HokumPocus

Enter: Into an Isekai World

nothing like opening your window and seeing a group of kids dancing around fire

anyways things are going back to business as usual woo

Enter: Into an Isekai World

---

So they hadn't been thrown out. Kaito could only give Hiroko a small nod, not wanting to plunge the odd mood into a more negative direction. He figured it got engulfed by the darkness around them. Another awkward interaction. No matter, the silence was more than enough. It was the most comfortable option when one had no idea what was happening.

It didn't last.

A shout from one of the others made his head whip to face directly towards the sight of a gun. An actual, real life gun. Had the man not been wielding it with a desperation that radiated throughout his entire body, Kaito could have probably tried to reason it was a prop or similar. But the look across that man's eyes couldn't be imitated.

"N-no need for that, now," he said, hands placed tensely in front of him. The smooth voice he employed during therapy was out in full force, albeit with cracks forming all over. This was far beyond his range of expertise, and far removed from any experience had with a client. What did this man want? Was it respect? Answers? Money? Was that it? There were too many variables, too many things he didn't know. Ideas came and went yet none were strong enough for him to unclench his jaw. The man ran off before he had anything resembling an answer.

Kaito wanted to approach him, but his legs stayed rooted in place. He instead filled his lungs with the forest air and shouted. "Aren't you also lost?!" Mutual survival. The kind of condition that made one wild animal work with another. In this strange forest with no civilization in sight, it made sense in a gloomy sort of way. He could only hope the man would realize that.

Enter: Into an Isekai World

---

"Right, that about does it. Your next appointment is about a month from now. Yes. Yes, I can send you an e-mail. Good bye."

Silence had remained in the air until the familiar ring of a client ending the call signalled another day of work coming to an end. His exhale was heavy enough to alter his posture, and his finger and thumb soon dug their way around the bridge of his nose where a pair of computer glasses rested only seconds ago. It didn't take long for his irritated eyes to start rejecting the incandescent white of a computer monitor. Kaito was a tired man. It would have felt childish to be honest to himself about it, but even such a physically undemanding job had a way of psychosomatically draining him. During nights like these he'd typically get away from the comfort of his padded chair as quickly as possible, before his arms spread towards the computer desk and the hard wood felt like the most comfortable surface in the world to sleep on. Today hadn't been one of those days. He struggled to even lift his head from his arms, with a yawn seemingly cementing it in place. He was going to lose the fight today. His body felt instant relief upon thinking that, to his disappointment.

This wasn't his office.

Earth and air. Crisp, unpolluted, breathable air. It should have been a pleasing experience to his body, but Kaito's instincts only felt repulsion at the overwhelming atmosphere of his surroundings. It was the body of a man who had adapted to the unadaptable, to food that came in bags and train rides where he couldn't even turn his head. He had no reaction, no past experiences to draw from, nothing at all that could have framed any sort of context around the untouched nature around him. He dragged himself up, picking leaves out of his long hair.

"Hmm..." he searched the contents of his bag and pockets before letting out a soft sigh. "My phone isn't on me, apologies."

He had his journals with him at least. They were worthless outside of his office, but it felt reassuring in a visceral sort of way to have something familiar alongside him. The more he tried to piece together the events he could recall, the more they drifted around in his head like a foggy dream. There were other people around him, also stumbling around. Another pang of reassurance. Whatever had just transpired, he wasn't alone.

"My name is Iyasu Kaito." His fingers slid in the pocket of his dress shirt for a business card, but he corrected himself before taking one out. This wasn't an appropriate situation to do that. Then again, he couldn't exactly figure out what sort of situation this was at all. "'Whoever threw us out'... is that what happened?" His voice was soft, but its prodding was as strong as ever. Having been tossed here along with others would have explained some things, at least.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Laughing Worg Tavern - The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

"We can talk about this later if you'd like."

"...if you'd like."

It irked him. Far more than he thought possible, his brother's terse response had irked him. He did that a lot, dumbing things down enough so that Alex and his passing interest could grasp whatever important thing was happening in the world of technology or Pariah Online. It came as a shock to him that Logan hadn't acted any differently. It was as if his brother still saw him as a bored and uninvolved non-gamer that needed condensed explanations. That he drew such a bold conclusion from Alex's paragraph of writing felt like a disrespect to all the danger he'd already been subjected to.

He rapped his knuckles against the tavern's tables, oblivious to the occasional glance from denizens and wayfarers alike. He arrived far too early, but that was fine. It gave him time to settle down and reflect, at least. The lack of information from his brother had only stoked his worries rather than quelled them. He desperately wanted to know more, both about his brother and the guild. What did it mean when the name of someone he knew was written next to the word "injured"? What did it mean when he described guild politics as "crazy"? He couldn't just pay for a carriage and find out for himself. He would have to somehow transmit as much of his feelings onto a parchment as possible. Even the idea of that was irritating.

