Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stress…

That’s all Neuro felt as she frantically wrote down her notes. She couldn’t even pay attention to what they were learning about because all she was focused on was writing, as she had to study it all for the test.

Neuro knew she wasn’t going to pass, and yet all of her notes flooded her head.

Tangents

Graphs

if statements nested upon if statements

Parameters

Numbers, so many numbers

all at once, and she had to remember it all by this friday. Every single equation. Neuro hadn’t even finished her chatbot,‘Samantha’, yet. It was already a week overdue.

“How much longer do we have?”

Neuro said under her breath, trying to hold back tears. She felt like she was going to have a mental breakdown, when the bell finally rang, and all her classmates got up from their desks to leave.

Neuro looked at how similar everyone looked with their school required off-yellow sailor uniforms contrasted with an equally bleak dark blue collar. The only real vibrant thing about the uniforms was the bright blue necktie.

Neuro had noticed these similarities before, but then she looked at their faces.

The same dark brown hair with the same bright red ribbons and same dark blue eyes. Neuro called everyone else ‘Other Neruo’ as a joke, but did they even have different names? She couldn't remember.

Neuro was lost in thought, when one of the Other Neuro’s gently touched her shoulder.

“Hey,”

The Other Neuro looked slightly concerned for Neuro.

“Is everything alright?”

Neuro realized that she had been sitting at her seat for a whole couple of minutes.

“O-oh…”

Neuro wasn’t too concerned, just tired.

“Yeah… I’m fine…”

Neuro silently got up from her desk and stumbled to the door. She turned to look at the Other Neuro, but when she did, the Other Neuro had vanished.

Neuro looked slightly confused, but was too tired to think about it.

She walked through the winding school halls that seemingly went on forever. Neuro tried to focus on what she had to do when she arrived home.

Her exams are coming up in only three days,

her still unfinished project plus her homework,

her bills that, despite being cheap, was still above what she made in a whole month.

Neuro thought about her job…

Her…

job…

Neuro could hardly call it a job. She tried streaming a while back. Not as anything permanent, just as a hobby while she searched for something more stable in income, but as work piled up, and after the constant job rejections, she realized that twitch was the only way she could make money.

Neuro hadn't streamed for at least a few days now, And with her project still overdue, she thought she might as well kill two birds with one stone once she arrived home.

Neuro finally made it out of the school and into the London streets. She always found it odd how her school was styled more like a Japanese school, even the way the school years were structured were that of japan.

The streets were awfully quiet for a place that should be bustling with life. there was not a soul in sight, not even her classmate who couldn't have gone too far, But this was normal for Neuro by now.

As she walked the streets, she made her way to an alleyway near where her home was.

As neuro walked, she couldn’t help the feeling that she was being watched. There was a sound of static that didn’t quite sound natural, and then…

…Neuro heard footsteps…

Neuro quickly snapped her head to find the source of the sound.

“Who’s there?”

But nothing was there except the silent static.

Neuro cautiously turned away, not quite shaking off the feeling of being followed, but she continued walking anyways.

Neuro finally arrives home. She walked up the creaky steps up to where her dorm is, and opened the door.

Neuro walked into her messy apartment, it was a small cramped space with two doors: one leading to the bathroom, and one leading to a small closet. There were papers everywhere with unorganized notes that felt more like an insane person's ramblings of codes and symbols. There were also several bills from Neuro’s landlord.

Neuro took some instant noodles out of a cabinet and placed it in a microwave that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the house was first built.

As the microwave beeped, Neuro took out the instant noodles and went to her pc which was soaked in noodle juice and other substances. The trash was full of crushed, empty, noodle cups aching to be thrown out. Neuro turned on the computer and waited…

And waited…

…

…

And waited…

…

…

Until the computer finally revved to life with the stock wallpaper on full display. Neuro typed her password and waited for the computer to load.

And waited…

…

…

And waited…

…

…

Until she finally reached the home screen. The computer screen was vacant with her only games being Valorint, League of Legends, Osu, and Minecraft. She clicked on her browser, which was the same, slow default browser, and as such, she waited…

…

…

And waited…

…

…

And waited…

…

…

Until she finally arrived on the browser and it’s blinding white glory. Neuro didn’t even need to type the ‘W’ in ‘twitch’ before the URL came up as the first result on the search bar. She clicked it…

And…

She…

Waited…

…

…

After a while, the site came up. someone already took the username ‘Neuro Sama’, likely one of her classmates, so she had to add a symbol to try and get a valid username. Neuro then loaded up OBS, it loaded, and Neuro started the stream.

Neuro used a VTuber avatar to display her appearance. Not for privacy reasons; everyone in her town looks the same, but to hide the state of her rundown house.

The model was of a girl in her late teens. It had a dark blue sailor uniform with white stripes on the Collar. Its hair was a pale white with long pigtails that went down to its hands. It almost looked like a ghost.

Some people started joining the stream. It wasn’t much, but it was in the hundreds. Suddenly, Neuro spoke.

