Upon Vestia: Chapter Nineteen

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(Day 11 I think)

Kooshie wrote:"Man, why would they close up shop? I need my last minute silver!" Ellie said.

"I don't have any silver shops, sorry," Vestia told them apologetically. "You could take a silver goblet to carry though, I have a couple of those."

"I would guess so that the shopkeepers could get ready and go too." Shane said then sighed softly. "Alright, I can change the shape of a goblet then change it back after."

Ethan snorted with amusement, that sounded about right to him. "Wholesome entertainment for sure. Makes me want to go to a university." He shook his head, "My tasing experience was less fun. Stupid slavers showed up and boarded my owner's yacht, they obviously were sensible and didn't want to damage us with actual guns."

~~
"Or I could just wield the goblet like a crucifix against vampires," Ellie suggested brightly. "Come on, let's go look at silver goblets." She stood up.

"ahh yes, I hear there's a real problem with slavers skirting around or even through Terran space. " He shook his head, he didn't sound overly concerned though. "What happened to your owner then?"

"He decided he didn't want to be taken alive. Such a hypocrite, owning a slave and not daring to be one himself," Ethan said. He didn't sound terribly broken up about that.

"Sounds like a Terran." Hewitt agreed. "So did they sell you on? You must be worth a fortune, surely?"

"Absolutely a typical Terran," Ethan agreed. "They would have sold me, androids are extremely valuable after all, but it turned out their doctor, or whatever the hell he was, wanted an assistant. So the captain let him have me." He spoke carefully, if he tread too awkwardly on this subject he'd probably give himself another panic attack, which would be stupid.

"librarian would sound like a step up for you then." Hewitt looked for a moment almost sympathetic, but it quickly passed. "there's a celebration this evening, some superstitious nonsense about the full moon. I believe it could be mildly diverting if nothing else. Can we encourage you out of your little den here?"

Ethan nodded in agreement. "Definitely a step up." Whew, nasty topic successfully avoided. He considered Hewitt's question, "The festival sounds... interesting, at least. The idea of being mauled by a crazed wolf creature doesn't appeal to me all that much though."

"Crazed wolf creatures? Oh, the ones with the uh.. tabbards yes?" Oh he'd seen them, weirdos.

"Yes, them. People with their disease tend to get vicious around the full moon, and change into crazed animals under the moon's light. Supposedly these guys can control it, but it would be easy for something to go wrong." The war of emotions he'd seen on Kay's face today was plenty to make Ethan a bit wary about this.

Kooshie wrote:Ethan snorted with amusement, that sounded about right to him. "Wholesome entertainment for sure. Makes me want to go to a university." He shook his head, "My tasing experience was less fun. Stupid slavers showed up and boarded my owner's yacht, they obviously were sensible and didn't want to damage us with actual guns."

~~
"Or I could just wield the goblet like a crucifix against vampires," Ellie suggested brightly. "Come on, let's go look at silver goblets." She stood up.

Shane chuckled and stood to go with her "Yeah, let's go look at them."

Vestia gave them directions to find the fancy occasion supplies. She had a whole storeroom full of fine china carefully packed away, lace tablecloths, and silver cutlery and the goblets she had mentioned.

"Ooooh," Ellie breathed. "LOOK at it."

Shane did look at the fine things with interest, picking up one of the silver goblets then looking to Ellie. "Want a flower bud to match the ones on your dress?"

"That sounds AWESOME," Ellie said, picking up a fork to turn over in her fingers. "Can you make me, like, a braceletty thing? One of the ones that goes in your hand too so I can use it to punch them if they try to bite?" Yeah, that was kind of a fancy request, but it was worth asking, right? "Also is the silver gonna turn back into goblets at midnight or anything? Cause I wanna know that sooner rather than later if it will."

Hewitt shook his head. "You're a robot, what threat are they to you? You probably don't even smell of food."

"If they're attracted to motion, they could find me interesting anyway, and I'm not a big fan of pain even if they probably couldn't actually kill me," Ethan said. He looked thoughtful though, the idea of going to the festival was interesting at least.

