“You know there is more to existence than toasted cheese sandwiches, right?”
Ostos stood in the kitchen doorway, his skeletal centaur rear end partially blocking the main hallway behind him.
“There’s not much else to existence, really…” Arkay muttered. This was the first time Ostos had seen the Decayling since the incident with the vessel and that big, hungry Corruption, but something was definitely different about Arkay. His armour seemed sharper, his eyes brighter and his long, flowing tail even longer.
“Yeah there is. There’s hanging around with other Decay-Lords. Chilling out. Finally getting to do all the nice things you tend to not have time for as a deity…”
Arkay shrugged. The kitchen was a bit too high for him, so Arkay was standing on a stool and dragging it around with him. First he would drag the stool over to the fridge, open the fridge and then climb the stool to grab the ingredients he wanted. Then he would remove two to four slices of bread from the freezer, and take everything back to the counter. Arkay would then make a very basic cheese toasty, sometimes with ham, sometimes with bacon, sometimes with just cheese, before shoving it into the sandwich toaster. While waiting for the sandwich to toast, he would help himself to a drink of something fizzy, sometimes downing two or three glasses before his cheese toasty was finished.
Each toasty Arkay made ended up on a slowly growing pile. He had made about 15 cheese toasties so far and Ostos was wondering when he would stop.
“What is your thing with toasties anyway?”
Again, Arkay shrugged. He took one of the older cheese sandwiches and took a large bite out of it. As he did so, a long string of cheese drooped out of it.
“I just like them.”
“Why though? You could obsess with almost any food and here you are, addicted to the most basic thing ever!”
“The most basic thing ever would be an addiction to water or something…” Arkay tutted. “It’s just that this sort of thing… well… the last mortal races that I, uh, murdered, they all liked them too.”
“Ohhhh!” Ostos clicked. “It’s nostalgia!”
“Basically…” Arkay glanced at Ostos as he finished his current cheese toasty. He decided to make one more before calling it a day. “Do you ever eat anything? You and Adis? Actually, does anyone eat anything because I seem to be the only being who regularly uses this kitchen.”
Ostos grunted, moving out of the doorway. “I don’t care much about food. After a while, everyone stops caring. There’s only so many variations of things you can eat before you get bored. Same with most things. You get bored and move on unless you have a job or are permanently stimulated. Which is why most Decay-Lords prefer to remain in Deathven.”
“Is it nice there?” Arkay asked, before shoving a whole cheese toasty into his mouth and essentially swallowing it whole.
“In Deathven?”
“Yeah.”
Ostos did the skeletal equivalent of a smile, opening his jaws wide. “It’s awesome there. You’ll like it. Got everything you could ever desire.”
“So why are you out here?”
“I wanted a change of pace. Turned out that being on a Vessel isn’t my desired taste.”
“Oh…” Arkay silently chewed on another cheese toasty, thinking to himself. “Will I ever get to see it?”
This new question made Ostos pause. “I… I guess?”
“You don’t sound so sure.”
“Well, you have to become a Decay-Lord first!” Ostos tutted. “When that happens, we’ll probably head there straight away.”
Arkay leaped off his stool, taking his pile of cheese toasties with him. “And how long will that take?”
Again, Ostos fell quiet. “I… I have no idea. As long as you need, I guess…”