MayZuke

MayZuke is the het ship between Mayday and Zuke from the No Straight Roads fandom.

General
Mayday and Zuke are sewermates, bandmates, and best friends since they formed the band Bunk Bed Junction. Their camaraderie can be seen as an implication of a relationship, though when the topic of actually having feelings for each other is brought up, they deny it. Even with their differences in personality, they're able to balance each other out, Zuke's calm and rational behavior being an anchor for Mayday's hot-headed impulsiveness. Even when Mayday first thinks of rebelling against NSR, Zuke tries to calm her down, before a blackout changes his mind.

Zuke is the voice of reasoning to Mayday's "act first, think later" attitude. He is protective of her and dislikes when she becomes distracted by her infatuation with the NSR artists such as with Sayu and especially 1010, horrified that they "swayed her heart so easily".

Story
In Vinyl City, the music capital of the world, indie rock band Bunk Bed Junction, Mayday and Zuke, were about to impress the CEO Tatiana and some of the superstars from NSR. However, NSR dismissed them because they believed rock was outdated; and only EDM was acceptable under their reign. The duo plan to start a music revolution against the dominance of NSR and its EDM music on Vinyl City by crashing their concerts and performances with the power of rock.

Lights Up Auditions
Mayday and Zuke show up to a competition called Lights Up Audition, but are denied by each one of the NSR artists. Mayday vows revenge on NSR after seeing how they are using all the power to themselves, even going as far as banning rock for the future auditions. They both decide to go to each district to make them their own and show people the real power of rock.

Vs. DJ Subatomic Supernova
DJ Subatomic Supernova is the first artist faced by Bunk Bed Junction, taking advantage of the fact that just when they decided to end the tyranny of NSR he was performing in the Planetarium.

Nobody expects the arrival of them both, not even DJSS, although this one doesn't show much interest towards the duo, even ignoring the fact that he saw them perform before in the Lights Up Audition and completely forgetting who they are. After seeing how they dared to speak with such disrespect to him, he ends agreeing to face them, just to show his superiority.

Finally, Bunk Bed Junction end up being the winners, sending DJSS into space in the process. This draws the attention of Tatiana and the media, bringing fame to Bunk Bed Junction for their first win and spreading the word about their actions against NSR.

Meeting Kliff
Kliff proclaims himself the first and biggest fan of Bunk Bed Junction, contacting Mayday early in the game after seeing their performance against DJSS to meet and help the band achieve their goals thanks to his knowledge on the other NSR artists.

Strangely, he is shown knowing information about the band that Mayday and Zuke themselves haven't told him before, such as Mayday's phone number and where their secret lair is hidden. How he obtains this information so quickly is unknown.

Later it's revealed that although he has been helping the protagonists, his motives were completely different from theirs, although part of this reason is his love for rock, the same musical style of Bunk Bed Junction.

Vs. Sayu
Sayu is the next one in the list to be defeated by Bunk Bed Junction, following the advice of Kliff. Her battle begins when Mayday and Zuke arrive at Akusuka in the Kura Kura Stream Hub. Sayu will try to run away from Mayday and Zuke at first, but after losing control because of her creators, she will begin to desperately attack the duo, which ends in her doom.

Bunk Bed Junction then discover the creators behind Sayu, which are a group of four teenagers, and Mayday recognizes and tells them the talent they have for creating a character like Sayu, although she also advises them that it's best not to get involved into NSR matters before leaving with Zuke.

Vs. DK West
Before the next battle, Mayday and Zuke are informed that someone has come to Vinyl City without prior notice. Bunk Bed Junction then decides to investigate who it is, to discover that it was DK West, Zuke's brother.

He introduces himself to Mayday, who meets him for the first time, just before challenging his brother to a rap battle if he doesn't want him to steal their fans. Finally Zuke accepts only so they can continue their revolution against NSR without DK West getting in the way.

In the end, Zuke ends up beating his brother at his own game, who runs away. Mayday mentions to Zuke how much she is concerned about the siblings' negative relationship and how out of character Zuke has been behaving in front of his brother. Zuke dismiss it before heading into the next battle against Yinu.

The next two battles against DK West will be optional for the player, but it will help to find out more about the relationship between the two brothers and even help them reconcile.

