Pathetic

"You know… you're kinda pathetic."

That was the first sound it'd heard in years that had actually been said towards it, specifically, and not the third-person view it'd been staring at as if seeing the world through someone else's eyes.

A baby's eyes.

A baby in some kind of non-human, furry-adjacent place. What felt like an eternity in a timeless void with no sense of self or body, just… existence. No clock to watch, no days or nights, not even darkness. Just… nothing.

And suddenly a voice.

If it had a body it would have been jerking around but instead it was just confusion, an instinctive urge to grunt or shake awake but again, no body.

"You had a whole life to make something of yourself and at the end… well, even the ugliest, mangiest dog can still be cute for a moment in someones eyes. After all, Chihuahua's exist and someone loves those things."

Still unable to really 'see' anything except the same from-a-childs-viewpoint, it wasn't until a vague humanoid-shaped wrap of energy, or something akin to it, made itself known by inserting itself between his viewpoint and subject.

"Don't know how long you've been awake, or aware, but at least for now I am fairly sure you are. Right? … right. Why am I even… let's start this over."

"Hello! I am God! … well, not really. Your kind refer to us as God, or Gods, but all said we're simply beings from a higher dimension in the chain of all that. No point explaining the finer details, not like you'd understand."

This 'God' was correct in it not really being able to understand.

"Can't speak or interact either. But, I can read your base emotions and desires and get an idea of any queries you might have. Do be a dear and save those until after, yeah? So, let's get to the finer points…"

The being, vaguely feminine in shape and personality and even voice, proceeded to claim rather softly, "So you're dead. You might have surmised that. Lived crappy, died crappy, no one but your cat will miss you and even he won't be able to cement your existence into the world. Everyone who ever knew you or loved you at some point when you were still young, cute and lovable will only recall you as an endnote to a thought and eventually when they're gone, that'll be that. Cremated, buried somewhere with relatives you hated and who relatively disliked you in turn, though at least your cats were buried with you at the end of it all - cremated as well."

It was a lot to take in, but seeing the blob in front of the third-party view didn't really change anything about him. Unable to cry or scream or anything. Just… rather pronounced depression.

"Ah, it's normal. If it's any consolation, a relative of yours grabbed your remaining cat from your dingy little apartment after hearing about your passing, and although disgusted at the places condition, kept them relatively happy until the end."

"But, now that such is out of the way, why are you here and why are we having this conversation? Soul lottery, or thereabouts. A few souls every hundred years or so, by complete chance, wind up unable to go back into the cycle of reincarnation of this world due to incompatibility. Think of it like… soul inbreeding. Occasionally, through pure unadulterated chance, souls naturally go back towards their progenitor soul. Two souls, two people, have a baby. Bits of their soul fetter off and recombine into a new one. Upon death, souls go back and start the cycle over, free of memories."

"Yours unfortunately…"

"Inbred, or close enough. Your parents, and their parents souls were from the same stock and as a result, your soul was… well, fucked from the start, to use a phrase from your world. And it didn't get any better because you lived too pathetic a life to really chip away at the oddities that arise from such things by sublimating your soul through living life well. So, guess what? No cycle of life for you. Instead, you get tossed into another world."

"A world you don't really deserve, but hey, that's the way things go. We 'Gods' - see higher-dimension beings, have basic rules for existence and the destruction of souls is rather taboo. So since we can't return you, and aren't going to put your soul down… off you go. Enjoy!"

Before the soul could even think to complain, it went from the blank void it was in to… another slightly less blank void. Ever so briefly. And then the void lit up a little and in place of the energy blob was a young girl with animal features. A fox, or thereabouts, vaguely human-shaped in stature and proportions, floating a little above the 'floor' of the place, not that there even was a floor. Stark white, sanitized space was all around with no shadows or baubles except what this floating girl interacted with.

"Great, another gimpy soul and I'm the lucky one this time. Let's see, what were you… oh, well, at least you have parents that love you in this life. I don't know anything about your last life, so don't bother asking. Oh, right, you things can't even… hang on."

