Story and characters written and created by JustSomeNumbers

  Liam collected his thoughts while he went to go get more doodles as he was making progress in communicating with the strange newcomer. He had a strange inkling that the person before him needed a bit more attention than the person he met with previously. The ideas that would first come to describe what he would eventually know to be “Karla” is the first intimidating atmosphere he would bring whenever he had time to talk. However, Liam’s very core screamed at him to shower him with affection and affirmations, he didn’t think the wispy figure with a hard exterior was some master evil like a… final boss? Evil sorcerer? He didn’t know. What he did know is that evil isn’t born but created, and by association: meanies are created through the absence of care and affection!

  The individual that appeared after switching out with the scary person however had a totally different vibe. Liam instantly felt the urge to give him a hug and pat his head. Moving back and forth between conversation and making their own individual discoveries of the isekai rooms (Liam’s original name, trademark pending!) Liam could almost feel a palpable eminence of despondent hopelessness. It physically made Liam hurt thinking about how such a thing could happen to another human being. He would make sure to put extra dazzles in his doodles to cheer him up!

  Between the various graphics drawn between the two of them, Liam figured out that they had both been isekai’d from different worlds. While the fact that isekai fantasy was actually happening to Liam was a ginormous discovery in itself, the confirmation of alternate worlds or even dimensions was super fricking awesome! Of course the language barrier was the biggest problem for the two of them. If he included the rather ominous person that was just there a few moments ago, it would technically be three people- but thinking about trying to learn two unknown languages made his ruffled brain wince a bit. For now they’ve mostly gotten by fine on simplistic doodles, at first it was hard to get a specific subject to focus on. Liam drew a bunch of common anime things he thought would work, like a sparkling sword or a big portal- but he wasn’t much of an artist and thought he could see a lot more confusion and anxiety from his reactions to the drawings. This of course made Liam absolutely panic- as from his perspective it worsened the already saddened person's mood. However, in his attempt to apologize he drew a specific drawing of a heart and what he figured was the best hand pointing he ever thought he could make. This apparently started the “good communication streak” he was after. The heart started to gain meaning as affection, which eventually led to the stranger to start drawing very detailed artwork of hospitals- which he then made question marks or confusing faces at and pointed to. This led to a back and fourth eventually leading to an “aha!” moment, as he made the connection between the hospitals and the person. He was a doctor! That was frick-fracken awesome!

  If there was one career pathway Liam respected and admired as much as the humble civil engineer- it was the healthcare providers. The idea that the entire job description revolved around the betterment and sustainment of peoples live and livelihood made Liams heart jump! It was a beautiful reminder of the good and kindhearted nature of humanity. Unfortunately for Liam, much of the terminology was a big turn off for the career- what made Liam really tick was the nature of building and designing! His prototyping and physical manipulations was what made him happy. Liam chose civil engineering because it merged the two things he prized most in the world, the belief in human kindness and the intrigue of engineering principles. If a job meant he could build and have fun making projects and help improve the life of people around him- he’d take it in a heartbeat. Hence why he went into the civil engineering sector.

  “Wait wait wait- if you’re from another world, does that mean doctors are the same?”

  Richard attempted to respond, but again the weird distortion came and he didn’t understand. Liam may or may not have…forgotten about the communication issue… However, as he reached for the next piece of paper to doodle his question, he felt a sudden shock- it was numb but it was more intense than the weird feelings he had let fade into the background as he got absorbed in the puzzle of communicating to the mirror people. Previously it was weird sensations like walking without actually walking, or feeling like interacting with something in his hand without touching anything. It was numb enough that he could feel it, but not sharp or distinct enough to really distract him. This shock however was distinct- it was dull, but distinct. Something made a loud noise and he turned to the area he heard the weird sound.

  The bed where Liam had originally awoke to, the one with the name “Silas”, suddenly had a new plushie on it. Liam’s face lit up and he felt incredibly excited-

  “AHHHHHH! ITS SO ADORABLEEEEE!!!”

