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Zoey had been preparing for this event for weeks and today is the big day! She raided the pantry for enough snacks to last a week. She bought a mini fridge so she didn’t have to leave her room when she got thirsty. She charged her headset overnight. She checked the internet connection every 10 minutes just to make sure it doesn’t randomly go out. She even did the unthinkable and cleaned her desk for the first time in seemingly a millennium!
Which, according to Mira, was the clearest sign that something was seriously wrong with her. Considering her room still looks like a tornado went through it. But not an EF5, she cleaned it enough to downgrade it to an EF2’s amount of damage.
But that’s beside the point. It’s finally time for the first annual Choi Zoey Stream-A-Thon! A 72 hour straight live stream in which Zoey stupidly promised she wouldn’t sleep once during it or else she would do a punishment that her viewers decided. So far, her streaming career has been rather... suboptimal to say the least.
Sure, she had a loyal following of nearly two thousand people, which wasn't nothing. But a solid chunk of those followers came from the fact that she was in a polycule with pop star icon Ryu Rumi and supermodel Kang Mira, both of whom were constantly in the spotlight. Which, unfortunately, meant Zoey was usually standing in their shadow. She didn't resent them for it whatsoever. They are living the big life that Zoey wants to! They made it already. But she wanted to prove to herself that she could make it herself. That she could build a following because people actually wanted to watch her.
Hence the birth of the Choi Zoey Stream-A-Thon. 72 straight hours of gaming, chatting, eating, and hopefully gaining enough new viewers and followers to push her streaming career into full time relevance. Was this a dumb idea? Absolutely. Was it sustainable? Absolutely not. Is she going to do it anyway? Absofuckinglutely!
As Zoey sits down on her desk and starts to test her mic, there is a knock on her door. With Rumi opening it slightly and peeking her head in.
“Zoey?” she calls out as she opens the door fully and lets herself in.
“What’s up?”
“We’re gonna be gone for the next few hours.” Oh RIGHT. Mira had a commercial shoot today for some random perfume. Guess the Mario Kart part of the stream will have to be postponed until later tonight.
“Oh yeah! Wait, why are you going with her?” Zoey asks while adjusting her facecam to the perfect angle.
“Emotional support, plus she is not gonna want to drive after a long shoot.”
Mira decides to let herself in. “Mostly because she wants to be in the commercial.”
“I do not!” Rumi pouts.
“You absolutely do. Which I don’t get because it’s literally just gonna be me holding the bottle and spraying it.”
“Well I want to spray you with ittttt. Just my arm in frame while you lean back, wind blowing like an ocean breeze, it would look so much better!” Rumi makes some good points.
“Oh so that’s why you went to get a manicure yesterday.” Mira playfully smirks at Rumi, whose face glows slightly red at getting read like a book.
“Come on. You’re gonna be late.” she tells Mira before storming out of Zoey’s room. Leading to a deep laugh from Mira and Zoey. The former walked up to the girl in the chair and enveloped her in a bear hug.
“Good luck with the stream jagiya.” she softly says.
“Likewise with the shoot. See if you can get Ruru in there. I did like her idea!”
Mira giggled “So did I, but I'm not gonna tell her that until it’s time to shoot.”
“Oh you evil evil woman.” Zoey says as Mira lets her free from the hug.
“It’s what I do best.” Mira replies with a snarl and a grin. “Alright we’ll be back in a few hours hopefully. Love you!”
“Love you too, tell Ru I said I love her.”
“Nope!” Mira loudly sang out with a shitfaced smirk as she calmly shut the door behind her.
Zoey waited until the door closed before spinning back around to face her setup. The smile plastered on her face. God she got so lucky to be in love with those two.
“Alright, final checks.”
The mic was on, Fortnite is loaded up on a separate tab. Her stream shows a simple display of STARTING SOON! In a light blue background with bouncing turtles below the text. The mini fridge is loaded with energy drinks. It’s time for the Stream-A-Thon to end all Stream-A-Thons.
Zoey cracked her knuckles.
“Let's fucking go.”
She shut the display off, showcasing her in her chair. Her pink headset wrapped around the back of her neck. Her usual natural disaster room now only semi-spotless. And the viewers begin to climb.
