The hood came down.
The ears sprang free, twitching in the cold dawn air.
Emma, standing a few feet away in her too-tight combat jacket, visibly flinched.
She’d known about the ears.
She’d seen the videos.
Seeing them in person, though, was different.
“Alright,” Dom said.
“I’m starting the stream now.”
Emma opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Tugged at her jacket hem.
“Now? Right now?”
“No time like the present.” He met her eyes.
“You ready?”
“No.”
“Good. Neither am I.”
He hit the broadcast.
[BROADCAST INITIATED!!]
[streaming live to: TikTok, YouTube, Twitch]
[current viewers: 3,412… 5,891… 8,200…]
The overlay materialized in Dom’s vision: the familiar cascade of usernames and emojis, the view count ticking upward, the donation tracker resetting for a new day.
He’d done this enough times now that the chaos barely registered.
Emma, on the other hand, made a sound like she’d been electrocuted.
“What—what is—there’s text—there’s so much text—”
Her hands flew up in front of her face, not quite touching the overlay, her eyes darting wildly as the chat scrolled past her vision.
Lume shot off her shoulder, zipping in frantic circles, chirping in confusion at the sudden invasion of invisible words.
BussyBlaster9000: NEW GIRL xXDungeonDaddyXx: WHO IS THAT
GoblinSlayer69: SHE’S GORGEOUS
MomsCreditCard: @GoblinSlayer69 DOWN BOY
PixelSlvt: THE FAIRY IS REAL TOO??
“Breathe,” Dom said.
“It’s just text. You don’t have to read it all.”
“There’s so many of them—they’re going so fast—” Emma spun in a half-circle, trying to find a camera that didn’t exist.
“Where do I look? Where’s the camera?”
“There is no camera.”
“Then how are they—”
“It’s the system. Don’t think about it.”
She clearly started thinking about it.
Her eyes went wide, her head swiveling left, then right, then up at the empty sky.
She addressed a crumbling pillar: “Hello?” Chat exploded.
OhNoRatio: SHE’S TALKING TO A PILLAR
SaltySupp0rt: THE PILLAR CAN’T HEAR YOU
F2P_And_Proud: I’M CRYING SHE’S SO CONFUSED
“Just look at the overlay if you want to look at something; aside from that, don’t stress it,” Dom said.
Emma spun around, her face burning.
“I’m sorry—I don’t—” She stopped herself, pressing her lips together.
“I was about to apologize to a pillar.”
“The pillar forgives you. Now focus.”
Emma nodded.
Dom turned to address the empty air where he assumed the system was framing him.
“Can I get a purr in the chat?” Dom said flatly.
The chat erupted.
A cascade of cat emojis and “PURRRRR” messages scrolled for a solid ten seconds, a wave of digital affection that Dom watched with the expression of a man who had accepted his fate but resented it deeply.
BussyBlaster9000: PURRRRRRRRRRRRRR xXDungeonDaddyXx: PURRRRRRRRR 😻😻😻
GoblinSlayer69: PURR PURR PURR PURR
MomsCreditCard: 🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
PixelSlvt: PURR IN THE CHAT FOR THE CATBOY
OhNoRatio: PURRRRRRR
SaltySupp0rt: meow meow motherfuckers
F2P_And_Proud: @SaltySupp0rt that’s not a purr
SaltySupp0rt: @F2P_And_Proud it’s the spirit of the purr
KravenMoHead34: I’ve never purred in my life, but I’m purring now
CertifiedFloorTank: the entire chat just became cats
StinkyRiftDiver: nya~ 🐱
ActuallyADruid: the psychological hold this man has on his audience is unprecedented donation received: $10 — “WHO IS THE PRETTY GIRL”]
“This is Emma. She’s my support for this run. She’s never been on stream before. She’s still figuring it out.” A pause.
“She’s also a fan.”
Emma’s head snapped toward him.
“I’m not—”
“Your excitement when you found out who I was says otherwise.”
Emma turned to a rusted pillar, her face burning.
