Summary: After being gone for a few weeks, Tom notices how much the mods are affecting the others, whereas he seems to be accomplishing nothing.

Pairing: Syndisparklez

Warnings: Implied nsfw

"Uuuuuuuugh, I need 15 million LP by the end of today and I swear to God I will ragequit this fucking mod if I don't do it, 'cause Blood Magic is grindy, man, and I gotta finish upgrading my altar, otherwise… just fuck this mod. Wanna help your pal out, Tom? I'll give you some shit."

"You know… I could make that cool Void Armour, the one from the Thaumonomonomicon, that'd be OP as shit. Hey Tom, d'you wanna help out? I gotta get some stuff from the Eldritch dimension thing. and you said you wanted to see it, so I thought you could tag along. If you wanted, that is."

"So… I made a thing, and it's pretty cool and stuff. It, like, sends you to this place, and I can't say what that is obviously. You wanna see, Tom?"

"Well, I just made this cool-arse spell, and I need a victim. Come here, Tom."

Tom could say with absolute conviction that he honestly felt unappreciated. Out of the five heroes, what talents did he really have to offer? Tucker was unbeatable in PvP with his Blood Magic, and Sonja was (literally) insane enough to kill you with a glance. Wag… well, Wag was pretty cool, but he'd gladly strand you in the Nether if given half a chance. No matter what mod Tom wanted to work on, Jordan had probably already made huge progress in it. He made jokes about 'copycat Sparklez', when actually it was him. What, exactly, did Tom contribute? It seemed like he did nothing but strip mine, make more Tinker's Construct stuff - seriously, where did that hammer go? - and help them out. Even him being gone for a few weeks didn't seem to have that much bearing on them. Their explanation lasted, what, five minutes?

It was hard feeling sorry for yourself when it was all over a Minecraft series, even if it had brought the five closer together than ever before. That didn't stop Tom from thinking, what if they stopped caring while I was gone? Granted, Tom had stopped caring much about the story a while ago, but these were his friends, not NPCs like Dianite. Weren't they supposed to care about him more than mods?

Well, Tom had always been a headstrong guy. Time to pull out the problem at its roots. It couldn't be a bad idea to at least try and sort it out.

SynHD jordan, tucker, sonja, wag
SynHD get your asses in ts & come to my place

"Yeah, what's up? I'll be over in a minute, just lemme fini-"
"No, Sonja. Get your ass over to my tree."
"Wow, uh, okay, no need to be so salty with me."
The brunette arrived at Tom's tree not long after Jordan, who, interestingly, still hadn't unmuted. Why was Jordan suddenly not talking?

"Tucker, come ON, I don't give a fuck about your blood magic!"
Why would he not leave the goddamn altar?
"Jesus, dude, just hang on."
"NO!"

"I swear to God, Waglington-"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
"WAGLINGTON!"
"Ow… Well, now I'm deaf, fuck you!"
At least the wizard was more compliant than Tucker or Sonja. Slightly.

"Sparkly dick, we're waiting on you. Did you forget you were muted or something?"

CaptainSparklez nah just gimme a sec
CaptainSparklez i can hear you though so carry on

Although Tom was very confused about whatever Sparklez was up to, he decided to start talking. Chances were, he was talking to his audience. Probably planning a prank or something, Tom thought. After all, it had been a while since Jordan had pranked him. Or seen him at all, for that matter.

Suddenly, this didn't seem like such a good idea. Tom felt sick to his stomach

"Uh. Guys. Right. Well, what I wanted to say is…" He was almost unable to say the words; did he really doubt his friends enough to say it out loud? "Uh, you know what, it doesn't matter."

"Spit it out, Tom," Tucker sighed.

"Right, uh… What I'm trying to say, I guess, is… Do you guys still appreciate me?"

"What?!" He'd forgotten how ear-splitting Sonja's voice could get over the past few weeks, or perhaps he was just exaggerating it. Sometimes he did that, when he was nervous.

CaptainSparklez wat

"It's just like… Since I came back, you all just seem like you only want me to help out with your shit, and it's like I'm not contributing anything on my own. It's bullshit, I know, but I've just been thinking, do you care more about some Minecraft mod than me? 'Cause I don't know about you guys, but from my perspective, seems like you'd rather grind than talk to me, or help prank someone, or do anything like what we did in Season 1. Now, maybe Waglington over here is just fucking stuff up by being a wizard, or perhaps over the past few weeks you've been happier without me? God, I don't know, and I should probably shut up now."

A shocked silence settled over them all. It seemed like TeamSpeak was transmitting the tense atmosphere as well as the sound.

"Fuck you, Tom." It sounded like he meant it. Tucker muted himself, followed by Sonja, and lastly Wag. Jordan still hadn't unmuted.

CaptainSparklez tom
CaptainSparklez i
SynHD left the game.

Now he'd really fucked everything up. No doubt all four of them hated him. Honestly, Tom couldn't really blame them, after what he'd just said. He'd probably ruined all trust between them, because what kind of friend said that and expected them to just accept it? A shitty one like him, that's who. Tom closed off his stream and sank deeper down into his chair.

About ten minutes later, Tom checked his phone. There were several Skype messages, all sent by the same person. Jordan.

tom i'm sorry, really
and i'm sure the others are too
maybe we do get carried away sometimes, you're right
i don't blame you honestly, we needed it
even if
even if nobody else agrees with me
i'm here for you man
and i'm sorry i couldn't unmute earlier
wanna know why?
i missed you, tom, so much it's hard to bear, and when you told us to go on teamspeak, you seemed pretty angry
i couldn't face you like that, i knew i'd probably let you down big time
normally i'd be able to talk to someone, even if they were angry like that, but it's you, tom
wanna know something else crazy?
i think i'm in love with everything about you, tom cassell
you probably won't read these messages, i know
that's why i'm saying it now

Tom smiled a little. He could always count on Jordan, it seemed, even when he thought Jordan hated him.

Want to know something, Jordan?
oh shoot
did you see those messages
i'm an idiot
Answer the question…
uh sure
I think I'm in love with you too, Sparkly dick
Maybe not everything, though. After all, there's still some things i've got to see, right?
oh my god
you did not
TOM

Maybe, for now, it would be okay.