Aidoneus sat on the hospital bed with a thin white blanket thrown over his thighs. He stared blankly at the baby blue wall, drumming his fingers against his thighs. His throat felt dry and his body was stiff.
Millions of thoughts and memories were running through his head, but he never stopped to evaluate one. If he did, he'd be stuck in an endless loop of reliving the lives he's gone through.
The sudden slamming open of the room door caused his head to jerk up in surprise, as he glared at the person standing in the doorway. A tall curvy woman, in a black suit and black red bottom heels, stood in the doorway. Her hair was cut short and was a platinum blond color and styled in finger waves. A nice contrast to her skin tone.
" My name is Ezera and you will be in my care as of right now." Ezera flashed him a bright smile and walked into the room, closing the door behind her. A bit gentler than her entrance, "The bureau of soul distributions has undergone a few changes since you've last been here."
Aidoneus just hummed in response, his fingers continuing to tap against his thighs. He was last here a few million years ago. And the fact that they provided rooms for people was enough to display the change the bureau has gone through.
"Come on! Introduce yourself to me! Gimme something!" Ezera held her hands forwards as if expecting something.
"I'm sure there's a file on me," Aidoneus glanced at the black file folder and back to Ezera. "There's else to say. Were you expecting a heart to heart?"
Ezera rolled her eyes and began speaking again.
" Well anyway, we've been going through the list of souls who have been categorized as world hoppers, transmigrators, whatever you all are called– and have been working to bring you all back. The last boss of this place was very.." Ezera seemed to struggle with the word that would describe the former head of BSD for a moment, "Corrupt. But now we have entered a new era and have changed things up a bit."
Ezera snapped her fingers and a clipboard with a paper attached appeared on Aidoneus's lap. Aidoneus looked up at Ezera with a slight hostility in his eyes.
"What is this?" Aidoneus narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He would really down one of those soul poisoning medicine bottles he had in his space storage if this was another effort to rob him of his freedom.
Ezera seemed to realize some of the thoughts that may be running through Aidoneus's mind and quickly began to explain.
" No! It's not like that. This won't be one of those… contracts. If you want to continue to be a transmigrator, then that's completely up to you. You can come back to cancel the contract anytime. We just felt you may be more comfortable doing something you've been doing for a while."
Aidoneus looked at Ezera then back down at the contact. He would be provided with an assistant that would best fit his soul composition. A pod-like apartment and some other things. Aidoneus thought for a moment. He didn't have anyone he could go back to. Any memories of what his life was like before he signed the contract with the former boss, were blurry. If he didn't sign the contract he felt as if he would be spending another eon searching for his origins.
Aidoneus took the pen and wrote down his first name. He gave the clipboard back to Ezera who was now beaming with joy. Why is this woman so..bright?
"Great!" Ezera said as she grabbed the contract from Aidoneus. "Now here's a phone. "This is what will be used to contact you, and vice versa" Ezera snapped her fingers again and this time a sleeping black cat appeared on Aidoenus's lap. His first thought was to throw it off, but a glare from Ezera stopped him mid-thought.
Ezera cleared her throat and fixed her facial expressions, "This is Isul, your assistant. I have a few things that I need to take care of but I'll be back in a moment." Ezera snapped her fingers, disappearing into thin air, and left Aidoneus alone with Isul.
Aidoneus sat stiffly as he stared at the cat. He was fighting all of his instincts that were telling him to remove the cat and put it far from his vicinity. Aidoneus decided to try to get a nap to satiate his mildly violet thoughts towards the sleeping cat. He shifted his body a bit, still refusing to touch isul, but was startled when the cat's eyes suddenly flew open and amber eyes, similar to his, stared at him.
Aidoneus, not bothering to restrict himself, threw the cat towards the end of the bed. You couldn't convince him that they did not trap a human or something in that cat. Their eyes unsettled him.
Isul lifted her head up from the bed where she was dropped on and looked at Aidoneus who looked back at her with a disturbed look. In a moment, Isul pounced on Aidoneus and began to claw at his arms.
Aidoneus tried to pull Isul off but to no avail. The thing clung to his forearm, claws digging into his skin. Aidoneus was contemplating hitting his arm against the wall to get Isul to let go. But Ezera came back, through the door this time so Aidoneus decided Against it.
