00.00 Death, Bring New Life.

'Why am I dying?' It was a simple question, the last one that would run through the head of Cadmon Bowell. His death may be called a tragedy, or he might have been too old for even that, at the ripe age of 32 he was recently waking up with an ache in his back.

Cadmon was someone who would likely be called attractive, by anyone aside from himself. He could never properly grow a real beard, yet he couldn't keep a schedule, so his face was still covered in hair anyway. While he had a bit of fat on him, he wasn't chunky, he was physically unremarkable at an inch or three just under six feet.

None of his muscular development would help him as the bullet approached him, however. While once upon a time he had attempted joining the military, an issue with his hearing would lead to his discharge before he even got through Bootcamp.

Maybe if he had made it he would know something that could help him at this moment, maybe the military had some sort of protocol for being shot at driving through a neighborhood with the wrong colored car.

Cadmon had originally stopped the car to look for some directions, a man came up to the car, Cadmon knew what he looked like but at the moment he couldn't actually describe the man. He didn't remember his build, didn't remember his eyes, or even his skin tone, he was just a faceless figure that held the gun that would kill him.

No other thought went through his head, the last thing that would be is a bullet tearing it apart.

The next thing he knew, he was waking up in this darkness, yet he was in light. Blinking, he found himself suddenly alive, 'How, the bullet… where am I?'

His surroundings, once a sort of classical street with garbage, faded houses, and overgrown lawns. It had now changed to a place of stark white and pitch black mixing and shading with each other, as if one were superimposed on the other somehow.

They shared the same space yet were distinctly both white and black at the same time. Blinking to himself, he tried to adjust his eyes, and found that despite the fact the color scheme should hurt his eyes, it just didn't.

His eyes then moved, his ears locking onto a distinct sound of audio static and two voices. His eyes found the source rather soon after. There were two kinds of imposing beings that couldn't be more far apart in how they felt, one was indeterminate, a pitch black figure that was darker even than the pitch black in the background.

It looked as if someone had taken reality itself and cut it in the form of what could have been a person. While it was a rough humanoid it had no shape for a face, its ears were sharper, and it was far too tall to seem human, towering maybe four to five feet above even Cadmon.

The voice of the figure was indistinct as well, being both masculine and feminine yet not androgynous, as if there was no correct answer of what it was, surely nothing in any language Cadmon knew.

In contrast, the second figure was too distinct, a man clearly who sat upon a black and brown beaten-up sofa chair that was leaned back at an odd angle held in place by the man's weight. This weight on it clearly causing the wood of the chair itself to strain under it.

He was pretty old, potentially 45 or so years old, with a hefty pure white beard and mustache combo that covered much of his lower face. Seeing that made Cadmon feel self-conscious, only it was covered in crumbs and a single purple stain on the left lip, which were likely from some sort of recently eaten sandwich. He was fat, too, with a large potbelly that showed a belly button with some odd gray lint poking out of it.

The second figure wore an off-white wife beater that was stained various faded colors, probably from food and drink, crumbs of chips spread over his shirt. Below that, he wore simple blue and white striped boxers that thankfully from here seem unstained.

"Pig, are you capable of cleaning your domain when we have a guest present?" The shadowy voice of the figure spoke. Cadmon was rather distracted attempting to discern the voice simply drifted his eyes to the disgusting sight of the man eating his cool ranch chips, the dust of which clung to the man's fingers, coloring them.

"And why the hell should I? I seem to remember someone saying their job was to clean up after me in the last Lesser meeting, and if I've got a maid, I'm sure as fuck gonna use em!" A wide grin crossed the man's face, showing yellowed and misplaced teeth which spoke of terrible dental hygiene. Yet somehow this grin seemed to hold an odd sort of charisma to it, and the twinkle to the eye carried a similar sharp wit. 

"You imbecile! I was stating my job felt that way sometimes not- ugh, never mind, you better not leave that mess when our domains split once more!" The shaded voice snapped, the anger only making the voice harder to determine in its sudden shrillness, much to the displeasure of Cadmon's poor ears.

