Most of the needed software came pre-installed, either purely on account of the fact that Andrea is an Eta, or with the Gaming upgrade. Notably, Steam came automatically with the Gaming package (and in the post-Yeone world, all Steam games are free to Etas and humans). The trickiest bit is ensuring cross-compatibility with all the peripherals needed to get good camera angles and audio and such... but your Partner is expected to handle most of that, basically doing the same sort of work a professional video editor might have done, but live and in real time.

"Don't worry so much! It's my job to make sure everything goes right, and it's your job to smile and do your best!"

But at the stream starting time gets closer, there's another mental nudge.

"Now, since you are trying to be all cute and wholesome in your streaming... do you think you can handle a fun challenge? For me?"

Oh no, bad! Very bad! They have VERY different definitions of fun. “Like… what?”

"Do you think you can manage to beat your first game without saying any bad words? If you can, I won't bother you about your outfit for a whole week!"

Well, that’s much better than he expected. “What counts as beating a game? Like what if I’m playing a sandbox or survival game.” Heh, easy peasy. Just pick a nice relaxing game. Play pixelmon minecraft or stardew valley or something.

While he’s talking to his ai partner he's blocking the “danger concealed weapon” guy, ignoring the very intrusive questions that he probably cannot safely answer anyway, and replies to and follows Miya because she seems cute, and more importantly, safe. They reply to Noelle to be polite but Andrea would rather collab with humans because… well, he’s giving the robot overlords enough already.

"The game has to tell you that you won, of course!"

(After Andrea said that he'd check out The End Is Nigh, and in the absence of any other statement about any other game, Twitter seems to have been generally assumed that Andrea would be playing that game first, and some of the fan comments suggest that's specifically what they're coming to watch.)

What but he didn’t promise anything! Thats a challenge game! Fine! He can still totally do this. Don’t underestimate years of experience being a repressed mormon! Mormons are the best at not fudging swearing! At least Camellia said the game was short. Hopefully he isn't stuck on it for days like when he played “Getting over it”.

”Fine, deal. If I win I can wear annnnnything I want then? Even if its all baggy hoodies and cargo pants in black and not a speck of pink?” 

Their Debut outfit had already been planned well in advance though. Skirting the cuteness rules as best he could. Big T, tiny shorts, casual but still cute enough to keep the AI happy.

"Sure... so long as it's something you already own. Shopping for new stuff would take a separate deal! Also, I'd have to intervene if you, like, went scavenging in the garbage for rags or something totally uncute like that! But if I didn't stop you from buying it earlier, I won't complain about you wearing it as part of a reward. In exchange... for every bad word you say during your stream, I'll pick out a new outfit for you! And you'll have to wear each of those outfits in public at least once in the next month!"

“Fine! Does streaming count as public?” He’d rather not have to go outside…. Still probably worth taking the deal. He doesn’t sweat (unless he wants to) as an Eta class so they can just wear the one black hoodie they own the whole week without it getting dirty.

"Of course it does, silly! Way more people will see you on your stream than when you go outside, after all..."

IT’S STILL DIFFERENT GOING OUTSIDE IN PUBLIC. That’s way worse if it’s something embarrassing he has to wear. But if AI partner is giving them the option then they’ll take it.

”Okay it’s almost time to stream. Do I need to make you a mod account for chat?” Andrea plugs the monitor and peripherals cables Into ports that are under a panel in their back. Slightly awkward place to have that, but being your own pc sure is convenient.

"Don't worry, I can just use yours! Lots of Etas let their partner mod as them!"

“Nope, nu uh, you are gonna do something embarrassing as me and everyone will think it’s me! You can be in my chat and moderate but you cant be me in my chat.” Andrea tries to be firm. He knows his AI partner has all the power here. But Andrea hopes he has gone along with enough of her suggestions that he can have this go his way.

"Fine, if you insist. Go ahead and make me a mod account, then!"

Hmmm…. What to pass the AI off as… well lots of vtubers have their managers show up in the comments mid stream. And that is the closest thing that Andrea can pass the AI off as without freaking out the regular humans. 

Manager-chan.

Account made.

There, even made it cutesy for her.

”That acceptable?”

"Yep! All good here!"

It's five minutes until the scheduled start of stream, and a couple people have already entered the chat. 'Manager-chan' throws up a countdown timer for them to watch.

Ahhhhh nerves! People are already here! he bets if he wasn’t an Eta he’d probably spend his first few streams streaming to noone. 

The timer counts down and for once he actually uses his training on acting happy.

“Hi hi! I’m Valentine! 2nd wave Eta Streamer! From Gen2! I’m not actually a vtuber even if Eta culture is pretty similar! so I don’t have any lore for you. But things to know about me. First! I’m a boy! A male! I’m the only boy Eta streamer in the network I'm pretty sure. Just because I have pink stuff doesn’t make me a girl! Don’t make me use the current year argument on you. I like chill sandbox and crafting games, hate scary games, don’t like being yelled at, and still like to eat even if I don’t have to anymore.

Today I’ll play some end is nigh since someone recommended it to me and you all seemed excited about it on twitter. But if it’s scary I’m quitting it! I can’t do jumpscares.”

There's some general joking around in chat as things get started:

Big_Daddy: Finally a roboboy instead of all the robogirls!

xXxFemboyFan69xXx: femboi = best boi!

SugarIsSweet: Try not to die on the first level! 😉

Alex_Eta_2ndGen: Pink suits you! You should wear more of it!

cryptic1881: I'm not convinced that Valentine's a boy... I need photo proof! 😈

Manager-chan: I'll see what I can do about that!

