intro
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hey, you
It's very late.
You take off your headphones, the music you'd been listening to fading into silence. You press your hands over your aching eyes, shutting out the cold light of the computer screen, and give a tremendous yawn. You don't want to look back at the screen, which tells you that the document you've been working on is still unfinished, and that it's already 2 AM. Sigh. Maybe something to drink—coffee, or some water—and you might muster enough energy to finish typing up the stupid thing. You yawn again and get up, stretching on your way to the kitchen.
When you come back with a glass of water, the computer isn't the only thing there to greet you. It's all you can do not to drop the glass as you gape at the blond girl who's sitting in your chair and minimizing your work.
 Hi," she says, turning around. She looks to be around seventeen, and her clothes look as though they've come straight out of a fashion shoot—black leather pants, a caution tape belt, and a white, ruffly shirt with a yellow ribbon at the collar. Her sharp, blond pageboy accentuates the bright teal of her eyes. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm just going to take a shortcut here, okay? Okay.
You slump against the nearest wall, not believing your eyes. Finally you manage to get your voice back and say "n-no, it's not okay. What the heck are you doing here?
I told you. I need to take a shortcut." She's jamming a USB flash drive into your computer; it's one of those designer kinds that are made to look like a cartoon character. "I'll be quick, I promise." The girl pulls up her drive on your desktop and begins to click through folders.
Wait, what do you mean, you needed a shortcut? What do you think you're doing?" you sputter, getting angry. The mixture of indignation and disbelief is finally sinking through your exhaustion, and you start towards her. "You can't just come into some person's house and use their computer like a, like a person using a computer, and—what are you doing?" She's suddenly climbed onto your desk; you see that she's wearing tall, heeled boots and fear for your keyboard. "Get down from there!
Nope." Still crouching on your desk, the girl clicks a link. Your computer screen ripples gently, like a pool of water disturbed by a fallen leaf, and she steps through it—
What the..." you gasp, wide-eyed.
The girl leans back, midriff down in your computer screen, and looks at you with a trace of pity. "Sorry, but it's late. You're tired and need sleep, and this was all just a product of your imagination. When you wake up tomorrow—well, this morning, you'll have dismissed this all as a dream." She gives you a little wave, and with a swift motion, yanks her USB out of the computer and slips the rest of the way through the screen. There's a brief flash as the screen seems to solidify, and then there's no trace of her ever having been there. Only a blue, hyperlinked line curiously remains, fading into your desktop.
That did not just happen," you mutter, sitting down heavily and putting your glass of water to the side. You blink resolutely at the screen. It's probably a trick of the light, but you could swear there's still an afterimage of the hyperlinked text. "That really did not just happen," you repeat, gingerly touching the screen.
it flickers with a sound that's the color of an airfield in the summer
The world resolves around you with a bump. There's no chair under you anymore, and you fall back on soft, springy grass with an "oof!
The meadow stretches on all sides with no visible end. The view is stunning, the grass greener than you've ever seen in real life, and the sky a brilliant blue that you didn't think possible. White, fluffy clouds gather in dreamy formations, and a cool breeze passes over you. The place feels vaguely familiar, although you can't think why.
Hey," you yell suddenly. You'd caught a glimpse of a dog-like figure running over a hill. Although it's already far away, the yellow of its fur is the same as that strange girl's hair... "Hey!" you yell again, scrambling up. You stumble several times in your haste, but set off at a run after the canine. Soon it stops, hearing you, and turns around.
You?" the dog says. "I thought I left you back there. How'd you follow me?" It's the girl. Her eyes are the same bright, flat teal.
You pull up, trying to catch your breath. "There was a link...I touched it and I guess it pulled me through.
Tch." She looks annoyed. "I'd only set it to let me through a few seconds after I pulled the USB out. I guess even a few seconds is too long for people who can't keep their noses out of other peoples' business.
Despite your panic, you bristle. "Hey, I'm not the one who invaded a complete stranger's house to use their compu—hey, where are you going?" She's turned around and started walking off. "You can't just leave me here!
She pauses. "That's the thing, I can. But I guess I shouldn't." She heaves a sigh and turns back around. "Okay, so who are you?
I'm coffeeguts. But who are you? And where are we?
Hivy Bluebottle. And we're in the Windows wallpaper. The default one.
