Cap Hit

Chapter 1: Challenge on a Stream

October 15, four and a half months after MAA's closure. Caroline is streaming her new game of choice, looking like some crossover of chess and RPG to the uninitiated. She's about to defeat her opponent of the moment, a high-level player.

"The opponent made one mistake too many and I'll win this game!" Caroline exclaims as she launches an attack on her opponent's final piece, after moving her hurt ranger her allotted 3 spaces on the grid.

Both players are down to their last pieces. The opponent's mistake was to make a weaker, but can't miss attack, leaving me with an opening to fire the poisoned arrow. That arrow should be enough to kill the opponent... she starts thinking about what options she might have to finish this game. The arrow may not necessarily kill the opponent outright, but the poison will after the arrow hits. There are some risks to take, but it's my best bet.

Their health bars come up on screen, and the animation comes up for an attack. So while Caroline's piece is on a back diagonal of the opponent's on the map, the ranger fires a poisoned arrow at it. People in her chat cross their fingers for a few seconds, hoping for the best. The initial poisoned arrow impact barely leaves the enemy alive.

But when the opponent's turn comes, the poisoned arrow takes its toll and the game ends. With the death of the opponent's final piece. Caroline's chat comes alive after that game.

Glitter: Now that's what I call a Parthian shot!

Capitolium: The time has come for you to do more than just play this game on air

"What do you mean?" Caroline asks her follower on voice.

So what could I possibly do on a stream that doesn't involve actively playing that game? A dumbfounded Caroline scratches her head, a little apprehensive. After all, I built this stream on my own gameplay skills, ever since I started streaming MAA while it was around! Would people keep watching me?

Capitolium: I issue you a challenge: you have thirty days, starting from November 1, to write a hockey romance, of fifty thousand words or more!

"That's a very tight deadline for someone with no real experience of romance writing! Also, what's in it for me?" Caroline asks, not knowing whether she can even accept it.

I get it, she has to start somewhere, but I feel like she also has to break out of her gaming shell! I watched her ex-teammate in MAA during Operation Heathrow's RWF, Capitolium starts sweating while he struggles to think of how making her break out of her gaming shell would benefit her. Or what incentive that subscriber would provide her to accept it.

"I feel that something's fishy about this challenge. What makes you think that someone with no real experience of romance writing could write a hockey romance, no matter how horrible, in thirty days?" Caroline starts questioning its feasibility. "Please come on voice if you can formulate an answer!"

Capitolium then enters Caroline's voice chat channel on her stream's Discord server. "If only you read some of the latest hockey romance releases... you might have a better idea!"

"And then, people in the chat, I have a request for you: since it seems like Capitolium wants to introduce me to hockey romance, I am willing to take your recommendations, so long as it's representative of what hockey romance is all about! However, I will read only one book per author!" Caroline asks her viewers to recommend hockey romance books to her.

Perhaps... if I read some myself, I might have a better idea of how to go around writing one! the streamer starts noting the recs provided by her viewers on her chat.

"Good thing you asked for books that are representative of the genre! Once you read enough of them, under the condition you gave, you'll have a better idea of what I really mean!" the user called Capitolium can't seem to contain his bitterness, but doesn't seem to be willing to expand on its source.