We can't be cool for catboxjellyfish
For: catboxjellyfish
Title: We Can't Be Cool
Pairings: Chanyeol/Kris, Chanyeol/D.O, brieflyimplied!Kris/D.O, Chanyeol/D.O/Kris, side!Baekhyun/Chen
Rating: R
Warnings: Typical RPG violence and fantasy themes, murder of mythical animals, character death (within the game).
Length: 4.6k
Summary: Chanyeol and Yifan partner up to do a quest together in a virtual reality RPG, and get more than they bargained for along the way.
Author's note: i don't know if this suits your prompt, recipient, but i wanted to take advantage of the OT3s you gave me!! i had a lot of difficulty writing this, both because of external and internal factors, and i had to edit and cut it a lot shorter than i originally intended, but it was a fun experience writing something quite different than usual. mostly unbeta'd because i severely ran out of time, so i apologize for any typos or erroneous changes in tense if they exist, but i hope you enjoy it regardless!!!! and thanks 2 the squad for shutting down my sobbing these last few days. bluh.
“You’re my familiar?”
Chanyeol frowns, brows furrowed as he shifted uncomfortably and half-hid himself behind his scepter. He isn’t sure why he feels so threatened by the boy wearing a loincloth and contrasting, ridiculous armor padding, but he’s sure it’s got something to do with those thick, bushy brows furrowed against his hardened gaze. The unspoken and spoken judgement was overwhelming. “Excuse me?” is all the mage can manage.
“You,” Yifan starts once more as he gives him a once-over, lifting an ornately-tattooed arm to gesture in the general direction of the other. “Are you really all that’s left on the server?”
Chanyeol’s lips downturn even further somehow, and he boldly takes a step closer to the taller. He opens his mouth to tell the guy off, but his voice betrays him and comes out cracking into a higher-pitched tone than intended. “H-Hey, what’s your problem? I may be new, but I know the ropes. I think. What’re you even supposed to be? Some sort of tribal cyborg?”
Yifan ignores his familiar’s quip at him initially, fixating his attention on adjusting and fastening his items onto his makeshift utility belt. Chanyeol isn’t looking too closely, but he can deduce it’s made out of some kind of animal hide. And Chanyeol still isn’t looking too closely when the other bends over.
He definitely isn’t intrigued by this guy’s medieval Tarzan-esque getup, and he’s absolutely not interested in seeing what might be under that loincloth of his. Of course not.
“I’m a warrior,” the boy hums, straightening his posture once again after tugging out an iron dagger he’d stowed in the upper of his boot. Yifan pointed it directly at Chanyeol, taking a step closer to the mage as he took a complementary step backwards. He held his scepter in front of him clumsily, as if it would somehow protect him from the savage. “I don’t mock you for dressing like Dumbledore while looking like Dobby, so shut up about my choice of attire. It’s functional for my class.”
Chanyeol gasps inaudibly, though the expression on his face is enough to signal his offense to the other’s statement. A large hand lifts up to caress a large, pointed ear briefly. “Hey!” he yelps, this time a lot bolder than he’d been initially. “It’s part of the wizard aesthetic!”
“Yeah, sure.” Yifan arches a bushy brow and slips his makeshift dagger into a holder on his utility belt. His bare, milky chest heaves as he breathes out a soft sigh, his gaze lifting over Chanyeol’s head to peer up towards the blazing setting sun. “I suppose I don’t have much of a choice but to let you accompany me. Just don’t expect me to coddle you if you ever find yourself in a sticky situation. I expect my familiars to be able to hold their own.”
Chanyeol breathes out a sigh of his own, flared nostrils exposing his internal annoyance. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” He closed the distance between himself and the young warrior, nudging his shoulder with the bulbous tip of his staff. “As your familiar, I’ll be expected to have your back. Right? Right. Just because your class prefers close combat doesn’t mean you have the right to leave me in the dust. We’re partners; mutually beneficial. I don’t care how good of a player you think you are, you need me just as much as I need you.”
Yifan doesn’t give him lip like Chanyeol expects. Instead, the taller just shoots him an uncertain look before murmuring something akin to a ‘fine’ and walking off. Chanyeol’s surprised by the boy’s compliance - so much so that he’s rendered motionless until he realizes he’s being left behind. Once he manages to stumble his way up to the warrior, he opens his mouth to ask the other where they’re off to so suddenly.
“Our quest began the moment we were paired up,” Yifan answers gruffly, not bothering to look behind him and make sure Chanyeol’s keeping up. And Chanyeol isn’t, Yifan’s strides being much too brisk for him to mimic. “Standing around to chat only wastes time on the server.”
“Okay, yeah,” Chanyeol puffs, using his scepter as a makeshift cane while his other hand gripped at his cloak to lift it off of the ground. He couldn’t help feeling rather princess-y as he ran along like that, but he supposed it came with the territory of wanting to make himself look “authentic” and “ethereal.” Yifan, however, just thinks he’s the embodiment of a liability, and mentally prepares an excuse to use when Chanyeol trips over his garb in battle and isn’t aided. “Yeah, I get that, but what exactly is our quest? Like, what’re we even supposed to be doing right now?”
“That’s what we’re heading off to find. Something to do.”
“Yifan,” Chanyeol groans, stomping his foot against the terrain with every step. He and Yifan had been wandering aimlessly for about half an hour, and by now, Chanyeol can barely lift his feet up. “We’ve been walking for ages. When’re we supposed to find something-”
“Shh-” Yifan hushes his familiar, crouching down behind a thicket stealthily.
“What-”
“Shh!”
Despite Yifan’s shushing, he breathes out a heavy sigh. He falls down onto his hands and knees to crawl himself to the warrior’s side, hoping his glare is boring holes into Yifan’s soul. “What is it?” Chanyeol whispers, attempting to peer through the thick brush.
“Exactly what we’ve been waiting for,” Yifan murmured, lips curling into a sly grin. Chanyeol’s stomach does somersaults because he doesn’t quite trust the expression on the warrior’s face. Yifan senses this as he spares a glance towards his familiar, simply pointing in the direction of a large mass resting by a basin of water.
