LDQ Vol. 7 pt. 1 (Patreon)

The universe is a pretty strange place. No matter where I go, there are always people living miserable lives that they hate. What’s the point of that? Why live in a way that doesn’t make you happy?

Well, I guess that there have been some pretty fair reasons for it.

“I have to pay my bills or else I won’t be able to support my family.”

“Because I don’t know what else to do with my life.”

“I don’t even want to be alive, but I’m all that my parents have left.”

“I made some bad choices and no matter what I try to get out of this hole, it feels like it just keeps getting deeper.”

It was pretty ignorant of me to assume that all those problems would be strictly human problems. But, out of everywhere I’ve visited… the same problems always exist. Whether they’re humans, blorgians, crystels, or the countless other races I’ve come across, that negativity persists across all of them.

And sometimes, the problems are completely impossible for any one person to resolve.

“The climate is going to shit. Why should I be happy? The world as we know it is dying.”

“Who could be happy in a country where everything is run by corrupt assholes who don’t care about the people?”

“I’m persecuted just for being born the way that I was. People see what I am and decide before even hearing one word from me that they hate me.”

Honestly… after meeting so many people, I can’t really blame them. Even with my powers, it’s hard to imagine being happy in their situations. There’s only so much that looking at the bright side of things can accomplish.

And that’s why things have to change.

And that is why I’ve been doing exactly that! Going around changing things!

I wonder if Mom and Dad are proud of me. Well, they probably don’t even know everything that’s changed yet.

But for now, it’s time for a break. That’s why I’m here in this little tentacle-themed restaurant inside of the orbital station that we docked in.

“Here you are,” the voice in front of me says.

“Oh! Thanks.” Sitting on the counter in front of me is none other than the drink that I ordered. I have no idea how to pronounce it, but it had a pretty blue picture on the menu. But… the straw for it… looks like a hollowed tentacle. The tentacle theme has been cute and all, but it looks like a tentacle from a living thing. It’d be weird to drink something through that. “Um… what’s this straw?”

The person behind the counter, a large, purple “alien” as humans would probably call him, made mostly out of tentacles, proudly lifts his tentacles up in front of me to show them off. “They’re my sustainable tentacle straws, of course,” he says, his voice coming from somewhere behind his mass of tentacles. “They regrow daily, so I sever them while they’re still small and hollow them out to use as straws. Much better for the environment this way.”

“Are… umm… I—I don’t mean to be insensitive, but… are you serious?”

“Of course not. Hah! Sorry, I always like to joke with new guests about it. Don’t worry, it’s made of,” he says a word I can’t understand, “and is only designed to look this way to fit the tentacle theme for my station restaurant here.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Okay. I—I don’t know how I would have felt about a dead tentacle straw.”

“Anyways, what brings you and your partner out this way?”

“We’re on a mission to spread love! Well, I am. I’m dragging her with me.”

“Dragging her, eh?”

I take a sip of my drink and nod, and I almost don’t want to stop drinking it from how good it tastes! But it would be rude to not answer his curiosity. “Yep! I met her back on Earth.”

“Earth? Never heard of it.”

“Oh, it’s in another galaxy.”

“Another… another galaxy?”

“Yep! Oh, right. I keep forgetting people never believe that. I can prove it to you want. Is it alright if I give you some memories?”

It’s hard to read the expressions of somebody who looks like they’re just a bunch of tentacles, but he’s not the first person I’ve met like this, so I’ve gotten used to it. And it’s because of that I can tell just how confused he looks. He looks like he’s staring straight at a crazy person, and I can’t really blame him for that. But! He’s adventurous enough to say, “Sure?” He probably doesn’t think it’s possible.

So, I snap my fingers and share with him my memories of Earth and travelling between a bunch of different galaxies.

He wiggles his way backwards and asks me, “What—what are you? Are you some kind of dragon? Only—only the dragons should be able to travel across the universe like that.”

“Hmm… I guess I’m half dragon?”

“Half?! But that isn’t possible! A dragon would never mate with another species, and—that wouldn’t even be possible if they wanted to!”

