Ensoulment /// 412a (1)

"Why's it smell like petrichor?"
"And... knowing that feels weird"

-"i chose to make it smell like that"
-"I kinda like how it smells when it rains"

Oh gosh I'm... I'm sorry
You aren't going somewhere nice
It's basically a big nonexistence experiment
You're going to a basically a fancy melting pot of nonexistences that get.... unluckily picked to go to the realm

"The realm? And why'd your voice change?"
'I uh... stopped speaking in a soothing tone, its my real voice. This usual one typically freaks you nonexistences out a lot...'
"It's uh... nice. You have a nice voice"
'... I wish I didn't have to do this to you' -gravely
---

"Howdy nonexistence, I'm Zad, here to make you-"

The nonexistence waved its energy, facing at zadvack

"S- sorry... uh... where am.... Where.... Am... Am I dead?" It asked, seemingly very weary and scared

"Oh.. uh... that's... new? Well uh you're a nonexistence so. You're like... the opposite of dead. Pretty much you just stopped being dead in a way" Zad reconsiled, personally surprised at a nonexistence having enough lucidity to even comprehend interrupting his opening statement at this early in its existence.

"... Is that good? It feels... Cold... C- COLD!? Uh... That's... Why do I..." The nonexistence stuttered before being hastily cut off by Zadvack

"Hey hey heyy buddy! Uh... don't worry about those. Those thoughts are simply so you can comprehend. You're functionally selectively omniscient, if only temporarily. Anything nessacary to know you will immediately know. Well.. to an extent. I don't know how it really-" He paused, eyes widening
"Thats fear you feel, would you like to have a temporary body? Should help with the dysphoria of not having... form."

The nonexistence swiveled, its point of vision rotating down, then up, but not enough to center zad in its vision. "D- definitely, please..." it whimpered. It must have felt shameful, but it wasn't naked, nor was there any matter to be shown.

"Alright, let's start with a... favourite creature perhaps? Something to host your conscience temporarily while we design a 'you'" Zad comforted, half professional but half sympathetic. He was very akin to the case of each nonexistence, as was his purpose.

"Mm.. I... I'm not sure.. U- uh... jellyfish?" It searched verbally, hollowly telegraphing to Zad

"I... I suppose I can make that work for now?" Zad said in surprise, after all its not often much besides a "wolf", "human" or "whatever you are" came up.

The nonexistence glew faintly, body settling on a half-transparent blue with tendrils on its back and subtle blue eyes, but no mouth

"Ok, and now, let's getcha outta this void..."
Zad pulled out a cube that incomprehensibly spiralled outwards; complexly oscillating out of vision into a higher level of detail and down until it formed the nothing-lines of the threshold of the old void into a pleasantly mint coloured gradient, a platform forming below them with beanbags scattered about.
"And into a different one" He smiled, he always liked that particular area of bringing them into his dimension

"Wh- What happened?" They asked, looking up at the gradient, fading from blue-green to orangey-yellow at the top of the sky. They swivelled their head at kifkir, tendril moving perforatively to lay out, demonstrating their confusion with a gesture

"I brought you inside a pocket dimension. My pocket dimension to be exact. I can control everything inside of here. Mostly for the use of altering you easier. To summarise, full control over your body."

"ARE YOU GOD!?" It asked, eyes widening, tendrils spiking out much like the fur of a scared cat

"A god, not the god. Best way to put it is a demigod. And definitely not actual god. Even this continuity of multiverses and otherwise isn't really ruled by a god, we don't know that guy."

"B- but... you have full control over me?" He clasped his goopy tentacles together in a placating gesture, referential.

"Yeah as I said, demigod dude. I'm kinda like a stylist but for your whole body, or existence. I ask you stuff and you get a say in what you want to be. Be it a gross awful looking beast, a normal sentient anthro or yet another hoarding beastman. Hell you can even be a less sentient creature if you wish but i personally wouldn't. I'm uh... not supposed to say that but like, if you're tired of existing it's kinda like a permanent rest. Not dying just like, autopilot."

"... Can I have a tail?" They asked

Zad looked them in their eyes "I like that we're starting but, ya wanna sit down? I got plenty-a bean bag."

The jellyfish looked at a beanbag, purple, pretty small however. Less resembling what you'd expect from pseudo furniture and more being akin to a piece used in playing some sort of game about tossing corns into holes.

"It's a bit small?" They pointed out

"There's plenty of others that are you sized, that's for the nonexistences that decide to be like, 2 feet tall; which I will never understand. Being tall is great." Zad added, clearly biased in his ending statement.