"I'm uh, sorry, but who the hell are you both? And where am I?" Those questions seemed in the right order to the panicking man. Yet they only caused the man to groan from them even being asked.

"Dammit, are you sure we didn't get a defect? I don't see why he would even mark a soul like this." the man's voice was gruff and gravely, it gave Cadmon the impression of a smoker of sorts but also still oddly clear like a jazz singer's, and he sounded rather disgruntled.

Yet in the face of his annoyance the cut-out shook its head, "No this is indeed the one, and he meets all the qualifications necessary, even if only on a technicality. Now, to answer one of your questions, I must preface everything by saying that you are sadly dead."

Cadmon might have known that, he might have understood it, yet to hear it now was… horrid, the true finality of everything hit him all at once, and he felt as if his knees were weak. He was dead, despite never getting through college, he was dead, despite not getting that job, he was dead, despite not changing the world at all… he was dead.

He thanked the odd tone that was held in the figure's voice, otherwise he was unsure he would have heard the next words it spoke, "And due to circumstances beyond your control you are to be reincarnated. To oversee this reincarnation, me and my other half have been assigned, to that end I am GainLoss, however most will simply call me Gain, and he is known as Loss."

When the figure spoke it's apparent true name, it was as if both their voices were overlapped. It spoke both names at the same time, the very vibrations making up their speech were intertwined. At the same time, the man didn't so much as open his lips to speak this name.

It made sense now, that this thing was the man- no that's not quite right, this Gain was a part of Loss, with the same being its own true opposite.

"You… what on earth are you two?" Cadmon's voice came out with a tone of bewilderment, appropriate to the amount he felt at this moment. Yet something about what he said, perhaps the fact it was a repeat of what he just said earlier, caused Loss to growl in annoyance at this fact.

"Holy shit, are you slow? It just told you, we are Loss and Gain, as in the literal manifestations of it, anytime someone is losing something? Yeah, that's my job in things, anytime someone is getting something it goes over to them to deal with." He goes through, quickly jabbing a thumb at his counterpart and shaking Cadmon from his mental and emotional rut.

The sudden shock of being insulted caused his eyes to narrow as he focused a bit. Now being more lucid, he set about analyzing the surrounding situation and being able to take it all in.

"Okay, sorry about that, it's just that I wasn't ready for this sort of thing. Uhm, I'm Cadmon, Cadmon Bowell, although you guys give me the impression you already know who I am." He sort of awkwardly bows here, not really knowing what else to do. After all, what does one do in the face of things that are basically gods if not in name, then in function.

He received a grunt from Loss, but Gain rather enthusiastically nodded it's head, "Indeed we do, now if I'm capable of returning to the explanation, while normally we would do a few things, including allowing you to be reincarnated and let you choose where you do so." Its airy voice was excited to explain yet also appeared to be a bit sheepish in some hard to place way.

He was rather excited by the idea of choosing where he ended up, maybe he could go into Spirit Orb, being a Moken would be really cool after all. Or maybe he could even go to Pocket Yokai!

"Unfortunately, however, your mark is a little different from most that end up going through here. Your case additionally is unique enough that we cannot allow for the mostly unlimited deals we normally allow." At this, Cadmon blinks, looking up to Gain with a confused expression, before Loss speaks up.

"You have a special mark, the guy upstairs told us to call the Mark of the Dropped. So just like it says we're going to drop you into another world, unlike most reincarnations you're not getting anything new by default. Instead, you're going to be staying in your original body, but with all the changes made to it that you get from us."

Loss stated as he pushed down the leg of the recliner to allow him to sit up a little, causing his stomach to bulge out a bit more, becoming rather prominent due to how it made it jiggle.

"Well, I mean, I guess that's fine, but what does that have to do with allowing me to choose where I go or not?" Cadmon stuttered a bit, his eyes darting from side to side as he tried to think on the various stories he had read while he was still alive.

