So, what misadventures was Victor having while everyone else was awakening supernatural abilities that go beyond human comprehension? For the starters, he was doing his best to not get caught and kiss any hope of having an academic career and social life goodbye. There he was, almost butt naked with his modesty saved by his swim trunks and dripping wet from what he assumed to be the spring water he was slammed into or the primordial darkness that he had just been floating in. Every single nerve in his body screamed at him to go back to his room, to just let this night end and put whatever that hell was behind him, but he couldn't. He needed some bloody answers for that tropical flavored nightmare.
Actually, there were many reasons as to why he had to go back to the dock. First off, his wallet with his student ID was in pants and if they died then Victor was going to be suspect for a kidnapping, murder, or God knows what if they did not find their way off the island. He could not tell them what happened and even if he did, no one would believe him because even he did not believe it and he was the one who went through it. 'Yes officer, we jumped in the water and went through some primordial soup and ended up on an island to be attacked by some multi-eyed, winged hell frog.' They would have declared him insane, and he would have to live with the guilt that he was the only one who survived by sheer dumb luck.
He needed to figure out what happened, how he was able to leave that other world, and if possible, get back there and tell his schoolmates how to escape if they were not already dead. First, however, he needed to get off the school grounds proper and get back to the docks.
Water dripped down his body, leaving a wet trail behind him as he walked through the school corridors. Thankfully there was no one on the second floor of the school building at the same, so he made his way down to the ground floor and it was just a straight shot to get the exit, until he stumbled upon his first obstacle. Before Victor could turn the corner, he peeked his head past it and saw it was some kid stumbling around struggling to hold a quite large tuba case as they walked quickly as they could. They were probably late, and it looked like they were doing their best to keep their grasp on it and it was partially blocking their field of view.
Right, there was a music club at this time. Some of his classmates in the Arts Track joined it and he recalled talking to some of them about it. It was unlucky that he came across another person, but it wasn't a problem. One upside of being barefoot is that no one could hear his steps. So, Victor stealthily and carefully walked on the side where the tuba player's vision was obscured and even if they noticed, it would have been too late because he already gone.
Victor sighed a breath of relief as he finally made it outside the building though the real challenge had only just begun. Immediately, he made for a mad dash for the closest thing to hide behind, the bushes in this case, and surveyed his surroundings. This was where obstacle two reared its head. Peeking from the bushes Victor saw the groundskeeper preserving and maintain the beauty of the school campus with quite the funky enthusiasm. As they swept, it looked like they were moving to the rhythm.
"You'll never see it coming," the groundskeeper sung to themself. They were wearing headphones!
Taking advantage of that, Victor crept as quickly as he could whenever the groundskeeper was not looking his way to find new cover. It was a delicate balance where he could not make sudden movements that would be caught out of their peripheral vision, nor could he be so slow that if he took too much time then he would be caught. However, just as Victor was ducking behind a tree he noticed that the groundskeeper turned around at the last second and caught a glimpse of him and made their way over to investigate.
Victor in his panic looked around to see where he could hide, but there wasn't. It was either make a mad dash or get caught. That was until he looked up at the tree and a thought occurred.
The groundskeeper was perplexed; they could have sworn they saw someone not wearing their uniform, or anything at all for that matter, around the tree. They circled around it, but there was nothing. That was because up above him was Victor holding onto for dear life on tree branch, his legs and arms hooked around it like a Koala clinging to its mother.
I am a tree, I am a tree, I am a tree, I am a tree, was the mantra that he kept repeating to himself over and over again in his mind. Victor could feel the droplets of water gather at the tips of his hair just ready to drip down. I am a dry tree, I am a dry tree!
A droplet of water fell from Victor's head and narrowly just missed the groundskeeper. They eventually just shrugged and walked away, chalking it up to their imagination.
Victor sighed heavily with relief and dropped himself back onto the ground, landing on his feet. There was no other incident with the groundskeeper as he made his way through the grounds. Eventually, he lost sight of them. He was only going by memory at this point, but he thought that he was getting closer to the path that led to the docks.
If it were not for the risk of being charged for public indecency and having to avoid being seen by the school populace, this would have been a relaxing walk. However, this was not a relaxing walk. He could hear obstacle number three coming his way, a bunch of high school girls with smartphones. Forget being caught by tuba kid or the groundskeeper, if he was caught in 4k by them then his life would have been completely over. Victor did not need his photos plastered on social media that way!
Without thinking, he dove behind a tree that was between him and the four social executioners. Thankfully, it was dark out, so they did not notice him peeking to keep track of their movement while there were still lights that lit up areas. It should have been simple; he should have been able to wait it out for them to leave. He shifted his position to get a better view when he heard a loud CRACK. His eyes shifted down and saw that he had stepped on a branch, which he broke. Fuck.
