Maelstrom
n:a situation or state of confused movement or violent turmoil.
Part 3: June 2013
There was something wrong with her good friend – well, not that she hadn't known it before, but it was becoming even more apparent. For example, ever since she'd informed Cat that Beck would, in fact, be attending this stream, the girl hadn't stopped giggling like some sort of maniac. Seriously.
"It's like, an otp kind of deal," Cat informed her helpfully. "You'll understand one day."
Jade simply stared at her tiny friend, wondering what in the world went through her head sometimes – and hoping that she wouldn't scare Beck to death. Sure, Beck was enthusiastic and loud, but he wasn't Cat-level. No one was Cat level.
Once he joined the call, though, Cat let out a squeal and Jade immediately groaned. "Sorry for… her," she sighed. "Guys, this is Beck. Beck, this is Cat, Robbie, Moose, and Sinjin."
Cat squeaked out a 'hi', Moose greeted him with a stereotypical 'hey, man', while Robbie and Sinjin simply said 'hello'.
"Hey, nice to meet you guys," Beck said in return. "Thanks for letting me join your stream!"
"Yeah, whatever," Jade cut in, before he could go on and gush about how it was such an honor – which, considering his amount of subscribers, it really wasn't. "So we're thinking about starting off with some Draw My Thing, then attempting to play GTA V online, doing some GMod Sandbox, and later a little bit of viewer's choice. You down for that?"
"Sounds great," Beck said cheerfully.
"Yeaaaah," Cat replied cheekily, "as long as Jade's here."
Jade muffled a groan as her other friends laughed. This was going to be a long night.
But they managed to start streaming and get on Omgpop nonetheless, all of them in the same Draw My Thing room. Moose cut in. "Just so you know, I'm beast at this."
Jade laughed. "Last time we played, you lost to Sinjin."
"I know things," Sinjin replied ominously. "That is no dishonor."
The game started then, and the first one to draw was Moose, which Jade figured would be interesting – especially when the thing he was drawing resembled, well, a male part. Beck, however, was less careful about it. "Is that a dick, man?"
"No!" Moose spluttered. "Just let me finish drawing! I swear, when I'm done, this is gonna be a regular Picasso or something."
Jade highly doubted that, however, and was proven to be right when the time ran out and no one had guessed correctly. "It was a finger!" Moose groaned, sounding disgraced.
"Well, it didn't look like it," Robbie replied smartly.
"And your head doesn't look like a human's, but I don't complain about that, now do I?" Moose shot back, laughing a little bit.
"That's offensive!" Robbie complained.
"Get used to it," Jade told him, realizing it was her turn to draw. The word was Cat, ironically enough, and she laughed quietly to herself before she began to draw. Instead of choosing to draw a conventional and boring cat, however, she drew her small redheaded friend, exaggerating her eyes to make her look like a badly drawn anime character. When Cat saw the velvety red hair, she gasped. "Is that me?!"
"You might want to not yell out what the answer is, Cat," Robbie said with a laugh as he and the others guessed correctly. Well, everyone except Beck.
"I don't get it," Beck whined. "What's the answer? How do you all know this?"
The timer ran out then, though, and the world was revealed. Beck immediately began to laugh. "Well, that was a really bad drawing of Cat!"
Cat gasped. "That was a bad drawing of me?"
"No, Cat," Jade responded in an annoyed tone, shooting daggers at Beck though she knew he couldn't see them. It was far too easy to set the redhead off, and she was not in the mood to deal with a crying Cat.
"I'm drawing next!" Cat yelped, causing Jade to sigh in relief. "Oh, the word's seashell! Wait, was I supposed to say that out loud?"
"No, Cat, you weren't," Moose said, chuckling.
"Forget I said that," Cat muttered quietly, but that didn't stop all of them from quickly typing in the word before she even got a chance to type. Pouting, Cat said, "Phooey."
The worst actual 'drawer' so far, though, was Robbie. His drawing was meant to be a goat, but the way he drew it, it looked to be a cross between a horse and a frog – rather disturbing and no one got it, which made Robbie embarrassed. "I tried my best!" he protested.
"That's the sad part," Jade said with a laugh. "I pity all your art teachers."
"Oh, yeah? Well I pity my art teachers too," Robbie chuckled.
