Arkay grunted as he moved sheets of paper across the table. Considering he had recently blown up a Voidborn fortress, everyone seemed to be treating him rather calmly. Sure, they weren’t being the friendliest of beings, but they were understanding at least. Arkay however couldn’t say the same about himself. Over the last few weeks, his understanding of who he was and what he wanted had been completely eroded away. The smart beings had finally clarified what Arkay was, and it turns out… Arkay was nothing.
It turned out that, after millions of years trying to fit in with his fellow deities back in Kinisis’s universe, Arkay just adapted to whoever was talking to him, whoever he was standing with. To the point that he would just… become whatever everyone else was. Arkay’s own physical form would regularly change, in an attempt to blend in and comply with the beings around him.
Within his old universe, this hadn’t affected Arkay too much. Outside though, surrounded by various groups and cults? Arkay was finding that his own personality was being scrambled. He didn’t know who he was any more, aside from the fact that his name was Arkay. And now these bastards, after so much coaxing, were waiting for Arkay to come to a decision. A decision about how he wanted to spend the rest of his future.
Most of this involved reading through a lot of offers. It turned out that Arkay was rather unique, so people wanted to… use him. There were some very lucrative offers here. There were also a lot of very risky offers. A Voidborn sect that wanted to research his powers. A Life Goddess who wanted to create clones of him. A Decay Lord group that were looking into his adaptive powers. One Life Goddess who wanted to help him build a universe. Another Life Goddess willing to give him whatever he wanted in exchange for having thousands kids with her.
None of these interested Arkay. In fact, out of the massive pile of offers, he had picked out three that were… bearable.
The first was a job working and training alongside Divine Guardians for a large group of Life Goddesses, the idea being that his “pliability” would rub off on the Divine Guardians and make them far easier to train.
The second was to allow himself to be experimented on by a group of Decay Lords, but to reduce his weird adaptiveness, not reproduce it. It wasn’t optimal, but at least this group offered some safety and security, as well as a promise that they wouldn’t try to clone him.
As for the final offer… well… It was nothing more than a simple desk job. Reviewing and archiving data in isolation. It would mean working in a tiny box all on his own, but everything else would be supplied…
A knock on the glass panel behind Arkay caught him off guard. He had forgotten that he was essentially in a cell, his every move being watched.
“Hello, Arkay…”
At least this was someone Arkay liked.
“Hi, Retvik. Are you alright? I was worried about you.”
“I am fine. But I am worried about you. They have dropped a lot of… choices in your lap.”
Arkay shrugged as he turned around to properly face Retvik. Something about his friend seemed different. Retvik seemed… bigger and stronger. Or was he smaller and weaker?
“Yeah, they have. But I’m really hoping that this time, maybe, I’ll be able to settle down and get on with my stupid existence.”
“Your existence is not stupid.”
Arkay tutted at Retvik’s simple response. “Yeah it is. I unwillingly try to conform with whoever I am with. That’s why…” Arkay paused, eyeing the piles of paper briefly. “That’s why… I am accepting this one…”
With a small smile, Arkay picked up one of the three offers he had picked out and pressed it against the glass so Retvik could read it. After a moment, Retvik grunted.
“You want isolation?”
“I think it’s for the best for me.”
“What about us?”
Arkay’s smile immediately faded away as he stared blankly at Retvik. “Oh… I… I… I hadn’t… considered that…”
“Well, it is not like we had much of a chance to be with each other anyway…” Retvik sighed. “But perhaps a long distance relationship would be better for you anyway? You always… seem to get scared whenever someone gets too close. But with a long range relationship, we could… gradually close the gap until you feel more comfortable.”
Arkay shrugged. “That sounds nice and all, but that puts a ton of strain on you, doesn’t it? Don’t you want a… a real relationship?”
Retvik grunted, leaning against the glass panel. “In the future, perhaps. But I could do with a break as well. After all, I got a divorce, what, 3 months ago? Time is such a funny thing now.”
“Well…” Arkay considered Retvik’s words. “If you are happy to… I don’t see why we can’t… try…”
“Would you like that?”
“I would.”
Both Retvik and Arkay smiled, silently agreeing to their little agreement. But it didn’t last long, as they could hear someone approaching, probably one of the Decay Lords, checking in to see if Arkay had made a choice yet.
“Once you are settled down, we will arrange and swap contact details, then go from there, alright?” Retvik smiled some more.
“Sounds like a plan…” Arkay beamed, actually feeling somewhat happy for once.