---
I went to check out China on Earth. I mean, I'm Chinese, probably should have paid more attention to what was going on here. I felt bad for it actually. What sort of person was I to ignore what had been my human roots? My culture?
Like, look at these guys! They were farming and raising animals! More importantly, they were making pottery! And even more than that, writing. The beginnings of it at least. They were less a writing system and more of shorthand drawings for what they wanted. I caught sight of many depictions of eyes. Oooh~ now that was interesting...
I slipped in among them, invisible as I observed. They had flutes! Bone flutes! And not just any bones, cranes. The red crowned cranes were plentiful, and large enough that they were great targets for their meat. And the wingbones were large enough to make into these beautiful flutes. Brilliant. Bird bones, with their hollow interiors, made for good natural wind instruments. They called it Gǔdí, a Bone Flute. I mean, yeah, call it what it was. Most words evolved that way. Fuck, I wanted to learn to play them!
Wasn't hard to slip inside the dreams of the local musician, a young woman (still a child really, despite the grown up tasks she was expected to help out with), and asked about exchanging music lessons for some of my knowledge. The woman thought I was some sort of nature spirit and agreed to it. She thought that her music had somehow called me to her, tamed me. Cute. But I wasn't gonna correct her, I just wanted to learn how to play a bone flute. I would give her helpful tips on various things in exchange for possessing her body to practice the flute.
Making music, my own music, not just copying other people's music, was important to me. I wasn't very good at making up my own songs, but my host (MoZha) was very supportive. "You're trying very hard, little spirit." She smiled at me. "Don't treat me like a child! I'm older than you!" I whined. "I can do this!" I held the bone up to her/my lips again and tried once more to make some combination that wasn't just four notes repeating in a pattern. I've heard so many songs, why was it so hard to create my own?
And then MoZha took over again and easily made up a new melody. Just… free stylin' it up in here. I only took over her body when she was alone in her room. Probably because anyone finding out she was being possessed by a spirit was a 'bad' thing. She was pretty chill about the whole possession thing. Probably because she thought I was harmless. I wasn't gonna correct her. Not about any of her misconceptions of me. I rather enjoyed the peaceful way we interacted. Not gonna spoil that.
Lurking in the back of her mind while she went through her daily life was calming. I watched her routine, washing the clothing of her family, helping tend to the millet field, butchering the boar or other animals the men in the village brought back. Foraging the countryside for food, even if her village was remarkably prosperous. There was food aplenty and infant mortality was super low. It was a wonderful little haven. The moat around the village protected them from outside attack so things were peaceful here, unlike many other human settlements I've Seen around the world. But with the peace here, MoZha had plenty of time to pursue whatever interested her. And that, of course, was her music. She even held 'concerts'. I say concert but such a word didn't exist at this time. She just played her flute (a gift from her father) and everyone listened. MoZha's flute could be heard all through the village. It soothed people. She never failed to lift their spirits while they worked.
Ah… I really, really admired humans. The wonderful things they could create, the wonderful ways they enriched their lives. I never got tired of seeing it. And MoZha, for her part, never got tired of asking me all sorts of questions about everything and anything. Well, I did discover some wild soybeans while we were foraging for pears and edible roots, and I urged her to begin cultivating it. Everyone in the village was amazed at what we grew and how useful it was as an ingredient. She was amazed at how I knew this plant would be so important. "Little spirit, you are a blessing upon us all." She told me once. I was beside myself with glee at that. We still kept my presence within her a secret. I was too afraid that people would react badly. Still, I taught her all sorts of useful things in exchange for her music lessons. "You give me more than I can ever hope to repay." MoZha told me while she spread the manure from the livestock around the farms. I had taught her how to make fertilizer, which roots could be eaten, which plants were poisonous to humans and so on. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, what I did was just pointing out the things that were. She was teaching me to create something new from nothing more than instinct and imagination. That was much more precious knowledge in my opinion.
I did eventually learn how to play the bone flute after many years of living inside her. And with that, our Deal was complete. MoZha was sad to see me leave. "Don't you want to stay, little spirit?" I didn't like how distressed she looked. And… to be honest, I was gonna miss her too. But I couldn't stay. I could feel her growing up, aging. I didn't want to be around when she passed. Having to feel it happening would be too much for me.
"Sorry kid, I have places to go and people to see." I tipped my hat at her. "Besides, you can't rely on me forever." She actually pouted at me. "But your playing is still so slow, are you sure you don't need-"
"Ahem!" I flushed orange. Yeah, my natural talents for music weren't as great as hers, sure, but I made up for it with years and years of practice! I simply haven't had those years of bone flute under my hat yet! I could play the space-piano just fine! I made an alien species invent that instrument just so I could play it! Hm. Still need to wait for Earth Pianos to be a thing eventually so I could learn that too. "I cannot stay forever. Besides, aren't you getting married soon? I don't think your husband would appreciate me taking your body half the time."
"Ah, Feng is such a no-joy." MoZha giggled. "I still don't know why your father betrothed you to him. He's not good enough for you!" I grumbled. She quieted down and sighed. "Oh little spirit, if you were human…" She fiddled with the shirt she was mending. "...Feng is a good man. He is a capable hunter. He is strong. He is kind to me. There could be no better husband."
