Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Four

First topic message reminder :

Dawn chuckled and shook her head a little "I don't need a party." She said softly, chuckling.

~~~
Skye looked to the door then came over to open it "Mourn? What's up?"

Armin settled into a space, resting on his legs. "Alright."

--

Mourn tapped away and went through the same procedure as with Naomi.

Dawn smiled and set up the board, she would be banker for them as they played together.

Soon Levi was free too. He went over to Moriah, smiling his fake looking smile. Freedom! This was terrifying, but thrilling.

"We can't do this, we can't be free," Tobias said. "It's not right."

"Not yet at least," Bess agreed.

Asher nodded, but frowned a bit. "You won't tell anyone about this, will you?"

"I won't tell anyone," Bess said.

Tobias stayed silent.

Mourn looked disappointed but he nodded. "You no tell, otherwise, do what like yes? I no order you around."

Kay nodded. [As we said, take your time. It's your lives and your minds.]

Tobias nodded. "I won't tell." He had no choice now, which was probably for the best.

"All right," Asher said, "Go explore the ship or something, get comfortable here. This is your home now, you might add well enjoy it."

The androids looked to Mourn for confirmation.

Ethan rolled his eyes and headed out of the room. He didn't need to stay here any more.

Mourn nodded. "Go, do what want yes?"

Kay smiled softly. [I'm sure vestia would be happy to give you a tour if you so desire.]

"Vestia loves tours" Skye said and smiled at the group

"Okay, we'll ask her to show us around," Bess said. The androids headed out together as a group to go take a tour of the ship.

James tried to go with them, but Asher coughed softly. "They might want some time to themselves. This is all so new to them."

James nodded. "I guess so."

Asher looked around the room at everyone. Hmm. "I have something I need to do," he said, mostly to Kay. "I'll be back later?"

Skye nodded and stood up. "Ill be up top if anyone wants me" She said before leaving the room.

Kay nodded slowly. [Alright. ] He wasn't sure what Asher was up to but he had a feeling it involved the androids.

Asher smiled softly, and headed off. He needed to do this sooner rather than later.

~~
James looked unsure. "Um, everyone's gone. Guess it's back to work now?" Booo. Work.

Kay nodded. [I guess so.] He headed for the medical room.

James followed along, because that seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, money. "Man, this really has been a hectic day." He felt a twinge of guilt, thinking of Starr. He'd almost forgotten the egg in his excitement. "Never a quiet day on the beach planet, I guess."

Kay nodded. [Good. I think everyone needed a distraction. ] But now what? Damnit.

"Yeah. Hurrah for distractions," James said weakly. He shook his head. "I'm realizing that maybe us acquiring a ton of robots isn't what my baby bro would want though. Especially not on a ship where the queen of the star dragons is trying to hide. Not super secure, you know?"

Asher headed to the library, because what he wanted to do only involved one android, not the five new ones.

Ethan was sitting at his desk, busily checking the loaned books list on the computer. He looked up when Asher came in, and tensed. Oh good, their first chance to talk alone since the rooftop fight. Sure to be fun.

“We need to talk,” Asher said quietly.

Ethan looked nervous, but nodded. He knew what this was about, and maybe they’d better address it as soon as possible. “I guess we should.”

Asher wheeled closer, frowning up at his brother. It was always so strange to look into those familiar eyes. Like Asher was looking at a dark copy of himself, a version of himself who was capable of any evil act, and had no remorse and no morality. Of course, Asher knew it wasn’t as simple as that, but it wasn’t hard to imagine that the sour-faced, black-clothed copy of himself might be evil. “What happened up there on the rooftop?” he asked softly.

Ethan scuffed his foot on the floor. “There was a keeper who killed your spotter, nearly killed you. I intervened. Not soon enough to save him or your legs, but I did try.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” Asher said.

Ethan sighed. Yeah, of course it wasn’t what he meant. “I knew he was a Keeper, but at the same time I thought he was Kaylr. I reacted accordingly.”

Asher shivered. “But he wasn’t Kaylr, he was just a bad person who chose the wrong shape at the wrong time.”

“I know.” Ethan shook his head. “I’m not stupid, Asher. I know it’s fucked up to beat someone up before killing them, especially for something they didn’t do. And I know what you’re thinking, if I did it once, I might do it again, to your boyfriend next time.”

“Yes,” Asher said softly, “I don’t think you’re not hostile by nature, but I'm not sure you’re stable either, judging by how you acted on the rooftop.”

Ouch. Ethan looked intently at his desk, tracing the woodgrain with his fingertip, he didn’t want to look at his brother. “The rooftop fight was a fluke. I saw an evil person who look just like my former master. I heard him laugh as he tortured a helpless victim. Of course I forgot where I was for a while.” He forced himself to meet Asher’s eyes. “Kay told me that if he ever turns into Kaylr, I should shoot him, the same way he’s asked you to shoot him if he’s ever out of control during the full moon. And if that day should come, if he comes for us with a scalpel and a merry tune to sing, then I will. But he’s not Kaylr now, and I’ve never reached the point where I’ve forgotten that.”

“All it would take is one bad day, and you could lose it,” Asher said.

