Pathetic Loser Report

"Damn, that's good!" Marine shouted, slamming back her third glass of the night, while Coco had barely drank from her glass. The two were sitting at a table in the back of a small bar. Marine eyed her and gave her a nudge. "What's the matter with you? You've hardly touched your drink? Why are you so damn mopey? I asked you out so we could have a good time but you're just dragging everything down." Coco apologized. "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit tired." She said. "I've been up since five in the morning after all."

Marine laughed. "What, you're still doing that dumb news show? I stopped watching that months ago, too early for me. You still getting lots of viewers?" Coco remained silent. "Oh right, you don't like talking about viewers. Let's uh, talk about something else. what was up with that stuff you were talking about earlier? Something about pizza?" Coco lit up at the chance to complain and told Marine about the trip to the pizza place, making sure to insult Towa every chance she had.

"So yeah, that menhera bitch completely ruined out day. I was really looking forward to that pizza too!" Coco said, looking to Marine for approval. But she didn't find it. Marine simply fired back at Coco. "If you hate Towa so much why did you go visit her at work? Everyone knows she works at that pizza place, damn girl wouldn't stop begging for people to come visit her." Marine asked, while Coco avoided eye contact. "Ah...well...it's the cheapest place in town." She responded. Marine looked at her for a moment and then laughed. "That's a dumb reason to go, I mean we all make so much that we can afford to go out and splurge every now and then, can't we? So why do you always insist on going to such cheap places?" Coco played with her glass, looking deep into it. "You know I have to save up money if I'm ever going to achieve my dream." Coco said, looking into her glass. "Oh yeah, that Holohouse shit you're always talking about. I don't know why you're so hellbent on living with everyone. Personally I can hardly stand seeing most of you for more than a few hours at a time." Marine responded, while Coco took a small sip from her glass. She knew Marine didn't care much for her, but just wanted an excuse to drink and Coco couldn't ever turn her invitation down.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence with their glasses, the two got up to leave. Marine threw down a wad of bills while Coco paid with exact change. Despite her inebriation, Marine insisted on walking home with Coco, since she lived close. Before long they arrived at a towering building, a high class apartment complex. Marine whistled as she looked at it. "No matter how many times I see it I'm still amazed you live in such a nice place. What do you even need the Holohouse for?" She said, awestruck. Coco didn't look at her. "Trust me, the Holohouse is going to be a million times better than where I live." She walked forward toward the doors into the lobby of the complex. Marine waved goodbye to Coco as she opened the doors into the building.

She took a few steps into the lobby, watching the receptionist out of the corner of her eye. She quickly looked over her shoulder to see if Marine was still there, as the woman spoke to Coco. "Ma'am, what are you doing here again? What did we tell you about outsiders coming in here?" she said sternly, pointing to a sign on the wall reading Residents Only. Coco sighed. "I know, I know, I'm going." Thankfully for Coco, Marine had already stumbled off in the direction of her home so Coco could slip out unnoticed by anyone she knew. Looking around herself constantly, she made her way to her real home back in the slums.

Coco arrived at her apartment, a building that had long since past the point of being condemned. The paint was peeling off the walls, the rails had long since rusted, doors practically falling off their hinges and there wasn't a single window without some form of tape or wood plastered over it. Coco went to pull out her key, but then realized that once again, there was no need to, as her door was wide open. Someone had broken into her apartment for the third time this week. She sighed as she reached in to turn on her light. After heading inside, she pushed the door closed and popped off her horns, wedging them under her door to keep it shut. She then surveyed the room. Her fridge was wide open, completely empty, and most of her bedding was tossed around. Nothing of value had been stolen aside from a few cups of instant noodles, given how little she had in the apartment. Thankfully the robber didn't realize she stashed away her PC every time she left the house, under the floorboards next to the fridge.

