(this is a work of fiction)
Foreword
Venn was the great catalyst of my life, though perhaps not in the way I had ever dreamed it would be. Though I became part of the team because I believed in the idea of bringing gaming-related content to a wider audience; that was not what Venn was in the end. I am disappointed we could not make this simple idea work, but I would be lying if I said I hated what Venn became. The experience taught me a lot of things: creating content airing 24/7 is extremely challenging, and keeping an audience interested is equally difficult, but first and foremost Venn taught me that sex sell, and that I love selling it.
I am Chrissy Costanza, and this is my story of how Venn taught me to embrace the slut within me.
Chapter One: A Rough Start
The first meeting was held after we had aired for three days. It consisted of all the content creators, the bosses (Ariel Horn and Ben Kusin), and a few other executives I had only briefly met and could not remember the names of.
My initial impression was that we were doing well, I had seen far greater viewer numbers than expected, and I was personally proud of my own performance on my show, Guest House. From the looks of the higher-ups, they were not as pleased with the result.
Ariel held the meeting that day. When we were all seated, he connected his laptop to the projector and cleared his throat.
"Welcome, sorry to have called this meeting with such short notice, but I'm glad you're all here," he started. "While I am happy with your performance so far, I unfortunately have to say, it is not good enough." He opened a presentation he had prepared, showing viewer peaks and graphs of retention. It looked surprisingly good.
He continued, "Running this show is hemorrhaging money right now, we need a great surge in viewership soon, or we will have to shut down."
The room fell quiet and somber as Ariel imparted the news. I felt perplexed, wondering how they could see our numbers as bad.
James seemed to have felt the same way. He spoke up, breaking the silence.
"I saw the viewer numbers; we were at over ten thousand a few times. That is a lot! Did you think we would get more than that? We have all done a great job making this show start off strong, you cannot expect more!" There was anger in his eyes and his voice was almost shrill.
Ariel stayed quiet for a moment, to let James settle back down. Then he spoke levelly.
"We viewbotted the numbers. We thought more people might come if they saw it was popular, but it did not help a lot. The real numbers were far lower." He opened the next slide showing a graph of the real viewer numbers over the past three days. We had barely peaked at a thousand viewers. I felt gravely disappointed, but somehow in my heart, I was not surprised. I had noticed the chat was going very slow for a stream of that size, but I had hoped it was just inactive viewers, rather than bots.
"This is not sustainable," Ariel said and looked around the room.
James had quieted down, and we all sat in silence for a moment until Sasha spoke up.
"What do you suggest we do to bring in more viewers? You say you are happy with our performance, yet you call us into this meeting and sit us down like it's our fault we don't get views. What are we supposed to be doing differently?" There was a murmur of agreement from the room.
Ariel turned off the projector and gently placed the remote on the table before he responded.
"Me and Ben have been talking about this. Yes, you have all done impeccably well, so if the execution is not the problem, the formula is. We need something different to get people's attention."
"And what is 'something different'?" James returned spitefully.
"The one thing that grabs anyone's attention. Sex."
I practically gasped as he said the word so confidently.
"Of course, I don't mean we should be streaming... well, sex. I just mean we need to maybe have our girls maybe wear something more risqué, maybe host some more lewd games on our shows. Just small things to get more people interested."
I felt a moment of disgust. He spoke so assuredly about things so wrong and immoral. I was not alone in feeling slighted. Though the women were being singled out, the one to speak up was Matt.
"This is wrong, on so many levels. You can't just force girls to wear revealing clothes to bring in viewers... This is ridiculous."
I was glad to have a voice speak out for me because I was too shaken to talk on my own.
"We will not force anything on anyone. This is just a friendly meeting; we are here to discuss ideas of how we can save our platform." Ariel said calmly, trying to diffuse the tension.
"Well, then I suggest we talk about some other way we can do better, without objectifying women or showing smut to kids." There was fury in Matt's voice, and a unified protest from many of us murmured in its wake.
Ariel stood silent for a moment, seemingly surprised at the poor reception he was receiving. When the room had quieted down, he spoke with a more affable voice.
"I hear you. Clearly, this was a bad idea, I think we should call this meeting over, and reconvene another time to talk of other ways we can bring in more viewers. Please take this time to think, and if you have any ideas, bring them to the next meeting."