"Could you make a bigger one?" They kindly requested "Like, bigger than me big but without making me bigger" they added

"Ohhh you wanna be comfy comfy. Sure dude"
Zad produced a purple beanbag, at least 10 feet in diameter which slumped down softly behind the anthropomorphic jellyfish"

"Yeah that's actually exactly what I meant, I just like the purple honestly." They thanked, stepping over with wet squishy steps of their gooey feet

"Ya wanna be purple, perhaps?" Zad inquired, picking up on the possible insight into their thoughts

"Maybe, could be cool." They replied, mulling it over, looking somewhat inside themselves, thinking each colour through. Zad sat down on his own bean bag, it was simply his size, if not a tad bigger.

Immediately after sitting, however, he realised something: "Oh shit right, theres an order to this. I totally forgot."

"So-" Zad began

"Hold on did you just psychoanalyse me?" They interrupted with confusion

"Oh uh... yeah? You um... noticed?" Zad inquired, watching them fidget with their tentacles

"Yeah sorry I just tend to notice things like- w- uh.... huh... why am I saying that?" They self-consciously answered "Sorry It's just weird, feeling alive but not having been... anything before"

"Nah I get it dude. Anywayyy getting a bit tired of writing numbers. Would you like a name?"

"Oh uh..." They shuffled about slightly, disassociating a little "I think I have a name..."

Zad looked on in confusion "You uh... shouldn't have prior memories...?" Zad looked concerned, standing and flicking about on his menu through the mapping of the nonexistences brain

"Oh uh no I meant like, I have one ready. I don't think I like, have prior memories? I just remember... well I don't remember darkness and emptiness but I remember you?"

"Oh. Then thats normal actually, false alarm eheh..." he nervously laughed, his large body slumping into a more relaxed looking position on the beanbag

"Can i say the name now?" They asked

"Go ahead lad" Zad insisted, bringing his menu to his face ready to enter into the 'Name Entity Context'

"I think I like Blueberry, something about hearing music faintly playing in the back of my mind gave me a thought. Or... actually maybe... I had a different one. Fruits seem a tad boring so maybe uh...-" they slowed and spoke quietly and rapidly "-Ohgodthat'sstillsoweirdwhydoIknowthatwhatsafruit-" before returning to normal speech "Uh.. Rynth, like as in labyrinth. Rynth Labdenner. Sorry I-"

Zad swiped his paw at him as though reassuring "I was gonna ask for a second name anyway, middle name? You want one?"

"Uh... no thanks. I'd go with Asynth but it feels a bit much for the name to be so long"

"Alrighty then, Rynthhh Labbb-Dennurr" Zad responded, dragging the word out as he typed it in "All right Rynth. How's it feel?"

Rynth perked up, like being tapped on the shoulder gently upon hearing it "It feels right, feels mine. Probably because- heh- it like... is...." He slurred, looking slightly woozy

"You good???" Zad looked concerned

"Yeah I'm fine I was just messing about uh... that was supposed to be like a joke. N- nevermind..." Rynth retracted, slumping back into his large beanbag

"About your form by the way. Now we've done your name we can get onto your body. Your real one" Zad clicked and stroked at the menu, eyes scanning across as though reading a list.
<Huh, predicted personality selfless, reckless but self-keeping and curious? How's that gonna work?> he noted to himself mentally.

"Oh uh I dooo like the jellyfish bod and honestly don't mind the uhm... legs. Maybe a few changes could be all?" Rynth meekly requested

"Sure, c'mere a sec" Zadvack stood up, walking across the cool shiny circular ground towards a large, wide mirror besides a tall strangely warped looking ladder.

Rynth raised himself off the bean bag, clasping it with his lower tendrils and dragging it along with him as he waltz over towards Zadvack, prinary tendrils resting at his mouth seemingly protectively but likely as a result of him not knowing what to do with all his limbs, his arms swung side to side as he walked.

Not only all this but his 2 other free sets of tentacles moved too. One set held together and swung behind him like a weird mock tail whilst the others flattened around his waist, getting themselves out of the way with little purpose or regard to where they needed to be.

"Can I uh, ask something real quick?" Rynth asked, raising a free tentacle to gesture as an almost physical punctuation

"Sure go ahead, this can wait" Zad confirmed, swivelling on the spot, thick black and navy scaly tail dragging heavily across the fairly textureless ground with a light scraping noise

"Why's it smell like petrichor?- God knowing that feels so weird..." he asked, covering his head with his free tentacles, the primary ones by his face falling for a moment

"Oh it's because its my realm, like I said. Full control over everything here. Including smell hell even down to stuff like air density." Zad mentioned, gesturing to the sky: at the nothing. "Alsoo I kinda just like how's it smells after the rain sometimes"