She didn't waste any time, pulling out her PC and setting everything up on the floor. While she waited for her computer to boot up, she thought to herself how nice it would be to have a chair to sit on. Preferably one she could recline in. But Coco would never be able to recline, not until she achieved her goal of building the Holohouse. At least that's what she told everyone else, the truth was there was no Holohouse, there would never be a Holohouse. In reality, she had been in horrible debt to Yakuza loan sharks ever since she first came to Japan. She was fooled into thinking she could be a cool hero like her video games and got herself involved with some very bad people, and now most of the money she made had to go right into paying back her debts. And so, she had to live like this, completely in squalor, without even a chair to sit in. She would often fantasize about the Holohouse, the wonderful home of her dreams. It was a place where she could live comfortably, surrounded by friends, not in a run down shithole where she was all alone.

Coco did everything she could to keep her lifestyle a secret from her coworkers. They all knew she was stingy with money, but they bought her lie about the Holohouse. In the past, she had worked out a deal with someone who had lived in the expensive apartment complex she pretended she lived in, to rent out their room a day at a time for off-collabs, so people would think she lived in luxury. Marine had even spent the night with her there once. However, she wasn't able to do this anymore so now she just had to make up excuses whenever someone wanted to come over. The only person who knew the truth about her situation was Kanata, who would sometimes come by and bring her snacks and pizza. If anyone else had found out she would have been exposed instantly but thankfully she could trust Kanata to keep her secret.

After a few minutes, the computer whirred to life as she sat down cross-legged and put on her headphones. It was time for her stream. There was no way she could afford to be late, no way she could afford to screw up. She needed that super chat after all. She began loading up her usual programs, and looked at the background of an empty room she used for her chat streams. Not a very far cry from her real room, though it was in much better condition that hers. Her stream began a few minutes later, a chat stream where she would just talk about random topics requested by her chat. At least, she wanted them to all believe it was random, that she was a great entertainer who could speak from the heart. In truth she had written a script for the entire stream, and had asked Watame to log into random fake accounts to suggest the exact topics she was going to discuss. Watame of course agreed as she always does. Coco knew there was no way she could make the stream work otherwise, no way she could let people know her for who she truly was.

The stream began as planned, the scripted discussion topics coming in right when she needed them. However, as she was getting into her third story Coco heard movement, and immediately muted her microphone. She sat completely still, hardly breathing. There was a knock on her door, followed by a loud voice. "Oi, where's my god damn money?" An angry man shouted. After a few more moments, he turned away, stomping his feet loudly. "Damn girl must have gone out again." Coco let out a sigh of relief and unmuted her microphone. "Sorry everyone! My dad came into my room again and started using my real dragon name." She said, lying to her viewers. She hadn't seen her father in years. She wondered what he would think of what she had become.

Coco's stream would continue onward, Coco managing to follow her script every step of the way. Thankfully for Coco, she had gotten good at scripting everything in her life out, even her conversations with other people. Eventually, as the stream ended she let out a loud sigh of relief, another day gone by. She sent out a tweet pretending that she was going to bed. That was of course another lie, she had work to do. She began to plan out the next episode of Asacoco.

She would often wonder what it was like to be the other girls, to be able to just turn on a stream and let their personality carry it. What it was like to bring in such large numbers without hours of stress and preparation beforehand. But in time, as always, when she thought about the others, her thoughts would always end up back on Towa. She hated Towa, she hated the way she was always complaining on twitter, hated how she was always making everyone pity her. But most of all, she hated how much of herself she saw in Towa. Every single thing she criticized Towa about, made fun of her for, was something that she had been guilty of in the past. She had tried so hard to stray away from that part of herself, to put on a brave front, and here was a girl who was reminding her of it every day.

Coco frantically hammered away at her keyboard, working on her script for tomorrow morning's Asacoco. She looked at every stream she could find to look for things to criticize her fellow streamers about. A part of her wished she could stop all of it, and just fall back into the shadows. But she was the front runner of the fourth gens, and she knew full well no one else could step up to lead them. She looked at her sleeping pills, which were the only way she could fall asleep anymore. She considered taking the entire batch all at once and going to bed, never to wake up again, But she wouldn't be allowed to sleep, she had to wake everyone up every day. She would write another report for Asacoco, making fun of her fellow Hololive members, calling them pathetic losers. But she knew the truth was, she was the real pathetic loser.