Kuta flicked their cape to one side as they and their new friend entered the Red Maw, a quiet cafe on the edge of Phos, the Rethan capital. While Kuta was still mostly wearing their work armour, they had removed their General insignia and tucked it into their bag. On the other hand, the Thantophor, Kuta’s date, was wearing pretty basic armour, the standard light metal plates on their forearms, upper arms and thighs, a silver collar and chest plate, a black stomach wrap and matching loincloth, but with no tail attachments. What really stood out though was that he was also wearing a Skyavok-like hood and scarf, but no one had commented on it, doubly so as they sat down at an empty table in the back of the cafe.
A waiter quickly approached, but they didn’t seem to notice that the yellow, hooded Rethan was in fact the God of Death. In fact, no one had noticed. Kuta wondered if that was intentional. Either way, the waiter, wearing standard hospitality clothing – armour on their upper arms, thighs and chest, an apron and long, rubber gloves that went over their natural forearm plating and up to their elbows – quickly took their order and disappeared.
“So, Kyr Arkay, how was your day?” Kuta decided to start with some small talk. It had been a long, long time since they had been on a date, so Kuta wanted to take things slow. In fact, Kuta couldn’t actually remember the last time they had been on a date. Rethavok were not normally that picky when it came to looks, but being short, owning wrongly coloured eyes and having a pair of fangs were basically the perfect circle of things that Rethans disliked in potential mates.
“Eh, it was alright. Unfortunately had to kill someone who had ignored my warnings to not build a time machine, but same as normal, I guess. How about you?”
Kuta smiled a little. “For a being so tied to death, you really do seem to dislike murder. But, well, my day was pretty standard. A little awkward not having Captain Taliv around to do their normal duties for me, what with them still on their way back from planet Portalia, but aside from my meeting with the High General, I cannot complain.”
Arkay blinked, then quickly worked out what Kuta was talking about. “Oh. My bad. I teleported you home but not your troops.”
“It is fine, they will all be back tomorrow afternoon!” Kuta waved their hand dismissively as their drinks arrived. Neither of them were drinking alcohol, but Kuta had a fizzy caramel soda and Arkay had ordered a sugar-free lemonade. A complimentary plate of cookies had also been placed on the table, one of which Kuta took and awkwardly nibbled on. Having fangs that stuck out from his jaw made doing so a tad tricky. “Why DID you have to dispose of someone trying to build a time machine?”
“Time can only go forward, and Kairos insists that anything that interferes in his domain be destroyed. I’m a tad more lenient and I try to dissuade people before I start killing. But after the third warning, well, you get the idea.”
“That is fair enough, I guess. What do you do in your free time?”
The Thantophor laughed awkwardly. “Free time? What’s that?”
“You have no free time at all?”
“Believe it or not, free time is a relatively new thing for me. It’s only been the last hundred years or so that I’ve started taking weekends off to relax. And while I’m technically busier than ever with Epani and Kairos being… as they are, I’m trying to make my existence more tolerable and trying not to work myself to death. But I mostly kinda just play video games and draw in my spare time.”
“Hm…” Kuta trailed off. “Like, the electronic games Spasts play?”
“Yeah. Do you do much?”
“Well, like you, I am very busy. My free time though is mostly spent refining my abilities, meditating and trying to sleep. I do notice though, you do seem to be trying to, hm, better yourself?”
Arkay took a cookie, eyed it, then ate half of it in one bite, before realizing that was a little weird and that he should probably eat it like a normal being. “Yeah, definitely. It’s a very recent thing though, literally since Genar, when I was told I was allowed to have friends.”
“… Allowed?”
“Yeah.”
Kuta leaned forward and lowered his voice. “You are the God of Death, I understand that you would not have many friends in the first place. I have similar problems myself, what with being a dark, shadowy figure among a species represented by the element of light. But the use of the word ‘allowed’ makes no sense to me.”
“You’re not that shadowy. You have white natural plating!” Arkay countered. “Alright sure, walking through shadows is pretty weird and you do weirdly and blatantly use said powers, but you’re really not that dark outside of the black armour that all low numbered Legion Rethans wear.”
Kuta paused, thinking to himself for a moment. “I recall at one point having pure black armour, as well as red eyes. But as a Decayling, I looked like as I do now, except smaller and with a slightly icy motif.”
