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wilbursoottranscripts · 2 years

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Transcript for “Let’s remember our friend (donos/alerts off)”

Wilbur: In a second. (Intro music plays - a piano instrumental of Wilbur's song, Your New Boyfriend)

Hello, chat. How are you chat? Hello, mods. Thank you for looking after chat. Hi, hoijys. (NB. hoijys is a mod)

Hi everyone. Hello. Look at all these new chatters! Hi. Welcome. I'm glad you're here.

Hope you're all vibing well.

Hi everyone.

(reading chat) "Chill vibes here." It will be chill vibes here. You are right. Nothing too over the top. (Sounds of Wilbur typing)

Thank you all for being here. Thank you for showing up and hanging out with me today.

Hello chat. How is everyone doing today? I hope you're all well. Hello. Hi. I like the salutes in the chat. How are you all? Are you all having a nice day? You're all — You're all well? Healthy? Vibing?

It's nice to have you all here. This is my first stream in a while. Sorry I disappeared. I went to America, which we'll talk about a bit today as well. Uh, I went to VidCon. Uh, some of you, if you met me at VidCon, hi! Uh, I had a really good time. We went to, uh, Los Angeles, California. Uh, more specifically Anaheim, where the convention centre is.

Uh, this stream today — Uh, I've turned off all alerts and donations. Well, I, I can't actually turn donations off, but I won't be reading them, and you won't show up on the screen, so don't, don't bother subbing and donating today. Uh, uh, I, we wanted to do a stream where we just talked about, uh, some memories we have with Technoblade.

For those of you that don't know, uh, one of our best friends, member of the Sleepy Bois, uh, I've known him for just over three years, uh, Technoblade, passed away, uh, last month, which, which really stung, it really stung a lot of us, uh, and, uh, and, and really pervade through the internet, which was, which, which was actually quite comforting for me, was seeing how much he mattered to everyone online, uh, which has been, it's been really nice to see the outpouring of love from everyone.

And, uh, sadly I know it's been a really difficult time for everyone as well. Not just, uh, not just, uh, the people who knew him. So, me and Phil just wanted to have a nice chill — I need to unmute Phil. Phil. I've just been talk — Phil. I've just been talking on your behalf. I'm sorry. (Wilbur laughs) I've just had you muted.

Phil: Oh, that's okay.

Wilbur: I was just saying, we just wanna have a little chill time and just share memories of, of our friend, uh, with you guys —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — And hope it, hope it can help you all, uh, as, as you know, there's, it's just, I, I just wanna, I just wanna share, I just wanna share with people and just sit and have a nice vibe together.

How are you, Phil, today? How are you feeling? You got, you got COVID as well, right? You got, you got — (Phil chuckles)

Phil: I'm feeling a bit better. I'm alright, really. Um, I just had a bit of a stuffy nose and a cough for a while. That's uh, I'm doing alright now.

Wilbur: Hell yeah. (Phil sniffs) And you built a shrine? I saw yesterday. I was watching that. I watched — I dipped in and out. I had to leave at one point, but I saw, I saw the beginning when you were digging upwards and (Wilbur starts laughing) walking in a straight line for ages.

Phil: Yeah, and — I wanted to find more diamonds for the sword, but I, I — turned out that I had enough anyway, so I was like, "All right, I'll just, I'll just make it."

Wilbur: Yeah. And then, (Phil chuckles) and then you finally built, uh, the shrine. Do you have a picture of it I can put on the screen for everyone? Of your —

Phil: Uh, I can grab one. Yeah.

Wilbur: Was it — is a shrine the right word? A statue? A monument.

Phil: Uh, yeah. Yeah. I would say, yeah. I wanted something in, in my world, um, that like, represented him. I thought that would be nice.

Wilbur: That would be cool. (reading chat) "Can Tommy join?"

He, he was around, uh, today. I think he had a really busy night last night. Uh, and we planned to do this today. Uh, and I think he may have just had a really busy night last night and, uh, he might dip in at some point. Uh, I'll, I'll message him again. (Sounds of Wilbur typing, presumably messaging Tommy) Uh, but, you know, he's — if, if he's hungover or whatever, (Wilbur starts laughing) I don't wanna, I don't wanna drag him out.

Phil: Yeah, yeah, true.

Wilbur: He might be around though. I, I saw him on Instagram. So, maybe. (Wilbur clears his throat)

Have you got a photo? Did you send it? Am I missing it?

Phil: I'm trying. Yeah. I'm really bad. Hang on. I didn't, I, I've got this. I'll try and get a screenshot I took. There. You see —

Wilbur: Oh, that's so sick. What the hell? This is, uh, uh, let me get onto the right screen. We'll use the YouTube screen. This is the, this is the monument Phil built for, uh, in Techno's memory yesterday, which is for, for one day build that is amazing, dude. That's really cool. Is that actually — did you use actual diamond blocks as well?

Phil: Thanks. Yeah. Yeah.

Wilbur: That's so sick.

Phil: Um, yeah, and that, and it's — that, that's like, that was the progress, and then like, that's the, the final picture I, I took before ending the stream. I’ll send you it.

Wilbur: I'll quickly get that up too. That's so cool. I like the pigs. Did you bring the pigs over? (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

Phil: I did. Yeah.

Wilbur: I like it. I like it a lot. Let me put on, let me put on some chill music.

So yeah, we, we're not gonna, uh I'm, I'm sure we've uh, I'm sure for those of you that have just joined, you still may have heard the news, but I'll, I'll say again for the new people that just shown up. But, uh, we just wanna do a chill, chatting stream where we just talk about good memories and happy times, uh, with — (chill music starts playing) about, uh, one of our friends, one of our best friends, Technoblade, who passed away.

Uh, we just wanna, we just wanna talk about him and stuff.

When was — So. Okay. Let's just, let's just start otherwise we're just gonna be, we're just gonna be dancing for the whole time. Um —

Phil: Repeating ourselves.

Wilbur: Yeah, F — So what, when was the, when was the first time you actually spoke to him?

Phil: Minecraft Monday I think it was. Um —

Wilbur: It's the same for me. (Wilbur laughs)

Phil: Yeah, we owe a lot to Keem, funny enough. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: Oh, that is, that is an interesting point.

Phil: Isn't it? Yeah. They, they — he's literally the reason why we all like, found each other, essentially.

Wilbur: Do, do the — does chat know this story?

Phil: Which one?

Wilbur: Of, um, when me and you were put on the team together? (Phil laughs)

So Keem, Keem went through a bit — We had a, a Twitter group chat where, uh, all of the —

Phil: I have nightmares about that Twitter group chat.

Wilbur: — Where all the Minecraft Monday participants would, uh, elect who they would want to play with next, right? — Sorry. Someone's said that my audio's off today. Is the audio fine chat? Let me know. — But anyway, um, uh, he basically gave us a group chat where we could all, uh, we could all, uh, pick our teammates so we could all be like, "Oh, I wanna be with Wisp." Or "I wanna be with Phil," you know? — Okay. Audio's fine. Sick. — And, uh, and I remember, uh, Keemstar kind of, faded away from this chat and stopped focusing on it for a while.

I think he had other stuff going on, which meant that they ended up running rampant and people like me were able to get into the event despite not having 2000 viewers, which was the rule. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) The rule was to have 2000 viewers. And, uh, so people like me were able to get in, in this period, and, uh, uh, eventually he changed, Keemstar changed his motive and decided to really focus on, uh, on Minecraft Monday again, and in this time where he was really focusing, he came back on and he basically just scathingly reviewed all the teams, right?

Which is what you should do as a, as a, as a organiser. But, um, when he got to me and Phil, and this is — I have the screenshot, Phil. (Phil laughs) He, he, he, he found me in Phil's team and he took a picture of it and put in the chat. "Is this okay, guys? Wilbur and Philza are hardcore players!" (Phil and Wilbur laugh) Which is one of my favourite memories of when —

Phil: It was so funny.

Wilbur: — Me and Phil were put together on a team.

Phil: I remember you sent me a screenshot of it like, immediately, being like, "Phil. Phil. Phil. Look at this. Look at this."

Wilbur: I was like, "Phil, Phil —" I can't, I like — you know, when you see the funniest thing you've seen and you just don't know how to respond? Like, it was just like, I was looking dead in the eyes of the funniest thing I'd ever seen, and I just didn't, I couldn't laugh. I was like, "This is just — Keemstar called me a hardcore player. I — how can I, how can I recover? Like, how can I even laugh at this?"

Phil: Like, he was genuinely worried we were gonna just stomp on the, on the competition. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: But yeah, you —

Phil: And we ended up leaving like, before the tournament even ended, 'cause we were like, "Oh man, our viewers are dropping. We gotta leave, or — "

Wilbur: Yeah. So, we —

Phil: "he's gonna kick us."

Wilbur: We were, we knew. So we died in the last game and — which was survival games — which was the majority of the games for Minecraft Monday. It was like, "We have six rounds! Five of them are survival games!" (Phil and Wilbur laugh) but um —

Phil: One is "Find the Button."

Wilbur: Exactly. But on the last one, the survival games, we died really quickly and we both had like, a thousand viewers, and we were like, "Fuck, we need to, we need to leave."

So we just ended stream so that our concurrent viewers wouldn't drop — drop too low and Keemstar wouldn't shout at us. (Phil laughs) But yeah. Um, so we're — go on, you, you met Techno first, I believe, right? You were the — you teamed with him first in Minecraft Monday. What was that like? You won!

Phil: Yeah, we won. Yeah. It was, it was hilarious.

I remember the, the message he sent me was like, I, I was looking at it the other day, actually. I was like, look, looking through old DM's and stuff.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: Um, (Phil clears his throat) and he's like — Uh, let's see, hold on — he said something along the lines of —

Wilbur: I've been looking through old DM's recently too.

Phil: — He said, he said something along the lines of like — Oh yeah. — So like, after the event, he was like, "We destroyed so hard that I feel guilty about it. (Wilbur and Phil start laughing) Those people had families. Lmao."

It was just like — The whole time, like in the call beforehand as well, he was just like, "Phil, we gotta destroy." And I was like, "All right. Yep. I, I can do good. I, I did like, Hunger Games. I know what I'm doing." And he's like, “No, Phil. We have to annihilate them. They've had it good for too long."

'Cause they kept teaming him with like, I, I don't wanna say bad players, but just people that weren't as skilful as him or like —

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: — As knowledgeable at the game, to like, try and nerf him.

Wilbur: Mm-hmm.

Phil: And then he gets me and he like, he, he's, he's literally like, "How did you slip through the cracks? (Wilbur giggles) How did you, how did you —" 'cause like he's, he's seen my videos and he knows I'm like, I know the game enough to be, to, to —

Wilbur: You're a hardcore player! (Wilbur and Philza laugh)

Phil: — Yeah. Caught in the queue.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: So yeah, he, he found that very funny.

Wilbur: That's sick. I, um, I watched back, me and Techno's first game, which I, I recommend you guys doing in the chat, if you, if you wanna see my first ever time speaking to Techno. 'Cause it was, it was, it was really scary for me, 'cause I, I went through a phase in 2019 of watching Bed Wars videos.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Uh, and so I'd obviously seen like, a bit of Technoblade before like, Minecraft Monday.

And I remember I, um, uh, I, I was playing with JackSucksAtLife in one of them. And — my bottle is creaking. Can you hear that? (Wilbur holds the bottle up to the mic, which is indeed creaking, as air slowly escapes)

Phil: Yeah. What was that? Is that the sound of it like, leaking air?

Wilbur: It, it, it's just water. It's a water bottle. I dunno why it's doing that (Phil laughs) — But anyway, um, I was, I was on a team with JackSucksAtLife and I'd just released my "Minecraft, but the water level rises" video and, um, uh, we were playing survival games.

I was one of the last alive, and I hid like, in a corner and Technoblade put in the chat. "Can you make the water rise?" Like, "who wants to organise that?" and I remember getting so excited. I was like, "Oh my God, he's seen my videos!" I was like, "He's seen my videos! Technoblade knows me!" I was so excited. And, um, he followed me on Twitter.

So I, um, I messaged him being like, "Yo, for the next —" MCM? Did we call it MCM? That means Man Crush Monday, doesn't it?

Phil: I think we just call it MM like Minecraft Monday.

Wilbur: We didn't call it MM did we? — Anyway, but for the —

Phil: In, in text we did. Yeah. But —

Wilbur: — For the, for, yeah, well yeah, "for the next, um, for the next ComicCon, MCM, (Phil and Wilbur laugh) uh, could, could, could — Do you wanna be on a team together?"

And, um, and he immediately was like, "Yes. I do wanna be on a team together." And I was like, "This is the best day." And, uh, I remember I was visiting my mum on the day of Minecraft Monday, and obviously Minecraft Monday started at like, 9:00 PM, but when we say started at 9:00 PM, I mean started at 11:00 PM (Wilbur and Phil laugh) 'cause it just would never start at the time it was supposed to.

Phil: Such a, such a poorly run tournament.

Wilbur: It was, it was pretty, pretty scuffed, but it was — I still had a really good time. I, I —

Phil: Yeah. Same.

Wilbur: — It was such an important stepping stone, in, in — As, as a career point of view for me, Minecraft Monday, 'cause I was, I was just a little, ittle baby boy on YouTube, you know? I wasn't — I, I, I snuck through the cracks. I was only allowed into four Man Crush Mondays (Phil snorts) before, before they realized I didn't have the viewer count and kicked me out.

Phil: Keem started getting real, real, real angry.

Wilbur: I don't think he was angry. I think he was just, he j — he cared — he went through phases of caring about the tournament a lot, and then focusing on other things.

Phil: I remember him talking in all caps and screaming, "WHO IS THIS?!"

Wilbur: Yeah, he like, he like told us off a couple times like, like —

Phil: Yeah, like, "I don't know who this is!"

Wilbur: — disciplined, disciplined like a teacher, which was kind of strange, but, you know, I, I have, no, I have no ill will towards him for that, for any of the Minecraft Monday stuff. I had a really good time and I, I owe him a lot.

Phil: Ah, same, cause like, the tournament itself, we owe it a lot, 'cause like —

Wilbur: Yeah, I know. We do.

Phil: — We got to meet like, so many people —

Wilbur: Meeting my best friends, you know, like, it's —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: But, um, but I remember, uh, I, I took the train back from my mum's house to London, on the day, and I remember I sat on the train and I couldn't even listen to my music 'cause I was so excited. (Phil laughs)

I was like, I was so excited to be playing with Techno. I've told this story, I think, before, I was on the train, and I was like, I was like, bouncing pretty much, 'cause I was like, "I can't believe I'm gonna be playing in Minecraft Monday with Technoblade." And I was like, "This is gonna be so exciting. I can't wait."

And it was partly because I, I, I was like, you know, there's this Bed Wars YouTuber that I know of that's really good and I can't wait to meet him, but also secondly, 'cause I was like, "I might fucking finally win." (Phil and Wilbur laugh) I was like, "I might win. I might win." And um, yeah, it was really fun. It was really exciting. And I remember getting there and I hopped on a call with him, with Techno, and I remember he said something really funny.

It's the very first thing I said, very first thing, but I don't remember what it was. I think I've told this story before, I can — I need to go back and re-watch myself telling this story 'cause I remember he said something funny, but I don't remember what it was and I really wish I did — but I remember the minute I spoke to him, I was like, "Okay. I like this guy."

Like the minute — the very first thing he said, it tickled me in such a way that I was like, "Okay, I like — This guy's sick. This guy's, this guy's cool as hell," (Wilbur laughs)

Phil: Yep.

Wilbur: But, um —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: I don't remember what it was. It was something along the lines of, it was something along the lines of like, me asking him if I should go live and his response being like, (imitating Techno) "No, I'd like to go live first, please. Just so I can get good viewership." Like he wanted to make sure he had the — enough viewers to, to par. And I remember just thinking, "Okay, that's funny." It was something along those lines.

Phil: Some, some clout related, uh, comment.

Wilbur: Something clout related. Yeah. And, um, yeah. Uh, I, we played together. I watched the entire stream, actually.

It was very funny. We like, you can tell we were both kind of nervous. Uh, but then afterwards he, we mentioned on the stream that we played TF2, and, um, afterwards he actually DM'd me, which I was very excited about, 'cause no one ever, no one ever DM's me first, you know, after — Bear in mind, I was on like, SMP Live, I was, I was like a small fry on SMP Live, who was like, (Phil makes a noise of agreement and acknowledgement) you know, I normally had to beg people to be in videos with me. And, um — Someone just said my shirt blends in with the background. (Wilbur laughs) I'm just disappearing into my wall (Phil laughs) — but, um, yeah, so when Techno reached out to me first and he said, uh, I remember he was just, he, he basically said that — I asked him why, 'cause obviously XQC was really good and he would win it a lot. And he played a lot with this guy called Moxi. So I asked him, um —

Phil: Yep.

Wilbur: — "Why don't you just play with like, someone really good every time?" And his reasoning was, and I remember this, was he was like, "I —," he was like, (imitating Techno) "Dude, this is not just an opportunity for me to make a lot of money, winning tournaments, but also, it's an opportunity for me to make a lot of friends."

And he was just — he just wanted to make loads of friends, I remember. So that's why he would, he would always take up new teammates and, and try out everyone he possibly could. And, uh, and yeah, and then afterwards, he was like, "Do you wanna play TF2?" And I was like, "Fuck yeah." (Phil chuckles) and, uh, and then this, this crazy disease swept the world, (Wilbur and Phil laugh) uh, and, uh, this, uh, this, uh, yeah, and, and we were all locked inside, and it was, we had, we made a Discord Groups chat of like, me, you, Techno, Niki, Fundy, and a bunch of others. Sorry, if I've forgotten, uh, the other people.

But we, we made a big, we made a big one and we, and we played a lot games. What games did we used to play Phil? It wasn't just TF2.

Phil: Um, we played, what was that strategy game where, like, you have to sell stuff to each other and fight barbarians?

Wilbur: Civ 5? (Wilbur starts laughing)

Phil: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We played that.

Wilbur: Techno hated Civ 5.

Phil: He fucking hated it so much.

Wilbur: Techno hated Civ 5, man. (Phil starts laughing) Holy shit. It's not, it's not even like it's, that's not even the, the worst of it though. There was, there was one game called Battle, right. Which I was really into. It's like a mob-er. Well, not even a much of a mob-er, more of just a battle arena game.

Phil: Oh, I remember that.

Wilbur: Yeah, I —

Phil: I remember you getting me into that for a little bit.

Wilbur: I really like it. Well, I, I really liked it. I don't really know if it's got a player base anymore, but like, I was, I was — I, I, I remember I got Technoblade into it cause I was like, "This is up his alleyway." It's like, loads of like, reflex, skill over, over strategy play, you know, it's just like, quick skill stuff. Like, it doesn't — you don't — it doesn't matter how well, you know the maps. It doesn't matter how well you do this. All that matters is that you're skilled at the game. And then everything else just comes naturally. And I was like, "Technoblade, please play this with me. You'll love it."

He played one round with me. He didn't understand the controls, 'cause he was learning. (Phil starts laughing) He still got a kill! But he didn't understand what he was doing. And then afterwards he just went quiet and I was like —

Phil: He rage quit.

Wilbur: — "Do you wanna do a second round? And he went, (imitating Techno) "I'm already uninstalling." (Phil and Wilbur laugh)

Phil: Yeah. He — he quit.

Wilbur: He just uninstalled! He just, I always used to, I used to make fun of Techno quite a lot. I always used to tell him, (Wilbur giggles) I used to tell him if, if he wasn't immediately good at something, he hated it, and it's true —

Phil: It was true though. It was very —

Wilbur: If he doesn't — If Techno wasn't immediately good at a video game, he refused to fucking play it. Which —

Phil: Yeah. He —

Wilbur: — Which did mean any game you did play with Technoblade, he was just amazing at. He was just really good.

Phil: Yeah. If he, if he, if he recommended we play a game, it was because he was really good. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: Yep. Yep. Yep.

I was very surprised when he did his, um, Mountain Blade series on his channel.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Cause I was like, "This is a new game. This is a new game, Techno. I dunno how well you are gonna be at this."

We both used to play, um, Mountain Blade on like, share screen sometimes. And it was, it was a lot of fun. It was, we both liked Mountain Blade a lot. I kind of —

Phil: I liked watching him play it. It was fun. I wouldn't have liked playing it myself —

Wilbur: No. No. No.

Phil: — But watching him play. It was pretty funny.

Wilbur: No, I kind of, I’d kind of like to start a, um, Banner Lord or War Band campaign on Twitch. I might do it like, a few months from now, though.

Phil: Yeah, that would be fun.

Wilbur: I'd like to, to pick up the torch a bit on that. That would be really nice. Because I do love that game a lot. And that's like, me and him used to play together a lot, but we can't leave out the classic game. You know it. I know it.

Phil: What TF2?

Wilbur: TF2. (Phil laughs) TF2 was our, our like, that was our home for me, you, and Techno. You, you —

Phil: Yeah. Especially during quarantine.

Wilbur: Yeah. We were locked in our room. I was eating Papa John's every day. I —

Phil: (Phil sighs) I still can't believe you did that.

Wilbur: — I gained like, I gained like, like so much weight. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) Just eating Papa John's. It's 'cause they — there was a Papa John's next to my flat. I can actually show you, should I just show where I used to live? Hold on, let me, let me bring up Google maps. Alright.

You've gone quiet. (Wilbur giggles)

Phil: Hmm? Um —

Wilbur: You've gone — Oh, I thought you were being like "You're doxxing yourself in the past."

Phil: No, it's I trust — It's okay. No, I trust you could — you wouldn't do it if you didn't —

Wilbur: I know how to show, I know how to show my house. I don't know who lives there now. Please don't harass them. Uh, This (Wilbur and Phil laugh) — So, this is, uh, so this is where I used to live.

Is that coming through, alright? Can you guys see? Yeah, there we go. Uh — oh, I've got the sub-goal up, let me get rid of that — Okay. Uh, so this is where, this is where I used to live. That is the window. So you see this wall here? That was, that was the wall with the big mirror on it. And then the wall that separates here — can you even see the box that I'm making? I don't know.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: That is where Clock used to go on the, on the wall. And this window was like, to my left. If I looked to my left, I'd be looking out that window, right? And in this little room in — by the way, this is where I was (Wilbur laughs) — It's really fucking built up, right? But in this little room, in this little place, I had all my time with Techno and Phil playing TF2.

And if we go up this road, (Phil starts laughing) we will see the Papa John's, (Wilbur and Phil laugh) and I literally would, I would order for collect in my room — that is Home Home, chat. You're right. That is Home — That is the original Home Home. — Uh, (reading chat) "it looks like a prison." It was really cheap accommodation. (Phil laughs) It was, when I was living there I was paying something like £450 a month. Which, for the middle of London, that's —

Phil: That's fucking cheap.

Wilbur: — Really cheap.

I pay more now, not in the middle of London, so — But, um, yeah, there was, I used to order for collect, uh, and then I would — I'd just play TF2 and then I'd get a call on my phone, and the, and then the man who knew my fucking name would say, "Hello, William!" and he'd go, "Your pizza is ready! Come down!" And I'd go down. (Phil laughs)

I'd walk over to the Papa John's, and they'd all wear gloves, and what they'd do is they'd put the pizza on the ground outside and you'd go and get it. It was that weird period of COVID where that was literally all anyone could do.

Phil: Yeah that was such a weird — Everyone was so scared.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: Where it was like, it's — no contact at all.

Wilbur: Yeah. And I remember it was like, 'cause that area of London's really busy, uh, because it's like the ⁠— in ⁠— it's like, the commercial like, office district of London, and —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — Still, everyone like, there was just no one there. It was weird.

Anyway, uh, we played TF2 (Phil sniffs) and I remember Techno could — trying to convince you for ages to get it, it was, it was Techno that sort of, led trying to get you to get TF2, right?

Phil: Yeah, pretty much.

Wilbur: And you —

Phil: I was like, "Uhhhh,"

Wilbur: And you downloaded it and fucking smashed sniper. (Wilbur giggles)

Phil: Yeah. I, I, I — a lot of skill from other games can cross over to TF2 or any FPS game for that matter, as long as it's simple enough, and I was just quite happy playing the sniper guy.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: Clicking on heads.

Wilbur: Yeah. Uh, that was, it was really fun. I, I, I remember that was, that was really good. And, um —

Phil: We just joined like, random public lobbies and stuff and, um —

Wilbur: It was at the height of hacking too.

Phil: (Phil coughs) Oh God. Yeah. The, the, the, the funniest thing, uh, that I remember that Techno used to do, uh, when we played TF2 is like, we'd like, be joking around and you'd, you'd do that thing that you'd always do.

You'd be like, (putting on a voice) "Guys, I know Technoblade, he, he, he," (Wilbur laughs) and then like, and then, then people would be like, "You don't know Techno! What, whatever." And then you'd be like, "Techno, Techno, say something!" And then Techno would just go on the mic and go, (imitating Techno) "Hellooooooo."

Wilbur: He'd go, (imitating Techno) " Yooooooooo."

Phil: Yeah. (imitating Techno) "Yooooooo," But, like the, the funniest thing that Techno did when we played TF2, that I noticed like, early on, was, um, we'd just be —

Wilbur: He used to hate when I did that.

Phil: — chatting — What, sorry?

Wilbur: I was just saying he used to hate it when I did that. When I, when I used to make him — (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

Phil: He got, he got angry at you a few times.

Wilbur: Yeah, he —

Phil: He's like, "Can you stop. Wil, stop. Please. Please. We need to capture the point. Please!" (Phil coughs) but like, uh, I remember very, very like, vividly, uh, the first like, really funny moment that happened with us in TF2. (Wilbur mmms in warmth)

Uh, we were just like, chatting as we normally did, just like, (Phil sniffs) about random crap, and then Techno would just go quiet for like, a solid two minutes and like, every now and again, we'll just hear this. (noises of Phil typing violently at a keyboard, Wilbur laughs)

Like that. And then —

Wilbur: Yes! Oh, I completely forgot that.

