Hey, throwing stars! Sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up... I was kinda stuck on Writer's Block for a time, and I also got my laptop taken away. Luckily, I was working on this chapter with a document on this website, so even without my laptop, I was able to work on this chapter. Now, just letting you know right now, Carter may appear as a Mary-Sue, but that is not at all true. Just wait; this will get better and more interesting as time goes on.
Carter's POV-
I sat at my desk, darkness enclosing me in a safe cocoon. The only source of light in the entire room was from my one monitor, which was the only one I was using at that moment. If I were recording a video, I would have both screens on, and I would not just be watching YouTube. For the past year YouTube had lost many of its most popular users. When Adam quit YouTube almost ten months ago, many viewers stopped watching videos. In the week after Sky quit, he lost almost 4 million subscribers. It was insane how many people were so mad that he stopped making videos. Now, ten months later, he had only a couple dozen subscribers. Granted, most of them were his friends and ex-fellow Minecrafters, but other than that, there were only two subscribers that were not his friends. As you could probably guess, those two are me and April. Even my little sister Aurora, who convinced me to commentate videos like Sky did, unsubscribed from him. It was a very sad sight to see.
After Adam quit, several of his friends quit as well, saying that they wanted to start real lives as well. First went Deadlox. He stopped recording videos two weeks after Adam. Then, slowly, others quit as well: Jason, Jerome, Mitch, Quentin, Ian, Tyler and even Seto. Within the time period of ten months, most of my favorite YouTubers had stopped making videos, all of them leaving unexpectedly. I was especially shocked when Jerome and Mitch quit. They had so much potential, and absolutely loved to entertain people for hours on end. But, then again, all of them had great potential.
The particular video that I was watching was an old Hide and Seek video in xRpMx13's POV, and he was playing that game with Husky, Jerome, Sky and Noah. I smiled as I watched this video, laughing often whenever a super hilarious part would come up. My favorite quote out of the whole video was (this is in Warden Freeman's voice): "When you're sitting on the John, and the toilet paper's gone, be a man; use your hand." That just cracks me up every time I hear it. But because of that video, it got me thinking about each of the live streams that I had watched when the other people in that video quit. Each of them had said that they quit because they wanted to start normal lives… but that couldn't possibly be the only reason why they quit. There had to be something else… but what could it be?
Right then, I heard a knocking on my office door. Pausing the video, I then turned to April, who walked into my room. "Hey, April, what's up?" I asked, looking up to her from my chair.
Brushing her bangs out of her face, April then said, "Hey, want to play a game called Bit Trip? Aurora and Jen are on Skype right now, and they want to go and record a video real quick."
Smiling, I then said, "Sure! We need to do a video anyways. Let me ask this though: why are they up at three in the morning?"
"Why are we up at three in the morning, Carter?" April countered.
"Touché. Ok, I will get everything ready," I then said, turning back to my computers. April closed the door behind her, going to her room to pull up her recording programs. Turning on my other monitor, I quickly pulled up Skype, and then I joined my sister's call.
"Hey, Carter!" I heard Jen's gentle voice say, and I could tell that she was smiling even though I couldn't see her face.
"What's up, Jen?" I then asked, securing my red and black headphones onto my head. I didn't want them to fall off mid-recording. That already happened once before… and that was an accident when I accidentally fell over in my chair from getting too excited.
"Ah, nothing. I was just on a Skype call with Aurora for about an hour before we decided to call April up. We had tried calling you up, but you didn't answer," Jen responded, then pausing afterwards. "We thought you were packing for college already."
I then laughed. "Nah, I haven't been accepted into any colleges yet. But according to Principal Rich, there should be scholarship heading my way soon. Same with April. Sorry that I didn't respond to your call. I was busy watching an old YouTube video that Ryan did."
"What was this video about?" I heard Aurora ask. Leaning back slightly in my chair, I then breathed in deeply. For the past months, I have constantly been watching old videos of Sky, Jerome, Bajan, Deadlox, TrueMU, Husky, Seto, Ssundee and MunchingBrotato. Mainly I have been watching them to help me remember how awesome they used to be, but I have also been watching them to see if there was a clue to why they quit. I thought it was brilliant, but my 16 year old sister thought it was unhealthy.
