It had been three days since the sponsorship stream. My anger at Michael’s employers had subsided somewhat. I had not been reimbursed by either AnyClover or Michael for the fuck up. To be honest, I hadn’t really been bugging anyone about it. I was more pissed off at the incompetence than the fact that I had a racing wheel taken from me. Hell, it wasn’t like I had a use for it at the moment, which was why I didn’t really fight it being sent back. Part of me still wanted to get into contact with his management, but knowing how they operate, they would rather make Michael go on hiatus and go through the trouble of moving out instead of mailing me a five-hundred-dollar check or giving me the wheel. I still don’t know why they would want it back.
Instead of badgering and threatening, I had become way more willing to take Michael’s stuff from his electronics closet in the spare bedroom and not give it back. I was going to do it until I either had five hundred dollars worth of his electronics or until he caught on. Considering the whole goddamn closet was filled to the brim with random shit, the only way he would notice was if I had taken something he was looking for. It wasn’t stealing because I would give it back if he asked. Or maybe not…
To be quite honest, I have been thinking more about Street Fighter 6 for the last few days. I had been playing the beta for the last day–I barely knew what I was doing, but I can’t lie–it was fun. Violet had got me to play a few games two days before. She assured me I could play on controller, but I got a stick from Michael’s closet. It was the first thing I took. The stick had a hundred-dollar value–only four hundred more dollars more before I was whole. While a Franatrec sim racing setup wouldn’t fit on my desk, an arcade stick would. The only fighting game I’ve seen him playing was Smash, which didn’t utilize a stick.
While Violet was the one who got me to download the beta, we’ve only played a total of like five matches together. Not that I mind, since I got beat pretty handily each time. She was a lot more competent when it came to fighting games than FPSes. I had a lot of practice to do if I wanted to beat her.
I had spent 90% of the time in the Battle Hubs, challenging random people. I tried out about six of the fighters available and had stuck with Manon for now. I originally had ‘Modern’ controls on, but switched to ‘Classic’ after Violet scolded me about it. Apparently, Classic controls are a lot better to use than Modern…it sucks though because Modern is a lot easier to do. By the time I learn how to play Classic, the beta will end! Which is tonight!
Taking advantage of my day off, I was spending the Sunday cutting grass. I was planning to do it around once a month–I know that The Landlord said that she ‘recommended’ that it be cut twice a month, but personally, I didn’t see the trouble in cutting it less frequently. It wasn’t like anyone was ever on it. If The Landlord was coming around then it would be a different story, but she wasn’t. By the way, the dirt patch where I burned those limbs was clearing up at a rate faster than anticipated. It had some grass already growing in the middle of it!
Oh, and if you’re wondering–I’m cutting around Michael’s schedule. With no immediate pressure to cut the grass, I can cut it whenever I want. I’d rather cut the grass in the late afternoon instead of the early morning. I’m not a morning person and he doesn’t have anything scheduled for now. It was on him if I interfered with his stream again.
It made me think–I’ve been a part of Michael’s general hi-jinks for about three months now. I’ve become a semi-regular character on his stream, and even made a cameo on another VTuber’s stream. That being said, it wasn’t that wild. Other than smashing my pinkie toe–I took a month to recover from that. To say that these last three months were eventful would be a lie. I still work the same dead-end job and live the same boring lifestyle. I haven’t done anything more exciting than go out to a bar by myself and watch sports this year. That was in January. It was now in the middle of May. It wasn’t like I was living a glamorous lifestyle…I couldn’t say that it wasn’t any less exciting than before I moved in though.
Between the lighting fast internet, cheap rent, and a constant conveyer belt of DoorDash that I didn’t pay for, I wasn’t planning on leaving this place anytime soon. By the looks of it, Michael didn’t look like he wanted to leave either. We were going to be stuck with each other for at least a little while longer. At least half a year according to my lease. We still have a whole summer to potentially do some more exciting things! While I was still sore about the racing wheel, that wasn’t going to matter any when it came time to renew. I have to keep in mind that I was only able to use a racing wheel because of Michael. Don’t bite the hand that feeds.
