Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people are coincidental. If you are under the legal age in your area to read erotic literature, please stop reading this and go somewhere age appropriate. If you are offended by homosexual material, please stop reading this and go somewhere your bigoted little mind can handle. If you're looking for pure sex, and plot/character development only get in your way, this story is definitely not for you. The rest of you, please enjoy chapter sixteen of this tale.
----------------------- Godsend Chapter 16: The New World Order
I called the press to gather at my city hall. Every media opportunity with me had happened there, so why break tradition. I hadn't realized how easy it was for a god to gather reporters on a whim, though I should have. They flock to power, and to major events. This was definitely going to be a major event.
I looked over the crowd of faces, the men gathered before me in rapt attention, waiting for me to begin. I didn't know them, but they knew me. It was an odd feeling. There were only two familiar faces with me. On my right, Mike stood tall and stoic. He was my support. On my left, Victor scanned the crowd, looking for potential threats.
"As you know," I began, "O'onerut has been slain. I played a large role in this, and I believed that his death would save all of you. I was told that making humanity live on was why I was created. Then the seeress Cassandra told me that I had not yet played my part, and that humanity wasn't saved.
"The human race is dying. You all know it. It has been brought up in your news programs, in your scientific world, and across dinner tables. With no women, there is no new life. With no new life, you men are the last of a doomed species. This is why I was created. I bring to you all today my gift. I bring you life."
I raised my hands slowly from my sides and focused my power. I felt Mike and Victor supporting me, granting me their strength. They were, however, a drop in the bucket compared to the power of all the remaining gods that was also flowing into me. They knew my plan, and supported it fully. Their strength was now my strength. As they rose higher, my hands gained power, pulling it in like charging batteries, and they began to glow. The power they held before they met over my head was immense, and it held the love of ages.
My hands met and the power was released in a shockwave the sped outward at a tremendous rate. O'onerut's wave had been slow on purpose. It had been a threat and a taunt. Mine was fast. It was a change to get the job done. Within hours it would converge and cover the world.
"Ladies and gentlemen," I started, then paused. "I apologize. That greeting is going to be difficult to get out of my system. Gentlemen, I have just released my gift to you. The human race is no longer destined to die off. You now all have the ability to reproduce with each other."
"Blasphemy!" yelled a voice I swore I had heard before. A man stepped out of the crowd in a robe that had once been ornate, but was now falling apart bit by bit. Gold piping hung limp where it had once been connected. One of the shoulder seams was open to show a bit of bare shoulder beneath. I could catch glimpses of a stained wife beater beneath as he got closer. His hair was much thinner than it had been and was gray and disarrayed. And he stank.
"Reverend Krake," I said through my teeth. "I see you've finally decided to emerge from whatever rock you were hiding under. The danger is gone now, so it's safe to spew your bile on the streets once again. I see you've brought your spawn as well." James was smudged and dirty. His jeans were torn open at the knees, and his shirt was only tucked in on the left side. He had a dirty red baseball cap on, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks.
"You're the cause of all this trouble, boy," he said. "You've done nothing but promote sodomy and other salacious acts since you forced my boy into sinful liaisons with another boy."
"I helped kill O'onerut," I said flatly, glaring at him. "What did you do?"
"I prayed to the real God for salvation and the salvation of man. Now that women are gone, we must all turn to God to prepare us for the next life."
I had to give him credit. His rhetoric was excellent. He had just cast doubt on the validity of my claim to godhood. "Praying to God brings hope to those who believe," I said. Now it was my turn to cast doubt. "If that is what you truly did, instead of cowering in fear, you should be commended."
His mouth flopped open and closed repeatedly as he searched for words. He hadn't been prepared to battle agreement. When he reclaimed his bearings, he cleared his throat. "You speak well of the glory of God, even if you are using the truth to deceive. Nonetheless, you now encourage the world to participate in sodomy."
"To mate and bear children, yes," I replied. "Without women, there is no other way."
"The death of all women is God's plan. He wants us to stay pure and not follow you down the paths of wickedness. It is God's will for man to die off," the reverend announced.
"No, Reverend," I replied. "It was by direct order from God that I was created, and it was for what I did today that I was born. It is God's will that mankind may live. It is your will, Krake, that man should die. You do not speak for God, and you never did."
