Chapter Text
Boon County was not the safest of towns to live amidst. It's a town that was run rampant with chaos, mess, and like every where else among the face of the planet, death. That's where you come in. You're an owner of a small business, a mix of both keeping a graveyard and running a morgue. Despite being the only employee there since nobody else really wants to be around dead bodies all the time, you make a decent enough living. Sure, your living space is an area behind all the morgue stuff, but hey, that makes getting from work to home far easier for you. You wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, head into the next room over, and then boom! At work already.
Of course, work isn't all calm and serene. Autopsies would be gruesome, the paperwork was hell to get completed, and the amount of people grieving was something that had weighed on your mind. How people talked about death had never made any sense to you, for people would talk about how their souls were in better places, how they were with god or whatever else they believed in, all that jazz. To you, death was a one-and-done thing. No afterlife, no reincarnation, just pure darkness that swallowed you whole with no care. But that's the thing with life and death. Both were cruel, however only one managed to get the favor of the public.
From the cradle to cremation, you had seen life as nothing but a coping mechanism for the inevitable. How people pray for most their lives, went to sermons and churches, held prayer beads close and read out of bibles and other religious scriptures depending on beliefs. None of it made any sense. If anything, you welcomed death with open arms. Not that you were suicidal, no, rather that you had accepted that one day you would meet the cold embrace of death. Religion just felt like a blanket to drape over the shoulders of those who were afraid of the nothingness that came after their demise, which is why you never really bought into the whole thing.
Amidst a particularly dark evening, darkness shrouding the town beneath the lack of light via a new moon and paisleys of stars painted among the hollow abyss of the sky beneath the shawl of cumulus clouds, you were busy with work. Autopsy. A body found off the riverside that some had reported. Suicide, due to how you could find no other trace DNA of anybody else upon the body, but injury and internal bleeding from within. They must've jumped off the bridge and missed the water entirely. Painful. Embalming was the next process, as you took out the needed chemicals to do the process. Last thing you want is to bury a body that would rot away too soon, the festering stench of your first burial had still haunted you from when you didn't think you'd need to embalm a body you had to bury.
However, a loud noise broke you from your focus, a thundering and loud thud, followed by what sounded like a crash of tile had rang throughout your humble morgue. Odd. Usually, the thunder within Boon County had never had such reverberance or echo to it, nor did it cause as much property damage as that crash had. Work had to be put aside as you jolt upwards and swiftly make your way out towards the waiting room just near the entrance, and the first thing that catches your eyes? The roof. A massive hole had been put at the top of the roof, leaving part a ruined opening that lets you see the sky. It's normal, but one thing certainly makes you stop dead in your tracks.
A billow of red and yellow amidst the dark of the night, with just enough white to make you think that it were something going off amidst the puffs of clouds. An explosion? Maybe, but with where you stood, you couldn't make it out quite enough. From the size of the hole, you could tell that this may cost you a decent fortune, at least three-thousand dollars or so. What the hell could have caused such destruction to your morgue?! Anger fills your heart as ire blinds your decision making. You look down towards the hard-wood floor to see what had caused your roof to give way so quickly, but your vehement fury melts away into pure, unfiltered shock at the sight. A cat.
No regular cat, though, but rather a humanoid with the face and hands of a cat, wearing a crown and having worn robes that hid whatever was underneath, aside from a tail that had peeked out. It even had paws for hands, yet they were structured in a manner similar to that of man with opposable thumbs. Confusion brims within your being at the sight of this being, what was this? A person in a fur suit? An actual cat? Some sort of higher being from the sky?! No, most of those sounded ridiculous to you. Most logistical was a person in a fur suit, probably having fallen from an exploding aircraft. That would explain the sky explosion prior.
But when its eyes opened, your met with an interesting sight. For when this cat-man thing or whatever it was fluttered its eyelids open, a bright and beaming light was seen where its eyes would have been. The light looks back at you. No normal human's eyes would be glowing like that, fur suit or not. Your breath hitches as you take a quick step back, heart hammering within your rib cage. Whoever this was, whatever this was had to be removed from your morgue, because whatever this may be, it was certainly not human, and you didn't want to risk getting attacked by it if it were hostile.
Before you could speak, the being stands up! Slow, almost stunned. It towers over you, standing at around seven and a half feet in height. Why, you only reached its stomach in height! Heart thrumming, you froze, your throat growing dry like an arid desert from sheer shock that had stopped you in your tracks. A groan leaves the being as it rubbed the back of its head, tail flicking behind it with annoyance as its ears were pinned beneath a crown that had sat crooked on its head. When the being spoke, you're met with a low, brassy voice that makes the very morgue itself tremble slightly, honeyed with a rather charming accent that would, on a normal human be attractive, but in this case made you stand at attention.
"Ugh... My head is aching rather profusely. That condemned scientist, how he'll be damned for putting my domain in ruin. I'll-" A pause, not long before the being looks down at you, eyes widening in shock. Now it decides to acknowledge you? Great. The towering cat-man's gaze lingers on you, causing your knees to buckle and sweat to bead on your face and palms. "Oh. It seems that I'm not alone. Hello, mortal, lovely to meet you. Yes it's me, your Lord and Savior-"
"Wait. So, you're like... God? From the Bible?" You raise an eyebrow, confuddled by that implication. Again, you weren't religious, never believed in any religion Abrahamic or elsewise. Yet, this cat-man thing was telling you it was the Abrahamic god? Something wasn't quite adding up, but with how crazy this evening was, questioning was far out of your nature.
