Episode:
2: Adam Alone

After escaping the nightmare, Adam finds himself surrounded by ghosts.

Adam opened his eyes much sooner than Star. Perhaps this was to be expected; he attributed that to his greater experience with mind spells. The room was still as claustrophobic as ever, his face illuminated only by the light that came in through the open door opposite him. Janna stood beside Star, forcing Adam to remain calm. He had forgotten she was still alive.

'Star!' Janna exclaimed, shaking the girl back to consciousness.

'Eh?' The princess muttered, groggily opening her eyes. Once she realised who she was looking at, her eyes widened. 'Janna!'

'Oof!' The Filipino mustered, as Star encapsulated her in a tight hug. She was about to remove her, but then she started crying in her arms. 'Star? What's wrong?'

'You're…you're okay…' the poor girl whispered between happy tears.

'You!' Janna yelled at Adam. 'What did you do?!'

'I showed her what she asked me to!' he defended. 'I didn't realise…I don't know how, but she's not the Star I know.'

'I'll tell you how!' The teenager replied, gently letting go of the princess in her arms. 'You're a nutjob! And you're gonna pay for making Star cry!'

She geared to throw a punch at him, but suddenly stopped. She felt a tug against her skirt and looked down at Star.

'Don't,' the Butterfly objected with a sniff. She took a few deep breaths and wiped the tears away. 'It's not his fault. He's innocent. I saw it.'

'Um, well, are you…are you okay?' Janna asked worriedly, kneeling down beside her.

'No,' she responded candidly. 'But…you're okay, so…I will be.' Star took a few more breaths to focus, pushing the image of Janna's skeleton out of her head.

'I'm…sorry,' Adam apologised after a while, an awkward reluctance in his voice. 'I didn't mean –'

'M'lady,' a voice interrupted from behind them. All of them went to look for the source, Adam looking up as Star and Janna turned to see. It was a Mewman knight, carrying a bag in his hand. 'We found this bag in the debris in that room you were attacked in.'

Adam recognised it. It was his bag! He must have lost it when Star destroyed the rafters he'd been standing on at the start of their fight. How could he have been so reckless?

Star stood up and walked over to the knight. Taking the bag from his hands, she reached over and fiddled with the clasp. After a few seconds of trying, she found it would not open.

'We've been trying to open it since we got it,' the knight explained. 'It wouldn't budge. I thought you might be able to help.'

'Hmm…' she thought aloud, fidgeting with the shiny latch. 'It's…jammed!'

'That's my bag,' he explained, pursing his lips. 'There's a Locking Spell on it.'

Adam rolled his eyes as the princess took out her wand.

'Summa revelare!' Star declared, causing the crystal in the middle to flash. [4] The lock on the bag glowed bright for a second, before dying down. The flap on it flung open and she reached inside to see what it was.

Feeling something worn and leathery, the princess frowned as she began to pull it out. She gasped as she stared at it.

'The Magic Instruction Book?' The girl identified bewilderedly.

'Wasn't that destroyed?' The knight recalled.

'Yeah…' she remembered. 'Um, don't you have…knight…stuff, to do?'

'Ugh, sure,' he complained, realising that she was trying to get rid of him. Disinterested, the man walked away.

Star turned her attention back to Adam.

'Where did you get this?!' She demanded in sheer perplexity, glancing between him and the book.

'Uh, I…stole…it?' He stuttered awkwardly. 'Why do you think I was even in that graveyard? Janna told me Star – you – would be there, so I went to see if I could take it. What she didn't tell me' – he looked over sombrely at the ghost of Janna beside Star – 'was that she would be there too.'

'This is…freaky,' Janna commented. 'And that's coming from me.'

'Ludo took the book, not you,' Star remembered, rubbing her frown in confusion.

This whole situation was so overwhelming for her. She'd just seen Janna…and it felt so real. She didn't want to think it was real, and her rational mind told her that it couldn't be real. After all, Janna was alive, and the whole sight had been in Adam's head. It wasn't rooted in reality.