'Gain certainly fits that benevolent goddess role despite being… well a cut out of darkness itself, but Loss is a total BROB! I gotta be really careful with him.' His thoughts are nicely collected, but interrupted by Loss laughing.

"That's the fun part! Droppers are used by the big guy to sort of… shake up different worlds, so anytime they come through, it's because we have a specific world in mind for you to go and shake up! And lucky for us, the world we need you to shake up is one that doesn't have an equivalent bit of fiction in your world."

The entire time Loss speaks, a large grin is pulled across its face, and Cadmon feels like he should be appalled by it.

"I… wait, but I mean, if I'm already being restricted in where I can go, then why am I also being restricted in what I can actually bargain for or with!"

His plea was rather quickly silenced by Gain, whose expression, the vague indents of a face in the darkness, seemed more cold rather suddenly after his outburst.

"Because your life wasn't that important. Reincarnations are chosen by marked souls first, then they must have led an unfulfilling life, be that in how they died, in the impact made before they died, or in the way their life was ultimately lived. The only criteria aside from that is that you couldn't have died of any natural causes, such as issues caused by old age." Gain explained this with indifference in its voice that mixed with some softness born of pity.

"You were marked, sure, but you also didn't have quite an unfulfilling life, you had a geology talent that would be on par with a once in a lifetime genius."

That sounded incredible and lead Cadmon to thinking back to his life up until then, how he saw the little bits in rocks. He realized how he was able to tell the difference between different gems and even tell when people were trying to sell him fake ones.

The way he knew which area would have a rock slide an hour or two before it happened, when he saw James get tricked by some fools gold encrusted jewelry for his costume. Even when Hazel got that clearly treated glass 'diamond' ring from Amber.

But… he never went to school for that, he didn't even realize he was good at it, he planned to ask more, only Loss continued to speak, cutting off his train of thought.

"However, as I'm sure you're aware, there isn't much that you can do with geology to revolutionize the world as it was. The most you were destined for was figuring out an unknown element from a meteor that would have revolutionized sleep and sleep aids. It would have had an impact, sure, but it wouldn't be on par with the talent given to you." Loss's grin seemed suffocating at that moment, deeply mocking in an oppressive way.

"Due to this you simply won't have as much as many more would in your shoes, too many who deserve more than you do don't get it. You already have the two of us working together on your deals, that should be enough."

The airy, silky voice of Gain felt like a shot in the chest, especially when infected by that cold coat of indifference it suddenly had as they laid it all out to him. 

"So to keep this shit simple you have three deals that you can make with us, when you ask for a thing it'll be given a point value, which my dear partner will keep track of for the both of us." Loss rather lazily waves to the figure of Loss, whose dark chest opens wide from the tip of what would be their neck dragged all the way down to the bottom of their stomach.

From the opening comes a giant eye, bleached white sclera leading to a mesmerizing green and yellow patterned iris, and in the place of a pupil was a black zero which stood out in comparison to the colorful iris. The way the iris bulged was far more pronounced when the eye was this massive, almost giving it the look of jello, which made it all the worse when it moved as if to focus on the surrounding objects.

The eye seemed to move and focus on Cadmon, and he couldn't help the shiver of fear that it made him feel, as if he were on the cusp of having something become more.

"To give you a bit of help here, I'll let you know that something on par with say… a full duplication from Whirlpool would be worth about five points. But of course, even these deals have some limits to them." Loss continued, and it took all Cadmon had not to make a comment of any sort on this.

"You can get something close to what you would find in media or fiction, but we can't give exactly that, so take inspiration rather than being a lazy copycat, okay?" He said it so condescendingly that Cadmon felt himself shiver, his hands balling into fists at just the tone of voice before even factoring the words in.

His mind conjured up images of him grabbing that chair and beating him over the head with it. Even if he knew he wasn't strong enough to do it, it certainly felt cathartic to picture.

