I type out my response, then delete it in its entirety. I pinch my pouted cheeks out of frustration, then try again. My darkened room fills with the clicking and tapping of my mechanical keyboard, as I over-analyze every word of my message. I re-read it, I read it out loud from your perspective, I delete a punctuation, then add it back...

Believing this is the best I could do, I gulp audibly; my throat feeling dry and sticky from the anticipation, I open and close my clammy hands and shakily press the enter key.hello!👋😊 my name is persi! sorry for suddenly dm'ing you, but you seemed really cool in our shared server so i reached out... hope that isn't too weird 😣😖