Noel sat at her computer desk watching the monitors in front of her closely. The quadruple monitor setup featured two curved monitors side by side and two wall mounted monitors above them. The left monitor and top two monitors featured coding programs and lines of script that any computer science major would weep with envy upon seeing. Her hands, which had been busy earlier typing away at the keyboard, were now resting in her lap and her eyes were fixated on the fourth monitor.

The bottom right monitor featured four security camera views of the bookstore. She had been staring at these images for some time now. Her passionate gaze was fixated not on the customers coming in and out of the store, but on the boy behind the counter. Her heart was torn as she looked at the image, a desire to see him in person and the fear of being close to him ripping it apart. As she watched the clock’s hands inch along their perpetual path, she realized she would soon have to head downstairs and interact with him.

As she descended the stairs, her heart grew fluttery and she grew nervous even though she did the same thing nearly every day. She quietly opened the door and began approaching the counter timidly despite her position as Lady’s employer. As she got closer, she realized his face was flush and he was looking down at the ground while slightly trembling. “Are you sick, your face is red?” Noel asked in a concerned tone. 

Lady looked up at her with a somewhat cute hop having been startled and stumbled his way through a reply. “N..No I’m fine.” He looked outside the window and realized what time it was. “Sorry Ms. Noel, I’ll start closing right away. While Noel had interacted with the boy plenty of times, his surprised face was always a treat and the cute shiver that seemed to run up his body when he was startled reminded her of a puppy. 

As the two began to clean up, Noel could feel a slight sense of disappointment course through her. Even if much of the time they spent was behind a digital barrier due to her condition, she still lamented the fact that she wouldn’t be able to look at him working behind the counter from her monitor. As the two continued to clean, Noel tried to suppress the fear in her heart and worked up the courage to ask him, “H.. How is skhull.” She had meant to say school but bit her tongue while talking. Lady seemed to understand her all the same and answered “It’s ok.”

“Have you made any friends?”

“Just some online”

“Do you play games together or?”

“Yea sometimes. One of them is a streamer on Project. They were saying I should become a streamer too. What do you think, Ms. Noel? Should I do it or do I sound too weird?”

The boy looked up at her and Noel's heart nearly melted. “I think that's a wonderful idea” she said excitedly. “You have a cute voice so I’m sure you would do well.” Lady’s face grew flushed as he was told for the second time that day that his voice was cute. “Umm thanks'' he muttered “but I don’t have anything to steam with like a microphone or camera.”

Noel suddenly grew very excited upon hearing that he needed a mic and camera. “I actually have both of those. You can use them if you want. Let me go get them real quick!”  Noel scampered upstairs and grabbed an old box under her desk. As she brought it back down and presented it to Lady, he suddenly grew worried. “These are super expensive, how do you have these, and is it really ok for me to take them?”

Noel grew embarrassed upon remembering why she had originally purchased them. “Umm, when I was in college, I was nervous about presenting in front of people so I would pretend to be sick and record my presentations at home.” She fidgeted with the box in hand before giving it to Lady and bidding him goodnight. The door to the bookstore was locked and the lights were shut off as Noel made her way back upstairs. After eating a light dinner, she began closing all the tabs on her computer and started up a new program. 

The program loaded and a screen popped up in the bottom right monitor of her setup. The page was being mirrored from a computer several blocks away. The screen showed the Project homepage and despite her hands never touching the mouse or keyboard, the page began to seemingly navigate itself as it went through the account creation process. After the required fields had been filled in, Noel watched as the screen changed displaying the words, 

Account Successfully Created

Welcome LadyKiller

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lady walked home faster than normal. He had resolved to create an account on Project tonight and couldn’t help but to feel excited. He went to unlock the door but for some odd reason, it was already unlocked. Did I forget to lock it this morning? He asked himself as he entered the room cautiously. Lady flicked on the lights and took a look around. Nothing seemed out of place. Shaking off his needless worry, he dropped his backpack on the floor.

Tired from the walk home, Lady collapsed on his bed. There was a damp spot right in the middle of the bed as well as on the pillow. It smelled faintly sweet. Did I really sweat that much last night? Lady wondered. He had had a terrible dream last night and awoke this morning drenched in sweat and clutching at the covers but he assumed it would have dried by now. Taking the sheets off the bed, he placed them in a laundry bag and pulled a spare pair out of the small closet in his room. He would have to take the dirty sheets to the laundromat tomorrow.

