Work Text:
It was an ordinary day for an office worker. Working from nine to five wasn't your dream but you can't do anything much about it, rather, you're already too comfortable being a corporate slave.
As you're resting while watching videos on your hard-earned mid-tier PC, a notification pings from your phone.
"Oh, she just started streaming."
Finding entertainment while at work is almost impossible, so you usually come home exhausted. It's annoying, but it's the only best result. The only way to have fun was to play old games on your PC at home, but that was getting boring. Some new games are too heavy for a sad mid-range PC, which was one of the strongest about five years ago.
The loop was finally broken, though. Only about a week ago, you found a stop motion video about a girl wearing a hairband with a set of straight pink rabbit ears on the top of it going insane with guns, saying and doing things that... was actually funny.
Curiosity gets the best of you and thankfully, the video also has more context regarding the original sound. You tracked it to a... streamer? Wait, No, you remember that these anime style streamers have another term for them. That's right. Vtuber. You're not that unfamiliar with the term, but you never had satisfaction in watching them for hours. You stick to watching some clips but they get boring and you'd end up watching crime and horror documentary again.
Until you find her. Pipkin Pippa. A cute, wholesome, toxic, trash-talking vtuber from a growing group that is entertaining to watch and listen to. Her group friends were fun as well but you never got attached as much as her.
She usually took her sweet time on the starting screen, so you usually won't have to worry about coming in late. From the title, it looks like she's playing chess today with... viewer? That's quite rare to see. As soon as she appeared, you quickly realized that she's playing on a familiar website.
You thought of trying your luck to play with your-current-favorite streamer. Even if she didn't end up playing with you, you have nothing to lose. It took some minutes to log in since you haven't opened the chess website for about... how many years, now? It doesn't matter, since you finally managed to enter your account.
You watched her lose over and over again, only winning a couple of times because of either luck or opponent's pity. You would flinch every time she made a mistake, yet you, and probably the chat, are having fun. Not because of the streamer bullying, but her trash talking, insults, and pained screams are somehow funny.
Pippa has been streaming for almost three hours, and it seemed like she was about to end her stream soon. you'd see your name on the list of the challengers but she didn't pick you. Oh well, you already have your fun watching her, you couldn't ask for more.
"One last round, one last round." She said after a yawn.
She almost picked you, but she instead chose another one just below you. You coped by thinking that you're maybe good enough. It doesn't matter anymore after that bit with the question marks which cracks you up the most. After her last win, she reads the superchats before finally closing the stream.
You stretch your arms upwards before you clean the remains of your snacks. As you're about to turn the PC off, you notice that you started playing a round with Pippa. You were confused, weren't she finished streaming? Maybe she wanted to play more off-stream. But then you remember that she's already tired, so you decide to go wild and finish the match with a few moves.
You smirked after your five-turn checkmate. You wondered what she would say after that fast defeat. You can imagine her trash-talking you to pieces and threatening to come to your house to beat you up. That sounds terrible, but with her personality and voice, you thought that you'd laughed it off. With the match done, you turned off your PC and went to sleep since it was already late.
About a week later, you find that something is off in your house. It's maybe your imagination or that you're too tired since you've been hard at work these last couple of days. Either way, since you don't feel like playing on your PC today, you reached for your phone to catch up with indie gaming updates and let's players while lying on your bed.
Ping!
A notification popped up. You take a quick glance to see that Pippa is streaming. You're quite impressed, knowing that it was quite fast since her last stream. As you open the stream, you quickly notice the title.
"Cute Rabbit Vtuber Breaks In Your House and Beats YOU Up !!"
...Her peculiar humor is terrifying. That aside, you're too lazy to get up so you lay in your comfy bed to watch her stream.
She doesn't take too long in her opening screen. It started as usual with her greeting, which you can't always help but cringe. The main menu appeared next. She would interact with her viewers and tell something new about her or the current things that interest her before entering the game.
The game started with the player walking in an urban neighborhood. There is no dialogue and the ambiance is just those stock sounds of wind in a loop. It's not five minutes in and she already ranting about the look and feel of the game that looks unpolished.
"Thank you for ten Dollars. I look unpolished? Shut the fuck up." She retorted to a superchat.
