I am alone, even without sense of body or sight. Everything vanishes in a blink; I know they and I still exist, just not where or how ... except as buffered patterns to be rebuilt in steps. Some other 'higher power' has me and these items, all within a safe space-

I am now the most basic of particles of the cosmos, the most dangerous first part of the tutorial. For this core reason, a partner deity should be here at least for the first step ― the essence of a soul become remade with their own pure essence. Ku had assured me, she believed in me being able to handle this ... but still, gave subtle warning to focus.

What has happened to everything else? As planned, it's what Dio and Ku described to me; they're wiped, only the cosmologic site is 'reserved' for the target of things being rebuilt. It's as a 'to the nanosecond' array of micro procedures Luria had setup while us three deities were discussing it. Events are, as I think, already iterating at a speed I cannot yet fathom or see.

All inventory spaces remain as they should; Ku's lent pieces of ninety nine percent pure mana stone still in storage would keep safe. Though maybe not those stone blocks placed into the worship mana well; it's about a fifty-fifty chance to 'recover' each one, since they're from someone else's essence or signature. Otherwise, the nonliving components and structures get ... wiped.

The structures which got bought and upgraded to the point just before I came, their patterns formerly attached to this realm are waiting. I won't have to repurchase them; just fill them out again with my own energy. All the living entities too ― the imprint patterns for sentient entities ― can keep for as brief as a few hours without a placement, before they collapse and disperse. Which means, I'm betting against the normal odds on completing some tutorial procedures within four hours which the system estimates many beings would take five or more hours. In short, I need to keep driven, on point, not dawdling ― or a random one of my current entities will be 'lost'.

Who would it be, though? Luria as 'system agent' ... no, she is safe; leaving Alita or Binah to vanish? Not a clue; it's random. Ha; gotta love it, in some sense ― using an RNG for who gets lost means I can't just play favorites and drop one to save the others. Well I don't want any one of them to go if they don't have to end, so-

-so. It's time; things are all in place, and I'm more or less ready. Realm structures get stored ― minions too are "saved state" so all things start to break down ... decompile ... energies split and sorted by source and percent of purity. It means I will not have Luria to converse with, at all, until done. Just one more reminder I am alone.

Initiate ... tutorial session one ... now!

---

Based on the context of what I'd already faced here ... these beginning tutorial steps are fair but maddening in their simplicity; but they are here to teach a base point. Teaching me to exist as a pure energy and as a biological form? Simple. Just as easy as I'd been doing without focus on those tasks. Seeing everything while in an energy form, though ― it's a strange thing; I see the bonds of molecules and cells and a hint of the even smaller quarks-

Although I will also say, the point Ku and Dio warned me against ― the point where Gabi most likely dropped out of the tutorial, I completed. And went on to other tasks in the chain of tests. It's like school, all over again; to teach a young deity ... how to be a deity.

How to form some of my own essence into an object? Directly instead of from a system assisting me? Cool; Gabi didn't give me this boon, so now I have a new trick up my sleeves. After this, a few more things ... which a new deity should have had-

-oh I could become angry, at how Gabianna Rainforest somehow went so far off script ― just for some selfish means. But no; I'd said my own lines of trust or truth to her, in Carine's ward. And no I won't backtrack on those words; only, I do have a minor regret now. Why did she skip out at such an early stage?

---

One hour became two; then three. I'm passing through the tutorials, aided in part by not only what I've seen and experienced already, but also by some clever hints here and there by Dio and Ku. I get how some parts of the tutorials they just cannot explicitly say, unless I'd skipped them and they had no choice but to tell, to keep me on point. But yet, I endure the slowed narrative of instruction.

Somewhere in the middle of the second hour of the tutorial, I receive a sense of the decompilation of realm essences is done, but no Luria yet. Her pattern is still within the process buffer and it awaits my finish. Even so, the steps are going on, the executable list of commands which should not get interrupted, unless or until it meets an error. As high as thirty two percent of energies are Gabi's; I'm shocked it's so low of a percentage.

