A.N: Alright, Let's write a proper fucking story this time.
Act 1: Iris Revival
Chapter 1: Neo Alpha.
~One week earlier, June 23, 29XX; 7:00 AM~
"Live and Learn! Hanging on the edge of tomorrow! Live and Learn! From the works of yesterday! Live and Learn! If you beg or-"
*Slam*
Neptune slammed her palm against her alarm clock, shutting it off abruptly before rubbing her eyes and stretching her body widely. When she got out of her bed and stood up, she left out a zestful yawn and headed for the bathroom.
"Weird ass dream…" The CPU thought to herself… "Emo Nepgear (Who the hell is Nepgear?)… Excalibur… mom… simulations… Blanc… was my ex-girlfriend? I never even knew her that well! What else happened… oh yeah! 90k9… who the hell is that guy? What the hell am I dreaming about nowadays anyway?"
Every morning, Neptune would wash her face and take a shower, followed by a half hour of drying her hair and then choosing which of her hundreds the same parka dress to choose from. Afterwards, Neptune would go downstairs to the kitchen, which had a nice one way window to the city of Planeptune. Its futuristic buildings and complex infrastructure juxtaposed the very traditional and simplistic life she had when she grew up in Lowee, a country far from here.
With a nice and wide view of the city, Neptune had a table prepared with a nutritious breakfast prepared by her oracle, Histoire. The oracle acted as more of a secretary and an advisor for the CPU. Whether she was acting out of line, or needed a to-do list, the Oracle would be there for her to manage her time and activities. Histoire had the fortune of always being called the "Fun Police" whenever she had a job for Neptune. But she was also a counselor and a vital assistant for the Console Patron Unit.
"Mornin Histy… what's for breakfast?"
"I've prepped a salted omelet with mushrooms, bacon, and spinach. I've also brewed a coffee with minimal creamer and over 20 packets of sweetener."
"Just how I like it…" Neptune took a deep sigh before collapsing onto her diner chair and turning on the T.V in the corner of the room. "What's Famitsu got for us today?"
The Orange-Haired journalist was in the middle of a live report directly from the battlefield in the center of Gamindustri. A full on war between the countries Lastation and Leanbox. The two countries had been at war for at least a decade now, Planeptune's government has decided to remain neutral and refuses to trade or communicate with any of the warring nations.
"This is Famitsu reporting in live from the trenches, as my camera man is showing, just merely 100 meters away is the line of Lastation soldiers, who have been putting up a solid fight against Leanbox's infantry men for the past couple of months." Famitsu walked up to a nearby soldier and asked him a few questions, mostly pertaining to how long the soldier had been serving how life on the front-lines was like.
"Those two countries are never going to stop going at it, are they?"
"Its in their blood I guess… this war is being fought over territory but there's going to be nothing left once the fighting's done. There's been talks of entering the war among Planeptune's government officials…" Histoire took a sip from her miniature coffee mug before looking down at her watch again "… hopefully its nothing more than just some ramblings among politicians and nothing too serious."
"Tell me about it… its bad enough they're issuing a draft for Planeptune citizens in the case of an invasion… but now they're straight up plastering war propaganda all over the streets." Neptune took one good look at the outer city, billboards and digital advertisements were plastered everywhere – all promoting for young individuals to join the military and to fight for their country. I admire the patriotism, but I think it's a bit over the top. But that's beside the point, what's on the agenda Histy?" Neptune swallowed her coffee whole and scarfed down her entire omelet in seconds.
Histoire was mildly taken aback but then looked back down at her tablet. "Well… there's been extra construction plans for the northwest part of the city the people are requesting you to aid in construction of the new buildings."
"Construction? Geez… that's the second most boring CPU job out of all of them, and it uses up a ton of shares… I've seen the blueprints, it's nothing the construction teams can't handle."
"Okay…" Histoire swiped away the construction request and scrolled down to the next task. "There's an order for some paperwork-"
Neptune didn't hesitate to wave away the request the moment she heard that paperwork was involved. "Skip it. The office workers here aren't paid for nothing"
Histoire, unsurprised by Neptune's actions, quickly skimmed on over to the next request. "There's sightings of a suspicious girl wandering Virtua forest. Monsters don't seem to attack her, and she always manages to run away from anyone who tries to get near her.
