Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirteen

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"Probably," Asher said. "That's the consolation prize."

"Dragons get glitter on them lots?" Mourn tilted his head.

"I guess it must be easier when the pieces are bigger, relative to your size... " Luka looked awkward. "Sorry.. just.. " Yep, shutting up now.
She help sweep the remaining glitter back into the pot, put the lid on and returned it to the shelf.

--

Ilgen bowed his head. "If you ever need of anything, you are always welcome here. " He told them.

Starr smiled and bowed her head again. "Thank you Ilgen." She said kindly. She and Shane and the others would go back to simply enjoying the party.

"Nobles go to parties often. I was a nobleman's servant. Aurum parties are rather spontaneous, despite their glorified elegance." She thought for a moment, "If you didn't do it quickly enough, you'd get punished. So you had to learn to quickly get the tiny things out, scale spines fast, and whatnot."

Luka made a face. "That sounds horrible. Fucking nobles." She spat.

Mourn stared at her,. "You okay lady?" He asked.

Luka nodded. "Yeah, just.. whenever anyone mentions nobles out here, they're always assholes with slaves and a hard on for punishment. Decent people don't have slaves."

"not all nobles bad... have good stuff to steal." Mourn nodded.

Luka shook her head. "Let's go sort the rest of those shelves out."

"Sorry." Sara said sheepishly, looking to the floor and almost regretting she had mentioned anything at all.

"no no, it's not your fault!" Luka looked upset. "I'm... really bad with this whole.. other cultures thing. " She lowered her head. "I'm sorry. "

Mourn just snorted. "Silly females. Come tiny bounty hunter, you want I help with ladders?"

Asher had stayed quiet. Everything about Sara's former servitude disturbed him, but he figured she didn't need to hear his thoughts on the matter.
He gave Luka a reassuring look. He didn't like hearing about cruel nobles either, he was just better at keeping his mouth shut.

Sara looked up at Mourn, looking grateful, "Sure, I'd love some help."

"Let's go sort that shelf out then." Luka looked appologetic to Sara and would go with Asher to finish taking down shelves and reorganising things.
She might even give him a tour of the Devil.

---

Mourn would go help Sara with paperclips. Not that he was overly dexterous at making paperclip ladders but hey, he'd try.

---

Eventually the party would start to wrap up, people were tired and slowly the crowds started to dissipate. The musicians left, the priests started to return to their duties and the locals all milled back toward the city to sleep.

Ilgen found the dragons one more time to bid them a fond farewell. He'd offer them all a blessing, and pray for the Weaver's protection.

Armin managed to disentangle himself from his family and quite happily accepted a blessing from Ilgen. The priest kissed his forehead and Armin bowed his head graciously.
"Good fortune be with you Armin Den Skadare, return to us."
Armin nodded. "I will."

---

Matt would spend the night flitting between groups of people. At one point he'd try to drag Thalia off to dance but she wasn't overly enthused at the idea.
He kept an eye on Merith and Vanessa, just because he felt like someone should. If he were them, he'd be running and hiding like a coward, not getting back on that ship and closer to death.
Crazy fools, crazy noble damn guilty fools. Bah.
He also kept an eye on Heny, wondering why she hadn't beaten Merith's head in yet. If she knew what he was planning, was she okay? Or was he one step off getting one of her patented smacks to the face? Hey, could you blame her?

So he spent the night doing what he usually did. Worrying about other people.

---

Kay returned to the ship, grateful to be able to get that mask off and out of the cold. He picked more glitter off his shirt and headed to the kitchen for a hot drink.

He stumbled upon Esk, stirring cocoa into a mug. He looked up.

"Glitter?" Esk quirked an eyebrow. "I didn't think it was possible Kaylr, but you've managed to become even gayer."

Kay glared at him. [Sorry, not possible. Already as gay as I can get brother.] He smirked.

Esk snorted. "Screwing a robot too huh? I'd be surprised but I always knew you were messed up."

Kay shrugged. [Jealous? ] He wasn't in the mood for Esk's shit. He was never in the mood for Esk's shit.

Esk shook his head. "Nah, not my type." He shook his head. "Seriously though, why are you covered in glitter? Fashion statement or prank or... "

[I knocked a pot off a shelf, the lid was loose. Now i'm glittery. So is Asher. ]

Esk snickered. "That's gonna be a bitch to get rid of."

Kay nodded. [It'll take weeks. Not a lot I can do about it.]

"Well I suppose I have to commend your fuck it all attitude." Esk shrugged and slid the cocoa along to counter to his brother.

Kay smiled softly. [Thanks. You managed to avoid the party then?]

"I hate parties. "

[You hate everything.]

"Exactly. Now shut up and make your cocoa. Don't worry, I didn't do anything to it."

[Well I didn't think you HAD!] Kay frowned.

"No, but now you're wondering right?" Esk snickered and walked toward the door. "Did he fuck with the cocoa? Is he just screwing with me? Am I brave enough to find out? Have a good night Kaylr." He left the kitchen.

Kay exhaled deeply, shook his head and got a mug. He did though look a little more closely at the cocoa powder that he would have previously. Damnit Esk, damnit.

He made his hot chocolate, satisfied it wasn't tainted and headed off to settle down and drink it somewhere quiet.

Starr bowed to Ilgen when he blessed them, wishing there was something more she could say to thank him.

Shane was excited and didn't even feel the cold of the night as the sky darkened above them.

