AnimeCon Harem Bonus: Super Slash Sisters (Patreon)

I don’t play games, Lucas Macrae told himself as he stared at the garish lights and neon colors flickering across the row of widescreen TVs set up in AnimeCon’s first game room. He’d told himself he didn’t play games in patient repetition all throughout the weekend, and it had in fact become his mantra for well over a year, now. When his boss, the Radio 82.99 program director, proposed this weekend excursion last month, Lucas had told the man. He didn’t play games.

Right, Right, Mr. Collins had nodded in apparent understanding, leaning over Lucas’ tidy newsroom desk. I know you don’t, Luke, you’re a good kid. But, it WAS all there on your resume, so we had the station promotions guy leverage your past a bit with the convention organizers.

That’s… fair, Lucas had relented with a sigh, leaning back in his chair and running his hands through his neatly trimmed dirty blond hair. Yeah, okay.

Also, it’ll give you a reason to run into that girl of yours, Mr. Collins had clapped a hand on his shoulder. She asks why you’re there, you say it’s just for work—you’re 82.99’s live culture correspondent!

Not a chance, Lucas had replied in a deadpan voice. EX-girlfriend, I’m probably the last person she ever wants to see, and I… no, I don’t play those kind of games.

Of course not! Mr. Collins had chuckled, giving him a meaningful smile. But, hey, you DO run into her by accident, hah, well you’ll have an airtight alibi. Anyways, we don’t need much. Get us at least a full segment of material we can air, and then you can spend the rest of the convention takin’ care of your own business. Keep up the good work, sport!

By that point, it was too late to regret opening up to the jovial program director about his personal life back when he was just the new hire, back when he was just another nobody with a communications degree desperate for work experience. It had been a calculated risk. At the time, sharing his story did put him on better terms with Mr. Collins, who like many older guys would never pass up a chance to commiserate and go on waxing poetic about past flames. Lucas just never thought his careless words back then would return to haunt him like this.

So it was that Lucas found himself here at an anime convention, reliving the wilderness of horrors that was his past—this time, with a microphone in hand rather than a game controller. His position presiding over game room events as emcee was the only distinction between him and the unwashed horde of gamers he could take comfort in, now. At six foot three, Lucas towered over many of the participants competing in AnimeCon’s game tournaments, and he wound up choosing a middle road between the playful energy and enthusiasm of his old gaming commentary, and the consummate professionalism of his trained station speaking voice. As per instructions, he always led by introducing himself via his old incredibly embarrassing pseudonym, and then quickly followed-up with a practiced blurb on AnimeCon’s collaboration with Radio 82.99 FM, the full-time, all-hours community radio you LOVE.

The job was easy, Lucas was overqualified for a small-time event announcer role in every way, and it still turned into the most stressful, anxiety-inducing performance of his fledgeling career. Every time a cosplayer wandered in among the random influx of convention attendees taking a look at the proceedings, Lucas’ stormy gray eyes couldn’t help but flick over to them in fear and anticipation. Each time the random cosplayer turned out to not be Sarah, disappointment rose up to grapple with the other feelings warring for control of Lucas right now.

Not here ‘cause I want to be, Lucas told himself. Not here to see her. I’m not playing any of those kind of games, and I’m definitely not thinking about her.

It was easy enough to be reintroduced to gaming like this, being immersed back in the thick of gaming culture, without feeling like an addict or junkie in danger of some kind of a relapse. Lucas wasn’t here to play games. He was here to help run the show, to conduct a few spot interviews for some sound bytes, to apply his experience and familiarity with this community in a way that was both compelling and intriguing for the station’s listeners.

His mind absolutely wasn’t filled with thoughts of seeing Sarah’s perfect face again, of unexpectedly meeting her here at the convention in person after so long, or of getting an opportunity to talk to her again. He felt at least ninety-nine percent confident about that. Lucas had moved on with his life. He was career-focused and driven, and he didn’t play games anymore. Naturally, that last one percent consisted entirely of gut-wrenching, dread-inducing hopeful thoughts and naive fantasies about reconciling with Sarah, and they turned out to be impossible to quash out of his mind.

