Maelstrom

n: a situation or state of confused movement or violent turmoil.

Part 1: February 2013

Uploading: 25%.

Jade sighed, drumming her fingers against her desk. The internet in her crummy house was beyond slow, so to pass the time while her latest Let's Play video uploaded, she decided to check her messages. Her inbox was nearly full: 2,895 new messages. Seriously? She thought to herself, raising an eyebrow. It amazed her every day that people actually took time out of their days to watch her pointless playthroughs of various video games. Maybe, she thought with a laugh, it was her "chillingly seductive voice". Or maybe said people had no lives. Most likely the second.

With a roll of her eyes, she clicked on a message from "jadespearl56" (seriously?).

"Jade," read the message, "ilysm! Im like your biggest fan haha. I was just wondering if u might ever show ur face. I think ur rly pretty. Lol."
She let out a long sigh upon finishing the message, wondering when people would get it through their heads that her showing her face simply wasn't happening any time soon. She didn't wish to be recognized by relentless fan brigades, nor did she want fans outside her window while she slept. It was much better this way - holed up in her room, limited social (or fan) interaction (besides her best friends and family, of course), being herself the way she wanted to. No need to pretend that she liked people, because honestly? People sucked.

With a shake of her head, she went to the next message and was confused by what she read.

"Jade," said the message, "I really like your videos, but I don't get why you always have to copy GotBeck :P Beckoners are much cooler than Jadeites anyway. Haha."

Yeah, haha, Jade thought sarcastically. Who the hell was GotBeck anyway? She'd never heard of him in her life and now she was being accused of COPYING him? She wondered what went through the minds of people sometimes. Groaning, she navigated to his USlap page - and was surprised to see a normal, semi-good looking guy staring back at her from the corner of one of his various Let's Plays. Interesting. Not only that, but the dude played the same games she did - such as Amnesia (the game that had, ironically enough, brought her to USlap). She was even more surprised when, navigating to her inbox again, she found a new message waiting for her from GotBeck.

"ScissorLuv (or can I call you Jade? Lol),

So apparently our fans have decided to start a war. Lol, I personally find it weird. Ive never heard of you before but apparently Im copying you. Or vice versa.

My name is Beck by the way, and I hope we can be friends or something. I watched a few of your videos and youre very interesting. Though I was disappointed to find you live all the way in NYC :-/ I'm a LA boy.
Hope to hear back from you soon!

- Beck"

She raised an eyebrow, unsure about this boy's intentions; she'd had many a male USlapper attempt to befriend her for the sole reason that she had breasts. But this guy, at least, seemed sincere so far. Maybe he would prove her wrong.

She began typing out a message in return.

"Hey, Beck.

Yeah, you can call me Jade. Most people do. Fans can be idiots sometimes, as most people can – don't get me wrong, mine are amazing, but everyone's screwed up in some way, y'know? Sorry, I bet this sounds really cynical, and you seem like an upbeat sort of guy.

Thanks for watching my videos, by the way. I'll go return the favor in just a moment, but just from your message you seem like a decent guy. Just don't try to get in my pants and we'll be fine.

Screw the fan war, I say. We can be friends. Message me your Skype; we'll do a co-op or something. Have to be via the internet, though, as I most assuredly do live in New York.

Jade"

Deciding to go through on her word, she pulled up his USlap channel and immediately noticed something she hadn't before – his sheer number of subscribers on USlap. 9,000,000 – 10 times the amount she had! Her jaw dropped. She'd been working years for those 900,000; it was insane to her that someone could have so many. Personally, she thought, she would probably go insane; it was already crazy enough with less than a million subscribers.

It was also strange that he would choose to contact someone like her, someone without the mass of subscribers that he possessed. This reassured her that he hadn't contacted her merely for promotion. Something about her interested him, something besides the monetary, and she was curious as to what exactly that was.

She clicked on one of his videos, smiling as she realized that he, like her, had quite the fascination with Amnesia. He seemed very enthusiastic about what he did but at the same time, he wasn't easily scared; he barely flinched at the jumpscares that nearly had her in tears (never speak of it). His facial expressions, though, were priceless, and she could easily see why people found him amusing.