  Liam lunged at the new plushie and squeezed it in a warm embrace. It was soft and incredibly cute! For some reason or another, a little blue slime plushie with a strange tag on it had appeared on the hamster patterned bed. Inspecting the tag, a weird list was made that he couldn’t make sense of. Wrinkling his brow a bit he was disappointed the little plushie didn’t have a name…

  “Regeneration…Shock absorption…Flexibility? Well that’s not a cute plushie name…. Hmmm.”

  Looking at the plushie, it was as if the plushie looked back at Liam with a cute smile. As he gently squeezed the soft blob, a name came to him.

  “AHA! You shall be known as cuddles! HAHA!”

  Turning to the mirror, to show his new friend the amazing plushie he was greeted with an unexpected view.

  “LOOK AT HIM, HE’S BEAUTI-”

  …

  “...ful?”

  Greeting his eyes, where he was expecting a mirror and the strange room he’d been stuck in for who knows how long was instead a vast area of trees and a small lazy river. A sense of cold flesh and pulsing warmth replaced his sense of feeling. It took a bit to adjust to what he was feeling, and he was stunned for a few seconds before he really took in what had just happened.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Uhhh… Hyvasti?”

  …

  Well… I guess this is where the mirror people went when they disappeared huh? WAIT- THIS IS A DOUBLE ISEKAI! haHA!

  While he accidentally distracted himself, he refocused his attention to the weird area he found himself in. He was holding a skewer of some sort. What appeared to be a weirdly long translucent marshmallow over a small campfire. An old survival shelter made from various large branches.

  Ahhhh! I think I understand now!

  Liam moved his hands in a thankful gesture, careful to not drop the skewered marshmallow.

  “Thank you scary pink board game player for making this marshmallow for me! I shall eat this with great thanks!”

  After a few moments, Liam lifted the roasted weird marshmallow and took a giant bite! Liam almost immediately spit it up from t he texture alone. A weird sloppy squish entered his mouth with the taste of bland. It wasn’t that bad per se, but the texture offset it entirely.

  “BLEGH- Psht- ach.. Agggghh! That was horrible! Scary man you're such a MEANIE for tricking me!!”

  With teary eyes from the revolting texture, he looked around the campsite for any snacks or alternative food sources. His stomach was growling and he was super super hungry. He realized that while the texture was horrible, he still needed to eat as Liam wasn’t really the… “hunting” type of guy. If anything Liam would imagine himself as someone who could farm or tinker rather than the more “manly” image like wood-workers or lumberjacks. With a large sigh, he resolved to take as big a bite as he could and choke it down as fast as he could.

  “Blegh- that was… horrible.”

  Liam took a seat and tried to recover by the fire. It was a bit embarrassing for Liam, but he just needed a moment or two to really recover from the gross feeling he just experienced. After a few moments, he got up and slept in the makeshift shelter. He thought to himself about all the design flaws and the structural instabilities of the wood shelter. As he drifted to sleep, he tossed around imagining all the little things he could add to the campsite. Upgrades to the shelter, a general path layout with makeshift drainage so rainwater would collect to the sides. The night passed and the daybreak of the new day heralded the start of the morning. Letting the biggest yawn he made in a while, Liam greeted the morning.

  “Mmm…. that was not pleasant…. But goodmorning world!”

  The moment Liam awoke he roughly got out of the makeshift shelter to start planning the big upgrades for the campsite. As he rose out of the house his foot kicked something interesting as he kicked a weirdly heavy rock he could’ve sworn wasn’t there last night. Looking at his foot he looked at what he kicked over and nearly dropped his jaw-

  “WHAAAAT???”

  A semi large toolbox was just next to what appeared to be a pistol of some kind and a first aid kit. Where the frick did this stuff come from. He could’ve absolutely built at least a bowl or basic utensils for his little meal last night if he found this! Additionally he found some tools for general surveying which was usually…not inside a toolbox that looks like it was meant for mechanical repair, but hey, Liam wasn’t complaining. While it was super exciting to find these things- what Liam was more concerned with was the fact these items appeared out of nowhere. Which meant either someone else was near this campsite or some weird isekai…thingy. Either way Liam was a bit creeped out by a potential stalker or weird person looking at him while he was sleeping- and since he had the surveying tools he figured he might as well head in a direction while having some fun with the geographical surveying tools.

