Your Path Was Blocked By Some Unknown God?

Author's Note: From now on, going forward, any telepathy between the two main characters will be represented with these brackets, [ ] and { }. The square blocky ones will be for Matt and the squiggly ones will be for Jen.

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For the third time, Matt woke up in another world. For the third time, he woke up outdoors. This time though it was to the sound of the sea and its waves lapping at the land. It was a relaxing sound and Matt was tempted to sleep more to its lulling sounds, but his wife’s hand was caressing his cheek soothingly. It was a nice feeling but also kept him from dozing off again.

Next, he felt soft kisses on his forehead, then on his temple. The kisses moved on to his cheek and he finally opened his eyes.

Jen, in Lumine’s altered body, was leaning over him and placing her lips on him in small loving touches. He could even feel her strong affection for him through their new bond. It was really warm. He felt embraced by her love. He could also feel a yearning ache for him.

[Is this how you always feel?] He asked with his mind.

{Everyday.}

She rubbed her nose gently on him while smiling. Her eyes, though different from her usual blue, were incredibly beautiful. Her face bore minor resemblances to his Jen, but the parts that now made her Lumine were incredibly pretty. Matt let all his love for her fill his mind as he stared into her golden eyes. All his love, affection, desire and need, he sent to her.

Her eyes became watery, and her lips trembled a little. Her feelings doubled and Matt’s heart felt full. She kissed him and he raised his hand to hold her there. His fingers ran through her hair as he kissed her back. There was no tongue. Just a connection they needed to share.

{Out of everything, I love this the most. I love feeling you. Feeling your love.}

He felt the same way. It was the most intimate feeling he had ever had. He felt so much closer to his wife than ever before. All these other things like being in the world of Teyvat or the chance to see and flirt with Genshin characters, being Genshin characters... It all paled next to this.

They used tongue now. They tasted each other. There was no passionate battle to see who could win. They just tasted each other.

[Is Paimon awake?] He asked.

{She was snoring last I looked at her.}

At that exact moment they heard a yawn. The two of them froze.

{Speak of the fairy and she shall awaken.}

They smiled, both sets of lips still pressed together. Lumine pulled away and got up. She then stretched in much the same way the real Lumine would have in the game. She even made the same noises and smirked at her husband when he looked at her exposed armpit.

{You an armpit guy now?}

[For you? Yes.]

She smiled warmly and sauntered over to the supply box. As she walked past, Aether looked over to Paimon, who had rolled over onto her back and rubbed her eyes. Aether sat up and yawned himself.

“Morning, Paimon.” He greeted the girl.

“Mnningn...” She... made a noise. It sort of resembled ‘Morning’ but he couldn’t quite tell.

“Rise and shine. The sea looks gorgeous today.” He told her as he looked out over the wide blue sea. Sunlight sparkled and reflected off the waves, the sky was a pure blue with very few clouds and birds, seagulls most likely, made their calls across the cliff side.

Paimon looked over sleepily.

“Hmm... so pretty.” She mumbled.

Aether got up and stretched himself. He couldn’t quite remember how Aether did it. Until he got an image sent to him by his wife. Seemed like she remembered. He could tell that she was looking, so he imitated the motions as best he could for her. He felt her contented nod before she went back to rummaging through the supply box.

Aether walked over to the edge and looked out more fully. He breathed in the salty air and felt refreshed. He observed how the world really did look like a realistic rendition of the Genshin Impact art style. It all looked real, but also like the game. It was hard to describe, but it was beautiful.

Paimon stepped up next to him and they both looked out at the sea in contentment. Some minutes later Lumine walked over with two cups of water. She held them out to Aether and Paimon.

“Here you go. I tried some. It’s not stale.”

Aether took his with a grateful smile.

“Thanks, Lumine.” Paimon took hers and gulped water down. “What are we doing for breakfast?”

“Cheese and crackers again sadly.” She told them over her shoulder as she headed back.

“Ah... I guess that's fine.” The fairy muttered.

“Don’t worry. Once we get to the city, we’ll try all sorts of food and have hearty breakfasts every morning.” Aether said to her with a grin.

“Great, I’ll hold you to that.” Paimon nodded enthusiastically. Then she eyed him sideways. “I’m still bad at cooking, though.”

He laughed at her insistence to not cook.

“You won't be bad when we are through with you.”

Paimon grumbled a little but didn’t say no.

{That sounded kind of lewd.}

[Hush you.]