"Mysterious girl huh? That should be interesting. I'll take it, better than any of the other crap on that list…" Neptune put her plate away and headed for the balcony of the basilicom.
"Taking the express route again Neptune?"
"There's any other way?"
"Congress doesn't like it when you don't leave through the front doors!"
"And I don't like being told what to do, not all of us can get what we want Histy."
Neptune reached the edge of the balcony and stood on the edge of the railing. Looking down, she saw the vast traffic of a Planeptune highway below her, the sight nauseated her at first, but she clenched her fist and focused herself. "Keep the A.C on while I'm gone, it takes forever if I turn it off and and turn it back on later!" She turned around and waved one last time at Histoire before leaping off the edge.
"Oh that Neptune… what am I going to do with that rascal?"
As Neptune free fell to the traffic, Neptune closed her eyes and focused her share energy, first, a shroud of light covered her, she grew taller and parts of her armor flew and formed onto her. The light dissipated and Purple Heart emerged just in time before she hit the road as she activated her wings.
~Virtua Forest, 7:30 AM~
Purple Heart arrived at the forest and quickly transformed back into her human form. "Alright, this is where the job says this "Mysterious girl" is… not sure what I'm supposed to be seeing here… but whatever gets Histoire off my back for the while."
Neptune wandered around the forest for a good while, encountering the usual trash mob or dogoo that'd get crushed immediately.
Growing impatient and bored, Neptune was very tempted to return back to the basilicom and simply write of the reports as superstition or rumors, but before she could even transform back, she heard a faint voice calling out to her.
"Hey…Hey! Look out below!"
"The hell is… OH WHAT THE FU-"
*Crash*
Neptune found herself face first into the dirt. Regaining her bearings and pushing herself off the ground, she felt an immense weight dumped downward on her back.
"Sorry about thaaaaaaaaaat…"
"Who would've thought that girls falling for me would be a pain in the ass!? Who- Who are you?"
"Oh meeeeee? I'm Plutia… Nice to meet youuuu…"
"Are you drunk?" Neptune, perplexed and eluded by the very confusing and rather slow girl atop her, simply urged her to get off as she pushed herself off the ground.
"Drunk? Umm… I don't know… to be honest… I don't know a lot of things."
"Yeah… I can kinda tell. You uh… have some friends or family I can refer you to, Plutia?"
"Umm… no."
"Christ. Do you know where you are right now?"
"Umm… Planeptune?"
"Alright, Where in Planeptune?"
"Umm… uh… Lowee?"
"Alright. I'm bringing you to the basilicom. Histoire will have to deal with you." Neptune transformed into her HDD form and carried her with both her arms, damsel style.
"Woah! How did you do that?"
"I'm CPU, you know what that- no, of course you don't"
"CPU? Is that some sort of computer device?"
"Well no, actually yes, but no."
"Is it yes or no?"
"No, but it would be right in a different context."
"What's context?"
"I'm going to drop you if you keep asking questions."
~Planeptune, Basilicom 9:30 AM~
"Well… that's definitely the girl that was described in the reports. Neptune, how did you come across this girl again?"
"I was wandering the forest, trying to find this broad, low and behold, she falls out of the sky and right onto me. I swear, it feels like this came straight outta some niche JRPG."
"Mhmm, Interesting. After talking to her for a bit I've concluded that she has amnesia. She clearly has no idea where she's from, who her family is, or why she was where she was to begin with."
"So she just ended up in the Virtua forest to begin with?"
"I don't know actually… there's a possibility of foul play but what would be the intent of dumping this seemingly innocent girl in the middle of nowhere?"
Neptune looked back at Plutia in the interrogation room and noticed her trying to examine the inside of a coffee mug, only to spill the its contents all over her dress.
"Well… maybe they might have a reason. Well, nonetheless, we can't just dump her off in the middle of nowhere… Histy?"
"You brought her here, you might as well take responsibility."
"Responsibility? The hell am I supposed to do? Feed her?"
"You're supposed to find out who she is."
"Ah- No. The report asked to check out the issue. Boom!" Neptune pointed toward Plutia, "Issues right there, and it's been checked out, her responsibility is on you."
