Upon Vestia: Chapter Nineteen

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(Day 11 I think)

James wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, Acus and Esk and Rigel's underwear traumatized me too," he said. He really, really didn't care, he was just trying to lighten the mood. "Yeah, we should make sure they know."
(Is Vestia's audio enabled in Luka's room?)

~~
Ellie found the meat and brought it out for the babies. "Who's excited?" She asked them. She was! She was!

(yep, Luka didn't bother being weird about it. She doesn't mind not having privacy)

Luka nodded slowly. "I hope they're not mad at me." She spoke softly.

Vela and Kerr both chirped happily at seeing the now familiar meat container. "I am, I am" They both said excitably

"Dawn and Matt know the situation, they're out there too," Vestia said helpfully.

James looked relieved. "Thanks, Vestia."
"I don't think anyone will be mad at you if they know the whole story, it really wasn't your fault what happened," he told Luka.

~~
Ellie giggled at their enthusiasm and opened the container to start feeding the babies pieces of meat. She really loved babysitting these guys! They were such good kids.

Luka set the glass down and curled up again. "yes it was. I should have listened to you, both of you. For once Esk was actually being sensible and trying to help." She fought back tears again. All the times she'd wished horrible things on Esk, all the times she'd called him an asshole and a dick and all manner of things, actually seeing him hurt, worse, hurt trying to defend her was awful.

Kerr and Vela each took a piece, scarfing that down before taking another, they were learning manners or trying to.

James shook his head. "Yeah, maybe you should have backed off, run away, all that. But it's not your fault some minotaurs decided to harass you. It's not your fault you're loyal and don't like hearing your home being insulted. And it's definitely not your fault that you thought the whole things was unfair as fuck and wanted to stand up to those guys. You were a bit hot headed, yeah, but the blame is on them for picking on someone who was just enjoying the day and not hurting anyone."

~~
Ellie fed them pieces of meat or let them get their own from the container. "I assume you guys still get to have as much as you want," she said.

The two dragons did get to eat as much as they wanted, though they were getting a more varied diet usually. Meat was still their favorite. They ate till they were full then looked back to Ellie again "Ellie story?" Kerr asked with a yawn. It was nap time

Skye came to the ramp, landing there "Vestia, have you seen Moone? She vanished on me."

"Okay, story time," Ellie said, smiling. "Pick a book, any book," she carried them over to the bookshelf to have a look at the options. "Then we read until you fall asleep."

~~
"Moone went to the city with Third," Vestia said. "They were going to the library to study, I think?"

"Do you think Tala feels like that still? I mean.. she did at first.. but.. there's so many good people back home, good decent people without any hate in them. But all anyone ever wants to see is us as warmongers, nothing else. All we want is to be safe, and that's what our military does. it keeps us safe. Out here is everything we fear, magic, aliens with hostile intentions, technology and power beyond anything we can defend against. The Imperium have good reason to be scared and to want to keep the people safe. Any empire would do the same, any planet surely? Maybe things aren't perfect, but where is? Even this supposed utopia is full of prejudice and hate and violence. " She lay down and rested her head on her pillow. "There's no such thing as perfection. I just wish they'd stop picking on me for it. Maybe it wouldn't be so hurtful if they did it to everyone but it's JUST me and JUST the empire. It isn't fair and it isn't right. My people aren't monsters."

The two dragons looked over the choices then pointed to their favorite, the snow dragon one that Asher read to them first.

~
"Thank you...why is she with Third?" Skye asked, frowning in confusion at that.

"I think Tala likes you. She doesn't seem like the type who would keep quiet if she didn't." James smiled sadly, "Yeah, I know, it totally stinks that they keep going after you about stuff you aren't responsible for. And the Imperium isn't nearly as bad as people say it is, I guess they just don't know that out here though."

~~
Ellie read them the book. She thought it was almost as adorable as the little dragons themselves.

~~
"He started feeling sympathy, and then he turned blue and sat on her lap," Vestia said. "It seems weirder now that I say that out loud. Sorry, Skye."

The two dragons were soon sleeping, curled up in Ellie's lap together. Oops, she was stuck now.

~~
Skye shook her ehad and turned to go again "Yeah, that does sound weird, thanks for watching over her." She said before taking off again. She had no idea about the fight so she had no idea what Third felt sympathy for unless it was Moone leaving because of Orel? Or maybe she had been bullied and Skye hadn't been there? She was worried

Ellie was perfectly happy to stay here, snoozing, with dragons, until such a time as someone bothered her. There was no rush, they were soothing and she could hear their happiness now.

Luka grunted a vague response and closed her eyes. What else was there to say?

James sat with Luka quietly. If she had any other injuries he might try to clean them, but probably he was done. Now his job was to be supportive, because Luka was his friend and she obviously needed someone to be supportive right now.

Asher was in the med bay busily sorting every piece of paper he could find. The longer Kay was gone, the more reasons he thought of that he should have gone too. Kay was going to be in a very tense mood from his disease, the stress of everything lately, and all the chaos of the Guild. He should have had someone go with him! Other than Danika, who was quite possibly going to end up seeing a much less pleasant side of her dad all of a sudden.

He asked Vestia if Kay had had anyone else go with him. Vestia said yes, Kay had gotten Matt and Dawn. Asher relaxed somewhat at that, but he was still thoroughly worried and kept fussing with everything in an effort to sooth his worries.

Ugh. Couldn't the minotaurs have at least had the decency to wait a week to be ignorant and cruel?

--from capitol--

Kay had managed to dodge Starr somewhere on Asteroid Manifest and charged up the ramp to Vestia.

Vestia watched Kay come in, a bit worried. Yep, he looked terrible. "Is Danika with someone else?" She asked, noticing the little dragon was gone.

Starr was making her own way back, not really too far behind Kay. Danika was having a blast with flying like this.

Kay nodded, he couldn't be bothered taking his tablet out, she was with someone, he wouldn't just lose his daughter ffs.

He headed toward his room, intending to lock himself in, curl up with a book and calm the heck down. Hopefully. Maybe.

Starr landed on the ramp a couple of minutes later, having to grab Danika because she was so excited that she was bouncing and begging to go back out again.

Ethan had been busy studying, organizing, nosily seeing what other people were checking out of the library, and generally having a pretty decent morning. He liked his job, it let him interact with other people when he wanted to, and ignore them the rest of the time.

But he couldn't stay in the library all day, could he? He needed to get out sometimes for the change of scenery. He had headed out of his room, down toward the ramp, hoping to head to the city.

As he headed down the hall, he spotted Kay heading his way.

Kay looking thoroughly pissed off.

Ethan flinched and faltered a bit at the sight of the guy. Oh shit, that look brought back all sorts of happy memories. Kay, not Kaylr, he repeated to himself silently, Kay, not Kaylr.

Starrnico wrote:Starr landed on the ramp a couple of minutes later, having to grab Danika because she was so excited that she was bouncing and begging to go back out again.

Vestia was relieved to see Danika alive and in good spirits. Yeah, she trusted Kay, but his mood had worried her a bit, okay? "Welcome back," she said to Starr and Danika.

Kay spotted him and his expression faltered, first to relief, then irritation again as his brain registered that it wasn't Asher but Ethan. And his look of worry did NOT help matters. Kay's eyes narrowed. He knew what the guy was thinking, he was comparing him to that psychopath again wasn't he? He stopped walking, closed his eyes and took several long, deep breaths. It was fine, he wasn't Kaylr, he wasn't a monster, he could control this.
He bit down on his lip hard.

Star chuckled "Thanks. Did Moone make it back ok with the other two?"