Had I gained a deeper understanding of VTubers and the VTuber community? Well, somewhat. The concept still remained a little foreign to me, since I’ve never been interested in streamers in the first place. It was a little bit different if it was a friend doing it, but I almost never watched them before. I’ve never watched anything on Twitch unless it was a professional video game tournament. E3 too now that I think about it. But that was different than watching a streamer. With VTubers, I learned that their model is an intermediary from the streamer to their audience. A VTuber’s model gives them the ability to either act more like ‘their character’, or more like themselves. With the extra layer of protection that the model provides, the potential embarrassment one might get from streaming with their regular face is diminished. I mean, it’s technically not you per se. Another thing I learned is that a lot of VTubers were not exactly the healthiest people around. Michael was healthy in the sense that he didn’t have to constantly go to the hospital, but apparently there were some in AnyClover EN that had issues such as autoimmune disease and chronic fatigue, among other things. In those cases, being a streamer was one of the only things you could do constantly. Of course, just being a streamer doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be successful. And VTuber models like the one Michael and Violet have aren’t cheap to acquire. There’s a whole world of ‘2D Tubers’ and VTubers with less intricate 3D models. Just because their model is less impressive or because they aren’t signed with an agency doesn’t mean they are ‘worse’–at least if you go by the viewer numbers. The point with VTubing is that with the absence of anything ‘real’, you get back in spades with authenticity, which allows the streamer to be more entertaining without actually showing your face or even being ‘you’. At least that was my interpretation. Still not my cup of tea, but I understood it way more now.
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The mower had run out of gas in the middle of cutting the lawn. I was only lucky that it had stopped in the shade–the last thing I needed was a scalding hot seat to turn my ass into a baboons.
I walked over to the gas canister in the shed. I picked it up and shook it around–there was no gas in there at all. I’m surprised that Jean didn’t refill it. Well, it’s not like she can do everything for us.
Forced with no other choice, I walked inside the house and grabbed my keys. I was going to drive to the gas station down the road and fill the canister up. While I was in here, I also decided to fill my water bottle up. I hadn’t finished all of it, but it had gotten warm in the 45 minutes it had been out. It was a small, 16-ounce plastic jug with no insulation, meaning it would bleed out the ice as soon as warmth touched it.
After washing my hands, I opened the freezer part of the fridge, picked apart ice, and threw it in my bottle. The ice was way too noisy if you got it the ‘normal’ way, which made picking it by yourself the easiest option.
As soon as I closed the freezer, I heard him walking up.
“That was quick.” He was under the impression that I was finished.
“Ah, I’m not finished. Just ran out of gas,” I was shaking my bottle so my water got colder faster, “there’s no gas left in the canister outside, so I have to go by the gas station down the road.”
“Hm, I see…” He didn’t look interested at all, but he was at least keeping up the kayfabe for now. “Well, I hope you’re done cutting the grass by 7, since that’s the time my stream is starting.”
Looking at my watch, it was only 5–a whole two hours before he had to start. “Don’t worry, I’ll be done way before then.”
All he replied with was “Alright…” while getting ready to steep himself another cup of tea.
“Is there anything I need to get for you while I’m down there?” I was asking out of courtesy.
“Not really.” He was more focused on his tea than anything else–I doubt he even heard me.
Scooting past him, I said, “Well, I’ll be back soon.” The air wasn’t heavy at all, which is what I wanted. I didn’t want him to think I was mad at him, because I wasn’t. The sooner he let this blow by, the sooner he wouldn’t have to pretend to feel sorry.
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The drive to the gas station and back took only around ten minutes. The hardest part was making sure the gas canister didn’t flip over in the trunk. Honestly, all things considered, it was probably easier to have it in the back seat instead–the only problem was that it was considered ‘unsafe’ to do that. That was what my parents told me. I made sure to take wide turns and not drive like ‘a bat outta hell’, something I’ve been accused of in the past. Thankfully, the canister didn’t flip over.
I was filling up the lawn mower now. Filling up the mower wasn’t hard at all–all you had to do was flip over the seat and untwist the cap below. The hard part was knowing when the tank was full or not. The fuel tank gauge was on the other side, only viewable if you stopped filling up the tank. When I say ‘hard’, I don’t actually mean hard–I mean annoying.
After fueling up the tank to just over three-fourths full, I stopped and put the cap back on the canister. There wasn’t any point in trying to get the tank perfectly full. Too much work going back and forth two feet.
Putting the canister back in the shed, I heard a buzz from my phone. I got my phone out of my pocket and saw that Michael had messaged me…what did he want?
Opening Discord, I saw the message:
[“do u want to go on vacation with me this summer”]
What a peculiar question to ask…I mean, there’s no reason for me to say no, but at the same time, I know nothing about whatever ‘vacation’ he has in store.
