Guidance for a Virtual Streamer

Welcome to the mountaintop, dear reader! The following is a story inspired by the phenomenon that is vtubers and streamer culture in general. Many thanks to @griztorc for providing some very valuable feedback.

The characters in this story are of course purely fictional and straight from my head. Any similarity to actual persons (digital or real!) or actual events, is purely coincidental. I promise.

-Wiseman

Proper Guidance for a Virtual Streamer

"Well, 'kay, that's all for today, guys! Thanks a bunch as always for spending time and supporting me and the channel like this. Amethyst Croconya~a will be streaming straight from the Nile again tomorrow, ummm... probably around the same time! Until then, please be nice to each other, or I'll bite your ankles! Grrrrrrrr..!" Mary's virtual avatar, an adorably short yet curvaceous anime-styled girl with eyes like emeralds and hair to match, curled her fingers like they were sharp claws and growled. The avatar's "intimidating" pose quickly morphed to a sweet smile and she waved her audience goodbye. "Gao-meow bye!"

Having finished her signature adieu, Mary stretched her sore shoulders and sighed. Today, like the rest of her week, had been absolutely rotten! A dumb message or two on social media, an unfounded rumor and some pictures that were allegedly hers (they weren't!). That was all that had been needed to turn a vocal, and furious, minority of the audience for virtual streamers, or "vtubers", against her.

"She was an alcoholic!" "She was in serious debt and owed money to the Yakuza!" "She was a terrible person that secretly hated her fellow vtubers!" And worst and most taboo of all to those lonely dregs of society: "She had a boyfriend!"

Mary's moderators had done an admirable job filtering the gaggle of trolls scrimmaging her streams, but some of the more crafty of the bottom-feeders had managed to sneak through and seemed to take great delight in each mean comment or crude innuendo they got to post before scurrying away. Amethyst Croconya~a's social media channels were a total war zone.

Mary had soldiered on throughout her daily streams all week, ignoring the haters as best she could, but it was starting to eat at her.

So many people seemed to hate her so much! Why?! Didn't they have anything better to do? Just thinking on all of this bullshit made her simmer! None of it was true, just dumb rumors and conjecture, but that was besides the point!

She enjoyed streaming games and chatting about whatever as the vtuber Amethyst Croconya~a, the cheerful yet gullible crocodile catgirl, but that was her job. A great job that had finally allowed her to pay for an apartment in Tokyo through the generous donations of her viewers, but Mary refused to play the role of some virtual approximation of a Japanese idol even when she was off the clock!

She had always been somewhat of a theater kid, so playing the character was no problem. Croconya~a had tons of fans (the so-called "Crockoteers"), and the agency that owned her avatar and paid Mary's salary made bank on their cut of her donations and merch.

So why the heck should Mary's--the real actress behind the virtual avatar's--life in any way reflect back on the character she played? She did not do one-night stands (hell, she was almost as much of a no-lifer as some of her most die-hard viewers!), but if she actually decided to slut it up one weekend--how would that affect her ability to play cute, innocent little Croconya~a? It was not like she was actually some well-endowed, short and silly anime girl walking around in her apartment when she was not streaming! It was "kayfabe", as they called it in the wrestling shows she had watched growing up. "Even her viewers with the least grip of common sense and reality understood that, right? Right?!"

Mary allowed herself another frustrated cross of a sigh and a grumble and got up from her gamer chair. The stone floor of her one bedroom apartment felt cold against her bare feet as she headed towards the kitchenette to cook some instant noodles; streaming for several hours was the type of work that got her in the mood for junk food! Especially if the work involved having to keep acting hyper and fun while some dude in her chat had spammed "Amethot Cock-o-slut" at her, nonstop. And the things he had posted on her social media was even worse... Maybe she should just quit...

She started the water kettle and began to rummage through an ample variety of instant noodles, when she heard the distinct metallic clicking of a door being unlocked--her door.

She froze, still holding a pack of instant noodles when she saw the thick and secure door to her apartment swing open. "How the hell? Nobody but me should have a key?!" She thought, attempting to grasp what was happening while scrambling to stand up.

