Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Welcome back to Mr. (Ant) Tenna’s TV Time!”

Canned applause plays as the large TV Darkner cheerfully starts his livestream

“Today, we’re going to try something new! Or- well, Spamton told me this game is actually several years old now, but compared to the classics I usually air, it is pretty modern!”

“Spamton! Reveal the game!”

The screen switched to have Tenna’s face cam in the corner. The rest was filled with the starting screen to Fortnite.

“We’re playing Fortnite today!”

“I’ll be hosting a ‘Private Match’ so that I can play with my lovely audience!”

The passcode for the private match displayed on the screen with an obnoxious amount of arrows pointing towards it.

“Of course I know how to play! What kind of host would I be if I didn’t prepare? I went through the tutorial already.”

“It didn’t take that long…”

“Well, I still got through it! And everyone loves an underdog, right?”

Tenna continued to banter with the chat as people slowly began to join the match. It stagnated after 62 players, but Tenna kept talking.

“I’m not stalling! I just want to wait for a full lobby!”

Tenna shrank a bit. “... Is there really no one else who wants to join?”

The TV shot up in height. “Oh, you will?! Then we’ll wait for you here!”

“But… Well, alright… We can play multiple rounds, and they’ll be able to join us later!” Tenna grinned and dramatically pointed towards the camera “Spamton! Start the match!”

The match started. Tenna hopped off of the battle bus as soon as possible. A couple seconds later, a wave of players jumped after him.

“Wha- Spamton?! What kind of prediction is that? There’s only 62 players! … also what’s a stream sniper?”

As expected, Tenna barely reached the ground before being immediately shot at. He jumped around in a panic before quickly being killed.

“Oh… Haha! It seems I was a bit unlucky there, folks!” Tenna grimaced, but he was still able to recover. “We can still watch the rest of the match play out! And I’ll be your lovely commentator~”

Tenna went around in spectator mode and easily slipped into the role of a sports commentator… Except for the times when he had no idea what was going on and just let the chaos play out. But Tenna was a true entertainer, and he had no problems with keeping his audience engaged.

“We’re reaching the conclusion of this riveting match… Just two contestants left: NovaCat186 and leyla9000! NovaCat has built a mighty fortress, but Leyla is Whacking at that foundation! Can NovaCat take advantage of the high ground?”

“Down goes the building! NovaCat takes one last desperate shot but misses! Oof, that fall damage has gotta hurt, folks! Leyla runs in and claims victory!” Tenna got up and cheered. “500 points to Leyla!!!”

“Oh, yeah. We really need to add that. And by we I mean you because I have no idea how any of that works!”

“Anyways… While that match was certainly thrilling, it’s time for me to join back into the fray! Is everyone ready for round number two?”

The second match pretty much went the same way. Tenna waited to leave the battle bus this time, but he was still immediately killed by stream snipers. He was clearly annoyed, but he still managed to reign his anger in. He continued to commentate for the rest of the match.

The third match played out a little differently. Tenna figured out how to go faster when dropping, and he was able to grab a gun. Several players ran towards the streamer with only pickaxes in hand. Tenna tried to shoot at them, but he missed wildly. Tenna was once again the first to die.

“Well of course I can! You know how good of a shot I am! But that’s in real life, not in a game!”

“Why is this game called ‘Fortnite’ anyways? What does it have to do with anything in here???”

Tenna sulked as he looked at the other players. He had shrunk to the point that only his antennae were visible. But as he saw the other players running around, he started to realize something “...Okay, something is going on here! Why am I always surrounded by other players? No one else gets targeted immediately!”

“What do ‘ghosting ‘and ‘stream sniping’ mean?”

“So… They’re targeting me and stopping me from playing the game…? Why? Just to get some bit of fame…?”

One of Tenna’s antennae twitched. He stopped projecting his face -- a sign that he was deep in thought.

“Wait… Spamton!” Tenna's face flickered back on with a snarl. “You knew this would happen, didn’t you?!?”

“You LITTLE-” Tenna lunged at something off screen. Judging by the glitched shouting, that something was Spamton.

