Melissa Woodburn's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Melissa held her phone above the camera, angling the screen so her viewers could see the poll results coming in. The votes were split between two usernames for the hero character: cupcake-puppy and sunshine-rider-88. She refreshed the page and watched the numbers shift. Cupcake-puppy pulled ahead by three votes, then five. She set the phone down and picked up her Switch 2, navigating to the character creation screen. Her finger hovered over the keyboard as she waited for the final count. This was it—the fans would pick the hero, and she'd build whatever story they wanted, even if it made no sense. Cupcake-puppy won. The chat exploded with celebration emojis and demands for what came next. Melissa typed the username into the Mii editor and waited for the next poll to load. The villain vote was already live, and one option was pulling away fast: Evil Kirby. She laughed once, short and sharp. Of course they'd pick the darkest version of the happiest character. She glanced at her second monitor where the bright pink sign hung in the background of her setup, the words "Fans Decide" glowing under her ring light. She'd put it up yesterday as a reminder. Not for them—for her. The mansion appeared on screen when she opened the building menu. Five stories, rainbow-colored logs, curved roof like something out of a postcard. The chat spammed heart emojis and fire symbols. Someone suggested it should be her new headquarters now that fans ran everything. She placed it in the center of the map and watched it materialize in Chibi City. It looked ridiculous next to the plain starter buildings, but that was the point. This whole experiment was about letting go of what made sense. She scrolled through the decoration options and stopped when she saw the statue. Evil Kirby stood there with his wide grin and sharp eyes, looking nothing like the round pink ball she remembered from her childhood games. She placed him right outside the mansion doors. The hero and villain were set. Cupcake-puppy versus a corrupted icon. Melissa hit save and leaned back in her chair, staring at the screen. The wheel wasn't in her hands anymore, and there was no taking it back.