----
Humanity almost died out a few times.
Nearly had a non-existent heart attack each time it happened. Still, my love and admiration for the human race only grew as I watched struggle, survive and thrive. They managed to survive a global volcanic winter. They fought their way to make it through, supporting each other. Caring for each other. Protecting each other.
They had families and community groups. They helped each other out. There was laughter and play even in the harsh environment. I gave them s one more music and stories. I filled their nights with dreams of a time when the winter would end and life returned to the planet. Dreams of hope. They hid inside the caves, away from the snow and ice, drawing on the walls and waiting for the spring I promised them would eventually come.
I couldn't do much to use my powers to help them out. Not without a physical body. I possessed some animals to lead near the caves so they could hunt them. Thousands of years passed. The winter ended, to my relief. I led them from their caves. I watched over then as they once more, spread across the Earth.
It brought me such joy to see them laugh and grow and evolve. I watched them hunt down animals for their meat and skins. I watched then meet with wolves and after a few confrontations, they began to live and hunt together. I squealed at the thought of puppies. Yes! Domesticate them and make puppies!
Fur and skins to keep warm. Fire to cook their food. Languages evolving as they learned to make new words to express and describe the world around them. And still, there I was, watching over them. An unblinking eye granting them sleep and dreams and comfort from the harsh world of surviving day by day.
They drew me on the rocks. On the cave walls. In the dirt. In their stories. A one eyed beast that helped you when you didn't know how to do something. Those who were capable or it intelligent enough to understand my messages, quickly rose up to be their innovators. Their leaders. Their shamans, their wise men.
I started choosing someone every century or so. Searching through minds until I found the brightest of the bunch. Someone who could understand me. Understand what I was offering them. Knowledge to supplement their own existing brilliance.
I don't outright tell people the answer. I want to see them figure it out themselves. I felt immensely proud whenever they did. Like teaching a pet how to perform a new trick. I delighted in watching my little humanity farm grow. Eventually they wanted to learn more efficient ways of killing animals for food.
After a few generations, the idea of bows and arrows were successfully cultivated. It was pretty much a throwing spear, but smaller, deadlier. They could shoot animals from far away, where they thought they were safe. An artisan 'job' was made to add to the Hunter and Gatherer jobs. There was the beginnings of agriculture in the area someday known as Mesopotamia.
Their weapons evolved, becoming more efficient and deadly.
They started attacking other human tribes with them.
They wages battles over locations, wanting to secure the areas with better lands, animals and food for themselves. I worried over these fights. These violent encounters between the different tribes.
Still, this too, was party of humanity. I couldn't stop it. Even when I tried to convince them to all live together. There were areas that simply didn't have enough resources to support both groups and inevitably it would lead to fighting. Not out of malicious greed but because they wanted to keep their own families well fed and safe. For this reason they fought.
Around that time, I forced myself to leave. I didn't want to watch this. I would return when things have settled down.
---
I found a dimension/planet made entirely out of blocks. It was round-ish. All these squares made a circle. It was strange, amazing, unique and so very familiar.
I stared at the blocky looking landscape. To the best of my knowledge, there weren't any 'people' here. I found a bunch of blocky animals but their minds weren't developed enough for me to speak with them. I poked at the dirt and blinked in surprise when a large chunk of the dirt broke off in a perfect cube that floated gently above my hand. A wide grinned formed in my eye as I took the cube and placed it back down to stick the block of dirt back onto the ground.
I found the Minecraft dimension.
I immediately started pulling off pieces of the ground and trees to start building a cute house. Then I built another house. Then a farm. Before I knew it, a while village had been formed. Days had passed but I was having too much fun building. The empty streets made me unhappy but it was still fun to take apart the landscape and build.
The animals enjoyed my farms. There was plenty of food for them now.
I built some more roads and a couple of other villages a few miles away. Eventually I built a few pyramids and laughed myself silly crafting a maze inside it with little treasure chests hidden inside. Even if there were no people here, it was fun to build and I had fun. It was relaxing.
