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."

Asher smiled slightly. "Of course."

~~
"Even on the beach, females wear things on their chests," Tala said. "It is silly."

Ellie burst into helpless giggles.

Luka snickered. "It is a bit, particularly when Terrans then made their robots anatomically correct. I mean who does that?"

Matt shook his head. "Well I guess they're probably kinda glad they did now they're all like.. alive or whatever. I'd be pretty pissed if my creators forgot to give me junk." He laughed.

"But they're robots, they don't NEED... junk" Luka couldn't help but laugh.

Matt shrugged. "Still, nice to have the option you know?"

Luka almost choked on her water, giggling like mad.

Armin came in from the kitchen with a large mug of smoothie and tilted his head at the laughing crowd. "Everyone seems to be having a good time today." He remarked good naturedly.

"Yeah we're talking about clothes and nudity and you know.. bits.. and different species attitudes toward." Matt told the spider guy.

Armin nodded. "A fascinating topic, with a great deal of variation across the universe."

Kay smiled softly, relieved. [So in all seriousness, what would you like to do now?] He asked.

"Terrans are amusing creatures. One wonders how they can be attracted to their creations though, when they smell of plastic and metal. One cannot be attracted to something that smells so inanimate," Tala said philosophically.

~~
Asher laughed softly. "After that conversation, maybe we'd better choose something else to do. Do you know how to play Chess?"

Kay nodded. [Good idea. And no, I don't.] Even if Asher would have an unfair advantage, Kay didn't mind. They could even the score.

---

Matt shrugged. "You must have a really good sense of smell."

"Minotaurs are renowned for their excellent olfactory ability" Armin told them.

Matt stared at him, he had no clue what olfactory meant but assumed he meant can smell good. "That must get really annoying though. My father's race had a useless sense of smell.. and taste.. and my vision sucks, but my hearing is fine. I pretty much rely on that and touch. I can't imagine being able to smell like.. everything though, it'd be so distracting and well.. gross." Now he was so curious what everyone smelled like to her.

John hesitated another moment before setting his full plate down and leaving, following after Sonata.

Asher found a chess set in the closet, and brought it out, doing his best to explain the rules as he set up the pieces. Trying to teach Kay chess would be nice and distracting, which was perfectly okay with him right now. It wasn't that he was upset, he just sort of wanted a complicated task to divert Kay's thoughts from unpleasant subjects. And if it distracted him as well, then so much the better.

~~
"It is like seeing with the nose. It is no more gross that seeing something ugly with your eyes, once you are accustomed," Tala explained. "When I first went to the Great City, I was horrified by the odors of so many beings. But now the city smells sweet and pleasant compared to the odors of places such as Defiant or this ship."

Vestia made an insulted sound.

"It is the smell of many species, not of filth," Tala explained, "You are reasonably clean."

"I doubt anyone would ever call you helpless" Starr said, glancing back to Esk at his soft words then focusing on the amulet as she put it together with spells "It's technology and magic mixed together with the virus." She replied then lifted her head and looked to the vials with a frown. "I can get the virus to fail or the magic to, but to get both to fail as one is eluding me." She said, pointing at ont then the second as she spoke. "They designed it so that one side gets the other to go again if either is compromised, like a failsafe"

~~~
Shane watched John leave as he listened to the others banter. He debated following to be sure Sonata would be alright.

Esk shrugged. "Maybe you can't." He said.

---

Matt frowned at John left, yep, ex girlfriend he decided.
"So.. what do we smell like?" Matt asked Tala, fascinated.

---

Kay was actually kinda grateful for the distraction, it stopped him imagining terrible things or feeling guilty for bringing it up. He quietly berated himself for killing the mood, but honestly it was better to know these things wasn't it? He smiled softly as Asher explained the rules, thankful he was following his new policy of not keeping secrets.

He took to the game fairly well, though kept having to double check how various pieces moved across the board. It was a little like a game from his home world, though the rules were slightly different and the pieces much more interestingly shaped.

"I am still going to try, with the guild's help if they will." Starr replied then turned back to his amulet to finish it.

