"Is it awake?" Andrew heard someone ask, a female voice.

"How the hell should I know?!? It doesn't have eyes!" A second voice replied.

"It has eyes, they just don't have eyelids." A third voice commented blandly

"Would you stop being such a pedantic ass? You know what I meant!" The second voice snapped in irritation.

Andrew- well, he didn't blink awake, but he began to make sense of his surroundings. Where was he? Who were these people? "Uh-"

"Hey, they are awake! Quick, say your name!" The female voice ordered him.

"Andrew?" Andrew did as she asked, freezing as he felt himself shift, and suddenly his vision cleared up and he blinked at the three people standing in front of him.

"Well that's… better?" One of the men commented.

"Tiger person?" The other man, who had horns for some reason. "Or… is there some monkey in there?"

"Tigermonkey." Andrew retorted instinctively, before pausing and looking down at himself. He was in his Tigermonkey form! So he was- wait, where was his emotion sense? Where was his aura sense!?! "What's going on?!? Where am I?!? What happened to my abilities!?!" Andrew jumped up, going on the defensive, looking between the three others warily. Had these people kidnapped him?!?

"Whoa, hey, slow down." The horned man waved his hands. "No need to freak out."

"There might be a little need to freak out." The other man commented. "We are just a little bit trapped. Which, again, is my personal hell."

"Trapped?" Andrew frowned, before shaking his head. "Who are you people?!?"

"Well, I'm Greg, that's Chris, and this is… Victoria at the moment, but also Thomas sometimes." The man introduced them all.

Andrew glanced at Victoria. "Huh?"

She sighed. "I have two identities. One is Victoria. The other is Thomas." Andrew's eyes widened as Victoria suddenly shifted into a man. "But you should know something about that, now shouldn't you mister unholy amalgamation of a thousand different creatures?"

"What?" Andrew asked, even more confused.

"We should probably back up and explain the situation." Chris commented. "First off, we didn't bring you here. You've been here. We all have, except maybe me, though I find that unlikely. We've just been unconscious. At least, until something woke me up. Anyway, we've figured out a few things so far. The first is that, as Greg said, we're trapped in here. The doors are locked, we can't break them down, our abilities are gone, and time is essentially frozen. However, when we touch…" Chris held out a hand for Andrew to grab, which he did tentatively, eyes widening as he felt the connection form. "We're connected somehow. And we think we can use that connection to get out of here, but we need all of us to do it. We think. Hopefully. Oh, and we can control what our thrones look like." He added, making his shift around again.

Andrew blinked at the chair, before turning back to Chris. "Why?"

"Who knows? This space doesn't exactly make sense, what with the invincible doors and the time stop and whatnot. Why not have customizable chairs?" Chris shrugged.

"No, I mean why are we here?!?" Andrew shook his head. "Why would we be connected like this?!? What are we!?!" Andrew frowned. "Is this- is this why I'm so weird? Because of whatever this is?"

"That's a good question." Greg muttered. "I mean, I always assumed my ability came from magic, but recently it's become clear that isn't the case… so why am I a smoke person?"

"You're a smoke person?" Thomas raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm an energy person."

"Aura person, I guess?" Andrew offered tentatively.

They then turned to Chris, who shrugged. "I guess if we're going by that logic, I am my world. I have been told my body is just a meat puppet."

"So we're all some sort of thing." Greg frowned. "I'd be… matter? I guess? I can dissolve and turn into any kind of physical thing, but I can't do shit to mana."

"I can do pretty much anything with energy." Thomas frowned. "Though I have to earn it first."

"What do you mean by energy?" Greg asked. "Because I can make lightning and whatnot too."

Thomas shook his head. "Not that kind of energy. It's… like the shit Cultivators use! You absorb it and it makes you stronger?"

""Ah, you mean ability(mana) energy."" The other three nodded in understanding.

"Wait, that means you're made of magic?!?" Greg asked incredulously. "That seems… broken."

Thomas grinned. "It has its advantages. Though, there are limits."

Greg shook his head. "I fucking hope so." He muttered, before turning to Andrew. "How about you? What's this 'aura' you're talking about?"

Andrew's expression twisted as he scratched his head. "I'm not sure how to explain it… basically, everyone has these cores, and-"

"Oh shit, you fuck with cores?!?" Greg exclaimed, taking a step back. "Like, the things that connect you to the World, cores!?!"

Andrew blinked. "Uh… yeah?" He hadn't thought of them that way, but they did do that, didn't they? At least, until they lost their aura. "You know about them?"

Greg shook his head. "Not really… but someone said that fucking with my core was the only way to kill me, because it'd take away my connection with the World. Or wipe out my mind… either way, I think you're even worse than magic man over here."

