The door opened and a lady walked into the office; in her arms was a large stack of documents and on her face was a look of exhaustion.

“You've been assigned a new project.” She states clearly before walking over to a desk and planting the stack of documents onto the side of the desk, allowing the sound of impact to resound in the office.

The man behind the desk leans back and covers his face with his hands before letting out a groan.

“What kind of bullshit is it this time?” He asks as he uncovers his face and looks at the pile of documents with heavy eyes.

The lady lets out a sigh. “You’re not going to like this.” She says as she takes a seat across from the man. “The origin of this one is famous. It’s from the Junior Chaos Architect who designed Heaven and Hell.” She says with a shake of her head.

The man’s eyes open in shock. “That asshole? Don’t tell me I was assigned to resolve that bullshit!?” He says before panic begins to set in. He had recently became a full-fledged Chaos Architect but he was not ready for that kind of work. The effort and the grief involved with cleaning up that mess… The man thinks with dread. I’m definitely not ready for that. He acknowledges. In fact, just thinking about it gave him anxiety, and if the job were offered to him he would have no choice but to reject it.

In this place, space and time had less meaning than in the story world settings that Chaos Architects created. If things were understood with a regular mindset, events were proceeded by other events; a natural flow from one to another in a place consisting of space and time. But in this place, existence and nonexistence were separated by a blurry line, and story worlds, or whole universes, existed in a way where they had both been built and had already been destroyed.

Many Chaos Architects were aware of famous worlds and stories that had taken place, but at the same time, they were unaware if that was a story that they were assigned or a story that they were involved with working on. For all they knew, the Grand Architect could assign them a project that they had already heard about second-hand, and they would walk into the project while already knowing the general opinion of their work.

The Junior Chaos Architect and the man’s assistant raised her hands up and waved them back and forth as if to shake off that dreadful idea. “No no, no, no, no! God forbid, no!” The lady exclaims. Similarly to the man, just the idea of it was dreadful.

The lady lowers her hands to explain. “After that Junior Chaos Architect fulfilled his wet dream and disgusting fantasy by creating Heaven and Hell, he was severely reprimanded. They were going to strip him of his qualifications and reincarnate him into a random world setting, but as if the Grand Architect specifically wanted to piss us off, that asshole was given another chance. He created the Greek Pantheon. But as you know, even this place shared some similarities with his previous work; the balance was incredibly off between the gods and the humans and the monsters. It’s like this dude specifically disregards the balance aspect of being a Chaos Architect. Anyways, the Grand Architect wasn't satisfied so he’s been reincarnated, probably as a demon in some random world, as a sick joke by the Grand Architect.” She explains before letting out a sigh.

The lady leans back on her chair as if the work ahead was already weighing on her. “But as you know, the story must go on, and the people involved in those stories also have to move on. Weirdly enough, the Grand Architect has an interest in one of the gods involved with this world. The father, so to speak, the god of time, Cronus.” She says, introducing the man to the project.

The man raises an eyebrow. “So what exactly does the Grand Architect want?” He asks, curious what the fuss was about.

“Well, befitting someone who was born a god, Cronus was a genius, and the Grand Architect sees him as a prospect Chaos Architect. But there’s just one problem…” She says as her eyes become half-lidded. She lets out another sigh and expands her arms outwards. “His ego! It’s huge! The Grand Architect, well, he wants it whittled to a proper size. Granted, he did sort of live in a place where he was that great, in comparison to what was around him, but that’s not going to cut it as a Chaos Architect. For him to work here he has to know his place.” She explains, unimpressed.

The man groans again. “Reduce the ego of a god… Fuck… What a shit job. Alright, explain it to me, how does the Grand Architect want this one molded?” He asks before pulling out a bottle of ambrosia and pouring himself a glass. He had a feeling he would need it for this job.

“The Grand Architect wants you to give him his first lesson as a Chaos Architect. That there’s always someone better and there’s always more to yearn for. Unfortunately there is a lot of lingering karma in the Greek Pantheon. He has to find closure for a lot of these issues before he can move on. Also, he has a lot of questions that need to be answered. One of which, is related to your task, he has to understand humanity.” The lady says before pausing and moving her hand to grab the man’s cup. She casually takes a large gulp and lets out a burp before gesturing with her hands for more.

The man looks at her blankly before letting out a sigh and pouring her another glass before pouring one for himself in a different cup. That ambrosia cost a good chunk of karma points… He thought to himself bitterly.

The lady takes the glass and continues. “This guys, as is natural for a god, knows humanity for what it is, mundane, sinful, a cesspool for disease and death, etcetera, etcetera. This guy lived through the Golden Age and knows what it’s like to do what you want when you want; he, as a god, doesn’t understand why humans put up with it. Is it because they yearn for something beyond this life? Or is it because they simply don’t understand what it is to live for themselves and the moment? Who knows. Your job is to give him a reason. Hopefully something that makes him say ‘holy shit, that’s beautiful.’” The lady says with exaggerated enthusiasm.

