It was the first fighting game I’ve ever bought, and it was for full price! Full price! I paid sixty dollars for this! Sixty American dollars! Have I gone nuts?
Okay…maybe sixty dollars wasn’t that much, all things considered. Only last year, I had spent seventy dollars on Gran Turismo 7, and that was for a game that I didn’t play beforehand! I got on the Street Fighter 6 beta on a whim–Michael’s friend…and mine at this point, Violet, told me to try it out.
During the beta, I tried out probably half the roster–Chun Li, Ryu, the guy on the icon for the game, etc.–I wouldn’t say I ‘settled’ on Manon, but I was winning a lot of my games I was playing with her. I was winning some with Chun Li as well, but I was having the most luck with Manon. With that being said, I still knew next to nothing about the mechanics of fighting games. I learned a sliver of information during that beta weekend, but I would need to learn a lot more if I was going to be actually competitive at this game.
Spending sixty dollars on this game, you sure as hell knew that I was at least going to get my money’s worth out of this. Thankfully I was able to take an arcade stick out of Michael’s unused electronics closet and use it for myself. It was mine until he asked for it back. I had a feeling that playing it on a controller would be a bit binding. That sounds very stupid coming from the guy who still plays racing games with one, but the mechanics of both were different. When racing, you didn’t press a lot of buttons, and never pressed any at the same time. The only ones I used were X to shift up, square to shift down, R2 for gas, L2 for brakes, and L3 to steer. In fighting games, about every button could be used for an attack or for parrying. I’m sure I could get used to it if given enough time, but I found that not having all of my attack buttons in one specific area to be troublesome. Given that I’m a total beginner to these types of games, it would take me forever to get used to it.
All I had to do now was to wait a few minutes until the game was installed. Then the fun could begin…
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It was next Monday, the 5th. It had been three days since Street Fighter 6 was released. I didn’t get a chance to play it for an extended period of time on Friday since I had work the next day, but on Saturday night, I spent around four hours playing. On Sunday, I played for about six hours. I would’ve played more, but I had to shower due to how sweaty I was getting.
While I was mainly playing Manon, I had been also playing Chun Li sometimes during my playtime over the weekend just to change it up some. I liked Chun Li, but it felt more natural to play Manon. Well, I say that, but really, it was easier to play her. Easier to win, even if I still didn’t really know what I was doing. One thing I learned quickly was that people hate grapplers. Playing Manon, and playing against her, I quickly learned why. Zangief was even more annoying in my opinion, but I wasn’t drawn to play him. Zangief lacked the appeal Manon had to me. It felt more fun to play as her. She was hot as well–I’m not into big hairy men…or into men in general. Same reason why I play Chun Li. I need to learn to play Cammy as well…
Since I was still learning the game, I didn’t even bother with Ranked mode. I knew it would be a total nightmare if I dared enter…well, it depends on how they rank players. There would be a chance that I get a few softballs at first, then get put against players out of my league. The point is that I was more concerned about practicing than playing. I’d rather say in casual mode for now. I mean, the game was plenty fun with no stakes involved. It got even more fun when I found out how to grab people.
As I already stated, Manon is a grappler, which means that in order to most effectively inflict damage on opponents, she needs to grab and throw them. There were her regular throws, appropriately titled ‘Forward Throw’ and ‘Back Throw’ due to them being not special at all. For a while, those were the only throws I knew, since it was hard to land her two command grabs. I had no idea what ‘63214P’ meant when I read it at first–it took me many tries to land my first on-purpose Manege Dore. The other command grab, Renverse, was only ‘236P’, which was easier to input for me. Only a quarter-circle. Landing these grabs increased the medal count I had. I started with 1, which meant that a landed Manege Dore would do 2000 damage. With each gained medal, the damage given per non-Super Art command grabs increases accordingly. If I had 5 medals and performed a Manege Dore, then I would do 3700 damage. That’s a lot of damage for one move!
Once I learned how to do Manon’s command grabs, I moved on to trying to learn her Super Arts…this took me so long to learn. By this time, I was now familiar with the fighting game number notation, but I was still having the time of my life trying to successfully do ‘236236P’. I knew what I had to do–two quarter-circles and then punch. That’s all I had to do, and I couldn’t fucking do it right. No matter what.
I was about to say fuck it and turn off Street Fighter for the night until I got a message from Violet:
[“how are u enjoying the game??”]