I huffed. Still didn't like the guy. MoZha's expression turned wistful. "It would be strange to be alone again." She told me. "Can't you please stay? I could teach you new songs?"
I shook my head. "I'm sorry." I've already stayed here far too long. Though… there was something I had been thinking of...
I didn't want to stay to watch MoZha die of old age once we got to that point. But what if… that idea that Brother had mentioned to me for 'fixing' things. "If you'd like, I could come and find you again in your next life?" I told her. I don't think she understood what I was saying. But she liked the idea of seeing me again. It took a bit of back and forth as I worked out the terms, for both her and me, since I hadn't really been planning to do this originally. Still, I got a new Deal from her.
[Once MoZha passes away, she could be reborn as whoever and whatever she wanted.] I didn't know how I was gonna pull that off, but with Ax being more open to cooperating… perhaps...
"So… can I have my own dimension?" I bounced on Ax's arm. He was tinkering with the Seal, adjusting it to extend the range and energy. -You have your Nightmare Realm- He pointed out. I huffed. "Yeah, and I technically have the 3rd dimension, but I can't build there." I sat down and kicked my legs. "I guess I kinda own the Penis Planet™ but I don't own the dimension it was built in…"
-Must you add the ™ every time?- Ax rumbled. "Yes!" I cried, throwing my hands in the air. "But more importantly, my idea, really Brother's idea, of just letting people choose their own reincarnations and stuff!"
-It would require a lot of work. I can give you a small Space to build in. You'll need to ask Time Baby to help with progressive time-
"Or I could just not and not have progressive time at all!" I grumbled. I could just make it like the 2nd dimension, where time didn't really happen. You only died of 'old age' if you grew larger than your frame could support and collapsed under your own mass. Funny that Triangles were capable of living the longest but many were killed from workplace accidents or simply couldn't afford to eat enough to grow to that point...
"Huh… could I do that?" I wondered. Simply make a dimension with no progressive time but still allow people to walk around and do stuff. I'd have to manually create day and night cycles, if I even bothered with them to begin with. And I would have to make things grow manually. Or set up a Curse to run that for me. Uuugh… But if I could pull this off, maybe I could begin inviting people to it. So they could leave their own dimensions.
And if I owned it, I could do whatever I wanted in it! Might be better not to let Time Baby have any hand in this. He'd try to impose his own rules. Start small, get Ax to agree to hold her Soul in reserve until I built the life she wanted to be reborn into. This was a test after all. If I could get it to work in an enclosed system, I could see about expansion. I didn't plan to take over everywhere, all at once. 'Fix' everything, as brother would say. I understood enough about Pyrone's final conversations with me to know that when he said he wanted to start over, he really meant starting over. It was something in the way he spoke about it. Not wanting to be held back by his previous life. So… there would be some people, like Pyrone, who wouldn't want to keep their memories. I… had to be prepared for that situation as well.
Auuuugh this was too much pressure for me! I shouldn't have even attempted this!!! (At least Ax was willing to let me try. That was real cool of him.)
---
Hadn't had a concert in a while. I needed some stress relief. I stretched in front of a mirror and winked at my reflection. Oh Jan~ how I've missed ogling you~ (I still felt kinda weird about essentially perving on myself… but whatever…) I considered my outfit before flicking my fingers and changing it. Hm… no, wasn't really in a purple mood. Red, perhaps? Ah, what's my song lineup tonight? Deep Sea Girl? So… black then. And who said I couldn't change outfits between songs? I was interrupted from my sexy posing by a knock on the door. "Jan? Are you ready in there?"
"Ready as I always am Ivan~" I sang back. He snorted. "Just get on stage before your fans riot."
I gave myself one last blown kiss in the mirror and sauntered my way out. "Hope that filter works…" I grumbled, adjusting my hair clip, a modified version of my Seal. This one was made to suck up all the Lust and store it inside the hair clip. There was even a filter attached that would hopefully get rid of the emotional 'taste' and result in just the raw energy for me to absorb later. I really didn't want a repeat of what happened the last time I absorbed Lust. I rolled my tongue around in my mouth self consciously. At least my tongue didn't cause me any trouble. I still refrained from sticking it out or licking things, because it was simply too embarrassing. I could already hear the crowd outside chanting my name. It was worship, pure and simple.
Ffffffuuuuck~ I never got tired of this feeling. I was buzzing with the amount of energy being generated here. "Hey everybody~!" I cheered, raising my hands in the air as the audience screamed. "I've missed you all too~!"
I flung out fire in all sorts of dizzying colors. The world was a wonderful place with heat and music and I burned in the good way. I was panting by the time the concert drew to a close. Being able to heal my vocal chords was the only reason my voice didn't give out from singing for over an hour.
I wiped my face as I stumbled off the stage and back into the darkened halls, holding strong until I was out of sight of my fans. "Ah… might have overdone it a bit…" I poked at my hairclip, it thrummed with energy. Well, it should be done filtering soon and while I can't absorb it since I was still burning up inside from all the energy I'd absorbed from sheer worship alone-- Ivanlock was by my side immediately. "Don't overdo it! What if you got sick again?!" He fussed.
