"Martha's Vineland"

Meanwhile, in Neo-Neon Tokyo: for a week straight, Zipper Chute and the Dime Boys grinded their hobbies. All three wanted to be intellectuals and creatives. Zipper wanted to make everyone happy; Sue wanted to become famous; Nat wanted…well, who knows with Nat? In fact, while Zipper and Sue worked hard in a small studio at Starlight Cafe, Nat went out on her own, apparently learning her craft somewhere else. Sue speculated that maybe ol’ Nat was just embarrassed about her hobby.

Zipper and Sue both chose writing. Words from the heart spilled forth like a flooded river as each worked on their stories. It was a time of camaraderie, of tension, of learning and lessons. Sue taught Zipper the three-act-structure; Zipper taught Sue that it was volleyball, not bolleyball. They debated grammar, pacing, character archetypes, even the best way to employ some subtle political commentary. When they ran out of steam, Sue would take Zipper with her on a walk around the city, seeing the parks, gardens, noodle shops, subway stations. The words started to flow better, faster. The conversations eased up; they reminisced about high school, about old times. They were hopeful for the future, about the things they’d do after the vision quest was over. They woke up early each day to start writing early; they went to bed late after a good day of work.

On the last night, they were laying on tatami mats in bedrolls, lights off, when Zipper said into the darkness, "Still regret this vision quest, old chum?"

Sue chuckled. "Don't get too ahead of yourself. I know I'm smart, I don't need no vision quest to prove it. Magenta Sue's going to top, dig?"

Zipper laughed and yawned. As she drifted off to sleep, she heard Sue faintly murmur-

"Well, yanno...I do appreciate you bringing me out here and all, though..."

They woke up the next morning in a compromising position, of course - perhaps a good omen for the future ahead…

When Zipper and Sue arrived at Starlight Cafe, they found Nat already waiting outside, eyes closed, looking tired from a long week of work herself. Sue went to give her a light chop to wake her up, manga-style, but she slipped and instead punched Nat across the face.

Inside the cafe, Sue offered a, “Eto…sorry,” with a tilted head, knuckles rapping against her temple, tongue stuck out. Nat simply sighed, Azuki having space-taped a slab of meat to the bruise.

Today's judges were already at their usual table. The beret-clad leader Fujiwara Kaede smoked slowly from her nose-pipe, eyeing the Dime Boys; genki Kyoko worked on a model of Himeji Castle.

“I told you before,” Azuki reminded Zipper. “You don’t need to prove anything for Kaede. There’s plenty of other Do-Nothings you can meet up with, even within this cafe.”

Zipper grinned. “I spent the past six years going through the motions. This is the first time I’ve ever felt like proving something. I’m gonna show Beret-san over there that I’m a Do-Nothing that’s gonna spread happiness, because if I don’t show her, how can I show anyone?”

Sue nodded. “Me too. I’m gonna show Kaede that I truly meant it when I said that if they threw me to Japanese wolves, I’d come back a mother. She takes my love for Japan and knowledge of its intricate customs and tropes too lightly!”

Nat and Azuki glanced at each other.

After they finished breakfast, the Dime Boys approached the intellectual duo, Azuki smiling in encouragement from behind the counter.

“Yaho!” greeted Kyoko.

“So,” said Kaede, smoke rising like a dragon from her nostrils. “You’ve come back from the Saturday Morning Cartoon Emporium.”

“Boy, did we ever,” Zipper answered. “We’ve spent this last week going through the canon, dig. I’ve read that little Antigone play and all the others.”

Sue nodded. “Golly, those Greeks sure make incest interesting. Oedipus Rex was fantastic, even though I prefer it when the combo's nii-chan/imouto."

Zipper let out a long sigh, then resumed. “In any case, we’ve used what we’ve learned to create, as any good Do-Nothing should. Now presenting-”

AND I FEEL FINE

A NOVEL BY ZIPPER CHUTE

After brain-mailing the novel to Kaede, Zipper waited, arms crossed, feeling quite confident. She wrote 1,000 words in seven days, and even edited 200 of them! Everything she knew, about life, love, the stars - she threw into And I Feel Fine, the novel that would surely come to define a generation.

Kaede projected it so the trio could reach together. 

“Yaho,” said Kyoko, intrigued. 

Kaede read for a long while.

“There’s room for improvement,” she concluded.

“Wha?” Zipper protested. “What I wrote is pure genius.”

Kaede shook her head. “No, what you wrote is-”

CHAPTER THREE - "Z."

“What are needs?” Grace asked. She and I stood in a classroom.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“Needs are what you need,” Grace explained.

“I see,” I said.

“We all need Something,” Grace explained.

“I agree,” I answered. I swung an arm very fastly. “My Something is being creative and making people happy.”

“Well said,” said Grace.

With so many eyes on her, Zipper looked off to the side. “Well, I mean…I thought I was proud of it.”

Kaede stopped her projection. “I don’t even know where to start my critique. Perhaps it’s with your birth.”

Kyoko stepped in. “C’mon, Kaede, don’t be mean. It reminds me of our fanfiction days, remember? We were just starting out…”

Kaede, forehead vein popping, smushed Ayako’s cheeks. “I told you, we don’t talk about my fanfiction days.”

“Uh-huh…sshorry, yaho…”

Zipper stepped back, face low, feeling defeated. She didn’t get it. She practiced for so long and wrote so many words, how was her writing not good yet? It didn’t make any sense. 

Working hard = reward. 

The reward was good writing. Where was it?

“Magenta Sue’s turn!” said Magenta Sue. “Now presenting-”

FINGER GAME!

BY MAGENTA SUE

Kaede’s face drooped as she read Sue’s writing. “This…this isn’t even a story. This is just a plot summary for a Japanimation. And not a very inspired one, either.”

FINGER GAME! - Mari is a high school third year. She’s set to make the piano equivalent of Koshien, but disaster strikes one morning! While rescuing a small child from an incoming truck, Mari loses her finger. She’s very sad! Desperate to play the piano and win the competition, she agrees to an Occult Club ritual that seemingly restores her finger. All is well…until the finger not only reveals that it has a mind of its own, but that it’s the finger of the Demon King! As the King's influence starts spreading across her body, Mari must find out how to remove his influence and restore her true finger, all the while resisting his offers of power. It won’t be easy. Not only does Mari have a competition to win, but there’s also a boy she likes, while the Demon King sees several potential queens among her classmates…

Sue karate chopped the air. “You got harem hijinks, love triangles, huge amounts of moe, yuri-baiting, and the best part is - the whole thing is one gigantic tournament arc!”

“But this is just an outline,” Kaede said. “You have to actually write your story.”

Sue paused. “Hmm…I hadn’t thought about that…shoot.”

Both Zipper and Sue stood in the corner, crestfallen.

Last up was Nat.