Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Three

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"You have a tablet at least, right?" Asher asked Dawn.

"You have friends here too Esk, like it or not" Skye said then shrugged

"So I keep getting told." He rolled his eyes. "It's starting to get a bit annoying. "

"Well, at least your friends here know you like to be alone a lot and don't push that often." Skye said with a shrug.

Esk snorted. "Some of the people here have self preservation instincts." He still wasn't quite willing to call them friends.

Skye giggled at that and shook her head "Why not both?"

"Most of them are sentimental emotional morons." Esk shrugged. "The rest don't seem to take no for an answer. It's fucking annoying. " yeah he had no patience left for people who insisted on trying to get him to talk to them. He stood up. "I have shit to do, well.. I don't really, I just don't want to sit here all day."

"Go, have fun...just not too much fun." Skye said then smirked "Don't want to have to put you to bed drunk or anything" She teased

"Eugh, I wish. I'm not allowed to drink. Or eat anything that's not boring as fuck." Esk shook his head, reaching a hand out to steady himself against the wall. "If I survive this and they tell me I can never drink again, i'm shooting myself in the head."

"Why wouldn't you be able to drink? After the surgery you can heal yourself and not have to worry about that. You aren't human and can heal easier." Skye said

"I dunno how it all works, neither do the medics, they're just guessing at this point. They think i'm too dumb to notice but I know they're guessing. Truth is, nobody knows how my power works or if it'll regenerate that level of damage. They also can't give me any blood because they have no fucking clue what blood type I am or if anything is compatible. Dawn says I have a seventy five percent chance of surviving surgery tomorrow, which means a good twenty five percent chance I won't. And even if I don't just die on the table, there's still the risks afterwards. " He shook his head. He'd helped Dawn study enough to know rather a lot more about medical stuff than he really needed to know now. "Even if I live, they don't know that letting me drain something will fix it all. None of us know anything for certain and... it fucking sucks." He sighed.

Skye wished she could go over and give him a hug, he really seemed to need one right now. "You know more about your power than any of us Esk, that's true. Not having blood is not a good thing, do we not have any from the little blood storage thing we did before?"

"They already did that." Esk shook his head. "It's fine, don't worry about me Skye. Either I make it or I don't." He waved his hand dismissively. "i'm not scared of dying, I mean what do I care? I just won't wake up again. Whoopdy do. It's just..." He struggled for the right word. "Annoying."

Skye nodded then smiled "It would be annoying to not have you here Esk. Go, do what you will until surgery time"

Esk snickered. "yeah, who'd keep you all from doing stupid shit?" He smirked and headed off carefully down the hall.

Skye smiled and got up to put the chair up then headed for a rec room for something to do

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:"true." Matt placed a few more pieces. "Still, he's kinda always been prickly. "

