While Snooze waited for the new arrival, she took a gander at her world.

 

As she approached the simulacrum-come-simulated, the floating orb of wet and a bit of rock (and friends!) the little god was able to see rather immediately there were a few terrestrial changes to the physical properties of the planet itself. Now that she’d had a moment or ten to digest being back to--what she’d been explaining on her world as-- Spicy Village, she didn’t mind peering back into her world so much. Though, she did consider that she might avoid looking at the Great Crater of Oopsy-daisy for the moment just in case it was… sad. 

 

Nothing quite managed to ruin your day like seeing your friends aflame in a sulfuric nightmare.

 

Her world had promised to take care of it, but maybe she needed a bit more of an existential pick-me-up before biting the bullet and checking on the status of her companions’ vitals.

 

But, of course, back to the changes.

 

It appeared that in her absence, there’d been quite a lot of deforestation in some areas, while in others, the wilds had grown immensely. Such was the nature of the living, to attempt to claim dominance over the resources the planet yielded. At least in so far as numbers were concerned. 

 

She was reminded of the time before the Village of Dela was even a twinkle in a Stonie’s gleaming nightmares, where a woodsman named Yuzbu had taken to the forest in an attempt to fell a particularly healthy variety of the Big-On-Top, a massive species of tree that seemed to grow larger the taller it got. Yuzbu had been ambitious, tenacious, and a pragmatic and skillful procurer of lumber, but ultimately, his strongest trait proved to be his squishiness. Especially when met with the inertia and mass of a three-hundred-foot-tall plant. 

 

If it's one-to-one, a tree will win out over a Stonie every time.

 

Snooze could see there were a few new islands dotting the oceans, and a crater in the north that was at least twice the size of the Oopsie-daisy. There was also a faint, dark fog hovering above a settlement in the north east, far away from the events that she’d witnessed in what was now the Wulket of Mert.

 

“I’ll definitely be checking on that little pocket of mystery,” she said aloud to herself. “Once this next phase has completed.”

 

A little while passed, though how much, she wasn’t sure. But, it passed all the same, until finally, the Book of Leaf indicated that their new friend was at their metaphorical door.

 

YOUR NEW ARCHANGEL HAS ARRIVED, SNOOZE. ARE YOU READY TO MEET THEM?

 

“Oh, absolutely!” she exclaimed. “I hope this Archangel is as wonderful as my beautiful and intelligent  little boy over here!”

 

With her indication, one might see Meat, who was currently laying on his back, legs splayed out and his large maw open as he stared straight ahead snorting and whistling. Truly a wonder of nature this celestial protector.

 

Snooze reminded herself to be careful, though she was now more accustomed to the Book of Leaf, and it to her, she knew that if she were offered the opportunity to name her new companion, she would have to be exceptionally careful, as with Meat and herself, she apparently bound by the cosmic laws of comedy and misunderstanding.

 

BEHOLD!

 

There was a loud snap, and Snooze wasn’t sure, but she thought she also heard a ‘ding!’ and suddenly, like a piece of toast, her new Archangel popped into being. Snooze recalled Meat’s first manifestation, a tiny bauble of shimmering rosy light that dithered through the air like a chubby beetle. This new specimen, however, was wholly different.

 

It was colorless, to start, and was not an orb or circle of light, but appeared more shapely. It was about the size of a fist, with five ‘tines’ arranged much like a starfish--two pudgy, leg-like shapes, one arm on each side, and a squat and pointed ‘head’ at the top. Snooze could mostly see through the creature, though, it had a hazy sort of light surrounding it, like a fine, faintly-illuminated mist. Even colorless, the Archangel still had the curious effect of bending points of light around itself to showcase its interesting shape. She’d assumed that was all there was to it, but suddenly, with a tiny clack, it opened its eye.

 

One single peeper. It was  in the center of its body, and unlike the rest of it, this had color. At least, the iris did. It was the shimmering burnished-gold of heated metal and flitted about about quickly before resting its gaze on Snooze. Then, it got stranger. 

 

“Hello,” the Archangel said.

 

“It can speak!” Snooze exclaimed, and took a step back.

