Through the Looking Glass: Chapter Two

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As soon as Kaylr rolled over, Merith pounced again, going to bash his head with a swift kick from the side.

"Yeah, Matt totally could use a movie like that." Ellie giggled at Luka's comment about Kay, remembering the sort of books Kay enjoyed reading. "And the medics. Let's totally invite them," she agreed. "Hmm, maybe we should find a big screen to plug into my 'com. I don't think it's big enough for five or more people to watch at once."

"We should totally do that!" Luka grinned, distraction! She got to her feet, looking around the lab. Hmmm, there were computers about the place, were those screens big enough?

Kay would wander about and make sure everyone didn't need medical help, always a little disappointed when they didn't because damnit, distractions were good right now.
He also wondered how mirror Shane was getting on with Asher's duplicate, had they actually gone to do what they needed to do, or had they gone straight to the captain to tell her about this gathering up here?
Hmm, worrying.
He went to check on Mourn who was still sleeping.

Ellie headed over to one of the computers, unplugging the monitor to attach her 'com instead. "Who shall we ask first?" She asked, testing the video and audio by playing a Luna Pop girl band music video.
The girls strutted around the monitor, singing in thick Terran accents as a chirpy penny whistle beat played in the background. Ellie turned down the volume hastily as Tala shot a glare at her.

Luka snorted, covering her mouth with her hand.

Kay glanced over with a frown. What the heck were they doing?
He shook his head and went back to checking Mourn's vitals as best he could one handed, and keeping a close eye on Mourn in case he woke up and tried to punch him.

The pop song was about dancing on the light side of the moon or something. It lapsed into unintelligible sounds occasionally, which were probably a variant of English that was so garbled, even the people here who were old enough to know English might be confused by it. Ellie wiggled her hips to the rhythm, waving her arms vaguely. "Good music."

Asher's gun had been returned to him by one of the star dragon guards, and he was currently reloading it since it was empty from the fight.

Esk was fairly grateful to have his weapons returned to him by the guards, even if he didn't really show it. He checked his guns, holstered them and felt a lot more dressed. Yes.

He looked bewildered at the music.

Matt looked up and laughed. "What the heck Ellie?" He called.

"nothing says mutiny like pop music." Luka chuckled and retrieved her own gun, horah.

Kay came over to grab Mourn's weapons, he knew the Felid would want his sword and gun when he woke up. He set them beside his bed and left him to rest, pulling the blanket over him. Hopefully he'd wake up soon, or someone would have to carry him if they had to run.

Armin continued to weave bandages, humming along to the music. Well it certainly helped lift the oppressive mood.

[Not certain this is entirely subtle Ellie.] Kay came over. [Aren't we supposed to be keeping a low profile?]

Ellie got her own gun from the returned weapons pile, and reloaded it. "Hey, Starr totally soundproofed the room, right? What happens in the evil dragon lab, stays in the evil dragon lab." She smiled softly at Kay, "We're thinking of having a movie night, something stupid and happy and full of shirtless guys. Want in?"

Kay had to give her that, the place was supposedly magically soundproofed and blanked from the ship herself.
He looked uncertain, looking around for anything else he could be doing, something, anything, distractions!

"It'll be mildly diverting" Luka told him. "And you like shirtless guys right?"

Kay frowned at her, exhaled deeply and managed a very careful shrug. [Fine. At least till there's a medical emergency. ]

"Shirtless guys?" Matt sidled over. "Where do I sign?"

Esk rolled his eyes and joined Asher.

"We're supposed to be taking over the ship, they want to watch movies and listen to music instead. " He shook his head.

Ellie looked pleased, and started searching through her movie downloads for the most harmless, fanservice-y movie she could find. While she searched, she started a playlist of weird pop music from various cultures.

Asher smiled at Esk, then glanced at the gathering group of people in amusement. "Well they need to have good morale for what's ahead, right? And we aren't ready to put the plan in action yet anyway."

Esk shrugged. "Guess it beats sitting around moping." He glanced at the gun. "So, you shot Kay once right? Did Matt get pissy with you about it?" Hey, he was curious.

Asher hesitated. "I did shoot Kay, while we were prisoners of the Family. Matt wasn't pleased, and he told me he'd destroy me if I ever did it again, but he understood why I had thought it was the right choice at the time."

"Good to know it's not just me he reserves his violent rage for then." Esk shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe he'll feel better once he gets to murder someone, I dunno."

