I lazily glance around my pristine Chronovoid Temple as I contemplate recent events.
I'd decided to find out Pride's sexual orientation on the way back. Deception's sudden declaration startled me. I hadn't seen any instances of closeted behavior amongst my dragons, but you never know.
He IS Pride after all, so, I just asked him. He said no. He's far too proud of his form, of who he is, and moreover who he's become.
A very prideful answer, but also an unequivocal one. I watched his emotions: not a single waver. In fact, I felt a powerful desire from him to gaze lovingly at himself as he said it.
I wonder if he's gay for himself?
I shake my fate dragon head.
That's not really gay, though. It's self-interested.
As for to Gluttony; he's definitely gay. As much as a blob of flesh could be, I suppose? Wait, does he have a gender or is he—. Hruh? Do I have a gender? I call myself male, b—. Why am I thinking about this?
Why do I care?
Hrem.
...
Gender isn't a social construct; it's a social convention. It's nothing more than the way we classify others based on their sex-based characteristics and preferences. If one insists they're a gender different from their sex, it's often because that's how they truly feel. But, if someone else insists they're not the gender they believe they are, that misgendering is a form of bullying. However, if they then demand that this bully affirm their preferred gender, that's also bullying. They've started bullying the bully.
Like what I did to Pride. Rehm, to everyone in my hoard. I was subtly controlling their preferences through language. I was even forcing them to call me "my god." I wonder if I was making others refer to me as "he" and "him" instead of "it." I can think of many times where someone changed their form of address mid-discussion. The most notable was Leario. He went from "he" to "it" when I used an Origin Program to seal my voice from reaching him. I noticed, but I didn't know what to think about it at the time.
Hramh, perhaps I didn't want to think about it. Why else would a super-intelligent dragon not know?
My self-praise lifts my spirits slightly. I crack a little smile.
That's right. I can't take others' freedoms simply because I don't like their ideas. That's worse than bullying: that's plain evil. I was harming their mental sanctity. Tha—.
...
Doesn't that mean I was taking their... Sanity? I specifically enacted laws in my Shridenia to prevent that sort of behavior. Then, I go and do it myself. Reugh. At least I learned about it before things got out of hand. I have my dragons to thank for keeping me in line.
I glance over at Deception. No, Martissa, who's punching the walls of my temple like a boxer. Her sleek draconic arms are banded by rows of large pointy scales like a pinecone. Her pinecone aesthetic continues upon her chest, back, legs, and head. All brown like a pinecone. Brown eyes even— though her snout is green.
Which looks like a leaf on a pinecone.
Unusual, but that's what she wanted, I guess.
I shrug, then turn and walk toward her.
"I take it you're enjoying punching my temple?"
"Absolutely! It's so punchable!"
Rokay, so he's— SHE'S still violent. Gotta keep an eye on this one. She's weaker than Pride, but still plenty powerful.
I glance over at Pride, who's tussling with Dracosect inside our new power-equalization array. A battle ring for dragons to fight with shared strength and sealed talents.
I originally built one which shared talents, but then discovered stronger talents are more useful to the one who owns them. This should've been obvious since the opponent won't have as much practice with someone else's talents. Also unsurprisingly, those with stronger talents tend to be less effective fighters. They're using their talents as a crutch.
Thus, Temp and I decided to seal all talents to avoid the things making my dragons too reliant on them.
It doesn't work on my talents, though. Instead, sharing my power also shares my talents with anyone else inside the arena. As usual, my existence breaks every sort of container in the worst ways.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
I examine the arena battle currently underway.
Hraw, Dracosect is winning.
I yell in support.
"Go, Dracosect, go!"
Pride growls in annoyance.
"RAWR!"
Raha, sorry Pride. You're both my buddies but Dracosect comes first in my book.
I recently learned both of them grew substantially thanks to Temp. It seems Temp can now reconfigure a creature's ability to grow stronger on their own merits. Otherwise, it didn't make sense how quickly Pride has grown.
He wouldn't dare accept handouts.
I suddenly remember something about the god realm.
"Pride, if you're so big, how did you move around in the god realm before you got my size-altering inscription?"
"A creature's size is capped up there, so their power compresses. It's the opposite of down here, where our power is capped. I'm trying to fight, my god."
"Sorry, sorry. Still, I'm rooting for Dracosect."
"GRRR!"
Rah haha— oof, that punch had to hurt.
The ring makes their fight soundless, except if they talk or growl. I can't have the whole area blanketed with fighting noises. Least of all the rather dimmunitive-looking Chronometric Temple, which seems to have shrunk several sizes recently. Our voices are reduced to a suitable level for them, since normal volume to us is like a bomb blast to mortals.
