Chapter Text
June 1999
(Y/N) (L/n) was a 29 year-old guy living in the US even though he's from polish descent. He moved out from his parents house at age 19 after a few years of neglect from his father.
(Y/n)'s mum died when he was 16 leaving his father to just completely forgotten about his son and go back into drinking. So the young man decided to move far away and start living on his own.
The man was pretty introverted, never made any long or deep connections with people and as much as he wanted to be with someone in a relationship, his autism and being introverted didn't help. And because (Y/n) was bisexual, with a strong preference for men and he wasn't exactly fond of the idea being beat half to death if he accidentally asked out the wrong person.
But at least he had video games it was something that he obsessed over. Beating them, trying to make them hard by manipulating the code, trying new challenges. He'd played certain games over 15 times, especially adventure games. (Y/n) lived for the thrill, even though he would never do any of the things he did in the video games because of fear (and he could easily die). But in the games he was invincible and felt so much better then doing day to day things. He could finally be himself.
(Y/n) usually make's some money on repairing video games console and recently computers, so he'd always have some money to pay for utilities, food and new video games. For most people the man was pretty forgettable, especially with how little he was seen in public. Of course living a bit away from the suburbs did help not being seen all that much to (Y/n)'s delight.
Usually (Y/n) rarely goes out for walks but since it was getting a lot warmer he decided to go for one today. (Y/n) specially waited for the late afternoon to head out to the beach where he knew there would be very little people, the whole walk would take now more than an hour or two.
After a long week he definitely needed to get some fresh air and time to clear his head.
By the time the boy got to the beach the sun was slowly getting to the horizon and settling but as (Y/n) walked down the beach he starred to hear drums. Confused he looked around to maybe find someone playing the drums but he was all alone on the beach. So he started to look around him on the sand, maybe there he'd find something. Slowly he scanned the sand as he made his way towards the sound until it stopped and (Y/n) could see the corner of a wooden box.
It kinda freaked him out but curiousity got the best of him so he uncovered the box and took it in his hands. He blew on the remaining sand and said
"Ju-jumanji...huh"
The drums had stopped which made the (h/c) think for a bit that he was imagining the drums.
(Y/n) saw that there was away to open the box but out of concern that whatever inside could get lost, he just stood up and made his way back home. As he was just a few meters away from his house he jogged the rest back.
As he entered his home he locked the door, went upstairs to his room and placed the box on his bed. The man changed his clothes to a simple 'Boys don't cry' t shirt and some black shorts. After that he sat on the bed and opened the box. It looked like a boardgame, it was beautifully made with incredible detail but boardgames were never really his thing.
'Damn, I haven't played one in years...but can't really play a boardgame by myself. I'll just keep it a decoration for now'
(Y/n) though to himself, so he placed it on his night stand and went downstairs. He shut all the blinds and turned on a few lights, nothing too bright because (Y/n) hates massive amounts of light. Smaller, warm lights are a lot better, especially something like candle light or just in general fire light. The sun during summer he can handle but mostly with sunglasses otherwise it can become hell for him.
Walking over to the kitchen he stopped at the counter where a notepad layed. The page was full of male names which some where crossed out.
(Y/n) closed his eyes and moved his finger about the notepad until he stopped and dropped his finger. Opening his eyes he saw which name he selected.
'Andy'
"Andy, it's really nice to meet you. You look really beautiful tonight- wait scratch that, I think that's too much, you look really nice tonight. You have really pretty eyes, just like gemstones. Hopefully I can accompany you tonight?"
"... tonight must be my weakest night, damnit. Geez, I must sound so cringy. Fuuuck"
(Y/n) cursed under his breath. Every now and then (Y/n) picks a random name and works on his flirting or just general talking skills. Usually he's really good with his charm and dare I say subduction abilities but tonight it's not going the way he wanted it too. Maybe tomorrow he'll try again in the afternoon or something like that.
By himself (Y/n) was different person in the way he acted, he was a lot more confident and smooth with talking but applying it to the real world was extremely difficult for him.
And as much as he craves a romantic relationship or friendship with people he does feel embarrassing and unsure when he wants to meet new people or just sees people in general. Everyone feels so oddly foreign which detours (Y/n) away from them. But at least he still tries in the avent of him actually managing to push pass his fears and talk to someone.
The boy opened a cabinet and took out some crisps and got himself a glass of water. He made is way back upstairs to his room and placed his food on a small table Infront of his bed. He had to move a few of his controllers, remotes and a few wires off it to make room.
