Chapter Text
Third-Person POV:
The resounding clamor of war had ceased, but its echoes still lingered in the air. Amidst a ruined Troy, where the shouts of fury and cries of agony had faded, only a heavy silence remained.
Fresh blood stained every piece of armor, soaked into sword blades, and dyed red the hundreds of bodies strewn across the ground. This was no game of the gods, nor a negotiation between mortals. This was a battlefield, where humans fought for what they protected: family, friends, and their way of life.
High above, a figure stood imposingly, with the demeanor of a king and the pain of a warrior: Odysseus. The victory was his, but in his eyes, the soldiers below saw only utter despair and agony. His existential crisis wasn't on the battlefield, but before a meticulously carved crib. Inside, an innocent baby, the same age as his son before he went to war, reached out its hands, asking to be held.
He could step forward, take that tiny hand, place a kiss on the soft forehead, and sing a protective lullaby. But all of that was impossible. The voice of the god Zeus, cold and cruel, echoed in his ears: "The Avenger”. Death was inevitable, and even a moment of weakness would have to be paid for with blood and tears.
Holding the baby in his arms, Odysseus took each step with a heavy heart. He walked past his loyal soldiers, past the battlefield littered with corpses, heading to the site of the final execution. On the walls of Troy, before hundreds of watching eyes, he held the child out over a dark, deep chasm.
No one dared to stop him; they all bowed their heads, turning away from the tragedy about to unfold. The wind gently rustled the cloth wrapped around the baby. Odysseus sang a final lullaby, both to comfort the child and to soothe himself. He closed his eyes, then let go.
The baby's cries went silent, the warmth in his hands gradually fading. When Odysseus opened his eyes, his hands were empty. He sank into a moment of mourning, praying for a peaceful next life for the child, when a whisper came from behind him:
"I told you, my G, he was gonna drop the baby. My predictions are never wrong in these kinds of movies”.
Grief-stricken and curious, Odysseus turned around. Before him were hundreds of faces, his soldiers and the Trojan prisoners. But the ones who had just uttered the words that broke the mournful atmosphere were two young men, standing in the middle of a circle of soldiers, looking completely out of place and bizarre.
••••••••••
The two strangers, seeming to realize the king's gaze was on them, immediately stopped their conversation. They showed no sign of mourning for the baby, nor did they look like they had just been through a life-or-death battle. They were tied up, the ropes not yet fully cut, and they had no intention of resisting or escaping. When Odysseus's eyes met theirs, they glanced at each other, exchanging a strange look, filled with an exaggerated expression that was hard to believe.
After the mysterious 'exchange' that Odysseus couldn't understand, one of the men gave the most forced smile he had ever seen, looking at him with a look that said, "who, me?" full of innocence.
The other guy, seeing his friend about to answer the king with a smile, couldn't help but be disappointed. He gave his friend a clear glare, quickly elbowing him despite being tied up, putting an end to this strange interaction.
Odysseus sighed inwardly. He decided to ignore the two strangers and deal with them later. Having just killed a baby, he didn't want another life on his hands. He ordered his soldiers to clear the battlefield and bring the surviving prisoners to the judgment area. He also instructed them to load supplies onto the ships, preparing to return.
Everything gradually returned to order. Half a day after the fall of Troy, as Odysseus, along with his generals Polites and Eurylochus, was overseeing the cleanup and checking supplies to treat the soldiers' wounds. And then five of his men approached, dragging the two strangers behind them. Unsurprisingly, they were the same two familiar faces from earlier.
"Leader, we have a problem with these two self-proclaimed tourists" a soldier reported, his face a mix of annoyance and bewilderment.
Odysseus looked at his men, then squinted at the two outsiders. He was about to dismiss them, thinking they were just making up a reason to escape. But the more he looked at them, the more he felt something strange about them. They didn't look like Trojans, or Ithacans, or even anyone from this land. That made them even more dangerous and suspicious.
They didn't hide anything, either, looking around with curious eyes, evaluating everyone's clothes and hairstyles, and sometimes spouting illogical, overly positive remarks like "he's so hot”.
And at the same time as Odysseus was assessing them, the guy who had given him the forced smile earlier looked up, meeting his eyes with a familiar gaze, as if reuniting with an old acquaintance. He smiled more brightly, his flattery clearly visible. Before Odysseus could speak, he bowed low, pulling his friend with him, kneeling as if worshiping a god.
"Oh, handsome King Odysseus of Ithaca! Please look upon us, two miserable wanderers, trapped in this war. We have been rescued by your mighty army!"
