HN is Real: Chapter 1: Meeting Neptune

One winter evening, a teen named Jacob was in his small room, sitting at his desktop computer replying to a message he had received on the internet. It was very cold, so he wore a pair of ugg boots and his blue-and-black dressing gown. Suddenly his dad knocked on his wall, very loudly as usual, prompting Jacob to get up from his office chair, go out of his room and to the top of the wooden stairs. At the 90 degree turn located in the middle of the flight, he saw his dad John.

"Hey Jake," he started, "we're leaving for the footy game now. You have the entire house to yourself."

"For how long?"

"About two hours. Maybe a bit longer… are you sure you're going to be alright here on your own?"

Jacob let out a soft sigh. "Dad, you asked me this last time and the time before. The time before that one, Mum asked me. As I have said each time, I will be fine, okay?"

John nodded. "I know Jacob, but don't you ever get bored?"

"No," I replied, nonchalantly as always. "I have a computer. The internet never bores me."
John sighed. "Alright then. Zac and I will pick up Mum, Hannah and Sam on the way back, alright?"

"Mhm," I responded. "Have fun."

"You too." John then went down the stairs. After he was out of sight, Jacob grinned and rubbed his hands together.

"Time to have some fun!"

---

It may surprise you at this point to learn that, two hours later with his family nowhere in sight, Jacob was a bit bored. He had gotten bored of looking up good fanfiction that he'd never find and he didn't care enough to play a video game on his PC. Instead, he looked to his PS3, located in a far corner of the very large second floor which was covered in blue carpet.

"Okay, what do I have…" he said before opening the left wooden cupboard below his widescreen TV to browse his PS3 game collection. "… oh yeah," he exclaimed as he pulled out a case of a game he got that day but didn't get around to playing until this moment due to getting side-tracked by emails and private messages and everything else; Hyperdimension Neptunia.

"Ooh, have I been waiting for this for yonks or what," he said out loud to himself as he took the disc out of the case. "Finally, I shall play this game which will hopefully be full of clever jokes and references and be about an epic adventure full of excellent characterisation and awesome and heartwarming moments." Then he finally-

The phone on the small wooden table beside the rocking chair rang. Pouting, Jacob picked it up and pressed the green phone button. "Hello?"

"Hey Jacob, it's Dad."

"Hey Dad, what's going on?"

"Just calling to let you know that the game's finished and we're coming home."

"Oh, nice. Where are you now?"

"We're about twenty minutes away and we're about to pick up Mum, Hannah and Sam. See you soon."

"Love you, Dad."

"Love you too."

And Jacob hung up. "Finally, I shall- oh, screw it," he declared and put the game into the PS3 before pressing the power button. He sat in his chair, eager for the game to load so he could start mashing the buttons so hard that they pop out through the underside of the controller. The PS3 main screen suddenly revealed the Hyperdimension Neptunia logo, and the screen turned black. Jacob began rocking, fuelled by his excitement for this new game...

... until he started to hear a strange whirring noise coming from his PS3. This strange whirring noise was accompanied by the PS3 glowing purple, which was soon succeeded by the sound of a small 'bang', which in turn was succeeded by smoke pouring out from the PS3 and the glow fading.

"… did… my PS3 just blow up?" he asked himself out loud. "I mean… I put a game disc in there… a regular blu-ray disc… I mean… how… why… what."

Mind you, it takes a LOT to get Jacob mad. In fact, it's an effort in and of itself for him to shout at someone. Even his shouting is pretty mild, and the only times he can actually remember yelling at someone is when his entire class wouldn't shut up and he had to yell "QUIET!" just so the teacher would be able to continue but not before saying "It's alright Jacob", which makes him wonder if it's actually worth at least trying to help others. However, Jacob's PS3 Slim just blew up. With his brand new game inside. That's about $450 down the drain. His brain just registered this.

"... bwuh?" He sounded in disbelief as he looked at the smoking console. Having his brain (metaphorically) fractured, he couldn't bring forth a lot of emotion. Externally, the PS3 looked fine. The only indication of its damage was the aforementioned smoke, which also indicated that it was blown to high heaven. "… how am I going to explain this to Mum?" he asked himself as he placed his hand on his aching forehead.

It only occurred to Jacob then that a screaming could be heard from above.

"… aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Without warning, a purple blur crashed down through the roof and the space right in front of him and proceeded to go right into the ground floor. Had Jacob been directly under the falling object, he most definitely would have been killed. With that thought in his mind, Jacob's breath caught in his throat. Thankfully, he managed to let the breath out. Still, it was incredibly shocking for him to see something just fall through his roof at terminal velocity.

"… that's gonna take ages to fix," he remarked as he observed the roof, the floor in front of him and the small crater on the floor below. As he observed the crater, he saw that the purple blur was actually a young girl with purple hair, a white hoodie jacket and thigh-length white and sky blue striped socks. He quickly went down the stairs to the ten metre-long living room to get to the girl. Jacob felt stupid for asking this as the girl he was speaking to just crashed to the ground floor of a two story house at maximum speed, but he asked anyway, "Hey, are you okay?"

