“Litvir…”
Litvir’s communicator buzzed, playing a short tone Eksi didn’t recognize. However, Litvir didn’t pick it up. He was currently busy giving Eksi a massage, as an apology for having bailed on him the other day. Their fellow Decay Lord and resident Life Goddess Seimeni had picked up some sort of transmission and completely freaked out, locking herself in one of the two weapons arrays, and Litvir had spent three hours trying to talk her back to reasonable thinking. As far as Litvir was concerned, he needed to make things up to the young Skyavok he was now overly friendly with.
“Litvir, your communicator.”
“They can wait.”
Eksi was enjoying himself though. Sure, Litvir’s hands were weirdly cold, but having a fire deity on board all the time meant the Thantir Two was always a little too long and the cool pressure around Eksi’s neck and shoulders was appreciated. Still, the buzzing was weird because it was someone messaging Litvir, rather randomly.
“Who is it?”
“I do not care. You are more important right now.”
Litvir removed Eksi’s stomach wrap, then placed some massage oil on his fingers and ran them down Eksi’s unarmoured sides, causing several involuntary shudders. However, Eksi’s curiosity was getting the better of him.
“Gotta be someone important for them to be messaging you on an app I don’t recognize. You don’t have friends outside this ship.”
“Hah. Very funny, Eksi. It is most likely Decay Lord Kal, finally sending me the standard procedure for Corruption removal from Decaylings that I requested. Like I said, you are more important right-”
The communicator buzzed again. Litvir took a deep breath and tried to ignore it, focusing on the massage. Eksi though was simply too curious and used his subtle telekinetic powers to bring Litvir’s communicator, connected to the rest of his wristband, over and see what it was. He tapped on the top of the band and a small screen appeared.
“Oh you have Wyvern notifications. Who’s Deathbringer?”
“Please do not do that!” Litvir hissed. “You might… accidentally reveal things…”
Eksi thought for a moment. “That’s Arkay’s Decay Lord code name, isn’t it? Translated directly from the word Thantophor.”
“What did I just bloody say, Eksi! You need to be quiet!”
Litvir climbed out of bed, then pressed his hands against the walls. The room briefly lit up with purple energy, and a lilac spiral remained among the walls. Anyone who had just heard the last ten seconds would have instantly forgotten, their thoughts suddenly replaced with the desire to go to bed early. The lingering spiral would protect them from prying eyes, ears and minds.
“Wow, you’re really serious about this whole Arkay thing!” Eksi smiled.
“Galyn does not know. If Galyn knew what me and Retvik have been doing, he would smear my intestines across the cockpit then strap Retvik to the front of the ship and drive it through an asteroid belt.”
Eksi stopped smiling, but quickly smiled again. “That is… quite imaginative. Still, you should answer Arkay. He is your missing third or whatever you call it, after all. He must be a pretty decent guy if you really want to bang him that bad.”
Litvir sighed, knowing that Eksi was annoyingly right. He headed over to the desk and grabbed his portable computer, his nice, magic, transparent one, and rolled it out on the bed, opening the Wyvern app. There were three messages waiting for him.
Eksi read Arkay’s messages, completely ignoring Litvir’s privacy. “Dude he wants to talk.”
“I noticed…” Litvir typed a small reply, politely saying hello. He got an immediate response.
Deathbringer: Hey Litvir you busy I kinda wanna talk to someone, but I’m kinda drunk and my mortal friends are all asleep and I really can’t talk about the thing on my mind with Kairos because he’s pissed he lost his bet against me.
Eksi glanced up at Litvir. “He’s drunk? Can proper gods like him get drunk?”
“Yes, we all can, if we drink enough…” Litvir trailed off, not really sure how to respond to Arkay’s message. “You… do not mind if I message him back, do you, Eksi?”
“I want you to message him back. I’ve never met him and I’m curious.”
“You…” Litvir paused. “No, of course not. You were deified after Arkay… was sent away…”
“Yeah, something like that. You got a picture?”
The Decay Lord sighed, then tapped on the screen, to a folder. “I do not have many pictures, just a handful Galyn took when the three of us became Decay Lords ourselves…” Litvir tapped a couple more times and brought up a picture of Arkay, Retvik and himself.
“Oh…” Eksi’s reaction was rather weird. “I can totally see why you want to fuck him. I want to fuck him. Had no idea Arkay was a Skyan like me!”
“I do not just want to sleep with Arkay!” Litvir tutted. “I just want to hold him and hug him and tell him everything will be alright.”
“Well tell him that right now. I think he needs you right now.”
Litvir glanced downwards. Arkay’s message was still unanswered. He typed a small reply.
Souldrainer: Sorry, Arkay, I was distracted. Talking with my friend.
Deathbringer: Are you busy? I can message later, it’s fine. Also, I kinda never took you out to farm resources in our game.