“ZOEYTROPESSSSSS!!! How are we all doin’ today?”
sleepy_zooey: HI QUEEN
bluevalentinez_: STREAM A THONNNNN
purplepatterns_: YOU LOOK SO PRETTY!!!!
zoeysleftearlobe: HI ZOEEYYYYYY
“Hello hello! Welcome everyone to the first annual Choi Zoey Stream-A-Thon! 72 straight hours of no sleep gaming, chatting, munching, crunching, eccetera.”
theofficialkangaroo: I’M STAYING UP WITH YOU
iridocyclitous: IM SO EXCITED!!!
dirtyvulture: No way you are gonna make it lol
“I intend to, Vulture! Butttt if I fall asleep at ANY point I have to do a punishment crafted by you guys!” Zoey says pointing right at her camera. “I’ll do whatever as long as it doesn’t get me killed or thrown in a federal prison. So! What game first chat???”
purplepatterns_: HOT ONES CHALLENGE
sleepy_zooey: PLAY STARDEW VALLEY!!!
misterchuddles: AW SO NO 9/11 CHALLENGE???
misterchuddles has been banned from the channel
arsonide: FORTNITE!
“Fortnite eh? I’m gonna be so honest chat, that was a rhetorical question. Becauuuuuse…” Zoey switches over to show the already loaded Fortnite lobby. “I already decided prestream that Fortnite was the first game!”
the_squirrel05: son r we just gonna ignore what that chuddles guy said?
dirtyvulture: good luck!
doritolover77: YAY CAN WE PLAY SQUADS WITH YOU???
“Hahaha no squads right now, just running some solo dolos! As you can see of course I have to rock the queen Brite Bomber skin. Hopefully one day I’ll get my own skin!”
As Zoey loads up her first game she continues to glance at the chat of nearly 800 viewers. Hopefully by the time the stream-a-thon ends, that number is more than quadrupled! But now, it’s time to lock in and snatch some big dubs!
——————————————
A little over an hour later, Zoey is in her seventh game. The first six haven’t gone well. With her best finish being 9th, in which the chat had of course treated like a national tragedy.
But this game? This game felt different. Zoey leaned forward in her chair. Only 15 remained. She was comfortably inside the circle. Her inventory was stacked with gold guns up the wazoo. Her mats were full. She was locked the fuck in.
“Okay.” Zoey whispered. “Okay, okay, okay. We’re locked in chat.” Chat was moving rapidly beside her, but she was too focused to read, or notice the viewer count break 1000.
A Renegade Raider ran across her screen. Zoey immediately fired a few shots at him and sure enough the absolute sweat started building the Empire State Building with working air conditioning and running water. But Zoey was far from deterred. She rushed towards Bob The Builder and started building her way towards the guy. It was a wild back and forth fight but one perfect shotgun shot to the dome and the guy was gone.
“GOT HIMMMMM!” She yelled out pumping her fist as she grabbed the loot.
She laughed. “Chat I swear to God, I'm winning this.”
Ten left quickly became eight, then six, then four. Zoey's breathing becomes more shallow as her eyes are so locked onto her monitor she is barely even blinking.
theofficialkangaroo: LETS GOOOOOO
iridocyclitous: MARRY ME
the_squirrel05: GET THAT DUB!!!
And then suddenly, only two players remained. It’s a 1 v 1. Zoey's eyes went wide.
“1 v 1 chat. Let’s freakin do this.” Chat was going insane.
purplepatterns_: HE’S RIGHT THERE
dirtyvulture: YOU GOT THIS
sleepy_zooey: COME ONNNNN
Zoey took a breath. She spotted him, a default skin that isn’t even running like the dude has never played a game before. Probably a bot. Which is unfortunate for a final fight, but a dub is a dub! She aimed and fired a sniper shot at him and missed.
“Damn.”
She fired again, and missed. But the guy isn’t building any cover. That’s when Zoey decides to put on a show.
“Watch this chat. NO SCOPE!”
The no scope missed by several zip codes. The chat is starting to grow rowdy.
steelbrainrot: JSUST KILL HIMI SISJISNGXYBUDMDKNXUDYYAAJXMKOM COMEE ONNNNN U R MAKING MEME ILLLLLLLLLL
steelbrainrot has been timed out for 5 minutes for spamming
The_OG_Birb: STOP LOSING AURA
reiamimami: YOU ARE GONNA SELL
“Pfft. Come on Rei there’s no way i’m gonna cho- WOAH!” Out of nowhere the default fires a few shots at Zoey, hitting her.
“Ohhhh now we got a fight!”
