HtH89 – Doors and Windows (ii)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Minara tries to make friends. She freezes up.
Today, the house chef, Jules, must have gotten some inspiration from the girls' trip down south and opted for homely, south-continental cooking. The plate of stir-fry before her is plated with rice in a bowl-shape, adorned with spicy ground meat dipped in four sauces. The savory fragrance intermingles with a light topping of basil leaves; a single fried egg placed at the very top, yolk still deliciously runny and inviting.
Meticulous as ever, Jules must have prepared for even the slightest possibility that Minara would show up as well!
""As always, it is perfectly acceptable to be fashionably late...!""
(bright chime-like sound, almost standing up)
Lumi is the first to notice the pair of blue-haired girls, and waves lightly from her seat, lunch was already in full swing and there were plenty of side-dishes to go around; on one end of the table, Ablam and an oddly familiar red-eyed guest are vacuuming up the fried chicken with astonishing speed! Piaccta is putting her recently-acquired knowledge of Nangmen culture to good use, toasting everyone with her soup bowl of all things; Eclair not having the heart to correct her and lightly tapping porcelain with her clear wine glass.
With great familiarity, as if it had always been hers, Minara plops herself in the seat between Lumi and Hikari...
...
...
... and felt the room froze at that very instant.
The other girls were still chatting, laughing, smiling;
their mouths moved, but the scene was still, and no words were heard.
Who was the teal-haired girl graciously pointing out the tall pitcher of lemon-infused water on the table?
What about the tall girl with bobbed purple hair and galaxy-blue eyes? Has she always been at the house too?
That was when the girl realizes: She barely knows anyone at the house except for her good sister-in-law...!
No, the room didn't freeze over.
It was Minara who froze in place.
She had finally stepped out of the basement, but in doing so, she had also stepped into a world oh so foreign to her!
What should she say? What could she say? In fact, this happy, almost serene lunch scene is still as foreign to her as the very first day she stepped into this house! That was definitely not how meals went at her family, if they could even get them to sit down at a table in the first place! They must think her strange and see right through her own discomfort! See, the brown-haired girl is looking funny (imagined) at her direction now! She had to say something! Names! Yes, that's right! Names! She would have to start by asking them for their names, but at the same time, she would die of embarrassment if after so long, she outright admitted that she didn't know anyone but her good sister-in-law's name!
Anything, anything but that!
The second-hand embarrassment would be terrifying!
Not to fret, for she is not a vtuber for anything!
If there was one thing that catapulted her to 3-viewdom in the first place, it would have to be because her networking skills were superior!
The ability to instantly connect with an audience and her peers!
Why, if she had to record a piece of evergreen content about this subject, the video would be forty minutes long and have four ad-breaks!
Out of nowhere---
The girl suddenly burst out laughing while clutching the sides of her frazzled blue hair, the little circles in her dull auric eyes spinning rapidly!
"Ah, Miss Minara is quite fond of laughter and levity, it seems?" Hikari remarks off-handedly, not privy to the girl's thoughts.
Minara had already pulled out her secret weapon...
... her phone!
When in doubt,
scroll!
Scroll!!
Scroll for the latest gossip!
The latest scandals and happenings in the vtuber world!
Hit that refresh on the #FYP tag!
Something about vtubers, anything about vtubers...!
At last, she found it, the perfect conversation starter!
Something only she could know.
Something that the rest of the girls definitely would be interested in!
It was perfect, and would center the conversation around her for an hour... at least!
She practically bursts out to the girl with bobbed purple hair,
"Did you know that Horo-Ravioli is shutting down their ENTIRE male vtuber division?!?!"
This time, it was Hikari's turn to have visible question marks atop her head!
The girl had just sat down, started pulling her hair by the strands, and just when it seemed as though she were interested in using her own phone, she suddenly burst out with a combination of words incomprehensible to anyone!
For everyone who is not privy to her thoughts, the sequence of events must have looked strange indeed!
"But Minara," Eclair puts down her cutlery, not understanding her train of thought, "why would that concern us?"
What does that have to do with them!
What does that have to do with them!!
How could one call themselves a vtuber if they did not keep up with what is happening right there in their very own Twxtter feed?
Out of all the girls, only the red-eyed girl with the funny hat was listening intently at least!
The other girls had a mix of confusion, head-scratching and even her good sister-in-law was finishing a fried egg with a smile!
"Piaccta likes ravioli too! But Piaccta likes panchetta better," Our sunshine girl exclaims, completely misunderstanding!
No, not THAT kind of ravioli!
Minara holds her cheeks in her hands, feeling the center of gravity in the room drift from her! The girls started talking about mundane stuff like how the girl with the silver side-tail caught the house chef testing dishes by using avocados in EVERYTHING instead of the latest, newest updates in the virtual world, the world that they live and perform in!
Before Minara can scroll for yet another piece of Twxtter gossip, the girl with the funny hat hops off her chair, fiddling with the window latch behind her,
"Ehhhh, do you guys open the windows here often? The spring air is pretty nice outside now, you know!"
"I think you just have to turn the latch there---"
When the stranger with bright red eyes turned around...
... Minara saw it.
She suddenly burst upwards from her seat, recognition in her eyes!
Every successful vtuber model has a distinctive silhouette...!
The unmistakable way that the head bobbed around while keeping that Frxnch hat stuck on the side of her head...!
If you handed a fan a lineup ten darkened silhouettes, they would be able to pick out their oshi's [42] with ease!
For someone who has burned the designs of the upper echelon of vtuber stardom in her mind, Minara was certain she was correct...!
As if caught by some magnetic pull, she drifts to the side of the red-eyed girl fiddling with the window latch,
and with ease,
the windows unlatch outwards, bringing in the fresh garden air.
"Aaaaand done!" The red-eyed girl dust off her hands, as if it had been her doing all along! Scratching the bottom of her chin, "Arigadomo~ Mist... Hang on!! Whats-your-name again???" The girl swivels her head repeatedly between the two blue-haired girls, like she was seeing double! This might have been a good point to reintroduce herself to the house...
However!
With a shaky side-finger and spirally auric eyes,
the words that tumbled out of Minara's mouth were,
"Do you... do you guys know, that this person is wearing a famous vtuber's skinsuit [3]????"
Glossary
[42] oshi - Vtuber term that refers to a fan's favourite vtuber. Some people have many oshis, some only have one!
[3] Skinsuit - Term for the the 2D/3D virtual avatar that is the 'look' for a veetuba!
We are trying something different! This is a simul-posting at the same time as the Scribblehub release! Go check out the entire series at this link!
