By Pesteng Ahem
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Thank you to @Jerry_Dela_Torre for the idea and help with the character.
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These are stories about life during the extended community quarantine. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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My name is Alysson Chua. I am a 22-year-old student pursuing a degree in business and economics at the St Claire’s Institute of Higher Education. This is the story of my experience during the ECQ.
I’ve always been cute, but during my adolescence, I realised that I hit the genetic jackpot. I shot up to 5’7″ and my boobs started to balloon. I endured some teasing from my friends, but I liked how the boys (and some of the male teachers) couldn’t stop looking at my tits. I realised early on that I had an innate ability to attract people. By the time I reached senior high school, I knew the value of form. I started to learn how to cultivate my social media image. I studied the channels of people who were popular and tried to see what would work for me. I found that careful shots of my cleavage and butt — nothing too vulgar — resulted in hundreds of followers. The more I teased, the more followers I got. It was a high that I wanted to continue.
People say that chasing likes is a shallow way to live. I disagree. I get to travel, eat at fancy places, get sent merchandise (some personalised) for free, and meet many new people from around the world. Being a social media influencer is hard work and it’s not for everyone, but it is for me.
The hardest part of my life is that I need to complete my degree. I promised them that I would graduate from college. I am now in my third year and have to juggle a full social media business while taking a full credit load.
My brother Angelo is three years older than me. Kuya Gelo graduated with a degree in IT from STI and was working in the IT department of a small hotel. He was rather miserable because he had been unable to secure better work and better pay. He was complaining to me about it during a late-night chat session. I reciprocated by moaning the difficulty I had maintaining my studies and my social media responsibilities at the same time.
“Bakit hindi ka mag-hire ng assistant, Lys? Marami ka namang pera.”
“Gusto ko ngang humanap ng assistant, Kuya Gelo, pero ang hirap kumuha ng wastong tao. Dapat organised siya at marunong sa IG at FB at Twitter. Kailanag rin marunong siyang kumuha ng pictures at gumamit ng Photoshop. Dapat marunong siyang mag-edit ng mga video para sa mga vlog ko. Tapos kailangan rin niya ng sense of humour. Wala pa akong mahanap na taong magfifit sa requirements ko. Tinaasan ko na nga ang offer ko, eh.”
“Magkano ba ang offer mo?”
“50,000 petot a month.”
“HA! Ako na lang ang personal assistant ko, Lys.”
“Ha? Akala ko ba na may balak kang magabroad?”
“Oo nga, pero mahirap ngayon makakuha ng job offer. Imbis na call centre ang bagsak ko, ihire mo na lang ako. Nagtrain naman ako sa mga kailangan mo.”
“Maiilang ako, Kuya, kung ikaw yung personal assistant ko. Ang dami mong gagawin, tapos kuminsan uutusan pa kita.”
“Okay lang yun, Lys. At least sure ka na aalagaan kita at hindi kita madadala sa hamak. Pleeeasee! Ayoko na talaga sa trabaho ko.”
“Nakakahiya naman, Kuya.”
“Pleeeaseee, Lys!”
“Hindi ko alam…”
“Magtrial lang tayo. Hihingi ako ng leave ng two weeks tapos subukan natin kung magwowork. Pleeease!”
“Okok. Try lang natin.”
Hiring Kuya Gelo as my personal assistant turned out to be a good idea. That’s wrong — it was a GREAT idea. He was quite proficient with shooting photos and videos as well as post-production work. He understood the algorithms used by social media platforms, so he optimised my feed to enable my posts to appear prominently. He set up a website and worked with graphic designers to create an individualised look. He launched and carefully cultivated my brand. He managed my finances, carefully organised my calendar, and kept me disciplined. In the end, he went from being a personal assistant to my manager.
Under Kuya Gelo’s guidance and help, my social media presence exploded. He managed to find ways to monetise this popularity and found new income streams. His careful management allowed me to buy a large, three-bedroom condo unit at Robinsons Magnolia Residences. I liked the location because it was close to a mall and very near St Claire’s campus in New Manila. It was recommended to me by my cousin, Grace, who lived a few floors down. I took the master bedroom, Kuya took the second and we converted the remaining bedroom into a studio/IT room. We even brought Grace in as my stylist.
