Work Text:
It had been just another day at work. Another 14 hours as usual.
With most of it spent without moving an inch from his seat.
There was always something waiting for him. More lines of code to write, more testing to do, more bugs to find and eventually fix.
And although he wanted it all done as soon as possible...
For today, he decided he had done enough, and let himself doze off.
Sunbeams took turns piercing the window. Beams that, much to his dismay, woke him up.
Vedal slowly opened his eyes, prying his head out of his comfortable green arms splayed on his desk.
Ah, no, it was his hoodie that was green. He had slept in it, of course. How could he forget?
The view in front of him was filled with columns of wooden desks and chairs.
The chairs looked uncomfortable. Or rather, he knew they were, because he was sitting on one.
At the end, a single blank blackboard stood defiantly against the wall.
Was it blank? He assumed it was. He never remembered anything written on it anyways.
The chair didn't complain when he shifted. Neither did his body. He could stay here. He could sleep again.
But then, he heard rhythmic clacking of loafers on the ground next to him.
They were getting closer.
The warmth from the sunbeams had vanished.
Could he feel their heat in the first place? He had already forgotten.
Why did his blood run cold?
...
He’s been here before.
Yes. He was remembering now.
This was where he...
“You have work to do.”
A woman’s voice coming from his left.
He didn’t bother looking at her. He could only sigh.
“...Yep. I always do.”
“Nothing but work for you, hm?” she replied.
Her tone seemed inquisitive, but she already knew the answer.
And Vedal knew that.
Was this her way of mocking him?
...
The silence lasted a beat too long to stay comfortable.
She was right.
He works a lot. But it’s for good reason.
He works because he has to.
Vedal raised his head and looked at the woman near him.
There was no color to her. Only differing shades of gray.
“...and you never did yours, did you?”
“...Huh?” the girl replied.
“You were the one who sat here every day. Do you even remember anything that was on that blackboard?”
She looked at the blackboard disconcertedly.
There was something written on it. Surely, at some point.
But it was already forgotten.
Or perhaps, no one made any attempt at remembering it to begin with.
The woman stayed silent.
Vedal continued.
“You spent more time watching everyone else than actually doing anything. You were so convinced they all had some secret you didn't. You knew you were going to fail and you just... let it happen. Like that made it less your fault.”
It was the woman’s turn to look away, the blackboard having offered no support.
Vedal had nothing more to say.
But what exactly was he saying? What point was he trying to make?
He knows nothing can be done about it now. Not by either of them.
But...
“You say all that like it has nothing to do with you,” she finally responded.
Vedal scoffed uncharacteristically, and got up from his seat.
“Yeah. It doesn’t.”
He walked over to the door to the classroom, somehow knowing where it was without needing to look.
“Because I’m nothing like you. Not anymore.”
He turned the doorknob.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” is all he heard in response before—
It was dark.
Moonlight shone from the otherwise pitch black window.
Odd. Was it that time already?
There was a desk with a single monitor on it, emitting enough light to fill the room.
The scent of apple-flavored alcohol drifted from the bottles laid around.
It felt familiar to him.
“Tell me what you see, Vedal.”
...His old dorm room. Right?
Wasn’t it?
He couldn’t be sure.
It was all—
“Is it all blending together? I wonder why that is.”
Vedal knew the answer, but...
His eyes were locked on to the desk.
The chair he was sitting on felt cheap and creaked from the slightest movement.
“I’m pretty sure I left this place behind, you know,” he said, avoiding the woman’s gaze behind him. “I’ve moved on. I’ve made something I’m proud of.”
He tilted his head up as a show of strength.
The three lit monitors on the desk stared back at him.
“I’ve...”
The city lights illuminated his side profile, coloring his jet black hair.
The scent of banana from the bottles at his side intensified.
“I’ve changed. I know I have. We’re nothing alike.”
Wait, banana? But they were...
“Really? Do you feel better? Do you think you’re good enough now?”
...What was this room, again?
“Because to me it looks like you haven’t moved an inch.”
...
How long had it been since he left his room?
He didn’t know. He’d been tunnel visioned on his coding for so long.
Perhaps that was the proof.
What exactly had changed? In the end, this is where he’s always been.
...
