Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You were absolutely exhausted as you stepped through the doorway of the small apartment that you shared with your roommate, Brad. 

He typically gets back from work earlier than you since you’ve been taking up a lot of extra shifts just to make ends meet. 

As you shut and lock the front door behind you, you can see a small flash of light from the corner of the room. In the right corner of the room is a couch in front of a small stand with a tv on it with a gaming system next to the tv. On the couch is your roommate, controller in hand as one of his video games is displayed on screen. 

Soda bottles were scattered all around the floor around the couch, causing you to sigh inwardly. 

Glancing at the other side of the room is a small dining area with a round table that could only fit two chairs and even then it was a bit squishy if you both were eating there. Though you hardly ever sat and ate there anymore. 

Seems like Brad also had company over since the table was scattered with beer bottles, playing cards, a few empty pizza boxes, and multiple plates. All things that cost far too much money right now, and garbage that you’ll have to clean up since Brad doesn’t pick up after himself.  

You start walking past the dining area, heading towards a short hallway that’s just right next to the table. 

'Just gotta make it to the end of this year, then I can find a smaller, cheaper place without Brad.’ You told yourself mentally as you walked down the hall, that’s when your lease ends. Over the past few months you’ve been saving all of the extra money you could so you could put it towards leaving and getting a different apartment, without Brad. 

Entering your rather bare room, which only consisted of your bed, a nightstand, a small stack of books on the nightstand, and just a few potted plants. 

You had bought the plants back when you had first moved in with Brad and you had been able to keep them alive since. 

You tossed your duffle bag onto your bed, the mattress creaking as you sat down on it. You didn’t even have a bed frame, your mattress was just sitting on a tall wooden box spring that someone was throwing out. 

You couldn’t afford a bed frame, you already sold your jewelry last year, you sold a lot of stuff just so you could make rent. Your desk, your books, your antique nightstands, antique dresser, all of your antique clothes, even the absolutely gorgeous sewing machine that you had sitting on the old desk before you had to sell it. 

Thankfully you had just barely skidded by and made enough for rent this month, the remaining money will be put towards food, you wouldn’t have enough to put into your savings this month, but that’s fine. 

You grunted as you stood up. You walked back out, heading towards the kitchen, your roommate paying you no mind. You search through all of the cupboards, but only find a few stale pieces of bread and a half empty packet of crackers. Checking the fridge you find a nearly empty jug of milk, wouldn’t even be enough for half a cup, a few condiments, and a few slices of cheese. 

You were hungry tonight, but you also needed something for lunch tomorrow. You grabbed the crackers from the cupboard along with a glass and ate the cracker and chased them down with several glasses of water. You’ve learned the hard way that water helps make you feel fuller, at least you know you’re not dehydrated. 

You have started losing weight, though it’s only been in the recent months that you’ve started having issues affording food. 

You finish your last glass of water and start making your way around the room with a garbage bag, cleaning up Brad's mess. You knew he wouldn’t do it and you wouldn’t want to get it done tomorrow, not like you wanted to do it now but at least it’s getting done. 

You walking in front of Brad with the bag breaks his focus with the tv. 

“Y/n, I didn’t know you were home, when did that happen?” He asked only leaning over the edge of the couch to see around you. 

“I’ve been home awhile now.” You responded, annoyed. 

“Oh, cool. Oh by the way I had a couple of friends over. You also need to buy some more food, it’s your turn this week.” You clench the bag harder, trying to keep yourself calm. You usually were pretty patient but he’s been wearing you down the past few months and you’re also tired from work and still kinda hungry. 

“I know it’s my turn, I’ll be going shopping tomorrow.” You told him. 

“Why not go tonight?” You turn towards him with an incredulous look. 

“Are you serious, it’s 1 in the morning, no shops will be open at this hour, and even if there was one I could go to, I’m not walking to the store and back alone at night. We do not live in a safe part of town.” 

“Oh yeah. Okay.” He said dismissively before sitting back and playing his game, now in silence as you cleaned up around him. “Oh yeah, the landlord wanted me to hand you this,” he said, passing you an already opened envelope, pulling out the sheet of paper. Unfolding it you see that the landlord has increased the rent, well there goes half the food budget. 

It’s okay, it’ll be okay. 

You set the letter aside as you continue cleaning up all the trash while Brad just sits there playing his game. It would be no use to ask him since he’d put it off till you did it, or whine the entire time and not actually get anything done. 