[“Well…maybe? Let me think about it.”] If he’s asking, then there’s a great possibility that he’s fronting for at least most, if not all, of the traveling expenses. Could this be his way of apologizing? I had no idea what the numerical value of ‘a vacation’ was, but I knew it averaged more than five hundred dollars. The only questions left were when and where? Maybe who as well, since there’s a good possibility that he goes with one or several of his coworkers. Hey, maybe there’s a chance that I’ll finally get to go to Japan! I’ve always wanted to go, but the price of plane tickets to and back always has put me off. I also didn’t have anyone to go with, or even any set plan for what to do when I go there.
Before I could get too excited, I remembered that I had a job at hand. The sweat that was beading up on my forehead was a constant reminder. I restarted the lawn mower and got back to work. I needed to finish so I could play some more Street Fighter 6 before the beta closed.
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I had just gotten out of the shower–I was done cutting the grass. The landlord would’ve ‘preferred’ if I went over the lawn twice to ‘bust up the clumps’, but I saw no need in that. They weren’t big enough to cause the grass below to be denied its vital nutrients…at least I hoped so. The wind would take care of them either way.
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After drying off, I put on some clothes and went into the kitchen to grab a beer. Another PBR it is. It was the only beer in the fridge, so it wasn’t like I had a choice.
Cracking it open, I heard Michael walking to the kitchen.
“Did you get my Discord message?”
I took a long sip, replying with a singular “Nope”. When I got off my mower, I didn’t see any new messages from him. I was sweating too much to care, plus my podcast was still going. I didn’t have my phone on me at the moment so I couldn’t check to see what it was. “What was it about?”
“It was about the vacation that I invited you on.”
“Oh yeah…you’re gonna have to tell me more about this.” I couldn’t go off and ditch work if the ‘vacation’ was, say, next week. For normal people like me, I had to ask for time off about a month ahead so I wouldn’t have to work during that time. I didn’t have the pleasure of being able to go on break as frequently as Michael. I also didn’t know where it was going to be, or with who.
“Well…we still don’t have any idea where our vacation should be, but it would be with me, Dusty, and Yuji. And you of course.” Dusty and Yuji were two of his male coworkers–the only male coworkers he had in the AnyClover EN branch if I was correct.
“Ahh, so it would be a ‘Boy’s Retreat’?” I was starting to see why Michael thought about inviting me. Other than the obvious reason.
“Something like that.” Exactly like that.
“Do you know when it would be?” The main issue with me was still when it was going to be. I didn’t have the mental fortitude to no-call, no-show for a whole week. I wouldn’t have a job when I came back!
“We’re aiming for about two months in advance. I’ll message you the dates once we decide for good.” Since they make their own schedule, I didn’t see them having any difficulty in planning dates to be free. Not unless they had some company-wide event planned. The bigger issue was where they were going to reside.
“Do you know where it’s gonna be?”
“We want to keep it within North America…” Damnit, so this won’t be my dream otaku vacation to glorious Nihon. Oh well. Fukou da. Maybe next time. “The only problem is that there’s so many places to go to that we’re getting bogged down by the options.”
“So…neither Dusty or Yuji have any idea of where to go?”
“Yeah…” stopped for a moment, seemingly trying to find the right words to say, “...ehh, it’s more like…uhh, they want me to choose?” He started scratching the back of his head, laughing at his group’s apparent lack of decision-making skills.
“Why?” Honestly, why?
“Because they’ve never been to the southeast and want me to choose somewhere in this region…well, that’s what Dusty said.”
“So you’re being asked to pick a vacation spot in a region where you’ve never been on vacation before?”
“Yeah.” Even if he had no idea where to suggest, he didn’t see how absurd the proposition was.
“Wow, what is it with you VTubers and never being able to plan shit correctly?”
“Hey man, we just started this a few days ago.” Well, that was a good point.
“Well, if you’re trying to get my opinion–you’re shit outta luck…I’ve only been to Myrtle Beach and Disney World.” As a child, my family took a near-yearly trip to Myrtle Beach, which was a popular vacation spot that was on the other side of the state. While it did have many great attractions like mini golf courses, actual golf courses, and…the beach itself? Okay, I’ll be upfront–Myrtle Beach is kinda shitty. In my opinion. Maybe it’s because I’ve been there on vacation about fifteen times, but I did not like the idea of being there, nevertheless vacationing there. I don’t know if it had to do more with the place itself, or the fact that I was with family 99% of the time I was there. Perhaps I would’ve had a better time if I wasn’t under the all-seeing eye of my family. Either way, I wasn’t a golfer or a redneck, so I had no desire to ever go there again. Disney World sounded fun, but it probably wasn’t what they had in mind. That was more of a ‘Girl’s Trip!’ destination anyway.
