Author's Note: My first proper fanfic in awhile, written after finally seeing Wicked again in the West End. Partly inspired by the amazing horror game Doki Doki Literature Club, but not enough for it to be a crossover. It's predominantly Wicked.
Modern AU, Shiz-era. Elphaba discovers an online AI chatbot with a startingly real grasp of human emotions and general conversation. The "Perfect Girl", which Elphaba names Fae, is like the best friend she's never had. But when the line between virtual and reality is violently shattered, she's forced to turn to the two people she hates more than anything for help: Galinda Upland and Fiyero Tigelaar.
Hope you enjoy it!
The Perfect Girl
Chapter One:
Elphaba was merely browsing the internet when she discovered the chatbot.
In between studying, and... well, more studying if she was honest with herself, the green-skinned Munchkinlander often excercised the rather poor habit of browsing the web or Oztube for articles of videos on really any subject under the sun of vague interest to her. The only other obligatory activity that ever occupied her time at Shiz Univeristy was attending her lectures, in which she spent the entirety of her time listening attentively, taking notes judiciously and contributing as much as physically possible (she would only stop when the blood appeared to have abandoned her arms for being raised too much). On occasion, she'd also give her well-oiled wheel of sarcastic and intimidatingly sharp retorts a spin, if only to knock her ditsy blonde moron of a roommate, Galinda Upland, and her equally moronic scourge of a boyfriend, Fiyero Tiggelaar, down a peg or two. Listening to them yapping on about their endless stream of utterly vacuous parties a few metres behind her head- coupled with their apparent inpetitude in the field of answering simple questions- was usually enough to send her flying off the handle.
Though it was her stance that having the courage required to stand up for what you believe in and always speak your mind was an admirable trait, and one of the only characteristics Elphaba possessed that she took a certain degree of pride in, it had caused her to be labelled as opinionated and abrasive by her peers. Galinda and Fiyero simply held the bragging rights for holding the top spot on a long list of people who despised her, a list that also featured individuals such as her own father, Frexspar, and it seemed to her at times her own sister, Nessarose. Then again, this assumed that the sole reason for her unrelenting unpopulairty was an "inability to shut up", as it was usually described; a streak of antisocial behaviours, the aforementioned verdigris and fluency in the language of sarcasm hardly helped either.
Thus, it was somewhat to be expected that she would find solace in what offered her escape from reality. She could often be found in some obscure, far-off fictional universe provided by her books, and at other times, most often when locked in her and Galinda's Crage Hall dormitory, immersed in her little "OzWeb Sessions", a private and slightly embarrassing name Elphaba had given to the hours upon hours she spent surfing the net. While others procrastinated schoolwork by going out with their friends, the campus green girl did so by totally barring herself off from the rest of Ozian existence. Though of course, when exam and essay deadlines came calling, Elphaba was far more dilligent and studious than most.
She came across it completely by chance. While reading an article on the official Emerald City Telegraph website about the Wizard's recent and needless to say outrageous animal bans, a pop up add emerged on her Quoxbook lapter's monitor. This merited a deserved moan of irritation and a mental reminder she needed to download an online add blocker at some point or other. She swiped her emrald index finger over the mousepad, moving the cursor over to the x button. Just as she was about to press down, her eyes finally settled on the details of the pop up and what it was advertising.
It was a game. Or at least, Elphaba assumed so. She'd never really been interested in them, viewing them in relative ignorance as pointless time wasting exercisises, and so had very little knowledge of genres, subgenres or anything really gaming related at all. In bright, colourful text, the presumed title, "The Perfect Girl!", could be seen, and beneath this was a picture of a smiling young woman who looked around Elphaba's own age. She was drawn in a style the green girl knew of but wasn't all too familiar with; a distinctive traditional Gilikin format callled Gerieu that, as she would soon learn via avid research, was highly popular in the gaming and magazine industry. It was characterised by the drawing of noticeably large eyes for human characters, often of a vibrant or even slightly unnatural colour, but it was also well documented that Gerieu artists and programmers tended to brazenly emphasise the more... feminine attriibutes of women, sometimes to ridiculous proportions. The girl, apparently the main subject of this game, had brunette hair, startlingly emerald eyes and a generously pronounced bust. She was clad in a simple white sweater, but the wide, winning smile and delicate lily flower attached to her Gilikin plaits gave her the impression of a pleasant and welcoming demeanour. She was sat on a chair with her arms crossed, staring directly at Elphaba, in an otherwise empty room reminiscent of a highscool classroom.
Just below the level of her breasts was, she supposed, a short synopsis of the game's content. "The groundbreaking procedurally generated online chatbot! Your perfect girl is whatever you want her to be!" it read, in bold, cursive writing, followed by "Free to download!".
Elphaba wasn't entirely sure why the image captured her attention so much, for it was obviously pandering towards the male audience. There was something in the girl's countenance, the slight smirk, the mid-fluttering eyelashes, the features drawn so clearly to be attractive, that was subtle but undeniably seductive. The phrase "perfect girl" seemed highly appropriate, for surely no real girl in Oz could boast a face so perfectly symmetrical, or a chest and shoulders so immaculately proportionate to the rest of her visible body. Perhaps it was the eyes. The depth of the colour, that light but deep and vivid green, was close to the colour of Elphaba's skin, but less dull, and closer still to the skyscraping business towers of the Ozian capital, or the lush summer grass and treetops back home in Munchkinland.