Oh; that's odd. About seven percent of the "other" essences are actually from deities or beings who do not exist, any more; I see some "deity not found" warnings. Consume them or let them evaporate into the cosmos? Eh ... I've also got the sense of my worship mana from the world already overflowing all storage buffers, so they would do me no good. Let it go, then.

... it's actually down to the wire now, into the fifth hour; I've made it to the final minutes and also the last of the tutorial sessions. I've learned so much, I've seen now what Gabianna should have done. But somehow I'm fine with it ... if I can just ... get through ten minutes but the tutorial ends in a lecture, why oh why a lecture which just goes on.

I am not sure this makes me the same kind of deity as Gabianna, but I believe I'm the kind which Luria needs, and hopefully the rest of the mortals. I feel ... well I feel. I am feeling as if now I can do so much more; and it's not just the systems, abilities, and skills which Gabianna gifted to me. No; what I've got now is so, so much more.

Little more than three minutes remain before an RNG will make a selection, one each two minutes after then. If I'd had more sentient system entities in this realm, it might widen the pool for selecting other entities. But also due to not having so many, I am thankful to have lasted as long as I have. Seriously? A warning against splitting my attention too thin? Good advice, but for the time remaining it's moot-

Two minutes left ... I'm cutting it short! Come on, tutorial goddess! Get to the point. I, I fear ... I might not make it, in time. All my answers have been punctual, and as correct as possible. The tutorial has some 'slowdown' to prevent skipping through key moments; otherwise I would have been done half an hour ago too. I'll even say, if it senses a new deity trying to skip through it, it will ensure it slows down the lessons. I sigh; okay yeah so I will properly slow down but I hate this when it's so close. One freaking minute! Aah ... done!

I have no Luria here; she and the others are all 'tucked away' into their system encoded closures, where I cannot get them until first finishing the process.

Now it's a matter of time too; the commands to initiate this can take only ten seconds, but the activation process itself can take up to a whole minute too. It's a race against time ... and still I have the feeling I'm not ... well I might not ... make it. My own sensation cuts off sharply, as even me myself and I am popped back to my own 'realm'-

---

A pinpoint of space and time. A single, core atomic mass appears, then settles into a shape. A cell, then another, then yet a whole mass of tissue sprang into form-

-I am being rebuilt, atom by atom, as whatever form a deity is. No way to scream in the sheer pain of it; no way to beg or plead for this to stop. It's gonna be done, and soon. Or not. But hopefully soon.

There, done.

Now I am me, once more. No pain? Aah no pain! Except for the lingering memory of what just happened, I'm fine. Thank ... well, thank me would seem so weird; but I think it's due to my persistence in being done now, for having passed through this moment of sheer torment.

Around me I sense ... nothing. Only me, here ... and this space is a nowhere realm, not even a hint of Approach room. Meaning, now I have just this one, last, moment of trepidation ... one command, to execute.

'Initiate the Approach to the Deity room construction protocol.'

> COMMAND ACCEPTED-
> ASSUMING CONTROL OF DECONSTRUCTION ZONE ZERO ONE.
> CONVERTING ... OK. BECAME DESTINATION ZONE ZERO TWO.
> INITIATING ... RECONSTRUCTION OF APPROACH TO THE DEITY.
> MERGING SOURCE AND TARGET BUFFERS INTO WORLD FLOW.

---

The last command is perfect. It's entered perfect, accepted as a valid command with no error; now I am only waiting ― for these split second processes which take place. All this time I've been within a void space, nothing but a mass of my own energies before this but a physical form now. Except for lessons which copy training scenes and objects, I start with nothing.