Saraphine would dexterously link paperclip after paperclip together to make a long chain of them. "I'm going to make something that I can hook the topmost link onto the shelves, so I can climb up and down the ladder rather than waste my energy jumping from shelf to shelf." She explained.

~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the Creator watched the party from an observatory. Her eyes would slowly gaze up to the stare emblazoned sky. She frowned, before letting a small, "Hm..." escaped her throat. She stared into space a bit more, and shook her head, "No... Can't be..."

After they were done with shelf stuff, Asher would totally get Luka to show him the Silver Devil, because he really wanted to see a small ship again. It wasn't every day he got to talk about ships with someone other than Vestia, so talking to Luka about the Silver Devil would be fun.

URigel, Dawn and the hawk girls came in before dark to get warm and settled and not have to wear the masks . They would mostly go to shower to speed up the warming up process.

Mourn nodded and did the best he could. He didn't use his right hand for much it seemed, because his dexterity in it sucked. But he could just about link paperclips together.
"Was thinking could use unused shelves, cut up, to build steps from ducts or raised walkway, so don't get stepped on."

---

Swarm watched the creator, well really swarm watched everything and everyone because they had no care for privacy like that. Jerks. They tried to see what she was looking at, but alas, couldn't.

---

Luka was super enthusiastic about ships, particularly HER ship. She'd show Asher around the rather cramped place and take him up into the cockpit which was in her opinion, the most interesting part. That and the engine itself.

"Awesome!" Sara's eyes were shining with excitement, "Y-You'd really do that? For me?"

~~~~~~

The Creator stared at the sky a bit more, sat down, shook her head again, before holding it in her hands, as if tired.

Mourn nodded. "Like fixing things." He told her. "you not enemy now, you no kill us in our sleep, so you ally. No help us if you get squished." he shrugged.

"Well, thanks." Sara chuckled, finding it a bit amusing but awkward.

Asher was totally excited about the Silver Devil. He looked at the control layout, identifying and enjoying all the little replacements and modifications that made this ship unique. "Can I look behind her maintenance panels?" he asked hopefully, "I promise not to judge the way the wires are bundled."

Luka laughed. "Feel free, just be kind, she's an old girl." She patted the control panel affectionately. She found his excitement kinda adorable, most people who weren't her didn't get excited about old ships.

---

Mourn nodded and held up his contribution to the ladders. "How you read books so big? " He asked.

"Of course I'll be kind," Asher said, smiling up at Luka before opening one of the maintenance panels to see how everything was wired together.

"It's hard for me to take them off the shelves, but when I do get the on the table, I just flip the extra-big pages like pulling a blanket." The girl explained, linking the last of the chain together gleefully. "Thanks!"

Luka sat down in her chair and watched Asher examined things, bemused. "So why'd they hire you as a medic and not an engineer? Also, what's with James being so freaked out by engineering? like, he seriously hates it. " So many questions argh.

--

Mourn grinned and nodded. "Ladder!" He considered the book problem. "We need shrink books... maybe small screen tablet... maybe phone? Still be big but screen be less awkward than big pages. " He pondered that, clicking his metal claws on the table as he thought.

Asher laughed softly. "At that point, Heny was handling Vestia's repairs, and wasn't interested in another mechanic coming aboard. But she did want a medic around, and since my programming does include first aid, I was able to travel with Vestia."
"James hates everything involving machinery because he got crushed by a support beam when he was fairly young. The Third Law influenced his development too much as a result." Asher shook his head, "Poor James, short of a factory reset, I doubt he'll ever be able to enjoy anything to do with ship repairs."

Luka nodded. "So it's like, robot emotional trauma or something?" wierd.
"I don't think he's too disappointed. He seems way more interested in making stupid jokes and annoying the hell out of Esk. Which is kinda funny. That guy's so easy to annoy. " She shook her head. "It's weird how.. human you guys are. All the neurosis and silliness. I don't know whether it's an amazing feat of engineering and programming, or absolutely terrifying. " She looked away. "Sorry, that's really rude right? " She sighed. "I'll shush now."

"Roboticists call it machine learning, but emotional trauma is just as accurate a term," Asher said, "I'm glad James is having fun here, and not being forced to repair things." He turned to look at her, smiling a bit. "It's both amazing and terrifying. Terran engineers created a new sentient, sapient species, which is one of the biggest achievements any species can reach, and then they didn't have the faintest clue how to treat them. It's not rude to be confused by all that."

Luka smiled softly. "Things are so much simpler when robots act like robots." She shook her head. "But you're not really robots anymore are you? You're too advanced for that. I like machines, I know where I stand with them, they're simple, they're kinda stupid. they do what they're told. And don't get me wrong, I'm fond of James, but it's so much easier to just... forget he's a machine. It gets too complicated otherwise." She frowned and looked at him, staring into his eyes which were definitely far too human. "Terrans are weird. So weird. The level of detail and trouble they went to is crazy. But I don't know if it's more or less freaky than something like the swarm, or the spider people outside. So alien, so completely different to anything I can even start to comprehend... but still people. " She looked away. "I'm pretty sure you're people." She decided. "Because you sure as heck aren't robots as i've ever understood them."

Asher nodded. "There are lots of robots who are just robots, like the ones Vestia uses. Even the first few androids were just simple machines with programmed responses. But modern AIs..." he sighed. "Life takes a lot of interesting forms, and we're one of them."
More cheerfully he added, "Can we go see the engine room? I'd love to see how this ship is powered."