"Three-way tie," Moose groaned. "Between me, Jade, and… Sinjin?"
"I'm a beast at this," Sinjin informed them in his usual disturbing voice.
"Oh, yeah? Well, I'm gonna be a beast too," Beck said.
He wasn't. Perhaps it was because his drawings suck or because he could only really guess when Cat squealed out the answer (which was more often than not), but Beck really sucked at the game, and it amused Jade half to death – especially when he muttered things under his breath after narrowly missing the window to type in the word. Oh, Beck.
So he seemed pleased when Jade announced they were moving on to the next game, GTA V. All six of them were going to attempt to play together, which Jade thought would certainly be interesting, especially since GTA wasn't Cat's kind of game. All of them got online though nonetheless.
"So I say we all try to get in one car," Moose said conversationally.
"That's dumb as hell, man," Beck said, but finished it up with, "I like it."
Jade nearly facepalmed. These guys could be such idiots sometimes.
"I got a big car," Sinjin said ominously, and though it sounded creepy, all five of them flocked over to where he was. He did, in fact, have a pretty nice car; Jade wasn't interested enough to know the name, but she hopped in nonetheless before they could leave her behind.
Of course, Beck hopped in beside her, making her sigh – the fanfictions were going to be raging, she was sure. "Hey there babe," he said with a wink.
"Don't call me that," Jade retorted.
"Omg Bade!" Cat squealed.
"Stab me with a knife," was all Jade could get out as Sinjin began to drive off.
"You left me behind!" Robbie screamed frantically, his character chasing behind the car.
"Just get a car and catch up with us," Moose said, sounding a little irritated. "You'll get there eventually."
So Robbie was offended, Moose was a little irritated, Cat was hyped up on Bade, Sinjin was creepy, and Beck was probably concerned that these were Jade's friends. But Jade? Jade just laughed. Nothing like a typical night with the guys (and Cat).
They drove until they reached the strip club, which absolutely scandalized Cat but sent the guys into peals of laughter, especially when Jade got annoyed and started shooting up the club. "Now the guards are attacking us," Moose complained.
"You're just jealous that they have better boobs than you," Beck mocked.
"That," Jade said through gritted teeth, "is a lie."
A small laugh came from Beck. "I know."
"I think we need a helicopter," Moose cut in.
"How the heck do you suggest we get one of those?" Jade inquired.
"I know a cheat," Beck muttered to himself, pressing down some buttons before a helicopter spawned out of thin air. "There. See? MLG, man."
"I say we all get in so we can go up high and then I can push you all out. It'd be really amusing," Jade said sardonically.
"Or we can just fly to the top of a building and party there?" Beck asked meekly.
Jade rolled her eyes. "What fun is that?"
They played around on GTA for a bit longer, getting shot by gangs, stealing cars, and torturing each other (okay, so that one may have been mostly Jade). After that, they decided to move on and play some viewer suggested games until they all grew too tired to continue. They bid their fans good night and logged off of stream, Jade's mind boggling at the amount of viewers – more than she'd ever had, to be sure, and all because of Beck. Whether that was a good thing or not, she still hadn't decided yet.
Her Steam beeped again with a new message.
New Steam Message
Beck: Thanks for having me on the stream tonight again :)
Jade: Any time, I guess. Hope my friends didn't completely turn you off or whatever.
Beck: Nooo your friends are awesome! I wanna play with all you guys again sometime. Too funny!
Jade: Oh. Can't say I'm not surprised.
Beck: Please, theyre your friends and you have remarkably good taste ! Anyway good night Jade. Sleep tight ;)
Jade: Whatever you say, Beck. Good night.
.
Jade was not fond of many social networking site. TheSlap was full of 'friends' she hadn't spoken to in five years, posting about their 'hubbies' and their new babies (ew, Jade thought to herself). Instapic was jampacked with selfies – and considering Jade had yet to show her face to anyone on the Internet, that was a definite no. Slap + - was there even a point to it? Jade hadn't yet found one, though through USlap she'd been automatically signed up for it. Tumblr, while occasionally amusing, always took things too far. But the worst of them all was Twitter, with its nonsensical hashtags and incessant updates. Seriously, who needed to know what you were doing every five seconds?
So when Beck dared suggest she join it, she was outraged to say the least.
