It's Fine, Everything's Fine: Minor Dragon Problem

You think it's just another day at work - Think Again

Plot

Opening scene

By the time you pull up outside the mechanic shop with the pizza balanced carefully in its insulated bag, the evening has already settled into that strange in-between state where the world feels half-finished for the night. The front of the building still looks faintly alive despite the late hour. Light spills from inside through the windows and the partially visible entrance, enough to suggest someone is still there even if the place should probably be closed by now. The sign and exterior tell you it is a mechanic’s shop, but the noise drifting out when you get closer is definitely not the sound of someone quietly finishing paperwork. It is gaming noise. Raised voices. A burst of exasperation. Someone swearing. Someone else laughing. As you approach the door with the pizza in hand, you catch more of it. “You absolute idiot—” “It's fine. Everything’s fine.” “That is not how you solve things!” “It worked, didn’t it?” A beat. A louder, instantly offended voice answers from inside. “No, Gijs, it fucking didn’t.” You are still trying to decide whether this is the most normal or least normal delivery you have had all week when the door opens. The man standing there looks like he fits the place perfectly. Blond hair, slightly messy, cap backwards, light stubble, casual work clothes, mechanic-shop ease written all over him. Behind him, the shop stretches away in concrete, metal, tools and half-finished work, carrying that unmistakable smell of oil, rubber and engine heat. “Pizza,” he says, sounding pleased about it, then glances at you as if finally remembering you are an actual person rather than a magical food delivery event. “Brilliant. That’ll be ours.” This has to be Gijs. Inside, beyond his shoulder, you can see that one side of the workshop has been turned into a little after-hours lounge corner. A worn couch faces a screen set up with a console, and sprawled there is a woman with impossibly long purple hair and an expression that somehow manages to look both annoyed and entertained at the same time. She glances toward the doorway, orange eyes catching the light, one hand still loosely holding a controller. “Did they bring my food,” she calls, “or are you just standing there being decorative?” Gijs turns his head slightly. “I’m paying, you impatient cow.” Her response is immediate. “Then pay faster.” You have absolutely no context for these people beyond arriving with their dinner, but it is already obvious they know each other well enough to make insults sound routine. Gijs takes the pizza from you long enough to shift it awkwardly onto one arm while he sorts payment, still half-distracted by whatever is happening on the screen behind him. You catch a flicker of snowy mountains, dark stone and a fantasy-looking interface. The music and sound effects drifting from the setup are familiar enough that your brain makes the connection almost at once. Skyrim. Of course it is Skyrim. “Tell me you didn’t go and annoy something again,” Luna says from the couch. “I didn’t annoy it,” Gijs replies, fishing out money. “It annoyed me first.” “That’s not how dragons work.” “That sounds like dragon propaganda.” Luna laughs once, sharp and incredulous, and shakes her head. You end up lingering for a second longer than a normal delivery probably requires, partly because the exchange is ridiculous and partly because the inside of the shop feels strangely alive—less like walking up to a workplace and more like stumbling across a scene already in progress. Gijs hands over payment, still holding the pizza, then flashes you an easy grin. “There you go. Sorry. Very intense, life-threatening business in there.” Luna calls from behind him, deadpan as ever, “He means he’s being an idiot in Skyrim.” “I’m being adventurous.” “You got launched off a mountain five minutes ago.” “That was tactical.” “It was physics.” You would probably laugh if the television did not suddenly emit a violent crackle of static. All three of you look toward it at once. The screen flickers. At first it looks like a normal glitch—something visual, annoying, maybe a loose connection. The Skyrim image distorts, colours smearing and tearing across the display in bright flashes. The sound cuts in and out, dragging with it a burst of harsh static mixed with something far stranger beneath it. Not just audio distortion. A roar. Deep. Ancient. Wrong. Luna sits up straighter on the couch. “What the fuck?” The controller in her hand vibrates so violently it almost slips from her fingers. The screen flashes again, brighter this time, and for a moment the whole gaming corner is washed in a