It was already nine, which meant it was time to start heading to the office. Callie and Marie had left a while ago, since they usually got there before everyone else. Today was kind of a big deal, we had an audition for a new cast member. We haven't added people to the cast in three or four years, which was when Token and Steven joined. For most of the people in the office, this would be a normal day. But for us, someone new might be joining. I guess I was a little bit excited, because this would give a bit of a shake-up to things that we do.
After taking little to no time to get ready, I started the walk to work. It took only ten or so minutes, but it felt awful with the heat and humidity of the day. I was lightly sweating by the time I made it, and it didn't seem that the heat was letting up all day. And now that I was here, it's time to begin preparing.
Okay. Now, you may be wondering what I do for work. Well, I work with the Squid Sisters, obviously. I mean, they give me a place to stay and some money. But I run a YouTube channel of theirs, specifically the gaming one. I have no idea how I convinced them to start one, but they agreed to do it. It's been running for six years now, starting back in 2012. Since the start, we've had a main cast of me, Callie, and Marie, along with some friends of ours, Chen, Matt, and John. On the second anniversary of the channel, we had some more friends join us, the aforementioned Steven and Token. And about after four years of running and being involved with the channel, Callie and Marie distanced themselves from it to focus on things surrounding their music careers. So I've been handed down the majority control of the channel, which was called Squid Sisters Gaming (original as fuck, I know), for the past two years. I did a lot of the work for the channel before, such as some parts of production and having a large say in what shows were in the lineup at any moment, but now I officially had the title for it.
The group was pretty close when we started the channel, as we were friends before this whole thing even started. And we added more friends, which only made doing this more fun for us. Even after Callie and Marie left, the group was still fine and we all still talked often. As someone who does a lot of comment reading for the channel to find suggestions from fans, I'm surprised that we're still friends as people were pretty confused and/or pissed when the Squid Sisters left. But I guess they knew it was a quick reaction to something that needed to happen eventually. And they still come back every once in a while for some episodes.
"Yo! Jack!" Someone yelled from down the hall. From the voice I guessed it was Token. "Look who finally showed up!" He joked. "Go fuck yourself. And it's not like we started filming or anything, so I'm on time." I said. "Yeah, but everyone else is here already, so you're late. But come on, we gotta get ready to start." He said, dragging me down the hall with him. Bringing me into the main room, the whole cast was here. And of course they were playing Smash. It was our favorite party game and things got pretty intense between us.
So a bit about our group. First, Matt and John. They're both from the States, with Matt being from New York and John being from Colorado. Matt is 28, and John is 26. They came to Japan for abroad schooling, and then applied for citizenship after they got the job.
Chen. She's from South Korea, and is the only cast member to be from anywhere not named Japan or North America. She is pretty secretive and secluded, though she's comfortable around us. At 24, she's the youngest member of the crew. She hasn't moved to Japan, as she maintains residency in South Korea because she goes back often to stay with her family.
Next is Token. Shockingly, his name isn't actually Token, it's Jordan. He gets the name from television terms for the forced black character in a show. We didn't add him for diversity reasons, just he went by that name online as a joke of sorts. He already had a channel, much like everyone in our cast, where he went by Token, so he just kept the name to make the transition as smooth as possible. He moved to Japan when he turned 19, solely because he wanted to go somewhere new. He's from Utah, and is also 26.
Now onto Steven. Steven is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. That being said, he came to Japan with his girlfriend when he was 20 and she was 21. He did some more years of school here before and during his time on the channel. He wants to get his doctorates and eventually go to medical school. He's now 30 and in med school.
I was pulled from my thoughts by a GameCube-styled controller being shoved in my face. "Oh. You guys must want to get destroyed." I taunted. "Sure, sure. Stop talking and start playing." John said. We always played in four-player mode, just to keep things moving. As always, I picked Jigglypuff, John went with Ike (fucker), Chen played Pichu, and Matt chose Toon Link. Unsurprisingly, Chen won. She was really good at the game, so beating us was a casual thing now. But it was always down to the wire. The Sing+Sleep combo was effective and I went for it enough that it landed consistently. The thing was that the combo was harder to land on Pichu than any other character due to its smaller hitbox, so Chen had that advantage.
"Another round, another embarrassing defeat to two of the worst characters for Matt." John mocked. "You lost as Ike, so don't even start." Matt shot back. They continued to take jabs at one another as we set up the next game. Token insisted that I play King K. Rool, so I did. I played him for fun, usually as a joke or to prove that heavy characters are a bit too good, but I knew how to play him. Chen tried the Ice Climbers for shits and giggles, as they were one of the worst in the game. Token played Ridley, as he usually did. And John played Yoshi, deciding it was time to switch. In a not so exciting fashion, John basically wasted all three of his stock trying to recover from jumping off the stage, not getting launched, but jumping off. Token spent the match using his Side+B because it was the most fun thing for him. It didn't work too well, as Chen would spam B to freeze him then launch him off the stage.
But the battle went on, with Token and Chen on their last stock, and me with all three. Some would call that game, but for anyone that knew Chen, it was never over. She was incredible at playing games, and is high tier in almost every game she plays. And this was no exception. I was expecting a comeback; she always knew what to do at the right time to win. But so did I. She would be playing close to the edges, trying to bait out a spike and dodge it, which would almost certainly kill me. With that in mind, I now have to set up a different combo to end it. Or I could just use a Smash Attack. Whichever came first, I guess.
We were at a stalemate, both of us just dodging, waiting for the other to attack. And it took a little bit, but we began to fight again. I had a new plan. Get close to the edge, jump, but don't leave the stage, and bait out a spike dodge. Once she dodges, hope I've landed by then and go for an Up Smash. If all goes according to plan, the match ends. It was a simple plan, but it was all I had at the time. After setting it up, and attempting to execute it, it actually landed. The screen zoomed in, had the red background and lightning and shit, and launched the Ice Climbers off screen. The group behind us were cheering as Chen and I shook hands. "So what are we filming today?" I asked. "It's Tuesday, so we have nothing to film, though we could start prepping videos if you want." Steven answered. "How many Smash videos have we done in this month?" I asked. "Three or four." He answered. "We're only two weeks in and we already have a good amount of Smash as our content. Great." I said. "Well, we do love playing this game." Steven shot back.
"Whatever. We could just not film." Matt interjected. "Fine. But we have to stockpile some stuff soon." I said. We had to leave for the States in about four days for PAX South, which starts on the 18th, and we need to be in town at least the day before. Most of the stuff released during the trip would be vlogs or stuff we film in Texas, but some stuff had to be prepped. "Should we troll and make all three prep releases Smash? I mean, easy for us to film, edit and the fans probably wouldn't mind too much either." Chen suggested. "Of course you're fine with it, you play it professionally." I joked. But we all agreed it would be worth it to just film Smash. We knew we had to switch it up a little though, or they'd get bored of the game.
And so we came up with an idea.
And we're done! I know this was kind of a cliffhanger, but I feel that it would get too long if I kept going. So next time you'll see the idea they have and maybe some of the PAX trip. I''m not sure how far I'll get. But thanks for sticking around and reading after the longs ass break I took.
Read the other shit I write at:
WP: wattpad,com/user/kymeechee
FFN: fanfiction,net/~kymchee
FP: fictionpress,com/~kymchee
(Replace commas with periods)