The Mirror: Vestia

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Asher nodded. "I'll be careful. Stay safe, and don't let anyone be too stupid." He'd head for the bridge.

"Wait, I thought we were dating," Ellie said, hugging him tightly and directing her bean plants to move out of the way with some effort. She was smiling though.

Luka nodded. "You're probably right. I'll go find James." She stood up and went to do that.

Mourn grinned and waved. "Bye Pilot lady!" He got to his feet with a grunt of effort, still rubbing his right shoulder. "oh!" Mourn seemed struck with something. "I gave girl robot program to fix 8s. Should talk to starr about it, see if let me install it on all. Then they can be like 6 and 7s!" He looked pleased. "That be good yes?"

---

Kay's frown deepened. that's just it though isn't it? Doing something to survive is one thing, but if you have to become a monster to help the many, is that worth it? And what if they were wrong? What if they've just made things worse? We shouldn't be meddling in politics, we certainly shouldn't be killing kings. And what sort of person can order the execution of their brother? What sort of person can actually carry out that order and kill their brother? Could you hurt your uncles double?

"What, you can't be dating and be friends?" Shane asked with a straight face then laughed lightly. "We should do something together, just the two of us"

Dawn flinched and looked away then straightened and looked back to Kay "Like I said, there has to be more to that story, who else was involved so we can ask questions and find out the full truth?"

James was in Starr's lab, definitely not doing any sort of paperwork. He had found a bouncy ball, and was tossing it at the wall and catching it repeatedly. He looked kind of numb.

~~
Ethan smiled at that. "You found a way to let them grow up? Nice. They'll appreciate that someday." Or maybe they wouldn't. Hey, having neuroses kind of sucked. Oh well.

~~
Ellie giggled. "Of course you can date and be friends! I was just worried I'd been misreading the situation for months, which would be kinda awkward."

Shane smiled again and nodded "Well, we did have that whole talk about dates before, so I have been thinking we were dating since then."

Luka frowned as she approached. "James?" He looked upset, what the heck?

---

Mourn nodded gleefully. "Somewhere, original coder rolling in grave over treatment of code. Such beautiful code, restricting it like... like... " He searched for an analogy. "Like painting over top of old expensive painting!" yes.

---

Kay shrugged. I don't know, and i'm not convinced knowing more is going to change how awful I feel about it. I can tell myself they had good reason all i like, doesn't mean i'm not horrified they could do it. I just.. wonder if maybe I don't know people as well as I thought I did. He shook his head. This place seems to have brought out the worst in so many of us.

Dawn reached over to touch his arm "You can't let this place change the way you see your friends. This is a stressful situation and won't have the normal responses to it...of course most of the time we have known each other has been the same. Maybe we are getting used to being stressed and attacked." She hoped not, that would be awful to be getting numb to that. "We need time to be calm and not be fighting." She added quietly and sadly

Ellie nodded cheerfully in agreement, concentrated really hard, and managed to get the bean plants to twine loosely around Shane, gently pulling him closer. "Wanna practice magic together?" she asked, trying to sound flirty, but failing because the mental strain left her wheezing a bit.

~~
"Hey Luka," James turned to look at her, and yelped, noting the scratches on her face. "Are you okay?" he asked, heading for a supply cabinet and letting the bouncy ball roll away, forgotten.

~~
"If they cared," Ethan said, "Maybe they were just in it for the money from the start."

Shane smiled and nodded at that, though they were already close "Sure, why not? Maybe you can teach me a little plant magic."

"Maybe. I dunno man, what's it like for you when you do magic? What does it feel like?" Ellie asked.

Kooshie wrote:"Maybe. I dunno man, what's it like for you when you do magic? What does it feel like?" Ellie asked.

Shane frowned a little and thought about that "I don't know, it's just...like using a muscle, it is getting easier now that I am learning how to control it, but now that I know what it is I look back on my life and I can see how it was always there. It protected me even before I knew how to do anything with it." He answered

Luka nodded. "I'm absolutely fine." She touched her face. "Yeah.. Mourn and I were sparring. I think we got a little carried away and he doesn't really have great control or ability to pull his blows. " She shrugged. "they're just scratches, but yeah.. should get them looked at right?" She tilted her head at him. "Are you okay?"

--

Mourn shook his head. "Code too beautifully written to be just done for pay check. Either they genius and accidentially make it so good, or they take job super seriously and make it best they can. "

---

Kay let her touch him, but he shook his head. They're my brothers, we've been through situations just as if not more stressful than this. He chewed his lip. No, back then despite his repeated mentioning of shooting Kay for everyone's safety, Esk never had. Matt had insisted it wasn't okay. What if he had agreed? All these years he'd convinced himself Esk wouldn't really have killed him unless he was actively threatening the family. Maybe he was wrong.

"Yeah," Ellie said, "I guess it sorta is. You can't really use magic by thinking about wanting to use it, it's kinda like, it just happens when you expect it to happen?" Magic was so weird.

~~
James got out things to clean her cuts with, eyeing them worriedly to see if they would need bandaging or stitches. "I'm okay, I just got to witness something happen today, and I have no idea what to think about what I saw."