He looked up, pulling his companion to face Odysseus. The other guy, with a serious and determined expression, continued:
"And because of that, we are indebted to you, great Odysseus. We do not wish to remain in this place. My comrade and I beg you to let us follow you. We swear by the god Zeus we will not betray you, we only ask to be humble servants on your ship and prove our loyalty under your command.”
He finished his sentence, then looked at his friend. The other guy, with an admiring and glistening gaze as if trying to hold back a laugh, waited for Odysseus's answer. Odysseus was stunned. After a long moment, he took a deep breath to regain his composure, not only because some of those absurd statements had distracted from the real question.
"My soldiers say you are outsider of the war. So tell me, who are you, where do you come from, and why should we believe you?"
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Reader 1 POV:
It was a perfect weekend. My best friend and I were on our way to go camping in the north. Everything had been planned a month in advance. We were snacking, packing our things in the car, and listening to EPIC musical playlist, joyful music from the song "wouldn't you like" play along with the car.
'Awesome.' As I thought. Recently, I've been really into this genre of music, and my best friend who is 'my roommate, business partner, and everything’ type shit. was the one who introduced it to me.
"somebody who not afraid~" my friend sang along to the lyrics, trying to shove two giant backpacks into his hands as we were getting close to our destination. He was even trying to stuff some other things into them for 'emergencies'.
"To send a message~" I sang along, grabbing jackets for both of us and slowing the car down.
Everything was so happy at that moment, a moment we would normally laugh at afterward if we hadn't been forced to a sudden halt by a loud screeching sound up ahead. Then came the sound of my heart breaking, which could only describe my fear as we froze at the sight of a large logging truck driving straight toward the front of our car.
'Lost control' that's what I thought as the colossal truck didn't stop and pushed everything out of its extremely wide path, 'no escape’ that was the conclusion.
"Shit!" That was the last thing I heard from my friend before the windshield shattered in front of us. After all, in that final moment of our lives, our instinct to reach for each other kicked in. At least before we died, we would have each other on the way to heaven... or hell, wasn't so sure.
••••••••••
The ringing in my ears wouldn't stop. Everything felt like waking up from a sudden afternoon nap, not knowing if it was day or night or where I was. Only after five seconds of questioning my own existence, I remembered the scene before I passed out. I quickly thought that maybe we had been rescued and taken to the nearest medical station.
I reached out, searching for someone or something familiar. To my surprise, I could still move my body; I was worried I might have lost some limbs or been paralyzed. I tried to open my eyes wider to avoid falling back into a deeper sleep, moving my head to look around.
Panic set in as I only saw a line of trees around me. Surrounded by nature, I realized I was lying on the grass like a corpse left in a fairy-tale forest. I sat up to get a clearer view and found my partner's body next to me, curled up and pinned down by two giant backpacks—why did they get bigger every time we went out?
I let my friend continue sleeping, or at least he looked very comfortable in that state, drooling and snoring and all that. I stopped judging his stupid sleeping posture and continued to assess my surroundings. Everything was strange; there were no trees that I knew belonged to the species in the forest we were heading to. Smoke was rising in the distance, from what I thought were houses.
Everything was very wrong, VERY wrong!
The scare gone up, as my brain continued to work. No people, not a hospital, no injuries. Even if I wasn't a comic book fan, I knew this wasn't our original world or our original timeline.
'OMFG, are we've been transmigrated?!' A lot of emotions surged within me, and none of them were good. If this had never happened and it was a joke, I would have laughed so hard and argued that I swore I would survive it. But in this reality, I was 80% sure that my silly partner and I would die and likely become the most miserable beggars in a fairy tale.
The shock continued to hit me as I thought about my family, my life that was now in the past, the things I had lost because this was like death but it never stopped and just kept happening.
Before tears could fall, I noticed my friend starting to wake up. I watched him repeat the same actions I had just done to become lucid. And like the last string of hope, I remembered I still had my friend—the one I had on my emergency contact list. At least after all this, I still had him to remember the old place with.
"What?" After a few minutes of lucidity, my friend sat up and looked at me to confirm this strange phenomenon. I knew he also realized what we were stuck in. We silently looked at each other, tears welling up in both our eyes. This wasn't really fun when it became a reality.
We reached out to each other, embracing bitterly from the loss and seeking comfort. We shared warmth and confirmed we still had each other. When we let go after five minutes of shock, we looked back into each other's eyes. The first one to stand up was my comrade, who pulled me up with him, regaining his composure and looking toward the smoke.
