The dancing of the flames within the crackling fire was transfixing. It was perfect for letting his mind wander up and away from the world, away from his inevitable conversation with Deuel. The fire seemed to stretch and bend just like his thoughts, clawing towards the heavens whose twinkling stars grew closer and closer before reaching down to match. It wasn't a particularly unusual sight, though it was unusual that he was seeing it when he had gotten plenty of sleep last night. He took another long drink of his Red Bull as the fingers of the fire and the stars interlocked, forming a fiery gate to hell that seemed to shamble forward, bending and twisting from its position on the campfire and in the heavens. It reached towards him, blurred around him, enveloped him in its warmth, until it had engulfed him completely.
The hallucination then got brighter and brighter, bright enough to sear his eyes, and he shut them, only for the brightness to burn through his thin human eyelids. He blocked out the light with his hands, but it did nothing to shut out the light. This wasn't just a hallucination, though what it could possibly be, he couldn't fathom. Then, all at once, the light was gone, and he blinked his eyes open to find himself in a forest with all of his friends.
“Uh… Is everyone ok? And… what just happened?”
"We are in a forest. With magical creatures."
Deuel seems to assume they've been isekai'd, and while the hallucinogenic fever dream immediately preceding their arrival here does lend credence to his theory, it's not exactly a theory grounded in reality. Then again, what else could it be? Mildly hallucinogenic knockout gas followed by an aborted abduction doesn't explain why they all arrived perfectly alert without any memories of the interim, and he can't think of a better mundane explanation. Already entering the realm of fantasy, spatial dislocation would explain it, but does not necessitate ending up in another world. He supposes Deuel didn't specify that they did, and the man's a bit of a dandy, so he could just be assuming based on the popular trope. In that case, there should be botanical and/or zoological differences to be found to prove the hypothesis, though he's never bothered devoting time to learning about the subtle differences in different arboreal species and there weren't any obviously extraterrestrial insects buzzing about; just some perfectly normal-looking black ants. Perhaps they could find differences in the constellations? He memorized enough of them for navigation (part of his excessive research on wilderness survival) and would be able to tell the difference. Even with no astronomical knowledge, the others might be able to just because they were looking up at them before they arrived, except it's the middle of the day now, and even if it's a fantasy world, it could just as easily be a parallel Earth. For that matter, they are just as likely to have been displaced in time, though seeing as how they're in a forest, the future is less likely than the past, which would match with typical medieval isekai settings. Whether back in time or in another world, it would likely fall on them to bring technological progress back, and until then, they'd have no access to modern conveniences like-
Like caffeine.
No caffeine.
In the entire world, possibly. Different plants means no guarantee of coffee or cocoa or guarana or whatever the fuck and there's no guarantee this world has any replacements. He could try synthesizing caffeine, but he can't remember the chemicals involved, much less the steps. He thinks Theobromine is involved somehow? It's not nearly enough to work off of, and he can't imagine spending weeks, much less months or
years raw dogging life without it.
He's got a hand on his forehead, trying to keep from freaking out, because there's still hope - they could just be in another time or place, but then Deuel pulls him out of his thoughts with a question.
"Niles, are you okay? I hope you don't think I'm presuming, but are you worried about your parents?"
No, Deuel. He almost laughs, because his parents were probably the farthest thing from his mind before now. Shame to have wasted their 18 years of investment with a sudden disappearance-
"If so, there's a nonzero chance that time here might be out of sync with time on earth and we can come back at the same time we left. But if not, well, we can just say that we got kidnapped or something when we do come back, and if we all get our stories straight, they'll believe us. Either way, let's both focus on surviving this situation, okay?"
At that, Niles does let out a laugh, though when Deuel gives him a questioning look, he simply shakes his head, saying,
"it's nothing."His parents will assume he left without warning. Will likely find a replacement to pass the company onto - maybe adopt if they really want to keep it in the family, though he's not sure how much they care about that as long as they stay on the company's payroll. He has a month or two before his parents realize he's gone, maybe 3 months given their big business trip in Tokyo, but they will probably seek him out before their next trip given his college plans and his lack of response if they text or call in the interim. He's 18, so by all likelihood they'll assume he just ran away, and since it's within his right to, when they can't find him, they'll probably just give up. They'll probably move on, thinking that he hates them.
That's his time limit.
Soon, a motherfucking talking Ermine arrives to
properly introduce them to the situation, seemingly confirming the isekai theory.
"You see, your friend is the Chosen One and you guys have been tasked with serving as his 'adventuring party' to save our world under our leadership!"
Ah.
Hah.
He decides to slip away behind the surrounding trees as the others, especially Deuel, are distracted by Deuel's transformation.
He walks away slowly, at first, because he doesn't want to make noise that could draw the attention of the others, but once some distance has been made, he picks up speed until he's running. No, until he's sprinting - as fast and as far away as he can manage.
