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Ashswag — one of the most feared members of the Unstable Universe.
Why was he so feared? All because of the power he held over the server.
He was the leader of the Invisible Mafia, the strongest civilisation on Unstable.
Most server members labelled him as cold, uncaring and cruel — I mean that is exactly what he was like.
Despite all of that, Squiddo didn't care. She may or may not have a crush on the most dangerous mafia leader on Unstable. People warned her — they really did, all saying that Ash was bad for her, all also overlooking that Squiddo was an exploiter herself.
Oh the lengths she would go to get Ash to notice her, but what she didn't realise is that he already did.
“Hey Spoke.” Squiddo said, putting her axe away, not posing as a threat to Spoke.
“Squiddo! Haven’t seen you in a while, what you been up to?” Spoke replied, shoving away the book he held, which had just a couple of hacks written down.
“Mmm, nothing much you?” She responded, adjusting her circular glasses to sit properly on the bridge of her nose.
He paused for a moment, debating on whether or not he could tell Squiddo what he’d been doing. “Explioting. Found a bunch of bugs that allow for some crazy shit.”
“Nice, you hear what's going on with the Invis Mafia?” She asked, redirecting the conversation, also that knowing Spoke had connections within the mafia — potentially even with Ash.
“Oh yeah, pretty sure Ashswag is planning an attack.” He answered, coincidentally spotting a mafia member in the distance. “And look, there’s one of them.”
“Spoke, are you on good terms or like allies, or maybe even friends with Ash?” Squiddo knew she was taking a gamble with the question.
Spoke thought for a moment, fixing his rainbow headband, turning to face squiddo fully. “Yes, me and Ash are on good terms, I mean I don't think we're allied or friends but we’re cool with each other. Why are you asking?”
“Well…” She trailed off. “I wanted to know if you could get me into the Mafia.” She finished, feeling quite uncertain with her request.
“You do know what you’d be getting yourself into, right?” Spoke didn't seem too convinced by Squiddo's idea of joining the Mafia.
“Yes.” She responded without missing a beat.
“You are a good exploiter, so yeah, I think I can make it happen.” At least he was considering her request?
“Thanks Spoke.” Squiddo said, giving Spoke a smile before walking off to try get herself into the Mafia on her own.
“Ughhh, this is so FUCKING stupid, oh my god.” Ash might’ve been a little bit pissed, his head held in his hands, looking like he was having a mental breakdown.
“What now?” Clownpierce asked, approaching Ashswag from behind.
“Clown bro, not the time.” Ash groaned, looking as if he were deep in thought.
“Wait, bro, is this about the attack?” He said, predicting Ash’s distress.
“Yessss, oh my god.” Wow this guy really was worked up about the entire situation — but there also was another thing he had yet to clear up.
“Y’know Ash, I heard you have a crush…” Clown said, hoping his suspicions would be confirmed. Ash looked up at Clown like he had just told him to hand the Mafia over to a copper trimmed player.
“What!? Who told you that?” He sputtered out, finally standing up to match Clownpierce's height.
“Doesn't matter. Well, do you? Because I have a hunch that it's true.” Clown asked, pushing for an answer as he combed his already well kept hair.
“I mean like maybe… but I'm not telling YOU.” He huffed out, realising that he’d just told Clownpierce exactly what he shouldn’t have.
Clown was obviously more intrigued now that he knew for sure. Ash turned away from him to talk to a diamond trimmed member. Now he had to know.
“Okay, fine, send diamond trim 34 to fight the gold trim.” He said dismissively, brushing off the diamond trim, redirecting him to the door he came from.
Just then the door opened back up and out stepped FerreMC in his redstone, eye-trimmed armour. Ash just sighed at this.
“What’s all this commotion?” He questioned, splashing another invis pot at his feet.
”Ferre, perfect timing! Ashswag here has a crush.” Clown said, not realising that Ash was staring daggers into the back of his head.
“The oh so great, scary, cold Mafia leader has a crush?” Ferre cooed, leaning over to Ash in a condescending manner.
“FUCK OFF BOTH OF YOU.” Ashswag screamed, finally snapping, a certain look in his eyes. This action and tone alone terrified the two as they knew how much power Ash possessed. “Get out.” He demanded, pointing at the exit.
They shuffled out through the door, muttering stuff to each other which Ash couldn’t quite understand.
No one and I mean no one, could know that he had feelings for Squiddo. His train of thought was interrupted by the ping of his communicator. Reluctantly he picked it up.
SpokeIsHere whispers to you: yo ash i have someone who wants to jpin ur mafia
You whisper to SpokeIsHere: who is it??
SpokeIsHere whispers to you: spomeone i told u
You whisper to SpokeIsHere: bro thst dosent tell me anything at all i wanna know
SpokeIsHere whispers to you: im not goinna say here
SpokeIsHere whispers to you: yiull see later
You whisper to SpokeIsHere: fine
You whisper to SpokeIsHere: meet me at *insert coordinates* with the person
SpokeIsHere whispers to you: bet bro
Ashswag set his communicator down on the table beside him, already regretting his decision of trusting Spoke — well kinda, rule one - don’t trust Spoke.
