Chapter Text
It had started out as their shenanigans always did. Beverly Katz, Jimmy Price, and Brian Zeller were looking over a body. The idle talk that filled the gaps between gruesome and discoveries turned to a strange topic.
"I'm just saying, I don't know how anyone could make Sims that look that real." Beverly mused as she checked the fingernails of the corpse, Jimmy snorted.
"Yeah, and have you seen those violent mods? They look like cartoons! It's like, if you're gonna make your Sims realistic why even bother?" He giggled to himself, Beverly raised an eyebrow as she looked at her tool.
"Well, I would hope it wouldn't look too real. Why would someone even know what that kind of gore looks like?" She dropped whatever she found into a dish and went to the next nail. Brian chipped in.
"I don't know, people in true crime communities know a strange amount. Wouldn't be surprised if our friend Ms. Lounds had been part of it." He had been looking at some blunt trauma "God, can barely stomach it for money sometimes, how could anyone look at this for fun?"
"Don't know. Let's talk about something else," Beverly looked up at Brian, "What games do you like?" Brian raised his brows.
"Video games?"
"It's what we were just talking about, answer the question." She shook her head as she ducked back down.
"Well, I do love a good multiple ending game."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. 'Life is Strange' is my favorite."
Jimmy scoffed.
"What, too high and mighty for a beautiful game with an emotional ending?" Brian crossed his arms. Jimmy put his arms up defensively.
"No, nothing like that! Just… isn't 'Life is Strange' about a bunch of teenagers?"
"They're more than teenagers! One has time travel powers and the other is trying to solve the case of her missing girlfriend!"
"Woah, man. Don't gotta get all defensive." Beverly stood back, seemingly finished with what she needed to do. "If it's any consolation, one of my favorite games is 'Detroit: Become Human'. Can't even get into some of the stuff wrong with it."
"Wait, no way. Have you played it?"
"Not yet, but I bought myself a copy for my birthday."
"Oh, man. Can I play it with you?"
"Uh, sure. Jimmy, you wanna play too?"
"Sure! Always down to hang with the gang."
"That sounded cooler in your head, didn't it?"
"Yeah."
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They decided Friday night after work they'd all head to Beverly's house for pizza and games.
"Alright, Beverino! Order us some Papa John's and let's get this show on the road!" Brian clapped his hands as he walked into the threshold of Beverly's apartment.
"Uh-uh. You're paying for pizza."
"What? That wasn't part of the deal!"
"The 'deal' was that I was gonna let you play my $40 video game. I'd say you buying us pizza is a fair trade." Beverly turned on her Playstation before plopping down on her couch. Brian went to the kitchen.
"Are we allowed to throw ourselves onto your couch like that?" Jimmy teased.
"Absolutely not."
"Got it." Jimmy snapped a finger gun at Beverly before carefully sitting down next to her. Brian peeked his head from the kitchen archway, a finger plugging one of his ears and a phone held to his other.
"What kind of pizza do you guys want?"
"Pepperoni!-"
"-Hawaiian!"
Beverly looked at Jimmy.
"Hawaiian?"
"Ham and pineapple on pizza is good, alright!"
Brian shook his head heading back into the kitchen.
"Can I have a large cheese?"
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"No! Brian, pick up the fish!"
"It's not like it's important!"
"Actually, according to this walkthrough-"
"Jimmy, spoil anything and I swear to god-"
"Got it."
No less than 20 minutes into the game and the bickering had begun. It was a multiple choice game, and having 3 people deciding made it more difficult.
"No, check the counter! There's an ipad!"
"Could I please just play the game! There's two other playable characters, we can just trade."
"...fine."
Once Brian finished playing with Connor and it switched to Kara the controller was passed to Jimmy.
"Thanks for letting me play next, Bev."
"Oh hush, it's only because I wanna lead a revolution."
"Wait, there's a revolution?"
"Mister Walk-through doesn't know the largest plot point in the game?"
"Shut up, Brian. We'll get there eventually, just play the game."
Once Beverly played for a while and the controller was passed a couple more times Jimmy began to yawn.
"Awhh. I think i'm gonna head out soon, gotta wake up early tomorrow." He stood up, stretching as he did. Beverly raised an eyebrow.
"What for?"