—

With a gut-wrenching disorientation, the existence that was a soul was suddenly transported into some kind of body. A basic, sexless, non-descript humanoid puppet on two legs. "There you go. You can move and talk and all now but do try not to make an ass out of yourself? Unlike those outer beings, we have no problem recycling souls that annoy us. We'll just reincarnate you as a shit-eating beetle or something, so behave~"

The puppet paused and nodded before just… sitting down and feeling awkward. It tried to speak briefly and croaked out a somewhat mechanical-soundling 'aah' noise.

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"So… I… can speak." the voice gradually returned to a normal pacing before the fox girl nodded and said in turn,

"Yes, now hush and listen. Normally you'd just be tossed out but since this is my first time dealing with one of you lot, I'm going to have a little fun and maybe do something nice. You can thank me now."

The haughty attitude caused the puppet to mentally sigh.

"Hey! Just because you can speak now doesn't mean I don't know what you're thinking! Take that back this instant, or it's shit beetle time!"

"Sorry! Thank you very much for the grace!" the puppet blurted out in a panicked fashion before admitting embarrassedly, "I'm just… it's a lot. I feel like I am being railed through a tutorial that is going a bit overly quick with no consideration if I have actually understood anything."

The fox grinned in a way only a fox could, cackling slightly before nodding, "Well, you are. Now, anything you might want going into this new world?"

"My… cats, before I die…"

"No, can't bring them over."

"...may I ask why?"

"No way around it, don't even try, but sure. Felines haven't evolved into having souls yet. No other creatures on your planet besides humans have evolved quite that far. Some animal species are closer than others, but all the same, there's a certain level of sentience and self-awareness before souls begin to form and through natural life cycle reincarnation, strengthen and develop into proper souls. Perhaps if you were from another world I could find a way, but in your world… only humans. I know, it's sad… even if I think you're a little pathetic, I do feel for you." and then under her breath, "...kind of why I'm even bothering to try and be nice, you really did love your pets more so than yourself. While not uncommon, I do appreciate it."

"So!" The fox snorted out with another cackle. "That family you've been watching, you'll come into existence in my world as their kid. It's been a few years since he was born, had to wait until a fair time to let you come over. You'll retain your memories of your past life, and kind of merge with your current one. It's hard to explain but you'll figure it out."

The puppet nodded but was still rather sad about hearing his cats didn't have souls.

"Hey, quit being pathetic. I know it's tough to hear but it is what it is."

The puppet nodded in turn at the chiding.

"So, I'll give you a few basic things to take with you. Well, not literally, but figuratively. What would you want? Don't annoy me and ask for the moon, be reasonable, be fair, and maybe I'll let you keep asking until I get bored or you annoy me."

The puppet once again fell silent as if thinking before saying, "A healthy body, by my own standards? It would be nice not to have to worry about getting sick or… hurting myself and whatnot."

The fox goddess paused and seemed thoughtful before flicking her finger and what looked like a status screen appeared. "Healthy body - never less healthy than you are currently. Basic illness prevention, won't prevent death and dismemberment, but will avoid minor things and annoyances. In short, don't be a dipshit and think this will let you block blades with your arms."

Awkwardly the puppet grinned despite not really having a mouth and nodded. "Sure, thank you. Besides that… you can read my thoughts right. Memories too?"

"Mm… yes, where are you going with this? I'm not going through your history and stumbling across you masturbating or something, so be precise."

While the puppet had no eyes it kind of just stared at the semi-crude god only to ask, "So you know what a character creator is?"

A few moments later, her eyes glowed a bit before nodding.

"So can I… customize myself in any way I see fit physically? I don't know, maybe make some general settings and markers for my life from youth until adulthood or whatever?"

The goddess thought about it before shrugging, "Sure, not a big deal. But don't try and go giving yourself a foot long prick."

Standing and stretching as if it had a body, the puppet went to pop its neck only to realize it had no neck. Old habit. "Sure, just eleven point nine inches then."