This book was the nail in the coffin of that thought. This was evidence that what Adam was saying was true. Except, it couldn't be true! How? Janna was alive!

This whole thing was so impossible to her.

'Star, look,' Janna said, breaking her line of thought. She pointed at the book.

'Yeah, it's the Book of Spells, I can see that,' the princess deadpanned, scowling at her for a moment.

'Look closer.'

Star peered in at the book, studying every detail of the cover. Frowning, she inspected Janna's eye-line to see where she was looking. After a minute of searching, she shrank back.

'I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking at,' the girl admitted with a down-to-earth expression. Janna rolled her eyes at her friend's antics.

'The crystals!' She said, tapping one of them. Star shook her head helplessly. 'They're the wrong colour!'

'…oh, yeah!' The magical princess recognised, getting a closer look at the cover. 'And that arrow in the middle…that's the wrong colour too!'

'Let me see,' Adam ordered, rising to his feet. Janna looked at her worriedly, but Star shook her head at her. She stepped towards him and showed him the book.

The Mewman shook his head.

'I don't understand; it's always looked like that,' he said after inspecting the book.

'No it hasn't!' Star protested, setting down the book beside the warlock. Fumbling through her star-shaped purse, she produced a circular compact with a rainbow on the front. 'It looked like…' the princess studied the screen for a few moments. 'Ugh, I don't have a picture of it!'

There was a beeping noise and suddenly Adam had some strange rectangular device shoved in his face. It looked an awful lot like it served the same purpose like the cellular device Star had been searching through.

'Here you go,' Janna said, showing him a picture.

'What? Why do you have a picture of the Book of Spells on your phone?!' Star interrogated with an almost embarrassed tone.

'Why not?' The girl replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Not that Adam was really paying attention to this exchange. Or the subsequent, confused conversation between them that followed. He inspected the photo on the screen. It was definitely the Magic Instruction Book, no question of it. Yet, it definitely looked different. Glancing between the Book before him and the Book on the screen, he compared the differences.

True to what Janna had claimed, the colours were different.

That didn't make any sense. He had stolen it from Star two years ago, and this was how it looked. It hadn't changed since, and, at the time, the princess hadn't been nonplussed to see it that way. Then again, given what he had just experienced, he was certain that this Star wasn't the Star he knew.

So…what if…the book in this picture ISN'T the same book as THAT one?

In a span of just an hour, he had managed to fall through a giant portal, end up on Mewni, fought Star Butterfly, found out she wasn't the actual Star Butterfly, and now he had no idea where he was. All because he opened too many portals and tried to have a bit of "harmless" fun.

Then he remembered something Glossaryck had told him when he was first learning how to open them. About opening too many portals.

'"Open a singularity to a space outside the multiverse",' he muttered to himself. 'What's outside the multiverse? Unless…'

Adam looked up at the two people in front of him, who were still having a conversation. They were Star and Janna. That much was obvious, but they weren't…the same Star and Janna. His eyes widened; finally, the realisation hit him.

'Hey! I think I know what's going on!' He addressed, halting their conversation.

'What?' Star said incredulously. 'Um, what are you thinking?'

'I think…' he began, bracing himself for his response. 'I think…I've travelled to a parallel multiverse.'

'Bingo!' A voice affirmed ecstatically. 'You know, I was wondering when you'd figure it out.'

As if on cue, the Book of Spells opened itself, flicking through the pages until it came to a stop. A small red figure was lying against the inside spine of the pages, before rising into the air to meet the gazes of the three people in the room.

'Glossaryck?!' All three of them yelled in complete unison. The man barely had time to say anything before numerous questions were posed at him.

'Why are you…red?' Star.

'Were you waiting in that book the whole time?' Janna.

'Where were you before?' Adam.

'Oh god, not so many questions,' Glossaryck yelled over them, holding his hands up to cover his ears. 'You're all like sonar bugs, you know that?'

'Sonar whats?' Star parroted. The guide just ignored her question and turned to face Adam.