Krake sputtered. "But two men sleeping together is blasphemous," he managed to say.
"And those who believe that can abstain. Artificial insemination is always an option for men who choose not to lie with other men and still want to have children. Which brings me to my second offer. Most men are still straight, and are disgusted by the thought of sleeping with another man. I can make anyone who is interested in having sex again lose that disgust. I can make you gay, well, bisexual, really, but only if you chose it. I have complete control over my powers now, and there will be no more accidents, no changing people against their will. For the fist time in history, you have a choice for your sexuality."
"Get off it, Stefan," James yelled. "Homosexuality was always a choice."
"Wow, you`re stupid," I said. "I'm glad you're so against it. It'll raise the collective IQ of the gene pool. Homosexuality has never been a choice. The only choice was acting on it or not. You can no more choose what foods you like and dislike, or your favorite color, than you can choose the gender you're drawn to. You don't choose your urges, only what you do with them."
James was about to retort, but the reverend covered his mouth. "Quiet, boy," he told him. "That part was true. Desires can't be changed, only behaviors." Then he looked up to me. "But that doesn't mean that the choice to act on it is morally right. Neither is the choice to accept your offer of turning people."
"Reverend, I accept that as your opinion, and I respect your right to it. That respect is why it isn't mandatory to change. I do, however, disagree with your stance that it's morally wrong. Do you accept that as my opinion?"
"Yes," he said grudgingly. "Everyone has the right to believe what they choose."
"Then I tell you this, Reverend. Continue to preach your point of view, and convince those who wish to follow you to take your route. However, those who choose a different path than the one you would like them to, you will still treat as people, and you will not harass them once they have come to me to be changed. You may campaign only to the undecided. If you do not follow this directive, you will break this covenant you have with the gods. And, unlike God himself, we will punish your transgressions on Earth. Am I clear?" I asked finally.
"What do I get out of this covenant?" he asked.
"You keep your tongue," I said harshly. "You also keep your right to oppose me."
"This is America," he retorted. "It's a free country. My right to state my opinion is the law."
"Mortal law," I said, "has never applied to us. I choose to respect the rights you have given yourselves, and the restrictions you have placed, because I feel humans are worth it. I do not, however, have any need whatsoever to follow them. It is only a choice, and one with no repercussions to me or my fellow gods. Remember this, though, my kind have great power, but we also have human emotions. We can be angry or filled with joy, just as you can. But if I chose to squash you like a bug right now, no one could stop me, and no one would punish me for it.
I made the winds pick up and lightning streak across the sky; I made my eyes glow and grew to twice my size as well. "My covenant is to let you openly oppose me without incurring my wrath, as long as you respect those whose decisions are not aligned with yours. Are you clear on the terms now?" I wasn't a human that he could push around, and I had to drive that point home to this man if he was ever going to listen to me. Krake gaped at me. "Yes," I told him. "This is not the way we usually treat people, but you're special. You've been pissing me off for a long time, so you get special treatment. Now answer me. Do you understand the terms of our covenant?"
He made a shaky nod. "Yes...sir."
I sighed. "I apologize, men of the world, for my childish outbreak. I hope that this proves to you that we are not superior to you, and not worthy of worship." A hand went up in the crowd. "Yes?"
"Is it alright for me, or us, to ask you questions?" a nervous reporter asked.
"As long as we're not all speaking at once," I said. "Isn't that how these things work?"
"Alright," the man said, relaxing a small amount. "You just said that you and the other gods who aren't The God are not to be worshipped, but earlier you told us to pray to you. Could you clear up the confusion on that?"
"Certainly," I said. "Praying to us isn't necessarily worshipping us. It's closer to paging us. You pray, and it tells us what you want. Then we see what we can do about it. This doesn't mean we're like a genie granting wishes. You all know what my powers entail, so you shouldn't be asking me for anything that's not covered. If you pray for me to increase your interest in other men, I will definitely grant that, as I have just made that offer to everybody. If you pray for me to make someone love you back, I'll look into the situation. It may be that I shouldn't make them love you, but if it does, I'll work on nudging things in the right direction. I think it's time for a few happy endings now, don't you?"
