“Akah, can you help me with something?”
Normally, either Tahvra or one of Kal would be the ones to ask Akah for assistance. For Litvir to have come out of his cave, asking Akah of all people for help, well, something had to be going on.
And, really, Litvir’s personal quarters were a bit of a cave. It was always dark in there, the curtains were always shut and Litvir’s bed was never, ever made. Despite the fact that Litvir slept in Retvik’s bed about 50% of the time. As Akah made his way to Litvir’s room and peered inside, he noticed that Litvir was using his big computer, rather than the sleek, translucent plexi-tablet that he used for work.
“Of course, how can I help?”
Realizing that his room was rather dark, Litvir turned the light on. There wasn’t much point opening the curtain since it was technically always dark outside. The main Thantir base was properly lit up at all times, but some areas were allowed to be left in darkness for mood and sanity reasons. Litvir then led Akah inside and sat down at his desk.
“You are good at video games, yes?”
Akah glanced at Litvir’s computer screen, then nodded.
“Apparently I am, yes! Tenuk and I are considered the better video game players here. Something to do with the way we process things and the layout of our hands. Why do you ask?”
Litvir grunted, then turned to his computer. He hit the ESC button on the keyboard and tutted.
“I need some assistance in completing this mission. I have been stuck on this specific jump for ten minutes, I am getting frustrated and I do not want to quit the game because then I would have to start this damn mission again. Can you help me?”
“Sure, but I… I don’t know what game you are playing. I’ll need to play with the controls first.”
Litvir got up and awkwardly moved over so Akah could sit down. He then started showing Akah the controls. It was a simple WASD game with mouse-aim, but Akah could see why Litvir was struggling. Litvir kinda didn’t have enough fingers. While he had rebound the crouch button to a button on the side of the mouse, Litvir couldn’t use the WASD keys to move, while also being able to hit Crouch, Roll and Jump at the same time.
After briefly fiddling around with everything and getting a feel of the controls, Akah turned to Litvir.
“So, before I try this, what happens if I fall down the pit?”
“You get reset to the nearest on-ground position and lose your buffs. In this case, I will have to re-apply my healing aura and my armour buff. But I suppose I can do that after we have cleared this gap.”
Akah shrugged, then fiddled with the controls some more, before turning his attention to the in-game surroundings. The location seemed to be within some sort of strange, floating city, with orange gas clouds below, and the gap Litvir’s strange, paladin-like character needed to cross was pretty darn large.
“If you crouch, then jump, you do a long distance ‘bullet jump’. You can then do a second ‘double jump’ and roll. But that does not seem to be enough to cross this gap. There is also a wall jump mechanic, but I tried that and the walls have bumps on them that push me off.”
After some more fiddling around, Akah did some practice jumps up towards the nearby wall. The ‘bullet jump’ seemed to travel in whatever direction Akah was aiming. However, Akah noticed something else as he accidentally hit right-click while in mid-air. He would hover. For an odd amount of time.
“Hm…”
Once Akah was happy with the controls, he turned his attention to the gap, looking for where he needed to go, a platform marked with a small, green icon. Unlike Litvir, Akah could reach every button without having to take his fingers off the WASD keys. But Akah was pretty certain he didn’t need to. Litvir was just unaware of a specific mechanic.
In a swift, single movement, Akah hit the sprint key, then used a bullet jump, followed by a double jump. However, Akah then held the right-click button on the mouse, and the character seemed to glide somewhat, towards the platform. At the end of the glide, Akah then hit the roll key and landed gracefully on the platform at the other end of the chasm.
“How in the name of the Light did you do that?” Litvir hissed. “I have been stuck on this stupid gap for ages!”
Akah shrugged some more. “If you hold right-click while airborne, you do what I assume is called an aim-glide.”
“Ugh… This fucking game and not telling me important movement mechanics… I have no idea why Arkay likes this thing so much…” Litvir calmed down somewhat. “Well, since you got across that gap, you might as well finish the mission…”
The Lanex smiled to himself, then cheerfully did as requested. There were quite a few enemies, but the weapon Litvir’s character had equipped, some sort of single-shot sniper rifle, seemed to take them all out with a headshot with ease. He did take a lot of damage, but Akah quickly noticed that his shields regenerated. Litvir also informed him that his character, which was apparently called Oberon (a name that somewhat bothered Akah) had a healing ability that could be toggled on and off whenever he pressed the 3 key.
Akah finished the mission somewhat quickly, and he very much enjoyed himself.
“That was fun! What is this game called so I can play it? Also, do you know why your character is called Oberon? Because, in ancient Lanex folklore, Oberon was a hideous Lanex warlord who worked for the Anexartitai and enslaved many of our kin.”
Litvir eyed Akah. “I do not think that is why that character is called Oberon, it is probably some reference to the thrope-like entities that made this game. I do not normally use it anyway, I much prefer my original character, my Excalibur. The game is called Warframe by the way, but literally everyone I have met calls it Space Ninjas.”
Akah played around with the controls some more. Oddly, Litvir’s gear was all coloured blue and orange, with silver highlights.
“Do you, uh, enjoy this game?” Akah asked.
“Somewhat. I enjoy the shooting, but I find the mobility a bit too much. I mostly just log in to the game occasionally to play with Arkay, but…” Litvir trailed off, then sighed and rubbed his eyes.
“Is… is something wrong?”
Litvir nodded. “I got a message from my dear brother Kuta earlier. Arkay has… disappeared again, with bonus memory removal. I was hoping to catch Arkay and speak to him, but he has not been online for a while…” Litvir took back the controls, then opened up the pause menu and navigated to a friends list. On it were only a handful of people, and Litvir opened up Arkay’s profile. Clearly, the old Thantophor was a dedicated player.
“Uh, is Arkay’s character normally that colour? Also, what is that obvious Thrope thing?”
Litvir blinked several times. Arkay’s character was the familiar electric Warframe he always used, but he had clearly customized it to look like Litvir, in purple and silver and with a long, flowing cape, rather than himself. “Uh… no…”
Akah thought to himself for a moment. “Well, since this is clearly making you a little upset and you clearly don’t enjoy the game, I could, like, play the game? I’ll make a new account, add you and Arkay as friends and keep an eye out and let you know when Arkay is online? Plus, this game looks like tons of fun to me. I love fast-paced shooters!”
“You would do that?”
“Of course. I’ve been looking for a new game to play anyway. How much does this one cost?”
“It is free.”
“Oh. Huh…” Akah paused, then smiled some more. “Even better. Is there an ice character?”
Litvir shrugged. “Maybe? I admittedly have not gotten very far. This new planet with its stupidly large gaps has been giving me troubles. Perhaps you will get further, and maybe even get to the same level Arkay is at. He has completed most of the game. Anyway, thank you for your assistance.”
“No worries, sir!” Akah grinned. “I am going to go and install this game right away. Have a nice day!”
“Enjoy…” Litvir frowned as Akah got up and left. With a sigh, Litvir decided to shut the game down and go and do something else for a bit.