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// Story pitch: Goddess Inkarnate 
// Story: What If... 
// by TheMajorTechie 
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She felt a tiny hand tug on the hem of her shirt. "Will you be staying with us?"

"I--" she stared into the eyes of the child. "I'm sorry, but I want to go home. I have to go home."

"But please, take our offering before you depart, fair goddess!" The child's mother pushed a basket of bread in her face. "One blessing is all we need!"

"Er... you've been blessed?" She cringed as the words left her mouth. "May I leave now?"

"Yes, yes! Leave if you wish! Heavens know that the goddess of this realm wishes to return to her eternal slumber!"

She rolled her eyes. She jokes about wanting to sleep in once and now the whole religion based around her thinks that she's a goddess tormented by consciousness itself.

"Alright. Thanks for the bread, I guess. And the place to sleep. I'm heading off now." She slipped her backpack on and hopped off of the stool.

"No! Stay with us!" The child grabbed onto her shirt again. "You're the funnest goddest!"

"Now now, let go of the deity young man," the father looked up from his newspaper. "You don't wish to incur her wrath upon us, do you?"

The child stared wide-eyed back at her. She let out a sigh. "Don't worry, I won't. Just... let me go home, please?"

He let go of her shirt, instead sticking his thumb in his mouth.

She turned around and walked out the doorway. Not like she had a home to go to, but being anywhere where she wouldn't be worshipped was fine by her. Maybe the fictional religion she wrote for this world shouldn't have been so overly obsessive. At least she got free food and places to stay, though. That was always a plus wherever she went. Annoying, but good to have when she needed it.