"What are you planning to do now?" Rick asks through the phone, his voice obviously concerned.
"Stay in this shitty apartment, and hide until everything blows over."
"Do you think it will ever blow over, dude?"
"..."
Cassiel couldn't answer.
Because in just a week, Cassiel's life has gone to hell.
Absolute hell.
And he wasn't even being dramatic, because everything went to shit.
Not even the straight-to-the-toilet-bowl kind, but the painful, thirty-minute, heavy-breathing kind.
First, a brand new YouTube account called "BlackBunny," not even a day old, posted an hour-long video about "Pink Bunny."
No, about Cassiel Vance.
It was titled "PINK BUNNY: EXPOSED," the real truth about who he was.
"Pink Bunny isn't a beautiful woman, she isn't even a woman."
An anonymous, AI-sounding man explained, showing pictures of his VTuber persona alongside his actual face.
"He is a man named Cassiel Vance, a college dropout who bought this avatar online. We hacked Cassiel Vance, traced the purchase to his bank, and confirmed it with his ID."
Apparently, they were a group dedicated to exposing Pink Bunny. A bunch of creeps who probably wanted to see the girl behind the screen, but ended up disappointed.
And now, they wanted revenge.
Nobody even questioned the account's reasons. Nobody questioned how they managed to hack his purchases in the first place.
Everyone who watched that video only saw one thing.
That Pink Bunny was a fraud.
"Is it still trending?" Cassiel asks, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as he stares at his dark, dirty, small studio apartment.
"Everywhere," Rick answers. "More people are talking about it, even on the news. You've gone worldwide and media-wide. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, and even Instagram Reels. The comments are brutal."
"Shit," Cassiel mutters under his breath, his free hand wiping his face. "Yeah, my life is ruined."
"Hey, it's… it probably won't be that bad, dude. Marcus Hale and God knows who else may have threatened to sue, but my girlfriend said they can't actually sue you without losing more money themselves. You never outright said you were a woman. Sure, you used an avatar, but that's like every VTuber ever."
Rick explains it calmly, but it doesn't make Cassiel worry any less.
"You already paid him back, right?"
"I paid back what I could," Cassiel answers.
"That's what's important," Rick says, then sighs. "I know it's hard, and I know everyone's against you right now, dude, but there's nothing you and I can do."
"Easy for you to say," Cassiel snaps. "You've got to pretend you never knew. You got away scot-free. So just—"
Cassiel ends the call.
He doesn't let Rick speak.
He doesn't let himself keep talking either, because he's angry.
But he still knows better than to take it out on the only friend he has, and the only one who hasn't shamed the life out of him.
Even his own parents had shunned him, calling him a disgrace to their family.
'As if I hadn't sent more money than they can spend in the last couple of months.'
"Ah, fuck it. Fuck this," Cassiel groans as he throws his phone onto the ground and gets up from the dirty old couch. "Everyone's treating me like a fucking villain, but I never forced anyone to donate all that cash or watch my content. I was swimming in money they were willing to spend."
Now, he barely has anything left for food.
He had to move into a shitty apartment and sell most of his stuff just to get by.
He can't go out without someone recognizing him as the 'scammer from the news.'
He can't even go home to his parents.
Cassiel sighs as he glances at his kitchen table. "At least I still have good ol' beer," he mutters to himself as he gets up.
'When life goes to shit, might as well drink it down with it.'
And he did.
He drank.
And he drank.
And he drank some more.
He drank so much that he got the confidence to look through all the comments people had said about him using a brand new account.
"I feel like a lot of us knew that Pink Bunny was a scam, she acted a little too disgustingly cutesy," Cassiel slurs as he reads a comment from a Facebook group that used to be dedicated to Pink Bunny, but has now turned into a hate group. "Hah. If a lot of people knew, I wouldn't have earned so much, asshole."
Cassiel scrolls through other posts.
Nestor Peterson
I think we're judging that Cassiel guy too much? Sure, he pretended to be a cute girl, but in this economy? Shit. I'd do it too for that kind of fame and money.
"Finally, someone with a fucking brain," Cassiel mumbles, immediately liking the post.
Crypto Jomari
I spent $300 for a fucking shoutout only to find out it was a man with a voice changer! We're all not angry enough. I would've burnt that guy's house down, but I heard the little bitch switched apartments.
"Someone with 'Crypto' in their name shouldn't be commenting on what I did!" Cassiel yells at his phone as if they could hear him.
He knows they can't, but it still feels good to respond somehow.
"Oh, look, pretty boy is using a hate group to promote himself as if he doesn't already have enough followers," Cassiel narrows his eyes as he takes a sip of his beer and scrolls to a specific post.
Marcus Hale
Update: I got payment from Cassiel Vance and an 'apology' in exchange for not suing. I don't know if there's genuine remorse, but what I do know is that moving forward, we should be careful about who we trust and idolize. That's why all those who were fans of that wretched Pink Bunny are welcome to my channel, where I post quality gaming content every day. #MarcusHale #MCHaleGaming
"God. I really hate this guy."
Marcus had sent him hundreds of emails and threats, even sent his fans after him, just to get a response.
Cassiel had no plans of responding at first, but since Marcus was famous and Cassiel's whole life had been aired out, Rick advised him to give whatever he could to show "remorse."
At the very least, to lessen the trouble he was in.
Cassiel keeps scrolling through whatever shit people are saying about him. Most of it is the same. Some of it actually stings.
Some of it is just plain annoying.
There are a few people who sympathize with him or try to understand his situation, but most of them get buried under hate comments.
After almost an hour of scrolling, Cassiel is done.
He's done until he sees one more post from someone he vaguely recognizes.
From Precious Heart.
That's Rick's girlfriend.
"My boyfriend, Rick used to be Cassiel Vance's moderator for his Twitch and his Discord server. He also served as some sort of unpaid manager," Cassiel reads. "My poor boyfriend was scammed into being that person's free laborer, and now he's getting hate on Discord for even being associated—this fucking bitch!"
Cassiel pushes himself off the couch. "I PAID Rick good fucking money, and just because he hid it from her, now she's saying shit like this? She doesn't even know anything!"
Maybe it's the anger building up inside him.
Mostly the alcohol.
Cassiel musters up the courage to type out a response, to tell that bitch the truth her boyfriend could never tell her because, well, she was a bitch.
"Your boyfriend actually got a lot of money from Pink Bunny, isn't that why you're wearing a big, fat, ugly BUT expensive necklace on your—"
Knock.
Knock.
Cassiel's finger freezes mid-typing, his eyes darting toward the door.
"Who is it?" Cassiel asks.
No answer, just—
Knock.
Knock.
'The hell?' Cassiel thinks as he gets up from the couch.
"I said, who is it?"