Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Here we are. Avast in this empty space of the white void, with nothing to keep this story up. Well, why don't we add in some background, like a city perhaps, shall we? Given that this story or work of fiction is a filler and this is basically no ideas at all, let's see how this works.

The city lit up in the midst of the night, the office was only keeping the lights as lively as possible. On desk 2121, Stingy is working on his desk, all alone. He's gotten sick of staying in that lazy town every day, which is one of the reasons why he pleaded Sportacus to send him somewhere better; regardless if it's gonna be a job or whatever. What matters is that without anyone in the office, technically it's all Stingy's, hence his usual anti-heroic standards.

"Hm. This pen sure is mine. I'm glad no one's around to stop me!" Stingy says excitingly. Though he doesn't have a habit of stealing, most of the time, that memory of his wanted to relive it. He wanted to feel childish altogether again. Stingy wanted to sing that song again, so he did. If it weren't for the fact that someone, somehow, managed to get in the office. "Oh no, no no no! How could this happen to me!?" Stingy says in a panicked tone, currently in a panic rush like insanity. He's gotten down to even rummaging some of the stuff that isn't even his.

However, it wasn't his boss like Stingy expected. Instead, it was V1, the AI robot who was hellbent on annihilating the Circles of Inferno. He slowly looked at Stingy, much like if Luigi had a death stare. "Wh- You? Oh, you... flippin' asshole!" Stingy blurted out, before even realizing that he said a swear word. "Oh no! I said a bad word!" Not that he is Christian, the show of LazyTown isn't filled with vulgar words, hence why Stingy is family friendly... until now. "Dictionary, Stingy." V1 pointed out. "You have the power of saying it. Just take those words, and make it yours. Simple as that."

"Oh wow! Thanks, Mr. Simple!" Stingy thanked, grabbing the dictionary and checking the words if there are any vulgar words that he can make it his. "Everything that you see... 🎵~ Up, Down, Left, RIght, Null! 🎵" V1 implied. Stingy found the words eventually, and made it his. "Hah! Finally! I can finally say it without feeling guilty of myself!" He says, as he tries to say it. "Fuck!" Stingy said out loud. V1 was, of course, impressed by his 'power'.

"Say, how long have you been here, Stingy?" V1 asked. "Oh, like probably about 2 days straight." Stingy replied. They know something was wrong and they can exactly pinpoint what that 'something' was: the outside. The thing is, the outside has been night time and will always be night time. While time flows like normal, the outside just... looks dark. In a way, it's like Blade Runner 2049 but it's not futuristic.

"Jeez. That seems like a nightmare, especially for you." V1 said, worried that Stingy might be working overtime for that matter. "Oh it's no big deal! Besides, this isn't the usual job you'd see in other buildings like those people there." Stingy said, as V1 looked at the window, noticing something very suspicious. "Uhm... Stingy, I'm seeing Zhu Yuan getting assfucked by Vergilius." V1 said. "So what? It's consensual, right? I bet she's enjoying it too!" Stingy nonchalantly said, as if it doesn't really affect him at all. "Look, the point is, we're stuck. They're stuck in there as well. But hey, at least I get to talk to you during this 'limbo' here!" Stingy admitted that they're all stuck, at least for now.

"Right. So no exit, I suppose, can you even order food here?" V1 curiously asked. He is wondering how Stingy would even eat food whenever he's feeling hungry. "Oh yeah. The supermarket is just at the third floor." Stingy said. V1 stopped, realizing what that could mean for their stay. "There's a supermarket!?"

Chapter Text

The two were at the supermarket as Stingy mentioned prior. V1 kind of accepted that it is what it is. "I don't get it. Do you just grab the groceries and walk away without paying like it's nothing?" V1 asked. He was still confused on what was the big deal of this supermarket inside the building that was designed for offices. "Machine. I-I mean you have a name right?" Stingy questioned. It's clear that this it's his first time asking a name. "V1. I'm part of the V Series." V1 said. "Ah, V1. Right. So, V1, yes. You don't really have to pay for the groceries. I mean, what can you even do inside the building where the entrance is a one-way and nothing else? It's useless, right? And besides, no one even shops here anymore after that incident. There's a reason why this supermarket is mine now." Stingy replied to V1's questions.

