1 Somewhere Else

"...must have been a mistake, he's..."

Hunter was drifting. Not dreaming, not waking, just drifting in the pleasant mist between. And beyond, fuzzy and distorted, there were voices.

"...but then how many others..."

He tried to focus on what they were saying. He immediately regretted this as a sharp pain stabbed through his forehead.

"...just with him, to test..."

This was a strange dream. Primarily because it didn't feel like a dream. It felt more like when he was young, forced almost-awake by his parents' shouting, the thick walls almost but not quite muffling their voices. Those had not been good times.

"...think he's awake..."

The sharp pain came again, and then his eyes were open, looking out on an unfamiliar world.

Hunter was a failure.

He'd never been athletic. Never been popular. Never done well in school. He had tried, at first. Tried as hard as he possibly could to be something.

He gave up when he realized it made no difference.

The problem was his motivation. He couldn't concentrate on anything for longer than thirty seconds, couldn't stick with a math problem or read a book without feeling suffocatingly bored or getting distracted in a matter of minutes. Even when he tried, his mind seemed to shut down, discarding all the information he tried to feed into it. It was easier to just lay back, play video games, and watch the world go by around him.

He had no plans. No dreams. No future. And he was okay with that, because... well, it was better than trying. Better than having plans and dreams and watching them all fall apart before his eyes. He would stay with his parents, hanging on like a leech, wasting away in his room, until the day he died.

And he was... okay with that.

He had to be okay with that, because the only other option was banging his head against the wall forever.

Hunter blinked. Then blinked again.

He was in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room.

"...don't owe him anything..."

A quiet voice, whispering in the back of his consciousness. The same voice as before.

"...at least an explanation... didn't ask for this..."

"I can hear you," Hunter said finally, annoyance breaking through the shock. "Where the hell am I, anyway?"

A faint sigh, and then a pop sound as two girls spawned into existence before his eyes. They looked more like clones than twins, down to the identical creases on their outfits. Hunter's jaw dropped open.

"So," he managed. "Who might you ladies be?"

"Sorry to burst your bubble," the one on the left said, "but we're actually not ladies."

"We exist outside of time and space, and have no real use for your human concept of gender," the one on the right explained.

"We chose these forms to appear before you because attractive females are statistically more likely to keep the adolescent male's attention," the left one finished.

Hunter grimaced. "Hate to say it, but you're not wrong. Anyway..." He made a vague hand gesture that hopefully encompassed the twenty billion questions he had at the moment. "What the fuck, guys?"

The beings cleared their throats simultaneously. "There appears to have been..." the left one said.

"...a slight miscalculation," the right one said.

"At birth, you were placed in the wrong universe."

"We failed to match your brain chemistry with your ideal world."

"And now we've brought you to a more compatible reality."

"As an apology, of sorts."

Hunter stared. "Damn. That's one hell of an apology. So..." He shrugged. "What's this world like?"

The beings exchanged a glance. "It's slightly suspicious how well you are taking this," the left one said.

"Eh. It's not like I was doing anything with my old life anyway."

They seemed to consider this. "Fair enough," the right one said. "You have been placed into the rough equivalent of a fantasy RPG. Your species and appearance have been assigned, and you've been given a few basic starter items, but everything else is yours to decide."

"Your combat specialty."

"Your occupation."

"Whether you live or die."

Hunter was slack-jawed again.

The beings exchanged another glance, an amused one this time. "We've paused time to have this conversation with you."

"You can let out your victory scream, and no one will be disturbed."

Hunter grinned. And screamed with sheer triumph.