Elara sat frozen for ten minutes. Finally, she opened her streaming software. Her chat was suddenly exploding—hundreds of viewers.
She looked at her webcam’s preview. Her own reflection smiled back—a full three seconds before she smiled.
The software's text overlay automatically populated: "MANYCAM 8.1.0.3 - NEW SOURCE DETECTED: THE UNHINGED. RENDER MODE: 60FPS. LATENCY: ZERO."
Her face appeared on the preview screen, but something was different. A new tab had appeared in the source menu: .
"Who's the guy behind you?" "Dude, your lighting is insane, you look like you're in two places at once." "What filter is that? Your reflection isn't matching your movements."