To his quiet surprise, he could hear a pained groan come from the girl as she pushed herself off of the floor with a great deal of strength before looking at him. "Where am I?" she asked, still fatigued.

As Jacob pointed upwards, the girl followed the finger to gaze upwards and was greeted with a pitch black sky observed through two holes of her making. "Whoa…" she remarked with a bit of strength back in her. "Oh…" She just realised what caused those holes. "Damn, that's gonna take ages to fix."

"I gathered," Jacob responded. "So…" He extended a hand to her as a wordless offer to help her up. "I'm Jacob. What's your name?"

The purple-haired girl looked at his extended hand oddly. If Jacob was to describe the look, he'd groan and ask if he really had to, but if pressed he'd say that it seemed to be partly admiration, partly confusion and partly surprise. She grinned fully before grabbing Jacob's hand in an unorthodox manner that looked somewhat like she was about to engage in an arm wrestle. "My name is Neptune, and I'll be glad to be your blood brother! Or sister!"

"… actually, I was offering to help you up."

"… oh," said Neptune as Jacob lifted her up from the ground. After allowing her to stand upright, he took in her appearance a bit more. She looked to be little more than fourteen years of age and her attire was… strange, to say the least. She had two clips in her hair that resembled D-pads for the Nintendo Gamecube and the cord for her hoodie had two ends that were shaped like a USB port and a USB plug respectively and her hoodie zip tag was a giant circular thing with a purple N in the middle of it…

… wait.

"Hold the phone…" Jacob muttered in surprise, confusing Neptune. "Could you come with me for a second, please?" He didn't look at her long enough to see her say 'sure' along with something else that he didn't quite catch as he went up the stairs quickly, Neptune following not too far behind.

"Whatcha lookin' for? Is it… a secret weapon? Or maybe some special hidden extras, like artwork?" she asked curiously as Jacob went immediately to the cupboard below the TV to take the game case of Hyperdimension Neptunia out of it. He stood up and walked to the middle of the room as he inspected the back and front of the case before he looked at Neptune again, who casually walked up to him and looked at the case as well. Currently, Jacob was looking at the back. "Hey," she pointed out, "that girl looks like me, except I'm prettier."

One second… two seconds…

"Oh my GOD!" Neptune exclaimed. "I'm a VIDEO GAME CHARACTER!" The surprised girl stood back from Jacob as she inspected herself in frenzy. "I'm- you- game- buh- buh… WHOA." Neptune put a hand to her head and took a deep breath.

"I have a rocking chair here, if you need to sit down," Jacob offered as he gestured to the chair.

"Thanks, Jacob…" Neptune complied and plonked down to think. "I need time to process this… what a plot twist, though! I, a video game character, and I have a forgotten past to boot!"

"Oh yeah, you conveniently have amnesia," said Jacob. "Do you want something to drink?"

Neptune quickly turned towards Jacob. "You know about my amnesia!?"

"Yeah," he responded. "I did a bit of reading on the game before buying it."

"… you spoiled yourself?" Neptune asked, disbelief written all over her face. "What kind of person does that to a video game!? I mean, now you won't be surprised-"

"No no no no no," Jacob cut her off with small traces of his know-it-all accent beginning to show, "I just did research on background information before I bought the game. I always do, so I know what I'm wasting sixty bucks on."

"Oh," responded Neptune. "Well… what do you know? I conveniently don't remember anything, so I-" Jacob raised his open palm and gave Neptune a look that, if translated to words, would say "Shut up". This was sufficient for her to stop rambling. "… okay. Anyway…"

"I know that you come from a place called Gamindustri, there's the goddess realm Celestia and the human realm and there's this tome called Histoire, which is necessary to-"

Neptune suddenly gasped and stood from the chair to face Jacob. "Wait! Did you just say
"Histy"!?"

"I said "Histoire", but what about it?"

"I had a dream and Histy called to me for help in it, and she's in Gamindustri and I need to get there! Do you know how to get to Gamindustri?" Neptune asked as she looked at Jacob with pleading eyes.

"Well, considering that we're in what I call the real world and Gamindustri is a fictional locale located inside a disc that just blew up in my PS3," Neptune looked towards the source of the odd smell and noticed  the smoke coming from the console in question, "I don't think we're going to Gamindustri any time soon."

"Aw, but I need to get there!" Neptune shouted before she proceeded to pout and sit in the chair again with her arms crossed. She remained that way for a few moments before standing up again. "Well, then it's up to me to find my way to Gamindustri and save Histy!" She punched upwards at the end of her speech and then she points to Jacob in an overly dramatic manner. "Come on, Jacob! Adventure awaits us!"

"Wait, what?" Jacob was confused now. "Why do I have to go? It's your job."

