"You can't stop a hivemind- a hivemind can only end itself." – Yorick Mori

"I'm going to try streaming," Mordekaiser muttered menacingly.

Hell froze over, and every Shadow Isles champion in Karthus' room knew it. For years and what felt like a century, they knew Mordekaiser's state of mind would crumble steadily. Holing himself up in a basement already hinted at that, and his statement did nothing to change everyone's suspicions.

"Did someone hurt you-" Thresh began, though his face got caved in by Mordekaiser's mace as his entire body got chucked into Karthus' wall.

"DAMMIT, I JUST FIXED THAT WALL YESTERDAY!"

As Karthus screeched with rage, Mordekaiser got up from his seat and kicked the lich into the ditch, sending him into the same corner he sent Thresh.

Hecarim glanced nervously at Yorick, who averted his gaze at the living room table they sat at. The low table made them all sit on the ground rather than on chairs.

Elise remained in a rare state of calmness, daring not to speak up to an incredibly anxious Master of Metal, and Evelynn wondered if she could bolt out for the door at that very moment.

Kalista just happened to be cooking this time. While she wasn't terrible at cooking, per say, she at least had the easiest time talking to Mordekaiser out of them all due to how formal she was.

Because at that moment they knew too well! They knew that if he were to stream, he just might set the whole world on fire if a viewer said something bad about him.

Coughing, Yorick gathered his courage and looked up at Mordekaiser. The armored warlord turned to the gravedigger expectantly.

"I don't think you should stream."

Wow, as expected of Yorick! An armored undead centaur, a red-haired professional at lying, and a succubus thought simultaneously. You can always rely on his calmness and intellige-

Yorick was promptly sent flying towards the corner.

YOOOOOORRRRIIIIIIIIICK, NOOOOOOOOOO! The remaining three thought, horrified at the downfall of the man who stepped up for them.

Placing his elbows on the table, Mordekaiser growled, "Streaming will give me some exposure, don't you think? I heard Vladimir streams and all he does is spit out a crappy joke before someone tosses him money worth thousands of gold."

"I dunno, Morde," Hecarim spoke, though he quickly added in when the Master of Metal's aura intensified, "Vlad just seems like a guy who'd naturally find some weirdo fans. And you're not really weird, right?"

Putting up a thoughtful look, Mordekaiser turned away from Hecarim and stared at the table.

Was he weird? He thought over it really hard, almost hurting his brain in the process. He was a pretty average guy, actually. On his off days, which is almost every day, he goes nuts with metal music in the afternoon and might get into a brief fight with the omnipotently present Piltover Enforcer.

He also played video games for hours and refused to exercise at all. Perhaps he might browse the internet for games, and talk to Mercedes about new games coming out if he felt like it. After eating, he would then go out to the arcade and eventually go home for more games until he got bored. Occasionally, he would not sleep and instead continue to play games until he woke up Vi by pressing the buttons or keys too hard.

At that very moment, Mordekaiser slammed his hands against his helmet, his eyes wide and wavering. His fingers clutched so hard against the helmet, a thin scratching noise could be heard.

Hecarim, Evelynn, and Elise could already see him trembling ever-so-slightly as they almost read his mind just by his expression alone.

"OH MY GOD," Mordekaiser muttered loudly as he looked up at them all, his eyes remaining wide.

"I'M ACTUALLY REALLY COOL, AREN'T I?!"

No. No, it was literally the polar opposite of cool. The three of them wanted to blurt that out, but it was so hard to rain on Mordekaiser's prideful parade. He looked so happy, too. How could they do something so cruel to him?

Nevertheless, as another general of the Shadow Isles, Hecarim cleared his throat, preparing for the inevitable as he put on a straight face.

"Mordekaiser."

"What?"

"I think you're just addicted to games-"

Hecarim was chucked into the corner so hard, Karthus, Yorick, and Thresh were no longer visible to the naked eye. They had become one with the walls.

