Day 3: "Don't laugh!"
The group had finished their session of Once Upon a Witchlight. Mace and his character had been given a dumb fey curse, and Mikey and Derek are being silly like always. This silliness ends up inspiring Mace to pull the same sibling behaviour. Let's just say...Mace quickly learns not to mess with twins.
I just realized how late this is...I am so sorry. Life really got in the way. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
The group had just wrapped up their session of Once Upon a Witchlight. This session had been one of the hardest sessions, especially for Mace. Why was that? Because of Nikkie’s crazy curses, that’s what! Nikkie had given him a curse that required him to take 1d6 in-game damage if he laughed in real life. Which- Are you kidding me?!
Now, Mace has always been the type of person to let out the loudest laugh possible when he needed to. And his friends, as well as the internet, knew this quite well. The only person who could get even close to his volume of laughter, was Andy! And he had what the internet often called, ‘Seagull screams’ or ‘train-leaving-the-station’-type laughter. The comments on Andy’s laughter had always been hilarious. But Mace’s laughter always received wholesome compliments such as ‘He laughs with his whole soul’ and ‘Mace truly is the embodiment of joy’. Even the Avantris Wiki had the first quote written into the first couple paragraphs!
They were really sweet compliments, actually…And his close friends have brought it up about a thousand times over by this point. And this just-so-happened to be one of the times.
“Hey Mace.” Someone came up behind him, and poked his side.
Mace jumped and turned around. “Dude…” He muttered to the man in front of him.
Mikey smirked as he tried to hide his amusement. “You still alive after that session?” The man asked him.
Mace took in a deep breath, and blew it all out. Finally, he nodded his head. “Yeah, I think so.” Mace responded.
“Good.” Mikey patted his shoulder.
“Wait-wait…” Mace checked the pulse on his neck. “Yyyup. Still got a pulse.” He told him.
“Okay, good.” Mikey responded with a laugh.
“We should see if we can make up for the lack of Mace-atonin this session.” Derek mentioned.
“Mace-atonin?” Nikkie repeated.
Mace bursted out laughing at the word.
“Oh my god, that’s the perfect word!” Andy reacted.
Richie was laughing and slamming his hand onto the desk. “Mace-atonin!” He wheezed.
“Derek, you’re a genius!” Nikkie yelled aloud.
Mace’s laugh died down somewhat. “I’m surprised no one’s come up with that before!” He admitted.
“You’re welcome.” Derek declared.
“Took you long enough.” Mikey joked.
“Hey!” Derek gently pushed Mikey.
Mikey pushed him back. “Hey back!”
Derek pushed him back, before being pushed by Mikey again. In no time at all, Derek and Mikey were physically fighting like typical siblings do.
“Great, now they’re kitty-fighting.” Nikkie spoke up.
“Not gonna lie, that looks fun.” Mace admitted.
Richie turned to look at his friend. “Fun?” Richie smirked and crossed his arms. “You think constant pushing is fun?” He asked.
“I mean, you gotta admit it’s a little fun.” Mace admitted.
Richie smirked and started pushing Mace playfully. “Is this fun? Is it fun yet?” He kept pushing.
“Hey- Rich!” Mace started pushing him back.
“You having fun yet? Or are you annoyed?” Rich kept pushing.
“I’ll mess you up.” Mace started poking his friend’s sides a couple times.
“Ohoho!” Richie retaliated with even faster pokes, making Mace laugh. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Shihit- Damn, you’re fast!” Mace reacted, trying to poke Richie back.
But Richie blocked each and every attack, before unloading a bunch of playful pokes onto his friend.
“Shihihit- Ohof***! Duhude stop!” Mace tried to poke him back, but couldn’t reach the same spots as well.
“Oh NOW you’re getting annoyed?” Richie started switching from poking to skittering his fingers. “Can’t handle what you dish out?”
“Rihihich! HahaHAHAhaha! Ihihi didn’t tihihickle yohohohou!” He yelled at him.
“What do you mean ‘you didn’t tickle me’?! You tickled me first!” Richie yelled.
“Ihihi dihihid nohohohot!” Mace argued.
By this point, Derek and Mikey’s little sibling fight had stopped, and everyone was just watching Richie and Mace mess around.
“Listen…I hate to remind you, Mace…” Richie started to warn.
“-But you’re literally messing with a twin.” Mikey gently interrupted.
“Yeah, that.” Richie continued as he squeezed and kneaded Mace’s sides and belly.
Mace kept waving his hands around and attempting to push his fingers away. “Stahap!” Mace tried to say through his giggles.
“What were we saying about Mace-atonin?” Derek asked, leaning his chin against his fist like a teenager.