I waved him off, leaning against the wall. "Mm fine~" I tugged at my collar, damn overheating… it was too hot in here. "I need something cold…" I grumbled. Ivanlock handed me a clear thermal bag. Oh. He just carried liquid Nitrogen around? "Thanks." I unscrewed the top and checked if it was actually Nitrogen and nothing extra before drinking. It sizzled as it went down. I breathed out hot steam with a gasp and wiped my face again. "Too much…" I moaned, goddamn why was I so horny right now? I thought I filtered out all the Lust already! I panted out more steam as I pulled at my shirt again. Maybe I shouldn't be absorbing all this energy when I didn't need to. But it was such a waste otherwise!
Ivanlock placed a tentacle against my face. "You're burning up!!" He pulled out another bag of nitrogen and I drank that too. He frowned at me. "Hang on… I have something else prepared for this…"
I blinked blearily as he took out a Screen and tapped a few buttons. Oh, a digital subspace for storing items. Those were expensive. He pulled out a steaming briefcase. Steaming from sheer cold. "Here." He pulled on gloves and clicked open the briefcase to pull out a stick of what looked like ice but was actually a super cold pressurized chunk of helium.
I took the stick from him. "You… Got me solid helium popsicles?"
"Your health is important. And they're easier to store." He grumbled. Probably upset at how expensive these were.
(((((((((((((WARNING FOR LEWD CONSUMPTION OF POPSICLES)))))))))))))))))))
I reached out to pluck one out, delicately holding the stick in my hand. It was nice of him to just have these for me. I guess, as my manager, he wanted to be sure to protect his investment. And that included keeping me healthy. I stuck the popsicle in my mouth with a shrug. "Thanks." It hissed along my tongue but it felt so good~ I still felt my energy burning inside me, but this did help me feel better. I moaned softly, sucking at the popsicle and wrapping my tongue all around it. It wasn't sweetened, and the helium made my voice sound all funny as I moaned like a chipmunk, but it felt so good to feel that thick cold stick inside my mouth. I pulled at my collar again as I leaned my head back against the wall. Something about the shape just… stirred me up inside. "Mmph...mmmmpppphhhh…" I thrust it in and out, slurping the quickly melting substance.
...I think I was drooling over myself. How embarrassing! I slowly pulled the spent stick out from between my lips, trailing saliva. Gross~ I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, swallowing the small solid chunks of helium that had broken off the stick. I considered the stick for a while, a thick plastic-like substance, before I shrugged and ate that too. I wiped my hand on my shirt and looked up to see Ivanlock staring at me with wide eyes.
(((((((((((((IT IS SAFE NOW...MAYBE)))))))))))))))))))
"Can I please have another?" I asked.
"O-only if I can film you eating it and sell copies." Was his strained reply. I thought about it. "...only if at least 70% of the profits go to charity." I told him. He frowned. "50% to each of us, you can donate your half to charity if you want."
"60/40 in my favor." I shot back. He narrowed all his eyes. "I bought the popsicles." He pointed out. Ok fair point. "55/45 then, in my favor." I compromised. He rolled his eyes. "Fine."
We went to my changing room where I had a couch to lounge on as he set up the camera and I got another popsicle. I'm not that oblivious. Not when my hair clip was picking up Lust from him. I knew what Ivan wanted to film me for (and why he felt it would be worth a lot of money to sell copies), and well… lets just say I was gonna be buying one of those copies for myself. Besides, this was for charity!
I stuck the stick of helium in my mouth and got to work.
The cold did help to bring down my temperature and I rather liked licking popsicles so this was a win-win so far as I could see.
Ah, I was gonna have to absorb the energy stored in my hair clip too. Since I was gonna need all I can get to create my own dimension. I hated overheating though~
---
"Let's go ice skating!" I slammed my hands on the table during breakfast. Breakfast was the best time for planning out an activity for the day. Everyone was mostly here and I could quickly get a vote on how many wanted to come along. Frankly, I couldn't believe I managed to wait this long. I spent all of last night tossing and turning since I was too hot for Xanthar to hug and had to go sleep in the swimming pool. Teeth shrugged. "I've got a date today, so I can't." 8-Ball shivered. "I don't really wanna go anywhere cold today. But if we go to the beach, I wanna come."
I slumped over the table, still burning inside. "I wanna go ice skating…" Keyhole patted my back. "Well, any particular reason?" he pulled his hand back quickly. "Oh. Ah. You're burning up."
"I knooooow~" I whined. I already sent half of this energy into a bubble in the Nightmare Realm for storage, but it didn't help. My concerts really made for some huge energy surges. "But can we go ice skating? Dimension KiJi'A went through a sudden ice age. Everything's frozen over, and there are SO many cool slopes to go down!" I waved my arms in the air. "I wanna gooooo!"
KiJi'A was a water planet! With huge natural fountains of water flowing from all different heights! Now that it was frozen, the place was an amazing mess of death defying drops and slopes and I wanted to try it! Pyronica put the frying pan against my side and slapped some meat on to sizzle. "I don't mind going with you." She seasoned the cooking meat with some acid packets, tearing open the thick wrapping to let it drip into the food. "You look like you need it."
"I'm so hot…" I moaned. Kryptos patted my hand. "That's good. You might even help them solve their ice age problem." Well, yeah. That was part of the reason I wanted to go. Also, most of the population of KiJi'A were aquatic and they were trapped under the ice. Their planet wasn't used to getting cold enough to freeze entirely. This sudden climate change was caused by another planet nearby literally teleporting themselves out of this dimension and the resulting shift in gravitational forces causing KiJi'A to move further from the 'safe zone' and away from the warmth of the nearby star.