"I have nothing to tweet," she informed him stubbornly via their Skype call. "I hate Twitter."
"C'mon, it's fun!" he protested, grinning at her – the idiot had taken to turning on his camera during their calls, presumably so that she could see his 'sexy' face. She begged to differ, of course, and stuck with just voice on her end. He continued by saying, "We can tweet each other."
"Why?" she deadpanned. "We already Skype, Steam message, post dumb comments on each other's USlap videos, and occasionally I go on Tumblr to complain about you and your annoying tendency to play games I want to play before me so that I get a thousand comments about copying you. Why do we need Twitter as well?"
"The Bade fans'll love it," Beck said, cocky smirk splayed across his face. "And besides, your fans will love it! It's so much easier to interact with fans and update on there – so much less spam, you know? It helps me out as well."
A wave of guilt crashed over Jade. Like every USlapper, she'd started off replying to every single comment on her videos, but as the comment count neared the thousands, she'd found it impossible to keep up and had basically given up on replying altogether. Her fans would, in fact, be thrilled to have this new medium to connect with Jade on – and she did need a way to show them how much she appreciated their support. Ugh, she thought to herself. She didn't even know who she was anymore.
But, with a long, deep sigh, she said, "Fine. But if someone took my username, I'm throwing a fit, you hear me?"
Beck's smirk simply grew even wider. "Don't even worry about it, Jade. I had a feeling you'd agree, so I went ahead and saved your username for you."
"…screw you."
.
Jade (a) ScissorLuv 12m
So (a)GotBeck may have convinced me to join Twitter. Whatever. Call me a noob and you're dead.
Beck (a)GotBeck 10m
(a)ScissorLuv N00b.
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 7m
(a)GotBeck Again I say, screw you.
Bader3 (a)JadeFan33 5m
(a)ScissorLuv (a)GotBeck i bet u want to don't u jade? ;)
.
"You neglected to mention that the army of Bade shippers is prevalent on Twitter as well."
Andre guffawed. Beck snorted. Jade wanted to strangle them both.
"Hey, what can I say? We're irresistible," Beck said breezily, probably winking at her – though, given the three way call, she couldn't actually see him.
"I ship it," Andre chimed in.
"Whatever," Jade griped, wishing she could virtually strangle the two idiots on the other ends of the call. "You two are worse than Cat, honestly."
"Cat's pretty kawaii," Andre so helpfully informed her.
"Please don't tell me you have a crush on Cat," Jade groaned, imagining Andre cradling the tiny redhead and shuddering.
"Nah, man," Andre replied casually. "I got my eyes on this other girl. She's into video games and music and she's on Youtube – so basically, she's exactly my type. And, as an added bonus, she's hot."
"Score, dude," Beck chuckled.
"Ugh, you two are such obnoxious straight guys," Jade complained, rolling her eyes at them. And they were so shallow too – though Jade couldn't help but acknowledge that she could appreciate good looks (and developed muscles) on a guy as well.
"Don't be jealous," Andre retorted. "Not everyone can be half of a famous otp like you and Beck. I gotta make my own way in this world, man."
"You and Beck have some hardcore shippers as well," Jade shot back to Andre. "Seems like the yaoi fans have infiltrated, yeah?"
"Hell yeah," Beck replied, laughing. "They know a good bromance when they see one." He then began to make kissy noises that Andre quickly reciprocated. Honestly. Sometimes it was like she was dealing with five year olds rather than guys her age.
"Are we gonna play this damn game or not?" Jade griped, feeling awkward but somewhat amused.
"Sure," Beck said with another laugh. "I made the tournament, so I'm just waiting on you two to join."
Reluctantly, Jade did so, not feeling incredibly enthusiastic about this game to say the least. When she joined the room, though, she found herself laughing. "Hey Beck, are you wearing a tutu?"
"Maybe…" Beck trailed off, laughing quietly.
"So we've got a pirate, a fairy princess… and me." She smirked, not knowing how to describe her character. The thing had a pair of purple wings, a black dress, a pirate hat, and a mustache. Exactly her type.
"Lookin' hot, Jade," Beck said, making her roll her eyes.
"Dude. You know people are gonna take that out of context and make gifs of it for tumblr," Jade replied with a groan.
