-(What do I do if u can't find a Bill quote that works for the chapter?)-

---

Ok. Looks like it worked. I woke up in my body here, back in Xanthar's arms. At the same time I had left. Okay. Good. This meant… I could actually just go to sleep here and get some rest. I had been afraid I'd be back here the next morning and essentially get no sleep. But it worked! It really did! This meant I could jump back and forth between my Dimensional set and Seb's into the same Time when I left! Yaaaaaay~

Well… now I'm here. And… I realized I couldn't actually fall back asleep. I grumbled. I hated it when I couldn't fall asleep. Especially so when everyone else was asleep!

Uuuugh… you know, I totally understand how Luna could have 'gone evil' after centuries of being the only one awake while everyone else slept. Like, that would fucking suck. I guess I could just leave and find something else to do while everyone's sleeping. Like, I haven't worked on my art stuff for a while. Some quiet me time with a nice, calming activity sounded nice. I floated away from Xanthar, but he let out a quiet snuffle of distress, so I laid back down. Hm… this might be more difficult than I thought.

---

Steady… easy goes it...

My arms were stretched all across the house. Up stair cases, through doorways, around corners and up, up, up into my penthouse suite. I was using all the various triangles littered around the house to guide me. Even made it to my room without knocking anything over! Nice~

My art supplies were up in the hidden space. I set up all sorts of dimensional pockets up there. It made my room less cluttered. I know I could always expand the place, but I liked how it was just a tidy bedroom and with how much of a hoarder I was, it would have been covered in shit if I didn't have a designated place to put them.

Currently, I was trying to make a rainstorm in a bottle. Making clouds in a bottle was easy, children could do it, but I wanted a whole shebang! Dark rolling clouds, rain falling down. The works! I knew how to control the weather, all sorts of heating and cooling the atmosphere until everything clicked together into a reaction… but putting a storm inside something so small? Much harder. Not the least because there just wasn't enough space to even have the atmospheric pressure I needed.

I could cheat with magic, but that wasn't as much fun as doing it manually.

I pulled the water molecules together, heating it up with one hand and cooling with the other. My hands were squeezed inside the bottle so I could work, but they also ended up forming an airtight seal around the bottleneck, my arms filling up the space and corking it. I squinted, moving the bottle closer to one of the triangles so I could See better. I could almost see a mini cloud, but it wasn't good enough. Well, I needed to add some sort of contaminant for the water vapor to stick to. Like dust. Ah… my body expels carbon dust from my seams, not my arms and legs. So I couldn't just use my natural dust. I didn't want to cheat and create carbon. Eh… did I have any matches?

I grew another arm to send through the house. We have a gas stove. But we didn't have any matches… did we? No, we didn't. Why would we need them when we had plenty of other things (and people) capable of creating fire? Well… I figured using my own flames would still be 'cheating' so maybe something else?

I twisted some paper napkins into a thin line, like the wick of a candle. I continued attaching more paper onto the 'wick' and slowly but surely, it formed a 'rope' of twisted paper. One end was in front of the stove, in perfect position to light up if I turned the stove on. The other end was growing as I grabbed more paper to twist into it. I had to keep growing more arms to have enough hands to do this. I carefully extended this paper 'wick' out of the kitchen, down the hall, through three doors, a set of stairs, couldn't take the shortcut through the painting since I couldn't build my paper through it (and I didn't want to set the painting on fire!), took a hard left, up some stairs, several hallways and finally up to my room. I pulled my hands out of my bottle and placed the end of my 'wick' into it.

And now… showtime.

I lit the stove, letting the end of the paper catch fire and burn. The thin fibers crumpled under the heat, the orange glow of the flame going around and through the paper. It was going slower than I thought, the fire had to go through all the twisting I did. It was almost like watching those tile things falling over. What were they called again? Ah… tile thing. With the dots on them. They were made for a game where you matched the number of dots. But then people started stacking them into long lines and into cool shapes and then pushed them over so they pushed the others over? Fuck, I couldn't remember what they were called.

Well this was kinda like that, in terms of me watching the reaction go along the thing I built. It took a rather long time for the fire to go all the way through the paper. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't run out of energy and just go out part way through. The paper provided the fuel for the fire, but even so...

I ignored the trail of soot as I watched the progress of the flame through the paper. All through the house. It was getting to the bottle now. Finally! I had my hands holding everything ready, waiting. I only had one chance at this. If I messed up, I would have to do this all over again!

