’s not the point, the point is-” he rambled.  “alex? are you asking me on a minecraft date?” you asked. “no! well, maybe, okay yeah. i’m asking you on a minecraft date.” he confirmed.  “i’d love to go on a minecraft date with you, alex.” you said, blushing a bit. 

truth is, you’ve had a crush on alex for a few months. when he first slid into your dms you didn’t really expect it, but it turned out to start a beautiful friendship. you always flirted with alex in hopes that he’d notice, but it never seemed like he did. he never retaliated back but little did you know, he was just too shy to.

“uh- okay great! tomorrow, at 3pm your time, stream it. we’re going to have a lot of fun. wear pajamas, or you know- just be comfortable okay?” he rushed. you laughed a bit and said, “yes alex, of course. bye now,” then smiled and hung up. 

you immediately went tot twitter and started a thread: @(y/s/n): this weeks stream schedule (times are pst): @(y/s/n): tomorrow @ 3pm: minecraft date w/ someone i haven’t streamed with yet  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ↳ @ quackity: i wonder who this might be hmMmMMmm @(y/s/n): tuesday @ 1pm: i somehow got invited to an among us lobby w/ corpse, sykkuno, valkyrae, disguised toast, quarterjade, masayoshi, peterparktv, jacksepticeye, and ludwig  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @(y/s/n): wednesday @ 1pm: if things don’t go well w/ person on monday- looking for a mc boyfriend! ↳ @ quackity: WELL THAT’S RUDE TO ASSUME THAT THINGS WONT GO WELL (Y/N) @(y/s/n): thursday @ 3pm: chitchat w/ nihachu !! @(y/s/n): friday @ 2pm: pummel party w/ ??

as soon as you tweeted all them out, you looked at replies and saw that quackity had replied to both monday and wednesday schedules. giggling to yourself, you replied back to him.

@(y/s/n): @ quackity way to make it obvious alex, if you wanna date me just say it (¬_¬) @(y/s/n): @ quackity how can you assume that it will go well alex (Ő-Ő) ↳ @ quackity: i just know (y/n)!!! truST ME!!!!

laughing once more, you plugged your phone into the charger and went to bed, excited for what alex had planned for you two tomorrow. 

getting ready for the minecraft date was very nerve wracking. the only thing you could think about was whether alex considered this a real date or not. deep inside you hoped that this was a real one. 

the ringing from your phone disrupted your thought. looking down on the screen you saw that the one person you were thinking of was calling you. 

“hello?” you answered. “hi, (y/n), are you ready?” alex asked. “uh, yeah, i just- i just need to start my stream and introduce what we’re doing.” “okay, um- i’m going to send you a link to the dream smp discord server. join it and join vc 4.” he replied.  “for sure, see you then.” you smiled. “see you.” he said and hung up.

“fuck,” you said and wiped your hands onto your pants. you definitely weren’t ready but still, joined the discord server and joined vc 4 then deafened. you set up your stream and hit go live.

“hey everyone! as you may know, if you follow my twitter, today i’m going on a minecraft date! uh no, no one knows who it is yet, but i have a feeling a LOT of you already know who it is.” you said, reading chat and wiggling your eyebrows.

“okay, i’m going to join the server and then share my screen when he’s standing in front of me.” you started playing some music so your viewers didn’t get bored while they waited for you to start. 

once you were logged into the smp you privately messaged alex and asked him where he was. before he could answer you turned around to look at the walls you were surrounded by and screamed out after seeing quackity’s naked body behind you. 

“chat, i’m okay, just got scared. um anyways, yeah.”  you said and showed your screen, revealing the man himself. “quackity!” you screamed into your mic. “jesus christ, (y/n) we can save screaming my name for later.” he said in a suggestive voice. you then started punching him and after each punch you said, “stop. saying. suggestive. comments. we haven’t even started the date yet!”  “okay, okay, okay! i’m literally going to die, (y/n) stop!!” he yelled out. you kept hitting him to see if he was lying but after the second punch quackity was slain by (y/mc/n) showed up in the chat. 

ranboo: i see that the date is going well

you started laughing uncontrollably while alex was silent. “(y/n),” he said in a more serious voice. you hummed as he continued his sentence. “why did you kill me?” “i wanted to know if you were lying. was that a canon life? i think that should be a canon life.” you laughed. “no it wasn’t a fucking canon life. (y/n) you’re not even an official member of the smp!” he said. “i could be,” you said wiggling your eyebrows and crouching up and down. “anyways. follow me, i’m bringing you to where we’re having our date.” so you followed him and when you reached your destination you were at party park with karl and sapnap standing in front of you. 

“hello boys. what are you doing here on our date. is this an amusement park date, quackity? i didn’t take you for that type of guy. it’s kind of cheesy.” you rambled. “no! this isn’t where our date is happening. jeez, have a little more faith in me (y/n).” he said, moving his minecraft character to look at you slowly and creepily. “well there wasn’t much to begin with,” you said, chuckling a bit. you heard karl and sapnap giggling to what you had said.  “hey! take that back!” quackity said, punching your minecraft character. you audibly gasped and turned to look at karl and sapnap again. “you guys saw that right? he just hit me.” you said, faking shock. they both quickly nodded their heads. “i can’t believe you would hit me on our first date.” you said, turning to look at him this time. “you literally killed me!” he yelled out.

so this went on for about 30 more minutes till quackity explained to you that your date would pretty much be a minecraft manhunt with quackity, sapnap, and karl hunting you but you had to find something instead of defeating the enderdragon. if they killed you and they won, you owed alex a real date. no stream, just them. 

“you’re going to hunt me for our first date?” you asked in disbelief. quackity then nodded his head up and down in a very fast motion. “mm cool,” you said as you punched him and ran away in a different direction.

it had been about 45 minutes and you killed karl and sapnap twice, but quackity had not been seen the whole time. but as you were running away from sapnap, quackity appeared in front of you and you faked trying to kill him, letting him just kill you because you wanted to go on that second date with him. 

(y/mc/n) was slain by quackity ranboo: date still going really well, looks like you guys are really hitting it off!

“awe man, looks like i have to go on another date with quackity!” you said. sarcastically faking the disappointment. reading your chat for the first time this stream, it wasn’t your usual happy messages. instead they were filled with negativity.

i don’t see why quackity wants to go on a date with them why did dream let them on the smp?? there are so many other content creators who deserve to be on the smp way more than they do they’re so fucking annoying begging for attention much?

so you grew quiet and just listened to quackity end off his stream while you ended yours without saying anything. but once he finished saying goodbye to his stream, you immediately said bye to him.

“i’m gonna go now alex, thank you for the minecraft date. text me the details for the next. bye.” you rushed.

alex found it really weird that you had just left like that, you guys almost always stayed on call after he finished streaming for at least 3 hours just talking. but he let it slide, hoping it wasn’t something he had done.

you went onto twitter to update about your streaming schedule. @(y/s/n): looks like my stream schedule may be moving around because i’m going on a second date with @ quackity!

alex quickly went to go reply to it but gazed over the replies to your tweet and wasn’t very happy with them. you don’t deserve to go on another date with him you’re literally just using him for clout what an attention whore leave him alone already!

knowing that you barely ever got hate, he quickly called you instead. thinking very hard about what he was about to do. looking at your phone you saw that alex was facetiming you, you wiped your face from the tears that had fallen and sniffled, hoping you didn’t sound too congested.

“hello?” you said. “hey um, i have to tell you something.” he replied. the serious tone of his voice got you very nervous. was he about to confirm everything your chat had told you or even the tweets you just read? “i really like you, (y/n).” he said. you looked at your phone in surprise and he continued. “and i really don’t know if you feel the same way about me but i read the replies to your tweet and i know that you’re a pretty new streamer and i just don’t want you to already be getting hate because of me, you don’t deserve that. you’re an amazing person and i just, i don’t want to be the reason you’re getting hate. so i think it’d be best if we just laid off talking to each other for now.” “i like you too, alex.” you whispered. “but i respect your decision. goodbye for now?” you said, offering a smile to the screen he was displayed on. it looked like he was just as shocked as you when he told you how he felt. “uh, yeah. goodbye for now. don’t be a stranger (y/n).” you smiled once more and hung up.

as soon as you hung up you started crying again. you really liked alex, but maybe you didn’t show that well enough, because if you did, maybe you guys would’ve been together at this point.

the next day, you streamed normally with a faked high energy that nobody seemed to notice, this time not paying attention to your chat. deep inside you really just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep all your stresses away. it really sucked to find out the guy you’ve had a crush on liked you back but he decided to end whatever you guys had going on.

but your chat couldn’t know so you kept a fake facade on, hoping no one asked about him.

though to alex, it looked like you were so unbothered by him pretty much ending your friendship. he started slightly believing the tweets that mentioned how you were just using him for clout. but after really thinking about it, he realized, why would you have been friends with him months before, without any of your fans knowing if you really were just using him. so he scolded himself and went about his day.

you were ending your stream with a big smile, as soon as you hit that end streaming button that smile was gone. you changed into a hoodie and curled into your bed. you just looked up at your ceiling and started crying, you pretty much lost the guy you really liked. your feelings being unnoticed by the public eye.

