Concerned Mimicky Bastards

Unender: Hello, Arkay, are you available to talk?

Deathbringer: Yeah, I’m here. Was about to take my three hour nap but we can talk.

Unender: Oh, I can leave you to sleep, if you need it.

Deathbringer: Nah, it’s cool. I kinda overslept since dealing with a Voidborn yesterday. Weirdly tired right now, and I just want to sleep in but I have stuff to do later.

Unender: I get that, but I have always pushed past it.

Deathbringer: You’re a strict, motivated old-universe Rethan. I bet everyone forces you to rest whenever you hurt yourself.

Unender: …

Unender: They do, yes. But also, I feel like the term “old-universe Rethan” is no longer working since we have met a few Retha now.

Deathbringer: Nah, you’re still old-universe, because the Rethavok (and the Skyavok and Athrevok) are a distinct species. The Retha were six sub-species that were capable of interbreeding somehow and were mostly ruled by the Standard- and Ethran-types, with the odd Threan- or Hertan-type sprinkled in.

Deathbringer: Now I think about it, Retha were kinda like modern Temthans.

Deathbringer: Sorry, Elkay. What’s up?

Unender: Oh, we came back to what I wanted to talk about.

Unender: I have a question for you: Do you feel weirdly nervous lately? Specifically around Time Drakes?

Deathbringer: I’ll be blunt, I feel nervous and uneasy pretty much all the time. But yeah, Kairos is giving me bad vibes lately and won’t clue me in as to what’s going on. And Sini’s been oddly nervous too, but she’s not seeing anything and has been busying herself with keeping Epani calm.

Unender: I see. Well… Elksia has been really anxious as well. Almost to the point that she is panicky. But she is unsure why, because she can sense something but cannot see what it is.

Unender: Elksia’s time powers are very short range. Scarily accurate in the range of about 30 seconds, accurate for about 30 minutes, but past that, she cannot see particularly clearly. Past 30 hours, she can see nothing at all but she claims she sometimes gets flashes.

Unender: When I borrow her powers, I only pick up things below 30 seconds, I cannot see further than that.

Deathbringer: Yeah, I get future flashes as well, so does Sini. Glances of future events that are somewhat solidified in time.

Deathbringer: You can borrow Elksia’s powers?

Unender: Yes. Weirdly easily.

Deathbringer: Can you borrow Phovos’s Life Goddess powers.

Unender: Uh… not really. But Phovos admittedly does not really know how to do much outside of creating plants and her hammerspace.

Deathbringer: Oh! Hammerspaces are so damn useful. I tend to keep a few of them.

Unender: I worked out how to mimic Phovos’s ability to do that, but my own space is tiny. I cannot even fit a spare set of armour in mine, but Phovos has created several.

Unender: Is it dangerous to go into a hammerspace?

Deathbringer: Depends on who the hammerspace belongs to. Your own one, I wouldn’t recommend going inside it completely. Otherwise it’s just up to how much you trust the creator. I wouldn’t trust a hammerspace Sini or Epani made for me to go into, but Phovos? maybe.

Unender: I will keep that in mind.

Deathbringer: Still, going back to Time Drake stuff, it’s bloody impressive that you’re already mimicking time powers!

Unender: It is?

Deathbringer: Yeah! I find it really hard! Mostly because I borrow off Kairos, and, to him, it’s second nature. I find I mimic Life Goddess stuff way more easily, but, well, I’m also an old deity, I kinda have more experience.

Unender: Fair. But yes, Elksia has been on edge, and that is making me on edge. But neither of us know why, and I do not like being filled with all this dread.

Unender: And this Voidborn that popped by today, saying that you sent them to us, that just made Elksia even more anxious.

Unender: Litvir says good job, by the way. Itaviir says stop being nice to Voidborns, he thinks we may accidentally spur a cult of somewhat decent Voidborns.

Deathbringer: Hah!

Deathbringer: The guy came to my universe, hoping to find another Voidborn to them. I couldn’t just stand there and let them be Corrupted when I could just cut their arm off and send them to you lot.

