Alter-Ego - Stream #8

Seventy viewers.

That was how many on average Katherine was getting now  - and it’s only been a week since she started being “Crystal”. Who knew that dressing up a little and acting a bit ditzy would make so many men suddenly interested in her streams. And, holy shit, their donations? Let’s just say that horny nerds and throwing money at hot women seemed to go hand-in-hand.

Her stream was set to start in thirty minutes. She set herself a daily schedule to give people an easier time coming back to her streams - it was time to do the rest of her preparations if she was to look properly presentable.

As she put on the makeup and practiced a few lines, she felt… enthralled by the whole process. Katherine didn’t expect to start kinda enjoying being Crystal, in spite of all of the misogynistic comments. The persona gave her some time to unwind and blow off steam - turn off that overly-active brain of hers and be, for once, carefree. Of course, that woman wasn’t her, nor did she want to actually be that way, but it was a fun persona to escape into for a while… every evening.

The clock was ticking and she was just about done with her makeup. It looked really good. The pastel shades of pink she’d chosen to sprinkle in on various parts of her face blended together quite nicely, her fake lashes made the eyes underneath appear kinda vacant and bubbly, instead of her day-to-day ‘boring and tired’ look. She was especially proud of how impeccable her eyebrows looked. It was the first time she really nailed the look she was going for. All in all, it was surprisingly satisfying to look in the mirror and see a little work of art on her face.

She booted up her PC and set up the stream. The people started joining in to watch. Some donations came in, time went by. Katherine was weirdly concerned with how people thought she looked. She’d constantly fix her hair, fidget in her chair to have a more appealing posture and ask the chat how she looked. And the validation she got? It was borderline euphoric.

A few moments later, her bubble of happiness was broken. One of her viewers sent in a medium-sized donation and put it bluntly ‘what happened to you, katherine? why are you like this :(‘. Her jaw almost hit the floor. The statement quite frankly snapped her out of the trance-like state she had put herself in. She got so used to being Crystal on stream that when someone pointed out she was someone else behind the scenes, it felt like an electroshock. After a while she replied “well, ummm, yeah, I changed my look to make the streams more interesting! and you all seem to like it, so I like it too, haha”.

She hasn’t thought about this before. What about the viewers that liked her before? Was she putting up a facade, just to distract herself from actual problems? Is this what she really wanted? It was all fun and games but… behind the scenes she was someone else - someone far less… fun than “Crystal”.

But… which of these people did she want to be?