"Let them," Beck answered, laughing. "At least they'll have something to entertain them for the next few weeks."
Jade rolled her eyes – Beck could be such a dick when he wanted to be – but signed into the game, Bomberman Ultra, nonetheless. The three characters appeared on screen then, all of them in different corners, and began laying their bombs. Andre immediately began to laugh. "Yo, this is like that game they used to have on Omgpop. Balloono or whatever."
"Yeah!" Beck said in recognition. "Pretty sure I beat Jade in that game as well."
"Did not," Jade shot back. "You'll see; I'll be the champion of this one."
The three creatures scuttled around the screen, blowing up the blocks with the bombs in a frantic attempt to get at each other. Soon, Beck had himself cornered by a bomb, and he let out a deep sigh. "I may have just screwed myself."
"Nice job, Becky," Jade teased, half-smiling at the fact that now she only had one enemy to take out –Andre, who was approaching her with quickening speed. Great, she thought to herself. Just great.
"Look how fast I am!" Andre exclaimed, dropping a bomb near her that she quickly scurried away from.
"Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves," Beck griped.
"Aw, don't be a sore loser," Jade said, smirking. "It's not our fault that we're the true gamers here."
"Yeah, do you even bomb, man?" Andre said, cracking up at his own stupid pun – and his enthusiastic laughter made Jade laugh as well, which simply made Beck even grumpier. Oh, well. "Okay, let's do this," Andre continued, laying more bombs on the ground near her, but she scurried into a corner. Realizing he'd trapped himself, Andre attempted to join her – but the game glitched out and he died. "NO!" he exclaimed loudly. Jade simply laughed.
"I don't like this game," Beck whined.
"You're just mad because you suck at this game, baby," Jade said with a sneer, knowing she'd probably set off the fanfiction writers also. Oh, well.
"I do not!" Beck protested. "So I'm just gonna go ahead and start the next game. I'm so gonna win this one, man."
Andre and Jade both laughed before simultaneously saying, "We'll see about that."
"You will see!" Beck said, sounding offended – which just made Jade and Andre laugh even harder.
.
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 17m
May have just demolished (a)GotBeck and (a)KeyboardDre in Bomberman Ultra. This is what real gaming looks like. #gogetgood
Beck (a)GotBeck 15m
(a)ScissorLuv (a)KeyboardDre proof or it didn't happen!
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 10m
(a)GotBeck (a)KeyboardDre Oh yeah, the three recordings we took simultaneously don't count. You've got a brain. Use it. ;)
Ya Boy Andre (a)KeyboardDre 7m
(a)ScissorLuv (a)GotBeck that winky face though, Beck. She wants the D. #bade
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 4m
(a)KeyboardDre (a)GotBeck Shut the hell up, Andre.
.
For some reason, Jade's downloading of the Twitter app (yes, okay, she'd sunken to a new low) came with a whole new set of problems. Like somehow she'd accidentally subscribed to Beck's tweets, which meant she had them sent to her phone – and with her having no idea how to turn them off, that proved to be somewhat of an issue, especially with Google being particularly unhelpful on the subject. After a few days of his incessant tweeting, though, she grew used to it, and even began to enjoy his stupid tweets – especially when they were directed at her. So she wasn't surprised when her phone buzzed again, indicating a new tweet from the devil himself.
Beck (a)GotBeck 14 secs ago
Whats up dudes? Thinkin about doing a lil giveaway on my Thursdays with beck video today. :P use the hashtag #gotbeckgiveaway to enter!
She rolled her eyes with a little half-smile. She'd known about Beck's Thursdays with Beck videos for ages; they were vlogs, unlike the majority of his gaming videos, and typically involved some sort of fan interaction – whether it be Q&As, shoutouts, or Mail Time. The latter was her favorite – especially after some kind of especially talented fan had created a Jade Doll and sent it to him, which he immediately tried to lick (completely disgusting, she thought, wrinkling up her nose). And he got quite a bit of Bade fanart – which, contrary to many people's vehement belief, she actually didn't mind. The amount of work put into those drawings made them gorgeous to her selective eyes.
A giveaway, however, was something entirely knew on Thursdays with Beck, and something almost unprecedented for a USlapper to do by themselves, simply because of the amount of work it required to be done fairly. She wondered what in the world Beck was giving away. His vague tweet had detailed almost nothing about the giveaway aside from the obligatory hashtag.
