Face Reveal

@echymoses7890 10 days ago
I just can’t get enough of screw’s voice HE SOUNDS SO GOOD WTF?

▴ 2 replies
@_BidoofBoy 10 days ago
it’s syrup in my ears

@JoHNwoods 2 days ago
Guy has a girl voice but go on

 

---

 

 

A good YouTuber ought to have a schedule.

Monday is administrative day. You read your emails, DMs, and comments. You do a check of last week’s analytics, finding out what’s trending, and what people like and don’t like. Then, for the episode scheduled to go out on Saturday, you set a clear goal to ensure a solid narrative sense and start gathering ideas. From Tuesday to Friday, it’s recording time. Clip by clip, you construct this episode. First an intro — starting with a little timelapse, perhaps? — then a basic series of actions that will hopefully culminate in the completion of this episode’s goal. You season that with two or three interludes — an interaction with Mandel, a fun quest to collect an item, or a second timelapse if you feel fancy — and you should be good to go. Be wary of Wednesdays, though: those are the days when Mojang is usually cooking an update. And if you’re anything like me, you have to cover those. The game is getting bigger by the day, and we get to be a part of it, what’s not to like? But it’s tough work; you gotta be fast, comprehensive, and fun. Snapshot videos are a tight market. That's without even mentioning that the developers give snippets of information on social media from time to time, and those will often make for good YouTube shorts. And at last, the weekends are reserved for livestreams, which is the least enjoyable part for me. But viewers beg for it, so I comply. A four hour stream each evening, with a fun playlist Mandel concocted for me playing in the background, and boring tasks that needed substantial progression anyway to chip at.

This week was unusual, to say the least. Notwithstanding the fucking email, a snapshot had been released on Monday evening, and that had drained most of my energy. So when I woke up to my alarm the following day, I had some grievances with past me who thought it clever and prudent to have a tight schedule. I briefly considered renouncing my ideals to give myself a post-sleep nap of twenty additional minutes.

“Why did I choose to wake up at eight? It’s dumb, I’m dumb,” I mumbled, then got up to the other corner of my flat where I’d placed my phone last night and turned off the alarm.

I got notifications.

Mandel _{Today at 07:44}
you okay?
40bees sent me a friend request!!

I quickly checked, and sure enough, ‘40beesunderatrenchcoat sent you a friend request’.

sonicScrew _{Today at 08:03}
I am not made for mornings
oh and yeah, the bees have come to fetch me too

Mandel _{Today at 08:04}
great! I’m due for a jog, catch you later if you want to talk about it

sonicScrew _{Today at 08:04}
fine by me
have a good muscle wiggle

I briefly wondered how he looked. With that steady habit of running every evening — today was an exception — I guessed he could be somewhat fit. But I had to remind myself: no photos, no location, no details, that's what I asked; it’d be hypocritical to seek a photo from him and not reciprocate.

With that thought, I turned off my phone and got ready. First things first, I had to get my groceries. 

This city was built on a slab. A valley had been turned into a plain of concrete, surgical white auditoriums were dotted around the newly minted university city centre and parking lots had filled the underground. But I didn’t live there: my street was on the periphery, jutting out of an old slag heap (a reminder that this city was once an industrial hub). And the nearest grocery store was fortunately not a mall and not in the city centre. You won’t meet a lot of people at this time of day, in this part of the city—

“Hey, watch out, girl!” a familiar voice said.

Oh.

I like to think there’s an army of little people living inside me. They’re all in charge of some little task, making sure the meat automaton works correctly. That one guy, Nicolas, was on ear duty today, and after checking if the snails were in good shape, he'd decided to slack off a bit. After all, hearing wasn't the most important sense. Emmanuel and Charles were safely lodged in each eye, monitoring visual input and making sure not to miss the wonderful mix of colours emanating from some newly painted graffiti on the wall, thinking that they didn’t need to check if anything was in the way; there’s never anyone in these stairs anyway. François was managing the brain team, and this Tuesday was team-building day, so he decided they should all go out to the bowling alley situated in the back of my head, a bit to the left, behind the bar but before the swimming pool, to indulge in a little fun, leaving the control of the body to an intern. 

I like to think there’s an army of little people living inside my head, and I like to think they suck ass.

In my hurry down the stairwell, I hadn’t heard the door closing on the middle floor, and I hadn’t seen the sporty guy in a tracksuit walking out of his flat. Inattention gave way to surprise, and next thing I knew, he was holding me in an attempt to stop me from bumping into him. I looked up. Short, curly black hair, brown skin, brown eyes, a perfectly trimmed beard, and rugged stature. Is this—

“There, I’ve got you,” he added with a smile.

