Cysero and I stood in front of his door. "I'll be back with the sandwich in two shimmies," he said while reaching for the doorknob.

A vision of his confused, worried face filled my mind. "If you can't find me, look outside."

"Okay." Wonderful Cysero, he didn't ask why I said that. He just walked in. I saw an unfamiliar room inside with two staircases. I leaped through as quickly as I could.

And I found myself standing in the grass behind it.

"Oh no," I whispered. Potions were an integral part of this world. So were portals. I couldn't use either one. My suspicions were confirmed. No; no good scientist would consider their hypothesis confirmed after only two examples. I couldn't consider my hypothesis confirmed until I observed a few more types of magic not working on me. But I totally did.

I skittered out from behind the portal and sat against a nearby building, hoping nobody had seen me. I didn't see anyone in the street now. I dared to relax. "Ama?" Cysero came out of the portal with a dancing sandwich on a plate and looked around.

"I'm here," I said, using the building to get to my feet. My leg ached. I worried that it might be getting infected. I came close to Cysero and examined the sandwich. While doing so, I whispered, "I went through the door right after you and ended up in the grass behind it. Portals don't work for me. I need a physical building."

"Really?" Cysero nudged the sandwich off the plate and onto my head. I grinned. It felt so interesting to have something dancing on my head! He murmured, "Maybe it has to do with the magi-electrical subluxative force…"

"What dance is the sandwich doing? And that's why I'm here, actually. Being friends with people is just how I earn a living. Why I came here, to Falconreach, to do it is because I thought Falconreach might have a powerful mage in it who would be able to study me and put my weirdness to use and maybe also protect me from the Rose."

"I know someone! Follow me." Cysero threw the sandwich into a sack, then turned and walked along the length of the street in the direction of Oaklore. I followed. We left town by the western gate, then immediately turned south. The walk through the forest was long. I couldn't think much about where we were going or who we were meeting, being too distracted by the ache in my leg. Was it getting infected? I knew from reading books that infected wounds in the days before antibiotics were very, very dangerous. Terrifying thoughts filled my head. I limped after Cysero as fast as I could. I didn't want to die! After coming this far, scaring off wildlife and facing down bandits, I especially didn't want to die of an infection. That would just be insulting.

Cysero stopped to check the sandwich. "It's doing the Hoppy-Hop."

"Cool. Can we get there before nightfall?" I flinched. "Sorry! I have a wounded leg. I'm afraid I'm not really interested in sandwiches right now. I'm scared it might be infected."

"We're close." I blinked in surprise. I looked up. Oh, yes, we were. I could see the top of it towering over us. I started forward on my own.

The bottom of the tower, aside from a few banners with the mana symbol on them, looked very ordinary. Cysero knocked. I held my hands behind my back and rocked back and forth on my feet, my gums itching like crazy. We waited for quite a while before the doorknob turned. I froze.

Warlic opened the door. I got one good look at him in person - in person - before my head was forced down, like by an external force. But it wasn't an external force. It was self-defense. "- guinea pig," Cysero finished saying.

"I am busy enough, Cysero. I do not need 'guinea pigs.' And I'd prefer you not use that term in reference to a human being."

"But she volunteered."

There was a pause. "Did you?"

I could not look anywhere near him. A glimpse of blue was enough to scatter my thoughts. "Uh… H-h-hi. My name's Ama. I'm, um, uh, immune to potions and portals. Um." My face was bright red.

"...Well, you did walk all this way. I suppose I should be gracious and invite you in for tea." I heard Warlic shuffle away. Cysero stepped forward. I waited until he was inside, then told myself to get it together and followed.

I fell about one foot. The surprise of it sent me sprawling on my hands and knees. I was on a…blank stone floor? I heard voices above me and looked up to see Warlic and Cysero standing horizontally. That was when I finally remembered that Warlic's entire tower was magical.

I threw myself off the floor. "Gyaahhhhh!" I screamed. "That's it. I'm out of here. I'm so done." I climbed through the doorway and ran a little ways into the forest. I didn't run far. I just knew a meltdown was incoming and didn't want anyone to see me. I hid behind a tree and broke down crying, the sort of hard crying that felt like my heart was breaking. Liquid dripped from my nose. I curled up in a ball and rocked back and forth, not caring if a monster found me. It was just too much. My expectations had been violated, I was disappointed in myself for not remembering sooner, my leg hurt, it might be infected, that was scary, I was hungry, I'd been harsh with Cysero and the ground I was sitting on was wet. Too much!

