"There's something weird going on on this ship." Georgia muttered as she spied on Chris through the room's peep hole, watching as he sat in the common room, reading a book. A book! Where did he even get a book?!?
"So you've been saying." Jennifer replied, rolling her eyes. Georgia had been obsessing over the other three that had joined the crew since they arrived, Chris in particular. Jennifer honestly couldn't tell if she was legitimately concerned, or if she just had a crush.
"Travis has been acting weird." Sophia offered tentatively. "He's been… distant."
Jennifer frowned at her. "He's been a little distracted, but I wouldn't say he's been distant. Not that I blame him. If nothing else, these people have given us a lot to think about." She sighed. So many of the things they'd done seemed so… childish now. She couldn't stop going over the people they'd 'rescued' in her mind, like the girl they'd saved from kidnappers and returned to her family. Yes, they'd gotten her back, but the kidnappers were still there! What had they done to keep them from doing it again? Jennifer didn't know if killing them was the right answer, but it was definitely a better answer than just leaving them to hurt people again. Had anything they'd done even helped anyone?
Sophia shook her head. "It's more than that! If he was just confused, he'd talk to me! But now… it's like he's avoiding me!"
"Well, to be fair, you've already made your stance rather clear." Jennifer pointed out. "Maybe he just doesn't feel like getting yelled at again?"
"I don't yell at him!" Sophia snapped. "I just- killing is wrong, and letting yourself get it in your head that it isn't leads you down a dark road! I just- I don't understand why he can't see that!"
"Maybe because it isn't that cut and dry." Jennifer retorted. "What good have our methods done? Saving people only to leave them at the mercy of their abusers the moment we're gone? We haven't actually done anything! We've just delayed the inevitable!"
"So we need to change our methods, but that doesn't mean we simply resort to murder!" Sophia countered.
"But what else can we do?!? Cripple them? They can just heal! Throw them into Travis's void? How is that any better than killing them?!?" Jennifer replied.
"I don't know, but there has to be something! I'm not going to kill someone just because I haven't found a better way yet!" Sophia yelled back.
"Shhh!" Georgia suddenly interjected, jumping away from the door moments before there was a knock.
Jennifer raised an eyebrow at Georgia, who was pointedly not answering the door, before shaking her head and opening it. "Yes?"
"You guys okay in here?" Chris asked, peeking in. "I heard yelling."
Jennifer sighed. "We're fine. We're just- arguing."
"Ah." Chris nodded. "Well, I'll leave you to it." He gave them a nod before returning to the couch to read.
"See! He's so weird!" Georgia exclaimed the moment Jennifer closed the door. "Why wasn't he more curious?!? And where did his horns go!?! They just disappeared!"
"And Andrew lost all his animalistic traits as well. We've seen ferals turn back to normal all the time! What's so weird about that?" Jennifer asked.
"Two years ago maybe, but now?" Georgia retorted. "He should have lost all his feral features ages ago! And why would he only have horns?!? It had to have been a choice! But then why would he suddenly get rid of them… he's just so weird!"
"You know, you could just talk to him and ask." Jennifer pointed out. "You know, instead of stalking him and making up crazy theories on your own."
Georgia flushed. "I'm not stalking him! I'm just- keeping an eye on him! Because he's weird!"
"So you've said." Jennifer shook her head. "But is he just weird, or is he a problem? Because as far as I can tell, Chris doesn't do anything. He just keeps to himself."
"And that's even weirder!" Georgia replied. "He barely interacts with anyone! Why would he join the crew if he wasn't going to talk to anyone?!?"
"Why. Don't. You. Ask him!?!" Jennifer retorted, enunciating each word in her frustration.
Georgia hesitated. "You can't- you can't just ask someone why they're weird!"
Jennifer glared at her for a moment. "Fuck it." She grumbled, shaking her head and opening the door, walking towards Chris.
"Wait!" Georgia protested, rushing after her, before freezing as Chris looked up at them with a slight frown. Sophia just stopped at the door to observe.
"Why are you weird?!?" Jennifer asked Chris point blank.