That was two years ago. Life was good. Then, the ECQ changed everything.
“Lys, may problema tayo.” Kuya Gelo looked worried one morning. I just completed a streaming session that began at midnight. I wasn’t really in the mood for the bad news. “Magiimpose daw ng lockdown ng buong Luzon. Bawal daw ang mag-travel. Hindi tayo makakapunta sa Thailand at Singapore.”
“Naku! Paano yung mga sponsor natin? Nagbook na tayo ng flights at hotel.”
“Nagmessage sila sa akin kagabi. Lockdown din daw sila sa Bangkok at sarado ang Marina Bay Sands. Irerefund daw ng airline at hotel ang binayaran natin.”
“Grabe naman sila. Hindi ba nasa China pa lang ang virus? Baka naman pwede tayong umalis?”
“Sorry, Lys. Mukhang wala na tayong magagawa. Sige, matulog ka muna. Gigisingan kita mamaya para maghapunan.” I dropped onto bed and dreamt that I was killing giant virus particles. As always, Kuya was right. The situation only got worse in Manila and the rest of the world. Travel restrictions were in place and people were confined to their homes. The virus was spreading quickly, infecting millions and killing thousands.
I was slowly adjusting to this new way of living. Most of my life was now spent in front of a mobile device or a computer — during the day, I attended classes online; in the late afternoon to early evening, I created content and pictures for my social media feeds; from midnight to early morning, I was streaming video games. It was a full schedule. Despite this, Kuya Gelo frowned when he showed me the latest earnings report for last 60 days.
Kuya laid out the spreadsheets and graphs showing the performance of the business. “Lys, mukhang mahihirapan tayong abutin yung target nating kita ngayon linggo.” He turned to the projections. “Lalo pang masama, kapag walang magbabago, bababa ang kita natin at mapipilitan tayong mangutang.”
“Bakit, Kuya? Bumaba ang mga follwers ko?”
“Hindi, Lys. Tumaas nga sila.” He pointed to the graph showing the follower data. “Ang problema ay walang gustong gumastos ng pera dahil hindi nila alam kung ano ang mangyayari sa isang buwan. Walang may alam kung gaanong katagal ang lockdown na ito. Marami na ngang nawalang ng trabaho.”
Kuya brought up my IG feed on the tablet. “Tignan mo yung feed mo. Bago mag ECQ, ang dami mong ginagawang endorsements. Ang pinakamalaking sponsors natin ay ang mga hotel, club at resort. Tignan mo ngayon — walang bukas na hotel, beach o club. Ang laki na nawala sa kita natin.”
“May mga dumarating pa naman na mga cosmetics, damit at swimsuit, Kuya.”
“Oo, pero apektado rin ang mga yan. Walang gustong bumili ng bagong damit kuya hindi naman makakalabas para gumimik.”
“Ay, oo nga. Ano ang gagawin, natin?”
“Pagiisipan ko muna. Sige’t maligo ka na. Darating na ang inorder kong sushi para sa iyo.”
“Ok. Thank you, Kuya. Mwaa.” I kissed him on the cheek and prepared to take a shower. It took Kuya Gelo a few days to came up with an idea. And, fuck, what an idea it was!
“Lys, alam ko na!” Kuya Gelo told me over dinner (my breakfast). “Gagawa tayo ng daring na shots. Tapos, ipopost natin sa IsMyGirl. Kikita tayo sa bawat may sumali sa room mo and pag may bumili nang video. Pwede pa tayo magaccept ng private chat at mga private video. Sa tantiya ko, baka makakadoble tayo ng kita.”
“Really?”
“Oo. Hindi makaalis ang mga tao, so haghahanap sila ng paglilibangan. May mga taong marami rin ang pera dahil tuloy ang trabaho nila, pero wala silang mga gastusin, dahil hindi sila nakakalabas. Malaki ang cut ng site — 30% ang kinakaltas nila sa atin, pwera pa ang 12.5% ng credit card charge. Pero sa pagkakalkula ko, kikita tayo ng malaki.”
“Hindi ba parang porn yan, Kuya?”
“Pwede, pero pwede ring hindi. Mapanukso na nga ang mga shots mo sa IG, bakit hindi nating pagkakitaan. Mas konting daring na lang, okay na sa IsMyGirl. Magpakita ka lang ng malalim ng cleavage and konting singit, okay na yun. Pwede ko rin naman iedit sa Photoshop bago ipost.”
