The old man smelled of urine and booze, a living testament to the city's indifference. I walked past barely registered him when I dropped a 10$ bill into the outstretched palm outside the convenience store. Way more than I usually tend to give. A mumbled "God bless you" was the only repayment. I hadn't believed in God since I was a kid, but the phrase felt... sticky. Like a forgotten program reasserting itself.

"Why the fuck did I do that?" I asked myself for a moment before carrying on. When I returned home from the shop the old man had vanished.

Later that night, I was swiping through dating apps, looking to see if I can't get any matches. It's been a couple of months now that I'm single. And things have got to change. After swiping through I got 1 match. Unfortunately, she unmatched after the first message. Bad luck, it happens.

Wanting to unwind a bit before going to sleep I can't help but scroll through Instagram. I see a new story posted by my dreamgirl, the streamer 'Arianne'. I know it's not healthy to have parasocial relationships with online celebrities like that. But by god: she is so pretty.

As I start to relax on the couch, phone still loosely in hand, I start daydreaming about what it would be like to have Arianne here right now. Just then, for some reason, the words of the beggar come to the front of my mind: "God bless you". A slow chuckle escapes my lips but then, suddenly, everything shifts. Even though my eyes are closed, I can hear... footsteps. I open my eyes to see Arianne, standing right in front of me. The same cascading pink hair, the same mischievous smile and the same, tight cosplay outfit she was just posting about in the story I saw.

She stood frozen, her dark eyes wide with confusion. Her skin glowed softly in the moonlight. “What...what is happening?” she whispered, her voice a trembling echo of the one I knew from the stream. “Where am I?”