One hell of a crossroads

It didn’t make any sense to me. Nothing about Pep’s stream was particularly clip-worthy. What even happened in it? She lost to a couple of traps, got insulted by chat and ended stream within the hour. Nothing remotely worthy of gaining so much attention, especially within the span of a few hours.

And yet, there it undeniably was. A video paused on an image of Pep’s face with hundreds of likes and thousands of views. Not an internet breaker by any means, but still an unbelievable amount of engagement for a stream that, by all accounts, was a total failure. Which left one question.

“What even is the video?” I asked Yaki.

“I don’t even really know, I had the audio off but I was skipping through and it’s just an empty seat most of the way through, Pep doesn’t even show up until the last few seconds.”

“What? How can that make sen-”

I cut myself off, a sense of foreboding falling upon me. There was only point where Pep was out of her chair for an extended period of time, and I knew exactly what it was.

“...dammit all. Play it from the start. Audio on.”

“Huh? Okay, I guess…” Yaki replied confusedly, fiddling with her phone for a second. A moment later, the video began to play, and my stomach immediately dropped.

“As much as I hate to admit it, there’s brilliance in your madness,” said an all-too-familiar voice on the video.

“Hey, isn’t tha-” Yaki began to speak, but was cut off by another voice. This one unmistakable to either of us.

“Oh? Is that a rare Sai compliment? Been a while since I’ve heard one of those.”

“Mistake me not, your style of play still frustrates me to no end.”

Yaki looked up at me, wide eyed, while I buried my face in my hands. Immediately, I knew what it was about this clip that made it gain so much traction. And I also realised what it was that had made Pep panic for a second when she got back to her computer.

You forgot to end stream, you idiot!

“Is… this clip what I think it is?” Yaki asked after listening to a little more of the audio.

“Y-yeah, I think so.”

“The video’s almost four minutes long, there’s no way you were bickering for all of it, right?”

“I think there was about half a minute between our argument ending and Pep getting back. Forty five seconds at most. So…”

“So your squabbling lasted at least three uninterrupted minutes? Three straight minutes of back and forth babbling like this?”

“I know, it’ll probably be a really awkward scene in the anime adaptation.”

“I’m more impressed you could keep up this rhythm for that long. Listening to you two speak sounds like a theatre kid tried to transcribe an entire Socratic debate from memory.”

“That’s a conspicuously specific comparison.”

“I started studying philosophy to try and figure out what the hell you’re talking about when you go off on your deranged rants.”

“Did it help?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Figured as much.” My grumblings would have to have some actual philosophical backing for that. Though that was hardly what was on my mind at the time. “Have a look at the comments, I wanna see why this got shared around.”

“Aye aye, cap’n.” Yaki opened the comment section of the video and began scrolling, just slowly enough for both of us to read each comment.

Why do they both talk like supervillains LMAO

How my arguments sound in my head when I’m in the shower three days later still thinking about it:

将棋はそれほど大切くないｗｗｗ

I can’t tell if they’re about to kill each other or make out. Or both. Knowing chess players it might be both.

“Do chess players really have that reputation?”

“Bro, you’re worried about that and not the fact that we’re just openly acknowledging the language inconsistency now?”

“I was hoping that if I didn’t pay attention to the stupid dual-location bit he would stop doing it.”

“I feel like we’re getting off track.” Yaki locked her phone and turned her full attention to me. “The way I see it, you’ve been put at one hell of a crossroads here.”

“That being?”

“If you capitalise on this, you could actually help Pep gain notoriety. People might come for you and Sai, but plenty would stay for Pep. On the one hand, that level of exposure right off the bat is a convenience most amateur streamers would kill for. On the other…”

“I’d have to become the public’s dancing monkey to make that work.”

“If you wanna put it bluntly… yeah, pretty much.”

Ah, what a pain. What monkey’s paw bullshit is this? I wanted Pep to see some level of success to make her feel better, and when that opportunity presents itself it’s in the exact way I had hoped to avoid. I didn’t exactly believe in karmic retribution or curses from God, but if I did have a previous life I must have been a real asshole.

In a sense, it would be stupid of me to not seize the opportunity. A golden bullet falls in my lap and I decide not to fire it? Depending on your perspective, it’d be lunacy. An opportunity like this is unlikely to ever befall us again.

But something about all of this didn’t sit right. We may have been bickering over nothing important, but that conversation was private, and now the whole world can hear it. I wasn’t angry at Pep, it was an easy mistake to make, but… well, I couldn’t say I was eager to make it again. And something told me Sai would likely feel the same way. The general public just took a step into our private lives without even having the decency to knock first, and we’re supposed to choose to do it again?

It wasn’t a decision I wanted to make. Let the whole world in, or risk shutting Pep out. Neither was a good option.

Though, I knew one thing for certain. There was no point trying to decide anything without talking to the girls in question.

I was in for an uncomfortable conversation tomorrow.

“Hey, bro?” Said Yaki, rudely interrupting my bitter chapter-closing monologue. “What… are you guys actually talking about here?” It seemed like she had watched the whole clip through while I was doing my whole melancholic narration thing.

“Hmm? It’s about chess, isn’t that obvious?”

“No, I mean what is it really about?”

“It’s…” I trailed off, not having an immediate answer. It wasn’t exactly a lie that conversation was about chess. Or at least that it was rooted in that. But the exact meaning of our words… I couldn’t exactly get it across so easily. “It’s not easy to explain. You just… kinda… have to get it, I suppose.”

“I mean, I’m trying to, but it’s just… too fast for me to make sense of. One second I’m sure you’re talking about one thing, then the next I lose complete confidence in that answer. I just… can’t keep up…” A sad smile flickered on her face as she said this, as if she had just come to a realisation she had never wanted to reach. “...I see. Poor Peps.” She mumbled something just too quiet for me to really make out.

“What was that?”

“Nothing for you to worry about. Just realised I might need to shift my perspective on some things,” she said, quickly snapping back to her upbeat tone. “I’m gonna hit the hay, got some stuff on my mind. Don’t forget to eat dinner again, okay?” She said, wrapping me in a short hug and bouncing towards the stairs.

“Ah- right… night, sis.”

Perhaps it was the dread of the conversation to come the next day, but something about the way Yaki was acting unsettled me. I really hoped I was wrong about why.