Thursday morning, May 8th. One day before Hope's debut as Goddess Arenbi... although on the UTube channel, it was still just listed as REDACTED Ch. ProjectMirAIs-EN.
Sitting in her room, Hope giggled as she organized last minute preparations for her grand debut.
"Let's see... Mister John said it was okay to do Vocaloid songs so... I think opening with the Disappearance of Hatsune Miku is fine, right?"
It wasn't intentional, but Hope realized that Arenbi's lore was similar to Miku's, so she was going to lean into it. But also...
'It would be nice if I could collab with her one day. Or maybe make a song with her?'
Juliet had mentioned that she knew how to mix a little. And Mister John probably knew how to use Vocaloids...
Hope let out a soft smile. "Maybe we could sneak Miku as a hidden fourth member? Mm... I think that might be bad... It'd be funny, but I think I might get in trouble... Oh! I know!"
Miku was definitely a no-go.
But maybe a parody of Miku... Maybe Migu? Mekuu? Mi-cool?
...It needed workshopping, but Hope could definitely do something like that. Maybe make it Arenbi's like little angel mascot or something...
Hope nodded and said, "That works!" She scribbled out the idea on her notepad and then turned the page to jot down all the stream ideas she had.
It wasn't too much.
Since Erie and Juliet had both had heavy streams, Hope wanted to just have fun. Something lighthearted and joyful to finish up the debuts.
There was definitely still some lore to finish everything up. Since Arenbi was supposed to be the reason why Meryl got isekai'd as Niko and then lead up to reviving Zen, she needed to put something out there to address that...
But Hope was thinking she would probably do an audio drama or something later.
'If I focus on the things that only I can do, then it can let other people fill in the rest, right?'
Hope had seen how a lot of people drew and animated over VTuber clips, so if she released the audio drama for the lore, there would probably be people who would take it and draw over it.
'That way, everyone can participate.'
Hope didn't want it to just be about herself or about Arenbi.
Just like how Mister John gave her a second chance. Just like how Project MirAIs had inspired so many people to keep going in life.
Hope wanted to do that too.
So-
*knock knock*
Hope jumped and glanced back at her door. The moment she did, Juliet's voice echoed.
"Hope, are you up? Erie and I were going to go shopping. Did you want us to bring you something to eat when we get back?"
Hope paused to consider it.
On one hand, she could keep working and brainstorm more fun ideas for her stream.
On the other...
Hope smiled and got up. "No. It's okay. I'll come too." She stretched and said, "I think I should take a break."
Juliet opened the door and walked inside, wearing a plain black hoodie and jeans. "Alright, Erie and I were thinking-" She suddenly stopped talking and let out an audible gasp.
Hope tilted her head, confused. "What is it?"
"ERIE! COME OVER HERE!"
Erie sprinted over, wearing a t-shirt with a random album cover and cargo pants. "What happened?! Are you- WHOA!"
Hope pouted and said, "What's with that reaction?"
Erie pointed at Hope's hair and said, "Hope! Your hair! It's not blue!"
Hope blinked. Then she grabbed a handful of her hair and said, "Oh! I haven't dyed it yet today."
Juliet's olive green eyes widened and she said, "Dyed it 'today?' You dye your hair every day?!"
Hope nodded. "Of course I do! I don't use the strong dye since it makes my hair too dry, so I just use a dye that lasts about a day and washes out with a special shampoo!"
Erie gasped. "Wait, wait. Doesn't that mean you can just confuse people all the time if you wanted?! Like, change your hair color every day?!"
Hope paused. "...I mean, I guess so? I've never thought about it though since it would make people confused-"
"WE COULD BE TWINSIES!" Erie ran over and hugged Hope. "We can match hair and run around and pretend to be REAL sisters! And then the next day you could dye your hair black and pretend to be Julie's sister and we could make SO many people confused!"
Hope blushed but she hugged Erie back and giggled. "That's mean, Erie! ...But I like it!" She finished the hug and walked over to her bathroom, planning to rummage around her hair products. "I think I have some red temporary dye here! Give me a bit!"
Erie pumped a fist in the air and said, "Yes! That's what I'm talking about! We keep that gas LIT!"
Hope giggled again as she shut her bathroom door to look around the cabinet. "Sky-blue hair dye, midnight black... oh!" She called out and said, "I have some Bloody Red! It might be a bit too red though..."
Erie called out and said, "PERFECT! I have some golden costume contacts! Let's go with you cosplaying Niko!"
Juliet groaned and said, "The point of being a VTuber is to NOT reveal our identities, Erie..."
"Says who? Mister John said we can stream how we want. And besides, we don't have to confirm anything. It'll be more fun this way too!"
