Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Five

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Starr shrugged and looked out the window again. "I don't know. I just want things to be normal."

Amity looked up as Sawna came in. "Hello again... Miss" He was still getting used to gender pronouns. He'd cleaned everything.

---

Armin patted Starr on the shoulder. "Have faith my friend."

----

Hewitt smirked more. "Chess? Ahh yes, why not?" He chuckled and led the way.

Sawna smiled as she looked around "You've been busy I see" She said softly.
~~~
Starr nodded and looked up to him before unlocking her door so they could go in. "I am trying to."

"I must keep busy" Amity told Sawna pleasantly. "How was the meeting?"

---

Armin nodded. "I know. You are doing an incredible job leading your people from such a distance. I have no doubt they find your presence comforting."

Lord Heny wrote:Marcus nodded and went to dig around, "my son... well he was raised feral." The arran shook his head, "But he better, I rather be careful though. Unfortunately if I can't get him to somewhere safe..." he paused

"Feral. So they didn't teach him how to be around people?" Vestia asked.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Hewitt smirked more. "Chess? Ahh yes, why not?" He chuckled and led the way.

That smirk. It was so annoying, why wasn't Ethan just abandoning this guy? He had no idea. Oh well. He followed.

~~
Ellie was at the farm, throwing pebbles into a pond. Skye might see her there.

"More like he was raised to be a displace for a human zoo." He held a bitter look. "To show 'true' arran nature if you like racist stereotypes. His mother knew common so I suspect he can speak it but was punished not to. Luckily for him being feral lowered his price of being a Fertwa." He said with a Marcus said with a sigh.

"Oh." Vestia considered that. Poor kid. "How much have you taught him? Also what's a fertwa?"

"A bit, when he wants to learn. There a reason why I said no after the fifth child, they all inherited my stubbornness." He laughed, then his face flushed. His green markings seeming to blush as he had to thing for a moment, "It... hard to explain, I think in common it either intersex or transgender...? They are very popular for the sex brothels."

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:"I must keep busy" Amity told Sawna pleasantly. "How was the meeting?"

---

Armin nodded. "I know. You are doing an incredible job leading your people from such a distance. I have no doubt they find your presence comforting."

"Strange." Sawna replied then shook her head a little. "Matt and Ellie are angry at this Matthew that Marcus used to work with and want these two dead, but the others want to be kind and drop them off at the next station."

