“Alright, what the fuck happened?”
Arkay was a little miffed. He had just returned from trying and finding to manually scour the area for a supposed new Synaisthyn that had been detected, and he had come back to find that Retvik had picked a fight with another member of the Thantir and had lost that fight. In fact, he was still lying on the ground, where he had lost, still sulking.
As Arkay approached though, he decided to borrow some time powers and glance around. In doing so, he answered his own questions and, more importantly, caught a glimpse of the fight Retvik had lost. Looking further back, Arkay slowly found the source of the problem, then stepped towards Retvik and sat down next to him.
“You’re not right.”
Retvik sniffed but didn’t answer.
“It’s fine. I can see what is going on. You’re not acting like yourself. Do you want to talk?”
Still no answer.
“Fair. You’re not doing well. So I’m going to talk for you. Alright?”
A slight nod. Arkay put his hand near Retvik’s head. Retvik quickly nuzzled Arkay’s hand, but didn’t do much else.
“You need to understand something. You and Ret are two different people. You lived completely different lives and went through completely different circumstances. But you shouldn’t compare yourselves to each other. Because you are so vastly different and you are also both individuals who have experienced a lot. Your similarities are literally just your name.”
“He… he is better than me…” Retvik whispered.
“No, he’s not better than you…” Arkay paused. “Alight, I take that back, Ret is better at you in one-on-one wrestling matches. But overall, as people? You are both good but different people. Ret is not here to replace you, and you do not need to replace Ret. You fill different holes in different people’s lives and you are good at different things. Ret is a really, really good gladiator, but he’s disorganised and also fucking stupid at times. You’re a natural-born leader, you keep us all in line, but you can be a stubborn prick at times.”
Retvik sighed. “But… but he… he is happy… He has… what I want…”
“Ret is happy, yes. But he spent decades being miserable and lonely. And, like, what does Ret have that you don’t? You have strength, power, respect and people who love you. Same thing he does. The only thing he will have in the future is potentially a kid or two, but, like, maybe in the future, we could adopt?”
That last sentence caught Retvik off guard. He glanced up at Arkay.
“You… you would consider that?”
“Not right now, not for a while. While I can’t ever produce offspring, I wouldn’t be completely opposed to helping give a youngling a better life. Right now though, you are so blinded by hatred and pain and envy that you are pushing us away. You are hurting, badly, and you are lashing out because you don’t know how to fix it.”
“I… I am angry. Always. And I do not know why.”
“And let me guess, seeing Ret just reinforces that anger, right?”
“Yes. What you say is true. Because, right now, he does seem like me but better.”
Arkay tutted. “You really need to stop comparing yourself to Ret. He doesn’t give two shits about being compared to you. He accepts who he is and who you are. You need to do the same.”
“I guess…”
Retvik fell silent and closed his eyes, pulling away from Arkay’s hand. Arkay tutted some more, then stroked the back of Retvik’s neck in a bid to make him relax. No matter what Arkay did though, Retvik was still incredibly tense and stiff.
After a while of sitting in silence, stroking Retvik, Arkay felt something off. Something sharp underneath the plating on the back of Retvik’s neck. It felt like a spine or a pin or something. Arkay decided to try and remove-
“OW!” Retvik suddenly sat up and turned to face Arkay. “What was that?”
Arkay peered at the object he had just pulled out of Retvik’s skin. “A syringe.”
“That… That was in my neck?”
“Yeah, I think so… Someone drugged you. In an aggressive way…” Arkay inspected the half-empty syringe some more, then decided to taste it. Immediately, he started to blink erratically, but because Arkay could purge poisons from his body, the effects were brief. “That literally just made me see red.”
Retvik blinked. “What?”
“Made me see your red plating and immediately get a bit angry. I’m wondering if that angry Voidborn we saw the other day when Deathven summoned us did something to you. Because Deathven just wanted us to find “Red” and the Voidborn wanted “Red” dead.”
“I… I do not even… remember meeting a Voidborn?”
“Well, you were half asleep…” Arkay trailed off, then sighed to himself. “EBut that kinda explains why you were so angry with Ret, and why you snapped at Vikalos and Ksar Teekay the other day.”
Retvik grunted, but quickly started frowning. “I feel so stupid.”
“It’s alright. You can make up for it.”
“I will. I need… I need to have a talk with Ret and apologise to him. And I need to apologise to Litvir as well.”
Arkay nodded. “You do, yes. But I’d wait a bit. Go lie down in your bed, drink plenty of water and wait for the angry drugs to leave your body. Give it at least twenty four hours. Then sit down with Ret and apologise to him. Alright?”
“I will do that…” Retvik grunted again, before lying back down. “In the mean time though… do you mind stroking my head some more? I am undeserving of niceness right now, but I do like it when you touch me.”
“I can do that!” Arkay smiled as he gently massaged Retvik’s neck. “And you do deserve niceness. You messed up, yes, but you realised you were wrong and you are going to make amends.”
Arkay waited for a reply, but didn’t get one. Retvik had fallen fast asleep.