That was how they found me. I made angry noises and gestured sharply with my hand, hoping they'd leave. "I, I, um. I'll bring the tea outside," Warlic said, sounding just as freaked out as I'd been. I sobbed harder.

By the time he returned, a very, very long time later, my nose had stopped dripping so much. I wiped it on my knees. My whole shirt was wet. I still sobbed anytime I thought about what had just happened, but it was mostly out of my system. Cysero sat under another tree, curled up just like I was. "I think she's better," he told Warlic.

Warlic knelt in front of me, forcing me to look straight down at my shirt. "Have some tea. It's very soothing." I reached out for the tray he held, having to feel around a bit because I couldn't look that far, and took the teacup. My hopes rose. Might this be the legendary tea I'd heard about all my life but never tasted, the tea that was more than hot, scented water? It was! The water had a taste, not just a scent! I smiled and told him that.

He made thinking sounds. "How interesting. You are immune to potions, portals, and also the magic that alters gravity's orientation inside my tower. How could that be possible?"

I finished my cup of tea. It was a small cup. I felt much better; whether from the tea or not, I didn't know. I opened my mouth to tell him why, then decided not to. I wanted to rest a little longer.

"Is everything okay?" a woman's voice asked.

"Oh! Yes! Everything's alright now," Warlic said. "Everything…is alright, yes?"

I nodded. "Yup, yuppers, everything's completely alright. I was just overwhelmed from walking all this way only to be disappointed, and also worrying that I might die from infection. I have a wounded leg. It needs new bandages."

"Nythera."

"Sure." She went back to the tower for bandages.

I got to my feet and discovered that Nythera hadn't come alone. Alex was there, wreathed in white flames, and Sepulchure. Since when was Sepulchure working with Warlic? And why was he in his red, spiky, undisguised state? I waved at them both. "Hello, guy on fire. Hello, um…you there."

Sepulchure looked at me suspiciously. It scared me. I looked away. He asked, "Why are you being so vague?"

"Uh…" Too late, I realized that he was disguised. I just couldn't see it. "Um…" Had I been told Warlic's name? I had not. "...What are all your names?"

"I'm Cysero," Cysero said.

"I knew that much."

"The big blue scaredycat is Warlic. The guy on fire is Xan, but Warlic calls him Alex. And the other guy is -"

"Amadeus!" Warlic cut in. "His name is Amadeus."

"Neat. So, Warlic, can you make a magic fireball and just hold it for a while?"

My cheeks flushed red with shame. I'd envisioned myself walking in looking all composed, seeming just like any normal astonishingly intelligent and charismatic young hero, then amazing them all with a display of magical immunity that left them shocked and awed. Instead I bumbled in on the verge of a meltdown, looking suspicious as heck, mistiming everything and lacking critical information. "This is why I'm not ambitious," I muttered while sticking my hand into Warlic's fireball.

"What the -" Nythera exclaimed. Everyone else gasped. But, as I had expected, I felt nothing. I swept my hand back and forth, took it out and put it back in again, then swooped my hand around and brought it down on Warlic's. My heartbeat leaped and the fireball was put out. I retreated quickly.

Now that I felt stronger, it was easier to look at Warlic. I saw his hand shake as he lowered it. "What just happened?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious by now? I'm totally immune to magic."

"That would mean…" He took a step back. "You have no connection to the Mana Core. But everything on Lore is connected to the Mana Core. That shouldn't be possible, unless -"

"I don't come from Lore," I finished. "I, um, come from another universe. One where magic doesn't exist."

There was extremely awkward silence for a long while. I wanted to fill it, but couldn't figure out how. Should I start from the beginning? By the time I decided to do just that, someone else spoke. "Being from another universe makes you immune to fireballs and illusions?" Sepul - Amadeus murmured. "What a coincidence. Or, more likely, not."

Warlic turned. "Are you thinking…?"

"Yes. She's like Akanthus."

I blinked. In my mind's eye, I saw it as vividly as if I'd played it yesterday: the quest where the Hero attacked Akanthus, and all their magic weapons did zero damage. Then Akanthus said something about not being able to touch magic. That it wouldn't accept him. Was he…?