In the second battle, Zuke will end up winning again, although damaging his brother's feelings saying that he no longer sees him as such, who gets depressed after hearing Zuke's harsh words.

Mayday then decides to face DK West in the third battle to reconcile both brothers. Zuke finally acknowledges his mistake before apologizing and the two end up getting along at the end.

Vs. Yinu
Yinu's fight begins by her playing a song on her piano at the Natura Concert Hall. When Bunk Bed Junction arrives, she will stop to tell them how they don't truly know about music and only break the stuff of the other artists.

She will start playing the piano again to show them why they call her the Golden Maestro of Vinyl City, surprising them in the process. Even so, Bunk Bed Junction still has the same objective as before. They try to get close to her piano to destroy it and ruin her performance, but knowing their intentions for what happened with the other artists, Yinu's Mother appears to protect her daughter and fights against them while Yinu continues to play the piano until the end.

As the battle progresses, Yinu finds it harder and harder to keep playing, but her mother forces her to finish her performance despite the circumstances. In the finale, Yinu unleashes all of her rage at both Bunk Bed Junction and even her mother, leaving all her heart in her last piano solo before Mayday seized the moment to finally destroy Yinu's piano.

After the battle, Yinu's mother appears furious behind the duo for destroying her beloved daughter's performance and piano, but before attacking Mayday and Zuke again, Yinu attracts her attention by playing a simple melody on the now broken piano, which finally calms her mother down before she goes to join her.

Watching the emotional scene between mother and daughter, Bunk Bed Junction decides that they have already done enough damage and that it's best to leave them alone.

Vs. 1010
The battle begins with 1010 flirting with Mayday, who falls for it. She continues to defend them throughout the fight, even after they destroy the factory machine and reveal the robotic endoskeletons underneath their attractive appearance.

After defeating them and Neon J, Neon J assumes that they are there to finish off him or his men, to which they reply that they don't care about that. Neon J begins talking about his war history and grows annoyed when Mayday and Zuke simply walk away without listening.

Vs. Eve
Eve begins her fight as a chair and ask Zuke to sit on the chair. She then calls Mayday a "pedestrian girl" and insults Zuke for choosing her.

Mayday and Zuke are separated, Mayday being put into a velvet red and blue version of the arena, and Zuke being put into a white and red version. Mayday's version of the arena also has hands and feet sprouting from the ceiling, whereas Zuke does not. Mayday's side of the arena also features a more aggressive version of Eve's music. Eve teleports between these two areas, so it is important to switch characters when appropriate.

Once Mayday and Zuke make it to the end of the corridor, they are reunited, prompting them to use their showstopper to defeat Eve.

Despite using their showstopper, the battle does not end, as Zuke goes to confront Eve. He is transported to a bleak, white landscape devoid of any features. Periodically, Eve will fire a parry-able bullet which is the only way of attacking her in this phase (although getting hit will increase her HP, not damage it). Parrying the bullet results in Eve moving away from Zuke, while being hit by the bullet pulls Zuke closer to her. After a certain number of parries or if Zuke reaches Eve, the phase will end, finalizing the battle

Vs. Tatiana
Tatiana begins the battle out of reach, only occasionally firing 4 projectiles to Mayday and Zuke’s locations while a brightly glowing fixture rotates around the battlefield, known as the Crown.

Once Tatiana jumps down, the second phase begins. Tatiana will attack with several slashes with her sword (two of which are in succession, the third after a slight delay while simultaneously moving towards Mayday and Zuke, and by creating and shooting fireballs at the duo’s current location.

Tatiana behaves exactly as she did in phase 1, however there is now a new stipulation to contend with: a time limit. While attacking Bunk Bed Junction, Tatiana will attempt to rewind time, which she will successfully do if the Crown isn’t attacked enough before it’s too late. If she does so, the battle will be reset back to phase 2, and it must be done all over again from the start, Tatiana regaining all the health she had lost.

Tatiana jumps down to fight like in phase 2, but will summon a second sword and begin dual-wielding. This causes her normal sword attack to have twice the amount of slashes, as well as increased range. Otherwise, this phase isn’t much different from phase 2, however Tatiana may shoot more fireballs than she did previously

Phase 5 is exactly the same as phase 3. Once enough damage is dealt to the Crown, Tatiana will become so angry that she bursts into flames as her skin becomes glowing hot magma, before jumping down for phase 6

Tatiana fights similarly to previous phases, but gains more fireball attacks, including one that can create up to 9 fireballs at once to attack Bunk Bed Junction with.

