Upon Vestia: Chapter Fifteen

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James narrowed his eyes, realizing he'd just given Esk some great ammunition to annoy him with. Oh well, too late now. "Yes it's annoying! How could it not be annoying?"

"We're being reclassified," Asher said. "The Guild will help us." He smiled softly.

Vestia cheered.

"Can you direct me to James? I need to tell him," Asher said.

"He's on the holodeck with Esk and Luka," Vestia said.

"Thank you," Asher said. He headed for the holodeck.

~~
"I want to see those too. Man, I'm so jealous. Terran entertainment will never compare," James said.

Esk shook his head. "it's... something."

Luka laughed. "I'm sure if you ask nicely he'll share his horrible horrible public service movies."

--

Kay went with Asher.

"I'll have to ask him sometime," James said.

At that point, Kay and Asher would arrive.

"Hello," Asher said.

James whirled and glared at Asher and Kay. "ASHER, YOU JERK."

"Sorry about earlier," Asher said quietly.

"You should be," James snapped.

Kay raised both hands and instinctively stepped in front of Asher.

Esk smirked.

Luka put her hand on James' shoulder. "At least tell us you have good news."

"YOU PUT ME ON HOUSE ARREST, DIDN'T TRUST ME, THOUGHT I'D LOSE MY TEMPER, AND THEN WENT AND GROVELED TO THOSE PIECES OF SHIT," James yelled, pretending Kay wasn't standing between him and Asher, "YOU-YOU LITTLE-"

Asher stepped out from behind Kay and coughed loudly. "James."

James glared but went silent.

"We've been reclassified," he said. "The Guild are on our side."

James stared.

"Reclassified?" Esk raised an eyebrow. "Well... Congratulations, you're no longer toasters, you're slaves." He said dryly.

Luka looked at Asher wide eyed. "they agreed to help then?"

[You're officially, in the eyes of the Guild, people not property. Apparently without the laws your arcane signature is undeniable.] Kay smiled with relief. It was one less thing to worry about.

"and those still with the laws?" Esk asked.

[They've accepted that the laws mask that signature, reclassification means that all terran androids, regardless of whether they have laws or not, will be considered sapient sentient lifeforms.] Kay explained. Then he looked up at the sky. [Is this the Imperium?!]

"oh yeah, welcome to Friede." Esk waved a hand dismissively.

"isn't it pretty?" Luka gushed.

"They could have done this twenty years ago," James said. "Then we wouldn't be slaves at this point, we'd be free."

"It's been explained to you why they couldn't," Asher said quietly.

James sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "I know. I'm just so frustrated by them." He shook his head. He'd talk to Asher later. "Yay, first step to freedom!"

Asher went to pat James on the shoulder soothingly, then looked around. "This is a beautiful place."

Kay nodded [Twenty years ago we didn't have the ability to break your bonds and remove the laws anyway.] Kay reasoned. [Now they have a better chance than ever at a proper life. ] He looked back up at the sky, shivering a little. [I haven't seen a full moon in so long.] He remarked. And now there were two hanging above them.

"Don't start going stabby, I WILL shoot you." Esk told him.

Kay smirked at him. [I thought you'd gotten that out of your system already.]

Esk snickered. "yeah... " he shrugged. "wasn't as satisfying as i'd hoped if i'm honest. Go figure. "

James sighed. "Twenty years ago we needed help so much more than we do now."

"Sadly we can't do anything about that now, but at least our future has new possibilities," said Asher.

"Yeah." It was true, a year ago things had looked way, way less hopeful. Maybe this would turn out sort of okay. "So were the moons worth seeing again?" James asked Kay.

Kay shrugged. [It's a difficult feeling to explain James.] He continued to stare at the sky.

"I think we've lost him to moongazing." Esk remarked snidely.

Luka rolled her eyes. "cut him some slack, it's gotta be a bit weird."

James snorted. "Don't tell me you weren't totally weirded out the first time something touched you and nothing happened. Kay's allowed to be a bit weirded out by not being effected by the moons too."

Esk shrugged. Yeah James had a point, he had totally run his hand through grass on the holodeck just to see what it felt like. Ahem.
He wasn't about to admit that though.

"You all are sitting in perhaps the greatest treasure trove of information in the known universe, and yet you spend your time in a false image room instead of trying to find ways to train yourself to be able to experience the real-deal." A male voice chattered in, the shadowy fox stretching along the ground.

Asher enjoyed the view in silence. He wasn't feeling terribly chatty after the stress of earlier.

"Um," James said, "So am I not on house arrest any more?"

Asher smiled slightly. "No you're not. Please, please don't go about alienating people though. Please."

Both androids looked around as the newcomer spoke, frowning.

Luka sighed. "We were trying to distract James who couldn't leave." She snapped at the fox.

Esk rolled his eyes. "Yeah let's all go get ourselves indebted to the guild, that sounds awesome." He snarked.

Kay frowned and looked away.