(And yes, I know I could have just set something on fire and carried it up to the room before it burned out, but shhhh!)

The fire burned into the bottle, and I immediately corked it back up by sticking my hands inside. I watched the smoke swirl around inside as the last of the paper burned, it was trying to burn but there was limited oxygen inside. In fact it was all used up and the fire went out. The bottle was filled with smoke, and condensation. Just… water droplets. It wasn't the same as rain though. I wanted clouds! I wanted lightning!

Okay, lightning might be a bit much for the inside of a bottle but still!

Hm… it really wasn't working. There just wasn't enough space inside the bottle to make a true storm. Cloud chamber? Yup. Full weather system? Not gonna happen so long as I'm still working within the limitations of physics.

But… who said I had to?

Physics didn't always work the same in every dimension after all. I suspect it's because Ax gets lazy sometimes and just slap dashes it. It works because it works. So… by that logic, it works because it works would mean...

My fingers flicked and I adjusted the 'rules of the physical world' within the bottle. It was cheating, but I was still gonna build the storm myself! I was simply making it possible! I adjusted the bottle's shape, turning it into a snowglobe just to give myself a better presentation once I finished it.

Heck, if a pegasus could capture storm clouds in little bottles, I could too! I know it's a child's cartoon, but fuck it. I want a storm bottle!

Heck, this was a great way to spend my time while waiting for Xanthar to wake up!

I relaxed as I worked, nudging molecules bit by bit. This was… very calming actually…

...I twitched when I felt something poking me. I opened my eye (when did I close it?) and let out a yawn. Whoa. What? Did… I actually fall asleep?

I was poked again. Huh. Where? On my arm? I looked down at the long black noodles coming out of my sides. They stretched all across the room, everywhere. I looked down the line of one of my arms to see it disappear around a doorway. What was I doing?

I felt a poke again. It wasn't from this room, Xanthar was still asleep and he certainly wasn't poking me. I sent my gaze through the house, searching for the source of the feeling. I found Toobie and 8-Ball squatting beside one of my arms. 8-Ball poked it again, watching the way it wobbled back like a rubber band. Toobie jumped onto my arm and stuck on, making the limb dip before bouncing back up. I didn't know my arms were so elastic. I stretched then out to do stuff all the time but I didn't normally leave them out like this.

I watched as 8-Ball grabbed hold of my arm and began to swing it like a jump rope. Toobie jumped off and back to the ground so he could bounce over my arm as it was swung down. It was very cute. The light sting of my arm hitting the ground made me twitch. It didn't hurt, exactly. Well, I didn't want to stop their fun so I left them to it and checked on what my other arms were doing.

One was wrapped around the kitchen table, my hand inside the pantry. I wiggled my fingers, feeling something squishy in my grasp. A Look revealed I was caressing a Blukin, a fleshy root vegetable with the texture of raw meat. Tasted like it too. Was I attempting to cook in my sleep?

Another arm was inside Teeth's room. Oops. I hope I didn't knock anything over. I couldn't see inside from the walls, having given them that bit of privacy. I could check on him through the marking I placed on him during our Deal, but I didn't want to invade his privacy for something non-life threatening. I felt something warm on my hand. I had no idea what it was and I was too afraid to find out. I tried to pull my hand away but it was very firmly pressed between whatever I was touching. Clamped between something wet. I wiggled and slid my hand out from between whatever those warm things were. I thought I felt it move and quickly pulled my hand out of the room, closing the door behind it. Nope. Not gonna think about what that was. Nope. Nope.

Another couple of arms were up in my room...

...along with a swirling thunderstorm.

Uuuugh. Looks like my storm in a bottle escaped the bottle. It was in my room now. And It was raining everywhere. There was water pooling out the door and trickling down the stairs. The place was a mess. My bed was soaked! I mean, I never used it, but still!

I pulled up the bottle and shook it a little, warming up the inside before bringing it up to the dark storm cloud and sucking it inside. I corked it with a stopper and set to work cleaning my room. My poor mattress was utterly soaked! Good thing all my important stuff was upstairs in a hidden subspace. I took the bottled storm and stretched my arm up into said subspace. I found my experiments room and found a place to put the bottle. It was then that I noticed some things had been… Moved?

