“Been a while, Tenuk!” Death beamed as she descended from the ceiling, covered in blood and bits of white feather. “I thought I’d scared you off permanently.”
“Oh, no, not at all!” Tenuk smiled, with more confidence than usual. “I just got caught up in mortal things. You know what it’s like, you start doing something, you have to finish it.”
Death tipped her head to one side, giving Tenuk a funny look. “You aren’t put off by the fact that I am going to turn you into a Veth when you are brutally killed then gently fuck you for a good few years?”
Tenuk pulled up a chair and sat down, still smiling but not as much as before. “It’s not the best thing ever, but at least I can sleep easy at night knowing that should I die during said sleep, I’ll wake up on the shores of Kinigi rather than in a never ending black abyss that is the depths of non-existence…”
“You don’t mind the fact that I’m going to fuck you?”
“Nothing wrong with a bit of sex now and then…” Tenuk paused. “Well, I doubt you have the stamina to last several years…”
Death laughed. “You’d be surprised, dear! For me, anything is possible!”
Tenuk shrugged, not believing her. Instead, he decided to change the subject. “Why are you covered in feathers?”
“Oh these?” Death pulled off a feather that was stuck to her arm and started using it as a toothpick. “Just a silly little Deitic. Claims it’s from a race called Angels. I bit her head off and then tore off her wings before throwing her corpse to the Veth outside. Want anything to drink?”
“Seems cruel. And no thanks, Death!” Tenuk was still smiling. “Not heard of Angels before. They from the other side?”
“Mhm!” Death pulled a couple more feathers off herself, then did one big shake and shook the rest off in one go. “Definitely have a thing for fucking around with Thropes, visiting them in dreams, messing them about before death, convincing Thropes to go around killing each other… Nasty pieces of work.”
Tenuk leaned on the table as a Veth came in, bringing in two glasses of bright red, carbonated drink. Death offered one to him, but he shook his head. “Everyone’s so obsessed with Thropes. I don’t get it, they’re nothing special…”
“No one’s special, dear Tenuk!” Death giggled. “You’re all the same to me in the end. I think Deitics just like messing with Thropes because a lot of them will believe anything if you phrase it right. They quickly leap from ideas to beliefs, and we all know how beliefs are. Can’t change them.”
“I guess,” Tenuk sighed. “Never found them interesting personally. They’re all squishy and puny and make up for it with technology and…” Tenuk shuddered slightly. “… Religion…”
Death looked at Tenuk and pouted. “Aw, don’t be like that, Tenny!”
“Tenny?”
“You dislike that name?”
“My name is two syllables long.”
“Fair enough!” Death grinned. “But you can’t be too angry about religion. It’s a good starting tool for new sentient races. Fills in the gaps until they are smart enough to drop all the make-believe.”
“It bloody well isn’t!” Tenuk countered. “All they do is give mortals an excuse to kill each other because different groups have different opinions! Or, worse, slightly different variations of the same opinion. Have you seen the amount of wars they have? Most sentient races don’t ever even unite under one flag anyway, they tend to blow themselves up before they make it that far.”
Death shrugged. “I guess. It’s all the same to me though. They end up dead, I recycle them, they go live their lives as something else.”
“Would be better for everyone if there was less religion…” Tenuk muttered.
Death though had turned her attention elsewhere, and was busy licking the blood off her hands. “So what HAVE you been up to?”
“Not much,” Tenuk twiddled his four thumbs. “Mostly just stopping races from killing each other because of differing opinions… But now it’s kinda quiet. Found a Deitic who thinks he’s perfected universe-hopping though. Nice guy, believes that everything should just be observed.”
Death looked up. “Universe-hopping? Like, going to other universes?”
“Do you not like the sound of that?”
“Um…”
Tenuk raised an eyebrow. “Hm?”
“I am not a fan of the idea. I won’t be happy if you do it, but as long as you don’t try and change the flow in other places and keep the whole thing as far away from me as possible, then go ahead. Observing is, technically, too much, but whatever…”
“You’re giving me your blessing?” Tenuk asked.
“I’d probably consider sending Veth out to destroy it all if I felt threatened. So yes, you have my blessing.”
Something squawked behind Death, making her get up. “Next bunch of Angels are coming through. Gotta go deal with them.”
“Don’t you have Veth for that?”
“Yeah…” Death shrugged. “But I like tearing their wings off. I’ll see you later, alright?”
Tenuk got up to leave, pushing his chair back in place. “Sure. Any time, or are you not fussed?”
“Whenever you want, my little darling!” Death grinned as she disappeared in a cloud of smoke and tentacles.