“No shit. All it takes is one bad day to make you shoot him, so I guess we have that in common.” He frowned at Asher. “I know you don’t trust me, and I know you have good reasons not to trust me. But even that time during the full moon, I kept myself together. He was furious, and he stood just inches away, looking like he was about to murder me. I was terrified. But I didn’t hurt him, and I didn’t turn into a gibbering mess, I got the hell out of there as soon as I could, and found somewhere safe to panic. I don’t want to hurt people any more, and I’d rather not scapegoat people for looking like someone I hate. As long as he's not torturing someone and laughing, I'm not going to hurt him.”

Asher looked pained, but nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Ethan shrugged. “You have your reasons not to trust me. I’d be stupid if I wasn’t willing to accept that.”

“Still, it’s not fair to you after you’ve done so much,” Asher said, sighing. “Ethan, I haven’t thanked you yet, so thank you. You fought for a cause that wasn’t your own, you went with the rescue party to find Starr when you didn’t have to take that risk, and on top of it all, you saved my life. You’ve done a lot of good since you came to this universe.”

Ethan looked unsure. Gratitude from his brother was weird.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you. That fight on the rooftop scared me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be trusted. Like you said, it wasn’t exactly a situation that’s likely to happen again, it was a crazy one-off that happened to be really horrible. I shouldn't expect the worst of your based on that, not when you've proved to otherwise be unwilling to hurt people.”

“Okay.” Ethan didn’t know what else he could say. It felt kind of nice to get an apology and some gratitude though. Like maybe his attempts to atone weren’t entirely pointless.

Asher looked at Ethan for a bit. "I should leave you to your library now. Just... know that I'm grateful. And sorry." He turned his wheelchair to go. Now he felt guilty for being so hard on Ethan, ugh. Especially when he'd shot Kay in cold blood all those months ago.
Ugh.
He left Ethan and went off to find something to do outside the library.

Ethan sighed and went back to looking over the book list. He almost missed the Tiger already, at least there he hadn't had to deal with Asher and this awful, convoluted mess of mirror copies of people.

Kay considered that. [I don't think they'll have any reason to betray us, no more than anyone else we've taken on board. And to be honest, with that keeper who took Starr still somewhere out there and the keep knowing she was expected, I doubt the knowledge that we have the queen on board is that secret any more. It's a problem we have to tackle when we get to it, if it ever comes up. ] He looked grim. [This ship will always be a target for some reason or other, but it's safer to stick together than it is to go hide alone. ] He managed a weak smile and patted James on the back gently. [You all helped those androids, you should feel proud of that. They have the chance for a decent life, and better late than never right? In my culture we believe in the fundamental right to live and die free. Now they get to live the rest of their lives knowing they're no longer slaves to anyone. Isn't that a good thing? ]

"I guess so. Kinda hard to fly under the radar when the bad guys know you exist." James sighed. "I guess our best defense these days is being badass, not being stealthy." He shook his head, "Poor androids, they'll love being free, but they're in for a nasty shock, another nasty shock, when they find out what we still have planned." He didn't know all Asher's plans, but he felt sure they were going to be a mess.

Kay nodded grimly. [It's for the best though. I don't much like the greater good, but Asher is right. Some will suffer but ultimately, the many will be better off. Least that's the hope.] He frowned. [I really do hope he succeeds, without losing himself in the process]

"Someone has to do something. We can't have generations of android kids growing up the way we did," James agreed. "I'd volunteer to do it, but we all know I'd say or do something stupid and get our whole species killed. Asher has the sort of personality to make this actually work. It's not gonna be good for him though." James shook his head and led the way into the med bay, looking around for something to do.

Kay nodded. He looked sad. [I know.] He really did fear what Asher could become, how hardened he could become to all the horror and awful and how large his acceptable losses could be. It hurt.

James sighed. "He has a lot of reasons to keep going. He'll be okay. He's always okay eventually, it's one of his talents, along with being stupidly lucky." James wasn't sure if it was true, but he wanted to believe it. He found something to sort, and started sorting busily.

[It's not so much him giving up I worry about, it's how much of himself he might have to sacrifice to make it all work.] He shook his head, this was depressing. He sat down at his desk and took out a book of soduku puzzles to do.

James wasn't entirely sure what Kay meant, but yeah, he got why Kay was worried. Stupid android was going willing to throw his life away for this, maybe even literally. Who knew how bad that would be.

He tried to bury himself in his work. There was too much crap in this universe, and even rescued androids didn't make it all better.

(Skip to the next day?)

Kooshie wrote:(Skip to the next day?)

( sure)

TIMESKIP - MAY 12

The new androids had apparently all decided that staying in their separate rooms was too scary. They spent the night charging in Levi's room, and didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave even once morning arrived. Between freedom, and the weird crew of Vestia, it was hard to get motivated to leave the relative safety of each others' company.

~~
Ethan was in the library now, but he was probably going to leave soon. There was only so much time you could spend in a library before your brain got tired from the words, and he was just about at his limit.

~~
Tala returned to Vestia, having apparently stayed out all night. It was nice to be free from her duties as captain again.

~~
Asher did his best to not stress about Starr, and the new androids, and how Kay deserved so much better than him, all of which were thoughts that were stewing in his mind after the things that had happened yesterday. But he was failing, and stressing about everything, because he was good at that.
He would ask Vestia to tell Starr he'd like to talk to her whenever she felt like it. Vestia would relay the request to Starr when she was awake.

~~
James worked hard to try and make his guilt about what happened to Starr go away. He did a full inventory of the Silver Devil just because it was something to do, instead of recharging. Then he realized his battery was getting low enough to worry about, so he went to recharge even though it was morning.