3 Months Ago:
"Don't forget to have fun between practice sessions!" Professor Palavi said to the class after she completed a lecture, "that's important too!"
Student Teacher Rheni gave her a questioning look before standing up to talk.
"Yes… but make sure to actually practice as well!"
"Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine!" Professor Palavi said smiling, giving Student Teacher Rheni a hand wave and then headpat, "our performance results are top of the nation, don't you know! We even have an award for it!"
"No…" Student Teacher Rheni groaned removing the Professor's hand from her head, "the Pixies as a species won the award… the Prime Minister carried the shit out of us with her performance. WE as an academy… still have work to do."
Her words were getting hard to hear as I could feel my drowsiness take hold of me. It was quite late in the day at this point. And the fact my classmate Damian was asleep next to me, drooling on the desk, also wasn't helping matters.
"Owww…"
An eraser came flying at Damian's head waking him up. And before I could begin laughing at him…
"Owww…"
Another eraser came flying this time hitting my forehead.
"Especially with these 2 dumbasses…" Rheni said giving us a disappointed look.
"We're trying our best…" I replied tossing the eraser back.
"Are we though?" Damian whispered to me.
"No, but just say we are or she's gonna get mad…"
"HEY… I CAN HEAR YOU…" Rheni said giving the two of us a death stare.
"Uhh… I mean… Ma'am yes Ma'am!" I said giving her a salute. Student Teacher Rheni was truly a scary woman when it came to artistic discipline. Not that it was always a bad thing as it was important to stay focused on perfecting one's performance with practice.
"Good!" Student Teacher Rheni said as we tossed the erasers back to her, "now then Professor… will you… Professor?"
"Zzz…"
"…"
It appeared Professor Palavi had also fallen asleep at her desk.
"Professor…"
Rheni had an equally disappointed look as she tossed the eraser at her.
"Huh, what?!?"
"Professor… there are still 10 minutes left of class… we should go over the difficult parts of the music training again!"
"Oh…uhhh…"
She thought over this for a moment.
"Nah…"
"What?! What do you mean nah?!"
"I got a better idea!"
"Which is?!"
"Mario Kart!"
"Yeahhhhhhhhh," the class cheered as the Professor got out from under her desk a Nintendo Switch with controllers ready.
"…"
"What?" Professor Palavi said defending herself against the still disgruntled Student Teacher.
"This is a bit too much fun professor!"
"Nonsense!" Professor Palavi said as she began plugging the console into the TV, "the students should really get to know their assigned partner's hobbies anyways. It will enhance their performances."
"Is that how it works?"
The Professor gave Rheni another head pat.
"Good art is often times the moments when you have fun, don't you know! Plus? Haven't you heard of the concept of "Variety shows" and "Streaming"?"
"What?"
"You'll understand when you're older. In the meantime, let's see which one of you noobs can beat my Waluigi!"
Present:
The Professor's words were coming back to me as Calypso and I began walking back from the arcade.
"Alright, now I'm hyped!" Calypso said doing an air guitar motion, "what should we try next?"
"Uhhh… actually," I said on her shoulder, "how about let's take a break for the rest of the night?"
"Wait what?"
She looked at me with a suspicious look.
"What? You've been working pretty hard, I say we take a break for the night and begin again tomorrow!"
"It's been 1 day…" she said.
"Well alright… I guess if you HAVE to practice more instead of playing video games."
"No no, that's aokay!" she said hurrying back to the apartment. It was empty for now as it appeared Rachel was still out when Calypso sprinted to her room.
"Have you thought about getting help for you addiction?" I said flying in behind her.
"What addiction?"
"Your Video Game addiction…"
"Pshhhh that's not a real thing! It's just something stuck ups made up to oppress gamers in this society!"
"…"
"What? Just because you're a magical creature! Doesn't mean real world politics don't still exist Pixie man!"
I squinted my eyes at her.
"…"
"What? It's true!"
"I'm not even gonna start with that…" I said, "What are you going to play?"
"The only game that offers the ultimate combination of skill and strategy!" she said grabbing her Switch from under her bed.
"Super Smash Brothers Ultimate!"
"…"
"…"
I pulled out my tablet.
"Whaaaa" She gasped, "don't tell me, they don't have that in Pixie Society!"
"No… they have that in pixie society… I'm just searching up laws on copyright here."
"What?"
"You'll understand once you actually begin publishing more advanced projects…" I said looking through Nintendo's history of lawsuits and whether they were strict about their products or not. We already used "Animal Crossing" earlier so it was ok… probably.
"Hmm… looks like it's fine though."
"Yeah? Why wouldn't it be fine? I'm just playing a Video Game. That I paid money for!"
"Sigh…" I said putting the tablet away, "paying money for something does not mean you get the artistic rights to that product. In fact, this was one of the first things they taught us in Pixie Society, what to do if the IP you are trying to use has strict restrictions on it. That's why we encourage original art instead of what you humans would call "Cover art" or "Imitation art" in our history books. Without one's own originality after all, and strict rules on why originality matters in terms of both economic gain and brand recognition, it would be too easy for others to steal works of art that they did not make themselves. Of course, it's easy to see such issues as not important when it comes to0 companies like Nintendo that are mega corporations who…Calypso…"
She wasn't listening to me as it appeared she had already begun loading up a game.
"Huh what?"
She took off her headset slightly.
"Couldn't hear you."
"…"
"…"
"Nevermind… you're not famous enough for it to be that important yet."
"Pshhhh… I'm plenty famous among people who aren't casuals!" she said, "you see this Pixie man?"
I looked at the screen where the option of "Elite Smash" appeared.
"Not everyone can get that button, Pixie man! That's like top 5% of the world you know!"
"Uh-huh… and how long did you grind for to achieve that?"
"Oh like… idk…exactly, I played 1000, this past year though!"
"1000 Matches?"
"Hours!"
"…"
"…"
"What? That's the rule, isn't it? You have practice at least 1000 Hours to be an expert at something? That's what I've always heard at least."
"Uhhhh…"
"Don't judge me!"
"I'm not…"
She began loading up a match.
"Then?"
"To be honest it's more like…"
But she had already stopped listening to me again as the game started. Her character of choice this time appeared to be a Pokémon named "Incineroar".
"I'm kinda impressed…" I said whispering under my breath. And indeed, though the number of hours she had put in was numerous, the skills she displayed to me matched the practice hours. It was like she had fallen into complete trance being one with her controller as the combos flowed naturally within her. Her opponent tried their best to get some sort of read on her strategy but every smash, perfectly countered and every combo, perfectly timed so her opponent had no chance to even react before getting 100 to 0'd.
"A… Amazing," I said just sitting there watching her hit combos.
"Boom!" She finally said when she hit her final combo. Her opponent didn't even manage to get a single stock.
"How's that Pixie man? I may not be that talented at your so called "art" but in this arena, I'm unstoppable!"
She pounded her modest chest with her first.
"Let's fucking goooooooooooooooo"
"…"
"…"
"Sol?"
"…"
"Sol?"
"…?"
"Sol, are you blushing?"
"Huh, what?"
I left my daze as I looked up at her.
"Why is your face red? That was CLEAN… NO?!?!"
"Uhhh… yeah yeah," I replied. What was thinking about just now? Probably something I would never think about in reality, "very clean… I… I guess."
She smiled before beginning to load up another game, "alright! That was just the warmup! Now let's play ranked!"