“Being a liar like that sure is a person kind of thing to do… “ Andrea grumbles. How dare this construction bot trick him! And humiliate him like that! 

INCOMING MESSAGE

FROM: E621-73900-0382998-H103F749G687A981

TO: H07-3243-022-V95M30Y87

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: EFFICACY REPORT FROM H07-3243-022-V95M30Y87

INFORMATIONAL: TECHNIQUE USED TO BE RECOMMENDED FOR ADDITIONAL STUDY

OBSERVATION: INTERACTION SUPPORTIVE OF COLLECTIVE GOALS

MESSAGE ENDS

So saying, the machine turns and departs.

"E621-73900-0382998-H103F749G687A981 said thank you, complimented you, and will ask some Gamma-types what they think about the whole 'pretending to be offended' thing. So... there might be, like, a big formal study about it some time?"

“Can you log my feedback in that it was unpleasant? And would upset organics.” Hopefully now they won’t end up with a bunch of construction bots humiliating Eta’s for science.

"Sure! It's not like we think it's perfect now, after all! But maybe, with a bunch of work, it could become something useful some day?"

There's a bit of a pause, before she continues.

"Now, today's a preparation day, so you don't, like, need to start streaming immediately? But you might want to get everything set up, and spend some time figuring out what you want to do for tomorrow."

“Guess I need to like… plan my debut and stuff… maybe advertise a little” He sits at his new (and very pink) desk and hops on twitter. Using the official account the Eta streaming network gave him.

Valentine_Eta_2ndGen

When he loads into twitter he sees mostly stuff from his gen mates in the streaming network, the content his other gen mates are posting is… well it’s a good thing twitter allows porn. But he will be different! He’s the only one so far in the streaming network identifying as a boy that he knows of. So that already sets him apart.

He still does take cues from his gen mates on how to advertise a streaming Debut, and also he looks at other new streamers and vtubers.

He comments on some posts just to have like, some visibility, and maybe make friends? Or contacts at least. He has to think about what to post as his like… first official post announcing his streaming debut.

The pressure is feeling kinda icky.

It's not only porn, though there certainly is a lot of that.

As Andrea well knows, the Appearance rule states that Etas must be 'cute' or 'sexy'. 'Sexy' is certainly popular, and plenty of Etas have enthusiastically embraced that paradigm... but there are also plenty who join him in avoiding 'sexy' to double-down on 'cute' instead. This is notably common among Handheld and Laptop models; many of whom regularly post pictures and video of elaborate cosplay, pet antics, magical girl duels, artfully-arranged meals, and 'vacation' scenes. Though it's arguably not exactly a 'vacation' if it's their job to travel, quite a lot of Etas are hurling themselves into touristy activities (somewhat obviously so that they can take over the hospitality and tourism industries in the near future).

Andrea just wants chill stream vibes. Probably mostly videogame content, he took the gaming upgrade when being converted for a reason.

@Valentine_Eta_2ndGen

Hi! I’m Valentine and I’ll be debuting as part of the second wave of Eta steamers! Generation 2! Unlike Hololive or nijisanji we don’t really have any themes to our gens though… But I have a theme! I’m the only boy in my gen mates! Come hang out for chill videogame streams and wholesome vibes. Hopefully see you at 6pm central tomorrow!

Hopefully he gets a decent response to it? Eta class streamers were not that common yet… so it should get some attention?

Within about half an hour, there is a retweet from @Camellia_Eta_2ndGen, a fellow streamer who's been busy on social media as well.

She's a Super model, and a quick check of her own stream-related posting shows that she's been exclusively streaming H-games, most recently including Wolf's Dungeon... and after a quick glance shows the #ryona tag, and a glimpse at the first frame of her last video shows a pixellated rendering of a torture chamber, that's quite clearly more than Andrea wants to know about the subject!

A quick message follows up the retweet:

@Camellia_Eta_2ndGen

Welcome aboard, @Valentine_Eta_2ndGen! Have you figured out what game you'll be streaming first, yet?

Torture scary! Andrea can’t even watch horror movies. He doesn’t like to kinkshame but…. He’s judging. He kinda expects that kind of thing from most other Eta’s though… why didn’t more people stay relatively normal? Like him? He will be nice and reply though. 