With a shrug, she checked to ensure that her video had completed uploading, tweeted out the link to her Twitter followers, closed her laptop, and laid back on her bed, only to have her phone buzz incessantly again. She groaned; she hated busy days like this. "What is it?" she snapped as she answered the call.

"Hiii, Jade," said the sing-songy voice on the other side. "I was just wondering if we were still streaming tonight?"

"We stream every Saturday – you know that," Jade said with an annoyed sigh. "Just make sure you remind Robbie, Moose, and Sinjin, okay?"

"'Kay!" the redhead chirped. "Are we gonna play Mario Kart tonight? I loooove Mario Kart, and since Mario Kart 8 came out –"

"Sure, Cat, we can do some Mario Kart." Jade bit her lip to keep from sighing at her ditzy friend. "I'm sure Moose wants to do something more quote-on-quote manly, though, so we'll probably do some Left 4 Dead 2 as well."

"There's so much blood, though," Cat whined.

"You'll survive," Jade replied sharply. "I'll talk to you guys at 8, right? We have to make sure it's all set up right and all that."

"Of course!" Cat said, and Jade could practically hear her beam through the phone. She hung up after that, not bothering with a proper goodbye, and threw her body back onto her bed.

Why had Beck messaged her? She found herself wondering again, and she bit the inside of her cheek. There was nothing inherently fascinating about her; she was the typical overly blunt, anti-social, video-game-addicted girl from USlap. Not worthy of someone with 9 freaking million subscribers. But her phone pinged beside her, indicating a new USlap PM from someone she was subscribed to.

"Hey there, Jade :)

I can deal with the cynicalness if you can deal with my optimism, I guess!

I hope you enjoyed my video, honestly. I get kind of a lot of hate, I guess 'cause Im getting more well-known, so I dunno if youll enjoy it or not. But hopefully it wont turn you off completely. You seem like an awesome human being, and no, Im not trying to get into your pants! Dont worry about that.

My Skype is GotBeck711 – Im not creative, okay?! Add me; we can Skype sometime and co-op a game. I have a few suggestions that should be amusing for both of us.

Beck"

She smiled inadvertently, and then hated herself for it; being all happy over some USlapper wanting to co-op with her was completely not her thing. But then again, Beck seemed different somehow. Popular – but not money hungry; famous – but not conceited; a male – but not trying to get into her pants. Different. Despite her inhibitions, she liked it.

She logged into Skype on her phone, and then typed in his username with agile fingers. His profile popped up immediately. She smirked at his profile picture, obviously taken with the intention of being silly – his eyes were big and his tongue was out, but his smooth olive skin was still flawless. She chastised herself mentally for thinking such things before hitting the "add to contacts" button.

With a shake of her head, she closed the app and then her eyes, deciding to take a quick nap before the stream tonight. Her responsibilities could wait, at least for a few hours.

.

"Jadeeee," Robbie yelled into the Skype call. "Stop zoning out – you're getting mobbed."

"Oh," Jade said with a yawn, not even bothering with the sharp remark she would've normally directed Robbie's way. "Hey, Moose, mind reviving me?"

"I didn't mind the first fifty times, so I guess I won't mind now," Moose joked, his character moving over towards hers. "Pay more attention though, right, Jade?"

"Yeah," Cat squealed. "I'm the one who usually dies a lot!"

"Sorry, okay?" Jade apologized sharply. "I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Jade's got a boyfriend, hm?" Moose grinned over at the other boys, wiggling his blonde eyebrows. "Though I'm surprised, Jade – you don't usually let guys distract you from the real game here."

"Shut up," Jade snapped.

"You might want to run," Robbie said with a laugh. "So, who's this dude?"

"Can we meet him?!" Cat sounded more excited than anyone.

Jade rolled her eyes for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. "Look, guys, there's no one like that in my life, okay? I'm just… busy. With USlap and all that. Sorry."

"I'm not disappointed," Sinjin drawled as he shot some zombies, being as creepy as ever. Jade knew he'd had a crush on her for ages, but none of them ever took it – or him – seriously.

"Just watch my back," Jade growled. "I'm gonna go get some of the tanks."

"We've got your back, Jade," Cat chirped, and the others murmured in agreement. Jade couldn't help but wonder if they were referring to more than just the game.

.

