"Okay, while grand plans are great and all, I find things usually boil down to practicality." Chris commented. "So what practically are we doing here?"

"Going south?" Greg offered.

Chris rolled his eyes. "Besides that."

"I think we should at least get to all the Worlds available to us." Victoria replied. "We don't take our strength between Worlds, so the more time we have to grow, the better."

"I'm okay with taking you guys to System World, but… can we just leave Beast World alone for now?" Andrew interjected. "It isn't in any trouble and… well, I want at least one part of my life to remain simple."

"What if you need help?" Victoria asked, frowning.

Andrew shook his head. "I'm surrounded by people who have been getting stronger for hundreds or even thousands of years. I don't think I need your help." He paused. "Though I may steal your system."

Victoria frowned. "How?"

"I can move my cores between Worlds." Andrew explained. "I moved the system from System World over, so I should be able to do the same with yours, right?"

Victoria shrugged. "Probably? I'm not sure how it works. But I'm not sure how the system will work in your World, so be careful if you do."

Andrew nodded. "I know. I'm not going to do anything until we've tested everything, I just- well, my World is safe, but it isn't exactly safe for some of the people I care about. Giving them a way to protect themselves would solve a lot of problems."

"Which leads to the next issue we need to discuss." Greg interjected. "How open are we going to be about all this? Because I would love to give all my friends the system, but if we give them the system, we're going to have to explain at least some of what's going on here."

"I don't see how that's a problem." Chris shrugged.

"Yeah, not gonna lie, I don't trust your judgment on this one." Greg rolled his eyes. "I get the feeling you'd tell anyone anything if they asked."

"True. I'm not much for secrets." Chris agreed.

"We should tell the people close to us, but… I don't think this is something we need to announce to the world." Victoria muttered.

"People don't handle the realization that their World is constructed and influenced by thoughts very well, trust me." Narita shook her head. "They usually either worry about it constantly, or give up on everything. I only tell people if they need to know."

"Well, there are levels to it." Greg added. "There's the knowledge that Worlds exist and how we play into it, then there's the knowledge of how they're made and why they're different, and finally the knowledge of how they influence things. The first level isn't too bad, just kind of a neat fact, while the last is the existentially crushing one and the middle is a neat fact that has some uncomfortable implications, but it isn't horrible. So telling people what we are and the neat things we can do shouldn't be so bad, but maybe we avoid talking about the particulars about Worlds unless it becomes relevant."

Narita shook her head. "People are going to want to know why you exist, why you are what you are. They won't simply accept it as a neat fact."

"Well, sure, but even the third level doesn't answer that." Greg retorted. "We'll just tell them we don't know, which is true."

Narita paused. "That- is a good point." She frowned. When telling people about herself, it inevitably led to Worlds and how they worked, because what she was was intrinsically linked with the nature of Worlds, but these four… they didn't have to worry about that, because even by the standards of Worlds, they didn't make sense. Which, of course, only made her even more desperate to figure out what was going on with them. Everything she knew told her this shouldn't be possible, yet here they were, existing.

"So who gets told what then?" Chris asked. "I need a list."

"The World, Body, Soul, Spirit stuff should be fine, because that's just the basics of what Worlds are. Unless we're planning on hiding what we can do, that's the basic explanation we can give to anyone." Greg replied thoughtfully. "The particulars about the Multiverse and how there are different Worlds are only necessary if we need to explain where we come from, so only people who are close to us need to know. As for Immortals and Cores and what they do… that should only be for people who are a part of what we're doing. It'd be kinda shitty to drag people into our mess without telling them what's up. Oh, and I'm going to tell Tessa everything, because she's essentially my wife and I don't hide things from her."

"Define close." Chris frowned. "Like, what would we tell the four you just picked up?"

Greg blinked. "Huh… Well, for the girls, stage one should be fine, stage two if they ask. But for Hero… shit, he may need stage three. He's- well, he's the hero, so he should probably be aware of what the World is doing to him."

"Are you sure?" Narita asked. "If you tell him, he'll compete with you for the position of Immortal of this World. You won't be able to manipulate things to your advantage anymore."

