Colin strolled away from "Desire in Ruby", the statue of a dragoness made of a larger solid piece of ruby than had likely ever existed in history. Still with a conscious mind completely unable to feel things like boredom or tediousness, only feeling thrill and satisfaction when she was looked upon and drinking into her own artistic vanity without diminishing returns.
He was now a dragon, with muscles like a body builder, going through a public park naked, and no one gave him so much as a second look ... well, maybe they did for the muscles.
And reality itself was his plaything. He could rewrite existence however he pleased, and all it took was another person to respond verbally with a yes-no answer.
He thought of Jane and Sally, how they'd treated the Kobolds with kindness and decency, and Jane had done the same with 'Jack' who was just a sapient draconic love doll. Sally, even with her new sense of royal entitlement, treated her Kobolds as trusted-servants and friends rather than minions. Even after he'd removed any taboo that would have stopped them from doing so.
Jack wondered about making all his friends as charged at the idea of having the world as their plaything as he was... but that would again get boring very fast if he surrounded himself with people who had the same personality as him! And maybe his friends gave some 'contrast'. Maybe he could work on Sally more if he felt like it, he hadn't been lying to himself when he thought Sally's new form looked nice.
Then again, Colin still had no interest in 'ruling' anything, beyond he guessed his Kobolds and his horde. He just wanted to have as much fun as he could have with his new power.
Speaking of which, he spotted a woman jogging the way he had come. He saw her glance at "Desire in Ruby" but she didn't touch it. Maybe Colin should have left an aura around "Desire in Ruby" that would MAKE people want to touch it.
The woman jogged along, and glanced at Colin, giving him no more look than she would anyone else.
Colin chose to causally jog along with her, his friends could wait for a little bit longer. She merely made note of him jogging along side her. To his relief, Colin saw she wasn't wearing headphones, for having the power of a god, he could still be thwarted by something rather mundane.
He could alter his power so that wasn't a problem... but so what? Playing a game with ALL the cheats on could get boring depending on what kinda game it was. And Colin didn't want to accidentally burn out his thrill for his new status.
"Hello Miss, do you like me miss? Do you trust me miss? Do you want to do whatever I say miss?"
The woman let a monotone, "Yes, yes, yes." Then the blond woman looked at him smiling through her sunglasses. "You seem like a nice guy, really trust worthy, is there anything you need?"
"Are you going to follow me to that bench over there, and sit down and talk with me until I'm finished with you? Will everyone who sees us not think anything of it no matter what happens? Are you perfectly fine with all of this?"
As interesting as the fear in the person who had become Desire in Ruby was, he preferred the 'eager to please' attitude Robyn had shown, so far. If he got bored he could just change it anyway.
"Yes, yes, yes," She droned, then said. "I'll follow you anywhere handsome."
Colin chuckled and the two of them went to the bench, that thankfully had a hole for Colin's tail.
Colin decided to start with a couple tests.
"Is there a box behind my back?" He asked.
"Yes." He woman droned. "I saw it before you sat down.
Colin reached and pluck out the plainest of plain brown boxes with a lid.
"Is there a spider in this box you don't know about?"
Instead of the droning 'yes' she said, "Well, if I didn't know about it, how could I even tell you about it?"
Well, it seemed self-contrary questions were out of the picture. Not much trouble, but interesting.
Now, to see if he could figure out a way around that 'can't answer' limit. He just hoped he didn't annoy his cosmic benefactor, or godlike space-aliens, or whoever had given him the keys to the kingdom.
"Are you a keychain in the shape of an anthro dragoness with exaggerated feminine physical features, possessing a speaker and microphone connected to an AI inside you sapient enough to answer yes-no questions?"
Instead of droning yes, the woman seemed taken aback from the question. "Not really," she didn't get up to leave however. "That a freaky question to ask someone."
Colin frowned. He thought he'd figured it out. "If I had the power to turn you into a keychain, would you be fine with it?"
The woman droned "yes," and blinked. "Yeah, I wouldn't."
The dream thing had worked before, might as well milk it for all it's worth. "Do you know about my power? Will you forget all about it, and us talking at all when either of us or both leave the bench? Are you perfectly fine with me using it however I please?"
"Yes, yes, yes. Well, yeah, it's YOUR power, you should be free to do whatever you want with it!"
"Did you have a dream explaining why I couldn't change you into a keychain?"
"Yes... I was in this dark cloudy place, and I heard a booming voice saying, how 'if things changed by Colin's power are retroactive, they cannot erase anyone from existence.' And I'm a married woman with a family. So I guess you can't retroactively make me a keychain since it would erase my son from existence." She said utterly conversationally like it was no big deal.
Colin frowned again.
"Did the dream tell you any other details about my power I should know about?"
"Yes... No question can result in an immediate or direct retroactive death. No question can directly retcon a soul of existence or directly result in a death of consciousness. Sorry your power comes with all these rules, handsome."
"Not nearly as many as you'd think. Thank you for helping me." Colin wondered if he should find someone else to become his key-chain that would ensue he'd always have someone to ask questions to, or it would make things too boring. "Will you have a good day today, that doesn't meddle or ruin anything I do with my power?"
"Yes."
"Will I find you again if I want to?"
"Yes... I mean, anything's possible."
"Welcome."
Colin got up, and the woman promptly forgot what she'd been talking about, and got up from the bench and resumed her jog.
Colin could have changed her any other way, but he felt like, well, maybe cheating somehow. Maybe he'd transform her and her family all together another day. He hadn't removed her being perfectly fine with being a keychain after all.
Best not keep his friends waiting more… Well, unless he spotted someone else to enjoy his power on.