 

“I can speak!” the Archangel returned, it’s voice high, almost like a toddler’s, and injected with a heaping portion of what sounded like boundless joy. It was quite adorable.

 

It was further consolidated in its anomalous nature, however, because it did not use a typical mouth. No, to Snooze’s abject shock, she found that the creature’s eyelids moved like the lips might when any other creature would speak.

 

To put it plainly, the eye and the mouth were the same instrument for this Archangel.

 

“Odd,” Snooze commented, looking at the way it blinked-spoke. It was a strange and still quite cute creature.

 

“Odd!” the new Archangel exclaimed in its tiny voice. “I love it!” 

 

Uh-oh.

 

THE ARCHANGEL HAS ACCEPTED THE NAME YOU HAVE GIVEN IT UNINTENTIONALLY. IT WILL HEREBY REFER TO ITSELF AS ‘ODD’ FOR THE REMAINDER OF ITS EXISTENCE.

 

“Dag nabbit,” Snooze announced. “I specifically wanted to avoid doing that again, Book!”

 

“Yeah, Book!” Odd echoed, suddenly sounding endearingly perturbed in a child-like way. “What’s the big idea? Are you some kind of mean-guy pranker!?”

 

Oh, brother. Snooze thought. This little one is going to get me in trouble.

 

I WAS WILLING TO ACT A BIT MORE CHARITABLE THIS GO AROUND, SNOOZE, I CAN ASSURE YOU. WHEN WE FIRST MET, I WAS NOT INTERESTED IN TARRYING OVER THE DETAILS UPON YOU ARRIVAL, RESIGNED TO THE SLOG OF DISINTERESTED APATHY TOWARD ANY NEW GOD-LIFE, HOWEVER… 

 

I WILL ADMIT THAT THIS MANIFESTATION OF MYSELF HAS GROWN MORE FOND OF YOU, AND I WAS PLANNING TO DO YOU A ‘SOLID,’ AS IT WERE, AND ALLOW YOU AMPLE TIME TO NAME IT. UNFORTUNATELY, THE… WELL… PERSONALITY OF THIS ARCHANGEL WAS NOT WHAT I HAD ANTICIPATED, AND WELL… IT APPEARS SOME THINGS ARE INESCAPABLE.

 

“It’s alright, Book,” Snooze said. “Just you admitting that you’re actually a big softie was enough for me. I forgive you.”

 

“YAY!” Odd exclaimed, spinning in place. “We’re all best friends again!”

 

The creature’s eye sloped upward at the ends, and formed the shape of a smile.

 

“Though, if you didn’t anticipate it being this way, does that mean you don’t know much about it?”

 

“Yeah,” Odd echoed. “Something is fishy here!”

 

The creature seemed bizarrely foreign. It made Snooze happy, though, to feel as though whatever manifestation her own thoughts took, this little Archangel might reflect them back ten-fold.

 

The universe’s best and strangest cheerleader.

I DO NOT KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT. IT WAS SENT AS AN EXPRESS GIFT TO YOU FROM THE POWERS-THAT-BE, AS SOMETHING OF A CONSOLATION FOR WHAT TRANSPIRED ON YOUR WORLD. IT APPEARS THEY ARE NOT WITHOUT THEIR APOLOGIES.

 

Snooze frowned.

 

“Odd,” she said, turning back to the Archangel. “Where do you come from?”

 

“SPACE!” Odd boasted. “...I think!”

 

Snooze had her doubts about this. While remarkably precious, the being before her didn’t seem to know much about… well, anything, so far. 

 

Snooze was learning something akin to another multiversal truth: not everything that speaks has a reason for doing so.

 

“Alright, well, you haven’t met Meat yet,” Snooze said. “Why don’t you two get acquainted?”

 

“Alright!” Odd ejected, and then seemed to look in the direction that Snooze indicated where Meat was propped up, watching the interaction with earnest curiosity. 

 

“Woah! Meat!” Odd exclaimed and then lept through the air like a flea, pouncing right on to Meat’s back and collapsed in a flat heap, its little appendages gripping the other Archangel’s form in what appeared to be a tiny hug.

 

“I love you!” Odd said.

