A few hours later, the door to Protest's shared apartment opened up with a click as someone used a key from the outside.
Hope flinched and turned towards the door while burying herself in her fortress of solitude. For a split second, panic welled up inside her at who it could be, old instincts from living alone flaring to life.
But then Erie's voice called out. "Hope! I'm back! Are you still awake- Oh my god, did you build ANOTHER pillow fort?"
Hope wriggled out of her fortress of solitude and puffed her cheeks. "It's not a pillow fort! It's my fortress of solitude! The place where I recharge!"
Erie walked inside, amused and said, "What are you, a superhero or something?"
"I'm a magical girl and I'm out of mana!" Hope glanced past Erie and then noticed that Juliet wasn't around. "Did Julie not come with you?"
"Ugh." Erie rolled her eyes and locked the door behind her. "Don't remind me... Rin's mom asked one question and Juliet flipped into fangirl mode and went on a whole tirade. I think she's still in Akihabara with Miss Yue and Miss Sakura."
Hope tilted her head. "Don't you mean Mrs. Smith?"
Erie paused. "...Damn. It IS Mrs. Smith, isn't it?" Erie facepalmed. "...That would probably have made her less frosty..."
Hope giggled. "Did you and Julie keep calling her Miss Yue?"
Erie's ears turned red and said, "You've seen her! She totally has like, 'I will murder you if you speak to me wrong' vibes!"
"But Mrs. Smith is nice!"
"To you, maybe! Wait." Erie blinked. "Why does Miss Yue like you so much anyway? She showed up on your stream chat too, didn't she?"
"Oh! That's because I helped babysit Rory a lot! And she likes me!" Hope smiled. "She's super cute, you know? We should ask if we can help babysit her together sometimes!"
"...I think I'll pass. I wouldn't trust me with my own baby, let alone someone else's." Erie walked inside and set down some paper bags filled with yakiniku.
Hope sniffed the air and her stomach immediately growled, making her blush.
Erie paused and sighed. "Hope. Did you not eat anything the entire time we were out?"
"M-Maybe? I-I mean, I had ice cream!"
"Ice cream is not a full meal."
"It has calories! That's all you need, right?"
"...I get why Julie worries about you now. You're waaay too used to struggle meals." Erie chuckled. "Anyway, we've got some proper wagyu skewers here and some other stuff. Fried chicken, some pork, veggie kebabs... There's enough food here for like three people, so-"
Hope quickly dashed out of her fortress of solitude before snatching the bag and retreating inside of it. "Mine!"
Inside of the fortress was pure darkness, shoved back only by the light from Hope's phone, still open to comments on Arenbi's livestream.
Erie let out an exasperated sigh and said, "You are NOT seriously eating the food inside a pillow fortress like a kid right now."
Hope stuck her hand out and flipped Erie off. "My life, my rules! I protest your expectations!"
"What the fuck? OI!"
Hope peeked her head out and blew a raspberry at Erie.
"Why you...!" Erie immediately lunged into the fortress too, knocking all the pillows over, along with the blankets.
Hope gasped. "E-Erie! Stop!"
"Leader or not, you've been acting like such a brat that I oughta- KYA?!"
"OH MY GOD I'M SORRY!"
"H-Hope! Stop moving your hands, that's my- Ahn~"
"KYA! SORRY SORRY SORRY!" Hope quickly scrambled out of the fortress, her face burning with embarrassment while she hugged the bag of grilled meats to her chest.
Erie managed to squirm out of the fortress's wreckage too, her face a beet red. "We. Are. NEVER. Speaking about this to Julie."
"DEAL!"
Erie quickly rehooked her bra and adjusted her skirt. "...I can't believe I got an actual anime-styled yuri scene right now..."
Hope felt her face burn more and decided to change the subject. Clearing her throat, she said, "S-So! What's your plan for streaming tomorrow?"
Erie quickly latched onto the change in subject, clearly wanting to forget anything happened. "R-Right. Well, Mister John said that I own Freddy's 100% now, so I was thinking to start brainstorming attractions with chat."
Hope sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out a skewer. After listening to Erie, Hope's eyes widened and she gasped. "That's such a good idea! And you can even do like, pre-order door tickets! Maybe with limited edition merch too!"
Erie paused. Then her emerald eyes twinkled. "I knew I liked you, Hope! That's perfect!" She quickly ran over to the living room to grab a notepad and pen. "Alright, so everyone in the chat during a certain time period gets something special. Maybe if they timestamp their messages... Mira-chan can probably do that."
Hope nodded. "She definitely can! Ooh, and you can like do a full ARG game! Maybe make it look like Meryl's ghost is haunting your stream! Or websites!"
Erie snapped her fingers. "Genius!" She quickly wrote it down and said, "I'll have Lore help with the Easter eggs. I'm sure he'd love it. And he'd make things so obscure that people will be going crazy at the implications... Think I should have a super secret Easter egg that wins you limited merch?"