"To follow what my other was saying, everything good you ask for will cost you points, everything bad you ask for will give you more points, and you will be able to argue for more or less points for a thing if you make a solid argument. Ending with positive points will lead to us giving you things equal to the points you have, while ending with negative points will lead to us giving you bad things equal to the points you have." Gain thankfully stepped in, their more professional tone and mannerisms, calming Cadmon a little after Loss' harsh words.

"That being said, I wouldn't end with anything less than -20 points, we haven't had a single person who did so survive long." There was a dark chuckle that came with that, and Cadmon felt a spike of fear towards Loss, reminding himself that this thing was actually something dangerous.

But even with that, Cadmon had one more pressing issue that needed to be taken care of. "Okay, then, I guess… where am I going to be going to after this whole thing is done?"

For a moment he thought he had asked something silly as both of them were quiet before Gain eventually spoke up, "As Loss said where you're going has no equivalent source of Media in your world, but using your world's terms, at least ones you would be familiar with, it's a Modern world with a hidden magical side."

Loss seemed a bit excited to talk about this as he rather quickly spoke up, "it's got three different sources of power, either a person is born with an item which they unlock later giving them an ability, or they learn a form of Magic, or they learn some Senjutsu. We can't give any real info on how the latter two work, but I'm sure you can roughly guess and might even get lucky and be pretty close to right too."

Cadmon did have a good idea, although the big question was the difference between Magic and Senjutsu. 'Alright, what do I want… I don't think I want the items, there's not enough info on them in what they did say. Nothing about how they work, what their abilities could be, or even how durable the item is. What if the item is fragile, and they only get one?'

With that decided he tuned in when Gain spoke up once more, "Aside from that there are also the mystical races, specifically the Fomorians and Tuatha Dé Danann being the most prevalent around the area you're in, but the Angels, Demons, and Fallen Angels exist as well, and they will be on the move as well. You will not be able to start as any of the latter, but there is the potential to be a Fomorian or Tuatha Dé Danann?" Gain looks to Cadmon, who has a bit of a frown, he wasn't all that interested in being another race than human.

"Thanks but… I'm good, so are all religions real or is it just the Irish and Christian myth?" He asks with a bit of a raised eyebrow. Loss chuckles before Gain can respond, a bit of an odd mirth in his voice.

"One of our others Flow, although you wouldn't know the name, joked that this place was better known as the Menagerie than an alternative earth, mainly because as many races and beasts as exist in myth exist here, often in their own rough spaces within the world." A large and uneven toothy grin spread over his face, and Cadmon's face narrows, a minor look of horror mixed with excitement as he thought of the amazing potential this place held and what else there could be hidden away.

Before he remembered, he would basically only have whatever he bargained for in this, and his expression fell quickly as it vastly limited what all he could have.

"And you will remember Loss, Star hit him over the head for his little comment, do you really want us to bring up what happened in the past." The flat look from Gain caused him to cough and look away, to the shadow's pleasure, as it looked back to Cadmon and kept speaking.

"Do not worry, this is a hidden magic world you will not be finding anything that crazy unless you are extremely unlucky, or you take a lot of negative points in your dealings." The reassurance actually helped Cadmon a bit, and he slowly let a breath out. That is, at least until he realized what was actually said.

"Wait, so I'm going to have to find magic myself? But… I mean, I guess I could use the internet if it's still a modern world, wait no, I don't trust my ability to look through all that shit!" While he was decent at some things, internet surfing had remained a real mystery to the young man.

"Well then, what will you do about it then?" Loss asks, a wide grin on his face as he seemed to lean in and over him.

Taking a moment, Cadmon looked at the man before sighing, "alright, I guess that's as good of a first deal as I can make them… uh, could I get some sort of sense for when something is magical around me, along with where that thing is?"

Loss seemed to mull over the words for a moment before nodding, "Alright, sure, but it'll be either ten or thirty points, ten for within line of sight and thirty for in an absolute area around you of roughly one hundred feet."

Cadmon's eye twitched, "Now wait a damn minute, Full Duplication would be like five points, and this is far less useful than multiple mes with a memory transfer! What's jacking up the price so damn much?"