"Cysero, you deserve an apology," Sep - Amadeus said with a smile. "A guinea pig was exactly what we needed."

"Please don't use that term in reference to a human being."

"I don't mind," I said. "I'd just like to receive that title after I actually start serving in that capacity, which is not now, because it's starting to get dark and I need to figure out where I'm sleeping tonight. Should I go back and get a room at the inn, or can I just make a blanket nest on the wall in the tower?"

"Of course," Warlic said. "You must hurry -"

I checked the satchel. "I do not have a lot of money with me. And it would be a long walk. And if the innkeeper was at all friendly and personable, I might be tempted to tell them everything. I need to get my leg patched up anyway. And I love being around magic. Blanket nest? Is that, is that, is it at all possible?" I held my hands behind my back and tried not to smile too much, which didn't work, so I just grinned down at the ground.

"Right. I forgot I was holding these," Nythera said. I looked around for something elevated to sit on and chose a thick tree root. I sat on that and rolled my right pants leg up, revealing bandages that were noticeably worn and had red spots. Nythera knelt down in front of me and gently removed the bandages. "I've seen worse. You'll be okay." She put some kind of ointment on my wound. I expected to feel pain and winced, but there was actually no pain. Her touch did not send agony shooting through my leg. She was right! It wasn't infected and I wasn't going to die!

"In addition to all of the reasons she just listed, I want her close," S - Amadeus said.

"Alright. I will find blankets."

"This also allows us to keep going tonight!" I pointed out. "Do you want to hear the entire story from waking up in this world to being here now?"

"I would," Sepulchure said with a smile. (Amadeus.)

.

Warlic went into his tower to find many short chairs so we weren't all sitting on tree roots. He emerged with the chairs and a child. "This is Gravelynn. She insisted on hearing the story." He put the chairs down in as close to a circle as he could. I stayed on my tree root. Cysero leaned against a tree. That was good, as Warlic only had enough chairs for himself and his associates. The forest was getting very dark; luckily, Alexander served as a living bonfire. Warlic sat on his chair and adjusted his robes in a very dignified way, as if he was sitting in a formal meeting rather than out in the middle of the woods. I couldn't help but smile.

Before he could begin the meeting in a similarly dignified way, Gravelynn interrupted. "What's your name?"

"Ama." It felt normal to say that! If I went back to my world, it would be very difficult to go back to using my legal name. Screw it. Maybe this would push me to finally tell people I had a preferred name.

"And you come from another world?"

"Another universe," I corrected. "One where magic doesn't exist. Story time. No interruptions, please." I cleared my throat. "I come from a universe where magic does not exist and has never existed. I have no idea how I ended up here. I went to sleep in my bed and woke up in a forest. Just some random place in a forest. Well, maybe not random, since I did turn out to be close enough to people that I could find them and go there without any shoes on, which I think was only a mile or two - and anyway, yeah, so I stole some clothes from a clothesline and found a person to take me in and in exchange I did chores for him. It was tough. I have no idea how long I've been doing that. Definitely weeks. Can't tell if it's one month or two. But anyway, yeah, I had a pretty comfortable situation there, until some bandits attacked and I went to help and I learned the hard way that I'm immune to potions. It was a Rose soldier who offered me a spare potion. When we got back and some older ladies cleaned and bandaged my wounds and one other guy's, I heard the guy who was looking after me tell that Rose soldier 'Don't you dare report her to your superiors, or I will personally feed you to vermin.' I guess I'm lucky that I kind of saved his life with the bandits, so he agreed not to report anything. I think I'm safe with the Rose. When I drank the potion, I could drink it easily and it tasted nice. They put good stuff in those. But I spit out the magic in it, healing the person who gave it to me. He said it was like a green burst of magic. I think the same might happen if I consumed anything that had magic in it, like enchanted foods or anything like that."

"Did you travel to Falconreach to get away from the Rose?" Warlic asked.

"Well, mainly to avoid being caught in another fight and killed 'cause I can't heal. And also to find me more opportunities, because he thought I was too smart and talented to stay in some backwater forest village. But mainly to save my life. And when I came to Falconreach - I mean, I was sad at first, because it was my new home, and I felt so much more attached to it than my old home because I'd done all kinds of chores, manual chores, including working the soil, and that isn't relevant at all. What is relevant is that I was sad, and that actually isn't relevant either. But then I was excited, because I've always been very interested in magic and I'm very fond of it, so that's why I went straight up to Cysero and finagled my way into having him bring me to a powerful mage and you know the rest."