So that's why this place looks so familiar. But— "how is that possible?
Hivy shrugs, starting with the shoulders and ending with an upward flick of her tail. "Search me. This isn't the desktop itself—just an area that all of the images open into. It's an in-between. By the way, you're lucky. I hate to think of what might've happened if you'd come through a second later.
Your heart sinks. "How am I going to get back?
Catch a link. Sometimes other pathways open up around here. Might not be for a while, though. I'll stick around to make sure nothing nasty comes through and gets you.
Uhh. That's a joke, right?
She says nothing, and only gives you a bright and wolfen smile.
What are you?
profile
Name: Hivy Bluebottle
Pronounced: HI-vee
Gender: female
Age: 4, 7, 14, or 17
DOB: June 16
Family: Ruefayel (foster)
Occupation: occasional model
Residence: NYC / Shukumei
Personality: blasé, inquisitive, demanding, dreamy
Talents: software
Faults: heartless, thoughtless
I like...
singing, summer, mac n' cheese, J-pop, the ocean, nice clothes, outer space, pirates, cartoons, animals
I hate!
winter, schedules, rain, viruses, hackers, glitches, power outages, bugs, dial-up, green vegetables
★
I'm a computer program designed for a MMORPG. I'm little more than a bunch of programming and technology and a bit of magic, wrapped up in a thin shell of flesh and dream.
Physique: Hivy is able to shift seamlessly from human to canine, and can vary her age as she pleases. She's consistently blond, thin, and colorless, her face a little too narrow and long to really be called pretty, and after around fifteen she sprouts to almost 5'11". This combined with her relative compliance led Ruefayel to enlist her as a runway model—if she lacks in conventional beauty, he says, Hivy is an excellent blank slate.
Hivy likes food but doesn't need to eat, and when trying to sleep she can only close her eyes and go to a dark place without dreams. If her skin is cut she won't bleed, and killing her would only result in Hivy flickering and coming back unharmed, minus one life from an infinite number of lives; this is not, however, a pleasant experience for her.
Personality: On first meeting one would say she's somewhat lacking in this respect. Hivy is quiet, blunt, and distant. She is endlessly curious if not enthusiastic, and takes some pleasure in being around other people and exploring NYC and the otherworld. More extremely, Hivy has been known to be defiant and downright spoiled, turning to subdued tantrums and complaints when Rue won't let her do something or she runs into technical difficulties.
The emotions she does display could be attributed to pre-programmed responses or even mimicry. Ultimately, however, Hivy isn't without thought and feeling. If she doesn't actually remember it, she feels the loss of her gameworld acutely, and she often voices to Iggy her concern about not being "real". Without dreams and a heart beating inside her, how can she hope to create a new world from nothing?
the perfect program
beginning
Once upon a time......in a world similar to this one, there was a game. It was not the only game in the world, but it was by far the best and most widely popular, at its peak boasting almost a billion players. The game experience was designed to be absolute—the player immersed completely in its world, the lands many and boundless, and the servers stable and safe. Hackers and scammers were dealt with immediately and efficiently, and the game famously never glitched or crashed.
Even more famously, the focus of the game was not to win but to... play, and to have fun. Whether this meant collecting rare items, battling to level up, exploring the lands, or simply chatting in a guild, every player found his or her own unique experience in the game. And the game seemed to go to great lengths to surprise and inspire its players.
For instance, its world seemed to continually expand in proportion to its PCs. It had everything—from mountain ranges, to oceans depths, to sky forests, and so on to no apparent end. The towns thrived and grew with the influx of players, and floating bazaars regularly made their rounds though base areas. There were other, stranger places, including a town where time never ran, a literally upside-down city, a futuristic military outpost, and more still. At the center was the orbital train station, which connected the major areas with a fast rail system.
The game's monsters were also varied and lively. Some were vicious and fought off by players, others intriguing and sought for their items or wisdom. Some were friendly and even kept as pets, while others were grotesquely monstrous and avoided at all costs. And the NPCs...
For one thing, the no-player characters never said the same thing twice. Some people tried to test the game to see if it had a limit on responses, but the NPCs noticed and refused to communicate with their characters, affronted. They seemed to have minds of their own and would move away from their designated areas frequently, "on errands" or "out to lunch" or even, as one scornful arms dealer retorted, "doing more important things than baby-sitting a newb like you".
