John sat in the oversized gaming chair, the soft leather still warm from how long he'd been planted there, the triple monitors cast their soft light across his face, painting his features in shifting blues and reds while the rest of the office remained dim and quiet. His mind, still buzzing from everything that had just happened with Elrin, drifted in a strange, lazy circle until it landed on two names he hadn't let himself think about for too long. Lui and Selio. The cocky lesser male fox-boy who had tried to protect him and the weird little hybrid with the webbed hands and derpy face who had shared bread and fought a much bigger wolf just because it felt right.
He missed them. The thought hit him harder than he expected. Not in a grand, dramatic way, but in a small, aching way that made his chest feel tight. They had been the only two creatures in this entire nightmare world who had ever stood up for him without being ordered to, without expecting anything in return.
Lui with his sharp tongue and fake bravado, Selio with his innocent chirps and clumsy loyalty. They were gone because of him. Because he had run and they had tried to help. Because Loki had thrown him into the river and the slavers had found what washed up afterward. The guilt sat there, heavy and familiar, mixing with something else he couldn't quite name yet.
Now that he was essentially a god, or at least god-adjacent with enough power to rewrite small corners of reality, he could bring them back. They could run wild without fear. No more chains, no more cages, no more Gregor kicking them around like trash. He could give them a safe place here in the palace, rooms of their own, food that never ran out, protection that no one could break. The idea felt good. Warm, even.
..… he also wouldn't mind fucking Selio's nice furry ass. The thought slipped in uninvited, making his face heat up instantly. Selio had been cute in that innocent, animalistic way, soft gray fur, big dark eyes, that sleek body that moved on all fours as easily as on two legs.
Did that make him a furry?
Better question: was that bestiality? Selio was a lesser feral hybrid, which meant more animalistic instincts, right? But he was smarter than a regular animal. He had understood enough to bring bread, to fight for them, to comfort Lui. He had only known him for like a day, so maybe it was fine. Maybe. Hope not, John thought, rubbing the back of his neck.
The last thing he needed was to add "questionable morality regarding hybrid consent" to his growing list of personal crises.
He shook the flustered thoughts away and focused on the globe. With a swipe of his hand he pulled up the death logs, a massive scrolling list that filled the entire monitor wall. Names flew by in an endless river, thousands upon thousands per minute. The population counter in the corner read insane numbers, births ticking at around twelve hundred per second while deaths sat even higher at fifteen hundred and three. The sheer volume made his head spin. Too much. Way too much. People were dying faster than they were being born, and the system logged every single one with cold, clinical precision.
He scrolled frantically, eyes blurring at the sheer speed of it all, until he forced himself to type a single name into the search bar.
Selio.
The list slowed, filtered, and locked onto one entry. There it was. Selio, lesser feral hybrid, aquatic-mammal variant, died three days ago. The details were sparse but enough: washed up on the riverbank after the waterfall plunge, discovered by human slavers, violated post-mortem, body discarded. John's stomach turned, but relief washed over him at the same time. The name existed. The system remembered him. That meant he could be brought back.
"Perfect," John said quietly, the word slipping out before he could stop it. His voice sounded small in the large office, but there was a spark of real hope behind it for the first time in what felt like forever. He leaned back in the chair, staring at the single line on the screen, already imagining what it would be like to see that derpy face again, to hear those excited chirps, to give Selio and Lui the safety they never had the first time around. The plan wasn't fully formed yet, but the decision was made. He would bring them back. He would make sure no one ever hurt them again. And maybe, just maybe, he could figure out the rest of the messy feelings swirling in his chest along the way.
For now, the single word hung in the air like a promise.
Perfect.