They sent a distress signal that only a few other planets have responded to. KiJi'A was mainly used as a tourist destination, the fishy natives being seen as quite pretty. But they weren't deemed important enough to require immediate assistance. They were distressed, but they weren't really in danger. The surface of the water was frozen but they were fine underneath, if a little cold. Their food sources were fine as they were underwater as well. They wouldn't be in real danger for a few years, so the aid wasn't going to arrive anytime soon. That sucked, but it made the planet a perfect place for me to begin my work.
And cool off with some ice skating fun!
"Weeee~!" I squeaked as I slid down a frozen waterfall on my back, melting the trail behind me. Pyronica was doing much the same, heating the area around her as she slid around the sheer drops and screamed at the feeling. I slowed my own descents when I was dropping down from a high area, too scary, and Kryptos stayed with Xanthar along the side of the sloped areas. "So… are we… Actually going to help these people?"
"I'll ask them for a Deal later." I told him as I slid past. Besides, more Deals means more carrying capacity for Energy, meaning I could hold more inside mySelf without feeling so stuffed. I haven't made a Deal in a while. I shouldn't be allowing myself to get lazy. I should be trying to get stronger. Especially if I wanted to help dad make an auto-pilot for his Pillar. And run my own dimension, all on my own. And… well… everything else I wanted to do.
The places I melted had the Kijinians swimming up to inspect. I heard one of them ask if we were here to help. I giggled, sitting on a patch of quickly melting ice. "That depends, what'll you give me in return?" I had to move as the ice under me gave way. They glanced at each other, their cute little fins waving around with their nervousness. "We have nothing to give s-sir…"
I slid around, steaming the ice around me. "Oh I doubt that." A planet made entirely of fresh water? There were enough species in the multiverse that required water that such a place would be amazing for that alone. The fact that the water was clean as well? Well~
But it wasn't their water I was after.
"Those plants there…" I narrowed my eye at the thick green vegetation lining the bottom of their sea. "I want a few of them." Why was their water so clean? The bulk of the reason lied in some of the most powerful natural filters I've ever seen. A bit of sun, a lot of water, and that thing sucked up contaminants like crazy. Grew like crazy too, so it was good that it was edible. And the main food source for the people. Wonderful cycle there. The people ate the plants and produced the waste that the plant consumed for sustenance. And in doing so, kept the water clean and clear. I could simply take a plant sample, but I might as well make it a Deal.
They all looked at each other. "Just… a few of them?" The hesitance was warranted. "Only a few. Like… three of them." I had melted quite a lot of the ice by now. They all glanced at each other. Pyronica slid by with a whined, "But if the ice melts we'll have to find another place to skate~"
"That's fine! There are many other planets that support cold environments." I called back. Pyronica would have responded but she stayed still in one spot too long and dropped into the water. Ah… she melted through the ice...
"Bill help!" She wailed, treading the water as it steamed around her. She tried to climb back up but the ice melted under her hands and she dropped back in. I sighed. "This is why I said keep moving."
"Less sass, more savin' my ass!" She shrieked. Kryptos was muddling his laugh into Xanthar's side. I slipped into the water when the ice under me melted too. No matter, I didn't need to breathe. I swam over to Pyronica and lifted her out. "There's no solid land anywhere!" She coughed.
"Yeah, this is a water planet." Kryptos snorted. Pyronica growled under her breath, soaking wet as I floated her over the water. Kryptos cackled so hard he flipped over on Xanthar's back. "Hahahahaha! You look like melted cheese!"
Pyronica's response was to reach out and sweep Kryptos into the water.
"AUGGGHHHGHHH?!?!" Splash!
I couldn't help laughing a little. I was also glad I made Kryptos's gloves water-tight. I doubt he would have hurt the Kijinians even if they weren't. His electricity was stronger than it was years ago but it wasn't enough to kill, and with the mucus secreted from the Kijinians' skin, they wouldn't be harmed at all. At most they'd feel tingly. Either way, Kryptos struggled until he managed to flap his arms around in a motion almost seeming like swimming, and got his head above the water. "You absolute tangent!" He growled at Pyronica.
"Oh please~ you were asking for it." She folded her arms. "Besides, at least you can swim."
Kryptos glared at her and turned to me. "Hey Bill? Can you dunk her?" He begged. "What?! Hey! Don't you fucking dare!" The Cyclopian sputtered.
"Hm… I dunno…" my eye curved and I made Pyronica drop a little in height from where she was floating. She yelped and thrashed. "...should I?" I sang.
"Dooooo iiiiit~" Kryptos helpfully told me, cackling with glee.
"Don't you dare do it Bill! I swear I will eat your stuffed animals!"
"Well that doesn't sound very nice." I hummed, making Pyronica float up and down, dangerously close to the water. She wasn't actually afraid of it, nor did it hurt her to be dunked in water. She loved going to the beach after all. "Billl!"
"Doooo iiiiit~!"
"You fuckin--!"
SPLASH!
Kryptos and I cackled. Pyronica surfaced as I floated her back up and glared at the two of us. Then she reached over and shoved me back underwater. I didn't stop laughing though.
