Chapter Text
“Chilled.”
“Ze.”
“Why can’t you realize that Kara is lying and just vote her out?”
“Why can’t you realize that Side isn’t on your side?
“Side is neutral, you dumbass. There’s already a dead, confirmed
Doomsayer, which was Heck.”
“Okay, so you realize he’s not on your side, right?"
“We don’t share the same game title, but we share the same goal. And that goal is to get the coven the hell out of here.”
“Kara isn't a coven, Ze, and if you played this game with your smartass brain of yours, you’ll realize that Kara is Side’s executioner target.”
“I think you’re forgetting the fact that I indirectly pinpointed Kara as the town traitor for the Coven, and she no longer has the veteran role to protect her ass.”
“Kara is a legit veteran, Ze, but I agree with you for the role, but it strengthens my argument to just leave Kara alone and go for Side.”
“Side. Is. A. Neutral. Mr. Chaos, I’m starting to believe your whole act for the whole game was a facade for a jester.”
“Okay, so I think you’re the one who’s being a complete airhead for not looking at this clearly. It’s funny how Mr. Viking, the guy who claims to have good vision, yet can’t see the difference between bullshit and bullet-pointed facts about the status of the game right now.”
“Kara, LaWhoo, and X33n were all part of the Coven. Side stole Veteran from Kara in night three. Kara claims she was attacked, but the attacker had a strong defense. That "attacker" never once pops up ever again, by the way, because she was getting healed by the goddamn Potion Master, which was LaWhoo. The only two strong roles possible in this game’s setting are the Arsonist and the Inquisitor. Vikram was the arsonist who died in prison the moment half the lobby died by the douses, Chilled.”
“What about the inquisitor? If you haven’t noticed, the game is still on despite the great amount of fucking dead townies. There’s Kara, me, Side, Shab, and you.”
“What’s fucking annoying me is that it is so clear who would end Vikram like that, why I want Kara so hard. By the context I revisit for you to rethink the gold fish, shit kind of memory you have. You knew me for years to understand my process of elimination, and I know how much of a fucker you are in fillbusting.”
“So you’re the Inquisitor..? Why are you teaming with Side then, and not Kara?” I believe Kara is in town and that Shab is the actual town traitor. Of course, he would be the town traitor for the Coven as a Jailor. He is the only one who actually hates killing people off to remove the fun.”
“Shab jailed Kara about your claim about her innocence some nights ago. He reported to me that he didn’t trust her, but he feels okay with you. Just that you need to know where to shut the fuck up sometimes when you’re wrong.
“Side needs to be killed! Shab can probably execute Ze if I’m right that he’s a coven.”
“Kara, who do you think it is?”
“ I don’t know Shab, but I think Ze is a judge who wants to get every town out.”
“Wow, a judge! Another neutral evil role, who also wants the townies dead. This isn’t looking good for you, Ze, because your playgame is dogshit.”
“I still think the Corvus should leave the town, according to Shab.”
“Thank you, Side. Ugh, I’m actually sick and fucking tired of you and your neglecting-the-fact-in-front-of-you strategy. I think you’re neutral, who wants something for himself. What could you want now to make it interesting to satisfy you, huh?”
“...Wait, Side did you ever attack anyone with Kara’s role?”
“I.didn’t want to say it, but I did. They have a strong defense, and the following day, I was attacked two times, but the person who died was Apple. …by a serial killer.”
I was angry.
“Chilled, you’re the fucking Serial Killer. You won’t vote out Kara, because you two are the only bad ones left here, it makes so much sense!”
The moment I felt like laughing at this pathetic scene of the act here, I knew this wouldn’t lead to anything good. The chat stopped spamming with any stickers, and some of the comments expressed their concern about the yelling. Even the dead users stopped talking in dead chat completely. Actually, the fact that not even Vikram is taunting just might be scarier.
Sure, we have been off and on in playful arguments over games in the great fifteen years or more of me doing content. But something told me in the back of my mind that this should end now. I wasn’t used to backing down to Anthony, unless it’s a running bit, and the same goes for him with me.
“Ze, you’re a fucking idiot! Apple obviously died as a Serial Killer, but what if she didn’t actually die by an S. K. One of us could still be her, and I’m believing it’s Side because he claimed to steal a role for protection, but he lived by three nights with three failed attacks.”
“You fucktard, the Potion Master was healing the Coven, Chilled. Look at the damn will. LOOK AT IT!!”
“I READ THE DAMN THING ZE, I THINK THE COVEN ARE GONE, AND SIDE IS THE LAST BAD ONE!”
“Bullshit, absolute bullshit, but why am I surprised? You’ve already been slow when it comes to reality slapping you across the face.”