"Well. Okay Neptune. I'll take care of Plutia... buuuuuut…" Histoire brought out a giant stack of papers that reached a few inches short of the ceiling. "You can take care of this then."
Neptune looked up at the gargantuan stack of papers, and then looked back at Plutia. Reconciling her choices and calculating the best (or in her case, laziest) solution, she gave in and decided to take care of Plutia. "Fine, but you better not drop any more crap on me unless its hunting or piracy prevention quest."
"Yeah yeah Neptune, of course, now excuse me, I need to do your work for you…" Histoire picked up the stack of papers and smugly left the room.
"Umm… Ms. Neppy?"
"*Sigh* Yes Plutia?"
"Umm, the coffee stains are stuck in my dress… it really doesn't help that my clothes were kinda dirty to begin with…"
"Right… follow me…"
~Planeptune Showers, 9:50 AM~
Neptune and Plutia spent a good while in Planeptune's bathhouse sitting awkwardly away from each other, yet close enough to make each other out through the dense steam that masqueraded the room. Neither spoke a single word to each other; Neptune, out of annoyance, and Plutia, out of nervousness.
"Umm, Neppy, the body wash isn't coming out of the bottle"
"Have you tried opening the lid?" Neptune retorted in a rather rude manner.
"Well… um… I did, but its still not coming out!"
"Have you tried holding holding the bottle up-side down?"
"Yeah... that's what I'm doing right now… Neppy, does the bottle hate me?"
"I have no clue how you came to that conclusion."
"Well, if someone doesn't like opening up to new people, that usually means they're holding in some form of contempt or annoyance of sorts…"
"What!? Where could you possibly be getting that idea-" Neptune, immediately realizing what she was doing, looked down at her reflection in the bathwater. "Well I'll be damned that's one way break the ice…"
"No seriously Neppy, the body wash should be coming out, the bottle is clearly full. I don't understand-"
"Okay look, let me see it." Neptune, easing up to the newcomer and deciding to sit closer to her, grabbed the body wash bottle and examined it. "Ah, I see. The plastic seal hasn't even been taken off." Neptune took off lid and showed Plutia the plastic top. "Okay Plutia, you see this silver seal on the top of the bottle?"
"Yes…"
"Good, you see the small lip near on the edge of the seal?"
"Edge? But it's a circle…"
"That's not the point, you need to peel-"
*PHWOOSH*
Plutia's pressure that she applied to the bottle before Neptune opened it caused fountain of body wash to erupt from the bottle, directly entering her eyes and and burning her sockets. "AHHHH! OH GOD PLUTIA! WHY!"
"Aw geez, don't worry Neppy, I'll help you!" In an attempt to help the suffering CPU, Plutia grabbed a nearby bucket of water and dumped it on Neptune's face.
"AHHHH! THAT'S WORSE! THAT SCORCHING HOT WATER YOU DUNCE!"
"Oh crap, here!" Plutia then grabbed another bucket and chucked it at Neptune, hoping it was full of cold water. Instead, it was actually full of bathing supplies and Plutia just bruised Neptune's other eye with a flying bar of soap."
"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" Neptune screamed in pain as
"I'm trying Neppy!" Plutia, scrambled around the bathhouse in a panic, luckily, she found a nearby sink with and cold water and shoved Neptune's face into it. "Don't worry Neppy, this cold water is going to patch you riiiiiiiiight uuuuuup.
"Arglblarghlarglrl" Is all that Neptune could muster out as Plutia drowned her in the cold water, only briefly pulling her head out for air.
Histoire, concerned by the immense ruckus peeked into the bath house to see the cause of the commotion. "Excuse me, is everything okay- oh my goodness!" Histoire watched in horror as she saw her CPU's head constantly dunked in and out of freezing water.
"Histoire please you have to- argleblar- stop her she's trying to- graglelargel-" Neptune couldn't finish her sentence as Plutia crudely dumped the CPUs head in and out of water.
Histoire was willing to stop Plutia from assaulting Neptune, but then she looked back at her desk and saw the hundreds upon thousands of paperwork that Neptune skipped out on and dropped onto her. "Eh… she'll be fine…" Histoire shrugged off the situation and left, leaving Neptune to Plutia's unintentional torment.
~Planeptune Basilicom Kitchen, 12:30 PM~
"Umm… Neppy?"