[strawberrymilkgeorge]

Part Four. "You hosted me?? In MINECRAFT??"

warnings: swearing but that’s it (i think)! just karl being a goof and dream being a little shit but whats new word count: 3k (not ncluding pictures)

behind the screen (irl dream x reader) series masterlist ultimate masterlist

**********

.

Y/n  sat to Karl's left, out of the camera's view as he scrolled through Twitter on his PC.

"Um... oh, how did you guys meet?" Karl read before looking offscreen at Y/n. "Uh... school?"

"What? I was going to make up a funny story but I'm appalled by the seriousness in your voice! Is that really how you think we met?"

The embarrassment on his face answered her question. "Karl! I'm two years younger than you, how would we meet have met at school?"

"I don't know!" he said back defensively, raising his shoulders. "Clubs?"

"Like I was in any of the nerd clubs you were in."

"Well, then, how did we meet?"

Y/n sighed with a laugh. "Our moms–"

"Oh, wait wait, I remember!" he cut her off, excitedly looking towards Y/n. "Our moms are friends and they forced us to hang out." He smiled proudly and looked back to his screen as he continued scrolling for good questions. "If I'm honest, I only still hang out with you because my mom makes me."

Y/n smacked Karl's arm and he laughed but pretended to be hurt. "WHAT THE HONK, BUGSY?!"

"I can't stand you. I barely hit you, nimrod."

Karl giggled and read another one. "How tall is Bugsy? Two feet, four inches."

"No, I'm 7'6," Y/n lied easily and Karl laughed.

"How tall are you actually?"

'I think 5'10 or something? Maybe 5'11. I'm not 6' but I'm taller than you for sure, I know that much–"

"Okay, you are not taller than me. Just to be clear. Chat, Bugsy is not taller than me."

"Yes, I am. Wanna test it?"

"No," he replied quietly in defeat.

"Because you know I'm right," Y/n laughed as her eyes flicked over to read chat. They were spamming their surprise, expecting her to be short. "Yeah, no, chat, I'm tall. I'm taller than Karl."

"Only because your shoes make you tall! Doc Martens are tall and that's pretty much all you wear!"

"You're shorter than me when I'm barefoot!"

"That's literally false. Like completely."

"Just accept it, shorty."

"I'll accept that you're taller than George and Sapnap, but not me. I'm barely taller than you but I'm still taller."

"Whateverrrr. I'll move on to protect your dignity."

Karl ignored her and laughed, pointing to a message from Dream in Karl's chat.

"Dream said I have short girl energy," Y/n read.

"You kinda do."

"What does that even mean?"

"You're shy around new people and you act all sweet."

"So tall girls can't be shy and sweet? Or shy and sweet girls can't be tall?"

"Stop twisting my words," Karl groaned.

"Also, wait, what do you mean I act sweet? Am I not?"

"No, you are. But I mean you also aren't when you don't want to be. Upset Bugsy is scary Bugsy."

Y/n frowned, not recalling a time she's ever been angry or upset at Karl but she let him move on. He pointed to another tweet as he looked at Y/n, giving her an 'I told you so' look. She read it before shaking her head at him.

"Don't read that one."

"Pleeease, can I answer?"

"No!" she whisper-shouted. I don't want to be shipped with him for asking or you for answering, she mouthed so Karl's chat couldn't put together clues.

"Are you assuming I'll answer positively?" he teased, earning him a hard smack on the arm.

Y/n couldn't help but notice every time she put her hands in the frame, which was usually to hit Karl, half of the chat turned into simps requesting a hand pic because they could see her bracelets and nail polish and now that they knew she was tall they wanted to see how big her hands were. They really wanted every crumb of content they could have regarding her looks. She caught one that said something pretty kinky about her hands which she tried to scrub from her mind immediately.

"Fine," Karl sighed at her request to not read Dream's tweet out loud, instead reading another. "Bestie sleepover? Yes! Bestie sleepover! Bugsy and I are gonna cuddle all night--"

"No, we aren't. I'm sleeping on a completely different bed. Or couch. Nowhere near you."

"WHY DO YOU HATE ME?"

"Karl! Stop trying to get me to cuddle with you!" Y/n laughed as she pushed away his arms, which were trying to give her a hug. "You're a freaking heater and I don't like touching people!"

"That's my worst nightmare in a friend, how did I end up with you?"

"No idea. Deal with it. It's still a bestie sleepover even if we don't cuddle."

Karl giggled and looked back at his stream. "Oh, by the way, in case anyone ever wanted to know or was Dreaming about it, Bugsy is very cute. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was wondering or if anyone tweeted specifically asking..."

Y/n smacked his arm again as she yelled, "Karl!"

He grabbed his arm in dramatic pain as if it had been cut off. "Ow! Ow! Bugsy hit me!" he cried as he fell to the floor. "Oh my gosh. Someone call a doctor!"

"I cannot stand you," Y/n  informed as she stared down at him. She glanced at chat, who were all joking about how bad his condition was, saying things like they might have to amputate his arm. "Chat, don't encourage him. Oh, Karl I know what we can do!"

"As long as I don't need two arms for it..." his voice still laced with fake pain.

"Karl Jacobs."

"What is it?"

"Give me a tour of Dream's SMP. Dream whitelisted me yesterday."

"Oh, yeah! What could have possibly made you think of him?" he teased as he got back in his chair.

Y/n glared at him and he cowered slightly.

"Minecraft, yes. There's a PC in the other room you can play on. Do you need help setting it up?"

"No, I've streamed once or twice," Y/n teased as she stood up.

"I'm just trying to be a good host! Gosh!"

"Wait, I have to cross over to leave the room."

"Just do it? What's the issue? Literally no problem, just walk?" he joked before zooming in his camera on his face so it took up the whole screen. Y/n laughed as she went across the room, chat now forced to look at disturbingly close footage of Karl staring directly into the camera with his eyes crossed.

Y/n called Karl on Discord after logging in. "Hi, Karl and Karl's stream."

"Are you on yet?"

"I'm logging in to my Minecraft account right now."

"Okay, join a vc on the smp discord so others can talk to us if we run into anyone. I'll be over in a minute, just give me a bit to read some donations." They both muted, leaving Y/n to herself.

She typed in the IP address to the server and joined a random voice channel that no one was in. She spawned and looked around, confused by the cobblestone wall around her. Her phone lit up so she occupied herself with the texts from Naomi.

A green figure caught her eye on the screen and she looked up. In the distance was Dream's infamous green Minecraft skin punching the air as he faced her. He ran towards her and stopped in front of her. She set her phone down and slid it away, crouching as his character did the same.

Dream whispers to you: are you streaming you whisper to Dream: no but Karl is and he's about to get on to tour me Dream whispers to you: hmmm okay here

He uncrouched and dropped a few diamond blocks before punching the air again and running away.

Dream whispers to you: shh don’t tell anyone you whisper to Dream: omg :D ty <3 you whisper to Dream: first twitch donos now mc donos you whisper to Dream: rich man over here giving out money and diamonds to everyone like it's candy Dream whispers to you: no, only to you Dream whispers to you: a little gift before our date ;) Dream whispers to you: oh and this

He came back and paused in front of Y/n before dropping a red poppy and sprinting away again. She acted cool despite the huge smile on her face.

you whisper to Dream: charming you whisper to Dream: you give me a flower and dart away before I can properly thank you Dream whispers to you: oh yeah? how would you have thanked me?

Y/n smiled, her cheeks flaming up as a dirty thought entered her mind. Stop, he's not flirting, she told herself. It’s literally a block game and he’s not flirting.

you whisper to Dream: guess we'll never know ;) KarlJacobs joined the game

"I'm back," Karl's voice filled her headset as he joined her voice channel, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Where are you?"

Y/n looked away from the chat in Minecraft and turned around in the game. "Still at spawn. Some forest and cobblestone walls."

"Go left and I'll meet you halfway."

As she ran, the Minecraft chat reappeared with new messages for everyone to see.

<Dream> hey Karl <KarlJacobs> hello Dream <Dream> thanks for answering my question on your stream <KarlJacobs> just doing my civil duty as a bugsy dream shipper <KarlJacobs> official petition for the name to be dreamsy <Dream> signed

"Oh my gosh," Y/n muttered, making Karl laugh.

"What?" Karl asked innocently, but his laugh was maniacal. "Oh, I found you. This way! I built everything on the server, by the way. So if anything is impressive, just remember that I did it."

"Karl, that's the biggest lie you've ever told me. I watch the lore videos."

"Well, I did build it all so I don't know what to tell you. Let's go this way first."

Y/n followed as he showed her stuff, including background and unknown facts about things that have happened off stream. After the tour, they messed around the chessboard. At some point, she found a blue cornflower and turned to Karl.

"Do you have an anvil?"

"I don't exactly have one on me at the moment but I think there's one over here. What for?"

She killed some chickens with her fist to gain XP so she could carry out the task in mind. "I need to name this flower I found." She followed him a few blocks away and clicked the anvil and named the flower 'love, bug'. "Okay, thanks."

"Why did you name it?"

"It's a gift for someone."

"Me?" he asked as his character jumped up and down.

"No. My presence is your gift."

"Ouch. You know, honestly, I'm really hurt by that. Like, why would you say that to me? It's just sorta rude."

"Fine, I'll go get you a flower."

"Well, I don't want it if it isn't sincere. Who's that one for?"