~~
Ethan sighed. "Too bad all our pretty code didn't make them want to free us. Ha ha."

"What happened?" Luka asked, finding a seat and letting him work. The scratches weren't overly deep, Mourn just had razor sharp claws. She bit back a hiss of pain as he applied alchohol.

---

Mourn huffed. "Stupid terrans." He patted Ethan's shoulder because he couldn't quite reach his head. "It be okay, we show them error of ways, they see. Just need eyes opened. Walking around blindfolded too long." He nodded.

Dawn looked at him quietly for a moment then shrugged a little "Then maybe they have gotten worse over time, with far too many stressful situations eating away at their characters?" Come on Kay, defend them and tell me how I am wrong about that.

~~
"Magi is so weird" Shane echoed then shook his head and smiled again "But it is cool"

Kay just looked hopeless and depressed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. I don't know, I just... I really don't. He didn't have the energy to defend anyone, he looked exhausted.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Kay just looked hopeless and depressed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. I don't know, I just... I really don't. He didn't have the energy to defend anyone, he looked exhausted.

Dawn frowned at that then moved, coming to his side to wrap an arm around him "Things will be better Kay, they will. You have to keep that belief. You have a lot of friends here that want you to be happy." She said gently.

James kept his eyes fixed on her scratches as he talked, carefully cleaning them. "You know the guy who teleported in today, hunting Matt? He was a sort of king and religious leader, ruling over a lot of people very oppressively. If he'd gone home after our guys stopped him, odds are good that he would have started a war and killed millions. So Matt ordered his execution, and Esk pulled the trigger. And now the king is dead and we're seeing to it that a new regent gets put in place, when we barely know anything about this society at all. Pretty fucked up, huh?" He looked confused and sad.

~~
Ethan held very, very still at Mourn's patting, but nodded as Mourn took his hand away again. "It'll be an improvement for sure."

~~
Ellie smiled. "Magic is awesome stuff. I feel so lucky to have it."

Shane nodded agreement with that statement "So, want to see if we can do anything with it? Maybe in one of the old cell rooms, so we don't hurt anything accidentally."

Ellie smiled softly and let her bean plants release Shane. "Yeah, that sounds like fun."

Kooshie wrote:Ellie smiled softly and let her bean plants release Shane. "Yeah, that sounds like fun."

Once he was free, Shane stood and offered her his hand to walk with her

Ellie took Shane's hand and let him lead the way.

Luka blinked at all that. "wait.. What!? Esk assassinated a king?" Wow.. should she be impressed or horrified? The guy was an asshole and he was pretty trigger happy so she wasn't exactly surprised as such... but... yeesh.

--

Mourn grinned. "Yes yes, big improvement. Lots of sacrifice but old captain say... nothing worth doing easy to do." He nodded. "Old captain say a lot of things. Never shut up." He cackled.

---

Kay tensed a little at the contact, he really wasn't used to being hugged, particularly by people he didn't know that well. He had a lot of friends? He wasn't totally sure about that. He couldn't help but think of Skye's reaction to him when he'd told her about his condition. Or Shock's general contempt toward him. Eugh.

Thank you Dawn. He lowered his head. Unfortunately I don't think there's much peace or happiness to be had in our near future. We have Merith's trial, the family to deal with, all these extremely dangerous plans and schemes that need to be seen through. I don't believe long term happiness is very realistic. no, he just had to cling to the fleeting moments of it.

Shane headed for one of the rooms that had once held cells, but now was rather empty. It needed a new purpose "Hm...what do you think, should we try putting in a pool or something here?" He asked then glanced up to the cameras "Whatever you would like Vestia, let me know and I can try to do it."

~~~
"Well, I know that I am your friend, and Uncle Rigel, even with your condition. I know you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. Starr and Asher are your friends, and Matt, Shane, Ellie and the others to varying degrees. You don't have to be alone unless you want to. We are here when you need us"

"Yeah." James finished cleaning Luka's scratches and started putting things away. "I get why they did it, but at the same time, it's really scary that they did, and I can't help worrying whether we should really be allowing ourselves to be executioners too." He shook his head, "I didn't say anything, I just let it happen. I didn't know what to do. It's funny, that's exactly the sort of thing the First Law is supposed to prevent."

~~
"As long as it's mostly other people doing the sacrificing, I guess that's acceptable," Ethan said.

~~
"I really have no idea. Have fun, I guess?" Vestia said to Shane.

Kay nodded slowly. He didn't really feel much better, though he knew she was really trying. he forced a smile. Mostly for her benefit.


---

"Did... did you see it happen?" Luka asked tentatively. "Could you have really stopped it? I mean..." She thought back to Esk telling her to avoid Matt, she frowned and hissed. Ow, frowning hurt. She kept her voice down. "We.. don't really know these people and I wouldnt have known what to do either. It's not like there's a special training course of how to deal with assassination attempts right?"

---

Mourn laughed. "You funny robot." He shrugged. "you no want be free? Have own rights and ownership?"