• Background:
• Mineva Bytes
• Zapping
• Closing

Ahoy people of the Internet. Normally I’m not the kind of guy who would write a blog post about a story I’ve written, but I felt like there was so much about this story I wanted to talk about, so here’s one! 

This is a story I’ve written for the Newgrounds Lit Portal Collaboration. The theme for it was “The Good Times.” My interpretation of this was melancholic happiness, the sort of happiness you feel like when you are past the point of exhaustion and you sip an ice-cold beer.

The sweet relief in a dark environment. That’s what a good time is to me, so naturally my mind went to a guy getting fired but smiling at the end when he eats dinner. From there I fleshed it out with, instead of him just eating dinner, watching a vtuber also and having both of them reassure each other. Which ended up a bit too happy for my liking, but I feel like it makes for a better story and really brings home what I wanted. 

§Background:

It’s set in a fictional crypto town I came up with set in greater New York. A “crypto town” is a term for a place that has low energy cost. So people end up living there to set up their mining rigs. Since the place is set in New York state, the character got fired from a good-paying office job in Manhattan. Ohmstead is a place filled with tiny houses. That’s why the character’s house feels so small that just a TV could light it up enough that he could cook. 

Surprisingly, you may think Bittoni Pasta is something I made up. It’s actually a real product that exists! When I saw the product, it sparked the idea that he cooks mac and cheese for dinner.

§Mineva Bytes

Mineva Bytes, the Bitcoin Eidolon! The idea behind her comes from a dream I had. It was about a guy getting his news about the crypto scene from a Vtuber. Ever since then, the idea pretty much stuck with me. Although how I feel about cryptocurrency has changed since then, she’s mostly morphed into just a VTuber that talks about Bitcoin.

A more detailed profile for her would be the following:

Mineva Bytes

Birthday 5/22

Color: #FFC629 (Or #FF6400. Maybe something in between the spectrum of these two.)

Wanting something different in her life, Mineva quit her day job to become a virtual streamer. Her avatar is based on her love of Y2K futurism. Which is why she’s an Eidolon (idol). Her charm points are her sharp canines and large breasts! She mainly chats about Bitcoin and Bitcoin accessories in addition to playing games and watching movies. You can catch her streams on Cathode, Degrade, or any Trenches-related site! Her fan base is called Gabbros, and they are represented as prairie dogs in business suits that carry a pickaxe.

§Zapping

Since the ending act is Zircon sending Mineva an AkaSupa, I wanted to convert it into an in-universe version. An Akasupa is a $100 YouTube Super Chat named for the fact that it shows up as the color red. The YouTube-style platform she uses is called Cathode (?), which would be like a Nostr-powered YouTube site.

Before coming up with a name for a zap version of “AkaSupa”, I had to figure out the color scheme. Would I just keep it red or have it be something else? Zapping on Nostr does keep the general Bitcoin color, a yellowish gold that you would see on a Bitcoin logo. However, I decided to use shades of orange, the color most associated with Bitcoin. 

That would have been easy enough, but then I would have had to come up with a monetary amount to pair with the number. On YouTube, a Super Chat color is tied to the amount in USD. I could have just done the same thing, but since Bitcoin prices are in flux, it doesn’t really make sense to do that. 

Since this is a fictional streaming service that uses zaps and it’s a crypto Vtuber, it made sense to have it locked to a Statoshi amount instead. Also, it helps make the mention evergreen regardless of when you read the story.

I ended up going with Tanbiri (タンビリッ). Zappelo was going to be used, but it just felt too millennial for me. Like if I watched a vtuber say that I would cringe and close the tab. Tanbiri has a level of cuteness to it that feels just right.

§Closing

And finally, the title “Dolorous.” Since this is a story about melancholy happiness, I originally was going to use “melancholy,” but I stopped myself. For reasons, I didn’t want to use the word, so I did what I always do. 

Copy, open up Word Hippo, and search for “melancholy” and pick a word that fits.

Even now Dolorous does feel a bit too plain even for my liking. It’s just missing two to three more words, and then it’ll be a proper title. I’ll change it when the other words come to my mind! ᕦ⁠༼⁠ ⁠⁠ ⁠•́⁠ ⁠ₒ⁠ ⁠•̀⁠ ⁠⁠ ⁠༽⁠ᕤ Decided to go with Dolorous Otiosities!

That being said, I hope you enjoy the story! I have about three extra ideas for what happens next to this character, from depressingly mundane to… depressingly surreal! That’s mostly why I don’t really talk about him here. You’ll find out more about him if I get around to writing more with him.