Best-known of them was Hivy Bluebottle. She was older then, and wiser, and much more powerful. She existed as an embodiment of the game itself, both its mascot and guardian. People whose characters had been deleted for attempted scams or PKs reported being addressed by her first, infallibly and with no mistake. Conversely, she was also the one who welcomed new PCs, always delighted and proud to introduce them to her world.
The game was advanced even for the technology available in its real world. On the forums, players discussed how such an intelligent game was possible—many believed that a highly skilled team of programmers and coders worked to update it round the clock, while others thought the game had developed its own AI and protected itself against hacks better than any human could hope to. A few even suggested that Hivy Bluebottle herself was some sort of hyperadvanced character that really did control the gameworld.
Everyone knew that the game was owned by such-and-such company, but nobody knew who exactly worked on the game, or had even developed it. It was as though it had simply appeared one day. But for the most part, people didn't question the inner workings of the game; they were just content to play.
And for a while, everything was perfect.
and end
But nothing perfect has ever lasted very long.
Several years after its peak, the game's world began to change strangely. Players claimed to see patches of land suddenly burst into flame, or tear to expose the skeletal grid and coding of the game. Monsters fled from their territories or fell ill to odd diseases. Because the game never glitched, many people ignored these changes, or believed that they were the follow-up to a new event. Anticipation grew for a new update with rare item prizes and more opportunities to level up, although some players were still concerned about their ailing pets.
But there was no notice of an event. More areas burned away or were ripped apart, in some cases stranding PCs on shreds of land, and the monsters continued to disappear and die. Doubt began to spread amongst the players as to whether this was a planned update or if something was actually wrong...
Then the sky forests and floating locations suddenly lost altitude and fell, whole cities and woodlands crashing onto other towns or dropping into the ocean. Players logged in to find their characters buried under rubble or drowned and couldn't revive them. At this there was widespread uproar, and the forums exploded with debates and complaints. For the first time, the game's support email was full with error and bug reports, but there were no replies whatsoever. Nobody seemed to know what was happening to the game's graphics and play. Perhaps it was a bug or virus, or the game's AI had been corrupted, or a hacker had finally beaten the infallible security system.
Most alarming of these happenings was Hivy Bluebottle's disappearance. A different NPC had taken her place to greet new PCs and constantly worried about the mascot, who had apparently left to venture deeper into the world and find out what was wrong. This was something that shook even the oldest and most cynical players. Hivy was the game's guardian—the one who looked out for the good of the entire game, tirelessly hunting down would-be PKs and hackers and protecting her world from threats. Regardless of whether she was a staff member representing herself with a PC, or some rogue strain of data taken shape in the game, her abrupt departure meant something serious.
The orbital station collapsed in a burst of glass and steel shortly after, its reflective planes splintering one by one as if from invisible blows before shattering. The few players who'd been in the station managed to log out or escape before their characters were critically injured, and instead of crashing the sleek trains merely lost power and stopped. Still, the loss of the orbital station impacted all of the players, leaving them with no easy way to travel to other towns and escape the slow but relentless disintegration of their world.
Many of the NPCs began to vanish as Hivy did, escaping deeper into the world or leaving the game entirely. Some people had already abandoned their PCs. Others still tried to figure out what was wrong with the game.
Then, unexpectedly, an email was massively sent to all of the game's players. The sender and voice were listed as Hivy Bluebottle, but the mail couldn't be traced or replied to.
As you've probably noticed we're experiencing some difficulties in the game. It's uncertain if we'll be able to fix them—at this point it's only a question of how much we can salvage.
More importantly, your PCs and even yourselves may be in danger as long as the system is infected. Therefore I must ask you to remove yourselves from this game, ideally by deleting your characters or logging out until further notice. I know not many of you would be willing to delete months or even years of hard work, but the game will nonetheless be put offline until we can isolate the problem or...or create a new world, if it would come to that.
I'm...sorry for the inconvenience. I hope I will see you again, in this world or another.
A few people did delete their PCs. The rest were put offline in spite of protest. There were no further messages, and nobody saw the game's final days. Only Hivy Bluebottle was assumed to have stayed in her world until the end.
There were always other games to play, other worlds to explore, and eventually it was forgotten.
epilogue or prologue?
Hell has a junkyard.