Phil: And then, and then this — the moment he got like, a 4k, like, you'd kill about like four or five people, um, like, it, it was specifically this one game type as well. It was the one where you have to like, push the, uh —

Wilbur: Payload.

Phil: — package, the payload. Yeah.

Wilbur: Payload, yeah.

Phil: And he would, uh, he would kill like, a bunch of the other, the enemy team. And then immediately after getting like, a lotta kills in a row —

Wilbur: I know what you're going to say.

Phil: — He would just be like, (imitating Techno through a bad mic connection) "Guys, push, push, push the payload guys, guys," like, over the in-game mic like, really loud.

Wilbur: We, we'd be arguing politics or something. We'd be like, I'd be like, we'd, I'd be like, talking about (Wilbur laughs) like, the conservative government and then all you'd hear is Techno talking over the in-game chat.

He'd just lean into the mic and go, (imitating Techno) "Dispenser down. Push!"

Phil: Yeah. Yeah. (imitating Techno) "Push, guys! Push!"

Wilbur: And he'd, he'd always say "Dispenser down." For those of you who ⁠— that don't play TF2, a dispenser is not like, a key part of the game. Normally you'd say like, "Sentry down," or like, or like, "Heavy down," or like, "Medic down," or something, but he'd always go (imitating Techno) "Dispenser down. Push!" (Phil hmms in recognition and warmth) And, and then just to get everybody — which was his way of saying "I've just dominated the entire enemy team. Can you guys do something now?"

Phil: Yeah, "Stop hiding. Come out and push the payload with me. I have just murdered the entire team." (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

Wilbur: I need to tell my flower girl story. I really wanted to tell it today.

Phil: Oh, I like the flower girl story. That, that was so funny.

Wilbur: So I, this was done a few times and Technoblade hated — Well, he didn't hate it, but he used to get embarrassed by it.

Phil: He, he, he, he liked it the first time, 'cause it was just so random.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: And then like, you kept doing it. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: Yeah. And um, I kept, I didn't stop, but what I'd do is I'd join, uh, the Bed Wars lobbies or whichever one, normally like, Sky Battle or something, and uh, I'd um, I'd, I'd nic myself as like, Flowergirl42 or something, (Phil chuckles) and then pick a random skin of like, a girl, or a default skin.

And I'd, I'd have like, a grey name on Hipixel, which is like, no, no donos or anything, you haven't got a rank, and I'd join the lobby and I'd be like, "Hey guys. I know Technoblade." And then most people would just fucking ignore me, but then I'd keep saying it. I'd just keep going, "I know Technoblade," and then they'd go "Shut up. No, you don't,"

Phil: "Shut up, Flowergirl!"

Wilbur: "Stop looking for attention, kid. You don't know Technoblade," and I'd go. "I do. I can prove it." And they'd go, "Okay. Prove it." And then I'd get Techno to join the lobby and he'd go — and then he'd just type in the chat. (imitating Techno) "Hey, Flowergirl42," and I'd go, "Hey, Techno." And everyone in the chat would be like, "What the fuck? Flowergirl knows Technoblade?!" (Wilbur and Phil laugh, Wilbur claps his hand against his thigh in his enthusiasm )

Phil: It was so funny. It — This was before I had YouTube rank, so I couldn't join the lobby. I just had to watch on your, uh, just on stream.

Wilbur: And they'd freak out, all of these like, Hipixel fans were just like, the chat would just like, erupt in like, people going, "What the fuck?! Is this pig ++ person joining?" (Wilbur laughs)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Yeah. And, and on, um, Sky Block too, I used to, this was, this was one I've never actually told, but, uh, later on, on Sky Block, what me and Techno used to do is, Techno would join, and then I'd join nicced and —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — And Techno would go into the chat and — I'd be called like, like, HughRalphy2004 or something, and then they'd say, and then Techno would join and say, "Hey everyone, go give HughRalphy2004 all your items."

And then they'd all go, "Oh my God, Technoblade's here!" And they'd all go and give me stuff. I think my Hipixel Sky Block account ⁠— I've never been to my island, but I have like, millions of coins. I have like, millions of coins. I have every item you can think of, all 'cause Technoblade used to bring me on nicced and tell everyone to give me all of their stuff.

Phil: Just feed you items.

Wilbur: Yeah. That was very fun. But TF2 was um ⁠— and obviously, that's where the Sleepy Bois came from. (Wilbur sniffs)

Phil: Yep. Yep. It was, it was —

Wilbur: Can you tell that story?

Phil: — Really late.

Yeah. Yeah. It, it went — It was, it kind of like, branched off from, um, us playing TF2, didn't it? Like, (Phil sniffs) we, um, we stayed up like, really, really fucking late one night. Um, it was like, I wanna say at like 4:00 AM or 3:00 AM or something stupid for us. Um, and so it was pretty late for Techno 'cause obviously time difference.

Wilbur: Yeah. It's like, 8:00 PM, if it was 4:00 AM here.

Phil: And I remember we were just like, chatting and we were taking, uh, Techno on like, a tour of England like, you were showing him your old house —

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: — and stuff and, and like, where you grew up. And then I was showing him where I grew up and like, all the cool stuff near me. It was like —

Wilbur: Mm-hmm.

Phil: — and then eventually it just devolved into just “funny image,” like, “post funny image” ⁠—

Wilbur: Yeah. Yeah.

Phil: ⁠— in Discord, like it always did — (Phil laughs and sniffs)

Wilbur: Yep.

Phil: — Um, and then it was you that posted the image, wasn't it? And then —

Wilbur: Yeah, the, the, fish being fed.

Phil: — Yeah. And he just immediately came out with, "I am the fish and the spoon is victory," (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: And then, and then I made him tweet it. (Phil and Wilbur laugh)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And I was like, "Hey, Techno. Tweet that."

Phil: You found, you found it so funny, and you were like, "Please Te — Techno, please. You have to tweet that. You have to tweet that."

Wilbur: And he was like, (imitating Techno) "Hmm, I'm not sure. I dunno,"

Phil: And then you tweeted it as well, and Techno was like (imitating Techno) "Hmm. I dunno,"

Wilbur: And then you tweeted it, and then you said "this post brought you by the Sleepy Bois Incorporated."

Phil: Yeah. 'cause like we were just so fucking tired (Wilbur hmms in agreement) and I could see — 'cause like we all posted at the same time — And uh, this is, this is when we had like, a smaller, I wanna say a smaller following, so it was like, uh, it was like, a couple of thousand likes over the course of like —

Wilbur: Yep.

Phil: — five to ten minutes.

Wilbur: Yeah. It wasn't a 10K'er as we'd call it.

Phil: Yeah. (Phil laughs) And we were like, "Holy shit. Oh my God. Look at, look at them freaking out." And I, and I was like, "I feel bad for them. I'm gonna give them some context."

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: 'Cause they were just so confused. Like, "What does this mean?!"

Wilbur: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Phil: We were just laughing the whole time.

Wilbur: It was, um, it was funny. Yeah. We used to, we used to really strategize Twitter.

I think it was Tommy who came up with the phrase like, "Is it a 10K'er," whenever we would say something funny, when it was —

Phil: Yeah, I remember with Tommy it was definitely like, he was, he was moreso on the, on the, the side of the numbers.

Wilbur: He loved the system, man. He loved it.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And he was really annoyed when I quit. I remember. (Phil and Wilbur laugh) But, um, every time something funny was said, and I'd be like, "You should tweet that," he'd go, (imitating Tommy) "Mm, but it — would it be a 10K'er?"

And so it became, it became a thing. Whenever someone said a good joke, we'd be like, "that's a 10K'er," right? We're like "That's a 10K'er!" (Phil and Wilbur laugh)

Uh, but, um, yeah, so the Sleepy Bois and then Minecraft Championship.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Technoblade was my guy. He was my teammate, uh, for Season One. I think me and him were together almost every time, except for like, three. I think I wasn't with him about three times.

Phil: Well, like the, the first ever MCC he wasn't in. And, uh, we, we just, we just invited him in.

Wilbur: Yeah. (Wilbur starts laughing)

Phil: Without the knowledge of the organisers. I —

Wilbur: Oh, yeah. Wait, can I tell this one? Cause I —

Phil: Yeah, go on. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: So, (Wilbur sniffs) in the very first MCC, MCC 1, it was me, Phil, JackSucksAtLife, and Ryguyrocky on a team. And, uh, we were, (Wilbur coughs) uh, uh, we, we were basically, um, uh — Sorry, what was I saying?

Phil: You're talking about our team. It was me, you, Ryguyrocky, and JackSucksAtLife.

Wilbur: Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, we were, we we're in the last game and, um —

Phil: Yeah, it was Hunger Games.

Wilbur: Yeah. And, uh, (Wilbur chuckles and sniffs) and uh, uh, we — and Techno joined our chat and was like — I think it was your chat, actually — and he was like, "What the hell is this? How'd you get me into this event? This looks great."

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And I was like, and I was like, "Oh, we can just get you in now." And so I just, I just generated the Discord link and just sent it to Techno, and Techno just joined the server despite never having been invited or played a game, to the point where, when MCC 2 came around and Techno was invited, Scott sent him the link and he just went, (imitating Techno) "Oh, no, thank you. I'm already in." He was just, "I don't need the link." (Phil laughs) We just, I just added him in. (Wilbur laughs )

Phil: So funny.

Wilbur: Yeah. But, um, yeah, the — Me and Techno were inseparable. We were MCC 2, MCC 3, 4, 5. I don't — I think it was pretty much every single one up until about like, 8 or something. It was me and Techno every time, but then 4, that was the big one. (Wilbur yawns)

4 was where it was me, you, Techno, and Tommy, and we made a rule that if we did well, Tommy would become an official member of the Sleepy Boi's.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Cause it was just me, you, and Techno. And we won! We won the entire thing. And uh, I see a lot of people talking about that, um, that MCC and being like — 'cause some people say it was like, the best MCC, right? A lot of people say it was like, the best one, but then there are a lot of other people that say it was like, really hard to watch because of like, how mean we're being to each other. (Phil laughs) But for context, and, and, and by "mean we're being to each other." I mean, “mean I'm being to Tommy.” I would like to say for context, (Wilbur starts laughing) this was the middle of COVID.

I had spent day in, day out, in my bedroom talking to that group of people, right?

Phil: Yeah. We were like family at that point. It was ridiculous.

Wilbur: So, We — Yeah, we were, we like, when Tommy pissed me off, I'd let him know. And it wasn't like, a ⁠— it wasn't a scary thing. It wasn't like, you know, and like — 'cause he would, he'd do it on purpose a lot of the time.

Phil: Yeah. He would. He would push your buttons —

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: — to try and get you, get, get you to like, pop off at him.

Wilbur: 'Cause he knew that it was deep down making me laugh —

Phil: Yeah. (Phil and Wilbur laugh)

Wilbur: — But I was just, I was so ⁠— so a lot of the time I'm telling him to shut up and stuff and I'm like — and I see loads of people like, being, being like, "Oh yeah. I used to really like it, but I watched it back and Wil's so mean to Tommy."

I encourage you to watch it — It means you probably watched back Techno's point of view. — Watch back Tommy's point of view and look at that kid's face when I'm (Phil laughs) so, so called "being mean" to him. I was definitely being mean, (Wilbur laughs) but like, if you look at his face, he's trying to make me — he's like, he's got a little smile on most of the time, he's, he's poking my buttons, and then we won, and we all celebrate together, so, yeah.

Phil: Yeah. That was a lot of fun.

Wilbur: (Wilbur sniffs) Yeah.

Phil: It's where the, the famous line, "Just killed a woman, feeling good!" came from. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: Of course, of course. Classic, classic Tommyinnit moment.

Phil: And when, and when Tommy lied about having the granite or something and like —

Wilbur: Oh yeah! (Wilbur and Phil break out in laughter)

Phil: I just like, lost —

Wilbur: Techno was so pissed. It's — so were you actually, but I didn't ⁠— I was already away with the fucking moon at that point. I was just, I wasn't paying attention at that point. (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

Phil: I remember I was just like, so blinded with rage that Tommy like, had just lied and got — and lost us like, what? I dunno, like 10 points and then Techno was just like, (imitating Techno) "Guys, guys. Please stop, stop arguing. Guys —"

Wilbur: That's kind of, that kind of sums up our entire dynamic pretty well.

Phil: Techno Try-Harding and, uh, me getting angry.

Wilbur: Yeah. You saying —You saying, "Tommy, that's — you've, you've — why did you say that? What are you doing?" Tommy trying to explain himself, but digging a deeper hole, me singing something in the background most likely, (Phil laughs) and, and Techno going, (imitating Techno) "Guys, please stop fighting. We need to pay attention. We're gonna lose."

Phil: (also imitating Techno) "We need to win video games."

Wilbur: That was the dynamic. That was comp — that was totally the dynamic. Um, uh, yeah. Then after MCC, I, I think after, I think MCC period was, was pretty — went on until pretty recently, right? I mean, it's not really too, too much — but there was a period where we did play less games together.

Uh, sort of when COVID restrictions started to go down, I think the best, the best marker point for when we started like, not hanging out every day was about the time we started doing Tommy's vlogs.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: So when we started filming Tommy's vlogs and going — especially like, me and Phil were in a lot of them — we stopped showing up to the Discord quite a lot.

Uh, we still obviously hung out and spoke and were friends, but there was a big period where we, uh, we sort of, we didn't really hang out every day. (Wilbur clears his throat) Which is to be expected, you know, that's, that's how the lines of life go. You know, you, sometimes you go towards each other and move away and, you know, you just gotta be thankful for the times you've been towards each other.

And, um, uh, what are — Do you have any memories between, between then, that you can think of?

Phil: Uh, I was thinking of SMP Earth, that happened like, but that was like —

Wilbur: Oh! That was before MCC.

Phil: That was before MCC. Yeah. We kind of jumped the, jumped the gun a bit there.

Wilbur: I forgot about M, M — Yeah. SMP Earth. I did like how eventually everyone quit SMP Earth to the point where it was just me, you, Techno, Tommy, and VoiceoverPete playing, (Wilbur and Phil laugh) and all of us were equidistant from each other.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Like, we were all as far away as we could possibly be. And it ended up like, all of the big strife on the server was between those people, and like, Charlie was on and stuff.

There were a few people still playing, but it was, it, it, it became very barren very quickly, but it was, it was still really fun. And I still remember Techno saying that he, the only reason he, he was like, so keen on joining was cause he wanted to hang out with us more.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Because this was before we'd started like, hanging out a lot.

This was like, just before Christmas 2020, I think.

Phil: Mm-hmm.

Wilbur: And yeah.

Phil: It was like, November 20 — 22nd.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: I'm looking at messages now.

Wilbur: Oh. Yeah. That was —

Phil: Like, like the messages that I sent — 'cause um, the whole like, me f — joining, uh, Techno in the Antarctic was just kind of, it wasn't planned —

Wilbur: Mm-hmm.

Phil: — beforehand or anything. I was being hunted, uh, by like, a group of players.

Wilbur: Mm-hmm.

Phil: And I, and I mess — I — in just a desperate attempt to, to like, get help. I message Techno, 'cause I was like, "Oh, he'll help."

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: And he’s like, "Okay, Philza. We got this. Alliance pact formed." (Phil and Wilbur laugh) Uh, and he said he was being followed as well, so we like, made a, made the Antarctic Empire and just like, joined up. Started wrecking shit.

Wilbur: Yeah. Techno's — Techno's MO has always been make and maintain friends. That's been like, his — that was his MO you know, whatever, whatever it cost. If he, if he thought that you were, you know, down to earth or chill, he just made it his mission to just be your friend, which was always really nice. He always, he always made you feel very wanted, Technoblade did, you know —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — He never like, he never aired a message or like, took too long to reply, to a point where I'd send him memes and he would just respond with pictures of his own emotes. (Wilbur and Philza laugh)

Phil: Yeah. He loved doing that.

Wilbur: He wouldn't even say anything. He'd just send back a, uh, he'd just send back a picture of, um, of like, his —

Phil: His little pig.

Wilbur: — his little pig character pogging. (Phil laughs)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: That was the funniest, dude. Always like, Talk and Twitch emotes, (Wilbur mm-hmm’s in agreement) even though he was a YouTuber.

Wilbur: And then, do you remember when we did that video of the, uh, gravity mod for Techno's channel?

Phil: Yeah. Yeah.

Wilbur: Holy —

Phil: I was, I was surprised that ever came out. I was just —

Wilbur: I was gonna say it was —

Phil: I was like, this is never getting made. There's four POVs.

Wilbur: It was a fucking mess to — it was, it was like —

Phil: It was so funny.

Wilbur: So we, we went into it and the, the ⁠— you wouldn't be able to tell from the video, but the recording was about three hours. But like, not because it was a difficult mod or any fault of Techno, it was just basically me and Tommy's fault, essentially. (Wilbur and Phil chuckle)

You were joining in, to be fair at one point, Phil, towards the end.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: But you were at least trying to be — keep it together for Techno, but me and Tommy were just fucking around the whole time.

Phil: Yep.

Wilbur: And like, there was one point where we had just started, just saying things he couldn't put in videos. Like, obviously nothing like, offensive, but like, stuff he'd have to cut because it was like, too personal or like, gave away a secret or something.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And every time he'd speak, me and Tommy would just go, "Oh, just like this!" And we'd just mention something that he couldn't include in the video. (Phil laughs) To the point where it was — there was a classic "Guys, please," (Wilbur laughs) "Guys, please, stop,"

Phil: (imitating Techno) "Guys, please,"

Wilbur: "Stop doing this."

And um, I remember when we were, uh — At the end of that video, you may notice, I go really quiet and you can't — I don't talk anymore. It was genuinely — I was just falling asleep at my desk.

Phil: Yeah, you were, you were exhausted.

Wilbur: I was so tired. It was like, we were on hour four and I was just falling into the sky over and over again.

Phil: Yeah. (Phil sniffs)

Wilbur: Yeah, and —

Phil: That was a lot of fun though. It was, it was still like really —

Wilbur: It was a lot of fun.

Phil: I think like, my favourite bit out of that was, um, like, when we go to the Nether.

Wilbur: Mm-hmm.

Phil: And I'm, I'm like, I've got the ceiling like, gravity thing. So I'm just running on the roof of the Nether and like, mining stuff and it's falling down onto Techno, who's below, and he's like, just farming all the things.

Wilbur: Yeah, I remember that. I remember that. (Wilbur clears his throat) There was uh, (Phil clears his throat) then there was Dream SMP, obviously. (Phil sniffs)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Which Techno, uh, Techno joined and immediately, immediately, uh — so we didn't actually know Techno was gonna join on the day that he joined. We knew he was on the server and gonna join at some point. But, uh, he, he, his first one was when me and Tommy get exiled, right?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And, and at one point Tommy's like, "What are we gonna do? We need someone to help us." And then it just says, "Technoblade joined the game." And Techno joins our VC and me and Tommy's reaction is, it's like, completely genuine. Like, we're like, "What the fuck?!" Like — (Phil giggles)

Phil: Yeah. That was good.

Wilbur: And then there's the railings. The Pogtopia railings. I kept — you weren't on yet.

Phil: No.

Wilbur: But I kept, uh, I kept, uh, falling off of the stairs that, that I'd made, so Techno built some railings for me, some old man — Well, originally railings so that young people don't keep falling and I was like —

Phil: Yeah, 'cause Tubbo kept falling, right? He kept just dying.

Wilbur: Yeah. And I was like, I was — No, it was for me first.

Phil: Oh right.

Wilbur: And, uh, and I was like, "Techno, I'm older than you."

And he was like, "Fine. It's to stop old people falling off," and I was like, "I'm not gonna fall off." And I just kept dying. (reading chat) Oh yeah, he'd "elder proofed" it. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) Yeah. And, um, his potato farm like, I ate so many potatoes on that server thanks to him. (Wilbur chuckles)

Yeah. That was really fun.

Phil: I, I thought it was funny how like, I wasn't on the server yet. So I would just like, hear about all these things you guys had did like, afterwards.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: Um, (Phil laughs) and I was just like, "Oh man, that sounds so fun. I wanna join," Um —

Wilbur: And I wrote you in!

Phil: And, and then you were just like, "I'll just write you in Phil," I was like, "Oh shit. Alright."

That was cool.

You, you guys would sometimes just join my VC like, or like, join, join a call, uh, with me whilst I was just streaming hardcore, (Wilbur mmms, agreeing) 'cause I couldn't like, hang out with you guys on the Dream SMP.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: But since you guys were on the Dream SMP, you could just call me anyway and we'd just hang in different, (Wilbur and Phil laugh) in different worlds, essentially.

It was pretty funny.

Wilbur: Yeah. The first time he joined, he didn't stop playing for like, days. I, I joined the server like, a couple days after he joined, I was like, "Techno, how long have you been on?" And he was like, (imitating Techno) "17 hours" or something.

Phil: Yeah. He, he— the one thing Techno wanted to do always was get good at video game and get rich.

Wilbur: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yep.

Phil: So like, he was just in full on grind mode. "I need to get richer than everyone else, even though they've been playing longer than me." (Phil chuckles)

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: It was just his mantra pretty much, it was like, "This is what I need to do,"

Wilbur: I need to — I need to use the bathroom really quick. Can you, can you tell a, a, a, um, Syndicate story or something like, from when, for your little, uh, area that you made while I'm gone?

Phil: Yeah, sure.

Wilbur: I'll be back. I'll be two seconds.

Phil: Uh, let's think, I remember when, uh, Techno like, saved me from — G, Guys, you remember, you remember the whole like, I was like, under house arrest and everything? (Phil laughs)

Yeah. Like, Techno came and like, saved me and like, Tubbo was just doing — He, he wasn't — T, Tubbo was just fucking around, and Techno was trying to do like, some improv lore. (Phil laughs)

I mean, we both were, kind of, like, but Tubbo was just like, completely blind to it. I remember — I remember he snuck into the basement, 'cause I was just like, I was making a basement under my house as a, as a kind of a distraction to give Techno enough time to come like, get me.

Um, Tubbo was just hanging out with me and then Techno just sneaks in with an invis pot and just starts murdering Tubbo. (Phil wheezes with laughter)

And Tubbo, not knowing what's going on is just like, (imitating Tubbo) "What is happening? Why do you — Oh, why?" And Techno's like, (imitating Techno) "I'm trying to do lore! I'm trying to break out my friend!" "But you guys are just, you’re just messing around! It's like, wasting time!" (Phil wheezes with laughter again)

Oh, it was so funny. (Phil sniffs) He just — I, I, I think that was my favourite thing that Techno did on Dream SMP, is just like, break character. He, he was like, the fourth-wall breaking character, essentially. Like he, he would have his serious moments, but then when like, things were just too goofy for him to act over, he would — he would just make fun of it.

Oh man. I remember — specifically, Syndicate related — I remember, um, showing him the design for like, the Syndicate room. And like, building it —

Wilbur: Have you been spreading lies?

Phil: I've been saying nothing of the sort.

Wilbur: I'm back.

Phil: I'll finish what I was talking about, just real quick.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: But um, I remember him being like, really excited over me making the Syndicate room and just like, uh ⁠— I like, showed him pictures and videos of it and then streamed it to him and stuff.

And he's just like, (imitating Techno) "Yooooooo," like, the ty — the typical like, hype response from Techno.

Wilbur: Everyone's talking about fourth-wall breaking. Did you mention how he used to always break the fourth wall? Tommy —

Phil: Yeah. Yeah. I, I mentioned like, one of the funniest moments, uh, uh, that I remember of him, like breaking the fourth wall was just like, when he broke me out of my house, when I was like, under house arrest on the Dream SMP. And like, Tubbo was just hanging about, and he like, killed him. And Tubbo's like, (imitating Tubbo) "Oh, why?" And Techno's like, (imitating Techno) "You guys are wasting so much time. I just ⁠— I, I'm streaming. I'm trying to do lore. I'm trying to break out my friend." It was so funny.

Wilbur: Tommy used to hate how he broke the fourth wall, remember?

Phil: Yeah. I, I loved it. Tommy, Tommy did not like it for a while.

Wilbur: Tommy, Tommy used to sit down with Techno and be like, "You gotta stop breaking the fourth wall."

Phil: And he's like, (imitating Tommy) " Techno, can you be serious? Like, can you, can you do a serious, serious point?" Like "You can't, you can't keep making jokes like that, man."

Wilbur: — To rub him the wrong way. —

Phil: (imitating Techno) "Hmm, but it's funny."

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: "But it's funny." (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: Yeah. But yeah, that was, that was a lot of those memories. And, uh, and then there was obviously the sadder part, which was, uh, the day we were in our group chat and he tells us that, uh, he was, he was diagnosed. Do you remember that?

Phil: Yeah, that was, that was fucking heavy.

Wilbur: Yeah, to —

Phil: I was just so shocked. (Phil sniffs)

Wilbur: Yeah, I think I, uh, I think I lightened his spirits a bit at the time with the worst social faux pas I've ever done. Do you remember?

Phil: No. No. What?

Wilbur: Do you not remember what I said?

Phil: I can't remember. No.

Wilbur: So he, I had ju — I had the group chat open and no one had said anything in a while and I just had it open and I saw Techno was typing, so I got ready a message that said. "Shut the fuck" — in full capitals, like — "SHUT THE FUCK UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Like —

Phil: Oh, yeah. Shit. Yeah.

Wilbur: Like, "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT" I just had this massive message of "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I did — "TECHNO SHUT! — FUCK YOU! I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU TECHNO!" to in full capitals so that the moment he sent a message, it would like — I would hit enter and it would come through and he sends a message saying, saying, "Hey guys, I have something to tell you."