Some old guy, a foreigner in Japan just like her, had opened her door and leisurely strolled in with a wry smile plastered on his face. His face and appearance was unremarkable, the sort Mary would have a hard time to remember no matter how many times she saw him. But what the man wore made her drop the noodles from her clutches in shock!

The invader was clad in nothing more than tighty-whities and a t-shirt with print ill-fitted for decent company; every inch of the wrinkled t-shirt was plastered with cartoon girls, displaying over-the-top facial expressions of extreme pleasure. "Ahegao." Mary instantly recognized it as, sometimes she teased her audience by making Croconya~a display a more vanilla version of such a face when she struggled hard to understand something. "Well, whatever that shit was called was besides the point! Some fucking old pervert in underwear and a goddamn hentai t-shirt had just walked in on her!"

Mary frantically scanned her surroundings for a weapon to grab at and settled for a kitchen knife. She pointed the sharp tool of destruction at the pervert, her hand trembling slightly. She'd not go down without a fight!

"Get out!" She shrieked, while the edge slashed the air in-between them.

"Put the knife down, Mary. And shut your trap, you'll only speak when I allow you to." The creep replied. Despite the weapon she threatened him with, he seemed unfazed when he addressed her, even cocky. The man's voice was surprisingly warm, and somehow comforting in her ears, in spite of the hostile language; his voice did not fit his unremarkable face at all.

In immediate response to his words, Mary's still shaking hand put the knife back on the kitchen counter. Unable to comprehend why she would let go of her one means of defense against this intruder, she tried to scream for help! Her neighbors preferred to keep to themselves, but if she screamed loud enough, even they would have to breach the Japanese mentality of keeping to themselves! But no matter how much she tried--Mary found that she was not able to make a sound. She had to shut her trap and only speak when the intruder allowed her to, after all.

She remained quiet as a mouse, but dove past the man and dashed towards the still open door he had come from. Mary was not exactly dressed for outdoors, wearing nothing but a pair of comfortable panties and a tank top, but her lack of proper clothes for going out was a minor problem!

The terrified girl only managed a few steps before the man spoke to her again.

"Stop." He commanded her, his voice sounded fatherly and reassuring to the girl trying to escape him. She stopped dead in her tracks. She had to obey! Her feet felt leaden, as though they were welded to the floor, unable to be moved no matter how Mary's mind screamed at her body to keep going. To run!

"Good girl, Mary." The man sat down on her kitchen chair. Mary's body trembled; her every impulse tried to get away--to scram!--but she was like a rabbit corned by its predator--frozen in place. "Close the door and then get over here and kneel down." The man said, confident in his control over her. Mary's body moved like an automaton, following his orders.

The cold floor felt like torture against her bare knees and legs, but she knelt submissively before the intruder all the same. She noticed how he had placed a small mechanical device on top of her table. The device whirred and clicked, almost as if it was alive.

The man sat on the simple chair as though it was a throne and leered at her, the woman in her underwear on her knees beneath him. She shuddered; he appraised her as though she was a piece of meat to be devoured, or an object to be used and then discarded.

"We're dressed almost the same!" He abruptly exclaimed with elation, with a sudden spark of energy that the intruder had not shown until now. Mary found that she agreed that they were dressed almost the same. "Man, I didn't expect you to be such a naughty girl that you'd stream in just panties and a top. Though, I guess your viewers cannot really see you when you're working as a vtuber anyway, huh? Well, we can't have both of us wearing the same, so take your top off and show off those tits."

Mary was helpless to obey. Like a robot made of bone and muscles, she raised her arms and pulled her beloved tank top off over her head. She brushed her blonde hair aside slightly, as some of it had fallen over her eyes, and then laid her hands to rest atop her thighs again, exposing her now bare breasts to this man. She tried to fight through it all, but she could not move! Not speak! Not do anything except remain on her knees, hands resting passively on her thighs, waiting for whatever this creep was going to order her to do next! What the fuck was going on? What the hell had he done to her?! Had she been drugged somehow?!

