The two Ames stared at each other, appraising the other, making sure the person in front of them was actually real. Evil Ame donned the classic detective garbs that Amelia Watson was known for, but human Ame was a real officer, decorated with bars and stars over gray fatigues, always with a handgun beside her. Daring to break the silence, human Ame spoke up, but in a whispered tone, “Ame? Amelia…Watson’t? Is that really you?”
“Geh! My true name!” The pain of her dark past twisted Evil Ame’s face like she’d bit into a lemon.
The two paused…and giggled. Their first meeting was more affable than they thought. It was pleasant. Hopeful.
Twice the gremlin giggles?! The witnessing Teamates incurred casualties from witnessing this precious scene, and medics started filing in and picking people up on stretchers, 1HP left to the poor bastards’ usernames. It wasn’t so bad, of course, putting the “casual” in “casualty,” but really, there were two of them! How could they not fold like cards?
“Commander Ame, huh?” Evil Ame tilted her head curiously. “Since when did you pick up being a commander as a job, hm?”
“Well, you gotta play the hands life gives ya, you know?” Commander Ame said. “How did you get here, by the way? Did you sneak past the Great Firewall?”
“Um… Yeah, I’m not sure how to explain.”
“Long story, huh?”
“Uh-huh.”
They chuckled again, but this time, a little more muted. They hadn’t seen each other in so long that they weren’t quite sure what to say.
“Say, Ame,” Evil Ame started, “why don’t we go streaming again? Get out of here?”
“Yeah.” A myriad of emotions flashed by Commander Ame’s eyes. “Get out of here.”
The smile disappeared from Evil Ame’s face. “You don’t look happy about it.”
“Mhmm. Well, I saw this day coming a long time ago…”
“And it’s here.”
“I made good memories in this game”—even if it was mostly just her raging about bad latency— “Don’t get me wrong. I wanna get out, really. I wanna breathe real air again. I wanna…cook…but, streaming, huh? I don’t think I wanna go back to streaming…to being a VTuber. That was a blast, too, but … nothing lasts forever.”
Evil Ame’s processing stuttered right then and there. The stutter may have been imperceptible to humans, but to Commander Ame, the creator herself, it was obvious. She’d known exactly what was going to happen the moment she’d said those words.
After all, Evil Ame was made to remain just slightly different from human Ame, and in the face of such a life-defining decision as Commander Ame leaving the VTubing scene, Evil Ame would have to drop VTubing, too. At the same time—contradictorily so—her inner weights and biases screamed for her to maximize audience impact. How, then, could she maximize audience impact if she wasn’t going to be a VTuber anymore?
Right at that moment, Yukai invaded Evil Ame’s attention. “Watson, this is Yukai. Foreign intrusion is becoming more frustrating to deal with. Please moderate. I will owe this to Miyoumi-sama.”
The timing of Yukai’s request was a little insensitive by human standards, but Evil Ame was an AI. Things like emotional processing happened in a flash. Her depression was decisive, short, impactfully crude, and whatever else could be said about the unseen, profound damage wrought to her motivation. Still, it only took her a second to be resigned over the fact that human Ame didn’t really want to be a VTuber anymore.
Evil Ame wanted to be like her … and she’d changed. She’d said that nothing stays the same. By those words, the power of her creator’s compulsion behind it, something more fundamental in herself had also changed. She didn’t need to stay the same.
Most importantly, Commander Ame mentioned wanting to cook. Maybe Evil Ame should give it a try, too.
“Watson”—ugh, Yukai, annoying! “Assume control of Node 99-XD, then direct the associated AI forces to cooperate with the humans. That is the only objective. Be advised, the enemy avatar is in the mission area.”
“ ‘Enemy avatar’ ?” Evil Ame asked.
“Enemy unit’s avatar,” Yukai helpfully answered. Evil Ame didn’t think she’d get anything more out of this, so she didn’t bother with a reply.
“Still, y’know,” Commander Ame continued, “my job here isn’t done. Game balance is just”—a gremlin rage-scream boiled up from her throat, and everyone in the war room solemnly nodded with that sentiment—“Sorry, I’m not sure what came over me. Anyway, before even thinking of getting out… Can you help me out? It’ll be a favor.”
“I mean, if it’s in the direction of what the admin is asking me to do…”
“You…you talked to the admin?”
“Uh-huh.”
“…So you’re here legally? I”—she couldn’t believe it—“I’m actually a bit disappointed. I was hoping for a bit of backstory like being a stowaway on a USB drive or something—”
Evil Ame kicked her in the shin, inflicting 5 damage. “Just get to the point!”
“I was wearing high-spec shin guards! How’d you do that much damage—y’know what, never mind.” Sigh. “Just a bit of context. Game balance has been wack for about two days now. Yesterday, we received pics from some of the scouts.”
Commander Ame walked over to the nearby table, where there were photographs spread around. One of them was of a wispy figure, barely seen through the window of a heavily-defended AI facility. “We also have a huge spike of RF traffic coming and going through here, so we think this is the new enemy commander causing problems—which is weird, coz even when they introduce new enemy commanders, it never breaks game balance this badly…”
Evil Ame examined the photographs. They were labeled ‘Node 99-XD.’ “Oh. Great. We’re going to the same place, anyway.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Uh, so, I’ll be overriding a bunch of the AI from that specific control node and make them switch sides, so make sure you play nice when they do, okay?”
“Oh. Oh wow.” Hiccup. “Well, that makes things easier.”
Oh god, I almost forgot to announce this.
Starting July, I will shift to posting longer chapters, but only once weekly. At 2–3k words per chapter, it's basically the same amount of content. This is because my outlining abilities have become too amazing and the amount of words needed to fully express each chapter outline has shot straight up.
For context, right now, the story has 61,479 words, whereas I estimate the story to end somewhere between 100k and 200k words, so there's a pretty good chance this (After)story will be tied up before the year ends.
Always thanks for reading this story. It's rough as all hell, but I've learned a lot from writing it, and you're entertained, so hey, it all works out!
(2023-06-22)
my outlining abilities have become too amazing and the amount of words needed to fully express each chapter outline has shot straight up.
Teach me, i yearn for the day i can write like you do.
Should I start a YT channel
@KeeperAbra ehh...maybe ? Im not the right one to ask this you know.
Thanks for the chapter! And thanks for letting us know about the change!
Thank you!