Chapter Text
“Where the– oh shit. I dropped my flashlight. I dropped my flashlight! Mira! I lost my flashli–”
Despite the terror that ran through Mira, she couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her once her girlfriend died in the game.
When Zoey asked her to play Phasmophobia on stream yesterday, Mira already knew it was a bad idea. She refused to admit it, but anything horror scared the shit out of her. Meanwhile, Zoey always wanted to try any new scary game, but refused to do it alone.
Mira was reminded that karma was, indeed, a bitch when the ghost came for her next. Unlike her girlfriend who screamed bloody murder, Mira froze up instead. Which caused her own chat to start clowning her with the laughing and mocking emotes.
“Haha,” she deadpanned. “I hate this game.”
“No you don’t,” Zoey piped up cheerfully through her headphones. “Look on the bright side! Now we get to see Baby and Mystery get murdered by a ghost.”
Mira chuckled. Out of context, it would have been a wild sentence. But she heard her friends panicking through the in-game chat as they watched them go around like chickens.
When Mira started streaming, she used it as a way to get away from the pressure her family kept piling on her. All the expectations as the daughter of millionaires were too much. Some would say she should just suck it up, bathe in the privilege she had. And at some point, she did feel grateful. But sometimes, it was all too much when she had no interest in joining the family business at all.
She started during her first year in college. When the weight of the world felt too much to bear, she started a face-less channel where she just played games like Counter-Strike and Valorant. She never expected people would watch her streams, she mostly did it for herself.
But then as the days went by, more and more people found her channel. People started subscribing, started sending donations and bits. That was when Mira found out how she could make her own money. It wasn’t much, but it was still hers.
It was a year into her streaming when someone she knew recognized her voice. That was a different kind of chaos she didn’t expect, but she went with it. She started to ditch the face-less image, and just streamed however she wanted.
Zoey was the first friend she made as a streamer, and her now-girlfriend was the one who introduced her to Baby and Mystery. All three of them started streaming before her, but she was thankful none of them were like the stuck up streamers she heard about.
A notification snapped Mira out of her head. Confused, she opened the chat from Zoey, which consisted of an ungodly amount of exclamation points and a link to a tweet.
Honmoon Animal Sanctuary (@Honmoon_AS)
Our tortoises are now home! Come meet the newest members of our family at Honmoon Animal Sanctuary 🐢
#HonmoonAnimalSanctuary #SaveTheTurtles
Mira let out a chuckle. Zoey had mentioned wanting to go to Honmoon right when it was first opened to the public. The mascot, an extremely rare blue tiger named Derpy, and the owner made it famous. Now that they had turtles, her girlfriend would do anything to actually go.
Zoey🐢💙: can we go can we go can we go can we go
Mira🩰💝: yeah yeah. When?
Zoey🐢💙Zoey: yay!!
Zoey🐢💙: the weekend?
Mira🩰💝: alright. Morning or afternoon?
Zoey🐢💙: let’s go in the morning!!! I want to check out the other animals too ❤️
Mira sighed but agreed anyway. There was little she didn’t give in when it came to Zoey. She wanted to see the tiger too, anyway.
Rumi sighed and slumped over the table. She didn’t deny that the only reason she started the sanctuary was because she fell in love with a blue tiger cub. She went to a zoo once, found out how horrible they treated the animals, and decided she just couldn’t let that go under the rug.
As the daughter of world-famous singers, Rumi had more money than she knew what to do with. Plus, her modeling gig paid a lot too. At first, she wanted to just buy the zoo and fire every single person involved in the mistreatment of the animals, but then she found Derpy. Too small, too thin, but too rare to leave at the zoo.
So, she teamed up with her personal manager, Bobby, and they both concocted a plan to kick start what was now widely known as the Honmoon Animal Sanctuary.
Then, it just grew from there. They kept all the tigers and most of the birds, then with the marine animals, they set out to find zoos and sanctuaries who actually knew what they were doing. A lot of animals were sent to Japan and Australia.
Somehow, Jinu convinced Bobby to convince Rumi that four African spurred tortoises needed to be re-homed immediately.
Rumi and her team did their best to create the perfect environment for them, but Jinu was one suggestion away from being fed to the tigers.
“Thanks, Bobby.” She rubbed her dry eyes. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“Um… Hello? What about me?” The root of all her problems had the audacity to speak.
“Shut up, Jinu,” Rumi snapped. “Just… I need you to keep your mouth shut.”
Bobby laughed, used to their shenanigans. “You’re welcome, Rumi. The naming event you thought of was brilliant too. It would get people more interested to stop by.”
They kept the sanctuary free entry, but they still had to find a way to pay the bills and their in-house staff. Thankfully, Bobby found out that people were willing to buy merch from the gift shop, and they had their own vegan restaurant.
When Rumi balked at the idea of a vegan restaurant, Bobby pointed out “It wouldn’t do us any good to have a restaurant serve meat when we’re an animal sanctuary.”
“Anyway,” Rumi sighed. “That should be it for today, right? I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
They all bid each other goodbye and Rumi started the trek to her apartment.