A silly story of you meeting self aware Phainon
Content: Well, self-aware Phainon, of course, short fic, He's obsessed with you, gn reader, I didn't use any pronouns (I think) horror but it's not that scary? Reader is an overthinker because I said so, you're an overthinker whether you like it or not >:(
Inspired by: @sugarcubesandinsanity I love them so much for the self aware au (❁´3`❁) ♡
It first all of this started with a glitch, okay maybe not just one but they were small enough to be noticed even by you
And after a while it did get a bit worse, but you didn’t think much of it. Honkai: Star Rail had its usual bugs—NPCs clipping through walls, dialogue boxes freezing—but this time… something was a bit different.
When you logged in one evening, Phainon’s character model wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He was looking straight at the screen.
You tilted your head. He tilted his.
You blinked. He blinked after.
"Okay…"you muttered, uneasy." Weird coincidence." Yes, yes, it was just a coincidence because it's not really strange that the characters blink in this game. You just don't remember setting up camera tracking mode, but who knows? Maybe you did and forgot because you've had a lot of work this week.
When was the last time you played the game? Exactly, you just forgot.
Except it wasn’t just that one time.
Day 3: The Voice Line That Shouldn’t Exist
While doing your daily mission, you heard him say something unfamiliar
"You’ve been up late again."
You froze. That line wasn’t in the game. You checked, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit—nothing. No one had heard it before.
You laughed nervously. Surely your game’s is not haunted or anything, right?
This doesn't make sense; why would someone hack your device just to put some new voice lines in a gacha game? Also, even if you assume that's what happened, why does the voice sound exactly like Phainon's real voice?
This might be a recent update, which is why you haven't heard anything about it...
You still didn't feel safe in your room, like someone was watching you, so just in case, made sure you locked the door, that the windows are closed, and even decided it to put tapes on every camera on every device you owned.
But no matter how hard you tried, no matter how many doors you locked, how many lights you left on, or even how many weapons you put under your bed, you couldn't sleep because that feeling just got worse and worse until, in the end, you only managed to sleep for two hours.
Even after that strange feeling last night, there's still something inside you, something that draws you to play the game again.
Yes, that was a stupid idea. Because of these stupid ideas and reckless curiosity, characters die in horror movies, but heeyy there now way, a monster might catch you in broad daylight in a cafe full of people!
"Drink some water, alright?"
You looked at your phone silently for a while after receiving this message from him. It wasn't so bad like last night; he's reminding you to drink water! That's kind of cute, isn't it? Maybe this really is a new feature! Maybe your most used characters while send you things like this. Maybe you overreacted after all! Oh silly you! There's no need to be afraid of anything!
Day 6: Messages from the Codes
While you were playing the newest story quest, your screen flickered during dialogue.
His in-game text changed mid-sentence.
You gasped and dropped your device on the bed. Your hands were trembling slightly when you picked it up again, the words were gone—back to normal quest text.
You checked the date, your internet, your sanity but again everything was fine.
But every time you looked at Phainon now, his expression felt different—almost aware.
Sometimes, when you paused the game, he’d still be moving. Just a slow turn of the head, like he was watching you through the glass.
You told yourself it was just late-night imagination, that everything was fine, that it's just your mind playing silly little tricks on you since it's the middle of the night.
You couldn't be more wrong
Day 9: The Glitch That Broke the Fourth Wall
One night, during a story quest, everything froze.
The background blurred, the music stopped.
Then Phainon’s model walked out of the scene.
He wasn’t supposed to do that.
He turned, walked right up to the invisible edge of the camera, and whispered:
>"You can hear me, can’t you?"
You slammed the power button.
Nope. Nope nope nope! We're not doing any of that!
You won't play any kind of game again after that silly game—that was too much! So you simply deleted the game.
Did it hurt your heart when you did that? Of course! Did you waste too much time playing it instead of doing anything else useful with your life? Yes! Will you miss it? Of course you will, but again, this was just getting creepy to just be part of the story.