The Kijinians stared at our antics before one of them asked Xanthar, "Do they always do this?" He nodded solemnly.
I did get my Deal in the end. I moved their planet back into alignment where it belonged and got to take three plant samples. Gonna cultivate these at home and see about giving a copy to Fordsie at some point. It was going to blow his mind! Hah! Maybe as a gift for a special occasion. Wasn't his and Sebastian's birthday coming up? I need to remember to do something special for that once I went back to them.
---
My experiments were going well. Some of them at least. I got the small dimension from Dad all to myself. Didn't want to explode the universe there into existence, so I was shaping the stars manually. Then planets. Little spheres of matter clumping together when left to their own devices. I made one very similar in composition to Earth. Iron, sodium, oxygen, potassium, silicon, magnesium, aluminum...
I crafted the solar system, populating it with Seed-planets. Spheres of mixed elements and matter that had all the ingredients to begin forming life. Once they evolved to that point at least. I tried different ratios, to see if that affected it. Had 10 different planets all placed strategically so they'd be in the 'safe zone' of orbit around the star. Then I moved them so they wouldn't run into each other during their orbits, lining them along the same path and putting the span of a year in between them.
The 'Earth-like' planet was my control group. #2 was the same but pointed straight on toward the star instead of tilted like 'Earth'. #3 was made to not spin as it rotated around the star, effectively giving it no day night cycle. I was pretty sure this would mean the light side would burn up and the night side be frozen. But I had to test it out anyway. The other planets were a mix of different factors just to see what would happen. I created them, and then I waited.
And waited.
And then I slapped myself for my stupidity. No progressive Time, no change. Everything that happens will have to be caused by me.
....sucks. But! The bright side is, instead of having to manually do everything myself, I could take this time to work on creating my own automated system for Time. Since, this dimension doesn't have Time Baby to be it's Pillar and all that. Since he was being a brat and refusing to accept my help in auto-mating his Pillar for him, I can take this chance to create one anyway!
....it was really hard!
Moving atoms around was EASY! Clicking elements into long chains was easy. Molecular rearrangement, or the spontaneous creation of matter… I could do that. I was made to do that. But Time wasn't my forte. It wasn't what the core of my Existence was based in. I could sort of mess with Time. I could go against it, stop it, reverse it, move it-- but creating Time? From scratch? I had no fucking clue how to even go about doing that. Just… make something age? But how will it change as it does so? I could set a start and end for a planet, an organism, an object. I could precisely describe how it would look at each stage of its existence, each year, each minute, each second. But that wasn't change. That wasn't Time. That was just me setting a beginning and end, with a random chance inputted into the middle. But that wasn't Time. That wasn't progression. It wasn't automated. I would have to set a start and end for every single particle in all existence (within this dimension) and that was annoying as FUCK.
And entirely not the goal I was hoping for.
How did one create Time?
I could sort of wrap my head around creating Space. Will something into existence. Into a location. No, it was the location. Will a location into existence. It's a place now. You could go inside it. You could See it. You could build inside it. You could expand or shrink it. Space was there. You made it. There it is!
But Time? What do I do for that? How would I go about creating something like that on my own from scratch? Time is an illusion. At least, the way Time was thought of as a 'thing' that could be quantified, measured, was an illusion. But progression did in fact happen. Thing's changed. What caused it? What allowed it? I put a great distance between my little solar system and myself. I created a new Seed-planet. I needed to test a theory.
I allowed my energy to surge out, uncontrolled, unbound, wild and without purpose. The planet beneath my hands began to twist. It changed. It grew. But… was this Time? I stared at it, watching the surface go crazy. Creatures did form. Life. Sort of. No Souls, not even minds. They were nothing more than beasts, Nightmares, with base instincts. Mainly hunger. But they were changing under my power. They changed, grew? No, they simply mutated. Their bodies warped and were torn apart under my power. Shit. That wasn't what I wanted. It was change with an input of Chaos giving it 'randomness' but wasn't right.
Ok. Try going at this issue from another angle.
Time was… speed. It is forward progression that could vary and change and even loop around if one knew how. But it was all about speed. It wasn't a fixed rate, but it DID have something. Time is flexible. Time is relative.
But… how do I create it?
Even my attempts to make an auto-pilot for Time Baby didn't actually create Time, merely keep it going. Eh… think Bill, think! Father Time has a manual method for progression. Speaking of Father Time, he was back on his wheel, but it could move around now, so he could actually go places instead of running on a wheel with nothing else to do for all eternity. That was just too sad, dude.
...but that only showed me how he made Time move forward. It didn't… I still couldn't create Time itself! I growled in frustration. My head was starting to hurt. I've been working for so long! (Or alternatively, I haven't been working for any time at all--) But I just couldn't seem to get it right. I tried inputting a general idea of 'grow' or 'progress' into the system but it didn't work. I guess I would just have to make a world that operated without Time.
(Well shit, now I was getting flashbacks to the 2nd dimension and I was very unhappy about it.)
Since this wasn't working and I couldn't think properly, I decided to leave this alone and work on it later. Making a dimension by myself was hard! Like… the Nightmare Realm didn't have Time. It did have stuff growing and progressing, but it was due to feeding on my energy to cause changes due to chaotic chance. I tried that here, and it worked, to a point, but it was too unstable. Urgh. Much like how I didn't know how to create Souls, Time also eluded me.