“Heh. My dad doesn’t care about what is or isn’t possible. Anyways, to answer your question for before, she—Mari, didn’t believe anything I told her even after sharing some memories with her, so I decided to prove it by dragging her across the universe with—”

“Oi,” Mari calls out, her hand over her stomach now that she’s out from the bathroom. She might be the reason why we had to stop her due to her stomach, but she still looks cool like always. I don’t really get how she manages to always look so good without any magic. Even with magic, it always feels like it takes so much work to look this cute, yet she’s cute just by existing! Oh, I better be careful. If I keep thinking about how cute she is, I’m going to end up calling her cute and then she’ll get angry. After all, she’s “cool” and “badass,” not “cute.”

She’s totally cute, though.

“Ah! Mari! How are you feeling?” I call out to her.

“Like shit,” Mari answers, flipping some of her black hair back. “I shouldn’t have trusted that burrito at the last station we visited.”

“I could just snap the bad stuff away, you know.”

Mari, from behind her bangs, glares at me. “Keep your weird space magic away from my body. Being able to breathe in space is already too weird for me.”

Gosh, she’s so stubborn. “Anyways, I was telling the owner about how I’m dragging you with me because you didn’t believe anything.”

Mari sighs and sits down next to me, waving a hand in dismissal. “Yeah, yeah. I’m still not convinced this isn’t all some sort of crazy delusion I’m having.”

The tentacle man raises one of his tentacles and says, “I can assure you that I’m real.”

“You’re a giant, walking pile of tentacles. You look like a cartoon alien from Earth. How am I supposed to trust my mind that you exist?”

“Mari!” I shout. “You can’t be rude like that! We’re supposed to spread love, not hate!”

“That’s all you. I’m just here because I have nothing better to be doing.”

“Geez… you’re so tsundere.”

“Would you quit calling me those weird terms?”

“I’ll stop calling you tsundere when you stop acting tsundere.”

“I’m not whatever that word is!”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Who was it that jumped in front of me when that giant spiky wolf thing wanted to kill and eat me?”

“Shu-shut up! I only protected you because I don’t want to be stranded in some other galaxy with no way home!”

“But it shouldn’t matter if this is all a delusion and not real.”

“But—but on the off chance that it is real, I don’t want to be screwed!”

I sigh and bow to the tentacle man. “I’m sorry for her. She’s really a good girl, I promise. She’s just a bit rough on the outside. Here, let me prove it. Can I share some more memories?”

“S-sure…” he says.

So, I snap my fingers and give him some more memories, and I’m too quick and get it done before Mari shouts out, “Wait! What are you going to show him?!”

The tentacle guy turns his attention to Mari and raises some of his tentacles in front of where his face probably is, even letting out a little giggle. “Oh my. Talk about being cold on the outside and warm on the inside.”

Mari’s cheeks turn an absolutely adorable shade of red as she grabs me by my shoulder, shaking me while I sip some more of my drink. “What did you show him?! Tell me, you god complex brat!”

“Only if you ask nicely,” I answer.

“I ain’t asking nicely!”

“Then I guess you won’t know.”

Her grip on my shoulder grows even tighter for a few seconds before she stops and says, “Pl-please… tell me what you showed him.”

“Remember when we visited that planet with those fluffy space penguin things?”

Mari freezes as soon as she hears that. That was all she needed to hear to know exactly what I showed him.

I showed him the memory of when she couldn’t resist cuddling with a bunch of giant, fluffy, space penguins. Then I showed him some other memories of her being absolutely obsessed with fluffy things, even risking her life and going out of her way to protect fluffy things.

She really, really loves the fluff.

“Alright,” the tentacle guy says, “let’s not embarrass your partner too much there. So… you’re from a different galaxy, and you’re going around spreading love? How does that work? I apologize if I sound intrusive, but I can’t resist after hearing something like that. And it’s not like I have any other customers to tend to at the moment.”

I could seriously finish this drink in one more go if I wanted to, but I decide to put it down so it can last longer still. “Oh, well, I’m going around learning what makes everybody unhappy, and then I change those things to make them not so unhappy. My mom and dad made me out of the power of love and happiness, so I want to go and spread that to everybody in the universe! It’s impossible for me to not want to make everybody happy given how much happiness and love I have within me. It’s not fair if I’m the only one who gets to feel this way.”

