When Ben came down from his god’s realm, he did it earlier than usual thanks to Myriad informing him that Thera had woken up, with her sleep being a little more restless than he’d hoped.
“Hey, you’re up early.”
“Mmh, I could say the same about you,” She muttered against his chest. “Couldn’t sleep either?”
“I got a head’s up that you woke up. Feeling okay?”
“Ugh, no. I think it might take a day or two.”
“Well then, we’ve just gotta distract you. What do you want to get up to today? The world’s our oyster.”
“...You know one thing we never do that I wouldn’t mind trying?”
“What?”
“Nothing. We never just take a day to lounge in bed and do nothing. I want to relax and not move until tomorrow comes.”
“Ha, well I might have to step out to get us something to eat at some point then.”
“Okay, we’ll leave for meals but other than that I just want to lounge and relax.”
“Alright, if that’s what you have your heart set on then that’s what we’ll do.”
With a plan for a lazy day firmly in place, Ben was content to lay back and close his eyes, relaxing in a way it felt like he hadn’t managed to in years.
It was a bit dull and boring, but it was also something he hadn’t allowed himself to indulge in for such a long time that he was fine with being bored for the day as it gave both his mind and body a long-needed break.
While he was managing to be content with it though, the one who’d suggested they do as much was fidgeting and shuffling, leaving him to crack both an eye and a smile.
“You sure you wouldn’t feel better doing something, Thera?”
“I don’t know,” She groaned. “I don’t want to go out. I want to stay here and relax, but I also need something to distract me. I’m sorry I’m being a pain.”
“You aren’t being a pain Thera, I get it. You need a distraction but don’t want to go to do anything? Leave it to me, I can think of something.”
And that something requires a small favour. Hey Myriad, you around?
Can you do me a favour and go hang out in Nare or Helori’s realm for a bit? I want to borrow yours.
You’re the best buddy, I’ll make you something tasty tonight when I come up.
His god left with that, creating space for Ben to do something without breaking any pesky rules as he quickly merged his mind into his girlfriend’s and through that connection brought her up with him to the now-empty realm, getting to enjoy her surprise as a result.
“What just happened?” She asked, seeing they were suddenly somewhere else but not immediately putting together where.
“Myriad’s realm, minus the god himself so nobody gets grumpy up here.”
The answer seemed to shock her for a second before she seemed to snap out of it and muttered to herself.
“I guess that’s one way to distract me.”
“Ha, we’re just getting started. Being up here offers me some potential that I don’t have down below,” He told her as he focused on her eyes. “Thera, I love you and I want you to know and understand a bit more about me too, but that’s got a few minor difficulties to it.”
“I think I understand you pretty well by this point, Ben.”
“Well, yeah, but there’s some things that you kind of just need to experience and that’s not really possible when the first part of my life ended up left behind in a different universe. I don’t have the mana or the magics to replicate everything the way I’d want to back on the world, but now that I have a new handy skill…”
He trailed off as he wrapped one arm around her shoulders before holding out the other, and with a bit of strain on his mind, used his actualization to bring forth the biggest thing he’d yet created. An entire, fully furnished house.
Not just any house though, but his house. The one he’d lived in and grew up in back on Earth, recreated in perfect detail thanks to both his memories and his power.
He knew he’d feel a bit of an emotional response to doing it, but he hadn’t been prepared for how strong it had ended up being. Having it there in front of him like that forced a lot of memories to the front of his thoughts. Still, he did his best to keep it from touching his face as he led her forward.
“So Thera, this was my home.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
He could see her shock from the corner of his eye as he led her inside, opening the door to what was by and large a fairly normal house, at least from his perspective, one that spoke of a pretty regular middle-class existence.
With two floors to explore, Ben was ready to let Thera go wild with her exploring and would have been happy to follow along and either explain or show off anything that didn’t exist on their current world, but she took it slow, staring at family photos that lined the halls.
“These must have been expensive to have made,” She absentmindedly commented, not knowing what else to say about scenes of the family Ben would never see again, only to get a small chuckle in return.
“Getting photos printed was actually shockingly cheap, anyone could do it without a second thought if they wanted to,” He explained as she was focused on one in particular. “What do you think? Wasn’t I a little sweetheart?”
“This is you?” She couldn’t help but ask. She’d never seen Ben when he was young before and assumed the boy she'd been looking at had to have been his brother. Knowing the truth only made her look closer. “You were such a cute kid.”
“And now I’m such a cute adult,” He said with a smile. “But come on, there’s plenty more to see about my good old-fashioned human lifestyle.”
He gently took her hand and led her around, letting her linger when she wanted to if something caught her eye, with it being less directed at the tech like he’d expected, instead going towards the bits that related to his family. She’d known they’d always be important to Ben but even if he’d gotten better at handling the loss in his years since coming to the world, she still held back on asking too much.
That didn’t mean she didn’t want to know though, and with the opportunity before her, she was happy to take advantage.
