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TheRealCreator: You’re more understanding than me.

DakkyDuck: You don’t need a lot of patience with your job?

TheRealCreator: Are you fishing, Dakota? Trying to find out more about the viewer you can imagine falling for?

DakkyDuck: I told you, that wasn’t about you!

TheRealCreator: Then you better tell me who this lucky man is so I can find him.

DakkyDuck: Oh yeah? And do what, huh?

TheRealCreator: Explain to him calmly and logically that he needs to back the fuck off.

DakkyDuck: LOL. That sort of thing could get you blocked. And yes, I was fishing, actually. So, take the bait.

I grin. She’s keeping me in line, talking about bans, despite the fact I just donated a thousand dollars to her. That says a lot about her character. Many streamers would say whatever they think I want to hear after that.

TheRealCreator: My job requires patience. But it’s a lofty goal I don’t always reach. Or ever, honestly. At the start of my career, impatience was my superpower. I had to get things done—yesterday. Now? It’s meetings, boardrooms, and conference calls. The spirit is gone.

I regret the message the moment it’s sent. I shouldn’t even be watching her streams, let alone speaking with her, let alone hinting at whoIam. I can just see the headline now…

Power Imbalance: His Empire Fell When He Fell for the Streamer.

Or something more vicious. Something about me being a desperate forty-two-year-old man who couldn’t keep his hands out of the cookie jar.

DakkyDuck: Would you care to get more specific?

TheRealCreator: I can’t. Which isn’t fair, Dakota. You’ve got every right to tell me to go to hell.

DakkyDuck: You work for Halcyon. I know that for a fact.

I grind my teeth.

TheRealCreator: Is that so, you beautiful detective?

DakkyDuck: You don’t want me to know who you are, but you’re happy to call me beautiful? Does that seem fair?

TheRealCreator: You want to see a picture of me, eh?

DakkyDuck: It only seems fair.

I swallow. Knowing this might be the end. I might be reading this wrong.

What if she doesn’t find this thrilling and exciting, but instead thinks I’m the king of the creeps?

TheRealCreator: I can’t show you my face. But I can show you something that proves I’m real. Give me a phrase, random, anything you can think of.

DakkyDuck: Please don’t send me an unsolicited dick pic.

TheRealCreator: I’m keeping it above the waist, beautiful.

DakkyDuck:

Her message sends a jolt of heat through me. She’s responding, then. She feels it too somehow.

DakkyDuck: Okay, NOW I’m interested, stranger. Uh, my phrase? How about today’s date, with a drawing of two people shaking hands written underneath it?

TheRealCreator: What if I can’t draw?