'Nice work there, warlock,' he scorned, floating up close to his face. Adam withdrew his head slightly. 'You've travelled between multiverses. I can't say anybody from our world has accomplished that. You're incredibly lucky you didn't end up in the cold nothingness between universes.'

'I get it, Gloss. I messed up.'

The guide rolled his eyes and turned to face the two individuals behind him. Upon sight of Star, he flew up close to her face and examined it in great detail.

'Fascinating…' he complimented, floating around her head to get a good look. 'Superficially identical in almost every way. Virtually indistinguishable from the other one.'

'You're…not Glossaryck?' The princess guessed, frowning.

'She's slow, this one, huh?' He commented, glancing back at Adam, who gave no discernible response. 'I am Glossaryck, young Butterfly. Not your Glossaryck, certainly, but Glossaryck all the same – a Glossaryck from another world.'

Adam wasn't sure he'd heard anyone refer to themselves in the third person that many times in two sentences.

'So…that's why you're red?' Star discerned with an abased smile.

'Red suits me,' he replied defiantly.

'I prefer the blue you,' Janna said disinterestedly.

'Hmm…' The magical entity thought aloud, looking closely at the young Filipino girl beside Star. 'Who might you be?'

'Um…Janna,' she replied awkwardly.

'Oh…I remember you!' He replied brightly. 'You were the one who was incinerated by the Butterfly Princess! In a dingy graveyard, I might add.'

'What?!' Janna shrieked, before briefly glancing at Adam. 'Aaaand I'm out.' She left the room before he could object.

As though he hadn't even noticed Janna, Glossaryck turned to face the Mewman, who was still restrained in cuffs.

'To answer your earlier question, I was in the Book. You just could not see me. I saw your fight with the Butterfly. I have to say I'm disappointed.'

Adam sighed.

'I know, I know, I just –'

'You broke rules One, Two, Three and Four,' the magical guide pointed out, listing them on his fingers. 'You underestimated your opponent, you attacked first, you assumed you knew what you were dealing with, and you weren't prepared for anything.'

'Okay, okay I get it,' Adam persisted, but Glossaryck wasn't listening.

'And then, you got distracted, and messed up your attempt to kill the Butterfly.'

'Well…I don't regret that part,' he admittedly candidly. The magical man stared at him.

'You regret not being able to kill Star Butterfly?'

'Glossaryck!' Adam scolded. 'It's not our Star Butterfly! She's a stranger to us. She's…' His face fell. '…innocent.'

'Hardly,' he scoffed. 'If one Star Butterfly can go bad, then all of them can. It's only a matter of time before this one starts killing – and finds out she likes it!'

The Mewman scowled at him.

'Get back in the Book,' he ordered bitterly, jerking his head towards it. The guide looked like he was about to laugh.

'I don't –'

'Get back in the Book until I tell you to come out.'

'You don't order me!'

'I am your liege! You will do as I say! Now, go!'

Glossaryck sighed, aware of the magically binding contract between them. As his liege, Adam could order the guide to do anything within reason. And he was required to obey.

'Ugh, fine,' he conceded, returning to his page inside the book. The Book of Spells closed itself. Adam stared down at the ground guiltily. He couldn't even look Star in the eye.

'I'm sorry…' he apologised sincerely. 'This whole thing…it's been a mess.' Star's expression turned sympathetic, and she sat down beside him, resting her back against the cold stone.

'It's okay.'

'No, it's not!' He vehemently disagreed. 'I showed you something awful. I tried to kill you!'

'You thought I was someone else,' she pointed out. 'We do look exactly the same.' The girl paused. 'What you showed me was…awful. I think it'll haunt me for a long time…but if you didn't show me that…I don't think I'd understand half as much why you hate the other me so much.'

'You don't get it!' Adam bawled. 'You're innocent in all this! If I start…killing innocent people, what makes me any different from a Butterfly?' He looked at her, suddenly remembering who he was talking to. 'I mean…a Butterfly from my universe.'