Chanyeol squints in attempt to make out what exactly that large, gray mass is, but Yifan makes a break for the basin before the mage even notices. In fact, Chanyeol only notices because he hears the sound of an arrow whistling through the air, and then a loud, ground-shaking roar proceeding it. The mage doubles back onto his bum, startled, and flails his legs to push himself further away from the thicket.
He glances around for any sign of Yifan before calling out to him and scrambling to to crawl towards the edge of the trees; an opening that led to the basin. He only pauses when he feels something collide with his side, letting out an “Oof!” before flopping over onto his side.
“Chanyeol!” Yifan nearly screeches after having tumbled over the mage’s curled-up form. He rolls over onto his side to shoot his familiar a panicked look before quickly scrambling to his feet - grabbing at Chanyeol in the process. “Why the fuck are you crawling around?! Get up and help me fight before we both die!”
Chanyeol can barely get a word in edgewise, because once he’s lifted to his feet, he’s thrown back once again by a thick, scaly tail colliding with the terrain between the two. It swipes to its right, and Yifan is flung a few meters away. Of course, Chanyeol remains useless even after Yifan’s yelp silences with a painful, echoing thump. “Yifan!”
The mage eventually manages to maneuver himself to his feet amidst his screeching of the warrior’s name, using his scepter as both a crutch and a shield. He only quiets down once he notes Yifan attempting to recollect himself, but a different sort of scream sits at the back of his throat when the animal they’d disturbed turned and leveled its face with Chanyeol’s own. His panic had done nothing more than catch the monster’s attention, and it sized up what it believed to be its next meal for a long, pregnant moment before releasing a deafening roar.
Chanyeol bursts into tears. Being this scared, he can’t function. It’s all a game, he reminds himself as his grip tightens on his scepter until his knuckles turn white, eyes squeezing shut tightly. He attempts to scour the edges of his mind for spells he should’ve memorized from the handbook, but he can’t recall anything; nothing matters more in this moment than the fact that there’s a giant monster about to bite him in half and he’ll probably feel every second of it before he receives a “game over” screen.
He instead prepares for his impending doom by blubbering out loud sobs, just wishing for the whole experience to be over. This wasn’t what he signed up for. He thought he’d just get a cool outfit and get to troll around villages, maybe raid castles and bang a few fair maidens. How exactly was he supposed to fight a dragon, as opposed to an orc of some sort? Whatever happened to Tutorial Mode?
The end never came. What came instead was a loud, Earth-shaking thump, preceded by a Hellish roar. Then silence. Silence, and Yifan’s ragged, raspy pants. He opens his eyes slowly; hesitantly, and sees nothing but everything he didn’t expect. Chanyeol gawks at a bloodstained Yifan in both awe and horror, his eyes slowly trailing down his venous arm still gripping at the shaft of his sword driven into the dragon’s skull.
Now that he’s stopped crying, he kind of wants to throw up. His entire body’s still trembling almost violently as he drops to his knees, still gripping at his staff as if his life depended on it. “H-How-”
“I scaled him from the tail up while he was distracted by you being a fucking baby.” Yifan’s voice is gruff and unsympathetic, and Chanyeol’s heart sinks even further than before. His gaze drops to the ground, and his grip loosens on his staff to drop it as well.
He can hear Yifan sigh somewhere beside him, now, and he doesn’t quite have the courage to even spare a glance in his partner’s general direction. He waits for Yifan to say something; anything about what a screw-up he was and how he was completely unsuited for anything in this world, but the words that hit him next aren’t from either of the two.
“What have you done?!” someone unfamiliar wails, and both Chanyeol and Yifan whip their heads up to match the distressed voice with a face.
Before their eyes are set on anyone, however, Yifan lets out a pained grunt in tandem with a ‘bof’ that makes Chanyeol wince. Yifan falls backwards, clutching at his face now graced with a fresh coat of blood seeping out from his nose, and Chanyeol lets out a rather “manly” screech at the sight.
Chanyeol eventually manages to tear his gaze away from a writhing Yifan to look up towards his attacker. Another player stands before them, decked out in a similar attire to Yifan - more primitive-looking, however. His face is flushed a worrisome tomato-red, and his bare chest is heaving - as if he were about to burst into tears as Chanyeol once did.
The young mage wanted to reach out and comfort him despite his brutal attack, and he does just that - only to be met with a hand slapping his own away, gripping at the collar of his cloak. Chanyel gags a bit from being yanked forward, the intruder lifting a dagger made from frayed rock up to his neck. The mage cries out for Yifan to help him, lifting his hands up in defeat.
“Why did you do it?! Huh?! He wasn’t bothering anyone! I just left him for an hour to go scout for some supplies… and you murdered him! I’ll kill you!”
Chanyeol gasps for air, now clutching at the barbarian’s hand. “I-I didn’t do anything! Yifan killed him, it’s all his fault!”
Yifan lets out a grunt from behind the two, eyes narrowed towards his familiar instead. “Thanks, kid. So much for having each other’s backs. Look, what’s your fucking problem? You must not understand the point of this game-”
Chanyeol’s shoved to the ground, the attacker turning his dagger towards Yifan instead. His bushy brows furrow, and he gives the warrior the most venomous look he could muster up. “You don’t kill other peoples’ pets. Unless you wanted to fight with me, of course. And, trust me, you don’t want that.”
“That thing was your pet?” Yifan guffaws, sparing a glance over towards the slayed dragon. “It’s nothing but spoils to me. Same should go for you.”
“I tamed him! It took over a hundred hours of blood, sweat, and tears to claim him as mine!”
Chanyeol frowns, noting the boy’s face is contorting into a mixture of both pain and sincerity, rather than the anguish it’d shown before. “We’re sorry. We honestly didn’t know he belonged to you. If we did, we definitely wouldn’t have slain him! Can we make it up to you?”
The boy drops his dagger to his side after giving Chanyeol a pointed look, his lips parting to let out a trembling sigh while he mulled over the mage’s offer. Eventually, he slips his dagger into its holster, and quirks his lips into a grimace while he folds his arms over his chest.
“You’re taking me with you.”
“I can’t believe this!” Yifan whinges as he followed loosely behind the mage and tamer, the latter of which now self-appointed as the leader of the party.