"I'm actually okay with that." Greg shrugged. "My plan was to create a rivalry between us anyway. Plus, do I even need to be an Immortal? Sure, it might be nice, but it isn't necessary, and Hero seems decent enough not to screw things up."

Narita began to shake her head, before stopping and letting out a sigh. These people simply defied too many of the things she was used to taking advantage. Being an Immortal was supposed to be the only way you could gain access to the Multiverse, to be truly undying, to have any sort of control over your destiny, yet… was that really true for the four of them? In certain ways, they already were Immortals, just… without the World. Narita wasn't sure whether that was better or worse.

"So I'll be telling Beth everything, maybe Derek, Penny, and Thad, up to stage two at least… If I can find Alexander I should probably talk to him, since he's clearly something in my World, though I couldn't say what." Chris muttered thoughtfully.

"I don't think I have any stage three's at the moment, though I do have a few stage two's." Victoria commented, before snorting. "Maybe I should tell Beatrice stage three just to explain why all the crap I get into isn't my fault."

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Andrew sighed. "I'll have to tell my parents, Cathryn, and Li Jing stage three. I probably won't tell anyone else anything though." He paused. "Well, I'll need to tell Quinn something if you three show up… so one stage two."

"When we show up." Victoria replied. "I want to get a look at this System World of yours."

"Speaking of, we should probably just do that, shouldn't we?" Greg commented. "No point in wasting time."

"Sure. Hands in, I suppose." Chris shrugged, sticking his hand out. The rest piled their hands on as well, and… nothing. "Huh."

"Can we only do it from that room?" Andrew asked curiously.

"That seems to be the most likely conclusion." Chris muttered. "Unless we're missing something."

"How do we get back there though?" Victoria frowned.

"We got out by going to sleep, so maybe we should try just waking up?" Greg shrugged.

"That, or I need someone to break their connection with my world again." Chris commented. "Not sure how I could manufacture that though."

"So we just-" Andrew closed his eyes, focusing on waking his other self up, and suddenly he was back in the room. "Well, that was easy." He looked around at the others still sleeping. "I should probably wake them up, shouldn't I?" If he tried to wait for them to wake up themselves, he'd be here forever. He walked over to Chris, placing a hand on his shoulder and, after a bit of confusion, mentally flicking their connection to wake him up.

"Oh, you made it." Chris commented as he woke up, looking around. "I'll get Victoria, you get Greg?" Andrew nodded and they quickly woke up the other two. "Okay, now everyone hands in." Chris announced, putting his hand out again.

"Wait!" Andrew exclaimed before muttering 'Human Andrew' under his breath and checking his hands, breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of skin instead of fur. "Okay, I'm ready."

Chris blinked, before focusing on himself. "Hornless Chris?" He commented, feeling his head, scowling as he felt the bony protrusions still there. "Damn."

"Should I be Thomas then?" Thomas wondered. Since he was getting an entirely new body, he didn't particularly mind whether he was Thomas or Victoria, since it didn't feel like he was stealing someone else's life.

"Up to you, but I will say, it does throw off our ratio. Three to one isn't great but it's way better than four to zero." Greg commented.

Chris frowned. "Why would that matter?"

Greg shrugged. "It doesn't, I'm just saying, we're very dude centric."

"If it helps, I'm currently a girl in System World." Andrew offered, before pausing. "Though I'd rather not be."

"Eh, it's just a different way to be." Thomas shrugged. "It isn't like you're suddenly a different person just because you have tits."

"I know, it's just- it doesn't feel comfortable, you know?" Andrew frowned.

Thomas cocked his head. "No… isn't being comfortable more a you thing than a gender thing?"

"No, I mean- like the clothes you have to wear-" Andrew began.

"Clothes you have to wear?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow. "You know you can wear whatever you want, right?"

"If you want to be weird, I suppose. But-" Andrew shook his head.

"Hey, be as weird as you want." Chris shrugged.

Andrew frowned at him. "It's fine to be weird, but being weird isn't exactly being female, now is it? It's just being male in a female body."

