Most people would argue that playing video games was meant to calm you down. It's supposed to be a way to destress after a long day at work, a way to get out any negative emotions that might've built up over time. For Mr Marin Dupain-Cheng, it was the exact opposite at the moment.
he was a twitch streamer, arguably a pretty popular one. It started as a way to just get away from designing for a bit during the week - he'd stream four times a week and just hang out. Then when he revealed himself to be MDC, and some of his fans found the stream, it blew up. he had to get mods, make a discord server, it was a lot.
Right now he was playing Dead by Daylight with his viewers, and honestly it wasn't going well for him. Some of his viewers weren't the best at the game - not that he would ever tell them that. Instead he was pretending he was all calm and collected for the time being; he would complain in mod vc later about the matches he was in anyways.
Alright guys, that's gonna have to do it for this stream," he said, turning to his screen and enlarging himself. "Until next time!" he smiled wide and waved at he viewers as the stream closed out before sighing heavily and leaning back in his chair.
he joined the mod chat, sighing deeply and letting out a yawn. "Hey Tiana he said, feeling the exhaustion from the day finally hit him. Before his stream he'd been working on some new designs for commissions and sent those out for the clients to review.
Hey Mari," she answered, absentmindedly monitoring the discord channel. They generally had to ban this one person's alternate account once or twice a month because they consistently joined to harass Marin.
Anything exciting happening?" he asked, leaning back in his chair and scrolling on his phone.
Not even remotely," he told her, smiling at that. It was a rare day for him where he didn't have to handle tickets from the users on the server, but he wouldn't change it for the world. I mean, it just so happens that he became a mod for his favorite fashion designer before she outed who she was to the world.
Did that happen to have anything to do with the bat-computer in his basement that he uses for his own stalkerish tendencies? Potentially. But he'd never tell her that. She dealt with enough bullshit from everyone around her as it was. Mari didn't need to know that his starting as a mod was entirely for himself instead of wanting to genuinely help her.
Besides, as it is now he's pretty sure she's his best friend. They spend nearly every night together, him working more than any of the other mods in the server. It certainly helps that she only ever streams at night her time, which is early afternoon for him and before he has any type of patrol to go to.
"How're things on your end?" she asked, leaning heavily on her chair now.
"Eh, they're alright. One of my brothers is raging war against the others so I'm just trying to stay out of it," he said, remembering how Damian had chased Jason around the dining room table with a steak knife earlier during lunch. He could not wait until school was back in session and he was free from the murderous tendencies for at least eight hours a day.
Mari giggled at that, shaking his head. "I can't even imagine having as many siblings as you do," he said.he used to want a big giant family, but right about now he was seeing the benefits of having such a small one.
"You have no idea," she said, pausing for a moment to send someone a quick warning and hide a message that was self-promoting. "Are you all set for the move yet?"
Marin hummed, shrugging his shoulders. "A bit. Most everything non-essential is packed up for either being sold or given away to a shelter. I'm mainly just going to be shipping over some of my supplies, my PC and some other things. You'll still be coming over to help me with my new setup, right?"
Marinette was all set to move to Metropolis at the end of the week and quite honestly it was terrifying. She'd wanted to be somewhere that was still close to the Fashion world while also being out of Paris. The Parisians were still too focused on Gabriel Agreste in her opinion, regardless of his arrest as Hawkmoth several years ago. So, after discussing it a lot with Tim and her parents she ended up picking Metropolis. At least there would be a friendly face waiting for her there.
he was ecstatic to be meeting her in person. Ever since he'd started homeschooling in lycee and blocked out the majority of his old class, he'd had a difficult time making friends. But him and Tiana just seemed to click from the moment she joined his discord server. They had spent so many nights just talking - both of them seemingly having insomnia gave them tons of extra time to talk. He'd also helped her perfect her English, and vice versa with his French. he was so happy she'd met him. She knew more about him than his parents did at this point.
"I'll be at the airport with my brother's car to help you get to the building and then get settled in. We'll have the whole weekend to get some serious work in unpacking," he told her, nearly vibrating in his seat at the thought.
"Awesome," Mari said, smiling at his discord server where his little username sat with hers in VC. "I'm really looking forward to meeting you in person for the first time."
"Me too," she told her. "Get some sleep, Mari. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Could she be a serial killer playing the long game who would just kill her as soon as they got out of the airport? Potentially. But Mari liked to think he knew Tiana a little better than that. At this point, he was pretty sure they were at a minimum platonic soulmates - best friends for life.
When he stepped foot past customs and saw the really cute girl holding up the sign with his name, he knew she was screwed. "Shit, she's so cute," she muttered, eying his dimples and her long black hair. Maybe not platonic soul mates, he thought to himself, walking over to her as quickly as he could with his suitcases in tow.
I do not know what to name Tim, so this is the name Tiana