"...no one."

"Tell me or I'll keep complaining about not getting a gift."

"I can deal with that."

"Okay, then tell me or I'll make you sleep in my bed and I'll smother you to death with my affection."

"Ah, okay, fine. It's for Dream."

"Wow you really hate me that much!" Karl laughed.

"No, I'm just not touchy like you!" she defended. She always worried she offended Karl since he was so physically affectionate towards his friends but she just wasn't a physical person.

"Oh, speaking of Dream..." he turned and Y/n followed his characters line of sight, having to zoom in to see the green figure perched at the top of a tree.

"He's very menacing."

"He does that."

<Bugsy> come here pls dream <Bugsy> i have a gift :]

Dream ran towards Y/n and stopped in front of her expectedly. She looked at Karl then back at Dream and dropped the gift, backing up after and crouching.

His character picked it up and held it, pausing to read the name. After a moment, he slowly looked up at Y/n's character before jumping and spinning in circles. Y/n hid her smile in her sleeve even though no one could see her.

<Dream> wait lemme see the one I gave you <Bugsy> what D: <Dream> I wanna name it

"What is going on?" Karl giggled.

"Gift exchange. Mind your own business."

"Woah!" Karl gasped dramatically. "Uncalled for."

Dream came back and dropped the renamed flower for her. Y/n picked it up and hovered over it to read the name.

'host, dream'

She gasped and started punching his character. He backed up and ran away but joined the call seconds later.

"Wait! Stop hitting me!" Dream yelled into her headset.

Y/n laughed, trying to contain her smile as she continued to hit the green character. "Dream! Are you kidding? I tried being all cute and you hosted me?? In MINECRAFT??"

"It was a joke! You said something like that to Wilbur on Twitter a while ago, I was just using your humor!" Dream's giggles filled Y/n's headphones and she smiled but quickly dropped it so her voice could sound serious.

"Give it back."

Dream looked at her before letting out a small, "What?"

"Give me back the flower so I can go burn it with the other one."

"Bugsy!"

"What is going on?" Karl asked through a cackle. "Dream, did you hurt Bugsy??"

"Yes, Karl! He hurt my feelings! He gave me a flower and gave it back to name it something mean!"

Dream just laughed so Y/n punched him again.

"Dream! You can't hurt Bugsy!" Karl defended, also punching Dream.

All Y/n could hear was the sound of Dream wheezing, his character running as the two chased him. "Stop! You guys are so– STOP HITTING ME!"

"Fine," Y/n finally said, crouching and facing the ground as she walked into a corner to look like she was pouting. "I'm just not going to go on any Minecraft dates anymore."

"Wait, no," Dream protested in a soft voice, his character stopping to look at her's. "Take that back."

"Heart been broke so many times..."

"You're so stupid."

Karl gasped happily. "You guys have a Minecraft date? Can I help plan it?!"

"We did. In exchange for letting you give me the tour. But I've changed my mind since I've been so betrayed."

"Oh my gosh, you're so..." Dream trailed off but his wide smile could be heard through his voice.

"So what? Finish that sentence, Dream," Y/n dared teasingly.

"So... ANNOYING!"

"DREAM! SAY YOU'RE SORRY!" Karl yelled.

"Okay! I'm sorry! Bug, I'm so sorry. Really. Please let me... let me rename your flower something cute. It'll make you so happy that you'll fall in love with me all over again and–and we can go on our date. Please don't burn our flowers."

"And what if I don't give them to you?"

"I'll just kill you and pick them off your corpse."

"Woooooowwww. Okay, it's like that?"

"Yes, it is like that," he said through a smile. It was so apparent in his voice that he was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.

<Ranboo> how is the tour going Bugsy was shot by Dream using DEFINITELY NOT PENIS <Ranboo> ah going well I see

Bugsy screamed in her mic as the death screen appeared. "DREAM!"

"You took too long!" He wheezed as Bugsy respawned.

"I don't know where I am!"

"Hold on, I'll avenge you!" Karl declared before he died too.

"You thought you could kill me with your fists? Karl, you're naked and I'm wearing full Netherite."

"You weren't when I started punching you! You pulled that out of thin air!"

<Ranboo> canon

Y/n smiled at Ranboo's comment. She had never talked to him but she knew he and Tubbo were close friends and he seemed really funny. He had already proved he had a dry sense of humor in the 30 minutes she was on the SMP and she loved that. Y/n made a mental note to befriend him before returning to being drama queen to Dream.

"So, Dream, now that you've made me an enemy–"

"WhAT? We are not enemies, Bug. I'm actually naming a flower something really cute as we speak. Enemies don't do that."

"Maybe I'm not your enemy but you sure are mine."

"Oh come on now," he mumbled lowly, running chills down her spine. What the hell was that?? "What do I have to do to make it up to you?"

"You-you murdered me in cold blood. Nothing will make it up."

"So I could get the flower! It was out of love! So I could give you a better present! Does that count for nothing?"

"Hm," she hummed. "We'll see what new name you come up with and then I'll decide."

Karl and Y/n got back to the chessboard and waited for Dream to return with his new flower.

Breaking character and turning towards her best friend, Y/n laughed at Karl. "Sorry for distracting from our BFF shenanigans time."

"This is way more entertaining," Karl assured. "Me and my chat got front row seats to the Dreamsy love saga."

"Shut up," she mumbled as she punched him in-game.

"OW! STOP PUNCHING ME SO MUCH!"

"Okay, okay, I'm back!!" Dream announced and they saw his figure sprinting and jumping towards them. He dropped the flower for Y/n and stepped back, crouching and standing repeatedly.

Y/n picked up the flower and hovered over it to read the name.

"Is it worthy of your forgiveness, Bugsy? Does it pass the vibe check?" Karl asked with a giggle.

Y/n bit her lip as she smiled at her screen.

to the prettiest girl in the world. love, dream <3

It was a joke, obviously. He was just continuing the joke of flirting with her like he does on Twitter just like Sapnap and Karl and George and Quackity do. They all joke about flirting with her and this was another joke.

But it still gave her tummy butterflies.

"Bug?" Dream called softly.

But why would he joke like that when neither of them were streaming? Karl's chat wouldn't see it so there was no one to point in feeding into the joke, unless he meant for Y/n to show Karl? She was overthinking. She needed to play it cool. 

She also needed an enderchest so no one could find it and no one could take it away from her and destroy it but they didn’t need to know she liked it that much.

"Mmm.... it'll do."

**********

PREVIOUS | NEXT

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A/N: yeeee hope you guys liked this one! i think this is my favorite so far i just think dream was being too cute and i wanna be best friends with karl so much it hurts. we’re gonna get deeper into the dream relationship soon!! i just needed to indugle in bff karl content real quick!!!

taglist: open (at the time) @hydrate-tion @loraleiix @tinaswagbd @charsdummb @smileyyuta @1ghoste1 @cerberus-hellhound @gaysludge @queestionmark @carnations-red @letsloveimagines @the-fictionwriters-hairdo @boiled-onionrings @a-cryptic @fee-btheweeb​ @letsloveimagines @erwinss @just-a-stan @axths @kayleigh2703 @furiouspockettoad @sometimeseverythingsucks @powerpuffyn​ @itshaileyn @millavalntyne @automaticcomputerpaper @nikkineeky @fivedicksinatrenchcoat @sprucekot​ @bellomi-clarke @possiblyanxioushuman

[technowoah]

if you're taking asks for the prompts, can you do 11 and 17 from the angst list with george but have a fluffy ending? she/her pronouns pls

I Can Make It Right

SHSJS I HAVE SO MUCH ANGST IN MY INBOX YALL!

Thanks for the request babe! The way it came out was gender neutral i dont think I user she/her, but it still works trust me!

George x reader imagine (established)

11) "It's not important apparently"

17) "You already made me feel like shit so might as well finish me off"

⚠︎ angst with happy ending, unresolved issue but they're gonna fix it dont worry 😌, angry George, swearing

*** = flashback

Masterlist

You had stood infront of your bathroom mirror finishing up your makeup for the night. Your hair was already done and you had a nice outfit on, not to fancy and not too comfortable. While listening to a playlist George had made for you, you had put down the brushes you were using. It didnt really matter if you cleaned up your makeup that was littered all over the sink right now, but right now you were feeling good.

Today was your and George's 3rd year anniversary and you couldn't be happier about it. Today you two were going to dinner and doing something else which was supposed to be a surprise for you. It was a night on the town.

George and you met 4 years ago actually. You two started out as acquaintances, the slowly grew into friends and then one day he asked you to join him to dinner. At first you were oblivious to his actions, thinking he was just being a good friend, but turns out the more dates you two went on the more you caught on. He officially asked you to be his girlfriend 3 years ago today.

His friends keep on pressuring George to propose already, they think it's been long enough. The only thing close to marriage is a promise ring. He put the ring on your finger as a promise that one day he would marry you, everytime you doubt that he will propose you turn your attention to the cute ring on your finger.

You had turned off the bedroom lights and sat on your bed finally relaxing after struggling to find a decent enough outfit for tonight. George said that he was going to pick you up around 6:00 and now it is 5:47 so you had some time to spare.

You had found yourself scrolling through tiktok because you had nothing else better to do at this moment. It was a guilty pleasure of yours even though you and george both joked around about hating tiktok.

