The Pocket Rift - Interlude 15.3.5 Part VIII
© 2025 - 2026 - Kevin W. Burke
Note: The following interlude takes place between the events of Episodes 15 and 16.
TRYL NODENET ARCHIVES: AFTERSHOCK
Source: NodeBuzz - NodeNet longform magazine
Timestamp: C7.T17 - 06:58 MT - Two months after #riftday
Subject: The Transformation of CentCityCutie [selected excerpts]
By now everyone on the Chirperverse is aware of the spat this weekend between documentary filmmaker M.L. Lesse and tease influencer CentCityCutie. But it was this exchange of chirps between them that brought full circle just how far Cutie has come since her rise to notoriety on the NodeNet:
@mllesse: “@centcitycutie was never serious about her take on the Illia Rift issue, it was always branding for her. Her sudden change in position can't be taken seriously now.”
@centcitycutie: “@mllesse is still salty over the time I refused his DM request for more revealing pics than I share publicly.”
This wasn't just a clapback, it was a flashback– to a simpler world before the Pocket Rift, and a simpler Cutie before her foray into policy.
When she began accumulating followers, Cutie– whose real name is Corinne Weller– might have appeared indistinguishable from any number of NodeNet influencers. But her social node savvy has resulted in a huge base of both male and female followers. Her strategic pivots in content emphasis have been based on engagement– including her previously most successful emphasis on dating and her ironically lonely relationship status. And her careful control of what images she releases and how they’re used, has managed to leave that enormous follower base always wanting more.
It’s no surprise that Cutie’s tragic Centrecity Sky Corridor run-in with a dragon on the now infamous Riftday event would generate a largely empathetic response from the general public. But Cutie didn’t stop at empathy.
That event became a catalyst for a number of transitions Cutie has made:
From sexy tease influencer and lonely relationship blogger to “cyber body positivity advocate.”
Once her condition was stable, though, Cutie quickly pursued all options available to her to address her impromptu amputee status. Given the net worth her online empire had accumulated, her options were much wider than the average person– including the artificial limb augmentations she chose.
She didn’t keep her choice quiet either, from documenting her journey in the discovery, selection, and augmentation process, to the post-augmentation glamour photos she released– her new augment limbs carefully positioned to obscure parts she never discloses.
Even in this, she was still strategically toeing the line she’d always walked– always teasing, never revealing.
From famously single, to quietly off the dating scene, to in a relationship with her rescuer.
This began as a tease in the immediate aftermath of her recovery: A pale, barely-stable Cutie livestreaming from her MedArc bed to introduce her viewers to her brave rescuer– who didn’t even know who Cutie was. Die-hard Cutie fans were delighted to see deliveryTimeDave’s live bedside reaction as he innocently loaded Cutie’s channel on his Comm, and watched his face go from raised eyebrows, to flushed cheeks, to quietly pocketing his comm device, reverting to concerned questions about her medical condition.
Another tease came at Cutie’s appearance on the Auren Montrose Show. Initially a solo interview, Auren covered Cutie’s recovery, her cybernetics, how her life changed, and the cost of being a symbol. And then, to the surprise of both Cutie and Dave, it became a couple’s interview, as Auren’s team arranged with SkyGrab corporate to put Dave on a delivery at Auren’s studio backstage.
[Cutie and Dave, helmet still awkwardly tucked under his arm, seated together on a studio couch facing Auren and the audience.]
Dave: “So yeah, as soon as the dragon was distracted, I swung in there and pulled her out of the AutoPod wreckage, got her to a safe place where I could do triage care on my board. The livestream picks up from there.”
Auren: “You didn’t help her just so you could go viral.”
Auren: “You didn’t know who she was.”
Dave: [Flushing] “Not until she told me, in recovery.”
Auren: “You just delivered.”
Auren: “Prior to this, Cutie, your channel had been focused on dating and relationships. So many NodeNet fans– and literally all of my staff– have been dying to know: Are the sparks we’ve been sensing between the two of you for real?”
Dave: [Flushes, cradles his helmet, looks at Cutie.]
Cutie: [Smiles, meets Dave’s gaze, rests a hand on his shoulder.] “What’s real is that Dave is an amazing person.”