An idea struck her then, and she gave an evil half-smile as she opened a new tweet. There were no rules, so there were certainly no rules to prohibit her from entering. And in situations like the current one, well, why not?
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 10s
(a)GotBeck #gotbeckgiveaway Points for creativity. Also this giveaway better entail some sort of monetary compensation for my tweeting this.
Within a couple of minutes, she had a response.
Beck (a)GotBeck 2 min
(a)ScissorLuv as always I appreciate your enthusiasm Jade. ;) however another compliment or 2 might increase your likelihood of winning!
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 1 min
(a)GotBeck You have all right hair. Could stand for a haircut or two, but it's decent. Am I doing this right? #gotbeckgiveaway
Beck (a)GotBeck 40s
(a)ScissorLuv getting close ;P results will be up later today. Watch my new video to be a #trufan!
She laughed at Beck's antics, but thought nothing of their usual banter and returned to editing her playthrough of The Walking Dead. Although the game was beyond amazing, it had made her rather emotional – why did everyone have to die? – and being the hardcore USlapper that she was, she had to keep up her stellar reputation. That meant no teary eyes, even if some of her favorite characters were killed off. She had to stay strong.
As she edited a segment of Lee walking (did he honestly have to walk so dramatically slow?), she felt her phone buzz again. Of course, it was yet another tweet from Beck, this one announcing in his typical offhanded way that he'd uploaded his Thursdays with Beck video. Curiously, she decided to take a break from editing to watch.
Immediately, Beck's face flooded her screen as he grinned. "What's up, dudes? My name is Beck and I'm here with another Thursdays with Beck video! This week I decided to take some suggestions. First off, you dudes suggested that I… take off my shirt." After reading this, he glanced up at the camera for a moment, giving the audience a confused glance. "Whatever you dudes want, I guess," he said, slowly unbuttoning his plaid shirt – and though Jade thought she ought to look away, she couldn't peel her eyes from the screen. The video didn't show much, though, just the top half of his chest, which was admittedly evenly tan and muscular and therefore very attractive in her eyes. Damn. She had to stop thinking crap like that.
"So now that I've got this shirt, I figured I might as well do a little giveaway. I'm gonna go tweet this out…" he muttered, and his fingers were heard clicking furiously against the keyboard. "Done. Now, let me pull up my feed."
His chosen hashtag showed up on screen then, and the tweets seemed to be moving incredibly fast. He stared at the camera, eyes wide as if to show how overwhelmed he was, and then clicked off of it. "Maybe I won't do it that way," he told the audience with a grin. "I'm gonna do some randomizing techniques –" he pressed a couple of buttons, and a screen popped up that said Genius Beck Utilizing Techniques for a few seconds before Beck's face showed up again. "Okay, so I have my winner. This lovely shirt right here goes to Jade or ScissorLuv on Twitter. Congrats, Jade! Look, I'm even gonna sign this chiz for you." He smirked, whipping out a Sharpie and scrawling his name across it. "I'll be sending you my shirt via the express mail," he finished with a wink.
Screw him, Jade thought, anger and embarrassment and chagrin and amusement rushing through her in equal parts, but she couldn't help but laugh nonetheless. There was simply something so ludicrous about the idea of Beck sending her his shirt. Like, what was she supposed to do with it? Smell it? Burn it? Certainly not lick it.
She rolled her eyes, pressing the play button to watch the rest of the video.
"And before you dudes get all up in arms about me playing favorites, don't even worry about it. I'm doing a real giveaway next week with a swagged out pair of Hollywood Arts headphones, so I decided to think of a creative way to announce it for you dudes. It's a partnership thing with USlap – I won't even get to decide; it's totally random. But I'm excited to be able to do this for you dudes! You'll be able to enter online starting next Monday, so definitely check that out."
"Thanks for that suggestion though, dudes, and Jade, I'm serious – this shirt is coming your way. Anyway, next up on this week's episode of Thursdays with Beck – interview with my dogs."
