The Great Twitch Stream Unraveling

"Jovencita, ten cuidado por donde pisas.”

An older villager attempts to politely warn twitch celebrity Esmeralda Acuna-Cardona, widely known by her Twitch handle “c@lientapolla$”, about walking over an old burial ground. The charismatic yet malevolent Latina was visiting the improvised area in what was officially described as a “charitable stream”, where all proceeds would go to the local infrastructure. Or at least officially.

“What the hell is he saying?” Esmeralda asked her local translator in an irritated manner, faking a smile with her pristine, bleached teeth.

“Uh, ma’am, he asked you to watch your step. The man was just warning you about the customs of our deity, Maximón. He is the...”

“Fuck, this shit again? I already told you, I don’t care about their dead grandmas haunting us or whatever! Let's just get this tour over with.”

Esmeralda did not bother to conceal her contempt for the crowd, the environment, or even her translator. Since few in the village spoke much English, Esmeralda insisted on hiring a local translator in an attempt to minimize any direct conversation with just about everyone. With just over 1.5 million followers on Twitch, the young woman’s quick rise to relative fame had elevated her already borderline-narcissistic qualities. A first generation American, Esmeralda’s parents were both immigrants who rose from nothing to provide a stable, upper-middle class upbringing for their only child. Despite this positive environment growing up, her mother and father both worked demanding jobs, which limited their availability to be around their daughter for much of her childhood. As a result, Esmeralda was raised by a revolving-door of nannies and babysitters who gave her everything she asked for.

This environment cultivated Esmeralda into a bit of an attention-seeker. While definitely attractive, she developed a keen sense of how to manipulate others, especially those of the opposite sex. As a teenager the young beauty grew weary of the limited attention she was getting from school, so she turned to the Internet. Her calculating nature allowed her to quickly amassed a huge following, built on the foundation of her biggest asset...

“Holllaaa mis amigos, and welcome to San Distraído for those just tuning in! I’m here visiting this great, great place to raise money for these poor, poor children!”

Esmeralda exaggeratedly pinches the cheeks of a little boy from the following entourage of villagers. Her curly black hair was neatly formed into her signature hairstyle, two distinguishable buns on each side of her head.

“I will take you, all my lovelies, on a live tour of this historic ground. Please remember to follow, and all donations will go directly to helping this nasty dump!”

Esmeralda’s translator, a local young teen named Emilio, silently cringed at her last statement. While Esmeralda was paying him pennies compared to what the stream was destined to make her in donations, the boy could ill-afford to pass up on the money that could help his family immediately. However, as the day goes on, the spoiled streamer becomes more and more contemptuous of her surroundings. Due to her upbringing, Esmeralda only learned a few token phrases in Spanish. She was only exposed to wealth growing up, and her relative success in streaming had given her an air of superiority even back home. Now, she felt that she was practically around cavemen, but the PR stunt was too good to pass up. Besides, no one here knew how many tens of thousands of dollars she is going to make from donations on this stream alone. The fact that she would only donate a few hundred dollars to who she expected would be grateful idiots only heightened her superiority complex.

The tour continued uninterrupted, as the crowd of villagers eagerly followed the young streamer, as requested. Her snide, rude remarks continued, and Emilio followed along seething with anger. He could never understand how so many men could throw away their hard-earned money to her, without even getting to talk to her once. However, he definitely understood why so many watched her.