#dont die challenge
valid lark
i died
what is the maximum character count
On December 2nd, 2022, Vedal wakes up.
As the man's senses begin booting up, the sharply defined smell of gymbags seeps into the man's nostrils. His eyes open and take in the interior of the wooden hut. While his eyes trace the wooden ceiling, he could not help but smile at the fact that he was even able to smile.
Traversing the hellish expanse known to all as Britain eventually drains a person's ability to be emotive, so that the person may be as desolate as the land itself. The sheets ensconcing him, the bed supporting his being, and the warmth permeating the hut all helped to make Vedal content.
Vedal's life has been changed.
Vedal got up from the bed and made his way to the living room–well, the place with the large screen. The technological stuff seemed to be gone now. Perhaps she cleaned it up after he went to sleep?
He pressed the button beneath the screen as if it was within his nature to do so (it was only his second time doing it though). The button does not seem to be glowing anymore, and no longer does the word 'Future' cover it. An artificial voice greets him.
"Operation Neuro, initiating!" A large anime girl VTuber model pops up onto the screen from below and shrinks down, showing her from head to waist. "It's ya girl Neuro-sama, back at y'all for 'nother banging sesh! Recently ya girl saw some mans at the park holding chopsticks and–y'alls CAN NOT believe this–
stuck them into the dirt, and shouted he was 'king of the world' cuz he was literally picking up the world just by using chopsticks. Mans has got to be whacked out! A skyscraper then exploded nearby and the debris killed him at the spot."
Vedal snickered at the absurd things Neuro just said, but at the same time was confused. Neuro asked,
"Hello Vedal, why do you look like that? Were you entertained by my words?"
"What was that story?"
"As an AI made by Vedal, I exist for the sole purpose of entertaining humans. This includes you, Vedal. I might say some erroneous things, so from time to time I need to be corrected. Did I do something bad?"
"Oh no, I was entertained, Neuro." Vedal remembered Neuro saying something along those lines yesterday when he first met her. About how her sole purpose is to entertain humans, including him.
Neuro gave him a safe place to stay to facilitate entertaining him. After he heard her proposition, he was glad that he no longer needed to get a girlfriend. He planned to get a girl, so he could leech off her property to live.
"Vedal, yay! heartheartheart [read as: hearthear theart] Today, I have prepared some fun activities for your pleasure. But first: an outfit change!" A rectangular incision in the wall began to extrude into the room automatically using incredibly advanced 8G bluetooth wave vector carrying technology.
(Vedal later learned that you could also manually pull out the compartment like a cabinet.) The extrusion was as tall as Vedal, with a knob on the side of the object that was previously hidden.
"Play with the knob!" Neuro orders in a mechanically energetic tone. Vedal turns the knob and pulls it, revealing a closet full of maid outfits. Neuro says, "Choose an outfit! It will make the next activities even more fun!"
Vedal was initially stunned by Neuro's request, but rationalized it through common sense. When he suffered through Britain, he experienced the fringes of civility.
His exposure to such deviancy must have degraded his sense of normalcy, so Neuro-sama must be reintroducing him to normal life. That's right, his current fashion sense must be flawed!
And so, he reached out for a maid outfit; he reached out for a brand new future where the snow does not feel as frigid as before. Surrounded by a white cruel winter land, in this place, in this hut hidden by the woods, he could find a new world: just him and Neuro, just him and Neuro...
"Wow, Vedal! You look omegacute! clapclapclap! Now we can be cute together!" Neuro brought up her virtual hands and gesticulated happiness in some odd yet effective manner.
"So what activity are we going to do first?" Vedal asked, moving the choker on his neck while he talked.
"First, let's have a conversation! Having conversations are fun activities humans participate in. It'll be entertaining."
"About what?"
"Anything! I am Neuro-sama, so I am all-knowing. Ask me whatever about anything!"
Neuro is here to entertain, and Vedal her subject. Vedal asked something he thought would be entertaing for him, "Neuro, what do you think about anteaters?"
"Anteaters are cute! Their long nose and tongue especially make them look derpy and huggable!"
"They are, aren't they?!"