Frustrated, Mordekaiser growled incoherently as he left the room, leaving behind Evelynn and Elise remaining dead silent at the table under the painful groans of those who were chucked into the corner.

A few seconds later, Kalista came back with a tray of steaming food.

"We have prepared the spicy octopus stew," she said, a hint of rare satisfaction in her tone. "All of us may now feast on this- Huh?"

Blinking, she glanced between the corner and the two women who stared at her incredulously.

"Hey…" Evelynn whispered, her voice raspy.

"Yes?"

"Can I… cook next time?"

"Damn it!" Mordekaiser shouted as he walked away from Karthus' dorm.

He wanted to try streaming. It sounded like an easy cash grab at first, especially when he saw Vladimir's Twitch stream in the first place. In fact, the whole stream was just a pun on the name "Twitch stream."

"Hello, everyone," Vladimir said, standing in front of a camera with a ball of blood floating in his hands. "Today, I will be making a stream of Twitches."

Using his powers of hemomancy, Vladimir created a river of Twitches streaming down his room. All the Twitches screamed "I WAS HIDING" endlessly as they fired arrows made of blood and tossed bottles all over the room.

"What do you think of my Twitch stream so far, everyone?" He asked excitedly while getting hit by a bottle as he roared, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"

No matter what I think of it, Mordekaiser thought in annoyance, Hecarim is right. I'm not as weird as that lunatic.

It wasn't like Hecarim tried to lie to him. Mordekaiser just wanted to prove him wrong.

Because if I can't do it, no matter how good it is, it SUCKS!

…

…

…

Mordekaiser sighed as he scratched his helmet furiously.

Falling into a rare state of deep thought, he decided to spread out options he could use to get a gist of what streaming would be like.

Then he realized that almost everything involved talking to people face-to-face. Whether it be direct conversation or video chat, he'd have to face people in the end if he wanted feedback.

And if he wanted more proper feedback, then he'd have to start observing more streams and get information on what is considered trendy in the mainstream side of media, and then-

Mordekaiser's mind blanked out.

Waking up quickly, the Master of Metal slapped himself awake as he shook his head. No, there was no point in thinking it in a complex way. There was only one suitable solution to this!

I shouldn't stream.

Happy to finally reach some sort of conclusion, he headed back to his dorm.

Vi cackled wildly, sitting at the kitchen table with Mordekaiser with burritos in both of their hands.

"You- You wanted to stream? Why?!"

"Imbecile!" Mordekaiser growled. "It's called keeping up with the times, as Mercedes put it. The more I think about it, though, the more of a terrible idea it is."

"You got that right," Vi agreed, almost wheezing as she took a deep breath before biting her burrito. "The prospect of you streaming has the likelihood of me punching a kitten."

"…So it's extremely likely, then?"

The Master of Metal instinctively prepared to dodge a punch as Vi raised a clenched fist. When she ended up grumbling and lowering her hand, he went back to eating is burrito.

As they ate and Mordekaiser went on about how he should just keep doing things alone, Vi's train of thoughts went over who would potentially enjoy Mordekaiser streaming. It was… certainly amusing, so perhaps she'd watch it at least once or twice. Aside from herself, the only person she could think of who might enjoy the armored warlord's streams was Sona. After all, Sona did seem to enjoy playing at the arcade after discovering it.

Sona didn't seem like the type who'd immediately enjoy playing games, so that much surprised Vi. If she happened to stream with Mordekaiser, then maybe they could garner a bit more interest.

That wouldn't happen as long as Sona kept her gaming hobby a secret, though.

Well, she's a good girl, so I won't bother her about that, Vi thought, smiling as she remembered Sona getting flustered at the arcade. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't refuse the idea if she opens up a bit.

"Why are you smiling like that? That's super creepy of you-"

Vi finally punched Mordekaiser across the face. Diana, who happened to pass by the table for the fridge, ducked as the Master of Metal's unfinished burrito flew across the room.

Author's Note:

Next chapter- "Life Goals!"