Upon Vestia: Chapter TWENTY

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Heny stood there and listened as the two spoke, her heart beat rising. She had visited him a couple of times but found it too painful with eveything going on.

"Noo, not library privilages!" Matt feigned horror. "you cruel man." He snickered. "Nah that totally works."

"We may end up with duplicate copies of some of the books if people think their library accounts are at stake," Ethan said thoughtfully, "Since people might buy copies at the Guild to hand over. Still, should scare people into bringing the books back, hopefully including the original copies." The reached the library and he opened the door for Matt to go in first, "The kids can get cute posters with superheroes on them. I wonder if Captain Good Deed is a superhero in this universe..."

"Captain what?" Matt ducked through the door. "Not a clue man, the Imperium super heroes mostly just smash bad guys and liberate slaves."

"He was a Terran model citizen. Great soldier, never stealing, beating up the enemies of the Terran Empire, giving candy to children. He even stopped a couple owners from beating their slaves to death in one comic." Ethan snorted, "He probably doesn't exist in this universe."
He went to one of the public computers and logged in. "Your Imperium certainly do have some very clear and simple goals."

Matt laughed. "yeah, they're pretty straightforward. Aliens bad, imperium good, blah blah blah war, strength whatever." He rolled his eyes. "Still, our sister used to bring back comics sometimes when she and our foster mother went into town. Maan, we so looked forward to them coming back with goodies. Magazines and books and new clothes." He laughed. "then there would be the argument over who got what first. "

Ethan nodded. "If you live in the middle of nowhere, I guess that'd be great entertainment. Gives you something to look forward to, that isn't the same." He opened a document and started rapidly typing out the titles and authors of the books under the heading, [MUST BE RETURNED OR LIBRARY ACCOUNTS WILL BE SUSPENDED]

Matt nodded and jammed his hands into his pockets. Too many things laying around, too much temptation. "yeah, there's not much to do out in the middle of nowhere. I suppose it was a good thing we didn't get much free time with all the chores we had to do, or we'd have been soooo bored."

Ethan noted Matt's attempt to not steal anything, and looked amused. Yeah, he had a feeling at least some of those books had found their way into Matt's pocket space. The guy didn't seem to really be able to control the urge to take things. "At least you weren't an only child I guess? That must have helped some with the boredom."

Matt shrugged. "Yeah, plus we all got to take turns dealing with gross stuff like septic tanks" He snickered. "Man... I do NOT miss that."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," Ethan said dryly. "Thankfully I've never had to deal with a septic tank, so I can't relate to the misery of it." He started another poster, writing at the top, [PLEASE RETURN THESE BOOKS OR VESTIA WILL CRY]

"Yeah it's not fun. Worse if you have a sense of smell." Matt nodded and paced, he had real trouble keeping still. "thankfully I guess most of my senses are utterly crap."

"From what I've heard, not having a sense of smell can be a plus. I know I've never really had reason to want that one," Ethan said. He glanced up at Matt, okay, the fidgeting was a little annoying. "Missing a couple senses doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as some people say."
He eyed the poster, "Do you think kids will be emotionally pulled to return the books by the threat of Vestia crying?" he asked, "I'd threaten to cry, but they wouldn't fall for it. I'm too grouchy."

Matt shrugged. "I dunno, depends on the kids I guess. You could add sad faces." He laughed. "Yeah you get kinda used to it. Thalia can do this telepathic trick where you can like.. see through her eyes and it's so weird. Like.. it's awesome, but it's also crazy overwhelming to see everything in full colour and not blurry as shit."

Ethan nodded. "I can imagine that would be pretty confusing. Are you fully color blind, or are the colors just really hard to tell apart?"
He added an extra label that said, [Do the right thing! Bring back the books!] Then started printing posters.

"Just really.. a blur of kinda yellowy brown mostly." Matt shrugged. "Apparently full blooded kevali are totally colourblind, like everything's black and white, or so Web claims. So I guess we're lucky our mother's genetic contribution gave us SOME colour perception right?" He chuckled. "Thalia still claims it doesn't get me out of wedding colour theme discussions but that's because she's mean."

"I see," Ethan said. He looked interested, he knew basically nothing about biology except some stuff about aging, so he couldn't really imagine how genetics from two species must work together. "Thalia should be more understanding, make the wedding decorations high contrast for you," he said in an almost deadpan tone.
He took the printouts and handed some to Matt, then went rooting around for tape in a drawer.

