Today had been a pretty productive day for the Thantir Decaylings. They had done some combat training with some of the lower Phantai, they’d done problem solving activities with Galyn and they had just finished a short mental resistance training session with Litvir, who seemed way, way too happy to just, well, still exist and be wanted. Now, the eight Decaylings were sitting in the main canteen of the Shimmering Blade, just chilling out and having some lunch, while Vikalos watched over them. Really, they didn’t need supervising, the Thantir in general had already repeatedly proven that they didn’t need protecting, but Vikalos enjoyed watching over the Decaylings, and they liked having some backup if any of the Phantai got uppity.
The canteen on the Shimmering Blade did have a wide range of dishes available, but they were all rather basic, mostly meat and carbohydrates, with vegetables being a rare occurrence. Instead, there were lots of different sugary desserts. The majority of the Phantai consisted of one single species, the Beh’evok, and while, being deities, they didn’t need to eat, they were used to a specific diet, and that was what was mostly available. Still, it was mostly enough to satisfy the more varied diets of the Thantir Decaylings, even if they occasionally had to mix things up.
Right now, everyone was kinda busy eating. Which, in Eksi’s mind, meant it was the perfect time to ask his fellow Decaylings a bunch of questions.
“So, Akah, why do you use chopsticks?”
Akah tutted. He was in the middle of chewing a mouthful of noodles. What sort of noodle they were, Akah didn’t really know, but, mixed with some sort of poultry that he had de-boned and added sauce to, it was pretty tasty. Once he managed to swallow, he answered Eksi’s question in a pretty annoying way.
“Eksi, why do you use a fork?”
Eksi glanced down at his plate, which consisted of mashed potatoes, gravy and a soft, boiled ham of some sort. Skyavok teeth were sharp but delicate, so they didn’t really like chewing much.
“Uh… Because it’s useful for eating food?”
“And you don’t think that I find chopsticks useful for eating food too?”
“… Good point…” Eksi turned his attention to Tenuk and Tahvra, who both seemed to be eating similar things. Well, they both had ice cream, but Tahvra had a bowl of honey to one side, and Tenuk had a half-eaten burger as well. “Tenuk, you’re a Kronospast, you’re only supposed to eat sugar, but I’ve seen you eat tons of normal shit. My brother said you were obsessed with ice cream.”
Tenuk shrugged. “Ice cream is fucking great. I mostly just eat solid foods to blend in though.”
“Why?”
“Looks fucking suspicious when you’re invited to dinner with Elksia’s family and they offer you spicy mince and stuff and you don’t eat anything. I fucking gave up caffeine to blend in among Rethans.”
“Why did you give up caffeine?” Tahvra had his own questions.
“Rethans are allergic to caffeine…” Teekay muttered.
However, this just confused Eksi and Tahvra more. Both of them turned to Elkay, who was working his way through a rack of ribs and two bowls of rice and noodles. He’d been borrowing fire powers off Retvik and Vikalos and that always made him hungry.
“What?” Elkay asked innocently as he licked his claws.
“I’ve seen you drink the occasional energy drink!” Eksi pointed a finger at Elkay.
“It is not an allergy like being allergic to peanuts!” Elkay tutted. “It just gives most Rethans headaches. It is a weird genetic thing I seem to lack.”
Tenuk nodded in agreement. “Yeah it’s just most Rethans. I met a few Rethans that weren’t Elkay that weren’t bothered. Heck, Retvik’s not that badly affected either, and Litvit doesn’t seem at all troubled by caffeine. Then again, I’ve only ever seen him drink water or mead. Actually, Litvir doesn’t seem to eat much either.”
Phovos finished tearing the meat off a drumstick, then glanced at Elksia, who hadn’t eaten anything at all since they’d sat down. She did have a plate of mince and rice in front of her, which she’d occasionally lift up with a spoon and peck at, but her meal was mostly untouched.
“Some of us embraced the whole being a deity and not needing to eat thing. Elksia did, pretty sure Litvir does as well. And from what Litvir has, uh, admitted to us, he spent most of his normal life trying to escape mortal needs.”
