21.3 The Comedown
Stan had ridden the high of his overwhelming victory all the way to an ATM. It was as he was re-depositing what was left of his money that he was hit the 'post nut clarity' so to speak.
'Oh my fucking God I took out five grand just to bribe my friends and a bunch of randos to all play against me so I could have a challenge. Kendrick is right, that is some anime villain shit.'
And if that wasn't cringe-worthy enough he also flexed his wealth like a fucking DoucheTuber too.
"Eeugh" he audibly groaned.
"Should we be concerned about the noises you're making right now?" Kendall spoke from the backseat.
"It's nothing just uh…being hit with that post nut clarity" he admitted.
"Well glad to know your insanity was only temporary" Kendrick quipped.
More shots were taken at him from the backseat which he allowed if only because deep down he knew he deserved it. Granted his harebrain scheme actually worked as the negative thoughts on Ezraphel and her fuck up were the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. Did it mean he forgave her or would let her off the hook? Hell no, the punishment is still on and will be on for as long as he can hold out except now he's less likely to be intentionally malicious towards her.
Speaking of Ezraphel Stan realized that he left her with Amelia. He left Ezraphel…who is most definitely sad and heartbroken…to cry on the shoulders of fucking Amelia for over two hours, close to three at this point.
'Fuuuuuck me sideways' he internally groaned.
In his mad dash to get away from Ezraphel and enact his scheme he completely overlooked that not-so-little tidbit. A major blunder on his part but at the same time even if he did take this into consideration it's not as if he could have done anything about it realistically. He needed to be away from Ezraphel so sticking around to chaperone them was out of the question. He could have appealed Liam to force Amelia to go with them but even if that worked that would just leave Ezraphel alone to stew in her own morose regret and let's be honest she'd just follow him under a disguise spell anyway.
At least with Amelia staying behind she could dissuade Ezraphel from stalking him. Also he didn't want to deal with the potential fallout from Ezraphel's mental anguish if it gets too bad. As for the consequences of leaving those two together Stan can't say for sure how that will turn out. It really depends on how much Amelia hates him at the moment. Full disclosure neither she nor Stan like each other…at all. At best they have a grudging tolerance/respect but they are each other's least favorite people.
It's been like that since they first met though back then they actually despised each other. It all stemmed from their first meeting when Liam decided to drag her along to one of their group get-togethers. At that point she was the only person out of everyone that Stan hasn't had dealings with prior and that admittedly made him nervous. Back then and still to this day Stan has the habit of becoming twice as caustic when he gets nervous as a defense mechanism.
It didn't help that he could see for a fact that Amelia didn't approve of his attitude and that rubbed him the wrong way. By the end of that first meeting things escalated into an argument and well let's just say it put Liam's friendship with Stan into question. That first meeting basically set the tone for their dynamic and at first glance it might seem similar to the one he has with Kendrick but the difference is that he actually respects Kendrick.
Stan did not respect Amelia.
He could not respect a woman who seemingly built her career through being a social media whore, appropriated otaku culture to appeal to weebs, did what was essentially softcore porn to attract pervs and amassed a legion of simps to act as her collective pay pigs. And that right there is the rub because while he couldn't care less about her approval it rubbed him the wrong way that she didn't approve of him yet kept making content geared towards profiting off of people like him.
People like Stan are literally her target demographic and while he has never and will never subscribe to wasting his money on online thots Amelia's vocal and clear disapproval of him and his friendship with Liam felt like a personal attack. Liam was Stan's friend, someone he deeply respected as one of the realest guys he knew and in his opinion too good for Amelia. The only reason why he kept it level with his disdain for Amelia back then was because Liam seemed genuinely in love with her.
God knows why.
He didn't think their relationship would last mostly because he noticed even Liam himself seemed uncertain about her in those early beginnings. In the end he was proven wrong and their relationship ended up blossoming for lack of a better term. Now Liam being the upstanding and genuinely good person he was didn't want to choose between his friend and his girlfriend despite the answer being clear as day. So he worked as a mediator to get them to an understanding.
He didn't know what he did for her but for him being the investigator that he was he managed to figure out Stan's issues with her and over time set the record straight. The guy actually started talking about her. Stan would like to think it was to convince him to give her chance but just as well he might have done it because he was so hopelessly in love and couldn't shut up about her.
Ugh…
On another note Stan could sympathize with Liam's position now considering how nervous he was with introducing Ez. Thinking about it now if for whatever reason any of them had a problem with Ezraphel he would rather figure out what the problem is and fix it than break off one of the few irl friendships he had.
In any case Amelia turned to be surprisingly relatable outside of her online persona. He would have never thought Amelia to be a stubborn, lazy and impulsive college dropout who couldn't keep a job, mooches off her friends and was a general slob of a woman whose only redeeming features seemed to be her good looks and charisma. At least that's what he got from Liam's ramblings about her though obviously the man wasn't so critical of her past when describing it and used more flattering words but Stan can read between the lines.
In the end she was just some girl who was genuinely into otaku culture and enjoyed cosplay as a hobby. Eventually some of her pictures blew up and she got a small following which she saw as an opportunity. Considering at that point she was unemployed, not on speaking terms with her parents and coming dangerously close to burning away the last her roommate's goodwill she took the opportunity presented to her.
