Chapter 4: Chapter 3: Ambitions And Surprises

Sarah sips her coffee as she lazily studies the screen in front of her. The secretary is good enough at her job but she is also thankful that her work isn’t overly demanding. Together these circumstances allow her to use her job as a way to get paid to do what she really loves: pinning over one of her colleagues.  

The screen in front of her shows her the Facebook page of a Mr. Martin Zacharia, one of her coworkers. She gazes at images of the muscular insurance agent, and sighs wistfully. The obsessed woman has allowed one of her two computer monitors to linger on the profile of her coworker for almost an hour.

The woman is one of several of her employer’s employees who is here on a Saturday. She’s not happy about this, but she is willing to endure it given how relaxed her job is over 90% of the time. She fully suspects that today’s shift will be even more relaxed than her work tends to be.

Sarah turns slightly, just enough to look at the other monitor in front of her. The other monitor has her email account opened up on it, and she lazily scans a few of the titles of the emails she’s gotten, making sure that there is nothing she needs to actually respond to. She does this for several moments, unaware that she is being watched.

The physical body of the stranger watching her is located decently far from the woman herself. The body of Henry Haverford is still located not far from Norfolk’s public library. The individual whose ocular eyes are curiously and silently watching Sarah is himself getting ready to move for the first time in a while. Thanks to his eyes he has unique means of multitasking.

The figure silently gets up and begins to walk toward the library, a confident smile on his face. He is a fairly plain looking individual, dressed in clothes that have not been washed in an embarrassingly long time but he knows that a lot of his problems will be ending today. The figure is silently considering how to best advance his own powers and secure safety, not only for himself but also for his fellow homeless people.

The powers that dwell within the man are, with some exceptions, dark things but they are not strong enough to corrode his morality. Being homeless is not a positive thing, but it has made the once-mundane human surprisingly mentally resilient. He has been careful with his powers so far, despite only having them for a few hours at this point, and that coupled with his uncommonly robust spirit has allowed him to use even demon eyes without losing himself.

Henry strides over to the library and enters the place, a bright smile on his face as he feels the active air conditioning in the room touch his skin. The sensation of the cool air feels incredible, and he pleasantly sighs as he luxuriates in its touch. He walks past a small entry-section of the library and boldly strides towards the closest occupied helpdesk.

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The library is pleasantly cool, and as I walk towards the librarian I have decided to make my intended target I begin to use my supernatural abilities. I eagerly use my eye that can create ocular eyes to cover the area around me with eyes that open up new mental theaters in my mind’s eye. They all turn to face the librarian, a mousy looking man who gasps when he looks up from his computer and sees me approaching.

“Oh, good morning! How may I help you?” He asks me, causing me to chuckle. I don’t activate any of my eyes just yet, but I do keep them trained on the man. As I do I reflect on the things I’ve been thinking about.

During the time that I scanned the list of essences I can create I saw curious ones that have not left my mind since I finalized my choice to make the dollmaker essence. They had ambitious words like “Jumpchain” and “Multiverse” in their names. Those words radiated a curious energy, and when I investigated the essences they revealed that it is possible for someone who imbibes them to travel to distant, even fictional, universes. And that presents me with a lot of opportunities, as well as a lot of dangers.

I am in the library on a mission: to prepare for the future. I know what essences I want next, but they are not essences that grant me direct power… They are essences that give me opportunities to go to distant destinations with supernatural ease, and I intend to snag at least one of them when I can next create an essence. But I am here right now so that I can piece together some safe destinations to visit first.

“Hey, so I have a bit of an odd question. I have a nephew who likes superheroes and superpowers, and I am babysitting tonight. He’s a really young kid, but I was hoping to check out a good movie for him. Do you have any recommendations?” I explain, causing the man’s eyes to narrow as he considers my question.

“Hmm… Well if you want to keep it rated ‘G’, a good movie might well be Encanto…” He tells me, and upon hearing that I smirk and use one of my ocular eyes to seize control of a computer situated at an empty desk in a corner of Sarah’s office and I proceed to google “Encanto”.

What I see delights me as the movie is an entire film about a family of superheroes where there are no grand villaisn or overwhelmingly powerful foes to consider. It could be a perfect playground for me to experiment with elements of All For One as well… Their powers are not exactly quirks, but they seem to fit the technical description of the sorts of powers that All For One lets me take from other people. I quickly use my gluttonous “Eye of Information Devouring” to ensure that I have perfect recall of the plot in the days to come.

