people start filing into the stream really quickly. most likely due to all nine people that i'm with retweeting and commenting on my tweet, spamming the link. we're at 200,000 viewers before i know it.

"holy shit val, look at your viewers," tommy says, pointing at the viewer count on my screen. "that's amazing. especially for your first stream."

"oh my god," i say. "there's a lot of you! hi! thank you all for joining."

we wait a couple of minutes before really starting the stream.

"so, guys, today-"

"call them chat," tommy tells me. "they like that. and you sound professional." i laugh.

"alright, CHAT. today we're going to be playing minecraft. specifically survival games. i haven't played this since like... 2015. so this is going to be fun."

the stream is going really well. everyone in the house is watching on their own accounts. someone named philza (that i've heard about a couple of times) is also watching. though i've never spoken to him, tommy insists i give him vip and let him moderate my chat.

the stream gets more chaotic as time passes.

"RUN!" tommy shouts at me.

"why?" i ask, going through a chest and picking out the loot. suddenly, i see my health bar dropping. "oh crap. that's why." i take off running, but end up dying.

"VAL NO!" tommy buries his face in his hands.

"I WAS SO CLOSE."

"not really. you got eleventh."

"shut up. i'm improving."

"you got thirteenth last round."

"THAT'S IMPROVING."

we give each other the death stare, then break out into a laughing fit.

"if it's so easy, YOU do it," i say, standing up and gesturing for tommy to sit down in the gaming chair. he switches into the gaming chair, and i sit on the wooden chair where he originally was.

tommy is surprisingly not horrible at survival games, but unfortunately a bunch of stream snipers join his game. he is targeted pretty badly, at some point being followed by six people.

"WHY AREN'T YOU FUCKERS FIGHTING EACH OTHER?" tommy yells at the stream. "STREAM SNIPING IS ILLEGAL!"

"get his ass, chat," i encourage.

"WHAT?"

"nothing. keep running."

tommy continues to run, only stopping to fill up his hunger bar.

"are you going to give up anytime soon?" i ask.

"never. i've experienced worse on the dream smp," tommy responds. "there's practically been a bounty on my head ever since i joined that server."

eventually, tommy dies after deciding he's strong enough to take on the six people. he dies very quickly.

"okay, no, they cheated," tommy says. "you didn't have a bunch of people going after you when you played. this doesn't count-"

"YOU GOT SEVENTEENTH!" i lean back and laugh.

"no no no," tommy says, attempting to join a new game. "i'm better than this."

"go on tubbo's setup and log into your account so you can play with me."

"that's a good idea." tommy gets up and goes over to toby's computer, quickly logging on. we join a game together and play.

we do very well all game, and eventually it's just us against two other people. we run around trying to find who we're up against, and when we find them we gasp.

standing in front of us are dream and georgenotfound.

"YOU ASSHOLES," i yell. "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?" i hear clay wheeze from his room.

"you go for googie," tommy says. "he's weak and colorblind." i nod and quickly charge towards george. he holds a good fight, but i win with two hearts left. i hear his high pitched screech coming from his room.

tommy and i try to team up against clay, but we're no match. we both die immediately and clay wins the game.

"DREAM YOU'RE BANNED FROM MY CHAT!" i yell. "philza minecraft please ban him. that was stream sniping."

"you were going to win that round, too!" tommy says. i nod.

"i'm disappointed."

"next time."

i check and see how long i've been streaming. to my surprise, it's already been an hour and a half. i send tommy a quick text saying "do we tell them now?" tommy turns his head to me and nods. i switch to full screen face cam and clasp my hands together.

"so... chat..." i say. "that's going to be it for today... but we have to tell you guys something before we go. no don't worry! i'm gonna continue streaming another day, this was really fun. but... uh..."

tommy rushes by my side and gives me a swift kiss on the cheek. he grabs my mic.

"we're dating!" he says into my mic. i smile and nod.

"that's one way to tell them." suddenly, the door bursts open and everyone comes in.

"TALERIE IS CANON, CHAT!" toby shouts.

the chat goes absolutely insane. some people are spamming pogchamps, some are apparently crying, some are clipping, and some are tweeting as we speak.

"we're gonna end now! bye chat!" i wave at the camera and end the stream.

everyone in the room finally calms down.

"that was eventful," tommy says.