Rewritten Past

After a bit, Mama Yue rubbed her face and murmured, "We can never let your dad know about this. And I'm going to copyright this. Today."

Before I could protest, Mama Yue picked up my laptop, clicked through to the game folder, figured out how the installer worked, and then said, "I'm buying some CDs to burn this onto. Then I'm filing a copyright on it. Don't go anywhere."

The hotel door slammed shut.

I blinked, still processing what just happened.

Partially the fact that Mama Yue figured out how the installer and game folder worked, but mostly that she legitimately just up and left to secure my interests.

"Huh. Mom really does love me, huh?" I subconsciously muttered.

April rolled her eyes and then pinched my cheeks. "Silly Alex! Of course Miss Yue loves you!"

"Owowow! April! Let go! Hey!"

===

By the end of the day, and by the time we had driven back home to Mama Yue's condo, two things- No, three things had happened.

First, Mama Yue had registered an LLC called Lexali Productions under her name with her as the CEO, Miss Serena as the CFO, and surprisingly, Mister Tyrone as the COO.

Apparently, you needed three to tango when it came to corporate stuff.

Mister Tyrone was completely onboard when he saw what it was for.

Which led to the second thing that happened: Mama Yue had sent [Hero Creator] into the copyright office on an expedited track and got it cleared within the day.

Amazingly fast considering what I knew about how the copyright office worked...

But I guess at this time they were basically just rubberstamping things? Maybe?

Anyway, with that settled, Mama Yue also set out on the third thing: distributing Hero Creator.

At my insistence, we kept two versions: one on a physical disk with special bonuses, and one purely digital and free.

For the digital one, I just hosted it on the private FTP server that I already had set up.

For the physical edition, Mama Yue pulled some strings and had it sold in various Asian stores for five bucks each.

And each physical edition came with the disc, which had various pixel sprites of the male and female MC, as well as a small poster of the mural seen in the initial cutscene while waiting at the title.

Honestly, it was something I would have bought myself.

Mama Yue didn't make too many physical editions. Mostly because she had to find printers to burn the discs and all the parts.

But I underestimated the power of a young woman in full mamabear mode.

Like I said, by the end of the night, all of that was set in stone.

But even before the evening was up, Mama Yue got texts saying that most of the Hero Creator copies were sold out.

...Yeah. REALLY underestimated my skillset here.

I opened up my laptop in my room, staring at the title screen of Hero Creator.

"...I probably shouldn't show her the other games I'm working on yet, should I?"

I was craving a Dragon Warrior Monster style game and some roguelikes, so I'd already set up a few games with those. And considering it was just pixel art and chiptune music without the fancy midi speech voicebox I made, they wouldn't take long to make.

...But I had a feeling Mama Yue would have a heartattack if I did that. So I held off on it for now.

Can't be too exceptional too soon. I mean, if we summed up what I had going for me, it was already a bit much, right?

Ridiculously trained body for a five year old to the extent I almost look like a JoJo character, check.

Sketching ability to the level I can make a 70% accurate sketch of anything I see within a minute, check.

Academic ability FAAAAAR beyond normal levels due to MANY years of post-graduate level studies, check.

Ridiculously sharpened social skills and psychoanalytic abilities honed from years of childhood trauma and attorney work, check.

Insanely good acting abilities at pretending to be a kid due to years of shameless roleplaying online, leaning into the bit, and general lack of cringe, check.

And that wasn't even going into my other money making skills like writing, translating, programming, music composing...

What can I say? Being a kid again is a cheat code.

ESPECIALLY if you spent your adult life desperately honing every skill under the sun because you were trying to find another reason to keep on living through the soul crushing 9-5 job your parents convinced you was the ideal of the american dream.

...Yeah, therapy would have been nice. Too late for that now though~

Anyway.

Life was going good.

===

Life was not going good.

And the reason for that...

"So." Mama Yue looked at me after hanging up the phone. "You're getting a sister."

...Was that life continued even when I wasn't paying attention.

It was November 21st. Monday, of course. Thanksgiving was this Thursday on the 24th.

And classes were out for the week because of it.

So I had just been watching April have fun playing through Hero Creator again when Mama Yue got a phone call. And the caller?

My mom. And the news...

Mama Yue sighed and rubbed her face. "They want us to come back and visit for Thanksgiving too."

...Of course. It WOULD be like this.

April stopped playing and looked between me and Mama Yue, confused. "Isn't that good? Alex gets a baby sister, right?"

Miss Serena stepped over and patted April's head. "It's not that simple, Sweetie..."

"Isn't it?" April frowned, looking even more confused. Then she turned to look at me for answers.

Mama Yue and Miss Serena turned to look at me too.

I understood why. Obviously, this news affected me the most.

But honestly, the only thing running through my mind was...

"Does this mean I get to be the scary older brother when I grow up and threaten her boyfriends?"

The tension in the room snapped in an instant.

Mama Yue snorted and shook her head, hiding a smile on her face. "Of course. You WOULD think about that first."

Miss Serena giggled and said, "Well." She smiled at me and said, "It looks like someone has his priorities straight."

April's eyes lit up and she stuck her hand in the air. "Ooh, ooh! Does that mean I can be like a big sister too?! I want a little sister! Babies are cute!"

Miss Serena started chatting with April to distract her.

Meanwhile, Mama Yue looked at me. She didn't say anything, but her expression gave away her thoughts. 'Are you sure about this?'

I smiled at her, warm. "It's fine, Mama Yue. Honestly."

Mama Yue sighed. "Okay. If you're fine with it, we'll go together. But..." She hesitated and said, "Your mom- Big Sis said that a lot of your relatives from your father's side are coming too."

Ah.

That changed things a bit.

On a minor sidetangent, it was interesting that Mama Yue called dad 'your father' now instead of 'your dad' like she used to. Seems like she's really pissed off about how they've treated me.

Fair, to be honest.

But anyway, the fact that a lot of relatives from my dad's side are coming...

April tilted her head, peering over and said, "Is that a bad thing?"

Mama Yue frowned. "Not really. Just... troublesome." She turned back to look at me, concern clear on her face.

As for the reason why...