Andrew was a melting pot of different, powerful fonts of might. To anyone with less encyclopedic a mind than he, his vampiric abilities may well have been forgotten, while other seemingly more powerful sources of power would be given unique focus and attention. Thankfully, Andrew’s mind was unlimited in its ability to scheme, to contemplate how his powers might affect a situation, and plan for various situations. 

One part of his mind had been tasked with perpetually considering how to utilize his vast powers at all times. At the moment that part of his mind, which had also been permitted to actually use his powers, was carefully making use of a few of his abilities even as he spoke to Ethan! 

A distant dumpster that the residents of the encampment had long learned to not pay any mind was filled with trash and the lids of the thing were up, preventing any curious passerby's from looking inside. Inside that dumpster various piles of trash were being lifted by Andrew’s application of force telekinesis, to slowly but surely keep that particular power in use. 

Deep within Andrew his mastery over The Force was being honed, and he was quite grateful for the freedom that The Force promised to give him in the days, years, and even centuries to come. The mighty energy field that he could manipulate quite freely was one of his powers that needed to be trained, nurtured, and honed. 

One potent font of power he possessed was that of a primordial vampire sire. The vast, cosmic power of a god-like father-figure to perhaps the most fierce kind of common undead beings filled his veins as readily as the seemingly infinite power of things like the Omega Effect and the power of the various Kryptonians to grace the pages of countless comic books. 

The eerie power of the sire of vampires was a darkly sinister power. Among other things, it was the power to bargain and barter anything, even souls, love, power, lifespan, and other immaterial things. Andrew was using that power, for the very first time, as he spoke to Ethan. 

“My friend… Your time is not yet up. You have a greater destiny to fulfill than to be stuck here, only be able to help your immediate peers.” The vampiric divinity whispered, gently urging his new ally to consider greater things than to spend the rest of his days in this place. As he spoke to the elderly human the man effortlessly began to eat out of the palm of his hand. 

It was a good thing that Andrew wasn’t malevolent, because he had the powerful charisma needed to effortlessly start cults devoted to any power he thought worthy of worship. At the moment he only sought to be worshiped by those with kind hearts and Ethan was a possessor of an exceptionally well-meaning heart. 

Ethan gazed at the form that his new god had chosen to take on and studied the man obsessively. He was determined to never ever forget how his new god had manifested in front of him for the very first time. 

“I can turn back the clock… on your body at least. If you give me your old age I can restore your body to its prime and thus give you a chance to go out into the world and leave a mark on it that is greater than what you’d left to date.” Andrew promised, softly. Ethan listened, intently, and then smiled at the god. 

“Andrew… Of course, I’ll give you my old age. I don’t understand why you need it, but I am convinced of your might. Simply… tell me how we do this.” Ethan replied, ready to believe the god who he knew had cured his illnesses and given him back the vestige of youth. If Andrew promised to restore him to the prime of his life, Ethan would opt to believe in the strange capabilities of the eerie god. 

Andrew smiled and extended his long, muscular arm towards the man he was about to make younger. He did not speak, but there was a look in his eyes that Ethan understood. The man did not hesitate and reached forward to grab Andrew’s hand and begin to shake it. 

The moment that the two began to shake hands the power of the verbal contract between the two of them manifested. Ethan volunteered to give his old age to Andrew, and Andrew desiring just that was enough for the potent power that infused Andrew to take hold, and Andrew smiled as he watched the man he had turned into a follower of his begin to visibly de-age. 

Ethan’s face softened and his body regained its long-lost muscle as he was magically returned to his youth. He shrunk, a little bit, as far as height went but the return of his muscle was a welcome change. The man felt his memory sharpen and his body begin to feel lighter as he regained the dexterity that he had lost many years ago. 

Andrew himself did not change as far as physical appearance went when he began to absorb the power of Ethan’s age. He did not grow taller, nor did the marks of old age touch his face. Even though he absorbed some thirty years from Ethan, he looked exactly the same as he had previously.

The changes that were occurring to Andrew were occurring internally. Deep within him powerful changes were occurring as his own powers grew refined and sharper thanks to the sudden, artificial acquisition of age he had just acquired. 

Inside of me I could feel Ethan’s advanced age spilling into my body. His age was making my body feel almost uncomfortably warm, and I could feel it seeping into my every cell. 

The age of a mundane human was not as valuable to me as the age of an elf would have been, but it still felt quite pleasant to absorb. Despite the heat that was coursing through me I also felt the power and knowledge of Ethan’s muscle memory suffusing me. 

