FicWad

"Char, I'm not playing with you."

"Pleeeease? I'll babysit Eri and Alec for an entire week!"

I contemplate this. "Fine. What's the code?"

"I'll text you it." She climbs onto the top bunk and plops down on her front, shaking the entire structure. I sigh and lay down on the bottom bunk, my eyes glued to my phone. Among Us, huh?

I don't have anything to do today, luckily. Chara tells me she plans on inviting the rest of our family and my two kids as well, so I wait it out. Eventually the message pops up with the code, and disappears a few seconds later. I type it in… But my finger slips on the second to last letter without my knowledge and I enter an entirely different lobby, my name "Melie" and my avatar black. Oh god. I quickly type a "sorry" in their chat and click the settings to leave, but I get a reply from a "Valkyrae."

"How did you get in here?!?!" with the red, angry emoji.

I pause, considering responding. "Finger slipped on code. I'll be going now."

"What's 'Melie' mean? Is it a nickname?" from the user "pokimane." At this point, I know I should leave, but my gut tells me to stay.

"Yeah. Short for Amelia."

"Cute! How old are you?"

"Turning 19 in a week. Why? Who are y'all?"

"Corpse Husband. YouTuber. This is a YouTuber collaboration." CORPSE in all caps.

"Never heard of Corpse Husband, sorry."

"Seriously? What about Jacksepticeye?"

"Doesn't ring a bell, no."

A user named pewds speaks up, "Pewdiepie?"

"Uh?"

Then someone sends me a Discord tag. "It's your birthday soon, right? Only fair we let you join." I pause, but out of pure curiosity I friend them. I plug in my headphones as I'm dragged into a VC.

"There's no way you haven't heard of at least one of us." A deep, guttural voice comes from Corpse, but it's not deeper than Silas's, or dad's, for that matter. Even still, everyone erupts into hysterical laughter.

"Corpse, bro, you can't just hit her with that immediately." A user named Markiplier. I observe their names and profile pictures.

"Yes, I can." I'm dead silent, unsure of how to respond.

"You okay, newbie? Are you shocked into silence by Corpse's… suave voice?" Okay, now "CrankGamePlays" is just poking fun at me.

"It's a 'cute' voice," I remark, in a condescending tone. Definitely the best type of voice, but I preferred a soft, sweet, girly voice.

Chara leans over her bed railing, dangling off the side to get my attention. "Melie!~ Come ooooonnnn~ Eri-chan is sad…"

I roll out of bed and grumble. "Sorry. No, I haven't heard of you guys." I head into Eri and Alec's room. "Glitch, sweetheart, please play dress up with Sunshine and let Auntie Chara know that I'm headed into the basement for a bit? Thanks, kitty." I ruffle his beautiful black curls and saunter off downstairs.

"Was that your lover?" Pokimane asks, sounding interested.

I laugh. "No." I don't elaborate.

"So you haven't heard of any of us. What have you been doing all quarantine? Living under a rock? Even if you don't watch gaming content on YouTube, you must have at least heard of our content."

I open up the minifridge in the basement and bring out a bar of chocolate, unwrapping it. "Mm. The video streaming app, right? Waste of time." In my Kingdom, we recreate human tech, connect it to their online platforms, and enhance the quality of the technology. It's why our foldable, bendable phones were never in "beta testing. It's why our knives can turn humans to dust. "Today's my day off, so my sister insisted I play Among Us with her."

"What's your job?"

"Prefer not to say."

"Embarrassing? Trust us, there's nothing more embarrassing than being a YouTuber."

I take a bite of chocolate as they start up the game. But I don't bother trying to play. "No, not embarrassing, really. Any of you live in California?" The answers are mostly "no"s, except Markiplier and CrankGamePlays. "Good.” Except I scan their minds. Most of them do. Whatever. “But you have heard of the Monster Kingdom, correct? The war between them and humans? Them being forced Underground, and how they resurfaced six years ago?"

"Yeah…?"

"Hold on… Amelia… Send a photo." I lick my lips as Jack says this.

"No, sorry."

"There's no way you're… Amelia Dreemurr. The Queen of Monsters."

I yawn. "Yup."

"No way."

"Fine, I'll send a pic." I snap a quick one and send it in the group chat.

"Holy shit. I heard that on the news that you were quite possibly the strongest and most influential person in the world!!! The Kingdom is rich! And you're so young!! What are they like?" Jack is so very interested, I recoil.

I blink. "Monsters? Uh… Pretty indescribable, really. Their bodies are made up of pure magic. Since I lived with them in the Underground, that close to all their magic and the magical barrier, I gained a few powers myself. Eventually, we managed to break it. A bunch of weak children kept falling into the Underground, but since their souls were fragile, they died on impact. So… We kinda collected the amount necessary to break it." If I speak more about Monsters, from the heart, I could rant for hours. "We should probably focus on the game…" I murmur, regretting my curiosity.

"Getting nervous? You represent and speak for your Kingdom, correct?" Ugh.

"Uh-huh… I guess. I shouldn't have done this. It's my day off; I don't want to discuss politics…"

"R-Right, sorry."

They soon begin properly introducing themselves and explaining their content to me. It sounds entertaining enough, but I probably won't bother watching any of it.

