"A spreadsheet?" Davy asked. "Like canvas?"

"It's a computer program. If you know what that is," Walter said. "A way for people to keep track of accounts and such."

"A tax sheet then," Davy said. "Fitting for a death god."

Walter snorted, "I guess so."

Davy placed a hand on Walter's shoulder, "Now, the first part is done. Next is usin' the energy. How much of it do you have?"

Walter looked at his sheet, the glimmering white grid empty save for two cells that read:

Balance

1500

"Is fifteen hundred a lot or a little?" Walter asked.

"A lot for a single soul, a drop in the bucket for a god," Davy said. "You can expand your domain later. Right now, all you need is a small space. Go ahead and imagine using some of that energy. Since you got a tax sheet, maybe imagine spending it er somethin'."

Walter squared his shoulders and imagined buying a domain. When nothing happened, the man turned to Davy Jones.

"You gotta put feeling into it," the god urged. "Like you're going to the head."

"The what?"

"Just concentrate!"

Walter tried, imagining spending the energy once more and willing the domain into existence. A cloud of mist started to appear in front of Walter.

"I'm doing it!" he exclaimed.

"Good, lad! Now, pump your fist to finish it off!"

Walter obeyed, pumping his fist into the air like an excited surfer. The mist vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Walter alone with Davy Jones and his laughter.

"Oh man!" the god laughed. "You should have seen the look on your face!"

Walter turned, "You were messing with me?"

"And ye fell for it, hook, line, and sinker!" Davy Jones laughed.

Walter glared.

"Ah, don't get so upset, lad," Davy said after a few more chuckles. "No use gettin' upset when you got almost eternity. Besides, you gotta find fun where you can, or else things might get too depressin'. Death isn't a nice business."

Walter huffed in annoyance. The god was right, which is what made it so annoying. Walter had read up on different businesses during his time in college, and nonprofits had a habit of causing compassion fatigue. People would lose emotion from dealing with the constant stories of poor circumstances. Walter definitely didn't want to become a callous person because he'd heard one too many of the same sob story.

That still didn't mean that the man would let Davy off the hook.

"So are you going to actually teach me, or am I about to become a grand practical joke for Sod?"

"Aw, don't get your knickers all twisted," Davy answered. "I'll teach ya proper, don't worry."

The god stood straighter, "Right. The thing about domains is that they're connected to things—aspects of yourself and what others think of you. For example, I've got a ship since I'm a god of the sea. The chains and the like that are belowdecks represent the debts people owe. You see what I mean?"

Walter gave Davy a confused face. "How am I supposed to know what my aspects are?"

"Well, death is one," Davy answered, his voice tinged with patronization. "You could start there. Or you could use powerful events in your life or something that speaks to you as a soul. Really, an aspect is anything you decide. At least for the moment. Later on, aspects will be decided for you as the mortals start to describe you."

Walter gave Davy a sidelong glance, "That won't like, change my personality or anything, right?"

Davy shrugged, "More like amplify things about yourself. If you're violent to souls, they'll remember that after the cycle, and stories of death will echo that. That, in turn, will give you violent aspects, making it easier for mortals to tell the stories. It all goes in a circle, you see."

Walter nodded. "Okay, so pick something about myself that I want others to use as a description. Got it. Now, how do I make a domain?"

Davy shrugged again, "It's different for everyone. You mentioned that you used a tax sheet to keep track of divine energy. Perhaps something with that?"

"It's not exactly a tax sheet," Walter answered. "Before, I used a spreadsheet to keep track of investments, cash, expenses, and similar things to see how much money was owed to others and how much I had left."

Walter blinked. "Oh. It's that easy, isn't it?"

The man willed up his spreadsheet, once again taking a look at the balance.

Balance

1500

Walter focused, imagining new cells on the spreadsheet. The list in front of him changed, creating a new spreadsheet for him.

"Wait," Walter said before he continued. "Am I able to recall the divine energy used in my domain?"

Davy thought about it, "Technically, you could recall the energy in your domain, though doing so destabilizes the energy. Some of it would come back, and some of it would vanish. It’s a bad idea to loan energy too, though in your case, I guess that doesn't matter. All things would come back to you in the end."

"Got it," Walter said. He changed a few boxes on the spreadsheet.

Assets

Divine Energy On Hand (DEOH)

1500

Total

1500

Property, Plant, and Equipment (PPE)

Land

0

Total PPE

0

Total Assets

1500

Now he had an area that let him know how much divine energy he invested into his domain. He'd add in tabs like equipment and possibly depreciation later. There was no reason to clutter the spreadsheet with unused accounts.

"Alright, now how much should I use?" Walter asked.

"You already got an aspect in mind?" Davy asked.

Walter shook his head.

