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Language:
English
Collections:
Modern Epistolary (aka Scrapbook Stories)
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Published:
2017-09-29
Words:
618
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
36
Kudos:
461
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2,600

Beta Test

Summary:

Katio was really proud of his Kaitou 1412 video game. He was thrilled to be getting ready to launch it under DC games. But first things first, he had to get through the internal beta test... And a beta tester with the handle 'Sherlock'.

(AU. Kaito is a video game developer/designer. And Shinichi is the beta tester from hell.)
((The format is... odd. The word count is actually considerably higher than what is listed, but the bulk of the content is in 'emails'. Approx 2300 words.))

Notes:

So... I may have lost my mind and gone to war with the formatting gods for no good reason. But I hope you all derive some enjoyment from my bought of insanity.

Now then... Some instructions on reading this story:

1) If you are reading this on your smart phone I recommend putting your phone in landscape orientation.

2) If you are reading this on your computer I recommend narrowing the window to approximately the same size as a page on a typical word processor.

3) The story is mostly told through 'emails'. You need only read the subject line and the 'newest' reply for any individual 'email'. However, if you need a refresher on what was happening in a particular 'email' conversation, the previous messages are displayed below the 'newest' reply. Also, each character uses a unique text color to make it easier to determine who is talking.

Work Text:

Months. It had taken months for Kaito to finally release his Kaitou 1412 video game. Months of listening to his so called friends tell him it couldn’t be done. Months of nothing but coding. But it was done and the first company he showed it to bought the rights to the game the next day. Now all he had to do was wait for the beta testers to finish playing through the content.

At least that was what he had thought 3 hours ago. Since then he had received five tickets from a beta tester with the handle ‘Sherlock’.

‘Sherlock’ it seemed, didn’t approve of the way the game played. But Kaito was a professional video game designer now. He could handle beta testers.

That ought to resolve that ticket…

Or not.

Sherlock was clearly a headache waiting to happen.

Scratch that. Sherlock was a headache.

Katio blinked as he tried to process the contents of the last ticket. It took longer than it probably should have to realize that MistakesWereMade was the beta tester’s handle.

Clearly beta testers were weird. Not that Kaito was really normal himself, but still.

Kaito wasn’t even going to respond to that.

At least Sherlock closed the tickets he opened...

Come to think of it, why was Sherlock the only one who seemed to be sending in tickets?

Well that sort of made Kaito feel better. Sort of.

Nope. That wasn't ominous at all.

 

Ok. Maybe Sherlock wasn’t just being an irritating prick and actually cared about getting the details right.

 

Seriously? Good luck? That was all they had for him?

Ok… The silence was starting to get to Kaito. He hadn’t heard anything from any of the beta testers in… 5 hours. Which made sense for Sherlock, the guy had been working before Kaito rolled out of bed at almost 11 AM. But the other beta testers were supposed to work from 11am to 8pm.

Why did Kaito feel like he had just been given the cold shoulder? Probably because he was only allowed to contact the beta testers when they opened tickets. So having Sherlock close a ticket before Kaito had dealt with it was sort of the equivalent of having a door slammed in his face.

Opps. Way to stomp on the beta tester’s sore spot. Kaito chastised himself.

That was probably that last Kaito was going to hear from Sherlock for the day. He’d probably call it a night himself in another hour or so. Once he got the lighting effects right for the falling chandelier crystals…

Looked like Kaito was wrong. Sherlock didn’t sleep apparently.

 

That sounded an awful lot like a complement.

But honestly, why was the guy a homicide detective if it bothered him so much?

Sherlock was terrible at conversations.

Wow. Sherlock was… Just wow.

Right… And Kaito believed the Earth was flat. Who did the detective think he was fooling?

Well that was pretty much against the unwritten rules of internet conduct. Didn’t Shinichi know that you weren’t supposed to give your real name out to random people on the internet?

Oh wait. This was technically interoffice correspondence. And… Did he say his name was Kudo Shinichi? As in The Great Detective of the East? The man Kaito had modeled KID’s rival Edogawa Conan after? The man who’s poster was taped above Kaito’s bed? The one he had been secretly cyber stalking? Though he preferred to call it research. That Kudo Shinichi?

In his head Kaito could see Shinichi’s signature smirk on his face. Gahh! He fell face first into his keyboard.

Kaito looked at the screen one more time before closing out of his email application. So much for KID’s poker face.