Corpse interests me though, when he says he's a musician. I roll my chair over to my PC and turn it on, before playing a song called "agoraphobic." Oh god. I melt into my chair and relax. "It's perfect. You're a genius."

"Th-Thanks…" I can hear his embarrassed blush from here.

"Um…" Sykkuno, who hasn't spoken a word since I joined, finally talks. His voice is absolutely adorable. I shut off my PC just as my sunshine comes down the stairs.

"Mommy, can you braid my hair? Onii-chan only tangled it." Her voice, sweet and soft as it usually is, and I turn to face her.

"Of course, my sunshine." I sit on the ottoman and pat my lap for her to sit down.

"You have a kid?" A skeptical, and perhaps judgemental voice of Mark resounds in my ear.
I hesitate. "Yeah. Be right back." Before I can manage to hit the mute button, I end up muttering aloud, "Humans are all the same…" Hopefully they didn't hear that. I focus on Eri-chan, who's wearing her favorite red jumper. "French, dutch?"

"Mmmm, just regular! Can you pleeease sing for me, mommy?"

"Yes, sunshine." I run my fingers through her light blue locks and hit snag after snag. "What song?" I summon a brush and gently brush the tangles out.

"Um, the lullaby…? Stay, right?" I can hear her smile.

I chuckle, clearing my throat as I work magic in her wavy locks. Anything for that precious smile. I slowly sing the song my mother gave to me when I was young.
Eventually, I trail off, finishing up the braid with a red scrunchie to match her bright jumper. "There you go sweetheart. You're safe. Chisaki is long gone." Although she's not crying, I know she needs comfort. I killed that pathetic bastard, made it seem like a suicide, and adopted Eri. Rescuing her from him.

"It's okay mommy. Can you tell onii-chan to get off of the fridge? He's hissing at Auntie Char."
I laugh. "Alec, we gave you a jungle gym; use it!!! Okay, baby. I'll be upstairs in an hour or two to make dinner. Make sure our little glitch and Auntie Chara stay out of trouble." I laugh. "Even though that girl is eleven months older than me, she's unbelievably immature. Just don't let her know I said that." Eri nods, skipping up the stairs. I turn back to my phone and put in my buds. Oh god. I hit deafen, not mute. I hit undeafen, and apologize.

"What did you mean by that last sentence…?"

"You have two kids," again, Mark says in a bland tone.

"Your voice… Is angelic."

"Yeah. Thanks. They're both adopted."

"She sounds adorable! How old-"

I cut her off, "Eight. Her name is Eri; I adopted her from Japan. My son Alec is twelve and I adopted him from Spain."

"How long were they orphans?"

"They weren't. I took their abusive fathers to court with expensive lawyers and got them in my custody."

"That's really kind of you."

I smile. "Mhm, thank you. Now… Among Us?"

"Right, right."

"Corpse, deadass. Are you the imposter?" Pokimane.

"Deadass? Yes."

Everyone begins to laugh, but I only eat my chocolate bar as a cute spooky ghost. Being AFK for so long has consequences. And even though I didn't see who killed me, I got back on to see Corpse killing Mark in Nav. He wins the game, and they stop playing. But they still continue talking with me. At one point, each of them leaves and then rejoins at a sporadic rate. They explain they were switching from their PC to their phones. Understandable.

"So, Angel-" I cut Sykkuno off, immediately.

"Don't call me that."

"Oh. Sorry. Well, all I meant is, y-your voice-"

"You're very cute, kid, but I suggest you shut the fuck up."

Corpse gets all close to his mic and aggressive. "Hey. No one talks to Sykkuno like that you hear?"

"Aaaand you're gay for him. Noted." I'm gay for a lot in this world, but I think that it's cute, how Corpse is acting.

"I simp for him." I can hear the proud little smile in his voice.

"Mhm. What's the difference? I say screw him and be done with it."

"C-Can we not talk about this like I'm not here?"

"Honestly, dude, if you don't, I will." I'm not sure if I could manage it, but I know Corpse is going to get jealous. Or, you know, it's just bromance and I'm misinterpreting it. Either way.

"That's very vulgar, even for me…" Mark murmurs.

"I'm a pretty vulgar person, if I'm not around the people I love. Well, that's not necessarily true either. I have this one sibling who I can talk to about anything, and it's never awkward cause she's as bad as it gets." I laugh. "Anyways." I yawn, before heading into my void. The internet in there works twice as well. An exact replica of my house stands there, with a lab off to the side of it. I wonder… I check the serums and vials for Dr. Gaster's new experiment. He told me to test it on someone, but who? Mm. Yes. Ciara. Fully incorporeal, it'll affect her but not hurt her. I sigh and mute the call again, before calling her on my backup phone. I hear kitchen noises. That's weird; she usually gets off work by now. Maybe her restaurant is busy tonight. "Mm. Ciara, any chance you could swing by after you're done with that? I have something I need you to test."

When I get off that call⁠ — turns out she wants me to come to her ⁠— I get back on the voice chat to hear them explain that they have to go; that they're meeting up for dinner. I let out a noise of acknowledgement and hang up, before putting on my music, tucking my phone into my back jeans pocket, and heading out. Time to go to Ciara's restaurant, I guess.