streams are easy mode for content creation, in julian's opinion. she doesn't have to dance around in that sweaty morpeko mask the whole time, and it can be done from the comfort of her own home without any worry of people recognizing the person under the mask. for her game streams she's commissioned a vtuber avatar that looks just like her persona, and while she doesn't get a lot of people on these streams, for the most part they're pretty chill.

her main in pokken tournament 7 is gengar, as it has been since she was old enough to pick up a controller and play. she's got her avatar fully kitted out too, making it recognizable to anyone who's seen her play. the game loads, and on the other end, where andrew can't hear her, heidi hemlock chirps "okay, guys, let's have a good game~"

the match begins. on heidi's stream, they tease their opponent once they realize they have the upper hand, scolding him and punishing him when he falls for their tricks. it's over soon enough, with heidi (or "queen_hemlock" as her usename shows) winning.

then it's over, and julian peaks at the chat. oh... interesting... was that another streamer she just beat down? oopsies.

by reading the chat, julian realizes her opponent is having a bit of a meltdown on the other end. another person says that this always happens, and that he's known for being a sore loser. someone else brings up that he basically challenged her to pokken tournament 6. julian smirks in real life. oh, this oughta be reaaaal funny... she taps her fingers on her desk. "well, okay, how 'bout you guys tell him to meet me in pokken 6 then?" she suggests sweetly. "my username's the same, so just send him over my way~"

with that, she closes out pokken tournament 7 and boots up the previous installment. it takes a moment, but then she's in the game again, waiting for the message to be relayed. in the meantime, she enters another random match. this one she struggles with a bit, but eventually comes out on top. it's not like i'm THAT good... he just sucks, obviously, julian tells herself. not like i can say that as heidi. sometimes she wishes she could act more like herself, but nobody wants to hear what julian actually thinks. she'd be a laughingstock-- just like her opponent-- within a week.

it's only a moment after she finishes her random match that the invite pops up. "oh, there you are!" i was beginning to wonder if you'd chicken out, she thinks snidely. she hits accept, and they get sent into the character select screen. of course she selects gengar again-- this one with some cute accessories she'd won before pokken 7 had come out and she'd all but abandoned 6-- and is ready almost immediately.

in the meantime, since she's streaming, she chats idly. "yeah, pokken 6 definitely had a lot of advantages over 7," she says. "but i had to move on for a bit, at least, right? there was still plenty i needed to get in 7. i'm not really a completionist, but..." she squints at her chat, and laughs. "hey, yeah! let's see if we can get this guy to ragequit. should be easy!" there's a lot of ways to draw out an encounter in this game. sometimes she thinks the devs knew exactly what they were doing when they decided on some of the movesets. they had to tone it down in the sequel... maybe that's her opponent's problem with the new game?

the match starts. she starts out spamming lick, smirking behind her screen.