Greg stretched and yawned as he woke up, blinking in confusion at the dream he'd just had. It had been a dream, right? A weirdly lucid one, to be sure, but it wouldn't be the first time. Greg had had quite a few dreams about being trapped lately… Greg shook his head, rolling out from under the covers while Tessa muttered something about five more minutes. It was still a bit early, but he was already up and he couldn't see himself getting back to sleep, so he might as well get the day started. Specifically, he was going to work on the 'breakfast project'.

You see, with the destruction of Earth, they'd lost a lot of foods. Foods that Greg missed. Like pancakes. Or cereal. Or muffins. Or cookies and brownies, but those were for the 'dessert project'. Oh, they had the raw ingredients, flour, milk, butter, sugar, etc. but they, or at least Greg, had lost the culinary tradition that mixed everything together in just the right way. So, with access to an infinite amount of smoke ingredients and a fancy AI to help him experiment, Greg decided it was his duty to bring these marvelous confections back to life. He was absolutely going to surprise Tessa with breakfast in bed one of these days.

"Okay, pancake test number forty-four." Greg muttered, waving his hand as the various ingredients appeared. He had his flour, egg, milk, butter, and sugar, but no matter how he mixed them, the pancakes were always off, and he was beginning to suspect he was missing an ingredient or two. Maybe some salt? Everything needed a pinch of salt, right? Greg placed his phone on the counter to play some music while he worked, starting to mix the ingredients as he hummed along.

"What are you making?" Someone asked.

"Pancakes." Greg replied with a yawn. "Or at least, I'm trying to."

"From scratch?" They asked skeptically.

"Well, I don't exactly have any other options, now do-" Greg cut off as he turned to raise an eyebrow at Victoria, freezing as he realized who he was talking to.

"You need baking powder." Andrew commented. "Or buttermilk?" He added a bit more hesitantly. "At least, according to google."

"I don't see syrup anywhere." Chris muttered as he looked through the fridge. "Do you eat pancakes without syrup?"

"Actually, I've been having them with jam recently and it's surprisingly good." Victoria replied. The castle didn't have syrup, so she'd had to adjust to different toppings.

Chris blinked, before turning back to the fridge. "I don't see jam either. I'll be back." He added, grabbing a hunk of meat, opening a portal, and stepping through.

"Do you even have baking powder?" Andrew wondered, looking through the cabinets.

"Where is he going?" Victoria frowned at Chris's portal.

Chris stepped back out of the portal a moment later with a bottle and a jar, placing them on the counter. "Syrup. Jam."

"You went to the store?!?" Victoria asked incredulously, staring at the clearly store bought products.

Chris sighed, shaking his head. "No, unfortunately. I can't seem to be able to move between this world and my other worlds. Thankfully, I can still make things from them. Such as syrup and jam."

"Huh…" Victoria looked at them for a moment. "Could you make some strawberry jam?"

"And baking powder." Andrew added. They immediately appeared in Chris's hands and he set them on the counter as well. "Or do we want buttermilk?" Chris frowned at him before grabbing some of that as well.

Greg began to chuckle, shaking his head. "Tessa is going to kill me."

*

"Explain it again, but slower." Tessa growled, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"These are some good pancakes." Victor commented. "Is this the buttermilk version or the baking powder?"

"Buttermilk." Andrew replied.

"Basically… fuck, I don't even know where to start." Greg shook his head.

"We're connected and we somehow used that connection to come here." Chris interjected. "It isn't that complicated."

"Okay but why are you connected?!?" Tessa asked in exasperation.

"No clue." Chris shrugged, frowning down at his pancakes. "I need to find some better syrup."

"The jam is excellent." Victoria commented, giving him a thumbs up. "Also, didn't we conclude our connection is based on aspects of reality? He's the physical, I'm the magical, you're structural, and he's the glue?"

"Sure, but that tells us what we are, not why we're connected." Chris retorted.

"Isn't it natural for parts of a whole to be connected?" Victoria countered.

