Michael’s hands moved in precise arcs across the tablet’s surface, each movement filling in a scene on the computer monitor in front of him. Slowly, but surely, the rough sketched lines gave way to the image of a young woman with silver hair and stylish sci-fi armor looking longingly at a lily and a picture of another woman with dark, purple hair and pink eyes. The background was a muted, rainy day in the city; the silver-haired woman seated in an empty cafe with her attention focused on the picture and an untouched breakfast beside her. 

Eventually, he sat back and looked at the piece entirely, scanning for any mistakes or elements that needed adjusting. He found a few, a lock of hair out of place, the arm not bent at quite the right angle. Digital art made resolving such errors a straightforward task, thankfully. Finally, he added his watermark, “RainyValkyrie” in clear and legible font, and set about uploading the piece to social media and his personal portfolio site. 

The social media post was quiet, a few likes and shares here and there, while he got up and stretched and took in the overcast day outside his window. “Wish it would rain like this every day.” He sipped a cup of coffee, laden with sweeteners and creamer. “Hope the gals enjoy this piece, I think this is one of my best.” 

A soft ping brought him back to his seat—chat notification from the official server for the game his art was referencing. He opened it up and found a flood of posts about his latest piece.

“Rainy really captured the emotions here! The faraway look, the sad, soft smile, the lily! This is incredible!”  -- DebbyGhast

“Ffffff, I’m so GAY, this piece is really unfair! Girls are goood.” -- VeeryCute

“The picture! Rainy had to have put that in just to twist the knife, what a cruel lady. I love it.” -- DevinitelyAdorbs

Michael choked on his coffee reading the last one and had to take a moment to catch his breath. “I’m no lady, just a guy who likes giving the lesbians what they want.” He scratched his head, cheeks red with embarrassment. “It’s not even that hard, I just put myself in the character’s place and imagine how I’d feel. Who wouldn’t want to be a girl in love with another girl? Dunno why they all think that is some great feat.”

He often left off any mentions of pronouns or gender in his profiles; people drew their own conclusions, and he wasn’t inclined to correct them. Sometimes he felt a little guilty about that, but reminded himself that it was better for the art to speak for itself. After all, that was the interesting stuff, not him.

The community continued to buzz over his new piece, and he eventually had to shut off notifications just to get a bit of peace. Michael smiled as he scrolled through the comments. He had started playing this game a little over a year ago, a sci fi action game about young women fighting against monsters bent on destroying humanity and having to deal with their feelings for each other along the way. The community had been incredibly kind to him, a depressed young man fresh out of college without any idea of what he actually wanted to do and the bills piling up.

Initially, he had been more worried about fitting in. The playerbase, at least the part of it most active on the chat server, tended to be sapphic women drawn to the game’s themes, but they had been wonderful. A few knew he was a guy, but they said that wasn’t a big deal. He had asked one of them, once, why they put up with him being around. She had responded that he would figure it out eventually on his own, but not to fret as he was a ‘good ally’ as she put it. 

Michael still didn’t know what that meant, not really. He did his best to be respectful and take up as little space as possible. It helped that a few of the more active posters were friends of his from back in his high school anime club days. Thinking back to that time made him smile.

Cool autumn days spent at the public library in a comfy little room with the rest of the club came to mind. Initially it had been a bunch of socially-awkward weeb guys, but that had all changed when one of the ‘guys’ figured out she wasn’t. The rest of the club had been super happy for her, and it didn’t take much longer for a few other members to come to similar conclusions. By the last year of school, Michael and his buddy Dennis were the last guys left. Not that they ever felt left out; if anything, having the rest of the gals there meant they could enjoy series that weren’t exactly macho-man material without getting mocked for it. 

Michael doubted he would have come across the game if not for those years. He was glad he did, though. He had been in a pretty low place when he started it, and having such a rich story to connect to and a welcoming community had been exactly what he needed. The income from his fanart was helpful, too. 

There was a loud knock at his door and a soft thud. Michael rushed over and peered through the peephole, but there was nobody there. He opened the door carefully and saw a package addressed to him.

Picking it up, he noted that there didn’t seem to be a return label or any indication of who it was from, just a box decorated in cherry blossoms and strawberries. It was a bit heavier than he expected, but not terribly so. He brought it inside the apartment and opened it up on the counter.

Inside, there were ice packs and insulating foam keeping the smaller box within nice and cool. He pulled it out and found it was a box of ice cream mochi. Strawberry flavored. 

“Who could have possibly sent something like this? I mean I do love mochi, but I wasn’t expecting anything today.” Michael had developed a taste for the stuff back in anime club, the chewy and soft treat becoming his favorite in record time.