After what felt like several grueling hours, the tide of gaming combatants and onlookers for the recent Slash Sisters tournament had come and gone, and this game room had all but emptied out. Letting out a slow breath and looking over the area now, Lucas saw only a handful of dedicated players continued to play Grail Five over on the PCs connected into a LAN party, a few friends playing around together on one of the Rhythm Rhythm Rebellion platform cabinets... and then there was a solitary girl seated in front of one of the Slash Sisters set-ups.

She was in cosplay, which set off brief alarm bells and red flags in his mind that he quickly managed to suppress, but thankfully didn’t resemble his ex-girlfriend whatsoever. This young woman was much shorter, perhaps only five feet tall were she to stand up, slight of stature, and with an incredibly cute face. Her good looks, apparent loneliness, and rather revealing cosplay paired together into a perfect storm of circumstances that compelled him to step over in her direction.

No, no, Lucas admonished himself. Not here to play games, not playing around right now. It’s just… while I’m still here anyways, might as well check on her, make sure she’s okay. That’s the normal thing to do, right?

“Waiting on your friends?” Lucas asked.

In a nonchalant manner, he picked up one of the Gamestation controllers near the girl to clean it with a sanitary wipe. The latest generation of controllers were wireless, but the AnimeCon organizers had procured batches of wired ones that plugged into the console itself, models less likely to connect to the wrong nearby console, or worse—walk away from Game Room one entirely in the hands of enterprising little thieves. Almost all of the hand-held devices were clammy with sweat following their official Super Slash Sisters tournament, which was pretty disgusting to Lucas. One of them had actually even had an orange dusting of cheese snack crumbs on it.

“Um… no,” the lone player answered, staring vacantly at the screen. Upon closer inspection, she was an Akane Kurokawa cosplayer with a trim, petite body and a really cute face, sitting at one of the TVs that was set up for multiplayer matches.

“You alright?” Lucas asked, setting the controller down on its chair and moving on to the next one. As he stood there wiping it clean, he could imagine he was a bartender cleaning whiskey glasses in front of a distraught bar patron.

But, I’m NOT here to just creep on her, or play games. I’m not even one of the weirdo volunteer staffers in charge of this room, he reminded himself. I’m the new live culture correspondent for Radio 82.99 FM, just here on a press badge to cover the convention. No one here knew where the volunteer for Game Room One went, although Lucas suspected it was one of the dudes over there camped out on the Grail Five server.

“Um… no,” the girl said again. She was holding one of the controllers and gazing vacantly at the select a character screen, as if waiting for him to join.

Uh…? He gave her another look. The Akane Kurokawa cosplayer’s face was composed, it wasn’t like she was emotional or anything. Maybe she’s just having a shitty day? Oof, I really SHOULDN’T, though...

He didn’t know any comforting platitudes appropriate for total strangers. Feeling an awkward sort of tension at the situation... Lucas found himself doing the only thing he could do. He hit the A button on the controller he had been cleaning and selected a character, joining her game.

Before his life went to hell, Lucas had been a semi-professional We’ll Play livestreamer, making a living gaming live on camera for a multitude of fans. Trying to please everyone had burnt him out fast, however, and for the past several years he’d been trying to put a healthy dose of perspective on his life. Naturally, on his first real assignment for 82.99 he discovered he was more or less the same pushover he always was, getting pressed by an ambiguous agreement between his program director and the AnimeCon staff into practically running all of the game tournaments for them.

In a familiar and even surprisingly nostalgic burst of raucous theme music and pastel stars, Flarefox and Plumber Princess Maria dropped onto the series of platforms that made up their battlefield. Lucas had selected Flarefox by habit—she was by far the most competitive character. Princess Maria was… fairly garbage, in his recollection, so he determined this cosplayer girl must not be a serious player.

I’ll just take it easy, see if I can cheer this girl up a bit, Lucas decided. It’s not playing around—I don’t play games. Not anymore. Even if she is cute.

Watching everyone else play for several hours did have him itching to get into the casual match again, of course, but at the same time he was determined to take his radio job seriously. He should be on his laptop editing his commentary over the tournament final’s audio feed right now. Lucas was responsible for forty minutes of useable and re-useable content that covered some of the various interests throughout AnimeCon.

Princess Maria jumped to the central platform, arriving at the same moment Flarefox did, but Lucas had already prepared an attack. Flarefox, the fox-eared girl in the pilot’s jumpsuit fired her laser pistol towards Princess Maria, and then Lucas teched a fastfall that cancelled the after-firing lag, immediately firing again.