Time began to tick away so you had checked the clock on your phone which said 5:57 pm. You had grabbed shoes that you set up against your bed, slipped them on and grabbed all of your belongings for the night. You stationed yourself in the living room waiting till George came to the door.

Nervousness always came up before a date, it was the anticipation actually. You were excited and nervous about the date as you always were, but today for you was special. It was three years worth of beautiful love. You remembered the time he first said I love you too, it was just like it was yesterday.

***

"Hey y/n." George looked towards you. You both were sitting on a plaid, plush blanket with a brown woven basket ontop in between you two. It was just like the movies and that why you cringed because of how cheesy it was when George led you to it.

It was sweet, it was extremely sweet and you loved these dates that George always brung you too. You always felt special when you are sitting next to him.

You responded to George. "Yeah Gogy?" You laughed at the use of his nickname.

"Im trying to be serious right now and you call me Gogy." George smiled and shook his head. "Anyways, you know I love you, right?"

"Of course I do-"

"No I love you. I mean. I'm in love with you." George reached to rest his hand ontop of yours and repeated himself. "I'm in live with you y/n."

You wasted no time answering. "Im in love with you too."

***

6:03

George didnt show up yet, but there was no sweat. He was only 3 minutes late, maybe he ran into traffick. Your stomach was rumbling, but you didnt want to eat yet since you two we're planning to go to dinner. Patience is key, and it wasnt like he wasn't late before.

6:10

You started to get worried, it's been 10 minutes and still no sign of your boyfriend. You had gotton up several times to check outside of your door only to be met with no one. Your mind was jumping to conclusions about if he forgot your anniversary, but you shut those thoughts out for the time being.

6:19

Okay this is getting out of hand. You brung out our phone and began to text George, you couldn't believe that you had waited this long before texting the man.

Where are you? Ive been waiting for 29 minutes?!

[Sent: 6:20pm]

George what are you doing?

[Sent: 6:20pm]

You awaited his text message with your phone faced up on the coffee table infront of you. You didn't want to believe that George woukd forget, or overslept, but that was becoming truth the more minutes passed by with no call or text.

6:30

Calling him was useless, because he didn't answer. He didn't hang up on you he just wasn't picking up the phone, like he turned it off. You started to get worried if something happened to him, if he was in a situation where he couldn't call or text you. You wondered if he was safe at home and not out in the middle of the street.

In a flash all your worries subsided when your phone lit up with a notification.

ThisIsNotGeorgeNotFound is live:

Im Playing golf with my friends

That son of a bitch. Pissed off was an understatement, you were fuming. How could he end up streaming at home when you had constantly reminded him about this day, he knew damn well about this day too. How could he?

You ended up grabbing a jacket and your purse and ended up driving to George's place. It seemed like he was mocking you in a way, he knew you had notifications on for Twitch. You loved to support him and his career, but this was making a fool out of yourself.

Your hand tightly gripped the steering wheel as you tried not to run every red light you cane across. You finally came across George's home, you found a place to park and quickly got out of your car and sped walked your way to George's residence. Finally making up to George's door you knocked harshly on the door probably making more noise than what you intended too. You continuously banged on his door until you got fed up.

Remembering that George had given you a key to his house you dig through your purse to get your set of keys out anr unlock his door. You stomped inside his house and closed the door behind you.

"GEORGE! GEORGE!" You yelled through the house. You were being reckless and annoying, but you didnt care at this point you were fuming and needed to tell George how you feel.

You had made your way to George's recording room where he was talking to his friends on discord. George looked towards you in shock clearly not hearing the sounds you were making throughout his house.

"Y/N?!" George yelled and muted his microphone.

"What the hell are you doing?" You exclaimed back.

"Im streaming thats what Im doing!" George sassed back at you, not paying attention to his screen and the chat.

"Dont get smart with me. End the stream."

"What?! No!"

"You heard me, we need to talk." You crossed your arms across your chest. Your heart was beating too fast for your liking and you tried to calm yourself down, but George's comments were getting to you.

George was about to unmute himself and get back to the game. "No we dont-"

"GEORGE END THE FUCKING STREAM! This is embarrassing! Talk to me cause you have some explaining to do." You snapped at him.

A silence tell upon you two and he glared at you before turning to his stream and closing it out.

"Okay guys! Go watch the other boys streams I need to go now! Bye!" George quickly ended and turned off everything.

He turned around to you still sitting in his chair. "What? What do you want?"

"Do you know what today is?" You asked.

"April 30th." George answered bluntly.

"Thats all you have to say?" You asked in shock. "It's our anniversary dickhead!"

"I fucking know that." George said.

"You do? So why did you start streaming and we had dinner plans?!"

"I told you we were streaming! You weren't listening to me!" George stood up from his chair when he said that.

"When the fuck did you tell me this?!"

"A couple days ago! You didn't listen!"

"But you knew that was our anniversary! And we made dinnerr plans-"

George yelled over you. "A month ago! We made those plans a month ago so excuse me for forgetting!"

"So all these other years you remembered our anniversary and went out of your fucking way to cancel other plans around that date, but today you didnt because why?!" Tears were threatening to fall down you cheeks, but you wouldnt let him see you like that.

"Because I planned this already with the boys! And AGAIN you werent listening to me when I said that-"

"There were several other times that you could've told me too! But you didn't!" You sniffed trying to keep the frustrated tears inside.

"I already planned this and I cant go back on my promise-"

"But you can with me?!" You yelled and George stopped talking. He's just studying your face at this point and you hated this silence.

"Its not important apparently." You said while walking out of the recording room.

"You're being a bitch." He mumbled.

"Excuse me?! That is so disrespectful!" You spun around yelled at him.

"You already made me feel like shit so might as well finish me off." George said in a annoying tone.

"Yeah you should feel like shit! I feel like shit too so-!" You threw your hands up in exasperation and stormed out the room. You had made it to the door before George called out to you again.

"Y/n! Y/n! Please!"

"No! Just..." You paused before opening the door and ushering your way out. "Call me when you get your shit together.

You were currently curled up on your couch eating leftovers that you had in the refrigerator. That had satisfied your hunger for the night because the dinner was canceled that night. Your anger and sadness had subsided and you were only left with an unusual feeling in your heart. Your relationship felt incomplete, this fight felt incomplete. You didnt break up with him, but you were waiting for closure.

The TV was the only light in the room. It illuminated what it wanted to, you didnt care if it was too dark. Usually you would be cuddled up with George at this ungoldy hour, but you weren't and that made you tear up.

Your sadness was still there, your anger towards George turned into pity. You were sad about the actions he took, but somewhere in your heart you could forgive him. You could forgive and move on if he would come to you.

Speaking of, you had a knock on your door. You didn't have the strength to get up, but you did. Shuffling your way to the door you sluggishly opened it to find George standing there with his hands in his hoodie. The person you wanted to see, but at the same time you wanted to slam that door in his face.

"Hey." George spoke and you gave him a small smile, nothing more.

You turned around to find your seat back on the couch where you were comfortable, but also giving him a silent invitation to come inside. You had sat down on the couch not paying attention to George, but you knew he closed the door, took off his shoes by yours, and put his keys on the table by the door like he always did. It was like a routine to him.

George ended up awkwardly standing beside the couch as you ignored him.

"You know, if you didnt open the door I would've used my keys like you did." George tried to spark up a conversation, but you only hummed in response. You were scared that if you spoke, you would cry.

George ended up making his way to the couch sitting beside you and pulling you into his embrace. Your head was on his chest and you began to sob. You missed this it's only been a few hours, but you had felt that in those few hours you had lost everything. You continued to sob into his hoodie as he rubbed your back and shushed you, whispering sweet nothings into the air only for you to hear.

"Im here, and Im sorry. Im so fucking sorry that I did this to you and I only hope that you can forgive me." George said, his voice cracking a little when he said that. You kept crying.

That's what you wanted to hear all along, that's what you needed. You could forgive him in due time, you always will because you love him, you will always love him. You both can always make it right.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: April 13th, 2021

And we’re back again with more replies so soon, haha. Thank you for the asks!

Your game literally saved me this hell ass year. Thank you so much for the most perfect piece of art I've ever laid eyes on 😫 ... Do you guys have a rough idea when step 3 DLC will be released? I hope I'm not coming off as rude. I just really really love your game.

I’m sorry for the late reply on this! You might’ve already seen the answer by now, but the Step 3 DLC is coming out on the 16th. We’re almost there :D

This may be a silly question but did Jeremy's parents ever find out that Pran had lied about his age and if so, when/how? :3

Pran came clean to them after a couple of years, when he felt secure enough that it wouldn’t ruin the relationship. The Kings were a little embarrassed, the dad more than the mom, but they’re quite good at brushing past those kind of mistakes so it was all water under the bridge pretty fast.

hi! i know you’ve answered a question about alterations in the our life moments by playing them in different orders, but i was wondering if there was a canon order that the moments for each step happen in? i figure with such a customizable game the “canon” timeline for the moments is whatever order the player completes them in, for example in step 1, i like playing the runaway moment pretty early, since cove trying to run away early in summer makes more sense to me personally. thanks!

Yeah, there’s no canon order we’d insist on. Whatever you like can be the official route for you! And that’s a neat way to look at that event.