'I get it,' she assured him. 'You didn't know I was innocent. You made a mistake. All you can do is learn from it.'

'I can learn from it in my jail cell,' he muttered, not even looking at her. He heard her rise from her spot beside him, and he expected to hear the door closing a moment later. Ready to be encapsulated in darkness again, he stared down at the floor for his next self-pity session.

Except, that didn't happen. Instead, a sudden blast of powerful strawberries smashed into his wrists. The magic-dampening cuffs on his wrists crumbled into fragments of metal, freeing him from his confinement.

Looking up, he saw Star Butterfly standing over him, her wand glowing a pink aura. She lowered it and reached out her other hand towards him.

'There's no use sitting here feeling sorry for yourself,' she told him. 'We can try again! Friends?'

Adam stared up at her for a moment. He wanted so badly to hate her, but he couldn't.

Admittedly, it was nearly impossible to be nice to her, but he forced himself to. His better judgement told him that it wasn't fair to hate this Star for what another Star did. However, his grief told him that he had no reason to believe she wouldn't become like the other one. As Glossaryck had said, it could only be a matter of time before she starts killing people – and decides she likes killing people.

Even though they were, strictly speaking, the same person, if there were parallel multiverses, then there had to be a version of the princess who wasn't as cruel and murderous as his one.

So far, all he had seen from this Star had pointed to her being an empathetic and kind person. Sure, he may be proven wrong, but he couldn't know that unless he found out.

Adam exhaled carefully and reluctantly nodded. He reached up and took her hand. Star helped him to his feet, beaming at him.

'I'm Star Butterfly. Nice to meet you!'

'Adam,' he said flatly, unable to prevent her shaking his hand violently. 'I don't have a surname.'

'Well, nice to meet ya, Adam! I appreciate you giving me a chance…'

'It's alright. Besides, how else am I going to get home?' Adam pointed out with a reluctant shrug pulling at his shoulders.

'Come on,' the princess beckoned. Adam nodded, picking up the Magic Instruction Book and putting it back into his bag. Together, they left the dingy prison cell.

'So…' Adam began, as they walked through the halls of the castle. '…where are we going?'

'Oh! We need to talk to Mom about this,' she explained. 'If anyone can help, it's her.'

Adam swallowed a breath of air. Star spotted the hardening in the look on his face.

'I'm…guessing you're not a fan of her, either.'

'In my universe, your mother murdered my parents,' he stated curtly.

'Oh.'

'Yeah,' he said gravely. 'Where I'm from…the Butterflies are a symbol of blood and cruelty across the multiverse. They rule over almost every dimension. Any ounce of resistance is stamped out like ants being crushed by a boot.'

'…and I'm guessing your parents were "resistance"?'

'My parents were Monsters,' he elucidated, only half answering the question. 'As you can imagine, Queen Moon wasn't too fond of that.'

'We used to hate Monsters too,' Star confessed. 'But I've been trying to make things different! I want Mewmans and Monsters to live in peace.'

'I wish people in my universe shared the same sentiment.'

Star was about to open her mouth to say something, but they were stopped as they turned a corner. Someone wearing a red hoodie walked straight into them.

'Oh, hey Marco!' greeted the Butterfly, with a bright smile. 'Is your back all better now?'

'Just about,' he claimed, stretching out his back uncomfortably. 'The physician said to take it easy for the next –'

The teenager stopped himself as he spotted Adam behind Star. The Mewman gave a nervous wave.

'Hi-ya!' Marco yelled, as he lunged at him and kicked him in the stomach. Adam was thrown directly onto the ground, rubbing his sore stomach. The Latino was about to go in and knock him out, but Star grabbed the hood of his hoodie, stopping him in his tracks.

'Marco! It's alright!'

'But Star! He tried to kill you!'

'It was a misunderstanding!' The princess told him frantically. 'He thought I was someone else!'

'How do you mistake someone for a princess?!'