Only his sense of guilt kept him from turning the shortened-hop double into a triple, and he let Flarefox stop in place for a moment while watching the laser bolts fly across the screen into Plumber Princess Maria. Or rather, they should have blasted into Plumber Princess Maria. The two laser bolts arrived at different heights, and at least one of them should have either connected or necessitated a blocking move, but on the screen in front of him, the Plumber Princess jumped, cancelled the jump midway through the air, and then performed a split-second aerial dodge between the two streaking lasers. She hit the ground sliding towards Flarefox, and was attacking before Lucas could properly react.

Oh, damn. She’s WAY better than I thought, Lucas swore, failing to escape her lunging jab-grab combo and getting summarily tossed off of the platform.

“Something happen?” He finally asked, against his better judgement deciding to play seriously.

“I don’t know,” the girl responded with a shrug. “It’s weird. Have you ever had something… supernatural happen to you? Something you can’t explain, like at all?”

“Uh… I don’t think so?” Lucas replied. He managed to have Flarefox catch the edge of a platform and immediately segued into a ledge-hopped double laser, forcing Princess Maria to abandon her second charge.

“This girl appeared, like, out of thin air,” the cosplayer said, not distracted in the slightest. “And... she knew things about me, about why I’m here and what’s going on, things that nobody could possibly know. I keep trying to figure it out. Or rationalize it somehow. But, the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.”

“A girl ‘appeared?’” Lucas frowned, and his fingers danced across the buttons to mount a counterattack. “Appeared how? Where?”

“Out in this parking gara—I can’t explain it without sounding crazy,” the girl sighed. “I was all alone one second, and then the next, she’s right up in my face, she knows my name, she knows what I’m secretly trying to do this weekend. I don’t get it at all.”

“Sounds like you picked up a stalker?” He guessed, triumphantly managing to shave off ten percent of the Plumber Princess’s health in a devastating point-blank laser barrage. Phew. Was worried I’d lost my edge, there.

“I don’t know,” the girl sounded doubtful. “She was way too hot. Doesn’t make sense that this fifteen out of ten chick would give a damn about anything I was doing.”

“Fifteen out of ten?” He laughed. “Wow. Why can’t a girl like that appear out of nowhere for me?”

“You’d piss yourself,” the cosplayer snorted. With precisely-timed dodges and a wave-dash, she completely avoided his next salvo of lasers and managed to stun-lock him. “It was scary as fuck.”

“Yeah, to you,” Lucas shot back, happy that she seemed to be lightening up a bit. He mashed the buttons on his controller, but Flarefox was helplessly snared in an endless combo of hits, maneuvered by Princess Plumber Maria until her helplessly flailing form was at the edge of the arena. “Really? Really?”

“Sorry,” the girl said. She sent both her character and Lucas’ way off of the arena platform. Flarefox had no means of recovering and fell helplessly down into the abyss below, while Princess Maria performed a skirt glide followed by an aerial lightning blitz that somehow placed her right back on the arena platform.

“Damn,” Lucas swore. “You’re good. Where were you earlier? You’d’ve placed in the tournament, if you’d been here like, an hour or two ago.”

There was a moment to spare as his character swooped back in on its next life, and Lucas turned to look at his opponent. He’d meant to gauge her expression, but was immediately distracted by how her yukata had fallen open and was exposing most of her small breast, a lovely shape covered by a thin veil of fishnet. He slowly turned his head back to the screen.

“Nah. I shouldn’t even be here now,” the girl groaned. “I just. I was freaking out a bit, and needed to calm down.”

“I shouldn’t be here, either,” Lucas admitted. Flarefox was dashing from one platform to another, spewing a steady stream of distance attacks at Princess Maria and whittling her health away. “The cosplay contest’s ‘bout to start. Or maybe it’s already going on. I’m supposed to be getting sound bytes for my station.”

“You’re not the staff dude here?”

“No way, I’m actually just here on a press badge. Supposed to be getting all the interesting stuff at the con, so I can fit it into a forty-minute segment.”

“Am I holding you up?”

