IT General

Back in 2021, VIL was just another fan, running a small YouTube channel where he shared his favorite VTuber moments. That's when he stumbled across Ava Lamp's streams — and something clicked.

Four years later, he was on one knee on a balcony at TwitchCon 2025, asking Ava to marry him.

Like many modern romances, the love story between VTubers VIL and Ava Lamp started online. "I liked her personality, content, and model," VIL told Mashable at TwitchCon 2025, adding that he liked "her way of joking" and her "very slime-girl VTube model."

"So, I followed her and started clipping her [streams], and she noticed the clips," he said.

VIL proposes to Ava Lamp at TwitchCon 2025. Credit: Courtesy of Ava Lamp and VIL

From there, an online friendship began to grow. They talked more, collaborated, and, eventually, VIL became a VTuber himself. Before long, the two were inseparable online — "best friends," as he put it.

He started to fall for her, but Ava was clear: There was no chance of romance. She was a lesbian, and she would never date another content creator. "But then that changed," she joked to Mashable.

Two years later, the friends decided to attend TwitchCon 2023 together with a group of mutuals. It would be their first time meeting in person. They shared a hotel room with another friend and spent all three days side by side — laughing, exploring, and, apparently, confusing everyone around them.

Their friends kept asking if they were dating. They’d laugh and deny it. Of course not! How ridiculous.

"We spent most of the weekend together, and pretty much did everything together," she said. "You know when you just really click with someone? You have that spark? That's what I felt. And I was just like, 'I can't not tell you. Because if we leave here, I'm not going to be brave enough to tell you this later.'"

On the last day of the convention, she typed out a note on her phone in the backseat of an Uber and handed it to him. "Please don't hate me," she said.

The message, as they remember it, went something like this: "I know I've said I wouldn't date a man and I also wouldn't date a content creator, but after getting to know you and seeing you in person, I feel sparks."

"It was so funny because she didn't actually ask me out at any point in the note," VIL said. "It was just her blurting out her feelings on this note. To my knowledge, this was a zero percent chance of happening. And now, suddenly, it was a hundred percent chance. So I was kind of blue-screened."

In the back of that Uber, they dove straight into the big questions — marriage, kids, moving. They already knew each other as friends, but now they needed to know if they were compatible. Turns out? They were.

Sharing a kiss at TwitchCon. Credit: Courtesy of Ava Lamp and VIL

There was just one problem: distance. They lived across the country from each other. So, for the next year, they made it work long-distance. They traveled to see each other every other month, streamed together, and even wore those bracelets that buzz when the other person touches theirs.

After TwitchCon 2024, they decided it was time. Ava packed her life into a U-Haul, and they made the cross-country drive together — between two hurricanes.

"Driving that U-Haul was terrifying," VIL said. "I had only driven that big of a truck one or two other times. So that, plus all of my partner's life belongings, are in a truck. And I'm the one driving."

"Nothing bad happened, though," Ava reassured him.

By the time they sat down with Mashable at the San Diego Convention Center for TwitchCon 2025, the two were fidgeting with each other’s hands, both wearing matching silver bracelets with red jewels — replacements for their long-distance ones. Moving in together, Ava said, was a "huge relief" because "finally we get to spend all of our time together."

Since the major milestones of their relationship had all lined up with TwitchCon — they met in person at TwitchCon 2023, and after TwitchCon 2024, they moved in together — they knew TwitchCon 2025 had to be something special.

VIL started a secret group chat with all their friends, everyone except Ava. The morning of the first day of the convention, Ava was taking her time getting ready while he tried to stay calm.

"I tried to play it super cool," he joked, but the engagement ring — a temporary one until the real ring, made with stones from her grandmother's and great-grandmother's rings, was ready — was burning a hole in his pocket.

"I was obsessively checking it to make sure it didn't fall out," he said.

"I saw you check your pocket a couple times, but I didn't clock what that was. I thought you were just worried about losing your phone or something," she laughed.

They grabbed brunch with friends, but he was eager to get to the convention center. He had a plan: a balcony overlooking the ocean. Ava, however, wanted to stop by the merch table first.

"Last year, she wanted merch and it was sold out, and I knew I didn't want that to happen again," he said. "And so when she's like, 'Can we get this merch real quick? I want to make sure I get it before anything happens.' In my head, I'm like, 'No, we need to go!' But I also didn't want her to miss out on the merch. So I go, 'Yes, yeah, that's fine, but can we try to be a bit quick?'"

Finally, they reached the balcony. Their friends, who were all in on the plan, asked other con-goers to clear the area. Then VIL told Ava to check something on Discord. She opened her phone — and saw a commissioned piece of art of his VTuber persona proposing to hers. When she looked up, he was on one knee.

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He doesn't remember exactly what he said. All she remembers is that she said yes.

"[I love] how sweet you are and how you wear your heart on your sleeve," Ava said when asked what she loved most about him. "And you're not afraid to be emotional. I love how sweet you are and how kind you are."