~~~
Shane looked to Tala again, curious how she would answer.

"The guild?" He asked, peering at everything and anything nosily.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:"The guild?" He asked, peering at everything and anything nosily.

Most of what was out was regarding her research on the lycanthropy, but she had moved her dragons into the shuttle. "Yes, the guild. (I forgot, lol. pretend she said the name please) We want to take the children there so they can be better protected and not in danger with us so we can fight the Family."

"You smell of raw flesh," Tala told Matt. She sniffed at Ellie, "She smells of human. The vavare," she sniffed thoughtfully, "Your language has no words to describe his smell. Almost like burning plastic, but not." She looked at Shane, "You smell human, but also of scales. It is a smell I do not associate with a creature of your shape."

~~
Asher made a point of not using his full computing power on the game, giving Kay more opportunity to learn, rather than just winning. "James always wanted to cheat on chess," Asher commented, "I always noticed, but sometimes I let him cheat for the fun of it."

Armin bowed his head. "I have heard some use the term.. coppery before now. "

"Mmm makes sense. " Matt ate his food.

---

[How do you cheat at chess? It's not like you can hide pieces.. actually, my brother could find a way.] He shook his head. [Our brothers have a great deal in common it seems. Perhaps we should keep them away from one another.] He smiled jokingly.

---

"So let me get this straight, you're gonna dump the brats with some intergalactic librarians then go fight an all powerful terrorist cell made up of creatures who can't die and can blow up planets when they get a bit upset? Yeah, that totally sounds like a good plan."

Tala sniffed thoughtfully. "Somewhat coppery. It seems a terrible oversimplification of the smell though."

~~
"He would move the pieces when I wasn't looking. Sometimes he put dead pieces back on the board. Maybe it would have been more effective if we didn't have photographic memories," Asher said, laughing. He moved one of his pawns. "Or we can lock them in a room together and leave them to share stories and cheat at games until they're tired out."

