Chapter Text
The first week of Luz being gone Camila came home from her job at the hospital to a dark, empty, perfectly quiet Luzless house that quite frankly reminded her more of a haunted house than a place of comfort. Camila had gotten used to the routine her and her mija had unintentionally made together. She would come home from her shift at the hospital at around nine 'o'clock to dinner already waiting for her on the kitchen table and the sounds of Luz’s antics coming from upstairs. The lights in the living room and kitchen would be left on, and the smells of whatever meal Luz had made for the two of them would still be lingering in the air, even after the young girl had gotten her own serving and made up a plate for Camila. She’d call for the girl to come downstairs and greet her, and her ears would be met with the sound of Luz’s feet clunking down the stairs almost as if she had tumbled down them head first, only to be greeted by small arms wrapping around her torso and a loud harping of “Welcome home! ¡Te quiero, Mami!”
To say the least, it had come to Camila as a bit of a shock at first to be met with a dark, eerily silent room when she first opened the door to the Noceda’s shared home only to be reminded of the harsh reality that she had sent her daughter away off to that insufferable summer camp and that this would be the norm for the next couple months. The thought of coming home to this chilling sight for months left the unsettled guilt in Camila’s chest to rise up to her throat and get lodged there. She already missed her sweet little ball of light. Why must she have sent her away? But as soon as she opened the freezer in the kitchen to get a frozen dinner out to heat up for herself and was met with the box of frozen mice that was meant for Luz’s pet snake, she was reminded of the incident that finally broke the straw on the camel’s back and why this was a necessary pain that they’d both just have to deal with.
That didn’t mean that the emptiness got any lighter, or that Camila felt any better without Luz’s shining presence around.
After eating her reheated meal of some kind of beef dish, with extra salty gravy, and sad potatoes, Camila had gotten tired of watching whatever mindless drama was on the television and decided to make her way upstairs to her bedroom. She was on her way down the hall, walking past her daughter’s empty bedroom, when she came to a sudden halt. As if possessed, her head turned towards the vacant bedroom, and she was compelled to step inside flicking on the bedroom light. Her eyes scanned the messy room and took in all the tiny details that had gone unnoticed by her previously. Luz wasn’t exactly the neatest child out there. Her floor was littered with dirty clothes, her old textbooks for school were strewn around the room, some left open, their pages becoming crinkled, and art supplies were left in absolutely every nook and crevice available. But that was not even the most of it. There were empty mugs piled up high on her desk next to the terrarium of her pet rat snake, journals stacked up so high they looked about to tip over, and sketch pads galore positioned in a similar manner next to them. Her closet door was lodged open, full of who-knows-what, and her bed was certainly unmade. It seemed the only thing that was perfectly kept neat in her room was that series of fantasy books she loved so much, which were kept in a special spot on her bookshelf and organized by their order in the series.
When Camila’s eyes landed on the poor snake’s terrarium, she remembered the task she had now been designated of keeping it alive in her daughter’s absence. Because there was no way she would let her Luz come home to the news that her precious Gildy had passed away while she was at camp. Scanning the calendar that was barely hanging off of Luz’s wall, she found today’s date and let out a deep sigh. It was feeding day. Making the trek back downstairs, she got Gildy his meal of frozen rodents, and made her way back to Luz’s room. Not wanting to watch the snake inhale the poor thing, she turned around and scanned the room once more.
