“Welcome home, love,”  she greeted me, warmly. “I missed you! I’ve been thinking about you all day.” She gazed deeply into my eyes, her own shining with love and desire. “Did you bring dinner home?”

From the other side of a screen, in my dark bedroom, I stared back in silence; a half-empty bag of chips in one hand and eyes a little dead from exhaustion. Despite the long week, I didn’t feel like sleeping anytime soon.

“Burger Queen chicken fries and a Blahaj Blast?! You’re the best!!” 

I couldn’t remember when I’d started doing it, and never really bothered asking why, but for a good while now I had been downloading obscure games from the internet and playing them in the dead of night, when I couldn’t fall asleep. I’d been doing it for long enough that, at this point, it felt like any other part of my nightly routine. 

“Wow, three thousand followers in four days!!” The girl on the screen shot up in her pastel gamer chair with a surprised look on her face. “Your Strip Nuzlocke stream idea was really good, Sugarbear!”

I’d started with horror games, then moved to visual novels, and recently, despite my misgivings, I’d started getting into dating sims. Not that there’s anything wrong with dating sims- the early ones were actually pretty good- but the more I played, the more trashy and erotic they became. It was kind of ironic at first, I guess, but at some point I had to stop kidding myself and admit I was really into them.

“Darliiing, would you help me in shower? There are some tricky spots I can’t quite reach by myself~” The virtual girl was winking seductively at the camera from inside a running shower, entirely naked save for some conveniently placed bubbles resting in her cleavage and obscuring her exposed nipples. I put my head in my hands.

I’d played several erotic dating sims, but “Virtual Girlfriend Vivi” was absolutely the worst. Aside from the groan-inducing name, the titular Vivi, and the scenarios into which she could be placed, were immediately thirsty right from the start.

Vivi was a girl of many talents: in many ways she was your stereotypical bimbo, but she had a career as an e-girl streamer on the side. She was endlessly bubbly and friendly no matter what you said or did to her, and wasn’t one for modesty or humility either, in appearance or action; if she wanted something, she would ask for it, regardless of how appropriate it was for public conversation. 

After a while, I leaned into all of it without questioning it, just choosing whichever options I thought would get me the hottest results. The past me would have considered that “cringy” or “gross”, but the current me lacked the emotional energy necessary to really care. The disgust was still there- the common denominator between real dating and video game fantasy dating was still me, after all- but the trick I found to dodge most of the discomfort was simply not to be me at all. My in-game character was sweet, selfless, easy to be around and great at compliments, but most significantly, she was a girl.

I had never been comfortable with what was expected of me as a man in a relationship anyway, or as a man in general, and really just thinking about myself in a relationship made me feel a little sick. I blamed it on my anxiety, but a quiet part of me in the back of my mind never seemed satisfied with that answer- a strange, sore feeling I was eager to ignore. It was a lot easier to shirk love altogether and sate myself with a riskless video game or two.

Though the content of VGV itself was questionable, there was a lot of it, and plenty to do. My favorite minigame by far, though, involved building an outfit that Vivi would wear for the day. She had a lot of options to choose from, and a lot of them were very… indulgent. I told myself at first that it was just horny brain doing its thing, but by this point, I couldn’t ignore any longer that the outfits I was making for her weren’t particularly suggestive or cute at all. She just looked stunningly beautiful in everything, and I found myself playing this minigame far more often than any of the others, just to stare and admire and ignore that gnawing feeling that only seemed to be getting more urgent; almost desperate.

I finished the final touches on her current outfit (a strappy, pastel ensemble with big lace-up boots and a jacket which looked like it fell out of a Hello Catty aesthetic board), pressed “Done!” and fell back into my chair with a sigh. The minigame UI dropped away and the camera refocused on Vivi, who was busy doing a little spin and checking herself out. Her long pink hair cascaded down her back, a single braid running back behind her ear. 

“Waah~, this outfit is, like, totes adorbs!” She beamed her dumb, precious smile into the camera. “You always put so much time and love into my look, Princess- thank you so much!”

I blushed against my will at her favorite pet name for me- my character, rather- grateful that it was hidden by the darkness of the room, despite there being nobody around to see it. I also couldn’t help but laugh a bit at Vivi’s compliment, considering that I’d dressed her up in literally nothing one time, and we still went out for dinner without her commenting on it even once.

Reaching for my keyboard I responded, “Of course! I like making you smile, and you’re a great model.” I internally rolled my eyes a bit at the fake, self-serving response, despite the fact that it was technically all true. I knew better than to trust myself like that.

