Things were quiet on the Shimmering Blade. The Phantai were taking some time off to celebrate the demise of the Crystal Doom, as they hadn’t seen a single Voidborn ship in the last two evs. Meanwhile, the Thantir were keeping to themselves. Their eight Decaylings were soon to do their Decay Lord Trial, and the elders had insisted that they all relax and rest as much as they could. At the same time, Itaviir had heavily recommended that the Decaylings be watched at all times. They were all currently wearing special bands that, after a short while, would teleport them to the location of their Decay Lord Trial, and the Thantir didn’t want their Decaylings to suddenly disappear without their armour and weapons.
Thankfully, the Phantai had set aside a private observatory for the Decaylings, and they’d also kindly installed a miniature buffet, set up weapon and armour stands and filled the room with pillows, blankets and cushions, so none of them had to leave.
Currently watching over the Decaylings were the two Thantir leaders, Retvik and Litvir. Litvir was standing by the door, while Retvik sat in the corner, reading through some guides for Decaylings and scanning them for any important information they had missed. Half the Decaylings were asleep, but Eksi, Elkay, Tenuk and Phovos were all awake.
“So, uh, Tenuk, random question…” Eksi suddenly broke the silence.
“Yeah?” Tenuk was happily eating bowl after bowl of ice cream. It helped calm his nerves.
“Are you wearing clothes right now?”
Tenuk blinked, put down his current bowl of ice cream and blinked again.
“What sort of fucking question is that?” Phovos answered in Tenuk’s place.
Eksi just shrugged. “I dunno. I know Tenuk can shapeshift clothes onto himself when he needs to, I just wondered if he was doing so right now or not.”
Tenuk continued to blink. “Why… why do you need to know?”
“I like asking awkward questions.”
“I know that, but… Okay, sure, I’m a Kronospast, I can shapeshift, but you really think we all just walked around in the nude all the time?”
“Did you?” Eksi continued his questioning. “I never met many Kronospasts, mostly just you and… Kohra, I think his name was? Dude did what you never had the guts to do and killed your corrupt monster of a father.”
Tenuk tutted, trying to hide his anger and annoyance. “Firstly, leave my now dead brother out of this, secondly, of course I’m fucking wearing clothes. Shapeshifting fabrics is fucking difficult!”
“Can you… prove it?”
“I am literally only wearing shorts right now, I am not taking them off to prove a point. That right is limited to Elksia only. And Phovos, if she asks. Maybe Akah too, if he asked and I was shapeshifted into a Lanex, but he’s completely and utterly asexual.”
“You don’t need to get your dick out, you can just-”
“Eksi?” Litvir interrupted.
“Yes, Litty dear?” Eksi asked politely.
“First off, Elksia is the only person allowed to call me Litty. Secondly, you are doing the thing again. Is something troubling you and do you want to talk about it?”
Eksi hesitated, then sighed. “Yeah, something’s bothering me. I’m kinda… worried about the Trial even though I know we’ll be fine. But I find that asking weird questions helps me get over my nerves.”
“Understandable!” Litvir was being way more friendly than normal. Ever since his little running away stunt, the telepaths among the Thantir Decaylings had noticed that he was more quiet and submissive (especially to Retvik), and definitely trying to make up for his past mistakes. “Perhaps, instead of bothering your fellow Decaylings, you could point some questions my way?”
“Are you… sure?” Eksi asked.
“I am, yes.”
“Alright…” Eksi fell silent, thinking to himself for a moment. He glanced across the room, where Elkay was sitting, and Teekay was lying by his side, all snuggled up and asleep. Eventually, he smiled and asked his question. “So, like, Litvir, everyone knows you and Retvik are a couple. Why do you two kinda… hide your relationship?”
Litvir hesitated. “I… I do not follow.”
“You never show affection to each other publicly. The most I’ve ever seen you two openly do is hold hands. Why?”
“Litvir is an old Rethan, older Rethans don’t really show public affection maybe?” Tenuk suggested. “I picked up a lot of weird things while pretending to be one. Honestly, I think I should have pretended to be a Vrekan instead, would have been a LOT easier, but Rethan social traits are pretty interesting to study.”
“I am not that old though?”
Tenuk glanced at Litvir. “Well, no, not really, you’re, what, 13 years older than Retvik? Still old enough for there to be a generational gap between you both. At least, for non-Deiton races. You’re the tail end of an older, sterner, stricter and potentially more… ‘traditional’ generation, while Retvik’s the start of a new generation that is more open to showing emotions, because you all kinda had to when you went to war. Doesn’t explain why you’re more sexually accepting than Retvik is though.”
“What do you mean by that?” Phovos asked.
“Litvir is totally and utterly fine with cross-species intercourse, something both Retvik and Elkay here only recently accepted, and a lot of that only happened because of past traumatic experiences.”