Infront of his bed, up against the wall, there was a TV and a few consoles underneath it. Around the TV we're stack's of video games cases and cartridges while on the wall, film and video game posters were hung. Around his bed there were band posters mostly of goth, new wave and electronic musicians/bands.
While starting to eat the crisps, (Y/n) switched on two small lamps that lit up the room a bit. After that the boy started to look through his video game selection but nothing seemed to fit in terms of what he wanted to play. Either he's not interested in the game, played it too many times or just simply got bored of it.
(Y/n) let out a loud sigh, he really does want to play something but doesn't have anything. Even with 50+ games, nothing seemed to interest him.
As (Y/n) was about to grab another hand full of crisps he heard the drums again. (Y/n) felt a slow paralyzing fear/shock run through his whole body, he really thought for a second on the beach that he was imagining hearing the drums. But now, for a second time, no. It must be real. So (Y/n) turned around finally because curiosity wouldn't let him just ignore it. He got closer to the game and as he had his hands just millimeters away from touching it, the drums stopped.
He opened the game and there was a cartridge, no more board game just a simple plastic cartridge with a sticker that had the name Jumanji on it. A wave of excitement ran over
(Y/n). He practically jumped to his consoles, almost falling on his face during the process. (Y/n) carefully put the cartridge in and started the game. The boys smile began to widen by the second as he hit start and looked at the character selection. He liked all of the characters but wanted to try something out.
So he took that hand full of crisps and began to eat it as (Y/n) started tinkering with the system, it's code, absolutely anything that he could. There were two patches of code that he did mess around with but did nothing at least what (Y/n) knows about.
Finally after an hour and a bowl of crisps later the screen showed a customer character creator. He picked his character to be male and tried to replicate himself as best as he could. For clothing, he wore a white tank top, forest green cargo shorts and a thigh length dark green jacket. He had black boots with dark green elements, a dark brown leather belt which held a two small bags on each side, on the right a combat knife, there was a dark blue bandana on his right arm and a dark pink and purple one sticking out of his jacket pocket. There were more details but because of the mid graphics quality you couldn't be able to figure out much of it.
But (Y/n) was satisfied so now he made his way to strengths and weaknesses. After a while of thinking about it he choose sword mad knife combat, hunting and tracking. Onto the weaknesses.There was an option for no weakness but what's the fun of playing a video game with no weakness so (Y/n) chose flashbangs and poison darts.
Lastly, the name:
(Y/n) Zabójczy (L/n)
He looked at his character, smiled wide and decided to press start. (Y/n) took a sip of his water but started to realise that his hand that was holding his glass started to disappear into this greyish green particles. It was spreading over his body and it looked like he was being pulled into the game.
(Y/n) could only sit there in fear and shock as he had no idea what to do. His mind couldn't form any coherent thought, the last thing he did was standing up and screaming one in fear one last time.
At first he couldn't feel anything or see anything but suddenly he felt a gush of air and a blinding light that caused (Y/n) to close his eyes. Then he fell like he was in a quick free fall so he opened his eyes and was immediately blinded by the sun. As quickly as he opened his eyes he found himself on the ground that was covered in leaves and vines. Oddly enough (Y/n) didn't feel any pain from the fall which was something his brain raised concern.
After adjusting his eyes to the new found light, he got up from the ground and looked around. He was in a jungle, it was pretty hot and humid, all round him was trees and thick plants covering the ground. Behind him he could hear running water and turning around he could see a river.
But as (Y/n) looked down at himself to see if he had any injuries, he saw clothing that just a few minutes ago he didn't have. (Y/n) had no what to say, he was in absolute disbelief. The clothes were ringing a bell in the man's head but couldn't quite connect the dots yet.
"What the hell is happening here?!?!?! Where is my original body??? WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!?!"
(Y/n) could feel himself start to hypervalent and sunk to the ground. He tightly closed his eyes and covered his ears. (Y/n) stayed like that for about 10min, trying to calm himself down by regulating his breathing.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay"
(Y/n) repeated to himself as he could feel the tears falling down his cheeks. This was all way too much for him.
When he finally gained his composure (Y/n) wiped away his tears and moved closer to the river. He looked down at the water and saw his reflection. He looked exactly like the character he created for himself, he looked slightly older (around 30-40 years old) and wore the clothing he chose for himself just a few minutes ago.