They ate breakfast and tidied up the campsite. They were ready to leave soon after since they didn’t have much with them anyway. They hopped down from the ledge back onto the path. Paimon floated down of course. From there they walked down the zig-zagging path that was carved out of the cliff side. They could see the beach getting closer and the married couple could really see how everything seemed bigger in this version of the world. The beach ran along the coast for longer than the intro to the game.

{The glider is going to be really useful then.}

[Oh yeah, the glider. What about the fast travel points? Was it canon that we could use them like that, or was that a game thing?]

{Uhhh... dunno. I really hope so, cause fuck walking everywhere all the time.}

[Yeah. If this world is larger... Damn. They better let us. Imagine being in Liyue when the Windblume festival is going on.]

{Ugh. I’m not walking all that way.}

They were in agreement on that.

After a few minutes of careful walking, they finally made it down to the sandy beach. Matt could feel Jen’s desire to sunbathe and swim in the ocean. He couldn’t blame her. He also missed going to the beach back home.

The three of them took their first steps onto the sand and looked out at the ocean waves. Almost at the same time they all breathed in the sea breeze.

“Kind of makes you want to go for a swim, huh?” Paimon suggested wistfully.

“It does.” Lumine agreed emphatically.

“Shame we don’t have any swimwear. Though that didn’t stop you a couple days ago Paimon.” Aether teased the girl.

“Hey that was for food. I was starving. So, **** times and all that.” Paimon threw back.

They stood there staring out at the vast sea for a while longer, enjoying the moment. Outwardly. On the inside, Matt and Jen were thinking about how to start the conversation that appears in the game intro. They remembered the dialogue for the most part and they were sure it was fine to deviate a little, considering both Aether and Lumine were there at the same time.

{So, we’re still going with the whole twin sister thing, then?}

[Yeah. It makes the most sense for us. You ready?]

{Yep.}

“Hey, Paimon.” Aether began.

“Hm, yeah?” Paimon turned her head to Aether, who was on the other side of Lumine. Paimon’s white hair was being blown by the wind, so she had to blink or hold her hair out of the way.

“If we’re going to be traveling together for the foreseeable future, we,” He pointed to his wife and himself. “Thought it would be best to come clean about some things. So, that things are transparent between us.”

Lumine nodded along.

“Oh, uh, okay. What did you need to say?” Paimon realized that this might be a heavy topic, so she gave her full attention.

“I think we should sit down for this. It’s a bit of a long and strange tale.” Aether told her. He then looked about and found a nice flat boulder in the sand. He walked over and took a seat. Lumine followed him and sat beside him. Paimon, looking a little worried, also sat down across from them in the sand.

The married couple had decided to let Jen recount the intro cutscene to Paimon. It would make more sense for Lumine to be the one looking for her “sister” since they, Matt and Jen, were going to be married couple in this world too. Aether can’t go looking for a sister that looks like his wife. That might raise odd questions. And if their suspicions were right, if there was an Abyss sibling here already, and if they were Lumine, then it would make sense to call her and Jen sisters since they would look identical.

“So, to start things off,” Lumine began. She pointed at herself and Aether. “We are not from this world. We came here from another world.”

Understandably, Paimon looked shocked and confused by this admission. She looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering if they were joking, but found nothing but serious expressions on the both of them.

“And there were three of us. Not two.” Lumine gave another revelation. It was a deviation from the source material, but it gave them a manufactured motivation to search for the Abyss sibling. If there was one. Paimon would understand why they would need to travel from country to country if there was “family” involved. “It was me, my husband Aether and my sister Lumina.”

They had decided on a name similar to Lumine because they would look like twins. Lumine and Lumina. They didn’t quite know what consequences this would have for the story. Maybe in the Archon quest the Abyss sibling will comment on this name. They may shrug it off. Heck they might even be confused by the presence of another Lumine. They just didn’t know enough at the moment.

Lumine continued to explain their circumstances. She told Paimon of falling to this world and trying to leave, only to be blocked by a woman. The unknown god, not the other woman that really brought them there. This unknown god captured one of them, Lumina, and sealed away Lumine’s and Aether’s powers and put them to sleep. They had woken up in the wilderness to the north.

“...you fell here? From another world?” Paimon muttered to herself. She seemed transfixed by the story, going through what was said with awe and confusion. “But when you tried to leave... you were stopped by... some unknown god?”

“Yes. This god took my sister from me. Took our powers and trapped us here.” Lumine continued. “It was impossible to tell how much time had passed between our encounter with that god and when we had woken up. We’d been by ourselves ever since then. Right up until we found you two days ago.”