Neptune sat as far away from Plutia as she could in the dinner table, sitting diagonally and refusing to look as her at all cost.
"Neppy? Are you mad at me? Sorry about the body wash… I'll make sure to open the seal beforehand next time…"
But Neptune sat silently, holding an ice bag over her bruised eye, holding nothing but contempt for the girl that sat diagonally from her.
"Look, I'm sorry for smashing your face with a bar of soap and constantly dunking your head in freezing water, there's gotta be someway I can make up for it… right?"
Neptune, refused to reply, and continued to stare blankly into the ceiling.
"Well… look! I'll cook something for you!"
Neptune looked toward the girl with slight curiosity, but then continued to stay silent.
~Planeptune Basilicom Kitchen, 1:00 PM~
"Alright! I'm dooooooone!"
Neptune looked to her left to see Plutia in a messy apron with scorched oven mitts, she deduced that whatever she had cooked, took quite effort, possibly more than what Neptune had expected of her.
Plutia brought out a plate with a small mound-shaped pastry, alongside a singular kitchen fork.
Neptune seemed bewildered at first. Was this a prank? A secret weapon? Some unholy concoction? It had to have been, for what she saw before her was something she had never saw since her childhood. Pudding.
"Plutia… how did you make this?"
"Oh… I just um… I guess its just one of the few things my brain decided to remember."
"Right…"
Neptune took the fork and scooped into the caramel mix, taking a swift bite, hoping that the quicker she ate it, the faster the pain would go away. But to her surprise, it tasted rather blissful. In fact, it actually reminded her of her childhood, the earlier days when her mom and dad were happily together.
"Oh my god… its actually… actually… wait…"
It wouldn't be long for Neptune to realize that Plutia had inserted an extra ingredient into her pudding.
"Ummm Plu… plu… Plutia… did you put spices in this pudding?"
"Why yes! 48 grinded Carolina Reapers to be exact. I didn't want to make any generic pudding, so I added some spice. What better meal for a tough CPU than some tough spice? Though I'm pretty sure this is nothing to you, right?"
Neptune's entire body started to redden from pure heat, but she couldn't give in. She had her pride as a CPU to uphold, and she wouldn't be willing to let it go because of some dumb pepper. "I'm totally and completely fine Plutia! F-f-f—f-f-f fine and n-n-n-n-not in p-p-p-pain at a-a-a-all!"
"All right! I'm glad you liked it Neppy! Oh… why are you reddening up Neppy? Was it too hot for you?"
"N-n-N-n-n-N-n-n-O! Not at al-l-l-ll-l! I'm just u-u-uh, little flustered you know! I mean… it-t-t-t's very thoughtful of you to m-make me pudding, it was one of m-m-my favorite childhood snacks as a k-k-k-kid…"
"That's great to hear Neppy… wait, why are you tearing up?"
"Oh that? Those are… t-t-t-tears of j-j-joy haaa! Haaa!" Neptune couldn't take any more pain and rushed to the bathroom to rinse her mouth out."
"Oh? Silly me… I think embarrassed her too much."
Neptune washed out her mouth with extremely cold water, no different than the one Plutia had once dunked the CPUs head into. But the headstrong pain pounded through the CPU's head and throat, causing her to eventually pass out.
~Neptune's room, 9:00 PM~
Neptune woke up in a confused state, she swore she was last in the bathroom rinsing her mouth out, nut now she suddenly ended up on her... bed? "Woah, it's still only 9:00? That'll mess up my sleeping schedule…" Neptune exited her room to see Plutia sleeping softly on the couch in the kitchen.
Purple felt conflicted, she knew Plutia meant no real harm to her, but her clumsiness and overall ignorance made her quite the hassle for the CPU. But she couldn't simply forgo the kind gesture Plutia had returned. Neptune went up to the sleeping Plutia and wrapped a blanket around her, the sleeping girl snuggled warmly and smiled softly, and despite all the trouble she had caused her, Neptune couldn't help smile in return.
"Oh Plutia… what am I going to do with you?"
To Be Continued
A.N: How's that for a start? Instead of trying to set up 50 gigjabillion plotlines I won't finish, I focused on developing a small set of characters. Hopefully I don't ditch this one as badly.