I didn’t gain any new skills from my absorption of my follower’s age, but that hadn’t been the point. I wanted to make the man younger, test out one of my new powers, and feel the power I could gain from worship. 

Ethan’s heartfelt worship of me had already been sending zealous energy into me but as he felt the power of my ability to give him back his youth the worshipful energy he sent me began to increase in intensity. I could feel his heart becoming even more devoted to me, but I could also feel the hearts of those who were observing us fall to me. 

They could see Ethan’s restored youth with their own eyes, and that was enough that their hearts began to turn to me. I sensed them desiring to become like Ethan, and I knew that I had won in my mission here. 

I turned to face them and smiled warmly. I opened my arms again and signaled for them to come and join me. I watched, joyfully, as the crowd of individuals began to walk eagerly into the light I radiated. 

At the very same time that this was occurring I silently turned inward and began to do something quite important. I began to prepare, and plot, with regard to my next jump.

Jumping from fictional setting to fictional setting would be the thing I needed to do if I wanted to build more power and eventually reach even Ben’s level of might. At the moment, as incredible as I was I was no match for him and I also knew that there lurked beings I’d have struggled against in some of the settings I knew of. 

I had the ability to hurt anything, in theory, but against creatures like the Chaos Gods, or the Daedric Princes, I suspected that I lacked the power to do much until I was right in their very faces. In the case of the Chaos Gods, I had a few secret weapons, such as the power of the C’Tan to hurt and suppress the Warp, but I wasn’t sure how effective that’d be and I wanted to build up my power before attempting to take on either set of deities. 

Truthfully… Jumping from setting to setting would also allow me to meet very interesting characters that I wanted to meet without using the essence of the waifu app. The thing had a silly name but the power and potential it had offered was too great to pass up.

I recognized the reality now, after my stint in The Forgotten Realms, that by diving into other settings I could quickly accrue power and I also knew that I didn’t need to abide a single set of rules if I really wanted to. I wanted to hurl myself back into a jump, but not in the way that Ben had wanted me to. I was ready to claim my freedom and to creatively use my powers to clone myself to have fun in a number of settings all at once. Though… I was also aware that he could certainly hear me and I knew he’d react to what I was planning to do.

Ben was my benefactor, and I knew he’d remain in such a role as long as he wanted, but I also had the power to be my own benefactor and as my physical body prepared to receive the mighty impact of even more absorbed age I prepared myself to do something ambitious; I mentally scanned the powerpedia I possessed and readied myself to become my own benefactor. 

Within me there lurked a number of essences that altered how jumping from setting to setting worked, and many of them allowed me to become my own benefactor, even granting me some influence over the jumps I went on from a meta point of view. I focused on them and was about to activate their potent powers when I heard a loud, confident laugh echo in my mind. 

“Man… You give a guy his choice of essences and suddenly he’s out here thinking he’s some hot shit!” Ben’s voice, sounding younger than I had ever heard it sound, uttered into my mind. I didn’t feel… afraid of him, but I felt uneasy as he spoke that way. There was energy, almost enthusiasm in his voice, and I could tell he was excited. 

“I see you wanting freedom. Real freedom. I can respect that, Andrew. You have had a taste of power and you want more of it. That’s… pretty darn reasonable. So how’s this…?” Ben asked, as I felt a clone of mine forcefully come into existence in a strange empty place. 

“The tutorial jump… I get that that can put a damper on things between us. After giving you so much power those jumps seem… Well they seem a bit condescending, I’ll be honest. So I don’t mind you going off and being ‘your own benefactor’. That feels like something you’d want to do, now that you’ve had a taste of power.” Ben admitted. 

“However… This means that our arrangement will change a little as well. Instead of you being able to alternate between Earth and a jump, you’ll exist in both at the same time. I won’t otherwise do anything to restrict you, as I think that’d be unfair, but since you want to be your own benefactor this will allow me to have double the entertainment. And none of the paperwork.” Ben offered, even as the strange empty place the clone of me was in began to change. 

The clone of me found itself standing inside of what I was able to recognize as a large traditionally and brightly decorated Colombian house. The place was empty as if it were waiting for its owners. I could faintly hear a guitar being strummed to a fast tempo, over and over as if it were part of a child’s song. 

“Is this… a prologue to a jump?” The clone of me that had been forcibly dragged into this strange place asked. He… I studied the strange house. As I studied the thing I immediately realized what it was… 

I was staring at the Casa Madrigal. I stood in the middle of the home of the magical family from Disney’s hit movie Encanto. I had never seen the movie, but I had seen the trailers for it, and standing in it… felt odd. 