"It's nice, why do you smell like- actually I could wager a guess n- ..." Rynth fell silent, his unused set of tentacles dropping by his sides, primary facing forward off his face like a gesturing moustache. His face looked grave. "You said everything, right...? Even uhm..." he gestured to himself with his arms, the originally gesturing tentacle returning to above his mouth

"I have complete and utter control over your entire existence however I ensure to mold you to your own will. See it as if you were a customer at a salon. I would ask what haircut you want and i would be doing it, changing it as you requested. Now imagine that me as a barber could literally do anything to you. Even change your anatomy, mental state, literally everything. That's basically how it works. Although I prefer to leave mental state to develop. It always seems immoral to change whats kind of already there. Some change it to make you fit a role or setting better. Honestly-" Zad dropped his tone a little "-Not many give a choice. They just pick and go"

Rynth looked sad and surprised but his face fell to relieved shortly after "Glad I got you then... You're a nice person by the way"

Zad smiled, bouncing a little "Thanks, I try to be. Aaannnyyways~" Zad swivelled around and gestured at the mirror "Salon time, You can honestly throw whatever features you want at me. But I'll probably startcha off"

Rynth stepped over, admiring his reflection. He smiled at it, it didn't smile back. He looked confused for a moment. It was then he realised he was looking in the wrong place, and his tendrils were covering his mouth. He let them fall back around his neck. Comfortably draping down.

"I uh... now that I look I'm not exactly sure what I even want..." Rynth commented looking at himself in the mirror, moving his limbs a bit and watching them move.

"Well a lot of existing creatures want to change species, how about we start there?" Zad asked, looking at him.

"Uh... I'm not sure I kinda like this one... mm... Maybe... a hound? Like a wolf" He asked with a very concerned expression

"How about I hand you one of these?" Zad asked rhetorically, immediately handing over a small luminous black tablet with many species plastered across it.

It had a simple interface. A scroll, a categorise by similar, a recommended from scanning thoughts. A search function of similar nature to understand exactly what they meant by even a vague description as "yellow looking dog thing" and a colour scheme interface (like paint swatches at a store but with creatures).

Rynth clasped it in his gooey blue paws, looking down. "How do I use this?"

Zad looked at his eye area "You just do, you should understand if you try to use it"

Rynths face scrunched up a little at the screen "Why is it evil like that"

Zad looked incomprehensible for a moment "You mean the ui? I can make it a different colour if that's what you're meaning?"

"I uh... actually don't know why I said that." His vision faltered for a moment

"That's normal, probably just a quirk of yours then" Zad reassured now understanding

Rynth looked back down at the tablet, many appendages clasping it carefully scrolling idly for a moment before grimacing "This... existence is weird. Is... is this even existence?"

Zad looked somewhere mixed between taken aback and endeared. "Debatable. But I'd say so. It's kind of weird but let's just say this is existence as far as we should concern ourselves. Because theres like 5 ways to exist and those are 'Universes', Whatever the UMEA can be, the whole conversation of Nonexistences, higher planes that we also 'exist' within but in the grand scheme aren't sentient on those planes but we are-" Zad abruptly halted "Sorry it's kinda on my mind"

Rynth looked invested "I mean, no rush right?"

Zad shot back with "That's... also debatable but I think in this instance thats the case"

Rynth didn't understand, that was starting to feel weirder than knowing most everything contextually. "What's the fifth existence though? You kind of stopped mid 4th and I'm curious"

Zad smiled "That was intentional. The fifth is messy. It's what pertains to like, nonexistences that aren't yet. Because they can begin to be so they must exist but they also to our knowledge don't exist. I personally think they originate from a lower plane of existence and we're pulling them out. Like if you took a 1D being and made it 3D, which is really similar to the case of the 4th. It's like writing a book here. They can be real people in concept but they don't exist, kind of? It's weird. It's not the same because they don't begin to inherit the same plane of existing but rather gain a kind of shadow on that plane. Nonexistences literally begin to have consciousness and existence here. It's just like... how I joined UMEA. It's a lot of conceptualism but basically it's changing planes of existence... and I..." Zad looked at the intently listening cross-legged jelly "I like talking about it all"

Rynth looked up at his eyes, gaining knowledge with that sentence "I'm going to never remember this afterwards. Am I?"

Zad looked saddened "You know it. You're gonna change planes of existence when I'm done. There is a possible way you remain in this existence and remember me but it's not a... it's... complicated. It's also random. I'll tell you if it happens though."

Rynth looked concerned "So the omnipotence I have doesn't cover what you're talking about?"

"It's classified. The omnipotence you have is basically moderated to be about existing in a universe, not anything here. You could learn about it like a normal creature could but you won't get any baseline knowledge at all about this plane of existence. But anywho would you want to get back to picking species and forms?" Zad asked, moving his bean bag over and sitting by the jellyfish.