"You know, Stingy, I'm starting to see your 'personality' here. You keep on saying that they're all yours, when it reality they aren't. You seem to be really stingy when it comes to any kinds of objects, like books or whatever. Maybe eventually I'll start calling you 'stingy Stingy' soon enough." V1 and Stingy laughed at that. "Still, though. I don't really dislike the whole 'mine' thing but perhaps try not to overuse that kind of personality of yours. Your repetition might degrade if you keep that up." "Yeah, sorry V1... I'll see what I can do to control this... I mean I'm not a kid anymore, even though I look one. But I've matured already, so I have to stop saying 'mine' every now and then." Stingy admitted. It's not just making it his and Stingy knows that .

"Anyways, I think we can find some groceries. I mean, Stingy. You can grab your favorite snacks to bring in the office. I'm pretty sure the supermarket refills every now and then." V1 said. The mention of the whole refill stock shocked Stingy. More specifically, how did V1 know this information? Or maybe perhaps V1 heard it from the news before. "Alright, V1! I'm on it!" Whoosh! There goes Stingy running to find his favorite stuff. V1 sighed. He knew Stingy used to be the troublemaker in his own town. He wondered if Stingy wanted this decision just so he can forget about his friends... That was the least of his worries. While V1 was just rummaging through the stocks he can get, he saw someone from the distance. He felt a surprise, something very interesting. Standing far from him, was Faust.

"Ah, we found a machine from the distance, Dante..." Faust said. The mentions of Dante suggests that she isn't alone in her exploration either. "Holy shit. What have we found..?" V1 quietly said in disbelief. "What's wrong, V1? You seem upset at the-" Stingy decided to check what he was seeing and he knew exactly why. "Ohh... I see. Well, why don't you go talk to them. They seem to be friendly enough." Stingy replied to this. "Well, I'm not an enemy myself, Stingy. I was in disbelief because I thought you were the only one stuck in this building. Turns out, we might have more people in this building than we might expect." V1 said, as they approach together to meet their gaze.

"How surprising... This is what a model looks like..?" Faust gently touches V1's metallic plate, feeling surprised that such technology couldn't even be achieved in 'The City". <I don't get it. You're just a muppet.> Dante said to Stingy, knowing they're just as confused as they would be. "I mean... Yeah, you're not wrong, I mean look at you! You have a clock as your prosthetic head!" Stingy said in exclamation. "Now now, Stingy. You need to focus on friendship, not roasts. Oh yeah, speaking of friendships, I know I've heard Dante and I suppose Dante is the fiery clock, which I adore, to be honest. What's your name?" V1 says to her. "Faust. I'm the second sinner who developed the engine of Mephistopheles, which we now don't have the access, thanks to the one-way entrance."

"Faust... Ah, I see. Well my name is Stingy!" Stingy said. "And I'm V1, as usual." V1 then said. <Nice to meet you two, I suppose...> Dante 'ticked' accordingly. After a bit of conversation, the goal was clear now. Do the damn groceries; so they did. "Hmph. This sure is boring for a casual shopper." Stingy said. <More like a casual shoplifter, mostly. I mean, I'm pretty sure only you and Faust can actually eat food, let alone can't survive without it.> Dante said. "But still... we don't want to starve to death, am I right, Stingy..?" Faust knew she can't just go exploring while starving, and Stingy knows that as well. "Enough talking. I'm still grabbing as many groceries as I can. We do have to cook some food for you, Stingy and Faust." V1 responded. He is literally dedicating his walking exercise to grab as many food as possible for the sake of surviving for long.

After like what felt like just 10 minutes, Stingy, V1, Faust and Dante went back to the office upstairs, where it should be. "Gosh! That elevator took a while! I could already feel my plastic hands break!" Stingy said in exhaustion. "Come on now, Stingy. It's just 19 floors below the supermarket. It wouldn't take that long." V1 complimented as a counter. "I agree with V1..." Faust even agreed. <Honestly, not the best experience but it's not the worst either.> Dante just shrugged his shoulders like it's just a usual night. "I'm sure we;ll get some rest eventually. It's always night time, but it's like 9 AM on my screen." V1 said. "I suppose you two, including me, will get some rest. V1, you'll watch this office for the time being." Stingy said and told V1 about the thing he just needed to do. "Sure thing, Stingy." V1 said, as he sees Stingy, Faust and Dante getting ready for bed.

"I really have to check the rooftop while they're asleep... Hmmm... Maybe soon enough..." V1 reminded himself quietly, knowing he has to check for more survivors in this building.