“What’s wrong with Myrtle Beach?” Unlike me, Michael had no clue about the place.
I had to make up a lie “There’s nothing to do there. Not unless if you want to play golf every day.” Well, that technically wasn’t a lie. Anything you could do there you could do at another beach. The main thing that tourists love to do there is get drunk on the shore and work on their ripe sunburn. It’s Redneck Mecca. Perhaps I was being too hard on it, but even then I still had no desire to go there. There were way better places to visit. Also, it would be an absolute shambles if Michael and company were caught going to Dirty Myrtle and getting into trouble! Debauchery comes in spades in that shithole.
“Uh huh…and Dusty was wanting to say by the beach, so Disney World isn’t really a choice.” I had assumed that Michael had went to Disneyland as a child, so he wasn’t really that interested in visiting Disney World, even if it had way more to offer.
“Hmm…why don’t you ask The Landlord? She ought to know some other places.” I sure hoped she did. Otherwise, I’d have to trust Michael’s instinct.
“I have a better idea,” he leaned in a bit, “why don’t you ask the landlord?”
“Why?”
“Because you talk to her way more than me.” I mean, he was technically correct, but it wasn’t like I talked to our landlord every day. We weren’t friends. It seemed that we were on better terms than Michael and her were though. When she visited, she didn’t seem too down on Michael, other than saying that he ‘never goes outside’, and the fact that he almost blew up her lawn mower when she made him cut grass that one time. He seemed more afraid of her than anything. Either way, it didn’t really matter who asked.
“Uh huh, alright.” Shaking my can, it was already empty. Damn, that was fast. Throwing it away, one thing popped into my mind, “How would I tell your coworkers about ‘our’ choice.”
“Well of course you’d tell me, silly.” He was at the fridge now, reaching in for a beer of his own. Hey, your stream starts soon! No drinking while living!
“Yeah, but doesn’t it seem weird for me to be a degree of separation from Dusty and Yuji?” I mean, it was. It would be weird if the first time we talked properly was when vacation started.
“I’ll get us a group chat up in Discord soon–don’t worry about that.”
“Okay, good.” I moved by him to get another beer out of the fridge, “I’ll ask The Landlord for her opinion soon.”
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Taking a large gulp out of my second beer, I sent The Landlord a message.
[“Hey, it’s John. This might be a weird question, but do you know of any good vacation spots? Preferably somewhere that isn’t Myrtle Beach. Or Disney World.”]
Sending her that, I thought that I should also send her something that’ll get her attention:
[“Oh, and also I cut the grass today.”]
Within a minute, I got a response:
[“nice! so glad that finally someone will cut the grass. michael wasted so much money hiring other people to cut it last year. did you know that he got charged $100 per time they cut the lawn? They didnt even cut all the way as well.”]
I knew this, as she had told me as I was touring the house the first time, but I pretended that it I had just found it out to amuse her, [“Oh wow! That’s a lot of money…”]
[“crazy! I dont even know what he does for a living, but he can’t be throwing money away like that!”] You know, for someone that never had to worry about finances again, she was a real stickler for frugality. Old habits die hard I guess.
She began typing more:
[“oh! Vacation spots! I almost forgot! I agree with you about myrtle beach as well! such a trashy plase.”] Correct. [“Florida is a great place to go on vacation, i love pcb the most, but I could stay on any beach there and be happy.”] YOU could, you know.
[“PCB?”] I Googled it only to find stuff about circuit boards…in hindsight, I should’ve put “vacation” at the end, but I already asked the question–I might as well let her get a chance to answer.
[“panama city beach. it’s in florida, but isn’t too far away from where you are. I was able to drive down there in 7 hours. I like it because the ocean water is so clear.”] Well…in even further hindsight, I should’ve known that ‘PCB’ meant ‘Panama City Beach’. When we were doing chores that one day, she was wearing a shirt that had ‘PANAMA CITY BEACH’ on it…damnit, I’m normally very good with acronyms.