~~
Asher was hanging out with the sleeping star dragon babies, who were exhausted from the mini party last night, poor things. He had been tidying the shelves in the med bay, but now he was at his desk, looking at the book Ethan had left.

~~
Tala was jogging one of the decks, thinking over how to kill the Family as fast as possible so they could go get Nadira. That regret butterfly really had made her start worrying.

Matt shrugged. "I don't really care that much about decorations, but she wants it all perfect or something. I dunno, I kinda tune out. I'd be happy to just go sign some damn paper and get it done with but that's not what she wants." He took the printouts and read them with a snicker. He seemed to remember something and swore under his breath. Damnit, he'd forgotten about Kay and the news.

---

Kay had gotten a shower and collapsed into bed for a bit. He was in no hurry to get to work, his neck hurt and he was pretty sure the others had it covered anyway.
But after a while that sense of obligation and duty got too much for him.
Begrudgingly he got up, slipped his 'i'm working' sneakers on and combed his hair out of his eyes. Time to go to work then. Eugh.

He yawned, rubbed his aching neck and headed for the medlab.

Ethan snorted. Oh yes, he knew the types who wanted everything just right. They always got so annoyed when you couldn't read their mind and get the party decorations the way they had imagined. "You have my condolences," he said dryly. He looked at Matt curiously at the man's sudden change of mood, "What's up?"

~~
Asher looked up as someone came in, smiling softly when he saw it was Kay this time. He set down the book and got up to go over to Kay. "Good morning," he told him, "I take it the cell was terrible to sleep in." He looked apologetic.

"I was supposed to do something this morning." Matt admitted. "and I kinda.. forgot." Oops. "Uh.. i'll help you put these up, then I should like... run. " Yeah he kinda didn't WANT to tell Kay, least not on his own but Thalia had noped on outta that conversation. "Mind if I use your printer?"

---

Kay smiled weakly and nodded. [I've slept in worse situations though.] He tried to look reassuring. [How are the kids? Starr's still sleeping?] He nodded to the sleeping dragons.

"You can use the printer," said Ethan, watching Matt curiously. "You can go if you want, I can put these up." The guy seemed to be in quite a rush all of a sudden.

~~
"They're all right, there was a little party here last night, and they tried dancing," Asher smiled at the memory, it was adorable. "I had to babysit for Heny too last night though, I guess she decided to go to the festival after all? I brought Danika because she didn't want to sleep with the others, so she got to stay up way too late when one of the babies woke up and needed her diaper changed. Poor Danika." He nodded, "Starr's still sleeping. She was out there until sunrise, I think."

Danika woke and looked around then squealed happily, waking the other two as she got up and ran to Kay. "Dad, dad!"

Matt shook his head. "no no, it's fine. It can wait. He's not going anywhere." He managed a weak smile and held up the leaflets. "Okay, you wanna take this floor, i'll take the cafe and kid areas?"

---

Kay nodded. [Sounds like a busy night.] Hmm, Heny decided to be social? weird. Maybe she was starting to recover a bit? [Have you seen Esk this morning?] He asked, arranging some paperwork on his desk. [Someone should check in on him and I seriously doubt i'm the best person to do so.]
Then Danika woke up, Kay smiled and crouched down to pick her up. Good morning little one.

Ethan nodded. "Sounds good. Be sure to put the posters for the kids close to the floor, so they can read them."

~~
"I haven't seen Esk yet, I can definitely do that though," Asher said. He smiled as Danika woke up. "Good morning, Danika."

Kay nodded. [I didn't get a good look at the painkillers he took, but he was drinking beer. I think he's in a lot more pain than he'd like to admit.] Yes, Kay was worried about his brother.

"Good morning dad and dad." Danika said as she cuddled with Kay when he picked her up.

Kerr and Vela looked to Kay and Asher, getting up and coming over to them "Morning, morning."

"Good to know. I'll go have a look then." Asher smiled softly at Kay, "You should probably take the day off when I get back though. You could use some sleep in a real bed." He went over to Vela and Kerr to pet them a bit, "Good morning, you two. Did you sleep well?"

Kay shrugged. [I'll be alright. We should only have hangovers to deal with this morning right? I'll just throw painkillers at anyone who comes through the door.] He sat down, letting Danika climb up onto his shoulder if she wanted.
Dang, soon she'd be too big to do that.

[I can watch the kids for a bit.] It wasn't like baby dragons were that much hassle right?