"Tsk-tsk, Mary. No need for tears; stop crying." The man said when he noticed the tears of desperation that had begun to pool in her eyes and roll down her face. "You may not understand it yet, but I'm here to help you. You may speak now, but only short sentences. Be quiet and extremely polite. And give me a big smile instead of that mopey look! I want you to smile at me the same way you would at somebody you deeply admire and love. "

"Yes, sir." Mary heard herself respond softly. She wanted to ask a thousand questions, hurl a million insults, but that would be neither polite nor short. When she spoke, the girl could feel her lips curve into an unfamiliar sort of expression, despite her best efforts to stop herself. He was here to help her? Sure, that was true, but what the fuck did it mean?!

"Nice! I think that's a great look on you, Mary--on your knees, smiling with your titties out! You should try it more!" The creep scanned her, evaluating her body and seemed disappointed. "Though you've gotten kind of flabby, huh? You were so much hotter in those old bikini pics I managed to dig out from your old social media accounts! Guess weight gain is what happens when you stream all day for a living, huh? Well, you've got a great smile and a really cute face, so the belly fat's kind of a waste..." The man who claimed to want to help her snapped a picture of her with his phone, and then held the phone up to her with the video recording function on, to allow Mary see herself.

Mary had always considered herself to be a tough girl, a capable sort-of tomboy who could handle herself. The girl reflected back through the camera's lens looked so different from how she was used to seeing herself that she was almost unrecognizable! It was all because of that smile! That dumb smile. She never smiled like that! A big, warm twinkle and feminine expression that made her look like a dumb little girl, gazing with reverence at Santa Claus, awaiting her Christmas gift! Her eyes were still wet from the tears she had been ordered to stop crying, and her naked breasts were on full display for the camera. God, she almost looked like one of the anime girls on this pervert's t-shirt--boobs out with a big, dopey smile and runny eyes that looked like she was crying from happiness.

"Like I said, it's a good look on you, no?" The pervert asked her. "Tell the camera that you're a dumb slut, Mary."

"I am a dumb slut, sir." Mary immediately replied with a sugary sweet voice, grinning like a fool while staring straight into the camera that he filmed her with. Showing off her naked tits.

"I appreciate the honesty, Mary. Now, cum your brains out for a while."

The kneeling girl's body was suddenly assaulted and prodded by a foreign, yet wonderful embrace. Tingles and warmth spread like lightning bolts from her most private part all the way to the very end of her limbs. Her body flushed and heart hammered. She vaguely registered how the still widely smiling face of the girl reflected back to her shuddered, struggling to hold the smile while being recorded. Despite herself, Mary moaned and whimpered, her body taken by the strongest, most all-encompassing orgasm she had ever experienced.

For what felt like an eternity she was lost to mindless bliss, the rapturous ruptures that shook her were impossible to fight, despite the girl's every instinct telling her that she should. When she thought she was finally allowed to come down from the high, the pleasure instead intensified even more. She lost the capacity to hold the smile then. Eyes fluttering she threw her head back and moaned like slut through parted, lust-swollen lips, with no regards or shame for the camera still recording her.

She desperately tried to gather herself, to maintain her servile expression--to remain smiling on her knees as she had been ordered to do--but it was too hard! The waves of utter satisfaction roiled through her and she grabbed at her tits, pulling and twisting at her nipples.

The force in control of her body soared to even greater heights and Mary's eyes could no longer even focus. Her eyes rolled while her body tensed and shook. She begged, cried and wailed from how much she needed it! Needed ever more of this! Whenever she managed to catch a glimpse of herself, whenever a short moment of clarity allowed her to try to smile for the man in control and his camera, the crazed woman peering back at her through the camera's lens scared her.

Her reflection had been reduced to a twisted porn parody of herself--she looked like she was melting from pleasure and lust, like her face was a real-life rendition of one of the drawn hentai girls printed on this pervert's t-shirt. She had given in completely to the unbridled satisfaction of the man's mere command. This was so wrong! This was so goddamn wrong! But she felt so excruciatingly fucking good!!

Finally, after what her addled mind considered "a while" had passed, the cloying embrace and artificial pleasure ceased its insistence upon her. When Mary came to her senses, she found herself collapsed, panting wildly on the floor, trying best she could to gather her bearings. The man was no longer filming her.

