Chapter 1
Sollux slammed his hand onto his desk.
“YOU ASSHOLE!” He yelled, his lisp prominent in his annoyance.
“Maybe if you watched out I wouldn't ‘a killed you, TA '' was the wavy-sounding reply Sollux received from the other end of his discord call.
Sollux rested his forehead on the palm of his hands, trying to calm his anger.
“You KNEW I had 10 gifted subs on the line. If you let me live for FIVE MORE MINUTES I would’ve won the bet” He exclaimed.
The only response from the other user was a loud chuckle.
“I fucking hate you CA. You’re a prick” Sollux groaned, reluctantly clicking the ‘RESPAWN’ button that was now flashing on his screen.
Sollux was a small-shot streamer named twinArmageddons. One day he realised just how direly in need of money he was, as a broke college student, and so when he noticed just how many donations streamers got he jumped on the bandwagon. He had to admit that he was enjoying the whole thing a lot more than he anticipated - playing shitty videogames in his free time while calling some friends and getting money for it was pretty much the dream. Apparently his viewers found his stubborn personality and pitiful lisp a sticking point, and he gained a loyal fanbase rather quickly. Of course he wasn’t as famous as some streamers out there, but he woke up most mornings to a scrawnily drawn fanart or two.
He usually streamed with his little group, and they were all known to play together. They were all known as SBURB to the viewers on social media, and honestly Sollux wasn't all too sure where the name originated from but it stuck and kept in people's minds well enough. Sollux had a pretty decent relationship with most people in the group, particularly interacting with CG, TG or.. Unfortunately.. CA.
CA, or known officially as caligulasAquarium on the site, was an arrogant asshole who seemed to find pleasure in pissing the hell out of Sollux. Viewers somehow seemed to find their chemistry hilarious, though, so Sollux put up with the guy in calls… but no more than necessary (and not without making fun of the guys stupid sounding accent). It was a small sacrifice to please the people who were practically paying his rent.
Sollux had just finished an average evening stream. Thanks to CA he was nursing a $50 loss from having to forfeit those 10 gifted subs from their gameplay. He was lucky to have made that back already in the stream today, otherwise he probably would’ve virtually strangled the shit out of CA.
Getting up from your desk after a 5 hour stream was a whole different situation. Sollux felt like his legs would give out if he tried to suddenly get up from his chair, so he slowly edged up - balancing himself on the desk - and got himself on his feet slowly. He knew that sitting in front of a screen for hours on end every day was definitely going to do round on his health.. but hey, life’s too short to worry. He fished his phone from his trouser pocket to check if he had received any texts during his stream. Indeed, he had a storm of grey shouty text directed his way.
carcinoGeneticist [CG] began pestering twinArmageddons [TA]
CG: TA, LISTEN UP.
CG: TG AND I WERE THINKING OF MEETING UP TO DO A STREAM TOGETHER. HE’S IN TEXAS BUT IM WILLING TO TRAVEL UP FOR IT.
CG: I KNOW YOURE IN NEW MEXICO, SO I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WANTED ME TO PICK YOU UP AND TAKE YOU TOO?
CG: IT WILL PROBABLY ONLY BE FOR A WEEKEND OR SO, NO DETAILS ARE PLANNED YET.
Sollux read over the messages with a small smile on his face. Well, shit, if CG wanted to take him on a free roadtrip to meet another friend - who was he to say no?
TA: 2ound2 great, ii’m down for iit.
He pressed send and within moments CG was typing again.
CG: I ASKED GC TO COME AS WELL SINCE SHE IS IN NEW MEXICO TOO.
CG: BUT SHE INVITED AG WITHOUT ASKING ME, SO I TOLD THEM TO FUCK OFF AND I THINK THEYRE TRAVELLING IN THEIR OWN CAR NOW.
CG: LUCKILY TG DOESNT CARE HOW MANY COME.
TA: may a2 well iinviite everyone at thii2 poiint.
CG: YOU THINK?
TA: ii wa2 jokiing.
TA: but now ii dunno iit 2ound2 pretty fun.
CG: I’LL ASK TG AND THEN ASK IN A MEMO BOARD. MAY AS WELL, DONT WANT TO LEAVE ANYONE OUT.