Chris shook his head. "Were the ingredients of these pancakes connected before we mixed them together? Just because we're the ingredients that make up a World, doesn't mean we should have any relation to each other."

"If anything, if you were connected, you should be more… mixed up." Victor commented. "Together but separate is a lot weirder than apart."

"Exactly." Chris agreed.

"So then why?" Andrew asked.

"Who knows?" Chris shrugged. "It simply is. Questioning how it came about is relatively pointless."

"You have syrup in your fur." Casey added.

"Damn it!" Andrew cursed, wiping at his face with a napkin and doing essentially nothing, before letting out a groan. "I should have said I was Human Andrew." He grumbled bitterly.

"So you're just stuck like that?" Victor asked.

"Until I pick up a human core, at least. Which would require me to kill someone, so it's probably not going to happen any time soon." Andrew sighed.

"Well shoot, I killed a bunch of people just last night. You could have used one of them." Greg commented.

"Or I could give you the system and you could earn some points." Victoria added. "You're pretty close to human already, so the change shouldn't be that expensive."

Andrew blinked. "System- wait, you killed people?!?" He whirled on Greg with an incredulous expression.

"They were rapists." Greg waved dismissively.

"Uh, are we interrupting something?" Jennifer asked, giving the door a slight knock as she looked in, taking in the three new people, two of which still had feral features.

"No, you're- the cat girl!" Greg suddenly exclaimed, pounding the table and pointing between Andrew and Jennifer. "That's who I knew named Jennifer!"

"Huh?" Jennifer asked in confusion.

"You knew a cat girl?" Andrew asked, eyes widening.

"Don't be a weeb." Victoria chastised, poking him.

"Do you guys want pancakes?" Tessa offered with a sigh.

The hero's party shuffled in, looking… rough. It was clear both Travis and Sophia hadn't slept last night, while Jennifer and Georgia didn't look much better. Travis practically collapsed into a chair, grabbing a pancake and just shoving it in his mouth.

"I take it you guys are still iffy on the whole 'sometimes it's necessary to kill people' front, eh?" Victor commented.

"I'm not iffy at all." Sophia growled.

Travis groaned. "Sophia, you have to see the logic here!"

"There are other ways!" She snapped back. "We don't just throw away our morals because things get difficult!"

"All. Night. Long." Georgia grumbled.

Jennifer turned to Andrew, Chris, and Victoria. "What about you guys? Do you think there's a point where it's necessary to kill someone?"

"No." Chris shook his head.

Sophia whirled to look at him, eyes widening. "Really!?!" She asked excitedly. It'd felt like she was the only one standing up for what was right recently! Finally she had someone who agreed with her.

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Chris nodded. "Too wasteful."

Sophia blinked, feeling her excitement go numb. "W-wasteful?"

"Better to toss them in my world. I'm sure I can find some use for them." Chris elaborated. "At the very least they'd make good target practice."

Sophia was beginning to feel sick. "You… target practice?!?"

"Oh, don't worry. No one can die in my world. It'd just be painful." Chris explained.

"Can- can someone else agree with me?" Sophia asked desperately. "Someone who isn't insane?!?"

"I don't know if this is better or worse than that, but I opt for altering a person's personality over killing them. You still basically kill them in a metaphorical sense, but you get someone actually worth keeping around out of it, so it's better?" Victoria offered with a shrug. "Ethics aren't exactly my strong suit."

"That's even worse!" Sophia exclaimed with a horrified expression.

"How do you alter someone's personality?" Chris asked. "That sounds useful."

"It's a points thing, I don't think you can do it." Victoria replied.

"Damn." Chris clicked his tongue. "Oh, I will say, if I didn't have the ability to throw people in my world, or alter their personality, I probably would find it necessary to kill some people. Particularly if they threatened those close to me."

"Ditto." Victoria nodded.

Sophia collapsed into her chair. "I give up." The only people on her side were monsters.

Victor glanced at Andrew. "What do you do instead of killing people? Turn them into frogs?"