After another minute, the player notices a lit house with a different model than everything around it. It also looks more detailed, almost inviting. Pippa points it out, but she's right to say that it was a weird game design, especially about the 6-minute long walk at the start that would drive players away.
The player character then prompted to jump over the fence. At the same time, you heard like something is hitting the grass in the yard. You thought that it was probably a cat or some animal.
Next, some sort of tutorial appeared in front of the player character's face. It prompted the player to look through the window. It's the bedroom and there's someone inside. Now, in this space of low poly aesthetic, you had a weird feeling that it was familiar. The player was prompted to stay still and watch the person inside.
No. It's awfully similar. From the placement of the PC to the layout of the bedroom... You thought that it was only a coincidence, but you're not sure after you saw the people that were lying on the bed looking at an object. You have your back to the window, just like the other characters inside the room. The character then interacted with the window and it gave the player two options.
"Should I knock or should I smash the window, chat?" Pippa asked her viewers.
You have an urge to turn to look at the window, but you're quite scared to do so. The only thing is to wait for her choice if she would knock at the window, or smash at it.
"I need to find a rock? Oh come on! why are you giving me an option to smash then?!" She sounded upset.
The only choice is to knock at the window. You're mentally preparing if somehow the knocking actually comes from outside your house. It's highly unlikely but you never know for sure.
Tap, tap, tap...
The sound of glass being knocked can be heard behind you. Your fear starts to rise but your curiosity to look at the window is getting heavier.
"Why are they not looking back? Should I do it again?" She asked her viewer.
Tap, tap, tap...
Another knock from your window is getting unbearable as you gathered your courage to look out the window...
A figure with the height around your chest level can be seen outside. You can't make out their appearance other than height, but you noticed something.
Their pink eyes are glowing.
"It worked, chat! they turned!" Pippa's sound is still heard from the phone you held.
No, no way, this can't be real, you said. You didn't look at your phone until you noticed a gray microphone-like symbol appeared on top of the figure.
"Pipipipipipi" The figure speaks, their voice match exactly like Pippa's intro voice.
Without another moment to waste, you storm out of your bedroom. You still can't believe it actually happened. You must be dreaming, but as you pinch yourself, it hurts. You're not dreaming.
Whatever it is that is happening, the next thing you think of doing is to protect yourself. With that in mind, you went to the kitchen to grab something. As you arrived at the kitchen, someone had already opened the back door. You curse yourself since you kept forgetting to lock every door before heading to bed.
You turned on the light to find a pink-haired girl wearing a pink casual dress with fluffy straight rabbit ears on top of her head rummaging through the cabinets... No, there's no way it's possible. Pippa's a virtual youtuber, someone that uses an avatar, but this one looks too real to be 'virtual'.
You looked at your phone to see that Pippa is currently doing a mini game in her stream, so that's why she doesn't turn back as you turned on the lamp.
"Shit, that's hard, but we get a knife!" She sounds excited from her stream. "Looks like skill issue? Shut up chat, shut the FUCK! UP!"
While she interacted with her viewer, you noticed that the Pippa in front of you stood still. You took this chance to grab something from a cabinet, maybe a pan or something... You got a pan! Now all you have to do is-
Swish
The Pippa in front of you moved and started swinging her knife towards you! You managed to block with your pan but in the shock of the hit, you let the pan go. The hit left a sting in your right hand and you got no choice but to run.
"Come here, bitch! Let me finish this game quickly!" The Pippa in your kitchen shouted.
She chased you around the house. Her speed is quite slow, so you managed to go off track to find a hiding spot. You were thinking of hiding in the wardrobe, but knowing that she played horror games often, she would check there first. Either that or under the bed, you choose to go inside the wardrobe.
Pippa entered the room you were in. She still activates her voice so you can hear her even with your phone on mute.
"I'm not malding, chat. It's just the character went so slow... Cope? COPE?? fuck off!"
She said various things to her viewer, but looking from your perspective, it really looked like she was talking to herself. She went out of the room eventually and you quickly realize something.
You know where your attacker's location is from Pippa's stream. It was weird, and yet it is such valuable information if you want to survive. You wondered why she would attack you? And what's the point of all this? Why are you in a game? You don't see her taking things as she's just walking around, but you notice more things in her stream.