Their first co-op slash Skype session was arranged for the next Wednesday night (since neither of them, God forbid, had "normal" jobs). Jade had to admit she was a bit nervous, but that was a normal thing; she'd felt the same during her first Skype session with Cat and the rest of her crew. What wasn't normal, though, was the desire that flooded her brain for him to like her, for him to want to continue doing videos with her. She fought the desire off and, with shaking hands, answered his call.

"Hey, Jade!" His voice was warm – that was all she could think. His voice was warm cocoa on a cold day, a snug coat in mid-winter, a sweet melody when sleep eluded. She wanted him to say her name again.

"Hi," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. How was he so cool about this?

"So I was thinking we could play some Left 4 Dead 2," Beck continued, still sounding confident as ever. "It's one of my favorites, and it's not terribly scary, plus it'll test our ability to work together."

"Fine with me," Jade replied, remembering how she'd played with the crew just a few nights ago and hoping she'd be able to concentrate a little better. She didn't want Beck thinking that she was a "terrible gamer" – weird as it sounded. "But if you don't revive me or fail to watch my back, I swear to God, I'll return the favor. Tenfold. By my own hands."

Beck laughed.

Jade raised an eyebrow. Usually when she threatened guys, they hung up the Skype call or whatever. They most certainly did not laugh. This was a new concept to her, and she was intrigued. "What's funny?"

"Your viewers were right," Beck said offhandedly. "Your voice is sexy."

Her heart practically leaped out of her chest. Working hard to conceal her blush (although since there was no video, Beck sure as hell couldn't tell), she replied, "Oh shut up, Beck. No, wait, I need an embarrassing nickname for you. I'll start off with Becky Boy. Get on my bad side and it'll get worse."

"Kay, Jade." He didn't seem deterred by her various attempts at insulting him, which simply made her more interested. "Join my game, all right?"

"Fine." She whipped out her Xbox controller and waited for the game to load up. "I'm gonna start recording, all right?"

"No fair that you get to record," he complained, but when she shot him a glare (that he unfortunately couldn't see), he chuckled. "I didn't want to do all the editing anyway."

Once she pressed record, she immediately started in with her usual intro. "Hi people. As you hopefully know by now, it's Jade here. If that name sounds unfamiliar – you're in the wrong place, first of all, and second of all you suck. Anyway, I have a special guest recording with me today."

"Heyyy everyone!" greeted Beck in his typical enthusiastic voice. "What's up? I'm GotBeck, but you can call me Beck."

"Or they could call you a sad, sad man and be done with it," Jade quipped.

"…shut up. Anyway, a lot of our fans sent both of us messages about a 'fan war' that's happening between our fandoms, and through that we found each other's channels and realized we've got a lot of common," Beck explained.

"So I decided maybe I'd see if this dude is worth it. I bet he hasn't got half as much skill as he's got prettiness."

"You think I'm pretty?"

"I think you're something, all right," Jade said with a groan, thankful he couldn't see the slight pink that tinged her cheeks. "Anyway, we're going to be playing some Left 4 Dead 2 today. A classic, right? You can never have enough – "

"ZOMBIES," Beck interrupted dramatically before she could finish. She sent him a faux-annoyed glare (although she knew he couldn't see it).

"Yeah, that." She tried to keep her voice steady, knowing that any trembling wouldn't be attributed to "just nerves". "So, yeah, we hope you enjoy."

"I'm gonna win," Beck stated confidently.

"Or you're gonna lose and tell everyone you won to preserve your manly pride," Jade shot back, feeling the confidence return to her. She was rather proud of her quick-witted comebacks; the loss of them would be quite the blow.

"Hey, that's offensive. I'd never lie to my dudes," Beck replied breezily, his warm voice almost infectious. The game started up at last and they appeared in the base room, surrounded by supplies. Being the typical boy he was, Beck immediately went for the biggest gun, but Jade prided herself on being more selective and thought carefully before selecting hers. Overly active as always, Beck's character practically bounced by the door. "Are you ready yet?"

"Calm down, I'm picking up a health pack," Jade answered, giving Coach and Nick a shot in the shoulder for good measure. When she realized who Beck had chosen, she groaned. "Beck, why the hell are you Ellis?"

"Hey," Beck said, seemingly offended. "Ellis is a good guy."