TA: gotcha. talk later CG.
CG: BYE
carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering twinArmageddons [TA]
Sollux placed his phone back in his pocket and stretched. The meet-up would certainly be interesting, as most people didn’t even know eachothers names or faces. A few people in the group had known eachother previously, so they were more personal with eachother, but Sollux personally had no specific ties with anyone and was just extremely lucky to have gotten on with CG and the other members. They welcomed him to the group surprisingly warmly when he first joined and Sollux owed them a lot for that.
His phone vibrated again in his pocket and so he fished it out again, and expecting an advancement from CG. Instead, he was welcomed with a vomit inducing shade of purple.
caligulasAquarium [CA] began pestering twinArmageddons [TA]
CA: im streamin tommoroww from 7-11pm. wwould you be avvaliable at any point?
Sollux took in a deep sigh.
TA: ii gue22 2o. 2end me a text clo2er two the tiime.
Sollux closed his phone again and made the tiring walk to the kitchen in his cramped apartment to grab some late night food. His phone buzzed again.
CA: your quirk is so obnoxiously hard to read.
TA: then get better eye2.
CA: i havve a pretty bad glasses prescription already genius. if i could get better eyes i wwould.
Sollux paused for a second.
TA: diidn’t know.
Saying sorry would be overkill, he presumed.
TA: your quiirk make2 me want two ba2h my head iinto a wall anyway.
CA: my quirk isn’t evven comparable to yours.
TA: atlea2t miine ii2 cool.
CA: there is nothin less cool in this wworld than your quirk.
TA: how'2 iit feel two be jealou2.
CA: im leavvin.
TA: bye fii2h braiin
caligulasAquarium [CA] ceased pestering twinArmageddons [TA]
With a chuckle, Sollux placed his phone back in his pocket yet again and grabbed his makeshift dinner of snacks and soda, in true college student fashion. With this he made him way back to his room. The school work he had discarded earlier sat waiting on his bed, challenging him to finish it, but Sollux was not up for it at that moment. Instead, he sat back at his Computer and loaded up a game. It was only 1am, the night was young.
Sollux woke up with a start. He was laying face first on his gaming keyboard, the imprint making a tattoo across his face. With a groan he looked over at the clock on his wall, freezing when he saw the 7:45 AM plastered over it.
“Shit shit shit shit” Sollux cursed, getting up with a start “I’m gonna be so late for my first class”.
He fished his phone out of his pocket but realised it was dead. Sighing, he grabbed the portable charger off his bedside table and plugged his phone in as he quickly changed and headed out the house. He was starving, but there was no time to grab food. He’d probably just steal food off Terezi later as she always seems to have some kind of snack around. That’s probably the only reason why Sollux liked sitting near her in classes, despite the fact that she was extremely overbearing to be with for long periods of time.
His first class of the day was maths - at the prime time of 8 in the morning. He didn’t know how the other students seemed to get their minds working that early in all honesty. If he had the choice in it he probably wouldn't have taken maths at all, but it was necessary for the computing and coding major he was working towards. He was lucky that his teacher only entered the classroom at around 8:05 most days, giving him enough time to slip into the classroom late.
Sollux slid into his seat next to Terezi as casually as possible, trying to pretend that he most definitely was not a sweating mess from rushing to class.
“Wow, Sollux. Had a morning jog?” The blind girl cackled, her grating voice right next to Sollux’s ear.
“How can you even see if im sweaty or not?” Sollux grouched.
“I can smell you and hear your panting, dumbass - and you should know I'm not even fully blind. I'm just medically legally blind. I can still see you idiot, just not very well.” Terezi responded, rolling her eyes.
“Then ignore me for the minute till i get my breath back” Sollux complained.
“So you don’t want the bag of Chocolate buttons I brought? A shame, guess it’s more for me” Terezi giggled, giving a very passive-aggressively sweet smile.
Sollux held his hand out toward Terezi and Terezi placed the bag of chocolates into his hand with a chuckle.
“You’ll need real food some day” She advised.
“Today’s not the day” Sollux replied, opening the Chocolate bag.
“Apparently not” She nodded.
