Pillow's Streaming Adventure

Final Stream

Laying within a slightly plain room, Maria slept in her bed. The room was fairly standard, having a table with a computer, all the messy wires and stuff to rig up her Vtuber model, her motion-capturing suit with her headset and VR controllers on the side. The walls were fairly empty, but still had the occasional poster of the newest anime she'd been interested in.

Shifting around in her bed, her movements eventually stopped, with a groan leaving her lips. "Ughhh... What time is it?" Grabbing her phone and opening it, the numbers 7:01 flashed in her face as she blinked blearily, trying to adjust her eyes to the light.

"Hold on, I'm late..." With that small grumble, she started moving.

Getting up from her bed, Maria smiled as she stretched her limbs. Her mind was a jumble yesterday getting all her taxes and insurances paid, but now was the time for fun. Getting herself out of bed, and shuffling off to her kitchen, she slowly made herself a meal, using up her last canned meal set. "I wonder what I should stream today..." 

Waiting for the microwave to finish microwaving her meal, she watched it lazily spin around, absentmindedly staring at her phone. Her focus drifted to her discord server, the one for her channel, and whatever the people who joined into it were arguing about.

"Guns? What the fuck?" Scrolling up, she started reading down the conversation, which started at what guns were good for home defense, mentioning the Mossberg 500 or the Glock 17. As she read, the microwave beeped, signaling that her meal was ready. With that, she sat down as she read through the exchange. Soon enough though, the newest thread of messages caught her eye. It was a small debate between the AK-47, and the M16. "Are they serious?"

Reading down the lines, she scarfed down her food, and ran to her room, booting up the computer and stream without a single plan in mind. Staring at the messages as she waited for her computer to boot up. "Oh no they didn't."

Grumbling, she booted up the stream, checked that the bot sent the message correctly, saw the first few hello's that came as they always did, and did her final checks before moving from her stream starting screen to her rant screen.

Opening her mouth, her rant started. "First off Revenant, the M16 is only worse when you compare it to an AK when you don't clean it properly! You need to..."

As she ranted about guns for a good 10 minutes, her occasional glances at her side monitor, where her twitch chat was displayed, showed that beyond the first few hello's, no one had responded. As she continued, she started to lose her steam as she felt like no one was there. No one responded even after she called out, depressing her a bit.

'Did they all leave?' The doubtful thoughts that everyone left started to enter her mind, but before long a new message popped up.

BiggusChungus3: Are you saying something?

Seeing that message, and getting confirmation that she wasn't left behind, her mind wondered why no one responded. 'Maybe they were waiting for me to finish?' Such thoughts filled her before a new message popped up on the side.

revenight11: I think she's muted.

Checking her streaming OBS, she sighed quietly. Indeed, she was still muted. She wasn't ranting and people were ignoring her, but instead no one could've heard it. Clicking and clearing her throat, she let out a small laugh as the chat rejoiced at hearing her. "Hello!"

BiggusChungus3: Yay she's here!

revenight11: I was starting to enjoy the peace too...

Smiling, while a small feeling of annoyed amusement nestled in her mind, she spoke up again, restarting her rant. "First off Revenant, fuck you. You can't call an M16 less reliable than an AK when..."

With that, the stream began, off to a slightly rocky start, but it didn't take long before her friends joined the call, and they started playing games. Maria in particular was playing War Thunder, as Chambers, Buck, and Revenant joined her. Maria raged at Revenant for not being able to flip over a tank to save his life, as Buck and Chambers argued over kill stealing.

Before anyone knew it, 6 hours had passed. Maria switched between War Thunder and DarkTide, mixing in a bit of Armored Core VI and Titanfall 2 when she wanted to. Sometimes it was everyone pounding on Chambers or whoever fucked up in game, sometimes it was Maria yelling about Gaijins system being bullshit, and sometimes it was her chat making jokes between Maria and themselves. By the end, she had ranted twice about one topic or the other.

Winning another tank battle, she stretched and cracked her neck, sighing as she felt the stress in her nape leaving in a moment. Stretching her arms up, and sucking in a breath, her stretching was interrupted by her stomach growling. Only now recognizing her hunger, she let out a sigh. 

Getting ready to end the stream, she smiled as her fans got into another dumb argument about food, and what was and wasn't healthy. "Alright guys. If you're done with that, its time for us to end stream. Its been 6 hours, and I need to eat something."

Seeing new messages popping up wishing her goodbye, she smiled before saying goodbye, and closing the stream. Stretching once the stream was off, she saw them continuing in the discord, and decided to leave it. Nothing for now would come out of talking there. Her stomach was growling more too, so she had to eat something. Her mind drifted to the nearby Walmart. 

"Is it still open?" Talking to herself, she checked her cabinets to confirm that without a doubt, she was out of canned food. "Guess I'll have to make a trip."

The air was getting colder, and small patches of snow and ice were already forming on the ground. It was closing in on December, and snowfall was starting. Knowing this, Maria dressed in slightly thicker clothing, putting on her shoes at the door.

Double-checking that all the lights were off, Maria left her home, locking the door behind her. Checking her account to see how much money she had to work with, she was pleasantly surprised to find that her bank had accepted the money earlier than usual, leading to her getting her $37 earlier than she thought.

"I guess I can get some chicken then." Humming happily at the thought of getting that Walmart chicken again, she walked down her practiced path to the nearby Walmart. Walking over a crosswalk, she hummed as she closed her eyes, confirming that the pedestrian light was on.

Walking across the white lines, she hummed, keeping to herself. She didn't register the sound of an engine, she didn't register the faint yelling, and certainly didn't register the glowing lights that shined on her side.

BANG

In one moment, all she felt was pain, as she could feel her right side slowly caving in. Her eyes briefly registered the car that had crashed into her. Feeling another sharp sense of pain, she blacked out, only coming to as she laid of the floor.

Bleeding out of her mouth, Maria coughed up a bit more blood, feeling how her body slowly weakened. Rolling over onto her back, she stared at the night sky, and the moon beyond.

Laying there, she slowly closed her eyes, memories coming and going.

The fun dumbshit arguments she had with her friends, the excited community she fostered herself, and most importantly the smiles she saw from her work.

Fading out of consciousness, her brain slowly began to shut down, and her final thoughts formed to a singular wish.

'I wish I can stream again...'

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