The Comfy Aesthetic
Abigail Kym began as an artist who made her living by developing and selling highly convincing Illusory Decor. Her Decor was often topical, and rode a growing trend of "Comfy Aesthetic", which focused on counterbalancing the rigors and stress of Syndicate life by romanticizing the impact of small comforts.
Abigail had a particular eye for this style. Her storefront was a virtual hub based on her apartment furnished with her decor. Often she would be present—working on a new piece, cuddled up on her couch with a cup of tea, or sleeping.
She sleeps a lot. I left a message on her storefront asking why. I guess she is an agoraphobic, and has fatigue issues from her Bleakheart condition. She said she doesn't mean to broadcast her naps and stuff, but sometimes forgets to close the stream when she's really tired. I know it's weird but I find it kind of relaxing.
I get lonely a lot, so sometimes I just load up her storefront and lay in my bed—her couch—and watch her work or sleep until I pass out. Going by some of the reviews on here I'm not the only one. Her place just feels so... calm.
She could probably be a lifestreamer and make good money on that.
— A comment on her storefront
What began as a way to model and reinforce her goods became popular in its own right as more tuned in just to watch. Abigail, who struggled to turn a worthwhile profit on her decor, capitalized on this.
LifeStreaming
Abigail's storefront became performance art as she spent more time present in it, fulfilling the act of her aesthetic. Sometimes she'd spend the whole day with her stream on as she went about her daily routines of cooking, cleaning, napping, reading, or crafting new decor.
A soft rain pattered against the windows of Abigail's apartment, turning the outside skyline and the rolling mountains beyond into a rippling blur of colors. Sunshine peeked through the clouds and into the space, casting a natural glow onto the waxen, healthy leaves of the many potted plants furnishing her apartment.
I reached out to one of the plants and pressed down on it, enjoying the way the haptics pushed back just right. As someone who had dabbled in Illusory Decor I couldn't fathom how she'd managed to make it so realistic. I added a couple to my cart, and smiled softly at the signed thank you card that appeared, hovering, within my reach.
Thank you for purchasing one of my ferns! ♥
I modeled it after a maidenhair fern, although if you open up its settings you can make it flowering. I know ferns don't flower but I love morning glories and thought they looked so pretty on this.
Thank you again for your patronage. It means so much! ♥—Abigail
The card featured an animation of her forming a heart with her hands as a gentle breeze tugged at her hair.
I swiped the card off to a shelf in my virtual space, then turned to watch her. She lay on the couch, dressed in a white down with a Dickens novel tucked under her arm. Her chest rose and fell softly as she breathed, and a pang of sondering envy and loneliness murmured in my soul.
I summoned a copy of the book—Great Expectations—and sat on her floor, reading it to the gentle tune of the piano emanating from a record player in the corner of the room.
What had began as accidental streaming became a product itself. She began to sell interactions wherin viewers could manifest as holograms within her apartment to join her for tea or sit and listen as she read a book aloud. Much of the decor in her apartment gained interactive elements—viewers could leave tips to change aspects of her decor or have minor interactions with her.
You guys are silly! Did you really bidwar over my fish pond all afternoon? One moment I look and there's swarms of glowing betta, the next it's a koi pond! You guys are so silly, and sweet! Thank you for that, I'm going to donate most of it to a local fish sanctuary.
— Abigail
These interactions escalated as her reputation as a genuine, wholesome Lifestreamer and champion for BleakHeart rights skyrocketed her into galactic popularity. Operating under her fan-chosen name of Sleepy Abigail, she began to get advertising deals, and allowed people to vote, in tips, which sponsored items she would use. As a result of this, her clothing, bedding, meals, makeup, and more became determined by public vote.
The model made her extremely wealthy, but lead to a broad sense of ownership over her person that took a turn for the worst when news came to light that her condition might be false. In light of her advocacy of Bleakheart awareness, this evolved quickly into scandal.
Scandal
Hey viewers! So today I've got a special guest with me here todayyyy. She is a professional Illusory Decor and Yantra artist and she's here to explain to us how Sleepy Abigail is a fucking liar!
