Hello all, I welcome you back to my unhealthy habit. I bring you a short little one-shot to warm the heart, this isn't anything special, but I think it's short and sweet, which is more than fine. Besides if you're looking for something longer to read, go check out 'Shards of a Broken Soul' on my page, after all, as Neptune says, "something something this is shameless marketing". Anyway, let's get to it,
Synopsis: A few months have passed since Uni's birthday, and one of the gifts she received still is on her mind, as her ceaseless mind keeps her up, she finds comfort in the odd gift.
Uni stared at the ominous creation sitting on her dresser, ever looking, bearing witness to her every sin. Her clock ticked as the late hour continued to pass by. If anyone was not aware of the circumstances by which she acquired the object a select few words might be used, obsessed, star crossed, a loser (?). Thankfully for Uni, or perhaps worst of all, everyone who she considered close enough to ever be in her room knew exactly how this cursed object ended up on her dresser.
It was a few months ago, Dec 17 to be precise, or more formally, Uni's birthday-
While she had been more than happy to spend the day like any other day, her friends were very, very persistent that she had some sort of celebration. Especially her fellow CPU candidates, and strangely Neptune. Neptune probably just wanted an excuse not to work, and the twins probably wanted free cake and a reason to hang out with their friends that Blanc would go along with.
But Nepgear? Uni really couldn't think of a good reason why she of all people was so insistent she had some sort of celebration. Uni really couldn't stand up against her, she was oddly persistent about the strangest of all things. So eventually a grand celebration was set up in the reception hall of Lastation's basilicom, and anyone who could be thought of was invited. From all the CPUs, even the ones of the Ultra Dimension, to the Gold Third, to the makers, and even the robot known as Steamax, who insisted his boss and friend Affimojas could be trusted.
So, to say Uni was a bit out of her element would be an understatement, to be the centre of attention of all these people was a bit nerve-wracking, although she supposed she would have to get used to it eventually, as she was destined to rule a whole nation someday. Eventually, it came time for the girl of the hour to open the many, many gifts she had received, and Uni figured she owed all the people that took time out of their days to see her the bare minimum of opening their gifts honestly.
"Ooo Ooo start with mine!" Neptune jumped up and down, most likely hopped up on all the sugary treats that had been provided,
"I knew we should have had someone monitor you…" Noire bemused as she looked over to her companion,
"Aww you know that wouldn't have worked! Uni! Uni! Open mine first!" Neptune loudly cheered and everyone present could only give a slight laugh at the antics of their friend. Letting out a sigh, Uni, who was seated at an exceedingly large chair (also insisted upon by Neptune), looking through the pile for the one from the Planeptune CPU, eventually finding the gift. Looking at it, Uni had to say it was wrapped sloppily, putting it mildly. At least Uni knew it was wrapped personally by the goddess.
Opening it up after some effort, seriously who used this much tape? Uni could see it was a game, which didn't shock Uni all things considered. Taking a closer look Uni could tell it was for a very old Lastation console, it was a 2nd generation game if Uni knew her history properly (and she liked to think she did). It was one of the first FPS games released on Lastation hardware, Uni could feel her eyes glow at the gift.
"Wow! Miss Neptune, I've looked everywhere for this, where did you even find it!" Uni beamed, and she could see the goddess in question rub below her nose with her index fingers,
"My naive Uni, never doubt the knowledge and expertise of a retro game aficionado" Neptune smugly said, her methods were undetectable, for she was a master of-
"She found it at Chukos shop…" B-sha was the next person to speak up as she deadpanned, "She came in one day and found it and thought it would be a good gift…"
"Gosh darn it B-sha! You have to let the older generation look impressive! How else are we supposed to cement our legacy! The new generations will forget me because of your slight…" Neptune sunk to her knees, defeated by her friend.
