“So how was the date?”
“How… how did you know?”
“Did you get laid?”
“What?”
“Did you?”
Abius leaned forward and growled, ever so slightly. Timik wasn’t intimidated at all, but Levik found himself emitting a small squeak.
“Timik, stop being an ass!” Kass tutted. “You KNOW Rethans aren’t like Temthans. They’re shy!”
“Okay fine, but Abius clearly went on a date yesterday! I want to know the deets! Our massive armour dude ain’t so lonely now.”
Abius growled some more. Timik ignored the growls and asked again. “How was the date?”
More stares. But Abius eventually settled down.
“It was nice. I appreciated having someone who understands how I feel and enjoys all the same things I do. It has been a very long time since I have spent time with another Rethan like that. Also, it seems that we have met before, we briefly met last year, back on the end of the 4th when I did those after-game interviews.”
“Nice!” Kass smiled. “What did you talk about?”
Abius shrugged. “Mostly gladiator stuff. Arkiir is considering becoming a house fighter, because they enjoy beast fights, dislike the official 798th Legion armour and do not get on that well with the solo 798th Legion fighters. I admittedly have never been a 798th Legion soldier so I somewhat understand their frustration.”
“Huh…” Timik thought for a moment. “You Rethans can be really judgemental at times.”
Kass luckily had an explanation. “It’s because they’re a very uniform species. Abius and, I guess, Arkiir, are extreme on different ends of the scale. It’s mostly a side effect of how Rethans group themselves up in Legions, and they admittedly got that from us Skyavok, who are even more uniform outside of shadowtouched Skyans and freaks like Psiksi.”
“You just called Psiksi a freak!” Levik exclaimed.
“Because, in all honesty? He is a freak. Compared to most Skyans, Psiksi is a freak. He’s huge and overly masculine and kinda weird. Doubly so since his parents are normal-sized and there’s no traces of being shadowtouched in their family at all, outside of Psiksi.”
“And… you’re not a freak?” Levik asked. “You can shadowjump and stuff.”
“I’m actually pretty damn average when it comes to a shadowtouched Skyan. Even my colours are average. Most shadowtouched Skyans tend to have darker plating and much darker skin, Psiksi being green all over is odd. I’m gonna assume though, because, like, Arkiir didn’t seem THAT short, like, maybe a bit below average but not tiny, and the thing that puts people off them is their colouring.”
“And that doesn’t bother Skyans?” Levik was curious now. “Like… wasn’t that Kayel guy a bright yellow shadowjumper?”
“I mean, yeah, but like, outside of Kayel’s yellow, he had normal black skin. I don’t think you ever met that Teekay guy, he had very bright grey skin, that was more unusual. Skyavok are literally random in their colourings, and Psiksi’s parents aren’t green like he is…” Kass trailed off for a moment. “Technically, aren’t you also a freak, Levik?”
Levik blinked. “How am I a freak?”
“You can shapeshift really easily.”
“But that… Alright, that’s two things. The first is that I am royalty, I’m literally the second son of the Lord King, and royalty is just better than everyone else. And because Spasts are long-lived, we make sure to pass on better genetics than most, so all the good genetics stick around. At the same time though, my schizophrenia helps me a lot, weirdly. The problem is, I start to believe I am whatever I turn into. The medication keeps me remembering who I am, but that’s why I get funny when we have longer matches, because the more time I spend shapeshifted, the more I forget I’m a Spast…”
Levik trailed off, then sighed.
“You alright, buddy?” Timik asked.
“Yeah. Just… I ought to call Kohra at some point. I… I am kinda forgetting I am a Spast sometimes. I mean, at least I know I am a Spast now. I used to think I was something else trapped in a Spast’s body.”
Timik, Kass and Abius all glanced at Levik.
“Are you… are you well?” Abius stuttered.
“I am now. I know who I am. But… I’ll be blunt… dad didn’t know how to deal with me. Now I’m free from his crap? I’m living my life and being happy…” Levik trailed off again. “Anyway, Abius, are you going to go on another date with Arkiir? Also, we all totally skipped over how Abius said that Arkiir wanted to be a house fighter.”
Timik snorted. “We definitely did! Won’t be hard for her either, since we only got one currently.”
“They, Timik! Arkiir is a They, same way Abius is!” Kass tutted. “Come on, don’t do that Torr gender fucking up stuff.”
“Sorry. But yeah, Arkiir should be able to get in no problem if we all vouch for them. But also we kinda need to get a new Skyan house fighter as well to go with Kass. Get her a girlfriend too.”
“I’m Ξ-Class, we don’t do boyfriends and girlfriends, we do hookups. But you do have a point. Won’t ever get another Spast gladiator though. Two in five years is a very anomalous blip.”
“Yeah, definitely!” Timik turned back to Abius. “So, you never answered my other question. Did you get laid?”
“No!” Abius’s answer was blunt. “We do not sleep with each other on the first date! That is insane!”
Timik shrugged. “That’s normal for Temthans. Any excuse to have sex and try new stuff. You ain’t a virgin though, are you?”
“That is a very personal question.”
“Are you?”
Abius frowned, then sighed. “I am not a virgin on either side, but it has been a while. Mostly because the vok I was interested in was an exile then immediately found a poten-partner as soon as they stopped being an exile, and also was very heavily distracted by a very blue fluffyvok. It is a shame that we lost Retvik and his team. They were all good people.”
Everyone else also frowned. But Timik eventually shook his head and perked up again.
“Oh well. Can’t be sad forever. I’m sure they’re in a better place now. In the mean time, we gotta get Abius laid.”
“Stop it.”
Kass smiled somewhat evilly. “Oh, no, Timik, don’t you worry. We’re gonna make sure that Abius and Arkiir become a thing…”
Abius slowly started deflating. “Oh Light… what have I gotten myself into?”