Chapter Text
It's been a good two weeks since you and Apple begun to play AtH together during your free time. For these two weeks the two of you have been glued to the hip, in a figurative sense, whenever it was possible. The two of you have even been playing without Kuroo there to be your bridge. You had to say that it was quite easy to talk to Apple despite only knowing him for such a short period of time, and playing with him was quite pleasant! He was calm and calculating, it made playing with him really easy. It sort of reminded you of Kodzuken himself at times! Plus this dude was a total whale, he had all sorts of items that you would never see as a complete f2p.
Aside from all that though you found his use of a voice changer to be quite curious, and how odd. Despite that you respected his decision, you never know what someone is going through, stranger danger and all. You'd even thought of doing the same thing but it's kind of a little too late for that… and it's quite the hassle to set up too!
"Dodge!" Apple yells out, you do as your told and do a barrel roll away from the attack, nearly hitting you.
This time you had your VR headset on, the one that Apple had bought for you. You don't really use it as often as you thought you would when you first got it. Hell, the only game that you had on the thing was AtH, thinking about it now maybe it would be a good idea to try and get some more games to use for your headset so it doesn't just garner dust inside of your cabinet. With your VR set on you were bound to look a little silly while doing all these funny moves that you'd only be seeing done in movies or in shows.
You sigh exasperatedly, "holy hell that was a close call!"
The two of you have been at it for a few hours, going through one boss to another in a boss rush frenzy, it was hella addictive. On any other day this would've been a terrible decision, you would've had some assignments that would be due the day before, or you had plans to meet up with Kuroo to play some volleyball with him and the gang again. But it was a saturday night, the perfect time, more than ever, to be playing Across the Horizon with Apple.
The two of you had geared yourselves up to fight this ginormous air dragon with scales that were impenetrable to any sort of magic attack so it left Apple pondering and strategizing for the both of you. You had to say it again but, it was nice having Apple in your party. He was such a seasoned player, perhaps hardened by the years of MMORPGs he must've played before.
The boss then swung its wings, this created a sort of wind storm, the land it touched was pierced and sliced in half. You raised your shield to defend yourself, not being fast enough to dodge such a big attack you had no other option but to do so.
As the wind hit your shield you withstood it for a few seconds before you were knocked into the air, causing you to go flying. You screamed, almost hurling at the motion sickness that the VR was causing to you. Curse this…
And then your gaze steadies, you realize that Apple had caught you, the two of you now in the air, all steady, all right.
"Are you okay?" He said, cradling you like an infant in one hand.
"Y-Yeah…" You muttered to yourself. You didn't want to seem so weak in front of him. "Would you like, hold me any other way?"
His avatar's eyes blink a couple times, perhaps mimicking the real person behind the monitor before he finally understood what you mean. "Oh, right. Sure."
Slowly he readjusts his grip on you, this time his hand laid on your waist, this helped support you as the two of you floated in the air. Your heart hammered in your chest, this wasn't real, but you could almost feel his hand on your waist. Almost.
"Got a plan?" He asked you, staff in one hand creating a barrier that kept the two of you safe from attacks, when it failed he immediately flew upwards east side, keeping you close to the ceiling but not enough to trap the two of you, it was enough to give you options.
"Maybe..! Try to get us closer to the dragon. I wanna try something."
"Are you crazy!?"
"Maybe I am!" When he got the two of you closer to the dragon you said, "Now drop me!"
You felt his grip tighten on your waist. Squeezing it lightly before dropping you like you wanted. You began to free fall all the way down, with your shield raised up you knock onto the dragon's spine, causing the dragon to collapse, its flying unsteady as it begins its descent down. It comes down with a crash.
Not wanting to give it an opportunity to get back up you try to do something you've never done before. With FOUL FEEDER you were able to pry off any enemy, but with this boss it seemed almost impossible. So, instead. Why don't you try to go traditional?
You sink your teeth into the rancid flesh of the Dragon, it screeches out in pain as I tear it's skin off piece by piece, limb after limb, until the Dragon dissipated into a sparkle of purple.
A chest appears, a mark that meant that the two of you had won.
"We won!" You cheered as you stood up from the wing that you had been sitting on, watching it disappear with the rest of its body. You looked to Apple for approval and you are meant with a dumbfounded Apple who was still floating up in the air.
He lowered himself down to the ground, slowly. As if being in the air had been more stable than if he were to be on the ground.
"Apple?" You asked him concerned. He hadn't spoken, his face remained the same before he shook it away and chuckled to himself.
"You're quite the interesting character. Super OP."
You tilt your head, you weren't OP at all. In fact, all of that came from an anime you watched when you were younger, there was nothing original about what you'd just done.
