The school bell rang and Aiden Dalbert walked out of his class with his collection of bizarre friends. Being in an isekai, he had found out, was
shockingly
boring. Oh sure, it was all fun and games with the waking up confused in a new body and there was the jolt of new realization and awareness every few seconds of some new, confounding reality to the world. But really, at the end of the day, this new dimension he was in seemed pretty fucking normal. It was just a slightly above average Americanish city of the early 21
st
century - it was just populated with people yanked directly from video games, TV shows, cartoon shows, and god knows what else all with their names
thinly
altered. Very thinly.
Case in point, Aiden was walking out of his class with Luz Notceda.
That was her surname.
Not
ceda.
"That's just lazy," Aiden said, shaking his head.
"Hey, I worked really hard on my first magic spell," Luz said, looking hurt.
"No, sorry, uh, I was...talking to the fourth wall," Aiden said.
"Ahh, I getcha!" Luz said, shooting him a pair of fingerguns, complete with little
pew pew
noises.
Still, past the surrealism of the basic premise, the actual nitty gritty of sitting in class, listening to his teacher drone on and on about shit he'd already learned last time he was in high school, all without TikTok to kill time was painfully mundane. There was a limit to how much surrealism could carry a brain, it seemed.
"So, what did Kyute want to talk to you about?" Dalann asked, brushing her brown hair back behind one ear as they ducked around some students heading the other way. Aiden knew he should have been freaking out about the fact that he was ninety percent sure he had just seen a Clark Kent expy walking by the other way, but instead, he just focused on Dalann. That was easy enough, she was
stupendously
beautiful.
"Oh, uh, she...she..." Aiden said, trailing off.
Dalann sighed, slowly. "I assume it was at least a little vulgar."
"And racist," Evening Glitter said, leaning into the conversation.
"A little!" Aiden said. He wasn't sure, exactly, how to say
she told me to bang you like a drum
to Dalann. He was actually suddenly acutely aware of the fact that he wasn't entirely sure
how
the context of these people had changed from the original fiction they had been yanked from. Dalann, in her original context, under her copyrighted name, had been an
alien ambassador
with the political clout to declare war if need be. But also, she was a sharp, astute, cute girl who could tell he was lying. Mostly because Aiden knew he had a bad poker face. "S-She basically said some stuff about how I was important to the future of the multiverse and there was this, uh, thingy called a...C-...something or other?"
"Oh! You know what this means, Eve?" Luz asked.
Eve's eyes brightened and the two girls stopped, grabbing one another's hands.
"Library trip!" They said at the same time.
"They're...big into books, aren't they?" Aiden whispered to Dalann.
"I find it quite charming myself," Dalann said, then sighed and stretched her arms behind her. "I, for one, have had enough of reading old scrolls and tomes and religious texts in my old school." She smiled. "Now, I mostly read new scrolls, tomes, and religious texts instead." Her eyes sparkled, playfully, while Aiden laughed as Luz and Eve exchanged a rapid flurry of technical jaron, excited girl squeals, and Spanish - he actually noticed that Eve was able to hold her own in Spanish right back at Luz.
"When did you learn Spanish?" he asked. "Aren't you a pony princess normally?"
"No, uh," Eve said, turning to face him, putting her finger on her glasses and pushing them up. "That's my alternate universe doppleganger, Princess Evening Glitter. She also goes to this high school, but she stays at her own place, so, keep an eye out of her!"
"Doesn't that get confusing?" Aiden asked.
"Only to other people," Eve said, smiling. "Oh, I have math now."
"English!" Luz said, throwing her arm above her head. "Drama! Suspense. Romance~"
Aiden started. He swore he could hear that tilde. He checked his phone. "Ah, English for me too under...Emelia Doppler. Huh. Sounds weird."
"Oh she's great," Eve said, while Dalann smiled and waved, stepping back and away.
'What do you have?" Aiden asked.
"Oh, ah, well...physical exercise," Dalann said, sighing. "It shall be...a...pleasant time outdoors, though." She was clearly trying to say something positive without outright lying. It was a thing about her people. In the fictional TV show she was from. Aiden raised his hand in a commiserating way, before turning to follow after Luz.
"So, uhhh, what book are we currently on?" Aiden asked.
"Romeo and Juliet!" Luz said, nodding.
"Ah, the classics," Aiden said.
The two of them arrived at the classroom to see a throng of other students at the front door, where two boys were standing, glaring at one another. "Did you just bump me?" one asked.
"Me!?" the other boy exclaimed, spreading his arms wide, glaring at the first boy. He paused, then whispered to the very bored looking green skinned girl that stood beside him. The green skinned girl was on her phone, tapping away, and was...well, green skinned was slightly underselling how odd she looked. Her hair was thin, blade-like spines that emerged from her scalp like a frizzy pincushion. Her school uniform had two slits cut in the back for wings to emerge, though rather than feathers, these wings were sleek limbs of bone and blade that curved and arched ominously behind her. Her eyes were midnight black and her expression was pure cheerleader alpha bitch. "Is it against the rules, to bump him?"
"I will skin you alive if you touch me, Sampson," the green girl muttered.
"I did bump
someone