Shane looked away then shrugged "I'm not just human" He said then glanced to Ellie again, wondering if they would trust these people enough to let them know what he was.

~~~
"There is one way to kill them." Starr said carefully and looked to Esk again "A specific type of dagger. The guild people made them long ago."

Kay smiled. [My brother is excellent at getting out of locked rooms. I doubt any prison could actually hold him but he's at least smart enough to know that teleporting out of holding cells usually ends up getting you in more trouble than just sitting put and waiting. ] Kay moved a piece carefully. [A photographic memory must be useful. ]

---

Armin nodded. "I could not say, we smell only what we touch. "

"What?" Matt stared at him.

Armin tilted his head. "We use our legs."

"You smell with your legs?"

"Yes. Though the process is somewhat different. We do not smell so much as.. sense chemical makeup? It is difficult to explain." Armin bowed his head.

"So you don't have a nose under there?" Matt stared.

Armin laughed. "Yes, but it is not particularly helpful for smelling when I have a mask over my face. It is not particularly effective in any event."

"You guys are weird." Matt remarked.

Armin chuckled.

---

"oh great, so you just need a special magic dagger to stab them with." Esk shook his head. "Why is it always magic knives and not guns or orbital nukes or something? So while you're trying to sneak up and shiv em, they're blowing up the whole planet you're standing on. That sounds totally doable. Yep." He snorted.

"Another reason to go to the guild, maybe they can make bullets from that material or something." Starr said then shrugged "Worth asking about anyway"

Ellie shrugged at Shane. Hey, it was his secret, right?

Tala nodded, pleased. "My nose never deceives me. Most reptiles cannot breed with humanoids though." She looked at Armin, "You have my sympathy, friend."

~~
"Okay, how about we lock my brother in, and yours out? So that Matt feels compelled to join him." He nodded approvingly at Kay's move, "You're catching onto this game pretty quickly. And yes, there are times when a photographic memory is a really useful thing to have. Such as when your brother cheats, or you need to learn information quickly."

"Dragons are not most reptiles" Shane said after a moment then looked to Tala again

"you really think you can fight them? these guys blow up planets, you only escaped because you had outside help, or so my brother tells me. I mean if you're lucky they'll just kill you all. " He couldn't really read her notes or understand them much, but he continued to wander about and look at stuff as he spoke.

---

Armin shrugged. "I do not mind. It is all I am accustomed to after all."

"yeah, having someone else's senses for a bit is freaky and overwhelming. You get used to your own... thing. ya know?" Matt said.

"What do terrans smell of?" Luka asked. "Do they smell like Satare?" I mean, they looked rather like them. "wait. dragons!??"

---

Kay smiled. [Oh simply tell him he is under no circumstances allowed into that room or to speak to the occupant. Matt hates being told what to do, he'll go out of his way to do something if you tell him not to. It's extremely frustrating.] He shook his head. [This game is not too different to a game we have at home, the rules are slightly different and the pieces have more variation in their movement but the basic principle seems the same. ] He met Asher's eyes. [I'd like to be able to learn new skills and information rapidly, it would save so much time and effort.]

"A dragon. That would explain it." Tala nodded and shoveled food into her mouth for a bit. "Yes, Terran and Satare smell much the same. Terran smell squishier."

Ellie snorted.

~~
"Matt is a uniquely stubborn man. I rather admire him for it," Asher said, smiling. "You'll have to teach me the other version of the game sometime, it would be interesting to see how the rules differ."
"It certainly is useful to be able to learn quickly. But it ends up clogging up a lot of storage space. Very wasteful." He nodded sagely.

Luka laughed, nodding approvingly. Even Matt snickered.

---

[Can you not like purge unimportant stuff? Like delete things you'll never use? } Admittedly he no clue how Asher's brain worked. [At least you know your memory won't betray you. Organic brains have a great ability to make up fake memories or misremember or simply filter out the things you don't want to recall. Sometimes that's useful, other times it's... really not helpful. Or so my therapist claimed. ]

"And I can create or destroy planets if needed. We did have help from one of the keepers that chose to leave them, that is why the Family destroyed Avia. To try to kill her, or those who support her." Starr said then looked at Esk "It's not a matter of wanting to fight or not for us, it's a matter of fight or run for the rest of our lives. We lost any chance of avoiding this war when we escaped them."

~~~
"Half dragon" Shane said, looking to Luka then shrugging. "I didn't know for a long time, I was raised human."

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't." Esk nodded, he understood that. "Why'd they want you guys anyway? You're just a bunch of random misfits. What's so special about you all?"

---

"How did you NOT know?" Luka asked, flabberghasted. "How'd you find out?"

"If I may inquire, what manner of dragon are you?" Armin asked.

"It was so badass the day we found out," Ellie said proudly. "He kicked a ton of jerks' butts, and it was awesome."

~~
"Nope, we get to keep everything. That's why androids are considered to be such reliable testimony in court, their memories can't be selectively erased, so their owners can't remove important facts to distort the truth. It's a waste of space to remember everything, and sometimes I'd rather forget, but like you said, at least the memories can all be trusted." He smiled. It was possible that if that hadn't been the case, he would have just wiped his memories of Starr and the Keepers, and left them all when they reached Mars. He never would have met Kay, or been free. So yes, he decided, having a stupidly complete memory was very good.

Shane smiled and looked to Ellie "Well, I had to do something." He said then looked back to Luka again "When I was found I was in a human form, the ones who found me raised me to be a servant and bodyguard for their son, without knowing what I was. Humans don't often have magic and usually can't sense it."

~~~
Starr looked to him then down at the floor for a moment "Because of what we are and the fact we escaped them. You have told me your secret, I will show you mine." She said before shifting to her true form.