The press chuckled a bit. Another raised his hand and I pointed to him. "You were a major part of the scene over two years ago when O'onerut first appeared. Then he took you and you were gone for two years. He claimed you had escaped, but you never appeared until recently. Where were you in those two years?"
"Ah," I replied. "Good question. I had had my memory wiped shortly after I returned home, so I don't remember for myself, but another god, Min, told me what had happened. O'onerut had a relic on his ship that allowed us to teleport back to Earth. However, it had been aging too long and had lost its power. We made two teleports, and each one took a little over a year to complete. When I arrived back at home, I had thought it was the same day I had left with O'onerut."
"You expect us to believe you were in limbo or something for two years?" James asked. The reverend hit him in the back of the head, but I decided to answer anyway.
"Thank you for raising your hand, James. To answer your question. You find out gods exist, the women of the world get wiped out by an evil spell, and men have just been given the ability to have babies, yet you don't believe faulty equipment exists? You sure he's your son, Reverend? We may disagree, but at least you seem to have a lick of common sense."
"His mother, may she rest in peace, was a beautiful woman who had the habit of speaking ahead of her thoughts," Krake said. It shocked me that he was talking to me like a person, but I wasn't going to try and stop him. This is what I had been hoping for.
"I am truly sorry for your loss, Reverend," I said. "I'm sure this must be hard for you." I turned back to address the press. "It is difficult for all of us now. O'onerut has changed the world, and we must adapt or perish.
The ability to produce new offspring was imperative, so I couldn't leave it up to debate. The other adaptation, the attraction to men, is purely cosmetic in comparison, a luxury. Luxuries are always choices, and I reiterate my promise to not force anyone to change that aspect of themselves."
"But I digress," I said. "I was answering questions, wasn't I?"
From there on, there were a host of questions about what happened in the battle, and where the Vaneel were now. The press was relieved when I told them Min was seeking to heal those who were lost. These questions were followed by the biological questions about the new ability to have children.
Then there was a big one.
"Stefan, are you going to use your power on yourself?"
"Not right now," I admitted. "I had a very dear friend who was gay and in love with me. I refused to change for him when there were still women, and even when there was a hope of saving them. O'onerut took him from me out of spite. Losing him was painful, and until that pain goes away or dies down, falling in love with another man would be the worst betrayal I could inflict on my friend."
There was a brief pause, then a tentative hand rose.
"A lot of gods were killed by O'onerut. Who is doing their duties?"
"I...uh...I don't really know," I said. "My guess is that the gods who know how things work much better than I do are in the process of assessing damages and determining what needs to be done. I do need to find that out, though."
The rest of the press conference bored me and I finally just ended it by telling them I had a lot of people waiting on me to change them, and that I had all of those people on hold, as it were. What surprised me was that it was the truth.
Just after I had announced that I would change the willing, I had thousands upon thousands of responses, and I had been carrying a link with them all as I talked to the reporters. Considering the population of the Earth, this wasn't very many, but it was still early. Some guys knew right away that they would be changing to cope better with the new world, but most would take some time. Celibacy could only sustain most young men for a few months, tops. Then they would give into their desires.
Of those people, the majority would pray to me to change them before they tried anything with anybody, but there would be a few who wouldn't. They'd have sex with no attraction to their partner, then wait a few months, and then have sex again, repeating the cycle and hating themselves for each moment of weakness.
By the end of the first year, I would have a good sixty percent of the world's population changed to male attraction. I knew that requests to change would be sparse after that, but I would still be flooded with love requests, and those took more time, since I had to research them before making any moves. In that department, my mother would be crucial. Even as a mirror, she was able to guide me in the use of my powers, since they were so similar to hers. It would make me glad to bring actual happiness to people for once.
Of course, my first hookup was Mike and Victor. That was before the press conference, and they haven't stopped thanking me to this day.
And so ends the story of Stefanos Kereanoi becoming what he was destined to be. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Stay tuned for my next project, when I finally decide which idea I'll run with next.
Coming VERY soon: A Godsend Christmas. This will be a PG rated Christmas special taking place just a month after the press conference.
See ya later, peeps.
(Contact me, as always, at academygm@hotmail.com )