'Marco, I really don't have time for this!' She yelled over him. 'Trust me, it's okay. He doesn't want to kill me. It's a long story and I will fill you in later!'

Looking back at Star, Marco spotted the sincerity in her eyes. Reluctantly, he drew back from Adam.

'Fine,' he yielded, before looking at the former enemy directly in the pupils. 'But I got my eye on you.' He said that in a way that could only be described by Star as "Marco charm".

'You might as well come with us,' Star offered Marco, as she helped Adam to his feet. 'We're going to go see Mom and explain the situation.'

'I guess I could tag along,' he supposed, shrugging his shoulders.

Moon was standing in the throne room on Mewni, staring out the window at her kingdom. The recent assassination attempt on her daughter plagued her mind constantly.

Her head was dizzy with questions. Who could possibly have wanted Star dead? Was the individual the mastermind? Or were they simply a hired mercenary? And how did this individual learn magic? And who were they?

There were realistically many people who would want Star dead. Monsters came to mind, as many would still hold a grudge against her family for the war. What better way to spite them than by killing the heir to the throne? Then again, potentially there could also be Mewmans who wanted Star dead. Many of the citizens of Mewni were very dissatisfied with her changed attitude towards Monsters. Could that "dissatisfaction" drive them to stage an assassination? Moon didn't know.

If that possibility were true, though, then anyone living in any of the houses she was staring at could be the mastermind.

What startled her most was the assassin was a young boy. He looked like a teenager, she recalled, no older than seventeen. Definitely a Mewman, too, but with particularly average looks and poor clothes. There wasn't anything particularly unique about him superficially, and he could easily pass himself off as a commoner. If he were a mercenary, maybe that was the point.

There was no record of him on any Mewni census. Her cryptologists couldn't find a match with his face. He most likely came from outside Mewni, however none of the knights at the gate recalled allowing entry to anyone matching this boy's profile. Most likely, they must have smuggled themselves in, and yet Moon did not quite believe this theory.

There were some rumours going around about a mysterious young Mewman who materialised in the heart of Mewni, allegedly out of a portal. Given the timing between the fast rumours, and the recent incursion, it didn't seem like it could be anybody else. Not to mention, Star had said the assassin was able to create portals between dimensions, like her.

As soon as the prisoner woke up, Moon could interrogate them.

As if to answer her thoughts, the double doors behind her creaked open slightly. The Butterfly Queen turned to meet the person entering.

'Ah, Sir Elliott,' she greeted, as the individual shut the doors behind them. [5]

'Your majesty,' he returned, with a respectful bow. 'I have important news. The prisoner is awake.'

'Good, good,' she replied. 'I shall go speak with them now.'

'If I might interject,' Sir Elliott said awkwardly. 'I'm afraid it appears the prisoner is already being interrogated.'

The Queen frowned.

'Really? By whom?'

'By –'

'MOM!' A loud voice yelled, interrupting the knight. The doors to the throne room flung open. Star Butterfly, Princess of Mewni, came crashing into the room at break-neck speed. Moon practically jumped out of her skin.

'Oh, what is it Star?' She asked tiredly, looking about the group that had come with her. 'If it's about the Treaty, then –'

Moon abruptly cut herself off when she spotted Adam standing next to Star. Instantly, the princess knew exactly what her mother had seen.

'Now, Mom, I can explain –' she began.

'You freed the prisoner?!' Her mother interrupted at the top of her voice.

'Well, yes, but –'

'How could you be so reckless, Star?!'

'Mom! Trust me!'

Queen Moon sighed and turned to look at Sir Elliott.

'Sir Elliott, would you mind leaving the room for this…family matter?' She asked with the most passive aggressive smile Star had ever seen.

'Of course, your Majesty,' he agreed, turning to leave. Although, Star heard him grumble about his dismissals on the way out. When he left, the Queen turned back to her daughter.

'Now, Star, you better have a very good reason for this.'