At that point in time E-Girls were starting to become popular and social media AdSense were being advertised heavily to attract more content creators. Amelia was in a desperate situation and she did all she could to both maintain her core audience as well as reaching a wider one. Thus she started experimenting with chasing the most popular trends eventually leaning into things that worked for her like streaming and otaku content while taking a step back from other stuff like doing Tik Tok videos and softcore porn.
After piecing together that bit of her history through Liam's tales and a cursory background check out of curiosity he found too many things familiar with his own past to not respect her, begrudging as it is. While he will never really approve of her content he couldn't knock her hustle. As the saying goes don't hate the player hate the game and as someone who has been on the internet for over a decade he knew the game far too well.
After learning that he eased up on the antagonism and whatever magic Liam did with Amelia worked because she eventually adjusted her attitude. It didn't mean they liked each other but they didn't hate other either. At least he hoped she didn't hate him enough to manipulate Ezraphel into doing something unnecessary and stupid out of maliciousness towards him.
Though looking at it from an outside perspective he didn't exactly leave the best impressions for sympathy on his part. Ignoring Ezraphel is as big of a dick move as it sounded and the looks on everyone's faces when he did it spoke volumes. They thought he was being an asshole for no reason, they didn't say it but the thought is written on their faces through their reaction. This he expected from those not in the know but even Liam looked vaguely in disapproval at Stan's choice in punishment.
God only knows what Amelia's reaction would be and how she would address it because Stan knew for a fact that this would be the main topic of discussion for them. For his mental health he shouldn't assume the worse but as a pessimist he couldn't help but think about it. Would Amelia be the friend to console and reassure Ezraphel that everything would be okay or would she instigate/propagate unnecessary drama out of spite for him or as ignorant advice for the Lilim.
Unknowing to Stan the anxiety caused by the nature of his thoughts had the unfortunate effect of bleeding into his actions resulting in said actions becoming ever so slightly more erratic and chaotic. Said action at the moment happened to be him driving and needless to say the passengers were more than a little concerned. That is especially considering that most had been taking shots at him about his actions at the airsoft arena. Stan didn't even notice at some point that they stopped talking nor did he notice the collective sigh of relief when they finally arrived at the airbnb.
After gathering his equipment he couldn't help but look to the house with some apprehension. What would he find going inside?
His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder "hey."
Stan turned to see Kendrick of all people "what?"
He raised a brow "I should be asking you that. You were uncharacteristically silent back there, even when we were making fun of you."
Stan scoffed "I had bigger things on my mind?"
"Is it Ezraphel?" he guessed and before Stan can say any more he couldn't "couldn't help but notice you two were acting weird around each other. You two going through some stuff?"
"Something like that" he hedged giving the man the side eye.
"Hey it's none of my business" he raised his hands "but just know I'm not the only one noticing this…or that Liam and Amelia are somehow involved too."
Stan internally winced 'I figured'
With his piece said Kendrick walked away hauling his equipment followed by Kendall and Jamie leaving Stan and Liam to follow behind.
"What was that about?" Liam asked.
"Kendrick just did a vibe check."
"Oh, and what's the consensus?"
"I fucked up."
"You'll have to be specific."
"Just got confirmation that I brought down the whole mood because of this fucking drama with Ezraphel" Stan specified "I didn't want anyone to notice and get involved."
"No offense Stan but if that was the goal you did a really crappy job. Unless you thought you were being subtle with how you handled Ezraphel this morning."
He cringed "ugh, I wasn't trying to be subtle."
"And that's your fault but I wouldn't say you brought down the mood" he paused "no that's a lie you totally did."
"You know you're usually better at cheering people up."
"It's my job to report the truth and have people make up their own minds with the presented information Stan."
"Ah right journalist" he nodded with a deadpan "I should have set my expectations appropriately low then."
Rolling his eyes Lam replied "alright how about this, you didn't bring down the mood any worse than you usually would-well…maybe a bit more than usual since you hurt Ezraphel's feelings."
"Is this your way of calling me a dickhead?"
"Hey you said it not me."
Stan grumbled in response.
"But in all seriousness though while your uh 'punishment' is justified to fit the crime so to speak maybe don't do that in front of everyone if you don't want them to think any less of you. After all me, you, Ezraphel and Amelia are the only ones who know said crime so to speak."
In hindsight it was so simple. All he had to do was wait until they went home to enact the punishment without alerting the others.
"Fuck" he facepalmed.
'Now I look like even more of an asshole…and a guy who's mistreating his girlfriend too.'
"Fuuuck"
"I see that my words have helped you reached an epiphany."
"Something like that."
"Then my work here is done" he started walking away.
"Hold up"
"What?"
"What are the chances of Amelia knowingly or unknowingly manipulating Ezraphel into doing something stupid that will cause me headaches?"
Liam raised an eyebrow but seemed to ponder the question "I don't think she would manipulate Ezraphel and contrary to what you might think she wouldn't interfere in your relationship just to spite you. As for the other thing it depends on your definition of 'stupid' and how it would give you headaches."
That was basically the conclusion he reached with as well and while it was not the answer he was looking for he thanked Liam for it all the same.
"No problem" the other man replied walking off.
As Stan trailed behind him he internally sighed.
'Looks like I'm relying on real world RNG to see if Amelia fucked me.'
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