"Man..." he groaned, letting his knuckles drag against the wood.

Seele arrived not long after. She took a seat beside him and let out a yawn halfway through her sentence, drawing a smirk from his pensive expression.

"Did you go to bed late back in the real world? All our bad habits are gonna start catching up to us now, you know." He always struggled to eat at regular times given his propensity to throw himself at tasks, and Pariah had done a good job of reminding him how deeply engrained that had been in his personality. He didn't feel guilty about it though. Taverns didn't ask questions if you showed up at weird times, after all.

"I honestly just wanna get things done. Yeah, danger and all that, but being cooped up and talking to people all the time is getting to me I think." He leaned forward to rest his chin on the palms of his hands, tossing aside the stray memories of every strained conversation he'd been subjected to since the announcement. He was supposed to be the awkward one in introductions, so having everyone else start acting even worse hadn't been an enjoyable experience.

"Hmm, but going to the hallmasters probably means good cash. It sounds bad saying this out loud, but we're gonna need it on a regular basis." His brain had begun to connect the modern idea of a job performed every day with the fantastical world of Pariah Online despite his hesitation to do so. "Regular basis as in making it a habit to do this a lot, talking to our hallmasters a lot, building a reputation." The irritation that he'd been amassing reached its peak as he pushed out his conclusion.

"Looking at what we're doing like a job, basically. A real job for our now real world." He groaned.

Enter: Into an Isekai World

Kaito

K A I T O

“In order to communicate one's feelings properly, one should make a conscious effort to use the passive voice less. Huh, why do I always use it then? That's... not funny.”

Overview

---

_Name

Iyasu Kaito

_Age

Twenty-four

_Gender

Male

_Occupation

Therapist

Characterization & Conceptualization

---

_{What Do They Look Like?}

Kaito's appearance has been likened to that of a prince throughout various points in his life, although whether the people saying such things were mocking him or not is something he's never been sure about. His long, flowing hair trails farther than that of most men, and his eyes always seem to be sporting a gentle sheen over their green irises. His body is just as delicate, with smooth skin over a tall, thin frame. He pays little attention to his clothing, often wearing dress shirts too large for him. Unbeknownst to him it only accentuates his slender features more, draping across his body in a style reminiscent of a flowing blouse someone would have worn in another age.

_{What Are They Like?}

At the edge of dusk when his working hours are done, Kaito often finds himself collapsing over his bed, his hair spilling out in tendrils like the dead plants surrounding him in his cramped apartment. The sight looks like the sobering ending to a particularly depressing fairytale, one in which the prince finds himself at a dead end job, pestered by his family to carry their legacy and marry. But he doesn’t mope. He thinks, hard. It’s in moments like these his gentle disposition shifts towards a far bolder one, one where his eyebrows rock to the steady beat of his thoughts and his legs find themselves crossing and uncrossing an untold number of times. Problems are distressing to him, but solving them is what keeps him going. People trust him with theirs, and guiding his patients through them is the source of his momentum.

Kaito is passive, although not the least bit reserved in sharing his thoughts. His neverending anxiousness at the world at large never wanes, but he’s grown skilled at weaponizing it to deal with problems. If he’s not analyzing something, he’s reflecting on a previous analysis. If he’s not doing either of those things, he’s finding something new to worry about. The beat of his drum is slow and sometimes misaligned with the speed of the rest of the world, but it never stops.

_{What's Their Story?}

Born as an only child to strict parents in Yokohama, Kaito’s life was never truly calm. There was always some chore or task to be fulfilled, be it some test to pull an all-nighter for or an overcrowded train to board. He felt like a lab rat racing along to a never ending circuit of alarms and authority figures, gaining nothing but fleeting approval from his parents and pieces of paper with signatures on them along the way. A lifetime’s worth of these experiences rendered him into somewhat of a hermit, one with no interest beyond his small office and the most underwhelming of life’s pleasures.

He is now twenty-four years old, satisfied with life yet too displeased to fully enjoy it. It was as if his parents' voices had permanently ingrained themselves inside his mind, scrutinizing every minor aspect of the things he found joy in.

_{Why Did The Wish Choose Them?}

Kaito’s knowledge of pop culture and video games begins and ends with public advertisements and whatever distraction of the month has found itself in his cellphone. He is, in the eyes of his parents and extended family, a failure with little to no chance of ever achieving a respectable career or a dignified marriage. There is no sane reason to ever consider him a potential hero. And yet… there is a desire within him, one to not only directly confront the world around him, but even help others along the way.

_{What "Hero" Will They Embody? Why?}

As the hero of sorcery, Kaito has a penchant for the mental rather than the physical. Taking apart the elements of anything that wasn’t a solid object had always been something of a second nature to him, so even something as bizarre as the arcane has an odd familiarity to it.