And then I hit enter and it just says "SHUT THE FUCK UP! SH — FUCK YOU!" And then the next line is like, "I, I have cancer," and I'm like, "No." I like, I messaged like, I'm like, "You're joking. Please say you're joking." He's like, "I'm not joking." And I like, delete the message. I, I, I, I was so distraught. I remember I was like, I apologised to him so much after that.

But like, I remember he was just that — I remember he, he was like, "No, I, I —," He, he told me he laughed. After —

Phil: Yeah, it's just such a you thing to do.

Wilbur: — He thought it was funny. (Wilbur laughs) But I remember just being like, "Fuck. I fucked up. Shit."

Phil: You would, you would do that to anyone like —

Wilbur: Oh yeah. It wasn't like —

Phil: Like, this was very atypical of, of you to just respond with like, (putting on a voice) "Fuck off! Fuck off!" Like, "Nobody likes you," like where, where I say like something really sweet and you're like, "Fuck off, Phil."

Wilbur: Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was trying to do, but I didn't know how heavy the actual message was gonna be. And I remember we, we knew for a couple days, uh, that he had cancer before he made his video, (Phil sniffs) which, um, I've spoken to loads of people about that video and they've all told me that it really annoyed them, how it was the funniest, sad video they've ever seen, (Phil laughs) was the one about him being diagnosed. He was — Techno had just this fucking crazy, dark sense of humour that was like, so perfect, and he wasn't edgy. He was just dark. To the point where you're like, "Oooh. Okay, that's funny. But —"

You know, he wasn't like, edgy. He wasn't like, making offensive jokes much. It was more, he was making jokes that were —

Phil: About himself.

Wilbur: — at the expense of misery. You know, so —

Phil: He'd make them like, about like, yeah. Like, to like, what's the word where you like, make fun of yourself to like, such an extreme —

Wilbur: Uh, I don't remember. I don't remember, (Sounds of Phil typing, presumably to look it up) but he, he loved that shit. He loved doing the, you know, doing humour that was completely —

Phil: Oh, self-deprecating.

Wilbur: Yeah. Self-deprecating.

Phil: That's the word.

Wilbur: But his was like, to a new level of self-deprecating.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Like, I think one of like, his, one of like, the last quotes from him I have in the quote book is, um, when I was speaking to him for the first time properly about his cancer.

We were like, playing TF2, me and him, and, uh, he said to me like, “Out of all ⁠—” I was really upset and he went, he went, he went, (imitating Techno) "You know what, Wilbur? It's not that bad. Out of all the people I've told, the person that cried the hardest was my insurance company." (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

Phil: Oh yeah! I remember that!

Wilbur: He went, he was like, "Yeah. They had a 22 year old man. You know, he just stays inside, plays video games all day. Doesn't drive. Doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke." They were like "My insurance company, they thought I was gonna have the — They, they thought they had the easiest run, you know, a cool couple grand and then I'm gonna turn to them and tell them I have cancer."

Phil: Oh, Jesus.

Wilbur: I remember just — it was — that's just his humour. That's what he loved. He loved that kind of humour that completely (Wilbur chuckles) just tore apart his like, you know ⁠— the problems that were going on.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Which was, so, which was, it is a great way of coping, I think, 'cause it really, it really helps light — helped lighten the mood, especially when I was spoken to him — speaking to him, you know?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: About that kind of thing. Yeah. We did, we did, we did a, a few, uh, streams with him, not streams, er like, play sessions with him doing TF2. I, I, I — that's one of my few regrets I actually have is that I was so busy with Lovejoy and doing Tommy's vlogs and stuff that I didn't just, you know, the minute — I mean like, the, the couple days after I heard he had cancer, we were hanging out like every day. But —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: I think with his chemotherapy making him so tired (Wilbur sighs) and with, um, and with, you know, his like, lack of time due to that, I, uh, I spent a lot of time, uh, not hanging out with him as much? I think that's like, one of my regrets is that I wish I'd, you know, cancelled a few more things or like, you know, delayed the release of the Lovejoy stuff a bit longer, just so I could catch him between chemo sessions.

Phil: Mm-hmm.

Wilbur: But after he finished chemo, he was doing great! I remember he was, he was really well. Uh, Chemo was awful for him. He had a really bad time. I remember he was just tired all the time.

Phil: Yeah, he'd have to ⁠— he'd watch us play TF2 on his phone.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: Like, in, in bed.

Wilbur: Yeah. He'd sit in hospital and we'd, we'd screen share TF2 to him and he'd just watch quietly.

He wouldn't really say much, but then after he finished chemo, he was doing great. And, uh, uh, I dunno if I'm allowed to say this, I'm gonna say it anyway, because it's — I dunno how they're gonna go about this now, but we actually filmed a Mr Beast video, uh, with Techno, uh, a couple like, a month before he passed away, we filmed a, uh, a Mr Beast video with him.

And in that video, he's got so much energy. He's like, completely fine. Uh, and you know, he was very like, you know, snappy and, and bombastic, and stuff. And it was me, and George, and Dream were on a team. And, uh, and yeah, I, I, it was, it was really, really fun. And I remember that, and I remember thinking like, "He's sounding so much better!"

I was really excited about how much better he sounded.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Uh, during that, (Phil sniffs) because, um, I remember when he was telling me about — sorry, if I'm talking too much. Just tell me if I, if I am —

Phil: No, it's your stream. Go ahead.

Wilbur: I remember when uh, I was asking him about like — it's really hard to ask people with severe illness like, "What's the prognosis like?" 'cause you never want them to say it's bad.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: But I asked him like, you know, "What's, what, what, what's it look — what's the outlook for you with, with the exact kind of cancer you've got?" And he was like, "It's not very good." He was basically saying "It's, it's, it's bad." Uh, but he was saying that the sample size of people who've had his exact — like, sarcoma, is, um, are like, very elderly.

And there's not very many people who are young who've had it. And the people who've — were young who've had it tended to have a higher survival rate. So he was hoping the statistics were, uh, leaning his way which, when he started to get better, started to sound better, and, you know, I was like, "That's good." Uh, you know, I was like, that's that, that (Phil sniffs) — I was thinking, you know, that's ⁠— "He's done it! He's, he's part of the, of the young people who've fucking destroyed it." And you know what? I wasn't fucking surprised. (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

I wasn't surprised. If you'd told me when Techno was diagnosed that "Oh yeah. He's —" If you'd told me, you know, in May, "He's gonna get better. He's gonna sound fine." I'd be like, "Of fucking course he is. He's Technoblade."

You know, my man's not gonna, my man's not gonna take it lying down. He's — Have you seen him? You just watch, just watch one of his videos. My man's has a 1000 win streak in Bed Wars. My best win streak in Bed Wars is three. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) My — he's not, he's not just gonna sit around, you know, he's gonna fucking destroy that shit. I wasn't surprised at all.

How was he when you went to meet him?

Phil: Um, he was like, fine. Like, he's, he was like, a little bit quieter than online and stuff, but —

Wilbur: You, you were in the middle of his chemo, right? You went to see him?

Phil: Yeah. Yeah. So like, he was, he was obviously a bit tired and uh, like, the hair was, was gone and stuff, so he, he'd been through it.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: Um, but like, he was still like, his joking like, funny self, just like, super witty, just cracking jokes. Like, it was so fun just to hang out with him and just chat to him.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: It was really cool. We didn't, we weren't even sure if it was gonna happen or not either. It was like, he, uh, I, I'd been in America for about a week (Wilbur hums in acknowledgement) and I messaged him like beforehand saying like, "Oh, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be close. Do you wanna meet up at some point?"

He's like, (imitating Techno) "Hmm, not sure that's the best idea." (Wilbur snorts)

Wilbur: That's what he always would say. To just about anything, really.

Phil: And then, um, — Yeah. (Phil chuckles) And, and then like, I remember it was probably about like, three days before I left, um, he messaged me out at the blue, just like, "You know what, Phil? Let's meet up." and I was like, "Oh shit, alright."

And I just immediately told Kristen, I was like, "How can we — can we go, can we go?" Like, "When, when's the best time we can go?" And we, we drove like, I wanna say six hours — Kristen drove six hours.

Wilbur: Mm-hmm.

Phil: Uh, we got a hotel and, and went to go see him, and yeah, it was, it was awesome.

Wilbur: That's exactly what I did.

Phil: Just wish I had more time. Like, it was just so fun hanging with him.

Wilbur: Yeah. Yeah. It was really good. He was, he was, he was — it was just after his surgery when I went to see him. So he'd like, (Phil mhmm’s in acknowledging agreement and sniffs) he couldn't really move his left arm very much — Or was it his right? I don't remember which arm — but he couldn't move it very, very well. I think it was his right.

Uh, he could move it well enough that he did that VR video very, very soon after, but he was —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — But I remember he was, he was still very well, uh, when I went to see him. We got Five Guys. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) We got Five Guys milkshakes and then his mum, uh, brought us some chicken pot pie, which I didn't eat because I'd already had a Five Guys (Wilbur and Phil laugh) and I wish I, I wish I had eaten it.

(reading chat) "The apple you threw at him." Yeah. Yeah —

Phil: Oh God, yeah.

Wilbur: — I, I feel bad about that story. I feel bad about that story because, um, uh, Techno told me actually that his parents saw that video and were like, not happy with the story. Uh, so I would like to add that I, I, when, when I say "threw" it was more "threw towards," and it happened to hit him, I didn't like, launch it as some animations I've seen depicted me (Wilbur and Phil laugh) as just hocking an apple at Techno, at Technoblade's surgery injury. It wasn't quite along those lines.

Uh, for those of you that don't know, uh, there was a story where, when I went to visit Technoblade, uh, uh, he asked me for help in, um, uh, getting down these rotting apples from his tree in his garden, because his neighbours were complaining that, uh, it was attracting rats, and wasps, and stuff.

So I was like, "Yeah!" So I, um, I climbed up the tree and Technoblade held like, a basket and I started throwing these apples into the basket. And at one point I, I was like, missing and Techno made fun of me for it. So I like, so I like, threw down at like, a, at, at like a better rate and like, with more accuracy, and I missed and I hit, and I hit Techno right where his surgery had just been. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) And, um, and yeah, I, I ⁠— that, that literally is the extent of the story. Techno held his surgery wound for a bit and was like, "It doesn't hurt. It's fine." And then we didn't talk about it again. But, uh, I — the last time I told the story, I think I stressed out too much that he was injured.

He wasn't. — Te — uh, it was an accident and I apologi — literally the moment it happened, I jumped out of the tree and was like, (Wilbur chuckles) and was like begging his apology so much (Wilbur laughs) that he was — I was apologising with accidentally hitting him with an apple, but yeah, he was fine, and I was very apologetic, and yeah.

(reading chat) "Better accuracy. Lmao." Okay. Sorry. I f — I tried.

But yeah, that was, that was, that was one of the time I, uh, I hung out with, with — that, that was the time I hung out with Technoblade. I'm so sad Tommy couldn't get to meet him.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: That was really unfortunate. We did actually all plan, at VidCon, to hang out, originally, uh, but I think at that point, Technoblade knew he wasn't gonna, um, he wasn't gonna be around after VidCon.

He let us know (Wilbur takes a deep breath) at that time. I remember that, uh, because we were planning to book a big flight, and all four of us were gonna go, and hang out with him.

Phil: Yeah. I kept like, I kept like, pushing, I, I, I said like, one thing and then, uh, Tommy was down.

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: And I said it again. I was like, "Oh. Sh — should — we should definitely hang out," like —

Wilbur: Yeah.

Phil: — "We could just all get a flight. It's so easy. It's so quick." (Phil sniffs)

Wilbur: And, um, yeah. (Phil sniffs) And he, he basically told us like, "Nah." He was like, it's — He basically said that he ⁠— I think, I think the word he used was "owned."

Phil: Yeah, he did. He said, he, he said he was —

Wilbur: He said he was "owned" and, uh, he wouldn't be there for that. Which, uh, I didn't believe, 'cause he's told me before that he was owned.

He, uh, when like, like, when he was originally diagnosed, he was basically telling me that like, like, he wasn't, he didn't think he'd make it too far. Uh, he still was fighting and he still believed that he was gonna, you know, he, he, he was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna fucking beat this shit." But he thought it was gonna take him eventually, you know? Even when, even if he was really old, you know?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And, um ⁠— so, hearing him say he was owned, I was like, "We're gonna hang out with you." I was like, "Shut up, man. We, we'll see you." And, uh, and we didn't get to, because he, he passed away before the end of VidCon, at least as far as we knew. Um, yeah. Which, which sucked.

Phil: That was awful.

Wilbur: So Tommy never got to meet him, uh, which I think really upset Tommy a lot. That really, that really got to him.

Uh, I remember the day we told Tommy, 'cause we, we told Tommy after, uh, and he — I called him, and he was just on the Dream SMP, just looking for books Techno had written.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: He was just like, talking to me through the tears, uh, like, asking me questions about it and stuff. And I was just telling him everything I knew, and yeah. (responding to chat asking after Tommy) Tommy's gonna be alright.

Phil: He said that, he said that Techno, uh, left a book (Wilbur mmms in agreement) before he logged out for the last time on SMP Earth. So he was like, "Oh, I wonder if, wonder if he's done it."

Wilbur: We could — we'll have to look for the map for SMP Earth. See what that book was.

Phil: Yeah, I dunno. I, I, I would ask — yeah, he's, he's the one that like, found it or like, knew about it. I think.

Wilbur: Yeah, (Phil sniffs) I think, uh, I think for me, it was like, when I found out the news, uh, I didn't, I didn't actually cry for a while, because I'd already kind of processed the idea of him passing, 'cause I, I, I dunno when the last time you spoke to him was over VC, but I, I spoke to him at like, the beginning of June. (Wilbur sniffs)

Phil: Mmm.

Wilbur: And, uh like, before I left for America, it was like, the last day before I left, and I played TF2 with him and he basically gave me the low down of like ⁠— he was like, very clear to me that he wasn't feeling too good. And I was like, "Okay." You know, I got it. I understood. So when I had actually got the news, I, I didn't really, I, I, — it, it took me a long time to process — I just felt kind of numb? For a while?

Uh, the weirdest thing for me — what it's been for me, actually with most pe — most friends that I've lost — uh, I would like, walk around and I was just thinking, "Why is no one else caring?" You know, even — I, I was like, why, you know, "Don't they know my friend's died?" Like, "Why, why is no one else noticing?" (Phil sniffs) You know that feeling?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And, um, and I felt that for a while, I felt that every day waking up, I would, I, you know, at the airport, you know, going to — walking around the panels and stuff, I was always like, "Why is no one — Why is no one caring?" You know, obviously, they didn't know, I can't blame them, but like, there's something weird in your head when you lose some — when you lose a friend where you're — where you wonder why the world is still turning, you know, you wonder why people are still going about their business.

And, uh, and that was, that was one of them for me. And, uh, it was really comforting for me when I saw the outpouring of love and, and, and the shock waves he left, you know, on the internet. They say, (Paraphrasing "Song for Josh" by Frank Turner) "You can measure the mark of a man on the day — and the shock waves that he leaves behind," which is a song lyric that I remember that I quite liked and I was thinking of afterwards, 'cause it's true! He was, he was a great man. And you can tell from seeing everyone's reaction to him.

Phil: Yeah. He touched so many people's lives.

Wilbur: Yeah. And, uh, yeah. Uh. (Phil sniffs)

Yeah. Uh, so in some more positive, well, not so much positive, but more bittersweet — when I was uh, when I was, um — on one of the last times I spoke to him, uh, uh, I play — I basically — he, he didn't wanna talk. (Wilbur huffs a laugh) Well, he, he did want to talk, but he didn't really have the energy for it, but I managed to catch him at a point between — 'cause he wasn't really awake very much. He was sleeping quite a lot.

Phil: Mm-hmm.

Wilbur: And in the time he was awake, he was just reading manga and, uh, watching like, Netflix. So he wasn't really too — he didn't have a lot of energy, but I caught him at like, the perfect time where he had enough energy, and, um, I basically just ran onto my PC (Wilbur huffs a laugh) and started playing, uh, started playing TF2.

And I was like, "Do you wanna play?" And he was, and he basically responded that he, he, he was in a hospital bed. He couldn't — well, he was not in a hospital bed, but he was in bed, so he couldn't, he couldn't play. So I was like, "Alright. I'm still gonna play TF2. Fuck you." So I, um, I booted it up and I shared screen and, uh, I played some of the worst Team Fortress 2 you've ever seen, by the way, chat. (Phil laughs)

I, I was, I — it was the worst TF2 gameplay you would've ever watched. I'm sure Techno was cringing. So much to the point where I was like, I was like, every time I'd make a mistake, I'd go like, "Oh. You didn't see that, did you?" And he'd just be completely silent. (Wilbur and Phil laugh) I was just like, I was just like, "God. This is punishment. Why am I punishing this man with my Team Fortress gameplay?" And, um, uh, (Wilbur sniffs) and, uh, I remember I was, I was playing with him — well, I was playing and he was watching — and, uh, at one point, uh, he was like, he was like, answering me and he like, broke into this like, manic cough, like a real deep, guttural, wheezy cough that I hadn't heard before. So I sort of said to him like, "Look, man like you can — let's, let's step back, you know. I, I'll talk at you and you type to me," you know, I was like, "You, you just — you don't have to respond." And if, if this ain't the most Technoblade shit you've ever heard, ready?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: When, when I said this to him, "You, you type, I'll talk." He goes quiet. He clears his throat and he just goes (imitating Techno) "No. Anyway —" and he just keeps talking. (Phil and Wilbur laugh)

My man's was coughing up a storm and I said to him like, "Please. Just type to me." And he goes, "No." And just keeps talking.

Phil: So stubborn. (Phil laughs)

Wilbur: He was such — he was like — he did! And I've, I have so many stories of that, and him just going "No." (Wilbur laughs)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And just like, you know, 'cause he was just like, he did — he refused like, you know, life had to conform around him, not the other way around, you know?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: He wasn't gonna change how he was — if he wanted to do something, he was gonna do it! He wasn't gonna change for anything. The world had to move around Techno, you know?

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: He was the immovable object, you know? (Wilbur and Phil laugh) Which is, which is really inspiring. And it always was. (Phil sniffs)

Yeah. Do you have anything else you wanna talk about?

Phil: Not that I can think of off the top of my head.

Wilbur: Do you think I should, uh, — Hold on. I’m gonna type something to you quickly. (Wilbur vocalising briefly while he types a message to Phil and sniffs)

Yeah, it was, it was — it's, it's sad news, but like I said, the, the amount of love and outpouring from everyone has been so comforting for, uh, (Wilbur quickly types a response to Phil's DM) for me. And I'm sure everyone.

Uh, I just asked Phil if I should tell a story — the reason I didn't want to tell it is it's a little bit, it's a little bit strange, (Wilbur laughs) this story, and it's a little bit too much, uh, it's a bit, a bit too much like, about me, which doesn't feel right, but, um, I'll just say it really quickly.

Basically, I, uh, a couple weeks ago I had a dream, uh, a really w — I don't dream much, chat. I've got like ⁠— I can't see pictures in my head, so I'm not, I'm not big on dreams. I, I — dreams are one of the few places I can see things in my head, weirdly, but it's not very common, and they, they come very, uh, they come very sparingly, and, uh, I had a dream, uh, even more strange than just having a dream, was I had a dream I was playing Minecraft, which, (Wilbur and Phil laugh) which is not common, at all. When I do dream it's normally, it's normally nightmares, to be honest, it's normally like, weird shit, but this was a dream like, a nice dream.

Uh, I was playing Minecraft and, uh, and, and I was ⁠— and I joined a, a, a server. Like, a new streaming server for like, streamers and I was playing (Wilbur sniffs) and I was streaming and, uh, I was basically bullying this other streamer who'd moved in next door to me. I was like, I was like, wrecking their house, over and over again.

And, uh, halfway through Technoblade joined the server ⁠— so this is why it's weird ⁠— and I, I don't — This — I don't believe this has any symbolism. I just ⁠— it was a really comforting thing for me when it happened, 'cause I was really worried about him. This was before I knew what had happened. And um, he, he joined and I, I told him to get in VC with me and he joined VC and he was like, talking to me the way he used to and stuff.

And he was — he sounded — he was so full of energy and excitement — and uh, and I, I basically was like, I told him like, how — I, I ended up streaming in my dream for four hours. I remember it was four, four or so hours. And, um, eventually I ended stream and I was talking to him and I was like, I told him how worried I was about him.

I was like, "I can't —" I was like, "I'm, I'm so — I can't believe that you like," you know like "I was really worried that you hadn't answered my messages in ages and stuff." And he goes to me like, he basically responds, "Oh no, man. I, I —" he, he basically goes, "I'm sorry. I'm, I'm not here anymore." And he says, "But I just saw you were dreaming about Minecraft and I couldn't let you get away with that, loser." (Wilbur and Phil laugh)

And then I woke up, (Phil sniffs) I remember this really weirdly, because I don't dream often. And (Wilbur laughs) that is so fucking Technoblade if —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — If there is, if there is some, some spiritualness behind anything, for, for that motherfucker to, to wait for me to dream about Minecraft, come in my dream, and call me a fucking loser for it. — I'm sorry, hold on. — It's so, it's so on brand of him that —

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: — Yeah. That's just a story that I, I, I, I quite liked when I — when it happened. Uh, it, it comforted me quite a lot and yeah, it's weird. It's a weird dream.

But yeah, on a, on, on an actual positive note, me and Tommy are releasing a book, uh, the quote book, soon, uh, where a hundred percent of all, uh, the profits of all the — not even profits — a hundred percent of all money —

Phil: The proceeds.

Wilbur: — We're, we're making a massive loss on this.

All of the money, every single penny, is going to the Sarcoma Foundation, uh, and the entire book's in honour of Technoblade. We, we did it for him. Uh, I'm not sure when we're releasing it yet, but it's gonna be a big thing. We're gonna promote it. You guys will see. And yeah.

It'll be a fun book. It'll be like a, it'll be like a, a novelty book. Like something you can have on your coffee table, you know, something —

Phil: Yeah. You just randomly open up onto a page and just read a single quote.

Wilbur: Yeah. And we're gonna have little illustrations for each of the quotes and stuff. (Phil and Wilbur laugh) And, um, yeah, we, we're very excited and we're excited, we're excited for you guys to see it and, and, and be able to, you know, be able to help out the Sarcoma Found — research and still, you know, and, and get like, a, a nice, a nice book from it as well.

Yeah. I think that's all I have to say, man. I don't ⁠— I, I'm getting to an emotional point now and I don't really wanna (Wilbur and Phil chuckle) — I don't really wanna be live for that.

Phil: Yeah. That's fine.

Wilbur: How about you? Do you want me to leave it that way?

Phil: Yeah, I'm good. I'm good —

Wilbur: How have you been?

Phil: ⁠— I'll, I'll just get upset.

Wilbur: Okay. Well, thank you, chat.

Thank you for coming and listening. I hope, I hope this could help. I hope this was, was, was comforting to hear, you know. I, I, I needed to get it off my chest. I wanted to do this yesterday, but Tommy's show was yesterday and I didn't wanna, I wa — I wasn't — I, I, I didn't really want to overdo that when we could have had Tommy here, but I think Tommy might be a bit busy anyway, so I'm sure you'll hear from him soon too. Uh —

Phil: Yeah. (Wilbur sniffs)

Wilbur: Yeah. (Phil sniffs) Thank you, guys. You — he, he really, he really loved you guys a lot. All of you. Uh, even if you hated him, if you, (Wilbur laughs) if you gave him views, he loved you. (Phil laughs)

Phil: Anything for the clout.

Wilbur: Any — No, he, he, he loved, he, he loved his audience a lot.

Phil: Yeah, he did.

Wilbur: To, to a point where he would disregard a lot of advice we had. (Wilbur sniffs) 'Cause, there's a lot of advice amongst like, YouTube and streamers to keep like, a degree of separation from your audience.

Uh, (Phil sniffs) for obvious reasons, but also to like, you know, just for like, so you can, you know, keep a healthy work-life relationship. And I feel like Technoblade already had a healthy work-life relationship. So he, he really tried to connect to his audience as much as he could 'cause he really, really loved you guys, a lot.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: And uh, and I'm sure he'd be, he'd be fucking embarrassed as shit to see all the outpouring of love for him. (Wilbur laughs) If I know Technoblade, I know he would be so embarrassed, but he'd love it. (Wilbur sniffs) From being the sort of guy who embarrassed Technoblade on the daily, I can tell you he, he would've, he would've definitely hated (Wilbur laughs) all the attention.

Phil: He'd be making jokes about how his views have quadrupled.

Wilbur: He'd be making — Yeah. He'd be say, he'd be saying, oh, he'd be saying like, (imitating Techno) "Oh, I gotta do this more often." (Phil laughs)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: That's what he'd say.

Yeah, man. (Wilbur sniffs) I only knew him three years, but fucking hell am I thankful I did, man. There's — it's — I'm thankful so much.

Phil: Same.

Wilbur: Like, that's the takeaway from all this.

I'm so thankful for everything, uh, we got to do. For all the time I got to spend with him, uh, and I'm thankful for, for all of you guys, for, you know, coming along for the journey, which was a fucking crazy journey. It was a really good, a really good, uh, adventure.

Yeah. (reading chat) 12 million subs now? If, if he was still alive, he'd be rubbing that in Tommy's face.

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: He'd be saying, "Fuck you, Tommy. I've got more subs," (Phil and Wilbur laugh) and thank you all for coming to watch, and vibe, and sit here, and I hope, I hope this has been helpful. I think, uh, I have one request of all of you before we go away.

And um, I want you all to do your best to remember him for as long as you can. Uh, not just because it's good too, but also because we're gonna just keep making inside jokes about him, (Wilbur laughs) so —

Phil: Yep.

Wilbur: If you don't remember him, you won't be able to follow along with any of what we're fucking saying, (Wilbur and Phil laugh) uh —

Phil: We'll keep telling you to subscribe to him.