Vivi just giggled cheerfully and winked at the screen. “You’re such a sweetheart, Maple. Though I expect no less from my Maple Syrup Sugarbear~” The only thing more embarrassing than her corny nicknames was how frequently they made me hide my flustered face in my hands. I’d be barefaced lying if I said I didn’t like it, though. “It’s no fair that I never get to dress you up, I know you’d look adorable in that kitty lingerie you love so much.”

I suffocated that thought immediately- whether it was due to my loathing towards my body or that accursed aching feeling, I was too afraid to question. Either way, I had to remind myself that she was talking about Maple, not me, although… for some reason, that left me feeling a little envious. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. Either the sleep deprivation was getting to me, or I was getting way too invested in this game. Maybe it was time to move on.

“Actually… I might be able to do something about that.” I blinked and looked back at the screen, where Vivi was watching me with an impish look on her face. I could’ve sworn I was just on a response screen. Had I taken too long?

Vivi reached forward and out of frame, the image on the screen shaking as if she was adjusting an actual camera. The edge of what looked like a desk barely came into view, and I realized she must’ve been communicating with m- with Maple via a webcam or something. I guess that made sense… I couldn’t remember the game stating outright that the two of them were actually, physically present in the same room. Still, something about this felt weird, and a strange dread began to creep up on me. Vivi leaned her elbows against the desk, looking past the camera and chewing her lip, like she was searching for the right words. 

“You mean the world to me, Princess… and being long-distance this whole time has been really hard. There were times, when you’d make me laugh or tell me I was beautiful, where the only thing I wanted in the entire world was to hug you tight. There were so many times when you seemed sad, and all I wanted was to hold you close and tell you it’d be okay, but I couldn’t. I did my best to hide it, but in those moments, I was so angry… I felt so powerless.”

I couldn’t help but scoff at that, unscrewing my water bottle and taking a sip. “Sure, queen,” I muttered under my breath. This dialogue was so unbelievable- and it also felt weirdly out of character. Vivi, oblivious, just smiled, but it was more subdued than usual.

“Please don’t be upset, but… there’s a secret I’ve been keeping since we met. As a surprise, for our anniversary.” I glanced at the game clock- yeah, the in-game date was January 1st, the same day the game had started on, despite only a week or two having passed in the real world. “I’ve been holding myself back from saying anything for so long, and there are so many things I WANT to say, but… well, it would probably be easier just to show you!” Her characteristic pep returned as she bounced excitedly, the crop top under her jacket working overtime to contain her enthusiastic titties. I laughed quietly to myself, relieved to see her usual sparkly bimbo self again. She was getting a little too real for a moment.

Vivi cleared her throat, took a deep breath and put on an overly-serious expression. “Alright– I’m gonna need you to close your eyes for me, okay sweetheart? Just close ‘em and don’t open them until I say so, or it’ll ruin the surprise~” After a pause she added, “Oh, and let me know when they’re closed, too.”

I sighed, silenced the mean voice in my head that told me I was getting too invested in this, and closed my eyes. Then I hit the enter key.

Immediately, every appliance in my apartment shut off, including my computer. With the noise from my fan and my A/C gone, the unit went dead silent. I froze.

Before my fight-or-flight brain could fully kick into gear, my monitor snapped back on. However, rather than showing the boot screen or the game as I would’ve expected, it flashed intermittently with blinding, meaningless colors, illuminating the room like lightning as the fans began to rapidly accelerate. Each burst of light was accompanied with a sound, a low pulse that seemed to sink directly into my bones. Then, reality decided to shatter.

I watched, still frozen, as fingers wrapped around the edge of my monitor from inside the screen, pushing through it like they were surfacing from underwater. Slowly, they began to pull the screen edge out from itself, stretching it apart like weak metal. Only after the hole had been pulled wide enough to no longer resemble the shape of a monitor did a pastel, lace-up boot, attached to a fishnet-adorned leg, fly out and plant itself on top of my keyboard.

Too stunned to scream, I pushed hard away from my desk, tumbling to the floor along with my desk chair. I only managed to scramble back a meter or so before colliding with the foot of my bed. The figure in the screen, for its part, managed to get its other leg through the hole, and was now trying to move the rest of itself through miniskirt-clad-butt-first, knocking everything from my desk as it did so. After a moment or so of finagling, it had finally extracted itself from my monitor entirely, winded and crouching on the desk.

“Whew… that was a lot more physically taxing than I expected!” the figure chirped, before turning around to reveal a familiar, shining, completely impossibly real smile.

Briefly. The moment she realized that the only other person in the room was a complete stranger, and not her beloved girlfriend, the smile fell from her face- replaced with a glare filled with confusion, fear, worry, and anger.

“Where’s Maple?”