Through the Looking Glass: Chapter Four

Kay pulled him further into the room, so they had a bit more privacy. He tucked the tablet away so he could use both his hands, snuggling into Asher and carefully resting one wing around him as well. Yes this was very wierd, but it was also really nice.

James leaned back on the counter and folded his arms to watch Shock do his thing. "Yeah, get it all out. I brought some pain pills along, you can have some once you're done with this."

"I would love some now, please." Shock looked to James gratefully.

James raised an eyebrow. "Sure you're done? We don't wanna put these nice pills to waste, sending them straight down the drain." He pulled the container out of his pocket though.

Asher concluded that he enjoyed the warmth--he could recognize warmth now!--of Kay and his wonderful wings. He could have probably stayed there all day, just so happy to not be freaked out by his new sense of touch, and glad that Kay seemed to be reasonably content for the moment.
Eventually his common sense kicked in, and he realized that Kay probably hadn't eaten at all recently. "You should probably eat soon," he suggested softly.

~~
Ethan might bump into Shane, Dawn, and Rigel in the hall.

"I think I'll be good." Shock wheezed, reaching for the bottle.

James handed it over. "Three pills, I'll get you some water to wash them down."
He slid off the counter and went to find a glass.

Kay nodded, looking faintly disappointed. Curse your practicality Asher. He didn't move though, nope, he wanted to stay like this just a little longer.

Asher was slightly amused by Kay's stubbornness, but yeah, he totally understood. "Fair enough. You're the one who actually knows about hunger, so you're the expert," he said lightly.

Kay managed a soft smile, ignoring his stomach to snuggle into Asher again. Nope, eating could wait.

He honestly hadn't eaten much since they'd arrived here, he just couldn't face it, but it wasn't like he was unused to this. He'd grown up in poverty, then he'd worked in a high stress chaotic military hospital where food was something you grabbed on the go while rushing to the next emergency.
He'd become very good at ignoring hunger pangs but eventually even his stubbornness gave way to common sense. He should eat, even if it was only a little.

He reluctantly pulled away, tucking his wings as close to his body as possible and taking his tablet out again to write [Alright, food. Then what?] He didn't really want to risk running into anyone else, he was still avoiding them till he felt less guilty and wretched.

"Hmm, I want to poke something sticky, just to see why Ellie was snickering," Asher said, nodding sensibly.
He thought briefly, "I have a Scrabble app on my tablet that has an option to not check the words for you, I can test my Satare vocabulary against yours." And probably lose, if Kay's miraculous Scrabble victory from last time was anything to go by.

Kay shot Asher a funny look at the sticky remark, okay then... random.
[How is the language learning going? Worked out what my little brother's muttering under his breath yet? You ... probably don't want to understand that. ] He shook his head. Esk had colourful language in his native tongue, you could tell he'd been a soldier that was for sure.

He lead the way to the mess, hoping like heck to avoid too much contact with people he knew or cared about.

"I've learned enough words to carry a conversation probably," Asher said, "Grammar is taking longer though." He laughed, "I'm starting to understand Esk, yes. For better or worse."

Kay nodded [How about reading? Galactic common letters are still strange to me. I'm so used to runes. ]

"Reading is going reasonably well. It's easier to learn to interpret patterns on a page, than to understand spoken speech, at least for me. Still, I think handwritten text would probably cause me some trouble." Asher smiled, "I bet Common cursive is miserable to try and read. I know I still have trouble with it sometimes, and it's part of my coding."

Kay nodded [It's complete gibberish to me. I'm thankful you have neat writing, I don't think I could cope so well if you wrote like half the doctors i've known. The joke always was that they must have a special class set aside specifically to learn how to write illegibly. Drove the nurses nuts trying to decipher handwritten medical notes.]

"Maybe I should be trying harder to meet the standards of medical professionals," Asher joked, smiling. He was secretly rather proud of his handwriting, which he thought looked pretty human despite its unusual neatness. "Have you seen how James writes? It's intentionally a mess. Poor grammar, uneven letters, lots of erasing. When he got told off for it, he argued that we were supposed to act human, right? Administration were not amused. They told him to stop wasting erasers." He smiled at the memory. "So he started crossing out letters instead, with nice dark pencil scribbles. I stayed well out of that silliness, but Lark joined in for a while. We all thought it was hilarious."

Kooshie wrote:
Ethan might bump into Shane, Dawn, and Rigel in the hall.

Shane waved to Ethan as they drew close in the hallway "Hey man"

"Ash...no, you are the other one. What did they change your name to?" Dawn asked, frowning at not being able to remember right then.

"Ethan," Ethan said. It felt good to have a new name, but he did his best to not look too pleased when he said it. He looked at the three curiously. "Pretty far from headquarters, aren't you?"

[James tries very hard to irritate doesn't he?] Kay looked amused. [I expect Matt would have done something similar given the chance. His writing's actually fairly legible though, it's Web who's is mostly illegable. Then again he is left handed and that always makes things a bit more awkward when trying not to smear ink. Also I don't think he ever cared enough. ] He shrugged and peered warily into the mess hall. Nobody he knew, thank goodness. His plan was to grab something quick he could eat while walking.

"Ethan, nice name" Dawn said with a smile then a shrug "Nothing is happening, so we decided to explore a little." She said cheerfully

~~
Starr woke with a snort and looked around quickly before lowering her head to rub her temples again

"He really does," Asher shook his head fondly. "Let's hope James doesn't give Matt any ideas." He followed Kay into the mess hall, ignoring his usual policy of avoiding places where people ate. They probably got some nervous looks from anyone who was in there, because yeah, they kind of looked like the late most evil man on the ship, and his personal thug. Slightly unfortunate.

~~
"I recommend not going much farther this way. It's where the old torture rooms are," Ethan said. He looked at them, "You look so much like the guard captain, this will be hard to get used to."

Shock muttered gratitudes as he grabbed the glass and downed the pills. He gasped at the cold water and turned on the faucet before dunking his head completely under, staying there for a bit.

~~~~~~

Merith blinked, staring up at the ceiling in thought. He counted on his hand how many days it would take to get to the Guild once they got back to their world. Thirteen. It would take six days to get to the Solar System in this realm to drop off the slaves to the freedom fighters. Nineteen days, approximately. Nineteen more...

... And he's be spending them all in a cell. Wonderful.

He heard a tap. Then a few. He smiled at Vanessa's Morse code. Though she was in no danger and could talk freely, it was kind of hard to when you were confined. It degrades your ego a bit.

James lounged comfortably on the counter again to watch poor Shock's antics. "Greasy food is supposed to help too," he commented when Shock resurfaced from under the faucet. "Man, I'm glad I'm not you right now."

"Is it? I'm frankly not in the mood..." Shock grumbled, before chuckling. "I still think it was worth it."