But the worship from the mortal realm, these energies have been building and yes even overwhelming the small buffer of worship mana. In fact this excess is no longer piling up where it gets lost; now it gets buffered directly into the construction process. First step: set the size of the Approach realm itself, which takes a sizeable chunk of worship mana from the overflow. The whole Approach space is ... well okay, enlarged, from all this mana-

-so, now ... two hundred by two hundred meters square is large enough, right? It's cheap enough to raise the 'sky' limit to a matching two hundred meters; but it takes a large toll to push the depth down to half a kilometer. Five hundred meters deep is ... even ten times more deep than before, by what Gabianna was capable of doing. All this, in nanoseconds of operational time-

The anchor for the Approach room is now directly beneath me ― ground level, the exact center of the worship mana well. My feet are touching the ground; but already I'm pushing, pushing, pushing the well down, so far. A full two meter by two meter square descends down, while my form is yet above. It still has a default constraint of being the "one tenth of the width or length" so its depth can go as much as twenty centimeters. If I think this through in the nanosecond, it's a full eight hundred thousand cm cubed, of space. Or, multiply by ten thousand DP of capacity per cubic cm ... whoa, I can store eight billion DP-

-it's gotta be some kind of cheat; something must be wrong ― either this, or the world's expenses are much higher than I presumed. Maybe so; I can do nothing now but continue anyway. But whoa, a full eight billion DP in the mana well pool-

-but conversely it might be a problem, later. Only in how I might get 'lazy' later, I might coast and just let the worship mana well fill up ... which could take a number of years. In such time, if I were lazy, would I keep myself out of the mortal world? Would I neglect the mortals in this time? Well. No matter the amount of DP in the well ... I should keep myself active, busy.

Back to the influx of all this worship mana, the reason I can now do so many things in a 'per nanosecond' time. This tutorial system has never before known this manner or error, or this amount of input, so it has literally no error code for what it's seeing. Yet it continues; as had been done for me, reforming ― atom by atom. The Approach itself is now forming ― it extracts out all of Gabi's and others' essences, compresses them, and pushes my own new worship mana, in its place. Well ... except for the mana stone gifted by Ku, also gaining my own signature when I formed them, already being pushed into their place-

-thankfully this means as I go forward, I will no longer have any 'slippage' of mana from the well, due to weakened forms of mana infused stone. I'm fine with this, in fact I'm feeling ecstatic too. Moving on ... ?

Also from the renewed size alone, the ground cover turns to fine grass appearing soft to the touch. Even a barefoot person could walk upon it without fear of harming their feet; and in fact it might 'tickle' many a foot. Even more, the minor shrubbery at each corner and along the lot borders were now taller, more vibrant in nature. I believe uh ... yeah, they might also bear small fruits of many colors. Something to try, later.

I sense the completion of a renewed Approach room ― larger now in size than before ... but all my own guided essence. Yeah double, for lengths and widths ― it's now a full two hundred meters, to a side ― four times the earlier base footprint! In depth, it's still held to be ten percent of the width or length ― twenty meters, here ― but even if the same as before, what I see is fine. Nowhere else, could this happen. I'm glowing, truly I am.

---

And because I now also have such a backlog of my own worship mana coming into me here, still, for now ― I can also proceed onto the other realm structures. As soon as the mana well has formed, all excess mana is now properly shunted into it. I see it filled to the halfway point, and the incoming flow is not insubstantial. I will be full within the next half dozen minutes; so ... I have so much more to do. Residence structure, larger now than the old size; double again the former size ― now twelve meters by twelve meters of floorspace. Each room is now four meters by six meters; I need to allocate rooms better. The new per day maintenance cost is 144 DP, of which I can afford.

My Garden, half again larger with both length and width; I sense it being built much deeper, ten meters deep, different still than an Approach. The central fountain expanded to 1.5 meter radius, the paths have doubled; all of the paths are two meters wide. The two main paths which cross through the center from the cardinal directions are now fitted cobblestone; secondary paths bisect the quadrants again but are the coarse gravel as before. The space's depth went to ten meters, still not enough for trees, but many more plants than before could be grown.

A Workshop, somehow I'm sensing to not expand it any larger than before ― yet ― so it's the same length to width, but also taller and its Inventory space is larger. I did add a second floor which took not as much DP as one would think; to rearrange the workstations meant more space per bench.