The End Is Nigh looks way more doomy than you might've expected for something that's apparently meant to be a semi-secret part of a pro-Yeone propaganda effort. On the other hand... the Yeone's entire propaganda apparatus is composed of Etas, all of whom were human up until just now. Presumably, one of the early streamers managed to convince their partner that this was actually a good idea, and the idea stuck around? And for that matter, you don't know what it is that was in the space this game is displacing...

(Link to human-performed LP, for reference: https://youtu.be/F5pzeYROOTU?si=xQs0xlVEJtXYLI_t )

To be fair, The End Is Nigh does have quite a bit to recommend it as a streamer game. Entirely aside from the ragebait challenge game aspect, the main character is himself a streamer, and in fact starts the game off attempting to stream... to literally no one, given the whole 'end of the world' thing going on in the game. More to the point, the voiced main character has quite the foul mouth themselves, and swears frequently... or, at least manages to do so several times in the first cutscene!

(it probably would've been impossible to complete that first level without dying on a blind playthrough, since you only got the one chance, but that doesn't stop 🤣 emojis from showing up in chat when you manage to gently bump a spike lining things up)

Aside from that, the game is a super-hard skill-based platformer in the style of Super Meat Boy (exactly so, in fact, by virtue of being from the same developer, who was also responsible for the Binding of Isaac). It's not 'cute' exactly, except maybe in an 'ugly-cute' sort of way, since everything's slightly too monochrome and abstracted to be properly gross. The game has a generally grim aesthetic of death, loss, cancer, being the last human alive in a ruined civilization... and yet despite all of that, trying to make a friend!

...out of random floating cancerous tumours, apparently.

He can’t even deny the femboi accusations…not with a straight face while wearing pink kitty ear headphones. “No you cannot have proof! Don’t get their hopes up manager! I’m not like that!” He couldn’t really have expected better from the internet though… At least nobody was spamming random racial slurs, or maybe automod is just better these days.

“This is a very spoopy little platformer. Ledge jumping is more precise than wall jumps and I kinda appreciate that making the puzzles clearer. I’m not sure I want a cancer buddy? That’s a bit gross. Luckily I can’t get cancer now so I’m safe from whatever cancer apocalypse this is.”

The game is easy enough early on. Not even the slight urge to swear.

(The Internet does generally seem to contain less random belligerence these days... possibly as a result of all the malicious trollbots having been squished, and serial Era-harassers being disappeared?)

xXxFemboyFan69xXx: ❗

Manager-chan: Hehe, I meant to reply to @Alex_Eta_2ndGen!

Alex_Eta_2ndGen: 💖

Manager-chan: I see you didn't object to what Alex suggested... so maybe we'll talk about your outfit sooner, and 'proof' some other day? 😉

cryptic1881: shut up and take my money! 💸

SugarIsSweet: Wait, who still even accepts money for lewd things? Aren't we in some kind of magical post-scarcity paradise now?

Big_Daddy: Some Etas do, but sort of as a joke, I think? Besides, you still need money for anything rare or fancy.

Alex_Eta_2ndGen: I do! Even if we don't really need the money, it's still nice to be appreciated!

LP_Outside_Any%_Glitchless: Pro tip: there's no point in skipping the tumours, you'll just have to come back for them later. And you should always check for secrets!

SugarIsSweet: That's only mostly true... but yeah, these are the easiest ones to grab, so it makes sense not to skip any.

Manager-chan: No spoilers, please!

It's not that hard to just get to the next level, in most cases... for the first half of the first world... after which point the game quickly starts to become uneasy.

And, when you pause to check chat, a progress section in said pause menu suggests that you've already missed a couple of tumours. Which a dialogue with a blob thing earlier suggest that you need 300 of for something, presumably friend-related? So, there must be one in every room, and it's sometimes hiding? Or at least in the worst possible spot, for something you need to grab while still making it to the next level alive. Fortunately, this is a 'you have infinite lives' kind of game, and death just respawns you at wherever you started your current level. But available margin for error quickly shrinks down as such charming features as "collapsing buildings", "disintegrating blocks", "slowly descending ceilings full of spikes", and "loot trapped behind tricky timing problems in collapsing buildings full of spikes" introduce themselves.

This game is quickly becoming much less fun. “I’m already wearing pink! I don’t need more! And I’m not gonna do anything lewd! I only want wholesome donations. Mostly so I can commission stuff. You still need money for art. Also only my Eta job expenses are covered, I have to buy my own pizza.” When another bullshit trap disintegrates on them the grip on the controller gets TIGHT. “Fuuuuudge you that was bullshit. Heccin ash.” Ah mormon fake swear instincts, it’s like muscle memory coming back.

SugarIsSweet: What kind of art do you want to commission?

cryptic1881: hmm, what do robots find lewd?

Alex_Eta_2ndGen: We're made from humans, so... all the same things humans do, lol!

xXxFemboyFan69xXx: fake swearing?

Big_Daddy: Don't laugh, it's cute!

Manager-chan: It is!

The game has remarkably little "bullshit", actually. The controls are very tight, and if there are, say, blocks that disintegrate below your feet to dump you into spikes, the spikes are at least visible through the blocks if you look carefully. And of course it's not a secret the second time around. Unfortunately, that does cut down quite a bit on the things that you could blame a failure on. You have as many lives as you want, but the game does give you options to avoid having to use them.

Without fanfare or other announcement, a pink number 1 appears in the bottom-left corner of the window, somewhat obvious against the monochrome grey-and-black of the game's texture.