For reasons of plot you have been chosen to become a demigod, with almost total omnipotence and control over your local corner of reality.
However because you now exist in a different dimension that cannot be observed or detected by mere mortals you need to project an avatar of yourself into normal reality to communicate with people. You’re a pretty hands-off weakly godlike post-human entity and prefer to interact with people on a one to one basis. So what form do you choose to do this? Just what you used to look like as a human, or a humanoid, perhaps something more exotic? Does it depend on who you are talking to?
I know this is like throwing red meat to a tiger but perhaps current politics can be left out of this?
I’d probably mostly do it the same way I’m manifesting to you guys right now: As a source of a stream of 1s and 0s that encode text, transmitted over the Internet. Manipulating a few voltages is probably a lot easier and more convenient than assembling a full host body, even for a nigh-omnipotent demigod.
Why on earth (heh, heh) would I want to present myself to mere humans?
Am I immortal? If so, it would become somewhat tiring to have “friends” of the mortal kind dying on me.
That would become really tiresome real quick.
If, for some reason I simply had to interact with the bugs, I’d present myself as a Trickster God, in the form of a coyote in the West and a snow leopard (my favorite cat) in the East.
Europe, not being familiar to either, would get me as a snake - in Ireland.
Africa would be a problem - the states around the Mediterranean would get a sand cat; the southern 2/3 would get some kind of antelope or gazelle - can’t decide.
But I’d much prefer the company of those other demigods you just created.
Especially the ones with boobies.
All of these creatures would soon be noticed when they discover they can’t kill this particular critter.
I would present myself in whatever way would be unavoidably convincing to people who say they are of a particular religion but behave in a manner totally at odds with their deity’s teachings.
Then, when they were completely convinced I was their god, I would wait till they were somewhere very public and then give them a vicious dressing down as being complete hypocrites, till they are a gibbering wreck.
I present myself as normal. At weekends, I present myself as an assortment of people who fit a variety of ‘victim’ type demographics - i.e. targets for abuse or exploitation. Hard Karma ensues for those I interact with. Nice, helpful people (who help me cross the street, when I am playing the persona of an aged woman) get nice things happen to them, that improve their lives. Nasty people (that abuse me when I play the persona of a vulnerable child) get turned inside out.
How I act depends upon my expected lifespan. If I expect to be around for thousands of years I’m going to act much more subtly than if I’ve only got another 30. In the latter case there would be much smiting, but all done with reasonable natural explanations - he died in his sleep, she tripped and fell down the stairs, meteor strike, etc.
What, like in my normal, day-to-day routine, or when I’m “working”?
I mean, sometimes you just want to lay low, but other times you really want to get the point across by manifesting as an Gashadokuro made of atomic fire.
I would collect whatever’s laying around, heedless of its form or function, and make a lego type of sculpture of myself.
So, if I manifest in the center of a big city, I would collect cars and buses, not care if there people riding in them, and fuse them together to make an approximation of me. I’d walk around and look for cool things to attach to me, like buildings, power stations, and other sculptures, and make myself bigger. Again, whether people inhabit them or not is irrelevant. The frightened populace can try to assuage me through worship and sacrifice, but I wouldn’t care. I’d eventually get bored and leave everything in a massive pile of indifference.