“But… what about the dragons?”

“The first thing I do for every galaxy I visit and put up a barrier that blocks their powers.”

“You—you can do that?! But—they’re the most powerful beings in existence!”

“Hehe, and the power of love is stronger.”

Mari groans and says, “She’s not lying. Assuming that all of this is real and I’m not insane… this girl keeps going around shoving her nose into everybody’s business and then goes full benevolent dictator on entire galaxies. I was convinced Earth was done for, but this brat removed all the pollution from the air, cured everybody of their sicknesses, let people opt into being immortal, gave everybody the power to generate a personal shield that would protect them from anybody or anything who might try to harm them, made capitalism useless in an instant by basically giving everybody an infinite money hack and introducing the technology to print food and basic goods out of basically nothing… she made our culture jump forward a few hundred years overnight, replaced the world’s government with a bunch of hippies who she somehow confirmed were ‘corruption proof’ and ‘valued love and progress above all,’ and then left to do it to the next planet while dragging me with her. God—”

“Yes?”

“Not you! Stop—god damn it! Every single time I say god, you and your cheeky god complex pull that dad joke out!”

I shoot a couple of finger guns at her before finally finishing my drink.

“If… if you really are that powerful,” the tentacle guy says, “can you—I—I don’t even know if I have the right to ask this, but… my son. He has been under medical care for years after an accident. His mind has gone dormant and they fear he may never wake up. If… you are—”

I snap my fingers.

A smaller tentacle person about half the size of the station’s owner appears next to the owner, making him jump when he sees the new person standing next to him—or well, I guess I shouldn’t say the new person since he knows exactly who he is, and he is anything but new.

“Da-dad?” the tentacle boy asks. “Where—where am I? How’d I get here?”

Every single one of the tentacle guy’s tentacles begin to tremble and shake, slowly reaching out toward the boy. “Son? Is—is it really you? You’re awake?”

“I’m awake? What do you mean? Was I sleeping or—”

The father drops and wraps his tentacles around his son, tightly hugging his son against him as the tears began to flow. The poor son has no idea what’s going on, but he wraps his tentacles back around his dad in return.

“I wonder what it’d be like to hug somebody with tentacles using tentacles and to get hugged back by tentacles,” I say.

When I don’t get a response, I look at Mari and see her crying at the sight.

I used to tease her about getting so emotional and crying… but then she always got defensive and stopped. I’d rather let her cry and express her emotions than interrupt her.

But geez, she really is a crybaby at times like this.

And I love that about her.

Though… I’m kind of worried about what Dad will think about her. I’m sure Mom will accept her, and I know Dad will accept her too, but… I can totally see Mari and Dad butting heads sometimes.

Well, them meeting depends entirely on whether or not Mari wants to stick around with me. There’s still a possibility that she’ll want to go back to Earth and stay there once this is all over. I can tell she’s developing the same feelings for me that I’ve grown for her, but there’s always a possibility that they won’t last, too.

But whatever she chooses, I’ll respect her decision.

“Thank you—thank you!” the tentacle dad says, shooting a couple of tentacles over the counter toward me to wrap around my back. “Thank you! I—I was afraid he would never wake up, but you’ve brought him to me!”

No matter how many times I see others go through so much joy, I can’t help but to smile as wide as I can. “I told you, I’m on a mission to make everybody in the universe happy.”

“You—you’re a true goddess! Is—is there anything I could do for you?! Please, tell me! Anything! If it’s within my power, I will do anything you ask!”

“Hmm… alright. I’ve got a pretty important demand then.”

“Tell me! What is it? How can I repay you?”

“You can repay me by living a life full of happiness, cherishing your family, and spreading love wherever you may find yourself. If anybody ever has a bad day or looks down, I want you to try and cheer them up. And if you try everything but they’re still not happy, all you have to do is say, ‘Love is the power that destroys entropy,’ and I’ll come and help however I can. After all, I’m not just a goddess of love and happiness. I’m the goddess of destruction, with entropy being my only victim.”