The south wall seems bare; hmm this menu screen is showing I can obtain a Prairie ― cheap at a mere hundred thousand DP. It's a square kilometer; half a kilometer of air space, a quarter kilometer of soil ― and it all looks so nice. Covered in wild grass from one end to the other, sparse trees for cover, and four streams of water flowing from north to south. Which means, the 'water' came from the mana well? Did it get drawn back when at the end of its path to return?

What the hell, enough for one more ... no ... not yet. I have in mind to next choose the Great Library to replace what Gabi had, but got sold off. Yet I don't know if I should before finishing what I'm doing so far. Already too, the Approach room's well is glowing with the worship mana converted to this liquid form DP. Even so, I sense it; I've just about caught up to rebuilding the initial structures-

-leaving now, to initialize the structures, and ... to bring back Luria and the small pixies. Luria I get for free, because she is part of the system from the residential block; but Alita and Binah have a minor cost of course. Easily spent. Would they be the same as they were, or would they be any better or worse for having gone through this change? Only time will tell; I sense they are even now forming into existence, and the time to finish is still not a pure immediate appearance.

... save the world, by breaking a realm? Still absurd, no matter how I am to think of it. Even considering, maybe nobody in existence before now might have come up with this idea, of making the world's problems part of its solutions. I may have bombarded the world's residents with my plight, but right now enough of them are answering to my call (if only because their own problem is so desperate).

It's a mindset I've tried even on Earth ― in my first corporation I built to develop my AI cores and android or robot constructs. Admittedly in the earliest stages, I feared not enough of humanity might accept these things; so ... what did I do, but this ... I created a problem for which my corporate assets would be a 'solution'. I ... ahem ... I still deny being the cause of the third world war ... don't blame me okay. Those radicals had it coming to them, though-

Funny enough, as I had been here a few days ... I had a lingering thought too of making the world's problem ― my problems, Gabi's problems ― all of them leading into the solution. So yes, break a realm is part of what Dio and Ku had told me. But in my own foresight, once they had gone, I realized the solution of broadcast, into my mortal realm. Get the mortals to understand the need for worship, then they will do it, so then I can fix things. I can be 'validated' for my existence, here.

It's a plot I do not believe Gabi could have come up with; in part, because she'd gotten to be so ... fatalistic. She saw only her own self, her own problem ... not the world itself as being something to help her. Did she? Yes I'd say her 'base jumping' from the clouds alone, turning off her self heals, one part. Fatalistic, what ― for a goddess, that's downright suicide, even if she could not die like this. Didn't she understand, if she did die with nobody else here, then the mortal world could in time get disposed to the cosmos?

... a good thing the system selected me to come here, then. Somehow, I have something, some perspective, for which I can implement the salvation of this world and its peoples? Maybe.

The actual orbs of Gabi's and other entities' essence ... they are piling up within the Approach, waiting for me to store them. Or else in a short while they too will dissipate or evaporate. They're not massive orbs; the smallest are just thumbnail sized marbles, the largest are the size of a bowling ball. I should be thankful the largest ones are from Gabi's friends like Petrina and Hejira; but some of the larger ones too are from this mangy cur Dhareff Dhaghur. Other names in the listing I can only sense here are ... alien names, strange forms of spelling unpronounceable words or titles.

---

On another plus side, all of the after images Ku had mentioned ― my playing around with Kika, and all of Gabi's screwing around too ― are gone. Yeah that's an effect of rebooting this realm. Plus I detect too what Ku said, my mind is open so she could read me ― also like my soul 'broadcast' my deeds here, which got 'stuck' to the realm. But now ... wiped clean, the realm got whitewashed. At least I can start making new memories here.

Gabi was right; many of those books were loaners, and their ownership is visible to me. One of them no longer has an owner; I guess one of the goddesses who used to be Gabi's friend had also went to a leaping off place, and ... jumped. In any case, all books as assets belong to me now, except I do want to hand them back to whoever 'owned' them before. Even by right, Gabianna's own private journal is now mine ... ugh, no I am not sure I could ever open this up, again. But to the reverse, neither can I make myself dispose of it. It's a gift and a curse.