Wilbur: Yes. So that's all I want, is please remember him. And you know, maybe when one of you is a big streamer or a big YouTuber, and someone asks, "Who was your inspiration?" You could say it was Technoblade. You could say it was him and it'll be true and I'll, and I'll hear it. And I'll go — (Wilbur gives a big thumbs up and laughs)

Thank you, everyone. Uh, (reading chat) "One of us!" One of us. (Phil laughs)

Phil: Yeah.

Wilbur: Exactly. Thank you everyone for coming down and listening and, uh, I'll see you all very soon, uh, for a normal stream. One that doesn't involve as much, as much, uh, talking. (Wilbur laughs) Me just talking at you. Alright. Thank you, everyone.

I'll send you — Who should I send them to? Who's live?

Phil: Will it even let you?

Wilbur: Should I even raid? I won't raid. I won't raid. They might be a bit mean to send —

Phil: Yeah, it's a lot of these people.

Wilbur: Right. Thank you. Everyone for coming down and I'll see, I'll see you very soon. I'll, I'll go back to normal streaming soon.

Bye-bye guys.

#wilbur soot transcripts #wilbur soot #philza #technoblade #mod qwerty #tw death #tw cancer #tw grief

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danny-yagami · 2 years

Note

Hello!

Okay so here's an idea that is a-bit weird, and might not make sense, but can you maybe do?

So< This would be a readerxTommy thingy.

Ok, So y'k how he talked about seeing a girl at a cafe and he practically just simped for her or whatever? Can you do that but we r the girl?Tommy works at a cafe and he was serving some drinks to some people. Then the reader comes in and he is just flabbergasted. He's doing that face were he just like: :0 And the reader orders there favorite drink and Tommy is still like :0 So when he asks for the name of the order he quickly jots it down in his head and starts working on the readers drink. After he was done he gives the reader the drink and they touch hands by accident or whatever. Then they're like OMG ur tommyinnit! And then they take a picture.Tommy later mentions it in a stream and the reader goes to the cafe next morning and you can continue from there.

Sorry its so long I just had a really cool idea and decided to give it to you to write :)

I'm so sorry that this took forever! But, thank you for the ask! Things to keep in mind is: h/l (hair length), f/d (favorite drink)

Content: Fluff, Tommy being a simp, Tommy x Female Reader, Tommy seeing you at a cafe, use of Tommy's real name, I have a horrible memory, so I can't exactly who Tommy rambled to, and I got a bit lazy to look it up, so I used Tubbo.

Tommy sighed out of boredom, he just wants to go home. He's bored and he wants to play with his friends online. As soon as he stretched his arms up, he saw you walk through the door and he felt his jaw drop.

Your h/l hair, your facial features, your smile when you walked up to him. He found everything so beautiful.

"Oh, welcome, Ma'am!" He smiled a cheerful smile. "What may I get you today?"

"Can I have f/d?" God, your voice sounded so angelic to him.

"Alright, one f/d?"

"Correct."

"Is there anything else I can get you?" he asked as he typed it in.

"Nope, that'll be all!" you grinned.

Tommy smiled and nodded. "What name should I put it under?"

"Y/n please."

"Alright! I'll call you up as soon as we get it finished!" Tommy exclaimed as he took a mental note of your name.

You nodded and walked away a bit so the next customer can order.

When Tommy finished his shift, he started walking home and grinned like an idiot. You were just like sunshine in the cafe, brighting up his day. Once he reached home, he got straight on looking at who was streaming at the time when he remembered that he doesn't have to work tomorrow, so he'll just stream tomorrow. He hopped of his computer and decided to take a shower then head to bed.

Once he got up, he got up and yawned as he grabbed some of his day clothes, slipping into them, then going into the bathroom to do what he needed to do as a regular morning routine for him. He then hurried downstairs and saw his mom putting breakfast on the table.

"Well, good morning, Thomas!" his mother smiled lovingly to her son.

"Good morning, Mom," he smiled back at his mother.

"What's the plan for today?"

Tommy shrugged as he started to eat the breakfast his mom made him. "I'm planning to stream with a few friends of mine since I'm off today."

"Can you do the dishes before hand, Sweetie?"

Tommy nodded, "Of course I can Mum."

"Thank you. I have to leave for work in 20 minutes, so please behave. I should be back before dinner tonight."

Tommy said 'okay' before he got up and took his and his mother's dirty dishes and started to clean them. It took him a tiny bit of time, but he got them done, said goodbye to his mom when she was leaving, then he went into his office and started streaming. He saw that Tubbo was on and he had asked him if he'd like to stream with him. Tubbo agreed and they started playing Minecraft with each other while chatting away.

"So, yesterday I saw this really pretty girl when I was working," Tommy smiled softly as he talked to his friend and chat.

"Really? What was she like?" Tubbo smirked.

"She was kind-"

Tubbo interrupted his friend saying, "What did she look like?"

Tommy rolled his eyes. "She had s/c skin that looked so smooth and soft, her h/l h/c hair framed her perfect face, a perfect smile, e/c eyes that looked like heaven to stare into, hell, her voice sounded so angelic. I swear she was an angel in disguise."

"Sounds like you're a simp, Tommy."

"I am not!"

Tubbo laughed, "What was her name anyways?"

"Y/n. It's a beautiful name for her."

Tubbo laughed even harder. "You really are a simp for her!"

Tommy scoffed, "So what? It's not like we'll see each other in person ever again! It's a rare chance to see a beautiful woman like her around more than once to me."

"To you."

"Shut up, Tubbo," Tommy laughed.

You watched the entire stream, you were a subscriber to Tommy. You were honestly surprised you really didn't notice him working at all. Plus, he simped for YOU? You hardly believed it. You thought he was talking about another woman, but he meant you of all people. You smiled to yourself and closed out of Twitch, thinking that you should go to that cafe everyday and maybe get his number. But, you didn't want to seem like a creep or anything, but him, someone who is famous, liked you? To you, you were nothing compared to half of the fame of the pretty girls Tommy interacted with, but to him, he felt like you were someone who is extremely important, despite not having any fame to you. He didn't care if you're famous or not, he just wanted to get to know you for you.

He found someone that was so important to him other than his friends, fans, and his own family.

For the next few days to weeks, you became a regular customer for coming in everyday. Tommy had asked you one of his shifts if he could have your number and you gladly gave it to him, chatting with each other before and after every stream of his, before and after work for the both of you, and even during the nights and mornings you guys talked nonstop.

Tommy, deciding to ask you out one afternoon after knowing you for half a year, was terrified and nervous. He really never liked anyone like how he liked you, I mean, yeah, he had crushes throughout his life, but he needs to take his chance before anyone takes it.

That day, during his break, he had sat down with you and just chatted away. A few minutes before his break ended, he felt his face heat up as he stuttered out a sentence, "Y/n, I was wondering if you would like to go out with me? Not as friends, but something closer?"

When the words registered in your head after a few moments, your face started to heat up. You gently smiled at the blonde and said, "I would love to, Tommy."

He smiled a wide smile as he mentally cheered. "I'll see you after my shift. I'll get off here in an hour if you'd like to stay until then!" he got up as you agreed and hugged you.

He felt so happy and all warm inside for the rest of the day.

Ending notes: I really enjoyed writing this even if it did seem a little lazy! Thank you Jovie for the request! I'm also grateful that you were my first actual request! I hope you enjoyed this little fluff I wrote! Please have a great rest of your day! Love you all! ❤️

#dreamsmp #dream smp fanfic #story requests #x reader #dsmp #tommyinnit x reader #tommyinnit #tommy mcyt #dsmp tommy #tommyinnt #tommyinnit x you #tommy innit #tommyinnit fluff #tommyinnit x y/n #danny yagami writes #danny yagami #dream smp x y/n #dream smp

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talesfromthesnogbox · 9 months

Text

How can I sleep when you're running through my mind?

Summary: The Steddie ASMR youtuber AU you never asked for!

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 13,135

Notes: I wanted to read an ASMR AU, couldn't find one, made one myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Hope you like it! Sidenote if you're not a regular ASMR viewer, it's not TYPICALLY as horny as Steve makes it to be...

AO3 Link

🎤👑🎧

“Alright my little rockstars, I hope you guys liked today’s video, and as always, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite, I’ll see you in the next one.”

Steve sighed and closed the tab with Eddie Whispers video. He was his all time favourite creator, with his soft, fluffy hair, and gentle eyes. Eddie was a smaller creator on Youtube, not much of a following just yet, but he was severely underrated, and Steve found himself for the first time ever, actually experiencing the sensations he hoped he gave other people.

“Finished with your pre-game rituals already?” Robin asked him, crossing her arms.

“Yup, just gonna fix the headphone hair and I’ll be ready to go in five?”

Robin rolled her eyes but moved forward into his room anyways. “Copy that. Which mic are we using today?”

“Probably the Yeti? Oh! Actually they sent me that new 3Dio to try, maybe I do the trigger word one today and film the thigh one tomorrow?” Steve stopped in his tracks holding his ‘outfit’ for filming, seemingly stuck between two pairs of ungodly short shorts. He looked to Robin for advice.

“I’m sorry, the thigh one?”

“Yeah, I told you about it yesterday. You know, the fabric scratching one?”

Robin looked at him like he had three heads. “Fabric scratching? With what fabric, those are practically non-existent.” She rolled her eyes “You really are a whore.”

“Whatever, mom, it gets me views, and pays our bills so I don’t really care.”

Steve had kinda started doing ASMR by accident a few years ago with Tommy Hagan of all people. The two of them had posted some stupid senior prank video to a throwaway channel online, part of it being them hiding in a closet and whispering to the camera while they waited for chaos to ensue. Somehow, it got views, and a lot of the comments were about Steve and how nice his voice sounded when he whispered. Then of course, ASMR blew up on the internet, so he started his own channel shortly after graduation.

It took him a few years to get it off the ground, but he was nearing the seven year anniversary of his channel and had just hit 3.5 million subscribers. Steve’s channel had started out pretty innocently, doing low-fi type videos with his headphone microphone before investing in his yeti, and that seemed to work, people liked it a lot. But then one day he’d filmed out by the pool, and his popularity skyrocketed. People went crazy for Steve. He knew he was good looking, had a relatively nice body, and great hair, but he didn’t realize people would be so into his ASMR KING alter-ego.

King Steve was everything that regular Steve had left in the past. He was cocky, overtly flirtatious and sexual, and sometimes just a little bit mean. King Steve often filmed with his shirt off, he took up as much space as possible, his muscular thighs spread wide, the camera angled low so they were on full display. He’d been called the “horniest ASMR youtuber” on more than one occasion, and honestly, he was pretty okay with that. ASMR made him feel good, and he liked the content he put out. Not that he’d ever watch anything like that…

When it came to what he liked to watch, it was all fairly tame. Anything Eddie put out on Eddie Whispers he’d watch, whether it be camera or mic brushing, or words of affirmation, or even role-play videos. He loved what Eddie did, how wholesome it was, and how good it made him feel. And it didn’t hurt that Eddie was easy on the eyes as well… his soft voice sounded familiar, he was great with accents and characters, hell he’d even watched some videos where he was just simply making up DnD character sheets (which Dustin was proud to hear).

Eddie’s videos had become part of his “pre-game” ritual as Robin liked to call it. He’d throw on an Eddie video, usually commenting something from his anonymous burner account for engagement, then suit up (or suit down rather) to film his own video once he was nice and loose and relaxed. Robin, being his tech girl, constantly ribbed him about it, knowing her friend was harbouring a crush on the guy, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself. Besides, he was kinda right, Eddie’s videos were calming, and for some reason seemed to put Steve in the right headspace for his own online persona.

While Steve changed, Robin set up his mic and camera, making the executive decision that they were not going to be filming anything with his thighs out today. She checked the audio levels on the new mic, and made sure the lighting was okay before he came in to work his magic. Robin was far too squeamish to get into ASMR for her own enjoyment, but she didn’t mind doing the filming and editing for Steve. He paid her a good portion of the revenue from his videos, and always credited her and promoted her independent work on his channel. She’d started getting a small following of her own thanks to him, and he was even helping her finance a short film for the next year’s festival run. Steve was a good guy, and an even better friend, so it was a no brainer when he asked if she would help him with his channel.

“How’s this?” He asked, adjusting his hair from what he could see in the small monitor ahead of him.

“Well considering the angle, you look naked. Your chest hair is all out, Dustin is gonna tell you to shave it again.”

“Well Dustin is just jealous he’s a hairless cat.” Steve rolled his eyes and reached for a form-fitting tank top from behind him. “There, that better?”

“Much. So what’s the plan for this one then?” Robin settled into her spot at the computer to check the audio levels.

“Umm, new 3Dio mic test, probably a bunch of triggers.” Robin nodded and wrote out her outline so she could direct him from off camera as they rolled. “I’ll start with just some generic whispering, then maybe do a trigger word, one of my patrons has been asking me to do Fuck for a while now. And then maybe some ear touching and kissing sounds to round it all out?” He looked from the new set of ears in front of him to Robin, she expectedly looked disgusted. “Nothing new Robs.”

“I know, but your subs all need to get laid.”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, well so do I.”

He made sure to put his phone on silent, but first, he needed to comment on Eddie’s video.

“All good to go over here, whenever you’re ready.” Robin called, hitting the record button on Steve’s camera.

He instantly smiled in the sultry way he only used for his videos, and peered down the barrel of the lens through his lashes. “Hey Dreamers…”

🎤🎸🎧

“Holy shit. Holy shit, Max wake up!” Eddie shook her awake from her nap.

“Ugh Eddie what the hell do you want, I was just getting comfortable.”

His eyes were wide as he stared at the notification. It wasn’t on a new video, the video was about two weeks old, but when he saw the verified check mark on the commenter’s name, he immediately clicked on the channel. ASMR KING had like 3.5 million subs, and he was watching Eddie’s video? And commenting on it?

Your voice is just so soothing, you had me relaxed from the moment you smiled. This was awesome dude, keep up the great work.

“The dude that commented is like… huge.”

“Eddie it’s not nice to—”

“No! Shut up, he’s got like over three million subs.” Eddie starred stunned at the number.

“O-kay, and I’m supposed to care because?”

“Because you’re like my little sister, and a little support here would be nice thank you very much!”

“Dork.”

ASMR KING had been pretty notorious among ASMR creators. It wasn’t that his stuff wasn’t good, but it wasn’t exactly the wholesome, family-friendly content Eddie put out. The stuff that Steve did on his channel never really spoke to Eddie, even when it popped up incessantly on his recommended videos. He was still staring at his phone in awe when he decided to grab his headphones and actually watch one of his videos.

The first thing Eddie noticed about King Steve was that he was hot as hell. Eddie always claimed he didn’t have a type, but this man was exactly Eddie’s type. Pretty, built, hairy, a little bitchy, could definitely keep up with Eddie’s quips. The video he clicked was just some simple little whispered story time, nothing crazy, but the thumbnail on the next one almost had him running to his room in fear of indecency.

Low camera angle, desk chair, short shorts, thighs spread, no shirt, smug smirk. Eddie could not care less about what the trigger was, nobody needed to look that sexy while trying to put people to sleep.

The second thing Eddie noticed about King Steve was that he tended to use a lot of gender neutral language. As Eddie clicked through his videos and hit a “Boyfriend helps you sleep” role-play, he realized Steve didn’t exclusively make these for girls. Most of the comments did seem to be coming from women (and a lot of them were kinda disgusting if he did say so himself), but the wording was fairly generic. He came across the same way the douchebag jocks he went to high school did, but could he be gay possibly?

Whatever, it didn’t matter to Eddie, Steve was just another hot, unattainable guy who happened to like his stuff.

It wasn’t until Eddie went back out of Steve’s profile that he noticed the notifications flooding in. Eddie’s modest five thousand subscriber count was suddenly closing in on 5300. He certainly didn’t have that many this morning. It must be from Steve’s following. He clicked the little “subscribe” button and looked him up on Instagram, following him there too before taking the plunge and writing him a message.

Eddie Whispers: Hey man, I just want to say thanks for commenting, I think some of your subs found me and followed, and I really appreciate it. It’s nice to see some of the heavy hitters helping out us little guys in the community <3.

🎤👑🎧

“So how does it sound?” No matter how many subscribers or views his videos got, Steve was always a little self-conscious right after filming. He didn’t exactly like his King Steve persona so he didn’t care about whether or not others would like that, but he did care about if he sounded good.

“Great actually, I think people will like the new mic.”

“Awesome, thanks Robs, I appreciate it.”

Steve left the room he’d designated for filming and editing so Robin could do her thing. It was nothing new for him to have a steady stream of notifications after having not checked his phone for a while, but when he saw the amount that included ‘replied to your comment on Eddie Whispers video’, he stopped in his tracks.

His burner account AlwaystheBabysitter had no subscribers, and his comment was purely positive, there’s no way anyone could have anything bad to say about it. He opened the notification and to his shock, he’d forgotten to switch accounts before commenting.

“Shit”, he whispered. There was nothing wrong with him commenting as himself, but King Steve was a persona, he had a reputation to uphold if you will. Even his Instagram and Twitter accounts were separate from his own private socials to keep it up for his followers, and King Steve would never comment on anything, let alone comment something that positive.

Shocker number two, Eddie Whispers started following him, on everything.

Shocker number three, Eddie Whispers had sent him a message on Instagram.

Steve’s heart thrummed in his chest as he read Eddie’s message to him. It was heartfelt, it was sweet, it was everything he normally was in all of his videos, and now, Steve was stuck with a dilemma.

Eddie was his favourite creator. He couldn’t just be his bitchy internet persona to him, especially not through a message, but would that change who he was in Eddie’s eyes if he didn’t?

“What’s wrong, dingus? Did Eddie Whispers slide into your DM’s or something?” Robin walked past him, taking a sip from her water bottle.

“Yeah, actually.”

Robin choked a little, water dribbling down her chin. “Wait, actually? I was just joking, holy shit.” She rushed to his side to see, and sure enough, Steve’s Instagram messages lay open, a message from Eddie Whispers glaring right at the top. “Hey man, I just want to say thanks for commenting, I think some of your subs found me and followed, and I really appreciate it. It’s nice to see some of the heavy hitters helping out us little guys—Steve holy shit. Are you gonna respond?”

Steve threw his hands up. “Well yes, obviously! But King Steve is an asshole. What if he hates me.”

“Why does it need to be from King Steve? Why can’t it be from regular old loser Steve we know and love?”

He shot her a look. “Well… I don’t know… shouldn’t I be who I am on camera?”

“You mean a horny dickhead? No. Just be yourself dude.”

“Right, myself, right. What if he doesn’t like me?”

Robin sighed and pushed his coiffed hair back. “You’re sending him a message saying hey, not proposing marriage doofus. Everyone loves you Steve, you’ll be fine.”

Steve smiled gratefully as she walked past him. He contemplated his next message, not quite knowing what to say, but wanting to talk to him anyways.

No sweat…

Anytime…

You’re welcome…

He shook his head and backspaced everything he’d written so far, nothing quite sounding right. He thought about what Robin said, and decided to just… speak from the heart.

ASMR KING: Of course dude, don’t even mention it. I’m happy they found your channel, you really do great work.

Steve closed his eyes and hit ‘send’ on the message, watching as the little ‘read’ receipt popped up a moment later.

Eddie Whispers: That’s kind of you to say! Although I don’t know your subscribers will really like my stuff, it’s all pretty vanilla.

He definitely wasn’t expecting Eddie to carry on the conversation, or even really know what he did. Steve figured Eddie followed him to be nice, but had he watched his stuff?

The sudden flow of self-consciousness burst through Steve again. His skin prickled with goosebumps, and his chest flushed hot at the thought of Eddie watching his videos, the sultry looks he’d throw at the camera, the suggestive triggers he’d do, god the one time he fully just sucked his fingers and called it a day. “We all know this is getting demonetized anyways, might as well go for it.” Did Eddie like that stuff, was he into it?

ASMR KING: Haha honestly I prefer watching stuff like yours than stuff like mine. My subs need a little bit of something to cool off every once and a while.

Eddie Whispers: I wouldn’t say that, your stuff is good! Look at the following you have, clearly people like it.

ASMR KING: They like it because they’re horny little shits :P

Eddie Whispers: Well… doesn’t hurt that you’re hot.

🎤🎸🎧

“FUCK!” Eddie swore and threw his phone across the room.

“Asshole! Shut up, you’ll wake Wayne.” He shot Max an apologetic look and went to retrieve his phone.

“What’s even your problem now? Did something happen with this YouTube guy again?” He twirled a piece of hair nervously, covering his mouth with the strand, a surefire tell of his that something had happened. “Well? Spit it out already.”

“I fucked up. I messaged him and he messaged me, and I maybe toldhimhewashot.”

Max stared at him, a disappointed look on her face. “You did what now?”

“Look Max, I’m weak okay, and I have no filter, you know this! So he said his followers were all horny little shits and I just… it just… came out I guess?”

“Well has he read it?”

Eddie glanced down, sure enough, the words ASMR KING is typing… appeared at the bottom of the screen. “Shit.”

Max laughed. “Congrats doofus. Let me see.”

He handed his phone over to her shamefully to let her scope out his Instagram page. She instantly snorted, this dude that he was all hot over was none other than Steve Harrington, Dustin’s babysitter extraordinaire. He’d carted her around a bit before Wayne took her in, drove her and the rest of the party around Hawkins, but weirdly enough, Eddie had never met him. He wouldn’t recognize him either having moved here shortly after graduation. Max knew he dabbled in YouTube, but had no idea he was this popular, or this… different than the kind, gentle man she knew him to be now. His Instagram wasn’t much better than his Youtube, if anything, it was more suggestive, and he wore less clothes. “You’re disgusting.”

“And you’re a snoop! We can both say obvious things about each other Mayfield.”

“Would hardly call it snooping if you handed me the phone, idiot.” She smiled knowingly, handing it back. “You’ve got a message waiting, loverboy.”

“Fuck.”

🎤👑🎧

“Robin! Robin shit I need help.”

“Who’s dying!” Robin flew into Steve’s room and grimaced at Steve’s once again shirtless form. “Dude, what are you, allergic to clothes?”

“Eddie said I’m hot.”

“And that couldn’t have waited until after you put a shirt on?”

Steve flopped down on his bed. “Can you stop being a useless lesbian for like two seconds and help me!”

“Well stop being a useless bisexual! I thought you liked Eddie.”

“Uh, yeah! I do! What do I say?”

She snorted. “Fuck if I know, you have more experience with men than I do.”

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled deeply. “Okay, okay, I’ve got it. Boot the camera back up, I’m filming another one.”

🎤🎸🎧

ASMR KING: Oh yeah, you think so? Well maybe I’ll have a special little treat for you later then. Stay tuned.

“Max, he’s gonna kill me.”

“Why, what’d he say?” She jumped off the couch to peer over Eddie’s shoulder. “Oh shit, yeah he’s gonna kill you.”

By the end of the day, Eddie still hadn’t heard from Steve. He was even a little disappointed to find their chat the same as it was the next morning. The anticipation was killing him, but he didn’t want to goad him on, so he sat and waited…

And then out of the blue that evening, he got a notification from Steve on Instagram.

ASMR KING: Hope you enjoy 😘

Eddie stood up quickly from the dinner table, depositing his dish in the sink. “Gotta go.”

Max, having seen the notification come through on his phone, gagged a little. “Gross, can’t even wait until after I’m done eating?"

“He’s hot and I’m single as fuck. So sue me.” Eddie jeered back. “Besides, it’s YouTube, how bad could it be?”

Turns out, it could still be pretty bad.

The thumbnail of the link he’d sent through looked innocent enough, just Steve at his desk with the 3Dio mic in front of him, smiling softly at the camera. But when he clicked through to the video, it was not at all what he was expecting.

Just like the video he’d seen yesterday, Steve was wearing next to nothing. Low camera angle, short shorts, thighs spread, no shirt, smug smirk. But this time, he was softer than he usually was. He wore glasses, his hair not so perfectly coiffed, and he had a bit of scruff that wasn’t there in previous videos, almost like he’d just woken up.

“Hey dreamers, I’ve got a proper video coming for you tomorrow, but I just wanted to get this one out there first for a special little rockstar.” Steve licked his lips and winked into the camera, and Eddie promptly melted. “It’s been brought to my attention that maybe my videos could be a little more… vanilla if you will. So this time, I’ll be giving myself some tingles as well as you. Just for a little bit, as a treat.”

Eddie’s jaw was practically on the floor as Steve moved the mic from side to side to catch both ears. The light scruff on his face brushed the mic every once and a while making a delicious scratching noise, it’s like he could feel Steve’s lips touching his ears, and the blood started rushing south.

“Now I know this little rockstar dreamer loves this trigger, because he’s used it before in his own videos. And actually, it’s one of my favourite triggers as well.” Steve pulled a fresh fluffy makeup brush from out of his pocket (drawing attention to the way his thick thighs looked in those tiny shorts). He moved closer to the camera, brushing the lens with the soft bristles a few times, then rolled back to his original position. “I know this is a little new for me to be doing, but I think you guys are really gonna like it.”

Steve started out fairly tame. He brushed over the ears of the mic softly, and Eddie felt his breathing slow and his eyes get heavy. He loved doing mic brushing himself, although he hated editing it because it usually just ended up with him falling asleep. Steve didn’t seem to do this ever on his channel, but Eddie thought he should incorporate it more often. It sounded great, he had the right pressure, the right timing, and the right equipment. He was quickly jolted out of his relaxed state with the sound of Steve’s voice, right in his ear.

“This is nice, right? Do you like that?” He sighed heavily, smacking his lips together a few times, a bit like a few light kisses. “Yeah, I bet that feels good. I know that feels good baby, I love when you do this to me.”

Eddie made a choked out sound, unable to conceal now just how much Steve’s video was affecting him. And it was only about to get worse.

