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The stream flickered to life, showing the usual cozy intro screen of the late night stream, letting viewers know that they would get their comfort streamer soon. After a few minutes, it transitions to face cam, showing March getting ready, not acknowledging the camera.
“Mmmmgh, I can’t ever get it right!” She exclaims, holding a mascara brush off to her side, a mirror in her other hand. Even with the “steadiest” of hands, mascara never applies evenly. She sighs, defeated. “I should- wha!” March wails, catching a glimpse of something shiny rushing across her desk. Before she knows it, something heavy lands on her lap. “Oof! W-What the…” she groans to herself, looking down to see a warp trotter.
The creature quickly settled in, getting cozy, as one would put it.
“...Where did you even come from?” March stutters in shock, “H-how are you..?” She pokes the little creature, recognizing the trotter to be quite friendly. She felt more at ease, these things were harmless, right? She can’t really recall, maybe she’d have to ask Stelle later. She probably wouldn’t believe her.
“Wait a minute…you look…different…huh.” March then glances up from her lap, noticing her stream setup, and a chat flooding with all sorts of ‘awww’s and sub emotes.
“A-ah, hi chat! S-sorry for the delay…” She starts talking, gently petting the trotter, completely forgetting about the prior chaos. She scratches behind its “ear”, getting a seemingly positive noise from it. Gosh, trotters are so cute, March thinks.
Faintly, she hears various sounds of yelling and panicked footsteps fastly approaching her room; Maybe she should get a refund on these “noise-cancelling” headphones. These didn’t work at all!!
Suddenly, her door bursts open, revealing her adoptive mother, Himeko.
“March, have you seen Numby?”she asks. “Numby?” March looks down to the little trotter in her lap, and suddenly, they leap off and run towards Himeko.
“Ah, there you are,” she said gently, lifting the tiny thing into her arms, “We still need to give you a bath.” Numby makes a little squeaking sound, making March squeal “Awww!!”
Before March can even fathom to ask when Himeko even got Numby, she sees a shorter woman behind her mother. She has a short bob similar to her own, white with red accents. Her eyes glistened with worry, like fresh pearls. “My baby!!” she cries, swooping Numby into her arms, the trotter squealing in excitement.
At the sight of this new woman, March became confused. "Umm… hi! Ah… who are you?" March stared at the woman for a bit, and her chat became flooded with new messages in wonder of the new girl, with the occasional degeneracy sprinkled in. At this, Himeko spoke up. "Ah, I'd forgotten," she clears her throat, gently grabbing hold to the woman's arm, "March, meet Topaz. She'll be staying on the express with us." She gestured towards the shorter woman, who attempted to wave at March while carrying Numby, and mouthing "Hiya," to her.
March gasped, the last Himeko invited someone onto the express was…Kafka, wasn’t it? She couldn’t remember, she’d have to check her pictures again. Wait…had Himeko fallen in love again? With another woman that looked like a mom??? Again???
March promptly smirked at the redhead, as she’d figured out the woman’s type. Seeing this, Himeko looked away, blushing. Topaz, however, was confused. “Huh? What’s going on?” She then looked at her partner. “Hime? What’s going on? Why are you blushing like that?”
Hearing the nickname, March lightly chuckled while pointing at “Hime”. Chat soon followed with their own collective excitement and despair. "Sorry to cut this short," March says as she turns back to her chat, "I'm, heh, kind of streaming right now." A little giggle escapes her lips as she can see Himeko turn even more red, and Topaz just as confused. "I'd love to talk to you some more, Topaz! I've never met someone who's been able to tame a trotter!"
Topaz, still confused, replies with a hesitant nod, then walks out of the room, Himeko following soon after, face as red as her hair. March giggles as she turns to her stream, “Heh, sorry about that chat!!”
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“Bye chat! Love you guys! Cya guys next time!~” March signs off as she ends her stream. Standing up, she takes a good minute to stretch every limb in her body.
Hmm, I should get a snack. Pom-Pom’s there, right? He could give me some juice! March skips happily towards the main lobby to get her usual late-night snack. Mindlessly, she steps out of her bedroom to do just that. It's fairly late on the express according to Belobog time she thinks, so March doesn't really expect to be running into someone right as she turns to enter the main parlor cart.
“Oof!” March says, quickly making space between herself and the obstacle. “Oh, hey March," looking up, March sees it's thankfully a familiar, yet still fairly new, face. Topaz steps back a bit, pushing some hair behind her ear as she looks at March. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd be awake so early," she remarks with a yawn. "Hime and the others are still in bed," she says, taking a sip from a drink March didn't notice was in her hand, "I guess we're the only early birds here, ey?"
"E-Early?!!" March yells out, swiftly covering her mouth from shock. Shoot!!! I knew it was a longer stream, but… "w-what time is it??" Topaz blinks for a moment, then immediately bursts into a laughing fit.
“Hey, it happens to the best of us!” she says between a giggle, slowly calming down from the laughing fit. March was bright red, oh my god, I just embarrassed myself in front of Mom’s new girlfriend!!!.
The two meet eyes again, Topaz’s expression a lot softer. “You hungry?” she asks. “I, uh, think there's enough to make some Comfort Food. I was just about to make some for myself.”
March looks at her for a second, not really thinking of the offer itself. Wow... she's nice and pretty, no wonder Himeko likes her. "Yes!!" March replies, almost jumping for joy, "Ah, I've been starving. D'ya want some help?" Topaz smiles, replying "Ah, yes please! I kinda don't know how to turn that thing on, heh..." The two women laugh at the statement, walking into the main parlor car with hungry stomachs and the sense that, hey, I think I kinda like this.