"What was that?"
Victor heard one of the girls ask. He could hear their footsteps walk towards his way. His eyes widened in panic as he thought of every way of trying to explain his way out of the situation, every excuse, every bargaining chip, but he realized that none of that would save his skin when the majority of the students here had everything they could ever want. It was all social currency, and he was about to go bankrupt if he could not figure a way out of the situation. Then inspiration struck.
He began to make very audible sounds of a couple making out, which made the footsteps stop. He needed to sell it so, to make it somehow more convincing he pulled out the strongest, sultry Valley Girl impersonation possible and moaned out the first name that he could think of, "Oh Daniel~" This was then followed by more passionate kissing sounds.
He kept up the noises for the awkwardly long amount of time it would take when he heard 'Oh Daniel' not from him, but from one of the girl's phones and giggling as they finally walked away. Victor's face flushed red, and he curled up against the tree doing his best to not groan in embarrassment. Was him moaning Daniel's name going to be all over every student's social media account? Very likely. Was Daniel going to find out about it? Also yes, but goddamn was he convincing.
Finally, after all that time, Victor finally made it to the path that led down to the docks. Remember when being barefoot helped? He took that back. The damn path was covered in rocks and they sure loved to remind him that he did not have his bloody shoes on. Every step his took was as delicate as he could so he would not have shredded meat for feet.
Eventually, he did find his way down the switchback and arrived at the docks. He found everyone's clothes miraculously still there and not in the water after the freak accident with Maeve. At this point, he had already dried out save for his slightly damp swim trunks, so he just put his uniform back on.
"Fully clothed at last," Victor said to himself as he straightened his clothes. He dusted himself off and then began his investigation. He walked around the dock, trying to find anything completely out of the ordinary. Besides the clothes strewn about, there was nothing.
Was there really nothing? Did all of this happen just like that like they won the cosmic lottery of being royally screwed over? Victor craned his neck up to the night sky and sighed exasperatedly when he saw something impossible. His eyes widened and a familiar cold sensation ran down his spine. Lit by the pale moonlight was a man with white hair and a blue valet uniform standing on cliff tops looking down at the water.
A boiling sensation brewed in him, a volatile rage that bubbled forth. His teeth gnashed and his breathing became shallow and more rapid. "Hey, hey you!" Victor shouted as loud as he could, not caring if he would be caught anymore. He continued to shout with that vitriol, "I've seen you before and you've seen me! Who in the fresh hell are you and what the hell is going on?! Talk to me goddammit!"
Actually, there were many reasons as to why he had to go back to the dock. First off, his wallet with his student ID was in pants and if they died then Victor was going to be suspect for a kidnapping, murder, or God knows what if they did not find their way off the island. He could not tell them what happened and even if he did, no one would believe him because even he did not believe it and he was the one who went through it. 'Yes officer, we jumped in the water and went through some primordial soup and ended up on an island to be attacked by some multi-eyed, winged hell frog.' They would have declared him insane, and he would have to live with the guilt that he was the only one who survived by sheer dumb luck.
He needed to figure out what happened, how he was able to leave that other world, and if possible, get back there and tell his schoolmates how to escape if they were not already dead. First, however, he needed to get off the school grounds proper and get back to the docks.
Water dripped down his body, leaving a wet trail behind him as he walked through the school corridors. Thankfully there was no one on the second floor of the school building at the same, so he made his way down to the ground floor and it was just a straight shot to get the exit, until he stumbled upon his first obstacle. Before Victor could turn the corner, he peeked his head past it and saw it was some kid stumbling around struggling to hold a quite large tuba case as they walked quickly as they could. They were probably late, and it looked like they were doing their best to keep their grasp on it and it was partially blocking their field of view.
Right, there was a music club at this time. Some of his classmates in the Arts Track joined it and he recalled talking to some of them about it. It was unlucky that he came across another person, but it wasn't a problem. One upside of being barefoot is that no one could hear his steps. So, Victor stealthily and carefully walked on the side where the tuba player's vision was obscured and even if they noticed, it would have been too late because he already gone.
Victor sighed a breath of relief as he finally made it outside the building though the real challenge had only just begun. Immediately, he made for a mad dash for the closest thing to hide behind, the bushes in this case, and surveyed his surroundings. This was where obstacle two reared its head. Peeking from the bushes Victor saw the groundskeeper preserving and maintain the beauty of the school campus with quite the funky enthusiasm. As they swept, it looked like they were moving to the rhythm.
"You'll never see it coming," the groundskeeper sung to themself. They were wearing headphones!