Chris blinked. "Probably for a lot of reasons." He replied after a moment with a shrug. "Depends on what you're talking about, really."
"Okay… let's start with why you had horns when we first met." Jennifer began.
"I didn't know how to get rid of them at first. I had to alter my base form, and it wasn't something I was used to thinking about, since I've never had to alter my base form before." Chris explained.
Jennifer frowned. "What's a base form?"
"I suppose you would call it your original form." Chris replied thoughtfully. "Basically, when I came here, my original form became the one with the horns, so no matter how I tried to change it, I couldn't revert to my state without the horns, because that state didn't exist. I had to recreate myself a form that started without horns in order to get rid of them."
"That makes no sense!" Georgia blurted out. "That isn't how shapeshifting works!"
"That isn't how your shapeshifting works." Chris countered. "Mine is different."
"Wait." Jennifer interjected. "What do you mean when you say you 'came here'? Like, from Earth?"
"No, I'm from Azza." Chris shook his head, before pausing. "Though I suppose the more relevant moniker would be Maze World…"
"What does that mean?!?" Georgia exclaimed.
"Well, this would be Mage World." Chris replied, gesturing around them. "Because it's based on magic and whatnot. My World is based around a Maze, so we call it Maze World." Both girls simply stared at him in complete incomprehension. "You're missing something…" Chris muttered, and they both nodded. "Oh! There's a Multiverse. That's the thing. I'm from a separate reality, which we call Maze World."
"You're what?!?" Georgia sputtered. "How is that even possible!?!"
"Because I'm the avatar of the structural building block of creation." Chris replied. "I told you that already."
Georgia froze. "I- you- but you were messing with me!"
"No, I was messing with you the second time. Greg told me I should keep it a secret. But later we decided it wasn't that important, because it's hard to explain what we can do otherwise. I mean, don't go telling everyone about it, but as you've noticed, we're weird, and that's why." Chris explained.
"Oh." Georgia grunted, before falling into a nearby chair, looking a bit overwhelmed.
"Then… is Greg a part of this too?" Jennifer asked hesitantly.
"He's the avatar of the physical building block of creation." Chris nodded. "Victoria is magic, and Andrew is… well, life force is close, but maybe also substructure? His is a bit hard to pin down."
"I… see." Jennifer frowned as she sat down as well. It was a lot to process.
"Do you have any proof of all this?" Sophia interjected, giving Chris a suspicious look. He didn't seem like he was lying, but that didn't mean he wasn't delusional. Or maybe he was just a talented liar. Either way, Sophia wasn't about to believe something this ridiculous without any evidence.
Chris cocked his head. "Would you believe me if I killed myself and came back? Or is that normal around here?"
Sophia blinked. "Not- it isn't normal, but… magic can make a lot of things possible."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Fair." Chris nodded, tapping his finger against his lips as he thought. "How about- what if you could talk to someone from a different World?" He should be able to pull that off. He'd just need to transmit the sound and visuals between his different worlds. There'd be a bit of a time difference… but the two Worlds were close enough that it wouldn't be terrible.
"That could be done using illusions." Sophia shook her head.
"Sure, sure." Chris nodded with a sigh. Man, magic made this a bitch. "Okay, here's what I can do." He pulled out his card and handed it to her. "Anything on there that would make you believe me?"
Sophia took the card with a slight frown, reading it over as her eyes widened. "You- you can do all of this?!?"
"I can." Chris confirmed with a nod.
"But-" She looked over the card again. "This- this is too much! No innate mana ability could be this versatile! Travis's ability can't do even a quarter of what you're capable of, and he has the most powerful innate mana ability I've ever seen!"
"Well, that's because it isn't an innate mana ability." Chris replied.
Sophia frowned down at the list again, before pointing at it. "Do this. Then I'll believe you."
Chris glanced at where she was pointing, before raising an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure?" Sophia nodded and Chris clicked his tongue. "You're going to get me in trouble, you know that? But fine." He opened a portal. "Just step inside."
Sophia hesitated for a moment, before taking a deep breath and stepping through. "Okay, now wh-" Sophia was suddenly cut off as a giant block of stone suddenly fell out of the sky, flattening her as Georgia and Jennifer screamed! A moment later she reformed to the side of the stone, breathing heavily.