“I’m going to die. Right here. On stream. In front of thousands of people. This is it. This is how it ends.” The pillar offered no comfort.
“Please just let the ground open up and swallow me.”
She was now facing the actual direction of the Fracture.
“Better,” he said.
MomsCreditCard: okay but this is actually so cute
PixelSlvt: @MomsCreditCard right??
she’s one of us
KravenMoHead34: she’s a nyaablade fan who accidentally got perceived by nyaablade.
This is the dream and the nightmare.
OhNoRatio: @KravenMoHead34 the monkey’s paw curled.
She got to meet her idol, and now she’s dying inside.
StinkyRiftDiver: she’s so real for this.
I would also try to merge with pillar too.
“See?” Dom said.
“They get it.”
Emma lifted her head just enough to read the chat.
Her blush deepened, but something in her shoulders loosened.
[donation received: $15 — “EMMA WE LOVE YOU”]
Emma read the notification and went still.
The chat was still scrolling, a mix of encouragement, relatability, and playful teasing, but this message landed differently.
She stared at the text for a long moment, then straightened her jacket.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“Okay. I can do this.”
“Good,” Dom said.
“Because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.” He turned back to address the chat.
“Here’s the deal. We’re entering the Fracture—a multi-day expedition. Emma’s got the route mapped. I’ve got the blades. If you’re new here, hit the follow button. If you’ve got money to throw around, donations keep the stream running and help me pay my bills. Subscriptions get you access to the VODs and bonus content the system puts together.”
CertifiedFloorTank: straight to business.
respect.
F2P_And_Proud: bro said “pay my bills” with his whole chest
“Streams will be live during the day. At night, we shut it down so we can rest and plan. You’ll get combat, you’ll get exploration, and you’ll get Emma talking to inanimate objects. It’s a full package.”
Emma shot him a look.
“I’m not going to talk to any more objects.”
“The pillar might feel a bit offended.”
“I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
“Nope,” Dom said.
“Now let’s move.” He drew his blades and started toward the ruins.
“We’ve got about ten hours of daylight left. Fracture’s not going to explore itself.”
Emma fell into step beside him.
Lume launched off her shoulder and shot ahead, her golden glow cutting through the morning haze.
The chat was still buzzing with pillar jokes and donation alerts, but Emma’s focus had shifted.
Her eyes were on the terrain now, her hands steady at her sides, her breathing even.
“First landmark’s the old financial district,” she said, her voice shifting into professional mode.
“Two hours east. We should reach the service tunnel before noon.”
“And Scavenger activity?”
“Light in the mornings. They hunt at dusk. We still have time.”
“Alright then.”
Dom watched her work, the way her fingers traced the route on her wrist display, the way Lume responded to her unspoken commands.
She’d been drowning five minutes ago, confused by the overlay, mortified by the chat.
Now she was a professional.
The contrast was jarring and impressive in equal measure.
GoblinSlayer69: she just switched from “help I’m dying” to full mission mode
ActuallyADruid: @GoblinSlayer69 that’s experience showing.
CertifiedFloorTank: The anxiety is personal.
The skills are professional.
The Fracture swallowed them whole.
The air changed immediately, thicker, heavier.
The ruins rose around them like the bones of a dead civilization: skyscrapers with their facades sheared off, streets buckled and split, vegetation pulsing with sickly bioluminescence.
Everything was silent except for the distant screeches of things that had been nesting here for fifteen years.
Emma sent Lume ahead without being asked, the fairy zipping through the ruins in wide, sweeping arcs.
Her posture had straightened.
Her eyes had stopped darting to the chat.
She was in her element now, and it showed.
“You’re good at this,” Dom said.
Emma glanced at him, surprised.
“I’ve had practice.”
MomsCreditCard: the layers to this girl
PixelSlvt: @MomsCreditCard she’s been through so much.
You can hear it.
[donation received: $10 — “EMMA YOU’RE DOING AMAZING SWEETIE”]
Emma saw the notification.
