Case 63: Internet drama.
Moeka vastly underestimated Magical Marigold's popularity.
In mere minutes, the stats of her new post had reached the higher end of five digits, climbing. Quote-posts began sprouting like crazy, and comments flooded in from all over the internet. Across platforms, the numbers must have already broken six digits.
Even having seen the girl's timeline at some point in the past, it was still impressive. At this rate, if Marigold decided to make a Y*utube channel, she might be able to recreate the insane run of a past football player who reached 1 million subscribers in just ninety minutes.
Then again, after a few massive waves of population decline and a world war, Earth's population in 2094 was only around 4 billion, a far cry from its peak.
'No, but the proportions of people using social media nowadays are much higher than in the past...'
Moeka was gradually getting distracted as she watched the numbers rapidly climb. Soon enough, she snapped out of it and began reading some of the comments under Marigold's post. At this point, ignoring the obvious bots and spam had become second nature to any remotely internet-conscious person.
[Damn, she's pretty. How are all magical girls so good-looking?]
∟[I swear they're choosing them based on appearance...]
∟[This one looks kinda shy tho]
∟[probly a beta]
[First time seeing our Gold so snuggy with someone. I'm speechless.]
∟[fr like, she's friendly with everyone but not to this degree]
∟[Must be a real close friend]
∟[Or a lover]
∟[cap]
[Bro isn't this the same girl who's been teased in her posts lately?]
∟[Anyone know who this is?? I'm seriously confused]
∟[Just click on her profile lmao. Kids can't read]
∟[Apparently a magical girl from City O. Can't find much information about her atm]
∟[Yeah. Official websites only have her basic info]
∟[She got insane proportions. I love her already]
∟[Goddamn gooner]
[Are they dating?]
∟[Cap]
∟[cap]
∟[cap]
∟[cap]
∟[ain't no way]
∟[cap]
∟[lol you purist losers need to get a life. Magical girls ain't your idols. Let them date.]
The last reply was quickly downvoted several dozen times.
In any case, the comments were somewhat rowdy, though nothing out of the ordinary. Still, the air remained unstable as those parasocially interested in Marigold seemed to be on edge lately.
So, Moeka was curious about one thing—what had Himeko posted that got these people so riled up?
''...''
As she scrolled down the girl's timeline, one thing became apparent—Himeko was not hiding her feelings at all. Captions such as [Strolling with my favorite♥] or [Leisure time with her~] were accompanied by narrow pictures of her and Moeka holding hands or subtly snuggling, taken discreetly yet intimately.
No wonder those purist fans got mad.
Of course, Moeka noticed Himeko sometimes taking those shots, though she did not expect them to get uploaded here. Himeko truly had a way to express her love so daringly and subtly at the same time.
'...Well, my face isn't in any of these, so I don't really mind.'
Those were the responses from Coo, the platform with the most diverse user base, also with the most extreme ends of individuals. On the other two mainstream platforms Moeka had signed up on, one had relatively normal comments, in line with its 'normie' reputation, while the remaining platform, which was primarily dominated by a younger audience, saw mostly love gossip.
...Gossip about herself and other magical girls. CP rumors, cheating scandals, exposés—some of it was so captivating that Moeka could not resist clicking on.
''What am I doing...?'' She muttered to herself after a few minutes.
Lying alone on her bed, Moeka nearly found herself deep in a rabbit hole. A step further, and she might have fallen right into it.
Returning to the main pages, Moeka noticed a copious number of red notifications, enough to drown a person in blood. Most were people tagging her and asking questions or new follower alerts, among which were familiar names—Marigold herself, Lily, Rose, Orchid, Helleborus, Miss Casey, Official HQ account, and... Magical Hibiscus.
'Fumiko...'
Imagining her girlfriend, even while working, still took the time to cater to her, Moeka felt her mood getting increasingly pleasant. Afterward, she began following her colleagues back and reciprocated their friend requests, ignoring the strangers.
''Phew...''
Evidently, shifting through hundreds of items at once strained Moeka's eyes, so she took a light bathroom break. When she came back, her official accounts, devoid of a single post, had already reached follower counts of dozens of thousands. Marigold's introductory post aside, it seemed netizens were baffled at the big names who were apparently interested in this no-name magical girl, especially the number one, two, and three on the leaderboard.
'...And I slept with all of them.'
Such embarrassing thoughts plagued Moeka for a while, causing her to kick the blanket several times.. Watching her follower counts skyrocketing by the second, she felt as if she were suddenly thrust into the limelight.
And, somewhere along the line, Moeka got nervous.
'Should I post something...?'
'I chose my avatar and wallpaper randomly... it doesn't look that bad, right...?'
Moeka wrestled with those thoughts alone in bed. For starters, Moeka was clueless about operating a page, and she had not come up with anything to post either. Besides, it was already late at night, and she was a little tired. In the end, Moeka sighed and decided to leave it to tomorrow.
''Hm?''
But just as Moeka was fiddling with random buttons and settings, she discovered quite a number of functions she was unfamiliar with. Linking with family members, death status... and relationship status, etc.
'What a way to expose your entire private life to everyone.' She sneered, 'Who would even be comfortable using these?'
''...''
Fueled by inexplicable and probably impulsive thoughts, Moeka silently set Osbeckia's relationship with Hibiscus to 'lovers.' Of course, such a status update needed mutual agreement, so Fumiko must consent to it as well.
A glance at the clock. Already ten thirty.
Reckoning Fumiko would not be up by now, Moeka decided to just sleep. If not, drowsiness would soon catch up to her anyway. Throwing her phone aside, Moeka yawned lightly and closed her eyes... unaware of the absolute hurricane she was about to unleash online.
Contrary to Moeka's thoughts, Fumiko was still awake by the time she fell asleep. The Alpha, still in her lab coat, let out a sigh as she stood on the breezy balcony, a glass of water in hand. Lately, seeing the jungle of lights at night had become her new routine. Work never ceased, but she was steadily making progress.
As she turned to her phone, a notification came in.
Fumiko hardly used social media. She only made one because of her status as the leader of magical girls in City O. If Ruri had not informed her of the newly registered Magical Osbeckia account earlier this evening, she would be clueless.
Still, if her girlfriend were on it, Fumiko would be much more motivated to open the app.
''...Status update?'' Fumiko chuckled, glimpsing what the notification was for, ''Eager to announce it, huh?''
Thinking it was cute of Moeka, Fumiko readily approved of the status change and returned to work. At this point, Ruri had already left, and Aloe was allowed to sleep early after pulling three all-nighters, so the lab was quiet. Somewhat... peaceful.
The same could not be said about the Magical Girls community, however, as netizens were already heating up over Marigold's potential love interest—a woman who managed to captivate even Rose and Orchid. Tens of thousands were closely scrutinizing Osbeckia's page, hoping to find a clue or catch an update.
And an update they got—a nuclear one at that.
[Magical Osbeckia ♥ In a relationship with ♥ Magical Hibiscus]
The online space exploded.