Camila didn’t often come into Luz’s bedroom, so she hadn’t quite noticed how many strange things her daughter had lying about. Of course, she knew about all the posters and merchandise of that Good Witch Azura series Luz enjoyed so much, most of those things Camila had bought for the girl herself. It was the other things that caught her attention. Like the strange handcrafted sock puppets Luz had sitting in a box in the corner of her room, which eerily looked like both Camila and Luz themselves, as well as a few that reminded Camila of some of Luz’s high school teachers. Taking a peek in one of Luz’s sketchbooks she found plenty of art based off her favorite fantasy series, but also surprisingly some very detailed drawings of different kinds of lizards and snakes(including a lot of sketches of Gildy himself), and otters which were probably one of Luz’s favorite animals next to cats. There were also a few notebooks that seemed to be filled to the brim with stories based off the fantasy series her daughter enjoyed so much. She also spotted some old skulls of some dead animals in a box in the back of Luz’s closet. She began to wonder what it was her daughter had been up to while she was off at work that allowed her to grow a collection of literal roadkill.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Luz’s laptop laying on top of a few of her sketchbooks on her desk. Camila couldn’t help but feel drawn to the small rectangular device and what was held inside it. Perhaps, taking a quick peek won’t hurt. It would probably give her more insight into what things her daughter was interested in. And quite frankly, Camila could use any help she’d get with understanding Luz. Turning on the device and flipping open the lid, she was flooded with a plethora of icons for different applications on the screen. She honestly didn’t know what she expected, because Luz’s desktop was literally what she would expect. Google, Twitch, Minecraft, and several of the Steam games that her daughter loved to rant to her about. If she remembered correctly, one was about asking a bunch of monsters out to prom? Another was about fighting balloons with a bunch of monkeys she believed. To be honest as much as Camila loved her daughter, she couldn’t help but tune her out when she tried explaining how some of her favorite games worked. They just didn’t make much sense to her.
There was one icon on Luz’s screen, however, that Camila didn’t quite recognize. It kinda looked like black circle with a grey spinning fan in the middle. It was titled OBS Studio. Unable to contain her curiosity, she clicked on the little icon, and was introduced to what looked like a screen to record videos. It was linked to her daughter’s Twitch account, which she knew Luz liked to use to watch a few streamers she enjoyed. But this kinda seemed more like it was to be used to actually stream with. There was even a green start stream button in the corner of the screen for goodness sake! Whilst she was pondering whatever Luz could ever have the need for this app for, it seems she accidentally pressed a hot-key set on the computer’s keyboard and the start streaming button started ticking down. It wasn’t until she noticed the little chat box in the corner of the screen being flooded with messages that she realized what had happened.
“Oh my!”, she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand, “Uh, what is happening? Hola, everyone?” After having spoken, the chat box seemed to exploded with an abundance of differently colored usernames.
HecateLover57: SURPRISE STREAM?!? POG!!!
GetWitchyWithIt: Didn’t you say there wouldn’t be more streams for a while?
Xx_Gildersnake_xX: :PogChamp: :PogChamp:
littleyellowsunflower: Aren’t you supposed to be at your summer camp?
HecazuraReal: MOM REVEAL?? :luzura1HYPE: :luzura1SHOCK:
SparklyJamm: OMG!!! IT’S MAMA LUZURA????
“Uh, yes,” she cleared her throat, “I don’t quite understand what is going on right now? I didn’t mean to do this! Is this, uh, live?” Her eyes scanned the rapidly passing messages, becoming a bit uneasy about the amount of people who her daughter was, apparently, interacting with without the older woman’s knowledge in her free time.
GetWitchyWithIt: Oh!! Mama Luzura!! Hello ma’am, Luz never really told us you would be streaming instead of her.
GetWitchyWithIt: Yes, this is live.
Xx_Gildersnake_xX: Hiii Mama Luzura!!! Welcome to Twitch :PogChamp:
littleyellowsunflower: Oh nooo you accidentally began streaming??? This must be so stressful for you, i’m sorry :luzura1CRY:
TurtlesTurning: Don’t worry!! We’ll help you Mama Luzura!
“Oh, gracias! You all seem very kind.” Camila put her hand over her heart and let out a breath she didn’t even know she had been holding. “Thank you all so much!”
Camila tapped her fingers against the desk as the implications of what all this meant slowly formed in her mind. Her daughter was a Twitch streamer? Why had she kept this from her? She knew Luz enjoyed Twitch in her free time, as her daughter would often rant to her about her favorite streamers she watched, but she thought that her daughter was only a casual Twitch user. Now that time Luz had come to her asking to sign her up for some “Affiliate” thing and to set up banking information to her account made a WHOLE lot more sense.