Chapter Text

V1 has been checking at the bar at the top of the office, every single day. He's always missing in the cameras at 2:00 AM which concerns the ones who are checking the security cameras, which is usually Stingy, if he's even awake right now. Most of the time this is the least of his worries, cause the office is basically a trap, a "Safe-Haven like Limbo", if you'd call it that way, or vice versa.

The AI robot immediately walked in, greeted by the emergency food- Uhh... I mean Traveller's former friend. "Hey! You're back, V1! How did you do at the joking center? Paimon thinks you've did a pretty good job." She greeted with a question. [ HA. HA. Very funny, Paimon. Is that center some kind of joke? I bet your drunk girl will be Yuuk'd to go... ] V1 stops at the joke, leaving Paimon to wait for his joke to finish. She thought it was funny at first, but when she looked at the dead stop, she knew something was wrong. "Uhh... V1-" [ Jokes are stupid, just like Yuuk...-o... How long has she been in a... coma? ] V1 deliberately asks Paimon in a concerning tone. He had to do something about it, and he know he can't just let Yuuko "sleep" for the rest of her life.

"It's probably been like... 2 days already. What, you want to wake her up?" [ Oh yes, please. I don't want HER to miss out on Stingy's announcement. I don't know if you know this, but it has something to do with some New World Order but it's in this office, I don't know. He probably read some stupid Zenless Zone Zero BNWO fanfic and wanted to see if it'll work on us. He's stingy. He'll do anything to make it happen. ] V1 sighed at the upcoming announcement. He knows it's going to disappoint everyone, including Paimon herself. Surprisingly, Yuuko immediately wakes up once she heard about a new "change" happening in the office.

"Excuse me?" Yuuko replied at the new announcement change all of a sudden in a shocked tone. "What kind of stupidity is he on?" [ I don't know, you ask him. His interest in fanfics is the only thing that worry me. ] V1 responded to Yuuko's shock. "Well, no matter, we have nothing to worry about! Right, V1?" Paimon, who is still trying to comprehend what would happen asked the robot if it's just gonna be something that won't worry them that much. V1 responded by showing him a message conversation with Stingy a few minutes ago:

[Stingy Spoilero]

Hey, V1! I know it's very early in the morning and all, but I just want to announce you this in
advance.

[Sent 3 minutes ago]

And that is?

[Delivered 3 minutes ago]

The New Office Order will be disallowing illegal immigrants to come into this office!

[Sent 2 minutes ago]

... That's it? No sneaky stuff from you?

[Delivered 2 minutes ago]

I mean technically speaking it's already been implemented cause apparently, one of my friends
named Don Quixote who I contacted thanks to Dante, couldn't even open the door from outside.
Yeah... the entrance is apparently locked as well. So we really have no way of getting out of here
very soon. Unless you have alternatives, of course.

[Sent 2 minutes ago]

Oh, you've got to be kidding me.

[Delivered 1 minute ago]

"Oh no... Do they not know about the exit on the rooftop?" Yuuko asked V1 regarding this. [ Uhh, no. What, it doesn't look like someone's been here before. And besides, we don't want them to know, right? I mean you can, but I'm not gonna do it.] "You're... Fuck. Yeah, you're right... We don't want them to ruin Stingy's experiment." Yuuko admitted, knowing both Paimon and Yuuko probably knew not to do it. [ ANYWAYS!!! If you gals still want to listen to the announcement, then you may, though spoiling it means you only have to hear it once. My system will have to sleep now. ] V1 says, as he puts his own system to sleep. The system itself somehow runs on it's own, even when V1's status is stated [SLEEP] on his translucent 'eye'. The system keeping V1 alive is also designed to set an alarm for V1 to wake up in a specific time; in this case, it's 6:00 AM, where Stingy would prepare himself for this special announcement that'll probably contribute nothing to the whole situation. "That's... Alright, V1. I guess you go back to sleep." Paimon sighed, as she went back to the desk to clean it and improve her bartender skills while Yuuko slacks off again, going back to her deep sleep as usual.

At 6:00 AM, V1's system woke him up, as he immediately leaves the bar and goes back to the office, checking in to see if Stingy's already preparing for it. Unsurprisingly, he is. Funnily enough, all of the people in the office are awake, which helps at the fact that he doesn't have to wait for them anyway, as Stingy announces something that'll change the office forever. (Well not really, cause of the problem from earlier.)