“No, I just... yeah, I really don’t want to go,” Lucas sighed. His Flarefox closed the distance and managed to time a counter on Prince Maria’s surprisingly predictable attack, before flipping back out of her range again. “I wanna say that I got pushed into helping out here, but really… my ex is gonna be over there, at the contest. I really don’t want it to seem like I’m here at the con just to see her. ‘Cause, I’m not.”

“It’s always an ex,” the girl griped. After a battering series of blasts, Princess Maria was forced to the arena edge, hanging on for dear life. “Fucking ex, it’s always an ex. Hey, you know what? You’re not too bad at Slash Sisters, either.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Lucas said. He’d started to smile, but it stiffened in place on his face when the girl used an edge skirt-cancel move for a brief moment to escape the laser bomb that should have cast her off the playing field and down into oblivion. Okay, she uses WAY too many advanced techniques to be some casual pick-up player. Not that I’m one to talk.

“I’m Emily,” the Akane cosplayer finally introduced herself. She sent a surprise spam of firewads bouncing towards his character instead of a handshake. “Emily, of Cerulean Cosplay.”

“Luke Macrae,” he weathered the firewads without damage, pulling off a split second double-shine by using Flarefox’s deflector and then jump-cancelling into yet another deflector. His timing was good enough that his character never seemed to leave the ground. “Used to livestream for a living.”

“Cool beans. Always wanted to livestream,” Emily said with a sigh. “But, I just don’t have the tits for it.”

“Me neither, turns out,” Lucas chuckled. The players during the tournament hadn’t been able to banter back and forth during their match—they’d been locked in a desperate, teeth-gritting struggle. Not a single one of those players had showcased the kind of technical skill Lucas and Emily were casually using, either. Damn. The two of us could’ve changed the entire course of that tournament.

“It was great, at first. I loved it,” Lucas found himself saying. “But, it got to some point where, when everyone wanted to watch me play on for hours and hours, I couldn’t say no. They were my fans. So, I messed up my sleep schedule, messed up my own groove, and well… I messed everything up. With her, with um, my relationships and personal life and everything.”

“I hate it when that happens,” Emily said. Princess Plumber Maria swept Flarefox flying into the air and then skirt-glided underneath her to smash her back up into the air again and again. “You’re playing the game ‘cause you love it. But, before you know it—the game’s playing you.”

“Shit, that’s exactly it, too,” Lucas shook his head as Flarefox tumbled helplessly off the arena. “That’s gonna wind up as my epitaph, or something.”

“Epitaph?” She sent him a curious glance, and when he turned towards her he couldn’t help but notice her costume had slipped off her breast even more. A pale perfect handful of skin, with a pink nub visible poking through the netting of her body stocking. “Whassat?”

“Uh, epitaph,” he blinked distractedly. “Like, what gets written on your tombstone.”

“I get it,” Emily nodded, sending Princess Maria on a collision course with Flarefox as she spawned back in. “You’re gettin’ on up there, yeah. You’re what, thirty-five? Thirty-six?”

“Twenty-nine,” Lucas winced, and Flarefox slapped Princess Maria out of the air and sent her smacking out in a sprawl on the bottom platform. “Which makes you… fourteen? Fifteen? I figured you were here waiting for your parents to pick you up?”

“Very juvenile,” Emily rolled her eyes. The Plumber Princess made her way back towards Flarefox’s sniping position in a series of jumps, several times even momentum-cancelling in mid-air to avoid the laser blasts raining down. “Yeah, why were you hiding out in here, again? Afraid of your ex?”

“Hey now, you don’t know my ex,” Lucas griped. He sent his character into a dive roll away from Princess Maria as she took control of the uppermost platform where he’d been camping. “She’s scary as hell, she’s a cosplay bigshot. Oh, and uhh. Speaking of, you’d better watch out—your costume’s slipping a bit there.”

“Yeah, nice one, like I’m really gonna fall for—” Emily yelped and then almost dropped her controller as she remembered what she was wearing and discovered he wasn’t kidding at all. “Fucking FUCK!”

( Previous: Girlfriend and Goodbye | AnimeCon Harem | Bonus: The Cosplaying Girls )

/// Start of the long overdue Gamer Girls rewrite, finally forced to revisit this project because the next Eighteen and Up section requires these characters. Rather than a meandering mishmash of too many characters, this Gamer Girls should mostly follow Lucas and GiGi/Geneva.