"Exactly. Plants start out not-prickly, so they're nicer," Ellie said sagely.

~~~

“Asher?” James looked into the library, where his brother was sitting at a study table, frowning at a thick textbook.

Asher started, and glanced up, quickly pushing a smile onto his face. He minimized the document hastily. “Oh hello, James. What are you doing here?”

“Thought I’d come study with my favorite baby brother for a while.” James snagged an office chair and flopped gracelessly into it. “Terran law, huh? Looks fun.”

“I need to learn the law if I’m going to succeed. The more legal the fight for android rights is, the more the public will sympathize with my cause,” Asher said, returning his attention to his book.

“Fair enough,” James conceded. “Look at you, getting so literate and educated. Emma would be so proud.”

Asher half-smiled. “Does it count if you aren’t actually all that interested in being educated, and really just want to go back to fixing spaceships?”

James smiled back. “I don’t think it matters why you’re doing it, just that you are.” He reached out to pat Asher’s arm. “Besides, we only need one scholarly nerd in the family, and I think Ethan’s got that covered.”

Asher looked amused. “Well then, once I can walk, I’ll never study again.”

“That’s the spirit,” James said. He leaned forward a bit, “You know, Matt still wants to have that wheelchair race. You should take him up on it, you just know you could win. His puny organic body couldn’t hope to keep up with your robotic muscle.”

“James, we’re not supposed to flaunt our abilities,” Asher reminded him.

“Yeah, well we aren’t supposed to be free either, and look at us now.”

Asher sighed. Well that was true. “I’ll think about it.”

James grinned. “Good. Mind if I study with you for a while?”

Asher smiled softly. “Go ahead.”

James took one of the books, and settled down to read it. Not that any of the legalese made sense, but hey, he could pretend.

Asher went back to quietly reading, taking occasional notes. It was kind of nice to not be alone, even if he was half convinced James was only here out of pity. At least James wasn’t saying it out loud.

Matt nodded, musing on that. "I guess he didn't start prickly either. I mean, his power didn't manifest till he was about three. But he was a baby and we were so much older than him, so we had stuff to do, we didn't really want to babysit the toddler. " He sighed. "I kinda regret that. I mean Jess, our older sister, she was pretty damn patient with him, even after he.. became scary she would sit with him and read or try to teach him how to write. He liked to draw so she'd bring him back pencils and crayons and stuff when she and Olin went into town. " He put another piece of puzzle in place. "But then she left. And I know she had her reasons but with her gone it was like, he lost the only person who really acknowledged he existed." Matt lowered his head, looking guilty. "We were dumb ass kids and we were scared of him. he was weird, he barely talked and he didn't really show emotion, he was a seriously creepy kid. I mean shit, before Jess left he killed a guy who was I dunno, trying to hurt her, he was like four, yet somehow he managed to overpower this full grown adult and drained the life out of him. " He shook his head. "And he didn't even seem to acknowledge what he'd done. He was just like, the bad man's gone now. " He shuddered a little at that memory. "Let's... let's go do something else. There's a holodeck right? Let's go do something in the holodeck."

Ellie blinked. Whoa, that was creepy as all heck. "He just..." She blinked. "He killed a guy? I mean good for him, but whoa." She didn't really know what to think of that.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, we heard screaming... it was the middle of the damn night. I don't know who was screaming, I mean, it might have been the guy, might have been Jess, it woke everyone up and he was just like, sitting on this guy's chest. He stood up and just stared at us, like, he didn't understand why we were all freaking out. " He shook his head, it wasn't a pleasant memory. "Jess left soon after that. I don't.. I don't think it was Esk's fault, I think she just couldn't deal with any of it any more." He sighed. "But if we weren't scared of him before, knowing he could kill a grown adult like that... Olin already didn't want us near him, she didn't want us getting hurt and honestly I think she thought she was protecting him as well. I dunno."

"That's pretty scary," Ellie said. "He was just a kid, I guess he didn't understand what he'd done, right?" Ellie didn't know, she'd been an only child after all.

Matt shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe. Maybe not. I've never really had the courage to ask. I'm sure he remembers, he remembers everything. It's weird. " He sighed.

"Spooky." Ellie patted Matt's arm. "It's okay, he doesn't kill people any more. Come on, let's go do something fun."

Matt looked uncertain about that, wasn't Esk a bounty hunter? that kinda... meant killing people.
Not that he could judge on that front, he'd killed a lot of people too. Oops.

He shook his head and pulled the brakes off the wheelchair, rolling backwards a little. "should we clear up the puzzle or just leave it mostly finished for someone else to deal with?"

"He only kills people who deserve it," Ellie amended, seeing Matt's expression. "Yeah, let's leave the puzzle for someone else. They can put it away, I don't wanna pick up all the pieces."

Matt nodded. "yeah, someone else can deal with it." He smiled and wheeled backwards so he could turn around. Man this chair thing was damn awkward.

Ellie went to get the door for Matt. Doors looked so annoying, and annoying wasn't good. "Think James talked Asher into that race yet?" she joked.

"man, Asher won't race, he's too serious." Matt laughed. "he and Kay are perfect for each other, they're both workaholics who don't have time for fun." He made a face.