Upon Vestia: Chapter Fourteen

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flying_purple_monkfish wrote:"aww poor little green mouse." Luka laughed. "That trap is ridiculous."

"I agree with Ellie, thinking is bad!" Matt declared.

Kay rolled his eyes.

"What ya lookin for Asher?" Matt asked curiously.

Luka shook her head and rolled the dice, moving her little mouse forward and around the loop again. 2 spaces from the trap again.

Ellie smiled proudly at Matt. That guy was sooo her type. Platonically, of course. He understood the importance of not being too serious so well!

Asher reappeared carrying a small, sparkly, homemade trophy. "For whoever ends up winning," he said.

James blinked. "Does anyone know where that came from?"

"I had some spare time on my hands last week so I made trophies," Vestia said with a laugh. "Well the bots did, technically. I just told them what to do."

Starr blinked and looked to Matt then to Ellie before motioning to the board "It's your turn Ellie" Nope, she wasn't going to answer. There was far too much to think about.

Moone grinned at the trophy then took her turn, going around the trap again then looking to Luka. "This could take a while, but it is a pretty trophy.

Ellie placed another stone, and patted Starr's arm. She was pretty sure the dragon was still thinking, but she wasn't the thought police, so she couldn't do much about it.

"Now everyone has incentive to play," Asher said, setting the trophy down and fastidiously brushing rainbow glitter off his hands.

Starr smiled to Ellie then captured one of her stones again. She would try not to think about the future for a little while, though she couldn't really stop thinking about the present.

Kay looked amused at the glitter, just what they needed, MORE glitter shedding everywhere.

"Sparkly." Matt grinned. "sooo sparkly."

[Yes Matt, i remember your weakness for shiny things.]

"Hey when you have crap colour vision, sparkly is the way to go!" Matt snickered

Luka looked at the trophy, that thing looked like a bit of a shedding nightmare. Mmm, could she throw the game so she didn't have to touch it?
She rolled the dice, silently willing it to be a 2.
Drat, it was a 1.

Moone didn't mind the glitter mess, but when she rolled, she landed on the trap this time.

"Tournament rules state that you have to win the trophy to keep it," Asher told Matt with a grin. "Maybe you can talk the winner into handing it over if you aren't the winner, though."

"No Moone, not the trap!" James watched in horror, then remembered he was supposed to be rooting for Luka, "Um, I mean OOOH YES."

Ellie snickered. "What do you think, Starr? Want a sparkly trophy?"

Starr chuckled and looked over to the trophy "I don't need a trophy" She said gently then looked back to Ellie "Even though I will win this."

Ellie laughed. "You wish." She captured another of Starr's stones, and started trying to make a defensive formation to prevent capture.

Starr chuckled softly and focused on their game again, wanting to win, though this game didn't really have an end to it.

Luka rolled the dice and just missed the square to set the machine off. "drat." She eyed the trophy. No... no this was good. She wanted to lose. That thing was staying faaaar away from her, the glitter would go everywhere... forever.

She noticed a little green glitter on one of her fingers from the board game earlier. Drat drat drat. She picked it off and flicked it away.

Matt and Kay were on the last piece, taking turns to try to remove the awkwardly shaped piece.
Kay didn't want a trophy, but defeating Matt at a game of dexterity was its own reward. HAH.

---

Swarm watched Ethan curiously from the walls where they'd settled.

---

Esk went back to sleep.

Asher grinned, watching Luka pick glitter off herself. "Sorry," he told her cheerfully. He went over to watch Matt and Kay play, cheering them both on indiscriminately.

James shook his head at his brother's good mood. It was nice to see, but also utterly ridiculous. Glitter was something he found funny now, of all things. Glitter.

Ellie played another stone, watching the others with amusement.

~~
Ethan was poking around in some empty shopping center, peering into the spaces behind the counters to see if anything interesting had been left there. After a bit he noticed the insects, and looked up at them with mild interest. "You and Vestia comparing notes while you people watch?" he asked.

luka had come to the conclusion both androids were just nuts. Nuts in an amusing and totally harmless way, but still nuts. It was kinda funny.

---

The insects coalesced into one seething mass so they could spell out words. --we-- --feed-- --on-- --knowledge-- --watching-- --is-- --what-- --we-- --do--

They bobbed up and down merrily.

Ethan blinked. "I can't tell if you literally feed on knowledge, or if that was hyperbole," he said.

Starr took another stone then glanced over to the mouse game as Moone moved her little blue mouse again.

The swarm of insects buzzed amongst themselves. ---perhaps-- -- a-- --little-- --of-- --both-- they admitted.
--We-- --need-- --knowledge-- --to-- --survive--

James happily watched as the girls battled their mice. Or whatever the mice were doing. "Come on Luka, win the trophy in my honor!" he told her, "Your captain believes in you!"

~~
"That's... really weird. Do you need knowledge instead of food? Or do you still need food as well?" Ethan was intrigued. "How long do you survive without knowledge?"

--We-- --only-- --need-- --a-- --little-- --blood-- --to-- --reproduce-- --otherwise-- --we-- --do-- --not-- --eat-- --as-- --other-- --organic-- --beings.-- they were beings of magic not biology after all. They bobbed up and down in a sort of languid shrug --we-- --do-- --not-- --know-- --how-- --long-- --we-- --have-- --never-- --tried-- --to-- --starve-- --ourselves--
and doing so would be difficult anyway, there was always something to watch, something new to see. Nobody had ever tried to strip them of their freedom to observe.