"He never stops talking," Jade griped, following her companion out the door as the zombies began strutting towards them. Sighing, she began shooting, hoping she was at least making a dent in the hoards of the undead.

"So the gas tanks show up in white on this map," Beck mused as he shot down a few more zombies. "I see one over there. Watch my back while I go get it?"

"I'm not your slave," Jade retorted, but she did as he said anyway, shooting down any zombie that dared threaten him. Before long, Coach and Nick followed her out there with the rigid, mechanical motions that accompanied CPU characters.

"I got the gas tanks!" Beck said brightly. "Okay, cover me again while I put them in the car, okay?"

Reluctantly she agreed once again, but she succeeded in protecting him until he emptied both tanks into the car. Sighing, she reminded him, "Four more to go."

"Yeah, yeah, we can do this," Beck told her, enthusiasm invading his normally 'stoic' voice. "Just watch out for that room down there. The zombie-thing with the ten million arms will grab you and – do things to you."

"Thanks for the heads-up." Her sarcastic tone didn't deter him, though, because his character dashed up the stairs, bidding her to follow.

"Looks like the coast is clear," Beck informed her seriously, heading down the hall towards the white outline of a gas tank.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes. "What are you, someone off Scooby Doo?"

"If I'm Fred, you can be my Daphne," Beck told her in a way that was almost flirtatious.

"I'm no damsel in distress, Becky Boy," Jade retorted.

"Oh, believe me, I know," Beck responded. "The way you've taken down those zombies tells me everything I need to know."

By this time she had grown a little more sensitive to the changes in his voice; and she could tell that there was something brewing behind the surface of those seemingly innocent words. She could not yet pinpoint what it was, however, and she had a feeling it would bug her for the rest of the game.

Instead of asking, though, she simply followed him to the gas tank and protected him as he picked it up. As the two of them headed back down to the car, Jade spun around to ensure they weren't being followed by zombies. "So, three more, huh?"

"Yep," Beck replied, popping the 'p' – and, surprisingly, she wasn't annoyed. "You get the next one. I'll watch your back."

"I don't trust you," she replied darkly.

"Aw, c'mon Jade, give me a chance," Beck replied cheekily. She could almost see the smirk that was probably stretched across his face, and she wanted to be there beside him so that she could smack it off rather than talking to him through a dumb computer screen – wait, what?! This was a new sensation to her; usually she kept her Internet relationships on the Internet and nowhere else. She didn't go to conventions. She didn't visit her friends. She was antisocial and she liked it that way.

Confused, Jade bit her lip and then realized she hadn't answered Beck. "Oh, sorry, I spaced out," she halfway apologized, mentally noting to edit that out of the video later. "Fine. But if you let me die –"

Before she could finish her sentence, though, a wave of zombies appeared seemingly from nowhere. She fought back, of course, but it was too late, especially without the assistance of Beck, Coach, and Nick, and she quickly died. With a long-suffering sigh, she said, "I died."

"I'll come revive you," Beck informed her, wriggling his way towards her through the throng of zombies. "Slide to me, Jadey."

"Don't call me that." Despite her annoyance at the idiotic nickname (who in their right mind would come up with that?), she tried to slide over to him and laughed at how ridiculous she felt, dead but somehow still sliding around.

Beck laughed as well. "Yeah, like that," he said in his deep voice that made his female fans swoon. "Slide over here, baby."

"I'm going to murder you in your sleep," she threatened as he began to revive her.

"That's okay; you'll just revive me after."

"You're the worst," she retorted, but she couldn't help but smile a little. It wasn't often that another USlapper understood her odd sense of humor and bantered with her; she had that connection with her crew, but Cat was easily offended and Moose was somewhat of a scumbag at times and Sinjin was creepily obsessed with her and Robbie was a dork. "This game sucks."

"Please, Jade," Beck scoffed. "It's one of the best selling games of all time, probably because the zombies are just so darn sexy."

"Not as sexy as me, though," Jade told him, shooting another one in the head. "We need a game plan. Coach, Nick, Becky Boy, get over here."

Grumbling, Beck made his way over to her, but the two CPU characters seemed to be taking their precious time. Irritated, Jade shot them in the head, causing Beck to let out a startled sound (which, of course, made her laugh). "Thought you weren't scared easy, Becky Boy."