Mari is back to groaning and rolling her eyes.

“I will!” the tentacle dad says. “I’ll live every day with as much love as possible!”

“Perfect!” I give the bar a gentle smack and hop off my stool. “Anyways, we’re going to give you and your son some alone time. Thanks for the drink!”

“Wa-wait! You’re leaving already?”

“Got lots of places and people to see! Oh, and don’t worry, you’ll get a changelog of all the changes I make to this galaxy’s order of things once I’m done. But I can tell you that you won’t have to worry about money anymore no more than twenty-four hours from now.”

Mari sighed and joined me as we walked toward the airlock that would lead us to the station’s parking hangar.

“Wait!” the tentacle dad shouts once again.

I blink a couple of times and turn to look at him. “Yeah?”

“Your—your name. I don’t even know your name. Can you please tell me it?”

“Oh, I never introduced myself. That’s rude of me. Sorry. Anyways, I’m Love-chan! You can leave off the ‘chan’ part, though. Most people just call me Love.”

Mari says, “I’ll stick to calling you brat.”

She might think she’s insulting me when she calls me a brat, but I just think it’s cute at this point.

“Anyways, we’re gonna go now!” I say and give the two tentacle people a wave. “Don’t forget those words to summon me if there’s ever a happiness-related emergency. Oh, you can also summon me if it’s a good emergency, like for a birthday party! Actually, yeah, let’s meet again once it’s your son’s birthday!”

With that, I grab Mari’s hand and walk out into the airlock. It’s kind of a sudden leave, but I know myself well enough to know that if I don’t force myself to leave then I’ll get stuck just wanting to talk for hours.

Now, people would normally need a spacesuit to walk around in a space hangar, but that isn’t needed for us thanks to my powers.

And sitting near the front of the hangar is our ship.

Sure, I could travel across the universe by teleporting in an instant, but that’s boring. If I’m going to teleport at faster than the speed of light, then I’m going to do so while in a giant spaceship!

Especially when that spaceship looks like a pink, heart-shaped UFO.

“Hey, Mari,” I say, “I can feel that there’s a dragon administrator for this galaxy. He’s got a base near the core like the others.”

“Tch.” Mari crosses her arms over her chest. “Another one of those annoying bastards, huh?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, it’s whatever. Just give me a temporary boost again. I’ll kick his ass for you.”

“For somebody who acts like you hate magic and don’t care about me, you sure are willing to get enhanced to fight for me.”

“Sh-shut up. I’m only doing it because you hate fighting. Besides, I saw you try to fight that first time. No matter how strong you are, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to put up a fight. S-so… just let me handle it.”

“Hehe, alright. But maybe this one will actually listen to us and not try killing us?”

“Every single one so far has tried killing you as soon as they realized what you are.”

“You never know! Maybe this one will be different. At least one dragon out there other than my mom has to understand love.”

Mari shrugs. “Don’t get your hopes up, brat.”

“Too late. My hopes are always as high as possible for everybody and everything!”

“Yeah! And that’s exactly why I have to keep saving you!”

“Hehe, so tsun.”

Mari grumbles and stomps off toward our ship, the Lovey Dovey.

It’s already been a pretty long journey, and it’s nowhere near over yet.

I wonder how Mom and Dad are doing. Probably less than a few hours have passed since I left them, but it’s been… a long time for me.

Let me tell you, time gets weird and confusing once you have the power to instantly travel between galaxies.

“Oi! You coming?!” Mari shouts at me.

She must be excited about taking off. Flying our ship has become one of her favorite things, and she especially loves landing and taking off.

Mari is so cute.

Anyways, time to go spread more love!

As for you, it might be a while before we see each other again. So, until then, please try your best to be happy and to spread happiness! Maybe go give somebody a hug? Or go find a cute dog or cat to pet? Or remind somebody close to you that you love them! Whatever you do, just try your best to be happy and to spread happiness! If you don’t, I’ll have to beat you up… with love, of course!

But seriously, I’ll beat you up (with love).