Love From Afar

Fandom & Plans

So the last chapter I tried to publish titled Fandom would not become public no matter how hard I tried, so enjoy this relatively long chapter.

Well, Laurence was right. The entirety of his fanbase started shipping him and this Blue Knight character. Fanfictions sprung up here and there on various websites, fan art was made and tweeted back and forth. It was quite entertaining and Laurence liked to look through those feeds if he was feeling really bored. A good fourth of the Blue Knight's fanbase also started shipping it because they were subscribed to both YouTubers or maybe someone from Laurence's fanbase told them about it.

During this short time, "live streaming" became really popular. Laurence and the Blue Knight had both started live streams but hadn't really done one yet. Laurence wanted to use the Blue Knight's stream as a foundation for his own, so he wouldn't be the first to stream. After a long period of simply waiting, the Blue Knight uploaded first. Of course, Laurence being the diehard fangirl he is just had to watch it. He got on the stream as a guest. He couldn't join on his streaming account, could he? No, that'd be weird.

Very few people were on the stream. It may have been Laurence and maybe ten to twenty others. Very quiet, but enough for a proper audience. Since Blue Knight wasn't really a gamer type of person, he decided to make his first stream all about gaming to see how he would inevitably suck at whatever game was suggested. He had played Minecraft, a part of Undertale, and a bit of Smite before something interesting happened. A group of shippers infiltrated the stream. They began flooding the chat with "Are you ever going to collab with Laurence?!", "Who's your love interest at the moment?!", and questions of similar caliber. He then responded to the camera with "Alright guys, chill out. This is a stream, not a shipping war. Take your ships elsewhere. However, out of courtesy I will indeed answer your question. I've thought about collaborating with many people. Mainly Laurence. Unfortunately if you watch me on a regular basis you should know by now, I'm extremely shy. That's why I've never uploaded a collaborative video."

Laurence exploded AND imploded. He kind of felt bad for the guy since he was really shy and never asked to collab and never accepted collabs. At the same time, he was giddy with excitement since he said he wanted to collaborate with him. He wondered to himself, "I wonder how I could change this stream by getting on my streaming account?" So, he got on his streaming account "laurence.zvahl" (A/N I don't know if this is a real account name and I don't know who runs it if it exists) and logged back onto the stream. Everyone in the chat started flipping the hell out and it was difficult to see what just happened since chat was flooded.

"Chill out guys. What even happened? I was kind of occupied because Medusa was whipping my ass," Blue Knight said. In return, all of the chat responded with something similar to: "LAURENCE JOINED THE STREAM ASDFGHJKL I SHIP ITTT". Blue Knight, deciding he wanted to entertain this thought, paused his games and paid attention to the stream chat for a bit. He checked who all was on, in which he saw the username "laurence.zvahl". Blue Knight was freaking out internally but had to remain cool on the outside since his actions were being recorded. He knew that laurence.zvahl was the real deal, mainly because he was a fan of Laurence for a long time. The chat grew dead silent. There was a lot of tension there and everyone knew it. Who was going to say what next? Laurence PM'd Blue Knight's account saying, "call me (xxx) xxx-xxxx". Blue Knight was still internally dying, but now even moreso. "Do I just call him on my stream?" he thought to himself. Deciding this would be the best chance he had, Blue Knight said to the camera, "Laurence just PM'd me his phone number. I'm going to call him." Still, silence. Blue Knight dialed the number into the phone and put it next to his ear. After a short period of ringing, Laurence picked up and said "Hey."

"Hey..." responded an awkward Blue Knight.

"I've been watching your videos avidly for a while now and I may have heard that you wanted to collab with me. Are you interested?" Laurence said. At this point, both parties were having wars in their minds on how to phrase things, what do I say, what does he think of me, etc.

"I-I watch your videos too... that's how I knew you were the real deal when you logged on. I'd love to collab with you."

The chat exploded and they could practically hear fangirl screams from everywhere in the world.

"Cool, we should plan it out on Friday. Is that cool with you?" Laurence asked.

"S-sure, also, call me Garroth."

"Okay, Garroth," Laurence said. He made sure to roll the 'r's in his name and say it in a very playful tone.

And so it begun.

---  End of Fandom ---

--- Start of Plans ---

   Maybe it was just Laurence that noticed, but his new blonde friend had blushed a bit when they called each other. It was actually pretty cute. When he got off the phone with Garroth and the livestream came to a conclusion, Laurence was pretty exhausted. The responsibilities of an adult still get to him sometimes, and it was good to just take days and do absolutely nothing. That was exactly what he was going to do today. He had about a day before he and Garroth would plan the collab, though the wait would seem like several millennia. He was getting pretty lonely nowadays with only online friends. He was hoping that some of his friends would visit him in LA, but no one there had a particular attachment to him. Lucinda may pop in from time to time using magic, but she never bothered to come down in physical form.

   He then started to entertain one of the most embarrassing thoughts that may have ever crossed his mind. Garroth had said that he watches his videos too. The words echoed in his head over and over again, "I watch your videos too..." Normally, he wouldn't think much of that, but he was not proud of some of the content he uploaded. Namely, he said Garroth's laugh was cute. Cute. Laurence felt his cheeks once again redden in the presence of no one. Hopefully, he hadn't seen it yet. He quickly logged onto his channel on his phone and deleted the video. His fans will go ballistic, surely, but Laurence wasn't popular enough to have copycats. He deleted the only video in which he said anything remotely romantic about Garroth.

   Feeling as though he had averted a crisis, Laurence laid down on his bed for once and slept.

   The next day, he fell into routine except when it came time to watch Blue Knight's video, he instead called Garroth. The call would require vasts amounts of strength from both parties to maintain composure.

   "Hey, Garroth!" Laurence exclaimed in his most cheerful voice.

   "Haha, hello Laurence Zvahl," Garroth said weakly. This wasn't like the spunky Blue Knight.

   "'Zvahl'? Where are we, a conference? Don't be so formal!" Laurence tried to get Garroth to be a little more open with him.

   "Right, sorry. I'm just not really used to talking to internet stars," Garroth said, voice still meek.

   "Internet star? You're just full of surprises. Anyways, why don't I get your Skype?" Laurence decided not to correct Garroth by saying that he had less subscribers.

   "Right right, h-here you go," Garroth said. Shortly after that, Laurence received a text from Garroth with a username. He added the username on his computer.

   "Okay, I'll hang up and call you back on Skype," Laurence said, and then ended the call before anything else was said. Both parties took a moment to breathe.

   They decided to play games online since they didn't live close to each other. The day was to be Saturday. Not much went on besides both of them taking notes and talking business. Laurence decided to nickname Garroth "The Stutter King".

Why am I like this ;c