“Do you mind telling me where you have that movie?” I say, even as I will one of my eyes to launch an attack on the man. One of my ocular eyes glares at the librarian and I activate the “Envy” eye known as the “Soul Seeking Eye Of Invasion”.

I feel my mind brush up against the man’s own mind as he opens his mouth to speak and I instantly hurl the weight of my ego and will at the man. His eyes shoot open, as wide as they can, and he freezes as I subdue his consciousness, his fully mundane mind completely undefended against any sort of supernatural attacks.

The soul seeking eye is a powerful weapon in my arsenal. With it I can easily manipulate memories, which I proceed to do to the librarian even as I walk up to him and place a hand on his shoulder.

I free him of any memories of me, and I begin to look through his memories. The man is still frozen, unable to do anything like move or even truly perceive his surroundings. He is defenseless against me, and I intend to take advantage of that.

My dollmaker essence has altered my perception of reality ever so slightly. Beneath the symbol in my mind’s eye that represents the pool of creative power I possess is another symbol in the shape of an elegant doll that is filled with a new pool of energy that I possess. The power in the new symbol is the curious power of the dollmaker essence which I can use to make my dolls in the first place.

I contemplate what to do for a moment, considering acts of unnecessary evil and viciousness. But then I consider my target: a man who, at least according to his own memories is a decent dude. I spend several moments, quietly considering what to do next.

“Hmm… No, I won’t do anything I can’t take back. Not to you anyway.” I eventually remark, sighing in annoyance as I opt to spare the man. I don’t want to use my powers on him, since the powers I am dying to test are dark ones like my ability to make people become dolls.

I continue to passively observe his memories, using the “Eyes of Information Devouring” to memorize them all. At the same time a major chunk of my mind shifts its focus from my body to the various mental theaters that crowd my perception of reality.

As I feed on the memories of the man I have victimized a small voice in the back of my mind subtly whispers something interesting to me. While I am enjoying gaining the memories of the man I ambushed, a small part of me begins to wonder about something that fills me with curiosity: the fate of the warehouse.

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Ocular eyes located within Norfolk’s public library begin to turn away from the eerie essence-entity responsible for creating them and in the direction the man came from many minutes ago. These eyes immediately hurl themselves into doing their creator’s bidding, turning in the direction of the warehouse, creating new eyes, and then immediately vanish themselves.

These actions would have seemed odd to anyone unfamiliar with the eyes, but they are part of an intriguing plan on the part of their lord. The eyes are speedy things and in moments they are over a mile away from their creator. The things zip out of downtown and into the town’s industrial district, while exciting the figure who can control them. The alarm that was going off has stopped, plunging the place into a strange silence.

The warehouse appears within view of one of them and the thing creates an eye on the warehouse itself. The range at which ocular eyes can create more of themselves is actually fairly significant and because of this it only took a few eyes before Henry finds himself “back” at the warehouse. Another few heartbeats happen between the time it takes for Henry’s eyes to position themselves just within the entrance that Henry used a few hours ago to change his life.

Looking at the interior of the warehouse shocks the essence-entity. The actual physical form of the figure gasps in surprise as he sees that the area of the warehouse he can see has been completely cleaned and signs have been placed on the side of the shelves closest to the entrance.

“Dear Essence Entity:

“The warehouse, which is itself ‘alive’ in a sense, knows that you are using a remote essence to try and snag a couple extra essences. We appreciate the creativity and are not going to punish you for it. However, we will not let you abuse this. So, instead we have decided to give you two pre-determined freebies as it were and three freebies you can pick yourself. After that… Well, you’ll see.

 “In every box in the warehouse, as you perceive it, you will be able to find just one essence at the moment: ‘The Essence of the Thief’. This is a remarkable essence, and snagging it early is excellent. After that you’ll get a jumpchain essence.

The final freebies can be any of the essences you can currently create. You’ll find that you can reject this offer, but even if you explored every nook and cranny of the building you’ll only find essences that we offered you here, in the order we offered you them. Thank you for your understanding, and we hope that you have an excellent day!”

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The message causes the figure to sigh in a mixture of annoyance and acceptance. He responds to the message by creating three eyes throughout the warehouse and checking to see if the sign is telling the truth. Henry is annoyed but unsurprised when he finds that the only essences he can find are copies of the “Essence of the Thief”. Unconsciously Henry is also not surprised to find that the warehouse is alive. After all, the thing is filled with drinks that can grant someone superpowers, so why shouldn’t it also be supernatural in nature?