Ugh. I was such a bad storyteller. I blushed. "You're really bad at telling stories," Gravelynn said.

"Gravelynn," Warlic said, "don't -"

"She's totally right," I interrupted. "I love telling stories, but I'm bad at it unless I rehearse it in my head or write it down. Sorry everyone."

"Eh, I've heard worse," Alexander said. He lounged in his chair. I had no idea why he stuck around. I wasn't that entertaining.

"So, what else do you guys want to know about?" Almost immediately, before anyone else could speak, I announced, "I thought of something! I've told you guys what my immunity to potions looks like. I can drink the potion, but I spit out the magic in it. My inability to use portals means that whatever the portal is opened in, my body treats it just like that thing. Cysero's door to his shop is a portal gate, meaning that the portal part is located in empty space. I passed through it just like a normal empty space. That's what my immunity to portals looks like. And I couldn't even tell that Amadeus was disguised. If I was in a situation where I had to avoid giving away what I am and people might be disguised, I would have to keep my mouth shut almost all the time and carefully watch everyone's treatment of everyone else and never make a reference to something about their appearance that I hadn't been told, because the only way I could know if someone was disguised or what their disguise looked like is if someone else described that person to me and it didn't match what I saw. I'd have to make up all kinds of excuses for why I didn't want to travel by portal, and hey wait a second who's this Akanthus guy?" Whew! Thank goodness I remembered just in time that I wasn't supposed to know who Akanthus was.

"She's worse than Cysero," Sep - Amadeus muttered.

"Hey, Cysero's awesome! And who is this Akanthus guy?"

"He's a bad guy who attacked my dad!" Gravelynn told me. "I will have revenge."

Sepulchure put a hand on her head. "Gravy. Be patient." (Amadeus.) "Akanthus is Jaania's right hand man and second in command within the Rose. Nobody knows his true appearance because he always wears an impenetrable suit of armor. He earned Jaania's trust by stepping in front of her during a magical barrage, saving her life. Nobody knew how he did that. Until now."

"Well…" The certainty in his voice made me uncomfortable. I couldn't be the answer to their problems. I wasn't supposed to be there. "You don't know for sure."

"You have all of his most notable powers. If you are not exactly the same manner of being as he is, you are close enough to help us."

"Help you with what?"

"I want him dead."

"Amadeus. Patience," Warlic said. "Knowing why he wears that impenetrable suit of armor tells us nothing about how to get past it. Besides, I don't believe that killing him is the proper solution. Jaania would only take that as further evidence that we are against her."

"We are against her," Amadeus said. "It is Jaania's organization and Jaania's resources that he uses to accomplish his goals. Even if she is ignorant of it all, which I cannot believe, she is at least complicit."

"No," I couldn't stop myself from blurting out. Jaania! I had been so surprised to see her become the main antagonist. I had always thought of her as an innocent, as the tragic potential heroine that Warlic saw her as. My view of her had matured, of course. But I still could not see her as evil. When I thought of her, I remembered the curious young student she had been. "Lady Jaania only wants to help people. She just wants to save lives by stopping monsters and evil people from destroying things. We can't be against that. I'm not against that. Don't say we - I am not included."

"Neither am I," Warlic said. "Akanthus has misled her, but she is a good person."

"You're trapped in the past," Sep - Amadeus snarled. "There is no time for wallowing in narcissistic self-pity. If Akanthus is not stopped, the world will end."

"We must consider our actions first," Warlic retorted. "Heedless, impulsive acts will only lead to disaster."

"Alex is right. You'd rather do nothing."

"That is not true."

Sepulchure was intimidating. Warlic was intimidating. I kept trying to break into their fight, but couldn't make myself speak. I waved a hand uselessly. Nythera tried to get a word in. Alex laughed. There was too much noise. The meeting had devolved into chaos. Even Gravelynn was overwhelmed, but nobody noticed.

Then a single loud bark cut through it all. "Hey! Listen!"

Everybody stopped speaking and looked up at Cysero. He pointed to me. They looked at me. I slowly lowered my hand. "Um… Can we just convince her to cut ties with him?"