I eventually built a little temple dedicated to me. The place was a huge building with a bright yellow pixel-art depiction of my lovely self built out of blocks. I could still use my powers here, altering the blocks of matter until they turned into a different substance. I turned blocks of dirt into gold and spent plenty of time fixing up the world until there were multiple towns, cities and temples dedicated to me.
This place was actually pretty nice. Maybe I'll bring some friends here sometime. We could play around, build stuff, explore...
Still can't believe I found a freaking Minecraft world.
It would be something fun to mess with some other time. A world with Minecraft physics? Fuck yeah. Frankly I'm just amazed with HOW this dimension worked. Entire chunks of the world can be taken off and placed somewhere else. Some...weird magnetism, except not. Fascinating.
I made sure the images of me were good enough to See through and left, planning to take my friends here for an adventure at some later date.
---
So…
Pyrone called us a few months after his honeymoon with Flora to scream in panic about how his wife was apparently pregnant and he had no idea how it happened. I told him he knew EXACTLY how it happened. He flushed dark blue and responded "Ok, YES, but...HOW? We're not the same species?"
So I was forced to explain my accidental Blessing "Not my fault! I didn't know I could even DO that!" while Pyrone and Flora panicked over what this pregnancy meant. "Seriously! I TOLD you guys to be careful! Did NONE of you listen!?"
It's not like hybrids don't exist. They're incredibly rare though. Most species simply aren't genetically compatible. Still, Pyronica and I stayed with the couple during Flora's pregnancy. I had to carefully monitor her for the duration in case of complications.
And there were MANY complications.
Like Flora catching fire for instance.
Luckily, the effects of my accidental Blessing seem to be protecting her from the fire but we worried about the baby's safety. Pyronica and I had to stay by her side constantly. Flora was taking this all pretty well, her only complaint being that she couldn't help out on the farm.
Pyronica and I got to spend some quality time with our daughter in law.
"So, if I'm catching on fire, does that mean my child is a girl?" Flora asked as she rubbed at her belly. Pyronica nodded. "Seems to be that way." She grinned at her daughter in law. "I for one, am excited to meet my granddaughter."
"Since you don't have your own fire, we don't have to worry about you overheating and killing the baby. We just need to worry about your personal health." I held one of Flora's hands and she squeezed mine. "I'm a little scared. I always figured I would be a mother someday but not...like this. Not so soon."
"...do you...regret it?" I asked her. She shook her head. There was a soft smile on her face. "Motherhood is a scary thought. But for me…" she placed her hands on her stomach "...losing this chance to BE a mother would be even scarier." she looked over at me "Would making a Deal to ensure the safety of me and my child guarantee that things will work out?" She asked.
I blink. I hadn't thought of that. But my Deals weren't like a Wish, I couldn't grant every request I've gotten. I can only get a power burst and use that power to try and DO something that will result in the outcome. My powers don't make the thing happen on it's own, I have to decide what to do AND how to keep the side effects to a minimum. "I don't need a Deal to ensure I would use all in my power to keep you and your child safe." I responded. "It's better not to risk my Deals enacting some sort of penalty on you."
Flora blinked. "You mean you can't make them not have some backlash?"
I sighed. "It's complicated. Really depends on a case by case basis. There are so many factors involved. Who my client is, what they want, what they're willing to pay, what they're unwilling to pay, how much this Deal means to them, whether or not I can stop my powers from twisting things…"
"Being a Deals demon sounds complicated." Flora nodded. I groaned. "You have no idea. You know I've had 3 people summon and ask for me to destroy their world?"
"What? Why?!" Flora gasped. I roll my eye even as I leaned against her. "Some people just want to see the world burn." And Apocalypse cults were a thing.
"...did you take that Deal?"
"No." I said firmly. The only one I made Deals to kill for is Time Baby. And the occasional 'vengeance' for someone who has been wronged. Like that abused child who summoned me (scratching my image into the wall of his -bedroom- prison and simply asked for the hitting to stop.)
Well, they can't hit him if they had no arms.
