ᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀs༄

꧁Chapter 1꧂

'A light breeze flew past you, a flurry of white doves carried in the wind's gentle grasp. Overlooking the lush green cliffs lies a peaceful city, built out of the strongest of wood and the hardest of stone, tarps of thick cloth tied to windmills that litter the land that lay in front of you. This was the land. Of a promised freedom-'

"Y/n, y/n! Don't tell me you fell asleep again, we just found the missing part to the machine!" I hear someone yell from across the room.

"You found it!" I jolt awake, almost falling out of my chair.

"You bet! They're fixing the details now, then we get to test it out!" My coworker replies excitedly before being fixated on the paperwork in front of them.

Co-worker... honestly I couldn't remember anyone's name here, it almost sparks a bit of guilt in me whenever they call me by my name, the only thing I had in common with any of them was that we had the same job and goal.

And we all somehow had similar phone cases weirdly, it's always pretty funny whenever two people keep their phones together in a close proximity and argue about whose is whose.

But in my defence, they are all a bunch of paperwork addicts, I was the only one who did the actual work here.

Speaking of work, I hadn't done my commissions yet!

I quickly sneak out my phone from my pocket.

Maybe I should build my characters a bit while I'm at it, I mean, I deserve a break after all this work that I just finished.

I had just finished the Inazuma archon quest the other day, building my characters is a must if I want to start the Sumeru archon quest and do the newly released Scaramouche boss fight.

I had already seen the leaks on youtube and I'll be so screwed if I entered the battle with my half-built characters.

I watch in insufferable pain as the last half of the geo symbol stares back at me tauntingly, refusing to load.

"Ah why if it isn't y/n, our lead scientist! The star of the show! How do you feel knowing that your years of research is finally coming to use! I am proud to say that you are probably the most hardworking person in this project, nothing distracts you, ain't that right!" You hear your boss walk over to your desk.

I quickly shove my phone into my pocket, forcing a smile towards my boss who is now standing behind me, "Yeah, ain't that right?" I smile hesitantly as I turn around to face them.

"Anyways, I have just come here to ask for your phone. We don't want any extra internet or wifi waves to interfere with the testing of the machine. We'll hand it back once the testing is over." My boss laughs before giving me a look that says to hurry up and hand it over.

I slowly reach in my pocket, switching off my phone discreetly before handing it over.

It was a shame honestly, the game had just loaded, my half built Ganyu standing on Starsnatch Cliff where I had logged off last time.

Emphasis on half built.

"Boss! We've finalised the adjustments, the machine is ready to be tested!" A yell echoes from the end of the hallway leading into the workspace.

Almost like clockwork, everyone, including me, gets up frantically and pushes their way into the testing room.

Sometimes I wonder what insanity ever happened to convince me to work at this brain-dead corporation.

But like I remembered telling myself earlier, we all had the same goal.

The goal to overthrow the chains that space and time held on us and to break our way into the millions of other realities that co-existed besides us.

This machine could help us do so.

I don't know what reasons everyone else had for working here and dedicating years of their life to this machine.

But I at least knew mine, and that was enough.

'To break through the holds of space and time, I could have my redemption. I could bring her back...'

The experimentation room was crowded with people, all eager to see the results of their labour.

"Here, I finished the research on the reality we want to enter, we just need to link it to the machine to specify where we want to go!" One of my co-workers took their phone out of the box filled with the handed in devices and handed it to my boss who linked several wires to it, before giving a thumbs up to the control panel.

Everything felt like a blur as people pressed buttons and switched levers, and I watched in awe as the machine slowly lit up in a neon blue, creating a misty door way in the center of the room.

The room was filled with noise and light as people cheered.

"Well, who wants to uh, volunteer to test it out?" My bosses voice speaks over the endless clamour of people, who fall silent at that question.

There is a scattering of footsteps, all this noise giving me a headache as I wince in pain.

"So y/n? You volunteer?"

Hold up a second.

I look up to see everyone had moved out of the way, leaving me standing alone in the center of the room.

I feel people slowly push me over to the machine.

Those little selfish brats-

I stand in front of the machine, frozen in fear, but I suppose I need to maintain my status as a good employee, I'll come out in one piece anyways, won't I?

I take a deep breath.

This is for science.

This is for her.

It all felt like a dream.

I step inside the mist filled doorway of the machine, a tingling feeling slowly taking over my senses, my sight becoming hazy.

I look outside, at the room filled with people once more.

A sharp buzz rings in the room.

I glance towards the phone connected to the machine, a notification lit up the screen.

Hold on.

That wallpaper.

That was mine.

They connected the wrong phone.

I feel my face lit up in horror as I realised.

I wasn't going to the place we had researched and originally planned to go to, those files weren't on my phone.

I was going to whatever the place was which I had last opened on my phone.

And that place was-

Authors Note:
Why did I write this💀