By C.P. Perry
Edited by ExperiencedStoryteller
"And why not?" Gabby chuckled. "Come on. You can play video games, make funny commentary, interact with others. People will love you."
Emily shook her head, "I don't know. It just seems... a little self-absorbed. And they're always so obnoxious. I'd rather not."
Emily and Gabby were walking down the sidewalk to Emily's apartment. The two friends were dorm mates two years ago when they were freshmen in university. Now in their junior year, they remained close friends.
It was late in the evening; they had just gotten out of class. Students were flocking to the bars and the commons. Traffic had picked up both on the sidewalk and road. The two girls bobbed and weaved between packs of students going to and fro; everyone out to have a good evening.
But not Emily. Emily was off to do the same thing she did every evening; nothing. Nothing at all, except scroll through social media and play video games. She considered it something, but it made very few friends and offered her virtually no social time. Gabby dogged her weekly to join the others out for a house party or a trip to the bars. And, without fail, Emily would decline.
"Come on, it's better than just playing video games. And besides, you don't have to be like those cam girls. Just play games, get followers, make money!" Gabby argued. "You hear me? You'll be making money!"
Emily kept her eyes down to her feet. She never liked the idea of streaming. It seemed slimy to her: play video games while people watch you and send you money. She enjoyed playing games alone and didn't want the potential of hundreds to thousands of people watching her play. Nor did she want to have to interact with them so they would pay her. It all felt like a scam.
Besides, she felt like a girl had to be attractive to be a good streamer. Gabby always told Emily she was, in her words, "hot as hell." She stood at five feet, seven inches and had long curly brunette hair. She had a slim, athletic figure with sun-kissed skin, cute freckles across her button nose, and rosy cheeks. Gabby loved to point out that Emily had a nice bottom, much to Emily's embarrassment. "Juicy as hell," Gabby always said, "Nice and plump." Emily bashfully disagreed.
"Gabby," Emily sighed. She kept a smile on her face. She loved Gabby, but she was too pushy sometimes. "I don't want to be a streamer, ok? I'm fine. My parents help me pay for things and I am content with what I do."
"Whatever you say. Just know, it's literally free to change your mind."
"Yeah," Emily chuckled, "I guess so."
The first thing Emily did when she got to her apartment was to plop down onto her bed. She unlocked her phone and went straight to her social media, as she usually did. Weekends at college have always been boring. Getting home from class, spending thirty minutes to an hour scrolling through posts, timelines, and blogs was the norm for Emily. Then, after she got all caught up, she would hop on her PC and play video games.
Her parents recommended she get a job. Others suggested living off her parents for as long as possible to focus on classwork. Neither sounded like a particularly great solution. She wanted to be independent but not have to work -- a dilemma for any college student her age. Gabby's recommendation still echoed in her head: play games, make money. It couldn't be that easy, could it?
Emily finished her dive on the internet and moved to her computer. She scrolled through the digital library of games she had purchased over the years. She scrolled and scrolled, yet nothing appealed to her. She could play that one shooter for a while: the one where she needed thirty more headshots to unlock a character skin she always wanted. Or she could rethink her strategy on her favorite strategy game and conquer eighteenth-century Europe. She continued to search for a game to pique her interests, but everything just blended together after a while.
Why play, she thought, when she would just accomplish things with nothing to show for it? Who would care? No one, that's who.
Of course, she played games for herself, but lately, she had been down in the dumps about feeling useless. With classes taking up a good portion of her time, she just wanted to relax and play video games. Getting a job would net her some money, but work, as well as socializing, would eat up her time for gaming. She couldn't possibly do all three unless...
... she streamed.
Maybe Gabby had a point. She didn't have to be like the sleazy cam girls. No, she could be different. She could just be herself.
----
Emily adjusted the webcam's focus and made sure the streaming program was in place. She made the video window for herself rather small and down in the corner of the screen, and made sure the video game was large and easy for the viewers to watch. Then, she hit the red button to go live.
She waited. Her eyes routinely glanced at the user interface for the streaming program. The viewer count was at zero. "Alright," she told herself, "I've just started, be patient."
Emily was playing the shooter she had been into for a while now, working on getting the thirty headshots. She played match after match of online multiplayer; still, no one joined to watch her. She was doing alright for herself, routinely getting top three in the matches' leaderboards. Maybe, she thought, that would get people to watch her stream. She just needed to keep doing well in the game, and when that one random viewer pops in, they will stay.