What if your character isn’t that into physical contact but still wants to be in a relationship with Cove? Would he be offended if you shy away or something along those lines?

He wouldn’t be. Cove knows how hard that can be and is very understanding. If you set his initiative to low, the game always checks to make sure if you want to be touched or not rather than assuming that you do. And if you do choose that you don’t want to, there’s no stress or drama about it. Cove will just say that’s okay!

Hellu! First off, I want to thank you all for such a wonderful game, it's been the best feel-good game I've ever stumbled upon and I can't express enough how much it has meant to me. Second, I've seen lots of people having trouble with making Cove confess before MC which makes me wonder if people will have the same problem in the dlc when you can propose to him. Is it possible to post a guide for that as well when it no longer could count as a spoiler? Again, thanks for such a beautiful game <3

I’m really happy you had such a nice time with it c:. We’ll answer questions about it on tumblr/in the discord if they come up and, if need be, we’ll find somewhere to upload a guide.

Do we get steam key from buying dlc on itch io?

I’m afraid not. That’d be unfair to those who get it on Steam. Plus, Steam isn’t super cool with giving out thousands of keys to be handed out for free on other sites anymore. They can refuse to give us the keys if they feel we’re trying to take advantage of their system.

hi! so if we reject cove's confession in step 3, can we still have MC and cove get together in step 4?

You can confess to him, yeah. But Cove won’t ever try confessing again if the MC turns him down in Step 3.

What if MC acts like someone Cove doesn't like, like Lizzie or Baxter lol

You can’t do what Lizzie or Baxter does to make Cove dislike them. You can play the game and try, but it doesn’t work out. The MC is just too compatible with Cove if you’re fond/crush/love, haha.

Hi! I absolutely love your game, I love the characters they’re all so amazing, thank you for the game haha

I was wondering if you would get the NSFW DLC no matter what Patreon level you were at, or if you would could get it at any level? :)

&

What pateron tier do we need to get the 18+ content for Our Life? It's my new favourite game, keep up the good work!

It will eventually be available at the $5 tier and anything above that! Glad you both like OL ^^

On a scale from 1 (being the worst) to 10, how well do the XOXO jerk squad including JB handle horror?

JB: 8

Everett: 5

Nate: 4

Shiloh: 10

Bae: 10

Jeremy: 8 for non-gore horror, 2 for gory horror

Pran: 9

hello!! i was wondering if any of the boys from the Jerksquad would ever wear a skirt/dress?

None of them wear skirts/dresses out of personal preference. But if there was some kind of reason where they had to do it, none would be that bothered.

How does the jerk squad feel about Christmas? 

Everett: He fucking loves it. That’s the best time of year.

Nate: Commercialized nonsense.

Shiloh: It’s wonderful! So he claims.

Bae: He likes it quite a bit, but only for the joy it brings children/family. He thinks that’s sweet but is too mature to be whipped up into a festive fervor himself.

Jeremy: It’s awful.

Pran: He hates it.

does cove have any pet allergies? yes I know this is a little weirdly specific

He doesn’t! The lucky boy isn’t allergic to any animal.

Very important question: Would Lee and a musical-theatre loving MC run around belting Into The Unknown from Frozen 2? Because I feel that they would 

Probably, haha.

This might seem like a dumb question, so I’m sorry, but with the Derek DLC are we gonna get to hang out with him in person instead of just calling him in step 3? 

The Derek DLC adds events in Step 2 and Step 4. It’s part of his story that you don’t really get to be around him in Step 3. But you don’t need to apologize for wondering!

hello! i'd like to ask if it's possible to play the android version of the game with the dlcs after buying the dlcs from steam. i wasn't expecting my android version to have my dlcs since i bought them from steam, but it had my step 2 dlc for some reason. is this a glitch or does the apk actually detect what dlcs you already have on your pc? if so, how come i don't have the step 1 dlc appearing on android? thanks!

That is some kind of glitch. It isn’t possible for the Android DLCs to be unlocked by having them on PC. Maybe in one of the old builds we accidentally didn’t lock the Step 2 DLC properly. Sorry for the confusion!

Does Derek and Baxter have canon sexualities? Will Derek still flirts with the MC regardless of their gender?

They’re both pansexual and can like the MC regardless of what gender they have.

I was wondering if Miranda had a crush on Cove in Step 3? I'm not sure why, but I got those vibes from her?

She thinks of him only as a friend. Cove isn’t her type, haha.

This is probably a dumb hope, but I hope Cliff find someone he loves after Cove is grown up and everything. Or at the very least he has someone he's very close with after Cove leaves. 

That’s a really sweet thought to have. Cliff stays single, but he’s graysexual and not-particularly romantically inclined. He only dated when he was really young ‘cause that’s what everyone did. Family and friend relationships are more important to him, and he has plenty of that in his life ^^.

Heya! I was curious if there might be a nickname system in N&F? I kind of pull an Elizabeth when I play and choose a different variation of a name like having Rosie in step one and changing it to Rose in step two, then maybe Rosetta in step three for example, but it also feels a little bit odd being scolded using my nickname hehe. That's all I was wondering about, thank you for your time and the wonderful games!

We are hoping to include the option to go by a nickname in Our Life: Now & Forever. But nothing has been programmed yet, so we can’t 100% guarantee it, haha.

Just curious, what would Liz's and Cove's relationship be if MC wasn't around? I feel like they wouldn't get along as well as they do now, especially during the first and second step 

They’d definitely have a lot of friction growing up and they’d likely avoid each other as much as possible. Once they were both older, I imagine they’d be decent neighbor acquaintances. But they still wouldn’t be nearly as close as they are with the MC bringing Cove into things.

What do the customizable eyes look like in the game? Do they look as they are in the creating avatar section? Or do they look different when actually playing the game?

That’s up to you! The doll is just meant to be a general idea. You can apply it to your imagined MC as much or as little as you prefer.

Did Cove go through a "phase" during his adolescence? I don't really wanna headcanon it so I wonder if there's anything (cringy) canon since we missed out on the ages of 14-17 hahaha

Not really, aha. 14-17 Cove is pretty recognizable to his 13 and 18 year old self.

Hello! I'm sorry to bother you, especially with all the messages you get. I was just wondering if the religious wedding venue was exclusive to a church or if there will be different religions of weddings? Also, I love this VN so much, it's so well written and every character is so amazing, thank you for making such a beautiful game.

The church is treated as a historic building rather than anything actively religious, but it’s not the only option like that. There’s a historic synagogue and stuff too! And that’s really nice of you to say <3.

How differently would it play out If MC told their moms about the 20$ deal back when it happened? 

They wouldn’t have been happy and would’ve been far more skeptical of Cliff, aha. But they wouldn’t want to keep Cove away from the MC, so it wouldn’t have been too different in the long run.  

Hello may I ask what Cove's favorite fudge/ice cream flavor would be? Its alright if its not answered 

He appreciates them all, but his top favorites would be the fruit flavored ones and the ones with nuts.

Hi! I really wanted to make mc's house in a game and tried really hard to figure out the floor plan, but I wondered if you have the floor plan of the mc's house so that i can try again with more accuracy?

Thank you a lot for this game, i loved it a lot! (my first play took me 8 hours lol)

I’m really sorry, we don’t have anything like that. But at least you can headcanon that what you did is correct and nothing can prove it wrong, haha.

Hello,I recently started playing lake of voices (I put it off for a long while since I’m usually not very good with horror) and I’m really happy I did!I’m a big fan of your games in general and lake of voices was absolutely great as well.I loved the characters and the dark setting of it,I adored the beautiful art and music and the story was great too,sometimes unsettling and sometimes very sweet.My favorite Route in the game was definitely Lu,I liked his character and was really shocked and distraught by his Route at least two times.I didn’t see the plot twist(s) coming at all!

Besides these ramblings I’ve also wanted to ask if you still remember how to get the lower two CGs on page 5?I seem to always miss them and would appreciate any help.Anyways I hope I wasn’t too much of a bother and I wish the devs a great day!:)

Thank you for all the kind words <3. You get those DLCs by going through the end of the Guide’s character path. You can use the guides on Steam to help you find it/reach the end!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for all of these questions :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[iam-siriuslysher-lokid]

HELP ME

idk where else I should be posting this but I just want to get this out of my system

my crush/college mate has invited me to watch thor 4 w him and his circle... and im overthinking things

backstory:

College of Engineering

he's that kind of "everybody's crush" guy and he's also fairly popular within our batch bc of his good looks. when we were in our 1st year, we became close as I am "one of the boys" kind of girl (yes I have more guy friends than girl friends) and I became close w the boys circle.

bc I was hanging out so often w the boys circle and sometimes the boys would intentionally sit apart from us...people started shipping us (they say we look good together). i didn't really believe it til our circle had a kind of an open forum.

during that open forum, some of the guys asked him if he was courting someone or if he has a crush. suddenly he looked at me for a split second and he says he's thinking but it's possible that he wants a girlfriend soon.

fast forward>>>>>

i confessed to him on our 2nd year of college. I thought I assumed right with us getting closer with each other but during that time he only said "Thank you" back to me and reassuring me that we were good friends and he appreciates my adoration for him. that hurts but maybe I was just really wrong about us being mutual in feelings.