Chanyeol doesn’t have as many qualms with this development as the warrior, humming happily while trekking alongside the short tamer. Although Yifan makes a decent leader, he got him in the most unfavorable situation of his life. Kyungsoo seems like he’d be less likely to delve him in a situation that’d make him piss his pants in fear.
“Shut up,” Kyungsoo snaps, glancing over his shoulder while nudging Chanyeol forward. “You killed my best friend and protector, so now you’re going to take his place.”
“We get to be your new best friends?” Chanyeol chuckles, brows arched as he turned to walk backwards, watching his party bicker in amusement. Yifan’s sour expression is a better view than their surroundings, anyway.
Kyungsoo sighs, waving the mage off. “No. I’ll never forgive either of you enough to consider you both as friends. Think of it as… a strategical set-up. Neither of you know what you’re doing, really, do you? You’re lucky I didn’t just kill you both on the spot. I’m saving your asses.”
Yifan opens his mouth to snap some sassy retort at Kyungsoo, but Chanyeol lets out a yelp that stops the entire party in their tracks. He tumbles backwards after tripping on an exposed root, falling onto his bum with a soft thud.
Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at the fool in a half-dress, while Yifan lets out a snort that sounds a lot like he’s trying to stifle a laugh. “Idiot. This is why you almost got devoured. Know what? Let’s stop here for the night. There’s a basin nearby for us to wash up, and Yifan really needs it.”
Yifan scoffs, “Who died and gave you authority over us? What if I don’t want to set up camp here?”
“My dragon, actually,” Kyungsoo snaps, tugging off his fur-pelt hood to set it aside. “If you don’t want to set up camp here, you’re free to continue on alone. Chanyeol and I will enjoy some quality time together.”
Chanyeol blinks, looking up towards Kyungsoo while clutching his scepter to his chest protectively. “Really?” he murmurs, feeling slightly giddy at the thought of spending some “alone time” with the tamer. Though the short little guy had a short temper, Chanyeol couldn’t help but find him endearing - endearing, once he’d calmed down from his earlier freakout.
Kyungsoo answers Chanyeol with a roll of his eyes, and continues stripping himself down for a dip in the nearby lake. Of course, the young mage watches on with pinkened cheeks and a goofy smile. Yifan rolls his eyes as well - so hard he can’t help but grunt in frustration.
“Fine. Whatever,” Yifan relents, reluctantly de-garbing himself and setting aside his armor and weaponry.
Chanyeol remains seated on the ground, watching the two men discard their clothing. He clutches his staff even closer to him, almost protectively, now dropping his gaze down towards his legs. “Ah… you guys should go without me. I’ll stay here and guard your things. Wouldn’t want someone to steal them and leave you stranded all naked and stuff, right?”
Yifan and Kyungsoo both give Chanyeol the same look that makes the mage’s cheeks suddenly feel even hotter, and they both shrug it off.
“Whatever. Maybe your unbathed stench will keep enemies at bay,” Kyungsoo hums, stepping around the shy mage with Yifan reluctantly in tow.
Chanyeol spends the next hour and a half resting against a tree and fondling with the sash of his robe, discreetly eyeing the two in the distance make amends. He grimaces occasionally, when Kyungsoo tends to Yifan’s wounds and carefully scrubs off dried blood from the warrior with his bare, dainty hands. He finds himself wishing Yifan had stood guard instead.
Chanyeol stirs the next morning to hushed whispers and soft clattering. He can tell someone’s rummaging through a spoils bag - perhaps for something to refuel with since their dinner was pretty light. He tries to ignore it in favor of rolling over onto his side, tugging his hood over his head to block out any sounds as best as possible. At this point, he figures it’s Kyungsoo and Yifan just as restless as ever. They’d been up into ungodly hours bickering and exchanging idle chitchat about their past experiences on the server.
He almost has the nerve to tell them both to shut up, because it’s difficult to fast-forward through the night when he has to pause for every bit of chatter he hears, but decides it might be easier to just listen in on their conversation instead. After all, what if Kyungsoo mentions him?
“They must be new to the server. They don’t have anything useful.”
Chanyeol blinks his bleary eyes open. That’s not Yifan.
“Who cares? Steal the armor. It’s shiny, you can make me something nice out of it.”
That’s not Kyungsoo, either.
He slowly eases himself onto his stomach, peering over towards the sound of the rummaging. His eyes meet with two unfamiliar players hunched over their small pile of belongings. His gaze flickers over towards a sleeping pair curled up beside him briefly before returning to the pair of looters.
From the cover of his hood, he can see they’re both heavily decked-out in modernized gear and weaponry - a stark difference compared to his medieval attire and Yifan and Kyungsoo’s rather barbaric outfits. One of them still donned a cloak and hood just as he did, and he couldn’t quite make out their entire appearance, but they wore loose slacks and leather boots just like their partner. Said partner could’ve jumped right out of the early nineteen-hundreds, Chanyeol figures, and he quirks his lips into a grimace at this correlation. Strapped to both of his sides are rather large guns of some sort, and Chanyeol could make out a sash of grenades strapped to his belt. There are other sorts of weapons on his person, and the young mage considers him nothing more than a ticking time-bomb.
He doesn’t realize he’s been mindlessly gawking for long until his eyes meet with one of the pair’s own. Chanyeol immediately yelps.
The next few moments are a blur to the young mage, as he’s not only got guns pointed in his direction, but Yifan and Kyungsoo also have their weapons drawn. Surprisingly, they were drawn in his direction as well.
Chanyeol’s sitting up, now, with his hands held up in defense. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Kyungsoo grunts, now turning his dagger towards the cloaked male. Yifan’s got his sword fixated on the boy donning a coppola.
The looters exchange a glance before laughing, slipping their guns back into their holsters. The trio exchanged glances as well, all three returning their confused gaze back towards the pair of looters in an almost uncomfortable manner.
“Fine, we got caught. I told Jongdae to quiet down-”
“Me? I’m not the one who kept cooing over the armor plates. It’d be days before I could get back to the shoppe and melt them down into something pretty for you.”