[“Other than not knowing how to do my super art, i’m doing well!”] I had no reason to lie to her. I was fuming, but I didn’t want to be mean and take it out on her.
[“why can’t u do your super?”] Well gee, if I knew, I wouldn’t be complaining about it. I stopped myself from responding in a smartass-tone.
[“that’s what I want to know!”] I seriously had no idea what I was doing wrong. [“i’m doing the inputs correctly, but it only lets me do the move like once per fifty times”]
[“oh i see…all i can tell you is that you’ll get it down perfectly after some practice!! also, you don’t have to do the inputs so fast”] Her advice was honestly the best advice there was…I was still very new to fighting games, it would take a while for me to be able to do inputs like they were natural. I’m sure it was exactly like riding a bike.
[“thank you. I’ll get it eventually!”] I wanted to reassure her that I would get it, since I would. Talking to her calmed me down to the point where I didn’t rage quit Street Fighter, and was about to hop on practice mode. Maybe my problem was that I was trying to do most of my learning in casual matches…
[“btw, have u and francis decided on where to go yet??”]
[“ehh…I think we do. Somewhere in florida. They still need to iron out the details”] It was happening, I knew that. When, I still didn’t know.
[“u don’t seem too excited about it…”]
Oh god, she’s saying that again…let’s just brush it off. [“haha sorry, i’m just preoccupied with this whole ‘learning how to do supers’ thing. dont worry, i’m excited. So excited that I’ve already got a sunburn!”]
[“I see…don’t get a sunburn..they’re bad for you”]
[“yeah, dont worry, i wont.”] To be quite honest, I was kind of tired of playing for the night. I had hoped that if I stopped now, went to bed, and went back on tomorrow, I would magically learn how to do supers during that time. I also hated knowing that I was doing inputs that weren’t registering for whatever reason. It gave me some insight into why fighting game players tend to be so toxic…not that FPS players are any better. As frustrating as it was, I knew that it was a skill issue that would quickly resolve itself. Until then, I would be sticking to casual matches, and practice mode for at least the next few minutes until I can actually hit my super. And also, not getting a sunburn while in Florida was impossible. No matter how much sunscreen I layer on.
[“I mean it. The sun can cause permanent damage to your skin if you aren’t careful.”] I think I stumbled upon another subject Violet knows about…
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Fast forward to the day after, all I did in Street Fighter was practice for around an hour. That’s how long it took for it to finally click on the timing of supers. I was determined to get them down pat. To say that I had it one-hundred percent down would be a lie, but I definitely knew how to do it more than half the time now.
I had only recently gotten home from work, and had to work tomorrow, so I wasn’t planning on spending much time on Street Fighter 6, or any game for that matter. I was going to retire for the night soon and go to bed. I had to go to work in the morning and I hated working tired.
Right as I exited the game, I got a message from Discord:
[“do u want to play some sf6 sets??”]
It was Violet, asking if I could play some Street Fighter with her. Above that message was what I could only describe as a primer on protecting my skin. Sunscreen was only the beginning. It was the best barrier to protecting my hide from the sun, according to her, but it was only a start. There were moisturizers, lotions, balms, all sorts of shit that she typed about. She was really passionate about it, which was hilarious considering that she never showed her skin while streaming. For all I know, she could be talking out her ass–I knew she wasn’t however. Just like I’d rather eat from a fat cook, I’d rather take skincare advice from someone who sounds like they would take it seriously. She even linked a prior stream she did about the topic. It was good information, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to go to a store and buy anything yet. I’ll get to it eventually.
[“No. I’m about to go to bed.”] I wasn’t going to beat around the bush. I was done for the day when it came to gaming in general. She had messaged me a few minutes too late. Too bad. Maybe tomorrow.
[“come onnn, itll only be a few”]
[“Sorry, don’t really feel like it. A bit tired as well.”] I was only telling the truth.
[“ure just scared…arent u?...”]
[“No, not really.”] I think she was trying to push my buttons, but it wasn’t going to work this time. I wasn’t good enough at this game to have confidence to beat anyone–of course I wouldn’t be baited into some sets. I wasn’t that scared at the fact that she would probably whoop my ass–I was content with the fact. I had not gained the fire that most fighting game players have when it comes to playing fighting games.
Before she could get another word in, I messaged her again.
[“How about tomorrow?”]
I would be way more willing to play with her tomorrow. I get off of work earlier, and I would have plenty of time to play with her, especially since I have the day after off.