"It's too late for that," Amadeus said ominously. "Akanthus already has an explosive Doom vessel at his disposal. Jaania's final plans are well underway. There is no time for a delicate diplomatic operation. Unless you can convince her to convert to our side immediately, it's a waste of time to even think about that."

"It's never too late." That was a line from a book I had read many years ago that stayed with me. It would be with me for the rest of my life.

Se - Amadeus snorted. "You poor, naive child."

That line, from a main character that I knew and respected, hit all of my insecurities at once. Tears came to my eyes. He was right. I was an alien, never able to know and understand the experiences of normal people. Because of that, I would always be naive. No matter how many psychology texts I read, anything I said about human experience would always be a theoretical musing and nothing more. No matter how hard I tried to relate to or influence others, I would always blunder because I simply didn't know what I was talking about.

"Amadeus," Nythera said. "You're right that we need to move quickly, but we also need to think through our next moves. We can't afford to make a stupid mistake."

He sighed. "Fine. Ama, do you have a plan for convincing her to stop supporting Akanthus, or were your words nothing but youthful optimism?"

I did have some thoughts that could be turned into a plan. But those thoughts seemed like nothing more than visions manifested from pure optimism. I shrugged.

"Evidently not. So then. What can be done about Akanthus? If he is vulnerable without his armor, we must find a way to get him out of it. Blue Mage, what do you know about his armor?"

The meeting continued on without me. As they discussed his armor, I tried to examine my thoughts for signs of worth or uselessness. But I could hardly gather one fragment of thought before being distracted by the ongoing conversation. The runes on Akanthus' armor were very powerful, apparently. I tried to block out the conversation. I needed to focus. But I couldn't.

Sepulchure (Amadeus) turned to me. "Ama, is it possible to harm a person like you while you are wearing armor?"

I groaned in frustration. "Yes. It is. If you throw someone around at high speeds and then bring them to a sudden halt, stiffer material like metal will stop but the squishy parts of their body won't. It's a great way to cause a concussion. There are also certain types of vibrations, like from a small bomb, that can travel through metal and cause internal bleeding. But the physics behind those is complicated; the bomb was placed at just the right angle to turn a metal cylinder into an echo chamber, I think. Armor's not cylindrical."

"Alright. If we have no other choice, picking him up and shaking him is a viable option," Warlic said. "I would rather not be that desperate."

"Hey Ama?" Cysero asked. "Know anything about making weapons?"

"Uh…" Nythera said, eyeing my thin small-framed body. "Why do you ask?"

"Making weapons is food for thought," he replied.

I grinned. My joy was so great I couldn't stop myself from laughing. "Cysero!" I exclaimed in affection. "What helps me get my thoughts in order is writing. I need pencil and paper in order to make a plan for Jaania. Otherwise my thoughts will come out crooked. So that's how you run a business! You make weapons on the premises, don't you? Mystery solved."

There was silence. "...You actually do have a plan for talking with Jaania?" Nythera asked.

"I have some thoughts that can be turned into a plan. In order to actually turn them into a plan, I have to write. Or do a jigsaw puzzle. Something that involves the hands and eyes. If they're working, my brain can work. If not, well, you heard me try to tell a story earlier."

"Three shimmies," Cysero said. He ran off towards the tower. I wondered how long a shimmy was.

"You and Cysero have a lot in common," Warlic told me.

"Yeah. Shame I can't go to his place."

"You're a madwoman?" Gravelynn asked. "Cool!"

"Give me a sec." I tilted my head. Accounting for time spent looking around before remembering to go outside… "Aaand he should be coming back right about now."

Cysero ran up just as I said that with several sheets of paper and a pencil. "Here ya go!"

"I knew it! That was precisely one and a half times as long as it took you to return this morning when you said you would return in two shimmies! A shimmy is a defined unit of measurement! Did you make it up yourself?"

"Yup."

"Sweet." I took the papers from him. "I can make a basic outline now, but I don't think Alex will want to sit out here long enough for anything more." On the first sheet of paper I wrote, Underlying Theory. On the second, Course of Action. The other sheets of paper were spares. Hopefully I had enough. "I might stay up for some amount of time doing this tonight, and the rest tomorrow morning. Does that wall get natural daylight? And I'm still gonna need a lantern for tonight."

Warlic looked up. "It is late. Why don't we adjourn for dinner." With much stretching, huffing and yawning, the rest of the group agreed. Everyone picked up their chair and went back to the tower. Cysero and I followed.