3rd year I decided to join another group circle as some of the boys circle priorities do not align with mine (yeah they'd want to be on internet cafes all the time whilst I wanted to be at the library to study). that was the start of my friendship with them falling apart... but I couldn't do anything much. I need to study hard and I also would want to move on from the hurt 😞

fast forward>>>>>

in middle of our 3rd year 2nd semester, he and his family decided to move to japan. I didn't even get to say goodbye personally nor do I want to chat him online about it. I kind of wanted to forget him...

One year passed. I was walking home...I saw 2 familiar men walking out of a car. I saw his dad and then I saw him. I was frozen at the spot. My brain went haywire thinking 'that's not him. it's impossible. he is in Japan.' While I was stunned, I didn't realize his dad saw me and called him. He suddenly ran to me and hugged me without words. I was hesitant to hug him back bc im not used to guy friends hugging me back. It was kind of a relationship thing only. But I slowly did. It was a good minute of hug. Also, his perfume was so damn good! We took a step back and I was just screaming questions to him like 'why are you here? are you taking a vacation? why did you not tell us you're coming back? like if I did not see you here today I wouldn't know.' he answered he didn't want anybody to know yet and he wanted to surprise his friends (his childhood friend circle). But he told me he was glad to see a familiar face and that it was me, the first person to know that he's back.

He didn't return to the same college. He came back but he studied in a different university. So our interaction, was good as the last (I rarely chat w him). Or so i thought...

4th and 5th year of college went by. I graduated along with all of our batch. It was a satisfying victory! I took the licensure exam and passed the following year then continued to find work the suceeding months.

Then came the pandemic, the lockdowns.

Most of my social needs were fulfilled by video calls and gaming w strangers turn friends online. It's because I created a discord server and the game devs recognized it as an official discord server so yeah, my name (or perhaps username) got kind of popular among the players of the game. I wasn't really good at the game really.

Also to note, the guy and I don't follow each other in our social media accounts. And I was surprised during the early 2020, he followed me on IG. And chatted me about the discord server bc he heard about it and thought maybe I could play w him and his friends sometimes. I said yeah why not. I just shrugged like what could go wrong. I don't have any feelings for you anymore (I'm talking to myself) so it'd be just another typical gaming nights w friends. It was really fun ngl. I got to keep up with the boys again. They tell me stories of their shenanigans and I tell them mine. We pretty much hung out every night during 2020-2021. But with everybody getting busy with their work, also I. The online hangout gradually stopped during early 2022.

Oh yeah I forgot to note, we love MARVEL. It's all we talk about, me and the boys. So when a new marvel show or movie comes out, for sure we'll be chatting about it.

Then come Thor 4 and my obsession with Taika...

No one was ever going to stop me talking about my love for Taika and my anticipation for Thor: Love and Thunder and our group chat was no exception. He then invited me to their scheduled gala (hang out). It will be the boys circle again and me. I went with them, we watched thor 4 and guess what...HE SAT BESIDE ME. No one was sitting on my other side so I could hear his breathing or when he whispers something to my ear when he points out something that is going on on TLAT (we had our theories for the plot). I was basically squealing and sobbing throughout the movie and I can hear him silently laughing at me bc he knows I love Taika and he'll point out EVERY single scene whenever Korg is there lmao.

I had a really good fun! That was the first time ever after 4 years that I got to see them, and him, in person.

And because of that, I'm overthinking again. I thought I'd moved on but idk anymore. Maybe I have feelings for him again??? GOSH HELP ME

PS. He is single.

PPS. But I'm not sure if he's courting/dating someone so I'll never know. Guess I'll die.

[hyper-fxation]

Café Mourning (Reid/Reader)

Summary: Reader is a barista who has been missing their favorite customer for the past three months. One rainy day, he walks in like nothing happened. A/N: 
Hi there! Welcome to my first official fic! This imagine was written for @imagining-in-the-margins​ ‘s Discord fic swap (which was a blast, might I add). To my lovely @ctrlalt-del​, this one’s for you! I hope you enjoy!

P.S: My requests/inbox are open! Feel free to send me any ideas; smut, fluff, angst, you name it!

Couple: Spencer Reid/GenderNeutral!Reader 
 Category: 
Fluff Word Count: 1.3K

——————

The early Saturday shifts were calm, yet slightly pitiful. All they consisted of was dusting between the same few crevices about twenty-seven times, or at least until there wasn’t a single espresso grain in sight. And as if the leisurely cleaning wasn’t tiring enough, the rain pattered heavily against the building, causing everything to feel twice as dreary. Not much activity was happening at the little coffee shop on the corner, especially not at the ass crack of dawn. I’d almost given up on seeing anyone before the sun would rise when the first ring of the doorbell chimed.

“I’ll be right with you!” I watched the final beads of coffee drip into the cup before making a quick effort to tend to the customer. After all, people tended to be ruder than usual at this hour. At least, before they got their coffee.

“I’m sorry for the wait… What can I get for y-“

The ceramic slipped from my fingers as I gasped, sucking in breath as I awaited the dreaded crash by my feet. There stood the man, drenched by the morning showers. His hair hung in loose, soggy curls. He wore a soft yet longing smile across his face. That smile belonging to Spencer.

“Hey.” His eyes were wide, surprised by the sudden accident.

“Good morning! Oh my god, you’re soaked! Do you not have an umbrella?” Careful not to slip on the spilled drink, I frantically searched for any sort of towel to help his current issue, never mind the coffee.

“No, I forgot it this morning.” His eyes followed as I ducked underneath the counter, slowly peeling his now twice as heavy blazer from his shoulders.

“Spencer! You’re going to catch a cold!” I settled for a roll of paper towels, tossing them over the counter.

He stared at the towels for longer than I had expected him to before adverting his gaze back towards myself.

“Why are you staring at me like I’m the crazy one?” I couldn’t describe the way he had looked at me then. Longing, dazed, I wasn’t sure. But it had certainly set my heart into a thumping frenzy.

“Did you…call me Spencer?”

As a matter of fact, I had. A slip of the tongue, if anything. The man had never told me his name. Nor had I asked.

“Oh,” I spoke, eyes widening in alarm. “Yeah. I did. I’m sorry!”

I attempted to recall the memory of when I had first heard his name. A friend, co-worker, someone who he had arrived at the shop with months ago. She had called him Spence, to which I had assumed was a nickname for Spencer.

“One of your co-workers called you Spence so I just figured…”

“No, it’s fine!” He smiled then, noticing my panic and placing his jacket over the back of a chair. “I just didn’t realize you know my name. I definitely didn’t expect you to remember it.” His voice softened, trailing off as he slowly peeled a few towels from the roll.

His words took me by surprise; of course, I would have remembered! Spencer’s early morning presence was what kept me excited for another shift. I was always greeted with a cheerful “good morning”, a soft smile and an occasional compliment regarding my hair or outfit for the day. I wasn’t sure how I would have forgotten those soft hazel eyes followed by his small, button nose that would scrunch out of habit. I found myself drifting into my own thoughts, leaving us both in awkward silence.

“Why would I forget?” I shifted a few cups on the counter, waiting for his eyes to meet my own once again.

He placed the damp towels into the trash beside the door before running his palms over his shirt, realizing that it was still soaked before shaking his hands slightly in attempt to dry them.

“I…I just haven’t been by in a while.”

“Yeah, three months, right?” I shook my head, allowing myself to laugh at my own stupid thoughts. “A-At first I thought you’d finally gotten tired of me and were just avoiding my shift.”

He almost gasped, taken aback by my statement. “Oh, God no! No, I haven’t had a decent cup of coffee since the last time I saw you.”

A playful smile overtook my face as I offered, “Do you want to fix that?”

He seemed to relax, breathing out a sigh that I hadn’t realized he was holding in and tucking his damp hair behind his ears.

“Definitely, although I’m a little worried I’m developing a Pavlovian response to seeing you.”

I giggled as I fixed a new cup underneath the espresso machine. “The training experiment with dogs? Am I the dog or the bell?”

“You’re definitely not the dog.” He laughed as I finished his cup, placing it on the other side of the counter.

Handing him a few napkins to hold underneath the steaming drink, I studied his current appearance. “And you’re very puppy like. It suits you.”

He gave a small nod before moving to sit. I watched for a couple of seconds before turning my attention back to my obnoxious cleaning.

The shop was quiet for about two minutes, other than my audible, uncomfortable grunts as I separated the shards of glass from the coffee puddle. I allowed a few rags to soak up the mess as I sighed, placing my hands on my hips. Spencer had been watching, gulping down a rather large sip before speaking softly. “I missed you.”

Talk about the world’s heaviest eye contact as we both attempted to decide if those words were meant to be spoken before I decided to respond.

“Really?”

He seemed hesitant to answer before giving a slow nod, averting his eyes to the liquid in his cup. My heart most definitely swelled, rocking back on my heels as I watched Spencer fidget in his seat.

“…Do you want to hear something embarrassing?” I suddenly announced.

“Embarrassing for you or embarrassing for me? Because that will determine my answer.”

I gave a soft smile before responding. “For me.”

“Then continue…” He smirked behind his mug, taking a large gulp.

“So, I just remade that drink for you.”

