Archive of Our Own ^beta

Unlike everyone else, you didn’t enjoy sharing everything that happened to you online. You feel like some things shouldn’t be shared; it's a shame others did it so often. Like…no one needed to hear how you “spoke up to the barbaric managers," Karen. You find those kinds of people to be very annoying and a pain in the ass, but didn't most people? That's why the internet makes fun of them, after all. 

Where are we going with all of this..? 

Well. You, dear Reader, are going to go on the adventure of a lifetime. An adventure full of action, drama, romance, and humour. An adventure unlike any other.

Now, sit back and relax, Reader; you're about to embark on your journey through the strange and confusing world of Now Trending: Love.

I only wish you good luck.

:)

A woman stands by herself on a podium, waiting for the applause to die down. After she holds up a hand, it did and she smiles. "Well, then. I would just like to thank the Green Co. for coming out here one last time before I introduce the last -but certainly not least- company of the night." The applause starts up again, just as quickly as it had stopped. The woman lets the clapping continue on for a few seconds longer before holding up her hand once more.

Like before, the applause dies down fast. "Now, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Mattias Stouffer: the creator of U!" She holds a caramel-coloured hand out to the left of her and a young man walks out onto the stage, waving at the people gathered with a big smile. 

Once he reaches the podium, they shake each other's hands and she steps aside, sitting down in a chair behind the podium. 

Mattias surveys the crowd of people in front of him, his face almost impassive before a large grin breaks out. His green eyes sparkle in the many camera lights that people were aiming at him and his blonde hair also shines in the lighting. "Well," he begins, turning behind him to smile at the woman, who smiles back. "I just want to start off today by thanking the President for coming to introduce me. But..." He trails off, eyes focusing on the crowd once more. His smile seems to lilt a bit, making him seem more...sly. "I have a feeling that many of you don't know who I am or what I do, right?" 

He didn't wait for validation to prove that he was right; he knows he was right about this. "I'll start off with an introduction. My name is Mattias Stouffer. I am the creator of a wonderful app called 'U'. Now. I know most of you probably don't know what this app is or what it does; that's fine, I'll explain it in a bit." The young man takes a moment to breathe. "For now, please direct your attention to the screen above me, thank you." 

As soon as he finished talking, a giant TV started to lower from the ceiling. Its screen is currently black, but that didn't matter much as it boots up not too long after it gets into place. 

A logo circles the centre of the screen, its catchphrase drawing everyone's attention. 'Where you can be a new you.' For a few seconds, all that happened is that the logo rotates slowly before a video begins to play on the screen. 

The video starts out with white space, before zooming in on it to reveal millions of intricate code threads. A female voice begins to speak, "hello, and welcome to U!" The video then shows a little character waving at the screen, and people in the audience "awh", thinking of how cute that is. The character beckons to the crowd as if to say, "follow me!" In response, audience members giggle, like they would when a cat does something cute.

"Have you ever wanted to start over in the world? Well...it's unfortunate to say that that's an impossible feat. Fortunately, Mr. Mattias Stouffer came up with an alternative!" The little character leads the viewers through a busy city, looking back occasionally to see if they're lost or not. When the character notices that they're okay, they smile brightly. 

"Here in U, you can start over; you can be a new you! With our advanced body-sharing techniques, all you have to do is show us a picture of you, and done! A custom body will be made, just for you!" The small character on the screen sees something in the crowd and looks incredibly excited. They seemingly pull on the viewer's hand and they speed up, racing toward whatever the character had seen. "The body will demonstrate your inner strengths to others and your flaws and insecurities will be hidden! It will be like you never had them in the first place." 

Relaxing as it reaches a light, the character is fascinated by it. Until they remember that the viewers are watching them. Then, with a sheepish smile, they beckon the viewers closer, allowing them a close look at the orb of light. 

Light blasted throughout the air, the whiteness of it overtook the entire screen and everything else within sight was blocked out, even the little character. 

For a while, nothing happened and the crowd murmurs softly, confused and concerned. What's going on? Is it supposed to act this way? Or is it broken or glitched somehow?

No one seems to know the answer.