Tatiana rips the Crown off of the arena, leaving it to float around her where it cannot be attacked. She will attack with the same projectiles as before, but can also create spherical time rifts which will freeze Bunk Bed Junction in place if they get trapped inside one.

Tatiana attacks much more aggressively than in previous phases, and her frequent teleporting can often keep her out of reach if the player is unlucky. In addition, she gains a new attack where she may drop her swords and begin charging in place. Once she’s done, she’ll burst into flames, inflicting huge damage if Mayday or Zuke happen to be too close to her while she’s doing so.

Once enough damage is inflicted to her, Mayday and Zuke finally get their chance to use the Showstopper, and the battle finally ends.

Tatiana is herself revealed to be Kul Fyra, a former rockstar, leader of The Goolings rock band, and Mayday's idol who brought rock to prominence in Vinyl City. After the constant chaos of new ideas and disagreements led to the band's break up, Fyra grew a hatred of rock and an obsession with order and strength, leading her to create NSR and taking control of Vinyl City through EDM (for the people who favored it), adopting the identity of Tatiana. Tatiana mocks Mayday and Zuke, questioning what they planned to do to govern the city and deal with the consequences of overthrowing NSR, as rock is shown to be equal to EDM in terms of energy output.

Ending/Aftermath
Kliff then appears and is revealed to be a former hardcore fan of Kul Fyra's. Betrayed by Fyra's switch to EDM, Kliff used Mayday and Zuke as a way to make rock relevant again and, after being insulted by Tatiana again when she rejects his entitled way of thinking, he hacks the NSR satellite and sets it on a crash course into NSR Tower. Realizing that Kliff enabled them to have rock replace EDM as the new dominant music genre and that doing so would only start another music monopoly and make them the new NSR, Mayday and Zuke reject him and try to fix their mistake.

Mayday and Zuke team up with Tatiana to stop the satellite by helping the NSR artists reclaim their districts and using the collective power of EDM and rock to transform the NSR tower into a giant rock hand, destroying the satellite and saving Vinyl City. As the group celebrates, Tatiana, having a change of heart over her actions and regaining her love of rock, announces her plans to rebuild NSR to allow all kinds of music to be played in Vinyl City and offers Bunk Bed Junction a place in the new direction to help them. However, Mayday and Zuke reject the offer, instead deciding to "lay low" and remain indie due to their actions and to remind themselves why they play music for the time being. Before they depart, Tatiana gives Mayday her old guitar, which Mayday tearfully accepts.

The ending narration by Tatiana reveals that since then, Vinyl City has become a place where people can perform all kinds of music, free of discrimination or restrictions, and as a result, the city is shining brighter with more energy than ever before. The game ends with Mayday and Zuke stepping out to perform in front of their adoring fans as the narrating Tatiana wishes them the best.

Fanon
During the early days of the NSR fandom, MayZuke gained popularity due to their in-game interactions, with their relationship fitting the "friends to lovers" trope.

Shippers started shipping MayZuke even prior to the games official release (August 25 2020) with its first fanfic on A03 being published on August 19th of that year.

MayZuke is the most popular M/F ship in the NSR fandom, and arguably the second most popular ship next to NeonNova. It is also the second most popular ship on AO3, right behind NeonNova. As for Mayday and Zuke's character tags, it is the most popular ship.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION


 * TUMBLR


 * TWITTER
 * MayZuketober - The annual MayZuke multimedia ship event that is held every October, mostly on Twitter but content can also be found on Instagram and Tumblr
 * MayZukeweek
 * MayZukeweek


 * YOUTUBE
 * A compilation of MayZuke moments
 * Boys - No Straight Roads Meme
 * Achilles Heel - No Straight Roads Animatic
 * "BunkBed Junction Means?" - [ No Straight Roads_(Comic Dub) ]

Trivia

 * According to a Twitch AMA back in 2020, it was revealed that co creators of the game (Wan Hazmer and Daim Dziauddin) are MayZuke and NeonNova shippers


 * The official voice actors of Mayday and Zuke (Steven Bones and Su Ling Chan) lended their voices to a fan made comic, made by artist Laizy Boy