"You could make a Meryl voodoo doll!"
Erie froze. Then she pointed at Hope and said, "HOPE! YOU GET ME!"
"Yes!" Hope giggled. "Of course I do! I'm your leader!"
"If it wasn't for the fact that it would open up soooo many cans of worms, I could kiss you."
Hope blushed. "T-Thank you for the compliment, but I'll pass. I tried that once in high school and it was weird..."
Erie paused. "...Oh my god. Hope. You've kissed a girl before?!"
"W-W-Well..." Hope took a bite of a skewer, buying time by chewing. But after the silence stretched on for a minute and Erie was still waiting, Hope blushed and said, "...Katie Berry's 'I Kissed a Girl' was playing at a party. Guys were trying to come onto me and make me drink stuff. So I kissed a girl and pretended to like them... It worked, but um. It was weird..."
Erie gave Hope a blank stare.
Hope felt her cheeks burn and hid her face behind the paper bag, nibbling on the grilled meat skewers.
"Hope."
"Y-Yes, Erie...?"
"HOW MUCH LORE DO YOU HAAAAVE?!"
"I DON'T KNOW! I'M JUST MEEEEEE!"
===
After a few awkward moments and, ironically, protests, Hope and Erie calmed down.
Hope's face was still warm, but she'd managed to compose herself enough to talk and said, "A-Anyway. So your next stream is going to be for designing your first restaurant?"
Erie sipped on a melon soda she got from the fridge and said, "That's right. I think I can probably set it up in VR too, so we can see what it will be like in person before I actually make it."
Hope's eyes sparkled. "Then can't you release it too? The VR stage, I mean! Like, as merch!"
Erie paused. Then she said, "Hope. You are a marketing genius."
Hope giggled and rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm not that good... I've just thought about how to make money a lot. You have to do that to live by yourself, you know!"
"..."
Hope blinked, confused at Erie's silence.
Erie sighed. "...Sorry. Just realizing that I went into becoming Meryl without a proper monetization strategy or even thinking about my future."
"Oh." Hope let out a warm smile. "It's okay. You were a kid, weren't you?" Hope giggled. "I mean, technically, you still kind of are."
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm a proper adult now! I'm legal AND I can consent!"
Hope rolled her eyes. "Just because you're eighteen doesn't make you not a kid. You still haven't had a lot of life experiences yet!"
"You're only like, two years older than me!"
"I'm sorry, were YOU the one bouncing around the foster care system and trying not to get graped?"
"OH MY GOD. HOPE!"
"What?! It's a statistic, you know!" Hope puffed her chest out proud. "I wasn't one of them!"
"That's... I mean, it's good, but... HOPE!" Erie laughed. "You can't just SAY things like that!"
"Well, if you can make jokes about dying, I can make jokes about not getting-"
"NO!" Erie crossed her arms. "We're cutting that RIGHT there. Nope! Don't even wanna think about it."
"But I wanna cope too~"
"THAT'S WHAT JOURNALING IS FOR!"
"You don't journal though?"
"..."
"See?!"
"Ugh." Erie covered her face. "This is sooo wrong, but I'm not in a position to say why it's wrong..."
Hope giggled. "I'm just messing with you, Erie."
"You're evil. 100% evil. No wonder the Hero stabbed you in the back."
Hope let out a scandalized gasp. "Who, me? Never! I'm a good girl! The best!"
Erie rolled her eyes. "Sure you are... But anyway. What other monetization tips do you have?" She picked up her notepad again and said, "I'm all ears."
"Trading cards."
Erie paused. Then her eyes widened before she pointed her pencil at Hope. "You evil woman. I love it. Tell me more."
"Well... you can make a prototype series with just your own hand-drawn art. And you can sign it too and stuff! Then you can make a first edition with proper art that you commission from running the prototype series while doing a timed release with limited quantity. And after that, you have an unlimited release..."
"Wait, wait, wait." Erie held up her hand. "How do you know so much about this? I thought you didn't know anything about CapsuMon cards?"
"Oh! I don't! But I collect cards too! I have some limited edition Magik the Gathering cards! Like the One Ring!"
"YOU OWN THE ONE RING?!"
"Yes! I love Lords of the Ring, so-"
"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH THAT CARD IS WORTH RIGHT NOW?!" Erie lunged at Hope and grabbed her by the shirt. "IS IT GRADED?! WHERE?! HOW?! WHEN!?"
"I-It's in a toploader hidden in my Aoko calender set...?"
"YOU HAVE AOKO'S LIMITED NUDE CALENDER RUN TOO?!?!?!"
Hope blushed. "M-Maybe...?"
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE POOR!" Erie started shaking Hope and said, "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN A MILLIONAIRE, HOPE!"
"Nooo!" Hope wailed. "I'm not selling my One Ring...!"
"YOU WERE EATING KETCHUP CHEESE QUESADILLAS!"
"AND I'D DO IT AGAAAAIN!"