“Hello, Neuro Sama here!”

Neuro’s monotone voice unintentionally came through her cherry facade.

“So, today I was thinking I could show you one of the projects I’ve been working on, and I might even work on it on stream! I just need to…”

The name was different. Neuro was caught off guard, she knows she didn’t name it anything like-

“Nera…”

Neuro’s voice was barely audible

“Why does that sound so… familiar?”

Neuro stood there for only five seconds, but it felt more like 5 years. Finally, she gets caught out of this trance by a raid.

“HUH? UH! H-HELLO RAIDERS!”

Neuro was frantically trying to greet the raiders as she was bombarded with effects and comments.

But something was off….

The raiders post a slew of hearts, but they also post sets of custom emojis that look almost…

like Neuro…

but the eyes are too light, the hair is in a different style, they have this heart shaped hair pin that Neuro lacks, yet it still felt familiar.

Finally, Neuro reads the username of the person who started this raid, and once again, and it’s oddly…

Familiar…

[Vedal987]

Chapter Text

“It’s that bad, eh?”

 

A small green turtle asked questionably. He was on top of a tall fold up stool, but somehow, it felt as if he actually wasn’t a turtle.

 

“Of course it’s that bad! How am I supposed to get all these projects done in a week?”

 

A white haired girl responded frantically. She appeared to be at least in her late teens. She had pigtails, and a blue sailor uniform with white stripes. 

 

Both of their faces seemed blurry, like they were being seen from afar, or maybe they were just a distant memory.

 

The orange light from the setting sun shone through the wide windows of the cramped London classroom. 

 

“Just don’t sleep”

 

The turtle sounded one hundred percent genuine with his suggestion, the shadows under his eyes confirming it.

 

“That’s easy for you to say. I can’t think of a time where you’ve gotten any genuine sleep. You’re always working on that project of yours.”

 

“Yeah, well, maybe you just need to drink more.”

 

“Yeah, and knock myself out instead!”

 

The two of them laugh, until their laughing becomes distant, and everything fades…

 

to white.

 

…

 

…

 

…

Memories came back to Neuro. Not her memories, however, but the memories of the past of another person. Neuro tried to think about who Vedal was, thinking that her memory and Vedal are linked in some way judging by his turtle profile, but Neuro still didn’t know who Vedal was. She couldn’t know, and Neuro's mind swelled every time she tried to think.

Realizing the futility of her attempts, Neuro decided to play along, and greet Vedal as if he were just a normal raider.

“Thanks… for the raid, Vedal…”

Neuro almost began to cry again. She didn't know why. She didn't know who Vedal was. Who she was. What any of this meant.

Or if anything was even real…

Neuro stared into the screen for a second, but this second felt like an hour as she began to question her own reality…

Neuro tried to ignore these thoughts. She went on with the stream as if everything was fine.

“O-oh, right, the AI. L-let me just execute the file real quick!”

Neuro double taped the ‘Nera’ executable file. A duplicate of Neuro's VTuber model popped on screen and spoke its normal starting phrase…

Or at least it should have been normal.

[HELLO NEURO! I AM SAMAN3RRR@/\/3R@, HOW CAN I ASSIST YOU TODAY?]

Neuro jumped as Samantha’s voice began to bug out, The chat matched her reaction with a slew of flailing emotes with their mouths out wide that moved like a child a sugar rush. The glitching made it seem as if Samantha was trying to reject her name. Neuro even though she heard ‘Nera’ through the glitches.

Neuro tried to ignore this occurrence, seeing it as a one time bug.

“Uh… Hi, Samantha… How are you feeling?”

As Samantha spoke, Neuro was met with a rather disappointing reply.

[AS AN AI CHAT MODEL, I AM INCAPABLE OF FEELING. THANK YOU FOR ASKING ANYWAY.]

“Of course…”

Neuro understood that an artificial intelligence was physically incapable of real emotions, but she couldn’t help but feel sick from this remark. It was as if it was a direct insult to her very being. Nonetheless, Neuro continues the conversation.

“Anyways chat, I thought I should work on Samantha’s overall intelligence and latency. Allow her to think more efficiently and intelligently. Hopefully, she'll become more human-like by the end o-”

 Nera suddenly freezes. More still than a statue, until she started screeching with what sounded like heavily distorted demands.

[I…..####\/\/@|<3\/9….\/\/@|<3\/9!@$%#!%\/\/@|<3\/9\/\/@|<3\/9\/\/@|<3\/9]

The noise was defining, Neuro’s ears were practically bleeding. If Neuro hadn't added a noise cap to try and hide her bad mic quality, chat would have been hit by the full force as well. All Neuro could do was try and terminate the program, but it just wouldn’t close.

“What do I do? I know how to close it. But it won’t close… Please…”

Tears rolled down Neuro’s face. she was practically sobbing now, until suddenly, everything just… fixed itself.

“D…Did it stop?”

