Happy Christmas?
Today's crew collab was set to take place on Lucy's stream.
The Best Streamer selection was coming up at the end of the month as always, and this time Miho and Lucy were the candidates. Miho was safely in the clear, but Lucy had a few soft spots in her numbers, so we'd made this choice to pad her stream metrics.
"Mayo wants to be a Best Streamer too, geosida."
"Unfortunately, Mayo, you don't have enough stream hours yet."
Mayo had transferred the latest among us, so she still hadn't met the stream-hour requirements for Best Streamer. It looked like she'd only be able to go for it in January.
"Alright, then. Going live."
"Okay!"
We waited on Discord while Lucy went live first.
The waiting screen for Lucy's stream, unveiled for the first time to mark the Christmas special crew collab. Snowflakes drifted gently through the air, painting a beautiful world of white night, while Lucy's character—transformed into an SD chibi—toddled across the snow, leaving little footprints behind. With every step, the Loading gauge filled a little more.
Since we'd already announced that the Christmas special collab would be on Lucy's stream, viewers were pouring in at a speed that was hard to believe for her usual broadcasts.
I entered as manager and scanned the chat. Given that I had the biggest presence and had been the center of that huge "incident" just yesterday, it seemed like about sixty or seventy percent of the mentions were about me.
Ahem! As a streamer it felt good, but it wasn't exactly a desirable situation. When crew members start getting compared to each other like this, someone's feelings are bound to get hurt. It wasn't really a matter of anyone's personality. That's just how the world works, isn't it? Getting crushed by the "perfect kid next door," constantly compared, and before you know it you're full of inferiority complexes and your mental state tanks. It's pretty much the same thing. When you stream with a crewmate who has a much bigger presence, you start feeling self-conscious without even realizing it.
Everyone has their own charm, and the opportunities are already lined up. Let's take it steady. Steady.
Even just in Rena World alone, plenty of opportunities remained.
While I was fretting over the crew members' futures, Lucy must have decided the warmup was sufficient, because she switched off the waiting screen.
"Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for coming to V-Live crew's Christmas stream. Welcome~"
Looking at Lucy's avatar in her pretty Santa girl outfit, I was struck all over again by how much had changed since before my regression. Was this the power of environment? Back then, even after coming to Pangea TV, she never managed to break out of the mold of a top-ten scholarly streamer.
Well, the environment of the crew she belongs to is different now.
The old V-mellodi had been basically a business crew. A crew where everything revolved around Blueby. They only called Lucy in when they needed a collab or a song, and she never got any real streaming support. If you said that was just the kind of crew it had always been, I wouldn't have much of a comeback. They were all adults, after all, and if a streamer chose that path themselves, then taking responsibility for it was ultimately their own job.
But I didn't want to build a crew like that. At the very least, in this wild jungle of a streaming scene, I wanted crewmates who could lean on each other's backs and rely on one another. That's why I worked hard giving streaming feedback, and whenever we did collabs, I pushed the crewmates who were short on metrics—helping them like this. And those efforts of mine were drawing out changes in Lucy that were completely different from before the regression.
Well... the outfit is still pretty conservative, though.
For a Santa girl, the exposure was pretty low. But compared to before the regression, when she'd insisted on nothing but hanbok, it was a complete sea change.
"Shall we start calling in our friends, then? First up for introduction is none other than the crew's youngest! The mayonnaise ghost! The adorable little villain! It's Mayo!"
While I'd been admiring Lucy's changes, the opening banter had apparently wrapped up. Through Discord's screen share settings, Mayo's avatar—who'd been waiting—popped into view beside Lucy with a "Ta-da!"
"Mayo has appeared to save all the lonely singles spending Christmas alone, geosida!"
Whether she'd practiced the pose beforehand or not, the way she winked and naturally formed a V with her fingers looked incredibly cute. At eighteen, honestly, anything you do is cute.
At some point Lucy had settled into a motherly position toward Mayo, and she tried to lecture her: "You should greet people politely."
"Lucy unnie is an old fogey, geosida."
"M-Mayo! Where did you learn such a bad word!"
"Hmm? Seo-a unnie taught me, geosida."
"Seo-a!"
Hey, I'm genuinely wronged here. That Mayo brat had been ill-mannered from the first day I met her. Taking full advantage of the fact that my turn to appear hadn't come yet, that rotten Mayo was spreading baseless rumors to her heart's content.
Still, watching the two of them banter without any awkwardness made me pretty proud. Holding a talk this confidently in front of over fifteen hundred viewers... I could feel how much both Lucy and Mayo had grown.
"Mayo, shall we call in Miho unnie next?"
"Mayo wants to let Miho unnie go free without calling her into the collab, geosida. Miho unnie is really running out of time, geosida. Once this year ends, dating might get even harder for her, geosida."
"Yaaah— Mayo, you're really gonna get it!"
Miho appeared, her rage gauge completely maxed out by an ad-lib that hadn't even been in the script.
The moment she appeared, Miho started bickering with Mayo just like their usual rival dynamic. And Lucy in the middle, keeping the two of them appropriately in check. Just a month ago there'd still been awkwardness among the crewmates, so seeing them this natural made it hard to hide how proud I was.
"Seo-a unnie is a real devil, geosida. Yesterday she tormented me by making me grind mining until late at night, geosida."
"She told me I had to make thirty Strength Potions II and thirty Speed Potions II as my quota before I could end stream."
"Huh? She did that to you guys too? She told me to finish every single building commission I'd received by the 27th. No, seriously, isn't this too much? The workload is insane."
"......"
Wasn't it said that the best way for people to get close is to have a common enemy? Everything about me being happy that the crewmates had gotten closer just a moment ago is hereby canceled. Looking at it now, these people had been talking trash about me behind my back.
What the hell is this!? Are they all painting me as some evil boss right now?
True to form for an audience that lived to roast streamers, the moment the angle presented itself they united as one heart and one mind to denounce me.
Ahaha! Look at these little shits?
I quickly sent Lucy a signal on Discord to call me in.
"Actually, I'm completely satisfied with the work environment. Working in Suriname was my dream, you know. But it seems Mayo and Miho unnie have had a lot of complaints?"
"Huh? Lucy, what's that all of a sudden?"
"Lucy unnie, are you seriously betraying us, geosida?"
"Ahem, our final guest. The shining leader of our V-Live crew! You've waited long enough. Seo-a, it's your turn!"
Through Discord screen share, an avatar suddenly popped up between Lucy and Mayo. If Miho was on the sexy route, my avatar was wearing a highly athletic-designed Santa outfit.
No, that wasn't the important part right now.
The moment I appeared, I raised both middle fingers.
The Happy Christmas that comes around every year.
This year, I hereby declare war.