The commotion alerted the local law enforcement who discovered the boy's living situation and child services took him in. I checked on him once to see he was happily living with a foster family. He even scratched another image of me to say "Thank you." which...made me feel really...happy.
I'm trying out the whole, helping people thing. I tore down (and tore up) several slave trade groups anonymously. It was lots of fun. I shake my head. I'm going off topic. "If someone gives me a Deal I don't want to do, I simply ask for a price they cannot pay."
Pyronica snorted. "It doesn't stop them from trying." I groaned. "Some people just want to watch the world end. Or...eaten." I shivered. "There was a client who said they wanted to watch me eat a planet." that was pretty fucked up. Apparently, they had some sort of thing for watching cosmic horrors devour life. I slapped them and claimed I was watching my weight before leaving.
Flora scrunched up her face. "That sounds...horrifying." I nodded. "I don't like eating planets. That...is simply an unpleasant affair for everyone involved."
To keep Flora occupied so she didn't go stir crazy, Pyrone and I took her on long walks outside. We killed any large animal that came close, protective instincts running rampant, and Flora rolled her eyes. "If you keep this up there would be no animals left." She grumbled. "Can't you just put a force field around me if you're THAT worried?"
"You're a genius!" I gasped. "No, you're both just idiots." Flora laughed. There were much less animal deaths after that. Of course, it wasn't like we killed them for nothing. I had lots of fun cooking them up for her. Flora ate a lot normally but her pregnancy made her nearly as ravenous as Pyronica had been. Also, we discovered that Jo-Adians were capable of minor shape shifting.
And by minor I mean they turn into a rampaging hell beast if they didn't return to their home planet once a year for the Bunzel harvest. Flora actually lost track of time and didn't realize the harvest time was coming up. She went down with a fever that we all mistakenly thought was just her pregnancy acting up. And then her eyes changed, she sprouted a tail and grew to the size of their cottage while screeching. She tore her way out of the now destroyed cottage and started picking a fight with some of the wildlife.
I barely managed to harmlessly restrain her long enough to teleport the lot of us back to her home world.
She was quite embarrassed once the harvest was finished and she turned back to normal. "I can't believe I did that!" She blushed. Pyrone took her hands into his and grinned at her. "Actually, that was pretty hot." and kissed her deeply at which point, me and Pyronica high tailed it out of there to give them some privacy.
"I don't know how to feel about this…" I flushed orange. Pyronica laughed. "Did you see the way Flora bitch slapped that Aquamane lizard? Damn thing was twice her size and she snapped it like a twig. No wonder my boy's so in love with her!"
I giggled somewhat hysterically. "I still don't understand what your people find attractive." Pyronica hugged me to her chest and bemoaned "Alas, we Cyclopian are a misunderstood race!" She swooned dramatically "Tragic is our people who just find intense physical prowess the best turn on!" she gave a wistful sigh "Why, if Flora weren't my son's wife, I might even…"
I sputtered in horrified embarrassment. "R-Ronica!" She grinned, completely unashamed. "You're awful!" I laughed. She batted her long eyelashes at me. "Me? Oh no! I'm not awful, I'm just a bad girl~"
I cackled with laughter. "The worst!"
Some heavy thumping sounds came from the shed Flora and Pyrone was in. I went pale and quickly flew away, squealing. Pyronica laughed hysterically as she ran after me. "Seriously Bill. You're perfectly fine watching strangers fuck each other all the time."
"Because they're strangers! Not my kids or my sister!" I wailed. She scoffed. "Some people are into that."
"Well I'm not! At least...not...normally..." I was dark orange now, literal steam rising from my bricks. Pyronica shrugged. "That's fine. To each their own." we sat and eventually I turned back into yellow. Pyronica pet my side. "So." She said. "We're gonna be grandparents." She grinned down at me.
I let out an excited squeal. "Grandbaby! Ahhh!!!!"
"Calm down before you explode." Pyronica drawled as she watched me vibrate in place. I managed to calm myself down through sheer force of will. "Right. Yes. I am calm."