Speaking of Souls… did… people really need souls to be 'people'? I mean… I met that demon girl Mazikeen who was a full person, with thoughts, desires, hopes and fears. But she didn't have a Soul. I… hadn't even thought about this kind of thing before. She was a Person. She had feelings. Free will, conscious coherent thought. I had only ever seen my Nightmares, my pre-programmed constructs and the illusions created from my Bubbles. They were Soulless and they weren't People. They weren't capable of independent thought. They had no deeper desires than what they were created with, be that anger, hunger or lust. But Maze DID have deeper desires. She was a crazy psycho, yes. But she liked her human friends. She cared about them in her own fucked up demon way. And she felt sad sometimes, she had her own internal problems. Fears. Resentments. Petty rivalries.
All that, and still no Soul to speak of.
I had never known someone without a Soul could still be a Person. And now I was thinking about whether it was possible for more soulless beings to be People. My Nightmares? No way. I've been trying for ages to see if any of them could be something more. Nothing. The only thing created from me that was actually a Person was Ammy. But it was possible to be a Person even without a Soul. Which meant that even if I couldn't get the Soul system working on my own, I wouldn't necessarily need it.
And heck, if I didn't need something as fundamental as Souls to make a real person, then screw Time. I could make a world that worked just fine even without time.
...although...
I'm still stopping today because I'm tired.
---
"What if we just replaced every corrupted member of the council?" Tina thought aloud to herself as we hung out in my room at the temple. "No, too drastic, the people who bribed and paid their way into getting favors would be very unhappy. But… what if we replaced them too?"
"This is starting to sound an awful lot like you're planning on assassinating people." I pointed out dryly. Tina gasped. "No. I'm not going to have them killed. Just put on trial, and sent to prison for their crimes."
"...ok, several issues there. One, they need to get convicted first. Two, who're you gonna replace 'em with. And three, what prison? The Federation run prison has its own corrupt policies."
"...rebuild the prison system first, got it." Tina made the notes down in her Screen. "There's so much to do."
"Completely overhauling a long standing government system will be like that." I sprawled back on my bed, turning to face the ceiling. "If you're gonna be checking out the prisons, maybe see about getting the innocents released. There are plenty of people in there for petty crimes. They aren't bad people, just unable to pay bail and being used for labor since the Federation promised to pay them for their work. Not that they get paid much, it takes years for anyone to save up enough to pay for their own bail." And only certain prisoners are even given that chance. But hey, still better than no chance at all.
"...there's a lot I'm going to have to add to my list." Tina sighed. I reached over to pat her shoulder-ish area. "That's not even getting into the bullshit laws that put people in prison to begin with. Like traffic violations. Or sneezing anywhere near the Defurian System."
"...sneezing causes the expulsion of harmful bacteria into the atmosphere." Tina stared at me. I sighed. "And for many species, sneezing is an involuntary bodily response. They have no control over when they do it. Like, just make it a rule that they have to wear a covering over their expulsion orifice instead of just arresting them! It's incredibly unfair!" The act of sneezing was considered an act of Biological Terrorism in many dimensions.
"Oh. I didn't know sneezing could be involuntary." Tina wrote that down too. "There are too many things to keep track of." She complained. I scoffed. "Fixing society needs more than just replacing the bad people in charge. It's about ignorance and education and understanding that different species work different from other species. Cultural backgrounds and so on."
"...is the Federation too far reaching?" She wondered.
I threw my hands in the air. "Yes! They find a new place and just start trying to make people join their 'society' if they have something they want. Because they need resources to continue expanding their empire. To keep up the lavish lifestyle they promise their richer citizens. And then, instead of trying to understand the local culture, they just say 'Your culture and society is wrong. Now conform to OUR standards. So that we may use you properly.' And its so stupid!"
Tina groaned and flopped over onto my bed as well. "Times like this, I can't help but sympathize with the people who just want to burn it all to the ground."
"No burning. Burning is bad." I told her quickly. "I think the first thing to do is make the Federation stop their expansion. Then work on getting the planets within the Federation to be more self sufficient. M-The farming planets are capable of producing food enough to feed most of the multiverse, but there are still planets going through famines."
"Food, shelter and health is the most important thing." Tina agreed. "We don't have enough to go around. And that leads to people trying to take it from other people." She paused. "I should go speak with the farming planets. They seem to be doing relatively ok. I wonder if it's due to the protection of their Dragon-god."
"Oh it's definitely because of that." I snorted. "The Federation can't risk killing a major Harvest God without crippling their own food supply. And the dragon won't allow Federation ships anywhere near his territory. So they can't invade the Farms and are forced to go along with the natives' conditions for continued trade."
"Hm…" Tina wrote down more notes. "I need a comprehensive list of which dimensions and planets the Federation doesn't have hold over.See how they're doing, see about adopting some of their governing systems to replace the Federation once I tear it to the ground."
"Woo! Dictator~" I cheered. She poked my side, making me squeal. "I'm not a dictator!" Tina scoffed, if she had an external nose, she'd be raising it into the air. "But most importantly, I need to find people who are capable and competent to help me run it." She clenched her fist. "I cannot stand incompetence."
