84 Chapter 84

It was after a while that the recording for Warriors had finally finished. I utilized the hard-working state to finish up the composition in less time than I, or anyone else had expected and immediately submitted the work.

We hired a small orchestra to record the intense instrumental and a music artist who had been very famous but had been taking long periodic breaks.

All the hours put in completing this work had finally come to fruition and the trailer came very soon. The company was very excited as they felt their animated trailer and the song paired very well together.

The school was concerned about my frequent absences but I had explained to them how busy I was. I had to think hard and worry about composing a song, do modeling jobs on the side, and receive training and extra education from Knife Agency.

For a while, people were wondering where I had gone as my social media was untouched and my streams were neglected.

That was why today I had decided to stream and in the end reveal a snippet of the song.

"Good day, everybody," I smiled at the camera after the 5 minute stream countdown ended.

Since I hadn't streamed in so long, I felt slightly stiff for the camera. Of course, it wasn't something they would notice and they were too excited seeing my active stream to worry about it.

Still, the stiffness would naturally go away once I got in the mood of streaming.

I read the chat with a comforted feeling in my heart and read the ones I enjoyed the most out loud.

"I missed you all, did you know that?"

For my classes, fan-service was a very weighted topic as relations with my fans also dictated my success. I had decided to put it into practice today.

"To make up for my lack of streams, I will dress up as anything you guys want for the next stream. Mods, please help me with a poll…" I waved to the camera.

I sincerely hoped I wouldn't have to worry about wearing something that'd damage my dignity.

Of course, my dignity was thrown away the second I began training with Blake and his stupid duck training. Remembering the very silly but useful method of training still made me feel dreadful.

I waited for a few minutes and chatted until I was sent a poll organized by the mods. They were the most interesting and wanted cosplays according to chat's reaction.

I once again prayed it wouldn't be anything too weird.

Opening the link, the options were:

Maid costume

More than 4 characters from different series and animes I did not know

A catboy

And finally not a costume, but a request to dye my hair

Seeing the maid costume, I wanted to discard the poll immediately. It was something I really, desperately did not want to do.

It was an idea I abhorred so terribly that I did not pay attention to the 'catboy' costume option.

"...No way…" I shook my head.

The chat noticed my despairing reaction and laughed at me.

"Alright, confess already. Who's the person that added the maid costume as one of the options?"

In the chat, the mods all pretended to see nothing and instead obliviously talked about very mundane topics.

[folvo: the sky is pretty blue today]

[quesou: what should i name my dog]

As if to piss me off even further,

[skypve1: whats a maid costume?]

And several other mods that ignored my serious look.

Knowing the troll attitude of my chat, I knew my fate was already sealed.

[Redde: how about i dress up as a butler and u as a maid]

Before I had even sent the link for viewers to vote on the poll, it had already been decided that I'd wear a maid costume. Even Reed himself had tuned in on the stream just to kick me while I was down.

"...I will not dress up as a maid."

Chat did not listen to me and instead spammed me to send the poll.

I searched for excuses within my mind,

"Do you guys know how expensive maid costumes are? No, no no. I am not wearing a maid costume. I'd have to get permission from my agency… and…"

[karmynkitty101 has donated 500 dollars: I'll cover all the expenses xo, Felix.]

Felix?

"...Et tu, Brute?" I could not take this bullying.

Felix's younger sister was named Karmyn… therefore that must be her account, and Felix is watching..? Unless it was just a coincidence…

Anyway, I want to get out of this situation as quickly as possible…

"Well, today you guys will decide what I'll do. I haven't thought of a schedule so you guys will help me…" I said as I opened a notepad in the computer and shared it in the stream.

"...Among Us…" I read outloud from the chat, "...Valorant," these were pretty good options because many people could be included…

The viewership was at 20 thousand currently. It was an amazing number for having just started… and it wasn't even peak hours yet.

As I glanced at the audience numbers, I also read the chat and communicated with the thousands of people engaging in the chat.

[abbieeee1: how about some gartic phone?]

I read the chatter's comment out loud and received a positive response as thousands echoed the comment.

"...What is Gartic Phone?" I glanced at the camera and read for chat's answers.

It was a 'broken telephone' game with drawing involved.

Each person would say a theme and a random player would draw a random player's theme. There was a countdown for drawing. When this countdown ended, depending on the amount of players, a single player would guess what was drawn. This would happen for all drawings.

After all drawings were guessed, subsequently players would each get the guesses which would now be what they would draw.

It was a fun game that could include many people so I was definitely not against it.

"Gartic Phone it is then…"

By talking about games and taking chat's feedback, I had successfully managed to diverge the topic away from the maid costume.

Still, I saw a few chatters that would call me out, shameless for digressing from the maid costume.

I entered the discord call where the other streamers were waiting.

Earlier, I had asked them if they had any free time they could lend me to stream with me. Many accepted and cleared up their stream schedules, postponed for another day.

Today was a special Charlie day.

"Good morning…" I smiled at the people. We all had our cameras on in the discord voice chat.

"Charlie!" Many spoke at once and waved as well.

As an effect of having a lobby with many people, I would not get that high of a viewership number but it didn't matter to me.

"How have you guys been?" Before playing Gartic Phone, it was important to first interact with each other.

