“Hello everyone,” Rin says with a wide smile, waving at the camera. “Welcome to this year’s fundraiser! I hope you’re ready because you’re about to be on a wild ride,” he says, starting to explain everything.
When it’s my turn to talk, I pick up the paper that Azaad made for me.
“This year we have a variety of things available on the auction site! You’ll have to check it out if you wanna see the full list but right now I’ll just share a few,” I say, starting to read the items from the list. “You could win an hour of gaming time with Blue, Suga, myself, or Snow. There are tickets to an at home Nanio Ninja game. There are tickets to see The Devastated live in concert. We have an art commission from Suga. We have a signed volleyball, signed by the entire Nanio Ninja team. We have a brand new computer tower. We have merch from the four of us, and so much more. Please, take a moment to head to the site and check it all out!”
“Thank you, Rodney,” Rin says, taking over again. “The schedule is also posted on my socials. I know a lot of you can’t stay for the entire time, but you can check out which sections you want to watch and plan accordingly.”
“Excuse me?” I jump in, looking into the camera. “Chat, you know I’m parasocial! You’re not allowed to leave once you’re here. Plan accordingly,” I say, pointing at them and squinting.
Kei snorts, shaking his head at me. “As you’ve all seen, this year’s theme is ‘community’ which means a lot of the events you’re going to see have to do with working together. It means a lot to us that our communities can come together and do something good for the world so before we even get started, I just wanted to say thank you.”
Rin and I nod along. “We wouldn’t be able to do events like this without you all. You’re helping make a difference.”
“We can’t start with the waterworks already,” I say, nudging Rin’s side. “We always cry but I didn’t think we’d start already!”
“Okay, okay. No crying yet! Let’s jump into our first activity.”
Just like that, I’m washed away in the excitement of the day. When I have a moment to check on chat, it’s wild to see just howmany people are here, watching. I see the regulars that make me smile like BedheadRooster and WhoCares. Calloway is in chat, typing from a laptop set up in the kitchen. He doesn’t want to be on camera so he’s careful to stay out of the shots.
I also see IwaZilla’s name a lot. TwinkleKawa is busy trying to win a bunch of the auction items. Gayle’s mods are in chat, cheering us on and helping direct people to the donation links.
It’s so lovely to see everyone come together like this.
The mods take over the stream while we make our way to the stadium for our volleyball match against the Nanio Ninjas. Azaad, Wizard, and the Ninja’s official commentator, Lore, are going to be talking to chat, commentating the match. I can’t wait to watch the vod later to hear what they talked about.
The game goes as expected. Maki plays on our team along with Pally, who’s one of Rin’s mods who was able to join us for the game. The Ninjas, despite having various obstacles brought on by donations, kick our asses. It’s almost comical how terrible we are. Almost.
Whatiscomical is watching Kei get wrapped up in the net at one point. Daniel, the Ninja’s captain, has to help untangle him while Sullivan looks like he’s about to collapse from how much he’s laughing.
With bruised egos, we make our way back to our home. We play games, encourage donations, and continue on. At 2am, I’m ready for a break. Thankfully, Azaad planned for this.
The mods all jump into a battle royale game together, winner getting a date with Kei. I go into my room and lie down. A moment later, Gayle joins me, spooning up behind me.
“You doing okay?”
I hum, pulling his arm around my middle. “Yeah. Just need a little breather.”
“You’re all so good at this,” he praises, making my insides turn warm. “It’s amazing that I even get to be a part of it.”
“Thank you for being here.”
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. I love you, Rodney. I couldn’t be more proud of you and the work that you guys are doing.”
We lie together, catching a few moments of peace while the mods play. We wake up to the sound of cheering from the living room and untangle ourselves to go see what’s going on.
“We just hit 700 thousand dollars,” Kei says with excitement. “We’ve blasted through every fucking goal we’ve made. You guys arelegends, holy shit!”
Gayle and I stand behind the couch, looking at the stream. The number is so huge, bigger than we hoped we would get. Somehow, chat always blows our expectations out of the water.
“Is it okay to cry now?”
I nod my head. “Yeah, it’s crying time,” I say, already feeling myself tearing up.
It’s not until later that we learn that Sookie was the winner of the mod battle royale, securing himself an online date with Kei. For the first time, I see Kei blush about the whole thing and I plan on teasing the hell out of him later.
Somehow, we get through the entire twenty-four hours. All of us pile onto the couch together once we’ve cut off the stream. We all stare, unable to articulate how we’re feeling.
“Fuck,” Kei says, all of us nodding in agreement. “Holyshit.”
