The Cave

Instinctively, Thytes wrapped an arm around the artist. For some reason, the artist was terrified of the man in front of him. It was hard to see why - the man bowed his head and looked ashamed, and the angry man had just forgiven him for some past incident. But the artist was scared nonetheless, and Thytes didn't want him to be alone in that fear.

"What is the problem here?" said Thytes, looking up at the artist's fear.



Kendrik watched Reyes slip away from the rest of the group. He grumbled. Given the way that Reyes had focused on Thytes, it was easy to guess why. Of course Thytes's plan to ignore Reyes - or, as Kendrik guessed from Thytes never looking in Reyes's direction - would backfire. Why Reyes would be upset about Thytes ignoring him for once, Kendrik couldn't imagine. But Reyes was wandering away from the group, and the hound didn't want to lose sight of the only competent person there.

Kendrik pulled Jaron off his back and spread him out on Thytes's stomach. The lion tried to rise, glaring murderously at Kendrik, but Jaron weighed too much. The hound rose without an interruption, following Reyes. "Ya okay?" Kendrik said, tapping Reyes's shoulder. "Thyes ain't been weird, right?"

Kartiel's gaze softened, and his grip on her tightened ever so slightly. He knew what it was like to miss a life that was impossible to return to. He wished that he could go back to his times on Minecraftia every single day. But at least he had Juniper, and Juniper made things alright even though she didn't know the truth about him.


"Okay," Maahes said, hesitantly raising his head and looking up at James. It was embarrassing how guilty he was feeling right now. It was like things were back when they first met, back when he was a kid and James was...well, James hadn't aged that much since then, which was probably why he felt so off right now. James was incredibly similar to how he had been during their first meeting, and was perhaps one of the closest things to an authority figure he had had at that time in his life.

Which was really awkward to think about. God, how had he handled this sort of thing the last time they had met? Speaking of which, what was he like back then? He knew it was when he was serving Ra, but that had been countless years ago-

Oh.

Oh.

If he hadn't been embarrassed before, now he was thoroughly embarrassed. James had known him when he was a kid, and during that phase of his life. His face turned bright red, and he ducked his head back down again.


He really should have been more used to suddenly getting poked and prodded by now, given his line of work, but he still stiffened when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned to see who was responsible for it, and found himself looking at Kendrik. He tensed a little, thinking back to their last conversation.

"I'm alright," he lied. He was quite good at lying when he wanted to, even as the words felt so wrong as they slipped off of his lips. "I was just talking with Thytes about a certain thing, and something tells me he didn't take it that well. So I thought I'd give him some space and search this town a little more. Maybe find a ghost along the way, if I'm lucky."

He made sure to add that last part in. People had always thought he was strange and terrifying. Why not embrace his talents, if that was the only thing that he could consistently rely on?


Lucifer nervously looked over at Thytes, frantically fiddling with his pencil as he tried to ignore how close the man was to where they were sitting. "His soul isn't right," Lucifer said. He doubted that he would understand, but it was the only way he could explain. "I-I've never seen a soul like that before. It doesn't follow any of the rules and I've been around for a really long time so I should have seen something like that before." He was trying not to cry, but he could already feel the tears forming in his eyes. "The closest thing to it is the soul of a god. They don't follow the rules as strictly because the nature of our creation is different, and our souls are what let us do what we do. So if-so if that soul is so different, then what does that make that man? And what would he be able to do to a god like me? Or to one of the people here?"

Kendrik stared at Reyes. His comment was so ambiguous it could mean anything from Thytes admitting a crush to Reyes talking about the weather. Which the hound figured was on purpose, because it didn't leave much room for questions either.

Other than the important one.

Alright, so he'd have to handle this with tact and subtlety. Be gentle, but be honest. Don't startle Reyes, but don't confuse him either. There was a good chance he'd scare off Reyes if he said -

"Ya know Thytes gots the hots for ya, right?"

Oops.

"I- I'm done." Adeline caught her breath, a little embarrassed that she had so completely lost herself in misery. She hesitantly pulled back her arms to wipe at her dry eyes- it was a habit.

"Okay," Kartiel said, waiting for her to finish before he suggested that they join the rest of the group. It seemed like that was the best thing they could do in the moment, but he wasn't going to start heading over there until she was truly alright.


It took a good minute for the words to settle in. When they finally did, he stiffened considerably and stared at Kendrik. He was a TV show host. He had his fair share of fangirls and fanboys that had crushes on him - the Tumblr posts alone were enough for him to know that - but they had always been interested in the persona he put on. Reyes Eberhardt was admittedly a bit of a heartthrob to some of his younger fans.

But Thytes liked him? Not Reyes Eberhardt, but Orrin Baines? None of the the people who had liked him in the past had known the truth about him. Thytes knew everything. And he still was interested in him?

No, that couldn't be right. It just couldn't be.

"He can't feel that way towards me," Orrin protested, more to himself than Kendrik. "He ran away from me back in the shop after I used my abilities, and he ran away after I told him about what I'm really like. He's scared of me. He's not in love-"

Unless, of course, he was running away because he was flustered.

Adeline nodded and took a few more breaths before smiling. It didn't feel as fake now.

"I'm okay. Thank you."

