❝ PRETTY FACE ❞
June 31st, 2021
REAL LIFE — THEO!
"HI CHAT," THEO SAID INTO the mic. He was wrapped up in Techno's sweater again, hood pulled up and mask and glasses attached to his face; Ranboo was sporting a similar look, while Tubbo was wearing the I just got out of bed and I'm still halfway on the mattress type of look, tired eyes with dark bags from staying up late the night before. They had made smores and spent hours telling ghost stories, and by the end, Tubbo had been too afraid to sleep alone, so he'd joined them on the couch.
"Wow, you're zoomin'. Welcome, welcome. It's gonna be a chill stream today, a QnA. Oh, mods, can we make sure the category isn't Minecraft? I forgot to check before the stream," Theo said apologetically. Phil messages him saying sure — Theo was thankful that the older man had convinced Theo to make him a moderator. He loved his other mods — Sock, June, and Maple — but outside of 'work,' they didn't spend much time talking to each other.
At least Theo paid them well.
"We're gonna wait a few minutes until we start, but you can ask us any questions! And mediashare is on, so if you want to you can send us videos to react to, the mods will make sure they're appropriate. Otherwise, feel free to donate and your question will appear on screen," Theo explained, turning in the swivel chair from left to right, never letting himself complete a full circle.
"I've got Tubbo and Ranboo here with me," he added, motioning to the two other boys.
"I want coffee," Tubbo complained.
"Sorry about him, he was up late last night," Ranboo said sarcastically. Theo snickered, receiving a shove from Tubbo that almost made him fall out of the chair.
"Sorry!"
"Bitch!" Theo made the motion of pushing Tubbo back, which made the other boy squeak and try to turn away, which actually made him fall.
"You're both idiots," Ranboo sighed, suffering behind his mask. Theo grinned at him even though Ranboo couldn't see it, shrugging. Ranboo helped Tubbo back into his seat as Theo turned back to chat.
"Chat, I'm not a bully, he started it," Theo complained as chat demanded that he apologize to Tubbo. He shrugged off their demands as the first donation came in, eyes quickly scanning over the words.
"Would you jump into a pool of jello?— What the fuck, Sophie?" Theo muttered, shaking his head as he sat back. "Uh, if I got paid for it, sure. I don't know who would jump into a pool of jello for, like, fun?"
"I would," Tubbo said seriously. Theo sighed, because of course Tubbo would.
"Only the red jello," Ranboo decided. "And if I got paid. But, like, I would do it for a bag of chips, you know?"
"You two are weird," Theo sighed. Another donation came through, drawing his attention. "If you had to stream only one video game, what would it be? Ohhh. Uh, probably Minecraft, it's great to get to play with your friends and do practically anything," Theo explained.
"I haven't streamed it, but Stardew Valley," Ranboo said.
Theo brightened. "Wait, you're so right! I change my answer, I love Stardew Valley."
"Yeah, over 500 hours of gameplay says enough," Tubbo teased. "I'm sticking with Minecraft, you can mod literally anything and start new servers with your friends and it's my go-to game anyway when I'm feeling bored!"
Theo nodded. "Fair enough. Plus, it makes us a ton of money."
Ranboo snorted, shoving him lightly. "Don't say that, people will think you're just in it for the money!"
"Who says I'm not?" Theo asked. He paused, then looked at the camera. "That was a joke. Please don't cancel me."
"Too late. I hate you now," Tubbo said. Theo rolled his eyes, glancing at the screen again.
"Join the club," he muttered, sparking a concerned noise from Ranboo. Theo waved him away. "Boundaries update for Theo since Ranboo and Tubbo already did theirs? Yeah! So, obviously no NSFW shit about me, I'm a minor and it's just fuckin' weird, no hate to the NSFW community, of course, it's just not for me personally. Um, profile pictures of me looking like this — you know, IRL photos where my face isn't shown — are completely fine. Uhh, if you hear my friends call me a nickname, it doesn't give you permission to use it, stick with Theo or Theden, no in-between. And lastly don't contact me asking to be put into contact with Techno, it's just rude," he listed.
"People actually ask you to talk to Techno for them?" Ranboo asked.
"I've had other streamers ask me to put them in contact with you," Theo said dryly. "My block list is a mile long and I've probably been canceled by them, but I really don't care."
"Do you know how many streamers have DM'd me asking if I could talk to Tommy for them so he'll answer their messages? It's embarrassing," Tubbo added. Theo nodded.
"Huh. I'm glad I haven't had that happen to me," Ranboo mused.
