Thanks to the copious amount of screaming at each other, Tony and Lucinda thought only a few minutes had passed, but it had been three days, five hours, eleven minutes, and seven seconds EST when the change happened. It wasn’t noticeable at first. The two beings transferred to another reality, which was as black and empty as the void. Only the sudden loss of the solar system’s sun and its light brought an end to their bickering.

“What now?” Tony yelled.

“What did you do to the light, dipshit!” Lucinda screamed accusingly.

One moment.entities detected.

Race and character selection modified. Choose well! Your choices can not be undone!

Suddenly, both souls were standing in front of hundreds of different races, one of each gender. Save for the few that didn’t reproduce sexually. Every fantastical race was there as well as dozens he had never seen. Tony focused on one, the others disappearing as suddenly as they had appeared. It was some kind of beast man with reptilian features.

“No thanks, I don’t want to deal with eggs.” Lucinda waved the race away.

“You don’t even know if they lay eggs.” Tony argued, not that he wanted that race, it was just habit at this point to disagree with her.

“Do you know for sure that they don’t?” Lucinda fired right back. Having no answer for that, Tony decided to keep his trap shut.

For the next fifteen days, sixteen hours, and nine minutes on the dot EST, they bickered about what race they would choose.

The pair had narrowed it down to four races. Lucinda thought just plain old vanilla humans were the way to go. Tony was utterly against the idea. Having been human before, and not particularly liking the experience, he had no desire to be one again.

Tony thought a race he had never heard of called the Gess would be the best way to go, since it had an absurd number of bonuses that would make survival much easier. Lucinda hated the idea. Mostly because Tony was right, which was something that just didn’t sit well with her. She had nothing against the race personally, she just couldn’t back such a good choice if Tony was the one presenting it.

Both were lukewarm to the idea of being demons. Not the red-horned variety, however. No, it was a subrace of demons that included succubae and incubi. This appealed to Lucinda because the beings looked a lot like her manifested form. It appealed to Tony because of the sexual appetite of the beings, which was also a negative for them both. Lucinda because it sounded like a disgusting practice to engage in, and for Tony because it sounded like a huge hassle. One he would rather not have his life depend on. Still, it was a race they both didn’t immediately discard, making it one of the front runners.

The other front runner was the Prime Changeling race. It appealed to both because of its shapeshifting abilities. Being Prime, a denotation that indicated that it was superior to regular non-prime races, it wasn’t limited to what type of being you could shift into. You could even shift portions of your anatomy separately from the whole.

The only limiting factors when shifting as a Prime Changeling were size, mass, and the form had to be alive. A two-hundred-pound, six-foot Prime Changeling couldn’t become a jumbo jet sized dragon as the proportions just didn’t work. The other condition was that it must be living tissue. You could become a tree, though that would be horrendously boring, but you couldn’t turn into a rock, which would be equally boring.

Still, this choice seemed to make both Lucinda and Tony grumble less than any other, so it was still in consideration. After another round of screaming, the choices narrowed to the two front runners. Neither really cared much by this point, and decided their choice of race on the time-honored tradition of a coin toss. The fact that they had no coins on them didn’t seem to enter their minds. This was solved by Tony concentrating his mind on the image he wanted to appear, much as he had done with his miniature solar system.

The coin, a nineteen seventy-six bicentennial quarter, came up heads on the third attempt. The first two dropped into the nothingness around them when Lucinda spooked Tony right before the coin would have landed in his palm. The only reason the third was successful was due to the fit of laughter Lucinda suffered at seeing Tony fall for the same trick twice. Regardless of how it happened, a heads in this case meant that the race chosen was Prime Changeling. Shocking exactly no one.

Once Tony mentally confirmed their choice, the two souls once again came to know pain. Each soul was forcefully anchored to a full-grown body, stretching and reshaping itself to fit within its new form. The agony was blissfully short. Only fifty-eight seconds EST. Still, it felt much longer to the pained pair.

Once both parties got themself under control, they gave each other a once over. Both were nude, which aggravated them tono end, though not much else had changed. Both unconsciously reverted to their manifested bodies, Tony minus the man boobs and a slightly larger package—he was still a male, after all. Lucinda was still Lucinda. She had changed nothing about her appearance, she was still a female after all. Each finding the other quite attractive, they buried those thoughts under hateful glares and mocking laughter.

“I’m just…” Lucinda stopped mid-mock, as a blue box—much like the one Tony was seeing, and had seen once before—appeared before her eyes. "The fuck is this, dipshit?” Lucinda muttered, not really caring if Tony answered, just needing to make it his fault.

Name: Lucinda*

Locked due to being your soul’s true name.

Name: Tony Porter*

Locked due to being your soul’s true name.

Once each of them had closed their box, a mental reflex that closely resembled swiping it away—to the right, of course. Swiping left, even mentally, meant that you were keeping the notice so you could engage with it at a later date. Another popped up in its place.