[...fine. We can play tomorrow…”]
I don’t know why she seemed so disappointed about it…actually, I knew why, but I wish she would at least understand a bit more. Most of us don’t get the luxury of getting to play games as part of our job. To be fair to her, it seemed that playing games was much less of the job than I had originally expected. It was the same in Michael’s case, most of the time, he was doing ‘projects’. How hard they were, I didn’t know. I didn’t ever inquire about it.
[“Well, I’ll be on.”]
I’m sure she sent me a message after that, but I couldn’t be bothered to respond to it right now. All I wanted to do was brush my teeth and get in bed. Then I could respond to her, if she did in fact send me something.
Before we go further…did I ever ask if this was going to be offline or on stream? I’ll check after shaving and brushing my teeth.
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Fast forward to the next day–a little past 6 PM to be exact. I had just gotten off of work at the Lobby, and was about to go home. I had also been thinking about picking up some fast food on the way home, since there wasn’t anything that stood out in the fridge to my knowledge. Knowing Michael, there was always a chance that he had ordered something during the time I was at work, and had a shit-ton of leftovers in the fridge. But I wanted something cooked for me, so I had to decide for myself–what did I want to eat?
There were a plethora of choices when it came to fast food. Right next to me (well, in the same plaza), was Arby’s, KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut. There was also a Chinese place and a hot dog place that specializes in footlong hot dogs. If I traveled outside of the plaza, I could get to chicken places like Zaxby’s, Chick-fil-A, and Bojangles quickly. There were also good choices like Wendy’s and Taco Bell, and okay ones such as Subway. There was a Schlotzky’s that was like five-hundred feet closer that I would rather frequent at if I wanted something deli-like.
There were also more local choices…I could check them out…maybe I should since I have some down time…
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I was immediately alerted with a message.
[“ru still down to fight??”]
It was you know who, who really seemed keen on kicking my ass in Street Fighter sometime soon. I was going to be going soon, but I was going to eat out which meant I would be home by 7 PM at the earliest. I was leaning towards the Chinese place–I had a hankering for some General Tso’s. Who knew how long it would take for them to cook my plate. Probably not long if I’m comparing to times I got take-out from there, but they could always surprise me. I knew she wasn’t streaming later tonight because there wasn’t any tweet about it. She still hadn’t updated her schedule from last week so that was all I had to go by.
“Hey man, what’s good?”
That was one of my younger co-workers. I knew he was a minor since he was only allowed to work from 4 PM to 10 PM. I know that sounds weird to know, but you learn a lot of things when you look at schedules as a way of wasting time. The tiny ‘[M]’ beside his name on the schedule also gave it away.
His name was Luther, by the way. He went by ‘Lu’. Not ‘Lou’, ‘Lu’. It was on his nametag so you didn’t forget. It was pronounced the same though. He was a big, tall kid. If he was my son, I would be proud that my seed could produce such a specimen.
“Oh nothing, just trying to decide on what I want to eat when I clock out.”
I wasn’t lying–while I was currently about to reply ‘Yes.’ to Violet, I still had dinner on my mind. My mind was pretty much made, but it was on it still. I would also add that he scared the shit out of me, but that wasn’t his fault.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Have you decided yet?”
Lu was what you would expect of a minor working part-time. He did his job, but that was about it. No one seemed to care, since all of the stocking got done on time anyway. He wasn’t one to nag, unlike the old women up front, so he was good in my book. From the looks of it, he had just got here, so it wasn’t like he was wasting time on the clock. Not that I give a shit about that anyway.
“Not really.” I have, but I wanted to hear what he had to say.
“Well, my recommendation is to get something from a place near here. Don’t have to deal with traffic.”
His recommendation was sensible. Well, at least until you considered that the ‘traffic’ would have to be dealt with either way. If the restaurant was on your way home, then it would make no difference how far away it was from work, if you were going home. I wasn’t going to tell him this, since there were so many choices within the plaza anyways.
“Hmm…good idea. I’ll get some Chinese.” I was going to go with it. Nothing too wild. Plus it was technically next door.
“Hell yeah man. Good choice.” I always smirked when a minor cursed. Lu was taller and more than likely stronger than me, so he might as well be a man already in my eyes, but still it made me smirk.
With that, Lu walked away, I assumed to get to work. I needed to go ahead and order–most people would call in this situation, but I was more used to ordering online. I’ve ordered from this place before, so I knew their website, and their website knew my card information.