"Okay, that's enough messing around with you for my own sake. For now, at least." The old guy still lording over her from his throne that was her kitchen chair said. He had a cheer in his voice, and Mary could not help but notice that his cock was hard, twitching slightly against his underwear, yet he had not touched himself during her arduous display of unfettered lust. "So, I've been hired by your agency. They worry that you're not taking your job as a vtuber seriously and asked me to set you straight. You will think of me as your Producer, from now on." Mary's Producer explained. "Any questions?"

"...c-could you please let me know what is g-going on, Mr. Producer?" Mary asked, politely, still trying to recover from the aftershocks of the irresistible orgasms that had just wrecked her. Despite her dire straits, her voice was as warm and polite as she could muster, and she yet smiled widely at her Producer.

"Like I said, Mary. Your Producer's a consultant for hire. I provide guidance and aid to troubled girls like you." Mary's Producer rubbed the stiff cock straining against his underwear once. "I fucking love my job..." He then straightened and cracked his knuckles. "Now then, I've been told that your fans are starting to believe that you view them simply as money dispensers. They feel as though the love and enthusiasm shown by Amethyst Croconya~a is just a front. That's not true. Is it, Mary?"

She shook her head. Of course it was not true!

"Just as I thought. Good girl, Mary!" Her Producer smiled at her affirmation. "All those lonely guys watching you every day are so attached to you, right? Hell, some of them even claim that they are in love with you. How does that make you feel?"

"I... I feel as though they project too much onto Amethyst Croconya~a, sir. I work hard to show my passion and appreciation for my fans every day, but I am an online entertainer, nothing more."

"That's a bit cold, considering how much your fans and subscribers care for you, no? Honestly, I think that you're not that different from those guys, Mary. You have no boyfriend. In fact, you have no friends at all."

The metallic whirring and ticking from the small device on the table had until now been a mere background noise but it abruptly rose to a crescendo in Mary's ears as she listened to her Producer's words. "She had no boyfriend... That was right... Friends? Noo... That was..." For some reason her gaze trailed to her fridge where she had put up some photos of a trip to Hokkaido from a few months ago. Two other girls posed with her in the picture. The three of them looked happy together. Who were those girls? Her... friends? No, she did not have friends!

Her Producer's voice overpowered the other conflicting thoughts in her head when he proceeded to speak. "You have no family! No parents, no sister. You are a girl that's completely alone, Mary."

The ticking and clicking made every word her Producer spoke vibrate within her chest. Humming in the same frequency as her heart and soul. "She... was alone... There... was no family. She was..." Then, cutting out the droning, all-powerful noise was something like a crack of lightning; Mary felt a spark energize her! Something powerful deep within the kneeling girl awoke. Her sister! She had a sister!!

"Nnngh... N-noo, that's not... true..!" Mary whimpered. Her awesome goddamn superstar of a sister!! "I'm... m-my sister... I remember her! I remember my friends!! I'm not alone like you say, you fucking pervert creep!!" Mary still knelt down, and yet had the dumb smile on her lips, but she began to feel comfortable with the smile! For it was a smile of triumph! She was stronger than her Producer! "You'll never make me forget my older sister, you creepy asshole!" She growled defiantly, trying to wrest control back of her body.

"Wow! That's real impressive, Mary!" Her Producer seemed surprised, but took her show of force in stride and chuckled. "You're an unexpectedly strong young girl, aren't you? Normally, I only have to increase the intensity of my tool when dealing with stuck-up female CEOs who forget their place, but I guess you're in need of a lesson too." The man reached over and fidgeted slightly with the device placed on the table while Mary tried her hardest to will her legs to stand.

From out of nowhere, the clicking and humming that had pacified her before now whipped her like a storm; Mary fell to the floor, on her knees again with nary a thought in her head. The nigh-vacuous girl imagined echoes of unfamiliar sound that bored straight to the very core of her, as if it had blasted a highway to her mind. Her body shook slightly, and she was now listening intently to her Producer's every breath.

"Now then, Mary. I've set the device from low to low-mid, which should be enough to set you straight without your brain turning to mush. Hrmmm... hopefully..." Every word echoed on repeat in her head. She did not understand what the Voice meant, and how she should adapt and change to suit it, but she remained in reverence, simply listening.