"Shit," Corpse muttered under his breath as Vanessa's character walked into Electrical to find Greaseball's body at his feet. In an instant, Corpse clicked 'Report.'
"Van just killed Greaseball right in front of me!" Corpse immediately announced.
"What?!" Van's mouth dropped, "No! I walked into Electrical, and Corpse was standing over his body!"
"Here we go," Felix chuckled, Sean joining in with laugh, for Van and Corpse almost always ended up arguing during the game.
"Corpse," Sean started, knowing Corpse's modus operandi, "Care to explain yourself?"
"Yea, Corpse," Van glared daggers at his character on the discussion screen.
Corpse snickered with a blush at the sound of her saying his name, "I did card swipe — I kid you not — like, 15 times before I got it, right? And then I went to Electrical, and I swear Van killed him right in front of me." Felix and Sean each let out a hum of uncertainty. "You have to believe me," Corpse added.
"He self-reported as soon as I walked in," Van said simply, in disbelief that the two crew mates were seriously contemplating on listening to Corpse.
"I don't know, Van," Felix sang, "Corpse could've killed me earlier when I was doing Med Scan, but he didn't."
Corpse smirked, "Yea, if I was Imposter, why wouldn't I have killed the most accusatory person here when I had the chance?"
"So you can use that exact excuse!" Van's temper began rising.
"You think I'm smart enough to do that?" Corpse joked.
"The real question is if these two are dumb enough to believe you," Van muttered.
"Them's is fightin' words," Sean said.
Vanessa was known for getting so absorbed into a game that it wasn't rare for her to end up with a temper. Years ago, she had a channel that never really took off, so she deleted it altogether but not before it caught the eye of Sean who'd invite her to play at times. An entire community only knew her through Sean and by a Discord avatar, three letters, and her rage-quitting, but that's all they really needed to know anyway.
"You know what?" Felix spoke up, his vote being casted, "You're out just for calling me dumb."
Sean laughed but sided with Felix, "Sorry, Van."
"You've gotta be kidding me," Van gave an aggravated groan.
Like clockwork, Sean voted, then Corpse. Her face was blank as she voted for her own self, knowing it was pointless to even bother putting it in for someone else.
"Wait, what?" Felix said as they stared at their screens in confusion; three votes for Van, and one for Corpse.
Corpse's quiet laugh filled the silence, and Van was livid as it showed Corpse had voted for himself before everyone but Corpse's and Rae's monitors emanated a red 'Defeat' screen.
Van absolutely despised Corpse. Every time he was Imposter, he'd find a way to get everyone to gang up on her for one of his kills. It wasn't fun for her to play when it was almost like his goal was to constantly single her out and seemingly mock the fact that he knew it'd get a rise out of her.
"I'm done," Van threw down her headset in anger.
It hit her that she was just someone to laugh at. Sean had told her a few times that his fans loved her, but now she was just wondering if it was because it was so easy to make fun of her. She felt right in deleting all of her old stuff and thought maybe that's what she needed to go back to. Maybe she just wasn't meant for this whole gaming community thing, and she was sick of being the butt of everyone's joke.
For weeks, she ignored the numerous messages begging her to play as well as all of the Discord calls. One thing that stood out to her, though, was Corpse attempting to reach out to her, too. She understood Sean wanting her in the videos for the content, but she didn't understand why Corpse pretended he cared. She figured he just jumped on the bandwagon to not seem as thrilled that she refused to join.
Corpse felt terrible. He was incredibly attracted to Van, for she was different. She didn't put on this high-pitched, innocent front. She actually got so into the game that she'd get angry, but it made her all the more real to him. She gained an entire following without a channel or social media account. She didn't care about any of that, and he admired her for it.
Whenever she joined, his hands would get sweaty, and he'd try so hard to keep his cool. He'd wanted to stand out to her and not just be known as that one guy with the voice. With being fairly shy, he did the only thing he could think of: tease her. It sounded childish, but it was the only way he caught her attention, and it worked because it actually got her to talk to him.
But, now, Corpse's messages and calls were ignored. He couldn't help but feel guilty for thinking his constant jesting may have been the last straw for her, so he mustered up the courage to just come clean. He'd apologize and explain to her that the reason he was so harsh on her was because he just really liked her.
But, that was only if he could reach her because, suddenly, she was never online anymore. He'd check a few times a day and casually bring her up in conversations with Sean, but Sean was also always at a loss about what happened with her as well. Weeks turned into months which turned into years. The girl he could never forget about was nothing but a tiny avatar and an abandoned Discord account.