Zoey builds a 1x1 base and pulls out her sniper again. When she aims she is met with the guy still just standing there looking right into the scope, like he’s in a virtual staring contest.
“Uhhh hi?” Zoey says.
RumisThirdWife: PFFT HES SO LOST
bluevalentinez_: JUST KILL HIM ZOEY
tiniebunniie: 😭😭😭
“No, I'm getting the clip. Watch this chat…” Zoey says before going full sweat. Rapid overbuilding and editing towards the poor noob, who is still standing there absolutely clueless. Zoey then starts cranking 90s until she is hovering over the guy.
“What are we thinkin? 360 no scope headshot with the pump like how TFue used to do it back in the day?” She asks the chat.
purplepatterns_: YOU ARE GONNA DIE OF FALL DAMAGE
dirtyvulture: DO ITTTTTT
Nobody_The_Lost: TFue mentioned in the big 26 what are we doing
TheSasquatchGal: GET HIS ASS
Zoey laughs at the chat. “Relax I'm not gonna jump from here, I'm just gonna waterfall down from here then jump so I don’t die of fall damage! Here lemme just..”
What Zoey failed to notice is that her spam building caused her to use up almost all her mats besides 30 metal.
“Easy as- WHAT THE HELL!?” she yells out as she plummets down. Landing right next to the default still just standing there completely unaware of what's going on.
YOU ELIMINATED YOURSELF
PICKAXE14203 WON THE GAME!
YOU PLACED #2
Pure silence. Zoey stared at the monitor with her mouth hung open. Then she slowly leaned back in her chair and glanced at the chat and my god were they RUTHLESS
sleepy_zooey: AHAHAHAHAHAHA
ohhhcodeine: YOU FUCKING GOOF
BoredNoodle: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!?!? LMAOOOOOO
arsonide: CLIP THAT! SOMEONE CLIP THAT RIGHT NOW HOLY SHIT IM CRYING 🤣🤣🤣
Zoey pointed at the screen. “NO. NOBODY CLIP THAT.” She stood up.
“NO! NO! NO!!!” She paced in front of her desk.
“WHY DIDN’T ANY OF YOU TELL ME I WAS OUT OF MATS?!” The chat was moving too fast to read. Over 1100 people all roasting Zoey.
“I'm ending the stream.” She says as she plopped back into her chair.
“Stream-A-Thon is over.” She crossed her arms and pouted. “Everybody go home.”
The chat laughed even harder at the poor girl.
“Alright that’s it.” Zoey nodded seriously and pointed at the camera.
“EVERYONE IS BANNED.”
dirtyvulture: YOU CAN'T BAN ALL OF US
“Oh I can.” She says with her eyes wide open, looking quite devious as she nods evilly.
the_squirrel05: DO IT NO BALLS
“I will.”
reiamimami: COWARD
Zoey gasped dramatically. “HOW DARE YOU!” She reached toward her mouse ready to lay the banhammer down but stopped at the sound of a commotion outside and a pounding at the front door, causing her expression to change from feigned but underlying anger, to confusion.
Zoey sat completely still waiting for another sound, which didn’t take long at all as a couple seconds later more pounding came from the front door, then loud urgent voices of men who were here with reasonable authority.
Her eyes widened as she tried to deduce who the fuck is at the door. She looked towards the chat who was just as lost as she was.
Another pounding at the door Zoey slowly stood up and pulled one side of her headset off and listened.
Then the sound of the front door busting open and much more vibrant sounds of grown men now rummaging through the downstairs was where it all clicked in Zoey’s brain. Her eyes widened at the realization.
“No way.”
She looked at her camera, then out her window to fully confirm her suspicions, then back at her camera again as a grin slowly broke out.
“No fucking way.”
the_squirrel05: WHAT
purplepatterns_: ZOEY???
Zoey covered her mouth with her hand.
“Oh my God.” She started laughing. “Chat.” She pointed toward the window.
“I think I'm getting swatted.”
As expected, the chat exploded in a whirlwind of emotions.
sleepy_zooey: ZOEY HUH???
ElaOfAsgard: WHAT THE FUCK
ohhhcodeine: MS CHOI GET DOWN!!!
steelbrainrot: SWATTDEED HUH?????? ZOEY WAHT WHAT WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENIINUBNISBYDBYDMISMIBYX OH MY GDODDDDDDD
steelbrainrot has been timed out for 5 minutes for spamming
arsonide: ZOEY THIS IS NOT GOOD BE CAREFUL PLEASE
Zoey nodded rapidly. But she was smiling wayyyy too much for the reality of the situation.
