Page 116 of Level Up
“Thewhat, now?”Why did I never snoop under Marie’s bed?(Gram’s drawers, that’s why.)
“I didn’t tell my friends anything real about me,” she continues with a sad laugh. “Not my favourite movies, or the kind of music I liked, or who I actually had crushes on…”
Neither of us says anything for what feels like an eternity, but the question is gnawing at the end of my tongue.
“I told myself I was probably bi,” she finally says, staring down at the carpet with her brow furrowed. “Because that meant I could just date guys and no one would ever have to know who I really liked. I could be…” She sighs. “Normal, for lack of a better word. It seems so stupid now, but?—”
“No, I get it.” Now I’m the one rubbing her back.
“I wanted to benormalso bad,” she says as a dry sob shakes her shoulders. “And I don’t mean straight, I just mean—I wanted to fit in and not be weird and not say the wrong things all the time and not have people look at me like I’m crazy because I did something strange without realizing it, and—and you just did all those things! You just let yourself be weird and say strange things and hardly have any friends and I—I was so jealous. You were a kid, and you had figured out life better than I had.”
My shoulders shake too, but I think I’m laughing. “I’ve never had anything figured out, Marie,” I tell her. “If anything, I thought you had it all figured out.”
She laughs as well and leans against me. “I always felt like you thought I wasn’t cool enough for you,” she says. “You once called me anormieand I had to google it.”
“I’m sorry, that was clearly unfair of me; I didn’t know about your secret smutty fantasy books under the bed?—”
“I never said they were smutty!”
“But you never said theyweren’t?—”
She pinches me in the arm and we both laugh again. “Well, maybe you can help me…un-normie myself. Help me figure this stuff out.”
“Will you help me figure out mine, too?” I ask, and she looks me in the eye.
“Of course I will,” she says sincerely. “I’ve always got your back, just like I know you’ve got mine. We’re Elsa and Anna.”
OddlyAdored Community Updates
December 2, 2024:
As a special treat, for tonight’s stream, I will be serving High Tea on my channel: Everything you need to know about@SconesOfAyor—I’m spilling it all. It’s time you all know who he really is. And I have receipts.
See you there.
thirty
the real sconesofayor
There’sa good chance this is a terrible idea. But it’s the only one I’ve got, so I’m rolling with it.
Marie helped me concoct and execute this plan, and we spent all day Sunday working on it. Gathering the receipts, as it were.
If people want to know the real SconesOfAyor, then I’m going to show them. I hope they’re all watching.
And I hope Damien is watching, too, because he might need to know this more than any of them.
When I start today’s stream, I’m more nervous on-camera than I’ve been in years. Because this is nothing like my usual streams. Instead of screen-sharing a game, with a tiny selfie cam of me in the corner while I play, the whole screen is taken up by my face. I don’t usually have to see it this big—I don’t particularly care for it, but it won’t be on-screen for long.
“Welcome, welcome, everyone,” I say to the camera, though I glance at my screen briefly to see how many people are watching. Aheck-ton. Good. “It’s finally Tea Time. And before anyone freaks out, yes, I have disabled the chat for today. Because I have a presentation for you, and I’d like you towatch the whole thing before you jump down anyone’s throat.”
I switch to sharing my other screen again, only instead of a game, there’s a video ready to play. The title card is visible:Who is the Real SconesOfAyor?
“A lot of people lately have been curious about a certainStones of Ayorstreamer, and about me, by extension, because we’re dating.”At least, I hope we still are.“There seems to be a lot of concern about him hiding who he really is, so I thought it was about time you all see for yourself what Scones is really like.”
I press Play and the video starts.
The first clip is from one of Damien’s streams about a year ago, where he’s pelting a swarm of gremlings with huge fireballs, and wincing every time because, according to him, this is overkill. He’d spent all his levelling up to get his fireballs incredibly powerful, but then he lost all his gear down a well and now it’s his only method of attack. And he feelsbadabout using such an overpowered move against a bunch of helpless little grunts.