She just nodded once, a small, private gesture of acknowledgment, and kept walking.
Dom noticed.
He didn’t comment.
But something in her posture had shifted again, a tiny fraction of confidence settling deeper into her shoulders.
The service tunnel was dark and damp.
Lume’s glow was the only light, casting flickering gold and silver shadows on the walls as she bobbed ahead.
Dom moved in silence, his ears tracking every drip of water, every distant skitter, every subtle shift of air that might indicate a threat.
He’d told her to stay within arm’s reach, and she’d taken it li,terally.
Her footsteps were light and careful.
“You’ve done this before,” Dom said quietly.
“Moving in darkness.”
“I’ve been on retrieval jobs. I might not be a fighter, but I can move. I can heal. I can keep people alive.” A pause.
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“There was one team. About a year ago. We got pinned by a swarm in an underground nest. I couldn’t—” She stopped.
Swallowed.
“I couldn’t save all of them.”
“How many?”
“Three. Out of five.” Her voice was barely a whisper, then she caught herself.
“Da—” She stopped short, pressing her lips together.
“My previous employer said it was a good ratio. Acceptable losses.”
Dom caught the catch in her voice.
Heard the name she’d almost said.
He shot her a look over his shoulder.
She met his eyes and gave a small, tight nod.
I know.
I stopped myself.
“I’m sorry you had to experience that.” He glanced back at her.
“But you kept three people alive in a swarm. You did your best.”
Emma didn’t answer.
But her footsteps steadied.
MomsCreditCard: “acceptable losses” who says that??
Her previous employer sounds awful
PixelSlvt: @MomsCreditCard right??
she deserves so much better
KravenMoHead34: she almost said a name and stopped herself.
There’s a story there.
Lume’s glow flared ahead, a warning pulse.
Dom held up his hand.
Emma froze.
“What is it?”
“We’ve got company.”
The rift-spawn scavengers came out of the dark like they’d been poured from the walls.
Six of them.
All claws and teeth and milky eyes that had never seen sunlight.
They moved in a loose pack, chittering in frequencies that made Dom’s ears flatten against his skull.
“Barrier now!” he snapped.
The barrier snapped into place around him, golden light shimmering across his shoulders.
The first scavenger lunged; Dom sidestepped, drove a blade through its skull, and pivoted into the second.
“Buffing you in three—”
“Now.”
Lume’s Blessing hit him between heartbeats, the familiar surge of power flooding his veins.
He moved faster, hit harder, the world sharpening to a razor’s edge.
A scavenger broke past his guard; he took a claw across the ribs, felt the ward absorb the worst of it, and Emma was already there, Mending Touch knitting the wound closed before he’d finished his counter-strike.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
He killed the third scavenger with a Cross Slash that carved through two at once.
Another tried to flee.
Lume intercepted, blinding it with a flash of light, and Dom finished it with a single clean thrust.
The fifth and sixth fell in quick succession.
Silence.
Then the chat detonated.
xXDungeonDaddyXx: SHE HEALED HIM MID-FIGHT
GoblinSlayer69: THE FAIRY SET UP THE KILL
BussyBlaster9000: BATTLE COUPLE BATTLE COUPLE BATTLE COUPLE
Emma saw the comments and went red.
“They’re calling us a battle couple.”
“Ignore them.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not being shipped with yourself.”
“Is that why you are getting all red?”
Emma made a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper.
Lume, perched on her shoulder, patted her cheek with one tiny hand in what was probably meant to be comfort.
[donation received: $10 — “EMMA YOU’RE CARRYING THE TEAM”]
“Thank you,” Emma said to a pile of rubble.
Dom turned her again.
This time she was facing him.
Her eyes were very wide.
“This is the most stressful experience of my life.”
“You’re on an expedition into the most dangerous place in the Midwest; it’s understandable.”
“The stream is worse.”
Despite himself, Dom almost smiled.
“Focus on the mission. The chat can take care of itself.” He turned back toward the ruins.
“We’ve got daylight to burn. Let’s move.”