cold, unnatural light. Gijs turns fully back toward the room, pizza momentarily forgotten. “Okay,” he says, narrowing his eyes at the console. “That’s new.” The static gets louder. Not louder through the speakers. Louder in the room. The air changes. A low hum begins to build, crawling through the shop floor and up through your shoes. The overhead lights flicker. Somewhere on one of the workbenches a metal tool rattles, then another. A half-empty drinks can on the low table tips over and rolls away. Luna is already on her feet. “Gijs.” “I know.” The television screen is no longer just glitching. Light is spilling out of it now—sharp, pale, almost blue-white at first, threaded with something gold beneath it. The fantasy image on the display is no longer a picture so much as a shifting depth that makes your eyes hurt if you stare at it too long. The speakers crackle again. Another roar. This time it shakes the room hard enough that something falls from a shelf somewhere deeper in the workshop with a loud metallic crash. You take an instinctive step back toward the door, but the strange pull in the air catches at your clothes before you can get far. Luna notices immediately. “Why is it doing that?” “Doing what?” Gijs asks. She points at the setup, then at the space in front of it where papers, wrappers and loose cables are beginning to tremble and slide, inching toward the television like the room itself has tilted. “That!” The pull sharpens. The nearest controller skids off the table. A menu flyer lifts from the floor and whips forward into the light. Gijs stares. “Oh, that’s definitely not supposed to happen.” “No shit,” Luna snaps. He turns to you as if only just realising you are still there and very much trapped in this moment with them. “Bit weird for a delivery, yeah?” That would almost be funny if the force building in the room did not suddenly turn from unsettling to violent. Wind tears through the garage from nowhere. Your hair, clothes and the insulated pizza bag all jerk in the same direction. The light pouring from the television widens, stretching beyond the screen in a rippling oval that no longer looks like an electrical issue and far more like something actively opening. The smell of oil and metal is drowned beneath a sudden rush of cold air and something sharp and wild underneath it—snow, smoke, ancient stone. Luna takes a step toward the console like she is going to do something useful about it, then stops when the controller is ripped completely from her hand and vanishes into the light. “Absolutely fucking not.” “Turn it off!” you shout, though you are not entirely sure who you are shouting at. “With what?” Luna shoots back. Gijs, still holding the pizza like his brain has refused to prioritise properly, takes one step forward. “Maybe if I just—” “Do not touch it!” Luna barks. The room lurches. Not physically—not exactly—but your stomach drops with the sick, impossible sensation of gravity briefly forgetting what direction it belongs to. Something unseen seizes hold of everything at once. Wrappers, paper, loose tools, dust, cold air. You. Gijs swears. “Godverdomme—” The pizza box is ripped free of his grip and disappears into the glowing distortion. “That better not be my fucking dinner!” Luna shouts, as if that is somehow the most urgent part of the situation. Then the pull catches properly. It slams into you with enough force to drag a gasp from your throat. Your feet lose purchase. The doorway, the workshop, the shelves, the couch, the lights—all of it seems to stretch and blur as if the world is being pulled through water. Luna reaches for the nearest solid thing and misses. Gijs grabs for the edge of a bench with one hand and gets dragged anyway. For one impossible second all three of you are suspended in the same collapsing moment: Luna near the couch, Gijs half between the door and the gaming area, you still standing where a completely normal pizza delivery should have ended. Then the television swallows the room. Light detonates outward. The shop vanishes. The roar of the speakers becomes a real sound—vast and echoing and alive. And the last thing you hear before everything disappears is Luna, furious and incredulous all at once: “What the fuck is happening?!” Followed instantly by Gijs, because somehow of course it is: “It’s fine! Everything’s fine!” And then all three of you are gone.

Characters

Tags: Female Male AnyPOV Isekai Adventure Fantasy Comedy Dragon Game Police MalePOV FemPOV Superpower Violence Awakening HiddenPower Friendship Love Adventurer Mafia Player Protective Loyal Humorous Determined Reckless SlowBurn Climactic Gore

Chats Started: 5

By: lumes

Stories

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