Kyungsoo grimaces in agitation at the duo’s nonchalance, and Yifan just seems confused. The latter drops his sword to his side, more than just a little eager to make friends. They all found interest in his gear, anyway.
“So you’re trying to loot us and leave us with no supplies? No way to defend ourselves? You’re pathetic.” Kyungsoo scoffs, closing in on the two. “Yifan may be a wimp, but I’ll end it all right here.”
The cloaked male simply spares the short tamer a sly smile, lifting a dainty hand up to place the tip of his finger atop the pinnacle of the blunt blade. “It’s all part of the game. But since you guys have no spoils of real use to us, we think you’re better off letting us join your party instead.”
“Hah! As if. You’ll only be useful when you’re dead.” Kyungsoo yanks his dagger away from the thief’s hand, his large eyes narrowing.
“Maybe,” the thief hums, casually draping an arm over his partner. “You could kill us and take everything we’ve got, or you could keep us around to let us make more weapons for you. You’ll run out of everything we’ve got after your next battle.”
“We don’t need-” Kyungsoo starts, only to be interrupted by Yifan as he gently taps the blade of his sword against the smaller’s chest.
“You’re in.”
Kyungsoo gapes as he looks over towards Yifan, and the latter merely shrugs. “They’ve got a point. At least they know when they’re out-numbered.”
“How can we know we can trust them?” Kyungsoo grimaces, folding his arms over his chest in defiance. “That one’s a thief! Thieves can never be trusted!”
“Guys-” Chanyeol starts softly, his brows furrowed as he peers off into the distance with squinted eyes, attempting to decipher movement in the clearing near the basin. “What’s that?”
The whole bickering group turns their attention towards the mage for a brief moment before following his concerned gaze, falling silent while observing the field. After a couple minutes of uneasy observation, heavy footsteps grew louder. And louder. Almost as deafening as the movement of the dragon Yifan and Chanyeol had slayed earlier in their session.
“That,” the thief starts, his lips twitching into his signature rectangular grin, “Is a cyclops. Looks like you’re going to need us after all.”
“I didn’t sign up for this!” Chanyeol screeches as he curls up behind a tree, hands clamped over his ears to drown out the sounds of explosions and roars from the makeshift battlefield. “Why the fuck do we have to fight things twenty times our size?! Why can’t we just fight eight-foot orcs and call it a day?!” He yelps when a tree collapses beside him, quickly scurrying over towards Kyungsoo to hide out behind him.
Kyungsoo spares a glance back towards the tearful and fearful Chanyeol before rolling his eyes, lifting a hand up to wipe at the sweat beading on his brow. His gaze returns to the three beasts towering over the canopy of trees, only partially viewable to the two seeking cover - as opposed to the three diving straight into warfare. The tamer’s expression soon becomes worrisome, and Chanyeol finds himself clutching at Kyungsoo for both their lives.
As far as he’s concerned, if Kyungsoo is terrified, then they’re all royally fucked.
“I’ve never-” Kyungsoo starts, peering back towards Chanyeol once again as he shakes his head. “I’ve never encountered these. I usually stray from the forest. Smaller enemies gather around the outskirts of villages and towns. I’m not… really experienced with monsters like-”
Chanyeol nods in understanding throughout wincing with every disturbance, slowly closing in on the duo’s hiding spot. He clutches at Kyungsoo with even greater distress, stepping closer to the smaller male almost protectively. “Soo, I- I know this might be the last time we see each other, considering the server isn’t always merciful… but I-I just wanted you to know that… I really like you, and-”
“Chanyeol, this is no time to confess some weird crush you’ve developed in the span of four hours…” Kyungsoo groans, reaching down to peel off the taller’s hands from his hips.
“It feels like it’s been even longer than that! Anyway, time’s not a measure of love…” he sighs, bending forward to level his face with Kyungsoo’s own. “I just… don’t want this to be the last moment we speak. I don’t want it to end like this! I suck at gaming, and I’m sure this is all my fault in some way-”
“Get to the point. They’re getting closer. So, what, you want my Skype user or something?”
Chanyeol smiles, nodding his head - his hood slipping off of it with the motion. Kyungsoo heaves out a sigh and rolls his eyes once again, peering out from behind the thicket just in time to catch sight of one of Jongdae’s traps detonating before he could manage to make it a safe distance away. Chanyeol doesn’t have to follow Kyungsoo’s gaze to understand what’s just happened, Jongdae’s partner’s wailing says it all.
Chanyeol’s eyes are dewy once again. “This is too much to go through before dinner! This is just… too real! I-I just wanna go home! But I want to… see you again sometime…”
Kyungsoo shoots Chanyeol a pointed look, a gunshot cutting out a familiar thief’s pained sobs. Yifan’s requests for backup from the only two of his party left, but it falls on deaf ears. Sort of. “What about Yifan?”
Chanyeol feels bare without his cloak and hood as he navigates through the concrete jungle of his hometown. He’s since returned that headset and gaming set he’d purchased about a week ago, and he’s never looked back. But, somehow, he feels like he left a part of him behind in that virtual world.
It’s his dignity, probably, he decides, as he turns a corner and slips into a small cafe. Everything else, including the minor friendships he’s made, are all safe with him in the real world. He returns the busboy’s sweet rectangular smile as he passes by him, pausing for a moment to watch as he pads up to the barista who welcomes his best friend behind the counter with a kittenish grin and crescented eyes.
Chanyeol shakes his head a little, and fixates his attention on scanning the dining area for his date. His lips twitch into an even goofier grin when he notes the boy he came looking for, quickly scurrying up towards him to seat himself at his table.
Kyungsoo peers over his large coffee mug towards Chanyeol, offering him a rather amused smile. “You still look like an elf in real life.”
Chanyeol purses his lips in a weak attempt to conceal his smile, shyly clasping his hands together atop his lap. “You haven’t changed a bit, either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean,” Kyungsoo hums, arching a bushy brow as he sets his mug down atop its respective coaster.
“It means you’re going to argue with me when I say you both owe me an Americano and a slice of pie for wimping out and killing me,” Yifan grumbles, pulling out a seat beside the two and seating himself down with a huff. “The next time the two of you want off of the server, let me in on it.”