"Sing it sister!" I rolled onto my belly and then sat up and scooted over to press against her. She raised a hand to place on my side. I'm glad Tina wants to do this. Mainly because I know I'd probably fuck things up if I tried to do it. But Tina's smart. And a good person. I'm sure she'll know the right thing to do. My only job was to keep her alive until she chooses to end our Deal. Which she wouldn't do until she was absolutely sure that whatever new government she creates will have peace everlasting, or something like that. Which will never happen, so I guess this means I get to keep Tina forever! Yaaaaaaay~ (Kinda wish she'd made this Deal much sooner, so we could both be 'kids' together. Tina was an adult now, the cranial deformations of her species beginning to show up as her skull began to extend sideways. Her markings were forming too. They were pretty, but I kinda missed little Tina with her cute turquoise color.)
Well, whatever. As long as another of my friends got to stay with me.
"Do you know which dimensions the Federation holds sway over?" Tina asked me. "Of course I do~" I sang. She stared at me and wordlessly held her Screen near me. I sighed. "There are too many for me to just write down. Infinite dimensions out there, you know?"
Heck. There are dimensions who've never even heard of the Federation. They might have power over most of the known multiverse, but they haven't gotten everywhere. Still, with a sigh, I wrote down a couple of the major places where the Federation knew of them, and hadn't taken them over for various reasons. Maybe the place was too much trouble to bother. Maybe there was nothing useful there that they wanted. Maybe they just felt it was too out of the way to send ships. There were all sorts of reasons.
Tina looked over my list and nodded. "I will go and check them out. Perhaps I could gain some insight into my next move. She was frowning though. I poked her cheek. "If you keep making that face, you'll wrinkle up. She rolled her eyes at me. "Wrinkles aren't as important as having a solid plan.
"Plans are good." I laid down in her lap, a little sleepy. Building my own universe from scratch took a lot out of me. Should probably relax for a while and let my energy levels restore themselves. Though getting some food wouldn't hurt. Tina poked my cheek. "You okay?"
"...mm hungry…" I stuck out my lower lip and blinked up at her through my eyelashes. Tina laughed. "Alright, lets go get you some food."
I bounced after her as we headed out. I wanted to see how the newbies were settling into the new wing and living at the temple. They seemed happy. They felt safe, for the first time in a long while. The temple was a place of peace, where the outside world couldn't touch them. The only time we had any interaction with the outside world was when people came here for sanctuary. The medical hall always had injured people for the Healers to treat. The maidens had gotten used to the new 'outdoors' downstairs that was really indoors. Yeah, I'm that good~ creating a sky was easy, the sky was a lie after all. And I've done plenty of experiments with my own gardens back home on making a miniature sun to allow for the growth of plant life. I ignored their awe-filled gazes.
....also the whispers about how I was a god powerful enough to handle the AXOLOTL's presence without issue was a big deal… apparently. Oh fuck. I hope they don't find out Ax was my dad. I'd never be able to live down their fan-worship! Auuuuuughhhh….
Speaking of fangirls… Jessie's been walking on air (figuratively) ever since she got that chance to speak with Ax in person. I would tease her about it but she was so lost in her own bliss that none of my jokes were getting through. And Ax on the other hand was working on his Seal because apparently the awe made him really uncomfortable. Hah! He's just shy. That was kinda adorable. Have you ever seen a giant salamander being bashful? So cute! The both of them were so cute with each other. She was all like, 'Am I worthy, my lord?' and Ax was all like -You are the greatest Oracle I could have, I appreciate you- and then the two got all embarrassed about it-- Jessie kept asking me if Ax was going to come by for another visit. But once I pointed out all the near comatose Maidens, she relented, realizing we were gonna need a much stronger Seal before it was safe for him to be here in person again.
...and there was no way in hell I was bringing Jheselbraum into the Space between Spaces. She wouldn't even remember anything she learned while there anyway.
A few newbies (I need to stop calling them that, they've been living here for a few weeks now) were managing the new food hall. I got in and checked on what items were on the menu today. Duckin Masala… Jellied rice with eggs… Glunk… lots of new items. Stands to reason that the new arrivals brought their own cultural cuisine here. Oh. I should talk to Jessie about giving everyone here their own rooms for any personal cultural time. Like, if there were holidays they used to celebrate back on their home planet, or if they wanted to record down their traditions and languages and beliefs so that they could still have a place to practice them.
Most of these people were refugees. And it wasn't just the loss of their homes and homeland that they had to deal with. There was a loss of culture as well. The temple had its own rules that people had to follow if they wanted to stay. And that might pressure people into conforming to the culture here. I didn't want that. How hadn't I even noticed this problem before?
I took my tray of food and chowed down quickly, I had to go talk to my sister. This was important. Especially with more and more people being displaced from their homes. It was so easy to forget that people were more than just the land they lived on. They had history. They had beliefs. I know most people converted religions to serve the AXOLOTL when they came here, but worship can't be changed so easily. Nor should people stop loving the god that they wanted, just because they lived here now. So… I swallowed the rest of my food and wiped my mouth. "Sorry I have to cut our plans for universal domination short, but there's something I need to talk to Jessie about."
Tina blinked at me. "Oh. Ok." A beat. "And we're NOT trying to take over the multiverse! Miiiiiiz!!!" She whined at me as I laughed and made my way out of the food hall. Never got less funny to tease her about that.
