3: Request & Reward

It was the night before their flight was scheduled to leave for Australia. Restless and unable to sit still, let alone sleep, Austin had turned to the one thing he knew would drain him enough to find some peace before he had to travel. 

That was an hour ago. A lot could change in an hour, especially when that hour was spent live in front of a camera, chatting with the fans of his solo side project. His streams, when he had the time to sit down these days and actually switch the camera on, were usually a mix of casual chat and covers performed live. These were his “roots” - what he had started out doing when he first drummed up the courage to post something online. 

Things had started out pretty normal, until someone had donated. One of his fans had chosen the highest donation tier, a tier simply titled “Don’t pick this. Please”. As a result, he was now wearing a snug pink dress, and belting out a cover while he fought to - and failed- to keep the bubblegum pink curls of his wig out of his eyes. The fans of his solo stuff were more than used to his streams, and it was almost embarrassing how often he ended up in some sort of strange costume, most chosen ahead of time by polls on his personal page. They seemed to delight in it, and it paid the bills, so Austin couldn’t complain. 

The latest cover - and probably last of the night - he was singing ended with a vicious black metal shriek that would have made the darkest of kvlt’ers throw horns. It was something he was very proud to have in his repertoire, something that was always a point of surprise and delight. Sycorax had a decidedly death metal sound, with all the vocal distortions that came along with it, with a bit of nu flair. Throwing the occasional high in was always icing on a particularly brutal cake. 

There was a flurry of approval from the chat scrolling at the edge of his screen. Austin pushed pink curls out of his eyes and grinned. One particular message caught his attention.

JimTheGoblin: Brootal. 

MochiMochi: Jim! Hiiii! 

Mochi was probably one of his biggest fans, or at least certainly the most enthusiastic. She knew just about everyone that visited these streams, and they all knew her. She was another Australian, and a meme queen who filled their Vox channel with an endless supply of nonsensical, amusing internet garbage. 

JimTheGoblin: Austin better bring that wig to Oz. 

MochiMochi: lol all the other bands will be like ??? do it do it do it

Austin laughed throatily and leaned forward on his desk, squishing his arms together as he did so to give the barest illusion of cleavage to an otherwise lanky, flat and decidedly male chest.

“I don’t think those big Australian boys could handle that. I’m smokin’.”

A chorus of agreement from the very same people that had landed him in a dress in the first place. 

“That said, guys, I gotta go sleep. Thank you all so much for choosing to spend your time here. You could be anywhere this evening but you’ve chose to spend your time with me and I appreciate that.” 

Austin ended his stream with his best Marilyn Munroe kiss for the camera.