Nikkie, Andy and Mikey bursted out laughing at Derek’s comment.
“This is a perfect example of Mace-atonin!”
“Mace-atonin as said by the Urban Dictionary:” Derek adjusted his glasses to look like a librarian, and began pretending to read off his hand. “The feeling of happiness and euphoria as a result of hearing Mace’s laughter.” He pretended to read against his hand.
Nikkie bursted out laughing, pointing to Derek. “Someone add that to the wiki! Please!” Nikkie begged.
“Or better yet, add it to the Urban Dictionary itself!” Andy mentioned.
“Guhuhuhuys, hehehelp!” Mace begged. “Hehehe wohohon’t stahap tickling mehehe!” He tried to say through his laughter.
“I think that’s the point, Mace.” Richie spoke up. “I’m giving you ALL ‘Mace-atonin’ now.” He explained.
“Thahahat’s not a reheheal thihihihing!” Mace argued.
“It is now!” Richie declared.
Mikey spoke up in the best Bitsy voice he could muster. “That’s canon now!” He declared, making everyone burst out laughing.
“That’s canon now!” Derek repeated in the original Bitsy voice. “Gideo-tonin!” He declared next in Bitsy’s voice.
Nikkie threw her head back with laughter and covered her mouth. “Gideo-tonin!!” She cheered happily.
“Not as good as Mace-atonin, but still good.” Richie admitted, still tickling Mace.
In spite of the circumstances, Mace’s laughter was a little more quiet than usual. While Mace was usually known for laughing with his whole soul, his ticklish laughter was more jumpy and squeaky than before. It was almost like someone had taken the volume dial and kept spinning it back and forth to make the volume jump and drop constantly. That was the best way anyone could describe his laughter at the moment.
“Mace is struggling.” Derek mentioned.
“Isn’t he always struggling?” Richie asked, still poking Mace’s sides.
“Ihihi swehear-”
But Richie wasn’t prepared for the sudden burst of strength to bust out from Mace. His arms jumped up, and quickly shoved themselves into Richie’s pits. “Your turn, B****!” The sound of a honking horn replaced the word as he shoved his fingers deeply into his friend’s armpits.
“aAHF***-” More honking sounds filled the room as wheezy laughter flew out of Richie’s mouth. “Mace-! AaAH!” Richie tried to push him away, but only created more room to tickle.
“Gotcha, little s***!” Another honking sound filled the room as Richie wheezed and doubled over.
“Oh no-” Mace adjusted his grip. “Oh ho ho, you’re not going anywhere, buddy.” Mace smirked and wrapped his arms around his friend, tickling him everywhere he could reach.
“aAAHF***!” More honking noises practically drowned out Richie’s already-quiet laughter, leaving only his wiggles and involuntary movements to be appreciated by the viewer.
“Oh shit!” Derek reacted.
“Mace, get his belly button!” Mikey told him.
“Hahahaha- Nooohohooo!” Richie nearly pleaded.
“Belly button? Why?” Mace asked.
“You want him to laugh loudly like you do, right?” Mikey asked.
“Well yeah, but I don’t wanna kill him.” Mace admitted.
“Here-” Mikey got out of his chair and walked over to his brother and Mace. “Let me show ya.”
“Oh shit!” Andy reacted.
“Oh, poor Rich!” Nikkie spoke up.
“Mihikey NO!” Richie tried to push Mikey’s hands away, but was already too weak from all the tickles so far. As a result, a simple fake-out was enough for Mikey to get his belly button.
Richie threw his head back with a wheeze, before squealing and cackling aloud. “MIKE STAHAHAHAAAP!” Richie shrieked and tried to get him back, but to no avail.
Nikkie covered her mouth with both her hands, shocked to hear him so clearly.
Meanwhile, Andy was lightly laughing and clapping his hands.
Derek sighed and looked at the camera. “Welcome to Legends of Avantris! Where the stupidity never ends!” He declared.
Mikey stopped his fingers and helped pick up his brother. “Come on.” He put Rich onto his chair and gave him a small pat on the head.
“Nope.” Richie’s grip on Mikey’s shirt immediately stopped him from moving away. “Where do you think you’re going?” Richie pulled Mikey onto the floor beside him, and started destroying him off camera. All that could be heard was Mikey’s ‘dolphin’ cackles.
“So…About Mace-atonin…” Mace started to speak up.
Absolutely everyone just howled with laughter the moment that little inside joke was mentioned again. Knowing their luck, this entire inside joke would show up onto every Legends of Avantris shorts compilations, every wiki page, and all over the internet.
And to think…All this started because of a silly curse.