Story and characters written and created by JustSomeNumbers

  Awaking in a strangely familiar yet foreign place, Liam sat upright on a heated chair- wrapped in a blanket patterned with small fluffy hamsters. It took a while to fully open his eyes, but the sense of his flesh feeling cold and the inner warmth leaving his body seemed to have ceased. Moving around shakily at first, he couldn’t seem to grasp the movement of his own body. Strange feelings of disoriented palpations and numb sensations echoed across his legs, and then slowly around his body. Suddenly stopping after some time- only to continue in a weird feeling of walking while not actually moving.

  Attempting to look around he saw his workbench with a perfectly clean blue-printing table, a couple diagrams from his work as both a civil engineering student and explanations of economic policy when he was studying. Sweeping his gaze across as he jaggedly moved his head from one position to the next, he found it hard to rotate his head as it felt like a weird combination of movements. Almost unfamiliar, like his body was adjusting to something he didn’t understand. The other side of the room was also filled with strange trinkets and doo-dads. Makeshift chemical refinement and various testing setups for environmental development, which housed a shake-table and model housing units just as he did when designing earth-quake resistant housing in Finnlesh.

  Finally looking straight ahead as opposed to immediately to his periphery, Liam saw the strangest thing. A large mirror surrounded by fluffy stuffed animal keychains, cute drawings of various pets (a majority of which are quite fluffy) and notes of various self-assurances. Sitting just to the side of the mirror on a desk with a notepad and various books on topics related to both civil-engineering and economics, was a digital clock with the time. While it was true Liam did have a room not too dissimilar to this, it was strangely… off. First Liam made an important note that the room or building he was in was incredibly cozy- but more important than that aspect was the complete safety and fire hazard that was staring him in the face.

  “There's no….Doors?”

  Liam wasn’t exactly afraid of large spaces, or anxious from enclosed ones- but the lack of both a window and door meant this space was completely cut off from whatever was on the outside. Additionally, when moving around he noticed his body felt…different?

  This is too frick fracken strange… what on earth is going on here? Where the fricken heck am I?

  Slowly trying to get up from his comfortable position (nestled in-between various large pillows, stuffed animals and under a bundle of incredibly over-fluffed blankets, Liam stumbled into the area housing the strange mirror. Observing it first-hand he realized the mirror itself didn’t really appear to be too fancy, but what was inside the reflection was what really baffled him. Standing in front of the mirror was his supposed reflection, but it wasn’t his body. It was strange… younger teenager?

  His body was completely different from what he remembered- when trying to recall what his face looked like before his brain started to rummage through the various interjections and distractions. This body… definitely wasn’t his, yet he was clearly either inside it or controlling it. His hair was a beautiful snow white, a long curly hair turned into an almost wavy texture- appearing to be silk-like and voluminous. His skin was freakishly pale, as if a ghost was before him. The nails of his hands were black, but he didn’t remember painting them. The strangest observation was his body’s form in the pajamas he was wearing. He was clearly a guy- at least he thought- but his body was too slender and curvy to say for certain. Additionally, he appeared to have rather small breasts- even though he clearly had male….un-mentionables. Just thinking about this started to fluster Liam as a small red appeared on his cheeks.

  What the heck is HAPPENING here!?

  Feeling his face and skin, a soft and pliable mellow-ness he couldn’t accurately describe made the sensation of simply touching his cheeks seem like he was petting his hamster or patting a cat. It was just so… soft. He examined his eyes next, as it was something that was bothering him. His eyes had strange pupils, and were colored a calming light blue. From what he was seeing, he had stars in his eyes. What was even stranger, was that he could (if he focused) still see his original body as a misty outline, as if it were a fog simply obscuring his vision of his…new body?

  As Liam began to explore more of the space around him, he was met with a curious discovery. On the head of the mirror was a name in unfamiliar writing yet completely readable to him.

  “Silas….Vivens… Infernum? Is that this body's name? Well then what- how- who am I then?”

  A strange sense of feeling came from the unease mixing with the feeling of comfort that seemed to emanate from his newfound room. Determined to solve this strange mystery he started to move about inspecting the mirror- just as he got a little too close a shocking and unbelievable revelation was made. He saw another person in the mirror, with the same body- but it was, or it felt… different. Aside from the rest of the body, the only difference he could discern from the entity on the other side of the mirror was the fact their eyes were a fiery hot pink. Their pupils were also unusual, they looked like gaping static in place of where a regularly composed pupil was supposed to exist. It was spinning and unraveling as if to signal something was either in deep concentration or strange captivation. The person seems to be looking at the ground lost in thought, biting their index finger so hard Liam swears he could see a small drip of blood. As Liam was about to make a sound to ask if this stranger needed help, a chilling tingle went down his spine- and the pupils of the strange being formulated into what looked like a condensed ball of… of either mass or yarn? It was hard to describe.