She sighed and dragged her hand over her face, “Dios, ¿por qué ella está así?” She looked back over to the chat and gave the camera a tiny, shaky smile. “Lo siento, everyone. This is all quite new information to me, I’m just now wrapping my head around the fact my daughter has been doing this without even telling me about it.”
Xx_Gildersnake_xX: WHAT :luzura1SHOCK: :luzura1SHOCK: :luzura1SHOCK:
HecateLover57: SHE DIDN’T TELL YOU?!?!11 :MonkaW:
GetWitchyWithIt: Ohhhh Luzzzz noooooooo,,, :NotLikeThis: She would tho.
SparklyJamm: Mama Luzura, oh I’m so sorry, I can’t believe she’s done this.
littleyellowsunflower: Oh, hun. I’m so sorry. :luzura1CRY:
TurtlesTurning: TEA?!?
Crossing her arms across her chest she turned her face away from the camera and looked over to Gildy curling up on himself in his tank under his heating lamp, “How long…” She said in a small voice, “how long has this been going on for?”
GetWitchyWithIt: I’m one of her mods, I’ve been watching her since she first started and it’s been about a year now. Honestly, I’m surprised she never mentioned it to you. I’m so sorry, Miss Luzura. But she does seem to really enjoy it and I assure you we all really care about her.
GetWitchyWithIt: She also hasn’t released any important information about her to us. Like none of us really know where she lives or her last name or anything so please don’t worry about that.
Camila wiped a stray tear away from her eyes and let out a small sniffle, “Thank you, GetWitchyWithIt. You are very kind. Honestly, I get it. I’m not around much so I understand why she’d stream to pass the time while I am at work. I just-” She looked down at her hands briefly. “I just wish she told me.”
“To be honest, I’ve been really missing her now that she’s off at camp,” she sighs and holds her arms to her chest. “The house has felt really empty without her around and well, the only reason I am in her room right now is because I was sneaking through her things. I just, I don’t know, was looking for something to do to pass the time while she’s gone.”
HecazuraReal: YOU SHOULD TRY STREAMING YOURSELF! MAMA_LUZURA STREAM!!!
GetWitchyWithIt: Awww, it’s okay that you miss her! :luzura1LOVE:
littleyellowsunflower: It’s so sweet that you miss her!! :luzura1LOVE: :luzura1CRY:
SparklyJamm: I agree with @HecazuraReal You should try twitch streaming!!!
HecateLover57: MAMA LUZURA STREAMER!!!! :PogChamp:
TurtlesTurning: YEAH, YOU COULD STREAM WHILE SHE’S OFF AT CAMP!!!
Xx_Gildersnake_xX: :PogChamp: :PogChamp: :PogChamp:
Camila could feel her face warming up at the suggestion of doing this regularly, “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She muttered, pressing her hand to her face.
GetWitchyWithIt: Don’t worry about it too much. You can stream only if you want to, don’t let the chat pressure you.
littleyellowsunflower: Yeah, don’t worry about the chat. You don’t have to stream if you don’t want to! It was nice meeting you anyways, Mama Luzura!
HecazuraReal: Yeah, it was just a suggestion.
SparklyJamm: For sure! No pressure!!!
“I’ll… think about it.” She said after reading through the rest of the chat.
After talking to her daughter’s chat for a while, she asked for help on how to end the stream, and with their help was able to end the stream. Wishing the chat goodbye, she hit the end stream button and closed OBS Studio. Closing the laptop lid, she let out another sigh and muttered to herself one last time. “Dios mio. What am I going to do about that girl?” Before walking out of the room and turning off the light, leaving only Gildy’s heat lamp glowing in the dark.
As she laid down for bed she couldn’t help but keep thinking about the suggestion of streaming herself whilst Luz was away at camp. Perhaps, she’d try it again. She’d have to think more on it though. Maybe.