Steve shot the camera a wicked smile as he switched his mic to a handheld lav. “I love doing this to me too.” He chuckled lightly and stroked his face softly with the brush. He closed his eyes in bliss, breathing lightly into the small mic, a smile donning his face. Then he moved lower, brushing over his neck and collarbone, pausing to spend some time there before dipping down to brush over his pecs and nipples, the bristles getting caught in his chest hair. He let out a breathy sigh, picked up softly by the mic at his chest, and if that wasn’t the most beautiful sound Eddie had ever heard…

Eddie’s heart was pounding, he felt like he was watching porn, too mesmerized by it to look away, but feeling like it was so intimate, knowing Steve made it just for him.

“Why don’t we bring you a little closer…” Steve rolled the chair up towards the camera again, puffing his chest out so his face was entirely out of the picture as he drew invisible lines across his pecs with the brush. “Love how this makes me feel, bet you love it too.” He whispered softly, his voice going husky. “But we can’t let you have too much of a good thing my little rockstar.”

Like the tease he is, Steve wheeled himself back, a bit, grinning like a madman. “Oh shit, I said that was gonna be more vanilla, didn’t I? Oops.” The video promptly cut to black.

“Fuuuuuck.” Eddie whispered, throwing his head back, trying to calm himself down.

“Eddie your boyfriend is a slut.” He barely heard Max call from the kitchen.

“Shut up Max!”

He pulled out his phone and opened his chat with Steve, staring blankly at the keyboard.

That was…

I seriously…

Eddie Whispers: Dude… what the fuck are you doing to me. Christ that was something else 🥵

🎤👑🎧

Steve posted the video almost instantly after he finished filming it, only taking a moment to chop off the head and tail, and leaving the rest uncut. Robin had requested to not be a part of it, and honestly he was a little glad for that request as he willed away the semi he was sporting. He’d been suggestive on his channel before sure, but he’d never attempted dirty talk until today. Something about Eddie just made him want to, knowing Eddie thought he was hot just egged him on. Filming that made him feel sexy, and powerful, and more confident than he had in a while, he just hoped his intended target audience of one liked it too. Once the upload was done, he sent Eddie a message with the link, grabbed his shirt, and left his studio.

“Your brush, thanks for letting me borrow it.” He handed Robin the makeup brush he’d borrowed for the task.

“Where’s it been first, dingus?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Robs I didn’t like stroke my dick with it, oh my god.”

She grimaced, but pressed on.

“I just… you know… brushed my face a bit, my chest—”

“Just keep it dude.”

“Alright, putting it in the studio then, thanks Robin.”

She closed the book she was reading and looked at him seriously. “Your child called while you were filming, says you need to call him back and that it’s urgent.”

Steve frowned. “Is he okay?”

“Dunno, sounded fine to me.”

“Shit.” He swore, grabbing his phone and calling Dustin. “Hey, Robs said it was urgent?”

“Steve! Finally! Yeah, Will is back from New York so you’re hosting a pool party for us tomorrow. Just wanted to give you a heads up.” The party hadn’t entirely parted ways once they graduated high school, Will just moved out the furthest of the kids to go to art school while the rest of them stayed pretty close. But now that they were graduating college, they’d be spreading out even further eventually.

“Oh, just wanted to give me a heads up? Okay buddy, how thoughtful, thanks.” He replied sarcastically. Steve was used to hosting the kids at this point, but he always gave Dustin a little shit for it when he did it without consulting him.

“You’re the best dude!”

“Yeah, whatever. But you’re all old enough now so you’re supplying your own alcohol and you can figure out how you’re getting home afterwards.” Steve knew full well the kids wouldn’t get that drunk, and he’d always offer them a place to stay if they needed it.

“Got it. People are coming around three so you better not be filming your weird whisper shit.”

“My weird whisper shit is what’s paying the bills right now dude, shut up. See you tomorrow.” He hung up and turned to Robin. “Well looks like we’re hosting a party tomorrow.”

“Fun, did your kids tell you that?”

Steve flipped her off, making sure she could see it. Only minutes passed before his phone lit up with a notification from Eddie, the smile crossing Steve’s face told Robin everything she needed to know about how he took the video.

“Slutty Steve worked?”

“Oh yeah, slutty Steve did exactly what he was supposed to.” Steve nodded, crafting a response to Eddie.

“And what exactly, pray tell, was he supposed to do to poor, unsuspecting Eddie?”

He stopped and looked up, confusion in his eyes. What was that supposed to do? Eddie had said he was hot, they said they liked each other’s work, but nothing else really happened from there. Worry crossed Steve’s face. Did he take it too far? Clearly Eddie was picking up what he was putting down, but what exactly did he want to put down?

“Dingus, did I lose you there?”

He shook his head, rattling the worry around inside his brain.

“No, no I’m fine. Shit, did I go too far?”

Robin rolled her eyes. “He liked the video, yeah?” He nodded. “Then what’s the problem? I can’t believe I’m telling you there’s nothing wrong with harmless flirting. I care about you dude, you’ve been alone for a while, maybe you deserve a little bit of fun.”

“Maybe?” He chuckled.

“Shut up I don’t do sappy! You were really excited when he messaged you, and it seems like he’s flirting, so flirt back!”

Steve nodded to himself. Robin was right. Eddie seemed to be into Steve’s flirting, and it’s not like they knew each other, they were just two internet personalities. They could flirt with each other in their DM’s, it’s fine. What’s the worst that could happen?

“Okay, yeah, you know what you’re right, what the hell.”

Eddie Whispers: Dude… what the fuck are you doing to me. Christ that was something else 🥵

ASMR KING: Christ? Nah you can just call me Steve 😉😘

ASMR KING: Sorry that was terrible, but I hope the video gave you tingles

ASMR KING: And I hope you liked it

ASMR KING: And I hope maybe it did some other things for you too…

🎤🎸🎧

Eddie’s jaw was on the floor.

“Please tell me you’re decent in there.” Max sounded annoyed hovering outside Eddie’s door.

“Shut up! I’m trying to think.”

“What, did that video like melt your brain out your ears or something?”

He sighed heavily. “Or something.”

“Gross. Hey I’ve got a favour to ask. Can you drive me to Dustin’s tomorrow?”

Eddie did a double take, composing himself enough to walk to the door and look Max in the eye. “You’re like 21, you can’t just drive yourself?”

“Not if I’m gonna be drinking I can’t. Besides, might be good to get you out of the house and into normal society, get your mind out of the gutter.” If looks could kill, Max would be a goner. “Please? I promise I won’t even bring up Steve again.”

He sighed and rubbed his temples with his fingers. “I know that’s a lie, but whatever, I’ll drive you.”

“You’re the best thanks!” She started to walk away, but caught sight of him staring at his phone again. “Don’t overthink it, just message him back.”

“How do you know it’s even Steve I’m texting?”

“I didn’t, but you just confirmed it for me idiot.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and shut his bedroom door again, opening up his conversation with Steve.

Eddie Whispers: Wouldn’t you like to know Stevie… 😏

Eddie Whispers: In all honesty dude, you should use the brush more often. The sounds are *chef’s kiss*

Eddie Whispers: And well the rest of it… yeah that did it for me.

Eddie Whispers: But enough inflating your ego. How’d you get into ASMR?

🎤👑🎧

Steve stayed up most of the night talking to Eddie, chatting about life, YouTube, their friends, whatever came to mind. He felt like they were actually connecting on a personal level, so naturally he was pissed when Dustin showed up earlier than planned the next morning with party supplies expecting Steve’s help with setup.

“What, are you pissed you can’t talk to your weird whisper boyfriend?” Dustin teased as they laid out towels on the lounge chairs.

“Huh? He’s not my—wait how do you know about this?”

“Robin, obviously. And I saw the video, man. You sure you didn’t mean to post that on Only Fans?”

“Fuck off, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Dude.” He stopped in his tracks and gave Steve a look. “You were like rubbing your tits. I had to turn it off, I felt like I was interrupting a moment between you and your right hand.” He shuddered.

“Tits? Not fucking cool man, there was nothing wrong with my video.”

“Keep telling yourself that Steve-o, but that maybe should have been saved for the private videos folder.”

“Whatever.”

They finished their setup shortly before the party was set to arrive, and as Steve had predicted, they were early. The boys and El were in the backyard already splashing around in the pool when Steve finally went to go change into his swimsuit. And of course, the doorbell rang once more as he was pulling up his trunks.

Whoever was outside seemed to be fighting the way siblings usually do. “Red why the hell did you drag me out of the car, you’re not five.”

“I told you, I needed help with my things. Where the hell is he?” Steve fiddled with the lock, knowing it sometimes stuck.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming, hold on—”

He opened the door to find Max, “Hey Steve, thanks for hosting.” She ruffled his hair as she ran by him, but she wasn’t alone at the door.

To Steve’s surprise, none other than Eddie Whispers stood on his doorstep.

“Eddie?”

“H-hi, um, what… what?”

Steve was rendered speechless. Never in his wildest dreams did he think his favourite ASMR creator, one he’d just made a pretty suggestive video for himself, would be on his doorstep, but here they were. “Sorry, sorry I’m being rude, come in. But also, hi, um, hi, nice to meet you, hi.” He shook his head. His entire suave demeanour he’d had over text message gone, Steve was rendered back to the disaster bisexual with a crush on the soft-spoken metalhead.

Eddie chuckled a little, eyes wide as he took in Steve. “Holy shit, you’re real, Max’s Steve, and that Steve are the same Steve? You’re not just like some dude in my screen?”

That made Steve laugh right back at him. “Yeah dude, ditto. I… this is gonna sound a little creepy, but I’ve been watching your stuff like every night for the past few months.” He didn’t want to say it, but he felt like he knew Eddie. But now, having him here in his home, he realized he didn’t know shit about him. Eddie’s cool, calm persona seemed to be just that, a persona, just like King Steve’s. Standing here, he seemed bright eyed and skittish, in cutoff shorts and a ripped band tee, not unlike the soft looking t-shirts he usually wore in his videos, but a lot less generic. His hair was wild, not as put together as it usually was when he filmed (probably the humidity), and his usual soft expression was replaced with one a little more natural; the surprise and wonder clear as day, and completely new for Steve.

Eddie let out a laugh coloured with anxiety. “That’s cool man, I um, I’ve never actually met one of my subscribers in the wild. I guess that’s my cue to say sorry that I hadn’t seen any of your videos before this week. But like… your videos are…” he trailed off, biting his lip, trying to find something appropriate to say. “You really live up to that King Steve name.”

Steve shook his head. “None of that here. I’m not actually a total douchebag like I am online, spoiler alert. I’m actually kind of a loser, closer to every embarrassing dad at a barbecue than I’d like to admit.”

“Well…” Eddie gave Steve a good once-over, making Steve flush as he was being checked out. “You certainly don’t look like any dads I’ve ever met at a barbecue.”

He smiled. “Do you meet a lot of dads at barbecues?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

As it turns out, Eddie and Max lived together with their uncle Wayne. He’d taken Max in when her mom went to rehab, and she just never left, finding it more comfortable with them. Eddie had moved to Hawkins after graduating high school in an even smaller town than where they were now, but he’d spent a lot of time with Wayne in Hawkins when he was growing up.

They chatted in the living room, following each other to the kitchen for a beer, and eventually staying there until Dustin, the shithead that he was, decided to interrupt their pleasant conversation.

“Steve! I thought you were gonna start the—holy shit.”

Steve gave him a pointed look, but apparently Dustin was blind.

“Oh my god you’re actually in the same room together.”

Eddie gave him a warning glare. “Watch yourself, Henderson.”

“Wh-what—Dustin, do you know Eddie?”

Dustin shot Steve a confused look. “Uh, duh, he’s been running our DnD campaign for like… the last three years.”

Steve slowly turned to look at Eddie. “Seriously? How has it taken this long for us to meet?”

“Not our fault you guys are idiots who never want to hang out with us.” Max scoffed as she pushed past them to grab a beer.

“Fuck all you guys. You know what, we should collaborate. One video for each channel.”

A shiver shot down Steve’s spine. The more he talked to Eddie, the more he found himself attracted to him. He didn’t know if he could handle doing ASMR with him, it almost felt too intimate, but he knew after his last video the views would be insane. Crush be damned, they were gonna make magic together.

“Yeah, actually that sounds like a great idea. Eddie, will you do me the honour of being my partner in ASMR?”

If Eddie’s smile faltered, nobody said anything about it. “Why yes, King Steve, I will.”

🎤🎸🎧

Eddie fucked up.

He had no idea what he was getting into when he agreed to film with Steve, but he just knew it was gonna be bad. Not the videos, oh no those would be great, but he was way too hot for him to not let it show on camera.

They’d talked a bit about ideas for their videos at Steve’s pool party, but Eddie didn’t hear a word of what was said, not when Steve’s glorious chest and thighs were on display again in those teeny tiny shorts. God, he had to get his shit together before Steve was set to arrive in… fifteen minutes.

“Shit, shit, shit!” He ran around the small townhouse he, Max and Wayne shared, throwing dishes in the sink and picking up the clothes strewn around his room. Max and Wayne were out for the day, knowing Eddie needed silence for filming. Max, ever the smartass, left him with a wink and a warning “Don’t get pregnant.”

He flipped her the bird, but she wouldn’t have seen halfway out the door already.

Finally moments before Steve was due to arrive, the place looked presentable. Eddie never really had a set space to film in, just filming wherever in his room he saw fit, but more often than not it ended up being done at his desk. Today though, today he’d be trying a few new things for a solid change of pace. He’d never filmed a video with anyone else, preferring to work solo. He’d also never filmed anything on his bed, and god even thinking that made him feel like he and Steve were about to do something illicit. He shook his head clearing his thoughts, and the doorbell rang.

Eddie spent a moment composing himself and opened the door to a smiling Steve and his bag of tricks. He looked incredible.

Knowing that Eddie’s videos weren’t nearly as suggestive as Steve’s were, he’d worn a soft tee with the sleeves rolled up and a light wash pair of jeans that Eddie knew would hug his ass immaculately. His hair was less coiffed than it usually was, but still neat, and beautifully tousled.

They were only filming his video today, Steve’s would be filmed tomorrow at his massive house, but his gut bubbled with anxiety.

“Hey man! So I was thinking about the theme for your video and I brought something I think might be cool if you’re down to do a little sound check ahead of time.” Steve held up a small black bag that Eddie recognized was for microphones.

“Sure I’m game. What were you thinking? Oh, we’re filming in my room, I set up the camera and everything already.”

Steve nodded and followed him through. For Eddie’s video, they were filming something Eddie was actually excited about. Max had never really been into the idea of being on camera, but he’d always wanted to try filming a video drawing on someone’s back. Eddie’s channel was pretty wholesome, and that seemed like the nostalgic type of trigger his viewers might be into.

Eddie lead them into his room and motioned Steve to sit on the bed while he adjusted the camera once more. Steve got to work opening his bag and pulling out two lav mics, making Eddie stop for a second. That’s what he used in the last video, the one with the brush, the one that… he needed to stop thinking about it before he popped another boner over it. Correct. There were multiple.

“So like I was thinking maybe if I clip one of each to the inside collar of my shirt—“

“Oh! And then pan each one left and right in post to simulate the ears?”

Steve snapped his fingers. “Exactly! Then if you have another mic, or even just your headphones in the middle for like room tone to go underneath. What do you think.”

Pretty and smart, I think you’re the whole package.

“I think it’s pretty fucking genius dude. Can we test it first?”

The other man nodded, already threading the lavalier wires up his shirt. “Just let me clip them and then you can move em around if you think you need to.” He clipped the mics and turned his back to Eddie. Eddie placed the third mic and hit record. He approached Steve cautiously, rubbing his hands together around where Steve had placed the mics, making some soft noises with his mouth as he went.

“Man, those sounds are like, so relaxing.” Steve chuckled lowly, not quite whispering yet, but also not wanting to startle Eddie.

Eddie laughed. “I’d like to think I’m pretty good at this whole… being quiet and relaxing thing despite you know, who I am.”

“What do you mean despite who I am, Eddie you’re awesome.”

Eddie scoffed at that “I fucking know dude, I just meant… you know… I can be pretty loud and abrasive outside of filming.” He felt he had enough to go off of, so he stopped the test recording and brought it into his editing software, doing as Steve suggested, panning the audio to each ear, and popped his headphones on. He hit play and instantly his face lit up.

“Sound good?”

“Steve… this is amazing, totally brings it up a level. Thank you.” He dropped the files into a TEST bin, saved out the project, and set up for the real thing. “Okay, so I guess I’ll just do my normal intro, introduce you, and then get into it?”

Steve nodded in agreement and turned to face the camera for the intro. It was awkward doing multiple takes without having someone there to film for them, but Eddie was used to it, and eventually, they got there.

“Hey there my little rockstars, it’s me, Eddie Whispers, and today, I’m joined by a very special guest from a kingdom not so far away.”

Steve gave a little wave. “Hey dreamers, it’s your reigning monarch Steve from ASMR KING, and I’m excited to join you guys today.”

Eddie smiled at Steve, he seemed so comfortable on camera even though it was his first time filming for Eddie’s audience. He hoped he’d be as confident for Steve’s video. “As you may know, this is my first collab. Yay!” He waved his hands excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to do this trigger, but it requires a second person. So today, Steve is gonna be my canvas for a little game of back scratch Pictionary.”

“And maybe we can switch it up and I can play?”

Eddie looked at Steve surprised. “Y-yeah dude, for sure, we can cut this out in post, but I’d be down to switch it up near the end.”

“Cool.” They continued rolling as Steve got into place, his back to the camera so the audience could see what Eddie was drawing.

“Steve, may I touch you?”

The breath seemed to get caught in his throat, but he nodded. “Yes Eddie you may.”

Eddie huffed out a laugh and laid his palms on Steve’s back. He gently roved the expanse of it, brushing up and down with his palms to warm him up. “A little something to start us off with, get you nice and relaxed.”

Steve hummed gently, his head lolling to the side. “Dude, this is so nice.”

Eddie’s head slumped forward, almost breaking his character, but keeping it intact to nod. “Is this your first time doing ASMR with someone else too?”

“Mmhmm. Always loved having back rubs growing up, I wouldn’t fall asleep without one for a bit, so this is great.”

“Well Stevie, don’t fall asleep on me just yet, we’ve got a game to play.” Eddie pulled out a plastic chopstick and began to dot Steve’s back with it. “Gonna start drawing on you with my ‘pencil’, try to guess what it is.” He drew a circle right in the middle of Steve’s back with some wavy lines around it, and waited expectantly.

“Is it the sun?”

“Bingo! You’re good at this. Okay next one.” Eddie traced two lines down, and a fluffy feeling blob on top.

“Ummm… is it a thunder cloud?”

“Nope, guess again.”

“A tree?”

“There we go.”

Eddie continued on for another fifteen minutes tracing shapes and words on Steve’s back and making him guess them. In between these, he’d run his hands over his spine, scrape his fingers across his shoulder blades and zigzag back up, acknowledging it wasn’t to be guessed, just to be enjoyed. Steve hummed gratefully, his head starting to slump forward, and his breathing slowing down. “Hey Eds?” He drawled sleepily.

“Hm?”

“D’you wanna switch? I’m about to fall asleep over here.”

Eddie nodded. “Sure man. I’ll stop the camera and we can take a quick break?”

Once the camera stopped, Steve groaned lowly. “My god that felt incredible. I always forget how nice it is to actually feel someone doing that rather than just hearing it.” He swiped his hands over his face a few times and took a sip of water from the bottle beside Eddie’s bed. “OH, I’m so sorry dude, I didn’t even ask if you were okay with us going the other way before I suggested it. We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Eddie shook his head. “No no, it’s fine, that’s fine by me. Here, pass me the mics and I’ll let you fix them?”

They took a few minutes break and attached the mics to Eddie, and soon enough were filming again.

He could feel Steve’s hands lingering over his back, but Steve seemed to stop himself. “Eddie… can I touch you?”

Eddie nodded. Something about the way Steve said those words… Eddie could practically hear the wheels turning in Steve’s mind as his hands made contact with his back. Steve’s touch was gentle as predicted, but firm, and sure, and suddenly Eddie was terrified for what was in store for him when they filmed Steve’s video.

His hands glided over his back like Eddie’s did, but also up and over his shoulders, and again down his arms. This isn’t part of the game a small part of Eddie thought, but a larger part of him hummed in acknowledgment of how nice it felt to be touched like this. Steve repeated his path from the base of Eddie’s spine, up his back, over his shoulders, down his arms and back again a few times before stopping at the nape of his neck.

“Hey Eds,” he whispered in one ear before moving to the other, “I’m just gonna move your hair out of the way.”

Eddie shivered but nodded all the same, and felt Steve’s hands start near his crown and part the hair downwards down the back of his head. His fingers were dull, but the scratch itself was so nice, he let out a shuddering breath as Steve parted his unruly hair and swept it over his shoulders.

He never swore on his channel, so Eddie chose his words carefully. “Dang Stevie, that was nice.”

Steve chuckled lowly, picking up the chopstick and tapping his fingers on it a bit. “Yeah? Hmm I’ll have to remember that for when we film the next one.”

If Eddie thought he was screwed before, he knew he was screwed now.

🎤👑🎧

Steve knew he shouldn’t have, this wasn’t part of the plan for Eddie’s video, but he couldn’t resist getting his fingers in his hair, even for just a minute. It was calling to him, it was unruly and curly, but still so soft.

He picked up the little chopstick, remembering the task at hand, and started tracing words on Eddie’s back. Soft, tap, tingle, he guessed every one of them right, damn Eddie was good at this!

Eddie chuckled lowly, the vibrations of his laugh rumbled beneath Steve’s fingers as he swiped them over his back. “You’re right Stevie, this is really nice.”

Steve leaned in close to the mic near Eddie’s right ear, breathing lowly. “Does it give you tingles?”

He felt a shiver run down Eddie’s spine at that, and Eddie nodded in agreement.

Steve moved to the other ear, dragging his fingers down Eddie’s back again as he whispered a low, seductive, “Good.”

He could feel his King Steve persona coming out again. Steve had no idea what Eddie was doing to him, he wasn’t even on the receiving end this time, but having Eddie all soft and pliant before him made Steve want to take care of him, turn up his charm, make him squirm. But he decided now wasn’t the time and place, he’d save that for his own video.

His own video that he was now rethinking the theme of…

Steve chuckled and kept that thought in the back of his mind for later, forgetting for a minute that he was on camera. He traced a few more words on Eddie’s back before Eddie signalled to him that they should start to wrap it up.

“One more, okay Eds? I’ll spell it out for you.”

Steve moved himself closer to Eddie, using his fingers to trace the words this time instead of the chopstick. He leaned in so his breath could catch the mic, alternating with each word as he traced them on Eddie’s back.

“To… be… continued.”

Eddie laughed lowly, his breath getting caught in his throat from… nervousness? Did Eddie feel the same frenetic energy Steve did when he was close?

He ended his part of the video the same way he started it, sliding his hands up and over Eddie’s back and arms once more, dragging his fingertips and nails softly across his skin and feeling the goosebumps rise.

“Time for an outro?” Eddie whispered, even though he’d cut this bit out, but not wanting to break the sizzling tension.

“Mhm,” Steve hummed, pulling Eddie’s hair back over his shoulders. “Let’s un-mic you.”

The boys untangled the mics from under Eddie’s shirt and took one each, Eddie saying his sweet little goodbye to his viewers, and Steve smiling softly beside him. Eddie’s setup wasn’t anything crazy, so cleaning up and popping his memory card into the computer took no time at all; they sat in silence as Eddie offloaded the footage.

“Sound okay?”

Eddie nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah man, it sounds great. Thanks again for doing this, your channel is like… huge, I really appreciate the exposure.”

Steve chuckled. “I should be thanking you, you’re still like my favourite creator in the community, the fact that we’re collabing is like… crazy exciting.” A light blush coloured Steve’s cheeks. He stood and scratched the back of his neck, moving to leave. “So, uh, I’ve gotta get back, but meet me tomorrow at mine at say two?”

“Two works. Anything you want me to bring?”

“Just yourself. Oh, and maybe if you have any tank tops, one of those?”

Eddie let out a belly laugh, the loudest sound in the room in hours. “Right, I forgot your content is a little more… adult than mine.”

Steve shrugged. “I mean yeah, it is, but you’d also just look great in a tank, show off those arms.” He turned, leaving Eddie stunned. “One more thing actually, maybe I can take you out to dinner after?”

“D-dinner?”

“Yeah, to celebrate and all.”

The older man nodded, his dark curls flopping in front of his eyes, wide and alert. “Y-yeah, sure, dinner, cool. Two pm at yours?”

“Two pm at mine. See ya Eddie.”

Steve’s hands were clammy when he got to his car, but he did it, he successfully asked Eddie out. He was giddy the whole ride home, something Robin immediately noticed.

“What’s up with you dingus?”

“I’m taking Eddie on a date tomorrow.” He smiled, stealing a bite of the pasta she was cooking.

“You’re ridiculous, you know that? Trying to date the guy you listen to before falling asleep like every night? Are you doing this for your own personal ASMR machine?”

“Shit, he’s gonna be here tomorrow to film with me.”

“The studio is already clean—”

“Yeah but it’s not cozy. After dinner can you help me move around some furniture?”

Robin rolled her eyes but agreed all the same. “So what do you have in store for our poor unsuspecting Edward?”

He shrugged. “Nothing crazy, some pretty standard King Steve stuff.”

She laughed full and loud. “Oh so you’re gonna take him out before you even take him out then?”

Steve frowned, trying to look offended. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, I just don’t think Eddie is ready for the full force of your online persona.”

“No, I know he’s not ready, this is gonna make for some great content.”

Robin put down the wooden spoon she was holding and took Steve’s hands in hers, going serious for a moment. “Can you stop thinking about work for like a minute so I can ask you something, and can you answer me truthfully?”

That wiped the smile from Steve’s face; it went solemn as he answered. “Of course Robs.”