But items stored within their own Inventory space, those retain their own essence; I can use more of the worship mana coming into me to extract and rebuild each one. Not Ku's mana imbued stones; I cannot yet match the same level of purity as what Ku did. Which means I'll hold off on doing the same with as many other items as possible. But each thing not a building component, including food, I do replace with one in my own mana and essence.

Within the mortal world, there too the world's locations would be seeing some weird benefit. The stone tablets each would hold zero point one percent of all worship mana in each one, utilizing so much to 'self upgrade' as the worship potential would improve. Half of the mana stored in them would return to the environment ― to rejuvenate the ground, the plants, the animals, and the sentient beings taking in said message. The rest of it would get kept for a special reason-

In short. If this mortal world itself is seen as a 'weak mana world' ... this plan could change its state. Just through the worship incoming, it could influence the outer crust of the world at least toward a median mana richness factor. But even this will even out again, in due time ― only if the mortals can hold onto their reason for living, for worship of me as their god. Only then could this keep the average raised above where it has been.

I want to believe what I'm doing is smart. From what Dio has already told, it makes sense to do this. No I'm not a genius at the godlike things; I'm still learning as I go but I do understand more than I ever did before. At least according to my Earthly ethics, to do this much is smart, in my own opinion. Let's just not let someone like Carine try to convince me otherwise-

Oh. Well ... I guess I don't have the perspective to prevent other deities from reading me, yet. Though I do have a hunch, maybe learning what Ku can teach will be easier than before.

---

Here's the hard part ... harder than before ... now I have this deific realm, yet don't. Gabianna Rainforest gave it to me, yet she did not. Confusing. I have to 'make it mine', and ... since it's already this big ... the effort needed to conquer it again, is immense ― well I gotta try.

As I had heard before. The Approach room I'll get 'for free'; or it will cost me literally nothing to claim it. But for each room after this, it takes an incremental amount of its value more than the rooms before, to then subdue the particles which makes up their existence. And I have to finish this, before again calling into service those small but precious beings.

Approach room ... done, it's mine now. Residence structure to the north ... done, with little complaint plus minor costs. Garden structure, moved to the west ... also done, but with a slight increased resistance. Aah it seems the cost is also variable based upon if the structure touches the Approach room? Cool, this can help; the Approach is a square property with four sides, but each side has three connector nodes ― twelve structures maximum can connect here now for cheaper cost. Only the Residence structure must take up all connect points on a side. As to the Workshop space, while the worship is catching up to this ... it's set on the eastern central connector. The southern face of the Approach now has the Prairie land.

Which leaves ... what, exactly? Expand each structure: the Approach to the Deity and its well; the Residence and its interior; the Garden; the Workshop; or even buy one of the other structures-

The Great Library, something Gabianna had once owned but had to give up due to debt, turning it in for its face value (though not actual worth). I'm curious and I do think I want to also buy it again ... though at this point, it's a wish only. It's down to whether or not I can or even should purchase anything yet with a slowing and normalizing trickle of worship. Which indicates, even the mortals of the world can feel burnout when they give this constant worship. I have foreseen this too. But also I have hoped I would be at least this far along in rebooting things; a point I am approaching soon. Already within these five or six hours ― some of them who had started with seeing my initial message had been deep in sleep; imagine being woken up for this? Can't help it-

The Deity Lounge access as an interior room inside a Residence, that's nice. But in truth, also going into the future ― I want a more solitary structure linked to the deities' social spaces. A bar or something, somewhere to go to get a drink, a taproom-

-aah before I should forget ... the one name Ku mentioned ... Ton Demo ... somewhere with a workshop or store front in the shopping space. From inference I get how it's like a giant metropolis of sorts, where anything and everything a deity can want, exists for a cost. Also by inference, a 'black market' curiously attached to the intent of a shopping space ... though I, I'm not sure I'll need those things. (Not if I can get things through honest means, anyway.)