“I know! I know! It's just…” she broke into laughter again. “Holy shit.” She looked back at the closed door. “This is actually happening.”
The_OG_Birb: YOU SOUND EXCITED
“Because I am!” She immediately caught herself. “Okay… not ‘excited excited’.” She pauses again and thinks for a moment. “Actually, yeah… yeah I am… kinda.”
She rubbed her hands together. “Guys, this is like… like a streamer rite of passage! I’m big enough on here that i’m worth getting swatted!”
bluevalentinez_: YOU ARE INSANE
dirtyvulture: THIS IS NOT A MILESTONE YOU DING DONG 😭😭
“I know!” Zoey held her hands up. “I know how dangerous swatting is!”
She glanced toward the bedroom door as another voice echoed from downstairs.
“But you have to admit though chat. “Tell me this shit ain’t gonna go viral… matter of fact!” She grabbed her phone. “We are switching POVs. Impromptu IRL stream.”
She quickly switched the stream layout over to her now connected phone camera, bringing up a live picture-in-picture feed. Then she grabbed her small clip-on microphone and attached it to her shirt. She tapped it twice.
“Do I sound alright?” She asked, in which her chat immediately erupted.
reiamimami: SHE'S ACTUALLY STREAMING THIS
purplepatterns_: NO FUCKING WAY
RumisThirdWife: THIS IS FUCKING CRAZY WHATTTTTT
Zoey grinned.
“Okay.” She positioned the phone vertically on the nightstand so her entire room was visible.
“Now you guys can actually see what's going on.”
The sound of footsteps marching up the stairs was the cue that it’s time. Zoey sat down on her bed and immediately raised her hands awaiting her door bursting open. She took a breath, her grin fading slightly. As excited as she was that she is currently making it as a streamer in the wildest fucking way, there’s obviously the whole ‘getting fucking arrested’ part that is still scary to think about. But she shouldn’t actually go to jail once they get the understanding that this was a cruel prank… right?
“Alright.” she whispered to herself. “Just follow their orders and you’re good.”
Her bedroom door swung open with force and a swat officer with a rifle walked in and locked eyes with Zoey immediately. His voice booming with authority.
“GOT ONE UP HERE. GET ON THE GROUND!”
Zoey immediately dropped to the floor without saying a word, shuffling her arms behind her back as the officer kneels down to her pulling out a pair of cuffs. Despite the bite of cold steel closing around her wrists, Zoey can’t help but giggle a little bit, albeit muffled a little with her clipped on microphone getting sandwiched at the very moment.
The officer helped her back up and started escorting her toward the door. Zoey glanced at the phone still recording on her nightstand. Giving the camera the most deadpan Jim Halpert from The Office looking stare imaginable.
TheSasquatchGal: #FREEZOEY
tiniebunniie: THE AURA FARMING IS CRAZYYYYY
ZoeysLawyer: I’LL DEFEND YOU IN COURT!!!
NemoTheIII: @ZoeysLawyer NAHHHHHHHHH YOU HAD AN ACCOUNT MADE ALREADY???
As they went out of camera view and towards the stairs, the officer glanced at Zoey, still smiling and lightly giggling to herself.
“Why the fuck are you so happy?”
Zoey looked at him and began to explain. “Soooo I'm a streamer.”
“Ok?”
“And getting swatted is, unfortunately, a thing that happens to streamers where some idiot calls a fake threat in and well… all this happens.” She said to the officer.
“That doesn’t sound like a laughing matter, kiddo.” he responded.
“Yeah I know it isn’t, but the thing is that I've been trying like HELL to grow as a streamer, give myself a platform. Make myself a name in the business! This whole incident is not even two hours into a 72 hour stream-a-thon. Wait honestly? Peaking this early can’t be a good thing and…” Zoey stops abruptly, catching herself in one of her patented rambles.
“Do you want to bring your phone with you?” The officer asks, not showing a single sign that he listened to Zoey.
“Yeah it’s actually propped up on the nightstand in my room! OH and when you go and get it do you think you can wave to the camera? It’s still live.”
“Wave?”
“Yeah! My chat is watching all of this!”