"Think of that first," The god replied. "Then you should have a better understanding of how much to use."

"Alright then."

Walter sat down to think, leaning back until he laid flat on his back against the nothingness of the world. The sea Sod had conjured to call Davy Jones had long receded, leaving the two beings alone with only Davy Jones's ship to keep them company. While Walter thought, Davy walked around his boat, placing a hand on some of the rotting wood and fixing it up. The same silvery mist from before came out, distracting Walter from his thoughts. But eventually, the man settled down and tried to think up an aspect of himself.

Introspection had never been Walter's strong suit, and he couldn't help but keep coming back to his time on the cruise ship. Death was still something all too intimate to Walter, and he couldn't bring his thoughts away from what happened. Though, Walter was starting to realize that it might not be a bad thing. The man was supposed to become a god of death after all. Wouldn't using his own experience help solidify the aspect?

Walter then recalled Davy's talk of how aspects changed a god, and the man shuddered as he thought of people living his experience. Drowning was a terrible way to go, and Walter didn’t want others thinking of him as a god whose afterlife was painful and choking. He'd leave all the drowning out of it then but keep the water.

The man recalled the waves and how they pushed him under. Walter shuddered. Another thing to tick off the aspect boxes. That experience of struggle wasn't something the man wanted others to deal with, especially not that mounting dread as they realized they would never surface. The water here would be calm, serene, like how the man imagined death to be.

An image appeared in Walter's mind. A grand pool expanded across his consciousness, serene sapphire water still as the void Walter walked on. Yes, a person could rest here and divest themselves of all their burdens before returning to the world. He couldn't leave the place an endless expanse, however.

Yes, the water was calming, but it had a stiffness, more like a plastic diorama than a natural existence. The water needed something to accompany it. Walter first imagined quaint rowboats for souls to rest but stopped once he realized how creepy the image felt. Maybe it was the lighting? A black expanse of sky wasn't the most reassuring of ceilings.

Walter tried imagining stars dotted across the sky but shook his head as the memory filled him with old memories. His father had been an avid amateur astronomer, and the sight of stars only made Walter remember his life before. Bittersweet memories of trekking away from cities swept through Walter like a tide, images of friends and parents he'd never see again crashing over him. No, Walter didn't need more reminders of the life he'd left behind.

But the memories did bring him some solace. Nature had always been something of a retreat for Walter when the bustle of life became too much. It would be nice to have something similar in his domain. The man imagined mossy rocks shaped for sitting and nodded as the nature appeared in rings around the serene water. Now people could sit and relax as time passed.

The domain was still too large, though. Walter instinctively knew he wouldn't be able to craft an endless expanse of calming pools. It felt like three was the best the man could do with the energy he had. The imagined space shrunk to three pools, the mossy rocks sitting invitingly around them. Yet, the sky was still absorbingly black.

Walter cut the number of pools down to two and imagined a roof over the area. The shingled triangle that appeared decidedly didn't fit with the rest of the domain, and Walter instantly rejected the idea. However, some sort of covering would make sense. Perhaps a cove? Yes, a place where the tides and torments of life receded as the natural barriers and caverns provided shelter.

The pools changed, merging into one large lake surrounded by towering mossy stones. A cave covered the entire area, leaving only a small opening that Walter instinctively knew would be the place for souls to leave. The mossy rocks placed themselves in the shallow pool as they led deeper into the cave, and reflective crystals appeared on the ceiling, illuminating the area in aquamarine. The back of the cave was the only unlit area, and Walter again knew that souls would enter from there.

Content with the image now resting in his head, Walter stood and made his way to Davy Jones. The god was sleeping at the side of his ship, the man's salt-crusted beard swaying in time to his breath. Walter chuckled at the sight. The absurdity of the serenity forcing the laugh from his lips.

Davy opened his eyes at the noise, "I see you're done ignorin' the world."

"I've got a good idea of what I want, yes," Walter answered.

"Good, now will it into existence."

"Here?" Walter asked.

"It don't matter where you make it," Davy said. "The domain is always with you."

"Alright."

Walter concentrated, bringing up his spreadsheet and transferring his divine energy into the land tab. The numbers shimmered then shifted, and Walter felt something in his conscious solidify. Around him, dark blue mist appeared, spinning lazily like a falling leaf. Once it finished, Walter's spreadsheet had invested one thousand two-hundred and fifty divine energy into the land.

"Thank god I don't have to mark that as a journal entry," Walter commented. "Nice of the spreadsheet to do it for me. I didn't use all the energy though."

"When ye get better at it all, you'll get a feel for how much gets used," Davy answered. "But since you got a bit of the stuff leftover, we can work on another part of your domain."

Walter raised an eyebrow, "What's that?"

"The helpers," Davy answered.