Like everything else in Hell, it's unthinkably vast and desolate. Many condemned people and souls come to the underlands carrying objects that they'd been attached to in their life, whether in reality or memory; these are disposed of with the trademark efficiency and carelessness of Hell. In other words, every treasure, toy, and dream sooner or later finds its way to the junkyard, to be forgotten and lost for eternity.
Most of Hell's residents have no time for such bric-a-brac and so the junkyards are always silent and barren. The only movement comes from fluttering pieces of cloth or paper, stirred by searing winds, and the occasional slither of something dark and nasty burrowing through the heaps of trash. It's widely known that certain kinds of serpents have learned to prey on lost dreams, and they're always hungry. But on one day, there was life other than the ravenous beasts in the junkyard, and it was looking for something.
tk-tk-tk. creee—B-KOOM.
shffle, shf...
A demon crouched over the toppled file cabinet with a look of vague disgust, ignoring the storm of papers that fluttered around her like dying birds. The open drawers held nothing of interest, apparently, and she straightened, selecting a hill at random and beginning to dig through it.
Her manner was familiar to anyone who has lost something important in a messy area: she threw aside items with a mad, unseeing disregard, fixated on her goal. Lamps and priceless trinkets were sent flying into poles, the ground, other junk, and broke with resounding crashes and showers of glass, while larger figures and containers lurched and fell as their supports were jerked out from under them. Once the demon tired of this heap of scrap, she moved to the next, and so on, so that the junkyard rang with a cacophony that frightened even the serpents into hiding. As such, it was a while before the faint sound of singing reached the demon's ears.
Vidyelo nyealo gorya, bylo propitano krovyu...
The demon stopped and listened with narrowed eyes. Echoes fell flat in the still air, and it was easy to discern the direction of the voice. She found it where a valley in the junk piles had formed a recess, a sheet of metal sticking out to form a haphazard cover.
Sitting underneath it, on a nest-like collection of ruined stuffed toys and drapes of cloth, was a young blond girl. She played with a marbled red orb, but at the sight of the tall, thin figure approaching fell silent and let it fall in her lap.
The two looked at each other. The demon crouched, knees cracking, bringing herself to eye level with the girl.
What's your name? the demon asked.
Hivy Bluebottle. What's yours?
Doomy. How old are you, Hivy?
Right now? Four.
What are you doing here?
Waiting.
For what?
I don't know.
How long have you been here?
I don't know.
You try my patience, child.
I really don't know.
Doomy peered more closely at the girl. She didn't seem frightened—only vaguely concerned. What was stranger still was that she seemed to all appearances human and normal; yet it was ridiculous to think that she could have avoided the junkyard's dangers by sheer luck.
After a doubtful pause, Doomy stood, taking the girl's hand as she straightened. The movement was awkward due to their difference in height, and the girl was yanked to her feet roughly. "I'll take you down to records and see what they have on you," Doomy was saying. She'd begun to walk, and the girl stumbled trying to keep up. "I don't know it but you seem important yet. Shame if something got you before you could fulfill that potential.
Wait," the girl said. "My fish...
Your what? Oh. Get it, whatever it is.
The girl ran back to scoop up the dropped orb, which continually swirled with streaks of peach and red. Doomy waited for her to catch up but didn't try to take her hand again. The two walked out of the junkyard, as slithery dark things crept from their nooks and crannies and watched—dribbling, but keeping back from fear.
family
 Doomy? I don't like her. She's angry all the time and she smells like a bucket of cinders and she's really mean. She's the one who found me in that junkyard and then dumped me on Rue's doorstep. Well, I guess I have to be grateful for that or I'd still be down there, but that doesn't make me like her any better!
 Rue is my... shall we say adoptive parent? Not that either of us had any choice in the matter; Rue couldn't call the police without being asked lots of questions, and I had nowhere to run away to even if I wanted to. But Rue's okay. He lets me use his computer, and his only rules seem to be "don't make a mess and be back by dinner". And anyway, he's nice, and doesn't treat me like some annoying little kid.
 Raw is Rue's cousin, but she's really more like a big sister to me. She's a big help with computers—shopping for them, anyway. She always knows the latest and best technologies and even invents some useful accessories of her own. And when we're not shopping we always go for some bubble tea and try to kick each others butts at the arcade—I'm embarrassed to say she beats me sometimes.