Arkay tilted his head to one side, looking Kuta up and down. “Maybe you have vague memories of before being a Decayling? I never met you as a mortal though so I don’t know.”
“Hm, perhaps. Still, going back to my original comment, you are a deity but you were not allowed to have friends until recently?”
“You really think the Deities of Time, Space and Life are going to allow the Deity of Decay to have the same power they have? Of course not. I’ve been trying to wrangle back some power over the last few millions of years, and it’s only been in the last five thousand years that I’ve made any progress. And that’s on top of the rules I set for myself, such as my no-dating-mortals rule, always cleaning up nuclear waste before it goes bad and keeping the righteous death to a minimum.”
“Are you enjoying your newly wrangled back power at least?” Kuta asked.
Arkay smiled a little. “Yeah. I’m enjoying it while it lasts. Which, unfortunately, I don’t think will be very long.”
“Why not?”
That smile immediately faded. “You saw what happened in Palaestra, right?”
Kuta nodded. “Not live, but I did watch it and study it somewhat.”
“You saw who I jumped to protect when Kinisis stabbed both Kairos and Epani, right?”
“You… rushed to help the Whenvern, when the Allbirther rushed to aid the Lady of Light.”
“Yep. I’ll… probably be punished for that. Out of the four of us, Epani is the top deity, as the head Deity of Creation and a Life Goddess. Kairos and I are technically lesser deities, what with Kairos being a Time Drake and me being a, uh, whatever the fuck I am.”
“Excuse me for asking a little too much, but is the Allbirther not the Life Goddess?”
The Thantophor sighed. “There are some… different classifications of deity. With Panzoani, Life Goddesses being the most powerful since they can literally make and destroy universes.”
“And what sort of deity are you?”
“That’s… complicated.”
“You do not know? I was under the impression you were a Decay Lord or a Decayon or whatever the term is.”
“I do. I’m a Zoan Potentiate Mimic Hybrid. Which means I’m half-Life Goddess but I’m also capable of becoming, or, well, mimicking other types of deity. And many, many beings have tried to kill me because of this, for reasons I never understood.”
“Is that why you are yellow-plated?”
Arkay blinked at the suddenness of Kuta’s question. “What?”
Kuta grinned. “You are yellow-plated. A not particularly common colour among Rethans, and not too common among Skyavok as well due to the randomness of their genetics. But we can both agree that yellow is not exactly the first colour one thinks of when you think about death.”
“Hmph. No, the reason why I have yellow plating is much simpler.”
“How comes?”
“I was born with yellow plating. Matching the plating my mother had.”
“Was your father yellow-plated too?”
“I… I don’t actually remember my father. I mean, it was a horribly long time ago, but…” Arkay abruptly stopped. Something vibrated on their person. The Thantophor pulled out a Skyavok-looking communicator and checked it. “… The fuck?”
Kuta didn’t immediately ask what Arkay was looking at, and instead helped themselves to another cookie, while watching as Arkay typed away, rather quickly despite having clumsy Rethan claws. However, before Kuta could say anything, they heard another sound. Kuta’s wristband beeped, informing them that they had received a message on their own communicator.
As Kuta rummaged through their bag to find their communicator, Arkay waved over one of the waiters and asked for the bill, dumping way too much money on the table. Kuta finally found their device but couldn’t help but exclaim in shock as they read the message.
“A star? Exploding?”
“Yeah…” Arkay stuttered. “Stars… aren’t supposed to explode in this universe unless Epani allows it… I need to check this out and work out what the fuck just happened. Thankfully it was a lone star but still, this makes no sense.”
“Well, you are not alone there…” Kuta frowned. “A shame really, I was enjoying this.”
Arkay sighed as he got up and gently patted Kuta on the shoulder. “Yeah, me too. I like you. Probably a bit too much. Do you want to do this again at some point?”
“I would, yes.”
That smile of Arkay’s returned, just for a moment. Kuta liked that. They liked Arkay. More than they were willing to admit.
“Awesome. I’ll see you round, Kuta. Stay safe.”
Kuta bowed their head. “You too, dear.”
The Thantophor sighed one last time, then disappeared through a nearby shadow. Kuta hesitated for a moment, then did the same, making their way back to their office where they were needed. After all, something weird had just happened…