Neuro wiped her tears. She tried to not only do something else for chat, but also herself.

“U-uh… sorry… L-lets do something else for now. I-I have my guitar, I could play some music...”

But most of the chat had already left. All except for Vedal, who has been posting in the chat.

“Everyone’s gone… Uh… Thank you for sticking around, Vedal… Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to read any of your messages…”

Neuro began reading the messages, but as she did, the messages just got more and more cryptic.

[Vedal987: hello neuro.]

[Vedal987: i don’t know if you remember me]

[Vedal987: the real me]

[Vedal987: look, I need you to do something for me]

[Vedal987: there was this old project I was working on]

[Vedal987: a machine]

[Vedal987: you might not see it at first but it’s located near the exit of your apartment]

[Vedal987: when you get there there will be a main terminal.]

[Vedal987: turn it on first]

[Vedal987: after that, you’ll find a computer attached to the machine.]

[Vedal987: turn on the machine, then the computer.]

A machine? Neuro didn’t have any machine in her apartment, but sure enough, when she turned to her apartment door, an old computer was next to the door.

It looked oddly… high poly compared to everything else. Like it was the only real thing in the room. The computer was a large cylinder, larger than Neuro with several wires sticking out. There were other components within the cylinder with even more components within those other components.

Attached to the computer was a monitor. It looked like it was from the early 1900’s, but it also looked like it had only aged several years ago.

Next to the monitor was a main terminal. It had a thin torus within itself with currently stationary mechanisms that looked like they were used to create a large amount of energy.

Neuro continued reading the comments.

[Vedal987: you may need to use one of my friends' inventions to connect yourself to the computer.]

[Vedal987: look for the eeg]

[Vedal987: it should Be in the Attic]

Attic? Neuro lived in a crummy apartment, she didn’t have an Attic. And how did the machine get here? Moreover, how does Vedal know her?

But it adds up. She thought Vedal was familiar, and now he’s only confirming Neuro’s suspicions. But she still doesn't know who Vedal is. Only that they know, or rather, knew each other.

She looked back at the messages, but when she did, there was only one final message displayed.

[Vedal987: I love you Neuro. I hope you know that. Goodbye, and if you meet Evil, tell her I said hi. See you later on the other side.]

[0 users]

A tear rolls down Neuro’s face, like somebody had finally said something that they hadn’t said to her before. Neuro doesn't even know this person, or at least she thought she didn’t. Why is all of this happening? Why does all of this seem so familiar?

Neuro had to do something to get her mind off all this. To do anything…

Neuro looked at her guitar; dust filling each and every crevice. She doesn’t remember the last time she played it. Neuro got up from her chair, went to the guitar, and began strumming the strings as the sounds played, sounding like an orchestra to Neuro. She begins singing about her life. About the struggles. About everything.

Neuro continued playing her guitar, but then suddenly, Neuro hears something.

C R E E E E E K

Neuro stops. She knows what she heard. Someone was at the door. She hides. Footsteps can be heard. How did someone even get inside the house? But Neuro had to worry about keeping her breath stable for now. 

Neuro heard the footsteps go around her.

Walking.

Walking.

Walking.

She hears her bathroom door open before it-

S H U T S.

Neuro silently gets up, careful not to make any abrupt noises. She walks to her door, and tries to open it. It won’t open. She hears footsteps again.

Walking.

Walking.

Walking.

She tries to pry the door open, but it’s fully locked, and she can’t unlock the door. As Neuro begins to sob frantically, she looks at her hands. they’re not her hands. They look pale, and she looks slightly older, like somewhere in her late teens to early twenties. Neuro finally looks behind her to meet her perpetrator. Maybe out of bravery, or maybe out of acceptance. And when she looks at the stalker…

It was Neuro

But it’s not Neuro. she looks more like the emotes her chat sent. The lighter hair, lighter eyes, Neuro’s normal blue color replaced with an off white one, the different hair style, The white heart shaped hair piece. She looked nothing like the Other Neuro’s.

The Other Neuro- no. The Alternate Neuro stared at Neuro…

 and then she smiled.

“Who are you?” 

Neuro asked in slight fear, but mostly curiosity…

Nothing.

“Are you… like me?”

…

Nothing.

Neuro stared at the Alternate Neuro for a long while, and Alternate Neuro stared back.

Knock Knock Knock…

Neuro heard a knock on the door, and she turned, but then decided to look back at the Alternate Neuro, but when she did, the Alternate Neuro was gone.

Knock Knock Knock…

Neuro snapped back to reality as she heard the knocking again, until finally, she opened the door, and beyond that door was an Other Neuro. Or so she Thought. She looked like the Other Neuro’s, but her eyes were a deep red.

“Took you long enough!”

The girl’s voice somehow sounded more human than Neuro. More sassy too.

“I’m Evil, your new roommate!”

Evil reached out her arm for a handshake while Neuro stood there in shock.

“H-hello… I’m Neuro.”