 Iggy is our local witchy-woman. It's a little easier for me to find her other-worldly shop than the others, so I visit her frequently, whether it's because Rue sent me with some of his homemade chili or just to chat. She's been giving me great advice on virtual real estate and bargaining, and especially how to navigate strange worlds—which is funny considering she doesn't even know how to use computers and stuff.
friends
Hivy's a loser she has no friends -sob-
menagerie
Yeah, I know you're not supposed to have more than one pet on this lame site. So shoot me.
Fish is my goldfish. It doubles as a spyware and security system, and was the only pet that I still had after my world broke, although it had reverted back to an egg. Fish is my most frequent companion, and even if it's dumber than a brick and doesn't say anything, it's good protection to have when I'm exploring weird and scary places.
Nananananananananana... Batman! Okay really, this is Nana, my banana bubble tea fox. Have you heard of bubble tea foxes? They're like little fluffy spirits that thrive on happiness and appear at popular tea hangouts. Nana had disguised herself as a cup of bubble tea and followed me home from one. Since she flies very fast, I taught her how to carry short messages as my IM system.
Last Christmas, Raw bought me a Pokemon game. Of course, I don't think she expected me to actually go into the game as a trainer. Once I forgot an Eevee in my pocket when coming out of the game, and when I let him out into the real world, instead of vanishing he just evolved. Ion is now a steel-type iEon, and he's equipped with lots of awesome moves and apps for our convenience.
I still want... a cat, a monkey and a Tachikoma! Please tell me if you see any looking for a home.
shukumei
I've come to think of the strange, marvelous place called Shukumei as a sort of second home. And it is marvelous; when I first found it, after Iggy told me of a magical land guarded over by fearsome dragons and populated by all sorts of unique creatures, I wanted it all for myself. I thought a ready-made territory would make an excellent addition to my still-developing world.
But when I began to explore Shukumei as a packmember, I found that I didn't want to swindle it from its guardians and residents. There's something sacred and pure about the land that you don't see very much these days, and for me to break another world into pieces, even if it was for a bigger purpose, would be something unspeakable. Now I'm content to travel the land as a packmember still. Maybe, when I rebuild my world...I will make a tribute to this small paradise.
art
by Doomy
  
World In A Box is a design project featuring me that Doomy made in her first semester at art school~
(warning: large files)
  
by others
(hover for neopets or dA username)
   
they cost ¥200
Water bottle lupe adoptables! These are based on a kind of Japanese fan art that is meant to inspire feelings of peace and refreshment. Yeah, I don't get it either, but if nothing else they look cute.
Requests: open to friends and Shukumei
Trades: open
Rules:
☆ Don't steal them, thanks.
☆ Link back to this page.
☆ When asking for a trade, keep in mind I expect some quality in return.
☆ these are adoptables made for the Neopets site. Don't take them off Neo unless I give you permission to.
☆ If I promised you an adopt and you still haven't gotten it, drop me a mail.
☆ I can make adjustments for simple aishas or gelerts if I like you.
☆ enjoy!
To pick up your custom, replace POPIPO with your pet's exact name.
clones
Hivy's reference:
She can be drawn with or without hair.
awards
thank you~!
come back later
50 x 50
80 x 32
see you
There's a link," Hivy shouts suddenly. Without your noticing, she's somehow shifted back to a human shape—somewhere around fourteen years old, with blond dreadlocks tied back. You look at where she's pointing, a few yards to your right.
Huh? But there's nothing there...
Hivy gives you a push in that direction. "Go, or it'll close up again. I'm not going to hang around with you all day.
You take a few tentative steps. You can't see anything that might indicate a doorway, and it seems like it's only the green grass and endless sky and the strange program-girl with you. But as you move forward, you fancy that you can feel something in the air, a tense quivering as if from a vibrating wire. You walk through an invisible doorway that tastes of static and ice cubes...
Safe trip," someone says.
You find yourself back in front of your computer at 2 AM, with a glass of water on your desk. You don't recall anything strange happening.
Hivy and page content ©Doomy/coffeeguts.
Other characters and work (adoptables, etc.) ©their respective owners.
Screencaps ©Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki's Delivery Service), Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell), and CyberConnect2 (.hack//)
Do not use/copy/etc.
(Code by Kagamine Rin) Press ESC to silence.
Do not steal, or there will be no more music!
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