Silence washes over the waiting room of the morgue, waves of dead quiet blanketing over the gothic scenery of your establishment/living space. Ah. That's totally a good sign! The deity, who you assume is the Abrahamic god, looks at you, arching an eyebrow in shock. Or, what you could determine is shock. Reading faces was far from your strong suit, so you relied on your instinctual gut feelings, which were rusty on reading emotions that weren't grief or depression from the death of a loved one. It points at you, a clawed finger covered in white fur meeting your face, just shy of touching, as its voice echoed throughout the mortuary. Not exactly an accusation, but not quite a simple observation.
"Are you... Doubting me, [Name] [Lastname]?" It asked, using your whole name first meeting. Yep, only an all-knowing deity would know that. This was the real deal!
Anxiety brims within you as your hands shoot up in a placating surrender as sweat raced down your face. Shit! Last thing you wanted to do was offend a literal god! "N-No! No, it's just- I never thought you were... Real? I-It's a long story, really," Words fly from your lips, an erratic swarm of an apology followed by a half-assed explanation. The story was long indeed, but to put it short, you've seen so much death that the thought of an afterlife felt like a fairytale, rather than something that was palpable.
The deity now seems a bit less befuddled, now lowering its paw-hand back to its side. It was still towering over you, but its gaze seemed to grow soft, though it was still stoic, face hard as stone. No longer was it accusing or observing your doubt, but rather, it was attempting to get a read on you. For what? Was it judging your soul? Reading into your mortal life? Your mind race as you gazed into those glowing eyes of the god before you, bright lights that caused you to see those weird, floaty rainbow things you see after looking at a blaring illumination for too long. Soon, the god had spoke once more, its voice now more quiet and soft-spoken.
"You seem to be... Desolate. A forlorn person who has seen death far too often. It lead to your own thoughts being influenced," That statement hit a bit too close to home. Lonesome as you were, you seldom talked to anybody else unless it were for business. By definition, you were a workaholic at times. "Although I may not get back into the Infinite just yet, on account of... Reasons... I am willing to stay around and provide you company. Consider me as a temporary guardian of sorts for you, to protect both you and your soul."
Wow. Either there was some sort of favoritism with this special treatment, or this god didn't really have much else to do with being kicked out of the Infinite, or Heaven, whatever people call it. Temporary or not, the feeling of being around someone who considered themselves a guardian over both you and your soul was somewhat touching, albeit you felt as if you didn't deserve it. No, far from it! You were an adult who could handle themselves just fine. Besides, you were working around the dead all the time, no protection was needed against corpses, at least to your beliefs.
"I uhh... Appreciate it, sir?" Uncertainty coats each word that leaves you. Sir felt too informal, no, that sucked. Looking up at the being, you crane your neck upwards so your eyes met its face. "Par- Pardon me, is there something you'd like me to call you? I feel like 'sir' is a bit too informal!"
Its eyes widen, shocked at first, not long before it lets out a calm sigh and goes back to that stoic expression that you couldn't read for the life of you. "Call me whatever you see fit. Some call me The Destroyer, others The Creator, some may even call me God. I seldom care what you may call me, as long as you show integrity and respect towards me."
Jeez, what an answer. How helpful and not vague at all. You nod, deciding that a fitting title or name would come to you naturally in due time. The hole in the roof brings your attention once more, as the draft makes you shudder. Right. That. It had to be fixed soon, elsewise there'd be bats, birds, and maybe even a few insects fluttering about in your establishment. Reaching over to your phone, you dial up the roofing company, and call. They're available, and they can fix your roof around tomorrow. The price? Eight-thousand dollars. You only have three thousand, but they insist that you can pay the rest of it off later. Very well. When you hang up from the phone, your mind races.
With how expensive that was, you may never fully pay off that damn roofing bill. That damn deity, that god, he had to have just fallen through your roof, huh? Your eyes flit over to look at him. White, pristine robed and a red shawl draped over black-and-white fur, that crown that rest on its head, those glowing eyes that pierced right through your soul. Anger wanted to bristle through your being, yet there was some kind of calming energy that waivered within you at seeing something such as The Destroyer. Why? Soothing feelings never came to you, all you felt was emptiness throughout your years, yet this serene feeling made you feel so different. It was sickening, yet you liked it. Nothing could explain why, though, for every time you tried to think why, you felt far more comfortable not wondering why.
Defeated, you retire back to your bed in the hidden living space, the Destroyer following you right behind as it kept close to you. That same, calming aura never went away, but at this point, you were far too tired to deal with whatever spiritual reassurance you were being given. Your work clothes are discarded, replaced with a comfortable hoodie and sweat pants. On your mattress, you lie down, while the Destroyer looks around your small bedroom, taking in the decor options you had that were miniscule. Within your mind your thoughts race. Was this your life now? Being some underling that was to be protected? How would people even react to the Destroyer being within this mortuary of yours, anyways?
Your thoughts grow null as your eyelids flutter shut as sleep lulls over you. Tomorrow would be another day, but with different obstacles, hinderances that you've never really considered beforehand. Odd as it may be, a part of you felt somewhat elated that you were no longer alone. But another part years for that lonely solace that you once had, for having someone just... There. It felt weird. You had gotten so used to being alone that even the thought of another presence lingering amidst your area made you feel uneasy. Oh, well. Tomorrow, you'd thrust yourself right into your work. After all, you need the money to pay off that roofing bill.