Title: We Can't Be Cool
Pairings: Chanyeol/Kris, Chanyeol/D.O, brieflyimplied!Kris/D.O, Chanyeol/D.O/Kris, side!Baekhyun/Chen
Rating: R
Warnings: Typical RPG violence and fantasy themes, murder of mythical animals, character death (within the game).
Length: 4.6k
Summary: Chanyeol and Yifan partner up to do a quest together in a virtual reality RPG, and get more than they bargained for along the way.
Author's note: i don't know if this suits your prompt, recipient, but i wanted to take advantage of the OT3s you gave me!! i had a lot of difficulty writing this, both because of external and internal factors, and i had to edit and cut it a lot shorter than i originally intended, but it was a fun experience writing something quite different than usual. mostly unbeta'd because i severely ran out of time, so i apologize for any typos or erroneous changes in tense if they exist, but i hope you enjoy it regardless!!!! and thanks 2 the squad for shutting down my sobbing these last few days. bluh.
“You’re my familiar?”
Chanyeol frowns, brows furrowed as he shifted uncomfortably and half-hid himself behind his scepter. He isn’t sure why he feels so threatened by the boy wearing a loincloth and contrasting, ridiculous armor padding, but he’s sure it’s got something to do with those thick, bushy brows furrowed against his hardened gaze. The unspoken and spoken judgement was overwhelming. “Excuse me?” is all the mage can manage.
“You,” Yifan starts once more as he gives him a once-over, lifting an ornately-tattooed arm to gesture in the general direction of the other. “Are you really all that’s left on the server?”
Chanyeol’s lips downturn even further somehow, and he boldly takes a step closer to the taller. He opens his mouth to tell the guy off, but his voice betrays him and comes out cracking into a higher-pitched tone than intended. “H-Hey, what’s your problem? I may be new, but I know the ropes. I think. What’re you even supposed to be? Some sort of tribal cyborg?”
Yifan ignores his familiar’s quip at him initially, fixating his attention on adjusting and fastening his items onto his makeshift utility belt. Chanyeol isn’t looking too closely, but he can deduce it’s made out of some kind of animal hide. And Chanyeol still isn’t looking too closely when the other bends over.
He definitely isn’t intrigued by this guy’s medieval Tarzan-esque getup, and he’s absolutely not interested in seeing what might be under that loincloth of his. Of course not.
“I’m a warrior,” the boy hums, straightening his posture once again after tugging out an iron dagger he’d stowed in the upper of his boot. Yifan pointed it directly at Chanyeol, taking a step closer to the mage as he took a complementary step backwards. He held his scepter in front of him clumsily, as if it would somehow protect him from the savage. “I don’t mock you for dressing like Dumbledore while looking like Dobby, so shut up about my choice of attire. It’s functional for my class.”
Chanyeol gasps inaudibly, though the expression on his face is enough to signal his offense to the other’s statement. A large hand lifts up to caress a large, pointed ear briefly. “Hey!” he yelps, this time a lot bolder than he’d been initially. “It’s part of the wizard aesthetic!”
“Yeah, sure.” Yifan arches a bushy brow and slips his makeshift dagger into a holder on his utility belt. His bare, milky chest heaves as he breathes out a soft sigh, his gaze lifting over Chanyeol’s head to peer up towards the blazing setting sun. “I suppose I don’t have much of a choice but to let you accompany me. Just don’t expect me to coddle you if you ever find yourself in a sticky situation. I expect my familiars to be able to hold their own.”
Chanyeol breathes out a sigh of his own, flared nostrils exposing his internal annoyance. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” He closed the distance between himself and the young warrior, nudging his shoulder with the bulbous tip of his staff. “As your familiar, I’ll be expected to have your back. Right? Right. Just because your class prefers close combat doesn’t mean you have the right to leave me in the dust. We’re partners; mutually beneficial. I don’t care how good of a player you think you are, you need me just as much as I need you.”
Yifan doesn’t give him lip like Chanyeol expects. Instead, the taller just shoots him an uncertain look before murmuring something akin to a ‘fine’ and walking off. Chanyeol’s surprised by the boy’s compliance - so much so that he’s rendered motionless until he realizes he’s being left behind. Once he manages to stumble his way up to the warrior, he opens his mouth to ask the other where they’re off to so suddenly.
“Our quest began the moment we were paired up,” Yifan answers gruffly, not bothering to look behind him and make sure Chanyeol’s keeping up. And Chanyeol isn’t, Yifan’s strides being much too brisk for him to mimic. “Standing around to chat only wastes time on the server.”
“Okay, yeah,” Chanyeol puffs, using his scepter as a makeshift cane while his other hand gripped at his cloak to lift it off of the ground. He couldn’t help feeling rather princess-y as he ran along like that, but he supposed it came with the territory of wanting to make himself look “authentic” and “ethereal.” Yifan, however, just thinks he’s the embodiment of a liability, and mentally prepares an excuse to use when Chanyeol trips over his garb in battle and isn’t aided. “Yeah, I get that, but what exactly is our quest? Like, what’re we even supposed to be doing right now?”
“That’s what we’re heading off to find. Something to do.”
“Yifan,” Chanyeol groans, stomping his foot against the terrain with every step. He and Yifan had been wandering aimlessly for about half an hour, and by now, Chanyeol can barely lift his feet up. “We’ve been walking for ages. When’re we supposed to find something-”
“Shh-” Yifan hushes his familiar, crouching down behind a thicket stealthily.
“What-”
“Shh!”
Despite Yifan’s shushing, he breathes out a heavy sigh. He falls down onto his hands and knees to crawl himself to the warrior’s side, hoping his glare is boring holes into Yifan’s soul. “What is it?” Chanyeol whispers, attempting to peer through the thick brush.
“Exactly what we’ve been waiting for,” Yifan murmured, lips curling into a sly grin. Chanyeol’s stomach does somersaults because he doesn’t quite trust the expression on the warrior’s face. Yifan senses this as he spares a glance towards his familiar, simply pointing in the direction of a large mass resting by a basin of water.
