It's midday, and a festival will be happening at Planeptune in 2 days.

Neptune is sitting on her favorite beanbag, playing a video game on the big TV. Histy enters the room.

"Neptune, when are you going to clear up the monsters blocking the Calchester route?"

"Iunno." She says she doesn't know in one syllable.

"NEPTUNE, it is your DUTY to be the STRONGEST FORCE in your nation, to take care of the big bad evil guys when nobody else in your nation can. There are MONSTERS that NOBODY ELSE CAN TAKE CARE OF THERE. When will you step up to your duty as CPU and take care of it?"

"But it doesn't have to be done today, right? It's a minor route. Not many people use it. And besides, I've almost earned my Space Helmet on Hydale Skybrick -- I want it as soon as possible!"

Histy starts shouting -- it's an odd sight to see someone get berated by someone so tiny. "NEPTUNE IF YOU DO NOT GO OUT THERE RIGHT NOW I WILL ONCE AGAIN DRAG YOU OUTSIDE WITH THE BASILLICOM GUARDS AND BANISH YOU FROM ENTERING AGAIN UNTIL YOU'VE DONE THE JOB."

"Fine! Fine. I just finished this round of farming anyway." Neptune gets up and turns off her console, and then heads for the door. "I'm heading out now. Byeeeee Histy!" She leaves.

Histy sighs. "That girl..."

Nepgear enters the room and looks around for a second. "Is Neptune gone? I heard the shouting..."

"Yes," Histy says, "She headed out to take care of the monsters on the Calchester route, but only after I forced her to."

Histy sighs again. "That girl... needs to learn how to be responsible. She really pushed me to the edge. I decided to lock her out of the basilicom for the time being."

   [Cut to neptune trying to enter the basilicom again, negotiating with the guards]

"But I forgot my adventure puddihiiihiiiiiiing!!!! I can't go on an adventure without my adventure pudding!!!!!!"

"You know we can't go against basilicom policy for something so benign."

"But puddiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!"

   [Cut back to Histy and Nepgear]

"I don't want her sneaking back in and playing games at one of the basilicom computer labs. If she goes to one of the arcades, that'll cost her her own money."

"And she rarely has money." Nepgear finishes. She nods in approval. "How long will Neptune be out for?"

"At least 3 hours. Longer if she dilly-dallies."

"Sweet! Finally, I can get started." Nepgear heads over to her desk and pulls out a box sitting beneath it.

"Oh? What's that?" Histoire inquires.

"It's a project for Neppy." Nepgear says gleefully. "I'm going to make her a 3D Matrix lamp -- a lamp that does a 3D projection of the green Matrix symbols, floating in the -- oh!" Nepgear's hand slips as she's lifting the box.

*CRACK*

"Oh dear, that can't be good." Nepgear starts taking pieces of the lamp project one by one out of the box and examines them. "Most of these should be fine as they're mostly circuit boards and plastic, but the holo lens..." she says as she pulls it out of the box, "...might be cracked. It's cracked. Yup, that's the sound we heard. Oh goodness, now what am I going to do?" Nepgear lets herself fall into her chair with a slump.

"Would you like me to place an order for a new one on Nepuzon?" asks Histy.

"No, parts like that usually take over a week to deliver, and I want to give the lamp to Neppy when she comes home from the festival 2 days from now."

"What do you plan on doing, then?" Histoire wonders.

"Hmm... They have 3D projectors in the basilicom's computer labs, right? I could probably borrow a holo lens from one of them."

"Nepgear--"

"Just a quick disassebly and reassembly. Nobody would notice because they rarely get used, and even if they DO try to use it they can just move to a different computer lab when they realize it's not working!"

"Nepgear, you know you can't deface government property. Even if *you* can fix it doesn't mean that anyone can. From their view, it might as well have been damaged. Broken. And even if you are a CPU candidate it's still not your property. How would you feel if someone took the legs from your room's table when it wasn't an emergency?"

"But I only have one table, and there are multiple comp..." Nepgear sighs. She knows she can't win an argument with a lecturing Histy. She thinks for a bit.

...

Histy pipes up with a suggestion. "Maybe you could make something else with those parts as a stand-in?"

Nepgear repositions herself in her chair so that she is sitting proper. "Hmm... You might be on to something..."



