Any advice that came from Bbl was suspect, but Theo didn't think anything bad could come out of having talked to the souls. They'd be here for a long time after all.

"You mentioned something about a package?" he asked Bbl.

"Don't worry about that" the crab waved a claw. "That'll happen soon enough. Talking to the souls will teach you an important lesson."

Theo frowned, irritated at being spoken down to. But he couldn't deny his curiosity. There were the souls of alien people for different universes. It was staggering! For a human being, who wasn't sure if there were aliens at all, who had never left his home planet, this was an incredible opportunity!

"Okay," Theo nodded to himself, "I'll talk to them. I can do this."

"Just don't stand too close. Makes talking difficult."

Theo turned on his heel and walked back toward the two souls of the damned who had landed in his demesne. Careful not to get too close, he stopped at stared at the two of them, unsure how to begin the conversation. He was never a great talker, that was clearer to him now.

"Stay back from me, creature!" the insect-like soul shrieked at him.

A thought struck Theo.

"Hey Bbl," he called back to the crab, "how do I even understand what they're saying?"

"How the fuck should I know?" the crab scoffed. "The Chaos built you this way, or maybe souls speak in a universal language? I have no idea."

"Right."

Theo turned back to the souls who were watching him warily. It appeared they hadn't forgotten the agony he had inflicted on them by simply being close to them. He could practically smell the fear rolling off them. Theo made an effort to suppress his emotions. Things were changing too fast for him. He wasn't comfortable and he could feel the rising anxiety in his chest. He needed to be dispassionate and focus on one thing at a time. Just accept what is happening, and then analyse it later.

So when he realised that the fear he could sense was stimulating his appetite, he forced his feelings to one side and simply made note of it. He had to talk.

"Ah - Welcome? You are now in the Endless Chaos."

Good place to start, factual.

"What is happening?! Who are you? What is this place?! Don't come any closer! You'll be arrested and fed to the sharks! I know people!" the Jellyfish creature wobbled and appeared to laboriously pick itself up.

Curiously, it appeared to be able to 'float' in a sense, despite the lack of water. After a few seconds it was able to lift its main, orb-like body into the air, dangling tendrils hanging beneath. The creature wasn't that tall, slightly shorter than Theo himself.

He stopped staring and tried to provide answers.

"So, this place is. Ah. Hmm." Theo brought a hand up to stroke his chin as he considered his words. How to put this? After a few moments he decided to be direct. "This is one of the places that you go when you die. You are dead."

Be upfront about it, see how it went.

"DEAD?!" Shrieked the Jellyfish, Addelin, Theo recalled the name.

Even now he could hear the whispers, information about these two souls trickled into his brain. Their memories, how they had lived, who they had known and other details that would have been impossible for them to know. The effect of their actions, the cause and effect that rippled out from their choices and changed the lives of those around them.

"Dead," Theo said firmly. He pushed the whispers to the back of his mind, the knowledge was more than he could handle right now, but even what he had been able to absorb impacted his attitude to the two souls before him. They'd done bad things. Not everything they'd done was terrible, obviously, but they clearly deserved to be here.

"I died in the service of my people! Fighting the holy war in the name of the First Mother! My place in heaven is assured!" The insect like soul ground out and Theo heard Bbl scoff behind him.

Her voice sounded odd, with clicks and whistles mixed in, but Theo was able to understand her perfectly. He shook his head as he looked at the strange, cockroach creature.

"Afraid not," he tried to say gently, "perhaps your heaven exists, but you are not in it."

"YOU LIE!" The bug roared suddenly and leapt at him, barbed claws extended.

Theo leapt back in shock and fear, but he needn't have bothered. The moment K'll'acksan'iin came close to him she collapsed on the stone floor of the Demesne, writhing and screaming in pain. Theo stared at her for a moment, still shocked that she would try to attack him, and just watched as the black miasma poured out into the air. Now that he wasn't as shocked, he could feel some of it drifting into him, being consumed by his body directly. It felt good.

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He took a few steps back hastily before he lost himself to the sensation and K'll'acksan'iin stopped screaming, instead just lying and panting on the ground.

"There's no point attacking me," Theo tried to sound earnest, but his voice just came out flat and uninterested. "You can't leave this place until you have received punishment for your misdeeds."

"What?! Are you serious?" exclaimed Addelin the Jellyfish. "Is this some sort of joke? You're trying to tell me this is the afterlife? That's bullshit!"

"You do notice the flaming sky over our heads, right?"

"I don't give a fuck! You think you can judge me? Huh? Who gave you the right?"

"Nobody. I don't do the judging I'm just supposed to administer the punishment."

"Well fuck you! I demand to see a lawyer! I want a recount! You can't do shit to me! I have rights!"

"Ah, down here? No you don't. Do they have rights?" Theo turned to ask Bbl.

"Not. Fucking. One." The crab replied cheerfully.

"That's not fair!" Addelin screamed and tried to back up to the edge of the territory, but it was clear that he could no longer move through the Chaos and ended up pressed against it.

"Stay away from me you freak! I want out!"

Theo sighed. Then he thought for a moment. Then he turned to walk back to Bbl.

"Is it always pointless to talk to them?" He asked.