"Alright, alright. Is everyone paying attention to the son of the wealthiest man?" Stingy stated to himself as the son of a wealthy man, which is true by the way. He was on some sort of stair behind the table specifically for the speech. "Alright! As you all know, the illegal immigrants have became a real issue in this office. If you know anything about them, they'll do anything to live there, and we don't want that! So, the solution? Send them the fuck away! Don't let them in, and everything will be restored to peace! Yeah, that was the New Office Order. This won't affect us at all, cause we're just sitting here, right? But what if you want to revoke it, somehow? Well..." Stingy was thinking of something if they were gonna protest this. Not that they want to anyway, if there were a situation like this... Stingy sighed. He felt kind of silly when thinking about this new Office Order thing. "Honestly... I'm gonna revoke this if you want me to. Don't worry though, it won't last forever! Eventually I will revoke it myself and everything will turn back to normal."

Dante and Faust were the only ones surprised at Stingy's announcement. "My oh my, Stingy really does know how to make laws like a mature person. Isn't that right, Dante..?" said Faust in a silent but impressed tone. <Yeah, you're kind of right. It is kind of silly, but I like it.> Dante responded, the rules made the two impressed, except for V1, but for reasons they don't know. After the decision was made like 2 minutes ago, Stingy sets in his computer and continues working like it's nothing.

[ Stingy... ] V1 asked Stingy in a warily tone. "What is it, Mr. V1?" [ For one, you don't really have to say 'Mister' to me. I'm a robot, after all. And two, I wanna take you to the high ground first, then we can talk about something. ] Stingy nodded as the two went into the elevator and V1 pressed the 40th floor, where the bar is located. As Stingy and V1 reached the destined floor, they walked out of the lift as they were greeted by the mascot- I mean the Traveller's Former Guide; Paimon. "Hey, welcome back, V1! I see that you brought your friend too!" Paimon greeted to both of them. [ Yeah yeah, same day as usual in this bar. ] V1 greeted unfazed, as the two sat down.

[ Right. Where was I... Oh yeah! You said something like there's no way out, right? I bet you were really vexed when you realized that, didn't you? ] V1 asked. "Ugh. Yes, and it seems like there would be no way to fight that Kromer bastard!" Stingy said with a stressed puff. V1 was shocked when he mentioned Kromer. [ Hold on a second, is Kromer coming here? In this office safehaven!? ] V1 asked in extreme concern. "Oh! No no no no! She's not gonna kill us all! I meant I want to go to her kind of secret lair and beat that fuck!" Stingy addressed about the issue. [ Ah. Right. Still, though, why? ] "You don't wanna know why! It's a secret!" Stingy chuckled, leaving V1 confused and concerned to him. "You're just gonna go there for the golden bough, isn't it?" Paimon probably knew what he was planning to do. "N-no..! I don't even know where that even is! [In... is it in Dante's Inferno? Ah, I mean the Project Moon one. Or... hold on. Give me a minute. ]

V1 deliberately whistles in a signal as the Terminal appears out of thin air, with a quiet boom, which woke Yuuko up. "N-no. V1. Why bring the terminal here?" Yuuko slurred because of her extremely unscheduled sleep. [ Limbus Company Fandom Wiki stuff. Nothing special. Wouldn't hurt, right? ] As he checks the InTerminalNet for this kind of information. Few minutes later, V1 learned what were the reasons for the golden boughs. [ Stingy, if you're planning to grab those golden boughs, what kind of abnormality power will you even have? ] "I don't know, V1! I've never heard of an abnormality before. I-I mean I'm pretty sure Faust knows it, right?" Stingy said. [ ... Sigh... Okay, then. I'll ask her later. ] V1 replied. "Hey! If you guys are done with your silly conversation, why not have a beverage! I promise it's worth it for you!" Paimon told them, trying to cut their conversation in order for them to at least try something else.

"Ehh... You know what? Screw this. Let's just drink and rest." Stingy said in response to Paimon's suggestion. [ Yeah, you're not wrong... It's been a while for me too. ] They both took their drinks and rested for the day.

[ ... NICE FRIENDS... I'M JUST GONNA ADD THIS MESSAGE HERE UNTIL V1 NOTICES ]
[ YUUKO WANTS TO INVITE ARISU AND RYO HERE TO THIS BAR! ]