“[cathode] STOP-” There was a crash. Something shattered. “IT WAS FOR [prime entertainment]!”

“You set me up for FAILURE! You should’ve at least warned me!!!”

Tenna abruptly stopped yelling. There was a loud clatter accompanied with a “[!&$@]” and then a few seconds of silence. Tenna walked back into the camera. The only indication that something happened off screen was a couple of wrinkles on his suit that he quickly smoothed out.

“Ahem. Sorry for that, folks! I just have some things to… discuss with Spamton. But that can wait for later!” Tenna grinned a little too wide, showing off a glimpse of his fangs. “For now, I think we should have one more match!”

“But we’re going to be changing things up this time! Spamton! Plug me in.”

“AR3 YOU SERIUS [Idiot box]?!”

“I can handle it! I was in charge of a whole world, I can handle a simulated one!”

“YULL GET [banned for life]”

“I don’t care! Just one round! That’s all I need! Plus… If you help me with this, then I’ll remember it for the employee review after the stream…”

There was one more moment of hesitation before Tenna grinned widely. His fangs were on full display now. “Thank you, Spamton.”

Tenna turned around to show the ports on the back of his head. Spamton’s hands could be seen plugging in some sort of cord. There was a sharp crackle of static before a loud hum sounded out. Tenna slowly turned around, his screen now displaying the game.

“One more round, folks! Just. One. More. Round.”

The usually talkative TV was silent as a new match started. It started off similarly to the past three. Several players jumped out after Tenna.

“Still trying to chase after me? I’m honored… But you’ll have to try a bit harder than that.”

The channel on Tenna’s screen switched, and his character was suddenly running around in a place far from where Tenna initially dropped.

Tenna was suddenly a lot faster at looting, and his movement greatly improved, too.

As the streamer reached a rooftop, he scanned the horizon with a sniper. He managed to find a player in the distance. With a steady aim, he headshot that player.

“Hehe! Looks like I’m not the first one to die this time!”

Tenna managed to pick off a few more players with the sniper rifle, before he spotted some people entering the building he was on.

“Well, it would be boring if I just sat here all day, wouldn’t it? I’ve still got some more tricks up my sleeve~”

Tenna took out an smg and pointed it at the ground.

The building suddenly popped out of existence. As all the players inside fell, Tenna shot at them. Two managed to survive the fall, but Tenna quickly switched to his shotgun as he fell on top of them. In just two shots, they were eliminated. Tenna didn’t take a single point of damage.

“Tearing down the whole building is a pretty effective way of getting rid of an infestation!” Eerie canned laughter played as Tenna’s grin flickered on his screen for a second. “But there’s still some vermin that I’ve got to get rid of… So, I better get moving!”

It was clear that Tenna still didn’t know everything about the game. He ran past several vehicles and had a hard time trying to figure out which loot to take. But that hardly mattered when he actually fought other players.

Walls would suddenly appear, fully built, without Tenna needing to enter build mode. His character would slow down and lag at certain points, but the TV didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it would always end up working in the streamer’s favor.

The number of players steadily dropped until it was only three left. The remaining two had teamed up and were cornering Tenna. They managed to get quite a few shots in, and Tenna had gotten unlucky with the healing items and shields. As they closed in on him, Tenna gave out a panicked “Nononono-”

Static covered the screen. When it cleared up, Tenna’s character was in the air behind one of the players. “Just kidding, folks~”

Tenna no scoped one of the players. The other one barely realized what had happened before Tenna mowed them down in a storm of bullets.

“#1 Victory royale” appeared. Tenna began to giggle.

The TV had grown to a full cackle by the time the “You have been banned” notification showed up. He yanked the cord out of his head, his deranged expression suddenly returning. He immediately jumped up and did the default fortnite dance.

“What a THRILL! HAHAHAHAH!” Tenna’s manic grin nearly covered half of his face. Then, he began to sway. “I’m definitely overheating, though! I think I might…”

Tenna collapsed.

“[#%?&]! [F1]”