Pyronica quirked her eye. "The grass around you are sprouting legs and running away." I looked around. So they were. Huh. I shrugged. They were harmless. Probably wouldn't live long. No Souls. "So. We're gonna be grandparents. Oh...oh gosh…" I had to cling to Pyronica's leg to steady myself. "I need to throw a baby shower."
"That sounds horrifying." Pyronica stared. I snorted. "Not a LITERAL baby shower. Geez, where would I even find that many babies?"
"I dunno, your stupider clients might try paying you in firstborns again." We both laughed. "But seriously, what's a baby shower?"
"It's when we shower the parents in gifts for the baby." I sighed in fond remembrance. That was how I received my very first friend. My teddy bear that my oh so creative child self had named Teady. He had stayed by my side for my entire life. Steadfastly watching over me since before I was born. There was a manifestation of Teady inside my Mindscape, tucked into the bed on the bottom floor. The place of honor as it were.
I giggled. For the longest time I could never fall asleep without him. Cuddling him to myself every night and kissing him good night. I COULD materialize Teady but...it wouldn't be the same. Besides. I have Xanthar now. Speaking of Xanthar, staying here to watch Flora full time meant I haven't been able to snuggle my favorite loaf. I should bring him here. He must be lonely.
'''Shower with presents? How come I didn't get one of these baby showers?" Pyronica grumbled. I laughed. "I get you gifts all the time. Flora, however, hasn't. Therefore she gets a baby shower."
Pyronica blew a raspberry at me. I blew one back. We are mature adults! Around the time we started making weird faces at each other while going "Bleh!" or "Nyeh!" I hear sniggering and look over to see Pyrone and Flora trying to muffle their laughter. "These are my parents." Pyrone gestured dramatically to us. Flora snorted.
"It's too late to escape. You've already married into this family." He bemoaned as he leaned against his wife. Flora outright laughed this time. Her laughter had many cute little snorts. "I'm sure I will survive." she patted Pyrone's large horns. Pyronica sticks her long tongue out at her son. He snorted. "Mom, you're so weird."
"So~" Pyronica purred. "How's my son in bed?" Me and Pyrone squealed and covered our faces. I liked joking about my children's sex lives, but only when I didn't have actual proof that he'd JUST done it! Flora blushed and looked away in a demure way. "Oh, he's wonderful~" Pyrone flushed dark blue and grabbed me as the two of us escaped. Pyronica and Flora's laughter ringing out behind us.
----
Quackers continued with her magic studies over the years. I check on her out of worry. She was doing fine and always appreciated my visits but straight out told me that I'm a bit...clingy. She also gave me a hug and said that it wasn't necessarily a BAD thing. I gave her the good news that she would be an aunt. She was quite thrilled to hear about Flora's pregnancy. She also told me that when she found a mate, I wasn't allowed to do any fertility Blessings.
Which was...fair. But I DID mope in the corner of her magical charm shop. Quackers opened a shop with little trinkets that had various magical effects. Mainly minor things like Fixes eyesight' or 'Faster healing'. She was an Invocation type but that didn't mean she didn't know her Runework or Enchantment. I asked her why she wanted to open a shop, of all things, and she said that she wanted to help people, like she always saw me try to do.
If anyone says that I cried into her fur for a good while after that, they're obviously lying.
Despite the money I sent to her account that could be used to live comfortably, Quackers just donated the Credits in her accounts to help support local business and support centers. Quackers confided in me that she wanted to become a full on Healer at some point but couldn't get work at the hospitals without previous experience and couldn't get experience because the hospitals wouldn't hire her.
A quick trip to Jessie's and the High Priestess happily took my daughter in as a temporary Shrine Maiden. How was THAT for credentials on Quacker's resume? I spent some time as Miz, helping out the other healers and giving Quackers plenty of tutoring. The thing with healing, magic or otherwise, was that it required understanding. You can't heal a Crawdent and Floralian the same way after all. Their anatomy were entirely different.
