Okaaaaay So.
I'm not saying you were right.
I'm not.
But maaaaybe ignoring the whole "I have dead souls now" thing was a bad idea.
I say this because... well...
Kire had some questions that night.
Bast learned what I told him and also had questions.
So now I have an issue: how do I explain the afterlife? Do I lie? Do I say the truth? What even is the truth?
I'm not even sure I know what Death is really, even after experiencing it.
Actually ESPECIALLY cause I experienced it myself. I can barely remember what death actually is like, but I think that death was like...
Specific not universal?
Like what I experienced was specific to Earth.
In other words... it's actually possible the people of this world DO die and experience oblivion, because it's what they believe. Or maybe their souls just get wiped and reincarnated, or absorbed back into the world where it came from.
It's impossible to make or destroy something, only to change it.
I do believe this, even with souls. After all, I might believe the universe is a LOT more complicated than I thought, but it doesn't mean I believe it's all ordained by an ACTUAL God.
But higher lifeforms do exist. Hell I seem to be on the path to becoming one, however accidental.
So these "gods" and "goddesses" can do whatever they do, I doubt I can understand it from my viewpoint of what is less than an ant.
But I am the one who had to go and say something... so now I have to be the one to actually create the rules.
Oh? Why not be vague? Are you fucking stupid?!
What these people believe and pray to is what will be real!
That means when Kire and Bast and my other awakened come up with their own ideas and beliefs, that will be my unfortunate reality!
What if they believe those souls become a part of me? Then I'd have to deal with schizophrenia but actually having multiple people in my head!
Yeah hell no!
But here's the next issue: how do I make a myth, a idea of what comes after death, that does not piss off the Will of the World?
Cause if souls are a part of this worlds natural cycle and I go stealing them, you better believe this fucking dragon is gonna get SMITED.
I stared at the Astral bodies of Kire, Bast, Junior, and a few fish that had managed to project in here.
'Fuck how do I do this. Should I explain reincarnation? That would let me get rid of these souls I have in the weird ass void...'
I thought for awhile, only to be interrupted.
"My lord... what happens when one dies?"
[They... pass on. To what comes next.]
Bast... her eyes held such hope. "Where?! Where did my fa-do they go?!
Oh.
Oh fuck.
Of course. Who hasn't lost someone?
Who doesn't wish they could see them again? See your family, your friends and loved ones?
To have back what time and death steal from you...
Of course. If I tell them they aren't there anymore... I'm just crushing a hope I selfishly made out of idiocy.
What am I supposed to do when faced with this?
I can't just pretend I have no responsibility to this!
The fact of it is, I gave them hope. HOPE.
And now...
[...I will deliver.]
"Sorry?"
[You know I am newborn, a new being, and I won't deny it any longer; I was born mortal, with the... Let's say, I was chosen by a goddess.]
I had their attention.
And now I had to make sure these people, MY people, could be at peace with what they've had to live through.
To help Bast move on, to let Kire keep fighting...
I will take up this burden for these, the children I have taken in.
[If I am to be a god or spirit, then you may know me as the one who guides the dead.]
[I bring the dead to they next world. Another place, a place where they are evaluated based on their deeds, and a choice is made.]
"A choice?"
I have it.
I know what I want them to believe.
I want the people who follow me, these people I take in, to at least live to some semblance of morality.
Is it arrogant, even shameless to act as though I had any right to decide what is right or wrong?
I can say I'm becoming a god, but it's not really a god, not the kind with any right to dictate how men live.
I'm just evolving to something different.
But I will do this arrogant thing, because I want them to hope.
I want them to believe in me... because no one ever did.
Call me a terrible person, an evil dragon, an awful individual, I don't care.
If some good comes from this, I've done enough.
[Live a life well. Live with morality, and do good, and you shall be seen as such. Do evil, see evil and do nothing, and you shall be judged as such.]
[And when I take you back to this world to be reborn as a new life, your skills, your new life, what you have, will be decided by how you lived your last one.]
Karma from one life deciding your next.
This is what I will say.
And maybe it'll become true... or maybe I'm just giving them a lie that is impossible.
But it's the best a stupid arrogant dragon like me can do.
I'm not a god.
I'm just someone using how the world works to try and do the best I can.
If they will worship me, let them do it for a reason.
[All you do, in this life, shall be used to decide your next. That is what awaits those who die; what they deserve after the life they lived.]
And this way... Bast won't go asking to see her father who's gone.
I left the Galaxy then, leaving then to discuss and wonder what this meant.
Fuck it, I'm gonna figure out how a human form works from Avaya so I can go drink myself into oblivion tonight.
I feel like shit for lying to them, especially Bast.
Fuck.