You probably already know I wasn’t the type to go all out during Spring Break while at University. I was more of a ‘go back home and game’ type of student. This was the first time I heard Panama City Beach referred to as a family-friendly place rather than a place to get blitzed and pick up a sorority girl or three. One could say that Myrtle Beach was the same, but I was always with family there, negating that. To be fair to Dirty Myrtle, it also had enough attractions to keep kids excited for a week. Once you ‘grow up’ enough to want to do something different, the options change from that to ‘going on the beach, getting sunburned, and drinking 13 lukewarm domestic light beers’. Some people liked doing that for a week straight. I didn’t. A light sunburn was okay, but the sunburns the beach doled out were nasty and harmful.
[“Thanks!”]
[“your welcome!”]
With that in mind, I went ahead and messaged Michael about the possibility of our vacation being in Panama City Beach.
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A few days later, I got a message from Violet:
[“i heard that u and francis and the boys are going on vacation! how fun is that!”]
Guess that word had gotten to Violet that we were going on a ‘Boy’s Trip’ to Florida. Not surprised that word travels around fast within the AnyClover EN circle, considering that there was only ten of them…to be fair, I probably only have around nine people I talk to as well outside work, two of them being Michael and Violet. If it wasn’t for my job, then I would probably be struggling to not forget how to speak.
[“yeah, we’re going to the beach soon. Not too much planned other than where.”] As far as I know, Michael and friends still didn’t have any exact dates yet on when they were planning to have the vacation. All I was told was “a few months from now”. I sure hope they decide sooner rather than later because I’d rather request to get my dates off before it’s too late.
[“u don’t seem to excited about it”]
Man, this is why I hate talking about vacations… [“oh don’t worry, i’m excited. Its just that I’ve never been to this place so i dont know what to expect.’]
[“i hope u and everyone else have a good time! please take a pic of the beach for me!! and if u see and pretty girls down there give them my discord!!!”]
[“lol. Will do.”] I knew that she was joking, but I did wonder about what would happen if there was a situation where Michael or the two others were approached by a woman, or a group of them. I highly doubted any groupies would show up, since how the hell would they know where all of them were? But it wasn’t out of the question for random women that didn’t know anything about them to approach them. Hell, for all I know Michael could be considered conventionally attractive. As for Dusty and Yuji, I had no idea what they looked like in real life. I would have to wait to find out what they looked like when we got there…it would be sad if I was the worst looking man in the group. Not that it matters because there’s a zero percent chance we’re ever going to be in that situation in the first place.
This would be around the point where I would interject and tell a little about Dusty and Yuji, but to be quite honest, I knew nothing about them. They were male VTubers, which gave me no desire to ever watch. It’s not like I particularly wanted to watch female VTubers as well, but at least I could understand it. I couldn’t properly explain it, but there was an inner psychosexual pull that would allow me to enjoy a female VTuber, but not a male one. It all came back to the fact that I would rather listen to a woman’s voice instead of a man’s. I listened to men’s voices enough on my podcasts. It also had to do with the way they’re presented–the male VTubers were all designed to appeal to ‘the female gaze’. Well, most of them. I know gay and bisexual people exist, but I hope you get what I mean. The point was that I wasn’t the target audience for them. I still haven’t found a female VTuber that I like to that point, but I know there’s bound to be some out there. I’m not searching around.
What little I know I’ll tell you. Dusty’s full name was ‘Dusty Wallace’. As the name implied, his model resembled a cracker. A rather dapper slick black-haired cracker. Who knows, he could be Asian, but I’ve never met an Asian man named Dusty. His model was what you expected. An ikemen. Instead of a suit, Dusty had on an overcoat, a turtleneck, and slacks, all black. It was the theme. Not much other to say other than that he was the most popular member within the AnyClover EN branch. That is if you go by subscriber count on YouTube. I’ve never watched any of his streams so I don’t know how entertaining he is. As for Yuji, he was somewhat different.
Yuji Tsunoda, unlike Dusty and Michael (Francis), was short. Not much of a bishie boy to be quite honest. His model was, other than being short, resembling something of a mischievous troublemaker. His model had on a T-shirt and a fishing vest over it with cargo shorts. He was also holding a stick for some reason. I had to guess this had to do with ‘his nature’. I didn’t really get what ‘his nature’ was, but it made many people laugh often. Something about being a ‘gremlin’. We’ll see how much that translates to real life.
I would get to learn much about them in due time, so I wasn’t worried about it. For now, I was going to focus on Street Fighter.