In golden light, purple curtains swayed in a soft breeze. The camera focused on a sparkling green donut, radiating pure sour menace, its glaze crowned with a crystal-thin, powdered orchid petal. Just looking at it made the stomach clench and the mouth water.
“Foodies, gamers, my awkward stalker, you know who you are,” Fizzypop said, as the view panned out to reveal them in silver and lavender robes, threads of green woven through. “I could not suffer this creation alone.”
The camera pulled back further to show two more plates, each holding its own radiant sour donut.
“Oh no,” Fizzypop continued. “This assault on my tongue, this trial I endure for you, fam, must be shared. And who better than the digital sisters of its creator? A rare treat today in my net studio: the streaming sisters of our favorite chaos baker, Noobkitty. Hello, CheshyBot and GobMouse, from the Cat and Mouse Multiverse Stream.”
CheshyBot, in a low-cut top, perfectly manicured and camera-ready, giggled behind wide purple lips. “Oh, come now, Fizzypop. It can’t be that bad, it’s vegan.”
“Girl, have you tried her bean brittle?”
“Um… no?”
“Then you don’t know the horrors your sister can unleash. She’s a maker of madness munchies.”
GobMouse, small in posture with frazzled hair, pushed up her glasses. “You did push her to make weird foods.”
Fizzypop clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sooooshy shüsh. Don’t suggest I’m the creator of my own torture.”
GobMouse bit their hand.
“Ow! Okay, I see you’re hungry. But tradition says I get the first bite in my own studio.”
Fizzypop bit into the donut. Their face contorted through several emotions at once. Covering their mouth and blinking back tears, they mumbled, “Mmmm… it’s so sweet. Your turn.”
CheshyBot took a perfectly round bite from the side of the pastry, her wide smile collapsing into puckered eyes as tears welled.
GobMouse opened her small mouth a tow of pointed teeth are revealed, she give a tiny sheer bite just deep enough to get to the green sour filling of the pastry. Sugar crystals and sour powder shattered were prefectly cut under her teeth. Eyes squinting, she gave a small green-stained smile, two sharp front teeth dripping with pickled jelly.
Fizzypop stared. “Uh… you’re either the best or worst at food reviews. Either way, I’m sure those teeth are someone’s kink.”
CheshyBot laughed, dabbing her mouth with a silver and purple napkin. “Don’t search her fan art without a safe filter.”
GobMouse nodded, taking another small bite, this time with a nearly metalic 'shink' noise as her teeth cut through the sugar covered orchid. “I have fans of particular taste. Mouse welcomes them all.”
“Well, if you want to try one of these for yourself, log in, or even make an account, in the world of Coro?en. Noobkitty gives a free treat for each piece of starter equipment you give her. If you hate yourself, try the bean brittle,” Fizzypop said, slipping the promo in mid-review while GobMouse cleaned her teeth off-screen.
When they looked back, both sisters were staring at something in shock.
“I mean, they’re sour, but not avatar-glitching bad.”
“We… we have to…” CheshyBot started.
“Yeah, we have to,” GobMouse cut in.
Fizzypop, realizing something serious was happening, switched the camera feed to focus on themself. “We have to cut it here, good day, Gormons!”
The stream ended. It would annoy some viewers, but the chat would explode.
“What’s going on, girls?” Fizzypop asked.
“Our… our Primel self, our real-world self, is dead,” CheshyBot said. Her eyes brimmed, her avatar flickering under the strain.
“We need to tell our sisters. All of them,” GobMouse said, pulling up a hovering tablet to compose a letter.
A headline floated in Fizzypop’s view:
Animal Rights Activism Goes Bad
A peaceful protest at Invelo Labs turned to tragedy when a counter-protester driving a truck…
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Fizzypop quietly saved the article. “Write your letter. Can I give it to Noobkitty? She’ll need a friend.”
“Yes,” CheshyBot said softly. “Thank you… for being her friend. She’s our youngest sister. I’m glad she found you and the party so quickly.” Her usual streamer grin was gone. GobMouse’s playful chaos had drained into grim focus as she researched the incident.
She passed Fizzypop a file. They nodded and logged out of the net studio.
Fizzypop’s in-between space looked like a cozy café waiting room. Pulling up a menu, they selected their top-listed world. The space faded, and they appeared at the fountain in Starter, Coro?en.
They sighed. This was going to be awful, but they had to hurry. If someone from chat discovered why the stream had been cut, they might try to break the news to Noobkitty themselves, cruelly, for the lols.
And Fizzypop would not let her breakdown become a meme.
---
It had been a great day, the café was running perfectly. Coins and equipment came in, purposefully strange treats went out. With SisterQuery and .ex helping, the shelves stayed full, and even better, Noobkitty had gotten some sleep. Their newest member of Sweet Victory was getting his first quest.
Full of pride, .ex crafted a quest pop-up and sent it over to the hyper goblin boy.
---
Quest
Marketing: Stealth Marketing
Noob Nom’s manager, .ex, wants to surprise her loyal customers and needs a rogue’s help to do so.
