“Alright… hold it… yep… a tiny bit hotter… a bit more… perfect!”
Arkay pulled back, then clapped his hands together with glee as he and Kayel managed to fuse together the components that had fizzled out. It had taken days of work, but he, Kayel and Phovos had finally worked out how to fix the strange Life Goddess Machines that made Savepoint habitable. Already, with the final machine repaired, things seemed to be warming up and the temperature across Savepoint was returning to normal.
“Did we do it?” Phovos asked.
“We did! I could kiss you both!” Arkay hugged Kayel then went to hug Phovos, but he suddenly paused.
“I’d like a hug, please…” Phovos muttered.
“Oh, of course…” Arkay also muttered. “Sorry, didn’t want to… do something you wouldn’t like…” Arkay trailed off again. “Huh… no… wait… that was… that was a different Phovos.”
Phovos eyed Arkay, who was suddenly very lost in thought. “I assume you knew a Phovos before me, the same way you knew a Tenuk, Retvik and Elksia before the ones we already have?”
Arkay frowned, then nodded. “Yeah. She was a… uh… a weird intersex being. But she wasn’t a Ksithan. She was a Thanatian, which was a reptilian race… I think they were seeded into the Maaza system by Temthans, so they’d evolve and take over the system over thousands of years, but the Thanatians chose to remain by themselves and not be absorbed back into the Temthan empire…” Arkay fell silent again. “I… I am so, so glad that Sini… changed the Temthans…”
“How comes?”
“Um…”
Kayel glanced at Phovos. Phovos glanced back, realising she had probably triggered some bad memories, then tutted and changed the subject.
“So, what this other Phovos like? You said they were intersex?”
“Yeah…” Arkay shook his head to clear his thoughts. “I mean, she presented as female but it turned out she was intersex and also some sort of demi-god. I’m also pretty sure she tried to date me a few times. But this Phovos had two siblings and one of them had sixteen kids who were all also kinda demi-gods or something… My universe was weird.”
“She tried to date you?” Phovos blinked.
“Pretty sure the most we did was that we went out for coffee a few times. I was busy recovering from… some awful stuff… so I don’t think I was capable of really understanding what she wanted…” Arkay trailed off again, then gave Phovos a little hug. “Still, I appreciate you, Phovos.”
“I, uh, appreciate that… However, Arkay, I have a question.”
“Sure.”
“Did you know I was Kinisis’s daughter?”
Arkay shook his head again. “I had no idea. I knew Kinisis did occasionally bless people with random powers and stuff, and I always just assumed you were in the same boat.”
“Did you know about her being pregnant?”
“No. I was aware that, around the time you were born, Kinisis and Kenon had a really, really bad argument and Kinisis disappeared for a few days… To be honest, I’m pretty sure I was on Kenon’s side and got my teeth ripped out for agreeing with him, so I don’t really remember that well, but she just buggered off, disappeared then came back a few days later having changed her appearance.”
“It kinda bothers me that you have a term for any time you’ve been tortured or hurt by another deity for daring to retaliate against something…” Kayel muttered. “Anyway, everything’s fixed, can we, like, get the fuck out of here now?”
“Oh! Of course! My bad, let’s get out of here!”
Arkay grabbed Kayel’s and Phovos’s hands, and immediately, the three of them vanished and reappeared in the canteen area. No one was really around apart from Phovoula, who had been on guard duty since she was unbothered by the cold, and she instantly spotted her girlfriend and dragged Phovos away.
“Well, everything’s fixed now, I guess we can relax and stuff!” Arkay smiled.
“Yeah, I guess…” Kayel half-heartedly replied.
Arkay paused, then turned to Kayel. “Is something wrong? You don’t seem right.”
Kayel tutted. “I’m fine. Just a bit… lonely as of late.”
“What? How comes? Did you have an argument with Psiksi or one of the Teekays or something?”
“They’re all… a tad preoccupied. Well, actually, Ksar Teekay’s fine, but, like… I like Psiksi and Eksi and Kaytee and they’ve completely lost interest in me, Elkay-En doesn’t see me that way at all and spends most of his time being useless and trying to read that super sparkly book that kinda looks like the Life Goddess stuff we just fixed and, sure, Teekay’s fine but he’s married and all that and it feels weird asking him for things.”
“Why… why has Psiksi lost interest in you? I thought you liked each other!”
“He’s suddenly infatuated with Telecharm Teekay. Has been ever since he came over for Elkay and Teekay’s anniversary thing. Combined with Elksia’s kid and Psiksi being a guardian for her… well… I’m feeling pretty fucking left out right now.”
“And I guess I’m not helping matters what with being with Retvik and Litvir now…”
Kayel grunted. “I’m not bothered about that. I’ve known, ever since I found out about Litvir, that you three were, um, I dunno, a thing, and we’d only kinda do friends with benefits stuff. I just kinda thought that, considering there’s so many Threanics around here, I wouldn’t end up jerking off on my own because no one’s interested… Alright, fine, Ksar Teekay’s kinda interested but he’s still kinda uncertain because he’s mostly straight and, because I’m intersex, I want to use all my genitalia occasionally, you know?”
“Yeah, I can get that…” Arkay thought for a moment. “Well, uh, I can’t really do anything long term, but, like, after I’ve showered, do you… want to do something together?”
Kayel blinked. “Uh… like what?”
Arkay shrugged. “Pizza, TV and naked snuggles? I mean, it’s not like Retvik or Litvir are here right now. And I’ve got the same problem with Elkay as you have with Teekay.”
“Uh… Alright, before I say yes, I have to ask, why haven’t you and Elkay made out yet?”
“Elkay keeps on flaking, and the one time he tried, pretty sure Elkay was freaking out internally and some sort of defensive adaptation kicked in, so I called it quits. But, anyway, you want to spend some time with me? I have no idea how long Retvik and Litvir will be gone for, so you might as well make the most of me.”
Kayel thought for a moment, then smiled. “You know what? Sure. I’d like that.”
“Awesome. Let me go and shower.”
Before Arkay could leave, Kayel grabbed his hand. “We could shower together, maybe?”
Arkay hesitated, but that hesitation turned into a grin. “That is a great idea…”