“If I’m apparently so slow, even after seventeen years I’ve been stuck with you, Steven, you’re probably a fucking bigass pigfoot dragging me down every day during that time.”
I shut down the stream and signed off from the game and the Discord call in response with hurt and anger.
*Timeskip* A Month Later
If you wanted to know who was bad, Kara was actually Chilled, and Apple was playing as Chilled, who was the serial killer. Kara’s character was the traitor, and Chilled was a jester.
A fucking jester.
It has been weeks to a month ever since that bullshit game, but it causes so much shit to the point where I couldn’t behave properly in conversations. I started streaming alone, avoided everything towards that game, and the friend group members who were specifically in that round in Town of Salem. I even went ahead and closed down on Chilled, completely.
I hate how I’m overreacting over what he said about me.
I hate how I’m not instantly yelling back at him because of how wrong he is.
I hate the specific words he used, and I hate how I insulted him, just calling him a person who can’t keep up with everything, physically and mentally.
What I said to him was a bark with no bite, a horrible lie in volumes to a hundred.
What he said to me was a bark with a bite, a horrible insult with a rotting truth because, I believe it is.
Chilled was there with me for a good chunk of our lives. I wanted to finish school, and he wanted to make his content big over time. Even though we met and grew the bond throughout the Creatures and the Derp Crew, I acknowledged him as my best friend. He considered me his best friend. We went and did anything we could think of, online and in person. By the time we had the most hilarious shifting love moment during the Town of Us mod in Among Us way back in 2021 on stream, I realized a horrifying truth about myself.
I liked it when he got overprotective about me.
I like it when he holds his first set of attention on me.
I like how he values my input first, regardless of any decision we're making. (I mean, he did write my name on his skin to win, but I found it cute in a- what wait wait what the fuck…
I loved Anthony. Not just ChilledChaos as a friend, but Anthony.
I accepted my feelings because my subconscious has a pet peeve of self-denying certain things, and this was a feeling I believe I had for several years. I acknowledged I’m in love with him, because saying that it’s a crush sounds stupid, I’m very close to my thirties. I was able to suppress it, though it won’t be the first time I mask my true feelings about something when I 70% run away from my problems.
I somewhat knew that something related to Chilled would happen soon because we don’t usually back down from each other.
Loud knocking noises shook me awake from my nap as Hashbrown decided to bark in return. “I know, buddy, shhh.” I opened the door to see no other than Chilled himself.
“Ze.”
“Chilled.”
“I-”
“No.”
I closed the door and locked it, walking away before my emotions got scattered all over the place.
*2 Weeks Later*
This is the longest we went for without talking to each other. The chat was making me feel sorry about avoiding anyone because to them I seemed unbothered to apologize and a coward to insult my best friend. Yes, I’ll be a coward and rethink everything that we went through just to insult the odd factors of myself in one statement. I felt the tears on hold, against my green eyes, but I refused to cry. I’m 32 years old, for God’s sake, I should’ve been better than this.
“If I’m apparently so slow, even after seventeen years I’ve been stuck with you,”
But. . .you chose to be stuck with me because you saw that I mattered a lot to you. You believed that I, regardless of the odds and our obvious differences, was worthy enough to even be a part of your life. I choose to be stuck with you because you’re one of the main reasons I kept going. I dropped out of school a few times, moved a lot, and even managed to be in the same space with my friends, but you were always there for me. By the time I graduated, you asked Jess for her hand in marriage. 2019 was the year where things were easy, fun, crazy, and well .us. However, years later, you and Jess divorced and stayed friends and roommates, supporting and acknowledging each other. I craved that attention.
I don’t exactly remember why they split, but the point is, Chilled and I were each other’s first in almost everything, so why does it seem that our almost twenty-year-old bond was just annoying and useless to Chilled to assume shit. There was a soft knock on the door. This time, I believe it wasn’t Chilled, but I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but my own thoughts and reflections.
Tom and Jermey stood at my door with sad expressions painted perfectly and probably permanently on their faces.
“We need to talk, Steven.” Tom started
Tom rarely calls me Steven anymore, unless it’s serious. He was also part of the Derp Crew back in the day, but Tom doesn’t seem cheerful to be here. ‘Well, near me.’
“Please, Ze, everyone’s been shitting bricks of concern ever since the clips were out about what happened.” Jeremy looked to his side, clearly uncomfortable.
I met Jeremy during the stupidest Jackbox games, during his Rooster Teeth era, but it seems he genuinely wants to help. I couldn’t find myself shoving from them.
“I...okay, okay. I'm just still in a trance of shock, whatever comes in.”
We sat in the living room for twenty minutes before Jermey spoke again.