“Remember when you said, the day the challenge was issued to you, that fifty thousand words in thirty day was a very tight deadline? On average, a novel that long would take about three months to write for someone with little or no experience in that arena” Capitolium tells Caroline before the stream ends.

On Monday, she feels relieved to see that the trade deadline arc is done and over with. But then comes the trade itself, which she opens the following chapter on Monday morning. Which takes place on trade deadline day, with Emma reading the Hockey News online. When Caro’s dad comes to her room before breakfast:

“Tu as fait échanger ton personnage principal contre quoi?” (What did you trade your main character for?) Caro’s dad gasps upon reading the press release in Player Masher.

“Un choix de première ronde conditionnel et un prospect en défense” (A conditional first-round pick, and a defensive prospect) Caro retorts, while writing down the condition.

Macer got a first-rounder from Minnesota without any strings attached, but Montreal gave up a fifth-rounder, while Montreal turned down Buffalo despite Buffalo having thrown in an offensive prospect on top of a defensive one, and both packages are implied to contain prospects of some value, Caro then lays down the hauls Montreal got for the two players. The condition being that Montreal receives Dallas’ first-rounder this season if Dallas’ is outside the top 20 selections, otherwise they will receive it the following season. But then, because of the condition, I feel like I need to have Dallas play its season closer against Minnesota, with the Constellations’ GM watching it.

And then she receives a DM from Maridun about the expectations of not breaking character for the sake of having a third-act breakup. Especially since the whole lead-up to it appears to be rooted entirely in stuff outside of the leads’ control. That is, the trade deadline and the Constellations selling.

Maridun: I really hope they will remain together

Caroline: The whole relationship already looked like a long-distance one from the start

Maridun: You might want them to have one last date prior to Gus leaving to spend the rest of the season in Dallas

At night, when Caro starts streaming again, Marie-France opens the stream with comments about how she feels about the game Caro played on air, as she plays it:

Marie-France: I couldn’t have talked about it at work, but I am done with the game you play

“I get it, no game is for everyone, but what did you dislike about that game?” Caro asks her.

Marie-France: There are too many systems to keep track of

Marie-France never seemed to be the kind of person whose brain seemed to fry often, no more than I would be, but I guess, system bloat can sour people on games, Caro thinks, oblivious to Marie-France uninstalling the game. And yet her viewers didn’t appear willing to discuss the game’s system bloat, any more than Marie-France seemed willing to.

Maridun: Since Caro seems to be closing in on a third-act breakup, I have a question: were there times where you feel like third-act breakups should have remained broken up?

Glitter enters Caro’s VC room. “Absolutely! I read one where I feel that way about one side of the couple being an addict, and remains with the enabler rather than the codependent enabler breaking up with the addict”

“Did that book call for the addict to be clean in the end?” Caro asks Glitter, while the latter stands ready to leave when hockey appears.

“Yes, and that’s what makes the book jarring to me; addicts usually don’t go to rehab unless they hit some sort of rock bottom, which can include a breakup. The addict never got any rehab, and it seemed like love would cure one’s addiction”

“I hate these books that treat love as a cure for mental health conditions!” Sampoong comments with a Korean accent. “I myself am dealing with a workaholic who feels like even watching this stream is like pulling teeth, and I had to resort to tele-therapy!”

A number of the faithful viewers gasp upon hearing about how Sampoong just started getting couples therapy.

“And often trauma is one of the driving forces behind them getting addicted. So while the relationship seemed to be mostly non-abusive despite all the trauma both sides have endured, issues came up on their own sides, they just didn’t amount to abusing each other!” Glitter adds to the conversation.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“What the hell is an enabler, in an addiction context?” Capitolium asks Glitter.

“Enablers are people who help addicts continue to feed their addictions”

Marie-France: In the same vein, while some romance books are basically horror, or erotica, others could be converted into psychological thrillers if a couple breaks up but doesn’t reunite later

Glitter sighs upon reading this in the chat. “There are times where a psychological thriller isn’t horror: for that book specifically, there’s nothing really frightening outside of the addiction, just a false sense of security and happiness that could cause issues”

“And I think mysteries where the cases don’t get solved could also qualify for such” Lagado then thinks on how such a mystery would then remain unsolved because the evidence is not valid or sufficient, and how that could drive a sleuth mad.

“What the hell did the Constellations do? Why? WHY?” Capitolium screams at Caro’s manuscript as he reads the trade deadline arc wrapping up, causing his eyes to roll at these fictional Hockey News articles in it.