“You’ve been like obsessed with his videos for a really long time now. Eddie seems like a really nice guy, and I’d hate to… Steve… you didn’t just ask him out so you could get some good King Steve content, did you?”

“What? Robin, you know me, you know I’d never do that, right?”

“I know Steve, but ever since you met him… all you’ve been able to talk about or think about is this stupid video.”

“Robs… Robs no, I think I really like him. I mean, I’m attracted to him, I want him around, he makes me laugh. You weren’t there when we were filming today. The tension, it was…” Steve shook his head, unable to find the right word. “It was electric Robin. I didn’t want today to end, I wanted to keep touching him, I think I wanted to kiss him—”

“Alright loverboy that’s enough from you. I get it. You’re into Eddie. Just be careful, okay?”

“Yes mom.”

That night, the two of them switched up their studio space and replaced Steve’s desk chair with a comfy arm chair. Steve pre-set his camera and got his mics set up in preparation of the next day’s shoot.

He was excited, he was nervous, he was… interested to see how Eddie would react. Not that Steve had planned anything over the top for his video, but Eddie’s work was definitely a lot more conservative; he wondered if filming with Steve might be a shock to his system.

Steve was restless that night, anxious for their shoot, and their date to roll around. He spent the next morning showering and primping himself, he could honestly feel Robin getting tired of him asking if his outfit and his hair and his space looked okay for the shoot.

Two o’clock simultaneously rolled around way too fast and way too slow for Steve’s liking. He wrung his hands together nervously until he heard the doorbell, then he ran taking two steps at a time to catch Eddie before Robin did.

Steve was not emotionally prepared for what lie behind his front door.

Eddie’s curls were wild as always, but he’d tamed them in a way that made them look deliberately messy. His bangs, instead of falling directly into his eyes, were parted a bit in the middle, swooping gently off to each side of his face. His arms were pale, making the black ink of his tattoos stand out even more, and his shirt, Steve thanked the gods for his choice of shirt, his shirt looked like a homemade tank, the sleeves lobbed off and arm holes wide open. Steve gave Eddie a good once over before even saying anything to him, and felt his heart stutter in his chest as their eyes met. Eddie’s big brown gorgeous eyes were rimmed with a thin smattering of black eyeliner.

“Take a picture dude, it’ll last longer.” Eddie winked, and pushed past Steve into the house.

“H-hey man, you look… you look… yeah um that’s perfect.”

What a sight we’ll be. Steve thought. Eddie had never shown this much skin on his own channel, nor had he ever worn makeup. The pretty boy and the rocker was going to be Steve’s best video yet, but he’d really have to keep up with his act, and seeing Eddie standing in front of him, he knew that would be hard.

“Here, let me show you the studio.” Steve dragged him upstairs, bolting past Robin and setting Eddie up in the arm chair in front of the camera.

“So judging on the setup, this isn’t a role-play video?”

Steve shook his head. “Nah, I do it, but it’s not my favourite thing to film by far. It just feels awkward, even if people love it. I figured we’d do a little personal attention? Light touches, hair play, things like that if that’s okay?”

Eddie smiled. “If it’s gonna feel anything like it did yesterday, then I’m more than okay with that.” Steve grinned like the Cheshire Cat and plugged in his mics. “Dude your setup is insane.”

“Thanks man, I usually upgrade with every milestone I hit to keep it interesting. You okay with what I’ve got going on for today? Figured these might pick up some of the whispering, and then these the touches.”

He watched Eddie survey the setup, nodding in approval. “Horny, and smart. You’ve got a good handle on sound, no wonder you have so many subs.”

Steve shook his head, letting out a low chuckle as he turned on his ring light. “Shut up man I’m not that horny.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows but left it at that.

“So um, before we start, is there anything off limits? Like any hard no’s?”

The other man’s eyebrows shot up. Eddie scoffed. “What, like a yes/maybe/no list? Steve, we’re making an ASMR video, not porn.”

“Yeah, yeah I know, but some people don’t like certain triggers or whatever. Just making sure—”

“I’m game for it all, never met a personal attention trigger I didn’t like.”

Eddie’s words calmed Steve a touch. He angled the viewfinder towards him so he could check the framing of the front camera, and back camera, and finally hit record. Eddie jumped a little as he clapped his hands for the sync. “Just stop me if there’s anything you’re uncomfortable with, kay?”

Eddie nodded and kept his eyes on Steve as he found his place behind Eddie. “I trust you Steve.”

Steve touched Eddie’s shoulder in acknowledgement and cleared his throat, ready to begin.

“Hey Dreamers, welcome back to the Kingdom. Thanks for joining me again, I hope you’re having a wonderful morning, afternoon, or night.” Steve’s voice was low and sensual, speaking slowly into the mics by Eddie’s head. “We’ve got a very special guest with us today, would you like to introduce yourself?”

Eddie let out a short breath and smiled. He fluttered his fingers by the mics, rings scraping together softly. “Thanks Steve, I’m Eddie Whispers, but you can just call me Eddie. For all my little rockstars who are subscribed, thanks for joining me on Steve’s channel, and for all Steve’s little rockstars, it’s very, very nice to meet you.”

“So for all of you who didn’t know, Eddie Whispers is actually my favourite ASMR channel.” He pointed to the left. “You can find a link to his channel here, and the video we filmed yesterday here. You’ll love it my dreamers. I’ll also link him in the description because trust me, you’ll want to check him out. Now, onto the video. Remember kids, consent is sexy. Eddie, can I touch you?”

🎤🎸🎧

Eddie could feel his cheeks heating up, the implications of what they were talking about earlier mixed with Steve’s wording really had his mind running wild. He nodded, praying the camera wouldn’t pick up his blush.

“Use your words, sweetheart. Can I touch you?”

His breath caught in his throat. But he managed to choke out a soft “Yes Steve.”

“Good boy.” And then Steve’s hands were on him. He started at Eddie’s shoulders, gently dragging his fingers over the exposed skin there before trailing down his arms the way he had yesterday. It really was heavenly, Eddie was on cloud nine. “How’s that feel?”

Eddie nodded, his eyes falling shut as Steve picked up one of his hands. “Mmmm, really good.” Steve held one of Eddie’s hands, and gently ran his other fingers over the palm. He traced up and down Eddie’s fingers then flipped the hand to trace over the back of it. It was an odd feeling, but nice, strangely intimate having Steve hold his hand, touching it so softly. Steve dropped his hand back down to the armrest of the chair and trailed back up Eddie’s arms.

“Doing okay there, Eds?”

He nodded lazily. “Yeah, s’nice.”

“Good, great, perfect.” Steve whispered into the mics, alternating sides, eventually repeating ‘perfect’ while he stroked Eddie’s shoulders once more.

Eddie’s long curly locks brushed over Steve’s knuckles, and it didn’t take him long to start brushing through the ends of it, eventually working his way up to the scalp. Eddie shivered when Steve’s nails grazed his scalp, feeling like every nerve was a live wire, hell bent on electrocuting him. And then, as quickly as they were there, they were gone.

“Hey dude, how do you feel about the orgasmatron?”

Eddie’s eyes shot open as he choked out a nervous laugh. “The wh-what now?”

Steve shook his head. “Just close your eyes, I think you’ll like it.”

Eddie had to remember that this was going on youtube, it couldn’t actually be anything pornographic if Steve was going to monetize it. He didn’t even have time to think about what the orgasmatron could possibly be when he felt something touch his head, something that lit up every nerve ending in his scalp. He gasped, tingles trailing down his spine as he went rigid. His mouth dropped open, and he let out a soft whimper, letting his neck go lax.

“You okay man?”

“Y-yeah dude, holy shit. Holy shit that’s intense.”

“Too much? What’s your colour, baby?”

Eddie didn’t want to shake his head, worried the sensation of the whisk-like contraption in his hair would make him let out another string of embarrassing sounds. “No, nah, green, it’s perfect.”

He didn’t even think about how Steve asked him that, or how quickly he responded as if he were responding to a lover during sex. Eddie couldn’t see Steve, but he just knew Steve had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face behind him. The little wires scraped his scalp methodically as Steve pulled it through his hair, up and down, tiny sighs leaving Eddie’s lips as it went. His arms erupted in goosebumps, goosebumps that rose even higher as Steve’s fingers grazed over them slowly.

“Good boy. You’re so sensitive, aren’t you?”

“Uh-huh, it’s so good.”

He could feel Steve coming closer again, lips at his ear as he whispered. “Well can’t have too much of a good thing now, can we?”

Steve removed the wire contraption from Eddie’s hhairt awnd brushracing as Steve worked through his hair. The way his fingers gently brushthrough it gently again with his fingers, and eventually got a flat wooden brush out. He pulled it through the knots, Eddie not even phased as he was way past relaxed and practically goo in Steve’s capable hands. His scalp was still so sensitive, nerves firing on all cylinders after the wonder that was the orgasmatron. He was so incredibly relaxed, but his ear as he whispered. “Well can’t have too much of a good thing now, can we?”

“Hey Eds?”

“Hmm?”

Steve chuckled in his ear, apparently noticing the slight crack in Eddie’s voice. “Mind if I put your hair up for a bit?”

“Not at all, go ahead my liege.”

Eddie could practically feel Steve shaking his head at him as he gathered his hair into a neat bun at the top of his head. He smoothed the flyaways, eliciting shivers from Eddie, until his neck was bare. Steve kept running his fingers up the nape of Eddie’s neck into his hairline giving Eddie tingles like he’d never experienced in his life. The scraping of Steve’s fairly dull nails was glorious, making him finally understand the meaning of the phrase ‘hurts so good’.

“Look at that.” Steve whispered into the mic. “You’re all pretty and red for me baby.” The last line whispered directly into his ear. Eddie’s breath hitched, but Steve didn’t move away like he had before. Instead, he moved even closer, puckered lips a hair’s breadth away from Eddie’s ear, and let out a soft kiss.

Eddie bit his lip as Steve’s lips grazed his ear, dragging up the shell of it and making him burn hot and red.

“S-Steve…”

Steve’s chuckle was no more than a breath of air huffed between them through a smile. “Would you like me to keep going?”

“Please.”

🎤👑🎧

Having the go ahead from Eddie drove Steve wild. This time he didn’t hesitate, fully committing to kissing the shell of Eddie’s ear over and over.

Steve had never filmed anything like this. Most of his videos were totally scripted, each minute carefully crafted to toe the line between sweet and seductive; but now he knew that had been thrown out the door as he jumped off the cliff right into sensual territory with his guest. This wasn’t planned, he swears all he had planned for this video was actually just personal attention, but all bets were off the second Eddie started straight up whimpering minutes earlier. He had no idea how this would affect either of them, and over.

He was running on pure instinct now, kissing down the shell of Eddie’s ear to his lobe, pulling that between his lips. Steve’s tongue joined the mix, flicking over his earlobe once, and tracing a slick path down his neck. Eddie seemed to love that; his jaw went slack and he let out a breathy “Mmm f-fuck” when Steve bit down ct either of them, and over.

Eddie’s voice was something straight out of a wet dream. He was so responsive, so pliant in Steve’s hands, tilting his neck to give Steve better access to kiss up his neck back to his ears. He moved to Eddie’s other side doing the same thing, lightly kissing down his ears, pulling his earlobe between his lips and sucking, licking down his neck, biting his shoulder, and back again, this time stopping at his earlobe. Steve pulled skin between his teeth, scraping at it lightly as he tugged and let it go, turning his attention back to his neck. He found a spot that made Eddie whimper again and went at it full force. “S-shit Steve, your mouth…”

“Yeah sweetheart? Feel good?”

“Uh huh…”

Steve pulled back a foot, turning Eddie’s face towards his. The spot he’d been working at was now blooming purple and red, a bruise forming, something he’d not planned on doing.

“Shit, Eddie, your neck—”

“Steve—”

“—I’m sorry, I never meant to—”

“Steve—”

“—I feel like I’ve—”

“Steve! Please… don’t make me beg for it.”

Eddie’s face was beet red, but his eyes were unwavering when they met Steve’s again. A flutter ran through his belly, propelling him forward, as his lips finally met Eddie’s in a heated kiss.

He couldn’t help but feel that everything was leading up to this. His crush on Eddie now felt like an intense burn as their lips parted only to meet again immediately. The soft drag of Eddie’s tongue against Steve’s drew sounds from him he hadn’t made in ages, making him feel things beyond what he’d ever felt with another person. Eddie felt good, Eddie felt right, and he didn’t want this to end. But all good things come to an end eventually.

Neither of them heard the near silent click of the door opening, nor did they hear Robin’s gentle “Hey dingus…” but they did her her loud “oh for fuck’s sake!”

The two pulled away, totally unable to hide what was just happening.

“Shit, Robbie, what the hell!”

“Are you two idiots still filming this? What kind of video are you making?”

Eddie bit his lip, holding the giggle threatening to bubble over while Steve rolled his eyes.

“I think this may be my fault…” Eddie started.

“No, this is totally his fault,” she pointed at Steve, “happy for you, but this horny asshole has been waiting to get his hands on you—”

“Robin!”

Eddie’s head whipped around to look at Steve. “Wait, really?”

“Well, yeah Eddie. I told you I liked you—”

“You told me you liked my videos.”

Steve’s shoulders dropped. “Yeah I like those too, but you… is that okay?”

“Is that okay, oh my god Steve that’s more than okay. I’m like stupidly into you and very har—”

“THAT’S MY CUE TO LEAVE.” Robin stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

Steve let out a full belly laugh and sat on the arm of the chair Eddie was occupying. “You were gonna say very hard, right? Or did I just mishear that?”

“Are you gonna make me say it?”

He cocked his eyebrow and shimmied his shoulders. “Do I make ya horny, baby?”

Eddie collapsed back into the chair, pushing himself as low as he could go without falling off. “That was a horrible Austin Powers impression. I can’t believe you gave me a boner on fucking camera.”

Steve bent down and left a wet smack of a kiss on Eddie’s cheek. “Don't worry babe, your secret is safe with me. But um… yeah… this is still recording.”

“Fuck, I’m so sorry Steve, we’ll have to re-film—“

“Why?”

Eddie blinked up at him. “Because… because we can’t put that on youtube…”

“Yeah we can… there’s this wonderful little thing called editing, ever heard of it?”

“So… so you’re okay with everything else then, like everything before the kiss?”

Steve shrugged. “You’ve seen my content, there’s worse out there. I’m fine if you’re fine with it, and we can set it to 18+ if it’s too much. But if you’re not—”

“Stevie… as long as you cut out the kiss, I’m fine with it. But that… I want that to be ours.”

He smiled at Eddie and took his hand, brushing the knuckle with his thumb. “Of course sweetheart; I know Robbie kind of ruined it, but that kiss will always just be for us.”

Steve noticed the glint in Eddie’s eyes as the older man found is confidence and kissed Steve once more. “How the hell am I supposed to keep my hands off you long enough to finish this video?”

He smirked. “I mean, I don’t have cuffs, but I’ve got ties if we really wanna go there—”

“You’re killing me man!” Eddie flopped back in the chair once again. “Focus Stevie, finish the video so I can finally touch you.”

“Okay, okay, okay, right. I-I can put a cross dissolve in there somewhere. Ear eating and kisses aren’t a weird trigger, people do it all the time, we can just… pick it up somewhere?”

“Yeah… yeah okay… okay cool that’s good.”

Steve nodded and looked into the camera awkwardly, unable to hide his blush. “Uh… take two I guess?”

He moved back behind Eddie and pressed his lips to the faint purple spot, leaving himself enough time for the fade before trailing back up his neck with kisses. Once again, he nibbled at Eddie’s ear while his fingers trailed over his jaw and collarbone, tracing the bone beneath his skin.

“How’re you feeling, nice and relaxed now?”

“Y-yeah, s’nice Stevie.” Eddie sounded blissed out, but Steve knew that was partially an act to match the energy of where they were before the kiss.

“Good job baby. Gonna say goodbye to all our friends now?”

He nodded, a sleepy smile on his lips as he waved into the camera.

Steve chuckled. “I think we wore down our new friend here.”

🎤🎸🎧

Eddie could barely hear Steve do his outro. The blood in his veins swooshing in his ears was the only thing he heard, his heart beating erratically the only thing he felt. That had really just happened. Not only did Steve have Eddie hard in his jeans from being an absolute tease and seductress on camera, but he made Eddie put his heart on the line, and even more shockingly, reciprocated his feelings.

“Eds, you okay baby?”

Eddie shook his head, pulling himself out of his thoughts long enough to glance at Steve stopping the recording. “Yeah, yeah, it’s just been quite the afternoon.”

Steve chuckled and bent down to peck Eddie on the lips. “I meant what I said, okay? I like you, when I take you for dinner later, I want it to be a date.”

“I meant what I said too, I’m stupidly into you, and incredibly hard so we may want to wait a bit while I think of naked grandmas or something before we leave this house—”

“Eddie—”

He let out a snort. “I’m kidding. Well I’m not really, I do actually have a problem below deck, but I like you too, okay? And I’d be thrilled to date you, like properly with all the wooing and shit.”

“What, you weren’t wooed enough when I spent twenty minutes sucking on your ears?”

Eddie laughed a big belly laugh, slumping over in his seat, tears coming to his eyes. “Hot, talented, and funny, how the hell did I land you again?”

“Beats me, you put me to sleep every time you speak.”

He kissed Steve slowly, savouring the taste of him on his lips. “Oh but you love it baby, don’t you?”

Steve smiled. “Yeah, yeah I do.”

🎤👑🎸🎧

The videos were an instant hit. Both go viral in the ASMR community hitting a million views in under a week, the fastest any of Steve’s videos had hit a million views. Eddie was overwhelmed by how much love they’d been getting on both their channels (and was a little more than overwhelmed by how much love he was getting specifically on Steve’s video).

Steve considered it an accomplishment how many hateful comments he’d gotten about how sexual his video was. He labelled it for possible mature content, even adding ✨spicy✨and 18+ to the title, but people always wanted to be mad about something.

“Hey Stevie…” Eddie started. They’d been dating now for four months, continuing to do their channels solo, but each making guest appearances in the other’s video every once and a while. “What do you think about maybe doing a joined channel? So we can do our collabs there and not have to worry about always filming a video for each of our channels?”

Steve cocked his head. “I think that’s a great idea. Three channels between the two of us to keep it simple? Then we can have our own guests and do our own things separately too. Eddie that’s brilliant.”

Eddie was glad Steve was receptive to the idea, but he looked like he had something else on his mind. His gaze was faraway, and he looked… nervous.

“Actually Eddie, this works out perfectly. For me anyways… I was gonna ask… I mean you don’t have to, I know you’re totally happy and free where you are now, but…” He pushed his hair back out of his eyes.

“Stevie, what is it?”

“I know it’s early, but I was gonna ask if you wanted to move in with me.”

He raised his eyebrows in shock. That was the last thing he thought Steve would want to ask him. He was right, it was early in their relationship, but Eddie knew he felt forever about Steve, he knew it from the moment they’d made eye contact months ago by the front door.

“Really? You… you’d want me here with you?”

“Of course baby. I love you, I always want you around.”

Eddie jumped into Steve’s lap, wrapping his arms around his neck, and he kissed him soundly.

“I-is that a yes?”

Rolling his eyes, Eddie shoved Steve lightly and smiled. “Of course you idiot, I love you too, and I’d love to move in with you.”

Steve’s eyes lit up at his boyfriend’s response. The kiss he planted on Eddie was more on his teeth than his lips because of how widely he’d been smiling. But still, it was perfect.

In his wildest dreams, he could have never imagined he’d actually meet one of his favourite people. He’d never believed in soulmates, but Steve knew that if they existed, Eddie was his. His life had completely changed in the months he’d known Eddie, and Steve never wanted to look back at what it was like before. Eddie was his; his partner in creating, partner in crime, partner in life, he was ready for Eddie to be there by his side every second of the day for the rest of their lives.

#steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things fic #steddie fic #asmr AU #my writing

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ghosts-and-blue-sweaters · 8 months

Note

In regards to the seven sentence tag game:

Let's see if I can manage this without going off into the entire plot of Gears of War and a comprehensive guide to the history, science, culture, society, and economic structure of the world of Sera. Or worse, start ranting about the themes of the story. 😅

So within the world of Gears there's a superweapon called the Hammer of Dawn. It's made up of a network of satellites that can rain down firey hell in concentrated bursts. It's a constant presence within the games, books, and comics and helps showcase the gray areas of humanity in a horrific but necessary way. Basically, big scary laser weapon from space. Not to be used lightly.

One of the bigger plot devices in Gears of War 5 is that they're trying to get the HoD back online. Most of the satellites have been lost, destroyed, or knocked offline and unreachable after the near apocalypse the world of Sera endured. The first mission in the game is to find and launch a working satellite. Unfortunately, one satellite is difficult to aim and doesn't cover a large surface area of the planet. One of the next missions you play is an evacuation of a COG settlement. Obviously things go wrong, things are looking bad and my poor sweet darling JD (James) fueled by guilt, pride, and fear decides to use himself as a targeting beacon for the HoD. It works until the satellite goes haywire and Baird no longer has control over it. And then everything goes to ratshit. JD gets hit with a blast that basically cooks him. He ends up severely wounded and in a coma for a while.

Now that you've got some knowledge to go off of this piece is a little bit of introspection on the relationship between JD and his father, Marcus. I'm kind of going for a "these are the times he remembers holding his son" thing. The first being only a few hours after JD is born. The next time being on JD's sixth birthday, only a short time before his mother's death, an event that drives a huge wedge between Marcus and JD. And the last being this moment when he has to drag his dying child to CASEVAC. I'm wanting to explore Marcus's guilt in not being there for his son and how he feels powerless as his little boy lies dying at his feet. One of Marcus's biggest issues throughout the entire series is his messiah complex. He believes it's his job to shoulder pain and suffering for everyone else. For him to be unable to do that for his own son has to feel like a major failure on his part. We don't really get a whole lot of this from Marcus's point of view within the game or the accompanying book. That's all mostly explored from Kait's perspective which is important and great, but poisonous relationships between parent and child are very important to me and I like to explore them in all their multifaceted detail.

So what did JD do? He lied. He put people that depended on him in danger. And he knowingly killed innocents. Eventually, his hubris caught up with him. And now his father has to face his own as they race for the chance to save JD's dwindling life.

And oops I rambled in your ask box. 🤦 Sorry.

Me when I try to explain Ghostbur or Wilbur or Tommy or anything related to Dream SMP to someone who’s not in the fandom XD I usually end up going into a whole lotta detail lol—probably much more detail than is truly needed.

But it’s fun, so :D

Big scary laser weapon from space, gotcha!

NOOOOOOO JD *carefully covers him with a soft blanket and pats his head*

Ough… oh Deathy. One of my favorite things to read about is complicated relationships between family members. Oh gosh. Oh this fic sounds amazing oh my goodness. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

YEAHHHHHH FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE MESSY YES YES!!! I LOVE!!! OH MY GOSH YES!!!

You absolutely don’t have to apologize, my friend! Reading rambles is one of my favorite things to do :D And this story sounds sooooo good oh my gosh-

Now I’m curious: what do JD and Marcus act like? What are their personalities? Now that I know the backstory I’m very curious about other aspects of them :0

#thank you so much for the wonderful explanation!!#deathy tag #ask #tw language

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covenofwives · 1 year

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I couldn't be online today cuz of work :(((( soooooo before i go to bed it's time for another round ooooof: random questions that are too small for their own ask but are very interesting and may be fun to answerrrr!!!!

Are there any instruments any of the gods can play? I vaguely feel this has been answered before so I may be an idiot asjdfhlkahfjd

can the gods get sick? if so how different is it from mortals/humans?

do tickle potions exist in your canon or was that just a cute little one off fic aksdfjl

What are all the different species seen in the dsmp in this universe? Like is Ranboo still half enderman, Philza is a bird, ect ect. Basically is it normal to have many different species or is that also a strange "anomaly " happening?

many people have a hc that in the dsmp, the characters have little communicators which is what the canon minecraft chat is. do you have anything specific to your au similar to that?

XD can fly im pretty sure? does he have wings like in his canon statue or does he just fly regardless

when XD used healing magic on Tommy, was it the magic itself that tickled, or just the fact that they were applying pressure there?

(i got carried away in this. no pressure to get this out super fast adlskfhlakfj, and if you have to cut any questions that's totally fine)

-emmadoodlewrites

Emmaaaaaaa I'm so sorryyyyy tumblr was hiding my asks from me and I didn't see this. I'm so sorry it's late ;-;

Thank you for the questions and for your patience. I'd give you a small forehead kiss if you'd accept

HD can play the guitar. 4K and XD don't know how to play instruments but XD has shown interest in learning something. With his many hands and arms I think he could pick it up quite easily

I'd say they probably couldn't get sick to mortal diseases but there are probably celestial flus haha. Something along that line that he could get sick in their own Godly way. But that's only because I love the idea that one of the God Siblings gets sick and their brother takes care of them. Maybe all three of them get sick and they're coddled by the Dream Team.

Tickle potions absolutely exist in canon hehe. I'd love to explore it more. Like a splash tickle potion vs a drinking one.

I'd say they're all the same. In the AU there are hybrids and different species mingling and mixing so it's fairly common or at least normal. I'd say it's probably the Overworld with the most mix of hybrids and other species just because it's so vast. The Nether and the End being more closed off probably doesn't have as much. Ranboo is still half enderman, half something. Phil and Wilbur are avians. Quackity is part avian. Techno part piglin. It's a melting pot of species.

I don't but I really really want to. Because I think chat messages can be so good for the lore side of things. Like when Tommy's death was shown in chat so the others reacted. I'd love for something like that in the AU. Maybe I'll think more on it. Your question has inspired me.

XD can fly but he has no wings. I guess he's working on superman rules except he doesn't need the sun to power him. I think if he were to have wings they might be more futuristic/celestial in this au.

The magic tickled. I like to think the magic makes the skin tingle as an after effect of taking the pain away. Sort of like soft fizzing.

