“Huh. Didn’t know Retvik was into bondage…”
Everyone present reeled back in shock at Eksi’s abrupt and seemingly random statement. Phovos dropped her bowl of food, Elksia blinked in surprise and Elkay started spluttering, having inhaled some of his drink. Once Elkay had coughed up some of the diet lemonade that had gone down the wrong hole, he glared at Eksi.
“I did NOT need to hear that!”
“Well, you heard it now. Dunno why you’re acting so shocked when, firstly, both you and I have slept with Litvir, the person I assume is about to be tied up and potentially screwed, and, secondly, bondage isn’t even that weird in the grand scheme of things.”
“Come on, Eksi!” Phovos snarled. “You were one of four kids, and you used to be the grumpy loner kid, surely you don’t want to hear your siblings fucking! Or, uh, talking about their partners!”
Eksi shrugged. “Actually, the four of us were pretty liberal about talking about sex. Granted, our mum was both the All-Ksa and a former prostitute, but we never really had a problem with that sort of thing.”
“That’s a Skyan thing then!” Elksia tutted. “Me and my sisters and cousins NEVER talked about that shit. Like, maybe we’d talk about crushes? Or a new boyfriend? But no one ever went up and rudely announced that one of us was into some sort of weird sex shit.”
“Bondage isn’t even that weird!” Eksi protested. “I’m just surprised Retvik’s into it. I mean, what other reason is there for Retvik to have grabbed some of the spare handcuffs we have and some chains from the tool shed and take them to Litvir’s room? Well, unless Litvir asked him to. Definitely think it’s Retvik’s idea though, he’s the sort who secretly likes power and contro-”
All of a sudden, Eksi found himself being picked up. Vikalos grabbed Eksi by his metallic neck collar, carried him off down to the lake, then nonchalantly threw Eksi into the water, before making his way back. Vikalos sat down in Eksi’s former seat, then smiled.
“I apologise, my dears. But someone had to shut him up. I will have a proper talk with Eksi later when he has cooled off. Anyway, how are my three favourite girls?”
Elkay grunted. “It throws me off sometimes that people other than Teekay do actually see me as feminine.”
“Well, uh, I am just playing along with how you are the wife in the relationship, I didn’t mean to offend.”
“Oh, no offence taken. It just catches me off guard sometimes!” Elkay explained. “I have always leaned masculine, but, really, Rethan gender biases are rather random. After all, sure, Rethais, Photeianos and myself, we were all High Generals and referred to ourselves as ‘he’, but that was a rather, uh, modern thing. The job of High General was originally considered female, then gender neutral, then changed when Photeianos, who was blatantly male-leaning, took over.”
“What actually makes a Rethan call themselves ‘she’ instead of ‘he’?” Phovos asked. “Because, like, when you all turned up in Hertany, I’m certain everyone was 80% male apart from Lysar. But Skyavok, even if the have backwards gender cues, they’re still 50-50. Well, they were. Do you see Teekay as male or female?”
Elkay thought for a moment. “I… I just see Teekay as Teekay. As for the imbalance, I think it is for two reasons: firstly, we take the pronouns others give us. When Rethais took parental leave to have his kids, he did switch to feminine pronouns for a while. But our closest allies were the Vrekans, and their society was always patriarchal, they called all Rethans ‘he’ so we did the same. But also, the primitive Old Retha language did not have a hard SH sound, so ‘he’ just makes more sense than ‘she’.”
“Fair… Alright, dumb question…” Phovos turned to Vikalos. “I assume you’re a guy, right? People call you a Lord, but, like, out here, ‘Lord’ seems gender-neutral, Elksia and I are Decay Lords too. But for Ksithans, the term was gender neutral for us too. Sure, you come across as somewhat male, but you’re clearly the, uh, more female, motherly figure in your Trio, but that might be because you’re gay? Also, are you sure you’re not a Life Goddess? Or maybe a hybrid?”
Vikalos paused. “That… huh… No one’s really ever questioned my identity before…”
“Now you know how I feel…” Elkay tutted. “I have had people questioning who I am my entire life.”
Elksia giggled. “To be fair, you kinda were born with wings! And you were kinda, like, super intelligent at the age of one and named yourself! And you always had telepathy, like Litty does! Like, you’ve always been kinda weird. Also, you kinda asked for it by being out in the open.”
Vikalos thought to himself. “I suppose Elksia does have a point. A politician is more open to scrutiny. Normally. However, I have always just accepted that I am, well, just Vikalos. When I became a Decayling, I cemented an identity for myself. And, funnily enough, that did involve giving myself a gender.”