"You think so..?" You said it so carefully, you didn't deserve the praise that you'd just gotten. But I mean, c'mon! You literally just defeated a dragon all on your own even in a team setting, and someone who has more OP loot and a stacked inventory is literally called you the OP one out of the two of you. You must've done great!
"I mean it, I like interesting things."
"What does that mean?"
"Oh, well… You know." He tries to walk away from you, as if that would do anything but the two of you were in a group call together so it was nothing but dramatical effect.
"Come back here! Apple!"
He chuckles and goes into a full sprint.
"Apple, you know I can't run fast! Appleeeee!!"
It was Wednesday now, the week after your last session with Apple. When the two of you had last played together. With school and Apple's busy schedule it was hard to find a day where the two of you could consistently meet up.
So, instead you decided to have Apple join you on stream! The people were already more than acquainted with Apple, he interacted a lot in chat, very friendly with the regulars and is pretty much loved and hated(lovingly) by the community.
When you gave the idea of Apple he seemed more than willing to join. He said:
"Oh, that me? Pure Aura."
When you asked him he replied so quickly it was like he was waiting for you to ask him the question for as long as you've known him, which isn't actually that long ago. This guy had this sixth sense that you just couldn't quite grasp. He was truly a strange one, that much is certain.
You didn't exactly know what Apple did, all you knew was that he made big amounts of money that could sustain his whale lifestyle. You once tried to ask Apple himself but he completely brushed it off like water off his back. You also tried to ask Kuroo but Kuroo just said to ask Apple himself, so it was really going nowhere with that topic, so you decided to drop it all together. It wasn't really your business anyways.
You were busy fixing up your monitor in order to capture whats going on in your VR set. You had decided that it would be much better if you used VR when playing the game, it was a lot better in quality than it was on pc, for some reason that you still had no idea. Hell, you weren't even sure how the pc version can manage a turnbased gameplay while VR has you fighting for your life.
You look towards the clock on your computer, it was almost time to stream. So, you pressed start live and put on a song that'll play for 5 minutes while you get Apple ready on call and your VR set on your neck to easily place it on your face later on, chat began to blow up with comments, they were all saying hi and welcoming one another to the stream. It was always so warm and comforting to see.
When the music ended you opened your camera, you had two different cameras set up for today and for the rest of your AtH gameplays. One is set up to your chair, you call that one the chair camera, and another that shows your entire room, this was the VR cam, it'll be the camera you'll use for AtH gameplay.
"Hey hey hey everybody!" You waved to the people in chat who gave a "hey" or a "hi" back. You sat down on your computer chair, right now was chat time. You made sure that you spoke with chat for at least 5 minutes before getting into playing the game. It would be very rude to ignore chat the entire time while you played, it was basic etiquette for all streamers, even Kodzuken does at least 15 minutes full of yapping before starting!
You chuckled as people began to come into stream, some of them were new faces, those ones you said hi and welcomed with open arms, while others were regulars, those ones you were more into playfully teasing, it went both ways. Neither side were ever openly mean! But sometimes there would be a lingering new person who thought that you were being mean for some reason.
Unfortunately there was someone like that in today's stream.
"Hey, could you like step off HallingStones rq? Ik ur the streamer but ur so rude!!" a user named AuroIsAwesome commented, it didn't get buried immediately and you saw plenty of other people replying to this person with clarification. However that comment caught you quite off guard, it left you speechless, how were you supposed to reply to that?
Luckily for you your mods were already ready for that comment, deleting it before you could even address it. It's fine, you tell yourself. It's probably just a one time thing. However, our agenda for today was far more pressing than a little side comment!
"So, today we're going to have a special guest!" You paused, letting it simmer in the air before continuing. "You guys must be wondering where Apple is. He's become a regular here in our channel and is often one of the first people in chat. But he isn't in chat today! Instead, he's here…"
A discord call ping sounds on stream.
"On stream!"
A sudden burst of "What!?", "Luckyyy!!" and "WTF!?!?" swarmed throughout the chat. You hadn't anticipated that this would be such a big deal, Apple was just a random that came in one day, you didn't realize how much of an impact he had.
"Hi." Apple said, his very obvious voice changer very present, it made the chat laugh and comment at it. They were saying how Apple was such a shy person that he needed a voice changer, but Apple didn't seem to mind it all, maybe he didn't have chat on, you weren't sure.
"So, Apple!" You said, "What are we playing?"
He chuckles, "as if it weren't obvious with that VR set on your neck."
So he did have stream on, "Hey! Rudeeee… anyways we're playing AtH! I mean, it's also in my stream title is it not?"
"It's not."
"You're kidding!?" You quickly checked stream and found that it was on your title. "Appleeeee!!!"
He chuckles again, this guy was such a cheat!