It would help us get into the mood of putting on our streamer persona. As streamers, we were also entertainers.

We could gauge out and get a feel for how each streamer would act this time.

"Charlieeeeee!" Rykun yelled into the mic with a gummy flower boy smile.

I assume this stream Rykun will adopt the cutesy, spoiled persona.

"If it's Gartic Phone we'll be doing, I hope you all will use what I teached you…" blacklily spoke with a disciplined voice.

They had played Gartic Phone in past streams so many of them were decent at drawing now, apart from the ones that already drew exceptionally well like Lily.

"Sir, yes sir!"

The others also noticed Lily would take on a much less goofy role in this stream. It was to be expected since drawing is one of her stream specialties anyway.

I hope this stream, my drawing skill will not fail too badly… I mean, a drawing level of 80 should not be too bad, right?

"...Alright I'll be pasting the link to the game so hide your screens everyone…" after a few minutes of conversing and fooling around to entertain, I reminded the others.

[Yvettel: "Charlie, by the way, did you check your DMs?"]

I scratched my hair.

Haha… Perhaps I had n—

[Yvettel: "Of course you haven't…" she smiled at me threateningly through the camera, "...you should check them…"

I quickly gave a thumbs up and went to read the long lines of chats that had been unread in twitter.

I had tweeted out an announcement for the stream, days ago after weeks of inactivity, saying that I'd probably be doing a stream with many people.

I had forgotten that in the tweet, I asked for others to DM me if they wanted to be in the lobby— apart from the usual people…

There were various messages from verified tweeters, all wanting to be involved in the stream.

"...Okay, well… It's uh, not my fault that Twitter does not send me notifications..." I scratched my ear with a smile as the others looked at me in silence.

[Redde: "Yeah, anyway. We accepted their requests on your behalf so we're just informing you about that."] Reed said with a smile.

I nodded and gave a thumbs up. The more people, the better.

Honestly, it was better that they just managed the stream lobbies instead of me…

"So anyway, who'll be joining us?"

[Juliamn: "Some VTubers, some drawing streamers, and some valorant pros… if I remember correctly."]

Huh, what a great line-up… It's almost like they guessed that I would either play Gartic Phone, Among Us, or Valorant…

I nodded, "Let's go greet them!"

We changed the discord server and all joined a server named "Charlie Lobby" that was created, not by me, but by Reed.

"Reed… you mind explaining why I was the last person to be invited to this server…?" I smiled, "...when my name is included in the name of this server?" I had begun calling his real name after his face reveal.

He laughed nervously,

[Redde: "....A surprise?"]

I switched my gaze from his and scanned the screen seeing all the people in the VC laughing.

"...Nice to meet you all," I bowed my head to the camera, "I am Charlie. Let's go in order of my screen to introduce ourselves..."

"...I am Bom," It was my first time seeing an animated VTuber character speaking in a discord face call. "I like to draw and play games…" Her introduction was short and sweet; her voice trembling with some nerves.

The next person didn't have their camera on, but their name sounded slightly familiar to me.

"I am… TsuNami. I am a YouTuber rather than a streamer and I like drawing as well… It is nice to meet you all. " It was a caramel filled voice. One very well suited for a YouTuber. "I also really enjoy your music Charlie."

So that's where her name was familiar from. She was one of the verified Youtubers who commented on the piano video when I first went viral.

"...Thank you, TsuNami."

People introduced themselves with short sentences. I got to know different streamers and the five Valorant pros.

The Gartic Phone lobby that had been postponed by another round of introductions and fooling around, had finally started after 40 minutes from when it was created.

…

We were around 20 streamers in total. It was a very hectic amount because hearing twenty people speaking at once was not very fun.

I'm assuming it'll be worse later on in a few hours when ice would have been broken and everyone's screaming and yelling and laughing.

On these occasions, I feel it would be easier to just have us all in one room…

Since we were all still getting to know each other, it was mainly I, the host, and the usual group that was doing most of the talking with the frequent chimes of the other dozen streamers.

The Gartic Phone themes had not be too crazy yet. They were all some normal drawings, sometimes strange, but nothing too 'comfortable' yet.

Right now, we were starting our second game. The theme I had to draw was…

'Charlie in a Maid Costume'

"...Alright who freakin—"

A caramel filled giggle rang through the voice chat.

[TsuNami: "Your luck is just…"]

It was a very big coincidence that out of the other 20 people, I was the one to get this theme in the first round.

"...I'll just draw something completely different."

[TsuNami: "Noo! You're not allowed to do that… You have to draw ittt.."] She whined.

"...Don't think so. Nope, not doing it…"

[TsuNami: "You have to draw it… Charlie, that's the point of the game…"]

"Yup, I'm drawing a stickman."

[TsuNami: "...That's unfair… you have to draw it…"] She whined again.

[LoafofBread: "What's he drawing?"]

She giggled,

[TsuNami: "You'll see at the end!"]

I sighed.

As much as I was denying that I would not draw it, I wasn't so shameless and unfair as to not draw it…that was probably the reason.

I took my mouse and began drawing myself earnestly in a maid costume as chat lol'd for a long time, even after I had been drawing other things.

It seems I would not be able to get out of this hole I dug myself into.

...