Matt was reminded of that meeting again. Fighting that slime and Jen calling out that someone was drowning. He pulled Paimon out and performed CPR on her. The high stakes of the situation made it difficult to remember what her lips felt like at the time.

“Ah, yeah... thanks again for saving me. I might have died if you didn’t find me.” Paimon thanked them again. The couple smiled to let her know it was quite all right. “So... to repay you both, I’ll do my best to guide you to Mondstadt... and... and to wherever you need to go. I... don't really have anything else to do, or anywhere else to go. I’ve just been wandering around with no real goal in mind. No purpose. But... I want to help you. I want to help you find your sister.”

She gave a resolute nod, making her mind up.

“Thank you Paimon. That means a lot.” Lumine smiled at her gratefully.

“We’ll make sure you won’t regret it.” Aether added.

{With lots of love and sex.}

Aether leaned over and bumped shoulders with his wife. She giggled and bumped him back. He was giving his wife some mild chastisement, but Paimon looked on and giggled with Lumine, taking that moment as happiness related to her resolution. Aether was fine with that.

The heavy air had lessened and the story they had to tell was over now. It was time they left.

“Shall we get going then?” Aether asked them as he stood up and brushed the seat of his pants. Lumine stood up and brushed herself down as well. She went to help Paimon up, but the fairy girl floated up on her own.

“Yep. Sunlight's burning.” She said with a cheeky smile at Lumine. The girl skipped ahead down the coast.

Aether and Lumine shared a smile. They both felt relieved to have gotten through this “cut-scene” so to speak. They turned and followed after Paimon. They walked over the sand and enjoyed the scenery while holding hands. The beach was breathtaking with the sea-foam moving up the sand, only to be pulled back out with the ebb and flow of the ocean. The wet sand reflected the morning light and shifted around seashells or small smooth rocks.

They could see crabs here and there. Like the ones that were seen in the game. The ones that could be caught and cooked. Matt and Jen wondered if they could catch some but gave up on that idea. They didn’t have an inventory...

Or did they?

{We... have the swords. Are they in an inventory-like space? Like in an RPG? Do we have pocket dimensions?}

They looked at each other wondering at the absurdity of the notion. Those games just had those inventory spaces because only being able to carry a few things at a time would be tedious. There were games that had things like backpacks and inventory management, but in an exploration game like Genshin or something like Skyrim, managing your inventory and carry weight would get old real fast.

Of course, there was still carry weight in Skyrim, but it was very unrealistic. Who could actually carry a bunch of weapons and armor and ingots and many other things like that? No normal human with a basic backpack, that’s who. So, a lot of games either hand-waved away that particular oversight or they came up with an in-universe reason for it like a pocket dimension for storing equipment, or a bag with more space on the inside like the Tardis.

So, since they could disappear their swords, maybe they had an inventory space too.

{How else are we going to grind all those artifacts?}

Oh god. Oh god, the tedium of grinding for all of those things. Artifacts, exp books, ascension materials.

{Oh my.}

Matt groaned inwardly. He hated going through the repetitive motions of entering domains again and again and again until he used up all his resin. That very nearly killed his enthusiasm for the game.

{Not to mention the gacha banners. We could probably have paid off our mortgage if we were free to play.}

Oh god. How was that going to work? Wishing for characters didn’t sound very canon.

{Yeah, it would probably weird people out if there were two Jeans in the room together. Maybe this world will lean more towards canon versions of things. Kind of like how the world has been more realistic in terms of distances. It took us two days to get here, and we haven’t even seen a teleport way-point.}

That was a good point. Maybe they wouldn’t have to grind like in a game for levels and talents. Maybe there wasn’t even a world level either. One could only hope that things remained simple like that. But then, where does that leave them with inventory?

{Maybe... we should wait until we find another fruit tree? Maybe test things on an apple?}

Yeah, that was pretty much all they could do. They could try and make an apple disappear with the same process they used to bring their swords out. Alright, they would shelve the idea until then.

Instead, they brought their focus to the girl in front of them. She was walking along with her hands clasped behind her back. She was watching the waves and seemed deep in thought. Matt could feel his wife stare at her butt in that somewhat formfitting unitard. It was tight enough around the butt to show off the attractive feminine curves. Unfortunately, her starry cape swayed back and forth in front of her derriere.

Still, her thighs were visible. Slim for the most part, and sexy. Both he and his wife imagined licking those legs like a pair of dogs. Their perversions matched when it came to legs. In fact, they bonded over thighs before they started dating.