(Y/n) moved back in disbelief and went back to the place he had fallen to and looked up. There was a slight hole in the trees leaves, probably from when he had fallen. But the sky showed no signs of an entry point or anything like that. Everything looked absolutely normal.
"Wait wait! If I look like the character I made just a few minutes ago, the game had a jungle carved in the front... That means, oh no...OH NO... I'm somehow in the game. OH SHIT!"
(Y/n) just stood there for a while processing the information, he was in absolute disbelief. Like how could have this happening?? How is this even possible. He just stood in that one spot for a good 10 minutes before his brain could process anything else.
But curiosity started to creep into the man's mind about seeing what's beyond the trees. So after much though about the whole situation,
(Y/n) decided the best corse of action would be to start moving and scanning his surroundings, see what he has to work with.
Ahead of him he could see brighter light and going closer to it lead to an open hillside where there weren't any trees. It looked a bit like a valley that was covered in bright green grass that reached to his ankles. Seeing the tallest hill closest to him, (Y/n) decided to go over too it and talk out loud to himself to calm and comfort himself.
"Okay, this isn't too bad. I can work with this. I've played a tone of video games before. Granted! Not any like these but still. I can make this work...somehow."
Standing at the top of the hill (Y/n) saw more jungle but also some mountains. But the man was stumped on what to do next, as much as he disliked being out in the open like this, it was much better than being in the jungle. The jungle was giving (Y/n) a weird vibe, a dangerous one at that so he rather risk being out in the open then in the jungle.
(Y/n) decided to check what he had on him, maybe he'd find a map or something.
There was a machete, a pretty big canteen filled with water, a thick A5 notebook (?), thick and protective gloves, a pen, pencils, a compass, thick and long rope, combat knife, lighter and a small med kit.
Not too much but he could work with it. But unfortunately no map but an idea came into
(Y/n)'s head. Why not make your own map, he has all the necessary things to start his map. The man took out his compass and located north, he drew to his best abilities where he started and where he is now. He wrote as much information as he possibly could and decided to start heading north west.
Maybe a kilometre or two away from the hill
(Y/n) was just on, he could hear behind him engines roar and the sound of men shouting. The man new from the very beginning that that wasn't a good sound so he started to run as the sounds got closer and closer to him.
Suddenly he heard the sounds of gunshots and felt quick air flows around him which were bullets. (Y/n) saw that he was getting closer to the tree line and ran as fast as he could because maybe at least in the trees he'd be able to lose them. The man dived into a thick bush and crawled around so he wouldn't be seen. He heard the motorcycles drive pass him but he wasn't out of danger yet. Going back to the valley(?) would be a horrible decision so the best corse of action would be to and pass through the jungle.
He peered his head out for the bush and saw one of the motorcyclist scanning the terrain presumably looking for (Y/n). Thankfully he had his back facing (Y/n) so he grabbed his machete with one hand and really carefully made his way over to the motorcyclist. So much was going through (Y/n)'s head, paranoia because he could still hear the others not far from where he is, fear because his life is a risk and adrenalin making his head go all over the place and keeping him going.
In one quick motion (Y/n) stood up and stabbed the man in the throat and with his free hand covered his mouth so he wouldn't be heard. The man struggled a bit but thankfully due pretty quickly before he made any loud noises. As the motorcyclist disappeared (Y/n) looked as much as he possibly could in the few seconds he had before someone noticed that one of their men is gone.
Just a few bullets and a few pieces of dried meat.
'this could be a good snack'
He shoved the goods into his jackets pocket and turned his attention to the motorcycle.
As much as (Y/n) wanted to take the motorcycle he had absolutely no clue how to use one and felt like it would lead to his demise if he ended up trying to drive it. So he pulled it as much as he could into the bushes, one, so no one noticed someone was missing and two, maybe he'd come back for it one day. He just had to try his best to remember this spot.
Just as (Y/n) was finishing up covering the motorcycle he could hear the shouting start to get closer to him so he continued to run through the jungle north west. He would make small stops because there would be the motorcyclists blocking his way of passing but nothing a little throwing a rock far to grab their attention wouldn't solve. At least it gave him time to take a breather and regain his composure.
Unfortunately his luck did run out when one men spotted (Y/n) making his way out of the jungle. All (Y/n) heard was
"GET HIM NOW!"
and he just had to pick up his speed. Even though he'd never be able to run this fast and this long irl he started to feel worn out slightly. He wasn't sure if he had a stamina bar or something like that but I was definitely starting to have difficulties breathing.