   [Two days later, Neptune and Nepgear return home after a fun day at the festival. Nepgear had forgotten about the present she set up earlier that day.]

Neptune and Nepgear enter their bedroom to get prepared for the night.

Among the other usual furnishments of the room, there was something odd -- a wooden barstool in the corner with an active computer monitor atop it, plugged in. The monitor appeared to be displaying a screensaver, yet there was seemingly no computer connected.

Neptune raises an eyebrow. "What is that?" she asks, pointing at the screen. "A screensaver? In this day and age? And don't screens neeed a big box hooked up to them to do all the thinking?

Nepgear droops her shoulders in disappointment. "It's supposed to be a lamp. A Matrix-themed 3D holographic lamp. But I broke the lens when I was working on it, so this was the best I could do, for now, in its place. On the screen is a 2D, non-interactive render of the 3D interactive animation that will be running on the actual lamp. Oh, and there's no computer needed because it's running on an SoC -- a system on a chip. Basically the computer is inside of the screen..."

"Okay, nerd."

"It'll be like a nightlight! You can use it to get a glass of water in the middle of the night without waking me up!"

"We already have a nightlight."

"Well it'll be a cooler one!!!"

Neptune, unimpressed, removes her hoodie, leaving her in just her extra-comfy striped silk underwear, in preperation for going to bed. "That'll be nice, I guess," she thinks aloud.



   [Over a week has passed since Nepgear initially ordered the new holo lens for her Matrix lamp, meaning the new lens has arrived!]

(The story is incomplete from this point, and breaks down from here. There's still a summary of what happens, though, in the OUTLINE section. Skip to UNWRITTEN OUTLINE STUFF to see the end of the story, as is.)

Nepgear's N-Gear dings. She's recieved a delivery confirmation with a picture of an average-sized box sitting outside on the basilicom's CPU residential area's very, very high balcony. Must've been a drone delivery.
Nepgear brings the box containing the holo lens inside, carrying it very carefully so that she does not repeat her mistake.
Nepgear installs the holo lens with care into the mostly-complete Matrix lamp, then steadily assembles the remaining pieces.
The completed Matrix lamp stands erect with about half of the height of a Nepgear and about the width of a Nepgear. It's heavy and she can't get a good grip on it. Nepgear realizes she needs a dolly to move it.
"Neppy, can you get a dolly for me from downstairs? It should be right by the door just inside the storage room." "Will you make me some pudding if I do?" "I'm not going to reward you for something as simple as fetching something from downstairs. Besides, you already have pudding in the fridge." "Aw, shucks! At least I tried."

Think of it like a slice of life. Mundane moments with fun/silly side effects or deviations.

• nepgear works on the lamp
• time passes
• the lamp is done!
• moving it to the bedroom... (go get the dolley)

OUTLINE

• nepgear wants to make a lamp for neptune to give her after the festival
• neptune is out (for once) fighting monsters
• nepgear finally gets started on the lamp
• nepgear drops the holo projection lens, cracking it. she needs a new one.
• nepgear can't get the right parts in time for the festival
• histy wouldn't let her disassemble one of the computer labs' computers just to build it
• nepgear hooks up a rpi to a screen to make a BORING 2D matrix lamp
• nepgear puts it in the corner atop a stool in their shared room
• neptune sees it
• "it'll be like a nightlight! you can use it to get a glass of water in the middle of the night without waking me up!" "we already have a nightlight" "well it'll be a cooler one!!!"
• the parts finally arrive

(UNWRITTEN OUTLINE STUFF)

• the new lamp is finished and installed.
• it reacts to the air movements or any objects passing through it. if you blow a gust of air at it it'll update accordingly.
• "This is actually really fun. / Look at this cool game I came up with!"
• neptune ends up playing with it night after night when she should be sleeping
• one day, after she's had her fill, she passes up the lamp, and goes to sleep.
• "The world explodes and everyone dies. The end."

The game: She zooms around the map through corridors as fast as possible while trying to keep the 3D cursor from hitting walls. She does races around different paths.

Man, Nepgear is such a cool name. I want to have "gear" in my name!

i think neptune is the PERFECT partner and she handles all situations PERFECTLY
okay maybe not PERFECTLY, but her ability to handle problems is OPTIMIZED.