Arksi threw his blade across the room, not caring that it had embedded itself in the wall, through a poster of himself. Behind him, his siblings Eksi and Thitaksi filed in.
“That is our fourth loss in a row!”
Eksi ignored his brother’s shouting and tidied everything up, carefully removing his battle armour and placing it neatly in compartments by the door. Thitaksi did the same thing, but in not nearly as clean and tidy a manner, before kicking off his foot-plating and trotting into the main living space where Arksi was still shouting.
“FOUR! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!”
“The only thing that’s unacceptable,” Eksi tutted as he inspected the sword in the wall, “is the fact that both you and the DBA seem to think it’s fine to field a team of three players against multiple teams of four. We’re a vok down and everyone keeps on insisting we fight in fours.” Luckily, the blade hadn’t gone too deep. Some filler and a coat of paint would be enough.
Thitaksi wandered over, pulled the blade from the wall then handed it back to Arksi. “Getting pissed off won’t help us either. Hasn’t ever helped us in the past, sib. You in particular should know that.”
Arksi grunted, putting the blade away and taking off his armour. Like Eksi, he put his armour away properly.
“Is this because Nenth isn’t visiting?” Eksi asked.
“NO!” Arksi growled. “It’s because we keep on losing! We are SUPPOSED to be one of the best teams IN the Arena! And we’re floundering!”
“We’re fighting three verses four in every single match!” Thitaksi snapped back, before immediately calming down and grabbing a drink from the ice cooler in the kitchen. “We’re fighting with a really obvious disadvantage, why the hell do you think we’re losing?”
Arksi grunted, then also fetched a drink. “We’re supposed to be better…”
“Better, yes, but not so blindingly amazing that we can beat the other top teams while handicapped!” Eksi smiled. He’d already found some filler and was fixing the hole in the wall. “I know it’s annoying seeing Psiksi having fun with the Dessaron and having a partner and all that while Nenth kinda got angry at you and left, but at some point it stops being everyone else’s fault and it falls on your shoulders.”
The two elder siblings stared at Eksi, then at each other.
“Since when was he so… optimistic?” Thitaksi muttered.
“Someone has to be while Psiksi’s not around!” Eksi continued to smile. “But seriously though, you keep on making us do 3v4s. Please can we do something different? Maybe Thita and I could do Pairs while you could debut as a solo fighter? Just for a little bit?”
Thitaksi downed his drink, then got himself another one. “Yeah, what he said. Or what about-”
“We’re not training some idiot up to replace Psiksi!” Arksi suddenly snapped, before wiping his face and calming down a little. “You’re right. You’re right… I’ve been messing up. And yes, I am a bit upset about Nenth still. But…” Arksi hesitated. “Sometimes I feel like the whole universe is against us. Like we offended a deity or something…”
Thitaksi laughed. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Deities don’t care about us! Not singular individuals anyway.”
“The Thantophor cares about Psiksi…” Arksi countered. “They should have been blown up in that supernova months back. But they were fine. A god literally saved our brother.”
“The same god also tried to kill our mum though…” Eksi muttered awkwardly. “Also killed a bunch of other Skyans back at home… But anyway!” The little Skyavok tried to change the subject. “What has that got to do with anything anyway? We were always taught that we build our own futures, no matter what anyone else has to say about it!”
Arksi shrugged, sitting down awkwardly on a nearby sofa. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just angry and ranting and stuff.”
“Wellllllllll!” Eksi’s words lingered way longer than they should have as he raced over to the freezer, threw it open and pulled out a large tub of food. “How about we have some sweet potato ice cream to cheer us all up?”
“Eh…” Arksi hesitated, just as a bowl was thrown at him.
“Just have some damn ice cream already!” Eksi beamed. “And stop being all pessimistic. That’s supposed to be my job!”