"Happy?" Chris asked.
Sophia clutched at her chest. She'd just died! She'd felt it! Her life had ended! And then… She'd come back, like nothing had happened. "That- okay, I believe you." She shuddered, quickly stepping back out of his world.
"Outstanding." Chris nodded, ignoring both Georgia and Jennifer as they stared at him incredulously.
"You just killed her!" Georgia exclaimed.
"She asked me to." Chris replied. "Plus, she came back."
"But you killed her!" Georgia reiterated.
Chris frowned at her, before giving Sophia a look. "I told you you were going to get me in trouble." He grumbled.
"I- it was the only thing that I didn't think you could fake." She muttered. "I actually experienced death… you can't fake that."
Chris nodded. "I'll keep that in mind for the future." He paused. "So, is that all? Weirdness explained?"
"Uh… well, Georgia also wants to know-" Jennifer began.
"Shush!" Georgia tried to stop her.
"-why you don't talk to people." Jennifer finished, rolling her eyes at the woman.
Chris raised an eyebrow at Georgia, who flushed in embarrassment. "Well, I suppose I'd answer with another question: why don't you talk to me? I've never understood why people think it's my job to be social when we're mutually ignoring each other. If you would have talked to me, I would have talked back, as we are right now, but I'm perfectly happy on my own, so why is it my responsibility to initiate?" He asked in genuine confusion. It'd been a regular pattern in his life. He'd end up in some social activity, be largely ignored, decide to pull out a book because he was bored, and people would yell at him! Like it was his fault no one was talking to him. Admittedly, he could probably do more to initiate conversation, but why should he? He wasn't the one who wanted to be social and if he did, he'd be talking to people.
"I don't want to talk to you!" Georgia protested.
"Then what's the problem?" Chris replied. "You don't want to talk to me, and I don't care, so why do you care if I talk to people?"
"Because it's weird!" Georgia exclaimed. "Who doesn't talk to people!?!"
"Me. Because I am weird. I'm fairly certain anyone who's interacted with me for more than a few minutes is aware of that." Chris replied.
"He has a point." Jennifer agreed. You didn't even need to talk to Chris to realize it. Just something about the way he held himself made it clear there was something… off about him.
"That doesn't mean he shouldn't at least try!" Georgia retorted.
"Try what?" Chris frowned. "To be someone different? Would you change who you are just to make strangers more comfortable? To try to connect with people who obviously don't enjoy being around you unless you put on some sort of act for them? Seems like a lot of wasted energy to me. I'd rather just spend time alone, or with people who actually appreciate who I am."
"But- how do you find people who actually appreciate you if you don't talk to anyone?" Georgia asked.
"No idea." Chris shrugged. "They just kinda show up at some point, or I'm around them long enough that they adjust, and I'm okay with waiting. As I've said, I'm quite satisfied with my alone time."
"That- that isn't how life works!" Georgia protested.
"It's how it works for me." Chris shrugged, before pausing. "Though, now that I think about it, it could be World fuckery… eh, either way, it isn't something I need to concern myself with."
"You are a very weird person." Jennifer muttered.
"I'm aware." Chris nodded, before looking around. "So, are we done? Any other questions?" Jennifer and Sophia shook their heads while Georgia chewed on her lip, searching for something more to say, unwilling to just leave things like this, but she couldn't come up with anything. "Then I'm going to get back to my book." Chris raised it briefly, before beginning to read again.
The girls shared a look, before silently returning to Georgia's room. "So…" Jennifer began. "I think we've gotten ourselves involved in something a lot bigger than I previously thought."
Sophia nodded, looking down at the list of Chris's capabilities again. "If the other three have similar abilities… I don't even know!" She shook her head. "What- what do you even do about something like this?!? How do you handle meeting what essentially amounts to a god!?!"
"What, Chris?" Georgia frowned at her. "How is he anything close to a god!"
"Take a look!" Sophia tossed the card at her. "If he's actually capable of everything he claims, and it'd be stupid to think he isn't at this point, then how can you call him anything less?!?"
