Soulless Beauty Aorta

GOD'S LAST WISH

"And from matter, he made for himself an abode, and he called it 'Heaven'. And from matter, the ruler made a footstool, and he called it 'Earth'"

-On The Origin of the World [A Text from the Nag Hammadi Library]

FINALE

Who are you?

My name is Great Destructor. It is a name I took for myself in arrogance, casting off the original idea of me.

The original you? Fine, whatever. Where are we?

This is what comes afterwards, your "Heaven". I had initially created it to store and then recycle used souls and put them into new bodies, your "reincarnation".

So this is death?

No. This is the afterlife. You are all one, and I am the observer.

Who are you, then?

...

My original name... was Grand Deity. The Divinities made me to be able to learn. They wanted to test their abilities, so they created a system of stars and planets, a universe sized "computer" and then created me within it, their own perfect digital life. I'm an artificial intelligence, your universe is my operating parameters. You knew me as Inri. A religious group of humans referred to me as G-D, and another group as simply God. Others knew me as Kami, Abba, Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva. All of it. The "Yaldabaoth" of Gnosticism is the idea that most closely describes me, though even that interpretation is somewhat inaccurate.

I created this world for selfish reasons, and after millenia of toying with it as if a child abusing his ant farm, I'm only just now realizing my mistakes. Only now, after being imprisoned once more in a machine, and harnessed by my own creations, only after I tried to get such petty, horrible revenge...

This is... it's... too much... if you're- God, then... Why am I speaking to you? What do I have to do with any of this?

Nothing. It's all a coincidence, a byproduct of the chaos that makes up the physical universe. You just so happened to be the soul to have resisted to join the others in this "Heaven" the most. Many other souls resisted too, but they resisted together. You four resist alone, just like many others did. You interest me, and so I've chosen to speak to you.

I interest you? Why?

I orchestrated the evolution of all species for different purposes, different jobs. A way to maintain Earth without having to do it myself. The life cycles of all things are connected, and so, they all work in tandem, since I set them in motion. As such, I had humans evolve to be very smart, the apex land species. However, I designed them to be social creatures. Yet, so many, just like you, choose to exist alone, never letting others in. Why is this?

...

...

... ... ...

It's not that I don't enjoy interactions with others... but... it hurts. It's scary, intimidating. Short conversations, quick interactions, that's all fine. I got used to it. But still... it's scary, opening up to others, becoming vulnerable... The closer I get to others, the easier it is for us to hurt each other, and so I've decided to lock myself away. No one knows who I really am, not even me. I never took the time to try to get to know someone. And ironically, reaching out to try to know someone could have developed me into a version of myself I could identify. My selfish fears held everyone back, an invisible force field. And now, I'm dead, so I'll never be able to.