Work Text:
Robert respects that people have lives separate from work. Even if the Z-Team and him considered themselves as friends, even so as family, he understands that there’s a line between themselves and him. This keeps their work relationship "functional."
The season of autumn has come to be, though some could debate if it's still summer. Others argue that winter is coming too early. Today was the latter and Robert wished he brought a jacket, but said jacket would likely lead to sweating.
Upon Golem finishing one of his missions, Sonar took it as an opportunity to talk in comms. Turns out the two had been planning to play Minecraft but they were still in the planning stage. Robert doesn’t get why it’s out in the public, but there weren’t any high alert missions right now, and none are violating work rules, so he gives them the leeway to talk. Robert’s mind would play back the times he and his old coworkers made plans whilst the customers were literally waiting to get their burgers, so he gets it.
At some point the two then brought up the topic on where they should talk. Sonar suggests fact time but Golem brings up the Z-Team’s Discord server just in case anyone else wants to join. Normally, Robert would just tell them to keep quiet, but he’d be lying if he says that the concept of a Z-Team Discord server didn’t pique his interest.
“There’s a Discord?” Robert asked.
Beat.
“I was wondering when you’re gonna butt in. Sorry, Robert, you’re not invited, n-no offense,” Sonar takes it for the team.
“None taken, you guys deserve to have lives outside of work,” reassured the dispatcher, though he did note how hesitant the man was with his words. Perhaps the server wasn’t meant to be public, and barging in didn’t make it better. While not shown, Robert uses his mental hand to slap himself in the head. God dammit Robert your poor timing strikes once again.
“We use it to game. We have another group chat without you,” Clarified Golem.
“Thank you?” Robert responded, which sounded like a question.
Sonar questions, “does he even game?”
And it’s as if fate calls him, Robert went, “Hey, I can make a pretty mean Minecraft speedrun,” defending himself from any more normie comments in case Flambae was listening. He is. They all are.
Then a pause.
Cough.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“You play Minecraft?” asked Golem.
As if it were on cue, Robert could hear chatter from other members. With his best ability to separate the voices, he found that every member doesn’t believe he plays Minecraft, Coupe asked if that’s the game that makes her fly and explode villages (Punch Up said yes,) Prism telling her to get help, and Flambae telling Robert to show proof or no balls (and to “troll” his niece in comparison to some white green guy.)
Robert views the new assignment, looking at who’s available and who’s resting, “Yep. Is that surprising to you?”
“I didn’t know you were cool like that,” said Sonar. And while small and easy to miss with the loads of work Robert’s doing, he smiles at the comment. He felt like the outcast of a school who finally got in a group, moreso with the cool kids.
Malevola comments, “Always thought you’d stare off with no thought, like your dog,” and her icon is seen running back to SDN. Robert couldn’t believe that his team has so much doubt with him having hobbies of all things.
At some point Robert has noticed that he’s what Sonar would call it “dragging the conversation.” He sighs and make a private call at one of the Z-Team members, “Hey, Golem, you’re now responsible for the community garden, go see what they need help with.”
“Al…right.”
====
The shift ended and everyone has signed off. Robert was back in his apartment, sitting on his new couch, his thumb scrolling through whatever brainrot TikTok is providing him. Five minutes passed, he exited the app, pressed and held on to the icon, and deleted it.
As he was placing his phone to the floor, he felt the device vibrate. He directed his eyes to the screen, seeing that he’s received a text from Courtney.
Invisigal/Courtney SDN: So we’ve unanimously decided you're worthy enough to join our Discord
Really? He’s confused but rather intrigued at this decision. So he texts back, unsure of this invitation.
Robert: I thought you guys wanted me out of your lives
But despite waiting for her response, he swiped his phone to the app store, and found himself redownloading Discord. As he was finished logging in, he got another ping.
Invisigal/Courtney SDN: Dont say it like that
When did we say that???