Standing at the corner of an aisle out of the way, it took under a minute to order–thankfully the connection wasn’t that bad inside the store. I would have to wait about ten minutes, which wasn’t that much of a problem, all things considered. It would take about a minute total to get in my car, roll there, park, and get out. I could look at my phone for the other few minutes. It wasn’t that much of a deal.
I needed to get out of here. I didn’t want to spend a second more at work than I had to. Only reason I was still here was because I would sweat sitting inside my car doing the same thing. There was only one thing I needed to do before I could go.
[“Yes.”]
It was going to take some time before I got home, but I was going to fight Violet in Street Fighter tonight. It wouldn’t be easy for me at all. I never had that illusion in my mind. There’s no way in hell I’m going to win against her with this little preparation. Hell, I could’ve skipped work, practiced all day, and still wouldn’t be any closer to taking a game off her.
To alleviate that, I was going to eat a big helping of General Tso’s. Eating there, I could also take a chance to relax before I got home. Fighting games were a lot of things, but relaxing was not one of them.
“Are you going to that Chinese place next door?”
That question scared the shit out of me–not because of the tone or anything, but because it snapped me out of my deep thinking about eating General Tso’s.
It was Lu again, who somehow knew what I was thinking…or what I had on my phone. You can’t see it, but the kid was a good six inches taller than me. He should be hooping instead of putting up topstock.
I decided to be nonchalant about his noisiness and lie:
“Yeah, haven’t been there in a while.”
It’s been a few weeks. Maybe more. There were other Chinese places nearby, but this was the closest one.
“Alright then, have a good one.”
I nodded at him, “You too.”–I wanted to get out of the store. Lu had some ‘working’ to do of his own, so he walked the other way to the back. For real this time.
Sometimes he had good stories to tell. A few months ago, he told me about a fight that had happened at his school–or rather–outside of the school premises, at a church parking lot across the road from his school. From what he said, it was ‘two jocks’ that were fighting. Typical, I guess. He didn’t know what they were fighting about, but he knew that there was such a big crowd for it that there were a good fifteen vehicles there. He said he knew because he saw it. Not at the church parking lot, but from the gas station across the road. Apparently, it’s ‘on the way to work’. Anyways, the fight itself wasn’t anything special. Your typical high school fight between two strong young boys. The fight goes on for about a minute, until they suddenly stop. They don’t help each other up, exchange hands, or even exchange pleasantries, but they get back to each of their trucks, and drive off. Everyone else there soon drives off after. That’s his version of the tale.
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Fifteen minutes later–I had arrived at the Chinese restaurant and was served my General Tso’s. With fried rice, a spring roll, and a tall glass of half sweet tea and half unsweet tea. The sweet tea here was good, but it had too much sugar. Enough to make me hurl. Every Chinese restaurant around here had the same issue. Half and half was a good workaround. This was the only opportunity I let myself enjoy sweet tea anymore, since each glass contained approximately a ton of sugar.
The ambience of this Chinese place was the best in the area. Most Chinese places around here had the same setup, with the dining area and the checkout counter in the same area. In my head, I’ve come up with two-tiers of Chinese restaurants–ones that separate the dining area and checkout, and those that don’t. The ones that don’t, in my experience, have served a lower-quality grade of Chinese food than the restaurants that do. This wasn’t the case for any other type of restaurant. Certainly wasn’t for Mexican restaurants. Why this was the case, I didn’t know. I had already assumed that most of these places were part of different chains of Chinese restaurants, but I’ve never put in the time to research my hypothesis. I wasn’t nowhere near knowledgeable in the subject to be confident in my belief, but I had known the elephant in the room was that most of these Chinese places I was talking about weren’t offering the ‘authentic experience’. General Tso wasn’t a real guy. At least to my knowledge he wasn’t. But he had his own chicken that was made for the American tastes. I guess it was the case for pretty much every variant of ethnic food, but I think General Tso has had the most success out of any ‘Americanized’ dish out there. There were many interpretations of General Tso’s, this place being one of the better ones in my time.
More on the ambience–the dining room had the effect of being brighter than it seemed due to the mostly black decor. The chairs and the tables were jet black, while the booths were checkerboard-print. The oddest addition in the room was the bar. It had no bartender and no one sitting on the stools. Hell, it didn’t even have any alcohol behind the counter, but it was fully furnished and looked quite comfy, even if it was being used as extra storage space.