She paused it, thinking that was enough of the Vlogs for one day, and simply laughed again to herself. Sometimes she thought that Beck was so utterly and completely weird that one day he'd do something to weird her out to the point that she'd dump him as a friend altogether, yet that day had still not come, nor did she see it ever coming. He'd quickly become one of her best friends. They could play games together, joke around with each other, rage at each other, and still be good at the end of the day. It was a chill, natural relationship – and Jade loved every minute of it.
Even when she was getting sweaty shirts in the mail.
Speaking of that.
Jade (a)ScissorLuv 2m
(a)GotBeck I hope you know I'm burning that shirt. Like, the moment it arrives. I won't even hesitate.
Beck (a)GotBeck 2s
(a)ScissorLuv Yeah right Jade ;D we all know youre gonna love on that shirt man. Couldnt imagine givin it to anyone else.
.
The package arrived two weeks later, and to say that Jade was surprised was an understatement. Even though he'd said he would send her his shirt, she hadn't exactly believed him, thinking it was probably just a joke. But nope – the package sat on her front step with a return label addressed from Beck Oliver. Oh, great.
She opened it hesitantly, finding the plaid shirt (which had an odd, musky smell about it) and a note.
Jade,
Hope you enjoy this ;D Dont lie, I know you will. And youll think of me every time you wear it.
Love and Kisses,
Beck
Ew. She wrinkled up her nose, but laughed nonetheless – he was such a weirdo sometimes. Rather than put it on, though, she logged onto Steam and shot him a quick message.
Jade: Got the shirt. Didn't actually think you were serious.
Beck: Would I lie to you? Dont answer that. But do you enjoy? ;D
Jade: …sure.
Beck: Put it on weirdo!
Jade: I'm gonna have to pass on that one.
Beck: Youre missing out!
Jade: Maybe later.
Beck: Awesome. Hey I was gonna ask you – do you know of a girl named Trina? I know we know a lot of the same people so I thought Id ask. :D
Jade: Yeah, Tori's sister. She's a fashion vlogger, right? HottieGurlTrina?
Beck: Thats the one.
Jade: Why?
Beck: I dunno, she just messaged me on YouTube wanting to talk so I thought Id ask if you knew anything about her.
Jade: Yeah, sure. She's got a high opinion of herself and isn't really talented, but other than that I guess she's okay.
Beck: Wow, blunt much?
Jade: Always.
Beck: Fair enough. Ill let you get back to admiring my shirt. :D
She rolled her eyes, logging off of Steam and wondering what the heck Trina had messaged Beck about. The more irritating of the Vega sisters was a huge flirt, so that might've had something to do with it – but that was something she didn't even want to think about. She imagined Beck watching her videos, in which she showed off her fairly decent face and body, and immediately thought of how he'd never even seen her face in comparison. He might think she's hot and message her back; they might start dating; they might start a vlog channel together and then Beck wouldn't even play with Jade anymore –
Stop it, she chided herself. After all, what did she care if Beck dated Trina? What did she care if Beck dated anyone? He was free to date who he wanted, to fall in love with anyone he wanted, to do whatever he wanted – because he wasn't Jade's and technically, they weren't dating. And for whatever reason, the thought made her sick.
Please find her as annoying as I do, Jade pleaded internally.
But, all things considering, she assumed the worst – and, naturally, buried her head in Beck's shirt, inhaling that musky scent. Oh god, she was so screwed.
.
A/N: This isn't too great of a chapter – but keep in mind that the majority of the first part was written on receipt paper while I was at work. So. Yeah. Hopefully it's not too sucky.
The review count went up by a lot last chapter, so to thank you guys, here's another chapter fairly soon. Keep it up; your reviews really do encourage me to keep writing! Plus the people that get the references and parallels really amuse me. I failed at replying to reviews last chapter, but I'll seriously try this chapter. Another thing - fanfiction doesn't allow the at sign so (a) will have to do. :)
Also, with the whole Trina situation? Try to keep in mind my comments from last chapter. Love triangles aren't my thing. However, I have no qualms about keeping relationships interesting.
(REFERENCED VIDEOS:
EVERYTHING EXPLODES! – www. youtube watch?v=s6Jf-WfDQoM
FRIDAYS WITH PEWDIEPIE - www. Youtube results?search_query=fridays+with+pewdiepie )
Next chapter: Prop Hunt (for real! Maybe), jealousy, the reading of fanfiction, and probably some other stuff.