The officer again didn’t respond as he escorts Zoey out the front door, where there is a swat team van, a police car, and a couple news vans? Ohhh that makes sense, the swat team raided the house of Ryu Rumi and Kang Mira, two famous people. Yeah that’s news worthy for sure. But, they won’t be seeing either. Just a certain streamer trying to get out of the shadows. This is publicity! Even though it looks bad out of context people are going to know her as a streamer!
“Chat the news is here.” Zoey whispered to her mic as she steps into the back of the police car. “This is so fucking fun guys you have no idea. Like it’s scary but like, they’re just doing their job. Then they’ll see there's no threat and then I'll be back in my room in a jiffy. That being said, I’m thinking Stardew Valley next. Or ooh, fitting the theme here, GTA? I got busted chat!”
Her stream can still hear her perfectly, and is currently watching an empty room. But then the officer that detained Zoey walked back in to grab her phone. Now the moment of truth, does he wave???
He stops when he sees himself through the screen. He looks visibly confused at first then gives an awkward silent wave to the camera before picking the phone up. He didn’t press any buttons, the picture in picture is still rolling. The chat reacts accordingly to the wave.
arsonide: BAHAHAHAHAHA NO WAY
Not_Moi_3312: HI OFFICER
purplepatterns_: THE POWER OF ZOEY IS UNMATCHED
RumisThirdWife: Wait do you guys think Rumi and Mira know this is all happening?
——————————————
Across the city, the commercial shoot was in full swing. Mira had already gone through several takes, and yes, Rumi had gotten her wish of being in the commercial. It was easy convincing from Mira to the director, who loved the idea more than just her holding the bottle for 30 seconds.
They stood in front of a green screen. Rumi’s arm appeared in frame, perfume bottle in hand, spraying Mira who is leaning backwards, a fan mimicking an ocean breeze waving her hair back as the camera caught the mist perfectly. A little background editing with the green screen and suddenly Mira is in the sunny beaches of Hawaii.
The first take went really well, but they did a second take from another angle for some variety. Then the director called for a brief break. Rumi stepped off set to grab a bottle of water and checked her phone.
Her screen was flooded with notifications. Missed calls. Texts. More missed calls. All from her manager Bobby. Rumi raised an eyebrow as her phone buzzed again, she opened the first message.
Bobby:
RUMI CALL ME NOW
TURN ON THE NEWS
WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING AT YOUR HOUSE???
Her house? What the…
Bobby then sent a link to the live news feed. When opened she saw the scene that unfolded in pristine quality. There were police everywhere around the property. The SWAT team was also there. The front door was wide open like it was busted in. And then the money shot of a certain streamer being escorted out of said front door with hands cuffed. Rumi's eyes widened and her heart dropped at the same time as her phone.
“Oh my God...” she whispered to herself. “OH MY FUCKING G- MIRA!” she yelled out as she picked up her phone and ran over to Mira, nearly tripping and faceplanting twice hopping over wires and other equipment.
Mira couldn’t even register any reaction by the time Rumi was right in front of her shoving her phone in her face, showing her the exact live scene.
“What in the fuck?!”
“I DON'T KNOW!”
“What the fuck did she do?!?”
“I DON'T KNOW!”
“THAT’S THE FUCKING SWAT TEAM RUMI!”
“THAT I DO KNOW!”
They stared at each other, both completely losing it. A million a thirty six scenarios going through their heads.
“DID SHE FUCKING KILL SOMEONE???” Rumi asked with sheer panic in her voice
“WHY WOULD SHE KILL SOMEONE?”
“I DON'T KNOW? WHAT IF LIKE… LIKE… LIKE… LIKE SHE IS SOME MAJOR MAFIA BOSS AND KILLED A GUY THAT OWED HER MONEY?? OR OR SAID SOMETHING BAD ABOUT TURTLES THEN HIRED SOMEONE TO KILL THEM OR…”
“RUMI CALM DOWN YOU AREN’T MAKING ANY SENSE!” Mira interjects grabbing Rumi by her shoulders and shaking her.
“I KNOW!”
Mira ran over and grabbed her bag and Rumi’s car keys.
“Come on! We're going home.” She said to her.
“But the shoot?!”
“Fuck the shoot! Come on, let's go!”
The director overheard that exchange as he walked back towards the set stopped in his tracks and started pacing towards the two women who are actively going through it.