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  Immediately following that tingling sensation the person turned to look directly at Liam, who sheepishly waved in response.

  “H-hello? Would you uh- know what this place is?”

  Liam attempted to ask the question but the person immediately started stepping angrily into his direction while shouting in a language he couldn’t understand. It was like whatever he was speaking was muffled and glitched- as if the very ears he had on his body didn’t understand what they were receiving. The man made more aggressive gestures until seeming to calm himself- and donning a chilling smile that made Liam a bit uncomfortable.

  “Do you know where we are!? Can you understand me!?”

  Liam tried again to communicate but the individual stood in silence, seemingly observing Liam. After a tense few moments of silence the strange man began to go out of his view only to return with what looked to be like a world war era map.

  Is this guy like a collector or something? That looks antique…

  The map itself had what Liam could only describe as various strange markings and giant insignias of some unknown origins. Various lines and symbols looked like they were hand drawn plans for some sort of movements or war-type game. The person pointed to the insignia that was at the top of the map, seemingly curious as to if this meant anything to Liam.

  Ooooh, he’s into that dragon dungeon game! Right?

  Shaking his head, Liam disregarded that idea, as the authenticity of the map looked too similar to that of the ones he saw in his history studies as an undergraduate, and post-graduate student. But then, what were the strange symbols and insignias? They weren’t of any importance to Liam and they didn’t match any of the Countries in his world or planet….as far as he knew anyway-

  As Liam was thinking this the man started to lose his ominous smile and loosened his posture- apparently Liam not understanding had calmed whatever tension this person has had. Folding the paper and moving back out of view the person returned with an old-timey notebook, paper and ink-well/feather combo. He started to write something and held the paper to the mirror.

  “I- I can’t read this man, can you- just like- How-”

  Letting out a sigh, Liam tried to connect the dots of his situation and strange interaction. He moved to his workstation just to the right of the mirror near the blue-printing table and began a doodle of a political map of the word, making sure to include the flags of all the major nations like the Verifax Authority and Ruseblo administration, as well as his home country of Finnlesh. Walking back to the strange person, who was now smoking what seemed to be a cigarette while tapping his shoes and checking a strangely ornate pocket watch. Liam showed the rather mediocre atlas of the world to the stranger who suddenly stood up straight and leaned in as close as he could to the mirror- it looked like he was almost about to push through it and pass to the other side, but was forced back with a surprising amount of force. Shooting up from their position, they went back out of line of sight and returned with a globe that seemed to be mis-matching- as none of the major borders were the sa-....

  Wait- none of the major borders on the globe he was showing was the same. None of the words or symbols were familiar to me, and the insignias that were shown to me were also unfamiliar… could this- could this be!!

  Liam was about to burst out with excitement as he let out words he would most likely be a bit embarrassed by if it weren't for the situation at hand. Speaking in a loud excited voice, he exclaimed to the person in the mirror:

  “WE’VE BEEN ISEKAI’D! THIS IS AWESOME SAUCEOME!!!”

  The person in the mirror winced and visibly recoiled from what Liam could only assume was the cringiest statement he could’ve made- but his idea perfectly described what was happening. A new body, a new location, and a strange situation! They all lined up.

  As Liam was about to attempt to explain or at least get to know his fellow partner in isekai, a weirdly internal volt of energy shot out through him and the person in the mirror… changed. Not only that, but the background rooming of the person in the mirror also changed. The weirdly old cabin he saw before was changed to a more familiar modern apartment with stained wooden flooring- a shocked face and tired look appeared before him. It was the same body as before, but a misty outline of something he couldn’t quite see- this time the body had deep muted red eyes, with tired and almost lifeless pupils.

  Realizing that this person had just switched places with the individual he was trying to interact with before- Liam made excited movements trying to figure out what he should grab in order to make the same series of realizations he had just made with his previous new friend. He wanted to illustrate that this was an instance of isekai and that meant that this was a new world- realizing this he hit the palm of his hand in determination and went to re-grab the scribbled drawings he had previously (accidently) thrown in excitement. After retrieving the paper and showing it to the strange person, it didn’t seem to do much.

  After a bit of back and forth between the two Liam realized this person was probably just as confused as he used to be, well- still is. So he decided to “dumb down” what he wanted to focus on, making a new piece of paper with big bolded letters- Liam wrote down his name with an arrow pointing to what he assumed his new body’s name was. Pointing to the name and gesturing as hard as he could between the letters and himself- Liam saw the other person slowly start to come to the same realization he had. The individual went out of his view, and returned with a small clip-board and pencil- after a few seconds of scribbling he wrote down something that he couldn’t understand, but assumed was his name.

  Unbeknownst to Liam, this was in fact the stranger's name. The name was printed in scraggly writing, fair enough- but it was their name none-the less. It was the name of a doctor given a second chance, and the name of someone he’d come to call an incredibly close friend.

  Richard.