'I do!' She assured her adamantly. 'You see…Adam here…iiiis from…another multiverse…'

'What?!' Marco exclaimed in disbelief. Moon's eyes widened at the explanation, before falling to a scowl.

'Star, if you think this is all a joke, then –'

'It's not a joke!' She bellowed furiously, silencing her mother. 'He's from another multiverse…one where we're…not very nice people. That's why he was trying to kill me; he thought I was the other Star.'

The Queen paused for a moment. It was a ridiculous thing to claim, but the girl was deadly serious about it. She was leaving no room for argument.

'Dear, you must understand this all sounds completely ludicrous,' the woman said with a sigh. 'It could easily be a lie that this "Adam" has fed you.'

'I can prove it,' she said, turning to the teenager in question. 'Show her the Book, Adam.'

The Mewman nodded, taking off his bag. Opening it, he reached into its contents. It did not take him long to produce a big, leathery book with an ornate design. Of course, Moon recognised it immediately.

'The Magic Instruction Book?' She identified perplexedly.

'Didn't Ludo-Toffee destroy that?' Marco recalled, moving over to get a good look at it.

'Look closer,' the princess told them. Queen Moon leaned in to inspect closely the details of the Book.

'It's the wrong colour,' she recognised.

'Yeah, those crystals and that arrow thing,' Marco added, frowning.

'It must be a fake,' Moon presumed, scowling at Star.

'Then how would you explain this?' Adam prompted. 'Glossaryck! I summon you!'

The Book of Spells opened by magic in his hands, flicking through several pages until it found what it was looking for. The small red man rose into the air to meet Adam's gaze.

'Oh, now do you need me?' The magical guide complained, narrowing his eyes at the teenager.

'Glossaryck…?' Moon said. He swivelled in the air to face her, taking a second to realise what he was looking at.

'Ah, you must be the Queen Moon of this multiverse,' he said with a hint of disgust. He floated towards her, circling her with a judgemental stare. 'Are you as uptight and selfish as my Moon?'

'I didn't know Glossaryck could be red,' Marco said idly. 'Or…y'know, speak full sentences anymore.'

'This is not possible,' the Queen claimed with shock, largely ignoring the magical entity's derisive comment. 'You could fake the book, but you can't recreate Glossaryck.'

'You can sense the magical energy emanating from the Book, Moon,' the guide pointed out. 'You know, for a fact, I am Glossaryck, and this is the Book of Spells. However, it is not the same Book, and I am not the same Glossaryck.'

'So…you speak the truth,' Moon realised shakily, turning her head to look at Adam. The Mewman warlock nodded to the statement. 'This is…'

'Weeeeird,' Marco completed, trying to compute this all in his head. 'So…you're telling me, there's a whole other multiverse, with its own version of Mewni, with its own version of Glossaryck, and a version of Star you hate so much you want to kill her?'

Adam blinked, briefly glancing away.

'That's exactly what I'm saying, yeah,' he confirmed, with a curt nod.

'What could my daughter possibly have done to warrant such hatred from you?' Moon questioned.

'Not your daughter, a different Moon's daughter,' the teenager corrected, prompting a short, respectful smile from Star in his peripherals.

'Okay, and what did she do, man?' Marco asked, furrowing his brow. Star grabbed his arm and shook her head at him.

'I don't think you want to know,' he responded candidly, looking away. 'Where I'm from, the Butterflies are the most powerful and most feared royal elite in all the multiverse. They are a symbol of fear and brutality across the cosmos. They are known for their…psychopathic tendencies. I'm supposed to be the one who's going to take them down, but I ended up here.'

Moon paused for a long time before she could even come up with something to say.

From the look in his eye, she could tell he wasn't lying. Nobody could fake grief like that, not to her knowledge. Adam didn't need to be frank about it; the Butterflies from his world had taken someone from him. Perhaps even multiple people.

This other Glossaryck was proof of worlds beyond the border of their multiverse. For all they knew, creation could be limitless, and there could be yet more universes and parallel dimensions that were yet to be found. Once she had the time, she'd definitely have to report this to the Magic High Commission. They would definitely want to know how intermultiversal travel was possible.