"So if a girl doesn't like to wear dresses and shit, she isn't female?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow. "That sounds sexist as fuck, dude."

"That's not- it's different!" Andrew exclaimed in frustration. "There's a way women are supposed to be, and I'm just not, so being a woman is uncomfortable!"

"I dunno… that sounds more like a you problem than a woman problem." Thomas replied. "But then again, I've known more people who would agree with you than would agree with me, so maybe I'm just missing something."

"I dunno, I've been both and it didn't feel much different to me." Greg shrugged. "But then again, nothing during that time really made sense anyway, so maybe I didn't get the full experience…"

"I've never tried being a woman, though I'm aware I could. It just never felt necessary. I'm happy with who I am." Chris commented.

"That kinda sums it up, now doesn't it?" Thomas snorted. "As long as you're happy with yourself, who cares? If you think something else will make you happy, go for it. I'm not going to tell anyone how they should be. I just expect them to afford me the same courtesy."

"So, Thomas or Victoria then?" Greg asked.

Thomas paused. "Eh, I'll switch it up. Thomas for the next, Victoria for the one after, and so on." She shrugged.

"Then you need to say Thomas again." Chris pointed out.

"Huh? Oh, damn, Thomas." He grumbled. He felt like he changed a little too easily sometimes.

"I suppose the next question is which World do we go to first?" Greg asked.

"System World." Thomas immediately suggested. "I want to get my hands on that thing."

"You know we're going to all three, right?" Chris replied, raising an eyebrow at him. "The order doesn't really matter."

"So why argue?" Thomas retorted. "Let's just go!" He stuck his hand out.

"Eh, fine." Chris shrugged, placing his hand on his, followed by the other two. "Which one Andrew?"

"This one." Andrew flicked the System World bundle, and the rest focused on it as well, the three of them resonating with his aura and springing forth into his room.

"Now mine." Chris offered.

"Victoria." Victoria initiated the change, before focusing on his bundle along with the other two, the three of them appearing in Chris's world. "And now mine." And the other three soon appeared in Thomas's house.

"Doesn't this seem a little too easy?" Andrew commented with a frown.

"What, did you want to go on a quest to gather the seven sacred Macguffins every time we wanted to jump Worlds?" Greg raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, but- well, the way Narita was talking, moving between Worlds is supposed to be hard, and this just… isn't." He explained.

"Well, we're weird." Victoria shrugged. "Plus, this sounds like another one of those questions we have no way of figuring out the answer to. It just is."

Andrew sighed. "Yeah, that's fair I suppose."

"Alright, I'm going back to sleep." Chris announced. "I'll see you guys out there."

"Right, we can talk in four different Worlds now." Greg agreed.

"Though if we're going to talk about nonsense, we might as well do it in the place where we aren't wasting time." Victoria commented.

"We can apparently pop in here whenever we want, so why not?" Andrew agreed.

"If you guys drag me in here every ten seconds, I will get annoyed." Chris warned.

"Oh don't be a grouch." Greg waved dismissively. "We're all together in this, so we might as well be friendly about it." Chris grunted noncommittally before closing his eyes and going unconscious, quickly followed by the rest of them.

*

"Wait, shouldn't you guys figure out how your abilities work before you start moving between Worlds?" Narita commented.

Greg blinked. "Well, little bit too late for that. We're already gone."

Narita froze. "But- you just-"

"Time is frozen in that room, remember?" Victoria commented.

"Well, not frozen, just really really slowed down." Chris corrected. "If time was frozen, nothing would happen."

"Yes, but frozen gets my point across well enough that she knows what I mean, and it's faster than saying 'really really slow'." Victoria retorted, rolling her eyes.

Chris paused before shrugging. "I suppose."

"Anyway, as long as we're done, I should go talk to Hero." Greg commented, getting up. "He really does need to know about all this."

Narita sighed. "I'll help. I've had this conversation more than a few times."

Andrew stood up as well. "I'm going to keep earning points."

"Me too." Victoria got up to follow.

"I'll- go read a book, I guess." Chris grumbled.

Suddenly a Greg appeared next to him. "Did you say book?"