"Oh! About that. Can I like, save this form? Like I don't wanna lose it... I like it for now I just wanna be able to go back to... exactly this, if I you know... hate it?" Rynth asked cautiously

"Yeah I can do that. I'm basically god, I have everything you've ever been right here." Zad chucked

"Wait so I'll lose my memories??" He asked confused

"What? No? It doesn't rewind time, it's like... I don't know what it's like but you'll be the same mentally and have the same memories"

Rynth went quiet before continuing "And theres no way I can remember you?"

Zad frowned "I can't say. Like I said yes but I can't make it happen."

"You didn't tell me the fifth did you? That was just the second one again" Rynth commented, realising the coverup

Zad sighed and looked down at the jellyfish "Yeah I.. slipped up. I'll just be real this time. I can't tell you anything about it unless it's where you are headed. You may be. Its the one thats random. I... I mean I guess I could tell you because you'll forget. Hm..."

"Tell me please I'm dying to know" Rynth pleaded

"I shouldn't. Even if you won't remember. It can really effect your choices here. But if you don't end up going there, sure, I'll tell you." Zad assured "Now, how about your species?" Zad asked them

"Fffine. Uh..." Rynth replied drawing back, looking down at the square tablet

He pressed the "sort by most fitting match" button to show several species. Among them lied his current form (a jellyfish), a Cerberus, alligator, crow, raven, stegosaurus, a standard looking wolf, a cat and a few others. Most ofd of which being a firefly, moth and a pufferfish. It sat uncomfortably high in his opinion.

"This is supposed to work?" He asked, looking unconfident with the viability of the picks

Zad gave an unassuming side frown "It's not perfect. It's sometimes based on cosmic stuff. Like you may have been likely to have not said jellyfish. Which honestly is a kinda weird pick for a temporary form. You've been an interesting one- I MEAN LIKE- that's- good. It's just surprising when most nonexistences say like dog or cat. They're usually unfit when theres high uncertainty. Or uh... there's a lot of reasons. I'd recommend not using that feature if it doesn't work"

"Oh uh... Alright..." He meekly replied, looking a tad overwhelmed at the explanation

He looked at the top 3.
Jellyfish, Cerberus, Pufferfish.

<Well> He thought to himself <I'm already a jellyfish so obviously not that.>

"H- hey are these like, anthropomorphic? I kinda like having this... this. This body. Existence?"

"Oh uh yeah I mean we'd go over that of course. Proportions are usually not something you'd wanna tweak directly. Trust me it's weird how moving stuff in real time can fuck with the minds of nonexistences." Zad recounted, looking grim as he remembered it "It's... concerning"

"Oh... Uh alright..." Rynth turned his eyes back to the mirror and pressed on the second option. Cerberus. He had it set to its default. Ashy gray, closer to soot.

As he pressed it he looked at himself. Fluffy blackish tail, 3 heads. A decent stature. A modestly well looking, sleek, debatably attractive canine body.

He felt dread wash over him. He felt so cut off. Like he was missing parts. The tail felt nice but that face, despite its look it just fucked him up inside in a way he didn't care to confront. Every face of that 3 headed wolf showed agony akin to being told you had been drinking for the last couple hours wasn't milk.

"DRAGON MAN PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK." He said. Turning quickly to Zadvack, paws clenched uncomfortably tight all whilst standing up very straight and stiffly. He looked like a businessman in the worst way possible. Lifeless.

"Oh gosh alright uh here gimmie a sec" Zad replied with concern, looking through menus

"Aug guh- There's so many mouths and eyes but so few arms..." He grabbed at his jaw and looked back, feeling around the sharp maw and its teeth. In a way that almost felt like he was comforting himself.

Then, back to a jellyfish. Blue and slippery yet slightly translucent skin. Many arms. He immediately hugged himself with them.

"Damn what happened? What's wrong?" Zad asked with concern. He had a vague idea of what happened but still wanted to ask

"Limbs... It's weird I think I got used to having this many limbs. And the eyes were really weird too." Rynth shakily confirmed, calming down and turning to his reflection and then back to Zadvack

"That's understandable. I think spider might fit you if you're looking for something similar? They've got back appendages that are manoeuvrable and somewhat lack a mouth?"

"I think I'll stick with this.. I like the appendages, They way they move now is fine. But uh. Really... REALLY weird question?" Rynth asked cautiously, looking a little self conscious at the ask

"Yeah anything. Trust me I've heard everything." Zad reassured, pulling up his menu again for notes

"Could I have teeth? Like the wolf guy. And paw pads. Those were nice. I liked how having big powerful jaws felt." Rynth meekly requested

"Teeth? Uh... I guess yeah I just don't know how I would go about giving you teeth."