It took me a moment. Not long, but just enough for it to be a little uncomfortable before I realized I was still standing. Eyes level with his own, even though he was sitting. The moment of confusion passed, at least on his end. For me? Well...

"Sorry, just sorta... never seen a person with horns before, you know? I mean, drawings sure, but people don't really just..." Come on words! You are better than this! At least, I hoped so, but nothing came up as I gestured indistinctly into the air.

.... Well, Damn it.

"Oh, don't worry!" He laughed. A sound like leaves rustling in the wind, soft and creaking. Gentle and old. Very old. "Some of the younger kids came up and hung off them! You're more than fine!"

His lips curled up in a devilish smile, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"Do you want to touch them?"

I.... simply shrunk back into myself. Trying to bury myself in the couch as I tried to not say yes. I mean, how can you not? It's just... so different! New! Strange and weird and it's just.... Combine with everything else right now?

I just took a sip of my drink.

"I... uh... Just was hoping you could help explain.... uh... th-this everything first?" My eyes drifted from him again. Back to the strange room of distorted light, spun and wrapped in a blissful quiet warmth that seemed too even and too strong to be ignored. Comfortable. A place made to Be

Comfortable. Intentionally.

Unnerving.

He seemed to settle back into his air chair, nodding back with a practiced motion. "Of course. You are... Well, to be quite frank, dead." He spoke with a frankness and plainness that felt... jarring.

Dead.

"But I'm-"

"Here? This isn't life. Nor the next. It's more... Your world had words for it. Limbo. Purgatory. Asphodel. Between. Not life. Not Death. A holding ground. A place for decisions." Again, words smooth as silk and damning as iron flowed, a gentle grin all that he offered. Not condescending. Not rude.

Parental. Guiding. Chiding. Comforting.

I.... simply folded my hands. Looked at my drink. Last one I'd have apparently. Gifts from another life? Now... I guess- "That makes you... God then? You look... different?"

Another musical laugh rung out like rain. "Well, no, I am not, as you put God. Certainly not yours at least. At least not yet. If you so choose."

".... What? What... what do you mean by that?" Not my God? Then what exactly did he mean? Pantheism is right? Or...?

"Simple as that," he offered. "I am not Your God. Something you should probably be thankful for, given our situation." The antlered man sighed, looking back to the featureless wall as he spoke. "We're only here because someone got mad at Your God and threw a fit and missed."

"Someone.... Threw a fit. And missed...? God? How..." I shook my head, trying to focus again. "Sorry, just that's.... I don't quite understand? Dead, but because of another God, who..."

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"Missed. Yes. It's.... quite a bit I will admit." The man simply inclined his head at that, waving a hand to the side. "Thus, the place, and the drink. And given it was a Divine Event, we are then.... well, doing this after all."

Setting my drink down I simply rubbed my head with my hands for a few moments. Gods are real. Our God... pissed off someone else's? Was being attacked? And I died? And now...

".... This? What... What even is this then?" Focus on what little I can. Just, I'm here. So, what does that mean? "That... uh... we are doing? Am... Am I going to die forever now? Or-"

"Oh, don't worry about that!" He grinned back, sitting upright. I might have be wrong, but, I swear I could see something sinister in his eyes. Almost.... Hungry? Predatory. "You aren't going to die. No, none of you that don't want to will die. At least, any more than you already have."

"No, Divine accidents, as rare as they are, we have procedures for. We rectify the damage done. And.... in your world's case, that involves a second chance at life for those killed."

A Second Chance at- "Wait, my _world?_"

"Ah, yes. I should have been clearer." And so, he cleared his throat.

"Your World has been destroyed on Accident. As such, you, and all others of your world are being given the chance to live. Your world had the concept of Reincarnation, yes?"

Still staggering from the enormity of it all I just... nodded.

"Good. That is a good base to understand this. We are... instead offering a Transcarnation. Your spirit, or soul, or your You, if you will, brought back into different worlds. My World, Erednay, is only taking in a few hundred thousand. You, are one of those who are being taken. Thus..." He simply gestured to himself, that wry smile back to his face.

I just looked back to him with a small shiver, slowly taking the last few swallows of my soda, before giving a shudder and a nod. "O-okay.... And.... given you didn't just.... throw us into your world.... I'm guessing it's a bit more involved than that?"

He didn't answer at first. He simply waved his hand and a translucent screen appeared in front of me. "Indeed. For our World, we decided to let you all have the choice in creating yourself, it's meant to be your new life after all."

My fingers twitched as I looked back to the screen, following the options and the names and the dizzying array of.... all of it. And worse, better? It was.... familiar. Not the names. Not the places or options. But the style.

"It's a Point Buy System..." I knew of the style before. A notably more fair system than most roll off systems in my eyes. Tabletops the world over had rules for character creation for it,, some even going as far to include it as the standard. Tabletops were.... a hobby after all. Simple as they are it filled that niche. Socialization, comfort activity, scheduled...

Still. I couldn't help but feel my heart sink as I looked back over it all. Fingers flicking to page after page. Boons at a cost. Banes that refunded points. Powers, Skills, shapes, races, starting situation, a world of options. And all... at my finger tips.

A life to make. To decide. To create.

My life.

To say I was paralyzed would be an understatement.

Lay out the future if you will. Lay out the options you want. The dreams you have. The aspirations that drive you. Lay them all out on a table. Add to that your memories. Your fantasies. Your worries. Your Fears. Your anxieties and terrors. Lay it all out before you. Then choose.

Watch as those precious options fade before your eyes. Watch as that unknowable potential fades into something so concrete and solid enough that you can see it. That you can breath it in and it terrifies. What if something was wrong? What if there were better choices? What if you picked

Something that you want now, but regret in the future?

The world was in my hand, and I was terrified I'd drop it.

The panic must have shown on my face, a shake in hands of my dead body. Thoughts drifting and hoping. Praying. Lost. Mortified. Deciding between unimportant things was hard enough, and I knew that stuff didn't matter! Here? Now? It was the polar opposite. Power overwhelming was an option, a click away. But if you pick it? Do you attract foes? How about those who might make use of you for it?

Pick sight unseen the path you will walk.

I was mortified.

"Take a breath."

In through the nose. Out through the mouth. In. Out. It didn't even matter much the voice came from this strange outsider god. Inviting me into their world, options aplenty at my literal fingertips. Just breath and-

"Relax, alright? It's fine. You have time."

Time. Time? God, er S? Gods? Was time a problem? Did I have to decide now?! Was there a time limit? Would I loose out if I waited or thought it over?!

"Woah, easy there kiddo."

I felt his hand pat my back and I simply froze. Struggling under the weight of.... everything.

Loosing my world. My Family. My job. My Friends. An unknown world laid out before me and now left to decide what to do, how to enter, and what I wish to be, to do, to become. A day that was just....

"S-sorry." Words. Empty platitudes.

"Don't be. You aren't the worst running through this." A smile like a summer's day shown back down. I didn't even have to look and I knew that. He just... rubbed my back. Listening as I panicked. "You haven't thrown up on me, so you're already ahead of the curve."

I gave an attempt to laugh. Pathetic choked sound that it was, a laugh. "Ah, just give it time Mister. Just... Heh... Give... Give me a minute."

And he did.

We waited. Minute by minute. An hour. Two. Three as we waited.

As he waited.

For me.

I don't remember when I started crying. I certainly don't remember when I stopped. But, I do remember when I finally looked up. Not just at him. But... the screen.

Who I would be.

"You... don't mind if I ask some questions on' bout this, do you?"

That same elderly smile. "Not at all."

".... Let's... get this started then."