“Yes— yes, hi, hello, hi.” My voice came out a bit higher-pitched than it was supposed to. “Julien. Upstairs. Right above your flat, I think? Going out. Sorry. Will watch out in the future.” His voice reminded me of—

“Amaury,” he offered me his hand, slightly tilted his head, and his eyes widened a small amount. “I’m going for a jog.”

“Great! Me too!” And I ran.

I jumped through the last remaining flight of stairs, barely avoiding a fall by flailing my arms around like a bird trying to take off somehow, and then immediately took the shortest path to the grocery. I really wished I could have /tp my butt to Stockholm right then.

That was Mandel. I started to feel a stitch grow in my right side. That’s Mandel. My lungs were aching, and my breath became raspier. It’s his voice. I slowed down to a steady walk. Holy cow, he was right there. I looked back. I was alone. That was him. I took a turn into a smaller path slotted in between two houses. Is he too dumb to recognise my voice? Don’t care. Flee.

When I felt sufficiently hidden by the twists and turns of the neighbourhood, I entered the alley leading to the store and decided to rest there for a while to catch my breath. Out of sight, and nobody could hear my panting.

While the rush of stress had been slowly fading away, I reassessed the encounter. As confident as I’d been in the moment, there was a non-zero chance I’d only met a random Mandel-voiced dude and made a total ass of myself. After all, he’d never shown his face either; he could look totally different. I was not sure which reality I preferred. The one where my best friend lived right next door, and where I was too much of a social failure to have figured that out. Or the one where, once again, I butchered a perfect occasion to not be a social failure anymore.

I dropped against the nearest wall and checked my phone. No notifications. Either it wasn’t Mandel, or he thought it best to not message me anything, or he had been the quintessential Himbo in pure concentrated form and somehow managed to not recognise my voice at all.

I looked up, pressed my phone on my breast, and sighed, forming a little cloud. My face and my name weren’t things I wanted people to know. I didn’t find them interesting at all. They were not relevant. They should not play a part in my life! I wished people would focus more on my work: the editing, the ideas, the timelapses, the builds, the machines, everything but me. I didn’t understand why they were so adamant about knowing that kind of intimate detail. I didn’t think I was worth that attention.

But, to be totally honest, I was slowly coming around the idea that Mandel could perhaps — were his behaviour to remain exemplary! — have a pass. After all, he was trustworthy. And kind, very kind. And I couldn’t deny that I wanted to know Mandel better. If Amaury was really the same person, maybe this was the perfect occasion to open up more and get to know him a little better.

That’d be nice. I shut my eyes for a brief moment.

The moment was ruined when I heard steps coming in my direction and took that as a perfect cue to move on. I pushed myself from the wall, exited the alley, got around that broken car that was sitting in someone’s driveway — it had been left alone there for more than a month, the owner should really have done something about it by now — and stepped inside the store.

The cashier glanced at me quickly, cheerfully saying “Hello” before returning her gaze to her phone. She was accustomed to my morning appearances; I was usually her only client at those hours. She was nice.

I opted for a nod for a response, hoping it would come across as a sufficiently social gesture.

 

✦ ▶ ✦

 

When I finally left the store, hands heavy with a good fridge refill and an unhealthy amount of instant noodles — chicken flavour! — my mind had eventually moved on.

It sure was a thrill to get a decent amount of views. In the past few months, I’d been getting that more often, but I’d recently found that getting the recognition of a peer you admire increases this feeling tenfold. When 40bees sends you a friend request, you can’t take that lightly. He wasn’t the most known Minecraft YouTuber — heck, he wasn’t even the most known creator in CovenCraft — but he was the foundation of this community, and his videos were just the shit. He had managed to create absolute masterpieces of narration and editing prowess for each of his episodes and always acted as if it were nothing. 

I was without a doubt an absolute fanboy.

And the green ‘accept friend request’ button was right there.

I got across the alley, checked for cars left and right, and — while stepping on the crosswalk — I steeled myself and tapped it.

Immediately after that, I was added to a group.

40beesunderatrenchcoat, Mandel

Welcome to the beginning of the 40beesunderatrenchcoat, Mandel group.

—19 December 2023—

➜  40beesunderatrenchcoat added you to a group. _{Today at 08:51}

➜  40beesunderatrenchcoat added Mandel to the group. _{Today at 08:51}

Mandel _{Today at 08:51}
Oh hey

40beesunderatrenchcoat _{Today at 08:51}
all right
wait.

40beesunderatrenchcoat changed their username to 40bees. _{Today at 08:52}

40bees _{Today at 08:52}
bit of a mouthful
So! Hi Mandel, hi Screw. Thank you so much for accepting the invite! I won’t be much, I just wanted to get all the info across and align our calendars. But first I have to ask: will you be joining us this Saturday for the next PvP Sunday instalment?
Knowing that accepting the invite for the PvP sunday does not engage you to join CovenCraft. Those are two different invitations. 
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that appearing in videos named “CovenCraft PvP Sunday” will probably set some expectations. 
Viewers will be waiting for you to join the server soon. That has been a pattern for previous seasons. Soooo, be mindful of that.