ItMs not the end of the world if you joined
If we don’t fw you we can kick u out
That’s reasonable. Despite everything that has happen, there was this feeling, the feeling of getting closer to people more so his coworkers, with the risks of a a fallout between members, the risk of ruining whatever fucked up family thing they’re having right now, and ruining the program altogether. But every time those thoughts come back, he’s constantly reassured that he’s one of the “cool kids” with the many invites to events, bars, and restaurants. This shouldn’t be different.
With low and behold, there was a link pasted to her message. An invite to the team’s server. In which they claim to only play games there. So he liked the message and then clicked to the server.
Upon entering the general channel, he was bombarded with names that were clearly inside jokes. He had to look at the introductions channel to even identify who it was.
And while backlogging to the previous messages, Robert can safely say that they were only the usual shenanigans. Like the Z-Team (mostly Prism) recommending songs in the media channel, Sonar sending memes with countable pixels, and a whole lot of gif spam from every party. Just like any Discord server would have.
And when he eavesdropped to the messages during work hours, it was overall just the team’s collective reaction to a specific assignment. Some complained about the assignment itself, some complained about Robert. Awesome. Okay. They invited him to the server so you know what? All is forgiven.
The general channel pinged his name and Robert put his attention to that message alone, making a mental note to mute notifications later.
Courtney: @here Look who it is
The man of the hour
@Robert
After the message was sent, it was reacted with emotes. Flambae reacted with a fire emoji. Golem sends the automated hello gif. Sonar sends a sticker that’s probably from some dead NFT server. And everyone else is offline.
Robert: Hello to you too, Courtney
He typed whilst viewing her profile picture. It’s a character from Total Drama Island. What was her name again? Heather? Leshawna? Gwen— Robert let out an extended oh sound. Courtney, of course. That got a quiet laugh out of him.
Miku: Roberto is that really you?
The person asked. Robert looked back to the introductions to find out that this was Prism with a Hatsune Miku profile picture, which he found oddly fitting.
Robert: Yep.
Who else could it be behind the screen?
Courtney: Actually
The two women were typing but Prism’s message was sent faster.
Miku: Flambae’s bitchass made another acount to impersonate as your bitchass causing our previous srrver to be deleted
Courtney: Sonar impersonated you with scarily accyrate impressions that made everyone panic and delete our previous server
Robert: I
Wait.
Robert kept typing but was surpassed by Prism’s message sending first despite both sending at the same time.
Miku: Bitch it was Flambae who impersonated him
Robert: Was this before you guys were cool with me?
Courtney: Shit yeah
Fuck
Not Flambae
Sonanr was the one who initiated the idea
Miku: This was way back in july
Like when you cut off Sonar but before Shroud’s invasion
He was like
Mad asl
Marcelene: Oh shit RObert is here
Hi Robert :}
Courtney: And Flambae didnt make a discord so so he volunteered to impersonate you
Hi Malevola :D
Robert: Hi Mal
Months passed, Robert could (and has) let a lot of things slide from the Z-Team. But if he were in that situation at that very moment, he probably would’ve killed himself right there, no need for his suit to do it. Or maybe he would’ve gone full Chase mode and fired them all, but he knew better that he’s dealing with former supervillains so the most he would’ve done was give them a conference and move on.
Miku: I was scared as shit
But
That day was so ffucking funny
Chad still has the screens hots
And now that Prism has said it, he really, really, wants to see how it played out. It might’ve been a humiliating day for the whole team so he’d rather keep it private and message Flambae some time.
Robert: That must’ve explained why you guys were weird on Thursday.
Marcelene: Not me. I was a saint
Miku: @Robert YOU WERE SO CONFUSED LMAO
Robert: Welp, this was very nice conversation.
Thanks for inviting me, I’ll go sleep now
Courtney: Need a little night’s kiss?
Robert paused. Typed a certain 3 letters and paused again. He deletes the message, heads to the gif button and uploads a gif.
Robert:
Courtney:
Miku: HE WAS THINKING ABOUT IT 😭😭😭
Marcelene:
Robert lets out one last laugh before he leaves the app, this time with no deletion afterwards; then uses his hand to connect his phone to the charger that was below the couch. He lets the blankets snuggle him in his “bed”, breathing in a slow pace yet heavily with no effort to bring a thought except for something… what was it? Whatever. Future Robert’s problem.
