“So, you want to buy a ship?”
Arkay nodded. “Technically, I’ve been wanting to buy a ship for a while. Ever since I was a Decayling.”
“And when we still shared a body!” Koh added. “But yes, since the others all have everything covered, Tah and I can help you pick some stuff out. At the very least, we should have a talk and find out what you want, before we actually go out looking.”
“Oh. That’s a good point…” Arkay frowned briefly. “Also, it turns out that I kinda… don’t know much about ships or anything.”
“Like, at all?”
“Well, I know enough to be able to fly a ship, but I’ve never really considered what my own ship would look like.”
“And that is why Tah and I are here!” Koh exclaimed. “We want to guide you into not buying a heap of junk, but getting something you want. After all, buying a ship IS very expensive.”
“Unless you steal them back from Deathven, I suppose?” Tah clicked. “I’m actually surprised that no one has come here and demanded we return the Thantir One back to Deathven.”
“It’s been completely stripped for parts anyway. It’s literally just a tube with wings now.”
Arkay frowned. “Can we, like, rebuild it? Maybe get the parts to make it into a real ship again?”
Koh and Tah both clicked at each other, then shrugged. “We definitely can, but we ought to find out what Retvik and Litvir want to do with the ship.”
“Maybe I’ll talk to them about it… Also, thanks for saying Retvik and Litvir and not including me.”
Tah clicked briefly. “Sorry, forgot to-”
“It’s fine. I prefer not being included!” Arkay tried to explain. “Those two are in charge. I just keep the place safe.”
“So you… don’t want to be included?”
“Yep. I don’t like the… responsibility and the official title. I’m not one of the leaders of the Thantir, I’m its guardian. And it also means Retvik and Litvir, Litvir in particular, doesn’t have to waste time saying “no I’m not the mimic”. Because he gets that a lot.”
Koh shrugged. “Fair enough. Anyway, back to ship stuff. Do you have a vague idea what you want?”
“And do you want it painted yellow?”
Koh glanced at Tah.
“What? It’s a reasonable question!”
“Just because Arkay is yellow, doesn’t mean everything he owns has to be yellow too!”
Arkay snickered. “Well, sometimes… I was more thinking black with gold stripes.”
“That is a nice combination!” Tah clicked. “A bit Voidborn-y but still cool. More importantly though, what do you want in your ship? And what do you want it to do?”
Arkay thought for a moment. “Those are some good questions. And honestly, I don’t know.”
“When you were a Decayling, you said you wanted a ship so you could go exploring,” Koh suggested. “So maybe you want a ship with bed space in it, or something designed for long travels but in a nice, cosy way?”
“I guess… But I admittedly want a cool ship like Litvir’s ship. Or Psiksi’s ship too. That ship is awesome.”
Koh clicked a little. “Well, Psiksi’s ship is designed with combat in mind and doesn’t even have another seat in the cockpit. I don’t think you’d want something like that since you, can, well, fly very fast anyway. Without a ship.”
“Like you did when that ship of pirates came close to Savepoint and you… did something?” Tah glanced at Koh, and Koh glanced back. Arkay though just shrugged.
“I told them I’d eat them all if they even considered threatening our base, then redirected them to a recruitment centre in the Justarian Circle… I wonder if they heeded my words or not. I hope so…” Arkay trailed off for a moment, then went back to shrugging. “I guess, really, what I want is a nice travel ship that’s also a bit sleep and sporty too. Basically like Litvir’s ship except cosier and actually built for out-of-pentacluster trips.”
“Well, that’s not too demanding!” Tah couldn’t smile but tried to anyway. “Sounds pretty normal, actually. I’m pretty sure there’s a place in the Justarian Circle that sells more sporty ships, just need to look up when they’re open.”
“Alright!” Arkay smiled. “So, what date are we going to go… Hang on, I can just ask Litvir about our schedules and just pick a date…” Arkay paused again. “I should see what Vikalos’s schedule is like. I want to bring him too.”
“Oh?”
“Vikalos mentioned something about wanting to look at ships or something.”
Koh clicked at Tah, then clicked a bit more. “Yes, sure, we can do that. We’ll take Shield Six, since Tah and I have been meaning to keep it flight-worthy anyway.”
“Cool!” Arkay bounced excitedly. “I’ll have a chat with Litvir to work out the schedule stuff. You two are normally free, right?”
Tah nodded.
“Wonderful! I’ll see you guys later once I’ve got a time!”
Before Tah and Koh could say anything, Arkay bounced particularly high, then disappeared in a cloud of black particles, all of which vanished before hitting the floor.
“I kinda wish my teleportation was like that…” Tah muttered.
“Nah, your teleporting is fine!” Koh reassured his sibling. “Still, we’ll have fun doing this. Gets us out and about as well. We can give out some business cards or flyers or something if you’re worried we’ll have too much fun.”
Tah shrugged. “You’re right about all of that. Somewhat related, do you know why Vikalos is looking at ships? Nyssi and her team already stole back the Thantir One.”
“Vikalos might want to rebuild it, I guess? It IS a build-a-ship, he’s probably interested in prices at the very least. Might be tricky since a lot of build-a-ship stuff can be very expensive these days. Doubly so if he wants the fancy stuff, like the fancy glass medical bay, the pure glass upper observatory and the lower deck armour generator, they’re very, very expensive now.”
“I guess. Still, we’ll wait for a date. We can ask Vikalos in person later on.”
Koh nodded. “Anyway, we should kinda get back to work. And you have ship maintenance to do.”
“Oh darn. I nearly forgot!” Tah tutted, then teleported away. “See you later!”