He tightened the hand holding hers and he could feel her love pass through the bond. Who knew that being perverted could feel this romantic.

They walked like that for a time. In silence for the most part. The sounds from the water hitting land got loud at times, making chatter a little difficult. They did talk every now and then, though. Paimon would turn around and walk backwards or float to say something or ask a question.

All this to say that the beach was pretty long. Long and deserted. They could see the end some distance up the coast and what looked like a pathway that inclined up from sea level. That was some distance away yet.

Matt wondered if they would see the teleport way-point at the end of this sandy trek. Or if they were completely absent from this version of the world. They would eventually find out. After more walking.

---

They made it to the end and stepped up out of the sand dunes and into the mouth of an opening in the cliff. There was a sloping incline that looked similar to the one from the game. But what really had their eye, both Aether and Lumine, was the strange pedestal looking statue that was placed off to the side of the path.

Aether eyed it with anticipation.

As the trio approached the path leading away from the beach, Paimon seemed to just ignore it as if it wasn’t there.

“What’s that?” Lumine asked.

“Hm?” Paimon turned to her.

“That statue thing?” Lumine pointed.

Paimon followed her pointing finger and looked over towards the stone thingy.

“Oh. That thing... um... I’m not sure really. There’s lots of them in the world, but I thought they were just some sort of markers or whatever. You know, to measure distance?” She shrugged after posing that theory.

{A game theory! Thanks for watching!}

Aether mentally rolled his eyes.

“Let's take a look at it.” He suggested. He took a few steps towards it.

“Sure.” Paimon readily agreed. She and Lumine followed. “They never really seemed interesting to me though.”

“Do the people not wonder what they are?” His wife asked her.

“Well, there’s lots of ruins scattered around. Everyone probably just thinks they’re related somehow.”

They got closer and the married couple could see the iconic gold and red design of a deactivated way-point. If things worked according to the game, then they knew what would happen if they touched these way-points.

The three approached and observed the small monument. Aether immediately recognized the three-point Celtic knot at the base. Paimon’s outfit had the same symbol on the chest. Another clue towards Paimon’s origins.

There was a red crystal sitting in a golden crown fixed onto a stone cylinder. That cylinder fed into another red crystal shaped like a tear drop with a gold fixture that bound it to the stone base. There was a faint red glow coming from the red tear drop as if there was some sort of energy inside.

Aether stepped closer and reached out to touch the metal crown that also looked a little like a trident from his vantage point. His hand made contact and Aether felt an odd... movement. Almost like a machine clunking feeling, but from inside his chest. At the same time the color of the crystal changed from red to blue and the dormant energy from inside seemed to spill up and out. He noted how the device didn’t float like in the game though.

{Wait, it’s still red for me. How are you seeing something different?}

Aether looked at his wife with confusion. The image she was seeing was still indeed red and she could see through his eyes that it had changed to blue for him. That was bizarre.

Lumine decided to touch it next and felt the same clunk in her chest that he had. The red turned to blue for her as well.

“Interesting...” She muttered.

“Is it though?” Paimon asked with some skepticism.

“You try touching it. It feels oddly warm.” Lumine tried to convince her. Maybe it would work for her too.

“Okay...” She stepped forward and touched the way-point. A moment later she jumped back in shock. “Aaahh?!”

She stared at the device with wide eyes.

“What’s it doing?!”

“Did it change color for you?” Aether asked calmly.

Paimon looked at him strangely. “Yeah! Don’t you see it?”

“The color changed for me when I touched it, but it didn’t change for you until just now, right?” He continued to ask calmly. Paimon seemed to take his even tone as a reason to calm herself, but she still looked confused.

She glanced at Lumine and found her nodding along.

“It’s... it’s never done that before.” Paimon told them. “I touched one before and it never did this.”

“Interesting. They never reacted like this to others until now?” Aether probed. “We’re the first ones?”

“Um, as far as I know.” Paimon looked at the way-point with a frown.

“Quite the mystery.” Lumine nodded sagely with her fists on hips. “Maybe we should touch every single one we find.”

“Why?” Paimon asked.

“Maybe they lead to treasure?”

“Treasure?!” The fairy girl exclaimed with wide eyes.

Of course, treasure would get her attention. That and food.

{That’s our Paimon.}

“Alright then, I know where a bunch of them are. In Mondstadt, and in Liyue.” The fairy girl said with enthusiasm. She seemed really motivated to look for them now, which suited them just fine.

“Lead the way then, Paimon.” Aether said.

“Leave it to me!”

---

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