You groan and continue to talk to chat anyways. "Okay chat we're gonna be playing AtH, but instead of just working together to fight bosses we're going to do a boss rush competition! Can a f2p beat a full-time whale!? Let's find out!"
That had the whole chat explode with love and support for the both of you. However it seemed like there was some trash talk going on between chat, they've begun to form factions between them, the mods were the ones that influenced for that to happen as they started a vote on who would win. So far, it's in Apple's favor.
"Hey, you're my chat! Why are most of you on Apple's side… I'll start crying… Three, two, just kidding! You guys are free to do what you want, just remember that this is all in good fun!"
With that last comment you moved the camera to be the one for your room setup and got up from your chair. "Ready?" You asked Apple as you put on your VR headset. "Chat can you see this?" You then asked chat, who gives you the positive feedback you needed.
"Already in game and ready." Apple responded, you opened up your game and immediately teleported towards where he was. The first boss, that being the Siren. A being that was half bird half person, its feathery bottom was crouched over what seemed to be eggs. This boss is known for its agility and very light attack style.
You ready up your shield, knowing that you were far slower than both Apple and the Siren you opted to take it slow, check its patterns and find an opening. You nod to Apple, who nods back, starting the battle between them. Chat in the background cheers for both parties.
You move in slowly, letting each of its attacks hit your shield. The closer you got the better, this way you would be able to get in a hit, perhaps even use FOUL FEEDER on it. It only used its tail to hit your shield, you would need a full body attack to at least get FOUL FEEDER to activate.
Apple on the other hand was floating above the Siren, trying to find an opening, using you as bait. You knew that and made sure that he would never get that opening by waiting, only one can play at that game and it sure as heck would be you.
The Siren continued to attack you, but to no avail. Each time you think it would hit you with its full body it takes a step back and instead uses its tail on you. That's when you got the brilliant idea.
You waited for it to hit your shield once more, but when it takes a step back you take that as your opportunity, you leap for its legs and take a deep bite at it.
The Siren wails loudly, but you don't let go, you continue to bite deeper and deeper into its skin until it stops moving. But just as you were savoring each bite, which meant that it was a bite closer to dying Apple takes this as his time to shine and with a bolt of lightning he takes out the Siren, efficiently killing it as it dissolves into particles.
You groaned in good play. "Good game!" You looked up at the descending Apple.
"You too. I wouldn't have been able to get a clear shot if you hadn't knocked it down."
"That's the first boss down! It's 0-1."
"I think you mean 1-0."
"Anyways, keep cheering us on chat!"
The two of your continued on for another 3 bosses, this game had plenty of bosses to kill so the two of you took your time with each one. Luckily despite it being an open world game the bosses were done per party so each party didn't have to fight one another for the kill.
After the 3 bosses you two took it as a good time to take a break between the fighting and instead use it as time to interact with chat. Everyone seemed to be having a fun time, it seemed that when the two of you hadn't been looking at chat they'd been thinking up for a duo name for the two of you. The chat seemed to have gotten to a consensus that your duo name would be AppleJuice. You thought it was cute, Apple seemed indifferent to it but seemed to encourage it's use.
But as the chat was slowing down it seemed as though there were a few naysayers in the chat that didn't seem to approve of you, despite it being your stream. You were lucky to have mods that were quick enough to dissapate the negative comments but one of them stuck out to you.
It was from the same guy from a while ago AuroIsAwesome, you knew a guy named Auro in game, maybe it was the same person but this guy was extra mean, he said:
"Man why are you even a streamer bro? ur suck at this game!!"
"Uhm…" You hesitated once more, but this time it seemed as though Apple had sensed your unease as he walked over to you in game and looked over at your arm that displayed your chat.
"What's your deal, dude?" he began, he looks straight at you. "Ban that guy, now."
You hesitated again, but Apple wasn't having it, so he goes off. "You got a ego for a guy who's hiding behind a great streamer's name. You gotta be so fucking jobless to be taking up stink like that to someone who's completely leveling the playing field for anyone playing the game!!"
The chat completely backs him up, telling the guy to suck it up and stop being such a bully. They went on for another 5 minutes of telling the guy off before they could go back to being normal.
"Thanks guys…" You breathed out a sigh of relief that you didn't even know you were holding. "I think… I might end it here for tonight."
You looked toward Apple who nods, "do what you need to do."
So, after a little bit, saying goodbye to both chat and Apple you get out of the room that was slowly becoming too stuffy to be in and ran to the bathroom. You began to cry your heart out, at the meanness of that guy, at the loving support of the community you've built up. There was just so much going on in your heart and in your mind for you to just continue on.
Maybe a nice walk would do you some good.
You take a hat, put on a jacket and walked into the chilly night.