Viola and her Spirit: “Wait what!?!”

[USER 1: Hey Viola and…Viola? Disregard the threatening message the system just sent. Apparently, Custom Sentencing is frequently used to deal with people who twist our words to commit horrific and unethical things in our names. Just wait a moment. We’ll be right with you.]

Viola: “Oh thank god.”

Spirit:” Yes, thank them”

Viola: “‘Them’? You know who they are?”

Spirit:” Couldn’t you tell them they were gods?”

Viola:” No? I was busy experiencing my last day”

”Oh yeah, sorry about that ” the Spirit spoke in a remorseful tone.

An awkward moment passed as the two were unsure of how to continue.

Eventually, Viola spoke up, attempting to change the mood with a question:” They're actually gods? Aren't they more likely aliens that took my brain or something”

The Spirit answered with a task:” Try to look at yourself”

Viola tries to shrug but feels a distinct lack of a body and fails to do so

Spirit:” You just tried to shrug didn’t you?”

Viola:” N-no. And before you say this is proof let me point out that-”

Spirit:” Just fail to look at yourself already!”

Viola turned to glare in the general direction that she assumed her spirit was in… then, eventually, did as her spirit asked. Nothing. No dangly brain stem or sci-fi equivalent.

”but that can’t.” Viola stuttered in disbelief

”I know,” She exclaimed, an idea coming to her “Maybe if I move my head around quickly I will displace some of the liquid I’m in or make some kind of sound,”.

”It won’t work.”Her Spirit interrupted ” I already tried that the second I gained awareness”

Ignoring her Spirit, Viola spun round as fast as she could for what she counted was 10 seconds, but… Nothing. No *woosh*, no bubbles, no sign she was hovering either. No hum of some kind of futuristic anti-gravity keeping her flying No sound. Then it hit her “Why was there no sound” The only thing she could even…do was see the message from the so-called, Judgment System ... .Computer…Thing. glowing in white text in this darkroom hovering in the periphery of her vision.

Spirit:” Ok stop thinking about things. If you keep doing that you might break something like we? Me? I. Like I did.”

Viola:” Ok, Ok… Fuck. God is real…..Wait which one?”

Spirit:” Well, I saw a Japanese Guy and an African Woman.”

Viola: “ The Japanese Guy must be that Japanese God that is often in anime seeing as he recognised my bluff and the African Woman....I don’t know, I didn’t take religious studies.”

Spirit:” I know. We’re the same person, remember.”

Viola:” Yeah, About that… Seeing that we might be sent off to a different world or earth. How Should we deal with the whole name problem?”

Spirit:” We both want to remember Earth through our name….”

Viola and her Spirit: “So we should split it!”

Viola: “But how?”

Spirit:” Why not with a bet?”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A few moments before, on the other side of the judgement chamber, A collection of various gods and goddesses were in a heated discussion over the fate of the soul and her spirit, on one end an assorted collection of black-skinned deities, some sporting animalistic features argued with the famous Japanese god of warriors.

Hachiman:” Look Yemoja, I came here as a favour to most of you. What you have planned is dangerous! Most of the humans I send to my Universes tend to massively affect the flow of things! Some of my Universes are flourishing but most are missing minor or even key Gods thanks to the humans from the Milky Way part of this universe. I Highly recommend destroying her and her Spirit to be safe”

The beautiful motherly Goddess, who Suggested that currently argued upon plan, looked to Hachiman with a reassuring gaze and spoke.

Yemoja: “Hachiman, trust us. We’re Omni Level Gods just like you. Just because we’ve been gone for a while doesn’t mean we don’t know what we’re doing”

Hachiman, still far from convinced, continued:” But that's exactly the problem! You’ve neglected your assigned continents for so long that Christianity and Islam have basically replaced you all! Most of your mortals don’t even know who you are, let alone what you do.”

A rather volatile-looking lion-headed god then countered

Stolen story; please report.

Apedemak: “That's not true, Egyptian Mythos is still well know- ”

But Hachiman cut him off:” You all know that a single Mythos can’t support a Continent’s worth of gods!”