Choose a name:

Both had the same prompt. A blinking line indicated the ability to enter symbols into it. At a thought, both picked their names. It seemed as if whatever entity was controlling the boxes selected the first acceptable name the pair thought of.

“Quake, what? Let me guess, it’s a description of how your man boobs react when walking? No, wait… that’s quiver, I think...” Lucy, who apparently lacked imagination, started in on Quake before getting lost in just where she wanted to go with the insult. Tony. Excuse me, Quake, didn’t deign to respond.

In truth, the nickname came about during Tony’s first few days of school. Now in his second lifetime of shame, he got the name from being so afraid of the jungle gym, he actually shook in his boots. The other children had laughed and called him Quaker, among other things. Some of which were much more accurate, but it was Quaker that had stuck, all due to his shaking and fear. He thought that after a few days the name would stop. But unfortunately for him, and thanks to the absence of the kid who squirted milk out of his nose due to a sinus surgery, it only got shortened to Quake, and was how most people addressed him for the rest of his life. Now, thanks to thinking, please God, anything but Quake, Tony would be known by that name for a second lifetime. This time, however, no one would know how it had originated.

“Whatever, Lucy! Did you leave your imagination in your other soul?” It was without doubt one of the worst comebacks in comeback history, but it was technically a comeback. One that went unchallenged by Lucy as a new blue box lit their faces.

Souls with magical understanding detected. Unlocking magic affinities.

The first statement was overly simplistic, it meant that the at least one of the two souls knew magic at the soul level. Unlocking their new body’s ability to harness and use mana to produce effects or use magic. Whichever phrase you prefer, it boils down to the same thing. They would be magic losers… uh, users in this new life.

This was followed by another box.

As soul bound companions, you will both receive the bonuses and penalties each of you has earned. As such beings, you will also start with the same stats.

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 1

Intelligence: 1

Wisdom: 1

Charisma: 1

Luck: 1

20 points to distribute.

A second prompt appeared alongside the first.

One point earned every ten levels. Stats grow exponentially with each point gained. Normal adults average a starting baseline of one in every stat.

“What the hell?” Lucy asked.

“Looks like a character sheet from a role-playing game, or RPG, dummy.” Quake mocked.

“No, duh, dipshit. I meant we have to have the same stats.” Lucy rolled her eyes at him.

“Hey, I read the same prompt you did, how would I know?” Quake absentmindedly replied as he played with the stat setting. Of course, this led to an amount of arguing that out of dignity I will refrain from discussing further. Once the initial trade of insults and vulgarity was done, they both decided to look at the bonuses and penalties that they would receive. This was only done to gather more ammunition to use in the raging debacle that was stat allocation.

Trans dimensional souls:

You both have traveled to different dimensions from your original reality, and resided in and survived the void.

Bonuses:

Able to access the void. Be aware that living tissue cannot survive the void for long! Can use the void as a storage space. Can transfer self and others into the void. Living tissue can survive for one minute when enclosed in the void. Magical soul. You have come to understand magic at a level far beyond mere mortals. Can learn any form, school, spell, and/or ability of a magical nature. No materials needed. No vocal component needed. No gestures needed. Soul Bonded. Able to communicate with each other mentally. Able to know the location and emotions of the other. Able to teleport to a five-foot distance from the other instantly.

“Please, for the love of everything holy, don’t tell me you’re going to be in my head all the time.” Quake groaned, sounding defeated because he knew the truth.

“Of course, how do you think we communicated before, dipshit? We were unanchored souls.” Lucy mocked. Though a lot of the bite was missing as the next prompt box took up her attention.

Playing God:

You didn’t realize it, but you were on the path of divinity. This is frowned upon.

Penalties:

All other bonuses and penalties, other than the two listed, have been revoked. Do try to not create sentient beings. It’s not worth the hassle

“Way to go, dipshit! Who knows what other goodies you cost us?” Lucy started yelling at Quake, again.

“What the hell is with these boxes, Lucy?” Quake ignored the bait, and phrased his question in such a way that it forced her to answer.

Shaking, Lucy yelled, “Argh, I fucking hate you so much.” After screaming, as loud and long as she could without losing the ability to answer, she responded. “All beings can see them.” This was as unhelpful as she hoped it would be.

“Oh, my God. You are such a pain in my ass! Look, we aren’t going anywhere until I get answers. You can give them willingly, or we can play this game for as long as you like. Doesn’t make a lick of difference to me.” Quake informed her.

“So, what? I should explain the prompts like I would to a mentally challenged toddler?”

Again, Quake refused to stoop to her level. This was only because even he wasn’t heartless enough to disparage children, who through no fault of their own, were going through enough without the pair’s bullshit.

“No. Look, I’m not asking you for a detailed scientific breakdown of exactly how it works. Just enough for a basic understanding. Jeez, it’s like pulling teeth with you.” Quake elaborated.