Chanyeol squints in attempt to make out what exactly that large, gray mass is, but Yifan makes a break for the basin before the mage even notices. In fact, Chanyeol only notices because he hears the sound of an arrow whistling through the air, and then a loud, ground-shaking roar proceeding it. The mage doubles back onto his bum, startled, and flails his legs to push himself further away from the thicket.
He glances around for any sign of Yifan before calling out to him and scrambling to to crawl towards the edge of the trees; an opening that led to the basin. He only pauses when he feels something collide with his side, letting out an “Oof!” before flopping over onto his side.
“Chanyeol!” Yifan nearly screeches after having tumbled over the mage’s curled-up form. He rolls over onto his side to shoot his familiar a panicked look before quickly scrambling to his feet - grabbing at Chanyeol in the process. “Why the fuck are you crawling around?! Get up and help me fight before we both die!”
Chanyeol can barely get a word in edgewise, because once he’s lifted to his feet, he’s thrown back once again by a thick, scaly tail colliding with the terrain between the two. It swipes to its right, and Yifan is flung a few meters away. Of course, Chanyeol remains useless even after Yifan’s yelp silences with a painful, echoing thump. “Yifan!”
The mage eventually manages to maneuver himself to his feet amidst his screeching of the warrior’s name, using his scepter as both a crutch and a shield. He only quiets down once he notes Yifan attempting to recollect himself, but a different sort of scream sits at the back of his throat when the animal they’d disturbed turned and leveled its face with Chanyeol’s own. His panic had done nothing more than catch the monster’s attention, and it sized up what it believed to be its next meal for a long, pregnant moment before releasing a deafening roar.
Chanyeol bursts into tears. Being this scared, he can’t function. It’s all a game, he reminds himself as his grip tightens on his scepter until his knuckles turn white, eyes squeezing shut tightly. He attempts to scour the edges of his mind for spells he should’ve memorized from the handbook, but he can’t recall anything; nothing matters more in this moment than the fact that there’s a giant monster about to bite him in half and he’ll probably feel every second of it before he receives a “game over” screen.
He instead prepares for his impending doom by blubbering out loud sobs, just wishing for the whole experience to be over. This wasn’t what he signed up for. He thought he’d just get a cool outfit and get to troll around villages, maybe raid castles and bang a few fair maidens. How exactly was he supposed to fight a dragon, as opposed to an orc of some sort? Whatever happened to Tutorial Mode?
The end never came. What came instead was a loud, Earth-shaking thump, preceded by a Hellish roar. Then silence. Silence, and Yifan’s ragged, raspy pants. He opens his eyes slowly; hesitantly, and sees nothing but everything he didn’t expect. Chanyeol gawks at a bloodstained Yifan in both awe and horror, his eyes slowly trailing down his venous arm still gripping at the shaft of his sword driven into the dragon’s skull.
Now that he’s stopped crying, he kind of wants to throw up. His entire body’s still trembling almost violently as he drops to his knees, still gripping at his staff as if his life depended on it. “H-How-”
“I scaled him from the tail up while he was distracted by you being a fucking baby.” Yifan’s voice is gruff and unsympathetic, and Chanyeol’s heart sinks even further than before. His gaze drops to the ground, and his grip loosens on his staff to drop it as well.
He can hear Yifan sigh somewhere beside him, now, and he doesn’t quite have the courage to even spare a glance in his partner’s general direction. He waits for Yifan to say something; anything about what a screw-up he was and how he was completely unsuited for anything in this world, but the words that hit him next aren’t from either of the two.
“What have you done?!” someone unfamiliar wails, and both Chanyeol and Yifan whip their heads up to match the distressed voice with a face.
Before their eyes are set on anyone, however, Yifan lets out a pained grunt in tandem with a ‘bof’ that makes Chanyeol wince. Yifan falls backwards, clutching at his face now graced with a fresh coat of blood seeping out from his nose, and Chanyeol lets out a rather “manly” screech at the sight.
Chanyeol eventually manages to tear his gaze away from a writhing Yifan to look up towards his attacker. Another player stands before them, decked out in a similar attire to Yifan - more primitive-looking, however. His face is flushed a worrisome tomato-red, and his bare chest is heaving - as if he were about to burst into tears as Chanyeol once did.
The young mage wanted to reach out and comfort him despite his brutal attack, and he does just that - only to be met with a hand slapping his own away, gripping at the collar of his cloak. Chanyel gags a bit from being yanked forward, the intruder lifting a dagger made from frayed rock up to his neck. The mage cries out for Yifan to help him, lifting his hands up in defeat.
“Why did you do it?! Huh?! He wasn’t bothering anyone! I just left him for an hour to go scout for some supplies… and you murdered him! I’ll kill you!”
Chanyeol gasps for air, now clutching at the barbarian’s hand. “I-I didn’t do anything! Yifan killed him, it’s all his fault!”
Yifan lets out a grunt from behind the two, eyes narrowed towards his familiar instead. “Thanks, kid. So much for having each other’s backs. Look, what’s your fucking problem? You must not understand the point of this game-”
Chanyeol’s shoved to the ground, the attacker turning his dagger towards Yifan instead. His bushy brows furrow, and he gives the warrior the most venomous look he could muster up. “You don’t kill other peoples’ pets. Unless you wanted to fight with me, of course. And, trust me, you don’t want that.”
“That thing was your pet?” Yifan guffaws, sparing a glance over towards the slayed dragon. “It’s nothing but spoils to me. Same should go for you.”
“I tamed him! It took over a hundred hours of blood, sweat, and tears to claim him as mine!”
Chanyeol frowns, noting the boy’s face is contorting into a mixture of both pain and sincerity, rather than the anguish it’d shown before. “We’re sorry. We honestly didn’t know he belonged to you. If we did, we definitely wouldn’t have slain him! Can we make it up to you?”
The boy drops his dagger to his side after giving Chanyeol a pointed look, his lips parting to let out a trembling sigh while he mulled over the mage’s offer. Eventually, he slips his dagger into its holster, and quirks his lips into a grimace while he folds his arms over his chest.
“You’re taking me with you.”
“I can’t believe this!” Yifan whinges as he followed loosely behind the mage and tamer, the latter of which now self-appointed as the leader of the party.