Huh? Did I knock some stuff around while asleep? Maybe one of my arms came up to mess around and then went back down? Eh. Whatever. Nothing was broken and I easily put things back where they belonged as I made a new section to put the bottle in. I say bottle, but it's more like an orb. A snow globe without the base. I could still see the storm swirling around inside. Rather pretty. Even as it flashed with mini lightning. I left it floating above a pedestal and went back down into my room to finish cleaning.

I was able to pull the water out of the furniture. Off the ground, off the walls, condensing them all in my hand. What do I do with all this water? Ah. I could water my gardens. Brilliant.

As I sent my hand with the water sphere down to the gardens where Xanthar liked to hang out, I felt another sting as someone kicked an arm. I looked over to see Pyronica lying on the ground. Oh. She tripped over my arm. I could see her grumbling and staring at the thin black thing incredulously. Ah… maybe I should get my arms back...

Oh, PaciFire was poking at one of my other arms. He strumed it, pulling at the limb and making a surprisingly musical sound. Huh. I didn't know my arms could be strummed like that! Note to self, play around with that later. I'm a musical instrument! Who knew?

It took a while to get all my limbs back in order. I started pulling my arms back in one by one, leaving the one 8-Ball and Toobie were playing with, since I didn't want to stop their fun. Ah… it was… nice. This calm sense of just… existing here. In the moment. I normally rushed to fill my time with anything and everything to occupy myself. The noise in my head made it hard to have a quiet moment without stressing me out. But this was… nice.

Ah… I used to be able to have quiet moments. I'm sure I did. Yes. I did. Long ago. Back when things weren't always so complicated. Back when I didn't have this burning inside me. But… right now… even though I could feel my power levels as high as they always were, I didn't feel uncomfortable. I was… calm. Content.

...and that wasn't just because I was getting Content out of Xanthar either. This was my own. My own feelings. The buzzing beneath my shell wasn't itchy. Not to say I was completely good, I still had all the aches of too much crammed into too little, but it was bearable. Lying quietly in Xanthar's arms, not doing anything, was actually kinda nice.

A part of me wanted to call this laziness, but another part of me wanted to say 'shut up bitch and enjoy the moment!'

So I shut up and enjoyed the moment. I laid back, nestling further into Xanthar's fur and relaxed. I could still feel one of my arms being used as a toy by 8-Ball, and that was fine. I closed my eye and just… didn't think about anything in particular. There was nothing to worry about right now. Just me. Here. I could worry over things later. I didn't have to do that right now.

And that was… ok.

---

Xanthar did eventually wake up. And that was my cue to get breakfast ready. I made tomato soup for Xanthar and Kryptos. Rice and fish for everyone else. "So, did you have fun playing with my arm?" I asked 8-Ball as I handed him and Toobie their bowls. He gasped, "Wait, that was your- I'm sorry! I didn't-- I shouldn't have-- I know you don't like it when people touch you without asking!" I patted his head. "It's fine. MY fault for leaving them everywhere. And you had fun?"

He nodded hesitantly. I glowed. "Then everything's fine." I was in a good mood. In fact...

Hey. You know what? We should go to a spa today." I told them all. There was some tension. Keyhole hesitantly asked, "Are you sure you're going to be okay with that?" I thought about it. "I won't be getting a massage. But I do want to be pampered. And I think it's been too long since you've all been pampered too."

I saw them glance at each other. "Alright. Sounds fun. But… be careful, okay Bill?" Pyronica took my hand. I shrugged. "I dunno. I just… feel kinda good today. So… I thought… it would be nice to do something relaxing…"

"That's great." Kryptos grinned at me. "You're… getting better? More comfortable?" He seemed happy for me. Everyone did. I nodded. "Yeah. I've finally found someone who can help me with getting used to being touched more firmly. I think… I wanna see if I can handle strangers… a-as long as you guys are with me!" I added quickly. Still didn't want to be alone with strangers (especially with what happened with me as Miz). But it wasn't as scary when I was a triangle. People wouldn't dare to mess with me. I hoped. But I still wanted the people I trusted with me. In case something happened. I curled my hand around Pyronica's.

"If you're sure." Pyronica held me up to her face. "And if anything makes you scared or uncomfortable, tell me. Tell one of us. Okay?" I nodded. The Cyclopian sighed. "Well. Here's hoping to have a good time."