Taking advantage of that, Victor crept as quickly as he could whenever the groundskeeper was not looking his way to find new cover. It was a delicate balance where he could not make sudden movements that would be caught out of their peripheral vision, nor could he be so slow that if he took too much time then he would be caught. However, just as Victor was ducking behind a tree he noticed that the groundskeeper turned around at the last second and caught a glimpse of him and made their way over to investigate.
Victor in his panic looked around to see where he could hide, but there wasn't. It was either make a mad dash or get caught. That was until he looked up at the tree and a thought occurred.
The groundskeeper was perplexed; they could have sworn they saw someone not wearing their uniform, or anything at all for that matter, around the tree. They circled around it, but there was nothing. That was because up above him was Victor holding onto for dear life on tree branch, his legs and arms hooked around it like a Koala clinging to its mother.
I am a tree, I am a tree, I am a tree, I am a tree, was the mantra that he kept repeating to himself over and over again in his mind. Victor could feel the droplets of water gather at the tips of his hair just ready to drip down. I am a dry tree, I am a dry tree!
A droplet of water fell from Victor's head and narrowly just missed the groundskeeper. They eventually just shrugged and walked away, chalking it up to their imagination.
Victor sighed heavily with relief and dropped himself back onto the ground, landing on his feet. There was no other incident with the groundskeeper as he made his way through the grounds. Eventually, he lost sight of them. He was only going by memory at this point, but he thought that he was getting closer to the path that led to the docks.
If it were not for the risk of being charged for public indecency and having to avoid being seen by the school populace, this would have been a relaxing walk. However, this was not a relaxing walk. He could hear obstacle number three coming his way, a bunch of high school girls with smartphones. Forget being caught by tuba kid or the groundskeeper, if he was caught in 4k by them then his life would have been completely over. Victor did not need his photos plastered on social media that way!
Without thinking, he dove behind a tree that was between him and the four social executioners. Thankfully, it was dark out, so they did not notice him peeking to keep track of their movement while there were still lights that lit up areas. It should have been simple; he should have been able to wait it out for them to leave. He shifted his position to get a better view when he heard a loud CRACK. His eyes shifted down and saw that he had stepped on a branch, which he broke. Fuck.
"What was that?"
Victor heard one of the girls ask. He could hear their footsteps walk towards his way. His eyes widened in panic as he thought of every way of trying to explain his way out of the situation, every excuse, every bargaining chip, but he realized that none of that would save his skin when the majority of the students here had everything they could ever want. It was all social currency, and he was about to go bankrupt if he could not figure a way out of the situation. Then inspiration struck.
He began to make very audible sounds of a couple making out, which made the footsteps stop. He needed to sell it so, to make it somehow more convincing he pulled out the strongest, sultry Valley Girl impersonation possible and moaned out the first name that he could think of, "Oh Daniel~" This was then followed by more passionate kissing sounds.
He kept up the noises for the awkwardly long amount of time it would take when he heard 'Oh Daniel' not from him, but from one of the girl's phones and giggling as they finally walked away. Victor's face flushed red, and he curled up against the tree doing his best to not groan in embarrassment. Was him moaning Daniel's name going to be all over every student's social media account? Very likely. Was Daniel going to find out about it? Also yes, but goddamn was he convincing.
Finally, after all that time, Victor finally made it to the path that led down to the docks. Remember when being barefoot helped? He took that back. The damn path was covered in rocks and they sure loved to remind him that he did not have his bloody shoes on. Every step his took was as delicate as he could so he would not have shredded meat for feet.
Eventually, he did find his way down the switchback and arrived at the docks. He found everyone's clothes miraculously still there and not in the water after the freak accident with Maeve. At this point, he had already dried out save for his slightly damp swim trunks, so he just put his uniform back on.
"Fully clothed at last," Victor said to himself as he straightened his clothes. He dusted himself off and then began his investigation. He walked around the dock, trying to find anything completely out of the ordinary. Besides the clothes strewn about, there was nothing.
Was there really nothing? Did all of this happen just like that like they won the cosmic lottery of being royally screwed over? Victor craned his neck up to the night sky and sighed exasperatedly when he saw something impossible. His eyes widened and a familiar cold sensation ran down his spine. Lit by the pale moonlight was a man with white hair and a blue valet uniform standing on cliff tops looking down at the water.
A boiling sensation brewed in him, a volatile rage that bubbled forth. His teeth gnashed and his breathing became shallow and more rapid. "Hey, hey you!" Victor shouted as loud as he could, not caring if he would be caught anymore. He continued to shout with that vitriol, "I've seen you before and you've seen me! Who in the fresh hell are you and what the hell is going on?! Talk to me goddammit!"