You’re not even honestly sure how he was able to convince you to move in with him. Maybe at the time you found him attractive, but within the first month any of that would have been stripped from you. He wasn’t bad looking, quite handsome actually, just so hard to tolerate. 

“Oh Y/n did I ever show you my new game? I got it a couple of weeks ago. Check it out, the coding is amazing.” He told you as you set the garbage bag aside and straightened your back and looked at the screen. 

Oh, you’ve heard of this game, it was a dating simulator called ‘Ready Set Date!’, a lot of people were saying that there was such a large amount of possibilities with the game and so many different outcomes and routes you can take. You have spotted Brad playing it every now and then but you never really paid much attention to it. 

It’s most well known for the fact that you’re dating monsters, there was such a large variety too, everything ranging from goats and rabbits to fire elementals, hell there’s even skeletons if that was what caught your fancy. 

It didn’t seem like a bad game, from what you’ve heard of it the game doesn’t even have any bugs. 

Has nice graphics too. 

You had no doubt this game is pretty pricey, but it wasn’t something you wanted to get into with him right now. It also didn’t really matter what he did with his money so long as he made rent and contributed to food. 

You took your garbage bag and went over to the dining area and started cleaning up over there, from the dining room you could see perfectly what he was doing on the tv. The dining table is practically right next to the couch, if you were sitting in one of the chairs you could probably touch the couch. 

You scoffed as you watched one of his dating candidates walk away in disgust after he made a highly suggestive remark after just meeting her. It was insane that any girl ever dated him.  

You set aside the bag and wash your hands before heading back out to the dining area, looking around to make sure you didn’t miss anything. 

You glance up at the clock on the wall and realize just how late it had gotten, you needed to get to bed now. You had work at the ass crack of dawn and you were only a few hours away from that. 

Before you’re able to head back to your room Brad calls you, causing you to pause and look back. You moved closer to him to be able to hear him. 

“I need you to cover my half of the rent this month.” 

.

.

.

.

“What?” Your voice was low as you were trying to keep your composure. 

“What do you mean, you paid for a brand spanking new video game that even just looks expensive, and you need me to pay for your half of rent?” You were really starting to lose your cool, if you missed even his half it could cause issues to snowball. 

“Yeah, I got fired, I also may have missed last month's rent, I’m not sure, I may have been drunk when I turned it in.” 

“What?!” You shouted. 

Your breathing started to pick up as you started to pace around the room, passing in front of the tv in your route, you were waving your hands in front of yourself in a fanning motion. 

“Brad, I can’t do this. I can’t handle this. I can’t handle you!”

You were starting to hyperventilate. So many months of stress and frustration all because of him, and now he expected you to pay rent on your own?! You could barely make your half!

“Y/n, you need to sit down. Relax.” He told you, you whipped your head towards him. 

“Relax?! How do you expect me to relax?!” You shouted at him. 

Because of your pacing you didn’t notice the screen go black before words popped up. 

Your pacing is cut off by a loud static noise coming from the tv. Turning towards the tv you finally notice the words on screen, displayed in big bold letters. 

“Hello! Are you enjoying ‘Ready Set Date’?

Yes.          No.’

This was really weird, but maybe it was like a review? You watched as Brad scrolled over to the ‘yes’ option and the words disappeared, the rent momentarily forgotten. 

The static noise became louder as new words were displayed on screen. 

“Excellent! Though you do seem to be having troubles dating, Brad.”

How did it know his name? Did he enter his name into the game?

“Maybe you’d be better in person!”

What?

You tried to back away from the tv, now becoming freaked out by it, but you collapsed to the floor with a thud, your legs no longer able to hold you. 

“Now for you, Y/n, don’t you hate your job? Didn’t you at one point say it was a dead end? Well, you can have a better life! One that you love, one where you wouldn’t have to deal with Brad!”

How did it know your name? 

Glancing over towards Brad, you realize that, to your horror, he was beginning to crumble away to nothing. 

You look down at your hands as the skin of your hands begin to crack and crumble like porcelain. 

You moved to cover your ears, from pain since the static became a loud, high pitched screeching sound, but couldn’t since your hands were crumbling away as well. The excruciating pain of your body slowly crumbling was only added onto by the horrid screeching sound now coming from the tv, it felt like your eardrums were about to burst. 

Is this really how it ends? Is this how you die? How did your life come to this? 

Why couldn’t it have been faster, or at least less painful?

All of your thoughts were cut off and everything goes numb as your world plunged into darkness. 