The tension in the room was palpable, but the meeting did end there, for most of us. At the last minute, Ariel told me to stay behind. I did so, feeling uneasy at his request, but ultimately wanting to talk to him more about how we could save Venn. I closed the door behind me and sat down in front of him.
"I may have been a bit too... blunt," Ariel said and smiled. "Sorry if you took offense, Chrissy."
I felt bad for him and quickly wanted to make him not have to feel sorry. He just wanted to save the show after all. A goal we both shared.
"I'll admit it sounded quite... distasteful. But I do want to help save this show. What can we do?" I asked, genuinely.
Ariel measured me with his eyes for a moment before he responded. "While maybe we shouldn't make the show all about sex, I do think showing a little bit of skin would go a long way. Especially if it's you that is doing it. You are a very beautiful lady."
I flushed at his compliment even though I again felt wronged by the words. I wanted viewers to be there for my personality, not just for my looks. But perhaps wearing a skirt or showing a tiny bit of cleavage would not be the end of the world. If it saved the show, it was a small price to pay.
"Thank you," I said awkwardly. "I suppose I could agree to wear something a bit more... revealing for the next show."
Ariel smiled. "That is a great start."
Chapter Two: Upping the Ante
The next few shows I dared to dress more brazenly. I knew my family would have their reservations, but it was my decision in the end. I had to learn to stand up for what I believed in, and saving the show I was passionate about, was what I knew to be right.
I was apprehensive at first. It felt wrong to be showing so much skin on a broadcast, and seeing weird people comment despicable things. But I eventually grew to enjoy the attention. It wasn't so bad to be the center of attention, and I found a new confidence in myself when people complimented me on my looks every day.
Suddenly my silent judgment of other promiscuous women disappeared. There was nothing wrong with what they were doing, as much as there was nothing wrong about me wearing tight leather suits and showing off my ass on camera.
It was a great relief, but no sooner than I had found comfort in my new role, had I been challenged again.
The bosses wanted me to have Sasha Grey as my guest for my next show, though the content was to be more related to Sasha's show, 'Gray Area'. She had failed to gain viewers as I had, perhaps because people were so used to seeing her naked, that wearing more revealing clothes did not do much for them. Because of this, I was to bring her on to introduce my viewers to her show. I knew the topics we would discuss were going to stray further from what I was comfortable talking about. But again, I had agreed. The show was more important than my reservations.
As the time counted down and all the preparations had been made, I took a moment to sit alone with my thoughts. "It's just a normal show, act like yourself, be honest, and if something is too uncomfortable, try to change the topic." The thought did little to calm my hammering heart.
Suddenly I was counted in. "Three-two-one-Action!"
I looked up at the camera and tried to put on a confident smile, but it felt fake.
"What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Guest House! Today we are joined by our very own Sasha Grey!" I tried to sound as cheerful as I could.
"Hey, welcome everyone," she said.
She wore a red dress that was open at the back and sides, showing more skin than I had dared to. My latex clothing did not reveal much skin, but it did hug my form tightly, leaving little to the imagination for our viewers.
"Nice to have you here, Sasha. Could you introduce yourself to our viewers?"
She flashed a brief smile at me. "Sure. Yes, I am Sasha Grey, I have my own show on Venn called 'Gray Area' where we talk about personal things, relationships, sex, and things of that nature. Along with my cohost 'Dumbfounded'. Apart from that I have my own stream on Twitch if you want to check that out." There was a silence.
"Cool," I responded. "Well, today Guest House will combine with Gray Area, as we are going to be answering some questions, or I suppose mostly I will answer questions, about... the things you talked about." I finished awkwardly.
"That's right guys, so if you want to get to know Chrissy a bit better, make sure to stick around as I have some questions that will teach you a lot," Sasha teased.
I felt angst deep in my chest but decided there was no use in focusing on the discomfort of it. It would be best to just get it over with.
"That's right, so without any further ado, let's get into it!" I said with feigned excitement. Though I tried not to focus on my torment, I could not help but notice I was not able to remain still; I moved around in my chair, and my hands went from my lap to my face, to the table, and back, in seconds. I finally forced myself still and took a deep breath.