"I'm not," Beck shot back. "It was a moment of weakness."

"Whatever." She glanced around. "Okay, here's the plan. Only two left, so we split up and each get one. Yes?"

"I don't think this is a good plan," Beck said hesitantly, but he went along with it anyway, and so the two went their separate ways – Beck to the right and Jade to the left. Upon reaching her goal, though, Jade discovered that it was 'protected' by an army of zombies, who were all attacking her at once. She tried her best to defend herself, but was quickly taken down by the mass of undead bodies. Under her breath, she mumbled, "I may or may not be dead."

"I may or may not be dying," came the response.

"Ugh. I need you to come revive me."

"Too late."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE ALL DEAD?" Jade hissed as the end screen came upon her screen.

"You killed Coach and Nick, remember?" Beck reminded her patiently.

"Well, crap." Jade sat for a moment, irritated with herself above anything, before she said, "No way in hell I'm doing all that again. New game?"

"Sure." Beck sat silently for a moment, most likely thinking, before he suggested, "Grand Theft Auto?"

"IV or V?" Jade inquired.

"V, definitely," Beck answered. "IV's great for its time, but V's graphics are just so much better. I still play IV though sometimes."

"I just enjoy shooting people, so either's fine with me," Jade deadpanned. Much to her surprise, Beck chuckled – and she was surprised that he didn't simply hang up on her, thinking her to be some sort of crazy psychopath.

A few minutes later, both their characters appeared on the wide streets of Los Santos. Jade immediately seized the opportunity and shot Beck in the shoulder.

"Ow!" Beck complained. "You're such a cheater."

"Please," Jade scoffed in return. "I could beat you with my eyes closed."

"If there's really a way to win in Grand Theft Auto," Beck replied. "Oh, yeah, we could do whoever gets the snazziest car."

"Did you really just use the word 'snazziest'?" Jade asked, seriously wondering why she had allowed herself to co-op with this insanely strange guy.

"Yes, and don't judge," Beck snapped, taking the opportunity to snag a nice-looking car, but his sounds of disappointment followed shortly after. "Aw, it doesn't go fast."

Laughing only for a second, Jade rotated around to view the whole street, her eyes falling upon a sleek, grey car. She dashed over to it and jumped on top, effectively halting the vehicle (and causing its patrons to inevitably complain). With a roll of her eyes, she pushed them out onto the streets and began driving, a satisfying purr accompanying her startup. She caught up to Beck in less than a minute. "I think we know who's the real winner here."

"No fair," Beck complained. "You play GTA, like, once in a blue moon, and you're still better than me."

"Get used to it, Becky Boy," Jade said with a smirk, thinking that maybe she would get used to this – to being able to actually beat someone at video games, to having someone to banter with, to uploading actual co-ops again with another USlapper. Might be nice, she thought to herself.

They played for another hour or so, surfing on ambulances, driving off cliffs, and killing obnoxious people, before Jade began to yawn. She remembered, then, that Beck was three hours behind her, and while it was 3 am where she was, it was only midnight for him – and he was a night owl, anyway. "I gotta go soon," she informed him. "I'm getting tired – some of us have to actually sleep, you know."

"Losers," Beck fake-coughed, before giving a small laugh. "Kidding, I understand. We'll play together again soon, yeah?"

"Sure," Jade answered. "Give me an outro."

"Beck will win against Jade one of these days! Yeah. Probably. Hopefully," he finished, chagrined. Jade simply laughed.

"We'll see about that, Beck."

.

She uploaded the video the next day, and the feedback was almost immediate. Comments ranged from "I HAD NO IDEA U KNEW GOTBECK!" (although they'd explained the situation at the beginning of the video) to "U GUYS WOULD BE SO CUTE TOGETHER!" (no comment) to "UR ONLY USING GOTBECK FOR SUBSCRIBERS U THIRSTY HOE". The "cute together" group seemed to be the majority, though, and they took no time in translating the video to Tumblr.

