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June 4th, 2022

"Jack Douglass we need you on set, get to the main stage, we're rolling the intro in five!"

"All team managers be ready to prepare the cameras after the first segment!"

"Mark Rober go check in on the tech team!" Shouts filled the preparation rooms as Jimmy wiped away the sweat on his forehead. Adjusting his Beast brand pin, he took a deep breath, looking himself up and down in the mirror. The scars... shit the scars! He desperately began looking for any sort of make-up to cover it up.

"Jimmy come on we need you on set!"

"I know just give me a minute Reed."

"We don't have a minute!"

"But the scars are visible-"

"You're fans are like 10 they couldn't care less about the scars now move it." Brushing his manager's hands off his shoulders, he followed him to the main room. Taking a seat on the bright blue and pink couch, Jimmy leaned back and played with a string falling out of the couch to take his mind somewhere else. Alex accompanied him much to Jimmy's relief. For the past week or so the two haven't had all that much of a chance to just relax together and he knew for the next week it wouldn't change so he moved a bit closer.

"Ah can't wait to just sit there and look pretty. My job is so easy!" Alex joked, laughter filling his surroundings.

"Not like you do that all the time anyway."

"Wow am I just a pretty face to you, shaking my head." 

"Ok, loverboys pull yourselves together. We're starting in minus 4 minutes." Chris told them as an employee chased after him with a lint brush and what looked like hair gel.

"Hey! Alex is my platonic soulmate and I'm like 90% sure it's the same for him!"

"Soulmates? What is this a shitty Wattpad?"

"Ok no, first off Wattpad is not the only place for shitty fanfiction, there's also Archive of Our Own. Think I saw a fic there called Breaking something... It was scarily accurate." Shuddering a bit, he returned to talking. "And secondly I dunno man best friends seems a bit too light of a term."

"I suppose you're right. Just never heard it used outside of fanworks."

"Alright, Jimmy we've gotta get through this segment in under an hour. We're starting the first official challenge at 4 PM sharp so if there is any delay on the fan elimination I swear I am going to kill someone." Reed told them as the cameras were set up. They needed footage for both the live stream and the video. "Places we're starting in one minute!" Positioning himself at the forefront, Alex went to his left, grabbing his hand. It took him the slightest by surprise but he reciprocated, letting his stresses fade away at the grasp. With Chris and Chandler to his right and Karl taking the final spot next to Alex, he took his final nerve ridden breath before they got the thumbs up. After over half a year of preparation and hard work, his creation was complete. He could only pray the layers and layers of scuffed glue and tape would hold.

"Hey, there guys welcome to the stream! I see some viewers rolling in good good... Um, I'm here with my co-hosts Chris, Chandler, Quackity, and Karl Jacobs!" They each did some swift introductions as he got to the point. "Everyone here on the stream is in for a surprise. Before we even get into any competitions, the viewers are going to have some choices to make. That's right, we've got a viewer poll! You guys get to pick your favorite teams and the two with the least votes are going to be eliminated before the games even begin. So we're getting rid of not one, not two, but THREE teams today!" With a bit more work the poll was up, thousands of answers coming in within seconds. For just a moment, Jimmy got a breather as the teams fought for the audience's favor. Surprisingly, Grian's team was losing. He thought since Ranboo and Fundy were on it they'd get high placement but they weren't. He supposed the Roughhouse podcast has spiked in popularity, speedrunning 400k in just days before the tournament. The poll went for about 20 minutes as they let people vote from all social platforms and JacksFilms kept everyone entertained with a few rounds of YIAY against the teams (all while doing his best to keep it PG of course)

The White Whales won the poll of course. They had all the Dream Team stans and Skeppy stans on their side. The Green Goats (roughhouse people and AntVenom) followed closely and then The Red Rabbits with the Sleepy Boys. In 8th place was the Pink Parrots since a lot of Lunch Club members were slowly fading into irrelevancy. But Ted and Charlie's fanbase saved them from losing. But the Brown Bats got the least votes. He knew Mumbo Jumbo got some supposed racist tweets resurfaced and Fundy was allegedly involved with an obsessive stan account but both were proven false months ago. Did drama really affect people's views that heavily? Maybe he should get a team of people to do a research project on that Blake and Reed and Sealow would have a field day with that topic- Oh and the Gray Geckos got eliminated. As cool as people considered Vikkstar, he wasn't enough to save them. Once the two teams were being taken back to prepare for an interview with Keemstar, Jimmy did a bit of an outro sequence.