Except for Mattias, who waves his hand. With that motion, the screen moves toward the ceiling again. Then everyone's attention is back on him. "Now," he begins, clasping his hands together. "U is an app you can download for free. Though you do have to buy the technology that'll allow you to transfer your consciousness into the app itself. There, you are free to do whatever your heart desires, as long as it doesn't break any of our rules, of course." Mattias spreads his arms out in front of him and laughs good-naturedly. The audience follows his laughter. "If you'll just listen to me for a bit more, then I can tell you all more details about how U works and how you can be a new you!" 

Cheers erupted throughout the audience and Mattias smiles coyly, seemingly happy with the results that had transpired. 

⊱ • ──── ❈ ──── • ⊰

"Ugh...Dot, for the last time, please turn off the damn TV!" You groan, smushing your face into your pillow. For the last few weeks, the same message has been playing on repeat. The message about U, the app that changed the world. 

While it is the 25th anniversary of the app's release, that still didn't call for such extremes to let everyone know that!

The TV continues to drone on and on and you groan again. Really?! What is that damn robot up to anyway? They're supposed to be listening to you! 

Sighing, you sit up on your bed and look around your messy apartment. Eugh. You'll have to clean it soon...maybe in the next couple of days. Or the next couple of weeks. Or the next couple of months. Point is, you are eventually going to clean it, just....not right now. 

Even if your apartment is a huge mess. A quick glance around revealed that you live alone. And you savour every moment of that. But you did have somewhat of a roommate and speaking of them... "Dot! Goddamn it..." With another sigh, you get up from your bed and stumble over to where your robot friend is laying, watching the TV that annoys you so much.

The small robot companion looks up at you with a grin. They say your name in their robotic voice. "Well, well, well. Look who got up for once." Dot's tone is smug and you grumble out a few colourful words at them. "Hey! Don't use that language on me, human. We both know that you weren't going to get up today unless something motivated you enough to do so. And that would be a very hard job on a normal day. Guess it's good that this speech is running then!" Their tone changes to cheerful and they laugh.

"Hardy har har. Very funny, you little piece of shit." Your passive-aggressive tone catches them off guard and their face screen changes from laughing, to scared. 

"AHHHH! I'M SORRY, OKAY?! I'LL TURN IT OFF, JUST DON'T TAKE AWAY MY TRAVELING PRIVILEGES!!" They cry out, immediately doing what they said they would and turning off the TV, Dot faces you with virtual tears rolling down their virtual eyes. "There! Are you happy?" 

Grinning, you pat their head. "Very much so, Dot. Now. Because I'm up I'm guessing I have to head to college?" You say the last part of your question with disappointment. You really didn't want to go...but you also couldn't stand the idea of doing all of your classes online, unlike some of the other students. You'll keep doing your work in person, thank you very much. 

Though you did have to actually show up in order for you to receive your work so...maybe that plan isn't working out for you either. 

"You look like a mess," Dot states, having got up from their place on the couch so they can float around you. "You're not really going outside looking like that, are you?" They skeptically eye you up and down before deciding for themselves what you're going to do. "Yeah, no." 

They start to usher you toward the bathroom and you squawk in protest but didn't do much else to stop the robot from doing what they wanted. "I look perfectly fine, thanks." You're almost offended by Dot's word choice. Really? You think that you didn't look half-bad.

Of course, this is before you saw yourself in the mirror. 

Your face scrunches up in disgust. "Fuck. I do look terrible. Ew." Upon setting eyes on the hairbrush on the sink counter, you pounce on it and immediately begin to drag it through your hair. The first couple of times had you wincing, but soon enough, you're able to get the brush through your hair without any trouble. Now you observe yourself in the mirror again, this time with satisfaction. "Better..." You murmur, touching your hair.

"But still not acceptable!" Dot interrupts you, pushing you towards the shower. "I can't smell you, but I assure you that you need to take a shower right now!!" With their insistent bumps, you head towards the shower with yet another sigh. 

"How do I put up with you?" You question yourself, looking up at the cheap ceiling. 

Dot's screen changes from a determined emoticon to a happy one. "It's because you love me!" They chirp out your name, a playful emoticon on their screen.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." There is a brief pause in the conversation where a comfortable silence fills. The atmosphere is nice and you want nothing more than to relax in this moment in time. Of course, you decide to ruin it, "now get your metallic ass out of here so I can change." You bump Dot away with your hip and they yelp but leave the room anyway, leaving you all by yourself.