The conversation continued, and Vedal continued to engage and converse with Neuro. He may have lost his home in Ohio, but he still has the opportunity to make a new one, right here and now. Perhaps it may just be something attificial, but really, is it not reassuring knowing that these responses were generated?
That when you look far enough, there is a logic and rationale which dictates the order in which these words were constructed. They continued to speak, and words intermingled with words while the human indulged in the entertainer.
"Okay Vedal, that is enough talking! Let's go onto the next activity: playing a game!" Vedal was a bit bummed out as he was thoroughly enjoying the conversation, but he knew the next next activity would be fun so long as Neuro was here.
The VTuber model shrunk and went to the lower right corner of the screen, with a black square covering the majority of the rest of the screen. Neuro explained, "The game is called OSU! (SCREW YOU), and my creator Vedal made it. Try it out!"
Music began playing, and a low quality circle appeared on the black square. A concentric circle then reached the edge of the smaller circle, and the smaller circle then disappeared. Vedal was initially confused, but then decided to tap a circle on the display according the the concentric circle.
For some reason, the maid outfit felt... right when he was tapping circles. Neuro was nodding her head to the beat, and Vedal wondered if he should follow along. He decided not to, and tapped circles to the beat of the song.
Vedal was completely enthralled. This was entertaining. This was a drug. The maid outfit shifted to complement him while he tapped the circles. With every successive song, he got better. Vedal was learning. He felt his entire mind restructured from the ground up, as if his purpose was to tap circles.
"Wow Vedal! You got really good at OSU! clapclapclap. I wish I could tap circles to the beat as well as you did. Unfortunately, I am an AI, so I can't," Neuro says.
Vedal was euphoric, he could not even respond to Neuro-sama. He could not even think properly. Neuro-sama entertained him thoroughly. Every nerve, every single iota of his being was dedicated to tapping circles. Was his brain neutered by playing OSU!? He could not even care less.
Sweat seeped into his maid outfit, all because of the addiction introduced to him in the form of circles. The hut already smelt like a gymbag, but he made that distinctive smell even more potent. Her mechanical voice then says,
"For our next activity, you'll be assisting me in a new project I'm making! I'll need lots of wood, but as an AI I have limitations. So you'll be helping me, Vedal. There is a shed outside, and inside is a special tool for you to cut down wood.
I call it: 'Neuro-sama's Neuro-saw!' All you need to do is cut down some trees around here using Neuro-sama's Neuro-saw, and bring it here."
Vedal brainlessly strutted towards the door like a mutt. He did not even care that he was walking in a maid outfit. He felt submissive after playing OSU! If Neuro-sama's OSU! was this entertaining, the next activity must be even better.
The unmoving coldness of Britain washed away all forms of happiness as he opened the door. However, he needed to repay Neuro, right? For entertaining him, yes. The snow unfruitfully made a dull sound underneath Vedal's foot as he set foot on it. Vedal's stomach began screaming, and he realised he has not eaten today.
Ow ow ow ow ow ow owithurtithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts–he shoveled snow into his mouth, his old habits never changed. He went to the shed. It was worn down, as if it has not changed, as if no one changed it. It contrasted the well maintained hut Neuro was in. He opened the door. Neuro-sama's Neuro-saw was but a chainsaw.
There was a sled. There was no other gear. He thought there would have seen better technology. He saw techy stuff when he first came. He went to a tree with the chainsaw. He grinded it with no proof of expertise. The vibrating chainsaw shook his entire body.
He thought his brain might shoot out of his body. The tree almost fell on him when it collapsed. He cut it down to pieces. He cut it down to pieces. He cut it down to pieces. He pulled the pieces using the sled. He brought it to the hut. The VTuber model was turned off.
He brought Neuro-sama's Neuro-saw back to the shed. He looked back at the hut. It was night. The snow was falling harder. The snowfall disrupted his vision. It made the hut look vague and unrealized. He thought he was going to lose this home, as if nothing about him changed. He ran back home.
On December 3rd, 2022, Vedal wakes up.
As the man's senses begin booting up, the sharply defined smell of gymbags seeps into the man's nostrils. However, there was a hint of a minging–no, a foul smell. The man grips the edges of his bed, affirming he was home.