Fear started to consume his mind, his legs started to feel like jelly. He managed to get out of the patch of jungle and emerged to another clearing.
But as (Y/n) was about to try and take in as much of the scenery to determine where to go next a car pulled up. Inside there was a man who opened the car doors and said
"Quickly, get in!"
Without thinking about it too much (Y/n) hopped in the back seat and the car sped away. Looking at the back window he could see the men stop and turn around driving away to who knows were.
After about five minutes of (Y/n) gathering himself he pulled himself to the front passenger seat and buckled in.
"Who are you?" (Y/n) asked, still slightly out of breath.
"My name is Nigel Billingsle, it's a pleasure to finally meet you Mr (Y/n) (L/n). I must say I absolutely love all your novels that you have written about your journeys. The expedition you took part in 4 years ago was simply magnificent. My favourite by far of your works." The man spoke in a very cheerful and exited tone.
"Umm, thank you." (Y/n) didn't really know what to say, thought it did find it slightly weird that he basically cheated into creating his own character.
'There was no option for a backstory or anything like that. But somehow the game made one up for me? That's odd to say the least'
"And now that you are here there is a very important thing to attend too. Jumanji is under a horrible curse and it needs you're help to restore it back to how it previous glory"
"Wait, what? I don't understand. What do you mean under a horrible curse?"
"It's all documented in the letter I sent you Mr (L/n). Perhaps you should read it out loud" Nigel said with a smile.
"What lett-"
(Y/n) paused mid sentence when he noticed a letter in his hands. He carefully opened the envelope and started to read the letter.
"Mr (L/n) I'm writing to you in regards of the desperate situation in Jumanji"
Nigel's voice over took (Y/n)'s and suddenly he was put in a cut scene. He felt pretty exited honestly and giddy until he saw him.
"-Russel Van Pelt"
That's all (Y/n) had to hear as he watched the dark haired man exit the car. (Y/n) was floored by him.
'Ja pierdolę'
The man was still listing to what Nigel was saying but just couldn't stop staring at Van Pelt even when the jewels power started to consume him. The way he deeply looked into the jewel made (Y/n) wish that he was in place of the jewel.
(Y/n) always kinda had a think for villains, from films, shows to video games. Of course not irredeemable villains. But he had his fare share of villain crushes, it was the reason he even found out he was bisexual.
"-And I made my move... Well here you go!"
Nigel pushed the jewel into (Y/n)'s hands as the car was stopped.
"Wait what!?"
(Y/n) was broken out of his trance and panicky looked at the beautiful jewel. There was no way he wanted to do this now and seeing how Van Pelt would most likely gladly kill him to get the jewel, (Y/n) wanted to put this off for a bit so he could gather himself. Having the jewel on him would be a horrible idea. It's a one way ticket to being murdered.
"The goal for you. I'll recite in verse; Return the jewel and lift the curse. If you wish to leave the game you must save Jumanji and call out its name." Nigel continued ignoring your confusion and worry.
"I'm sorry but I can't do this right now."
(Y/n) expected Nigel to repeat the same thing over but the guide surprised him.
"Why no?"
"Why not? I just bloody got here, I almost got killed by what I'm guessing was Van Pelt's army. I need time to get used to this stuff. I'm not good in new surroundings that I just got into and haven't gotten used to. And this is in general so much to take in"
"But you can still take the jewel"
"I don't think that would be a good idea. I mean I'd gladly help but right now, I wouldn't be surprised if I got kidnapped by those debile in the next few weeks. And that just gives Van Pelt an easy way to win. I need time to get used to things and how to operate everything...Can't I leave the jewel with you? You're an NPC, you are basically unkillable and like just can't steal shite from you. Just a for a while. Until I'm equipped to actually deal with Van Pelt and his men affectivity. I fear that I would just fail too easily, especially by myself."
Nigel thought about it for a while.
"Alright, that does seem like a smart idea. I'll keep the jewel safe until you are ready Mr (L/n). Just call me and I'll be there in a jiff."
"Will do sir and thank you" (Y/n) smiled warmly to him.
Nigel just gave (Y/n) a friendly smile and nodded. He opened the doors and you exited. The car drove away and (Y/n) looked out into the vast terrain. A part of him was puzzled by the way Nigel was behaving, just something about it seemed odd to the (h/c). But he couldn't exactly put his finger on it.
At last (Y/n) took his compass out, found north again and went back to walking north west.