Jade knew enough about the insane world known as Tumblr to know that if something could be shipped, it would, and it would have a ship name, fanfiction, and fanart. The ship name came first – it was GotBade at first, a combination of GotBeck and Jade, but they quickly realized that made no sense and tried ScissorBade, ScissorBeck, GotLuv, and finally realized that combining USlap names was fruitless and chose the simple Bade. It took a while for the ship to catch on enough for fanart, though, and by that time Jade had already uploaded the GTA video as well.

The first fanart she saw featured her as she was typically portrayed in fan-art – gloriously beautiful, almost inhuman (which was far from the truth, Jade thought, fingering her eyebrow piercing) kissing a seriously sexy Beck. She felt the heat inadvertently rise to her cheeks and quickly closed it.

The second one was less risqué, though, showing the two of them back-to-back holding guns with a myriad of zombies following them. She quite liked that one, actually, and sent Beck a link to it via Steam.

While on Steam, though, she decided to check her messages. After weaving through a mess of fanmail, she discovered a message from an old friend of hers – KeyboardDre, more commonly known as simply André. "Hey Jade," read the message, "didn't know you were friends with Beck! Cool chiz. We should all do a co-op together sometime. Miss you, girl."

She smiled slightly to herself. She'd become friends with André over the last year, discovering that they both were passionate about games and had a similar sense of humor. He was a cool, chill guy, the ideal kind of friend, and she found herself becoming fond of him. They'd played co-op a few times, but he'd been rather busy recently so she hadn't heard much from him, and so she was glad to be hearing from him now. Immediately, she typed back a quick confirmation, saying she'd love to play co-op with the both of them sometime, though she wondered how that would go.

Whatever. No worries. André was awesome and Beck, well, Beck was Beck. They'd find a fun multiplayer game and have a fun time, right?

Right.

.

GotBeck: Jade.

GotBeck: Jade.

GotBeck: JADEEEE.

GotBeck: Wake up, sleepyhead! :D Its 3 PM. Sleep is for the weak.

GotBeck: Just kidding, youre strong! Dont kill me please.

GotBeck: But seriously… come play this game with André and I!

Jade rolled her eyes as she scrolled through the spam with Beck, but got online on Skype anyway, accepting the call that immediately popped up. Yawning, she said, "Hey, guys."

"Hey, Jade," Beck said a little too happily.

"Sup, sleepyhead," André acknowledged her.

"I was up late working on uploading the latest part of this game that's consuming my soul," Jade said with a sigh. "So yeah, sorry about that. What game are we thinking of playing, though?"

"It's a trivia game," Beck said, failing at stifling his laughter. "André and I thought you'd be good at it."

"Yeah, dawg," André agreed, laughter infecting his voice as well. "Whip out your Playstation and let's get to this chiz."

"I don't trust you guys," Jade retorted, feeling nervous. But she followed their instructions nonetheless, and soon entered the 'legendary' game known as TV Show Kings. She couldn't help but chuckle at the people André and Beck had set as their avatars – dumb-looking but attractive females, inevitably – and couldn't help but compare them to the evil-looking Goth she'd set as hers.

"Jade, you're kinda creepy. Not even kinda. Like killer from a horror movie level creepy," Beck pointed out.

"Thanks," Jade drawled. "At least I look like I have an ounce of common sense, which, considering this is a game show, might be helpful – "

"Hey!" André protested, sounding offended. "Don't be racist! I'm gonna dominate, just you watch."

"Yeah, dominate at losing," Beck shot back.

"Hey, who's that other guy?" Jade inquired. "Burf?"

"What kind of dude is named Burf?" Beck sniggered.

"Hey, Burf!" André laughed at the doofy looking CPU that sat beside him. "You're gonna lose, dude!" Burf simply smiled in response, making all of them laugh.

"So my goal is to beat Burf," Jade said seriously.

"And my goal is to beat all of y'all, so there," André shot back with a grin. "I'm takin' names."

The first question appeared on the screen, part of the "Nature" category. "Which animal is typically not found on a farm? 1) Cow, 2) Pig, 3) Dinosaur, 4) Sheep." Jade, having good sense, picked 3, as did André, and Burf, being the NPC, of course went with 1. Beck, however, picked 2.

"Why would a pig not be on a farm?!" Jade questioned as the answers were revealed and she and André received their cash.

"I thought – I didn't see the not!" Beck whined, sounding like a petulant child. "Leave me alone, guys! I'm still gonna win because I'm so sexy."