Then VIL made her cry.

"I love how unabashedly yourself you are," he told her. In the past, people had tried to suppress her joy, he said. "I am so happy that you can be your whole self and you can just embrace yourself. You love fashion. You are very alt-goth. You love to dye your hair. You love building Gundams, you love Legos, you love Disney. I love you. I love you being you. And I'm glad that we can be our best selves together. You always encourage me to be my best self."

They don’t have wedding plans yet — but if Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wants to sponsor it, they’re not opposed.

When I started getting into anime in my early teens, it was basically impossible to find in the mainstream. I belonged to anime clubs that worked for years to get stores to stock anime media, and for broadcasters to take it seriously.

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I've recently come to the realization that my decade-long love affair with the flagship phone has come to a necessary end. Mid-range phones are now better than I need them to be, so there's no reason to pay the asking price for the best phones on the market.

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If you’ve looked at other people’s desktop setups online, you’ve probably seen some people set up their secondary monitors vertically. I’d never tried it myself, but when I got my new secondary monitor and arm, I went for it immediately, and it turned out to be quite the experience.

When a fan recently posted on X, "bbno$ is my favorite rapper why does he have to be so mean to AI artists? 🥺🥺," the Canadian musician didn't offer a gentle explanation. Instead, he fired back with a simple, unambiguous response: "FUCK AI."

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It's the kind of blunt sincerity that defines bbno$ (pronounced "baby no money") — the viral rapper known as much for his absurdist humor as his meticulous approach to independent artistry. But behind the all-caps expletive is a clear philosophy: In an era when algorithms can churn out songs, images, and videos faster than any human hand, he’s choosing to bet on people.

That choice is on full display in his recent video for "ADD," a hyper-colorful, kinetic collage built entirely from fan-made animation. Instead of outsourcing to a studio or feeding prompts into generative software, bbno$ tapped over 20 independent artists — many of whom had already created fan art of him online — to bring the visual to life. The result is a whirlwind of distinct animation styles stitched together, each segment a small love letter from one creator to another.

“There's two things to it," he told Mashable at TwitchCon 2025, on the day of the release of his self-titled ninth studio album. "One, when people spend their whole life getting good at something, it kind of sucks when you can click a button and make something that’s more impactful. So I just wanted to give back to the community that's shown me so much love."

The other reason is even simpler: bbno$ feels better supporting people and human-made art. "It kind of makes me feel good when I'm supporting other artists, because I’m an artist too," he explains. "I remember when I wasn't making money — it's such an exhilarating feeling when you finally can. So if I can help other artists get that, I want to."

The "ADD" project took six months to complete, which is a herculean effort for a three-minute song. But the payoff was both a visual spectacle and a creative statement: proof that collaboration across 23 different minds, each bringing their own idiosyncrasies and artistic POVs, could create something no machine could replicate.

"I don't know if I'll ever get another piece of visual content that's that stimulating ever again," he admits. "Because it was 20 different people, twenty different minds.”

SEE ALSO: Meet the indie musicians who are making a living on TikTok

That kind of enthusiasm has long been part of bbno$'s appeal. His catalog, which spans goofy hits like "Lalala" with Y2K and more experimental cuts, thrives on a sense of human chaos that algorithms can't quite fake. Even when he leans into internet virality, there’s a pulse of self-awareness. He's in on the joke, but he’s also dead serious about the craft.

His distrust of AI isn't rooted in fear of change so much as empathy for working artists. In an age when tech companies are pouring billions into AI music and video tools, and when artists' work is being scraped to train those systems, bbno$ is thinking about the people behind the art.

"Massive organizations are starting to utilize AI and software to take people's jobs away," he says. "One of my best friends works at Amazon, and he was like, 'I have a call with India. I’m presenting something that’s unfortunately going to take a lot of people's jobs.' He knows it sucks, but he also needs to make a living. That's just where things are progressing. I’m just trying to do my part as much as I possibly can."

It's not a crusade against technology — bbno$ built his career on the internet, after all — but rather a push to preserve a kind of creative integrity that's becoming increasingly endangered. These days, art is data, and he's trying to keep the human part alive. "To keep people going, to keep the train on the other side," he says, "you have to fund them. That's the only way."

There’s also a philosophical throughline here: bbno$ has always thrived on collaboration. His early success came from meme-driven partnerships with producers like Y2K and Diamond Pistols, and more recently, his output has ramped up to near-weekly releases that rely on a global web of creators, artists, editors, and fans. His entire career is a case study in the creative possibilities of the digital age, where art is built by people, not programs.

"I've never really been one to put a lot of effects in my videos," he says. "If I do, it’s got to be something that took a year to make, not just something you plug in." That ethos extends beyond visuals; it's in the way he approaches songwriting, content creation, and even his signature humor. Everything feels a little rough around the edges, but that's what makes it human.

The irony, of course, is that AI could easily imitate bbno$'s more surface-level quirks and offbeat flow, but it can't replicate the sincerity that drives them. Creativity, for him, is an act of care.

