Aqua brings her gnawed lips up to the mic, eyes narrowed and face flushed red. The mouse hovers over the record button and her finger twitches, to which the recording software beeps in response. The room is dead silent, save for the dulled murmur of her computer’s fan. The microphone eagerly awaits. She opens her mouth, but the words don’t come, and all she can do is breathe heavily into the electronic device. The computer begins displaying the decibels of her mouth-breathing and a line travelling to the right moving up and down, signifying the recording is commencing. Aqua hisses, as if the computer screen is at fault. She stops the recording and pushes herself away from the computer on her wheelie chair with a whine of discontent.

“Ther-there’s no way I can do this! How can y-yooOOUuu expect me to… do something so embarrassing!?” she stammers.

The chair wheel gets caught on a stray red bull can and Aqua flails out as it topples over backwards. She lands with a puff and a yelp, the metallic clang of hollow energy drink containers echoing once around the room. Silence ensues. She purses her lips and stares at the ceiling, unable to quell her embarrassment.

“It’s… it’s for my fans,” she tells herself. “I-if this is what they want then…” With a whine, Aqua swings out, taking hold of a half-empty can of flat red bull and downing it on the spot. “Fine! I’ll do it!” she exclaims, wiping her mouth with her forearm. The whole scenario and all her lines are already planned out in her head, as erotic as she could imagine it. She can do this. Rolling over and to her feet, Aqua struggles to pick up the chair before returning to her desk, ready for round two.

***

You can’t help but wonder if this is alright. A random kid, fresh out of his teens, being given the position of lead designer in Hololive’s upcoming visual novel. A rather daunting task when you take into account how big this company is. Sure, you have some experience in game design, having been on development teams of various programs and apps in the past, but there’s a fuck ton of people looking forward to this game, right? Visual novels aren’t the hardest to design, but if you mess this up, the resulting mob attack from a group of angry Aqua fans may not be beyond the realms of possibility.

Normally, someone older and more experienced would take the helm, but after the lukewarm response that the populace had given for Hololive Error, the head designer had stepped down and various higher ups had broadened their search; eventually leading to yours truly being plucked off the streets and placed in an office chair. Since then you had done various research into what Hololive actually is, leading to the inevitable discovery of vtubers, and subsequently, the girl named Minato Aqua, who you had met a couple times to discuss design choices. You’re going to be blunt, for but a moment.

She’s fucking retarded.

Why can’t she talk straight? Why is she always slurping in air? Or is she actually constantly drooling? And the hisses. Every goddamn time she gets embarrassed (which is very, VERY often) she fucking hisses at you, or at something. Of all talents within the company, why would they pick this girl to make a visual novel about? You can understand the appeal of a shy girl but fuck, Aqua can barely talk to you without going beet red. Well, no point complaining now. You took the job, and there’s a lot of money involved.

A notification dings on your computer screen and you raise your eyes. It’s from Aqua, a voice recording with the words ‘first part’ attached. Due to her unforeseen inability to converse with you, not much progress had been made on the topic of what kinds of scenarios and voice lines the game could feature when you had talked with her. Running out of time, you had told her before the end of your meeting to just send in some samples for some of the scenarios that were planned to be in the game from the get-go and you could work from there. You can only hope you don’t have to edit them too much.

Plopping your headphones atop your head, you press play.

Aqua’s heavy breathing instantly assaults your unsuspecting ears as though you’ve had a wind tunnel inserted into both ear canals, and you wince when the mic peaks at one particularly loud exhale. That’s going to need editing out, for starters. Eventually, she takes a deep breath.

“P…p-p-please b-be gentle… this… i-is my first time doing something… like th-this.”

A message for you within the audio recording? In the future, you’ll need to have her write these messages in the email to save you from editing them out. Gentle, though… does she think you’re going to berate her? You might need to get her to move to a proper recording studio too. She had insisted on staying in her room and that her microphone was good enough quality, but while these would work for draft lines, you can tell from just a few words that it’s going to need more refinement.

“I-I’m going to… sh-sh-show you, ok?” More heavy breathing. “A-ah! Don’t touch there so suddenly~!”

You press pause. Then you wait. You blink at the screen once, twice, three times. The audio recording stares back expectantly. Your eyes flicker across your field of vision, then you turn to check the rest of the room, making sure nobody else is here.

…What on Earth? Moving slowly, you reach for the draft script papers on the edge of your desk and begin flipping through them, almost certain that a scenario involving these lines had never been written. When your hunch proves correct, you turn back to the computer with a raised eyebrow. You… did give her a copy of the possible ideas, right? Your hand hovers over the mouse and you swallow before pressing down on the ‘play’ button again.

“A-ahn… not there! M-my… s-skirt… don’t take it o-o-off yet. I’m… not ready.”

Ok what is this dumbass doing? She thinks this a fucking hentai game. When was that ever mentioned? The premise is a wholesome romance with your favourite idol, not this shit.

“B-but I g-g-guess I don’t mind… if i-it’s you… pushing me down.”

She’s terrible at it too… or maybe that’s part of the appeal. As the girl’s attempts at erotic moans fill your ears, you start typing out an email.

Aqua, It’s not that type of game.

-A

Aaand send.