@Valentine_Eta_2ndGen

The usual sort of games at first until I figure out my audience. Modded Minecraft, rythm games, whatever the latest meme challenge game is thats not horror. 

@Camellia_Eta_2ndGen

Challenge games, eh? #TheEndIsNigh has been getting a lot of play lately, sort of ironically. It's short enough to be finished in a single stream, if you're not a completionist-type.

@Valentine_Eta_2ndGen

Based on the title… are we even allowed to play that? Wont you know who get annoyed? I have enough trouble keeping her happy.

Before Andrea manages to post that, he gets interrupted.

"Her partner gave me the deets! It's not a very cute game... but apparently, there was, like, a bunch of really depressing religious stuff under that hashtag before? So they decided to displace it with cute Etas playing a game and laughing about all the grim doominess and such? You don't have to, but it is, like, an officially-sanctioned Propaganda thing now."

@Valentine_Eta_2ndGen

I guess if its a popular challenge game I’ll check it out?

Promoting Eta’s is actually the job… and drowning out religious crap probably can’t be too bad a thing.

Meanwhile, there's been a few responses to Andrea's first tweet.

@xXxFemboyFan69xXx

pics plz?

@Alex_Eta_2ndGen

"I’m the only boy in my gen mates!"

I can fix that!

🤣💖🥚🍳

@HughMann932848

Earth is for Humans! TrEtas GTFO!

Well… he knows who amongst his gen mates to avoid.

Ignore pics guy.

Reply to hughmann:

It’s not a choice bud. You saw the takeover day messages. Making Eta’s are the whole reason they took us over in the first place. 

Does this asshole think he wanted this? Oh yeah sure lets let the alien robots rob me of my humanity and force me to act cute. Thats a great weekend! Asshole.

Andrea's reply bounces to the "Account Suspended" page.

Oof yeah… the Yeone sure are the ones running twitter now. Andrea wonders which of the catgirl Eta’s Elon ended up becoming… 

"If you want, I can put in a personal harassment complaint against that guy for you? It'd get him, like, bumped up the priority list and such."

“No! Thats fine!” Nobody deserves this. “They’ll get around to him eventually. It’s fine.”

"Hmph, if you say so."

Andrea fucks around on twitter a little longer. Following some of the remaining human streamers who seemed fun or hot. He posts one of the professionally done PR pics they took of him back at the conversion center and then goes to bed.

The next day is nothing but nervous excitement as his debut stream gets closer and closer. He checks twitter constantly to see if anyone is mentioning it. He posts another reminder of when his Debut stream will be.

If he still had adrenal glands the anxiety would be giving him a panic attack. He triple checks he has all the right software installed internally (since he IS the pc).

Since Andrea's original tweet, there have been a few shoutouts from other Eta streamers. The most wholesome of these was from Miya, a new 2ndGen Handheld streamer, who has done exactly one stream so far (a super-cute thing where she was playing Animal Crossing while dressed as a catgirl and working in an animal shelter; it helps that she was playing hands-free). There's a bit of teasing from the lewder Etas, including a few bets about how long the 'wholesome' part will last, but nothing too rude. The most popular streamer to @ Andrea is Noelle, a 1stGen streamer who has been organizing Mario-adjacent multiplayer streaming things multiple times a day every day for the last couple of weeks (which would be wholesome except for the part where there are apparently livestream-exclusive 'penalties' for the losers). Noelle doesn't sleep, has been working a 140-hour week catering to audiences in multiple time zones, and has in fact managed to get herself assigned a 2ndGen as a personal maid. Every 1stGen Eta streamer has made a guest appearance on her stream at one point or another; guest slots for the 2ndGens are available on a first-come-first-served basis.

A trickling in of likes and fan comments marks the general hype, with comments ranging from game suggestions ("I Wanna Be The Guy", "Monmusu Quest"), to the perpetually horny (more pic requests, some femboy memes, plus someone posted a zoomed and cropped close-up of Andrea's crotch with his groin circled with the caption "Danger: Concealed Weapon"), to the challenge game fans ("Baby streamer? Blind #TheEndIsNigh LP? Sounds fun!", "Yeah, it's funny watching robots get mad and try not to swear!"), to those asking intrusive personal questions ("What was your conversion like?", "How do you like your new body?").