Kayen grunted to himself as he hang out wet clothes and plating on the balcony, somewhat lost in thought. Across the way, an older Rethan was also hanging out their laundry on their own balcony, while a handful of gats wandered around in the street below. The weather was cloudy, but it was still bright. Brighter than Kayel’s eyes could deal with. As soon as he was done, Kayel picked up the washing basket and headed back inside to the kitchen, where his room mate was waiting for him, holding a bag of salted pumpkin chips.
“Oh, hi Kohra.”
Kohra may have looked like a pale-skinned, white and blue-armoured Rethavok, but he was in fact a shapeshifting Kronospast. One with a more chequered past than most.
“Hey, Kayen, thanks for doing the washing. You alright?”
Kayen replied with a tut. “You’d think I’d be my normal, chirpy self, but nope, I’m in a weird bad mood that I can’t explain.”
“I guessed as much…” Kohra shrugged. “Can’t blame you in this post-apocalyptic universe. Can I finish off these crisps?”
The little Skyavok nonchalantly shrugged as he grabbed himself a glass of water, before abruptly pausing. “Sure… wait, what?”
Kohra also paused. “Oh, did you want to finish off the pumpkin crisps?”
“No, not that! You can have the crisps!” Kayen exclaimed. “What do you mean? Post-apocalyptic universe? What?”
The Rethan-shaped Kronospast simply shrugged, wandering into the main living room. Kayel grabbed his drink and quickly followed, his head filled with questions.
“Seriously, what do you mean? Are we living in an apocalypse? Are we all…”
“Calm down!” Kohra interrupted, crisp crumbs falling from his maw. “We’re not living in an apocalypse. We survived the apocalypse. We are now living in a post-apocalyptic world. The worst of it has passed.”
Kayen eyed Kohra suspiciously. “That is… weirdly optimistic of you. Especially since you killed your dad and drove-”
“Don’t.” Kohra growled, while somehow not being too menacing. He hadn’t worked out how to make the lower, aggressive tones actual Rethans used. “Yes, some really bad shit has happened. But that is all behind us now. We are surviving and society is… mending. Even if it isn’t in the way we wanted.”
Kayen seemed convinced, but he still looked confused. “I mean, I guess? But what determines the fact that this is a post-apocalypse?”
“Oh…” Kohra frowned then apologised. “Sorry, I got annoyed there. Didn’t realise what you meant. The whole apocalyptic event already happened. We all saw it happen. The golden army attacked and the universe was torn asunder. We are living in the remnants of the old universe.”
“But… This is still an apocalypse?”
“But the apocalypse happened.”
“Oh…” Kayen blinked. “Huh. I guess that makes sense. We did… lose a lot of friends.”
“We survived though.”
“Yeah…”
Both Kohra and Kayen fell silent, lost in thought. After a moment though, Kohra snapped back to reality.
“You want to order some takeout? We haven’t had takeaway in ages.”
Kayen shrugged, smiling. “Sure, why not?”