=======
Nothing eventful happened afterwards. Other than Robert putting his profile to invisible mode to “spy” on his coworkers during their shifts. He knows they can do their job, he acknowledges the trust built over time, but there’s something about seeing how they interact outside of comms while at work.
At one point Invisigal and Coupe made an agreement to trade assignments and let Robert know later. Robert responded in comms that they could negotiate with him instead of talking privately, making the situation more complicated than it is, than to do it on Discord of all places.
At another event, Prism complained about her given assignment and asked the chat if she should really do this. Everyone lost their minds when Robert reacted with a yes emote.
It’s going fine.
Five days had passed by and their shift had ended. Though Z-Team would be lying if they said that the day went swimmingly. Robert had assigned Golem alone to reroute a stuck cruise ship, which he himself couldn’t do alone, so the dispatcher sent Sonar and Flambae along. When that didn’t work, he had to wait half an hour for Malevola to be done with her mission and break so she could use her portal. When she portaled the cruise ship to its destination, everyone complained that they wanted their trip to be longer, so she sent them back in the same spot and the same position that left the ship stuck.
It took an extra twenty minutes to fix the problem but it pissed all parties off. The chosen heroes left the shift feeling like shit but Robert reassured them saying it’s his fault for not thinking thoroughly and promises that he’ll do better. But they could sense the staleness in his speech, and told him for the next shift they’ll do better next time.
And here is Robert, once again covered up in his couch with blankets hugging him tight, ready to sleep it off. He stared off to the ceiling for god knows how long, allowing his eyelids to close slowly, feeling dazed and paralyzed. He exhaled deeply.
Ping!
Fuck he forgot to mute his notifications.
…
…
Ping!
Fuck it.
He reached his hand out of the warm blankets, his arm mourning the loss of heat as his whole body was attacked by his apartment’s temperature. He grabbed his phone to check on his Discord just to see who, what, and why they’re mentioning him.
Bigger Than Height: @Robert you have a Twitch?
It took him a couple seconds for one, to identify whose display name that belongs to (it was Punch Up) (no he doesn’t understand the meaning) and to process what—
His eyes widened. Oh— Then looks back at his profile. In which it features some caption and below that caption was a link. A link to his Twitch channel— shit.
His cheeks grew warm and his mind went running, running to every possibility playing. Shit, he knew he was forgetting something. He switched back to the server to read what the chat wrote.
SoNAUR: YOU’RE LIVE ON TWITCH?
And there, Sonar’s next messages were actual audio messages containing multiple bat screeches. Robert could tell it was a reference to something but he doesn’t know what. He takes a deep breath, waits, and breathes out. Awesome.
Marcelene: He does
Miku: YOU HAVE ONLY 8 SUBS? 🥹
Who subscribed to you
Ur dog?
And that’s where he knew this was going to be a long night. He takes an extra ten seconds of spacing out before he heads back to reality, mentally preparing himself and replying.
Robert: Yes actually
Multiple people were typing…
Miku: Can you please stop living a sad life?
I have enough things to say for therapy
Bigger Than Height: Robert wtf
SoNAUR: Your dog is sentient Robbo?
Dwayne Johnson: Like me
Robert made a confused sound, squinting at the name. He stared off to the wall, piecing whoever had that name. Oh wait. The Rock. Golem. Robert lightly laughs on how stupid yet genius the name is.
Marcelene: Does your dog tell you to bring him treats?
Robert: Can you tell your therapist I said hi?
No @SoNAUR
It was a bit me and a friend made
The Frogs: https://open.spotify.com/track/35mvY5S1H3J2QZyna3TFe0?si=d21af1ad7d114742
Miku: He has friends no way
Robert: He made an account using my dogs name
Hey Chad
Anyways
And he donated bits to my channel
The frogs: Wtf
When did u have a twitch
Robert ignores the question, figuring Flambae could scroll up or use context clues.