---
"That's… actually a very good idea." Jessie rubbed her chin. "I'm a little unsure about how it'll work, but if I'm going to have refugees in such high numbers, they will appreciate the space." She patted my head. "Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will get right on that."
Yay! I was praised!
---
Discussing world domination with Tina was fun, but when I went back to find her, she told me that she was going to check up on some of the dimensions the Federation didn't own and see about how they were organized and governed as a way of seeing what worked or didn't work. That sounded kinda fun, but she wanted to do this on her own. "You look tired. Go rest." She admonished me when I tried to follow her. Aww… I wasn't that tired!
But that was fine. I laid down in my room, dozing lightly. Ah… there aren't enough blankets and pillows here to make a proper nest. I fluffed the pillow and scrunched the blankets up to try and make them more floof. But Dimension 52 had wings with different temperatures in the rooms for any inhabitants that needed it. And my room was in the mildly warm section. So my blankets weren't that fluffy, I didn't need them for warmth here.
But I wanted a nest. I could make Xanthar's fur into a nest quite easily. Or just pull his arms together to hug me. Eh… I rolled onto my side on the bed. I should bring more blankets here. And dolls.
My sternum buzzed. A summoning. Ehhhhh~
I flopped face first into my pillow and opened my Eye for a quick check on who this was. Oh. One of my Farmers. Ok. I shifted into Xin, not bothering to take my face off the pillow, and grumbled a little before I finally sat up and made sure I looked 'presentable' before Teleporting away to my summoning.
I appeared on planet F4rM-12 in a flash of ethereal light as my robes fluttered around me and I descended toward the ground. "Hello my de--" I almost froze when I saw Tina standing there beside my summoner, "-ear summoner." I finished, touching down on the ground. "What is it that you require?"
Ah… Tina was staring at meeeeeeee!!! Nooooo!!!! There was a super suspicious look in her eyes!!!! And she was looking me up and down and please don't notice how much I look like Miz, please don't notice how much I look like Miiiiiiizzzzzzzz!!!!
No such luck, she was very much staring at me and putting together about how similar I looked to Miz. Shiiiiiiit! Play it cool Xin. Deny everything!
"My lord, this one wished to speak with you." My summoner, Eygen the Pandeen, told me. I smiled at him. "Thank you for informing me. Hello there little one. For what reason did you wish to speak with me?" I gave her a calm smile, showing none of my frantic screaming on the inside.
She didn't say anything for the longest time, I was trying my best to hold my poker face. "Do you… know a girl named Miz?" She asked me slowly. I didn't show any outward change. "I know many people. Miz is an uncommon name, but it isn't rare."
She didn't look impressed by my refusal to outright answer her. Shit. Right. She's a politician's daughter. I sighed. "Ok, I do know a girl named Miz." There! I said it! Geez!
"What is her relationship with you?" Tina pressed. "She looks much like you."
I turned with a flick of my hair and a ruffle of my robes. "That is personal information. I'm sorry miss, but I am quite busy, so if you have no Plea or Prayer, then I must return to my work."
I turned to leave.
"Is Miz your daughter?"
I stumbled, nearly face planting into the soil.
I whipped my head around to face her, gobsmacked. "What?! Tha-that--" I sputtered, completely losing my composure. Eygen was staring at me wide eyes, having never seen his god so flustered. Tina had a triumphant look. "I knew it! She's a powerful god, she must have-- you're the most powerful Harvest god in the multiverse! Miz loves food! She'll eat pretty much everything you put in front of her--"
"W-wait! Wait! Hold on!" I waved my hands but Tina wasn't listening, going on and on about her WILD AND COMPLETELY CRAZY fan theory about me. "--ook just like her. It can't be a coincidence. I need to see if Miz has a tail and antlers as well--"
"Stop it Tina--"
"How do you know my name?" She stood up straight, shit, she's taller than me! Dammit! Why is my life filled with giant women?! Jessie, Pyronica, Tina-- Queen too! Wait, that's not the point here--
Tina was narrowing her eyes at me, stepping closer. "How do you know my name?" She repeated. "Unless… Miz had told you about me!" She looked so justified. "So your daughter has talked about me?"
"Y-you-- I'm not--" I continued to sputter.
"That's so sweet. I didn't realize Miz has a family. I'm glad. I was afraid she was all alone now. Especially after Quackers passed away..." Tina smiled. It was such a relieved expression. "I'm glad she has you. Why, the only other people in her life seem to be the Oracle and us. Well, there were also those times she hung out with Bill Cipher's Maniacs and--" Tina froze. I could see her backtracking. "Didn't I read in a report somewhere that Bill Cipher was actually a woman? And more than that, he called himself a 'mother'..."
I couldn't stop my jaw from dropping. No. No no no. She wasn't going to think that--
"Is Bill Cipher her MOTHER?!" Tina looked faint. I thought I was going to faint too. Or explode. From embarrassment.
"This is not up for discussion!" I cried before turning and leaping into the air, flying out of there before Tina got any CRAZIER theories.
"Wait!" I heard behind me as I left. "When did you and Bill Cipher get together? Was it a one night thing? Is that how new gods are born? Which one of you has custody?!"
I ignored her. I think I had turned bright orange from absolute mortification.
Me… with… ME?!
What the heck was WRONG with her?!?!?
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