Henry uses a greed eye to obtain one of the liquid filled vials and he drinks it in the library without hesitation. The liquid was gold and while it didn’t taste like coffee it energized him in the same way that coffee might. As he downs the funny fluid the boxes in the warehouse visibly glow and vibrate, something which Henry watches with curiosity even as he physically reads the description of the essence he has just downed.

As soon as the things are done vibrating Henry attempts to use his newfound superpowers on the contents of one of the boxes. The “Essence of the Thief” is a powerful, if fairly simple, essence that greatly enhances skills related to thievery, as well as gives those who imbibe it the ability to steal from people they can perceive. That second thing is what Henry is doing, as he spots one of the bottles in a box and nimbly abducts the thing.

The bottle disappears from the box and appears inside of a foreign dimension that is designed to store the things Henry steals using his rather powerful ability to steal. It is only located in this blank, white space for a split second before Henry, by focusing for a moment, calls it to his hand. He unstoppers the vial and downs the contents of the thing before stopping and reading the description of it.

The essence is a simple: it allows him to go on an “Adventure-Style” jumpchain journey and explore fictional universes, one at a time. As a result of this he has become a jumper, but he doesn’t have to rush to explore fictional universes and he knows that he can take his time. As he downs the drink the boxes in the warehouse change once more, again glowing and vibrating to indicate that they are filled with new items.

“Now that is impressive…” Henry mutters, as he takes in the possibilities that come with his new powers. He knows, thanks to what has happened in the past, that the contents of the boxes have been magically replaced, and he begins to explore them with delighted curiosity.

The boxes now contain notes on them that say the names of each essence. There are essences that Henry saw earlier like the “Essence of the Unnamed Darkness” and the “Essence of the Superorganism”. That second essence is one of the incredibly few basic essences that does not seem trainable and gives an intriguing superpower to those who imbibe it: the ability to use the abilities of any mundane creature native to Earth, as well as a perfect mental catalogue revealing all of the abilities of mundane lifeforms.

For several moments the eyes that explore the urban fantasy warehouse sift through hundreds of essences. To speed this process they create eyes that help scan the boxes, before beginning to pick out essences. Two of the essences are easy for the figure to pick: the “Essence of the Unnamed Darkness”, which works incredibly well with the “Essence of the Thief”, and the “Essence of the Superorganism”. The only choice that stumps the figure for a moment is what final essence he ought to pick…

There are a range of incredible essences that are available to him at the moment. He has previously picked essences that compliment each other or his own abilities, with him picking the superorganism essence because it grants him shapeshifting which was one of the few basic powers he didn’t already have a way to do, as well as flight, which he could replicate with ease, and the ability to breathe underwater, but now he has to make a difficult decision…

Henry takes a beat to consider his current strengths and weaknesses. He thinks about the fact that he has powerful physical characteristics, and he can inflict nasty status effects on those he decides to mess up if he uses his demon eyes. He is a very flexible type of super-being, but he doesn’t have the ability to use magic beyond his ability to create stuff and his auras, nor does he have particularly strong charisma-based abilities, both of which present real problems if he doesn’t use demon eyes.

The thoughtful figure wants to be a balanced type of character who can handle himself in any fight regardless of whether or not any single one of his powers gets deactivated or otherwise can’t be used. It is this desire to be balanced that motivates the creature as he scans the warehouse one more time. During this scan he finds one particularly ambitiously named essence: the “Essence of Mind Control University”.

This essence appeals to the strange figure, and he selects it almost without thinking about it. The second he selects the essence his eyes in the warehouse are forcibly shut and the ones outside of the place watch the building blink out of existence. The process is instantaneous, and he cannot do anything to stop it from happening. What’s worse though is that the sensation of his eyes being forcibly shut actually causes the figure to fall to the floor, in mild pain.

“Ugh, what the fuck was that?!” Henry says, in pain. He spends nearly a minute on the floor, before finally regaining his composure and getting up while summoning the essence he snagged from the warehouse. The purple potion appears in his hand and he drinks the thing, which causes a text box to appear in his mind’s eye.

The text box asks him to select two paths, out of three in total. The options he can choose from are “Neutral Party”, “Master/Mistress”, and “Slave”. He does not hesitate to make his choice, only not selecting “Slave”.

