“Oh hey, you look like an actual Skyavok today!”
Kayel had forgotten about his old drinking rules, to drink plenty of water. Turned out, the Thantir leaders had gone out and bought a ton of nice party things at the mall, so the Decaylings could all celebrate. One of the drinks that the old Thantophor had bought was a strange alcoholic drink that tasted oddly cold but fruity at the same time. Admittedly, Kayel had gone a little overboard, and he’d headed right down to the edge of the beach on his own, hoping his headache would go away.
Arkay smiled, sitting down next to Kayel. He handed Kayel a bottle of water, which Kayel quickly opened and took a glug of.
“Too much alcohol?”
“Not enough water. So what’s with today’s look?”
“I was feeling oddly nostalgic. Everyone’s sort of grouped up by species, and the other Skyavok-sized Threanics are playing some sort of card game. Was going to join in myself, but noticed you were out over here on your own.”
“Do they want me to join them?” Kayel asked.
“Yeah, but they haven’t started yet. Psiksi and Eksi want to make pancakes first, since that was apparently a tradition when they were mortal.”
Kayel snorted. “Pancakes? At this weird party thing?”
“Yep.”
“Well… it’s not as weird as the fact that the big guys ALL are playing Big Ball Game…” Kayel was giggling a little. “I forget that, uh, my-universe Rethans generally have simpler names for things.”
“I forgot that old-universe Rethans just call it “the ball game” because recreational sports for them was stuff like throwing javelins and wrestling, because most of their games were military-based. But yeah, not seen Retvik doing stupid things before.”
“He’s drunk.”
“I think all the Rethans are drunk. And Vikalos must be too. Didn’t think he’d want to play, but he wanted to try it and also balance the teams.”
Kayel lifted himself up and peered over his shoulder. He could just about see all of them pushing a 2.5m ball around, both teams trying to push the ball into each other’s goals.
“Are Galyn and Itaviir not playing?”
“They don’t want to pop the ball.”
Kayel blinked, then burst out laughing, utterly tickled by the image of one of the big guys getting the ball caught on their horns. Arkay snickered as well. It took a moment for Kayel to calm down.
“Hahaha… Still… Surprised that big fiery Retvik wanted to play. He seems kinda… grumpy a lot of the time.”
“Actually, in all honestly, most old-universe Rethans were strong and stern and grumpy, like Retvik. Litvir and Kuta technically were the weird ones, they’ve both always been overly emotional because expressing their own emotions puts a bit of a lid on their telepathy. Elkay was more like Retvik but… a lot of things happened to him, and he eventually mellowed out.”
“And since my Retvik was an exile, he was never too grumpy either.”
“Exactly.”
Kayel and Arkay both fell silent for a bit. Arkay laid down and stretched himself out, but Kayel was stealing peeks of Arkay’s body.
“You know you’re super fucking hot when you play as a Skyan, right?” Kayel eventually asked.
“It’s not intentional.”
“You sure?” Kayel teased.
“Yeah, I’m sure…” Arkay glanced down at his body. “This is… kinda how I looked when I was mortal.”
Kayel tilted his head to one side. “Even with the spots where you clearly have space for a pair of extra limbs?”
Arkay nodded. “You know how Kaytee has wings? I had wings like that too when I was a kid. A Kronospast shot my wings off with some sort of laser weapon when I was 11 years old. I had the remains of them amputated to avoid blood loss and infections.”
Kayel frowned. “Bloody darkness. I swear, every time you and I talk, I remind you of some random bad shit from your past.”
“It’s not your fault. I’ve lived for a very long time and have experienced a lot. And the “being reminded of bad shit” happens a lot. Litvir does it all the time by accident. I’m used to it now.”
“Yeah but… you… you had your wings chopped off when you were 11 years old!”
“Yep. Even as a mortal, I was a mess.”
“You were ELEVEN!”
Arkay just kept on shrugging. “Kaytee and I were trained from the moment that we hatched to be super soldiers. Teekay had something similar happen to him, but he lucked out and managed to retire early. It’s why I always kept an eye on new-universe Skyavok and made sure the Phantasma cult stuck to the rules I gave them.”
“You were a god in Teekay’s universe though, why didn’t you stop him from being made into a child soldier?”
“Ugh… I did try. But I wasn’t allowed to be hands-on with species in that universe. Wasn’t really allowed to interfere at all. And back then? The Skyavok were one of Kenon’s chosen species.”
“Ah… wait.. who is Kenon?”
“Kinisis’s Voidborn husband. Someone I… killed.”
Kayel thought for a moment. “That was the bit of Voidborn Sini said she had, to remind her not to have Voidborn husbands.”
“Sini constantly left her little Voidborn shards all over the place. Pissed me off with stupid false positives…” Arkay trailed off. “There was a reason I came out to talk to you and I don’t remember what I wanted.”
“To be fair, I did immediately throw you off by saying that you look like an actual Skyavok and that you’re hot as fuck.”
“True, true. At some point, we should arrange something, you and me… Oh!” Arkay suddenly exclaimed. “I just remembered! I wanted to ask if you wanted to play the card game with all our other Skyan buddies.”
“What IS the card game?” Kayel asked. “And where did you get it from?”
“It’s called Cards Against Existence. It’s a bit li-”
Kayel immediately sat up. “You guys have Cards Against Existence and didn’t fucking tell me? I fucking love that game! Even if I don’t always get the references because my L-Class buddies only had the Temthan edition!”
“Funnily enough, the version we have is the old-universe Skyavok one. Weirdly though, no one really knows where it originally came from, Litvir just… sort of found it when he was a Decayling.”
Kayel eyed Arkay. “Litvir had it?”
“Yeah.”
“And he had the Skyavok edition, not the Rethavok edition?”
“Yep. Old-universe Rethans weren’t funny enough to have their own edition.”
Kayel snorted at that answer, then glugged down the water Arkay had given him. “Haha, fair enough! Alrighty, I want to get another drink, but I’m in. You playing too?”
Arkay hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure, why not? It’ll be a laugh.”