: awayuki cookin
: I actually gasped out loud
: we're not so different, you and I
: Tadasu-chan of all people LMAO
“Gulp.”
It was faint, but Tadasu-chan’s mic definitely picked up what sounded like a nervous gulp on her end.
Excellent. Let’s kick things off, shall we? “Okay! And the timer starts...now!” I announced, then muted myself, and on mute I would remain for the next two minutes unless something happened.
“Hm. This is... It’s a little hard for me to imagine,” Sensei said.
“I feel that,” Mashiron said. “I guess for me...it’s like a fantasy of mine?”
“Mm?!”
Mashiron and Sensei hit it off right away. Tadasu-chan, on the other hand, could barely conceal her surprise.
“Yes... Yes...!” she stammered.
“Sometimes you just want something different, right? Like, this virtual stuff is fine too, but there’s just something special about everyone coming together, in person, all at once,” Mashiron said.
“C-Coming together...?” Tadasu-chan squeaked.
“You mean like holding our own? I don’t know... I hate crowds. But the thrill of it is tempting, I’ll admit. Ah, I don’t know. I just feel like it’s such an...out-there experience, I can’t imagine myself being in one,” Sensei said.
“I felt the same way before,” Mashiron said. “But now, I think I’m totally open to it.”
“Mmm?!?!”
“Because you know, a certain senpai already held one,” Mashiron continued.
“Mmmmmmm?!?!?!”
I couldn’t hold in my laughter any longer. “BAA HAAAAAAAAAAA.”
: shut up you're so loud LMAO
: Tadasu-chan doesn't suspect a thing hahaha
: Didn't take you to be a swinger, Mashiron
: Harerun catching mad reputational damage right now LOOOL
: Come on, Miyauchi! The senpai thing was a huge hint!
: Oh. Right. Sorry. I was thinking senpai was referring to Sei-sama for some reason haha whoopsy
: worst. GM. ever. (don't stop)
: oh this is just a trainwreck hahahaha
: GM (Garbage Man) ￥5,353
“Oh, really? I didn’t know that,” Sensei said.
“You didn’t?” Mashiron said. “I watched the whole thing—it was amazing. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I was just like...imagining myself in her place, you know? How good it must feel.”
“Oh? Like how?”
“It’s hard to put into words, but it’s the atmosphere. It’s this pulsing with energy as thousands of hearts beat in harmony and thousands of bodies move in unison to her mesmerizing rhythm.”
“Mm?!” *COUGH* *COUGH COUGH*
I cracked again. “PFFF HAAAAAH. Oh my God. Hareru-senpai at the middle of a thousand-person orgy is too good! Hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk!”
: Hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk hyuk! (seiso)
: i never knew someone could be so unseiso
: this is getting out of hand. now there are thousands of them
<Hareru Asagiri>: the warping of my beloved kouhai's admiration turns my heart into diamond dust...
: ?!
: of course she's here
: watch out, she's here and she's got a tarantula in her hand?
<Hareru Asagiri>: but it makes for good content so it's all good!
: Oh? This is fine?
: she founded live-on after all.
<Hareru Asagiri>: i'm just glad they're hitting it off! And not talking about About Me!
: ha ha ha
: I was suddenly reminded of the time Hareru Asagiri VI (Virtual Insanity) pump-faked her retirement and made myself sad
: I sense irony in that
: At least make "I" stand for idol...
: the fact that we can joke about it now is proof of how far we've come (totally not covering for shuwa-chan by making the moment emotional)
“H-Hareru-senpai?! I-I can explain! The prompt was open-ended and they arrived at this topic of discussion entirely independently! Ha ha! Good! Glad we got that settled. Now back to the show.”
Tadasu-chan had been doing her best to hold it in, making it sound like she had a heck of a loogie to hawk, but with that last cough, something had to give, right? Surely Mashiron and Sensei had noticed by now that she hadn’t participated in the conversation at all?
“Tadasu-san, are you okay?” Sensei said.
“I’m fine. My throat’s just a little dry,” Tadasu-chan replied.
“Oh, that’s no good. By the way, what do you think of all this?” Mashiron said.
Perfect! Sensei picked up on the cough and Mashiron hit her with the follow-up.
“What do I think of...what?” Tadasu-chan said.
“Would you ever want to, you know, be in one yourself one day?” Mashiron said.
“O-O-O-O-O-Of course not!”
“Oh?” Mashiron quipped.
“Hm...” Sensei hummed.
I cackled. “Uh-oh, Tadasu-chan’s on the back foot now. I bet her face is beet red. Fellas, you’ll be saving this one for later, won’t ya?”
: yes but did you have to say it like an 80s TV show host?
: mercilessly sexually harassing her kouhais to fill up her viewers' spank bank. Now that is the mark of a true professional
: I almost respect your uncompromising attitude towards being a menace despite no longer needing to
: if seisoness were radioactive and deadly, you'd be the demon core
: Tadasu-chan's in trouble...
“Why not? Nerves?” Mashiron pressed.
“N-Nerves? No. I’m a member of the great Miyauchi family. It wouldn’t be seemly...”
“What if management asks you to in the future?”
“They’d ask such a thing?!”
“Some might say it’s expected as part of your job.”
“It is?! But, but... I see. What you’re saying is, it is my duty to participate in one myself one day... I... I feel dizzy...”
Mashiron and Sensei both stifled a guffaw. Clearly they’d caught on that Tadasu-chan was the odd one out.
Mashiron had been the one running circles around Tadasu-chan, but now Sensei, as if taking the proverbial torch from Mashiron, seemed poised to speak. “Now, now. I’m sure management wouldn’t force you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with.”
“It’s not that, it’s just... I’ve never thought about it.”
“You’re not interested, then?”
“What?”
“Setting aside that hypothetical ask from management for a moment. You’ve never fantasized about doing something like that? I feel like we all have.”
“F-Fantasize...”
“So you haven’t?”
“Y-You have?”
“Of course.”
“R-Really?”
“Yes! I have—everyone has! So? No interest at all?”
There was an uncomfortably long pause.
Finally Tadasu-chan mumbled, “I mean... I suppose I am, a little...”
*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*
Sensei kept pressing. “You are! In what exactly, if you don’t mind me asking? Which part specifically titillates your curiosity?”
“Well, that— Wait. What is that beeping? Is that Shuwa-chan-senpai?”
“Shuwa-chan,” Mashiron said. “We can hear your alarm going off.”
“Sorry about that. I muted it. Please continue,” I said.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Tadasu-chan asked.
“The round’s over, Tadasu-san,” Sensei sighed. “Time’s up.”
“Sh-Shuwa-chan-senpai, you... You! You can’t just insert yourself into the conversation and try to extend the time! That’s against the rules!”
Whoops. Caught between my duty as GM to end the round and my desire to hear the rest of the conversation, I’d ended up both unmuting myself and letting my alarm go off.
: Tadasu-chan you dog
: oh she's interested all right (smirk)
: shuwa-chan's shamelessness can only be matched by Tadasu-chan's ginormous amount of repressed sexual energy
: I don't think this one's strictly Shuwa-chan's fault
: the time limit be a cruel mistress, yarrr
: discussion so hot the GM had to intervene
: it's not sexual harassment if it's for a game /s