Andrew frowned. "Messing with cores isn't really that simple… whatever you're fighting can resist, so you have to already be stronger than them for it to work."

"Yeah, sure, but that also means that you can kill anything that's weaker than you." Greg retorted. "There are plenty of things out there that are stronger than me, but I'm not worried because they can't kill me. To any true immortal, you're terrifying."

"That's… fair, I suppose." Andrew replied, his frown deepening. Was he really that scary?

Greg shook his head, turning to Chris. "As for you… you're a world? Wait, world or proper noun World?"

"I don't know the difference." Chris replied. "Basically, I have a world, I can connect things to said world, which lets me control them, and I can make rules for the world. Also portals."

"Rules?" Greg asked.

"You know, for how things work. Like gravity." Chris elaborated.

"Huh…" Greg frowned, before shrugging with a sigh. "Fuck it, I'm just going to assume proper noun, because it fits the pattern."

"Pattern?" Andrew asked.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"We're all aspects of reality." Thomas muttered, nodding as he saw where Greg was going with this. "Greg is the physical side, I'm the- fuck it, 'magical' side, Chris is the…" Thomas trailed off, looking for the right word.

"Structure." Chris provided as he got it too. "The thing that says when you do this, this happens."

"Fuck, now you scare me." Greg frowned. "Why are y'all so broken?"

Chris shrugged. "It only works in my world, so it isn't actually all that helpful."

"Where does that leave me?" Andrew asked. "The physical, the magical, the structure… what else is there?"

"The glue that holds it all together." Greg replied. "The core connects the body to the mind and the being to the world. At least, that's what Narita says. Which again, why are y'all so broken!?! All I do is turn into smoke, man."

"Didn't you say you could turn into lightning?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Are any of you scared of lightning?" Greg retorted.

"No." Chris shook his head.

"Not really?" Andrew agreed a bit more hesitantly. Dying would suck, but it wouldn't be the worst thing.

"Absolutely!" Thomas shook his head.

Greg blinked. "Really? But aren't you immortal?"

"Sure, but I still have to spend points if I want to heal or make a body!" Thomas replied. "I mean, I can survive without one, but I wouldn't be able to really do anything. And if I ran out of points…" He frowned. "I'm not sure how that would work."

"Huh… so, I counter the magic man. Neat." Greg grinned.

"Well, you also kinda hurt me…" Andrew added. "It wouldn't kill me, but it would make me weaker. Every time I die, it's like I actually die, and I'm reborn, so I lose all the power I've accumulated. Or at least most of it, since sometimes a part of the power accumulates after death and I can just reabsorb it."

Greg gave him a thumbs up. "I'll take it."

"While this is neat and all, I don't think it helps us get out of here." Chris interjected. "Whatever our natures are, we obviously can't access them here, so they aren't going to help us leave."

"True." Thomas agreed. "But it may explain why we need more than two of us to make the connection work. We're all different facets of reality, and if even one is missing, it all breaks down, so we need to combine all of them to get out."

"Sure, but we were pretty sure we needed all four of us already." Chris pointed out.

"Sure, but now we know why." Thomas replied.

"Does the why really matter?" Chris countered. "As long as we get out, who cares why?"

"Okay, how about we all just put our hand in, alright?" Greg interjected, putting his hand out. "No need to fight, let's just go."

"Sure." Chris shrugged, placing his hand on Greg's.

"Right, let's do this." Thomas agreed with a sigh, placing his hand on Chris's.

As Andrew placed his hand down as well, they all felt the various connections between them, grouped together into five different bundles, one for each of them except Andrew, who had two. They all grabbed their own threads and… nothing. "Uh… I don't think it's working." Andrew muttered.

"Maybe we all have to go to the same place?" Thomas offered.

Chris sighed. "Damn it. I was trying to avoid going to new worlds."

"Well, we could go to yours if that helps." Andrew shrugged.

Chris paused, considering that. "I'm kinda starting a war at the moment… maybe not the best idea to have guests over."

"So am I." Thomas frowned.

"I just finished a war, so my World should be good." Greg offered.

"I don't think war should be this common." Andrew frowned.

"Why? Are you involved in a war too?" Greg asked.

"No. Well… I mean, there's tension, I suppose. There's the thing between the noble and the monstrous races, and there's the Orcgod in the Outside… but no outright war." Andrew replied.

"So should we go to your World then?" Greg asked. "Or Worlds, I suppose… you seem to have two."

"I'm in two worlds too… why don't I have two bundles?" Chris wondered.

"Maybe they're still the same World?" Thomas offered. "Same structure, just different areas?"