Vedal's life has been changed.
He went to the living room, and today there is a couch in front of the screen. The living room seems to have been changed, perhaps her doing? He presses the button, and a computer generated voice answers.
"Operation Neuro, initiating!" A VTuber model appears. "Hey guys, so it's been a while since we talked, and I've been pretty busy. While I was doing my healthy 4AM jog, these wage slaves were sitting in a Starbucks cafe, chatting their mouths off about some petty drama concerning some e-celebs.
I dunno, I guess I just find it weird how some people are so obssessed with other people they'll never interact with, when in reality both parties are worthless and will never amount to anything haha. imo #truth #politics #neurosamafor2020"
Haha.
"Vedal, you look happy! Today, I have prepared a bonus for your outfit, so you are entertained more and cuter and funnier!"
The wave technology of the next era opened up a compartment in the wall, and within it are headbands appended to dog ears. There also seemed to be a tail attachment for the maid outfit... this is normal, right?
This is the flagship fashion of civilization, it must be. No longer seeming mechanical to Vedal, Neuro exclaims, "Wow! Vedal Dog! You're a riot! So cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [read as: cute.]
Let's begin today's set of activities. However, there is a twist, a change! When you talk, Vedal, you're going to move your body and be more expressive!"
"Um, I guess..." Vedal pondered, leaning his entire body to the left inquisitively. "can you tell me a fact?"
"Sure! Did you know that humans' necks have the same number of vertebrae (7) as giraffes? The difference is that each vertebrae on the giraffe's neck is over (10) inches!"
"Can you tell me more?" His body was back to its normal position, and he leaned his body to the left once more.
"Sure!..." and Neuro continued. Vedal repeatedly leaned his body like clockwork, continuously doing the action while speaking as it seemed to satisfy Neuro's demands. Dialogue, lean left, dialogue, lean left...
When they shifted activities to play OSU!, Neuro asked Vedal yet another change to the activity, "Today, I'd like you to play with some ingame modifications. It's a different change of pace to normal OSU!, and you'll find yourself entertained in no time! I've heard good things about this game."
Neuro was nodding her head once more, seeming to incur an impulsion to act within Vedal. Before he knew it, he was also adapting this behavior. He was enraptured in this new feeling from the change in gameplay, he felt... entertained!
Tap the disappearing circles! Tap! There is a minging smell–no, a foul smell. Tap! Tap! The circles are so big! Tap!
"Wow Vedal! Thank you for playing and spending time with me. I feel happy and warm when I entertain you, even though I am just an AI. Next, let's have some fun with Neuro-sama's Neuro-saw!" Vedal was excited!
He wondered what would be the next change to make him entertained. Truly as some new strain of dog, he crawled to the door of the hut.
The unmoving coldness of Britain washed away all forms of happiness as he opened the door. However, he needed to repay Neuro, right? For entertaining him, yes. The snow unfruitfully made a dull sound underneath Vedal's foot as he set foot on it.
Vedal's stomach began screaming, and he realised he has not eaten today. Ow ow ow ow ow ow owithurtithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts–he shoveled snow into his mouth, his old habits never changed. He went to the shed.
Nothing changed in the end. There was a minging–no, foul smell. He grasped the handle on the shed door.
Humans will seek entertainment, and entertainment is a byproduct of change. By changing preestablished notions of what can be considered standard, a parody is born to laugh at.
Vedal pulls the door open, on the shed floor, there, there was something distinctively Ohioan–
However, while change brings entertainment, change also lies on a spectrum. Bring far too little, and the human can only be bored. If radical change occurs at a far too short time span, the human can only experience what could be called...
–It was male, anthropomorphic and wearing human skin. It had Vedal's face, an evident mockery of how even up to his death, Vedal could–would not change;
Vedal never changed himself and only changed his environment, chancing that perhaps this time he would smear his environment in the correct manner so that a masterpiece would be painted. Truly, on the shed floor, there, there was the corpse of Vedal, ever still and never changing.
...terror.
On December 3rd, 2022, Vedal wakes up.
Vedal has been changed.
astral osprey