“Wow, your place is a shithole.”
Arkay rolled his eyes as he let the pink-skinned Temthan in. The Allbirther rarely visited the tiny place that the Thantophor called home, and for good reason. While all the other deities lived in vast palaces dotted across the universe, Arkay just lived in a little apartment in the middle of a Skyavok district on the neutral world of Portalia. Wasn’t even a nice place either. The floors weren’t swept enough and the rubbish needed to be taken out.
“Nice to see you too, Sini. You got those test results yet?” Arkay closed the door, coughing a little. He’d been playing some basic video games, one of the few things the God of Death did on his short breaks, and wasn’t feeling too good. Sini sat down on one of the sofas, while Arkay sat opposite her.
“Eh, well… I have some test results. The good news is, you don’t have any of the usual super bugs, like influenza or novel coronavirus. Or anything else that I recognize…” Sini paused, looking up at Arkay. “That cut on your lip still hasn’t gone away.”
“Yeah, it’s kinda bothering me. That and this cough and sore throat… and now ear ache and head aches and fevers…”
“The tablets aren’t helping?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Sini tutted. “I suppose it is a bit too soon to tell. Either way, I still don’t have any answers, and I’m going to need more samples. Well, I’m going to need a blood sample.”
Arkay frowned. “A blood sample?”
“Yes.” Sini waved her hand, summoning a small container. Inside it were a sealed syringe and several vacuum canisters.
“You, uh, promise that you’ll destroy all the samples when you’re done, right?” Arkay didn’t like any of this. Although he had started to feel a little better, the fact that Sini didn’t seem to know what was wrong was genuinely bothering him. Especially since she now wanted more samples. “You know I don’t like it when you do experiment thingies on me.”
“In this case, yes, I will be destroying these samples, once I’ve tested them…” Sini trailed off again, glancing around Arkay’s apartment. She ignored the large collection of weapons in the corner and instead focused on the computer on the messy desk that was covered in paper and pens. “What were you doing before I got here?”
“Playing games, why?” Arkay gave Sini a funny look. “It’s the weekend. I try to relax on the weekend.”
“I thought Epani told you not to play those things?” Sini tutted. “You know she doesn’t like us doing anything exouniversal.”
“They’re just video games, they’re completely harmless…” Arkay tutted as well. He didn’t like how Sini was judging him. “So you need blood samples. You want to do them right now, since you’re right here and you have everything ready?”
Sini tutted some more, then sighed. She personally didn’t mind that Arkay played his silly games, it was a small, harmless thing that kept the death god happy and in check. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s nothing. Let me take these blood samples and I’ll, uh, get out from underneath your armour.”
Arkay put his arm out, while Sini opened up the container, put everything together then pressed the needle to Arkay’s skin. To Sini’s dismay, the needle refused to puncture the skin.
“I forgot you have steel skin.”
“Oh. Sorry. Force of habit…”
Arkay closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting himself relax. He knew Sini wasn’t there to harm him, he just needed to let his subconscious know that too. Unfortunately though, the needle still wouldn’t puncture Arkay’s skin.
“Hm. One second…” Arkay got up from the sofa and headed into the nearby miniature room that led to his bathroom. He closed the door and could be heard rummaging around. After some more tutting and sighing, Arkay returned, this time with several items. One was a sealed needle, similar to what Sini had, but made out of titanium. The other two items were daggers, one of which looked like it was made from an old fang from a long-dead beast. “Try these.”
“Shouldn’t need those. Especially not THAT dagger…” Sini eyed the fang dagger.
“Yeah, I hope so, but that Elkayne Dagger can cut through pretty much anything fleshy.”
“The new needle should be fine.”
Sini took the needle from Arkay and attached it to the small tube. Arkay sat back down in front of her, with his arm out. This time, the needle did actually break through the skin. But at first, no blood came out. So Sini removed the needle and stabbed it in again. And repeated this until, finally, some blood started flowing into the small vacuum tube.
“You know you’re not supposed to do that, right?” Arkay grunted, more annoyed than anything else.
“Eh, you’re a god, you’re fine…” Sini waited for the tube to fill up, then removed the needle. Normally, she would have used a bit of cotton wool to cover it, but they both knew the injury would almost instantly heal. The Allbirther then inspected the tube, tipping it from side to side. “It’s so weird how dark your blood is.”
“Well, it is highly corrosive and toxic to corruption. Meanwhile you have blue blood that causes plants to blossom wherever it touches the ground. which is way weirder than what my blood does.”
“True, true…” Sini got up from her seat. “Everything should be fine, but, well…” She glanced at the dagger Arkay had pulled out. “Keep that cursed blade close. Just in case, you know?”
“You really think there’s a chance I’m corrupted?” Arkay’s confidence disappeared again.
“A very, very small chance. But you haven’t shown any of the normal symptoms, and you seem less aggressive than usual, the opposite of what normally happens. And it’s been a week, you would have had some symptoms by now.”
Arkay settled down a little. “Alright. That’s… somewhat reassuring. Can I go back to my game now?”
Sini nodded. “Of course. Have a good day, little one.”
“You too, Sini.”