***Earth, Northcrest city, Luneford University male dormitories***
On one of the two bunk beds, Ray Peterson lay curled on the top bunk, eyes locked on the glow of his phone screen, flipping through chapters like they might offer an escape. Below him, James sat hunched at the common table, elbow-deep in a bucket of popcorn, shoving handfuls into his mouth between silent sobs.
The movie played on his laptop, but whatever it was, it clearly wasn't helping. Patrick stood beside him, one hand patting James's back in slow, awkward circles, the other clutching a packet of tissues like it was sacred. No one spoke. The room smelled faintly of salt, butter, and emotional collapse
"You should stop eating so much of that," Jack said, trying to break the tension. He stood shirtless by the window, rhythmically lifting two dumbbells as if the drama behind him was just part of the scenery. "So much unnecessary crying for being ditched by some girl´´ he added almost to himself, but they all heard it, and that made James's sobs intensify.
"Hey, easy," Patrick said, still patting James's back. "I'm doing my best to calm him down. And that girl? She was his first love. You've never had your heart shattered, so maybe try saying something that doesn't suck.".
"Come on, I've been through countless breakups, you know´´ jack says, flexing his muscles in front of a mirror by the window.
Patrick looked at him with squinted eyes, "More like you ditched them´´
Jack looks back at the two, raises his head in thought, and goes back to posing in front of the mirror. "Then again, with my perfect looks, I can date a few different girls.
James freezes for a moment, swallows his popcorn, compares Jack's athletic physique to his, and, as if hit by a realization, ends up crying even louder, stomping his feet hard on the floor.
Ray sighs and jumps down from the bed. He's a 20-year-old slim guy with average looks. A Second-year student doing computer science, and these were his friends and roommates for two years. They are all in the same year.
James, the one currently crying, and the kind of guy who tears up at any remotely sad movie, is also studying computer science. Jack, devoted to sculpting his physique, and Andrew, buried in books more often than sunlight, were classmates in the same engineering program
´´I'm going out to get some drinks´´ Ray says, putting on his slippers.
"Get me something cold, " Patrick
"Something healthy for me´´ jack
Ray pauses on the door, turns back, grabs Jack's wallet from the bed, and quickly walks out. Jack, too engrossed in his abs, doesn't notice that everything is on him today.
His mother calls moments after he walks out the door, so he decides to use the stairs and talk to her as he walks down. His parents live in Stonebrook. A rural area where they practiced farming. It was their main source of income, and his mother was coming to the city to buy some pesticides and wanted to know if he wanted anything from home.
He could have declined, but under her pestering, he agreed to her bringing some side dishes. She could have brought them even without him agreeing anyway.
He descended from the third floor, wondering if all moms were like his, constantly worried about whether their sons were eating properly. Probably the same for daughters, he figured. He thought about his sister, still in senior high. When she goes off to college, would they even let her study far from ho…huh.
His train of thought was cut short by the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar environment. One step was all it took, and the world unraveled. The stair beneath him vanished, replaced by a vast silence,an endless tapestry of stars stitched into the void. He stood not on ground, but on a white platform, suspended in the air. A view you would only imagine space to look like. He had only been walking down the stairs,so how was he now adrift in space, balanced atop a glowing white shard of nothingness?
Ray held still. This had to be a dream or something.
"It's not a dream." A sudden voice on his shoulder made him tumble, almost falling into the nothingness down below. But contrary to his expectation, the platform shifted, allowing him to fall on his butt on it. He looked down from the side, shaken by what could have happened.
He looked up—and there he was: a figure shimmering with quiet dominance, as if reality itself deferred to his will, drifting in the air, his blue robe clung to him like mist, his boots firm. He watched in silence, as if he had always been there, waiting for this moment to make Ray question his sanity. why? This guy was just the size of a palm.
"And i am not a fairy either." Ray could have raised his hand to cover-if only thoughts could be covered like faces.
"You can call me whatever you like. We are here to get you some exposure. This is but a breath away from your home planet," he said, turning slowly with quiet grace. His voice carried a weight—not loud, not forceful, but woven with authority so absolute it made the soul instinctively bow, not from willingness but from the feeling that this being was far from your average powerhouse. He felt it in his very being, in the silence between heartbeats—this was an entity beyond reason, beyond scale, a presence that eclipsed everything he thought he knew.
Ray turned to follow his gaze, and from this distance, the great sun and its planets looked no greater than scattered beads suspended in the void, among the boundless sea of stars. He could make out a blue sphere, which he assumed was his home planet.
The mysterious small guy looked around for a while, and their environment changed again. There was no ripple, no flash of light. The stars blinked, the air shifted, and suddenly they were somewhere else. They were still floating in the void, but this place felt different. The air somehow contained something he had never felt before and didn't feel back in their previous spot.
Ahead floated a huge planet with strange silhouettes moving in and out of the atmosphere. Humans drifting effortlessly, ships gliding like celestial whales, and winged creatures whose cries sent shivers down your spine soared in spirals. They moved in and out of the planet's embrace as if gravity were a suggestion.
The scene changed again, and now they stood on land, from a distance, watching over a battlefield where two beings clashed, toppling mountains in their wake. He watched as they collided with the fury of gods. Their blades did not merely clash-they tore through the sky, splitting clouds and sundering the land beneath. Each strike carved valleys into the earth, sent mountains crumbling like sandcastles, and parted rivers as if the world itself bowed to their will. The air trembled with power, and even from afar, the pressure made his bones hum.
He hadn't said a word. Not because he was calm-oh no, his brain was throwing a full-blown riot. This had to be a dream, a test, a trick, right? some weird sleep-deprived hallucination. Except reality, ever the buzzkill, wasn't playing along. Everything was crisp and painfully real. Now, if someone could kindly explain how and why the universe had decided to go off-script, that'd be great.