"Now we can either go all-in and walk over there or choose to live a wild life for the rest of our days," my friend said with a reassuring or panicked smile—I wasn't sure—but I really didn't want to live in a place where I had to ration bath water and there was a chance of bugs getting into my ears.
I didn't answer him, still too shocked to speak. I walked to my backpack, thanking God once again that fate loved us enough to let us bring something from home. I grabbed mine and one of the jackets that I was pretty sure had been pulled with me through this.
"Put everything in the backpack. I don't want us to be too bulky and easy to spot the difference," I told my friend, pointing to both our outfits. At least our clothes were just gray and black, no logos, and looked like pajamas, so if we got lost in ancient times, we would look like crazy people wearing pajamas or farmers from a distant land.
My partner said nothing and just nodded in agreement. He also went to grab his things and followed me to what might be an architectural complex like a village that I prayed wasn't a cannibalistic tribe.
Speaking of which, I gestured to my friend, telling him to do the same as I did and pull out the fish spear from the side of the backpack—dear God, what did he stuff into my bag? With the spear ready in hand in case of an ambush, I knew our survival skills were very low, but even if they were that low, we had to survive for one day for the fam.
I looked at ourselves for a moment and a small smile appeared on my face because, honestly, we looked ridiculous. Pitiful? Yes. Scared? Yes. Hilariously absurd? Absolutely.
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Reader 2 POV:
"Let's stop here. I think we should hide our things here and go check it out. If things don't work out and we have to run, at least the lighter weight will help us run faster." My partner, after a period of silent walking, called out to me as we passed by the most eye-catching rock in the pile of rocks I had seen on the road.
I looked back at my friend; he was panicking and becoming more calculated. I remember that when things were normal back home, we were like one entity and shared the same two brain cells, but in a serious situation like this, I understood that my friend was becoming a genius at calculations.
We were only halfway there, and our destination was a short distance away. I stopped thinking and agreed that leaving our things here was the best plan out of a hundred bad ones. If we had to run and things didn't work out, we could hide here and take the backpacks another way. Otherwise, we would be slow and lose our stuff.
"It'll be okay," I mumbled and finally spoke up as we hid our things with my friend under the rock that was considered the most suitable hiding spot and easy to find when we came back. It was a prayer for both of us and a comfort for my friend who was constantly stressed. At least death in a comfortable state was better than being crushed by fabric and plastic.
He patted my shoulder and pulled me along with his arm, holding the two fish spears. My friend smiled back... Damn it, this sounded like a farewell between two main characters, and one of them was going to die. I prayed to God that we were just some unlucky NPCs stuck in this.
"How much do you bet we can speak the same language as the strangers, or we'll have to use body language to communicate?" To make the atmosphere less sad, I joked to relieve the tension, and I really wanted to know the answer to this, because I definitely couldn't learn another new language.
"How much do you want to bet that no matter what we say, it'll never be good?" My friend also tried to joke back with a very optimistic spirit, really optimistic. I rolled my eyes, trying to hold back a big laugh because we both had this terrible dark sense of humor.
---
Honestly, things could have been worse, or better. Because after walking a long distance, we realized we had arrived at a fortress-like structure for fighting. We found out we could talk to the locals—'”thank God there's civilization because it would be terrible to live in a place with only animals”said by the other yapper I get stuck to'—with their language automatically translating into English like magic, which made us freeze before the speaker repeated their question.
Then things got worse when we were mistaken for enemies because I do be heard them say, "these fools think we won't notice spies?" and were dragged away before we could run because we didn't expect to be surrounded by armored soldiers.
We went through what felt like a nightmare, being dragged, beaten, and interrogated about what we were plotting. It wasn't until night that we were finally tied up in some dungeon. My tears wouldn't stop as I saw my comrade being dragged over to me, no better off than I was, but seeing that one of us was still alive was already good enough.
We looked at each other tiredly, leaning against each other to accept that this was the end of our fate. My friend's lips trembled as he tried to speak, because we were both thirsty and hungry. He looked at me with a mix of fear and... excitement.
"I think we're in the world of EPIC," he said in a final moment of shock and exhilaration, trying to force a smile through his tears of pain. "We can beg for help from that Ody guy and we can live bud."
I looked at my comrade with a mix of belief and doubt. I wouldn't ask him why he thought that, because a part of me had guessed it since the guards here couldn't keep their mouths shut, and the cloth wraps were a dead giveaway. But like I wasn't sure why he thought this was the EPIC world or just some ancient play.
"I heard about the wooden horse in the city, and, AND I also noticed the sound of a melody from a distance. I'm sure this is the EPIC world," my comrade looked at me more resolutely, whispering so only we could hear.