Georgia looked over the card, her eyes widening. "This- this can't be real!"
Jennifer grabbed the card from her to look it over as well. "Holy shit." She muttered in disbelief as she finished. "This- I mean, if he was an archmage or something- but this is just- he can just do all this?!?"
"He's this avatar thingy." Sophia frowned. "Him, Andrew, Greg, and Victoria. They're… well, they're gods, right? They have to be if these are the types of things they're capable of."
"But- they're just people!" Georgia protested. "Weird people, sure, but they're not- they don't act like gods, do they? Gods are supposed to be all holier than thou and judgy, aren't they?"
Jennifer shook her head. "They aren't that kind of god, I think. This is more of a power thing. They aren't all-knowing, all-powerful beings, they're just… more than human. A level above. Like, an archmage would be a god compared to us, but they'd still be a person. This is like that, just… innate, instead of a product of hard work and time."
"So what do we do about it?" Sophia asked, frowning. "Are we sure we want to travel with these people?"
"Can we afford not to?" Jennifer replied, studying the card with a frown. "If we join them… we can make a real difference in the world! If we don't… we're going to be stuck with whatever they end up doing anyway. If we have the chance to play a part in how all this turns out… how can we not take it?"
"How much of a part can we even play?!?" Sophia retorted. "If these people decide to do something, how can we stop them!?!"
"We can't, but as long as we're here, we have some influence, even if it's just talking things over with them!" Jennifer replied. "If we leave, we won't be able to do anything!"
"But why would they even listen to us?!?" Sophia protested.
"Why wouldn't they?!?" Jennifer countered. "Haven't they been listening to us this entire time? They may not agree with us, but they've been more than willing to hear us out!"
Sophia hesitated. She had a point… "Okay, fine, we can't leave." Sophia agreed with a sigh. "But we can't just leave things as they are, either! We can't be outsiders, or they won't value our ideas! We need- we need to become a true part of their group!" Her expression twisted. She'd been doing a terrible job of that so far, too caught up in the idea that they were killing people to actually try to get to know them. She'd been hoping their stay on the ship would be more temporary… that their group would eventually split off again, moving on to make their own way, but that didn't seem like a good idea anymore.
Jennifer nodded. "If we're going that route… we should probably consider this." She raised the card. "If we become Chris's subordinates… we'll at least have a place here, right?"
"But his influence…" Sophia replied. "What's the point of joining them if we lose the ability to disagree with them? We might as well have left at that point."
"It says it isn't direct control…" Jennifer frowned. It was clear they wouldn't turn into mind-controlled zombies, but it was vague on what his level of influence actually was, and it even seemed to contradict itself in places. "It'll probably make us more agreeable with him, but I think we'll still have our own opinions? It says we'd be perfectly capable of disagreeing with him at least."
Sophia hesitated. "I'd- I'd need more information before I could decide on something like that."
Jennifer nodded. "Yeah, we'd definitely need to discuss things in more detail before we'd go through with it. I'm just saying we need to consider it as an option."
"I guess." Sophia sighed. "But in the meantime, we should just try to be more friendly. We should at least try to smooth over anything we might have done to offend anyone." She glanced at Georgia. "Which means you should probably talk to Chris some more."
"What? Why?!?" Georgia retorted incredulously.
"You repeatedly insisted he was weird and that there was something wrong with him." Jennifer pointed out. "If I was him, you'd be the last person I'd want to keep around at the moment."
Georgia's expression twisted. "I- I didn't mean- he's just- why- how can he just be okay all by himself?!?"
Jennifer shrugged. "It doesn't matter. What matters is you offended him, and you need to make it right."
"He didn't seem offended…" Georgia grumbled, though she still looked a bit worried.
"Can you really take that chance?" Jennifer asked, raising an eyebrow.
Georgia hesitated, before letting out a sigh. "No…"
Jennifer patted her on the shoulder. "We're going to head upstairs to try and talk with the others. You fix this." Georgia nodded. She knew Jennifer was right. It was just… how the hell was she supposed to talk to Chris?!?