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.
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.
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.
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