Deliver 20 Window Flower Cookies to customers without them noticing.
Progress: 0/20
Reward – Pick One:
1. Noobkitty Voucher – Noobkitty will create one treat of your choice, provided it uses vegan ingredients.
2. .ex Summon Scroll – Teleports .ex to within five feet of the summoner. She will give the summoner a hug.
3. Noob Noms Badge – A bronze badge showing off the wearer’s swag for being part of the Noob Noms crew.
---
Skidmark’s eyes went wide as he took the bag of cookies. He pulled one out, a tan circle of cookie with clear glass sugar in the center, framing a single flower.
Window Flower Cookie lv 43: Blue
A strangely pretty cookie. Each color of flower gives a different effect.
Blue Flower – Mana regeneration rate increased 50%, Dexterity +10%, Intelligence +20%, Wisdom +10% for six hours.
The bag held 24 cookies. Skidmark glanced at .ex. “The quest says 20 are to be delivered.”
The bunnygirl nodded. “If you have extras when the quest is complete, they’ll just have to find their way into a goblin’s tummy.”
His eyes sparkled. Then he ducked, swept to the side, and .ex lost sight of him.
Noobkitty laughed, trading a cleric circlet for a beet mochi ball. It was a good day.
Fizzypop walked in hastily, beelining for Noobkitty and grabbing her wrist, completely ignoring the customer in front of her, who looked at Fizzypop in shock, as if seeing a celebrity.
“Kitchen. Now.”
She allowed herself to be dragged. Before she could speak, Fizzypop knelt down and hugged her. They held for a moment, then pulled back, still kneeling to keep eye contact. It looked like they might cry. It was odd to see them serious like this. A swipe upward summoned an envelope into the air.
Noobkitty, confused, took it and pulled the files from inside: a news article link and a letter from her streamer sisters.
She read the article. It mentioned her name, Lyla, as a victim of the car accident. They called her a sentient rights activist. It was a nice title, but only half the truth. Animal, human, synthetic, if it had a brain, her empathy touched it. She saw all of their souls. And now hers was gone.
Noobkitty crumpled to the ground, eyes filling with tears. She screamed, “FROGS!”, then blinked, her voice catching.
Fizzypop blinked. “Uh… I guess Skidmark is within fifty yards.”
She nodded, wiping her eyes. “He’s doing a quest for .ex.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Fizzypop asked.
The cat beastkin shook her head, her tail and ears showing as much emotion as her eyes.
The mage hugged her again, holding her as she sobbed.
She wanted to be left alone, to deal with part of her now being dead on her own. She hated her fragile state being on display like this, the psych evals covered this possibility but only helped so much it was still so hard. There was no longer a physical world version of her. Even the strange legal issues of being a duplication was running into her mind. She was no longer "owned" by her prime. Now legally she belonged to Coro?en her data would soon be part of the worlds possession. All these thoughts ran through her in just moments, she needed time, she needed to be busy she...
“I… I need to cook,” she said after a few minutes, gently pushing them away. “There’s some new cookies for your stream, they just look weird, but they taste fine.”
Fizzypop nodded and stood. “I’ll get some later. For now, I’ll help in the store. If you need me, I’ll be nearby.”
She nodded, grabbing some cinnamon and contemplating it in silence before a fresh batch of sobs overtook her.
She pushed away everyone, SisterQuery, even .ex wanting to just deal with her feeling on her own while grinding her cooking skill farther.
---
Skidmark reappeared, a cookie in his mouth and a voucher waving in his hand. He looked up at Fizzypop, who was at the counter trading food for armor pieces. He bit into the cookie, its sugar glass shattered
“Where’s Noobkitty? I have my voucher.”
Fizzypop shook their head. “In the kitchen. She need some time alone.”
---
Skidmark ignoring the warning slipped into the kitchen unnoticed. His cookie gone, he hopped onto the counter, watching the catwoman flit about, her speed and efficiency boosted by her high cooking skill.
The air was rich with scents: from the oven came cinnamon, from the grill the caramelized perfume of pineapple and strawberry slices, and from the stove the floral aroma of purple-sparkling sugar drops cooling on a tray.
After setting the tray aside, Noobkitty looked up. “I’m busy, Skidmark. Sorry.” Her eyes were red.
“You’re cooking. I want you to cook something,” he said, waving his voucher.
She sighed and took it. The back was filled out with his request. She read it, and her shoulders began to shake. Her throat was raw, her eyes nearly dry from too many tears, but then a laugh broke out. It rolled into a full-body laugh she couldn’t resist. Her avatar even glitched slightly as her data tried to process everything she was feeling.
She laughed and laughed, breathlessly saying, “Okay, you little goblin, let’s make your snack.”
---
Noobkitty Voucher – Noobkitty will create one treat of your choice, provided it uses vegan ingredients.
Request: “So, like… potato cakes, but made out of beans and cabbage. And broccoli. And whatever other veggies make you fart. Make it loud and uncontrollable!”