From that, I suddenly woke. The melody. That's right, the melody. I don't know about others, but I'm pretty sure it felt like there was background music, the sound of trees and wind synchronized in a better rhythm, and everyone's voices were more melodic. And for that to be the case, it could only mean one thing: we were in a musical, a musical world where the chance of dying was less or a little bit better than in reality.
And EPIC, oh my God, the world of EPIC where Odysseus was the biggest simp I had ever seen. With all that information combined, I became even more excited because it all sounded so, SO, absurd!
And what does transmigrating into an absurd setting mean? It means you will survive if you follow the flow, you have to break every narrative of this world and cling to the main character to ask for survival! Or get the best death. And in most of the comics I've read, supporting characters like us right now won't die early if we don't accidentally push the plot forward. And if you want to live better, you have to be loyal to the main character.
My eyes widened as I looked at my comrade. A sly smile gradually appeared on our faces. 'Hard to die' tiller was a same thought we both came to. The smile grew even brighter as a pile of plans to become loyal comrades of the great Ody appeared in our minds.
•••••••••••
"I'll ask you again, who are you and where are you from?" Oh, great Zeus, why did he so needy? My ‘business smile’ felt stuck, just to flatter him as much as possible. Like the real here, we hadn't slept, had been tied up for half a day, and had no food or drink, we only had one brain cell left to share, and Odysseus baby kept demanding our ID.
"Deer the great Odysseus, we are wanderers from a distant land, a place called Kansas in the land of Gotham. Our homeland was struck by the wrath of the gods because of our foolish leader, it was taken over and fell, causing our people to flee our homeland and cast themselves out to sea."
I quick looked straight at my friend with a lot of emotion, 'damn.' Just one day of mental breakdown, and my friend had become the biggest fraud I had ever seen, and I didn't even feel a bit of guilt for his lie.
My friend continue with the voice could have won an Oscar and wanted to emotionally manipulate as much as possible. He continued. "My name is Bruce," he pointed to himself, then pointed at me. "and this is Clark." '???'
"We were separated from our families during the escape, with only us remaining when the raft floated out to sea. And because life couldn't get any better, we were hit by a big wave right after, and when we woke up, we were here with what little we had left." He bowed his head, and I admired him even more as a tear rolled down his cheek... a tear rolled down mine, too, because yeah it was true we had no one left.
"We were captured when we mistakenly sought help from them, mistaken for people belonging to you, Sir Odysseus, we were seen as being on your side. We were captured and imprisoned, tortured about things we knew nothing about," he embraced me, and thank God I was never on his opposite side.
"So after understanding what was happening and what we went through, I thought it would be best if they think we're on your side, let's just make it a reality. After all, someone who has no home to return to should find a new anchor and a new home, right?"
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Third-Person POV:
Odysseus didn't know how to react. Their story sounded absurd, but what he saw was too real: two people in strange clothes, the faces of lost souls, and the genuine pain when they spoke of loss. They leaned on each other, like two wild animals who had been through trauma.
He turned to Polites and Eurylochus for advice. Eurylochus's eyes widened in annoyance; he just wanted to get rid of these two. In contrast, Polites looked at them with sympathy.
"Odysseus," Polites said only one word, but he understood what he meant. Polites wanted to keep these two.
"No! You can't keep these two strangers on the ship!" Eurylochus protested. "We can't know if they're telling the truth!"
Before an argument could break out, the cheerful guy -Clark- raised his hand to speak. He didn't even wait for everyone to stop, shouting: "We have knowledge, information from our homeland that we can trade with you! Your country will prosper more!"
"And we have a hunch that if we follow you, the journey home will be better," the more serious one added after his friend. He might have been joking, but the deep look he gave Odysseus showed that they knew some things.
A shiver ran down Odysseus's spine. He looked back and forth at his two friends and then sighed. Making a decision after some thought, Odysseus nodded and gestured for Polites to approach them.
"Great! So, it's decided, you two now belong to us. The ticket to enter is an exchange of information," Polites happily walked to them, shaking their hands and pulling them up after 15 minutes of them kneeling and begging Odysseus.
Odysseus looked at them to make sure there was no resistance to his dear friend, then looked around at the crowd, where a lot of his men were standing around to see what was happening. Taking a breath, Odysseus gave a command, "My brothers, today we will welcome two more people into our ranks, lost souls trapped in our war, who have reached out and asked to join our homeland, promising knowledge and loyalty in exchange for a new beginning."