~~~
Starr smiled at that as she went over to lower the shield and touch the egg. "I just want slavery ended and peace. Revenge is just holding onto hate. The people that destroyed my home are gone, there's nothing anyone can do to change the past. We shouldn't forget it, but we shouldn't seek out vengeance either."

~~~
Skye saw Ellie, but made sure the animals had food and water before she came over to her "Hey"

"He refuses to learn Common? That's going to make things more difficult out here," Vestia mused. "Oh." She added at Marcus's explanation. Yeah. she really didn't know what to say to that. Poor kid.

~~
Ellie looked up at Skye. "Crazy meeting earlier, huh?" she asked.

"Tell me about it. I have learned to used sweets to help coax it but too much sweets lead to us becoming high." He sighed rubbing his head in frustration. "It probably doesn't help we are so a like.." he chuckled softly, "sometimes you can't ever beat the fire out."

Armin nodded. "you speak with much wisdom Miss Starr, this is what the Weaver teaches us. Hate and vengeance does not ease the pain, all it does is bring upon more suffering. "

---

Amity looked confused. "I don't believe I understand." he admitted. Things like anger and hate and such just didn't make sense to him.
He struggled to comprehend real emotions.

---

Hewitt led the way back to his room to set up a chess game. He rather enjoyed Ethan's grumpy totally not attention and fondness, it amused him.

"Well I don't know if bribery is a good long-term strategy, but whatever works, I guess?" Vestia tilted her camera to look at Amari. Seemed almost insulting to her, the kid didn't look young enough to be bribed with candy.

~~
Ethan followed Hewitt, and helped to set up the game. "I haven't played that much," he admitted after a bit. "Apparently androids in this universe come with chess programmed into their brains, but I didn't."

"It doesn't, but he been and forgive me as I said bitten so many times he is beyond twice shy." Marcus shook his head. "I don't think anyone ever showed him compassion until recently and rightly so he doesn't trust anyone that does."

Amari himself was having slightly fitful sleep but was at least resting.

"Poor guy," Vestia said. "Good thing he has you now, that sounds like it's a good start."

He sighed, "That if we manage to get to the colonies. Pretty much the whole black market is in chaos which on one hand is good, it much easier to free slaves. Other hands gangs are gaining territory and going to cause more issues."

Hewitt looked genuinely interested. "Now that IS curious. " He set things up. "What else is different?"

"You seem resourceful, I'm sure you'll be able to make it," Vestia said encouragingly. "Makeup could hide your markings pretty well, probably."

~~
"Well I'm programmed to fight, and they aren't," Ethan said. "And they live longer, but don't have a sense of touch. This mirror universe thing is weird as fuck. Random little differences like whether we can play chess or not, but then things are the same, like names and physical appearances." He looked at the chess pieces, "Which color do I get?"

"White usually goes first." Hewitt explained. "So would you like to go first or not?" He nodded to the explanation. "It does sound an interesting place. There are many theories about parallel or concurrent universes, to have some evidence of this is quite remarkable. How did you get back here?" He was starting to warm to the idea of it actually being possible, though he still didn't believe it was 'magic'.

"Can't change DNA, nor behavior." He admitted truthfully. "Our 'breeding' stunted things natural selection would of removed."

Ethan eyed the board thoughtfully. "Guess I'll go first." He turned the board so white was on his side, and moved a pawn. "I'm not sure about the science of how we got here, but this woman who could travel between universes, and her duplicate, helped us to get back. She made a portal and took us through it, along the way she showed us some different points in time. Yes, I'm aware how ridiculous that sounds," he added drily.

~~
"What do you mean? Do people just go around talking DNA tests?" Vestia asked, puzzled.

"A majority of stations require ID chips stating what species you are, they enjoy 'random' checks to make sure no one faking anything." He explained.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Armin nodded. "you speak with much wisdom Miss Starr, this is what the Weaver teaches us. Hate and vengeance does not ease the pain, all it does is bring upon more suffering. "

---

Amity looked confused. "I don't believe I understand." he admitted. Things like anger and hate and such just didn't make sense to him.
He struggled to comprehend real emotions.

Kooshie wrote:Ellie looked up at Skye. "Crazy meeting earlier, huh?" she asked.

Starr nodded and looked to Armin "I know, I have been reading the book I was given by your priest." She said softly before taking a seat.
~~~
Sawna shook her head at that. "It's not easy to understand. They wish harm because they were harmed is the closest I can explain it."

~~~
Skye nodded then took a seat beside Ellie, looking at the lake. "Yeah, it was. Starr really thinks they changed though." She frowned then shrugged, uncertain herself.

"Well that's unfortunate," Vestia said. Normally she might have volunteered then and there to protect these guys, but she forced her sympathy down. Marcus was from Matthew's crew, there was a definite possibility he was trying to manipulate her into something she'd regret. She could not put her passengers at risk.

~~
"Starr's weirdly forgiving, for a former assassin," Ellie grumbled. "It stinks. Our crew is so nice and sweet, they never hold any grudges. We can't trust Mathew's crew though. They're all snakes. Not cute snakes, cunning snakes."

"Sounds to me like she must have somehow manipulated a wormhole." Hewitt sniffed. "Different points in time?" Mm time travel, that was ridiculous. He moved a piece.

---

Armin bowed his head. "I am glad that you have it, and that you do not dismiss our faith as foolishness. I thank you for that."

---

Amity shook his head. "I am afraid I have no frame of reference for this."

"I guess so. I don't know enough about wormholes to tell for sure, but I guess that's the most likely possibility," Ethan said. "Yes, we got to see Starr's mother as a baby, and the creation of some species." He thought about the creation, and shook his head. "Scratch that, the creation story was probably a joke. It was too surrealist."

Hewitt chuckled. "Could all be an illusion of some sort, or perhaps a mass hallucination caused by the forces acting on you inside that tunnel. " He couldn't help but rather want to throw some probes and stuff down such a rift.

"Yeah, they could have just created an illusion to entertain us," Ethan said. "I don't think it'd be an unplanned mass hallucination, all of us are so biologically different that I don't think we'd experience the same hallucination without someone planning it that way. I mean, Armin has two brains, Sawna can turn into mist, and I don't even have blood. It's not exactly easy to make us all experience the same thing." He smiled oddly. "You would have fucking hated that wormhole. It made no sense scientifically."