As It Was - Jschlatt x Reader

chapter five.

"Oh, shit," you gasped, the memory of that night flooding back, "you're right! I cannot believe I was so stupid, Cal..."

"We all have our moments," she answered lightly, taking her glasses off to have a break from the strong prescription, "it's nobody's fault, really. It's funny, he still hates Minx. It is only one of the most public beefs, even if everyone just writes it off as a bit."

You rose a brow, "oh, they talk still?"

"Yeah, Y/N, you really missed out on a lot since you decided to stop streaming... Everyone you know is big now. Hassan, Ted, Charlie, the Floridian Charlie... Everyone."

"Everyone..." you said softly, "that's wild to think about."

"It is," Cal said sympathetically, smiling up to Wilbur, "I attribute its success to luck, though. It is just a roll of the dice with the algorithm nowadays... I should ask Dream if you can be on the SMP-"

"Cal, love, that ended."

"Oh, shoot, you're right... I forgot. We don't talk to him anymore."

"Yeahh... That whole situation was messy. Long story short, Y/N, never trust faceless youtubers. Except Corpse, Corpse is fine."

"Well," you said carefully, "we could start our own SMP. I know you and Wilbur enjoyed doing it, and Schlatt was good from what I heard from my cousin."

Calico thought for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek. Was she interested in streaming more? She enjoyed popping into Wilbur's streams, her savings being more than cushy...

Why not?

"Know what? I'm in," she declared, sitting up with a grin, "Wil, you in? We need our ManicDuo back."

"Is that what the fanbase calls you two? ManicDuo?" You looked skeptical, "besides, who else would we invite?"

"We could invite Ranboo," Wilbur said lightly, "I'll keep Tommy out, he can be too much. How about Ranboo, Schlatt, Charlie, Ted, Alex, Phil, and Kristen? Maybe Nikki, Jaiden, and Hannah too, for the first wave."

"That's a good lineup," you grinned brightly, "I could see this going well. QSMP did just end, after all."

"Yeah, it did just end, so this is our time," Calico mused, returning her head to Wilbur's lap, grinning as he played with her hair, "would you be okay with interacting with Schlatt, though?"

Her question left a thick silence in the air. Your stomach turned at the thought of interacting with him again, you weren't sure at all. If this was something you were going to return to for a career, which it could so easily take off with all of your friends' numbers, you'd have to get used to being in the same space as him.

"I'll do it. I have to bury the hatchet eventually," you grinned to your friends, "just like old times on SMPLive, yaknow?"

"God, I miss SMPLive," Wilbur sighed, "the half-jokes had me weak."

"Ditto," Cal said softly, "I miss it too. It should be something akin to that."

You internally agreed, but a voice in your head said to go for lore. You could use it to subliminally message to Schlatt that you were sorry, that you'd changed from being an annoying college student. Your ambition for greatness got the best of you at the end of your schooling, and you'd hurt everyone in the process. 

You were lucky to have such forgiving friends in Calico and Wilbur. It took years of therapy for you to overcome everything. That was their main condition for returning to friendship, you had to fix your shit. You'd done well to get over yourself and over your ego, thankfully, but sometimes you had bad days.

"Well, we can mix the easygoing comedy with undertones of lore," you offered, "I like the more lore-driven things because the fanbases have fun with the stuff. Plus, they can puzzle it all out, yaknow?"

"I'm the same way," Cal said, closing her eyes, "I enjoy that too. I say we rebrand you, I'll get art of your character Y/N, and then you start streaming again before we set anything in stone. We have lots of schedules to comb through."

"Yeah, let Cal and I handle the harder stuff," Wilbur gave you a smile, "take a week of vacation, see how you enjoy streaming. You still have your old computer, right?"

You sucked in a breath, looking to the machine at your desk in the corner. It was old, outdated... It definitely couldn't stream anymore. You didn't want to ask for help, because computers were horribly expensive...

"So about that," you grinned awkwardly, "it isn't even close to updated for streaming specs. It can barely run vanilla Minecraft."

"Oh, that old," Cal winced, chuckling, "well, I'll get you a new machine then. Starforged or Skytech?"

"Uhhh, why?"

"I have codes for both. Very big discount if I buy them too, you could pay me back. A $1300 machine would be $850."

"No fucking way, Cal," you stared at her in shock, "actually?"

"Yeah. Now answer the question."

"I guess Starforged? Let me know when to Paypal you..."

Calico stifled a yawn, checking the time. It was late, and she was feeling the hands of sleep vying to cover her eyes and pull her in.

"I will. Speaking of, it's late," she grinned, "so we should get going. Thank you for having us, Y/N, I'll keep in touch."

You watched as your friends got up and got their things, heading out without much else. The way they ran things felt so business-like, and you began regretting not taking more business classes in college like they all did. Was this streaming thing really what you wanted, though? Couldn't you do better in a real job, with a real office?

"Hush, Y/N," you scolded yourself as you tiredly punched in the number of your therapist's office to leave a voicemail, "content is a real job now. It'll get you further than this shitty dead-end job, that's for sure."

You left the voicemail, asking for an appointment, and got ready for bed, scrolling absentmindedly through your photos from college. You sighed, and took a deep breath, opening your messages app, choosing a contact. It took you a few tries, but you finally settled on a short and sweet message.

I'm sorry for everything. Can we go back to being friends?