There are two additional bars, each named 'fear' and 'panic', respectively. The fear bar is about ten percent and the panic reaches twenty... that is true, you were quite panic now. Maybe her goal is to induce fear and panic in the victim, but heading straight for the kill is forbidden or something... What a bad game design...
It has been about an hour. Maybe if you manage to tire her enough on the stream, you'll be free! With that in mind, you went to find something that could be used as a trap. Well, that was what you planned to do. But in reality, it almost feels like she can teleport into various places. It doesn't help that she would intentionally scare you before teleporting away to another place in your house.
You look at the stream to see that your fear and panic has risen. And you also notice that the more you look at Pippa in your house, the more intimidating she becomes. It almost feels like she gets stronger every time you're scared. Gathering the last bits of your energy, you tried to endure it. At least until she decided to stop streaming.
Almost two hours had passed. You're starting to get tired that you lose focus. You already learned that the Pippa that's in your house has two types of attack. One, she will chase you around for some time until she gets bored. The other, she would try to scare you by stalking you and then appearing behind you. The second one isn't dangerous but it's creepy as fuck!
You keep track of her location from her stream. It was weird that this was happening in the first place, but all reason has been thrown away at the sight of a knife wielding lunatic rabbit girl chasing you.
"Here it is, chat! Their fear and panic is finally full!" She said.
You looked at her stream to find a red button called "Dispatch". You think you really know what that means. You decide to hide in the wardrobe in your room, hoping that you can calm yourself down.
Your hope soon turned to despair after looking at the stream. She pressed the button and the character started to run towards your hiding spot. She then forcefully opened the wardrobe door and yanked you out before slamming you on the floor. You tried to stand up but it's too late as she mounts herself on top of you with her knife held up above her.
"Woah, I can choose where to stab Them?! Cool!" Pippa excitedly shouted.
It brings joy to her and her viewers to finally progress and win the game, but for you, it's the opposite. She started stabbing your stomach . There was no sound other than your agonized screams.
She continued by stabbing your shoulders, your chest, and finally your heart. Blood spurred out of your body like an out of control waterfall, your face getting paler each moment. When you were done and couldn't even scream anymore, she removed her body off of yours, allowing your body to stay on the ground lifeless.
The stream now shows the main menu of the game, with Pippa praising the game for having some innovative mechanics before going in a long rant about how tedious and boring it is to progress to the final kill. Also, she would like to have a gun instead.
Whatever she was talking about after that won't matter since you won't be there to listen anyway.
Gasp
You jumped out of your bed. You looked at yourself and you checked your body for any stab wounds. There are none, and it doesn't hurt at all. You sighed in relief as it turned out to be a nightmare. You can still remember every little detail, but you try to pay no mind to it. You looked at your phone to see that it was still 3 AM, and you decided to go back to bed after turning off the lights.
You were thinking that maybe you had fallen asleep while watching a let's player playing a horror game. That thought calmed you down and helped you sleep.
However, some footsteps can be heard, going towards your bed. You instinctively opened your eyes to find a set of glowing pink eyes and...you can only see it faintly because of the dark but it seemed like they had pink hair with...short rabbit ears? Wait a minute, is that...Pippa?
You're trying to speak, but you can't move, even though you're not being restrained by anything. What... What's happening? As you're thinking, the sound of gun cocking can be heard. Is that...a pump-action shotgun?!
"You beat me in five turns at chess." She aims the gun to your head. "Now I'm going to be your nightmare for the next five days, motherfucker!"
Bam
You woke up again. It's still the same around you but your heart won't stop beating. You remember what she said, it's impossible to wrap your head around it. But damn, whatever it was, it was effective... You look at your phone again. It's nearing dawn, and you know you should be preparing for your work at the office today... Oh man, it's going to be a tiresome week if your dream is true.
As you leave your bedroom, your PC monitor shows a reflection of Pippa insode your room, standing with her back against the window. She walked towards the monitor and tilted her head to inspect it. It looked like she was taking a seat in front of the PC.
Well, if she gonna haunt someone for five days straight, she might as well make herself comfy. Who knows what amount of trolling she might think of behind the mind that's already inside a government watch list, after all.