The only ship that had been leaving the Phantai’s base lately had been Shield Six. While the whole sector was still suffering the lingering effects of the strongest vacuum storm in a decade, the ancient, tattered ship was the only thing capable of travelling through the weaker edges of the storm without any real problems. Then again, that was because Gah and Tah would literally combine their elemental abilities together to stop the ship’s electrical systems and engines from being heavily damaged. Still, no one was really sure what the tiny expert team of purifiers had been doing in their repeated trips, and the only person they’d taken with them was Akah, who they’d forced to keep quiet.
Every time they’d come back though, Kal would go around asking the rest of the Thantir strange but rather innocent questions, things about basic needs, favourite foods and favourite colours and items. Eksi had attempted to try and find out using his insanely powerful telepathy, but the vacuum storms had given him a migraine for days, and Litvir had politely asked the tiny Master Psion to respect Kal’s wishes and not peer into their minds or Akah’s mind. Not because Litvir wasn’t curious, he was insanely curious, but clearly Kal were planning some sort of surprise and Litvir knew that the joy of the surprise would trump the satisfaction of knowing early.
Today though, as Kal returned from their most recent trip, they seemed to be discussing things between themselves. They’d already sent Akah off to clean himself up, since whatever they’d been doing clearly involved getting covered in dirt, but as the younger Thantir Decay Lords tried to listen in, Kal would shoo them off. Eventually, they did seem to come to some sort of agreement about something or other, and Leh stormed out of the room, holding a notepad. Of course, the young Thantir all wandered over, curious about what was going on. Apart from Akah. Since he already knew. And he was busy showering and cleaning his armour, something that would take him at least two and a half hours to do. It occurred to the other Thantir that none of them had ever seen Akah naked, and he’d probably never let them.
Leh didn’t approach the former Decaylings at first. Instead he went to Itaviir, to ask the elder Decay Lord about how tall he was and how wide he needed doorways to be so he didn’t get his crown of horns and spiked shoulder plates caught on them. Leh also asked if, when badly injured, Itaviir formed a protective cocoon to heal, but apparently that was just a weird thing Galyn did and no one could really explain it. According to Vikalos, who had been listening in, not only had Itaviir been rather amused by the questions, but Leh had made a note to buy some slime-proof materials of some sort.
Leh then stopped by the canteen, where he managed to save Litvir from being chatted up by Psehon. Both of them still had lingering migraines from being the main Psions on the ship and both of them had taken different medication to fix those migraines. Litvir was currently quite sleepy but Psehon was clearly rather horny, far hornier than he’d ever been before, and he’d blatantly admitted that the other Great Blades were preoccupied elsewhere. Leh was completely and utterly aware of Psehon’s mood and his presence alone was enough to cool Psehon down.
It turned out, Leh didn’t want much from Litvir, he just wanted to know what Litvir’s favourite colours were. Litvir’s answer of “purple and gold” somewhat surprised Leh because he’d never, ever seen Litvir wear any gold, even though Retvik wore gold all the time, and Elkay definitely wore gold occasionally too. Litvir explained that having three pompous Rethans wandering around in gold armour would be too much, and Litvir was quite happy wearing his standard gunmetal armour.
Satisfied with that answer, Leh moved on and went to ask Tenuk a couple of questions, namely how big he could get while shapeshifting, and if he was considering spending large amounts of time shapeshifted into a Rethavok, which Tenuk still occasionally did. Tenuk just shrugged and said he mostly just shapeshifted depending on his mood, and he rarely went bigger than 5m tall.
Thankfully, the last person Leh wanted to talk to was also present. Well, most of the younger Thantir were all present. Phovos, Elksia, Elkay and Teekay had all been lounging around, idly chatting with Tenuk and eating ice cream. Despite their differing diets, ice cream was the one thing pretty much every single member of the Thantir could agree on. Apart from Kal, because they couldn’t physically eat anything.