"He feels very strongly about protecting the people he cares about," Asher said. "Being with the Family was incredibly hard on him, and although he does a good job hiding it, I get the impression that it changed him a lot. It changed all of us, really," he amended.

Esk nodded. "He told me what happened. The sooner we get back to our own universe the better." He shook his head.

"Agreed." Asher clipped his gun holster back to his belt, enjoying the reassuring knowledge that it was there and ready for use. "Completely off topic, but I have to ask. What's with you and James? You guys have an... interesting relationship, it seems."

Starr looked over to Ellie and the others, smiling a little as they set up a movie. Quite a few of the freed slaves that were strong enough came over to sit on the floor and watch with them. Others found places to sleep out of the way until it was time to do something else.

Shane came over to Ellie and smiled at her "Making a scene, are we?" He teased lightly.

Dawn came over to watch, not really caring about the movie itself, but wanting to be near others.

Rigel went to find a computer and work on something on it. No, he did not want to see shirtless guys.

Skye had fallen asleep with mirror Moone, still not feeling right.

Andre and Sawna stayed where they were, taking another bag of blood to eat each. They had some catching up to do to return to full strength, but had to pace themselves a little.

~~~
Mirror Shane finished setting the codes that meant that most of the prisoners were accounted for and recaptured, leaving only Merith unaccounted for. He was a bit irritated at staying in this form

Ellie nodded to Shane. "Gotta lighten the mood in here somehow, right? Wanna sit next to me, or are cheesy romance flicks not your thing?"

James totally came over too. He liked movies, and he liked crowds. This was pretty close to perfect for him. He totally sang along with the pop songs while Ellie selected the movie, in the slightly off key way he had perfected to better imitate humans.

Shane chuckled then shrugged "Hey, I can deal with cheesy romance with you" He said teasingly then looked to the selections she was going through. "That's a good one"

Esk shrugged. "He's weird and enjoys annoying me." he told Asher. He shook his head. "I don't know. Androids are harder to read than organic people."

---

Matt found somewhere to sit and totally dragged Thalia over to snuggle with.

Armin came over too, he continued to sew that dress because he honestly hated leaving something half done.
And sitting sewing was quite relaxing.

Luka settled down, her duplicate joined her along with Eckhard. The three of them chatted softly to one another in their native tongue.

Kay watched Asher and Esk chat, shook his head and left them to it. He found somewhere out of the way to sit where he could half watch the movie but didn't have to be squished in with other people. He wasn't feeling overly social right now, despite how desperately he needed the distraction.

Asher looked amused. "You have my condolences. James can be very annoying indeed." He looked over at the movie, glad that the others were doing something fun with their time. "Shall we check over the remainder of these weapons now, so they'll all be ready when the fighting starts? I assume you don't feel like watching this movie either."

It was totally some goofy romcom with a hot male lead who didn't believe in wearing shirts, and a female lead who was trying to get the chance to tailor clothes for him, because she loved doing that. Comedy and romance ensue, of course.
Ellie had a lot of this sort of thing on her omnicom for some reason.

(We can probably timeskip whenever haha)

Shane would sit beside Ellie to watch the movie, glad to have some little time with her before she would start to get sick.

Esk nodded, checking weapons sounded good actually.

"Funnily enough, tacky romance movies do nothing for me." He told Asher flatly.

(so what's the plan everyone? Let's do this thang)

Asher nodded, amused, and started checking the weapons, making sure they were clean, then reloading them.

Ellie squished up next to Shane, clinging to him just a bit more tightly than usual out of anxiety for the future.

(Hmm, we gotta send Merith with mirror Shane/Kaylr and mirror Asher. Maybe Merith can turn into something small and easy to hide. Or he can replace mirror Shane as Kaylr to go visit Heny. Then drugs, somehow. We need a slave to gift.
Then, when Heny is out/dead, MUTINY)

(yessss we do. mutiiinyyyyy)

Esk expertly set about dealing with the guns and blades, stripping, cleaning, reloading.

~~~Timeskip~~~
Shane/Kylar came back to the lab and picked up a paperweight from the desk to throw it at mirror Asher "Come on, it's time to get our gift." He said then turned to leave the room.

Mirror Asher yelled and stumbled back, clutching his shoulder where it had hit him. Then he followed 'Kaylr', muttering vulgar words under his breath.

Shane/Kylar headed to Starr's lab to get Sara, he glanced to Asher "You want to say something there?" He asked then grinned as if waiting for him to actually say something aloud.