//------------------------------// // ...but secretly she's smiling... // Story: Blue Sunny Days and Pink Lemonade // by Masterweaver //------------------------------// "Oh you are so going down!" Lemon crowed into her mike. "Mmm, don't get your hopes up," Sunny countered. "Get my hopes up? Girl, I've got an army in your base." Pink fingers danced across the glowing purple keyboard. "You are talking to the mistress of micromanagement here." "Pride cometh before the fall." Sunny tapped a few keys. "Need I remind you this game is played... in four dimensions?" "Wh--Oh fuck!" A panicked laugh escaped Lemon's lips as she started clicking rapidly. "Metawhen did you HIDE these guys?" "Now that would be telling." "You shunted them through the beach, didn't you? Crafty little..." "Always remember, Lemon, there's more than one front and more than three battles." Sunny whisked her fingers over the green-lit keyboard in front of her and smirked. "Oh, is this your primary mining facility?" "I'm not down yet, girl, it ain't over til you've killed my last soldier." "You really shouldn't have gone with the Vecgir, they're so inflexible." "Oh, yes, this from the Grekim girl! I'll show you inflexi--what the hell?!" "And that's your primary soldier outpost, isn't it." "How did you get units across the map so quickly?!" "Pure, unadulterated skill." "Well, I've always wanted to pull the DELOREAN CONTINGENCY!" "Wha--oh, that's clever, that's clever. Of course, as soon as that time wave hits the end--" "Squeddledeuboopbob!" "...you managed to outmanuver a total base runover through chronomanipulation. I... well, you might actually be a challenge--wait, what? What?!" "And this is why you keep an eye on your workers." "Oh, you sly devil." "You know you love it." "Oh I do, it lets me track you down HERE!" "The--OH FUCK! That, how?! HOW?!" "And you're running low on chronoenergy, aren't you?" "Curse you, Flarebear! Grrrr--" "Oh, and here, if I'm right, is your temporally boosted army--oh, whoops, look at that, the timewave passed and they're only half their size again. That's a rout, no more units, and no buildings to train new ones." "...Fine. You win. This time." Lemon leaned back into her chair with a resigned grin. "Geeze. Well... that was crazy, wasn't it? Fun, but... crazy." "The time travel mechanic does open up interesting possibilities." "Yeah, if this ever gets into the real world, we're probably all boned. So, anyway..." Lemon adjusted her mike. "That took, what, forty minutes?" "Mmmhmm." "And I've got... a good two hours before my self-appointed beddy bye. You want to pick another game or check out a stream...?" "I dunno. I'm up for something lowkey after that. Web-based board game, maybe." "Go or Shōgi?" "...Shōgi sounds better, smaller board. Also, you have shōgi on your computer?" "More like I know a shōgi site," Lemon admitted, quickly typing out the link and sending it off. "Wasn't easy to track down, and it's all in neighponese--of course--so I'm pretty sure most of the people who play against me think I'm just some idiot amareican otaku or something? My username is Whoopseedaisy108." "Oh, they must get a kick out of that," Sunny chuckled. "Hmmm. I'll register as... Grippingdrama404." "Going for the gallows humor, are we?" Lemon watched the screen casually. "So, hey, question. If you had to design a video game--" "Three-dimensional metroidvania platformer based around symbionts." "...Wow, okay. First of all, lot of thought put into that--" "Thank you." "Secondly, I didn't think you'd go for something so... hokey." "I grew up mostly on the classic populars," Sunny explained casually. "Heck, I still have really bad drawings of some of my video game OCs." "Let me guess, they saved the princess?" "Oh they saved all the princesses. Then they taught them martial arts and led the princesses in a badass and terribly written adventure to conquer the bad guys' lands so they could reform them into a benevolent dictatorship." "Shit, what? Really?" "I was six, Lemon." "No, I mean, that's totally awesome! You know, you should actually write that down some time. Like make it into a full blown fanfic." "Oh, please," Sunny scoffed. "There are plenty of talented fanfic writers out there already. Would one bad self insert fic really be something anybody paid attention to?" "Well, everyone remembers My Immortal, even if they haven't read it." "Truly, a universal constant." "Yeah, but seriously. You're in the top five GPA, so you and I both know your fic wouldn't be bad unless you put deliberate effort to sabotage yourself. And anyway, you've got to impress those aspiring young writers, right? Show them that it's possible to be awesome even with the silliest of premises." "It'd get buried under the slew of other fics that are already famous." "Mmm, maybe for a month or two. I guarantee you'd have at least one devoted reader." "Really?" "Yeah, Sugarcoat is totally a secret fanfic reader. Like I don't think she ever doesn't have a page open on her phone's browser, just for when she needs to pass the time." "Mmmhmm." "Course, I'd probably give it a pass or two," Lemon admitted, clicking and dragging a piece across the virtual board. "I mean it'd probably be worth a look. Especially with that sort of premise." "Sure. You write any fanfiction?" "Hahaha, you have no idea. Like, you know how some games will have uniquely designed but unnamed NPCs around various towns just to be there? I'm the girl that gives each and every one a name and a little backstory." "Really?" "I mean, it's mostly indie games. Small ones. You want me to do that for, like, a big triple-A game? I ain't crazy. But I can expand on a small base." "Anything I might of read?" "I'll link you my writer site. Seriously though, it's not really that great. Very disjointed. Mostly just scraps and shit." "Everybody starts somewhere," Sunny pointed out. "And maybe one of these scraps could be the basis for something more developed. I mean that's what you're encouraging me to do, right?" "Yeah. Except you have an awesome idea, I just have a bunch of random ideas." "Crackfic is always an option." "Oh, yeah, of course, crack. Everybody loves crackfic. It's the shipping you've got to avoid." "Oh my god yes. The shipping wars... not going to lie, they pushed me out of a couple fandoms." "I know, right? Who does that? Sure, support your OTP but don't be a dick about it." "I think people in general have gotten smarter about that. I mean, not like I have data--" "--but it feels cleaner. Yeah. Oh, hey, that's game!" "Mmmmyep. Good match. So... you've got what, an hour thirty?" "Yeah. Anything you want to do?" "...Want to team up on some MOBA or something?" "Sure. What've you got over there?"