“But also, I simply do not know better!” Litvir added. “I had a grand total of one romantic relationship when I was mortal, which I was not particularly interested in and never went anywhere because Kuta accidentally killed her. I did not have a chance to explore my romantic desires until after I was technically dead…” Litvir paused. “I mean, I was not alone there. One of the first things Retvik did as a Decayling was get seduced by Seimeni, and then he immediately tried to start a singular relationship with Arkay.”
“To be fair, at the time, I WAS under the impression that I was the only Rethan on the Thantir One.”
“That raises yet another question though!” Litvir exclaimed. “What happened to the other Decaylings on the Thantir One? After sorting out the clusterfuck that was Kinisis’s ill-actions, the Thantir picked up 7 viable Decaylings, and they chose you, Arkay and me to remain as Thantir Decaylings when the weird four-armed bird Decay Lord split the Thantir up. I recall one of them certainly wasn’t from our universe, but I am pretty certain that the other three, one of them was a Lanex.”
“Oh gods, don’t say that too loud…” Phovos whispered. “You’ll get Akah’s hopes up.”
Eksi waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fiiiiiine, we’ll find a nice Melek-Glatoras or whatever they’re called to keep Akah company. But he’s honestly dealing with extinction way better than I thought, he just gets upset because people judge him all the time for being… uh…”
“Thropic?” Tenuk asked.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s a catch-all term for anything shaped a bit like an Anexartan. Flat face, upright, tailless, flat feet, four fingers and a thumb at minimum, generally lacking fur or scales. Although, talking about things being extinct, sure, it’s kinda sad the Lanex are gone, but I’m… almost glad all the other Deiton races pegged it. We were scum. Anyway, Litvir, do you remember the other Decaylings?”
Litvir thought to himself. “I think one of them may have been a Vrekan, but they had tentacles, so they may not have been from our universe either, and I, uh, briefly clashed with them when they attacked me for being a telepath. I do not know what the last being was, it looked like a Lanex, went by the name Hec and was absolutely huge, but heavily augmented to the point where I do not know if it even had flesh. I assume though, they were all sent to Deathven, but I really cannot say because I was forced to spend a lot of time drugged and in solitary because I kept on biting people and trying to escape.”
“Uh… why?” Retvik queried. “I know they kept most of us Decaylings separate, but why did you keep on trying to escape?”
“I had the exact same problem Eksi has now. Except the vast majority of the Thantir, their minds were so alien to me that I was lashing out in a bid to find somewhere quiet.”
“So, follow-up question, did you wake up naked as well? Because I wandered around the Thantir One for a week before anyone gave me some clothes. Apparently the armour I had been wearing had been completely destroyed.”
“That explains why Seimeni was so horny for you!” Eksi chirped. “The mighty Retvik Rethianos, walking around nude.”
“Um, no, I woke up in the armour I wear most of the time. You probably just burnt all your armour off again.”
Retvik grunted. “Oh. Probably. I have a habit of doing that. I need to ask Vikalos where he gets his armour and clothes from, he does not seem to have an issue with setting himself on fire.”
“Retvik, mate, you are on fire right now!” Tenuk tutted.
“I do not like other people seeing my lack of forearm plating. These cold, cosmetic flames hide that. And prosthetics feel weird.”
“Dear, I still love you, even if you think your missing plating makes you feel ugly.”
Eksi, Tenuk and Phovos all glanced at Litvir.
“See, you CAN be open about your love!” Eksi beamed. “But you both weirdly hide public affection! You can love each other openly, no one will judge you!”
“The telepathic little cunt has a point, you know…” Tenuk couldn’t help but agree. “No one judges Elkay and Teekay, despite Elkay being a different species and more than double Teekay’s age and totally the submissive female in the relationship because he’s pledged a life of servitude to the electric Skyan bastard…”
“That was uncalled for…” Elkay muttered under his breath. “True, but uncalled for.”
“I can’t talk, mate, my girlfriend is a Vrekan who is 950 years younger than me!” Tenuk continued to smile. “Either way, we ain’t gonna judge two kinda weird but also kinda standard Rethans who have been through a lot together.”
Neither Retvik nor Litvir said anything at first. After a brief silence, Litvir left his post by the door and went and sat down next to Retvik. Retvik hesitated, then put his arm around Litvir, hugging him tightly.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Eksi smirked
“I guess not…” Litvir shrugged as he made himself more comfortable, nestling up to Retvik. “Did all of this help with your nerves, Eksi?”
“Oh, totally!” Eksi was clearly much happier now. “Uh, sorry for being weird, by the way.”
“It is fine, little one. Just try to reel it in a little bit, alright?”
Eksi nodded. “Of course, boss. Still, I LOVE these long, enlightening chats! I always learn so, so much!”