lyricaltitles | Duet Challenge: Prompt 2 (Romance The Backrooms) (Reply)

I found out about the Lyrical Titles community’s new challenge via Pillowfort; someone posted about the Duet Challenge. The community is all about making fics from song titles, and I barely ever do that, so I figured I’d give it a shot! The prompts can be done in any order.

Like usual, I will be doing these for the characters of my story Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests.

(Also I'm still familiarizing myself with Dreamwidth, so hopefully I used the "cut" feature correctly in this post.)

Author: @norbezjones

Original Work (Romance The Backrooms)

Rating: Teen

Prompt: #2, Different lyrics from the same song

Song: Birthday Bummer by ratwyfe

Overall Notes/Warnings: Both of these stories center around Uri’s mental health & depression. There are happy endings! Sometimes your mental health issues can make you feel lonely, like nobody is there. But your friends and loved ones have your back. <3

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Story 1: Feel pretty forgotten but I feel that pretty often

Characters: Uri, Glarence, & Manorial

Other Info: This takes place before RtB starts, when Uri is travelling around the backrooms with his friends: Glarence, Kalcal, Zenobos, & Adiel. The five of them are trying to find an exit from the backrooms that takes them to the frontrooms (aka Earth).

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Uri hugged his knees to his chest and watched his friends talk around the fire. Kalcal was explaining to Zenobos the proper way to cook hound meat, and Glarence & Adiel were helping. Uri stayed back, resting after a long day.

He couldn’t help but feel isolated from his friends, like he wasn’t really part of the group. Manorial supported this conclusion, whispering into his ear that the other four had chemistry, cohesion, companionship. But him? He wasn’t part of that. He was . . . separate. He was—

“Hey, Uri!”

Glarence’s voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up. The other entity offered him hound meat on a skewer. “Come join the conversation,” Glarence invited him.

“Yeah!” Kalcal exclaimed with a big grin. “It’s not the same without you, buddy!”

A warm feeling filled Uri’s heart, and he smiled. “Ok,” he said, taking the meat from Glarence. “Thanks.”

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Story 2: You think my phone will blow up if I keep refreshing it?

Characters: Uri & Carla (the main character)

Other Info: This is a human AU. Carla & Uri are a couple, and Uri is still friends with the other four. It’s based on my experience with BPD, and my brain telling me that people hate me if they don’t respond to my messages in 0.5 seconds.

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“Adiel hasn’t responded yet,” Uri said anxiously, his knee bobbing up and down as he fidgeted in his chair. “Do you think I said something wrong? Do you think he hates me?”

“Of course not,” Carla replied, sitting down and giving him a squeeze. “Chances are he’s just busy and hasn’t gotten a chance to reply!”

Uri sighed. “You’re probably right,” he said. “Logically, I know that, but emotionally, it’s a different story.”

“I’m sure Adiel will reply soon,” Carla reassured him. “Want to do something to do something fun while you’re waiting for a reply? Distract yourself?”

Uri smiled. “That sounds great. Thanks.”

As the two of them were playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Uri’s phone buzzed. He picked it up and let out a sigh of relief. “Adiel responded. . . He said everything sounds good to him.”

“See?” Carla gave him a loving peck on the cheek. “I told you he doesn’t hate you.”
Uri smiled. “You were right. Thank you.”