Her computer's cursor remained over the x-button, just as still as Elphaba's finger on the pad, just as bizarrely entranced as the rest of her body. It was like the perfect girl was staring directly, and solely, at her (no doubt the intention of the advertisement's creators).
Suddenly, the door of the suite swung open, breaking the green girl from her stupor. The suite was fancy, luxurious and modern, perhaps one of the most expensive on campus: only the best was suitable for Galinda Upland of the Arduenna Clan, after all. Much to the blonde's chagrin, Madame Morrible had forced her to share what should've been a private suite with Elphaba (even though it was surely too spacious for a single person), after a mixup with names upon application had rendered the latter roommate-less. Frankly, Elphaba often contemplated how much easily her day to day life at Shiz would've been if she'd remained so. Their blunt dislike for each other could only be managed by staying out of each other's way for as much as humanly possible. This appeared to be one of the rare instances were the two would be forced to share the suite during the day- the only other time they'd be found even close to being in each other's presence was when sleeping.
The Gilikin was panting heavily, no doubt exhausted after hauling a grand total of five separate shopping bags, each full to the brim, up the Crage Hall stairs. Her hair was tied into an elegantly styled ponytail, and her equally stylish crystal white outfit, a dress with a knee length skirt, was held together by a polished metal buckle sealed around her waist. Elphaba raised her eyebrow- it was truly one of the severn wonders of Oz how Galinda managed to spend such extortionate and unnecessary amounts on clothing and still never to appear to be satisfied. As if she needed the fashion accessories and dozens upon dozens of carefully applied makeup layers anyway. Galinda was naturally beautiful in a way that most girls could only dream of. Actually, Elphaba found herself musing, she's more sexy than beautiful. Her figure was a perfect hourglass. Her breasts were full and bulging. Most boys, and even a few girls, found it an insurmountable challenge not to ogle her as she walked past.
It was a shame such physical perfection didn't extend to her personality.
Galinda let out a huff and dropped her shopping bags on the floor, before flouncing over to the open plan kitchen. Elphaba watched out of the corner of her eye as her roommate reconnected her model 10 QuoxPhone via Greentooth to their speakers, located to the right of the sofa were Elphaba was currently sprawled. An obnoxious popbeat by one of Oz's most popular boybands blared out. Halfway through making a latte, Galinda glanced up so that blue eyes met brown, then huffed again and looked away, as if the mere notion of Elphaba's existence filled her with disgust (and it probably did).
The Munchkinlander smirked. 'What's got your tail in a twist, my pretty?'
Galinda ignored her and continued with her latte, though the expected pout emerged on her face.
'Has another one of your shopping exploits turned sour? Was there a pair of red shoes you couldn't leech enough money out of your parent's credit card to purchase? While we're on that subject, they must be sick of you wasting their hard-earned cash by now-'
'Sweet Oz. Do you actually enjoy being such a pain?'
'Immensely, my pretty. I revel in the torture of my enemies,' she replied, a grin breaking out on her face.
'Shut up,' Galinda snapped. She poured the coffee into a mug and then walked over to the sofa, glancing over at Elphaba's computer screen.
She snorted. 'The Perfect Girl? Just when I thought your life couldn't get any more saddening.'
'Saddening? Wow Galinda, a nine letter word! That must be something of a milestone.'
The mock condescension went mysteriously unaddressed. 'What's it even about? I would've thought gaming wasn't sophastacated enough for a nerd like you.'
'Sophisticated, you blonde dimwit. And for your information, I didn't actively seek this out. It's a pop-up add, but in your technological ignorance I'm sure you're unaware what that is.'
'Stop acting so high and mighty just because you can use long words.'
'Stop acting like a moron- oh no wait, that's not acting.'
'Irritating teacher's pet.'
'Irritating spoilt rich girl.'
'Teacher's pet.'
'Spoilt rich girl.'
Galinda left the room at this point, slamming the door behind her, thus concluding another one of their mature and civil conversations. Elphaba grabbed the remote for their speakers and turned off the pop song, allowing a peaceful silence to settle over the room once more.
She turned back to her screen. The almost eerily perfect girl was still staring at her. She noticed for the first time that the animated pixels for the girl's smile had changed in the time she was squabbling with Galinda. It was wider now, and the teeth were visible.
Thinking nothing of it, Elphaba closed the ad, but for reasons inexplicable to her made a mental note to look up the game later. She took out her own phone, a model 5 QuoxPhone with a cracked screen she'd been give after her sister had dropped it. It wasn't modern enough to have Greentooth, so if she wanted to be play music it had to be connected via port. She did so, and soon enough her rather more aggressive taste of heavy rock was coming through loud and clear.
A little too loud for Galinda's liking. 'Turn it down you mean green thing!' she shrieked.
Elphaba smiled and cranked up the volume.