Upon Vestia: Chapter Twelve

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"Yep, all alone on a desert planet with a weird bird." Ellie scowled, "False gods. So gross. I hope all immortals die soon." She paused, "Umm, well, I hope the immortals I like stick around for a while longer though."

"That would be nice, actually. Hold on--" With the agility and jumping ability of a flea, she quickly scaled the way up to the vent to undo the rope knot. She returned, holding her own weight on one rope and using it as her own pulley system until she was close enough to someone's grasp to let go, where she promptly plopped into their palm. "Thanks."

"Why you in vents again?" Mourn asked Sara.

[Are you alright?] Kay was honestly rather grateful for the distraction.

Asher let the girl land in his hand, which was seriously weird, somehow. "No problem. Glad to help."

"It's easier and swifter for me to traverse the vents rather than the halls of the big people." The huntress explained, "And I'm perfectly fine, thanks, just a bit startled... Sorry about the grate."

"How you get down usually?" Mourn asked. But now she wasn't dangling distractingly just out of reach he was kinda losing interest. He looked back to Kay.

"Medic!" He declared

Kay winced.

"You turn into dog?" Mourn asked.

[I become some sort of wolf, I think.] He'd never actually seen what he turned into.

"Wolf like a dog."

[It only happens under a full moon and I lock myself up, there's very little chance of me getting out.]

"Good. I shoot dog if see." Mourn nodded.

Asher made a mental note to keep Mourn away from Kay during the full moon. "Should I set you down somewhere?" He asked Seraphine.

"Using my rope like a pulley system and swinging to a ledge or something." Sara explained, a bit relieved she was no longer the main interest of the cat. She didn't like being the plausible dangling play toy. "Anywhere is fine, really, but preferably not on the floor. The big people don't often look where they're stepping."

[Perhaps we should get you a small but very loud device, or a tiny high vis jacket.] Kay smiled oddly.

"Could build elevated walkways along corridors... " Mourn suggested.

Asher nodded. That made a lot of sense. He set his hand next to the a table so she could step off easily.

Saraphine did so, and looked to Kay, shrugging. "Eh, at least I don't get eaten for being under foot, right?" She grinned at her own dark humor, as if it amused her to some extent about how the Aurum treated her kin.

[No, I don't believe anyone here is quite awful enough to eat another passenger.] Kay agreed.

"Nope, no eat talking things. They complain too much." Mourn nodded.

Asher winced slightly. He understood dark humor, but it was still a bit... Dark. Eating sapient beings. Ugh.

"Good. It was terrifying enough." Saraphine's gaze turned a bit dull with the memories, "Worse to watch but... Hopefully that's all in the past now."

Kay paled a little at that mental image. What sort of people ate other people? Monsters, that's who. Disgusting.

Mourn shrugged. "Nobody eat you here, you be fine."

"Nobody will be eating anybody as long as we have any say in the matter," Asher said firmly.

Sara smiled softly, "That's reassuring. Let's hope we never get caught by the Aurum, even though we have two dragons on board..."

"We'll do our best to avoid them. They sound despicable." Asher forced himself to not think of how many borrowers must by suffering under the Aurum, and how bad it would be if Starr or Shane were caught. Worrying about such things, when he could do nothing about them, would be useless.

[If they try to take our friends, we will stop them. We're family on this ship.] Kay tried to look reassuring.

"Grumpy medic right, if oar.. whatever try to attack us, we fight, like fought family. " He looked keen at that idea. "Oh.. can have weapons back now robot? No gonna shoot werewolf, he no smell like dog right now." He wrinkled his nose.

[Thank you Mourn, I appreciate not getting shot at.]

"It okay Medic, you been shot enough times already. " Mourn replied cheerfully.

Kay tensed. [Do you have to keep bringing that up?]

"You still mad at robot?" Mourn asked curiously.

Kay shook his head.

"Then why bothered?"

[It's a bad memory.]

"Oooh." Mourn looked at though he hadn't even considered that. "Still, I no shoot you unless you threat to friends. " He frowned. "No want to lose this crew too." He looked sad for a moment, then went back to grinning and held out his good hand for his weaponry.

Asher handed over the weapons, carefully keeping his face blank about the shooting remark.

Mourn happily resheathed the sword and clipped the gun back onto his belt. He felt somewhat naked without his weapons honestly.
"that better."

Kay nodded and glanced to Asher, he wondered if Mourn's shooting remarks were as unpleasant for him, he was much better at keeping his face blank. So much for being a bad actor. Kay thought, making a note never to play poker with the android.

Asher looked at Sara and Mourn, then, after the tiniest of hesitations, at Kay. "Well I think everyone here is now informed about current affairs. Shall we be going, then?" he asked.

Kay nodded.

[You won't put her in any jars right?] He asked Mourn

Mourn laughed. "No. People complain, annoying. What else you put tiny person in when want contain? But she no killed us all yet, would have done that already if wanted to. I think." He gave Sara a suspicious look. "Probably no threat. If hurt anyone, I squish."

Kay looked horrifed. [You can't squish people!]

"Not even if they hurt friends?" Mourn tilted his head.

[No]

Mourn huffed. "Fine. No squishing or jars."

Kay nodded. [Thank you.]

Mourn grinned at Sara. "you want I help with better transport ideas? Maybe ramps from vents? Easier to get up and down. Could build you small things. Ship have lots of junk to use."

Kay smiled softly at Sara and waved to the two before leaving with Asher.

"Medics weird." Mourn declared once they'd left, shaking his head.

Asher tried to not be too happy about getting out of there. He wished the two a good day, and then left with Kay, feeling relieved. He considered Mourn to be a good friend of his, but sometimes even good friends could say horrible things.
So many horrible things.
"Well that didn't go the way I expected," he said.

Kay nodded. [All things considered, all of that could have been substantially worse. Now I suppose I just lay low for a few days while the news trickles through to everyone else, if it does, and hope they all take it well and don't decide to dump me at the next port of call.] He shook his head. [I do believe the people on this ship to be generally good people though, well, relatively speaking, more likely worst case scenario is several people take to avoiding me. I think I can live with that.] Still, he looked exhausted more than relieved. [Thank you for coming with me, I couldn't have done this without you.]

"Yes, I'm pretty sure they won't try to make you leave. Some of them may act different for a while, but they know you're both an important crew member, and a friend to a lot of them." Asher gave him a sympathetic look, "It'll be all right. They've been through a lot, and this won't seem all that terrible compared to some of what they've seen."

Kay nodded. [I hope so. In the meantime, it looks like you'll be handling any sick children.] He smirked. [And that wasn't intentional but I can't say i'm hugely upset about avoiding kids.] Hopefully Skye would come around and not be too freaked out, having people look at him like that was really uncomfortable.

Asher laughed. "Taking care of sick people was my lot in life anyway. This isn't so different." He didn't look like he cared much. Hey, it was just a side effect of being utterly immune to illnesses. Seemed like a fair trade to him.