Auren: “I don’t want to add fuel to the fire, but your answer doesn’t do anything to dispel the rumors.”
More curated disclosure came– not by what she said, but what she didn’t say– Cutie quietly stopped streaming date setups. Her tease streams became more tame– less fan service, more fashion. Speculation ran rampant.
Finally, in a career first, Cutie revealed something fans had been asking for– in a joint livestream between Cutie and Dave, they publicly announced they were in a relationship.
From largely apolitical to outspokenly anti-Illian influencer, embraced by a growing public anti-Illia movement.
After their relationship announcement, deliveryTimeDave’s channel content continued as it had always done, albeit less frequently. Cutie’s channel shifted dramatically, but this time not based on engagement. To the contrary, many of her fans protested as her livestreams dropped wardrobe changes and picked up the talking points of the rapidly growing TrylFirst movement.
She called her accident unnecessary, her loss of limbs preventable, and targeted the “secretive and deceptive” agenda of the Illian Council on Sovereign Harmony as their role in the Pocket Rift– and in Tryllian affairs for centuries– began to be understood.
Two comments surfaced the most frequently from fans on all her posts: “Angry isn’t cute,” and “Shut up and tease.”
For groups like the TrylFirstBros– a loose, aggressively online nationalist movement– Cutie was heralded as brave. Fights in the comments section became common between the original “fashion & relationship” fans and her newfound anti-Illia fans.
From being in a celebrated relationship, to signs of relationship strain, to painfully single again.
Crucially, the person who appeared to be increasingly uncomfortable with the anti-Illia company Cutie began keeping, was deliveryTimeDave– Dave Fieldsmith. What started as Dave avoiding appearance in any of Cutie’s streams that weren’t solely focused on their joint activities, turned into Dave actively ducking questions about his thoughts on Cutie's activism. Then came the leak of a 3rd party video taken of Cutie and Dave, in a public but secluded space where they clearly thought they had privacy. Although the audio was undiscernable, the strain in their expressions was clear.
The final straw came after the Crosshaven Pocket incident, where the appearance of a so-called “rogue” Pocket and members of TrylFirstBros– who were there protesting Crosshaven’s known, stable, Illia-protected Pocket– collided into a display of Tryllians exercising heinous violence against unarmed, presumably innocent Illians. The type of violence that had been quickly condemned by Tryllian leaders following the Pocket Rift incident, and had agreed to cease as part of the armistice agreement that had followed with Illia.
Cutie quickly disavowed any affiliation with the TrylFirstBros and spoke out against violence from either side. But within the week of Crosshaven, she made a tearful livestream announcing a break-up after her 6-week relationship with deliveryTimeDave– over “philosophical differences.”
Back to teasing, Cutie let slip a comment, “you think you know someone, and then…” but changed the subject and wouldn’t elaborate.
Dave was also tight-lipped about it, completely avoiding the topic on his delivery livestreams, which have become increasingly infrequent.
From the NodeNet’s most influential activist in the anti-Illia movement to a neutral analyst and commentator.
Following the Crosshaven incident, and Cutie’s subsequent disavowal, Cutie’s ViewTime Channel and other social node accounts went silent for two weeks– nearly forever in NodeNet influencer time.
When she emerged, she issued an even stronger disavowal of the TryFirst movement– “I won’t be your mascot” – and in true Cutie fashion, announced another pivot. She would still comment on Illia and Tryl relations, as she had been. But this time as a neutral commentator with a focus on opposing oppression and authoritarianism in any form, regardless of world origin, party, or affiliation.
“People are suffering from this conflict, just as I suffered, and most of them are innocent victims, just as I was. I can’t look at their suffering indifferently just because of where they were born or what they look like.”
Of course, this has not settled well with the TrylFirst movement, whose comments on her content have quickly gone from laudatory to predatory, with demands to “pick a side,” and inferred threats if she picks the “wrong” side.
With her track record of pivots, there’s no telling where Cutie will go from here. But one thing is clear– whether she’s in a camera’s focus, a dragon’s jaws, or the TrylFirstBros’ crosshairs, don’t count Cutie out.
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