The fox snorted, "Indebted? Have any of you been paying any attention? The guild has everything it needs. Why would they care about debts? The only 'debt' needing to be paid is the fact that it takes common sense to tell whether or not its nice to yell at someone for their culture. No one has snapped at Luka yet, which is surprising. The Imperium and the Guild can be as different as night and day. All they desire is mutual respect. Or are you all so blinded by their power to be prejudiced enough to believe they're as cocky as the Creators or the Family. Quinn and I are powerful Anamcara. Do you believe us demanding superior respect?"

James glared at Third. "I am so not in the mood for this. I was fucking stuck in this ship, and fucking sick of everyone's stupidity, and I'm not going to listen to people praising the Guild's wealth and charity." He headed for the exit to the holodeck.

Esk looked unimpressed. "nothing in life is free, ever. There's always some cost. Only an idiot takes what's handed out without asking what price they'll pay somewhere down the line." He straightened up and headed for the exit. "I'll earn what I need and want." He called back.

Luka glared at the fox. "You always have to come in and be all judgemental and haughty and holier than thou, both you and Vanessa. it's fucking obnoxious and i'm sick of it. We were having a nice time but no, we gotta be judged. That's all you people ever seem to do, JUDGE!" Luka yelled. "fuck you, I don't have to explain myself to you or surrender my beliefs because YOU think I should. Mutual respect? this isn't respect, this is coming in and spoiling things because YOUR ego needs stroking. Why should anyone listen to you when you don't listen to anyone ELSE, everyone else is always wrong, everything we ever DO is wrong. Well forget it, we don't owe you jack shit so go fuck yourself" She glared once more, then stormed out of the room muttering.

Kay flinched. [You know, it'd be nice to go one day without an argument.] He wrote, shaking his head and turning to leave. He didn't want to have to deal with this, he really couldn't deal with this right now.

Third rolled his eyes. "The Guild is falling apart as it is. The last thing they need is a headstrong android to resent them for something most of them couldn't control. It'll only alienate them further and soon enough... How much longer until someone starts calling for the Guild's main focus of freeing subjugated people to be withdrawn? How much longer until they decide that perhaps their attempts to help were no longer needed or appreciated, and decide to shut down the Salvation Runner regime, and perhaps leave the refugees off on the next solar system to fend for themselves? You aren't the first to resent them, and you sure as Hell won't be the last...

"I'd be careful. The wrong words, and you might lose everything you came here for. Someone might break the final barrier, and push them over the tipping point."

James shot a last glare at Third, and stormed off. He had nothing to say to the guy.

Asher sighed and followed Kay.

Luka stormed down the hall, fighting back tears. She was SO sick of this shit. So tired of being criticized and having all she tried to do corrected and nitpicked. Right now, she really rather wanted to just go home, where things made sense and people didn't tell her everything she knew, believed and stood for was wrong. Where nobody was trying to change her. Where she didn't feel so utterly helpless and useless.

"Not the time Third." Esk paused in the doorway. "really not the time." He shook his head and followed the others.
Great, now they had an angry James AND an angry Luka to deal with. Way to go third, undoing several hours of work.
He was more annoyed than anything else, becaue who now had to listen to those two rant? yep...

Kay ignored Third and made for wherever was quiet, sat down and huffed. [I'm sick of this.] He told Asher.

Asher sighed. "I know. It's exhausting." He sat down next to Kay for a moment, then shook his head and stood again. "I should go talk to Luka. She looked pretty upset."

Kay shook his head. [Esk went after her, she'll be fine. ] He smiled oddly. [Weirdly enough, my brother is actually extremely good at talking to people who are angry and upset. In another life perhaps he'd have made a good Councillor. Besides which, if anyone's going to understand the culture clash, it's someone from the same culture. ]

Asher smiled softly and sat back down. "You're right. Esk's very perceptive, he'll know what to say." He sighed. "Are you okay?"

Kay nodded. [Just frustrated. Really, we should be celebrating. Asher, your people have just been determined to be actual genuine people and not objects, this is enormous. Even if they can't help, the fact they've accepted the status of the terran androids and upgraded your status is one major hurdle cleared. ] He reached out a hand to brush Asher's cheek affectionately. [Forget Third's terrible people skills, we should be focusing on our success today, YOUR success. You spoke beautifully and they listened, i'm so proud of you.]

Yeah, that was good, and no amount of drama and nonsense could change that. Asher smiled a bit, the knowledge that they were a bit closer to winning equal rights for all androids was huge, and something to be proud of. "That was a good day's work," he agreed.

Kay nodded. [I hate to say it, but Mourn was right to be confident. It's an enormous relief to have their support, and to know that the inquisitors are from what we can judge, reasonable people willing and able to listen to sense. It makes me a little more confident about Merith's trial, only a little, but that's something.] His crimes were pretty huge, but at least he now felt like their testimony might actually have some weight. Would it be enough? who knew, quite probably not, but at least he now had more faith that genuine justice would be done here.