Part of what's so great about cats is that they don't speak, thus there is an unknown, a mystery, a something that we can fill with good things, I think. But maybe not. But anyway, this is to say that love of cats is tied into love of magic. Because that's what the unknown is, the benevolent unknown anyway, which a cuddly cat is, cuddly thus benevolent, mostly mute and thus forever unknown. It's the suggestion of magic.

Never use the word 'magic' or 'mystery' in fantasy fiction. In general don't spell things out so clearly. Realizing that you're baldly contemplating magic can ruin the enjoyment of such contemplations.

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I hate dialogue. But worse I hate when characters first meet. There is virtually no realistic real life correlary. Read world first meetings are virtually always (99.99%) way too boring to ever read about. The alternative is that it just can't be realistic. So then, usually, characters have already met. And such first meeting is not written about.

...And if it's a story of a person going to another world where he doesn't know anyone....? Then what, he just forever wanders in isolation?

First meetings just can't be very realistic, I guess. Although this is problematic, I want a sort of extreme realism with regards to piercing the obscurity of the minute processes of human life, yet still want it to be entertaining and... bearable. Realistic first meetings... don't bother with the dialogue... just sum up what's actually going on perhaps...

Finally, to be realistic: We go through life almost completely alone. In decades we accumulate a few real friends and otherwise have temporary convenient aquaintances.

...so it must be convenient aquaintances, if one actually wanted to adhere to the idea of piercing the obscurity of the minute processes of human life. If one could stand to... No other way to be real and not boring I think.

Perhaps instead mess with being unreal here and there.

Additional problem with one person alone in another world, when first meeting people is if one is being realistic, he has absolutely no clue what the social norms are in said world and would mainly just be hesitant and again mired in boring stuff if one were to be realistic.

The escapist man-traveling-to-another-world-idea just doesn't work so well with realism, of course. (Well, it could.) Best solution is he is from the other world. And does at least know the customs somewhat.

He's from the other world, just in a new area, finally on his own. Next needs to have some common goal which causes temporary convenient aquaintances. The best thing to bring people together is some common enemy. (Invented here much like the women at work are constantly inventing enemies to slander in order to bring theirselves together.)

Slight variant on the same story told over and over. Common enemy brings people together.