Sighing, for once without the tirade, Lucy relented. “Fine, whatever. Somewhere along the evolutionary timeline, a microbe developed the ability to communicate with its host. It did this by providing the host with information it deemed relative to their continued survival. Over time, these microbes further evolved to incorporate themselves into the host’s body.” Seeing the vacant stare Quake had on his face, Lucy explained in greater detail.

“It developed a fundamental relationship with mana, using the energy of the Universe to infuse the host through them. This meant that the microbes, which are called Mets.” Another sigh, “Microbial energy transformers. Look, I didn’t freaking name the damn things.” Lucy said after seeing Quake’s expression.

“Where was I… right, it meant that the microbes could transform the energy called mana into different organic tissue. Like more and denser muscles for strength. More gray matter for intelligence. And so on. This led the original species that hosted the Met to great prosperity, culminating in faster than light travel, which spread the Met like wildfire, throughout the Universe. Add to that a few interdimensional travelers spreading it to other universes, and boom! Millenia later, everybody has them. Sentient races anyway.” Lucy finished, sticking her tongue out just for the fun of it.

This wasn’t the complete truth, however. In fact, the Met didn’t inhabit every sentient race in existence. Though they did inhabit ninety-eight-point nine nine percent of them. So, it was widely accepted as fact. The rest, while not completely accurate, was close enough to the truth that the details didn’t change the overall explanation.

“Then, why don’t we have them on Earth?” Quake asked, knowing how different his life could have been with this kind of power.

“You do. It’s just, well, Earth is a weird case, and I only know of it because a lot of researchers go there. It has to do with the magnetic field generated by its core. For some reason, Earth’s magnetic field is exceptionally strong. This creates two issues.” Lucy held up both middle fingers to demonstrate her point.

“One, mana levels are extremely low due to the field blocking most of it from entering your atmosphere, severely limiting the Mets’ ability to communicate and improve their host. Two, it makes the energy needed to do anything much less cost effective. And I mean everything. From walking to interstellar travel. So, no other advanced race has any interest in Earth. Lucky for humans too, most sentient species would easily crush you.” Lucy dropped her fingers, waving dismissively before turning back to the stats screen.

“Huh, but wouldn’t a weaker magnetic field kill all life there?”

“Not all of it, dipshit. That’s what evolution is for.” Lucy performed the perfect eye roll as she finished her statement.

“So. why haven’t humans found out about this?” Quake wondered aloud.

“Scientifically? Probably, because all your equipment is so shielded it can’t detect mana.” Lucy answered her own question. “But, come on, man. Humans know there is something more out there. Even if they can’t prove it. Every culture on Earth has stories with some element of magic, or of mythical creatures. Well, it turns out you humans are right. It just so happens to also be true that no one wants anything to do with a planet with no magic.”

With his mind completely blown, Quake took exactly seventy-three seconds to think about everything he had just heard before deciding he wasn’t in the mood to care about that subject anymore. At least, for the moment. Then he asked, “Who is this boss person then?”

Lucy belly laughed before answering, “boy, why not ask me the meaning of life while you’re at it?” She continued laughing before surrendering to Quake’s unamused face. “The boss is known as the Source. As in the source of everything. Other than that, I don’t know much. It’s said that if you try to understand the Source’s language your mind will melt.”

“Who says that?” Quake asked, then deployed the ancient and time-tested term for implying non-belief, “I call bullshit.”

Lucy deciding to throw a curveball to keep Quake off balance smiled, “any other tough questions you have for me?” She even went as far as batting her eyes. The look of absolute horror on the man’s face made the unpleasant experience worthwhile, in her opinion.

Quake, whose brain was sort of stuck between overload and shock mouthed the question. “So, magic is real?”

Deciding, for the moment at least, to stick with creeping him out, Lucy said sweetly. “Of course! Mana is the most cost-efficient energy in the Universe. That combined with biological beings ability to naturally interact with it makes mana irreplaceable. Electricity is more powerful, but costs exponentially more to operate equipment that relies on it. With mana and the right knowledge, you can turn mana into electricity… so, again, mana is awesome. I’m bored. “Lucy couldn’t take the sweet act any longer, which was a shame really because Quake thought it was a nice change of pace.

“Fine, I agree, we can talk about all this stuff later.” Quake stated falsely, right before finding out why he had.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, dipshit. There’s a high probability that the Source will lock away some of our knowledge, so we don’t bring down civilization in large areas of the realm, dimension, Universe, whatever.” Lucy shrugged as she went over the different names. “I mean, it makes sense. I wouldn’t want me to have access to the secrets of interdimensional travel in a world without plumbing. Or faster than light travel to a species on the verge of space travel. You… I think you’re safe. I highly doubt you have anything more

That insult actually hurt Quake’s feelings, not so much the masturbation accusation, but the fact that it was true. He doubted very much that any knowledge he had was advanced enough to make a difference on the scale Lucy was describing.

“Alright, fine, you win. Let’s assign our stats and move on.” Quake suggested, just wanting to be back in the void.