Robert: Just to have a conversation with me as a dog
Greatest 40 dillars donated to me
The frogs: 40 dillas
Maybe I should become a streamer
SoNAUR: 4 broken PCs later…
Miku: How you managed to entertain 8 people is actually impressive
Robert: Tell me about it
It was a field day to the four people watching
Miku: Ya know
I can help you with getting more subs
With my followers
Bigger Than Height: No offense but none of your fans are gonna watch him
Robert deadpans.
Robert: Thanks. Colm.
@Miku I’d like to earn my subs
But thanks for offering
Miku: Lame. What do you even do there?
Rhysand: Stream Minecraft
A new user said. Robert switched from the general chat to the introductions to identify that Rhysand was actually Coupe. As to why she was named that, he remembered that the name came from the book with fairy porn.
The frogs: Bruh
SoNAUR: Stalker
Bigger than height: It’s in her record
Rhysand: Must you blame my curiosity?
And Colm was the one who found his Twitch.
SoNAUR: Yeah, in which Robert has shown PUBLICLY.
Robert sighs.
Robert: For the recor d Minecraft is a very therapeutic game and it gets me through some hard times after being Mecca Man
Oh fuck.
Robert: For the reforc, Minecraft is a very therapeutic game and it gets me through hard times when working as Mecha Man (edited)
SoNAUR: *record
The frogs: 🤓
Marcelene: Mashallah
Courtney: I love you Robert but wtf is your skin even?
And it appears that Courtney has joined the rest with this mildly invasive stalking.
Bigger Than Height: Pale?
Courtney: MINECRAFT
SoNAUR: Hold up is that
…
What?
Is that fucking Beef?
Robert: Ye
Miku: Deadass?
Why?
Robert: I love my dog
SoNAUR: Robert.
Robert: Yes?
SoNAUR: You are now invited to our Minecraft sessions.
Robert: I’m honored.
Despite every possibility that has run through his head, he exhales. His face was still warm; mind was running around in his brian, yelling at him on how much trouble he could get for having a life outside of work; but his friends seem to be taking this well (even with the multiple jabs and them making fun of his content.)
Other than that, all of this has been bothering his most needed sleep. He heads to the gif section and sends a gif that gives him the cue to leave.
Robert:
SoNAUR: Seriously?
Guess that’s my cue to go also
@everyone see ya
The Rock: Night
Courtney: Goodnight to you too Robert
Robert placed his phone back down and slept it off.
===
Two days have passed and whoever promised that they’ll do better after the cruise ship event should seriously go to hell (and if it was Malevola who said it then she’s going to church.) Today’s shift was taxing. All Courtney wanted to do was to fix up her jacket so it would be presentable by the time she clocks in on Monday.
Luckily, her ADHD decided to spare her from unnecessary extra work, allowing her to stare at the thread on one hand and the needle on the other, giving them her undivided attention. She aims the thread to the needle’s hole, squinting her eyes.
Ding!
Her upper body shots up, using whatever endurance she had to keep the two items intact. She pays no attention to her device just yet, as the thread and needle were still two separate objects. She prodded the needle, feeling that her mind was yelling at her to quit, quit, quit. Until she relied on licking the thread, and like magic, the needle got through the hole! And her mind was now quiet. Courtney pulled the thread to the point where it wouldn’t escape the needle. Then she grabbed her phone from the side of her desk.
It was a text from Z-Team’s group chat, yes, the one without Robert. The message features the half-man, half-bat.
Batman: Check this out
And below there was a link from one of Robert’s streams with another message to head to a certain timestamp. Courtney has watched bits of his stream before; he’s great at talking but personally she’s not going to listen to her dispatcher talk for an hour when she already hears him yell for 8.
The Rock: Yo could you send a clip instead?
Kenji: Literally nothing ever happens in his streams
She claimed. As for her display name, she remembered watching a movie called “She’s Dating the Gangster.” Despite a certain problem in the movie, it was one she wouldn’t forget, thus naming most of the phones she had after the male lead.
Saitama: What Golem said I thought you knew how to make those little videos
Batman: That’s where you’re wrong Courtney
He literally talks about us here.
