Disclaimer - I don't own Marvel/Disney IP. I am just a humble keyboard warrior. Also, the Chaos Gacha was made by Bronz here. I am just dipping my toe in the water, so to speak.
Brooklyn Bridge, New York City
He sighed, walking past yet another couple who gave him weird looks, as if he did not belong there, as he tried to ignore them and enjoy the spectacular view that this bizarre event had given him.
Unbidden, his mind recalled the iconic song that plays on every single IG reel or TikTok that showcases the iconic skyline of Manhattan. Humming to the song, he made sure to stay in his lane, not bump into anyone, and just….enjoy the cool, crisp air hitting his face and the blinding lights with the stupidly tall buildings.
All stuff that he had never been able to enjoy before, what with living in a third world country that was hot all year round. He hadn't even seen snow yet, with the lowest temperatures he ever managed to experience being strictly foggy weather. Nowhere near the current freezing temperatures.
After what felt like half an hour, he reached the center of the bridge, and decided to take a breather, his body unused to such climates. Leaning on the railing, he looked at the view and thought of what would become of him after this.
He had no idea how he came here, how he would go back, who brought him here, or what they wanted with him, or how he would survive. He had nothing. Nothing but the clothes on his back.
Certainly not suited for such cold weather. The harsh wind made him shiver a bit and somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard the desperate screams of dining shelter, finding food and warmth before it was too late, before it was too dark outside, with no people on the streets and he would then officially be a homeless, stateless, undocumented person in a place he had no business being.
He promptly shoved that scream in the deepest recesses of his mind, like the other dozen times he had done it by the time he reached the bridge.
Sure, doing this was dangerous, but what other choice was there?
Back home, he had been fortunate enough to have been exposed to social media, even through a third party. The videos of this place looked as if it were an entirely different planet, a place so outside of his reach that even in his dreams, he had never been here.
And…now he was.
So, instead of panicking(actively) and running to find help that he will probably not get because of the whole undocumented thing, he might as well just enjoy….this.
Plus, even if he did manage to find some help, what was he going to do? How would he go back home with no money or papers? There was no one back home who was waiting for him. Certainly not someone who could help him in such a bizarre and twisted scenario.
He had read about human trafficking but he was completely fine, no organs missing, no cuts or stitches to suggest surgery, and he felt fine, if only a bit cold due to the weather. So, the motive of moving him halfway across the world, and dumping him in the greatest city on the planet, at least according to what the internet told him, was baffling, to say the least.
Another bout of harsh winds hit his face, as he shivered a bit, rubbing his hands to stay warm, even though he knew the exercise to be futile.
He tried to ignore the steadily worsening weather, just like he tried to ignore the countdown visible only to him, which was steadily counting down.
Unsuccessfully.
It was about 6 hours when he first opened his eyes and flailed his hands about to get rid of the weird, hot red timer in his vision that seemed to tick as if a death knell.
It was six hours then but now? Only 7 minutes remained.
Honestly, it was equal parts terrifying and equal parts relieving.
Terrifying because he had never heard of this happening. Like embedding some sort of display in the eyes or making the brain see something that is not there? That kind of stuff seemed like advanced technology that would most certainly not be wasted on someone like him.
As far as his understanding of the world went, it would be used by the rich people of the society for entertainment before it could ever become accessible enough for actual purposes. What those purposes might be? He did not know, but it was certainly not acting as a glorified countdown timer.
On the flip side, if it truly was the timer to his death, like some sort of twisted last wish/meal/experience thing, then it might be for the better. Sure, being alive was better than being dead, but that was not always the case.
Struggling in a hyper capitalist country, with no contacts, resources, just to get back home to a place that had no people that would miss him, certainly seemed….too much effort. It was vastly easier to just stay here, enjoy the view, and wait for the counter to reach its end.
After all, life had been pretty stale for a while now. Uni did not bring with it the flavour of excitement he was expecting it to, but it brought with it a ton of bills, even with his extensive scholarships, resulting in a part-time job that paid decently but sucked all the joy out of his life, a trade-off many people his age would consider worthy, just to be employed.
So, he sucked it up and did his job diligently, day in and day out, studied, and wrote for exams. All the stuff that a normal student would do, but with the added fog of knowing that life was not supposed to be enjoyed this way.
His only ray of hope at the end of this was a decent paying job that would keep him out of poverty and allow him to enjoy the small niceties of life.
Alas, with the news he received last week of the scholarship drying up before the last year of the course, even that tiny ray of hope was crushed ruthlessly.
So, he truly did not mind that countdown being the countdown of his life as well.
Time that felt like forever seemed to pass in such a short time, as his blurred gaze found the counter reaching the last 30 seconds. Wiping the tears, he focused back on the beautiful view in front of him, trying to burn it into his memory, just in case heaven or hell was real and he needed some beautiful memories to pass the time.
10…9….8...….3….2…1...
[TING! HOST FOUND!]
[Initialising install process. WARNING : The installation might knock out members of species with inherently low mental capacity.]
Congratulations Host! Rejoice!
LET THE C̶̢̡͎͕̺̟͚̦̔͒́̃̑͌͊́̒̂̃̆̕͝Ḧ̸̡̨̺̥̣̟͔͎́̋A̴̡̢͖̣͙̥͕̼̩͙̜̱͕̮̍́̏̇͌̌̕͠Ơ̵̢̲̳̪̯̞̖͈̆̆̊̍̾̍͆̎͘͘͜͠S̷̢̫͖͈͔̼̭̣̘͔͆̈́̏͆̒̆̅̄̈́̐́̈́̈́̏͘̕ͅ ̶͈̰̯̫̬̾͗̽̓͋̄̚͝͠ͅ BEGIN
Huh?