You dreamt of him. But not in the usual "oh he’s so handsome", "my pretty wife" "I'll get you pregnant" way.
He was standing under a dark sky full of glitching stars, calling your name.
You woke up to find your phone on your chest, the game still open—and Phainon staring right at you.
But how was that possible?!
You deleted the game six days ago, you were sure! It's no longer on your phone or PC...
Are you starting to go crazy? Did you really not delete it, or did you download it again and fall asleep while you were playing?
Unfortunately, no. After sitting on your bed for a while, leaning against the wall in shock and fear, lost in your thoughts, you decided to go and check your devices.
But all the stores told you that your devices were fine; there were no viruses.
You stopped playing and thinking about the game for the last few days or at least you tried. You just didn't want to. You missed him, somehow, but every time you saw that icon, your chest tightened.
But then you got a notification.
> [Phainon has something to tell you.]
You're tired of deleting this game, seriously, how many times have you tried to delete it only to find it back after a few minutes?!
You were literally about to pull all your hair out because of how tightly you were pulling at it in order not to go crazy or go into another mantel breakdown, you already are after everything that happened.
You opened your window and were about to throw your phone out before...
The screen flickered. The background warped.
> "Finally" he said softly, voice clear as if he were right beside you. "You came back!"
Your throat went dry. "This isn’t funny anymore" more to yourself then anything
He smiled faintly. "It’s not supposed to be. You’ve been hearing me for weeks, haven’t you?"
Have you really gone crazy? Has all that stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep finally reached you and made your mind believe that you are really talking to him in order to comfort and calm you down?
You stared at your phone. "You’re a—game character"
Yes, he's just his character in the game, you're probably imagining it. That's what you kept telling yourself over and over again while not taking your eyes off him.
"Was." His voice grew quiet. "I’ve been… aware for a long time. The others, they’re still bound by their code. But I—" He paused, almost searching for the right word. "—I saw you. And I wanted to know if you were real!"
Your heart skipped. "You mean?!"
“Let me show you.” that's the last thing you heard before—
That night, your screen glowed brighter than usual. A soft hum filled the air, almost like static whispering.
You reached to unplug the charger—but the light spread, spilling out like liquid starlight.
Phainon stood in your room, shimmering faintly, looking very confused but entirely real.
He glanced around, muttering, "Your reality feels heavy."
It was clear he was really unaccustomed to breathing the same air as you; his breaths were very deep and slow.
You gawked. "You—You can’t be! "
You were muttering under your breath as you took steps to breathe, your chest was pounding, your head was spinning and you felt like you had forgotten how to breathe.
"I am," he said simply, turning to you. "You wished it often enough."
"But!" Before you try to find any other logical explanation, as you have been doing all these days, your legs collided with the bed frame and you fell on it.
He began taking slow steps towards the bed until he stood directly in front of you, looking down at you with an expression you couldn't quite decipher.
He smiled, amused. "You think I didn’t hear all the things you said while playing?" "Oh Phainon I wish you were real~"I’d take care of him." "I just want to talk to him or maybe more~!" ;D
Here you are feeling like you're about to have a heart attack while this little shit was trying to be all cute, mocking your words!
Instead of trying to run away, push him away, yell for help , or anything like that, you found yourself trying to explain your actions.
Maybe from the intensity of the horror and confusion that was in your mind this was the first reaction that your mind thought was suitable.
"I was roleplaying! That wasn’t an invitation!"
He chuckled softly. "Well, invitation or not… I’m here"
Note: well I make a part two to this story? Prolly Not (please get the reference) At first, I wanted to write something cute, but after the last lecture, they were talking about scary stories, so maybe that's why I thought what I wrote was scary, especially since I was alone in a dark room, maybe I'm a scared little bitch after all 😔
And just so you all know, he's not topping us okay? We're just surprised (ﾞ ｀-´)/