"Only a matter of time, Big Man," Tubbo said, leaning forward to look at the next donation. "What cartoon character do you wish was real? I'm currently doing a series on TikTok where I draw my favorite streamers as their favorite cartoon characters! Oh, that's interesting," Tubbo commented, sitting back in thought.
"Mine is probably Dipper Pines," Ranboo spoke up. "I really enjoy Gravity Falls, it's my favorite cartoon, and I think it would be interesting to be able to go on adventures like he did."
Theo nodded. "Nice, nice. Mine is, uh, Michael Harrison from the game Choices. Specifically High School Story. He's hot, sorry, no I won't elaborate," Theo said, a faint blush overtaking his features. Tubbo snickered at him.
"Uh, mine is Tweek from South Park, obviously," Tubbo said. Theo rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, the fanartists have really upped your character's design," he said. "Otherwise they'd just be making South Park fanart."
"Oi, it's a good show!" Tubbo defended.
"Meh. Never was a fan," Theo dismissed. Tubbo gasped in offense, but the sound was covered up by Theo reading the next question. "Thoughts on beans? Hate 'em. All types."
"You're picky," Ranboo noted.
Theo shrugged. "It's mostly just the texture honestly. It's like that with most foods for me! I can't eat hamburgers or sausage, but I love bacon. It's all about the texture more than the taste," he explained, shrugging. He pushed the glasses up further onto his nose so they didn't end up falling off.
"What a sad life you live," Tubbo teased, though Theo knew it wasn't inherently malicious. If Theo felt hurt, he would just talk with Tubbo after the stream about boundaries. "Can't have beans on toast."
"Thank God," Ranboo and Theo spoke at the same time. Theo grinned, ignoring Tubbo's noise of offense.
Theo decided to read chat for a moment while waiting for the next donation to pop up. "Hi, Theo! Can you say hi to Katie and happy birthday to Jen? Of course! Hello Katie and happy birthday to Jen!" he said. Normally he would ignore such donations and comment that he didn't do individual shoutouts, but he felt like it would be rude if he didn't say hi now that he'd read the message out loud.
"Theo," Ranboo read, "what do we call this trio for a subtwt? Hey, why does Theo get to name us?" he complained.
"Because I'm better than both of you, obviously," Theo dismissed. "Um . . . UKtwt? No, that sounds dumb."
"Beanstwt," Tubbo said.
"That's worse," Theo muttered.
"Too bad. We are now beanstwt," Tubbo decided. Theo and Ranboo shrugged, accepting that. It's not like they could stop chat from spamming the word BEANS now. "Why isn't Tommy here? Mans went home, chat, and we're not gonna make him travel all the way down here for one stream. We're filming a vlog with him later on anyway, you'll get content with us four soon."
"Oh, do we have a date for that vlog yet?" Theo asked, turning to face Tubbo. Tubbo shook his head. Theo sighed. "Damn, alright. I'll text Tommy later, I need to make sure I get enough sleep the night before."
"Tubbo, you have a question," Ranboo pointed out.
"Tubbo," said boy read, "since you can pick up Tommy like nothing- can you pick up Ranboo and Theo?" he asked with a grin.
"Don't even think about it," Theo said sternly.
"I can probably pick up both of them, especially Theo since he's smaller than Tommy," Tubbo said. "Maybe if we get a big enough donation, I'll do it before they leave," he said. Theo grumbled under his breath. "What, are you scared I'll drop you or something?"
"You would do it on purpose!" Theo argued.
Tubbo shrugged. "Probably, but it would be funny."
"Theo," Ranboo interrupted, "what do you like best about Andie?" Ranboo's brows furrowed. "Andie?"
"My friend," Theo said, smiling slightly. "He's probably watching this stream. Uh, I'm going to say that I like how accepting he is. I felt totally comfortable coming out to him before anyone else, even Techno. He just always showed his support for me, and that support allowed me to come out to more people," he explained.
"Aww," Tubbo teased. Theo shoved him away.
"Height check," he read out, regretting it immediately after. He sighed, turning to look at Tubbo and Ranboo, who got out of their seats; Ranboo offered Theo his hand, which Theo accepted, allowing himself to be pulled out of his chair. Ranboo towered over the other two boys, but Theo was still shorter than Tubbo. He had accepted this even before they had met in real life, but it was different when over 200K people were watching Tubbo use him as an armrest.
"Yes, we get it chat, I'm short," Theo muttered as chat began to spam about the height difference. It wasn't so obvious how short he was around Ranboo until there was a middle ground between them, like Tubbo, who could show just how much shorter Theo was.