Thank you for all these and sorry again I didn't see them. I loved these questions.

#godsiblingau #emmadoodlewrites

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votederpycausemufins · 2 years

Text

Chapter of SF2 and a slight tribute

I was nearly done with my chapter when the news hit. In my years of playing minecraft, and following it and the content creators online, I never really knew of Technoblade. I started with some of the og youtubers, into Mindcrack and related series, then finding Hermitcraft. When the datapack came out for getting a random item every minute or so, I wanted to see various people using it because of adhd brain hyperfocusing. That was when I found Wilbur. A little after was SMP Earth and because of my recent interest in Wilbur, I saw some sort of video or stream or something about it, and looked into it more. And that was the first time I knew of Technoblade. I didn’t really keep up with it much because my hyper focus doesn’t do streams well, but I knew of Technoblade. After that, it was the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. I saw some of his videos get recommended, heard other people talk about him, saw he was in MCM, and other stuff. I didn’t really watch much of it, just was aware.

At one point, a friend of mine invited me to a discord group, and from there a small private minecraft server. This was around the time the DSMP had been going for a few months, I think around the time of Tommy’s exile, I want to say. The friend who invited me to the server was really into it, but I was still in my happy Hermitcraft bubble, and again, I don’t do watching streams all too well and that’s what the DSMP was, lots of streams. But I got a summary of some things and then was recommended a small fic on tumblr by PetrichorMeraki. After reading a bit, I had my own idea for a short fic, and I did a bit of research before writing a short fic of Tommy having been living in Hermitcraft going to MCC.

I wrote a few more short fics before starting War on Hermittown. I blazed through that thing, writing I believe 25 chapters in 19 days. I wrote fast of course, but I also did research. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to learn of Technoblade’s character, and really learning about him and not just knowing the name itself. Of course then I looked back at other stuff like SMP Earth and a few other things because of Strawberrylemonz’s fic, having Grian related to SBI.

Eventually MCC Pride 2021 happened, and for the first time I really watched something of Techno’s. Mainly because of Grian, but still. At the time I didn’t really try looking at other videos because I was dealing with a lot, but it was the big first time I saw/watched Techno and not just his character. And I can see why so many people watched him and found community in his videos.

So when the news hit, I still cried at the video, I still wanted it to be a joke or something. I’m sure if it were a joke, people would be upset for the fakeout, but I still think it would still be nice because then it wasn’t real. And I’m someone who barely watched his videos and only knew him through clips and characters and the like. I’m sure for so many people who were more directly part of his content and community, it hit harder.

I will admit, some of this story later on was going to touch on death in terms of how it works in the MC universe. I was planning to have an offhanded conversation about it in a later chapter. It was still going to involve the group going through the nightmare scenarios, though I wasn’t sure who exactly would talk about it other than Phil being the one to explain. Then the news hit.

A scene I had half planned for a while suddenly seemed much more pertinent in a sense. I’m not sure how everyone will react, but I felt it was good for some sort of tribute, especially when Techno himself was thinking about memeing his own death. Technoblade as a person may be gone physically, but as people have said, he never dies in our hearts or our souls. And there’s the fact that he wasn’t just a person, but also played a character or two, and us writers love to write au’s where a character didn’t actually die.

“You’re very pretty. Yes, a very pretty chicken. So can you please get the tree for me?” The chicken didn’t answer, instead just pecking at the ground. “Pleaaaaase? It would really help me, and I’m helping out your boss.”

The chicken looked up at the person who was asking them the question. They had a smile on their face as they looked expectantly. When the chicken kept staring, the person tilted their head to the side, letting their ears flop over which caught the bird’s eyes. The person blinked and suddenly the chicken had attached itself to one of their ears, biting down onto it with its beak. “Oww! That’s not nice! Why do you always do this? You don’t even do it to actual rabbits!”

The person finally pried the chicken from their ear when both of them looked up at the sound of a twig snapping. “Hello? Who’s there?”

“You answer first.” And both the person and the chicken found themselves looking at a half dark teal and half pink person.

“Oh! I guess that makes sense! I’m-” And then the chicken clucked and grabbed onto their ear again. “Ow! I said no biting!!! Let go!”

“Oh… Aven. Finally left the castle?”

“Hmm? Castle? Oh! Yeah I was asked to come here and I was supposed to be doing something. But I can’t remember exactly what- Oh yeah! I need to find… Spore! Yeah that was the name they gave. I just got a little distracted with… With Grifter… Uh, anyway! I’m having trouble with the trees, could you maybe help?”

Silski huffed. “Ghosts… typical. Sure, Toob’s parents are visiting and they’re not the biggest fans of me. Was just going to wander around, but at least this gives me something to do.” A sudden thank you had the hybrid jumping before sending out a stream of curses. “Well if you really want to thank me, stay in one fucking place.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I can’t see what’s not really there!” And Silski waved an arm around, it passing through the ghost a few times in its blind movements. “No matter means no sound interaction. No sound interaction means I rely on my nose and you don’t have a smell either. See, if I were a full blown Warden hybrid, then I could. Could even freak Sense out.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s some ‘ender hybrid’. Smells like death to me. He doesn’t seem to like me either.”

“Oh, him?” The ghost replied, patting the chicken again. “Well that’s why I’m hoping to talk with Spore, see, my boss is not happy with him since he’s going to have one of those complicated deaths. I mean, that’s half the reason he’s still around. Well, that and the magic that keeps being used on him.”

“Grifter no do- wait, dead? Like, dead dead? No respawning?”

“Yeah? He uses redstone a lot, right? I’ve seen a lot of people get reaped for that. Wait if he’s not the reaper does it still get called that…?”

“Uh… not sure what you mean, but thank you for the tip.” Silski smiled. “Here’s your wood or whatever. I’ve got to go mining for a ‘peace offering’.”

“Oh! Okay!” and the ghost waved before trying to pick up the logs. “Hmm… I didn’t think that through.”

But then the chicken picked up the wood and clucked at the ghost, making them smile. “Right! First to find Spore, then, Gree-on!” and they started off on their own path, rabbit ears bouncing as they went along.

“Alright, I know it’s sort of obvious that this is for Doc based on the fact he’s not here.” Phil spoke up, making the two hermits and Paul look around to see that was the case. “But you didn’t notice that before knowing that was the case. What’s going on?”

“The vines make it a bit obvious.” Mumbo answered for him and Xisuma. “We know enough about them. Not sure why he knows though.”

Paul started his answer by gesturing to the area around them. “While yeah, the vines are a big clue, the buildings are more so. That one over there is The Elusive Chicken, Beef’s bar and inn, and then that is Adlingtont’s church. It’s the Mindcrack world Doc and I were first in. The vines everywhere just make it more obvious it’s Doc.”

“Because of The Jungle.” Xisuma nodded, and then Paul agreed.

“Yeah, because of the jungle.”

While the others got ready to start moving, Grum just tilted his head. “Wait what?”

“Well you weren’t built when-” Mumbo started to explain, but Grum shook his head.

“No, they said different things.” And he pointed at Xisuma and Paul.

“We both said the jungle.” Paul said, a little confused.

“No no no. You said ‘thuh’ and Xisuma said ‘thee’. Maybe it could just be standard inflection, but Xisuma normally says ‘thuh’ too, and the only reason for differently is if he’s using it as a more proper noun version!”

“Did you understand any of that?” Phil asked, looking at Techno, who shrugged. He actually did, but also wasn’t going to interrupt Grum and the others any further.

“If we’re thinking about two different jungles, things might turn into a mess from getting our wires crossed. We’ve already been here too long dealing with all of us.” And he gestured to the group. “Well, most of us.”

“I’m not fully convinced the previous one wasn’t also about me.” Xisuma commented, trying not to give a reaction as his brother scoffed.

“And we’re not going to have to deal with me. This is all about fear, and fear is just an involuntary psychological reflex that clouds your better judgment.”

“You’re ignoring the ‘involuntary’ part of whatever phrase you’re quoting.” Paul spoke up. “We’re trying to get into a world that already had admin protection, and now you’ve got a magic user as admin. And it sounds like they’re pretty experienced. They’ll find something on you.”

“I already know what I’m going to see.” Wilbur spoke up, surprising everyone to look over to him. He had been quiet for a while, obviously still recovering from shifting back and forth from the exile replication and where the group had been. It had stopped once Xisuma had arrived on the island, but even with the time, it had still been taking a toll. “Having to wait for it isn’t helping. I guess you’re different.”

Xannes just stared at Wilbur for a few moments before turning back to Paul. “Fine, two different jungles. Which are you talking about?”

“Doc’s jungle. He set up his base in a jungle, made a treehouse to live in. I think he got out all the woodpeckers Bdubs left there. What about the one you guys are talking about?”

“The NHO jungle.” Mumbo spoke up. “Just called The Jungle now because talking about the NHO connected to it is… a sore subject. Doc, Etho, Beef and Bdubs started up the group and claimed a jungle as well as a nearby mesa. They wanted to go back to the more classic ways, like no fishing farms or messing with reality. I mean, they did it anyway here and there. They acted as sort of villains of the server as a joke. Tried framing an opposing group for plastering banners all over my base. Stuff like that.”

“Alright, so what happened?” Paul asked, Phil, Techno and Wilbur also looking curious from being unfamiliar with it. Tommy was also interested, only knowing bits and pieces from other hermits, Grum being in the same boat.

“First thing that happened was vines growing on Bdubs. We thought he was just putting them on himself as camouflage or something, but Doc later told us they were just growing. After that, Etho had been seen working on a redstone project before disappearing. His disappearance led to a conflict about the mesa which nearly boiled over before thankfully calming and things started to get peaceful, but then the rest of them started disappearing. Bdubs seemed really off before he disappeared, followed by Doc. Beef was around the longest before he also disappeared.”

“Obviously they came back. I saw all of them other than Beef when I showed up for the party.” Paul commented before Xisuma picked up the conversation.

“They all reappeared for a competition called Hardcore Hermits. Because of how it was set up, all I knew was they did show up, and then eliminated night three due to phantoms. Bdubs and Doc showed back up when season 6 began, brought from worlds they found themselves in afterwards, but a large amount of their memories surrounding the jungle were… fuzzy to say the least. I wasn’t able to do anything to help them regain their memories, but was able to verify that it really was them.”

“And that’s all?”

“Well, any talks about it leaves them feeling a bit off again.” Mumbo spoke up again. “Bdubs most of all. Doc normally tries to brush it off and act like he’s fine, but with all this…?” And Mumbo gestured to everything around them as he trailed off.

“Alright, so Doc has trauma from a cursed jungle that he set up in with people he knew from a place where he was also in a jungle, did I get that about right?” Phil asked, getting a few nods. “So which way is the jungle here?”

Paul gestured in a direction and started to lead them down the paths, quickly getting them to a portal. Even with the situation, the group was still about to take a moment to admire the nether hub. Resources back in the early days of Mindcrack weren’t the most plentiful, that was well known, but the mix of sandstone and nether brick was pulled off well, even with the various colors marking the different rail lines breaking up patterns.

He led them over to a rail line marked with purple wool. A sign listed it as going towards Doc’s base as well as Joe. They scavenged a bit for minecarts as well as Paul grabbing an extra one, a furnace, and some coal. Sure, the rail was powered so they didn’t need to use it to get them going, but it would make sure they were all going at the same time so nothing unexpected could split them up. The only exception was Paul. He knew the rails best, so he would be able to spot and issue, and if he needed an extra few seconds to fix it before the other carts got there, it would help with that.

Once the carts started going, Paul explained just how long the trip was going to take. There were a few complaints, mainly from those used to flight in some form. But after that settled down, conversation started up, being the only good way to bide the time until something interesting happened.

Vee was at a table, kicking her legs, not really paying attention to the reason she was currently at said table, that being the conglomerate of hermits also in the room and around the table. The only ones not at the table with the rest of them were Scar, Cub and Hoodie. All three of them were carefully working together to constantly cast an illusion based spell.

Vee had showed up a few days ago at this point, and while the hermits wanted to interrogate them earlier, the incident at Mumbo’s base with them and Rendog had caused issues. The human passing and shifters of the group were able to be around her easily enough, but not everyone had that luxury. So Hoodie had brought up an illusion spell from one of his books. He wasn’t sure if he could keep the spell up for as long as it was needed based on the exact circumstances - a large group of people that would always be shifting around no matter how still they may try to stay - but if other magic users helped, between any number of them they would be able to keep it constant.

After what happened with Grian, while Grifter was involved, the hermits still came to the conclusion that at the very least something happened from the mixing and colliding magics. Not wanting to risk a new side effect, the Convex pair and Hoodie made sure to practice privately. While that occurred, the only hermits worked on discussing how they would go about questioning Vee. Though she was a Listener and had already mentioned a more direct connection to Grifter, she was still obviously a child. In the end, they decided that for the most part, only one hermit should ask a majority of the questions to keep from overloading her as well as keep from talking over each other. After that it was deciding who. Since they were going to be moving more and that was the issue with the illusion, it was narrowed to non hybrids, and then further narrowed by who were emergency admin.

In the end, Joe was picked for following the prior guidelines as well as his generally softer voice as well as having some more recent experience with kids through his daughter. Well, that and he was the oldest person there, being a sort of immortal being and having the most experience, but it was mostly the other stuff. So when it was all set up, he was sitting closest to the head of the table where Vee was, Jrum sitting in the other closest seat across from him, mostly at Vee’s insistence.

“Howdy there. I’m Joe Hills. Hope this isn’t too overwhelming for ya.”

Vee shook her head before adjusting some headphones she was wearing. Joe had a little knowledge of Listeners, a little less than Watchers, but it was enough to know that they had ear coverings to mirror the masks Watchers wore. They, however, were not what Vee was wearing. Instead the item looked worn, yet well taken care of. Obviously an important item to the girl, which meant a way for Joe to ease into the conversation. “Those headphones helpin’ out?”

“Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah. My papa gave them to me. He thought they were good at blocking stuff out if things got too… bleh.” And she waved her hands around to represent ‘sensory overload’ clear enough for Joe. “So he got some for me because it could help it for me too! And then he also got some for my sister, but she doesn’t use them as much.”

Another opening for Joe. “Yeah, I heard she helped out when you had a run in with a scary animal earlier.” He could tell there was a little wince from Ren, but he could also tell he knew Joe didn’t mean it like that.

“Yeah! Astrid’s the best! I was really really really happy when Papa adopted her so then I had a bigger sister and she didn’t like me at first because I think she still was angry at her brother but Papa was really nice and even offered to adopt Flora too but Flora likes her family so that was a no. Oh yeah, Flora is Astrid’s girlfriend! I don’t get to see her much, well I only got to see her once, but she’s really really nice. And now Astrid’s visiting her for our break because it’s been a year since dad started helping us as listen things and I know Astrid really really really wants a break because she was stuck doing double the work and then it all went bleh because Grifter didn’t know what she was doing and messed it all up.”

The last part collectively caught everyone’s attention, all three magic users needing to work to keep everyone disguised as they all seemed to sit up a bit more in their seats. “So you know Grifter as well? What exactly did he do?”

“Yeah he’s kinda sort of my uncle, but that’s ‘cause he’s friends with my papa.” A few small winces occurred from the hermits, but that was already something a number of them knew from Jrum. “But also since he’s Flora’s uncle.” And that part got more reactions out of people, half from the news of the greater connection in general, and half running through Grian’s family tree to figure out whose hels Flora was. “Well Astrid’s brother-” Another bout of people trying to figure out who Astrid and her brother were. “-was really mean and hurt Flora and her family, so Astrid was gonna use magic to fix it, but because she was only just learning it, she had to use an older weaker spell to fix it, but she didn’t get to finish it in time when Grifter did his version and so Astrid couldn’t finish the spell and it kinda backfired.”

“Olortun.” Hoodie spoke up, having everyone look at him. “Old spell, famous for a tale it was told in. It can take months or even years to cast due to the physicality of the spell and number of recipients. Caster needs to take a vow of silence and if the spell is left incomplete, it backfires and curses the caster with the ailment they were attempting to cure.”

Someone was about to scold Hoodie for speaking out of turn, but Vee didn’t seem bothered and took control of the conversation again. “Yeah but I don’t know if she’s still doin’ the spell or not because the thing she was trying to get rid of was the fact that the bad thing was Flora and her family couldn’t talk or anything.”

Hoodie nodded, not talking this time, which allowed Joe to get them back on topic. “But you said Grifter messed with that?”

“Oh, well he really likes Flora because she’s his niece and he likes to spoil her a little bit so when he became admin of her server super recently, he fixed it. Of course that meant Astrid couldn’t complete the spell, so she’s staying quiet… but we work through it!”

“I see. So Grifter is the admin of… Flora’s server?”

“Yeah, but I mean it’s also kinda Astrid’s server. I mean, Papa made it so now she belongs to the world he’s in when not doing listen things, but she still thinks of it as hers since she grew up there and everything. Which I think is stupid because then that could make mom’s world my world and I never want to go there again. Never ever ever ever.”

“Right, so I’m guessing that both of them are with him right now?”

“I mean maybe? But I thought he was supposed to be here.” And that caught the attention of the hermits again.

“Oh? And now why’s that?” Joe asked, words potentially rushing out a little bit to keep the other hermits from speaking first, and while it stopped them, Vee could tell something was up and fidgeted in her seat a bit before replying.

“W-well, there was the mistake with Grian getting all magicked to forgetting stuff, and it was enough that none of you were helping and he wasn’t believing you, but Grifter was visiting and since he’s sorta like him but not, he was believing better and then Papa helped get paper proof and Grifter’s been using it.” Then Vee hesitated, looking around at the group who didn’t look happy with the answer. “R-right?”

“That’s… not exactly the case.”

“Okay well I know Papa said you wanted him to come, but no one but me ‘n Grifter can get in since he was here in the first place and I’m still considered in training, so then it’s not the only reason for him being the one helping?” Vee said, though in the end it was more of a question than a statement.

“No. While the magic part’s all correct, and potentially no one being able to get in since I’m sure someone else would have intervened at this point if that weren’t the case, Grifter took Grian away after the magic incident and hasn’t been back.”

“But… But Grifter said he was helping. H-He did…”

“Now I’m sure he did, but he might have been lying.”

“But why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a piece of shit.” Jrum was the one to speak up, though he was quickly scolded by a few hermits. Still, it didn’t end well with Vee reaching her emotional breaking point from the statement and starting to cry, now overwhelmed. Joe kept the others back as he moved closer to Vee, also moving back a few seconds later once he confirmed she needed space and not someone by her side.

Once Vee had calmed enough that someone could get close again, Stress carefully picked her up and left, her magic still being available for assistance to help the two of them get around with the others keeping up the illusion until Vee was completely out of sight just to be safe. After that, Scar followed after Stress, leaving the rest of them to converse about everything they learned. The main points being that first Grian was almost definitely affected by the magic collision, which made Jrum’s suggestion of needing Vee to figure out a counter spell more likely.

Second was that he was in the hels version of Tommy’s old server since most of Grian’s family was from there. Pairing with that was that this Astrid person also seemed to be in that server with Grifter and also a Listener, which no one was sure if it were good or bad. The assumption was bad since Vee and her dad were still in the dark. Plus according to Jrum, either Grifter or Grian had been on Vee’s call to Astrid and Flora, so either way, there was some association there.

While in the long run, there wasn't much new information, what was new was a big help. So if there wasn’t much progress on the other team’s front, the rest of the hermits at least had a leg to stand on.

Grian couldn’t immediately find Sally when he returned to his room in the castle. He searched for a while before Grifter showed up with Flora. He had given her the rundown on Toob’s parents being there and apologizing for them busting into the room, which Flora was glad to hear. Now, Grifter was looking to teach Grian more in terms of magic.

Since he couldn’t find Sally, Grian was initially hesitant, but after telling Flora the issue, she agreed to continue searching for Grian until he returned.

Training didn’t last too long, Grian having issues with using magic and just not having the stamina for it yet. There was one instance he managed to get his magic past the blue color he saw Astrid using most of the time and into the same viridian color Grifter sported. It left him feeling especially sapped of energy afterwards, but it was still a nice feeling to have done it.

Upon returning, Grian was fine with collapsing into bed and maybe giving Sally some cuddling in the process, but it looked like Flora hadn’t found her yet either. And while Flora had messaged Astrid, she was still apparently with her dad and couldn’t come back to help look.

With just the two of them, Grian and Flora went looking for Sally. Since it has been so long since they had last seen her, Grian was a bit worried. If she had escaped on her own, the area she could have gotten to grew every second they couldn’t find her. But then there was the possibility someone stole her, which wasn’t completely out of the question after their kidnapping of Jane. Plus it could have been someone other than Toob and Silski. Maybe Wassa was upset they hadn’t returned with the information yet, though he thought Flora said she sent it to him with a message.

After combing through the castle a second time with Flora, they somehow managed to get some important information out of Aven, who claimed he saw the chicken with another ghost. Flora said there were no other ghosts on the server, but Aven also had a horrible memory, so it could have been someone in pale clothes or something. At the very least it told them that someone had Sally and she wasn’t just wandering about.

They managed to pry out a little more information on a general area and direction Sally had been in which helped with the scope of the search. Having Flora helping to search helped as well due to her being a hybrid, specifically a fox at that. They were known for hunting down chickens, and now that they had a more recent trail for her to follow. She led Grian along most of the time, but sometimes Grian flew into the sky to see if he could see anything from above. There wasn’t much, but here and there he noticed something that helped.

Once Flora really got Sally’s scent, they were racing through the trees of the forest they found themselves in, Grian struggling a little to keep up. Because of it, Flora reached wherever the chicken and her captor was before Grian. And then because of that, Grian didn’t slow down when he reached the area, only having to stop as quickly as he could when he realized that he had caught up and Flora had stopped. This led to Grian falling on his face and finding himself eye level with a chicken that was decidedly not Sally. Sally, instead, had her beak firmly clamped on the ear of a hybrid unfamiliar to the server. A very rabbity ear on an all too familiar looking hybrid.

Grian and the hybrid stared each other down for a few seconds before Grian’s brain caught up with what he was seeing. His wings puffed up in an attempt to make himself look bigger and more threatening at the same time his hands tried to force himself back up so he was standing and easily able to fly, run, flight, or anything else he might need to do. “S-Sam… how… I… Why…?” Grian tried to look for words at the same time, which he was failing at. He wanted to ask how Sam was here, or why he was here, or yell at him, or even warn Flora on who exactly this was since he hadn’t given names before.

But any attempt at words were lost by the shrill shriek that was heard, making Grian wince at the tone and notice Flora doing the same. And when he looked back at Sam, he had now picked up Sally and was holding her in front of her. Grian was so sure the sound came from the chicken until Sam opened his mouth again and Grian saw him speak. “Please please please I was just caring for the chickens and Gallus was helping me out because I needed to find Sally but then I found Sally and we started walking and talking and I didn’t mean to do anything bad please please please I promise I’ll be good and nice and won’t I swear I won’t do anything bad!:

Grian was left speechless. Sam never acted like this. Sure, sometimes he might apologize to make you a little guilty, but it was always something small. Not like he was begging for forgiveness and like he himself was expecting to get hurt. It was weird and so unlike Sam, and then Grian realized it wasn’t.

First off, it was now obvious as to why Aven mistook Sam for another ghost, because they seemed to actually be a ghost. They were see through and everything, and other than interacting with the chickens, Grian could see through enough to tell that the grass wasn’t being trampled underneath the rabbit hybrid. And speaking of them being a hybrid, Sam’s ears were almost always perked up and a bright white color. Though one ear was still clamped on by Sally even as she was held out in front of Sam as almost a sort of meat shield, the other was flopped over. And not only that, it was more of a sandy or creamy color and not nearly as fluffy as Sam’s normally were.

Now that Grian had taken a moment to calm down enough to look over the ghost Sam, it also gave him a moment to think about what he knew otherwise. A week ago, he had been living with Sam and Taurtis, dealing with highschool among… other things. But since then, he had been here, in the future. And Sam was supposed to be dead. And sure, this person was a ghost, which happened when you died, but they were a different ghost. And Grian wasn’t just in any future, he was in the future where he had escaped to a sort of reverse reality. His dad was the one who wasn’t usually around instead of his mom. One of his twins was some sort of green hybrid thing instead of a pig or piglin or whatever. And apparently, Sam wasn’t a murderer, but someone who looked more scared of him than he usually was of Sam.

“H-Hey.” Grian managed to choke out. “I’m… not sure who you think I a-am… But um… I’m probably not. And I d-doubt you’re Sam. Uh… W-Well, my name is Grian.”

Slowly, the not Sam peeked out from behind Sally. “Gree-on?” Grian of course flinched at the way it was pronounced, but not Same noticed and let go of Sally, letting her hand from his ear, and instead using one hand to tug at this other ear and the other to hit his head a little. “I’m sorry I’m sorry. I’ll do better I promise.”

“H-hey, It’s okay. Uh, there’s no… ‘ah’ sound. It’s more just ‘an’ Gree-an. And It’s supposed to be just one word… but just that little change would be a lot better.”

Not Sam gave a little nod, carefully saying it a few times before getting it all together and saying Grian’s name pretty much normally, which was a great change of pace compared to normal Sam. “Oh… I hope you don’t mind… but um…” Not Sam trailed off for a moment before quietly continuing, almost in a whisper. “It doesn’t go ‘Sam’ like you said it.”

While Grian was a little conflicted to show any sort of vulnerability or kindness to someone who looked so much like Sam, he still managed it. “Oh? How should we say it then?”

Not Sam noticed the ‘we’ enough to take note of Flora, who was thankfully staying out of it for now, though Not Sam grabbed Sally again as well as the other chicken, almost to try and protect them from the fox hybrid that Flora was. “I-it’s Sahn… not Sam. S-ah-n.”

