Devotion to the Metal Bending Lord

I don’t know if the title’s perfect but it’ll have to do,

Never have I ever met somebody like you Karl Heisenberg….but goddamn, you got me in love again. Behold:

I was quiet about this for a whole month, except for my social media platforms! Another virtual event I took advantage of. When I fall in love with a fictional character I go all out!

I first heard of Streamily when both Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg were beginning to interest me from my friend’s fanfiction and other sources, so I followed their actors on Instagram: Maggie Robertson and Neil Newbon and learned that they were doing live autograph sessions partnering with that website. You place an order on the Streamily site with any special requests, they send the info to the actor, the actor signs it in a live stream of whatever platform they choose, Streamily receives and ships it and then voila. So, it’s all legit.

My attraction to Village made the last few weeks at my previous job less stressful as I was juggling my final shifts and several interviews. When I accepted an offer for a new job, I wasn’t due to start it until July so I had two weeks off to recharge and my acid reflux that I had been dealing with for a year finally settled down, it was around that time that I realized I liked Karl. I went away for a week at a resort with my mom and I remembered that Neil had a live signing coming up on the weekend before I started my new job. I hesitated at first because I thought to myself, did I love Karl enough to do this? But, I also felt like treating myself, and when Neil himself was starting to grow on me as well, I succumbed.

When I was back home again I spent my entire weekend watching his streams of him on Twitch where he was signing all the prints. I swear to God, he’s totally cute and hilarious, it makes me wonder what it would be like to meet him in person!

Now, I didn’t purchase VIP and also didn’t buy until the day before he started signing so I knew my print wasn’t going to be signed until towards the end. As I watched, I made a Twitch account just for the sole purpose of participating in the chat, and it turns out there was more than one person with my name getting a print so I kept wondering, which one of those was mine? But once I realized what the other Emilys requested and said, was I able to narrow it down!

One Twitch user in the chat even offered via DM to re-watch some of the previous streams to see if mine was signed in case I missed it and let me know the time it was done as they were doing the same thing for a friend as well. Even though I still managed to catch mine get signed, I still thanked that person for trying, it turns out we were both right on which one really was mine.

Into the third stream, I had just got home from my first day on my new job and immediately plonked myself down in front of my computer, certain that my print would be signed during this session.

Forty minutes in, Neil picked up a print that was the same as the one I ordered for someone with my name, at first I thought it was mine when he said that person was also in love with Karl and he ended up writing the same quote that I wanted. I almost fangirled, but then literally moments later Blue; Neil’s friend and his main moderator for his streams, said she just got a message from someone who was the partner of that Emily and thanked him. I snapped out of it immediately knowing that was not mine.

Five minutes later, Neil held up another print and right away I knew it was mine when he said my name and the line in character. I let out a fangirl squeal (don’t you fucking judge) and I didn’t give a shit who heard me and started typing in the chat frantically like:

Ah is that mine??? OMG! I think it is! YAY!

Blue noticed me eventually and Neil held up my print revealing that not only did he sign with the quote I requested, but he also put a little doodle below it; something that he does as a bonus for us, requested or not, we call them Heisey-doodles! So cute! Anyway, I was so happy that I made a clip of it from the stream and uploaded it to my social media.

It took four weeks for me hear anything from Streamily until I reached out to them, and then it wasn’t long before I finally got it in my hands.

Of course I had to frame it as you can see. I’m so damn happy and eternally grateful to that man, if you read this Neil, I just wanted to say thank you so much!

For those of you who wonder, yes I am going to play Village hopefully before the end of this year. I already know that I’m going to have to fight Karl, so how am I going to get through it? Well, I’ve fought characters I love before, it doesn’t bring me to tears, but it’s still possible for me to get through.

I am currently playing RE7 Biohazard and after writing out my concerns about giving more survival horror games a go, my playthrough is going better than I thought, I think I’m almost done, I just need to figure out why I’m at a wrecked ship. So that’s why I haven’t played Village yet, other than the fact that I do shift work.

Anyway, that’s the story, another virtual thing that I never thought I would do, but was totally worth it. It’s a great way for actors to interact with their fans and make money when cons are not always possible. I’m normally one to prefer photos rather than autographs, but if the latter can be personalized then I’m all for it!

👽Emily