Just Ryker.
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“Hello out there.”
I took a deep breath and glanced over to Odette, who was sitting beside me. She gave me a thumbs up, and I continued. “Today is going to be a little bit different from my normal stream.”
I looked at the chat, which was already flooded with people to figure out what was going on. I had moderators who were working through the chat, and Beckett on backup with them once the announcement was made.
“I know that I said there was going to be something big today, and there is.” I took another pause.
This was it.
I watched the viewer count get higher and higher each second that passed.
“I’m going to be doing a face reveal today.”
The chat on the side of my screen was going a mile a minute with people commenting. The viewer count jumped significantly from almost one hundred thousand viewers to almost three hundred thousand. The number kept growing, and my palms were becoming sweaty.
“There are a few reasons for wanting to do this video today. First, because recently, I had some circumstances in my life change, and that had me thinking about why I’m hiding myself. Then I was met with an incident that would possibly force my hand. It has happened before, but this was different. The person who did it was affecting someone important to me.”
I looked over to Odette, who was sitting in a chair next to me, hands over her heart. The look in her eyes showed me love.
“That leads me to the second reason. I love someone so dearly that I knew I won’t be able to hide this forever, so I’d rather take this all into my own hands and do it now, with you all, and her here.”
I took a deep breath and went into the effects for my video, turning off the blur, and next, turning off the voice remixer. This was it.
“For all of my gaming life, I’ve always kept who I am a secret. It just made life easier.” I shrugged, looking directly into the camera. The only thing between me and the viewers now was the face covering I had on.
I looked at Odette one more time, and she gave me a reassuring nod. This was all going to be okay, no matter what.
“Going forward, even though my tag is CovertRetriever, you all can call me,” I pulled the face covering down. Open to all the world to see me. “Ryker.”
Pausing, I looked over to see that I had over a million viewers for this stream, with millions of comments. I could see my phone lighting up next to me. I looked over to Odette again, who had a tear running down her face. She had a hand placed on my thigh under the desk.
I placed a hand over hers and my mic and whispered to her.
“Would you want to be in it?”
Her eyes widened, and she nodded her head fast. A smile broke out on my face, and I pulled her chair into frame.
I watched as the chat realized and started commenting on her name.
“Meet reason two of why we are all meeting here today.”
I was sitting in my chair facing her, not the camera anymore. Odette was watching the chat, looking at the setup I had, and then finally looked over to me. I leaned in, placing a soft kisson her lips, not caring that millions were watching us grace the internet with our relationship. One that was going to rock the gaming world.
We pulled away, and I gave my attention back to my viewers.
“Thank you all for being on this journey with me. It’s not coming to an end by any means, but I needed to do this, not just for me, but for us.” I held on to Odette’s hand as I addressed everyone. “I’ll be on tomorrow night for my regularly scheduled live stream ofLeague of Witches,along with an exclusive sneak peek atLeague of Warlocks.”
The last part was something Odette and I had been talking about with the reveal when she’d come over. Now that it was out about who I was, I could use it to our advantage. Since I’d been testing out her new game, I could give everyone a sneak peek before it went out for early gaming in a few months. Our worlds were already colliding in the best ways.
“Until next time.”
Awe was the only way to describe what I was feeling, watching Ryker not just expose himself to the world, but claim me as his. I wasn’t expecting at all to be a part of his stream, but when he asked, I didn’t want to say no. I wanted him to tell everyone, because deep down I wanted to tell everyone, too. If Ryker was going to be out in the open, so was I.
While he finished up after his stream, I took a selfie with him working in the background and posted it to social media. I made sure to tag him before I put my phone away.