"Alright, guys! Next up is our first actual competition based on the infamous find the button from way back in Minecraft Mondays. Our guest host JacksFilms is going to do another game show with the teams while we go back and get ready. And at 4 PM you'll be able to catch all the remaining influencers live at their own Twitch channels!" The second the camera switched to the ever charismatic Jack, Jimmy left the stage in a rush. Where the fuck was Mark Rober-

"Jimmy you did great out there!"

"Did anything go wrong?"

"No of course not-"

"Don't lie to me."

"...We had some delay on the poll but it's absolutely nothing you should worry about! Go catch your breath. You have time."

"But I-"

"Jimmy." Gently grabbing his shoulders, he met his gaze. "You have time. I'll make sure someone comes gets you with plenty of time to spare."

"...Fine." Heading out of the tech booth, he made his way out to the shoreline. Salt in the air, he could no longer hear panicked shouts and busied movements the tournament threw at him. At first, he made swift dives away from the waves as they lapped up against the sand line, he slowly cared less and less about it messing up his suit. A seagull's cry echoing in the air, he let his shoulders unstiffen.

It was quiet here...

No phantom hands to pull him back into the nightmares his mind grasped to, no reminders of ugly scars that ruined his image as healthy and ok. Just... quiet. His videos are loud. His flashbacks are loud. It wasn't silent, it wasn't loud... it was just perfect.

"Hey Jimmy we've gotta go-" He turned around way too suddenly, Alex quickly stopping. "Sorry didn't mean to scare ya!"

"It's... fine..."

"...You know what we've got a minute, I'll hang out here for a minute."

"Are you sure we can head-"

"It's fine. Reed needs to learn to take a chill pill sometimes." The pair chuckled a bit but the atmosphere fell quiet once more, this time a comforting hand intertwined with his to keep him stable on the dusty ground.

***

The next two days passed with little drama. The first challenge was Find the Button of course. Basically, 200 buttons were scattered across the area and the team with the most won and the one with the least was out. This ended up being AntVenom's team the Green Goats with only 21. The following challenge was Build Battle which instead of Minecraft blocks gave each team a box of assorted Legos and 30 minutes to build the best thing. Captain Sparklez team the Yellow Yaks were out after their large tower ended up crumbling with only minutes to spare. Both were highly received events and the support was outrageous. Anthony Padilla's appearance made people happy but a "surprise" visit from Ian Hecox got the fandom in a storm, old school Smosh fans scrambling for any bits of content they could get. 

That evening, the group of YouTubers was just small enough they could all enjoy a meal together, some employees deciding to help with a barbeque style dinner. It was moments like these that made him appreciate the found family Jimmy was given. The teams intermingled happily. Tommy, Tubbo, Ty, Alex, Zak, and Darryl were all out in the ocean, playing some game that seemed to have Tommy swearing like a sailor (evident by Darryl's constant cries of language.) Fitz and Wilbur seemed to be having some lighthearted argument while the other Misfits, Connor, and Phil laughed at them. Even Techno was having fun, doing his best to be "wingman" along with Pokimane for a very drunk Ninja trying to hit on George. The entire scene laid out before him was rather entertaining. A moment he'd rather not leave-

"Jimmy careful!"

"Huh? What's up Felix?"

"Your hand is on the grill!" Gently pulling his fingers off, he noticed red engravements on his hands he hardly felt.

"Oh."

"Want me to go get some ice and stuff for it?"

"Nah it's fine, not that noticeable."

"You sure?" Felix asked, concern in his tone.

"Mhm!"

"Well... Uh, Marzia wanted to know if we could bring Harshita here for dinner."

"Of course! She should meet the others."

"Great, I'll go get them." A few minutes passed and the trio returned and Harshita quickly went exploring on her own. The people around were mostly very tall making her feel a bit intimidated to try to talk to anyone. None of them probably knew any Hindi anyways. However one of them noticed her. Though she didn't fully understand what he was saying, he seemed confused at her presence. 

"Not good with English." She told him in an attempt to keep big words out of the conversation.

"Who are you with?"

"Felix and Marzia!"

"Well I'm Schlatt, want me to take you back to them?"

"Sh... sh... Latt. Latt, ride on shoulders?" She quickly realized maybe he wouldn't wanna do that. Felix was someone she knew pretty well, unlike this complete stranger. But to her bewilderment, he chuckled and nodded, sweeping her off her feet. She felt way taller than she did on Felix's shoulders!

"Hold on ok?" Latt got a running start along the shoreline making her laugh.

"Latt fun Latt fun!" She cheered as he returned her a very worried Mariza and Felix. They exchanged in conversation she didn't quite understand until Felix turned back to her. "Latt took me home!" Felix smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

...?

Home?

He was home?

"Who are you again?"

"Jschlatt. Though you can just call me Johnathan."

"Oh right! Tommy has told me good things about you." She appeared to be motioning she wanted to go up again. 

