Litvir seemed to be somewhat busy, messing around with the work schedules of the Thantir for the upcoming ev, when Tenuk, in his normal, Kronospast form, appeared in the office.
Unfortunately, during a rather frantic Corruption removal, Tahvra had been briefly infected and, while he was quickly fixed up, the poor little thing had panicked and buckled from the stress, and to help him recover, he had been given an ev off work. However, Tahvra had also been having nightmares and panic attacks from the event, and, to settle his nerves, Akah was currently looking after him and keeping him company, since Tahvra didn’t feel safe among anyone else.
“Ah, perfect, I was just about to-”
Tenuk realized Litvir was staring at him and, worse, Litvir had accidentally read Tenuk’s thoughts.
“Hey, boss. What’s up?” Tenuk politely asked, waiting for Litvir to respond. It took way too long for Litvir to do so.
“Um…” Litvir hesitated, before straightening himself out. “Hello, Tenuk, I have a request to ask of you. While we can cope with Tahvra spending time recovering, as Galyn is offering his sedative expertise, we are currently lacking a body guard, and with all the extra Corruption removals we have to do lately, I cannot take Vikalos or Saahro off their duties. Would you mind shapeshifting into something larger and doing some guard duty for the next ev?”
Tenuk thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I could do with some practice on my Beh’en acting. You just need me to be big and scary, right?”
Litvir nodded. “Yes, nothing special. If we have any real problems, Elksia will lock things down before anything bad happens, she is very good at that, but having you as a dissuasion will be useful…” Litvir trailed off, closed his mouth, opened it again, then let out a long sigh. “I apologize for reading your thoughts without permission, but you are currently thinking harder than normal, about weird things.”
“I am, definitely!” Tenuk smirked. “May I come in so we can speak privately?”
“Um…” Litvir glanced past Tenuk, then at the work schedule, then sighed. “Alright fine. Because you have some explaining to do.”
Tenuk’s smirk only got bigger as he stepped into the office properly, closing the door behind him. Litvir sat down behind his desk, and hinted that Tenuk do the same. Despite this room being the office of the two leaders of the Thantir, Tenuk found it odd that both Litvir and Retvik’s desks were both so bland, and they both just sat on padded cushions.
“I’m pretty sure you know what I’m thinking right now, yes?”
Litvir tutted. “Your thoughts are particularly vivid and detailed, which is quite odd, considering how old you are.”
“I’m not that old. Technically kinda young for a Kronospast, we lived for like 5000 years.”
“Still, the vast amounts of memory data your brain would have to contain, while at the same time avoiding neurological problems in old age, does make it surprising. Most beings get some sort of mental disability as they age due to the lifespan of neurons and weaknesses in their connectivity.”
Tenuk shrugged. He’d forgotten that Litvir was, essentially, an evil genius who knew a lot about brains and mental health. “I assume it’s because, like the rest of my body, my brain is made of rubber.”
“Explains how things like intelligence thought bounce right off your noggin…” Litvir allowed himself a small smile.
Tenuk found the joke pretty amusing and smiled back. Like Litvir said, he was old. The oldest of all the new Thantir, and more than ten times Litvir’s age.
“So, you saw my thoughts, you know what I want to do.”
“I know WHAT you want to do, but I do not quite understand the reasoning as to WHY. After all, Retvik has known you most of his life and I do not think he has really shown that much interest in you, outside of his permanent friendship and the loyalty and blood spilled between him, you and Elksia…” Litvir took another glance at Tenuk’s thoughts. “Oh. You made a bet.”
“Honestly, I don’t care about the bet. Sure, 5k is more than I get every 4 evs if I lose, but Elksia will cover me. I’m more interested in proving Phovos wrong. And, well… I won’t deny it, there are definitely times where Elksia and I have had thoughts. Especially during those days where we were waging war against a time god. Say, what were YOU doing during the war against the Whenvern?”
Litvir thought for a moment. “Hm. I am pretty sure I was just a captain then, trying to hide the fact that my twin brother had accidentally killed half the 11th Legion while trying to stop himself from being beaten to death. While yes, most Rethans are fighting fit, I certainly was not.”
“You seem mighty healthy now.”
Litvir grunted. “Now, I am essentially a deity myself, have full control of my psionic powers and am no longer tormented by both the constant barrage of everyone else’s thoughts and my myriad of genetic defects. In those days, I was a blatant liability. Still, I just want to clarify this, you want to sleep with Retvik?”
“Yep.”
“And Elksia does too?”
Tenuk grinned as he stretched himself out. “Either of us is fine, but the preferred outcome is that Elksia and I get Retvik to join us in a Vrekan threesome. Or a normal threesome. It’s not even that far fetched, Retvik and I nearly slept together once when we were captured by an Anexartan cult after a failed raid on a slave encampment.”
Litvir blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Ah…” Tenuk paused briefly. “Well, the thing about Anexartans is that, while they could never really have sex themselves, they reproduced… in a stupid way… they were really, really into voyeurism. They kept the four of us in separate cells, then approached me and Retvik and said they wouldn’t torture Elksia if we made out. Of course, we agreed, but…” Tenuk paused again. “That was the second time I wondered if Arkay was really a Skyavok, because he clearly did some god-based bullshit, broke us all out and burnt the cult to the ground.”
Litvir stared at Tenuk in disbelief. Tenuk just shrugged.
“A lot of stupid shit happened. And the Deiton races were absolute monsters. I mean, you’ve seen the state of Akah, right? He’s a complete mess, and he’s lucky as fuck that he got out before the Anexartans completely lost it, because what the Deiton races did to the Nexian races? They would have done the same to you Threanics and the Temthan-aside races as well. Still I’m getting really distracted. I want to sleep with Retvik. And to do that, I need two things from you.”
“Only two?”
Tenuk nodded. “Yep. Firstly, I need your… well, not your permission, or approval. Just a guarantee you won’t murder me for sleeping with your partner.”
“What sort of monster do you think I am?” Litvir tutted. “I have made it quite clear that I am open to a lot of things, and I am fine if Retvik wishes to explore new avenues as well.”
Tenuk considered making a mean comment but decided not to. After all, he didn’t really know what Litvir was like when they were mortals. “So you’re cool with me and Elksia trying to seduce your girlfriend?”
“Boyfriend, but yes.”
“Oh, so you’re the female?”
“We take it in turns, but I am definitely the more feminine member of the partnership…” Litvir paused for a moment. “I suppose, if you do want to seduce Retvik, the best way to do so would be to offer to him what I cannot.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Retvik wants to be little spoon.”
Tenuk’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Mhm. I offer and I try, but with Retvik being a good 20cm taller than me, it is… not exactly what he wants…”
“So, what you are saying is, Retvik wants Gath.”
“Yes. While Retvik does accept that Gath is gone and he wants to, and I quote, start a new chapter with me, for some reason, I think a night with someone much larger than Retvik would be good for him.”
“Well well well!” Tenuk beamed. “You just gave me the second thing I was looking for. I’ve been meaning to alter my Rethan shapeshifted form for a while, and you just told me exactly how I need to look.”
“Please do not shapeshift into Gath.”
Tenuk snorted some more as he got up and made his way out of the room.. “Hah, I won’t. But now I know that Retvik’s looking for bulk and a slab of meat, which you can’t provide. Thanks for the info, boss.”
The office door slammed shut, leaving Litvir on his own. Litvir sighed and slumped in his seat, feeling somewhat small and insufficient, before sighing again and getting back to work.