To Binge or Not to Binge

The members of Styx did a few odd jobs while they were waiting for the construction crew to get there. The jobs were exceedingly easy, mostly just helping with paperwork and the like. Altogether, they earned another two thousand Shrallins. Around four days after they put in the request, the crew arrived to build their house.

The Embodiments that arrived wore odd cloaks that seemed color-coded to their Manifestations. One wore a muddy brown, another had a bright yellow, one with light blue, one a bright green, and the last two had cloaks of a pale gray.

Their hoods were thrown back, showing their heads. Oddly, their hair color all matched their cloaks. The men and women strode to the group of ex-assassins, asking them where they would like the house to be set. There was, after all, three square miles available. Tom directed them to the approximate center of the plot of land, and the cloaked builders went to work.

It was a marvelous sight, watching Embodiments exert control over their Manifestations. Watching the ground flow upwards to form walls and seeing blades of grass form couches and tables and chairs was a novel experience none of them had seen before.

The Shyviate Collective had technology that allowed something similar, but hearing about technology doing something and seeing it done by nothing but men and women with the will to have it done were two completely different things.

It took less than an hour for the Embodiments to finish the house. The result was quite beautiful. True to their specifications, the house was a sprawling mass of brick. The front door was placed in the center of the building's front end and was made of dark oak wood with a golden-colored handle. To either side of the door were large windows with curtains covering them from the inside, with another two windows at each end.

To the left of the building was a large metal hatch set into the ground, two hundred feet wide and five hundred feet long. The door looked like two sheets of metal pressed against each other, set a foot into the ground. This appeared to be where they would park their Shadow Jumpers.

The interior was fully furnished, with all the rooms they asked for as well. Upon entering through the front door, one would find themselves in an entryway leading to the living room to the left. The living room had two couches against the back wall, with a coffee table in front of each.

Next to the window was a large television mounted on the wall, underneath which was a hologram projector on a large stand. There were shelves lining the wall to the right of the TV, which were currently empty.

The walls were light brown, and there was recessed lighting in the ceiling. To the far left, set in the back wall, was the doorway to the kitchen and dining room. On the left wall was a white door, which opened to descending stairs leading to the hangar.

The doorway in the right wall led to a hallway containing their bedrooms, and the doorway on the far right of the back wall opened to the laundry room, which connected to the kitchen via a doorway between the two.

Every room had furnishings you'd expect from them. The dining room had a large table with eight chairs around it. The wall behind it had a glass sliding door opening to what could technically be considered the backyard. The kitchen had the typical stove-oven combo, microwave, freezer-fridge, sink, and all manner of cabinets and drawers for storing ingredients, dishes, and cutlery.

All in all, it was a nice house. The Embodiments that built it gave them six remotes that would allow them to open the hangar door. The members of Styx thanked them and they left. When they were gone, the members of Styx went into their new home. They discussed who would have which bedroom.

All the doors leading to them were set in the wall opposite the doorway to the living room, which was in between the two middle rooms. They eventually settled on Nikolas getting the room to the right of the doorway, Cait the one to the right of that, and Fate the one after that. Autumn would have the first room to the left, Tom the one after that, and Maya the last one on the left.

After that, they moved all the food they had stored in their Shadow Jumpers into the house, then parked the ships in the hangar. With that done, they all gathered in the living room and settled on the couches, aiming to find out what kind of TV shows the wider multiverse had.

It quickly became obvious that there were two broad categories: those made by mortals and those made by Embodiments. The mortal-made shows and movies often had concepts of a 'higher power' like gods, champions, and the like, sometimes subtly mentioned and other times the entire plot. They also tended to have more over-the-top scenes and down-to-earth plots. Embodiment-made shows and movies, on the other hand, never had these concepts.

The Embodiment shows varied wildly in tone and typically involved some enigmatic 'search for the truth,' the truth being the secrets of a Manifestation, although sometimes it was other things like 'who murdered this person' or 'who stole my possession.'

Being the newly-minted Embodiments that they are, the members of Styx vastly preferred the mortal-made films. They found the Embodiment films too strange and archaic. They found a show about a divine man in love with a mortal woman on a channel called "Wallmark." It seemed interesting enough, so they decided to give it a chance.

It was more engaging than they thought it would be, filled with intense battles as the divine man defended his love interest and sad moments, such as when the woman's father died of an incurable sickness. It quickly became their favorite show, with a little bit of everything to offer. Hours later, after binging to catch up on the series, they realized it was four in the morning. Suddenly noticing their fatigue, they decided to hit the hay.