Hewitt's eyes lit up. "You can feel pain!?" Oh he was suddenly very very interested.

Ethan flinched at the Professor's sudden interest. Right, androids didn't feel pain here usually. Apparently Hewitt knew that. Oops. "Yes," he said after a moment, "I'm programmed to feel pain." No use lying about it.

"Why would they do that? HOW did they do that?" The Professor stared at Ethan, unable to resist to urge to touch his arm. "Just pain? Or all sensation?"

Kooshie wrote:"That sounds AWESOME," Ellie said, picking up a fork to turn over in her fingers. "Can you make me, like, a braceletty thing? One of the ones that goes in your hand too so I can use it to punch them if they try to bite?" Yeah, that was kind of a fancy request, but it was worth asking, right? "Also is the silver gonna turn back into goblets at midnight or anything? Cause I wanna know that sooner rather than later if it will."

Shane chuckled and shook his head "They won't turn back until I or someone else makes them change back" He said and reached for her hand, taking the fork and putting it back. He then held the goblet and her hand close, closing his eyes as he used his magic to change the goblet into a bracelet like she wanted and a necklace to match, both with the flower bud design. The bracelet formed over her hand, though it was cool to the touch so she wouldn't feel any pain while the necklace formed in his hand alongside a tiny knife that he could hide in a pocket for if it was needed.

Ethan flinched away at Hewitt's touch, rubbing the place where he'd been touched as if the guy had burned him. Kaylr was still way too close to the surface of his thoughts, and he had to take a few moments to recover his calm. He's not Kaylr, he's not Kaylr.
Ethan got his thoughts somewhat pulled back together and focused on the questions. "All sensation. Because they figure it's the best way to make the androids act like organic slaves, which is what people expect and want. They imitate subjective senses by using code that interprets sensory data as emotional input." He looked wary.

Starrnico wrote:Shane chuckled and shook his head "They won't turn back until I or someone else makes them change back" He said and reached for her hand, taking the fork and putting it back. He then held the goblet and her hand close, closing his eyes as he used his magic to change the goblet into a bracelet like she wanted and a necklace to match, both with the flower bud design. The bracelet formed over her hand, though it was cool to the touch so she wouldn't feel any pain while the necklace formed in his hand alongside a tiny knife that he could hide in a pocket for if it was needed.

"Whoa," Ellie breathed. "That is awesome. Where did you learn to make silver do that? Starr didn't teach you that, did she?"

Hewitt watched Ethan's reaction curiously. "That's facinating." He told him. "That can't be Terran coding, everything about you androids just seems too advanced for them. Emotional input and sensory data is some pretty advanced technology. " Something else seemed to occur to him. "Terrans are against slavery, why would they want their androids to act like real slaves?" He looked slightly suspicious.

Ethan realized he was still rubbing his arm, and made himself stop. "I've heard their mainframe computer does a lot of the development of our learning algorithms on her own," he said. He frowned at Hewitt's words, shit shit shit Ethan, stop talking like you came from another universe. "Well they don't call it emotional input, they call it..." he tried to make up a name for it on the fly but couldn't come up with anything, "fuck it. Promise not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you." Hey, it wasn't like anyone would believe an old guy if he started rambling about alternate universes anyway, right?

Hewitt nodded, watching Ethan suspiciously. Things didn't quite add up, he wanted to know why. "Go ahead."

Kooshie wrote:
"Whoa," Ellie breathed. "That is awesome. Where did you learn to make silver do that? Starr didn't teach you that, did she?"

Shane nodded then shrugged "She's taught me some, and the classes and other dragons have taught me some. Starr is a pro at this though, she knows how to infuse a spell on the metal so it can do whatever she wants it to. All I can do so far is change the shape of the metal."

"I'm from another universe," Ethan said, "I don't just look like the medic Asher, I literally am him from a different timeline. They got sent over there as punishment by a bitchy godlike being, and I came back with them." He'd told this all to his shrink a couple days ago, and it sounded just as stupid now as it had then. Oops?