That proved to not be true, though, and at the end of the round, Jade was in the lead. The wheel question popped up and all four players chose to spin it, and Beck, being Player 1, spun first.

"How do you spin this thing? Oh, got it," Beck muttered, probably throwing his controller – but it got it to spin nonetheless, and it went around and around until it landed on – lose $5000.

"Oh, screw this game!" Beck reacted, almost sounding angry. "I'm almost in the negatives! I was in last place! Do they have no mercy?"

"Nope, and neither do I," André chuckled as he spun. "Oh, good, $1000. You jealous yet, Beck? I'm makin' it rain, bro. Makin'. It. Rain."

"Screw you guys, I'm winning this," Jade said as she gave the wheel a rough spin. "See, $5000. It's almost too easy."

Burf, the CPU in last place, spun next, and all three of them booed him on as he spun, but somehow he managed to land on the space that allowed him to trade with a player. Nervously, Jade sucked in a breath as he chose and then –

"OH, SCREW YOU, BURF," Jade yelled as all her money was deposited into Burf's account. "I WORKED HARD FOR THAT CRAP! God, I hate this game. Why are we playing this?"

"I can't believe Burf beat us," Beck said, sounding shocked. "André, did you see that? Burf beat us. We were beat by Burf."

For a second, Andre sat in silence. When he finally spoke, all he said was "…we're playing again."

And so they did. They played 2 more rounds before at last André had to ditch, stating he had to go to some late-night music festival. That left Jade and Beck alone in the call, and an awkward silence set in before Jade spoke.

"That was actually fun."

"You sound surprised," Beck chuckled. "André and I aren't that bad. We just, well, have male parts."

"You can say penis, you know," Jade shot back. "I get it. You and André have penises. Crap, that's weird to think about. Ew. Never mind."

Beck gave a loud, audible laugh, so different to the one's she'd heard in some of his videos where he seemed tired or upset or annoyed but faked a laugh to please his 'dudes' – this one seemed real. In a quiet voice, he murmured, "I'm glad we met, Jade – even if it's only via the Internet."

"Hey now, don't get all mushy on me," Jade warned. "But whatever. I'm glad we met, too, I guess."

"We're going to have to make more 'Bade' videos or the fans will drive us crazy, you know." He gave a deep laugh. "But hey, whatever. We can play some more games with André, and I've been looking for someone to play Portal 2 with…"

"You're not smart enough for that one, man," Jade pointed out.

"That cut me deep," Beck complained. "I bet I could figure it out!"

"Lies and more lies," Jade informed him. "But I guess we could give it a try. Just so I can laugh at how much you suck."

Another laugh was her response and then, "You're the worst."

"You're even worse."

"Well, you're the worstest! Ugh, that's not a word."

"No, Beck," Jade said, smiling warmly – for once. "No, it's not."

And although she was dealing with possibly one of the most ridiculous – and of course, the most famous – USlappers in the world, she felt content – like something was drawing her to him and refusing to let go. And, at least for now, she didn't mind.

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New Steam Message

KittyKitCat: Hey Jaaaaaaaade! Next Saturday we're toootally talking about this whole new Bade thing. You and Beck are so kawaii. :3

ScissorLuv: Shut up, Cat.

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A/N: Don't even ask. If you know about stupid YouTubers, you know which two are heavily referenced in this fic (and slightly based off with the meaning and many of the videos) and those two have ruined me so yeah. (I know the timeline's not correct; I didn't intend it to be!) Also shut it I know they're idiots and there are "100000 YouTubers better" but who cares. I wanted to do this as a Bade AU and so I am.

I haven't written Bade in a while (read: 2 months) so I hope they're IC enough for you guys. Just a few notes, again:

USlap: a spinoff of YouTube, connected to TheSlap obviously

I've only played L4D2 a few times and never GTA so sorry if I messed anything up! It wasn't my intention.

It might be a little confusing and I apologize for that!

This will be Bade romance

Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought. I'll try and update at least within the next month or so – and reviews, of course, motivate me to continue, plus I'll try to reply to all of them.

Next chapter: more of Jade's Crew, the introduction of the characters who were left out of this chapter, and TTT.

Also, Britt, the GTA part is dedicated to you. Happy? ;;;)