As soon as I stepped through the door and onto the wall, the papers and pencil tried to escape my grasp. I growled at them. "Some stiff object, like a book or folder, to write on, please. Not very heavy, and ask Warlic's permission if it's one of his." Cysero nodded and ran off. He returned with blankets and a lantern, too. He hung the lantern on a wall for me. "Thanks, Cys."

Cysero took the sandwich and its plate out of the sack. "Now it's doing the Twisty-Whip." He put the sandwich underneath the lantern, or from my perspective, on the opposite wall near the door. "I can give it tiny weapons if you want."

"Maybe I will want in the future, but right now I wanna try something." With a grin on my face, I crept over to the sandwich. I sang the chorus from Cotton-Eye Joe twice. The sandwich stopped twisting around and began to make in-and-out movements that I thought I recognized from the dance unit in elementary school gym class. I danced in place, still seated, along with it. "Best sandwich ever! I'm calling him Emerson."

"Bye Emerson. Bye Ama." He slipped away. I put the papers on the book, backed up against the far wall so I could block them from falling with my knees, and started writing.

.

A/N: A LOT of things changed in this chapter. In the original version, my character explored Cysero's shop. He then took me to a secret hidden portal in a wall, where my character discovered that they could not use portals. It took me TWO WEEKS to realize that if the door to Cysero's shop is not attached to a building, then it must be a portal, and that means my character shouldn't be able to use it. Oh my gods.

The previous version of this chapter included a scene that was not from my perspective, inserted for no other reason than to establish that Cysero was really excited about having a friend and Amadeus was disguised. That wasn't necessary in the rewrite, and it probably wasn't in the original either.

"Walking in looking all composed, seeming just like any normal astonishingly intelligent and charismatic young hero, then amazing them all with a display of magical immunity that left them shocked and awed" is an accurate description of what happened in the original chapter 3. Cysero fetched Warlic only because he was excited to have a new friend, not mentioning anything about my immunity to magic. I chatted with Warlic and the others, then casually revealed that I couldn't see Amadeus' disguise. I then did the fireball thing. Everyone was shocked and awed. It was not realistic. Realistic, for me, means getting overwhelmed and having meltdowns. It means forgetting crucial information. This version of the chapter is vastly more accurate in its portrayal of my abilities. Also, in the first version, I forgot Gravelynn existed. She just mysteriously didn't appear at all even though her father and everyone else left the tower for hours. That's obviously not right.

Overall, my character was vastly more active and in control in the previous version. There was no argument between Sepulchure (sorry, Amadeus) and Warlic. No part where they started discussing things without me. No conversation between themselves, leaving me out. No part where I needed Cysero's support. I asked what they needed my help for. I asked to hear about Akanthus' background, speculated about his motives, proposed explanations. The chapter ended with everyone deciding that I was the perfect solution to their Akanthus problem and they should move against him immediately. In short, I gave myself a serious case of protagonist syndrome. Not only is that a cringey new-writer mistake, it's also a deeply inaccurate portrayal of my abilities.

And it's not fair to Cysero. Once he introduced me to Warlic and the others, he just stood around. Then he left for most of the talk, then came back so I could end the chapter on a note of comic relief. But in actuality, if I were to meet a person that was just like me, just as odd as me, but who had figured out how to live successfully on their own, they would be a mentor to me. I would be in great need of their guidance and support. By making myself excessively charming and capable, I brushed him off. It wasn't an accurate portrayal of him either. Sorry, Cys.

I also did something very weird and unnecessary where my character told everyone that they had a crush on Warlic, for absolutely no reason. What the heck? Some things don't need to be said, especially if they don't match the mood, especially if they are absolutely guaranteed to never prove relevant, and other reasons! Having my character say that actually was an accurate example of my tendency to bring up irrelevant stuff that I don't realize is irrelevant. But storywise, I did not need to have my character do that. The bungled attempts at storytelling (which are copy-pasted from the original chapter, not altered at all) demonstrated that well enough, and plot wise there is no reason for Warlic to know this. It adds nothing to the story. It's just weird and cringey. Delete.

Overall, I was just way too competent in the original version and the other characters were ghostly shadows of their actual selves. It wasn't fair to anybody. I owe every character a round of apologies. Sorry, guys.