“We’re… g-going to…” she hisses into the mic, “do it together, r-right?”

“I-it’s so… b-b-big… w-will it…” a long pause, “f…f…f-fit?”

You go to pause the recording, party out of guilt and partly out of cringing too hard, only for it to end moments earlier. Rubbing the bridge of your nose, you breathe a tired groan. This is who you’re working with now, huh? Even if it’s just a misunderstanding, she should have enough common sense to know that this isn’t a lewd game. Hololive has never released anything close to a hentai game before. You’re… a little tempted to save that recording for yourself later, but she’s honestly so bad at it you would be turned off too quickly.

Your computer dings and you quickly open the next email from Aqua. ‘Second part’, with another sound file, nothing else. Did she… read your message? Suspicious, you press play once more.

“A-aaaAAaahn… um… ahn… I c-can feel you… i…i…” she takes a deep slurp and lets out an uncomfortable whine before continuing, “i-i-i-in…s-side me…”

To answer your question, no, she probably hasn’t. Sighing, you pause the recording. Were those supposed to be moans? It sounded like she was a cartoon character eating food. Anxious minutes pass as you await her response. Eventually, another notification slides onto the screen.

Sorry, I didn’t know.

I will think of a new scenario.

You smile in relief. She must be screaming in embarrassment right now, poor girl. At least now the voice lines will be normal and the game’s production can commence. Time passes, then a new audio file recording appears in your inbox. You press play and get ready to immerse yourself as if you were a player.

“Y-you’ve been a… a bad boy! N-n-n-n-n-now you mpmussst! P…” she lets out a pained squeak, “pleasure me!”

Something thuds in the background, as if she had just hit something. Her desk? Perhaps her wall. More importantly, WHAT THE FUCK IS AQUA DOING!? You just told her that it isn’t that kind of game, why is she sending more voice lines from a fucking sex scene? You lean back in your chair to calm yourself, to think, as Aqua’s bumbling attempts at being a sexy femdom blare out in your dismounted headphones. Could it be? Is she so stupid that she didn’t understand what you meant, assuming you were talking about the type of sex game it was, and not the type of overall game?

New email. Round two.

That’s not what I meant. There is no sexual intercourse in the game at all.

-A

You hand pauses above the send key. Should you be more explicit? You’d like to think there’s no way Aqua could be dumb enough to not understand the gist of things this time, but…

You press send. If you use anymore lewd words in your email it might get tagged by the upper management as sexual harrassment, so you may as well leave it at that. You eagerly await her reply, ready to finally get started on the game’s production. Eventually, she sends something in.

Sorry, I thought my fans would have liked that the most.

I tried a scenario with no intercourse.

You breathe a sigh of relief, happy she finally got the message. Slipping your headphones on once more, you press play on the fourth recording.

“I… w-what if I ch-choke?”

…Huh?

“H-here I go… shlup… shloop…” She begins slurping into the mic.

WHAT THE FUCK!? ORAL SEX!? WHY IS SHE SO OBSESSED WITH MAKING THIS A SEX GAME!? Launching your headphones across the room, you type out the last email you will ever send to Aqua.

AQUA! IT IS NOT A SEX GAME! THERE IS NO EXPLICIT, LEWD OR DIRTY ACTIONS IN THE VISUAL NOVEL YOU ARE MAKING VOICE LINES FOR! IT’S A WHOLESOME GAME ABOUT SPENDING TIME WITH YOUR FAVOURITE IDOL! THERE. IS. NO. SEX!

You slam down on the send key and swiftly change tabs.

Dear Mr. Motoaki

I’m sorry, but I can’t do this. You will have to find a new lead designer.

Not bothering to properly finish off the email, you send it and bolt up from your chair. Swinging your coat over your shoulder, you make for the exit. May the gods favour whoever has to work with the dumbass known as Aqua next.

***

Aqua squeezes her thighs together, her heavy breaths accented by faint grunts. She tries to fan away the flush of her cheeks and bites her lip. She didn’t realise doing this would be so… stimulating. Coming up with these scenarios in her head and then saying these lines out loud was making her heart race, obviously, but also firing up her urges. Aqua clutches at her chest, beads of sweat creeping down across her forehead, her neck, her back. She doesn’t want to admit it, but she’s feeling a bit aroused. An email appears, and she’s surprised when she finds herself hoping for him to ask for another scenario. This back and forth had started to feel so dirty yet… exciting.

“He…hehehe…hehe…” Aqua giggles, then stops to shake her head. “No! W-what am I thinking? Th-this is for the game, and my fans! It’s p…professional!” She opens the email and pauses to read. Thinking time.

Aqua screams, pushing herself away from the computer “WHAT!? It isn’t a lewd game!? S-since when!? No!!”

That means… she just sent a whole bunch of lewd voice messages to a guy… and he was the only one that listened to them! That’s almost like she was saying all that directly to him! Squealing, she jumps up and runs towards her bed, diving under the covers and hugging her pillow. She continues to scream into the pillow, ready to die from embarrassment. Yet despite her internal cringefest, she doesn’t feel any regret. In fact, she still feels excited, and the need for more. After a few minutes of recovery, she carefully pops her head out from under the covers and looks at her computer. Would he… possibly be up for receiving more lines… in his private time?