cheklovsgun

This doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but me. So many fiddly bits mentioned here don't and shouldn't makes sense without all my extensive ridiculous notes.

Arc One:
MC is an acolyte in the order that is in her city, the Fleshshaper order. She’s given her first task; a naga, and told to “fix it”. She interprets this as make the naga human again, and gets pretty far along, all while slowly developing an uncomfortable friendship with the naga woman, since she is an outsider and thus can reveal that a lot of the teachings she’s been given are wrong. Her superiors eventually pull her aside and tell her that she is doing it wrong, and gently explain she is only supposed to be making naga a better monster. MC is in shock, not sure how to deal with this – naga is deemed good enough and stable, and taken to be released and have CRAZY triggered in her. MC is forced to attend, but cannot finish her duties to make her friend crazy. Someone else goes to, explaining that if MC really morally objects, she is allowed to suicide via her creation with no repercussions; instead, as they go to make naga crazy, MC finds her inner badass and fights off the superiors long enough for naga to get free – naga, rather than running alone, grabs her and takes MC with her.

Arc Two:
MC and naga are fleeing across the country to the secret place naga used to get into the country before she was captured. They do the best they can, occasionally run into other monsters and uncrazy some of them. MC and naga are eventally cornered; once again, MC sacrifices herself to allow naga to escape – only this time it is because naga knows the outside world, and knows who to go to in order to find help for the monsters. Naga does flee alone this time, very upset, but can’t bring herself to leave the continent completely without MC. Her dwarf boyfriend finds her at that point, and they start plotting. Meanwhile, MC is taken to the place where the designs for monsters go out from, and the lead designer, a crazy crazy artist, decides that she will be a manticore – and starts converting her. She’s pretty fucked up when naga and dwarf come to rescue her, and bust her out. Dwarf has to drug her silly to get past the mental blocks that say her magic can’t effect herself so she can reshape her body enough to survive. That done, they make a break for escape once more. MC gets an arrow to the face, loosing an eye, and gets it replaced by something crazy looking. Maybe a goat. They’ll be riding them, after all. They make it out through a fancy hidden tunnel that we’ll all recognize from an underwater aquarium walkthrough thingy.

Arc Three:
They made it out! To the desert, which is full of black sand. They meet up with the local nomads, who are gathering for a meeting because dwarf’s family had come looking for him, and gets brought along. The tribe’s shammy makes MC’s new eye fit a little better, and pets her a lot, since her manticore traits echo their holy demi-god’s form. They get taken to the meeting, unite with dwarf’s family, MC meets a demi-god who is a genuine manticore, and explains the situation. Manticore references the other demi-gods, and they decide it’s not within the parameters of their guardianship to allow the monsters to suffer – clerics start a pilgrimage from all over in order to start smuggling them out. MC bonds with the tribe she met with in the meantime, meets a REAL non-demigod manticore, gets adopted into the species and learns some of their legends and such. Raids to save monsters start up, they accidentally find the power source for the wall – and BREAK IT. PERMANANTLY. Meaning that people and monsters are able to escape without being reduced to dust and bones, and sea life can live in the ocean nearby again. Success, to an extent. Most people just want to stay the way things were, they just can’t force people to turn into monsters anymore. MC is tired of everything and goes off to explore the wide world.

The Egg
by Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.

Doing a check of the automatic crossposting feature over here.


I kinda dig it.