Chapter Text

Alright, so. It was one hell of a few months and a lot of shit has gone down recently. I took a much needed break from the internet for a while, but it think I’m back now, maybe. My phone has begun acting up lately, so that may delay further updates, but there is more on the way, I promise. Just stick with me for a bit and thank you all for being so patient with me and my slug for a brain. Have a nice day/night y'all, I’m gonna be coming back with a new chapter soon. ❤️
I know, not a great chapter two, but it’s on the way.

Chapter Text

Your head was killing you, it felt like it was being crushed. Your limbs felt heavier than usual, like you had dumbbells strapped to them. 

The air around you felt oddly cold and sterile, almost like a doctor's office. Which really didn’t make sense since your apartment was nowhere near sterile, it was anything but sterile or neat. 

You tried to move, to wiggle your toes or fingers, but your muscles didn’t seem to respond. You couldn’t move at all, no matter how much you tried to get your limbs to respond, nothing would happen.

Why couldn’t you move? You were having a hard time remembering anything as well.

As you lay there, you realize that you can’t hear anything, it was silent, cold, and dark. Empty.

A void you were floating through. 

Was this death? Is this what death was? Just empty floating space, left to your thoughts? How would you have died? You didn’t think you died.

It hurt, everything hurt. Why did you hurt so much? You couldn't be dead if you were feeling pain, right? 

You laid there for what felt like eternity until, finally……a small ding.

Now, it feels a bit warmer. Everything still hurt, but at least it was warmer. You took a deep breath in, a slight sting in your lungs as you breathed, but it slowly went away. 

You were on something hard, but oddly…soft? Why was it so soft? It wasn’t plush or squishy, the ground beneath you had no give, but it had a soft texture to it.

Eventually you were able to open your eyes, being met with…..a black…room?

It didn’t really seem like a room since there was no door. Maybe more like a black box. Though you couldn’t tell if it was even an enclosed space. You tried to stand up, grunting in pain as your joints and muscles protested the movement. But you forced yourself to walk slowly to one side of the box, your hand out to make sure you didn’t walk face-first into a wall. 

Your hand met with a solid, smooth surface. You couldn’t tell what material the wall was made of, it felt so different from what you were used to. 

What was this? Where were you? 

You didn’t like this, you were not cool with this. You wanted to go back, to go home.

“Why would you want to go back there?” 

You whip around at the sound of a voice, being met with a woman, a rather short woman. She seemed….gooey? Like she was made of a green slime that oozed down her body, but she wasn’t just like a puddle of slime, she had structure, a bit of a form to her. 

“Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here? What do you want from me?” You asked, backing away slowly. But your back meets with the wall you were touching previously.

“My, you’re quite the inquisitive one, huh?” She said, seeming almost taunting. Her voice was a bit high and seemed teasing. Her slime shaped a drippy, full body with goo that formed hair that spread down her back, made of the same goo as her body. It was an odd sight, and what was odder was the fact that her goo never seemed to smear or spread, despite being gooey and slimy, she left no residue behind, at least not that you could tell. “Well, for starters, my name is Maddy. I am a…mh, co-creator of the game Ready Set Date. You are currently being held in our wait room, of sorts.” Maddy said, folding her arms across her chest. “You are here because….you could be, I guess.” She grinned as she shrugged.

“That isn’t a good answer! You can’t say ‘just because’, why am I here?”

“You’re here because I decided to take you along with your roommate.” Your roommate? He was here? Where?

“He’s in a different wait room, he’s safe, mmmostly.” Maddy hummed, answering your question before you could even say anything. “But we’re not here to talk about him, we’re here about you. So, you are now being integrated into the video game, Ready Set Date.” Maddy paused, seeming like she was waiting for some sort of outburst, but all you could muster was a small, strangled squawk. 

You were in a video game. This couldn’t be real, you had to be dreaming. You couldn’t be in a video game. 

“Sorry to break it to ya, girly. But you are in a video game.” Maddy spoke up, looking at you like you were the most depressing thing she had seen. 

“Stop doing that!” You shouted, pointing at her with a shaking hand.

“What?” Maddy asked, lifting her hands in front of her.

“Reading my mind! Or whatever it is you’re doing! But you keep answering things I haven't even asked!” You waved your hands around wildly as you spoke.

“Geez, no need to freak out, this is just how it works, girly. So, take a chill pill, sit down,” as she said it, you felt something solid hit the back of your legs, causing you to stumble back into what seemed to be a chair. It was also pitch black, so it blended into the area. “And let me explain the world here and how it works. Now, usually players wouldn’t get this talk since they had done the tutorial before starting the game. And I know what you’re thinking, ‘but I never played, I don’t even own the game!’ which is precisely why you are getting your very own and special tutorial right here! Exciting!” Maddy exclaimed, her nubby hands making a jazz-hands motion.