"Um, can I?" He asked to which Felix replied.

"Ya of course." Schlatt was still a bit confused about who this girl was and why she was with Pewds but he decided he'd talk to him about it over dinner. Schlatt took Harshita around to meet everyone. The smell of the incredibly American burgers Harshita had grown to love filled the air. Giving Harshita back to Felix, he headed out to the shoreline to help Wilbur get the kids back for dinner.

"EVERYONE GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE BEFORE THE FOOD GETS COLD!" Wilbur's tone was very lighthearted but still resulted in a "Language!" from out in the water. Laughing, the half a dozen came stumbling out, tripping a bit over the heavy waves. Wilbur draped a towel around Tommy's shoulders, as did Schlatt for Tubbo and Ty.

"Wait you didn't get ME a towel?" Alex sarcastically asked.

"No pumpkin spice, go ask Jimmy or somethin' I dunno." He dropped his jaw in fake offense.

"Wow, shaking my head right now! After you call me pumpkin spice to..." Skeppy and Bad headed out to look for towels, now accompanied by Alex. 

"Ugh, Wilbur there's sand and shit in my hair!" Tommy complained, holding the towel close as the wind picked up.

"Hang on problem child." The brunette told him as he began to knead his hand through the tuft of the blond hair, tiny clumps of damp sand left on Wilbur's hand in the wake.

"Oi, I'm not a fuckin' problem child! I'm a big man!" The remaining 5 returned back to the campfire that everyone was eating around, only to see a scene Tommy didn't quite feel he needed to. A drunkard's voice boomed above the others as he laid himself out over Techno's lap.

"Hey, Techie have I ever told you how-" He burst out into violent coughing and burping. "How cute you look with glasses~"

"Tyler Ninja Fortnite Richard Blevins... you are a disappointment to the human race as a whole."

"I'll just take Ninja back to his trailer." David Dobrik replied with a sigh.

"Thank you finally!" Techno added, relieved for the very drunk man to be gone.

"Hey, you doin' alright there Blade?"

"Oh god, no Tommy. Ninja's cool and all but never give him alcohol." Laughing, everyone gathered around the open flames with plates of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and other assorted barbeque foods.

With lemonade glazed breaths, the YouTubers told stories of then and now until the moon reached its peak at the top of the sky. Some of them had already returned to their trailers but Techno's team, Schlatt's team, Niki, Jimmy, and Felix were still awake. Phil, deciding to be the responsible one and noticing the youngest ones had fallen asleep called it for the night.

"Welp I guess we should all head back, cya bright and early!" 

"Need me to wake up Tommy?" Techno asked accompanied with a yawn.

"Nah I'll carry him," Wilbur replied, carefully picking up the lanky teen with just enough consciousness to hug around his shoulders and lower neck for grip. 

"Wilby...?"

"Go back to sleep, I've got you." His only answer was humming softly and wrap his legs around his stomach.

"Oh my god, he's like a sloth..." Phil smirked in the background, phone in hand.

"Are you recording?!?!"

"The fandom wants 4/4 SBI content, well they can have it!"

"Ew imagine being Philza Minecraft and being half old man half Twitter white girl."

"Wow can't believe you'd say that." Back in the trailer, the clip Phil got was in fact not circulating Twitter since Wilbur said they could capitalize on it's release. As 3/4th of the quad got ready for bed, mentally preparing for the next competition ahead of them, Jimmy was back at his trailer. While Chandler, Karl, and Alex were asleep, he was surprised to see Chris still awake.

"What ya scrolling through."

"Reddit."

"Of course you are." Taking a seat next to his friend, the two began looking through the top memes on r/MrBeast and r/MrBeastGaming. 

"Ooh someone posted an edit of you."

"Those things? I never quite understood them-" The earbud he put in swiftly was taken out when all too familar dialogue could be heard.

"No... no... NO! IF YOU WANT HIM YOU'RE GOING THROUGH ME FIRST!"

"Oh that's fucked up." The 'edit' quickly transistioned into just the clip of him killing Dawood. Something he would've much rather not seen. "I uh... I'll ban the user and delete the post ok-"

"I'm going to bed."

"Jimmy talk to me-"

"Goodnight Chris." The faint golden light dissipated. Chris bit his tongue. Lately he's been wanting answers from him. He only seems to confine in Alex these days. He wasn't jealous or anything! But Jimmy and him have been through so much. They were best friends in school, he was the one who finally got Jimmy to talk after he mute in middle school and Jimmy always helped him through his anxiety attacks. Of course Chris was happy Jimmy found someone else to trust with his traumas and fears but...

He always assumed he'd be number one on that list...

~~~