Souldrainer: Hello, dearest Kuta. I am sorry for running away and scaring you.
Spiritdrainer: Litvir! It is a small miracle that I am saying this at all, but I am glad you are not dead! What happened? Poor Kyr Retvik sounded so heartbroken on voice chat.
Souldrainer: Multiple empathic overloads, mostly. One of your awful Life Goddesses sent an inflammatory message to Retvik about me, I… somewhat freaked out and ran. And, because I am an idiot, I changed my mind multiple times, ran out of fuel and was saved by a Trio of wandering Decay Lords.
Spiritdrainer: So, uh, you realized you were a monster?
Souldrainer: I know I was a monster.
Souldrainer: I will be honest, I do not want to talk about this right now. I am exhausted, for a myriad of reasons.
Spiritdrainer: Stress can do that to you. What are you doing right now? Resting, I hope?
Souldrainer: I am lying in bed, waiting for Retvik to clean himself up and for him to come back and clean me up.
Spiritdrainer: Well, I suppose you do owe Retvik.
Souldrainer: I am making things up to him. I must thank you though. You gave Retvik the glimmer of hope he needed to carry on. Out here, with no other Rethans around, the emotional strain was too much for Retvik to handle, and he had a bit of a mental breakdown to go alongside my own mental breakdown.
Spiritdrainer: I see… Hang on, there is another Rethan with you. That Elkay person.
Souldrainer: I do not know if you remember, but us Old Universe Rethavok have something called the Secret, a telepathic link that connects all of us together. Being isolated from other Rethans tends to drive one mad over time. Retvik and I still maintain a very, very broken version of the Secret that keeps us sane, but Elkay lost his connection to it a long time ago, and instead relies on Skyavok telepathy to keep himself sane.
Spiritdrainer: What? That… that explains so much!
Souldrainer: The Secret is not a thing in your universe?
Spiritdrainer: I always thought there was SOMETHING that made us all so tame, protective and law-abiding with each other, but no one could ever work it out, and the main theory was some sort of calming pheromone. But an ultra low level instinctual telepathic link makes more sense, and it explains how we cannot use combat-based communication telepathy outside of specially trained units, because it bothers us!
Spiritdrainer: Also, old universe Skyavok had telepathy?
Souldrainer: Telepathy and telekinesis.
Spiritdrainer: And some of them can jump through shadows like we can?
Souldrainer: Uh, no.
Spiritdrainer: While Skyavok are one of the few races that can use combat-based communication telepathy naturally without special training, they do not have telepathy in this universe. However, a tiny percent of them can shadowjump, the same way we do, and they manipulate darkness to increase their speed and strength.
Souldrainer: Interesting. I suppose Sini has altered the Rethavok in your new universe, to make sure that the whole thing of a Voidborn hijacking our telepathic network and mind-controlling everyone does not happen again.
Spiritdrainer: I… I do not remember that.
Souldrainer: I do not expect you to. I was trapped inside our old matrix systems, you were trapped inside me.
Souldrainer: I do not want to think about… mortal stuff now. Memories of mortal lives is what caused my empath overloads. Still, I wanted to check in on you. I ought to do so more regularly, but I also want to respect your decisions to live a happy, mortal life.
Souldrainer: I am sorry that Arkay abandoned you.
Spiritdrainer: Do not be sorry about Arkay. It is no one’s fault but the dastardly Lady of Light. Our former matron deity has done nothing but cause problems for Arkay, Sini, the Rethavok and the Lanex. While Arkay cannot contact me directly, I know he is there. He was a fluffy kitty the other day.
Souldrainer: A… fluffy kitty… I was saved by a fluffy creature called Orion. Retvik called it both a fluffy kitty and a cat.
Spiritdrainer: Huh. I think that was a linguistics thing unique to Rethans. Other species call fluffy kitties ‘cats’, and they call baby fluffy kitties ‘kittens’. They do not live in Rethan territories, but I am currently on Portalia, a neutral world, and fluffy kitties are insanely common here. I am somewhat used to them, but we have had a few… problems with the staff not knowing how to deal with them and freezing up somewhat.
Souldrainer: Wait, the weird, freezing with indecision thing… I thought that was just me.
Spiritdrainer: From what I can tell, fluffy kitties specifically trigger an emotional state in Rethans that makes us overly calm but also spikes our inbuilt desire to protect things. We are not alone in this though, Banikans are oddly fearful of fluffy kitties but Ksithans consider them to be omens of good luck and symbols of the Thantophor.
Souldrainer: That is very weird. What are you doing on Portalia?
Spiritdrainer: I am accompanying the High General on some diplomatic meetings as I have good relationships with both the Banikans and the Skyavok. We also repatriated the High General’s sibling Retvik, and have ended the Bloodline Traditions, meaning those poor bastards can finally make their own decisions when it comes to mating.
Spiritdrainer: The thing is… I… I have a problem…
Flamebearer: What problem?
Spiritdrainer: Oh, hi…
Souldrainer: Retvik, you do realize I am still waiting for you to bring me a towel, yes?
Flamebearer: Sorry but I really needed to empty my bladder. We have somewhat overeaten and overdrank in the last few hours. And I heard you tapping away on your tablet so I decided to join in.
Flamebearer: What is bothering you, little Kuta?
Spiritdrainer: Well… I have a new romantic interest. One I think you ought to know about.
Spiritdrainer has sent an attachment – ImageWorkaroundFile_Poten-Partner.rtf
Souldrainer: What is this?
Spiritdrainer: Just before Arkay and I split up, we worked out that we could get around the inability to send images to one another by placing the images in rich text format files. I do not know if you can see the image inside though.
Flamebearer: Is that you?
Flamebearer: You look healthy, aside from the fangs.
Flamebearer: Who are you with and why do they look like me when I was in my 30’s?
Spiritdrainer: Thank you.
Spiritdrainer: The thing is, that being… is you. The you in this universe. And he is 52 years old.
Flamebearer: Why is new universe me so young and chiselled?
Spiritdrainer: Everyone here is just… younger, I guess. But Retvik here IS a well-trained gladiator. I like him. He likes me. I… I do not know why, I feel somewhat bad dating someone who is essentially a younger version of you, Kyr Retvik.
Flamebearer: I am fine with it, as long as you tell me one thing: Does he have fire powers?
Spiritdrainer: Uh, no. As far as I am aware, he just has the advanced healing, strength and agility given to him from being… kinda undead? I am not sure how to explain it. The only other things Retvik has are a potentially extended life and the Family of Dawn trait, he can create motes of light. Which is why arena fans call him Lightbearer.
Flamebearer: Huh.
Flamebearer: Well, I have no problems. If this Retvik makes you happy and you make him happy, then go ahead and be happy.
Spiritdrainer: Thank you for your blessing.
Souldrainer: Is this new Retvik genetically different from my Retvik?
Flamebearer: Oh, I am YOUR Retvik now?
Souldrainer: Uh, yes. Also, Retvik, I am still waiting for you to bring me a towel or something.
Flamebearer: Dear, you have telekinesis.
Souldrainer: Not the point. I enjoy the clean-up as a bonding moment.
Spiritdrainer: Heh.
Spiritdrainer: In answer to your question, I do not know if he is different. I am not sure if I am still genetically related to Litvir. My body is… not as I remember.
Spiritdrainer: I shall leave you both to your fun. Have a good one, brother and friend.
Souldrainer: You too, sibling. Thank you.
Flamebearer: Stay safe, little Kuta.
Spiritdrainer: Thank you.
Spiritdrainer is now offline.