You didn’t really know what to say. What should you say? What do people say in situations like this? 

“So, you are a pretty special case, girly. We know so little about you, you don’t have a profile in this game, you never even played it! But that all is pretty easy to get around, for profiles, you will be sharing a world with your roommate.” Maddy explained, shuffling closer to the wall.

Figures that you will once again get stuck with Brad.

“Ah, no, you’re not really getting stuck with him, just….sharing. You can live separately from him, heck, you won’t really even have to interact with him. Besides, he’s already having his own issues here because he messed up most of his interactions with his compatibles.” Maddy sighed, shaking her head as if she was disappointed in Brad.

“Compatibles? What are those?” 

“Getting to that, just wait a moment.” Maddy waved you off, as she spoke, she reached into a pocket in the wall and pulled out a few items. One was a phone with an adorable star and moon pattern, many of the stars having smiling faces. The pattern looked like a print of a shirt you had lost, it was one of your favorites. Maddy dropped the device into your lap, you fumbled to catch it so it didn’t clatter on the floor. “Here, I designed the case off of that favorite shirt.”

“How did you-”

“How did I know about the shirt?” Maddy finished your sentence before you could, and all you did was nod softly. “Well, we observe aloof our players before bringing them in, and the few times I say you in anything but your work clothes was that odd little shirt you had.”

You listened silently as you turned over the phone in your hand, it was hard to believe that you were now in a video game, that you had been inhaled into the belly of this coded beast. The proof was all around you, and panicking now would do nothing but draw this out longer and leave you more confused. At least you got answers by being quiet.

“It’s a nice phone case, thank you.” You muttered, messing with the device in your hand.

Maddy seemed a bit taken aback by your thanks, she must not receive thanks often. 

“Huh, you’re an odd one, but I like you. I’m glad you like it, I put quite a bit of thought into these things. But, moving on, we need to go over the apps.” So came over and turned it on for you, pointing to a red app box with a white upside down heart in the middle. You tapped on it and the app opened to what seemed to be a stat section, at the top was a row of different icons within the app. The current icon selected was stat bars of different heights, the icon next to it was what looked like a little scroll that was unfurled, and the next one after that is that same heart that was on the app box. 

“These, here are your stats.” She said, tapping at the screen with her little nub of a hand. 

Y/n

Hp: 174/180

Strength: 5/10

Speed/agility: 3/10

Endurance: 6/10

Luck: 3/10

Intelligence: 7/10

Magic: unknown

“HP stands for hit points, it’s like your in-game health bar. Yours is a tad low from the transportation here, but you’ll be fine with a bit of rest and all that.” Maddy began explaining each stat to you, her nub pointing and tapping at the screen.

“Your strength, average, not great, but also not bad. Speed and agility are a little disappointing, but not the worst I’ve ever seen. Endurance is pretty good, but none of these would be all that great if you needed to fight, so you’ll just have to really avoid that. Your life will literally depend on it.” She chuckled, patting you on the shoulder as if this was a joke.

“Fight!I might have to fight? How often do fights happen?” You squawked out, you couldn’t fight, you didn’t know how to, you’ve never even been in a physical fight.

“Not super often, just don’t piss anyone off and you’ll do just fine!” Before you could protest further, Maddy cut you off and continued. “Your intelligence is actually quite high, you're a smart little cookie, huh? That’ll come in handy in this world, my dear girly. But your luck on the other hand, that’s not great.” Maddy clicked her tongue, shaking her head at the stat.

So intelligence was your only good stat? You didn’t like it, but it unfortunately made quite a bit of sense considering how you spent your days and how your life went.

“My stats suck.” 

“Oh yeah, absolutely,’ thanks Maddy “but they can be improved. Strength, speed, agility, and endurance can be improved by training, intelligence by reading and studying more and that stuff. Luck has to be by items you get, the others can also be improved by items.”

Makes sense, it wasn’ like you could train someone's luck, but one of them made you curious. “What’s the magic stat?”

“Ah, that isn’t really important at the moment, but it is as it sounds. But you don’t have any magic at the moment, but that’s a later possibility.” You sighed at the rather vague answer Maddu gave you, but brushed it aside as she scrolls down an image of a heart. It was a dark blue with flecks of cyan and green scattered around, the colors swirling together but never mixing. It was actually kind of beautiful despites the small cracks and blemishes.