The boys returned to their seats once more, Ranboo sitting forward to read the screen. "Thoughts on frogs?" he read aloud.
"Cute in theory," Theo said.
"I used to try to eat frogs from my garden," Tubbo mused.
". . . That explains so much," Theo said, nearly getting shoved out of his chair as Tubbo's revenge. "Hey!"
"I like frogs," Ranboo said helpfully as Theo and Tubbo tried to push each other. "Hey! Tattoos or piercings in the future?" he asked, interrupting the squabble between the shorter two.
Theo turned back to the camera. "Um, as soon as I'm eighteen I'm getting a Minecraft bee tattooed on my arm. And I have a lot of other ideas that I can probably get done as soon as possible. Like, I want my grandma's signature on my ankle and some fandom tattoos. I know people say I'll regret it when I'm older but that's on me." He shrugged. "Piercings, no. I want some, but I'm allergic to the metals; I tried getting my ears pierced last year and was in the hospital from how much my ears swelled," he explained.
"When was this?" Ranboo asked.
"Before I started streaming," Theo said. "It was meant to be a huge fuck you to everyone who thought badly of me but I just looked dumb."
"You could get fake earings," Tubbo suggested. "I'm sure we can find a brand that looks good." Theo shrugged, not really concerned with it. "As for me, I might get a tattoo in the future, but probably not. Same with piercings. If I want to, I will. If not, I won't. Simple," he said.
"I'd like to get my ears pierced," Ranboo mused. "Tattoos are a huge maybe, I still haven't decided yet. Maybe when I'm older, but for now I'm good," he said.
Chat gave a few tattoo ideas that Theo found interesting, but not enough to write down. He scanned the chat for more questions, curious what the people not donating money wanted to ask. "Any plans of college?" he asked.
"I dropped out," Tubbo said.
"I'm not going right now, I don't know when I will or if I will," Ranboo said.
"I would rather die than go to college," Theo said bluntly. Ranboo and Tubbo snickered. "I tried going for a summer semester just to get a feel for it and I swear, I can't sit through those classes, man. It's awful and a total cash-grab. Why would I spend the rest of my life paying off student loans when I could literally retire right now and have enough money to live off of for the rest of my life?"
"Jesus, man, you don't have to be so harsh," Tubbo teased.
Theo shrugged. "Fuck college and the money grabbers. Hate 'em."
"Are you homesick?" Ranboo asked, leaning between the two of them to read the question. "Um. Not really. I love my family, obviously, but it's so much fun being here with my best friends. I'm not counting down the days to go home if that's what you mean. And I'm probably moving out here as soon as I can, so it's good practice," he explained.
Theo hummed softly, sitting back in his chair. "I wouldn't say I'm homesick, but I definitely miss Techno," he admitted. "We call when we can, but it's not the same as getting a hug. I hope Floof is good company for him."
Chat awwed at that, making Theo's face burn. He was suddenly glad that he was hiding his face.
A new donation popped up, Theo reading it out before he could process it. "Why do you live with Techno and not your parents?" he asked, expression falling as he read it. Now he was very thankful that he was hiding his face. He sat back for a moment, quiet.
"You don't have to answer that," Ranboo murmured to him, quiet enough that the mic didn't pick it up.
"No, it's fine. Uh. Not everyone is accepting of gay people," Theo said, shrugging like it didn't bother him.
The tension that settled over the group was obvious. Theo shifted uncomfortably, glancing at Tubbo and Ranboo. Tubbo sat forward.
"Alright, chat! I forgot that we're going out to lunch with my parents today, and we're already five minutes late, so we better go!" Theo relaxed, smiling at Tubbo softly. He knew that no one in the chat was going to believe the excuse, but it was still nice of Tubbo to try.
"Bye, chat!"
"Bye!"
Theo ended the stream, sitting back in his chair with a groan. For a moment, he was glad that Tommy wasn't there, knowing that the younger boy was a fierce defender and probably would have caused a scene over the question. At the same time, he really wanted a hug — from anyone, really, but from Tommy especially since he had left without a goodbye.
Theo missed him.
"You alright?" Ranboo asked, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Theo let his worries wash away as he smiled at Ranboo, hidden behind the mask.
"Yeah," he said. He looked at Tubbo. "Thank you."
Tubbo shrugged. "Anytime." He grinned. "I wasn't serious about the lunch thing, but now I'm hungry, so we should go," he said. Theo smiled at him.
He missed Tommy, but he loved these friends all the same.