---

We did have a nice time. I got a pedicure and manicure. I didn't have toes or nails, but like the other times I've done this, they did let me soak my feet and painted my hands and feet as if I had nails. It's been too long since I've relaxed like this. My bricks still ached but I couldn't get the massages. Too dangerous. But the acid bath was soothing. Cleaned out my seams of built up carbon dust until I was shining and glossy all over.

Teeth offered to help with my bricks. We were in a sauna again, like last time. Well. I guess it made sense. Private booth and all that. I felt a little more confident this time around. Still burned a triangle into the room to watch though. I laid down on the bench and tried to relax. Teeth reached out for me. "I'm going to touch you now." He placed his hands on my back, I sighed. He rubbed along my bricks, feeling them out and sending a wonderful sensation along my bricks. I really did need to see how my nerves were set up beneath my brick shell. It was brick, a hard carbon shell.

...Which still felt sensations. Why was that? I relaxed slowly as the touching went on and Teeth announced each thing he would do. He was always considerate with my personal space. I sighed again, slumping into the bench. This was nice. I wondered briefly if I could get Fordsie to give me a back massage too? Not as Bill of course. But as Xin? Or Jan? Maybe Miz? That… might be nice.

"How're you feeling?" Teeth asked quietly. I hummed, glowing softly. "Really nice. I missed this." I shifted a little when he backed off to let me sit up. "Thank you for this. I can massage you next." he laughed. "Sure. My jaw's been a little sore all day."

I paused. "A-ah… Is that right?"

He shrugged. "I feel like I was chewing on something tough. Dunno what it could be. I didn't seem to have eaten any of my pillows…"

"Oh… yeah that's really, super weird." I tried my best to sound casual. Ah… so that was what my hand was doing in his room while I was asleep. Uuuuuuuuhhhhh...

Teeth laughed. "Well, whatever it was, I think… it tasted kinda bitter, but… like… not in a bad way?" I blinked. I tasted bitter? Was it from the carbon dust? I sat back up when Teeth scooted away. "Well, I've looked up many types of techniques for easing jaw pain, so I think I can help you with this." He rubbed at his lower jaw (belly) and shrugged. "Sure." He laid down on his back and I reached out to begin kneading at his flesh. This was kinda fun. I liked touching things. Squish. Squish.

"That feels pretty good." Teeth sighed. I felt around his jaw, Scanning for any signs of damage or split muscle fibers. Well, the soreness could mean he snapped some muscle cells, or over taxed them. I didn't find much cellular damage, but I kneaded the tightened areas until they let up their contraction and relaxed. Teeth was groaning, "That's good…" He waved a hand in the air. "We need to do this more often. Like, massage parties! With everyone."

"I feel like we considered that before, and forgot about it." That happened a lot. Life got busy, things got forgotten. I leaned over to hug Teeth. "It'll be something for next time. If we remember." I leaned back and winced at the sweat on me. I didn't sweat, but Teeth sure did. "Also, I kinda wanna wash you know." I pointed out. Teeth groaned. "I don't think I'm open to that sort of after care. Go ask Kryptos instead. He'd like that."

"Kryptos would like to get bathed by me?" I blinked. Teeth snorted. "Yeah. Trust me on this."

I dunno… Kryptos was really independent. He hated depending on others in fact. His pride probably wouldn't let him agree to such a...

"Yes please!" Was Kryptos's reply when I asked him later. We were meeting up to go swimming together at the pool area of the Spa and they required people to shower first. I blinked. "You really want me to wash you?"

Kryptos flushed. "W-well if you were offering a-and stuff." He shrugged. "I have trouble scrubbing behind me." He added quickly. "S-so it would be nice to have some… ah…" He fiddled with his gloves, nervous about something. Ah. Was he embarrassed to need help? I could see small arcs of electricity sparking past the gloves and along his arms. "Oh right. I won't get electrocuted if I helped you." I giggled. "Y-yes. That's exactly it!" He smiled back.

"Well what are you waiting for? The sooner we're cleaned off, the sooner we can go swimming! I wanna try on my new swimsuit!" I grabbed his arm and flew over to the showers. "New swimsuit?!"

---

Showering with Kryptos was fun. His sparks made me feel tingly. It tickled. Also I think I actually really liked caring for someone's needs like this. I liked scrubbing him with the soft sponge. I liked the suds and bubbles from the soap. I liked stroking his arms and legs as he made happy sounds. I wanted to make him feel good. Like I made Teeth feel good. Kryptos almost fell asleep on me actually. I guess I was good at this? The thought made me happy. Being good at making others feel nice was… comforting.

