Chad, with all the excitement of a child, practically ran back to his room. Adam tried to keep up, but after eating far too much of that strange desert, he found himself unable to keep the same energy levels.

Back in Chad’s fire room, the sun had set enough so that Chad had to light a fire-shaped lamp so the room wouldn’t be so dark. When Adam entered the room, he found Chad back in front of that moving painting thing, booting the system back up. Adam, not exactly sure what for, went over and sat down next to him, sitting criss-cross on the poofy mat once more.

He had actually played quite a bit of the game before he decided that watching Chad sleep might be a bit more fun. Therefore, he considered himself quite the expert. Chad navigated through the opening cutscene and into a myriad of weird shapes in weird colours with weird characters on them. But he went no further. Not that Adam knew what those shapes were supposed to represent.

“Oh, right, you said you’d played this when I was passed out?” Chad said with a large smile, pointing to the screen. Adam processed the words for a second before nodding, mirroring Chad’s grin with a smirk. “I bet you’ll have all the characters unlocked, bro! Like, come on! You played it for like at least five minutes, so…” Chad pressed the largest shape, went through a couple of identical screens and finally found himself at a mostly empty screen.

“Duude!” Chad said, and although he sounded a bit angry, the big smile on his face revealed his true thoughts. Somehow, this disconnect did not compute in Adam, who was left confused.

“I, uh, did I do something wrong? I was just doing what I could, I wasn’t sure if-,”

Adam was interrupted by Chad’s snickering.

“Bro, it’s cool! This is even better, now we can unlock the characters together!” he said happily, his cursor already picking out a red-capped moustached fellow from the bunch.

“Unlock them?...” Adam asked half-heartedly, his own cursor hovering over to the octopus girl in the corner.

“Bro, you’re holding it wrong, here,” Chad showed Adam how he held the controller, “you use the thumb on the joystick, not your index finger.” Adam glanced at how Chad held it and back to his. Carefully, he realigned his fingers to match Chad’s. “There you have it! Okay, now just you wait and I’ll stomp you into the curb!”

“Thanks…” Adam mumbled back, his fingers shaking somewhat. He’d been perfectly fine as he’d been using it before… nonetheless, if Chad said something was so, then it was so. Probably. Thumb straining, he finally picked the octopus girl.

“Dude!”

“What’s it now?!”

“Bro, if you’d picked Lanzo, we could have been a team…” Chad said, looking rather mellow with his eyes cast down and his back hunched. Adam, the mass murderer who’d never hesitated, felt his heart ache at the sight. At first, he considered the fault in his heart to lie in some sort of malfunction with his physical form. Perhaps the Humanification spell had gone awry, and the results were only starting to show now? Or, even worse, he’d been poisoned and was experiencing human cardiac arrest?...

And then, it dawned on him.

“Oh, uh, sorry dude. I’ll be this, uh, ‘Lanzo’ guy if you want,” Adam offered.

Chad’s countenance took a U-turn the second Adam finished saying “Lanzo”, eyes glittering and lips spread into a grateful smile.

“Broooo…!” he said, his arms reaching out for a hug. But he stopped about an inch from Adam’s trembling body. “Awww man, sorry bro, almost hugged ya there, heh. Sorry, won’t happen again,” Chad said, folding his arms back to his sides.

“N-, no, it’s… it’s fine, dude,” Adam said, a slight blush spreading across his lily-white face.

“Is it!? Whoa, cool!” Chad said, and without any further pause, he swept Adam into his strong arms, enveloping the twig-like man in muscle and gratitude. Adam, although he was technically the stronger of the two, could do nothing to hinder this. He kind of sort of felt like puking, but he also felt somehow giddy. As if all the slugs he’d kept inside for the past couple of months had metamorphosed into moths.

The blush on his face spread itself further, lighting up his pale demeanour. But as soon as it had happened, Chad released him from his grip, the warmth going with him. Adam wished the warmth had stayed with him instead, but he also didn’t want to take it from Chad. So, he let it be.

“Alright bro, let’s go!” Chad said, pumping a fist in the air. Adam reluctantly mimicked the gesture, not exactly knowing what it meant but going along just for the sake of it.

“Wait, uh, who’s the Lanzo guy?...” Adam asked. The screen was filled with less than a dozen characters, and guessing was far too risky.

“Bro, he’s that guy! With the green cap and the little moustache!” Chad said, pointing to a little green guy beside the red guy Chad had picked. Adam picked the little green guy, and off they were. With a harsh noise Adam didn’t much like, they were thrown into some sort of stage Chad had picked beforehand.

Chad, although not having played many games in his life, picked up the controls quite quickly, soon doing smooth jumps and throwing fireballs and whatnot without any trouble. Adam, on the other hand, had trouble moving at all. Using the joystick with his thumb felt clunky and weird, but when he tried to use his index finger, Chad pouted and lectured him. So, Adam was forced to learn the hard way.

Adam soon realized that Chad was far ahead of him.

He even knew how to pick up items!

Of course, after Chad had learnt how to walk and jump and use the most basic of commands, it was only moments before he’d make Adam his first victim.

Adam died many times that hour, whether it was from his own incompetence or Chad goofing off near him or some level 2 AI, it was clear he was nowhere near as good as he’d thought himself to be.