It took him a few seconds to fully comprehend what I had said, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I made that drink for you earlier, which…” I gestured to the soaking paper on the floor by my feet. “Is the drink I dropped on the floor. But even if I hadn’t dropped it, I would have remade the drink because I was worried that you’d think I was weird for having it made already.” I felt my face flush as his eyebrows raised in question.  

“How did you know I was going to come in?” He placed his cup down on a napkin, twisting it by the handle as he watched it slide. “Well, I didn’t. For three months every morning I… made one anyway. Just in case.” I stumbled upon my words, flustered as my little coffee shop crush was becoming a bit more obvious the more I spoke. “Is that weird? I’m sorr-“

I was then cut off by an aggressive screech of chair legs against the hardwood floor. Spencer sped behind the counter, stepping over the mess that had yet to be properly taken care of before pulling my body into the warmest hug I had experienced in a quite some time. Despite his attire being damp, I placed my head against his shoulder with a deep sigh.

“What’s this for?” I finally spoke as he took a step back to meet my eyes.

“I never expected anyone to have waited for me.” His words were laced with genuine sadness, his eyes sparkling with appreciation.

I shook my head with a playful smile, patting his chest softly. “You underestimate me, Spencer.”

“You? Of course not! Your barista skills, well…”

[justmypartner]

Still Breathing: Chapter 4

Summary: AU | When a case goes sideways, Hailey wakes up in the hospital with a revelation that leaves her evaluating her life. While she recovers at Med, she meets Jay, an aloof, yet intriguing patient that catches her by surprise. The two get to know one another as they take on the task of rediscovering what it’s like to truly live, and eventually learn their lives intersect in more ways than one.

Writer’s Note: Hello all! I hope you are enjoying this story so far! I don't have much to say other than I so appreciate the kind comments I've gotten thus far! I really enjoy the feedback and discord after posting a chapter, so keep it coming - I love to hear your thoughts. Enjoy!!

Read on AO3 or below

A glow of sunlight filtering in through her curtains pulled Hailey out of a deep sleep the next morning. As her eyes fluttered open, part of her was waiting for the other shoe to drop. For it to be just another dream that would morph into a nightmare and leave her waking with tacky, sweat-covered skin and an irregular pulse. It took her a moment, but she eventually realized it wasn’t another dream. She was awake, and she had just slept fully through the night, unobstructed by her haunting memories. A naive thought credited it to Jay’s text from the night before, but the cynic in her figured it was just her many nights of restlessness finally catching up with her. Whatever it was, she was glad for that one night of freedom. It wasn’t enough to convince her the nightmares were gone completely, but she was willing to take what she could get. 

When she checked the clock on her bedside table, it read 15 minutes before her alarm was due to go off. She climbed out of bed then, figuring she could use the extra time with how much longer getting ready took with one arm still out of commission. Showering was a hassle, doing her hair was nearly impossible, and getting dressed required a specific strategy she hadn’t quite perfected yet. By the time she had gathered the last of her things to stuff into her duffle, it was time to go.  

The final thing she did was pull her sidearm from the safe in her bedroom and secure it in the side of the bag. She found it strange to wear her star without her weapon. It left a misplaced feeling in the back of her mind like she was forgetting something, but it was a feeling she knew she’d have to get used to over the next few weeks. 

As unexciting as desk duty sounded, she was glad in a way that she’d be able to ease back into things. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but after everything that happened, the thought of going into the field was unsettling. Physically she was feeling 100%, with exception of her arm still being in a sling, but mentally she wasn’t prepared for the field again. She was more than ready to be back at work. She hated being out, leaving the team short-handed after only two weeks of joining them to solve just that, so she was eager to get back to them. She was just glad that the shooting’s effects on her body provided a reason to disguise the mental ones that left her hesitant to get back on the streets. 

When she finally made it to work, she took a deep breath before climbing the steps into the district. She wasn’t sure what to expect. She warned the team against any sort of welcome back. At her old district, it was a tradition to greet cops who were injured on the job with a grand welcoming, but she always hated the idea of it. The attention was bad enough, but she always thought it was strange to celebrate someone almost dying for simply doing their job. Immediately as she reached the top of the steps, her shoulders relaxed to see the lobby empty. Not even the ever so illustrious desk sergeant was at her post, so she took the opportunity to sneak upstairs. 

She was surprised to be greeted with a vacant bullpen. She wasn’t sure who she was expecting, but she imagined at least someone would have beaten her there. As she moved through the space towards the locker room, a low wince behind the desks stopped her in her tracks. She then heard what sounded like someone falling over, followed by a murmur of suppressed laughter. 

“Okay, what the hell is going on?” she finally questioned, both amused and muddled by the unsourced noises. 

“This is officially the last time I include Ruz in a surprise,” Kim said, shaking her head with an enlivened grin as she and the other two Intelligence members climbed out from behind the desks.

“You stepped on my foot, what’d you expect me to do?” Adam bridled, causing Hailey and the others to let out stifled snickers. 

God, did she miss those idiots.

“Sorry, Upton. This was supposed to be a fun little welcome back, but I guess it’s a bit anticlimactic now so uh, here,” Kevin said, extending the cup of coffee in his hand out to her. “Welcome back,” he smiled, his contagious smile enough to get her grinning from ear to ear. 

“Thanks, guys,” she said quietly. “You didn’t have to do anything, but I appreciate it, and I’m just glad to be back.”

“We’re glad you’re back,” Kim said, the two guys nodding in agreement. Hailey smiled, dipping her head sheepishly before cutting the sudden silence with a sigh.

“Well, I still need to hit the locker room, but I fully expect a rundown of what I’ve missed while I was gone when I come back,” she told them before turning on her heels and heading down the hall. 

As she was putting the last of her things into her locker, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She sat on the bench behind her as she retrieved the phone, tapping the screen to read the message that had just come in. Her face instantly lit up when she saw who it was from.

Happy first day back! Kick ass!

Her fingers tapped out a response quickly. 

Kinda hard to do that from a desk, but I’m sure I’ll find a way lol

She settled on it before pocketing the phone and making her way back into the bullpen. The team caught her up on what she’d missed, and she told them about how uneventful her recovery was, leaving out the part where she met a new friend. They dished out all of their details, work-related and non-work-related until Voight eventually showed. He took only a brief moment to check up on Hailey and welcome her back before they dove into the day’s case.

Hailey spent the rest of the day combing through pod footage, making phone calls, and digging up any other information she could to relay back to the team. It wasn’t the most glamorous part of the job, but it kept her busy and it helped her to find her groove again. 

By the end of the day, they were unofficially able to close up the case. They still had batches of paperwork to fill out, but other than that it was pretty cut and dry, so Voight sent them home.

As they exited the district, her three fellow officers expressed how happy they were to have her back for the last time that day. It gave her the warmest feeling as she realized she got to work with some of the best people she’d ever met, but it also made her happy to have been so clearly missed by them. Walking out with them she took in every smile and every laugh. It was such a trivial moment, but it was the kind of memory her new outlook on life made her want to cherish.

When she pulled up outside of her place, a car she’d never seen along her street before caught her eye. It was a baby blue, vintage, convertible of some sort. She wasn’t much of a car person, but it was just one of those cars no person could refuse to appreciate. After one last glance at it, she hopped out of her own car and made her way up to her front door. She froze when she saw a friendly figure perched on her small stoop. A confused smile crept across her face as Jay stood, shoving his hands in his pockets as he sauntered towards her. 

“Hi?” She greeted, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 

“Hey, how was your day? Did you kick ass?” he asked casually, now standing only but a few feet in front of her. 

“Good, and I guess as best as I could behind a desk… what are you doing here?” she asked, her eyes darting around in confusion. 

“In honor of your first day back, we are going to cross something off my list,” he told her. His words coming out slowly, and she noted the way they came out as a statement rather than a question. 

“It better not be the one where you jump in the Chicago River,” she challenged, pointing a finger out with her words. He let out a chuckle, his mouth twisting into a sinister smile. 

“No…” she muttered, a sudden bout of fear rising in her. 

“I’m kidding, come on,” he instructed, brushing past her as he nonchalantly headed out toward the street. 

It was only when he stopped at the driver’s side of the car that she realized the connection.

“Wait, that’s yours?” she questioned, a look of disbelief on her face. 

“Don’t look so surprised,” he replied, the rise in his voice’s pitch revealing to her that he was bluffing. All it took was one raised brow, and he immediately caved. 

“Okay fine, it’s a loaner. I’ve got a lot of friends in high places,” he shrugged, steadying a hand against the top of the door as he jumped over it and into the driver’s seat. 

Since they’d met, she’d tried to keep her thoughts about him purely platonic. For the most part, she’d been fairly successful, but there was something about the way he jumped into that seat so smoothly that was so damn hot. That, the green beanie he wore that brought out the forest color of his eyes, and the way he looked so confident in that car had her questioning her feelings for a moment. She stood on the sidewalk looking over at him, slightly lost in a lingering gaze as butterflies danced about in her stomach. It was only when he cleared his throat that she was snapped out of it. 

“So, you coming or what?”

“Coming where?”

“It’s item number seven on my list, rent a convertible and drive down Lake Shore late at night,” he smirked, one arm propped against the headrest of the passenger seat and the other draped over the steering wheel. 

“Okay, that actually does sound pretty fun. Let me put my bag up,” she told him, lightly jogging to her front door before haphazardly tossing the bag into the dark space and locking up again. As she approached the car, he leaned over and pushed the door open for her, and she slipped into the passenger seat. 

