Fire Meet Gasoline || Karl Jacobs

eight

quackity added badboyhalo to the chat
quackity added nad1a.game3s to the chat

karljacobs
are we all stream ready?

quackity
yes sir

dream
yeah

george404
yessir

badboyhalo
yes!

nad1a.gam3s
ig

karljacobs
alr, im un-deafening

Karl undeafened and chaos ensued.

"Estás loca, Nadia!" Alex screamed.

"Muere pedazo de mierda!" She screamed back.

"And I'm gonna get banned." Karl sighed.

"Te odio, Nadia." Alex said with a huff.

"Boo hoo, I hate you too." Nadia said, finally speaking in a language everyone could understand fluently and not just here and there snippets. "Let's get on with this stupid ass game."

"Such a stupid game that you wanted to play so badly." Alex quipped. Karl was already close to being fed up with their arguing and they weren't even five minutes in yet. He was doubting he'd be able to keep up an act for the entirety of the stream. The group played endless rounds of jackbox.

Alex was either completely hilarious or completely not, never in the middle. Nick's were funny, but he only ever won a few times. Karl started giving up halfway through and just put things for the giggles. George was fucking around the entire time. Dream's jokes were almost entirely dnf centered. Bad spent almost the entire time yelling language and breaking up fights between Alex and Nadia.

Nadia though, every single answer pertained to hating on Karl. Every single answer had something to do with Karl. It wasn't an issue for Karl, he kept his cool. He kept telling himself it was self defense, just like Nick suggested to him. Although, it didn't take long for Nadia to get under his skin. It didn't take long for the one little shred of hope from earlier to burn and blow away like ash.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Karl whispered, voice high enough that Nick could hear him clearly, but low enough it wouldn't pick up on stream. He walked out and to the bathroom in the hallway, opting for some semblance of privacy.

He sighed as soon as the door clicked close, finally getting away from everything. All the comments, all of the viewers half agreeing with Nadia and the other half fighting with those who agreed with Nadia, the entirety of the group. Just him, himself, and his reflection in the mirror showing so much more exhaustion than he earlier assumed.

Karl turned the faucet to cold with a squeak of the handle, cupping his hands under the water and splashing the water over his face. He was as exhausted as he looked, but not physically. If he was honest, he'd say his body was buzzing with life, but he was mentally and emotionally drained of keeping up this act of being fine and happy all the damn time. Sometimes, he just needed a break.

Karl stared at himself in the mirror, letting the water trail down his face and drip off of his chin into the sink. He studied the dark and prominent circles under his eyes, his lips that were going a tad red from biting the inside of them, his eyes a bit bloodshot from staring at screens all day. He looked and he studied until all he saw was a stranger in the mirror he could no longer identify as himself.

A knock on the door made him jump. He quickly turned off the sink and opened the door. Nick glanced him over before his face morphed into a look of confusion.

"Why are you wet?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

"I just splashed my face with water." Karl laughed, his facade coming up within seconds so he didn't worry Nick.

"Alright, well I ended stream. Nadia left. Clay and George are fighting. Bad is trying to break them up. Alex was asking for you." Nick said, a soft smile playing on his face. Karl couldn't help but smile back.

Nick flipped the light off and walked in front of Karl to his room. Karl took a silent breath as he followed, trying to keep his thoughts inside his head. The door creaked open and Lana jumped off of Karl's chair to greet him. He brightened, picking up the frail gray cat. He sat back down and tuned everything out. still needing a minute or two to gather himself. Lana was helping.

"Karl, can I ask you a favor?" Alex asked. Karl lifted his head and nodded slightly. "Can Nadia stay with you for a few days or so?"

What the fuck.