Phovos was wearing very casual clothes today. A plain t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She wasn’t wearing shoes today for some reason, even though Phovos normally wore steel rings across her toes, to protect her tiny feet from being stepped on. Although Leh didn’t have facial expressions, Teekay and Elkay both picked up that Leh seemed ever so slightly nervous as he approached the youngling Life Goddess.
“So, uh, Phovos, I have a couple of… questions. A few about our project. But also a… biological question that we tend to ask of most Life Goddesses. We haven’t asked yet because you’re very young for a Life Goddess but…” Leh trailed off, before clicking and starting again. “Alright, normal questions first. First question, what is your favourite colour?”
Phovos blinked, staring at Leh. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s for our project.”
“The project you ain’t telling us about.”
“Yes.”
“And why aren’t you telling us?” Phovos asked as she crossed her arms.
“They want it to be a surprise!” Elksia excitedly interrupted, before abruptly falling silent, having briefly glimpsed into the future. Being a Time Drake, Elksia could see into the future, but she specialized in short-duration micro-threaded time, she normally didn’t get visions further than more than a couple of hours. “A special… thing… A very cool thing.”
Leh nodded in agreement. “It’ll be a surprise. Hence why we’re asking, because we don’t know you all THAT well.”
Phovos grunted, then thought to herself. “Well… I like cyan. Not turquoise. Cyan. Sky blue. No green. Grey is also nice.”
Leh jotted down Phovos’s answer, then asked his next question. “Alright. Secondly, do you plan on changing sizes at all?”
“Again, why do you ask?”
“Same reason as before. The other two Thantir… Life Goddesses, Seimeni used to shrink herself down a lot and be annoying, and apparently Arkay once made himself 4m tall when he was angry at Retvik and Litvir. Although he’s not really a Life Goddess.”
“Are you going to ask that question to me?” Elkay asked.
Leh shrugged. “If you’re willing to answer, sure.”
“Oh. Well, I do not intend on making myself huge.”
“Have you ever made yourself bigger or smaller in bed?” Tenuk butted in.
Elkay glared at the Kronospast and didn’t answer. Teekay slyly nodded, answering the question in his place. Leh ignored Tenuk’s question, jotted down Elkay’s answer elsewhere on his sheet of paper, then turned back to Phovos.
“Cool. Alright, last question. This… is the tricky one…” Leh’s eyes dimmed somewhat, and his vocal patterns slowed down. “Are those breasts real?”
Phovos snarled, then slapped Leh across the head. This did nothing to Leh, but caused Phovos to break both her fingers. They instantly healed, but the Raptor’s angry actions had definitely hurt her.
“What sort of fucking question is that?”
Leh stuttered, immediately having an answer. “Well… you see… all Life Goddesses seem to have breasts… but… they… make no sense, because most Life Goddesses… don’t… use them for anything? Do they… like, have a function?”
Phovos stuttered back. “Well… uh… yeah… Female Ksithans all have breasts. When a Ksithan is pregnant and has a baby, her breasts produce milk, and the mother feeds the baby with that milk until they’re old enough to eat real food.”
Leh’s eyes flickered. “Oh. Huh. That’s… weird, I guess.”
“You could have asked me that question, silly!” Elksia chirped. “I wouldn’t have slapped ya either!”
Leh was still confused. “You have breasts?”
Elksia nodded, then shifted back into her old, mortal, Vrekan form. She then swiftly removed all her top clothing and armour and blatantly showed everyone her small pair of round breasts, not at all embarrassed or anything.
“You know what?” Teekay muttered, after an awkwardly long silence. “This is the second time I’ve seen your bare tits, Elksia, and, despite not normally being interested in them as a Panthreanic, your tits are pretty neat.”
Elksia grinned, then put everything back on. “Thanks, girl!”
“Uh, no worries?” Teekay weakly smiled in return. “So, uh, did we answer your questions well enough, Leh?”
Leh’s eyes dimmed again briefly, before lighting up once more. “Is that a normal thing to do?”
“Oh no, not in the slightest…” Tenuk tutted. “Go on, go back to your weird project.”
Leh bowed slightly, then headed off, leaving the younger Thantir to their peace and quiet, really not sure what he had just seen.