Hey der. I've been gone for a long time. A. Long. Time. Mostly, because I was depressed of my lack of inspiration. And school life. It's been complicated lately. Sigh. Anyway, this is going to be a one-shot. However, it may be up to three chapters, depending on my inspiration.
Read on!
"Hey, what's that program you've got there, Len?"
"Hm?" The said boy looked up at the computer curiously, before breaking into a grin. "Oh, that's my computer program for 'RIN'."
"What?" his blue-haired friend cocked his head to the side. "Elaboration, please."
The blonde-haired boy laughed. "Heh, I think this was just a download of boredom, honestly. I was surfing the 'Net and found this." Len dropped his pen and instead took hold of the wireless mouse. He swerved the arrow around expertly and found the program in the row of other useless junk. "'RIN' is basically just another creation from that famous company—Crypton. She's a program that can 'come alive' and take on the personality of a real human."
Kaito stared blankly at him. Len sighed. "She comes to life and you can talk to her."
His friend brightened, his eyes shining with newfound interest. "Sweet! Let's see what she can do!"
Len adjusted the glasses that sat on the bridge of his nose. "Alright, but I gotta warn you, she really acts like a true human. And, she might get emotional at me for not using her so often."
"Sweet," Kaito repeated. "A robot chick for Len."
"Shut up, BaKaito."
"Shut up, shota."
They both glared at each other before Len sighed again and double-clicked the program. Immediately, the screen went blank.
Silence.
"Whoa, what happened?" Kaito wondered after a second.
"Nothing happened," Len replied casually. "It always takes a second to—"
"Hey!" A blonde-haired girl bounced in front of the screen, the white bow on her head bobbing up and down to the beat of her jumps. "Len! Why haven't you visited me for a while?" Rin pouted. "I was waiting forever! I even cleaned up my own room!" she gestured vaguely at the backdrop design. Sure enough, it was as tidy as can be.
She surveyed Len's smiling face before glancing at Kaito. She jumped back in shock, her eyes wide. "Holy—I don't even. Why is his hair blue?" she demanded.
Len laughed as Kaito began to freak out. He, too, jumped backwards. "Holy shi—LEN! How can she see me? How can she even talk? This—this—this is all cray cray!" he screamed before falling backwards, foam bubbling up at his mouth.
"Um, don't mind my friend," Len typed in at the bottom of the screen. His taps on the keyboard echoed throughout his apartment. "He's just a little…uh…weird. He doesn't really get the power of technology."
Rin carefully read the words that popped up on the screen, next to her head. After a minute, she laughed. It was a bit sad. The laugh came out mechanical and scratchy, like how an android would sound like. Realizing there was a sad frown on Len's face, Rin stopped laughing. Her laughs faded quietly as she stared concerned at the blonde boy.
"Hey, Len, how are you? I want to talk to you." Rin requested.
"Um? Everything is fine, thanks. How about you?"
"Everything's great here, in Vocaloid."
"In where?"
"Vocaloid."
"What's Vocaloid?"
"A city where all of us hang out."
"'Us'?"
"Yeah, people just like me."
"How many are there of you?"
"Of me?" she giggled. "There are different people, silly. We all have different personalities. For example, 'LUKA' is a bit…fish crazy, but generally a tsundere." Rin informed him. "There's also a program named 'KAITO' and he kind of reminded me of your friend. That's why I was so surprised. And so on and so forth. You should really check us all out. We're one big, happy family!"
And it carried on that way—Len asking a question and Rin responding obediently. Their conversations went on for hours. At one point, Kaito had woken up and simply walked home without taking any of his belongings. He hadn't bothered to wipe the foam off his face either.
"Ah, it's getting late," Len typed in. "I have to sleep now. Plus, I'm pretty hungry. See you later, Rin!"
"Wait!" she cried. "You said that last time and didn't come back…"she whispered. Len blinked twice. Did he? He couldn't quite remember saying that. "U-um, are you hungry? Want something to eat?" she stuttered incoherently.
"I…um…actually, yes I am. It's too bad you can't make me food, right?" he typed in jokingly. Rin frowned at his words.
"Err…Len, I know you're a sweet guy, but that sounds a little sexist."
"Oh," Len said out loud. His throat felt dry and he felt a little dehydrated. "Right, sorry. Maybe you've got some water instead?" he teased.
She blinked twice, her eyes widening innocently. "W-water? Um…I…" she genuinely seemed at a loss for words. Usually, her playful and sarcastic behavior would bring the mood back up, but she was actually taking this rather seriously. "I don't have water…" she finally replied. However, the moment she said these words, a water bottle cap mysteriously poked from behind her back.
"What's that you got there?" Len typed in, amused.
"Nothing…"
"Is that a lie I hear, Rinny?"
"No."
"Yes."
"No…"
"Yes…"
"Alright, I have—"
Just then, Len's yellow cellphone began to ring and play, "Fire flower".
"Oh, sorry Rin. I've got to go now!" he hastily typed in, seeing it was from Kaito. He probably wanted his stuff back now. Besides, there was nothing Len could do with his friend's tub of ice cream. Well, besides eating if of course.
"O-oh!" Rin squeaked, suddenly sheepish. "I, um, will I see you…tomorrow…?" she let the question hang in the air, quite literally. Her tiny, pixelated hand clutched the chat bubble that had popped up from her mouth as she stared desperately at Len.
Instead of typing a response, Len merely nodded his head and shut off his computer quickly. He knew she could probably still see him—she could see him through his web cam. It was a little disturbing to think about it, but it kept him from doing…weird things in front of her.
Len ripped his gaze from the computer screen to his cellphone screen and answered the awaiting call of Kaito, who apparently, had called "a million times".
Inside the screen, Rin watched Len answer his phone with a desperate kind of longing. She wanted to be there with him. She wanted to reassure him that she was real, she was human. She wanted to laugh with him and get rid of her mechanical voice. She wanted to run and sing and dance and do everything with him.
"But," she thought, her throat dry and constricting as she swallowed slowly. "I can never do that because I'm just a computer generated program."
And with those pitiful words, she closed her eyes and shut off, a single pixelated tear running down her cheek.
So, what'd you guys think? I may or may not make it just a one-shot, like I said in the beginning. It might depend on my inspiration, quite honestly. Heh. Anyway, constructive criticism is allowed~