Adventuring party of the chosen one? What a joke. Him? Right before he's about to step all over
the chosen one's feelings? Might as well destroy the whole damn planet now. The overlap between their respective skillsets makes him easily the least useful to Deuel anyway. He's not sure about the others, but Deuel could easily spark a technological revolution with or without him. From a purely practical, cost-benefit analysis standpoint, he's nothing but a detriment, and any clerical, moral or practical support he could offer after the fact pales in comparison to the damage he could do to them all as a group.
A darker thought occur to him - that they're all dancing to the tune of some kind of cosmic narrative, and that his role in the story is either as Deuel's designated love interest or perhaps his tragic motivator. A living, breathing, Death by Origin Story trope, or perhaps it's the I Let Gwen Stacy Die trope. Would depend on how long he actually goes on living, he supposes - a funny thought to have while tumbling down a steep hill after tripping on an exposed wooden tree root.
He doesn't think he's particularly hurt by the time he reaches the bottom, not that he cares to devote much attention to such things, given his swirling thoughts, but he does find himself just laying there, on the ground, covered in dirt and small bruises, thinking. Even within the framework of a narrative, there can be no offscreen happily ever after with him, and he's not willing to take that away from Deuel. It feels selfish to even entertain the idea of getting to that point, because what divine fucking neanderthal thinks they have the providence to use him to manipulate Deuel's love life? Any of their love lives? 'Designated love interests' and any divine being that insists on them can kiss his ass, just the same as anyone who tries to tell him its his fate to die just so Deuel and the others can have some cliché 'You did everything you could', 'I should have been better' bullshit.
It was a pointless mental tangent anyway. At worst, isekai tropes tend to include prophecies, not entire meta narratives. Still, rejecting it clears his head enough to notice an approaching worm of some sort, emerging from the ground near him.
He gets up, trying to avoid letting the slimy blind creature touch him, only to realize that, upon closer inspection, it's not covered in slime. In fact, it seems to be covered in small scales, and, looking more closely, he could see the occasional flick of a forked tongue out of an extremely round face.
He's seen these before - it's a blind snake, though he's never seen one quite as large as this. He extends a hand, gently, to pick the creature up. The differences in this world's fauna kind of pale in comparison to a talking stoat directly stating that they've crossed worlds, in terms of confirmation of their situation, but sue him, it's an novel animal and he's curious.
He feels a gentle surge of sorts when he touches the snake, though he couldn't say what of. It felt like getting zapped, except harmlessly, and the snake doesn't seem spooked, unlike how he might expect an earthen blind snake to be. Soon it's nuzzling into his hand, slithering up and around his palm, and it allows him to lift it up for closer inspection.
It occurs to him that a snake in a fantasy world might be more dangerous than its earthen equivalent, though from its relative diminutiveness, he can't imagine it to pose much of a threat, even if it had venom. (blind snakes don't) It seemed to have the same jaw as a blind snake, which couldn't open absurdly wide like bigger snakes, and was likely indicative of a lack of fangs. Blind snakes wouldn't even be able to penetrate human skin with their teeth, and this one seemed no different. The little thing only got more adorable the closer he looked at it, as it seemed to hide its face shyly - behind his own hand, as he focused his attention on it.
He resumes his walk, snake coiling around his hand, as he idly tries to puzzle out what he felt earlier. The sensation was muted now, but still there, like a beautiful song playing off in the distance. He tries to focus on the music, to reach out to it, and it responds, flowing into and around him, wrapping him up within it until he finds himself standing there, in the middle of the forest, wearing an ornate brown and gold outfit. Distantly, he recognizes that he's just undergone much the same transformation Deuel had, and while it casts doubt on the stoat's claims, it doesn't change that such a transformation is indicative of the fantastical. They were therefore brought here for some type of purpose, perhaps even a prophecy, and he neither had the desire to go along with such things nor thought his presence would benefit the pursuit of such goals anyway. He could perhaps help from the sidelines in the future, if needed, but going back to have that delayed conversation with Deuel is the last thing he wants right now.
Instead, he turns his attention to his new abilities - He can feel the Earth's thrum beneath him, around him, and before he knows it, he finds himself inadvertently sinking into grass-hardened dirt as if it were memory foam. Comfy, but... ugh, dirt.
Then, a thought occurs to him. He stands up straight, and directs his newfound power against his senses. Every speck of dirt, every small stain on his clothes, both old and magically new, lights up like beacons before him, and with a hesitant, tentative thought, he finds himself able to pull the stuff off of him like a god damn psychic. After a little exploratory fooling around, he finds he now has telekinetic control over dirt, stone, and even the metal that makes up his phone. An attempt at technomancy would have to wait until he had something more expendable to work with, but gaining fancy magic powers is nothing short of exhilarating.
He tries to do some minor limit testing - taking the dirt and crushing it together into a sedimentary rock. Shooting the rock at a nearby tree. (and not getting hit by it as it ricochets off) Then he tries to extend his tremor sense outward, only to notice that there's some kind of structure nearby. His friends don't seem to be in range, and it doesn't seem like civilization anyway. Curious, he decides to make his way towards it.