Moving the issue to the back of  his mind, he shifted his focus to his computer and booted it up. Several minutes later, he was sitting on the homepage of Project with a newly created account. Lady looked at the box sitting by his feet for a few seconds before pulling the microphone out. He also glanced at the camera in the cardboard box but decided against it and pushed the box under his bed. After setting up his microphone and testing it to make sure it worked, he messaged NekoGirl

LadyKiller: I made an account on Project, getting on Citadel Heartscape

NekoGirl: I’m getting on toooo! Wait for meeee!

LadyKiller: Ok I’ll start the stream, wish me luck

NekoGirl: Okay, I will too!

LadyKiller: Wait, you’re streaming rn!

NekoGirl: I will make my viewers flood your chat. Mwahahahaha!

Lady looked up from the phone to see that NekoGirl had sent him an invite in game. After accepting it, he joined her party and was welcomed by her sweet voice. “Lady!!!!! I’m so glad you’re becoming a steamer. Now we can play lots together.” Lady suddenly felt a chill upon hearing his name said before realizing that she had probably just abbreviated his alias, LadyKiller. 

“Um. Hi” He responded with a hint of nervousness. “Oh. your voice is as cute as I remember fufufufufu” NekoGirl laughed. Lady blushed upon hearing her compliment. After exchanging greetings, NekoGirl set up her stream and talked to the viewers coming in. “Hey everyone, today I’m playing Citadel Heartscape with my friend LadyKiller. Everyone should go check him out, he’s super funny and super good at the game.” 

While NekoGirl talked to her viewers, Lady had also set up his stream and was starting to see viewers trickle in. His heart started beating faster as he watched the viewer count rise. The chat began to stir as people asked him how he knew NekoGirl or why they were streaming together. “Hey Lady, are you ready?”  A voice suddenly cut through the thoughts and doubts swirling in his mind. “Yea” he responded, “Let’s do this”

As the two slashed their way through hordes of enemies, Lady began to remember why he loved gaming so much. Online, he wasn’t weak or short, his character didn’t get tired after walking like he did, their skin wasn’t pale and their hair wasn’t gray. When he was playing a game with his friends, he didn’t have to be who he was on the outside, he could be who he was on the inside. Lady had even begun responding to people in chat while playing with NekoGirl

Element32: Lol LadyKiller is carrying so hard in this raid

Whtsyurdmg: Now we know how Neko levels so fast off cam

RockLeon10: What weapon is he running to one shot Obsidian Gargoyles?

Beemaster: Hax lololololololol

“I’m running the Harrowing blade and Cross of Thorns necklace. The Harrowing Blade doesn’t have a good affinity with most jewelry because it lacks a set bonus but it works well with the Cross’s innate buff against guarded enemies. The Harrowing blade has guard break and deals extra damage when performing a guard break so it essentially hits Obsidian Gargoyles three times at once allowing you to one shot them. I usually run this combo with low agility armor setups since it increases the enemies chance of guarding against attacks.”

SpiderMonkey76: Wut

RockLeon10: k

Element32: no wonder he’s grandmaster rank.

Zangetsu15: I think I get it

“You just kinda pick up on these things the more you play I guess” Lady said as he watched the chat roll by. He and NekoGirl continued making their way through the citadel and Lady was happy that people seemed to think he was good at the game. As the two of them approached a narrow walkway leading to the boss room, Lady asked his chat “Hey, should I push Neko off the bridge?”  Neko’s flustered voice begged him not to, but the trolls in chat began spamming push her and Lady eventually gave in to his desire to bully her a little. 

As he watched her character fall, she started hurling cute insults at him while he laughed. “You big dummy, Idiot, Stupid, Meanie, Bully, Moron. I’ll never play with you again. Humph.” “Fine.” He responded in a mocking tone, “Then I guess we won’t play together anymore.” Lady suddenly heard sniffling from the other end of the mic and panicked. “Wait I’m sorry, I didn't mean it. We’ll keep playing together alright.” Lady panickily cast revival as the urge to bully her subsided. He had gone too far. “It’s ok” NekoGirl responded, “I guess we got a little carried away there. You can make it up to me by killing the boss for me ok?” Lady nodded even though nobody could see him, “alright.”

Even though the two had made up, Lady still felt guilty. He had forgotten how easy it was to get carried away online when he was the one in power. He couldn’t repeat the same mistake from two years ago. He would never hurt someone like that again. No matter what they did to him. He would take it. He would endure. He would pretend not to care, not to know. As if on cue, the person he had been thinking about sent him a message.

MagicalGirlLover: Can we play something together soon? If you're not busy?

BlackObelisk

Sleep is for the weak, here's another chapter. The poll is just for fun. If I listed every trope or archetype I'd be here all night.