The idea was stupid, his attempts pointless. But Thoth sat white-knuckled at the jade-encrusted table, his old friend Khonsu seated across from him. Thoth saw him before in action, so the moon god's mannerisms this time around did not sit well with him. He didn't know if it was the atmosphere of the old Chinese restaurant Khonsu dragged him to or if his odd behavior was a result of the slowly growing pile of shot glasses pushed to the corner of the table. Thoth began to stack his own empty shot glasses into a pyramid, but quickly took it apart in fear of it crashing down.
Khonsu downed another shot, now taking the liquor with a lot more ease than when they started, and set it back with the others in his corner. He drummed his slender fingers together, glistening in the lantern light by the numerous silver bands. Multiple times his lips would slowly open as if to speak, only to close again and the silence would continue. Thoth would fidget with his shotglasses or would pick at the cuff of his labcoat.
They kept this dance up for at least an hour.
Then Khonsu raised his head, his bloodshot silver eyes hit Thoth like a pair of dull blades.
"Y…" his lips shook, as if hesitant to speak. As if wanting to return to the silence before. "You do know that this is a very risky decision."
"Yes." Thoth wondered how many shotglasses he could stack before they fell over.
"And you know that you don't have to do this, right?"
"I don't have many other options."
Khonsu's fingers tightened around each other until Thoth could map out every bone in his manicured hands. Despite his overall glamorous appearance that he always took pride in maintaining, he appeared before Thoth looking unlike the mummies he saw numerous times. His face was gaunt and bony, like a skull dipped in copper. It was strange for Thoth to see him this way and he wished his decision didn't have to lead to this.
Thoth rubbed his nose behind his eyeglasses and reached for the bottle of whatever overpriced liquor Khonsu bought this time, but he had his hand smacked away.
"No. We're doing this right." Khonsu pushed the shotglasses to the side until they were just a few centimeters from falling over the edge. "I just want to make sure you're okay."
Thoth nodded. "You asked me twenty seven times before."
Thoth could see a silver light on Khonsu's side of the table; he was pulling something out of the duat.
"Well I'm hoping I could talk some sense into you." Khonsu's hands came out from inside the duat and he placed a long wooden box down on the table. Despite being carved by a careful hand and being in surprising good condition for thousands of years of usage, it was probably the most shabby thing he owned.
Thoth couldn't help but to smile a bit. "We're doing this the old fashioned way?"
Khonsu smiled as well, but a weak and forced one. "For old time's sake." He opened the box, revealing the surface of a senet board.