I was used to making people uncomfortable. Even with my friends, I still scared them sometimes. Or made them unhappy. I was always making people unhappy...

I pulled Kryptos into a hug. He stirred sleepily. "Bill?" I rumbled against him. "I'll rinse you off in a bit, okay?" he reached back to pat my side. "Are you having a moment?" He asked quietly. I had my face buried in his back. "I just… Need…" I couldn't find my words, but he nodded. "Take all the time you need."

I laid against him for a few minutes, doing my mental equivalent of breathing slowly until I finally pulled away and turned the hot water on. "Hey, I'm gonna go put on my swimsuit alright?" I grinned at him before floating out of the showers and into the changing room. I could feel his worried look. I pressed a hand to my closed eye and shuddered. I'm going to be happy today. I am. I am. This is a day for fun and relaxation.

So I put this behind me and focused on having fun. I pulled on my newests outfit, sliding the strings up my 'hips' and blushing a little.

Kryptos's stare didn't settle my nerves at all. I flushed, almost regretting this. "I-it's cute right?" I pulled at the strings a little. I didn't usually feel embarrassed no matter what I was wearing, but the way he was looking at me felt… weird. Not in a bad way, just… weird?

Kryptos hesitated for a second, but then he stepped forward and took my hand. "You look lovely." He said simply. I flushed darker. "T-thanks." I didn't understand why I was so flustered. I've been complimented by Pyronica everytime we went clothes shopping together, but it felt different here. Now. I couldn't understand it. Kryptos looked at me before sighing. "Wanna go swim now?"

I nodded quickly, feeling warm all over and not knowing why. Did… did Kryptos think I… was... w͔̠͇̫͇̩a͖̼̮͇s̝̜̻̲̳.̟͔̠̣̹̬̳͘.̦̮̣͇͘.̵̯̳̱̱̩̦...

I shook it off. Wasn't important. I cheered as I jumped into the pool. (After I scanned and cleaned the whole thing of course. Do you have any idea how many germs were in there? Eewwww all the contaminants!) The water sizzled against my bricks. Ah, my temperature was too high.

The rest of the spa trip was uneventful… unless you counted me evaporating the pool and replacing it with nutella. Hey, who wouldn't want to swim in hot liquid nutella?

---

I realized I hadn't hung out with Tina or my other mortal friends in a while. Well, she was kinda busy lately. Apparently she was getting into politics, studying it and sitting in on her mother's meetings. I laid around in Dimension 52, watching Jessie give a lecture. Tina came by to visit sometimes. In fact today was one such time and I wanted to surprise her. Also, there were some new priestesses arriving today! I was excited to meet everyone.

Oh right. Today was also me and Ax's first test of his interaction with mortals. There was a proto-type Seal (in the form of a ring around his finger instead of a headband, that's way too big) that we made together. He wished to speak with Jheselbraum. His Oracle. Well, considering the purpose of an Oracle was to relay the words of their god, Ax being unable to properly talk to her must have been a real worry of his. I didn't mind acting as a middleman between them, but every worshiper wants to meet their god, so I really wanted to help him do so.

Well, that would be later. When Jheselbraum's done with her lectures, greeting the newbies and everything else she has to do as the head of the temple, as the one tasked with upholding this one safe haven in the multiverse. As more uprisings happened, as more fighting spread across the multiverse, more and more people were searching for their own safe havens. Many come here. Others have pledged themselves to various gods and hoped to have their protection. I've had a few people ask me. Me. Of all deities! Just goes to show how awful things have gotten.

....I didn't like to think about it. And when I did, I was reminded of Pynelope. Of how hard she fought, up until the end, to try and do something. Anything. To try and make a difference. To make the world better. She'd tried so hard. And she'd gotten killed for it.

And it was my fault.

All my fault.

Always my fault.

She'd called me a selfish coward once. Because I refused to interfere. I went around taking down criminals here and there, but that didn't do anything to fix anything. Not at all.

...I hadn't wanted to go to war, but it was already happening. And here I was, ignoring it all. Pretending like it doesn't have anything to do with me. Because I was too afraid to do anything about it.