I was currently watching a video on my phone while eating. I had wired earbuds in (only my left one, so I can hear the waitress on my right side) so I could listen to it. I could’ve had this same experience if I got it for take out and ate it at home, but it’s so much better eating at the restaurant. The video was about racing, but that wasn’t that important.
The General Tso’s was pretty good. The fried rice and spring roll complimented it nicely…then again, who eats General Tso’s without rice? It was nothing to write home about, but it was very much needed after a day at work. I guess it’s all that I wanted when it came down to it.
Due to you know who, I had gotten used to doing take out instead of eating inside. When you weren’t paying, it was easier to get two of something. Unless it was with family, I usually wasn’t going through the trouble of sitting down and dining.
Before I was able to get further in my thoughts, I got a message from Violet:
[“where r u? I thought u were off work by now?”]
She was very impatient today it seemed. What was the hurry? Who knows.
[“I’m eating dinner.”] I wanted to tell her to chill the fuck out. I was trying to enjoy my Chinese. I don’t sit down and eat at a restaurant that often.
[“when will u be back ?”]
Getting annoyed at having to pause eating to respond, I ended the conversation the nicest way I could.
[“Ill message you when I get on.”] During work hours, my nerves could easily be worn thin if I was interrupted by customers too often. It was a very petty thing to get mad about, I know, but it annoyed me when my flow was interrupted by someone who couldn’t bother going down a whole aisle to find what they wanted. What I hated more about it was the wave of superstition that came over me when these types of events happened. When I got rapid-fired I asked something multiple times while on the floor. I often wanted to ask customers, “What do I look like? The Question Boy?”, but something like that would only confuse them or become aware of my hostility. Having a sticky note on the front and back of me that read “DO NOT ASK ME QUESTIONS” wouldn’t work either, because the customers that ask dumb questions are also often the ones that choose not to read. There were also the ones that would peek over at an aisle and stare at it for up to ten seconds at a time, buggy blocking two-thirds of the end of the aisle, but yet never enter it as if they didn’t have permission. The ones that walked right beside their cart—in all honesty, I get that one, since it’s easier sometimes, but the issue is that doing it blocks more than half the aisle. You would have to get back behind your cart to let people past. Another one was when customers left their cart beside the endcap and went into the aisle by their lonesome. Again, I got that one, because it can be annoying pushing a buggy around (I do it for a living!), but it ends up causing traffic jams in the main pathways. Plus, there are times when carts get abandoned, so there’s no way to tell if that’s what happened or if they’ll be back soon. Sometimes people did a shitty parking job before going down the aisle—if it pisses me off enough I’ll straighten it out so there’s room to walk. What I really want to do is kick the shit out of it, but that’s a no-no. There were the ones that roamed throughout the store, seemingly going in without a plan or even a shopping list, often having a shopping cart in toe. My deceased mind had decided that these customers had ‘bad pathing’—or ‘walked like a crackhead’ if they really pissed me off. Reductive, but I couldn’t help myself at work. It brings out the latent fascist in me. Then there were those who came in packs, with each person having their own cart. This didn’t happen as much here as in grocery stores, but it still happened. It was infuriating, since these customers often stopped to talk to each other. Every occasion is an event I guess. I wish I could run those old bitches over but I wasn’t able to legally. Needless to say that I hated when old people shopped.
With that, I sat my phone on the other side of my booth. I was done with the video I was watching. If I put it in my pocket, I was bound to check it again if I got a notification. The buzzing sensation is impossible to ignore.
Hopefully Violet got the message. The girl probably had plenty of others to play with anyway. Hundreds of thousands of fans, nonetheless friends in the ‘community’. She didn’t need a newbie like me. Not like I was going to be out all night anyways.
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An hour later–I was finally home, settled. Tummy full. I was currently ready to start my computer and hop online.
When I was done eating my General Tso’s, I checked my phone. The need to stare at the phone overpowered the want to avoid everyone. Violet had not messaged me directly still, but had added me to a group DM and had sent messages in there.
Upon inspection, the group had only three members: Violet, someone named ‘Juliet Cromwell’, and me. Reading the few messages that had been sent in chat confirmed that it was in fact for Street Fighter. Sensitive information so I can’t share.