I sat by Quackers as we looked over a Ufhernic with several broken bones, burns and skin abrasions. The civil war on Ikix was getting worse. The Ikix people decided they didn't want to live under rule from the Federation anymore. Even with Tina's mom attempting all sorts of reforms, they were slow going and most of the universe were still living unfair conditions. Some had it worse than others. There were peaceful planets were the Federation was barely a presence in their lives and the people only, really had language and monetary systems in common with the greater Federation as a whole. And then there were the planets that had such heavy Federation presence it was like a bad dystopia movie.
Cameras everywhere. Enforced schedules, curfew, schoolings…
So yeah, some planets were hit much harder by the Federation. Ikix was one of those planets. It wasn't a surprise that the people began to rebel. With rebellion came fighting, which led to injuries. Jheselbraum's Dimension 52 was an established neutral world that the Federation couldn't touch. She was the AXOLOTL's high priestess after all. So she got lots of refugees, injured soldiers and rebel fighters hiding out here.
The Federation couldn't touch them here.
I know there were some militant factions of the Federation that hated this but Time Baby put his foot down. NO ONE fucks with the AXOLOTL and as Jheselbraum was his one and ONLY high priestess, she was pretty much the only authority in this matter. She was a symbol of the AXOLOTL. No one wanted to mess with the Ultimate God of the multiverse, he who created all of reality. So she could take in all these people and even if the Federation officers came...they couldn't do shit.
Violence was strictly prohibited here.
My subtle Curses around the planet provided an extra layer of protection. And when Jessie expressed her worry over having enough space for everyone, I expanded the temple and the villages around it. The buildings were much larger on the inside. Jessie was unsure how to feel about my powers being placed around her temple but I (as Miz) gave her a sad expression with a trembling lip and she eventually gave in, telling me that as long as I ask her before I add anything to her world first, I can help out.
Seriously. The power of cuteness was deadly.
So here I was, giving Quackers (and multiple other maidens) a quick rundown on Ufhernic biology when the teleporter at the far end of the hallway (we had run out of room in the infirmary and began setting up blankets along the hallways to lay the injured on) and a badly wounded Federation soldier stumbled through. Immediately, a bunch of the other patients tensed. The officer stumbled. "Please...heal me?" He asked, his shimmering dark green carapace leaking pale green blood. A few maidens went forward to lead him onto another cot and the patients around him, a Ufhernic with a missing arm and a Cinerli with heavy burns along her wings (crippling her for life) hissed at him. "No! What is this filth doing here?" The Cinerli gnashed her mandibles. The maidens lowering him gently into the cot responded calmly "We treat any and ALL injured."
"A Federation soldier killed my sister!" the Cinerli hissed. She tried to get up from her cot but the maidens tending to her held her down. "Please don't move! You'll reopen your wounds!" One of the younger maidens (what was her name again...Yanny...or was is Laurel?) beseeched her patient, large eyes staring at her in worry as her fins flared.
"Dimension 52 is a safe world. There will be no violence here." Blue Rose stated calmly, tilting her petaled face toward the Cinerli. "Please settle down." I could clearly hear the warning tone. I shivered. Blue Rose was a gentle healer but...she was surprisingly scary. When the Cinerli didn't look like she was going to calm down, Blue Rose's petals peeled open and a silvery pollen came out.
The Cinerli warrior swayed and fell unconscious.
Quackers honked quietly in awe. "Can I learn that?"
One of the other wounded spoke up "Do you HAVE to heal him?"
Blue Rose placed her vines on her 'hips' and twitched her petals at them "All are equal under the AXOLOTL. We will help anyone who needs it." she managed a pretty good glare despite not having eyes or any facial features. "Whosoever they may be."
"Then, if Bill Cipher came, would you help him too?" Someone sneered. Quilia, who had been warming some pans of water, glared at them. "In fact we have. One of his companions was pregnant and he came to US for help." She sighed. "Because no other place would ever do so. And...those children shouldn't have to suffer for the crimes of their parents."
"Even Bill Cipher obeyed the no-violence rule of this temple." Blue Rose said loudly. She didn't say anything after that but her message was clear.