Chanyeol doesn’t have as many qualms with this development as the warrior, humming happily while trekking alongside the short tamer. Although Yifan makes a decent leader, he got him in the most unfavorable situation of his life. Kyungsoo seems like he’d be less likely to delve him in a situation that’d make him piss his pants in fear.
“Shut up,” Kyungsoo snaps, glancing over his shoulder while nudging Chanyeol forward. “You killed my best friend and protector, so now you’re going to take his place.”
“We get to be your new best friends?” Chanyeol chuckles, brows arched as he turned to walk backwards, watching his party bicker in amusement. Yifan’s sour expression is a better view than their surroundings, anyway.
Kyungsoo sighs, waving the mage off. “No. I’ll never forgive either of you enough to consider you both as friends. Think of it as… a strategical set-up. Neither of you know what you’re doing, really, do you? You’re lucky I didn’t just kill you both on the spot. I’m saving your asses.”
Yifan opens his mouth to snap some sassy retort at Kyungsoo, but Chanyeol lets out a yelp that stops the entire party in their tracks. He tumbles backwards after tripping on an exposed root, falling onto his bum with a soft thud.
Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at the fool in a half-dress, while Yifan lets out a snort that sounds a lot like he’s trying to stifle a laugh. “Idiot. This is why you almost got devoured. Know what? Let’s stop here for the night. There’s a basin nearby for us to wash up, and Yifan really needs it.”
Yifan scoffs, “Who died and gave you authority over us? What if I don’t want to set up camp here?”
“My dragon, actually,” Kyungsoo snaps, tugging off his fur-pelt hood to set it aside. “If you don’t want to set up camp here, you’re free to continue on alone. Chanyeol and I will enjoy some quality time together.”
Chanyeol blinks, looking up towards Kyungsoo while clutching his scepter to his chest protectively. “Really?” he murmurs, feeling slightly giddy at the thought of spending some “alone time” with the tamer. Though the short little guy had a short temper, Chanyeol couldn’t help but find him endearing - endearing, once he’d calmed down from his earlier freakout.
Kyungsoo answers Chanyeol with a roll of his eyes, and continues stripping himself down for a dip in the nearby lake. Of course, the young mage watches on with pinkened cheeks and a goofy smile. Yifan rolls his eyes as well - so hard he can’t help but grunt in frustration.
“Fine. Whatever,” Yifan relents, reluctantly de-garbing himself and setting aside his armor and weaponry.
Chanyeol remains seated on the ground, watching the two men discard their clothing. He clutches his staff even closer to him, almost protectively, now dropping his gaze down towards his legs. “Ah… you guys should go without me. I’ll stay here and guard your things. Wouldn’t want someone to steal them and leave you stranded all naked and stuff, right?”
Yifan and Kyungsoo both give Chanyeol the same look that makes the mage’s cheeks suddenly feel even hotter, and they both shrug it off.
“Whatever. Maybe your unbathed stench will keep enemies at bay,” Kyungsoo hums, stepping around the shy mage with Yifan reluctantly in tow.
Chanyeol spends the next hour and a half resting against a tree and fondling with the sash of his robe, discreetly eyeing the two in the distance make amends. He grimaces occasionally, when Kyungsoo tends to Yifan’s wounds and carefully scrubs off dried blood from the warrior with his bare, dainty hands. He finds himself wishing Yifan had stood guard instead.
Chanyeol stirs the next morning to hushed whispers and soft clattering. He can tell someone’s rummaging through a spoils bag - perhaps for something to refuel with since their dinner was pretty light. He tries to ignore it in favor of rolling over onto his side, tugging his hood over his head to block out any sounds as best as possible. At this point, he figures it’s Kyungsoo and Yifan just as restless as ever. They’d been up into ungodly hours bickering and exchanging idle chitchat about their past experiences on the server.
He almost has the nerve to tell them both to shut up, because it’s difficult to fast-forward through the night when he has to pause for every bit of chatter he hears, but decides it might be easier to just listen in on their conversation instead. After all, what if Kyungsoo mentions him?
“They must be new to the server. They don’t have anything useful.”
Chanyeol blinks his bleary eyes open. That’s not Yifan.
“Who cares? Steal the armor. It’s shiny, you can make me something nice out of it.”
That’s not Kyungsoo, either.
He slowly eases himself onto his stomach, peering over towards the sound of the rummaging. His eyes meet with two unfamiliar players hunched over their small pile of belongings. His gaze flickers over towards a sleeping pair curled up beside him briefly before returning to the pair of looters.
From the cover of his hood, he can see they’re both heavily decked-out in modernized gear and weaponry - a stark difference compared to his medieval attire and Yifan and Kyungsoo’s rather barbaric outfits. One of them still donned a cloak and hood just as he did, and he couldn’t quite make out their entire appearance, but they wore loose slacks and leather boots just like their partner. Said partner could’ve jumped right out of the early nineteen-hundreds, Chanyeol figures, and he quirks his lips into a grimace at this correlation. Strapped to both of his sides are rather large guns of some sort, and Chanyeol could make out a sash of grenades strapped to his belt. There are other sorts of weapons on his person, and the young mage considers him nothing more than a ticking time-bomb.
He doesn’t realize he’s been mindlessly gawking for long until his eyes meet with one of the pair’s own. Chanyeol immediately yelps.
The next few moments are a blur to the young mage, as he’s not only got guns pointed in his direction, but Yifan and Kyungsoo also have their weapons drawn. Surprisingly, they were drawn in his direction as well.
Chanyeol’s sitting up, now, with his hands held up in defense. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Kyungsoo grunts, now turning his dagger towards the cloaked male. Yifan’s got his sword fixated on the boy donning a coppola.
The looters exchange a glance before laughing, slipping their guns back into their holsters. The trio exchanged glances as well, all three returning their confused gaze back towards the pair of looters in an almost uncomfortable manner.
“Fine, we got caught. I told Jongdae to quiet down-”
“Me? I’m not the one who kept cooing over the armor plates. It’d be days before I could get back to the shoppe and melt them down into something pretty for you.”
