Chapter Text
A while ago, Albedo had received an email from the developers of a new game called Genshin Impact.
“You have been selected to become a beta tester for—“ is all he’d read before checking his prior emails to make sure this wasn’t a scam and had been something he’d actually signed up for.
Apparently, he had. Probably sometime during a weird conversation he’d had with a friend about finding work–he wouldn’t put it past himself.
So here Albedo sat, controller in hand, waiting for the application to download. Really waiting, because christ Albedo just looked at the download ETA. Well, they didn’t call it an ambitious open world game for nothing, he supposed.
He scanned over his messages: Sucrose reminding him of practice tomorrow afternoon playfully citing his tendency to get absorbed in things and not to miss it, Klee letting him know she got to her friend’s house safely—he hoped she enjoyed her sleepover—Mom telling him to pick up groceries while she was away…asking him if he’d talked to his brother recently. Ugh. His twin. The scope of Albedo’s interactions with him were his incessant posts about his cat online and the occasional awkward interaction when important holidays came around. Personally, Albedo wanted to keep it that way.
He looked back up at the screen. Still a bit of a wait. He pulled up his computer and looked at the game’s website again. Available for preinstall on desktop and mobile too, huh? Eh, sure. He muted his laptop and phone volume and let the hellish downloads run in the background. Thankfully it didn’t kill his laptop framerate. Satisfied with his preinstallations, he looked back up at the screen.
Oh, thank fuck. Finally, it was ready.
He set his computer aside and opened the beta game up. The screen flashed with the company involved, name of the game, seizure warning, blah blah blah.
There it was. The title screen. And…he had to log into his account. A bit frustrated at the hoops he was jumping through, he typed it in. Then he actually got to see the title screen. Arching structures and pillars across the sides and a small path building itself in a loop, probably waiting for him to actually hit the start button. Nice music too, he noted. Calming. He clicked start and…this had to be some twisted joke. Another download? Ugh, whatever.
Albedo let it go on and pulled his laptop back over, opening up his emails. Lots of spam–he should probably clean up his email soon, actually–Coach’s email version of that reminder Sucrose sent him…oh, Rosalyne sent him something about their class. Upcoming test, he skimmed, missing some notes, can she see his?
He pulled up his online flashcard set, because he’d made it basically directly from the notes anyway and sent it her way. Go crazy, he sent. I don’t mind if you share it or wtv its just the notes.
Suspiciously quickly, he got a simple response.
thanks
Rosalyne Kruzchka-Lohefalter
~ we can be the flames to burn away this wretched world ~
Wonderful email signature as always. The download was technically still going, but it was close to being finished so he closed his laptop. He hoped the third time wasn’t the charm here–two horrendous downloads was enough.
Blissfully, the game ran through all its loading bars rather quickly after that and finally the looping bridge-building stopped at a stone door-archway thing, with bold words “PRESS X TO BEGIN,'' staring at him. Albedo hoped it was his final hurdle before he could actually, well, beta test the game.
It was. The game opened up tracing the outline of two diamond-star shapes over a black screen before briefly fading into glowing stars streaking over a night sky, then fading back to black as text appeared on the screen.
So what you’re trying to say…is that you fell here from another world?
The scene cut to two blond characters walking across the sky bridge thing Albedo saw in the opening, then back to black to display more text. Huh…was it going to be important beyond a title screen?
But when you wanted to leave and go on to the next world…
Your path was blocked by some unknown god?
The screen flashed back to the two blonds abruptly as they looked up, seeing several ominously red rifts in space made of that same diamond-star shape open before them. A woman in elegant dress, gold eyes, flowing white hair, and a strange blocky effect lining her left arm came out, gracefully stepping on the air before her.
Outlanders. She spoke. Your journey ends here.
The rifts, at a wave of her hand, changed shape. Albedo expected an immediate attack from this movement–surprisingly, it did not yet come. He also noted that the flashes to black weren’t voiced at all but this was, which struck him as a bit odd. He should probably send an email asking about that, in case it wasn’t purposeful.