As he makes this choice he feels new powers, many of which are subtle and some of which are not, fill him. Thankfully for him, he does not have to choose a “Favored Method” of affecting minds, as the essence gives him innate skill in all six paths: hypnotism, chemistry, technology, chi, magic, and psionics.

The powers within him, old and new alike, begin to touch and intersect in odd ways. His skin subtly begins to glow as his powers, particularly those that are more direct superpowers, thanks to the amplificatory powers of "One For All”. Henry’s powers are growing within him spontaneously, and they were already powerful things.

“Hmm… Well, I guess this was worth it.” He says, a smile on his face as he feels powerful abilities blossoming within him, and even as he feels his body restructuring itself. The odd figure is physically growing taller with every passing second, his features growing sharper and sharper as well as more attractive as his body is remade and beautified by the essence he just drank.

The figure suddenly blinks and winks out of existence. He finds himself in a familiar place, the same place he was when he first invaded the library. Now, he finds himself there once more, but before he can move to where he wants to go, he finds himself unable to move. He is being kept perfectly still, by some bizarre external force and cannot even use his demon eyes. A sudden voice fills his mind, one that “speaks” in loud mental tones.

“Apologies, Essence Entity.” Utters the voice. Henry tries to glare “at” it, doing his best to make his anger clear. Nevertheless, the essence drinker is unable to do anything that has any real meaning.

“I am the controlling spirit of the warehouse. You have been frozen because your powers are mutating, which I didn’t plan for. I didn’t take into account the fact that All For One can mutate essences, as that is a new ability it has never manifested before, to the best of my knowledge anyway, and its mutational powers are currently amplifying your essences. I recognize that this is inconvenient for you, but your powers would greatly distort the world, in unintended ways, if you were left to your own devices.” The voice explains, sounding emotionless but its words are fairly contrite.

“This is bad for the world you are from, as your Earth is an almost entirely mundane place. Because of that I am going to shunt you to a place that can more easily handle the magic you casually and unintentionally radiate for a few days. In a few days you’ll be able to return to your native Earth, but without any time having passed between the moment you arrive in your first jump and the moment you leave it. Please select where you would like to go for your first jump.” The voice tells Henry, causing him to sigh in annoyance.

Henry does not hesitate and mentally visualizes the village where “Encanto” takes place. As he does this he begins to feel his ability to move being restored. He moves around in the space that he now occupies, and the voice begins to speak again.

“You wish to be sent to Encanto? Alright, that is an excellent first jump destination. I will begin to prepare the place for your arrival. In the meantime you will reside here. It will not take long before you find yourself in your intended destination.” The spirit of the warehouse explains to the newly minted “Jumper”.  

“For the sake of apologizing for this inconvenience, I’ll also throw in something special. You’re not going to a world that solely contains the magical village where ‘Encanto’ takes place. Instead, I’ll make this a composite world where other Disney adventures can take place as well, if you know how to find them. Though finding them will be an adventure. Hopefully that makes us even, in your eyes. I’ll even make this version of Encanto just a touch different, but only in ways that may make it more interesting…” Mutters the spirit, causing Henry’s mental lips to twitch upward in something loosely resembling a smile.

Henry floats in the strange void-like space for several minutes before his surroundings begin to change. His senses, other than his sight, begin to be flooded with stimuli, from the sounds of music and the beautiful singing voice of a stranger, to the smell of what he vaguely recognizes as Hispanic food. He hears someone singing about her “Amazing family”, and he feels his feet touch something solid. Moments later what he can see begins to blur and become distorted, before colors change all around him and he leaves the dark void he was floating in.

He finds himself at the corner of a town plaza, on a stunningly beautiful clear day. All around him Colombian villagers go about their business, though he can distantly see a young woman entertaining a gaggle of children. She is brilliantly beautiful, and she seems to be having the time of her life as she sings.

“My tia Pepa, her mood controls the weather!” Sings Mirabel Madrigal, though not a version of her that Henry was expecting to see. Instead of being a teenager, this version of the woman is a young adult. She is clearly younger than Henry, but not by more than half a decade or so.

“My apology is sincere. I am not omniscient, and while I could predict that you’d try to do something eventually I genuinely had no idea One For All was so powerful. So I hope that making this world just a touch more interesting than it was meant to be will be enough to allow you to forgive me. Have fun, young essence-entity.” The voice whispers, before Henry feels it depart in the same way that somebody might sense someone close by leaving a room. Henry feels the air around him change and shift in a very subtle way, and he chuckles as he begins to plot and scheme about how to make the most of his current predicament.

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