Loss's grin grew a bit as he chuckled, "Well sure Full Duplication is far more useful, as it is, it has less utility than this in combat, and as you presented it, it would be a power outside the normal power systems that the world itself uses. That means people wouldn't be able to stop it by any normal means, isn't that worth a bit of extra price to it?"

Cadmon bit his lip at that, sure it was a good effect but still that was far too close to the point limit, he didn't want to hit that limit so soon.

"Alright uhm, how about I start with a book on some sort of sensory ability that would let me sense the supernatural things, the exacts of it can be random but if it requires something then it also gives books that can get me to the level I can still use it." He saw Loss begin to think before nodding a bit.

"Alright sure, leaving it random alone would make the last be worth fifteen points, when taking into account that you're subjecting it to the rules of the existing power system, and it'd go down to about five points then. However, you're also getting books to allow you to get there as well, which would mean basic abilities as well, that's at least worth three points in of itself, so eight for the whole ability."

As Cadmon listened he noted that Loss had ignored something and quickly pointed it out, "But you're not taking into account the fact that I'm also taking the time to learn it, I'm not just getting it, that would at least be worth two points, so how about calling it even at six points for it then?"

Admittedly, Cadmon had no idea how useful it was, but whatever he said went over well with Loss as he grew a vicious grin. The man-like thing actually sat up and chuckled, "You're a sight for my sore eyes, so many of the newbies that pass through here don't know how to bargain worth a shit!"

As he said this his eyes roamed across Cadmon, interest filling him as he chuckled and for a moment he thought Loss would make a counteroffer or something, "alright I'll agree to six points for this, just to give you a bit of a reward, but let's see if you can keep it up."

With Loss's agreement, the eye on Gain's chest blinked and when it opened the zero had changed to a negative six now it was perfectly spaced and set to seem almost natural to the structure of the eye.

"Alright, I'm going to be honest, as interesting as my Geology talent is, it's not going to be doing me much good in this new place, even if I now know I have it. So how about we switch it for something that's more useful, like how about swords? There's gotta be plenty of cool magic swords in this place, so how about changing my Talent from Geology to Swords."

Loss snorted, "Cliché at all? Whatever man, if you want your swords you can have them for thirty points flat just for the work we'd have to do to make a once in a lifetime swordsman talent out of you."

Cadmon twitched at the terrible deal Loss shot back at him, "Hell no, that's not worth it at all, a major amount of the work would already be done by the fact it already exists right?" he looks over to Gain, who rather surprised to be dragged into this nodded at Cadmon after the shock wears off them.

"That would be correct. The hardest parts would be already dealt with." It says rather simply, causing Cadmon to grin widely, he had just learned something even more valuable after all from this.

'So Gain is willing to be a mediator, eh? Fine by me.' Looking back to Loss, he speaks rather quickly.

"So given most of the work is already done, and really it wouldn't be too big of a bonus when it's dependent on strong swords to get the most out of it really, I'd say nine points would work better wouldn't you?" He briefly wondered if he put that right but pushed the doubt aside, he had to look steady in front of the being before him and unwilling to be pushed around or bullied.

"Actually I wouldn't say that, maybe you don't understand just how valuable your talent would be, but let me put it in perspective for you. You as a normal person who had never studied geology a day in his life, with your level of talent, would have taken a two-year online course of Geology and gotten your hand on a rock from Dbay. You would have revolutionized the way humanity sleeps with the minerals in that rock." Him saying it like that actually gave Cadmon pause, he stopped in his tracks and thought on what he had just heard and how crazy it was.

"But you're right when you say most of the work would be done already, but I'll only be willing to bring it down to around twenty-five points, and that's already pushing it some if I am being blunt." Loss says simply a serious look on his face, but Cadmon grit his teeth, his eyes narrowing.

"Alright but the issue is Geology is a purely mental skill, Swordsmanship needs more than that, it needs physical effort applied to it to make true use of it, so how about we specify the talent is just mental, none of the physical work needed can be covered by this. That should drop it to like fourteen, right?" Cadmon notably increased it from the drop he had it at last time, yet Loss seemed rather serious still.