A small card had been buried underneath all the packaging, and he fished it out to read.

“RainyValkyrie, you’ve been chosen for our artist appreciation gift box! We hope the contents are to your liking. Enjoy!” -- MeepMeep Mochi

“Huh, what a nice surprise!” He tossed the card back into the box, missing the smaller card that slipped out in the process. It fell to the floor, its message unread.

“Please enjoy MeepMeep Mochi in moderation, as our treats can have surprising effects if consumed too quickly.”

Michael found that the box of mochi was split into two sections with four pieces each. He put one of the sections in the freezer and took the other back to his desk. Another soft ping distracted him from instantly consuming the frozen snack and he groaned before he saw it was a message from Lana, one of his close friends.

“Hey Rainy, saw the new piece. Great work! I’m surprised you got that done so quickly, the new story chapter has only been out for a couple hours. You move fast.” -- LunarLana

“Haha, well it was a really good chapter! Passionate, tragic, full of pathos and hope and dread. How could I not make some art to capture all those feelings immediately?” -- RainyValkyrie

“Be honest, Rainy, how many times did you cry”  -- LunarLana

Michael spluttered, fingers slamming into keys before he composed himself.

“DKFSJLFJSK, I did not cry! Much. Don’t tell the guys.” -- RainyValkyrie

“Pfft, what guys would I tell? You and Dennis are the only dudes I ever talk to anymore. Anyway, that reminds me: are you coming to the cosplay party with me this weekend? It’s Halloween and everyone is gonna be dressing up as characters from the game.” -- LunarLana

He groaned.

“Uggh, I want to come, but who would I even dress as? The guys in this game are all assholes or bland as mashed potatoes.” -- RainyValkyrie

“You know, you don’t have to dress as one of the guys. You could come as one of the gals. I know a certain grey-haired lady with knives is one of your favs. It wouldn’t be that hard, I could help you with the costume.” -- LunarLana

“That is...I couldn’t...what if people think I’m weird?” -- RainyValkyrie

“Rainy, nobody is gonna bat an eye. It’s a queer party, crossplay is a pretty common thing. Plus I think you’ll look cute all dressed up. Wouldn’t be the first time >:3” -- LunarLana

“One time, one time in highschool you convinced me to dress up as a magical girl with you and I never heard the end of it. Fine, fine, I’ll think about it. But no promises!” -- RainyValkyrie

“Yeah yeah, I know you’ll bluster about it and make up your mind at the last minute, so I took the liberty of making the costume for you anyway. I’ve still got your measurements from the Ren Faire last month. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.” -- LunarLana

Michael grinned as he tabbed back over to his browser and fired up some cute cooking anime. Lana was one of his oldest and truest friends. She was a little pushy sometimes, but he had to admit it was generally for his own good, and she knew when to back off. If he was being honest with himself, having someone else make decisions sometimes was nice. Deciding things was hard. 

The cute and catchy notes of the opening theme played softly from the speakers as he finally pulled out one of the frozen mochi. He hummed along as he took a bite and nearly dropped it in surprise. It was, quite possibly, the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. Soft, delicate strawberry flavor interwoven with the impossibly light and chewy texture, the ice cream slowly melting in his mouth. He devoured the rest immediately and began working through the rest of the section. The theme song hadn’t even finished when he realized he had consumed all four pieces. 

“Holy shit, I need more!” Michael dashed over to the freezer and took out the other section, zooming back to his desk in record speed. He started to reach for the first piece and then paused.

“I really need to pace myself with this, something this good should be savored. I know, I’ll eat one piece for each episode I watch, that’s the way to do it.” He let himself enjoy the scenes of girls cooking incredibly tasty dishes for each other, each episode playing into the next one as he slowly enjoyed the mochi. 

Even pacing himself, it felt like no time at all had passed before the second section was empty. He poked at it sadly. Good things never lasted long enough, it seemed. Still, what a nice treat. He failed to suppress a sudden yawn, feeling rather sleepy out of nowhere. Well, it was a beautiful Friday morning, he could afford a nice little nap.

He shuffled over to his couch, too tired to even make it to his bed, and flopped down with a sigh. Surrounded by soft blankets and pillows and a pleasant chill breeze slipping through the cracked window, Michael closed his eyes and let slumber take him.

Vyria_Durav

I hope you all enjoy this story! This is meant as a shorter, fun little story that will have some smutty bits near the end. You can find this and more content also on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vyriadurav?fan_landing=true if you wish to support me further. Catnip will be returning after I finish this story, though I might sneak a chapter in here or there.