But, after much trial and error, he found himself good enough to actually stand toe-to-toe with a level 3 AI. And with an encouraging but firm pat on the back from an old friend, he somehow felt quite proud. Sure, if compared to any achievements from Lutum he'd racked up it wasn’t too much, but for now, in that cosy little bedroom, it felt just enough.

Hours passed.

Chad glanced over at the camouflaged clock.

“Oh shit bro, it’s like midnight or something!” Chad said, and even though he was pointing straight to the clock, Adam couldn’t see it. Chad had long since turned off the bedroom lamp, meaning the whole room was basked only in the cold glow of the "television", as it was called. The darkness would normally not pose any trouble to Adam's cat-like gaze, but in this new body, it seemed even his eyes were human. Indeed, it was somewhat of a miracle Chad could make out any details at all in the darkened bedroom.

“Dude, how can you possibly read that clock in this darkness?...” Adam asked hesitantly. Chad stared at him with owlish eyes.

“Bro, I eat my carrots.”

“What’s a carrot?” Adam asked, putting his controller down.

Chad stared at him for a second.

“Oh yeah, uhh, it’s like this orange thing? Grows underground? You eat it, and it makes you see in the dark! You know, like a cat!” Chad said.

“Bro, that’s not feasible. Unless you pour Magick into this… vegetable, I suppose, there’s no way it’ll have any impact of any sort on your eyes,” Adam explained matter-of-factly. Chad frowned.

“Dude, what’s magic? No, wait, magic as in magic?”

“Magick?”

“Magic?”

“Magick.”

“Yeah, magic. Wait, you still haven’t told me what in the heck happened! Like, before I took a nap!”

“Oh, I, uh…” Adam said, glancing down at the controller in front of him. Anything to not look Chad in the eyes.

“Hey, dude. You don’t gotta tell me if you don’t wanna,” Chad said, holding up two hands in surrender.

“No! No, I… You deserve an explanation. It’s the least I can do. And, plus… you need one, I guess,” Adam said, chuckling a bit. He still couldn’t quite look Chad in the eye.

“Oh. Okay, go on!” Chad said, practically throwing the controller aside as he flopped down to lay on his stomach, feet in the air, head propped up by his muscular arms.

“Um, dude, what are you doing?” Adam asked, suspicious eyes crawling across the strange, no doubt uncomfortable position.

“Bro, they do this in movies all the time! It’s totally necessary when, like, somebody’s gonna say something, uh… important. And stuff,” Chad explained, eyed lit up with knowledge. Adam squinted, but under such assurance, he could do nothing but relent.

Copying Chad’s movements, Adam carefully took the same position, making sure not to break one of his brittle human bones. And… yeah. It was actually pretty comfortable! The ground was covered by some sort of soft rug, and all together, it was comfortable. He could lie there for years!

“Alright bro, go on! What’s magic? Like, I know magic is magic and all, but… okay yeah, explain,” Chad said, eyes glittering.

“Okay, um… There’s no good explanation. All I can tell you is that Magick has been around for more than 800 years. Humans like you produce it in the Cerritulus,” Adam said, pointing to just above his chest, where his cerritulus would be if he had one.

“Whoa. Do I have one of those Cerri-thingies?” Chad asked, pointing to the same place Adam was pointing.

“Well, you’re a human, so yes,” Adam said.

“And you’re not?” Chad asked, sharply taking note of the undertones in Adam’s words.

“I-, how did you?... Well, I… I’m Adam!”

“Yeah bro, ‘course you are! But, like, bro. Tell me the whole story,” Chad said. "I know there is one, dude."

Adam hesitated. For good reason, too. If he’d had a choice when faced with Pete, there was no way he’d have told him the actual truth. If he’d gotten the chance to start over, or if he’d had enough Magick to attempt the Mind Erase spell on him…

Would he?

Did he cherish the dream of a normal life so much?

“I, um… alright. I’ll tell you. This morning, when… when everything happened? I went to another world. I wasn’t a human there, I was… a slug. Isn’t that just hilarious? Well, uh, so I stayed there for a couple of hundred years, and now, I’m back,” Adam said, keeping details to a minimum.

“Whoa. Whoooaaa. Dude, bro, then, like, what was that thing this morning? Like the big thing in the sky?” Chad said, moving his fingers weirdly to imitate the “big thing in the sky”.

“Uh. It.. came with me?...” Adam lied, hoping Chad was dense enough to believe it and not question how a slug became a man in the first place.

“Whoa. Dude. So, is it like, your rival or something!?!” Chad asked, stars in his eyes.

“I guess so? Yeah, let’s say that,” Adam said.

“What about that girl who fought it?” Chad asked sensibly.

“Oh, the red a-, I mean, her? Well… alright, so, you’ve awakened you Cerritulus, meaning you now have the ability to cast spells et cetera. I believe she experienced this very same thing when I returned and is now in the same situation as you are,” Adam said. Chad nodded.

“Alright, so… do you think she also has like, a presence inside her?”

“A what?”

“Well, uhh, like, along with the fever and the stuff? It kinda feels like there’s someone else in my head. And like, when I took that nap, bro? I talked to this fire-girl and… she spoke this weirdo language, and then she threw a fireball in my face. I think she got mad cuz’ I pointed at her beanie,” Chad monologue.

“I… wait. That can’t be… she-, she didn’t happen to have a yellow coat, did she? Stained with grass and with a little signature on it?...”

“Uhh, yeah?”

“...”

Impossible. Implausible. Inconceivable!

She couldn’t possibly be here!