ChamberPond, as an entity, is so interesting to me. Like they're good friends. They get pissed at each other. They yearn through the screen yet refuse to touch when they meet up. Novel gets slapped with this insane cuteness aggression, that used to be real aggression but somewhere in their teasing it spilt across the table and started dripping onto the floor and by the time Novel came back with paper towels it had turned into flirting. He doesn't know how it happened, he means.
Chamber does something to rage bait him and somehow it's endearing. It grits against his skin, both in a way that's truly irritating but also drenched in this longing. It's like nostalgia, static-like and just out of reach, an I miss you, that he grinds down between his teeth. If he doesn't say anything, then maybe it's not a real feeling.
They have a Stardew Valley world, over 100 hours and near completion. They also have a City Skylines save file, full of Novel's careful strategy, and Chamber's stupid asks that always get fullfilled. Their Minecraft world, just theirs, and once also Addie's during a hard time but she hasn't been on in months so now it's theirs alone and Novel feels stupid when he moves things around in his house so he can put two beds together.
They aren't a thing. They aren't. He won't admit it. They're just hanging out. They're friends. Good friends, Vale would say, snickering over the script for a video where he pretends his girlfriend isn't the light of his fucking life. Maybe they are more. Maybe Novel doesn't want to know if they are, because the very careful balance of their relationship is about all he can handle before he has to look at himself in the mirror and consider a label like 'bisexual'. He isn't ready for it yet.
So, like a good friend does, he texts Lynx he won't be able to make it for his birthday. He'll send a gift, he's so sorry, maybe next time, if he sees Chamber then Something is going to happen and in the spirit of worst case scenario he'll it assume it will be an extreme like fucking in a bathroom with their friends unaware on the other side of the door.
And then like a total idiot, he deletes that text and books his flight.
yeah. mhm. yeah. chamberpond (smoking emoji)