Kyungsoo grimaces in agitation at the duo’s nonchalance, and Yifan just seems confused. The latter drops his sword to his side, more than just a little eager to make friends. They all found interest in his gear, anyway.
“So you’re trying to loot us and leave us with no supplies? No way to defend ourselves? You’re pathetic.” Kyungsoo scoffs, closing in on the two. “Yifan may be a wimp, but I’ll end it all right here.”
The cloaked male simply spares the short tamer a sly smile, lifting a dainty hand up to place the tip of his finger atop the pinnacle of the blunt blade. “It’s all part of the game. But since you guys have no spoils of real use to us, we think you’re better off letting us join your party instead.”
“Hah! As if. You’ll only be useful when you’re dead.” Kyungsoo yanks his dagger away from the thief’s hand, his large eyes narrowing.
“Maybe,” the thief hums, casually draping an arm over his partner. “You could kill us and take everything we’ve got, or you could keep us around to let us make more weapons for you. You’ll run out of everything we’ve got after your next battle.”
“We don’t need-” Kyungsoo starts, only to be interrupted by Yifan as he gently taps the blade of his sword against the smaller’s chest.
“You’re in.”
Kyungsoo gapes as he looks over towards Yifan, and the latter merely shrugs. “They’ve got a point. At least they know when they’re out-numbered.”
“How can we know we can trust them?” Kyungsoo grimaces, folding his arms over his chest in defiance. “That one’s a thief! Thieves can never be trusted!”
“Guys-” Chanyeol starts softly, his brows furrowed as he peers off into the distance with squinted eyes, attempting to decipher movement in the clearing near the basin. “What’s that?”
The whole bickering group turns their attention towards the mage for a brief moment before following his concerned gaze, falling silent while observing the field. After a couple minutes of uneasy observation, heavy footsteps grew louder. And louder. Almost as deafening as the movement of the dragon Yifan and Chanyeol had slayed earlier in their session.
“That,” the thief starts, his lips twitching into his signature rectangular grin, “Is a cyclops. Looks like you’re going to need us after all.”
“I didn’t sign up for this!” Chanyeol screeches as he curls up behind a tree, hands clamped over his ears to drown out the sounds of explosions and roars from the makeshift battlefield. “Why the fuck do we have to fight things twenty times our size?! Why can’t we just fight eight-foot orcs and call it a day?!” He yelps when a tree collapses beside him, quickly scurrying over towards Kyungsoo to hide out behind him.
Kyungsoo spares a glance back towards the tearful and fearful Chanyeol before rolling his eyes, lifting a hand up to wipe at the sweat beading on his brow. His gaze returns to the three beasts towering over the canopy of trees, only partially viewable to the two seeking cover - as opposed to the three diving straight into warfare. The tamer’s expression soon becomes worrisome, and Chanyeol finds himself clutching at Kyungsoo for both their lives.
As far as he’s concerned, if Kyungsoo is terrified, then they’re all royally fucked.
“I’ve never-” Kyungsoo starts, peering back towards Chanyeol once again as he shakes his head. “I’ve never encountered these. I usually stray from the forest. Smaller enemies gather around the outskirts of villages and towns. I’m not… really experienced with monsters like-”
Chanyeol nods in understanding throughout wincing with every disturbance, slowly closing in on the duo’s hiding spot. He clutches at Kyungsoo with even greater distress, stepping closer to the smaller male almost protectively. “Soo, I- I know this might be the last time we see each other, considering the server isn’t always merciful… but I-I just wanted you to know that… I really like you, and-”
“Chanyeol, this is no time to confess some weird crush you’ve developed in the span of four hours…” Kyungsoo groans, reaching down to peel off the taller’s hands from his hips.
“It feels like it’s been even longer than that! Anyway, time’s not a measure of love…” he sighs, bending forward to level his face with Kyungsoo’s own. “I just… don’t want this to be the last moment we speak. I don’t want it to end like this! I suck at gaming, and I’m sure this is all my fault in some way-”
“Get to the point. They’re getting closer. So, what, you want my Skype user or something?”
Chanyeol smiles, nodding his head - his hood slipping off of it with the motion. Kyungsoo heaves out a sigh and rolls his eyes once again, peering out from behind the thicket just in time to catch sight of one of Jongdae’s traps detonating before he could manage to make it a safe distance away. Chanyeol doesn’t have to follow Kyungsoo’s gaze to understand what’s just happened, Jongdae’s partner’s wailing says it all.
Chanyeol’s eyes are dewy once again. “This is too much to go through before dinner! This is just… too real! I-I just wanna go home! But I want to… see you again sometime…”
Kyungsoo shoots Chanyeol a pointed look, a gunshot cutting out a familiar thief’s pained sobs. Yifan’s requests for backup from the only two of his party left, but it falls on deaf ears. Sort of. “What about Yifan?”
Chanyeol feels bare without his cloak and hood as he navigates through the concrete jungle of his hometown. He’s since returned that headset and gaming set he’d purchased about a week ago, and he’s never looked back. But, somehow, he feels like he left a part of him behind in that virtual world.
It’s his dignity, probably, he decides, as he turns a corner and slips into a small cafe. Everything else, including the minor friendships he’s made, are all safe with him in the real world. He returns the busboy’s sweet rectangular smile as he passes by him, pausing for a moment to watch as he pads up to the barista who welcomes his best friend behind the counter with a kittenish grin and crescented eyes.
Chanyeol shakes his head a little, and fixates his attention on scanning the dining area for his date. His lips twitch into an even goofier grin when he notes the boy he came looking for, quickly scurrying up towards him to seat himself at his table.
Kyungsoo peers over his large coffee mug towards Chanyeol, offering him a rather amused smile. “You still look like an elf in real life.”
Chanyeol purses his lips in a weak attempt to conceal his smile, shyly clasping his hands together atop his lap. “You haven’t changed a bit, either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean,” Kyungsoo hums, arching a bushy brow as he sets his mug down atop its respective coaster.
“It means you’re going to argue with me when I say you both owe me an Americano and a slice of pie for wimping out and killing me,” Yifan grumbles, pulling out a seat beside the two and seating himself down with a huff. “The next time the two of you want off of the server, let me in on it.”