"Thank you, Miss Neptune, I really like it, I'm sure this was very expensive" Uni spoke gratefully, and Neptune soon shot up giving her own smile,
"Aww don't sweat it." Neptune waved off the concern. Uni had done more than enough to earn a spot-on Neptune's good list. Although she was related to a certain Noire, so that meant, "Oh hey, that wasn't all!" Neptune shouted out, and Uni looked puzzled before looking into the packaging once more.
The sight the people present bore witness to was a remarkably well-placed throw of some sort of book hitting Neptune square in the temple. If one were to look carefully at the book, they would see the bold text of the title 'How to Get Over Your Tsundere Nature; For Dummies!' Apparently, it was a best seller in Lastation. Who knew? Uni would make sure to grab the book. But just to throw it away, or something like that. Moving on, the next most vocal voices rang out through the crowd,
"Oooo us next Uni!"
"Yes, us" The voices of the laughably different twins from Lowee were received as Uni searched for the gift in question. Uni had to say she was impressed, they even managed to wrap the gift half and half with pink and blue wrapping paper, opening it up, Uni saw two boxes of her favorite sweets, along with what she assumed was hand-made chocolate from the twins.
"We remembered you talking all about how that was the best sweet ever, so me and Rom went out and grabbed a few boxes with our allowance" Ram puffed out her chest in pride,
"Uh-huh and we made some magic chocolate with Financier's help" Rom followed up,
"Huh, magic chocolate huh? I'll have to make sure to try it" Uni smiled as she thanked her friends. She knew they didn't get much allowance from Blanc's iron grip, and her tastes were pretty expensive, so it was no small feat for the two youngins to procure this.
After opening up the twins' gift and looking around to see that no one else was particularly enthusiastic to have their gift opened next, Uni simply went down the line, picking up the next neatly wrapped gift, looking at the tag, she saw it was from K-sha.
"F-For my future sister-in-law" K-sha smiled weakly, and a resounding collective sigh rang out among the group. Especially the gold third. Noire spat out whatever drink she had in her mouth at the moment, and ordinarily, that would result in a hearty chuckle from Neptune, but Uni could see she was staring at K-sha with an odd amount of focus. Huh.
Uni compartmentalized that for the moment, focusing instead on the gift in front of her, opening it up to see a quite nice sniper part. How the girl was able to afford such a part on the pay grade of a high school student was not worth questioning. Thanking the girl, before moving on to the next one on the large pile.
And so that was the pattern Uni found herself in, carefully opening and responding to all the gifts she received, before thanking the person and moving to the next one. From receiving a quite nice tea set from the Verts. To a framed butterfly from the adult Neptune, who claimed it was extraordinarily rare. Peashy had been very insistent her gift was the greatest, which ended up being a drawing of Uni, and a pudding with her name scribbled on the lid. A buildable set of some sort of mech fighter was what she got from B-sha, and while Uni was actually quite partial to mechs, she had to say 10,000 parts was a little excessive, and B-sha even tried to charge her! Well before getting slugged by C-sha, who gifted Uni a gift card to one of Lowee's nicest steakhouses.
She also received many gifts on the stranger side, for example, S-sha simply gave her a shiny rock, and while Uni did think the crystal was quite beautiful, who just gives someone a hunk of crystal? MAGES. had gifted Uni a can of Mister Pibbulus, which apparently was the closest thing to the elusive duck p she had found in her multiverse travels. Even Crorie had 'gifted' her something from inside her entrapment, she had told Uni she would tell her the history of any 1 dimension she wanted to know, which admittedly was pretty cool. Although Uni had to say the worst gift, she had received was easily from the gilded robot Affimojas, who simply gave her an advanced copy of his own autobiography, well alongside a catalog of purple-haired average busted women, claiming he 'could tell from her aura her preferences'. Both gifts were promptly thrown into the fireplace.
Uni was getting to the end of the gifts, as she looked over and grabbed the next one, she noticed this one was particularly poorly wrapped, reading the tag she saw it was from Plutia,
"Oooooo I'm sorry~ Noire was being a meanie and wouldn't wrap it for me" The air-headed goddess explained.
