A girl posted a drawing of Pikachu. Ten years later her brother is gone, her mom's been shot, and half the internet is fighting over a GoFundMe. The comments call her a lolcow. I call it a whole family nobody was actually looking at.

Everybody already thinks they know Tophia. The cringe roleplay videos, the "get a job" clips, the girl who won't work. I thought I knew her too. Then I went looking for how we actually got here, and I realized I'd started the story way too late.

So we go all the way back. Before the car. Before the motel. Before the eviction. A Pikachu drawing, a molasses tank from 1919, and a whole family living around one girl's livestream, until the tank burst and it stopped being funny.

Some of it is internet lore. Some of it is a real family falling apart on your For You page while strangers put money on photos ...