"No, I-" Andrew shook his head before pausing. "Huh… I actually could do that, couldn't I?"

Victor blinked. "Wait, really?"

"Uh, yeah… I can switch out people's cores, and their form changes to match." Andrew explained hesitantly.

"If you're going to turn someone into anything, you should make them a parrot! Longer lifespan and they can still talk!" Casey interjected.

"I can't help but think this is how evil sorcerers get their henchmen." Greg muttered. "Oh, and have I mentioned recently that I find the three of you absolutely terrifying? I mean, shit, all I do is kill people! Not the unending torture, brainwashing, freaking curse bullshit you guys have!"

"Hey, I just said I could turn someone into a frog!" Andrew protested. "I never said I'd actually do it!"

"Who- who are you people?" Georgia asked incredulously, looking between the three of them.

"I'm a manifestation of the structural foundation of the Multiverse." Chris replied. "You can call me Chris."

Georgia blinked. "Ah… nice to meet you."

Chris stared at her for a moment. "And you are?"

"I-I'm Georgia." She replied with a flush. "I- I'm just a human?"

"Nice to meet you." Chris nodded back, before returning to his pancakes.

Jennifer turned to Tessa. "What's going on here? Who are these people, really? Are they… feral feral?" She whispered. She wouldn't put it past the aliens to make a mistake and pick up a few crazies along with the rest of them. Or maybe the three of them just naturally had a few screws loose? People were crazy even before magic arrived, after all.

Tessa sighed. "It's- complicated. They're- related to Greg, so we're going to have to deal with them. It- might be better if you didn't join us after all." It was risky, letting the heroes leave their influence, but Tessa was already getting villain vibes from Greg's new friends. They needed time to teach them how to adjust, or distance themselves from them if not, before they screwed up everything.

Jennifer frowned. "Are you sure? They seem like kind of a handful… we could help."

Tessa hesitated, considering it for a moment. The other three didn't seem like bad people, at least not any more than Greg, they were just capable of terrifying things. And she really would like to keep an eye on the heroes… "I couldn't ask you to, but… I wouldn't mind the help."

Jennifer smiled, patting her hand. "Of course."

*

"Okay, guys, we're going to need to lay down some ground rules." Greg began, gathering the other three together after breakfast. Tessa was busy discussing things with the heroes while he figured things out with them. "First, no talking about Multiverse stuff to random people! That means you can't just tell people what you are!"

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because-" Greg hesitated. Why was it wrong?

"Because people don't know how to handle it." Andrew supplied. "You saw that girl. She basically froze when you said what you are, and the others only did better because they didn't actually believe you. People don't do well when confronted with things outside their understanding."

Chris frowned, before shrugging. "Fair enough." It was true that his tendency towards honesty had gotten him in trouble more often than not. Not that he was planning on lying, but he could withhold unnecessary details.

"Alright, good." Greg nodded. "Next, we need to talk about your abilities and how you use them. We're trying to cultivate a certain image here and torture, brainwashing, and curses don't exactly fit. This World has already tried to make me a villain once, and I don't want to give it any more excuses."

"I don't curse people!" Andrew protested. Seriously, why were they so hung up on that?!?

"Hold on, you're talking about this World thing again, and you never actually explained what you mean." Victoria interjected. "How could it try to make you a villain?"

"Shit, right…" Greg cursed. "Basically, Worlds, capital 'W' are… not sentient, but- well maybe they are sentient, but they aren't sapient. They're the accumulation of every thought in the Multiverse about a single subject, molded together in a… structure that fits the theme. For example, this World is based on a story, so events tend towards random coincidence and roles and plot hooks and so on. Unique individuals attract more attention, people seem drawn to them, and more 'events' tend to happen around them. I'm obviously unique, but for some reason the World had me slated for a villain role and set me up to go crazy so that I'd become some kind of intergalactic terrorist or something. Obviously it didn't work, and I seem to have escaped that role, but if I'm not careful, things could change and I'd really rather not go through something like that again."