So Ton Demo keeps coming to mind. Even if I have rebooted the whole realm, the status of Luria, the system core, and even various subsystem nodes are far from optimal. Ton must have been an early worker in this field, and probably one kindred soul I'd like to meet. In fact Ku did mention during the break-in, just how crucial upgrading Luria and the system could be, to obstruct any break-in attempt. What beyond this ― some prison cells, or some torture room-

-torture ― what no, we don't do torture here ... call it, mild coercion with potential consequences, okay-

---

Everything. Each and every thing, down to the last vegetable and seed and workshop resource ... all except the purified mana stone and other core materials are now in my essence. Which means, the amount of essence orbs belonging to other persons is the largest amounts they've ever been.

Fire off one more tentative (testing) message to Carine-

She appears before me, in my space ... without asking permission ... before I even start to type a second line ― and looks around. True, her personal inventory is more massive than my own; but she's existed far longer than I have. With barely a sniff of dismissal, she nods to the pile of Gabianna Rainforest's essence orbs, and I nod in return. In the blink of an eye, Carine stores them, then looks around.

"David. You have done what I hoped you would not; but it seems fortune truly does favor you."

I feel faintly insulted. Instead though I take it with a calmness. "To be expected. I did go all in, for this-"

"-but see here, all these other essence orbs ― what are you going to do with them? You do not yet have the ability to siphon them and no I won't teach this to you. In a mere amount of time, each of them will begin to fade and vanish. Unless-"

"-you are trying to get me to let you take them, and return them to their owners? Sure, take them if you have room; I have no qualms against helping other deities, sight unseen."

Her eyes narrow one last time, then she also stores a great number of them.

"Those I am leaving are essences of deities currently being held for charges against other deities or their realms, or also some who do not exist any more. I would guess you are fine in letting those from such ones as Dhareff or Prader vanish. Personally, I have no desire to help those who have a history of taking from others. But if you want to experiment with them before they go poof ... I think you may learn something. That is all; goodbye David."

I opened my mouth to reply something; but she just ... left, as quick as she came.

How rude; Carine just vanished with no chance for me to say anything back! I had a truly good retort in mind, too!

... come to think of it, she probably heard it already in my thoughts-

---

Now, one more part. Initiate the system, and bring the system and its agent and entities back to action.

Inside the Residence with the system console, I see again the blinking lights go through the whole routine, from beginning to end, and then-

-a form appears. Gender neuter, a system agent appearing neutral and tame. Since I am male, 'it' will merge to 'she', before long if I did not exert my will to be other. I'm okay with it becoming her; why put effort to set the agent as anything else than what she will become? Much shorter now than the former Luria, much shorter even than Gabi was; but she is and will be a more 'solid' form even than old Luria was.

"Master. What is your command."

... um. So emotionless; so blank faced with no ... no heart. No hint of the former Luria? No hint of awareness, no way to acknowledge me as her master, a man named 'David'? Is anything left of ... the true Luria-

I swallow back a sudden upsurge of bile, to consider the new but strange situation.

"... report. What is your name and current status?"

"<unnamed>. Status: operational, awaiting command."

Well, this answer is a concern. Where did the former 'Luria' persona go? Did she lose something and then something overrode it, and this reason is why 'she' turned 'it' in form and personality?

I wonder though. For the next step a young deity should be creating their mortal world ... but here I already have a mortal world. Well okay ... so I have to 'take ownership' of it too; yet if I'm right, this agent should have an immediate access to the world. Gabianna did give it to me, but also ... she could not do it fully. Meaning, the status of the mortal realm itself is still in limbo, though attached to me by a proverbial string, a singular lifeline of hope. Maybe the mortal world was phasing in and out of existence these last five hours-

-maybe any mortal who could sense this would have got scared, witless!