'How exactly…did you manage to travel between multiverses?' The Queen inquired, now knowing what she had wanted to know.

'Er…well, Gloss explained that I opened too many portals in close proximity, weakening the fabric of reality.'

'Right, yes,' she said, suddenly remembering something. 'You are yet to explain how you are able to cast magic.'

'Oh! I've been meaning to ask you about that!' Star added.

Glancing between the two inquisitive faces, Adam ultimately decided to comply with the questioning. Reaching out his hand, he opened his palm facing upwards to reveal the star-shaped burn mark. He allowed all three people to look at it.

'This is how,' he said.

'Interesting…' Moon thought aloud. 'It seems to be in the shape of your wand, Star.'

Star took out her wand and held it side-by-side with Adam's hand. Indeed, they were in fact identical in design.

'The Star in my universe destroyed her wand at Castle Avarius. I found a shard of it…and I absorbed it.'

'"Absorbed it"?' Moon questioned.

'It's a Mewman-magic metamorphosis,' Glossaryck explained, earning confused looks from the three uninitiated individuals in the room. Rolling his eyes, he spoke again. 'Upon making contact with a piece of the unstable shard, Adam fused with its magic. In essence, his arm is the wand. Though, it's much more complicated than that.'

'There's no such thing as a "Mewman-magic metamorphosis",' Queen Moon wrote off noncommittally. 'Such a process would simply kill anyone who tried.'

'In your universe, yes,' the man agreed. 'In our universe, the rules are different. Magic is far more unpredictable and chaotic. Thank entropy for that. These things are extremely rare, but possible.'

'Anyone else feel like their definition of "normal" has been flipped upside-down?' Marco asked, clearly out of his element. Star lightly giggled at his antics and nodded abashedly.

'So when will you return to your multiverse?' The Queen inquired, almost impatiently.

'Not anytime soon,' Glossaryck answered, in place of Adam.

'Wait, what?' The teenager asked. 'Can't I just…go back the same way I came?' Glossaryck merely laughed at the suggestion.

'No,' he stated nonchalantly, after his laughing fit. 'You tried opening portals back home, but you couldn't, because the place you were imagining was inaccessible from this multiverse. It doesn't exist here. You got here by accidentally tearing a hole in the fabric of reality to a space outside our multiverse. Not only was it incredibly lucky that you didn't end up in a void, but you can't do the same here. Again: the rules. Are. Different.'

'So I'm stuck here?' Adam realised angrily.

'Yes,' he answered. 'Now, I'm going to return to my sleep. Wake me up when there's food.'

'No, Glossaryck!' Adam ordered, but the little red man was already gone.

Unfortunately, he couldn't order Glossaryck to stay if Glossaryck couldn't hear him. The Mewman gave a loud sigh, pacing about the room agitatedly.

'Oh no…this is bad; this is bad,' he repeated, wiping his hands over his face in shame.

'Hey, hey, hey…' Star said, gently trying to catch his attention. 'It's going to be okay, Adam –'

'How?' He practically yelled. 'How is it going to be "okay", Star?! What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna live?'

'It'll be okay because…because…' the princess stammered, before finally finishing formulating the sentence in her head. '…because you can stay with us!'

'WHAT?!' Moon and Marco shouted in unified disbelief. Star glanced awkwardly at them before continuing.

'Yeah…you could share Marco's room, and…and…you can learn magic with me…and you can eat with us!'

'Star!' The Queen shrieked. 'You can't just…promise this at such short notice! Do you expect me to…wave a magic wand, and make this all happen?'

'Well…yeah.'

'Star, you barely know him,' Marco pointed out. 'How do we know if we can…trust him?'

'I've been inside his head,' she revealed, much to the surprise of Marco and the Queen. 'And he's been through a lot. I know this is all…really sudden, and it's such a tall order, but he hasn't got anywhere else to go! Besides, if he stays in the castle, then we can help him get home! I doubt he's had a proper meal in years, too!'