An hour passed by. She was getting a little worried. Wouldn't a random viewer have popped in by now? She wondered. "Come on," she whispered to the streaming program, "someone join already." She continued to play to the best of her ability. She couldn't help but feel stupid. Playing a game and streaming with a viewer count of zero. She knew this was a mistake -- Gabby had talked her into a dumb plan. She knew she wouldn't have gotten any viewers. She must be sleazy and obnoxious like the cam girls. She would have to wear a dumb cat-eared headset and wear a stupid anime costume for viewers, she thought, and she would have to--
Emily's eyes caught movement on the program's user interface: the viewer count changed to one.
----
Throwing her shoes off, she locked the front door and went to her room. She had been thinking about it all day. Streaming wasn't anything like she had imagined. She couldn't believe how hard she was on the hobby. She had gained twelve regular viewers since she started streaming last week. A small number compared to most streamers, but it was a start. They commented and chatted in the stream's chatbox, and Emily conversed with them using her old headset. The viewers were kind and supportive, and now Emily looked forward to each evening of coming home and streaming video games.
She put away her things and sat down at the computer desk. She had a smile on her face as she thought about how she may get another viewer today -- how she may even break the fifty viewers count. She was hopeful, but she knew patience was key. It would be a slow start for a while, but it was fun, so Emily didn't mind.
Emily powered on her PC and launched the streaming program. She booted the shooter and prepared herself to go live. She adjusted her headset and hit the red button. Already five of the regulars were online and waiting.
"Hi!" She smiled and waved to the camera. "Hi, guys! Were you all waiting for me? Well, I guess you do know my schedule, huh?"
Emily still wasn't quite used to speaking at her camera. The viewers communicated to her via the chatbox, and she talked to them out loud. Her self-consciousness would creep from the back of her mind. She always imagined what she must look like to someone watching her.
In the chat window, the viewers were typing messages of affection and support. One commenter mentioned that her stream helped him relax after a rough day at school, and another said he liked to watch her play because she was so good.
"You guys!" A half-smile, half pout crossed her lips, and her eyes watered. "Aww, I don't even know what to say! You guys are awesome!"
More viewers started to join the stream. Five turned to six, six turned to eight, and eight eventually turned to twelve in a few hours. Then, to Emily's surprise, a thirteenth viewer tuned in to the stream. She became ecstatic.
"Hey there!" Emily smiled. She took a second from her game to look at the username of the new viewer. "Buttmaster42? Well, that's a silly name!" Whatever the name may be, hopefully, they would stay.
"Glad to see that you've joined us. We hope you--"
Buttmaster42 posted a link as well as a comment that said: "Hi, Emily! You're a great video game player and streamer! Check out this video, I think you'll like it." He left a winking emoji at the end of his comment.
Emil's skin crawled: her first creep. It wasn't the first time. Plenty of immature teens picked on her and sent her inappropriate messages in the past. She had never thought about having a creep join her stream and act weird. She planned to at least humor the person. If the video was something inappropriate, she wasn't going to hesitate to report and block him.
"Ok, since I'm waiting for a match to start," Emily started politely, "I'll check out the video for a second." She moved her mouse over to the chatbox and clicked the link.
The link took her to a blank web domain. In the center of the white screen, a window popped up. A video began to play in the window, a spiral of all colors. Red, blues, greens, purples, and every color imaginable spun slowly in a hypnotic spiral.
Emily scoffed, "Very funny."
She went to close the window, but she found herself unable to look away from the spiral. The beautiful colors were so vibrant -- they commanded her attention, to which Emily was unable to resist. It was just so beautiful. So magnificent. The colors spun around, and around, and around, and around.
----
Within four days, the stream's viewer count grew from thirteen to sixty-three. Emily found herself longing for the chance to get back on the stream every time she was away. She didn't care if she started to neglect her college coursework. The stream fulfilled her in a way she never knew possible. There were dedicated fans, people who dedicated each evening to watching her play, she wasn't about to let down.
Emily started the stream early. She had skipped her last class of the day, her yearning for entertaining her viewers had made her too anxious to ignore. It was only one time, no big deal, she thought.
Her viewers had requested that she wear something cute the next time she streamed. So, for the day's stream, she was wearing a white crop top with a plunging neckline. It showed more cleavage than Emily was normally comfortable with, but she was doing it for the viewers. She topped off the outfit with a black lace choker she bought yesterday from a viewer's recommendation. When she saw her image in the corner of the streaming program's UI, she knew the viewers would like what they saw.
"Hey everyone! Oh, my goodness, were you guys waiting for me? You shouldn't have!"