"Miz? Are you alright?" Jheselbraum's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I wiped at my face. I didn't want to answer. But I could feel her gentle gaze on me. I whined when she placed a hand on my head. "Miz, what's wrong?" I looked around at all the other shrine maidens, looking up at me with tender worry. I couldn't stand it. Why wasn't anyone doing anything about it? Did I really have to be the one to do it?

"I don't know what to do." I whined, nuzzling into Jessie's hand. "What should I do?" Someone, anyone, please just tell me what to do! She sighed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ah… yeah. But I couldn't talk about this right in front of the other maidens. So I shook my head, staring at my sister imploringly until she sighed. "Alright. I shall ask you later." I felt her take her hand off my head as she turned back to everyone else. "So we shall need to expand the dorms again for the new arrivals."

I latched onto that, eager to take my mind off things. "I can do that!" I waved my hand in the air. If there was one thing I've mastered, it was interior design and construction! (Huh… now that I thought about it… my Triangle family had been carpenters… even if I was never allowed to learn it… was there some kinda 'building stuff' instinct I might have inherited???)

Jessie smiled. "Well, that would be quite helpful. Riza, Hethel, would you two accompany her for that?" Those two were relatively new, Jessie probably sent them to 'help' me just to keep them out of the way while she and the others worked on everything else. I didn't mind. Jessie actually sent a lot of the newbies my way recently. It wasn't like I was alone with them. Jessie had her own eyes all over this Dimension. It was Hers afterall. She was a goddess in her own right. I swear the Maidens here worshipped her more than Ax. Not that it mattered, Ax wasn't in any danger of losing power.

I waved at the two maidens. Riza was a Snakalope. He had a rather impressive set of antlers. Once again, Shrine Maiden was a title given to all who came to this temple and devoted themselves to worshiping the AXOLOTL. Sex or gender had nothing to do with it. So… Riza, Riza, Riza… for what reason did you come here to give yourself over to the god of all? Running away from an arranged marriage? Oh, how scandalous~ But the fact that he was allowed through the barrier I maintained around the entire dimension meant that he didn't mean to harm any of the people here. Not at the time at least. My Curse wouldn't kill anyone here because that'd be breaking the no-violence law. But if anyone's levels of Malice rise up or if they're about to harm someone physically, Jessie would deal with them. I've taught her how. Her powers have been growing over the years, it's simply how things worked. The older something was, the more time they have to let their power accumulate and grow.

Er… I was older than nearly all the other gods. The only Beings even close were dad (who's waaaaaay older) and Time Baby (I still don't know if he's older or younger than me…) Who's the next oldest down from us? Er… there was that god of Magic who separated his own section of the multiverse all to himself way back when. Even the Federation didn't have a hold over those dimensions. They even had their own Time Deity there since the magic god refused to let Time Baby mess with his section.

Still don't know how he convinced Time Baby to let him have it. I guess Time Baby didn't care so long as that guy stayed in his own section and didn't touch the rest of the multiverse.

Of course, that didn't stop me from going into that guy's section and spreading some Knowledge around. Heck, that's how I was able to be summoned by people from there. What was that god's name again? Glossi-something? I didn't care enough to Look that up. Still, I kinda wanted to meet him. Ask him how he went about splitting his own mini-verse away from the greater multiverse. I'd really like to know. I wanted to do that too.

(Maybe then, I could also create a safe haven for people who didn't want to deal with the Federation's shit anymore. Could I do that? To help people without starting a fight with the Federation? This was a potential solution I only thought up JUST now. I mean, the only places I had to offer right now was the Nightmare Realm (a bad idea for housing refugees, the place wasn't safe) and the Death Star (but I wasn't about to just let a bunch of strangers live in my house! The prisoners in the basement were bad enough!) Iznang wasn't mine to freely open and much too small.

Well there was the third dimension and Earth, but… yeah, no.

....oh shit I just realized the Penis Planet™ technically counts as a safe haven free from Federation control.

"Um… Miz? Are you okay?" Riza asked, tossing one of his floppy ears over his shoulder as the three of us walked off to the edge of the temple. I blinked back into awareness. Hethel, an Orca, waved a hand in front of my face. I backed away. "Sorry, I was just… thinking." She seemed to shrug it off. "So…" Hethel looked back at the edge of the temple. "I wonder why the Oracle only asked for the three of us to do this? We don't even have any building supplies."

