“Aww man! I can’t believe I died just like that,” Ashley pouted.

“Yea, running across a swaying rope bridge wasn’t the best of ideas,” Lisa said.

“But I had extra points in agility; I thought I could make it!”

“Blame the dice. You rolled a 1 on your balance check and then a 4 to catch the rope,” Lisa shrugged, “sometimes you just get bad luck.”

“Blame the dice? More like, blame the GM. Those crystals should have dissolved!” Sara fumed.

“Ok, I admit that I should have left a few more hints about the saltwater thing but I only had a few minutes to prepare.”

“While this game was entertaining,” Avery interrupted, “but I think we need to do a bit more planning before making a trip in reality.”

“Like what?”

“Well, do you want to be reborn or just have new bodies created? If reborn, what type of background do you want? Keep in mind that if you want to appear close together, you can’t be anything too specific or I will have to broaden the search radius to fit each of your requirements.”

“Wait! If we choose to be reborn will we have to grow up from babies or will we take over someone else's body?” Ashley questioned.

“I won’t be killing people for you to possess if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Being a child was rough enough the first time, doing it again with the mind of an adult doesn’t sound like a good time. I’d rather skip that part if possible.” Lisa commented.

“Are you guys really going through with this?” Sara asked, “What about your parents?”

“My parent’s dumped me off for that school to handle, they are of no concern to me” Ashley harrumphed.

“I've never been particularly close with mine,” Lisa added, “I mean I love them and all I guess but I’m not going to miss this kind of chance just because my mom might miss getting a phone call every few months.”

Seeing Sara’s concerned expression, Avery asked, “What about you? What’s holding you back?”

“Well my mother has already gone… but that really messed up my father, he’s never been the same and I’m not sure how he would take it if I suddenly disappeared.” Sara sighed before continuing, “I also don’t know what position my religion would stand on all of this.”

“You need to live life for yourself,” Ashley gave Sara a hip bump, “if you don’t make the most of it, what’s the point?”

“As far as your religion goes, I doubt it says anything against interdimensional vacations,” Lisa added, “As for your pops, he's a grown man, he can take care of himself.”

“...I’m not so sure he can. He started drinking a lot after mom died. I’m afraid…”

“I don’t share the perspective of a mortal, so I can’t give advice.” Avery looked off to the side as her normal proud demeanor gave way to melancholy, “I am very old. True immortals count their lifetime by the number of stars they have seen born and die; I have long since stopped counting the number of realities that I have seen do the same. Immortals often choose when to die. A few do so when their family and friends pass on, or when they have no goals left to strive for. It’s hard to continue with no purpose... Eventually, everyone leaves.”

Three knocks on the door broke the silence that followed. Lisa walked over and opened it to find Chad on the other side.

“Hey, I, um, came over to apologize. Oh here, these are for you.” Chad handed Lisa a box of chocolate, a get well balloon, and a bottle of scotch.

“It’s fine,” Lisa blushed, “how did you know where I live anyway?”

“Oh well I asked around and when Maggie heard about what happened she said she saw you at Ashley’s a few times when she, um, visited.” Chad rubbed the back of his neck, “Sorry if that’s weird, I just feel bad about hitting a woman and–” Catching sight of Avery, his jaw dropped, “Is that a succubus?”

“No! It’s, um, a costume. For a party,” Lisa corrected.

“Oh wow,” Chad drolled, “that's so hot!”

Lisa kicked the door, slamming it shut.

“So uh, you forgive me, right? We’re good?” Chad yelled through the door.

“Yes Chad, We’re just great,” Lisa yelled back.

“Anyways… Sara you don’t need to worry about staying or leaving. You don’t have a choice.” Avery said.

“No choice? What do you mean? Of course, I have a choice!”

“No, you gave me your life and your soul. Why would you get to choose? Besides, do you really want to get left behind by your friends? I doubt your father would want you to pass on such a rare opportunity for his sake.”

“Yay,” Ashley gave Sara a tight hug, “I’m so glad you’re coming with us!”

“Fine!” Sara said through gritted teeth.

“So back to the original problem of our rebirth, it sounds like we need character sheets,” Lisa suggested.

“Ough, can we get a system and a profile and cheat abilities?” Ashley asked.

“A system?” Avery asked.

“Yea you know, like, a character sheet in a video game.”

“No that doesn't…” Avery began mumbling, “Well I could use spores to infect the fetus and form a type of symbiosis with each cell. Something like your mitochondria, except that it would need to replace the nucleus to have full control of cellular reproduction and thus allow for spontaneous mutation…”

Ashley blinked, “What’s she talking about?”

“I think she’s planning to turn us into mutants,” Lisa answered.

“Like the green bodybuilder? The one with anger issues?”

“...Of course,” Avery began pacing, “I would need to use the connection of our bound souls for me to give remote commands and synchronize the cellular mutation process throughout the body. Obviously, I would have to take the local physiology and magical interference into consideration once a planet is chosen. I would also have to develop a way to allow the process to read thoughts for it to recognize the user’s commands…”

“I think she’s also going to read our minds?” Lisa questioned with a frown, “Is that even possible?”

“Yea, she read my memories when she first got here,” Ashley blurted, ”that’s how she knew what I wanted in bed.”

“...But parameterizing magic itself is impossible,” Avery continued with a finger pressed to her dimple, “I could make generalized goals or simplistic paths but it would cause overreliance, be prone to overpowering, and worse, it would cause you to focus solely on cultivating power and not your inner self but–”

“Actually Avery,” Lisa interrupted, “it sounds like too much trouble with too many downsides. I think I’ll pass.”

“Yea same.” Sara nodded, “No offense, but I don’t want to be a mutant that’s being altered by an alien with the ability to read my mind.”

“Well, um,” Ashley squirmed in place, ”I kinda think that Avy having all that control over me would be kinda–”

“Gross! Ash, save that for when you are alone,” Sara complained, “If I’m going to do this then I want to be a noblewoman, not some ill-treated commoner.”

“Same, I want to be able to start off powerful and the noble lifestyle will give plenty of advantages,” Lisa agreed.

Ashley bit her lip, “Avy, I think I’ll let you decide for me.”

“Alright then, that’s what I’ll work with. Make any goodbye’s you need, we’ll go tomorrow.”