Juliet was a member from NijiLive, AnyClover’s biggest competitor. From what I know, she was from the first ‘EN’ generation, meaning that she had been around longer than Michael and Violet. NijiLive debuted their first VTubers about a year before AnyClover. I knew that VTubers from AnyClover and NijiLive talked to each other, but I didn’t know they were this close. If you went online and observed discussion of the two companies, people tended to treat the two companies as if they were at odds. On imageboards, they might as well be in a blood feud. Those losers treated it like the console wars.
To be honest, I really did like Juliet’s model design. It had a bit more mature design. Not so much ‘motherly’, but more ‘onee-san’. Not the best choice of words, but you get the picture.
Her hair was dark blonde, like the color of wheat. Her outfit had mostly a creamy white color, with splashes of dark green. The dress she had on was modest, but still couldn’t hide the rather large breasts her model had. I was a huge fan of that. Her scheme reminded me of an Aveeno bottle. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was where the inspiration for her color scheme came from.
Other than what she looked like, I didn’t know much about her. I wasn’t subscribed to her–she wasn’t part of AnyClover EN so I never had any reason to do so, even if I liked the way she looked.
I’ve only heard of her every so often. Compared to Michael and Violet, she streamed way less, and posted less on Twitter. She was a two-to-three times a week streamer, going by her streaming schedule. That schedule came with obtaining a permanent foothold in the VTuber industry. She had been around a bit longer than the others as well, so that seniority gave her some privileges. Must be nice.
I had not interacted with the group while on my way back home. But now that I was online, I was ready to play.
When Discord opened, I clicked on the group I was added in. Violet and Juliet were already in a call, both playing Street Fighter 6.
After giving my PC a minute to boot up, I put on my headset and joined the call.
“Greetings.” “About time you joined!” Juliet’s hello was interrupted by Violet being uncharacteristically loud. I guess fighting games brought that out of her.
“Well, my bad for wanting to enjoy my dinner.” I snapped back with what was, if we’re being honest, a weak comeback. It was the truth though.
Juliet started giggling, which stopped Violet from being able to immediately come back. Her giggle was amusing and also calming at the same time, which eased my nerves.
“...Anyways, come join our lobby so you can play Juliet. She’s also new to fighting games.” Violet, while still a bit pointed with her word choice, also seemed calmer now.
“Alright, just give me a moment.” Street Fighter 6 took a few seconds to open. And it took a minute to join the lobby. I still wasn’t the most familiar with the game, and it took a few clicks to get there as well.
In the lobby, there was Juliet alone in a game. I clicked on it to join.
“How long have you been waiting?”
“Oh, not that long.” “An hour!” Again, Violet overpowered Juliet with her loud response. This time, I thought better and didn’t snap back.
“Well, my job is twenty minutes away from home, so even if I didn’t get something to eat, you would have had to wait that long. I probably should’ve told you that earlier.” I tried to be measured with my response, while still getting the point across.
“Oh, well, it doesn’t matter anymore since you’re on.” Once again, she had calmed back down.
“I couldn’t imagine not working from home, let alone at a place that far away…” Juliet empathized with my struggle, which honestly felt good. It really wasn’t that far away, all things considered. The more I noticed, the more I liked her voice. “...by the way, you’re Francis’s roomie-chan, right?”
Couldn’t you just say roommate? “Yeah...” Her voice was attractive enough for me to not question her unneeded use of honorifics.
“Nice to meet you. Anytime Francis has you on, I know it’ll be a hoot.”
“Heh, nice to meet you as well.” Maybe I need to get on more if women like her are watching…for real though, it was surprising she knew me. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised at this point.
With our small talk over, we both readied up and started fighting.
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Fast forward an hour later. Juliet and I had played many games, with her ending up on top 11-9.
“Damn, I was that close to coming on top.” I was starting to get a handle on how to strategize during in game (compared to button-mashing, which I occasionally fell into the trap of). Manon was a character with relatively few moves, so that played in my hands as well. I could inflict a lot of damage on my opponent if I successfully lured them into being grabbed. Juliet, being new to fighting games as well, left herself open to being punished by Manon’s tosses. I wasn’t able to capitalize on it however, because:
* I didn’t recognize her vulnerability
* I messed up the timing of my supers
* Not wanting to go ‘too hard’ on Juliet–never mind the fact that I didn’t have the ability to go ‘too hard’
* I was also leaving myself open. Often more than her.
All of this information was fed to me by Violet, who was invested in our games to the point where she started trying to give us both tips while we were fighting. She should know better, since we both were too locked in to even tell her to be quiet. Talking to someone that was playing a fighting game is like trying to talk to someone while they’re in the middle of doing a deadlift.