Courtney debated on whether to watch it now or later— aw what the hell, work is not until Monday. She clicked the link to the stream, and placed it in the given timestamp.
She backtracked the timestamp to a few minutes to understand how the clip happened. Robert was playing Minecraft, as always, mining through a cave. He was having a conversation to who appears to be his viewers, moreso his regulars. He asked his viewers about their favorite games; and as they’re answering his question, one of the viewers in particular answers Among Us, mentioning how they kept getting imposter, which makes them mad because they never do well when playing the role.
Robert lights up, “This reminds me. My coworkers invited me to their Discord a while back. Was honestly iffy myself— but I joined in.”
By looking at the date, this was after Robert was invited but before everyone found his Twitch account.
“Everything was going fine, one of my coworkers thought someone was impersonating me, which brings me to the next point: someone did impersonate me.”
Robert giggles. Something no one thought would happen. Then giggles some more to the point he almost died from zombies attacking him. His mind snaps out of his rambling and begins rapidly clicking his mouse, slashing his sword to the zombies, thus resulting in himself to be half a heart, “Fuck off. Damn…” he cursed. A certain sniffing noise was heard in the background, having the streamer look out of the camera. He raised his hand up, and like magic, his dog appeared on screen, “Oh hi, Beef.” He said as his fingers scratched the dog’s head.
Courtney couldn’t help but admire the man’s kindness; it was so casual, so natural, making her remember why she chose to be a hero in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, one day she’ll believe that her powers are for good and achieve this sort of normal.
Robert kept mining, continuing where he left off, “In a nutshell, it turns out a coworker was upset at me, rightfully so, but then had another coworker volunteer to impersonate me and enter their old server. I wasn’t there and I didn’t know but I asked the impersonator to send me screenshots— he sent me a screen recorded message of the incident.”
He kept mining to the point he found a mineshaft; he wandered around, likely having the recorded video ingrained in his memory, because of how his breaths kept hitching.
“And you know what he— what he wrote out? His first message was,” he lets a chuckle out, ““Hey wassup gang, it's your boy Iron IronNam.”” He chuckles more, “How— How could they not tell it’s not me I wouldn’t say that!”
What was supposed to be him holding himself ends up in failure, resulting in him bursting in laughter. The laughing session went on for a good fifteen seconds until his character was fully dead by no other than a skeleton. Robert’s laughs died down in order to keep moving forward, with the goal to get his items back, but Courtney could see his eyes still watered from the elation.
After finding the cave, and a minute of silence, he spoke up, “If we were back to the first days of my job, I would’ve been so upset. But I’ve seen them grow over time, even if they have bad days, even if they don’t think they deserve to be there.” His mouth stops moving, then pauses the game, “They were given the time to grow and become better people, and I respect them for it. So, all is forgiven as long as they’re putting the effort into trying, and in exchange, I’ll support them all the way.”
He said it all with a smile. He exhales through his nostrils, then continues his gameplay. Courtney could feel her face grow warmer, her heart beating to where her ears could sense it. And maybe, maybe if she wants to acknowledge it, her eyes too felt moist.
She sniffles, then directs her attention back to Robert, who begins placing torches in the cave.
“God, that sounds so corny, I’m so glad they’re not watching. They’d probably think I got possessed, isn’t that right, Beef?” He directs his attention to his dog and picks him up, having the pet face to the camera.
His paws made light movements, as if Beef was speaking, “Robert, you're possessed with corniness! You need an exorcism!” With that damn meth head voice.
“Oh no!” Robert exclaimed. He carries the dog, beginning both out of the camera, and Courtney swears she hears the dispatcher telling the dog to behave; with dog food pouring to the bowl. Robert returns to the camera. “I apologize for the yapping, I know you guys are here for the game aspect so let’s get back to it.”
Courtney stops the video. She heads back to the group chat.
Marshall Lee: Awww that’s adorable
Courtney’s thumb held onto the message, and when the emoticons popped up, she reacted with a thumbs up emoji.
Batman: The best part is he doesn’t talk about us one time. I found some more.