Breathing in, I then opened my mouth to give her my "answer", but luckily for me, April then joined the call. "Oh, thank Notch you came on right then, April," I then said, immediately slapping my hand over my mouth.
"Why?" April curiously asked.
"No reason. You are just so awesome to commentate with. You are the life of the party. Now, are we getting to recording a video or not?"
-1 Hour Later-
"So, that was Bit Trip! If you want to check out this game, the server I.P. is in the description below. Also, check out these lovely ladies' channels. They are really amazing, and super hilarious. This is Ninjamaster…" I then trailed off, which was the cue for the others to say their names.
"ChocolateGirl12!" April happily cheered.
"Eagelfan2569," Aurora said simply, obviously still grumpy about losing three times in a row to me.
"And Kittyjen!" Jen cried, and I could tell that it was a little bit more cheery than normal. With where she barely speaks on a normal occasion, she normally was dead quiet, not even talking a lot when we are commentating.
Laughing, I then said, "I will see you throwing stars later. Bye!" A moment after that and after my friends said their goodbye's as well, I stopped recording, then slumping back in my chair. "Whew, that was fun."
"Yeah… that was. More fun than normal. Bit Trip is definitely a nerve-wracking game," Jen then said, softly laughing afterwards. Aurora laughed as well.
All of a sudden, I heard a quick beep from my Skype. Looking over to my other monitor, I then saw that someone was trying to call me on Skype. "Huh… wonder who could be calling me at four in the morning," I then said, which immediately silenced Aurora, April and Jen. Answering the call, I then said into my microphone, "Ninjamaster here."
"Hey, Ninjamaster, this is xRpMx13," The voice then said, and my breath was caught in my throat. Ryan actually called me on Skype? This had to be a prank.
"And Bashur and Caveman!" Another voice then cried out, one that was a lot higher pitched than Ryan's voice was. I could barely breathe. I was in shock. Three of my favorite YouTubers were calling for me on Skype. I could literally feel the shock emanating from April, Jen and Aurora, who were still on the call.
"Wh-what are you calling me for?" I shakily asked, adjusting my headphones real quick. I was extremely nervous… never before has any of my favorite YouTubers ever contacted me to request something. This was like a dream come true.
I heard Ryan, Bashur and Dan chuckle, and then Ryan said, "Bash, Caveman and I were going to film our next Survival Games video, and we decided that we were going to start bringing in special guests. We wanted you to be our very first special guest!"
Opening and closing my mouth several times, no sound came out. That was a huge honor to be a part of their famous Survival Games, not including the fact that I was going to be their very first special guest appearance on their new series. I was completely flabbergasted. Finally, I managed to croak out, "I… I would be honored, guys! But… why me exactly? You could have done Dakota or Bryce, not me."
"We would be honored if you would play with us. I mean, you are the biggest, most popular female Minecrafter on YouTube since Dawnables, and you haven't even played one game with any other famous YouTuber, excepting April, Aurora and Jen, who you always record with," Bashur then explained, sounding very cheery and excited like always.
"So, what do you say, Carter?" Dan asked, which then made everything around us fall silent.
Breathing in slowly, I could feel my chest swelling with excitement. This seemed almost too good to be true. "Sure!" I then cried out, brushing my platinum blonde hair out of my face.
"Sweet! I will send you the I.P. for our separate call, and then afterwards, we will start recording. See ya in a few, Carter. Oh, and see you guys later as well, Aurora, Jen and April," Ryan then said, leaving the call shortly afterwards. Immediately after they left, my friends exploded with excitement.
"Wow! I can't believe that xRpMx13, Bashur and CavemanFilms asked you to record with them!"
"Bashur said my name!"
"Lucky! I wish I were as luck as you!"
"He said my name, oh, my Gosh!"
"Woah, woah, woah. You guys need to calm down. It's just a silly little recording that I'm doing with three of my favorite YouTubers. What's wrong and exciting about that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow quickly.