Chris blinked. "Maybe?"

"I guess you could come to one of my Worlds…" Andrew frowned. "I have a pretty big house in one, though my parents would probably ask some questions."

"Your parents?" Thomas raised an eyebrow. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen?" Andrew answered. "What about you guys?"

"Eighteen." Chris replied.

"Also, eighteen. Though… Victoria is fifteen, biologically." Victoria provided.

"Are we talking chronologically or subjectively? Cause chronologically I'm like twenty-two, but subjectively… shit, at least a couple hundred." Greg muttered.

"Huh… I don't think I've hit nineteen subjectively." Chris frowned. "How did you manage a couple hundred?"

"I spent some time trapped in this container, and sort of pretended to be an entire town for a year or so…" Greg coughed awkwardly.

"You pretended to be a couple hundred people for a year?" Victoria asked skeptically.

"I do not do well when I'm bored." Greg replied. "Anyway, now that I think about it, my World is probably our best bet. I have a place for everyone to stay, and we can talk to Narita about all this. She's an Immortal, so she knows a lot about how Worlds work."

Chris shrugged. "Works for me."

"Same." Victoria agreed.

"I guess." Andrew nodded. It was probably for the best since explaining the sudden addition of three older men to his home would probably not go over too well with his parents. Or Cathryn. Especially Cathryn.

"Right, then let's do this." Greg replied, focusing on the connection to his World, the other three joining in a moment later. Suddenly, Greg felt almost like he was carrying the other three, pulling them along the connection. He felt something resonate with his smoke, and suddenly three new people appeared on the ship. "Huh, well that…" Greg looked around the room they were still standing in. "Didn't work." He frowned.

Chris frowned as well. "Well, it worked, it just didn't get us out." He muttered.

"Since the point was to get us out, I think we can say it didn't work." Victoria retorted.

"Huh. Fair." Chris shrugged.

"No, no, no, we can't be stuck here, we can't!" Greg began to panic. He was not going to get stuck in some cramped little room! Not again!

"Hey, hey, hey, chill." Chris attempted to calm him down. "We'll figure something out. I refuse to believe we're going to be stuck here, frozen in time for eternity."

"Why not?!?" Greg snapped in irritation. "You said it yourself, we've always been here! The only difference is that we're awake now!"

"So why don't we go back to sleep?" Andrew offered.

They all froze, turning to look at him. "What?" Greg asked.

"Well, we were unconscious, right? For apparently a really long time." Andrew elaborated. "There was nothing keeping us that way, so it should be a state we can return to, right? Then it'd just be like it was before, us not even noticing the passage of time while our other selves do whatever, right?"

"Huh…" Greg grunted. "That… actually makes sense."

Andrew frowned at him. "Was the 'actually' really necessary?"

"Is anything really necessary?" Chris commented.

"So wait, are you suggesting we just sit down and… go to sleep?" Victoria asked, sounding a little incredulous.

"Why not? We were asleep before, why can't we be again?" Andrew shrugged.

"Because we aren't talking about a nap! This is like… suspended animation! Complete cessation of function!" Victoria exclaimed.

"It doesn't hurt to try." Chris shrugged, walking over to his throne and sitting down. "Don't wake me if you need me." He commented, before closing his eyes and focusing on going to sleep, shutting down, unconscious, whatever, and suddenly everything went dark.

"Do you think it worked?" Andrew asked after a moment.

"I can try shaking him to see." Greg offered. "We tried with-" He turned to check. "Victoria and no amount of shaking would wake her up. We had to touch the connection."

"Go for it." Victoria gestured.

Greg hesitated, before shrugging and walking over to give Chris a shake. "Looks like it worked." Greg announced, Chris remaining completely unresponsive.

"So waking all of us up was completely pointless, because he didn't think to try just going back to sleep." Victoria snorted, shaking her head. "Ridiculous."

"Hey, at least we got to meet each other, right?" Greg shrugged. "Kinda neat to know there are others like us out there."

Victoria sighed. "I suppose… fuck, now I have to go back to dealing with Jade." She groaned, falling into her throne. "Ugh, fuck it. I'm off." She grumbled, focusing on falling unconscious herself, until everything went dark.

"I'm out too." Greg chuckled, settling into his throne. "See ya, tiger boy." He paused. "Wait, what age is maturity for tigers? Like three?"

"Dude, I'm human." Andrew rolled his eyes. "I'm just also a Tiger and a Monkey. I was born with three forms."

"Huh. Neat." Greg muttered. "Well, take care, I suppose." He waved, before nodding off.

Andrew sighed, taking his own seat, before letting everything go dark, one last thought going through his head. Why did he get the ugly throne?