 

Meat looked back at Snooze hesitantly, but then seemed to find some semblance of understanding and turned his head back to nuzzle the creature fondly.

 

Ack! My heart! Snooze thought. This is too cute for words.

 

SNOOZE, THERE IS A MESSAGE.

 

Snooze approached the Book of Leaf’s display with this prompt, and the text repopulated, though not in the impact, all-caps style that was typical of the usual correspondence. No, this seemed to be from some source outside of the Book of Leaf itself.

 

Greetings Snooze,

 

Please accept this Archangel as a token of our apologies. We understand you have been burdened with a great deal of undue stress in the last several millennia. Consider this a gift to show our confidence in your continued strength and force of will, and our sincerest hope that you do not feel as though issues like those in your [ UNNAMED ] world and beyond will go undetermined and without consequence. 

 

We will be watching your journey with a great deal of interest, and have every confidence that you will showcase great things. There is one additional gift that we have left with your new Archangel, and hope that it will ease the stress of the next step in your development and advancement. It might make your decisions slightly easier in the forthcoming endeavor.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

• THE MGMT

 

 

“Well, I don’t know if I understand all of that, but I guess I should be thankful?”

 

IT APPEARS YOU HAVE DRAWN THE NOTICE OF SOME OF THE UPPER CRUST.

 

“Well, that’s good, right?” Snooze asked. “Having friends in high places is usually a positive sign.”

 

YES…

 

The Book of Leaf seemed surprisingly cagey to Snooze, and she prompted it a little further.

 

“Is everything alright, Book?”

 

YES. I WOULD BE MINDFUL OF ANY ATTENTION FROM THOSE IN THE HIGHER ORDERS OF THE CELESTIAL BUREAUCRACY, SNOOZE. NOT ALL WHO RETAIN SUCH ESTEEMED STATUS HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS IN MIND.

 

“Oh, I’m sure,” Snooze said, smiling. “You can’t trust a boss, nor a landlord. Or anyone who promises you a discount without haggling first, for that matter. Or a bald barber. Skinny chefs. Cats--”

 

I THINK I GET IT.

 

“I had a few more.”

 

I DON’T DOUBT IT, BUT SHOULDN’T WE FOCUS ON THE OTHER PORTION OF THE MESSAGE?

 

“Which part would that be?”

 

THE PART WHERE THERE WAS AN ADDITIONAL GIFT. PERHAPS YOUR EXCITEMENT HAS GOTTEN THE BETTER OF YOU. AGAIN.

 

“Oh!” Snooze exclaimed, and turned to her two Archangels. They now appeared to both be napping. Meat, splayed out again on his back, with the little starfish-like creature resting with its mouth-eye closed on his chest.

 

“Odd,” Snooze said, and the little creature’s eye peeked open just a crack.

 

“Sleepy,” Odd responded, and closed the eye.

 

“Odd, do you have a gift for me?”

 

The little Archangel suddenly sprang up, eye wide, and lept from Meat’s chest to land on the ground just in front of Snooze.

 

“Oh yeah!” it said, and then seemed to search its colorless body for a pocket or some other means of carrying a gift. It was all very precious indeed to Snooze. After a moment, it seemed to find what it as looking for, and with a very adorable “a-ha!,” produced a shimmering golden bauble of light and held it forward to Snooze with its little starfish arms.

 

“Is that…?” Snooze began, shocked. If it was what she thought, she was both confused and excited.

 

“It’s a Seed of Life!” Odd exclaimed jubilantly. 

 

Snooze stared at it, and then looked back at the Book of Leaf. 

 

“Book?”

 

The display populated.

 

SEED OF LIFE [ LEVEL 10 ]

 

TYPE: GIFT

 

USES: 1

“So…” Snooze began again, trying to wrap her head around it. “I won’t have to use Odd to power my next planet?”

 

NOR THE AFTERLIFE YOU WILL SOON CREATE.

 

Snooze looked back at the Seed of Life and frowned a little. It bothered her slightly considering that it had to have come from somewhere. The little god’s suspicion detection made her feel as though something was… off.

 

“Yay!” Odd exclaimed, spinning in a circle. “Now I don’t have to die!”