The latent thought I have, Luria may have 'stored' part of her existence within the world itself. A backup copy, a code dump and archive of 'herself'! That's what she needed to save ... herself. Why not? If I was doing as I said ― trying to heal the mortal world after the reboot ... why wouldn't Luria place the most personal part of herself into the world? Something for later, raw data of low value to anyone else, but for her to recombine and make her, 'her' again?

"Examine your connected spaces. You should find a mortal world which already exists, and some or all of your past system agent stored within it, as a backup or archive."

"... examining ... exam- Found. System agent backup found in a locked code vault, with the name 'Luria'; the data within this vault can be merged into the current system agent, or deleted from existence."

I don't want latent backups remaining; no matter whether it helps the situation or not. Luria might not like it, but somehow if any damage will occur to Luria ... I have the feeling I would have to start from scratch.

"Restore the system agent from this backup copy ... then when the restore is complete ... delete the backup."

"Complying. System agent will remain inaccessible until the restoration is complete."

The current system, or system agent, goes silent. I have no idea how long this could take; but in the meantime, with me standing here in the Approach, I see something to do. I begin to store the orbs of other deities into my own private inventory space, except one. I'll take Carine's advice, and look into some of these.

---

Who is this Kina, this 'Goddess of Solitude'? Someone who came here, with the parting mention of what Carine said being, she could be under charge or incarceration by other law domain deities. I know, for a fact of the orb's status, this essence can still go back to a deity; yet in what Carine said ... hmm, something might be wrong. A goddess of the domain of Solitude, seen as a criminal? Absurd; solitude should not mean causing harm.

But as I look closer, zooming in with sudden clarity, I see ... specks of impurities, within it. Impurities? I thought, each of these essence orbs were 'pure' by reason of being from each deity. By implication ... any impure parts are within the deities who came here to see Gabi-

Oh. Well then ... one implication has to be clear. Deities are not meant to be solitary. Even so, deities interact and can influence each other. These dirty bits could be the influence of others, drawn in or consumed or merged into the target deity's soul. Kina had met many times with some deity, and had taken in this influence ― but the meaning being, contact with the other one, meant 'impure' essence. Yet it seemed Kina had continued the bit of contact ― it's either of beneficial means, or ... in some context ... a mutual thing.

Was it ... Gabianna? If Kina's essence was here strong enough to get sorted out in a reboot ― yeah. Most likely, though I cannot say if the impure parts are truly a result of how Gabi and Kina interact. A next implication of this study is upon me, in how I myself might have influenced others ― like Ku ... and yes Gabi.

I'll not make any further guesses here; next orb?

Kuba, the God of Art-

-what? I have never seen 'art' here, more than knickknacks and trinkets on the nightstand; the further implication being ... Gabi may have wanted artistic lessons, from a fellow deity. Yet it seems, either the artistic endeavor was not a success in this case; or, Gabi only wanted it to make and sell some artwork. Make art, sell art, and repeat; hmm. Would she ... hmm maybe ... but with small dividends because of her being an 'unknown' not in any art domain ― she could not 'earn' enough to offset the negative DP income.

What do I learn, from this one? A deity ― god, goddess, or other ― can 'learn' or through tutelage from others, some craft or trade. Objects made also might have some value, though minimal, even if not made by someone within the 'correct domain'. I'm also finding it somehow ironic ... or not ... in how even an art deity could become drawn in some less than legitimate means. Kuba is somehow now charged with something? Crime, as art?

Oh, I know ... I'll message Ku; maybe she knows what to do with some of these things-

---

-no sooner had I sent a brief 'reboot done, I got a question' message, than she rang me back, full video call this time. Oh, that's quick; but on first sight-

She'd been crying, more, it seemed. Meaning, why is she still there at Carine's ... instead of somewhere else? But I see the line where a tear is still on her cheek. And, hear in the background a sharp squeal of pain ... and oh. She condemns herself to stay until Gabi is ... either fixed, or not.

"David, oh David are you okay?"

"... yeah ... what's going on?"