Kendrik gaped at Reyes. Maybe it was the alcohol, but he couldn't hide the genuine surprise on his face. "Ya didn't know?" he said. "Yer 'bout as dumb as he is." Eugh, another bad thing to say. He took a few seconds to collect his thoughts, pretending to cough into his shirt.

"Right," Kendrik said, an idea coming to him at last. "Think 'bout it. He's bigger and stronger than ya, and also not really 'fraid of a lot of things. I dunno what all ya can do, but he's also pretty honest - he'd have told ya if he was scared. And, uh, if he ain't bein' honest, that's kinda my fault." He looked down at the ground, crossing his arms. "I kinda was tellin' 'im to stay away from ya."



Was there an ordinary person here? Between the immortal, the god, and the whatever it was that stood in front of him, Thytes was having a hard time keeping track of everyone. Still, the artist was panicking, and Thytes was pretty good at keeping people safe.

"Well," Thytes said to the god. "Who are you, if you would be so kind as to say? I would not appreciate a lie."

Kartiel grinned. "That's good. Do you want to head to where everyone else is?" While he waited for a response, he looked over his appearance. Even though he was sure he could get away with looking like this, seeing that not everyone was from the worlds he was used to, but he knew how intimidating it could look. He'd sent a human running and screaming once or twice in the past, which was absolutely hilarious in retrospective because this body had only been a few years old at the time.

He let the warmth of his own magic wash over him. It didn't take long before Levi Quinn stood in the place of King Kartiel.


He tried his best to take in everything that Kendrik was saying, but it was harder than he had expected. He still couldn't get over the possibility of someone liking him in that way. It should have been something he could easily ignore, but he was just too flustered by this whole situation. His mind continued to wander back to previous conversations and actions that had happened around him - how Kendrik and Thytes had been talking in hushed whispers when he was only feet away, and how Thytes had seemed just as flustered as he was right now.

Could it really be that he had a crush on him?

But before he could confront that one particular fact, there was something even more pressing for him to address...

"Wait," Orrin said, "you told him to stay away from me?"


He rubbed his tears away with the sleeves of his hoodie. There really was no point in lying, especially when everyone else he had met so far learned who he was. Even more so, he had all of his true features showing. It wasn't like he was pretending to be human anymore. "My name's Lucifer," he said. "I-I don't think your friends recognized me, so I'm guessing you probably won't either."

Adeline nodded and glanced over at the group. When she turned back around, she was taken aback for a moment. Kartiel seemed to have changed forms again, and she was just getting used to his other one.

"Shall we?"

"I was doin' ya a favor!" Kendrik shouted, waving his arms around. "He's got 'nough boyfriends and girlfriends, and I'm pretty sure ya didn't want a lion after ya. Thytes is a nice guy and whatever, but he don't know when ta quit."



"No," Thytes said, blinking as his mind worked furiously to remember. "I do not. Should I? I apologize if I should have."

He nodded. "Sure." Walking beside Adeline, he approached the large group of people. Some of its members had apparently left the scene, but the majority of them had remained. He came to a stop near the lion-man and Lucifer, who, for some weird reason, looked absolutely terrified as he looked over in Leo's direction. Huh.


He honestly didn't know how he was supposed to feel about this moment. What Kendrik had told him only played a slight part in his conflicted feelings, but what got him most of all was his conviction that they were from two different worlds. Even if he did like him back - did he? he enjoyed the company, but he wasn't sure - it wasn't like they could actually go on a date or something.

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "I think we're from different worlds," he carefully said, not sure how Kendrik would take a comment like that. "And I don't usually run into people from other worlds, so I'm not really sure a relationship between me and Thytes would work out..."

He looked back in Thytes direction. Oh. Great. He was going to have to let him down, wasn't he? He had done that with some of his more passionate fans, but that had been different. They had been obsessive and just a tiny bit creepy - actually, a lot bit creepy - but Thytes just had an honest-to-God crush on him. How was he supposed to handle something like that?


He gave a small smile, his fangs peeking out from among his pristine white teeth. "It's alright," he assured him. "I-I don't think we're from the same world. If we were, I don't think you'd want to be sitting here with me."

James tilted his head when Maahes looked down, face reddening in embarrassment.

"Maahes," he said, voice firm and insistent, still with his hand on Maahes's shoulder. "I'm saying I forgive you. You're no less my friend down here than you were up in the cave."

"It's not that," Maahes said, ignoring how James had just used his real name instead of Leo - he could always play it off as a weird nickname since they already knew each other. "I just...I just realized you knew me as a kid and during that other time in my life. And now I can't stop thinking about how embarrassing that is, especially when you're probably thinking about how my younger self would react because you know me like that better than you know me now. I'm like a completely different person."

"I don't expect you to act the same way you did as a child," James affirmed, looking Maahes in the eye. "Even I am not the same person I was a year ago. You've had decades upon decades to change, and become the you that you are today. I'm aware that I'm talking to a different person. Still you, but changed with the experiences and seasons of life, as it should be. And while I cannot remove from you your shame or embarrassment of your past, know that I think no less of you because of it. Okay? For however long we're here, I'm willing to get to know the you now. Not the you of the past."

Adeline withdrew a bit as she neared some of the other people. She was content to stay silent and observe the dynamics of the group, which for her was a slight step up from being self-conscious.