"Oh, nah." I waved her off. "I got this." I turned towards the wall and raised a hand. Space twisted and a circular ramp leading downward appeared (I would have made stairs, but there were many people here who weren't capable of using stairs, like the centaurtaurs for example). I pulled out some of my own energy to convert into matter and Pasted a copy of the dorms. An entire new wing of the temple, taking up no space at all from the outside. Anchored into place to prevent any collapses, accidental or otherwise.outside, yet extending deep inside with three more floors and rooms to match. Even added another bathing area, food hall, laundry room, crafts room (filled with looms for weaving cloth, sewing supplies… everything you need for textile work. Dimension 52 was self sustaining. They made their own cloth, clothing and blankets), an 'outdoor' type area with a huge grassland with a forest and an artificial star (for raising animals for their fur, farming, getting wood…) and I could add new areas whenever we needed them. I was rather proud of the full grown Egg-plant trees I'd grown. All the joys of eating eggs while still being vegan. Huh. Need to see about growing one of those in Blue's dimension for him. See if he likes eggs. (I'm still working on making protein-plants that're more like actual meat. I'm getting close. My farming planets are great for that sort of thing.)

....yes, it was overkill, and I was rather drained after creating all this, but this was for my sister. I was going to make sure it was the best damn expansion she was gonna get! Besides, it wasn't like I was just doing this 'out of the goodness of my heart' I lowered my arms after I double and triple checked that I anchored everything into place. No instability. I wouldn't dare to risk that sort of thing here. "Kay~" I sang. "That should do it. The rooms are still empty though. Fill it with what you need when the new maidens move in." I turned to see Riza and Hethel staring at me slack jawed (which looked kinda scary on Hethel since her mouth was so big. Kinda looked like she wanted to eat me…)

"Um… guys?" I waved a hand in front of their faces and the two came back to themselves. Riza waved his arms around wildly. "W-wh-what was that?!" he gestured at the area we were in. The slope downward into this new floor was around us after all, it was easier for me to build it that way. "I… built a new living area? Because we needed to expand the temple?" I responded slowly, I knew these two were new, but they should have heard about me, right?

Hethel was looking around. "I thought you were a healer!"

"....I'm a multi-purpose talent." I explained. The two didn't stop staring at me though. Ah… I even felt a twinge of Worship in there. Why was this so amazing to them? Creation of subspaces wasn't all that impressive anyway. You could literally buy sub-space houses on the market (granted, they're expensive) and most municipal buildings (such as hospitals) have various layers of folded space for storage purposes--

But they seemed so impressed for some reason?! I didn't really get it.

I was saved from further awkwardness by an announcement softly speaking throughout Dimension 52. "All maidens to the greeting hall please." So I rocked on my feet and went back up the ramp. "Come on, you heard Jessie! This means the new arrivals are here!" Wow, Jessie must have got all the welcome events set up. The new robes, the food hall, everything to help the newbies feel at home. I didn't really like all that feel good saccharine sweet sorts of social get-togethers, but this was kinda nice. In a weird, sappy way. Or maybe there was something wrong with me for being annoyed at these super feel-good stuff. They just feel fake, when people are that nice to other people. But I can accept it when it's Jessie. She's supposed to be nice to people, or at the very least, civil. Heck, she's still civil towards ME even when I'm Bill!

I didn't line up with the other maidens, I wasn't one after all. And it would feel weird to pretend to be one. I hung back, behind everyone as the portal flashed and a crowd of people came through. From what Jessie said earlier, these were a whole batch of new converts who were coming here to escape the Federation. Eh… so they were more like refugees. There was no requirement for coming here, you didn't need to convert, but I suppose this group wanted to do so just as a precaution because they were afraid of being turned away. I frowned at that. That wasn't fair. I was going to tell them that worship didn't work that way and watching them try to do so only irritated me. I think Jessie noticed, since she reached back, over the heads of the other maidens and placed her hand on mine. "It's alright." She said gently, stroking through my hair. I settled down, but I didn't stop being upset.

A man stepped up to the front of the group, must have been the leader. "I thank thee, oh Jheselbraum, great Oracle." He tilted his head back, baring his throat. It made my hackles rise. The lot of them were so pathetic. I shook that thought off, looking away so I wouldn't have to watch them. I didn't like it. When people went about making themselves look so helpless in front of me… made me want to take advantage of it. I closed my eyes and breathed, trying so hard to not think about that.