From pictures of his younger brother Mark at various sporting events leading to Ben talking about the more physical activities of the world to old photos of his parents’ wedding getting him to tell her a bit about human marriage customs before moving on to different holidays, with her obvious interest in it all leading him to pull out a photo album, letting her see even more snippets of a human life before they ended up in his old living room, sitting on the couch in front of the television.
With an effort of will, he made the TV turn on to show off some of the cartoons from his childhood, subtitling them with worldspeak for Thera’s convenience while he ignored the growing strain that doing all of that was placing on his mind.
“So this is where you got the idea for the projector you made?”
“Kind of. You could call the projector one of the steps in my planet’s history leading up to a TV so I had just used what I’d already known about them back when I first made it. I should actually revisit that project sometime now that I think about it. Since I’d be able to just materialize a roll of film in one go, there’s actually a lot I’d be able to create pretty easily.”
“Ha, you’re insane.”
“Nope, I’m powerful, big difference,” He told her with a grin before actualizing something new again that he hadn’t yet been able to recreate down on the world. A bowl of ice cream.
He watched as Thera took a cautious bite before her eyes lit up and enjoyed what he saw as she started eating more.
“And you can even make food up here? Your new skill is a little too handy.”
“Handy, but not all-powerful. You get the taste and sensation of eating as long as I properly construct the properties of what I want to make, but it won’t actually sate you like real food. Try to live off anything I make up here and you’ll starve, but it does let me share a few of the tastes I can’t replicate down below and it’s easy to eat as much as you want without getting full or sick.”
He made more with those words, things he hadn’t been able to recreate for one reason or another, from sodas to fruits of all sorts to meals he’d simply never managed to replicate the flavours of with the ingredients he had around, letting the two snack and enjoy, even if he could tell through it all that there was something on Thera’s thoughts from the way she kept sneak glances at him and the subtle changes in her expression.
“Thera, if you want to tell me something you can,” He said with a laugh before rubbing her head. “I’m even more shockingly powerful up here than normal.”
Minus the growing headache I’m not going to mention.
“Mmh, well, there’s something I want to see, but I know it’s going to make you uncomfortable,” She admitted, knowing that he’d keep pushing since she’d done too poor of a job hiding her thoughts.
“Just tell me, it’s fine.”
“...I want to see what your family was like.”
It felt like such a horrible thing to ask of him, but she was curious. She loved Ben and she knew how important they were to him, but till that point, she’d only seen the drawings he’d made of them and the pictures they’d looked at earlier. She wanted more though, she wanted a real sense for those people she’d never be able to meet, even if she felt bad the moment she asked it.
“Okay, sure.”
For his part, Ben didn’t mind and took her hand, letting the TV turn off to ease some of the burden on his mind before he led her to the kitchen to see a scene he’d gotten to witness a million times before.
Like any weekend, his father was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, wearing the same kiss the cook apron Ben had recreated on the world for himself as his mother moved beside him to make tea, giving his dad a peck on the cheek before moving to the table to talk to his brother, with Mark eating while he went on about school and sports and friends.
It was a simple, domestic scene that he’d gotten to live through a thousand times before from a world where he didn’t have any major concerns. A world that he didn’t need to worry about being invaded, nor one where he felt constantly in danger.
It was a scene that felt most representative of his existence before ending up on that new planet, but as when he’d recreated his home before his eyes, he hadn’t been prepared enough for it to hurt.
“Stop,” Thera told him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked for this.”
It was exactly what she’d wanted to see and had given her a sense of what Ben’s family was like. They seemed just as warm and loving as he was, but a quick glance his way had made it clear that it was hurting him to see, with the scene lingering only a moment longer before the three faded away, leaving the kitchen empty again.
Putting him through that only left her feeling worse, but he wrapped her in his arms to try to reassure her.
“Don’t worry, this is fine and I’m fine. Heck, this is basically the sort of thing I wanted you to see when I thought of this. My family matters to me, but I want you to know more about them because you matter to me too.”
“Ben, you obviously weren’t fine.”
“I was just a little less prepared than I thought I’d be,” He told her, waving off her concern. Seeing his family like that had hurt, knowing none of it was real and having memories of what was lost dragged to the surface, but by that point, it had been years since he’d died. Even if he hurt a bit, it wasn’t that hard to deal with.
Thera seemed less than reassured though, so with an effort of will he changed the area one last time, getting rid of the house and creating a stage for them to stand on as he held out his hand.
“You know, there really isn’t too much space in our hotel, is there? I should get us a bigger one next time, but for now, while we’re up here we have more than enough space to dance for a bit, don’t you think?”
That managed to win him a smile.
“Alright,” She told him, trying to be more positive since it was clear he was doing the same. “You do need every bit of practice you can get after all.”
“Hey, I’ve been improving. Kind of sort of.”
She laughed as she took his hand and from there to two enjoyed a day of dancing for that small part of their vacation.