“Except the sex!” Eksi laughed. “He definitely didn’t try to escape that! Wasted his whole life, died a virgin, now he’s submissive to the guy who helped kill him in the first place.”
“Hey Eksi?” Phovos snarled.
“What?”
“That’s fucking mean. You’re judging Litvir’s past. That’s why he freaked out.”
“So? We gotta forgive our pasts, right? Might as well mock them as we do so.” Eksi continued to laugh. Phovos didn’t like that.
“Forgive our pasts?” Phovos snapped. “Maybe I should remind you of YOUR past, Eksi! You were a dead weight to Skya Squad One, you and Thitaksi basically got carried by Arksi and Psiksi. And when Psiksi joined the Dessaron, you continued to hold the team back, and when you went into trios and duos, you continued to suck! And worst of all? you stopped Arksi from working as a solo gladiator because you were too scared to admit that you didn’t want to BE a gladiator any more, until AFTER you ruined your team’s standing! Sure, you decided to go into psychiatry, but your new advanced psionic powers have fucked you up, and now you have lost the ability to know when to shut the fuck up!”
The whole table fell silent. Phovos crossed her arms and snorted, then went back to her food. Eksi glanced at Tenuk, Teekay and Elkay, hoping one of them would back him up or say something to counter Phovos’s rant, but none of them did.
“She has a point…” Tenuk frowned. “And you really are way more annoying than Psiksi was.”
Eksi sighed to himself. “Well, that fucking hurt.”
“Now you know how those with less than spectacular pasts feel like…” Vikalos grunted. He’d been listening to the Decaylings the entire time, and felt that now was a good time to step in. “Not everyone is born perfect, a lot of people have complicated pasts, and as beings that are no longer contained by universes, we must do our best to be better, to improve upon what we left behind.”
The Decaylings all vaguely nodded in agreement, then fell silent again. Eventually, someone spoke.
“Mister Vikalos, what was your universe like?” Tahvra asked.
“My universe?”
“Yes.”
Vikalos thought to himself for a moment, but he didn’t answer at first. Instead, he greeted the Decay Lord who had arrived at the table. “Hello, Litvir, how are you feeling?”
Litvir sighed as he sat down somewhat awkwardly. He only had a glass of water on him. “I am fine, I guess, a bit tired though. I wanted to speak to you, Vikalos, but Tahvra’s question and your potential answer intrigue me.”
“Fair enough. I will be honest though, my universe died a long time ago, and it was a rather… stupid universe. Especially the manner in which it died…” Vikalos glanced at everyone, swiftly realizing they wanted him to continue. “Basically, I was the God of the Underworld, and it was my duty to imprison and punish evil beings, as dictated by our head deity. I had a counterpart, the Goddess of the Spirit World, and she dealt with beings deemed to be good. However, both Lesanisara and I both realized that our domains were filling up, and fast, and we didn’t have the power to remove any beings. Our head deity did not listen to us, and, although we tried to stop beings from dying and filling up, when the Spirit World reached 2 to the power of 64 beings, the whole universe just… disappeared, apart from myself and Lesanisara.”
Everyone blinked with confusion. After a little thought, Litvir raised his finger.
“Your universe ceased to exist because of an integer overflow error?”
Vikalos nodded. “Basically. We both got picked up by the Justar, I decided to become a Decay Lord, Lesanisara chose to join a local school for Divine Guardians. It sucked, but eh, we did warn everyone what would happen and no one listened.”
“That’s… rather horrific…” Teekay whispered. “Everything… gone, because no one had any error-handling…”
“I have no real regrets. For me, it is a lesson that not all universes are well-designed… Anyway, Litvir!” Vikalos perked up. “What do you need?”
Litvir hesitated. “Uh… A package has arrived. For us.”
Vikalos immediately realized what Litvir was talking about. He turned his attention back to the Decaylings. “Little ones, please, eat up, finish your meals, then head to the Decaylings-only observatory. We will join you in an hour.”
With a sigh, Vikalos got up, then followed Litvir down to the shipping areas.
“Well, fuck…” Eksi finally stuttered. “I think our trial is gonna start soon…”