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Ghost is a youtuber that wears one of those cyberpunk high tech masks (he thinks he looks like his father and wouldn't be able to edit his own videos if he had to look at his face to do so)
He gets weirdly popular for a guy who shows off and rambles about his pet insects, But the appeal everyone has to him is his soothing voice and great looks. (Just because no one can see his face doesn't mean his muscles weren't damn near tearing out of everything he wears.)
He's a butcher, still. Never joined the military. His father drank himself to death a few years prior, his brother is still in and out of rehab while Beth does her best to manage him and their son, and his Mother is undergoing cancer treatment— which is what he puts all his revenue to funding.
He's an all-around awkward guy. He gets in fights with Tommy alot. Practically raised Joseph with how often his nephew stays with him (the kid loves bugs. It's why Simon started collecting and learning about them in the first place) He gives his Mother every cent he earns, practically, but she never really looks at him because he looks too much like his father for her to bear. He doesn't blame her. He loves his Mama so much. (He should be angry. So angry. That was his mother.) Beth is a saint. He makes sure to take care of her as much as he can, too. Because she's family and Simon cares for her very much.
But no one in his audience knows any of that. They just see an awkward, attractive man in a cool mask telling them facts about bugs while showing said insect off. (He's got a lot of weevils. They're Joseph's favorite.)
There are videos where his hands shake more. Where his voice is a bit choked up. In one particularly poorly lit one, perceptive viewers noted that you could hear a child snoring in the background if you turned the volume up high.
He's an internet enigma. No one can pin any other media profile to him. (He doesn't have any.) So all they have to go off of his is channel. His one escape.
(His setups get more elaborate, once his Mother passes away. Suddenly he has so much income that he doesn't know what to do with. He puts most of it towards Joseph's college, but he starts living good, too)
I think Soap would also be Just Some Guy™️
They meet at the local pet store. Both picking up crickets. (Soap for his bearded dragon he adores very much, and Ghost for his new tarantula that is too god damn picky.)
They get talking while they wait for the underpaid employee to retrieve their crickets. It's mostly Soap talking, to be honest, but Ghost is an avid listener and he thinks the Scottish man is charming— if a bit intense.
They keep meeting up like that. Two men looking for crickets in the same store. Eventually, Soap asks Ghost to get coffee with him, sometime. Preferably when neither of them was lugging crickets around.
That gets a chuckle out of Ghost. He agrees despite his usual social avoidance, and they make a plan to stop at the local café that saturday. (Not Sunday, because Ghost had Joseph on Sunday and he was going to let Joseph feed the tarantula for the first time.)
They hit it off, exchange numbers. Soap comes around to his place a few times to hang. (Ghost profusely apologizes about the bugs. Says he knows it's weird. Soap just says that they're cool and manages to goad Ghost into talking about each one of them in depth.)
Eventually, Joseph meets Soap. It hadn't been planned. Beth had needed someone to watch Joseph on very short notice (so short Ghost hadn't even been notified) so she could... deal with Tommy. Soap had been over and had, surprisingly, been an absolute miracle worker when it came to calming Joseph down. (He smelled of whiskey. Knew Tommy had gotten angry, tossed a glass Joseph's way. He bathed him, changed his clothes, while Soap made the boy a big pot of Mac and cheese.)
Joseph started asking after Soap more often, then. Wondering when Uncle Simon’s boyfriend was gonna be around because he made really yummy food and played really fun games.
At some point, Soap practically lives there. So Ghost just tells him to pack his damn things and move in already. It's not like Ghost is saving the space for anyone else. (It's the first time Soap will have ever moved out of his parents' place. Moved away from his sisters. It's scary, but he also reasons it's time to actually be on his own— be with Simon.)
Soap starts appearing in Ghost's videos. He usually has his— exceptionally clingy— dragon perched on his shoulder. Always giving Ghost's masked face the stink eye.
His videos are a lot more jovial, then. A lot more laughter to be had. There's a child having fun in the background, a puppy that joins in a few months later. Ghost's hands don't shake and he never seems scared. He starts bringing up personal stories, between the bugs. Talks about his day at the butcher shop, a funny thing Johnny did while they were at the park. How his SIL was staying with them for a bit while she looked for a new place— one that she could support with only her income.
No one really knows, still, who this mysterious man is who loves his bugs, but he's happy— and it makes the internet happy, too. Their silly bug man.