Victoria blinked. "Okay, wow, a whole lot of shit just started making a lot more sense."

Chris frowned, cocking his head. "I guess? I don't think my life is that weird. At least not any weirder than I am."

Andrew scowled. "Are you saying the World is responsible for Benjamin?"

"I don't know who that is, but… not exactly." Greg replied. "The World can't control people, it just influences them, suggesting they do this thing instead of another, but ultimately it's still their decision. Like, just because you're attracted to someone doesn't mean you're going to sleep with them, it just means you're more open to the idea. If you have reasons not to and self-control, it isn't going to happen, no matter how attractive they are."

"Oh good." Andrew nodded. "I was worried I was going to have to forgive him."

"Anyway, your point is you want us to avoid using abilities that make us seem villainous, right?" Victoria interjected, getting them back on track.

"Right, exactly." Greg nodded. "No torturing people, no brainwashing, and no cursing. You can kill if you have to, but only bad people. People who are irredeemable."

"What if I just imprison them, no torture?" Chris asked. "It still seems wasteful to kill… who knows, maybe they'll submit and get connected to my world, becoming a useful subordinate."

Greg frowned. "What does it mean to be connected to your world?"

"Well, immortality for one. Anyone who gets connected to my world is returned there when they die, perfectly healed. I can also mutate them so that they grow stronger. The trade-off is that they are technically under my control, so they have to do what I say. There also seems to be some sort of built in brainwashing, though it isn't a hundred percent. The connection is mostly permanent… I can't seem to break it, and so far only one person has managed to, though that may be because no one else has felt the need to try." Chris explained.

Greg pinched the bridge of his nose. "Chris, what did we just say about brainwashing?"

Chris blinked. "It's useful?"

Victoria coughed. "The other thing."

Chris sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Damn it, but that's pretty much all my ability does! Without my subordinates, I'm just this dude who can't die!"

"You can also make syrup." Andrew offered.

"Oh, yes, that will be very effective in a fight." Chris grumbled.

"Not everything is about fighting." Andrew retorted. "I'd prefer it if my ability had more uses beyond death and fighting." He added, his expression twisting.

"It's hard to protect people if you can't fight." Chris retorted.

"Well, he's got a point there." Victoria agreed. "Being weak tends to get you pushed around."

"Can we get back to the point of his ability being all about death and fighting." Greg interjected. "That doesn't sound like a nice ability."

"I steal and manipulate cores. Nice isn't exactly an option." Andrew grumbled.

"We are so screwed." Greg groaned.

"Hey, I just give people the system. No evil there." Victoria replied.

"I've been meaning to ask about that." Andrew turned to her. "One of the wor- er, Worlds I'm in has a system too. How does yours work?"

"Uh, people do tasks, gain points, and they can spend them to do things like make themselves stronger, turn into humans, or even change gender if that's your thing. Honestly, you can spend points to do pretty much anything, I just need to figure out how to put it into the system first." Victoria explained.

"Huh… so you don't have levels or skills?" Andrew asked.

"No levels but it does have skills." Victoria replied. "Though, it's more of a list of what you're capable of, letting you spend points to increase your capabilities in that department." She paused. "I don't think you can create a capability out of nothing, though I've never actually tried."

Andrew blinked. "That sounds outrageously useful." He paused. "At least, in the context of the system I know. It lets you grow more powerful the better you are at certain skills… eh, it doesn't matter. Just- very useful."

"I'm aware." Victoria smirked.

"Where does the brainwashing fit into all that?" Greg asked.

"Uh, well, you can also spend points to make someone feel shame, make them more obedient… hornier." Victoria flushed slightly.

"Right, well don't do that." Greg muttered. "But otherwise, it seems fine."

"Which means you're going to be passing this system out, right?" Chris added.

"Yes, but… try not to let it get too widespread, alright?" Victoria replied. "It- kinda got a world destroyed once."

Greg just glared at her for a moment, before letting out a sigh and pinching the bridge of his nose. "You people are killing me."