Deathbringer: They said they could hear chanting though, which was… vaguely concerning. I’ve not heard of a Corruption that chants at you. I know Kinisis’s strain whispers you promises of immortality, and Corruption in general kinda whispers to try and get you to give in, but chanting is weird.

Unender: Oh.

Unender: That is the nasty type of Corruption.

Deathbringer: What do you mean?

Unender: It is called the Unending Ancient One. It is intelligent, it sends out feelers and makes targeted attacks. And it is worryingly infectious. Not as bad as the Kinisis strain, but still bad, and hard to remove. We had to set up a separate area to deal with it, but it seems our Synaisthyn blood deals with it no problem.

Deathbringer: Huh. I think that was what attacked Retvik when I saved his stupid butt.

Deathbringer: Have you been seeing a lot of it?

Unender: Yes.

Unender: The theory is that it is coming in from the Kentarasa Pentacluster, fleeing the Decay Lord and Voidborn purges there. Or maybe it was spreading into Kentarasa from the… I do not know what it is called, but it is a large pentacluster that runs alongside the Patagenic and Kentarasa Pentaclusters and is filled with Corruption.

Deathbringer: That was where our Voidborn buddy was from. Had some sort of stupidly long name but I know where you mean.

Deathbringer: Still… maybe that’s what’s making Kairos nervous… Ugh, maybe he can see something Sini and I can’t, and he’s not sure how to avoid it.

Unender: Do you think Elksia is seeing something similar?

Deathbringer: Maybe. I think Kairos can see a lot further forward than Elksia can. She probably can’t see what it is though, and is just getting bad vibes. And we pick up on those bad vibes because we’re overly empathic.

Unender: How far ahead can Kairos see?

Deathbringer: I… don’t really know. He’s said he can see an hour ahead with complete certainty, but if that were the case, he would have predicted more things. He would have seen that I just imprisoned Epani, not that I killed her. Then again, Kairos is watching a lot more than Elksia is, so maybe he just gets distracted or something…

Deathbringer: I’m making myself anxious now.

Deathbringer: Well, more anxious.

Unender: Well, I have made myself more anxious too. Which is why I messaged you. I cannot sleep.

Deathbringer: Is Teekay with you?

Unender: I am waiting for him to finish his shift.

Unender: He took over as our greeter for a few hours after this colossal, pure black Voidborn stomped in, Akah went up to greet them and the Voidborn kicked Akah to the ground, stamped on him a few times and shouted something about ‘stupid Matanaiai assholes’ and where Akah’s ‘five siblings’ were. Then Galyn stomped over and kicked the piss out of the Voidborn.

Unender: Akah decided to take the rest of the ‘day’ off to fix his mask and repair the massive dent in his nice armour.

Deathbringer: Aw, that’s awful! Good on Galyn got kicking that guy’s ass. Is Akah alright?

Unender: He is fine. Tahvra was more upset than he was.

Deathbringer: I ought to message Akah. Ask him if he wants to play Space Ninjas. He clearly likes the game, he’s already MR23, which is damn impressive.

Unender: I admittedly cannot get my head around video games.

Deathbringer: It’s not really a Rethan thing. I’m pretty sure Litvir didn’t actually like the game and was just playing so he could talk to me.

Unender: Almost certainly.

Unender: Oh! Teekay is nearly done! I am going to go and speak to him. Should calm me down. And you should speak to your friends too. You have them now, for real. Use them.

Deathbringer: Yeah, you’re right. But I do need to sleep a little first before I go back on patrol.

Unender: I shall leave you to it then.

Unender: Stay safe, Arkay. Look after yourself. Fingers crossed everything is fine.

Deathbringer: Yeah, thanks. You too, Elkay.

Unender: Please accept my long distance digital hug.

Deathbringer: HAH! Thanks, mate. I appreciate it. I appreciate you.

Unender: I appreciate you too, friend. Goodnight.

Deathbringer: Goodnight.

Unender is now offline.

Deathbringer is now offline.