Work Text:
Miko's eyelids fluttered open. Looks like she dozed off waiting for a rare spawn. Again. A string of unread messages from Five light up her mailbox. She'll deal with it later. Miko's waking-up skills were E-tier at best.
She reached up to pull off her headset, groaning. Not exactly getting a lot of rest, with the recent string of late-night glitch attacks. Sleep time and game time had come uncomfortably close to bleeding together for Miko's taste.
Glitch dreams were a thing. A thing that was happening, sometimes. Always the same, with one of them coming after the people she cares about... She always beats the glitch, though. So it's not that bad of a dream.
Miko sniffed a bit and sat up in bed. Her hair was still wet from the shower she took after work. It clung to her face, a purple lock tangling in her mouth.
"Pleh." She spit it out.
Shoot. Damp hair. On the pillowcase. Looks like she screwed up again.
She winced at the new Miko-shaped spot of purple dye on the pristine linen. Well, somewhat pristine. Pristine aside from the several other dye stains. Her mom would be furious on laundry day.
Wouldn't she? Miko blinked.
Actually, Mom hadn't nagged her about her hair at all recently. The past few months, in fact, her parents had been all smiles. She looked back down at the new purple splotch.
Miko used to change her color and style all the time. In fact, most of those old hues were preserved right on the pillow. Pink for the newest Blirby release, a blue and green ombre to match her favorite competitive streamer, a short-lived red from when she tried the twin drill style... (It was just too hard to maintain, so that fad died quick.) Ah, memories.
Not all good memories, though. Each of those new hair colors had welcomed an onslaught of comments and criticism from the live chat of her life, aka, the parentals. Groan. Miko grabbed on to a stuffed dinosaur sitting next to her on the bed and wrapped her arms around its squishy, adorable little neck.
A week before the Hinobi games tournament, the second she got her wristband in the mail, Miko had run to the salon to dye her hair purple. For luck! And since then, there hadn't been any more unwanted hair commentary. Plus, look where she was now! She figured that purple must be super lucky, so she kept it.
Miko squeezed the dino some more.
"...and you're so proud."
Memory of those words drifted into Miko's sleepy brain. She had thought almost nothing of it at the time. Just a little bonus, a tack-on, a quip. Might as well throw it in, if memories were already being zapped! But...
It must've sunk in to them more than she thought.
Something felt like it was weighing down her whole body.
Miko hadn't always been the least favorite of her siblings. But, as the family grew bigger and bigger, she found herself more and more on the fringes.
Games had come into her life around that time, and she fell in love. In games, she could be whatever she wanted to be-- and good at it to boot. If somebody made fun of her, she could just beat them. Her family wasn't the happiest, but she could find all the fun and friends she wanted just by slipping on her headset. So, nbd right? Every penny of her allowances was scrounged and strategically spent in such a way that nearly every hot title wound up on her shelf. Bliss.
Unfortunately, her new passion hadn't helped her standing in the family pecking order. She was as underpowered as ever. She had put that tournament reminder on the busy board over a month in advance, and still got in trouble! Heck, Mom and Dad hardly ever talked to her except to brush her off or make her feel bad about her favorite stuff.
They never would've let her work at Hinobi. She wouldn't be able to play games at all right now, let alone run around as a Glitch Tech if that memory zappy thing hadn't kicked in.
And now... Miko was experiencing something of a back-payment of parental warmth, she guessed. Even in things unrelated to Hinobi. When she was talking about the new Blirby Kart, her mom had offered driving lessons. Real driving lessons! Dad had made her her favorite pancakes yesterday for breakfast. The both of them lavished her with praise nearly every chance they got. Even when they pushed back at her, there wasn't the dismissal there was before. It was kind of embarrassing, but... at least now, it actually felt like her parents actually liked her, instead of just tolerating her presence while waiting for her to move out.
Her parents... her parents were like this now, because of the mind wipe. Because of what she said.
Miko shook her head, refusing to think about the implications. Her parents care. Of course they care. They cared before, too. They just didn't like games. Right? And that's fine. This way, everyone wins. High score!
Plus, she's a Glitch Tech, now! A super cool monster fighter god-tier gamer!
Miko hopped off the bed and stretched, focusing on how refreshed she felt from the nap. What was she doing moping around? Basically, all her dreams have come true! She's a super-hero! She works for Hinobi and saves people from glitches! Glitches caused by...
Miko's brow furrowed.
Glitches caused by...
Beep-beep!
A familar chime rang from her gauntlet, shoving that train of thought straight into the recycle bin.
"Oho!" Miko sqealed, excitement rising. Some good old fashioned glitchbusting was sure to brighten her mood. A call blipped onto the screen from Five, and she opened it with a flourish.
"Hewwo!" she exclaimed, waving at the camera.
"Hewwo?"
"Hewwooooo"
"h-hewo-"
"HewOOOOOOO," Miko cut herself off with a giggle. "Yeah, yeah, hewwo. Sorry about your messages, dude."
"You missed the rare monster spawn three times! Where have you been?" Five sighed. "I still managed to snag one kill, but..."
Miko bounced happily. "Oh! Well, that should be more than enough to craft the new stuff we needed."
Five squinted at Miko from the screen. "You ok? You have... purple... on you."
"Oh." Miko felt around her cheek for the smudge. "Fell asleep on my hair, it was wet, it's fiiiiine. I can still kick glitch butt."
"Oh, right! Glitch butt!" Five looked embarrassed to have gotten distracted. "There's two new glitches downtown for us to dispatch. You ready?"
Miko yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Never readier!"
"You sure you're ok, dude? You look tired." Five's eyebrows crinkled with concern.
"'Course, pardner. Better than fine! HP restored! Imma put you on voice so I can get changed."
Miko began shuffling through the pile of clothes for pieces of her work uniform. As she reached to put the dino back on the bed, her gaze lingered on the pillow for a moment.
The new purple stain was drying into the grain of the fabric. Its color was bleeding into the other hues.
Something about this brought the heaviness back into her mind. Or maybe she just had a moment to notice the heaviness that hadn't left.
"Miko?"
"Huh?" Her eyes snapped back into focus.
"Miko, you ready yet?"
She blinked, and looked down at the shoe she was in the middle of slipping on.
"Hah! On my way!"
She hopped up from the bed, energized as always. No time to keep thinking about this stuff.
"Try not to get totally bodied before I get there!" She exclaimed into the receiver.
"Ow!! Further from the mic, please!"
In a few hearty stomps, Miko flew out the door.