When Sayu was sixteen, her mother put an end to her dream of becoming a Pokemon trainer. Most kids that age had already let go of the childish fantasy, but Sayu had been intent on professionally participating in contests… at least until her mother, concerned for her daughter’s future, sat her down and had a serious discussion that resulted in Sayu’s Pokemon being given to the Professor who had given her her first. They were put into storage, and Sayu moved on.
At least, until the game. Working at a retail store gave her something to occupy her free time as she went through community college and graduated. But frankly, Sayu was bored. The game put an end to that. She immediately sought out a Pancham, her childhood partner, and poured all her in-game resources into it, very rarely catching others and putting them on standby when she did. Wholeheartedly embracing the cute panda motif, Sayu started streaming on a whim and quickly grew in popularity. Known by her panda ears and black-white-and-pink wardrobe, the pair of Panda — a name Sayu took up after a passerby in-game called it out — and her Pancham became a magnet for little girls and middle-aged men alike.
In the beginning, Panda’s streams were mostly in the roleplay and exploration categories, with some contests. A small group of male players took to following her around and can often be seen in her streams trying to protect “their queen” from any battle-hungry miscreants that might disrupt “her majesty” in her endeavors— and mostly just acting like fools. Panda didn’t appreciate their company until the game locked down.
Panda’s life wasn’t all that glamorous outside the game, but she knew the difference between game and reality. She certainly wasn’t about to let her mother watch her real body waste away while she rides out the rest of her days in a video game. Staunchly in the Stalker camp, her streams became more and more combat-based. She grudgingly acknowledged the “Spotted Knights” as the four boys called themselves (much to Panda’s chagrin) and they became close.
Word that the cutesy streamer Panda had become a heavy-hitting tank spread, and the lower-level Stalkers among her simp army vyed for a place within the Spotted Knights, which she bluntly refused. Four fanboys were enough.
And they were enough in combat, too. LiGHTNiNG!’s Manectric dual-wield was formidable, and Xx_SOULCRUSHER_xX (who Panda only called Soul on principle) was an adept summoner. Pascal, a fire-type enthusiast, had a flamethrower ranged wield, and Blade, she learned, could actually use a sword in the real world, making his comparatively simple Pawniard machete into a deadly precise weapon. They had been combatants even before everyone was trapped, so they helped Panda level up her already-beefy Pancham and train with her wield. Punching stuff wasn’t all that hard, anyway. Though the Spotted Knights never called themselves a guild, it was speculated greatly upon.
Still, it wasn’t until the third floor that they collectively agreed they were strong enough to attempt a boss fight. They joined the other guilds aiming to take it on, and Panda made sure she was streaming.
Every guild in that fight was full of strong people. The Spotted Knights were on par with most of them. But the casualties were still devastating: half of the players who took on the third-floor boss were killed. Among them were Lightning and Pascal.
Blade quit the fight after that, still all for the Stalker cause, but unwilling to lose anyone else or risk his own life. He had a son, he said, who he wanted to get back to, and he couldn’t do that if he was dead.
The Spotted Knights were done, though Soul stayed with Panda for a while. The streams stopped. Her fanbase grew rabid with support, clamoring for more, and the combined force of many of the freelance Stalkers who found her streams useful or entertaining became a new guild, officially called the Spotted Knights II. Panda found this name even dumber than the original. Soul cajoled her into joining, but she left again soon after, deciding she needed a break.
Slowly, Panda began streaming again, little things, like before the lockdown. Wild Pokemon encounters, terrain exploration, the like. Once, Panda’s chat clamored for a capture, like they had a few times before. The Zorua was clearly low-leveled, feisty… and Panda figured she could use the extra company. It was a cakewalk to catch it. She didn’t realize her Pancham was a high enough level to evolve upon the dark-type’s capture. A brief “oh sh*t” moment shifted into a tentative uplook, and reignited Panda’s drive to get home.
Though she’s still technically unaffiliated, the Spotted Knights II still claim Panda as their Queen with Soul at their head, following her movements through her streams and showing up for any boss fights she gets involved in. Uncharacteristically, Panda kept the Zorua she had caught in her party as a reminder to keep fighting. She’s had clashes with other streamers with equally rabid fanbases or guild affiliations, and her most common activities now involve exploring newly unlocked floors and streaming both in-character investigating and whatever information she can gather about the floor boss, as well as the boss fights themselves when she can, to put as much information as possible out there for other Stalkers. The collapse of the first floor only solidified her conviction that the only way to live is to fight.
