#vi4violent

VI - “Alright, chat, really. Thanks for a good stream, ‘night” I can hardly stay awake, eyes stinging sharp with each blink. I should really get some bluelight glasses.

I scroll through streamers under ‘Just Chatting,” half mindless, on the brink of passing out cold. Hm. They seem cool, good enough.

I raid the stream, bumping their viewers from a staggering 9 -11 to about 200 and rising.

“Oh shit” they lean into their monitor “vi4violent, thank you so much for the raid- i better play somethin’” Their voice fills my headphones, watching their facecam as they boot up Stardew Valley. “Somethin’ easy. Can’t be bad at fake farming.”

Oh they’re cute. I’m reminded of myself when I started streaming, saying anything to retain viewership, gotta keep them entertained.

Their gameplay, commentary and nerves blur as I doze off in my chair, out cold and quick.

I startle awake around 3am, not sure where I am. 

“Shit,” I mumble rough and groggy, moving my hair back from my eyes to shut off my monitor.

Your monitor flashes faster than you’re used to, raid viewers filling my chat with emotes. “Oh shit” you lean into their monitor, “vi4violent, thank you so much for the raid- i better play somethin’” You hurry to steam to pull something, anything to entertain these people.

Your platform has built like crazy since that night, Violet, you learned her name was, always raided your stream, every night. The days she was off, she spent in your chat, gifting too many subs. “Jesus, thank you, Vi, but slow down. Not even letting that check hit before putting it right back into twitch.” 

Vi wanted to bridge that gap between online supporters and real life company. But how? She can’t just…DM you her number, right?

vi4violent sent you a message

You click the notification quicker than you can think- it’s just a phone number? Her phone number, clearly, but no questions, no nothing.

Your fingers hover over your cracked screen as your mind draws blanks. What should I say?

‘hey, this violet?’ is what you settle on. Don’t be so nervous. She addressed you.

Typing bubbles show for only a second before a message pops up, Vi having copied and pasted a message she spent way more time on than appropriate.

‘hey, I wanted to see about collaborating, but couldn’t find a business email, so figured this was the best way of contact?’ a chance for you to change direction to professionality, or…you won’t mind having a way to contact her, Vi thought.

She hasn’t made many friends in the streaming scene. Most get on their high horse once they surpass her, or try to knock her down from below her. But you seemed grateful for her platform, even insisting she didn’t need to. You could become close.

It’s been 4 months of exchanging texts and even a couple streams together. You would text each other for anything, really. It was casual, too casual. Wake up, check for texts from each other, text all day, send a text before heading to bed. The only gap in your messages was during streams, usually streaming together, or talking to the other in chat. 

Neither of you let your guard all the way down, though. Didn’t know personal things, issues, feelings…that could become complicated.

Valentines Day rolled around and we did a stream together, playing some modded version of pokemon. 

Both chats were scattered with “who’s the new girl?”, “that your girlfriend?”, “aww couple valentines stream.” we’d gotten our share of ship chats here in there, but they were infrequent enough to get lost in the rolling chat.

But today? It was off the wall.

“Vi, are you…getting all the couple chats too?”

“Uhh..yeah, actually. A ton” She scoffs, face twisting with amusement.

“We’re not together. Just friends.” You address it too quickly for her liking

“Woah, yeah, but no need to seem so offended–” “No! Not- not even like that, just- we aren’t dating, right? They asked, I answered” You could hear amusement in our voice, clear we didn't take any real offense. But...maybe too amused. The chats only ramped up, insisting this was a real show of chemistry, how its ‘radiating through the screen.’