_{What Belongings Will They Take With Them?}

• A shoulder bag for men. The light design is enough for just the essentials.
• A pair of ragged journals that have been through years of being tossed around and scrawled on. They serve as a general reference guide for certain topics, although their contents range from messy to nearly indecipherable to anyone that isn’t him.
• A stuffed mouse plush. One of the many small trinkets he used to decorate his office with to create a calmer atmosphere. He won it from a crane game a long time ago.

Talents & Abilities

---

_{Mundane Talents}

• Good at arcade games - Kaito considers himself a naturally lucky person, but it’s in arcade games meant for a younger audience where he truly feels that shine.
• All of the general knowledge you would expect a licensed therapist to know.

_{Achieved Abilities & Knowledges}

N/A

Enter: Into an Isekai World

Duster’s Odyssey (A Space Western) (Interest Gathering and Discussion)

interested OwO

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Laughing Worg -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Alex trailed behind Alja, lagging behind as he ruminated on her ideas. He expected his guesswork was going to be completely off the mark. Still, it was a bummer to have been shot down so fast. She was right, there were just too many bizarre things happening all at once in order for this to have been some glitch. Glitches were like... going through a wall, some weapon not working, individual things that were self-contained like that. He hated to think about this like some sort of conspiracy theorist, but such a complicated series of events triggering made a lot more sense if it was intentional, the more he thought about it.

He took a seat near the others with none of the neat and awkward behavior he'd shown when they first met. Instead, he alternated between being splayed out to bouncing a leg whenever an interesting suggestion would come up. He wasn't familiar with the intricacies of dreaming, rather it was the possible chance at getting answers that perked him up.

"Well..." he started, All we can do now is survive.

He stopped before the words left his mouth. They weren't developers or moderators or anyone with any power above being just another player. Their insights, at the end of the day, weren't going to differ much, both among themselves and every other wayfarer they would cross paths with. It felt wrong to give in so quickly, however. His newfound courage wouldn't allow it.

"There's gotta be some people who worked on this game logged on. There just has be. People like that one guy who gave alerts when this first started knew about this before we did," he paused for a moment, as if he was trying to convince himself just as much as everyone else, "They could help us out."

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Laughing Worg -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

As the wayfarers discussed the new behavior exhibited by the denizens, Alex's mind crackled with new ideas, none of them constructive. It was as if he was subconsciously in some stage of denial, one in which he refused to come to terms with the gravity of their situation. He thought back to the "tech demo" theory of his he'd shared back when they had no idea what was happening. What if it was one? Their reactions could have been recorded somehow, as part of some messed up way to advertise how believable their new update was. It could've been like one of those prank shows where a camera crew would pop out at the last possible second to inform they had all been tricked.

Tempting to believe. But no, it wasn't the truth.

He wanted to sigh loudly, slap his arms on the table, do something to get the frustration out of him. But a strange new inhibition gripped at him. This was basically the real world now, so doing something like that would have been rude. It was a weird new feeling.

"Could've just been the game not working," he interjected, his voice not matching the more hushed tones the rest had started with. If a lifetime of growing up around people who were obsessed with videogames had taught him anything, it was that the only thing they loved more than videogames was complaining about them. Deadlines, microtransactions, botched sequels, rushed ports, he was vaguely aware of all of the ways a complex thing made of thousands of tiny lines of code could keel over and explode. He wanted to avoid speaking out due to his inexperience with technology, but the idea seemed too obvious not to blurt out.

"Games take years to make, and even after all they go through there's still glitches or whatever. Who's to say this isn't one? This game's a lot more ambitious than a regular one too." He avoided eye contact with the denizens. He wasn't sure if it was rude or not, but he reasoned he'd find it uncomfortable if the people he was making pancakes for were questioning his existence.

The Voyagers of Duonia: A Medieval Fantasy RP

---

Ludith said nothing, content to let the more talkative members of their group determine their overall strategy. She had come to the conclusion that Entyrea's appearance would be a liability earlier, but assumed it wouldn't be an issue given their collective strength. It was an animalistic sort of mindset, in truth. Huddled together they were strong and had much blades and magic between them. Anyone who wanted to disrespect them would have to be bigger and stronger. It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't probable either, so she simply didn't worry about it.

"There are a lot of us. Too large of a risk if anyone tried to fight us as a group." The faintest smirk took shape across her face. All talk, no action. Planning was a necessary step she never shirked, but that didn't make it any less aggravating to stay cooped up in civilization as whatever creature of the night she was up against spilled more innocent blood. The mystery surrounding their mission made it bearable to pass through these calmer moments, at least.

"Our appearance," she told Dular. She gave the rest of the party a hardened look of approval. "Folks from all over. Attracts attention, but helps. Any trouble will have a hard time with us." It wasn't just gathering information she had been thinking about. Having such a variety of skillsets would be invaluable against any threat they weren't familiar with.