It was promptly smacked out of the puppet body and back into a soul. "I warned you not to annoy me, and you sass me?"

In a panic it tried to respond but couldn't speak. It was meant as a joke!

"...oh. Sarcasm. Go on then." With a wave of her hand once again the soul was in the puppet, shaking a little. A full body appeared floating in space in front of the puppet at that point, and a basic screen appeared. "I don't have the patience to sit here, so I'm going off to do something and when you're done just… well, I'll be back eventually." And off she went into non-existence as soon as the puppets attention was away from her.

The body was some kind of red panda-like being, vaguely human like the fox goddess. Fairly normal, non-descript male of the species it belonged to. Naked as can be. The puppet stared for a while before beginning to edit to its hearts content.

–

Shortly after the puppet finished and laid down to wait, the fox popped back. "You done yet?" Of course, she knew the puppet was done, as she'd been watching, curious what they'd pick. But didn't want to admit to it because it was embarrassing! Why should a god be at all curious what a deviant soul would care for.

Though as she looked over the body, much more on the thin side and 'handsome' by vaguely human standards, fur extra fluffy and tail a bit longer. Patterns and colors adjusted a little.

"See?" the puppet led in, "I even followed your rules!"

"Rules?" the fox asked in a confused manner before her eyes wandered down and promptly kicked back at the puppet, causing it to tumble and break into pieces. "...guess you did."

She didn't even bother to reassemble the puppet, leaving it on the ground. Thankfully no pain was felt, just mild fear and amusement as the puppet began to find the goddess a bit cute, like a grumpy street cat.

"Alright, think you've asked for enough. If you really think of anything else, you can submit a request through your screen and… oh right, everyone in this world you're going to has a personal screen like the one you're looking at. It's nothing quite that fancy, just basic information and you can keep it to yourself or share as you like. No one can forcibly look at anyone elses. Can even hide or share certain parts specifically. You'll have to thank Curiosity for that."

"Curiosity?" the puppet asked… curiously.

"Yes, another of the Gods here. I'm Affection. It's why I'm being a little nice to you… because I appreciated how sweet you were to your pets in the past. You'll learn more in time. We aren't really mono-emotional or anything but the people of this world came up with those names, so we just… went along with it. Been so long we don't even care to use our original monikers."

The fox yawned and scratched the base of her tail, flicked her nails as if picking and flicking a flea that didn't exist and then sat down on a chair that appeared out of nowhere, legs crossed demurely. "Let's see… there's magic and all that in this world, it's… not as technologically advanced as yours. We gods don't particularly enjoy how violent your world is so since we've had a few of you come over in the past, we… tweaked some of natures rules. So things like gunpowder don't work in the same fashion here despite all the ingredients being present. Don't be a dipshit like the last one and try to start making explosives and weapons of mass destruction. Well, more mass than normal. He's in a five hundred year loop of shit beetle."

The puppet laughed a little but accepted his situation. "Magic though… can I…"

"No."

"I didn't ask yet!"

"No, you can't be the hero of this world. There's no villain to destroy. No woman to conquer."

"I don't even want that!"

"Well what do you want?" Affection leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

"Just… without knowing the rules and limitations of the way magic and all that works here, I'm a bit worried I'll be disappointed by finding out it's in some way super limited or awkward or maybe not even worth learning."

Affection paused then snorted, "Oh, Aether would hate to hear you say that. So yeah, you'll be fine. She's put a lot of care into it with other Gods and very much enjoys when the people of this world learn and enjoy using her gift. But all the same… after I toss you into your new body, I will speak with her and see if she can't consider your request.

"Perfect!" the puppet exclaimed, "I just… imaginations the limit is what I want. Even if I'm not destroying mountains or anything, it would be disappointing if I couldn't eventually figure out a way to do something that I thought up, yeah?"

Affection thought about it and nodded, "I suppose. Anyways, off you go."

She flicked her fingers again as if shooing a flea and suddenly he awoke to the sensation of being kissed on the forehead by his mother while yawning.

"Good morning sweetie."