“Woah woah woah we still got a deadline! And it turns out the camera wasn’t exactly in full focus so we have to resho-“ Mira and Rumi simply run past him not giving him any time of the day. They didn’t say goodbye, they didn’t even bother changing. They had to get home. Zoey was far more important than a stupid fucking commercial
Rumi's phone kept vibrating in her hand. Bobby is still freaking out, but there is no time to stop and answer.
Once in the car, Mira stepped on the gas and was hauling ass down the road. Eyes locking in as she passed car after car, she even blew a red light when there was no traffic in sight the other way. Dangerous? Yes. Illegal? Absolutely. Worth it? To get to Zoey faster, one hundred percent.
——————————————
After turning down the street their house resides on, both Rumi and Mira were anticipating a major police presence, they were expecting to see Zoey in the back of a cop car bawling her eyes out. Mira doesn’t care, she would rip the door off to get Zoey out of there.
But when they arrived, there was nothing. Nobody outside, no swat van. The street was completely empty minus a few parked cars of their neighbors. Mira pulled into the driveway and immediately shut off the car. Rumi stared at the house.
“They already left.” Rumi softly said pressing her lips together and making a popping sound when she opened her mouth. “Fuck.”
They both stepped out and hurried up the driveway. The front door was the first sign of damage, clearly being forced open. But it still closed and locked normally, which was good. Expecting a disasterclass and a half when they walked inside, they were surprised to see the interior was almost completely untouched.
Nothing had been smashed. Nothing was overturned. A few dark scuff marks ran across the floor from where the officers' shoes had tracked through the house.
They walked around downstairs in silence, mentally noting everything they saw that seemed out of place. There was a distinct smell of sweat, men’s body spray, and adrenaline in the air, making Mira wish they brought some of the perfume from the shoot.
Then suddenly they heard a noise coming upstairs. A noise too familiar to not recognize immediately. A familiar laugh that froze the two of them dead in their tracks.
“That's Zoey.” They both said in unison before sprinting upstairs. Mira seemingly kicked open Zoey's bedroom door like the swat team did with the front.
There she was, just sitting comfortably in her chair with her pink headset on. Talking to her chat on stream completely unharmed and relaxed. Zoey looked over and her smile widened
“Oh hey! You’re home early!”
Neither woman said a word. They rushed over and grabbed onto their girl. Rumi wrapped both arms around her shoulders while Mira held onto her from the other side, both of them checking her over as if they needed to physically confirm she was actually there. Zoey in the middle is being smushed.
“gysss” was all she could muffle out before Rumi and Mira pulled away and began rapidly asking her a thousand questions simultaneously.
“What happened?”
“What the fuck was going on?”
“Why were the police here?”
“Why were you being taken out of the house?”
“Did you kill someone?”
Zoey blinked rapidly, trying to keep up but failing miserably.
“Okay, okay calm down one at a time please!” she called out, which worked. Both her girls shut up immediately.
Rumi was the first to reopen her mouth.
“What happened?”
Zoey stared at them, then glanced at the camera, then back at them again.
“I got swatted.”
They both frowned at that answer with led to a plethora of follow ups.
“Got what?”
“Like a fly?”
“What does that mean?”
Zoey's expression changed.
“Oh.” She says in a higher pitch of realization. “You guys don't know what that is.”
“No.”
Zoey sat back in her chair.
“Okay, so basically, some dummy makes a fake emergency call to the police about your house. They tell them something really serious is happening like a bomb was planted, so a bunch of officers show up expecting an actual emergency.”
Their eyes widened. Holy fuck the internet was dumb.
“They were just doing their job. Once they realized it was a fake call, they let me go. No charges, no nothing, just an apology for the troubles and well, here we are now!”
They both slowly looked around the room in silence. Mira slightly gnawing at her lip with visible frustration. While Rumi is reluctantly lowering her shoulders in relief.
“So that's it?” Rumi asks her softly.
“Pretty much.”
“You're okay?” Mira asked next.
“Completely.”
“Weren’t you scared?”
“A little, but I knew I would be fine. I was actually kind of excited. Chat can attest to that”
“Ex-excited!?” They both said in unison.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because! It means that I’m big enough of a streamer that I'm worth someone swatting. It’s like a streamer rite of passage!”
Rumi looked at her, then at Mira, who looks just as dumbfounded as she does. Then they looked back at Zoey, who is still grinning softly like what she said made any sense whatsoever.
“You're unbelievable, you know that?” Mira asked her deadpanned.
