Previously: The Council's rage rumble stream broke viewership records, Kronii escaped another Tuesday disaster by going to the beach, and the building was reconstructed for the tenth time this year... actually the real number was gone because someone forgot to keep the data properly either from the explosions or data corrupted.
The afternoon sun filtered through the massive glass windows of the Hololive EN headquarters, casting long geometric shadows across the polished marble floors of the lobby. The building itself was an architectural marvel—freshly reconstructed for the tenth time this year, gleaming with steel and glass that rose thirty stories into the sky. Kaela had sworn this version was "absolutely, definitely, probably chaos-proof."
It had been standing for three whole weeks without incident. A new record.
The lobby was spacious enough to hold a small concert, with comfortable seating areas scattered throughout, potted plants that Fauna insisted on personally tending to (for the fifth time after previous destructions), and a massive digital display on one wall that cycled through promotional materials. In the corner, a small plaque read: "Days Since Last Major Incident: 21." Someone had scratched out "21" and written "probably less by end of day" underneath.
Today, however, the lobby had been transformed into an impromptu gathering space for what seemed like the entire EN branch. It was Tuesday, after all. Something was bound to happen.
The building was equipped with everything from state-of-the-art recording studios to training facilities, residential floors, and even a fully stocked armory (though officially, that last part didn't exist on any paperwork). The armory had been upgraded after the Devil Trigger Incident—now featuring "Gura-Bijou Protocols" that Management insisted were mandatory but everyone knew were more guidelines than rules.
Gawr Gura sat cross-legged on one of the plush couches, her shark hoodie's hood pulled up as she mashed buttons on a Nintendo Switch. "No, no, no—come on! That was a perfect parry!" she groaned as her character in the fighting game she was playing took a devastating combo.
"Maybe if you actually practiced instead of just button mashing," Bijou teased from her perch on the armrest, her legs swinging back and forth. The small but fierce gem girl had her purple hair tied up in her characteristic style, and she was idly tossing a small crystalline stone from hand to hand.
"I don't button mash!" Gura protested, immediately mashing buttons to prove her point, which only made Bijou burst into laughter.
Nearby, Mori Calliope was sprawled in an oversized beanbag chair, her pink hair spilling over the edges as she scrolled through her phone. "Yo, did any of you see the analytics from last week's collab stream? We absolutely killed it."
"Of course we did," Kiara said confidently, sitting primly in an adjacent chair with her legs crossed. The phoenix idol was in her casual wear—a comfortable orange sweater and jeans—but she still somehow managed to look ready for a photoshoot. "When you put this much talent in one stream, success is inevitable."
"Careful, your confidence is showing," IRyS chimed in with a playful smile. She was leaning against the wall near the windows, the afternoon light making her heterochromatic eyes seem to glow. "Though I suppose you're not wrong."
Ninomae Ina'nis sat at one of the lobby's small tables, her tablet propped up in front of her as she worked on a digital illustration. Her purple hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, and her tentacles—the ones that manifested when she was deeply focused—were currently holding several styluses at once, working on different layers of the artwork simultaneously. "Mmm, the engagement was really good," she agreed without looking up from her work. "Especially during the game segment."
"That's because Bae kept dying in the most hilarious ways possible," Fauna said with a gentle laugh. The nature-loving idol was sitting on the floor, surrounded by several small potted plants she was repotting. Dirt stained her fingers, but she didn't seem to mind in the slightest.
"Hey!" Hakos Baelz, the embodiment of chaos herself, jumped down from where she'd been literally hanging from one of the lobby's decorative light fixtures. "I was trying a new strategy! It's not my fault the game punished creativity!"
"You tried to speedrun a stealth section by setting everything on fire," Kronii deadpanned. The time warden was examining her reflection in the polished surface of a decorative pillar, adjusting her blue hair. "That's not creativity. That's just chaos."
"Exactly!" Bae grinned widely. "That's literally my job!"