"Are you kidding me? Carter, I have known you since ninth grade, and then you would always be talking about xRpMx13, Bashur, Sky and the others! It was your dream to record with any of them. Now it is actually happening. Why are you still here? You should be on their call and be recording with them!" April then cried out, and I could tell by her voice that she seemed excited for me.
"You guys sure?" I then asked, my excitement getting the better of me. That was an opportunity that was never going to happen again. I might as well take the chance while I have it within my reach.
"Go for it, Carter! Just tell us how it went afterwards!" Aurora then said, and then I smiled.
"OK, then. See you guys later!" I then cried out, immediately afterwards leaving the Skype call. I quickly found the message from Ryan, which held the I.P. to their call. I adjusted my webcam screen, making sure that it was still working. Just below the message where the I.P. was, it said to pull up a webcam screen so that we could see each other on the Skype video call. I breathed in, shaking slightly as I entered in the address to their call.
As I pressed the call button, I then held my breath in terror. This was actually going to happen to me. A moment later, I saw three faces in front of me. The first one was in the top left corner of my screen, and I could see what he looked like. From previous experiences, I already knew who it was. He had short brown hair, light blue (almost grey) eyes, light skin, a stubble and growing mustache (a stubble as well). He wore a blank tank top, which seemed to be his trademark piece of clothing, and a necklace around his neck. He had on his grey and black headphones, which were strapped over his ears. He also had on a pair of glasses, which looked strange on him. The guy in the middle of the screen I also quickly recognized. He had long, dark brown hair, brown eyes, sharp eyebrows, and stubble. He wore a black graphic t-shirt, and had small silver earrings in his ears. Black and neon-green headphones sat on his head, and the headphones were glowing slightly. The last guy, the one in the top right corner, looked different. Even then, I still recognized him from before. He had short, light brown hair, light brown eyes, tan skin and glasses on his face. He wore a light blue t-shirt, and had dark blue and black headphones. They all were smiling at me, and then a moment later, they all had shocked looks on their faces. This was the first time that I had done a facecam after I had re-dyed my hair and after I had aged almost a year and a half (yes, she was doing Minecraft before Adam left, she just didn't get super popular until after he left). I looked a lot different now than what I did look like back then.
"Wow, you look… amazing, Ninja," Bashur then said, smiling towards me afterwards.
"Shut up. And just call me Carter, please," I then said, tucking my bangs out of my face.
"OK, then, Carter. So, you should know everyone here," Ryan then said, smiling afterwards when I nodded. "Let's start recording then. Here's my server that we are going to play on."
I pulled up my recording software, and I pulled up Minecraft, entering the I.P. in the address bar. About halfway through this process, April walked into my office, looking extremely excited and happy about me being invited to their recording. She sat down next to me, although she was trying her best to be silent. Once I got everything pulled up, I then talked again, as I had ignored what Ryan, Bashur and Caveman were saying before.
"You ready to start?" Ryan then asked once we all were in the same area on the server. I nodded, and then I breathed in, waiting for one of them to start the intro. I was already recording; I would just have to clip it when I post it on YouTube.
"You know what, why don't you take the intro, Bashur?" Dan then asked, and a moment later, Bashur smiled wickedly.
"With pleasure." Right then, he put on his 3-D glasses, and then he said, "Hey, you guys! What's up, everyone? I'm playing Survival Games with xRpMx13 and CavemanFilms!" Bashur laughed, afterwards, and then, all three of their characters turned towards mine once we spawned in the arena that we were going to play on. This was Ryan's server, and it was one of the bigger ones, the one with the giant boat that Ryan would always go to when he started playing on that game.
"We are going to start a new series of Survival Games, and we are going to invite YouTubers to play with us each different round! Our very first special guest is…" Dan then started, and then he motioned to me over the Skype call.
"Ninjamaster01!" I then cried out, which made the boys laugh in response.
The countdown dropped to zero, and while Bashur and I ran for mid, Ryan and Dan ran towards the boat, which was where the main loot was to be found. Bashur got a stone sword and some chain pants and boots off of spawn, while I got a couple cooked chickens, an iron chest plate, and some sticks. "I have a stone sword! Who wants to mess with me now?!" Bashur cried out as he then killed a person, gaining quite good loot.
