Work Text:
"Another day, another reaction video."
Louis sat idly on his computer chair, wearing his usual black jumper and silver necklace.
This was routine for him: Wake up, have breakfast, wait for the gods to transport him into the cursed dimension, react to a video, get feedback. Over time it got more bearable.
Didn't make it stop being annoying though.
He heard a voice echoing in his mind. **INITIATING VIDEO CREATION...**
He still didn't know who the mysterious voice was, but it didn't really matter. He was basically getting paid to do this..
As the real world started to blur, Louis repeated to himself "Don't let it be the clean girl, please don't let it be the clean girl-"
*poof!*
He was in a grocery store, watching what was presumably a woman. She bore a white jumper, a bracelet and a couple rings. The text "I wish I knew this sooner 😩🦟" was projected into his vision.
She grabbed like 3 grocery bags and tore them away from the rest of their family, not bothering to actually fill the bags up with food.
"You just discovered bags? That's concerning-" Louis was able to give his sarcastic remark before the scene cuts to the victim's bathroom. "Why have you taken them home with you?? You didn't even put anything in the bag! Shoplifting at it's finest."
While he was talking, she opened one of the bags and placed it into her bathroom sink, turning the cold tap on. Somehow she managed to miss the opening though, as the water pushed a side of the bag downwards as it landed outside of the wide gap.
Louis was already getting fed up with this sad excuse of a "life hack". "It's folded the bag over... *BEEP* How has she managed to miss the entrance to the bag?"
As she opens a new roll of tin foil, the song that was being actively projected into Louis's brain was special for once! ♫ do-oo-oo-ooooo ♫
"On a positive note, it is good to hear a different part of this song for once." Little did he know...
♫ You can ask the flo- ♫
"I take it back! :D" *BEEP*
Meanwhile, the test subject tore up small pieces of foil, crumpled them, and dropped them into the water that's in the bag. (not the water that missed the bag.)
This didn't seem like it was going anywhere. "What are we actually doing here? We're throwing foil balls in a bag full of water. It's like some kind of carnival game-"
She didn't stop, so Louis conjured up his own foil balls and threw them at the camera.
... *explosion noises*
The soon-to-be missing person finished making foil balls, and opened up their purse for some reason. Louis still had some hypothetical foil balls to spare, so he made a joke. "Put the money in the bag >:(," he said, holding up a ball threateningly.
Of course, she couldn't hear him. Yet she took all of the coins out of her purse anyway.
Louis spoke directly to her, "Thank you! That's so nice of you." Then to the camera. "She did it guys!"
Police sirens blared and the camera shone flashing red and blue lights into LouisAyy's face as she slowly put the coins into the (grocery) bag.
"Ohhh no. not again." She continued stalling for watch time as Louis threw his remaining metaphorical foil balls at the metaphorical police officers.
Once she had finished her. uh. concoction? she started to ti-
"What is she actually d-" he gets hit on the head with a foil ball. "ohno." *explosion noises* *BEEP*
-e the bag up. "Permission to skip her tying this?" Louis asked the camera. The word "granted" was projected into his mind with a ding. "Thank you."
The mental ward patient shows the bag to him (though she does not know of his existence directly), before moving it out of frame.
"Where is she taking that?" Outside, apparently. "The balcony! Of course!"
Successfully hooking the bag onto a bar outside, the woman backs away from it with a thumbs up as the video slows down.
♫ I'm so in love with y̷̧̭̩̲͓̼̟̘̰͈͌̎o̵̧̥̺͇̝͗̓̂́́̊̀͠ú̷̧̨̠͖̳̠͔͎̩̤̲̭͐͐̓̂̃͜ų̴̨̘̠̏͋̊̃ú̴̼͔̜̠̪̻̈̀̋̓̽͌̉̉̇̈́͂͘͝u̴̯̥̖̥̠̘̗̐̎̃͒̓̇̇͂͠u̷̡̩̝̘͙͉̯̗̱̐͌̽̈́̀́͛̈́̈́̀̀̔̚͝ͅͅṵ̵̰̍̉͗̓̓͂̓́͆̄̑̚͝͝♫
Louis makes one last statement before calling to the camera to end the recording. "Well great! Now my cash is hanging outside my balcony in a stolen grocery bag!"
*BEEP*
And then the world was filled with darkness.
Louis knew this place. It was nothing to fear. Sure, there had been SOME issues with the metadata editing before, but nothing could go THAT wrong with it.
A laptop appeared in front of him, floating in midair. Could it be called "mid air" if there is no floor? Louis had never stopped to ask that question.
It turned on without his input, and a shell opened. Bold text was broadcast onto the terminal.
**BEGIN EDITING?**
A flashing box prompted Louis's input.
"*sigh*, let's get this over with."
He typed "Yes" into the command line, and pressed Enter.
...
...
**WHAT SHOULD THE TITLE BE?**
This is easy. Just summarise the video and add a bunch of tags. Louis hastily typed the over-tagged title into the laptop.
"She steals grocery bags... #shorts #shortsfeed #youtubeshorts #cringe #lifehack #comedy #funny"
**WHAT SHOULD THE THUMBNAIL BE?**
- CHOOSE YOURSELF
- AUTO-GENERATE
Not wanting to waste any time, he lets Youtube auto-generate the thumbnail.
**WHAT SHOULD THE DESCRIPTION BE?**
Also relatively easy. Just figure out the intention of the video, add credits, and copy-paste the tags over from the title.
How to get rid of flies apparently...
Video Credit: familylifehackss
#shorts #shortsfeed #youtubeshorts #cringe #lifehack #comedy #funny
**PLEASE GIVE IT A GIFT.**
- KINDNESS
- MIND
- AMBITION
- INTEGRITY
- VOICE
Though the option could have dire consequences, Louis felt like choosing "Voice". He wasn't exactly sure why, but he felt a certain pull towards it.
**HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CREATION? (IT WILL NOT HEAR.)**
- LOVE
- HOPE
- DISGUST
- FEAR
Considering his previous choice of a gift, it felt fitting to choose "Fear." Who knew what was going to happen to this video. Or all the others following it.
**HAVE YOU ANSWERED HONESTLY?**
The only correct option here was "Yes". Typing "No" would reset the survey.
**YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THE POSSIBILITY OF CRITICISM AND DEATH THREATS.**
The only correct option here was also "Yes". It serves as a terms and conditions of sorts - if you don't agree to sell your soul to the provider, you can't use their low-quality mobile app!
**VERY WELL THEN.**
**YOUR RESPONSES HAVE BEEN RECORDED.**
**POST VIDEO?**
For the last time today, Louis types "Yes" into the laptop.
**THE VIDEO HAS BEEN POSTED.**
**DISPLAYING FEEDBACK...**
The date in which the feedback was recorded could be at any time, from two hours after a video to two years.
Today, the feedback was from about a month later, on the 10th of April, 2026.
A screen appeared in front of him, of his own video. He checks the view and like count first.
"View count is at... 19 million? And 438 thousand likes. I mean- I get more money, I guess? But normally this is a bad thing."
He then scrolls down to the comments.
...
...
...
@Alexeatsplastic1 month ago
“What are we actually doing here?”
Idk Louis you should “ask the flowers”
20K Likes - 128 replies
"oh no."