---

Luka laughed. "oh Captain, I suspect our other captain would hate that thing. Can't you just imagine him moaning about glitter in his feathers?"

"Well that's efficient at least," Ethan said. "Makes feeding you easier. Good thing you didn't go to the other universe, they would have had fun with you."

~~
James grinned. "Can you imagine how fabulous he'd look? Those dark feathers, and glitter bringing bright color to them! Hot."

--James-- --showed-- --us-- The Swarm bobbed again. --What-- --a-- --curious-- --situation-- --so-- --alike-- --yet-- --so-- --different.--
--We-- --have-- --many-- --questions-- --he-- --could-- --not-- --answer--

------

Luka snorted and looked simultaneously disgusted and amused. "I thought you'd gotten bored of him."

Matt looked up from the game. "Wait.. what?"

Ethan nodded. "It's really strange to have a group of people who look just like you show up one day. Thankfully they're mostly less horrible than the ones in the other universe. He shared his memories with you, huh? That guy is weirdly generous sometimes."

~~
"I'm allowed to think people are hot," James said, "And I am bored of him!"

Swarm buzzed. --He-- --is-- --our-- --friend-- they told him. --You-- --are-- --native-- --to-- --that-- --universe-- --yes?--

---

Luka snorted.

Matt grinned. "Did you and the captain have a fling?" He asked James.

Kay facepalmed.

Luka burst into awkward laughter, oops.

"He seems oddly nice. He decided to adopt me," Ethan told Swarm. "Yeah, I'm from that universe. What do you want to know about that wretched place?"

~~
Asher kept his expression carefully neutral and didn't look over at the other table. What James and Acus had done grossed him out, but it really wasn't his place to say as much.

"It was just a one-time thing," said James, looking half amused and half embarrassed, "Oh my gosh you guys, it's nothing to get excited about."

Matt laughed. "Hey, we gotta get our gossip somewhere. Seriously, everyone's so well behaved on this ship it's... unnatural."

Kay rolled his eyes. [If by well behaved you mean generally responsible, then yes. Thankfully the majority aren't you.] Kay shot Matt a half glare. Well behaved? Heny and Merith? Him and Thalia? COME ON.

"Well, more nobody's had any random one off flings. Usually that happens man.. it's wiiiiierd."

[No Matt, that's just you.]

Luka snickered. "Got a bit of a reputation have you?" She asked Matt.

"Well... " He looked slightly sheepish.

[He has very poor impulse control.] Kay wrote.

"And I don't like saying no..." Matt grinned.

[That too. Hence things like acid dragons.] He shot Matt a warning look.

"Man you are NEVER letting that go are you? " Matt complained.

[No, i'm not.] Kay looked smug.
He went back to the game as an awful thought occurred to him. James hadn't had his laws removed till he'd joined them... and Acus owned him and... He suppressed a shudder at the implications and decided he didn't want to know.

"You just like the attention." Luka teased James.

---

--everything-- the swarm told him, buzzing excitedly and doing a sort of loop the loop. --Are-- --androids-- --there-- --as-- --servile-- --as-- --here?-- --why-- --did-- --you-- --leave?-- --who's-- --blood-- --was-- --Kay-- --covered-- --in-- --how-- --did-- --your-- --owner-- --really-- --die?-- --why-- --hasn't-- --mourn-- --freed-- --you-- --yet?-- --what-- --were-- --the-- --others-- --on-- --that-- --vestia-- --like?-- --why-- --slaves?-- the barraged him with questions as the lot of them buzzed and talked over one another, not that he could hear them arguing.

James looked genuinely uncomfortable for a moment at Luka's teasing, but then he forced his good humor to return and smirked. "Hey, it's entertaining. Once. No need to have an actual relationship, then you get bored, right?"

~~
"Wow, you really do have a lot of questions, don't you?" Ethan asked, amused. "No, I don't think we are. The Eights are all obedient little morons in all universes, but the order of our first two Laws is reversed so we're able to have a lot more freedom. As in, random strangers can't threaten us into obeying them. I decided to leave because my life had been nothing but crap there, so I had nothing to lose by coming over here.
"The blood was probably Dr. Heinz's blood. I'm not entirely sure because I wasn't there, but honestly, where else could that much blood have come from? And my owner died because Merith" he spat the name, that guy was an asshole "killed him. Again, I wasn't there though."
Ethan sighed. "Mourn hasn't freed me because they're scared. They think I might be dangerous, and they think I might do something stupid and screw up the robot revolution. Whatever. It doesn't matter, at least nobody's thrown a paperweight at me in a week now.
"The others on the other Vestia were stupid slaves, or asshole guards. Not really worth mentioning." He looked confused by the question, "What do you mean, 'why slaves?'"

--why-- --did-- --your-- --captain-- --and-- --crew-- --deal-- --in-- --slaves?-- they clarified. Having to write in the air rather slowed down their onslaught of questions. --Who was Doctor Heinz?-- --they-- --are-- --dead?-- he was right, that much blood, had to be something dead right? Unless it was someone very very large. They were curious at the way he spat Merith's name. They hadn't really interacted with him at all, but from their observations when he was mentioned he was mentioned sadly or with mild aggravation. Usually by Kay, he seemed particularly irritated by the guy. They couldn't work out why though as he seemed to spend most of his time away from everyone else with that floating orb woman. Hmm.

--Mourn-- --shows-- --restraint.-- --curious-- --perhaps-- --new-- --crew-- --are-- --doing-- --him-- --some-- --good--

--do-- --you-- --like-- --it-- --here?--