"I, uhhh- gotta meet someone for brunch."
"Oh, like a date?"
"Sure, whatever. Either way I gotta go."
"Fine. Night, Brian."
"Have a good night, Brian!"
"Night guys!"
The door shut behind him and Beverly stood up.
"Well, are you heading soon?"
"Yeah, I gotta get my full 8 hours. You know how it is."
"Sure?"
"Well, 'night, Bev."
"Goodnight."
She shut off the Playstation and threw away the empty pizza box.
'that was more fun than I thought it'd be.' Beverly thought as she spat out her toothpaste, 'have to play more often.'
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"Have you guys ever heard of 'Twitch'?" It was sudden, coming from Jimmy as he sampled the newest victim's fingerprints.
"The thing people do? Or…?" Beverly looked up from the gravel she had been inspecting, eyebrow raised.
"Oh, I've heard of it! It's that place people play games on." Brian snapped his finger upon recognition, bouncing on his toes a bit.
"Yeah! They live stream themselves playing games, and some people make really good money doing it." Jimmy seemed excited someone besides him knew what he was talking about for once.
"Are you suggesting something?"
"Just that we all had such fun playing video games last time-"
"-Debatable-"
"Why don't we try and make some extra ~moolah~ on the side?" Jimmy seemed genuinely excited at the idea, and Brian seemed pretty on board. It's not like it would hurt…
"Sure, why not?"
"Awesome! We just need a channel name."
The trio stood around the corpse, taking a minute to think as they worked.
"What about something forensics related?" Brian asked.
"Do we really wanna mix work and hobbies?" Bev asked in return.
"Ok, well, what's something wrong all have in common?" Jimmy was next.
"...forensics."
"Ok, what about video games?"
"We are talking in a circle, dear god." Bev face palmed, sighing as she began to change her now contaminated gloves.
"Ok, ok... how about… 'SassyScience'?" Jimmy offered with mini jazz hands.
"Wouldn't we be playing video games?" Bev returned to her table.
"Yeah, I'm no Matpat."
"Fair."
"Um, what about- hell, I don't know." They were really at their wits end.
"Maybe we should all make separate accounts for now? We can stream together but it'd probably be easier to figure it out alone." Jimmy offered.
"Yeah, probably."
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After much deliberation, Beverly finally decided that she'd name her channel after something related to her not forensics related hobbies. Like violin or something. Maybe a pun on her last name? Katz had a lot of potential… but knowing the guys they'd do something similar. Damn, this was harder than she thought it would be.
Giving up, Beverly pulled up a username generator and sighed at the result.
"What does 'bevprofess' even mean?"
She rolled her eyes, putting away her phone. Back to the drawing board.
Something with Katz definitely made sense, but maybe not such an obvious pun
… something like "Outofthebag". It was already a common phrase so it rolled off the tongue. It'd be easy to remember.
'yeah,,' Beverly thought, relaxing onto her couch for a nap, 'that'll do.'.
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Wednesday after work the trio went out for drinks.
"So, you guys come up with your names?" Brian asked as he fiddled with a straw wrapper.
"Yes! I'm stuck between two, was hoping I could get your guy's opinion?" Jimmy questioned.
"Go for it." Beverly blew her own straw wrapper at Brian.
"I'm stuck between 'DabsterPrice' and 'ThePriceisJim'." He smiled, waiting for his friend's opinion. Brian swatted the wrapper and looked to him.
"Dabster as in… the dance move?"
"Oh! No, no. Dabster is an old English word for someone who is especially skilled." Jimmy explained, Beverly snorted.
"And you think the internet will get that?"
"They get dapper! Why would they get dabster?"
"Because it sounds like you're saying you dab a lot? I don't know, the internet is dumb." Jimmy sighed.
"Well, how about 'ThePriceisJim'?"
"Would you get copyrighted by 'The Price is Right'?" Beverly asked.
"I don't think so?"
"Then I like that one better."
"Great! What about you, Brian?"
"Well, I have a couple."
"Oh God, you both are so indecisive."
"Shh. I'm thinking either 'OverZellous' or 'Zellbent'."
"You guys love your puns, don't you?" Beverly smirked at her friends, they could be annoying but they were themselves.
"I do. And I'm not ashamed to admit it."
