Sorry for taking so long in posting @sbm , but what should have been a quick answer turned into me going into a rabbit hole and possibly finding more circumstancial evidence that Pomu might be going to Vshojo. Get ready cause what I'm going to talk about is prime rrat material
Alright let me start from the beginning, at first I just wanted to answer sbm question: at what time could Pomu have decided to graduate, and the reason I had my doubts about the october date was that I read on the /vt/ archives that Millie said on stream (I still have to watch the stream and find out what was said exactly so take this with a huge grain of salt) that Pomu had decided to graduate by the time they met IRL, which happened twice this year: in Japan in december (which is too close to the graduation date) and back in August for Otakuthon. But while I was waiting to post this information I suddenly remembered two (at first) unrelated pieces of information
The first one is a clip I saw here in the Asylum but that I couldn't find it anymore, it was from the Vshojo new years party and it was some bait clip with a title like "Matara tells Ironmouse she saved her life" or something like that. I couldn't find it here so I went to the Ironmouse VODs and searched for the specific part of the clip, finding it at around 10:30:30 moment of the VOD. The reason I thought about it was because Matara drunkenly drops some very interesting lore in it, she says that Ironmouse told Gunrun to fly to LA so that he could convince Matara to join Vshojo, and she specifically mentions that it was after she quit her "hollywood job".
Here's an a transcript of the most important part but I do recommend watching the full moment, I think the name of the stream is like "Last stream ever of 2023" or something like that:
MATARA: I told a short story on stream where I said I left my old Hollywood job and then you found out I was in Los Angeles and you forced Gunrun to fly down to Los Angeles to meet me. You like "Gunrun go to Los Angeles Matara is there". <...> "You made Gunrun fly down to LA to meet with me, I told you I was taking my summer off and you said "Gunrun, go get that bug"
The second one was something I remembered from last year: after Nina graduated she and Pomu mantained contact with each other, both of them mentioning this in their streams both directly and indirectly so it wouldn't be too obvious, not only that but they also met through the year, and in my head I suddenly remembered something: didn't they meet in LA earlier this year? So I looked into the archives and then I found it!
In this stream from the 19th of July Pomu talks in depth about a trip she just took to LA so she could see a MGS event, where she hung out with Nina (17:36) I haven't been able to watch the entire VOD, but the important part is that Matara and Pomu were in LA at the same time
So pulling this information alltogether a timeline kinda starts to show: on the 7th of July Nina graduates and as she said before the left she starts traveling so she meets with Pomu in LA so they can hang out. At this point in time as sbm wrote in his post Pomu was dissatisfied with the state of her projects and the little support she was receiving plus just having one of her closest friends leave the company. At the same time Ironmouse sends Gunrun to LA so that he could convince Matara to join Vshojo, so the rrat that I've cooked is, could that meeting between Nina and Gunrun have involved Pomu too? and if so, could he have made his pitch to both of them?
Of course I have to admit I'm doing a lot suppositions here and it's all very circumstantial as the only thing I can quote unquote "prove" is that the three were in the same city at the same time and that the topic of going to Vshojo was talked about (for example we have no way of knowing if Pomu was actually present on that meeting, or if they even agreed on something) but if after the her graduation Pomu does go to Vshojo as many theorize she could do then this could prove that Ironmouse may have accidentaly or intentionally poached two big Vtubers from a rival company at the same time. And kinda related to this topic I think August/September may have been the moment that Pomu decided to graduate as planning the trip to Antarctica must have taken it's time, not only that but the trips that the waves made to Japan in October must have also been planned with anticipation, so it kinda fits the timeline. Even so she also said she was very hesitant on the option of graduating so who knows what she was thinking during any of this
Or maybe Pomu proves us wrong, does something else and I am just seeing things where there is none. I just wanted to write this down and get it out of my head
Also I commented this on the main thread, I was planning on doing another long post about Niji but If I decide to go through with it I'll post it after the Anime Impulse con
Thanks for pointing that out. Pomu and Nina shared a hotel room, so even if Gunrun didn't meet Pomu, I think it's pretty much guaranteed that Nina spoke with Pomu about it.
Just checking the timeline that Pomu lays out in her stream:
July 13th: Pomu streamed pre-trip.
July 14th: Gets to LA on the 14th in time for dinner with Nina, then goes to karaoke until 2am.
July 15th: Pomu stayed awake to sing a concert for the Nijigen expo in Malaysia, which happened at 3am for her, and she was tweeting at 6am. She slept for 1.5 hours then went to MGSCon supposedly with Nina. Should be a dinner this day too.
July 16th or 17th: Other events mentioned but no timeline: maid cafe, shopping, little tokyo. Beach apparently was planned but did not happen.
July 18th: Made a returned tweet early in the morning of the 18th.
My guess is she flew out the evening of the 17th. So plenty of unaccounted-for time. There was at least one day where Nina sends Pomu a text about not finishing her leftovers at breakfast, so they did do something separate at least once.
One other irony is this trip happened because Pomu dragged Nina out to the MGS event. So if it weren't for Pomu, Gunrun wouldn't have been able to pitch Nina in person.
Long meandering description of the trip interrupted by MK constantly:
Nina owes Pomu money for a hotel:
Matara and Mouse (there was also more a bit earlier):
Nina owes Pomu money for a hotel:
Matara and Mouse (there was also more a bit earlier):
I find this one hilarious because this is a schizopost that Pomu supposedly wasn't at the big niji girls off-collab because she was at a dinner with Vshojo. No base in fact whatsoever.
But it turns out there was an opportunity for an actual vshojo dinner (unconfirmed), just many months earlier.
I don't think this is perms issue anymore and actually blacklisting/bullying.