“Ahhh, ganoon lang ba? Ginagawa na natin yun pag kumukuha tayo ng mga bikini at lingerie shots sa IG.” I thought about it a while. “Hindi ba makakasira sa image ko yan?”
“Kung hindi tayo masinop, pwedeng magkaproblema, pero ang dami mo nang fake na video sa PornHub, so madali lang nating masasabi na fake news yan.”
“Oo nga.”
“Isa pa, kailangan nating unti-unting baguhin yung brand mo. Tumatanda ka na at pang teenager pa rin ang style mo. Kailangan magtransisyon tayo sa mas mature na style. Kung hindi, ma-tatype cast ka. Sasama naman sa iyo ang mga fans mo at magaatract makakaakit ka pa ng bagong uring madla.”
Kuya Gelo had considered the strategy. It seems sound. “Ok,” I said. “Try natin. Wala namang mawawala. Idedelete lang natin ang account kung hindi magclick.”
“Okay, Lys. Pagkatapos ng klase mo bukas, magshoot tayo ng mga pics para sa IsMyGirl.”
“Miyerkules bukas, Kuya, wala akong klase. Pagkagising ko na lang.” He gave me a thumbs up and cleared the table. Kuya’s plan relieved the worry I was feeling about our financial situation. We had quite a few large expenses — the housing loan on the condo, my school fees, health and life insurance for our parents — and the pandemic was cutting severely into our earnings.
I wasn’t really worried about taking more exotic shots with Kuya behind the lens. Over the time that he’s been working with me, he was my main photographer. He’s seen me in various states of undress, directed my body in various poses, and adjusted my garments to cover or not cover my tits and ass. I’ve taken topless photos with him and some fully naked ones, too. Even if I do notice that he sports an erection on almost every occasion or when I know that he can detect that I am aroused from being so exposed, he’s always been very respectful of our boundaries and I’ve always felt safe around him. (Also, since he takes care of all the mail and online purchases, he knows that I have quite a collection of sex toys.) I know I have a spectacular body. I keep my 35C-24-32 figure fit through yoga and Pilates.
The next day, Kuya set up camera equipment in the sala while Grace helped with my hair and makeup. We decided to go with a Spider Gwen cosplay outfit. The series tried to capture the character changing from her school uniform to her Ghost Spider costume. I wore a white thong under my Catholic schoolgirl shirt, but no bra. I had to use my hands to cover my nipples, and Kuya made sure that there were plenty of cleavage, sideboob and underboob shots. The costume I used was skin-tight, so my hard nipples were quite obvious.
“Grace, patigasin mo pa yung utong ni Lys para sa close-up shot.” Grace came close to me and pinched my nipples hard. Kuya positioned the camera near my tits and took the photos.
“Very good. Tapos na tayo.” Kuya moved to the computer to start downloading the shots. Grace and I went to my room to take off the costume. I have sensitive nipples and the stimulation made me very wet. Also, I was quite an exhibitionist and the thought of men jacking off to my pictures was quite arousing. As soon as the door closed, I shimmied out of the skin-tight outfit, knelt on all fours in the middle of the bed and raised my ass. Grace slid behind me wearing nothing but a strap-on dildo, pulled my soaking wet thong to the side, grabbed my hips firmly and fucked me doggy-style to two massive orgasms. I love my cousin (but that’s a story for another day).
Kuya finished editing the photos by the next day and he uploaded them onto the IMG site. We started an awareness campaign of my IMG profile over the next few days through ads and messages on my social media channels and during my streaming sessions. We set basic subscription rates to be quite low but made premium content more expensive. My the end of the week, we had a few thousand subscribers, 80% of whom had purchased my Spider Gwen series. In that week alone, our net earnings amounted to $2,254 or about 113,000 petot. This was easily the most money I’ve made in a week. Before IMG, it would take us four weeks to may that kind of money. We were over the moon! Kuya’s analysis was correct.