Zoey grin grew into a laugh.
“Thank you.”
“I wasn't complimenting you.”
“I know. I love you too.” Zoey turned back toward her monitor. “Anywayssssss my zoeytropes!”
She glanced over at the viewer count, completely lost on her that this was the first time she saw the number. Her eyes widened at the sight of 8354 viewers. By far the largest number she has ever seen.
Zoey slowly leaned closer to the screen, just in case her eyes were deceiving her. They were actually. Because now the number grew to 8407.
“No fucking way.”
The chat was moving so quickly that it was almost impossible to read. Zoey's eyes grew glossy and a sniffle broke out. She looked at Rumi and Mira, who rushed to her side with a lot of concern.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you okay?”
“Look at my viewer count…” They glanced at the screen.
“It’s over eight thousand!?” Rumi yelled out in shock.
Zoey bounced in her chair. Tears flowing down her face, but a smile wider than the Sun is plastered on her face.
“I wish we had 600 more viewers, so you could’ve made a Dragon Ball reference.” She said in between choked laughs and sobs.
“Dragon-wha?” They both asked.
“Nevermind!” Zoey yelled with a cracked voice. She is so unbelievably happy. But then Mira looked at the follower count. Her eyebrows rose.
“Your followers are going up too.”
Zoey looked over and refreshed the screen. It's pushing 9000 followers. The number was climbing with each refresh.
“Holy shit.” she whispered. Another refresh, more followers. Another, it’s over 9000. (ah ah he said it!)
Zoey slowly looked at the camera.
“Chat.” she choked out before fully breaking out crying. Both her girlfriends are by her side, a hand on each shoulder, lightly rubbing it.
After a minute, Zoey’s joy cry turned into sniffles. Her eyes are red, but the smile on her face never went away.
“Thank you…” she said softly. “Thank you all so much… I love you all.”
the_squirrel05: YOU DESERVE IT GIRL
dirtyvulture: WE LOVE YOU TOO!!!
steelbrainrot: IM CRIYING TOO I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ZOEY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MH OMGS THSI IS SO BEUATIFUL JDNJBXHBAYBAKMSKNKD
steelbrainrot has been timed out for 5 minutes for spamming
reiamimami: I WISH I WAS AS FAMOUS AS YOU
cloakedgamer779: ZOEY STEP ON ME
ElaOfAsgard: BEST STREAM EVER!!!
Not_Moi_3312: I LOVE YOU ZOEY!!! AND RUMI!!! AND MIRA!!!
Zoey looked back at the rapidly moving chat, still sniffling. “I don’t deserve you guys… seriously.” she is then enveloped in a hug from her two girls.
“Congratulations Zo..”
“We love you so much!”
Zoey’s broken sobbed laugh is muffled but still very clear to everyone. “I lve you two s’much!”
After a minute of just pure love, they broke apart and Zoey wrapped back around to face her monitor. She wiped her eyes, this is fucking awesome.
“Alright…” she began. “What should we play next?” then the little lightbulb above her head went off.
“Say… since you two are back… Mario Kart?”
Rumi and Mira looked at each other, Rumi grinned first, then Mira followed right after.
“As long as I get Rosal-“
“Nope!” Zoey interjects Rumi with a loud playful pop at the end for emphasis.
Rumi playfully rolled her eyes and turned around and slowly started to walk out the room. “Thennnnn I’m out.”
“WAIT WAIT NO! OK YOU CAN HAVE ROSALINA!!!” Zoey hopped out of her chair and grabbed Rumi by the arm.
Rumi laughed. “Alright alright I’m only kidding jagiya.”
“But what if I want Rosalina?” Mira butted with a raised eyebrow, but the smirk on her face quickly killed off any semblance of seriousness. Zoey playfully shoved her aside as she walked back to her chair and pulled out three Wii remotes and switched the feed over to Mario Kart.
“Place your bet chat! Who’s gonna win? Actually don’t even bother because its SO obvious that It’s gonna be me.”
“Hey…”
“Calm down big shot…”
Zoey laughed as she looked at the viewer count once more. Pushing five digits, just like her follower count. She is three hours into the Stream-A-Thon, and already got enough content to feed new viewers for a month. A hilariously embarrassing Fortnite session, getting fucking swatted, she is fulfilling her dream with every second, and with her two loves by her side. It’s only uphill from here, and the sky isn’t even the limit.
Zoey is fucking making it.