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Blue Rain staff paused when they heard maniacal laughter echoing from the training rooms. It was a fairly normal occurrence during the season because Huang Shaotian enjoyed sounding like a half-cocked villain in a student budget film. What was a bit concerning was that the clubhouse had emptied after Samsara's win in the finals, and Huang Shaotian had gone home.
Management and staff thought nothing of Yu Wenzhou commandeering three extra computers and manually setting them up to very specific specifications. The guild staff watched with a kind of stupor as their captain referred to a fancy booklet that broke down keyboard and chair preferences. Strange, but not especially concerning.
Yu Wenzhou then politely requested a special petition to have guests stay with him at the clubhouse, management thought nothing of it. They found it strange that the captain wanted to stay in City G after the finals defeat when the rest of the team had disappeared to lick their wounds. Found themselves thankful that Blue Rain was so blessed to have such a captain who would readily volunteer to oversee the guild wars erupting in the Heavenly Domains.
Until Yu Wenzhou's guests actually showed up.
Three master tacticians walked in with suitcases and greeted staff and passing management in their unique way. Xiao Shiqin politely shook hands with anyone who seemed interested in a greeting while Ye Xiu hovered behind with a wan smile that turned to a resigned frown when Zhang Xinjie reappeared with a cream and red colored hognose snake.
“Thank you for letting us stay, we promise we won't be any trouble,” said a polite Zhang Xinjie while canoodling Yu Wenzhou's terrifying pet snake.
Xiao Shiqin and Ye Xiu took shuffling steps back from the snake. “We're only here to provide Yu Wenzhou with emotional support,” interjected Xiao Shiqin. Ye Xiu watched Zhang Xinjie and Yu Wenzhou do some hug/eskimo kiss ritual with the snake and ignored the growing crowd of Blue Rain staff members.
---
Four stations had been set up in such a way so that the tacticians could sit together. Ye Xiu had abandoned his seat to lean over the back of Yu Wenzhou's chair as he helped direct Yu Wenzhou to the ambush point in a grove. “The big boys from Samsara should be wandering through there in the next couple of minutes, CC them and I'll help you slaughter them.”
Ye Xiu leaned in closer and rubbed the tip of his nose against Yu Wenzhou's ear, earning a dark glare. Ye Xiu wasn’t alarmed, knew that Yu Wenzhou was preoccupied with visions of revenge and violence. Their quartet were quite aware that affection was the best weapon for such thoughts.
Being curious, Xiao Shiqin wandered over to peek at the screen and glimpsed a medium sized party approaching the ambush spot. The group moved cautiously and rotated the outer players around the central figure.
“Do I get an extra reward if we make Three Realms cry?”
Yu Wenzhou and Xiao Shiqin sighed in tandem and looked over to Zhang Xinjie, clearly fed up with Ye Xiu's boasting.
Xiao Shiqin figured that retreating was the best recourse. He wandered over to the couch to join Zhang Xinjie who was very focused on his phone. The other man barely looked up and seemed content to ignore the other three men in the room as he typed messages to increasingly confused Tyranny management.
Xiao Shiqin managed to hide his wince when the snake slithered up Zhang Xinjie’s arm and rested her head with a haughty stare. It was incredibly uncomfortable to have flat black eyes stare at him unblinkingly like so. It was an even more uncomfortable trial trying to reassure Yu Wenzhou and Zhang Xinjie’s pissed off snake-mom personas how their snake-baby was “the best and cutest” and not mean and territorial.
Zhang Xinjie pulled Xiao Shiqin closer so that Zhang Xinjie could overlap their limbs and held back the smirk when Xiao Shiqin violently shuddered and pretended not to when the snake got too close. Warm hands wrapped around him and tucked the phone from sight.
“Our scarier boyfriends are terrorizing Samsara,” explained Xiao Shiqin.
Ye Xiu hooted loudly and controlled Lord Grim to fire three perfectly formed shots. He was bright in his glee and Yu Wenzhou’s cold face only modulated the happiness in Zhang Xinjie’s chest. He pulled his beloved Baobao down to his leg so Xiao Shiqin would relax. “Yu Wenzhou took that Championship loss very personally.”
“It isn’t encouragement if we ignore it.”
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Within days, the Blue Rain guild members were wandering the halls and common areas with the air of soldiers at war, flinching and avoiding the main training room. Management collectively decided to ignore their newfound knowledge that their captain was actually a scary, sadistic monster who would blackmail(?) the other tacticians to bring ruin to Samsara and friends.