“Ready?” he asked, and she confirmed the question with a nod. 

When he started the car, the roar of the engine was loud enough to send a judder through her bones. When he sped off down the street, she found herself instinctively clutching at the sides of the car for stability. She was filled with equal parts fear and exhilaration as they raced up and down half-empty streets. 

By the time they reached Lake Shore, the sun had already set, but twilight brought out a deep blue tinge that stood out against the city lights. It was like she was seeing the city for the first time. Like she was falling in love with it all over again. That view, with the roar of the engine, wind blowing through her hair, and the 70s roadtrip music he’d put on playing through the old stereo made her feel like she was in a movie. He drove the road until they reached just about the outskirts of the city. He pulled the car off somewhere near Montrose beach and got out, quickly running over to her side to open her door. 

“And they say chivalry’s dead,” she teased, masking the way the simple act had her stomach doing flips. He rolled his eyes at her, a slightly embarrassed smile on his face as she stepped out and he pushed the door shut behind her. 

“So what are we doing here?” she questioned as he led them closer to the shore of the lake. 

“I don’t know. We ran out of road, the lake’s pretty in the moonlight, and after a boring day of desk duty, I feel like it’s not a half-bad way to end the night,” he said simply, sitting down on the ledge by the lake. 

As she sat down with him, she quickly realized how much colder it was by the water. The brisk wind brushing against her skin through the open top of the car was one thing, but the coolness of the lakefront breeze was almost intolerable. She suddenly wished she’d thought to grab her jacket from her duffle before they left. As she settled down beside him, she clutched her arms tightly against her chest as shivers jumped through her body. Before she knew it, as if he had read her mind, he shimmied off his jacket and held it out to her. She thanked him, a tone of gratitude and hesitation in her voice as she pulled it on over her shoulders. When she did, she noticed him glancing over at her badge still displayed on her hip. His eyes lingered there before he realized she’d caught him looking and he quickly diverted his eyes, holding back whatever question the object had generated. 

“What?” she asked in an attempt to pull it out of him. 

“Hm? Nothing,” he shrugged off. She knew it wasn’t nothing, but she decided against pressing him for whatever it was. She knew the job was a touchy subject, and she figured it was best to leave it alone.

“So I’ve been meaning to tell you, and I may sound crazy for this, but part of me feels like your text last night actually worked,” she informed him, fidgeting with a loose pebble she found on the ground beside her. 

“What text?” his face contorted as he seemed to comb through his memory from the night before. “Oh wait… no nightmares?”

She shook her head.

“First night without them after more than three straight. Maybe you’ve got some sort of magic touch,” she half-joked, her tight-lipped grin growing across her face.

“I don’t know if I can take credit for that, but that’s good. You deserve that peace,” his voice was soft and low, and she didn’t miss the way his cheek dimpled slightly when he flashed her a small smile.

“So what’d you get into today?” she asked him, tucking one of her legs in and twisting so that she could face him.

“Um let’s see, I had a doctor’s appointment this morning, went to the grocery store, had a therapy session this afternoon, you know, all very exciting things,” he said, counting out each activity on his fingers.

“You go to therapy?” she asked, instantly regretful of the almost judgmental tone she carried as the words left her mouth. She just couldn’t help but be surprised that someone like him, a cop, a veteran, a man would be so open about it. She realized the thought only played into the toxic mentalities surrounding mental health and masculinity that she despised so much, but part of her also wondered if it was her own reluctance to start therapy that made her so staggered by the idea. 

“Yeah, for a few years now. Based on your reaction, I’m going to assume you don’t?”

“I’ve done the mandatory sessions with the department shrink after shootings before, but never anything consistent. How’d you get started?” she wasn’t even sure if it was an appropriate question to ask, but she was so intent on knowing more that she didn’t take time to second guess it. Though, she was relieved when his face read an expression of musing rather than one of annoyance. 

“There’s a bad take we often absorb as cops — as people really, but even more so as cops. We get injured on the job, we do whatever we need to do to heal, and we jump through whatever hoops we gotta jump through just to get back out there. The problem is there’s such a focus on our physical healing that we neglect what needs to be addressed mentally. I went through my whole life doing that. You get to a point where after so many times of telling people you’re fine, you start to convince yourself that you are,” he inhaled deeply, staring out at the lake briefly before he brought his eyes back to her and continued.

“Thing is, you do that for too long and you start to lose sight of what’s real. I was so against getting help, so against the idea that there was anything wrong with me that I began to just accept the fact that I was suffering. Then one day, that sense of reality I’d lost came back and bit me… hard. After that, I started going to therapy, very reluctantly at first, but eventually, I realized it was saving me. Helping me get to a place where I was healing instead of dealing, and I haven’t turned back from it since,” he finished, tightening his lips together as he peered into her eyes with a look of confidence. Like he knew everything he’d said was exactly what she needed to hear. 

“Damn,” she whispered, blankly staring out at the lake as she processed his words. She blinked rapidly to recede the tears that had emerged. She’d spent her entire life, best put in his words, dealing rather than healing. She was no stranger to trauma, in fact, she was far from it, but she was a stranger to properly addressing it. She wasn’t against therapy, she just figured she didn’t need it. That she was doing fine on her own, but that one conversation with him was making her think otherwise. 

“Well, maybe I should add therapy to my still breathing list,” she quipped, her best attempt at lightening the mood. 

“Not a bad thing to add,” he smirked, his face softening as he propped an arm behind him to lean back against. 

“Well, my first thing was kinda lame, so I figure it can only go up from here,” she joked, a mischievous grin spouting across her face. He scoffed, clutching at his chest as he feigned hurt by her words.

They talked for maybe longer than they should’ve, falling into an easy rhythm back and forth as they talked about anything and everything that came to mind. Hailey was the type of person who could talk to any and everyone if she had to, but there was something about talking to him that felt like a routine. Like one that she’d memorized by heart and never wanted to go without. After a while, she realized the time, realized she still hadn’t eaten, and that she had work early the next morning.

“God I didn’t realize how late it was, we should probably head back,” she told him, pushing herself up to stand. He nodded, standing with her as he fumbled in his pocket for the keys.

“Now… I know this was for my list but do you wanna drive back?” he asked, rising to stand with her. He dangled the keys in front of her. Her face brightened immediately, and he couldn’t hold in the puff of laughter that came with it.

“I thought you were never going to ask,” she joked, pulling his jacket tight across her body with her free hand before snatching the keys and making her way over to the driver’s side. As he climbed into the passenger seat, she crossed her good arm around the steering wheel to turn the key, and the engine started with a roar. She revved it a few times, looking over at Jay whose fearful expression had laughter escaping her lips.

“Am I going to regret this?” he asked, but instead of answering she just swiveled the steering wheel to pull off the shoulder, gunning the engine down the presently empty street. 

Before long they were back at her place, and she shifted the gear into park before turning off the engine. Driving with one arm was harder than she thought it would be, mainly for the fact that the ignition and gear shift were on the right side and her right arm was still in a sling. Yet, it didn’t stop her from having the time of her life driving such a car. She climbed out after she handed him back the keys, making her way around to lean against the back bumper.

“That was incredible,” she told him, digging in her pocket for her own keys.

“Anyone ever tell you that you drive like a maniac?” he jabbed, causing her to lightly kick at his leg.

“So what else is on that list of yours?” she inquired, noting the way he shadowed over her.

“Hm, I don’t know. I kind of liked surprising you tonight. If I tell you, it may take the fun away when we get around to the next one,” he admitted, a childlike softness in his voice that made it hard for her to be mad at his obscurity. She cut her eyes at him, and she noticed the way his brow furrowed back innocently.

“Are you always this aloof?” 

“Only with you.”

She rolled her eyes at him dramatically, shaking her head at his goading. 

“Well, thanks for tonight,” she said, pulling the jacket from her shoulders and offering it back to him. 

“Next time we’ll do something from your list,” he told her as she pushed herself from the car and made her way up to her front door. 

“Sounds like a plan,” she twirled around to tell him, her lips curling up at the thought of another night like that one. 

“And Hailey,” he called out, just as she reached the top of the steps. 

“Sleep well. No bad dreams,” he uttered, a small smile creeping across his face as his hands found way to his pockets.

It was the last time that night an action of his had caused an unexpected flutter in her stomach. She was embarrassed and somewhat fearful of the way those simple words had her feeling so dippy. Maybe it was the sentiment behind them, the way he’d said it, or the stupid smile on his face when he said it, but she wondered if the feeling that he’d erupted was more than just a fleeting one. She quickly pushed that thought down, dipping her head before hesitantly meeting his eyes once more. 

“Goodnight, Jay,” she told him before making her way inside, shutting the door and locking it behind her as if it would somehow protect her from what had just happened. 

She had to blame it on her exhaustion and the slight adrenaline rush she got from the night’s events. She’d also never had a friend like him. Someone who always had the perfect thing to say, whose company felt so natural and necessary, who seemed to relate so much to everything she was feeling. It was admiration more than anything, she told herself. He was just her friend, and he’d stay that way. Yet, as much as she tried to convince herself that all of those times that night that suggested differently were just flukes, she ended the night with a looming thought that wondered otherwise.