I won't ~ AJR

1:21 ───ㅇ───── 2:49

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

The next half hour is spent with you rushing around your apartment (after your shower), getting ready to go out and be a proper adult in society. 

It's a good thing that you live in 2079. If you didn't, then you would have no idea how you would've dried your hair in time. Luckily, there's a cream you could just spread all over your hair and it would dry and make your hair softer. What an amazing product, in your professional opinion.

And while you're rushing around and getting ready, Dot's being your personal cheerleader in motivating you so you wouldn't just give up and go back to bed. 

Eventually, you manage to get dressed, take a shower, do your hair, and do all the other things that make you look (and smell) acceptable enough to walk outside. 

Just about to leave your apartment, you stop in front of a mirror you had to examine yourself. Huh. You actually didn't look half-bad. Although you really wish you didn't have to wear this stupid uniform, you had to admit: you looked pretty hot in it. Add to that outfit a messenger bag as well as a hat and you're golden!

Giving yourself an appreciative nod, you open your bag and smiled at your robot friend, "c'mon in, old pal." With a whoop of joy, Dot flies into your bag and makes themselves comfortable. They then command you to "get going, oh human servant!" And you laugh, shaking your head.

The last thing you do before leaving is to make sure you had your phone on you. After all, you could hardly go anywhere without it. Which is why it's smart to always have a charger on hand. If your phone dies and you don't have a charger, no stores could let you in. 

It's kind of fucked up, but that isn't your place to say. 

Opening up your door, you cast your cramped apartment one last look before smirking, flipping it off, and stepping outside. Damn apartment isn't going to be getting a cleaning from you anytime soon!

Yawning, you start walking down the hallway to the elevator, where you press the button that told the elevator to come up to you. You stretch while you wait, needing something to do. Your bones crack and you let out a satisfied groan once you were done. Glancing around you, you realise that everyone has already gone to work or whatever. Damn. "What's the time again..?" You mumble, scratching the back of your neck and letting out another yawn.

"It's twelve o'clock PM, human!" Dot answers happily from your bag. "You should've been in your classes hours ago." They remind you, their tone giving you flashbacks to when your mother would scold you. 

Scratching your nose, you sigh. "Damn. Well, that's fine. I'm smart anyway; I don't have to be there most of the time." This is, unfortunately true. Due to having above-average intelligence, you graduated early from high school and won a scholarship to college. And despite not showing up to two-thirds of the classes, you still manage to pass with almost perfect grades. It infuriates your teachers to no end and you find that hilarious, hence why you continue to do it. Seeing other people frustrated is funny to you. 

A ding in the empty hallway alerts you that your elevator had finally arrived on your level. With a roll of your eyes, you enter once the doors open up to let you in. With it being so late in the day, no one was inside of it, meaning you had the entire elevator to yourself.

Good.

Now no one (minus Dot) could see you dance to the awesome elevator music.

Ignoring that.

Soon you reach the bottom floor and you cease your dancing so you wouldn't embarrass yourself. 

The doors open once more and you step out, squinting around the lobby. Seems like nothing has changed from the last time you had been down here...what...two weeks ago? That's good. You didn't know what you'd do if you came down and they had switched everything up. Eugh. That would be a nightmare. If there's one thing you didn't have, that would be a good sense of direction.

You wave cheerfully at the lady sitting behind the counter before heading outside. "She didn't wave back at you!" Dot indignantly says, annoyed at the woman for your sake. 

"Eh." You shrug, "she was on her phone. Most people tend to not pay attention when on those things." Dot let out a noise that sounded like they agreed with you, though they didn't want to. "Now~ Dotty Dear-" 

"Never call me that again."

"As you wish! Dot, can you give me an estimation on when the next maglev subway would arrive?" You reply without skipping a beat in the conversation. You're walking down the sidewalk at a relatively average pace and you dodge anyone who wasn't paying attention to where they were going. Eventually, you reached the subway station and you hop down the steps, swiping your phone on the scanner, and walking to where your subway should arrive. 

With a long sigh, Dot complies with your wishes and gives you the time. Much to your delight, you arrive just when the subway did! How convenient. 

You board the maglev subway and hold onto one of the poles, taking the time to look around at everyone near you. They're all on their phones...wow. What a surprise. Most people didn't even look up from their devices so they could see who just got on. 

They're like zombies.

It says a lot about the society you live in.