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"Are you sure about this babe? You know you don't have to do this….." said Liz, watching as her boyfriend as he got his recording set up ready.
"I… I want to Liz….. I've hid it for too long…. Besides, they're my friends…. If anyone besides you and Toonz is gonna accept this part of me, it's the guys….." said Delirious, sighing. Yes, he was afraid of what his friends would think, but he didn't want to keep secrets like this from them.
"Hmm…. Alright, let me know how it goes, ok? I gotta go keep an eye on the girls…" said Liz, getting up from her seat. Delirious nodded and gave her a quick kiss before she headed upstairs, sitting down at his desk as he booted up Minecraft.
Alright Delirious, you can do this! Just, act natural and don't freak out…. Oh god, how exactly am I gonna tell the guys!? He thought, panicking as he realized he didn't have an exact way to tell his friends his secret. He knew he could just say it outright, but then again since when has he ever done anything straightforward like that? He shook his head, trying to clear it as he hopped into the Discord to speak with the others as he spawned into the game….. to find a ton of rabbits in his home.
"Why the hell do I have a shit ton of rabbits in my house?!" he screamed, looking around at all of the small hopping mobs. He pulled out his sword and began killing them as the others all began laughing.
"We just figured you could use a pet or two…. Or 20….." said Evan, chuckling.
"I don't want these damn things in my house! You guys are assholes!" said Delirious, laughing. He quickly finished off the last few rabbits before putting his sword away and exiting his home. "Where are you guys at?" he asked, looking around before heading in the direction of Evan's giant tree house.
"We're at Brian's house! Hurry up and come over so we can get some shit done…." said Tyler. Delirious turned and began running all the way to Brian's house, finding the others already there.
"ALLLLLLRRRRRRIGHT! Now that Delirious has decided to join us, it's time to get to the point of this session…." said Evan, looking around at all the others.
"And what exactly is the point of this session? You want us to mine so much we carve a ravine across the world?" asked Brian, rolling his eyes.
"No! We'll save that for another day because it's a cool idea…" said Evan, earning chuckles from the others. "No, today, I want us to make…. A CASTLE!" said Evan, giving a dramatic pause before saying the word 'castle'. The others immediately got excited at the thought of building a castle, and it gave Delirious an idea. Castles had flags, and what better way to tell his friends his secret?! He began quietly planning as Evan separated them into groups, with Delirious getting put with Brock, Marcel, and Scotty.
"Let's roll out boys!" said Marcel, grinning as the four of them headed out with picks and shovels in hand.
"Alright, let's see…. We need stone, obviously..… maybe some wood..…. Some wool for carpet..…" said Brock, listing different materials they would need to gather for the castle.
"We can just get wool from my house! I've already taken the liberty of dying a lot of it too! We can make carpets, beds… even flags!" said Delirious excitedly.
"Good idea Delirious! You go get that while us three gather stone and other materials!" said Scotty, grinning as as he began digging.
Delirious nodded and quickly made his way to his house, taking a bit of damage after jumping off a small ledge. He eventually made it to his house, immediately searching through all of his chests and grabbing as much wool as he could. He made sure he had every color imaginable in case they wanted to make different types of flags, bouncing in his seat slightly as he saw he had several stacks of each color.
Perfect! Now to go meet up with the others! He thought, running back to where he had left Marcel and them and helping them with the digging and mining operation they had started.
After what felt like hours they reconvened with the rest of the group, having plenty of materials to start working on the castle. Delirious looked around, then began building a tower of dirt.
"Delirious, what are you doing?" asked Brian once he noticed, watching as Delirious got higher and higher into the air.
"Trying to see how high to make the flags!" Delirious answered, placing down a couple more dirt blocks until his tower was at least thirty blocks high. He looked around, then went up a few more blocks until he was satisfied with the height.
"Alright! Hey, make sure to make the Irish flag while you're up there!" Brian shouted up before turning and beginning to help with one of the walls. Delirious nodded, and while he was planning on making the Irish flag eventually it wasn't the first design he was set on making. He looked at his tower of dirt, then nodded in determination and took out some black wool, placing down the first block to start the flag.
He worked slowly, making sure to make it so the finished product would look like it was waving in the wind. Once he was finished with the black wool he took out the purple wool and began placing it on top of the black. He then placed white on top of the purple, becoming more giddy with each color. He then placed a block of yellow wool on the white, but paused and frowned.
The yellow is a bit darker than I thought it would be….. It doesn't look right to me…. I need a brighter yellow…. He thought, looking around. He placed down a crafting table and made some ladders, quickly making his way down to the ground and beginning to search through the chests the others had set up. He paused when he looked in the third chest, finding several blocks of gold inside. ….. I'm sure the guys won't mind me borrowing some gold… it's just the right shade of yellow I need! He thought, grabbing some of the gold and quickly making his way back up his ladders. He destroyed the yellow wool he had placed down and put down the gold blocks, grinning widely as his flag was completed. He proceeded to break his dirt tower and stepped back once he was back on the ground, admiring his work.
"Delirious, that doesn't look like the Irish flag….." said Brian, stepping up next to Delirious.
"Because it's not! It's the non-binary flag!" said Delirious happily, still looking up at the flag and not noticing when the others walked up or when Brian's character looked at him.
"Why the fuck did you make the non-binary flag? I mean, I get it's Pride Month, but I'm still confused why that was the first flag you decided to make?" said Tyler, turning to face Delirious. Delirious looked at Tyler and became quiet, realizing all of the others were also looking at him for an explanation. He looked at the ground, quickly becoming very self-conscious.
"I….." he started, trailing off as he struggled to tell them.
"…. Delirious, are you trying to tell us something with that flag?" asked Brock gently, his Dad mode obviously kicking in as he questioned his friend.
"I… I'M NON-BINARY OK?! I've been tryin' to think of a good way to tell you guys and the flag was the best I could come up with!" Delirious revealed, tears pricking his eyes as spoke. He paused his game and took a deep breath, the silence from his friends overwhelming.
"… Dude, you didn't need a fucking flag to tell us that! You could've just said it!" said Nogla, his tone implying he was facepalming in real life.
"Yeah, but this is Delirious we're talking about….. since when does he ever do shit the easy way?" asked Marcel, him and a couple of others laughing.
"You…. Guys aren't upset that I'm….?" Delirious started, being cut off by Evan.
"Fuck no, we're not upset! We're your friends Delirious….. we'd happily support you even if you wanted to identify as a unicorn or some shit!" said Evan, earning more laughter from the others.
"Damn right brother! We've got your back one hundred percent!" said Scotty, grinning. Delirious unpaused his game and looked at all of his friends.
"… Thanks guys, that means a lot…" he said, his own smile forming.
"Yeah yeah, don't mention it…. Now, help us finish this fucking castle dammit!" said Tyler, walking back over to one of the walls and beginning to build again. Delirious nodded and began helping.
"Soooo… does this mean we have to use 'they/them' pronouns for you now or what?" asked Panda after a few minutes, pausing to look at Delirious.
"Huh? Oh, no! You guys can still use 'he/him' pronouns for me! I don't mind at all!" said Delirious, chuckling.
"Aw damn, and here I was going to start using 'it' to refer to you…" said Scotty, pretending to pout.
"….. 'IT'?! The hell Scott?!" asked Brian, earning tons of laughter from the others. Delirious didn't care one bit though. His friends accepted him, and that was all that mattered.