Hachiman sighed, a bit of exhaustion in his voice:” Why are you even doing this? Why not just stay in one of your diverse array of universes? Why come back to the first one we all made? I thought you hated the rules tied to it. The lack of a Magic System? No custom Races, the ‘one sentience per planet with life’ rule, the multitude of other rules each one of you hated? What changed? ”

A moment passed while the gods and goddess thought of a suitable answer. Soon, a wise god Dressed in green and yellow stepped up to speak.

Orunla:” We grew up. Realised that they are not just any mortals. They are the first ones we made, they are our first children and we need to take responsibility for them.”

Hachiman looked away, finally realising that that playback didn’t just show them Viola’s final moments, but a horrific moment in the lives of most of their ‘first children’.

”You're all lucky I’m friends with most of you…” Hachiman spoke while standing to the side, allowing the gods and goddesses to have their way.

A small Humanoid spider god landed on Hachiman’s shoulder

Anansi:” I knew I was your best friend”

”You're absolutely not included, Anansi,” Hachiman growled while brushing the spider god off his shoulder.

At that moment Hachiman felt a sharp drop in his strength as a large portion of the gods sprinted off to the forge of creation.

”Hey wait, no!” Hachiman shouted but it was too late, the door to the forge was shut tight.

Yemoja:” Ah, don’t worry about them. They are only going to make a few seeds”

Two basic human forms comparable to stickmen suddenly appear next to the 2 forms

Hachiman:” The rest of you, get your ‘Children’ Out of there. I’ll go guarantee that it’s only a few seeds,” With a wave of his hands, two stickmen-like bodies appeared before Hachiman’s feet.

“Use these dummies to talk to those two in the meanwhile” Hachiman said as he proceeded to forge the Leaving a select few gods alone to greet their mortals.

”Ok we can do this. They have questions and we’ll answer ... the ones we’re allowed to, then apologise for being gone then we sell them on going to one of our newest worlds. They have fun in two badass custom bodies made by us and then they come back to us as demi-gods and help us fix our fuck up” Bunzi, the rainbow coloured Half serpent goddess stress ranted, a few of her pearly scales falling and regrowing as she roamed around the room.

“You don’t sound very confident, Bunzi,” Apedemak commented, sarcasm clear in his voice.

”Can you blame him? It’s not one of our best plans” Anansi the trickster spider jeered

Not understanding the worry, Bastet the cat-headed goddess asked: “We’re sending them to an unstable world with magic and tons of violence, Who wouldn’t like that?”

“Probably, a lot of violence.” Orunla reminded “The way we set things up there, the mortals and gods might be more martial or they might figure out a different way to live life.”

Bastet seethed at the boring possibility

“Guys!” Yemoja interrupted “If we’re doing this, we should do this with confidence”

The gods and goddesses nodded at that and eventually got ready to meet their long-forgotten charges.

Yemoja took a slow breath then opened the soul chamber of the Judgment room: “Welcome my children and-”

Viola:” FUCK!”

Her Spirit:” I win! I knew it would be the African god! I get to be Viola! Isn't that right? KABILITI?”

Kabiliti & Viola’s perspective:

7 goddesses and gods stared at us all with slightly different expressions, our lack of bodies granting us the ability to see everyone's face. Some were shocked and surprised. Others were indignant and two, the Cat woman and the palm-sized spider person, were smiling

But we simply continued casually mock bickering.

”GOD! Was I always this annoying?!?” The newly renamed Soul, Kabiliti, teased.

”Good thing we never had a sibling” the spirit and new Viola added

Kabiliti:” Ha! Yeah, we would have driven them up the wall”

The gods suddenly felt their formless consciousnesses turn to them and, in an unnatural harmony that spooked the gods, apologised.

Kabiliti & Viola: “Sorry our gods and goddesses.”

“Such coordination,” Orunla spoke in quiet amazement

Yemoja: “Um, yes. Welcome to…ah...umm”

Seeing Yemoja struggle to get her words out, Bastet spoke out“Limbo. You're in Limbo.”