"Ok, well, mine's a pun too." She admitted.
"Ha! No one is immune!"
"Oh, shut up."
"So, what is it?"
"I think I've settled on 'Outofthebag'."
"Oh, because your last name-"
"Your last name is Katz!" Jimmy finished for Brian.
"Yep." Beverly's smirk broke into a smile, they really were two halves of a whole idiot.
"Nice! We're a big ol' pun trio."
"Please do not say that in public ever again."
"Decided that as soon as I said it."
Jimmy paused.
"Wait. How are we all supposed to separately stream the same exact thing at once?"
"Ugh, why do you always have to have a point?" Beverly slouched in her chair.
"So what, our name ideas are out the window?"
"No. Just, I don't know, use it for YouTube or something."
"Or branded Instagram and twitter." Beverly offered.
"Alright. Well, we have puns in common." Brian summed up, hoping he'd find something in that.
"Well, what else?"
"Wait, we're all lgbtqia+, right?"
"...yes?" Beverly answered hesitantly.
"A gay pun!"
"I mean, if we're being literal I'm bi." Brian unhelpfully added.
"Ok, but are we all attracted to the same gender?" Jimmy double checked.
"Oh, for fucking sure." Beverly 'woman lover' Katz answered.
"Ok, then gay pun." Jimmy decided. Brian nodded.
"Fair."
"Oh! How about 'Homogenius'?" Jimmy perked up the way he always did with ideas.
"Oh my god-" bev put the palm of her hands on her eyes.
"That's genius!" Brian snapped his fingers.
"Did you really take our 2 shared traits and combine them like that?" Beverly sighed as she removed her hands.
"Damn straight I did."
"Too many puns, not falling for that."
"I am," Brian turned to Jimmy,, "Don't you mean damn gay?"
"Shut up."
"Got it."
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"Ok, you got the camera set up?" Beverly asked Jimmy.
"Yeah, pointed at the couch." He responded as he set up the laptop they'd be controlling the stream on.
"Ew. The way you said that sounded skeezy." Beverly finished making her couch look presentable.
"What? How?" Jimmy turned around to her.
"The way you said it sounded like you were talking about a porno." She brushed off her lap as she turned to face him in return.
"Well, I'm not." Jimmy finalized.
"Unless…"
"Brian!"
"I'm joking! Neither of you are my type!" Brian put his arms up in defense.
"Hey!" Jimmy exclaimed the same time Beverly exclaimed "Still!"
"Ok guys, let's set up the game." Brian walked towards the couch to sit.
"Right."
Once everything was finished being set up Beverly clicked 'start stream'.
"Hello everyone! Welcome to 'Homogenius'! I'm Jimmy, this is Brian-"
"Hi!" Brian waved.
"-and this is Bev"
"Sup." Beverly nodded, deciding to have a 'Cool person persona' as she had put it.
"Today we’ll be playing 'Detroit: Become Human!"
"Yep! On my Playstation." Beverly added.
"It is, in fact, Bev's playstation."
"So, we've already played a bit. But we'll be starting over. Jimmy will be playing for Connor, I will be playing for Kara, and Bev for Markus." Brian explained to the camera, counting on his fingers as he listed the characters.
"So let's get into it."
The gang played for about 3 hours, talking to chat about their decisions and how hot Markus was when it came to it. They were pretty impressed with themselves, having at most 5 viewers at a time.
"Let's end while we're at a stopping point." Brian suggested as they finished a chapter.
"Good idea." Beverly turned to the camera. "Well guys, we're gonna be ending the stream. If you wanna check out our social media, we have the links on our profile! See you next time. Bye!"
"See you later!"
"Bye!"
They all waved at the camera as Bev clicked 'end stream'.
"Wow, that was more fun than I imagined."
Brian spoke as Beverly closed the laptop.
"Told you! If we keep this up maybe we can make some extra money too."
"Yeah, this was a good idea Jimmy." Beverly admitted.
"Really?"
"Yeah, sorry if I made you feel like it was stupid. It was really fun."
"It's ok, thanks for letting us use your Playstation."
"Of course, you guys are my friends."
"Awwwe! Group hug!" Brian grabbed his friends as they laughed and protested with no actual heart behind it.
And the night ended with the trio in each other's arms, at the beginning of it all.