“Oh? You were genderless?” Elksia asked.
“Genders were things mortals had, not gods. We were supposed to be above the desires of flesh. When I was picked up, I realized I was missing out on all these nice things, and had to give myself the components required to experience them.”
“So you chose to be male?”
Vikalos nodded. “Mostly, yes. After I studied local biologies.”
“Were you always a furry, armoured bear?” Elksia asked. “Because, like, I kinda remember, on the old, big ship, you weren’t furry.”
“During the last few year-strings of the old Thantir, I used to shave my fur off as my main way of combatting stress. When Itaviir and I returned to Deathven, I let my fur grow back again. But I have always been furry and armoured, I just changed my attire when I became a Decayling. Ditched my Hellborne armour because I kept on terrifying everyone and started wearing actual clothes.”
Elksia giggled again. “You ain’t that scary.”
“Back then, in my full armour, I definitely was, even if I am only slightly above the average height for a Decay Lord. Even the Truthtalkers avoided me at first until I settled down. The Justar thought I had promise though, I sped through my Decayling training and quickly rose the ranks.”
“Do you regret leaving the Justar?” Elkay asked. “From what Retvik said about his diplomatic trip and meeting someone from the Justar, you were in charge of an entire sub-sector.”
Vikalos smiled. “Helping Itaviir and Galyn escape the Phantai was the best choice of my long, long existence. We’ve had our ups and downs, that is natural. But I am happy, they are happy, and, more importantly, we have saved so many Decayons from the strict, cold, endless military life that other sects drag you into, and have made others happy too.”
Phovos and Elksia glanced at each other, then glanced at Elkay, who looked somewhat nervous.
“I suppose I am very, very lucky you all took me in… I would have just been sent off to Deathven, yes?” Elkay frowned.
“Indeed. And you wouldn’t have had a chance to live either. Arkay got by at first because he somehow convinced everyone he was a Life Goddess-Decayon hybrid, and we put him through what would have been normal rehabilitation. The second me and my co-workers realized otherwise, he was taken out of our hands.”
“Ugh…” Elkay grunted, crossing his arms. “I hate being a… whatever I am…”
“You ain’t alone there!” Phovos tutted back. “Between you being dragged off for being a mimic thing and me probably going insane if I was dragged off to learn how to be a Life Goddess, being here is heaven… Although I do wonder what the equivalent is for Time Drakes.”
Elksia didn’t seem too bothered. “Eh, I kinda always had choices. Kronothrax crap if I wanted to be a soldier, Time Drake Consortium if I just wanted a time-based job. Used to be some sort of historical bookkeeping stuff called the Chronoriver Chroniclers but they kinda went bye-bye a long time ago. Time Drakes have options. We’re mostly chill as long as we don’t touch each other’s territories. Anyway, Eksi’s nearly back!”
Just as predicted, Eksi stomped up and slammed his hands on the table. It wasn’t threatening in the slightest.
“THAT WAS FUCKING UNCALLED FOR, YOU FURRY PRICK!”
“Was it uncomfortable?” Vikalos queried, not at all bothered by the surprisingly weak insult.
“Of fucking course it was uncomfortable! That water is fucking freezing!” Eksi shouted. “You just fucking threw me in! Didn’t even check to see if I could fucking swim! Sure, I can, but Akah, fucking Akah, the heavily armoured idiot who weighs nearly as much as Elkay does, dragged me out of the water!”
“Do you now understand that sometimes other people’s actions can make one uncomfortable?”
“That’s not the fucking same!” Eksi paused, closed his eyes briefly, then turned to Elkay. “You want uncomfortable, well, the only Rethan you’ve ever been fucked by is currently being screwed right now by your stupid fiery brother and they’re fucking loving-”
Before Eksi could finish his sentence, Vikalos got up, grabbed Eksi by the collar, dragged him to the lake and threw him back into it. Vikalos then stomped back to the table, as if nothing had happened. However, he did remain standing.
“I think I ought to speak to Litvir, get him to have a word with Eksi. Tiny thing seems rather troubled right now…” Vikalos grunted. “Anyway, ladies, do you want anything to eat or drink?”
“Some more water would be great!” Phovos awkwardly smiled. “Elkay and I need to top up after our blood donation session anyway. Thanks for the help, Vikalos.”
Vikalos smiled back as he headed to the canteen. “Hah, no worries. Back in a moment.”