Reads fairy porn: Just what I need.
The cooking method: Boob looks so happy
What have we done to him lol
*Bobob
Saitama: Never in my life have I seen Robert have life in his eyes
nonetheless sound happy when talking about us
Batman: Boobs you say
The cooking method: Why don’t we get that?
Kenji: The boob or a happy Robert?
The cooking method: I already have boobs
Kenji:
Marshall Lee:
Kenji: Personal life or wtv the fuck he calls it
Fairy porn: Work-life balance
Kenji: thx
The Rock: thugt he kniws were cool w him
Kenji: He’s depressed. What did you expect?
His ass thought we want him out of our lives
Marshall Lee: That’s unhealthy
Batman: Whoever made him think like that will be having a meeting with my stomach in 5 minutes.
Shadow Clone Jutsu: All the power to you. Thanks for consuming his 5 mental illnesses!
Batman: Aw what? Ewwwwwwww
The Rock: I can eat it if you want.
Fairy porn: It’s bad we ruined the only chance of him being this happy
Saitama: Really, how?
Batman: I think what Coop is saying is that this was one of his ways to cool down, with no one judging him. Now with us in the equation, this could change how he would stream, since we found his source of comfort.
The group chat stopped typing. Fuck, they haven’t thought of that. They knew the trust they built with Robert over time, but even they know when to respect one’s boundaries. The feeling lingers, would it be considered distrust? An invasion to one’s privacy— though what would Z-Team be if they weren’t in everyone’s business. No one could answer the right word for this feeling.
Saitama: Now I feel bad 😞
Batman: That’s just my guess
The Rock: Oh
Kenji: Oh yeah. Fuck. Wait
The Rock: Shit
Marshall Lee: What are you doing Visi?
Courtney exited the group chat, taking a second long scroll to find her messages with Robert. She types,
Kenji: Hey bobo
About your Twitch?
She sent the message and placed the phone down. Her right hand picks the needle back up, and her left holding the torn clothing part. She pokes the clothing article and picks the needle back up with her left hand. She looks back to her phone— no response. So her hands went back to stitching her jacket, paying no mind to the mild freakout her and the Z-team were feeling.
The needle was near her finger when the phone vibrated. She freezes, eyeing the distance between her finger and needle. Her fingers grabbed it and pulled it out of the place it was prodding. Courtney lets go of the needle, using both hands to drag the jacket away from her. Her hand picks up her phone, reading the message that came from no other than her dispatcher.
Bobo SDN: What about it?
Kenji: Are you cool with us watching?
Bc y’know
We sorta invaded your privacy
Work life balance or whatever term you use.
Bobo SDN: I appreciate the consideration.
I can’t stop you guys so I’ll allow it.
It sounded like the response of a pushover.
Kenji: But do you *want* us to watch?
Beat.
Robert was typing…
Bobo SDN: Yes.
Wait a minute
Did one of you watch my vods?
Kenji: It was Sonar.
Bobo SDN: I figure
I know I sound different than how you guys are used to seeing me but trust me,
It’s not the end of the world if you watch me stream.
Kenji:
Oh
Okay
Thanks 🙏🏽
Bobo SDN: No problem.
Besides, if i needed to, I can get my Beef impostor to bark you guys out
Courtney reacts to the message with a laughing emoji before returning to a now silent group chat.
Kenji: He’s chill
The group chat stayed silent, which Courtney could assume they’re doing their own thing. She continued sewing for five minutes before the messages started coming through.
Saitama: Thank god
Golem: 👍🏽
Fairy porn: I was worried. I’m now eager to watch my vod.
The cooking method: Good. I’m ready to make his streams eventful 😈
Batman: Sweet.
Marshall Lee: You messaged him?
Kenji: Yes
Shadow Clone Jutsu: Thank god. You’ve saved us from six months of miscommunication
Kenji: Glad I can be of help
Courtney places the phone down, observing the stitches she has left to do, and goes to finish her project.
===
“Hey wassup gang, it's me, Robert Robertson.”
“Flambae?”