He stepped in front of the two now-stunned people, took their shoulders, and turned them to face the soldiers around. "Bruce and Clark, from Kansas in the land of Gotham."
Whispers spread through the crowd, and then everyone went back to their work. Odysseus ordered the five men who were still standing there, ready to block the two newcomers if they tried to run, to untie them. Then Odysseus turned back to look at the two new men.
"Polites and my men will arrange work for you to do, and you will have to exchange some information that Polites deems most necessary," Odysseus said seriously, pointing to Polites and then walking away to manage the rest of the crew. "I will come back to see you at the end of the day."
••••••••••
After Odysseus left, the two new people turned to look at Polites like two dogs waiting for a command. The three pairs of eyes looked back and forth before Polites gave a fake cough and made his first statement to them as non-prisoners.
"So, it's settled. Since you're ours now, I think you can help us by setting up the ropes for the sails to prepare to set out to sea, obviously, with supervision and other comrades working with you," Polites professionally laid out the plan, looking at the five men still standing there to indicate that they would work with the two newcomers.
While no one argued with the arrangement, the cheerful one, or Clark 'what a strange name but he won't say much about it to them since they're outsider though' raised his hand, waving it as if he didn't want to be ignored mean while he really standing in front of Polites.
"Ah, um, Polites, sir. We really want to get to work right now as you said, but, um, I would like to ask for some food and drink for me and my partner, a little is fine as long as there's food and-"
"And we would also like to wash and retrieve what we lost before we begin," the serious one—ah, no, Bruce '?'—added, standing in front of his friend and bowing his head in a way that made Polites freeze from the solemnity.
"Being in the dungeon with bugs and wounds, to avoid infection or spreading it to others, I think it's best to clean ourselves." Bruce held out his forearm and his friend's shoulder, revealing the whip marks that were trying to heal. Polites also noticed the foul smell, like a combination of dead rats and human blood. It smelled even worse than his men after the battle.
Bruce then smiled at him, pulling his friend who was rubbing his shoulder from being pulled, and gestured for both of them to look at him with puppy-dog eyes. 'How can they do that when they're grown men??'
"And as for our belongings, when we drifted here, we brought two bags containing mementos from our homeland. To protect them, we hid them before being captured. And now that we're preparing to go to a new land to settle, we wish to bring them with us. You can have someone monitor us to prevent any escape attempts, and I'm sure the path to our hiding spot is very close."
He was very thorough and professional, in Polites's opinion. It seemed like he had been in the army or was some kind of leader back in his homeland.
And the most interesting thing to Polites in all of this was their mementos. I mean, look at these two. Even though they were covered in layers of dirt and grime, he could still make out their healthy skin and the clothes they were wearing. All of this suggested either that their homeland was wealthier, or they were some kind of nobility. No matter which option it was, there must be something precious among their belongings and knowledge to be learned.
His eyes lit up as he looked at them. Raising an eyebrow, Polites happily agreed.
"Alright, it's true, I can smell the misery from you two. Let me lead you to the crew's communal bathing area, and then we'll prepare to go get what you want."
Polites walked ahead, with the two strangers standing a bit to his right to observe. Polites, along with two other large men, was instructed to walk with the two newcomers toward the communal area.
"I will also have someone bring you some food and water after you clean up. Don't worry, the food from the Trojans is still leftover after the war," he said slowly on the way, ignoring some of the dead bodies on the road that were being cleared.
A growling sound from the more optimistic one's stomach was heard very quickly when he heard the word "food." He covered his stomach, blushing as everyone looked at him. His partner also looked back with a murderous glare, hitting the optimistic one's stomach and then acting like he hadn't done anything when the other looked back at him with a betrayed expression.
"Dude?!" Oh my, Polites thought he was starting to lose respect for Bruce because this was the most childish behavior he had ever seen from a man who had just negotiated so meticulously. At least this was something he only saw in the younger soldiers when they were set free.
His lips twitched as he tried to hold back a smile and raised an eyebrow at this childish behavior. He gestured that they had arrived.
"Alright, you two can clean yourselves up before the meal. Go wash your clothes because we will lend you some of the leftover clothes from the city." Polites made way with the others to give them some space, as the area was already surrounded by people with different duties and resting, so an escape would be impossible.
••••••••••
Before the prying eyes on the two newcomers gradually faded, leaving them alone to go into the bathing area, the words from the optimistic one rang out.
"Hey, now that we're calm down... do you notice that our bodies feel strange?"
"..."
They both looked down at their bodies and terrible saw that they were very, very gender-neutral looking body... not clearly male or female type a body
"??!!"