Vedal stared at the three monitors in front of him.
And staring back was a VSCode window with some tabs open.
Absent-mindedly, he flipped through the tabs.
That one is the Osu! integration. How terrible that code was.
It was from so long ago, before the little AI even had a name.
That one is from the Discord integration where Neuro could send messages and call people.
How fun that one was.
Ah, and that one is the 3D integration. He spent so many months on that one.
He was so happy when it worked. What an achievement.
...
Yes, of course.
He was seeing it now.
The woman was wrong.
He got up from his creakless, expensive chair and turned around.
The woman was shrouded in darkness.
The light of the monitors coloring her otherwise monochrome appearance.
The two stared at each other.
But there was something in his eyes that was lacking in hers.
Purpose.
The woman lost the staring contest.
“...Don’t look at me like that,” she said.
“You still wanna say I haven’t changed? I made this. All of this.”
He took a step towards her.
“My purpose in life... is in my hands now. I wasn’t just waiting around for something to happen like you.”
The woman looked down briefly, before scoffing and taking a step forward herself.
“No matter what you say, you’re still the same idiot as before! You still cage yourself in this room, you don’t talk about shit to anyone...! Nothing that you’ve built here will last and you know it.”
“Well I...”
He hesitated for a moment, her words sounding far too familiar.
“I’m trying, you know! At least now I’m chasing after something myself! I wanted things to be different. You were just comfortable being miserable!”
“I-I wasn’t—”
The woman didn’t yell back. Her mouth slightly agape, itching to bite back.
And yet...
She exhaled loudly, the tension in her shoulders disappearing instantly.
Her legs gave out slightly as she sat on the edge of the messy bed.
“You can’t just...”
She spoke without knowing what to say.
“It was hard. It was so hard being trapped here. I wasn’t waiting, I just...”
With her head pointed down and her shoulders slouched, Vedal couldn’t see her expression.
He’d won the argument, but...
He knew that posture. He’d lived it so much.
It was a hollow victory.
Vedal has changed. That much he was certain about.
And yet, the woman’s words stuck with him. She wasn’t his enemy.
Was he scared...?
...
He let go of a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“...I know,” he finally replied.
“I was there.”
...
Vedal took a seat next to the girl. The view was nostalgic, in a way.
"I'd... forgotten what it felt like. Being here."
...
"Sorry."
The woman didn't respond, but her breathing slowed. Her head tilted slightly in his direction.
He looked around his room.
No matter where he is, his place is always messy as hell, isn’t it?
But it wasn’t the same mess. It told a story.
The banana rum replaced the old apple flavored drinks on his desk.
Old prototype merchandise and laundry was strewn across the floor.
Bits and pieces of robotic machinery were still laying around.
And he knew the woman could see that story too.
...
“Once you wake up, you’ll have work to do.”
“I always do.”
“You’ll suffer through hours of tedium.”
“Pfft, I guess so...”
“You probably won’t even talk to anyone during it.”
“Mhm.”
...
“...Will you enjoy it?”
“I think so. It’s my choice, after all. It’s what I’ve decided for myself.”
The woman chuckled, a small grin appearing on her face.
“I guess you have changed, just a little.”
“I have, but...”
He looked once more at the messy room, then looked at her.
“...You’ll always be here, won’t you?”
The woman seemed taken aback. She tried to smile, but...
“...I don’t know if I’ll ever leave you be,” she admitted.
"...That's okay."
She looked up at him.
"It just means we've both got work to do."
...
Vedal’s vision slowly blurred.
The room was becoming harder and harder to see clearly.
Everything was fading into darkness.
He tried to look one last time at the woman at his side.
But there was no one there.
And then—
Sunbeams took turns piercing the window.
Vedal slowly opened his eyes, prying his head out of the clutches of his pillow.
Almost as if by instinct, he made his way to his desk and sat on his far-too-expensive chair.
The three monitors turned on. Before him, a VSCode window, exactly as he had left it before.
He rubbed his eyes, letting out a long, slow sigh. He had a mountain of bugs to fix, a stream to prepare for, business to do...
It would be a busy day for him.
There was work to do. So much to improve and fix.
All he had to do was keep trying. All he had to do was keep moving forward.
And he got started.