I was so hungry…

Damn. Needed something to eat/refill my energy. Shouldn't have used up so much so quickly. I didn't think it'd be an issue. This was a safe space, I thought I wouldn't need power if a fight started. I forgot about the other problems with being low on energy.

While Jessie talked to them, hopefully getting them to stop acting the way they were, I couldn't take it anymore and had to leave the room. I saw Blue Rose watching me as I left. Uwu… I hope she didn't scold me for ditching them later. I had to leave! I did! Riza and Hethel could tell Jessie where I built the new area.

I got to the dining hall. It was set up for the new arrivals, the tables were practically groaning under the weight of all the food. My mouth watered. I know this feast was for the welcome party, but I was just so hungry. I swallowed, looked around, went to a table in the corner. I was going to limit myself to just this one table. I won't touch the others. It's just one table. I sat down and couldn't hold back anymore, not when my insides ached and I craved.

I'd finished off the whole table (might have eaten a stool by mistake during my feeding frenzy…) by the time everyone came in. Jessie looked over at me, but said nothing. She simply gestured to the other tables, "Feel free to eat. You all must be famished and tired from your journey."

Leader-guy knelt down and bared himself again. "Thank you for your kindness." I wiped off my mouth, eating the napkin afterward. Two of Jessie's eyes were watching me. She looked almost worried underneath the serene pleasant expression who wore constantly. Probably didn't want to alarm the group. The other Shrine Maidens were bustling about to help seat the refugees. I rubbed my stomach, deciding I was feeling satisfied enough to help out. I wasn't dressed like the other maidens, or even like the refugees (they had thrown the robes on over their original clothing) so I got some confused looks. They didn't say anything though, which I was glad for. I just realized I wasn't up for socializing with any of them right now. I saw my chance to slip out of the room and I did.

My own room was still here. I shut myself in and curled up on the bed.

I didn't feel very good and I didn't know why. I kinda wanted to leave and go home, but Ax wanted to come by today. I had to be here for that.

"Miz?" I rolled over and looked up to see Jessie at the door. "May I come in?"

I snorted. "You don't have to ask. This is your territory." Jessie actually rolled all seven eyes at me before she stepping inside and closed the door. "It's only polite to ask." She said, almost lecturing. Likely thinking of all the times I've barged in on her unannounced. I whined. "I forget okay?" She sat down on the ground beside my bed, still towering over me. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I'm just being stupid…" I mumbled. Jessie sighed, lying a hand on my head. "Really now?" She asked. "So it's not that you're incredibly drained from going above and beyond what I needed in regards to construction of a couple new rooms?" She almost sounded sarcastic. I grumbled, scooting closer to the edge of the bed so she could pet me better. "Maybe."

"What's been bothering you today?" Jessie asked next instead of pursuing the previous topic. I shrugged. "I just… can't stand what's going on." I admitted. The world was falling apart. Things have been getting worse ever since Pynelope died. The rules were stricter than ever. The citizens were unhappy enough to begin acting out. Riots started. Protests were organized. And the Federation responded with force.

I broke up a few fights by putting myself between it all, with an excuse of being bored as my reason for interfering. But it wasn't often. I really didn't like doing it. There was so much Unhappiness in the air and I didn't know what to do.

Well, there was that idea I had of separating my own section of the multiverse. That was one possible solution. But would it even work?

"What should I do?" I repeated. Jessie looked down at me. "About what?"

"About everything!" I whined. "You're getting a new group of refugees, and they're not gonna be the last. There's something seriously wrong with the multiverse and it's only gonna get worse. And I don't know what to do to fix it!" I almost screamed, frustration streaming from me.

For a while, Jessie didn't say anything. She continued to stroke my hair until I settled down again. Finally, "You know it's not your responsibility to fix the world."

"Great power. Great responsibility." I grumbled. Jessie didn't get the reference, but she still shook her head. "I'm serious. It's not your responsibility. If you want to help the world and make it better, that's fine. But don't think of it as something you must do. It's not your responsibility."

"Then who's is it?!" I almost spat at her.

"No one." She told me.

And I couldn't believe her. There had to be someone to do this. There had to be a point to it all.

But I didn't know. And Jessie told me to go to sleep and stop worrying about it.

I wasn't going to stop worrying.

But I did go to sleep.

I had to leave and return to Seb just to take my mind off this topic for a while.

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