Yemoja: “Yes, thank you Bastet. You're in limbo and we want to resurrect you.”

At that colourful confetti burst from the ceiling along with a party horn.

“To be clear, what we’re offering is rebirth with a power-up rather than a true resurrection” Orunla corrected.

After flicking Orunla, the spider god continued ”So here's the thing: we clearly messed up and Neglected the mortals on this world, your world, for WAY too long.”

Apedemak:” We just kinda hated the restrictions placed on this universe.”

Bastet: “No magic, no fantastical but impractical life, a set amount of sentient life per planet, solar system, and galaxy”

Bunzi:” Limited amount of time we can use to get mortals to learn of us, the limited amount of power we can use IN that amount of time, being forced to the level of a basic god!”

An old goddess with a massive afro who was idly petting several snakes piped up from a chair she was sitting on

Mami Wata: “There was no creative freedom here. So, we left around about the time that gold guy went to Mecca”

Kabiliti & Viola were stunned

“Did Africa get shafted throughout history because the earth was “too boring” for the continent’s gods?” they thought ”Was all the unrest, war, exploitation, and suffering caused by the divine equivalent of rage quitting? " Did we ultimately die in a protest for such a childish reason?!?”

Mami Wata snapped their fingers and suddenly Kabiliti & Viola felt a sudden weight on them as they collapsed.

”Why did things get so heavy? Why am I on the ground?” Kabiliti & Viola both asked but they soon quickly put together what happened.

“I got a body again!” Kabiliti exclaimed as she quickly jumped to her feet

Viola:” Help! I have a body and I don’t know how to move it!”

Kabiliti: “Oh come on you have my memories, or did you forget how to-”

Kabiliti turned around to see a 3D stickman lying face first on the ground flailing around, its limbs clipping into itself like a physics video game.

“What the hell?” Kabiliti softly said as she continued to watch the panicking stickman.

Viola:” Of course I do! But I’ve only been sentient for about an hour tops and I spent all that time flying!”

Orunla: “Well, Technically you’ve only been sentient for zero hours seeing as you are both in a place outside of your original universe’s time”

“Scholer!” Bastet said derisively.

Orunla: “As for the whole “moving” thing”

Orunla turned to Kabiliti

Orunla: “Grab, or I guess boop her hand”

Kabiliti: “Boop?”

Kabiliti looked at her hand and saw a similar stickman-like hand nub as the two her currently panicking ‘stick spirit’ had.

Kabiliti: “Oh…Boop.”

Kabiliti did as she was instructed and ‘booped’ Viola and she felt a flash of memories

The struggles of standing, the pride of walking, the cockyness of trying to run…and the sharp pain of falling into a coffee table head first. All of it flashed through, not only her mind but also her body.

Both Kabiliti & Viola quickly grabbed their heads in pain.

Kabiliti & Viola: “Ow! My head, why did we run head first into it?”

Viola slowly stood up not noticing her sudden mobility

Viola: “Why did that memory physically hurt?”

Kabiliti:” Uh..Viola…Your standing”

Viola looked down, seeing both her stickman legs and them letting her stand.

Viola” Oh? Oh! I’m standing!”

Orunla:”You synced up”

Apedemak: “One of our… underlings made an ability similar to what you just did. But her version required the mortal to stay linked for two planetary days”

Orunla: “Your faster version of the ability must be born from your.. Unique situation.”

Yemoja: ”For now, that doesn’t matter. Come with us, Your proper bodies are waiting for you in the forge”

A doorway melted open on the wall opposite the Kabiliti & Viola The gods. The gods then walked through it into a new room leaving the twins behind. As they left the room’s decorations and colour started to fade

Viola:” You thinking what I’m thinking?”

Kabiliti:” Yeah. We’re going to get dragged into something big.”

Viola:”...And we’re not going to learn much till we’re into too deep”

Kabiliti:” You think we should go along with it?”

Viola:” I’m fairly sure saying ‘no’ would mean the Japanese god gets to destroy us”

Kabiliti:” Yeah…”

Both Kabiliti & Viola begrudgingly followed the 7 gods, understanding that this offer could not be denied.