OFFLINE REALITY

Cringe-o-meter

"No, we're not."

His chat was elated to find out his real name and has been calling him "Sky" ever since. He didn't bother trying to change it because it was just too much work. For now, his chat was still being friendly, not overstepping the boundaries and that was just fine with Sky.

But now, he was getting a little uncomfortable and he was damn glad he decided to stick to the idea of no face cam for now.

I mean, he basically confessed.
Yes, date him, man! We will support you!
My ship is finally setting sail!

"We'll see about that." Sky didn't know what else to reply.

Sky slouched in his seat. Somewhere along the lines, between the series of events, he felt that his life online and offline had been merging. He just couldn't tell anymore. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. It didn't feel as tiring as before, where he had to hide. Though being more open came with a price.

There were a bunch of trolls teasing him online, be it when he streams or on his Instagram posts. Whatever he heard a few years back in person was now being projected online. He did his best not to let it get to him, trying to ignore it as much as possible. His moderators were doing a great job in shutting down the hate, but he felt immense support from the positive people in the chat too.

"Alright, today we will be playing with Julyas as his friends," he said as he opened his discord to check if they were online. They were already in the voice channel and were waiting for Sky to join in, which he did.

"Hey."

"Yo, Sky my man!" He could hear Chester's voice loud and clear through his headphones. "Oh, shit! Am I supposed to call you by your IGN? My god, I'm so sorry I forgot."

"No no, it's fine. You can call me by my name. They all know it by now anyway."

"Huh? Who They?" Chester sounded very confused and it made Sky chuckle a little.

"I meant the chat. Sorry, I'm streaming right now. It's kinda second nature to talk to the chat but I'll mute when I do so no worries."

"Yo, my man. You sound like a different person right now." Chester couldn't help but feel in awe. Sky sounded a thousand times more confident online than offline.

"Uhm, having a screen helps."

"Such a fake." The comment came out of nowhere and it made the atmosphere of the conversation do a one-eighty. Sky too was caught off guard and didn't know what to say.

"Chris, watch your mouth," his brother scolded. "I'm so sorry please ignore him. My brother's tongue's way too sharp sometimes for my liking."

"Hey, so what did I miss?" Jay sounded very cheery like he didn't hear the conversation at all.

"Where the hell were you?"

"Sorry, I had to go number 2 first. Your brother joining us this too?" Jay asked. Sky saw that Jay had requested to join his party in-game and quickly accepted his request.

"Yes, please don't mind me. I need to finish this season's battle pass soon or my money's going down the drain." Chris talked in a very pleasant tone, totally different from when he talks with Sky.

"Alright, let's go then! Queue, Sky."

"Sure."

The group had queued to finish a match and within minutes the game had started. Sky usually didn't play too seriously but this time around, he felt the need to have his head in the game. He had a feeling that if he didn't, he would get flamed, by his team too.