Ryan laughed, and then he said, "So, yeah! This new series will be very interesting, as we have never done anything like this before. With each episode, we are going to ask our guest some questions, which will probably get us to know them a little better!"
I then cried out, yelping in surprise. "What the heck! This guy came out of nowhere!" I then cried out as I ran after where Ryan and Dan had disappeared. They had traveled to the boat, and were, at that moment, looting the chests for goodies to help us win against the other competitors. A guy decked out in full leather armor (not really a good set of armor), but he had an iron sword on hand, jumped over the hill that I was going over, and began to chase me. The only issue was that I had no weapon on hand.
"I got your back, Carter," Bashur then said, killing the person with his stone sword. Afterwards, we shared loots and armor, and soon, I had almost a full set of chain armor and I had a stone axe. I was doing pretty good so far. April sat next to me excited, sitting on the edge of her chair and trying not to talk. It was really hard for her not to do so. She still couldn't comprehend that I was recording a video with three famous YouTubers.
"Anyways, let's get to the questions. Carter, out of all the questions that we could ask you as the very first question on the series, our question is… who do you like more out of the three of us?" Dan then asked, which made me and everyone else break out laughing.
"Hm, that's a very hard question, Caveman," I then responded, trying my best not to laugh while I answered his question. I was in the water heading towards the boat at that point, and I could see that Ryan was at the top of the boat, patiently waiting for me and Bash to get to them to regroup. "I'm going to offend someone if I say who exactly, so I am going to say all three of you!"
The boys laughed, which made me laugh in return. I loved laughing. It was an amazing feeling for me. "OK, I get next question. What is your favorite color?" Bash then asked, curiosity lacing in his words.
"Blue and green all da way, baby!" I then cried out, then jumping onto the boat and picking up some armor that Dan and Ryan had thrown me.
This continued on for some time, them continually asking me questions and me answering them. It was actually a really cool experience for me. Finally, though, the dreaded question came up, one that I was hoping would never come. "Who inspired you to do YouTube commentary, Ninjamaster?" Ryan asked as Ryan and I ran towards a village on the north side of the dome. Bash and Caveman had lost us in a cave system, and we were going to meet up together again by center later. I was surprised that none of us had died at that point.
Sighing, I then answered, "Well, I have been watching YouTube since you guys have started with YouTube. That saying, I have been watching YouTube for a while. After a while of watching you guys, I finally became inspired to start commentating myself. I would have to say that the main three people that inspired me to start making videos were SkyDoesMinecraft, ASFJerome, and BajanCanadian. No offense to you guys."
"None taken," Ryan then said, and then he began to run towards the boat on the other side of the arena. I followed behind him, making sure that nobody was going to jump us.
I then continued on with my answer. "They were really funny, and for some reason, I never disliked any of their videos that they did. Because of them, I learned the basics I needed to make videos, and then about a year and a half ago, I began to make videos. I never really got popular until… shortly after Sky and most of Team Crafted quit YouTube," I answered, then sitting back in my seat in defeat. A person in full diamond armor had jumped me, and took me out in four hits. Of course, Ryan, Bash and Dan immediately knew about it. They were silent, though. That was very peculiar to me.
"It must be hard to know that the YouTubers that inspired you to start YouTube are no longer doing videos," Bashur quietly said, breaking the silence after a moment. I didn't respond, I just nodded, although nobody except for the three boys saw it.
Luckily, a minute later, the game ended, Caveman being the victor. "Well, take us out, Ninja! I'll let you have it," Dan then said, and just by the tone of his voice, I knew that he was smiling, even though I could see him smiling on my other monitor.
I smiled slightly back, and then I nodded. "Well, that was the very first Special Survival Games episode! If you liked this episode, please leave a like and smash that subscribe button with your fist. Maybe we could hit… 6,000 likes? That would be awesome, guys! Let's help these three fine gentlemen make this brand new series extremely popular! Go and check out their channels; their links will be in the description below. On that note, I will see you throwing stars later. Bye!" I cried, and then, like the last video I did, the others said their goodbyes as well, or did their normal sign-off ending. Shortly after, I stopped my recording, having done nearly 25 minutes of Survival Games. I turned my attention to my other monitor where the Skype call was still going, and saw all three of the boys looking at me. April, who was still next to me, also noticed this, and she fell completely silent.
