Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirteen

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

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:[And the risks?] Kay looked uncertain. With Merith's trial so soon and Heny's delivery, he was reluctant to take any risks with his own health. Once that was all done however, well, a cure could save so many.

Starr told him what she knew of for the possible risks, after all this cure was just out of developmental stage

Kay nodded slowly, chewing his lip. [Once Merith's trial is over, we'll test it okay?] That was the best option right? just in case things went terribly awfully wrong. [Worst case scenario I lose my mind, you know what to do if that happens.]

Shane followed Ellie as she went in, looking from one brother to the other and chuckling softly

~~
Starr frowned but nodded. Yeah, I know. I don't like it, but I know" She said softly.

"Guess we'll never know," Ethan said with a shrug. He picked up a book off a shelf. It had a bunch of heroic looking Terrans fighting a bunch of laser shooting robots. Ethan rolled his eyes at the book's cover. "Any recommendations for someone who hasn't read in years?"

~~
Ellie went over to Matt, ignoring the puddle of water completely now. "Aww Matt!" She hug-tackled him.

Matt tensed a little, then hugged Ellie back, resting his head on hers. "I'm okay Ellie, really."

Esk made a face and stood up, picking up his sketchbook. "Im gonna go find more painkillers." He mumbled and headed for the door.

--

Luka frowned. She wasn't really sure. "mmm, terran literature isn't really my area of expertise. But if it has a kick ass cover it's probably at least mildly distracting." She grinned.

--

Kay nodded and picked up the needle. [I'll store this safe until then.] He hesitated, looking at the fluid in the syringe warily. A cure? He hardly dared to hope. If it worked, this would save so many lives. It was a sobering thought.
Thank you Starr.

Shane watched Esk then went over to Matt "Hey, we had to make sure you were alright." He said and settled for a side hug "You are our friend."

~~~
Starr nodded and looked away then sighed "Your welcome. It should work, from what testing I could do." Not that that had been much, but it was all they had.

Kay nodded. I trust you.

---

Matt hugged his friends tightly. "thanks guys..."

"Yeah, we worry about you man, you're like our hot brother or something," Ellie told Matt, squeezing him tightly. "So we decided to come squish you."

~~
Ethan smiled weirdly. "Fair enough." He started looking through the books busily, trying to find something that looked fun.

Matt chuckled. "hot brother? Awesome."

--

Luka smiled back. "Never steered me wrong so far." She nodded sagely and browsed through the books herself.

Starr smiled at Kay again then stood, pausing a moment then hugging him "You are more than friends to me, you are family"

~~~
Shane chuckled and looked to Ellie "'Hot' brother?"

Matt laughed. "obviously Shane you're the CUTE one."

---

Kay held the needle carefully out of the way and awkwardly hugged Starr back. He wasn't much one for hugs.
As my brother would put it, one big dysfunctional family, but family all the same... his expression darkened at the thought of Matt, eugh.

