Group Precipitation

by FanOfMostEverything

The Couple Who Scries Together, by FoME

Sweetie Belle and Button Mash were not a normal couple by any stretch of the imagination. Other girls might have chosen boyfriends based on what they could become in the future, but none of them had ever been able to confirm the possibility. And the fact that Button was entirely okay with Sweetie shaping his future left some more than a little disquieted.

He personally didn’t see why. She was optimizing his character. He'd return the favor, but as far as he was concerned, she was already top-tier.

Their dates followed the theme. More often than not, they’d spend them in Button’s bedroom. With the door open, of course. Next Generation might have been thrilled to see her son socialize more, especially with the opposite sex, but she wasn’t going to give them a chance to indulge in adolescent stupidity on quite that level.

Neither minded; they were too busy exploring their abilities with video games to consider other activities. To no one’s surprise, Button’s earth aspect technopathy manifested best when interacting with consoles and PCs, all but hearing the dice rattle in the RNG’s cup. Sweetie tried to match him by looking seconds ahead, and each used the other to hone their skills.

“Bad luck coming up,” Sweetie said one night.

Button gave what he thought was a roguish grin. “You just noticed?” he said as he passed the turn to the AI despite having moves left for his troops.

“How did you?”

“Einheria Chronicles rolls a bunch of numbers ahead of time.” Button’s smile eased into something more natural as he watched the enemy snipers whiff every shot. ”The game… it sort of doesn’t have much of a poker face? It’s been laughing to itself for my whole turn, and now it’s kind of… sulking, I guess.” The screen zoomed out to a tactical map of the blasted townscape and stayed there for a good twenty seconds before zooming in to the next enemy soldier. “Yup, definitely sulking.”

Though beating science-fantasy fascists wasn’t the only way the two used games to practice their powers. Another night, they spent a good half-hour on the Megaton 4 character creator.

“Okay, a bit more red to the eyes,” said Sweetie, her own eyes unfocused.

“Wait, this is my eye color.”

“Exactly. Now the hair’s going to be two-tone pink and orange. My pink, but the orange isn’t quite yours.”

Button nodded, opening the appropriate RGB settings. “More safety cone orange or brownish orange?”

“Brownish. More. Less. Perfect.” Sweetie beamed as her gaze shifted back to the present. “Add the headgem and you’re done!”

The moment Button did, he fell back on the bed, strangely exhausted. He considered the female character in front of them. “And that’s what our daughter will look like?”

Sweetie hummed to herself. “Well, it was.”

He furrowed his brow as he turned to her. “What?”

“Quantum stuff. Looking at the future always changes it a little, but this wrenched it onto a totally different route for some reason.”

Next Gen poked her head in the doorway, her expression unreadable. “What was that about your daughter?”

“Oh,” said Sweetie, chills running down her spine. Seeing the future didn’t help when you were pretty much doomed. “That’s why.”

Author's Note:

The Sweetiemash daughter that might be is Kianamai's Pixel Bit. She may exist later in this worldline, but a number of factors just got thrown into disarray.

Comments

[Daedalus Aegle]

So the only thing that can match Sweetie Belle's powers over destiny is the dread might of the mother-in-law?

[Eroraf86]

Dies together.

[Speckle]

Relationship Goals

[A.P.O.N.I.]

He personally didn’t see why. She was optimizing his character. He'd return the favor, but as far as he was concerned, she was already top-tier.

That is so adorkably sweet.

[FurryBrony]

Looking at the future always changes it a little

That sounds similar to Doctor Strange's "If I show you the future, it won't happen" warning from Endgame.