Through the Looking Glass: Chapter Four

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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.

"Fuck slavers. They ruin everything," James growled. "They and the Family need to die."

"N.. not so easy to kill wannabe gods. Not without special tools. " Stellan frowned. "Are they like Merith? " He looked a little worried at Shock's anger.

"Sort of." Shock said, calming down to speak to Stellan. "Being the Eldest, Merith is one of the most powerful of them. Unlike him, though, they are aggressive, sadistic and greedy ALL of the time..."

"l.. like our old captain then." Stellan smirked a little. "And now she's dead. You just need the right weapon. "

Kay smiled [<<We need other sneaky ways of communicating? If nothing else, means my brothers can't have conversations without you being able to eavesdrop. Don't let them know you understand>>] He nodded

<<Yes we do>> Asher smiled and spelled out a moderately long word. <<Listening in secretly is good, right?>>
~~
James nodded at Stellan's logic. "They're hard to kill, but it's totally possible. We'll eradicate them before they blow up too many more planets."

"Good luck." Stellan shrugged. "I'm staying away from keepers as much as possible."

---

Kay nodded [<<So long as you don't get caught I guess. I don't have to listen in, I hear surface thoughts. But I try not to, if you overhear the wrong thing and someone finds out... well, it's not good.>>] He spelled out another word, earning a double word score.

<<True. Unintentional listening only,>> Asher said. He looked at Kay's word, <<I don't know that one, what is it?>>

Kay struggled for a translation [Reveal? Uncover? <<something like that.>>] He shrugged.

Asher smiled and placed a word that earned him a triple word score. <<Very good to know.>> "Your Scrabble ability is less miraculously good this time," he commented, returning to Common for simplicity's sake.

Kay nodded [<<Harder to cheat when using actual runes.>>] and he was way too tired to actually make stuff up. Funnily enough, lying just didn't seem to be such a natural easy thing right now.

Ellie was running for no apparent reason, except that she felt like it. She practically ran into Esk, but stopped herself just in time. "DUDE."

Well Esk HAD been hoping to avoid people. he'd gone back to his time wasting map nonsense and frowned a little as Ellie nearly ran into him.
"Bathroom's that way." He pointed with his pencil, speaking flatly.

Ellie took a couple steps away from Esk. "I wasn't looking for the bathroom," she said grumpily.

"Then why are you running?" He glanced back the way she'd come, and then looked at her, raising one eyebrow and continuing to look utterly unimpressed. He noted her backing away. Seriously? He sighed in irritation. "I'm not going to hurt you for fuck's sake."

"Because the internet here is stupid, and I needed something to do," Ellie said. She stopped backing away, "Right. Sorry."
"So why are YOU out here?" She asked.

Esk shrugged. " In case you haven't noticed, i'm not a people person." he told her blankly. "Didn't fancy another lecture about putting up with the unstable psychos from your crew so I figured i'd explore. "

"Oooh oooh, you and the other Asher were the ones who melted down Merith! I, uh, guess I don't approve, but that's kind of badass." Ellie looked interested. Hey, she'd missed the drama and it sounded exciting!

"We didn't do jack shit, he and his buddy showed up being dicks then Merith went to go sulk like the pathetic piece of shit he is. Too used to getting his own way, everyone tiptoes around him in case he blows. It's pathetic. Why do you keep that guy around? You just waiting for his next explosion? I mean who's he gotta kill before you lot accept he's completely unstable? You wouldn't let a wild animal loose on the ship would you? wait.. maybe you guys would. You're pretty fucking irresponsible." He shook his head, yeah he looked irritated.

Ellie shrugged, "He's not always bad. Like," Ellie thought, "He rescued Kay and Asher and Starr from a group of humanists and nobody died. He's our friend, even if he's nuts and unsafe."

"He's completely nuts. Normal people maybe punch you for being a dick to them, or storm off. They don't lose control and have to be killed to stop them tearing your soul out or something. I mean, overreaction or what? " He shook his head. "Let's say it's the full moon, would you want Kay not locked up? How safe would you feel if he was wandering around the ship as a slavering monster? Yet you let that guy walk around free? That's insane. At least he's locked up now, probably sulking about how unfair it all is. " He rolled his eyes. "I may dislike my brother, but at least he always took being locked up with dignity. We never had to go chase after him and convince him it was for the best." Man Merith pissed him off. He was assuming they'd gotten him locked away, because damn.. who wanted that guy wandering the halls just waiting to be set off again? not worth it, no way. He was going nowhere near either of those guys. What was with Avians and kicking people anyway? Bah.

Ellie nodded slowly. "You're right, it's not good. He already blew up that planet and stuff. But what do we do with him? He'll totally lose it again if we kick him out, won't he? And we need to defend him for the trial still."

"He blew up a planet? For fuck's sake, what is wrong with you people? You're gonna defend him? You guys are nuts, probably as nuts as he is. Maybe you all deserve one another I dunno." He leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "What's he on trial for? the planet exploding or something else? "

"Something else," Ellie said uncomfortably. "You didn't know about the planet?"

Esk shrugged. "Planets seem to keep exploding. This was a different one to Avia right?" He shrugged, he couldn't keep track of this shit. "So what's he on trial for? "

"Yeah, not Avia. I have no clue, here hasn't told us yet!" Ellie said. She knew how dumb that sounded, she winced.

Esk blinked. "so... let me get this straight. You guys are taking him to this guild to face trial.. and have sworn to defend him against the charges.. without actually knowing what he did? What if it was worse than the stuff you know? Hell, if he hasn't told you after the planet thing, it's gotta be pretty major right? " He frowned, mmm, he wondered what he'd done. Now he was curious.