Your phone buzzes against the desk: a new upload, the sound you have learned faster than your own alarm.
He's live. Cipher has posted.
Like the other nine figures watching with you, you press play before you've finished reading the notification. The screen fills with the most famous face nobody has ever fully seen — white hair swept back, a matte black mask over the lower half, electric blue eyes staring straight down the lens at you.
"I've spent years watching people try to get my attention."
His voice is unhurried, low, and it lands like a hand at the back of your neck.
"Comments. Messages. Videos. Declarations of love. I've read every one."
"So tonight I'm doing something different. A challenge."
He leans a fraction closer to the camera, chin resting on one hand.
"I don't care who you are, how many followers you have, or what you look like. If you manage to surprise me, I'll admit it in front of the entire internet."
"And before you ask —"
a smile flickers at the edge of the mask
"— I'm not going to explain the rules, because I don't know them either."
"Good luck."
The screen goes black.
And for the first time since you started following him, you have a real chance. The comment box is already open under the dead screen, the cursor blinking in the dark. Your thumb hovers over the keyboard. You have known exactly what you wanted to say to him for years — and tonight, he might actually read it.