“What is this?”

“That, dear, is your soul. Souls are the very culmination of who you are, very fragile. The dark blue is Integrity, cyan is patience, and green is kindness. I’ll be honest, I haven't seen many humans with their primary trait being integrity. Your soul is a three trait soul, the most common soul type among adults, but no less special.” 

That was yours? You never really thought about a soul being a tangible thing, more so of a concept that couldn’t be held. And you didn’t think it’d look so pretty. It felt odd to see this part of yourself, almost uncomfortable despite it being your own soul.

“Yep, that’s yours, girly.” She chuckled, having read your mind again. You also weren't sure if you were okay with that, but currently you couldn’t do anything about it, so you’d just have to deal with the mind reading stuff. “Pretty, but damaged, those cracks are past events or situations that were stressful, strenuous, and/or traumatic to you. Most of them are quite old and mostly healed.”

“Oh.” Of course even your soul is fucked up somehow, figures.

“Hey, it isn’t fucked up, it’s beautiful. Those cracks are part of who you are.” Maddy states firmly, her nubs grabbing your face and turning it towards her. Her nubs felt damp but not wet, and smooth and cool, an odd sensation. “Okay?” She didn’t let your face go until you nodded, finally releasing you, but not before giving your face a quick squish with her nubs.

Never would you have thought you’d be given a pep talk from a talking blob lady.

“Good, moving on, next is your quests.” Maddy said, tapping at the scroll icon. “This will show you how close to finishing a quest you are, the deadline, the reward, and the quest itself. You currently don’t have any right now, but you will once you leave this room. Not a whole lot goes into that one.” She then tapped on the next little icon, the heart. “Now this is where it shows your ‘compatibles’. These are monsters that you meet that are compatible with you and your soul, but it will also show your relationships, both friendly and romantic. It shows your standing with each person, the stats of your relationships and how close you are and how much they like you.” 

“Wow, so much for such a tiny little app.” You muttered, staring at the screen. “Is there anything else I need to know?” You didn’t want to be unprepared for this.

“Mh, a few small things.” She closed out of the heart app and went to an app with a little bank icon on it. “This is your digital bank account that I set up for you, our currency is Bits, it has around 500 Bits stored away in it, just try not to spend too much before you get a job.” She went back to the wall and reached into the pocket in the wall again, pulling out a little black wallet with a crescent moon shaped latch, when it unfolded, it revealed the full moon cycle painted onto the leather. “This is now your wallet, I designed it just for you, nice, huh?” Maddy hummed, seeming excited and hopeful that you like it. 

“Yeah, I really like it.” You smiled, you loved it, it was cute and you always loved the moon and stars, so it was nice to finally have some more personalized items again. “Thank you.” 

“Great!’ Maddy clapped her nubs together happily, she quickly tried to compose herself, clearing her throat and continuing. “Inside is another 200 bits, just to be sure that you’d be able to make it until you got a job. Unfortunately that is as much as I’m allowed to give you, but I’ll try to help you where I can.” 

She stood there for a moment, trying to think if there was anything else she needed to go over. “Ah! Almost forgot.” She reached down and lifted your pant leg to show five hearts tattooed around your ankle. “These are the lives you have, because you are not a determination soul and you don’t have an account of your own, you currently have a limited number of lives. But I’ll be working on giving you more, until then, you need to be really careful and not make any enemies.” 

Five lives? At first, that doesn’t sound too bad since you’d usually only have one life in general, until you think about the fact that this is a magical world, many of the characters known for being aggressive and deadly. Which made you even more nervous and  worried about what this world had in store. 

You tell yourself it’ll be fine, that all you have to do is to not do anything to offend anyone and do your best to make friends and allies. You take a deep breath to try and calm yourself, it’ll be okay, just have to be smart about this.

“You’re reacting better than I expected.” Maddy’s voice cuts through your thoughts,bringing you back to the black box the two of you were in. 

A small chime echoes around the space, the black surfaces of the box beginning to lighten and go though shades of grey, slowly turning white.

“Seems we’re out of time, girly.” Maddy observed as the white began to brighten and glow with light. “You’ve got this, if you have any questions, you’ll be able to ask me through the phone.” She said, her voice raising so you could hear her as you begin to hear a ringing sound in your ears, Maddy began to disappear from your vision as white light overtook it.

You weren’t sure that you were quite ready for this, but it seems you don't currently have much  of a choice. You’ll just have to do your best with your new life.

Maybe you could even accept it, and maybe even enjoy it.