"Even with that, I won't go below sixteen points for a talent like that, and that is a sweetheart deal." As Cadmon mulled on that, he realized that while he couldn't get less for this talent… he could reduce what he would normally pay for stuff, an idea budding in his head as all the gears turned.

"Alright, how about making it eighteen, but It's for any kind of blades rather than just for swords." Not skipping a beat, Loss nods a bit.

"Alright fine, that works I suppose, deal." With that, the eye of Gain blinks once more and showed the number negative twenty-four in its iris. Taking a moment, Cadmon thought, and thought, for what seems like an eternity. He couldn't take anything else that was positive if he wanted a real chance of survival, but more than that, he didn't want his next life to be a miserable mess.

So he had to take something bad enough that he would get enough points removed that he could actually live comfortably. 'But what can I do? Maybe I can ask for their suggestions? But that would… actually. Thinking about I can do something more, they mentioned two other things like them, what were the names again? Whatever, but that means more of them would logically exist.'

With a plan in mind he spoke up, "Hey Gain, you mentioned more like you, how many are there exactly?"

Gain's shadowy figure tilted ever so slightly it's head before Loss spoke in its place, "Weird question, but there are exactly twelve of us. There is us, Loss and Gain, then there is Make and Break, then Star, Planet, Boundary, Scale, Flow, Fate, Energy, and Matter. Above us there are six Life, Death, Universe, Dimension, Time, and Between. Above them, there is only one." 

That revelation… Cadmon would admit that it shook him a bit, to know that all of these beings existed, especially if they were all as Loss told him Loss and Gain were. If they were all personifications of their names, as Loss had claimed that the two of them were. His body shook a bit, yet he calmed rather quickly as it was big, yes, but not something he really could do anything with.

"Are you certain it was wise to disclose that sort of information, Loss?" Gain felt like they had risen an eye at the man before them, yet he only waved a hand back to them.

"Where he's going the boy would be lucky if he got up to a fragment if anything, it'll be fine to let him know." A chilling grin grew from his face as he looked over to Cadmon who took his time, drawing himself back, and he smiled looking at Loss. The math worked out too perfectly for him not to try something like this.

"How about this, rather than just try to argue for one bad thing being worth twenty-four points, instead each of you twelve get to choose one detriment that's worth like two points for me!" It was a crazy idea given what he knew he was dealing with now, but it would be worth it if he could get to a nice flat zero points in one fell swoop.

"That will be worth thirty points." Loss said without skipping a beat, his voice not giving anything away but a confident joy.

Never in his life had Cadmon had six words make him make a faster one eighty for his excitement of something than the confident words of Loss. The simple joy in his tone made the young man shudder as he looked between Loss and Gain for a second, attempting to discern any emotion from the two of them.

Yet Gain didn't seem worried or anything, if what he asked for was truly that bad… then Gain would make some sort of motion of wincing or something, right?

Not to mention as careful as he had been in this case… well, for one he had nothing to go off of, and he was very tempted by the sheer amount of points he was just offered. Thirty points wouldn't just take away the negatives from the last two deals, it would put him in the positives again, it would mean they gave him something to make his situation better.

With that in mind, he wondered if he was making a stupid choice, yet opened his mouth anyway, with a faint tremble, "I'll take it."

Loss's mouth turned into a wide grin as he chuckled a little bit, the eye upon Gain's chest blinked, and the iris came back with a six on it. He was back in positive points, and he wasn't sure how to feel about that fact.

"Now that our deals are done, we have nothing else to say but to follow your dreams, this is your new life, and unlike last time you very well might not get the same chance again. I wish you well, dropper of this new world." With but a wave, Cadmon felt something shift as Loss's chuckles filled his mind.

"Wait but, my, name, in this new life can I change i-" The shift took him over fully, and he found only darkness there to embrace him as he cursed his own forgetfulness.