Tsukumo Sana, who was lounging on another couch with her legs stretched out, laughed heartily. "Can't argue with that logic. Though I have to say, watching you try to convince the guards that you were 'definitely supposed to be on fire' was comedy gold."
Mumei, sitting quietly in a corner sketching what looked suspiciously like a kraken eating a cruise ship, looked up with her characteristic airheaded expression. "Wait, were we not supposed to set things on fire in that game? I thought that was the objective..."
"Mumei, sweetie, the objective was to NOT be detected," Fauna said patiently, though she was smiling.
"Oh." Mumei blinked. "That explains why I kept failing."
The conversation flowed naturally from topic to topic. Shiori Novella was discussing her latest horror game playthrough with Nerissa Ravencroft, the two of them engaged in an animated debate about whether a particular game's ending was satisfying or not.
"I'm telling you, the ambiguity was the point!" Shiori insisted, adjusting her glasses. The archivist's eyes gleamed with the fervor of someone who had clearly thought about this topic extensively. "The horror comes from not knowing!"
"But that's such a cop-out!" Nerissa countered, her raven wings rustling with her agitation. "After investing all that time, we deserve actual answers!"
Fuwawa and Mococo, the demonic guard dog twins, were curled up together on a couch, half-asleep after what had apparently been an early morning stream. Fuwawa's fluffy white hair mixed with Mococo's pink, and they looked like a pile of pastel cotton candy.
Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame was regaling Cecilia Immergreen with tales of her latest adventure—which, given Elizabeth's tendency toward dramatic exaggeration, may or may not have actually happened.
"And then, with the dragon bearing down on me, flames licking at my heels, I raised my sword and—"
"Elizabeth," Cecilia interrupted gently, her green eyes twinkling with amusement. "Weren't you just at the grocery store?"
Elizabeth paused. "...It was a very aggressive seagull. A very LARGE, aggressive seagull."
Gigi Murin was showing Raora Panthera something on her phone, both of them giggling at whatever content they'd found. The grease monkey and the pink-haired manager made an odd pair, but they'd struck up an easy friendship.
"I can't believe this is a real product," Raora said, squinting at the screen. "Who needs a toaster that also dispenses motivational quotes?"
"I do!" Gigi declared. "I'm buying one right now. This is exactly the kind of chaos my kitchen needs."
Amelia Watson was tinkering with some kind of device at another table, tools and components spread out before her. The detective's tongue poked out slightly in concentration as she soldered a tiny circuit board.
"Whatcha working on, Ame?" Gura called out, having apparently lost her game and abandoned it in favor of socializing.
"Improvements to my time watch," Ame replied, not looking up. "Trying to improve the temporal stabilization matrix."
"...Sure, yeah, that makes total sense," Gura said, nodding as if she understood even a single word of that sentence.
The conversation eventually, inevitably, turned to past incidents. This was dangerous territory in the EN branch, as they had accumulated quite the collection of catastrophes over the years.
"Remember when Kiara accidentally set off the fire suppression system?" Bae asked with a grin.
"That was ONE TIME!" Kiara protested. "And technically, I was supposed to be demonstrating my phoenix flames!"
"In the middle of the recording studio," Kronii added helpfully.
"Details!"
"Or what about when Kronii accidentally froze an entire floor because she was having a bad day?" Fauna suggested gently.
Kronii winced. "In my defense, I had just watched the finale of my favorite show, and they killed off—"
"No spoilers!" several voices chorused.
Ina looked up from her art. "At least those incidents were contained to the building. Unlike..."
There was a collective pause. Everyone knew what was coming.
"Unlike the Devil Trigger Incident," Calli finished, sitting up from her beanbag chair.
The lobby erupted in a mixture of laughter and groans.
"Oh my god, we're never living that down, are we?" Gura said, covering her face with her hands.
"Absolutely not," Bijou confirmed cheerfully. "That was legendary levels of destruction."
"Tell the story! Tell the story!" Bae bounced excitedly.