“Capitolium, are you yelling at me or at the Constellations’ GM?” Caro, startled by her loyal viewer’s outburst of anger.

“The Constellations’ GM: while I’m not mad at Macer getting traded, but Kurpnieks? Yes, he had a breakout season, but couldn’t they have traded away another D-man about to hit free agency, rather than your MMC?”

“If I had that D-man traded away rather than Gus, I would be tempted to skip straight to the draft day scene, and then I might be unable to hit the fifty thousand words, since I would then have Gus reject the qualifying offer, and sign a new contract, and voilà, happy ending!” Caro defends her actions.

“I’m not wholly satisfied. There’s what would happen if the proposed change was made, but I was asking about why that D-man wasn’t traded away!”

“I did address that point: they just wouldn’t have gotten a whole lot for that pending UFA! Which is why they nixed that plan!”

Damn: it’s one of those cases where there is no optimal solution. Trading that pending UFA away for, like, a third-rounder or a late second, might be better than nothing, but Constellations don’t feel like the cap would raise enough to be able to afford Gus’ raise, and they want cap flexibility going into July 1, Caro then realizes that Glitter has left the VC because Capitolium yelled at Caro about a hockey decision on it.

And then she starts a new sprint. Quickly, the other viewers comment about how they should have one last date in person until Dallas’ season ends. Some of the viewers who were there at an earlier stage of the writing process suggest that they should go eat gourmet, to the extent they can book a candle-lit table for two on that day.

But once the table is booked, her MMC wastes no time packing his belongings in two big suitcases and then double-check the plane ticket the team bought for him. And then their final date in Montreal begins:

“This is my last day in Montreal. By now you know I was traded away to Dallas, and what Montreal got for me!” Caro tries as best as she could to imitate a male Latvian accent. “So at the end of this meal, I ask for one last kiss. I will be back for you in future seasons, for regular season games, or maybe even the Stanley Cup Final!”

Upon listening to this very passage, Caro makes Gus cry in front of Emma just before they get seated by the maître d’hôtel. Which, in turn, makes Marie-France cry.

“In Dallas, you will probably eat barbecue more often than you would here, and maybe more often than you would like, so please, eat what you feel you cannot get in Dallas” the streamer reads in her natural voice.

“Dallas is one of the more underrated restaurant cities in the NHL” Capitolium points out. “Sure, the foodies among hockey fans talk about how New York, LA, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver or Chicago have the best restaurants in the league, but don’t underestimate Seattle, Washington, Nashville or Dallas. So really, there isn’t much that Gus could have in fine dining in Montreal that he couldn’t in Dallas”

My impression is that Dallas’ foodie weak spot is seafood, so I guess seafood it is for Gus. He must have eaten poutine, smoked meat and maple toffee several times already by now, maybe tourtière, pudding chômeur or bagels at least once each, Caro is reminded of what his teammates made him eat during these past few months in Montreal.

But when the bill comes due, after they eat and drink, they kiss each other before Gustavs returns to his teammate’s home picking up his belongings. And spend one last night there before leaving the city.

Marie-France (crying behind the screen): This is by far the most emotional chapter in your book

Jacques: Them not breaking up is a good sign

Meanwhile, Capitolium moves on from writing the aftermath of the Q’s trade deadline and into writing the struggles his MMC faces in juggling the pressure of his home market, homeschooling and, of course, hitting on the billet family’s daughter.

Here's the plan to get me to 100% NaNo: add two more plot-bearing games, such as Dallas’ losing the season closer against MIN, and Dallas gets ousted from the playoffs in a game #7 in either of the first two rounds. In the end, I want Dallas to pick at #20 at the latest, so that MTL can get their first-rounder for next season. Then and only then can MTL afford to sign the offer sheet that will lead Gus back to Montreal and then on to the happy ending, Caro makes mental notes for the rest of the NaNo journey. I think the emotional meat remaining must be kept for the very end, 2 chapters, maybe 3, I might have 5-6k words’ worth of that. Maybe one chapter of Emma having a withdrawal, then the season closer, at the end of which she’d buy a Gunners jersey with Kurpnieks’ name and number.

Once her mental notes are put down onto her notes document, she then rushes for the night and, as is too often the case, the need for Bengay arises. Which she applies on air, and, as she gets to the end of the chapter, she realizes that she overshot the daily par of 1667 words by a few hundred words.

Maridun: This is a much better third-act breakup because it doesn’t rely on internal issues that can be easily resolved