Juliet sighed. "This is SUCH a bad idea..."
"You mean a GREAT idea! Think of the publicity! The memes! The jumpscares as people wonder if Protest is ACTUALLY a group of reincarnated souls from another world!"
"Lore is gonna HATE us for this, you know?"
"Meh, he loves retconning things anyway."
Hope smiled as she listened to Juliet and Erie banter.
It was nice.
While Hope never had any sisters... she was pretty sure it'd be like this. And that made her happy.
...Well, she had technically had foster sisters in the past, but it didn't count. They were all struggling together then, so it was a bit toxic...
Hope shook her head and then started applying the hair dye, starting up the shower to do a few rinses to make it stick.
Erie's voice called out from the other side and said, "Really Hope? You're taking a shower now?"
Hope massaged the dye into her hair and said, "Unless you want me to look like a horror movie victim with red dripping everywhere, I'll need to shower a bit." She paused. "...And it's going to look like a murder scene in here for a few days. Don't mind the red."
"Oh my god, that's true!" Erie laughed and said, "Hey, Julie. What if we just post some pictures of Hope's shower with no context?"
"...Are you TRYING to get us banned off social media?"
"But the memes! And it's totally on brand for Zen! And Niko!"
"...That's true..."
Hope rolled her eyes and let the dye settle in. As she did, she said, "Just why did you two decide to do so much bloody stuff anyway? Now everyone's going to expect me to do it too!"
Erie answered first and said, "Well, it was therapeutic for me. Julie?"
"...No comment."
"Pft. Don't tell me you just did it because you thought Hana would find it funny?"
"..."
"OH MY GOD YOU DID?!"
Hope giggled and tapped her fingers against her hair. Since it came back dry, she took off her cute pink clothes (making sure to carefully isolate them to not get stained) and stepped into her shower.
It was cool water. Not warm, but definitely also not cold.
Past experience had taught Hope that it was the best way to make sure the hair dye didn't go everywhere...
Probably.
...Okay, it still made a mess, but it made Hope feel like it was less of a mess, so that was what counted.
After a few minutes of scrubbing, ignoring the crime scene that her shower had become, and making sure to grab a colored towel instead of a white towel...
Hope dried herself and wrapped the towel around her before stepping out of the bathroom. "I don't want to get my cute pink clothes to get ruined, so I'll need to change-"
Juliet gasped.
Erie's eyes widened. "HOPE?!"
Hope blinked. "What?"
"YOU HAVE TATTOOS?!"
Hope paused. "Oh! Did I never show you? I have a cute pink rose over my heart-"
"YOU HAVE A ROSE ON YOUR BOOB?!"
Hope huffed and said, "It's over my heart! Not my boob!"
"Same thing!"
Hope rolled her eyes and walked over to her closet. "Why are you acting so surprised anyway? A lot of girls have tattoos!"
Erie stared at the tattoos on Hope's back and midriff that were usually hidden from all her fluffy clothing. "There's having 'a' tattoo and then turning your body into a work of art. Hot DAMN. How much did all of that cost?!"
"Hm?" Hope paused in the middle of changing into a simple black t-shirt and said, "Oh, not much. I knew a girl who was studying to be a tattoo artist and she did them for me as long as I paid for the ink! I think for all of this it was only around a couple hundred dollars?"
Erie stared at the literal stained glass mosaic tattooed on Hope's back. Then at the pink hearts wrapping around Hope's left bicep and the magical girl-inspired stars on her right bicep... "...Hope."
Hope finished changing and tossed her now dyed red hair back. "Yes?"
"...You're a scam. A complete scam. How can you be all... you?! And then also have tattoos like that?!" Erie pointed at Juliet and said, "Julie's grandpa was literally a Don and SHE doesn't have anything that crazy tattooed on her!"
Juliet nodded. "It's true. The only tattoo I have is a dot on my left wrist."
Erie paused and quickly looked. "Wait. That's not a mole or a birthmark?"
"Nope. My mother had it done at birth so they'd know if I got switched. It happened a lot around the time I was born."
"...I'm done with this conversation." Erie sighed. "Let's just go shopping... Oh yeah, here's the contacts, Hope."
"Nice! I have some too, but they're either pink hearts and stars or black, so-"
"You have black contacts? Why?!"
"...To scare people?" Hope tilted her head. "Guys don't approach a pretty girl at night with white hair if they have completely black eyes, you know? And if you smile, they usually think you're a real ghost, so they run away!" She paused. "Or try to pull out a gun. But that's why I have one too! Or used to. I had to throw it away because I found out that someone scratched off the serial number."
"...Okay. I'm taking away your normie card. Because what the fuck."