“Well then Sahn. I’m… sorry for frightening you, but we were just looking for Sally, my pet chicken, and you seem to be holding her.” Grian explained, and Sahn looked at the chickens in his arms before trying to pry Sally off his ear, a feat that was much easier once Grian had his hands on the animal. “I guess we both remind each other of people we know. Not so nice people unfortunately.” And Grian didn’t miss the wince from Flora. She thought highly of her uncle, and while it was actually her false uncle, she didn’t know that. “So, why are you here?”

Immediately, Sahn looked a little calmer and happier. “Oh! That’s right! Um, so my boss or master or whatever you want to call him sent me here! And he sent me to look for you.”

And now things were more complicated again.

The rolling of minecart wheels had rolled on for a while after the most recent conversation had ended, or more accurately, the last conversation Techno had focused on. He had realized partway into it that Phil hadn’t spoken once in any of the talking. And then looking just behind him at Phil made Techno realize his dad seemed out of it. He tried to think of why, then quickly came up with the answer. Tommy’s confession. Or talk or admission or whatever fit that kind of thing. So obviously while Phil said he was fine with it, that obviously wasn’t the case.

Thankfully Techno and Phil were at the end of the minecart train, so they didn’t really need to deal with keeping their conversation private from both sides, and the people in front of them were more likely to focus on forwards anyway. “So, what’s eating at you?”

Phil jumped just a little bit from Techno’s voice being closer and obviously directed specifically at him. “That obvious?”

“Yeah. I’m guessing this is about Tommy?”

Phil nodded. “Look, I know I’ve been a shit dad. Grian told me as much when I first showed back up, plus I had a bit of an idea when Tommy went missing. Sure, I helped the kids with accurately summoning Tommy back which kicked off this whole mess, but they were the ones trying it in the first place. Hell, If I wanted to, I could have tried it with Grian when I first found out about that technique.”

“If I recall, you did try, you just were left confused since the information was mixed with worship of some bee god.”

Phil chuckled a little at that. “Yeah, But I did figure it out. The big problem was that you need something that helps represent the person you’re after. And it had been years at that point, so we didn’t really have much to go off of. But I still could have kept trying.”

“You have no clue if it would have worked.”

“I know. For all I knew, he could have actually been dead. I didn’t fucking know if their little summoning shit would work if Tommy was actually dead. Only hope I had was if I was not too shitty here.”

That left Techno a little confused. “What does that mean?”

Phil shrugged for a moment before sighing. “Look, Hels isn't the most well known thing. Sure, the older you get, the more likely you are to find out, but even people older than me sometimes don’t know about it. It gets excused by mods or Herobrine or whatever. But Paul and I know a bit differently because of who we are.”

“And that is?”

“The Wels of the Hels Deaths. See, Death can’t fucking deal with their own family. And If you noticed, You and I are both related to Kristen, me by marriage and you by being her kid. And since Zedaph is her brother, he’s related too.”

“So that means we literally can’t die? Bruhhh I could’ve staked so much more on the fact that I can’t die.”

That earned a slight chuckle from Phil. “Not exactly. That’s where the deaths of Hels come in. Sure, one of them is my hels and one is Paul’s, but they’re not actually the hels of Kristen and her brother, and aren’t actually me or Paul. So it becomes a sort of exception. So the family of the deaths of one side are dealt with by the other.”

“So you’re saying I’d have to punch you in the face to keep living?”

“Depends. There’s two deaths not just to try and deal with that family problem, but because there’s two kinds of death. There’s nuance to it, but simply it’s if you're accepting of your death or not. Your mom is for when you don’t here, but if I recall correctly, Paul’s Hels is that, so mine would have to be the other.”

“Alright, so I can keep punching Paul in the face and not have to regret my actions when I finally go out on my own.”

“I mean, it won’t be me, me. But I guess close enough. And I’m guessing that means you’re planning to eventually go out on your own terms? I thought you would just refuse outright.”

Techno smiled a little. “Nah, don’t want to get as old and ancient as you. I’m not sure I could deal with trying to consciously keep myself from turning to dust.” He paused as Phil jokingly hit the back of his head. “Plus, I’m sure with all those political people heading to whatever afterlife there is, there might be some government to take down there.”

There were some more chuckles between Techno and Phil before it was serious again. “But no. I mean, I dealt with my mom literally being death and I saw that didn’t keep Wilbur alive. I’ve seen here and there you struggling with having been alive so long. Some people think not dying is great, and so many people have respawn magic to keep them alive. Yeah there’s some people who die because of a particularly bad death or hardcore gone wrong, but there’s other people who realize that they’re done. They have the chance to keep living, but they think it’s better to go onto whatever is next. No one knows what that is- Wait you haven’t been-” “She hasn’t told me anything.” “Right, well, no one knows what’s next, and while some people have comfort in familiarity, some people like the thrill of what’s next. And I think maybe someday I’ll go onto that. We all probably will eventually.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure how long I think I could keep sticking around after losing you guys. There were some days where I was thinking of giving my soul up just to not deal with it.” Phil admitted.

“Bruh you better not do that if we kick the bucket. Look, I know we’re cool and all, and while you might suck at it, you still love us.” “Hey!” “And yeah, if we end up in some place where our souls or whatever we have get to interact with each other, sure I hope that means we find each other again, but I don’t want it to be that you only showed up to follow after us. I’m sure whenever I die you’re going to be all upset or whatever, but I’ll be going out on my own terms, not your terms. Your terms are for when you’re done. So don’t make that something I’m responsible for.”

“So, essentially?”

“You’re used to living a lot. I might not be the same. Don’t blame yourself if that happens. If anything, you can make fun of me for taking the easy way out or whatever. Just know that if I happen to die, I’m okay with it, and you can’t be beating yourself up like you have with everything else.”

“Thought you wouldn’t come back to that.” Phil said with a half joking, half sad smile.

“Well I did. Look, I’m just going to say it. You kind of sucked as a dad. To be honest, you probably spent a century or two without kids and haven’t even spent half of one with us around. And if Paul’s got a family and he managed it, who cares, because he’s him and not you. With how you reacted to me talking about my death and how you reacted to other stuff, you have a tendency to expect the worst and just kind of give up.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Well I’m going to guess you did it in the past too, right?”

“Maybe.” Phil half admitted.

“Well you dealt with that, so deal with this. It’s not as finite as death or whatever, so you’ve still got time to try and fix it. And it doesn’t have to be immediate, especially since you’re used to taking a while through life.”

Though he rolled his eyes, Phil agreed. “Guess that makes sense. When did you get so wise?”

“Got raised by you.”

“Yeah. Guess you did.” Phil sighed before giving Techno a quick hug. “Sorry for being a shitty parent. But know that if you die or disappear or leave or whatever it is, I’m still going to care for you. And not just me either. Your brothers, your mum, hell, anyone else you’re close with in any sense really. They’re going to care for you.”

“Yeah. And even if any of that happens, call me cheesy or whatever, but if any of that happens, at least they’ll all have a memory of me to keep.”

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thissortofsorcery · 1 year

Text

I posted 814 times in 2022

That's 814 more posts than 2021!

32 posts created (4%)

782 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@shieldofiron

@heartbuckley

@ariesbilly

@imsodishy

@vhagar-apologist

I tagged 129 of my posts in 2022

#harringrove - 35 posts

#billy hargrove - 25 posts

#billy x steve - 9 posts

#mine - 7 posts

#billy antis dni - 5 posts

#sorcery says - 5 posts

#steve harrington - 4 posts

#personal - 4 posts

#max mayfield - 3 posts

#so cute - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#i’m not sure what the rules are for interacting with minors in fandom are but let it be known i’m 27 if that makes anyone uncomfortable

My Top Posts in 2022:

Harringrove social media AU (in a season 2 setting because that is my paradise land) where Billy makes surfing TikToks as a teenager, with a really good following and a promising career as a pro surfer. Until Neil moves the entire family to a landlocked state, and Billy knows it's to punish him.

There could be several reasons for this:

-Billy is becoming too independent from Neil;

-Someone questioned a bruise Billy didn't cover up well enough and now it's all over the internet;

-Billy was caught with a guy he was seeing;

-Billy's mom saw his TikToks and tried to get in touch, Neil had been keeping him from her;

And now Billy's in a town in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, two months into the school year, and everybody expects him to, what, be chill about it? Not care that Neil can just ruin his life and his career on a whim, and there's nothing he can do about it? Billy's raging, Billy's seething, Billy's hurt, and no one wants to or can help him. Susan won't lift a finger or say anything against Neil, looks down every time his dad raises his voice or his hand to hit Billy. And Max- Max is furious with him, blames him for the move like he was the one who decided to pack everything, like he was the one who sold his board and packed the cars and bought the ugly house on Cherry Lane.

What the hell is Billy supposed to do now? He's a senior and he had no plans of going to college, hasn't even thought of applying anywhere. His account is going to die out if he doesn't post anything, and who can guarantee he can raise it from the dead in a year if he makes it back to California once he's eighteen? He needs the TikTok money to make it back to California anyway. He's screwed. He's so screwed.

On the other side of this, is Steve. Steve is a gaming streamer and youtuber, or was- is. He's trying, okay? But ever since- everything, he can't play horror games anymore. He used to stream horror games pretty much exclusively, had whole events for it, charity streams, sponsorships, and then the whole Upside Down thing happened, and he knows his role in it was minor, okay, he knows he was there just for the tail end of it, but a seven-feet tall monster with a flower for a face coming out of the ceiling of the Byers house was both his starting and breaking point, apparently.

His channel was pretty good. Pretty stable. Then he tried to stream Blair Witch about a week after everything and had a panic attack on stream. Things didn't get better after that.

Nancy got him into Animal Crossing, because it's soothing, so he streams that now. And The Sims. Needless to say, his channel took a pretty big hit, as did his reputation. Like Tommy H. says, he turned bitch.

But it's fine, everything's fine. He's got Nancy, he's got a loyal online community that stayed after everything, even if it's small and no one's anywhere near Hawkins. He's got his SAD (Steve After Dark) Streams for when he can't sleep. Halloween is coming up and he's maybe sad he's not doing Spooktober this year, but. Maybe on the last week. Maybe on Halloween Day. If Nancy doesn't want to go to Tina's party.

Billy and Steve collide pretty much the same way. Steve is on edge and Billy is on edge, then the world's ugliest dogs are let out, and Maxine sneaks out, and Billy finds her in a house full of boys and an 18 year old washed out streamer who lies to him about it. Next thing Billy knows he's waking up in a half-destroyed kitchen with an empty syringe two feet from him, car gone, and not a single person in sight.

On Monday, Harrington's face looks bad. It's been a while since Billy's felt this guilty about putting a bruise on someone's face, but he knows he lost it a little, that night. Went too far. He doesn't remember most of it, and Billy doesn't know if that's from whatever drugs Maxine shot him with or from just- anger. Remorse just clogs his throat and he can't breathe. He decides to stay the fuck away from Harrington.

And then Tommy H. just has to take pictures of them, make a damn video, post it to Instagram and TikTok and tag them both. Of course it goes viral.

Billy spends a full week in a state of panic. He fully expects Harrington to press charges now.

(Steve, similarly, is panicking. He streams family friendly content now. He can't just get into fights. He can't stream until his face heals as it is.)

Billy feels even more like shit when his follower count goes up and his account sees more activity than it has since the move. Like it's a reward for beating up Harrington, or something. It's not right.

(The same happens to Steve.)

So Billy has an idea. He wants to apologize to Harrington. Wants to make it up to him. Maybe he can help him get his popularity back, get his channel to how it used to be, somehow. And if it keeps his own account alive, well.

It takes a little convincing, but Steve agrees. Dustin is trying to get him into his nerdy games, but Steve isn't sure he likes them. Steve's been having a hard time, since the second round with the Upside Down. He can't sleep, can't focus, Nancy went off with Jonathan. So maybe he wants a distraction, okay? Maybe he wants something that isn't life or death.

So Billy and Steve start a partnership of sorts. Steve films a couple of youtube videos playing co-op games with Billy. Branches out to TikTok, maybe. Starts bringing Billy to his streams, at first just to hang out and then to take over and play some stuff. Billy manages to burn down Steve's entire 9th generation legacy mansion on The Sims in 30 minutes. Billy and Steve play Dead By Daylight together, and Steve feels increasingly comfortable playing horror games with Billy around.

It's working so well for Steve, he decides he wants to pay it back. So he teaches Billy to ice skate so they can make content for Billy's TikTok. Steve takes Billy sledding when it snows. Billy films Steve falling asleep in unlikely places during the day and not waking up when Billy piles things on him.

Steve hunts down and finds Billy's old surfing board that Neil sold and buys it back.

At some point, Steve becomes Billy's best friend. If he could- If they could, Billy would- They could be more, Billy thinks. But they're all over the internet, and Billy doesn't think Neil watches their content, but word can get back to him really easily. People like to speculate as it is. It's a small fucking town.

The climax would be, of course, getting Billy out of Neil's house. Getting Neil arrested. So Billy can be free.

(Feel free to explore and play with this AU as you like!!)

225 notes - Posted November 15, 2022

Billy tried not to, is the thing. But it’s like his body has a mind of its own. It’s often like that when it comes to Harrington.

It was an accident at first. Harrington tripped just as Billy had been walking by, and his chest had crashed straight into Billy’s. The surprise of it had nearly sent them both to the ground, but Billy had managed to hold them both up somehow, grip tight on Harrington’s elbows.

He was so warm.

Billy had shoved him off, barked out a “Watch it, Harrington!” and walked away.

A month later, Billy can’t call it an accident anymore.

If Billy times it just right, he’s walking back from the nook where the vending machines are hidden just as Harrington’s walking towards them. More often than not, Harrington will trip on the uneven tile or be distracted with conversation. More often than not, he’ll bump into Billy.

Billy’s started to count down the minutes to this accidental touch everyday. He tries not to. But when the hands of the clock start inching closer to their lunch period he starts remembering it: the warmth of Harrington’s skin through his clothes. The hair on his arms when his sleeves are rolled up. The hardness of his bicep when Billy grips it to hold them both up. If he’s lucky, Steve might steady himself with a hand on Billy’s chest, right where his buttons are undone.

Billy shifts in his seat.

He didn’t use to be like this, during basketball season. Now that that’s over he finds himself looking for Harrington everywhere, hungry for a glimpse of his mop of brown hair, craving accidental touches.

Not so accidental, on Billy’s part.

Ms. Garret’s still talking about homework, at the front of the class. The clock hands are ticking, always closer to lunch, but never fast enough.

Billy’s leg bounces under his desk. The teacher’s going on about exercise sheets Billy’s not gonna turn in. He leans back in his chair, looks out the window. Casual. He’s not antsy. He’s not.

The bell rings.

Billy’s out of his seat like a shot. Harrington’s classroom is closer to the cafeteria. Billy takes large strides to the cafeteria, doesn’t stop by his locker on the way.

When he crosses the wide cafeteria doors, he slows. Tries to pinpoint where Harrington is. Like a sixth sense, he sees him a few feet behind him out the corner of his eye.

Harrington’s wearing the red sweater today, sleeves rolled up. His hair looks extra floppy. He’s talking to Wheeler, pointing to the vending machines.

Billy sets off.

It’s quick work. Shove coins in. Get soda. Watch out the corner of his eye for Harrington.

Here he comes.

Billy turns around.

One step. Two. Harrington’s sneaker catches on the broken tile of the cafeteria floor, and he crashes into Billy, a quiet “shit” murmured under his breath. Billy grabs onto him, one hand on a lean bicep, the other on a hairy forearm. Harrington gets his feet under him, but they’re still pressed close, hips nearly touching. Harrington’s hand is splayed on his chest, fingers wide, nudging under his open shirt.

“Watch it, Harrington,” Billy says. Not barks, not yells. Just says. His voice is rough, like he gargled glass. Their faces are close.

“Sorry,” Harrington mumbles, face going pink. He’s just an inch or two taller than Billy, but it feels like nothing. They’re so close. Harrington’s eyes flicker to Billy’s mouth, so quickly Billy might’ve missed it if he hadn’t been watching Harrington’s face so intently.

Without his permission, his thumb strokes Harrington’s forearm. Steve breathes in sharply.

Somewhere beyond them, someone drops their lunch tray, and the clatter lurches them apart. Like they’d never touched at all, Billy heads to the cafeteria doors, Steve continues to the vending machines.

At the threshold, Billy glances over his shoulder. He can’t help it.

Harrington’s heading back to Wheeler, Coke in hand. He sidesteps the broken tile expertly.

When Billy looks up at Harrington’s face, he’s looking back at him, with a little smirk on his face. It can’t be- Can it?

Billy shakes his head. Nah. No way Harrington would go out of his way just to bump into Billy.

He goes to his car to smoke it off.

272 notes - Posted December 13, 2022

It takes a while for Billy to notice, but there’s something to the warm feeling that spreads across his chest whenever he sees Steve.

He knows he can’t get enough of Steve. Can’t get enough of how he looks at Billy from under his lashes when he’s flirting, of how he tosses his head back when he laughs, of the long line of his neck, of his moles.

But there’s something else to how their eyes meet across a room, a light to Steve’s eyes when they land on Billy, like-

It takes Billy a while to put his finger on it. It’s been a long time since someone’s looked happy to see him.

Every time Steve looks at him, it’s there. That glint in his eyes like, hey, there you are. It’s different than looking at Billy like he’s hot, Billy knows he’s smoking, but Steve looks at him like… Like his presence is something good. Like he wants him there.

Billy’s not used to that.

Steve’s sitting with Robin and Dustin in the corner booth at the diner when Billy comes in with Max, and he’s laughing at something they’re saying, but when his eyes land on Billy his whole face changes. His smile looks like it… grows, somehow.

He leans his whole body towards Billy and says,

“Billy, hey!” In that bright voice he gets when he’s happy, Steve’s happy.

Happy to see Billy walk in the door.

Billy’s sure his face is doing the goofiest, sappiest expression, looking back at Steve. Just grinning at each other like fools in the middle of the diner.

Just happy to be there, where the other is.

290 notes - Posted December 7, 2022

Billy’s just put his jacket back on. His boots go on next. His earring dangles in his ear with the movement, and his back and ass ache when he rises back up. Sore.

It’s dark in the entryway of Harrington’s house at three in the morning, quiet and still hours before the sun rises. Billy hadn’t meant to fall asleep. But Steve had barely rolled off of him, one leg tangled between his, nose in his hair, and Billy was so warm and comfortable- He hadn’t meant to. It was a mistake.

He shouldn’t be there when Harrington wakes up, Steve would regret it for sure.

Steve wouldn’t want anything serious with a guy. With Billy.

He’s got his keys out of his jacket pocket when he hears it,

“Where are you going?” Steve’s voice comes from the stairs, hoarse with sleep, making Billy jump.

Steve’s in the middle of the steps with only his underwear on, the line of hickeys down his chest and halfway to his stomach that Billy put there fully exposed, a grumpy confused frown on his face. Arms crossed like he’s cold.

“I’m just heading out,” Billy says softly, unwilling to break the cover of the dark. It feels like they’re inside a dome, here in the entryway, close together but far apart.

Steve comes down the steps slowly, and his feet barely make any noise on the carpet. Billy doesn’t look away from his eyes. They’re not clouded with sleep, anymore, and they’re honed in on Billy like lasers.

“It’s the middle of the night, man,” He says, like Billy hasn’t left in the dead of night countless times before. Like they’re not used to hookups in their cars.

“Yeah,” Billy steps back, because Steve just keeps coming closer. “I’ll get out of your hair, princess. Go back to bed.”

He means to say it mean, but it comes out- soft. Like a whisper.

“Billy,” Steve says, and he’s smiling. Why is he smiling.

Steve’s hand touches his chest where Billy didn’t bother to button his shirt, his pinky nudges a nipple on purpose. Billy’s breath hitches.

Billy knows his eyes are wide, his mouth is open. He looks up from Steve’s hand to his face, and Steve looks so fond, so- He’s looking from Billy’s eyes to his mouth like he wants to kiss him.

He does kiss him.

Billy drops his keys. The need to get his hands on Steve’s face is sudden, urgent, like he has to hold on to him or he’ll fade away, or change his mind. He needs to hold Steve’s face to his or he’ll lose the press of Steve’s soft lips, lose the tongue pressing in to curl against his own.

Steve’s hands are clutching at his jacket tightly, pulling Billy in at the same time his body wants to press Billy into the door. It takes Billy a minute to realize Steve is trying to yank off his jacket, pulling roughly at his shoulders. He has to let go of Steve’s face to take it off, but he does it one hand at a time, and he trades it for pressing biting kisses into Steve’s mouth at the same time. He’ll hold on with his teeth if he has to.

Distantly, he hears his keys jangle against the floor, like they’ve been kicked away.

“Stay,” Steve pulls back to pant into his mouth. His eyes look right into Billy’s. There’s a look to them, half-scared, half-shy. Steve’s hands are tight on Billy’s waist. “Stay with me.”

He presses a kiss to the corner of Billy’s mouth, licks between his lips. Billy surges up, catches his bottom lip in his teeth, bruises a kiss on his mouth so intense Steve’s head moves with his nod.

“Yeah,” He says, and rests his forehead on Steve’s. Their noses brush together. “Okay.”

333 notes - Posted December 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Billy doesn’t know it yet, but a lot of things in his life change because of Steve Harrington.

Billy’s hiding in the library when he overhears it. He’s ditching calculus because he can’t stand Mr. Hermann’s voice on a good day, the way the old man talks like he’s shouting, and Billy’s head is still ringing from where Neil hit it on a shelf last night because he was late getting Maxine home for dinner.

Billy would normally spend his voluntary free period smoking outside, but it’s fucking snowing today- just one more thing to be grateful about December in goddamn Hawkins, Indiana.

That’s why he’s sitting at a table that’s kind of out of the way in the library, hidden behind the biology section. He yanked out a book about the ocean to look at the pictures to distract himself until next period.

That’s when he hears them talking. Harrington and Wheeler.

“Mike says Dustin’s driving him crazy,” Wheeler’s saying softly, from across the shelves hiding Billy. “He won’t shut up about you.”

“We’ve been hanging out,” Harrington says, just as quietly, and his voice sounds like it’s coming out through a smile. Billy tries not to picture it in his mind. “He’s cool, you know, for a middle schooler.”

Harrington says it like he’s annoyed, but his tone can’t be anything but fond. It’s ridiculous. Billy’s seen Harrington driving around the dweebs Maxine’s friends with, has seen them at the arcade and at the diner, so he knows Harrington’s been hanging around them like an overgrown mother hen. Billy can’t make sense of it.

“You seem better,” Wheeler says, after a moment of silence, and there’s something hesitant about it. “Lately, I mean. Lighter.”

Harrington doesn’t answer, and Billy wishes he could see what his face looks like. He’d noticed Harrington had been looking rough since November, even after the bruising had faded, with bags under his eyes and hollow cheeks. A blank stare, like he was somewhere else in his head.

“Dustin’s a great kid,” Harrington repeats, kind of distantly. Then in a rush he says, like the words will disappear if he doesn’t get them out, “He’s been calling me in the walkie some nights. He can’t sleep either.”

“Oh, Steve…”

“So we talk a lot. About, you know… Being there for him, it helps.”

They go silent. It’s clear something happened to the kid, and to Harrington, and Billy doesn’t care- except something happened to Max, too. She’s been quiet, and spooked, since That Night. Billy wonders if whatever happened to them happened then, after they left him drugged on the floor.

“I always wanted a little brother,” Harrington cuts through the silence. Wheeler makes a soft noise like she’s listening. “I hated being alone all the time. I thought it would be like having a friend for life, you know. Then I got older, and my dad… I don’t think… I think that if I had a brother, my dad would make us resent each other,” He says, like a confession, and it sits like a stone in Billy’s stomach.

“You can’t know that, Steve…” Wheeler says softly.

“No, I know. It’s just a feeling,” Billy hears Harrington shift, then the shelf wobbles, like he’s leaning on it. “You know what my dad’s like, with me. I keep thinking, if I had a brother… He’d be comparing us all the time. Pitting us against each other. Makes us tell on each other. To make sure we were alone. I don’t know,” He huffs, and mocks himself with a little laugh. “Like you said, it’s stupid.”

Billy has to swallow past a lump in his throat. His hands are clenched into fists. It sounds a little too familiar, Harrington’s feelings about his father. Neil knows how to be an asshole too, especially about Maxine, and being a good big brother. Makes a point of disciplining Billy about it. Except all it does is make him hate Max.

“Maybe it’s not,” Wheeler says, and her voice is firm this time. Maybe she’s holding Harrington’s hand, even. “He really is an asshole.”

Harrington snorts, but it’s still a little sad, “Thanks, Nance.”

Billy sinks lower in his seat, careful not to make noise. He feels suddenly exhausted. The ringing in his head feels worse than ever.

“This is better, with Dustin,” Harrington says. “He’s awesome. And the other kids too.”

And my dad can’t touch him, he doesn’t say, but Billy hears it all the same.

Eventually, Harrington and Wheeler leave and Billy’s alone again behind his bookshelves, with the marine biology book he hasn’t looked at in half an hour. Harrington’s words don’t leave him though.

Billy knows his resentment of Max mostly comes from how his dad treats her, he’s aware enough of that. He hates that she never suffers the consequences of the shit the does, that she can do no wrong in Neil’s eyes, that she and Susan make up Neil’s idea of a perfect family and Billy doesn’t.

It hadn’t occurred to Billy that Neil could be doing all of it deliberately. This whole time he thought his dad wanted him to like Max - wanted him to be a good big brother. He never thought it could be all a part of a different game, to make him hate Max and make Max hate him.

What was it that Harrington said? To make sure we were alone.

Easy to control.

That’s what Neil likes, isn’t it.

Billy ends up ditching the rest of the day. He can’t stomach the thought of sitting in a classroom listening to teachers droning on about shit while his head’s buzzing with memories trying to reorganize themselves. This can’t be right. He can’t have gotten it this wrong. Billy’s too old to be this dumb, to fall for this shit.

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418 notes - Posted December 8, 2022

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