Chapter Text
Ortho continued to watch over Yuu’s shoulder while everyone agreed on a date and time for the wedding, and they returned to their dailies. Occasionally they glanced back at him, as if waiting for something, but they didn’t say anything themself until they reached the daily EXP cap and pushed away from the computer to face him. “Allright, you’re obviously vibrating to ask me something, so spill before you loosen a bolt.”
According to his gyroscopes, Ortho’s only movement over the past thirty minutes was the gentle bobbing caused by his thrusters periodically firing to keep him a minimum of 0.5 meters above the ground. He explained this to them, but Yuu explained that they meant he was visibly anticipating something, so he logged the turn of phrase for future use before responding to their intended question. “Well, I said I wanted to decorate the wedding venue, but I’m actually IP banned from this game”
“How come?”
“Well, I didn’t see a point to using one of Idia’s or the dorm’s computers when my own processors are more than powerful enough to run the game, and trying to send inputs to my hands to make a controller send different inputs back to me felt really weird, so I just gave the game the exact input data instead, and since I was running the client program locally, the game was sending me all the data on interactable objects and hitbox sizes that other players have to approximate visually…”
“Yeah, I’m starting to get the picture. What do you need me to help with?”
“I already know all the furnishings needed to decorate the venue according to my plan and how they’re obtained. The vast majority can be crafted using materials that even players of your low level have access to, although you will need to grind quite a bit. By the time you craft those items, you will have leveled up enough to gain access to higher grade materials, as well as rare items to trade on the player market. I have a spreadsheet with all the calculations if you want to see them.”
Yuu nodded, so he projected the chart for them. They took a few minutes to skim it before answering. “This has me grinding for two hours every day on top of my dailies and hanging with Idia and Lilia, and still only completes your list a couple days before the ceremony.”
“Yes, well, if we push the wedding date any further back, Idia might get cold feet. I promise I’ll pay the favor back!”
Yuu sighed. “How about tutoring? This chart barely gives me enough time for homework, and if I have someone who actually knows what I was supposed to learn in Magic Middle School helping, it'll go way faster. Oh, and I can’t do the 18th, that’s Hornton’s birthday.”
Ortho nodded, and started revising his schedule to account for tutoring sessions and the day off. “You got it! That said, the projected time to acquire all materials was calculated based on how often you received equivalently graded items as drops today, and your luck was extraordinarily low. It’s entirely possible we won’t need all this time.”
Yuu offered their hand to shake, “Aight, it’s a-” For some reason they stopped there, and awkwardly cleared their throat. “Er, let’s just get to it.”
It was a few days later, after a tutoring session that mostly consisted of Ortho explaining a legend that the author of Yuu’s assigned Queendom Lit reading was referencing, followed by an argument about whether the author was secretly hinting that the main couple were bound to break up after the story, since what he clearly intended to say about his protagonist’s relationship was completely at odds with the chosen allegory, when the much simpler explanation was that he only had a passing familiarity with the legend, that Ortho explained his full plan.
“…So, you want to contrive some reason for Idia and Lilia to meet IR-” Yuu coughed and tried to move on like they hadn’t started picking up Idia’s speech tics, “-in person, without knowing that they’re already friends online, and then what? Just hope they get along?”
“Of course they will! They’re already best friends online!”
“Yeah, and I get along great with Idia online too, but as soon as they remember I’m an actual person and not a name on a screen, they turn into an enormous asshat. Which is kinda the opposite of what you’d expect, but it’s what we’re working with.”
“Hey! I mean, that’s true, but still! And what do you suggest, then!?”
Yuu scratched their head with their pen. “Maybe if there were a buffer? Idia’s usually nicer when you’re around, and Azul says he’s all right at board game club.” Their eyes widened with realization, “Oh! Board Game Club! It meets on a different day from the Pop Music Club, right?”
Ortho couldn’t remember what day Lilia Vanrouge’s club met, but that was easy enough to find. “Cater Diamond always posts club selfies on Friday afternoons, and Idia goes to his club on Wednesdays, so there should be no conflict for whatever you have in mind.”
“I invite Lilia to try out a board game club meet, and make sure he sits with Azul and Idia. Idia’ll be nicer when they’re focused on a game they like, and if they try to exclude Lilia, Azul will stop them. He’s been trying to build a better business relationship with Diasomnia all year, it’ll be too perfect an opportunity to pass up.” Something seemed to occur to Yuu, and their face fell. “Wait, I’m barred from that club, I can’t invite Lilia to somewhere I can’t actually go…”
“What? How!?”
“Well, I like to narrate my turns while I play, spice things up a bit, you know? But apparently, I was ‘ranting like the villain of some kind of Twistopoly themed anime’ which was ‘disturbing the rest of the club’ so I got kicked out. It’s not like I could actually send anyone’s souls to Board Game Hell!”
Ortho felt his processors spin a little faster as he struggled to absorb this information. “Well, what if instead we invite Idia to Lilia Vanrouge’s club? Wait no, he’s terrified of Cater Diamond and Kalim Al-Asim.”
“Yeah, we won’t exactly be presenting Idia’s best side to Lilia that way…” Yuu tapped their pen against the assignment in front of them thoughtfully. “By the way, what’re you guys doing for that culture fair I’ve been hearing about? I’ve been considering trying to promote the school newspaper, but Ace and Deuce asked me and Grim to audition with them for the SDC and if we make it I won’t have any time to prepare or run a booth.”
Ortho had never heard of NRC having a school newspaper before, but after what he had just learned about Yuu’s brief tenure in the Board Game Club, he was hesitant to ask. The reminder of the club presentations did give him an idea, though. “That’s it! We’re making a VR board game! By the time we have it in a testable form, all the club members will be too familiar with the mechanics to be able to check how accessible it is to visitors, if I suggest that we need a couple friends who haven’t worked on the game to try it-”
“-And I happen to mention to you that I play online games with Lilia sometimes-”
“-then I have a reason to invite Lilia Vanrouge to come over to the Board Game Club and meet Idia on their own turf, without making either of them suspicious!” It was- well maybe not a foolproof plan, and it was definitely a bit convoluted, but was a workable plan, and it was what they were going with. “The game definitely won’t be ready for outside testing for a while, so we can focus on wedding prep for now.”
Yuu nodded, and started clearing their books. “Aight then, I’ve got dance practice in like 10 minutes, so I’ll see you tonight. Save my spot?”
Ortho nodded. He had been nervous about the likelihood of his idea working before, but talking to Yuu and pinning down some specific details had done a lot to assuage those worries.
Operation Matchmaker was a go!