— Frankie Fasttalk
Popular Lifestreamer Frankie Fasttalk, whose position as #10 in the Top 10 Lifestreamers listing had been usurped by Sleepy Abigail, broadcasted a live deepdive wherein he revealed Abigail's long sleeping sessions to be illusory fabrications—slightly edited or randomized reruns of previous rests.
His investigation claimed that Abigail had other online identities, and was living multiple lives.
Listen peeps, I know it's hard to hear, but she is lying to you for money. Who knows just how much of her whole routine is fake? She rakes in millions of credits a week alone on people choosing what panties she's gonna wear. You know what she does with those panties when she's done with them? Auctions them off. What she's doing is disgusting exploitation.
In a short span of time vast numbers of people turned against her. Thousands of hot-take videos and memes spawned from the event. Her inbox became a trash-heap of vitriol and predatory commentary.
I thought you were sweet but I guess you're just a whore.
If you really need the money that much, I can take care of you baby.
If your panties are for sale... is the rest of you? ;)
FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE SLUT SLUT SLUT SLUT
I have fatigue issues and I hope you know how much damage you've done to our image. You're a terrible person and deserve to be dragged through the mud and forgotten.
Few streamers dared fight the tide. Fewer were heard.
Proudly Sung, #3 streamer at the time, stood up for Abigail.
Hello Lovelies... I agree that it sucks to be sold a false image but please consider that there's a person on the other side of all of this. This isn't you as a single person scolding her off for a lie, this is you as one voice in a faceless horde of billions all crashing down on her at once. The sentence is so vastly disproportionate to the crime here that it's just... awful.
Last night Abigail closed her stream and storefront for the first time in years, and I am concerned. I know her parents' contact from the holiday stream her and I did together for Bleakheart awareness, so am trying to reach out to them.
The Whole Truth
Proudly Sung did not stream much for the next few days as she investigated Abigail's disappearance from the online space.
When she returned, it was with heavy news and a face weighed down with distress and eyes bloodshot.
Hello Lovelies,
I'm not going to be interacting or taking questions today, I just want to give you a full update on Sleepy Abigail.
There's no easy way to share this, but Abigail's parents found her dead in her apartment six days ago. Her Bleakheart condition had worsened, and she had developed several mutations.
For those of you who don't know, the Bleakheart condition is tied directly to mental health. If you've seen my previous interviews and collaborations with her, or if you've watched her streams, you'll know that her fatigue is... was a part of her condition, and her therapist diagnosed it as a reaction to her agoraphobia.
The collective shaming and attacks of the last month were an immense weight on her mental health. Death threats, shaming, false accusations... the public commentary on her storefront was disgusting. I can't imagine what her private messages looked like. That collective stress exacerbated her Bleak, and psychosomatic mutations began to appear.
She felt lost, alone, and uncertain of the future, and her mutations were getting worse by the day.
Some people assume that all Lifestreamers are totally fake. Yes, what we're doing is often performance, but it's not performance from a void. We're putting ourselves out there, we are opening ourselves to the the cesspool of public commentary.
I try to keep my content pretty wholesome and my tone pretty happy, but right now I am angry. I've never called anyone out before, but I will be directing my income of the last several months towards helping Abby's parents sue Frankie Fasttalk for slander and libel. His investigation turned up some truths, but the rest was a spin.
Yes, Abigail was using reruns. She needed time away from the screen to rest without people watching her, and thanks to her therapy her fatigue was lessening. She was getting better, but was afraid that if she cut back on her sleeping segments, one of her most popular, that she would lose her viewership, and then her sponsorships.
She was selling her used clothes, yes. But not just her panties. And she cleaned them first before auctioning them off to collectors, not just random internet perverts. Do you know what she did with most of that money? She donated it towards mental health groups, animal activism, and finding a cure for Bleak.
And now she's gone, because you didn't want to believe she might be good.
I'll be putting up a full stream on this later. For now I am going to close my stream and take a nap, alone.
— Proudly Sung
D: This was so sad.
Make sure to give the creators you follow some love and support, and remind them that they need a break too. There's more important things than the opinions of the internet, and we all need to accept that everyone needs to disengage from time to time.
Check out my summercamp by going here and checking out any of my gold-star articles!
*hug* Thank you for doing the work of Good in this cautionary tale.