"You've hit a new low, Laura," Carmilla snickered through the voice chat.
"Hey! I'm crazy bored and there's nothing else to do!" Laura whined back. "Might as well expand my horizons, right?"
"I think some horizons are best left unexpanded, cupcake," Carmilla continued to tease her girlfriend.
In light of the Corona virus and subsequent quarantine, Silas was no longer physically in session. Everyone was sent home to finish the year online. Laura had been reluctant to leave Carmilla, but because Carmilla was human again, she was susceptible to disease again. The irony of this was not lost on either of them. After centuries of vampirism, her humanity was returned to her as a reward for saving the world! Then a year later, a pandemic. Of all the years to be mortal again!
But the worst part was that if Carmilla had still been a vampire, she would've had no risk of catching or carrying the virus, so Laura's father would've allowed her to stay over. She was no danger to herself, or anyone else. But because she was human now… Masks and social distancing! And since Carmilla didn't really have a home, per se, she filed to stay on campus. Once upon a time, she might've adored having the entire campus all to herself. Now, though? It was just lonely. Carmilla had even tried to convince Laura to just stay at Silas and hide.
"The school will be empty, no one will find you!" she'd said. "And we can even sleep six dorms apart if we have to," she joked. But Laura's father had given a hard no and come to pick Laura up just a week later.
The two then glued themselves to things like Zoom and Discord so they could keep talking even though they were now an ocean apart. But even though the internet still allowed them to interact, Laura felt stifled being stuck at home with her overbearing father (and of course, again, Carmilla was lonely on Silas' empty campus).
"I suppose this at least gives me something to look at," Carmilla grunted as she continued to watch Laura stream TikToks and Vines. In the past, although Laura had always been a child of meme and cringe, she used to consider herself above sillier forms of media. Not anymore. Quarantine was getting to her. She'd created accounts for both sites and was using them very frequently. Where the Old Laura might've scoffed at the concept of a Vine or TikTok, this new one was making a new batch every single day.
Carmilla, however, had still not sunken to that level. Yet.
"C'mon Carm! Just do one with me! Please? It'll be fun!" Laura begged as they finally exited the stream. "Do it for the Vine! For the meme!"
"I know you're in journalism, but I think we may need to redefine 'fun' if you think this sort of Gen Z trash is amusing," Carmilla snarked.
"I know it's cringey and memey, but that's what makes it fun!" Laura insisted. "I've got quite a decent following!"
"That's what makes it all the more pathetic in my eyes," Carmilla didn't miss a beat, the drawl thick in her voice.
And she'd thought Laura's days of tumblr and pinterest had been cringey and memey! They were hitting new lows now.
"At least I'm not doing something stupid like the Tide Pod Challenge, or thinking that drinking bleach will clean my insides enough to save me from the virus!" Laura defended herself.
"Oh god, I hope not!" Carmilla snorted loudly. "Even the frat bro wouldn't be dumb enough to do that! … I think..." Carmilla paused to smirk.
"Stop changing the subject," Laura warned playfully. "I want to make at least one Vine or TikTok with you, because why not?"
"Because I still have dignity and self-respect," Carmilla deadpanned.
"Ouch, man," Laura sighed. "That hurts."
"It's just the truth," Carmilla shrugged. Of course she knew Laura couldn't see the gesture, but the shrug was still evident in her tone.
"I'm proud of my Gen Z status, I'll have you know!" Laura pretended to get offended.
"Youths," Carmilla pretended to hiss in disgust.
"Ok, boomer," Laura replied smugly.
"Boomer?!" Carmilla couldn't stop a cackle. "You special snowflake!"
"Ah, true, I forgot how much older you were," Laura continued to tease. "Should I call you a tomb-er because of how old you are?"
"A tumor?!" Carmilla cackled even louder and Laura suddenly realized what she'd said.
"Wait! I didn't mean it like that!" she sputtered, trying to apologize for how rude that must've sounded, but Carmilla was laughing too hard.
Times like this made both girls love and loathe life. On the one hand, neither girl found anything more enjoyable than making the other one laugh! But on the other, especially in a year like this, that only made both of them all the more desperate for one another's touch. It was a cruel thing, to be so close and yet so far. Despite being connected in so many ways, they were still many miles apart! And on this year of all years.
2020 had their world was dealing with riots, protests, political dissent, extortion, possible war, corruption in corporate and governmental areas, lies, manipulation, oppression, environmental decay, economic decay, unemployment, murder hornets (and those sounded like something out of one of Lafontaine's wild bio projects, but they weren't! They were real things! And it was insanely weird).
In Carmilla's mind, it was like the weirdness of Silas had leaked out into the rest of the world after the almost-apocalypse, and the world had not been quite right since. This chaos was either linked to an angry Sumerian god, or it was just a crap-ton of luck so bad that even the gods couldn't fix it. It was like the world was telling Carmilla that maybe she stopped the apocalypse once, but the end would not wait around forever.
Realizing that she was slipping back into a very negative thought pattern, Carmilla forced her attention back to Laura, who was still pleading and proposing with Carmilla that they do a Vine or TikTok together.
"We can call the rest of the gang too!" Laura cried. "Laf, Perry, Danny, Kirsch, Mel..."
"Heck. No," was Carmilla's stern response. "It was crazy enough before you decided to invite the others in here. Let's not."
But it was too late, Laura was already lost in her fantasy. Yes, there was a Discord for Laura's Dimwit Squad, but Laura wanted to actually create something with the team rather than just chat with them. Besides, some of them were fairly inactive just due to being busy or not into chat rooms (this was Carmilla's case. She was hardly ever on Discord, choosing instead just to call Laura on a phone. The only reason she was on Discord now was to watch Laura's Vine and TikTok stream).
"Besides, it's Pride Month!" Laura reminded Carmilla. "We have to celebrate somehow!" And although Carmilla still turned up her nose at the idea of being cringey and memey with Laura and the other lackwits, she couldn't deny how much she loved Pride. It was one of her silliest but most beloved pastimes: indulging in gay stuff. She never ever missed a single Pride.
It was her only weakness and Laura was exploiting it for all it was worth, trying to use the idea of Pride to sway Carmilla to her side. Though the Useless Lesbian (ex) Vampire would never admit it, it was working. She was weak for the gay. But in their friend circle, who wasn't? Everyone Carmilla hung out with loved wamen. Herself included, obviously. None of them were straight, and not all of them were cis.
After Laura offered up enough suggestions, Carmilla finally cracked and agreed to do a few videos with her girlfriend.
"But only for Pride Month, ok?" Carmilla growled warningly. "And we're just doing one!"
"Ok!" Laura replied cheerfully. She always knew how to win Carmilla over! It was one of her favorite traits about herself! Just make it queer and Carmilla would be there. Even if it were something as cringey and memey as Vines and TikToks.
By the next day, Laura's profiles had exploded with activity, her and Carmilla having spent the entire night making stupid memes together. And somewhere along the way, a good chunk of the rest of the squad joined in, everyone laughing and creating Vines and TikToks. Without even meaning to, Carmilla got completely into it and helped Laura finish almost 50 new videos by the next day.
Sure, life was strange and weird for all of them during that summer of 2020, but in crazy and stupid moments like that, the rest of the world seemed to melt away and things felt just a little bit more normal. It was just Carmilla and Laura, and there was no better way to celebrate Pride Month than that!
AN: Just a fic for anyone going stir-crazy and using memes to cope. I'm actually thriving in this altered reality, but I know some folks have caved and are making some WEIRD content. If you're one of them, I adore your crazy content and my DMs are always open.