On YouTube, the comments under "ADD" read like a digital roll call of collaboration. Fans and animators tagged their timestamps, celebrating each other's work. "I animated 0:00–0:09! Everyone did such a fantastic job

Over on X, an animator named Kenzie shared a clip of bbno$ commissioning them for a project after they'd been "unemployed in the animation industry for two years because of AI." The post has since racked up more than 350,000 likes — a glimpse at how deeply the gesture resonated.

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For a video that could’ve been made by a single generative model, "ADD" instead became a showcase of community. It's the kind of messy, vibrant collaboration that only humans could pull off.

"I just wanted to give back," he repeats. "That’s really it."

The Rich-Communication Standard, known as RCS, was originally promised as a replacement for SMS that offered all the perks of modern chat platforms without being locked down. But so far, its walls are nearly as steep as in any other walled garden.

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SAVE $50: As of Oct. 19th, Amazon has this yellow 11-inch Apple iPad on sale for $299, down from its list price of $349.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad 11-inch with A16 chip in Yellow $299 at Amazon
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Being team iPad isn't just a trend — it's a lifestyle. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's no secret that having an iPad waiting for you at home, full of games, books, and movies, is so great. If you've been wanting to join team iPad, this weekend might be your chance to get an excellent model for an even better price. To break it down: Amazon has this 11-inch iPad with an A16 chip, Liquid Retina Display, 128GB on sale right now for $300. It also features a 12MP front and back camera, which is the same quality of camera that comes on some MacBooks.

The A16 chip in this particular model supports brightly colored and highly detailed games. This model is also a great tool for content creators or photographers to edit photo and video content.

Watch your favorite shows and movies from any streaming service app in a crisp, vibrant color thanks to the Liquid Retina Display. This model of iPad is also fully compatible with Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard, if you're interested in expanding the capabilities of your device.

This particular model comes in bright yellow, pink, or blue. Amazon also has models with 256GB or 512 GB storage at a higher price.

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SAVE $200: As of October 19, Amazon has a 2025 Sky Blue MacBook Air with an M4 chip on sale for $999 down from its list price of $1199.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop with M4 chip $999
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If you’ve been on the fence about investing in a new laptop or computer, this Amazon sale on a 2025 Sky Blue MacBook with an M4 chip might just be the deal you’ve been waiting for. This model on sale right now has a 13-inch Liquid Retina Display, 16GB of Unified Memory, and 512 GB of SSD storage. This deal is particularly nice because it is situated in the categories of excellent price and some of the most modern accouterments Apple has to offer.

The M4 chip in this particular computer is essentially the brain of the computer. Apple’s cutting-edge system on a chip (SoC) is what powers the ultra-rich and crisp Liquid Retina Display. It’s also the reason this MacBook and MacBook Pro can be so slim and lightweight and work hard without getting so hot they could cook an egg. This 2025 Sky Blue MacBook with an M4 chip is also built to handle and work with Apple Intelligence.

This model also offers a 12MP Center Stage camera and touch ID for better ease of use and higher quality images on your Zoom calls. Spring for this particular deal could definitely level up your productivity this fall.

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SAVE $350: As of Sunday, Oct. 19, the Shark AV2501AE is 54% off, coming in at $300, down from the list price of $649.99 on Amazon.

Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark AV2501AE Robot Vacuum $300 at Amazon
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This might be attractive to pet parents (especially if allergies are a concern) because it is a bag-free, hands-free, self-emptying base equipped with HEPA filtration. The HEPA filtration in this Shark AV2501AE is said to trap up to 99.7% of dust and dander particles down to the size of .3 microns.

This powerful robot vacuum is designed with intense suction for all surfaces of your home. It cleans with Shark’s proprietary Matrix Clean Navigation, which involves cleaning your floors in a precise grid pattern. The vacuum has up to 120 minutes of run time and can return to its dock and recharge on its own.

This model also has a self-cleaning brush roll suited to catching as much pet hair as possible. Save yourself the allergy-inducing explosion of dander and dirt that comes with constantly emptying your vacuum's dirt chamber straight into the trash. 

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It’s not Saturday Night Live without Weekend Update, hosted as always by Colin Jost and Michael Che.

This week’s desk segment tackled a grab bag of headlines from the past few days, including the presidential pardon of former Republican representative George Santos, Politico’s report on a leaked racist Young Republicans group chat, and — of course — the latest bizarre comments and antics from President Trump.

"Trump told reporters, ‘I don’t think there’s anything that will get me into heaven,’" Jost joked. "Then he paused for ten full minutes waiting for someone to say, ‘That’s not true.’" He added, "Because Trump can’t go to heaven. He’s too busy here running hell."

The segment also gave a nod to Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who led his team to a series-clinching NLCS win over the Milwaukee Brewers by hitting three home runs and pitching six scoreless innings with ten strikeouts.

"It’s a feat previously only accomplished by George Santos," Jost quipped.