  “Hmmm… now what direction should I choose?”

  looking at the sunny treeline and the running water, the sense of beauty from the serenity of nature calmed his excitement. The gentle breeze felt warm against his skin, but contrasted quickly as he felt the small chill in the air. He took a look at his list of tools, he put the gun which made him feel a little uncomfortable in the box and the first aid kit underneath it. Apparently, the tool-box contained a strangely compact theodolite, some surveyors tape which Liam only hoped was the nice alloy kind that wouldn’t throw off any measurements due to temperature- and finally a rather large lensatic compass. It was a weird assortment- and it was quite impressively packed into the rather small toolbox- but he used it to decide to go west. Liam figured most civilizations build close to water sources for the easy access to water, following the river which, happened to be a water source, would lead to people and thus hopefully some help. If he was lucky enough, maybe even find those cool fantasy adventurers guilds or see someone who knows magic! He moved on with a bit of excitement into his…step? Liam looked down and realized he didn’t exactly have any socks… or shoes for that matter. Looking around, Liam grabbed a bit of moss from the makeshift shelter and ripped off a bit of the strange clothing the other two mirror people seemed to make into a shirt. He wrapped two bundles of moss into a large pouch and created makeshift “walking pads”. It wouldn’t last long but hopefully it’d last for a while. Now with some makeshift sandals? Foot cushions? Whatever it was- he set out on a long journey with an excited smile on his face.

  The journey itself was a bit awkward, as it took a bit of “rotations” of who was controlling the body to communicate that Liam wanted to go find civilization. Weirdly enough, the scary pink person was seemingly fine with attempting to find some sort of town or city- but the red person was a bit more hesitant. Liam was also very happy, because communicating through little doodles actually steadily improved his own artworking abilities. It was also interesting to slowly start to build communion with the other two “co-owners” of this new body. The pink one was very closed off, but really helpful when it came to taking specific action like hunting for food or asking about what to build. Liam got the impression of Karla being an innate leader, while he was definitely scary and intimidating at first- the more he got to know him the more Liam was sure they should probably be the one Liam and the red person should listen to. The red person was a different story entirely- Liam felt much more connected to the doctor than the pink person. He learned that something happened to the Dr that led to his death, which was unfortunate and led to a bout of crying with his plushie Cuddles. He didn’t ask the Pink person because he was quite intimidating. However, through the long journey many of the strange things they witnessed all but confirmed many aspects of this new “life” of theirs.

  They saw beautiful wildlife, giant butterflies with glowing wings swimming in the sky like giant stingrays lethargically roaming from place to place. A variety of what Liam had to explain were slimes to the other two- and the explosive wildlife that were growing in a fantastical way! They were making progress! However, with as much of the journey and passage of time they had, they didn’t find a single trace of human civilization. The only point of friendship or companionship they could really look forward to was when they were no longer controlling the strange body they were given and found themselves back in the strange rooms. There was a deep sense of loneliness whenever Liam was in charge of the body… He wanted to talk to people, help them out. But no matter how far he walked- he couldn’t find any other people. Only slimes and the pretty scenery. Glowing flowers with magical nights filled with awe- puffs of glowing pollen littering the skies in the night moved with the wind to form a dance of catharsis. It calmed his mind.

  I guess being Silas means being lonely huh… Maybe not being in control isn’t so bad.

  The movements through the terrain ultimately led to a weird mountaintop. It was quite an uphill hike, many of the plants caused the red person to have a panic attack and warned Liam and the person in Pink about which ones would cause any harm or infections. After some investigations in the weird rooms, apparently all three of the people had the name Silas Vivens Infernum listed on something. While Liam didn’t ask or press for specifics, a quiet agreement was struck between them that the body’s name was Silas, and both Liam and the other two tried to use it as much as possible to get used to it. It was around this time when Liam and the red person were having a (very) cool conversation about the engineering of mRNA and the tools used for it. Of course much of the conversation Liam assumed was lost to translation, as it was limited to pictograms- but it didn’t matter because it allowed Liam to geek out about his passion, and assumedly the person in red.