“A chance to help a family in need, many of whom have cool magical powers… This could be fun.” I uttered, using my minimal knowledge of the movie’s premise and beginning to smirk as I realized what an opportunity this was. 

“Oh… And while I won’t force you to complete this jump, I’d love to see you meddle in the plot of Encanto. It’s something as wholesome as what you’re attempting to be, so I think it’d be fun to see you muck about and change the plot!” Ben told me, before I heard him laugh again. 

A list of perks and items appeared before me, in a number of large blue text boxes for each of the origins that I could choose from. There were three of them, “Townsfolk”, “Magical Family Member”, and “Magic House”. 

I tapped on each one once, and read the brief origin description, before ultimately opting to pick the “Townsfolk” option. The reason I selected that one was that even what little I knew of the movie suggested it’d be fun to be an outsider and to aid the family, and Mirabel, from out of the family. 

I felt my mind beginning to fill with memories that I knew didn’t belong to me. At the very same time that I was doing that I felt the appearance of this particular clone beginning to change. I began to more forcefully control this manifestation of myself and I glanced at my hands and was surprised to see them beginning to become more cartoony. 

I could feel my whole appearance changing, even as the text boxes in front of me began to glow urgently and warped to where my eyes were facing. I chuckled and began to select every perk and item, all while grinning. 

“You know what Ben… I’ll do it. This place is interesting. Magical Colombia? Alright… I accept your challenge.” I replied, actually audibly speaking to the man. I felt Ben’s smile, though I did not see the old man even in the copy of the Casa Madrigal in which I was currently filling out the jump document’s text boxes. 

“Sniff… They grow up so fast…” Ben uttered, almost sarcastically. I chuckled and ignored the fact that he said the word “Sniff”, and didn’t just actually make the sound in my mind. 

When I finished the eldritch textboxes I had to do to enter the jump, Ben began to laugh maniacally. At the very same time that this was occurring the light began to fill the air around me, until even I was totally and utterly blinded. 

My impossibly sharp senses were blinded by the magical light which I knew served to overwhelm my senses while I was dragged into a new world. 

“Oh… And I made some changes to the movie’s background. They might not be immediately noticeable, but trust me… You’ll notice them in time.” Ben uttered, before suddenly going completely silent. 

The light which surrounded me began to quietly dissipate as I felt my form finalize its changes. I felt the fisherman’s clothes of my new family begin to come into existence on me, and I even felt the sandals that my new self was wearing slide into being around my feet. 

A whole lifetime of new memories finished filling my mind, giving me vital context as to the background of the movie while my surroundings finished materializing in front of me. I was on the shore of the river where the youngest members of the Madrigal family had lost their grandfather, and where the miracle that gave them their home and the magical realm they resided in had happened, fifty whole years ago. 

All around me fishermen and fisherwomen were hard at work, while in the distance the ambient noises of the quaint village this story took place in could be heard. I heard the excited chatter of workers gossiping about the Madrigal family, and excitedly discussing what power they suspected the youngest member of the Madrigal family, Antonio, would get. They were all very excited to attend the ceremony for the boy later tonight! 

My “father”, for this jump at least, was not far from me. He held a wooden spear in his hands and he stood on the shoreline of the river, his eyes scanning the shallow water in front of him. He had a dark tan due to his occupation and had a muscular frame. Numerous baskets were beside him, each of which was filled with fish. 

Off in the distance, I could hear Mirabel herself singing a song to the children of the village. She was singing a song about her famous family and as she sang I could hear the children trying to interject and ask her questions about herself. 

I chuckled and looked over at my dad. As I did I lifted my spear into the air to get his attention. He glanced up, saw the spear, and looked at me curiously. 

“Oye papa! I’m going to head to the village to grab some breakfast.” I told him, causing him to smile at me and silently nod. He rose his spear into the air and waved it at me as I smirked at the man and began to turn so that I could walk towards the village. 

“Hey Fernando, grab me one of Julieta’s arepas, will you? I could use one of them after getting all of these fish.” Uttered one of the fishermen who worked for my father. He didn’t bother looking at me as he spoke and instead he idly spun his spear while focusing on the portion of the river he was tasked with monitoring. His baskets were also empty. I chuckled and shook my head. 

“Enrique, you can’t ask for breakfast until you’ve caught at least two fish.” I told him, causing a few peals of laughter to erupt from some of the men and women employed by my new family.