"That was a fun recording," Ryan then said, which made all of us nod in agreement. "Yeah… that was. We definitely got to know the now famous Carter Christiansen a little bit better because of it," Bashur responded, and then he looked right to me.
"I told you before… I wouldn't have become famous if… my previous favorite YouTubers hadn't quit doing YouTube," I quickly countered. I really didn't like to gloat about the fact that I got as famous as SkyDoesMinecraft did, because it made me feel selfish.
"That was part of it. You also have to realize that you never recorded a video with an already-famous commentator like me, Ryan or Bashur. You started completely new, and without the help of other YouTubers that were already famous. That's just… amazing." Caveman looked to me, and it was right then that I realized the age difference between me and them. The oldest they could be was in their mid-to-late twenties, while I was only 18. Did they realize this at all?
I shook my head. "Well, I better be heading to bed. Its 4:42 in the morning where I live and I really need to save my energy for tomorrow. I will talk to you guys later. Maybe we could do more videos more often," I then said, getting ready to end the call. But then, I stopped myself. Curiosity got the better of me. Why exactly… I have no idea really.
"Yeah, that would be fun," Ryan then said, smiling softly towards me.
I sighed, and then I asked, "Hey, have any of you three been in contact lately with Adam or the others that quit YouTube ten months ago?"
Dan shook his head. "No. They basically have… vanished off the face of this planet. They never call, and we never see them around any of our other friends. I'm sorry if this didn't answer your question or suspicions, Carter."
"It's fine. I was just curious to know why exactly they quit… but I will not but that burden on your guys' shoulders. See you guys later."
"'K. See you later, Carter. Wanna record later today, maybe somewhere past noon your time?" Bashur asked, and then I nodded.
"Sure. See ya."
"Bye," The three of them responded. I then ended the call, being surrounded in silence. April hadn't said a word, staring towards me in worry. I turned my attention to my best friend, and saw that her eyes were wide in fright and agony. "What?"
April shook her head, and then she said, "Carter, I'm starting to worry for you. You really need to stop worrying about why exactly they quit. There's nothing you can do to change that fact."
"April, it is the only way that I can remember things from the past. If you're not aware of it, I do have memory loss issues. It is only my curiosity and suspicions that keep me remembering everything that has happened before. Without constantly watching their old videos to try and find clues, I would have forgotten everything by now," I countered, pushing myself up from my computer after I began to upload that video. The one that I did with Jen, Aurora and April earlier was already mostly uploaded, it only needed about an hour until it was completely finished. April walked behind me as I went to my room, completely fatigued from the night of being up and playing Minecraft.
Grabbing onto my shoulders, April then turned me around so that I was completely facing her. "Carter, I'm beginning to worry about you. If this doesn't stop, you're not going to be able to concentrate on any school work if we get accepted into college…"
I then froze. "What was that?" I asked, looking into her eyes, which were filled with excitement right then.
"Carter, the letter that Jody Rich said was going to come came last night. I just didn't tell you because you seemed too into watching YouTube to be concerned with it. We got accepted into the University of Southern California with scholarships in Motion Picture Producing. We're going to college, Carter. We're going to college."
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It took me a while to get it up, because I was having troubles trying to figure out how the plot is going to go. Now, I realize that most stories have the characters going to colleges in California, but it was the easiest college that I could find that held the certain majors that my characters were going to major in and that was really close to Los Angeles. If it would have been somewhere else, it would have been a college in Washington, but I decided to change it when Adam (in real life) said he was moving to Los Angeles. Oh well XP This story is going to need OCs later on, so if you have an OC, you can send one in! Here is the form you will need to submit an OC:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance:
Personality:
Disorders/Flaws (Since I don't want any Mary-Sues):
Family/Friends (optional):
Pairing (optional):
Likes:
Dislikes:
History:
Abilities:
Talents/Hobbies:
Other (optional):
Thanks for reading, recruits! If you liked this chapter, and if you have a question that you want to ask the characters or me, just leave them in a review! I will see you throwing stars later :)
~Ninjamaster01