Isul seemed to have a similar thought as she let go of Aidoneus's arm and began to rub her head on it as if she hadn't just assaulted Aidoneus.
"I've seen you've become acquainted!" Ezera smiled and peered over to look at Aidoneus's forearm. She was staring at it for a while and Aidoneus began to wonder how bad the scratch marks and punctures were. He looked down at his arms and instead of scratches and punctures like he expected, it was a marking. Though it was small the image was clear. A sleeping angel falling, a pillow under its head and it tightly gripping onto a blanket. On the curve of its left wing, the word "Sloth" was written.
Aidoneus looked down at Isul who was now curled up on his lap. She only looked up at him and smiled. Well, what he assumed to be one.
"It was nice meeting you." A voice laced with sleep rang through his head. Aidoneus wanted to replace this assistant.
" Well, it seems Isul placed a bond on you. There's no getting rid of her unless you want to get rid of yourself too." Ezera said as she inspected the marking.
"Oh" Aidoneus. He would have to drink a bottle of wine to come to terms with this.
"Oh? Wheres the excitement?" Ezera shook her head and placed a bag a black phone in Aidoneus's hand. " Oh well. Enthusiasm shouldn't be expected from you. Anyway, here's a phone. It will be used to contact anybody here at BSD. My contact is also there so give me a call if you have any questions. We will also contact you through it so don't lose it!"
Ezera motioned for Aidoneus to get up from the bed and follow her out of the room. Aidoneus picked up the cat, somewhat gently, and followed Ezera who was walking towards an elevator. Ezera snapped her fingers and a bag materialized in her hand and she gave it to Aidoneus.
"This is a bag that has copies of the contract, your ID, and some other stuff. Look through it when you get back to Isuls' place." The three walked into an elevator and immediately the thing shot up at lightning speed. Aidoneus felt like he was going to be sick.
Seeing Aidoneus's expression, Ezera took a few steps to the side. It was too early to be vomited on.
"Please don't vomit in the elevator. It'll be a pain to clean." Aidoneus could hear the slight disgust in Ezera's voice at the word vomiting being mentioned.
The elevator dinged and Ezera quickly pushed Aidoneus out of the elevator and gave him a wave and a bright smile.
Aidoneus swung the bag over his shoulder making sure not to jostle Isul who was now sleeping and waited for Ezera to tell him what to do.
Ezera tilted her head to the side in question, " Why are you still standing there?"
Aidoneus's lip twitched in annoyance. This day, night, whatever fucking time it is in Outerspace– has tested his patience enough. He just wanted to sleep.
"Ah yes, I almost forgot." Ezera snapped her fingers and in her hands appeared a wallet. "The wallet has a universal debit card with 500 Izal Celeste's, Izal for short. Izal's can be used in worlds that accept them, the universal market, etc. Some worlds don't accept them, it's rare but it happens. We already made a bank account for you, so when you get around to that just show them your ID and you should be able to access it. If not just give me a call. There's a taxi waiting for you at the front. Bye!"
Aidoneus stuffed the card into the bag and nodded at Ezera. He turned away and looked around the place where Ezera left him and Isul. There were people running left and right, people going in and out. It resembled an airport. Was it too late to go get some food?
" Yes. We'll be late. Keldoran drivers wait for no one." Isuls's voice rang through his head. Aidoneus would need time to get used to this again. Someone being in his head unsettled him.
" Then put a mental barrier up." Isul suggested, "it'll give me some peace and quiet too."
Aidoneus clicked his tongue but put a barrier up anyways. He walked towards the front of the area where he saw a man- no alien waving at him.
Aidoneus walked towards them, Isul still on his shoulder, and greeted them. The alien led Isul and Aidoneus to the taxi and grabbed Aidoneus's things putting them in the trunk.
"Taxi for Isul and Aidoneus?" The alien asked.
Aidoneus nodded and got into the taxi laying Isul on his lap. She really does live up to the whole sloth thing. If Aidoneus didn't feel her breathing on his hand he would have assumed she was dead.
" We'll be making your way to Aether N65. Put your seatbelt on please!" And with that, they were off.