Upon Vestia: Chapter Sixteen

First topic message reminder :

"All those aliens, always hyping up how great they are, and it always turns out to be a lie," James said sagely. "I'm not like that though, I mean I've been known to punch minotaurs. I'd be a proper villain, I wouldn't lose."
He watched as the guy went back into the train, "Ooooh nooooo. They so should not have done that. It is ON!"

Esk shook his head. "just makes it soggy." He spoke with his mouth full.

--

"My hero." Luka flopped against him, hissing in pain at the movement.

---

Kay looked amused [Give them your best glare for me.] He combed his hair and pulled on his shoes, which he only wore when he was working. Then padded off to go find coffee. And toast.

"Doesn't it stab your mouth?" Ellie asked, peering at the cereal to see what kind it was. "Dry cereal HURTS."

~~
James patted her shoulder with sympathy. "Need me to find you anything? Help getting to the bathroom? Whatever?"

~~
Asher grinned at Kay, saluted, and headed off to the med bay.

"What kind of cereal have you been eating?" Esk paused and stared at Ellie. It was cornflakes of some sort.

"you no like milk?" Mourn asked.

Esk shrugged. "Don't trust it out in space."

Mourn stared at him. "No.. trust it?"

"Yeah you know, to be fresh. How many lightyears away was the animal that shit came outta? Meat you can preserve but milk? " He shook his head. "Don't trust it."

---

Luka frowned, damnit, bathroom. "I think I can walk. My head just hurts." She struggled out of the bedclothes. She'd sorta gone to sleep mostly dressed, oops?

---

Kay laughed silently and shook his head at Asher's salute, and headed to the mess hall.

"It's perfectly safe. Dehydrated milk product never spoils," Ellie said. "It's sanitized!"

~~
James laughed. "You're totally better than most of the hung over people I've dealt with. It's awesome."

~~
Asher sorted things onto shelves and pondered whether he should go find Starr.

Starr and Shane were on different paths to come to the dining room for breakfast. They waved to one another and came in, going to fill their plates before finding seats

"Yo there!" Ellie said, looking up at Shane and Starr, "My favorite cute dragons!"

Esk made a face. "yeah, that sounds absolutely delicious." He spoke flatly. "May as well pour water over your food." He shrugged.

Mourn laughed. "You very funny death man."

"Do you really have to call me that?" Esk sounded bored.

Mourn thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "yes. "

Esk rolled his eyes. He supposed it wasn't much worse than the name he'd elected to go by.

Kay wandered in feeling rather more cheerful than he had in the past few weeks and looked bewildered by the conversation.

"Oh hey, they're just trying to convince me that fake milk is totally fine and tasty." Esk explained boredly.

Kay shrugged. [It's fine in coffee.] He went to pour himself a cup.

"Gross." Esk shook his head.

[Perhaps they have some goats here and you could get some actual milk.] Kay suggested.

"I don't think I trust magical goat milk either, might turn me into a newt or something."

[That might be an improvement.] Kay set about making some toast as well.

"Well someone's in a bitchy mood this morning. " Esk snorted, clearly somewhat enjoying this.

[Nothing wrong with my mood this morning little brother, you're imagining things.] Kay wrote, smirking.

"Grumpy medic not so grumpy this morning." Mourn observed. "Celebrating robot debate yes?"

Kay nodded.

Esk made a face. "I do NOT want to know how you celebrated that."

Kay looked amused. [Well then I won't tell you.] He buttered his toast.

---

Luka clutched her head with one hand and used the other to feel her way to the bathroom. "Practice... lots of practice."

---

Shane chuckled and sat, starting to eat and watching the brother, even though he could only hear half the conversation. "How is everyone this morning?" He asked cheerfully.

Starr smiled and took her seat once she got her food, waving but staying quiet for now.

Ellie snickered. "I wanna know how you celebrated!" She teased. She didn't really, because awkward, but hey, it was funny to joke about. "I'm doing great!" She said to Shane.

~~
James chuckled and waited patiently for her to return.

Esk made gagging noises.

Mourn looked oblivious.

Kay looked amused. He raised his mug, nodded to everyone and left, because being around large groups like this still made him uncomfortable, especially Starr okay?

