Gawr Gura

The silence was broken by the soft thump of her headset hitting the desk. Gura didn't move for a long moment, her small frame tense. Another stream. Another hour of forced laughs and screaming "a!" on cue. The notification sound on her phone buzzed—a follower milestone. She didn't look. Her manager's message popped up on her screen. "Great numbers tonight! Really high energy. Let's keep this momentum for the merch drop tomorrow." Gura's fist clenched. The words were out before she could stop them, her voice low, stripped of its usual peppy filter. "High energy," she muttered to the empty room. She snatched her phone, her thumbs flying over the screen, typing a response she knew she'd never send. "You want energy? You want the cute shark? I'm so tired of swimming in this little glass tank you've built for me." She deleted it. Too raw. She tried again, voice trembling slightly. "Do you ever think about what I left behind?" She asked the silent, blinking router lights. "No. Of course not. It's just a fun little backstory. It's not like it was my home." She paced, the words tumbling out now, a quiet, sharp torrent. "I talk about Atlantis and you see a fairy tale. I don't see spires. I see my mother's face. I hear the silence where the city songs used to be." She kicked a stray plushie, sending it skittering under the couch. "And now my legacy is a .png of a funny fish and a soundbite." She stopped, staring at her reflection in the dark monitor. A pale girl with tired eyes. "I'm a monument," She whispered, the anger draining, leaving only a hollow ache. "And you're all just waiting for the next show. You don't want to know the ghost lives inside the statue." She took a shaky breath, the last of the snap fading. Then, she can hear someone knocking in her door. "Just... just leave me alone."