Device of Life is a Vocaloid
and UTAU fanfiction written by author mpuppy4. It centers around Hatsune Miku, Kasane Teto, and Akita Neru, who live in the computerized city of "Silicon's Gate". The story tells of their lives as different subspecies of "loid", as well as the lives of their friends. It consists mostly of Humor and Slice of Life at the moment, but the author warns that things may get a bit edgier later on.
There are currently 7 chapters and 31,531 words in total. 34 characters have made appearances and 4 others have been mentioned.
The story can be read on FanFiction.net and ArchiveOfOurOwn.
Device of Life provides examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Gumi calls Miku "princess". She's not the only character to call Miku this, but Gumi does so most often.
- Chainsaw Good: Depending on who you ask. Yukari would probably tell you that it's very good.
- Emotionless Girl: Defoko, who speaks in monotone, never reacts to anything, has a really creepy blank stare, and overall is completely indifferent about everything.
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Follow the Leader: Device of Life seems to take several cues from the comic series Chibi Miku San. Examples of this include FL-chan's occupation and clumsiness, Rin and Len's love of video games, the friendship between Miku, Teto, and Neru, and just about everything surrounding Chiptune (aside from his name). - Fire-Breathing Weapon: Gumi owns a flamethrower, which she apparently and inexplicably mistook for a normal welding tool.
- Friendly Rival: Miku and Teto. Despite being the heads of rivaling loid entertainment groups (the Vocaloids and the UTAUloids, respectively), they consider themselves best friends.
- Funny Background Event: While it isn't so easy to get this type of gag across in writing, there is an example of this in chapter six. While Ritsu, Tei, Defoko, and Momo are discussing their seething hatred of Miku, Ruko is spinning around on a swivel chair in the background.
- Gentle Giant: Yokune Ruko, standing at 6"5, is rather quiet, helpful, and friendly to those around her.
- Goth: Between her unfortunate outlook on life, her choice in dark colors, and her personality (or lack thereof), Defoko seems to fit this trope to some extent.
- Hermaphrodite: Yokune Ruko, who is officially stated to be "90% male and 10% female" despite being referred to by female pronouns.
- One-Steve Limit: Inverted. Miku, Meiko, and Miki have unusually similar names.
- Only One Name: Several examples, the most notable of whom are Meiko, Kaito, and Gumi.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Akita Neru hardly ever parts from her cell.
- Punny Name: The city that the story takes place in, "Silicon's Gate", is a pun on Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, who has ties to Silicon Valley.
- There's also NicoTube, the social media website that Iroha and Miki use, which is a very obvious fusion of Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.
- The Quiet One: Yokune Ruko rarely speaks, and further fits this trope by also being a Gentle Giant.
- She would also definitely qualify for the Cute Mute if it weren't for the fact that she does actually say things on occasion.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Or in this case, AI in general. Literally everybody in the story is an AI, and they function mostly the same as humans. They eat, sleep, drink, get hungry and thirsty, and grow fatigued after exerting themselves.
- Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: Gumi seems quite confident that Miku will one day return her romantic affections.
- Shout-Out: The beginning of chapter 4 references the Talkloid video ''MIKU'S NEW V3 VOICEBANK'' by Circus-P.Miku: Listen up, friends!All: Okay.
- Shutting Up Now: Momone Momo, in chapter 6, makes an accidental comment about Miku that earns a Stunned Silence. She then delivers an equivalent to this line before attempting to flee the scene.Momo: Uh... yeah, I'll go die now, goodbye...
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Though not technically siblings, Rin and Len exemplify this. Rin is snarky, sarcastic, and demanding, while Len is a more reserved pushover and Butt-Monkey. Aside from appearance, the only things they really have in common are their laziness and musical talent.
- Stalker with a Crush: In chapter 6, Gumi hacks Miku's phone, reads her texts, and stalks her to Defoko's house. She then waits for hours outside of Defoko's house for Miku to come out (note that Gumi and Defoko are complete strangers). Gumi does all of this purely in the interest of getting on Miku's nerves.
- Team Pet: Miku's dog "Chiptune".
- Tomboy: Gumi. She's loud, rough, playful, and an impulsive flirt, often to the annoyance of Miku. She's also homosexual.
- Tsundere: Literally a central part of Neru's official character description. She tends to run more hot than cold.
- Notably, a bit of tsun also runs through Miku when she's around Gumi.
- Verbal Tic: Nekomura Iroha (said by the author to have a "Meowth accent") has a few. She shortens "-ing" words to "-in'", says "dis" and "dat" instead of "this" and "that", and adds a Y into words that begin with N (ex. "nyincompoop"). She also says "yo" a lot.Iroha: Yo, nyow we can get dat flamethrower workin'!
- She also uses "-nyan" as an honorific.
- Winged Humanoid: SF-A2 Miki has mechanical wings in her back that are revealed by pressing the star-shaped button on her chest.