He equipped his elytra, placing down and searching through shulkers for rockets. Where the fuck were his firework rockets? In the end he found them, making his way to the coords he'd given to Spoke.
The meeting place was a tiny secret base in the side of a mountain. It was pretty nice for something Ash had thrown together in a hurry. It had spruce and oak checkered flooring, lanterns hanging from chains which lit the place up, random things that made it feel like it was safe.
Upon arriving he spotted two figures, Spoke and the person who wanted to join the Mafia. Although Ash still didn’t understand why it was such a big thing, since the person did ask through Spoke — joining the Mafia wasn’t the hardest thing now was it? You just kinda threw an ender pearl in a stasis chamber and devoted your life.
“Ok im here-” He paused completely mid sentence, just completely froze, staring at Squiddo.
Why was Ash looking at her like that? Did he not like her? Had he already decided that she wasn't joining the Mafia?
“Ash? Fucks up with you today.” SpokeIsHere said, throwing a wind charge at Ash, knocking him back a couple blocks.
“What the fuck! Oh ehm, sorry, I'm just really out of it today.” Ash responded, mumbling a swear or two under his breath. He walked back towards Squiddo and Spoke.
“Nah bro you trippin’.” Spoke said, chuckling to literally no one.
“Shut up Spoke.” He turned to Squiddo. “Squiddo, right?” His voice suddenly switched and was unusually soft and caring.
“Mhm.” Is all that Squiddo could get out as she thought she would fuck up bad if she said any more.
“Great, I've heard stuff about you. And you wanna join my Maifa, correct?” Fuck did he over do it with the glaze?
“Yes.” Squiddo spoke, trying her chances and moving closer — Ash didn't move away.
“Cool, come with me, I'll see what I can do.” He said, leading Squiddo away and out of the mountain side base.
“Thanks Spoke!” Squiddo called back, as she followed Ashswag out the door.
The door shut with a loud thud, Spoke was left standing there while the sun set outside.
“No fucking way that just worked, if they don't end up dating I swear to god.” He muttered to himself, combing his silky black hair with his fingers.
Ash and Squiddo approached The Tomb Of The Mafia, it was a large area full of stasis chambers, containing the lives of hundreds if not thousands of players. The lighting was dim, air cold and heavy, the building itself intimidating.
“Sooo…” He started, carefully selecting his next words. “This is the stasis chamber area as you can tell.” His voice had gone back to its usual raspy, low, authoritative tone that could cut through steel. Most likely so his Mafia wouldn't hear him being soft.
“Holy, this place is huge.” Squiddo said in awe, basically spinning to take a look at all of it.
“Sure is.” He replied, trying to keep his composure, failing to act nonchalant as he caught himself staring — shit this was gonna be hard. Without much thought, Ash took Squiddo’s hand with the utmost care. “I’ll show you the rest of this place, basically just Mafia city.” He flashed her a warm smile.
Squiddo’s face flushed a deep shade of pink, was she dreaming? The cold Mafia boss, holding her hand? She never wanted this to end.
I mean she’d achieved her goal of getting into the Invisible Mafia, but just getting into the Mafia weren’t her exact intentions.
It had been no more than about a week and somehow, Squiddo was already a diamond-trimmed player. In the span of a week that's pretty impressive — well not really as Ash very obviously favoured her.
Squiddo, however, had no idea whether Ash was into her or not. Yes, he stayed the same distant, bitter act, but he still showed signs. He would act odd sometimes when they hung out. She didn't even recall asking him to hangout — they just kinda did it.
While thinking deeper than she needed to, her communicator vibrated from across the room, the screen lighting up. She turned the screen to face her, reading the text.
‘yo if ur freee u wanna hang out?’ Her heart raced slightly upon reading the message from Ashswag. She was definitely going. She quickly typed down a response, gearing up and leaving Mafia City.
Ash had sent her some coordinates, she went to said coords, everything was normal.
She approached Ash, who was sitting on a bench, looking as if he were deep in thought — Squiddo would soon know what Ash was stressing over.
“Sit.” He said, voice carrying power but still soft.
She sat as Ashswag told her to do, sitting a lot closer than she should’ve.
“Ash? Are you ok?” Squiddo questioned, taking his hand and forcing him to turn to face her. Ash’s face was flushed a deep shade of red, as he tried hiding.
“Squiddo, I think I like you.” He finally blurted out in one go, his usually well maintained composure breaking.
“…” The silence stretched for longer than it should’ve.
“Y’know, I get if it you don’t like me ba-“ He was abruptly cut off by Squiddo pulling him into a graceful kiss.
Squiddo tasted of cinnamon and everything else perfect. Was this really happening?
When they broke apart for air they just stared at each other, neither of them sure what the next step from here was.
“I love you too dumbass.” Squiddo smiled the widest smile at him, as he felt his chest warming up.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” Wait why’d he ask that, the answer was right in front of him — literally.
“Yes, a million times yes.” Squiddo shifted closer, pulling Ash into a tight embrace.
This was real love.