The camera cut to a side profile shot of the girl blonde in a white dress and with flowers in her hair–what, is she going to a wedding? Albedo jokingly thought–piped up herself. Who’re you?
Flashing back to the woman, she responded, The sustainer of heavenly principles. She appeared to idly toy with a small cube in her hand before it suddenly enlarged. The arrogation of mankind ends now.
The two blonds jumped from their spot on the strange sky walkway to avoid a similar cube structure appearing beneath them, undoubtedly the sustainer lady’s first strike. Midair, both blonds manifested six, somewhat insectlike wings of pure light and golden swords and flew at the woman. The sustainer lazily lifted her hand to summon clustered tendrils of the same cubelike structures she’d wielded previously from the rifts behind her, both twins swiftly dodging around them before closing in for a strike. Then the action paused, the sustainer and the two blonds suspended in place.
Small white text appeared at the bottom of the screen: Select a twin.
Oh, so the two blondies were twins. Good to know. Twins and also a choice of gender. Albedo assumed their appearances and interactions were set in stone and this “choice” was really just about which main character the player wanted to represent them, but he still deliberated over the option for quite a while–well, relatively so for such a simple choice. Idly flicking his joystick back and forth over the twins while deciding, one motion made his controller’s “cursor” of sorts get caught in the middle of the twins, just below where the sustainer hovered.
Well, it was his job. He let the cursor hover there while drafting an email detailing his thus-far experiences and inquiries about the game. Then, to see what happened, he clicked on the strange, middle option.
Albedo partly expected it to do nothing at all, being a purely visual or non-interactable glitch. Yet, the cursor definitely pressed down to indicate he’d selected something. Then, the screen made some kind of laggy movement before flashing entirely black. Oh, Albedo thought briefly, it made the game crash.
He was proven wrong when the scene lit his screen once more. Both twins jumped back from the sustainer’s next move–an attempt to encase their swords in her strange cube-powers.
She grimaced and recoiled back.
How? She demanded. This is not what was written!
In her anger, she swiped an arm to the side, summoning the cube tendrils once more; this time, they were clearly posed in an attempt to strike everywhere rather than chasing the twins down.
Loud and firm, the sustainer proclaimed, You will not escape your downfall so easily.
Agile as ever, however, both twins still weaved through the onslaught. The girl twin sped in to strike the god and she, noticing this, summoned a cube to her hand which began to pulse and glow ominously. The boy twin, still hovering at a higher vantage point, saw this action and rushed after his sister, noticeably faster than she had been. He placed himself in between the two and shortly after the energy stored within the cube ruptured, blasting both twins back onto the ground they had originally jumped from.
The camera focused on them helping each other back to their feet until they looked over in its direction. Panning out, the object of interest revealed itself to be a similar kind of archway that the title screen had. However, while the title screen had a solid door, this was a hollow archway occupied only by a brilliant white glow. It framed Albedo’s screen as if he were the gateway for just a moment, then zoomed back in on the twins, who gave each other silent nods of agreement to pursue that path. Their wings drooped down from their spots on the twins’ back and they stood far more shakily than Albedo had seen when they originally helped themselves up, probably trying to appear weaker than they were. Both swords they’d summoned were gone as well.
Both got ready to make a break for it and the camera panned up to show the sustainer readying a final strike. The perspective twisted to show the two of them as if they were rushing towards the camera, the sustainer’s attack following close behind. In a burst of light, they closed in on the camera, encompassing it–
–and Albedo had to close and shield his eyes with the hand not holding the controller as the light grew and grew and eventually completely encompassed his basement game room. Distantly, he heard crashing and clattering.
As the light slowly ebbed away from beyond his eyelids, Albedo dared open them once more and removed his hand shielding his face. Sure enough, as if to spite everything Albedo thought he knew about fantasy video games existing as solely fiction, there laid both twins amidst the wreckage of the small coffee table they crashed into, slowly brushing themselves off and moving to sit up.