If a known god of destruction was cowed enough by the AXOLOTL to obey his law within his temple, then what would it make them if they broke it?
I had my face buried in Quackers's side to muffle my giggles. They seriously think I fear Ax. Naw. Knowing how strong he was is pretty intimidating but he said that I was to become his equal someday. I wonder about that really. I'm...pretty strong already. I had to throw up my power to keep from getting overwhelmed by it already. I don't know if I can handle even more. Not without more Deals to increase my 'carrying capacity' at least.
Sometimes I felt cramped. Like my constructs were too small, too compressed to hold me. I needed to start making Deals in earnest. If I didn't relieve this pressure I was liable to explode or be unable to fit myself into such a small, cute vessel. And I can't have THAT now can I?
I continued my medical lecture, using one of the patients as an example. They seemed pretty bemused by it all but were happy to help out if it meant the maidens could learn better healing techniques. Many of them were nodding along or taking notes. I blinked in surprise when I even tasted some mild worship.
Worship was a strange sort of energy. It didn't need to come from devout people thinking of you as their god. Any time someone looked up to someone, respected them, loved them, valued them, held them as someone important to them, for whatever reason, a spark of worship would be generated. Even non-gods can feel it. But they don't realize it.
When someone cared about you, you feel nice. Many people chalk this up to simply feeling good because they're with people who care about them, and they're entirely correct. Only gods could really feel a difference. And even then, love and worship felt rather similar, they were often packaged together anyway.
This is not to be confused with blind devotion. The flavor of that particular brand of worship felt...empty. Like eating a delicious meal but still feeling hungry afterward. A lot of Ax's worshipers were the blind devotion type. The only ones who REALLY cared for him were those who came here to Jheselbraum's temple. Jessie's reverence for Ax had only grown over the years from my talks with her. My praise for him gave her the comfort she needed whenever things got stressful here. Also, she found it soothing to brush my hair, which I was ALL for.
I wanted to help in increasing his worshipers, in making sure Ax would never run out of power. Hm. I wonder. Could that have been Ax's plan? Find a Bill Cipher, raise them to be friendly, have them work for him? Eh~frankly I wouldn't actually care even if that was the case. I loved Ax and even if his care for me turned out to be some manipulative plan to get a Bill Cipher on his side, I didn't really care.
He sang to me when I broke. He comforted me when I needed to vent. He listened to me. Even if it was all just to make me like him, I don't care. I loved Dad and that's just how it was. I was broken and unlike other Bill Ciphers, I wanted to get better. Even if Ax was secretly trying to get me under control or something, I don't see a problem with that.
I gave Quackers a hug goodbye as she went to her room at the temple. I would stay but I had some work to do. I need to get some more Deals. The amount has dropped over the past century as I stayed pretty quiet. But my friends were off their 'grounding' now so it was about time we went back to having wild rampage parties.
In fact...
The war on Ikix would be a fun playground for me and my gang to secretly help out people while antagonizing the Federation and the Feds can't really say anything because I'm not siding against the Federation. I'm not on anyone's side. I just want to play and the battlefield has explosions and screaming so why WOULDN'T I go and spread some more chaos?
I giggled to myself as I Blinked back to the Nightmare Realm and twisted back into my proper triangular form. It's been far too long since I've let loose. Taking care of the kids has been holding me back into being responsible. Now that the idea of being able to do what I want has come up…
My bricks pulsed and fire flickered around me. My body twisted and grew as I giggled. Oh~how much I wanted it.
Screaming, violence, the fear and awe as everyone stared up at me and cowered. Oh how much I craved it.
I've been pushing back these desires for so long. I wanted to set a good-ish example for the kids. I know these desires are probably not good. But it's fine. I don't plan to kill anyone. Just...indulge in some harmless screaming FUN.
They're already at war. It's not like I could make things any worse right?
...I'm gonna put barriers around everyone just in case.