"Oh thank the cosmos!" she wipes away the newest tear, then exhales in relief. "David I need a vacation. Is your system rebooted fully?"

... strange to hear a goddess praising 'the cosmos'; am I supposed to do this, too?

"Well yeah ... just putting in some finishing touches. You can come over now though, I have a few things to share."

"Okay honey, be there in a sec-"

...

She popped in, right in front of me, and leans in for a solid grasp, a hug which lasted. I sense this time she's holding back many more tears, in favor of ... just this. The connection. The hug, the love-

"Um ... about the essence orbs left over-"

Ku does not back up yet, nor lessens her hold. In fact it feels like an even tighter grip, to stave off conversation. Brainy gal or not, kuudere or not, she's needing this, for some time yet.

"-or, not. Look, Ku."

Yeah letting her hug it out is all fine and good; but ... I need the answers she can tell.

I sense a shoulder get wet from tears. She's holding back crying, again ― just to be holding me like this.

"Ku-"

"-I messed up, David. I ... I pushed Gabi ... because I thought it would be the right thing to motivate her; but ... it only made something worse. Now, she might start hating me; and if you're with me and I'm with you ... she'll hate you too."

"... then ... what did you say ... what hurt her?"

Finally the grip lessens; but in its place, she's sagging ― I'm holding her up, just so much now. Whatever happened ... I'm sure it's still an emotional toll upon her. Seriously I want to know what's said-

"... don't wanna tell. Can't."

"What are you saying. Gabi will become an enemy?"

"... it ... it's possible-"

"-but not likely! Ku, what the hell, please stop this," I break in. "Don't believe the worst just yet. At least, not without giving me the truth, the final context in what happened earlier."

At last, her arms loosen, and fall to her side, and she backs up slow. I can reassess her state of mind now too, seeing her face. It's also a good chance to fully look her over, from top to bottom and all ways I can see her.

Ku is as good as matching my height equally. She looks chic ― wearing a fit cut of blue jeans, and a casual medium gray pullover shirt with hood hanging loose ― her waist length dark brown hair is a mess. She might have skipped her own hygiene needs, excepting the toiletries, in lieu of waiting for whatever should happen with Gabi. I might even see a snag in her hair there, to indicate inattention to details-

In comparison, I am once again in a pair of blue jeans too, and in the plain black tee shirt which I'd ordered before. My own short hair had no chance to get so messy or knotted as Ku's is; but in the last day I'd been sweaty and missed a regular bathing routine. Hmm my armpits tell me I need a bath or shower as well, so I have no room to complain. Anyway we've both been through some things-

I see her tug at her shirt to straighten it, then turn around to examine the realm. I know now she should be able to just will her attire back to perfect; but if her explanation is true, she had her goddess powers ... constrained.

"David. How ... how did you ... all this." Her arm motioned a wide span, which took in all of the Approach room.

I let my mind run through the litany of thoughts and memories of the last few hours, 'telling' her without saying a word. Yet when I look with satisfaction at her querulous form ― it hits me: she can no longer read me?

"You can no longer read me?"

"... n, no. I ... became emotional, since the last time you saw me ... it affected my work, and some override kicked in-"

There, an admission. Well this makes this easier and harder. I hope in time either it levels out, or I learn to filter my own thoughts.

My lips slide into a sly grin, as unconstrained thoughts race through me for a wild moment.

"-w, what are you thinking, David-"

... it does, it feels so good, to not have her read me, right now-

"Oh, nothing. Or, maybe not nothing, just a thought for ... later."

"D, David-"

"-it's just ... I remembered, you looked more beautiful as you had appeared in the wedding dress-"

Her eyes narrow in concern; but I'm not betraying the existence of ... other thoughts. Clearly not going to say.

"-but let's go inside my Residence, why don't we. I'll explain."

She notes this too, my pointing toward the doorway into the other aspect which should not be there.

"... you got all this?"

"... well yes, but only from a genius thought-"

"... but seriously, David ― how?"

Oh but I am being serious.