“… Fuck…”
Something hit the ground. The sound that item made was not good. An awkward thud.
Arkay and Retvik span around to see what had happened, only to catch Litvir sheepishly picking something up off the floor. Litvir then cursed again.
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong, Litvir?” Arkay immediately asked. He could somewhat guess though.
“Fuuuck…”
“It is not like you to curse to blatantly…” Retvik tutted.
Litvir glanced at Retvik, then cursed some more. “Fuck you. I just broke the screen on my main communicator. I think that is one of the best times to fucking swear.”
“You… broke your communicator?”
“Yes, I fucking well did!” Litvir hissed. “It fell out of the damn pocket in my stomach wrap and hit the ground the wrong way… Fucking Light…”
Arkay frowned, then put an arm around Litvir. “It’s alright. We’ll sort it out.”
Litvir showed the screen to Arkay. “I do not think this is salvageable… I mean, the screen still… somewhat works… but I cannot use this! Not in the long term! And… I… I do not know if I should… try and fix it…”
Retvik also inspected the communicator. “Did you not have a screen protector on it?”
“I… have not needed one for the last five years. This one worked absolutely fine with the protective case with the ridge that is supposed to STOP it hitting the ground with a thud!” Litvir shook his head. “Ugh. I was just thinking this morning, maybe I ought to get a new case since it no longer fits tightly around the stupid thing… Fucking Light…”
Arkay felt bad for Litvir, so he patted Litvir on the shoulder. “You’ve had a pretty shitty few days… Luckily, we HAVE just arrived at a space mall, so we can go phone shopping!”
Litvir didn’t really respond. He just stared at his broken communicator. The whole bottom of the screen was smashed and the edge was crumbling. A black line ran across the middle of the screen and the top corner was also cracked.
“It is just a communicator…” Retvik grunted. “We will get you a new one. You needed a new communicator anyway, you have had that one for a long time… Since we became Decaylings, I think.”
“You’ve really had it for that long?” Arkay blinked in surprise.
“Yes…” Litvir muttered. He did manage to unlock the phone, and it was still working, but the big cracks made using it very uncomfortable. Litvir half expected to find glass stuck to his finger.
“Eh, we will get a new one. You deserve an upgrade anyway!” Retvik continued to grunt. “There is almost certainly a shop here, and we will get a small discount because the machines will give us golden wristbands again.”
Arkay paused. “Wait, what do you mean?”
Retvik gestured at a nearby information kiosk. “Every time we come here, we go to that machine, type in our codenames and they spit out wristbands and a list of discounts we can get.”
“Do we not get discounts with these wristbands?” Arkay asked.
“No. The default wristbands, only the pink Life Goddess ones give you discounts.”
“Oh…” Arkay paused. “The one time I managed to properly hide my Life Goddess-y traits…”
“Would not matter too much, if I am honest. The discounts we get as higher Decay Lords are far superior. Which is partially why we came to this mall.”
“The other reason being that I’m not allowed in the other mall sometimes?”
Retvik nodded. “Anyway, we should just get Litvir a new communicator. It is not a bad thing, it is a simple thing, we have the money to do so, and Litvir needed an upgrade anyway.”
Arkay looked at Litvir some more. He seemed utterly miserable.
“Litvir, do you want us to find a screen repair shop or something instead?”
“That communicator is a stupidly old one!” Retvik tutted. “You always complained it did not work very well anyway. A new one is better. You need a new one.”
Litvir still didn’t really answer. He just sighed to himself. Arkay however understood why Litvir was upset.
“It’s alright. It sucks, I know. You were very attached to your communicator.”
“Is that why we are not moving on?” Retvik asked.
“Yeah. Litvir gets attached to his belongings, more so than most people. That’s how he can do the summoning armour trick that you still struggle with…” Arkay gave Litvir a proper hug this time. “Don’t feel bad. You made a mistake, mistakes happen.”
“I guess…” Litvir frowned. “I am angry at myself though. It was a stupid mistake. And a costly mistake too. I suppose it is a good thing that we are not poor any more, and I had savings set aside for when this communicator died anyway…” Litvir sighed some more. “It is a stupid thing to be upset about. But I… I am attached to this communicator. Many of them are awkward to hold. But… I… I am too annoyed to think about buying a new communicator.”
“Yeah, I get that!” Arkay smiled caringly. “It’s fine. You’re fine. It was a small mistake. I make far more expensive mistakes all the time. Heck, Kaytee dinged Vikalos’s old and/or new ship when he and Teekay were moving it so they could inspect it. That was way more expensive than this. Plus, Retvik does have a point, you did kinda need a new one.”
“I know…” Litvir sighed yet again. “It is just… anger-inducing. Especially after the Phantai nonsense we just went through.”
“It will pass, dear. But before we go shopping, do you two want to go and get something to eat?” Retvik asked. “It would be a good distraction from your anger and annoyance. And if you want, we can go to the place that serves food with the wooden sticks, and you can laugh at me as I fail to use them.”
That statement made Litvir smile a little bit. “I think I would like that. I was going to suggest the seafood restaurant, but the Lanex-like restaurant probably also serves seafood… Sure, let us do that.”
Retvik held out his hand for Litvir to take. Litvir pocketed his broken communicator, then took Retvik’s hand and also grabbed Arkay’s hand too.
“Shall we?”
“We shall…”