'Star, we can't simply take in every commoner off the streets and bring them into the castle.'

'That's not what we're doing! This is me helping out a friend, that's all. It'll just be temporary, please Mom?'

'Do I not get a say in this?' Marco interjected, as Moon began to consider the idea. 'I mean he is sharing my room! Why can't you just create him a room?'

'I don't know what kind of room he'd want,' she admitted. 'I can just teach him my room-creating spell, but in the meantime, what's the harm in sharing?'

'Look, Star,' Adam interrupted. 'I really appreciate the kind offer, but I'm not going to force myself on these people if they don't want me around.'

'No, Adam, it's okay. You're not forcing anything – it's just really short notice,' the girl justified, before turning back to face her mom. 'Pleeeease, Mom.'

'Hmm…' the Queen considered. 'Well, the Magic High Commission would definitely like to hear about your…intermultiversal escapade. You would seem to be the only one who has managed that. It would be…counter-intuitive not to keep you close by. And I do vow to do all that I can to help you get back home. I would not turn down someone in need.'

'You mean…?' Star prompted.

'Fine, Star,' she ultimately gave in. 'He can live with us.' As the Butterfly was about to celebrate, Moon continued. 'But…I will be keeping a close eye on you. You tried to kill my daughter. Misunderstanding or not, you are very lucky that you failed in your attempt.'

'Y-yes, ma'am,' Adam squeaked. The Queen drew back into a more stoic expression.

'Good. Then we understand each other.'

'Yay! Thanks, Mom!' Star celebrated, briefly hugging Adam, who awkwardly did not reciprocate. 'C'mon Marco, let's show him to his room!'

'My room,' the Latino corrected, as the Butterfly dragged him out of the throne room.

Rolling his eyes, Adam impassively followed after them.

[4] Note: The Unlocking Spell only works on magical locks caused by spells such as the Locking Spell.

[5] This is the same knight from earlier who brought Adam's bag to Star.

Thanks to all of you for reading my little story. I appreciate every single one of the people who are enjoying it!

This chapter is a little exposition/lore heavy, I admit, but I think a lot of the details were interesting. I hope my readers share the same sentiment. Originally, the scene with Red Glossaryck was going to be a lot longer, but I cut it out. If I share ALL the secrets, it won't be interesting anymore!

Later chapters will include characters simply finding out stuff about magic. Typically, it will be Adam discovering how his magic works and how creation of spells works. For Adam, creating spells is often a complicated process. There are rules to magic in my fic and I like to have my protagonist discover them along with us. Adam doesn't have the same luxuries as Star or Moon because he isn't naturally talented.

To make this clear, Adam won't be staying in Marco's room for long. The whole purpose of his remaining there is to serve important character development in a later chapter, during which Star and Adam will come to more of an understanding. Once that happens, he will create his own room and the two will be separate again. Also, Adam isn't very good at Creation magic so he can't make his own room yet.

After this chapter, the status quo has essentially been established. The episodic format becomes a lot clearer due to time jumps between episodes. Volume I of this story will be the first twenty chapters, which is also the first nine episodes.

Other things: I think the best way to explain Adam getting trapped in this multiverse despite already having travelled here by accident is the rules being different. As Glossaryck said, magic is more chaotic in the Negative Multiverse - the walls of reality are weaker over there. However, if Adam were to get trapped back in the Negative Multiverse, the same method of randomised portalling wouldn't work to get back because the chances of it working again are very low. And portalling is illegal on Negative Mewni. There is a reason why he was transported to this Positive Multiverse in the first place, but it's too dangerous for the same method to work twice. This is mostly a hint for a later chapter lol.

The Magic High Commission get their first formal mention. They will show up later. In Chapter 9 (episode 4). Omnitraxus will be important during this part.

Anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter! I usually post these every few days, since I've already written them on AO3, and this is just for people who prefer to use this website instead. I wouldn't want to inundate people with chapters though. See you in the next chapter!