Neptune was clearly taken aback by that statement. "B-b-b-but," she stuttered as she tried to think of a response. "But-but you're the smart, tall, snarky and dark guy who serves to be the exposition! You HAVE to join my team!"

"Why?"

Neptune attempted to say something, but she couldn't think of anything convincing. She sat in the chair again and pondered more in an attempt to find an excuse for Jacob to follow her to Gamindustri. It took two whole minutes for Neptune to stand up and walk over to Jacob, keeping her head low so that Jacob couldn't see her eyes.

"Jacob," she began with an uncharacteristically quiet voice, "I don't have any friends here… I'm all alone in this completely alien place and I really need to get home…" Neptune then looked up at Jacob, executing what many otaku call the 'puppy-dog eyes' manoeuver. "PLEASE help me…" With these eyes, Neptune believed she could play on Jacob's sympathy and get him to follow her because she was oh so cute and pretty and deserving of a companion to aid her on her quest.

Unfortunately for her, Jacob's heart takes up even less space than a grain of sand. In addition, it is made out of ice and also located somewhere within the black hole occupying the space where his heart should be, so it didn't work. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that," he said simply.

"DAMN IT!" Neptune shouted. After a moment, she took a breath and looked at him again seriously. "Okay Jacob, I am asking you very kindly to help me out. I don't have anyone else to ask and I really, REALLY need to get to Gamindustri. Someone's life depends on it!"

Jacob sighed. "Okay… fine, but only if it doesn't take too long. My parents will be home in twenty minutes."

Neptune raised an eyebrow. "You have a mum and a dad?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"Well, I'm just surprised. I don't know a lot of people with mums and dads."

"You have amnesia. You don't know anyone else."

Neptune's eyes widened. "Oh yeah!" Jacob groaned in response to Neptune's stupidity. "Anyway, you really should give them a call. I think they should know as soon as possible that something exploded."

Jacob sighed again-

"You really love to breathe, don't you?"

Ignoring Neptune's snide comment, Jacob looked towards the phone. "Yeah, I really should… but what could I say?"

"Well, if you don't know," Neptune began, "we can walk around and find a way to Gamindustri. That way, you can say you were on a walk and you had no way of knowing about the PS3. Bingo!"

Jacob pondered this. To be honest, the idea of actually going to Gamindustri amused and excited him with the promise of adventure and a change of scenery. On the other hand, he couldn't fight to save his own life, he had his dear and loving family here and he had an education and all the other stuff necessarily for a steady life. Still, what Neptune said would be a good way to get some time away from the tedium of the moment, and who knows what they'd find? But there could be dangerous people roaming the streets. But the adventure! But-

---

Jacob locked the door behind him and hid the keys. "Okay, you can turn around now." Once Neptune was facing him, he spoke again. "Now, we're walking for twenty minutes. If we do not find anything in that time, I'm heading home. Okay?"

Neptune nodded. "Okay! Don't worry; I'm an excellent time keeper!"

Jacob rolled his eyes and walked out of his driveway into the street with Neptune following behind him. It was very quiet and dark with only the power poles with lights attached to them illuminating the asphalt road that ran perpendicular to his stone driveway. As they turned right to leave, to the right was another house at a corner of a T-intersection and to the left was a playground in a large space.

"As you can see," Jacob began speaking to Neptune, who was entranced by her new surroundings, "we have a park and a playground over to our left. There's also a sewer hole there, but it's dangerous so don't get near it."

"Wait!" Neptune stopped in her tracks. "Have you ever explored this sever hole?"

"No, not really. Never took much interest in it, what with all the possible dangerous spiders. Why?"

"It could be a portal to go back to my home!" Neptune concluded as if this made perfect sense.

"... Neptune, if that was the case, the architects, and by extension the government, would probably know and seal off access to the sewer hole with slightly more than a mesh of wooden planks."

"Who cares!? It happens all the time, now come on!" Neptune grabbed Jacob's hand and took him across the park, or at least she would have if Jacob didn't force his hand out of Neptune's grasp.

"How would you know that it happens all the time? You're an amnesiac."

"I know these things, now hurry up!" Neptune ran off again across the park, Jacob walking calmly behind. After a few more minutes of running/walking, they came across the sewer hole. To Jacob's surprise, the wood covering the hole wasn't there. Adding to the surprise was the eerie purple glow of the hole.

"Ha! I told you so!" Neptune pumped her arms triumphantly while Jacob crossed his.
"That is unusual. Okay, I think I might believe you now." Jacob stopped Neptune from getting on her knees to enter the sewer hole. "No, I'll go first."

"Why?"

Jacob ignored her in favour of getting on all fours and crawling into the hole. "Come on in," he called to Neptune, who seemed to comply easily enough as he heard her crawling behind him. In any event, Jacob could not deny that the sewer felt alien. Even when he was just looking at it, he could tell that it wasn't a construct of his time and world.

This might explain how he suddenly fell downwards when he couldn't see a hole ahead of him.