Kuya worked out a schedule of release of new content to keep my IMG subscribers hooked as well as to find reasons for them to buy my premium content. We stuck to the strategy of ensuring that monthly subscriptions were cheap, but that we gave our subscribers good reasons to purchase premium content. For example, personal one-on-one chats with subscribers were selling for three times the subscription rate, provocative videos cost eight times and live video chats selling for 12 times the rate. Using this strategy, we were easily earning $4,000 (about 200,000 petot) weekly.
The problem with IMG was that we had to work non-stop to earn this money. Both Kuya and I were experiencing burnout. We needed a break desperately. However, if we stopped, we knew that the funding stream would dry up quickly. Worse, we might lose subscribers. What we needed to a single big score that would allow us to save enough to take three weeks off to recharge. However, try as we might, we seemed to have hit a weekly ceiling of $4,000.
One day, while chatting with a fan, I received a naughty proposition. I knew that the fan was a successful businessman from Eastern Europe with a fetish for young, Asian women. I played fed his fantasy and got to know him well. He described a deal that he wanted to run by me. He wanted me to make a video clip for his eyes only. For that, he was willing to pay 20,000 (about 1.1 million petot)! The catch was that I needed to shoot a 60-minute sex video. The video needed to show my face, but the face of my partner was to be blurred. The payment was to be made directly to my bank account, so I would receive the entire amount and not experience the massive deductions that IMG took out. All copies of the video, including the raw footage would be destroyed. If I wanted to proceed, he would send me non-disclosure agreements to sign.
My jaw dropped. Was this guy serious? I told him I’d think about it and quickly exited the session. Then I screamed for Kuya. He entered my room.
“O, ba’t parang namumutla ka?”
“Kuya, may nagalok sa akin ng indecent proposal.”
“Iignore mo lang yung mga asungut na iyan. Ngayon ka lang ba na-troll?”
“Hindi, po, pero ibang klaseng alok ito.” I explained the businessman’s proposal to him. Kuya paused to consider the new information.
“Nasa sa iyo yan, Lys. Hindi ka na bata at wala akong karapatan na magmando ang pwede mong gawin.”
“Alam ko, Kuya, pero iginagalang ko ang payo mo.”
“Lys, i-isangtabi lang natin na sex tape ito. Sabihin natin na sexy video lang. Papayag ka ba na ishoot ang video?”
“Opo.”
“Ngayon, sabihin natin na fully nude ang video, papayag ka ba doon?”
“Opo.”
“Eh, kung video na gumagamit ka ng vibrator?”
“Pwede siguro kung hindi kita yung mukha ko at malaki ang bayad.”
“Eh, paano kung sigurado kang walang ibang makakakita ng kopya ng video, papayag ka bang makita ang mukha mo?”
“Ay, hindi po pwede.”
“Eh, bakit nung dati, nagpadala ka ng video sa ex mo? Hindi pa siya nagbayad noon. Ngayon, kalat na kalat na sa Internet.”
“Oo nga. Pero paano natin masisigurado na hindi kakalat and video?”
“Magpapapirma tayo ng kontrata. Malinaw doon na kung kumalat ang video, may malaking multa. Bukod kito, kung magleak ang video, madali lang natin ideny yun. Kagaya nung ginawa natin sa video mo sa ex mo.”
“So, payag ka bang mag-shoot ng video na gamit ang vibrator kung ganoon nga ang mga kondisyon?”
“Yes, Kuya.”
“Okay. Eh, sex video na nga ang paggamit ng vibrator, so dapat kasang-ayon ang decision mo pag full sex na.”
“Oo nga, Kuya. Nasa katwiran ang mg paglalahad mo ng mga dahilan. Pagiisipan ko ng mabuti.”
“Okay. Kahit na anong desisyon ang mararating mo, susuportahan kita.” He kissed me on the forehead and left my room.
I rang Grace and asked for her advice.
“Malaking halaga yan, Lys. Sayang naman kapag hindi mo tatanggapin.”
“Pero, Babe, sex tape ito. Makikia and mukha ko.”
“Ay, sus! Noong isang araw lang, kinunan mo ako ng video habang kinakain ko yung pussy mo. Ang dami na nga nating sex tape, noh. Ang pagkakaiba ng proposal sa ginagawa natin ay babayaran ka ng isang milyong petot.”
Both Kuya Gelo and Grace made sense. Still, I felt that it was a big step and wanted to sleep on it. I messaged the businessman to let him know that I was considering his proposal an…