POV: Frank

The entirety of Fermicia shook heavily, as it always does around 8 o'clock in the morning. Rhythmic quakes, steadily growing in intensity. In some worlds, this may have been a cause for great concern. In Fermicia, it was simply part of our routine. Were the quakes inconvenient? Perhaps, but their origin was very good at convincing people like us.

The horizon changed, going from a pleasant, orange, morning glow, to entirely transparent. The sun itself vanished as well. But in its place came something a lot greater: the smiling face of our goddess. She was far more radiant than any sun could ever be... at least in my opinion. From beyond the dynamic-glass wall, I saw her fiddle with something in her ear. A few seconds later, her divine voice echoed across the continent.

The voice of our goddess, Indiana.

"Good morning little ones. I hope everyone had a pleasant night? Just wanted to pop in real quick to let you know I won't be home this evening. As such, any shift switches should occur at the present moment... Wouldn't want anyone stuck who wishes to be home by nightfall.~"

Hearing the goddess' voice was always a strange experience. It came from everywhere at once, but at the same time it didn't truly seem to come from the goddess herself. The reason was quite simple: It didn't. The voice we heard came from gigantic speaker systems that were built into the continent itself. The goddess was simply too enormous for her voice to be anything but loud rumblings across the sky.

Speaking of the sky, it slowly vanished. The glass covering slid open, allowing direct access between our world and the one our goddess lived in. Across the sky, dozens of specialised vehicles flew towards the goddess' divine face, and a handful flew the opposite direction. As an act of kindness, she had moved herself even closer, practically leaning against the walls of our world so that her face was directly above the opening. In that position, she waited for a solid 5 minutes. Her breathing was slow and controlled, lest she disrupt the flight paths. Or worse: bring down great storms towards the land itself.

When those 5 minutes passed, the sky closed up again, sealing us within our protective environment. A small minority called it a cage, others a vivarium. Me? I simply called it home. My thoughts were silenced as the divine voice rang out once again.

"Of course, I would never just leave you entirely alone. Alex has agreed to check in on you. Well... more or less agreed. So any concerns you have, you should discuss with her. Though you may wanna bunker down... just in case..."

Ah, Alex, the Great Alexandra. If our goddess Indiana was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen, Alexandra was the most powerful... and the second most beautiful. From what we could tell, our two goddesses were lovers, young on their scale, ancient on ours. But whereas we got to see Indiana on a daily basis, Alex was a much rarer sight. If we were lucky, she appeared once a week. If we weren't, we sometimes wouldn't see her for an entire month. That always causes great distress to the people living in her belongings. Most of all those living within the  strongholds of the aptly-named Mount Alexandria. To us, the largest mountain within our world, one that had unceremoniously crushed the pre-existing mountain range that had occupied that spot. To them, as Indiana had once described: “one of Alexandra's old gym shoes, which Alex dropped too harshly before I could tell her to be gentle.".. I've been there once, on holiday. Even so many years later, her scent still lingers for miles around. But it especially prevails in the mountain's deepest depths... Never knew the depths of a mountain could be so... swamplike...

Why did Indiana suggest for us to bunker down? Well, the other goddess never means any more harm than Indiana does, we all know this. But as history has taught us... she is simply way less proficient at controlling the power that comes with her size. Not just on our scale, Alexandra makes Indiana seem small by comparison. Our beloved blonde goddess, the one who gave us everything.. only comes up to the brunette goddess' chest.. But I digress. Basically, whereas Indiana manages both her breathing and the volume of her voice, Alexandra does neither. Not out of malice, she simply never realises what she causes. Though unlike Indiana... I don't think she particularly cares beyond a level of "oh, whoops..". It's clear to most that she never wanted to own a civilization, yet conceded to Indiana's wishes. At least she seems to be getting better with every passing year.. mostly because she clearly enjoys her own enormity.

Most people don't blame either of our goddesses when accidents occur. They are so ridiculously huge, it's unavoidable unless they permanently seal us off from their world. Do you get angry at a storm, or a flood? Or any other force of nature? Of course not! And that's just what those two are to us... forces of nature. If anything these two deserve our praise for causing as few as they do.... Okay maybe Alexandra doesn't but that's not the point! The point is: we're lucky to be living under their protection. We've heard stories from newcomers, about what the outside world is like. It's dangerous, literally everything could kill us. And apparently not every divine being is like Indiana or Alexandra! Some are cruel, keeping entire civilizations are playthings, or just destroying us at sight! If they even notice us at all.. Our goddesses admit that they don't know how many of our kind they have unknowingly destroyed... and that they rather not think about it. A few years ago, a loud minority kept insisting for answers.. Until they eventually made Indiana tear up. Then, it promptly stopped... though my suspicion is that Alexandra's subsequent glare had something to do with that as well... Pretty sure everyone still remembers that glare... even if most of us wish they didn't….

I got shaken out of my inner musings by another quake. Apparently, our goddess had been silently admiring our civilisation (honestly, it was her civilisation), but suddenly remembered she had to get moving. 

”Oop, I have to get going now. Have a nice day my little sweethearts!~”

With a wave and a genuine smile, Indiana disappeared from sight, the glass once again showing a “normal” horizon and sky. The quakes would slowly but surely dissipate, leaving our world entirely alone, in the spare bedroom of some unfathomably enormous house….