Mandel _{Today at 08:59}
Hey, thank you for the invite. I’ll be back to my desk in a minute but as far as I’m concerned, I’d be thrilled to participate.

As soon as Mandel dropped that message, I received a private message from him. A lot of things were happening at once but I could handle it.

Mandel _{Today at 08:59}
Hey, just checking in. Are you comfortable speaking in the group chat?
Not too much anxiety-inducing?

I felt a tingle of gratitude in my stomach, and a smile spread across my face. He was just so considerate.

Screw _{Today at 09:01}
yeah one person isn’t too much, don’t worry. i’m way more afraid about how this weekend will go

Mandel _{Today at 09:02}
Gotcha, I’ll try to broach the subject with 40bees

Screw _{Today at 09:02}
hey
Mandel
thank you
for asking me how i feel
and helping me deal with my rotten brain
you’re a godsend

Mandel _{Today at 09:03}
Wow wow, hold your horses. I’m doing the bare minimum here!!!

Screw _{Today at 09:04}
still, here’s a heart :❤️

Mandel _{Today at 09:04}
😳

Screw _{Today at 09:05}
we’re sailing that ship lol

Mandel _{Today at 09:07}
Yeah haha

For a second, I feared I made it too weird. That wouldn’t have been my first time. I remember having called him ‘babe’ on stream for weeks, and at first, I’d sensed he wasn’t totally comfortable with it. He’d retracted himself, talked less for a good fifteen minutes, and spoke in unusual stutters. He strongly assured me he was okay with it, but that left me doubting nonetheless. Still, I was having an unhealthy amount of fun with the allegations that Mandel and I were secretly romantically entangled. I didn't know why I liked that idea.

But my worries and other weird feelings were brushed aside when I saw that Mandel had switched back to the other group and started giving more details about his schedule. He had to have gotten back to his home by now.

I joined the conversation and — not without having to sit down on a bench, take a big breath, and close my eyes before tapping on the ‘send’ button — gave my confirmation that, yes, I was joining the event. 

As we chatted a bit more about specifics, the sense of pure awe to be able to speak with someone you grew up watching was taking over my fears. 40bees was kind and pragmatic: he sorted through our respective questions about the event with ease. The links we should put in our video descriptions (he called them ‘doobelidoos’), details about the date of posting (Sunday 31st), some extra rules about publication, and the fact that we weren’t actually required to post anything if we’d died in the first minute — “which”, he'd said, “happens more often than you’d think; we had our fair share of creeper-aww-man’d newbies who rushed into caves without anything.”

40bees _{Today at 09:34}
Any more questions?

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:35}
Yes!

40bees _{Today at 09:35}
Ask away~

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:35}
How will the intro go?

40bees _{Today at 09:36}
Wdym exactly?

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:37}
If I remember correctly we’ll all stand in a big circle and scream. And that’s alright, I can manage a good scream.

Mandel _{Today at 09:37}
I concur

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:38}
But will you introduce us? Like, do we have to prepare something to say?

40bees _{Today at 09:38}
No
No one does that?
I mean yeah, I suppose I’ll ask you your names and what you do, normal stuff…?
It’s nothing dw

Mandel _{Today at 09:40}
Well still, it’s good to know how it’ll go right?
We are not very used to this kind of event, we need all the info we can gather :)

Mandel to the rescue, as always.

40bees _{Today at 09:41}
I guess
Yeah
I can skip that part anyway, it was never very good for the flow of videos.
Would you like that?

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:42}
I think that’s a good idea

Mandel _{Today at 09:43}
Yeah, and viewers will still be able to check our links by themselves if they’re feeling extra curious

40bees _{Today at 09:43}
Okay
Anyway
Any additional questions?
Take your time

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:44}
Nothing I can think of rn.

That wasn’t exactly true, there was one question I left unasked. But I saved it for later, it had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

sonicScrew _{Today at 09:45}
Thank you so much for all the info, I needed that.

40bees _{Today at 09:45}
You’re welcome!
If you need anything, you can come and ask in this group chat…
Or in the CovenCraft discord group ;)

He sent the link. I had to suppress a yelp, then checked very hard my surroundings to be sure no one had perceived my weird existence.

40bees _{Today at 09:50}
For now you only have access to the PvP sunday part of the server… But that’s bound to change some day I hope :p
For this session we already have 16 players (8 teams of 2). 14 dudes and 2 gals, I trust you not to be assholes about that

CC was known to be a pretty masculine server, and according to 40bees that was hardly for want of having tried. But women apparently didn’t want to play here—

Hold on.

Earlier, in the stairwell… Did Amaury really think I was a girl? 

Nicolas, what the fuck were you doing?