---

She came back drying her hands, her face was wet where she'd splashed cold water on it. "I'll be fine in a few hours, I just have to like.. wallow in regret a little longer." She managed a weak smile and flopped back onto the bed, resting her head on the pillow. "you can stay and make soothing noises if you want.. or just mock me. It's fine."

Ellie smirked at Esk. "What? You okay, man?"

~~
James smiled at Luka. "I'll stay here and mop your fevered brow and stay mostly quiet. Don't you worry."

Esk stared at Ellie. "I'm glad I haven't got an active imagination." He told her bluntly and finished his cereal.

---

"awww such a hero. you're the best captain James." Luka teased him weakly, wincing in pain.

Starr looked to Kay as he left then sighed and looked back to her food, eating it silently. She didn't like this distance between them now.

Shane smiled and ate his food, glancing over to Ellie's sugar filled cereal and shaking his head. Nope, he liked his sausage and eggs more than cereal of any kind

Ellie grinned and went back to her cereal. SHE thought weird medics doing... things... was kinda funny, even if no one else did.

~~
James would stay with Luka as long as was needed. He was a GOOD friend.

Mourn didn't get all this, he shrugged, chalked it down to these lot being weird and licked his plate clean.

When Starr finished her meal, she put the dishes away and headed to find Asher and congratulate him

Asher was in the med bay, busily sorting things and looking through cabinets. There wasn't a huge amount to do, but a few things were out of order and needed to be arranged. He looked up at the sound of footsteps, and smiled at Starr. "Good morning, Starr. What brings you in here today?"

"I came to see how you like being a free man" Starr said and smiled at him then came over to touch his arm "I hope we can get rid of that 'owner' file soon, just to make it final." She knew that would have to wait for the Terrans to release their androids though.

"It's a wonderful start," Asher said, smiling back at Starr. "With the Guild's support, the android species' chances of success are that much better." He added softly, "Truly though, the Guild's support doesn't change how I see myself or my life. The owner file doesn't matter that much either. I've been meaning to talk to you, actually," he hesitated, "you recall the promise I made months ago after you bought me?"

Starr tilted her head, thinking about that "You made a couple of promises to me, which one are you referring to?"

"When you bought me, I said I'd somehow find the money to repay you," Asher said. He looked a bit nervous all of a sudden. Something about suggesting this was completely bizarre, and even months of knowing he wanted to do this hadn't really prepared him for the possibility that it might actually happen. "I recall exactly how much you paid to purchase me. I've earned that now, being a medic here pays well. I want to pay you back."

"Asher, you don't have to do that. That is your money, you earned it." Starr said, blushing a little and looking away "I didn't intend for you to pay me back, but I didn't want to argue about it then." She looked back to him again and smiled "Use that money to do something nice for yourself." She knew it was a lot, especially for him to have earned on an 'android's' salary

Asher shook his head, and smiled oddly. "It's not really about paying you exactly," he said. He tried to figure out how to explain this. "I know you're not looking for compensation. You're more than capable of earning that sort of money again, I'm sure, and if you were looking for me to pay you back, you would have told me to. Maybe you would have just made me work for you, I doubt I would have objected. So it's pretty clear that you aren't pushing me into doing this.
"I want to do this for myself," he said a bit self consciously, "Silly as it may sound, I don't think I'm ever going to truly feel like a free man until I pay off this debt."

Starr just looked at him for a moment then smiled and shook her head a little "Alright then. I don't want to take away your feeling of independence." She said softly then chuckled "Maybe I will use it to make sure the children have a good babysitter that will keep them safe."

Asher smiled, pleased that Starr wasn't going to argue this. What he was doing might not be logical, but he'd feel better with it done anyway. He went to the computer and typed busily for a few seconds, accessing his bank account. "That sounds like a good plan. Which of your pseudonyms should I send this to?"

"This one would be easiest" Starr said and chuckled again. She came over to type in her account info for him

Asher nodded and moved aside so Starr could type in her account information, then hit the button to send the money to her. He looked kind of secretive, he didn't want Starr to see what percentage of his savings he had just sent to her. He closed the window as soon as the transaction was done, and stood there for a moment, trying to process what he'd just done and what it meant.