Tenuk had been sitting on the plastic bench in the hallway for about an hour now, feeling absolutely awful while shapeshifted into a bright blue, extremely fluffy cat. He was patiently waiting for a nurse or doctor to come by and say that he could go in and see Retvik, who was resting in the private room past the door to Tenuk’s left. To Tenuk’s right, Nyssi had been sitting there, but she’d gone to the bathroom or something. Or did she go to get drinks and snacks? Tenuk couldn’t remember. Kayel wasn’t around, he was currently napping in Xeno Dessaron One’s private training area, sleeping off the large dose of sedatives he had received. It wasn’t that late, only about 8pm, but they’d had a busy day and Tenuk was sad. For Tenuk, being sad also made him tired.
He wasn’t the only person who was tired though. Tenuk nearly jumped as a loud yawn echoed down the hallway.
“Oh darkness, I’m sorry!” Psiksi yawned some more as he sat on the bench opposite Tenuk.
Psiksi was wearing arena armour and had a large spray of blood covering most of him. Tenuk hadn’t seen Psiksi in his official Happy Cold arena armour before, he’d just assumed it was standard House Fighter armour, but Psiksi had custom attachments, including a line of emerald crystals across his shoulders and two more lines of smaller crystals almost like a mohawk on his helmet.
“Would have come earlier, but I had a match and bloody hell that bastard Kamah really dragged it out. Lotta Lanex like to do that. But yeah, I heard what happened and came by to make sure everyone was alright.”
Tenuk rubbed his eyes. “I broke Retvik. Doctors said it might be days before he’s normal again!”
Psiksi didn’t seem that bothered. “Mate, this has happened before. Not just to Retvik but to most Rethan gladiators. That’s why they have those three nice Rethan medics on hand to deal with this sort of thing.”
“Yeah but… Retvik can’t even sleep right now. I fucking hurt him. I didn’t mean to…”
Psiksi glanced left and right, then got up and sat down next to Tenuk. Tenuk felt somewhat intimidated by this and turned himself back into his normal Spast self. He didn’t know why, he knew Psiksi, he was one of Retvik’s normal friends, but maybe it was the fact that Psiksi was covered in blood.
“You didn’t hurt Retvik. It was just a bunch of pissy circumstances that ended up with Retvik producing way, way too much adrenaline.”
“But… He just… snapped…”
Tenuk took a deep breath. He had been worrying this entire time. He’d not seen Retvik like that before. And when he’d gone in and seen Retvik after they’d managed to calm him down enough for him to stop struggling, that image haunted him. Seeing the hulking behemoth Tenuk considered to be his best friend, strapped up to a bed and unable to move, a belt tied around his mouth so he couldn’t speak, and a horrible look of fear, confusion and rage in those normally bright red eyes.
To Tenuk’s surprise, Psiksi scooted closer, then put an arm around him.
“Huh. Your fur is way, way softer than I imagined it to be.”
“You’ve never touched a Spast before?”
Psiksi shrugged. “No. You guys are pretty rare. You’re the only one I’ve ever met up close. But yeah, Tenuk, mate, I went and watched a replay of your match after my own fight and, dude, it’s not your fault.”
“It is completely my fault.”
Psiksi paused, blinked, then laughed. “Dude, you have had no idea how many times Phovos has warned Jalark about using his hallucination drugs on Rethans and Banikans. Works fine on Thraki, they just get confused, forget how to fly then try and set everything on fire, but that piss does weeeeeird things to the bigger species. Banikans go off the rails, and I think that’s actually the third or fourth time Jalark has accidentally triggered a Rethan’s Defensive State.”
Tenuk hesitated. “Really?”
“Yep!” Psiksi nodded. “Mate, I’ve known Retvik for like, three decades now. I think this is the fifth time he’s gone proper Defensive State, which, considering his job, is pretty impressive. Most Rethans, House Fighters or otherwise, have this happen every couple of years.”
“I… I still feel bad…” Tenuk sighed. “I thought it would make him go more docile. I noticed that Rethans seem to calm down when they see cats. Worked it out when we met Arkay’s shadowjumping Rethan boyfriend when we bet whether Arkay could even turn into a cat in the first place and both the Rethans present went all quiet.”
Psiksi’s face went blank. He’d heard Retvik say weird things like that, but he didn’t realise that Retvik’s three friends would also say weird things. Granted, Kayel seemed smart enough to not blatantly talk about the weird stuff he’d experienced, and Nyssi, despite her bounciness, didn’t talk much about the godly stuff, but what Tenuk had just said was beyond weird.
“Did you just say… shadowjumping Rethan?” Psiksi stuttered.
“Oh. Uh. Yeah…” Tenuk stuttered back. “Our friend the death god found a boyfriend. I’m not supposed to tell you though and… ugh, I just fucked up even more.”
While Psiksi did want more information, he knew that Tenuk was genuinely upset. So instead of pushing further, he went back to talking about the match and gladiator Rethans. After all, Psiksi had a bit of a reputation of being able to beat Rethan fighters.
“It’s alright, we can change the subject. But seriously, Tenuk, this happens sometimes. Retvik’s actually been pretty good about it all over the years. Heck, I accidentally did the exact same thing you did, when we were doing a House Fighters Deluxe match and I got myself gored by Ct’Era. Retvik lost it and beat her senseless with his bare hands, then didn’t sleep for a week because of the adrenaline spike.”
“Yeah but…”
“But what?” Psiksi asked. “This isn’t your fault. If it didn’t happen to you, it’s possible Kayel might have triggered Retvik’s Defensive State as well. We’re talking about a medical situation here more than anything else. But now they’ve managed to get Retvik into a bed and started treatment, he’ll be fine. Sure, Retvik won’t sleep for a few days, but he should be able to start talking in about six hours, and you can go in and keep him company then.”
Tenuk sighed. He knew Psiksi was right, after all, Psiksi had done all of this before.
“Is this why there aren’t any cats in most Rethan cities?” Tenuk eventually muttered.
Psiksi shrugged. “Uh, that’s more just that cats never really evolved on the planets us Threanics evolved on. But I guess maybe it’s related…” Psiksi paused and looked up. “Oh, hello Nyssi!”
Nyssi was holding a tray of food, mostly breaded chicken and bottles of cola.
“Oh hiii!” Nyssi beamed, immediately sitting down next to Psiksi and handing him a drink. “You here to see Retty too?”
Psiksi nodded. “Yeah, we go way back. Thank you for the drink.”
“No worries! We’re gonna be waiting a while, I guess, so ya wanna chat? It’ll help cheer Tenuk up and stop him thinking it’s his fault.”
“Yeah, sure. I ain’t got anything better to do.” Psiksi opened up his drink, smiling again. “Good match by the way. You four are always such a spectacle…”