As for playing against Juliet, I can only say that it was a wonderful experience. If you’ve caught on by now, you could tell I was crushing pretty hard. I don’t know what it was, but it felt like being on a date (with a chaperone). It was wishful thinking on my part, but I couldn’t help it.
To put it simply, Juliet’s voice was as sweet as syrup. While she was also sometimes excited (fighting games tend to do that), her voice never ceased to be soft, like my ears were brushing up against a pillow. Even when she did a quick, high-pitched ‘ohmygosh!’ after I beat her while having one pixel of health left, it wasn’t irritating to hear. In fact, it was welcoming. In fact, all of the sounds she let out while gaming were adorable. One of the few things I knew about her was that her fans often posted clips of her going ‘oohh’ and ‘aahh’, among other things–seeing them randomly on Twitter out-of-context, I skipped past them. At the time I thought it was a bit strange, but now I kinda understood why. Having hundreds upon hundreds of clips of you making noises must be weird, but it’s part of the job. And thank goodness they’re clipping Juliet.
I had no clue where this feeling was coming from–was it because I had a long day? Well, all things considered, my day today was fine. Sure, I had the usual complaints about work, but I was just being a bitch. I was like those old ladies at the register that complain about others ‘not doing work’ while all they have to do is stand in one place, occasionally for up to forty-five minutes. Hell, sometimes it was an hour without a bathroom break!
Either way, I was flustered by meeting Juliet. There was no other way to put it. Of course, I tried and successfully kept my cool. I think I did. Teenager me would be so proud for not spilling the spaghetti.
After Juliet and I were done with our Street Fighter 6, Juliet bid her farewells and left the voice call. I pondered being sleazy and sending her a friend request, but she left the group before I could even try. I relented for now and instead followed her on Twitter and subscribed to her on YouTube. Maybe I’ll get a membership soon.
“Well, that was fun.” I was repeating myself to Violet, who was doing her own thing at this point.
“You seem like you had a good time.” Violet had a teasing tone, as if she was virtually poking at me. Was she picking on my attraction to Juliet?
“Yeah, I did.” I tried to play it off cool, which looking back, probably gave it away even more.
“Heh, you totally are simping for her, hmm?” Damn, Violet was really on my ass tonight! Even she would occasionally strike when she smelled blood.
“Yeah…what of it?” This whole conversation feels childish, but I couldn’t help it.
“I get it. She’s such a beautiful woman…” Thankfully, she reeled back her teasing and empathized with me.
“Her voice certainly is beautiful.”
“She’s just as pretty and nice in real life as well.” Damn! She’s gotten to meet her in real life? Well, it made sense considering they’re both in the same business. How’d she get to see her if they’re in different companies though? Who knows…
“Damn…must be nice.”
“Sure is! I get to stay at home and play games with beautiful girls in them, and I get to be friends with beautiful women as well!” Violet’s mocking laugh was starting to grind my gears—that is until she started coughing. Apparently she gets into coughing fits a lot, which causes her model to spasm out when it happens on stream. Thankfully for her fans, they never have to listen to her cough for half a minute straight.
I mumbled, “Alright, now you’re just rubbing it in.” The coughing fit was instant karma, but the underlying fact was still true. There wasn’t any woman that worked at Hobby Lobby that came even close to Juliet with their soft voice–they were all middle-aged and mostly crabby. Even if I wanted to hook up with one of them, they were all married and wouldn’t ever think about cheating. Well, that’s the impression I got anyways. God will frown upon you for sinning, especially if you work for his chosen arts and crafts store. We’re all foot soldiers for JC himself, including me, who wasn’t a believer and hadn’t been to a church in a decade. I would say we’re ‘mini Popes’, but Hobby Lobby protruded the type of Protestantism that tried to imply that ‘Christian’ and ‘Catholic’ were two separate things.
“Well, she’s hard to get a hold of, so you’re lucky you even got to play against her.”
“Hmm…” Guess that explains her weird urgency. “I should’ve told you that it takes me a while to get home.” Even then, I would’ve probably not rushed home because I didn’t know there was a beauty waiting for me. I was a different man than I was two hours ago.
“Well, I know now.” Yes, you do.
“I hope it’s…heh…,” I couldn’t help myself but laugh at my upcoming corniness, “...I hope it’s water under the bridge now.”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.”