My Chronovoid Temple has portals to every city, just like the Chronometric Temple does. However, only the Chronometric Temple has open doors, so only from that temple can one wander around outside. The portals for both temples also automatically inscribe a size-changing inscription if a dragon who enters doesn't already have one.
The city-side portals sort everyone based on their species. All dragons must come to the Chronovoid Temple first, to avoid any size problems. However, smaller dragons are dropped off near the Chronometric Temple to ensure there aren't any mishaps. I think later I'll reprogram it so they can go to whichever temple they want; I'll use the transference itself to re-size the dragon depending on which temple they choose.
The size difference between our smallest and largest dragons has become quite vast. As such, the two former sins and myself are not included in the Chronovoid Temple's self-scaling feature. It only scales to the largest dragon below our immense size, currently Dracosect.
If I let the Chronovoid Temple get too large, our worshippers in the Chronometric Temple won't be able to understand what they're looking at. I may therefore cap the Chronovoid Temple's scaling at a megametre: 1000km.
Roh, I know. I'll make the scaling go by orders of magnitude. Standard will be god Rank 1 but scaled down to 1000km. Every rank will then add 10km. If the difference ever grows to more than one megametre, meaning their total size reaches two megametres, it'll cap there so every lower rank will get compressed. We'll still have our proper scaling differences without going too overboard.
Of course, as for Demigods like Dracosect, it'll be a while before he can reach this soft cap. However, the Chronovoid Temple will be able to grow to fit myself, Pride, and Martissa. In which case, I'd better do what I'd planned a while back. There's one very important reason the Chronovoid Temple has no doors.
I lock my mental map onto the void in space I've cleared out for my use. It's a large area near the edge of the universe which is now totally emptied of galaxies and planets thanks to my efforts. I transfer both temples into this void. Doing this should be doubly useful since we can now study the universe's edge.
I look around.
Nobody realizes we're billions of parsecs away from our original location. I look around at my temple's walls. The portals are fine, too. I look up at the ceiling. The only obvious change is that the skylights are dark, but it was nighttime on my 10th day anyway.
I alter everyone's scaling to match my ideal distribution. Nobody seems to care that I utterly dwarf them now, I guess because they're so used to my meddling by this point. The arena spectators all fly up to see over the edge of the now-enormous arena slab while the fighters keep fighting. Since their power is equalized, so is their size, so it's not at all a problem for Dracosect.
Hraw! I'm not sure whether it's good or bad that nobody's bothered by my spatial shenanigans.
Speaking of size, I'm gonna give Dracosect a really big reward if he beats Pride. Pride's so much older and more experienced then him. Maybe it's a bit of favoritism, but—
*bzzzzzz*
Yenim Shridenia
Rah, I'd forgotten I had this. Guess most folks don't want to pester this deity. Me. I'm kinda sad nobody has contacted me until now.
"Rhey, how's it going?"
"Haah, my father abdicated."
"Roh, was it that time already?"
"No. He said he felt up for a few thousand rounds of that 'golf' you told him about. Trotted out of the castle after handing me his crown. A bunch of people ran after, demanding things like rescheduling the donkey parade."
...
When did I tell him about golf?
I check his memories. Which, I apparently don't need an Origin thread for anymore. Hrah. What could he have—
He prayed to me for THAT? Then abdicated?! Some people are completely unreasonable.
I tighten my subconscious rules, the ones laid out by an Origin Program.
"A donkey parade? We have one of those?"
"I have no idea why. It was postponed by your evacuation order last week."
"Just get rid of whatever's bothersome. Your father was burdened by nonsense because he's kind, but Yenim, you can't let them walk all over you. Rokay? You're Queen of the world."
"Thanks. That's partly why I was contacting you. You always know how to reassure people."
"The other part?"
"Well, your temple vanished. I wanted to make sure its portals are still safe."
Absolutely. She is absolutely a born leader.
"I moved it into space. It was getting a little ostentatious on the planet down there. You know, I like showing off but not overdoing it."
"Meaning, it's up in orbit?"
"Nreh. I'm making an airlock inscription right now. We'll study the edge of the universe."
"The universe has an edge?"
"Technically, no. It's more like a boundary between space and endless void."
"Makes sense why Chronovoid would study that."
"It does, but. I've evolved into a dragon! I'm so happy, I could rawr all day."
"What's different about that? Weren't you— ah, you lost your species, didn't you."
Roh, she's smart. Hraw.
"Reah, but I got it back. I'mma dragon! Rawr!"
To my surprise, I see an apparently random image of a man in fancy robes leaning over.
image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/151.png]
"Hey, good for you. {Get the hell out of my castle! I'm talking to god himself, and you won't shut your goddamned yap!} Thanks. I need to get back to my royal duties."
"Sure thing. Make 'em tremble. Well, not too much, hraw hraw."
I disconnect.