“Fuck, do I have to come up with something? The reason hasn’t been set yet?” The man asks as he leans back on his chair.

“Don’t be lazy. I know you haven’t been a full-fledged Chaos Architect for long but that’s your job now. You have to be involved in those ‘oh, that’s what life’s about’ moments.” The lady says before taking another sip of ambrosia.

The man sighs and takes a sip of his own. “Alright. Without even looking at the files I know we have to go with the Earth Template. I mean, it’s the epitome of humanity, and all the great Chaos Architects are from Earth. But I have to say, coming in as a god isn’t going to be easy. The second he realizes his reality, the impact is going to be like a war hammer to the face. Then, we’d have to give him a reason to continue on. I just know he’s going to a huge emo as a teenager. I can already hear him now, ‘Why is the world this way? Why are these things allowed?’ And of course he’s going to think he could do better.” The man says with heavy eyes. It was like someone assigned a child to raise.

“Well, that’s your problem. Thank god. I’ll help out with the details but that stuff will have to be left with you.” The lady says with a chuckle. “You should know, his wife will probably be involved. He kind of… Has a jealousy problem.” The lady says as she snuggles in her chair with her cup of ambrosia.

The man presses down on his head. “Fuck. Another one. If that one’s involved, I probably have to deal with the other too, right? I heard a few things from that story; I just know his son will be involved.” He says with a creased forehead and a building headache.

“Zeus? Yeah, he’ll be involved. As he sees it, the golden age was perfect; there was no reason to build on top of it. Also… Not sure if I should say this or leave it for you to find out…” The lady says with some hesitation.

The man raises another eyebrow. “What? Spit it out.” He says, not expecting good things.

“He ugh… He saw it…” The lady says, unsure of how to word it.

“Saw it? Saw what?” The man asks with some anxiety. He had a bad feeling about this.

“He ugh… He saw Heaven and Hell. Displayed in all its glory and sick fantasy.” The lady says with a feeling of pity.

The man’s eyes open wide. “What! How!? Why!?” The man exclaims with shock. He had no idea how he was going to deal with that.

“Yup. You’re going to have to provide an explanation for that. And like he said, he saw heaven… and he’s a very jealous man. Currently, super jealous. You’re going to have to sate his appetite while simultaneously giving him a reason to maintain his humanity.” The lady says, unable to help herself from letting out a chuckle. “I do not envy you.” She says with a smile.

“Holy fuck. Why are they giving this job to me? This seems to be a little above my pay-grade. I mean, even I don’t completely understand why that was allowed.” The man says before taking a big gulp of his drink.

“What can I say? The Grand Architect assigned it to you so he must have his reasons. Also these projects aren’t just for our subjects; there’s also room for us to grow as we work on them.” She says with a well-meaning smile.

The man lets out a groan. “Ugh. Alright, mom. Relax. I guess I’ll figure it out.” He says before looking at the stack of paper once again. “It’s going to be a lot of work. I’ll have to figure that part out later. For now we need humans; a lot of them. Enough to blur the question of what this is all about, and the quality should be high enough so that even a god would feel mundane in front of them. Actually, scratch that; since this project already involves other gods, why not use a bunch of demons too? Demons, monsters, dragons, angels, and gods. On top of that, add on the knights, the vikings, the heroes, the prophets, the nymphs, the mermaids, the cutlivators, the wizards, and the witches. All that shit; all in human form. He’s going to see shit and make connections that I couldn’t even imagine. Actually, this might be kind of fun.” The man says, getting a little excited for the project.

“As for resources, we’ve been approved to use the people from Heaven and Hell.” The lady says casually before taking another sip.

“What? Why would I want them? Wouldn’t they all be either crazy or wild as shit from that experience?” The man asks confused.

The lady waves her hand. “Don’t worry about it. A Senior Chaos Architect took charge and built a place for them to let out some steam. Ever hear of cyberpunk?” She asks with a smile.

“Cyberpunk? With these people? Fuck, that must have been a wild ride. But what’s the expectation? That they’re calm enough now to be involved with this one? Because, somehow, I doubt it.” He says with a chuckle.

“No, it means they’ve been stress tested. Gives you some allowance for how crazy you want to get. And, considering the guy you’re working on, crazy might be necessary.” She says with a teasing smile.

“Fuck. Alright. For now I’ll start working on the major structure. As for you, I want you to get to know these people, fill in the puzzle pieces. I want to know how it would look if they fit perfectly. After that, I wanna figure out how far we can stretch them. But, of course, not too far. We don’t want another…” The man says before trailing off, not wanting to say the words. The man felt he had given that place enough of his attention and he would prefer to ignore it was ever there in the first place.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about. I’ll begin with analysis right away.” She says before drinking the rest of her drink and standing up. She walks to the door before turning and smiling at the man. “And don’t forget. Have fun.” She says before exiting the office.

The man sighs, watching as the lady leaves. “Fun? Maybe. But definitely not for them.” He says before starting his work from the top of pile.