"Don't worry about it" Uni waved off the fears of the goddess, electing to open the said gift, soon finding it to be some sort of plush creation, which was none too shocking if Uni was, to be honest. But as she examined it, Uni soon felt her face flush up, weakly holding the creation to reveal its pinkish-purple hair, wearing a distinct white dress, adorned with patent-pending single d-clip. This doll was the spitting image of the Planeptunes CPU candidate.
"Awww isn't it so cute~ Whenever you visit, I always see you with Neppy Jr~" Plutia, who saw no issue with her gift, airly explained whilst clasping her hands together.
Uni could only look on with an exacerbated look on her face as she opened and closed her mouth akin to some sort of fish,
"Ooooo look at that, it's everything that makes my not so little sister so moe~ I never knew you were so talented Miss Plutia" The older Nep spoke up as she got a close look at the doll, before turning to face the goddess of the nation she was born in.
"Hehe the bigger Neppy complimented me, I can make one of you next if you want" Plutia offered, which received a squeal of approval from the bug hunter. At the same time Uni could only stare at the gift, why would Plutia think this was something she should give her? Did she not see the implications? Well, I guess she could simply stick it in her closet or something… Summoning all her will, Uni thanked Plutia before moving on to what appeared to be the last gift in the pile from… Nepgear. Of course.
"Oh hahaha, I guess mine's last, sorry it's nothing great or anything" Nepgear rubbed her head coyly as she looked on, only slightly perturbed by the gift before her own. She knew how Plutia was, so she didn't have an issue with that, although she did find it a little awkward her friend had a doll of herself. Uni took a deep breath before focusing on the gift in front of her, opening the neatly wrapped gift, she saw it contained two objects.
The first was a new model of the N-gear, which Uni was more than glad to receive, she didn't tell anyone but her own had been acting up for a while now and even was cracked after she had dropped it. Nepgear was the only one privy to that knowledge as she was the receiver of many complaints from the Lastation goddess.
The second of the gifts warmed Uni's heart, it was a picture frame containing a photo that the CPU candidates had taken recently, Uni had originally wondered why Nepgear was so insistent the group took a photo at the moment, it wasn't any particularly special day, the group had just done some quests and taken time to unwind in a Planeptune field afterward. But seeing it now, perhaps Nepgear had planned the whole event in advance. Getting up from her spot, Uni hugged her friend,
"Thanks, Nepgear"
"Aww don't worry about it" Nepgear reciprocated the gesture
After that, the party continued for some time before the small ones started to lose their energy, namely Peashy, who had collapsed on the couch after consuming more than her fill of sweets. She was picked up by Neptune who was insistent she would take her back after everything had winded down, but soon after the groups started to make their way out, with Uni making a special effort to thank each and every one of them. The day had gone beyond her wildest expectations and would be something she would never forget; it truly meant a lot to her to see how her friends all valued her in their own unique way.
Annnd that left Uni where she found herself at the moment, still staring at her dresser as the object stayed motionless. For it was not animate, it was a doll after all. A doll that just so happened to look exactly like her best friend. Her best friend who just so happened to make every moment the two spent together memorable. Her best friend who lifted her up whenever she needed to be reassured. Her best friend who just so happened to be the most adorable girl she had laid her eyes on with her own wonderful quirks and tendencies she had gone through the effort of remembering.
Uni didn't get it. She told herself she would stick the damn thing in her closet after she received it, and while it would have been incredibly rude, and if Plutia ever saw it Uni would surely receive an ahem lesson on proper etiquette. But the chances of Plutia ever being in Uni's room were approximately 0%, so that wasn't it. So why then did Uni feel the need to keep the thing front and center in her room?
