LK0044K: Hello.
KL1492L: oh piss
KL1492L: plz dont tell me ur name is elkay
LK0044K: Good guess.
KL1492L: how the fuck did u get on space ninjas?
LK0044K: Our Silent Blade left me a parting gift before He sacrificed himself.
KL1492L: oh cool
IceShield: Hello! New person! Welcome to the clan!
Arkay: Oh fuck. Totally forgot I did that.
“Forgot you did what?” Akah asked as he spun his chair around. For reasons unknown, Kayel and Arkay were both playing space ninjas with him, and, because their gaming devices were mobile, they’d decided to join Akah in his bedroom, both of them sitting on his bed, rather than having the three of them mess around with voice chat.
“I forgot that I gave Elkay a console the same way I gave Kayel one.”
“Why did you do that?” Kayel asked. “I didn’t know the All-Ksa liked video games.”
“He always wanted to be A-Class. So I wanted to give him a gift of forbidden knowledge before I got dragged off to be tortured by Corruption, as an apology for making him into my Shadow.”
“I… understood none of that…” Akah muttered as he checked LK0044K’s profile, saw what character he was using then immediately went to the market and swiftly bought a skin and a colour palette for the new player. “Also, I assume this is an Elkay who is a Skyavok, yes?”
Arkay nodded. “His name is Elkay Athanasion. Cool guy. Fucking ancient for a Skyan. Anyway, I ought to apologise to him.”
Arkay: Heya, my Shadow. Sorry for, uh, abandoning you.
LK0044K: It’s fine. I am sorry for only finding your letter and your gift to me last night. You were correct, Epani did deify me, I am now the god of shadows and knowledge. Quite a tiring duty. But I have a few days off and my data-gremlin desires are being massively satisfied.
“Oh goody! He can tell us if our universe is alright!” Kayel beamed.
KL1492L: u still all-ksa?
LK0044K: No, no. Passed that on to Veeyel. L-Class are in control now, with K-Class backing them up.
KL1492L: oh thats awesome
KL1492L: tbh always wanted a less violent class in charge
LK0044K: I am sorry that you are not around to see it. I assume you are my little friend Kayel, yes?
KL1492L: ye
KL1492L: having a lan party with our silent blade and a cool icy lanex dude called akah
IceShield: We’re all in the same room playing the same game. Nice to meet you.
LK0044K: Nice to meet you too, friend.
LK0044K: So, my master, you are clearly not dead. What happened?
Arkay: Alright, firstly, I’ve told you a million times, you don’t need to call me master.
Arkay: Secondly, a fucking miracle happened. Sini saved my stupid tail.
“I should just be honest with him, right?” Arkay asked.
“Yeah. Duh!” Kayel rolled his eyes. “Dude worshipped you more than anyone. And he worshipped all of you, not just the nice bits.”
Arkay frowned, then decided to message the newbie directly.
Arkay: Everything I put in that letter happened. I was taken by the Corruption and it tortured the piss out of me. But Sini tracked the Corruption down, trapped it inside some sort of fake universe and, I think, tricked it into breaking the deal it had made.
Arkay: I went rage mode, tore myself out of the Corruption and, uh, nearly permanently changed into my own unique form of corruption myself, but Sini took me back to my old Decay Lord friends, and they fixed me up.
Arkay: Thing is, being out here, I’m tainted by the darkness again, and Sini and I can’t come back because that stain has a habit of drawing attention from outside forces. We don’t want to risk the universe, especially with it already being damaged.
LK0044K: You say that, since Epani deified a bunch of us, we have fixed up pretty much all the damage.
Arkay: Oh.
Arkay: Good.
Arkay: Who did Epani deify? And I assume she kept the fundamentals of life and decay to herself? None of us have ever trusted Kairos with anything but time.
LK0044K: Hah! You are definitely correct there!
LK0044K: Epani picked out a bunch of vok she considered heroes, one from each race. Including the Lanex kid who discovered all this in the first place. Weirdly though, she decided to take an unfinished experiment and finish it, for the Rethan deity.
Arkay: …
Arkay: Do me a favour and don’t tell Kayel or Akah. They’ll blab to Kuta and Kuta will be upset. They had a thing about their DNA being used by Sini.
LK0044K: Kuta is alive?
LK0044K: The Rethans erected a massive statue and dedicated a park to Little Bitey!
Arkay: Yep. My eight immortal friends, Sini grabbed them and took them with her. After I deified them as a last minute action before I got dragged off.
LK0044K: I am pretty sure Litvir would be happy to know the person they were genetically based on is alive.
Arkay: Wait what.
Arkay: You know a Litvir?
LK0044K: That’s the name of the Rethan Deity. Two month old teenage Rethan with fangs, white plating and purple eyes.
Arkay: Huh.
Arkay: My boyfriend is called Litvir. He’s Kuta’s twin brother. I guess Sini and Epani had a sense of humour when they named your Litvir.
LK0044K: You have a boyfriend? Already? That’s hilarious.
Arkay: I technically had two boyfriends BEFORE your universe came into existence. But I’m back with them now.
LK0044K: Good to hear.
LK0044K: Thank you for being alive.
Arkay: Thank you for being alive too.
Arkay suddenly paused as Kayel nudged him.
“Dude, does he want to play with us?”
“Dude, I’m busy having a moment here.”
“Yeah, but does he want to join us in relic farming?”
Arkay tutted, then decided to just ask his old friend.
Arkay: Kayel’s asking if you want to join us.
LK0044K: Hah! Of course he is.
LK0044K: Oh. Your friend IceShield bought me some cosmetics.
Arkay: Yeah, Akah does that. His favourite thing to do in this game is to help newbies.
LK0044K: Cute. Seems like a nice lad.
LK0044K: Is there a way to use voice chat on this? Perhaps a push to talk setting? Would make communication so much easier.
Arkay: Should be? It’s probably in the options menu somewhere.
Arkay: But do you want to join us?
LK0044K: I’d love to, but I am still slowly working my way through the new areas. Somewhat struggling with the defence and interception missions.
Arkay: We can help you with those, if you want.
LK0044K: Really?
Arkay: Sure, let me just check with the others.
Arkay quickly checked back in with Akah and Kayel. “Elkay wants some help with some harder low level missions, can we do that?”
“Yes!” Akah beamed. “I love helping new players! Means I can use random stuff I need to level up!”
“Awesome. I’ll invite him to the squad then.”
Arkay: Akah is thrilled to help. I’m sending you an invite, then you can select which mission you want to do.
LK0044K: Wonderful.
LK0044K: I’m surprised folks from outside my universe are so friendly.
Arkay: Well, some of them are. There’s quite a lot of monsters out here too.
Arkay: Actually, most folks outside of Deathven-aligned territories are monsters.
LK0044K: Oh well. Just means we have to appreciate the nice bits more, right?
LK0044K: In the mean time, I’ve selected a mission. Can’t wait to explore more of this.
Arkay: Alrighty. Let’s have fun. As friends, not as a master and servant dynamic.
LK0044K: Oh, are we equals now?
Arkay: Yep.
LK0044K: Ooooh. I like that.
Arkay smiled to himself. Kayel and Akah glanced at him and smiled back, as Elkay left a message in the squad chat.
LK0044K: Ready to go when you all are, friendos!
“Your friend seems nice!”
“Dude’s the old All-Ksa, of course he’s nice!” Kayel tutted. “But yeah… it’s nice to have a little connection to back home.”
“Exactly. Let’s help an old friend…” Arkay grinned as he started the mission. “It’s the least I can do…”