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Albedo came home to Aether plastered on the sofa, Switch in hand, and quietly giggling to himself.
"What are you doing?"
Aether didn't even direct his gaze away from the screen, "playing that new game I told you about. It's currently THE talk over on Twitter."
Hovering over the back of the sofa and Aether's shoulders, Albedo glanced at what's so captivating that Aether won't even greet him properly.
"…is that me?" Albedo asked while pointing at an in-game figure. It has blonde-ish hair tied into a half-ponytail and…a piece of drawing on its face?
It was at this moment that another figure ran into view. This one had a more golden-coloured hair tied into a braid at the back with the same kind of drawing stuck on its face, which looked oddly like the owner of the console it resided in.
After a few exclamation marks popping up, the two figures started chasing each other outside of an establishment that resembled a famous Japanese Italian chain-restaurant. One of them would trip over their own feet and fall to the ground face first, while the other simply stood behind, laughed a bit and waited for their game of chase to continue.
In lieu of a response, Aether did a few things with the controller and pulled up a page with a bunch of mugshots of the…uh…'Miis'.
Albedo leant closer to read the name under each of picture. Then he read again. And again.
"Why are all of them either named 'Aether' or 'Albedo'? Hmm? Aether?"
"They are all different actually!" Aether hovered the cursor over the first Mii, "this one is me as a barista." He moved the cursor to the next one, "and this is you as a university student. And this you is completely enamoured by the barista, that's me, who works at the coffee shop near campus, so you go there everyday just to see me."
He then moved the cursor to the next pair of 'them', "and this is us as childhood friends since kindergarten. this is the pair that you just saw chasing each other around." Now Albedo did recall those two figures having a ridiculously large head-to-body ratio.
Aether went on introducing the remaining of their alternate selves. By the time Aether's finished, Albedo counted at least 10 different versions of himself. One particular pair that stuck to Albedo was the one where Aether is a sex worker, and Albedo is a customer who got a bit too possessive. That sounded problematic…and very much untrue to their relationship.
"You described them with such clarity, but none of these actually happened?"
"Exactly! These never happened! And probably never will." Aether sat up straight and turned to face Albedo properly, "that's why I made them. It's fun to re-imagine how things would be like if we were not how we are in reality." As Aether spoke, Albedo could almost see sparkles in his eyes.
What a fascinating thing. The exploration of possibilities that would never come to be, yet captivates so many that they would spend hours imagining rather than living their own, current life.
Albedo rounded the sofa and settled himself next to Aether. He gently pried the console from Aether's hands.
Aether had already closed the page of all those mugshots and returned to the main gameplay, so he simply scrolled through the entirety of the island. He saw all those pairs of them wandering in every corner of the island, which Aether made the extra effort to decorate each section of so they match his fantastical settings. The little figures sometime wandered off alone, but in the end, they always went back to their 'Aether's and 'Albedo's.
Maybe someone else will fall victim to a carefully constructed fantasy, but Albedo saw why Aether was so enraptured by this game. It's not escapism, no, and surely not delusion.
It's the reassurance of a constant that persist across all reality.
Albedo lifted his eyes and couldn't help but felt himself soften under Aether's expectant gaze. He gestured towards the screen and said, "I suppose you just conducted an experiment to prove that we will always find each other in every universe."
Aether's eyes slightly widened from Albedo's statement. Perhaps even he himself hadn't been all that clear about the reason behind his love for the game, which was why Albedo, with his observant nature, worked so well with him.
Aether couldn't get a response out of himself. And Albedo simply waited. Silence spread in the room.
Then, in their monotonous text-to-speech voice, one of the Miis blurted,
"do you want to talk about—
a dangerous experiment?"
Both of them immediately turned their attention to the console. Apparently, when Albedo was fidgeting with the controller while waiting for Aether's response, he accidentally triggered a cutscene between two Miis.
The two of them looked at each other.
And burst into laughter.
"W-why did you even teach the Miis to say that?"
"What? 'Dangerous experiment' is definitely something you would say!"
Every versions of you. In every universe.