-----
"AHAHAHAHAH!" Pyronica laughed as she flung fire out at the Federation line of soldiers. "YEAH! RUN! YOU FUCKERS!" she threw back her head and crowed when they screamed and began a retreat. "Aw man, I missed this." She grinned so wide, we could see all her teeth. Her fire blazed white hot, the air around her shimmering with the heat.
"Uh...I found someone." 8-Ball said as he lifted up a fallen chunk of building. Hectorgon hopped over to inspect them. "She's still alive." He called out. I flew over and bubbled her. I had amassed quite the collection by this point. I sent this bubble up to join the others. Many multi-colored bubbles filled the sky. All the people we have found among the ruined city. The Federation sent down bombs. After all the explosions went off, they sent in their land troops.
I scanned the area, picking out some Federation soldiers hiding behind a building. I waved my hand to drag them out to us. I spot Xanthar burrowing through some debris and carefully scooping out a group of people. They screamed and tried to run but didn't get far before I bubbled them too. It was safer for them like that.
The Feds I dragged over screamed and tried to fire at us. Their plasma shots absorbed into the barriers I had placed around everyone, leaving my friends unharmed. PaciFire sneered and knocked them all out with a punch. "That's three more." He grunted. I added the points to a large scoreboard floating above the ruined city that was keeping track.
"And Xanthar found those four earlier…" I mumbled. I added those to the score as well. "Well I think we should be done with this area soon." I waved my hand to turn some debris into wolves. I mentally ordered them to find more survivors and bring them to me. I also set a bunch of stuff on fire. You know, for kicks.
I made sure the area was cleared of any life before flicking my fingers and fixing the buildings. Of course, they weren't the same as they were before. One building was now shaped like a bear. Another was shaped like a giant hand. In this way, I fixed the damage from the bombs. Pyronica was still chasing the Federation soldiers out of the city while I worked.
Just for fun, I pointed at a soldier who was hiding behind another building, attempting to snipe my best friend, and swapped the front and back of his head. His horrified screaming was delightful. I switched a few more body parts around, just for fun, and sighed in content. This felt nice. The fear in the air tasted so savory. The grief from the survivors, even more so. My bricks glowed with a healthy shine. It felt...so good to do this again. My time of abstinence making the experience all the better.
I've done some destruction on my own, both for Time Baby's jobs and my own stuff, but being here with my friends as we picked through the destruction just felt...right. I pointed at another Federation soldier trying to shoot at us and turned his arms into spiders. He started screaming and smacking his own arms against some walls to try and kill them.
We made our way through the city, capturing anyone we found and disfiguring any soldiers we came across. I distinctly hear one Federation officer call out "Die you freak!" before I zapped him with something extra special. His head became a donkey, not just a donkey head, the entire donkey, with his Talkeni body from the shoulders down, sticking out from where the tail would normally grow. "What an ass." I grumbled as the donkey screamed and ran around, dragging his Talkeni body behind him.
I continued 'fixing' the city. All the insides of the buildings functioned just fine. They just looked ridiculous from the outside. I changed a train station to look like a Scorpopup as I repaired the tracks and got all the machinery back up. Once we chased out all the Federation forces and destroyed their bases, I could finish repairing the city and release all the imprisoned survivors.
My bubbles would heal them as well as keep them in a deep sleep with nothing more than faint dreams of only a mildly disturbing nature designed to make them cone out of this experience somewhat uncomfortable and relatively unharmed on a psychological level aside from a fear of mismatched socks and words containing more than 20 letters. Once we were done here I'm just going to drop them off and as far any anyone is concerned, Bill Cipher and his gang fucked up the city, captured it's citizens for a while before growing bored and then left. I released everyone and left them to do their own thing. I've already repaired their city from the damage and chased out the Federation officers. Anything else is up to THEM to deal with.
I doubt anyone will thank us for chasing the Federation off the planet. Still, I had fun. My friends had fun and 8-Ball found the most survivors so he gets to be team leader in our next D&D campaign. I'm thinking of running them through a vampire story. That might be fun.
It felt good to get back into the chaos and destruction thing. And I didn't kill anyone so everything's fine~!
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