Their conversation was cut short by the teacher finally entering the class, arms full with papers
Sollux placed his chocolates on his lap to carefully eat while the teacher wasn’t looking, and mentally prepared himself for an hour and a half of straight maths.
“How cruel is he to set us a damn surprise test??” Terezi groaned, slouching dramatically in her seat as Sollux packed up his things.
“He’s a math teacher, what did you even expect” Sollux responded “Now pack up your shit so we can leave”.
Terezi complied and the two of them made their way into the hallway. Terezi then looked down at her phone.
“Oh shit I gotta go, my friend wants to Discord call” Terezi announced.
“Don’t you have another class soon?” Sollux asked, brows knit.
“Fuck Chemistry” Was Terezi’s response, her concentration still on her phone.
Sollux gave a hum of agreement and pulled out his own phone, heading directly to his discord notifs.
carcinoGeneticist [CG] opened memo on board SBURB
CG: I KNOW I’VE PRIVATELY MESSAGED ALL OF YOU BUT ITS EASIER TO DO THIS SHIT ON OUR GROUPCHAT.
AC: :33 < *ac opens the memo excitedly*
CG: HELLO, AC. SO AS I WAS SAYING I THINK IT WOULD BE GREAT IF WE ALL MET UP FOR ONE BIG IRL STREAM.
CG: EVERYONE SEEMED UP FOR IT.
CG: I THINK WE CAN ALL VOUCH THAT WE’RE NOT CREEPS.
TG: naw you dont know man
TG: anyone could be a creep
CG: IM HOPING THAT AFTER THE MANY HOURS WE’VE ALL CALLED WE CAN TRUST EACH OTHER ENOUGH TO HANG OUT IN A LARGE GROUP.
CG: MAYBE I SHOULD NEVER HOPE.
CC: )(ello!! I t)(ink it would be great to sea you all!
CC: T)(e only problem is t)(at we're all very far, i believe you guys wis)( to meet in texas w)(ile me and CA are in London.
CG: YES, WE’VE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT. SOME OF YOU GUYS ARE VERY FAR.
CT: D --> AC and I reside in Istanbul. Going from Turkey to Te%as ranges to about a 15-18 hours flight which is very e%pensive.
TG: So funny story
TG: My parents kinda leave me and my sister with a buncha cash from their bigshot jobs
TG: guilt money if you will
TG: so i can totally get yall the flights and shit if youre willing to fly out
CT: D --> You're willing to spend thousands on us all?
AG: Mannnnnnnn if i wasnt going with GC i would totally take up that sweet offer. free travel? that shit wouldve 8een gr8.
TG: I can also hook you guys up with hotels and shit if you’d want it, but there should be enough rooms in my house
CC: I'd feel bad to make you arrange so muc)( for us and spend so muc)( money..
CA: If he’s offerin Fef i think wwe should just accept it.
CC: )(ey! we made a no real names pact!
AC: :33 < if we're going to be m33ting eachother it would be odd to call eachother our gamertags
AC: :33 < im nepeta!!
CC: T)(en I'm Feferi!
CG: DOES ANYONE KNOW WHEN THE OTHERS ARE GETTING ONLINE?
Sollux skimmed over this chat quickly, trying to take in the new info on the memo.
TA: hey iim here now, ii wa2 iin cla22
CG: GREAT
CG: THE OTHERS CAN READ THIS LATER, ILL KEEP THE MEMO BOARD OPEN
TG: epic
TG: i should head off, i scheduled a stream for like in half an hour
TG: you joining CG?
CG: SURE
TA: 2peak two you guy2 later then.
TG: adios TA
TA: ii ju2t liive iin new mexiico ii dont actually 2peak 2panii2h
TG: the thought that counts
TG: spanish is a great language
TG: and churros come from spain right? arguably the best food ever.
TA: churro2 are pretty great man.
CG: YOU DUMBASSES IM NOT CLOSING THE MEMO SO OTHERS CAN READ IT LATER BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN SPAM IN IT
TG: calm down man we weren’t spamming
TA: youre 2o ba2ed CG
CG: BYE.
Sollux grinned down at his phone and pocketed it again, heading to his next class.
He couldn’t wait to see all these assholes in real life.