Starr let him go after a moment then looked at his darkened expression "Matt wasn't the only one that didn't want to let that Web go. I added my 'order' to that as well" She admitted, looking away from Kay. "There was no reasoning with him, his mind was too messed up from so many years of Fate sending him visions."

~~~
Shane chuckled and nodded "Yeah, I'm the cute one and you get to be the hot one."

Kay lowered his head. That was his twin brother. You'd think... he'd hesitate, that Stellan would have hesitated but... I just don't know what to make of it. Insane or not, what they did was brutal. Murdering someone shouldn't be your plan A, it shouldn't be your first resort. They committed treason and heresy, they killed their own brother and i'm finding that difficult to come to terms with. He shook his head. It's not easy to separate the people you love from the people who wore their faces in that universe. If they'd have killed him in self defense i'd have understood but to order an execution? That's a level of coldness I didn't think Matt was capable of. Particularly not of someone who looked just like his brother.

Starr would have memories of Matt and what he was capable of, and damn he was a scary guy when he was mad but in all of Kay's memories Matt was always provoked to violence. Kay had witnessed him kill people who were threatening them, he'd seen the bodies Matt left behind when they escaped the family, but he'd always, always been driven into blind rage by those he cared about being hurt. This was different.

---

"Awesome. So what does Ellie get to be?" He grinned at her as he pondered. "What you think Shane?"

Ellie snickered. "Uh... hot brother, complete cutie, and I'm..." She tried to decide, "Yeah, I have no idea." She looked at Shane too.

~~
Ethan accidentally found a section of the library which seemed to be populated by books with scantily clad beings of many species on the covers. Wasn't really his thing, so he wandered off to the childrens' section, where such things were less likely to be found. A book with some kid sitting on a broom and flying through the air caught his eye. Terran literature. So weird. He started reading that.

James came into the library at that point, gave an exaggerated "Humph!" as if he wanted someone to ask what was wrong, and headed straight for the erotica section.

Ethan rolled his eyes and stood, going to where he could see James. "Can we help you?" he asked dryly.

James humphed again. "Do you know what Tala said to me?" he asked. "DO YOU?"

Luka stared at James, looking very much like she was trying not to laugh. "tala? mmm let's see... she called you slave, suggested you were trying to trick her and... that you should know your place? that's what she usually says right?" She was amused by the erotica section. "Aren't there kids on this ship?" She tentatively picked up a book as if convinced it was going to be tainted. "Wow.. that's uh... quite some cover. I don't think breasts work like that. Unless gravity is different on Terra..."

"I asked her if I still smelled like the other universe, and she said no, I smelled like a car as usual. I do not smell like a car," James pulled a book from the shelf at random and waved it for emphasis, not noticing or caring that a kraken and a rather well endowed woman appeared to be doing something rather inappropriate on the cover.

"We're robots. We're made of metal and plastic. What do you expect?" Ethan looked like he couldn't decide whether to be disgusted by James' idiocy and taste in books, or laugh.

"I will not be compared to an automobile," James said, looking throroughly insulted. At Luka's question he shrugged, "Vestia shoos them off, or they can get their minds scarred forever if they ignore her warning. It's their fault if they go over here."

"you don't smell like a car." Luka couldn't help but laugh. "Cars smell of fumes and oil. Maybe an electric car... but i'm not in the habit of sniffing cars. Why's Tala sniffing cars?" She giggled at that image. "Minotaurs are mental."

"Oh good, I don't smell like gasoline. What a relief."

"Maybe she means the 'new car smell' they always talk about," Ethan suggested. "My third owner was a car collector. She loved the smell of new cars."

"I don't care how lovable the smell of new cars is, I don't wanna smell like a car," James grumbled.

"Would you rather smell like body odor?" Ethan asked, flipping his own book open again and reading a few paragraphs absently.

James frowned. "No. But can't I smell like flowers or something?"

"Did she like to sniff you?" Luka asked Ethan, wrinkling her nose a bit at his remark about body odour. Yeaaah she'd been running, she should probably shower. Ahem.

"You could use perfume, then you'd smell of flowers or whatever." She suggested brightly.

"No," said Ethan, "I don't think the smell is strong enough for Terrans to detect, if that's what it is." Things to be thankful for! That would have been pretty uncomfortable.

James looked interested at the idea of perfume.

"Don't do it," Ethan said, "You'll accidentally use too much and it'll be worse than a bit of car smell."

"How do you know all this stuff?!" James grumpily began pulling books off the shelf, picking all the most tame looking ones, oddly enough.

Ethan shrugged. "Lots of owners. You learn some stupid stuff over time."

Luka looked at Ethan. "That sounds like you have a story about too much perfume. What happened? Why'd you douse yourself?"
She looked back to James. "Get someone with a sense of smell to spritz you."

Ethan hesitated.

James looked curious.

"That was my fifth owner," Ethan said, "He had a small yacht, he'd sunk a ton of money into it and me, but the water recycler was shitty and slow, and he kept not replacing it because he wanted upgrades for his yacht instead. So we couldn't wash ourselves and our clothes much while in deep space, if he still wanted to have water to drink."
He snorted derisively, "The moron parked us at a station so we could get supplies, and had me go get them. But he'd been borrowing my clothes because they supposedly smelled better, so I was using his old clothes which supposedly smelled awful. So I tried using some perfume his girlfriend left last time she hastily vacated his yacht. I guess I miscalculated."
Ethan grinned. "On the bright side, my master decided to hire a professional cleaning crew to deal with the smell after that, it was way too much for him to deal with."

Luka burst into laughter. "sorry... that... that's horrible but also... really funny. What a twit." She tried to stop laughing but to no avail. Damnit damnit damnit.

James shook his head, chuckling. "Man, private owners are the worst. Such a mixed bag, and sooo many horror stories."

"You never had to deal with people like that?" Ethan asked James.

"Well yeah, we did, all those guys of questionable sanitation who just wanted to get blackout drunk and pass out in the hall after three months in deep space, and then we'd have to drag them back to their ships or their hotel rooms so nobody tripped on them. But at least the people who actually had control of us were like, clean and professional and practical. It wasn't all sunshine and daisies, but man, it could have been so much worse if they didn't have their act together."

"Sounds incredibly tolerable," said Ethan. "I'd tell you you missed out by never being privately owned, but... yeah. I don't think you did miss out."

Luka stopped laughing, looking a bit awkward about all this. "I uh... i think i'm gonna go shower.. " all this talk of being owned, it was gross and just... yeah... not fun.

James smiled softly at Luka. "Awkward subject. Sorry about that."

Ethan shrugged. "See you later." She was uncomfortable? Eh, whatever. He wasn't so great at the whole feelings thing.

Luka smiled softly "It's alright James, it's just... strange to hear people talk so casually about ownership and slavery. And unsettling. Freedom is so important to my people, as you.. probably noticed." She shrugged and nodded to Ethan. "Enjoy your books." She told him kindly.