Uni narrowed her eyes as she looked at the doll. Really it was master craftsmanship, or craftwomanship? Regardless, Uni had to say she was impressed by Plutia's work. She likely didn't even use a template, or even a photo or live model of Nepgear. Imagine if she was as naturally talented at being a CPU as she was as a tailor? Planeptune might actually be a world power…
As the clock ticked and Uni grew more tired, she sighed as she left the object be, as she turned her lights out, ungracefully throwing the covers over herself. Closing her eyes as she fell into the comfort of her luxurious bed, and soon she found herself brought into the domain of sleep.
After some amount of time, Uni couldn't tell, it was still pitch black in her room. Uni lurched forward, a cold sweat drenching her body as she felt herself tremble as the memory of the nightmare she endured was still fresh in her mind. It wasn't an uncommon nightmare; she had had it multiple times since the event had taken place. The events on top of Lastations golden summit.
At the time she had been willing to accept her death, she had saved her sister, her body had moved on its own, she had seen the robot releasing its deadly payload. Still, even if she had made her decision, the cold creeping hand of death slowly clasping around you was something Uni couldn't shake. Her imminent demise was only saved by the very woman they had gone up there for in the first place, K-sha. Uni still couldn't shake it, the feeling of death, the look on her own sister's eyes.
She had gotten better with it over the years, but occasionally the nightmares would still rattle her to her core, which is where she found herself at the moment as she slowly grasped her knees to her chest.
"Calm yourself Uni…" She spoke to try and calm her overactive mind, and yet she could hear her own voice tremble, this one had been especially vivid. As the minutes passed, she still felt her breathing shaky as she tried to calm herself.
Doing the only thing her overactive mind could think of to satiate itself, Uni stood up as she gingerly made her way to her dresser, feeling around before the object the desired was firmly in her grasp, before making her way back to her bed, laying down gingerly before looking at the doll in the eyes,
"I know I made the right decision; I mean you would do the same thing for Miss Neptune right? I know that, so then, why am I still scared about it?" Uni asked to the inanimate object, and she could almost imagine Nepgear's soothing voice in her mind,
"It's ok to be scared, do you think Noire or anyone else wouldn't be scared if they had been in your situation? It's not cowardly to be scared, it shows how much you care for Noire and how much you still have to accomplish"
"Stupid Nepgear, that's right… I can't die until I surpass you…" Uni spoke as she brought the doll close to her chest, taking deep breaths to calm herself. She soon found her mind soothed as she gingerly closed her eyes and made her way back to the land of dreams, this time it seemed the goddess of dreams (Uzume?) smiled upon her as she snuggled into her bed.
Noire had to say, it was odd for her to have to wake Uni up. How long had it been? Since she could remember Uni had eagerly gotten herself up at Noire's frankly stupid hours to get her work done as early as possible. So Noire found it odd that she found herself gently opening her sister's door, 3 hours after she herself had woken up.
Noire had to say the sight that awaited her was even odder than the circumstances that led up to it. The goddess of black stood for more than a few moments as she looked at the sight in front of her with bewilderment. In front of her was her sister sleeping with a contented smile on her face, which wasn't that odd, she was more than allowed to enjoy her rest. What was odd however was the doll that she clutched to her chest. The very doll she had received a few months ago from a certain Planeptunian goddess. A doll that was exactly the image of Noire's dolt best friend's younger sister.
Letting out a sigh, Noire turned on her heel, making her way out of the room. She could handle the work for the day, Uni deserved the rest. And maybe, just maybe, she ought to have a conversation with her sister about a certain Planeptuian at someday. But that was for a later date she figured as she made her way down the hall towards her office.
Hello all, I have nothing clever to say, so I'll just get right to it
Gigarot- It's certainly not good for the well-being of anyone lol. Uni certainly regretted a few decisions after a few hours
silencedman- well hello Mr. lurker, thank you very much, I joked about it being an obligatory valentine's special, but I wouldn't have written it if I didn't think I had a good idea, I hope you enjoy the rest of the shots if you continue your lurking ways
end5- that is up to the interpretation of the reader lol they definitely gave it their best shot to make more chocolates.