"Hell yes," the crab confirmed. "Think about it. Almost all of the souls that land in here don't believe in an afterlife, or if they do, they're usually very confident they weren't going to land on the bad side of that equation. Generally speaking, I preferred just to get to torturing. If you want to talk to them, do it after they've been softened up a little."

As he finished speaking, the Realm Stone flashed with light, just once.

"Ah. The package is here. Let it not be said that the Administration cares not for its people!" Bbl proclaimed.

Frowning, Theo walked to the Realm Stone and eyed it askance. There were too many surprises and shocks today in too short a time. He was struggling to keep an even keel. Warily, he reached out to the Stone and activated it. The flame sprang forth to form words unlike the menu screen he had seen before.

"Congratulations on receiving your first souls! In order to assist you, the Administration is delighted to present you with two basic torture devices. These are provided free of charge and at a low monthly fee of four AU."

Typical. The Administration never did anything for free. Theo was starting to get the impression that the Demiurge were little more than cash cows for the Admin, which lead him to immediately consider what they needed all that AU for.

Unsure what to do, Theo waved his hand and then jumped as two cages formed of flames appeared next to him.

"What the hell!"

"Calm your soft, squishy human flesh," Bbl said, "this is standard stuff. The two devices will appear like this until you place them where you want them, then you can manifest them. You can always place stuff when you purchase it through the Realm Stone."

"Really? So I … what? Move it around with my hands?"

"Sure."

"What even are these?"

"Basic Stabinators."

"Stabinator?! Is that the official name?"

"No, that's just my name. Works well enough."

"… Okay."

Unwilling to go back and talk to the souls again, Theo instead approached the … flame cages. Tentatively, he reached out to the closest one and was relieved to find he felt no pain when his hand closed on it. The flame flickered, dark red, but he felt no heat from it. He tried to shift it and found that it moved without resistance so long as his hand was on it. Not wanting to be too close to the device, he moved it to the edge of his demesne. When he released his hand, he was shocked once more as the fire roared for a moment before vanishing, leaving a grisly deice in its wake.

It was a cage. More than that, it was a cage surrounded by dozens of sharp blades, each attached to a mechanical arm that thrust forward at seemingly random intervals. The net effect appeared to be that a soul interned in the cage would enjoy being randomly stabbed forever. Stabinator. Makes sense.

Theo felt like he might be sick. But when he considered the alternative would be using his abilities as a Demiurge to inflict the pain himself, he quickly placed the second cage next to the first. When it came time to convince the souls to enter said cages, they were not as receptive.

"FUCK. NO." Addelin was adamant.

"I have bled in the service of my god! You shall not do this to me!" K'll'acksan'iin was no less firm.

"They don't want to be tortured. Who'd have guessed?" Bbl observed acerbically. "Just grab 'em, stuff 'em in the Stabinators and then you can start thinking about your next move."

Thinking time was something that Theo desperately wanted. He had way too much to process, and not nearly the time or space to do it. Eventually, he tired of reasoning with the two souls and out of desperation he laid his hands on them.

As soon as he drew near, they collapsed on the ground screaming. The moment he touched them, they become quiet. Due to the eruption of miasma that occurred, Theo knew they weren't quiet due to lack of suffering, but rather the opposite. Thankfully, the souls were practically weightless in his hands, as if he'd gripped a balloon twisted into the shape of an organism and he rushed across his still tiny demesne and threw the souls into their cages.

That done, he staggered back to the plinth that held the Realm Stone and collapsed, his back resting against the rock.

"You have some AU now. You could make yourself a chair."

Theo blinked. He felt more invigorated and alert than he had at any time since his awakening in the Chaos, and yet he was completely exhausted.

"I'm fine right here."

"Well could you at least make me a chair? Or hey, a bed? With a pond? And sexy lady crabs?!" Bbl demanded.

Silence was his only reply and Bbl turned his eye stalks away from Theo in disgust. What sort of demiurge just sat around on rock all day? It was madness! As Theo took long slow breaths, the two souls had begun to recover from experiencing his touch. Which meant that they know began to enjoy the sensations afforded by their new abode. Screams and cries of pain rang out whenever they failed to anticipate a knife or move away. Theo tried not to look but he was pleased to see that the torture was at least bloodless. The blades moved cleanly in and out of the souls, which made sense, he supposed. It's not as if they have blood, or corporeal bodies at all. So how did the knives hurt them?

He didn't want to think about it.

"Is it possible to buy the … Blade Cages from the Administration? Or do I permanently have to rent them?" he asked his advisor.

Bbl sighed.

"You can buy them, for a fee, of course. You can also purchase the design and then you can replicate them yourself, only having to pay the materials cost."

"Can I design my own?"

"Well, I mean it's possible. But can you?"

Theo shook his head. "I'm not sure. It does sound like the most cost effective option though."

"Cost effective. Who cares? As long as it works, it's all good. Eventually you'll be able to buy all sorts of stuff from the Admin."

"Like when?"

"Like later."

Theo let it drop. He had a lot to think about. Not least of which were his own memories that had finally begun to straighten out in his head. He closed his eyes and tried to forget where he was, just a for moment.