Souldrainer: I can talk, it is fine.
Deathbringer: Thanks. Who you talking to?
Litvir glanced at Eksi. “I should be honest, yes?”
“Uh, I guess?” Eksi wasn’t sure either.
Souldrainer: I have picked up a new psionic Decayling. He is very nice, you would like him.
Deathbringer: Oh nice! I bet he gets on with Kuta.
“Oh. Fuck. He… does not know…” Litvir closed his eyes, abruptly wracked with guilt. “I… I guess I will just be even more honest.”
Souldrainer: Sadly Kuta is no longer with us. He was inside your universe when you killed Kinisis and your siblings remade everything. But he was happy, he did not want to be a Decayling and settled down with an old mortal friend of his.
Deathbringer: Oh. I’m sorry, Litvir. I… I didn’t know.
Souldrainer: It is not your fault, Arkay. You were just as duped as the rest of us.
“Ask him what he wanted to talk about. Before he gets too sad.”
“Eksi, you are overstepping your boundaries.”
“Litvir, you’re not the only empath here. He came to you wanting to talk, don’t make him regret it.”
“Very well.”
Souldrainer: Sorry. What did you want to talk about?
Deathbringer: Uh…
Deathbringer: I’m a forgetful drunk.
Deathbringer: Retvik called me a curious drunk. Kayel called me a cute drunk. Tenuk and Nyssi just called me weird. I think Nyssi can drink more than I can.
Litvir wasn’t quite sure what Arkay was talking about, so he made a bit of a guess.
Souldrainer: Are those your mortal friends?
Deathbringer: Yeah. The four vok I accidentally made immortal. Short story, the four of them formed a Dessaron arena team and they beat the current champion team. Kairos bet they’d lose and now he’s pissed off at me.
Souldrainer: Congratulations to them. I assume you are drunk because you were celebrating with them?
Deathbringer: Yeah. This is going to sound fucking stupid. Kairos bet that if my team lost, I’d have to go on a date with him but I counter-bet that he’d have to let me fuck him if my team won and I got no idea how the fuck I’m going to do that because I’m embarrassed.
Deathbringer: I haven’t been the male in a relationship in like 20 billion years.
Deathbringer: Sorry, I’m drunk and whining, there’s no way you can help me with this.
Again, Litvir was confused. He glanced up at Eksi, looking for help, but Eksi was confused as well. After a moment though, Litvir just shrugged. Time for more honesty.
Souldrainer: I am sure it is fine. You are not alone in the lack of experience as the male. Do you want this?
Deathbringer: Yeah. Not like I really have any other options while I’m trapped in here. It’s literally Kairos or nothing and I’m kinda desperate.
Eksi frowned. “He’s lonely.”
“He is. I feel bad.”
“Send him a nude or something. Make him feel better.”
Litvir eyed Eksi awkwardly. “I do not think he would appreciate that.”
Eksi went back to frowning. “Maybe there’s a way we can visit his universe or something.”
“We cannot. The second we step inside a universe, we lose all our power and the Life Goddesses would murder us for attempting to mess with their little death god.”
“Still… we have to do something…” Eksi paused, then snatched Litvir’s tablet away from him.
Souldrainer: Hey, I’m Eksi, Litvir’s little Decayling buddy, just stole Litvir’s tablet! Litvir showed me a picture of you and you’re cute as fuck, just thought you’d like to know! Once you get out of your universe, we should hook up.
There wasn’t an immediate response.
Deathbringer: Thanks, I appreciate it. Just wish I wasn’t stuck here.
Eksi glanced up at Litvir, who was getting pretty angry, then smiled and started typing some more.
Souldrainer: Eksi here still! You ever heard of video calls? I’ve been in long distance relationships, there’s stuff you can do! Or you can go and fuck Kairos and he can just take it because he’s a big boy who needs to accept he lost his bet. He might even enjoy it. I certainly do.
Deathbringer: Yeah, you’re right, Eksi.
Litvir snatched his tablet away from Eksi and read what he had written.
“Really, Eksi?”
“He thinks I’m right.”
“Still!”
Litvir sighed, then typed an apology to Arkay.
Souldrainer: Sorry about that. Eksi can be… a pain.
Deathbringer: Don’t be sorry. He’s right. And he’s nice, I like him. Thanks for talking to me. I should sleep off this alcohol before I do anything stupid. Well, stupider.
Souldrainer: Alright, sleep well.
Deathbringer: Thank you. Have a good one.
The icon next to Arkay’s name went grey, signalling that he had gone off line. Both Eksi and Litvir took a deep breath.
“I should be angry at you…” Litvir growled.
“Yeah, sorry, I shouldn’t have snatched your tablet, but I think he needed a little bit of help. He’s gone to bed happier.”
Litvir sighed once more, then patted Eksi on the head. “You are a wonderful little being, Eksi. Thank you.”